#and nobody is even home until like 6:00 on most days

[lynxgirlpaws]

>dad gets home >immediately shits on me neat

[aprikotea]

The Tea Party!!!

I had to get up at 4am because I was meeting my teacher at 6:30am. Everyone was wearing a kimono on that day, so I had bought a 2nd-hand kimono as well. But since I am in no way able to put it on myself, I met my teacher early in the morning, so she and another fellow student could dress me.

The tea party took place at a temple in Kita-Kamakura - the same one where I attended my first tea party as a guest in summer. Around 8am everyone else was arriving and we were allowed to join a ceremony with the monks.

9:00 AM - The First Session Starts

Each session one of us would perform the temae we were practicing the last weeks. And the other ones would help in the mizuya - preparing or cleaning stuff - or as hanto - bringing the sweets plates and tea bowls in and out of the tea room. My teacher would sit close to the exit of the tea room and talk to the guests. Each session took 45 minutes and consisted of 12 guests. We had 9 sessions, so we served 108 guests in total.

The guests were kind of random people. The temple announced on their website that they’ll hold a tea ceremony and people could apply for a seat. Some of them were acquaintances of our teachers, like other teachers and their students. But for most of us students they were unknown people.

Each and everyone of us was super nervous. Therefore, the first session was the toughest one. But everyone was putting in their hearts and we improved tiny details with each session. Since it would take a lot of time to prepare 12 bowl of matcha by the temae in side the tea room, they would only prepare the matcha for the first and second guest, also known as shokyaku and jikyaku. The matcha for the third guest and everyone else would be prepared in the mizuya. As hanto, which is basically an assistant, each session started quite busy, because we would bring in the sweets plates and had to pick them up a few moments later. Afterwards, we had kind of a waiting period until it was time to prepare additional matcha bowls. And then it would get quite busy again, since we had to bring the bowls in the tea room and of course pick them up again.

12:00 PM - My Turn

Just two sessions before it was my turn to be temae, I started to get super nervous. At some point it sat down and went through all the steps in my head and kind of mimicked the movements with my hands. One of the older students told me, that there's no need to do that and it'll all go well. And it kind of did. At the beginning I almost dropped the hishaku. But besides that, I made no bigger mistake. At one point, I realised I took the tea bowl with the wrong hand. But than I remembered what one of my teacher told me: If you notice you make a mistake, just act like you didn't and it's just "how we do things". And well, nobody probably even noticed it. My teacher also talked with the guests about me not being Japanese but still having a big passion for tea ceremony. She even praised my teacher in Germany and myself as well. This was a little awkward while being in the room, but I might just not be good with compliments in general.

Afterwards, I got a little break which we all took in turns. We had ordered bentos with some traditional Japanese food for that day. I was lucky to have my temae session before eating. I guess otherwise I would have not been able to get any food into my body.

4:00 PM - Finally Done

Around 4pm we finished the last session and everyone got really happy and relaxed. We talked about everything that happened, took pictures, drank matcha and also started to tidy everything up. My teachers and a lot of the guest brought some gifts for us, which we divided into little bags to take them home. And by 6pm most of us left the temple and started our way back home.

Overall the whole day was really exciting, but it was also exhausting. I hold so many precious memories, learned so many new things and got a little bit closer with everyone.

[dangerousstrawberryshark]

“You Should’ve Said Yes.”

where I got the image: https://giphy.com/gifs/ZazLVJ8sCxk4Udv271/html5

Is this a good image?

Yandere Chris Hemsworth x Loner Male Reader.

Warning: Violence, kidnapping, death of many lives, stalking, touching someone in their sleep 

Requested from No one

Background: Your name is M/n L/n, and you’re a loner. But not a complete loner, you did have friends, but some of them have gone missing. Chris Hemsworth, your stereotypical jock, and popular guy, and likes to tease you. You thought he was normal until he pulls you away from everyone else. He asked you out to prom but you rejected his offer and walked away. But little did you know that your decision has determined the fate of everyone at that school. 

M/N: Male Name

L/N: Last Name

H/C: Hair Color

E/C: Eye Color

S/C: Skin Color

Y/H: Your Height 

B/F: Best Friend

H/S/N: High School Name

R/G/N: Random Girl Name

By the way, you are 17 and Chris Hemsworth is 18

Sorry if this is bad. 

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MINORS DNI. FEMALE READERS… I’LL ALLOW YOU TO READ MY FICS BUT DO NOT FETISHIZE ANY OF MY STORIES

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DISCLAIMER: I MEAN NO OFFENSE, DISRESPECT, OR HARM TO ANY OF THESE CELEBRITIES! THIS IS JUST FICTION.

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You were walking down the hallway just hoping that you won’t run into someone. You got to your locker and tried to put the combination so it can open. After struggling for a few minutes you were able to finally get it opened. ‘Stupid locker,’ you thought to yourself annoyed. You hoped that it would be quiet but then you heard it. 

You heard the screams of females. You already know who had arrived. Chris Hemsworth. He was the stereotypical jock and the most popular guy at school. Everybody loved him, even some guys liked him. He has the looks, the body, the money, and the height. 

He was basically every girl’s dream guy. The screams got louder as he approached you, and you could hear what they were saying.

You heard some of the following: “Ahh Chris please take me!”, “Please date me! I’ll a better girlfriend!”, or “Please take me to prom!” that’s right prom was coming up and you know everybody is trying to ask out Chris, but for some reason, he just rejected all of them.

You noticed that he was looking at you and you began to go into a frenzy. You tried to get everything you need and walk away but God wasn’t on your side and Chris shut your locker closed and trapping you between his big biceps.

Everybody was looking at you and the girls looked at you with jealousy. He just looked at you before grabbing your arm and dragging you away. You, of course, struggled to try and get out of his grip but he just wouldn’t let you go. And either way, he was way stronger than you. 

(Those biceps tho)

He dragged you away into a secluded area. He then pinned you against the wall. Your height was nothing compared to his height of being over 6 feet tall. He just stared at you before speaking. He finally spoke and he said it, something you thought he would never say to you. 

“Do you want to go to prom with me?” he said, it sounds more like a demand than kindly. You just stand there shocked at what he said. “Yes or no?!” he was getting angrier as you couldn’t decide. You finally responded, “No.” Chris just looked at you with disbelief. His hands fell to his sides. You took that opportunity to run. 

‘He rejected me?! Reject me!! Why would he reject me! I Have everything!’ Chris was fuming with anger as he clutching his fists. Chris was a bit psychotic. ‘You should’ve said yes.’ Chris thought to himself, smiling crazily.

CUTBACK TO YOU. 

You were able to escape his grasp and make your way to your first period. You arrived and took your seat by the window, you heard someone pulled the chair next to you. You look and it was your B/F and some of your other friends. 

“Hey, you okay? Chris dragged away and who knows what he could’ve done to you!” they asked worriedly because Chris was someone you shouldn’t mess with. 

“He asked me out to prom--- and I said no?” you replied after pausing on the no part. Your friends looked at you with shock, “You did what now?!” your B/f  screamed, getting the attention of everyone. 

“Can you keep it down!” you said with embarrassment as everyone looking in your direction. “Sorry, but he asked you out? Why would you say no?” your B/F question and your other friends agreed, “I rejected him because he’s too full of himself and he has a big ego. And either way how much damage can he do?” your friends didn’t question you further. 

Just then Chris walked and the girls began crowding around him. He told them to leave him alone, and they walked back to their seats. You, of course, ignored him and did your own thing, but Chris was just staring at you and it made you feel uncomfortable.

‘He’s so cute, his beautiful H/C, his smooth S/C, he must put lotion to make it soft. Oh, I wish I could just touch him again! I don’t like how his friends are close to him, I want to be the one that’s close to him! But my ego won’t let me do that. Don’t worry M/N soon me and you will be together whether you like it or not!’

Time Skip (TO GYM CLASS. How else hates gym?)

My friends and I arrived at the gym. The doors to the gym automatically opened. Did I forget to mention that the school enabled automatic doors because sometimes students would skip class and just open the doors to the gym. They got it because the door would close once the bell rings. 

Anyway, M/n arrived with his friends, and they see that everyone is preparing the gym for prom. You helped around with the preparations until you fell someone’s gaze on you, you turned around scanning the room but you didn’t see anyone looking at you. 

Until you noticed Chris in the corner flirting with the girls, you just shrugged your shoulders and went back to work.

Time skip to the end of the day

You said goodbye to my friends and began my walk home. As you were walking you could feel someone staring, it was like a sixth sense of yours. You looked around and saw nobody, only a few kids from your school walking in the same direction but none of them was looking at you. 

You farther away, and you could still sense the presence of someone behind you. You finally arrived home, and you quickly locked all doors and windows in the house so that nobody can get in. 

You laid down on your bed after taking everything. You fell asleep fast. Through the window, Chris was just staring at you like he always does sometimes he’ll unlock the lock, and touch you in your sleep. 

Time Skip to Friday morning, 6:00 AM

Your alarm clock went off signaling that its morning. You could see the sun’s rays through the curtains. You stared at the ceiling for a good 5 minutes before actually getting up. 

You did your daily routine and went downstairs to make breakfast. After you made it, you took your food and went to go watch TV. But then the news came on.

You didn’t pay much attention until. “Reports show a student from H/S/N brutally murder. The following image is graphic and contains violence so if you have children please turn them away.” it then flashed to the dead body of…

Your B/F. you were shocked then you felt tears pour out. Your long-time best friend was dead. You decided to miss that day.

For the next few days, your friends began disappearing one by one. The police didn’t know who was doing this. 

It was Thursday and tomorrow will be Prom night. Apparently, at your school, you’re required to attend prom. (for plot reasons) It was the end of the school day. And you were about to start walking home until Chris walked in front of you and said:

“Hey, M/n you should be careful while walking. I heard your friends have gone missing these days and because… I know we don’t have a good history together but of course, I still care about you. So stay safe.” and then he just walked away. You stand there confused about what he just said but you just shrugged it off. 

Time Skip (Friday, Prom night)

You entered the gym and just stand there while everyone else was dancing, drinking, and talking to their friends. ‘I don’t wanna be here! I just wanna go home.’ the dance continued then they will prom king and queen. 

‘I wish my friends were here.’ tears were threatening to pour out but you held it in. Then the principal came on the microphone to announce prom king and queen. ‘Good evening everyone, I hope your all having a good time. We’ll be announcing prom king and queen!” everybody started clapping and cheering. 

You already know who the prom king will be. “Prom king goes to-- Chris Hemsworth!” the principal said with everybody clapping and congratulating for his win. “And prom queen is R/G/N!” everybody again started clapping. Both Chris and R/G/N went onto the stage so they receive their crowns and start to slow dance.

Everything was normal until the lights turned red and the automatic doors closed shut. Everybody was confused about what was going on. Just then a spotlight that was installed at the top of the gym fell and landed right onto R/G/N. Her blood spattered on everyone close to the setup stage. 

This soon turns everyone into a panic. Tables were knocked down, everybody was crowding at the doors trying to get out. Then the water sprinklers went off and then all the spotlights fell from the ceiling igniting a fire. 

Now everyone was in a complete frenzy. All around you all you could was fire, some were on fire. Then you passed out from the smoke filling the room.

Time skip (3:00 AM)

You woke and you see that you were tied to the bed in someone’s room. You know it isn’t your room then the TV turned on. It was the news. “What was a night of enjoyment turned horrible real quick. I am right in front of H/S/N or what’s left of it, during the prom dance a fire broke out and the automatic doors closed instantly trapping everyone inside. But this young man, Chris Hemsworth, was able to open the door. Even it was open 200 students have lost their live--”

Then the TV turned off and the door. There you see Chris at the doorway, he began to walk closer to you. Then he spoke, “You’re so beautiful, I finally have you all to myself.” he was also touching you.

You are left shock at what was happening, so many questions began circling in your head, “Did he do this?” “Does he like me?!” “was he the one that killed my friends?!”

“If you’re wondering then yes I was the one who did all of this. I was the one you killed all of your friends, and yes I do like you. I like you ever since I first saw you. Now your mine”

You just stared at him soaking in all of this new information before lashing out at him. “Why did you this?! Why did you kill my friends?! Was it you that killed almost everyone at pro-” you were cut off by Chris pressing his lips against yours. He kissed you a few minutes before pulling to let you breathe.

“Why? Will, maybe you should’ve said yes to me. And none of this would have happened. Your friends will still be alive and everyone that died on prom night would still be alive…

But that doesn’t matter now, they’ve died and you’re with me forever. You belong to me and won’t ever let you go.” you passed out from drama and you heard this last thing before darkness consumed you. 

“You should’ve said yes.”

Did I use, “You should’ve said yes?” too many times? And did you get the movie reference I used? Comment on what reference I used.

[simp4reggie]

Luke Patterson from Julie and the phantoms dating a 🥺 girl who is a cheerleader. Shocking the band when they meet her but end up loving her. Fluffy Luke

Cheerleader

Luke Patterson x Reader

Word Count: 1614 Words

A/N: I don’t know much about cheerleading but I hope you like it. It’s also 2 am and not proofread.

——————————————————————————

When you first met Luke, you were in school walking to class not paying attention and ended up bumping into him. You both ended up falling over causing both of your things to go everywhere. He was helping you with your stuff when he saw a small poster with a familiar logo in the corner of his eye.

“Sunset Curve?”, he says, picking it up. “You a fan?”

You looked up sheepishly and pushed a piece of hair behind your ear. “Uh yeah. I’ve been to a few shows. I’m (Y/N).” You stood up with him.

“Luke,” He points to himself. “Well, we have a show tonight if you would like to come. Maybe dinner after?”

“Wow. Someone’s confident,” you said laughing to yourself.

“Well, I have to be when I’m talking to someone as gorgeous as you,” he complimented you turning your cheeks red. “So what time am I picking you up?”

You tell him that you have cheerleading practice tonight so you’ll be done around 6. “Just tell me where and I’ll be there.”

A couple hours later, it was time for the concert. Luke was standing on stage looking in the audience for you, to become unsuccessful. He tried to hide his frown but Reggie noticed. He then nudged Bobby to look over. Bobby just looked back at him shrugging. After a couple songs, you still hadn’t turned up. By the end of the set, Luke was now angry. He went out on a limb and was completely humiliated.

When they went backstage, a waiter walked up to him and said he had a message from a girl named (Y/N).

“What did she say?”

“She said she’s sorry she couldn’t make it. Practice ran late but she’ll make it up to you.”

“Okay. Thank you so much.” He let out a great big sigh of relief.

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Reggie asked, causing Luke to turn around.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, first off you looked bummed out the entire set and now some random girl left a message for you.” Bobby replies looking at the other two to see their reactions.

“It’s nothing.” Luke replies.

“Okay…” Alex says sarcastically.

“Really it is. We just met today.” Luke says quickly.

“I didn’t say anything.” Alex puts his hands up in defense.

The next morning, you looked for Luke in the halls. When you found out you ran up to him and started immensely apologizing. “Oh my gosh, Luke. I’m so sorry. By the time I got out of practice and I went home to get ready it was 7:00. And then I fell asleep. So as soon as I woke up I called the club. So if we could go out tonight or another night if it’s not good for you.”

“(Y/N) it’s okay. You left a message.” He says putting an arm around you. “And about tonight. Tonight is perfect.”

“Okay great. I have practice again tonight but maybe we can meet at 8?”

“I’ll pick you up instead.”

You give him your address and he shows up knocking on your door at exactly 8:00 on the dot. He ends up taking you to a movie and dinner. At the end of the night, you end up walking the strip.

“So, how’d I do?” Luke asks, holding your hand.

“Amazing. I haven’t been out in a while because of practice.” You reply.

“It really takes up your time, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m hoping to cheer in college so to get a scholarship I need to work really hard.”

“Well, it’s good that you know what you want to do with your life.”

“You do too. Your band is going to make it far.”

“I hope so. I can't think of anything else I’d rather do.”

When we get back to my house, we stand at the front door for a minute just looking at each other.

“So…”

“So…”

Luke leans in to meet your lips. You kiss him back, sweetly. After a couple of minutes, you pull away.

“Well, thank you for tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow?” You say opening your door.

“Of course.” He gives you another kiss and leaves. You watch him walk away, smirking to yourself.

You go out again multiple times after that learning more and more about each other. Now it’s been three months and he still hasn’t told the boys. Until one day when Sunset Curve has another gig.

Everyday you have been hanging out and going on dates with Luke after cheer practice and band rehearsal. As soon as the guys were done rehearsing, Luke wasted no time running out of the studio. It took almost your entire relationship before the boys noticed something was up.

“There he goes again.” Alex says standing up from the drumset, “Where is he going?”

“I don’t know but he’s been on his phone more than usual and getting distracted easily. Maybe it’s a girl.” Reggie says.

“Let’s ask him at the show tonight.”

An hour later, Luke walks through the stage door, talking to you on the phone, “Am I seeing you tonight?”

“Of course. We got done early so I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay great. I just got here. We’re gonna have the sound check so I’ll see you after the set.”

