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#I meant to do like three smallish pieces
xaphrin · 4 years
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An anon asked about how I felt about smut and cake. 
Okay, but hear me out. Smut and wedding cake. 
- - - 
Her feet were killing her. 
Raven was practically limping as she stumbled over the threshold of their flat, pushing at her hair that was held in place by no less than four thousand pins. At least one thousand of them were digging into her scalp, and she grumbled under her breath as she started taking them out, putting them in a pile on the counter. Damian stepped into their flat behind her, his shoulders drooping with exhaustion as he placed what was left of their wedding cake on the counter. 
“For trying to be a small affair, my family did make a damn day of it.” Damian sighed, the sound rattling in his chest like he carried the weight of the world, and pulled out a bottle of champagne from the fridge. He started peeling off the foil around the neck, and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “They didn’t bother you too much, did they?”
“You know I love your family. I have since I first met them - even Jason.” 
Damian snorted, but there was a start of a small smile against the corner of his mouth. 
Raven watched him for a moment before she pulled herself up on the counter, her feet glad to not be supporting her weight any more. She sat there and let the soft, comfortable silence settle between them. Oh. But wait. There was still cake left. With wide, excited eyes, she reached for the deceptively plain cake box, flicking open the lid. Her smile brightened. There were real perks to marrying the most powerful civilian in the city - including getting a wedding cake from the most exclusive bakery in Gotham. She ran her finger through an iced decoration, bringing it to her lips. 
A pop from the champagne bottle made her look up, and saw Damian lifting an eyebrow. His eyes roamed her face as a smirk playing along his lips. He poured her a glass of champagne and handed it to her.  
“Do you need a fork?”
“Mm. No.” Raven sucked on her finger, licking off the icing before taking a sip of the champagne. With a teasing smile, she dipped her finger back into the beautifully iced cake, holding out a dollop of icing to Damian. “Want some?”
He looked from her finger to her mouth and back again, bending his head down to suck gentle on her hand, and… oh. Raven’s heart skipped beats as he lifted his deep, green eyes to her own, sucking the sweet treat from her hand without breaking away his stare. Breath caught in her lungs, and she suddenly realized how much trouble she was in now. This. She was married to this. The muscles in her thighs tightened, and she licked her lips, tasting icing still clinging to them. He could be so serious sometimes, that she forgot how sensual he could be too. Damian sucked her finger deeper into his mouth, tapping up every last bit of icing before releasing her hand. 
Damian set his glass down and slammed his hands on either side of her hips, leaning up into her face. He smelled of his spiced soap and the expensive scotch he’d been drinking at dinner. He smelled like… like home. “I know you’re wearing them.”
Oh. He wanted to play did he? Raven let one shoe drop to the floor, her eyes soft as she met his stare. “Mm?”
“Show them to me, minx.”
Right. Don’t poke the bear. Heat filled her stomach and she shivered, letting her other shoe drop to the floor with a loud clatter. She was playing with fire, and they both knew it. Damian only called her minx when she was about to be fucked so hard she wouldn’t walk straight for a week. Her thighs clenched together and she realized she probably should have worn real underwear, instead of this useless scrap of a lace thong. 
“Show them to me.” Damian’s voice was a demanding growl and he dipped two fingers into the icing on the cake. 
Slowly, almost as if she was performing a show for him, Raven lifted the hem of her dress - one scant inch at a time. It did nothing to cool her down, and whatever sense of control she thought she had would be dissolved the moment he put his hands on her. Gods. She was so desperate right now - so hot that if Damian even looked at her, she was going to come. The hem of her dress finally reached just above her knees, and she leaned back on the black marble of their counters, looking at him through half-closed eyes. It was an invitation, and he knew it.
Raven took her foot and slid it up the inside of his thigh, her toes just barely brushing the underside of what seemed to be a very painful erection. A part of her wondered how long he’d been trying to keep that under control. Probably since this morning, when she had kicked him out of their bedroom to get dressed for the ceremony. 
Damian cursed in no less than three languages before he grabbed the hem of her skirt, and shoved it the rest of the way up to her waist. It was almost comforting to know that he was just as far gone as she was, and that he was going to shatter in the same way. Raven shifted and spread her legs wide, showing the white lace underwear, decorated with little, pale-blue bows. A soft blush darkened her cheeks, hoping he didn’t notice. She was utterly soaked, and it would have been embarrassing, except Damian was licking his lips as though he had caught prey he was about to devour.
Oh, heavens. 
His fingers, still coated with the most delicious icing on the east coast, slid along the inside of her thigh, leaving a pale-white smear against her skin. He lifted his eyes to her own, and his other hand slid down the back of her thigh, teasing at the seam of her stockings. 
“Did you wear them for a special occasion?” He snapped the lace nylon against her thigh and leaned down to lap up a streak of white icing, humming in appreciation. “You know how I feel about these in particular.”
“I would say getting married to the love of my life counts as a special occasion.” Raven was embarrassed at how weak her voice sounded, but the second pass of his tongue along her thigh made her bury her shame. This felt too good to even think about her fears. He was going to set her whole body on fire, and there would be nothing left but ashes. But… it would be worth it. 
“The love of your life?” He pushed the heavy fabric of her dress out of the way and looked into her eyes. His expression softened for a moment, and he nuzzled the crease of her hip, whispering something like a prayer into her skin. “Good to know.”
Damian kissed back down to her underwear catching the delicate lace in his teeth and pulling, letting it snap back against her skin. Another wave of heat filled her body, and Raven whimpered, her head falling back against the marble with a soft sigh. It already felt like she was primed to go off in a show of fireworks, and she spread her legs even wider in invitation. He probably got the hint, but he was drawing out the anticipation until she submitted to his every whim. 
“Ah… habibti.” 
Raven moaned, her back arching off the counter as her breaths threatened to rip the seams from her dress. She felt the heat of his breath through the wet satin of her underwear and shifted her hips, needing something to get her somewhere.
“Damian…” Her voice was nothing less than a whine. “Please.”
 He smirked and leaned back, dipping a finger back into the icing of their wedding cake. “Open up.” He held his fingertip up to her mouth, and Raven ran the tip of her tongue along the length of his hand, dipping into the crease of his palm before sucking on his fingertip. The sweetness of the icing mixed with a flavor that was distinctly Damian exploded over her tongue, and she barely contained a moan as she drew his finger deeper into her mouth. She curled her tongue around him, and without realizing what she was doing, her own hand crept between her legs, pushing her panties to the side. 
“Oh?” Damian pulled his finger from her mouth and dipped two of them back into the icing again.
Raven lapped her tongue against his fingers, her eyes closing as her own fingers circled her clit. Ah. Yes. She drew a finger into her mouth, moaning with every pass of her own hand against her clit. 
“You’re a mess, my love.” Damian’s voice was a rough whisper, rumbling against her skin like a promise of sin. “You should see your pretty little pussy. Soaking, dripping.” He leaned over her and licked up her neck, nibbling along her throat. He caught the thin gold chain of her necklace between his teeth and pulled at it. “You look more delicious than our cake.”
She could feel her orgasm start just under her belly button, and she sucked harder on Damian’s fingers, practically riding her own hand. Damian sucked hard on her neck, likely leaving a mark, before he muttered low encouraging phrases into her ear. 
“Yes, my love. Come. Come hard. All over your hands. Let me lick you clean. Taste you.” 
Raven was shuddering, her mouth falling open as-
“Ah. Yes, my wife.” 
She was ashamed to admit that Damian calling her his wife was what tipped her over the edge. Raven’s fingers were a blur as she finished herself off, letting the orgasm slip into her veins and consume her with warm, gentle fire. Her back arched off the counter again and she let go of a whine, muffled by Damian’s fingers held tight with her teeth. He groaned against her neck, and Raven could feel him give a few halfhearted thrusts against her thigh, as if he was trying to stave off his own desires. It was too much, and somehow not enough, and she just let herself float as wave after wave of please drowned her. 
Damian waited until her breath stilled and her heart returned to normal before speaking again. “I wasn’t expecting a show on our wedding night.” 
She sighed, letting the pleasant aftershocks ease through her whole body. A few moments passed in silence before she finally opened her eyes again, looking up into Damian’s curious expression. He let go of a low chuckle and stepped back, looking far too smug and far handsome in his suit. He stood there and watched her for a moment, until Raven wiggled off the counter. The moment her feet hit the floor she began unfastening the row of buttons running down her spine. With a quiet whoosh, the dress fell around her ankles, and she stood in their kitchen in nothing more than white lace, and those very specific stockings. 
Damian watched her, looking like his own control was barely holding on by a thread. A tense silence settled over them, and he grabbed the cake box, shoving the bottle of champagne in her hands. 
“Bedroom.”
Raven sauntered ahead of him, letting her hips sway just a little as she felt his stare trace the outline of her practically bare ass. She glanced over her shoulder, offering a coquettish smile.
“Now, my wife.”
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sleep-i-ness · 4 years
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My Saviour (Tony Stark x reader)
Blurb: Y/N is going to die. That she’s sure of. Now is the wait, ten feet under a collapsed building, waiting for it to finally give way.
Prompts: “I am being extremely clever up here and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed. What’s the point in having you all?” 
CW: Mentions of death and dying, injury
A/N: This is my entry for @thefanficfaerie​‘s writing challenge, I am so sorry it’s late! Back to school and all that
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The ceiling’s about to go. You need to get out of there NOW. Everything changes the mission Y/N thinks she’s going to die. Sure, there had been a few close calls every now and then but never like this. Trapped under a collapsed 7-storey building, with dust still settling around her and ominous creaks echoing around the small space. And, how could she forget, with the team’s biggest ego for company.
The day started early, if she could even say ‘started’ when Stark had kept her up in the labs with him, well past her usual bedtime. Cap had tried to insist, yet again, that she joined him on his ‘invigorating’ morning jog, despite the fact that she had nowhere near the stamina of a super soldier and that she was running on eleven cups of black coffee (adding milk had ended up taking too much time when the exhaustion was kicking in again) and spite. Her spite, she decided, was what was going to get her out of this mess.
At the bright and early time of 10am, Stark had stumbled out of his bedroom, having actually gone to bed instead of being pressured into joining a training session. Well, he didn’t really need to train; the suit was his manpower. Unlike the rest of them, he didn’t need to keep in shape, other than to pick up women at whatever posh event he went to. Which was unfortunately never kept a secret from her, as for some reason, whilst her floor (why did she need a whole bloody floor?) was being decorated/renovated, she was in a room directly adjacent to Stark’s. One thing he’d apparently forgotten to invest in was soundproofing.
Soon after Stark had deigned to join them at their Team Breakfast, which, according to Rogers, was an Important Bonding Session, Fury had decided to give them a call. And with Fury it was never a catch-up call, which would be nice, once in a while, now that she thought about it. Or maybe not, she dreaded seeing the man for mission briefings, she wasn’t sure if he had the capability of acting like a normal human. Oh God. Imagine Fury having brunch. She wasn’t sure if her hysterical thought stream was due to the dust fumes, lack of oxygen, undiagnosed claustrophobia kicking in, or perhaps a torturous combination of all three.
Anyway, this impromptu call was due to a SHIELD mission that had gone sideways and so the Avengers were being called in to clean up the mess. Well, considering their track record, she had been betting that more mess would be made than sorted out. It was meant to be a smallish HYDRA base with few soldiers, but more than the agents already sent in were able to handle. All she could say was that wherever Fury got his information from was seriously wrong and he needed to reconsider his sources.
Stark had groaned when the mission had come up, already complaining that they weren’t the clean-up team. He had waved at the mission file onscreen, gestured again for dramatic effect and then settled into making snide remarks for the rest of the briefing. As usual. She had an inkling that Stark just really liked the sound of his own voice or was compensating for something with sarcastic comments.
At least Steve got to use his catchphrase, yet again. ‘Avengers Assemble!’ Which was quickly wearing old and she had tried to suggest something else. Like “Let’s Get Dressed!” or “Mission Muster!”, but neither had quite the ring and, to be honest, she’d just run the original through a synonym generator. God, if any of their fans heard her complaints, she was sure she’d be butchered alive in a riveting ‘debate’ on Twitter. Apparently, they liked the cheesiness.
The first spot of bother they’d gotten into, or, well, Y/N had gotten into, was when she’d found out that her suit hadn’t finished downloading the upgrades so she would have to use her original. Her original consisted of a latex and Kevlar suit that she’d hand-stitched together. That had been back when she’d first realised that she could actually make a difference in the shitty area of town she lived in. Spares weren’t a thing for the Avengers and Stark had made sure to mock its ‘home-made chic’ feel. Well, not everyone headed a multimillion-dollar corporation when they decided to become a ‘hero’.
She still wouldn’t describe herself as a hero. She was just a girl who, instead of getting a prison sentence for aggravated assault and destruction of property, had been picked up by SHIELD. They’d seen something in her that she’d never once seen looking back at her in the mirror. After months of training and little missions, she’d been chucked headfirst into the dark stuff, fucked up a psych eval and ended up being pulled from field duty. Barton had trained with her while they were both out of active duty and vouched for her once he’d been cleared, jeopardising his job as an agent and an Avenger, for her, which she couldn’t thank him more for. Fury, not knowing what to do for once, had shoved her into a team that was only just starting to bond with each other. They hadn’t needed a barely-adult, not psych-cleared agent pushed into their hands. But they’d taken her in without complaint all the same.
The second spot of bother was the hundred or so men who had been firing at them from all angles, not the expected twenty or thirty. Stark had flown in and gunned ten or so down in his bulletproof suit, but even that hadn’t been enough to make the fight easy. Barton was perched up a tree, true to his nickname as usual, and was taking out man after man, but one replaced the other as soon as they fell.  
And because all things come in threes, there had been a third spot of bother. It had been when the control room collapsed due to an exploding arrow that Barton had refused to admit to, and the central structure’s integrity had been compromised. She had gone in on the intelligence gathering mission and the stupid program had completed 84% of the download. So, she had assured her teammates that she’d wait for it to finish and then get the fuck out of there. But she hadn’t had time. And so that brought her up to now, in a tiny space, feeling more and more squashed by the minute. Rubble clattered down above her every so often and the space would gradually shift as the weight on top of it increased. She just hoped SHIELD found her before she was completely crushed. If they were even looking for them.
“Y/N?” Stark’s voice was hoarse from the dust, even his suit must’ve been unable to filter it all out. She frowned; she was sure that it had its own oxygen supply. Perhaps it had been damaged when he’d zoomed in as the building collapsed around them, professing that he would save her. Fat lot of good he’d been. As the floor had caved in beneath her feet and the ceiling collapsed simultaneously, he hadn’t even reached her before she’d fallen in the sinkhole that had opened up. She’d always said that constructing a tall building on top of earth riddled with secret passages was just asking for trouble.
“Yes?” Irritation bled through as she tried to keep her tone civil and sweet, but the circumstances were definitely not ideal for her mood. And she’d had barely any sleep. Which was arguably thanks to him, and no, she still hadn’t forgiven him for it.
“Okay, good, just checking you were alive.”
She rolled her eyes at that answer. What if she’d been unconscious? She’d still be alive. No need to pester her just for that. “Well, how are you going to get us out of here?”
Stark was silent. For once in his life, he finally had nothing to say. She would applaud herself on such an accomplishment, but she was busy trying not to lose her temper. He was meant to be the genius, the one with a plan for everything, and she knew that was a lot of pressure to put on him. But she’d really like to believe that she wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for him.
“I’m…” He hesitated, light flickering feebly through the rocks between them. “Having some difficulties with the suit. JARVIS, why don’t you tell her?”
The monotonous voice came through clearly, albeit a bit tinny over the speakers. Although she’d read plenty about the AI when creating her own suit and then promptly dismissed the idea that she would ever be able to do the same, it was still weird how omniscient he seemed. It made her skin crawl, the idea that she had no privacy, even in her own bedroom. “Suit’s capabilities are down by 62%. Weapons status – missiles offline, repulsors limited power. Damage has been sustained severely on the chest piece as well as the helmet and left shin pieces.”
Her mouth dropped; she hadn’t expected it to be this bad. Sure, a damaged chest piece she could’ve guessed, because that would have affected the suit’s oxygen supply, but the power source must have also been damaged. “Can you clear some more space, or get us into the same area? Maybe if we can access the equipment that was in the control room…”
“On it. JARVIS, scan the rubble for equipment and structurally sound areas.”
From where she was sat, nothing seemed to be happening. Even the lights from his suit had dimmed considerably, causing her to squint to try and make out various shapes in the fallen rock. The almost silent creaking around her were amplified in the darkness and she shivered, a cold trickle of dread running down her spine. She’d always hated just waiting for something to happen, knowing that it was going to but not when or how.
The raspy static of comms was incessant in her ear as she strained to hear of any movement or updates on their situation from Stark’s position. Nothing. God, she hoped he hadn’t been physically injured. She forgot that he was just a man beneath all that metal. Nothing superhuman or enhanced or specially trained from too sheng of an age.
“Y/N.” Stark’s voice was urgent and low, a light hiss through the dust filled air. “There’s someone else down here. JARVIS is detecting enough of a heat signature for them to still be alive.”
A gentle groan made her freeze, hair prickling on the back of her neck. She turned her head ever so slightly to the left, peering into the pitch-black darkness. Blinking furiously, she soon realised that there was no difference between when her eyes were shut and open.
“Hello?” A familiar voice called out and she sighed, face relaxing from its grimace.
“Barton?”
“Y/N? I thought you got out?” He coughed, wheezing dust and she winced at the harsh sound, chest clenching painfully in sympathy.
She chuckled bitterly, “Yeah, nope, Tony also got stuck down here.”
A loud thump startled her, rubble tumbling down as a metal support beam snapped under the strain of the weight. Inhaling and exhaling slowly to calm her mounting nerves, she curled her arms over her head, hoping that she’d survive this. Time seemed to slow as the seconds, minutes, possibly even hours ticked by. Nothing more to do than ponder the situation and any and every scenario that could come of it.
Crash. She jolted as the ground beneath her trembled, sucking in a quick breath. This was it. This was the end. Closing her eyes, she sent out a prayer to whatever god was out there, anyone who could help her. Hoping it would be swift and painless.
Cool metal brushed against her face, and her eyes flashed open. The icy white glow lit up the dust-filled air in front of her and she choked back a sob of relief, pressing a hand over her mouth. Tony shushed her softly as he heaved a large slab of stone out of the way, sending tiny particles of rock down onto her. They bounced off her face and she whimpered, biting down hard enough on her bottom lip to draw blood.
The shredded metal of his arms slid under her, catching at her clothes as he pulled her into his chest. Cradling her in his arms, he plodded into a spacious cavern, each step followed by creaking joints. The stone was cold against her back as he propped her against the central mound, her head lolling back.
He popped his visor open, eyes lit by a blue glow as he stared at her intently, a flicker of worry dancing behind his eyes. “Are you okay?”
She was sure that he’d already asked her that but couldn’t find it in herself to bite a remark at him. In fact, she couldn’t even remember why she’d been so pissed off at him before, her annoyance swept away by the pure elation of still being alive.
“I’m fine.” At his sceptical look, she sighed. Nothing was broken or injured too badly, although she hadn’t really had time to think hard enough about it. That was all that was necessary. “Don’t worry about me, Tin Man, focus on getting us out of here. You need to help Barton out first.”
Before too long, Tony had returned, placing Clint down beside her. She knelt over him, guided by the light from Tony’s suit and held back a gasp. Brushing hair off of his pale and sweaty face, her nimble fingers ran over the bruised and battered flesh of his leg and she grimaced. He hissed at the sharp stabbing pain, the ghostly touch still too much pressure.
“Is that what heaven’s like? What did I do right to get a girl as pretty as you looking after me?” Clint’s words were slurred as he tried to crack a grin and ease her worries. She chuckled, as Tony clomped round to see what was happening.
“Don’t be getting too comfortable, Barton. Anyone can get a squashed leg.” Tony’s words were snide, and she clicked her tongue in disapproval.
“Stop it.”
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Tony protested. She could hear the pout in his voice.
“Go work on getting us out of here.” For the first time since the beginning of the mission, she felt hope. She knew it was a dangerous emotion. It had been ingrained deep into her mind that hope was dangerous, that it should be stifled. But she wanted to believe that Tony would find them a way out, that they wouldn’t die with only each other for company in a deep, dark cavern, waiting for the ceiling to collapse on them.
The sharp scraping of metal against metal as he moved away was painful and she winced. His suit was in a bad state, but she hoped it would last the whole ordeal.
Clint’s rambling startled her from her thoughts. “You really look like an angel, Y/N. Maybe this is God’s gift for this injury.”
“Yeah, well, next time you want my attention, you don’t have to go this far,” she laughed, wiping the grime that had settled into his skin. “My standards aren’t so high that I need a guy to have injuries severe enough to possibly warrant amputation.”
Clint groaned painfully, before trying to play it off. “You mean, I didn’t have to do all this. Well, darn it.” She laughed again, giving him a sympathetic grin as he winced yet again. His leg was a blotchy mess of colours and she swallowed harshly.
She jumped as Tony’s voice echoed around the cavern. “I am being extremely clever up here and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed. What’s the point in having you all?” She grinned up at where he stood. Under his blindingly-fast fingers was what had turned out to be the main console, and she assumed he was rerouting message signals and finding a secure escape route. “Well, I’ve found us a way out. But I’ll only take you if you promise not to flirt so sickeningly.”
“Stark, are you jealous?” Clint’s incredulous voice came from beside her, tinged with agony.
Tony scoffed, his face disappearing into darkness as the blue light from the screens shut off. “No. As if.”
“Well,” she piped up, noting with delight how Tony’s head snapped towards her. “Tony, let me just warn you that you don’t need to get your leg squashed if you want my attention. I don’t need another injury on my conscience.”
“Aw, no, there goes my plan on how to win you over. Come on, I’ll carry Robin Hood and you follow me.”
The route was a dingy corridor that was lit by flickering electric bulbs that looked as if they hadn’t been replaced since the 40s. “Soft light incandescent bulbs.” Tony had noted as she passed under the first ones.
By the time she had reached the manhole cover that signalled the exit of the seemingly-endless tunnel, she weren’t sure if her legs would be able to support her much further. The startlingly bright light streaming into the tunnel made her smile, a great beaming grin as she felt the sun on her face after what had felt like days.
“Come on, sweetheart. Up you come. I’ve already signalled the team, and they’re on their way. We just need to sit tight for a bit.” Tony hauled her up, next to where Clint lay, leg even more gruesome in the light. She stumbled on the uneven ground, falling forward as her foot caught on a loose stone.
Strong arms wrapped around her waist, hugging her into him. She grinned up at Tony and leant against his chest plate, relaxing into the arm that he slung around her. 
“My saviour,” she giggled, suddenly anxious at their close proximity. She didn’t know why. She’d never felt so antsy in his presence before, but something about the way he was looking at her made her heart beat faster and her breath stop.
“So,” Tony let out a nervous breath. “I know I didn’t get injured for you, but how about we still go on a date at some point?”
She smiled softly. “I’d love that.”
-
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helloprettybb · 4 years
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i don’t want to set the world on fire
The other Steve Rogers fic did surprisingly well. I have so many more ideas, so look out for those. Also, Peter Parker may come soon, but who knows. While writing this, I realized that I could probably write a part two, so would you all like that? Also, just warning you, I lowkey insult rock, but it’s only for the sake of the plot. Rock is great. I’m also writing a prequel for ‘i’ll be back’ which will be posted after this hopefully.
I have a plan to make this a series all inspired by old music. This first part is inspired by this song:
Warnings: almost rape
word count: 3.9k
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“I didn’t mean to,” were the first words you uttered to the Avengers. Laying next to you was a man whose body was burnt to a crisp. Yet you, small and innocent-looking, were perfectly fine. Of course, they had some questions.
Your father was never in your life and your mother died from childbirth, so for most of your life, you were raised by your great aunt. Life was great, even normal, until she died when you were thirteen. Since you were a minor, you were placed in an orphanage while the house was up for rent. When you turned 18, you were allowed to move into her house. Although rather lonely, you were safe  and inherited a decent amount of money. Still, you had a part-time job to stay financially stable. 
You were walking up to your car when you noticed a piece of paper on your windshield. You knew what that meant so you quickly turned the other way but were too late. A man appeared out of nowhere and grabbed you. As much as you struggled, it was useless as he was much stronger than you. Before you could pull out your pepper spray, the man knocks you unconscious.
The first thing you see when you come to is a man hovering over you. He must have noticed you woke up because he cooed, “Don’t worry, I won’t take long,” You start to scream for help, but survey your surroundings and realize that you’re probably in the middle of nowhere. 
You panic as the man starts to unzip your pants. You can feel a heat burning inside of you. It feels like a volcano was erupting from within, extremely hot, but not uncomfortable. All of a sudden, a blast of fire erupts from your hands and shoots through the roof. You’re so taken aback that you don’t even notice the man burning to death until his screams of agony cut through your train of thought. You pull back instantly but it’s too late. The man is dying before your eyes and you are stuck frozen. Your brain starts up again and you look for something to put the fire out. You find a blanket and eventually put out the fire, but he is already dead.
All you could do is cry at the fact that you just killed a man. You’re so caught up in your tears that you don’t even realize that all your clothes are burned off. Shivering, you try to think of what to do. Noticing a dark bag in the corner, you hesitantly touch it and hope that it doesn’t burn to a crisp. Luckily, nothing happens so you rummage through it to find anything. You pull out a long shirt and clean boxers. Before you could think of an exit plan, you are startled by a blast through the door. 
You cower in fear as Iron Man flies and lands right in front of you. The rest of his team follow suit. They look at you, the burnt man and then back at you. Iron Man’s hand is glowing and pointed right at your face.
He towers over you, causing you to scoot back. He starts to say something when Captain America put up a hand and says, “She’s just a kid, Tony.” He squats down so that he’s eye level with you and asks, “Can you tell us what happened?”
You could barely talk since you were so nervous. Seeming to sense your fear, he removed his mask. You’ve seen him on television, but only as Captain America. But crouched in front of you, he didn’t seem like a superhero, but just an ordinary man. You rack your brain and finally remember his name: Steve Rogers. 
“H-he was trying to attack me. I don’t know how it happened, but one moment he was on top of me and the next he was on fire. I tried to put it out, but he was already dead.” you stutter, still shocked beyond belief. You start to hyperventilate as your actions finally sink in. “I didn’t mean to, honest. I didn’t even know I could do that. You have to believe me!” you cry unprompted. Steve moves to touch you soothingly before you quickly scoot away.
“Please don’t touch me! I don’t want to kill you too.” you exclaim, scared of your own body. Steve’s eyes are filled with what looks like sympathy and he glances at Tony.
He speaks up, “She’s right, Cap.” You suddenly notice the scanner on his suit. “Her temperature is off the charts. How are you alive, kid?”
Before you could attempt to answer his question, Steve speaks up, “We have to take her to the lab. Banner will know what to do.” With no further questions, you are escorted toward their ship, careful not to touch anyone. 
On the ship, you hear their muttered whispers and assume it’s about what they should do with you. After all, you’re just a stowaway. The ride feels like an eternity until the jet finally lands. The other Avenger separate, leaving you alone with Steve and Tony. They guide you inside the giant complex and you try not to gawk at the high ceilings and large staircases, but you’ve never been in a building this huge. 
You are directed downstairs to a high-tech lab. Tony types on a keyboard and does a retinal scan before the door opens. A smallish, fidgety man is in there and greets Tony. When he notices you, he asks politely, “Who’s this?”
Realizing he never caught your name, Tony turns to you and asks in an almost comical way, “Who are you?” You say your name and Tony continues, “Anyway, she uh, has some special abilities.” Bruce quirks an eyebrow at his wording and does a biological scan. His eyes widen when he sees your vitals.
“You have a temperature of 160 degrees Celsius.” he explains. You watch as he interacts with the projected screen.
“She also burned a hole in the ceiling.” Steve states, purposely excluding the part about you killing someone.
“This may sound like a stupid question, but can I touch people without hurting them?” you ask hesitantly. You don’t want to live the rest of your life in constant fear.
Bruce pushes the screen down and responds, “Well, I’ll have to do some tests before I know for sure. But seeing as you’re clothes are still intact, I assume that you are safe.” Bruce walks over to his lab table and starts typing something on his computer. You feel Steve’s gaze as you fidget uncomfortably.
“We’ll do the tests tomorrow. Let her get some rest,” Steve’s voice booms above you. Bruce just nods as you, Tony, and Steve leave the lab. As the three of you walk up the stairs, Tony’s phone goes off. 
He looks down and tells Steve, “It’s Pepper. Can you show Y/n to the residential area.” Steve nods and you two part ways with Tony. You’re silent as Steve guides you around the building and towards the elevator.
He presses the third button and you two stand in silence as the doors close. A familiar tune plays on the speakers. You smile after recognizing it. Steve catches your small grin and asks, “You know this song?”
“Uh, yeah. ‘Stop Pretending’ was one of my great aunt’s favorites. Personally, I prefer ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’” you comment lightly. Steve opens his mouth to say something when the doors open. He steps out and you follow him down the hall.
He stops in front of a door at the far end and says, “You can stay here for the time being. My room’s the first door on the left if you need anything,” Steve doesn’t know why he added that last part, but something about your wide, innocent eyes intrigued him and your affinity for old music sure didn’t hurt.
You open the door and start to walk in before turning around and tell, “Thank you, Steve.” He gives you a glowing smile before you close the door. You didn’t realize how tired you were until your head hit the pillow and you instantly fell asleep.
-
You’re woken up by a muted, yet pestering, alarm. “Miss Y/n, Dr. Banner requests your presence.” a disembodied voice says. You look at the clock and see that it’s nearly ten o’clock. You step into the elevator and expecting to hear smooth jazz music, are extremely caught off guard by the jarring rock music. Never a big fan of rock, you cringe slightly as the speakers blast the loud electric guitars and intense drums. Luckily you are spared when the elevator doors open to the living room. You see the Avengers, now in normal clothes, lounging on the couches.
They all get up and walk towards you. A man with only one arm goes to introduce himself, “I’m Bucky. Who are you?”
“I’m y/n.” you reply sheepishly, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new faces. You vaguely remember them from tv but an introduction helps. They go around and say their names. You remembered Natasha and Clint as Black Widow and Hawkeye but you didn’t know the man named Sam Wilson. You shake everyone’s hand and you mentally sigh in relief that you didn’t burn anyone.
They start a conversation with you and before you could respond a voice calls, “Y/n, aren’t you starting with Banner today?” You look over Natasha’s shoulder to see Steve. He’s wearing a fairly tight grey shirt and sweats that if you were in any other situation, would distract you greatly.
“Yeah, I was heading down there now.” you reply with a curt nod.
“I’ll walk you down.” he states, walking towards you. The others part so that Steve could get through. You follow him towards the stairs that lead to the lab.
“Sorry about them. They can be a little intense at first, but I promise they don’t bite.” Steve jokes and cracks a beautiful smile.
“No, it’s alright.” you reply with a smile to assure him, “They seem nice. I’m just not the best with people.” You realize how sad that sounded and it seems that he did too. It looks like he’s about to say something when the lab door opens.
“Y/n, come in.” Bruce insists. You and Steve walk in the lab and Bruce closes the door behind you. He leads you over to his work area and starts, “Before I test your abilities, I want to understand how your abilities work. I’ll do a couple blood tests, take some skin samples, and do a DNA test.” He pulls out a needle and you instantly stiffen. 
Steve notices and you half-joke, “I’m not the biggest fan of needles.” You expect Steve to leave when Bruce starts preparing the needle, but he stays. The more you think of the needle, the less you can control your shaky hands. You close your eyes to try and block out the image of the needles piercing your skin.
You feel a panic attack coming when you feel a hand slipping into yours. You open your eyes and look down at Steve’s outstretched hand. Before you could say anything, you feel the needle prick. Almost out of instinct, you grab onto Steve’s large hand. His calm, blue eyes ease your tension and divert your attention from the blood. Steve starts lightly caressing your knuckles and you feel yourself warm up. 
It’s a different type of warm than in the warehouse. It feels like a warm hearth spreading through your body. Your mind wanders 
“Okay, I’ll have the results in a couple days.” Banner states, interrupting your thoughts. You look down and see a band-aid on your arm.
“It’s done already?” you ask, surprised that you actually did it without passing out.
“Yeah, you did it, doll.” Steve replies with his hand still wrapped around yours. Doll. You wonder if you were just imagining that, but you have to admit, that nickname made you feel a certain way. 
You glance over at Banner who is dripping the blood into a tube. You start shaking again and start to feel the urge to throw up. Steve’s solid hand lightly squeezes yours and he asks Banner, “Does she need to do any more tests?” 
“No, not today at least. It’ll take me a couple days to perform tests since I have Tony’s side project to work on. You’re free to go.” he replies. 
Steve lets go of your hand and it immediately feels colder. You hop off the stool and follow Steve out of the lab. As you walk, your stomach grumbles and Steve asks, “When was the last time you’ve eaten?” 
You think back to the past 24 hours and realize you haven’t eaten since that man abducted you. “Not since yesterday,” you reply. 
Steve furrows his brow at that and states, “I’ll make you something.” Before you could protest, Steve walks into the kitchen and looks through the cabinets. “What would you like?” he asks politely.
“Um, anything. I’m not picky.” you respond, pulling out a stool from under the counter. Swinging your legs, you watch Steve as he begins to make you a sandwich. Something about Captain America making you a sandwich is so odd that you laugh to yourself.
You didn’t realize you actually laughed out loud until Steve looks up at you. “Sorry, I just think it’s funny that Captain America is cooking for me.” you explain. Steve responds with a small smile and light chuckle and continues cooking. When he’s done, he pulls out a plate and hands you your food.
You smile widely, surprised that he’s so nice and caring, “Thank you, I’m starving.” He hands you the plate and you sit on a stool by the counter. Steve stands on the other side, waiting for you to take your first bite. You moan with delight and mumble with food still in your mouth, “It’s delicious.” Steve smiles as you continue eating.
A comfortable silence forms around the two of you. When you finish, you wipe your mouth with a napkin and get up to put your plate in the dishwasher. “Hey, uh, thank you for not mentioning the guy dying.” you note awkwardly as you throw the napkin in the trash.
“Don’t mention it.” He replies, turning to face you and shooting a short smile. He sees you look down, presumably too ashamed to look him in the eye, “Hey,” he starts, drawing your attention, “If you ever need to talk, I’m here.” He adds an assuring smile that makes you melt a little.
“Thanks, Steve.” you convey before heading upstairs. You take the stairs to avoid the rock music and although it’s a tiring three flights, at least it’s quiet.
-
It’s not that you don’t like the Avengers, but being alone for nearly a decade gave you some certain habits. One distinct habit was eating alone, which you didn’t realize how odd it was until Natasha asked, “Hey, Y/n. Do you want to eat with us?”
You wanted to say yes, but your years of self-isolation made you reply, “Oh, uh, I’m just going to eat in my room. Thank you, though.” Steve gives you a brief wave before looking back at his crossword puzzle like a true old man. 
