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the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog · 1 year

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The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #3

Some random thoughts (11th September RAW Preview, MJF & Samoa Joe)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

Today I thought I’d discuss AEW Dynamite’s segment between MJF & Samoa Joe and do a brief preview for WWE RAW tonight (11th September 2023) Let’s get started –

WWE RAW – 11th September 2023 – Brief Preview

Women’s World Championship (Dominik Mysterio banned from ringside): Rhea Ripley defends against Raquel Rodriguez – I’m assuming this will be the final match in this feud. I’m also assuming even with Dom banned from ringside that Rhea will get the win and retain her Women’s World Championship. Either she retains clean, or a present or new member of the Judgment Day might get the assist. Regardless, I’m happy for the reign of Rhea to continue. She’s a megastar for this company.

Cody Rhodes returns – Quite a few members of the wrestling online community are assuming that Cody Rhodes will be the member of the WWE RAW roster to be traded to SmackDown in return for Jey Uso’s switch to the red brand last week. Maybe we’ll find out more tonight? If he is moving to SmackDown maybe we’ll get a final match tonight or maybe a series of matches across the next few week before he makes the jump? I could be way off, and he might just start a new feud tonight with no mention of a move, we’ll have to wait and see!

Gunther’s Record-Breaking Intercontinental Championship Celebration – Congratulations to Gunther on becoming the longest reigning and record-breaking Intercontinental Champion in WWE history. The celebration tonight should be interesting, I always feel like these segments work best for a comedic and whiny / scared heel champion – All of which does not describe Gunther at all. So, I will be interested to see how WWE approaches this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see Gable get involved with another rematch for the title then being booked for WWE Fastlane? I never get sick of these two working together, I really enjoyed their match last week!

AEW Dynamite, 6th September 2023 – AEW World Champion MJF & Samoa Joe –

So, I like many of you checked out AEW Dynamite last week. Nothing in particular was standing out to me during the show. Orange Cassidy made a brief appearance, gave a tiny promo, and left before Jon Moxley defended his newly won AEW International Championship in a decent opening bout. Kris Statlander then defended her AEW TBS Championship in what was another decent match, nothing special here. Le Sex Gods defeated Aussie Open in another average bout – Not sure about everyone else, but I don’t care about Sammy Guevara falling out with Chris Jericho.

So, as the show went on, I was beginning to wonder “What is going to make me keep watching this?” I was close to turning it off when the graphic came up announcing we would be hearing from the ROH Tag Team & AEW World Champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman next! I thought, I’ll watch this, if it isn’t interesting then I’ll call it a night.

MJF made his way to the ring and in his usual style captivated the crowd immediately and had them in the palm of his hand straight away. He’s arguably the best thing about AEW, he’s got the look, oozes charisma, character and personality and can be a heel you detest or a babyface you pull for. On top of that, he’s 27 years old. AEW should be looking to give him whatever he wants financially and building their company around this guy.

MJF stated how unhappy he was with Samoa Joe pushing him on the ramp at AEW All Out the previous weekend. If you’re aware of Joe’s run in WWE NXT, you’ll remember the infamous spot when he’s being accompanied to the ring by security backstage. One of the guards is a young MJF. Samoa Joe, carrying the NXT World Title at the time pushes the ‘kid’ into the wall. So of course, all these years later Joe doing this to MJF again is going to hit a nerve.

Samoa Joe comes out and proceeds to call MJF ‘Kid’ numerous times which clearly gets under the champ’s skin. Further insults are traded (Jokes at the expense of Joe, shots at William Regal etc…) before Samoa Joe states that he will win the AEW Grand Slam tournament and go on to defeat MJF and claim the AEW World Championship. Joe called MJF a bitch which in return for he received a slap, Joe said he wasn’t going to take the champ’s bait and allowed MJF to leave. Once MJF tried to leave Joe attacked, MJF rallied and attempted a comeback, but with an underlying ‘neck’ injury Joe got the upper hand and took control. Adam Cole then made the save and Joe retreated.

The reason this segment caught my interest in an otherwise bland show up until this point was due to a multitude of reasons – The crowd were hot for this segment, MJF and Samoa Joe deserve credit for this due to telling a story that went back years. They showed no respect for one another and despite it obviously being a storyline you could genuinely believe and understand both MJF and Joe’s viewpoints. MJF is the young champ, the future star who feels like a veteran he looked up to disrespected him whilst trying to make a name for himself in the business. Joe is the veteran, a killer in the ring who doesn’t respect anyone, especially a cocky and brash ‘kid’ like MJF.

I think we all know that Joe will be winning the AEW Grand Slam Tournament now, wouldn’t make sense for him not to. Hopefully between Joe and MJF fighting for the title we get to see the challenger Samoa Joe become even more ruthless – Let him get under the champ’s skin even more by savagely attacking Adam Cole. Anyway, that’s me starting to fantasy book how we get from A to B… That’s not a bad thing though, AEW and this feud have clearly caught my attention and pulled me in.

Final word on this segment is regarding some of the backlash I seen online regarding the WWE references. I think one person noted eight mentions of WWE terms, talents etc… Usually I wouldn’t be a fan of them using WWE as part of their feud, it would feel cheap (TNA used to do this and I didn’t like it then) but doing it to further a deep feud makes sense. Just don’t keep rehashing it over and over again AEW!

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on now. Thanks for checking this third blog out. I’m a self-confessed WWE fanboy, always have been since I started watching WWE as a child. However, as you can hopefully and probably tell I’m trying to broaden by Professional Wrestling palate and horizons. If there is anything else you can recommend, I’m open to suggestions. I’m taking a break from my 9-5 office job at the moment and trying to fill my time!

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

#aew #aew collision #aew dynamite #aew rampage #all elite wrestling #tony khan #wwe #wwe raw #wwe smackdown #smackdown #mjf aew #samoa joe #rhea ripley #raquel rodriguez #cody rhodes #gunther wwe

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erotetica · 2 years

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holding a metaphorical knife to ur metaphorical throat to make u keep talking actually (hi this is marwankenzarisetc this is my main. im not threatening u out of the blue.) all of this is delicious bcc quynh . <- man who feels normal about everything just had an extremely well-adjusted emotional reaction to the mental image presented to him. tog2 is just that gif of kingston hitting jas with a kendo stick except its q&b and we all sit there and enjoy it deeply <3 OLYMPIC DARLING NILE. what i would rly enjoy is if olympic darling nile ends up joining some deeply gimmicky faction (think julia hart & the house of black) bc even tho she's just a really damn good wrestler she also loves a bit of fun.

i need you to talk most about luchador joe tho. everything else ive said up to this point has just been me burying the lucha joe lead.

are we thinking the whole nine yards flippy dippy shit beautiful mask highly perfected gear ? are we thinking rivalry with nicky while in the back nicky has this crush on this beautiful guy he hasn't seen around often and has never talked to but stares at deeply ? are we thinking joe being like dude this is getting to much why does di genova keep staring at me in the back. cant he keep it for the ring. all i know for certain is that i need (Need) joe to have tassels framing his ass and thighs

thinking abt where andy fits into all of this tho. part of me thinks she's one of those indies wrestlers who refuses to leave the indies partially on principle partially bc she way prefers her own schedule OR. she could be nile's sting. this might be getting out of hand

(x) U r coming 2 me in a constant state of drawing quynh in leather pride bullshit, which I never finish, but BY FUCK I'm starting another piece abt this.

All I can think abt is yusuf in a mask that is also litham in that way, like, elaborate fashion editorial jewelry is influenced by the silhouette of hijab. Actually that's a lie I can also think about him freestyling at people a la Mohammed Ali, and putting cologne on his knees so headlocks are nice for both parties, and being an undefeated scamp. Lov this guy. And his assless chaps.

ANYWay I think luchador fits joe for the fast pace/style and nicky is an endurance test for him, in a way that makes their raven;s rules feud so annoying, which is already annoying bc neither of them wins more than once at a stretch. Joe hits alec-baldwin-in-the-spongebob-movie with a light bulb, he tells joe his rhymes are dumb. etc. Nicky blows him in an ER curtain-cubicle & joe is like 'oh, so you're certifiable' and writes his phone number behind nicky's ear in like, purple sharpie. (nicky: you just have a prison wallet of pastel markers on you 24/7? yusuf: what I'm hearing here is no one's ever asked you to sign anything. NARRATOR: THIS WAS TRUE)

cosigning your nile stuff. I wanna say andy has classic roots too, bc parallels?? She comes up in a trenchcoat like 'ey kid, do you want to wear studded gloves but like, for work?' and nile leaves skid marks towards the kitschiest adrenaline-junkie shit possible.

#tog #asks #heel nicolo..#booker like 'don't you want people to like you :(' and nicky calls him a slur #I want to see Joe and Andy tag team…#WANT 2 SEE ANDY AND NILE TAG TEAM.#Once again Ty for the brainworms

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isabellehemlock · 3 years

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In honor of Ace Week (October 24th - October 30th), I wanted to compile a list of aspec fics for the TOG fandom. For anyone unfamiliar, aspec includes ace, aro, demi, grey/gray, combinations of those, and more - it’s definitely a spectrum :)

At the time of this writing, there are almost 9k TOG fics (whoa!), and I used the following tags to try to find a variety (please feel free to click on the links to see the results for yourself):

Asexuality spectrum (53)

Asexuality (27)

Asexual character (23)

Asexual relationship (6)

Demisexuality (27)

I did not see any results for “aro”, “ace/aro”, and/or “grey” or “gray” - and some of the results have overlap - of course some stories within the fandom might feature aspec themes but weren’t labeled in a way that the search engine caught, and I missed it.

But here are twelve I picked (some I have read, some I haven’t gotten to yet) - and one I wrote myself - though hopefully no one thinks I was trying to be self promoting. Also, I did write by the title if the character was listed in a specific way like “feat. demiNicky” - however not all stories might have that as the major theme, but include that character. And unfortunately I did not see any with Andy on that spectrum, but did include ones featuring Joe, Nicky, Nile and Booker.

As with previous fic recs I’ve done, please do not use this list as an excuse to bully/hound the author - instead here are links in case you’d like to avoid a tag, a pairing, and/or block an author. My hope was to create a well rounded list that included all characters, as well as all ratings, but understand that might not be for everyone. Curate/tailor to your individual reading preferences.

