#Late because of the Log Off Protest

[blueskrugs]

'tis the damn season | Matthew Tkachuk

today's the unofficial official start to summer, so here's a 4th of July Matty fic I couldn't bear to hold on to for another month. once upon a time, kim @troubatrain wrote another matthew fic by the same title, but i'm fairly confident this is entirely different. as usual, @wyattjohnston was my enabler in writing this.

length: 3.0k words

It’s late when you finally peel yourself off the Adirondack chair you claimed hours ago next to the bonfire, empty seltzer can dangling from your fingertips. The bonfire has died off, barely more than some embers and the occasional spark. Even the fireworks that have been echoing around the lake for days have petered out. It’s just you, Matthew and Taryn left outside, all your other friends having wandered off to find somewhere to sleep—except you think Taryn might have also fallen asleep, wrapped up in one of Matthew’s old Calgary sweatshirts and a beach towel. 

Matthew watches you with heavy eyes, watches as you stretch sleepily and the big T-shirt you’d thrown on over your swimsuit rides up over your hips. 

“Don’t drive home,” Matthew says, so low you barely hear him. 

“What?” you ask. You’re not heading back to the city until after the long weekend is over, and your parents’ lake house is just a couple of miles away. 

“Don’t leave, there’s a lot of drunk idiots out still,” he says again, standing too. You and your friends were some of those drunk idiots earlier in the day, but you don’t point that out. 

“Dude, I’m fine,” you tell Matthew. You turn to look for your flip-flops. “It’s not far, and I stopped drinking a while ago.”

Matthew grabs you by the hip. The night has cooled off, but Matthew’s hand feels hot on your skin. “I’m not worried about you being stupid, I’m worried about something happening to you,” Matthew says. “Don’t go.”

You didn’t pack enough clothes to spend the night—you’d always been planning on heading back to your parents’ at the end of the night. The house was crowded with friends of Matthew and Taryn. 

“There’s nowhere left for me to sleep,” is what you end up saying.

Matthew tightens his grip. You step closer. “Sleep in my bed.”

You’d done it before, but not since before Matthew had moved to Michigan to play for the USNTDP. Not since before your crush on Matthew had shifted from something childish to something more like pining. You stare up at him, his blue eyes serious, clear even in the moonlight. 

One of the logs on the dying bonfire pops and shifts, sending out a spray of sparks. You both startle, moment broken. Matthew takes a half-step back from you. You hadn’t realized how far you’d both leaned in. Taryn stirs somewhere behind you.

“Fine,” you say quietly. “I’ll stay.” 

Matthew grins at you. You shake your head at him as you finally turn to walk inside.

You think you hear Taryn murmur, “Get a room,” as you pass her. 

The lake house is a mess. You survey it with dismay for a moment: there’s people passed out on several different couches, empty cans and bottles scattered across most surfaces, and remnants of dinner still sitting out in the kitchen. You drop your own empty can into the recycling near the door and wander quietly through the first floor, picking up what you can. You haven’t been at it very long when Matthew steps inside as well, gently shutting the door behind him. He clicks his tongue at you when he spots you in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher.

“I thought you were going to bed,” he whispers.

“I got distracted,” you whisper back. 

Matthew trails his fingertips across your side as he steps past you to open the fridge. You shiver, and not because the AC is turned down low. Matthew pulls two bottles of Gatorade out, offers one to you. 

You take it, suddenly surprised at how thirsty you are. 

Matthew watches in amusement for a moment as you chug a third of the bottle, before he says, “C’mon, it’s past your bedtime.”

“It’s not that late—” you try to protest, before you catch a glimpse of the time on the microwave clock. Almost 2 AM. “Oops,” you say instead. 

Matthew flicks off the kitchen light and heads upstairs.

You make a pit stop in Taryn’s room on your way down the hall to Matthew’s room. The door creaks as you open it, and you wince, squinting at the bed, where three of Taryn’s field hockey teammates are sleeping. No one moves. You steal a pair of shorts to sleep in and sneak back out. 

Matthew is waiting for you, again, perched on the edge of his bed. The shower in his ensuite is running, steam filtering through the ajar door. “Shower’s ready for you, if you want,” he says.

There’s a bottle of your face wash and a toothbrush with your initials Sharpied onto the handle underneath his sink, the same way they have been since you were 14. You take a fast shower and try not to think too much about it. 

You run into Matthew when you walk out of the bathroom. Literally. You're bumped backwards, into the doorjamb. Matthew doesn’t step away. You’re still wearing one of his T-shirts. 

“I was just—I need—” Matthew stutters. 

“Matty—” you breathe, before Matthew’s lips crash into yours. He tastes like beer and sunscreen, and you wrap your hands around the back of his neck so you can pull him closer. 

Matthew breaks the kiss first, but he doesn’t go far, pressing his forehead to yours. It could have been seconds, or it could have been hours. 

“I was just going to brush my teeth,” Matthew whispers. 

You make a face instead of kissing Matthew again. His face is still so close to yours. 

“Good, you need it,” you whisper back. Matthew rolls his eyes at you, presses a kiss to your forehead before ducking into the bathroom. 

You’re sprawled out in the center of Matthew’s bed when he re-emerges, watching the ceiling fan turn lazily above you. You feel drunk, like the room’s spinning, too, but you think that might just be proximity to Matthew. You should have just found a couch or a corner of floor to sleep on. 

“No way,” Matthew says, standing at the foot of the bed. “Scoot over.” 

You think about pushing it, just to see if Matthew would push back, but you scoot over. Matthew flops onto the bed next to you in the space you just left, then rolls on top of you, anyway, braced with his hands next to your head. 

You take a second to just look at him. You’ve been sneaking glances all day, over the rim of a seltzer can, from underneath your sunglasses, across the boat. It had felt illicit then, but now Matthew is right in front of you, blue eyes meeting yours. His curls are getting long, messy from being in and out of the lake water all day. He’s always tan now—living in Florida all winter does that—but he’s sunburned across his nose and across the tops of shoulders. You lift one hand and skim a finger down his nose, across his jaw.

“I miss you,” you blurt. It’s not what you had meant to say, but now that you’ve said it, you’re not sure what else there is to say.

Matthew laughs softly. “I’m right here, babe,” he says.

He’s here now, but it won’t be long until summer’s over, and he’ll be gone again. Back to the real world. You don’t know the last time you and Matthew were able to spend time together like this, don’t know if you’ll ever get this time again. It’s always been one thing after another—injuries, or vacations, or work. You don't talk the way you used to, either. Matthew's schedule clashes with yours so often that neither of you have time for hours-long phone calls anymore.

Matthew drops to an elbow and brushes your hair out of your face. You try not to sigh. His hand is on your knee next, by his ribs with your feet flat on the bed. You don’t stop him as his hand starts to slide up your thigh, closer to the hem of his T-shirt, riding up your hips again. 

Matthew drags a line of kisses down your neck. You can’t stop your sigh this time. Matthew comes up for air, tucks another strand of hair behind your ear. It’s humid outside and in Matthew’s bed; you can’t breathe, gasp for air. His hand is back on your hip, burning hot on your skin. 

He asks, “Yeah?” 

You can feel his breath on your cheek. He’s panting, too, and it’s nice to know that he’s as wrapped up in this as you are, at least for this moment. That he might want you almost as bad as you want him. That he’s wanted you as long as you’ve wanted him.  

You don’t trust yourself to get any words out, just nod. 

“Think you can stay quiet?” Matthew says, before sealing his lips on yours again. 

▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰

You wake up late the next morning, the ghost of Matthew’s fingers still on your skin. He’s in bed, too, tangled in the sheets, head turned away from you. Distantly, you hear the sounds of the rest of the house stirring, your friends laughing, coffee brewing. You don’t make any move to get up.

You’re still laying there later—15 minutes, 30 minutes, you’re not sure—when Matthew starts to stir. He rolls over quickly, almost panicked, but he relaxes and smiles when he sees you still lying next to him. 

“Hi,” he says dumbly. He fumbles for his phone, but it’s not beside him. “What time is it?” His words and eyes are still heavy with sleep.

You don't know either; you must have left your phone downstairs last night;. You shrug and stretch. Matthew watches you closely, the way your body moves beneath the sheets. You feel your cheeks flush. 

“Dunno,” you say. Closer to noon than early morning, if you had to guess by the way the light is slanting through the partially closed blinds. “Late,” you add. 

Matthew grins at you and props himself up on one elbow. You have to resist the urge to reach up and tug on his curls, even messier now from your hands and sleep. 

“Then I don’t think anyone will miss us if we stay in bed a little longer,” he says, leaning over to kiss you.

You indulge him and his morning breath for a few moments. Wrapped up in your own little bubble, twisted together in Matthew’s sheets, you can pretend just a little longer—that this is real, that it won’t disappear the second you step through that doorway and back into a world where other people and other obligations exist. But then your stomach rumbles and shatters your illusion.

You push Matthew away by the shoulders—gently, though part of you wants to be harsh with him, hurt him the way you know he’s going to break your heart. Matthew goes easily, but you see the flash of furrowed brow before he smooths his expression back into something easygoing. 

“Not that I’m not enjoying this,” you say, “but I need something to eat.” 

Matthew raises his eyebrows at you. “I’ve got an idea of what I want to eat,” he leers. 

You knee him in the chest in retaliation.

“Oof,” Matthew complains, but he’s laughing. 

He rolls off of you, rubbing his chest and pouting at you. You just roll your eyes and slide out of bed. You hunt the floor for the shorts you’d been wearing when you went to bed, trying to ignore the way you can feel Matthew staring at your ass. Your shorts ended up across the room, by the bathroom door. When you turn around again, Matthew is pulling on a shirt. There’s a hickey on his collarbone that you hazily remember leaving there. He sees you looking as his bare skin disappears and smirks at you before throwing another clean shirt of his at your face. 

You grab the hem of the shirt you’re wearing, but say, “Turn around.”

Matthew gapes at you. “It’s nothing I didn’t see last night,” he tells you. 

It feels different in the daylight, though. You stare Matthew down until he heaves a sigh and turns his back. 

You poke Matthew in the ribs when you’ve finished changing. It didn’t go unnoticed by you that Matthew gave you a shirt with his number stamped on the left shoulder to wear. Matthew reaches to take your hand as you start down the stairs, but you pull away and run ahead of him.

This isn’t like that. 

“Oh, you’re both alive,” Taryn calls when she sees you. “We were thinking about sending someone up to check on you.” 

You and Matthew exchange a look. You don’t miss Taryn smirking from her spot on the couch. 

“Where is everybody?” Matthew says, instead of saying anything to give Taryn any more ammunition. The house has quieted down. There’s still a few of Taryn’s teammates lounging around, but it looks like more of Matthew’s friends have cleared out.

“Weather’s shitty, people started leaving after breakfast,” she says. 

Outside the windows that overlook the lake, there’s fog clinging to the water. It looks chilly out, and you shiver. You tell yourself it’s because of the cold, and not because Matthew is standing so close to you that you can feel his body heat. He nudges your elbow, and he’s holding a cup of coffee out to you, already the perfect color for you to drink it. You shoot him a grateful smile as you take it; your fingers brush, and you try not to jerk your hand away. 

“Nobody even said good-bye,” Matthew gripes.

You laugh, but it’s Taryn who says: “Maybe because you’re a shit host.”

Matthew gasps in outrage and throws a discarded can koozie at her. It falls weakly to the floor halfway to the couch, and all of you burst out laughing. You and Matthew move easily around each other in the kitchen, piecing together leftovers and assembling your breakfasts. It sends a pang through your chest, the familiarity of it, even as the years and distance build a canyon between your relationship. You don’t know when Matthew went from being your best friend, to the boy you dreamed of marrying one day, to the guy you knew so well yet barely knew at all. 

You feel like you can’t breathe.

“That’s disgusting,” you say, watching Matthew take a bite out of a cold bratwurst straight from the fridge.

Matthew shrugs. “What?” he says with his mouth full. “It’s a sausage, people eat sausage for breakfast all the time!” 

“But not—oh, fuck you, never mind,” you say. 

You escape the kitchen, slipping through the back door to the porch. The bonfire from last night has long since burned out entirely, but you drop into one of the chairs beside it anyway, where you eat your breakfast undisturbed. When your plate is cleared, you wander down to the dock.

The late morning sun has finally started to burn away the fog, but the air is still cool. You sit down on the edge of the dock and let your feet dangle in the water. It’s quiet, especially for the day after the holiday; the weather has scared people indoors. You shiver again. You only have a few minutes of peace before you hear footsteps behind you. You don’t have to turn around to know that they belong to Matthew.

He drops down onto the dock behind you, drapes his legs off the edge on either side of yours. He wraps his arms around your shoulders, and you let yourself lean back into his chest. Neither of you speak.

You’d been here once before, sitting on this dock with Matthew. You were younger then. Matthew had just been drafted, and you were heading off to college. You’d both been on the verge of something big, and you thought maybe it had been your chance to do big things, together. You wonder if Matthew is thinking of that night, too, of the silence in the darkness of midnight, when you’d both slipped away.

Matthew presses his lips to your shoulder, where the collar of your shirt—his shirt—has slid down and exposes your bare skin. 

“Would you wait for me?” you asked, 18 years old and so, so scared of losing everything you had ever known. Desperately trying to hold onto Matthew.

“Would you?” he asked back. “Would you still be ready for me in another few years?” You both knew you couldn’t even imagine following Matthew to Calgary until you had graduated, unwilling to sacrifice your own future for a possible one with Matthew.

You had waited. You had been waiting for Matthew for even longer than you were willing to admit. Even when you were in other relationships, you felt like you were just waiting for something else. For someone else. You wondered now what your life would look like if you had said yes to Matthew on the dark dock all those summers ago, if you’d waited for each other. You couldn’t wait any longer. 

“You could stay for a few more days,” Matthew says. 

“You know I can’t,” you say. You reach back so you can run your hand through his hair. One last time. “Think we could do this again sometime?” Matthew asks. “You know we can’t,” you say. Matthew sighs. You can feel the tension in his body. He’s ready for a fight, but you don’t know if you have the energy for it. You lean more of your weight against him, and he holds you up, strong and steady.

Matthew takes a moment before he responds. “We could,” he argues. “We could do this forever.” Your heart hurts. You know he doesn't mean it.

“Matthew,” you say, quietly. “Matthew, please.” “Why not?” he asks. “We’re good together, aren’t we?”

You are, and you wish you didn’t know just how good it could be between you. In your head, you see all the things you could have, all the things you should have done. It’s so, so tempting. 

“I think we both know why we didn’t try ‘us’ when we were 18, Matty,” you tell him. The petty arguments, the way you were both so stubborn that hanging out ended in slamming doors just as often as it didn't. You always came back, but you don't know if you can do it much longer.

You move to leave, and Matthew slides back to allow it. You let him offer you a hand as you stand up. Matthew squeezes your hand once, quickly, just before you let go. You leave him sitting on the dock. You don’t look back as you make your way back up to the house. 

Some things are best left in the past.

[leodette]

Hello! Would it be possible to do 50 for Carlos Sainz?

hello! I'm honored to write this for you, sorry for the delay, real life happened (sadly). hope you like it!

no. 50 - putting a hand over the other’s mouth to shut them up

Not Unhinged or Unhappy | CS55

fandom: Formula 1

pairing: Carlos Sainz x OC (not named)

names/faceclaims: -

summary: don't work too much, darling...

warning: none

requested: yes / no

**********

Summer break was probably the best part of the whole season. At least for her. She and Carlos didn't have a public relationship - private, not secret - and she had to work during most of his racing weekends. That was the tax for having her own business and being stubborn enough to not allow her boyfriend to help her financially.

And so far Carlos didn't mind. He loved that she worked, that she did the same thing as him - her passion as her fulltime job. Yes, it was sometimes a bit sad for her not being able to be there in the garage and watchung him doing rounds, but they managed! And she promised to come to some races at the second half of the year, once she'd be comfortable enough to leave her business in her assistant's hands for a weekend.

Right now, they were "practicing" for that moment. She took 10 days off... and Carlos immediately whisked her away to Mallorca on his yacht, enjoying time together, lounging around, eating delicious seafood and Mediterranean cuisine, drinking crisp white wines and just relaxing. But still she wasn't able to NOT work at least an hour or two every day.

"Princesa, they will manage a day without you," Carlos hugged his girlfriend from behind, putting his chin on her shoulder while she sat by the table after they've finished breakfast, her laptop opened and the order system of her small independent fashion brand filling in. She scoffed a bit and sipped her iced tea before opening the Excel tab.

"Give me an hour mi amor, this needs to be done otherwise the shipment will be late," she gently smiled at him and pressed a sweet peck at his cheek before smoothering the wrinkle on his forehead.

"It's only an hour, Carlos. And don't frown, you'll have wrinkles," she chuckled before turning her attention back to the laptop.

Pinon came to them, carrying his favorite sweet corn stuffy and laying under her feet, looking at Carlos in a way that very clearly said 'do something, I wanna play'. And Carlos would love to, but his workoholic girlfriend wouldn't be disturbed.

"Hi Dida, any problem in the storage?" she picked up her phone, answering the call. Carlos rolled his eyes. Call with Dida would take another at least twenty minutes, and even after that it wouldn't be sure if his girl would allow herself to actually close the laptop and leave the thoughts of any disaster that could happen in the storage to people that actually were there.

His thoughts were interrupted when his lady left out a big breath and rubbed her eyes before shaking her head and opening another tab.

"Yeah I will take a look at it right now, could have it in like two hours ready? Would that be-" she wasn't able to finish because the phone disappeared from her hand and her laptop was closed with a loud clap.

"Hello Dida, Carlos here. Your boss will log out now. She leaves all control in your competent hands. She-" he clapped his hand over her mouth, shutting out her protests with efficiency, "- is on holiday. And holiday is for relaxing. Which as you for sure know she desperately needs. So from now, you will only call her when the storage is on fire, or if the Spanish Queen herself orders from you, okay? It was ncie to hear you, Dida. Thanks for your cooperating, ¡Qué tenga un buen día!"

And with that he pressed the button, ending the call immediately and putting it away from her grasping hands. His girlfriend was looking at him with a pure shock in her eyes, not being able to say anything.

"Mi amor," he took her face in his hands, cradling like the most precious porcelain vase, "you're exhausted. You need to stop thinking about this. I know how important it is for you, but taking time off is important as well."

She huffed and crossed her arms, reminding Carlos of a small child throwing a tantrum when their Mama wouldn't buy them a lolipop in a grocery store. He chuckled weakly.

"Okay, let's do it with force now."

And ignoring her scream when he scooped her up in his arms, he walked to the railing and jumped in the crystal blue waters of Mediterranean Sea, earning an excited bark from their dog. Carlos didn't let her out of his arms, instead hugging her close to him when they both got at the surface, spitting water and wiping their eyes off of salty water.

"Te amo mi Princesa," he murmured when smoothing her wet her from her face and pressing kiss to her lips. She said nothing, merely squeezed her arms around his neck, hugging him tighter.

"I'm sorry for being a workaholic, Charli," she murmured the nickname only she was able to use, earning a chuckle from him.

"Don't aplogize, just promise me - no more work for the reamining time we're here, okay?"

She just nodded and hid her face in his neck, Carlos pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

[he-goes-down]

0. There Was A Time

fic chapters/warnings/disclaimers/ect

:DISCLAIMER:

Mentions of drugs/ sex ect.