“You’re gonna do great! See you soon.”

“Bye babe.” Luke hangs up the phone and looks up to see Alex and Reggie.

“Who was that Luke?”

“What do you mean? Nobody.”

“It didn’t sound like nobody...babe”

Luke realizes the mistake he made by saying it in front of his friends. He might as well tell them now before she shows up and it’s a whole mess.

“So I’ve been seeing someone. We met a few months ago.

“Is that where you’ve been going after rehearsal? You leave before we’re even done the last song.”

“Yeah. Sorry. It’s just she has practice after school and there’s like an hour or two that we can actually see each other. I know I should’ve told you when it started but it was nice just being me and her.”

“It’s fine dude. We would like to meet her at somepoint but it’s your relationship not ours.”

“Okay good she’s actually coming tonight.”

The boys had soundcheck and started performing not long after. You ended up coming in a couple songs in so you didn’t miss much. What the rest of the band doesn’t know is you’ve actually gone to every show you could since you and Luke started dating. Since you’ve seen them a number of times, you have a favorite and Luke knows exactly which one it is.

You hear the beginning chords of Now or Never and see Luke look around the crowd before making eye contact with you. He winks at you and you feel your heart beat faster. He radiates so much energy it’s hard to be upset watching him perform.

Practice ended up being more stressful than it needed to be. Some of the team didn’t show up so your routine had to be reblocked a bit. Now you were just drained and wanted nothing more than to lay in your bed. But you missed they’re last show and even though you know Luke is the most understanding person you still made a promise and you didn’t want to let him down.

After the set, you decide to surprise him backstage. But instead of seeing Luke right away you saw Reggie, Bobby, and Alex first.

“Umm hi. I’m (Y/N)...Luke’s girlfriend.”

“Hi! I’m Alex.”

“Reggie.”

“Bobby. ‘Sup.”

You shake their hands trying to be as polite as possible. You really want to impress his bandmates knowing that they’re his family. He told you about his problems at home and how the only people he sees on the regular are his friends.

“(Y/N)!!!!!” You turn around and see Luke covered in sweat running over to you with his arms open wide. You let him wrap his arms around you since you just need to be held by him at the moment. You give him a quick kiss before giving him an actual hug.

“How was practice?”

“Ugh let’s not talk about that now. I’m having a good time.” Luke leans back and gives you a sad look before pushing a piece of hair back behind your ear and kissing your forehead.

“So I see you’ve met the guys. Be nice to her please.”

“Wait….practice.” Bobby looks you up and down noticing you’re still in uniform. “Are you a cheerleader?”

The boys all look up at you not saying anything.

“Uh yeah” You say shyly, finding the carpet much more interesting. “I’m a flyer. It’s been a long day so I didn’t have time to change.”

“That’s so cool!” You hear Alex say. “My sister’s a cheerleader.”

“Oh really? What’s her name?” You say making conversation. You feel an arm around you. Luke was happy you were getting along with his friends. He knew you would be find but you once brought up how you get insecure about cheerleading. Movies don’t make the sport look as fun as it can be. Most cheerleaders are considered mean and catty. However you are from either of those things.

“Katie. She’s in college now but she loved cheering.”

After we talked a little bit more, the guys put their instruments away and they invited you to get food with them so Luke didn’t have to rush after the gig like he has been. You graciously accepted and couldn't wait to hear the stories about your boyfriend. You definitely gained three more friends tonight.

—————————————————————————

A/N: Major writers block should be over now so if you have any ideas please send them in. Right now I only write for JATP characters/cast.

- Maddie xx

[davidobitch]

Traditions | Timothee Chalamet

okay so I’m well aware I don’t ever write for Timothee Chalamet but I really wanted to write this and it didn’t seem fitting for anyone else I usually write about?? I hope you like it even though the timing is like...18 days late...oops

I didn’t proof read this so my apologies if it sounds like a 5th grader wrote it. 

anything written in italics is the past! enjoy xx

3 years. 156 weeks. 1,095 days.

That’s how long you’ve spent with Timothee. You love him with everything you have inside you but things haven’t been okay lately, not for the past year almost. Neither of you wanted this to be ‘right person, wrong time’. You both tried to fight for your relationship to work out and go back to how things used to be...but that was up until last month.

Timothee has been busy with his movies and you’ve been busy with your business. With the year coming to an end, you both and to get everything done before the new year. You tried not to think that this was the end. You kept telling yourself that it was only for this month then you and Timothee could go back to working everything out. But part of you knew that maybe this really was the end.

You were just getting home from a launch party when Timothee was getting ready to leave.

“Hi,” you said quietly, dropping your purse on the table, “Another shoot?” you kept your eyes on your boyfriend, watching him go over his mental checklist of everything he needed.

Timothee nodded his head, turning in circles looking for what was probably his keys. You glanced behind him, seeing them in the other room on the coffee table.

Passing by him, Timothee followed you with his eyes hoping you weren’t walking away from him without a goodbye. He heard his keys jingle in your shot and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” he breathed out, standing in front of you. His hand lingered on yours, letting his fingers trace your bones.

“Promise me you’ll be back tonight?” your stare was fixed on your intertwined hands, not wanting him to let go.

Timothee squeezed your hand before pulling away, “Of course. You know I’ll be here.”

You and Timothee always threw a New Years Eve party, it was something both of you looked forward to each year.

He gave you a quick kiss before leaving the house, letting silence seep through the walls. It hasn’t been long since you started staying at Timothee’s daily. It’s only been a year, if that, which ironically is when everything started going wrong in the relationship. Coincidence? Probably, but you refused to believe that. Most nights you couldn’t help but wonder if you moving in was the reason you guys started fighting almost weekly.

Shaking yourself from your thoughts, you started picking up around the place, wanting the house to be spotless by tonight.

You have sent Timothee countless texts reminding him what time people will be over and last minute things he needed to buy. It’s been three hours and you haven’t heard back from him. You assumed he was just getting caught up in shooting or discussing work stuff, but when another three hours passed by with no call or texts, you had a bad feeling he was bailing out tonight.

You texted Timmy again, another reminder of what time to be home and asking him to pick up the rest of the party stuff for you. You begged him not to be late tonight, or even just not show up at all. Time was slowly running out and you decided to just run out and buy everything yourself. On the verge of tears, you called Timothee and to your dismay...it went straight to voicemail. You tried holding in your cries as you left him yet another message, telling him tonight was make or break the relationship. It was either he shows up by midnight or you pack your bags tomorrow morning and move out. You didn’t care anymore as you let your feelings out fully for the first time in months.

You needed the drive home to clear your head and gather yourself before having to pretend your relationship is perfect.

It was just barely 9pm and you still had to hurry up and be ready by 10. You called a couple friends to come over early to help finish setting up so you can shower and look presentable.

“Thank you guys so much,” you said as you entered the kitchen where your friends were arranging the cups and drinks, “T’s been so caught up at work today. I just- I love you guys.”

“We love you of course,” your friend, Ashley says as she grabs a bottle of tequila and 3 glasses, “To a new year,” she says, raising her glass.

“To a new year,” you and your other friend say in unison.

The liquid burns as it travels down your throat, warming your entire body. You took another shot before going back to finish getting ready.

You picked out your best little black dress, wanting Timothee to see what he’s losing if he decides to not show up tonight. Your hair was curled, your face was glammed up, and you were ready to black out everything tonight.

You finished just in time for all your’s and Timothee’s friends to show up, letting the night begin.

You were about 5 tequila shots and 3 drinks in when the clock hit 11:45. You checked your phone seeing you had no calls or texts from your boyfriend. You were losing hope with every passing second and you didn’t care to hide it anymore.

You were on the balcony with your friends when your mouth started to ramble. “T isn’t coming tonight. Or at least I don’t think he is. He’s been gone for the past 15 hours and I’m pretty sure we’re breaking up tonight. Fuck we should’ve broken up a year ago. You know nothing has been the same since I moved in?” You took another drink before continuing, silently hoping your friends would cut you off any second now, “We haven’t had sex in god knows how long. I don’t get to see him for longer than 4 minutes a day. We tried so hard to make things work which was such a bullshit move.” You let out a shaky breath, knowing you were a couple words away from crying and that was the last thing you wanted to do tonight. Finishing off your drink, you closed your eyes and let the night breeze calm you down.

“We see more than you think, y/n,” Ashley says, pouring half of her cup into yours, “We just don’t say anything. You know we love you and we will continue to support you no matter what you choose to do.”

“And don’t give up on Timmy not coming just yet. He still has 5 minutes!” you sip on your drink, trying to remain optimistic. Olivia’s right, he still has time..but if he hasn’t showed up in the past 5 hours, he’s not going to in the next 5 minutes.

“I really thought he was the one, y’know?” you mutter into your cup, watching the liquid swish from side to side.

Your friends wrap their arms around you, pulling you in for a group hug. “Come on, let’s do a couple shots before the ball drops.” Olivia pulls you back inside and to the kitchen, placing 2 shot glasses in front of each of you.

“Cheers to 2021. A year of new beginnings and more memories than we will remember!” Ashley yells, bringing her glass up.

11:58. You knocked one of the shots back, allowing it to fog your brain.

“Cheers to y/n, for being the toughest bitch we know,” Olivia shouts as she raises her glass, you and Ashlet following her actions.

11:59. Another shot down.

You glanced around the room as there was 30 seconds left in the year. No tall, lanky, brown haired boy in sight. You wanted to cry and scream and run out of the house but instead, you grabbed the bottle of vodka and made your way to the balcony.

You caught your friends attention, shaking your head as if to tell them you’re fine but not to follow you. The glass door slid shut behind you as everyone started counting down.

“10!”

“Kiss me tonight,” you boldly said to Timothee, “None of our friends are single. We’re the only losers who have nobody. So be my new year’s kiss.” The first new year’s eve you and Timmy spent together. Your first year of being friends.

“9!”

“Are you going to force me into kissing you again?” Timothee jokes as he comes up behind you, almost causing you to spill your drink from scaring you.

“First of all, you can’t creep up on a girl like that!” you swatted at his chest before taking a sip of your drink, “Second of all, I didn’t force you to do anything.” Everyone around you was counting down, “Third of all,” just as the clock hit 12:00, you pulled Tim’s face to your level, gently pressing your lips to his, “absolutely.”

“8!”

You had spent the entire night by Timothee’s side. This was your first year spending New Years with just him and his hometown friends. You felt lost without your usual crew bullying you into kissing Timmy for another year. “What do you say we do this every year,” Timothee nuzzled his head into the crook of your neck, placing light kisses on your skin.

You let out a giggle, confused at his choice of words, “T we do this every year already,” you turned around to face him, your hands playing with the bottom of his shirt.

“No I mean as a couple. I want you to be my girlfriend,”

“7!”

“I love you,” Timothee drunkenly yelled in your ear, causing a bright smile to spread across your face.

“You’re drunk, baby,��� you rolled your eyes. Neither of you have said the L word before and this wasn’t the way you expected it to happen.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to spend another year not telling you every day.”

“6!”

“Timmy!” you yelled over the music, wrapping your arms around his waist, “You have 5 seconds to kiss me or I’m finding another boy!” you giggled as Timothee turned around in your arms, grabbing your face and pulling you into him just as the new year hit.

“5!”

You were crowded into a small corner of your friends kitchen, having been forced to spend the night with them instead of your boyfriend. Timothee was out in New York for a photoshoot and couldn’t make it home in time for your “tradition”.

“I wish you were here,” you mumbled, making a pouty face at your phone screen, “Now I have to kiss Ashley this year and that’s not fun!” You yelled, hoping she would hear you from across the way. You changed your camera to face here, showing Timothee her middle finger in the air, “See, she’s mean. And so are you for not being here.”

Your eyes wandered to the time on the stove clock, seeing as it just hit midnight.

“Happy new year, baby,” Timothee says. You look down at your phone screen to see the facetime was over. Confused as to how the call ended but you could still hear his voice, you glanced up at your friends to see them all staring at you with giddy smiles.

“Can you turn around and kiss me already?” Tears blurred your vision as you quickly spun around and jumped into your boyfriend’s arms.

“4!”

“Please please please don’t hate me,” Timothee says as he wraps his arms around you. “I didn’t realize the time and I know I fucked up, but you know I wouldn’t miss this for the world, y/n” This was the first year he almost missed being your new year’s kiss and as much as you wanted to kill him for it, you knew it wasn’t his fault.

“You’re so fucking lucky you’re cute,” you said, shaking your head and pulling on his shirt, bringing his body into yours.

“3!”

Another shot in your system, trying to rid the memories of the past 7 New Year’s Eve nights. Your mind started playing games with you. Timothee’s voice was echoing all around you, like he was actually with you.

“2!”

“Baby,” you could hear Timmy say, but you tried to push it out of your thoughts. “Please don’t ignore me. I’m so fucking sorry,” You could smell his cologne behind you as a warm touch could be felt on your wrist. Your breath was shaky as you turned to face the man behind you, hoping this was reality and you weren’t drunkenly imagining this.

“1!”

“I’m here. I’m always going to be here. For the next whatever years, I’m 100% here. No more long days without you. No more missing date nights. This is my promise to you, y/n.” Timothee says, his eyes filled with liquid.

“Happy new year!”

You threw your arms around his neck, almost falling backwards as you crashed your lips into his. “I love you, forever.” you muttered against his lips, “Thank you, T.”

*****

“Why can’t we just spend this year at home with our friends like we always do?” you asked Timothee as he pulled you out onto the balcony with him. This year he took you to Paris for New Years Eve and as grateful as you were for this mini trip, you didn’t want to break tradition.

“Because like you said, we spend every year at home with our friends. It’s never been just us.”

Ever since he promised to put more time into the relationship, everything has been almost perfect. Of course you still had your occasional fight, but that’s to be expected and it was never over anything stupid. Well...most of the time.

“I guess it would be nice to spend it alone,” you leaned your head against Timothee’s chest as you took in the site in front of you.

The hotel room had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower, dead center in front of you. You’ve seen the structure many times in the past but it was never this beautiful.

“I love you, you know that?” he whispers against your neck, his hands gently squeezing your hips.

You nodded but stayed silent, letting the music from inside fill the space around you. Timothee started to sway with you as your favorite song started to play in the background.

“I would love to assume it’s such a coincidence that Robbers is playing right now,” you smiled, teasing your boyfriend, “But I guess I should give you credit for planning this.”

Timothee takes your hand in his and spins you around into him as his other hand settles on your hip.

The two of you danced around the balcony together as your song went on and all of Paris could be heard counting down the end of the year.

“Last year I made you a promise to put more effort in. We had a hard year and I know I put you through a lot and I can’t apologize enough for that, baby. But here we are 365 days later, getting to have another new year’s kiss together. I thank you every day for forcing me to kiss you all those years ago ‘cause we both know I would have never had the balls to make the move.” Timothee’s voice was soft, barely even audible with all the other noise happening around you. “But a lot has changed since that first kiss. A lot between us but also with us separately. I never want to spend New Years, let alone any day, without you.” Timothee abruptly stopped moving and pulled away from you as fireworks were being set off all around the city. You pulled your eyes from him for a split second to watch the sky light up with different colors.

What you didn’t expect to see when you brought your attention back to him, was Timmy on one knee, with a ring being held up towards you.

“I’m making another promise to you, to love you forever, to always put you first. You’ve been my life for the past 6 years and even though we were together for only 4 of those years, I still couldn’t imagine you not being in my life. You’re my best friend. Mon amour. I want to spend every waking moment with you. I want you to yell at me when my socks are in random parts of the house. I want to have little mini versions of us running around and drawing on walls. When all my dreams come true, you’re the one I want next to me. It’s you, baby. It’s always been you. Marry me, y/n.”

Your hand flew to your mouth as you vigorously nodded your head. You didn’t give Timothee the chance to stand up before you fell to your knees in front of him, falling into his arms. “Of course I’ll marry you, T. You’re the only person I ever want to spend my life with. I love you so so much, mon amour.” You cried as you placed kisses all over his face.

[bigfrozenfan-fanfics]

Chapter 11 - Kolgrimr

Links: Chapter overview, Character list, Map, Glossar Rating: M over all Publishing cycle: each Friday at 6:00 pm CEST dst/UTC +2:00 on (link)

Remarks: all my chapters contain carefully selected music tracks. It’s your own decision if you want to use them or not while reading. The purpose is to musically support the respective mood of the plot. If you can please use a browser for reading (not the Tumblr app) due to the text formatting and music.

It was an idyllic place. The rays of the midday sun glittered on the calm sea and fine water droplets enveloped them as they came closer to the rushing waterfall. Colorful flowers blossomed everywhere and a few butterflies rose up, circling around them curiously. Elsa watched their wild fluttering with fascination and tried to catch one of them, but without success.

“This place is beautiful, Anna. Thank you for showing it to me.”

“You're welcome, Elsa.”

Elsa stepped to the side of the waterfall and held her hand into the tumbling currents. Drops of water splashed in her face and she smiled.