Natasha watches you walk out and hums a short, “Hm.” 
“What is it?” Bucky asks, eyes flitting over to Natasha who has a confused look on her face.
“I wonder why Y/n insists on eating alone.” she takes a bite of her food and thinks again, “Are we not inviting enough?”
Tony laughs and replies, “You’re about as inviting as the green guy.” Luckily Bruce is down at the lab or else he would have stared daggers at him.
Nat rolls her eyes and says, “Well, I showed her my knife collection and she seemed pretty entertained.” Tony, Bucky, and Natasha present multiple theories.
“Maybe she just likes her personal space.” Tony shrugs, proposing the most logical explanation.
“Yeah, I guess. But I don’t know, there has to be another-” Natasha starts before Wanda interrupts her.
“It’s because of her great aunt.” Everyone at the table turns to Wanda. 
“How do you know that?” Bucky asks skeptically. Wanda rolls her eyes and simply points at her head. “Oh, yeah.”
Wanda continues, “After she died, Y/n was left alone and stayed that way for years.” She takes one last bite and adds, “I think she isn’t used to all this company.” Everyone seems to accept this answer and they take their last bites before picking up their plates. 
Wanda remembers one last thing and states, “Oh, yeah, and because Steve held her hand.” Bucky wolf whistles and Natasha’s eyebrows shoot up.
Steve had been listening to the conversation, but after hearing his name, he speaks for the first time since dinner started. “Bruce was drawing her blood and she looked really nervous.” Steve explains with an eye roll. He walks away before they could bully him anymore.
-
Throughout the week, Banner performed a skin biopsy, MRI, and DNA test. While none of them were as bad as the blood test, you wished Steve had been with you for them. You knew he was busy, being Captain America and all. Occasionally, you’d see him around the Compound but you haven’t had a full conversation with him since that one time.
On your fifth day, you find yourself wandering the Compound yet again. It seems that no matter how many times you wander, you still find a new room to discover. You open a door on the first floor and see a vast ballroom. It isn’t the ballroom that catches your attention, but what lies in the corner.
A beautiful grand piano is tucked away next time a guitar, drums, and microphone. Strolling over, you remove the keyboard cover and press a key. The piano sings, sounding prettier than your great aunt’s old upright piano. Smiling to yourself, you sit on the bench and begin to play. You become so lost in the music that you don’t even hear the footsteps walking closer.
You come to the end of a song and a voice behind you asks, “You play?” You turn, even though you already knew who it was. Steve’s blue eyes are so intense that you falter a bit before responding.
“Yeah, or at least I used to. My great aunt taught me before she passed away.” you sigh and turn back to the piano. Steve sits beside you on the bench and you start a slow, pretty tune. “I haven’t played since.” you admit sadly. 
“I’m sorry,” Steve says, not knowing what to say at the moment.
You smile a little sadly and remark, “You would have loved her. She’d always have her record player on and it’d fill the house with The Ink Spots or Al Bowlly.” 
As you reminisce, Steve studies you. With everything going on, he hasn’t had the chance to truly see you. You’re beautiful, but Steve already knew that. He noticed all the little imperfections that seemed to make you even more flawless. He can tell that you’re scared and he admires your calm disposition with all of this. 
He focuses on your hands, elegant and graceful across the keys. You apologize a couple times for your mistakes, but Steve doesn’t hear them. Even if he did, he wouldn’t care. Everything about you seems effortless and beautiful. When he first met you, he thought you were just a kid, but now he couldn’t be more wrong. You didn’t look old, but you had a mature beauty and something about your essence tells Steve that you’ve seen things.
Your hands slow and Steve sees a sly smile spread across your face. When you start again, Steve recognizes the introduction. He matches your smile and asks, “I’m Beginning to See the Light?”
“Yes, it’s one of the first non-classical songs I learned.” you respond. Steve nods and you return your focus to the music. You get so lost in it that you don’t even realize that you’re singing quietly. 
Your trance-like state is interrupted when Steve says lowly, “You have a beautiful singing voice.” You blush a little since no one except your great aunt has heard you sing.
“Thank you,” you respond, a little embarrassed. He already heard you sing so mind as well continue. A little louder, you sing, “Then you came and caused a spark. That’s a four-alarm fire now.” When the song ends, a sudden thought strike you.
“Why does the elevator only play jazz when you’re on it?” you ask curiously, trying to change the conversation.
He chuckles lightly and responds, “The elevator is programmed to play certain music for each of us. For guests, it plays Tony’s rock playlist.” You roll your eyes and close the fallboard.
“It was awful. How could anyone enjoying something that loud, especially in the morning?” you joke and Steve laughs.
“You’ll find out sooner or later that there’s a lot of things about Stark that can’t be explained.” Steve jests and you laugh. 
“I’ve been avoiding the elevator ever since.” you admit and Steve chuckles. 
F.R.I.D.A.Y breaks the conversation and announces, “Y/n, you’re test results are in. Dr. Banner requests your presence.” Trying to hide your disappointment, you get up and Steve follows suit. The two of you walk out of the ballroom. 
At the top of the lab stairs, you tell Steve, “Well, I guess I better get going.” 
“Yeah, see you later.” Steve says, giving a quick wave. You give him a final goodbye before heading down to the lab.
-
“You said that was the first time it happened?” Bruce asks and you nod in response. For the past half hour, Bruce explained the many discoveries he made. Turns out, not only could you produce fire, but your body can withstand such high temperatures that you could walk through fire. 
He continues, “Well, it seems there was a stimulus that triggered your body to increase its temperature so high that you were able to produce fire.” You nod as he continues, “I think with proper training, you could learn to control and use your abilities.” 
You raise your eyebrows in shock. Obviously, these new abilities would change your life, but you never thought you could actually achieve something with them. You ask, “Well, um, how do we go about this training?” 
Bruce thinks a bit and responds, “I’ll ask the team and we’ll put something together.” Bruce turns to work on something else and you take that as your cue to leave.
You remember a distinct detail from when you used your abilities and ask, “Can you design a suit that doesn’t result in me being naked every time I set on fire?” 
Bruce blushes a bit out of embarrassment and replies, “I’ll tell Tony.” You walk out of the lab and up the stairs. Too tired, you grit your teeth and decide to use the elevator.
Bracing yourself for heavy rock, you plug your ears. But when the elevator doors close and you don’t hear anything, you remove your fingers from your ears. You smile to yourself as the song ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’ starts playing. 
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thetorturerwrites · 4 years
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Puer Deus: Strings
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This amazing artwork was gifted to me by @faestae-writes​. Please do not re-use or re-post it without permission from them and/or myself. Don’t be a dickbag.
***
Captured / Hurricane / Sustenance / Liar / Scars / Proof
Summary:  When he wants more
A/N:  OK YOU GUYS -- Look, if you're here this far in, you know this is some dark shit. So, please heed this warning: This is a DARK, heavy kink chapter. SO, some things... 1. The content herein has been dramatized for effect, but this is real shit that happens in the real world. Please feel free to ask me any questions. 2. If you feel the need to explore anything here further, do your research and be risk aware. 3. Strap in. This is some shit. 4. 50 points to your house if you spot the FYA reference. :)
Word Count: 9.3k (I AM NOT SORRY)
Day Seven
It was a flicker of a moment, a subtle jolt of injected power, when the night cycle ended and day officially began.
What day is it?
Today was the first time you wouldn’t stumble to consciousness or fight through a fog.  You were still embroiled in questions, though. Ren told you that you’d been here four days, but how many days ago was that?
You decided it was simply too surreal for you to actually be here, to be in your body, in Ren’s room, on board his ship.  Each time you thought up a level, you felt smaller and more insignificant. Maybe you really had died. Maybe you’d bled out on his floor, and this was your afterlife.
No, not that lucky… 
Your eyes were dry and red from so much crying.  Your body was beyond battered, a landscape of harm and wound, mania and furor. You wore the hue of bruise like a new catsuit, covered by Ren’s painful passion from throat to toes.
The idea that some part of you would hurt, sting, throb, or ache every day you were with Ren had been hard to swallow; but a week into this persecution, you knew it to be fact.
How long until he breaks bones?
Sitting in the center of his great, wide bed, you ran your fingers over the still-bloody sheets and contemplated the last however many hours.  Ren made it clear that he still meant to keep you, and the idea was solidifying more and more in your brain. You pondered whether or not you would be allowed to leave this fucking room as his personal pet.
Having spent a lifetime under open skies, being caged inside four walls for days, weeks, maybe months sent your anxiety into overdrive.  The notion that you would only ever see light cycles and never again sunlight strangled you, chased away all your air. At some point, you knew you would try to flee again just for a damn change of scenery.  
After he’d left, you complied with Ren’s instructions insomuch as you did eat and did not try to escape.  Sleep, on the other hand, was put to the back burner because you were still in his chambers. Even if he didn’t spend all of his time here, these were his things, and they could tell you a great deal.  With the guard outside this time, you simply could not pass up the opportunity to explore.
The room was eloquent in its simplicity and deliberate in its function.  You ran fingers and palms over all of the flat surfaces, seeking out hidden drawers or levers in the walls and along the sides of the bed.  Everything was dark gloss, industrial in its execution and easily maintained.
Of note, there was a threshold of polish right at the door, a long stretch just on the inside where the shine was high. However, that luster faded two or three steps inside.  Ren did not allow people in his room often, even a cleaning crew.
Defeated, you slunk back to the bed.  You’d checked all of the hiding places you would use, but you found nothing.  Ren either didn’t have anything to hide or he was exceptionally good at it.
Sometime in the night cycle, you’d awoken alone in an empty bed, struggling with this swirling sense of loneliness.  Captors didn’t usually sleep with prisoners, but weren’t you more than a prisoner now? With a scowl, you shook the stupid thought from your head.
You were an object to him, easily discarded and forgotten.
You hadn’t slept much after that.  You curled onto your side, facing the vacant side of the bed and overrun with disquiet, anticipation.  You were faced with warring options. Relent and become the devil’s plaything or escape and be hunted. The bitter truth was you wanted both, and this was not the sort of universe to grant such possibilities.
Morning came, food was delivered, and you were still alone.  
Now, you were trying to forget the familiarity you thought you’d seen in Ren’s eyes yesterday, trying to wash it down the damnable drain.  He was no more capable of gentleness than you were of speech. Trying to smother the ache, you turned the shower up as hot as you could handle and drifted into distraction, turning inward in a forlorn bid to comfort yourself.
The darkness that had always been there for you, though, was an empty consolation.  Ren had blown apart every part of you and stomped on the ashes; he’d even taken your blessed darkness, the one place you could hide.  Because when you closed your eyes to sink into that blissful nothingness, you saw him, his bloody face, his burning eyes.
Kylo Ren had infected every part of you, right down to the subconscious.
When you could pity yourself no more, you turned off the shower, scraped the water from your body as best you could, and purposefully avoided your reflection.  The woman in the mirror wanted you to make choices you weren’t sure you could live with.
Exiting the bathroom, you were stopped dead in your tracks by the sight of Ren sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed.  He had a smallish black case to his left and was resting with one arm on a bent knee, his long body relaxed and waiting for you.
You were irked by how beautiful and calm and unhurried he looked.  Must he always look so put together when you only ever felt on the verge of shattering into dirty, unrecognizable pieces of yourself?
Hi...
“You haven’t eaten today.”
He gestured over his shoulder to the tray that still had food on it.  You were flushed from the hot water and stark fucking naked, but you burned redder at the idea that you were going to be punished like a child for not eating. Again. 
Canting your head a bit, you gestured towards the shower.  You’d wanted to wash away the feel of dry, endlessly recycled air, dirt, and shame before you did anything else.  Conquering the day wasn’t on your agenda, but surviving it was.
“Good,” he looked you over speculatively, and your eyebrows shot to your hairline.
He’d shoved food directly into your throat to make sure you were decently-nourished; and now, he didn’t care if you ate?  The speed with which this man changed course made your head swim, and you just stared at him, complete irritation plastered all over your face.  
Fucking pick one, would you please?
The withering look he leveled at you set your blood to boiling.  You’d forgotten that he could hear you now; but by the darkness in his eyes, you knew he’d be sure you didn’t forget again.
“Come here.”
You tensed, arms crossing over your chest as though you could armor yourself against him.  For a second, you couldn’t make yourself move. He wanted you to willingly deliver yourself to his torment.  
A shiver worked its way up your spine, blossoming into sparks at the back of your brain, but you couldn’t tell if it was from fear or pining.  If you refused, he would simply put his angry hands on your body and bend you to his whim. You didn’t know what would happen if you complied without a fight.
Taking in a steadying breath, you closed the distance on tender steps, the soles of your feet still bothered at bearing weight so soon.  Stopping when you were within arms reach, you looked past him to study the kit he’d brought, uncertainty wrinkling your forehead.  
It was a med kit, a field kit.  You’d carried one yourself for years, but your wounds had already been tended.  You were littered with surgical tape and Bacta patches.
What could he possibly need a field kit for?
Are you hurt?
Ren’s rough hand slid up along the curve of your body, settling at your waist and sending fissures of desire playing along the swell of your belly.  Your knees and thighs pressed together, and you shifted under his appraisal. He’d seen you naked before. Multiple times, in fact. But this felt different, affectionate. He had stripped you completely bare, laid out your mind and soul for him to reanimate at will.
Feeling naked in front of this man was about more than just your flesh.
Digging his fingers in, he maneuvered you to sit on the edge of the bed in front of him.  All of the tension you’d washed away in the shower came barreling back. Every muscle was tight, and every synapse was screaming that you needed to get away.
Sat like this, unrestrained before him, you fidgeted, frightened.  Your heart drummed so loud you thought he could certainly hear it. When he was silent and calm like this, you were lost to apprehension, images of lightsabers inside your body where they shouldn’t be flooding your mind. You could likely conjure up more ways for him to murder you than he could.
Just as worrisome, you couldn’t look away.  He captivated you each time he was in the room.  His dark irises gleamed as he held your stare, his full lips curving up on a smirk.  He was daring you to look away first.
He won.
You wilted from the intensity of his gaze, turning your inflamed face away and averting your eyes.  In your stupor, you didn’t realize that he was talking to you. The only thing you could hear was the metronome of your heart, its pace quickening moment by moment.
Displeased that he had to draw back your attention, Ren’s hand was around your calf, fingers pushing in between the muscles and rubbing demandingly. You glared and hissed, twisting your legs together, knees tight.
What!
Slowly, deliberately, he reached up and swept his thumb along your mouth, smoothing away the bothered sneer.  When your lips relaxed, he pushed in and hooked his thumb into your teeth the way you hated, the way you loved.
Your core clenched as he tugged you forward. He brought you nose to nose, so close you could feel his warm breath.  He cleaved apart your desire to fight, soothing you into compliance with weaponized stillness.
“Open,” his voice was melodic, low, and rousing.
Your forehead crinkled in confusion.  Lifting a hand to settle at his wrist, needing the contact to go on, you shook your head ever so slightly because his thumb was already in your mouth.  It already was open.  
You felt his fingers tapping on your knee, then, and you burned red from ears to toes.  Whining, you tugged against his grip in a bid to keep him from seeing the way your thighs rubbed together at the very idea.
“I will not be repeating myself today, puppet.”
Blanching, you stiffened, building up any courage you could muster.  Finally, as though your maidenhead was actually still intact and valuable, you hesitantly parted your knees.
Other than his eyes trailing downward to watch your legs barely obey, Ren didn’t move or speak.  When his fingers dug harshly into your cheeks, cutting the weak skin inside against your teeth, you lurched and struggled.  This only tightened his hold, and you thought he might break your jaw. Clutching his forearm, you fought to settle back onto the bed and opened your knees wider and then wider still.
He didn’t release his rough grip on your face until your thighs were splayed far enough apart that your pussy opened for him, too, and your face ignited with humiliation. You rubbed at your abused jaw and cheek, wondering how long it would take the finger-sized discolorations to develop.
Are you hurt, though?
You surprised even yourself with the repeat question, circling back oddly and still not certain why you should be bothered.  He turned his beautiful, dusky eyes to you, and your breath caught. Was he pleased with your concern? Did it satisfy him to think he’d brainwashed you into caring?
He trapped you there, pinned by his mesmerizing eyes, while his fingers slid up your calf, thigh, hip.  You were nearly lulled into thinking his light touch would extend to your aching cunt, but he gripped your outer labia into such a tight pinch that you felt punched in the stomach.
You yelped and surged forward, folding in as much as you could, hips from screwing side to side trying to lessen the pressure.  He squeezed and tugged upon the tender flesh until it puffed up, swelling under his ministrations.
A satisfied sound bubbled up from his throat, and you slowly brought your focus back to him.
Kylo..please...
In a hot second, he switched and snatched up your left labia, digging his fingers in so deep you could feel the nails.  You shouted out, the wheeze of it tapering off as your breath heaved. Mirroring his grip, you dug your fingers into his arm but didn't try to push him away.
Screwing your eyes shut, you shuddered and tried to roll through the pain.
The whole middle of your body throbbed in time to your heartbeat, and you groaned when the endorphins finally kicked in to flood you with acceptance, the sound of it indecent even to you.  The sting and pulse abated slightly, and your head fell back, lips parting on a relieved sigh.  
“There we go,” he murmured, voice smooth like honey. “Open your eyes.”
You very nearly refused and vaulted from your perch, but it was inevitable.  You wanted to obey nearly as much as you wanted to fight, and it was this internal war he wanted to witness every time.  Willing your breathing to steady, you relaxed your fingers at his sleeve and opened glassy eyes.
The look of him, the utter craving displayed on his godlike features, was arresting, intoxicating.  His eyes shone a shade of twilight you’d never get used to, and his lips trembled, barely keeping his hunger contained. The way he was looking up at you was erotic and evoked a terrible longing.
Kylo!
Your face twisted into a pained frown as he switched back and forth between the two bloated lips.  He clucked in condescension when warm juice tracked down onto his fingers, and you buried your face in your hands.  When he finally stopped crushing you in his vice grip, the gratitude rushed out unchecked.
THANK you…   
Absent his touch, you pressed a hand at your abdomen and forced yourself to breathe deeply.  You were wholly disgusted with your response to such vulgar treatment. Would you blossom under every madness he put upon you? 
Your eyes lit upon his hands and the case he was holding, and you forgot to feel repulsed.
Dread filled your chest, squeezing your lungs back into panic. You had no fucking idea what he was about to do, and you were too terrified to look away. You didn’t think you could curtail his plan, but maybe you could persuade him that you would be good.
If you’ll just let me, I’ll go do it right now...
Ignoring you completely, he produced and threaded a slender surgical needle. Your torso hunched of its own volition, trying in vain to put more distance between you and that curved metal.  You mewled and whined, begging him to look and not do whatever this was, but he brushed your hands away, reaching out to tug and pinch at your labia again, inching nearer to his goal.
Fuck, Kylo..I’ll eat dammit! Please stop...
He looked at you, smug and cruel, and you finally understood that he was swelling your labia on purpose and with clear intent, and it had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you'd eaten.  
You shook your head wildly, leaning forward and pushing at his arm in a different spot every time he would wave you off. Desperate, pleading tears sprang to your eyes, and you clung to him.
No no please no not that please no…
Finished with your begging, Ren anchored you in place with the Force, preventing you from even twitching from the waist down. He hummed at the sight of you, flushed and heaving, thighs spread wide.
You were in the middle of the next pitiful appeal when you felt the needle pierce your most-sensitive skin.  
You were too shocked to move, to shout, to implore him to spare you this torture.  The thin suture line dragged through the perforation, and your eyes slammed so tightly shut you thought they might bleed.
It wasn’t until the second stab of his suture needle that you fully understood what was happening.  You’d thought he simply meant to pierce the bulging, inflamed lips in order to decorate them; but when he tugged the line taut, pulling the swollen folds together, you sputtered and choked on your own spit.  You pawed at his shoulder imploringly, foolishly hoping he would surrender this plan if you appeased him with your touch.
Kylo..please don’t do this...please don’t do this...
He crooned and cupped your face, the supple tone of his voice belying the very atrocity he was committing upon you.  He straightened up to nudge your jaw with his nose, dragging the tip through your tears. Your fingers curled so tight into his sleeve that you popped stitches in the black fabric, but he offered you no more solace than this. 
He wasn’t indifferent to your suffering; he reveled in it, enjoying seeing it up close.
“You need strings, puppet.”
You whimpered helplessly, thinking you’d likely launch yourself into a dying star if he told you to with that almost-adoring voice.
He released your face, and you dissolved into wretched sobs.  There was no escaping his iron will, his demented punishment. Pressing the heels of your shaking hands into your eyes, you openly wept, not bothering to try to be strong for this, for him. Expecting you to endure this easily was too much.
Ren had treated you like property from the moment he saw you.  He’d proven to you that you were little more than an object to be toyed with, and his words from that day in the shower resounded in your ears.  But in this, he was taking away your humanity entirely. Any pretense that you might have been afforded some pleasure for your endurance bled away.
Stitch by stitch, Ren sewed your labia together, rendering you an androgynous receptacle, suitable for nothing more than receiving pain.
When he was finished, your clit was hidden snug behind a fleshy hem, but your vagina was open, accessible.  That was the part he needed, you thought morbidly.  
The Force pressure dissipated, your legs instinctively pressed together, and you curled into yourself. Digging ruddy fingertips into the mattress, you tried to flee, to crawl across the bed and away from him.
You’re a monster...
He captured you around the hips and hauled you onto your feet.  He didn't care that you were awash in pain; it didn't factor into his plans and was, thus, negligible. He gathered you into his arms, and you wished, for the hundredth time, that he had just let you die.
The sutures were neat and tidy, but every movement tugged at them, reminding you of your place in Kylo Ren’s world.  You erupted into a new bout of tears and pushed at his chest, angry and gutted.
“Walk,” he pressed his lips to your temple, murmuring the order into your hair, “or crawl.”
On an offended snort, you jerked your head away from his kiss.  Battling yourself into some semblance of calm, you sniffled and nodded.  He absolutely would make you crawl down the halls of this ship wearing nothing but those fucking sutures, and you’d rather not be so debased as that.
Suffering for Ren was one thing; suffering for an audience was too much.
He had stepped away to shake out clothes for you to wear when the epinephrine crested and dropped you over a black cliff. Thunder roared in your ears, and your eyes rolled into white.  Chased by a wounded gasp, your legs lost all ability to hold you and buckled, but Ren was at your side in an instant, snatching you up before you hit the floor. 
Righting you, he held your weight until your breathing regulated and you pushed back onto your feet. Not wanting to meet his eyes, you nodded against his shoulder, a silent report that you were here with him.  He helped you dress in the gauzy black shirt and pants and tipped your face up.  
You had no idea what he was looking for, and you were too tired to fake whatever it was.
Wrapping his great hand around your upper arm, he steered you from the room and down a dark corridor. He wouldn’t go through all the trouble to maim you if he was going to kill you, and you wondered what fresh hell you were being delivered to now. Your steps were slow, hesitant, but he didn’t rush you.  
Probably enjoying watching you hobbled in a fantastic new way...
He stopped on a chuckle, turned you to face him, and looked down at you with sardonic amusement.  You met his stare, fresh out of any damn to give over whether or not he heard you. You knew you were in no way threatening to this brute, but you leveled him with a searing gaze anyways.
“Supreme Leader Snoke is pleased with my progress.” Ren offered, pulling you flush against his body.  “He thinks I have no further need for you…” He reached out to brush his thumb across your glowering mouth. “...but I find that I want more.”
Overwhelmed and nervous at the admission, your mouth dropped open and you stared, dumbfounded.  While your mind tumbled over what else you could possibly offer him, he brushed past, leaving you to follow.
More?  What else was there?  Hadn’t you already given him everything?  He’d broken through your safety wall. He’d all but bathed in your blood.  He’d sewn your fucking cunt shut so you couldn’t even use it like a human being.
What the fuck else could you possibly want from me…
You were so angry that you stupidly followed him into a blindingly white room.  You slammed to a stop and blinked, forcing the room into focus. In the center, there was a surgical table, a tray of neatly-arranged instruments, and a man, dressed in gray scrubs and donning a clear splash guard at his face.  On the opposite side sat Ren’s black helmet, dented and busted apart.
Hand at your elbow, Ren led you further in and stroked your face with his wide palm, but you couldn’t tear your eyes away from the table.  He nudged the shell of your ear with his nose, and you quivered to feel so near to him, almost like a lover. You clutched at his shirt, molding your body to his and trying to hide from the coming onslaught.
You shook your head, already disbelieving, not wanting to hear what he was going to say next.
“I want to hear you scream,” his voice was hushed, as though this was a romantic secret.
All the blood drained from your face, and your mouth went bone dry. You looked from Ren, who was gazing down at you in a way that seared your insides, to the man waiting to enact his orders.  He stood there silently, waiting for his Commander’s direction, and you wondered if he’d been threatened into this room, too.
Ren turned you into the very middle of this insanity and hunched down to bury his face into the crook of your neck, crowding you back into the table.  Dancing on your toes, you laid petrified and quaking fingertips at his neck, needing to impress upon him how crazy this was.
Kylo...you can hear me...I’ve already given you everything..please don’t do whatever this is...
Paying no attention to your pleas, Ren slid his hands into the roomy waistband of your pants and nudged them down your body, kicking the paltry fabric away before you could get them. He lifted you onto the table and situated you at its very end, legs dangling in an eerily familiar way.
He stepped into the space between your legs, scooting your hips out to meet his.  You felt blistered every time you came into contact with his body, fingers, nose. He tipped your head back to lick at the scars crossing your larynx and rocked his body against yours. He was thick against you, his body hardening at the pitiable display you were putting on, and you whimpered in shameless response.
“Be good, puppet,” he hummed against your ear, enjoying the way your body reacted to his vicious dominance.
He stepped back, tugging out the table's stirrups, and you didn’t know who to be more afraid of. The doctor positioned his tray nearer to your head, stepping in so close you could smell the antiseptic soap.
You pushed at Ren’s hands when he guided your heels into the braces.
Kylo..please...You can’t… I can’t…
It was fluid now, automatic.  Your mouth opened when his fingers drew near, and he yanked you forward by that wicked hook. He slid his thumb slowly against your tongue and looked directly up into your eyes. Your knees knocked together, and you cried out in pain, having forgotten in your terror that your pussy was sewn up tight.
“You will.”
He did something to you when he said those things, and you stopped squirming.  You would never win this war. You would only tire yourself out with the fighting.  Beyond that, some delirious part of you wanted to prove him right, to show him that yes, you could do this.
Clenching your hands into tight fists, you closed your eyes to quell anxious tears.  He finished arranging your legs into the stirrups and scooted your ass down to the end of the table.  
Shame flooded you, barely contained by the bruised membrane that was your skin, because anyone who walked into the room would be treated to a view of your mistreated cunt.
Over you, the two men discussed what was about to happen as though you weren’t even there, and you felt more infinitesimal than ever before.  The doctor agreed that this was, indeed, a minorly invasive surgery, but it was what came next that launched you forward, panic-induced frenzy telling you to get the fuck out now regardless of whether you died in the process.
“There’s no need for a sedative.  She will be fine. Topical if you need it, but nothing stronger.”
You were a rabid animal up against an unstoppable force, but you howled and thrashed anyways.  You clawed at his arms and tried to kick him in the stomach and groin. You screamed and sobbed because even Santcha, who had done nothing but beat, stab, and take from you, had never been so cruel.
Each day you were here, Kylo Ren was disassembling you and rearranging your parts. He was building himself a better puppet, piece by bloody fucking piece.
You cannot do this!  You cannot do this...Kylo..you fucking cannot...
The doctor hunched over, holding his groin and floundering. Ren smirked, punching you into place with his trunk of an arm at your stomach.  Looking down at you, he stroked the inside of your knee with lazy circles, no doubt in a patronizing attempt to settle your fraying nerves. 
“Calm down, puppet.  You’re hurting the good doctor here.”
In your hysteria, you were pushing your feelings, your pain, out into the world around you. If you still hadn’t believed Ren about your Force-sensitivity, you’d just manifested all the proof he would ever need.
Exhausted from your outburst and ashamed for assaulting someone who hadn’t harmed you, you swallowed down air and fixed your stare upon the ceiling.  You counted heartbeats until the muscle didn’t feel like it was about to explode from your chest.
Angrily, you pushed Ren’s hand away.  You needn’t be pitied by the very man who was causing all of this.
With a chuckle, he pulled a rolling stool over to sit like it was just another fucking day of endless meetings.  Lifting your head up to glare at him, your chest seized, breath hitching, because you could see his shoulders, neck, and face between your spread thighs.  
Kylo please...
Maybe it's what he thought you were begging for because the Force slid over you like a weighted blanket, pinning you to the table, and you were never so grateful for being relieved of your autonomy.
The doctor turned your head into place and secured a metal brace on your throat, prohibiting any movement.  He applied a foul-smelling ointment to your skin, and you shattered, horrified to your very marrow.
You no longer had eyes, only faucets spewing forth an endless stream of angry, mournful tears.  You tried closing them to staunch the flow because the doctor said you were moving too much, but you couldn't stop your body now. You weren't in control of it anymore. 
The stress response to this terror was unforgiving, and you thought it might never end.  He was going to have to cut you open from ear to ear because stopping the chatter of your teeth and the rattling of your shoulders and chest was simply not within your power.
Your fingers uncurled, reaching for Ren even though you knew he would never offer you this comfort.
Instead, warmth pooled around your breasts, licking up your sternum, and you drew in a tremulous breath. The Force that held you in place lavished attention upon your torso, cupping, massaging, and squeezing your breasts together. Warm and wet nipped at the hard peaks, and your calves flexed in response. 
“Quiet now.”
Ren's voice was even, demanding.  He had indulged your fear long enough, and it was now time to obey.  You concentrated on the invisible hand tugging your breasts into an aching throb and reminded yourself to wiggle your toes and fingers.  Your lips quivered on every exhale, but you were trying so hard to keep yourself together. 
You knew how to process pain, but this affliction could hardly be classified as pain.
As the doctor set to his task, you felt pressure at your neck but not the sting of the scalpel.  Ren seemed to want that sensation only for himself, and you conjured the image of him painted with your blood, preferring the memory of beautiful torture to this reality of sanitized mistreatment.
The doctor, asking Ren something you didn't catch, stuck his fucking fingers into your throat, and your panic kicked back up. You jerked against the stirrups, and your lips curled into a snarl, readying to shout curses at this man, consequences be damned.
Shushing you, Ren dipped his face between your thighs, and you nearly vaulted off the table when you felt his lips connect with the supple, bruised skin.  His kiss was soft, his lips smooth, and you bristled with ire that he would deny you the sight of him between your legs. 
Alongside the doctor, you cursed him and tightened your hands into angry fists.
He chuckled against you, clearly entertained by your fit.  The sensation at your breasts increased, the rippling heat licking, sucking, and biting at your nipples. The throb bubbled over and spread down your sides, slithering across your stomach.  It was rousing and teasing and distracting, exactly as it was meant to be.
Ren’s mouth traveled from one thigh to the other, and your whole face pinched with the effort to be as silent as possible.  It was clear that any noise you made, any vibration in your throat, would do more damage and prolong this bastardized treatment.
He didn’t want you to damage his property with your foolishness, you realized.
He murmured an agreement to the thought and kissed up the insides of both legs, sucked on his bruises, and nipped at the highest point of your thighs.  Your insides pooled, and he dipped his thumb into the wetness building for him, tugging ever so gently upon the weeping slit.
The doctor reached across your body to the tray that held the destroyed helmet, but you were too wrapped up in Ren’s wicked scheme to notice him plundering the debris for a specific part. The tension in your legs and hips had lessened under his mouth, and your vulnerable thighs had dropped further apart.
Abruptly, the pressure of the Force increased upon your entire body, and you were unnerved all over again because what was coming next surely was worse than what you’d already endured if he needed to hold you down more.
You sniffled through your fear but poured every ounce of brute determination into remaining calm, to keep yourself still and under some measure of composure.  You weren’t sure if he was speaking aloud or in your head, but you heard Ren praising you for how well you were doing, how beautiful and strong you were to endure this for him.
As though you had any choice in the matter.
When his lips connected with your cunt, you thought you would certainly swallow whatever the doctor was lodging into your neck.  You could feel the pressure more insistently now as he crammed or screwed or stitched whatever the fuck it was he was doing.  
Ren kissed and sucked upon your stretched labia; the sounds lewd and consuming. He plucked each stitch with his tongue, and you thought you were going to lose your mind.  You could feel every tight tug followed by the warm flat of his tongue gliding up the length of the vicious seam.
You marveled at how easily this man could conjure new tortures, how simple it was for him to corrupt something so mundane and turn it into exquisite torment.
Master of the Knights of Ren, indeed...
You cursed him again for taking away any hint of pleasure you might eke out from this whole experience.  It was barbarous and merciless to lay his mouth upon you like this and prevent you from actually feeling it, enjoying it.  It was the pinnacle of painful foreplay, and you hated him for it.  
You hated the doctor for being a party to this whole fucking thing. You hated everyone on this ship for bowing to the tantrums of a Child God, and you promised yourself you’d murder Supreme Fucking Leader Snoke himself for creating such a beast.
Ren bit into your thigh harshly at that last thought, directly into the center of the deep bruise, and your toes curled tight.  That mark certainly went down to the bone and would likely scar, little indentations from his teeth puckering more each time he revictimized the area. 
Kylo...
Sweat broke across your brow, and a feverish tremble began as your body tried to deal with the absurd number of sensations warring inside.
The doctor pushed his tray away and told you both that he would need to test the calibration before he could close the window. You blinked up at his masked face in confusion.  Test the calibration of what? How were you meant to do that, exactly?
Ren stood and you jerked at the brush of his body.  You could feel him rustling, but it was driving you mad that you couldn’t see what he was doing.  He hooked his thumbs into the very tops of your thighs and tugged the opening of your vagina just slightly wider. The stitches strained, and you whimpered, unable to contain it any longer.
Your eyes flew wide open because the sound was strange, louder, reverberating.
The swollen head of Ren’s cock nudged at your entrance, and you knew your heart was going to explode from your chest.  He’d been working you, tinkering with those fucking puppet strings, to flood your pussy and make it ready for him; and like a damn fool, you’d given him exactly what you wanted.
You burned with humiliation and ragged desire as he pushed in, breaking the seal and stretching your cunt into something pliable for his sizable dick.  It was endless, the sting and scorch of each inch, and you wanted to beg that he please just let you reach for him. It was all becoming too much, and you were disjointed, disconnected from everything.
Ren pushed and leaned into you until he was fully seated, pulsing at the very center of your body. You could feel every throb, every carnal twitch.  Ren was fucking you from both ends, his dick stuffed far into your pussy and his depraved will stuffed down deep into your neck. The very idea of it sent you into a spiral.
“Fuck, that’s tight,” he groaned, voice gravelly. “Relax, puppet. Open for me.”
Kylo, not like this...
You were truly his object, denied any relief from his harassment or any pleasure at his hand.  Digging his fingers into your hips, he began a slow, thorough stroke, pulling nearly all the way out only to plunge back down to the hilt.