English is not my first language

POV changes

x reader

inconsistent updates

time line is not perfect or accurate

Character may also not be accurate

I'll also be posting this on wattpad and maybe ao3

So if you see it wasn't stolen<3

Also i dont know how tumblr works and how to link chapters together(someone send help)

ALSO THIS NOT EDITED IN ANYWAY SO SORRY IF THERE ARE SPELLING MISTAKES

THANK YOU FOR READING MWUAH MWUAH

LEAVE COMMENTS <3

The studio was warm in the coldest night of this Autumn, warm yellowish light and the red carpeted floor made it feel like a cosy log cabin. A full drum set with a few too many ride cymbals and windchimes sat close to the middle of the fat bare bricked wall, with a small metal bucket that had the remains of broken splinter drumsticks. A rack of guitars and two bass holders stood next to the right wall where an old armchair sits, a few different sized amps scattered round the square room. Right in front of the glass that separates the control room from the studio three mic stand in a line with noise cancelling boxes surrounding each of them.

In the control room there is a strong smell of weed and other smokeable herbs, "No! You can't take Runaway Blues off the album!" A man with short shoulder length brown hair and a moustache protested as he puffed on his cigarette as he lied back on the couch, his dark glasses fell back on his face as he tilted his head back. "I agree with Jake. It shows how good we are even when we're shit faced." The man with long curly hair, a gorgeous ethnic nose, stood up – towering over the other 4 people in the sesh – and began to roll another blunt on one of the control panels. The one that started this debated piped in, "Thanks Dan for taking my side." He said sarcastically, his curly mullet was like a solid cloud on his head, and he has a moustache like Jake. "We'll our wonderful manager and producer here," A man that looked like Jesus pointed to a woman that sat next to Jake on the couch. "Was the one that wasn't shit faced, I think that's why it was actually good, Joshua." He finished. "Hey, hey, I'm not saying it's shit because of you, please believe me y/n!" Josh dramatically pleaded to y/n. She was looking up at the ceiling. Pupils dilated. Blunt in hand. "Just, make it shorter." She said confidently, waving her hand a bit. Still not looking at anyone and head craned back. "You have the answer to everything." Danny said his mouth slightly gaped that such a simple solution didn't register in any of their minds. Or he's just on a psychedelic trip and can't spark up a brain cell.

The following week the band had dates in LA since they were still doing there 'Dreams in Gold' Tour. The band was already at the venue setting up, some still sleeping in the bus. Y/n had some business to attend to in their studio in New York before going down to LA. She decided to walk down the infamous Sunset Strip, as a historic music place like this could not go untrekked when having the chance. Wearing a black turtleneck, dark blue flare jeans with dark brown boots and a satchel bag hanging from her shoulder, a small suitcase's handle in the other hand while the silver case dragged its wheels on the floor. As she caught the sight of the colourful sign of The Rainbow, a voice called to her. "Y/n?" A older man, short blondish hair, leather jacket, sunglasses.

Axl Rose.

And like the trigger of a gun being pulled,

A life was lost.

(or misplaced)

Y/n's POV:

Everything stood still,

I stood still.

Then it all went dark. It was a black lifeless void.

Falling backwards but being physically still.

Time was reversing.

A previous life. My life?

Memories rolling past like an old film.

My head spiralled.

I can't comprehend this. What is happening to me?

My first years of school, late 60's early 70's. That's not right. It was the early 2000's.

Falling in love with music, Queen, Elton John.

Highschool was trip. My parents being stricter than anyone else's, they didn't believe I could have a job as in the music industry.

Studying music in college then going on the Uni and taking a science course to get my folks off my back.

One of my most successful record deals was Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi.

Before they even started writing lyrics for their songs, I knew it off by heart and helped them gain success with it and recording went like dream.

Now I was searching the East Coast for a new band to sign.

March 1985, The City of Angels.

A flash of light, and my eyes flickered open.

It a cold night, dark but the city light was somewhat comforting.

It was the Sunset Strip, but something was...

Off.

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

OMG SORRY IF IT'S SHIT

THIS WAS LIKE THE INTRODUCTION, FIRST PART IS COMING OUT SOON 

IM SO EXCITED

(Band at the beginning is greta van fleet )

[redrydersrequiem]

Reunited chapter 1

Ok ive been reading ALOT of avatar fanfiction lately and i like many other am obsessed with miles Quartich. So heres a fic for him. Again this is just for my own sanity i think of stuff and i have to write them down or they’ll never leave my head. Love all yall who actually read this again everyone be kind none of this is prof’d. Also just warning for language and I am constantly adding stuff to these because I am always re-reading them and finding issues so again just hang in there with me I like to use gifs/videos and pics to make the story more theatrical in my mind

Updated this 5/2/23

Next chapter

Ok video log 230 My name is y/n y/l/n I was a Corporal for the RDA. I went to Pandora for one reason.

I needed the money

My only living relative, my aunt, was sick. Terminally sick and the regular military benefits were not working. That’s when the RDA swooped in and found me. A young former soldier with experience who needed financial backing, yeah, I see now I was an easy target for them. Anyway getting to Pandora I was placed on the one and only Colonel Miles Quaritchs team. Luckily or maybe not now that I look back I was strictly security for hell's gate. While the others did more field work I was dealing with perimeter checks,Hot headed soldiers fighting, Fixing up my team whenever they didn’t want to deal with the science quacks, and a shit ton of unnecessary paperwork. You know Basic duties, until I was assigned to start helping the scientists out more.

They wanted to start going back out into the forest more often and after watching the beauty of it from the window all the time, I was all for joining them. Even though I was a soldier it didn’t mean I was one of the inhumane jug heads like some. I had passions and loved nature and music, culture, literally devouring anything I could. Grace actually kind of liked me which is why I started spending a lot of time with them despite my unit's protests.

Now don’t get me wrong I loved my unit. After getting past some of their personal walls, all of them were amazing. Loyal to one another. Funny, goofy and everything in between. They were my family, the Lovable brothers and sisters I had never had albeit VERY rough around the edges. It's actually funny now how close i am to everyone and how protective they are over me cause when I first showed up they all almost laughed me out the door. All thinking i was just a young gun that wouldn’t amount to anything just their cute little doctor but after they saw me take down a drunk guy twice my size from another team with vicious savagery,during a night off for all of us, in heels might i add, they all started looking at me in a new light.

(Think something like this clip)

Once comfortable everyone really showed me their true colors.Lyle, as annoying as he was, was also very funny. Just straight up class clown behind closed doors. They are the kind of brother that just comes up to you randomly to mess with you for like a second and then runs away.( his intrusive thoughts when a lot) but he was always my go to to hang out with just cause he would make you forget about the stress of the job.

Zdinarsk was the annoying older sister, beautiful but playful, a piece of candy in every pocket she had, but always willing to share. She also likes to playfully pick on me all the time, but if someone else says something. God help them.

Mansks was more the silent but deadly brother. Always watching out for me, especially when I am out in the field. His eyes trained everywhere you just can’t see it from behind all those sunglasses he owns. He would back up z whenever they heard someone say shit about me, those people never came within my vicinity again. But he also had a softer side, like being an incredible cook. We all call him the grill master, and live for the days he decides he wants to cook. We eat well those days. Ja, brown and prager were like the three stooges together. Sometimes I honestly wondered if they all shared a brain cell. Lopez was cool. He would teach me a bunch of Spanish, mostly curse words but still would teach me. And anytime some music would come on he would be the one to dance with me.

Sorry I'm rambling. All in all I was very close to everyone in our squad of thirteen rowdy marines but it was my home. Now while the others were family Miles was much more.

As soon as I met the colonel I was enamored. It was hard to even describe why or how it happened. At first you think of him as just some hard ass old geezer who would never look twice at you and then you catch him helping his fellow members in tasks. Checking up on them like a dad almost. Learning how I liked my coffee so he can bring it to me in early meetings. While everyone simply thought of him as some hard ass to the book soldier, I thought of him as a trusted leader that has and will continue to bend over backwards to help the people he's loyal to.

Simply put I I fell in love

Despite his rough figure and reputation. I fell in love with him. With the warm smile he only showed when we were alone. With how he knew I loved the plants and things of pandora and would occasionally bring me non threatening flowers when he found them while in the field. How he actually would listen to me ramble to everyone about the stuff I had learned from grace without complaining or zoning out of the confirmation like the others.Stuff like that all garnered points in my heart towards my colonel It wasn’t until almost two years later when I confessed to Miles and to my absolute surprise he reciprocated. Even though he thought he was way too old for me I didn’t care. I had been surrounded by death my whole life so I quickly learned to seize any moment I could never know if that person would be there the next day. It wasn't until a year later that he proposed. That was the same year that Jake Sully arrived.

Jake Sully was granted access I would have killed for. To be an avatar.

Jake was cool, another fellow marine who even though he tried not to show it, was fascinated with the world of Pandora and everything he was learning. A strong and independent person that despite his personal and physical trauma was such a goof. Miles liked him, I could tell. He respected jake for not letting his physical issues take him out. He liked people who persevered through issues. So it was no surprise that Jake was working with grace and i but he was still under the command of Miles.

When Grace decided to take her norm, Max, Jake and others out to the old shack to work instead of hell's gate I was given the option to go with them. Unfortunately I couldn't stay all the time. I wanted to be with my family and closer to better medical help for the life that was now growing inside me.Grace understood that but I for sure could feel the divide that was happening between the two groups of people I found myself Entangled in especially as Jake got to know more and more about the omaticaya clan.

You see, I saw something on both sides. The RDA was all about money and with the way the economy and everything was back on earth money was a necessary evil. While I don't agree with what they were doing, I understood why. With grace, norm, and Jake I saw the beauty of pandora. How much different she was from our own planet that is now no more than dust and metal it feels but here in the plush forests of color it was amazing. I could understand why the natives were so protective over it, myself slowly joining them. A little while into Jake's expedition I even got to meet Neytiri.

She had shown up to the little shack at Jake's persistence to meet me,and norm and to reconnect with grace since she had known her from before. Jake was trying to show her that not all humans were bad, which I can’t say he fully succeeded on but she respected all of us. I mean she was definitely standoffish at first with me, but once she saw my pregnant belly I could see something in her shift. She asked me about human babies and if they were very different from Navi ones. And she asked me about our family’s and about nature and we even bonded over teasing Jake which I found great, much to his detriment. Neytiri was great honestly. She was beautiful and strong and when it all came down to it we found we had more in common than not. I truly started considering her a friend and her doing the same with me.

Unfortunately when I got later in my pregnancy I could no longer fly out to the old shack anymore Miles being a worry wart. Actually all of the team were worriers but I just took it in stride. I knew how much they all loved me and I was happy to stay put to give them peace of mind. The only thing I wish I could do was get them to all stop taking Parker’s orders. It was like we weren’t even soldiers anymore, more like Parker and the RDAs hunting dogs. Even though I tried every day to tell them that the RDA was wrong. I know they were all loyal to a fault but I thought that loyalty was to each other over the RDA. Some would listen to me and agree with some of the things i said but some would just shake their heads at me and tell me we have to do the best we can for our own before trying to change the subject. Hard headed soldiers every last one of them but none more so than miles. No matter how much i speak and i know he listens hes loyal to the rda almost to a fault.

But I didn’t have a lot of more time to try and convince him that the shit Parker was whispering in his ear was all bullshit. It was late evening right before the eclipse that my water broke. God was that fun. 13 hours of labor and my son is finally welcomed into the world. He was so small. Beautiful light blond hair on his head, and his fathers eyes. It was unfair how I carried him for 9 months and he came out looking just like his dad. Everyone was so excited about him though our little Miles Lyle l/n quartich

*(couldn't find if spider had a middle name so just went with they made Lyle his god dad and named him that)

I had just taken the baby to the nurses unit to get his one month evaluation. It’s nice to get out again after being on bed rest for the last month. Everyone’s been very hush hush about any missions and stuff that have happened recently and it's not until I saw Miles and the others in a lab with Parker, that my interest was peaked, since they all would rather die than come over to this section. Walking through the doors everyone went a little quiet. Like teeenagers trying not to be caught in a lie. That was red flag number two.

I see miles talking into a camera and ask what he’s doing. He sates my curiosity by telling me Parker is making the team catch up on their logs so that the RDA has a good view of what's been happening. I know he is lying to me and he’s lucky I'm tired from staying up with our son or I would call him on his bullshit but that will be a conversation for later. He pushed me off to go get some sleep while baby miles was at his check up and that daddy would pick him up and they would join us later and i agreed. Placing a kiss on his lips i make my way out of the lab and towards our shared courtiers

Unbeknownst to him I learned what they were really doing video logs for. After leaving the lab I heard other soldiers talking about how sick it was seeing that big tree go up in flames. And I froze in my spot. No, I couldn't have heard that right. After pulling rank on them they told me what happened and to say I was pissed was an understatement, then being told that the others were now going to attack the omaticaya clan. I was seething. I immediately called Jake and the others knowing grace would tell me what's been happening without sugar coating anything,but found that they were no longer there. That's not good at all. I quickly made my way to the research sector and try to find max or really anyone. Bursting in the labs side room i see max running around like a chicken without a head

“Max where are they whats going on”

“y/n. You shouldn’t be here”

“Max what’s happening the others aren't answering and i just learned Parker wants to declare all out war basically”

“I'm sorry y/n. You’ve missed a lot since you’ve been out with the baby.”

“Well quickly fill me the fuck in.”

Max quiets me and takes me over to a side office shutting the door securely behind us. That’s when he tells me what happened. Tells me how the RDA had attacked Hometree and were now trying to take over the Forest. How Jake and the others tried to help the Navi and were caught and labeled traitors. How he and Trudy helped them escape. Each piece of info was like a knife to my heart. Everything pierced through me, when I asked about what had happened to them All he could tell me is that Jake was trying to get all the clans together to stop the RDA and that the board had somehow been set with jake neytiri and the natives on one side and my love and family on the other being pawns for the rda.

There’s no way. There was no way the people who would come see me and my baby and gush every time they saw him would lie to me. There’s no way the man I loved would lie to me and tell me everything was fine. No I, it couldn't be. I couldn't be stopped as I ran from the room. Once back in my own quarters I empty my stomach in the toilet almost shaking from rage and disappointment when I hear miles come in.

“Mamas your boys are home” Miles comes into the bedroom seeing me sitting on the bed looking pissed.

“What’s wrong darlin.”

“Don’t call me that right now miles.”

“Darlin?”

“DONT.! I got to know miles where do you and the others get off lying to my face.”

“Whatcha talking about”

“I know miles I know about the attack on hometree. I know about Jake and the others I KNOW.” I say screaming. Little miles now crying as I storm over and take him from his father, lulling him back to sleep and putting him in his little room while his predecessor tries to figure out what to say to me.

“Darlin now.”

“No miles this is wrong. I thought we understood each other I thought we agreed that we”

“Well you thought wrong. Darlin. We are not here to make friends with the natives, we are here for the rock in the ground.”

“Fuck that rock miles fuck the RDA the Navi are people they have emotions they have families just like us what makes us so much better to them to do this. They did nothing to us beside try and protect their home the same we would if the roles are reversed”

“Darlin, I think you forget who you're talking to.”

“No, I know exactly who I'm talking to. I'm talking to the man I thought was the love of my life but with every word is slowly proving to me he’s just as bad as everyone originally said.

Miles just grits his teeth as I get in his face. Just because I had a baby did not mean I wasn’t still a soldier. And he was about to relearn that real quick.

“y/n this is the mission i knew i should have pulled you from hanging out with those scientists sooner i knew you were getting too mushy for that natives.”

“Mushy miles what the fuck.”

“ENOUGH! He yells silencing my rant. “At the end of the day i am Colonel Quartich, at the end of the day i'm doing my duty to the human race, and i will not compromise that for anyone.”

“I'm not anyone, I'm your fiancé, the mother of your child. Im”

“You're still a soldier. A soldier under the RDA. Now I think it's time you take a little bit to remember whose side you’re actually on. Our or the savages outside.”

“The only savage I see right now is all of you.” I say as I throw my ring at him before snatching up baby miles things and locking ourselves in the spare bedroom.

I don't see that Miles breathes heavily, clutching his head as he tries not to punch a hole in the wall. I don't see how he reaches down and picks up my ring and pockets it or how he leaves and locks me and the baby in our quarters with strict orders to make sure we are taken good care of. Making sure i stay there while the next mission is about to commence, cause he knows deep down he'll lose me if i go out there.

But like miles said i am a soldier and even though i just had a baby i was not about to let my lover fuck everything up.

It took me most of the next day to get out of the room. But once i finally wired the room door to open I was met with no one there thank god most being called to the front lines. I run to the lab to find Max and others still there trying to figure out what to do. I run over and grab max

“y/n what are you doing”

“Max i dont have time. I have to stop this.”

“y/n there’s nothing you can do now”

“No stop there is always time ok. I need you to help me though i need y’all to look after my baby”

“What y/n no”

“Max, I swear to eywa right now help me.!”

He just puts his hands up and relents one of the female scientists Abby comes over in all her goth glory and takes little miles from Mac promising she would help look after him. I trusted her, she had a good head on her soldiers and was constantly coming to see the baby. She called him her ray of sunshine in the lab. I kiss Miles' little head breathing him in as he smiles up at me, his beautiful little blue eyes the picture of his father.

“I love you my baby. And I pray we are reunited. But I have to go knock some sense into your papa first. Please take care of him.”

“We will y/n. We promise, go give them hell.”

All I can do is nod as I rush away. Leaving half my heart behind in hells gate as the other is lost in the forest. Take one of the new roving speeders and hustle to try and get to the shack its a god ways way but the pilot having my gun to his head helped speed thing along. That is until an arrow comes flying in disabling the copter hurtling us down. The landing was definitely rough and my pilot was dead but i was close enough I could make it on foot. I start rushing through the forest making my way when out of nowhere Dickson comes into my view

He was a fellow soldier. Was on the same transport as me when we first arrived on Pandora but like his last name implied he was a massive dick.Misogynistic, self absorbed, everything wrong with a guy he had wrapped up in a package.

“Well ill be damned the rumors where true”

“And what rumors would that be.”

“That you turned your back on the colonel and the others from some blue dick.” I just grimace at his stupid face waiting to see what move he would make

“I know quartich said not to harm you but if your turning ass and hanging with the tree fuckers then you deserve to die here and now.”

“Then do it you punk ass bitch.” I say before coming at the soldier with gusto. My life is on the line, my son's life. The life of my friends. I have everything to lose and I won't let some gung ho jackass soldier take it all away from me. I need to get to Jake and the others I got to get somewhere to stop miles. Gun shots ring out as I ditch my gun to rush Dickerson. My knife meeting his chest multiple times effectively ending his existence. So long to bad rubbish

I don’t even look back, It wasn’t until I was finally speeding to the old shack that I felt the burning in my side. Shit. I yell out. I have nothing to stop the large hole in my side but I can’t let that stop me now. I'm almost there. I almost have everything I need in the palm of my hands. I know seeing me will stop miles I know I could get him to stand down.

Finally getting to the old shack I see Miles and Jake are going at it, both not backing down from the situation at hand. All I can do is clutch my side trying to stop the bleeding caused from that bitchs gun. I finally get into the clearing yelling out to the both of them.