Please feel free to reblog and add your own recs, and I went by the author’s profile of their tumblr handles (if listed), if that has been changed, or the wrong thing got linked, don’t hesitate to comment and I’ll rectify that as quickly as I can. Lastly, this post has been copy/pasted into a Google doc for easy reference in the future :)

Happy reading 💜

Saving space by KestralWatcher feat. AceNile

On not repeating the mistakes of the past.

They never ask her to replace Booker, even without words. For Nile to fulfill his original role in this team (this family). (However much they are delighted to learn of her proficiency with modern technology. She is more at ease with handling the various communications with Copley, especially once she learns that Andy still prefers a flip phone and that Nicky has never even heard of the Gutenberg Project. Andy is a lost cause, but she orders Nicky a Kindle.)

Rated G - Oneshot - Complete (2.3k)

Lion’s Heart by @romeoandjulietyouwish feat. AceJoe and AceNicky

There didn’t use to be a word for who they are, Nile tells them that there is.

An asexual Nicky/Joe fic

Rated G - Oneshot - Complete (1.2k)

Nine Hundred Years Of Poetry by flawedamythyst feat. demiNicky

“They’re not together. Not like that.”

There was a quiet pause, then Nile snorted. “Bullshit,” she said. “Come on, you’re having me on, right?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Booker, stopping in front of the wine racks and turning to look at her. “They are just very close friends.”

Nicky and Joe never actually managed to get together and so have spent 900 years pining over each other and coming up with angsty poetry. Booker is 100% done.

Rated G - Oneshot - Complete (6.3k)

Cracks and Coping Mechanism by EbbaTriesToWrite feat. AsexualBooker

People didn’t really talk about sex in the time Booker grew up in. Well, there had been the occasional overheard conversation at bars or the soldiers talking about what they missed about being back in France - be it their wives, mistresses or the brothels. But it made sense that Booker found himself uncomfortable listening to it, his fidgeting fingers or the tapping of his foot was simply due to the fact that he wasn’t meant to hear these things in the first place.

Rated Teen - Oneshot - Complete (4k)

The House in Sicily by @shadowen feat. demiJoe & aro/ace Nile

If Nile had to picture what she thought Joe and Nicky’s dream home would look like, the house in Sicily would be it, and then some.

Rated Teen - Multichapter - Complete (28k)

Lemon Trees & Flowers by kirasometimes feat. demiNicky

Yusuf is kissing him now and it takes Nicolo far too long to realize that he has not allowed himself to kiss Yusuf back.

Rated Teen - Oneshot - Complete (2.4k)

Brimful by @boutiquetraveltravelboutique feat. demiJoe

When Yusuf was thirty-three years old, he died for his convictions and he died for his god and he died for himself, too, pierced through by a helmeted soldier who took Yusuf’s own blade into himself, in turn. They collapsed together in perfect synchronicity. The Frankish man’s eyes were very wide and very green, and Yusuf thought that he hated them.

When Yusuf was thirty-three years old, he gasped back to life on the ruined stretch of battlefield where he’d perished. He died and rose, again and again, until he determined that he must be a ghost, or perhaps simply an extension of his blade, guided by forces beyond his understanding and control. The soldier was a phantom too, pale and screaming, returning to flay Yusuf with sharp metal and foreign derogations.

When Yusuf was thirty-three years old, as he would remain outwardly for a millennium and beyond, he found the person who offered him all and more.

Rated M - Oneshot - Complete (1.2k) you can read my rambling comments on the bottom of the fic for a review lol

Somewhere Only We Know by Ghrelt feat. AceNile

Keane wakes up after the battle at Merrick Labs. He wakes up. Nobody's more surprised by that than he is, and none of the Immortals are happy the guy who just captured and imprisoned them is now one of their own. Whether he turns out to be an ally or an enemy is yet to be decided.

Rated M - MultiChapter - Complete (72k)

The Purpose of Art by me feat. demiNicky

A fluffy rom com multif fic disguised as a restorative art justice piece, featuring the prestigious Bythewood University, the corrupt Merrick Museum of Art, and the black market Copley Foundation Auction House.

Rated M - MultiChapter - Complete (111k+)

(let go of) the same dream by @bewires feat. demiNicky & demiJoe

In which both Joe and Nicky struggle to fit into a world where your cycle determines so much about your romantic prospects when neither of them have typical cycles or even know if they want that kind of romantic relationship. In which Joe co-runs a center where people with atypical heat and rut cycles can come and receive the help they need. In which Nicky really wishes he hadn't written a series of very stupid letters to the editor of the local paper back when he was pretending he didn't need the kind of help Joe was offering.

Rated E - MultiChapter - Complete (13k+) you can read my review for this one here

Frost and Fjords by @ao3-arkada feat. demiNicky

The Norse countries are lands of mountains and rivers, riches and danger, home to battle-hardened Vikings, intimidating volvas, stone-fisted jarls, and many more.

The Norse lands also draw Yusuf, a merchant from Tunis seeking to trade for their wealth. He travels north every year, with the goal of bringing home the greatest profit he can find.

Then his life is saved by a handsome stranger named Nicolò, who soon proves himself a kind and good friend.

And Yusuf has another goal each time he travels to the Norse lands: not falling in love with him.

Rate E - MultiChapter - Complete (51k+) you can read my review for this one here

Djinn’s eyes by @lisea18 feat. demiNicky

They die by each other’s swords. Many times. Until Yusuf offers his hand. Yusuf wants to go back home, to his loved ones. Nicolò follows. How do Yusuf and Nicolò start traveling together and communicating? How do they learn about each other, their personality, their past? How do they become friends before feelings that shouldn’t be born between ex enemies start to bloom? How do they deal with immortality and what it entails? Slowly, with pining, tears and laughter.

Rated E - MultiChapter - Not Complete (18k+ so far)

#tog #the old guard #tog fics #tog fic recs #fic recs #fic rec #ao3 fic #ao3 fic recs #ace week fandom #aspec fandom #aspec fics #tog nile #tog booker #tog joe #tog nicky #for queue

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nevermindirah · 3 years

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can you recommend me some of your favorite book of nile fics?

CAN I. Anon, I have read every single fic in the AO3 Booker/Nile tag with the exception of a handful that will trigger me. I read my faves over and over again. We're currently at 303 works in the tag, and a handful of them are Joe/Nicky fics with "if you squint" BoN (I still read them, I can't help myself) but the vast majority of them are AMAZING. Fandom is full of kind and talented people, holy shit.

if you want a slow burn — you're in luck because this ship SPECIALIZES in slow burn!

First, the triumvirate of Book of Nile Classics. These were the first long fics for this ship and they're all so unique given they share basically the exact same premise, that Nile and Booker get to know each other slowly through run-ins spread out over years of his exile.

Five Times Booker Broke His Exile and the One Time He Did Not by @sphinx81: The one where they keep running into each other on ops, with the angsty middle chapter where Booker gets deep in his self-hate and calls Nile a clueless child and Nile reasonably tells him to go fuck himself and doesn't speak to him for years.

everywhere on earth you go (you're gonna have me) by nondz (pinkjook): The one with the buddy system. This is the only BoN fic that has a podfic as far as I'm aware! You can listen to it over and over and over again! The reader's voice is so soothing! [Podfic] everywhere on earth you go (you're gonna have me) by sallysparrow017

The Last Man on Earth by Survivah: The one where Booker doesn't show up in London when his exile's up, so Nile tracks him down, they get stuck in a broken elevator, and she gives him a medium sell.

Any Port in Storm by CypressSunn: Nile gives up her evac spot so a dad with kids can escape a blizzard that's on its way in rural Canada, and Booker stays behind with her, because Nile may know her shit about surviving in the desert but she doesn't know anywhere near what Booker knows about freezing to death. If you really want to up the angst on this one, first read a mausoleum fit for me by @spectralarchers for (a really interesting take on Booker's mortal life and) a visceral, detailed exploration of exactly how shitty Booker's experience was of starving and freezing on the Russian campaign.

If everything I do has got a hole in it (then everything you do has got a hold on me) by AnnieTheMouse: Nile will take over for Andy, but not just yet. First she's gonna be a little irresponsible, enjoy herself a little bit, sow her wild oats. If one of her hookups happens to also be fucking Booker, what about it?

Part of the Union by GlassRose: This is a newer take on the Book of Nile Classics genre where Nile and Booker run into each other over the years. Best friends to lovers, facilitated by a Team Baby union contract. Featuring stunning art by albymangroves, my absolute favorite fanartist from Captain America fandom.

Bring the World Back Into Tune by @mprosperossprite: Technically an AU, but 2 Old 2 Guard will make AUs of all of these, right? Hades and Persephone magical realism elements on top of a gorgeous, nuanced analysis of what it means, in practice, in such a complicated and fucked-up world, to "do what we think is right". Star-crossed, spanning years and continents, lives not permanently ruined but much blood shed. (Hi I originally joined Tumblr because of the Veronica Mars movie anybody else see the Logan/Veronica parallels??)

Announcing Your Place in the World of Things by @mprosperossprite: The soulmate goose AU. Yeah you read that right! I'm putting this here and not in the AU category because it's my list and I make the rules. Some people have soulmates, and those people get a daemon-type friend who's a goose so your goose can lead you to your soulmate. This closely follows movie canon and answers questions like, what if our elderly friends had soulmate geese with them in Goussainville? (Mouse over the author's username and peep her icon! Look how sweet chibi-Nile is with her soulmate goose Tigris! Look, anon, look!!)

Wish You Were Here by @aimmyarrowshigh: The latest entry in the Book of Nile Classics genre, this time starting with a postcard. Part I is up now and Part II is coming soon. Bookmark for later if you want a satisfying ending, or go read it right now if you want a deliciously WHAT emotional cliffhanger. (It's so good! I recommend it! Also waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah c'mon you're gonna leave us hanging on THAT??)

