#I also forgot to upload this one yesterday oops... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zizzlekwum · 2 years

Text

Stranger In A Not-So-Strange Land

Masterlist

CHAPTER SIX

The BAU investigates a series of homicides where the unsub calls 911 before murdering the victims. Follows the events of Criminal Minds Season 2 Episode 14 “The Big Game.”

Trigger Warnings: none

Word Count: 4,918

Tag List: @leftoverenvy @itsmeanobody @ctrljuls @theclassicgaycousin [if you want to be added to the tag list, please comment or send me an ask]

NOTE: Sorry again for the delayed upload, I kinda forgot yesterday was Sunday. Oops!

In your old life, you rarely went to clubs, more content to visit your few friends at their houses and play video games than going out drinking, but when Garcia excitedly tells you that everyone is going to the bar after work, you can’t bring yourself to tell her no. The people you work with are your only source of social interaction now, so you can’t justify not going out with them on the basis of it being outside of your comfort zone.

At the Irish-themed pub, you’re content to sit on the sidelines and chat with your found family, thankful that you were wearing your Calmer noise-reducing ear buds when you woke up in this universe; it helps you deal with the loud, booming music that serves as a reminder why you typically avoid going to places like this (you also always carry a pair of foam earplugs in your pocket, though, just in case). When Emily stands to grab everyone another round of drinks, you, you volunteer to help her carry them back to the table.

“Hey Morgan, be careful!” she shouts over the roar of the music as you follow her back to the table, balancing three glasses in your hands. “The one in the back could take your wallet!”

“That’s all right,” Morgan tells her with a grin, dancing with multiple women. “I’ll be a broke, happy man.” You laugh as Emily shakes her head, the both of you placing the drinks down on the table in front of Hotch, Haley, and Garcia.

“Thank you,” Hotch says, grabbing his glass. “Cheers!”

You sit down as you raise your glass of Blue Moon and smile, taking a sip. “Cheers!”

“So how are they treating you at the BAU, Emily?” Haley asks after setting her drink down.

“She means am I being nice to you,” Hotch jokes. Haley nods, smiling.

“Actually, everyone has been incredibly nice,” Emily tells her, smiling.

“Good,” Haley says.

“Just look at him move!” Garcia is turned away from you in her chair, sipping from her drink as she watches Morgan hungrily. “It’s like a cat.”

“More like a dog!” Emily exclaims, laughing.

Garcia glances at her. “He did not ask them to dance. They asked him.”

Emily smiles. “Okay. Okay, he’s a cat.”

“An alley cat,” Haley jokes, causing you to choke on your beer, spilling a little.

Hotch stands, grabbing her hand. “Come on, Haley, let’s go show them how it’s done.”

“I’m game if you are!” Haley says as Hotch leads her to the dance floor.

Emily hands you napkins as you finish coughing. “Thanks,” you tell her, wiping at the spilled beer on your shirt. “God, that was unexpectedly hilarious.”

“It was a good one,” she agrees, laughing. She looks over at Hotch and Haley. “That is so sweet!”

Garcia stands. “I’m going to the loo.” She points at Emily. “Do not let anyone steal my seat.”

“I’ll guard it with my life,” Emily tells her, smiling. She turns to you as you take another sip of your beer. She turns to you. “Having fun?”

“I’m enjoying spending time with everyone— you know, outside of work— although a loud bar wouldn’t typically be my first pick,” you admit. “I have sensory issues, so I don’t really like loud places, and crowds give me anxiety, but luckily I have these.” You reach up and remove one of your ear buds, showing it to her before putting it back in your ear. “They help reduce the noise to a more manageable volume.”

“How do they work?” Emily asks.

You shrug. “No idea. And I won’t be able to look it up, either, because these are from my own universe and won’t be invented for years.”

“What else do you do to help manage your sensory issues?”

“I try to avoid handshakes when I can— I don’t like that they’re never the same amount of pressure, and men squeeze way too tightly for my liking. I also don’t let anyone touch my head,” you say, then point to your hat. “And the hat helps me feel less anxious, though I’ve never really been able to pinpoint the reason why.”

“So that’s why I’ve never seen you without one,” she says, smiling.

You smile back at her, nodding, and open your mouth to continue the conversation when you notice JJ making her way through the crowd towards you. “Shit,” you say, taking a big sip of your beer.

“What’s wrong?” Emily follows your line of sight and frowns. “Oh no, that’s her ‘we have a case’ face.”

“We have a case,” JJ says when she reaches you, confirming your suspicions.

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” you tell her, standing.

“I’m going to go tell the others,” she says as you and Emily head to the bar to pay your tabs, abandoning your drinks.

“You good to drive?” Emily asks as you take out your keys.

You wave your hand at her as if to wave away her concerns. “I only had one beer,” you tell her, then pause. “Well, one and a half. Plus, I already had something to eat, and as my best friend Derek used to say, I have the alcohol tolerance of a cow.”

“A cow?” she repeats, chuckling.

“I don’t know, I guess it’s supposed to mean I have a high tolerance,” you tell her as the two of you exit the bar. You gesture down the street. “I’m down there. I’ll meet you at the BAU?”

She nods, beginning to walk in the opposite direction. “See you there.”

* * * * *

Back at the BAU, you all gather in the conference room. “You know, it never fails,” Morgan says, pouring himself a coffee. “Just as I’m getting my groove thing going, BAM! We’re back at the BAU.

“You know, statistically, a case doesn’t come in with any more frequency if you’re at a party or gathering than if you aren’t,” Reid says as you and Prentiss chuckle at Morgan. “It’s a trick of the mind. We merely remember the ones that came in that way more.”

“Besides, is it really that hard for you to get your ‘groove thang’ going again?” Emily asks. You snort.

“Only when he’s sleeping,” Gideon says as he walks into the room, taking off his coat.

“Where were you tonight?” Hotch asks Gideon.

“I told you, I went to the Jeffersonian,” Gideon says, sitting down.

“You missed a good time,” Prentiss tells him.

Gideon shrugs. “I had a good time.”

“Well, that’s definitely over,” JJ says as she walks into the room and grabs the remote, pointing it at the TV screen and bringing up a picture of a well-dressed couple. “The Kyles, Dennis and Lacy, were murdered an hour ago in their suburban Atlanta home.”

“Only an hour ago?” you say.

“Police were on scene unusually fast,” JJ tells you.

“Why?” Morgan asks.

“One of the unsubs called them and told them that the other was about to murder the victims.”

“You’re kidding.” Morgan shakes his head.

JJ nods. “From inside the house. According to the dispatcher, the first male sounded terrified and begged them to get there because the other, who they both identified as Raphael, was about to kill the sinners that lived there.”

“Sinners?” Hotch repeats, frowning.

“Yeah,” JJ says. “The 911 center is going to send Garcia a copy of the tape.”

“How fast was the police response time?” Reid asks.

“Four minutes, 26 seconds,” JJ tells him, pressing a button on her remote and pulling up pictures of the crime scene. “During which time Raphael managed to do this.”

“Oh,” Garcia says quietly, looking away.

“In four and a half minutes?” Prentiss says, a shocked expression on her face.

“Mr. Kyle is a dot com millionaire,” JJ continues. “His company is one of the largest employers in the community. There’s gonna be media coverage.” She turns back to the TV screen. “Also, when they arrived, the police found this displayed prominently on the bed.”

“Revelations, chapter six verse eight,” Hotch notes.

“They’re killing sinners,” Morgan says. “These guys are on a mission.”

“And mission-based killers will not stop killing,” Reid adds.

“‘And I looked and behold a pale horse,’” Hotch reads, “‘and his name that sat upon him was Death.’”

“‘And Hell followed with him,’” Gideon finishes.

“Hey,” you say, a thought occurring to you. “The name Raphael, could that be a reference to the archangel?” You mentally thank your obsession with Supernatural for helping make the connection.

“It could be a coincidence,” Hotch says, frowning. “But certainly something to keep in mind.” He looks around the room at everyone. “Wheels up in thirty.”

* * * * *

After the plane takes off, Morgan sets up a laptop on the table in front of you, connecting to Garcia with a video call. Prentiss sits next to him, you across from her on the other side of the table.

Prentiss looks to Morgan with a frown. “This is a bad one, isn’t it.”

Morgan sighs. “Unsubs with a cause are never good.”

“Pets, I just got the 911 call from the Georgia State Police,” Garcia says. She plays the audio.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator says.

“I’m at 1527 Chestnut Drive,” a man whispers, his voice shaking.

“I know where you’re calling from, sir, what’s your emergency?”

“He thinks they’re too greedy. They have too much.”

“Too much what?” the 911 operator asks.

“Stuff,” the man whispers. “You know, possessions. Things they don’t need. Hurry!”

“Are you calling because these people have too much stuff, sir?”

“No, I’m calling because Raphael—” There’s a thud, and the man stops talking.

“That’s enough,” a second man says.

“I don’t want to,” the first voice tells him.

The second man doesn’t respond. “He’s calling because Raphael is going to kill the sinners that live here.”

“I’m sorry, did you say somebody is killing someone?” the 911 operator asks. The audio file ends.

“Well, unsub one definitely sounds frightened,” Emily says. “Maybe he’s doing this against his will.”

Gideon shakes his head, frowning. “I doubt it. He whispered.”

“He could’ve called out to save them instead of calling 911,” Hotch says.

“Not if he had a gun to his head,” Morgan says.

“If he had a gun to his head, why would he have dialed 911?” Gideon points out.

“The second unsub said Raphael was going to kill someone,” JJ says. “Is there a third?”

“He could’ve just been referring to himself in the third person,” you offer.

Reid nods. “That’s not uncommon for an unsub. Ted Bundy gave thoroughly detailed accounts of his murders, but he never actually admitted to doing it. He would just say ‘the killer.’”

“Okay, so I’m gonna go ahead and run the name Raphael through the Georgia criminal databases as well as our own,” Garcia says.

“Thanks Garcia,” Hotch says.

“Ever so welcome my liege,” she says as Morgan closes the laptop.

“We have a killing team on a mission in rural Georgia,” Hotch says. “We know what that means.”

“They’re not gonna stop,” you say.

“Not until the mission’s complete,” Morgan says.

“We need to hit the ground running,” Hotch tells you all. “JJ, we need an inside picture of the victims. Victimology can be critically important in a mission-based spree.”

JJ stands and walks to the far end of the plane. “Already on it.”

“Prentiss and Y/L/N, go to where the bodies are,” Hotch continues. “Examine the wounds. They managed to kill two victims in four and a half minutes. We need to know how.”

Prentiss nods. “You got it.”

“I’m going to set up at the Atlanta field office and go over case files from the state,” Hotch says. “It would be highly unusual for a first kill to be this efficient.”

“Reid, you and Morgan, come with me to the crime scene,” Gideon says.

“We land in less than an hour,” Hotch tells you. “Everybody try to get some rest.”

You know you’re not going to get any sleep without taking your sleeping pills, but you also can’t take them now because of the case, so you don’t even bother to close your eyes. Instead, you reach into your backpack and take out your copy of the current DSM and research mental health conditions until you land.

* * * * *

“They’re all long, deep gashes,” the ME tells you and Prentiss as he shows you the bodies. “Each victim has virtually the same wounds— both throats cut, a vertical gash up one arm from wrist to elbow, and a vertical gash down one leg from crotch to upper thigh.”

“Major arteries,” Prentiss notes.

The ME nods. “It’s damned efficient.”

“How much anatomical knowledge would someone need to do this?” you ask.

“Anyone with a basic understanding of the body knows where these arteries are,” the ME says.

“And do you have any idea which one of these wounds was delivered first?” Prentiss asks.

The ME reaches over one of the bodies and grabs a clipboard from the table. “Um, there was a— there was active blood flow from each of the wounds.”

“So probably all the wounds were made at about the same time?” you say.

He nods. “With any of these wounds, the victim would bleed out quickly. Almost like an animal at slaughter.” He pauses. “No, actually, exactly like an animal at slaughter. A-a-a deer or-or a lamb or a cow, something like that— you-you cut the throat first, then-then sometimes open up other major arteries to assist in draining the carcass.”

“So maybe a hunter?” Prentiss says.

“Or a farmer, or—” The ME stops himself, frowning. “Pretty much anyone in rural Georgia.”

“Oh,” Prentiss says quietly.

“Great,” you groan, rubbing a hand over your face. “Just great.”

* * * * *

When you and Prentiss arrive at the field office, Gideon, Reid, and Morgan are already there. Gideon is talking to Hotch.

“…a video of the attack,” you hear him saying as you and Prentiss approach them.

Hotch turns to face you. “How’d it go at the ME’s office?”

“They were killed like an animal at slaughter,” you tell him. “So basically, anyone in rural Georgia could’ve done this, as the ME put it.”

“What did you guys find at the crime scene?” Prentiss asks Gideon.

“Garcia found a video of the murders online,” he says, sighing. He motion to JJ over at a desk with a computer. “JJ was just pulling it up for us.”

You follow him over to JJ as she steps back. “It’s all set,” she says. “Just hit play.” Gideon moves the mouse and clicks, and the video begins to play.

A man in a hood appears on the screen, the lighting casting dark shadows across his face, concealing his identity. “He says the world is a cesspool,” the man says. “Of greed. Lust. Disease.”

“That sounds like unsub number one,” Emily says.

“He says redemption must be sought,” the man in the video continues. “We must all repent.”

“And he referred to being Raphael?” Hotch asks.

Gideon shrugs. “Or God.”

“It’s not God,” Morgan says. “It’s someone sitting right there next to him, telling this guy what to say.”

A second voice begins talking in the video as the screen changes to inside of a house. “As the Lord God spoke in Leviticus 26:18—”

“That’s a new voice,” Morgan points out.

“—and if you will not yet for all this—”

Emily shakes her head. “A third unsub?”

“—I will punish ye seven times more for your sins.”

“Could just be recorded from a religious program or a sermon,” Morgan suggests as a man and a woman you assume to be the victims walk into the screen.

“‘Punish ye seven times,’” JJ repeats.

“Five more victims,” Gideon says.

“These images were shot from the exact spot on the dresser where that computer sat,” Morgan says, pointing over at Reid, who is sitting at a desk behind all of you.

Hotch turns to walk over to Reid. You follow him. “So if this video came from that computer’s camera, then what? Did the unsubs bring it with them?”

“As far as we can tell, this computer belonged to the Kyles,” Reid reports. “Garcia can do a better analysis, but it has their banking statements, vacation photos.”

Hotch looks back over at the screen where the video is still playing. “One comes into the room and immediately goes after Mr. Kyle. What, did the other unsub turn the camera on?”

“We might be asking the wrong questions,” Gideon says. “This video, this message, it’s important. Clearly, they want the world to see this. They need it. But they didn’t bring a camera with them.”

“Guys,” you whisper quietly, stepping away from the laptop in front of Reid. “What if one of the unsubs hacked the Kyle’s computer and used it to shoot the video?”

Reid stands. “Agent Franks,” he whispers. “Does this building have wireless internet?”

Franks nods. “Yeah, why?”

“That camera’s on right now,” Reid tells you all quietly. “The computer’s connected itself to the internet. It’s streaming a video feed somewhere.”

“Can we trace the stream to its destination?” Hotch asks quietly.

“If we keep it open, Garcia might be able—” Reid is interrupted by a beeping sound coming from the Kyles’ laptop. You look over to it as the screen fades to black. A message flashes across the screen before the computer turns off: THE ARMIES OF SATAN SHALL NOT PREVAIL.

Reid shakes his head. “It turned off.”

“So they’re controlling it remotely?” Hotch asks.

“Is that even possible?” Prentiss asks.

You nod. “Oh yeah, totally. It’s why I always tape over the camera of any computer with a built-in webcam.”

Morgan takes out his phone and dials Garcia. “Hey Garcia, how would someone go about remotely accessing a computer?” he asks immediately when she picks up.

“Well, it’s actually done a lot today,” she says. “When a mortal calls for tech support, instead of, like, giving you instructions, the tech can work on your computer from wherever she is.”

“And they maintain the access even after the work is done?” Hotch asks.

“They’re not supposed to, but I suppose you could install a Trojan Horse during a service.”

“It’s, um, something left in the computer to be turned on later,” Reid explains, noticing the blank look on Gideon’s face. “Same way that websites get pop-up ads onto your computer.”

“Garcia, can you check the Kyles’ phone records and see if they called for tech support in the last six months?” Hotch asks.

“Right-o,” she says. “Oh, and if you get me the Kyles’ laptop, I can search the drive for anything implanted there.”

“Fast as we can,” Hotch assures her.

“By the way, this video?” she says. “It’s gone crazy viral.”

“What’s that mean?” Gideon asks.

“It means that a shit-ton of people have seen it,” you explain.

“It’s the most downloaded video on the internet,” Garcia adds. “Worldwide. And judging by the responses embedded in the files, people seem to think it’s pretty cool.”

Hotch shakes his head. “Call us if you find anything on the Kyles’ computer.”

“Yeah,” Garcia says. There’s a click, and she’s gone.

“Murder is entertainment,” Gideon says, shaking his head.

“They probably don’t even realize it’s real,” JJ tells him. “People see so many images online every day, they might assume it’s marketing for a horror film or something.”

“These unsubs are right about one thing,” Morgan says. “The world is pretty screwed up.”

You all head back to the conference room, where there’s a bulletin board set up with images of the crime scene and the victims’ bodies. A white board is next to it. Prentiss uncaps the marker and writes EFFICIENT IDENTICAL WOUNDS in blue ink.

“So what have we got so far?” Hotch asks.

Prentiss sighs. “Well, the killings are clinically efficient. They had the ear marks of a slaughter, as in an animal.”

“Or a sacrifice,” Morgan suggests. You nod. Prentiss turns back and writes SLAUGHTER/SACRIFICE.

“We haven’t been able to find anything in federal or state databases that suggest similar crimes,” Hotch says. “As far as I can tell, it’s the first in a series.” Prentiss writes NO PRIORS on the white board.

“At least one member of the team may believe he’s killing in the name of God,” Reid notes, “suggesting a psychopathy that should display extreme levels of disorganization, yet there are forensic countermeasures and somebody in control enough to do complicated computer work.” He grabs a paper from the bulletin board as Prentiss writes RELIGIOUS PSYCH, and COMPUTER underneath it. “One member of the team’s organized, the other’s extremely disorganized. But what’s strange is that the one we would consider as being most in control, the one that made the phone call, can’t seem to stop the other one from killing. Usually the frenzied personality takes direction from the cooler head.” Prentiss writes UNSUB 1 (DIS) and UNSUB 2 (ORG) in blue ink on the white board.

“All right, so let’s look at that,” Morgan says. “Unsub one called the police before the killing, but he didn’t leave time enough for them to get there. Is the phone call just the guy working on a defense in case of capture? I mean, maybe he didn’t wanna stop the other, but he did whatever he had to do to cover himself.”

“So,” Gideon says. “What do we have so far?” No one says anything. “Not enough.”

* * * * *

You and Prentiss are reviewing the evidence and bouncing theories off of each other when Hotch pokes his head into the room. “We got another murder.”

Hotch drives, with Gideon in the passenger seat. You sit in the middle between Morgan and Prentiss. When you get there, there are already multiple police cars surrounding the house. The front door is open, with an officer standing outside it.

You follow Hotch through the front door. “Detective,” he greets.

“Yeah,” the detective says, turning around. “Well, he called again. This time, it was different. Only one of them spoke.”

“Which one?” Hotch asks.

“Pretty sure it was Raphael,” the detective says. “I wrote down what he said, and I got a recording being brought out here. Took us almost eleven minutes to respond. We only had the one unit close.”

“Could the unsub know that?” Morgan asks.

The detective nods. “The lack of police presence out here has gotten some local media attention recently. Now, the 911 call wasn’t the only thing that was different. This particular scene is weird in another way. The male victim, upstairs… throat cut.”

“Why is that weird?” Gideon asks.

“He doesn’t live here,” the detective tells him. “He’s a local handyman.”

You follow Morgan and Prentiss up the stairs and into what appears to be the master bedroom. You each put on a pair of white latex gloves. The body is still on the floor, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. There are blood spatters across the white headboard of the queen-sized bed. On the desk across from the bed is an open laptop.