Anna watched her sister and rejoiced with her. She seemed so different now in her new life here in the North than in her past days when she was a ruler in her home, especially now, in her Northuldra attire. She looked happier and more relaxed. Nothing seemed to bother her anymore. No bad memories from the past distracted her and she obviously enjoyed life. It seemed leastways.  

“Is it just as beautiful in Arendelle?” Elsa asked aloud to drown out the sound of the waterfall. She looked at Anna with a dreamy smile and came closer again.

“Well, it's different. There is more going on there, many more people live in Arendelle and there are many big houses. But we also have a waterfall, even if it doesn't look as stunning as this one. Our home is beautiful in other ways. You'll love it.” Anna was about to say 'and if you remember everything, then ...', but didn't say it after all. She didn't want to destroy this moment.

“Well, I will see soon and I already look forward to it.” Elsa hesitated briefly, stepped up to Anna and then asked, “Which of us is actually the older one?”

“That's you, Elsa, five years older than me. You're almost twenty-five years old now.”

Elsa nodded and quietly repeated that number. “How far is Arendelle from here? How long does it take to get to there?”

“About a good day's journey by wagon, a little faster on the horse,” Anna said and almost wanted to add that Elsa was much faster on the water while she was riding Nokk, but let it go. “Why do you ask?”

“From your letters it's clear that I had an important task here and because of that you missed me very much. I had the impression that we both got along very well with each other. But why did I stay here and not ride from Arendelle to do this from time to time? Apparently I hadn't been with you for many weeks, so what could have been so important about it?”

Anna felt the tears rise up inside her. If only Elsa had thought so at that time. “It was your own decision, and I had the feeling that you felt happy about it. I didn't want to be selfish, but you had found yourself and your destiny here. I didn't want to stand in the way of that, and besides, we both had this task together, just in different places.”

“But you are the queen of Arendelle, and surely you have a lot of other duties, I can imagine. So what kind of task was that?”

Anna hesitated. Would Elsa understand if she explained what she was until recently? But at some point she had to find out anyway, and if her memories came back one day, it would become clear to her all by itself, just all of it. They had sworn years ago never to hide anything from each other again, and it was she who made Elsa that promise. It was now up to her not to break it and to tell Elsa the truth.

“Um ... so at the risk of you doubting me, but believe me, I'm telling you the truth. The short version is this. We both are, or rather were the bridge between man and nature, between the nature spirits and our two peoples. We are both half Northuldra. You were the fifth spirit who, together with the other four nature spirits up here in the north, kept the balance and were the interface to their magic. You should have seen yourself at the end, in your bright white new outfit, when we saw each other again just on this beach. After you had found out the truth about our past, me having destroyed the dam with the help of the earth giants, and the forest as well as the Northuldra finally being freed again. You died in the process, and later came back to life.” Anna paused briefly and then quietly added, “You can't imagine how I felt when Olaf dissolved in my arms and I believed at that moment that I had lost you forever.” She lowered her head and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Elsa looked at her with open mouth in disbelief and fell into silence for several long moments. One could clearly see that she was torn between doubt, amazement and anger that she could remember absolutely nothing of it.

“So not only can I magically build a living snowman, but you mean to say that I am a higher being beyond that?”

Anna took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows. “Um ... well, actually ...,” she didn't know what to say.

“I don't want to be that. I want to be normal like you, like any human being. Everything's all right here, isn't it? The plants are growing and thriving and everything is so beautiful in this place,” Elsa made a sweeping gesture with her arm, “The Northuldra are doing very well too. Everything is already in a balance that could not be much better.”

Anna couldn't believe how her sister suddenly thought about all this and just looked at her speechlessly and smiled.

“How was I back then, before everything you said about me, and what did I do in Arendelle ... except for building a living snowman? Do we have any brothers or sisters? Do any of our parents still live?” Elsa asked and could hardly contain her curiosity.

The moment Elsa mentioned her parents, Anna's good mood vanished in an instant. Tears began to collect in her eyelids. “It's a long story, Elsa, which I'd better not tell you until we get to Arendelle. But we have no other brothers or sisters, and our parents, they are ...” Anna's voice broke and she began to sob softly, “Unfortunately, they are no longer alive.”

“So we have only the two of us and you are all alone in Arendelle,” Elsa said sadly. She took a step towards her sister and pulled her into a deep and long hug. “I owe you an apology. I promise never to leave you alone again. Nothing holds me here anymore, Anna. I'll come back to you to Arendelle and stay there.”

Anna could no longer hold back her tears and sobbed unrestrainedly again into Elsa's shoulder. But this time they were tears of joy and Elsa felt a deep understanding for her sister and regret that she had not been there for her for a long time.

~~~

Gyda worked on her kota, stuffing some of the largest holes between the wooden boards with moss and tufts of grass. It was very warm and the work was exhausting for her. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and was just getting up from her wooden stool when a familiar voice behind her asked, “Can I help you? It's a shame nobody's building you a new cabin.”

She drove around. “Kolgrimr! Are you mad showing your face here during the day?”

“Hello mother, nice to see you too, and as for your question, it soon won't make any difference. Tonight I will put my plan into motion and avenge my father.”

Gyda took a step towards him and stood in front of him with a reproachful expression. She had to look up to him because he was more than a head taller than her, taller even than most Northuldra men.

“Do you want to jeopardize everything just by wandering around so carelessly? You could be seen ... and next warn the others. Come on, get in my kota quickly.” Gyda pulled him behind her by the hand and he willingly let her.

Once inside, she turned to him and asked, “What are you planning to do?”

He passed along her with a grin while she did not let him out of her sight, sat down on one of the furs on the floor and put his long birch stick beside him. “Can you spare some food, Mother? I'm starving.”

She blew out the air and asked sarcastically, “Anything else, son?”

But, of course, she couldn't refuse her son anything and went to a low table with a little basket on top. She fished out two strips of smoked reindeer meat and gave it to him. He took a big bite of it and chewed it with relish. He still had that crazy grin on his face.

“As of this morning, everyone's looking for me anyway. I could read it in their heads. That Yelana is indeed a smart one. I just wonder how she knows about me.” He looked at her knowingly and bit off another big piece of meat.

She wandered broodingly through the room while his amused look followed her. Then she stopped and turned to him. “From me. But she had already known it somehow. She is indeed very clever.”

“Does she also know that I visit you regularly in the evening?”

“Don't play with me, Kolgrimr! You already know the answer.”

“I'm sorry. You're right, of course. There is hardly anyone with whom I have difficulty reading his mind. You're not one of them.”

“We never got along very well, Yelana and I, and if it hadn't been for this thing of the angry nature spirits and that fog, I might be the leader of our tribe now. But she took advantage of the situation, and everyone accepted her immediately.”

“Maybe you shouldn't have retreated there and gone for an open confrontation with her.”

“Perhaps. However, I certainly wouldn't have been as understanding to the rest of the men from Arendelle as she was. Questionable if more of our brave men and women would then have perished in the wake of my decisions. What's worse is that you couldn't succeed your father, to be the fifth spirit. This would have changed everything for both of us. Instead, the nature spirits and Ahtohallan itself chose a person outside of our people, on top of that a descendant of that damned king.”

“Yes, and I still don't understand it. I could feel it and I even saw it in Ahtohallan itself, as you know. Back then, until a few years ago, it was even easier for me to enter the glacier, even if only for a very short time. But the cold inside became more and more unbearable for me over time and I was sure that Ahtohallan didn't want me there anymore without having to kill me. I must have become unworthy and should stay away of my own free will.” Kolgrimr laughed gloatingly and then clenched his hands into a fist. “But I managed to wrest a few secrets from Ahtohallan before it denied everyone access. Once there was a bridge behind the ice tunnel and it was easy to enter the great hall. But one day Ahtohallan destroyed that bridge and I just made it out before it fell into the depths behind me.”

“But it was of no use and who could have guessed that the new fifth spirit would master ice magic and create a new access for herself. At least that's what I heard later. I guess she proudly told everyone in the camp and bragged about how great it is inside Ahtohallan and how easily and naturally she can go in and out there.” Gyda pointed her index finger at him and looked at him vengefully, “And that's another reason that bitch has to vanish. She has robbed you of your inheritance and blocked your path forever. She must die.”

He sighed, “Tonight I will simply walk into the camp and destroy this brood from Arendelle before they can leave as planned. The fact that even their new queen is with them is very convenient. So my revenge will taste even sweeter. Then I'll see.” He scratched his chin and thought for a moment. “Maybe I should take this opportunity to make sure that someone finally builds you a new kota. You deserve better than that.”

He reached into a side pocket of his cape and pulled out two spearheads and a grindstone. The tips were flattened on one side to form a curved edge. He began to sharpen them slowly and deliberately, one by one. Finally he reached for his battlestaff and mounted the finished tips on both ends. His mother had been watching him the whole time with a thoughtful look.

“You wouldn't want to hurt any Northuldra, would you? These are old hunting spikes and deadly in battle,” Gyda complained and looked at him worried.

“Don't worry, mother, none of our people will be seriously hurt. But whoever gets in my way should realize immediately that this is no joke and in that I'm serious. At least I hope nobody is stupid enough to take the chance.”

Then he reached under his cape and pulled out a long, richly decorated knife behind his back. He held it out to his mother with both hands. “Remember this?”

Gyda nodded without a word. She would recognize it among thousands. The handle had been carved from one piece of reindeer antler and polished smooth according to old traditional craftsmanship. It was his father's knife.

“This one is intended for the royal siblings.” He laid it down gently and his crazy grin returned to his face as he looked at it.

“They will be at dinner, and they will all be sitting together. They have no chance, any more than Father had a chance. He would be proud of me.”

~~~

---

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you liked the story, I would be pleased to read your opinions, even criticisms. If you want to be tagged as soon I publish the next chapter please let me know, except you are already tagged :-)

Credits : Many thanks to HARU (@ xlayers) for the commissioned fantastic fanart! It’s so beautiful, and to see scenes of my story come alive in this way makes me so happy. There will be many more from this outstanding artist in the coming chapters! 

Remarks: Don't be confused that Anna still wears her Frozen II outfit in this fanart. HARU haven’t created the outfit with her new jacket yet and i hope we'll see this one day. But Anna’s wearing it in my story.

Tagging: @karma26 @whether-near-to-me-or-far @annaofthenorthernlights @igotelsapregnanthelp

[phantom-curve]

find the strength, find the melody pt. 4 (working title)

I think I like this title but I can’t decide so don’t kill me if it changes!

also, you guys are amazing. your love for this lil fic makes me feel so happy. I’ve never written this much this fast for a side project. it’s actually starting to take over all of my writing so I might have to slow this roll a bit and catch up on my actual novel before I can post most. 

or maybe I’ll just lean into the insomnia writing even more! stay tuned to see!!

as always, lemme know if you wanna be added to the tag list! @blue-hat-girl, @lwhoscribbles (hey lookie there, a title! also sorry not sorry you cried, but at least you were in good company with me and Julie), @bluefyoto94, @5sosmukefan, @moonlightxnder, @leahthewonder​,  @kat-maybe-not​

Later that night, long after her father and Carlos had gone to bed, Julie crept out to her mom’s studio. She knew she was going to have to tell her dad about the music program eventually. She was shocked her Tía hadn’t beat her to it already. She needed something positive to offset the disappointment he would feel. Her dad had been gently prodding her to go out to the studio and at least maybe clean it up a bit for weeks now. He would love this improvement, that is, if she could work up the nerve to actually play. Sheet music clutched in her numb hands, she wrenched the studio door open. It was exactly as she remembered it.

Her eyes slipped shut as she stepped inside. She didn’t need to look to know where the couch, coffee table, and chairs would be gathered. She knew exactly how to avoid bumping into the ladder leading up to the loft. Her hand reached out just in time to catch on the fabric covering the piano, Julie allowing her fingers to lead her down the side of it until her pinky brushed a key. One soft note rang out, and her eyes opened, staring down at where she pressed lightly on the white key.

Her feet moved on their own, skirting around the bench, her knees bending automatically as she lowered herself to sit. A tight sensation built in her chest, her breaths picking up speed. The sheet music shook as she forced herself to lift the pages and spread them out on the music rack. She arranged the piece in the correct order, wasting time as she avoided touching the keys for now. Her eyes traced over the song again, her mind showing her exactly how her hands would dance along the instrument, exactly how her voice would reverberate in the silent space. Her gaze snagged on her mom’s final message once more.

You can do it.

Warmth blossomed in her chest, replacing the cold, lifeless feeling that had lingered there for the last year. Julie felt it all at once. Her mother’s love shining off of the pages in front of her, filling up all of the empty spaces inside of her. She could hear her voice, whispering those words in her ear. Tears sprang to her eyes again, but they were different this time.

Julie had thought that she would never be able to play without her mother because she never had. Every defining moment of Julie’s life was underscored by a soundtrack mastered by the one and only Rose Molina. She had thought that without her mother, the music would fall flat. She had thought it would be meaningless without the significance her mother, specifically, attached to it. Julie never realized until this moment that she had been the soundtrack to her mother’s life as well. The two of them, the soundtrack to her brother’s and father’s lives. It hadn’t only been Julie suffering for the last year.

A new type of determination surging through her veins, Julie placed her hands on the cool keys, lining her fingers up with the opening notes. Her mother deserved to be remembered like this, her music recognized and loved by more than just Julie. She would have hated the fact that Julie hadn’t played in so long, would have given her that sad smile, that soft, disappointed mija sigh. Her family deserved to come out of the silence she had forced upon them. They deserved to enjoy music the way they always had before Rose died. It was cruel the way she had taken it away from them. And Julie herself deserved this moment too. She had been punished long enough. Her mother’s love overwhelming everything else, Julie took a deep breath and began to play.

Here’s the one thing I want you to know

You got someplace to go

Life’s a test, yes

But you go toe-to-toe

You don’t give up, no

You grow

The opening was shaky, her fingers clumsy as they stumbled over the unfamiliar notes. Her voice cracked a bit, rusty from disuse. But then muscle memory took over, and Julie felt the tension drain from her body. Her fingers began to move with a mind of their own as she read the notes on the pages in front of her, voice smoothing out as she worked out the frogs. She made it through the pre-chorus easily enough, but the chorus hit her harder than expected. Like her mother was giving her permission to forgive herself for all of the hurt of the last year, reminding her that it’s who you are at your core that matters most. Telling her she still had the time to pull herself out of this spiral. That old message about how the music was always bigger than just the two of them coaxing her out of the shell she had hidden herself away in for the last year.

Better wake those demons

Just look them in the eye

No reason not to try

Life can be a mess

I won’t let it cloud my mind

I’ll let my fingers fly

Her fingers really were flying. She couldn’t even really feel the keys anymore, so sure as she pressed down against the ivory that she didn’t even have to look at the sheet music. Her eyes closed, head lifted as she belted the pre-chorus into the sky. The chorus hit again, but she was ready for it this time, emotion powering every line as she poured her heart and soul into each note. Visions of her mother filled her mind and Julie could practically feel the warmth of her love radiating throughout the studio. She glanced down to read the lines for the bridge and the words hit her like a sledgehammer. Like a secret letter from her mother written exactly for this specific moment.

So wake that spirit, spirit

I wanna hear it, hear it

No need to fear it, you’re not alone

You’re gonna find your way home

Her voice rang out pure and clear as she held the word as long as she could. Home. She really was home now. Here, in her mom’s familiar studio, playing the last song her mother’s hands touched, Julie was finally home again. The sense of rightness filled her completely as she finished the last round of the chorus. Her hands dropped from the keys, reaching out to gather the papers to her chest once more, the most precious treasure she had ever touched. 

Eyes closed, basking in the afterglow of playing, she imagined her mother’s spirit behind her, ghostly arms wrapping her in the sweetest hug. Julie shivered against the electricity coursing through her system. She felt alive again. An unexpected clatter sounded from the doorway. Julie’s eyes popped open, anticipating Carlos or her father walking through the doors. Nobody appeared, but she caught the tail end of a muffled curse. It was just loud enough to send a ripple of awareness through her.

“I can hear you, you know.”

She already knew who it was. She expected him to beat a hasty retreat, maybe yell something out in a horribly disguised voice before he melted into the shadows. Without warning, he appeared in the doorway, shoulders raised and a sheepish smile on his face. His eyes darted around the studio, refusing to meet hers. Her mouth fell open. Where does he keep appearing from?

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you, I just...I heard you playing?”

He said it like a question, an unsure tone she’d never heard him use before coloring his tone. She watched the way his bicep flexed as his hand rose to scratch at the back of his neck. That seemed to be his nervous tick. His body language told her he wished he was anywhere else right now. Then she glanced at the clock.

“What the hell are you doing creeping around my house at 1:00 in the morning?”

Luke’s cheeks turned bright red. The tips of his ears, peeking out of that same orange beanie, colored too.

“I’m not creeping!” Julie met his gaze steadily, raising a brow at his defensive declaration. “I uhhh, I just...I don’t really sleep? Or...well I guess...I don’t really have a place to sleep...sometimes...?” 

His voice trailed off, uncomfortable in every sense of the word as he stammered his way through his explanation. 