“Out loud, girl.”
Your head ticked, a screaming internal alarm preventing you from shaking it outright, because you couldn’t do it; you could not obey this order.  You couldn’t even remember the sound of your own voice, and you didn’t want to mourn something you couldn’t recall. You also didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
Fuck you...
Ren’s hips thrust harder into you, though, and you yelped. The high-pitched fabricated sound shocked you, and you trailed it with a hiccup, breath catching on the implications of this new reality.
“Lower,” Ren nodded to the doctor, who adjusted the implant in your throat.
You seethed.  He was tailoring the sound of your voice to his fucking preference, and you thought you surely would rip the damned thing out of your neck if you had your hands free. 
Dissatisfied with your reaction to his steady pace, Ren rutted into you stubbornly, fucking you with more force.  Your ire fizzled, the anger dribbling out of your cunt on a steady trickle of hot slick. He stretched you, and you moaned at the fullness of it.  You desperately wanted to arch and rock your hips against him, but you were completely paralyzed, not even given room to wiggle.
“Kylo. Fuck. Please.”
He all but purred at the modulated sound of your voice, the one he’d given you, and rewarded you with a long series of strokes so deep you saw stars.
“Lower,” he ordered, and the doctor moved to his bidding.
“Now, puppet, what’s that mantra of yours?”
Ren’s cunning was staggering.  He was demanding the only thing that had allowed you to survive him.  Your throat burned, tingling around the foreign implant, and you swallowed, trying to moisten the metal. Sniffling, you cleared your throat, focusing on the task you’d been given and not the ruthless invasion of your pussy.
Taking as deep of a breath as you could, you concentrated on making the sound as even as possible.
“In...suffering...there...is...beauty.”
“That’s right,” he praised you and then nodded to the surgeon. “That’s it.”
Having gotten what he wanted, Ren bent over you and nipped at your stomach before tucking himself back into his pants.  In moments, the doctor had your throat stitched up, a Bacta patch applied, and was giving instructions to Ren about no solid food for 24 hours, watch for infection, and apply Bacta as needed.  
He also advised that you should be silent for the next 24 hours due to inflammation but that he understood if something happened to prevent that.
You narrowed your eyes at the ceiling when he said it because of fucking course something was going to prevent that.  Curling your hands into fists again, you renewed your vow to slaughter every soul on this ship.
With the doctor gone, the Force hold you’d been kept under released, and you shot upwards to confront Ren.  This wasn’t fear or flight; this was anger and malice. 
You slammed both fists into his chest and shoved.  Pressing your lips into a hard line, you jammed your knee in between your body and his, intent upon sprinting past him and away from here, from him.
Jerking your legs back apart, he stepped in and wrapped his massive hand around your throat, burning you with his gaze and squeezing you back into muted compliance.  Satisfied you would be still, he wrapped you tight into his chest, fingers still stroking your throat.  
Shock and absolute fury coiled into the pit of your stomach, and you just sat, boiling in your hatred that he could so easily disfigure you and, then, so easily divest you of your rage.
The severity of what he’d done registered, and panicked spikes drove into your heart. You quaked anew, tears spilling, and you dug your fingers into the shirt at the small of his back.
What did you do…
“Out loud,” he pressed, voice endearing as he brushed your tears away.
Licking your lips, you stared at him for a long moment, eyes glossy.  Ren waited patiently as you gathered the fortitude to obey. Even he seemed to understand this was a lot to take in.
“What did you do?” You whispered it, the haunted voice faltering, betraying the depth of your despair.
He hummed hungry delight against your jaw.  Using the leverage he always seemed to have at your neck, Ren turned your head for you to take in the broken bits of his helmet on the tray.  In the vortex of fear and lust and terror, you’d completely forgotten it had been there at all.
“This voice,” he breathed the words out, stroking the bandage, “is mine.”
You gaped at him, eyes swiveling from the tray to his face and back.  It broke over you like lightning. He had taken the modulator from his helmet and had it implanted in your throat.
Ren dropped his head into your neck again and sucked a mark into the skin. You were too frozen to respond, your back rigid but your arms and legs hanging limp and useless.
“This body,” he said into your neck, “is mine.”
Slithering his hands between your bodies, he pushed your thighs apart wide and ran his fingers up the plump seam.  You shuddered, feeling the pulse of your sequestered clit battering against the wall that should not be there.
“This pussy,” he bit at your jaw, “is mine.”
He had succeeded in reducing you to a nameless doll, a puppet tailored exactly to his liking for his entertainment and use.  You were dazed, thunderstruck, and empty. He had put you through absolute hell today, and you weren’t capable of filtering your thoughts, now words, anymore.
You were past the point where you could even care if he punished you for insolence.
“Why did you stay with me?”
The question startled you more than the alien sound of your new voice.  You managed to look at him and concentrated on his alluring freckles. You searched his starry eyes for something to latch onto, something that would tie you here.
You had no childish thoughts of love or support.  But right now, having borne the brunt of so much of his persecution, you needed something.  
One question, though, led to more, and they began to spill from your lips on this new capability.
“Why didn’t you kill me? I was ready, and I would have gladly given you that. Why did you need to do this to me?  You were already in my head, listening.”
Your ire and emotion were rising, the mechanical undertone in your voice lifting in pitch. You blinked, really truly trying to understand the whims of a mad man. 
“What difference is there between me screaming in my head and screaming out loud? Why couldn’t you just leave me the way I was? I was surviving your punishment just fine without this unnatural, bastard tongue!”
You fisted both hands into his shirt and pounded against the chest beneath. Your lips wobbled, and you tipped your head back, furious at the tears that wouldn’t fucking stop.
You had learned to survive without a voice.  The silence you offered the universe became your salvation, your solace.  People expected nothing of you when they knew you couldn't speak, and you’d used it to strengthen yourself, to fortify your will to endure and withstand all manner of ego and abuse.
Frantic, you settled on the most important question, the one that you needed answered.
“Why did you do this to me?”
Ren captured your face in both hands and smothered your tirade with a kiss. His beautiful pink lips slanted over yours, and you melted against his mouth.  He sucked at your lower lip, licked the roof of your mouth, and slid his tongue against yours until you were breathless and squirming.
He curled your limbs around his shoulders and waist and carried you around the side of the table.  Setting you down, he plucked the scalpel from the tray, his hands disappearing between your legs. You whimpered and scooted backwards, but he hooked a hand beneath your knee and pulled you back into place.
“I did this,” he cut one of the sutures, “to focus your attention away from the procedure."
“Is that not…” he nipped at your pulse, “...merciful?”
He made quick work of the remaining sutures, slicing through them and pulling the remnants away. You whined, head lolling, as your freed labia parted, blood beginning to redistribute to the abused skin and shooting pins and needles into your cunt.  He followed the sharp stings with his thumb, rubbing between the swollen folds until you gasped and tipped your pelvis into his touch.
Tugging you against his body, Ren ground his erection between your tender lips.  You moaned low, the sound warbled, wanton, and needy, and he captured it with a deep kiss, swallowing on a growl.
He tore at his own clothes, freed his swollen cock, and pushed inside of you, not bothering to be gentle. Your eyebrows drew together tight at the invasion, the time between the first fucking and this one having been enough for your body to re-acclimate to his absence.  
Sinking your teeth into your lip, you lifted your hips to his assault because the utter completion you felt was too good to resist.
“And I did..fuck…,” he faltered, bottoming out into your tight heat; “...I did this,” he dipped his face down and licked the bandage, the only truly new scar he’d ever given you; “...so that you would remember,” his breath was broken now, his voice ragged with lust; “...that every sound you make belongs to me.”
You held tightly to his back, hugging his sides with your legs, and trying your damnedest to stay here in this moment.  The second adrenaline crash of the day threatened to consume you, but you fought against it because the man who’d teased you for a week had his dick so far inside you that you thought you could taste it. 
You were desperate for this bliss, whining in raw need, and you shuddered when he rocked your body against his in the manner and tempo he liked, large fingers splayed across your ass and moving you to his pleasure. Your tortured cunt clenched and all but sucked his dick in deep.   
You cried out, feeling the lines between you as a person and you as Ren’s personal fucktoy bleed together.  Your whole body contracted, squeezing him hard and coming absolutely alive under his thumb. You clung to his back like he was your own personal savior.
Stretching long fingers around your neck, Ren lifted your face and forced you to look, always wanting to watch you agonize for him.  The now-familiar warm sensation blossomed at your clit, and your eyes fluttered shut on a loud moan. He shook you until your eyes opened again, demanding your stare.
“You’re no victim," he sneered.
He punched himself so far into your cunt that you felt the nudge at your cervix and erupted into an echoing shriek. The Force engulfed your clit, every single one of the thousands of nerves swarmed by the hot vibration and spreading a delicious jolt up through your abdomen.
“You’re a depraved, filthy thing,” he dug his nails into your jaw, “and your body was made for me.”
You couldn’t look away, couldn’t shake your head or disagree.  Accepting that hard truth on your behalf, your pussy flooded him with a new surge of molten slip, and he growled possessively.  He licked at your mouth and squeezed your neck tighter. The pressure arched you into his chest and set your cunt to clutching feverishly.
“See? Not happy unless you’re being hurt.”
Pressing into the veins below your jaw, he stunted the flow of blood to your brain, sending you into floating oblivion.  You convulsed against him, the jerk of your body trying to fight off unconsciousness drawing a hungry moan from your captor.  The suction at your clit intensified, and you begged, lips working on impotent words, breath choppy, and fingers clamoring and raking against his biceps.
You were nothing but a vibrating mess, well-fucked and wholly obliterated by his embrace as he choked and ravaged your body. The stab of his dick was relentless, and you were very nearly gone, your eyes glazing over, eyelids heavy. 
“Cum for me, puppet. Show me how much you like it."
He dipped his mouth to your ear, voice commanding, dripping with derision and desire.  Shifting his fingers, he allowed blood to rush back into your dizzy head, and you gasped hard.  Married with the hot pressure at your clit and the pistoning of his cock, you seized in deference to his order.
Your entire body shrunk into a tight ball against him, knees drawing up high, ankles hugging at his back.  Your fingers and toes curled, your legs and arms shook, and your abdomen and ass clenched hard and tight. 
The orgasm blew through you like a comet, and everything loosened on a series of soul-shattering quakes.
You shouted and wailed, the altered, digital howl sounding almost like it truly belonged to you.  Your cunt spasmed, alternating between trying to push Ren’s invading cock out and trying to draw it further and further in.
You were drowning in euphoria, endorphins, and emotions, and you had no protection, no wall with which to keep everything at bay.  Every single thing Ren had done, was doing, roiled through you and radiated off of your body dangerously, and he was caught in the blast zone.
“Fuck..fuck..FUCK!”
His hands dug caverns into the meat of your ass, fingernails leaving crescent trenches. He bit into the side of your neck, buried himself as far into you as he could, and emptied his cock into the flood you were offering him.
Three more thrusts pushed his seed in deep, and he moaned, low and liquid, into your skin while bucking through his orgasm.  You were barely clinging to consciousness, weak and overwhelmed by the events of the afternoon, the day, the week.
For the third time today, Ren held you, stroking your back until your mind came back to your body.  When you lifted your head, he leaned back, taking in your mottled cheeks, swollen mouth, and glassy eyes.  
“Open.”
He lifted his hand to your mouth and purred when it opened for him naturally.  He hooked his thumb into your teeth, just the way you liked, and you shifted against him, leaking all manner of bodily fluids onto the table.
You hadn't hesitated at all, too sated to bristle that it was beneath you or too eager for whatever demeaning paradise he was willing to offer.  
He held your jaw right there, thumb playing with the inside of your teeth.  He was looking at you as though he was ready to bathe in your blood again, and you weren’t sure that you wouldn’t let him. His eyes were dark and nefarious and hypnotic.
What he did next was so unexpectedly obscene that you choked.  He tilted your head back and spat into your mouth, watching his saliva pool on your tongue.
Your body’s reaction was immediate, suffused with want and something you might later identify as pride. Your fingers tightened into his shirt, and your chest arched up into him. You let loose a low sound that even you didn’t even recognize, and your hips rocked beseechingly against him.
“You belong to me,” he said, watching the bubbles slide down your throat. “This is the last time I'll explain myself to you."
He allowed you to close your mouth, and you stared at him, awed and searching.  Before you could second guess yourself, you curled his trembling fingers around your throat, swallowing beneath the grip.
If this was the closest you would ever get to an intimate gesture, you needed it now more than you needed oxygen.
Satisfied for the moment, Ren squeezed your neck and rubbed his nose against yours. 
Too soon, the moment ended, and Ren grasped your hips and lifted you off of his dick with a low groan.  You watched openly as he tucked himself away and righted his clothing. You flushed, pleased at the idea that he was going to spend the rest of today with your cunt lingering on his dick.
You blinked at the thought, troubled at the ease with which you joined him in such vulgarity.
Your reverie was interrupted by a slender man in all black walking into the room uninvited and unannounced.  Ren’s head shot up on a snarl, and he reached out to wind that unfortunate soul into the Force and lift him off of his feet.  
You tiredly glanced over at Ren’s newest victim, surprised by his bright red hair. Knowing better than to interfere, you simply looked from Ren to this intruder, wondering how long it would be before one of them spoke.
“The...Supreme...Leader...demands...your………………...presence!”
Ren released his hold, and the uniformed man hit the ground with a crash, scrambling back out into the hallway.  Bending down, he scooped up your black pants and handed them to you. 
Ren's gaze hardened considerably, and you were amazed at how dark became void in his eyes. Reaching back to the tray, he grabbed the scalpel, broke off the blade, and lifted it to your mouth.
“If he tries to hurt you or move you,” his voice was dangerously low, and your eyes flitted around his arm to the door, “get away. Find the Knights of Ren.”
The questions played across your face, and your brow knit. Were you in danger?  Why were you in danger? You leaned forward, meaning to ask, but he shook his head, instructing you back to silence.  You sat up straighter, concerned and more alert.
“That voice is for me, only.”
Understanding, you parted your lips and accepted the weapon, moving it with your tongue and tucking it into the roof of your mouth.  Ren's battle face changed for just a second, his beautiful lips turning up into a smirk, knowing full well this wasn’t the first time you’d had to hide a blade.
You accepted that he would push you until you broke for him, over and over, but it satisfied you to no end that he wasn’t prepared to allow anyone else to harm you.  That pleasure was afforded to him alone in the Galaxy.  
“Hux!” He barked it out, and the man, who was still rubbing his tender throat, turned into the room to look.
“You will personally deliver her back to my chambers.”
Ren didn’t waste time asking if the man understood his instructions.  He would be obeyed, or someone would die. In seconds, he had collected the remnants of his helmet and was gone from the room.  
You sagged, feeling like the universe was somehow less bright without the scorch of his presence. Stuffing your aching, wobbly legs into the black linen, you cautiously descended from the surgical table and righted the material over your hips.  
Turning, you faced your new escort, whose name was apparently Hux, and gestured for him to lead on.
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kieraswriting · 4 years
Text
Human/Fairy Relations 2
1  2  3  4
Continued from a story based on a prompt by @arc852
Thomas had been with the fairies for three days. 
Officially, he was Anxiety’s responsibility. Which meant that if he was ever seen away from him all the other fairies would herd him back. It wasn’t… an unpleasant way to live, but he did miss home. 
Flying, though, flying was awesome!
He had been allowed, and given a written permission in case he was stopped, to go to Logan and Patton’s house. Logan had said Patton’s name, and soon after Patton had let Logan’s name slip. Anxiety’s, though, was still safely a secret. 
But now he was flying. Logan and Patton lived up high, which Thomas did not mind at all. Their house was built on top of a sunflower, which made it one of the larger houses in the village. This village was one of many, but the fairies that lived here also had other homes, in the human world, accessed by secret passages. Because of this, the village, which was smallish anyway, was always at least half empty. The prince of the village stayed, and so did Logan, but for different reasons. The Prince had to stay, to keep order and to be available to help the fairies. But Logan had to stay to keep Patton here. And, Thomas guessed, Anxiety would now have to stay. To make sure Thomas never got out. 
But that was a depressing thought, and he was not going to go be depressed when he saw Patton. Thomas forced a smile on his face as he flew higher. 
He came up onto the flower. Even though he was tiny, especially in comparison to the massive flower, Patton was currently tinier. Thomas knee that Logan was the one that did this, but he still had no idea of why. Patton didn’t particularly enjoy it. If Anxiety was able, would he shrink Thomas further as well? 
But Patton broke him out of his depressing thoughts again, calling out his name and flying straight at him. He was always affectionate, even while tiny, and gave Thomas the best hug he could manage. 
“It’s good to see you, Pat!”
“I’m glad to see you too, Kiddo! What brings you all the way up here?”
Thomas appreciated that Patton called him kiddo. It was better than Sanders. Or human. 
“I just came to visit. Is Logan home?”
Patton cocked his head to the side, as if he couldn’t believe that Thomas would want to see Logan. Which, to be fair, he kind of didn’t. Logan wasn’t unkind, but he knew a lot of things, and acted on that knowledge. The problem was that, without the same knowledge, it seemed to Thomas that Logan did lots of things for no reason. Like shrinking Patton. He couldn’t seem to let go of a grudge for that one. 
“Yeah, he’s here.”
Thomas went inside, Patton hovering around his head. 
“Logan.” Thomas said firmly, noting the slight flinch.
A second later, smoothly, as if he was just now noticing Thomas, Logan looked over the top of his book. 
“Sanders.”
“I’ve come for a visit, and I want you to put Patton back to my size.”
Patton flitted back into Thomas’s field of vision, looking rather worried. Thomas knew that if he had told Patton of his intentions he would not have wanted him to do it. 
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Surely, if you’re asking for a favor, you have something to offer in return.”
Nope. Thomas had not thought this through far enough. He had noticed that Logan flinched whenever he used his name, and had hoped that whatever it was would also make Logan more receptive to requests. He had also hoped on a bit of an intimidation factor, which it seemed he did not have enough of. 
Logan continued when Thomas hesitated so long. “You could give me your name.”
Patton was minutely shaking his head. 
Suddenly Logan blinked. His demeanor changed, becoming as warm as he could be, which still wasn’t very warm, especially when standing next to Patton. “You said you wanted Patton to be the same size as you, correct?”
“Um… yes?”
“Then I’ll offer you a more attractive deal. I’ll do it if you give Patton your name.”
Thomas’s eyes flicked to Patton, who was now shaking his head vigorously. 
“...no… wait, why not?”
“Patton.” Logan said. He always did this, just say Patton, and then he was somehow always affected by whatever. 
Patton spun around to face Logan, and Thomas couldn’t see his face anymore. 
“I’ll give you a final deal,” Logan offered. “Give Patton your name, and I’ll make him your size, or don’t, and I’ll make you his size.”
Patton spun back to face Thomas, but too late to stop him from saying, “Deal. And no.”
Logan stood up, and started talking in the fairy language, where the only word Thomas could catch was Sanders. Then he was shrinking. It was quick, barely thirty seconds, and he was the same size as Patton. 
Patton grabbed him by the arm and zipped out an open window. 
“You shouldn’t do that!” Patton scolded. 
“I just… wanted to help you.”
Patton hugged him tightly. “I know. And it’s really sweet of you, kiddo, but Logan is really, really smart. You can’t make deals with him.”
“Why not? And why can’t I tell you my name?”
“I can’t—I can’t tell you.”
“Why not? I want to know what’s going on! I’ve been kidnapped by fairies and I don’t even know why!”
Thomas lowered his voice when he saw the look on Patton’s face. “I’m sorry. But I do want to know what’s going on.”
“Well, I don’t know everything either, but the reason that they captured us is kind of like revenge. Because humans capture fairies. And now fairies want at least some humans to feel the way they feel, I guess.”
“But then why the name thing? Why is it such a big deal?”
“Because a fairy can control a human with their name. There’s more to it than that, but the more they know about you the more they can control you. And I think somehow that humans must be able to do the same to fairies, but I don’t know how.”
“So that’s why Logan flinches when I call him by his name.”
Patton nodded. “I really… I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Can we go do something fun?”
“Sure, Pat. Just, one more thing?”
Patton waited. 
“Are you, really, alright? I know Logan bosses you around a lot, and, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Patton hugged Thomas again. “I’m fine, Kiddo. Thank you.”
••^*^••
“I’ve bought you some time, but it won’t be long before they start to get… more concerned. You need to get his name.”
“I know,” Virgil raked his hand through his hair. “I know, but he won’t tell me anything. How’d you get Patton to do it?”
“I pretended to be a human. But at this point in time, knowing you as well as he does, he won’t believe a simple glamour.”
“What if he tells Patton? We can get the name from Patton, and that’s better than what we have.”
“If we do that, it would only be because the village began to get violent. It would likely hurt Patton to be used in that way, and Sanders would assuredly guard his name closer than ever after the fact. We’d never be given his name.”
Virgil growled and paced. “I never thought that this would be so hard. You made it look so easy!”
“Rest assured, it was not simple for me either. It still isn’t.”
“What about someone else? Do you think anyone else could get him to give them his name?”
“Not in a nonviolent manner, no. He’s been here nearly a week, and the only attachments he’s made have been to yourself and to Patton. Not to mention, he’s considerably more… I suppose discontent might be a suitable word, toward his own position. Patton settled into his place relatively easily, whereas Sanders keeps trying, thankfully unsuccessfully, to invoke names.”
Virgil frowned. His hands fisted in his hair as he tried to think of anything else he could try. 
“He’s been heard trying to invoke my name,” Logan said quietly. 
“What?” Virgil paled. “By who?”
“I’m not certain. But I’m sure that by tomorrow morning we’ll have some angry people on out hands, and I don’t think that keeping him small will appease them this time.”
“What should we do?”
••^*^••
When Thomas woke up, Anxiety had already left the room. He sat up and stretched, his wings fluttering. By now, moving them was almost unconscious. He was still tiny. 
He flew to the door. Anxiety usually left it a bit open if he woke up first, since Thomas couldn’t open it by himself. But not today. 
Thomas pounded on the door, but it made even less noise than usual. That was odd. He tried to look through the crack in the doorframe, but it was stuffed with pieces of flower petals. That was even more odd. Anxiety must really want him to be stuck in the bedroom for some reason. 
“Anxiety!” Thomas yelled. 
From behind him there was a groan. He spun around. Patton was sitting up slowly. He was tiny, and so was Thomas, but Thomas was still surprised that he hadn’t noticed. But that wasn’t the biggest thing he hadn’t noticed. Patton’s wings were gone. 
Patton gave a confused, tired frown. He must have tried to fly up. He reached his hands back, but before he could feel the truth Thomas was charging into him, hugging him tightly. 
“Oof! Kiddo. What’s going on?”
Thomas shook his head. He didn’t know. 
From outside, as the sun rose, so did the sound of voices. Angry voices. Thomas could hear Anxiety’s voice raising among them, but there were so many all at once he couldn’t tell what they were saying. 
“I—my wings…” Patton said softly. “He’s never taken my wings.”
Thomas squeezed tighter. He didn’t know what else to do. Then he saw a paper on the bed. He let go of Patton to flip it over. 
I want your name, and I’m tired of waiting. 
Thomas gritted his teeth. 
“It’s not fair!” He exploded. “How can they just—just hurt you like this?!”
Patton was staring blankly at the paper, and a tear ran down his face. “I don’t know…”
Thomas flew to the door and started banging on it, even though there was no way he was being heard. 
“Logan changed so much this last week,” Patton cried, and Thomas turned to see him with his face in his hands. “I don’t understand!”
Thomas flew back to Patton. “It’ll be alright. I’ll find some way to fix things.”
Patton looked up, something dangerous glinting in his eyes behind the pain. “Logic’s real name is Logan, and Anxiety’s real name is Virgil. I’m giving you their names.”
Thomas hugged Patton tightly again. “My name is Thomas.”
Patton hugged him back just as tightly. “And my name is Patton. I trust you, Thomas, let’s get out of here.”
Thomas let go of Patton. “I have an idea.”
He flew back a little bit away from Patton. Then he yelled, as loudly as he could and with as much belief as he could muster. “Virgil! Logan! Put me back to my right size!”
And then he was growing. He managed to pick up Patton and shield him in his hands before he burst out of the house. He started walking for the pool in the middle of the village, calling Virgil and Logan as he went, and ignoring the clamor of the other fairies. He went through the pool more easily this time, and was only slightly dizzy when emerging from the other side. 
He slid Patton onto his head, assuming that he’d be able to hold onto his hair and not fall off, since he didn’t have a pocket. 
He waited barely a minute before Virgil and Logan came out, and he immediately grabbed at them. He caught Virgil, but Logan ducked out of reach. 
“What are you doing?” Logan yelled, still flitting around so that he wasn’t an easy catch. 
“I’m going back home. And I’m taking Patton with me. I want you to turn him back to his normal size as well.”
Thomas brought Virgil up to his eye level. “Take my wings back, I won’t need them anymore.”
Virgil squirmed in his hand. “I don’t… I don’t know that I can without your name.”
Thomas frowned. This again? Virgil cried out, and he quickly loosened his grip. 
“Let him go,” Logan said, his voice not commanding like usual, but almost pleading. “I’ll take your wings off and I’ll return Patton to his usual size.”
“To his human size,” Thomas clarified, suddenly realizing that with knowing their names, and holding Virgil in his hand, he actually had bargaining chips now. 
“Yes.” Logan said. 
From on top of his head, the minuscule weight slowly grew as Logan started speaking in the fairy tongue. As he grew large enough, Patton climbed down to stand next to Thomas. Patton was looking down at the ground, avoiding looking at Logan or Virgil. 
“Can I touch you?” Logan asked. 
“Only if it’s to take the wings off,” Thomas answered. 
Logan flew behind him and touched the tips of his wings. Thomas could feel them returning to his back in much the same way as they had come. 
Virgil squirmed again. Thomas tightened his grip just slightly, unwilling to lose his bargaining chip. But then he saw the flash of pain that went across Virgil’s face, and all the rest of his anger turned to guilt. 
“I want you both to promise that you won’t stop us or do anything to us while we’re going home,” Thomas said. 
“Yes. I promise.” Logan said, his eyes trained on Virgil. 
“Promise,” Virgil said, and the pain in his voice was greater than it had been on his face. 
Thomas opened his hand, feeling the guilt shift from welling up in his gut to stabbing him when he saw the crumpled state of Virgil’s wings. 
Logan flew down and picked Virgil up, flying to a safe distance away. 
Thomas turned to place the pool at his back. Once they were out of the ring of flowers he could figure where he was and find his way home. Patton turned back once. 
“Bye,” he said, his voice small. 
••^*^••
It took a day to get back to Thomas’s house, but they did get back, and Patton, who said that he didn’t have anyone to go back to, became Thomas’s roommate. 
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gradiancharles · 4 years
Text
We Meet Again
Who: Charlie & Gavreel @gradiangavreel
What: Charlie and Gavreel meet again after year and years.
Where: Pies & Whiskey
When: September 2020 (three months ago)
Gav
Gavreel was a little nervous to walk into the pie shop. It had a cute sign outside, ‘Pies & Whiskey’ but an even cuter owner inside. He'd been back in Gradian for three months already and he couldn't help but look up his old school crush. It was a smallish town, afterall, they were bound to run into each other at some point. He might as well get it over with. He bit his lip and took a deep breath before physically shaking off his nerves reaching for the door with a nod. "He's just a man," he muttered to himself as he stepped inside. He took a look around and was genuinely impressed. It was a nice set up, everything well put together and displayed. The pies even looked great and he wasn't a big fan if he was being honest.
Charlie
Charlie was still getting used to running the shop, it was fairly new to him. Baking was his thing, alcohol was his thing but finance was definitley not his thing. Good thing that in a town like this, shops never got too busy. He was pressing in some dough for some pie crust in a pan when he heard the bell of the door ringing meaning he had a customer. "Be right out!' he called out from the back of the shop where they baked their goods, finishing the crust and taking off his gloves so he could help the customer. He hadn't even really seen who had come in as he blindly came up to the register, he just noticed it was a man and from a distance, he wasn't half bad looking. "Hey there, welcome to Pie's and Whiskey, what can I get started for you, handsome." His eyes traveled to the man's face and oh shit, yeah he was definitely handsome, and he looked familiar for some reason but Charlie couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Gav
Gavreel was struck still in place by the deep voice calling out to him. This had, indeed, bee a terrible idea. He'd barely been able to speak to Charles as a teen, there was no way he'd be able to speak to him now that he had grown into such a gorgeous man. When he came out to fully greet him they locked eyes and Gavreel tried desperately to get his shit together. He cleared his throat and smoothed his shirt of nonexistent wrinkles, not having any idea what to make of the handsome comment. "Hello. Charles. It's been some time. Gavreel," he stated awkwardly. "Is me. I'm not sure if you remember. But... yes, I suppose I've come for... pie."
Charlie
It took Charlie a moment to register the name and put it with the face. It had been years since he'd seen the guy and damn if he hadn't grown up so fine. A big smile plastered onto his face as old school memories started trickling in. "Holy shit, man. Gavin... Woah, you're a whole fucking bloke now. Of course, I remember you." He huffed with a laugh. It was honestly so good to see him. He was always so kind to him in school, Charlie even found himself crush on the older guy back then but that was high school and now they were grown-ups, of course, that didn't mean Charlie couldn't look. Especially with those incredibly blue eyes. "Pie, of course. " He shook his head with a chuckle. "How have you been, man? What kinda pie are you in the mood for?"
Gav
Gavreel couldn't help the slight blush on his face, first from Charles recognizing him and second from the compliment. He shifted on his feet and nodded awkwardly with a small smile. "Yes, um, I've been well. And.. you?" He looked down at the pies and then around the shop a bit more. "I'm not sure which pie though."
Charlie
Charlie nodded, watching the man look around his shop. “I’m doing pretty great. I finally got to open this place. Dreams do come true, Gav.” He smiled at the older man. “Well, whatever you decide, it’s on me. Although I do recommend the Apple pie, it’s my specialty.” He winked at him, Charlie just being naturally flirty.
Gav
Gavreel certainly didn't know what to do with the wink. He stared at the man, heart beating wildly because he was a complete idiot. "I... um.. yes. Apple. That sounds good." He looked down at his feet and then back over to the man. "Congratulations as well. On the business. It's very impressive."
Charlie
“Awesome.” He grinned. The man was still as awkward as he remembered him and honestly it was very charming to him. Hearing the praise for his business made his chest flutter, at least someone appreciated it and Charlie was extremely proud of it, so to be congratulated and complimented on it made Charlie really happy.  “Well thanks, man. I really appreciate the compliment.” He says sincerely. “Let me go warm up that piece of pie for you.... I’ll be right back.”
Charlie walked away from the counter slicing up his piece and placing it his reheating oven. After, he added a scoop of vanilla ice cream wanting to make it special for his friend before returning back. “Alright, one slice of apple pie, a la mode.” He grinned proudly to himself.
Gav
Gavreel nodded and once again looked around the store, mainly trying to avoid actively staring at the handsome man like a complete freak. "Yes, of course." He wasn't entirely sure himself if that was in response to the thanks or the promise of pie. He took a deep steading breath once Charles was not longer facing him. He just had to keep it together for a little longer. When he returned Gavreel took the plate with an appreciative nod. "Thank you. It looks delicious. Um, how long have you been baking?" He asked both out of curiosity and a need to keep talking to him.
Charlie
Charlie nods and purses his lips in thought. “Uff, it’s been quite a minute. I mean I used to bake with my surrogate mom and my dads all the time when I was little and it’s just something I’ve always loved.” He answered as he grabbed a rag to wipe down the counter, trying to feel busy. “I went to culinary school in France and learned a few more techniques but yeah, here I am now with my new shop.... Did you want a drink to pair? I have a really good burbon that taste fantastic with the Apple pie.” He said excitedly, not waiting for his answer before pouring him the drink and placing it in front of him. “You need to try it.”
Gav
Gavreel settled himself down on one of the bar stools and picked up his fork to start digging into the beautiful looking pie. Now, while it was true he wasn't that big of a sweets fan, he could still appreciate a good dessert every now and again. He took a bite and tilted his head. It was actually very good: warm, flavorful, complex. He licked his lips of the thick filling. "The culinary school is evident," he complimented. He didn't have time to really respond to the question of the drink and simply accepted it as it was given. "Oh, yes. Thank you. I'll admit I'm not typically a big drinker so I'll have to stick with just this one unless you want to carry me out of here."
Charlie
Charlie wiped his hand on his bar towel  and leaned against it as he watched Gavreel try his best pie, loving to watch the satisfaction on a customers face.  “Awe, don’t tell me you’re a lightweight, buddy. Don’t worry, I’ve been working out so I could definitely carry you out if needed.” He chuckled. “So, tell me. What have you been doing all this time?”
Gav
Gav let out a small laugh. "Uh, yes, unfortunately I am telling you I'm a lightweight." The thought of Charlie picking him up bridal style popped into his head and almost had him choking on his pie. "It shows," he said awkwardly while openly staring at the younger man's muscled arms. He blushed heavily after a moment and took another bite to occupy his mouth for a moment. "School as well," he answered after a bit. "Down in London. I um.. I'm a counselor now. At the school. And also a life coach," he added. "At.. the community centre."
Charlie
Charlie grins at the compliment and follows the mans gaze to his arms. He couldn’t lie that he was definitely liking the attention, especially from Gav.  “Thanks, I try a bit.” He chuckled and  sighed softly. “Well, you just tell me if you need a ride home, I got you. Plus I’m closing up in like a half an hour.” He nods and bites his lip. “Oh nice, you’re helping out the kids. That’s awesome.” He smiled
Gav
Gavreel blushed and took a drink of Charlie's bourbon and grimaced at the burn, despite the  pleasant taste. His eyes widened. "Oh! I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I didn't mean to come in so late. I can finish up here and go."
Charlie
Charlie shook his head and dismissed the man with his hand. “What no, don’t worry about it. I have mostly everything done. Maybe I’ll even have a slice myself before I head out.”  He said as he started wrapping up the left over pies. “So I usually take home any leftovers, just cause I can’t sell day old pie, and since you’re and my last customer of the day, you’re the lucky one. Doesn’t hurt that you’re also very handsome, I mean you always have been” he winks. “So your pick of leftover cherry, pecan, or apple.”
Gav
Gavreel relaxed a bit after the reassurance that he was not being a bother to Charles. He looked between the man and the pies questioningly. "How do you stay in such amazing shape eating all this pie every day?" He blanched and shook his head. "No, I'm sorry that was incredibly rude of me. I just meant... well you are also very handsome and this is a lot of pie to take home." He paused. "That seemed equally rude. I will take the cherry."
Charlie
Charlie laughed, charmed by the man. "Oh, man. I'm not as in shape as you think I am. No six-pack under here." He chuckled as he pulled at his shirt. He chewed at his cheek with a grin and started wrapping up the cherry pie for him. "I also don't eat all this pie myself, usually hand some off to my neighbors or guests if I have them over. The pie definitely gets around." He nods and hands him the wrapped up pie.