Morgan walks over to the body, his back to the desk. “Don’t look now, but we’re on candid camera,” he tells you and Prentiss, his voice quiet.

Prentiss nods. “Uh-huh.”

“Yep,” you say, popping the ‘p.’ The three of you continue to casually observe the body. “Body was sliced just like the other victims.”

“No defensive wounds,” Prentiss notes, checking the victim’s hands.

You look around the room. “Not many signs of a struggle. If the unsub did take the woman who lives here, she must’ve been easy to subdue.” You walk over to the edge of the bed, where there is a piece of paper with a highlighted bible verse printed on it in an evidence bag. “‘Power was given unto them over the fourth part of the Earth,’” you read aloud. “‘To kill with sword, with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the Earth.’ Revelations. A book about the end of days. Not good.” You all exchange a look.

There’s not much left to do, so you wait for Hotch and Gideon to come look at the room before exiting the house. Hotch turns to face you.

“So let’s work this out,” he says. “What does the new behavior tell us?”

Emily sighs. “That there was only one unsub this time? Uh, Raphael? Alone?”

“Not if he’s the psychotic,” Hotch says. “He wouldn’t be capable of operating this efficiently. Someone was here who could control himself, make sure no evidence was left behind.”

“At the first crime, unsub one called the police, right?” Morgan says. “This time it was Raphael. Why? It’s like the phone call is necessary. It’s part of the signature.”

“This team doesn’t act like any team we’ve ever come across,” you say. “Someone’s clearly the dominant one and someone’s clearly the follower. It doesn’t change like this.”

“Have we ever seen this in case history?” Hotch asks.

Morgan shakes his head. “A mixture of extreme psychosis in a controlled individual? No. One of the most common indicators of extreme psychosis is solitude.”

“They don’t exactly play well with others,” Emily adds.

“Was Garcia able to find anything on Raphael in the records?” Gideon asks from behind you, walking over to join the rest of you.

You shake your head. “Not yet.”

“So why is he naming himself?” Gideon asks. “Twice. Certainly not worried about us getting that name. In fact, he wants us to know it.”

“An alias?” Prentiss asks. “Y/L/N did suggest that he could be claiming to be the archangel.”

“Or Raphael doesn’t actually exist,” Gideon says.

Morgan frowns. “So we’re not looking for a team?”

“Meaning?” Prentiss asks.

“We may have one unsub, suffering from the delusion that he’s actually an archangel,” Gideon says. “Maybe that first phone call was not two people, but one.”

“A split personality,” you say. “Interesting.”

“Well, what about the third voice?” Emily asks.

Gideon shakes his head. “That I don’t know about yet.”

Hotch sighs. “Well, if Mrs. Douglas is Jezebel, there’s an especially unpleasant death in her future.” You cringe.

* * * * *

“Garcia’s running voice analysis on the first 911 call to see if there are actually two voices,” Morgan tells Hotch as you all walk back into the field office. “She’s also gonna peel the third voice off the videotape and see if that gets anything.”

“We should have a copy of that latest call brought over here within the hour,” the same detective from earlier says.

“Thanks,” Hotch tells him.

“Hotchner,” Agent Franks calls from his desk, phone in hand. “Your tech from Quantico is on the phone.” Hotch nods and walks over to a vacant desk, pressing a button on the phone. “Garcia?”

“Jeez, don’t you people answer your cell phones anymore?” she asks.

“We were driving back to Atlanta through the countryside,” Hotch explains to her. “Spotty cell signal.”

“If you think that first video went viral fast, the second one’s going through the stratosphere.”

“Second video?” Hotch asks, frowning.

“Yeah, there’s a new video from our psycho,” Garcia tells him. “I’m downloading it myself right now. Some of these upload sites get more than a million hits a day.”

“Get it on the monitor here as soon as you can,” Hotch says.

“Right,” she says.

You wait for the video to pop up on the computer screen. When it does, you lean closer. A hooded figure is sitting in front of a struggling woman, bound and gagged. “‘…that he spake by his servant, Elijah the Tishbite, saying, in the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel,’” the figure reads from a bible in his lap. You hear dogs snarling and barking as the woman in the background struggles. As soon as the dogs appear on the screen, you turn away, the woman’s screams ringing in your ears.

“Jezebel’s death,” Gideon says.

“My God,” Prentiss says.

“You can turn it off,” Hotch tells her. She goes to reach for the mouse when the detective stops her.

“Wait!” he says, grabbing her arm.

“You haven’t seen enough?” Morgan says.

“Those dogs,” he says, pointing at the screen. “Those three dogs attacked someone a couple of months ago. I would’ve had them impounded but the victim knew the owner. A neighbor. He didn’t want to press charges.”

“And you’re sure?” Gideon asks.

The detective nods. “With God as my witness.” He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a notepad, beginning to flip through it. “Three mangy mixes. I knew those dogs looked sick. I called Animal Control, but I don’t know if they ever followed up on it.” He stops turning pages and shows Hotch his notepad. “Here is it.”

“You have the owner’s name?” Hotch asks.

“Hankel,” he says.

“‘Hankel?’” Hotch repeats.

“Tobias Hankel,” the detective says.

Your eyes go wide. “Shit!” you exclaim. Everyone turns to you in surprise. “Wait— oh my God, where’s Reid? Hotch, where’s Reid?”

“He and JJ went to talk to someone who called in a prowler in front of the Kyles’ house a few weeks before they were murdered,” Hotch says, looking stricken. “The name was—”

“Tobias Hankel!” you finish. You curse again, your heartbeat slamming against your chest. “They went right to the unsub. Hotch, he’s gonna get Reid. He’s gonna get Reid!”

Hotch is already rushing to the door. “Let’s move! Everybody, now!”

15 notes · View notes

anogete · 1 year

Text

Fifty-Fifty by anogete

A Call of Duty Ghost/OFC fic

Oops, I forgot to post yesterday that I uploaded Chapter 16. Well, I did. And Chapter 17 is also available if you're reading along and want to get caught up. The entire thing can be found HERE ON AO3. (Yes, I DO put you out of your misery in this chapter.)

And here's a teaser from the latest chapter:

He turned around to look at her, the balaclava preventing her from seeing anything but his eyes. They didn’t look happy at all, though. “Have you eaten today?” Anna shook her head. “I’m not your problem, Simon. I–I understand we were out of line last night. I’ll talk to Price when I get back and tell him...I’ll tell him I have, uh, feelings for you and need a transfer. I won’t throw you under the bus. I’ll tell him it’s just me.” “Anna, fuck, do you–I’m the one who started that last night. I don’t know what you’re going on about, saying it was just you. I fucking took advantage of you and what you were feeling and–” “You didn’t,” she told him, getting up to walk back to the house. He stepped forward to help her stand and then stopped himself short. She held up her hands in defeat. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time...with you. And I know you don’t want it. I just...my wires got crossed with the way you were with me yesterday. It felt really good, and I started thinking maybe...no, it’s okay. I’m fine.” She gave him a tight smile as she turned to trudge up the hill. “It’s not that I don’t want it, love,” he called out behind her. “I can’t have it.” All she could hear was that she wasn’t enough. That he wanted her, but not enough to try. She wanted to turn around and say that. Part of her hoped it would turn into an argument. That she could lash out at him for leading her on and making her feel like he’d always catch her. But she was damaged goods and so was he. He couldn’t meet her 70 with 30. Maybe he was willing to give her 5, but that wasn’t enough.

#call of duty #call of duty fic #cod #cod fic #ghost x oc #simon riley x oc #simon ghost riley x ofc #simon riley #simon ghost riley #ghost #fanfic #anogete

5 notes · View notes

tenacityreturns · 4 years

Text

aokaga fic alert!

plot: in which kagami and aomine talk about beautiful soul by jesse mccartney and also accidentally injure each other ♥ rating: sfw, very domestic, it’s just them being stupid idiots. also i wrote this in one sitting without taking breaks or reading over it so.... haha.... word count: 2098

it all started with two guys, chilling on the sofa, going through each other’s phones. or more specifically, the music apps (and kagami’s photo reel, but don’t tell anyone because aomine had only gone in looking for something of nigou!). whenever kagami encounters a song title that interests him, he’ll click on it and let about ten seconds play before he changes song again. he gets the idea.

aomine, meanwhile, will let the songs he finds play in full. not because he respects the skip button and doesn’t want to overuse it, but because he doesn’t understand english and it becomes background noise. he’s just chilling now. legs stretched out over the couch and on top of kagami’s knees, his back leans on the armrest and he thinks about dinner instead. how cheeky he’s feeling with directly impact how extravagant his dining requests will be.

“i just took a screenshot,” kagami says blankly, with a light frown on his face.

“why?”

“i wanted to remember this song, it’s kinda cool.”

“but you’re using my---”

“yeah i know that, i forgot.”

aomine half smiles, returning to the screen. dummy. “i’ll send it to you later.”

he decides to lightly hack his boyfriend and dives onto his instagram. looks up his own page, saves a recent selfie, uploads it from kagami’s account. first, he thinks about captioning it something like sexy, or why is this guy so hot??? but decides against it and instead writes ‘i’ll never be as cool as him :(’ haha. good, harmless prank. who’s this girl that liked it immediately, huh! well, they follow each other, but aomine doesn’t like how snooping around like this is making him feel. his blue eyes will raise, taking in the sight of kagami tapping his hand against aomine’s shin in time with the song. his lips are moving, then his shoulders.

is he... sort of singing along? but to which song? he can’t hear the music from his own phone well enough with kagami’s so nearby, but then... he doesn’t recognise this american music... hm. aomine’s fond smile is forced into a smirk for dignity’s sake.

“what are you doing?”

“huh?” kagami blinks, and the tapping stops. “i used to love this song.”

“used to? it’s on your recently heard playlist, dude.”

“it’s a classic.”

“is it? i never heard of it.”

“me and niji sing it all the time, y’know, just around.”

“okay,” this emotion, unlike the snooping guilt, is straight up jealousy. shut up about nijimura already! we get it! you’re friends! “what’s it about?”

“uh,” cogs turn. his lips move again, maybe in time with the song’s lyrics? aomine isn’t sure. “like, he’s singing about not caring about looks. just... you know, wanting the person’s beautiful soul. that’s what it’s called.”

“sappy,” what a loser. this sounds like the kind of thing satsuki would be interested in for sure. aomine gets an instagram notification from kise and ignores it, then remembers his prank and that this is kagami’s phone! he opens the app again and that blond bastard has written a comment:

‘looks like you need a new password kagamicchi!’

and seen right through the prank! dumb luck. except--- here’s tetsu commenting:

‘you should never leave your phone with untrustworthy people, kagami-kun.’

shut the hell up!

but his oblivious rival distracts the on-coming fury by starting to sing. the tapping against his shin has started again, and he’s still scrolling through the playlist and changing songs, but singing this beautiful soul song. in english. show off! ah, he’s got a nice voice though. and he looks real cute sitting there like that. aomine doesn’t suspect kagami of snooping through the photo reel or posting to instagram, in fact: the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. aomine’s head rocks to lean against the back cushions of the sofa. his fond smile returns.

“you singing about me, bakagami?”

of course he’ll find a way to ruin a perfectly nice moment, and a fleeting glimpse of serenity in his boyfriend. kagami doesn’t look away from his phone, but says something in english that sounded like a comeback. aomine presses his heel into kagami’s thigh, but it incites a more genuine flinch that he’d been expecting and both legs are instantly retracted.

“sorry,” aomine blurts, “i forgot about your leg.”

“what about it?” kagami replies breezily in japanese again ( that is, as breezily as possible through gritted teeth ).

hello again, guilt! aomine rests his knees against the couch, peering around them to watch kagami recover. if he doesn’t in five seconds, aomine will--- no, he can’t last that long. he sits up.

“ah, man, can i get you something?”

“i’m fine, it’s just cramping from sitting so long,”

this guy! they’d not been sitting for half an hour yet! he’s just saying that so aomine won’t feel bad... the bastard... of course he’s going to feel bad!

“wipe that look off your face!” kagami exclaims, “now get outta my way so i can lie down.”

he doesn’t look pissed off, or in pain anymore, which is something. god, wouldn’t it just be easier if kagami could tell him when his half-hearted grumpy statements are genuine or when they’re just him speaking and sounding angry because it’s how he talks?

aomine rolls himself off the sofa. “is your leg okay?”

“don’t worry about it,” the redhead returns to aomine’s phone but extends his arm off the sofa. an invitation to join him? but can’t he just say that he isn’t mad right now? ah, look! now he’s glaring at him! “daiki. are you gonna make me say it?”

“say what?”

kagami crunches forward and the arm, still extended, reaches for aomine’s hand. of course he’ll accept the gesture. one second, they’re holding hands ( safe, comfortable, in understanding ), and the next, aomine is falling onto the couch and acutely aware of making sure he doesn’t land on the bad leg.

“be careful!” he scolds, arms bracing against the back of the couch, knees safely avoiding kagami’s limbs. “sheesh!”

“i said don’t worry, didn’t i?”

“i dunno, you talk a lot of shit,” how come aomine’s pissed off at him now!

“what!” kagami launches forward and wraps one of his arms around aomine’s waist, dragging him back as he lies down again.

“taiga!” aomine’s still more concerned about the injury.

“shut up about my fuckin’ leg or i’ll snap you like a toothpick!”

ugh! fine, alright. he’ll give in. aomine definitely sends kagami a look. it’s short-lived, though, and he finds a teasing smile. his hand rests on kagami’s massive bicep. “with these muscles? good luck with a real toothpick, buddy.”

“shut the fuck up, i’ll show you!”

there’s no doubt that kagami hadn’t actually intended to show him, but aomine’s back lasts a total of two seconds of a too-tight hug before it cracks. loudly. it didn’t hurt. caught him off guard, yes, makes him have to pause and stretch his back for a second, sure, but it didn’t hurt. kagami’s staring, aomine notices. not immediately apologising despite the sound, he sees! red eyes are wide, lips tightly turned downwards. he’s waiting to check the damage before damage control kicks in.

“you good?”

“is that all you got?”

“sorry about your back,”

aomine lowers down to lie chest-to-chest. he adjusts so that it’s comfortable to lie with his head on kagami’s shoulder. “yep.”

“does it hurt?”

“nope.”

“good,” and just like that, an arm drapes around aomine’s shoulders and they’re lying in almost silence again. kagami’s phone is somewhere on the other end of the sofa, still playing that muffled song. how long does it go on for?! that beautiful whatever conversation feels like it happened hours ago! of course, it had been the singing that started the teasing which sparked the retort which justified a prod, which had hurt and begun this mess. aomine exhales. kagami starts humming along to what aomine has guessed is the chorus.

“what sorta sappy shit is he saying now?” he closes his eyes.

“uh,” kagami begins to translate the lyrics disjointedly, really having to think about it before he says it in japanese.

I don't want another pretty face I don't want just anyone to hold I don't want my love to go to waste I want you and your beautiful soul

“it sounds better in english,” he then explains, “and when jesse sings it.”

“nah,”

“what do you mean nah?”

oops. well, yeah! alright. so aomine likes kagami’s voice better than this jesse person’s! big whoop! “nothing. so you were definitely singing about me, then.”

“yeah, i got sick of dating hot people and decided to settle.”

“shut the fuck up,” aomine’s smiling, knowing full well that kagami’s not dated anybody before. cheeky little shit!

“all the d-cup supermodels in america, you know.”

“i thought i told you to zip it?” he lifts his head. the stare-off doesn’t last long before kagami just straight up kisses him on the cheek! “hey!”

“can i have my phone back?”

he deliberates being difficult. deliberates telling kagami to get it himself, that he doesn’t know where it is, or just no. for fun, mostly. but then, that kiss had been really cute... and kagami had been kind of nice just now, before the bullshit, about translating and stuff... fine. this once, kagami’s off the hook. saved, even. aomine pushes ( carefully! ) up, finds the phone precariously close to the edge of the sofa, and returns to his place. once comfortable, he’ll hand it over. ah! the prank! he’d forgotten about that. kagami gives aomine his phone too and they are once again silent.

huh. that sure is a lot of facebook likes. his last picture wasn’t even that interesting. or was it? aomine opens the app, trying to recall what it could be about. did he get notifications for likes on things he’d shared? aomine rarely shared anything. oh, to be fair, he did share a video of nigou yesterday saying “he’s the only member of seirin i respect”... was it... that?

a picture aomine absolutely did not post is at the top of his own feed. it’s the seirin team picture, but, naturally, aomine had first seen only tetsu and kagami ( the others are definitely there, but not as interesting or important to look at, you know? ). posted twenty minutes ago. captioned: “i apologise for my last post about seirin, i’m a big idiot. they are really cool”

“hey!” aomine lifts his head up again, though this time, with an expression full of accusation. it meets kagami’s equally offended gaze.

“you posted to my instagram!”

“you posted to facebook! that’s worse!”

“no way!”

“yeah way!”

“everyone knew i got hacked, though,” he grins, “you ain’t slick at all.”

“as if i would ever call myself a big idiot, ever. they would instantly know you posted that to facebook. who else thinks seirin is cool?”

“everyone with brains!”

“bullshit!”

“idiot,”

“dumbass,”

aomine set his head down again. so much for trustworthy boyfriend, kagami taiga! though... isn’t it kind of funny that they both, separately, decided to post to each other’s social media? he’s trying hard to be pissed off about it, but the smile is too strong and, once again, he’s smiling over something kagami has done. satsuki comments under that hacked facebook post:

‘two sides of the same coin.’

which, to the unaware, means nothing. in reality, it makes him think of that thing he’s still accidentally in the habit of saying sometimes. the only one who can beat me is me. maybe kagami really is similar to himself after all? however, it’s hard to imagine that they’re that similar. aomine really likes kagami, after all.

“hey, taiga?”

maybe aomine will tell him he loves him again. does it cheapen it if he’d said it yesterday as well?

“yeah?”

“what’s for dinner?”

chicken.

“chicken, i think.”

aomine blinks. that was almost spooky.

“taiga?”

“still here,”

“love you.”

“pfff,” it’s a scoff! “lame.” insulting!”

aomine pinches him gently in the side. it makes him laugh, even if kagami isn’t that ticklish.

“alright! love you too, obviously. i kissed you, didn’t i?”

“yeah, yeah, yeah. chicken sounds good.”

“are you gonna tell me you love chicken, too? who’s the sap now?”

someone explain why such an irritating response would make aomine’s chest swell as much as that kiss on the cheek? yeah, he’s dead sure if he hadn’t been before. he loves you, kagami taiga, you dumbass, so much. of course he does. they’re two sides of the same coin.

#aokaga #aokaga fic #knb #knb fic #aonon.#drabbles.#this is stupid i just LOVE how they talk tho............................... theyre so fun to write #this is truly all over the place and it's really 1am #so miserable that it's 1am

14 notes · View notes

gothpanda · 4 years

Text

A Little Bit of Attitude Ch.30: Is She Okay At Least?

WORD COUNT: 4.6k

A/N: I totally forgot to upload the chapter here oops

TAGS: @madamsixx @emariehorror

WARNINGS: none

Read on Ao3

Previous/Next

June 20th, 1986

Los Angeles, California

On the cold wooden wall of the lonely mansion, Nikki rolled onto his naked back, squeezing his eyes to make the blurry vision go away. He didn't know what time it was, and he didn't know if anyone was hiding in the gothic home. All Nikki could think of was how he possibly looked. His naked body was becoming pale and grey, more than last month and growing skinnier to the point Nikki could resemble Tommy. Nikki cleared away the dry feeling in his throat, slowly sitting up to look at exactly where he was. Nikki saw a mirror right in front of him, his clothes either tossed on the floor or hung. He groaned from the pounding between his temples, dropping his head in the palm of his hand. Surrounding Nikki were the items he always seemed to have when he went on a binder, a handgun gifted a long time ago, and dirty needles. The gun Nikki kept a grip on when paranoia set in, thinking something was coming to get him.