“My parents and I don’t always get along. Sometimes it’s easier to tell them I’ll crash somewhere else, only there isn’t always a somewhere else available.” 

He shrugged, careless and cocky, but it was off. Everything about him was off right now. 

“I make do. It’s no biggie, just gives me more time to soak in the club scene. Gotta stay one step ahead of the competition, ya know? It’s like a blessing really, gives us that edge.”

His rambling words painted a picture she was sure he would rather keep private. It didn’t take a genius to read between the lines. She didn’t buy his cavalier attitude for a minute. He was lying through his teeth. She knew. She had been lying for a year straight to practically everyone in her life, had nearly rotted her teeth through with all the saccharine sweetness she had faked. Her lips twisted in a sour smirk.

“You’re full of shit, but whatever. That couch pulls out into a mattress. You’ve gotta be gone by 6:30, that’s when my dad wakes up for work.”

“What?”

The squeakiest note yet. Julie looked Luke square in the eyes. That same intense energy from the other day sparked between them. The moment stretched on a beat too long. Julie gulped and forced herself to soften her tone. It was easier than expected.

“Stay here for the night, Luke. I’m not gonna ask about your parents, and no one is going to bother you in my mom’s studio. Sleep on the pull-out couch. There’s a bathroom in the back. It even has a shower and I think there’s still some soap in there though I can’t promise it isn’t floral scented. You can disappear in the morning and we won’t ever speak of this again.”

He stared at her, blue-green sea glass eyes cutting through to her very soul. She didn’t respond, letting the silence stretch and morph into something entirely too intimate. The tension between them pulled taut, Luke’s gentle smile breaking the moment as he took a few shy steps into the studio.  Julie ducked her head, tucking a few loose curls behind her ear, before she moved to meet him in the middle of the room, gracefully spinning around his body so her back was pressed against the doors. Their eyes caught again. One of those strong hands reached up to scratch at his neck once more.

“Thank you.”

The words were a quiet whisper, almost as sweet as when he returned the song to her earlier. She could hear everything he left unsaid with those two words. Thank you for not asking. Thank you for giving me a safe space. Thank you for caring. Unable to help herself, she bit her lip, gave him a small nod, and ducked out of the doors in a near perfect recreation of his response outside of the school that afternoon.

Heart a little lighter, she sneaked back into the house silently. It wasn’t until she was safely tucked away in the darkness of her bedroom that she dared peek out the window at the studio. The lights were off, but Julie swore she could make out a shadowy figure peering through the windows up at her room. She dropped her curtain like it was on fire, diving into bed and burying her head under the pillows. Heart racing, she laid with her eyes closed and tried to convince herself that Lucas freaking Patterson wasn’t slowly making himself a home in her heart.

[greekgeek21]

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - some badass demigod training!!

Hello, and welcome back to...my horrible explanation for being absent! Coming up on this episode, you'll see me explain that I had my first 2 lacrosse games of the season and was left with bruised ribs. If anyone ever says that women's lax isn't a real sport cuz there isn't contact, you can tell them that someone from a fanfic website said they had bruised ribs from playing.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. We're starting to get some actual plot movement I think so have fun with that. Honestly, I kinda forgot what happened in here so...yeah. Please comment, like, follow, and reblog! Stay safe & happy reading!

- your author

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy and Annabeth woke up to the sound of a startled shout. Frank's startled shout, to be specific. They both shot up right away, their battle instincts kicking in, but Frank had seen enough.

"Seriously guys!? Again?" he exclaimed.

"Nothing happened!" Annabeth reassured, "We just fell asleep!"

"We did kiss a little," Percy muttered, and Annabeth shot him a death glare.

"Not. Helping," she whispered scathingly.

A sense of complete déjà vu washed over Percy. Except this time, the rest of the Seven were standing in the doorway, watching on with various amused expressions on their faces.

"Oh, this is perfect. Coach Hedge is gonna love this," Leo smiled in maniacal glee.

"No, Leo," Piper ordered, "You're not going to do that. Instead, we are going to get this meeting over with so I can get some sleep."

"Aw...you ruin all my fun!" he exclaimed.

"Someone's gotta do it when Calypso isn't here," Piper said.

It was true. Calypso and Piper are probably the only ones who could actually control Leo. Calypso because of Leo's fear of losing her or just general fear of her, and Piper because of her charmspeak.

"Ok! That's enough. We're getting sidetracked. We need to start this meeting." Jason clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

He gave Percy a meaningful look; one which said to 'take it from here.' So Percy did.

"Um, well, Annabeth and I wanted to talk to you guys about what's been going on. We need to come to an agreement on what we are allowed to say and do with the Avengers. I don't think we should show them the full extent of our powers because it seemed like those spies were looking for a reason to lock us up," he started, "And I'm not particularly fond of being put in a cell. How about you?"

"Yeah. And we need to figure out a way to deal with the bombings without them figuring us out. The mortals seemed pretty Hades-bent on releasing the big secret, and that never bodes well for people like us. I know that we need their help, but I don't trust them." Annabeth said.

"We can just say we were born with the powers, and have no idea why. I mean, it's technically true," Jason offered.

The others all nodded in agreement.

"Ok, now what about the pattern? What is it?" Piper asked.

"All of the places are big parts of the Greek and Roman world. Brooklyn Bridge is near Manhattan, the home of the Gods, Portland: Mt. St. Helens, where Typon used to be held, LA: entrance to Hades, Long Island: Camp Half-blood, and San Francisco: Camp Jupiter," Annabeth answered.

"Woah," Jason whispered, shocked.

"Yeah, but that's not our biggest concern. We also need to figure out how to hide our identities from the world while we're fighting with the Avengers," Annabeth said.

Everyone else there hadn't even thought of that. It comes in real handy to have a daughter of Athena around sometimes. Ok, not sometimes, all the time. All of them would be really dead without her quick thinking and planning.

"Um, I could try to see if the Aphrodite cabin could cook something up?" Piper suggested, "But most of them are still getting used to fighting, so they won't really know what to make. They need help with the designs."

Leo shot up from where he had slumped down into the desk chair, "I can help! Well, the Hephaestus cabin can. We can help design it so it's battle-ready."

"Good. We'll need those soon, I think. I have a feeling that we're going to have a lead soon, so we need to be ready when it comes. This is just one quest, so there is no need for people to think we're some kind of superheroes," Annabeth said.

"Aw! But I already had a name picked out!" Leo exclaimed.

He looked like he was about to let them in on his superhero name, but Annabeth held up a hand with a glare that clearly said to not speak unless he wanted to lose some very important parts of him. That kept him quiet, for sure.

"Is that all?" Frank asked, towering over them all.

"For now, yes. Remember, say the absolute minimum and stick to twisting the truth. If you reveal any new information without the others knowing, call a meeting to let us know," Annabeth confirmed, nodding her head.

"Great, now I can go back to sleep," Percy said, pulling Annabeth back down with him.

The others filed out soon after that, already hearing Percy's soft snores as they left and returned to their respective rooms. Ok, so Jason and Piper stayed in the same room like Percy and Annabeth did, but nothing happened. It was just nice to be in the arms of someone who cares about you, you know?

Ω ♆ Ω

"Up and at 'em, kiddos! It's training day!" Tony gleefully exclaimed over the speakers that Percy was absolutely sure he did not see in his room.

Percy groaned when he saw what time it was: 6:00 AM. He knew he wasn't allowed to (and that it was wrong, of course), but he wanted to kill Tony so badly in that moment. It would be quick! Nobody would suffer!

But, alas, he had to actually work with the man-child. It might not come off like it, but Percy takes war very seriously, and this was starting to feel like a war. Or at least, it would become one if they didn't stop it soon. And to do that, they needed the Avengers, apparently.

That was the only reason that he followed Annabeth in getting up and ready for the day. He took a little longer than Annabeth, but at 6:30 AM, they were stepping out of his room. They saw that the others were slowly doing the same. They were all tired. There weren't any big dream incidents, but that doesn't mean that staying up until midnight and then waking up at six in the morning won't do something to you. Even Leo looked exhausted, with big puffy eyes from rubbing them in an attempt to wake himself up quicker. If Leo Valdez was tired, then you knew that it was too early for this.

Also, you have to remember that they'reteenagers. Teenagers aren't meant to be up super early- it's a scientific fact, Percy thinks. Annabeth once told him something about their melatonin not releasing until later at night, so they could stay up and sleep in later.

What? Percy pays attention to what she's saying sometimes.

"I hate Tony," Piper grumbled, practically falling asleep on Jason.

"You and us all, chica," Leo mumbled before letting out a huge yawn.

"What did he say was going on? Training?" Jason asked, looking over at Annabeth for answers because she seemed the most awake of the group.

"Yep. Training, whatever that entails. I don't know, so be prepared for anything. I really hope it has nothing to do with electronics, but knowing our luck, and how Tony has been so far, it will, so just try not to get too close," she answered.

Leo tiredly saluted her, "Yes, ma'm."

Hazel rolled her eyes, "Come on, Repair Boy."

She grabbed his arm and started leading the way towards the living room, which was their best guess at where the Avengers were.

As they were walking, they were interrupted by the disembodied voice of JARVIS, "Excuse me, but I was told to direct you to the training room, where the Avengers are currently assembled and waiting for you. Shall I proceed?"

All of the demigods were still really weirded-out by the AI, and there was no way it was ending soon. It's just a reminder that they were currently in a building basically composed entirely of technology, one of their greatest liabilities. Liabilities were a dangerous thing in their lives.

"Yes..." Percy answered hesitantly, unsure where to look.

"Then please follow the arrows projected on the ground, sir," JARVIS said.

Sure enough, there were large white arrows pointing them away from the living room, so they followed them. It was about a two minute walk to the elevators, where they were told to go to the 60th floor, which was apparently one whole training room by itself.

Ω ♆ Ω

"So let me get this straight, you guys want us to...play a video game?" Frank asked, gesturing to the giant room around them.

The Seven were quickly ushered by the Avengers into a big room with a bunch of white, padded tiles all around them as soon as they had reached the training floor. There was only a viewing window and an exit that disappeared when the door was closed. Then, Tony explained what they were going to be doing. None of them really understood it yet.

"No! I want you to fight the LMDs! The robots! They will simulate different levels of skill to evaluate your skills. Understand?" Tony punctuated each word, quickly losing any sense of patience he had started with.

"Yeah. We got it," Annabeth sighed.

Ok, she was sure she was the only one of them who realized that they were about to break one of the rules they established last night on the first day. They were about to fight robots. TECHNOLOGY.

This should go well, Annabeth thought.

Steve interrupted before Tony could make a snarky comment, "Good. We'll start with fighting separately and then together as a group. Afterwards, we'll see how you work with different weapons."

"Aye aye, Cap," Leo joked.

"Leo, focus. We're about to fight ROBOTS." Annabeth tried to get the son of Hephaestus to understand the severity of the situation. "You have a back-up plan, right?"

He could talk to machines. Robots were machines. Therefore, he should be able to get them out of this mess if anything went wrong.

He gave her a nod of understanding, and Annabeth settled back into her natural stance rather than her tense one. Well, she's always tensed for battle. At least in her natural one it's less obvious.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" Tony asked over the intercom.

"Uncle Leo will go first, right?" Percy joked, referencing to one of Leo's favorite nicknames for himself.

"Sure! I just need to know how much damage I'm allowed to do," Leo said, looking up at the Avengers.

Annabeth was shocked that he had even thought to ask that, and apparently the Avengers were, too.

"Um, just let go. There's nothing you can do to break this room. I designed it myself," Tony answered, still arrogant even through his confusion.

"Come on out, the rest of you," Natasha instructed.

Once the rest of the demigods had exited the room and stood next to the Avengers at the viewing window, Tony pressed a button on a screen that made a compartment in the walls of the room open up, revealing a row of floating LMDs.

"Now, I'm going to start you at Level 2, okay? It gets harder as you move up. The LMDs should stay the same form throughout every level, though. Ready?" Tony said.

Leo pulled his war hammer from his magical toolbelt and lit it and his arms on fire, "Ready."

Tony had to shake himself out of his shock before he pressed the start button, but when he did, every one of the mortal heroes had sat on the edge of their metaphorical seats, eager to see just how powerful these kids could be.

Plus, the kid had just pulled a giant war hammer from his normally-sized toolbelt, and then proceeded to light himself and the hammer on fire. They were bound to be curious after that display.

They knew the very basics of the young heroes' abilities, but most of that stuff was based on just what they had been told. Actual, visible proof is what they wanted.

All at once, the LMDs transformed into the Avengers minus the Hulk. Repeat, they changed into the Avengers. Leo had to fight a copy of the Avengers, alone.

Percy was freaking out inside. Sure, he trusted his friend, but Leo was a joker, and he tended to not understand how serious things were. In this case, he hoped that didn't happen.

"This should be interesting," Natasha remarked.

"No, this should be terrible. Tony, you never told me you were using this setting," Bruce said, rushing up to the other scientist, "He's just a kid."

"I think they've made it clear they aren't just kids, Jolly Green. It's fine. If they wanted to be treated like the rest of us, then they need to pass this test," Tony said.

Bruce looked like he wanted to say a lot more, but Jason stepped up to stop him, "He'll be fine, Dr. Banner. Leo may not look it, but he's powerful and he's smart. He can handle this."

Jason looked so sure of himself that it was enough to convince the doctor that it would be okay.

In truth, Jason had no idea how this program worked. There was a good chance that Leo did not, in fact, have this handled.

While this was being discussed, Leo had already started to fight the Iron Man LMD. He was currently alternating between swinging his hammer at it and firing balls of fire. The LMD had only been hit a couple of times because it kept maneuvering around the attacks by flying away.

It was getting tiresome, and Leo wanted it to be over with. So, he dropped his hammer and set a determined look on his face, glaring up at the robot.

The Seven were grinning, already figuring out what was happening, while the Avengers were just plain confused. What was the kid gonna do? Glare them to death?

Then, Leo started grinning and they knew it was all over.

He crouched down onto the ground and placed a hand on the floor, closing his eyes in concentration. The LMDs seemed to be as confused as their originals.

Three seconds passed before Leo's grin grew even more, and then he spoke a single word, "Stop."

And they did. Every single LMD lost their form and fell to the ground, limp and unmoving. Leo stood up, dusted his pants off, and turned to the viewing window to see his teammate's reactions.

They were priceless.

"That's how you do it," he said, "Am I done?"

Tony literally shook himself out of his stupor, "Yeah, sure. I need to reboot the LMDs."

When Leo came through the door, the rest of the demigods crowded him, patting him on the back and laughing at his dramatics.

"What was that?" Natasha demanded, breaking through the teens to tower over Leo's elf-like form.

Okay, maybe tower isn't the right word. She was taller than him, but not by much. Natasha was just very intimidating.

"Uh...fighting?" Leo tried.

Natasha's glare hardened, "You know that's not what I mean. What did you do to make the LMDs stop attacking?"

Leo glanced at Annabeth, who nodded in consent, "I talked to them."

"You did what?!" Tony exclaimed.

"I talked to them. They were pretty boring, to be honest, but I was able to shut them down," he answered.

Tony let out an incredulous laugh, "That's not possible! You can't just TALK to machines!"

"He can, and he did," Piper said, smiling proudly at her best friend.

"But–" Tony's voice died out.

"How come you never told us of this ability?" Natasha asked.

"You never asked," Percy answered simply, not liking her interrogatory tone at all.

The spy looked like she wanted to continue the conversation, but Clint whispered something in her ear and she stepped back with one last glare.

"Welp! That was fun! Who's next?" Tony clapped his hands.

Everyone turned to see that he had gotten the LMDs back online and back in the Avengers' form.

Piper sighed and started to walk to the door, "I guess I'll go next."

Before she could enter, Steve asked, "What weapon are you going to use? Your powers won't work on the robots."

Piper smirked at him over her shoulder before pulling Katoptris from its sheath on her thigh. Apparently, the Avengers had yet to fully break through the Mist, and they could not see her having that strapped there this entire time. But when she pulled it out, they seemed to finally be able to see it for what it truly was. It makes you wonder what they thought was there before. A ruler, maybe?

"I've got this," she stated before slipping into the training room.

Ω ♆ Ω

It was obvious Piper had been taking more lessons on dagger-fighting with Annabeth. As soon as the first person attacked, she was slashing and stabbing like crazy. Her lithe form was swisting out of the way of punches from Steve's copy, while Clint's arrows were shooting at her from behind.

Tony had clearly upped the level of difficulty after seeing what Leo could do.

Piper ducked under one of the arrows, and then shot back up to land a finishing blow to the center of LMD-Steve's chest. Then, she ripped Katoptris out of the robot and turned to throw it at Clint's copy, which just barely managed to avoid getting stabbed.

She was running on pure adrenaline now. It was best to imagine these opponents as monsters. Sure, when they actually fought humans, they would need to not kill, but these were just robots.