Gav
Gavreel stuttered a bit. "O-oh. No I didn't mean.." He gestured towards the man's abdomen. "I'm not assuming what you have under there." He paused and looked down at the pie, blush growing on his face.  "Thank you."November 30, 2020
Charlie
Charlie shook his head with a grin. “Gav. It’s okay. We’re both adults here, right? It’s okay to assume.” He winked. “Actually I’m quite flattered that you’re imagining me with abs.” He chuckles. He leans against the counter in front of Gavreel, hovering over the wrapped up pie. “Is there anything else I could do for you tonight? You know before I close up?”
Gav
Gavreel cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes... well... the apple pie was very good," he said changing the subject entirely out of embarrassment. "I believe you've won me over as a customer. Do you... work every day?"
Charlie
Charlie noticed how quick Gavreel was to drop the conversation, guess he had read the signs wrong and he wasn’t all that interested in Charlie. At least he liked the pie. “Sometimes... I do like to give myself a day off, so I’ll close the shop every other Monday. It’s my slowest day and my best customers know where to find me if they need an emergency order.”
Gav
Gavreel stood and hugged the wrapped pie to his chest. He attempted to project nonchalance rather than nerves. "You'll be here tomorrow then?" He asked. "I may feel the need to try some more of you delicious creations. And perhaps we could... catch up?"
Charlie
Charlie leaned back to stand straight up. “Yeah, I’ll be here tomorrow.” He nodded with a small smile. “You’re welcome anytime, man.” He says as he starts keeping busy again. “Yeah, I’d be down. Maybe somewhere else though? Where  I’m not working all day and actually smell nice.” He laughs
Gav
Gavreel nodded. "Oh, yes, of course. Although, I think you smell fine." He paused for a moment, mortified that he'd felt the need to say that. "Perhaps a... restaurant?" He suggested to change the subject.
Charlie
Charlie laughed at Gavreels charm. “I suppose to you I might smell sweet. But it’s all sugar, flour and bourbon to me.” He shook his head with a chuckle as he ran a hand through his hair. He thought  for a moment before agreeing. “I wouldn’t mind dinner. You buying?” He asked, not actually being serious about Gavreel paying for dinner.
Gav
Gavreel felt his nerves return as it was sounding very much like a date, although he knew it wasn't. "Yes, of course. The invitation was mine, after all."
Charlie
Charlie nods. “I was joking. You don’t have to pay for dinner, man.” Charlie put down his rag, looking at the time. It was time he locked the doors so he could prepare to close. He came around from behind the counter, finally nothing separating the two. “Just gonna go lock the doors so I don’t get any stragglers coming in. You’re more than welcome to stay and finish your drink.” He serves him a smile and goes to the doors. “Also, dinner, you pick the place, my treat.” He looked back as he jimmied the key.
Gav
"Dinner," he repeated, getting a feel for the idea. "Yes. I will pick somewhere." He paused and then followed Charlie to the door. "I should get home actually. But I enjoyed seeing you again. And I look forward to dinner."Message #we-meet-again
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kieraelieson · 5 years
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Human/Fairy Relations 2
The second part of my Sanders Sides Fanfic based on a prompt from @arc852
Link to Part One
Promt:  - Thomas heads out into the woods one day, planning to just go on a bit of a nature walk. People have told him to stop and turn back when he comes across the line of flowers, but he doesn’t listen. He crosses them, only to suddenly succumb to a purple mist. When he wakes up, a tiny man with wings is flying above him, giving off a purple aura. And Thomas realizes he can’t move.
Thomas had been with the fairies for three days. 
Officially, he was Anxiety’s responsibility. Which meant that if he was ever seen away from him all the other fairies would herd him back. It wasn’t… an unpleasant way to live, but he did miss home. 
Flying, though, flying was awesome!
He had been allowed, and given a written permission in case he was stopped, to go to Logan and Patton’s house. Logan had said Patton’s name, and soon after Patton had let Logan’s name slip. Anxiety’s, though, was still safely a secret. 
But now he was flying. Logan and Patton lived up high, which Thomas did not mind at all. Their house was built on top of a sunflower, which made it one of the larger houses in the village. This village was one of many, but the fairies that lived here also had other homes, in the human world, accessed by secret passages. Because of this, the village, which was smallish anyway, was always at least half empty. The prince of the village stayed, and so did Logan, but for different reasons. The Prince had to stay, to keep order and to be available to help the fairies. But Logan had to stay to keep Patton here. And, Thomas guessed, Anxiety would now have to stay. To make sure Thomas never got out. 
But that was a depressing thought, and he was not going to go be depressed when he saw Patton. Thomas forced a smile on his face as he flew higher. 
He came up onto the flower. Even though he was tiny, especially in comparison to the massive flower, Patton was currently tinier. Thomas knee that Logan was the one that did this, but he still had no idea of why. Patton didn’t particularly enjoy it. If Anxiety was able, would he shrink Thomas further as well? 
But Patton broke him out of his depressing thoughts again, calling out his name and flying straight at him. He was always affectionate, even while tiny, and gave Thomas the best hug he could manage. 
“It’s good to see you, Pat!”
“I’m glad to see you too, Kiddo! What brings you all the way up here?”
Thomas appreciated that Patton called him kiddo. It was better than Sanders. Or human. 
“I just came to visit. Is Logan home?”
Patton cocked his head to the side, as if he couldn’t believe that Thomas would want to see Logan. Which, to be fair, he kind of didn’t. Logan wasn’t unkind, but he knew a lot of things, and acted on that knowledge. The problem was that, without the same knowledge, it seemed to Thomas that Logan did lots of things for no reason. Like shrinking Patton. He couldn’t seem to let go of a grudge for that one. 
“Yeah, he’s here.”
Thomas went inside, Patton hovering around his head. 
“Logan.” Thomas said firmly, noting the slight flinch.
A second later, smoothly, as if he was just now noticing Thomas, Logan looked over the top of his book. 
“Sanders.”
“I’ve come for a visit, and I want you to put Patton back to my size.”
Patton flitted back into Thomas’s field of vision, looking rather worried. Thomas knew that if he had told Patton of his intentions he would not have wanted him to do it. 
Logan raised an eyebrow. “Surely, if you’re asking for a favor, you have something to offer in return.”
Nope. Thomas had not thought this through far enough. He had noticed that Logan flinched whenever he used his name, and had hoped that whatever it was would also make Logan more receptive to requests. He had also hoped on a bit of an intimidation factor, which it seemed he did not have enough of. 
Logan continued when Thomas hesitated so long. “You could give me your name.”
Patton was minutely shaking his head. 
Suddenly Logan blinked. His demeanor changed, becoming as warm as he could be, which still wasn’t very warm, especially when standing next to Patton. “You said you wanted Patton to be the same size as you, correct?”
“Um… yes?”
“Then I’ll offer you a more attractive deal. I’ll do it if you give Patton your name.”
Thomas’s eyes flicked to Patton, who was now shaking his head vigorously. 
“...no… wait, why not?”
“Patton.” Logan said. He always did this, just say Patton, and then he was somehow always affected by whatever. 
Patton spun around to face Logan, and Thomas couldn’t see his face anymore. 
“I’ll give you a final deal,” Logan offered. “Give Patton your name, and I’ll make him your size, or don’t, and I’ll make you his size.”
Patton spun back to face Thomas, but too late to stop him from saying, “Deal. And no.”
Logan stood up, and started talking in the fairy language, where the only word Thomas could catch was Sanders. Then he was shrinking. It was quick, barely thirty seconds, and he was the same size as Patton. 
Patton grabbed him by the arm and zipped out an open window. 
“You shouldn’t do that!” Patton scolded. 
“I just… wanted to help you.”
Patton hugged him tightly. “I know. And it’s really sweet of you, kiddo, but Logan is really, really smart. You can’t make deals with him.”
“Why not? And why can’t I tell you my name?”
“I can’t—I can’t tell you.”
“Why not? I want to know what’s going on! I’ve been kidnapped by fairies and I don’t even know why!”
Thomas lowered his voice when he saw the look on Patton’s face. “I’m sorry. But I do want to know what’s going on.”
“Well, I don’t know everything either, but the reason that they captured us is kind of like revenge. Because humans capture fairies. And now fairies want at least some humans to feel the way they feel, I guess.”
“But then why the name thing? Why is it such a big deal?”
“Because a fairy can control a human with their name. There’s more to it than that, but the more they know about you the more they can control you. And I think somehow that humans must be able to do the same to fairies, but I don’t know how.”
“So that’s why Logan flinches when I call him by his name.”
Patton nodded. “I really… I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Can we go do something fun?”
“Sure, Pat. Just, one more thing?”
Patton waited. 
“Are you, really, alright? I know Logan bosses you around a lot, and, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Patton hugged Thomas again. “I’m fine, Kiddo. Thank you.”
••^*^••
“I’ve bought you some time, but it won’t be long before they start to get… more concerned. You need to get his name.”
“I know,” Virgil raked his hand through his hair. “I know, but he won’t tell me anything. How’d you get Patton to do it?”
“I pretended to be a human. But at this point in time, knowing you as well as he does, he won’t believe a simple glamour.”
“What if he tells Patton? We can get the name from Patton, and that’s better than what we have.”
“If we do that, it would only be because the village began to get violent. It would likely hurt Patton to be used in that way, and Sanders would assuredly guard his name closer than ever after the fact. We’d never be given his name.”
Virgil growled and paced. “I never thought that this would be so hard. You made it look so easy!”
“Rest assured, it was not simple for me either. It still isn’t.”
“What about someone else? Do you think anyone else could get him to give them his name?”
“Not in a nonviolent manner, no. He’s been here nearly a week, and the only attachments he’s made have been to yourself and to Patton. Not to mention, he’s considerably more… I suppose discontent might be a suitable word, toward his own position. Patton settled into his place relatively easily, whereas Sanders keeps trying, thankfully unsuccessfully, to invoke names.”
Virgil frowned. His hands fisted in his hair as he tried to think of anything else he could try. 
“He’s been heard trying to invoke my name,” Logan said quietly. 
“What?” Virgil paled. “By who?”
“I’m not certain. But I’m sure that by tomorrow morning we’ll have some angry people on out hands, and I don’t think that keeping him small will appease them this time.”
“What should we do?”
••^*^••
When Thomas woke up, Anxiety had already left the room. He sat up and stretched, his wings fluttering. By now, moving them was almost unconscious. He was still tiny. 
He flew to the door. Anxiety usually left it a bit open if he woke up first, since Thomas couldn’t open it by himself. But not today. 
Thomas pounded on the door, but it made even less noise than usual. That was odd. He tried to look through the crack in the doorframe, but it was stuffed with pieces of flower petals. That was even more odd. Anxiety must really want him to be stuck in the bedroom for some reason. 
“Anxiety!” Thomas yelled. 
From behind him there was a groan. He spun around. Patton was sitting up slowly. He was tiny, and so was Thomas, but Thomas was still surprised that he hadn’t noticed. But that wasn’t the biggest thing he hadn’t noticed. Patton’s wings were gone. 
Patton gave a confused, tired frown. He must have tried to fly up. He reached his hands back, but before he could feel the truth Thomas was charging into him, hugging him tightly. 
“Oof! Kiddo. What’s going on?”
Thomas shook his head. He didn’t know. 
From outside, as the sun rose, so did the sound of voices. Angry voices. Thomas could hear Anxiety’s voice raising among them, but there were so many all at once he couldn’t tell what they were saying. 
“I—my wings…” Patton said softly. “He’s never taken my wings.”
Thomas squeezed tighter. He didn’t know what else to do. Then he saw a paper on the bed. He let go of Patton to flip it over. 
I want your name, and I’m tired of waiting. 
Thomas gritted his teeth. 
“It’s not fair!” He exploded. “How can they just—just hurt you like this?!”
Patton was staring blankly at the paper, and a tear ran down his face. “I don’t know…”
Thomas flew to the door and started banging on it, even though there was no way he was being heard. 
“Logan changed so much this last week,” Patton cried, and Thomas turned to see him with his face in his hands. “I don’t understand!”
Thomas flew back to Patton. “It’ll be alright. I’ll find some way to fix things.”
Patton looked up, something dangerous glinting in his eyes behind the pain. “Logic’s real name is Logan, and Anxiety’s real name is Virgil. I’m giving you their names.”
Thomas hugged Patton tightly again. “My name is Thomas.”
Patton hugged him back just as tightly. “And my name is Patton. I trust you, Thomas, let’s get out of here.”
Thomas let go of Patton. “I have an idea.”
He flew back a little bit away from Patton. Then he yelled, as loudly as he could and with as much belief as he could muster. “Virgil! Logan! Put me back to my right size!”
And then he was growing. He managed to pick up Patton and shield him in his hands before he burst out of the house. He started walking for the pool in the middle of the village, calling Virgil and Logan as he went, and ignoring the clamor of the other fairies. He went through the pool more easily this time, and was only slightly dizzy when emerging from the other side. 
He slid Patton onto his head, assuming that he’d be able to hold onto his hair and not fall off, since he didn’t have a pocket. 
He waited barely a minute before Virgil and Logan came out, and he immediately grabbed at them. He caught Virgil, but Logan ducked out of reach. 
“What are you doing?” Logan yelled, still flitting around so that he wasn’t an easy catch. 
“I’m going back home. And I’m taking Patton with me. I want you to turn him back to his normal size as well.”
Thomas brought Virgil up to his eye level. “Take my wings back, I won’t need them anymore.”
Virgil squirmed in his hand. “I don’t… I don’t know that I can without your name.”
Thomas frowned. This again? Virgil cried out, and he quickly loosened his grip. 
“Let him go,” Logan said, his voice not commanding like usual, but almost pleading. “I’ll take your wings off and I’ll return Patton to his usual size.”
“To his human size,” Thomas clarified, suddenly realizing that with knowing their names, and holding Virgil in his hand, he actually had bargaining chips now. 
“Yes.” Logan said. 
From on top of his head, the minuscule weight slowly grew as Logan started speaking in the fairy tongue. As he grew large enough, Patton climbed down to stand next to Thomas. Patton was looking down at the ground, avoiding looking at Logan or Virgil. 
“Can I touch you?” Logan asked. 
“Only if it’s to take the wings off,” Thomas answered. 
Logan flew behind him and touched the tips of his wings. Thomas could feel them returning to his back in much the same way as they had come. 
Virgil squirmed again. Thomas tightened his grip just slightly, unwilling to lose his bargaining chip. But then he saw the flash of pain that went across Virgil’s face, and all the rest of his anger turned to guilt. 
“I want you both to promise that you won’t stop us or do anything to us while we’re going home,” Thomas said. 
“Yes. I promise.” Logan said, his eyes trained on Virgil. 
“Promise,” Virgil said, and the pain in his voice was greater than it had been on his face. 
Thomas opened his hand, feeling the guilt shift from welling up in his gut to stabbing him when he saw the crumpled state of Virgil’s wings. 
Logan flew down and picked Virgil up, flying to a safe distance away. 
Thomas turned to place the pool at his back. Once they were out of the ring of flowers he could figure where he was and find his way home. Patton turned back once. 
“Bye,” he said, his voice small. 
••^*^••
It took a day to get back to Thomas’s house, but they did get back, and Patton, who said that he didn’t have anyone to go back to, became Thomas’s roommate. 
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belphegor1982 · 5 years
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Okay, time to go into the meat of the plot, so to speak. And answer a few questions.
FAIRY TALES AND HOKUM
Summary: 1937: Two years after the events of Ahm Shere, the O’Connells are “required” by the British Government to bring the Diamond taken there from Egypt to England. In Cairo, while Evelyn deals with the negotiations and Rick waits for doom to strike again, Jonathan bumps into an old friend of his from university, Tom Ferguson. Things start to go awry when the Diamond is stolen from the Museum and old loyalties are tested…
Chapter 9: Venture (on AO3 here)
To say that dawn was Evelyn’s favourite moment of the day would not have been quite right. Back home in London, sunrise or the minutes preceding it was something like the calm before the storm, a welcome lull during which she would get some time to cast off the last remnants of sleep. It was also the first moment of the day that she spent together with her husband and son, and she had come to love the little routine that had gradually settled between them.
On weekdays, Evelyn usually got up first, and then was the first to go downstairs to the kitchen and pick up the bottles of milk outside the smallish kitchen door. Then Rick would join her and help her with toast while she sipped her tea and fixed his coffee and Alex’s, who, despite some grumpy mornings, was generally never very long to turn up for any meal. After breakfast, Rick would drop Alex at his school on his way to work, while on fair-weather days she’d take out her bicycle to ride to the British Museum.
But here… Egypt made everything different. The ‘Land of Living Sand’, as she remembered her mother’s usual expression, was a land of contrasts. The night was as cold as the day was hot in the desert. In the city, when the sun rose, seeing sunlight creeping down the white-washed house fronts was just as heartening as was the gradual sensation of heat slowly warming up the air around you and the ground beneath your feet. Everything changed, from the temperature to the colours, and all things seemed to come back to life in one fluid movement. Each morning a resurrection took place.
Such thoughts Evelyn welcomed as she walked along the streets of Cairo on this early Sunday morning. Even if it didn’t drive away her worries, it did wonders to abate her concern somewhat. She had missed the Egyptian sunrise. The little flat-roofed houses slowly regained their whitish colour, tinged with a yellow shade that gradually lightened as the sun rose higher in the sky.
Though the sensation of gradual warmth did not raise her spirits the way it would have done in other circumstances, she felt that it would probably have been worse had they been in London. After an entire night spent in research, building up theories and elaborate plans with Dr Hakim and Ardeth Bay, the three of them were still without a clue. It was not without difficulty that Evelyn had finally agreed with Ardeth and headed home to get some rest.
Alex had been sleeping for a while now already, and was still fast asleep now as Ardeth carried him home. Her boy had bravely held on until he finally dropped on Hakim’s couch at about five in the morning, exhausted. The break of dawn had been a sign that it was high time to leave and get some rest. Evelyn doubted she would fall asleep quickly, considering the impressive amount of mint tea she had downed throughout the night to keep herself awake, and Hakim made it quite strong. She had hesitated about waking Alex or not, till Ardeth had kindly suggested carrying him home himself. Evelyn had a feeling that the wish to see the two O’Connells home safe and sound had prompted the suggestion just as much as friendship.
Despite the rising cheer of the Egyptian dawn, and Ardeth’s quietly reassuring countenance, she felt tired, along with hungry, and not a little bit discouraged. Something of it must have been showing on her face, because as they turned round a corner not very far from her house, Ardeth looked at her with a funny expression in his black eyes. “Don’t be so disheartened, Evelyn. Even if we haven’t managed to get all the pieces together last night, we will find them.”
Evelyn let out a little laugh, low enough not to wake Alex. “You really are unpredictable, Ardeth. You weren’t nearly as optimistic last time we went to search for a missing member of the family.”
Ardeth’s sudden grin lit up his dark face. “I’m afraid it’s a habit we Medjai seem to have. Expect the worst, and doubly enjoy the best when it comes at last.”
Evelyn couldn’t help a grin, too. “I must admit that it sounds like a good philosophy. But tell me, then – what makes you so certain this time that we will find Rick and Jonathan?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. I almost never rely on certainties. But I have faith in our stubbornness, as well as in the both of them. I now believe Rick to be able to more or less get out of any difficult situation, and for all his faults, your brother can prove remarkably resourceful as well.”
So understatements were not the prerogative of British people solely after all. Picturing what Jonathan’s expression would be if someone told him Ardeth had called him ‘resourceful’, Evelyn smiled as she picked up her keys from her pocket and opened the door.
The dark, silent house felt empty when she entered it with Ardeth slipping in behind her, quick and quiet as a shadow. Everything was just as she had left it when she had gone last evening to the British Consulate after her lengthy conversation with Satiah. Rick’s trilby was left untouched on the chest of drawers in the living room, and she had even forgotten to bring the tea tray back to the kitchen. The abandoned cups, milk jug, teapot and cold kettle made for an oddly lonely picture in the light of the small lamp she had just turned on; the shutters had been closed all day to keep the heat away, and she didn’t feel like opening them now. Something twisted in Evelyn’s insides, an emptiness that she quickly dismissed, putting it down to exhaustion. She gave a sigh as she turned away from the table, gently rubbing the bridge of her nose.
Wait a minute. Something doesn’t look right here. Evelyn turned back to the table, blinking furiously to erase all traces of sleep, and only then did she take notice of the square envelope lying right there on the table, plain as day.
“Ardeth!” she whispered as loud as she dared to the Medjai who had one foot on the first step to the first floor. Alex stirred a little in his arms. “Have you seen this?” Curiosity, mingled with dread, overtook any trace of weariness, and she swiftly grasped the letter. She had a fairly good idea what it was about.
Ardeth nodded. The light didn’t quite reach him where he was standing, and she could only see his chin, his high cheekbones, and the tip of his aquiline nose. Everything else was hidden in shadow.
“I have, but if I may, I’ll put Alexander to bed first. I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”
Evelyn nodded, a little ashamed that she had not had this reaction herself. But as she gazed down at the letter and waited for her friend to come down, a sinking feeling of foreboding began to creep into her stomach. This particular letter would be no good at all.
Ardeth was soon downstairs and standing beside Evelyn as she ripped the paper open. The letter was wordy, but short enough.
Mrs O’Connell,
As you may have guessed by now, your husband Rick O’Connell and your brother Jonathan Carnahan are, as we write, enjoying our company in a place that I am sure you will understand we will keep secret. They will be brought back to you in due time, when what is expected of them is completed, and this only if you do not have the rather foolish impulse to do something rash like going to the police.
I am positive we understand each other, Mrs O’Connell. We are a powerful organisation, and will not be troubled by impulsive actions, especially on your part.
Yours respectfully.
Evelyn would have wanted to say something, anything, but her throat felt too tight to talk. Instead, she let go of the letter, which now seemed to burn her fingers. Ardeth was looking at her, but she avoided his gaze, aware that she was blinking more than was usually necessary. Her vision was slightly blurred at the edges, and she wasn’t sure whether tiredness was the sole reason.
“Well, at least the cat is out of the bag now,” she said shakily when she could find her voice again. It sounded like a pale imitation of herself.
Ardeth appeared grave. When Evelyn felt collected enough again to look at him, he said, “Whatever cat you are speaking about, this certainly is an important discovery.”
Evelyn’s tight lips relaxed for a second in an ever-so-slight smile. Ardeth always said that for all his good will, he would never quite get used to colloquialisms.
“Don’t worry about it more than you already do, Evelyn,” he carried on gently, seemingly not noticing her slight change of expression. “Those who have written this letter meant only to frighten you into inactivity. However, we must be careful. Do you mind if I take this letter to Fahad Hakim? I promise that it will be back before you know it.”
“Are you going back to Dr Hakim’s right now, then?” Evelyn asked, startled. “What about rest?”
“If this is what concerns you, don’t worry, I will get some soon,” Ardeth answered. “But I advise you to sleep now. Today will be a long day, and it would be best to get prepared for anything that might happen.”
Evelyn nodded, tiredness abruptly coming back so strongly that it almost drove even her fears away. She folded the letter and handed it to Ardeth, who took it and carefully put it in a pocket of his robes.
“I’ll be on my way, then,” he said as Evelyn showed him to the door. “Have a good rest, and make the most of it.”
“I promise I will,” she said with a tired smile, still blinking. “There’s simply no question of you waltzing off to some haphazard adventure in search of my husband and my brother without me.”
“I would have been greatly surprised otherwise,” said Ardeth with a smile of his own that made his eyes flash.
.⅋.
Thomas Ferguson had not closed an eye last night.
It wasn’t the first time that he stayed up all night, far from it. This sort of thing tended to happen fairly often in this line of work. He had got used to the headaches, the stiffness, and the coated tongue that he would usually get after a whole night spent doing paperwork and drinking Earl Greys, occasionally splashed with a shot of brandy. One or two by night, no more, was his general rule.
However, on this particular night, Tom hadn’t done any of the paperwork. He had simply, stupidly lain awake on his cot all night, pondering the situation.
What a fuckin’ mess.
He had arrived at this conclusion early enough, despite the fact that he had truly grasped all the extent of the Chamber’s plans when Gabriel bloody Baine and his hit squad had popped out of that Lincoln and asked Jon, O’Connell and him to get in. At that moment, he had known that what he had dreaded and what nobody had told him was turning out to be true: the Chamber needed more than the diamond to achieve their goal; for some reason they wanted the people who had owned it as well. True to form, they had picked the first ‘suspects’ they had come across. And sent their most insufferable agent after them. Honestly, for all his posturing, agent Baine was little more than a smug thug with a vocabulary.
Tom shook his head, putting his pen back on the table and massaging the bridge of his nose. Why did it have to be Jon? And why did it have to be him on this case? He had been genuinely glad to see his old mate again, to share memories of the good old days, and talk about their respective lives. And when they had phoned him in the early hours of the following morning to tell him what his assignment was going to be, he had protested vehemently. But his requests for another assignment had been rejected and he’d got stuck in this bloody shambles.
Never, in eight years of work, had he been so reluctant to complete an assignment. Jon wasn’t like most of the guys he had known from school, from friendly grown foreign, a stranger with nothing in common anymore. No matter how much each of them had changed, Tom had really felt, for a couple of hours, as if they were back in that little pub on the bank of the River Cherwell, sharing some good laughs and a few silences.
War hadn’t shattered that right away. People had left, proud and glorious in spanking new uniforms, never to come back, while he worked himself to the bone trying to pay for his studies and study at the same time. Edwin Farbow had joined up in August 1914 and died two months later. Arthur McAlester had been repatriated three years later with one foot missing, lost to trenchfoot disease. Elizabeth, who had joined up as a nurse, had only found out he was even alive six months later.
The pressure on students to enlist had been tremendous. The Empire needed officers, and for some unfathomable reason one of the places they looked was 18 and 20 year old boys whose main concern so far had been to not fail Ancient Greek.
Tom had barely finished his history degree in 1916 when he got conscripted two weeks after his 22nd birthday. Jon, six months younger, had enlisted right after, saying he was sick of getting white feathers1 handed to him in the street. They lost sight of each other after basic training; Tom only met him again briefly once or twice after the war before he and his sister Evelyn moved to Egypt for good.
Thus Tom Ferguson spent the last twelve months of the war in the Army Service Corps, driving ammunition, food, and equipment to and from the front, amidst shells and bullets and landmines. When the war was over, he had a captain’s rank and a real talent for driving in the worst kinds of conditions, but also a true horror of driving at all. Thank goodness for trains, buses and cabs.
It was on a tramway that he had met Elizabeth McAlester again a few years later. Then they had met again, and again, and one thing leading to another, realised that they couldn’t do without the other’s company.
Tom tried to blink away the sting in his eyes, the result of another sleepless night. He longed for Liz’s cool hand on his brow easing the worries away like she would do, or enveloping him in a tender hug. He longed to bury his face in her thick curly hair, breathe in the familiar scent of clove and vanilla, so sweet, so reassuring. Her very presence, however quiet, was indispensable to him, be it hearing her humming softly in another room, the sound of her feet on the floor, a glimpse of her as she passed, the rich colours of her dark red hair, a smile in her hazel eyes, the taste of her lips… They had been apart before, sometimes for days, but both of them knew they had the other to come home to. Now that she had been taken away from him by force – not to mention the fact that he had strict orders not to see her – he truly realised how much he missed her. It was constantly there, like a knot in his throat that reminded him why he was doing what he was doing.
Throughout his career, he had had to do some dirty work now and then, but it never interfered with his personal life. For him, being a secret agent consisted of a lot of dull paperwork and very little actual field action, which he had eventually been only happy to after reading a few fellow agents’ reports.
Oh sure, when the Chamber had contacted him at the very beginning he had been beside himself with joy. At last, a serious organisation, if a little obscure, with direct links to the British Government was interested enough in his work on ancient civilisations to hire him! Officially he was a consultant of the British Antique Research Department. In reality, he was a clerk in the Chamber of Horus, a secret governmental organisation specialised in keeping a watch over precious or supposed dangerous artefacts and acquiring them. The name originally came from the legendary secret treasure chamber said to be hidden in the depths of the Great Pyramid. Tom still didn’t really know for sure whether they had discovered it. His specialised field was the Valley of the Kings, not the north of Egypt, and any information was carefully compartmentalised.
He had known the bare bones about Imhotep, High Priest of Osiris, and the consequences of his affair with Pharaoh Seti 1’s concubine Anck-su-namun – not just the hom-dai that had followed, but also some of what had happened both eleven and two years ago. It had been hard to lie to Jon. One of the reasons Tom was so seldom assigned to field work was his inability to lie without overacting and a certain tendency to blunder. Hiding things was not a big problem; as far as Elizabeth was concerned, he had been working for eight years for the Research Department. But he still had some difficulty with telling correctly a downright lie, lacking the aplomb for it.
Unlike Jon. Jon was by far one of the best liars he’d ever seen. That ability had got the two of them out of many a tricky situation.
The pen he’d put down earlier almost hit the wall. No matter how hard he tried to think seriously about his report, his thoughts always came back to either Liz or Jon.
Tom let out a frustrated sigh, furious with himself. For someone who liked life simple and comfortable, his current situation was anything but, between the concern gnawing at his guts and the feeling that a big part of this sorry mess, if not everything, was his fault.
Well, not quite everything, to be honest. But definitely a big part of it.
He had to explain himself, at least to Jon. There was no way in hell they’d let him see Liz, let alone talk to her, until the whole thing was over. Jon was easier to reach. Tom could always find one pretext or other that the henchmen would buy.
Right now was just the right time, too. The guards had been reduced to two rookies on Sundays, who probably wouldn’t dare question the word of a senior agent. The perfect circumstances for a word alone with Jon and O’Connell.
Tom holstered his service gun as he stood up and headed for the door of his office, a much smaller one than his cover office in the British Consulate in Cairo. Half of his files and books were there, and the other was here in his Giza office. He had hardly enough room for his desk, his chair and his coat-rack, which was fine for him. It wasn’t as if he spent such a lot of time in there anyway.
Only a couple of hours after lunchtime and it was already sweltering. Tom was sweating under the light jacket he was more or less forced to put on to hide the holster when walking in the street. Consequently he was in a bit of a bad mood when he finally arrived at the house the Chamber had requisitioned because of its good location and thick basement door, and used it to appear more self-confident than he felt.
“Ferguson,” he said after the regulation knock on the door and flashing his badge at the young agent. “I’m here to interrogate the prisoners.”
The lad – Michaels, Tom believed his name was – opened the door, gave an embarrassed smile as Tom’s eyes fell on the lemonade glasses and honey cakes on the table, called his colleague to check his identity again, and showed him down the worn and dusty stairs. Tom found himself alone in front of the door with the keys before he could even think up a better excuse. It had not been three minutes since he had knocked at the door. Amazing. Either the newbies were amazingly incompetent, or he had the devil’s own luck for once.
Now that the two agents had gone back up to the ground floor to their lemonades, there was no sound other than the muffled voices, engaged in lively conversation, of the two ‘prisoners’ on the other side of the door. Tom hesitated for a few seconds, the memory of Jon’s fist the evening before still quite vivid in his jaw. But he kept reminding himself that sorting things out with his mate was worth the risk.
With an intake of breath as if before a plunge, Tom took out the keys and opened the door.
The conversation ceased immediately, and he found himself under the fire of two pairs of bright blue eyes, one round and furious, the other slightly slanted and cold. It unnerved him for a second.
“Oh,” Jon said in an absolutely flat tone, as if Tom was something nasty stuck on the sole of his shoe, “it’s you.”
Tom paid no attention to the sudden pang in his heart and closed the door behind him. “Hi, Jon,” he attempted rather lamely. “O’Connell,” he added after a second, with a slight nod to the American.
Neither of the two moved.
“What are you here for exactly?” asked Jon in a cold voice he had never used to talk to Tom before.
“Yeah,” came O’Connell’s quiet growl. “Aren’t you afraid you’re gonna get hit?” After a second’s glance at Jon two steps behind him, he added, “… Again?”
Something flickered over Jon’s face, like the ghost of a grin. This perhaps did more harm to Tom than his former friend’s tone of voice. Tom shook his head. “Look, I kinda have an idea of what you’re thinking right now. But if you feel like takin’ it out on me, at least wait till you know why you’re here.”
“I’m sure you and your bosses have a very important reason for keeping us in here. But we’re more interested in getting out. What makes you think you’re just gonna walk out of here when you could be our ticket out, buddy?” O’Connell said, a dangerous expression on his face.
Tom’s heart rate picked up speed. Not that he was truly surprised. He’d seen prisoners escape with the unwilling help of a hostage, and he simply wasn’t going to make that blunder. He stood his ground and took out his gun in a swift move.
“Well, this, for one,” he said simply.
O’Connell didn’t say nor do anything, but his bright burning gaze remained fixed on Tom. As for Jon, he just stood there silently, but there was something on his face that made Tom avoid looking at him in the eyes.
“Look,” he finally repeated, “I came here by myself. No one knows I’m here but the two agents up the stairs. I’m not acting under orders now, all right?”
“And after all the rot you’ve been feeding us, we’re actually supposed to believe you?” Jon piped up. His narrowed eyes, now totally devoid of warmth, made a stark contrast with his nonchalant attitude, hands casually buried in his pockets.
“Yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do,” snapped Tom. “For chrissakes, man, I’m ‘ere to help!”
“Then why don’t ya let us out, huh?” deadpanned O’Connell, his eyes still fixed on him. Tom stared back.
“I can’t do that. They’d hurt me wife if I did.”
“We figured that out, thanks,” said Jon, an unreadable expression on his face. Tom turned to him, surprised.
“How’s that?”
“Because I spent half the night talking to her yesterday,” O’Connell said. “She was in the cell-thing right next to ours.”
Tom’s heart missed a beat.
“You talked to her? How is she? Is she all right?”
“Seems she is,” said Jon, with in his voice something that sounded like a sneer mixed with reproach that didn’t suit him at all, “and not thanks to you.”
Tom couldn’t help a withering glare. “D’you really think this is a time for witty remarks?”
Jon’s eyes went round. “Could you think of a better time?”
“Actually, yeah, I could!”
“All right, stop it, you two,” O’Connell cut in, looking a bit exasperated. “Jeez, you sound like a couple of kids. You, get to the point. You, let him talk.”
Jon shot the American a rather dirty look, but didn’t add anything. Tom holstered his gun and took the opportunity to speak, somewhat grateful for O’Connell’s intervention.
“Right. Well, as you may have guessed, I don’t really work for the British Antique Research Department –” a snort interrupted him, and he glowered at Jon “– but for a governmental institution called the Chamber of Horus, and we’re supposed to look after dangerous ancient artefacts. That’s why the diamond of Ahm Shere was removed from the museum – right, Jon, if you snigger one more time I’ll just leave here and not come back.”
“Please,” Jon said sarcastically before O’Connell could say anything, “do carry on. I’d hate to interrupt you.”
Torn between remorse and sheer exasperation, Tom cast another quick glare at his former friend, and continued, “So the diamond was taken. My assignment was initially to try and keep the curator busy while a team took the diamond… But right before the start of the mission, the day before in fact, I bumped into you totally by chance – yes, that much is true – and me bosses changed their plans.