It took Nikki a moment to gain enough energy to stand on his own two feet, finding a clean pair of underwear in one of the small wooden shelves, dragging himself out of there. The master bedroom was dark with the heavy curtains drawn in, daylight only peeking in through a thin line, turning on the closest lamp to Nikki. Nikki looked around the room, trying to find something to wash down the awful taste that stained his mouth, only to find a bottle of flat soda on his bedside. Nevertheless, Nikki drank the soda as he sat on his bed, eyes falling on an article of clothing that hung from the back doorknob. It looked out of place for clothes to be; Nikki wrinkled his brows together, trying to remember who it could belong to. He knew it couldn't be something of his; it looked too small and wasn't exactly his style. Nikki placed the empty bottle of coke on the nightstand, mustering up any energy to walk to the bedroom door with a few steps. When Nikki yanked the fabric in his hand and held it out in front of him, it all clicked in the man's head, sighing out as he realized it was a jacket. A small black acid-washed denim jacket with an iron-on Motley Crue patch at the front. A jacket that Nikki had gifted Sammi randomly the one time he decided to go shopping, knowing it would be a sweet gesture that could make her happy. Sammi ironed the patch herself as a cute little surprise for the guys that Nikki found attractive. The man grazed his fingers on the patch, cracking the one corner of his lips into a short smile. Nikki brought the jacket up to his nose; he could smell the perfume Sammi always wore as if she was here yesterday. Nikki cursed under his breath, throwing the jacket on the bed as he searched for any clean clothes to resemble an outfit, going straight to the showers.

It was beginning to turn into the late afternoon of summer as Nikki sped at lightning speed down highways in his brand new motorcycle. Nikki's hair was blowing in the winds, almost making his hair bigger. He hid his tired eye behind dark aviator sunglasses, perfect for the sun setting in the man's face, something Nikki hadn't seen in days. After driving further through L.A, Nikki parked the Harley in the first spot vacant he could see by the apartment complex entrance, kicking down the brake pedal. As he swung his legs off the bike, Nikki glanced down into his saddlebag, reaching inside for the jacket. It was the best excuse Nikki had come up with to see Sammi, knowing how angry she could be. Nikki walked up the stoop as he popped a piece of bubblegum in his mouth, pounding the entrance buzzer for Sammi's apartment from muscle memory. The dark-haired man rested his back flat against the wall, wrapping the denim sleeves around his hands to occupy his mind.

When some time had passed with no answer, Nikki scrunched his eyebrows together, pressing the button again twice this time to annoy Sammi to answer. The silence coming from the end of the intercom. "What the hell, Sam?" Nikki muttered to himself, taking off his sunglasses, hanging them on his shirt. Nikki looked at the list of names by buttons for each apartment in this section, wrinkling his face deep when there was no Samantha anyway. The sound of the entrance door open made Nikki's head whip to his right, seeing a man and woman walk out together with their small dog. They were surprised to see a man in black at their doorstep, the woman holding onto her boyfriend's arm. "Um, hi. Have you two lived here for a good while?" Nikki asked, fumbling with the jacket between his hands.

"Yes, we have? Is there anything we can help you with?" the man asked in hesitance. The woman scanned Nikki up and down, trying to see if she could remember him.

"Yeah. Have you happened to see a girl that lives in apartment 23? She's really short, has long dark wavy hair, and a pale round face. Sometimes she wears black glasses and looks cute. Her name's Sammi," Nikki described, scratching the back of his neck in nervousness.

"Why do you need to know where she is?" the woman asked, crossing her arms to seem intimidating to Nikki.

"Because she's my girlfriend, and I pissed her off. I wanted to go up and apologize, but there's no answer. Also, I have her jacket," Nikki said, glaring at the woman as he held up the article of clothing to show proof he wasn't lying. The couple exchanged a knowing look at each other, both stepping back from there on edge appearance.

"We know who you're talking about, but we haven't seen her in a good while. If her name isn't on the directory, then she must've moved out. Sorry, man," the man said, giving a lopsided smile and shrug of the shoulder.

"Moved out?" Nikki asked, curling his lip and standing frozen in front of the couple even after they continued with their day. Nikki blinked for a moment, then looked up at the apartment to try and find Sammi's window. He slowly walked down the steps, staring at the ground as he gripped tighter onto the jacket. Nikki knew from his somewhat sober mind he needed answers right now, knowing there was one person who knew. Nikki jumped on the back of his Harley, speeding down faster to the hills of the rich and famous.

Nikki rang the doorbell multiple times of the Beverly Hills mansion, scowling into the distance with his dark set eyes. His sunglasses were off, dark circles for everyone to see as Nikki kept a tight grip on the one thing he had of Sammi's. Nikki decided to stop being a nuisance with the doorbell as he saw a small figure approach the door through the stained glass. Heather quickly ripped the door open in a case of worry, softening when it was only Nikki at her front steps. The tension was awkward as the two stared at one another, Nikki forcing a polite smile to Heather. Heather leaned against the grand door, trying her best not to scowl or frown at the man.

"Hey, Nikki. What's wrong?" Heather asked.

"Is Tommy home? I need to talk to him about something," Nikki asked, biting the edge of his nail. Heather scanned Nikki up and down from his appearance, hesitant of letting the man in her home. Since the wedding, Heather hadn't seen Nikki recollecting her argument with Tommy a week after. Of all the people her husband hung around with, Nikki was Heather's least favorite.

"Um, yes, he's here. Do you want to come inside or stay outside and wait?" Heather asked.

"Show me the way," Nikki muttered, biting the inside of his cheek as he followed Heather. As the two walked into the home, Nikki couldn't help but look around the new home to see the fancy decor that was obvious Tommy didn't pick out. The mansion seemed huge for only two people, Heather and Nikki, turning at corners to find Tommy wherever he was. The two stood in front of a closed-door towards the back of the mansion, hearing a piano play. Heather knocked politely, slowly opening to peek her head in. She mouthed something to Tommy that Nikki couldn't hear, hearing the piano melody gradually disappear. Heather looked over her shoulder, a smile that seemed so disingenuous. Heather stepped away, signaling Nikki to enter the room, disappearing into the mansion to give the men some privacy.

When Nikki walked into the room, he was impressed by the little sanctuary Tommy made for himself, instruments displayed correctly in their spots with nice leather furniture. He closed the door behind him to not let this conversation echo out into the halls—pictures of memories of Tommy's family and friends on the walls. Nikki stopped dead in his tracks to stare at one with a child Sammi who smiled brightly. Nikki shook his head, glancing at the furniture to see if he should sit. As Tommy stood up from the piano bench, he didn't bother to hug or shake Nikki's hand or even look at him, only walking to the small liquor trolley to pour himself a drink. Tommy picked out any random alcohol bottle from the collection, pouring the liquor in a brand new whiskey glass that was a wedding gift.

"What's up, man?" Tommy asked, tiptoeing to the leather sofa, sitting down in front of Nikki. Nikki remained standing, gesturing towards the jacket to Tommy.

"I'm looking for Sammi. She left her jacket at my place, but she's not at her apartment. Is she at Athena's or?" asked Nikki, tapping the back of his heel.

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, frowning as if he didn't know a thing. "Why should I tell you? I haven't heard from you in what a month?" Tommy asked, frowning at Nikki.

Nikki rolled his eyes. "I am so very sorry I haven't called you. I thought your wife would give you enough attention," Nikki said sarcastically, glaring a bit at Tommy. Tommy scuffed at Nikki, taking a sip of the straight brandy. "Seriously, where is she, T-bone? Some guy said she could've moved out and hasn't seen her in a while. Did she get a nicer place or what?" Nikki asked in a timid voice, biting on the inside of his lip.

Tommy bounced his leg, looking out the floor to ceiling window that gave in the perfect amount of natural light. "She never told you anything, did she?" Tommy asked. Nikki fidgeted with Sammi's jacket again, running his hands on the sleeves, shrugging his shoulders. "Sammi's living in San Francisco now, Nik. She's been gone for three weeks, so glad to see you finally cared to notice," said Tommy, fingers playing with the fringe from a throw pillow.

Nikki almost dropped the jacket from his grip, becoming stiff with hurt. "What the hell is she doing in San Francisco?! Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did no one tell me anything if it's been almost a month?!" Nikki shouted, scrunching his brows together.

"Oh, I wonder why I didn't," Tommy muttered.

"Care to explain a little further as to why my girlfriend just upright and left?" Nikki asked.

"She didn't just get up and leave, Nik,"

"Well, then why?!"

"Maybe because she's tired of your shit! Maybe because she dumped your ass after the shit you pulled at my wedding! She didn't even tell our parents until half of her shit was in boxes!" Tommy shouted, jumping onto his own two feet, slamming the glass on the coffee table in front of him.

"So Sammi and I had a fight at your wedding, but that doesn't mean she has to run away. It's not like I haven't pissed her off before!" said Nikki.

"Sammi didn't run away, Nik. She went to San Fran for school, but trust me, I wouldn't blame her for wanting to run away from you or us. Did you even care to think about how she felt after that weekend?" Tommy asked, pointing a sharp finger in Nikki's direction. Nikki stayed silent, looking away from Tommy and down at his feet. "No, of course, you didn't. Because you're just another selfish asshole right now. You know I should punch you in the face right now for hurting Sammi,"

Nikki bit his lip, glancing around to the corners of the room. "She is okay, at least? Can I talk to her?" Nikki asked, switching the jacket from hand to the other in a way to stop fidgeting, finally looking Tommy in the eye.

Tommy scuffed at Nikki, slowly shaking his head. "What makes you think I'm gonna tell you anything about Sam?"

"Tommy, I know I fucked up bad with her. I do! But please give me her number. I just want to know if she's okay," Nikki begged, cringing at the coldness he was getting from Tommy. Tommy didn't want to bother with Nikki any longer; he didn't want to bother anyone who messed with Sammi.

"Just leave Sammi alone, man. If she really wanted to see you, she would've gone to your house and said goodbye. She's perfectly fine getting a whole new life," said Tommy, sitting back down on the sofa. Nikki stood standing in the same spot, looking anywhere but Tommy, seeing more photos of the drummer's family. A photo of the three Bass siblings at one of the Motley shows, Sammi being the only thing Nikki could see. It was moments like these Nikki wished he could run back to his den in a second.

Nikki sighed out deeply. "Fine, if that's what she wants, I'll leave her alone. Thanks for telling me, Tommy," Nikki muttered out, turning on his heels to the door. As Nikki was stepping closer to the door, Tommy gazed down at Sammi's jacket in Nikki's hands, bouncing his leg up and down anxiously.

"Nikki," Tommy said out, Nikki turning back to face Tommy right as his hand touched the doorknob. Tommy only swallowed hard when he looked at Nikki hanging onto the last thing he had of Sammi's, noting the tight grip the entire time. It hurt Tommy to be this tough on Nikki, knowing the circumstances of everyone involved. Tommy could see the hurt in Nikki's eyes but needed to remind himself Sammi was more important than his bandmate. After everything, Tommy saw Sammi's expressions, seeing her sulk in silence while appearing happy about her future. This was all too difficult for Tommy. The soft spot he had for Nikki would always be there even if Tommy tried not to. "If it makes you feel any better, you were a greater boyfriend than Vince to Sammi," Tommy half-heartedly joked with Nikki, shrugging his shoulders.

Nikki scuffed, firmly twisting the doorknob open. "If I was such a great boyfriend, then why didn't she give me a heads up?" Nikki asked, walking right out of the room without hearing any answer. Tommy pressed his lips firmly together, reaching over to finish the rest of his brandy in one gulp. Tommy could hear the echo of the front door shut, soon seeing Heather's figure walk closer to him.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Tommy asked Heather.

Heather only smiled shortly. "Of course, I was. Why didn't Sammi say bye to Nikki?" Heather asked, leaning her body against the doorframe. "Or even tell him anything about moving before they broke up?"

"Because Sammi would rather run away from her feelings than face them head-on," Tommy said to Heather, shaking his head slightly.

"Did you mean it?" Heather asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Mean what?" Tommy asked, wrinkling his brows close together.

"That Nikki was a better boyfriend than Vince?"

Tommy sighed out, resting his head on the back of the sofa, throwing his hands in the air. "He didn't cheat on her. Sammi seemed different when she was with Nikki compared to Vince. Nikki seemed really different when he was with Sammi all together. Maybe Athena and I were dumb to keep them apart at first. I don't know," Tommy said, arm reaching for Heather's waist when feeling her by his side. Heather rested her hand on Tommy's chest, soothing him with her touch.

"It'll be okay. Everything will work itself out," Heather coined in Tommy's ear, leaving feather-like kisses on her husband's neck.

Nikki stared up at the chandelier that hung high above his head, seeing the outside front lights reflect off of it. Foreigner had begun playing on the radio, Nikki internally begging it wasn't that one song when the music began. The tile was stone-cold against Nikki's back as he felt the heroin coarse through his veins, his mind becoming foggy at a fast pace. Nikki was completely alone tonight. Only this time, he could feel the loneliness sets in. The difference between being alone and lonely is sometimes always blurred from the thin line. Nikki enjoyed being alone for a certain period because he knew someone would come barging in on him, whether that be Sammi with a smile of affection or Tommy with a smile of mischief. But tonight was the feeling of loneliness that only seemed to go away with a certain drug type. Nikki looked beside him to see a tossed jacket on his right, grabbing it and covering part of his body with it. He brought it up to his nose, still smelling the perfume it was intoxicated with. If he believed in God, Nikki would start praying to him.

June 23rd, 1986

San Francisco, California

In the middle of June, Sammi was surprised by the cool breeze San Francisco always had once the sun was quickly covered by clouds. Even if it only lasted for a short time, every local was prepared for the change with light jackets that went with their style. Hiding her hands in the pockets of a brand new hoodie, Sammi walked the few blocks south from her new apartment to the medical campus of UCSF, on the hunt to find a bookstore. San Francisco reminded Sammi of Manhattan in several ways for the city itself, everything close together with many concrete streets compared to nature. It was different from how Sammi lived in Los Angeles; everything felt the complete opposite of the young woman. People were either too friendlier for Sammi right off the bat or entirely in their own little worlds. Sammi didn't mind this, as she knew she was only here for school and nothing else.

Sammi followed the concrete pathways when entering the campus grounds, looking around for some direction to help her out. It wasn't the first time Sammi had walked around UCSF, but to her own fault, she couldn't remember where everything was exactly. Standing in front of a full grounds map, Sammi pursed her lips out as she scanned for the bookstore.

"Hello!" a voice said over Sammi's shoulder out of nowhere, making Sammi jump with fear, not ever feeling the voice come near her. Sammi spun on her heels with wide eyes, staring at a smiling girl who appeared to be her age standing particular close to Sammi. "Are you new here?" the girl asked, her voice sounding high pitched like a barbie. Sammi stepped back a bit to give herself some personal space, looking down at the girl with a frown. Appearance-wise the girl looked like a plain jane, wearing a knee-length dress and hair pushed back with a headband. "Oh I'm sorry, did I scare you?" The girl asked in concern.

"Yeah, you did. Do you always come up behind random people?" Sammi asked, fixing the strap of her crossbody bag.

"No, well yes, but for good reason! I noticed you looked a little lost as I was coming out of the building. Do you need help finding anything?" The girl asked, eyes resembling a puppy.

Sammi relaxed her stubborn face, hands hiding back into her pockets. "Would you happen to know where the bookstore is?" Sammi asked with a shrug.

"Of course! Follow me!" the girl said with an enthusiastic smile, walking right back into the direction of the building. Sammi followed in tow, standing a comfortable distance from the stranger who looked over her shoulder to smile at Sammi. "So what's your name?" the girl asked, opening the door for Sammi.

"Samantha. Yours?" answered Sammi. The two continued to walk through fluorescent-lit hallways until finding an exit. The girls walked into an open garden in the middle of all the buildings, students sitting around.

"Rebecca, but you can call me Becky. Everyone does. Are you from the area?" Becky asked.

"No, I just moved from Los Angles to come here. I've only been here a short while," Sammi answered, looking around as the two walked the short distance to another building.

"Oh, wow! That's so cool! Do you get to see a bunch of celebrities like movie stars every day?" Becky asked with bright eyes.

"Kind of, but that's only because my brother is well known down there. It's not always celebrities 24/7," Sammi smiled slightly.

"Still, it has to be beautiful down there. You get to be near the beach, and the sun is nice out every day," Rebecca said.

"Yeah, it is nice. My family and friends are all down there, so I do miss it,"

"So what does your brother do if he's well known? Maybe I've heard of him,"

"His name's Tommy Lee. He's a drummer for a band called Motley Crue," Sammi said, walking a few steps ahead of Becky before she noticed the stranger was standing still in her spot. Becky scrunched her eyebrows deeply, playing with a necklace around her neck that resembled a cross. "Rebecca?"

"You're related to someone from that devil band?" Rebecca asked, wrinkling her nose as if she were disgusted.

Sammi raised one eyebrow at Rebecca, confused at the girl's reaction to hearing the name Motley Crue. "What? The guys aren't a devil band. Do you actually believe that?"

"All rock music is part of the devil, especially when talking about women in a certain light. That band even have a song about the devil,"

"Yeah, Shout At The Devil, I already heard all the Jesus-freaks cry about it. But come on Rebecca, you're serious about my brother and… friends being devil people?" Sammi asked, breaking into a smile as if the whole thing was a joke.

"Yes, I do,"

"Trust me, they aren't! I had a whole conversation with the bass player about this, and he promised me he stopped thinking about the devil,"

"Really? How did you do that?" Rebecca asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sammi straightened her shoulders, scratching the back of her neck as she looked away from Rebecca. "Because he's a special person who only listens to me sometimes," Sammi said with a repressed smile to not sound rude in any way.

"Well, if they aren't devil worshippers, then you must admit about their sinful behavior how they all treat women like a toy. Their drinking. I read those gossip magazines for fun, I know," Rebecca said, nose in the air.

Sammi pressed her lips tight together, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes. "Okay, while I can admit they're kind of bad with women sometimes if they like someone, they'll give them some respect. Like my brother, who just got married. But the whole devil and God shit doesn't mean anything to us,"

"Us?"

"Yeah. Us. The guys and I aren't religious in the slightest bit. I don't even remember the last time I went to church," Sammi said, shrugging her shoulders.

"So, in that case, you partake in the sinful acts they do? Since the bass player listens to you, you might as well hang out with him," Rebecca asked, raising one brow and folding her arms across her chest.

"If you mean like drinking and partying, then yeah, I do that," Sammi said, scrunching up her face. "It's not a big deal,"

"Is that it? You don't do any other things that aren't meant for a special?"

Sammi narrowed her eyes at Rebecca in more confusion until a light bulb flickered in her mind. "Oh, you mean sex? Yeah, I've had sex before. I think waiting 'til marriage is pretty stupid. Why do you care?"

Rebecca glared at Sammi, her body stiffening at the idea of sinful acts. "You know I thought you were going to be a responsible young lady, but if you're the kind to hang around men like that, then I can leave you here," Rebecca said.

Sammi's eyes opened wide at the insult. "First off, I am responsible, and second you don't even know me. Why should you care? Just because I hung out with a band back home doesn't mean anything, Mother Teresa. I could've done far worse by myself if I wanted,"

"It's a good way to judge someone's character by the people they surround themselves with," Rebecca answered.

Sammi rolled her eyes. "Whatever, thanks for walking me this far. I hope never to see you again," Sammi said with a smile, waving at Rebecca that then turned to a middle finger, causing the girl to gasp.

"How rude!" Rebecca exclaimed as Sammi walked towards the door of the next building.

"You can thank the bass player for that!" Sammi shouted over her shoulder, smiling to herself as she entered the building, finding the bookstore on her near right.

Pushing the unlocked door with a foot to a tiny one-bedroom apartment, Sammi walked into the darkness of her new home. She switched on the closet light with her elbow to see boxes scattered around the living room, some filled with photos and other belongings of Sammi's that were still needing attention. Sammi dropped the pile of three heavy books on the kitchen counter, sighing out in exhaustion from carrying them the long way back. Sammi looked around the dwelling, grubbing for motivation in these white walls. Even with furniture slowly filling up space, it all still felt empty to Sammi, not having the feeling of home just yet. Sammi dropped herself on the loveseat sofa, dreading having to finish unpacking but knew it had to be done. As she sat in silence, Sammi couldn't help but reach for the phone beside her, dialing in numbers from memory. The phone dialed for what felt like an eternity, Sammi's heart beginning to race from the nerves, biting her nails.