“MILES, JAKE PLEASE STOP”

They both look over toward me seeing me stumble into the clearing. Jake is all done up in his warrior garb war paint on his face. He has a couple of cuts and nicks all over him. Miles wasn’t any better i dont know what happened to his amp suit but it now had no glass protection. Just miles with a exo mask over his face. The face that briefly looked upon me with worry and anxiety before his colonel mask came back up.

“Y/n get out of here it is not save”

“You don't speak to her sully”. Miles turns slightly to me still keeping jake in his peripheral vision

“Darlin what are you doing here you should be hooded up somewhere with the baby

“This needs to stop, Miles, this is wrong. You know that

“Darlin, I don't have the time to argue with you right now. I have to make sure this deserter piece off trash gets what’s coming to him

“Miles please, he just ignores me turning back to jake fully

“Jake i don't know how you and those scientists took here away from me but ill make sure you regret it

“Miles, listen to me please Jake has nothing to do with this. This is me please, I say trying to stumble further in front of jake. Him trying to reach out to me being shot back by the amp suit taking a giant step.

“Miles don't do this, let's just walk away please. We have little miles we have each other, everyone else that is left from our squad we can all stand down and go be real people, we can all be at peace with the Navi and have our own family. We don't need to fight.

“Darlin i know you aren’t telling me to turn my back on humanity

“No im telling you to choose your family and the people that matter over orders fro people who give two fucks if you lived or died today. Im begging you miles

I see his eyes cloud over with indecision. But I also saw Neytiri. I hadn’t noticed her before, preoccupied with my own wound and trying to save my family.

“Darlin you're right I.” “Neytiri NO.”

But everything is too late. Her arrows pierce through the air just as her battle cry does. All finding their target in my fiancés chest, as he and his suit go crashing into the pandorian forest floor

“NO!!!!!” I scream fumbling over to Miles exo suit.

“NO NO NO no come on miles please please please.”

He is still awake choking on the blood now filling his lungs. His eyes come over to me and he tries to lift his hand to cradle my face

“Miles please no”

“I'm sorry darlin”

“No don't be sorry I'm sorry please don't leave me. I love you so much. Please”

‘Darlin i love you tell miles I love him to”

“No you have to live to tell him yourself please.”

All i can do is clutch his hand against my face praying to whoever i can to save him. But it does nothing as the light leaves his eyes

“y/n”. I hear jake say behind me Gently coming up to me

“y/n”?

“No, leave us alone.”

“y/n come on it's not safe out here”

“It’s too late Jake please.”

Jake doesn’t listen to me and comes up kneeling next to me. Placing his giant blue hand on my shoulder I finally turned into him, letting him envelope me in the hug I oh so needed. Momentarily forgetting I was bleeding out and my love just died in my arms

“y/n I'm so sorry” he says but as he comes up to pull me away and look at me does he notice the blood now staining his hand “Shit y/n are you hit?.” he starts looking over me seeing the gaping wound in my stomach. He gently sits me to lie back on the ground trying to find something around us he can stop the bleeding with.

“Yeah one of those bitchs shot me.”

“It’s ok y/n will get you cleaned up ok Neytiri.” He yells but I just put my hand on his face to bring his attention back to me.

“Jake, I need you to do something for me ok.

“What y/n no you’ll be fine.”

Jake please i'm a soldier i know when a wound is bad. Neytiri please just stop. Neytiri now joins her mate next to me. She looks over me with a sad look in her eyes her ears pinned down almost guiltily but I didn’t blame her

I'm sorry, tiri i'm sorry for everything that has happened to you because of humans but I must ask you. Ask you both a few more favors.

I want you to take care of miles. He's just a baby. He's not his father, he's not me, he's the perfect mix of both. He will be a wonderful human, I know it in my heart. Please don't let him suffer. Please

“We will y/n i swear.” neytiri says next to me, taking my other hand in hers, placing it against her cheek.

I have something else to ask jake. Please give these to miles too.” I hand Jake my dog tags with my ring on them as well as quartichs tags with his.

Please tell him his father wasn’t a monster. He was just lost, and I failed to lead him out. Please

“We will y/n I promise”,

“Tell him I'm sorry I couldn't stay with him but I know he will be better off on Pandora instead of earth.”

They both just nod to me, tears filling their eyes. My body has long since gone cold and I know my time is near.

“My final request for you is to bury us both somewhere nice.

What? Jake asks solumely

“Yeah somewhere beautiful, somewhere in the sun together, maybe then we will be together in the next life.” They both promise me and watch as the rain begins to drop slowly the light finally leaves me and they both just look down in shame and saddens neytiri hugging my small body to her saying prayers to eywa for mine and miles soul. How could she refuse her friend's wishes? She may have not agreed with who her friend's love was but love was sacred. Her and jake would follow the women’s wishes

After the fighting was over Jake, Neytiri and the other avatars and people that had known followed my wishes. Neytiri draped me in a beautiful fabric covered with flowers. Miles was given the same treatment given a warriors garb. Both of us positioned next to each other for the rest of eternity. The omaticaya tell stories of the butcher of the hometree and how he wasn’t evil, just misguided and how it takes those around you to help each other find the right way. The story is really becoming an essential teaching lesson for all children. Miles or spider as he likes to go by now grows alongside the other sully children. Jake and Neytiri really stepped up to be parents to him along with the others who were allowed to stay alongside the Navi after the humans' mass exit. He was definitely wild but very much loved. He knew who his birth parents were and he learned how much they had loved him. Every year he and the others all go out to the grave site to pay their respects.

Everything is perfect for 16 years until one night more stars than usual fill the pandorian night sky.

[ljsarts]

Here’s a big old infodump on Mari Matilla an AW 2 oc who's little plot and background I kept on adding to for the last month or so till it spiralled into a fully fleshed character-

I briefly mentioned Samy and Mari’s dynamic in this post so this is more focused on Mari as the remaining Matilla sister.

Warning its a long post I've tried to section out but I thought i better post it now or i never will so oops here we go ALSO spoilers for the entirety of AW2 just to cover my bases

Tldr basic info-

Name: Mari Matilla 

Nickname/mean rumour name:  ‘Mary Shell-y' 

(Anglicised her name to Mary if people mispronounce it enough) 

Close Relatives: 

[Deceased] twin Sister Sam Matilla.

Estranged Mother Francesca Matilla. [Alive]

Stepfather Micheal Matilla. [Annoyingly Alive]

--

Name: Samy matilla

Nickname: ‘samwich’ a highschool nickname that Samy tried to spread herself that Mari will not let her live down. 

Close Relatives: (same as above but was secretly still in contact with their mother Fran) 

Died : 2022 spring swimming in cauldron lake.

The duo moved to bright falls in Spring 2019.

Works at the summer general store before the lake is closed off to the public. 

Samy Drowns and she moves into the general store basement in 2022. (Year before the nightingale murder and the events of AW2). 

--

Additional oc Outside the Matilla family:- 

Name: Satu Barkley 

Nickname: Sparky

Works for Biltmore’s Logging camps, mostly delivers the logs but won't skip the opportunity to do some log splitting. Her Hobbies vary from wood carving to hiking and darts. She met and ended up dating Mari after getting set up on a blind date with her via their shared friend Rose Marigold. 

--

Family:-

Recently Mari Lost their twin sister Samy Matilla violently to ‘the cult of the tree’.

Her ‘murder’ happened a year before Saga and Casey arrived to investigate Nightingales murder. 

This death in the family leaves her alone in Watery with only the company of their senior dog Charlie, a greying jack Russel with a laziness problem.

Mari makes do with the little family she has left (literally little Charlie is tiny even for his breed she jokes he's shrunk as he's got older)- not having many relatives nearby as a support system considering she ran to bright falls after cutting contact with everyone but her sister in 2019.

Before her Grimm passing the twins had very little other family than distant (both physically and emotionally) aunts and uncles as well as having a mother and stepfather they'd cut contact with for good reason. 

The ’murder‘

The grizzly ritualistic murder of Miss Matilla and Mari’s trauma from discovering the gruesome aftermath (only being drawn outside by Charlie howling at the cultists outside) has led to her becoming an elective Mute when encountering about 90% of the town. 

Because of the cult's anonymity Mari lacks any kind of mutual trust in the majority of the town growing paranoid that anyone could be a cult member after her too to finish off the whole family.

This paranoia in turn led the non cult members of the town to be suspicious of her being that she somehow didn't hear the murder happening right outside her home at the time (staying for the summer in the general store by the lake). 

All they'd heard was that her sister had been murdered right on her doorstep and she'd just slept through the ordeal only waking when it was too late. 

The truth being that Mari had been up the last two nights looking for her sister who'd set out to go swimming in the lake despite her protests that those waters were not safe.

See She'd been too swept up on scouring every inch of the woods after finding Sam's bag, shoes and phone sat on the edge of the lake just abandoned that she hadn't called her in missing in town (not daring to leave the woods) . And even after spending the full day searching she didn't trust the police to come looking for her either. 

This lack of sleep from searching day and night meant she had passed out on day 3 and slept through the cults ‘murder’ ritual never knowing that her sister was long dead before the cult began attempting to carved her heart out (Samy having been drawn into and drowning in the lake while trying to disprove her sisters worries about her. Samy following a ‘figure’ into the waves).

The town also was not aware that at that time the three of them (Samy, Mari and Charlie) slept in the basement of the old general store, meaning even if Mari had been awake she wouldn't have heard a thing anyways. (This doesn't stop her blaming herself though).

They also didn't know that Mari had stirred that night at the sound of the howling and barking making it out of the general store door rifle in hand a moment too late only seeing deer masked figures fleeing into the woods and the telltale pattern of her sister's dress covering a bloodied and water trodden body splayed out on the picnic bench. She'd rush out not realising she was screaming already and try to shake her sister awake to no avail. 

Seeing a body

 something there , 

not her sister

 not anymore. 

The sun would rise by the time she called into the sheriff's office. Hand still wrapped around her sisters, hair wiped off her bloodied face with loving care and blanket pulled over her so she wouldn't get cold.

They'd come within the hour and cordon off the area.

She'd only let go of her sister’s now Ice cold hand when another would grab hers leading her off to the car park in silence. 

Mari had been taken to the police station to fill out all the reports and witness forms not really saying a word just in shock. They'd ask if anyone could come collect her and when they received a shake no offer a lift back up to the store to get her things. 

Later on she'd be silent still as she begrudgingly brewed coffees for the sheriff and deputies up at the general store while they took the body and photographed the crime scene. 

They'd comment on how the heart had been half carved out sliced open shoddily but not removed properly like the other victims and that the noise of the dog howling and the lights of the store turning on must have put off the ‘killers’ assuming someone nearby was watching them (at least that's their running theory).

Aftermath- 

Mari gets very intense surrounding the investigation into Samy’s death. She finds out from her autopsy some key facts that don't add up - 

Samy's lungs were filled with lake water - logically yes she drowned in the lake so how did she walk up back to the general store where she got murdered.

Her mottled skin and appearance applies more to a body that's been in the water for weeks not mere days at most. 

The cult still seemed to have tied down Samy’s body but the marks on the body would coincide with her being alive at the time of the ‘murder’ and pulling against said restraints. 

In Mari’s mind she can only comprehend two ideas- 

Either one : Samy almost drowned in the lake barely surviving and after being lost in the woods for two days finally struggled back home to the general store getting picked off like a wounded animal . 

Or worse, the cult tortured her by waterboarding her in the lake only to grow ‘ bored ’and kill her up by the general store as a threat. 

In either of these options one thing remains - guilt Mari feels such a deep gnawing guilt at not running after her sister after Their fight at not checking up on her sooner knowing the lake had a history of drownings. 

It had to be her fault , hers and the cults. 

The police (well really just the Sheriff since he's the only one who can relate to Mary having hallucinations having his own about shapes in the night) considered making a recommendation to go to the cauldron lake clinic after some pretty horrendous ptsd episodes and bouts of insomnia began occurring more frequently to Mari leading up to deer fest.

These recommendations definitely did not arise because she accidentally punched a newbie cop in the face who mistakenly jumped out at her from a dark corner with a deer fest mask on while trying to prank their coworker). 

These episodes are all being triggered by the surrounding deer imagery of all things. Why'd the cult have to pick the town's mascot of all things, why not a wolf or something scary?.

Mari denies the help initially. Partially on lack of trust and partially because in her own words-

‘Im not fucking crazy Breaker alright! I just get spooked by y’all running up on me all the time with this stupid deer fest shit it's every day and it's it's everywhere in town already the festival’s not for another month and a half alright! Why? why are they rushing?’ 

It takes one pretty rough breakdown and waking up in an open holding cell  on a Sunday morning with no recollection of the *last ten hours for her to finally realise yeah getting help might be the best thing for her sanity and safety right now. That or moving out of town forever and that's not an option in her mind. 

*Those missing ten hours consisting of her actually getting the courage to shoot at a cult member missing by an inch, fleeing badly on foot , getting caught , kicking screaming and exchanging punches, just to then in a fit of rage screaming at them to go ahead kill her like her sister only to get *bonk* knocked out cause a taken was approaching and they didn't have time to explain to her what actually  happened with her sister. A cult member dropping her off at the station steps as a ‘drunk and disorderly’, their fellow cult members in the police station getting her inside and checked over. 

Satu the lumberjack picks her up from the station in the morning with coffee , an ice pack for that possibly broken nose and therapy enrollment forms alike in hand. 

These outbursts lead to her becoming even more of a social pariah, seemingly an outsider against small town customs .

But In Spite of said episodes she still aims to be polite when she does choose to speak to the townsfolk.

She always pays promptly and tips well in the dinner; 

she'll smile back at the townsfolk as she walks by when taking Charlie to the town park to chase pigeons.

When she stocks up She nods along with cashiers gossip trying to remember who's who and waits while they give Charlie all the fuss his old little face can handle. (Which is surprisingly a lot , he loves all the attention).

Most of all when she heads back to the woods she's never late for work.

Not that she could be late considering she works  alone as pest control and wildlife management in the acres surrounding the lake.

She only visits town to stock up on supplies every month or so and since Rose in the Dinner is about the only person she’ll hold a full length conversation with in town , her social skills have been lacking as of late. (Not that she has great ones to begin with)

She thinks Rose is ‘weird’ (heavy quotes weird)  like she is , changed by all the weirdness in this town.

She’d never admit it but she feels Like something is following rose around too, a darkness that dims the usual sparkle in her eyes sometimes or a daydream on the air she gets lost in.

Not that she'd admit to spending way too much time staring into Roses' silvery eyes though.  

But she knows Mr Wake writer extraordinaire is Rose’s ~ one true love~ and she's only a pinch jealous . Though she does love to hear her excited reviews and ratings of - ’the best Casey novel in her opinion , or are we talking about most engaging ?or ooh! the one that the critics like the most? cause that's a controversial pick in my opinion~’. 

(Oh and Mari totally didn't get accidently spoiled by Rose about Casey dying in the last book when she’d just decided to start reading them.)

After her sort of one way crush faded a bit and Rose and her became more besties , Rose tried and succeeded to set her up on a blind date with a local lumber worker who Mari had met in the past delivering logs up to the general store -  Satu Barkley.

A broad shouldered gentle giant of a lady who Mari sees as way out of her league but who seems to be pine-ing (pun fully intended) just as much as her. 

They bond over a shared love of woodwork with Satu carving a little wooden raven to go on Samy's grave and a little wooden wolf for Mari to wear as a necklace Mari immediately swooning. 

Satu becoming the second person she feels safe  enough around to talk to freely when she comes to visit the lake and deliver logs. 

Work-

Work has been weird too lately. 

She used to work in the bustling old general store with their sister before the whole park got shut down. 

It was a dream I mean sure the summer rush was always hard to stay on top of  but the work kept her mind occupied and sharp , it was a challenge and made the quiet evenings afterwards so much more rewarding. 

Worth the struggle just to get to see the sunsets  and hear the full array of seasonal birdsong , the cool breeze through the woods slightly chilling the skin. 

Her sister always the overachiever would spend the summertime working by Maris side part time shopkeep but  full time most days ‘idiot supervisor’ (her own words) or rather doctor and emergency first aider. (Spending the rest of the year working in the wellness centre) 

Having worked in emergency medicine in a Vancouver hospital before moving to Bright falls to live with her ‘runaway’ sister, Samy knows her way around your miscellaneous woodland injuries handling the splinters to sprained ankles and the more grizzly injuries too with equal measures of care. 

Those summer days in the store by her side the lake and the woods felt even  

brighter,

warmer,

kinder than usual. 

The woods used to be alive with a beating heart of campers and birdwatchers, the odd ‘guided adventure tour’ by the Koskela Brothers too travelling down the trails like veins through the woods.

Now they're just too quiet.

The only harsh sound being the consistent clanging and buzz of the monitoring station in the hill a crude noise cutting through the bird song in the morning 

Moving on-wards-

When the general store got shut down the two of them had moved back into an old cabin their aunt  owned that they'd inherited after she passed in 2019 , (this inheritance prompted Mari cutting contact and moving).

The cabins Situated just outside the town's borders up in Watery, but the two secretly keep the keys to visit the general store every summer and fish the lake. 

Mari couldn’t bear going back to the cabin without her sister ; all her clothes laid out for work tomorrow , all the sticky notes reminders the plants in the window unwatered. That whole cabin  just felt like an open unhealed wound .A living tomb dedicated to a woman who'd never step foot in it again.

She'd slept in her truck that night and sold the place to whoever would move in the quickest, this person ironically being Satu who was a little shocked to see Mari just up and leaving. 

After she'd  gathered all her sister's and her stuff on the back of the pickup truck she'd left for the woods. 

And Once she'd found the old store keys and  some solid padlocks  she'd set out to bunker down in the basement of the  abandoned general store. It was the warmest down there and had been least hit by the elements being some old bunker design from way back when the caldera in the lake was more of an active threat.

(Listen please okay , I sleep deprived Luc editing this backstory right now  knows that there isn't a basement but I forgot that the first cult encounter happens in the general store and it's inferred they chill out in there too so we're shifting from the og idea of living in the general store to a second location , for story purposes she's hiding out in the fictional basement keeping Charlie entertained with a bunch of tennis balls and chew toys while the cults lurking above like a fox beneath the hunters, she's covered the hatch to the basement with moss and scrap wood it's all good alright… at least for now).

The store itself is broken down in patches, it's overgrown in others and the patches between those two variables aren't looking too good either.

But It's familiar , it's safe enough 

If only it wasn't close to where it happened. 

She keeps envisioning that day over and over , rushing out to Charlie's howling , seeing shadows scatter into every corner of the woods.

Seeing her. 

Trying to perform CPR on someone , something long gone, a bloodied chest and empty eyes. Just a shadow of the bright bubbly sister she'd angrily yelled goodbye to a few days prior. 

The blood on her hands grew as cold as the one she clasped. 

It's always the same nightmare , the same moment until eventually it's just silent rest .

Maybe she hopes deep down by staying in that dingy building by letting it rot around her bit by bit.

By being in that right place at all times she can stop the cult using the woods for their murders and make them slip up somehow.

That she can be there when she wasn't before awake and watching. 

It was a stupid and under-thought out plan but it's all she can think about now , the what ifs that might have saved her sister , that could save another soul eat her alive in the silence like rust through iron slow moving but persistent till the end.

