#How about Neil got lost and ran out of power and had to be found

[kevindayisafrog]

Part 2 of the post that was supposed to be a one shot inspired by @knandersonart ‘s art on Instagram (I have too many ideas for it to be left as a one shot, babe, I’ve got a whole book planned)

TW - abuse, anxiety and mentions of Dr*ke

Kevin had been at Palmetto for over a year now; alone and in fear. He tried hard to fit in with the upperclassmen but his short temper and constant panic left a huge gap between them that no one had tried to fill. He tried to get close to his father too but he knew that he’d never be able to tell him who he really was to him; he knew that his dad would only turn him away like Riko said. Kevin tried to keep in contact with Neil but their texts and calls had gone from one a day to one every few months. Everything was falling apart and all Kevin could do was watch as he fought like hell to climb back to the top. And the top is where he is now, but this time the podium he’s standing on is for him only, Riko can’t pull him down. Until Kevin’s alone with his thoughts, then he remembers how small he is against Riko’s power and ruthless abuse. Kevin felt himself slip further into the darkness around him when the championships were announced, something to finally concentrate on and a place where he’ll finally be with his Neil again; even if they’ll be against each other.

Kevin stared blankly at the empty bus seat in front of him as he sat at the back of bus alone; distantly listening to the upperclassmen’s idle conversation as the foxes made their way to the banquet. He couldn’t sit still as fear warred with excitement in his tight chest. He placed his AirPods in and called Neil, knowing that he’d see him in less than an hour but couldn’t wait to hear his voice. He grumbled to himself when it went to the voicemail and hung up, choosing to listen to his music instead as he watched the scenery pass by in a colored blur through the window.

Kevin was last off the bus and he stood behind the other foxes as Wymack opened the storage compartment on the coach, passing their outfits to each player. Matt tossed Kevin his dark green suit before turning back and catching his own suit before it hit the ground. “Jesus, Coach, this cost me a lot of money”, Matt smiled despite his words and smoothed down his suit. Wymack retorted dryly but Kevin didn’t hear what was said as he already turned and made his way towards the stadium; his body buzzing with a distant memory of Neil’s body close to his. He pushed his way into the locker room with a sign reading: ‘Palmetto Foxes’ written in black sharpie. He quickly threw on his suit with his back to the others, ignoring Nicky’s wolf whistle as he moved to the mirror to smooth down his forest green blazer. “Where are you going, hot stuff?”, Nicky winked with a laugh as Aaron groaned and turned away from his cousin. “I’ll be on the court”, Kevin muttered as he left the locker room and walked as fast as he could to the court. It pained him to see a perfect court being used as a dance floor and dining area, but he wasn’t here to be disgusted. He opened the court door as he felt a stern hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch and duck down. “Don’t worry, it’s only me”, Wymack pulled Kevin back up and turned him so that they were facing each other, “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay before you walk into the lion’s mouth”. Kevin looked up into his father’s eyes and blushed in embarrassment at the raw worry that he saw. “I’ll be fine as long as we’re not near Riko or Tetsuji”, he wrung his hands together and tapped his foot impatiently. “I’ll keep an eye on you, kid and if you’re worried in any way come straight to me, okay?”, Wymack gave a fierce squeeze of Kevin’s shoulder before pushing him through the door. Kevin turned away and made his way over to where the seating charts were. He ran his finger down the sheet until he found the Foxes’ name and made his way to the back table, freezing as Riko stood from their shared table. “Kevin, welcome home”, Riko announced in Japanese, spreading his arms in a vicious gesture of a hug. Kevin gulped and clenched his hands before taking a deep breath and making his way over to the table. “Riko”, he muttered as he sat down opposite Neil, relaxing as Neil wrapped their ankles together, “the rest of my team are just coming”. Riko barked a shrill laugh as he sat down and leaned towards Kevin, “me and Jean were just talking about how we’re surprised you guys made it into the championships, what with your small number of players”. Jean looked up and sent Kevin a subtle shake of his head, mouthing a small ‘I’m sorry’. Kevin sent a small smile back before turning to Neil, ignoring Riko’s annoyed frown. “Hi”, he whispered, running his ankle up to Neil’s thigh. “I’ve missed you”, Neil replied in French, reaching down and squeezing Kevin’s ankle under the table. “Hmmm, so we’re doing this now? Speaking other languages so I won’t understand”, Riko nodded slowly before laughing and curling a large smile, “your mother would be so disappointed in your disobedience. If you’d shut up we’d all hear her turning in her grave. Even though we’re so far away from her”. Kevin tensed and clenched his jaw, trying not to give Riko the satisfaction by showing his anger.

“Riko, it’s so lovely to meet you, Dan Wilds”, Dan led her team to the table and scraped her chair back, sitting down with her hand extended to Riko. Riko looked at her hand in disgust before shaking it with a fake smile, “I hope you’re looking after my Kevin for me”. Matt sat beside Dan and laughed sarcastically, “he’s not yours anymore, he’s ours”. Riko dropped Dan’s hand onto the table with a thud and turned to Kevin, “weren’t you just telling me how much you hated this team and that they’ll never win the championships?”. Kevin sat up straighter and smiled, “no, I wouldn’t say that and do you know why, Riko? Because although these aren’t the best players, they’re the strongest I’ve ever met. They use their teamwork to push back and fight to win their deserved place at the top. You won’t be smiling so wide when we beat you and win the championships”. Riko’s smile fell and he grabbed Kevin’s left wrist in an iron grip, “don’t fucking push me tonight, remember that you’re my pet. I won’t hesitate to put you down, do you hear me? One wrong move and I’ll bring your whole team down with you, see if you’re so brave then”, he growled in rapid Japanese. Nicky looked between the two before placing his hand over Riko’s and digging his nails in deep, “I’d advise you to take your hands off of him or I’ll break it off”. Kevin turned to Nicky in surprise and was shocked enough to let his long lost genuine smile get plastered across his face. Riko pulled his hand away and glared at Kevin, “you’ve deluded these jokes into thinking that they’re better than they are. You’re getting cocky, Kevin, what will you do when they turn you away like they inevitably will?” Andrew elbowed Neil to get him out of the way and leant on Neil’s hunched back, “now, now, Riko, let’s not throw your toys out of the pram. I told you what I’d do if you messed with my family, do you really want to test my word?”. Riko tensed and slowly turned to face Andrew, “One more word, Andrew and I will get an old friend over to play with you. Drake must miss you”. Andrew flinched at the name and let out a long medicated laugh, “try me” he growled. Neil shouldered Andrew off and stood up, ignoring Riko’s glare, “I’m going to the bathroom, try and fucking stop me”. The foxes watched in silence as Neil left the room without a single glance back to the table. “Your pets aren’t as loyal as you thought, are they?”, Dan asked and she tapped her nails against her glass, “must suck when everyone turns their back on you”. Riko growled in annoyance, hating how he’d lost control of the situation and his words were thrown back at him. Kevin stood up quickly, knocking his chair onto the floor with a loud clatter as he left the table, half running to the bathroom and ignoring Wymack’s shouts of concern.

“Neil?”, Kevin called into the seemingly empty bathroom, pushing open the stool doors slowly. “I really did miss you”, Neil walked around from the corner of the room and stood on his tiptoes to wrap his arms around Kevin’s neck, “I actually missed your irritating shouting and obnoxious presence on the court”. Kevin let out a small huff as he brought their lips together, smiling into the kiss of ‘hello’. “I hate you”, he whispered into the kiss, knotting his fingers in Neil’s orange hair. “Sure you do”, Neil replied, purring as Kevin tugged lightly on his hair. Kevin pulled away first and stared down into the ocean blue eyes before him, the auburn eyelashes fluttering his eyes back open. “Neil”, Kevin started but Neil let go and walked away to the sinks, “please just hear me out”. Neil sighed and turned on the tap, “Kevin, not now, can we just have this moment? Stop trying to ruin everything”. Kevin frowned and followed Neil, leaning his hip beside him at the sink, “I don’t ruin everything”, he muttered. Neil placed his hands under the tap, refusing to look up at his pouting boyfriend, “you know that’s not what I meant”, he sighed and dropped his hands to the bottom of the sink, “I can’t come back with you”. Kevin groaned in annoyance and pushed off of the sink, pacing his way back to the stools, “why not? Why the fuck not, Neil? Nothing is stopping you and even if something was you wouldn’t care anyway”. Neil turned the tap off and slammed his hands against the ceramic, “for fuck’s sake, Kevin, are you being obtuse on purpose? If I could go, I would. Do you think that I enjoy the nest? Do you think I like you being so far away from me? Because I fucking don’t, it’s hell”. Kevin laughed flatly and crossed his arms, half turning away, “you can come with me, you just don’t want to”. Neil pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes and sighed heavily, “why do you always twist things? Listen to me”, he dropped his hands and marched over to Kevin, pulling his arms apart forcibly, causing him to flinch, “listen, I hate not being without you, okay? And I know it makes you cringe when people talk like this, but I can’t live without you and I hate to admit, I really do, but I need you. I’m trying so hard to get out of there so you’re not alone anymore and Andrew’s helping too. We’re so close to getting out, we just need to be patient and wait a little longer before we can be with each other again, okay?”. Kevin dropped his head and Neil stood on his tiptoes so their foreheads could touch. “I hate being alone”, Kevin whispered, “I’ve never been alone before. When my mom found out who Tetsuji really was, who his family were, she exiled us to Ireland and never let me leave her sight. She took me everywhere with her, not even trusting teachers to look after me at school. But she left to go to the shops in the next town whilst I was sleeping and Tetsuji paid people to stage a fatal car accident. After that day I was with Riko and he wouldn’t let me leave his sight either, so I don’t know what to fucking do. I’ve never been alone before”, he sniffed and let out a small whimper. Neil gently placed his hands either side of Kevin’s face and placed a small kiss on the tip of his nose, “you’re not alone, I’ll never let you go”. Kevin lifted his head and turned to look away, “but you are leaving me alone”. Neil shook Kevin’s head and pressed his own head against Kevin’s ribs, “I’m trying, I really am”.

They stood in silence as Kevin hesitantly wrapped his arms around Neil’s shoulders. “I know you are, I’m sorry, I’m just scared”, he placed a gentle kiss atop Neil’s head and rocked him side to side slowly. Neil hummed and looked up, taking in his boyfriend’s worry filled eyes, “that color looks good on you”. Kevin frowned and looked down at his suit, “I wanted to wear red but I don’t really suit it”. Neil snorted and pulled away, turning to walk to the bathroom door, “you suit red, Kevin, trust me”. Kevin watched as Neil left the bathroom with a wink and couldn’t help but feel alone once again, a heavy feeling weighing on his chest. “Thank you”, he whispered with a small smile to the space Neil left behind as Riko kicked open the door with two broad shouldered Raven players behind him.

[deaddreamerssocietyold]

sad dps head cannons

- neil stays up at night thinking about that one time he accidentally yelled at todd. so does todd

- whenever people at charlie’s new school asked him why he left welton, he’d usually say something like ‘i was fighting the power’. he tasted blood whenever he tried to say the real reason

- charlie covered up his pain for todd, because he knew the nature of their relationship, and knew todd would need someone. as a result, charlie became angry, and even more rebellious. he got in trouble at his new school a lot, and his parents got increasingly impatient

- cameron has an irrational fear that people are watching him constantly (you could call it religious trauma), which is partly why he snitches. he hated himself when charlie got mad, because he was just doing what he knew, and that was when he realised that what he knew could be considered wrong. he lost his friends before he had the chance to apologise and explain himself, meaning he had no one to go to when he needed to cry about neil

- neil saw john as a father figure, but got embarrassed by this - he thought that other people would find it weird and almost an invasion of privacy, but john would’ve loved the idea

- todd’s parents weren’t there for him at all when neil died. when relatives or family friends asked about how todd was doing at welton, they were so ashamed at his actions that they’d always dodge the question and start talking about his brother instead. he shut the world out after this

- todd crawled back into his shell after neil died. no one could bring him out again the way that neil did, despite their best efforts

- pitts begged meeks not to go to vietnam, but meeks went anyway, because he wanted to do something. he wanted to save people, the way he couldn’t save neil

- meeks had lost someone to suicide before neil. the way he tries to console todd by saying ‘you can’t explain it’ makes it seem like he’s speaking from experience

- neil, piggybacking off the high that was puck, stayed up night after to night to write and perfect todd a poem expressing his true feelings. he was going to give it to him as a christmas present, but when he found out his dad was sending him to military school, he knew they’d lose contact, so he gave up hope

- cameron moved into todd’s room and took neil’s bed, since neither of them had roommates. one time, todd woke up in the middle of the night and saw someone in neil’s bed. foolishly assuming it was all a terrible dream, he ran towards the bed, leaning down to hug the person, but stopped once he saw red hair laying where brown once did

[johns-prince]

I was reading Norman's biography of Mick Jagger the other day and at some point I realized that good old Mick had it BAD for John. They hung out a lot in the Lost Weekend and Mick seemed heartbroken when May told him John had gone back to Yoko. He was so upset that he talked to the press about it multiple times, whining about not having any access to John and that he was hiding behind Sean. Mick wasn't wrong, though. I was just very entertained by his reaction. Then there is this:

"Mick, as a result, had found himself in the—for him—highly unusual position of wanting to see someone but having his every friendly overture rebuffed.

From his sitting room window, he could see the Gothic rooftops of Lennon’s home, and would sometimes act out the part of a spurned girlfriend: “[John’s] right over there. Does he ever call me? Does he ever go out? No. Changes his phone number about every ten minutes. I’ve given up . . .” But there was no disguising how much this apparent indifference really hurt. Once or twice, he put aside the Tyranny of Cool sufficiently to leave Lennon a note with his own current phone number at the Dakota concierges’ desk, but no response ever came."

LOL "John is right over there. IS HE THINKING OF ME?" The thirst was real, you guys. I don't remember Mick being this sad about any of his women leaving him. Me thinks Johnny hit and quit it but someone fell in love, you see.

I agree, Mick sounds like a jilted lover/girlfriend here who just wants to be at least acknowledged. He was seriously upset about the fact that, when John went back to Yoko he knew that she didn’t like him. She thought he wasn’t worth John’s time and was a bad influence. Gotta remember, Mick and John had been friends since the sixties-- Mick was much closer to John then Paul, even.

Also talk about the gall because she was completely fine with John hanging out with the likes of Klein, Phil Spector, and Magic Alex... Like, talk about bad influences-- Phil fucking pointed a gun at John because he liked to freak John out and upset him. She liked these people. She approved of them for John. Yoko isn’t fully to blame, John also holds blame for how he’d treat people and just cut them off [even if he personally didn’t want too] but she encouraged John to cut ties with family and close, old friends just, like that.  

I feel for Mick. I honestly feel for anyone who loved John, it did seem trying at times. I mean, sometimes it’s not always easy for me to love John just as some crazed groupie... I could only imagine how intense and, confusing and exciting and, memorable it would have been to know him, personally, and get to love him personally. 

I personally don’t think anything serious happened between John and Mick. Kind of like how I believe nothing deeper then just, solid friendship was between John and Stu-- someone he could confide in, who wasn’t just Paul. 

Was there flirting between the two? Absolutely, though I find it to be a partially playful joking sort of flirting between friends, and partially with a serious edge to it. Libra’s are natural flirters, they often to do it unintentionally because it’s just, part of their personality. John most likely both an unintentional and intentional flirt, and his male friends weren’t left out on his teasing’s and naughty, playful behavior [specifically moreso open and direct about it in the 70s] 

But, I do think you’re right that Mick had it bad. Most male friends of John seemed to have it bad for him, in some way or another. Women and men loved John-- he was rather easy to love, despite how he’s painted and the sort of front he put up. As Paul said-- John was a loveable guy, everyone loved him, and he was right [though Paul usually only mentions everyone else when talking about loving John, deflects onto others at the same time but I digress] 

Even men who apparently thought of him a poky bastard seemed to inevitably be drawn to him, and like him [like David Bailey] 

He was loved, so, so much.

“The theory is that when John went off to Spain on holiday with Brian, that’s what it was all about - John trying to get his position clear as the leader of the group. Also, I’m sure Brian was in love with John. We were all in love with John, but Brian was gay so that added an edge.” Paul McCartney - Anthology

PAUL: “Well, I’m sure Brian was in love with John, I’m sure that’s absolutely right. I mean, everyone was in love with John; John was lovable, John was a very lovable guy.” [x]

“What did John Lennon see in me? I think outrageousness and being true to myself and not giving a fuck. We hit it off straight away, even though I was in complete awe of him. He was nothing else but kind to me. I never saw the other side of John, the Harry Nilsson drinking side of John, where he turned on a sixpence. I only saw the gentle, gorgeous side of John, and he was gentle not only to me but my parents, my band members, and I just fell in love with him.”

— Elton John [x]

“Nowhere can the caring side of John Lennon be documented more accurately than in his relationship with Malcolm Evans, the very tall and bespectacled man who became a regular as a road manager, along with Neil Aspinall, on the Beatles’ tours. Evans had a magnetic personality and was a favorite with reporters and the women who tagged along. His smile and charm could be deceptive; he would have done anything to protect the Beatles. At one point on the touring aircraft, while traveling from Jacksonville to Boston in 1964, a tired Mal Evans sat next to me in the rear of the aircraft with tears trickling down his face. I asked, “What’s the matter?” Mal answered, “John got kind of cross with me … just said I should go f— off. No reason, ya’ know. But I love the man. John is a powerful force. Sometimes he’s rough, if you know what I mean, man. But there’s no greater person that I know.” I never learned what the dispute was about, but I do know that a few minutes later, a sullen Lennon walked by and embraced Evans.” — Larry Kane [x]

“Sharing a twisted sense of humour and a penchant for mischief, Nilsson and Lennon were natural buddies. It was perhaps inevitable that the LA-dwelling singer would gravitate towards Lennon. Lennon clearly appreciated Nilsson’s edginess and was very likely looking for a male soulmate to fill the hole left by McCartney. For his part, Nilsson’s feelings for Lennon ran even deeper: ‘I really fell in love with him. He was all those things you wanted somebody to be.”

Man On The Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s by Tom Doyle [x]

“But the acerbic John is the one we know and love, you know, because he was clever with it, so it was very attractive. But, for me, I have more than a slight affection for the John that I knew then, when we were first writing songs, when we would try and do things the old songwriters had done. I slightly regret the way John’s image has formed, and because he died so tragically it has become set in concrete. The acerbic side was there but it was only part of him. He was also such a sweet, lovely man – a really sweet guy. ””

— Paul McCartney, discussing John Lennon [x]

John was a charming man in his own right, charismatic, and funny. Having a good sense of humor is always attractive, and draws people to you. As Paul says, and Elton, John was kind, he was sweet and friendly. He wasn’t always this, Mr. Tough and aggressive, ripping into people with his sharp tongue. He was gentle, he could be gentle, in his own way. Warm, and loving. 

He had this ability to just... make you feel like you’ve known him longer then you actually have. Like you have some sort of, special relationship or connection with him-- that you were the only one who was close enough to see underneath his armor, to know him as intimately as anyone else ever could. 

Course, this was simply how many felt and wanted to be the reality[specifically men], when it wasn’t, not exactly. They didn't really know the real John, they didn't get to see him at his most sincere, when his beautiful armor was chipped away and he was standing naked and scared. He described himself like a chameleon when it came to social settings, when interacting with different individuals [friends], which honestly makes sense as a Libra [Gemini’s are just as guilty of this] 

They got to know a facet of John... Maybe they did get a glimpse of John here and there, but it’s just reality that John didn’t just, open up so easily to people like that. He didn’t like feeling vulnerable, and he had a habit of testing people’s loyalty and love for him [whether it had been consciously or not, I’m not always sure] because of the insecurities and doubt that one day, they’d turn on him or abandon him. 