"Hello?" a raspy voice slurred on the other line, Sammi pressing her lips shut tight, forgetting how to speak. Sammi's hands ran clammy, hearing Nikki's little slurring murmurs through the phone. "Who is this?" Nikki slurred again, Sammi closing her eyes as she rubbed her temple. "Why are you calling?" Nikki slurred again. This time Sammi could hear his panic, making her slam the handset hard against the phone body. She dropped her head in the palm of her hands, groaning out in frustration at Nikki but mostly at herself. Sammi missed Nikki, even though to the best of her abilities, she tried not to, repeating to herself moving was a good thing, which is what she did again, taking in a deep breath and stood up to unpack another box that was close to her, trying to make the best of a sticky situation.

9 notes · View notes

latestageyouth · 5 years

Text

When you walk away (Nothing more to say)

chapter 2 - #Pattonisleftoutonceagain

trigger warnings: sympathetic Remus and Deceit, mention of human taxidermy (just one sentence), grave-robbing (no active grave robbing), swearing, dogs, mentions of death but no one actually dies

summary: Just the boyos bonding in an old haunted church (I am sorry Patton stans Patton just would not allow of This Behavior™)

author’s note: uploaded another one! yay! the trigger warnings on this one are wild, I didn’t even realize that haha. Anyways, enjoy!

There was something wet on his face. Virgil scrunched up his eyebrows. The wet seemed to move, it felt kind of harsh on his skin. It was shaped...like a tongue. Virgil shot up, eyes wide. He looked at the spot next to him on the couch, staring at the golden retriever who was still trying to lick him. He moved away from the couch.

He heard someone chuckle behind him, "Good morning, Sunshine," he turned around to be faced with Roman, who was eating eggs at the table.

Virgil opened his mouth to say something, but found himself stuck, as if there was a hand around his throat, but inside.

"Rise and shine," Roman took another bite of his eggs.

Virgil scrambled for his phone. Uncle Emile is gonna kill him. Sure enough, there were 23 messages and missed calls in total. He was soon typing out a response: 'Hey, Em, I'm okay, sorry I scared you, I fell asleep.'

He looked at the smudged number on his forearm and decided to save it. He also texted this number 'Remus? Where did u go? u still in the house?'

He got the response almost immediately. 'no we went to starbucks lmao'

'so u finally woke up lolololololol'

He also sent a picture of Virgil sleeping on the couch.

'so,,,bootiful,,,,,,,so,,puree'

'lmao'

Virgil huffed and began typing: 'ok, I get it, stop spamming me. Also, bring me a caramel latte would u??'

'k'

Virgil looked at the time, 7:23 shining on the screen. He opened Notes, typing out a question for Roman: 'is that ur dog?'

He turned the screen to face Roman, who looked at it and then at the dog eating from his bowl, "Yeah, her name's Princess Stain The Sixth" before Virgil could ask him what the fuck, Roman continued, "Remus named her, we just call her Princess."

Oh, that explains it. Virgil nodded. There was a long silence between the two of them, Virgil looking at Princess while Roman ate his eggs.

"So...you're mute?" at last Roman looked up at the other. Virgil contemplated the answer. He didn't want to explain his condition and answer Roman's questions, and there was not much of a chance that he will ever speak around him. He nodded.

"Ah, sorry about yesterday, there aren't any mute or deaf students in our school. I know that's not an excuse, but still," he took the plate and put it in the sink, "Though I do have one question..." Virgil raised his eyebrows, "Why do you hang out with Remus?"

Virgil began typing, well, actually deleting more than typing: 'I mean, yeah he can be a bit extra, but he's not that bad when you tune out most of the things he says.'

Roman quirked an eyebrow, "'A little bit extra'? I'm sorry, are we talking about the same person? He listed off more gory and effective ways to kill the main characters while we watched the movie. One of which included a detailed process of human taxidermy."

'Okay, he can be really fucking disgusting when he wants, but at least he's not a boring prude.'

Roman shook his head, "Try living with him, after a week you would be crying tears of happiness if he stopped talking."

Virgil stared at him.

"R-right, sorry."

Both looked at the front door as it practically flew open, "Hi bitches! Dee already went to school, but I just couldn't leave you here," Remus walked over to Virgil and handed him a Starbucks cup. He took a sip and scrunched up his face. Pure black coffee, "Oops, sorry, must've gotten them mixed up."

How can you even drink that? Virgil questioned. He wanted an answer to that, but the Latte was more important.

"Okay, so we have a few minutes before the school bell rings, do you need anything?" Roman looked at the clock hanging above the fridge, then at the other two. Virgil shrugged, there wasn't anything he could take. Remus went to his room for his backpack. Virgil got out his phone again, seeing there was 1 unread message from his uncle: 'Alrighty, just make sure that it will not happen again :) love you too, meet me at school <3' Virgil smiled a little at that.

"Okay, that's everything, let's go!" Remus was already out the door, and Virgil ran to catch up to him, Roman just stayed behind them.

They were walking too fast, so Virgil couldn't type without it looking like a bunch of gibberish. Instead, Virgil settled into listening to Remus ramble on and on about that one cute boy in Starbucks with a broken nose, how Damon got almost bit by Princess again, about what time he wants to spray the graffiti in the boy's bathroom...wait what? Virgil tried to forget about the last part. He didn't want to get in trouble on his second day, this school will be different. He's gonna be a good student...well, at least a mediocre one. Yeah, mediocre is good, none of this graffiti business. He hopes Remus won't be offended. It was nice having a friend. Were they even friends? Virgil felt a nudge on his shoulder.

"Dude, you gucci?" Virgil nodded, "So yeah, as I was saying, deodorant doesn't taste that bad."

They departed while going to their lockers. None of their lockers were close to one another, which Virgil thought was a shame, but at least Remus isn't sure which is his. He wouldn't want to open it one day only to find it filled with dead possums or whatever Remus would think of. He caught the sight of Damon talking with one of the girls in his English class. When Damon finally noticed Virgil looking at him, he wasted no time approaching him, ignoring the girl, who eventually scoffed and walked away.

"So, the sleeping beauty finally woke up, huh?" Virgil gave him an unamused look, nudging his head against the direction of the girl. Damon looked back at her, "Oh, Bailey? Don't worry about her, just gossiping," he waved his hand dismissively.

"What are we talking about?" Remus said as he leaned against Virgil's locker.

"Okay, you didn't hear it from me, but Remy was caught fucking with Nate under the social studies hallway's staircase. Again. But, like, I dunno, it's just a rumour after all..." Deceit exaggerated his hand movements for a more dramatic effect.

"Okay, we all know the last part is bullshit. Of course he would get caught, he's such an amateur," they both looked between the three, their eyes landing on Virgil, "...You don't know who Remy is, do you?" Virgil shook his head.

"Remy is the school's professional slacker. He spends all of his nights at concerts and parties, then drinks coffee to try to stay awake, which doesn't work most of the time anyway, so he sleeps a lot in class. If you offer to buy him Starbucks he will do anything for you. He's also a major slut, a cheater. He's utterly disgusting. Don't ever talk to him," the longer Damon talked the more intense his death glare got, but although it was aimed at Virgil, it wasn't aimed at Virgil.

"You're only saying that because he broke up with you," Remus smirked.

At that moment, the glare was averted to Remus and Damon looked more offended than angry, "He absolutely did not! I broke up with him. It was his fault that he was drunk and still thought we were together. I didn't even know he was drunk. It's those godforsaken glasses, he never takes them off. Why the hell does he even wear them?" Damon crossed his arms.

"Maybe he doesn't have eyes..."

Virgil squinted his eyes and let out an exaggerated cough. The couple looked up at him.

"Oooh yeah, sorry, we forgot about you," there wasn't anything malicious behind Remus' words, as far as Virgil could tell.

"Anyways," the two diverted their eyes at Damon, who pointed his finger at Virgil, "You have economics, right?" Virgil nodded, "Great, we too," Damon smirked. At the word 'economics' Remus let out a loud and exaggerated groan. Damon just rolled his eyes, "C'mon, economics isn't that bad when you actually put in effort."

Remus put his face in his hands, "I don't wanna put in effort..." he drew out the last word.

"Nevertheless, we should probably get to class," and so, the three began walking down the halls. When they did get to the classroom, Remus and Damon already sat together and shrugged at Virgil. There were two empty seats. One was next to a sleeping guy with a leather jacket whose coffee was tipped over and slowly trickled on his desk. He assumed that was Remy, no thanks, he'd rather sit next to that cafeteria kid from the other day. As soon as he sat down the stranger beamed at him and began talking. Virgil learned his name was Patton, and that Roman had already told him he was mute, so he was sorry. Virgil accepted the apology. There was just something off about him that Virgil couldn't place a finger on. It wasn't the fact that Patton was too cheery and chatty for his own good or the way he always moved his finger, wiggling them around or playing with a pencil, no, Virgil got his fair share of hyperactive friendly kids who make friends with everyone they see. Patton got quiet when the teacher walked in. Almost...too quiet, if that's a thing. Virgil assumes it is. The kid isn't even paying that much attention, much more focused on doodling flowers and cats in his notebook. Virgil decided to ignore it, he wasn't about to stick his nose up some stranger's business. The only interesting moments in the lesson were when Remy woke up and realized he doesn't even have this class, or when one of the other teenagers disrupted the lesson and Mr. Porter got all red in the face. He let out a sigh when the bell rang. As he was getting up a hand wrapped around his shoulders.

"We're thinking about skipping the rest of the day, you comin'?"

Virgil furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Damon, "Don't act like you actually enjoy school. And before you...type anything, yes, it is only your second day, which means they will most likely let you off with a warning, so even if we get caught, you don't have to worry."

"So, you goin'?" Virgil shook his head. Remus raised his eyebrows, "You sure, emo?" Virgil shook his head again, this time slower.

"Well, skipping it is then," Damon walked out of the class as the other two followed. Virgil didn't complain, but it's not like he could anyways, "Around this time, most of the school hall monitors are at the cafeteria or the classrooms, so we can just walk out. If it's not a bad day that is, but even then it's typically just Oliver, who will let you go if you bribe him. Eight dollars usually does it," they were in the door when they heard a voice behind them and froze.

"Did you think you could just skip without me?"

They turned around to be faced with Roman with crossed arms.

"I mean, yeah, kinda," Remus said.

Roman chuckled, "Just because you are the 'Bad Twin' doesn't mean I am not getting sick of this school. So, how about you let me go with you and I won't tell anyone," he held out his hand. Remus stared at it for a while before spitting on his and shaking Roman's. Really, Roman should know better.

"Deal."

"Great, the twins together. Just what I needed," Damon grumbled, and Virgil couldn't help but nod his head in agreement.

"What do you think you're doing? Also, Roman, how could you?"

"Ah shit, not another one," Damon made an actual physically pained face that that.

"Logan, where's Patton?" Roman looked around.

"In the class, like you all should be," Logan pushed up his glasses.

Remus leaned over to the three, "Let's just keeps walking and pretend we didn't hear him," so, they turned around and walked to the school entrance, ignoring Logan's remarks and shouts as he followed them while the others tried to suppress their giggles, Remus especially. It was about 3 minutes after exiting the school and Logan realized there was no chance he could go back now, gave up, and tagged along. They all talked over where they should go, but Virgil's suggestion of going to the old abandoned church won by a majority vote, which meant that Damon, Remus and Virgil were all for it and Logan and Roman tried to protest but failed. The church was about eight minutes from the school. Neither of them knew why the church was abandoned, or how long it was, but nevertheless, it was pretty cool. Virgil didn't have a lot of time to explore the town, so walking around was refreshing. Well, it would be if it wasn't so damn hot.

"God fucking damn it, how can you walk in a leather jacket in this weather and not sweat?" Damon squinted his eyes at Remus.

"I don't sweat, it's disgusting."

Roman laughed, "So that's disgusting to you? Sweating? Nevermind that, how does that even work? You just don't sweat 'cause you don't want to?" he said with a mocking tone.

Remus gave him a deadpan look, "Yeah. Sweating is disgusting, so I don't do it."

Roman didn't know how to respond to that. Neither did any of them, except for Logan, "Well, there is a condition called anhidrosis, which is a reduced ability or inability to produce sweat. Is it possible that you have that?"

"No, I think I just don't like sweating," Remus shook his head.

"Can we stop talking about sweating and instead focus on the fact that the church is surrounded by a fence?" Damon gestured his hand towards the old church which came into view, "I mean, of course, we can just climb over it, but it has spikes, so..."

"Is there a hole under the fence? Or maybe in it?" Logan pushed his glasses up. Damon looked at him.

"It's iron, try again, sherlock," the group walked closer to the church. Remus was already touching the fence, trying to climb over it while Roman tried to stop him and get him back down. They all looked around when they heard a phone ringing. Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He sighed and put the phone to his ear.

"Yes, Patton?" the other four tried to be as quiet as possible, "Ah, no, I am afraid I'm not at school, I..." Logan looked between all of them, settling at Damon who was mouthing 'You're sick', if Virgil guessed correctly, "I got nauseous, so the teachers made me go home," there is a bit of silence, only a muffled quiet voice coming from the phone that neither of them could decipher, "Yes, I would appreciate. I apologize for making you anxious...Yes, of course. See you after school," he ended the call and put the phone back in his back pocket.

"You didn't mute your phone, are you fucking mental?"

"Remus, shut the fuck up, anyways, do any of you see a gate?" after Damon stopped talking Virgil pointed at Logan. The other four looked at him confused. He gestured for Logan to move, then pointed again. The four looked in the said direction, "Oh, there it is. Does anyone know how to pick locks?"

"I do," said two voices at once. Remus and Logan looked at each other, "To be honest, I am not surprised," Logan said.

"To be honest, I am pleasantly surprised. What else can you do with those hands, nerd?"

"Right, well, Remus, I am sure you have a bobby pin in that monstrosity you call hair," Damon scrunched up his nose.

Remus pulled out two bobby pins out of his bun, "You're just jelly of my long shiny locks."

"That greasy thing hasn't been washed in three years, I am not jealous. Trust me."

Remus and Logan walked over to the lock, "Padlocks are easy to picklock, this should only take a couple seconds," Logan takes on of the bobby pins out of Remus' hand and puts it in the lock. They can't really see what the two are doing, but as promised, they hear the padlock open. Remus throws the padlock away and Loga opens the gate. Remus is the first one to run in, walking to the front door. The rest followed and quickly caught up with him.

The church itself had two large towers on either side. It had a stone structure and the left tower was missing a roof on one side. It had long stained glass windows with a pointed arch, some of the lower ones were broken. The right tower and what had remained of the left had a sharply pointed spire with a cross on top.

"I am assuming this is gothic revival church since an original gothic church would be more broken than this."

"Who cares, let's go inside!" Roman was already opening the door. Surprisingly, the door was open. They stepped inside. The inside was massive. It was long with columns on either side. Instead of the ceiling was a ribbed vault, "Holy shit..." Roman's voice echoed through the church. The crunching of the leaves on the floor echoed as well. Everything echoed.

"Remus, if you scream I swear to god..." Damon glared at the said man. Remus just smiled and shrugged. Then he screamed. After everyone was done covering their ears and the echo slowly fainted, the four began yelling at him and Damon pushed him away, to which Remus just laughed.

They explored the church for a while, which involved Remus mostly hanging off the statues and drawing on the walls with pens, Logan taking pictures and analyzing the interior, Roman standing behind the podium and preaching about Beyonce and Damon and Virgil messing with the organ. After that, they went out in the back where the graveyard was.

"I bet the church was closed down because it was haunted. Do you think someone was killed here?"

Damon looked at Remus, "It's an old abandoned church, of course someone was killed here."

"Do you think there are ghosts?" Roman looked back at the angel statue covered in moss that they passed a while ago.

"Ghosts don't exist."

"Of course they do, specs," Roman spat back.

"Is that so? Do you have any physical proof to back up your statement?"

"No, that's kinda the point of ghosts."

"My dudes, I think I just found a grave robbed grave," they turned to look in Remus' direction. The said man was looming over a seemingly empty grave. When they took a closer look at it they noticed that the casket was opened and almost invisible under the dirt that fell back in the hole. The decomposed remains of the women in it looked terrifying, "That's, like, so cool. I wish that were me."

Virgil didn't think it was cool. Actually, he thought it was revolting and unnerving. The thought of him dying and someone just digging up his corpse to look for something to make money with is disturbing. He stepped away from the grave. He didn't feel safe anymore, instead, it was replaced with an eerie feeling that someone was watching them. He needed to get out of here. He pulled out his phone and began typing. He tapped on Roman's shoulder and the shorter man eventually turned around and read the message, 'u wanna go to dennys? i havent eaten anything all day and im starving'

Roman turned to the others, "Hey, wanna go to Dennys? I am starting to feel kinda hungry."

"Glad you mentioned it, my stomach acids are literally starting to eat me up from the inside," Remus turned around to face the other two.

"Yeah, sure."

"That is satisfactory."

#when you walk away (nothing more to say)#sympathetic deceit #sympathetic remus #sanders sides #virgil sanders #deceit sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #analodemus #slow burn #the slowest burn

19 notes · View notes

imagine-loki · 5 years

Text

Giftless

TITLE: Giftless CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 20/50

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE:

Imagine that you are Stark’s niece and you secretly share a strong relationship with Loki since he entered the crew. One day you get hurt so bad during a mission that you are about to die. Loki knows a spell that will save you and share his immortality with you but you and he will be linked forever sharing thoughts, pain, emotions…

RATING: T NOTES/WARNINGS: Underage reader (no sex!!) Also on AO3 click here

“Y/N KATHRYN STARK!” you heard your named bellowed the next morning. You and Loki were sitting on your couch in the common room minding your own business and actually not causing trouble. It was an impressively quiet morning around the tower. Until Tony started bellowing anyway.

You looked up from your laptop, on which you were supposed to be writing an essay that was due Monday, but instead you were posting the pictures of yourself and Loki from yesterday on social media. Loki had taken a bunch of pictures yesterday, so the upload was taking awhile, but that couldn’t have anything to do with Tony’s anger. You quickly thought over everything you had done recently, but couldn’t think of anything you’d done that would upset Tony. At least not that much.

“What’s wrong, Uncle Tony?” you asked, really having no idea this time why he was so pissed.

He glared at you as if you should know why he was angry. “WHY ARE YOU ON THE NEWS?” he demanded, still roaring.

You just stared at him, shocked. You weren’t concerned over his roaring or anger, especially not after he’d accidentally thrown you into a wall. He wasn’t going to risk your safety again anytime soon after that.

“I’m on the news?” you asked dumbly. That was the only reaction you could think of to that accusation. You hadn’t done anything worthy of getting on the news for.

Tony grabbed the remote and smashed buttons until the local news came on. You stared at it in shock. They were showing images and a short clip of you and Loki on your date yesterday.

Oops.

You knew you were a celebrity, but you forgot that led to being on TV on occasion.

“WHY IS HE KISSING YOU ON TV?” Tony roared, as they showed the image of you kissing in front of all the fangirls. You blushed and looked away from him. “WHY THE HELL IS HE KISSING YOU AT ALL?”

You rolled your eyes at that. Even Tony couldn’t be that oblivious. “He’s my boyfriend. Kisses do kind of come with the territory,” you replied with snark and sarcasm in your voice. It wasn’t your fault your dumb uncle hadn’t realized that you and Loki were officially an item.

The news reporter drew your attention as he was talking about how local celebrity niece of the infamous Ironman, appeared to now be dating Tom Hiddleston, famous actor who played the character Loki in all of the Avengers movies. “Their info is wrong anyway. Someone will rectify it eventually,” you shrugged. You weren’t concerned. Hiddleston’s publicity team wouldn’t let the mistake go on for long. “Calm down, Uncle Tony. It’ll blow over in a few days. Go do something heroic and it’ll go away faster. I’m not nearly as interesting as you are,” you reminded him and the rest of the supers in the room laughed and cheered in general agreement that they’d take down a bunch of villains so you’d be out of the news again sooner. You couldn’t help laughing at them. The younger supers were always so enthusiastic.

You were recognizable especially since Ironman and all of the Avengers were so famous, even the younger supers who lived here after magic exploded across the world. They did save the world, and especially New York, all the time. Since Tony was one of the few supers whose secret identify was compromised, you ended up being a topic of celebrity gossip too. It was an occupational hazard of being a Stark. You were usually boring, so you didn’t end up in the news often, but it happened on occasion, especially when there wasn’t much news. Your hair was a hindrance since it was so distinctively colored, which is why you had tried dying it last year. That hadn’t ended well.