She spends weeks out at night tracking , documenting and trying to hype herself up to take a shot at these cult members. Trying to detach herself from reality by hyping herself up going ‘deer hunting’ never quite having the bravery to pull the trigger once and for all. Hell when she finds an old Halloween mask- a wolf while clearing out boxes for memories she dons that imitating the very cult she's trying to catch out. 

Her days, unlike her nights, are monotonously spent culling ‘ diseased ‘ wildlife for the weird company she's found herself working under. They say their pest control and testing wildlife so they can provide treatment and preserve the species in the woods. She doesn't ask questions , the pay is a little too good to be true but it's paid on time and she doesn't have to worry about being late. 

This constant prowling of the woods A dedication to surrounding the lake is why she kicks herself when she returns from a monthly supply run to find the area cordoned off with a dead FBI agent there splayed out contorted just like her sister was.

Nicknames- 

After a few days of near encounters with the cult she hangs tripwires at the front doors attached to chimes she makes from razor clamshells taken from the lake, the one on the front door additionally bearing the old door's entrance bell in its centre for extra volume. 

Gossip, well more a cruel mythos started spreading of a ‘Mari shell-y’ a week after the Chimes went up.

The story goes that when two rangers came to check on the abandoned store after seeing smoke in the forest that they reached for the doors and were ambushed by tripwires of shells wrapping tightly around their arms, the chimes breaking in the process.

That ‘Mari the shell lady , the weirdo in the woods who lost their voice in the lake, had finally gone looney and is collecting shells to fight off the “witch's powers”’. 

She persuaded the rangers that she was just lighting a fire to mask her scent, and  that she was on the job- tracking some weird wolves in the woods with rabies , emphasising how rabid and uncontrollable these wolves were to the rangers, this task putting them at enough unease to leave promptly with a ‘-good luck with that’. 

Interaction/encounter wise within AW2 

(Disclaimer I wrote the majority of this stuff while watching a play through of aw2 and was only on the first few chapters of the game so there's some bits that are out of sync with the main plot)

Overarching plotline of Mari like most Bright Falls inhabitants is just a ‘so bad very bad day worst day of their life’ plot. She doesn't influence the progression of the main story and is more just another victim of the horror genre narrative demanding sacrifices barely surviving it's attacks on her ‘Until Dawn style’ (Emily from until dawn my beloved inspiration).

So Mari’s arc Aka ‘Mari will not die in spite of the world trying it's best to axe her’ (wink wink) begins with a nice calm start in the oh deer diner:  

After Rose gives her ‘remember me? , weird your back cause…’ speech to Saga and she's gone through both conversation roots, Mari can lightheartedly bantering with Rose at the counter of the oh deer dinner about how-

M- ‘the animals in the park, well around the whole lake are acting weirder than usual lately like really off putting, more aggressive, almost rabid, think it's just the changing of the seasons getting to them?’

R- ‘must be that volcanic ash in the air their studying down there, you should mask up breathing all that dust in all day and night oh and get a little doggy sized mask for Charlie to wear you'd match’ 

M- ‘we would (she grins) , you worry about me too much though Rose’ 

R-‘well someone's got to , I mean just look at you’ 

M-‘hey!, I'll have you know this is my best shirt I ironed it and everything’

R- ‘oh really? So that's why you wear it every time you're in town hmm? S’got to be the fourth time I've seen it this year’ 

M- ‘you try living in the woods with a senior dog who's always needing carrying I'm sure all your clothes would be finely pressed and smell like daisies’ 

R- ‘daisies and roses. well,  at least I know what to get you for your birthday’ 

M-’ a new shirt?’

R- ‘shush you'll ruin the surprise’

Mari doesn't really speak to Saga in the dinner but will nod when noticing her and smile genuinely (if a little anxiously)  at her if approached before turning back to the counter and the paper sat on it before her. Giving Charlie scritches behind his old scruffy ears, who sits next to her on a pulled across diner chair.

--

General Store Basement introduction- 

Saga and Casey can encounter and interact fully with Mari in a night-time/late evening cycle of exploring around cauldron lake anytime after the first overlap events/ first encounter with the cult occurs.

When returning to the murder site A trail of fresh blood not washed away by the rain can be found and observed leading from bushes nearby to the general store.  

Meeting Shelley for the first time she'll be hunkered down in the deepest corner of the general store basement 

. 

To get in you'll need A key for the front door that can be found using the flashlight as its hiding spot on a small metal tin is marked by fluorescent paint.

Several shell tripwires can be inspected and disarmed outside the doors and windows, some of the windows are hammered shut shoddily with long nails sticking out of the frames.

Unlocking the front door and delving into the general store again , several objects are disrupted 

- a table is shattered, legs strewn apart , several frames off the walls smashed on the ground and a cult mask sits on the floor brandishing some dog sized chew marks.

-Following the trail of blood leads further into the store and to the attached laundromat room where one washing machine has been pushed out of place revealing a hatch concealed below it.

Below the general store in its basement Mari is found on her last tether.

Being guarded by a quietly growling charlie (you know that sort of old dog rumbly growl they have?) And with A shotgun raised shakily she crouches in the farthest corner of the store wide eyed at the intrusion and visibly bleeding. Having been shot in the shoulder , rough gauze is wrapped haphazardly around the wounded area but She looks palpably pale and clammy. 

The shotgun is leaning awkwardly against her stiff bracing shoulder twitching much to her dismay and Charlie the jack Russel sits tucked onto her lap.

Saga can de-escalate the situation by showing Mari her badge and introducing herself and Casey, commenting on recognising her from the dinner in town earlier and asking about her dog. 

‘She's Charlie , She's harmless, really more talk than bite. Not that she could bite with her old teeth, give her one of these biscuits off the counter and she'll be your best friend’ 

A dog biscuit can be retrieved and  given to Charlie who softens up at the approach.(And yes you can pet the dog)

When Mari finally calms down she'll  crumble a little bit from the stress and alot-a bit from the general blood loss.  

Saga can then ask her name and ask about the gunshot wound :

Asking about the name triggers her to recognise the last name Matilla as one of the previous victims of the cult commenting on the incident occurring around a year and a month ago and how the victim looked identical to her minus the haircut.

Mari winces at the comparison, combing a hand through her hair she clarifies Samy was, is , her twins sister and almost spitefully asks why they've turned up now of all times to look into the murders,she calms though saying it's atleast better late than never.  

Asking about the bullet wound prompts Mari to comment on it not being as bad as it looks, 

‘I was just bunkering down for the night getting Charlie her dinner when I got ambushed by this smokey figure? Like not smoking burning like an enveloping aura of sooty air must be the fucking volcanic ash shit from the lake’ , she quietly adds “I haven't been drinking I swear.’ when Casey's eyes fall on the array of cans on the table. 

‘The shot though that went clean through and it's missed the brachial plexus see’ , 

holding up her hand she clenches and unclenches her fingers a few times it's weird though there's two of her fingers on this held up hand missing old wounds scarred over.

‘It all still works just hurts like a bitch , missed the subclavian artery too, still made a mess of my good shirt though and Im supposed to wear this to date night tonight :( ’. Mari is scarily calm for someone who's been shot. 

Casey comments on the formal medical knowledge Mari seems to possess but rather lacking medical application of the gauze on her shoulder.  

She divulges that her sister used to pop quiz her on the parts of the body, the challenge growing along with her growing up from bones to muscle systems to arteries and where they are a great way to pass time on long summer days.

All great fun at the time  but in hindsight it would have been better in this case to have been taught how to bandage said body parts.

Casey has some medical training from a previous operational medicine program he gestures for her to approach so he can adjust the gauze and the two agree to answer some questions in exchange for them just double checking that shoulder wound and rewrapping it (concerned by how pale Mari looks). 

While Casey's sorting out that shoulder wound Saga can explore this corner of the basement further around where Mari has crumpled down She has several frankensteined together sketches of the cultists faces from memory watching the cultists hiding in the different areas around the lake, noting down details when they'd lift masks to take sips of beers or drunkenly letting them slip off entirely.

Yellow and pink post it notes , receipt paper ripped from the cash register , and lined stationary paper are  stuck haphazardly to a corkboard against the wall with whatever Is available . 

(Casey's pretty sure there's a few empty pens stabbed into the cork in more than one spot.)

While Saga is looking around Casey can ask about Mari’s hand if it's a ‘New wound? , looks old from the scarring, that from a cult attack too? ‘

She clarifies no an old wound from when she was a kid , an accident with an unsafe bear trap, not that there is a safe bear trap for a child to be left around and supervised by  a ‘distracted’ stepfather on a hunting trip. 

She changed the subject pretty quickly and apologises for the shell alarms out front.  Commenting on the rumours and nicknames around her,

Casey in turn comments on the choice of names saying it's cruel when a nickname sticks , mari sympathises making a guess that having the same name as a fictional character must come with a lot of jokes and jabs.  

Casey asks how she can be staying in the general store and not have heard the murder happening right outside. 

Saga, equally confused, clarifies their here because of an FBI agent being murdered on the picnic table outside. 

Mari stumbles back up to her feet and with some assistance closes the hatch door , the room immediately falling deathly silent of the sounds of the outdoors now locked away. 

Didn't hear a thing. I'm afraid it's an old bunker design sturdy as anything but soundproof too.

Mari promises to head into town to get the shoulder looked at and as Saga and Casey head out to explore the cauldron Lake area she can be heard calling up Satu to come and pick her up trying her best to downplay her injury and saying it was an ‘accident’ while cleaning her rifle.

Escalation /second worse encounter:( aka the angst zone of Samy the dead sister returning.) 

Her sister was buried in the woods near the lake wanting to be surrounded by the very nature she coveted . Her grave being marked by some small memorial rocks from mirrors peak and carvings of a crow , a bear , a little wooden duck and other trinkets left by visitors. Fresh flowers sit picked from the surrounding area. 

Saga can on her travels around bright falls encounter a manuscript page that details a horrifying encounter - an empty grave and a taken soul rising up to lay it's last family member to rest beside her in that woodland tomb. 

Of a shadow imbued figure clawing out of the dirt handful by gritty handful and brandishing an axe ripped out of a cedar tree stump,  carving its way through the general store's front door like a horror cliche , the shell chimes rattling a final death rattle. 

(this next bits a little messily written i won't lie i love all the manuscript pages and the style of writing in the game but i cannot imitate it i do visual art not written so shoutout fanfic and authors this is harddd.)

 “Beyond the door , her last remaining protection Mari  Matilla , still recovering from her bullet wound burning a hole in her shoulder, is frozen in place staring in wide eyed abject horror at the looming figure on the other side of the splintering wood.

This figure who shares the same face , the same blood now cold no longer pumping through dead veins looms forward through the gash in the door.

A single white eye peers through the crack sunken into it's hollow socket, the creature smiles a sickly grin too wide for it's face.

She swings her axe bringing the door down with it charging through the threshold , with each slamming step Mari snaps out of the ever growing fear in her heart willing herself to just move! as the axe comes slashing down again.

Finally it  makes contact, clipping her ankle with a sickening thump. Bone exposed  She screams the world all crashing back down around her at once.

‘The light , the basement. The light will keep me safe’ she thinks and so she dives for that sunken room. 

Gunshots ring out in the distance , safety , a chance at survival; she knew who it was, the only one brave enough to be out in these woods alone , Saga Anderson, her hero.

 she screams again louder than before: 

 ‘SAGA she's Here Help me!’ she just had to hold on a few moments more. Just a few moments longer. The creature a mirror of her lurches forward for the basement door and-”

The rest is scratched out. 

The page ends before anything else can occur saga sets off back to the lodge as the day draws to an end.

-- 

On the way to cauldron lake she calls Casey and tells him where she's going, chasing after another page by our best selling author friend she's pissed she asks why he'd write something like this into reality. 

He tries to explain that he doesn't remember writing this but writing in the escape , writing in that saga is there to save her and that the basement full of lights is the safest place for her to be. That sounds like what he'd write , from what he knows that that is how he can help. 

‘its a horror story all of this is I have to stay within the narrative tropes but you can change it's ending it's not written yet there's always a final girl right who barely escapes but not unscathed?’

When she arrives at cauldron lake it's dark the sun's setting , as she approaches down the hill from the parking lot she encounters several taken , gunshots ring out and she hears from the general stores direction screams for help exactly as written she just prays Charlie and Mari have reached the basement , sprinting towards the store. 

The sister's warped and ritually sacrificed body has become a taken a hollow hole in her chest, hair slicked to her face and hands bloodied .

((I have two visual ideas for this currently. One is that she sort of floats above the ground like a body floating face down in the water. Or alternatively upright usual axe swinging but her hairs sort of floating behind her and clothes slightly flowing in a current we can't see)).

She has dirt across her arms and under her fingernails having crawled and clawed her way out of the grave. Stumbling back to her place of death hearing Mari whistling as she cooked, her attention drawn and a rage at her own death bubbling up inside her. 

She screams out at her in its distorted voice ‘ why weren't you there ? Why did you leave me to die? What sister lets her sister die in the cold in the dark ? Look at me, You wretched bitch look at me!’  

When saga arrives to save Mari she can look around and find the shallow grave empty and flooded with lake water, the coffin floating atop and  ripped open. Reaching the general store front door is destroyed ,  Mari surprisingly isn't dead but has barely contained ‘what was samy’ in the basement of the general store. Rattling and slamming can be heard against the basement hatch upon arrival that goes scarily quiet when Mari calls out to saga again. 

She's blood splattered and with one arm weakly cuddling Charlie and is pretty sure like 90% her ankles fully broken (saga is more than sure it's broken she's pretty sure it's been slashed by an axe swing and maybe broken too who knows but she's trying not to panic despite being able to see bone) saga quickly sets to scouting around finding something to splint the leg with and something to cover the basement hatch with that's heavy. 

Mari's struggling in the sort of blood loss delirium but asks saga (when she brandishes her weapon of choice and flashlight to go head down into the basement with) to please please leave her be,

Mari asks why she's like that why she came back like that, 

She confesses quietly that she hopes that whatever has brought her back can purify her if ,  if they just wait long enough right , keep her in the light? She doesn't know how she knows but she just knows the light will fix her. It's a fact in her mind now the light is safe and she can be safe again. 

She has to be right? . 

M: ‘I just , I mean , she's talking. She's breathing what she's saying is cruel, sure but it's better than silence. Please don't hurt her, what would you do ? What would you do if Logan came back out of the Lake please just leave her be’ 

It seems the story has warped Maris memory of events aligning it with Logan drowning too.  

Saga sympathises with Maris grief but stands firm on Logan's condition ,with both hands on Maris shoulders reminds her that -

 ‘Logan isn't dead. Your sister down there? she’ doesn't have a heart ,

theres post mortem autopsy incisions across her chest Mari , the woman she was, your sister , who you cared about so deeply , that you feel so guilty about not being there to save that version of her she is gone and that thing in the basement is just a vessel being puppeted around,  a shadow of who she once was . whatever that is now it is not your sister it's a monster , it's dangerous and it will kill you if we don't kill it’ 

The Frankenstein's monster - part beloved body - park lake darkness, trapped in Mari ‘Shelly's’ basement and wanting revenge upon her misguided ‘creator’- Mari feeling solely responsible for the argument that led to Samy going to the lake. 

(Am I forcing this concept too hard? Yeah absolutely, probably but oh well it's fun and stupid too something something seeing the humanity in someone you've lost coming back wrong even if this vision is clouded by your own remorse). 

Ultimately Samy ends up breaking out of the basement if Saga approaches and/or leaves the area and Saga has to put her down fighting in the limited space of the general store trying to lead her away from where Mari and Charlie are cornered. 

After defeating Samy , Mari will be in tears but gather herself as the trio make a break for the car park , the escape sequence set off by a loud rattling of all the shell chimes outside  and a growing dark presence outside warping the scenery. Mari can carry her own flashlight helping to stun enemies and throwing out the odd flare but is slow moving due to the ankle wound and dog on her hip.

(no she will not leave the dog she'd rather die ) 

(I'm imagining Kind of like the AW1 section where you're getting Barry Wheeler across Anderson's farm - defeat a wave or two of taken and then rush for the exit no cool rock number though but alot of ambient sound - storm , shell wind charms etc). 

After getting their leg seen to properly, splinted stitched, wrapped and painkillers prescribed by Doc Nelson and an ambulance called .she gives the excuse some poachers put bear traps up in the woods and that luckily Saga was in the area following a lead and was able to open the trap for her. 

He half buys it considering there's a record that Mari lost two fingers as a teen to a bear trap but doesn't ask further questions considering she's been escorted to him by an FBI agent who still has some blood splatter on her coat.

After aftermath: 

It takes a few days to overall emotionally recover  from the horrors ™. But once she does recover Mari can then be found half the time hiding out in a makeshift room in the ‘employees only’ room in the back of the oh deer diner. 

She refuses to stay in a hotel or home saying she's not getting taken out in her sleep after surviving all this. It takes s while for Satu to persuade her to move back to the cabin with her (mari joking they’ve only been together 6 months and already moving in how forward~)

 . 

Rose agrees to watch over her when she’s in the diner she can until everything's sorted out. 

(And lend her some actually daisy smelling shirts joking she bought the detergent just to prove her wrong) 

The reward for getting Mari alive out of the taken onslaught is a charm she offers that reduces the damage you take from axes (thrown or melee) by 50 percent. It's shaped like a little shell and hook.

Eventually Mari starts spending her daytime out of the back room and in a corner booth of the diner. She doesn’t want to be idle so spends some time folding napkins and cleaning cutlery whistling little simplified versions of the chapter songs as the story progresses. 

Charlie settles really well into her corner booth of the dinner enjoying pancake scraps from the chef and scratches from the patrons equally.

I think at some point after the events of AW2 when she finds out about everything (the cult, the taken etc) she ends up having a bit of a fighty argument with Ilmo only to falter when finding out his brother's death. 

She gets closure from knowing while her sister probably did suffer drowning in the lake she wasn't tortured or aware (as far as she knows) as a taken when the ‘cult’ got her.

Other little details/ miscellaneous plot beats i didn’t know where to put:- 

Mari feels like the failure of the family in her eyes. Her golden child sister got her degree worked in a hospital and seemed to have her life together while she just struggled to figure out what she wanted. That's why she feels so bad that Sam died, not her because she feels she wasn't doing enough with her life while Sam had so much more to give. She learns to push through this guilt and live for the both of them by the end.  

Mari lost two of her fingers ( pinky and ring) in an accident with a bear trap when she was little. Her stepdad at the time forced the two twins out in the snow to go hunting despite their protests. Mari was a good shot but didn't enjoy the cold. She'd never seen a bear trap before and then suddenly bam no pinky or ring finger. Stepdad freaked out calling for help and scrambling while Sam stayed calm checking on Mari and talking to her to keep her from going into shock. Since that day Sam's always been Maris' hero. And since that day Samys always knew she wanted to be a doctor to help people like her sister in crisis.

While Mari was born before Sam , Sam has always been the ‘ older’ sister of the twins. More mature in nature and in ego.

The day after Sam dies Mari lops half her hair off because she looks too much like her sister. In turn this makes her look just the same as she did when they first moved to bright falls (partially symbolising how she's set herself back in time healing wise by not confronting her grief). It only kind of works so she gets rid of the mirrors in the cabin.

Maris' fatal flaw was her devotion to killing the cult, it drove her to insomnia, dehydration and overall not taking care of herself . 

She obsessed over unmasking a group that she'd fallen for the publicity of. 