“They decided to use you as a connection to the Museum through the curator, in order to get me inside the museum in the first place. But you were so eager to show me that diamond that everything went much quicker than expected.”
Tom preferred to stop there, because facing the combined looks of a pained and furious Jon and an equally furious O’Connell was a bit much. He carried on despite the lump in his throat that he fought hard to swallow.
“Jon, you have to believe me when I say that I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to do anything as far as you and your family were concerned, and I certainly didn’t want you involved in this mess! But you must understand that orders are something you can’t just ignore…” Christ, how stupid he sounded! “I – I don’t know what they would have done, but it wouldn’t’ve been very nice. These folks don’t joke, mate.”
“Oh really? I sort of felt that when they bashed my head in twice,” sneaked Jon with so much venom that even O’Connell glanced at him with a slightly surprised expression. Tom tried to steel himself.
“Look, the evening before the stealing of the diamond, I was told that I was to help the team in it, meaning let you be stunned and then be knocked out too meself. I said no, that there was no way in hell I’d let anybody hurt you to serve their interests. That’s when they told me that I didn’t really have a choice.”
He took in a long breath, and to his relief, neither Jon nor O’Connell said anything in the meantime.
“They showed me a picture of me wife Elizabeth in a room I didn’t recognise, with in her hands an issue of the Voice of Cairo. They told me that they had guessed I’d say that, and that if I didn’t obey orders, I’d receive bits and pieces of her… a finger… a toe… every day.” For a second time he tried to swallow the lump in his throat, without much success. “I didn’t know they could actually do something like that, but I wasn’t that surprised somehow.”
Again, Tom stopped and nobody said anything. This time it was Jon’s turn to avoid his gaze, but O’Connell still stared at him with something like interest in his bright blue eyes.
“What would you have done if it were you?” asked Tom, turning to the American, suddenly angry. “If you’d seen a picture of your wife like that, and heard them saying they’d torture her if you didn’t obey? Wouldn’t you have done everything you could for all this bloody mess to end quick?”
“Cool down, I get your point,” O’Connell said slowly. “I’d never do anything that put Evy in danger. But if some bunch of weirdos had kidnapped her, I sure as hell would have done everything to find her and get her outta here.”
Tom shook his head. “You don’t understand. I can’t just leave this job. They’d find us anywhere and kill us.”
“Now you’re just being paranoid,” muttered Jon, his voice a little bit shaky. “Surely you can’t be that important?”
“Not really, Jon, but I know a lot of stuff that could be dangerous for them. I’m just a pawn in the game, but they can’t afford to lose any.”
“What game are you talking about?” O’Connell asked lowly, his eyes narrowing. “What twisted kind of game is that?”
That’s the moment the door chose to open with a grim creak.
“One with extremely important resonance, Mr O’Connell,” said a low, chilling voice from the threshold.
Charles K. Hamilton stood there, flanked by none other than Baine and an unassuming fellow named Stephens, and wearing what came closest to a smile on his face.
.⅋.
“Who the hell are you?”
Rick had never seen this guy before. He had never even seen anything like this guy before. Oddball Number One he knew, sort of, and the second goon was an unknown quantity, but this guy… He was clean. Despite the fact that he came from the hot and dusty outside, there was not a single grey hair sticking out and his suit was perfect. He looked so immaculate it was disturbing.
When you looked further than the suit, though, there was just something creepy about the guy. Real creepy. Apart from his black suit, an oddity in itself, everything about him was grey – his hair, the hue of his skin, and his eyes. Those eyes were the coldest Rick had looked upon in a couple of years.
Rick’s eyes fell on the two Englishmen. Ferguson had blanched, and Jonathan wore a weird expression on his face.
Then it dawned on him. “I’ve just met Nosferatu”, “His boss wanted to see me about what happened at the Museum two days ago. Seems that the Research Department was keeping an eye on the diamond…”
“You’re his boss, right?” he said to the newcomer, jerking a thumb towards Ferguson without looking at him. “The guy Jonathan went to see yesterday.”
Unlike the rest of his person, the creep’s teeth showed white when he unveiled his eye-teeth in some grim attempt at a smile. Rick almost expected them to be grey as well.
“You know, Mr O’Connell, from what I had gathered so far, you didn’t strike me as the smart sort.” Here he glanced sideways to Number One, who offered the American his slimiest, most toad-like smile. “It seems that hearsay does not do you justice.���
“What do you want with that diamond?” Rick asked abruptly. He always hated people beating around the bush, and to him it looked as though they’d been doing just that for a while. “And you!” He cast a brief look at Ferguson, who looked horror-struck. “Thought you weren’t ‘acting under orders’?”
“I was not,” shouted Ferguson, sounding desperate. It was then that Rick noticed that Jonathan’s glare had not left the Liverpudlian since his boss arrived. “I swear to God, I wasn’t!”
“First things first, Ferguson,” came Grey Guy’s calm, low-pitched voice. “Since you do not already know me, Mr O’Connell, my name is Charles Hamilton, and I am indeed a ‘boss’, Ferguson’s and many others’. We happen to work within a governmental organisation called the Chamber of Horus. That should be enough for you to know.
“Still, Ferguson is speaking the truth: I certainly did not give any order for him to interrogate you, although I did suspect that he would try and reach you anyway. That is why I gave particular orders to the two agents up there for them to contact me whenever he came, if he did.
“As for the Diamond of Ahm Shere… I take it that Ferguson did not have the time to fill you in about that particular subject, did he?”
“Yep, he stopped before the interesting part,” Rick said, keeping his voice even. Ferguson turned a pair of hurt and surprised brown eyes to him. To tell the truth, Rick had not been that unsympathetic to the Englishman’s story, but there were some things that needed to be done quick. And he didn’t really feel like apologising to Ferguson.
“Did he now?” There was something mocking written all over Hamilton’s severe face, down to the eye-teeth. “Well, it is true that there is a lot our mutual ‘friend’ doesn’t know about.” He turned away from Rick to Jonathan. “Mr Carnahan, I apologise for not greeting you so far. How do you fare in this simple but homely abode?”
“Not too bad, the accommodation is just top-notch,” Jonathan eventually said, shifting his gaze from Ferguson to his boss. “Except for your coffee, which is just about the most foul-tasting, revolting bloody thing I’ve ever had the misfortune of tasting in my life.”
Rick couldn’t help a grin. His brother-in-law could be very entertaining when he decided to turn on the posh and wield it like a weapon.
Hamilton pursed his lips, and his gaze went even colder, if such a thing was possible, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned to Number One and the other guy.
“Mr Baine, Mr Stephens? You can leave us now, gentlemen. Wait for me behind the door, and do not let anyone come out or in unless I give you the order to. Is that clear?”
“Perfectly, sir,” answered Number One, aka Baine. To be honest, Rick was rather relieved to have a name for the guy. It was a lot easier to hate someone when you had a name to go with the death threats.
Once they were outside and the door was shut, Hamilton slowly turned to the three of them again, and, looking at each of them in turn, said, “Now, has any of you heard about something called the Night of the Long Knives?”
In Hamilton’s dead-looking grey eyes had just grown such an intensity that Rick almost unconsciously racked his brain for an answer to the echo the term had made. And he found it.
“Something that happened in Germany a couple of years ago, right? The papers talked about it.” The memory was hazy, but it definitely rang a bell about some nasty kind of stuff. He even remembered a few caricatures published at the time.
“I think I sort of see what you mean as well,” Jonathan said behind him in a low voice. “Wasn’t it something about purges in the German army and whatnot?”
“Pleasure to see you read the press so carefully,” said Hamilton sarcastically. “It did have something to do with Germany, in this you are both correct. However, I do not suppose that the words ‘Sturm Abteilung’ mean anything to you. Am I mistaken?”
Rick couldn’t help but exchange a puzzled glance with Jonathan and Ferguson, who both glanced back, looking equally lost. Where was all of this leading to?
“I might have known. Well, gentlemen, know then that Adolf Hitler did not come to power all by himself. He had help, as all leaders do. In his case, there were faithful followers who had been behind him as early as the mid-Twenties, and who had been organised into a sort of alternate army, or militia, if you will.
“Now, three years ago, decisions were made to remove the SA, as they were called for short, from the scene. As it turns out, they were starting to be a nuisance rather than a support to Hitler: although the most part was still faithful to him, they had quite a bad reputation among the German people, and the German people’s unquestioning faith in their Führer is paramount to Hitler. Furthermore, there were whispers of discontent among the SA themselves that their Führer had forgotten whom he owned his very power as the Chancellor to in the first place.
“These kinds of whispers came completely expected, even hoped-for. Three years ago, on the pretence of quelling a plot, Hitler secretly sentenced leaders of the Sturm Abteilung to be massively eliminated.”
Jeez. Rick still couldn’t for the life of him see the point that Hamilton guy intended to make, but the whole business definitely smelled foul. Glancing at the two other Englishmen, he could see that, while Ferguson’s brown eyes were narrowing, Jonathan’s blue eyes had gone rounder.
“Oh, I remember,” he said. “That’s right, it was in the papers, made quite a scandal at the time –”
“My, what a memory the public has.” Hamilton rolled his eyes. “In any case, what the papers did not print was that the actual number of ‘victims’ was not sixty-one, as the Nazi government stated, but over four hundreds, maybe a thousand.”
“A thousand!?” Rick was barely aware of his mouth falling slightly open. He goggled at Hamilton for a little while, long enough for the thought to really sink in. A thousand people killed just for the sake of a reputation, without trial, without anything? Even the guy from Kafka’s story had had a trial, if a phony one.
He remembered what Cazenave had told him, back in the Legion, about executions of rebels in the army in ’17. How they had been court-martialled and shot to show the others how the officers dealt with ‘traitors’. Rick remembered the grim expression in the Frenchman’s eyes as he told him that the actual number of victims of such ‘operations’ was surely much bigger than what he had heard.
But here… The huge number made things suddenly look huge. Four hundreds at least. Shit.
“Yes, gentlemen,” said Hamilton, and there was something sinister in his not-smile as he looked at the three of them. “Sort of boggles the mind, doesn’t it? Of course, I was not supposed to know this fact. It took some personal investigation for me to find out. But you see, I had motivations.” There he stopped, and continued in a flat tone, totally devoid of emotion, “One of my second cousins… ‘disappeared’ at the time.”
Rick, Jonathan, and Ferguson looked at each other.
“Allow me to display a few details of my family history. Kurt – the cousin I am talking about – came from the German side of the family, and had lived all his life in the country his mother was born in. As it turns out, he became infatuated with Hitler’s idea of a new Germany, and climbed step by step the ladder to higher ranks of the SA. I think he was the equivalent of our rank of sergeant when the Night of the Long Knives came to pass.
“As the German government gave our family no account whatsoever of what had befallen Kurt, I decided to do research on my own. My rank in the Chamber of Horus proved quite useful when I discovered the Germans’ – and more specifically Hitler’s – interest in the occult, and soon enough I had a contact of my own in the Nazi government.”
“You don’t mean you traded pieces of information about our treasures for information about your cousin!?” Ferguson asked, sounding thoroughly shocked. Hamilton didn’t even look at him.
“Quiet, Ferguson. I did not do research on my cousin only. When I discovered that they had had him executed, I did not broach the subject anymore and concentrated instead on the Nazis’ plans. My contact was – rather stupidly, I have to say – glad to give me details on what they were going to do to Europe and Britain in particular. No need to say that I had him done away with as soon as he became too dangerous.”
“Aren’t you afraid a cousin of his will investigate his death?” said Rick, sarcastic.
“Very funny. In any case, what I learned there is the reason of your presence here.”
“Could you by any chance be more precise?” Jonathan asked.
“I could.” The Englishman’s voice, from low and chilly, turned downright creepy at this point. “Gentlemen, something terrible is about to happen at the hands of the Nazis. I do not know when, but someday, soon, that black order will sweep over Europe, a denial of all the values of Christianity, and the world as we know it will be over.”
Despite the fact that this had to be one of the most ridiculous ideas he had ever heard, Rick couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled by the guy’s flat, dead serious tone, and the total lack of light in his cold grey eyes. Besides, he had some experience now with announced apocalypses.
“That’s what your ‘contact’ told you?” Rick said, not wanting this creep to think he believed this load of bullshit for one second. “Could’ve picked something more original. We’re kinda used to ‘the end of the world as we know it’, ya know.”
He had the small satisfaction of hearing a quiet chuckle coming from behind him. At least his brother-in-law’s sense of humour appeared to be intact.
Hamilton glanced at him with a look of intense disgust, to which Rick replied with a fake grin.
“Oh,” Hamilton said, gritting his teeth, “because you have witnessed Imhotep’s rising twice, you think you are prepared for everything? You fools, I am not talking about science-fiction mummies waking up from the dead!”
“Because what happened at Hamunaptra and Ahm Shere is science-fiction now, is it?” Jonathan exclaimed before Rick could say anything. “Not sure that those who died back there would agree with you, old chap.” There was genuine anger in his eyes, and something in his voice quivered as he finished his sentence. Rick didn’t even have to look at him to know that the both of them were thinking about the same person who ‘died’ back there.
Ferguson looked at his old friend with an odd expression in his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Maybe he was thinking about the same thing.
“What I meant to say –” Hamilton’s voice grew louder “– was that Imhotep is nothing compared to what Adolf Hitler plans to do. He was an evil, yes, but an evil of another age – Hitler is, or will be, the evil of our age. Has none of you read Mein Kampf? Do you not understand that he will do – and is in fact doing – exactly as he says? If he can order hundreds of his own supporters killed, what will stop him from killing thousands?”
Despite what Evy liked to call his ‘matter-of-fact’ nature, which undoubtedly referred to his habit of believing only what he could see with his own eyes, Rick was starting to get a bit uneasy. This guy seemed deadly serious. And what was more, he did sound like he completely believed what he was saying. But…
“I still have a question. What does all this have to do with us?”
Hamilton’s lips curled in a sort of smile. “Nothing – and everything. In fact, the real point of your being here is Ahm Shere.”
“Ahm Shere?!” What the –
“Thought it was supposed to be science-fiction,” Jonathan piped in, his eyes narrowed like each time he was thinking hard and fast. Usually it was when he was trying to come up with an escape plan – and the person he was trying to escape from was usually Evy.
“You know, Mr Carnahan –” Hamilton turned for a second to him with something that looked like sarcasm in his eyes, otherwise seemingly devoid of any expression, “– you really are sounding like somebody who would like to pass for a complete idiot. I’m going to assume that you are not one and resume my explanation.”
“You do that, old boy, while I send for my duelling pistols.”
Rick glanced at Jonathan. The man still looked a little bit pale, but a little pissed as well. But then maybe this had something to do with the fact that he didn’t have a gun pointed at him this time.
“So very droll,” Hamilton said flatly. “Now, where was I?”
“Ahm Shere,” replied a chorus of three voices, one American and the other two English.
Hamilton cast a withering glance at Ferguson. The Englishman winced.
“When you are quite finished with this childish behaviour, perhaps I might tell you the exact reason why you betrayed your former school friend, Ferguson,” he said in a voice that made Rick very glad he wasn’t in Ferguson’s shoes right now. “Now, Ahm Shere.
“I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated with this legend. The oasis lost in the great desert… The pyramid in the middle of the luxuriant, but deadly wild forest… And the fact that this pyramid was said to be made of gold undoubtedly had its attraction. But to tell the truth, all these legendary tales weren’t really the focus of my attention. What I was most interested in, ever since the very beginning, was the Army of Anubis.”
Funny, Rick mused. Archaeologists never seem to dream about normal stuff. My own wife dreams about old, dusty, decaying books and all this guy can think about is an old, decaying army – which, incidentally, doesn’t exist anymore.
“Well, too bad for you,” came Jonathan’s voice. “Place’s closed. Last time I heard, the Army was gone.”
“If you would be so kind as to not interrupting me for trifles like this,” Hamilton said icily, “I would greatly appreciate it. If the three of you were a little more aware of Egyptian history, then you would know the full story of Ahm Shere.”
“What, you mean about the Scorpion King, how he sold his soul to Anubis so that he could have his own big bad army to kick his opponents’ collective ass, was then sucked into the pyramid, how Hafez and his pals woke Imhotep up two years ago so that he could kick the Scorpion King’s ass, so that his army would be his?” Rick had said that quickly, without even stopping to breathe. Hamilton looked at him, one grey eyebrow raised in obvious disdain.
“Americans.”
“Watch it, you,” Jonathan snapped. This made Rick blink in surprise, then smile just a bit.
“Your depiction is more or less accurate, Mr O’Connell,” Hamilton admitted. “The Army of Anubis was bestowed upon the Scorpion King as a gift, a token of his alliance with the jackal-god. It logically disappeared in the blink of an eye when you killed the Scorpion King with the Sceptre of Osiris. I wouldn’t be mistaken if I was to say this is all you know, would I? However, it is not the entire truth.”
“What d’you mean, ‘not the entire truth’?” Rick asked, frowning. “I did kill the Scorpion King!”
“Oh yes, you undoubtedly did,” Hamilton said derisively. “However, this ‘truth’ has more to do with the Army of Anubis than with the Scorpion King. Know this, gentlemen: though Mathayus is dead, the army that used to be his remains, buried deep under the sand that now covers Ahm Shere.”
“Wait,” Rick interrupted, taken aback by the enormity of the news, “this means that these freakish jackal-headed things aren’t gone?! And who the hell is this Mathayus?”
“Mathayus was the name of the Scorpion King, when he was still human,” Ferguson said quietly. Rick almost started. He had all but forgotten the guy was there at all.
“Thanks,” he said quickly, rather reluctantly, before turning back to Hamilton, “But I thought – hell, we all thought that once the Scorpion King was dead, his army was sent back to the Underworld?”
“It is true, in a way,” Hamilton explained, with the tiniest touch of patience in his voice. “But then, you surely remember that the Creature Imhotep intended to kill the Scorpion King to take command of the Army of Anubis?”
“Sure, we’re not likely to forget that, are we?” Jonathan chimed in.
“Then you will see it makes sense. I presume that Mr O’Connell here did not kill the Scorpion King in order to own his army, did he?”
Rick shrugged wordlessly, having to admit it.
“By killing Mathayus, you have stopped his army – for a while. But what you don’t seem to be aware of is that the pact he made with Anubis demanded that he’d be worthy of him. By allowing you to kill him, he proved unworthy of the god’s trust, and so from this moment the Army was out of his hands.”
“Okay, I get it. Whoever killed the Scorpion King proved his worth, and got the Army of Anubis as a reward afterwards, right?” Despite the fact that it sounded rather far-fetched, Rick had to admit that it did make sense, in a twisted sort of way. But how come Ardeth hadn’t told them about it?
Maybe the Medjai just didn’t know. The thought came in the form of a nasty pang as Rick realised he’d always expected them – and especially Ardeth – to know just about everything that went on in Egypt. Well, it was their job, in a way; they always did seem to lurk in the background, conveniently taking care of everything that needed to be taken care of.
But they were human beings. There must be one thing they didn’t know. Like what would happen to Alex if he didn’t take off the Bracelet of Anubis before seven days had passed.
Too bad it turned out to be this kind of small details.
“Precisely, although I would certainly not put it this way.” Hamilton sounded almost pleased to have such a keen audience. “It is written that the Army of Anubis shall come to whoever claims it after Anubis’ servant proves unworthy. And it just so happens that, when the moon sets on June 30th – that’s next Thursday, as you may have guessed, and the new moon of this month – the Egyptian year changes. We will enter the Year of the Jackal – the year Anubis is most celebrated. And, supposedly, the year when he is at his most powerful.”
“And what does all this stuff have to do with Hitler?” Jonathan asked. Hamilton got a funny look in his eyes at that. This look struck a bell in Rick, who remembered it from somewhere, though he couldn’t place it.
“Have you listened nothing of what I said?” the older Englishman said, his grey eyes suddenly ablaze. “Is it so hard to put two and two together – can you not see what I’m getting at? Hitler has the power to do more harm to humanity than Imhotep and the Scorpion King themselves could ever dream of – and what’s more, he is planning to use this power!”
Rick’s jaw dropped in spite of him. He’d just understood. “Jeez Louise… You’re gonna send the Army of Anubis in Germany to kill Hitler and –”
“– And wipe out Germany in the process!?” Jonathan’s face had turned very white very quickly. He looked as though he’d just been punched in the stomach, reflecting what Rick himself felt.
“I would say something along these lines, yes,” Hamilton answered calmly. “The world can only be safe when every single one of his followers are dead.”
To say the silence that fell in the room was heavy would have been a hell of an understatement. Rick’s eyes remained fixed on Hamilton’s steady, expressionless gaze, his square face, his clean black suit, unable to keep himself from wondering at the strange turns situations tended to get as soon as they and Egypt were involved. Maybe – like what he knew about America – the country just tended to attract nutcases.
“Look, buddy…” he finally said hesitatingly, after a long intake of breath. “You can’t use a… some kind of weapon of mass destruction on an entire country because of what its government or its leader might do. What about anyone who disagrees with the guy? They’ll just be obliterated with the rest!”
“Collateral damage is inevitable. It’s a risk I’m prepared to take.”
Rick’s mouth fell open, and a thought crossed his brain like lightning.
The thing about the French Foreign Legion was that it attracted all sorts from all kinds of different countries, and for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes they remained secret, sometimes the soldiers shared them; nobody ever asked. Pavel had shared his one night. That was when Rick had heard the word ‘pogrom’ for the first time.
“You see, prijátelʹ2,” he had told Rick one evening, “there are places when one day, someone will shout ‘Kill the Jews! Kill all the Jews!’. And because killing Jews is solution to all problems, Jews will die. Like my wife die. My father. The mother of my father. My little boy. Problem remain, and one day, someone else shout ‘Kill the Jews!’ And reznjá – cutting, killing – starts again.”
There was nothing Rick could say to that, even if he had wanted. He took a long gulp from the flask of dubious alcohol Beni had procured somewhere, then wordlessly handed it to Pavel. Pavel had only sipped a bit before staring at him with eyes that looked like bottomless wells.
“Sometimes, place is in people’s head. You watch out for these people, O’Connell. These people, in charge? Danger, and not just for Jews.”
Rick had remembered that conversation more and more clearly for the past half-dozen years. It was very easy to forget that the outside world existed when you were on a dig with your gorgeous, loving wife, unearthing timeless artefacts to her unending enthusiasm. It was even easier when the dig ended up involving swallowing half your volume in Nile water, pursuing your son’s kidnappers halfway across the desert, seeing your gorgeous, loving wife murdered before your eyes and come back with someone else’s memories on top of the usual ones. But some things he paid attention to.
“You know,” he said slowly, “there’s a lot of German people who would live a lot better if it wasn’t for Hitler. I mean, they’d probably be happy if you had him assassinated. And you’re really planning on letting them be ‘collateral damage’!? What’d they do to you?”
“Not to mention,” came Jonathan’s unsteady voice from behind him, “it’s not even that certain that Anubis’ army will obey you, is it? Do you really think they’ll care to stay within the borders of Germany?”
“What are you talking about? Of course it will obey me – it obeys the one who claims it, the legend is quite clear about that!” snapped Hamilton. Rick rolled his eyes.
“I admit this is not the right place in the world to say that, but – Christ, you mustn’t always take this kind of fairy tales and hokum at face value!”
“He’s right.” Jonathan’s voice sounded a bit firmer. “Take Ahm Shere: the pyramid was supposed to be made of solid gold and everything. Well, I’ve seen the bloody thing close, and I can tell you, it’s not gold. Not on the outside, anyway.”
In other circumstances, Rick would have snorted. That reality had not matched legend on this particular point had been a sore point for his brother-in-law.
But Hamilton looked dead set. He could have been deaf to what they had said, for all his expression changed. “Don’t waste time and breath,” he said coldly. “You will not make me change my mind. I’ll let you know that you have no choice – you haven’t had any choice ever since you were asked to take the Diamond to England.”
Oh, crap! “What d’you mean? When was this stunt set up?”
“Quite some time ago, actually,” Hamilton answered, his voice dangerously low. “It began when you, Mr Carnahan, sold the Diamond of Ahm Shere to the Cairo Museum of Antiquities. But I believe it was truly set in motion when Italy finished invading Ethiopia, only a few months after the events of Ahm Shere. However, if you speak of my projects, you may as well know that they are my own. No orders were given to me. I took the initiative in retrieving the Diamond – which shall be needed in time – and bringing you here.”
“I’d still like to know what this has to do with us,” Rick mumbled, still trying to remember where he had seen something like the funny look in Hamilton’s eyes.
“Quite simple, in fact. You, Mr O’Connell, are the one who killed the Scorpion King, so we figured it would be a good thing to have you on hand when I claim his army, if only to make sure you don’t end up with it. Now, as for Mr Carnahan… Let’s just say that as someone who entered and got out of the Pyramid of Ahm Shere, you are what I could familiarly call an added bonus.”
“Goodness me, I’m flattered,” said Jonathan, sarcastic. “Now, there’s something I’d like to know. Why did you pick me and not somebody useful like my sister? She’s the real specialist, you know.”
“Beside the fact that, through Ferguson here, you were the one who led us to the Diamond of Ahm Shere? Well, I imagine that you just were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Jonathan looked down at his shoes, his hands in his pockets. “Yes… Well. Story of my life, really.”
Something suddenly clicked into place out of nowhere in Rick’s mind. That look. Hamilton’s. That curator guy – Hafez or something – had had the same back in the pyramid, when Rick had walked past him on his way to murdering that bastard Imhotep and the bitch who had killed his wife. The curator had his hand stuck in the statue of a scorpion at that moment, and there had been triumph and something else, something wild in his eyes, so utterly convinced he was that his ‘Lord Imhotep’ would ‘take command’.
Rick suddenly felt sick. Hamilton was just as utterly convinced that he would be doing the right thing in murdering thousands, tens of thousands of people, innocent or not. Anubis’ Army aside, the sheer thought of someone capable of thinking like that was scary. No, not scary. It was terrifying as hell.
Hamilton looked at them and said, ever so polite, “Well, gentlemen, it has been a pleasure talking with you, but there is some business I must take care of. Good afternoon, and be sure we will be seeing one another in the near future.”
He walked over to the door, with a brief glance at Ferguson who dithered, his brown eyes shifting from Jonathan to Rick, his broad face looking a little green around the edges. “Well, Ferguson! Should I lock you up here as well?”
“N—no sir, I’m comin’,” the Englishman stammered in a strained voice. He walked out first, without looking back.
As Hamilton crossed the threshold, Rick, unable to stop himself, said hotly, “What makes you think we’re gonna let you do that? There are people out there whose only job is to protect the world from creeps like you, and I really don’t wanna be in your shoes when my wife gets to you.”
Hamilton let out a low chuckle.
“And what makes you think I’m going to allow myself to be stopped?”
.⅋.
dun dun duuun
1Giving white feathers to men of fighting age not wearing uniforms on British soil during WW1 was a thing. It was supposed to call them cowards in front of everybody and shame them into enlisting. Naturally – beside the obvious – it had all sorts of unexpected downsides, and quite a few young veterans with honourable discharges and wounds that weren’t obvious received white feathers and were understandably pissed off about it. Plus all the men who couldn’t enlist because they had disabilities or jobs that just couldn't do without them.
2  Prijátelʹ (Russian): Friend, mate, buddy
Not gonna lie, the scene where Hamilton explains his plan and his motivations was a big source of stress for me. I’ve wanted to rewrite it – or parts of – for years, because I wanted to make it clear that he had to be stopped (because 1] his plan is basically “wipe out Germany to stop Nazis” and 2] it’s a bad idea to mess with dark magic anyway since you never know whether you’ll really be its master or not), but also that hell yes Nazis are the worst, and the fewer of them the better. Hopefully I succeeded.
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dentalrecordsmusic · 6 years
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Live Review: Twosome Fest at the Astoria Hastings (Vancouver, BC), 2.2.19
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My personal punk rock vendetta is against the devaluing of the two-piece band. Face it: unless you’re the White Stripes, or maybe the Dresden Dolls before everyone started feeling real weird about Amanda Palmer, nobody gives a shit about your two-piece. There’s this cultural climate of constant dismissal. You can’t possibly generate a big enough sound, just the two of you, regardless of what instruments you’re playing or how you’re playing them. I hate it.
But on 2/2/2019 (the two-est date before 2020), the Vancouver punk scene said ‘fuck it’ to that attitude and gathered for a full night of embracing the twos.
Twosome Fest has percolated in many minds for a long time. Ryan, the bass half of perennial Vancouver favorite AANTHEMS, talked about discussions ranging back years on setting up a show to build community between Vancouver twosomes and display their talents for the rest of our fair city to hear. Justin, “voices/strings” of Pedler, the band that organized the event,  conversationally informed the crowd that though it hadn’t come to fruition until that night, they’d been talking about it for at least two or three years. Apparently, it fell through at least once just because their drummer got tinnitus.
But boy, am I glad they got it together at last and everyone’s ears stayed healthy. Because this was some show.
The six-band bill got started around 9 at the Astoria Hastings, a keystone venue for Vancouver punks. The Astoria’s arcade game machines, a mysterious and vaguely disturbing wall of projected film strips, moderately uncomfortable bar stools, and pleasantly mid-sized stage for a smallish venue set it up as the perfect place to get up to whatever wild nonsense your musical brain can spit out. The black lights make your gin and tonic glow bright blue. It’s a good time.
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Vice Girl kicks things off. All photos by Cae Rosch.
The first act up, classic guitar and drums combo Vice Girl, made suitably wild use of fuzzy riffs and the full, driving pressure of their drums. Though Vice Girl contains no girls, they certainly contain the good kind of musical vices: indulgently weird effects, a dark blend of rock and metal influences, and the exact kind of ‘80s horror references we as a community refuse to not love even in anno domini 2019.
Their brand of genre blending, ranging across volumes and rhythms and tones, still paced forward with a steady groove and guitar that occasionally almost droned in its fuzz. They set up the show well for its seemingly conflicting blend of styles across the night. A good beginning.
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Double Standards makes it weirder.
Next up, bass and drums combo Double Standards got way up in there. As they finished setting up, bassist Steve announced in a high school principal voice, “Attention audience: please report to the stage.” This was not the strangest thing Double Standards did.
They kicked it off with some high-pitched synth before immediately going hard into loud and fast. They were clearly having a great time, and so were the rest of us. The two of them displayed a headbangingly intense commitment to their sound, somehow combining peculiarly ethereal synth, fast and furious drums that occasionally verged on something almost but not quite approaching funk, and melodic vocals. They possessed the stage, and it was grand.
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There should be a joke about Pedler and pedals here, but instead, I’m just impressed by their enthusiasm.
Show organizers Pedler kept the energy going strong. Another bass and drums duo, their stage energy was maniacal and committed. It never let up. Though they cheerfully announced that they hadn’t played a show in weeks and practiced just twice for this one, they gelled like they had some sort of alien mind meld going on.
The surprisingly versatile bass with its delightfully screeching highs and comforting lows and the relentless energy of the drums persisted through some mysterious tech weirdness with an inexplicable hum, and Pedler’s cheerful stage manner and loud as fuck sound persisted in bringing me great joy and renewed energy dead center in a very long night.
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Spike Girls were probably like, 80% of the “loud” in the tagline of the event.
The second “Girls” of the night, Spike Girls contained actual girls, which is always refreshing at a punk rock event (and may I suggested boycotting events that do not, just to discover how much your schedule suddenly clears up).
Let me tell you my immediate impression of Spike Girls: they were loud and heavy as fuck. Their stage presence was calm and casual. When they mildly stated, “We’re all about being gay and smoking weed,” I fell in love with their attitude. When their growling vocals and metal-heavy guitar exploded forth from their crust punk exterior, I fell in love with their sound. They showed us the darkest, heaviest sound of the night and they made it seem effortless.
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AANTHEMS gets the floor going.
AANTHEMS, two brothers on bass and drums, drew the biggest crowd to the front of the night. They’re a favorite in Vancouver, even if, according to Ryan, they mostly just wait for other people to ask them to play shows rather than booking themselves. It’s for good reason. Even as their sound gets heavier in their more recent work, they’re catchy as fuck.
Together, they keep the kind of tight and fast rhythm that shows itself not only in the sound, but also in its breathless pauses and suspensions. They’re speedy, their lyrics are clear and memorable, and no matter how apparently heavy or light an individual song is, it always has a good beat (and you can dance to it). A fatigued but enthusiastic crowd staggered into something resembling a mosh pit for the first time that evening, which was particularly impressive given that AANTHEMS were the fifth act of the night.
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Molten Lava closes it off with an appropriately heavy, slow, warm flow given their name.
By the time Molten Lava, last out of six, had set up, I had fallen asleep on a bar stool between sets. I am only mildly embarrassed by this. It was late and I’m almost 30 and I’m in grad school; you try staying awake past midnight when you live my nerd-ass lifestyle.
That said, Molten Lava fixed it quickly. Their first chord knocked me on my ass (almost) literally. They were big. Expansive. Loud. Their long instrumental passages flowed over you, almost relaxing in their steady weight. They led the high energy show out into an epic denouement - the perfect end to an exhausting but fulfilling night.
These were six very different bands, united in their two-ness and their commitment to loud. But as the show wound down and everyone packed up, I saw the event perform the exact function it was meant to do. Bands had shared equipment all night; now they helped each other pack up and head out. Hugs were exchanged. Hands were shaken. Low, friendly conversation filled the emptying Astoria not only between bands, but between bands and audience.
Twosome Fest united a niche community with a niche interest. And I don’t think it did so for just the one night. Twosome Fest is going to last.
Cae Rosch hugged like three people at Twosome Fest, which is egregious and you should all be impressed. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
Follow DRM on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Subscribe to the DRM YouTube channel.
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quickeningheart · 5 years
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Ten
   “Hey, you hungry?” Chris asked as he and Chex followed Alley out of the office. “There’s a great bar and grill right on the school grounds. They’ve got the best seafood chowder this side of the country.”
   Alley hesitated. She really should get back to the garage and let Charley know what she’d seen, but she was a bit famished. She hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and it was already past six o’clock. Her stomach gave a long, low gurgle at the reminder, and she grinned as Chris laughed. “I could use a bite to eat,” she agreed.
   “Then right this way, if you please.” He steered her away from the parking lot and toward another smallish building that was only two stories tall. “This is the Atrium,” he explained. “Well, the first floor of it is the actual atrium; the upper level is offices for the teachers and staff. It’s pretty much the hangout for students. The bar is inside, a few small gift shops, the school bookstore, and lots of seating for just hanging out and relaxing.”
   “Best part of the whole school,” Chex put in. “Although if you plan on drinking, you’ll have to show ID.”
   “I’m only twenty,” Alley admitted.
   “Really? I kind of thought you were older than that,” Chris said, looking surprised.
   “He’s into the older chics,” Chex teased, poking her brother in the ribs.
   “Why? How old are you?”
   Chris looked embarrassed, scratching his head. “Actually, we’re only eighteen. Just graduated high school.”