You went back to work on your laptop, ignoring Tony’s spluttering. He growled about it awhile longer, but the story went away quickly when the press was notified that the person you were kissing was in fact not Tom Hiddleston. Duh. Tom didn’t have Loki’s hair unless he was filming. The news people claimed they were going to try to find out who the mysterious Tom Hiddleston look-alike was, and the story blew over from there.

Tony finally calmed down, and even seemed to accept that you were dating Loki, though he didn’t seem to like it. You figured it was just because he was your uncle and legal guardian.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet. You went to school with Loki every day. He sent you notes during classes all day and was generally adorable. You had combat training every day, and you were getting better with the dagger as well as with hand-to-hand fighting. Loki was even teaching you how to speak with him telepathically. It wasn’t perfect, since you were a human without magic, but he taught you meditation and how to order your mind. He could speak to you with his own telepathy and if you thought about your response in a focused manner, he could hear the reply. He taught you how to put up boundaries on thoughts and memories you didn’t want him to overhear and you trusted absolutely that he wouldn’t invade your privacy. You didn’t master it in a week, or course, it would always be a work in process, since you didn’t have powers, but you made headway. It made it a lot easier to talk to him when he was guarding you.

Tony took you out for breakfast on the morning of your birthday. He took you to the same restaurant every year, which was adorable and showed he cared. You also went to the arcade and the indoor amusement park in the mall, which was also tradition. You had a feeling Loki was sad that he couldn’t spend the entire day with you, but he was glad you were enjoying the day with your uncle. He would see you that evening for your party.

Your birthday was also one of the days each year that you went to the cemetery to visit your parents. You brought flowers to their grave and told them everything you had been up to since the last time you had been to visit. Tony stood nearby, but out of earshot. This was another tradition. You couldn’t actually talk to your parents anymore, or get advice from them, but you liked thinking that they were watching over you, and it made you feel better to talk to their graves, talk to them like they could hear and answer. So you told them all about Loki and how much fun you were having. You told your mom how you had chosen to date your best friend, just like she always said you should. You told your dad how he was a perfect gentleman and how he would be able to find no fault in Loki’s behavior towards you. You told them both that you were careful, even living with the supers, and how much you loved them and you would try to come visit them again soon. You promised to bring Loki to come meet them, so they could interrogate him for themselves.

With bittersweet tears, you went to Tony’s spot. He wrapped you in a hug. “You ok, kid?” he asked as he hugged you too tightly. This was hard for him too, though he held it together better for your sake.

You nodded against his chest. Tony wasn’t big on hugs, but he made an exception for you. Especially today.

“I just miss them,” you told him, rubbing the tears from your eyes. He kissed the top of your head.

“I know. I do too,” he held you for another minute. “Do you mind if you tell them goodbye?” he asked. You shook your head and waited for him to say a few words to their graves. He didn’t talk to them like you did, but he always said something before you left. Your dad was his brother after all, you weren’t surprised he missed them too.

You felt phantom arms wrap around you while you watched Tony. The arms were cool, just like their owner. You weren’t surprised he had found out what you were up to. “Thank you, Loki,” you whispered, knowing his touch even when he wasn’t really there. “I’m ok. I’ll see you soon.” He was too far to talk to you telepathically safely, apparently he risked hurting you if he used to much power to make the connection, so he didn’t do it unless you were in fairly close proximity already.

Tony took you for ice cream to try make you smile again before you went back to the tower to spend the evening with your super family.

Loki hugged you the second you walked through the door of the tower. “Are you ok?” he asked, concerned. “You were crying,” he whispered in your ear. He didn’t usually spy, but he must’ve felt your emotions leak through.

“We went to visit my parents,” you explained softly. He nodded his understanding and pressed a kiss to your hair, comforting you.

Almost immediately afterwards, the festivities began. There was a huge sign reading “Happy 18th Birthday!” And stupid party hats all around. There was cake, pizza, and even more ice cream. All of the supers stopped by to wish you a happy birthday and add their donations to the huge pile of presents in front of you. You opened them to find mostly books, which you thanked everyone for. Though Nat got you a new taser, Clint decided you needed a bow and arrow set that you’d never use, Bruce got you some scary book about science he insisted helped him through med school. The original Avengers tried their best, even though you rarely saw them.

The last present came from Loki. The tiny familiar teal box appeared in his hand. You had seen your dad give your mom gifts in those boxes all the time growing up. There was only one store in the universe you knew of that used that particular shade of blue in their gift wrapping. And no way that Loki should have been able to afford anything from there. “Happy birthday, darling,” he told you.

You took the box from him, surprised. “Thank you,” you replied automatically. You opened the box to find a gorgeous silver bracelet with black and green gems in it. There was also a gift receipt in the box, showing that Loki had actually bought the bracelet instead of conjuring it. You wouldn’t have minded if he conjured it, but you knew it was extra special to him for actually buying it. He had gone and done the thing the Midgardian way. “It’s gorgeous,” you told him as you pulled the bracelet out of the box and clasped it around your wrist. “I love it!” you jumped up and hugged him, wrapping your arms tightly around his neck. “And I love you,” you whispered in his ear. You hadn’t been brave enough to say the words until then.

“You are most welcome, my darling,” he replied. You kissed him deeply to catcalls from your family.

“Come on! Time for movies!” one of the teens called. You relocated the party to the common room where the movie was already set up.

“Sorry,” you told Loki. “It’s tradition. Superhero Musical followed by the first Avengers movie.” He smiled.

“That is nothing to be sorry for. They love you, my dear, and want to spend time with you, as do I,” you grinned and sat on the loveseat with Loki, in the place of honor directly in front of the TV. You sang your way through the musical with your friends and family around you. Loki even tried to join in for the duet, but he hadn’t memorized all of the words yet. You applauded him for trying, though.

Part of the way through the Avengers movie, Wanda, who had the remote, paused the movie and looked directly at Loki. The heads of everyone else turned to him as well. “Why are they staring at me?” Loki asked you.

You erupted into laughter. “They want you to say the line,” you explained. You weren’t surprised this was happening, especially after the news story everyone saw confusing him for the actor in the movie.

“Say the line!” the supers called. “Say the line! Say the line! Say the line!” the words became a chant. You laughed even harder.

“They’re not going to stop until you say the line,” you told Loki over the chanting. He sighed and rolled his eyes. With his put-upon expression he held up a hand to quiet the chant. The room fell silent immediately.

“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose,” he intoned in the most dull dry monotone possible. The crowd groaned at him and started throwing popcorn and other small harmless object at him. You shrieked and held your arms up in front of you to deflect the projectiles. Not everyone had good aim and didn’t care if they hit you in collateral damage.

“Do it right!” they complained.

He sighed again, but you saw the glint in his eyes. He was pleased and enjoying himself. He held up his hand again. He stood, and then stepped up onto the coffee table. In the same movement, his clothing changed to an exact replica of the character’s including the golden horned helmet.

“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose. Kneel before me,” he hesitated for a moment. “I said KNEEL!” he bellowed. You burst out laughing at the cheers of the crowd. A few of them actually knelt, while the rest applauded his rendition. Loki rejoined you on the couch, not bothering to change his clothes back to normal. You laughed and leaned over to give him a kiss.

After the movie, Loki walked you up to your suite. After you’d hugged your friends and your uncle one last time and thanked them all for a wonderful birthday. “I have one other gift for you, darling. Though I did not wish to give it to you in front of the others,” Loki told you when you were safely away from the others.

“Loki, you shouldn’t have,” you chided him. He had already done enough by getting you the bracelet. You knew it couldn’t have been cheap, not when it came from that jewelry store.

He moved his hands and a box appeared in them, despite your protests. He wasn’t going to give up no matter what you did, so you took the box and opened it to find a leather dagger sheath. An empty leather dagger sheath. That seemed like a strange gift and you raised an eyebrow at Loki when you looked up at him.

“It is enchanted,” he explained. “Anytime you reach for a dagger from it, one will be there. You need never be without a weapon again,” he added.

“Thank you. That’s amazing!” you told him. You tried it, attempting to pull a dagger from the empty sheath. One appeared and you were able to pull it from the sheath. You wondered how much work had gone in to making such a thing, but you had a feeling you would never find out. That didn’t make it any less fantastic.

You felt a lot safer knowing you’d always have a weapon.

“Did you have a good birthday?” he asked you once you were curled up on the couch in your sittingroom together. You nodded.

“It was perfect,” you replied.

You got to spend the last moments of the day enjoying kisses from your boyfriend.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #giftless #chapter 20 #Nekoamamori

57 notes · View notes

a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan · 6 years

Text

Linked Universe Fanfiction ch. 9: Can We Get Back to Adventuring, Please?

Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!

So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my Linked Universe fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name--Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story--I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 11: Can We Get Back to Adventuring, Please?

The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?

Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.

The Links continue their journey to the next village and now face a dense, dark forest. By the way, have you ever wondered what the Links think of the Timeline? Thus continues my fan narrative of the @linkeduniverse AU. Word count: 1275

“Just a few more minutes, boys!” Wind exclaimed. “We’ll be out of these hills and into the… oh, shoot.”

Legend smirked. “You forgot about the possible swarms of monsters?”

“… Yeah.”

The Links had been walking a shade above three hours since returning to reality. The fire was far from gone from their minds, but they were glad to be rid of this place. They had to admit it was beautiful, though. The noontime sun shone on rolling hills, wind blowing the tall, swaying grass. A few clouds had crept up on the edges of the horizon but showed no sign of raining on their proverbial parade.

As far as Time was concerned, things were back to normal. His companions hadn’t brought up the masks, and they acted no differently towards him than before today. Time suspected they may still have questions but didn’t want to dampen their good mood by asking them. That was fine. They could discuss it more tonight when they were comfortable and safe in an inn.

Wild chuckled. “Relax, Wind. We don’t know for sure if there are any monsters. The woods are just so thick that I can’t get a good reading of it.”

“After yesterday,” Legend began, “I’m not shocked there are limitations to that Slate of yours.”

Wild was about to shoot back a retort when Sky butted in, “Drop it. We got out of there safely.”

“Thanks to you, Sky.” Hyrule said.

“You can thank Fi,” he replied, patting the Master Sword’s hilt above his right shoulder. “She was the one that guided us.”

“She is quite the sword,” Time added. Secretly, he hated the Master Sword. He saw it as a curse, one of the many factors that led to his childhood suffering. However, it was a blessing to the other six of them that wielded it. He felt it best not to sully their opinion of it.

“Fi helped me too, once,” Wild said.

Sky looked at the back of Wild’s head; the latter had the map and was leading the group. He thought Fi had only ever spoken to him. He wasn’t offended, per se, more shocked than anything. “Really?”

“I was mortally wounded when Calamity Ganon struck my Hyrule a century ago. Zelda thought I was doomed, but the Master Sword glowed and sort of sang to her. That let her know I could still be saved. I suppose I owe Fi my life.”

“Huh,” Sky replied. He drew the sword. Its silver blade reflected the sun brighter than the others’ swords, save for the Four Sword. He smiled. “Heh, I wouldn’t expect any less of her.”

Given he himself had forged the Master Sword, Sky gathered that his adventure somehow took place before any of the others’. It still confused him how they all could coexist. By reciting the legends and history they knew, they figured out a somewhat cohesive, yet confounding, chain of events.

Sky forged the Master Sword and Hyrule had yet to be established. He was clearly first. Time witnessed the split of the Triforce, so he must be next. Based on the historical texts in Hyrule Castle, Twilight seemed to live centuries after Time. Over their time together, Twilight began to see eerie similarities between Time and the ghostly Hero’s Shade who mentored him. He preferred to ignore them for his own sanity’s sake.

It all got muddier after that. Time had suspected Zelda sending him back in time had somehow disrupted the flow of time. Lo and behold, Wind seemed to also live centuries after Time, but Hyrule had been flooded. His legends told of a Hero of Time that disappeared when he was needed. Time wondered whether Wind lived in the world that Zelda sent him away from.

Even more disturbing was Legend’s story. In his world, Ganon was sealed away by the seven sages, but not a hero. In this alternate reality, could Time have perished in his fight against Ganon? Hyrule had heard vague legends of a legendary sword, but never figured it was the Master Sword until he met his other selves. Strangely, Warrior and Wild somehow seemed to hail from a melding of everyone else’s worlds.

Four was the most peculiar case. Neither the Triforce nor the Master Sword seemed to exist in his world. Instead, there were the Picori bestowing the Light Force upon the Hylians. The concept of it all utterly confused the Links. After trying to piece it together, they never mentioned it again.

Sky was snapped out of his thoughts of multiple timelines and realities when Warrior said suddenly, “Well, it’s about time.”

They had reached the top of a hill and were faced with a tall, dense forest. The heroes couldn’t see the village beyond, but figured the treetops were obscuring it. Wild frowned. He thought they would be able to see it based on map’s elevation readings. He hooked the Sheikah Slate back on his belt.

He withdrew his paraglider from his pouch, gripped one handle with his left hand, and knelt on the ground. In a flash, ghostly flames appeared around Wild. He jumped. An updraft carried him a hundred feet in the air, a hazy image of a Rito soaring up with him. His paraglider holding him aloft, he got a better view of their surroundings.

Satisfied, Wild returned to the ground. Despite seeing him use this ability several times before, the others were still awed by the sight. The concept of fallen warriors imparting this and three other powers upon him was foreign. Time’s experience with his masks was similar, but Wild’s seemed much more wholesome in nature.

“Don’t worry, I can see the tops of buildings way down there,” Wild confirmed. “Five or so hours in there and we’ll be through.”

“Wait, wait,” Warrior said. “Let’s think this through. We do not want another ambush on our hands.”

Wind groaned. He found Warrior’s obsessions with plans and tactics annoying. Time shot him a look. Wind saw it and stood at attention.

Warrior continued, “Legend, arrow count.”

Thinking back to last night, he remembered that he had counted the arrows before going to bed. That seemed so long ago. “Uh… oh, right. Forty-two.”

“Hm… four each. Wild, you’re our best archer, you need more. Volunteers?”

Sky shrugged. “Aye. I’m better with a sword anyway.”

“Seconded,” Time said.

“Third…ed?” Wind flubbed.

A chuckle spread across the group. Fighting back more laughter, Warrior composed himself. “Okay, Wild, take sixteen. Make them count.”

Wild nodded.

“Legend, Twilight, Four, Hyrule. Take four each. I’ll take five.”

Legend pulled their stash of arrows out of his pouch and divvied them up. Warrior came up last and took the remaining five. They fit their ammunition in their quivers. “Right, next order of business,” Warrior continued. “Twi, transform and take point. We need your senses. Wild, I want you behind him with two arrows nocked. Fire at Twi’s mark. Sky, cover them. Everyone else, fall in behind them. I’ll take up the rear. Keep your eyes on the shadows. It looks pretty dark in there, so everyone grab a lantern. We’re low on oil, so let’s try to get out of there ASAP.”

The others nodded. This seemed easy enough. At least, if they didn’t encounter anything nefarious. They knew they probably would, but they could handle it. Warrior turned to Twilight and nodded. The latter took on his beastly form and took the lead. Wild drew his bow and nocked two arrows. The others unsheathed their swords and raised their newly lit lanterns. With a last look at the clear blue sky, the heroes entered the dark forest.

#linkeduniverse fanfiction #linkeduniverse #my own #my writing #fanfiction #Can We Get Back to Adventuring Please

278 notes · View notes

asterinjapan · 5 years

Text

The day before the last

Forgot to update again despite staying up way too late, ahem. I didn't want to go to sleep yet, and then they did an interesting item on tv, and then there was a rerun of one of my favourite shows, and uh, then it got to 2 am, oops.

Let me still tell you about yesterday! I don't have a lot of pictures, but I'll upload some from my phone later.

From there, we walked to nearby Ueno park like I had earlier this week. Our destination today was also a museum: the National Museum of Western Art, which is right near the entrance of the park, haha. They have a special exhibition going on right now about the Hapsburgs, one of the most influential royal houses in Europe.

As it turns out, they go way further back than I thought, down to the early 16th century, and the collection contained both portraits of the royals and art from their personal collection, the earlier halls also containing artefacts such as armour, so that made for a very varied exhibition. It also turns out I know embarrassingly little about European history until the 19th century or so, since I could barely answer my friend's questions about context, oops... it got a little better in the later halls where I also started to recognize people, like Marie Antoinette and the only ones I knew were Hapsburg beforehand: Franz Joseph I and Elizabeth (yeah mum, I saw one of the Elizabeth paintings in real life, haha). These are paintings I only knew from pictures, so that was cool to see, and the Marie Antoinette portrait was HUGE, wow.

Once we made it out, it was time for lunch, so we queued up for the museum restaurant. We both got a lunch set with salad, pasta and a mini dessert. I was not expecting this much pasta for the price, so I couldn't finish it all, but my friend taught me the word for someone who can't eat much, so at least I can apologize with the proper vocabulary now, oops. (It's shoushoku, by the way - literally 'small eater'.)

We talked so much that it was soon time for my friend to leave, so I accompanied him to Shinjuku station, where he accompanied me to the start of the walk to the metropolitan government building, because I always get lost at Shinjuku station, pff. Then it was time for us to part ways for this trip. Thank you so much, I had a great time together!

My goal for the afternoon was to get to the top of the building for the free observatory, but I'd uh, forgotten it was a Saturday afternoon, so about a few thousand people had the same idea. Probably not THAT many, but the queue was still so long that I just gave up for today. I was starting to grow sad over my trip ending, so i didn't want to spend my afternoon feeling sad in a busy queue.

I went back to Ikebukuro instead, where I dumped my backpack in the hotel and went into the city to check out sunshine city and surrounding shops and game halls. I had a good time even if I still don't have souvenirs for everyone, and in the end had to leave cause I was getting tired, not because I wanted to go, haha.

I stayed up a bit late as I mentioned, and I'm currently rather anxious as I can't check in for my flight. I tried contacting the airline, but well, it's barely Sunday morning in Holland... fingers crossed they'll get back to me soon. It's fine if I have to check in at the airport, but I wonder now if my extra luggage got through, since I arranged that through the app. Fingers crossed again!

I'm obviously not going to sit around and wait, so I think I'll head out soon for maybe some karaoke and last minute souvenirs. It's really a shame about the JR pass, but I don't think heading far out of Tokyo is a very good idea right now, fresh after the huge amounts of rain with more to come.

Off I go then, for the last time this trip. Pictures and today's report to follow!

#Report #Japan 2019 #report: japan 2019

2 notes · View notes

plato-sphere · 6 years

Text

//17.10.18// 4/100 days of productivity

I forgot to upload anything yesterday oops because I was overwhelmed with work. I had a math test which I don’t think I did bad on, but one of the answers I know for sure I got wrong. But I will still get method marks hopefully! Yesterday I had to prepare things for my DECA cluster and finish my stoichiometry homework. I also had to make food for my English class as part of a culinary task. Today I have so much to do, especially Theory of Knowledge, I have a reading due tomorrow with questions! I also have a bio quiz and a Geo project. Pray for me!

13 notes · View notes

peach-punch-satan · 6 years

Photo

AFTER SO LONG I FINALLY FINISHED UP WHAT I NEEDED TO DO FOR MY TAZ AMNESTY MOODBOARDS AND PLAYLIST!  To be honest I had everything done except I just got lazy with uploading lmao. Now wait as I take forever to finish my TAZ Dust playlist! (Moodboards are done though) As always here’s the link to the playlist and under the cut is the tracklist with 9 songs for each member of the trio and 5 songs each for Barclay, Mama, and Dani (Danny?) as well as a lyric to each song that I felt fit each character in some way! Tracklist is written in order of the moodboards above so it should go: Aubrey, Duck, Ned, Barclay, Mama, and Dani (Danny?)

Please enjoy!