Spending months in total out in the woods at night , a wolf mask worn to conceal her face stalking the cult never brave enough to pull the trigger and take one out but Internalising the same ideology the cult used to detach themself from the rituals (telling herself ‘ it's just deer hunting , their not people just pull the fucking trigger’) even at times almost getting caught after hallucinating her sister by her side taunting her to take the shot.

she thought they were evil and had murdered her sister but she ultimately (by the end of the game/her character arc) ends up being told the truth and convinced to either work with the cult to take down taken (as a parallel to Ilmo losing a sibling but having the community for support) or teaming up with rose as a body disposal guy. (Since The hardest part is hiding the bodies ; D) she laughs about it in hindsight if only she'd known from the start how different things could have been.

[fr-likes-chocolate]

Pt three of Quesadilla island Simulator

——

Of course, Dapper and Ramon didn’t take the news of the hidden cryo tank room lightly, Chayanne had to slap his hands over their mouths before they could yell out.

“Shhhhhhh! Shut it!!! You can’t make a commotion! We are going to get taken like Tilin and Trump!” Cheyanne hissed. Ramon and Dapper both gave muffled protests but complied. Chayanne pushed them into his room, “Look. Trump is the reason I know about this cryo tank room. After he told me about the room he, along with Tilin and Juanaflippa disappeared almost immediately after. You two need to keep this quiet before we go missing too.” Chayanne hissed at them. Ramon and Dapper glanced at each other and nodded. Chayanne sighed, “We can talk about this tomorrow let’s ju-“ Richarlyson burst into the room, “Guys!! Bobby’s game avatar died and I can’t find him!” He cried. Dapper, Ramon, and Cheyanne looked at each other, “We are too late... They got Bobby...”

A week later Chayanne slipped off his headset and sighed, The Federation knew... Why were they not saying anything about it, why had he not disappeared like the others? As he walked down the hall, he heard footsteps behind him. Chayanne stayed calm as the person put their hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Turn into the next door on the left.” A cold shiver ran up Chayanne’s spine, was that... Flippa?

Chayanne did as she asked, walking into the room, he felt a cold hand gently guide him to a chair, then had him sit in it. He waited quietly, unsure of how to feel. Soon four figures entered quietly and stood in front of Chayanne. He studied their faces with horror worming itself into his heart. He hoped that the four would do something aside from stare at him with their cold and soulless eyes. Finally Chayanne called out to them.

“Bobby, Tilin, Flippa, Trump... What did they do to you?”

——

From the moment Richarlyson logged on, he knew something was wrong. One of his ‘dads’, Felps, had been missing for two days now, and now Cellbit, another one of his dads was worried. He started to worry when Cellbit told him to stay with Forever, and that he was going to look for Felps. Worry turned to panic when he got a notification saying to immediately log off due to an emergency. He excused himself quickly, ran to a safe spot, and then logged off.

As Richarlyson made his way back to the dorm, he looked back to see Leonarda and Dapper jogging up to him. “Hey, Richas- why the hell is there some sort of emergency? There's no fire alarm or anything...” Leonarda asked, Richarlyson shrugged, “No clue. My guess is that it has to do with the simulation. Maybe a virus infected it.” Dapper nodded quietly, lost in thought.

As the trio walked down the halls, they sat in silence. Dapper obviously had a lot on his mind, ‘Probably something to do with the conversation he was having with Chayanne and Ramon I walked in on.’ Richarlyson thought, he shuttered at the thought. He had left quickly after Chayanne said that Bobby was probably gone in the same sense as the three other testers were. That scared Richarlyson because no matter how smug and annoying Bobby was to him, he still loved him like a brother. Richarlyson hoped he was ok.

As the trio rounded the corner, they slammed into two figures who had been bolting down the hallway. Richarlyson bonked heads with one of the men, making all his senses go fuzzy. All he saw as he fell to the ground was the man’s brown hair with a shocking white streak running through it. He heard Dapper shouting something and hands grabbing him. Soon he was in the dorm, sitting on his bed, The two men were standing near him and Dapper was talking to them frantically. Finally, his head started to clear, he felt his face and was met with a large bump on his forehead. ”Dapper o que diabos aconteceu? quem são eles?” he groaned, at this, both of the men went wide-eyed at him, “....Richarlyson?” the one in red asked, he nodded, “Sim, sou eu, quem você pensava que eu era?” Suddenly it clicked, he knew these two, the white-streaked man with cat ears and his elf-eared companion. “Hey Dapper? I realized what that alert was about...” he murmured, dapper nodded solemnly at him, “You have no idea.”

[peacehopeandrats]

What could you write with 21 & 24

I feel like you got cheated with this. I also feel cheated because I'm totally uninspired by this prompt. You've round the thing that stumps me. Well, not entirely true, I could go a few different ways with this... I thought of the Tent of Infinite Adventure, I thought of some part of Growing Up... In the end, I went with Second Chance.

Gideon hefted one of the larger branches from the felled tree and began to haul it into the pile. "Did you know Canada's forest is something like nine percent of the entire world's forest?"

"All right, Jack." Alice puffed hair from her face. "But this isn't Canada." She set down the axe she'd been using and stretched her back. "This isn't even Canada."

"Couldn't be," Robin told her as she walked by with a bundle of sticks for the stick pile. "They are very careful about clearing their forests."

Gideon pointed a finger at Robin. "There, you see. I'm not the only fact finder in this group."

"Left over from my cursed memories," Robin said with a shrug. "Margot traveled through there for a while."

Alice asked her what it was like and Gideon partially tuned out the couple's sweet semi-bantering about what forest from which realm could have been a match for Canada's vast and diverse wooded areas. Instead, he kept at his work.

It had been a long day of felling trees and hauling them away, but this was much more agreeable to all of them than hiring a machine to tear up the woodland around his father's old cabin. Of course, it hadn't been his choice to make, they were only here helping Jefferson so that he and Grace didn't have to do it alone. Wiping sweat from his brow, Gideon paused to take in the sight of the building and the new clearing they were creating beside it. Eventually a small stable would go here, made of the trees they were currently clearing away. More wood would be taken to create a small clearing for grazing and a larger fence around it.

"It isn't going to take years," Jefferson told him, striding past in a flash of bare chest and bright green pants.

Gideon huffed. "Who said it was?"

"You," Jefferson said. "And you were thinking it just now."

"Actually I was trying to decide how I felt about changing this place so much."

The other man froze, mid stride, saw held out at a dangerous angle. It was as if a magic spell had been cast on him, allowing only his eyes to move. Finally, his jaw dropped open, which seemed to release the rest of him. Spinning on his toes, Jefferson turned a frown Gideon's way. "It's a little late to protest what I'm doing to MY land."

"I didn't mean it that way," Gideon insisted, holding out his hands in surrender. "I just meant... Well, people keep acting as if I should feel something about this place and I just... don't."

Jefferson followed Gideon's gaze and blinked at the cabin. "Right. That."

"If something happened here, I'm not supposed to know about it." Frustration at the same old situation began to boil up in Gideon. He was so tired of having to fight off the non-memories of how he had been the last time he was a grown man living in Storybrooke.

"No, I didn't mean that either," Jefferson insisted. "I meant that the only log cabin you ever knew that belonged to your parents isn't even in this realm."

The image of the house at the Edge of Realms came to Gideon in a flash of sadness and pain. It hadn't ever truly been his home, but it was the only permanent one he had ever known his parents to have and so he felt it was his in a way as well. He wondered what it looked like now; unused for so long. The garden would be overgrown, of course, but would dust be collecting? Would the glass be filthy? Would the building be falling apart?

"Mother's roses," Gideon whispered sadly.

"Hm?" Jefferson looked over at him before getting back to the work of sawing off branches for him to haul away.

Gideon shook his head to clear it of the haunting thought of his mother's unkept grave. "Just thinking about the rose bushes Papa and I planted at Mother's grave. I imagine they've grown wild now."

"You didn't see them after your father-"

"No," Gideon cut Jefferson off, still unable to hear anyone mention his father's passing. "I haven't been back since Papa left."

There was a long pause after he said this, as if the entire world had gone still. Suddenly, without a single word, Jefferson dropped the saw to the ground, snatched up his shirt and overcoat, and stormed away.

"Did I say something wrong?" Alice looked at Gideon with concern, but it was Jefferson who answered.

"You keep going. There is someone I have to talk to before I can do anything else."

Alice turned from watching Jefferson's retreating form and screwed her face up at Gideon. "What was that about?"

All Gideon could do was shake his head as he went back to work. "With Jefferson? It could be anything."

[snaillamp]

Jod - day 2

I’ve finally finished my exams and passed all my exams the study killed me but it payed off! Anyway I’ve finally caught up with @juneofdoom so I will be spamming everything in the next few days. The paramed student in me came out in this one cause I was in exam mode, but it should be fun. enjoy :)

***************************************************************************

JOD Masterlist

Day 2: “Get in” | Sobbing | Survivor’s guilt | Salve |

Sam ran through the forest, the brush scraping at his bare legs. Their bare feet didn’t even feel the sharp rocks anymore because they were so numb. They scrambled over a boulder, glancing up at the sky. The full moon was a blessing and a curse, it was easier to find his way but he also was easier to track. He heard a crunch behind him and sprang off the rock, bounding between the trees yet again. “SAM! GET BACK HERE YOU SON OF A BITCH!” A voice howled into the night. Sam wiped a tear from his face and pushed further into the trees. He tripped on a small log and stumbled, before jumping up and sprinting again.

The voice behind him kept calling out into the darkness, and Sam felt his lungs protest as he pushed on. Suddenly, the trees began to thin out, and in the distance Sam saw a road. He stopped for a second to catch his breath, before looking back and taking off. He broke through the tree line, glancing, desperate for any indication of a car’s headlight. He decided to take the direction towards on coming traffic, hoping against all hope that there would be one person up this late at night driving through the middle of nowhere.

He couldn’t run anymore, slowing to a jog and then a walk. The adrenaline coursing through his veins made him want to keep going but he couldn’t. He stumbled a little, his head feeling heavy, when he heard footsteps behind him. “Found ya.” Sam’s blood froze, the voice of his captor was right over his shoulder. He felt a hand grab his shoulder, but he pulled out of attacking off down the road again. “YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER SAMMY BOY!” The heavy pounding of boots against the bitumen followed Sam, getting closer and closer until the world around them lit up in a bright light.

The rumble of an engine came to a stand still, as the car pulled off the road. Sam covered his eyes as he squinted into the light, watching the silhouette of the driver exit the car. They weren’t tall, but looked strong, if their arms were any indication in the bright light. “You alright kid?” The man had a nice voice, low and calm. Sam couldn’t make words come out of his mouth, so he just stood there in the light, breathing heavily, his heart pounding.

“He’s fine.” The rough voice behind Sam replied. “Ok…” the driver turned their head skeptically. He walked over to Sam, turning to look at him in the light, and Sam looked over at him, mentally screaming for help. Despite being 17, Sam was almost the same height as this guy, he had shiny, black hair tied back in a pony tail and black eyes, but it was hard to tell much in the bright light. A leather jacket fitted nicely over his shoulders, underneath, a t-shirt and some faded, ripped black jeans. Sam looked at his feet, combat boots. 



As his eyes adjusted Sam heard the voice of his captor try to explain that he had found him running in the woods and was trying to help him. The driver turned to Sam and gently asked him questions. “What’s your name, kid?” Sam’s teeth chattered as he wrapped his arms around himself, as a way to conserve warmth and comfort himself. “S-S-S-Sam-m.” He stuttered. “Can you tell me what’s going on Sam?” The man’s voice deepened as he stood a little taller. Sam glanced at his captor, a tall, broad guy with a long, wild beard and greasy unkempt hair. “Sam?” The driver asked, putting a warm hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Is what he said true?”

Sam looked up at his captor, who’s eyes were aflame with rage, trying to hold in his anger. If the driver left them alone, he would have to go back, he didn’t want to go back… Sam found himself shaking his head before he realised what he was doing, before stopping suddenly. “Right… Sam do you need help?” The driver’s hand gripped Sam’s shoulder a little more firmly, but Sam found it reassuring, the firm grip was strong and steadying. Sam nodded his head, averting his eyes from his captor’s. “Is this man someone you can trust?” Sam’s breath hitched before he whispered a very quiet “…no…”

The driver pulled Sam a little closer to him, before turning them around and guiding Sam towards his car. “Wait.” The captor’s voice growled. “Ya ain’t goin’ anywhere with my son.” Sam watched as the corner of the driver’s mouth quirked up a little. “Aren’t I?” The driver put himself between Sam and the captor, “Why?” The driver rubbed his hands together to warm them in the cold. “I’nt lettin’ ya go!” His voice was getting higher with the frustration of the situation. “Well, I’m going to go and you’re going to let me. OK?” The driver’s calm voice stayed level as the stood between the two people. The man took a step towards the driver who stood his ground. “You wanna intimidate me old man? Go right ahead.” He flashed a smile, as the taller man bristled. “I’ll smash you into the road until they won’t know if you were a deer or a man!” The driver nodded calmly, considering the threat “No, we are going to go.” He took a step back as the captor took a step forward. “Sam.” He gestured at the car with his head, “Get in.”

Everything happened so fast. Sam climbed into the back seat of the car as the driver leapt into the front seat, whilst their adversary lunged toward them. Before the driver could close the door it was ripped open and the bearded man wrapped his meaty hands around the driver’s neck. The driver grunted and struggled as the bearded captor tried to squeeze the life from him. The driver somehow managed to twist the keys in the ignition, causing the car to start with a rumble that startled his attacker. In that brief moment, the driver’s combat boot clad foot pushed the bearded man off them, then they reached out, pulling the door shut and locked it.

The car sped off down the road as the bearded man was left in the darkness, doubled over and howling. Sam climbed into the front seat as the driver coughed a little, rubbing his neck where bruises were already forming. He glanced at Sam, “You alright?” His voice was a little raspy, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Cranking up the heat in the car as they sped way too fast down the road, until they were sure they were far enough away to be safe.

The man pulled over and rubbed his neck, and Sam felt a pang of guilt, “I’m sorry.” He muttered quietly. The driver smiled kindly, “Nah, it was worth it.” he pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around Sam’s shoulders, before untying his boots and handing Sam his socks. “Warm up lil’ buddy. You’re safe now.” Sam gratefully accepted the clothes, the socks stung a little to put on but the jacket was warm. It smelled like old leather and mint. “I’m Cody by the way.” The driver said absentmindedly, pulling down the sun visor to examine his wounds in the mirror. “Eh, they look fine. Let’s get going.”

Cody’s face was serious as he focused on the road. “So, what was the deal with that?” He asked as he glanced in the rear view mirror. “I don’t know him. “He found me on the streets and he… he took me out here a few months ago, to his log cabin and kept insisting I was his son. Kept trying to convince me not to join the war, that it wasn’t worth it. When I tried to leave he would-” Sam’s voice caught in his throat.

Cody frowned and looked over at Sam, concerned. “Well it’s a good thing I was around then. We are about an hour from a town with a hospital, we can get you fixed up there.” He tucked a strand of hair that fell from his face behind his ear, before making an annoyed sound and pulling the hair tie out of his hair all together. “Useless thing.” He muttered to himself. Sam didn’t know why but that made him laugh.  Cody smiled softly.

The moon was beginning to set as they drove into town, if you could even call it that. Dilapidated houses lined the streets, and as they drove down the main street, the neon ‘OPEN’ sign of a shop flickered on and off, well mostly off. They pulled up to a small brick building, illuminated by an old yellow streetlamp and soft lights from inside. Parking the car, Cody walked around to Sam’s side and opened the door. “Did you want me to carry you inside? The grounds a little sharp.” He looked at the gravel of the car park.

“No, I can do it.” Sam said as he popped down onto the ground. He winced a little as the feeling had started to come back into his feet after all, even though they still felt so numb. He hobbled to the main door marked ‘ENTRANCE’ and made his way to a chair. Cody walked to the the admissions desk and spoke to the nurse in hushed murmors for a while before Cody gestured for Sam to follow.

They went down a short hallway, before entering the main treatment area. The nurse told Sam to sit on the bed while he got supplies. Cody tied his hair back again and used the hand sanitiser attached to the wall. “What are you doing?” Sam asked, watching as Cody pulled on gloves. “Well I work here, so I guess you’re my patient now, hey?” He smiled as the nurse came back with a rolling table stocked with stuff. “Let’s sort those feet out first Dan.” Cody said to the nurse, as he looked down the hallway.

Sam noticed that smeared, bloody footprints lead down the hall and to his bed. “Oh…” he muttered. Dan and Cody worked to pull the socks off Sam’s feet, clean them and dress them. Sam signed in relief when a smooth, cool salve was applied to the aching cuts and scrapes, making them feel less painful. The two men worked to rub the salve all over Sam’s wounds, the cold cream working wonders on his aching cuts.

After, they did a full set of vitals, checking him from head to toe, while Sam sat there, his eyes slowly closing. “I think he’s falling asleep.” Dan exclaimed, but Cody’s calm voice said somewhere in the distance, “Let him sleep. He’s been through a lot.”

~ Cody’s masterlist ~

[goldeneyedgirl]

Year of the OTP - February Prompt (Truth Pollen): Know Your Guilt

Ah yes, posting a February prompt in late March. How on brand. I absolutely fell flat on my ass in March, health and mental-health wise but I'm back and doing a lot of writing these last two weeks. Not promising anything because everything goes wrong when I do.

Anyway, another short space-verse ficlet; one, I'm in a world-building mood at the moment, and two, there's an anthology I'm planning on submitting to later in the year and I'm using space fic as a bit of a warm-up for that. However, March's piece is half done and I promise, it's a Canon AU.

When the call came in from Jovan, no one was thrilled to go. A small planet that prized its wild forests, the biggest settlement was little more than a village with a population that was deeply cautious around off-worlders. In recent years, small resistance groups calling for complete isolation had started protesting off-worlders and it was just… annoying. Annoying to have things thrown at them, supplies stolen, the ship vandalised. No one seemed particularly grateful for thousands of credits of medical supplies they desperately needed; or willing to offer food and water in return. There were only two reasons they went: the first was how solemnly Carlisle took his vow of helping without judgement, and the fact that the Federation paid them more than fairly for the trouble. 

Alice was up and working again, shutting herself in the analyst office for hours every day with Edward. She was quiet and pale, and still visiting the med bay for oxygen and supplements regularly. Her new augmentations were fitted, but she was still limping as they settled, most of the muscle from her calf and thigh cut away. Jovan wasn’t an ideal job for someone so fragile, and Jasper honestly wished Carlisle had taken any other of the jobs on offer. 

“It’ll be fine,” Emmett says, after Alice leaves breakfast having eaten only a minuscule portion, and chased it with a blue med-patch on her temple. “It’s boring, but we’ll get some decent fruit and some of that wine that fucks everyone up, and then Carlisle wants to dock with the Denali because Eleazer needs some bro time.”

It’ll be fine. 

Famous last words.

—

So the protestors have become terrorists. No one was expecting that; the same way that no one was expecting Esme - of all people - to have grabbed a pistol from the gun-lock. 

It’s a pretty routine visit. A lot of nodding regarding the supplies, a line up of worried looking women and children who need medical attention beyond the shaman and midwives the culture insists upon. The older men refuse all care with a silent mood of disdain and disinterest; the younger ones are curious but will not be witnessed to seek out Carlisle and Rose. 