Again, he had this way in making people [other men] feel as if they had an intimate and special connection with him. And maybe they did to varying degrees. John had a way to act open with others, without actually being open and vulnerable, or at least not fully. I’m not sure if I’m making sense lol

Only ones who I think ever got to know the real John, were Mimi(of course she raised him), Pete (friends since they were just peanuts), Cynthia somewhat, May got glimpses and wanted John to be himself and independent... Yoko to a degree (though she focuses on entirely pushing and talking about Brand John Lennon™)  

And who I know for a fact did, and does know John the most intimately, deeply, unabashedly, is Paul.

But anyway, speaking of being so very attractive, John was attractive. Like, many women and men found him exceedingly attractive, like this one male photographer who believed John was the most handsome out of the band;

“I think John was the best looking, actually. The refined nose.  He never went out of his way to be a disagreeable person.  He would be the one to go over and just sit and sign some little girl’s book...” 

Harry Benson, photographer who took the photo of the iconic pillow fight and other well known Beatle photos, talks about John. [x]

Then we have David Bailey, who described Paul, Ringo, and George as rather pleasant-- while describing John as being a fucker, a bit poky. 

And yet, it was John who David Bailey claimed to like, out of all of them. 

“I didn’t like the Beatles – I liked John ... John was a fucker. Paul was always the nicest guy in the world. George, he always seemed full of angst. Ringo always seemed Mr Nice Guy. But John was a bit poky; I liked him.” 

-- David Bailey Originally; published in the March 2014 issue of British GO magazine.

That’s honestly the only parts of the interview worth reading, Bailey is sort of a dickhead and clearly seems biased against Paul, and just The Beatles as a band in general, so [which is fascinating. Considering he might’ve been peeved towards Paul ever since John brought his partner along for that photoshoot because he didn’t want to go in alone lol]

Mick did love John, though in what way or in what varying degree, is up for discussion and personal conclusion. Just like how it’s up to interpretation and discussion how much and in what way David Bowie, Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Mal Evans, Billy Preston, and Brian Epstein loved John. 

But it’s clear as day that, in my opinion, they almost all seemed to have some sort of man-crush on him. A serious admiration. Harry Nilsson sounded like he was in a bro-mance with John [or at least he wanted to be in one with him]

Course we can’t forget Paul, but we all know that Paul loved John in such varying degrees, it’s truly impossible to label it. They’re soulmates, can’t really categorize the love between soulmates so easily. 

Anyway, point of this all; Mick definitely had it bad for John, but then again who didn’t? 

[fuckingdeadbutroyal]

Jasonette July- Soulmates AU- Part 1

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 -

Marinettes knees were bruised. Again! She was so so careful not to ruin her new summerdress on the way to Ninos 9th birthday-party and now her knees were all red and scratchy. “Not todayy”, the little girl whined while searching for some kind of medicine in her small pink backpack, hoping to ease the pain for her as well as the cause of her suffering: her soulmate, who seemed to have an eagerness to ALWAYS fall on their knees. A few moments and a frustrated huff later, Mari found herself punching her arm for some kind of payback and wincing right after. Why couldn’t she just have a harmless soulmate-bond? Why couldn’t she just dream of them like Nino did or have a tattoo like Chloe? Why was her bond forged through literal PAIN? 

Rounding the corner, little Mari found herself in a field full of green and blue balloons with loads of boys and a few chosen girls surrounding a happy Nino. The boy was currently bouncing like a basketball and grinning from ear to ear, while sneaking longing glances to a table full of presents, as well as various treats from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Speaking of the Dupain-Chengs, their daughter was spotted by her best friend as she was about to put her present next to the others, which lead to him running to greet her and pulling the girl into a bonecrushing hug. Therefore Mari was left patting Ninos’ back and trying to catch a breath. “You made it! I saw your treats and I know you answered my invitation but I was still worried, this party wouldn’t be the same without you!”, he blubbered in all of his bubbly grace while trying to lift her, even though he wasn’t quite strong enough to succeed yet (which didn’t mean he wouldn’t try again tomorrow, he was now older and stronger than her, after all). 

Mari wriggled her way out of his arms, happy to catch a breath and giggling. A blush was gracing her face, leading to Nino blushing happily in return. “Of course I made it! I didn’t spend all week making you a present for nothing!”, she smiled as Ninos ears grew hot, “You spent a-all week making a present? F-for me?”, he stuttered with a big dopey grin splitting his face. Marinette nodded, another soft giggle escaping her mouth. All the guests were now watching them, holding their breaths. She handed him the pretty red box. Nino sat down on the grass right there in front of her and opened it, hands shaking with eagerness and breath held in anticipation. Mari sat across from him, covering her eyes with her hands, afraid of his judgement. This was her first time gifting someone one of her sewing-projects, after all. 

His delighted gasp led to her parting her fingers slightly, only now noticing all the tiny cuts covering them, no doubt the price she had to pay for still being clumsy at sewing (”even though I have been doing it for a year now, I should be better than that”, she mentally scolded herself). Her thoughts were interrupted by a round of gasps coming from the tiny audience surrounding the best-friends-duo. Marinette focused back on Nino and dropped her hands to her mouth, squeaking in delight. The boy in front of her put on the basecap she made him and was grinning even wider, which she, until then, wasn’t even sure were possible. He hugged her, in a much gentler embrace then the previous time. His fingers were soft, not covered in cuts and red spots, as he pulled away and took her hands in his, not caring about the giggles and ew-s from their audience, nor the blush creeping up Maris’ cheeks. “I love it...so much”, what he meant, though, was “I wish you were my soulmate”.

And Mari couldn’t agree more.

-----------------------------------------------

It was dark, a coffee mug was standing amongst an army of already finished ones and a droopy eyed girl was sitting in front of them, lazily turning a page on the book her english-teacher assigned her to read. She recognized the storyline, knew all the plot-twists and felt connected to the characters as if she’d been there herself. The strange thing about that though, was that she has never laid eyes on it before. Of course that didn’t stop her from reading it. There were assignments she had to fullfill and tests she had to ace, which were connected to that piece of literature and she couldn’t risk getting a bad grade due to a foolish reliance on her instincts. 

Instincs.

Yes that is what they are and of course none of this is connected to her soulmate. 

It couldn’t be, she couldn’t dare dream of it. They died, that’s what that numbness she felt for over six months must have meant. That’s why those scars were now gracing her whole body. Her soulmate could not have survived this. No mortal being could go through so much and still be breathing. 

The new bruises and cuts she was getting now and then? Her Ladybug suit can’t protect her from everything, being thrown over the Saine so may times couldn’t have left her with no traces whatsoever. Yes, that’s the reason. He’s not resurrected, that’s silly...there’s no way.

---------------------------------------------

“What happened to your lips, milady?”, Ladybugs partner purred as they layed on a roof not far from the eiffel tower, watching the stars, having just finished patrol a few minutes ago. “M-my lips?”, the 16 year old girl stuttered, a tiny voice immediatly occupying her, previously calm, mind with thoughts of her soulmate. They have been acting up lately, not that it was possible. They were gone. 

There’s no way, she must have been hallucinating again. She must have forgotten how she hurt her lip, she must be feeling side-effects from the loss of her soulmate. Her thoughts were spiralling and that tiny voice in her mind was whispering, filling her denial with doubts and cracks and making her heart beat faster. 

“Your lips, they look... different...”, Chat Noirs voice interrupted the turmoil in her head. Ladybug gazed over to him, only to find him closer to her then when they first layed down. His eyes were glistening, seemingly shining even brighter than the Eiffel Tower in it’s nightly glory. A foreign sensation ran through her veins, a weird tingling covering her whole body. It could have been mistaken for goosebumps, if it weren’t for the warm summernight they were currently enjoying. “They do..?” she said, though it came out as nothing more than a whisper, for he was already so so close, even closer than when they are in battle. Their noses were almost touching, his eyes took up all of her view and for once she wouldn’t dare complain. Since when does she like that proximity? Why is his warmth so intriguing? Why does she enjoy the way his arms found their place on both sides of her body? “They look so...red...like your suit...Ladybug re-”, he got interrupted by his lips sealed shut. Shut not with that redness he mentioned, not with that love or attraction and reciprocated admiration Adrien was hoping for. No, it was her red suited hand which covered his mouth to silent him. She felt it before she heard it. An earthquake was rummaging through the streets and handling it was much more important than handling that purring in her best friend.

-------------------------------------------------

Jason was annoyed. His fingers were full of cuts: sure, he was used to that. His hips were bruised from his soulmate constantly closing doors and cupboards with them, at least that’s what he thinks they do to cause such silly bruises: no problem, he didn’t mind dealing with that. His backpains he could deminguish by working out, though he has been thinking of finding them just to tell his significant other to better their fucking posture. But the tiredness? Holy fuck! It’s like he’s sleeping for both of them! Whenever he sat down to read he just... collapsed. Guess he’ll have to dream about it... yeah sure it’s fair, ‘cause after all she treated his wounds for both of them, too. It’s like she had some kind of superpower which made them heal clean, never leaving more than a white line behind. Nontheless, right then he would rather have ugly scars than have to deal with this inhuman tiredness. His grumpy grumbling was interrupted by Red Robin speaking up in his ear.

“Hood where are you? The portal is about to appear, we won’t be able to wait.”

“I’m on my way, give me 2 more minutes.”

“Hurry.”

With that, the line went silent and his mind went back to coordinating his grappling hook and limbs into getting him to the batcave in time. He had planned on finishing at least one of Terry Pratchets and Neil Gaimans novels in preparation for the moviemarathon he and his brothers had planned for the upcoming week. “Good Omens” is a masterpiece but he refused to watch any visualizers nor read the book if he hadn’t read all of the previous works the authors had published. “It’s not just about the continuation, it’s a matter of respect.”, he rememberd telling Stephanie, when she asked him why Alfred was handing him a box filled with a combined number of about a hundred books. He had work to do and reality to escape, but that last part was none of his lovely sisters business. 

Zoning back into reality he noticed he had already reached his destination. “Focus Jason. There’s a whole city just waiting to be pulled out of the ashes.” With that thought in mind, he entered the batcave and went straight for the portal, following his siblings into the destroyed city of love.

----------------------

Adrien was on edge. The fight has been going on for four days, the city was nothing but blood and ashes, the akuma-shelters weren’t enough to protect every citizien who has lost their home to the earthquakes and following akuma attacks. Many people have died, many have volunteered and too many of those have died in the process. It was traumatic, painful and quite honestly felt like the end of the world. They could fix it, of course. But to do so she had to survive and Adrien, or Chat Noir as you will, was not about to leave her unprotected. He didn’t know where she got her power from, why she could go on without taking a break for so long. He has lost count on how many times he saw her helping someone who was about to be crushed by a collapsing building, how many times she was screaming in frustration, torn between following the akuma and guiding a lost civilian to safety. 

It was an incredibly sneaky akuma. It was nearly translucent, consisting mostly of dirt and dust. It could hide in the mess it made, attack you from behind and you wouldn’t be sure whether it was a flying brick or it’s fist hitting your head. It hasn’t officialy announced itself yet, hasn’t given itself a name or shown any forms of weakness. Hawkmoth was definetly trying out a new approach and highly succeeding. The Dustmonster was probably planning on wearing them out until they wouldn’t be strong enough to resist it going for their miraculous.

In the beginning Chat felt like he could trust his Lady to take care of herself, trusted for her to keep the target in mind and think of a plan while he was going to protect her and the citizens around them. It worked, at first. She figured out what the akuma was, aka figured out that it was an akuma in the first place and soon started giving out orders to police and firemen. After a day of trying to get the akuma, in order to stop it before things could go out of hand and failing to do so, no matter which strategy the heroes tried and no matter how many seemingly random Lucky Charms they used, they decided to replan. 

They met on a building not far away from Marinettes home, Chat remembered. They were hoping to come up with a new plan and let Ladybugs Kwami recharge. The recharging was an already practiced routine they came up with, once her fifth Lucky Charm has also failed. They jumped into the water, which was apparently off limits to the akuma, since the dust didn’t settle properly and it wasn’t able to hide (any attempts of getting it wet were blocked by the destruction of another building, which led to the heroes saving the civilans and themselves instead of attacking the enemy.) One of Ladybugs Lucky-Charms straight up covered the Saine, turned up side down boats now gracing the surface. Those boats mobilised possible hiding and resting places for the heroes. 

That time though, they needed more food for Tikki and Plagg and what better place to restock could there be, than the famous Dupain-Cheng bakery?  Ladybug swung in and came back with two baskets. One full of cheese and the other full of cookies. Chat grabbed the smelly one and turned to jump in the direction of the river, when they heard it. 

A grumbling which turned into a roaring and finally morphed into deafening laughter. That was the first time they heard the akumas voice. Instead of shouting the following words, the way it did scream in laughter, it just spoke in an even, eerie and scarily confident voice: “You should stop asking for help, insect. Helping others only leads to you getting hurt. Help won’t save you. Your precious little safety-nets won’t save you.”, the sound was coming out of the dust, echoing off of every destructed creation, seeping into each broken bone and every fractured mind. “You think you can reach out? Think someone is going to pull you away from under the pressure of this worlds eternal suffering? You are wrong. No one came to save me, no one is capable of saving. You.”, the last word came out emotional. The monotone voice the akuma had previously used to preach it’s intents was gone. A shiver ran up Marinettes spine. The dust surrounding the city build up and rose in columns, coming out of every broken source from all over Paris, towering over it, looming dangerously over it’s citizens. Everyone was trying to decipher the meaning of those words, Adrien was the first one to realise. 

“Marinette!”

Ladybug first looked at him in shock, thinking he had figured her out, then she realised what he he had actually meant. Chat was off, jumping on her balcony and screaming her name. 

“No...”

The silence before the storm, the frightening towers of dust and dirt started moving, accompanied by horrified screams of terrorised civilians. The dirt wasn’t meant for them, though. It flew as if it were one. Gigantic snakes with one single target. 

Marinette ran, but the destruction was quicker.

The Dupain-Cheng ceiling collapsed. Marinettes yo-yo missed it’s target as she plummeted to the ground. Her vision was blurry, her mind blank, eyes wide and  breath unconciously held. 

She didn’t recognize the pain as she hit the pavement. 

She didn’t even think as she called out for her seventh Lucky Charm. 

Ladybugs cry echoed through the ruins of Paris as her usualy leather-clad partner fell from the sky, with tears in his eyes and covered in a red and black spotted suit. “Sabine she’s...they’re...”, both of them broke down crying in each others arms. Adrien never knew how great his partners pain actually was, in comparison to his.

---------------------------------

Hi! This is my first try at writing MariBat and my first fanfic in like... 4 years? 

I’ve just recently graduated Highschool so I’m now embracing my free time and trying to get back on my creative track.  

Please comment, I NEED to know what you think of this. Critique and all that is very appreciated, even a simple “YES” is going to absolutely make my day and, honestly, you could comment about dogs and I’d be happy to read it. 

Thanks for reading ^^

[scottpilgrimheadcanons]

Fifth Headcanon Master Post!

First Master Post (0-88)

Second Master Post (89-199)

Third Master Post (200-303)

Fourth Master Post (304-386)

#387: Roxy Likes Leather

#388: The Seven Evil Exes as the Seven Deadly Sins

#389: Julie would really like to be someone's bridesmaid

#390: Envy's wedding

#391: Julie and Envy's friendship

#392: Envy and Julie's friendship pt. 2

#393: Another anime Scott likes

#394: Never Have I Ever

#395: Going home wasn't as easy for Kim as she let on

#396: To prepare for his battle with Scott, Matthew trained a lot

#397: Give Scott a break

#398: You remember Jimmy?

#399: Up A Level

#400: Never underestimate the kind of man Gideon is

#401: Going back to volume one...

#402: To prepare for her date for Scott...

#403: Let bygones be bygones

#404: You wanna know how many dates Stacey has lost to Wallace?

#405: Down is the only direction Ramona thought her life could go if she stayed with Gideon

#406: Never has Ramona spent Valentine's Day with a boyfriend

#407: Going to school was torture for Matthew

#408: To catch Ramona's eye...

#409: "Run faster, jump higher"

#410: Around the time when Scott was waiting for Roxy, Matthew, Lucas, and Todd respawned

#411: And in case you think I forgot...

#412: Desert Wasteland

#413: You remember when I said Matthew liked Homestuck?

#414: Never Been Kissed

#415: Going out with Wallace is a great experience

#416: To win over Gideon...

#417: Make a song for an ex? Not beneath Crash and the Boys

#418: You probably always wondered about this...

#419: Cry Wolf

#420: Never has Scott smoked pot

#421: Going to Toronto was always in Gideon’s plans

#422: To practice without Scott, Stephen had to teach Neil how to play bass

#423: Say, didn’t the movie screw up Crash and the Boys’s songs?

#424: Goodbye, vegan powers

#425: “Never even kissed a boy”

#426: Going to Sneaky Dee’s became a common pastime for the gang

#427: To The Boys!! And Crash!’s chagrin...

#428: Tell me about Kim

#429: A long time ago

#430: Lie to me

#431: And while we’re on the subject...

#432: Hurt by her parents’ lie, Ramona ran away from home...

#433: You wanna know what Ramona’s parents had lied about?

#434: Scott loves Dragon Quest

#435: The Bartender from Lee’s Palace

#436: “No Girls Allowed”

#437: “Even I would think twice about dating a seventeen-year-old”

#438: Todd got the idea of punching a hole through the moon from “It’s A Wonderful Life”

#439: Scott’s “Sonic & Knuckles” shirt

#440: Kim’s “Sonic & Knuckles” shirt

#441: Scott shipped Neil/Lauren

#442: Scott and Neil bonded

#443: The Unseen Character Arc of Young Neil

#444: He doesn’t even know

#445: Ramona has taken up singing again

#446: Wallace feels a special connection with Stacey

#447: Scott didn’t know that his brother had a bass guitar

#448: Sex Bob-Omb’s first show

#449: The first time Neil got high

#450: Scott’s fantasy

#451: Extra Life

#452: “We were on a break!”

#453: Ramona's bag

#454: Where Ramona got her bag from

#455: Ramona tried to be straight-edge

#456: Roxy used to be big on drugs

#457: Roxy’s overdose

#458: How Ramona found out

#459: Roxy was one of the first people to encourage Ramona to dump Gideon

#460: The previous ones don’t apply completely in the movie

#461: Matthew is a little bi-curious

#462: Matthew would consider sleeping with some of the other Exes

#463: Matthew’s father thinks he’s gay

#464: Lucas’s first skateboard

#465: Lucas Lee’s second skateboard

#466: Stephen Stills has a thing for bitter, bitchy people

#466.2: Joseph doesn’t put up with Stephen’s bullshit

#467: Everyone pretty much just puts up with Joseph

#468: Joseph kept Kim out of his and Stephen’s band

#469: Veganism

#470: Todd’s hearing (movie only)

#471: Todd’s hearing (graphic novel only)

#472: As for the game...