I'm also gonna include my own here, because I'm really proud of it and whatever it's my list: I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. Nile becomes the guard's leader, moves to London on her own to adjust to immortal life, develops a long-term plan for how exactly they're going to do what they think is right, and gets a shit ton of emotional support from the guard and Copley and several OCs and a certain exiled Frenchman who's dealing with his shit by getting a PhD in trauma studies. Check it out if you like politics and long footnotes and porn with feelings!

if you want an AU

The Beautiful Game by @victimhood: Elite footballers AU! This fic lives in my head rent-free to the extent that I have headcanons about the in-universe RPF fandom for these characters. Nile is a USWNT and Barça champion who had to retire early due to a worsening chronic illness, and she moves to Milan for a sportscasting job just as a new player gets traded from Copley's Liverpool to Andy's Inter Milan. How will Booker mesh with his new teammates, especially the team captain with the murder eyes? How will Nile rebuild her life after having to stop playing the game she loves? And why does Yooker keep trending on social media??

if you do take a thief by @morallygreywaren: Clue(do) AU! Six strangers (or are they?) are blackmailed into a dinner party. This fic masterfully gives equal airtime to all 3 ships in the middle of a damn murder mystery, and NILE'S DAD IS ALIVE IN THIS ONE, I REPEAT, NILE'S DAD IS ALIVE. And the author has a follow-up planned!

A General Librarian by @sweetlyenchains: Booker and his sons live in a magical manor house with a sentient library. Nile is a retired general who agrees to marry a widower sight unseen for *handwave* reasons, and she's not thrilled to be some old man's wife but it'll be fine. And then she meets the library. And then she meets its caretaker.

Les Petits Monstres by @winterequinoxx: The original gym AU. Nile gets to know the single dad of her adorable tiny martial arts students. The cutest of kid fics and the source of widely-used fanon for Jean Pierre's brothers' names.

Rhymes with Shook Her by @lady-writes: Booker the Happy Hooker! Nile's a stressed grad student who books a sex worker to get her out of her head, and you'll never guess what happens next 😏😏

The Kids Are All Right by @takethisnight-wrapitaroundme: The teachers AU where the students gossip incessantly about the English teacher's painfully obvious years-long crush on Ms. Freeman, and a fateful school dance where a last-minute chaperone switch-out and a teenager's smartphone change everything.

Geborgen by liadan14: Nile is sent by the CIA to take in a priority target. She makes a different call. This is a BoN-focused continuation of a primarily Joe/Nicky series that gives lovely attention to all 3 main pairings over the course of the series. Most of the commenters are there seemingly exclusively for the Joe/Nicky, and the author seems to really appreciate love for the BoN sections, so consider giving some BoN-specific love! Political and angsty and mysterious and hopeful and SO FUCKING HOT.

Cross Promotion by @rileywrites: The YouTubers AU! Slowest of slow burns. Work in progress with slow updates recently, but if the author never returns to this I think the latest chapter still makes for a very satisfying ending-ish thing.

For I Am Bound and You Are Free by EnglishAsSheIsSpoke: Selkie AU. In an alternate timeline with different countries and wars, Nile moves to a remote Scottish island in the early 1900s and joins the found family who maintains the lighthouse.

Eye Candy vs Soul Food by @lady-writes: The Princess and the Frog-inspired reincarnation AU. Short and sweet and angsty and romantic and mysterious and UGH it's so good!

Songs Written in Blood: A Nightingale's Flight by @winterequinoxx: The roaring nineteen-twenties speakeasy AU. A serial murderer is targeting talented Black people and the extraordinarily talented singer at Andy's bar is next on the list. Will the one cop who isn't a piece of shit be able to protect her? And what kinds of intimate situations might they find themselves in as the plot unfolds??

if you want porn

honey doesn't just catch flies by @queermermaids: The original honeypot fic. Nile gets back from a mission and Booker reminds her that she's home 😏😏

Take the Risk by @kyra-bane: I'm proud to say this is a result of my Kinktober request! (Almost) caught in the act. (Abortive) porn with feelings. Found family feels. This fic is a lap dance and secondhand embarrassment and a warm hug all in one sexy and hilarious lil package!

Show me somethin' natural by @highlightcity159: Nile has stretch marks and Booker would like to lick them. Leisurely we're-on-vacation established-relationship sex.

Almost Familiar by @takethisnight-wrapitaroundme: Nile's trying to pick someone up in a bar but nobody's sparking her interest, she's like a hundred years old and all these people are so young. Then the bartender hands her a drink from an admirer across the room. You'll never guess who it is or what happens next 😏😏

and still my heart has wings by allandmore99: "Booker is a good house husband and comes to visit publishing executive Nile on her lunch break."

ain't even done with the night by ourdarkspirits: MISSION FIC. Evening wear, posing as a couple, high stakes, close quarters, a heart-pounding mission followed by heart-pounding feelings followed by, well, you can guess 😏😏

With the One I Love by @takethisnight-wrapitaroundme: THIRTY ONE completely different smutty, smutty fics, one for every day of March. Tone and context and kinks and warnings vary wildly, there's something for everyone in this smorgasbord of porn!

Don't//Speak by @lady-writes: This fic is not for everyone — read the tags/warnings (which I contributed to as beta!) before you read. Nile and Booker explore kink. Andy, Quynh, Joe, and Nicky come home a lot earlier than they said they would.

Dido Burns by @mprosperossprite: If Nile wants an orgasm, she has to keep reading. Inspired by a certain WHAT THE FUCK DUDE Matthias Schoenaerts insta post that I can't find the link to right now.

And another two of my own: problem solved it's dissolved, a gym AU where they hook up and later find out Nile is Booker's new coworker. Graphic depiction of pegging if you're into that. 😏 And you have the right to lose control, my mission fic meets friends to Domme/sub lovers Big Bang contribution, complete with a sexy BoN playlist and 10 (yeah you read that right, TEN) different kink scenes. (Quarantine is hard of a slut, I'm coping, ok?!)

if you want angst

The Comforting Arms of Home by @highlightcity159: Nile leads her first mission, it gets a little rough for her but they make it out just fine, and people who are not Nile have just a whole fucking lot of feelings about the mission getting rough for her. Apologies are owed. Apologies are made.

Honeypot Missions Aren't So Sweet by redlionspride: In which Booker makes out with the mark and Nile has a lot of feelings about it. What, will they have to use their words?

Save Yourself and Confess, also by redlionspride: In which a building collapses with Nile, Booker, and a half-dozen kidnapped children still inside. Whump and its aftercare.

if you want fluff

The House Husband Interludes by @highlightcity159: Delicious little established-relationship slices of life seen through Nile and Joe's friendship.

Love and Tresses by @sphinx81: The fluffiest fluffy bathrobe of fics that I would literally wrap myself up in like a blanket if I could. Booker helps Nile with her hair.

You're my river running wild by @energievie: Nile and Booker road trip from Tijuana to Vancouver. The most established of established relationships is even more adorable when you see them interacting with strangers on the road.

While we're at it, the entire Gooey series by @energievie is Grade A Fluff!

2117, Revisited by @lady-writes: An absolutely stunning take on Booker and Nile's wedding. I had the absolute pleasure of helping out as Jewish wedding traditions resource for this and I cried at the finished product. A modern English interpretation of the traditional Sheva Brachot (seven wedding blessings) interspersed with the thoughts and feelings and mortal-family heirlooms the wedding couple and their immortal family bring to their chuppah.

#fandom friends #book of nile #fic recs #nile freeman #sebastien le livre #long post #mine

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mega-ringsandthings-world · 4 years

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Another thing I can’t get past about Nile is how accepting and welcoming she is. I know the fandom is head over heels about Joe’s softness and Nicky’s caring, but I feel that Nile is overlooked in that regard. Nile has so much softness and caring and consideration in her. The way she interacts with the child and the woman in her first scenes, she’s both kind and respectful respectively, each time going out of her way to ease the experience for the person she is communicating with, to no one’s benefit but theirs. And on that subject, and this was very, VERY, important to me, when Nicky says the “love of my life at dinner” and points to Joe, Nile doesn’t show one flicker of surprise or shock or give us the “oh, are you gay?” moment we might expect. No. Just a “You’re the oldest?” to Andy, because Joe and Nicky being together is a fact she’s witnessed and heard about, and just like that she’s accepted it completely and without question, wich is certainly a testament to her upbringing and personal values = Nile Freeman is good people. When she wakes from her nightmare, her immediate and general “sorry’ to everyone for disturbing their rest, even though she’s known them for all of what? Three, four, five hours at this point? She considers them, even in the midst of her own turmoil at the moment? The way she relays the contents of her dream to them when Nicky asks? Low and questioning, although not demanding answers, even though the dream obviously pertains to them in some way, and she has a right to do so? The way she speaks about her mother and father and family to Andy? Quietly loving and proud? This is what and who my family is, this is what they did for me? And Andy sees and understands - “you come from warriors,” Even the way she chooses to leave Andy is in it’s own way considerate, she doesn’t reject or do so angrily or accusingly, she simply tells Andy firmly, “I’m not doing this,” and then almost pleadingly, “I still have time with them,” and then, and THEN, she asks “Are you going to be okay?” because she cares for her family, and wants to go back to them, but she also cares for Andy now, she knows her leaving could potentially change the game for her, and she wants to make sure, before she goes that it’ll be okay for her. Then she realizes Booker’s betrayal, and with all the implications of that for Andy and the team, that care manifests, and she immediately goes back. When she sees Copley’s wall, her first thought goes to Andy’s hopelessness and grimness, “she couldn’t see, but you could,” she sees an opportunity to better life for someone and takes on the task of delivering that message of hope to that person - - the first thing she does in the lab is reassure Andy, tell her softly, almost sweetly, that all she’s done has mattered. And throughout the fight at the end, “where is Andy?” “Put on the damn armor, Andy,” “you’re going spend it with us,” because she cares so much, loves so much, she’s welcomed these people in already and it’s so glaringly obvious that she’s determined to make her life with them a good one. And at the very end, when she only wants an apology for Booker, yes, she’s still young and not fully understanding of the depth of what Booker did, but she knows it is serious, and she’s still ready to forgive. (another testament to the way she was raised and perhaps how her religion influences her views: forgiveness is a big thing in Christian religion, and she seems to be a Christian of some denomination) Nile is just...she has such a big heart. She’s such a good person that it fucking hurts to even think about it. She feels deeply, cares deeply, is hurt deeply, (her face when she comes into the tent in the camp and see that her ‘friends’ are packing her off) and welcomes without qualm and with the depths of her heart. Her heart is so, so big, she accepts all these people, accepts them as they are - I think this verse from Nirvana sums it up (Come as you are, as you were. As I want you to be. As a friend, as a friend. As an old enemy.) and she accepts with no small amount of grace the hand that destiny has dealt to her, and at every turn retains her personal values and inherent goodness. In conclusion, Nile Freeman is an awesome human being, and the values she embodies and the love she’s ready to give needs to be more appreciated. And I love her @themoonwheniamlost (if it’s okay to tag!! tell me if it’s not!) You love Nile as much as I do, any thoughts?