It’s dullest for him and Emmett, who are on security for the whole day; Rosalie is often a target of violence because of her former people’s beliefs, and people mistake Esme’s gentleness for weakness. And no matter how ‘peaceful’, a community is, there are always thieves. 

Alice is seated in the corner with a tablet, logging supplies and patients quietly - few of the population will offer their real names or ages, so the records are nigh on useless for keeping track of the people, but the Federation demands them. 

It all goes wrong when Rosalie inspects the cut on a leg of a boy just at puberty - all and wiry and very ill. Rose looks grim as she begins treatment (cutting the wound open to drain, medication and packing, wrapping, and antibiotics). The boy is weeping as she works, Esme talking quietly to him, and Jasper is sympathetic because the shiny black substance beneath the infection of the wound is bone. And whatever grass-scented poultice the shamans have used on him has inspired an angry, weeping allergic reaction. The kid is a mess. 

It surprises everyone when the explosion - if it can be called that - happens. The bang in the village centre, just outside of the guest hut they use, sounds more like a cheap party cracker than a serious weapon. But Esme hands him the pistol and he and Emmett go out, and he can’t understand spoken Jovan well enough but Emmett certainly can and he looks horrified. People are moving away, vanishing into the words, into homes and businesses, as a group of very, very angry men begin yelling a message out. 

“We���re leaving right now.” Emmett is closing off the gate to the hut, and no one complains that they haven’t attended to everyone. 

Carlisle is complaining, and Rosalie is trying to work faster, and Esme is packing the things when the next explosion happens just outside the wall and half of the building crumples - made out of wood beams and huge leaves coated with some kind of amber-venom-resin substance, there is little resistance. 

Alice is already dialling into the ship, to alert Edward to what is happening, to pull up the GPS location of the ship and their trackers on the big screen. 

“Yeah, they just called for our deaths for invading their sacred space, we need to go,” Emmett snaps, and Emmett getting snappy is what makes them all get their shit together. 

Except three more bombs are thrown as they emerge, and everyone scatters away from the path - supplies are dropped, Alice’s tablet is crushed underfoot, and they all dart into the forest; Jasper follows Rose’s blonde braid into the underbrush and when he turns around, the damn terrorists are following them. 

He can’t see Alice, and the wheeze of Carlisle’s hydraulics has faded. 

They run for a short time - away from the ship, which annoys the shit out of him - before they burst into a clearing, all from different angles. 

The tree reminds him of an Earth Willow, with long drifting branches that he and Rose have to push through, throwing clouds of green-yellow pollen into the air. He’s relieved to see Emmett dragging Alice along, her gait lopsided and awkward. Both of them are filthy, with abrasions on their faces. Somehow, the faint dusting of pollen on Alice’s hair and face are beautiful, the way it clings to her eye lashes and hair. 

“I love you.”

The words are husky and rough, and the thing that alarms him the most are the fact that they are said by him. Rosalie is looking at him incredulously, but in a way that implies something much bigger is happening, her hair sticking to her face. 

Her short hair. Rose has long hair. 

His mouth is so dry, and Carlisle is wheezing, and suddenly Rosalie is scratching at her face and letting out this terrible noise, and Esme drops to the ground and begins to sob and Alice just stands there and starts saying things, these things that he worries about late at night, and he can’t stop saying that he loves her and he’s sorry and he hates what he did. 

Emmett is talking but everything is a blur of noise so he can’t understand it, but what he does finally understand, as Rose’s spine elongates and Emmett throws his stained jacket over her as a cloak, is that something is terribly, terribly wrong. 

Carlisle is gasping through words and Alice is calm, even if she is rocking as she talks, staring off into the distance.

And Jasper just dreads the moment when everything stops and he has to hear, really hear, every ugly little truth that’s been thrown into the air.

—

It takes another hour to find their way back to the ship. Rosalie is crying, but it’s an angry, rage-filled cry that sounds rasping and harsh; he cannot see her face from underneath the hood of Emmett’s jacket, but he doesn’t try very hard. 

Edward is pacing as they climb the ramp, Emmett scowling at the message scrawled crudely across the hull. 

“Know your guilt,” he mutters. “I’m not fucking coming back here, Carlisle.”

Jasper agrees. 

—

The pollen sticks to them, green-yellow dust that stains the skin if they try to brush it away. The decontamination shower takes far too long to strip it from their skin, and it’s late as they take their places around the dining table. Esme has piled the table with odds and ends from their supplies, no one interested in preparing a fresh meal. 

The seaweed noodles are particularly slimy and salty as leftovers, but reassuring in a silly way - like a favourite meal from childhood. How many times did Carlisle prepared seaweed noodles when she first joined the ship? It was the first meal he taught her to cook from scratch successfully. 

She can’t look at anyone as she eats, the words still hovering in the air, the way they forced themselves out of her like she had been holding her breath and gasping for air.

You weren’t supposed to save me. I was supposed to die. Why didn’t you let me go?

Emmett’s putting the left over fritters on Rose’s plate, not making eye contact. Rose is icy and not really eating, her hair scraped so tightly into a bun that Alice’s own scalp pinches at the thought of it. Rose got it the worst, much worse than those words forcing themselves from her mouth - the pollen had stripped away her face, stripped her right back down to a Faceless. Seeing Rose hunched and curled over on herself, making a rasping noise that Alice likened to hysterical shrieks of rage.

(She’d never seen Emmett move so fast, peeling off his jacket as he rambled about cheating on an engineering test to get on his first ship, about reversing charges to afford to get all his siblings into the right classes, about being the one that killed Esme’s dansi plant. He’d draped it over Rose’s back and head, letting her cloak herself in fabric.)

Esme’s eyes are still red, and Carlisle looks a hundred years older.

Jasper she cannot look at. She’s been avoiding it since they got onto the ship, since Carlisle forced the masks on them all, pushing oxygen laced with inhalant painkiller, allowed them to clear the pollen from their lungs and tissue.

(“I love you, I always loved you and always will, and that why I hated you so much.”)

(“You didn’t love me enough not to hurt me, and that scared me more than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I’ve been in the ugliest places, I’ve starved and been hunted like an animal, and your rage was what broke me.”)

Emmett had grabbed her by the arm after she dropped the tablet, half dragged her away. He’d been on Jovan before, during the last generation of extremists, back on his first or second ship. The way they executed anyone who came too close to the off-worlders - men, women, children. The ship had lost five people - two had been murdered falling behind during evacuation; one had disappeared, and two had been taken hostage and integrated into the community as some kind of warning or living sacrifice. 

“I didn’t really speak much Jovan back then,” Emmett admitted, hoisting her over a fallen tree with one arm, still running. “Did a few trips out here, got to see the before and the after. Hoped the after would stick.”

The Federation had intervened back then, dealt with the extremists and put in place a strict agreement for Jovan. Then it had been a relatively chill place to visit - free fruit and booze, and a hefty Federation pay check. That was the Jovan Emmett had aggressively tried to remember. 

“Religion fucks everything up,” Emmett had told her before they had both fallen down the side of a hill and she didn’t get a chance to agree. 

(The pollen tasted sharp, and she’s not surprised that her mouth is bloody when she gets back to the ship, that something that could force out their darkest truths did so by burrowing into the soft flesh of their mouths and gums and noses. It’s the taste of the blood that lingers.)

—

She curls up on the bed in the guest suite, the oxygen mask tight over her mouth. Her lungs were still giving her trouble, something that Carlisle was keeping a careful eye on, and over the last few weeks, the feeling of the mask moulded flush over her face has become reassuring, the cool feeling of the oxygen. 

There’s nothing that can take back all those things that she said, or the things Jasper said, staring at her desperately. Love and hate and regret and trauma was all twisted up into a mess; when she closes her eyes, she can see his desperate look, his eyes soft, and it’s like the old him is there - the one that made plans with her, that laughed often, and asked her to marry him with a fruit-flavoured kiss, and helped her save the flowers from her hair after the ceremony. 

He’s right there, he’s so close, and he might as well be gone forever. And she deserved it. She knew the lie, she lived the lie, and she pretended that whatever they had was worth tucking it away and hiding it, that it was cruel to tell him - as if it wasn’t crueller and sneakier to hide it.

She might fear the rage, the violence that came with the truth, but she deserved it, earned it well. Whatever the others think, she didn’t leave because he scared her or hurt her or anything. She left to punish herself, to make sure he had the safe space. It was always her fuck up that ruined them. 

(Sometimes, she dreams of that last night. Of his hand so tight in her hair that he pulled it out, threatening her in a dark voice. She cut her hair off after that, to her chin. Too short to hold her tight and frozen, to tangle around his hands. She’s blocked out everything else from that night, but not that. That memory sticks to her, along with the animal fear she felt, dangling off a precipice of something terrible about to happen.)

The idea that everyone knows everything, all the thoughts in her head that she tucks down and doesn’t talk about makes her feel sick and she wonders where she could go and hide. Call Carlisle’s bluff and get him to send her to a mental health spa. Or even go stay at Masen House for a while, use her health as an excuse. There’s still a few staff at Masen House, so it’s not like Carlisle would be paying for her upkeep specially. 

(It wasn’t a death wish, really. She knew the doctors she sought out were, at best, shitty scam-artists who knew that she had no choice but to pay up and accepted whatever standard of care they gave her. And that she was sick again. She was tired, worn out, and done with everything. She didn’t plan to be dead, she just expected it. It’s why she didn’t have any food or water in her bag; seemed like a waste of money. And Jasper… he had the paperwork to prove he was her next of kin, if there was any debate. Her savings could have paid off his fines, a final apology for lying to him. It seemed very, very neat right up until Rose found her semi-conscious and decided to save her and ignored her when she tried to protest.)

Her lens beeps at her - someone wanting to come in - and she expects Carlisle when she absently accepts and the door unlocks. 

But it’s Jasper. 

She feels very vulnerable as he slips into the room, carrying a drink and a dish with something pink on it. 

“Esme found some old dessert in the freeze,” he says awkwardly, setting the drink and plate down. “We thought you might need some.”

She nods. It’s always like this; her tiny and curled up in the big guest bed in flimsy ship-issue sleepwear because she hasn’t gotten around to digging out her old boxes from storage, with an oxy-mask strapped to her face; and Jasper looms over her in clean clothes, his hair tied off his face, looking exactly as he always does. 

They haven’t talked since she woke up in med bay with him sitting beside her. Nothing beyond pleasantries, really. 

“Thank you.” Her voice is muffled and raspy. He nods. 

“…Do you want some company?”

He’s staring at the floor when he says that, and everything in her clenches up in a confusing mess of delight and hope and fear. 

There are a million different things that ‘company’ could mean, and she’s just still so tired, she’s not sure she can manage any of them. 

She looks at the sweets that Esme sent to her - a little pink sponge-square, with seeds pressed into the top. Sweet, like some kind of fruit-flower hybrid. Made by Esme, humming to herself in the kitchen. It’s a child’s sweet - offered to children from vendors in the parks of most cities - and something about that makes her sad. 

“No,” she replies softly and she feels like a monster when Jasper flinches and nods, moving to leave.

“Not yet,” she manages, and that makes him turn back to look at her with desperate, naked hope in his eyes. 

“Not yet?” He repeats and she nods. “You… you let me know when, okay?”

She nods, and he leaves, and she closes her eyes and pretends that the idea of ‘when’ isn’t terrifying and thrilling all at the same time. 

(“You’re it for me. I love you. And that scares and angers and delights me, and I don’t know if it can ever happen again because of everything we did to each other. I think I ruined the one good thing that I ever had, and that makes me wonder why I even bother.”

The words taste bloody and tears of frustration roll down her face and the dry, angry sounds of Rosalie losing control feel right - raw and real and painful.)

[truly-morgan]

[WRH makes sure his overworked employee takes a break]

RuoCheng | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 26-12-2021

[modern work office!#jiangcheng and boss!#wenruohan (maybe implied pre-slash ruocheng🤔😏)]

wrh sighed after the long day at work, rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes. Things had been a bit rougher at work recently, but they were soon finally going to get through it.

he got up, getting ready to go home when he was on his way down he realised one of his best employees was still working diligently at his desk, no one to be seen around and barely any light still on.

A small smile appeared on his lips at how hardworking jc was, he truly had given his all in the last couple of days to help them get out of there, and he didn't regret taking him in after he got out of the Jiang inc.

he walked over to him, frowning a bit when he saw how many empty coffee cups were on his desk, dark circles under his eyes as the man was tiredly working, grumbling while deleting something he messed up from his exhaustion.

"Jiang Cheng~" sang lowly wrh in the young man's ear, making him jump and turn around with a blush on his cheeks. "B-boss!! I thought you were already gone" he said.

wrh only hummed, leaning over jiang cheng to look at what he was working on, saving his files and logging off (not without making sure all progress was saved) under the protest of his hardworking employee.

"I was nearly finished!" jc complained, trying to spin his chain back, only to be coaxed out of his chair by strong hands on his shoulder.

"I know you were close to finishing, my a-cheng is the best employee, always finishing his task quickly and flawlessly" he praised, enjoying the blush on the man's face at the compliment, "But I cannot accept you ruining your health by overworking yourself".

if others could have a break, so could jc. he didn't need to do so much overtime to be considered good (this was something wrh was still working on making him stop doing. baby steps).

"I am not overworked" jc tried to argue.

"In the last five minutes I heard you curse the god ten times because you were accidentally messing up because of fatigue" wrh pointed out.

jc looked embarrassed that he had been standing behind him for so long and even saw that.

"Come here," wrh said as he saw him looking down, pulling the young man in a high, satisfied at how he leaned onto him. "I need my best employee well-rested, I would be mad at myself if I knew something happened because you overworked yourself".

It took a bit of convincing, but wrh ended up coaxing jc to his place (no way he would let him ride the train and maybe work some more at home).

He made him a good rather late dinner, letting him take a good bath and borrow clothes.

jc was supposed to work the next day, but wrh decided he would have the same day off as him, making him rest at his place.

This also allowed wrh to spoil jc, helping him relax as much as possible, forget about work. be it watching whatever tv-show he may want to see, got get food, do some shopping.

they went to get a massage, which he could see did really good for the usually tensed jc.

there was nothing more satisfying than to see a well-rested and well-relaxed little a-cheng.

wrh would totally make him rest again the next time he saw him overwork himself.

Original

[wordsandrobots]

Youtube user Trafalgar Log has put up their fansub of the next Iron-Blooded Oprhans Side Story, which is focused on one particular part of Gjallarhorn between the two seasons. I’m making this a text post because the thumbnail is relatively spoilery and at least one of my Tumblr mutuals is likely to start watching IBO relatively soon, so I thought it a courtesy not to give away the most guessable twist in Season 2 by accident. Also, Tumblr seems to have taken offense to my last post like this and I thought I’d see if this method fares better.

Anyhoo, let’s discuss a test-flight shall we? (Do not look under this cut if you don’t want explicit spoilers for both seasons. I really mean it.)

Right off the bat, I’m delighted Chief Yamazin Toka is getting some spotlight time. She’s one of my favourite background characters for how little of a shit she gives for anything outside her work. She’s just here to tune up mobile suits and stir trouble by giving away important plot points, seemingly just because it took her fancy to do so. Here, she’s been dragged her away from the Reginlaze development work and sent to a ‘remote colony’ to run tests on a ‘disgusting masked machine’, and she isn’t shy about making clear how annoyed she is by that.

Obviously, anyone familiar with Season 2 will know exactly what that ‘masked machine’ is - the revised version of Gundam Kimaris, rebuilt after McGillis wrecked it at the end of Season 1 and camouflaged to disguise its identity. And the pilot is, of course, a scarred Gaelio Bauduin, back from the dead and in a mood.

What is immediately interesting here is that this confirms Toka and Gaelio already knew each other. She notes his change in attitude, having met him when he tested out the Schwalbe Graze (I think the implication is that she’s mocking him when she says she thought him a nice little boy who refused to eat his veggies, since she says that’s how she felt; I don’t think she literally met him as a kid).

Since Gaelio is in his mid to late twenties, being given the chance to test a prototype of a high-performance mobile suit is quite significant. It either speaks to a very speedy development of his piloting skills (which aren’t that impressive on their own, comparatively) or to the privilege that comes with being part of the Seven Stars (it’s this one, obviously). This may just be meant to imply that his use of a Schwalbe at the start of the series is the testing that is being referred to here, but I don’t think that squares with how Toka talks about him.

Also interesting is that Toka starts off holding the position that mobile suit developments that depend on anything other than the skill of pilots and engineers aren’t worth much, which puts her at odds with the installation of the Type E system aboard Kimaris. She calls it over-complicated and ‘just pieced together’, which I assume means it’s a bodge-job, as well as alluding to it thinking on its own.

Anyway, they banter for a while, Toka recalling that despite her friendly attitude, he never hit on her back during the Schwalbe testing. To this, he comments that he doubts anyone would ever try to seduce her -- and frankly, make of that what you will, especially since Toka follows it up by mentioning he used to brag about a technique to make women fall in love with him taken from tales of gods and magic. This serves of set-up for later in the story, but more immediately for calling him on the utter melodrama of running around in a mask and a disguised mobile suit just so that he can jump out and declare who he is later.

This is my favourite part - IBO does a very good job of making the nonsense its characters pull diagetic and this is up there with the twins holding Kudelia’s hair out of the way or Carta getting annoyed that McGillis is always fiddling with his hair.

Gaelio of course protests that he’s just hiding so people don’t see him coming and responds to Toka’s comments about the dangers of piloting the revised Kimaris by saying he’s already died. The ‘suit is animated by his ideals; he’s just moved by it -- and boy is that a resonant line given, you know . . . *gestures* . . . everything.

We cut to a playable section which has Kimaris fighting some Geirails and Hloekk Grazes in a mock battle. This impresses Toka enough to make her start revising her opinion of the possibilities for the Type E, but that’s when the system and Gaelio’s brainwaves start going out of control.

Toka remains calm as Kimaris attacks everything in sight (at least, I think that’s what’s happening? The way it’s animated using game segments and static images isn’t clear). She laughs and says she and Gaelio bring out the best in each other, and that there’s a lot to do on that mess of a control system.

Gaelio gets the Type E to stop by appealing to Ein to save his strength so that they can get revenge on McGillis for their humiliation.

We then cut to a fully animated segment for the point of this episode -- Gaelio taking on the name Vidar, after the young god who slew the demon wolf Fenrir in the old stories he used to read. This is obviously apt in his mind because McGillis is a Fareed, whose crest is said wolf, even if the reality will prove to be somewhat less clear-cut.

And there we are. Toka states the control system is less muddled with dark thoughts than she expected, speaking to the eventual perfect sync between Gaelio and Ein, and the revised Kimaris gets a new designation. This fills in details regarding the problems Gaelio was having that were mentioned at the start of Season 2 and gives him a proper moment of casting aside his identity for his revenge. This is obviously inessential since we basically already knew all that, but it adds something to have Toka prodding at him over it, highlighting the affectation and underlining the misguided elements of his actions.

[edgyandoverzealous]

Show Log: Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu Pt 1

My thoughts and opinions during my first watch through of Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu because I'm a poor boy from a poor family and trans so I was robbed of most "male children entertainment". My first thoughts as I've found I am now fully invested in the show. Featuring what I learned in my human development class. Mostly my son, Lloyd in this one because it's not fair and I'm upsetti spaghetti.