Cilnt's robot shot it's last arrow, and it exploded right before her face, stunning her into stillness. In that couple of seconds it took for her to recenter herself, Natasha's copy jumped onto her back for a chokehold. Piper struggled, but the LMD had been designed to know all of Natasha's known skills, and it was working. The Iron Man LMD landed and shot a stunning shot at her chest: the final straw for Piper to finally surrender.

She knew they wouldn't kill her, but she was not in the mood to be knocked-out. It left you with a massive headache.

So she tapped out.

"Ok ok, I'm done. I'm done," She panted as she was released, rubbing her neck.

Piper was not happy about having to surrender, but it seemed like the Avengers had been thoroughly impressed with her skill with such a small weapon.

"I'll do next," Annabeth declared, high-fiving Piper on her way out.

"Good luck," Piper said.

"Don't need it," Annabeth responded, pulling out her drakon-bone sword.

Out in the control room, Tony said, "Is that a bone?!"

"It's whatever you want it to be," Hazel grinned, manipulating the Mist just a bit.

"You scare me sometimes, Miss Metal Detector," Leo muttered, glancing at Annabeth's sword, which had shifted into a machete.

He wasn't sure whether to be impressed by Hazel's skill, or weirded-out by Tony's brain.

"Make sure to move to difficulty up a bit," Percy told Tony, "She'll be insulted otherwise."

The billionaire seemed to be getting used to the teens' weird ways because he didn't even flinch when he heard that, and instead moved to comply.

"And...here we go," Tony said over the intercom, "Good luck, Annie."

"My name is Annabeth!" she shouted before going into the fight.

In this level, every single one of them attacked at once. Annabeth back-bended under Steve's copy's punch, and then kicked up into LMD-Natasha's face. After, she turned and sliced the Iron Man armor on the side, just under the armpit. She had picked that as a point of weakness before she had even stepped into the building.

"She's good," Natasha relented, watching as the daughter of Athena thrusted her sword into Steve's robot foot.

Seeing that Clint's LMD copy was not going to get any closer to her, Annabeth pulled out a hidden dagger and threw it in a perfect line to hit it in the center of its forehead. Then, she turned and blocked a punch from Natasha's robot, who had recovered from the face-hit. The spy copy used the Iron Man LMD to jump up and wrap her legs around Annabeth's neck, trying to do a scissor hold, which failed because Annabeth rolled forward, slamming Natasha's head into the ground. The left a big enough dent that the LMD wasn't getting back up.

That only left Iron Man to deal with.

She settled into a fighting stance, but didn't attack, choosing to wait for her opponent to make the first blow.

Percy was grinning. This was what they needed: a good way to blow off steam without it possibly ending with one of them dead.

"What is she waiting for?" Steve asked.

"She's playing with it. It's fun for her," Jason answered, "It's Annabeth."

Finally, the robot got impatient and attacked. It sent a stun blast at her, which Annabeth quickly avoided. After, she ran up to the wall, kicked off of it, and jumped up to drag the Iron Man LMD down to the ground, where she sat down on it and landed a few punches. But she quickly realized punching wasn't doing much good.

"Judo flip! Do the judo flip!" Leo exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.

When it wasn't him being the one attacked by Annabeth, it was super entertaining.

Annabeth sighed, but a smile was pulling at the edges of her lips. She hauled Iron Man up, who was still recovering from being slammed down to the ground, and got a good hold on it's arm. Then, she flipped it over her shoulder with an ease that only came from years of experience.

With a huge smile on her lips, and a last glance at her carnage, Annabeth walked back out to the control room.

"How was that for a kid?" She asked Natasha.

"Not bad," she got for an answer.

Ω ♆ Ω

Jason, Hazel, and Frank's individual tests went-by pretty quickly. Jason electrocuted all of the robots, rendering them immobile.

After that, and with another new batch of LMDs, Hazel used her Spatha to slice and cut through the robots. In the end, it proved too hard for her to do it with just a sword, so she pulled a chunk of the wall out and smashed it against the LMDs until they were in many different pieces.

Frank ended up having to forfeit, but not before getting every single Avengers copy but Steve down. Steve ended up having him in a chokehold that was just too difficult to get out of. And Frank had already transformed into many animals, so he wasn't sure if he could've changed back if he had transformed again.

If it wasn't obvious, Percy was avoiding doing his turn. He was trying to stay in the corner, and out of the notice of any of the adults. However, that wasn't possible with two spies in the room. They notice everything.

"Percy? Your turn," Natasha said.

So much for that plan.

Percy hesitated, "Um...about that, I don't think I should go."

Natasha raised her eyebrows in mock-surprise, but it was actually Steve who spoke, "You have to go, son. In order to work well together, we need to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. This will never work without you doing this."

"Plus, we promise it's completely safe," Bruce added in.

Percy sighed, admitting that he wasn't going to be able to worm his way out of this one. Instead of fighting, he turned to whisper to Annabeth, "Don't let me get out of control."

Annabeth gave him a sad look, "Percy, I know you have control. I trust you. You just need to trust yourself. You would never hurt us. I know that for certain."

The Avengers were watching this interaction like hawks, but the other demigods were averting their attention. This happened sometimes, Percy and Annabeth going into their own world that only they could understand, and it was best to just let them be. Plus, privacy is a real thing people. The moment seemed almost too intimate for them to interrupt.

Percy still seemed to be having trouble believing Annabeth's statements, but he went into the training room without another protest. His shoulders were sagging in defeat, and he seemed to be folding in on himself. He was never one for attention, but that was a bit much in Leo's mind.

However, Leo and the rest of the Seven didn't have a full grasp on just how uncomfortable Percy as with using his powers now. They didn't know what happened in "that place."

"Are you ready, Percy?" Tony asked, readying the LMDs again.

"Yeah, I guess," Percy answered.

Annabeth was rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, "Just breathe, Perce," she whispered under her breath, "You can do this."

She had to put on a brave face for her boyfriend, but she truly was terrified of Percy's potential. She had seen it first-hand in their trip underground, and it was nothing to be underestimated. The Avengers didn't know what powers they were playing with here. She only hoped that her insistent trust she was putting in Percy was going to amount to truth.

"We'll start you on Level 5? Based on what your friends can do, I think this will be a good start," Steve asked.

"Sure," Percy responded, bringing Riptide from his pocket.

"What's he going to do with a pen?" Bruce whispered to Clint.

The Seven all smiled at each other. Little did the mortals know, that pen was definitely not just a pen. It was always amusing when people saw what Riptide truly was for the first time.

"Alright. Here we go," Tony said, starting the simulation.

Percy closed his eyes, inhaled, exhaled, and popped the cap off of his pen. Opening his eyes, you could tell something had shifted in him. He was in his natural element now, and nobody could stop him from achieving his goal.

That goal just so happened to be mutilating some billionaire's robots.

"Let's have some fun," Percy said, charging the first LMD.

He was a flurry of motion. His fighting style was a mix from Greek, Roman, and modern martial arts that he had learned from Annabeth. He'd kick one adversary just to turn and thrust his sword into another one trying to attack him from behind.

"He's amazing," Bruce said in wonder, mesmerized by Percy's skill.

The son of Poseidon was relying only on his hand-to-hand and swordsmanship skills, rather than his powers, but that barely slowed him down. If the mortals wanted a display of his competence, then he would give them one.

Annabeth had a proud smile on her face as she watched Percy judo flip Natasha's robot over his shoulder and slammed it hard enough to the ground that it "died," ending his fight.

That had gone well, considering Percy's worries.

However, he knew better than to let his guard down just yet. As all demigods know, life never gives any breaks. That, and the Fates are cruel.

Ω ♆ Ω

"Ok, guys. Let's take a lunch break, and then we'll do some more training, but this time, with only abilities," Steve said.

Percy had put his sword away, and was not standing in the viewing room with the rest of the heroes, mortal and demigod alike. All of the teens looked and felt exhausted, so it was a given to take a break.

"Got it, boss," Leo saluted, turning and exiting the room, heading no doubt in the direction of the kitchen.

"I guess that means we're leaving," Percy laughed. A real, genuine laugh.

It made Annabeth smile larger than she had in a long time. Improvement is always good.

Soon, everyone was gathered around the kitchen and living room area. Percy and Leo were scavenging for food while the Avengers and the rest of the Seven talked. So far, the hunt was not going as planned.

"Tony! Are you seriously telling me you're a billionaire, and you can't afford some decent Cheerios?!" Percy yelled.

"Yeah! Who goes grocery shopping around here?" Leo exclaimed, holding up the near-empty jug of milk.

The Avengers all looked at each other in confusion, "Who DOES go grocery shopping?" Bruce asked.

"Pepper, sometimes, I think. She must've been busy this week," Tony answered, "We can just order some Chinese or something for now."

"That should work, but if you're going to house these boys," Annabeth pointed to Percy, Leo, Jason, and Frank, "You're going to need a lot more food around at all times. Their appetites could rival that of an elephant."

Hazel let out a tiny laugh, realizing Annabeth's little pun about Frank. She received a small smirk in response.

"Teenagers," Tony muttered, rolling his eyes, "Always hungry."

"Now wait a second, Tony, I remember seeing you eat an entire large pizza by yourself just a couple weeks ago," Natasha remarked, smirking at her teammate.

Tony only glared in response, and then he told JARVIS to order lunch.

"Well, while we're waiting, I'll explain what our next exercise is," Steve said, "Basically, we're going to see and document your powers, but in a more controlled environment. You won't be fighting anything, but this will be more focused on precision than quantity. We need to know your full capabilities so that we know where to put you in a fight. Is that okay?"

He was asking their permission as more of a courtesy than an actual question, obviously, but the demigods still nodded their heads in confirmation. It wasn't like they couldn't leave at any time if things ever got too out-of-control.

Or at least, that's what they told themselves. In all honesty, nobody trusted each other yet. They could be shot down by the Avengers if they tried to run away, for all they knew, and that's what the scariest thing was. Neither group really KNEW the other group's intentions, only what they had told each other.

Everyone was walking on thin ice, whether it was known to them or not.

Ω ♆ Ω

I hope you liked it! Remember, this is also on FF, Ao3, Inkitt, Webnovel, and Wattpad.

other chapters :)

[defibrillation-and-lactation]

Time Off for Maria

TRIGGER WARNING: medical/resus related content below

The day was Friday. It was a long day for Maria. She worked from 6:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening. She was just about ready to explode. She was about to leave her office at work until her boss interrupted her. He told her that due to the global pandemic going on and government orders issued, her hours will be shortened and her pay would be cut. Becoming even more furious, she left the building stomping the ground. Her teal eyes now burned with a red, fiery rage. She drove back home to go eat and masturbate the pain away.

Maria arrived at her house an hour later than usual because of a massive traffic jam on the freeway. When she opened the door to her house and stepped inside, she let out a sigh of relief. She was ready to blow off some steam.

Maria entered her house and left her suitcase, purse, and keys by the door. She nuked some leftover soup she made the day before and watched some YouTube videos. After an hour, she was still stressed out by her job. She went into her bedroom to relieve some tension.

Maria was not normal in her ways of sexual stimulation. She was single and had nobody to help her relieve stress. Her fetishes were quite strange and bizarre compared to most people. She has some very risky and medical kinks. She was into lactation and defibrillation. Everyday she stimulated her breasts and induced lactation herself. She used electric breast pumps to get the breast milk flowing. She went through the necessary training and requirements and bought a defibrillator that used paddles. She also had an EKG to monitor herself.

Maria walked into her bedroom and turned on the lights. She put her wallet away and charged her phone. She closed all the blinds in her room and started undressing. She untied her shoes, threw them aside and took her socks off. Her feet were sweaty and exhausted. She unbuttoned her white shirt top-to-bottom one-by-one. She then took off her undershirt, revealing a red bra with roses where the teats of her bosoms were. She unbuckled her belt and started shimmying down her black dress pants, revealing a round, plump ass. She had red hot panties on, hugging her curves. She threw her clothes into the laundry basket, leaving her only with crimson underwear on. She was ready to get it on.

She unhooked the bra, letting it slip and fall to the floor. Underneath the bra, were M cup breasts, filled to capacity with milk. There  were several big, long veins visible on them. Her areolas were three and a half inches in diameter. Her exposed nipples hardened from the cool air. They were nice and succulent, waiting to feed someone. Maria hopped on her bed and flicked on the lamp on her left. Her heart was pounding from excitement.

She massaged her breasts gently, rubbing and stroking them softly. She felt the milk rushing to her teats. She grabbed both udders with her fingers around her areolas and squeezed them. Breast milk secreted from different spots of her areolae. She squeezed herself for a few minutes, making her tits shoot bigger and bigger jets of milk. She kept on milking herself until her entire torso was wet with her milk. Now it was time for her favorite kink: Electrostimulation.

Maria looked at the dresser to her right. On top was a heart monitor, a defibrillator, and a few bottles of conductive gel. She grabbed two bottles of the gel and with one in each hand, she squirted some gel on her tits. She rubbed the gel all around her chest, covering it all with a layer of gel. She put 3 ECG leads on her chest and flicked on the switches to the machines. In a few seconds, she heard her heart on the monitor. Her heart skipped a beat and she saw it on the screen. She was getting excited. Her heart was now beating steadily around 120 beats per minute.

She set the amount of energy on the defibrillator to 10 joules. She grabbed the paddles with one hand and put gel on them with the other. She rubbed the paddles together in a circular motion, then placed them carefully on the outer sides of her boobs. She shivered slightly. The cool gel combined with the cold, metal paddles gave her goosebumps. Her nipples became erect. She charged the paddles up and rested her thumbs on the red buttons.

”Clear.” She whispered to herself.

*BUBOOMP*

Her breasts jiggled slightly. Maria had a big grin on her face. She wants more. MUCH more. The fun had only just begun.

Maria turned up the machine up to 100 joules. She charged the paddles again and placed them on top of her boobs.

”Clear.”

*BUBOOMP*

”mmmph” She softly moaned.

Her back arched up a couple inches and dropped back down. Her heart rate was now around 140-150 beats per minute. A few drops of milk slowly oozed out of her nipples.

”Another one. Clear.”

*BUBOOMP*

”umhhh” She quietly groaned.

She was getting more excited each shock. She was loving every bit of it.

”I need more!”

Maria spread some more gel on the paddles. She turned up the juice and charged the defibrillator to 200 joules. She firmly places the paddles under her boobs.

”Clear.”

*BUBOOMP*

”ohhh” She moaned out loud.

Her torso raised upwards a few inches, slamming back down on her soft bed. Little squirts of milk shot from her breasts. Her plump body bounced around with electricity. She got a little disoriented. She heard a couple of alarms going off around her. She looked at her heart monitor and it did not look good for her.

”Shit! Arrythmia.” she said, in a troubled voice.

”Charging...

...Clear!” She shouted.

*BUBOOMP*

”Ack!”

“Dammit, still irregular.” She sighed out. She cranked the dial on the defibrillator to 300 joules. She charged up the paddles, making a distinct whine while the energy built up. She smacked them against her chest, hoping for the best.

”Clear!”

*BUBOOOMP*

”Ughhhhh!” She groaned. Her body vigorously shook. Her head was spinning. She started hyperventilating. The electricity pained her struggling heart.

After that shock, the alarms suddenly stopped. She looked to the monitor on her right.

”YES!!! A normal rhythm!” She happily said. Her heart was beating quickly around 190 beats per minute. She was back at normal sinus rhythm.

“I just want one more zap to the tits and that’s it!” Maria said, making a bold, risky decision.

Maria took slathered her chest and the paddles in gel. She rubbed them together as some of the gel dripped down on her stomach. She cranked up the energy level to 360 joules. She was tempting fate at this point.

”Charging...”

She charges them up, the machine whines loudly as it readies up to zap her boobies. She then slams them directly onto her titties. The cold paddles touch her big, juicy nipples, giving her chills. Her heart was pounding with fear, but also arousal. She moved her thumbs on top of the red buttons on the paddles, they were shaking with anxiousness.

”c-C-CLEAR!!!!!!!”

*BUBOOOMP*

”ughAAAAAAAughhhhh...

...mmmmmmm”

Her whole body arched upwards, shaking violently. Her massive mammaries bounced intensely from the shock pumped directly into her nipples. She fell back on her bed hard. Her thicc  ass rippled like the waves of the sea. Her breasts jiggled like delicious, sweet pudding. Maria was gasping and breathing heavily after such a huge amount of electricity struck her in the chest. It was one of the most intense orgasms she has ever had in her life

There was lots of milk trickling down her torso from her udders. She lifted the paddles off of her breasts. They were soaked in her milk. Even after she took the paddles off of her boobs, her tits were still squirting out breast milk. Several geysers shot out large streams of milk several feet in the air. There was a shower of milk raining down on her.

She glanced at her heart monitor. Her heart seemed to be beating over 200 beats per minute at a normal, steady rhythm. She ripped the ECG leads off her chest and wiped the paddles clean. She lazily put the paddles and gel away on her dresser. She laid down on her back and fell asleep almost immediately. Her stress had been relieved. She was successfully sexually satisfied.