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDQk0bABGzY7uCZPnDYY5tBYBvGGtcbty

Aubrey: She’s A Rebel by Green Day - She’s a rebel She’s a saint She’s the salt of the earth And she’s dangerous She’s a rebel Vigilante Missing link on the brink Of destruction From Chicago to Toronto She’s the one that they Call old ‘whatsername’ She’s the symbol Of resistance And she’s holding on my heart Like a hand grenade Is she dreaming what I’m thinking? Is she the mother of all bombs? Gonna detonate

Youngblood by Green Day - I want to hold you like a gun We’ll shoot the moon into the sun Alright, alright Are you stranded, like I’m stranded? Do you want to watch the world fall to pieces? Are you broken, like I’m broken? Are you restless she said: “fuck you, I’m from Oakland!” She’s my little youngblood (Youngblood) Punch-drunken youngblood

Make Me Feel by Janelle Monaé - It’s like I’m powerful with a little bit of tender An emotional, sexual bender Mess me up, yeah, but no one does it better There’s nothin’ better That’s just the way you make me feel That’s just the way you make me feel So real, so good, so fuckin’ real That’s just the way you make me feel That’s just the way you make me feel You know I love it, so please don’t stop it You got me right here in your jean pocket (right now) Laying your body on a shag carpet (oh) You know I love it so please don’t stop it

The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy - Strike a match and I’ll burn you to the ground We are the jack-o-lanterns in July Setting fire to the sky Here, here comes this rising tide so come on Put on your war paint Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope to die Seal the clouds with grey lining So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked One maniac at a time we will take it back You know time crawls on when you’re waiting for the song to start So dance along to the beat of your heart Hey Youngblood doesn’t it feel like our time is running out I’m going to change you like a remix Then I’ll raise you like a phoenix Wearing all vintage misery No I think it looked a little better on me

Young and Menance by Fall Out Boy - Woke up on the wrong side of reality And there’s a madness that’s just coursing right through me And as far as the time, far as the time Not sure I’m there yet but I’m certain I’ve arrived Oops I, did it again, I Forgot what I was losing my mind about I only wrote this down to make you press rewind And send a message, “I was young and a menace”

Cherry Bomb by The Runaways - Stone age love and strange sounds too. Come on, baby, let me get to you. Bad nights causing teenage blues. Get down ladies, you’ve got nothin’ to lose. Hello, daddy. Hello, mom. I’m your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb! Hello world! I’m your wild girl. I’m your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

Caffiene by Jeff Williams (Feat. Casey Lee Williams and Lamar Hall) - I’m a cheetah on the plains, I’m a highway star A supersonic princess in a million dollar car Blood on fire pumping through my veins Weaving in and out while I’m bolting through the lanes I’m hyperdrive, overdrive, hit the gas at fifty-five Break neck, trainwreck, in my presence genuflect Track-roundin’, speed-a-soundin’, electrifyin’, pulse-poundin’ Heart-pumpin’, brain-thumpin’, watch me get the party jumpin’ Caffeine I’m Caffeine (Caffeine) Caffeine I’m Caffeine (Caffeine) I’m a bad dream I’m a rad scene I’m a tad mean But I’m not afraid to take you out (afraid to take you out)

I Burn by Jeff Williams (Feat. Casey Lee Williams and Lamar Hall) - You’re standing too close to a flame that’s burning Hotter than the sun in the middle of July Sending out your army, but you still can’t win Listen up, silly boy, ‘cuz I’m gonna tell you why I burn! Can’t hold me now You got nothing that can stop me I burn! Swing all you want Like a fever, I will take you down!

Take Your Time (Do It Right) by S.O.S. Band - You know you ought to slow down You been working too hard and that’s a fact Sit back and relax a while Take some time to laugh and smile Lay your heavy load down So we can stop and kick back It seems we never take the time to do All the things we want to, yeah Now, baby we can do it Take the time, do it right We can do it, baby Do it tonight  Duck: Wake Me Up by Avicci - I tried carrying the weight of the world But I only have two hands Hope I get the chance to travel the world But I don’t have any plans Wish that I could stay forever this young Not afraid to close my eyes Life’s a game made for everyone And love is a prize So wake me up when it’s all over When I’m wiser and I’m older All this time I was finding myself, and I Didn’t know I was lost

The Moss by Cosmo Sheldrake - But have you heard the story of the rabbit in the moon? Or the cow that hopped the planets while straddling a spoon Or she, who leapt up mountains, while whistling up a tune And swapped her songs with swallows while riding on a broom Well, we can all learn things, both many and a-few From that old hunched-up woman who lived inside a shoe Or the girl that sang by day and by night she ate tear soup Or the man who drank too much and he got the brewers’ droop Legend has it that the moss grows on The north side of the trees Well, legend has it that when the rain comes down All the worms come up to breathe Well, legend has it when the sunbeams come All the plants, they eat them with their leaves Well, legend has it that the world spins round On an axis of 23 degrees

Alien Days by MGMT - Must’ve skipped the ship and joined the team For a ride A couple hours to learn the controls And commandeer both my eyes Hey! Be quick dear, times are uncertain One month crawling, next year blurring Decades in the drain Monograms on the brain Decide what’s working and what’s moved on To the last phase The floodgate alien days I love those alien days Mmm… the alien days When the peels are down, it feels like traveling in style You don’t need wings to hover forty ton stones for a mile And in the summer, virgin visions Mindless humming Numbers can’t decide if the day’s supposed to smile Today find infinite ways it could be Plenty worse It’s a blessing but it’s also a curse Those days taught me everything I know How to catch a feeling And when to let it go How all the scheming, soulless creatures Can’t find dreamer’s honey in the hive If it’s right beneath the nose

Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes - And there ain’t no road just like it Anywhere I found Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town Just slippin’ on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound And it starts up north from Hollywood, water on the driving side Concrete mountains rearing up, throwing shadows just about five Sometimes you can smell the green if your mind is feeling fine There ain’t no finer place to be, than running Lake Shore Drive And there’s no peace of mind, or place you see, than riding on Lake Shore Drive

Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd - If I leave here tomorrow Would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on, now Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see But, if I stayed here with you, girl Things just couldn’t be the same Cause I’m as free as a bird now And this bird you can not change Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh And this bird you can not change And this bird you can not change Lord knows, I can’t change

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye (Feat. Tammi Terrell) - Listen baby, ain’t no mountain high Ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough baby If you need me call me no matter where you are No matter how far don’t worry baby Just call my name I’ll be there in a hurry You don’t have to worry 'Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough Ain’t no valley low enough Ain’t no river wide enough To keep me from getting to you babe Remember the day I set you free I told you you could always count on me darling From that day on, I made a vow I’ll be there when you want me Some way, some how 'Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough Ain’t no valley low enough Ain’t no river wide enough To keep me from getting to you babe

Believer by Imagine Dragons - I was choking in the crowd Building my rain up in the cloud Falling like ashes to the ground Hoping my feelings, they would drown But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing Inhibited, limited 'Til it broke up and it rained down It rained down, like You made me a, you made me a believer, believer (Pain, pain) You break me down, you built me up, believer, believer (Pain) I let the bullets fly, oh let them rain My life, my love, my drive, it came from (Pain) You made me a, you made me a believer, believer

Fallout by Catfish And The Bottlemen - So I spent my yesterday Ducking your calls And in fear that things would change So I tidied up my place 'Cause you always told me It got me thinking straight Oh, but no, you still had to call Oh, but no, you still had to come But we just always Seem to just fallout When I’m most in need of it And you just always Seem to just call out When I’m up for leaving it You see now I’m sorry if I drove, your matches to my clothes But you know how I can get sometimes

Save Rock ‘n’ Roll by Fall Out Boy (Feat. Elton John) - Whoa How’d it get to be only me? Like I’m the last damn kid still kicking That still believes I will defend the faith Going down swinging I will save the songs That we can’t stop singing No, No Wherever I go, go Trouble seems to follow I only plugged in to save rock and roll, rock and roll No, No Wherever I go, go Trouble seems to follow I only plugged in to save rock and roll  Ned: Trouble Comes A Knocking by Timber Timbre - I want your money But your money ain’t right So I’m packing it in I stay at home every night And, our place had cleared out The bad luck had fallen And no one came knocking No one came calling And when things got real bad Oh, people got scared Well I got worried So we took what we could get And all you fair-weather watchers Watch out and beware When your trouble comes knocking I hope you ain’t there

Troublemaker by Weezer - I’m such a mystery as anyone can see There isn’t anybody else exactly quite like me And when it’s party time, like 1999 I’ll party by myself because I’m such a special guy I’m a troublemaker, never been a faker Doing things my own way and never giving up I’m a troublemaker, not a double-taker I don’t have the patience to keep it on the up

Movin’ Out by Billy Joel - Sergeant O'Leary is walkin’ the beat At night he becomes a bartender He works at Mister Cacciatore’s down On Sullivan Street Across from the medical center He’s tradin’ in his Chevy for a Cadillac You oughta know by now And if he can’t drive With a broken back At least he can polish the fenders It seems such a waste of time If that’s what it’s all about Mama if that’s movin’ up Then I’m movin’ out I’m movin’ out You should never argue with a crazy mind (mmm) You oughta know by now You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime Is that all you get for your money If that’s what you have in mind If that’s what you’re all about Good luck movin’ up 'Cause I’m moving out

I Fought The Law by The Clash - I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the law won I lost my girl and I lost my fun I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the law won I left my baby and it feels so bad Guess my race is run She’s the best girl that I ever had I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the I fought the law and the law won I fought the law and the law won

Should I Stay (Or Should I Go) by The Clash - This indecision’s bugging me (esta indecision me molesta) If you don’t want me, set me free (si no me quieres, librame) Exactly whom I’m supposed to be (digame que tengo ser) Don’t you know which clothes even fit me? (no sabes que ropas me queda) Come on and let me know (me tienes que decir) Should I cool it or should I blow? (me debo ir o quedarme) Split Should I stay or should I go now? (yo me enfrio o lo soplo) Should I stay or should I go now? (yo me enfrio o lo soplo) If I go there will be trouble (si me voy va a haber peligro) And if I stay it will be double (si me quedo sera el doble) So ya gotta let me know (me tienes que decir) Should I cool it or should I blow? (me debo ir o quedarme) Should I stay or should I go now? (tengo frío por los ojos) If I go there will be touble (tengo frio por los ojos) And if I stay it wil be double

Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man - Got another mouth to feed Leave her with a baby sitter, mama, call the grave digger Gone with the fallen leaves Am I coming out of left field? Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now I been feeling it since 1966, now Might’ve had your fill, but you feel it still Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now Let me kick it like it’s 1986, now Might be over now, but I feel it still We could fight a war for peace (Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now) Give in to that easy living Goodbye to my hopes and dreams Stop flipping for my enemies We could wait until the walls come down (Ooh woo, I’m a rebel just for kicks, now) It’s time to give a little to the Kids in the middle, but oh 'til it falls Won’t bother me

Highway To Hell by AC/DC - Living easy, living free Season ticket on a one-way ride Asking nothing, leave me be Taking everything in my stride Don’t need reason, don’t need rhyme Ain’t nothing I would rather do Going down, party time My friends are gonna be there too I’m on the highway to hell On the highway to hell Highway to hell I’m on the highway to hell No stop signs, speed limit Nobody’s gonna slow me down Like a wheel, gonna spin it Nobody’s gonna mess me around Hey Satan, paid my dues

Gold On The Ceiling by The Black Keys - Clouds covered love’s Barb-wired snare Strung up, strung out I just can’t go without I could never drown in They wanna get my They wanna get my Gold on the ceiling I ain’t blind Just a matter of time Before you steal it It’s alright Ain’t no guard in my house

The Ballad of Bull Ramos by The Mountain Goats - Drive a great big truck When I’m old, when I’m old Haul the wrecks down to the wreck yard Help the boys unload Keep my hair nice and long Because I can, because I can Any of my old friends who have no place to turn to They know to call me any time they come through Never die, never die Stand with a bullwhip in my hand And rise, rise In the desert sand

Barclay: The Chain by Fleetwood Mac - Listen to the wind blow down comes the night Running in the shadows damn your love, damn your lies Break the silence, damn the dark, damn the light And if, you don’t love me now You will never love me again I can still hear you saying You would never break the chain (Never break the chain)

Float On by Modest Mouse - I backed my car into a cop car the other day Well, he just drove off - sometimes life’s okay I ran my mouth off a bit too much, ah what did I say? Well, you just laughed it off and it was all okay And we’ll all float on okay And we’ll all float on okay And we’ll all float on okay And we’ll all float on anyway, well A fake Jamaican took every last dime with that scam It was worth it just to learn some sleight of hand Bad news comes, don’t you worry even when it lands Good news will work it way to all them plans We both got fired on, exactly, the same day Well, we’ll float on, good news is on the way

Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra - Hey you with the pretty face Welcome to the human race A celebration, mister blue sky’s up there waitin’ And today is the day we’ve waited for Oh mister blue sky please tell us why You had to hide away for so long (so long) Where did we go wrong? Hey there mister blue We’re so pleased to be with you Look around see what you do Everybody smiles at you

Come A Little Bit Closer by Jay and The Americans - Then I heard the guitar player say “Vamos, Jose’s on his way” Then I knew, yes I knew I should run But then I heard her say, yeah “Come a little bit closer You’re my kind of man So big and so strong Come a little bit closer I’m all alone and the night is so long” Then the music stopped When I looked the cafe was empty Then I heard Jose say “Man, you know you’re in trouble plenty” So I dropped my drink from my hand And out through the window I ran And as I rode away I could hear her say to Jose, yeah “Come a little bit closer You’re my kind of man So big and so strong Come a little bit closer I’m all alone and the night is so long”

Black Water by Timber Timbre - You’ve fallen barefoot past the treeline Peeping boned-eyed, birches sway And a thousand whitefish floating belly up In the spirit that I crave And we threw ourselves right into it Where lay the bodies had been claimed We dove a third, a fourth, a fifth Banned to the spirit that I crave All I need is some sunshine All I need All I need is some sunshine All I need I found empathy from madness Deliverance from malaise My heart is filled with gladness And you’re the only spirit that I crave All I need is some sunshine All I need All I need is some sunshine All I need Black Water (pull me down) Black Water (pull me down)

Mama: Come to Mama by Lady Gaga - Dude in a lab coat and a man of God (Come onto mama, come on, mama) Fought over prisms and a forty-day flood (Come onto mama, come on, mama) Well, I say rainbows did more than they’ve ever done So why do we gotta fight over ideas? We’re talkin’ the same old shit after all of these years Come to mama Tell me who hurt ya There’s gonna be no future If we don’t figure this out Oh, come tomorrow Who are you gonna follow? There’s gonna be no future If we don’t figure this out Psychic guru catches minnows in the harbor (Come onto mama, come on, mama) Everyone tells him he should work a little harder (hey man get to work, catch up) (Come onto mama, come on, mama) They all tell you that freedom must be bought But, baby, he’s already caught them So why do we gotta tell each other how to live? The only prisons that exist are ones we put each other in

Similau by Peggy Lee - Spirit in the wood beat the hollow cane Spirit in the wood take away the pain Make the body ripe and alive again I Similau (I Similau, I Similau) Spirit in the heart make the blood flow fast Spirit in the heart make the beauty last Keep the hope alive when the youth go past I Similau (I Similau, I Similau) When my lover comes upon the scene Drop a petal from the tree Fling the mountain up into the sky Fill the river with the sea Spirit in the wood let the hollow cane Echo in the afterglow Waiting for the flame to burn again I Similau (I Similau I Similau)

On Your Way by Alabama Shakes - On your way to God, Did you think of me? On your way to heaven, Did you say “I’ll see you again”? It wasn’t me, why wasn’t it me? On your way to to the promised land, did you say “Oh, she was such a friend”? Then they took you higher and I don’t know if I can follow… It wasn’t me, why wasn’t it me? On your way, I said to the air, I don’t know if I am strong. So I climbed to the mountain And I don’t know what I did wrong And it was just me, just little ole me…

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand - So if you’re lonely You know I’m here waiting for you I’m just a cross hair I’m just a shot away from you And if you leave here You leave me broken, shattered, I lie I’m just a cross hair I’m just a shot, then we can die I know I won’t be leaving here with you I say don’t you know You say you don’t know I say, take me out! I say you don’t show Don’t move, tide is low I say, take me out! I say you don’t know You say you don’t know I say, take me out! If I move this could die Eyes move this can die I want you to take me out I know I won’t be leaving here (with you) I know I won’t be leaving here

Jackie and Wilson by Hozier - She blows out of nowhere, roman candle of the wild Laughing away through my feeble disguise No other version of me I would rather to be tonight Lord she found me just in time 'Cause with my mid-youth crisis all said and done I need to be youthfully felt, 'cause God I never felt young She’s gonna save me call me baby run her hands through my hair She’ll know me crazy, soothe me daily, but yet she wouldn’t care We’ll steal her Lexus, be detectives, ride round pickin’ up clues We’ll name our children Jackie and Wilson, 'raise em on rhythm and blues

Dani (Danny?): Dance Apocolyptic by Janelle Monaé - You’re going crazy, the hitmen always finds you Do that dance, smoking in the girls room Kissin’ French, it’s over like a comic book Exploding in a bathroom stall (AH!) She’s so freaked out, worrying about the bomb threat You bought a house, but I’m allergic to the house pets Credit cards They bought a new wife for shiny little lonely men But I really, really want to thank you for dancing 'til the end You found a way to break out You’re not afraid to break out But I need to know if the world says it’s time to go Tell me, will you freak out? Smash, smash, bang, bang Don’t stop Chalang-alang-alang But I need to know if the world says its time to go Tell me, will you break out? Smash, smash, bang, bang Don’t stop, chalangalangalang Smash, smash, bang, bang Don’t stop, chalang-alang-alang)

Stand By Me by Ben E. King (Florence + The Machine cover) - If the sky that we look upon Should tumble and fall And the mountain should crumble to the sea I won’t cry, I won’t cry No I won’t shed a tear Just as long as you stand, stand by me And darling, darling stand by me Oh, stand by me Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me Whenever you’re in trouble won’t you stand by me Oh, now, now, stand by me Oh, stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Bmblb by Jeff Williams (Feat. Casey Lee Williams) - We’ll sit for a while As I drink in your smile It feels like a dream that’s come true My head starts to buzz And my heart fills with love over you Baby can’t you see? You could be with me We could live inside a garden of ecstasy You could be my queen I could be your dream Life’s like a fantasy Maybe set me free Let me be your bumblebee Now the flowers are in bloom And you’ve chased away my darkness and gloom When the wind blows through the trees And your voice is like a song in the breeze My doubts disappear every time that you’re near Clouds seem to run from the sky The thought of your kiss sends my soul into bliss I get high

Take Me To Church by Hozier (Neon Jungle Cover) - If I’m a pagan of the good times My lover’s the sunlight To keep the Goddess on my side She demands a sacrifice To drain the whole sea Get something shiny Something meaty for the main course That’s a fine looking high horse What you got in the stable? We’ve a lot of starving faithful That looks tasty That looks plenty This is hungry work Take me to church I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life

Angel of The Morning by Juice Newton - Maybe the sun’s light will be dim And it won’t matter anyhow If morning’s echo says we’ve sinned It was what I wanted now And if we’re victims of the night I won’t be blinded by the light Just call me angel of the morning, (angel) Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby Just call me angel of the morning, (angel) Then slowly turn away I won’t beg you to stay with me Through the tears of the day, of the years Baby, baby, baby

176 notes · View notes

veterveter · 3 years

Note

Hey hey, it's gay bike anon again! I'm more than honoured to get my own tag!!! I definitely would like to keep talking to you <3 And only love for you too <3

I'll gladly wait for your response to my ask (or asks??? we'll see one day ehehehe)! I feel you, when people cite some of my text messages from a few months (or more) ago I'm often like "nope, nah-ah, that's not me, you're wrong". Same for older essays, I often can't believe I wrote those. And even with things I wrote late at night a few weeks ago, sometimes I'm like "I wrote that? That monstrosity??? Okay, I need more sleep before writing". (My capacity of writing in correct English grammar usually goes to sleep before I do, same goes for varied word choice). But sometimes I'll see this project I've worked on YEARS ago and exactly recognize the pieces I wrote? Since the ask would be fairly recent, I suppose I would recognise my writing style and word choice and since I didn't wrote it whilst sleep deprived (I hope??) I'm setting my chances of recognising it pretty high. But we'll see one day, the mystery will marinate for a while... [I am rereading this in the daytime, and this is EXACTLY what I meant, at night I make the weirdest word choices?? I’m definitely not changing it though because I might find it kinda funny]

I snorted so hard about the way you talked about your almost-name, I'm giggling here like crazy. Apparently my name means something alike 'dedicated to God', but my parents aren't really believers, so gotta love that. The meaning of my sibling's name is 'summer', but I'm the one born in the summer, whilst my sibling is born in autumn, oops. Guess my parents never checked one of those sites/ books where you can find the meaning of a name hahaha.