Season 2 episode 5:

• the ninjas are idiots, your honor, what's new you ask? As far as I've watched nothing, they're idiots, albeit lovable ones don't get me wrong, but they do not know the fundamental rule for raising children and neither does Master Wu.

• play is a child's work and in order for a child to progress and develop normally and happily there needs to be a balance and Lloyd has not been given that balance with his training. In short, they're fucking up a perfectly good kid. They're gonna fuck up his development and he's going to develop a complex or a mental disorder of sorts and it's gonna be traced back to you in therapy later. <3

• I know Lloyd is the Green Ninja meaning one day he will be so strong he'll save all of Ninjago from his evil dad. It's his destiny. Blah blah blah. Shut up, sit down and look that 8-10 year old boy in the eyes. He's just a kid. He's already dealing with his abandonment issues from world's best father/s (more on him at the end in season one observations) and trying to figure out who he is.

• Honestly that alone ensures he's gonna struggle for quite some time and ensure he needs therapy because canonically, Lord Garmadon left Lloyd at a young age, showed up, and then left again so Lloyds attachment style is an anxious/avoidant type because hey parents the way you do or don't care for your kids will follow them for the rest of their lives. If I were to take a swing at it I'd assume it's more of an Anxious-avoidant attachment style going by how Lloyd handles rejection/being left alone, accepting it with little protest and how he treats the others upon return, slight aggression/irritation before acceptance and interaction. He also attempted to make it known that he didn't want to be left alone but often ended up that way anyways.

• This is why he needs more stability and for people to attempt to build stable fucking attachments with him before he's too old to seek that himself and has years of unpacking himself to "undo" heal the damage caused to whatever extent they can.

• Oh wait, it's already too late because the color coded idiots fucked around, found out, and Lloyd being Lloyd trying to be good and helpful got tangled in and now he went from being 8-10 to mid-teen years based on appearance.

• Note: My boy Jay actively was against this. He didn't want to rob Lloyd of his childhood, at least physically, he at least wanted Lloyd to be raised normally. But Lloyd and his ever developing hero compels (I believe it's closer to a Martyr complex due to destructive nature of his sacrifice) couldn't let them worm around it so he sacrificed his youth and childhood.

• He sacrificed his childhood, literally and figuratively, for the sake of his essentially adoptive family's safety and no one even thanked him? Guys. *exasperated* Guys, he's going to be so fucked up. He's going to need years of counseling.

• Also if my boy loses his whimsy and playful nature because of this I'm going to riot and I mean it. Lloyd has the potential for a happier healthier childhood than he'd previously had and threw it away so if he's forever changed, which let's face it he probably is, imma be so mad.

Season 1-Season 2 ep 4: additionals

• Jay is a mechanic son who is kinda bad at making his shit to work first try is endearing and the fact he was so mean to his parents the first time pisses me off because they're the sweetest.

• Jay is just like me frfr bc I too look at my partner with heart eyes at all time and if yours doesn't find one who does. Also he ignores problems until last minute but don't stare at that one for too long.

• Jay's type is women who can kick his ass but won't because they're sweethearts and like his goofy ass.

• Or alternatively Nya's type is goofy goobers who have false confidence and appreciate her strengths/skills

• Nya outdoing her brother in everything is everything to me. Also she's super fucking smart she built an entire samurai suit and most of the tech/vehicles for the team and they work damn near flawlessly every time. Genius strong and pretty.

• Cole being the son of a musical theatre kid and promptly choosing an art that is not upon first glance anything like musical theatre is the most son of a musical theatre kid thing to ever exist.

• Him then using dance moves in his fighting is fundamentally hilarious and I love him for that. He can also sing and as the groups "emo", which he totally is because hes the quiet brooding one, that's so fucking funny. It's even funnier that he's like that because he lost a competition when he was 7 because of a failed dance move.

• Kai, Nya's brother, Kai looks out for Nya which is sweet and he supports her 110% they balance each other really well. I want them to interact more.

• He's also smarter than he lets on because he was first to realize Lloyd was the green Ninja. I also love how he's developed from obsessive and selfish to be more selfless and responsible.

• Zane's backstory almost made me cry. He's a ninjabot made to protect those who can't protect themselves but was raised by the scientist who created him like a sonm it's just so sweet and wholesome. I'm pretty sure it anything else happens to him I'll lose it because I love him.

• also before Zane knew he was a robot he was still my favorite because he's so powerful and wholesome in general as a character his heart is in the right place and I love him simply put.

• Lord Garmadon, I hate you. You set your boy you clearly love in some sense up for failure the moment he was born with your abandonment and frankly your wish washy personality is screwing up a perfectly good kid. You tell him you're proud of him and then tell him to quit because he'll never be good enough? Dude screw you. I hope you and your snake bus fall into a different dimension of no escape. <3

• Also he destroyed the snake that bit him so now he's just being evil for the sake of evil knowing perfectly well that he's putting his own son through the horrors.

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review VII (NSW 2023): Elizabeth Farrelly Independents

Prior reviews: none, this is a new party.

Where do I start with Elizabeth Farrelly. There was a point a few years ago where I would often sleep in of a weekend and log on to Twitter to find some baffling new discourse, which invariably turned out to be because Farrelly had published another ridiculous column in the Sydney Morning Herald. She had—and has—a particular propensity to piss off urbanists with her NIMBY anti-density views, but her takes on culture and lifestyle were equally good fodder for a solid day’s discourse and in-jokes. It’s hard to convey the depth of eye-rolling Farrelly induces if you didn’t participate in the social media banter about her columns of the late 2010s.

Farrelly’s tenure at the Sydney Morning Herald ended in bizarre circumstances in 2021. In the Strathfield local government elections, she registered for campaign finance purposes with the NSW Electoral Commission as a candidate for the Labor Party, although she was ultimately not chosen to be a Labor candidate; by her telling, she was simply interested in standing for the party either at that election or at state or federal level later. Farrelly did not run in the 2021 local elections, but she did criticise non-Labor candidates in her column without disclosing her affiliation, and the SMH’s editor Bevan Shields (another name to make you roll your eyes firmly if you’re SMH-adjacent) abruptly terminated her employment when he found out.

Ultimately, not only did Farrelly fail to get Labor preselection at local level, she stood against them as an independent at the 2022 by-election for the state seat also called Strathfield. She came third on primary votes—a distant third (9.85%) to the majors (41.05% ALP, 36.24% Liberal) but ahead of the Greens (6.67%). This seems to have made her sufficiently confident to attempt a tilt at state politics. After all, if she could replicate 9.85% statewide, she and her second candidate would both win seats—but rarely can anyone turn modest popularity in their home electorate into anything approximating statewide appeal.

What does Farrelly and her independent grouping actually stand for? They explicitly say they are “not a political party” (despite the fact they’re registered as one), but it is not clear the extent to which two hypothetical parliamentarians would be expected to work together. The platform that Farrelly and her independents share has three main planks: climate action, honest government, and liveable communities.

The climate action policy is pretty decent: net zero commitment for 2030, energy efficient building standards, moving away from mining fossil fuels, getting rid of draconian laws that stop climate protests, all that sort of stuff. The honest government policy is more mixed. Positively, it would strengthen ICAC’s ongoing financial position so that its base funding does not become subject to the whims of government. I’m concerned the proposal to stop “jobs for mates” goes too far—I’m happy with MPs being restricted from moving directly into jobs related to their former portfolios, but Farrelly also wants to stop them from taking any job in other specific sectors for three years: mining, energy, development, gambling, racing. These all just seem to be sectors she’s personally suspicious of, rather than any clear overarching rationale. It would mean an MP could get a job for a trucking company—despite how much the road lobby has skewed Australian transport policy towards unsustainable car-centric choices—but not with a renewable energy company.

The third plank, “liveable communities”, sounds nice until you realise that its contents are what you get when you have full-blown NIMBY brain. Farrelly proclaims to be a lover of cities, but it seems that what she loves is to put cities in aspic. She talks extensively about “over-development”, despite the fact Australia’s cities are horrendously sprawling and that it would be more efficient to start building up and to boost density along existing corridors. There’s a classic NIMBY trick of opposing public transport proposals because existing housing is insufficiently dense and opposing housing developments because there is no public transport, and Farrelly’s played both cards while also citing “heritage” to oppose a range of projects. I’m a historian by profession but I am no fan of how “heritage” often gets cited to protect vast swathes of wealthier suburbs—rather than protecting specific buildings and other historical objects of enduring value, it has often been used to boost property values, enforce certain aesthetic preferences, and keep out imagined "undesirables" (there is a part of the NIMBY brain that bafflingly equates apartments with slums).

It’s hard to imagine how NSW can boost its housing stock and make it affordable when Farrelly wants to implement every possible planning restriction and heritage overlay in the book. Planning processes already skew strongly towards the most conservative, change-averse local residents who have the time, money, and networks to participate, while younger, busier, and poorer residents are either unable to do so or unaware they even can—and prospective future residents get no say at all.

This is easily my longest review of the election, and I’m holding back from an even more sustained critique of the kind of regressive urban planning perspectives that Farrelly champions. I’m passionate about making cities better places to live: more walkable, more PT, more green spaces, more cafes and retail, and more homes, all in a more compact space. These things require density and a readiness to accept that the fabric of cities must keep evolving. Farrelly has some nice lingo but it is all in service to a NIMBY agenda that I do not believe would improve Sydney or any other part of NSW.

Farrelly would lean left on a range of environmental and social issues, and she and her associated independents would be much better than a lot of the rabble contesting the election, but I am on the whole unenthused.

Recommendation: Give Elizabeth Farrelly Independents a middling preference.

Website: https://www.elizabethfarrelly.com.au/

[ebhenah]

Klancemas December 17: Decorating

 @monthlyklance

Klancemas 2018

"Candy Cane"

Dec 17: Decorating

(A future Klance-Family Fic)

CW: discussion of surgical repair of a badly broken bone

“I wanna go HOME,” Kashi grumbled, “I don’t like it here.”

“I know buddy, but that’s a bad break,” Lance said, ruffling the five year old’s hair, “and they might need to do surgery to fix it.”

“Am I gonna get a cool robot leg like Uncle Shiro’s arm?” His eyes danced with excitement at the thought.

“Ummm... no… and I’m pretty sure Uncle Shiro would have liked to be able to keep the arm he was born with.”

“Uhhhhh… Papi,” Kashi’s voice was… just far too condescending for a five year old. Someone was being a bad influence on his baby and he was gonna get to the bottom of it- as soon as life was back to normal. “Have you even SEEN Uncle Shiro’s arm? Cuz, it is like SUPER cool. He can open the fridge and get a drink from the couch! THE COUCH, Papi!”

“Hmmm…” he nodded thoughtfully, “yeah. That’s pretty cool. I know your regular old leg must seem pretty boring, but you aren’t getting a robot one. Sorry, dumpling.”

“Awww,” he deflated, flopping back dramatically and knocking his pillows to the floor and Lance had to shake his head at him, moving to restore the pillows to where they belonged.

Before he could say anything encouraging, the doctor popped into the room. “Mr. Um… Ko-gain?”

“Ko-gah-nee,” Kashi said patiently. “Ta-Kah-shi Ko-gah-nee… but everyone calls me Kashi.”

“I see,” the doctor said, “thank-you Kashi, but I was actually trying to speak with your dad. Mr. Ko- LANCE?!?!”

He looked up from where he’d been fussing over Kashi’s pillows. The doctor was a pretty woman. Tall, with honey brown hair and kind eyes, but he didn’t recognize her until she smiled, “oh my God! Xo!”

“Lance McClain,” she laughed, “wow- I was not expecting… Hi.”

“Hi,” he laughed, “this is… definitely a surprise!”

“Ummmm… Hi!” Kashi joined in, “Papi’s name’s not McClain, it’s Kogane.”

“Kashi, don’t be rude! Sorry, Xo… or I guess, I should call you Xiomara? I know you hated the nickname.”

“Yeah, I prefer Xiomara… Dios, it’s been… what? 15 years?”

“At least… closer to 20 I think. Wow… you’re a doctor. That’s amazing! Good for you!”

“Says the Paladin of Voltron,” she laughed, “Kashi- did you know that when your Papi was about your age, he tried to build his very own spaceship. He even named it!”

“He did?” Kashi was hooked, he ate up stories about his parents childhoods.

“Mmhmmm… it was… oh! I remember! Mirador De Estrellas,” she sat in the empty chair beside Lance, “not a bad name for a spaceship.”

“Dr. Marichal was very good friends with your Tia Rachel,” Lance explained, “so she was at our house a lot when I was your age.”

“I’m not allowed to say it, but Tia Rachel is my favorite,” Kashi chirped.

“Seriously Kashi? If you KNOW you aren’t allowed to say it, why did you say it right in front of me?” Lance threw his arms out in exasperation.

“I dunno,” Kashi just shrugged.

“Sorry about him,” Lance said, shaking his head slowly, “he’s… one of a kind.”

“Gee, I wonder where he gets that,” she laughed.

“Tia Veronica is supposed to be my favorite,” Kashi explained, “cuz she grew me in her belly… but she’s too bossy… and Tia Rachel lets me eat raw cookie dough.”

“Takashi Kogane!” Lance gasped, horrified. “Please tell me this is from pain medication!”

She glanced at the chart, and looked sheepish, “sorry… unless he has an unusual response, none of the medications should cause… umm… this.”

Lance dropped his face into his hands, “Kashi, dumpling, you are killing your Papi right now.”

“At least we are in a hospital,” Kashi pointed out.

That made Xiomara choke back a laugh. “Oh man… I like this kid of yours, Lance. Should we go over the treatment plan while I get a look at Kashi here?”

“Yes, please,” he said, shooting Kashi a look.

“Right, so, it… could be worse, but we aren’t looking at an ideal situation.” She checked Kashi’s vitals as she spoke. “Ideally we would want to see a nice clean fracture that would be easy to set, pin in place and let it heal. But what we are looking at here is multiple close together breaks, so we definitely need to get him into surgery, and we will be needing to utilize some… uhh… new technology.”

“You mean alien tech,” Kashi said clearly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Doctors hate to say that they are using alien tech… cuz of bigots. We’re not bigots. You can say alien tech.”

“Alright then, yes, alien tech,” she corrected, ducking her head and listening to his chest to hide her smile, “you know Kashi, most kids your age are afraid to say stuff like that to doctors. You’re a brave guy.”

“He is pretty… umm.. Outspoken, in general. But, his sister has Sandacies Syndrome,” Lance explained, “so we spend a lot of time around medical stuff… and most of her care is overseen by the Olkari.”

“Oh. I am very sorry, Sandacies is a tough diagnosis. How old is she?”

“Talia’s eight,” Lance answered, “and thanks. She’s doing really well, though.”

“Has Kashi been tested for Sandacies markers?”

“Talia’s adopted,” Kashi said, “so’s Rai, but me and Thace are surro-babies.”

“I see,” she said with a smile, “so, as I was saying- we’ll be using some new medical tech from Puig. It’s a biofoam. So, once we stabilize the break, we wrap a sleeve around the affected area, place the screws, and fill the sleeve with the biofoam. Over the course of a few weeks, Kashi’s own bone will replace the foam and he’ll be good as new. The surgery is pretty involved, though, and he’ll need to stay here for at least a week afterwards so we can monitor him. We don’t have a whole lot of information on how human dna interacts with this tech yet, so we like to keep a close watch.”

“A whole WEEK?!?! Papi! No!”

“Kashi, if it takes a week, it takes a week.”

“But… CHRISTMAS!”

The doctor looked confused, “Christmas isn’t for more than three weeks Kashi. You’ll be home by then.”

Lance shook his head, “no, he’s upset about missing out on the decorating. It’s his favorite part- putting up the trees and stuff. We help our friends with theirs so it’s kind of a whole thing.”

“Uncle Shiro said it was my turn to do the star this year, and Coran bought a TRAIN that goes IN the tree!” Tears were welling in the little boy’s eyes, “and I’m gonna miss Thanksgiving pizza!”

“Oh, Kashi,” any earlier irritation at him vanished and Lance drew his son into a tender hug. “I know, dumpling, but we need to fix your leg… and if the doctor says that’s how long it will take, then that’s how long it will take. I’ve known Dr. Marichal  since I was your age- she’s almost as smart as Pidge.”

“I HATE RAI,” he wailed against Lance’s chest, “this is all his stupid fault- pushing buttons and pickin’at stuff!”

The doctor checked her chart, “says here Kashi’s leg got caught in some kind of machinery?”

“Yes- he and his brother were poking around in Hunk’s workshop and getting into stuff they KNOW they aren’t supposed to touch. So, now the workshops are completely off limits to the kids. Poor Hunk is absolutely distraught.” He sat back on his heels and wiped the tears from Kashi’s face, “and so is RAI. He feels really bad that you got hurt, Kashi. You know he didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“But it DID, and it’s HIS fault! An’now I’m gonna be STUCK HERE when everyone else is doing fun Christmas stuff! Can’t Allura fix it with her glowy magic?”

“Kashi! Allura’s alchemy isn’t a first aid kit- she only uses it to heal in the most dire situations. You have a broken leg. We don’t need to use MAGIC to fix that.” That pout really shouldn’t be nearly as adorable as it was. As frustrated and worried as he was, Lance was struggling not to coo at his youngest- because he just looked soooo much like a tiny, angry Keith at the moment, with his furrowed brow and purple eyes and scowl. He stood, mussing up Kashi’s hair affectionately. “When should we expect the surgery?”

She glanced at the clock, “hmmm… technically it is emergency surgery because it wasn’t scheduled in advance, so he’ll be ranked for urgency and then as soon as possible. I would say it’ll be before the end of the day.”

“Surgery?” Keith asked from the doorway.

“Daddy!” Kashi wailed, sticking his arms out.

Keith rushed over and hugged him gingerly, pressing kisses to the top of his head and rubbing his little back. “I’m right here, kiddo,” he whispered, “Daddy and Papi aren’t going anywhere.”

“Keith, this is Dr. Marichal, she’s an old friend of Rachel’s, she’s in charge of Kashi’s case. Xiomara, this is my husband, Keith,” Lance returned to his seat, knowing that Keith wasn’t leaving Kashi’s side until they wheeled him off for surgery.

Keith extended his hand to shake hers, “it’s nice to meet you Dr. Marichal, you were saying he needs surgery?”

“Femur breaks are pretty serious,” she said with a nod before running through the surgical plan with him again.

“I’m gonna miss ALL the fun stuff,” Kashi sniffled.

“No, you won’t, precious,” Keith promised, “we’ll save lots of fun stuff for when you are home with us.”

“Shiro’s PIZZA… and Coran’s TRAIN…”

“I’ll talk to Shiro and Coran. I promise.” He pulled back and looked Kashi in the eye, “have I ever broken a promise to you?”

“No,” the little boy hiccuped.

“Right. So, I won’t break this one. I will talk to Uncle Shiro and Coran while you are getting your leg fixed up and I will find a way for you to not miss out on all your favorite stuff.”

“You promise?” he asked, hope blooming in his amethyst eyes.

“I PROMISE. Paladin’s honor.”

“Okay,” sniffled Kashi, “thank-you, Daddy.”

Lance smiled, he should have known that Keith would be able to put Kashi’s worries to rest. People were always surprised at just how good Keith was with kids. They assumed that he’d be awkward and standoffish with them the way he was with adults, but he wasn’t at all. Lance had yet to see a child that didn’t immediately take to Keith and he’d never seen a kid that Keith didn’t like.