#the old guard #the old guard movie #the old guard meta #the old guard nile #the old guard nile freeman #nile #nile freeman #tog nile #tog nile freeman #tog meta

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khruseos · 5 years

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Tag drop: Damon Salvatore

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marwankenzarisgaylittleearring · 2 years

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(re: big boi post, bc I figure not rbing it again is less walloftext)

Capitalism Dudley McMahon :( :( :(

CROSSING HIMSELF. The thing wrong w/ Nicky is, as ever, Catholicism. hardcore is flagellation. Joe: LOSE then! Nicky: fuck you so much.

Joe screenshots and retweets a crop of posts w/ the caption ‘yeah, a bell jar’ and giggles out loud, so Nicky kicks him, bodily, off of the bed.

Wanting whatever the keane v yusufnicky is in this au to take place as a staple gun match now

All of the Andy shit. Chefs kiss. Also glory days Andy and her axe Making A Metaphor abt the og dyke flag…fuck… OH ALSO-ALSO, the black parts of the face paint in the labrys-shape

In MY mind palace Nicky and Quynh are the t4t of branch this polycule and she can compare him to all manner of mid-sized predators. All those hobby lobby ‘the fastest way to get to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ needlepoints, but instead it’s ‘u access subspace through the Gender.’ What the FUCK was I talking about.

Having an ‘I’ve connect the dots (I haven’t connected shit)’ re: Booker/Copley parallels, and Andy/Nile parallels. The former as grief as a wound needing to heal, the latter as grief, as infection, which needs intervention. But all of it abt maladaptive coping. Like, Andy needs to address w/e happened with Quynh. And mb the au version of Nile not seeing her family, bc I don’t like to kill them off, is her father’s death/career change/xyz causing her to pull away from them, & she has to deal w/ that.

Is this Copley v merrick then. & Nile coming in clutch w/ the kendo stick. & Booker, as ever, having his neck broken doggy-style (love how dramatic the announcing is)

Sdhjgkdlsq not the ‘lose then’ god their dynamic is just the absolute crème de la crème truly the epitome of like. Puts them in a cage together and notes down their behaviours. <- meant that in a labrat sort of way but hello nickyjoe cage match who says no

The reason this au is so fucking good btw is the combination of like. Actual violence and bodily harm. And also the bodily harm tht comes from kicking ur boyfriend off the bed in a mean and not so gentle way, but its ok bc u kno he can take both it and u, and also you’re doing it at least 25% because it’ll give you an advantage in ur next match. But only 25%. Maybe 30%

Never seen a staple gun match. Disregard the fact that I have 10 tabs open rn to yt videos of wrestling lemme open up a couple more. Agreeing even tho I havent seen one yet because like yeah I mean. yeah. In this situation is it a tag team thing or is it like one on one w one of the two running interference. Either is so fun . <- wait now Im thinking abt the implications of a no DQ match cause obv u can cheat in a no DQ match thats kinda the point r u allowed to bring in other ppl to fight ur fight with u … no idea. Love the idea of it tho.

Also also now Im thinking of a merrick et al v guardofblack blood&guts steelcage match. Of the cool hand ang covered in blood, mjf throwing Jericho off the top variety. Of the booker realises he’s fucked up and sorta refuses to fight back & just sits there bleeding perhaps throwing himself into the punaises (forgot the word) someone brought in bc its the whole ‘i deserve to suffer thing’ variety. Thatd be so annoying. Like the guard would be annoyed extra with him like stop trying to be a martyr a) you are so stupid b) get out of the way I am TRYING to do smth here

OUGH LABRYS FACE PAINT. SECONDING THAT. SO GOOD

“In MY mind palace Nicky and Quynh are the t4t of branch this polycule” obsessed w u. Giving this its own response to let it breathe like a fine wine Im sipping down in gulps.

Nicky & quynh is deeply underrated as a dynamic <- man who has never done anything himself to actually create a nickyquynh dynamic. Man who has always put Nicky with Andy and quynh with joe. Man who thinks he’s right on both counts because Joe and quynh also deeply underrated. Theres a (severely) unfinished fic in my drafts in which Nicky & quynh r rival wedding planners and Andy & Joe r their right hand men respectively and both couples start dating each other in shameful secrecy & then its like girl what were YOU doing at the satan’s prayer circle that is getting on ur knees to suck c— anyway where were we. Not important. Just saying all their dynamics are everything. ANYWAY YES screaming u access subspace thru the gender. Thesis statement of a very important b-plot somewhere halfway through this “”fic“”

Maladaptive coping is, to put it mildly, the only thing worth reading abt in fic. sorry. I mean I know I legit cant say that because Ive only written one fic of that variety and its not even on ao3 bc I abandoned it but I contain multitudes I can be a hypocrite as a treat. Yelling yelling yelling abt the wound/infection situation. oh. ‘we could fix each other’ ‘we could also fix each other but we are instead going to make it so much worse. Hey Andy where did u put the blinders Im going to fix them so firmly onto my head.’ & yeah I also think that nile’s familial situation can be like. She just travels so much and has for such a long time from such a young age (olympic wrestling first & now this) all over the country to where her family can hardly follow her around all the time & maybe she goes home a little less than she maybe should and maybe she lets her phone die on purpose sometimes . Maybe she feels shame about utilising violence as a form of entertainment instead of for a Good Cause like her father did. Maybe this shame is entirely unwarranted but she’s too scared to find out bc yk. infection. Etc etc

[takes my shirt off & points @ my hardened jaw at the wrestling function] I fucking love wrestling I love low blows I LOVE THE WAY EDWARDS COMES IN I LOVE PICTURING NILE LIKE THAT. AND I DO MEAN ALL OF IT. SITS DOWN 2 PUT THE KENDO STICK IN HER MOUTH. MAKES SNOW ANGELS ON THE METAL RAMP. NOW THATS THE HASHTAG VIBE.

#btw i see ur 'mutually assured destruction' challenge for me to make the moodboard & so u could make the playlist. Just U Wait.#wrestling au #also where do u stand on the bookersreligiousidentity uhm. i dont wanna call it debate bc its not that deep but yk whats the vibe for u #bc id love the parallels of nicky's catholicism thru wrestling hardcore flagellation but not as such that deep rooted shame #v booker with more of the shame and less of the catholicism but still experiencing the baptism by fire type of emotions #(i kno baptism by fire is a phrase which means a specific thing that isnt nec relevant here but ykw i mean. just general baptism by fire)

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ybcpatrick · 3 years

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when r we getting a wwe / fob crossover fic.... i want to see joe trohman hit some big buff guy over the head with a steel chair i want to see pete get throatslammed into the ground i want patrick to be a wrestling fanboy i want andy to be the wrestler everyone hates because he is has a hammer and sickle on the ass of his wrestling shorts!!!!

BRUH NAAAAAAH you guys shouldn't encourage my behaviour. bc i very much already have one and it is extensively thought out and planned already, i just haven't written it bc like. ITS A LOT

the thing is is I'm the annoying kind of wrestling fan that knows WAY too much about it/how the business works/stuff like that. and the au is also basically just stealing the whole wwe (im not even renaming that shit) and replacing all the superstars with band members KSKSJFKSJTLSJ. it's by far THEE MOST self indulgent thing i've ever come up with, and if i were to write it, it would not be very reader-friendly 😅😅 i'd have to give quick explanations of a lot of things in the notes skdkcjsdfksjf

i think, despite that, i would really like to write it someday ajskadjccksfj

i'll try to explain it as briefly as i POSSIBLY can tho, because if i really went tf off we would be here for YEARS. under the cut, let's go:

andy and patrick go by hurley and patrick vaughn, respectively. they're a heel tag team called FC (was short for fuck city before they got to the wwe, but obviously they can't go by that name on live tv sldjcshfvh).

hurley is the wwe champion, and his gimmick is being dead silent 99% of the time and just fucking destroying opponents. he's just a big, murderous powerhouse, and that's why he's the top champion in the company.

patrick is his "manager", tag team partner when needed, and most importantly, his mouthpiece. patrick does all the talking for hurley, and he's a TOTAL BIIIIITCH as he does so.

joe just uses his real name, joe trohman. he is a babyface, and he's just a regular dude. classic wrestler. but in the beginning of the au, he's on the shelf due to a knee injury. in order to keep himself at work while he's hurt, joe's turned to working at the tv commentary table.

pete goes by kingston wentz, he's also a face, and he's got a supernatural gimmick. he's the "vampire king", which sounds stupid, and it is, but in wrestling it's also awesome. he's been in the developmental area (which is called nxt), and he's just getting called up to the main roster (which are monday night raw, and friday night smackdown) in the beginning.

i'm gonna switch between these names a lot sorry in advance. their ring names apply to, like, "kayfabe", in-universe wrestling stuff.