   Alley’s jaw dropped. “Seriously? I thought you were like my age or something!”
   “You’re only a college freshman, too, right?” Chex wanted to know. “Shouldn’t you be in a higher grade?”
   “I took a year off after graduating to work full-time and save up extra money. And to figure out what school I wanted to attend. I did take a couple of weekend courses at the community college to get in some of my credits and stuff, but nothing full-term.”
   “Hey, that’s fine. In college, age doesn’t really matter. We’re all still consenting adults,” Chris said.
   Chex smirked at him and waggled her eyebrows. “Consenting for what, I wonder.”
   “Aw, shut up, Red. Nobody asked you.” Face flushed, Chris stomped into a dimly-lit restaurant and made his way to the bar.
   Chex laughed. “He’s such a weenie around girls.”
   Alley grinned. “He’s kinda cute, though. For a kid,” she teased, earning a dry look in response.
     ~*~*~*~*~
   The food really was good at the Atrium Grill. Not only the chowder, but the thickest, gooiest grilled cheese sandwich that Alley had ever had the pleasure of biting into. “I’ve died and gone to nirvana,” she sighed, wrapping the cheese that had oozed out of the bread onto her plate around her fork. “What was in that sandwich?”
   “Cheese.” Chex took a bite of her fried chicken.
   Alley snorted a laugh. “Well, duh. I meant what kind?”
   “Not sure. Trade secret, but I’m pretty sure they use a blend,” Chris replied. “And they grill it using mayonnaise instead of butter. Supposed to be healthier or something.”
   “Right. Because six different blends of cheese in a single sandwich is the absolute epitome of health food,” Chex said blandly.
   “How do you know that?” Chris eyed her suspiciously, and she smirked.
   “I have my ways.”
   “You boinked the head cook, didn’t you?”
   “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
   “Actually, I really, really wouldn’t.” He shuddered as Alley sought to hide her grin behind her soda glass.
   “How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching for her bag, but Chris waved her off.
   “Don’t worry about it. My treat,” he replied.
   “Are you sure?”
   “Of course! What kind of gentleman makes a woman pay for her own meal?” He ignored Chex’s derisive snort and flashed a smile at Alley. “I invited you, so I’ll pay this one, okay?”
   She consented with a nod and a smile. “Well, if we do this again, let me pay for you as thanks. Both of you,” she added, not wanting Chex to be left out.
   “Oooo. Friend-zoned!” Chex sang under her breath, earning a kick under the table. She just smirked at her glowering twin.
   Alley bit her lip, hoping she hadn’t offended him, but he gave her another charming smile and pulled some bills out of his wallet. “School year is just beginning,” he said casually. “I’ll definitely take you up on the offer for another meal."
   “Yeah. Me, too,” Chex added, grinning. “You seem like fun. Even if you do look like a Barbie doll.”
     ~*~*~*~*~
   It had grown dark by the time they left the Atrium. Alley had stopped by the bookstore to pick up the last two textbooks she needed for her classes. Chex said her goodbyes before heading toward the dorms, where she was staying. “More privileges of being the dean’s kid. Really cheap boarding, and I don’t have to live at home with the wicked step-mom,” she explained with a smirk.
   “She’s not that bad,” Chris said with a frown.
   “Not to Mr. Perfect Son. But she doesn’t like me very much. I refuse to bend over and kiss her ass.”
   “Well, maybe if you wouldn’t dress like—”
   “Like what? Like someone with her own brain and a willingness to use it?” Chex stopped walking and faced him with a fist planted on her hips. “I’m my own person. I have my own way of living, and there’s nothing wrong with how I dress. You might be willing to let her groom you like a little lapdog, but I refuse. She’s not even our real mom, and she hasn’t done anything to earn the title.” She flipped her cherry hair. “Besides, you’re one to talk. You’re living in the dorms, too!”
   “Because there’s no point in driving to school when we can live right on the grounds,” Chris sighed, clearly used to this conversation.
   “Right, whatever. I’m heading back. See you around, Alley. We should hang out sometime.” She stomped off, skirt swishing.
   “Yeah, I’d like that,” Alley called after her.
   Chris flashed her a sheepish grin, shrugging. “Typical sibling spat. They never last long,” he apologized. “She’ll be over it by morning.”
   “You said you had a step-mom?”
   “Yeah. Our real mom took off when we were just little.” He shrugged uncomfortably. “Dad was always busy in the school, so we were mostly raised by nannies. Then he came home one day a few years back and said he was getting remarried. Her name is Victoria. She’s a real classy lady. She comes from money, you know? I guess Dad had met her at some associates’ function raising money for the college. Anyway, I was okay with him getting married, but Chex took it hard. I guess … she was always holding out hope that Mom might come back someday. Or something.” He shrugged again. “We were seven when she left. Chex took it the hardest. Mom hardly ever contacts us. Maybe a birthday or Christmas card here and there. But she made it clear she just wasn’t willing to be a mother. She’s living it up on some tropical island somewhere.” His smile was brittle.
   “I’m sorry,” Alley said softly. “I didn’t mean to pry or bring up bad memories.”
   “Nah. Not your fault. Anyway, guess you should be getting back, huh?”
   “Yeah, Charley’s probably getting a little worried by now.” Alley juggled the books as she fumbled for her keys in the bottom of her bag. Chris pulled his phone out of his pocket, fiddled with the touch screen for a few seconds, and then the camera flash flicked on, effectively giving her light to see by. “They need to install more lights along the walks. Dad’s been after the board to get on that for years,” he complained.
    “The parking lot is lit well enough.”
   “Yeah, but getting to it can be dangerous after sundown. Not everyone around here is as nice as I am, and you’re a really pretty girl.”
   Alley blushed a little, charmed by his fumbling attempts to flirt. “That’s sweet of you, but I can take care of myself. I’ve got pepper spray with me. And I also know self-defense. Dad made me take some classes when I started growing boobs.” She laughed at the expression on his face. “The truck is right … over…” Her voice trailed off as her eyes fell on the pickup. Or, more precisely, on the three very large men who were standing around the pickup, talking amongst themselves. “Aren’t those…?“
   “Limburger's thugs,” Chris huffed. “What’re they doing? Where’s the boss?”
   Alley slowed and ducked behind a large SUV parked in the nearly empty lot, trying to see what they were up to. “Are they trying to break into the truck?” she whispered.
   “No, looks more like they’re keeping watch. Or waiting for someone.”
   “For me to come back?” Alley shifted nervously. “Why would they be waiting for me? They don’t even know who I am.” Unless somehow they’d figured it out … but how would they? She hadn’t given Limburger her name, and there was no reason for him to ask for it. She doubted she even registered on his radar enough for him to get curious. There was absolutely no way he could have figured out who she was in those few brief moments of passing.
   Unless…
   “The truck,” she breathed, smacking her forehead. “It’s got the garage’s name on the doors. He must’ve seen it and recognized the name, and thinks Charley is here. And he’s sent his thugs to wait for her to come back.”
   “Planning on jumping her?” Chris whispered.
   “I dunno. Wouldn’t surprise me. He’s a nasty piece of work, from what I heard. And he really doesn’t like her friends.”
   “We should call the police. They won’t touch Limburger but his thugs aren’t off-limits.” Chris pulled his phone out again, but was stopped by Alley’s hand on his.
   “Wait. I think … they’re leaving,” she said, slowly standing up. Indeed, the men had backed away from the truck and were currently sauntering across the lot to a pair of what looked like dune buggies parked in the shadows.
   “Hey, weren’t there three of them?” Chris asked. “Where’d that fourth guy come from?”
   “Who cares? I’m just glad they’re gone.” Alley made a beeline for the truck, only to be brought up short by Chris’s hands on her shoulders, bringing her to a staggering halt. Just as a large, gleaming, vintage 1930s Rolls Royce cruised slowly past them. Alley’s jaw dropped. It would have been a beautiful car … had it not been painted an eye-gouging shade of purple. She knew instantly who it belonged to. To prove it, the car came to a gliding halt and the window rolled down. Alley instinctively held her breath as Limburger’s cold, gleaming eyes met hers.
   “So, young lady. We meet again.” His voice was cultured, refined, smooth as an oil slick. His eyes left hers, darted to the truck she stood only two feet away from, slid back with a raised eyebrow. He said nothing, but his gaze was suspicious. She bit her lip, feeling light-headed from lack of breath, and prayed he’d just leave before she passed out. “Be careful out there,” he warned, a humorless smile tugging at his thick lips. “There may be … unsavory people lurking about.”
   “Thanks for the warning,” she choked out, and let loose the breath she’d been holding when the window rolled up and the car moved on. “Okay, I’m totally freaked out. Are you totally freaked out? ‘Cause I’m totally freaked out,” she babbled.
   “Hey, hey, relax,” Chris soothed, putting an arm around her shoulders and rubbing her arm vigorously. “The creep is gone, we’re fine. Are you okay?”
   “I don’t know,” she groaned, staggering to the truck to lean heavily against the door. She looked it over, checking the locks, but nothing seemed out of place. Then she frowned as she recalled the fourth thug who’d popped up from nowhere, a niggling suspicion forming. “Lemme see that light again,” she grunted, kneeling on the ground beside the truck. “Shine it under here.”
   He complied, and her worst fear was confirmed: Something dark and liquid was leaking in a steady drip under the cab, steadily forming a large puddle. “Holy shit,” Chris breathed. “What’d they do?”
   She sighed. “I’m pretty sure they cut the brake line. They were aiming to murder me. Well, my cousin, anyway.” She flashed him a weak smile. “Still think he isn’t a threat?”
   “I’m calling the cops.” His voice left no room for argument.
   “And tell them what? Limburger has it in for my cousin so he got his goons to sabotage her truck in order to kill her? There’s no proof he had anything to do with it. We didn’t get a good look at those guys, either, so we have no descriptions.”
   “Well, what else can we do?” he huffed, frustrated.
   “Can I borrow your phone? I have to call Charley. She’ll have to come tow the truck back. And she’ll want to know I’m okay.” Alley sighed. “Maybe you should take off. If Limburger figured out I’m related in any way to Charley or the mi--her friends, he’ll be back. And you’ll be targeted, too. Just by association.”
   “If it comes to that, I’m a target, anyway. He’s after this place, too, and I am the dean’s son, after all.” Chris handed her his phone and crossed his arms. “I’m not about to take off on you now. So don’t even bother trying.”
   “Thanks.” She smiled at him gratefully and dialed Charley’s number. “Come on, pick up. Pick up!”
   The line clicked. “Last Chance Garage, this is Charley speaking.”
   “Charley? It’s me.” Alley held the phone away from her ear as Charley immediately started in on her.
   “Where the hell have you been? Do you know what time it is? I mean, I know you’re a grown-ass woman and all but for cripe’s sake couldn’t you at least call and let me know you’re not gonna be home for supper or something?” Charley bellowed.
   “Ma? Is that you?” Alley deadpanned, earning an indignant huff on the other end.
   “I can see now why your mom worries to death over you,” Charley grunted. “You don’t even have a phone! Where are you calling from? And what’s the matter?”
   Alley sighed and rubbed her temple. “It’s a long story. To make it short…” She took a deep breath. “I’m still at the college and Limburger showed up ‘cause he’s after the land and he saw your truck and I’m pretty sure he cut the brake line and I’m calling you from my friend’s phone to ask if you can please come pick me up ‘cause I’m really kinda freaking out right now,” she said in a rush.
   There was a moment of silence. Then, “What?”
   “I said—”
   “I heard what you said. Are you okay? Is he still there?” Charley’s voice radiated genuine concern.
   To her horror, Alley felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes, her emotions dangerously unstable. “No, he’s gone,” she replied, voice trembling despite her best efforts to steady it. “He drove off in that hideous car. His thugs are gone, too.”
   “You said you’re with someone?”
   “Yeah. His name is Christopher Archer.” Alley sniffed and swiped impatiently at her tearing eyes. “He and his sister were hanging out with me today and showing me around. They’re really nice.” She flashed a watery smile at a concerned Chris.
   “Listen, go back inside the school and wait, okay? I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
   “I think…” Alley bit her lip. “He saw me at the truck. I think he’s suspicious about who I am. I’m pretty sure it was you he was aiming to murder.”
   Charley muttered a curse under her breath. “Well, he’d figure it out one of these days anyhow. Just … go inside, and if he shows up again, hide until we get there.”
   “We?”
   Charley chuckled. “The guys overheard. Big ears and all. You won’t keep them away even if you tried. So maybe lose your friends before we show up, yeah?”
   “Yeah, okay. I’ll be in the Atrium. It’s the small two-story near the back of the property.” Alley ended the call and handed the phone back to Chris. “Look, thanks for all your help. You’ve been so great. My cousin is on her way, so if you want to take off now, I promise I won’t be offended or anything.”
   “Pfft. Right. I’m just gonna leave you by yourself after all that?” He shook his head. “Not happening. Come on, we’ll go to the Atrium like you said. I don’t know about you, but I could use something to drink!”
   “Hey now, Mr. Dean’s Son. Aren’t you a little young to be imbibing in alcohol?” She gave him a teasing poke in the side.
   “Who said anything about alcohol, old lady,” he teased back. “There’s a vending machine that sells fantastic hot chocolate. I could really go for a cup. How about you?”
   “In the middle of an August heat wave? On top of all that hot food we just ate?” Alley shrugged. “Sounds like a plan.”
     ~*~*~*~*~
   The chocolate was good, and Alley savored every sip of it as her jangled nerves slowly calmed, but no matter what she said, she couldn’t talk Chris into leaving her alone. Part of her was annoyed (she wasn’t a little girl, for cripe’s sake), but a larger part was relieved by his persistence. She doubted the Purple People Eater would be back, but she felt safer having someone by her side. Even if that someone was essentially a perfect stranger.
   Half an hour passed, and Alley spent the time curled up on a cushy sofa, paging through her textbooks as Chris delved back into his novel. It was quiet, with only a few students hanging around the Atrium. That’s why, when the front doors suddenly burst open with an ear-jarring clatter, Alley just about jumped out of her skin, nearly falling off the couch and dropping her book in the process.
   She looked up, wide-eyed, as a tall, slender man dressed in head-to-toe black strode through the doors, paused to look around, and then honed in on her. He headed right for her, head encased in an oddly-shaped biker helmet. She started to panic, wondering if Limburger had sent someone back for her after all, before she caught a gleam of reflected light, saw the long, metal tail lashing behind him. She relaxed, recognizing him. Stoker.
   She didn’t know where he’d dug up the leather biker clothes, but it was astonishing how different he looked in them. Without the fur and mousy features to distract her, she could appreciate for the first time how built he was, the dark material hugging his lean, muscled body. He moved with purpose, strides smooth and graceful, like a dancer. A traitorous thought worked its way into her mind that, under all the fur, he was really kind of beautiful. And she wondered if all of the mice had such beautiful forms. She hastily banished the thoughts from her mind.
   Chris had put himself between her and the agitated mouse, nearly a head shorter, but still determined to protect her as he faced down the intimidating figure. “Who’re you?” he growled, voice cracking just a bit.
   Stoker just chuckled.
   Alley’s eyes widened when she saw Chris’s hand clench, quickly scrambling up from her seat to grip his arm. She didn’t even want to think of what might happen if he took a swing at the war veteran. She didn’t think Stoker would hurt him, but then again, he was a trained soldier. He might not take kindly to physical violence. “It’s okay,” she said. “He’s a friend … of my cousin.”
   Chris relaxed by degrees, his fist unclenching.
   “Where’s Charley?” Alley asked the mouse, who hadn’t bothered to take off his helmet. All the same, she could feel his gaze on her, assessing.
   “She’s looking over the truck with the others,” he finally replied, voice muffled behind his helmet. “I came to find you. You okay?”
   “Yeah, sure. I’m fine.” She flashed a bright smile, and turned to Chris. “Look, thanks for everything today. I mean it. It was so nice meeting you and Chex. I hope I’ll see you around, once classes start."
   Chris’s gaze slid away from Stoker and he offered a weak grin. “Yeah, same here,” he replied. “We’ll do this again. You know, when things get a little less crazy around here.”
   “Definitely.” Alley squeezed his hand. “Tell Chex I’ll call her sometime. When I get a phone, that is. Maybe you can both come with, help me pick one out? You can show me around Chicago or something, too. And I can buy you lunch like I promised.”
   Chris chuckled, sounding nervous as Stoker cleared his throat and crossed his arms, impatient. “Sounds good. Well…” He shifted, casting an uncomfortable glance at the tense, black-clad man. “Your family’s here, so guess you don’t need me around anymore. Take care, yeah? Hope I’ll hear from you soon. I’m gonna grab another cup of chocolate and head back to the dorm.” He gave an awkward grin, a polite nod to Stoker, and then he turned and walked off.
   Alley released a breath and picked up her bag, cradling her books to her chest. She turned to leave, and jumped when a heavy arm abruptly settled around her shoulders, as Stoker led her gently but assertively out of the building. “Hey, do you mind?” she hissed, red-faced, as she caught the stares of the few remaining students in the building. She tried to balk, but Stoker was stronger than he looked. “I know where the parking lot is.”
   He didn’t answer. His hand merely tightened on her arm, leading her away from the Atrium, and then off the walk and into the darker shadows cast by a towering oak. Only then did he remove his helmet, and she was taken aback by the genuine worry etched across his features. “Are you okay?” he repeated, his voice soft. “Did he lay hands on you in any way?” Under the concern, she heard simmering anger, and she shifted uncomfortably.
   “He didn’t even get out of the car,” she mumbled, looking away from his intense gaze. “It was his thugs that killed the truck.”
   “But he saw you at the truck? You sure he knows you’re associated with us?”
   “I was headed right for it. The lot’s pretty much empty.” Alley shrugged. “I doubt he could mistake which car I was aiming for.”
   He sighed, running his hand over her hair in a soft caress. “Sorry, honey. Looks like you might be involved in this war now, like it or not.” He quirked a grin. “Don’t suppose I could talk you into runnin’ back to Florida now, can I?” He chuckled at the look she gave him. “Didn’t think so.”
   Alley, uncomfortable with his proximity, not to mention the way he kept looking at her, stepped out from under his hand and continued to the parking lot, where she found Charley and the three other mice hooking the pickup onto the back of her tow truck.
   “Alley Cat!” Charley handed the winch to Vinnie and threw her arms around her cousin. “You okay, kid?” she asked. “You sounded really upset on the phone.”
   “Yeah, a little shaken up, I guess.” Alley offered a small smile. “I’m okay now. Chris stayed with me until you came. He’s a really nice guy.”
   “Do tell.” Charley raised an eyebrow with a catty smirk. “Not even started classes yet and already have the boys wrapped around your finger.”
   “Well, that’s nothing new,” Alley replied, earning a laugh from her cousin as she clambered into the passenger seat of the tow truck and leaned out the window. “Was there really any need to bring the entire army?” She gestured to the mice.
   “They were worried. And who knows if Limburger would come back and wait for me to show up, if I really was the target. No sense taking chances.” Pickup secured, Charley climbed into the driver’s seat. “Okay, guys. Let’s head back now. Thanks for coming out with me.”
   “Not a problem, Charley-girl,” Throttle replied. “Glad you’re not hurt, Alley.” He smiled up at her, gave a signal, and the four bikes took off down the road with the tow truck following close behind.
Next
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helshades · 6 years
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Hello, I've been reading you on Mélenchon these days and would be interested in your opinion on his treatment of the bonnets rouges movement. I find some appeal in his political views but am detered by his unequal interpretation of social movements. I credit it to his somewhat jacobin/nationalist upbringing, and would like to have your thoughts on what his legitimate or not to him. Thank you, have a good day.
Hi! Quite a good question, as I don’t think too many journalists have taken the time to scrutinise the similarities and differences between the ‘Red Caps’ of yesteryear and the current ‘Yellow Vests’, even after Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, during a ‘Questions to the Government’ panel at the Assembly, drew that parallel to promise that his government would not be intimidated by the protests—at that time, the movement was only three days old:
‘Let us remember the Red Caps. Confronted with social difficulty that collided directly with their engagements [during the presidential campaign], the previous government [P.M. Jean-Marc Ayrault’s] chose to step back. Our goal is entirely different: we would keep the line that we proposed during the presidential and legislative elections.’
—20 November 2018.
Here, I have to make a long-ish pause to explain to whomever is reading this outside of us both and doesn’t know who the ‘Red Caps’ were, well, who the ‘Red Caps’ were, precisely.
So, back to 2013, in the north-west of France, in the Brittany region. On 18th June, a collective of thirty local company leaders call Bretons and the French for action against a special tax that is scheduled to be applied to all heavy goods vehicles circulating on some state-financed and locally financed roads in the country starting from 1st October, colloquially known as ‘HVG eco-tax’.
The thirty company leaders, who are gathered at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Pontivy, are asking for the eco-tax to be suppressed, for (employers’) taxes in general to diminish, and for ‘administrative constraints’ (for employers) to be reduced. Amongst them are notably: Jakez Bernard, president of certification label ‘Produced in Britanny’, Alain Glon, former food-processing industry honcho, now president of a regionalist think-tank, Olivier Bordais, who manages a local supermarket, Jean-Pierre Le Mat, president of a big employers union (C.G.P.M.E., aimed at small & smallish business owners), Jacques Jaouen, president of the Brittany Chamber of Agriculture.
Soon they are joined by two big union federations: the National Federation of Farmers Unions, Finistère (one of Britanny’s départements) branch (the F.D.S.E.A. is pretty right-oriented) and the Force Ouvrière (‘Workers Force’, a big Trotskyist union) union branches for the big slaughterhouses Doux (chicken) and Gad (pork). This changes everything, as it allows for a massive, noisy joint demonstration on 2nd August—during which the protesters infamously destroy a drive-through unit meant to detect eco-tax-ready lorries installed in Guiclan.
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It doesn’t change much. Months pass. And then, in early October, the Rennes Commercial Court declares that the Gad Inc. slaughterhouse in Lampaul, in Finistère, which works pork meat, must be shut down, whereas others in the same group may remain active; Gad employs 900 people in Lampaul, but their branch has been hit hard by European concurrence. As a matter of fact, while production is being transferred from Lampaul to Josselin, a hundred of interim employees arrive from Romania, paid less than 600€ per month; fixed-term contracts at Josselin are no longer being renewed as a new European directive is about to pass on posted workers. On 21st October, 350 ex-employees from Lampaul invades the Josselin abattoir: according to police reports, 400 Josselin employees exit the factory to fight them.
This all happens during a three-week movement organised by agricultural syndicates on 14th, 21st and 28th October, the protesters aiming at another eco-tax drive-through unit in Pont-de-Buis. They are farmer unionists and the ‘Committee for Convergence of Breton Interests’ (C.C.I.B.), which was created in Pontivy on 18th June as an interprofessional organisation uniting business representatives and academics, aiming to make propositions concerning economy and employment in the region.
On Saturday 28th October, several hundreds of protesters destroy the unit at the Pont-de-Buis motorway toll. The rather heated crowd wear red caps inspired by the 1675 ‘révolte des bonnets rouges’, which under Louis XIV’s reign protested an increase in taxes, and which took place in the west of France but was fiercest in Lower Brittany. That same day the Pont-de-Buis unit is destroyed, F.D.S.E.A. Finistère president Thierry Merret calls the protesters to gather at a regional meet-up on 2nd November in Quimper, capital of the Finistère département.
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There were two big demonstrations in November: the one in Quimper, and the one that took place on 30th November in Carhaix-Plouguer (former county town of Breton Cornwall). The latter was organised by left-wing collective ‘Live, Decide & Work in Brittany’, created by Carhaix mayor Christian Troadec, Thierry Merret, worker & union representative for Force Ouvrière at Gad, and Corinne Nicole, union representative for the General Confederation of Labour at big chicken abattoir Tilly-Sabco in Guerlesquin (a family business which provided lot of work in town but got hit hard by international concurrence). In Quimper, the demonstration gathered up to 15,000–30,000; in Carhaix, around 17,000–40,000 (numbers vary because unions and the police have had trouble agreeing on them, traditionally). The collective comes up with a ‘charter’ for the good bonnet rouge, in reaction to the worrisome, extreme-right additions to the Quimper crowd.
The eco-tax was imagined in 2007 during a ‘Grenelle’ for environment, and unanimously voted in 2009, which had already ired many business owners in Brittany, over a thousand of whom had manifested on motorways; united in a ‘Collective of Breton Actors of Economy’, representatives for the National Federation of Agricultural Holders’ Union(F.N.S.E.A.), the National Federation of Road Transport (F.N.T.R.), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry… as well as ‘le Médef’, the largest employer federation in France, to which adheres the richest business leaders in the country, very powerful, and not very friendly to labour rights in general. The collective obtained a 50% tax allowance on the eco-tax from the government.
By taxing 800,000 heavy goods vehicles that circulate on the free portion of French motorways, the government aims to collect public transport and railway freight, amongst other things—since they won’t tax the rich. Except since 2012, too many businesses have gone bankrupt in Brittany. Liquidations follow ‘restructuring plans’ and hundreds are getting fired. The eco-tax would mean a drastic rise in the prices of goods.
By spring 2013, all has been made ready for the system to start on the first day of 2014: 200 units equipped with cameras have been installed, a lucrative contract has been concluded with Ecomouv’, a private company charged with the task to collect the tax, which it is already doing on Italian and Austrian motorways. The French government hopes to collect one billion euros per year with the eco-tax.
On 16th October, after two days of heated protests, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault launches meetings to ‘dialogue’ with the population for a ‘Pact on the Future of Brittany’, announces financial measures and a special aide for the food-processing business. All along November, the revolt is reaching the rest of the country, where dozens of road blocks are organised, speed cameras are destroyed, as well as a few other eco-tax drive-through frames. The Prime Minister arrives in Brittany on 13th December to sign his Pact for Brittany—two billion euros.
There still are 140 units left almost intact in French tolls, since, as the Minister for Transports remarked, once the electronic equipment removed, regular check-ups to make sure they won’t crumble cost much less than actually taking them to pieces. This is what is left of the ‘eco-tax’. As for the Red Caps, well, they evolved into a bunch of collectives, some of which still exist to this day to promote various operations, including demonstrations, that concern Brittany. They never forget the gwenn-ha-du, the ‘Black & White’, the flag of Brittany… Yes, Brittany has a flag. Brittany has a language. Brittany thinks it’s Wales, which is a little silly considering Breton is a Brittonic language like Cornish, not a Gaelic one, like Welsh. Anyhow, Breizh dreams of independence. One day, it will throw bombs at the government, when it has discovered how to make them from cow dung. (I actually, genuinely love Bretons. They’re utterly fruitcake, but they protest like nobody’s business.)
All of this to provide some cultural context to what I am about to translate. So, this is Jean-Luc Mélenchon fulminating back in 2013, before his current La France Insoumise movement was created, when he was co-president of its predecessor the Front de Gauche, a coalition of radical left parties: socialists, and communists who shared anti-capitalistic, anti-liberal, Euro-sceptic views. The FdG was created in 2009 as alliance between the French Communist Party and Parti de Gauche, which Jean-Luc Mélenchon co-founded with people who, like him, quit François Mitterrand’s Parti Socialiste which was veering more and more towards (neo-)liberalism. The alliance aimed to ‘constitute a left-wing front engaged for another Europe, social and democratic, against the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and other current European treaties.’
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Yes, it wasone tasteless farce, that bonnet rouge affair. For sure, the eco-tax reallywasn’t the panacea of any good ecological politics! It’s actually, mostly, alure, as it’s not really targeting the motives behind massive livestock transportationvia road transport. It will always be more profitable to transport 45,000 pigsa year on European roads in appalling conditions rather than kill them here,for as long as Europe will allow for dumping social to take place, which forinstance permits to take advantage of profit with German abattoirs. Thegovernment doesn’t give a damn about this. Anyhow, it doesn’t care for anythingthat can be planned ahead, because of ideology and of self-delusion both. See.The eco-tax was supposed to encourage road transport to convert to fluvialtransport and railway freight. Yes, except no plan for freight development wasset in motion to regulate the ever-increasing flow of lorries on the roads.Quite the opposite, I’d say. The government is at the disposal of the EuropeanCommission, very slavishly indeed, and the Commission was very demanding onthat point. In exchange for two years delay at best, so as to reach theobjectives of deficit reduction, the Commission demanded that the liberalisationof the network increase. The liberal reform, consequently, was presented duringthe Ministers’ Council on 16th October. As for fluvial transport,one of the very first measures of the Ayrault government was to abandon the Seine-Nordcanal project. In other words, it was half-assed, as always with thisgovernment.
This takesnothing from the fact that the government’s climb-down on this point is a giftto the bosses. Under the guise of defending employment, it is in fact the freedomto go on producing further and further away from wherever the goods are to beconsumed that is being protected. Bruno Gentil, president of federation FranceNature Environnement, said something very right about this: ‘This isdeplorable, there’s no political courage here. A measure that was voted by theleft as well as the right is called into question as soon as a bunch of peoplebreak some public equipment. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will solve breeders’problems… Environment has become the scapegoat for economic issues. We are gettingthe financing of the energy turnaround very wrong’.Indeed, afew hundreds of bosses and militants from the FNSEA farmers’ union manifestingsome violence were enough for the Ayrault government to back down. Those whoordinarily have no complacency for a worker’s teensiest egg throw weren’tremotely scandalised to see FNSEA and MEDEF throw stones at the CRS. We’restill awaiting the ground-shattering swagger of the immense Manuel Valls, kingof the braggarts! Sure, even when he’s from the right, a Breton boss is atougher customer than a Roma kid on a school bus! The anti-poor warfare isill-equipped to force those who are used to be obeyed to respect public order.
The wholeaffair was a farce through and through. All the while they’re firing workers indroves in Brittany, the bosses have found a dream opportunity to pose as defendersof employment. That might have impressed a couple answering machines inmainstream media. But over there, it’s a whole other story! Employees’ unions wereno dupes. CGT, Sud and FSU in Brittany released a joint statement to distance themselvesfrom the event. In it they denounce ‘the hijacking of the authentic discontentof a large part of the population to political ends, which questions theingenuousness and the independence of the employees who get enlisted in a fightthat isn’t theirs.’ For these unions, ‘the torturers are leading the manoeuvreand they are using their victims as shield and battering ram at once. They wouldemployees to forget that they have always supported the neoliberal politicsthat caused the current crisis, and that their ‘Breton agricultural model’today is an economic, social and environmental failure. The manipulations rundeep, as the old lords are now wearing the red cap against the people.’ It can’tbe said better.
The statementaims right. Particularly where the denunciation of productivism is concerned.It calls employees for refusing to participate in the demonstration organisedin Quimper on 2nd November around the bosses, productivist farmers and someBreton regionalists from the extreme right. The employees will demonstrate withtheir own demands!What arelief! That call to a separate protest sheds some light on a really confusesituation. The alliance of some farmers with the same large-scale foodretailing that chokes them continuously, for example, never ceases to surprise.Politically, it’s even worse. The right, which had proposed the eco-tax in thefirst place, is now demanding that it be suppressed. The PS, which also votedits implementation, now decides to suspend it… As for Le Pen, she’s calling todemonstrate with the red caps! Maybe she didn’t see the colour?
— 1st November 2013.
I don’t particularly want to be known on Tumblr as the Mélenchon defence committee but… well, he had a point. A couple, actually.
The chief particularity of the Yellow Vests movement is that even if it was started as a protest against a significant rise in gas prices and one could draw a parallel in theory between this and the anti-eco-tax movement, its basis was always popular, and focused not on production and profit, but standard living conditions for poor and impoverished people.
I don’t like the term ‘legitimate’ very much, me. Every protest is legitimate, inasmuch as demonstrating is (yet) a constitutional right. The legality of things is not what should concern us, and evidently, not what concerned Jean-Luc Mélenchon back in 2013. If there is one illegitimate element here, it would be the current government: elected with only 10% of the electorate, the most hated president in the history of the Fifth Republic is ending armed forces every week to mutilate tens of thousands who are still supported, according to the least favourable estimates, by over 60% of the population—and who still show up for the next protest, week after week.
Speaking of things I’m not too comfy with, there’s also the terms ‘jacobin’ and ‘nationalist’. I suspect you are Canadian, as you seem to conflate the two (?) and the nationalist-versus-federalist opposition is, I believe, uniquely Canadian. Over here, when talking about jacobin things, one is usually referring to a radical approach to politics, unless one would be referring to the historic opposition between the Jacobins, who ended up supporting deeper financial and political reforms, and the Girondins, mostly wealthy bourgeois, who were more moderate, and remained so throughout the revolutionary period—they won, in the end. The People didn’t—although both branches initially were a part of the Jacobin Club and in favour of constitutional monarchy.
Where nationalism goes… Well, Marine Le Pen is a nationalist. Us leftists are souverainistes, my dear. Quite frankly, I don’t get how you can support democracy without defending a nation’s right to govern itself. Only, if we can call this nationalism in the case of colonised countries aiming to free themselves from imperialism, and in the case of certain regions that promote autonomy within a given State, this is not what is at stake here. More often than not, ‘nationalism’ refers to an ideology, and it is synonymous to chauvinism, with considerably less amusing undertones. Again: it is not nationalist to favour, for instance, local employment, when displacing foreign populations leads to systematic exploitation of their work force. Environmentally, it is also much more responsible to prevent goods from being carried across great distances. And, last but not least… supranational institutions are designed to remove as much power as possible from the populations that could unite and reject locally what was decided globally. Getting democracy, literally, on a smaller scale is about gaining back control; it can’t be decided remotely. If we call this ‘nationalism’, not only do we lose our way to denounce actual xenophobia, but we lose sight of other types of opposition as well. Europe is not a country, and the way the European Union is designed, it is essentially a bank, and it aims to make entire countries its debtors… So, yes, yay for souverainism!
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By Any Other Name
@theproblemwithstardust | AO3 | I hope you enjoy, I loved writing this fluffy piece. :D I'm thinking about writing a smutty epilogue, so stay tuned.
It was clear when he moved back that not much about Beacon Hills was any different than Derek remembered. On the other hand, some things had changed. A lot. 
Beacon Hills looked the same. It had been almost eight years since he'd seen it and while some of the storefronts were new and buildings had gone up or come down here or there, the core of the town hadn't changed. It was a bit strange, as Derek had been expecting it to be different. He'd only been back for a few days, so perhaps the changes had yet to make themselves known, but Derek wasn't so sure. It seemed that Beacon Hills was ageless. To Derek, it didn't seem like a bad thing.
He pulled up and parked in front of the Sheriff's Station, getting out to take a look around. The town looked fresh, well taken care of despite the signs of age that were impossible to miss. Derek broke out in a smile, taking a deep breath. He had loved growing up in the smallish town, not too small but not big either, and he was thrilled to be back.
After finishing his degree, going through the Academy and putting some experience in the bank, he was ready to find a secure position and settle in. He was ready to be home again. The Beacon Hills Sheriff's Department happening to have a vacancy right when Derek was poised to move home told him that it was clearly meant to be.
