#a man on fire

[caroline18mars]

A Man On Fire - Chapter 86

It was like she had the wind knocked out of her, court? Neglect and abuse? So now the tables were turned on her? They were treating her like a criminal..her own parents, or no, she wasn’t even family anymore, they had officially disowned her..Jared, she needed to call him, she needed to hear his voice telling her that everything would be ok..in his arms she would feel ok again…in his arms she could find comfort and not feel like she was the loneliest person alive. Her whole body felt numb and she barely had the strength anymore to hold the document, the words on the letter danced before her eyes “will that be all? Can I go now?” she breathed and the lawyer nodded. Her high heeled boots could barely carry her as she swayed out of the elevator, her phone, she needed to call someone, anyone, her vision blurred by tears she ignored all the notifications and pressed the first name that came up in her contacts, her brother, it couldn’t possibly be true what her parents had said about him, that he was in on this whole scheming and framing, “Arno?” her heart jumped as the line connected, why didn’t he say anything? “Arno, devo parlarti”. But all she heard was ‘mi dispiace, mi dispiace Coco” and a dry click followed, WHAT???? NOOOOOO, please god NOOOO, you can’t leave me, you can’t!!! sobbing uncontrollably her phone clattered to the hard concrete outside, no, please work..please please, she picked up her dead phone but no matter how hard she pushed the button, the phone just wouldn’t jump back to life, where could she go, what could she do? She didn’t know Jared’s number by heart, ok focus, focus goddammit Coco!

On the other side of the world a plane was setting in the landing for Sydney, by now he was out of his mind with worry, no call, no text, no mail from her or her brother, something was wrong, he could feel it in the pit of his stomach. As soon as the plane touched down, he got absorbed by the hussle and bussle of getting out of the airport as soon as possible.

I can’t stay here in NY, I just can’t, I need to see Jared, I need to be with him, this was the right decision, Coco, her mind was racing while she swiped her credit card through the machine. “OK, Miss, here’s your boarding card, hurry the plane will start boarding shortly, gate 18” the man behind the counter pointed her in the right direction. How she got through customs so quick she didn’t know, her feet were killing her from all the running she had done but miraculously she ended up at the gate just in time, here went absolutely nothing, as the airplanedoor was closed right behind her

”No news?” Shannon came walking into his brother’s room, “nothing” it was the despair in his voice that got to him, “I wouldn’t worry too much, her battery’s flat or something, you know how she is, she never owned a phone before you came along, what time is it in the States? Maybe she’s gone straight to bed, I’m sure you’ll hear from her in the morning”, it was endearing how his brother tried to put his mind at ease, but he knew better, something was wrong, this was gonna be a long night..hopefully his jetlag would give him some solace. “I hope so” he sighed “I really hope so”.

”Miss, are you ok, you haven’t touched any of your food”, the flight attendant took away her tray “I’m just not hungry” she forced a weak smile, thank god for business class, the little bit of attention she got made her feel a little bit less alone. “I’m sorry, but I dropped my phone and I can’t seem to get it back to life anymore, and I really need to contact my…my boyfriend” maybe the flight attendant was a little bit more tech savvy than she was. “Can I have a try?” the girl gently asked and she quickly handed her the phone, but no matter how much she pushed the button, the screen remained black “if you know your boyfriend’s number then we can send him a message, or maybe an email”. Coco bit her lip and shook her head, how the hell was she gonna find him? This was like looking for a needle in a haystack, what had she done? She was lost and alone and completely helpless, she could feel her heart breaking into a million little pieces knowing that she no longer was part of a family, she was not enough, never was and never would be again, her past had been taken from her and actually so was her future. They had made the world a lot more hollow for her by the stroke of a pen, all gone, all done, never looking back.

Hours and hours later, she was standing in the midst of Sydney airport, everyone in a rush to get to their destinations, her fingers fondled the dead phone in her pocket, ok, think, there’s what seems to be a phoneshop, go buy yourself a new phone, these guys would definitely be able to help her find Jared’s number, ok come on, don’t be shy, oh who am I kidding? Come on, so what if they call you a tech retard?. “Hello, can I help you?” a young man approached her with the typical smooth sales smile, “I hope so, my phone doesn’t work anymore, I was hoping that you could maybe fix it?” she hesitantly showed him her tattered phone. “Fix it?” he huffed “we have an entire wall here of brand new phones, Android or iPhone, which one would you prefer, do you have everything stored in your Cloud? Do you use e-sim,.” What? A cloud, android? Sim? Her cheeks going bright red she stammered, “it’s ok, I’ll wait, thanks for your time though” all embarrassed and ashamed of herself, she quickly beelined it out of the shop. She was tired, jetlagged, hungry and thirsty and she missed Jared, ok think, think for god’s sakes..what hotel was he staying in? nope, she didn’t remember, how many hotels could this city have? I’ll do this the old fashioned way then. ”Where to, Miss?” the cabdriver asked her, “every 4 or 5 star hotel in Sydney that you can think of”