SO THE PLOT. BACKGROUND:

the royal rumble is a big payperview that happens every january

it's a MASSIVE match, with thirty entrants total

two guys start out wrestling in the ring

every 90 seconds, another wrestler will come out and join the match

the only way to be eliminated from the match is to have someone throw you over the top rope of the ring, and then both of your feet have to touch the ground

last man in the ring wins a chance to go to wrestlemania (wwe super bowl, basically), and face any champion of their choosing

SO. wrestling is pre-determined, right? so before joe hurt his knee, he was scripted to win the royal rumble. but obviously, he's not cleared to compete. so they need to come up w a new story.

joe casually brings up his friend in nxt, kingston, to the writers. he means to just give them a thirtieth competitor, fill the spot. the writers, however, say fuck it, and decide to not only bring kingston on, but ALSO HAVE HIM WIN. so. wow. those are some mixed feelings for mr joey t.

cut to the rumble, last people in the ring are kingston and vaughn. kingston eliminates vaughn, gets the W. vaughn lands on the ground near the commentary table, hears joe calling the win for tv, and his voice sounds exuberant but.. patrick sees joe's face. and joe's kinda torn, because as happy as he is for pete, it was supposed to be him.

and patrick's only a bad guy on tv. so he comes up with a storyline right then and there to make sure that joe gets to be part of wrestlemania somehow, too.

the next monday on raw, kingston is supposed to have a celebration of his win at the end of the show. he's in the ring, giving his babyface "thank you all for ur support omg" speech, when the big screen cuts to a live camera feed from the back. hurley and vaughn sent joe a note earlier, saying that the "chairman of the company" wanted to see him in his office. they lure him into an empty office, then "attack" him to get kingston's attention.

hurley wants kingston at wrestlemania, because since he eliminated vaughn, now they've got beef.

more happens ofc but this is getting way too fucking long, but by wrestlemania, joe's knee is healed and he's able to compete. he makes sure not to tell andy or pete, he only tells patrick. that way, in the middle of hurley v kingston, vaughn can come out to ringside to try and interrupt and help hurley win. that gives an opening for joe's music to hit, and him to come TEARRRRING down to the ring to beat the fuck out of vaughn lmao.

so then kingston wins the championship, joe gets to wrestle at the biggest show of the year, and everyone lives happily ever after!

here's some art i did for their like. "designs" lol. they also have their themes, alternate commentary nicknames, etc. i'm so sorry for the novel here aldkfwkrgjskfghsdkfjsekfhstbjsk

#shut up kell #ask #rotmyguts #SORRY THIS SAT FOR A BIT I KNEW IT WOULD TAKE A FUCKTON OF EXPLAINING AKDCKFWDKVKS #rpf #wwe au #TAGGIN IT THAT SO I DONT LOSE IT

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scimitar-and-longsword · 4 years

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I genuinely wish to understand the interest and appeal of Book of Nile, and you seem like the right person to ask, so could you please enlighten me? (i promise this isn't meant to be rude, i'm just really curious)

oh my gosh, Well I certainly LOVE this ship and I’d be happy to brainwash convince you of it’s merits! But first of all do not EVER feel pressured to ship anything. I certainly don’t care if you ship or don’t ship what I ship. I try to tag anything I post with “Book of Nile” so you should be able to avoid it should you so choose. 💜

First The Book of Nile Manifesto

This honestly describes it better than I could, it’s super well written and has been basically this entire rare-pair ship’s intro into the fandom lol (the rest of this post just vaguely summarizes the manifesto sooo yeah, read it)

Alright! That out of the way, I LOVE THIS SHIP SO MUCH! And here are the 3 main reasons I love it

1. Nile and Booker have so many parallels!! Strong ties to family that they were separated (in one way or another) from due to their immortality, youngest members of the team, sarcastic AF, relatively modern military ties, similar deaths (neck related lol), I could go on.

2. THEY HAVE CHEMISTRY! They get along fairly quickly and make each other laugh, Booker seems extremely intimidated by her in their first scene, and then Nile wants to just let him off with an apology. Booker grabs clothes for Nile, Nile won’t leave Booker behind in the lab. Booker is the first person Nile sees come back to life. They work together really well in the fight when they’re protecting Andy, taking over for each other when Booker gets shot and then Nile’s gun gets jammed.... they just vibe and I’m here for it.

3. Nile is the main character. She deserves to be LOVED!

Ok. So the main hurdle that I think most people have with the ship is the “age difference” which is fair enough and again if the actors’ ages squick you out you don’t need to ship this, I won’t judge. BUT if you can get past that then I need to introduce you to probably the most important piece of fanon regarding this ship:

BOOKER NEEDS TO FUCKING WORK FOR THIS AND IT’S GONNA TAKE AWHILEEEEEE

Most of this fics for Book of Nile revolve around them VERY SLOWLY figuring out their attraction for each other, right along side everyone’s fav Booker ship: Booker x Therapy. A lot of fics take place at the end of or along side the 100 year exile. That or they take place in the future, beyond the exile. That’s not to say they ALL do, but it’s many of them. At a certain point age probably doesn’t matter. Like yeah 26/250 is a weird dynamic, but is 126/350?? Idk that’s up to you, but I think those lines start to blur the longer they’re alive. The literal thousands of years between Andy and Quynh don’t seem to matter soooo??? Also we all love to joke about Andy Joe and Nicky getting it on with famous people.... those age difference would have been WAYYYY bigger (ok sorry /salt) Obviously that doesn’t account for AUs.... but it’s an AU... you can do whatever you want lol age them however you’d like...

I also really love that we as a fandom of collectively written Booker as A: A house husband and B: Worshiping the ground Nile walks on.

Anyway *I* have a lot of fun shipping them!

I hope that helped explain the appeal??? idk lol Obligatory “I hate it here and this was forced on me”

(thank you @poe39 and @bookernile for helping me sort through my thoughts lol)

#book of nile #booker x nile #nile x booker #nile #booker #the old guard #ask #my stuff #my gifs #nicoloalkaysani #me every time I set out to answer something:#Oh I'll just make one or two gifs #Me two hours later in full clown makeup:#Whoops.

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kaydeefalls · 3 years

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first line meme

@quolant tagged me in this - thanks!

rules: list the first lines of your last 20 stories. see if there are any patterns. then tag your favorite authors.

I did a version of this earlier in the year, but I am THRILLED that “last 20 stories” now only takes me back to the very end of 2019, thanks to TOG fandom, so let’s have it!

1. the purpose of art : One of the first things Joe does after getting laid off is cancel his gym membership.

2. Awakenings : Roughly five years after the new dreams began, Joe finds himself in front of a pleasant-looking rowhouse in Philadelphia.

3. face it all together : Nicky takes comfort in simple pleasures.

4. a day like today : Nicolò shakes him out of a fathoms-deep sleep to announce, incomprehensibly, "Venice! They're in Venice!"

5. the space where things have been : Joe gasps awake in a pile of smoldering debris, every inch of his body searing like it's on fire.

6. writing's on the wall : One of Andy's earliest memories is of waking up in the middle of the night—she can't remember what woke her; some sound perhaps, or just a dream—and creeping out of bed to find her mother in the tiny living room of their dingy flat, shrugging into her black raincoat.

7. you may have my number : Later, Joe will say it all started when he shot Nicky in Istanbul.

8. you know my name : "Don't let the double-ohs bully, browbeat, or seduce you into giving them special privileges," Copley did warn her, once, just after Quỳnh accepted the role of Quartermaster.

9. The Pride Pact : The first time Nicky hears anything about Joe is at work, of course.

10. Gravitational Pull : "So we’re definitely gonna blow up the Death Star, right?” Nile says, an unholy gleam in her eyes.

11. lessons exquisitely crafted : When Yusuf turns up on his sister’s doorstep almost a year after the fall of Jerusalem, she screams, slaps him across the face hard enough to bruise, and then bursts into tears.

12. The Last Ferry to Calais : Spring came reluctantly to England in the year 1895.

13. Travellers from an Antique Land : It’s Booker who takes her aside, in her first evening with the full team.

14. We’ll Show Them All : The latest attempt to find Raven a Drift-compatible copilot ends, as predicted, in disappointment.

15. though it was not my task to watch : In retrospect, Joe thinks it must have started in Merrick’s lab.

16. When It Alteration Finds : Poe is nine years old when his mark first appears.

17. life is very long : After the better part of an admittedly uneventful week in Madrid, waiting for one of Booker’s old contacts to get back to them with details on a potential job, Nile drags them all out to Plaza de Chueca one night in the spirit of team bonding.

18. Are We the Waiting : Years later, that frantic, awful time between the destruction of Starkiller base and the escape from Crait will blur together in Poe’s recollection into one long nightmare of exhaustion, terror, anger, and helplessness.

19. The Tesseract’s Wife : Maria has never been able to pronounce the name of the Skrull refugees’ new homeworld.

20. what a way to make a livin’ : It’s generally not advisable to allow Erik Lehnsherr access to the morning news before his second cup of coffee.

Patterns? No idea. My first sentences are usually either short and to the point or long and rambling. I think they all succeed in setting a scene fairly quickly, at least. (Tangentially, one of my fave comments I’ve received on a fic was for you may have my number, where someone remarked that they were shocked when Joe shot Nicky in Istanbul...which is literally revealed in the first line of the fic. That genuinely pleased me, because it meant they were absorbed enough in the story to have totally forgotten that by the time it actually occurs.)

Tagging anyone who wants to play along! I always feel weirdly self-conscious about tagging folks.

#ask me anything

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wickedpact · 4 years

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Idea for a JoexNicky fic!! (anon here)- piggybacking off the other anon's nicky's mom idea, what if for an anniversary present, Joe sketches a portrait of Nicky's mother? (obviously she'd look like a beautiful warm goddess of kindness) Like maybe he has a dream of one of Nicky's most vivid memories ;-; I would literally die

so uh. this bloomed wildly out of my control

this ficlet is 5k words long so dont open that read more unless youre willing to commit to it

warnings: brief discussions of violence, extremely brief mention of sex, me not knowing how the FUCK one becomes a priest in Ye Olde 1000′s, and probably a criminal lack of historical accuracy as well as a criminal lack of the accented o in ‘nicolo’

yeehaw.

It starts with one of Andromache’s sparring sessions, and of course by ‘sparring’ session Nicolo means a session in which Andromache was in a piss poor mood for no obvious reason, and decided to take it out on the rest of them.

These sessions tend to start with Andromache coming hurtling into their camp with a dark expression on her face, and end with Yusuf and Nicolo sprawled on the ground, bruised and exhausted, while Andromache and Quynh beat the ever-loving hell out of each other nearby. (Yusuf has been convinced for a long time that it's some sort of mating ritual; Nicolo... doubts it.)