I love how my ask was so weird and chaotic that you sent a screenshot to a friend. I LOVE that she had no idea what was going on. Then again, I watched the semis (obviously hahaha) but I had no idea what was going on either... But honestly it was peak Dutch culture, water and bicycles, I would just add an ode to 'hagelslag' and voila, the entirety of Dutch culture summed up... [Also: if you don't know: 'hagelslag' is just sprinkles which we eat on bread, yes, on bread, we do not not only eat sprinkles as on cake or on donuts, like in any other country, no, we put it on bread. It's actually a really popular sandwich topping here. My ultimate favourites are the chocolate ones, but you also have them in several fruity flavours (like forest fruit) and anise flavour.] Thank you, perfect chaotic energy is an ultimate goal I strive towards *bows like I'm Victorian royalty or something*

You're absolutely right, it went EXACTLY like that. Specifically, I would be studying for my exams, explaining topics to myself like I always do, so I'd tell myself "The six possible origins of economies of scope are indivisibility, specialisation, marketing, research and development, GUESS WHAT.. SUBWAY DRIVER GANDÍA... ehhh... what was I doing again??" OR: "one of the most detailed and most used models of responsive regulation is Brathwaite's piramid. His enforcement piramid visually shows, nope not important, SUBWAY DRIVER GANDÍAAAAAA" And I'd laugh, continue explaining theories and calculations to myself until my focus started lessening again and my thoughts would wander off again. I am VERY glad I'm not the only one who thinks about it from time to time, and I'm glad you're not suing me for any mental harm yet.

Yess, those pictures I saw from Promising Young Woman look so beautiful and aesthetic!! I'll probably watch it somewhere after the 16th, because I'll most likely have finished my last exams by then. I'll tell you what I thought about it! Thank you SO SO SO much for all the luck wishes!!!! I had an exam last Friday and I absolutely rewarded myself, because it went better than I expected and I passed an earlier exam and a paper too! I didn't buy myself a tricorne (yet), but I did buy funko pops (my inner economist said it was 100% rational because it was a really good deal hahaha). I still have two exams to go, so I could always buy a tricorne for finishing either of those, OR. EVEN BETTER. I'll ask my parents (or my grandparents) for one for my birthday. I mean, that would be hilarious. They'd be so confused. They've never seen S3 and S4 of LCDP so they'll have no idea, even if I tried to explain it. It would be so incredibly funny (and really really weird for them), I am laughing like crazy just at the thought of it.

I've never been in Finland before, but those temperatures do not sound legal indeed. I have no knowledge of Finnish law, but maybe article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the prohibition of torture, would work? If I was the judge I’d 100% agree, so we should all sue the weather sksksks. I'm glad to have brought you rain though (and that I apparently possess the power to do so - magic weather controlling pirate seems like a nice enough job to me)!!! I hope the temperature has become at least somewhat lower. You're right, climate change should just... stop... right away. The weather is pretty weird here, right now: one day it will be super sunny and (at least) around 27 degrees and almost melting away, and the other day it will be raining and I'll be wearing my warmest sweater. Like, why the extremes??

I love that I am able to make you lose your coherent thoughts (that's probably why we have one brain energy about Underwater, because I, too, have the ability to make myself lose my coherent thoughts). I'm glad for your faith in my impersonation of Martín. I even started Duolingo Spanish again, and now know the phrase, "Yo bebo leche" (I drink milk) which obviously would be very important to him. Now I'll just need an Argentinian accent to go with it. Leaning menacingly on a cane would be GREAT, I love the idea. I'll open job applications for a Denver. Maybe my cat could help me, she, much like Denver, is super loud and she is super aggressive towards other cats, so there is potential there. And guiding dogs and even tiny guiding horses exist, why not a guiding cat?

I always assumed I would follow a more... you know… legal... career path, maybe even literally a career in law. But, my accounting professor also showed us how to manipulate financial statements ("so you can notice when people are doing this", uh-huh sure, sure that’s why) and another professor of mine also said that a criminal career sometimes could be the more rational, rewarding choice over a legally acceptable career. So, I suppose I should not be surprised by this sudden change of career plans. I should have seen this coming. And what better way to be able to avoid the laws than by knowing exactly what they are and how far you can go. And if that plan doesn’t work out, the books of law I have (they’re combined in two huge hardcover bundles) are really heavy and you could probably harm someone with them if you hit hard enough… Well, I suppose you can even leave “hard” away, just by hitting someone softly with those books you can bring serious harm to them… Ah, and like that one professor would say: in this scenario it would be a rational choice to become a pirate instead of a privateer. Oh dear, not Arturito :/ Mutiny would seem like a good option, I’ll take over the ship and become Palermo the Pirate. Sounds much and much better than “Arturo the Pirate”, since that isn’t an alliteration, sooo mutiny is reasonable even for that reason. And then there’s the fact that it’s Arturo, I mean, that says enough.

YOU LOVE UNDERWATER TOO????!!!! I completely forgot that you posted that! It seems we do indeed already have one shared braincell energy my friend <3

Last week has been pretty good (except for having to make a test at 9:30, what a godless time, I’m usually barely awake by then ehehehe), I think I aced the test I had, got back some good grades and finally got my first Covid vaccination (and only shortly slight dizziness as a side effect, so that's pretty great). And thanks so much!!! For now I’m safe from Gandía, but somewhere in mid-July I’ll have to take an exam on campus, so I’ll might be able to bring out my inner Palermo then.

How was your week? If the weather is still unkind to you (well, also if the weather *is* kind to you), treat yourself to your favourite ice cream and a break every now and then <3 Do you already have holidays or hasn’t your academical year ended yet?

You’re also right - this is conversation and we’re friends now <3 And I absolutely do like cookies! I would say my favourites are american cookies (though stroopwafels are reaally good as well) but honestly there are only a few kinds of cookies that I don’t love that much. And anything with chocolate in it is GREAT. I do also love apples and bananas, though grapes (which I just had) are even better! What’s your favourite kind of cookie?

Also, I know I have been giving you so many prompts already, but I saw this one in that list you reblogged and it gave me so much Berlermo energy: you live in an apartment with your best friend. the two of you always fall asleep in each other's arms, but one day, your friend isn't there. they've fallen in love with someone else. it's your other best friend, who recently moved in with you. and that's when you realize, that those nights you spent together, weren't so platonic after all. I would love it if you’d write it, but if you decide not to that’s absolutely fine too, no worries <3

By the way, I was going to post this quite a bit earlier, but my laptop (unlike me) decided yesterday night, when I was finishing writing this, that it was time to sleep, so I had to quickly dump this whole rant in Google Docs (it’s almost two and a half pages what the heck) and I was busy all day so I only was able to upload it just now. I swear I can ractually espond faster than after a week :) Have a lovely evening, much love from the gay bike country <3

Heeeeeeey you are back!!! How happy am I to see my favouritest gay bike anon return to my inbox!!! 💕 [Author's note: You can tell I started this reply right away because you've sent me three or four asks since this one and one can tell you are indeed back hahaha]

Yeeeeeees this is how one makes friends!! You know, I was just thinking the other night of how "gay bike anon" shortens to GBA, like the Game Boy Advance, you know. Make of that what you will, but it pleases me to know that you can also have a cute nickname for your cute nickname. Nicknameception.

Yes, exactly that, "I did not write that, and if I did in fact write that.. No I did not." Also, "the mystery will marinate"??? That's an amazing word choice and some day I will absolutely use it for something, just you wait. I think it just goes to show that you should write everything while tired, haha.

Haha I love that naming convention for you. It may make very little sense, but....... but. Also, happy birthday for whenever it is, presumably in the nearby past or future!! Lots of love!! You're the summer child while your sibling is... a summer child, but like, different.

Since you appreciated my almost-name story, I'll reward you with the rest of it: so my name is Tuuli, which is Finnish for "wind". My mum originally wanted to name me Pilvi, which means "cloud". And then she was like oh no this child is not at all serene and cloud-like??? and thus, a new me. I'm glad she had second thoughts, although I wonder if having such an ill-fittingly chill name would've done anything to alter my personality? Nomen est omen and all. There's some kind of an alternate universe where all of that played out, but I'm glad it's not this one.

Yeah either you watched the semis and have no idea, or you didn't watch them and have no idea. There is no way to get what was going on there, I'm certain they themselves also didn't get it. I had no idea about hagelslag but thjipgnhefjpihjo that's amazing, I love that for you!!!! There was absolutely no reason to go there but you as a country just... did that. Amazing. Please have some and report to me so I can live through you. And also, you are absolutely legit Victorian royalty [or something] *bows in return*. Also, I do love how you say "I watched the semis (obviously)." Imagine if you didn't and this entire time I was tragically misinterpreting the nature and intentions of your ask and you were just rolling with it because you've no idea what I'm on about but are also too polite to tell me that. Khhhhhhh

Your brain has priorities!!!! And they're honestly beautiful. Well done, brain. Subway driver Gandíaaaaaaaaaa~~~ My brain is filled with Berlermo quotes that come @ me at random times during the day and leave me just a tad shell-shocked, remembering how it all went down. I'm eating my morning yoghurt and my brain goes yo te propuse fundir oro juntos, and I'm just there like :)))))) Real nice, brain.

Have you had the opportunity to see Promising Young Woman yet? Hhhhh it's so pretty, every time I work on this reply [it's a lot of times, okay, I'm very diligent about this, I stare at this ask and craft snazzy replies in my head all the time, that's why I'm so slow in... actually replying] I'm reminded of that. I'm not a very visual person but the colours and the framing... that was really nice.

I am somewhat glad you've not been to Finland yet, you must hit me up when you come visit, I'll take you for coffee!!! It's actually cooler now (bless!!!!!!!!!!!), the last... four days have been reasonable 14-20 degrees, after four consequtive weeks of 25+. Kkhhhh thinking back to it makes me feel a little ill, but now beret weather is back. I own a lot of berets, dear gay bike anon. I'm going to my university city for the weekend and I'm already wondering which beret(s) I should bring with me. This is an important decision with potential long-lasting consequences. I don't know if you've played any of Telltale's games (The Wolf Among Us and the first two seasons of The Walking Dead are the best ones, fight me), but when you make a decision and the game goes "This character will remember that." and you instantly go oh no what have I done??? That's how I feel about choosing the perfect beret for my city outing. But yes, weather extremes are just the worst. We've been having the longest drought I've ever seen here (it's still not properly rained, for the record, on Tuesday it rained for an hour or so) while in other places there's awful flooding. That's awful.

Ahhh I'm so happy you're continuing your Spanish-learning!! I took a beginner's course at uni in the spring semester, I'm going to take the next one when uni resumes in September. And yes, I'm studying it for LCDP. I mean I love languages in general, but I never had a particular need to study Spanish, until this year I suddenly did. I'm also Duolingo-ing it! Very slowly and steadily. Also, I adore the idea of your cat being your Denver. What's your cat's name??? What do they look like?? Tell me everything, you can't just leave it at my cat, you simply must allow me to meet them. Also, you know why guide cats aren't a thing? Because cats are the worst. I love cats, but you can't just teach them to do useful things. They'll do them if they want to. As I type this, my cat is trying to catch flies at my feet. Her name is Muusa.

I studied accounting for my undergrad!! So I can join you in [[[preventing]]] tax fraud and [[[recognising]]] tampering with financial statements. We can make a totally legitimate business out of it. No but truly, I'm certain we were taught some of those things with the expectation that our future employers would expect it of us. Capitalism is so fun :)))))) And you shouldn't be surprised, academia is but a stepping stone to crime, honestly. Any dark academia book will tell you this. You start out learning Latin and wearing turtlenecks, you end up with murder. That's just how academia works. And you seem to have already chosen your weapon... you're well on your way. :) Palermo the Pirate sounds great!!! I support your mutiny. I don't think I said, but this is my favourite word of the English language. Mutiny. Mutiny????? It doesn't sound very serious. It sounds cute, actually. I love it.

I'm so happy to hear you got your covid vaccine!!!! I had mine a month ago or so - I typed you a reply to the subway Gandía thing on the train ride back, actually. I was really stressed about getting it on my right arm, because I'm left-handed, and last time I got a vaccination (like a decade ago) they insisted on giving it on my left arm and I was sad :( But this time!! I got it on my chosen arm and was very pleased. So anyway, that was a segue. I'm glad you got your covid shot and were side effect -free!!!

My week has been good, thank you!! I went to my uni city for my niece's birthday on Monday, and as said I'm going back on Friday (tomorrow). So this time in between has felt like exactly that, time in between. I started reading Call Me By Your Name. I had my Korean class last night. Now I'm hanging out with my cat (she has stopped chasing flies and climbed to my lap) and talking to you. My holidays started already in May! And uni resumes in the beginning of September, but I'm a tutor for new students so I need to show up three weeks earlier for the orientation weeks. Yes, we do three weeks of orientation (read: three weeks of drinking). It's a bit insane.

Now I need to ask you again how your week has been, since I'm so slow. How has your week been?? Are you free from your exams?? When does your uni resume?

Stroopwafels are so good ahhh I'll have to buy them when and or if I see them. Possibly when I'm in central Europe but haha I can hope to be lucky and see them at a store with imported stuff, you know. My favourite cookies??? Omg maybe these ones - they have this truffle filling, and they're fun to eat (this is important in cookies, you see):

And of course they're Fazer. Because Finnish people have only one setting, apparently. Or maybe that's just me. But all cookies are great, honestly. I like making American cookies, that's always a fun pastime (and you get to have cookie dough, that's like half the fun). I've actually not made them for a lifetime??? Maybe I should, soon. I'll keep you updated. Also, brookies. I love making brookies, they're great.

I really really appreciate being given prompts, I hope you know that!! Thank you!! Consider me pocketing this prompt and maybe eventually some day theoretically getting back to you about it!! You're right - it has Berlermo energy. Insofar as either of them actually have other friends. :)

Thank you for this kind message, dear gay bike anon <3 I'd apologise for my slowness in replying but I think I'd rather you just assume that I'll get back to you, and thank you for your patience <3 Your kind and funny and chaotic asks always brighten my day. I hope you'll have a great rest of the week and just... all the nice and fun and good things and great vibes in life. All the best, dear gay bike anon <3 Take care!! And greetings from Muusa as well - she just yawned and I presume that means "greetings".

#only love for gay bike anon #the timeline became accidentally somewhat restored with this one #I may have intended to reply to medieval snails first - I was writing these two simultaneously even though that makes very little sense #- but I finished this one first #strange!!!!!! but yes all the best to you my friend I hope you'll have a great day and a best rest of this week!!#asks #I'm scrolling to check that the formatting didn't break and the random box of cookies amuses me

0 notes

noscorpsaladerive · 7 years

Text

Flo in Bordeaux!!!!

I wrote up mine and Emily’s experiences seeing Flo yesterday but the verb tenses are all over the place and this is REALLY LONG so it’s going under the cut I hope y’all enjoy :)

So Emily and I got to Bordeaux around noon but we couldn’t check in until 14h so we were walking around trying to find food that didn’t cost 20€ per person and we accidentally came across the theatre!!! They had a couple posters with Flo’s face on them and I nearly died omg. We saw a couple of vans outside and I’m guessing it was all of their equipment.

Skip forward a few hours and one mild freak out session that resulted in breathing exercises later, and Emily and I FINALLY head over to the theatre about an hour before showtime. There are already quite a few people outside, which surprised me a little bit, but the age demographic was very strange. Like there were a lot of women who were at least in their 40s and 50s and even a gaggle of preteen girls not that enjoying Flo’s music is limited to a certain age group but it was just an unexpected demographic (as Erin said it’s the same one as 50 Shades of Grey lol). But anyway while we were standing outside I heard some music playing AND IT WAS FLO’S SOUNDCHECK. I think he was playing J’attends encore but they just played part of it but it was still enough to cause a heart attack dear goodness

So we finally get into the theatre (and there was this whole drama about the staff holding onto my fancy camera during the concert because apparently photos weren’t allowed ugh but ANYWAY) and it like still hasn’t quite hit that I’m actually seeing Flo again??? I think part of it might’ve been the fact that we had to get up at like 4:45 in the morning to go to the train station but I was like scarily calm considering this is Flo we’re talking about.

The opening act was a band from Bordeaux called MO and they were actually really good!! I’d looked them up beforehand and their music seemed like French country and considering that I don’t like American country I wasn’t too excited but it was a little bit more soft pop than country and it almost reminded me of Diane’s music?? It was a very similar genre regardless. They got the audience to do this like percussive song thing with them and it was really fun I’d definitely be happy to see them perform again.

Then after a good while where the crew moved instruments around and they adjusted the lighting one last time the band walked on stage and started playing some music then FLO WALKED ON STAGE AND I COULDN’T STOP GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT and they keep playing then he gets interrupted by his mom calling and he finally turns around and I see his stupid face and I’m gonna die just writing about this omg and he’s so damn cute and he’s now wearing a hoop earring (we were on Flo’s left so we had great views of the earring haha) and omg I’m still dying

Anyways after the fake phone call with his mom they start playing Se serrer la main which is one of my fave songs on that album but like i wanted to like stand up and jam along but no one else was standing??? Concerts that take place in real theatres stress me out idk if we’re supposed to stand or sit or what but ANYWAY

after that song ended he asked « Y’a des drôles de filles ici ce soir?? »/« Are there any drôles de filles here tonight? » (sorry I can’t think of how to translate drôles de filles rn) but I FLIPPED MY SHIT QUELLE DRÔLE DE FILLE IS SUCH A JAM (plus it’s my blog title lol) uhhhh idk which songs were next and I’m too lazy to pull up my recording rn to check but he sang a new song and damn it was such a jam and he was like noodling and dancing across the stage and i was struck by two things: 1) he seemed SO COMFORTABLE in his own skin and in his own body and i know he’s struggled with body issues before so it warmed my heart to see him so comfortable with himself and 2) he leaned backwards at one point (a mini-Rosenberggggg lean if you will) and I noticed his abs through his shirt??? And I was like wtf???? Are his abs just THAT well defined or is his shirt kinda see through??? Later on after I saw his nipples I was like YEP that shirt’s see through oops. I knew his outfit seemed too normal I was getting suspicious. He also dabbed at the end of that song and you could feel half the audience groaning hahaha.

Uh I’m forgetting the song order but for Les Blessures qui ne se voient pas he started out a cappella and people were kinda singing along at first but everyone stopped and it was literally a silent theatre full of people listening to nothing but Flo’s voice and it was so beautiful and powerful I almost cried. Oh I also almost cried when he did Te Ressembler because I wasn’t expecting him to do that song and it reminds me so much of the relationship I have with my mother and it just gets to me man.

After maybe like half an hour he started the whole bit where he tells us his life story starting with Canada which is a shame that he doesn’t start earlier because I would literally die to hear him perform some Lost Smile. So he starts out the bit at a bar and he orders a rum and coke from the bartender (aka the guitarist who was wiping down his guitar with a towel as if it was a bar countertop lol) so the guitarist pours him a glass of wine and calls it rum and coke and Flo says « What kind of rum is this? » and the bartender/guitarist says « It’s Bordeaux rum! » and everyone screams since we’re in Bordeaux and Flo says that the best rum is from Bordeaux and everyone screams some more.

He talked about the friend he wrote « Alone » for then he performed said song and I nearly died I never in a million years thought I would ever hear him perform Canada songs live but also I feel like Emily and I were the only ones who knew the song??? The general feeling I got from the audience was confusion while I was jamming along having the time of my life. The only other Canada song he performed was Mrs Mary which I don’t know as well as Alone but oh well.

Next he did the getting a call to come audition for MOR and the fake audition and he was acting all cute and when the casting director aka the keyboardist asked how old he was he said 27 and like half of the audience squealed he was acting so cute then this motherfucker went and sang Bohemian Rhapsody which is ANOTHER song I thought I’d never hear him perform live and I just about died and cried I was a roller coaster of emotions last night okay?