[linkysmommy]

The Time That Came Between

PART I

Part II link here

Fandom: It Lives in the Woods

Pairing: Noah Marshall x fem MC

Words: 3,057

Summary: What happened to Noah after Jazmyn Park sacrificed herself and he fled Westchester?

Warnings: Some minor swearing, topics of drug use and addiction

Author’s note: This is basically my imagination of what happened to Noah after he left Westchester and before he realized that MC was still somewhat cognizant as the shadow monster. I definitely have some creative liberties and my own thoughts on the dark path Noah went on after everything went down. It shouldn’t be too long, but I’m splitting it into parts. It’ll probably be between 5-6 parts when all is finished.

The first thing he noticed was the overwhelming stench of sour, rotting garbage.

Then came the God-awful pain.

It felt like there was a bonfire burning in Noah’s back. The muscles in his body screamed and throbbed, and his body shook violently. He weakly opened his eyes, and could barely see because they were so watery. It was like this every morning when he woke up. But somehow, that didn’t make it any better.

He managed to push himself into a sitting position as he tried to put together where the hell he was. He rubbed the film away from his eyes and glanced around himself. He was sitting in an apartment parking lot, his back pushed up against a huge dumpster bin. A trail of gooey water dripped from the trash can and trickled down the cement pavement. The morning sun shone in colorful rays through the filth, and he could hear the morning hum of cars and commuters as the responsible population began their days. A street cat hissed and rustled through the trash, and one of the windows in the building across from him burst open as yells from the people inside drifted out into the morning.

Noah sighed and leaned his head against the metal trash bin. He didn’t even care that his shirt was soaked with trash water, or that the side of his face was still covered with gravel from the ground. All he could focus on was the pain and discomfort. His burning back, his aching muscles, his runny nose, the wave of nausea that crashed over him.

He should get up, go to his apartment, take a shower, get dressed. He should get to work on time and save some money so he’d be able to go far away and leave forever. But no. Instead, he woke up in front of a dumpster and the first thing he did was reach for his phone. He hated everything about himself as he turned on the screen and dialed the person he simultaneously hated most and needed most in this entire world.

But he was too weak. So he called Reynold anyway.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang. Terror seized through him and his hand began to shake uncontrollably. What if Reynold didn’t pick up? What if—

Before Noah could think much, a very unhappy voice on the other line answered.

“The hell you want? It’s 7:00 in the morning.”

“I need some,” Noah said. “Where can I meet you?”

The voice on the other end scoffed. “Are you serious? You already blew through what I sold you two days ago?”

“It’s been… a rough couple of days.”

Reynold fell silent, which pissed Noah off. He was the one funding this guy, yet Reynold acted like he was the nuisance. Finally, Reynold let out a long sigh. “I’m busy today Malcolm. I don’t have time to—”

“I’ll pay you double. Hell, I’ll pay you triple. Just tell me where to meet you and when.”

Reynold grumbled something under his breath, but then he agreed. Soon, Noah had the place and information typed into his old, cracked phone. Now all he had to do was survive six more hours until they met up. Even that long seemed like more torture than he could stand.

Noah didn’t know how long he sat there, feeling like complete and utter shit. It could’ve been minutes, or it could’ve been hours. All he knew was that when two middle school girls crossed in front of him to head to their bus stop, chattering excitedly about some TV show, the expression on their faces when they saw him was enough to make him want to kill himself.

There was fear in their faces. Fear that the dirty, grimy man sitting by the dumpster would hurt them. Noah lowered his gaze and they hurried past. And he wished, for what must have been the thousandth time in the past twenty-four hours, that his life had never been so goddamn awful that he felt the only way he could survive was through losing himself to heroin. 

He wished that it had been him who took Redfield’s place, and not Jaz.

Never Jaz.

***

The bell jingled as Noah stepped into the gas station where he worked. A handful of customers browsed the shelves, and crouched in one of the aisles was his supervisor, Russ, probably doing inventory.

The door clattered shut behind Noah and he tried to sneak past Russ. But, like some freaking bloodhound, he looked up the moment Noah took a step. Russ’s eyes narrowed and his face flushed with anger. He stood, the item scanner hanging loosely from one hand.

“You’re late again, Johnson.” Russ glanced pointedly at the clock, then back at Noah. “Twenty-two minutes late, to be exact.”

“I’m aware of that,.” Noah said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “I ran into some… stuff.”

Russ did roll his eyes. “That’s not an excuse. Not when it happens every day.”

“Yeah, well. I’m here now so let me get to work.” Noah shouldered past Russ to the employees only area. It wasn’t much, but there was a wall with hooks where he could hang his jacket, and shelves and shelves full of supplies. 

Noah hung his jacket and took a deep, calming breath. He hated this job. He hated how Russ thought he was worse than dirt, and he hated how much he resented that. After what he’d done, he didn’t deserve to be treated well by anyone. He deserved every ounce of hatred every single person had to spare.

He brushed his fingers over the scarred skin on the inside of his elbow. It was rough, and still tingled with his most recent dose. He was a coward for trying to find something to ease the pain, to make him forget. It was only fair that the drug no longer made him feel anything other than normal. Where it once had left him feeling powerful and nearly happy, now all it did was make him need it when he wasn’t using, and when he was using he just felt normal.

And normal… wasn’t exactly what he wanted.

The one good thing about Jaz sacrificing herself for him was that at least she didn’t have to live to see him like this. This pathetic shell of a man she thought was worth enough that she decided to die for him.

Noah squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hand into his forehead. Forget about this. Don’t think. Just get out and do your job, go home, shoot up, go to sleep, repeat. Keep going. Just survive. 

He took one last calming breath, took a moment to steel himself… and then stepped back into the front.

As he approached the counter to take his position for the day., the girl standing behind it glared at him.

“Finally. You made me stay late, you jerk. I’ve been here since 12 AM!”

“Yeah… sorry Diane,” Noah said sheepishly, fumbling awkwardly with the edge of his beanie. “I’m here now though, so you can leave.”

Diane peered up at him from behind the counter and her scowl melted away into a grin. “I’m just teasing, Malcolm! No need to be so serious. Of course I’m not mad at you.”

“Oh! Right. Of course.” Noah forced a laugh and sidled behind the counter. 

Ever since the cops found Jaz’s broken body last September and Noah had become the prime suspect, he’d been on the run, never staying anywhere for too long. He spent time in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. He never finished high school, and instead took to getting himself fake IDs and socials just to find work wherever he could get it. But now, he was back in Oregon, a mere three hours away from where it all started: Westchester.

Noah had only been working at this convenience store for two months, but no one in any of his other jobs paid attention to him like Diane did. She knew nothing real about him—she thought his name was Malcolm Johnson and that he moved from Missouri to live with his aunt—but she always invited him out, always found ways to tease him, always tried to make him smile.

And she was cute and pretty and sweet, but she was no Jaz. No one could ever even begin to compare to Jazmyn Park.

“Well now that somebody’s here, I’m gonna go get changed and get the hell out of here,” Diane said with a smirk, nudging Noah as she sashayed out from behind the counter.

“I said I was sorry,” Noah called after her. She just waved and disappeared into the employee area.

Noah let out a sigh and leaned his elbows against the countertop. The store wasn’t very busy right now, so he’d just get to stand there for hours, doing nothing. Doing nothing was hard because when you were doing nothing, there wasn’t anything to distract you from the terrible things you didn’t want to think about. He much preferred busy days to slow days.

The door jingled and Noah heard footsteps as people entered the store. He couldn’t see the door from where he stood. He hoped it was a munchy druggy or a parent with kids. Those people always bought the most stuff, which meant more time to be occupied.

“…Been a whole year now,” a familiar voice drifted over to where Noah stood. “And nobody knows where he is.”

Noah’s eyebrows shot up and he glanced furtively around the store. The newcomers to the store stepped out from behind a row of shelves and then, standing across the room with his back to Noah was a man with a flannel shirt and shoulder-length blond hair. A man Noah recognized all to well. Connor Green.

“Shit,” Noah muttered. His heart pounded in his chest and his mouth felt dry. “Shit shit shit sh—” 

Connor started turning, so Noah did the only thing he could think of. He dropped to his hands and knees behind the desk, disappearing from view.  Diane exited out of the employees-only area just as he did, and he saw confusion flit across her face.

“I miss Jaz,” Connor said. “She was really… somethin’ else. I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

A very unjustified but burning hatred for that man flared up inside Noah. He remembered being at the hardware store, shopping for supplies to go up against Mr. Red—Jane. He remembered how Connor flirted with Jaz and how she flirted right back. And he remembered the day Andy asked them if they wanted to go to homecoming. Noah had said, “Seems kinda pointless to go without a date. And I’m… not really in a good place for that. Dating, I mean.” Then he asked Jaz who she wanted to go with and she turned around and went straight to Connor.

He knew he had no right to be angry about it. He’d told Jaz that he wasn’t in a place for dating, and he probably would’ve said no if she’d asked him. But when she decided to ask Connor and Noah responded with “Good luck,” he really had just wanted to clock Connor in the face.

“Do you think they’ll ever catch Noah?” another voice—a woman this time—asked. Noah’s heart nearly froze at the mention of his own name and he frantically tried to place the voice. Then he realized—it was Stacy Green, of course.

Another pair of hands and knees fell onto the ground beside Noah and he started, jumping back and nearly slamming against the back wall.

Diane watched him with an amused expression. Her short black pixie cut was messily styled and her dark makeup made her features stand out against pale skin. “What’re we doing down here, Johnson?” she asked.

“Uh…” His mind raced frantically, trying to come up with some sort of explanation. Some sort of truth and lie mixture that could get him out of this mess. “I know those people from high school. And, uh, they were snobby assholes who hated me. So, I just don’t  want them to know I work here, okay?”

The amusement faded from Diane’s eyes and she nodded solemnly. “I understand. I know I already clocked out, but… I can cover for you until they leave.”

“Really?” Noah couldn’t hide the relieved smile that stole onto his face. 

“Oh yeah,” Diane said. “But you owe me.”

“Okay yeah, that’s fair. What do you want? I can cover your hours or—“

“A date,” Diane said with a smug smile, and before he could protest she bounced to her feet and pasted a winning smile onto her face.

“Hiiii,” she greeted. Noah wondered if she was talking to Connor and Stacy. All he could see was the gross tile, front counter, and Diane’s legs. “Can I help you with something?”

“Hey,” Connor’s voice said. “Cute shirt, by the way.”

Noah wanted to barf. Flirting with random strangers was so Connor.

“We just wanted to buy a few things and ask a few questions, if that’s all right?” Stacy said. Noah could practically hear the smile in her voice.

“Okay, shoot!” Diane said.

Noah heard the sound of items being dropped on the counter, and then the register creaking like it did whenever anyone leaned on it. He could imagine Connor leaning against it now, looking at Diane with the stupid flirtatious smirk he always used on Jaz.

“We were wondering—” it was Connor again “—have you heard of anyone… suspicious running through these parts?”

Diane let out a sharp laugh. “Is that all you’ve got to go off of? I’m sorry, sweetie, but if I told you all the suspicious people I’ve seen around here I’d be listing names ‘til midnight.”

Noah snorted silently. Leave it to Diane to handle a situation like this so perfectly.

He heard Stacy sign in aggravation. “Connor, maybe I should handle this.” There were shuffling footsteps, rustling of the contents of a purse, and something being slapped onto the countertop. “Have you seen anyone who looks like this man? About this tall, almost always wears a beanie? His name is Noah but he probably goes by something else?”

All traces of a smile evaporated from Noah’s face. His heart started to race with panic. He chanced a look up at Diane’s face, and her eyes were narrowed, her mouth tugged into a frown.

Silence. No sound besides a ticking clock and Russ shuffling around the aisles. Diane stared at the counter, at what Noah was sure was a picture of him. He held his breath, waiting for her to jump aside and say, “Oh you’re looking for this guy? Here he is, take him!”

But instead, she shook her head. Her voice was tight. “Nope, never heard of a ‘Noah.’ Also never seen this guy. Sorry.”

Relief flooded through Noah, almost as satisfying a feeling as a heroin high. Diane wasn’t giving him up. At least not yet.

Connor sighed loudly. “Do you have any idea who might know something? This is important. We got a tip that he moved to this area recently but so far, we’ve found nothing.”

“I don’t know,” Diane said. “Why’re you looking for him? Maybe if I knew I could point you to the right people.” 

Noah frantically grabbed her foot, trying to somehow signal to her to not ask these questions. But she shook him off and kept staring straight forward.

“It’s kind of… a personal thing,” Stacy said.

“Well I can’t help if you don’t tell me anything,” Diane countered.

“Look,” Connor interceded. “The police are after him for something he actually didn’t do. We think we might be able to help him, but he’s dodging us.”

Diane glanced down at Noah for a fraction of a second. Then she shrugged. “A person on the run? I’d look for them in Lensgate Park. Or maybe check out the baseball field on eleventh. Tons of shady people hang out there. They might know something.”

“Lensgate Park…” Stacy repeated slowly, probably entering it into her phone. “Okay. And you said eleventh?”

“Yup,” Diane said dryly. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Nope,” Connor said. “You’ve been great. I hope you have a great shift.”

Finally, finally, the footsteps sounded once again, the bell rang as it was opened, and then the door slammed shut. Noah barely had time to reorient himself before Diane reached down and pulled him roughly to his feet.

“Malcolm, what the hell was that about? Who were those people? They weren’t high school bullies, this was something else entirely. And Noah? The cops? What. The. HELL.”

“Diane, Diane,” Noah said, grabbing her by the arms. “Look, those people are from where I grew up, and they… they can’t be trusted.” His mind scrambled to come up with some sort of excuse, but all he could see was Jaz, over and over again. Her terror when she realized he tricked them, her body, broken in his arms… “Um, they, want to frame me—”

Diane scoffed and glared into his honey brown eyes. “Do you expect me to believe that? Are you just one big lie?”

Noah fell back a step, the color draining from his face. “I—”

“Save it, Malcolm. If that’s even your real name.” Diane skirted around the counter and headed for the door. “I backed you up because I liked you, but whatever you’re involved in, I don’t want any part in it. You can forget about the date.”

Noah’s eyebrows knit together as he watched her head out the front door, never looking back. Russ came out from one of the aisles, glancing between Noah and Diane.

“What happened with you two?” Russ asked.

Noah skirted around the counter, removing the name badge he wore on his shirt. “Sorry, Russ, but consider this my resignation.”

He dropped the badge on the counter and shouldered past a shocked Russ.

“Wh—what?” Russ sputtered, chasing after Noah. “Johnson, if you leave it’s just me and Tom. I need the coverage, at least wait until tomorrow—”

“Stuff came up,” Noah said, pushing the glass door open with his shoulder. “I’ll see you around, Russ.”

Russ watched helplessly from the sidewalk as Noah slid into his old beat-up car. He turned the radio on high as he backed out of the parking lot.

He was going to Lensgate Park, or maybe the baseball field on Eleventh.

He was going to figure out what Stacy and Connor knew.

***

Post-note: I wrote this a while ago and wasn’t going to finish but that fic by @isometimesplaychoices inspired me to continue and finish this fic, ily friend!! 

[loverdrew]

My Everything

You’ve always been passive, to yourself, and a little bit naive, but what unfolds when he comes in and turns your whole world upside down?

“Mom! No more fidgeting, I have everything I need.” I loudly call to my mom from the bottom of the stairs, while she continues to disregard my statement and mumble to herself, checking off things on her list.

“Well it’s not everyday I’m sending you off to college for the first time. I’m just making sure you have more than enough while you’re there.” She says with a sign coming down the stairs.

“Trust me I’m fine, I have enough to last me until I’m graduated at this point. Besides, college is only 2 hours from here.” She nervously laughs then gestures her eyes up the stairs and yells.

“Mikey! Get down here we’re leaving!” My younger brother, 10, marches down the stairs with his gaming console in his hands, immersed in the game.

“Okay but I get shotgun.” He says without looking up. I ruffled his hair and snatched his game console, running to the car.

“You wish, you can get shotgun once I’m gone.” I tease him as he laughs then jumps into the backseat. Mikey and I have always been close, even with the 8 year age gap. He’s the first boy in my life that I really truly loved, after my dad passed away when I was just about to turn 2. I don’t have many memories or feelings of him sadly, but there is pictures that show he was loving and attentive, and my mom always told me he was. But then my mom met Kyle and had Mikey. My stepdad works at the college I’ll be attending, and since it’s 2 hours away he has an apartment that he stays at during the week so he can get to work easier, and usually spends weekends with us. He is a great man who loves our family, but I’ve been very upfront with the fact that he’s not my father. I grew up strong with just my mom, which is why I believe I’m strong-minded, and worked my ass of to get into the biology program at my school. I’m 1 out of 100 that were accepted into this specific clinical lab science program and I was more than excited. Nobody was going to stand in my way of achieving my dream.