This time around, they are at some point after Nicolo has given up, and some point before Yusuf has joined him; Nicolo lies on the sand, starfished, while Quynh and Yusuf attempt to tag team Andromache with an abundance of vigor and middling results. Nicolo cranes his neck to watch the spectacle, catching a glimpse of Andromache flipping Quynh straight over her shoulder before twisting around and kicking Yusuf dangerously close to the groin. Yusuf stumbles, and Andromache grabs him by the shoulder, shoving his considerable weight off of his feet and towards Nicolo’s resting spot.

Yusuf, stumbling, manages to not trip over Nicolo by inches, and falls face-first onto the ground beside him with a groan. Meanwhile, Quynh has recovered and charges at Andy again, beginning their age-old dance yet again.

Yusuf grumbles at Nicolo’s side and peels himself off the ground, leveraging onto a knee. Nicolo drops his head back down to look at him, smiling when he swipes a hand across his beard to dislodge the sand accumulating there. Having been roasting under the midday sun and the excursion of the fight for hours now, Yusuf is layered in sweat and breathing heavily but evenly, chest and shoulders heaving slowly with each breath. Nicolo’s mouth goes crooked watching him.

“She doesn’t attack still targets,” he advises, amused, lying still atop the sand.

“Like a lioness!” Yusuf agrees with a zest Nicolo lost about thirteen minutes ago. He pulls himself onto both knees and balances on them, wavering in a way that makes Nicolo want to give him a steadying hand. “Hm.” Yusuf braces a hand on his thigh, face scrunching up in consideration. “No. I don’t think so.”

And then he plops, face first, back to the sand. Nicolo gives him an encouraging pat on the back with his knuckles.

“Are you two giving up?” Andromache calls over. Nicolo cranes his head up again to see that Quynh is on the ground yet again, slowly stumbling to her feet, and Andromache stands with her back to her, facing them. Her hands are on her hips.

“Yes. Thank you for checking in!” Nicolo confirms, lifting a hand to give her a thumbs up. Andromache responds to the sass with a raised eyebrow before whirling around and punching Quynh in the stomach before the younger immortal could sneak up on her.

Quynh goes down for the-- who knows how many times now, and Nicolo drops his head. He squints up at the wavering blue lines of the sky until Andromache’s white robes cross his vision, casting a shadow over his and Yusuf’s resting forms.

“Get up,” Andromache insists, nudging Nicolo with her boot. “I’m not done with you two yet.”

“You can’t make us,” Yusuf grumbles into the sand.

“You bet I can’t?” Andromache threatens, more a tease than a promise. When neither of them reply, she rolls her eyes and says, with a less than gentle kick to Yusuf’s side, “You babies are so soft.”

Yusuf hisses, rolling away from Andromache’s boot, into Nicolo’s side. “Son of a whore, Andromache, knock it off,” he grouches, dropping his shoulder atop Nicolo’s. Nicolo grunts with the weight of it. “Or daughter of a whore, that is,” he corrects himself, then adds thoughtfully, “No offense to your mother, if she were a woman of the night. What did your mother do, Andromache?”

Andromache laughs at Yusuf’s meandering insult-- a posturing bluster of a laugh that makes Nicolo blink, wondering if Yusuf’s actually offended her somehow. If so this would be the first time; Nicolo has always known Andromache to be thicker skinned than a mule.

But then she says, “I don’t remember my mother. Who knows,” and turns and heads back over to Quynh, who’s only just recovered from before. They resume sparring, Nicolo watching them with mild confusion.

Nicolo turns to look at Yusuf, wondering if he’d caught onto Andromache’s discomfort, but when Nicolo catches his eye, he just shrugs his shoulder against the sand and says, “Well, that’s a line that’ll end an argument every time, eh?”

Later on, Nicolo is still considering it, sprawled in front of the fire --that Quynh had constructed a couple hours prior-- with Yusuf, Nicolo slouched against his chest and bracketed by his bent knees. Andromache and Quynh are arguing over the linen tent a little ways off, and Nicolo watches Andromache carefully, the lines on her face and the muscles in her arms, the working parts of her that have existed on this earth for thousands of years. The things her hands have done; the things her eyes have seen.

The things her heart has forgotten.

“You are thinking very loudly over there,” Yusuf says from somewhere over Nicolo’s head. Nicolo shifts his eyes from Andromache and Qyunh, to the fire, to his and Yusuf’s legs stretched out before it. He tilts his head back, the top of his head against Yusuf’s sternum, but all he can see from that angle is Yusuf’s beard, so he drops his head back down with a little amused huff.

“Andromache is very old,” Nicolo says slowly.

“Ah, yes,” Yusuf agrees, amiable. “Also: water is very wet, and the desert is very hot.”

“S’cold at night,” Nicolo grumbles, just to be contrary, and is rewarded by Yusuf slipping his arms under Nicolo’s, bundling him closer to his chest and notching his chin over his head.

“What’s wrong, Nico?”

Nicolo requires no further prompting, not from Yusuf at least. The words come tumbling out of his mouth, one at a time. “She doesn’t remember her mother.”

There’s little more that needs to be said there. The immortal life is one that comes with many downsides, and the nature of it is that sometimes one discovers these downsides centuries later than expected. This isn’t the first time an unexpected side-effect of their unending lives has been thrust upon him and Yusuf, and likely won’t be the last.

Nicolo had never really thought he might one day forget his mother.

Yusuf hums thoughtfully in response, a non-answer that does little to soothe Nicolo. “That she doesn’t,” he adds after a moment. “What was your mother like?”

“I don’t--” Nicolo starts, and then, with an odd curiosity, realizes he’s having difficulty continuing. “I... didn’t know her very long. I was given to the church… very young. I don’t remember much of what she was like, other than that she was my mother.”

“Do you remember what she looked like?”

“Well…”

Nicolo remembers little of his life before the clergy. Two brothers. A sister. His father’s stern brow, and the calluses on his mother’s hand as she took his little fingers in hers, leading him down the dirt paths back in Genova. Her smile, silhouetted by the heady red glow of the afternoon sun.

“Brown hair,” Nicolo eventually answers. “Dark eyebrows. High cheekbones, too, and… and kind eyes.”

“What I’m hearing is you took after her very strongly.”

Nicolo smiles. “I do remember being told something of the sort before.”

“Her eyes?” Joe rests one of his palms flat against Nicolo’s stomach.

“Green, I’m pretty sure.”

“So you took after her very strongly, then,” Joe concludes.

Nicolo looks down, fiddling with the fingers of Joe’s free hand. “She used to take me to the shore. We’d gather seashells together.”

That he remembers well, plucking seashells and bits of coral out from dried seafoam after the tide had gone out near the end of the day, one arm bundling conch and clam shells against his chest, the other prying washed-up shells from the still wet sand. The sun would be low, but not low enough that they would feel the need to rush, and it would cast their shadows in long, blue lines across the beach. Time was an endless thing there, where the sun glowed red and bright, and there was always another conch shell wedged in the damp earth to dig up.

“She sounds lovely,” Yusuf hums. Nicolo pauses, tracing Yusuf’s index finger with his own. Yusuf almost never talks about his family. They have known each other for nearly three hundred years now, and yet Nicolo could store all the things he knows of Yusuf's family in a basket. Over the years he’s been able to piece together that both of Yusuf’s parents were dead before the Crusades began. And that they both died when Yusuf was fairly young. Beyond that… he knows little.

“Yusuf…” Nicolo starts, uncertain and fidgeting. “What about your mother?”

“My mother?” Yusuf repeats, as if Nicolo has somehow strung together two incomprehensible words.

“Yes.” When a pause stretches between them, Nicolo sighs and laces his fingers between Yusuf’s. “You don’t need to tell me.”

“No, no,” Yusuf insists before Nicolo can change the topic. He returns Nicolo’s grip on his hands, smoothing his thumb over the knuckle of Nicolo’s pointer finger. “I want to. My mother…” He sighs. “She was very anxious. Always fretting. She was a weaver; she liked making rugs.”

Yusuf’s thumb stills over Nicolo’s knuckle. Nicolo tilts his head. “Your prayer mat. Did she--?

“Yeah, she made it.” Yusuf pauses again. “Weaving calmed her down when she was nervous. My father and I, we would travel often-- business, you know. Trade deals and things. Mother always worried when we were gone.”

They both pause when Quynh yells something particularly loud at Andromache, breaking the moment for a split second. Andromache hollers something back, and the two women break out into abrupt laughter.

“Are you worried you’ll forget her?” Nicolo asks when they've settled again. “Your mother?”

“No,” Yusuf replies, though he trails off halfway through the word. “In part, I suppose… but there are many things I’d like to forget, I think.”

Nicolo peels himself out of Yusuf’s arms in response to that, twisting around to look at his companion. Yusuf’s brows are pressed together, the tilt of his mouth sad. Nicolo places a hand to his chest, fingers against Yusuf’s collar. “Yusuf?”

Yusuf sucks the inside of his cheek, looking far away before directing a sad smile at Nicolo. “She came with us, once. On a trip. Of course the one time Father allowed her to come was the time that it went wrong.” At Nicolo’s questioning look, Yusuf elaborates, “Bandits.”

“Yusuf...”

“I hadn’t really known how to fight, then, so it didn’t… really matter, either way-- but I got knocked out in the fight, and by the time I woke up again, it was all over.” With a slow breath, Yusuf looks down at their interwoven fingers. “I would like to forget some things. Not her, but…”

It takes Yusuf a long moment to continue. He looks up, towards the stars, lips pursed with thought, before eventually ducking his head again. Nicolo waits quietly.

“It is hard to remember them,” Yusuf says eventually, to their hands, “without remembering them in death. I had to bury them both.”

With a soft noise, Nicolo reaches forward and pulls Yusuf into a hug, arms wrapping about his shoulders; Yusuf responds in chorus and reaches for Nicolo back, his embrace tight enough to grind bone.

Nicolo rubs a hand up and down Yusuf’s back, his face tucked into Nicolo’s shoulder. Perturbed, Nicolo can’t imagine it- the comforting memory of his own mother, crossed and tainted by violence so cruelly. To lose her was enough. To lose the comfort of remembering her as well would be harrowing.

Yusuf pulls away first after some time, eyes red but dry, mouth turned down. Nicolo reaches up and thumbs at the crease between his brows, which quirks Yusuf’s lips ever so slightly.