He hadn't got the job yet, but he was feeling pretty good about it. His experience spoke for itself and it couldn't hurt that he'd known the current Sheriff since he was a boy. John Stilinski was a good man, stern but fair and friendly to boot, with a sharp intelligence. Derek knew that he would be an excellent man to work for.
Derek took another deep breath and turned to face the building, stopping to grin widely and wink at a pair of young women who were walking by and blatantly eyeing him up. Derek didn't mind the attention in the slightest. He'd been so focused on working and school for years that he'd barely had time to date at all, instead subsisting on one night stands, though it wasn't really his style. The thought of meeting someone, or several someones, who he could have some fun with was an exciting prospect. A summer fling or three sounded like just the thing.
The women walked on, followed by another, slightly older but still attractive and then a pair of handsome, well dressed men, one of whom looked at Derek with appreciative eyes. Derek leered back, buoyed by all the enticing possibilities that had presented themselves already. Yes, Beacon Hills was definitely the place for him to be.
The Sheriff's Station looked much the same as it always had, though Derek could tell that it had recently received a fresh coat of paint. The door creaked slightly as Derek pulled it open, but it was neat and well maintained on the inside. There were a pair of officers behind the front desk, talking in low tones. One patted the other on the arm and picked up a stack of file folders, nodding at Derek before turning and disappearing into the back. The officer who remained turned and smiled at Derek.
“Hi there,” she greeted brightly. “What can I do for you today?” Her name tag identified her as Deputy Graham. She had a fair amount of smile lines around her eyes and mouth, indicating not only that she was a bit older than Derek, but that she smiled often. That told Derek all he needed to know about working for John Stilinski.
“Hello,” he said, returning her smile. “I'm here to talk to Sheriff Stilinski. I'm Derek Hale, it's good to meet you, Deputy Graham.” He reached over the counter for a handshake, which she eagerly returned with a strong grip.
“It's just good to meet you, too,” Graham replied, holding his hand for a few beats longer than was strictly necessary. “I'll just let the Sheriff know...”
Just what she'd let the Sheriff know remained a mystery as Derek's attention was diverted by the arrival of a tall, lanky young man dressed in plaid and jeans. He barrelled through the doorway from the back of the station, already speaking as he came.
“Hey Tara, do you have the...” he began, stopping suddenly when his gaze fell upon Derek.
Deputy Graham was forgotten instantly as Derek took in the vision in front of him. He was as tall as Derek but much leaner, his bared forearms were tightly muscled and his shoulders were alarmingly broad under the plaid button up he wore. It was loose on his torso, but the t-shirt under it was tighter, and Derek was willing to bet that his chest was as packed with the same lean muscle displayed on his arms. The jeans he wore seemed a bit too big, hanging off his hips in a way that had Derek's mouth watering with the desire to pull them all the way off.
He had dark, messy brown hair, spiked up haphazardly in front and his pale cheeks were flushed red with a blush that only served to make him even more attractive. The light brown eyes and full, red lips didn't hurt either. Derek felt his heart skip a few beats as the breath froze in his chest.
He was the living embodiment of Derek's type. Derek took a few steps toward him, his heart pounding hard. He'd never been so shockingly, instantly attracted to anyone in his entire life.
(read the rest on AO3) 
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unleashthemidnight · 7 years
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SPN goes NSP: Guess Who’s Back (Just In Time For The Christmas) pt 3
Christmas Calendar: Masterlist SPN goes NSP: GWB part 1, part 2, part 3 Chapter name: Peppermint Creams in the Slamalot People: Reader (x Gabriel), Winchesters, Danny Sexbang Synopsis: You were doing preparations for the Christmas celebration with Sam and Dean in the bunker when the party invitation threw you in the loop. Now you found another letter. Word count: 990+ Warnings: Crack, sexual references, nicknames for body parts, stupidity, language, song lyrics usage Notes: This is part 3 of GWB and also part of the Christmas Calendar. NSP is amazing band called NinjaSexParty, whose songs, covers and music videos I have used. Songs are listed at the end of the fic. Whatever this part is, I want to cry for its stupidity. I don’t know what’s happening. I hope that you can still enjoy it. Reblogs and comments are loved Do not repost
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You felt like you had been falling for 30 minutes. You stumbled yourself up from the floor and noticed your changed attire. You had handmade noble dress that fit you perfectly, with matching shoes and jewellery. This time you were in an old stone castle that looked like the ones from various fairytales. Massive stone walls, open windows with white curtains, massive potraits with different people, light coming from torches and massive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling whispering how you could swing from one chandelier to another. You couldn't see Sam or Dean anywhere so you decided to look for them. You wandered around the castle's hallways, opening different wooden doors. Nothing else was locked but the west wing. As you walked around, you admitted that everything in there had been thought by the smallest detail to reference different castles you had read about. Being in this kind of place was a change from your normal hunter life but you thought you would get bored eventually. Maybe if you had Winchesters or atleast your own angelic prince with you, you might get used to this. You came across smallish room that looked like a study with bookshelf and maps. You decided to give it closer look.
On one of the maps was red big circle over the place called Slamalot with the text ”you are here”. That was all that were in that map, nothing else. You moved on to the next one, with cities marked as Attitude City, Wanktown, Spooky Ass Graveyard and New Jersey. Next to the Lion Pit was reminder ”don't wear burgers in here”. You looked through backs of the books in the bookshelf and read them; Stupid Metaphors for Dummies You Idiot, Classic Boners of the Middle Ages, Sensitivity Diary, Hamlet. You picked up the familiar classic book and opened it. First edition, the original piece. From the front page you managed to read Shakespeare's words: ”Thanks for the punch up. Love, Will.” Well, whoever owns this castle has interesting collection for sure. Time to go through the papers, you thought and found a letter with your name on it. You hesitated a bit because of what happened last time but you didn't have anything to lose at this point. You opened the letter. ”Dear Princess Y/N, I have ridden thousands of miles, I have survived the deadliest trials and I've fought through thousands of battles. The stuffed hamsters have taste for blood, their bloodlust is horrible, be very careful with those ones. And please, don't wear burgers in the Lion Pit, it's very bad idea,” you read and weren't quite sure where it was going but decided to continue anyway. ”I was lost in the dark of the eternal night, failing my quest meant the end of my life. When the things were the worst I wanted to scream. Then I thought of your peppermint creams. Now I kneel and pray to the gods amidst fallen cities and crumbling facades that I shall return and make you my queen and bask in your peppermint creams. OH! I’m talkin' about your boobies. The peppermint creams are your boobies, your boobalicious boobies. Also your butt. The term peppermint creams referes also to your sweet butt, that ass is from heaven and I just can't decide which do I like more. AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Da- GOD above, don't make me choose! I'd rather die than choose and I have died atleast once already!” the letter started screaming and had a mental breakdown. You just watched the sight in front of you open-mouthed until the letter calmed itself down. ”You look more beautiful than poetry can describe. And with these last words I must now bid you adieu because your brothers are coming through that door any second now. You are my princess and I will always love you. From your trusted knight, Sir Daniel Sexbang” The sound of Winchesters rumble to the room made you turn around and you quickly hided the letter under some books that were on the table. ”Are you alright?” Sam asked worrying while Dean checked the room for safety. ”I think so,” you answered while still thinking about the letter. It was weird and so was all what had happened so far. But those weren’t the only things that got you wondering. There were familiar words that repeated themselves in your mind. Peppermint creams. You had heard only one person using those words before when talking about your body. But Gabriel was dead, you all saw his body lying motionless on the floor. You had cried for him, you had grief for him. If he was somehow back, why do all this? Why he just couldn't come back to you in normal way, like waiting you in the bunker when you all got back from hunt or joining you like he had always done before? And why in the Hell was Danny Sexbang a thing? Why that name? You didn't want to believe that this Danny Sexbang, who probably was the one behind all of this, who probably was the one to put you three on the loop in different worlds with some idiotic party invatation and tried to hit on you, was your once dead boyfriend. Well shit, sounds about right. No matter how much you wanted to be in denial, this had Gabriel's candy sticky handprint all over. If this was really Gabriel, he better have good reason to do all this. You decided to keep your mouth shut about your suspicions. Even if the Winchesters and Gabriel managed to get along, you still were worried about their reaction if you would tell them about your thoughts. Anything harmful hasn't happened yet and maybe you could get back at him at some point. But if Danny wasn't the one you thought he was, you surely hoped he would be ready for what's to come. You swore by it. Like a clockwork, the familiar world shifting happened once again.
Christmas Calendar tag: @sumara62, @authoressskr, @serendiptious-esparza, @be-fantastic, @pizzamanteachings Gabe tag: @nobodys-baby-now, @dlb1999 Hit me with ask or message if you would like to join! NinjaSexParty's songs used in this fic, not in order
Peppermint Creams x
Party of Three x
Ninja Brian was so Ninja that you couldn't see him reading book about quantum field theory.
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Silver Secrets pt 8
Previous chapters: [1]  [2]  [3]  [4]  [5]  [6]  [7]  [8]
At Ravenhill...
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You could see the wooden signalling devices atop the tower from across the river.
“Where is he?!” Thorin growled, cutting the head off the final orc in your path.
“It looks deserted,” Kíli remarked, taking the words right out of your mouth. Fíli’s fingers found yours, squeezing gently.
“Maybe he fled?” you offered half-heartedly, returning Fíli’s silent offer of comfort. Already, the blade of your axe had seen more blood than ever before, running thick and black along the sharp edge.
“I’d love to think so, Mjoll,” Kíli agreed, nodding, “but…” Your lips thinned into a grim smile; you didn’t believe so either.
“He must be here!” Thorin exclaimed.
“We’ve got company!” Dwalin growled, staring across the frozen landscape.
“Fíli, Kíli,” Thorin nodded towards the tower, “go scout it out, report back if you see anything, you got me?”
“Goblins,” Dwalin spat, “but no more than a hundred.” You followed his eyes, catching sight of – were some of the Goblins riding other Goblins? – the oncoming force. You smiled grimly, getting better hold of your double-bladed war axe, a beautiful piece of craftsmanship Dwalin had unearthed for you; his grandmother’s, he’d said, looking wistful.
“We’ll take care of them easily; you three, go!” Thorin urged you. With a light push, he sent Kíli off onto the ice, taking up his familiar stance with Dwalin; you’d seen them dance like that a million times, though never had they looked so deadly. Fíli tugged on your arm, making you turn around once more.
“Be careful, adad,” you whispered, following the two princes across the frozen river. Behind you, you heard them bellow out a war-cry.
You moved slowly, quietly, through the abandoned ruins of the tower. Fíli in front and Kíli bringing up the rear, your eyes and ears peeled for anything out of the ordinary. You could hear wind howling through stone; an eerie, mournful sound that cut through your bones with dread. Otherwise, there was only the sound of your own boots on the stone, the slight huffs of breath from your companions and the constant thump-thump of your heart beating.
“I don’t like this,” you whispered, “too easy to design an ambush in this warren of tunnels.” Ahead of you, Fíli nodded, while Kíli’s hand found yours where it rested on your weapon, squeezing gently.
Something made a different noise up ahead.
“You keep searching the lower level,” Fíli whispered, “I’ve got this.”
“No!” you cried, though your voice didn’t rise beyond a whisper. You caught his arm, holding on tightly. “We should stay together.”
“I’m with Mjoll on that,” Kíli added behind you, as you stared imploringly at Fíli; knowing he meant to protect the two of you if he could, “we shouldn’t split up. We’re stronger together, Fee, that’s what you always say.” He tried for levity, though it didn’t quite work. You bit your lip. Staring past Fíli’s shoulder, your eyes widened. He pushed past you with a low oath.
“Someone’s coming!” you hissed, lifting your weapon again. With another oath, Fíli shifted Kíli into the middle – the tunnel was too narrow to fight side by side, and you were the better melee fighter.
“From behind us, too,” he muttered darkly, and you felt your heart sink at the words even as you readied yourself to meet the smallish orcs rushing at you.
 “Where is that orc filth?” Dwalin grumbled, kicking a decapitated head away when it failed to answer. Thorin stared towards to tower, anxious to catch sight of pale hair – Mjoll or Fíli would be easiest to spot through the holes in the structure – and feeling his heart sink when he saw neither young dwarf.
“I don’t know –” he began, but was interrupted by Dwalin sound of surprise, making him turn around swiftly, raising his sword in preparation.
“Thorin!” Bilbo wheezed, out of breath from running.
“Bilbo!” Thorin exclaimed, staring in wonder. “How did you…”
“You have to leave here!” Bilbo cried, waving away their questioning expressions. “Now!” he urged, trying to drag Dwalin off by the arm. “Azog has another army attacking from the north. This watchtower will be completely surrounded. There’ll be no way out.” The warrior did not move, casting a desperate glance back at the crumbling tower.
“We are so close! That orc scum is in there. I say we push on.” Dwalin growled, staring at the Hobbit that had appeared out of nowhere. Bilbo shook his head.
“No, Dwalin!” Thorin retorted, catching his arm when the warrior moved towards the river. The Hobbit shivered. “That’s what he wants, Dwal,” Thorin murmured, “he wants to draw us in…” Dwalin groaned, but he did not shake off Thorin’s hand. “It’s a trap!”
“And we sent our children right into it,” Dwalin whimpered, staring at the tower.
“We will find them,” Thorin swore, “we’ll call them back; there’s yet time to leave.” Dwalin nodded, hefting his axe once more.
“Live to fight another day, eh, Thor,” he rumbled, though the joke did not elicit more than a pale smile, before striding off with determination.
“Let’s go.” Thorin said. “We’ll all live to fight another day.”
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 They kept coming; you were trapped, but the three of you were holding your own. Kíli had long-since run out of arrows, but you were managing to retreat slowly but surely, Fíli again in the lead and you bringing up the rear, trying to get out of the tower.
Or so you thought.
Your careful plan crumbled – literally – between one step and the next, the floor giving way beneath you. The fall was no more than the height of two dwarrow, you knew, lying on the broken bricks and staring dumbly at the ceiling a floor above you, but it had felt like you fell forever, weightless until the merciless impact with the hard stones beneath you. You blinked. Beside you, someone groaned; you thought it was Kíli.
“Mjoll!” Fíli exclaimed, his worried face appearing in your line of vision, blood running in a trail from the split in his eyebrow and down to his chin. Vaguely you heard your adad’s voice bellowing; familiar sound, though not usually tinged with fear.
“Fíli…” you smiled, but movement behind him made you cry out, using your training to flip him, staring down at his confused expression for one infinite moment before the impact registered. With a gasp, the air left your lungs. Falling forward, landing heavily on Fíli’s stained armour, you vaguely heard a sound that could only be called Anger, but you were too busy trying to gasp air back into your chest to care. Fíli’s blue eyes were wide and frightened as he stared at you, his hand coming up to cup your face.
“Mjoll?” he whispered, but you didn’t have the energy to nod. “Mjoll!” he repeated, shaking you lightly. You tried to smile at him; you had been winded, yes, but you thought you’d be fine. “Mjoll!” Fíli cried. You closed your eyes, needing a brief rest before you thought about getting up.
Dwalin and Thorin barely escaped a crushing death when the ceiling caved in on top of them, but it was the next image that would be seared into their brains; the three younger dwarrow fell with the ceiling, but each had begone moving, getting over the shock of the impact. Dwalin cried out a warning, his face had been turned towards the ceiling, while Thorin was busy scrambling across the broken rocks to try to get to Kíli, whose leg was pinned beneath some rubble. The warning made no difference; the Orc scum – pale and vicious – still threw his spear, laughing down at them. Dwalin thought he screamed, his feet instantly moving, but he knew he’d be too late to make a difference, watching Mjoll execute a flawless wrestle… and the giant spear that embedded itself in her back. He heard Fíli’s cries, was vaguely aware of his own bellowed fury, but it was lost in the haze of red that enveloped his vision.
“Dwalin!” Thorin yelled, but that was of no concern to him, charging off in a random direction, bent on finding the fiend that dared take his daughter away from him – dared spill her blood.
“Mjoll…” Fíli choked on her name once more, watching her eyes roll back into her skull, her body slumping on top of him. “Mjoll, no, please, please,” he begged, brushing her hair away from her face. She did not respond.
“Fíli!” Thorin barked. “Get up!” Fíli didn’t want to, as though getting up would make it real, would make it true. She’s not breathing, he panicked, staring at Uncle Thorin’s face, set in hard lines of anger. “Fíli!” he repeated, “You must get up; get out of here!”
No.
Shaking his head, Fíli slowly moved out from underneath her body, doing his best not to think about it, lifting her into his arms. The spear in her back moved slightly, the sound of metal scraping against bone making him wince. Orcrist’s perfect curve arced in front of his face, slicing through the shaft of the ugly-looking weapon with ease. He looked up at Thorin, and suddenly the sounds of the world returned to him, Kíli’s pained groans sounding from his left.
“No.” he repeated. “I’m not leaving.”
“Fíli.” Thorin seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say, but Fíli was not in the mood to listen.
“They killed her, Uncle,” he whispered. Putting her down beside the wall, lying on her side just like she preferred to sleep, Fíli looked up at his uncle’s blue eyes, “I can’t…”
“I know,” Thorin replied, and something in his eyes told Fíli that he did know, that Uncle understood precisely how much he needed vengeance. “and I’m asking you to leave here anyway.” Feeling Thorin’s gauntleted hand wrap around the back of his skull, Fíli obeyed the pressure, knocking his forehead against Thorin’s.
“I can’t,” he admitted. “I need…” Pulling the head of the spear out of her, Fíli threw it with all his might at the far wall. Mjoll did not move.
“I know,” Thorin sighed, “odds are Dwalin’s not going to make it out of here; can’t you understand that I don’t want to bury you, too?” Fíli nodded, but he couldn’t change his mind.
“I’ll stay with her, Fee,” Kíli whispered, his face pale. For the first time, Fíli registered the terrible angle of Kíli’s lower leg; legs weren’t meant to look like that. He felt faint. Grasping the sword that had fallen beside him, he nodded once. Thorin sighed. Working together, they managed to shift Kíli over to the wall, too, letting him sit against the damp stones next to Mjoll.
“This is going to hurt,” Thorin warned, though the words were drowned out by Kíli’s scream echoing off the stone as he pulled the broken bones back in place. Kíli slumped against the wall, his face bloodless and clammy-looking. “I’m okay,” he gasped, though none of them believed the obvious lie.
“I’m going to kill Azog,” Fíli swore in a low voice. He did not look to see if Thorin followed, did not throw one last glance back at Mjoll’s pale hair or Kíli’s pained face, he simply walked away, the heavy threads of iron-soled boots on stone the only sound echoing through the tower after his low oath.
Tag-list:
@life-is-righteous @filisleftmustachebraid @pandepirateprincess @sassytyphoondetective@littlemergirl4779 @-waythe- @aidanturnersass @childoftheshire 
A/N: This is not the final chapter, don’t hate me!
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lady-divine-writes · 7 years
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Klaine fic - “Underneath the Magic” (Rated PG13)
Kurt, a tree demon, runs a magical, supernatural circus that, unfortunately, is in the red. Trying to come up with a way to keep them afloat, his right hand man ... uh, goblin ... convinces Kurt to hire some new acts. Kurt reluctantly agrees, as long as that new act isn't human.
Enter Blaine - the human conman who's about to try and change Kurt's mind. (10511 words)
So, this started life in a number of different ways. I wanted to write some stuff for @sunshineoptimismandangels, for her birthday, and at the time, I had started writing this as an original piece, inspired by @vampireisabitstrong's "Graveyard Book au" which I was also writing at the time. But after a while, I had to come to grips with the fact that I was writing Glee characters. The character of Puck, in particular, was inspired in part by sunshine's character of Felix from her amazing story Heartstone (whom she's reluctant to admit is a goblin, but I know better xD) Also, Kurt is a Spriggan, but I added hints of Kapre as a nod to Darren's Filipino heritage. I hope you all enjoy. Please let me know. And no, if you're curious, I wasn't smoking anything when I wrote this xD
For @sunshineoptimismandangels . I know I’m writing a ton of stuff for you but look! Something shiny!! <3
Read on AO3.
On the farthest outskirts of town.
Past the dead end streets and the no trespassing signs.
In a place with no light, artificial or otherwise. Where the full moon fails to penetrate.
In the center of a deep, dark forest.
In a clearing where no grass grows, no animals graze, no water flows.
Where the still air settles dry and musty, like the breath of death, and even the spirits of the wicked dare not tread.
The perfect place for a satanic ritual, to cast a spell …
… or perform a sacrifice.
Or hold a circus.
But not just any circus. Here there be no clowns, no acrobats, no elephants, no loud emcee dressed in a sparkly red coat and tall top hat.
Spriggan and Company’s Supernatural Circus - where the freaks control the show and the straights wind up in cages.
It is a commonly accepted belief in the earthen realm that the modern circus originated in the late 18th century, but Spriggan’s circus (and this particular Spriggan preferred to be called “Kurt”, derived from the Old High German Kuonrat and meaning wise counsel) has been around for far longer. For those few who know of Kurt and his past, it is rumored that he and his circus have performed for every type of creature that has ever walked the planet Earth – human, vampire, werewolf, cryptid, in every station imaginable from Neanderthal to Czar.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that his circus is easy to come by.
One can find it only if they truly believe, if they possess a heart of darkness (of their own or in a box - either way works as long as it doesn’t leak), or if they can stare into the abyss and fear not what they may see. But if none of that applies to you personally, there are gigantic possessed road signs set up every few miles to help guide you on your journey. They flash in a dazzling array of colors, sing opera, and even dance the polka. They might scream at you if you ignore them for too long before you reach the turnpike, helpfully directing you back to the exit you accidentally missed because every person, demon, beast, warlock, and road sign in those parts knows that if you have gone this way, Kurt’s circus is the only place you intend on ending up.
Come one, come all! Don’t delay! Come now! the signs cry, luring pedestrians and motorists alike to behold the most spectacular feats of magic and wonderment ever known to man or Gorgon. (The older signs scream obscenities in cryptic forgotten languages, but you have to forgive them. After several centuries, there’s no changing their ways.)
And like all respectable circuses, this one takes place beneath a “Big Top”. The tent they use, however, is actually a bigger than big top, made of thick, heavy canvas woven by the gnarled hands of Stygian witches, with long, vertical stripes running from peak to the hem. The stripes are pink and white if you’re a Virgo, black and purple if you’re a Scorpio, green and gold if you’re a Taurus, and just plain red if you’re an Aries. If you happen to be a Capricorn, it’s something else entirely, like an antique greenhouse with fogged glass panes or an old abandoned inn whose lavish furnishings have faded with age.
Aquarians, however, don’t come here. It’s nothing personal (cough-cough). It just kind of is.
But regardless of its dreary and gothic portend, none of it is meant to hurt, frighten, or offend. It is all the work of a master trickster who has spent the long millennia offering unique entertainment open and accessible to beings of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, political affiliations, etc. (except for Aquarians - refer back to the above), and promises to be vegan friendly, as well as gluten- and cruelty-free.
Behind the main tent, cloaked to mortal eyes, lies the encampment where the performers live during their time in the human realm, each tent enchanted to match the personality of its inhabitant – moss covered tombs for the vampires, veiled by an eternal darkness; bogs for the swamp monsters, shrouded with twisted, overgrown vines, their tepid waters slick with a layer of putrid algae; a stable for the unicorns, where inside an illusion of the forests of their world stretches, blue shimmering skies and silver lined clouds above, rolling green hills and fragrant wild flowers below, and filled with rabbits, eagles, deer, and all of the other animals they have sworn to protect (which unfortunately escape every so often and run amok, as evidenced by the Australian rabbit pandemic of the past 150 years).
Beyond those tents grows a thicket of trees not native to these woods – stunning mangoes, thorny acacias, dense bamboo, and brooding banyans. Travel through their maze and you might stumble across the ruins of an old plantation house, it’s once proud, whitewashed walls slowly being reclaimed by Mother Earth, devoured by the softly swelling ground beneath it. Follow the branches that break through its foundation, compelled to grow by the power within, and you will find him. Here, apart from the others, dwells the founder of this folly, the creator of this circus, the manager of this mélange.
In short, the guy in charge.
In the midst of this ruin, hidden by scores of overhanging branches, Kurt sits, red eyes glowing in the descending mists of twilight, fingers drumming his knees, deeply troubled as he counts and re-counts his take. A rap on the door doesn’t distract nor disturb him. He knew what was coming. He smelled him on the evening breeze, sensed his arrival in his bones. He felt his footsteps disturb the ground, and the trees surrounding him warned of his approach. In his heart, though he hopes for good news, Kurt already knows this intruder doesn’t bode well.
The door swings open, hinges creaking like the tortured gasps of a hanging man, and the foul thing walks in – long, hooked nose preceding him by about half a foot; hunched over as if pressed down upon by an invisible burden; favoring one leg while the other hits the boards beneath him with a resounding clunk, his slow march tapping out the foreboding cadence of a funeral dirge. His skin glows slightly in this absence of light, lending an eerie cast of unnatural grey to the room. Cracked, thin lips outline a mouth of yellowing, rectangular teeth, gapped in the center while the rest hang askew like dominoes forever falling. The creature smiles. It splits his face almost entirely in two. He’s dressed in the humblest of clothes – a shirt made of burlap that continuously irritates his skin, which sloughs from his shoulders and back in sheets and leaves a ghastly trail behind; and pants fashioned by the very same witches whose arthritic fingers stitched together the tents. His pants in particular are two sizes too loose at the waist, tied around his torso with a piece of rough twine; and three sizes too long at the legs so that the bulk of their length drags behind him, his feet sticking out of two ragged holes where everyday use has worn them through.
“My Lord,” the detestable creature rasps, hobbling toward the tree demon, who towers the approaching goblin even while reclining, “I bring to you the book of holding, ripe for your approval. Snoooort!” He sucks in through his nose what sounds like a century’s worth of phlegm, then bows his head in reverence as he offers Kurt the book.
Kurt stares at the ancient, leathery object, held aloft by an even more ancient, leathery creature. He sits up in his chair created by the twining tree roots of two mighty banyans, straightens to an even loftier height, and with a disapproval wrought by hundreds of years of monotony, rolls his flaming red eyes, and says, “Can’t you just call it a ledger, Puck? For crying out loud! You do this every … single … night!”
The goblin huffs and stands upright. He glares indignantly at his friend and Master, but to Kurt, it looks more like he’s pouting. “Where’s your flair for the dramatic, old man? Or your sense of humor?”
“It’s gone on vacation with the petty cash.” Kurt sighs, rubbing his pinched brow with woody fingers. “It’ll return when we clear a profit. So, how did we do?” Kurt extends sharp nails to take the smallish ledger from his goblin companion. “My cash box here’s a little light.”
“Not as good as you had hoped, I’m afraid.”
Kurt flips through the pages carefully to keep from slicing them to bits, mulling over the less-than-impressive numbers. “Hmm. How many performances do we have left in this realm?”
“Only three,” the goblin says regretfully. “Then we move on.”
“Ugh!” Kurt slams the book shut in his hand, squeezing so hard he nearly drives his fingers straight through it. “If we could only sneak five more in before the next full moon!”
“I don’t see how that’s possible. Not with the portal to our next destination opening soon. And it’s a good thing, too. The glamour shielding the meadow is already starting to peel … and it’s gettin’ kinda gross,” Puck remarks, recalling the trail of mushy magic he’d had to sidestep just to get to Kurt’s sanctuary. He’s pretty certain that, despite his best efforts, he still managed to drag the hems of his pants through it. There’s a stain that’s impossible to get out, and it’ll smell like raw eggs and rotting swordfish given enough time. He grimaces just thinking about it.
Kurt grimaces, too. Not at Puck’s mention of “peeling glamour”, but at the avalanche of skin flakes that tumble from the goblin’s body when he shivers. Kurt would never outright tell his friend this, but he’d much prefer stepping in a pool of mushy, decaying magic than another pile of desiccated goblin skin.
But back to the real issue …
They’d discussed this before. There’s no use repeating and rehashing it, and yet, every time they start this discussion, they both hope for a better outcome.
The definition of insanity, Einstein would say, which is exactly why Kurt doesn’t speak to him anymore, the insufferable old fool.
“I don’t see how, either,” Kurt admits. “I’d like to leave this plane without any red marks in our ledger, but it seems to be nothing but red lately.” Kurt peeks through the pages of the book one last time, looking for something that will prove him wrong, a page full of pluses instead of minuses that he had read incorrectly. When he doesn’t come across one, he raises a hopeful eyebrow at his shifty friend. “No chance you were balancing the books while eating your lunch again, and that’s blood on these pages in place of ink?”
“I wish,” Puck snorts. “But no. I’m using a ballpoint pen nowadays. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Kurt grumbles.
“We have to face facts. The crowds have been thinner lately,” Puck points out as if Kurt didn’t already know – as if the whole company, stressed out over incidentals day after day, hasn’t realized it. “Believe it or don’t, many humans are choosing to go see Cirque du Soleil over our vastly more phenomenal circus. Human acrobats are a bigger draw than supernatural ones, ironically.”
Kurt stands and paces the room. He’d noticed that also, how those human equivalents of tree frogs outperform his circus almost ten to one. Meanwhile, they have a pair of Siamese twins who can switch heads, but meh. That’s old hat compared to a woman who can spin inside a metal ring.
“There’s also the matter of us being stuck in this dreary ass meadow in the middle of nowhere,” Puck continues. “You might consider springing for a few weeks at the convention center - center of town, free advertising, lots of parking and bus access, a handicap ramp …” Kurt nods as Puck counts off the pros on his fingers, giving this option more thought than he had in decades. Kurt can be stubborn, set in his ways. He’s very much an “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of demon. His decision to set up camp in meadows like this one wasn’t simply a matter of personal preference, or even safety for his performers. They could always camp in a remote location and teleport to their performance venue – that wasn’t the issue. It was about ambiance, the air of authenticity that holding their circus out in a spooky forest lent to their shtick. Kurt thought that that was one of the things that set them apart from other circuses. It made them special.
But apparently the definition of special had changed over the past three hundred years.
“Also … uh … you could start letting Aquarians in again,” Puck adds under his breath. “I hear they make up a good portion of the population.”
“You know how I feel about that, Puck,” Kurt grumps. “Inconsiderate little dung beetles, the lot of them.”
“Their money spends just like everyone else’s!”
“No Aquarians! That’s not negotiable!” Kurt declares, dropping a period on the end of the discussion.
“Anyway …” Puck sighs. Demons and their egos. There was no way around them. They were the experts at holding a grudge. And once they found one, they latched onto it tight and never let go. Puck knows he’s not going to win. He might as well let that one lie. Besides, he has other suggestions, ones that Kurt might object to more than the inclusion of Aquarians.
“You could always start smoking your magical pipe again. The one that attracts the humans’ attention? You can lure them here that way.”
Kurt curls his lip and pulls a face, one that would be more effective if, at the moment, he weren’t a giant tree. “You know the stigma that surrounds smoking in this century. These mortals are headstrong, more so than their 12th century ancestors, especially when it comes to their health. This mindset of “drugs evil, weed bad” kind of counteracts the effect of the smoke. And not just smoking either. Alcohol, gambling, it’s apparently all a no-no to them. These 21st century humans,” Kurt huffs, as if the mention of them put a bad taste in his mouth. “All they want to do is sip wheat grass, do yoga, and have heated arguments with strangers about something called smashing the patriarchy.” He digs the toe of his trunk-like foot into the dirt, mourning the end of an era. “They don’t know how to have fun anymore.”
Kurt actually used to enjoy coming to Earth a decade or so ago. It was one of the few places where he could indulge in a good, old-fashioned, PG13-rated vice without accidentally declaring war on an indigenous culture.
Not anymore.
“Well, you could at least try it with the pipe for our last three shows, couldn’t you?” Puck suggests, exasperation draining his crooked body. “Or maybe just closing night.”
Kurt shifts from foot to foot, negotiating with himself. He tries his best not to interfere with the humans anymore, not the way the Spriggan used to, which included putting them “under the influence”, causing them to do things against their will. Though, to be fair, refraining from using his pipe goes against his nature, bred from a morality that he’s acquired, not one he’s been taught.
Among Spriggan, Kurt’s the exception, not the rule.
It’s more of a guideline. He doesn’t have to break it. He could just bend it a little, for the holiday crowd, who will more than likely be drinking their heads off anyway. If he lures them to his circus, they’ll all be in one place, bound by protection spells. They won’t be driving while intoxicated. They’ll be safe. Kurt would be doing a public service.
And there he had it! Loopholes! They were amazing things!
“I guess I could do that,” he decides, feeling good about this decision. “I’ll break out the old pipe, smoke some green, and we’ll have a packed house once again.”
“Yeah,” Puck says, a bit uneasy with the direction he was about to take their conversation. Maybe he shouldn’t mention it. He should just let it drop. Kurt finally looked relaxed after the long, hard weeks of constant worry. The problem was that Kurt’s pipe only worked on humans. They were having similar difficulties gathering crowds in other realms they went to, and for a number of reasons. They didn’t just need Band-Aid solutions.
Something else needed to change.
Puck shifts his gaze to the ground, scratches his abnormally large ears with his abnormally longer fingers. “And … maybe … we might consider … um … hiring some new acts?”
Kurt turns on Puck so quickly, the goblin hears the demon’s torso crack, splintered bark breaking from his body and dropping to the earth.
“Puck!” Kurt roars. “We’ve discussed this! There’s nothing wrong with the acts! Bringing new ones on board isn’t the answer!”
“Kurt! We can’t keep slogging along with the old acts if they’re not bringing anybody in! I know you’ve gotten used to our little troupe the way it is. So have I! You know I have trust issues! It took about seven centuries before I could relate to any of them! What does a Pukwudgie have in common with a half-angel, half-dragonfly nomad princess? I’ll tell you what, Kurt! A big fat nothing, that’s what!”
“And yet you still managed to get her pregnant,” Kurt grumbles bitterly recalling the talented, silvery-voiced, platinum-haired enchantress they’d had to send back to her home realm because Puck couldn’t keep his fetid dick in his drooping trousers. Though, on the other hand, Princess Quinn slept with him, so Kurt had to question her life choices.
“But you have to think of the good of the show! You’re working our old acts to death! All of those performers out there that bust their butts every night? You owe them, Kurt! They don’t have to stick it out with us for another millennia. They could transport back to their own dimensions, every last one of them, and then where would we be?”
“I know, I know, you’re right,” Kurt agrees, knocking on his wooden head with wooden fists.
This was another argument they’d been having for longer than Puck could remember. The difference was that on this subject, they strenuously disagreed, to the point of a deadlock, and Kurt didn’t foresee things changing in this instance. Puck argued that they wouldn’t be getting rid of any of their old acts, so there was no reason to be so pigheaded about finding new blood. Kurt countered that their group worked best with the acts already in it. Getting more would be adding unnecessary stress and strain on their already thinly-stretched resources. As far as Kurt was concerned, his circus ran like a well-oiled machine. Adding new acts meant advertising, interviews, auditions, negotiations - things that Kurt couldn’t stand but which would fall on him since he was the owner and all.