Everywhere she went, she was frowned upon or ignored or even kindly requested to leave the hotel premises, they all thought she was a stupid fan trying to sneak into the hotelroom of her idol. He seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth, “no luck?” the cabdriver asked as she got back in and shook her head, “you know, these stars they never use their own name to book a room, it’s always some kind of Disney or cartooncharacter, you know” he casually steered the car back into the heavy traffic. Oh great, a Disney character, no way, he would never do that, oh god, her mind just felt so incredibly numb, it felt like she had been travelling forever, would this goddamn nightmare just end? Despite the cab driver’s good advice of using Disney characters names, she was still frowned upon and requested to leave, she got out of the cab, this was the last hotel on the list, if this didn’t work, then she would get herself a room here, get some sleep and then fly back..home..there was no home for her anymore, ok yes her apartment in New York  but just thinking about NY and her parents who would still be there made it another no-go zone for her.

”Welcome to the Park Hyatt hotel, how can I help you?” the receptionist gave her a beaming smile, “Hi, I’m looking for someone who is possibly staying here with you, his name is Jared Leto, I’m his girlfriend and I would join him here in Australia, but my phone is broken and now there’s no way I can reach him..” The receptionist interrupted her “I’m sorry, but we’re not allowed to give any information on our residents”, so once again the same blabla.. “I know, and I understand, but this is an emergency..I know he’s probably not listed under Leto but I really need to see him, he’s expecting me” she was getting desperate knowing that this was her last chance, for fuck’s sakes Leto, are you even in Australia or was that just some excuse to get rid of me too, Cubbins?. “I’m sorry, Miss, like I said, I really can’t give you any info..” he rattled but she quickly breathed “Cubbins, Bart, Bartholomew Cubbins” all of a sudden it dawned on her that this might be the name he was registered under. “Just a moment, and your name is?” oh my god, bingo, he was actually here? “Harper Coco De Robiano d’Arcy” saying her name out loud, realizing the horror and the emptiness behind it, gave her a foul taste in her mouth. The receptionist gestured for her to take a seat in the lobby and went to another more private desk to make his call.

Jared’s heart was doing summersaults in his chest as he hammered the elevator button, she was here, she was finally here, he had been out of his mind with worry, it didn’t matter anymore, his lover, the love of his life had kept her promise. It took so long, Harper hung her head, the receptionist still hadn’t returned to his desk, what if he wasn’t here either? and now she had paid the cabdriver and let him go. Jared jumped out of the elevator, his eyes scanning the huge lobby, front desk nothing to be seen, his heart stopped beating for a second, when his eyes finally found her in a huge chair, completely lost in her own thoughts. “Coco..!!” she heard her name echo around the lobby, oh god, he was here and she shot up from her seat and ran straight into his open arms

”You’re here, you’re finally here, I love you so so so so much, babe!!!” he held her tight, he could even feel her hammering heart through his shirt, his hungry lips locked with hers in a much overdue and fiery kiss. In between kisses, he kept on whispering his love for her, “come on, let’s go to my room, I don’t need this audience” he grinned as he slowly let go of her and she noticed the staring eyes in the lobby. She mouthed a ‘thank you’ to the receptionist who had been willing to enable their reunion and followed Jared to the elevator where she pushed herself against him, she had so needed him, crawling into his arms again in complete silence, just knowing that they were together again was enough.

"I still can’t believe you’re here, I tried calling you, texting, sending you e-mails, what happened?” he closed the door of his penthouse suite behind her, he wanted to throw her on the bed straight away, but something was going on, he could see and feel it, she was so lost in her own thoughts all the way up her. “I dropped my phone, it won’t switch on again, I tried but I couldn’t remember your number, and that guy at the airport tried to sell my a new phone, but I just…I’m just too stupid for all that new technology and then I didn’t know what hotel you were staying at, and I’ve been in every hotel looking for you, but they didn’t believe me and I..” she rattled, fishing her phone out of her purse as if to prove it, “I’m sorry, Jared, I’m so sorry” all the stress and all the madness suddenly caught up with her and she just couldn’t hold back the tears that came streaming down her face. “Hey, shhhhh it’s ok, don’t cry” he held her again, what the hell had happened? This was not some normal release of a little bit of stress, there was more to it than that, “come on, let’s sit you down” he guided her over to the couch “what happened, tell me, this is not about your phone..how did things go with your parents?” he let go of her and poured her a drink, the minute he mentioned the word ‘parents’ he noticed her freeze up completely. This was going to be a long night, but he had time, why did he convince her to go see her parents when it obviously did more bad than good?