“How old were you?” Nicolo asks.

Yusuf reaches up and takes Nicolo’s hand from his face, wrapping his fingers around his. “Twenty one.”

“A child.”

“Hardly, Nico,” Yusuf snorts softly. Nicolo disagrees, but he’s not going to start an argument over it. Not now.

With a sigh, Yusuf leans back against the rock formation behind them, wrapping an arm around Nicolo and tugging him sideways against his chest. Nicolo rests his head against Yusuf's shoulder.

“It’s not that I wish to forget her. Or my father. But I… would rather fondly remember the idea of them, the fragments, then remember them perfectly in death. That might make me selfish.”

“It does not,” Nicolo replies sternly. “It makes perfect sense to feel that way, Yusuf.” And then, “I’m sorry.” Yusuf only hums in response. It is, admittedly, a frail sentiment, so Nicolo adds, “I love you. In case you’ve forgotten.”

This earns him a huff against the top of his head. “I love you too,” Yusuf responds, and they fall into an easy silence.

After a few minutes, and with a great sigh, Yusuf tilts his head so that his cheek presses against Nicolo’s hair. “Nicolo…” he mumbles, hesitant, “I don’t mean to ruin the moment, but... I think we’re sleeping under the stars tonight.”

Nicolo lifts his head and twists around to find the half-assembled and frankly pathetic looking tent swaying off in the distance alone, with both Andromache and Quynh nowhere in sight.

“The consolidated wisdom of millenia,” Nicolo grumbles, dropping his head back against Yusuf. “And they still can’t assemble a tent.”

Yusuf laughs; Nicolo is by far more warmed by that than any comfort the damned tent could have offered.

Quynh has the little joke of hers whenever they go drinking. She’ll tell Yusuf, giggling into her tankard, “I miss when you didn’t drink!”

This is a joke because Yusuf gave up his abstinence of alcohol only a few months after he and Nicolo had met Quynh and Andromache, nearly two hundred years ago now, and when he’d announced his decision to do so to the two warrior women, they’d both admitted they didn’t even realize that he didn’t drink in the first place.

Nearly two hundred years later, Quynh continues to make this joke. Nicolo has yet to find it funny, but Yusuf laughs every time.

“It’s our anniversary, Quynh, you must be nice to us!” Yusuf insists in response to said joke. He is, as Andromache might say, drunk off his ass, swaying happily in his seat at the musty bar they’ve settled in for the night to celebrate. Despite how loudly he’s speaking, Nicolo can barely hear him over the clatter and bustle and chatter of the other, varyingly drunk, patrons at the bar.

“Three hundred years is nothing, Yusuf. You’re still babies,” Andromache replies, equally smashed yet bearing it more stoically, pitched against Quynh’s shoulder. One of her hands is still curled loosely around her tankard, unwilling to give it up just yet, probably.

Nicolo leans back against his rickety chair. “Do you two remember when you only knew each other for three hundred years?”

In response to this, Andromache pulls back from Quynh’s shoulder, propping herself up on the edge of a table with her free hand. She tilts her head, staring silently at Quynh with a quirked mouth, and Quynh stares back, eyebrows raised high. Nicolo’s gaze flicks between the two warrior women, eyeing them both, studying the emotion in their eyes and their mouths and their brows.

For nearly an entire minute they say nothing. They have no need to. The charged gaze between them could write entire epics; legions of words pass between them and neither woman even opens her mouth.

Nicolo finds himself slightly jealous. He wonders if he and Yusuf will ever hit a point such as this, where they could communicate without words, know each other so well that even a twitch of the brow or a press of lips could mean so much-- that words become irrelevant. Become small and useless compared to the years of their bond.

“It was a time,” Quynh answers at last, smiling a far away smile.

“That’s different,” Yusuf interrupts, slurring slightly and grinning widely. “because, this isn’t about how long you two have known each other, but how long I’ve known Nicolo,” here, he gestures broadly at Nicolo, sitting at his side, “and when you two will have known Nicolo for three hundred years, and-- and want to celebrate, I will not laugh at your paltry few years spent with him, in comparison to my many centuries! And you may-- may thank me for my generosity and kindness-- then.”

Quynh snorts. “That was very poetic of you, Yusuf.”

“Thank you.” Yusuf places a calloused hand atop Nicolo’s head. “I love him very much,” he states, very sincerely, if a little slurred.

Andromache, as always, seems to feel a compulsion to try and ruin the moment. Their Andromache, old and wise as she is, is a great many things: an elegant warrior, a stern protector, and a graceful leader-- however, a kind drunk she is not. “You know, you’ll get tired of each other eventually,” she points out, gesturing between the two of them. Yusuf rolls his eyes, his hand slipping from Nicolo’s head. “Quynh and I usually separate every couple hundred years for a time. It’s normal.”

“Bah,” Yusuf grumbles. “Andromache, you do not have a romantic bone in your body.”

“I do!” Andromache insists. Quynh sends her a sharp look that she doesn’t see because she’s too busy waving her hand widely. “I have been with, and wooed, and have been wooed by-- by more men and women than you’ve ever even set eyes on.”

Yusuf copies Andromache’s grand gesture, cheery and mocking. “That, what you’ve just described, is the opposite of romance, boss.”

“Whatever,” Andromache concedes with middling grace. “I’m happy for you two, either way.”

“Thank you,” Nicolo says, so that Yusuf won't say anything else. “Another round?”

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Yusuf says to Nicolo an hour or so later, as Nicolo is trying to haul the damned drunk up the stairs without sending them both sprawling down to their temporary deaths.

Funnily enough, around the time Yusuf began drinking, Nicolo stopped-- not out of any particular thoughts on alcohol itself, but because someone had to remain sober in order to drag Yusuf’s drunken ass back to their room at the end of the night, and the responsibility fell to Nicolo for all of the obvious reasons, and also because he was happy to do it.

“Who?” Nicolo asks, steadying a hand on Yusuf’s shoulder when he sways at the top dangerously.

“Andromache,” Yusuf replies. Nicolo’s not sure what exactly Yusuf thinks she was wrong about-- they’d discussed many topics at the bar downstairs-- but he might succeed in having this conversation more so if Andromache and Quynh weren’t standing no less than five feet away, hovering just inside their room’s open door down the hall, stripping down to their tunics and trousers.

Probably standing by in case Nicolo and Yusuf took an unfortunate tumble down the stairs. Nicolo is warmed by their concern, but Yusuf is too busy being drunkenly confused by Andromache’s presence after she calls over an “about what?” to think of such things.

“Where did you come from?” Yusuf asks Andromache, only going half willingly when Nicolo rolls his eyes and drags him down the hall.

“Thank you, good night,” Nicolo tells the two women as they pass their door and head down the hall to theirs, floorboards creaking under their boots.

“Have a nice anniversary, infants!” Andromach calls after they manage to stumble to their door, sticking her head out of theirs.

Nicolo fiddles with the key the barkeep gave him, trying desperately to ignore Yusuf when he yells back, “Us infants will try not to fuck so loud you can hear it all the way down there!” probably scarring some of the tenants.

“I bet you can’t!” Andromache responds, gleeful, and ducks back inside to slam the door shut.

“Is that a fucking challenge?” Yusuf asks the empty hallway, going easily when Nicolo drags him inside.

It’s a humble room, but the presence of four walls and a floor makes it good enough for Nicolo, and the bed is only an added bonus. He leaves Yusuf to his own devices as he lights the lantern set in the corner, double checking that their bags --that they’d tossed in the room earlier-- haven’t been stolen. He nudges the bags with a toe as he unlatches his longsword from his belt, propping the sheath up carefully by the little table with the lantern.

Yusuf is being oddly quiet; Nicolo turns to find the love of his life lying starfished on the little bed, peering up at the wood ceiling as if the secrets of the universe are engraved on it.

“I am so tired, Nicolo,” Yusuf mumbles, mournful. “Why did you make me go up all those stairs?”

“I am infamously known to be cruel and unfair,” Nicolo replies dryly, crossing over and sitting next to Yusuf. He unbuckles the straps around Yusuf’s shoulders that keep his scimitar attached to his back while Yusuf lies still. When the task is done, he looks up to find Yusuf staring at him, brows drawn together. “Lean up,” Nicolo orders softly, and Yusuf complies without complaint, shifting his shoulders off the bed just enough that Nicolo can pull his sheath off.

He stands to go retrieve his own sword, so that both can be placed at their bedside, within reach, shucking off his boots as he goes.

“Can you grab my bag for me?” Yusuf asks from the bed while Nicolo is doing so, so Nicolo does, balancing the two sheathed swords under one arm and holding Yusuf’s rucksack in the other.

He drops the bag at Yusuf's side and sits beside it, setting both swords at his feet, on the left side of the bed. Usually Yusuf’s scimitar goes on the other side, but Nicolo does not trust him with access to a sharp object in this state.

Yusuf sits up to shuffle through his bag. “I got you something,” he tells Nicolo when he straightens. Nicolo frowns at him.

“You got me something?” he repeats.

“Yeah.” Yusuf pulls out his sketchbook, though he doesn't grab his bag of charcoals.

But I didn’t get you anything, is something Nicolo almost wants to say, but honestly, three hundred years into a relationship, you stop keeping track of how many gifts have been exchanged and when. Especially when their finances are so intertwined. Nicolo and Yusuf simply buy each other things whenever the urge arises, and they’re both such men that these gifts are usually just practical items: new boots, a thicker cloak, and so on.

But now Yusuf passes Nicolo his sketchbook, turning back to the bag to buckle it closed again.

“A sketchbook,” Nicolo muses with a smile, rubbing a thumb over the bound leather cover. “You shouldn't have.”

“Oh, stop,” Yusuf grumbles, snatching the book back once his bag is closed. He shoves it off the bed with a mildly worrying clank and sits in its vacated spot, next to Nicolo. “Your jokes will make you look a fool when you are crying tears of gratitude on me.”

Nicolo smiles. Yusuf’s thigh, pressed against Nicolo’s, is warm, and his shoulder knocks against Nicolo’s with such familiarity Nicolo wonders if he could identify Yusuf from that alone; without sight, without hearing. He thinks he could, given the opportunity.