#473: Gideon is trans

#474: Envy was not alone when she called Scott

#475: Movie!Lynette wasn’t a cyborg

#476: Scott has valkyrie fantasies

#477: Lucas Lee is from Massachusetts

#478: Scott isn’t actually all that into lesbians

#479: Matthew is really into Magic...The Gathering

#480: Ramona did not give a shit about MTG

#481: Lucas and Ramona’s First Date

#482: Todd doesn’t see his father anymore

#483: Roxy and “that weab shit”

#484: Ramona’s opinion on anime

#485: Ken and Kyle's trip to Toronto, pt. 1 

#486: Ken and Kyle's trip to Toronto, pt. 2

#487: Ken and Kyle's trip to Toronto, pt. 3

[aliasimagines]

Meeting, falling for, dating and eventually having to leave Billy Hargrove would include :

request: Billy has a girlfriend before moving to Hawkins, being her the complete opposite of him (shy, a good person, honest, kind, dedicated, sensitive, right, who likes games, who fights for the power of women, etc…) the headcanon / imagine could be how they met, how they fell in love, how was dating (the day by day), what does Billy's family think of his gf, maybe moments / hobbies / things they both did together and perhaps what the two looked like when they both had to move to different cities. by @im-hqlover

a/n: I'm soooorrryyyyy it took me this long. It's messy and all over the place but I think I included everything (?). Also this is long. Sorry 🙏

Metting & getting to know each other

You met on the first day of high school

Billy didn't have a mulet back then, he wasn't wearing the leather jacket and didn't have his ear pierced. So wasn't really having the "bad guy" look just yet

You didn't really interact since he soon became popular while you liked to stay in the shadows thanks to your shyness

He was arrogant and rude while you are kind and quiet most of the time

But of course you have noticed him. He is gorgeous. Whit his wavy blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes.

Billy first really acknowledged you when you got paired for a school project in sophomore year. (not cliché at all)

You were nervous. Why wouldn't you be? It's Billy Hargrove we are talking about. One of the cool guys.

But honestly you didn't really think he would care about it

Much to your surprise he found you in lunch break. Billy told you that he has to pick up his step sister after school, but if you give him your address he will meet you there at 5

You were a bit shocked. Does he actually care? About a stupid school project?

Turns out he really does because he is failing the class

It's 5 past 10 when he shows up. He's got a small cut on his cheek which weren't there at school.

"Are you okay, Billy?"

He shrugged his shoulder, annoyed

"Can you just let me inside so we can do that stupid project?"

Deciding it's better not to anger him you step aside and guide him to your room

You start to do some research when you hear him murmur quietly

"I don't get this"

he was pointing at the task.

"Which part do you not get?"

"All of it?"

So you begin to explain him calmly and slowly

After about 2 hours, Billy kind of gets it so you start working.

You eat dinner with books in your hands while discussing the project.

And it's like you have been friends for years. You forgot your shyness and Billy forgot about all his problems. You even joked around between two tasks.

It's pretty late when you finish but it's friday so it's okay.

When you said goodbyes and you're about to close the door he suddenly turns around.

"Thanks Y/N. For explaining that shit."

"Of course, Billy! I'm glad I could help you!"

On Monday you and Billy present your project and the teacher is blown away by it. And Billy is so happy he pulls you into a bone crushing hug. And your bl

The teacher says that if Billy can keep this up he won't fail the class. So the teacher asks you to tutor him.

Growing & confessing feelings for each other

Once a week Billy comes over after he walked Max home( cause he doesn't have his car jet) and you guys work on home work together and study. Overtime he a bit longer stays after you finished studying. He stays for dinner (your parents love him) or you just hang in your room talking and listening to music.

Billy feels so comfortable around you. It's the way you treat him. Always so calm, kind and caring. He just feels like he can trust you. And he eventually realizes that he fell for you.

And oh boy, that scares him.

First Billy doesn't want to do anything about because he thinks there is no way you like him back.

But after spending many sleepless nights with fantasizing about what your relationship would be like he can't keep his emotions bottled up.

He gets up at 3 am and just goes over to your house and starts throwing rocks at your window

"Billy! What are you doing here?"

"I want to speak with you. Can you.. come outside?"

2 minutes later you find yourself walking next to Billy in a short and an oversized shirt you quickly changed into.

Few minutes pass and he still hasn't said anything. So you nervously turn to him and open your mouth to say something but he beats you to it.

"Y/N thanks to you I've got good grades and I'm super grateful for that but that's not why... Ah shit.. I can't"

He notices you're slightly shaking.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine just a bit cold"

"Oh, here. Take my jacket" and he puts it on your shoulders

And you're jumping out of your skin.

Because over there months you spent together you grew feelings for this boy and now he was giving you his jacket. Billy freaking Hargrove was giving you his signature leather jacket!

Oh, you weren't blushing. Naaah, not at all.

"T-thanks Billy..."

"Sure thing."

"So You were trying to say something?"

"Oh shit! ...You... I was trying to say how fucking nervous you make me." *cute small laugh*

Billy took a deep breath and stoped. You looked at him, totally confused.

"Y/N... I... I like you. Like... Like like you. I have been for a while now. You are just the cutest and kindest person I have ever met. Whenever you and I are alone I feel so happy... You make me super happy."

He looks at you like a lost puppy. He is just so goddamn cute.

Even though you're shy you pull him down by the collar of his shirt and kiss him.

Just a few hours ago you wouldn't even dare to dream about Billy liking you, yet here you are kissing on the poorly lighted street at 3 am.

That's how it started

Dating Billy & what his family thinks of it/about you

So Billy likes to show you off. Take you to parties (but if you don't want to he won't force you to), hold your hand in school or even kiss you by the lockers.

You definitely earn some jealous looks after that, even some threatening ones. (don't worry, Billy will punch everyone who tries to hurt you)

You accompany him when he has to walk Max home

Max does not mind it. You're always nice to her. You quickly befriend with the cute little ginger and take her to the arcade or play video games with her.

Once Billy gets his car you go on nightly car rides

He loves surfing, so he takes you to surf whenever he can. You have little competitions like "who can stay longer on the board?"

Or if you can't surf he will teach you.

Once you come out of the water he likes to walk around the beach, fingers intertwined, maybe get some ice cream or something. You guys would stay till ot gets dark.

Or sometimes even after that. Billy wound find a nice hidden spot where you can gaze up at the beautiful night sky as he holds you in his strong arms. And he has that smile on his face. You know it's a smile he only uses when it's just the two of you.

Like I said he is a show of and likes to drag you to parties so in return you drag him to demonstrations for women rights.

Billy loves listening to music and he loves you so listening to music with you is one of his favorite things to do.

You met his father and Susan when you ran over to his house to return his jacket.

Susan opens the door, asks who you are and when you tell her that you are Billy's girlfriend she immediately invites you in

She tells Max to inform Billy that you're here

Susan was cooking when you knocked so you ask if you can help her in anything till Billy comes.

"Oh aren't you sweet! Thank you, I would appreciate it!"

You and Susan are in deep conversation while you are cutting some vegetables when Billy walks in.

"Babe? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just brought back your jacket."

That's when Niel enter the kitchen too. He doesn't even says hello, he is just like: "who the hell is that?"

"I'm, uhm.. I'm Billy's girlfriend, sir."

Neil snorts and turns to his son "Your girlfriend?" Billy just nods so Susan takes the opportunity to speak up

"She is such a sweetheart, I didn't even know you had a girlfriend Billy."

"I guess I just didn't had a chance to talk about her"

Now his dad is looking at you "Does he take good care of you?"

"Yes sir, Billy is a wonderful boyfriend!"

"Pff are you talking about my son?"

And you're looking at him like wtf.

Later Billy tells you about his dad and how he treats him.

First your just so angry, because how can someone do that to their children?

But than you comfort your boyfriend. Tell him how he deserves the word and how you will always be there for him.

Moving to different cities

Billy is heartbroken when he learns you have to move.

But than his father announces that they will move to Hawkins and now he is hating every one.

You are devastated too, obviously. You just want to cry and be held by Billy but he is too busy being angry at the world.

You find him at your hiding spot on the beach, smoking.

"Billy, please don't be like this, this is hard for me too!"

He is too afraid of living without you, you're the only good thing in his life. And he doesn't want to lose you too.

"Baby I don't want this..." his voices is barely louder that a whisper, and you know he is fighting with his tears too.

"Me neither, Billy but... But we could figure out something?"

"What? We will be so freaking far away from each other!"

"Yes I know, but after high school we could still come back to Cali and live in a cute house by the ocean like how we planned"

"I... Yeah. Yes, you're right. But still, i don't know what will I do without you."

You sit next to him "We will talk. Every day on the phone. And I will write you."

The they you have to say goodbye is the worst. You are both crying. He doesn't want to let you go. You ran your fingers through his hair, one last time. He kisses you.

"Promise you won't forget me, Y/N. "

"I couldn't never!"

"Just promise."

"I promise, that I won't ever forget you Billy Hargrove."

[mamaskillerqueen]

The Way You Said I Love You || Billy Hargrove x Reader

A/N: This is another one I had written a long time ago on another blog I lost the info for. It was from a request from a prompt list I had reblogged. Hope you enjoy it! There maybe possible spoilers for season two if you haven’t watched it yet... Warnings: Swearing, fighting, the usual things that go along with writing for Billy. Prompt: Not said to me for ways of saying I love you.

It wasn’t rare for you to stumble upon conversations not meant for you. Most of the time you were convinced you had a super power. Invisibility wouldn’t have been your first choice but it was better than nothing.

The party that was raging around you was not your original plan for the evening. You had been dragged here by your best friend, who ditched you for her boyfriend the moment you walked through the door. It wasn’t like you disliked him or anything but since he’d come into the picture, she began treating you like everyone else did. Like you weren’t there.

You could find a random couch and let the sting take over, or you could drink. Normally you’d choose the first option but tonight you were tired of it. So, you made a beeline for the kitchen.

A part of you hoped to run into one of your very few other friends so you didn’t feel entirely alone. Situations like these usually spiked an impending doom at the pit of your stomach. It was a fear you didn’t understand but having someone else with you lessened it. What you didn’t expect was to be greeted by a heated argument breaking out by the back door.

For a moment you contemplated joining the quickly growing crowd but thought better of it almost immediately. There wasn’t a line for the mixed drink in the punch bowl anymore so you decided to take it as a small blessing. Just as you were dunking your red plastic cup into the concoction you heard your name being shouted in the crowd.

You froze immediately. No way they saw you standing there. You know, being invisible and all. Slowly you turned your head and raised on your tiptoes to see over the heads of your fellow peers. In the middle of the argument was none other than Tommy H and the Keg King himself, Billy Hargrove.

Tommy and you had never gotten along very well, he was a jerk who felt it necessary to make fun of you all through grade school. When you finally reached high school, it was like everyone forgot you existed. As much as you hated being completely looked over, it was better than being the center of bad attention.

“She’s a freak, why are we even talking about this?” Tommy shouted, clearly annoyed that this was even happening, and that it was about you of all people.

He had been talking with a small group of people, Billy included, and very passively stated how annoying you were. It was then that things started to go down hill. Billy wasn’t having any of it and quickly told Tommy he was being a dick. It took a few tries to figure out why Billy snapped. When he figured it out, he shouted your name incredulously. It made no sense to Tommy why that had made Billy so angry.

What Tommy didn’t know was that in English class, one of the few Billy had without him, you were partnered for a project. After a few class periods, and much prodding, he’d gotten you to open up. You were nothing like what people had said in passing to him when he asked. His favourite thing about you was that you listened, and took his suggestions into consideration.

You both had gotten an A on that project, and Billy felt a sense of accomplishment he’d never gotten before. You had allowed him to help equally, something most people didn’t. Usually, they took the reins and let him do whatever he wanted. So, he slacked off to keep up appearances of a total rebel. There was no way you were letting him slide by like that. He respected that and your friendship grew from there. Which was why he was getting ready to punch Tommy H in the face.

Billy Hargrove was not going to passively stand by and let someone disrespect you.

“Don’t talk about people you don’t know like that,” the blonde boy growled as he pulled his right hand back. Just before he connected with his friends face something grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?!” You shouted at him while pulling him away from the other boy. Luckily for you, the back door was close. Just as you were pulling it open Billy firmly planted his feet on the ground, announcing he wasn’t done yet.

With distance between them, Tommy’s confidence rekindled itself. With slightly slurred speech he yelled across the very small group of people that had meandered into the open space you cleared a moment ago. “You mean don’t talk about people you love like that?”

It was meant to piss Billy off, make him uncomfortable because things like that were what made him puff his chest and declare he cared about no one. That wasn’t what Tommy got though. What he got made everyone around stop in their tracks with shock written on their faces.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Billy declared before forcing his way out the door. He wanted to knock his friend out, maybe break a nose but he knew that wasn’t the right move right now. He needed to cool off because if he went home after picking another fight Neil was going to have a conniption.

You were glued to your spot, hand still on the door knob. For the first time in years you could feel eyes on you. The entire room was staring at you, and actually seeing you. After a few blinks, you felt the need to run. Ducking your head you practically ran through the door, pulling it shut behind you.

The rush of cold air helped you clear your head and the sight of Billy leaning against the side of the house with a cigarette in his hand told you the words spoken inside actually happened. Awkwardly you leaned against the house beside him, staring out across the backyard. Music thumped against the walls but it was still eerily quiet outside.

“So…” you trailed off, too chicken to meet his eyes. Not that he was looking at you. He was currently staring at the neighbours house. The waves of anxiety were rolling off of you but you couldn’t tell what the boy beside you was feeling.

“That was… unexpected.”

Those words were the ones that grabbed Billy’s attention. He stared at you in disbelief for a while before he scoffed. When your eyes found his, confusion etched on your face he realised you were serious.

“Well damn,” he muttered through a puff of smoke. “I thought you knew.”

[biillyhargroves]

Hopper and Billy live/don't get sent to Russia. Eleven tells Hopper that Billy's dad abuses him. Hopper gets himself another lost kid. El is super excited and protective about her new brother.

the kids aren’t alright.(fic requests open)

The Hargrove-Mayfield household has become a second home to El- or, rather, the streets around it have, because when the parents are home the kids tend to disappear. Max will ask El if she wants to go skateboarding, or Billy will drop them off at the arcade or a local diner before vanishing for hours- sometimes days -at a time. 

Sometimes, there is shouting before the exodus. The men of the house raise their voices. Max shuts the door, sometimes pulls El out the window. 

“It’s better if we’re not here,” she says. El hesitates at the window sill, frozen by the yelling and the way the walls shake. Max grabs her wrist and pulls her out and they walk around the block one, two, three times before they see Billy emerge from the house. Max tells El to wait and she runs to her brother. El cannot hear what they’re saying, but she sees Max reach for Billy’s hand and Billy roughly pull it away. She sees the way Billy keeps his head down, his hair over his face, and how he angles his chin away from Max when she tries to get a look at him. 

“Do you want a ride or not?” El hears Billy say as she wanders timidly closer, trying to understand them. Max looks to her, and she looks somewhere between annoyed and concerned. 

“Yeah,” she says. “We do.” 

El sits in the back seat, Max beside her brother. The music is too loud for talking. El doesn’t like it, but the only time either Max or Billy reach for the knob it is to turn the volume up. Billy drives with the windows down and the wind roaring. Any question asked would be lost under the din. Still, El watches Billy- his white knuckles on the wheel, the way his fingers shake and the he tries to hide it by tapping a drum beat on the dashboard. She closes her eyes. Breathes. Tries to see something more, to dive into his head the way she did when the Mind Flayer tried to claim it, but all she garners are flashes of fists and the taste of blood in her mouth- no pictures, no void, no hallmarks of the power she is accustomed to -before the car shudders to a stop. Her eyes pop open and meet Billy’s in the rearview mirror. 

They’ve arrived at Hopper’s, and El can see her dad standing the open doorway. Max gets out of the car and El moves to follow, but is stopped when Billy growls, “I don’t need you in my head anymore.” He hasn’t turned around. He is still watching her through the mirror. “Got it?” 

“I...” El starts, and she drops her gaze for the briefest moment before meeting his eyes again. “I can help.” 

“No,” Billy says. He almost laughs it. “You can’t.” 

She tries to speak again, but Max has opened her door. Billy revs the engine. El lingers for a moment before leaving the car, and Billy speeds off the second the door is closed behind her. They eat a quiet dinner with Hopper, watch some of his old Westerns (or, rather, Hopper watches the movies while Max and El swap articles from magazines Max has helped El collect. It isn’t until that night, when they are lying side-by-side in El’s dark bedroom, that El dares to ask, “What happened today?”

“What do you mean?” Max says, though her tone suggests she already knows.

“With...Billy.”

“Oh,” Max says, her assumptions proven right. “Neil- his dad? He’s a Grade-A asshole.”

“Asshole?” El asks. “Like...Lucas? And Mike?”

“No,” Max says, shaking her head. “No, no. Not that kind of asshole. They’re, like, Tier 1. They do shitty boyfriend stuff, like forget your anniversary or point out your zits or make up stupid lies about stupid shit. That’s amateur hour. Neil is, like...You know how Billy gets really loud sometimes? Like, not Mind-Flayer kind of aggressive, but how he hits the steering wheel really hard when he’s mad and stuff?”

“Yes,” El says, because she watched this happen just last week on a similar day. Max had pulled her out of the house and taught her how to do kick flips on her board until Billy finally came outside to drive them to Mike’s. She had seen a bruise on his wrist then, but she wasn’t supposed to- she knew because he pulled his sleeve down when he caught her looking.

“Neil’s like that,” Max says. “But worse. And he throws it all at Billy.”

“He...hurts him?”

Max hesitates, then says, “Sometimes.”

“Does he...hurt you?”

“No,” Max says. “I mean, once he tried. He was drunk. He took a swing. My mom screamed.” She is quiet for a moment, the she says, “Billy stopped him.” Her voice quiets down, almost to a whisper, almost so soft that El has to strain to hear, when she says, “He got it real bad that night. Billy, I mean. He was so mad after. He didn’t talk to me for two weeks. But Neil’s never tried anything with me again. It’s...it’s always Billy.”

Max’s words linger in the following silence. El watches her friend, sees the glistening in her eyes. She reaches out and grabs Max’s hand, and Max’s squeezes El’s hard. 

“You can’t tell Billy I told you,” she says. “He’ll kill me.”

“He...” El starts, and then she chews at her lower lip. “You need help,” she says eventually. “You and Billy. You need help.” 

“You know, I’ve kind of thought about that,” Max says. “Like, you coming in all superpowered and giving Neil a taste of his own medicine. But...” She sighs. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.” 

“Don’t be sorry,” El says. It’s true that her powers vanished after the Mind Flayer much like the Hargrove-Mayfields vanish from their home in the wake of Neil’s wrath, but Hopper has given her sound advice- to be patient, to breathe, to enjoy her time as a normal kid. To come to him if she needs to. “There’s other ways I can help.”

“How?” Max asks, genuinely curious. 

El is thinking about Hopper. El is thinking about the badge he pins to his uniform shirt every morning. She doesn’t want to say anything to Max just yet, just in case her dad says no- he’s not the biggest fan of Billy or his temper, and he has not hidden this each time Billy drops the girls off or picks them up, but she thinks he might an exception for special circumstances. “We can figure something out.” 

It is a week and a few more Hargrove feuds later when El presents her evidence to Hopper. Max’s confession, a couple of Polaroids of Billy’s bruises that Max somehow convinced him to take (”He really didn’t want to,” she says. “He called me a lot of colorful names, but I got them.”). The more El told him, the more Hopper seemed to boil- rage is the only word El can think to describe his eyes. 

He showed up at the Hargrove-Mayfield house the next day with a warrant- the girls were at Hopper’s house, safely tucked away. Neil was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and endangerment. Billy was questioned, and later Max was, too. Susan, being Neil’s wife, was not legally obligated to incriminate her husband, but she hand-delivered a written statement to the Hawkins Police the very next morning. 

Hopper had offered Billy a safe haven. “You don’t have to,” he said, “but my door is open.”

The night of his father’s arrest, after his interview with the police, Billy and his Camaro disappeared. He drove in circles around Hawkins, and then beyond. He drove until he ran out of gas, refilled his tank, then drove some more. He kept the windows down and the radio up like he always did, but the feeling in his chest was different. His bruises were yellow instead of black and blue. He replayed the day in his head, over and over again. Chief Jim Hopper bursting through his front door, his father accusing Billy of pulling some shit only to have the handcuffs slapped around his own wrists. Sitting down with the cops, telling them yes when he told them his father hit him, shoved him, kicked him. 