[savagegood]

[lygma-nygma]

I miss the pre-New 52 Tim and Jason dynamic so much. It was basically Jason beating the fuck out of Tim well being all "nothing personal kid I just hate everything about you, your existence and the fact you're breathing right now" and Tim spitting up blood going "what if your mother was a whore, kill yourself" and Jason just deciding right then and there that this kid is his favourite person. Then it just turned into a Tom and Jerry hunt across the city where Jason keeps hitting Tim with the "join me, be my robin" and Tim kicks him in the balls.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael teaches Gregory the old FNAF technique

[3cosmicfrogs]

I wanted to go a bit more in-depth with this piece that I did for zukka week 2023 because i got inspired to do more insane clothing details. ID in ALT.

Ramble about the influences/inspirations below:

Design inspirations for Sokka's clothing are mainly Inuvialuit and Yup'ik, with Nenets, Tlingit, and Chukchi inspiration for the tassels, patterns, belt and beadwork. I mixed these with the ornaments canon shows us used by the Northern Water Tribe, and also in Legend of Korra. I got particularly excited about drawing from Inuvialuit sources since the tassels we see in canon look like they could be inspired by this. Going beyond canon's animation-friendly colour scheme, I drew from Nenets patterns/embroidery/sashes and Yup'ik beadwork for accent colours. I think in the future I'd like to find ways to incorporate more Tlingit-style patterns since I rarely see them in fanart (which is a shame - they're stunning), but since they tend to be very big I ultimately decided to only include them as a nod in order to keep the regalia recognisable as 'Water Tribe'. I wonder if I could start using Polynesian influences as well?

Zuko's headdress and particularly the shoulder garment and beaded embroidery draw heavily from women's clothing styles of Lê Dynasty Vietnam. The other main influence is men's royal clothing in Tang Dynasty China, and patterns worn by Mongolian Khatun. Since we have a bit more to go on in canon as to what fire nation regalia looks like, I blended that in as well. I got particularly excited about the embellishments on Lê Dynasty clothes because I could give a little nod to Zuko's dragon-fire by adding more colours to the embroidery. In the future I think I'd want to make the Mongolian influence a bit more obvious... perhaps even push the envelope by incorporating some Bashkir designs, though I'm not sure how well that will go.

[rodrickheffeley]

everyday I learn something new about him that makes me love him more

[raycatzdraws]

Wolfie and Four friendship appreciation doodles! They're shared secrets besties! I hope Four's distrust of the shadow crystal doesn't drive anything between them. Wild found his way into this compilation with a force. It seems I can't draw Wolfie and not include him too!

[cherrio-krispz]

I almost forgot Errors birthday

[ghostbsuter]

"Hey constantine, who's that?" Someone asks and Connie looks down at Danny, blue eyes staring back at him.

"My coworker."

"He's my dad."

"What?"

"What."

—

Who knew John Constantine would gain a ward, one being such a little mischievous bastard with bright eyes and good heart.

He certainly didn't.

Nor did he expect the stabby Robin to get into a heated argument with his ward, gesturing to his form next to Batman and spit venom.

"But‐ Damian! Look at him! I can fix him!" Danny argues back and Robin, so done with this, rips his mask off and—

Oh.

They have the same face.

Connie looks at Batman, nervous what the reveal will change.

("I don't care if you can 'fix' him, danyal! Return to Father, to me!")

Batman stares back.

("Connie is dad shaped! I chose him myself, damian! Leave me and my choice alone!")

The day will only get longer, it seems.