“You don’t have to thank me, Kashi,” Keith soothed, “can you get those papers signed, Tumbleweed? I’m gonna chill out with our little guy for a bit.”

“Sure thing babe,” Lance answered, “alright Xiomara, where do I sign?”

“If you come with me, I’ll get you all set up with the paperwork,” she said nodding toward the door. He followed her to a little room that had a little table and a few chairs. It reminded him of signing the adoption paperwork for the twins. “I have to ask- ‘Tumbleweed’?”

He laughed, “ah... That… I took him on a romantic ice skating date. I thought it would be like rollerblading. I was wrong. He called me Tumbleweed because I couldn’t stay upright until  taught me how to ice skate… then he proposed that day, so it stuck.”

“Well, that is straight out of a Hallmark movie! Very cute. Definitely a keeper,” she said, laughing as she organized all the papers, “Kashi looks a lot like him.”

“Yeah, he’s just a lot like him, in general. Brave, stubborn… blunt,” he laughed, and pulled out his phone, bringing up a picture of all the kids, “Thace looks more like me… or, well… like Rachel, I guess.”

“That’s definitely YOUR smile on that little girl,” she laughed, and passed him the stack. He put the phone away and started scrawling his name on the flagged spots. She smiled at him, “I always get a kick of how much adopted kids end up looking like the people that raise them just because of expressions and mannerisms.”

“Yeah, it’s wild… and it carries over, too. Like, sometimes Rai will open his mouth and I SWEAR he’s channeling Shiro… who raised Keith. Family is…” He shrugged, “it’s a kind of magic, I think.”

“I like that, I might steal it to help reassure parents.” She sat in one of the chairs across from him, “you have a beautiful family, Lance. I’m glad I got to meet some of them- although it could have been under better circumstances.”

“I’m sure you will meet the others in the next couple of days,” he laughed, “we’ve got the whole hospital visitation thing down to an art.”

“So… ummm… Kashi said Veronica carried him? How is she doing?”

He glanced up at her between signatures, “are you sure you want me to answer that?”

“Yes… I mean… I think so… Just.. don’t tell me if it is bad,” she blushed, “I don’t want to know if it isn’t good.”

“Roni is great,” he answered, “she pretty much runs the world- although no one seems to have noticed yet. She’s single right now… but she’s got a couple of on again off again things, so that could change.”

“Good. That’s… good. I’m glad she’s doing well. She deserves it.”

“Want me to tell her you say hi?” he asked, signing the last line and returning the pages to a neat stack.

She gave him a wistful smile as she took the paperwork, “yeah. Yeah, tell her I said hi… and give my love to the family.”

“Will do.”

“You are such a charmer,” Keith whispered, wrapping his arms around Lance. “He’s going to be so excited to see this!”

“You were the one that had the idea AND arranged everything,” Lance chuckled, leaning back against his husband, and resting his hands on top of Keith’s. “All I did was convince the nurses to look the other way about the number of visitors.”

Trudy, one of the nurses, poked her head into the room, “he’s awake. They’ll be bringing him down any minute. Everything looks great.”

“Thanks so much,” Lance said.  He could FEEL the worry and tension drain out of Keith’s frame. “Babe- it’s a broken leg. He’s fine.”

“It’s a broken FEMUR and he needed surgery, Lance.”

“He’s five and still growing. He’ll be back to driving everyone bonkers before you know it.” He turned in Keith’s arms, “you are such a worrywart when it comes to the kids. It’s cute.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “this again?”

“Mmhmm… my husband is CUTE.”

“Lannnnnce… quit it.”

“CHECK OUT MY CAST! IT LOOKS LIKE A CANDY CANE!!”

They both laughed as Kashi was wheeled into the room. Sure enough the fiberglass cast that encased his leg was red and white candy-cane striped. Lance had to remind himself to breathe when he saw the metal frame and the screws that disappeared into the fiberglass- even though he’d known they’d be there, even though he knew they weren’t hurting his little boy.

“Very festive,” Keith said with an encouraging nod.

“See, dumpling? I told you that Xiomara was awesome. How are you feeling?”

“My skin feels tickle-y and I’m thirsty,” Kashi answered, “but my leg doesn’t even hurt!”

“Are you up to more visitors?”

“Sure- is Tia Rachel here? She can see her friend!”

“Sorry bud, no Rachel,” Keith answered as Lance ducked out of the room to gather the others.

A few minutes later Shiro, Coran, Thace, Talia, Krolia, Allura, and Romelle came into the room, carrying boxes of assorted sizes. A chagrined Rai and weeping Hunk followed and made a beeline to the little boy, tripping over each other to be the first to apologize. Hunk was barely coherent until Kashi patted his back and assured him that it wasn’t Hunk’s fault and he wasn’t mad.

Rai didn’t even speak- not that he was a particularly talkative child- and Lance suspected he didn’t trust himself not to cry. Rai HATED hospitals, always had, but he had insisted on being here for the entire duration of the surgery. He climbed up onto the bed beside his little brother and gingerly wrapped his arm around him while they both glared at spots on the bed somewhere in the vicinity of their knees.

Silent tears spilled out of Rai’s eyes and he dug his hand into the big pocket in the front of his hoodie, pulling out a sloppily wrapped rectangle and handing it to Kashi. Kashi took the gift and cautiously tore the paper off of it to reveal Rai’s handheld gaming system. “What?”

“Gets boring in hospitals,” Rai muttered, “and they keep saying you’re too little, so you can have mine. S’my fault you’re hurt and stuff.”

“You’re GIVING me this???” Kashi’s eyes were so huge they looked like they’d fall right out of his head.

Rai just nodded, not looking up. “M’sorry.”

“Rai, it was an accident,” Kashi said after a moment. “Wasn’t on purpose.”

“You were so mad,” Rai whispered, “said you hated me.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

Lance had to bite his tongue to keep from chiding Kashi about calling his brother stupid, but he managed. He knew they needed to work this through on their own.

“Your cast looks like a candy cane… can I be the first one to sign it?”

“Sign it?”

“That’s what you do with casts, bud,” Thace said, earning ‘cool big brother points’ as Kashi’s face lit up.

“Really?”

“Definitely,” confirmed Keith.

“I’ll see if the nurses have any markers!” Talia was already out the door before she finished speaking.

“Cooooool! Hey! What’s in all the boxes?”

“Well,” said Shiro, “you always help us make our places ready for Christmas, so this year, it’s our turn to help YOU.”

“We brought you a little tree,” Allura added.

“And ornaments,” said Romelle.

“I found some battery-powered lights for your room, sweetheart,” Krolia added.

“And I thought that you might want to have a train running on the tree-gown-”

“-tree-SKIRT, Coran,” Lance chuckled.

“Yes, of course! I thought you might enjoy having a train running on the tree-SKIRT until you come home,” Coran finished, twirling his moustache.

“I get to decorate my hospital room?” Kashi was floored, he didn’t know where to look, his big eyes darting from person to person. “Really?”

“Really,” Keith confirmed.

“And Tia Pidge will be here soon with a little Thanksgiving pizza for you and I to share,” Shiro said as he ruffled Kashi’s hair, “if you feel up to eating.”

“Best. Day. Ever!” squealed the five year old, the prospect of decorating his hospital room seeming to have completely overpowered the reason that he was in one in the first place.

Talia returned with two fistfuls of colorful markers and started handing them out to people as Allura and Shiro began unpacking the boxes and organizing the contents.

By the time Lance was able to get close enough to his son to sign the cast and give him a hug and kiss, the room was looking very festive. Keith and Shiro were singing carols. Rai was showing Kashi all the best games on his system. Thace and Pidge cutting red and green construction paper into strips that Hunk was stapling into a long chain.

They’d attracted the attention of some of the other kids on the ward and a few of the more mobile and energetic ones had joined in on their fun. Allura had quietly ducked out to visit the kids who weren’t up to it. The Paladins, in general, had a certain amount of fame, even now, but Allura, the Alien Princess, was a bonafide celebrity.

“This was definitely a stroke of genius,” Lance whispered to Keith, “you’ve saved his Christmas.”

“I made a promise,” Keith answered, his voice matter of fact.

“I love you, babe.”

“I love you, too, Tumbleweed.”

[give-soup-please]

Could you write Narrator reacting to a reader who stays up all night online talking to their friends? (not self projecting! nope-) anyways thanks :)

Narrator and a reader who stays up late talking to their friends (platonic or romantic)

He pokes your side. “Reader, it’s three in the morning. What on earth are you doing, staying up so late?”

He glances over your shoulder. “Discord again? Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were addicted.”

He continues, “I don’t care how- what was that word? Humans… your linguistics shift so often, it’s hard to keep track. Anyway- I don’t care how ‘dank’ their ‘memes’ are, you need to go to bed.”

You clutch to your computer. “Just one more message.”

“Oh no, no, no, no, I’ll not be part of this. You can either comply willingly and get to sleep, or…”

You’re curious to see what he can do. He’s not going to hurt you, you know him too well. “...Or?”

He doesn’t really have a plan. Vague threats used to work, he’s sure. “Or else!” he finishes, more weakly than he intended. 

You smirk. He didn’t have anything he could actually use.

He sighs dramatically. “Look, if you’re going to stay up late talking to your friends, why not talk to me? We are friends, aren’t we?” 

That’s a low grade manipulation tactic. You don’t fall for it.

“I’m just saying- that if we were truly friends, you’d spend time with me as well. It’s not easy for me, because you’re my only connection to this world.”

You scoff, but you’re slightly worried. “That’s because I’m the only person you willingly talk to. Nar, if you want friends, you have to, you know, actually make an effort. I shouldn’t be your only connection.”

He starts to whine. “Oh- none of them live up to my incredibly high expectations. You’re the best of the best, reader. How can I possibly expect to meet new people, when I’ve already met with the best? Surely you’ll be moved by my fits of loneliness…”

Flattery… You’re not sure where this is going, but you’re mildly suspicious. You glance at your laptop, then back to him. You sigh. “Alright, let’s chat. Just let me tell them I’m logging off, and I’m all yours.”

You don’t think about how you worded that. He purrs in satisfaction. “Ah, excellent choice. I’m so glad you’re coming around to see reason.”

You snort. “Don’t push it.” You sign off for the night, and swivel in your chair to face him. “Alright, I hope you had a topic in mind, because it was your idea in the first place.”

“Of course I do! Why, I’m full of good ideas. Now listen closely, I’ve been developing a new script, and…”

He continually hypes up his new script without actually giving anything away. After about ten minutes, you lose patience. “Why not just read it to me? I could- I could be your listener, and give feedback.”

He gasps. “Why- I hadn’t thought of that. What an excellent idea. Here, lean back in your chair, and let my words wash over you.”

You don’t think much of his phrasing. It was odd that he hadn’t thought of just reading his script, like he usually did.

You put your feet up, and his words begin to coast around you. This was an unusual story. A lot of repetition, a lot of cycles and loops. His voice is very soothing, though.

Actually, you don’t think you’ve ever heard him sound like this. He’s murmuring quietly, voice deep and rich. Your eyelids grow heavy.

This wasn’t like any of his other stories. Usually, he throws himself into whatever dramatis personae is needed, really projecting and acting it out. Instead, he keeps a steady rhythm. This is… an interesting change. 

The quality of his voice has changed as well. It sounds like he’s directly talking into your ears. 

You yawn.  Now that you’re no longer looking at a bright screen, your eyes start to adjust.

Things are calm and quiet. The narrator weaves his narrative well, drawing you in.

After he’s finished with that story, he immediately launches into another one. You’re too tired to protest. 

His voice starts cutting in and out, slowly but silently dropping into a whisper.

Things feel so nice right now, You lounging in your chair, the narrator’s voice steady and smooth. It’s so… 

…

“Zzz..”

If it wasn’t important to keep quiet, the narrator would have let out a cackle.

You wake up the next morning in bed. How did you get there?

The narrator comes in to your room, beaming away like the sun. “Sleep well?” There’s a certain amused smugness in his tone.

“…did you manipulate me into falling asleep?”

“Oh come now, ‘manipulate’ is such a strong word. Just think of me as the narrative guide to your dreams!”

“You really couldn’t handle me giving attention to someone else, could you?”

He sounds affronted. “Perish the thought. If I am concerned for a loved one’s sleep schedule, and they’re stubborn enough to not take care of themselves, then it’s my duty to step in as the concerned party and help.”

You’re smiling. “You’re full of shit.”

You can hear the smile in his voice too. “And you have more energy to conquer the day than you would have otherwise. It’s all a matter of interpretation, reader.”

[maedrama]

Junho x roleplaying cop and criminal

Him cuffing you to the bed and punishing you 😈😈

so so sorry that this is so late, i just logged back into tumblr after taking brake.

Refusal

includes dom!junho, sub!reader, female!reader, roleplay, cop-criminal roleplay, handcuffs, squirting, pet names, tipsy writting.

---

you walked slowly through the gravel, listening to the crunch of the rocks underneath your feet. a breeze rippled through your hair, causing your skin to form goosebumps at the cold night air. the sky was a pretty shade of dark blue, making the stars dance across the smooth hue like a giant ballroom full of princesses. as you took a breath, admiring the night's color, you heard another set of footsteps behind you.

korea was a crowed place, so this didn't phase you much. you usually took nightly walks to clear your head, so you were used to running into people on your way. but as seconds passed, the footsteps kept getting closer to you.

you instices took over you as you turned around to face whoever has been following you. just as you turned around you were faced with a bright flashlight shinging into your face.

you squinted, your arm quickly shooting up to cover your eyes.

"do you know how late it is, ma'am?" a deep voice spoke loudly.

you stood there, shocked.

"n-no, not at the moment."

it took you a moment before your eyes fixated on the viridian unifrom behind the bright light. a police officer?

"it's two in the morning. curfew started about two hours ago. how far do you live from here?"

"what curfew? i've never heard of a curfew." you protested.

you eyed the officer suspiciously, watching as he turned the light off.

"ma'am, please allow me to walk you home. you need to be inside."

the officer reached out his hand, watching your face contort into disgust. you tugged your arm away quickly, stepping back.

"no. i don't need to do anything. i've been out this late everynight for three years, and not once have i had a curfew problem." you exclaimed.

the man sighed, stepping towards you.

"i'm an officer, i know the rules. and the rules are," he leaned into your face, his breath fanning your cheeks. "everyone needs to be inside by midnight."

you swallowed thickly, the closeness of this unknown man making you feel warm and fuzzy inside. it was dark, but you could see a glimpse of his face from the dim light of a near by streetlight. he was atractive from what you could see.

"you can't arrest me for being out late. it's not against the law, i'm a grown woman." you stood your ground, crossing your arms.

he scoffed at you, chuckling darkly at your stubborness.

"actually," he reached down to his belt, getting his handcuffs ready. "i can arrest you."

with that, the pushed you against the wall lightly, tugging your hands behind your back. he clasped the metel in his hands before tightening them around your wrists. he tried his best to be gentle, something as beautiful as you needed it.

"for what? i didn't do anything wrong." you yelled, tugging on the handcuffs.

he only groaned as he pushed you away from the wall.

"refusal."

--

"why are you taking me here? don't i have to go to the police station?" you asked, watching as he reached into your coat pocket before grabbing your set of keys.

"like i said," he pushed the house key into the lock. "you need to be at home."

at the same time he turned the key, he wrapped his other arm around your waist, pushing your into the door as it opened. you gasped at the action, surprised at how aroused you've gotten.

within seconds, he pinned you to the door, closing it with his foot.

"you're a pretty thing, aren't you? so soft and nice." he whispered to you, watching your eyes as he did so.

you would be lying if you said that this didn't turn you on, because oh boy it did. your could feel yourself getting more and more horny each word he spoke. once again, your insticts took over causing you to lean into his lips, making them brush against each other.

"needy too? how precious."

the officer closed the gap between the two of you, his tongue imediately darting across your bottom lip. before you could get into the kiss more, he pulled away from you. you whined at the loss of contact.

"take me to the bedroom." he whispered, grabbing hold of your arm.

you thought for a moment, wondering if it was such a great idea. but this could only happen to someone very lucky, so you agreed.

nodding, you lead the way to the back of your house, your stomach feeling like a zoo full of butterflies.

once you reached the room, you swore you could feel your pussy do a cartwheel.

"i'm going to uncuff you so you can undress." he softly said, reaching the key out of his chest pocket.

you nodded at him, watching as his skilled fingers unlocked the metal traps.

imediately, you began taking your coat off, watching him as you let the thick fabric pool behind you. his eyes focused on your clothed breasts, eager to touch the bear skin.

"fuck, you're so sexy, baby." he whispered under his breath, his pants becoming tight from his erection.

you smile slighty at him, a blush spreading across your cheeks as you start to lift your shirt above your head.

his breath hitched in his throat as he sees your breast bounce out of the shirt. your nipples harden at the air, causing a gasp to leave his mouth.

"please, princess, hurry up and take your pants off. i need you." he almost moaned.

you roll your eyes playfully at him, nearly giggling at how his character faded so fast. he watched the bold action from you, his ego bubbling back up.

"don't get so cocky, because after those pants are off, you're getting handcuffed to the bed."

your smile was replaced with a look of guilt. you leaned down peeling your pants off of your legs, kicking them off your feet.

"panties too." he instructed.

you nodded, disgarding the last peice of clothing before climbing onto the bed. you laid flat on your back with your hands aligned with the bed posts, ready for him to restrict them.

"so obedient." he chuckled, cluching the cuffs in his hands as he walked towards you.

he took your right wrist in his hand, before reaching over and grabbin your left. you watched in awe as he hooked the handcuffs around the bed frame, before tightening the metal around both of your wrists.

"now, you're all mine to use." he sighed out, before climbing onto the bed.

your naked body aroused him so much, just the sight could get him off. he decided to keep his unifrom on, trying to stay into the role. he undid his pants, sliding them down to his thighs, his boxers along with it.

"you're already so wet. what a naught slut, getting wet from strangers."

you moaned at his words, loving the way he degraded you.

"bet you want me cock in there so badly. don't you baby?" he asked.

you nodded at him, bucking your hips up at him. he laughed at your desperate attempt, before alingning himself with your enterance.

the skin on skin contact, imediately made his shudder as he gently pushed himself into you.

you gasped at the stretch, your wetness making it so easy for him to slide in and out.

"fuck, that feels so good, junho." you moaned, arching your back.

he smiled at you, focusing on the way his cock felt inside of your tight walls. junho couldn't help but feel his release already. he felt ashamed that he was going to cum so quickly, something that has never happened before.

"fuck, baby, i think i'm gonna cum soon." he groaned.

you whined in return, feeling your own orgasm aproaching.

"me too."

it was unusual for the both of you to cum to quickly, you always came first but it took a little longer than this. it was very suprising to the both of you.

your orgasm shot through you without warning, the feeling being too much already. junho watched as a liquid spat out on his cock, pushing him over the edge. his cum painted your walls as he thrusted into you.

you both caught your breaths, feelings so euphoric in eachothers presence. junho pulled out of you gently before reaching above you to unlock you.

"so, roleplaying? gold star or no?" he asked, as he fumbled with the key.

"two gold stars."

--

so so so very sorry about some of the mistakes in here. i'm kind of tipsy and overly tired.