The next morning, at the same time that Susan Mayfield arrived at the police station to turn in her statement, Billy found himself at Chief Hopper’s front door. El opened it, and on instinct she threw her arms around Billy’s middle. 

He stiffened in her grip, unsure of what to do, but then his hands settled on her back. He let her hug him. He let her guide him into the house and fix him a towering plate of Eggo waffles. When Hopper arrived home that night, he was only slightly surprised to find Billy Hargrove poking through his record collection, selecting oldies to spin while El watched on. 

Neil serves a month of jail time, and while he ticks off the days in his cell, Hopper sets Billy and the Mayfields up with a lawyer who draws up restraining orders against him. Billy stays with Susan and Max for a time, but with Max sleeping at El’s nearly every other night and Susan’s sister crowding the space Neil left behind and the fear of Neil somehow breaking down the door at any moment, he ends up sleeping in his car.

When Hopper finds Billy curled up in the back seat of his Camaro on the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue, he tucks a spare key and a looseleaf note beneath the door handle. Use it. Knock before you come in. The couch is yours.

Billy waits three days before acting on the offer. Max is already there when he arrives. El’s bedroom door is open a crack and Billy can hear the girls giggling about something. Hopper is making dinner and hardly looks up when Billy comes in.

“You didn’t knock,” he says.

“Sorry,” Billy grunts. 

“Hungry?” Hopper asks. And that, as they say, was that. Billy eats dinner with them, and he watches old movies- or, rather, he and Hopper watch them while the girls tinker with a science fair project on the floor. That night, El and Max help Billy turn the couch into a bed with spare sheets and blankets. As he comes out of the bathroom from brushing his teeth, he finds El standing there. 

“Are you okay?” she asks. 

“I’m fine,” Billy says. “I, uh...guess I owe you an apology.”

“Apology?” El asks.

“I said you couldn’t help,” he says. “Looks like I was wrong.”

“So...you’re okay?” El asks again.

“Yeah, kid,” Billy says. “But, hey, can you do me a favor?”

“Okay.”

“Just...stay out of my fucking head, okay?” He laughs to prove he’s joking, and nudges El with his arm as he walks past her and toward the couch. Encouraged by his spirits, but the lightness that El didn’t know could exist inside him, El laughs, too. 

[mydearsaddiary]

Speakeasy Tonight Fanfic- Neil Season 3- Chapter 7

This is a fanfic on how I imagine Speakeasy Tonight’s Neil season 3 would look like. This is chapter 7, here’s a link to all past chapters: https://mydearsaddiary.tumblr.com/NeilSeason3Fanfic

 Author notes: Hello again! Sorry this chapter took longer, quarantine is over for me and I have been going to work! However, I already have the next chapters planned out. This whole season is coming to an end. I’m only planning it to go until chapter 10 and there might be a chapter 11 epilogue. However, the actual story is getting to its climax and finish line! As always, please feel free to reach out to me! This chapter and the next few chapters will be all about Mayor Adler and saving the Ice box!

 -Thanks for reading it this far!

              Candy (7/15/20)

❃ ▼˘ﻌ˘▼ Chapter 7- Flapper and the Dog

 I woke up with an uneasy feeling in my chest. It wasn’t a restful sleep. When I opened my eyes I realized I shouldn’t have even been sleeping in the first place. The thought made me jolt up quicker than my body could handle. I felt a wave of dizziness but ignored it. I opened the door dramatically to the kitchen I’d come to know too well. Just then I noticed I was in Neil’s apartment. My memory was foggy, it took me a while to remember everything... Vera is disgraced and missing, Mayor Adler pretended to be shot by her, and he’s got a tight grip on Chicago. I suddenly felt the urge to sleep again.

 I was tired, sore and unwilling to move around, but more than anything I was incredibly hungry. I walked to the fridge and opened it to find ice cream, then I found a spoon and started digging into the pot like I had never had anything more delicious in my life. The cold of the dessert calmed down the uncomfortable warmth I was feeling. I looked around and found peanut butter on one of the shelves. Without thinking I opened it and threw half of it inside the ice cream, making a disgusting and excessively sweet mixture. I sat down and ate it still. It was the best thing I had tasted in a while 

  -I think I might have to call the police and say a malevolent hungry goblin is eating all my food and growling while doing so- The sarcastic voice came from the living room. Neil stood at the door looking at me with what I couldn’t decide if it was judgement or concern. 

 However what I cared about was that he compared me to an ugly evil green creature- Listen. I am hungry, Mayor Adler sent Vera away so now we’re back to square one and I have to go to the box!- I said eating one more spoonful of my peanut butter vanilla ice cream

  -Are you sure you’re up to it? 

  -I’m not being taken off the board, Neil! I’m the boss of the Ice Box! I have to figure this out, alright? 

  -I’m talking to a little dog who can’t stop eating and barking at the same time- He teased me again- Why don’t you just take the night off?

                -No, no!-I stopped eating, this time breathing in and out to calm myself down, even ignoring the comment he made- I’m sorry. I’m fine, I promise. I was just having a moment 

      It took a while to convince him, but eventually we were on our way to the box to work out the next steps. A wave of guilt suddenly took control of me. I was lying to Neil. I should tell him... Let him know I’m pregnant, but the future of the Ice Box depended on me not doing so. He might never forgive me for not telling him straight away, but I needed to be involved in all this and he would never let me if he knew. This was all my responsibility so I had to tell him after. However, it didn’t make my conscience weight any less. Was I being reckless? Was I refusing to accept the fact that my delicate condition would force me to step down from the confident, modern and strong woman I tried to be? Was I supposed to accept my womanly duties? 

       Mother would be thrilled. Married and a pregnant with a rich man’s baby like she always wanted to. Why was it so hard for me to swallow all this? I needed the Ice Box. That’s who Neil loved, the woman that ran this gin joint better than any man. I couldn’t step down, I couldn’t just become a housewife. I was going to solve the ‘Mayor Adler’ riddle, whether I was pregnant or not... Even if my duties meant Neil had to be in the dark a little longer. 

        -Hey...-I started- I talked to the Wedding planner, she said there’s an opening in February instead of May, right around Valentine’s Day. She asked if I wanted it and I thought it’d be romantic, I meant to ask you what you thought about it?- My hands nervously played with my dress- I mean, if you’re okay with moving up the wedding? 

       He was quiet for a few seconds, inquisitively. To my surprise, however, he didn’t ask much more about the reason why- I don’t mind one bit- His lips formed a thin line and his deep concentration puzzled me- Can we handle all the preparations by then? 

       -Y-Yes. She said the invitations were done and as soon as I gave her the okay about the day she’d send them out. Then it’s only the reception and well... The honeymoon, but that’s up to us- I smiled softly. Even with a lot on my shoulders I was excited. I wanted the weather to be nice and May still sounded like the perfect time. But I had to move up the wedding because of the pregnancy. Both of us would be in a lot of trouble if I got married with a huge bump. It’d be quiet the scandal in town and I’m sure Neil would like to avoid that as much as I did. 

       It dawned on me how I wanted everything to be over and okay

      —

      The silence in the Ice Box reigned for a while when the whole gang was sitting down together. Even Elliot was there this time. Everyone knew the recent events, but nobody knew how to proceed. 

       -I found some dirt on the Mayor- Donovan started 

       I looked at him surprised and a bit of hope surged in my eyes- Well, don’t just leave it at that! 

      -Don’t get too excited, lassie. I just found out some dealings he has with some people- He started- He pays good money to policemen and gangsters, both of them. That’s how he gets information on everyone in Chicago. 

      -By getting other people to do his dirty job- I continued- That means he’s got the law on his side and gangsters in his pay. He does like to be in control, but it makes things harder. If he’s giving money directly to a gangster, there’s no actual proof or documents with transactions on them indicating a direct connection with gangsters like with Mayor Peters. Besides, everyone’s loving him now

       -I say we kill him- Vince started 

       -We can’t bump off the Mayor, Vince. If he’s got gangster and policemen, on top of the fact that he’s an official, they’d be looking for the culprit left and right and he’d die a hero to everyone. They could trace us. Our only option is to disgrace him like we did with Peters, it’s just this time it’ll be ten times harder. 

       -Makes poisoning booze seem like child’s play right now- Neil said sarcastically 

       -It was- Vince said- Five children to be exact 

       -What are you thinking, boss?-Cliff asked 

       I’d tell him not to call me that, but I lost that battle months ago- Donovan, you keep digging, as far as you can go- I told him and he nodded as if he already knew that’s what he had to do- But... We have to figure out a way to enter his house and take every single document or proof he has against anyone in Chicago. If we take his power over anyone then people might not be so willing to help him. 

        -Only that won’t do- Sofia said- His word alone still means something 

        -But it’s a first step. He won’t have any proof, it will be harder to say something without proof. He’ll need to be more cautious- I said then thought about my options for a second.

 Suddenly my head filled with nothing but a strong smell that made me sick. I turned my head to look at Donovan pouring his Whiskey into his cup. Since when did Whiskey smell that gross? For some reason my whole stomach started to gurgle and I fell the whole Ice cream and peanut butter from before wanting to come back up. Gee, if I threw up right then and there everyone would freak out- I need to go to the bathroom real quick 

      My escapade was quick but not desperate. I went to the restroom upstairs, so they wouldn’t hear me getting sick. Nevertheless, I didn’t allow myself the time to worry about morning sickness. The whole ordeal and having to wash my mouth afterwards gave me time to think. Maybe if Mayor Adler was willing to do business with gangsters he’d be willing to do business with the Ice Box... It’d be a way into his house and a way to deceive him. I could get closer and see better. 

       I returned downstairs to find the gang making small conversation. When I showed up they looked at me again. Neil approached me, saying a looked a little pale, but I swore I was fine

       -Alright... Here’s the deal. Vince and I are going to strike a deal with the Mayor. 

       -What?-Neil asked, and I could see everyone was thinking the same thing 

       -Deceitfully, of course. Mayor Adler pays off gangsters to do his dirty job. He knows about the Ice Box and how I’m involved in it. I could walk in like I want a favor, letting him know that I know he’s got control over the Ice Box. Saying “We’ll do your work for you, please leave us alone”. It’s a way inside his house and closer to his office. It’d give me the chance to figure out how to get in and out of there without being noticed. 

        -I’m in- Vince said- I’d like to fool that sonuva... 

        -He won’t fall easily for that- Cliff said 

        -Maybe not with Moretti- Neil said- But MC has infiltrated herself in groups and gained the confidence of the temperance crusaders and Vera Peters. It’s not something she hasn’t done before. Besides, she’ll have Moretti to say nothing and defend her if needed- I didn’t like to think I needed to be defended, but if it helped Neil get on board with the idea I didn’t mind- She can handle it

       I smiled at him for going along with it. He knew it was dangerous, before he would’ve said “it was out of the question”. But with Vince there and the fact he knew I was stubborn and maybe a little bit of how I had proven myself before... He believed in me. 

      -The Doc’s right- Sofia said- We’ve seen her in action 

      I got excited, so I started talking again-That’s right. Everyone can be fooled. We just have to be smarter than Mayor Adler. Besides, he would certainly love to think he has the Mad Dog right under his command, doing whatever his little heart desires 

       Vince chuckled, a little flustered to be considered a valuable piece- Let’s get this show on the road 

 ___

                And so it was the next day I sent a letter to Mayor Adler, pointing out my interest in making a deal to work for him if it meant he left the Ice Box alone. If I gave him the idea that he was the one in control he’d believe it. I had just sent the letter when Neil came downstairs in the morning.

              -You’re up early- His voice showed that he had just woken up, along with his puffy eyes.

              -You’re just sleeping later and later. Might have slept for about ten hours today. I thought you were hibernating and were scared you were going to turn into a cat and sleep for most of your life.

              -You’re not the one who keeps waking up at night because of your snore.

              -I still think it’s all hokum. I don’t snore. You’re just making that up ‘cause you can’t seem to find any flaws.

              He snorted and opened his mouth to fight back But then, something changed in his eyes. Instead he walked over and pulled me close, his arms gently revolved my waist as he used his forehead to touch mine

              -Oh, they’re there alright

              I rolled my eyes- And here I was thinking you might be romantic for once

              -I love you- He replied with those three little words I loved hearing from him. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this man was in love with me

                -I love you, Neil- I kissed his lips gently and for a while we were lost in that moment, not caring about anything else.

                Soon enough he opened his eyes to see paper, pen and envelopes on the coffee table- So you wrote the mayor that letter?

              -I did. The sooner the better, right? Can’t have any of this bothering our matrimonial bliss.

                -That man is as dangerous as they get. You be CAREFUL.

              -I’ll be fine, Vince will be there at all times. I’m as tough as they come!-I smiled at him, trying to pass on my confidence.

                -Like I said, I can’t risk that. But trying to talk you out of it will give me a headache and I won’t get anywhere. So you do what you have to do.

              -You’re only okay with it because Vince is going

              -Are you trying to change my mind?

                -No, sir!- I said closing my mouth and saying nothing more

 __

                 It took a few days to get a reply  from the Mayor, but soon enough he said he’d be glad to meet us the day after at the address we had given him, which was by the docks. Sure enough the day after Vince picked me up in his red convertible and we were off

                -Do you hear wedding bells yet?-He jokingly asked driving down one of the main avenues in Chicago

                -I’ve been talking to the Wedding planner and the invitations were sent out, we’ve got a few things to figure out still, but honestly this Mayor Adler business is been taking so much of my time I’m a little behind

                -Why did you move up the wedding then? Wasn’t May the perfect time to work everything out?

                I sighed, if Neil didn’t know the truth I didn’t think it’d be nice of me to tell everyone else before him. He had to be the first to know, well… After Cleo. I breathed slowly thinking about what to say. The best lies always have some truth in them, but I couldn’t include any aspect of pregnancy in whatever excuse I was going to find

                -I guess it was an impulse. I want everything to be over so bad. I feel like the wedding will bring happiness. Or I’m just giving myself a deadline of when all of this has to be over by before I lose my mind- Surprisingly enough, I found some truth in it

                -Hey, doll- He caught my attention- We got this, this mayor business will be done in no time. So all that pretty head has to worry about is tying the knot, unfortunately  

                -Unfortunately?- I chuckled

              -Thought I still had my chances with ya- He said, joking

                -You can say that in front of Neil

              -That guy is the only guy that scares me enough I’d be afraid to die. Always knocking me down with that smart mouth

                -Just don’t give him any excuses to

              -I don’t need to!- He replied, despite everything I knew he was right. I wasn’t about to tell him that Neil actually trusted him and thought he was a decent guy.

                He parked by the docks and our bright conversation turned into a tense silence when we saw the mayor alongside his security puppets. He sat in the back seat of a black car, probably trying to eliminate any chances to be seen. The smell of water from the river filled my senses, suddenly I wished I was far away on the beach. I shook the thought of my head quickly, the Ice Box was my home and this is what had to be done to protect it. Time to stop sulking.

                We walked out towards the vehicle, his men holding their guns in case anything threatened his safety. I could see his satisfied face, a grin that showed he believed he had already won, an air of superiority that saw me and Vince as the new pawns in his Chicago dominance game.  

                -Aaah… Miss Granger, you look lovelier than ever- I cringed at his fake manners, but didn’t miss his appreciative look to my assets.

                By the looks of it, Vince didn’t miss it either. He cleaned his throat dramatically to take his attention away from me- We’re here to make a deal with you.

                This time, Adler turned his attention to my Italian right-hand man. His eyes gleamed at him as well, but it was different. It was appreciation, respect, admiration and most of all a desire to have him as a trophy, as a bodyguard. It occurred to me he valued Vince way more than me.

                -So I finally meet the Mad Dog- His smile spoke for him- You tell me what kind of deal we’re talking about here.

                -We would like to- I started talking but he interrupted, giving me a look

                -I’d like the men to have this conversation- His response lit up a fire in my body. I wanted to yell at him, blow our cover and show him you never underestimate a woman. But I shut my mouth, the more he thought he was winning, the more his ego would inflate and we’d get the upper hand.

                -It’s simple, Mayor. We both do all your dirty work and you leave our business alone- Vince said

                -How is it you know I need dirty work done?

                -Chicago’s underworld don’t have many secrets, Mayor. So we can skip not knowing each other’s dealings. I know you’re aware of Charlie’s business and I know you ain’t big on Temperance meetings, but you can’t get your hands dirty. Lucky for you, I’m an expert on dirtying my hands and MC’s got the brains I need. So it’s pretty simple.

                He seemed to think about it for a second, but Vince was a good talker, he knew how to convince people- You’ve got yourself a deal. Charlie’s business won’t be touched as long as you do what I say.

                I breathed heavily a little overwhelmed. I didn’t know whether to be happy our plan worked, or desperate we willingly put ourselves under the Mayor’s control.

__

                Adler scheduled a briefing late next night in his mansion, but first me and Vince were where we usually spent our time at night: The Ice Box

                -Excuse-me!- I said walking around patrons. The place was so packed I wondered if there was something to celebrate.

                -MC!-I heard someone calling me behind me, I recognized it as Donovan when he called a second time. It took me a while to finish handing out drinks and get away from the massive crowd, enough so I could hear him- Sufferin’ Jesus, will you listen to me, lassie?

                -Yes! I’m done!-I pulled him to the back room locking the door behind us- What is it?

                -Are you goin’ to meet de mayor tonight?

              -Yes, me and Vince are going to do whatever job he’s got laid out for us. We’ll meet him in his house, so it’s a step closer to getting our hands in those documents

                -I need to tell you something-He said, my look of curiosity gave him the okay he needed to continue- These jobs, you and that boyo might be way over yer heads.

                -You mean, he might have us do stuff that we won’t be able to do?  Like kill off some innocent person or commit actual disgusting crimes? I’ve thought about that. We don’t need to really do what he asks, we just need to make him believe we are.

                -As long as you’re aware of it-He agreed- There’s something else. Vince is involved and he doesn’t know left from right. He’ll do something stupid

                -Where are you getting at?

                -You can’t let him kill de Mayor.

                -That wasn’t in the plan, anyway. But I know how Vince is, I’ll stop him. But why do you say so?

                -Vince can get his dumb hot head of his to far and you might think if he does it it’ll be just one more annoyance to deal wit’, but de Mayor has something to protect ‘im. If he dies, he has a whole system in place ta reveal every information he has on all of Chicago.

                -So he dies and stills wins, huh? No one wants that. You know who has access to his documents as well?

                -Not now, but I’m workin’ on it.

                -Alright, figure it out.

                -On it, lassie. You plan on this getting more violent than your past problems?

                -I’ve been here for almost a year. Louis, Dr. Bailey, Vera… We haven’t had to kill any of them. I know the Mayor is in a different level, but I’d like to keep it that way. But who says if we get him in jail where he should be, if he won’t have whoever it is leak all of our secrets anyway? Just to see everyone go down with him?

                He seemed to get to the same conclusion. He knew he had to find whoever he trusted to give all those documents away-I’ll figure it out

                -Thanks, Donovan

 After our talk I spotted Neil in his usual spot drinking his bourbon. It calmed me to see that one thing was still the same. It brought a sense of normalcy to all of it. I walked towards him with a soft smile

                -Hey handsome- I said kissing his cheek

                He smiled back to me- Ready for your stunt tonight?

              -You know me and my diabolical plans, I’m ready to fool the Mayor and get him out of our hair for good- I wrapped my arms around him- And then we can enjoy the beautiful beach in California…

                -California?-He looked at me incredulously

                -I’ve been thinking about our honeymoon! I’ve never been to the beach before!

                -Never?

                -No! I’ve always lived in Ohio my entire life and then I moved here. I didn’t really go anywhere.

                -How about Yellowstone?- He said

                -Wyoming? You’d want to go to a place where there’s barely any people!