[caroline18mars]

A Man On Fire - Chapter 85

Morning came all too soon, neither had slept a wink, their frantic lovemaking lasted until an hour ago, both of them not wanting their time together to end, “I don’t want to let you go” he pushed a tired kiss on the top of her head “it feels like we’re at crossroads again, I’ve only just found you again” his warm breath whispering against her head sent chills down her spine, I don’t want you to leave and I don’t want to leave this bed, I don’t want to leave you. Just jump on that plane to Australia with him and forget about your family, but he actually sealed her fate “but I understand you need to sort this out with your family and you know what they say ‘longing makes the heart grow fonder’ even though I don’t know if that is even possible” his lips curled into a sad smile, he so didn’t want to get up but her plane was leaving in a few hours. “Join me in the shower?” he growled letting go of her and sat up to push himself off the bed, why did he suddenly feel like he was 100 years old? Easy, because she kept him young. “Why don’t you go get a hot shower started, I’ll be right there” she pushed a kiss on his shoulders and grabbed her phone, 10 missed calls, all from Arno..hopefully they changed their mind, I don’t want to go..but I have to..get this sorted, the sooner I can leave this behind me, the sooner I can be with Jared again. Their bodies connected once again under the hot water with every last bit of passion they had in them, both of them not knowing when the next time would be, the only thing they knew was that it was gonna take a while and neither of them was one bit happy about that.//One last kiss and one final bear hug leaving her perfume to still dance in his nose and the firm promise to call him when she had landed, before the big steel bird had taken her away from him, he had never seen her so nervous and desperate, how would he even get through the days without her when he couldn’t even get through hours? His own phone bleeped him out of his train of thought, duty called, but he couldn’t care less. The only name on his mind was hers.

New York was cold and dreary, getting into the waiting cab, a whiff of his perfume drifted up to her, god I miss you Jared, why did I ever think this would be a good idea?

From: HCDeRobiano

To: BJLCubbins

Subject: back in the concrete jungle

Hello lover,

I miss you, more than I could ever say, this all seems so pointless without you. What am I even doing here?

Yours forever (if you let me)

Harper

Jared was finishing up packing his last bag when he felt the faint buzz of an e-mail, please let this be her..yes it was, his fingers stumbled over the screen

From: BJLCubbins

To: HCDeRobiano

Subject: Re:back in the concrete jungle

Hello sweetie,

So glad you made it safe back to the Big Apple, you’re there so you can get things resolved and leave this all behind as quickly as possible, so we can finally leave all this behind us.

I haven’t even left and the thought of being on that long flight to the other side of the world without you is unbearable, but let’s hold on to the idea that in a few days, you and I will be together again, doing what we do best, (we’ve been doing it all night, so I’m sure you’ve not forgotten about that)

Let me know how it went asap?

You’re on my mind always! I love and miss you too!

Your lover par excellence

J.

She got out of the cab and stopped in her tracks to read his e-mail, clutching the phone to her heart, she took a deep breath looking up at the hospital in front of her, here went absolutely nothing.

”Everything is loaded up, we can go now if you’re ready” the guy who came to pick him up said, “yeah, I’m ready” he closed the door behind him, all day he had been waiting for a call, a mail, anything, but nothing, every one of his calls had rolled to voicemail and it sure didn’t put his mind at ease, this was not like her, she always kept her promises and she had looked so desperate this morning. “We really need to go now” the driver’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, “yeah yeah, I know” he walked to the car, not able to keep his eyes off his phone when he shuffled into the backseat. For fuck’s sakes, why don’t you pickup?? It’s not switched off or has a flat battery, I’m sick of all this calling, hasn’t it come to your mind that I’m starting to get worries and I’m just about to board a plane? All annoyed he ended another attempt to call her. “Jay, come on” Shannon gestured at him to hurry up, he was trying to delay getting on that plane, “yeah, yeah one more call” he waved at him to get onto the plane already, Arno, great idea, he was gonna call Arno, 2 minutes later he was ready to throw his phone on the tarmac, why did everyone have phones when they just ignored every call or mail or text??? “Jared?” now it was Shayla’s voice who urged him to hurry up. “Alright, alright” he rolled his eyes and accepted his fate of being locked up in a massive plane high up there for almost an entire day without any news from her, maybe she would send him a mail, at least something to look forward to.

”Ciao Papa” she stuttered as she walked inside the room and saw her father sitting up in his bed, he looked like a new man, nothing like when she last saw him here attached to all sorts of tubes, was he alone here? Suddenly she was roughed pushed inside the room from behind, causing her to stumble forward while her mother pushed past her without a word or even a glance. “Come stai, Papa? You look so much better” just ignore all the aggressive stares, break the ice, Harper, just suck it up. “Harper Coco” hearing her father say her full name sent a shiver down her spine and not in a good way, he had always used her full name before he went in predator modus when she was a child. Coming here had obviously been a mistake, and where was Arno?, she really didn’t want to beat about the bush, she had Jared to go back to, would he be getting ready now for Australia? “do I look better? Well I certainly don’t feel much better, knowing it was you who put me here in the first place, but I guess you always had your heart on hurting your mother and me, didn’t you?” his voice was ice and so were his eyes that drilled into hers.