Yusuf flips through his sketchbook quickly, scanning past images of landscapes and crowded marketplaces and Nicolo’s own smiling face until he stops at a certain page, angling the book away so that Nicolo cannot see. He peers sideways at him, suspicious or maybe anticipatory.

“Do you expect me to start the tears of gratitude now, or…?” Nicolo asks, grinning at Yusuf’s unamused stare before Yusuf shoves the book into Nicolo’s open hands.

Nicolo doesn’t understand what he’s looking at, at first. Not that he doesn’t recognize the image; he does, he just doesn’t... understand.

“How…?” Nicolo asks, trailing off in wonder. He lifts a hand to touch the image, then snatches his hand away, afraid he’ll smear it.

It’s his mother.

He doesn’t understand how Yusuf could do this; drawing his mother is one thing, but the accuracy of the drawing to Nicolo’s memory is astounding. The line of her cheekbones and the crinkles of her crows feet, the shape of her eyes set by happiness. The drift of hair over her shoulder is a little longer than his mother had it, and a little straighter, but other than that it is an almost perfect recreation. Down to the curl of her mouth, the small flash of teeth. Nicolo can practically hear her in the image, her eyebrows raised and surprised joy flashing in her eyes, as she says, “That’s a big one, Nicolo, good job!”

“How did you do this?” Nicolo asks, voice small.

“Do you remember when you told me what she looked like?” Yusuf asks. “When we were talking about Andromache’s mother?”

“Yes, I remember,” Nicolo replies, frustrated. “I told you she had brown hair and green eyes. Yusuf, how did you--” He peels his eyes off of the drawing that sends him straight to his childhood. “You even got her smile right.”

Yusuf presses his lips together in a fond little smirk. “I will tell you, but you must agree not to share my secret.”

“Yusuf.”

Yusuf scoots that much closer, tucking a hand under Nicolo’s jaw, thumb smoothing over his cheek. “I know how she smiles because I know how you smile. Because she’s your mother. And she lives in you, even if she’s been dead three hundred years. Even if you forget her to some small degree, she will stay with you. Here--” Yusuf touches the corner of Nicolo’s mouth. “And here--” His pointer swipes over Nicolo’s cheekbone. “And here.” He presses a thumb under Nicolo’s eye, and it comes away wet. He makes a small noise. “I was kidding about the tears of gratitude, Nico.”

The sketchbook almost falls off of Nicolo’s thighs in his urgency to pull Yusuf into a hug.

Yusuf returns the embrace with a huffing little laugh, arms wrapping around Nicolo’s waist and hauling him in close, the sketchbook folding closed between the press of their bodies, the beat of their hearts against each other.

“Thank you, Yusuf,” Nicolo murmurs into the crook of Yusuf’s neck, endlessly sincere. His fingers hook into Yusuf’s tunic, over his back, already pulled tight by the muscles there.

“Happy anniversary,” Yusuf responds cheerily. “To three hundred years, eh?”

“And three hundred more,” Nicolo reminds him.

“Fuck, Nicolo.” Yusuf leans back, hands lingering at his waist. He catches Nicolo’s eyes, his brows pulled together. “To three thousand more; Andromache doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Nicolo frowns, recalling Yusuf saying something of the sort in the hall. “What did she say?”

“What did she say?” Yusuf repeats thoughtfully. “I don’t remember-- some nonsense about us getting tired of each other.”

“Oh.” Nicolo does remember that. “I don’t think she meant it like that, Yusuf. And after all, she is rather the authority on how the relationships of immortals work.”

“The authority!” Yusuf repeats, mocking. “When Andromache kills a man with her bare hands and comes out the other side of the experience loving him, I will give her credence to the idea that she’s an authority over our relationship.”

“I didn’t say she was an authority over us. Just that she may understand better.”

“What, do you think she’s right?” Yusuf’s brow furrows, voice lowering. “That we shall grow tired of each other?”

“No,” Nicolo immediately insists, his desire to assure Yusuf strong and instinctual. He lets his hand slide to his shoulder, gripping there. “At least,” he admits on second thought, “I’ve never once felt anything to give me the impression that I will. But it may happen, Yusuf.”

To be completely honest, Nicolo can’t imagine such a thing. He’s woken up every morning for the past three hundred years of his life at Yusuf’s side, and he can’t even begin to understand what kind of drastic shift in his heart would inspire him to grow tired or restless of doing so. Of Yusuf’s hands, of his voice, of his glittering eyes and his loud, joyful laugh-- and the way he furrows his brow when he’s thoughtful, like he’s doing at Nicolo right now.

“Because Andromache says so? I think not,” Yusuf argues. “Andromache is wise, but she’s known us barely more than a hundred years. Her experience does not allow her to see to your heart, or to mine. I will love you forever, Nicolo.”

“Forever is a long time, Yusuf,” Nicolo responds, smiling.

“Well, I will,” Yusuf insists. “When we are twice as old as Andromache is today, and the memories of our childhoods, and our warring, and even our three hundred year anniversary will be nothing but dust, I will remember loving you with certainty-- and that will be because I’ll have done it every day of my life.”

Yusuf shrugs and presses closer, bowing his forehead to Nicolo’s. “And if we forget every bad time and every good time with it,” he murmurs, looking down, “I will not care; it will all wash away in the sands of time eventually, but I have no intent to be separated from you. I won't let memory or time or violence take you from me. I don’t care what Andromache says. The only thing that will end us is your word, Nicolo.”

Amused, Nicolo lets out a throaty little huh. “You will be waiting a long time for that, Yusuf. Maybe even forever.”

Yusuf grins at that, eyes flicking up, and Nicolo has that split second thought he always has --you’re hiding dimples under all that beard-- before Yusuf tilts his head up and kisses him, leaning forward with all the drunken weight of his body.

Nicolo catches Yusuf’s jaw in his hand, shoulders bunching up as he shifts so that Yusuf doesn't topple them both; tilts his head and grips Yusuf’s shoulder and kisses him back.

It is not, admittedly, their best kiss. But Nicolo’s found over the years that a kiss with Yusuf is a kiss with Yusuf, which is to say no matter how much their teeth clack or their mouths miss their mark, it is still Yusuf, so none of them are actually bad.

And Nicolo is distracted. Yusuf is one to spew pretty words whenever the mood takes him, but his aptitude for the spoken word even in the worst --or most drunken-- of times always catches Nicolo off guard; even three hundred years into their relationship.

Every day of my life, Yusuf had said, and Nicolo finds himself giddy and weightless at the idea. Every day of our lives, Nicolo thinks to himself, unable to fight off a smile as Yusuf pulls him in closer, a hand at his neck. Every day.

It is a fair while later --after Nicolo has pried Yusuf’s boots off, after the lantern light was blown out, and after they are both under the admittedly threadbare blanket-- that Nicolo lies propped up on his elbows on his side of the bed, admiring the drawing of his mother by moonlight. Yusuf lies on his back beside Nicolo, either asleep or drifting, arm thrown over his eyes and mouth pulled into a frown.

“Are you going to sleep tonight?” Yusuf asks groggily after some time, revealing himself to be awake. “Or must I compete with my own drawing for your attention?”

“You made a mistake giving me this,” Nicolo replies, closing the sketchbook and leaning over to set it carefully on the floor. “I will do nothing but admire it for eternity.”

With a huff, he settles under the blanket, facing Yusuf, crossing his arms to his chest. Yusuf responds with only a smile, and after the silence stretches for a moment, Nicolo adds, “I wish I could give you such peace in regards to your own mother.”

Yusuf drops the arm from his face, squinting sideways at Nicolo. “Pfft. You have already brought me more peace than any other living being on this earth. Give making me the happiest man alive a rest for a few minutes, Nicolo; you’ll give yourself a complex.” He rolls onto his side. “But also roll over. What are you doing lying all the way over there, anyways?”

“Giving myself a complex, apparently,” Nicolo grumbles, doing as he’s told and shuffling onto his side. Yusuf throws an arm over him from behind, snuggling forward and pulling Nicolo back in unison until they are pressed against each other, shoulders to thighs.

“I am being truthful,” Yusuf murmurs after a moment, low and intimate and close, tired words slurring into each other. He yawns before butting his forehead gently against the back of Nicolo’s neck. “My mother-- I have many good memories of her, and some bad. I would like to forget some and cherish others, but in the end I will likely lose all or most of ‘em, as Andromache has. That’s just the truth of it all.” He yawns again, shifting his grip on Nicolo. “I could draw her if I wish, but I don’t know if even a thousand drawings will ease her memory. And losing memories is a simple trade-off of the life we live, even if we didn’t choose it. I may not keep my memories, but as long as I can keep you, I am at peace with it all.”

Nicolo considers that, tucking his own hands into his sides. As much as their immortality was not a choice-- it was nothing either Nicolo or Yusuf asked for or even really wanted, three hundred years ago, but it was gifted to them anyway. They didn’t ask for each other either, and yet Yusuf was given to Nicolo and vice versa in the same breath that their immortality was thrust upon them.

But of course, unlike the immortality, and unlike all the other positives and negative consequences that came with it, they did choose each other. They chose to put down their weapons. They chose to stay at each other’s side. They’ve chosen that every single day of the last three hundred years. Hopefully they will do so for the next three hundred -- thousand-- years.

He will lose his memories eventually, one day, one way or another. It is like Yusuf said: it is a simple trade-off of the life they live.

But if it had been a choice-- well. Even the innocent comfort of his mother’s memory, of those late afternoons picking seashells-- those memories are not nothing to him, but if it ever came between keeping them and keeping Yusuf… the choice is obvious.

But there is no choice. The memories will fade one day whether he wants them to or not, whether Yusuf draws a thousand portraits of his mother or not.

Yusuf will not fade. Yusuf will be here. Yusuf has been here, for three hundred years.

Every day of our lives, Nicolo thinks, and smiles.

“You know,” he says quietly into the dark room. “You are a very wise man, Yusuf.”

“Don’t tell Quynh and Andromache,” Yusuf mumbles into Nicolo’s nape. “It will ruin my image.”

Nicolo snorts, smiles, and, eventually, falls asleep in Yusuf’s arms.

#Anonymous #joe x nicky

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