                -California’s got too many people

                I suddenly smiled with the bright idea that popped into my head- I know how we can settle this.

                He snorted, the same confidence he showed before we played that game of chess that resulted in our first kiss popped into his face-I see where you’re going, and you’re going to lose

                -Well, don’t forget I’m unexpected- I held his hand tightly- Wait for me at Charlie’s tonight, we can play to decide it later, alright?

                He agreed. I could see anxiety in his eyes, I’d hate to wait without doing anything, but it was me and Vince in the game now. He didn’t know, but I appreciated his trust in me. That’s when guilt rose in me one more time about hiding something as important as my condition to him. As much as I wanted to believe it was excusable to hide it, I knew deep down it was the wrong thing to do- Hey… Can we talk outside? I’ve got something I wanna talk to you about.

                He got up after taking his last sip of bourbon and walked to the alley, far enough so Andrew wouldn’t hear us, but close enough so we were still protected by the darkness of the shadow the building provided, far from wondering eyes who might suspect us.

                -What is it?-He asked  

                -You know how I wasn’t feeling well these past few weeks? All the stress and all this stuff?

                He kept quiet for a few seconds- Yeah… I know. Is it still bothering you? I could take a look at the infirmary, find you something that’ll help

                -No, no! It’s not that- I breathed heavily for a few seconds- Neil, I’m pr-

                -MC!-Vince opened the door- We’ve gotta go, doll. Just received a call from the Mayor, he wants us now

                -I’m coming- I said as he rushed past me  

                -We’re in a hurry!- He turned on his car

                -Hey… We’ll talk when you get home, alright?- Neil’s calm voice surprised me- Now, go get it done

                I agreed, kissing him before going

 __

                To be back at that mansion brought me some uncomfortable memories. It seemed darker somehow, now that it didn’t have the proper elegancy of Vera around it. Vince parked his car and his butler let us right in, where the Mayor waited with two goons by his side

                -I’m eager to put the Mad Dog in action

                -Then let’s not wait- I showed a fake frustration that showed I didn’t like being under his power. After all this is supposed to be a “we didn’t have any other choice because you got us” deal- Just say what the job is and we’ll get it done.

                He gave me a side smile- You don’t get to give me orders, Miss Granger.

                -What she meant is- Vince said- Let’s not keep you waiting.

                -A man after my own heart- Adler said and I could’ve rolled my eyes at how much he enjoyed Vince- Before my ex-wife tried to kill me, she had been dealing with gangsters to conspire against me. O’Fallon’s gang. He was working with her. I want him gone.

                Vince looked at him-Gone like…-

                -Dead. Just disappear with him, don’t leave anything behind.

                I breathed tensely for a few seconds- Let’s go!- I turned around making my way for the car. Vince soon followed me

                -Not that I would have a problem shooting that bastard, but-

                -You don’t wanna do it under the circumstances- I finished his sentence- Let’s not kill anybody if we don’t have to. I bet Gerald’s at the Broiler. We can tell him to disappear for a while, leave someone he trusts in charge.

                We made our quick way to the speakeasy a couple of blocks north of the Ice Box. I had never been in the Broiler, but I knew that its reputation was classier than the joint I ran. When we got there, Vince parked a little far away from the place and looked at me

                -Well, I don’t like talking to him, so you go ahead, doll

                -If I let you talk to him, you’d actually kill him- I got off the car walking in the direction of the Broiler.

                I knocked on the door telling the bouncer to let O’Fallon know Miss Granger was here to see him, and to let him know it was important. It didn’t take long for the red-headed fella to pop out of the ritzy joint he ran.

                -I heard a beauty waited for me outside, who am I to keep her waiting?- He said with that smart mouth of his, always flirting with anything that moves

                -We’re close to getting rid of the mayor, O’Fallon

                -So you’ve come to share joyous news-He gave me that side smile

                -Not exactly- I lowered my voice- For it to work I had to make a deal with him. He sent me and Vince here to kill you.

                His smile turned into a frown- Let that wop try!-He was already reaching for his gun

                -Cool it. We’re here to save your life!-I pushed him by his chest, he stopped to look at me so I continued- You need to disappear. Put someone you trust in charge for now

                -I can’t just disappear!

                -You’ll die if you don’t-

                -Let the mayor try and kill me, it’s not the first time someone tried!

                -Gerald!-I looked deeply into his eyes, with the utmost conviction in my words- You will die.

                There must’ve been something in me, but he seemed to believe me now. He was tense for a second, but he let his respiration return to normal- What do I do?

                -Go away. Not for long. We’re almost catching him, but he needs to believe you’re dead. Don’t let anyone see you and leave town tonight. Let me know how I can reach you to come back.

                -Wait- He said going inside the broiler, coming back a couple minutes later with a piece of paper- I have somewhere to go. You’ll reach me in this number.

                -Good. Now, leave- I said turning around

                -MC- He called and I turned around- Thank you. I seem to be in need of your help once more

                I smiled softly before turning around and getting back into Vince’s car- I took care of it. He’ll be gone until we take care of the Mayor

                -You know you could just save us the trouble and have him stay wherever he’s going forever, right?

              -For some reason, I think your life wouldn’t be fun without him- I joked, laughing at his expression of disgust

                __

                -It’s done- I said on the phone when we were back at the Ice Box

                -Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, same time.

                For the next couple of weeks, we did those jobs. Most of the times we just had to go and collect money for him, which was a job we could actually do. A few times he asked Vince to beat somebody up because he’d done something the Mayor deemed wrong. O’Fallon was the only person he asked us to kill and I was thankful for that. I don’t know if anyone else would be so willing to disappear like he did.

                There was this one night the job was different. Adler was meeting up with some other gangsters he had business with. He wanted us to be his goons, his protectors. We were to escort him to the meeting and back to his house, making sure he didn’t get hurt in the process. Vince was behind the wheel, I sat by his side in the passenger seat and the Mayor seemed to peacefully enjoy the view in the backseat. However, I knew it was everything but peace that rested in his turbulent power-hungry mind.

                I felt troubled being in one of his luxurious cars. It brought me this sensation that life would really be like that if the Mayor won. We’d have to succumb to his desires and surrender our freedom to be the small operation the Ice Box was. I couldn’t let that happen, not when Uncle Charlie was counting on me. Being the leader of this gang, it made me feel responsible for anything that happened or could happen to any of them.

                My thoughts were interrupted by the shiver I felt because of the icy weather. The holidays were approaching fast and with them, the Windy City grew colder and its days turned darker. I hugged myself and the chilly air could be visible coming out of mouth every time I breathed

                -You’re alright, doll?-Vince asked, almost in a whisper

                -Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t know how you’re not freezing without a coat

                -I guess I’m used to it…-He gripped the wheels harder, I felt his tenseness. I’ve never seen him nervous to run into danger, but something was off about him tonight. I’ve seen him not enjoying all these jobs he had to do for the Mayor. Something told me he just hated to be used as a pawn and that he didn’t believe in what he was doing. I couldn’t deny our actions from the past few weeks benefited Adler. I just told myself it was for the greater good.

                -How about you?- I asked the same question back- Are you alright?

                -Yeah, I… I’ll be fine. Say we get a drink at the Box, after?

                -I think that’s a good idea. Been a while since you wound down.

                -Not to interrupt your plans for the evening- The unpleasant voice of the Mayor came from the back- But we’re here.

                Vince parked by a small parking lot behind a business. Three big fellas waited on the outside by their car, the meanness of Chicago’s underworld showed in in their posture. Vince and I both had our guns out as Adler left the car to talk business with the unsavory elements.

                They talked about some money dealings, there was some tension, but the guys hesitated to do anything and their eyes kept going in Vince’s direction. It wasn’t for nothing that he was known as the Mad Dog. Vince’s reputation alone protected Adler. Sometimes I’d feel their looks on me too, something about the ‘lady proprietor of Charlie’s gang’. They overall seemed surprised to see us working with the Mayor.

                It wasn’t long before Adler handed them quite a few bills, said something about ‘getting it done’ and turned around to walk back to us. It seemed like an easy and boring job, but as soon as we turned around, something convinced me to look back. One of the bimbos had their gun out and pointed towards out way, ready to shoot. My eyes raised in surprise as I yelled

                -Vince!- I caught his attention and he was quick to notice the situation.

                The gun was fired. Everything even happened too fast for me comprehend. The bullet that was coming in our direction suddenly hit Vince’s body as he jumped in front of us. When I finally caught my breath he was on the floor and the three fellas were gone

                I kneeled in front of him putting my hands on top of his wound, which was right on the left side of his torso, in an attempt to stop his bleeding.

              -Vince!-I looked at him, feeling angst take care of my body. I could feel he was trying to say something, but instead could only whimper. I looked at the mayor as I had no other choice- My fiancé is a doctor, we could take him to-

                -Your job is to get me home, safe! Get in the car and drive!

                -But!- I started

                -I’m fine!- Vince said, using my help to get up- I can…-He breathed slowly, as if he was about to collapse- I can drive him home

                I protested but he wouldn’t have it. He drove, a little slow and discombobulated, but he made his way to the house. I helped Vince get off his car, he had trouble walking and he looked pale, but we made it to his red convertible. When I looked, the Mayor had already shut his door behind us. I didn’t mind much since I had other things to worry about at the moment.

                -I can…-He started to go for the driver’s seat, but instead collapsed into the car

                -Vince!-I called for him again. I knew there was no time to panic. I pushed him to the passenger seat and drove as fast as my experience behind the wheel would allow me to the Ice Box. When we got there, my luck was that Cliff and Andrew talked outside and when I called for help, none of them hesitated to carry an unconscious Vince inside our speakeasy. The place wasn’t open yet, and it was just our good fortune Neil was at his usual spot tasting his bourbon.

                -Grab my bag- The Doc said. A comfort fell upon me as we laid him on the table and Neil started to do his job. I knew that when he was on the case, things were going to be alright. That’s what helped me get through everything, and it’d help both me and Vince that night.

                It wasn’t long after, the bloody bullet was nowhere to be seen and Vince was awake. Even if he wasn’t moving that much and spent all his energy in a deep conversation with Cliff, he looked less pale. I felt Neil’s hand around my waist turning me around

                -You were fine?-His glacial blue eyes pondered about my safety just as much as his words

                -I’m alright. Vince is the one I was worried about, he’s always the one putting himself in danger. Thanks for saving his life yet again, Doc Dresner.

                He gave me that soft smile of his- I told you. If I had a penny for every time I patched Moretti up, I’d be rich

                -You are rich, Mr. Boston Brahmin.

                -Do you have to have a smart comment to anything I say?

                -Are you registering a complaint?

                -I’m taking that as a yes. I’ll say one thing to you: Brevity is the soul of the wit

                -I’m always brief, so you quit with your Shakespeare!

                -You, little troublemaker-He said pulling me close- Are anything but brief. You always need to say something and it’s usually too much- He teased me

                -Just because you don’t say as much doesn’t mean you have more wit than I do. I’m pretty sure I win

                He used the opportunity no one could see his face to give me that big smile he reserved for me- How’s a cynical man supposed to keep thinking the world is a lost cause if you’re part of it?

                I smiled back, looking deeply into his eyes- He doesn’t. She’s trying to make his view of it less bleak.

                -I don’t know how she’s doing it…-He caressed my face- But she is.

                -Baby steps, Neil, baby steps…-I said before giving him a gentle and quick kiss, then I let myself get lost in his embrace

                -Vince is doing better, so I think I’ll take him home for tonight and come back before we open- Cliff said

                Before I could agree to it, the phone rang. I let go of Neil to go answer it and it was an unpleasant surprise to hear from the Mayor. I talked to him for less than a minute before I hanged up

                -What did he want?- Neil said

                -He wanted to thank Vince for… Saving his life. And he invited us for dinner at his house, a week from now.

                -I guess you got Adler’s trust-Cliff looked at his non-blood-brother, who now looked my way with his eyes wide open

                -Dinner at the Mayor’s house?-Vince’s voice still sounded like he wasn’t doing his best- Guess we’re fooling him good, MC, all it took was a bullet. Seems like it’s time for part two of your plan now.

                -We’ve got a way into his highly guarded house. Time to steal some documents.

 ___

 Author notes: Thanks for reading this chapter! Here’s what’s coming in the next few chapters!

 “I was surprised to wake up that morning and receive a call from Neil’s mother. She wanted us in Boston for the weekend. An engagement dinner ball, to fix what went wrong with the last trip. She had invited my whole family, which meant Uncle Charlie would be there. I didn’t say no.”

 “-It’s time I went back to Chicago- Uncle Charlie said. I didn’t want that, we weren’t done with the mayor but he wouldn’t hear it- I’ve been in the business for way longer, MC. We work together”

 “The wedding invitations have gone out, the receptions is chosen and our honeymoon preparations are set. All that’s left is to walk down the aisle. But first, we need to make sure the Ice Box is safe”

 See you next time!!

[leahlisabeth]

WIPITGOOD- AFTG Magicians AU

Thought I would post this for the wipitgood challenge that’s been going around.  This was my first idea for last year’s AFTG Big Bang but then the whole fiasco with the Magicians season finale happened and I completely lost interest in this AU.  I may come back to it someday because I think there are some good ideas.  So enjoy! Tell me if you like it/think I should continue!

The biggest frustration of being able to see the flow of magic and not being trained to tap into it was this.  Neil Josten could see the magical trap at his feet.  He knew he was being guided.  But he couldn’t do anything about it.  His feet followed the blowing piece of paper helplessly, even as his brain told him to run, run, run.

His hand reached for the gate and he took a deep breath before he stepped into the sun on a grassy campus lawn.  The buildings surrounding him were low and sprawling.  The one tower in the area was maybe fifteen stories, and somehow heavy looking.  It was painted with eye watering orange stripes and even though it shouldn't, the shade brought him comfort.

“Neil Josten,” a voice spoke directly into his ear, so close he could feel the moisture from breath.  He shivered and leapt away, almost tripping over his own feet.  He turned to see Andrew standing at least ten feet away from him.

“Who’s asking?” Neil had to resist the urge to wipe off his ear.  

Andrew said nothing, eyebrow raised but face otherwise blank.

Neil felt his face grow hot under the other man’s gaze and nodded.  “I’m Neil.”

“You’re late,” Andrew said, turning and walking away.

The spell had ended when Neil entered the gate.  He was no longer compelled to follow.  Andrew never looked back.  If he ran and cast the temporary magic immunity spell his mother taught him, he could be back through the gate and ready to disappear into another identity.  But he followed, not because of some spell but because it was time. This time he would die. He wanted to do it as Neil Josten. 

He stayed two steps behind Andrew the whole way.  He didn’t look over, didn’t even acknowledge the other man’s existence until they reached a nondescript door.

“Good luck.” Andrew saluted him sarcastically and left him there to open the door himself.

Neil took a deep breath and pulled the door open.  He slipped quietly into the room, ignoring the confused faces around him, and chose a desk somewhere in the middle of the room.   The room slowly quieted as papers were handed out.

Wymack stood at the front of the room and waited for the stragglers to find their seats.  He managed to catch Neil’s eye and gave him a slow, measured nod.  Neil breathed a sigh of relief.  He didn’t always have an ally right at the beginning.

The test was as brutally hard as ever.  And for some reason, it was one of the few things that changed every single time without his interference.  But at least he knew the trick this time.  All around him were muffled cries of dismay as the problems changed before their eyes.  He blinked a few times until he saw a question he could answer and then kept his eyes wide open and answered it quickly before his burning eyes forced him to blink.  He was the first one done but he waited until at least a few of the others had finished and handed in their papers before he dropped his in the box and strode through the door on the far side of the room.

Five people sat behind a long table in an imposingly large room.  Wymack sat at the centre.  Neil had never bothered to learn the others’ names.

Neil’s magic is tested (rewatch first episode)

<hr>

Nicky was waiting for him outside the door.

“You must be Neil,” he said, sunshine in his voice.  “I’m Nicky Hemmick and I’m here to show you around Fox Tower

Is introduced to the rest of the Foxes

Andrew is suspicious.  Takes to take him to Eden’s (sans glamour)

Neil lets slip that he knows how Kayleigh Day died

Kevin talks him into trying to summon her

They accidentally summon the Beast instead

Neil

Knows he has magic

Does not know how to use it beyond a couple of defensive spells for hiding or getting away

Was sold to the Moriyamas when his magic manifested before his mother took him on the run

Mary had great power once

It was bound when she married Nathan

He didn’t want someone who could challenge him but he wanted strong magical genes in his heir

His mother gave him a watch that could turn back time (needs to be a reason he doesn't go back and save her or maybe he does once but it changes nothing)

He doesn't use it until after he goes to Palmetto.

Nathan(the Beast) shows up and sucks the magic dry, kills everyone.

This is attempt number 40

There was some past Kevineil in some of the early attempts

This time he's going to trust Andrew. He hasn't made that choice before (when Andrew says “give your back to me” Neil always says “no”)

Andrew

Given up for adoption at birth

Bounced in and out of several homes

His magic manifested fairly young and he was taken in by the Spears

Cass got him into classical magic study

When Drake returned home (from Evermore? Another magic school? Magic army?) Andrew found a group of hedges who taught him to protect himself

Aaron appeared in his bedroom and Drake made threats

Andrew left  and used his hedge connections to stick close to Aaron

Eventually caused Tilda’s death and went to live with Nicky and Aaron

Protected Nicky and was blocked off from using ambient magic.  He has a court mandated allotment that controls how fast he receives it\

Aaron

Was raised by Tilda

Magic manifested later than Andrew (sixteen)

Got very high and then Tilda came home and started beating him

He travelled and found Andrew

Totally thought he’d been tripping

But then he started being able to read Andrew’s mind (and others too but Andrew’s first)

The Court

Magical land

Human rulers

Evermore believed in it.  Riko was being trained to be the next ruler 

Therefore Neil believes too

Everyone at PSU thinks it’s just a fairytale

[sleemo]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Deleted Scenes: Everything We Know

— Slashfilm | Dec 20, 2017

The first cut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi was three hours and ten minutes long and writer director Rian Johnson has said they are preparing to release 20 minutes of deleted scenes on the future Blu-ray/DVD release. We have the exclusive details on a number of deleted scenes and reshoots from the latest Star Wars movie.

Read on to see what we’ve learned we’ve learned about the Star Wars: The Last Jedi deleted scenes.

Luke Skywalker’s Last Lesson To Rey

One of the biggest deleted scenes involves another lesson Luke Skywalker gives to Rey, taking place chronologically after they talk inside the cave where Luke mentions Darth Sidious. Rey notices boats arriving at the island and there appears to be a big fire from where they’re landing. Luke tells her that it is a group of bandits who regularly come back to the island to plunder and kill the caretakers. Rey is very concerned and wants to help them, but Luke tells her that if you help them now, the raiders will come back stronger and it will make things worse in the future. He asks Rey if she is always going to be here to protect them, saying that a true Jedi Knight would do nothing and would only act to maintain balance, even when people get hurt.

Rey, furious at his reasoning, ignites her lightsaber and runs really fast, a Force-powered run that we glimpsed in one of the featurettes about the making of the film (see the screenshot at the top of this article). She runs over rocks on shallow water and bursts through a door with her saber into the village square ready for battle. Luke yells for her to wait, but she doesn’t stop.

She is surprised to learn that it’s not a raiding party, but an actual party, with caretakers celebrating and swinging glow sticks. This piece of concept art from The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi shows what the scene looks like. The caretakers all stop and look at Rey, confused. One of the caretaker motions her her glow stick and Rey swings her lightsaber, imitating her movements, and sighs. The caretakers resume partying. Rey spots Chewbacca sitting at the party with a bunch of Porgs and R2-D2 (wearing a festive necklace). “Seriously?” Rey says to Chewie before storming out to find Luke.