“Will anything I say even matter? In my experience it has always been the other way round when you two knocked me around the house almost every day..” she spat back and he didn’t even flinch “Anyway, Arno said you wanted to talk to me? I’m here now, so talk”.  It was her father’s almost devilish grin that shook her to the core “Arno just did what we asked him to do..” he paused for effect “Let’s be honest here, you tried to kill us, Harper, plain and simple, and that ‘s not just an opinion, no, myself and the entire family are convinced that these..vile pieces of…” he hesitated, intense disgust scribbled over his face “mockery that you waisted paint on were an attempt to humiliate, even desecrating the importance and standing of one of the most ancient and most powerful aristocratic names of Italy that is the House of De Robiano d’Arcy”. Before she could even form a word, his voice thundered over her “ever since you were a child, you were demonic, always bullying, hurting your siblings, your parents..and now you thought you would serve the final blow and almost had me killed”. What??? What the fuck was he saying? “WHAT?? Are you fucking kidding me? I’m the bully??? I tried to kill you??? YOU!...YOU were the one who singled me out of all your children and beat me, kicked me until I was black and blue and had to be rushed to the hospital..what????” big tears of frustration and helplessness against this vicious and slanderous attack started to roll down her face while he single-handedly erased and re-wrote the pages of her haunted childhood and youth that had been packed with physical abuse.

”Your outburst is another fine example of your psychopathic nature, you need professional help, girl..it just goes to show that your mother and I were right to cut you off of your financial support and to take away your title..you were never one of us and neither did you ever want to be, and if an attempted murder is your way of paying us back for everything we have done for you emotionally and financially, then I see no other way of disowning you completely”. A door opened behind her and a few sharp dressed men walked in “Miss Harper Coco De Robiano d’Arcy? As attorney of Mr. and Mrs. De Robiano d’Arcy, I hereby request to sign this document that will officially take away the aristocratic title that your name provides, neither shall you receive any financial support by requesters present here, subsequently you will also be written out of the requesters testament and will, neither will you be able to contest this decision. Should you seek contact with any member of the family mentioned hereabove, for any reason, a summon to court will follow” He put the document on the table and pointed out where she needed to sign, completely overwhelmed  and distraught by this ordeal, she put the pen to paper and scribbled her name, soon as she put down the pen again, he handed her a copy of the document. “This is your copy, and this..” another document was handed over to her “is a summons to court for abuse and neglect. I must emphasise that this summons will be under scrutiny of the court and should any info show up in the media or elsewhere, you will be charged with intentional disclosure”.

[whaliiwatching]

diagnoses u with fanfic tags

yeah i caved. welcome spideysona

their universe is 1990s san francisco. by day they work as a struggling writer for the bugle, sort of following in the footsteps of (movie-adjacent) eddie brock; by night they’re spider-scrawl, fighting systemic injustice, writers’ block, and the occasional mad scientist invention. his world is less rife with supernatural evils than most, but he’s also fucking with the government and corporations and all, so it balances out

their unique thing is that they have, like, shitty meta clairvoyance in the form of inherently understanding tropes, clichés, story structure, etc. like if cinemasins/wins were a superhero. they were approached to join the society because miguel thought they’d be chill or even helpful with canon events—unfortunately scribble here is not whatsoever into following rigid plot structure for the sake of unnecessary thematic suffering, saw the plot twist a miles away, and peaced. but not before snagging a day pass so they could watch atsv in person

they never take off their mask, and no one knows their name—he says it’s because he doesn’t want to lose his identity in a sea of spider-people, leading most to theorize that san-fran-spidey is some flavor of peter parker, but who’s to say for sure? the doylist reason, which he is in fact aware of, is that i don’t know either lol

[aesthetic-uni]

Misha Collins is the funniest straight man ever. He’s the only person to arguably queerbait in real life. He had to come out as a straight. He was told by WB to just stay bisexual. He’s living every homophobe’s nightmare scenario but the only difference is that everyone actually loves it for him

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

He done gone did it.

[yvainart]

an old sketch that i decided to colour (they’re in their divorced era here btw; or something like that)

[itsthislake]

“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY ACE!!

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