About 2 hours later we arrived in front of the huge dorm building right on the edge of campus. Next to it was a cafe and a quick bite place, with kids already eating, saying hi, and moving in. It was hustling and it made me a little frazzled, but I just took a deep breathe and opened the door to the fresh air. Mikey had finally put down his game to help us carry all these boxes and bags into the building. I was on the first floor which was nice because we didn’t have to wait for the elevator which was super packed and had a long line waiting, and I quickly found my room: 105. I opened the door to find a girl and a boy around my age unpacking the girls belongings onto her desk, a photo of them two framed already placed on the windowsill. She smiled at all 3 of us.

“Hi. You’re Y/N! I’m Mara, also in the clinical lab science program, yeah, they decided to place all of us together since there’s only 100 of us. But it’s nice to meet you! This is my boyfriend, Logan.” I shook his hand and asked, “Also clinical science major?”

He laughed, “No. I’m not as smart as this cookie. I’m a criminal justice major.”

“Impressive.” 

“So do you guys need any help?” She asked nicely. I saw all the things she still needed to unpack so I quickly denied, seeing as I don’t live too far away so I didn’t bring too much stuff. 

“No we’re fine honestly. Probably 3 or 4 more bins of things in the car.”

“No worries. We’re going to head down to go get some food on campus so if you come back and need us, I left my number on your desk. Just text me if you need me!” I glanced over and saw the blue sticky note and nodded saying thank you.

We managed to get everything in my dorm, and soon after, I was walking my mom and brother out to the car to say our goodbyes. I probably would’ve been going home soon, but it was still strange in my heart that I wouldn’t be driving back with them. 

“Now, I gave Kyle your schedule and he said to contact him for anything like even if it’s asking where a bathroom is.” I laughed and then hugged her so tight.

“It’s going to be different without you at home, but don’t worry about me.” She said sincerely. I was always worried about my mom. She did everything she could to raise two kids practically on her own, and now one is away and I know she would be freaking out every now and then. But I made a promise that nothing would get in my way of graduating and aceing my classes. It would be my gift to my mom, showing her she did right by her first born. 

I looked to my brother and bent forward to reach his height level and looked at him. I could tell he didn’t want to cry or look sad, but he was my best friend, I could see it a mile away.

“You gonna be alright Mikey?”

“I mean, I’m going into middle school. What am I going to do without my big sister to guide me?” 

“Hey, I’m going into a new school too with more people than I ever imagined. We’re going to get through it together at the same time. I got you and you got me.” We did our secret little handshake that always made my mom laugh, and hugged tightly. Before I knew it, they were driving off, leaving me, myself and I.

The Next Day

Mara and I got into our first class together, a GE English class, at around 9 am. It was a huge lecture hall fitting maybe 150 students. We decided to sit kind of close but not front row, just enough to see and hear the professor. We’re sitting and talking, looking at all of the new people in our class just to get a vibe of the class, and in comes in someone who in my opinion looked so out of place. It was a tall man with wavy dark brown hair, pouty lips, and a black t-shirt with black ripped jeans with his backpack over one shoulder. Everyone coming in looked so enthusiastic to learn, but he looked like he didn’t even want to be there. I get it it’s kind of early in the morning for an English class, but maybe he could’ve chosen another class to take instead of this one. 

Mara leaned over and whispered, “That’s Shawn Mendes.” with a smirk. 

“Why you smirking at me?” I laughed.

“He’s a good looking dude, I don’t blame you for staring.”

“He looks so out of place that’s the thing, like he doesn’t even want to be here.”

“Probably doesn’t, his daddy probably put him in this class.” She said it so nonchalant.

“What do you mean?”

“Logan knows Shawn, they’re friends with the same group of people. He’s a sophomore, and his dad is the dean of the college. From what Logan tells me Shawn is forced to be in school to keep him out of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble could he get into?” I whisper to myself, just getting lost in his smooth skin and perfectly flowing waves of hair. 

“Partying, being defiant, fighting. It seems any chance he gets to be in trouble, he takes it.” As she’s telling me this, he turns his head and catches my gaze, staring back at me with dark eyes that I could tell were not as broken as she talked him up to be. He interested me for some reason and not just because he was gorgeous, but because it seemed he had more to tell that what most people knew. A few seconds later our teacher started the class, introducing herself and going over the syllabus.

We left class at 10 am. Mara had a gap until noon but I had another lecture at 11:00 am which was my first biology lecture. I wanted to stay on campus, maybe get breakfast and walk around the huge beautiful stone buildings. I grabbed a small coffee and began my walk to the next building I have class in, when I was stopped by a deep voice next to me. 

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you talking about me with your friend in class.” I pause, and slowly turn around, dreading the face that is connected with the voice (because damn even his voice is hot too). He was seated on a stone bench writing in a black notebook, not even looking up at me.

“You talking to me?”

“Who else? I do have ears and was sitting in the row next to you, your friend may have told you I was dumb but I’m aware of my surroundings.” He finally looked up at me with the most unamused facial expression.

“So that way you’re always ready for a fight right?” I cocked my head at him.

“Unlike you who is completely oblivious.” He walked up to me, his 6′1 body towering over my 5′3 body, but I didn’t back down. 

“You don’t know anything about me.” He stood still, which scared me and looked like he was thinking of the next words he was about to say. 

“You’re Y/N, you’re a freshman that lives about 2 hours away, you’re a biology major in the clinical science program which is very impressive, you drink coffee with too much cream it’s almost white, you love reading romance novels, and you only sing in the shower even though your voice is good enough to be on The Voice. Need I go on?” I was choked up and almost scared by how much he knew about my secret life. I stepped back and started to walk away but he caught up to me to say one more sentence that stung.

“Don’t think I don’t know who your stepdad is.”

Like, reblog, comment for part 2! ♡

[onthepyre]

Nuclear Family

A housewife’s agenda, c. 1954

wrote this for my school’s arts magazine but figured i would post here too!!

Every morning, after packing her childrens’ lunches, Helen pours herself a cup of tea.  She sips it in the kitchen of the bunker while she listens to the radio crackle and waits for the heater to kick on.  Her favorite is Earl Grey, but it hardly ever comes with the monthly shipments, so she settles for peppermint most days.

She begins breakfast at 6:30, half an hour before her husband and children wake.  Most days, the menu includes little more than lightly-buttered toast, except on Saturdays, when she makes waffles.  But today is Tuesday, so she prepares four servings of toast and lays them neatly on her red ceramic plates.  She makes coffee for herself and her husband, and cocoa for the children.  She doesn’t like the new cocoa much, as the powder doesn’t taste the same as the kind she used to make.  But she takes what she can get, with a smile on her face nonetheless, and pours two little mugs for her daughter and son.

The family eats in the kitchen, a downgrade from their old dining room, but they figure it’s good enough.  Helen’s husband, Charles, sits farthest from the ladder — the closest thing they have to a door.  He compliments Helen on her cooking, the same as he does every morning, and Helen nods and thanks him to be polite, though she did little more than reheat it.

Charles is off to work at 6:45, with a kiss on the foreheads of the kiddies and Helen’s cheek.  He zips up his suit and allows Helen to adjust his mask before ascending the ladder at the rear of the bunker.  Once he’s left, Helen sends the children to school, placing their lunch boxes in their bags and helping them up the ladder to the first door.  They don’t go all the way up to the surface like Charles, so there’s no need for masks, but miniature versions hang in the entryway, just in case.  She sees them off down the long hallway to the schoolroom and returns to her home.

Alone at last, Helen begins her daily cleaning routine.  After doing the dishes, she washes yesterday’s clothes in the kitchen sink to reuse for tomorrow, something she never could’ve imagined doing just months ago.  Once she deems them sufficiently usable, she hangs them on the line in the bedroom.  It isn’t the fresh air she’d like to dry them in, but it will do.  Then, she sweeps and mops, and once she’s finished that she makes herself lunch.  Nothing all too exciting, just a bit of canned tuna and a few stale crackers, but once she’s eaten she feels much better.  Helen carries the garbage bin to the entryway and dumps it down the chute.  She isn’t sure where it goes, but it gets it out of the bunker, and that’s enough for her.  The bunker is much smaller than their old home, and after wiping down all the countertops and checking the radiation levels, Helen has little left to do.  She makes sure to stay busy, though, to prevent boredom from setting in and to avoid thinking too much.  Lately, she’s been knitting a new sweater for little Johnny.  Getting hold of enough yarn was a challenge, but after a bit of negotiating with the delivery man and her neighbors, Helen was able to scrounge up a few skeins.  

Around 2:15, she decides to pay a visit to her neighbor, Mary.  She phones to ask if she’s terribly busy, and Mary says she would be glad to have her visit.  So Helen climbs the ladder as daintily as she can and walks down to the next trap-door.  She ponders for a moment why they couldn’t qhave just built regular doors, with each family's home on the same level as the hall, but she supposes every extra foot underground helps.  Helen rings the little bell and Mary is there to open up the trap-door and greet her.  She waits politely until Helen is fully inside and then offers to make coffee.  Helen declines, because she knows Mary doesn’t have enough.  Nobody really has enough.

Helen and Mary chat in the cramped parlor for a short while before Helen has to head back to her own bunker to receive the children.  She waves goodbye from above in the hallway and is home just in time to hear the distant schoolbell ring.  She dusts for a bit before Johnny and Carol arrive.  They finish their homework quickly as Helen whips up a snack (just crackers, but laid very nicely on a plate).  Little Johnny, too young to read quite yet, begins turning the dial on the radio to search for a show he decides is interesting.  Carol, now in the fourth grade, sits down on the floor and begins rereading her only copy of Archie Comics.  Helen is working on getting her another one, but it seems it will be a little longer before it arrives.  She begins dinner at 5:00, when she knows Charles is on his way home.  There isn’t much she can do with the Salisbury steak, but she sprinkles in a bit of pepper.  It isn’t long until Charles arrives and sheds his suit and mask in the entryway, where they will stay until at night when Helen has time to clean them.

The family eats just after 6:00.  Charles makes a note to ask Johnny and Carol what they learned; Carol reports a lesson about the Egyptians, and Johnny, the letter F.  Helen smiles and asks him what he did at work, though she knows the answer.  He tells them about searching the wreckage for anything salvageable, and how beautifully blue the sky was.  Carol sighs wistfully.  Johnny scrapes his fork against his plate.  

After dinner, Helen washes the dishes.  She hums to herself as she does so, trying to remember the name of the song on the radio earlier this morning.  Once she’s finished, she dons her mask and gloves and heads to the entryway to clean Charles’s suit.  It’s tedious work, but she scrubs every inch and brings it back inside to hang with the others.  She checks the radiation levels in the bunker before winding down for the night with a nice glass of water.  Helen listens to the radio with the family for a while as she works on a new dress for Carol.  Her old sewing machine had to be turned over so the materials could be used for the war, but she’s content to hand stitch, even if it takes longer.  She sends the children to bed at 8:30, reading from the pocket Bible she was given with her last shipment and saying a short prayer with them, and returns to the parlor.

Helen spends the rest of her evening talking in low tones with Charles so that the children might not hear.  He tells her of the state of the war, how America is losing, and holds her close when she begins to cry.  He kisses her softly before they too head off to bed, no more sure of their fate than months ago when the bombs began to fall.

[movieguy50]

Hey everyone,

I just want to give everyone a quick update as to what's going on with the scams or what's called operation drain and run out of the 200 that were arrested the other day most have been released must have been very forthcoming and giving information some of them have been detained further pending for their interview and or their charges are going to be dropped or reduced law enforcement agencies have confirmed that there are some more smaller cell operations of this type going on here in the United States and in Canada they are now getting in with the Canadian authorities to help with the investigation up there I can't tell you that 75 of the 200 people arrested the other day were members of Tumblr so basically yes they were right under our nose and we did not know it but I knew it.

I can also tell you that information from this point forward is going to be very slim because they are wanting to Big Cheese the people that are actually masterminding all this and they're going to have to start being careful what information they let out and that's totally acceptable to me I totally understand that and they did say the other thing about passing the info. on to you guys as much as they can. They said that I have been a big help in this there's been a few other people that have come forward they've also been assisting and helping out but I still need some more help so anything y'all got if it if it means you got scammed don't worry about being embarrassed you're not going to be judged or you're not going to be treated like shit just because you fell for it.

So now if you've noticed that I changed the format of my blog it makes it look like it's in a daily or weekly episodic TV show it's still called a slice of my world but it's also episode 1-18 this is starting to become a daily or actually it should say it bi-weekly thing of me posting and I have enjoyed it don't get me wrong but the title of this is called oh how things have changed and it's basically going to be a lot of difficult reading from this point forward but stuff that once you read it you'll understand why it has been so difficult I I'm going to Chronicle the night of January 20th of last year through the morning hours of January 21st which is what I considered the moment my life changed forever.

So we begin on January 20th 2020 I had to go to work I walked 4 miles to go to work because I didn't have a vehicle anymore and we were living in a motel so I had to you know make sure one of us is working until a lot of times where I was staying even hard for me to get a ride. So I work the 3:30 to close shift which basically meant I left between anywhere from between 12:30 and 1:00 in the morning I worked at a movie theater which by the way was probably the best job I had ever had in my life I I love that place I would love to go back to another one like it. So basically I got off work about 12:30 that night and normally I would have a ride to work on Monday nights this week it wasn't possible because of something that happened at the theater the manager got behind on his paperwork on and couldn't get out on time like he normally does I had to go to the store that night because we didn't have very much food so I went to store I got about 2 or 3 nights worth of food with enough till I get to my day off from work to go to the store and get more. That was a common occurrence so by the time I got done with the store and got home about 2:30 in the morning my wife was asleep she had been sick for about a month before this which now I have directly linked into being one of the first cases of COVID-19 in the united states'.

I came home and like I said she was asleep and I gave her a kiss like I usually do sometimes it wakes her up sometimes it doesn't this time it woke her up we start talking for a little bit I went outside and I did my usual ritual I go outside and smoke a little weed you know kind of relaxed a little bit for about 20-30 minutes yeah I went inside and cooked dinner now for a little background my wife had been sick for a while she had a heart attack November 8th in 2018 and then she had a stroke Easter Sunday of 2019 a stroke that she refused to go get taken care of even though I begged her and had other people beg her to go to the hospital she would not do it when she had the heart attack the doctor was not able to fix all the blockages to her heart because some of the arteries were too small so he told me privately that if she had another heart attack she wouldn't survive it I knew that I told her that about 3 months later so she knew but on this night I never had any dream or knowing that 2 hours after I got home from work she would be dead she had a massive heart attack I was just getting ready to start cooking dinner when she started really screaming about chest pain and I've never heard her go off like she did and even though I called 911 it still took the damn people 20 minutes to get out there otherwise I still think she'd be alive but then again maybe not so to try to make a long story short they would not let me ride in the ambulance with her to the hospital she was still coherent but when they did the ekg in the room where we were staying at I could tell the guy's eyes that she wasn't going to be much longer and I think the reason why they told me I couldn't ride with them was because for the same Theory I think that they didn't want my last memory of her to be of her fighting for her life and dying and I am thankful for that because I've had horrible nightmares about this whole thing and so after I made all the notifications and everything that day I went back to work two days later and I was told I could stay out as long as I needed to they were really really super awesome and amazing to me hell they were even responsible for giving me the money to get my wife buried because they donated money they put a pool in together to help me. The thing about it was is I don't know what upset me more the fact that I wish there was something more I could have done or the fact that I had to have a fucking cop show up to my door to tell me that she was gone even though I had already known it. So when I went back to work two days later it was very very hard because she used to work there too and she used to work at the podium on the weekends where she took the tickets and everything and told people where the theaters were and everything else and I wasn't there for 2 hours and I just doubled over it was just like a big flood of emotion but I made it that night but the hard part was with the weekends because those were the nights that she worked the most everybody loved my wife it worked up there and so I mean I didn't feel like I was so alone then the pandemic came I lost my job I lost my place where I was staying I had to go to my sister-in-law's house which was the biggest mistake of my life cuz I really found out what kind of people they were plus that's when I developed a curiosity for methamphetamine and then I met the bitch from hell not even 2 months later and keep in mind she was just supposed to be a companion we weren't like going to be boyfriend girlfriend cuz I still way too broke up about my wife's death that's all I wanted cuz I couldn't stand being lonely anymore just like I can't stand it now but she got me hooked on meth and I say she got me hooked because she kept bringing it around me knowing that I found something new that I really liked and I didn't ask her to bring it around I could have said no but this has to do with that 28 day period from June to July where she was drugging me putting the dope in my food in my drinks that's why I blame her.