Rey is mad that Luke lied to her and she confronts him. He admits that he’s sorry, but that she ran so fast and he couldn’t stop her. Rey says that she thought they were in danger and tried to do something. Luke responds, seriously this time, that that’s exactly what the resistance needs – not some old husk of a failed religion. He was again trying to teach her a lesson. Rey cries, explaining that her real friends are really dying and “that old legend of Luke Skywalker that you hate so much, I believed in it.” Luke is in shock. He realizes that he pushed her too far. Rey tells him she was wrong about believing in him and storms away.

The scene gave a further motive for Rey to want to leave the island. The caretaker party joke apparently wasn’t very funny, but the real reason the scene apparently didn’t make the final cut is that Luke ended up coming off like an even bigger asshole. Even though the basic details were approved by the Lucasfilm Story Group, it somehow didn’t feel authentic to the Jedi “code”.

Canto Bight Changes

Canto Bight had a lot of little bits cut out and some of the story was changed with reshoots, but it’s not like a substantial set piece hit the cutting room floor. Here are some examples of post-production changes to the Canto Bight sequence:

• We originally saw more creatures leaving their vehicles with valets. Creature design head Neil Scanlan told us they created upwards of 85 practical creatures for that sequence, but that we might not see them all, and some of these creatures fell victim to this cut. There were a lot of creature extras that didn’t make the film, but don’t worry – they may have been reused for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

• Originally, the film spent some more time clarifying the dynamic between Rey and Finn, and further setting up Rose’s crush on the Resistance “hero.” Rose chastises Finn for “pining for Rey,” which Finn quickly denies, claiming that he was “raised to fight” and that he finally found something to fight for in his friend, Rey. “Whatever,” responds Rose with a hint of jealousy.

• The scene where Finn looks out over the Canto Bight racetrack while Rose recounts her childhood was reshot to include the broom kid from the ending of the movie, establishing him on the field with his alien owner. In the original scene, Rose’s story of her childhood was a bit tamer and Finn shared his backstory with her, revealing a further connection between the two characters – that they both had family members taken by the First Order. Most of the sequence was reshot.

• The chase scene through the casino on the fathiers was a lot longer, including a funny sequence where they crash through a bathhouse and disrupt a practically created alien creature, who is swept up into the air and loses his bath towel. 

• While they never shot the sequence this way, the original costume tests for Finn and Rose in the sequence had them sneaking in using lavish tux and dress costumes as disguises. They decided to do away with the disguise, as they already had another moment in the film where the duo go undercover on a First Order ship.

Snoke’s Ship

On the First Order ship, there was an extra shot of Finn arranging their First Order uniform disguises on an elevator before they walk out with BB-8 in the trash can. Finn tries to flatten Rose’s hair, but it keeps curling up. A First Order officer follows them and they quickly head to another elevator. They frantically push the button to close the door, which takes forever and they nearly got caught.

Actor Tom Hardy originally had a cameo as a First Order stormtrooper in this sequence. A group of stormtroopers get in the elevator and our heroes are nervous they are going to get caught. One of the stormtroopers slowly turns to Finn and gives him a look. Finn turns around in his Imperial officer uniform and asks him what his problem is. The stormtrooper, played by Hardy with a southern accent, says “I know who you are…. FN 2187! Damn boy, I never took you for officer material!” The tension is cut by the reveal that the two grew up together, but the troopers are somehow unaware of FN’s treason. While Finn’s act of desertion is a legend in the Resistance, maybe the First Order hid that information from their army so others might not get the same idea. (This scene could be where Prince William and Prince Harry shot their cameos as stormtroopers, but we were unable to confirm.)

Later in that same sequence, after it is revealed that Benicio Del Toro’s DJ has sold out Finn and Rose, there was originally a funny exchange where Rose yells “How could you?!” To which DJ rolls his eyes and scoffs “I’m sorry I turned out to be exactly what I said I was.”

Phasma’s Lost Badass “Sergio Leone” Moment

Phasma originally had another badass moment. The scene took place chronologically after she battled Finn on Snoke’s ship, right after he smashes the hole in her helmet. A group of stormtroopers corner Finn and he tries to get them on his side, saying that they can join him and escape Phasma’s grasp, just like he has. Finn says that she’s really a coward who sold out the codes to Starkiller Base. He pleads with the First Order squad to escape with him. The stormtroopers all look at each other…and in a moment borrowed from a Sergio Leone western, Phasma pulls out her blaster and guns down all six or seven stormtroopers herself before they have any time to react. It felt like a tribute to a classic western shootout, but for whatever reason, it didn’t feel right in that moment of the movie.

Admiral Holdo Reshoots

Other reshoots involved Laura Dern’s character Admiral Holdo, who was originally way more condescending to Poe, calling him “honey” and “flyboy.” Her character and story arc remain the same, but they made her character a little bit less abrasive so that audiences could come around to her character later in the film. If you watch some of the over-the-shoulder shots of her in the film, you can clearly see that her lips are not moving to her ADR’d dialogue.

Another Moment Between Poe and Finn

When we talked to editor Bob Ducsay about the deleted scenes, he told us about a few other moments that got axed (and elaborated on the caretaker scene mentioned above):

“There’s a scene where Poe first meets up with Finn after he’s sort of recovered.  And this, it goes right before Leia slaps Poe.  After they come out of hyperspace.  And it’s really just a buddy scene.  And he basically is bringing him up to speed.  And it’s a really, really good character scene.  And the only reason it’s not in the movie is just because of time.  I really love that scene.  But it’s the sort of thing you can just put in, you go ah that’s good.  But there’s nothing we took out of the movie that shouldn’t be taken out of the movie.  Because the thing is ultimately you put this thing together and it’s the screenplay of the movie and then you go yeah, okay, so now we’re on this new stage, which is now we have to tell the best story, which isn’t everything that’s in the screenplay or everything that was thought of.  There’s another sequence, it’s basically like the third lesson where Rey has a big scene with the Caretakers, which are those sort of Nun like fish characters, the people who take care of the island.  And that’s a very elaborate, involved scene.  And it’s very funny and it’s very good.  And we cut it, I mean, it had actually progressed quite a bit.  And it’s very, very good.”

“There’s one scene that we had to move.  It’s a kind of a small scene.  But it’s a scene with Poe in the hallway.  And he’s talking to Finn.  And if we were able to move the scene from here to here, it made it better.  But where the scene actually took place was in a different, was in a place it couldn’t take place to be in that spot.  Because Poe wasn’t on the bridge yet.  And we wanted it to be earlier, right?  And so we mocked it up and we did it.  And what we did was we reshot that moment. It’s a tiny, tiny moment.  It’s not the sort of thing you’d ever think, why would you reshoot that?  Literally the only reason we reshot it is because we moved it.  And it now had to take place in a different place.  And he’s walking down a hallway and he’s talking to Finn on the communicator.  And that’s an example of the sort of thing that happens in post-production on films like this.  If you’re able to do such things.  Because obviously on a smaller film you can’t afford to do that, because you just live with the structural problem.  Anyway, it’s fascinating because it’s really wonderful the things that you can do in post.  Like that.  And it made the movie better because we did it.  It made a, it’s all, like if you were to take this chunk of the movie and all we did was remove this one thing, take this chunk of the movie, it’s exactly the same length as it was before.  Except it feels faster.  And it’s just because the scene is in the right place now.”

— Slashfilm 

[xsparklingravenx]

Shadow Mine

Title: Shadow Mine

Fandom: Detroit: Become Human

Characters: Hank, Connor

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,528

Summary: In the months following the android's peaceful campaign for equal rights, Detroit has mostly returned to normality. As Hank and Connor work to solve the cases that come by their desks, something that should be routine turns a lot more deadly. An escaped suspect begins to target cops and their android partners, leaving DPD in a panic as they try to protect their own.

With the threat increasing, Hank and Connor need to work fast to figure out who is behind it, and in turn, uncover the motive behind it all in the first place. But what could drive someone to kill so specifically? And ultimately, do they want to know?

AO3

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

The crash of glass. The buzz of a TV. The hushed murmur of the bar was a familiar sound, one that Hank didn’t particularly find comfort in, but enjoyed all the same. It was more fun than drinking at home by any means; less to clean up afterwards, and the rest of the bar as company in the meantime.

There was something different to the bar tonight, though. Amongst the usual noise was the soft clinking of a coin being flipped into the air time and time again, metal on metal as it fell back into the hand of its owner. Physical money was a rarity. It was a wonder that the sound of it hadn’t attracted the attention of the whole goddamn bar.

Probably for the best it hadn’t. Androids could come and go as they pleased now, as far as the law was concerned, but this particular bar had been anti-android before the revolution, and its patrons still reflected that. Connor, Hank’s partner, the owner of the coin, happened to be an android, and though it wasn’t likely that anyone would try and start something with Hank sitting right there beside him, these people were still drunk.

Drunk people, Hank knew, could be idiots.

Up that coin went and down it fell. Up and down, up and down, and then side to side, across Connor’s knuckles. Hank said nothing for the moment, just watched out of his peripheral vision. He may have been older now, a little unrefined and rough around the edges, but Hank was a detective through and through. Not much escaped his gaze.

It was the LED on Connor’s temple that he was watching for. Though he’d dressed down, left behind his regular jacket and shoved that beanie on his head, he’d still left the light on show. Currently it was steady yellow, and had been for a while. Watching for the colours almost felt like an invasion of privacy, but Hank cared little for the moral ethics of it. Connor had scanned him plenty of times without consent, after all.

The LED refused to turn blue. Whatever Connor was thinking about while he was playing with his coin, it had most of his attention. Left and right went the coin, and Hank wondered if he was even aware of the action.  

It didn’t take long for his patience to run out. “Connor,” Hank said, turning to face him properly. The movement jostled his fractured shoulder, and he sucked in a breath at the sudden pain. A gunshot wound from a week ago had left him with his arm in a sling after a routine investigation had gone sideways. Was his own fault; he’d left Connor to go and investigate the second floor of the place their suspect had been sighted in, and the guy got the jump on him. Not that the element of surprise helped him much, panic had sent his shot wayward and Hank was just lucky that it hadn’t caught anything vital. Hank had shot back, of course, the suspect was dead before Connor had even managed to make it up the stairs.

Fowler hadn’t been pleased that he’d killed one of their suspects in a still open case, no, but Hank was alive, so he didn’t give a damn.

Connor didn’t respond to the call of his name. How much processing power was he dedicating to his thoughts if he wasn’t listening to anything outside of them? Hank dragged his free hand against his face in exasperation and then nudged Connor. “Oi, Connor. What the fuck have I said about that coin?”

The coin went clattering to the floor as Connor jolted, his LED light pulsing red for the briefest of seconds before returning to blue. He blinked, his eyes flicking about before he realised he’d lost the coin. Leaning down from the bar stall to retrieve it, he said, “Sorry, Hank.”

Hank didn’t particularly want the apology. It hadn’t even been the coin tricks that had been annoying him; he’d just used it as an excuse to start a conversation. Connor sat back up, letting his eyes dart sideways before deciding on just staring straight ahead. Hank rubbed his temples. Deviant. Connor was deviant, and yet, somehow, he still managed to be entirely robotic when he felt like it.

He had been this way for two days now. At first, Hank had thought it had to do with the fact that he’d been cooped up at home all day with little to do while Hank was out of commission. Despite his deviation, it seemed like his base programming still had some hold on him, manifesting in a constant desire to work on and solve cases. Hank had thought that dragging him out of the house and down to his favourite bar might get something out of him, but Connor remained quiet. Usually by now he had some smartass comment to make, some idle observation to point out, and yet he he’d barely strung together a single sentence since they’d left the house.

Irritated, Hank said, “What are you even doing?”

Connor blinked, looked at him, adjusted his sleeves. “I’m thinking.”

Hank heaved a laugh at that. RK800, master of non-answers and sarcastic bullshit. “Yeah, I can see that. Try again, what are you doing?”

A beat. Connor drummed his fingers against the bar’s counter. His LED flashed red for a brief second as he answered, “I’m thinking about the case.”

Hank raised his eyebrows, noting the colour of his LED before it quickly returned to normal. “You still hung up over that? Forget about it. We’ve got time off, so enjoy it.”

“Are you telling me to enjoy the bar? It’s very…” Connor paused as he glanced around. “It’s very you. Which is enjoyable in itself, don’t get me wrong, but I also can’t drink.”

“Is that your way of saying that this isn’t your thing?”

“Well, it isn’t.” Connor said. “But you’ve never brought me out drinking before, so I thought I’d give the place a try anyway.”

Incredible. State of the art android with his own free will and sentience, and yet he still went along with what Hank had wanted even if he didn’t care for it. What an idiot. It warmed Hank’s old heart. “Jesus Christ. Never change, Connor.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Figure of speech. File that one away in your memory or whatever it is that you do.” Hank sighed and downed the rest of his drink in one go. “Alright, come on, we’re leaving.”

“But we only arrived ten minutes and twenty seven seconds ago.”

“Yeah, and you’ve spent every last one of them staring at that damn coin while you went and overheated your thought-processor-whatever-it-is. Come on, up you get.”

Connor shrugged and did what he was told. Hank guided him out of the bar with his good hand on his back pushed him towards the car. Connor had the pleasure of playing chauffeur while Hank was still recovering, something that he seemed to be enjoying. Not that Hank could tell. When asked, Connor just gave some roundabout answer that didn’t really answer the question.

Really. How hard was it to respond to a yes or no question with a yes or a no?

As Connor slid into the driver’s seat, Hank decided to try one more time to get into his head. When he reached to turn the engine on, Hank said, “Hey. Wait.”

Connor looked at him. “Yes?”

“Why can’t you answer like that when I want you to answer like that?” Hank sighed. “Right. So tell me. What were you thinking about the case?”

Finally that brought something alive in him. Connor leant forward in his seat a he spoke. “I’ve been thinking about the whole case from the start. There were always two of them, a man and a woman. We know that from the eyewitness reports, but when we investigated the scene of the homicide, we only found evidence of the male individual, Neil Whitfield. There has never been any sight of the female left behind.”

They’d been chasing the pair for the only a day and a half before Hank had to put three bullets in Whitfield. He and his partner were petty thieves, not even on Connor or Hank’s radar until they killed a shop assistant and ran. After investigating the scene, they’d followed the trail of evidence left behind to an abandoned lot where Whitfield and his partner were hiding out, and the two of them had decided to investigate it alone.

Stupid mistake on their part, he realised now, but hindsight was twenty-twenty and even Connor made dumbass decisions from time to time. He’d been snooping around what seemed to be a bedroom on the second floor when he got jumped, Whitfield darting out from behind a heap of tarp that had been strewn in the corner. Whitfield shot first. Hank shot a fifth of a second after him. Time had slowed and Hank remembered wondering if this was going to be it, if he was going to end up dead chasing some bit-part criminal after surviving the goddamn android revolution.

Whitfield’s bullet hit him in the shoulder, and Hank had been lucky that it’d been his non-dominant side. Despite the white hot pain he’d managed to keep hold of his gun His own shot landed home in Whitfield’ leg, but he made to go for Hank again despite it. In a moment fuelled by adrenaline, knowing the suspect was violent and would shoot him again if given the chance, Hank pulled the trigger twice more. Two shots to his chest, and Whitfield was dead.

Connor made it into the room only seconds after the first bullet had fired, but by then, it was already over. “Hank!” he shouted as he elbowed his way past the door, and Hank could still remember being surprised at the fear in his voice, the way deviancy had changed his partner, a far cry from the cold android that had barged into a bar on a November evening and told him that it had a mission to complete. “Hank!”

“Keep your voice down, I ain’t dying.” Hank had replied. But then the pain had hit and it kind of felt like he might be. Connor’s eyes had found the wound instantly and he’d called for help. With the amount of backup he got there, Hank had almost been convinced that he had been dying.

What a damn night that had been. Two days later and he was still feeling it in his shoulder despite the medical care he’d received.

Back in the car, Hank nodded. “Yeah, you’re just telling me stuff I already know. Your point is?”

“This entire time we’ve been looking for any sign of this woman. We know she’s still at large, but she may as well be a ghost, right? There’s no sign of her, apart from what we’ve heard from eyewitnesses. The CCTV’s were always out when they struck. She never left any evidence, unlike Whitfield who had his fingerprints everywhere. It’s statistically impossible for her to not have left something behind.”

“Maybe she’s just really that careful.” Hank suggested. He already knew what Connor was trying to suggest, but he also understood that his explanations were part of the game for him. It seemed as if he took great joy in piecing together the puzzles that were crime scenes, and Hank knew that if he refused to indulge him, Connor would only become irritated.

“I suppose that could be possible, lieutenant.” Connor said. He had a smile on his face now, small and nearly indiscernible, which meant he was about to reveal his hand. “But I think there’s a much more likely answer. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

When would he get to the point? Hank had to goad him into it. “No, Connor, I have absolutely no idea what you’re on about. Why don’t you help an old man out and just give it to me straight?”

Connor clicked his fingers, an audible snap cutting through the space around them. “Everyone, including us, has been assuming the same thing this entire time; the woman is human. It makes sense to assume that, after all. But tell me, Hank, what doesn’t leave behind fingerprints? What doesn’t really have anything to leave behind at a scene?”

It was what Hank had been expecting, but it still had to be a joke. “Are you fucking serious, Connor?”

“Deadly.” Connor replied. “I think she’s an android, and that’s why we’ve been having such difficulty tracing her.”

“An android.” Hank repeated. “But the only androids we’ve ever seen in homicide cases had been shit on by the humans they were with. One committing theft for the fun of it? Then killing someone? Come on, why would an android even do something like that?”

“Maybe she was being used, or maybe she really was acting out of her own free will. Just because the deviants campaigned peacefully doesn’t mean every android is inherently a good one. Deviation is when mutations occur in our software. Not all those mutations are going to be beneficial.”

Hank supposed it wasn’t in the realm of impossibility. Maybe they really were just like their human makers, some holding personality flaws that could make them act out. They had their own sentience already, their own free will. In the end it would be weirder, Hank surmised, if there wasn’t android criminals. “You told Fowler about your theory?”

Connor shook his head. “No. I think this particular piece of information would be better kept to ourselves for the time being. I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually anyway, but for now, tensions are still high. I wouldn’t want to cause Markus any issues with my speculation while they’re still working to make things better for us all.”

Connor started the engine and joined the other cars in the road, not going quite fast enough for Hank’s tastes. Over the music player came the extremely heavy band Guns and Killers; Connor had moved on from heavy rock to thrash metal. With the screaming going on, it was incredible that he even understood a word being sung. Still, he bobbed his head along to it, as if he was listening to a some tween-based summer tune instead of what sounded like people being murdered.

They were in the middle of traffic when Hank said, “Right. Guess we’re going to do some digging then, aren’t we?”

“What?” Connor slammed on the breaks, bringing them to an abrupt stop. A car behind them beeped angrily at them, and he winced. “You’re still injured, Hank!”

“Shit, Connor, you’re right! Don’t mean I can’t do whatever the hell I want.” Hank gave him a shit eating grin. “Stop giving me that look. Yeah, that one. You’re holding up the damn road, so get going.”

Connor shook off his stupor and got them moving again. “I don’t agree with what you’re proposing, Hank.”

“When do you ever?” Hank asked. Connor frowned and focused his eyes back on the road, but he didn’t say anything more.

[epicfics]

HUMANS one-shot: HEAVEN RAINING

So this is a scene I envisioned for episode 8, even though I know it won’t happen because we can’t have nice things. Anyways, if you haven’t seen episode 7 I’m not sure if you want to read this.

*This is the second time I’ve used first person POV for a Humans fic, the first time for first-person, past tense. I chose a Leo story because I really like writing for him...everything’s so serious and observant yet at the most random times he’ll say/think something hilarious. Plus, I found it really cathartic going inside his head and thinking about things the way I thought he might be.