Then he sang « L’Assasymphonie » and we all stood up and jammed and I’m pretty sure there was eye contact happening between us and I was living for it seeing Flo perform that song gives me life I have a video too but I’ll be uploading all my videos, pics, and recordings later.

Then he got a fake call from Dove (and I squealed really loudly when Flo mentioned Dove) and Dove said he’d had a dream about Flo with a big sword (ahem) and that’s how he introduced Quelque chose de magique and I died all over again it was like this really awesome rock arrangement and I was living for it @Dove why don’t you get Flo to do the arrangements for your musicals from now on at least that way you can’t tell him to chop all his hair off but I digress. Tbh I’m really glad Flo did Quelque chose de magique because Mon combat is awkwardly just out of his lower range and Auprès d’un autre is just...yeah. But it was so great to hear him sing LRA live again I was so pumped.

At some point during the musicals or just after Flo took another sip of the wine (which the guitarist had been drinking lol) and he said « Fuck that’s good I’m gonna need three or four more glasses » and tbh same but after the musicals they brought out a drum and let Flo drum for a bit and they did Sur mon nuage then he did Arrête somewhere in there??? Oh and the slow version of Je ne sais pas (which is the better version imo) which he apparently wrote about the girl who dumped him in Canada which I totally didn’t realize.

Then he was winding down the show and did that sped up version of Quoi de neuf which stresses me out because it’s so damn fast and he also kept switching up the lyrics in the chorus???? Like dude wtf I can’t sing along if you keep changing it!!!!

He left the stage afterwards but came back to do another new song whose name I forgot and he tried to teach us the chorus and was like « it’s really easy!! » but I couldn’t understand the words he was singing???? Oh well maybe he’ll release it on his next album whenever that’s happening (which he hasn’t even mentioned another album so I’m not holding my breath lol) then he ended with Qu’est-ce qu’un homme which is such a good song y’all it’s SO GOOD. But y’all when he had his arms around his band members to bow the Floobs were out they were really out there and idk how to process this information.

We headed outside to see about stagedooring and there ended up being two groups of fans at two different exits and we were kind of eying each other trying to figure out who was going to be right and if we needed to rush to the other side but all of the sudden everyone rushed to one of the theatre’s main doors??? So Emily and I rushed along and we were all penguin huddled together and no one really knew what was happening but we were all just waiting while the theatre staff opened the door and let a few fans in at a time. We finally figured out that we were meeting Flo inside which I thought was nice since that way he wasn’t being crowded by a bunch of fans at the same time.

So Emily and I finally get inside except I’m getting loopy because of lack of sleep and we really hadn’t eaten that much that day either and I was SO CLOSE to deciding I was going to tell Flo I was disappointed he didn’t do any Lost Smile lol. So the line of fans goes around a corner so we can’t really see what’s happening until we get up close and we can see the dudes that opened the show and we thought Flo would be after them but no you greet Flo first and that’s when my heart started beating real fast I wasn’t fucking ready y’all but we were doing it.

So I finally get up to Flo and he and a staff member are talking about how many people are still waiting and he didn’t quite see me at first when I handed him my ticket to sign and when they’re done talking I quietly say « hi » and Flo finally sees me and y’all he got so fucking excited I was so worried he wouldn’t recognize us but he did!!!!!!!! Even though it’s been almost two years!!!!! He asks us how we’ve been and he seemed so sincere and genuine and so interested like he really did want to know how we had been doing and as he’s signing Emily’s ticket I asked what his cat’s name was and he said he wasn’t saying right now but that he was going to announce it later. But he did tell us his cat was super sweet and that he didn’t make too much noise in the morning and that he will play fetch like a dog and I was like omg my cat too!!! I’m also 95% sure at some point during this convo I straight up told Flo I love his cat but idk if he heard but he didn’t seem weirded out lol so that was good. Flo took selfies with me then while he was taking selfies with Emily I said, « The concert was better than Harry Potter » (a reference to the classic « Song For A Lunatic ») and he was trying so hard not to lose it mid-selfie and I’m pretty sure it was the cause of the blep in Emily’s selfies it was so fucking great hahaha then the theatre staff fussed at all of us because we were taking so long but it was so worth it. He thanked us for coming and seemed really sincere about it like it wasn’t in just a « I need something to close this convo with fans » way it was like really genuine and this man and his sincerity will be the death of me.

Emily and I stayed calm until we got outside the theatre then we fucking lost it and screamed at Emily’s mom on the phone while she was at work because FLORENT MOTHE RECOGNIZED US and he had like a substantial conversation with us and he didn’t with the people ahead of us and he smiled SO MUCH in our selfies it was so amazing I feel so validated as a fan like one of my all time fave singers actually knows who I am and I’m dying.

I recorded most of the concert so I’ll post that recording and some pictures and videos later on!! Damn this turned out wayyy longer than expected lol.

#moraholics #ella writes text #ella goes stagedooring

17 notes · View notes

sapphyrelily · 7 years

Text

Six - Shatter

Forgot to upload this yesterday, oops

Read on AO3

Things only get worse.

The lack of sleep makes Semi tired at work, slightly more irritable than usual. He plays it cool for the customers, but Shirabu can feel the mounting emotion, and it will only be so long before the dam breaks.

(But it seems that he doesn’t need to worry.)

(He needs to panic.)

Back at home, Semi spends hours muttering and pacing and drawing on blank sheets of paper, and nothing Shirabu sees reassures him.

A list of fears, of people who might be angry at him. Of those who might come after him, like an assassin in the night.

A list of things he has to do to keep out of the spotlight, to not draw attention to himself. To fade away, so that people would stop asking what’s wrong.

What’s worse is the constant one-sided conversations with someone who’s not there.

“That would be a bad idea. No. Come on, you’re the smart one, give me a good idea.”

Semi-san, stop.

“How exactly am I supposed to do a better job at work? I’m already doing what I can.”

Semi. Please.

“Geez, you’re so helpful.”

…stop…

He hates it. He hates how Semi is continually seeing his spectre and taking advice from the illusions of his battered mind, how he is spiralling deeper and deeper into something out of his control.

He hates how he is so well-blocked by the medicine that he cannot reach out and shake awareness back into his friend. Even if he could, Semi wouldn’t believe it was him.

All Shirabu can do is pretend that none of it is happening, but he has never been too good at lying to himself.

-----

(Even the strongest of spider silk can snap.)

Shirabu hears the alarm clearly one morning, and it shocks him to full awareness. He hasn’t heard anything so clearly since before…

(Before they argued, and he got blocked out.)

But why now?

The alarm keeps ringing, but Semi doesn’t stir. Shirabu reaches out tentatively, fumbling towards where he knows the barrier is, trying to touch it.

It parts under his fingers like water, a veil too easily broken. He shrinks back at the sensation, too afraid to move beyond it.

He knows better than to try. He doesn’t want to be shut out like that again.

(Isn’t he still bound behind the barrier? If he never moves forward?)

(But the rejection, that isolation, that anxiety and fear–)

(How much of that fear is really his?)

The alarm is still too loud, and he creeps towards the barrier again, to try and sneakily shut it off before Semi wakes.

Slipping control on is like putting on a favourite loose garment – comfortable, easy, familiar. But it is also unbelievably heavy, and while opening his eyes is simple, he struggles to lift his arm, the effort making him shake.

Is this how Semi has been feeling? He feels exhausted, and he has barely budged.

His fingers catch on the edge of the table and slip off, crashing into the side of the bed. Shirabu freezes, dread shooting through his veins, but Semi does not wake.

He tries again, painstakingly lifting his arm, carefully pressing on the screen to turn the alarm off.

His arm falls back against the bed, a dead weight, and he doesn’t have the energy to move it further. He feels like he’s sweating buckets, shaking with the effort taken to do that one, simple action.

(It was like trying to wind a spring tighter than it would go, trying to force something to happen when it clearly could not take any more pressure.)

He almost wants to cry at the effort it took.

There is confused mumbling that isn’t his, and he freezes. Turns, runs, dives back behind the safety of the barrier, uncaring about how it splinters.

Shirabu shivers in his corner, waiting, anticipating the rebuke.

(‘How dare you.’)

(‘Who gave you the right?’)

(‘What are you doing?’)

It does not come.

Ugh.

He holds his metaphorical breath as Semi turns onto his stomach, groaning. Ow. Ugh. I don’t want to go to work.

Shirabu almost laughs. That whine sounds familiar.

There’s a moment of quiet breathing, then Semi pushes himself upright.

He almost falls off the bed, the vertigo so strong that Shirabu is alarmed.

(He says nothing.)

Semi holds still for a minute, the nausea slowly dying off. He swings his legs off the bed and stands, but one step forward makes him collapse back onto the bed – his head is spinning too much.

(Shirabu almost says something, but he holds himself back.)

(He’s not ready to be blocked out just yet.)

(He needs to stay, to watch.)

He observes.

He watches as the world wobbles in the dim light, feels the detachment and the spinning of the world as Semi slowly rises to his feet. He holds his breath as Semi stumbles towards a wall, a hand upon it for balance, fingers dragging across the slightly uneven surface as he moves towards the bathroom.

A sudden weakness in his knees, and he gasps as they go down.

At the very least, Semi knows how to fall.

He catches himself on his forearm, rolling onto his shoulder, tipping onto his back. It hurts, a dull ache instead of a sharp pain, and while it is not his pain, Shirabu winces, grateful that it is not worse.

“Who’s there?”

Shirabu holds his breath, covers his mouth, shrinks deeper into his corner.

(Was he too loud?)

“Show yourself.”

(He’s been noticed.)

As shaky as he is, Semi pushes himself to hands and knees, rolling into a sitting position, squinting into the darkness.

“I’ll call the police if you don’t reveal yourself.”

He’s worried, too worried, and he knows that no one is there. It was him that Semi heard.

Semi-san?

“Shirabu?” A flick of eyes over the darkness, but nothing is there. No one is there. “Where are you, brat?”

I’m here. In your head.

(His voice is so small, he wonders if he can be heard at all.)

“Stop talking rubbish and show yourself.”

I’m not lying.

“Can you not be annoying for once, damnit!” Semi punches the floor in frustration, cursing at the pain shooting through his knuckles. Shirabu shrinks back, though he wants nothing more than to fix the problem.

I’m not. I’m really not.

Please believe me.

Semi snorts. “Now I know it’s not you. Shirabu never grovels.”

(Is he grovelling?)

(God, he’s pathetic.)

Semi groans and pushes to his feet. Leans against the wall as the dizziness threatens to overwhelm him. Shirabu can feel his limbs going numb, can see the colourful fireworks blooming behind closed lids.

Semi-san, don’t faint. Sit down.

“Stop telling me what to do.”

But he remains still, breathing heavily, wiggling his fingers, as if it would help. All the while, Shirabu feels him getting more and more light-headed, an uncomfortable sensation in the back of his throat, the ever-increasing numbness in his fingers.

Please. Please sit down. You’re going to faint.

“Don’t… Tell… Me… What… To do.” Semi slides down the wall, vision flickering, and hits the floor with a heavy thump. Shirabu feels the hard impact, wincing at the shock through his tailbone, but Semi does not stir.

Semi-san? Semi?

(A black hole in the place where the other’s consciousness usually is.)

(Has he really fainted?)

Eita?

(Quiet, quiet, quiet.)

(No reply, though he expected a roaring anger at the use of his name.)

(He is alone.)

Shirabu steps forward carefully, wiggling feeling back into his fingers, pulling his knees up so he can place his head between them.

It is so difficult to move, and the nausea is overwhelming, and maybe he should lie down.

(He does.)

The wood floor is cool beneath his cheek, and he can feel the bile receding, his head becoming just a tad clearer.

(When did Semi last eat? Drink?)

(Shirabu knows the mechanics of fainting all too well, and it scares him to think that Semi is so weak.)

He exhales slowly, rolling over, supporting himself onto his knees, pushing up with his forearms.

Another deep exhale. A slow, slow inhale.

He begins the crawl forward.

The bed is so close, yet too far, but it is an ordeal he pushes numb limbs through, convincing himself to take Just… One… More… Step.

And suddenly, he is there.

The sheets are cool on his palm, and he leans against the mattress for a moment, resting his aching head.

(He is so tired.)

(But he can’t give up now.)

Fingers hook onto the edge of the mattress, pulling himself up. He seats himself carefully, fingers gripping the springy material too tightly, biting his lip and exhaling slowly as the nausea threatens to overwhelm him.

Shirabu feels his eyes cross, his elbows tremble. He tries to shake his head to clear the feeling, but it’s slow, unsteady, and his hearing is fading. He bites his lip, but the pain is dull and doesn’t help.

A small spark of realisation, his thoughts catching up with what his eyes had seen.

His eyes flick back to the side table, focusing on the phone and its blinking white light.

Bracing himself on one arm, he reaches towards it. The surface is cool and hard and real, and he grips on to it even as he lowers his body onto the bed – arms bending, knees lifting, rolling onto his side and holding still.

(Just a moment, just a moment.)

(He only needs a moment.)

He opens his eyes, unlocks the phone, and opens Semi’s contact list. Scrolls through it. Stops on a name, breath catching.

I know who this is.

How had he never remembered this person before?

(It’s not too late now.)

(He can trust this person, he knows it.)

He raises a finger, shakily presses a button. Then another, and watches the too-bright screen as the ringtone drones at him.

Please, please pick up.

A click, a voice.

“Hello?”

(His friend sounds so sleepy.)

(He’s missed him.)

“Taichi?”

“Semi-san? Why are you calling me at– Ugh, it’s five– This ungodly hour?”

He wants to laugh, he wants to cry.

Of course. He couldn’t have known.

“It’s Kenjirou, not Semi-san.”

“What?”

A rustle of sheets, and he smiles a little, phone slipping a little in his grip. He quickly rights it.

“Are you lying to me? It’s not funny.”

“Why would I lie to you, you asshat?” He wants to roll his eyes, but he’s so tired. “Just ask something only I would know to confirm it.”

“The time you cried because you had to pass on your position.”

“The setter position or the captain position?”

A snort from over the line. “Good enough.”

“How is that ‘good enough’?” He’s too confused.

“Semi-san would have said ‘Shirabu never cries’.”

That makes him laugh. “True.”

The laugh dies too quickly – his head is too light. He almost misses what Kawanishi says. “What?”

“I said, why didn’t you call earlier?”

(Truth or lie, truth or lie?)

(His head is too light for lies.)

“I kind of forgot to.”

(He leaves it hanging, open-ended.)

(Kawanishi doesn’t need to know that he forgot him.)

The phone slips again, its corner sinking into the pillow.

He is so tired.

“–jirou? Oi, are you listening to me?”

He wants to sleep forever.

“Taichi, I need help.”

(His voice is so soft, softer than before.)

(Did it break, at the end?)

He thinks he hears a shocked intake of breath.

“What do you need?”

Kawanishi sounds so calm.

(He’s missed him, so much.)

(He can always rely on Kawanishi.)

“Do you know where Semi-san lives?”

“No.”

Shirabu’s heart falls.

“Turn on the location and tracking on his phone, and I’ll get to you.”

“You’re my saviour,” he tells him, and he’s not being sarcastic.

“Yeah, yeah. How fast do I need to be?”

“As fast as you can.” His hands are so tired, and he rests them against the bed. “I think Semi-san is dying.”

A curse, a loud thump, and he almost smiles.

(He’s so tired.)

“I can’t be there that fast, but can you unlock the front door so I won’t have to bring security down on me?”

(He has to stay awake, just a bit longer.)

“Of course.”

“Stay alive, okay?” He hears the undertone of panic in his best friend’s voice. “I didn’t lose you just to find you and lose you again.”

“Sap.”

“Shut up. Turn on the location and tracking, alright? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious. Don’t die.”

“I’ll try.”

“Good. See you soon.”

The line dies, and he watches the screen for a moment, a soft sigh escaping.

He has work to do.

He exits the contacts list and goes to settings, finding and switching on the location. Locking the phone, he slowly sits upright, gripping the bed and breathing slowly, until he can somewhat see.

Shirabu slides the phone into the waistband of his shorts, nestled against the small of his back. He prays that it won’t slip out, as he stands and begins the long trek to the door. He can’t afford to bend and pick it up if it falls.

He follows the wall to the bedroom door, stopping and leaning against it too many times, trying to catch his breath. He readjusts the phone’s position to ensure its safety, but his biggest trial is still to come.

He places shaky fingers on the round doorknob, gripping it as tightly as he can and twisting.

It shifts only a little, the spring quickly falling back into place as he meets resistance, and he tightens his grip on its metal surface, grimacing.

Twist. Spring back. Twist. Spring back. It’s becoming a mantra that he can’t escape, and his fingers are losing their grip, their strength.

He wipes his hand on his shorts, blowing on it to dry any dampness, and grips the knob as tightly as he can.

Twist, yank.

Click.

His fingers slip a little at the vibration, at the disengagement. He realises something.

The lock. That’s the resistance.

The door shifts, the knob slides out of his grip.

The wood falls back.

Shirabu wants to scream.

He wipes his hand again, palm cupping the knob snugly, fingers digging into the metal surface.

Twist.

He hears the clack as the latch unwinds fully, and pulls it towards him as well as he can.

(He’s shaking, trembling.)

The door opens, just a crack.

The knob slides out of his limp hand, the latch popping back out with a dull thud. The latch clicks where it falls back against the door frame, but it’s done.

It’s open.

Shirabu grasps the doorknob again with a barely concealed sob, fingers digging into the metal in hope of keeping a handle on his sanity.

A deep exhale, a hand against the wall.

The door pulled back, pushed against the opposite wall.

He tries to recall the layout of the apartment, and his knees almost buckle at the thought of walking so far.

Shirabu rests his head against the wall, gritting his teeth, inhaling deeply, shakily. His curled fingers tremble against the wall, but the rough surface provides an edge of pain, sharpening his focus. Tuning his thoughts, directing them wholly to the task he needs to complete.

He pushes off, and starts walking.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Forward and forward and forward, only stopping when his back screams with pain, when his head grows so light he thinks he might drift away.

He’s almost there. Two-thirds more to go.

Forward. One more step. Yet another. He pauses, with a thought. Shakes it off, continues.

One-third more.

His mind drifts, focusing on the cool floor, the tiny bumps in the plaster of the wall, the squeak of his bare feet against waxed wooden floors.

His toes curl around an edge, teetering off into space.

He looks up.

The door is in front of him. Two steps away.

He made it.

Shirabu lowers himself carefully, edging down, setting both feet firmly in the genkan. Reaches forward, fingers shaky on the flat surface of the lock, twisting hard. It turns almost easily under the pressure, and he grabs the chain, sliding it out quickly, before he loses his strength.

He leans against the door, uncaring about the thump his body makes as it hits it. He’s almost there, almost there.

Now for the last part.

He shuffles away, dragging his feet, stepping just out of the genkan and sliding down onto the floor. Something digs into his back, and he reaches behind him, pulls the phone out of his shorts.

He can’t believe it survived the entire walk.

He smiles a little, lets a chuckle slip out.

He is so tired.

He puts a palm on the ground, slowly lowering himself, arranging the phone next to his head.

His head feels better now.

He breathes slowly, relishing in the coolness, and drifts.

-----

A half-submerged thought, a voice from far away.

“Semi-san?”

A light shaking of his shoulder – is it really his shoulder? – and he can feel his head flopping back and forth.

“Hey. Hey. Can you hear me?”

His eyelids are too heavy, he can’t open his eyes.

(He’s trying, but they’re glued shut.)

“Hello? I need the ambulance, my location is…”

The person sounds really familiar.

They look familiar – tall, with large hands, but he can’t see their face.

(He can’t look directly at them, and everything is washed out.)

(Is he dreaming?)

“Semi-san. Semi-san.” A pause. “Kenjirou?”

He knows that name. Both names.

He knows he should wake up, but he can’t.

He is jolted, and his dream-self walks away.

It is too bright, and he can’t open his eyes.

What was he looking at, before?

#semishira #semi eita #shirabu kenjirou #kawanishi taichi #haikyuu!!#overlay #my writing

1 note · View note