On the other hand, it might be nice gong out of his way to meet new beings, for pleasure as well as for work. Bouncing back and forth for centuries has been the death of Kurt’s social life. He’s not looking to settle down or get married. He never wanted to have spawn. He doesn’t even want to date really. He just wants someone nice to go to dinner with every once in a while, tell Dark Age jokes to, share an offering with once in a while.
Not a human. Kurt has been very careful not to become attached to humans. Spriggan as a species can develop a sentimental skin where it comes to humans. If they find one that they consider an equitable match, either as a friend or more, Spriggan will follow that human for the rest of their days.
Ha! Kurt thinks. No, thank you.
But as for everything else, was that too much to ask?
He’s spent his entire existence making others happy – humans, deities, sirens, and banshees galore. Doesn’t he deserve a little happiness, too?
“Okay,” Kurt says, a crumb of reluctance clinging stubbornly to his acquiescence. “We’ll find some new blood. One act, but that’s all.”
It’d better be one hell of an act, he thinks. Kurt hadn’t come across anything in all the infinite realms of the universe that tickled his fancy, nothing that even came close to fitting the bill.
Who was he going to find that would make any sort of a difference in their lives?
“Great!” a cheerful, new voice intervenes. “That’s excellent news! I’d hoped you were hiring.”
Both demon and goblin fall gravely silent.
Kurt looks at Puck.
Puck looks at Kurt.
They turn a full circle, unable to see, at first, the man dressed in head to toe black, standing in the center of their meeting room. But when Kurt sets his red eyes on him, his surprise, which makes his eyes glow like hot coals, pins the man to his spot.
“What the …?” Kurt growls. “Who are you!? How did you get in here!?”
“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that! I had to sneak past your guard at the front door,” the man admits proudly, as if he thinks thwarting their security would win him points.
Of course, considering the fact that their guard is a giant, two-headed, man-eating, spectral spider, it might …
Kurt appraises the man with an unimpressed demeanor. He knows enough about human aesthetic preferences to know that this man – with his tan, unblemished skin; his clean-shaven face; dark hair slicked back; and golden hazel eyes – is handsome by their standards. By demon standards, he would be considered more appetizing than most, and that’s a compliment. And yet, if Kurt had to choose between devouring this human and his usual offering of mangoes and papayas, he’d pick the fruit.
It’s at that moment that Kurt remembers he hasn’t had a decent offering in weeks.
Great. Now his stomach’s growling.
Kurt takes a subconscious breath in and catches a whiff of the man’s cologne – an appetizing blend of cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, and hibiscus. Those happen to be four of Kurt’s favorite scents in the universe. They remind him of his childhood, of family and friends he knew growing up that have come and gone.
They remind him of his home, a place he hasn’t been to in forever no matter how many times he visits Earth. He can’t. It holds too many memories, and has too much narrow-minded prejudice to make setting up their circus there worth their time.
Damn. Now his stomach’s not only growling, it’s churning like a church fire.
When Kurt snuffs that fire out and shoves the ashes of that nostalgic b.s. aside, he smells power - low levels of it, not nearly enough that it should interest him.
But for some reason, it does interest him.
“Maybe.” Kurt puts his hands on his hips. “And you are …?”
“The name’s Kevin,” the man says, thrusting out an arm, hand open, ready to shake. “Kevin Fitzpatrick at your service, kind sir.”
Kurt looks at the hand presented to him, a blank expression on his face. Kurt doesn’t shake hands. He doesn’t touch other beings if he can help it. He has a thing about germs, especially human ones. It’s not a speciesism issue. It’s a preservation issue. Humans are notorious for their tendency towards self-destruction. Everything that they need to live a long and healthy life, they destroy – their air, their water, their animals, their planet, themselves.
Kurt tilts his head and quirks a brow. “That’s not your real name,” he says, ignoring the man’s hand altogether. For the moment, he’s guessing. It’s part of his mantra. He tries not to invade human minds when he doesn’t have to. They tend to be chaotic, cluttered, unnecessarily confusing, even among the exceptional ones. Humans as a whole don’t know how to think straight. They can’t seem to set their minds on one road and follow it, finish a single task before launching into the next. From all outward appearances – this man’s skin, hair, and eye color, his bushy eyebrows, his stature, average for adult males – he doesn’t seem like he should own such a name. But it’s the way his eyes dart left and right, imperceptible to humans but obvious to a demon, that truly gives him away.
The man’s smile loses some of its strength but none of its luster. He drops his hand to his side, feeling foolish for keeping it extended after several long seconds of Kurt refusing to shake it.
“No, it isn’t,” he admits, sounding like he genuinely wishes it were. “But I thought a traditional Irish name might go over better with you traveling folk.”
Kurt and Puck exchange a pointed look.
“That’s racist,” Kurt says.
“Says the demon. One who looks like a giant tree, I might add.” The man gestures down Kurt’s body with inexplicable confusion.
“Still racist,” Kurt insists.
“By the way, how do you do that?” the man asks. It’s not an offhanded question, which makes it a difficult one for Kurt to comprehend. This man is standing in the middle of a circus made up entirely of supernatural creatures and beings from other worlds. Why should what Kurt looks like be a concern to him?
And yet, it’s significant because it has always been a concern to Kurt. Spriggan traditionally are stocky, big-headed, and short – the ghosts of giants, but really only a shadow. Kurt, on the other hand, is lithe, fair, and tall (by comparison) – traits that set him apart from other Spriggan by a mile.
He’s his father’s son, but in looks, he belongs solely to his mother.
“How do I do what?” Kurt asks.
“Look like a tree. I thought Spriggan were supposed to look similar to men. Or like … woody Big Foot.”
“He compared you to a Sasquatch,” Puck sniggers. “What a noob.”
But Kurt lets the insult go.
He debates how much he wants to tell this human. Why Kurt looks the way he does isn’t exactly a secret, but it would still be sharing something that’s part of him, and to a human.
“I’m only half Spriggan,” he confesses, figuring there’s no real harm in letting that tidbit out. The man would probably learn it eventually. There isn’t a single monster in Kurt’s employ that can keep their mouth shut. “I’m High Faye on my mother’s side.”
“You don’t say?”
“A-ha. That’s where I get my magical abilities, my shapeshifting powers … and my short temper.”
The man smiles, pleased with this new information. “Coolness.”
“How do you know what Spriggan look like anyway?”
“I read,” the man says. “I use Google. Which leads me to my next question …”
“If you’re the one applying for a job, how come you’re asking all the questions?”
The man shrugs. “You don’t learn anything by not asking questions. Besides, you don’t have to answer.”
“Fair enough.”
“Why the disguise? I mean, why turn yourself into a tree?”
“Because without it, I’m invisible to the humans,” Kurt says. “And if humans can’t see me, that’s kind of bad for business. Besides, it’s part of the draw. We live in a time where the only way people would believe in a living, breathing tree demon is if they saw something that looked like … well this.” Kurt copies the man’s gesture, sweeping a hand down his body.
The man’s smile dips. “That sucks.”
“Yeah. It does.”
“And there aren’t any other Spriggan in your circus?”
“Nope,” Kurt says. “I’m the only one. To be honest, I haven’t seen one in ages.”
“Must be lonely,” the man decides.
It is, Kurt thinks. It’s not some huge revelation, just an acknowledgment of fact. But what he says is, “Meh. I’m never really alone, so, not so much.”
“Yeah, but there’s a difference between being lonely and being alone.”
That comment silences Kurt. He agrees entirely, even though he’d never thought of it that way. He often felt lonely, even in the center of a crowd. He thought he was weird that way.
He never thought anyone else felt the same.
“Hey! I've seen you!” Puck jumps back into the conversation, pointing at the man with a twisted, accusing finger. “You hang around the crowds. You loiter on our property and swindle for spare change outside our tents!”
“I like to think of it as co-op’ing.”
“And I think of it as dipping in to our profits!” the goblin hisses.
Kurt scowls. He didn’t know this about this man. How come he didn’t know? As a demon who tricks travelers, and who has been known to indulge in a game of poker now and again, Kurt can appreciate a good hustle … but not when it lightens his pockets! And just when he was beginning to not despise this guy.
Thank goodness for Puck. Admiring a human in any small measurement isn’t the kind of complication Kurt needs right now.
The goblin bares his teeth, Kurt grows another foot taller, and suddenly the man feels outnumbered.
“Okay, okay, I see your point,” he says, putting his hands up in defense of his life. He’s not sure how that would help him, exactly, but it’s worth a shot. “B-but, now I'm looking to give back. To help you guys out.”
“Looking to escape, more like it.” Kurt tuts. “Who did you piss off here, human? Hmmm? A local gang? Loan sharks? The police? I know your type. Do you have mafia after you? Because I don’t need that kind of trouble hanging around my circus. I’m not looking to defend anyone.”
“No! I’m not---wait …” The man stops when an absurd thought pops into his brain. “Aren’t Spriggan bodyguards? Fairy bodyguards? I mean, I assume that’s how your dad met your mom, isn’t it?”
“Assume nothing!” Kurt says, appalled at the man’s gall. “You’re not a fairy, and I’m not my father! Plus, that’s beside the point. I like to choose who I call enemy, thank you. I don’t need people I’ve never met mounting a vendetta against me. I don’t want that kind of heat on my tail. The mob has some pretty powerful demons working on their side ... and lawyers.”
The man looks at Kurt and Puck, wide-eyed. Something like a smile tickles the corners of his mouth, something he’s trying hard to suppress. He doesn’t end up smiling, but he does chuckle. “So, lawyers are worse than demons?”
“Yes!” Kurt and Puck answer together.
“Everybody knows that!” Puck says, aghast at the human’s ignorance. “How you can live among them and not know of their treachery is beyond me.”
The man continues to laugh, and Kurt shakes his head.
“This back and forth with you is exhausting me, human. I feel like there’s something you’re not telling us. You’re beating around the bush. Speak plainly!”
“But beating around the bush is something I happen to do exceptionally well,” the man says with a wink. Kurt detects the innuendo and rolls his eyes.
“It’s time to find out who you really are … and what you want.” Kurt strikes quickly, reaching for the man and wrapping slender fingers around his throat. Kurt squeezes slowly, till his twig-like appendages settle into the soft, delicate flesh around the man’s windpipe.
“Uh … wh-what … what are you doing?” the man squeaks, keeping his words to a minimum when it becomes harder for him to breath.
“I’m reading your mind, Kevin,” Kurt says, closing his red eyes.
“D-do you … have to … hold my neck … quite so tightly while you read my mind?” He grabs a hold of Kurt’s arm, but it might as well be made of stone, so rough and so thick, there’s no way to remove it.
“It keeps me calm,” Kurt says, grinding the words out one by one through locked lips. “Be grateful I’m not peeling the skin from you bones.”
“Oh,” the man says. Kurt feels him gulp nervously beneath his palm. “I see. Yes. Thank you for not doing … that.”
“Shh. I need to concentrate.” Kurt takes a deep, cleansing breath, and enters the man’s mind. It’s easier than Kurt remembers, but then again, the man’s not resisting. And that’s a good sign. People often resist when they’re trying to pull something over on you. Kurt sifts through the man’s thoughts to find his more recent memories – name, occupation, address, the basics - trying his best to ignore the ones that go out of their way to reach out to him, the sympathetic ones that long to be revisited, like memories of this man as a child, on vacation with his parents, throwing a ball to his brother, learning how to ride a bike with two wheels, learning how to cook with his great-aunt Teresa, playing video games with a friend that he seemed to hold dear, a friend that Kurt sees no more of after the man reaches thirteen. He stumbles across memories of a terrible fire, of their house burning down … of him burying his mother and his father … of his brother running away and never contacting him again … “Uh … y-your name is Blaine, but your parents called you Coqui?” Kurt asks. He releases his grip, his mighty wooden arm - a thick, unyielding branch - trembling as it returns to his side.
“That’s right,” the man says. His eyes leave Kurt’s face and follows his arm for a second before the conversation continues.
“It doesn’t bother you that you’re nicknamed after the sound a frog makes when it wants to have sex?” Kurt crosses his arms, hiding his trembling in the wrap of his limb around his body, and using that remark to will away the image of this man as a teenager, crying on his knees over a freshly covered grave, negotiating with whatever God he believes in for his parents to return.
“Why in the world would that bother me?” Blaine chuckles. “If you knew me better, that would actually explain a lot.”
“Do I want to know you better?” It seems like a ridiculous question seeing how much Kurt already knows about him. Stupid, unpredictable mindreading. He never could get it quite right. Of course, the fact of the matter is that Kurt, being even half High Faye, wasn’t a thing like his mother in anything other than looks.
Which is why his father raised him.
“You’re the mind reader. You tell me.”
“And you’re the human, so if you want me to let you join our group, you’re going to have to make a more compelling case for me hiring you.”
It shocks Kurt when he hears those words come out of his mouth. He was determined that, no matter what, no human would have a place here. But now here he was, considering this no talent human into inclusion in their troupe, and he had no idea why.
And still, the low level power simmers, humming in Kurt’s ears.
That has to be it. Wherever it’s coming from, that’s the thing that’s causing all of this.
He would ask Puck if he hears it, too, except Puck’s looking at him with the gaping maw of a dying salmon, equally as astonished at what Kurt proposed.
“Certainly,” Blaine says, elated. “Watch carefully.” He puts his hands up, holding them open so Kurt can see that there’s nothing in them. He flips his hands quickly, exposing them front and back. Kurt’s eyes bounce from his right hand to his left. When Kurt sees the right hand again, it’s holding a deck of cards. Blaine fans the cards with one hand. “Pick a card, any card.”
Kurt’s jaw drops.
“What?” Kurt can usually see things before they happen, but he didn’t see that coming. “No! Why?”
“I’m making my case. I’m proving to you that I can be a contributing member of your group. Consider it my audition.”
“I don’t have time for this,” Kurt mutters. He takes Blaine’s empty hand and holds it by the wrist, letting the man’s beating pulse speak to him. It was easier reading his mind at arm’s distance from his brain. That, and Kurt wasn’t convinced he could restrain himself from throttling this man. But Kurt can see from the smile on the man’s face that he’s getting the wrong idea. That wrong idea starts to blossom in Kurt’s mind the longer he holds his hand, and it makes him feel warm inside.
Oh, please, Kurt pleads. This can’t be happening.
Kurt immediately drops the man’s hand.
“Your father was a sorcerer?”
“Yup.” Blaine puffs up his chest as if he had taught the man everything he knew. “One of the finest.”
“And your mother, too.”
“Yes, sir. She was the more powerful of the two by a long shot.”
“Well, do you have any of their skills?” Kurt tries not to get ahead of himself, but he can’t quell his excitement, finally seeing a silver lining to this obnoxious human’s intrusion into his life.
“Oh, no!” Blaine laughs to Kurt’s dismay. “Good God, no! Not an inch! It’d be amazing if I did though! Think of it!”
Kurt had thought of it, for just a brief, glimmering second. But the more he thinks he knows what’s going on with this man, the more questions he has.
The easiest way to sort them out would be to go back into his mind for an extended stay.
But Kurt doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to see the things his mind wants him to see.
“Okay,” Kurt begins again, feeling like pulling the man’s molars out of his skull would be easier than this. He asks his next question slowly, like he’s addressing a child. “What else do you do?”
“Just this.” Blaine folds up his fan of cards and shuffles them dramatically from hand to hand. “Sleight of hand.”
“You do card tricks,” Kurt mutters like a curse at a power higher than he. “Just card tricks,” he repeats, pulling a card from the pile. This couldn’t be it. With the lineage he’s boasting, this can’t be Blaine’s only talent. What did he do that he missed out on the magic lottery? Did he step on a brownie? Run over a druid with his car? Did he make-out with the wrong virgin sacrifice and get cursed?
Card tricks. That and his charm will maybe get him a cup of coffee.
Maybe.
“Hey. Why you hatin’ on card tricks? They put me through college.” His hands don’t stop moving as he speaks, shuffling his deck, the cards flying from his fingertips faster than Kurt can keep track of. That alone is impressive, but still …
Card tricks?
There has to be something Kurt’s missing.
“Here. Let me show you something.” Kurt takes Blaine by the shoulders and turns him around. With a blink of his red eyes, they’re out of the ruins and standing in the center of the big top, watching as performers bustle around, putting away props and striking equipment. They’ve teleported. They could have just walked. It wasn’t that far, not even as the human walks, but Kurt did it on purpose. The jump through time and space, even though no more than a skip compared to what they’ll be doing when they leave the realm of Earth, was supposed to give Blaine a taste of what dimensional travel would feel like. Most humans puke their guts out immediately after.
Blaine barely seems fazed.
Damn.
And to top it off, his hands have found their way up to Kurt’s, resting over his and holding on gently.
Kurt clears his throat. He removes one of his hands.
Only now that he has, he kind of wants to put it back.
Kurt points past Blaine to a man with radiant wings stretching out in both directions, measuring from tip to tip about the length of a Cessna. He stands ramrod straight and over seven feet, dismantling a large, titanium octagonal cage with a wave of his hands. “Do you see him?” Kurt asks. “He’s a descendent of the god Loki.”
“Ooo,” Blaine marvels, watching as he folds the cage into a small box that he puts in his pocket.
“Ooo is right. He can fracture sunlight and turn its rays into golden snakes. With a single blink of his eyes, he can make you believe that you’re your own mother and compel you to give yourself a spanking.”
Blaine chuckles, picturing himself wearing his mother’s thick, tiger eye framed glasses, her faded yellow housedress, her matching house slippers, and the pink foam curlers she rolled in her hair every night covered by a white hair net, bending himself over a chair and slapping his own bare ass while angrily yelling at himself in his mother’s tongue. It’s an image Kurt glimpses in Blaine’s eyes as the man laughs sadly to himself, and Kurt finds himself wanting to join him. He feels drawn to this man’s easygoing nature. Blaine seems slow to anger, difficult to offend … and impossible to frighten. His sticktoitiveness is admirable, if not misguided. Once he has his mind set on something, he’s not easy to discourage. Kurt will give him that. And Kurt has always found those traits attractive in most beings. A soul that can laugh at itself can weather most storms.
But again – human, and Kurt can’t get attached to a human. Not even one who’s proving to be as … well … what would the word for him be? Bearable as this one. Maybe Kurt could see himself sharing a veggie burger with him while they binge watched Netflix (once they find themselves in a dimension where they can pick up a signal) but that’s as far as he’d take it.
But wasn’t that what Kurt wanted in the first place?
No matter. This is neither the time nor the place for this dilemma. Kurt squares his knotty shoulders and continues.
“And the young lady in that tank?” Kurt takes Blaine by the shoulders and turns him again slightly. Only by, like, seventeen degrees. He won’t admit to himself that it’s an excuse to touch Blaine. No. He’s just trying to be clear with him. Get his point across. “She calls herself Brittany. She’s a river mermaid. I found her sunning herself on the banks of the Mississippi. She’s over three hundred years old.”
“Amazing,” Blaine breathes with the genuine awe of a child seeing a rainbow in the sky for the first time. “She doesn’t look a day over eighteen.”
“She can make rocks and boulders sing,” Kurt explains, trying to come up with anything else she can do that might impress him. “Rumor has it she used to whisper in the ear of Mark Twain as he traveled the river boats so, in essence, she’s the author of most of his more memorable stories.”
“Awesome.”
“Quite.”
Another blink and they return to the ruin of Kurt’s makeshift forest. As soon as the black night surrounds them, Kurt feels cold. There was so much under the big top for Blaine to see.
He teleported them back too soon.
And Blaine, not in the least bit affected by zipping through the fabric of reality, returns to his chipper self.
“Nevertheless,” Blaine says, turning to meet Kurt’s eyes, “can any of them do this?” Blaine tosses his deck in the air and starts juggling individual cards, catching them with his knuckles and then flipping them in the air again until they create a perfect arch. It’s rather intricate, and Kurt questions how a mortal who boasts no particular supernatural powers can accomplish it … but by his circus’s standards, it’s just cute.
“Probably. But here’s what you’re missing – they have power. You have none. And a lot of them aren’t as patient or as congenial as I am. If they get angry with you, or if you get in their way, they will kill you, or worse. They may imprison your soul, shrink your head while it’s still on your body, remove your brain and keep it in a jar.”
“Aww,” Blaine coos. “Are you worried about me?”
Kurt scoffs. “Not in the slightest.”
“Well, don’t be,” Blaine says, ignoring the demon’s last remark. “I can take care of myself.”
“I don’t see how. Tell me, human, what have you been doing with all of your 35 years on earth?”
“This!” Blaine holds up his deck and gives it a shake. “I’m an entertainer! A jester! A magician!” Kurt stares, waiting for the shoe to drop. He knows it’s coming. This man’s whole presentation has been nothing but dropping shoes.
And yet, it’s probably the most fun that Kurt’s known in years.
“But I work the register at a dry cleaners to pay the bills.”
“And there it is,” Kurt says, throwing his arms up in exasperation. “I’m surprised that I’m even surprised. So you have no circus or performance experience of any kind?”
“Yes, I have! I was an ale wench for six months at Medieval Times.”
“An ale … wench?” Puck chortles, wheezing when he pictures Blaine in a corset and a dress. Though, oddly enough, he has to admit, it’s not a bad look for him.
“Oh, and in high school, I was in The Wizard of Oz.”
“As what? A Flying Monkey?”
“No.” Blaine smirks. Then he snickers. “As one of the angry trees.”
Kurt feels his cheeks flush red but not out of anger, and that’s the part that makes him the most livid. “You’re ridiculous! Do you know that?”
“Well, you must like ridiculous.”
“And how do you figure that?”
“It’s been over an hour, and you’re still talking to me.”
“You’d never survive traveling with us,” Kurt says, stomping his feet and raising his voice, furious because, for a second, half a second, less than half so he won’t have to loathe himself for thinking of it, he began to ask himself - could it be that this time around, Kurt doesn’t follow his human love interest for the rest of his days on Earth?
Maybe he takes the love interest with him?
He hears the low hum of power again, tickling in his brain; he sees the barrage of memories that aren’t his; feels the warmth throughout his body that gathers in his stomach, trying to tell him something that he refuses, under pain of dismemberment or death, to supply any credence to.
There is absolutely no way, here or in hell, that he wants to have any attachment to this human! The man’s a hack! A con! A dime-a-dozen trickster out to make a quick buck at Kurt’s expense, and that’s all.
And Kurt’s first priority has to be to make him leave. He’s done entertaining these thoughts any longer. He was right to begin with. They don’t need to add new blood to the mix. New people only cause trouble. This proves it! They’ll figure something out. They’ll find another way. It’s a good plan. A sound plan.
So why does it make him feel emptier inside?
“We cross dimensional portals,” Kurt says in a stern voice. “Humans are soft. If it doesn’t make your blood boil, and if you don’t get torn limb from limb, it’ll turn your stomach inside out.”
Kurt stares at Blaine with an intensity that will turn the man into a candle if Kurt’s not careful. But somewhere in the man’s golden eyes, Kurt sees something click. He’s getting it. He’s finally getting it. He understands. This isn’t the place for him. He doesn’t belong there with him. With them.
With him.
Blaine lifts one shoulder. “That’s okay. I don’t get travel sick.”
Kurt slaps himself in the forehead with his palm.
“He has power,” Puck hisses in a whisper, having warmed to the idea of Blaine’s joining them over the course of the conversation.
Anyone who can get on Kurt’s nerves this badly might be worth keeping around.
“I can smell it. And I know you can smell it, Kurt. He has it in his background. Even if he can’t use it, it’s most likely in his blood. It might be enough to protect him.”
“What are you doing!? I don’t need you taking his side!”
“I’ll bring Dramamine,” Blaine adds. “Just in case. It’ll be good.”
Kurt laughs in vexation, knowing he’s losing this battle. Fine! Whatever! So what if the human comes with? It’s no skin off Kurt’s nose. He’ll just leave the dirty work to Puck, have him clean up the man’s guts when he implodes! Or mop him up when Loki’s great-great-great-great-grandnephew turns him into an oil slick. Or chase him down with a glass jar when Brittany transforms him into notes of music!
Or, Kurt could fit him with a protection spell. Something mild that might boost his power. Kurt hates to admit it, but this is workable.
The only problem is what it might do to him personally if the human stays.
“We pay minimum wage,” Kurt says, his methods of dissuading Blaine getting weaker and weaker.
“I’m fine with that. I was planning on cashing in my 401K anyway.”
“Wait, wait, wait … you work at a dry cleaners as a cashier and you have a 401K?” Puck gasps. “How in the world did you manage that?”
“I was a business minor in college.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yup. I set up a portfolio using eTrade online, diversified early, made a good call on some high risk investments …”
“Guys! We’re getting a little off topic, don’t you think?”
Blaine turns to Kurt. He stares deep into the demon’s eyes, as if he’s about to relate something profound, and says, “Ace of spades.”
Kurt jerks back. “What?”
“Your card.” Blaine points to the card skewered to the palm of Kurt’s hand. “It’s the ace of spades, am I right?”
Kurt looks at the card he’d forgotten he’d been holding, the one he’s been strangling this whole time. “How did you know that?”
“Your eyes give you away,” Blaine says with another of his infuriating winks. Kurt doesn’t like Blaine’s winks. They’re sly and disarming … and they make his stomach wriggle like a mass of earthworms struggling to rise through a thick puddle of mud. But Kurt finds himself grinning over the comment about his eyes until he remembers one thing.
His red eyes are reflective.
Which means Blaine’s just a con-man. A charming, handsome con-man.
But he’s a good one, there’s no denying that. He’s pretty much conned his way into Kurt’s circus, whether Kurt likes it or not. He’s conned Puck into taking his side, though that’s probably not as difficult a feat as Kurt is giving him credit for.
Conning his way into Kurt’s life - that Kurt doesn’t like. But Kurt will find a way around that. If Kurt could tame him up a little, Blaine might be of use to them.
If anything, he might be more qualified to balance their books than Puck, the neutered Pukwudgie.
“Look.” Blaine closes his eyes and exhales, rubbing a hand over his face as if he knows he’s running out of options. And on his face, Kurt catches a look that he’s seen on other humans a thousand times.
He’s even seen it on himself.
I just don’t want to be here. I just don’t want to be alone anymore.
That speaks to Kurt. Here it was, the truth behind the con.
I can’t stay here. There are too many memories here. I’m trying to live, I’m doing the best I can, but there’s nothing for me here anymore. If I have to stay here another week, another month, I won’t be able to take it. I’ll do something rash. Please. You have to take me with you. You have to let me in. I’m so lonely, and I just want a little bit of happiness. It’s been over twenty years. Don’t I deserve that?
Kurt nods at Blaine’s sentiment, the one in Blaine’s head, but that’s not what Blaine says.
What he says is this:
“You guys used to do well here on Earth because witches and warlocks and mermaids and unicorns and …” Blaine looks between Kurt and Puck. He makes a quick decision and points to Puck “… him … were the stuff of fantasies and legends. But now they’re the stuff of movies. Summer blockbusters by the dozens, coming out year after year like clockwork. With modern technology, computers and CGI, humans can create fantasy. Anything they want, even in their own homes. Kids more than half my age are becoming Internet famous with sci-fi movies they film in their basements and upload on YouTube. And that’s bad for you guys. Really bad for you. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. But where you guys are headed, won’t I be the thing of fantasy? The oddity? Won’t I be what draws a crowd, even if all I do are card tricks?” Kurt’s eyes are immediately drawn to the man’s hands, but miraculously, his ever-present deck of cards seems to have disappeared. In fact, dressed in a pocket-less black button down over a black tank top, skin tight jeans, and boat shoes on his feet with no socks, Kurt has no idea where that deck of cards even came from to begin with. The man shouldn’t even be able to wear underwear in those jeans. Where the hell is he hiding a deck of cards? “Maybe you guys can’t break even here, but why not get a head start wherever it is you’re going, and come back here with a better game plan?”
“And I assume that you are going to want to help us with that game plan?”
“It’d make sense, wouldn’t it? I mean, I know what the people here want. I have the inside scoop.”
“I also assume you’ll be expecting a cut,” Puck grouses.
“Not a cut,” Blaine says, that exhausted look evaporating with the arrival of a single, effervescent smile. “An opportunity.”
Kurt’s eyelids narrow. “What opportunity?”
Blaine turns his attention Kurt’s way, and Kurt notices the way Blaine’s eyes light up when he looks at him, the way his face seems to shine when he aims his smile at him.
“Well, now, that remains to be seen.”
Kurt sighs. He doesn’t know what to make of that comment, how to feel about it, but he moves on nonetheless. “Listen,” he says, already regretting what he’s about to say. But Blaine has a point. In other dimensions, he would be the oddity. That might be worth something. “I don’t know that you’ll fit in here, but you can come with. I’ll give you a trial run, so you can figure out if this is really the future you want. And if it’s not, we’ll drop you back off the next time we’re nearby.”
“You have the power to see the future, don’t you?” Blaine says.
“Sometimes,” Kurt replies, though seeing as he hasn’t been able to predict anything that’s happened so far, he might have to scratch that one off of his list of abilities.
“Well, what do you see in mine?”
“Me changing my mind if you don’t get your ass out of here.”
Blaine smiles his megawatt smile, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a golden retriever puppy. “You mean it?”
Kurt’s head tells him to say no. Regardless of if this is a workable idea, it’s still not an advisable one. Bringing a human through time and space may have consequences. But it’s not Blaine’s brilliant con that made Kurt’s mind up for him. It’s not even the warmth that’s been bubbling in Kurt’s heart since Blaine arrived.
It’s that one sentence Blaine uttered without saying a word.
I just want a little bit of happiness.
Kurt has dedicated his life to bringing happiness to others. That’s what his circus has been about. He didn’t create it for wealth or fame. He’s been sidetracked a little bit lately trying to keep their heads afloat, but not out of greed. Out of responsibility. But if he overlooks this man and his gifts simply because he’s human, Kurt will be a hypocrite to the ninth degree.
Besides, maybe helping this man find his happiness will help every one of them in the long run.
Even Kurt.
He’ll have to set the wheels in motion and see how this plays out.
“Yeah, I mean it.” Kurt shrinks a few feet to meet the man’s height. “Go home and pack up your things. Get your affairs in order and say your goodbyes. In a couple of days, we’ll be leaving this dimension, and I don’t know for sure when we’ll be back. Does that sound okay with you? Does it sound like something you can do?”
Kurt holds his breath while he waits for Blaine to answer, not because he’s afraid that Blaine will say yes, but because he’s suddenly afraid that Blaine might say no.
“Yes!” Blaine claps his hands. “Yes! I can! That’s no problem! Absolutely no problem, I …” Blaine rambles as he backs out of the room, planning out loud “I’ll pack up my things, I’ll say my goodbyes, I’ll cash in my accounts, I’ll … thank you!” He rushes over to Puck. He takes the goblin’s sticky hand and pumps it hard. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“Don’t thank me, young man,” Puck says, extricating his hand from Blaine’s grasp as if he were shedding himself of a slimier than normal banana slug. “Thank the demon. He’s the one who’ll be vouching for you from now on, so I suggest you don’t mess up.”
“Of course not! Of course I won’t!” Blaine launches himself at Kurt. Kurt reaches for his hand, but Blaine throws his arms around his waist instead, hugging him with all his might. “Thank you,” Blaine says, softer than a whisper. “You won’t regret this.”
“Make sure that I don’t.” Kurt can’t bring himself to hug the man. Not just yet. Not with those painful memories laying siege to Blaine’s mind. So Kurt pats him on the back instead. “Remember that if you piss me off in any way, peeling the skin from your bones is still an option.”
“I’ll remember.” Blaine detaches himself quickly and, with a wave at Kurt and Puck, races from the ruin, presumably heading home to collect his things and bid a fond adieu to his life.
He’ll be back. Kurt knows.
He doesn’t need to be psychic to see it.
“You like him,” Puck sneers, following Kurt’s eyes as the demon watches the human go.
Kurt clicks his tongue with disgust. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Don’t be ri---” He’s about to say ridiculous, but he remembers what Blaine said about liking ridiculous. He won’t prove him right. He refuses to use that word “… stupid.”
“A-ha,” Puck says, insulted. He takes one look at Kurt and his eyes grow wide, becoming the size of saucers, outdoing his nose for the most outlandish feature on his face. “Kurt! You---you’re budding!”
Kurt’s face scrunches. “What?”
“Look for yourself! You’re actually growing leaves! And flowers! Gah!” The goblin exclaims in disgust. “Is that … an apple?”
Kurt twists his torso in an attempt to get a better look. He spots his reflection in the filth-covered windows a short distance away and sneers. “It happens,” he says, trying to bat it off his body with his fingers. “It’s almost spring.”
“Don’t give me that!” Puck groans, swiping away Kurt’s excuses with his hand. “You’re wearing a disguise! One that you control! That apple is all you, buddy!”
“Well, what was that with you talking shop with him? About his portfolio?” Kurt counters. “You were practically drooling! It was pathetic!”
“Don’t talk pathetic with me. I’m not the one sprouting fruit. And I’m not fanboying! I’m trying to keep us in the black, Kurt! Remember? I’m not too proud to admit that that young man might know a little more than me in that regard.”
“Stop trying to be hip, Puck. It doesn’t suit you,” Kurt sniffs. “Having a blog on Tumblr doesn’t make you relevant.” Kurt plants his hands on his hips and goes back to pacing, trying to come to grips with these changes, what he did - inviting a human to travel with them, making him part of the troupe.
Possibly flirting with him, and how that made him feel.
How it felt to give in to his nature after so long.
He taps his fingers on his hip as he marks off the many, many mistakes he made in the past two hours. When his finger hits something – or more to the point, the absence of something - he can’t help the grin blossoming on his face among a small patch of moss and a cluster of bluebells. And if a small robin’s nest sprouts somewhere in the vicinity of the new growth behind his left ear, complete with momma bird and a clutch of pale blue eggs, well, he won’t be the one to point it out.
He doesn’t have to. Puck sees it and shakes his head. “So, tell me this, Kurt - if you don’t like him, then why are you blooming? What’s with the smiling? I haven’t seen you this giddy since The Great Emu War.”
Kurt chuckles before he answers, patting down his body once to be doubly sure. He’s been using magic to change his appearance, giving himself a façade that aligns with what the humans believe a “tree demon” should look like. It covers up his vaguely human form, including the clothes he wears (which is a shame because he happens to have amazing fashion sense). It had to have been when Blaine hugged him. Kurt had been caught off his guard. It had happened so quickly, he didn’t even notice.
The sly bastard.
Blaine must have been looking for Kurt’s stone. Of course, he was. Blaine, with even a Google knowledge of Spriggan would know that Kurt might have one. Many a Spriggan does - a beautiful, snow white keepsake - and the Spriggan who loses his is required to grant wishes to the person who finds it. Blaine must have felt it. It’s difficult to miss once you put your hand on it.
Kurt can imagine what Blaine would have wished for if he’d taken it.
But for some reason, he didn’t. The most precious of Kurt’s possessions, and Blaine left it behind.
There is obviously more to this man than meets the eyes.
But that doesn’t mean he left empty handed.
In that same pocket was something else, which has now gone missing, and Kurt smirks thinking about it.
“He stole my wallet.”
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