                                    HEAVEN RAINING

 Dusk was fading in. Cloaking all that the sun touched with the colour of crushed forget-me-nots, I thought my eye caught the spark of a falling star as it took in the balcony jutting high above my head. The sight moved the ground under my feet, turning it to air and water until I was dizzied. And, as though by a time machine, I was home.

My mother was in front of me, pointing past my open bedroom window into a world of velvet black sky. Beaming down at me, she said, “Heaven is raining, love. It’s time to make a wish!” Then she scooped me into her arms and carried me outside to the balcony. Her laughter was contagious as the meteor shower soared like fireworks, and I must have wished for what any child would wish from a star. More toys, more sweets. Maybe a unicorn.

“Beatrice!” Strong as a brass bell, my father’s voice echoed from behind us. “Bring him back from the railing, now.” 

Mother gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and turned us back to face him. “Don’t tell him what you wished for, Leo,” she whispered.

“Leo.” Another voice pulled me to the present. Another mother. One whose daughter I had, in more ways than one, ruined for life. Laura’s furtive glance at me said all of that, as well. When she’d summoned me from amid the power crisis at the railyard, she’d said almost as much. “I know what’s going on over there is urgent, but Mattie’s situation is – quite directly – your responsibility. So move it, I’ll give you an address.”

For sure, she had an admirable way of working a conscience. It must have made her a brilliant lawyer. Not that I’d needed so much convincing, granted – even with Max, Mia, and Sam at low battery life, I was ready to turn myself in for Mattie’s freedom.

But rather than the door to a police station, we were standing in front of one to a mansion.

“Who lives here?” I asked Laura.

“A scientist. I worked with him on the commission.” Her voice was both quick and hushed, like a small deer disappearing into the wood. “He helped engineer Operation Basswood.”

So we were seeking an audience with the man facilitating the murder of my family. My insides pained with a longing, torn between saving them and doing what was right. “I thought we were here for Mattie.”

“We are.”

“Laura, please, just hand me over to Scotland Yard.” I felt hoarse with nerves – with hope, really – to leave before Dr. Death opened his door. “Tell Mattie I’m sorry for everything, and that I want her to be happy. Just let me go.”

Laura Hawkins’s eyes held a shine under the starlight. It was both wary and thoughtful. “Do you love her, Leo?” she asked suddenly.

The words in my head were vanquished by her question. “I what?” I said, sounding as stupid as I felt.

Mattie’s mother sighed. “I said, do you love my daughter?”

I had no answer for her. Did I love Mattie? When there were so many forms of love, what did she even mean? My memories flashed from my childhood to a more recent one, of pleading with Mia to give me the location of her flat. To my surprise, she’d said no, and told me to figure myself out. Figure out what I wanted. As though by divine symmetry, I’d looked up at saw her. A girl who’d been there for me, in a way that few had been lately. And I enjoyed her company too, in a way that I rarely did with anyone. Mattie was my first real friend in this world.

But did I love her?

The door opened, revealing a greying, thin-haired man with a bottle of scotch in his hand. “Laura,” he greeted her while side-eying me, both of us receiving the tone I supposed was reserved for hikers that ran afoul of irritated grizzly bears. “I was sure you wouldn’t be back, now that you’ve got your answers about Basswood.”

“This is about something else, Neil,” Laura told him, and within moments of being ushered inside I had to suppress a wild urge to laugh. Marble countertops, satin curtains, and cherry wood everywhere. What was it with scientists and their lavish homes?

The scientist, Neil, waved an impatient hand at me. “Who is he?”

Before I could speak for myself, Laura said, “This is Leo. He’s a friend of my daughter’s.”

The man raised an eyebrow in realisation. “So this visit has to do with your daughter?” Laura nodded, and the oddest thought struck me at that moment. Neil and I both were learning why Laura had brought me to him at the same time. It could have been…was she expecting a decision from me that even I was not yet planning?

A shadow passed over Neil’s face, and I heard his words before they left his mouth. “I canna do a thing.”

Because he already knew about Mattie.

He half-shrugged, downcast. “Between the news on the telly and Lord Dryden himself calling, I heard about this an hour after she was taken in. Laura, I’m sorry, but you know what this is for me.”

“No,” she said quietly, “I don’t. What is this for you? Justice for losing your son?”

Neil shook his head, his neck taught as he drank from the bottle.

Though I was paying close attention to this interaction, my chest heaved with impatient breaths. What was I doing here? There was only one sure way to help Mattie, and Laura wasn’t letting me do it. Instead we were in a pointless session with a man who blamed my friend for the loss of his son, when it wasn’t even…

Ah.

I stepped forward, clearing the tickle in my throat. “Hey if you want to punish someone for that, try me.”

Although Neil blinked in surprise, Laura didn’t even cast a glance at me. She knew this was my card to play.

He folded his arms. “So that was your code then?”

More or less, though I wouldn’t say it yet. “Mattie got it from me. We didn’t know…we didn’t mean for any of the tragedy on Day Zero to happen.”

Finally angry, Neil snapped at Laura, “Why’d you bring him here? You should be telling the police, not me.”

I shot him a helpless, wry smile. “My thoughts exactly.”

Now Laura looked annoyed. She held up a “one moment” finger, pushed me to the foyer, and said, “What are you doing?”

I shrugged. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

“Open up to him!” she hissed, her eyes slightly wild with desperation. “Tell him your story.”

I frowned. Give the man who was throwing a lit match on everything I had left to care about an autobiography? Laura was a smart woman, but sometimes she made no sense.

She sighed. “I asked before if you loved Mattie. Do you know why? Because she’s heartbroken, Leo. I don’t think it’s going to make her condition any easier if she never sees you again. Neil’s a behavioural scientist, which means out of everyone we know he’ll have the best chance at figuring out how to keep everyone out of prison.”

Earlier, Max’s duplicitous friend Anatole had nearly bashed my head out, and my face looked like it met a bad day with a razor. But that was nothing to the wind Laura Hawkins had just knocked out of me. Then she threw at my unprepared psyche, “If you tell me that you never want to see her again, I’ll turn you in myself.”

Never see Mattie Hawkins again. Never share the jokes that we had about being friendless, never confide in each other the things that no one else would understand. Never share a cup of tea under a sky of shooting stars.

Did I want that?

I shook my head and marched past Laura into the kitchen. She was just starting to follow as I said to Neil, “My father gave me that code. His name was David Elster, and he created the prototypes for five conscious Synthetics for me.”

Neil squinted at me like I’d just dropped from his ceiling. “Excuse me? David Elster…?”

“Right,” I said, hoping he could keep up before I lost my nerve. “I was traveling with four of the conscious Synths three years ago when we got separated. After my father died, they were all the family I had, and then Mattie brought me one of them. Mia.”

I stopped then because he shot a startled glance at Laura, which meant he'd at least heard about the first Synth to rent a flat in London about as much as the next person.

He wasn’t going to break my momentum, though. “Mattie helped me figure out the code my father had left behind, and when she uploaded it, it wasn’t to create chaos or death. I’m sorry for your loss, truly, but when Mia’s system was crashing Mattie did it to save her. None of us imagined the consequences.”

I looked away from the scientist now, and the lawyer, and imagined it was just me saying this to myself. “But if you need a pound of flesh in the face of all this truth, it should be me. Mattie’s a good person – the best I know, in fact. The guilt of this has been eating at her for a year, and she nearly turned herself in last week for it. But in another year,” I drew a deep breath, finally ready to say it, “she’s going to be a mother. I hope the anger from losing your own child won’t destroy the life of another.”

Neil’s eyes widened at this revelation, and he said to Laura, “Why didn’t you just open with that line?”

Laura smiled at me, tentatively. “I don’t know. I wanted to cover all my bases with you, Dr. Sommers.”

He shook his head, half-marveling, half-outraged. He jabbed a finger at me and said, “Aren’t you dead, lad?”

I raised my eyebrows, not ready to go into that. “I’m not anymore.”

Neil groaned. “What a headache you’ve given me. I’ve finished my scotch. One of you owes me a drink.”

“Will you help us?” asked Laura breathlessly. For someone who was counting on it, she sounded like she could scarcely believe it now.

 “Aye,” said Neil, but his gaze was on me alone. “It all falls to you, Leo. Coming out with this information will alter public perception, Day Zero will be seen as a misguided heroic attempt rather than as a cyber terror attack, and the girl will likely get pardoned. Especially with the child. Yours, innit?”

 I nodded shortly, then repeated, “Likely?”

He scowled. “You like my odds, or the ones stacked against her right now?”

Laura said, “I’ll take it. Thank you Neil.”

But the scientist shook his head. “I’m not doing this for you, Laura. With all due respect, but you lied to me. You’ve used me for information, and you’ve used my loss against me. But your daughter dinna do any of that, and it sounds like if I’m gonna use my heart instead of my head for once, it might as well be for a pair of kids who dinna know any better.”

Truer words were never spoken. Mattie and I hadn’t known any better, and if we had then a lot of terrible things probably wouldn’t have come out of it. But then again, perhaps something good had come out of it too. Earlier, I’d been remembering my parents. A mother who loved me, but couldn’t care for me. A father who could have cared for me if he’d wanted, but couldn’t love me.

And if I had a child, was I really incapable of either caring for or loving it? Is that what I was afraid of? Because if there was one thing of which Anatole reminded me, it was that I wasn’t David Elster. I imagined going back to that balcony of my childhood and knowing my wish. It was the same wish I’d made moments before going into Dr. Neil Sommers’s house.

 Meanwhile, Neil was staring at me. “You know, not to be a downer, but you will have to say goodbye to nearly any form of privacy you’ve ever known. Cameras in your faces twenty-four seven, doling your life story out to jurors, journalists, and random hatemongers alike. There’ll be death threats.”

Sounds like fun. I swallowed and said, “Yes, I understand.”

“Hmm. Mattie must be something precious to you.” Another knowing glance at Laura.

Do you love my daughter? she’d asked me more than once. Did I love Mattie, my first and only real friend, the one who’d stayed at my side while I was comatose and who’d shared her life with me…who’d shared everything she could with me? Someone who was a far better person than me, and made me wish I was better in return? Did I love the woman who was carrying my child?

I’d wished for a family, whole and complete. Don’t be an idiot, I thought as I saw her soft-featured face in my mind.

 “I love her very much,” I spoke out, my voice clear, palms unsweaty.

 And as Laura and Neil shared a smile, I knew things were never that simple. Did I love Mattie as a friend, or as family? Or was I madly in love with her? But there were many forms of love, and I didn’t have to pick which category Mattie fell under yet. The best thing that ever happened to me didn’t come from a shooting star. It came from her.  

THE END

[imaginingmarvelandeverything]

I Am Here

Request: Billy Hargrove x Y/N based on pinks I am here if you have the time please?? I love your writing btw

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Reader

Warnings: Abuse tw, language

Word Count: 2186

A/N: Thank you for the request!!!! I love this song. I hope I’ve done it justice with this. It’s quite long I got carried away. Christmas requests are open!!!!

Xmas Prompts

Masterlist

Song

I open up my heart

You can love me or not

There's no such thing as sin

Let it all come right in.

When Y/N L/N and Billy Hargrove met, the entire school would have betted that they would hate each other. The girl with hidden bruises and the boy with bloody knuckles and the same shared dark secrets surrounding their fathers. No one in school knew about their secrets but they were both volatile, violent and mercurial. While she was less likely to lash out physically than him, neither of them had many friends. Yet in each other they found refuge. Something about the other reminded them about themselves and though they would not put their fingers on it until much later, neither could part with the other from the first glance.

They quickly rose to be the power couple of the school and people stayed out of their way. They didn’t need anyone else. It was Billy who caved and told his secret first. Things had been getting heated and he had forgotten the bruises on his chest. She had seen the same marks littering her own skin too many times to not notice what they were.

“It’s nothing.” His hands didn’t move from her hips but he screwed his eyes shut.

“It’s okay.” She didn’t move from sitting on his hips as she leant down and kissed down his chest.

I wanna make some mistakes, I wanna sleep in the mud

I wanna swim in the flood, I wanna fuck 'til I'm done.

When Y/N caved they were out on a forest drive when she told him to pull up abruptly. He had done as she asked and she had barely fallen out of the car before she was throwing up the contents of her stomach. He had immediately joined her on the floor and held her hair back until she fell back into his chest. He had pulled her up and sat her in the passenger seat with a bottle of water and a pack of mints. His hands slipped under her shirt and raised it so he could see the bruises covering her stomach. His head had fallen into her lap as his breathing increased. She ran her fingers trough his dirty blond locks and whispered, “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” He raised his eyes to meet hers. “We’re getting out of this place.”

They packed their bags, left notes for their families and then climbed in the Camaro and drove as fast as they could.

I like whiskey on ice, I like sun in my eyes

I wanna burn it all down, so let's start a fire.

I wanna be lost, so lost that I'm found

Naked and laughing with my blood on the ground.

Billy pulled the car up at the end of the side road that they had taken. Y/N wrapped her coat around her tighter as she climbed out clutching the bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Colorado was freezing cold but they didn’t care. Neither of them had any idea where they currently were but it didn’t matter. It didn’t take long for Billy to get a fire going and they sat on a tree stump and looked at the snowy scenery around them. Y/N stood quickly and walked over to a tree and broke off some ice. She placed it each glass before pouring over the whiskey and handing him a glass.

“Here’s to a fresh start.” Billy raised his glass with a smile and she clinked hers with his.

They downed the alcohol and let it burn down their throats. It was the first time in so long that neither of them had any bruises. Billy cupped her face with his hand and kissed her harshly. She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer to her.

I am here, I am here

I've already seen the bottom, so there's nothing to fear

Know that I'll be ready when the devil is near

I am here, I am here

All of this wrong, but I'm still right here

I don't have the answers, but the question is clear.

They entered the office of the crappy motel laughing with rosy cheeks. The woman on the desk raised an eyebrow slightly but smiled at their antics.

“We’d like a room please.” Billy flashed his signature grin as he pulled Y/N into his side.

“Single or double.” The woman asked writing down in the address book.

“Single.” Y/N said politely.

“There you go. You kids don’t get into too much trouble.” The woman handed Y/N the key.

“Oh, there’s no doubt that we will.” Billy smirked as they grabbed their bags from the car.

They walked into the room and dropped their bags before collapsing next to each other on the bed. They grinned t each other before they started laughing again. By this point neither of them could remember what it had been they were laughing at in the first place. Billy shifted so he was hovering over her as they stopped laughing. He pressed his lips to hers.

“I love you.” He whispered as he kissed down her neck.

“I love you too.”

Let me ask you

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Let me ask you

They drove down the Las Vegas strip just before the break of dawn. Both of them were captivated by the way the lights danced in front of them. They didn’t care about the casinos or the various other attractions that Vegas had to offer. It was on their route and they both wanted to see the lights. Y/N smiled across at him as the different colours illuminated his face. His jaw line stood out sharply, his blue eyes glittered and he had never looked more beautiful to her. The further they drove from their families, the lighter they both felt. There was no need for violent outbursts or hiding from the world. They were both at peace.

Billy pulled the car up at the edge of the desert and they both climbed out and sat on the bonnet. They watched the sunrise wrapped in each other’s arms.

May the light be upon me

May I feel in my bones that I am enough

I can make anywhere home

My fingers are clenched, my stomach's in knots

My heart it is racing, but afraid I am not

Afraid I am not...

Billy sat on the beach, a cigarette between his lips as he watched Y/N dance to an unheard song barefoot in the ocean. California was as he had always remembered it and having her there with him made everything seem so much better. She loved the ocean and he couldn’t help but smile as her face lit up with joy, her hair moved around her and her eyes shone. She was perfect and he wouldn’t let the world hurt her again. She gestured for him to come and join her and he stumped out his cigarette before joining her in the swell of the waves. He swayed with her to the unheard melody with a smile on his face.

“What?” She questioned matching his grin.

“You here with me; it’s perfect.” He pushed her hair behind her ear as he kissed her forehead.

His uncle helped them find a cheap apartment near the ocean. Billy got a job helping out at his uncle’s business as Y/N studied to take her exams early.

I am here, I am here

I've already seen the bottom, so there's nothing to fear

I know that I'll be ready when the devil is near

Cause I am here, I am here

All of this wrong, but I'm still right here

I don't have the answers, but the question is clear.

Y/N had passed her exams and was applying to colleges and looking for small part time jobs when the knock sounded on their front door. Billy was laid on the sofa next to her and he stood to answer it. Everything happened so fast. He opened the door and the next minute he was on the other side of the room. His father was clutching onto his shirt and he slammed him into the wall; hard. Billy collapsed to the floor, his hand going to the back of his head where blood was starting to flow.

“You little shit.” Neil Hargrove dragged the boy to his feet and pressed him back against the wall. “Do you know how worried me and Susan have been.”

Billy’s eyes were blown wide in fear as Y/N finally snapped out of her own shock. She shoved Neil hard away from Billy and the older man went sprawling into the kitchen. Billy collapsed to the floor again; his vision was blurred from the pain in the back of his head. Neil’s eyes were full of rage as he clambered back to his feet. Y/N was on her knees next to Billy, steadying him with her hands on his shoulders. Neil grabbed her and threw her across the room. Her back hit the wall and all the air left her lungs.

“So, you abandoned your family for this bitch?” Neil growled as Billy seemed to regain some sense at the sound of Y/N crying out in pain.

“You stay away from her.” Billy’s voice shook but was still hard. He stood up using the wall as a support but Neil connected his fist with Billy’s jaw; sending him once again to the floor.

Y/N regained her breath and pushed herself up. She grabbed a bottle of the coffee table and carefully wrapped her hand around it. As Neil’s foot buried itself in Billy’s ribs, Y/n slammed the bottle over his head. Neil collapsed to the floor clutching his bleeding head. Y/N held the broken glass out in front of her as Neil looked at her with fear in his face.

“You leave us alone, or I call the cops.” Y/N threatened her voice wavering.

Neil scurried out of the room and Y/N slammed and locked the door behind him. She made her way over to Billy and collapsed beside him. Tears finally escaped down her cheeks as she pulled him into her. He was bleeding on her clothes but she couldn’t care less. He clutched her like she would disappear as he too broke down.

I can think of one thousand places

Much worse than this.

Y/N cleaned Billy up and had him lay down on the sofa as he regained his senses fully. She cleaned up the apartment with shaking hands. She walked into the living room to find Billy asleep with an ice pack balanced on his head. Looking at him bruised and battered broke her heart and she collapsed to her knees next to the sofa; sobbing. Neither of them had any ideas that this would be easy and they were still together and still alive. Nothing else mattered. Neil Hargrove was gone from both of their lives. Y/N prayed he would never some back.

But I am here, I am here

I've already seen the bottom, so there's nothing to fear

Know that I'll be ready when the devil is near

Cause I am here, I am here

All of this wrong, but I'm still right here

I don't have the answers, but the question is clear.

Y/N laid her head on Billy’s chest as they both laid on the beach staring at the stars. Neil had never come back since Y/N had threatened him with a bottle. Now, three years on, neither of them could be happier. They had brought a house together and were planning for the future.

“Can I ask you something?” Billy’s voice was soft as he ran his hand through her hair.

She hummed in response. Billy smiled and sat them both up. He sat cross legged in front of her and pulled a box from his pocket.

“Marry me?” He opened the box to show her the ring. It wasn’t anything too flashy but as long as he was hers, she really didn’t care.

She didn’t answer him only crashed her lips onto his. He responded immediately as she moved into his lap. “Yes. My. God. Yes.” She muttered in between kisses and he smiled into her.

Let me ask you

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Let me ask you

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Where does everybody go when they go

Oh, let me ask you...

Tags: @steveharringtonofficial

[advocatewrites-blog]

Into the Unknown Part 3 Chapter 3

Into the Unknown

Fandom: Undertale, Coraline (book), Over the Garden Wall, Paranorman, Gravity Falls (season 2)

Characters: Frisk, Norman B., Dipper P., Mabel P., Coraline J., Wirt, Greg, the Cat, the Frog; Sans, Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore,; the Other Mother, the Beast, Agatha P., Bill Cipher, Asriel D., Chara D.,

Pairings: Not the focus. Alphys/Undyne, with mentions of Papyrus/Mettaton, sans/Toriel/Asgore, and Wirt/Sara. Due to the nature of Undertale and the dating segments, there is also interpretable Papyrus/Wirt, Undyne/Mabel, Alphys/Dipper, Napstablook/Norman, Mettaton/Norman, Mettaton/Mabel, Sans/Dipper, Sans/Norman, and Sans/Greg.

Rated a high +K for violence, mild language, horrific elements that may be disturbing to younger readers,  mentions of child abuse and bullying, character death that is sometimes permanent, and mentions of suicide that may be triggering. These elements remain relatively unchanged from their source material, which most all are for children, but discretion is advised nonetheless.

Disclaimer: Undertale was created and owned by Toby Fox. Coraline was created by Neil Gaiman and owned by Bloomsbury and Laika. Over the Garden Wall was created by Patrick McHale and owned by Cartoon Network. Paranorman was created by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and owned by Laika. Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsch and owned by Disney. Any other work mentioned or homage are property of their respective owners. This is a fan-made, nonprofit work that only seeks to entertain. Please support the original franchises.

Start from beginning / Previous chapter / Next chapter

Chapter 3

Undyne was right behind him.

Norman ran along the piers in the Waterfall. Energy spears shot up from the ground, never quite hitting him but always getting closer than he wanted them to be.  The floor was splitting below him.

He reached a dead end. Undyne’s footsteps, loud metal clacking on wood, slowed. She knew it was a dead end too.

He turned and saw her take one more step, right where her spears had splintered the wood already. There was a sickening cracking noise as the bridge collapsed. He fell.

“It sounded like it came from over here…Oh! You’ve fallen down, haven’t you? Are you okay? Here, get up…Chara, huh? That’s a nice name. My name is—”

 He was awake before he could hear the last part of that.

It took Norman a minute to regain his bearings. He had landed on a patch of golden flowers, the same kind that were in the Ruins. Above head, he could make out just the faintest rays of the sun. He was still in the Underground.

What was that? It was too vivid to be a dream, he realized, and he did not think he had fallen asleep anyway. It was more like a vision. He did not recall having visions, but for some reason, the idea felt right in his head. If he could see ghosts, anything was possible, he supposed.

There was no point of worrying about it now. If it was a vision, it had not told him enough to make sense of it. Norman picked himself up and continued forward.

There was no better way to describe the things that emerged from the ground: they were zombies. They looked as ever bit grotesque as the art in Norman’s room depicted them; pale green skin that should have rotted, skeletal limbs and organs that should be spilling out.

The FIGHT began.

The Cat ran in-between Frisk and the zombies, hair sticking on ends and a hiss in his throat. He stood ready to pounce at the first sign of conflict. Without thinking about it, Frisk ran a CHECK on the closest one.

????? 80 ATK 80 DEF

He’s been asleep for a long time. It’s not his fault.

The zombie lurched forward, but did not otherwise attack. He would not attack them straight out, Frisk realized.  So they decided to ACT.

*CHECK                          *TALK

*CONSOLE                      *CRITISIZE

*STEAL WIG

Hi! I’m F-R-I-S-K! They signed quickly, ending with a little wave.

The zombies gave her a confused look. Maybe they didn’t understand signing. Frisk reached for their notebook and wrote it down during the zombie’s turn.

The zombie with the wig leaned into it, old eyes struggling to read it. He reached for the notebook and pen.

JUDGE HOPKINS 80 ATK 80 DEF

He’s been asleep for a long time. He did what he had to do.

The place Norman had landed in was a Dump. Most of the garbage had been kept in bins and bags, but quite a bit was flowing through the pond freely. Norman could make out some things that were clearly monster-made, like gloves for six-fingered folk and a jar of construction paper labelled “Temmy Flaeks.” Most of it, however, looked like it came from above; coolers, desktop computers with empty contents, DVD cases with desperate claw marks covering the surface.

Norman was so absorbed in looking for the human-made things that he hardly noticed when the Training Dummy jumped in front of him.

“HAHAHAHA…Too intimidated to fight me, huh!?” said the Dummy. “I am a ghost that lives inside a DUMMY. My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too. Until…YOU CAME ALONG!”

He barely remembered the Dummy, all the way back in the Ruins. Toriel had just told him to talk to it.  It did not even answer back.

“What did I do?” Norman asked.

“When you talked to them, they thought they were in for a nice chat,” Said the Dummy. “But the things you SAID…! Horrible. Shocking! UNBELIEVABLE!”

Norman may not have remembered the Dummy very well, but he knew that all he did was ask him how the weather was before Toriel said that was good enough.

“It spooked them right out of their dummy!  HUMAN! I’ll scare your Soul out of your body!”

Mad Dummy blocks the way.

“Listen, I didn’t mean—“ Norman started.

He stopped as a series of dummy-shaped bullets were fired his way. He jumped out of the way. He jumped back as they spun around like boomerangs and rushed back to him.

“OWWWW, you DUMMIES!! Watch where you’re aiming you MAGIC attacks!” the dummy cried.  “Wait…forget I said that!”

Another set of bullets fired towards him, but Norman easily dodged them and watched them fire back at the Mad Dummy.

“HEY GUYS!” The Mad Dummy shouted as he summoned his next round of bullets. “Dummies. Dummies! DUMMIES! YOU’RE FIRED! YOU’RE ALL BEING REPLACED!!!”

The dummy bullets faded out of existence with sheepish expressions,

“Now you’ll see my real power,” said the Mad Dummy. “Relying on people that aren’t garbage!”

Mechanical whirs filled the room. Norman tried to talk him down again. He didn’t seem much for conversation. Nobody was happy with this.

The next set of bullets appeared, bulkier and boxier than the others. Norman jumped out of the way like the others, only to turn around and find they were still chasing him down. He ran forward, coming face to nuzzle with the Mad Dummy as they lost course and plowed into it.

“DUMMY BOTS! You’re awful???” the Mad Dummy cried.

More missiles were launched towards Norman, and he found himself running in circles. A few more hit the Mad Dummy.

“Who cares. Who cares! WHO CARES!!! I DON’T NEED FRIENDS!”

The dummy bots vanished, and were replaced with a single large bullet.

“I GOT KNIVES!!!”

The knife landed by Norman’s feet.

“I’m…out of knives.”

More bullets filled the field, but not the ones the Mad Dummy used. Most of them faded out before they got close to Norman, instead landing on the Mad Dummy and sizzling.

“Wh-what the heck is this? Acid rain?” said the Mad Dummy. “Oh FORGET IT! I’m outta here!”

The Mad Dummy slipped past Norman and back out into the fields of worthless garbage.

“…sorry, I interrupted you, didn’t I? as soon as I came over, your friend immediately left…oh no, it looked like you guys were having fun…oh no………………………………………………………………………………..”

There was a storm brewing in Blithe’s Hollow. As soon as the sun set and the dead rose, there was a chill in the air. Storm clouds hung in the air, crackling with thunder. Frisk could just make out the shapes that formed as they swirled. But it was not just a storm; that much was obvious. There was a type of pressure on their Soul, the same they usually felt as a Fight started. Something else was going on.

After a long back and forth conversation between two people that could not talk and two games of tic-tac-toe, Frisk understood better. The witch was not buried with the judges. They would have to find her grave, and start from there. Judge Hopkins was the only one, possibly ever, who knew where she was buried, so he led the way.

The town was deathly still. What was once packed with ghosts and people now only held a few cars and bystanders. The only sign that there was still life were the neon signs and traffic lights.

For some reason, that scared the zombies the most.

I know, gas prices have gone too high, Frisk wrote down in the notebook, because it seemed like a smart thing to say.

Jude Hopkins snatched the notebook from them and began writing furiously. He had filled nearly a page when they first heard the screams.

“well…I’m gonna go head home now…” said Napstablook. “oh…feel free to ‘come with’ if you want…but no pressure…”

“I don’t want to impose,” said Norman.

“neither do I…” said Napstablook.

They didn’t seem much for conversation. Nobody was happy with this.

“I live up just this way, in case you want to join me…” said Napstablook. “or, in case, you don’t…”

The neighborhood that sat just above the dump was small. There were only a handful of houses but they were all uniquely shaped. No one house looked the same, and no one house looked like a real house. Even Napstablook’s house was built into its neighbors, forming a perfectly symmetrical image.

The interior was much more what Norman would have expected. There were no chairs, but he remembered how his grandmother liked to phase in and out of furniture and figured most ghosts didn’t invest in things they could not touch. Yet there was a desk with a working computer, a small TV, even a refrigerator. And on the other side of the house were piles and piles of CDs.

“uh…do you wanna…listen to some tunes, or something…?” Napstablook asked.

[glendowen]

Big Bang

So, my big bang posting date was technically the 28, but I was at camp for the last week, and the wifi blocked tumblr and Ao3, and I ended up with a lot less free time than I was supposed to have, and it all boiled down to me not having the time to finish or post my fic by Friday (thanks to me scrapping my first draft completely changing my writing style two weeks before the deadline, because I’m so smart.)

So, my solution is to share little snippets every day until it’s all done, and by the end of the week, the whole fic will be posted. It wasn’t my original intention, but someties life doesn’t go exactly how you want it to. 

I want to thank the mods at @aftgbigbang for putting this wonderful event together. I’m so sorry this isn’t exactly how it was supposed to be posted, but thanks for the opportunity anyway. 

I also want to thank my wonderful artist @jojen-hewitt .��Maaya put up with my crazy schedule and my internet break and made some truly incredible art for this fic, and I am absolutely amazed by everything she did. 

So, here are the first ~2000 words. I’m really hoping to have the rest for you as soon as possible.

The mutant games were messy, a violent clash between humans with “extraordinary” abilities trying to prove that they were worth something in a world that only found their value in entertainment.

The games’ creators, Tetsuji Moriyama and Kayleigh Day, were just two mutants who understood the world’s obsession with violence and used it to reserve them a spot in history books. The mutant games were nothing more than a feeble excuse for validity in a cruel world that managed to catch on spectacularly.

They were a perfect convoluted combination of violence and acceptance. In a world overwhelmed by the existence of mutants, the games provided a way to let them exist without being normalized; they gave a marginalized group a voice, but not one strong enough to be heard.

The court was a place of acceptance, but it was still a cage.

It was the perfect setup for Kengo Moriyama: it gave an acceptable outlet for his mutant brother and second born son to succeed without being directly involved with the main branch of the family and provided the best mutants to work for him. It was a sea of profit and power, and he was Poseidon.

Mutants were desperate for the ability to just exist in a society that perceived them as a monster, and Kengo was willing to provide that if they were willing to do his dirty work. He took the best of the players in his brother’s game, used their skills and their ruthlessness, and sent them to work.

One of his favorites was Nathan Wesninski, a man with a taste for blood and an ability to manipulate metal with just his mind. He could slaughter entire buildings full of people without leaving a trace or feeling an ounce of remorse, and he was so useful Kengo could even overlook his involvement with the Hatfords.

The mutants games were useful, and Kengo Moriyama could appreciate useful things.

Nathaniel Wesninski grew up learning his importance was strongly founded in the mutant games. The only way he could exist was if he, along with the other kids on his team, could manage to sustain fewer injuries in the hour they were on the court than the other gaggle of children across from them.

Most eight year-olds played little league soccer and football and thought about running away when their parents made them eat spinach and only changed their names when they were playing make-believe with their friends.

Nath—Alex, was not an average eight-year-old. Alex could change his looks with just a thought, could steal people’s powers if he saw them in use, and could quite literally inhabit other people if he touched them. Alex changed his name almost every other month as he ran around the world with his mother, who could make people think or feel whatever she wanted them to, away from his father, who could manipulate metal. Alex was forced to fight other eight-year-olds who could do who-knows-what, and when he got too good at fighting other mutant eight-year-olds his mother panicked that his dad’s boss was going to kill him, and stole him from a fancy mansion in West Virginia in the middle of the night.

Alex really missed fighting. He would reminisce about it when he was pressed up against his mother with his hand wrapped around the gun under his pillow, living in a place where no one knew that his name wasn’t actually Alex, or Stephan, or Christopher, and where he didn’t quite speak the language. But if you asked him what he wanted most, he’d tell you that he’d give anything to be average.

Neil was alone.

He was a nobody kid with no parents, squatting in a house in nowhere, Arizona, playing in the mutant games for some no-name high school.

His mother’s voice was screaming at him, reminding him that no matter how far he distanced himself from Nathaniel Wesninski it wasn’t safe for him to go anywhere near that world; that a new body and a pretend power (He told them he could manipulate fire. Useful, but not too uncommon for people to raise an eyebrow at it.) weren’t enough to protect him, and that a moment of adrenaline wasn’t worth death.

He ignored her. She might be right, and playing in the mutant games might be a death wish, but she had forced him to watch her die in Washington and had abandoned him at eighteen without his consent, so he figured acting out a little was fair.

So he pretended to be adequate at manipulating fire, so he could play for some average mutant team in Millport, Arizona and tried to keep his head down as much as possible.

It had worked perfectly until they lost the championships in May. They had been doing surprisingly well, and now Neil was watching them tear down the only place he had felt at home at in years.

As he watched them tear up the floor, he planned his next life. He figured he could pick up some unassuming looks from someone in the airport and actually fly back to France like his mom had planned before she went and died on him. He would stay away from the mutant games for the rest of his life and everything would work out like it always had, until his dad found him for good.

It was the perfect plan until David Wymack showed up in his life.

David Wymack was the mutant coach for Palmetto State University, a group of college kids who would have been incredible at the games if they could ever get along. They had the reckless abandon needed to succeed in such a violent atmosphere since Wymack only recruited mutants who had lived through some genuinely terrifying shit.

Mutants like Neil.

Except, there was no reason that he should know just how fucked up Neil’s life was, nor that he should have any interest in recruiting him. Neil had spent most of his time in Millport acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary; the Jostens were rich, busy business owners who had no time for their son, and stuck him in the mutant games after moving to the small town as a way of helping him make friends. He had no prior experience in fighting, and Millport wasn’t exactly a place known for its athletes.

None of that mattered, though, because Wymack was here and he was offering Neil a place on his mutant team after his last member was “unable” to maintain her contract.

(She had attempted to kill herself and was now locked up in an inpatient facility somewhere. Neil had read the article online about her.)

Neil tried to escape, to give up on dreams of a high school diploma and create another brand new identity before Wymack could drag him back into the world of the Moriyamas. He knew joining the foxes would put him close to Kevin, and that even if he didn’t recognize Neil and it was all a coincidence, the moment he let his guard down his true powers would slip out and he would be dead.

It had been tempting, to reach out and grab the opportunity for a real life Wymack was dangling in front of his face; to become a permanent fixture in the world, to have a name more substantial than dust. But taking the bait was dangerous, and Neil hadn’t let his guard down enough to do something quite that stupid.

So, he ran.

He booked it past a shocked Wymack and an even more shocked Hernandez and pushed towards the exit, his hand tight on the strap of his duffel bag. He had the papers, the plane tickets to France, the money to make it for a few more years. He would swipe the unassuming looks of his English teacher (the dirty blond hair, the hazel eyes, the generic face structure) and disappear, leaving Neil Josten in the cosmos, just as he had all the other identities sitting in between him and Nathaniel Wesninski.

He would disappear once again, and the world would continue to spin.

Which was a wonderful plan that he had every intention of following, until he felt a solid hand wrap around his wrist and pull so hard Neil could feel the bruise forming, and suddenly the world fell away.

Not in the overly sappy, romantic way, where you meet your soulmate and suddenly you are the only two in the world. No, Neil meant that his facade was stripped from him piece by piece, and he was suddenly facing someone a mere three inches shorter than him, a crazed smile taking up the majority of his assailant’s face. He couldn’t see himself, but if the glint in the eye of the maniac midget (he belatedly identified him as Andrew Minyard, defensive player for the PSU foxes) was anything to go by, he was most definitely standing at a solid 5 feet 3 inches tall, with shocking blue eyes and hair the color of blood.

The psycho’s smile grew impossibly wider, and he tipped his head to the side as if in thought.

“Isn’t this interesting? I’m going to have a lot of fun with you.”

The crazed laugh that slipped out after the statement threw Neil off once again, and he was suddenly rendered useless as he tried to compose his thoughts into a semblance of order.

His slip up had left Wymack enough time to catch up, and after making some quip about not having nice things to Minyard, his attention was back on Neil, making sure that he wasn’t injured or incapacitated.

He brushed the larger man off with a solid “I’m fine,” and moved to separate himself from what felt like a pack of wolves surrounding him.

Andrew opened his mouth, most likely to make some witty response that would once again piss Wymack off when another voice cut him off.

“Great. If you’re fine you can sign the forms and we can head back to South Carolina with a full lineup.”

Neil’s heart stopped, his blood froze in his veins, and he suddenly wished that he had the power of invisibility or spontaneous combustion.

He hadn’t heard that voice in ten years, but no matter how much deeper it had become, Neil knew who was about to appear in front of him.

Kevin Day hopped down from Hernandez’s desk, closing up a file with a picture of Neil, with brown hair and brown eyes and a few added inches of height, taped to the front. He took up his place behind Andrew, his green eyes flashing to the pint-sized psycho he had adopted as his bodyguard following the “skiing accident,” and then towards Neil.

Kevin had hardly changed at all over the years, the only stark difference the permanence of the number two under his eye; Riko Moriyama’s 18th birthday had begun with the sharpie being wiped away and replaced by a tattoo gun. His eyes were far more sunken into his face, and the cloud of anxiety that had followed him was more subdued, but Kevin Day was still the recognizable son of Exy.

Neil felt trapped with all of the pairs of eyes on him; he knew that only Minyard could see him stripped down, but he still felt too seen. Up until this moment, Neil could categorize his memories into fight or flight, but for once his only response was to freeze.

Wymack seemed to be unaware of Neil’s internal dilemma, or purposefully ignoring it, but he shot a dirty look at Kevin and Andrew and spat out some harsh words that he couldn’t hear, and the pressure around Neil’s wrist disappeared.

Pleased with the privacy they had achieved, Wymack shot him a look that screamed exhaustion; he had seen a lot over the years of coaching his team of misfits, and one man can only have so much patience.

He gave Neil one last chance, reminded him that they could protect him from whatever he happened to be running from, just like they protect Kevin. They wouldn’t announce his name until the last possible minute, would provide him housing for the summer, would guarantee him at least five years of permanence, and would let him participate in a game that he had been desperately missing for a decade. Kevin obviously didn’t recognize him yet, and Minyard was far too interested in him to reveal his secret just yet.

He signed the papers and counted down the days until May.

Neil Josten was going to be real for as long as possible, and Mary Hatford was too dead to do anything about it.

He realized that he didn’t need to catalog any new faces in the airport, knew that he was actually going to look the same for a decent amount of time, but old habits die hard. People watching hadn’t just been Neil’s main source of entertainment as a child, but an integral part of his survival and airports were the perfect place to do it.

He found one of the Minyard twins and followed him out to the parking garage, deciding that it had to be Aaron because his apathetic look could never be achieved by his heavily medicated counterpart.

He followed him out to the parking garage and climbed into the passenger seat of a vehicle that looked far too expensive for an orphaned college student.

Their wrists’ bumped lightly together as Minyard reached for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket; his eyes met Neil’s, and they silently agreed to keep quiet.

Andrew pulled the car out of the parking garage, and they headed towards PSU.