Then after my ex got murdered at a house party I lost my sister-in-law and nephew and then my step daughter called me one day two weeks before Christmas to tell me that she lost her fiance her baby's daddy after he had a heart attack from A congenital heart defect that he had for 6 years the only bright spot of 2020 was my step daughter had a daughter of her own and that to this day that baby is my love bug

As where I'm at right now I'm going to be homeless by next weekend again unless I can come up with $250-300 dollars by Friday night it doesn't look like it's going to happen folks unless I can get some donations and get them quick I am taking donations right now if you can help I don't care if it's 5 10 15 20 $25 whatever it is it will help I don't expect nobody to give me the money all at once cuz I know a lot of people don't have that kind of money right now so just little donations will help right now I had to actually go to Walmart today and steal food God I hate myself for doing it I didn't get caught but still my conscience was getting the best of me for much of the evening I got enough food here to last me for 2 or 3 days if I end up getting to stay here but like I said it's not looking very good at this point I've tried local resources I've tried all kinds of Charities help and all they want you to do is hurry up and wait and I ain't got that kind of time and I told him that so I I'm asking for any help that anyone could give if I don't get if I can get at least $250 out of 400 I can go get me a motel room for the week and I'll get me by until I can come back here when my roommate comes back cuz then he'll have the money for the rent and everything else so I can come back here so I just need to really get by for a week I have not had any dope in nine days I'm going crazy but I need a place to live first before I can be doing that shit so I'll just have to deal with it if you want to help I'll give you my cash app I will put it at the end of this post for everybody so the last 18 months has not been fun I went to six suicide of Temps and I just been existing when before I had it all anyway so that's basically going to end this episode of a slice of my world I'm sorry if this was such a downer for a lot of people but you know I the more and more I feel like I tell my story easier everyday gets for me cuz I don't feel like I'm burying myself with all the emotion and having to keep it bottled up anyway I will talk to you y'all whenever I talk to you I may be on Hiatus for a little bit because I won't have a phone here after tomorrow unless I go someplace that has Wi-Fi and depending on my living situation I mean like I said I'm I'm hoping and praying somebody will be able to help out by donating a little bit of money to me so I can keep a place over my head somehow someway anyway y'all. I love you take care of yourself and I'll see you on the other side

Cashtag $jojo091069

PayPal

Venmo

Google pay

Message for those tags I left blank as I don't know them by heart yet

Love,. Sean

[starrybouquet]

it’s quiet uptown

So...I did not mean to start writing fanfic, and I never imagined I’d write enough to need multiple chapters. It just sort of...happened.

This fic started off as a what-if story for season 6's Redemption, based on one simple question: what if they hadn’t spotted Jack’s parachute in Redemption Pt. 2?

But as time went on, it grew into a love letter to Stargate fandom and the SJ fandom in particular. Hopefully, you'll catch the traditional references to canon throwaway lines, the traditional fanon, and references to many a tumblr thread. I'd love to know what you all recognize. :D

Read on AO3 (you’ll need to be signed in) or under the cut below.

chapter 1: there are moments that the words don't reach

“This is Observer One. Visual confirmation. The X-302 has entered the hyperspace window.”

Sam reached for her headset. “Colonel? Colonel? Do you read?” She was aware of everyone’s eyes on her, and hoped to God that her voice didn’t sound as shaky as she thought it did.

The neon green countdown blazed on, even as all other motion in the room seemed to come to a stop. The milliseconds flashed by. Sam bit her lip as the countdown halted at 00:00:00.00. 

“This is Observer One…there is no sign of a chute. There is, however, a light show going on up here.” In the silence of the observation room, the crackle of the speaker made the words sound callous, mechanical.

“It worked! Deep Space is estimating that the Gate detonated over 3 million miles from Earth,” Walter reported, excitement muted by the uncertainty of Colonel O’Neill’s fate. Sam barely registered the sentence. She closed her eyes, willing the chute to appear. Please, please, please…

“This is Observer Two. Still no sign of a chute. I repeat, no sign of a chute. Mission command, there’s nothing up here.”

The sound of the speaker pierced the tension like a needle popping a balloon. The uncertain, unspoken hope seemed to seep out of the room, leaving only sorrow in its wake.

Slowly, voices broke the silence. Tentative search and rescue plans were suggested, calls to the President and the Pentagon made. The scientists tried in vain to figure out if Colonel O’Neill could have been knocked off course if he’d been too close to the hyperspace window, but the satellites still showed nothing. The truth was there was an overwhelming possibility he simply hadn’t managed to get out of the X-302 in time. 

Sam lasted an hour. She managed to escape the room of exhausted, relieved, mournful lab coats with only a short nod to General Hammond, who looked at her with sympathy and told her to go get some rest. She barely held it together as she stopped by her locker to grab her keys, not bothering to change into civvies and trying not to see Daniel and Teal'c and the Colonel's lockers, sitting there as if nothing had changed. 

She thought she'd be able to let it out once she got home, but the same desperate emptiness continued. It was better than being on base with all eyes on her, but the desperation and terror followed her, as if she wasn't allowed to feel here either. The silence was oppressive, everything too immaculate, too quiet.

She knew where she wanted to go. She could almost feel a physical pull towards the place, the solid house with its yellow kitchen and backyard forest and comfortable, slightly haphazard sofas. Instinctively, she stiffened against the idea, knowing how it would look, not wanting to admit to herself why she wasn’t comfortable in her own home. But the tug persisted.

Finally, Sam gave in. He's dead, three million miles away. The Stargate is gone anyway. Nobody will care. Not bothering to collect her cell phone or pager from the counter, she drove to Jack's house on autopilot, hastily unlocked the door with the key marked J on her keyring, and stepped inside.

The aroma of the house hit her like a physical blow--pine and sandalwood and a hint of Jack's cologne--the kind he wore Earthside. Sam closed the front door and leaned against it, and the tears came. She slid down the door until she was curled against it as her body was wracked with sobs. 

She cried not for her team, but for her family, because that was what SG-1 had become over the past five-odd years. For Daniel, closer to her than her own brother, her partner-in-crime in all things academic and the most open-hearted, curious person she'd ever known. Technically Ascended, but as good as dead to his friends--he couldn't work through the night with her, couldn't secretly stuff his extra coffee supply in their packs, couldn't give an impromptu lecture on some obscure ancient mythology and its connection to the Goa'uld. 

For Teal'c, who without a Stargate could never return to Earth. Whose wife was dying. Dead? She'd never know, Sam realized. She'd never see him again either, her wise, thoughtful, loyal friend, who conveyed far more with a single word than most did with a hundred.

For Jack, the only man she'd ever really been in love with, who had been through so much, given so much, and continually believed he deserved so little. Who’d made her laugh, made her think, given her confidence. The intrepid leader of their little family, the heart and soul and deep down inside the most optimistic of all of them, even if he’d never admit it.

And Sam cried for herself, too. The one left behind.

The sobs quieted and then there were only tears streaming down her cheeks, ones she couldn't stop, and then her eyes ran out of tears and her cheeks dried a bit, until they felt sticky rather than wet. Sam sat like that for a while, staring sightlessly into the house, back still pressed rather uncomfortably against the door.

When it was too painful to sit curled up on the floor any longer, she stood stiffly, went to the kitchen, and got a glass of water.

Sam didn't remember moving there, but she ended up in Jack's bedroom. She'd only been in there a few times before--a few times when Jack was injured and Janet kicked him out of the infirmary, and SG-1 was taking turns caring for him, and one team night where Teal'c had gone to kel'no'reem a bit too early and her, Jack, and Daniel had gotten rather drunk and decided it would be much better to watch TV in Jack's bedroom, all three adults squished on the bed. Generally, for obvious reasons, she'd tried to avoid the room, but she found herself sliding between the covers, burying her face in the Jack-scented pillows, hiding from the sun and the day in general in a very un-Carter-like manner. She loved him, she missed him, and she'd never see him again. There hadn't been a parachute. Funny how all those things she never allowed herself to think about came to the surface, now when it didn't matter anymore. Everyone who mattered had known for years.

The tears came again, and she cried herself to sleep.

***

That was how Janet found her, having begged General Hammond to let her off a few hours early. He'd acquiesced fairly quickly, obviously concerned for Sam as well, though neither mentioned her by name. When Sam hadn't answered her phone or pager, Janet had driven to her house, then to Daniel's apartment (not yet cleaned out), and finally to Jack's house.

"Oh, Sam, honey," she murmured, sitting on the edge of the mattress. Motherly instincts taking over, Janet pulled the blankets over her sleeping friend, tucking her in like she used to tuck in Cassie.

Then, she headed down to the kitchen to cook dinner. Sam could use some comfort food when she woke up, and god knew she couldn’t cook it herself.

***

Thirty miles above Colorado Springs, unbeknownst to the SGC, four Jaffa manhandled an unconscious Jack O’Neill into a holding cell, then clunked away.

[gabeswritingthingy]

A Slice of Life in Space (Sample Work, Short Story)

Log Entry – 07.05.2050

Everyone on Earth saw it with their own eyes. Yesterday’s events will not be forgotten for a long time. For my part, I saw it while I was preparing pasta for my dinner. At 8:00 pm last night, the moon exploded. The blast was so strong the shockwaves could be felt here on the planet, which resulted in a short 2.5 magnitude earthquake. Thankfully, little to no damage was caused. It also didn’t produce any casualties, either - at least if you don’t consider my carbonara a casualty, because one of the moon chunks fell on the damned thing just as I was about to eat it. Instead, I carefully put on my gloves and placed it in an airtight container immediately. I called my boss and told him about the incident, all worried. She assured me that they have prepared for such an eventuality and have begun The Lunar Restoration Program as we spoke. Since the advancement of technology has come so far, the astronauts at the United Global Space Station had no trouble replacing the damaged 75% of the moon almost instantaneously by getting a clean sample of a moon rock, cloning it, then reattaching it to the rest of the moon on a molecular level. The actual problem, my boss said, is figuring out what caused the moon to explode in the first place.

I also asked her if moon dust is safe for the human body to consume in the hopes that I can still eat my pasta, and she threatened me with bodily harm if I even thought of attempting to do what I wanted to do. I just hung up and went to bed, knowing the next day is gonna be busy.

As part of The Lunar Restoration Program, Stargazer Laboratories has now been tasked by the Global Alliance to find out the cause of the moon’s destruction. My boss, Dr. Valentina Petrova, will be the one leading this operation. I am quite excited to put my efforts toward solving this mystery because we may finally find evidence of intelligent life outside the universe; or maybe this is all a big conspiracy and an UGSS astronaut blew up the moon for their own self-interest. Whatever it is, it’s very exciting stuff.

My name is Dr. Leonard Anderson, and these personal log entries aim to narrate and catalogue what will happen as this operation is going on. Although I do want to emphasize that this is still kinda like my own personal journal, in case this mission blows up in our faces – figuratively or otherwise – and the journalist, historian, or whoever finds this is baffled by the loose language and unnecessary details that will be seen here. So yeah, that’s it. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 07.06.2050

Crazy stuff, you guys. The astronauts finally flew in all the chunks that came off the moon for analysis. I also gave them my pasta-stained space rock, as it is still apparently valuable. We also interviewed the astronauts working on the space station that day. They told us that they found no traces of radiation after the explosion, so the use of nuclear weapons is out of the picture. They also found no radio signals or transmissions presenting threatening messages coming from outer space or planet Earth minutes before the event, so there is no evidence of human or alien intervention. Not yet, anyway.

The actual analysis of the moon rocks had revealed little, but what we did find out was interesting nonetheless. We found small traces of purple slime in the craters and small crevices, including the ones in my rock pasta. Finding the damn things took all day because there were a lot of chunks we had to go through and we only found a few traces of it. As of today, we have no idea if it was synthesized in the moon naturally, or someone put it there. We called it a day after that. Chemical analysis will be done tomorrow.

After a long, boring day of getting purple goo out of moon rocks, I finally went to see the Hamilton premiere on Mars with Paolo, Sigrid, and Jane. I don’t know them very well yet since they’re new additions to the team, but they seem cool from the first few hours I hung out with them, so I invited them to go with me. It’s amazing that Hamilton is still getting staged after 35 years, but it’s not very surprising, is it? Holy crap, I’m still getting chills when I watch it. What is amazing, however, is that we were able to see it on Mars at all. The planet was only colonized 10 years ago, and terraforming only started two years after that. We’re only half-way finished with the terraforming, but a fully-functioning atmosphere has already been built, and a few thousand people are already living there, which is incredible. The musical is still awesome whatever planet you stage it on, though. The production turned off the artificial gravity and took advantage of that to its fullest when it came to the choreography. It’s even more amazing than when I saw it back when I was a teenager.

What’s even more amazing, however, is the fact that our boss was also there. Seriously. Because we didn’t think that Dr. Petrova, the scary, muscular Russian lady who looks like she bench-presses bears as a hobby, is a fan of musical theater. We almost snuck out undetected, but she saw us. She invited us to have dinner with her, and we were honestly too scared to refuse.

But now, I am fascinated by her. My boss turns out to be a very chill lady. She has a deep, scary laugh, but that’s the only thing kinda scary about her, along with the muscles and the brooding attitude. So yeah, I guess we only found her scary because she’s our boss, and we never really thought of building a relationship with her outside of work. After that, we sang some zero-g karaoke and had a few drinks. Paolo, the little weakling that he is, vomited after two bottles. Puke is very gross when you look at it floating around. We flew him home after that and went our separate ways. This day did a lot of good easing my anxiety about this moon thing. But man, I am very tired.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 07.07.2050

Fucking hell, my head hurts. Wait. Why am I recording this right now? It’s only 3 am. What? Oh, damn, I’m still drunk. [snoring]

Holy crap, was this thing turned on all night? Alright. I am now fully awake and sober. I’ll record today’s events after work, as I always do.

[end of audio log]

We finally did chemical analysis on the purple slime. It has some properties that aren’t found on anything else on the planet, but it strangely bears some resemblance to nitroglycerin. Although because of its baffling chemical traits, it does not ignite when lit on fire. Something else probably detonated the slime, although we’re still not sure what it is.

The analysis almost didn’t happen, though. The samples went missing when work started in the morning. We were all frantic trying to find them. Then we found Paolo, bless his hungover ass, standing over the samples with a knife, a jar of peanut butter, and some bread. Dr. Petrova yelled at him, “THAT’S NOT GRAPE JELLY YOU DUMBFUCK!” and some Russian expletives I couldn’t understand. He jumped in surprise and fell on his ass, but otherwise he’s fine. He was sent home for the day because of his hangover. He didn’t eat the samples by accident, fortunately. I think the boss also didn’t punish him or anything, which is fair.

After that clusterfuck of a morning, work went smoothly. The analysis was done, and we found out what we found out. Work ended after that, because all of us were at a loss at what to do. It really seems like it’s an alien object, but we still can’t be sure. For now, we just put it inside the observation chamber. I immediately went home after because I didn’t really feel like hanging out. Solving a mystery’s just too exhausting sometimes, ya know?

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.08.2050

I stopped recording for several days after my last audio log because work had been long and busy. I only started again now because the experiments finally yielded results. Well, kind of.

Fucking scorch marks EVERYWHERE, y’all. After almost a month of nothing, the goo exploded again. I had to wake up at 6 am today because of that. My boss called me, absolutely frantic. I just thought that if SHE is panicking, then we are ALL panicking. I showered, got dressed, and ate breakfast in the span of ten minutes and immediately went to the lab like it’s the 2010’s and I had to go there by car because warp gates didn’t exist yet. THAT is how urgent the situation is.

What happened was that the alarms went off because the observation chamber blew up. All my friends and the boss were already there. We looked inside, and the samples got out of their glass cases, but not the room itself. Large-ass scorch marks were seen everywhere. Good thing the entire room is made out of titanium alloys.

Another look-around revealed that most of the room is now covered with purple goo, which means they somehow multiplied. It doesn’t complicate things at all. The security cameras also showed that nobody broke into the lab. An inventory of the items revealed that no equipment was stolen or messed with. Knowing that the observation chamber was still airtight, locked under heavy security, and nothing in it was actually broken, the only conclusion we came to is that the slime slipped through their cases, somehow ignited, then multiplied.

After cleaning up, we put all the slime in titanium-alloy boxes instead of glass ones. We cannot observe it properly that way, but we can’t take any chances, either. Letting it have even the slightest means of escape is dangerous. The only thing we can do for now is to continue analyzing while containing the rest.

We also managed to recover footage from the damaged security cameras inside the observation chamber. What we saw is kinda confusing, and we still don’t know what ignited the slime in the first place. It turns out that it kept exploding inside the glass case and somehow got bigger ang bigger until it got all over the chamber. The source of the explosion is still a mystery. More analysis will be done tomorrow. Hopefully some progress will be made.

Our boss wanted to hang out with us again, and we did not hesitate to say yes. There’s a meteor shower that’s gonna pass through the solar system today, and we can see it up close on Mars. We went there after work, and it was beautiful. The zero-gravity environment and protective force field around the planet allowed us to observe the meteors up close. None of y’all have lived at all if you haven’t seen comets changing colors and streaking through the darkness of space so close you can almost touch them. I haven’t seen such beauty since the first spacecrafts that landed on Mars was televised. Three of us saw Sigrid holding on to Paolo’s arm while they looked up, all mesmerized. Is she in love with him, or, knowing how much of a klutz he is, trying to stop him from careening over the observation deck by accident? We didn’t know. We just let them be.

After that, I realized I forgot my laptop in the lab. My boss said she’d go with me since she wanted to do some last-minute security sweeps and make sure the observation chamber wouldn’t explode again. All my friends went home and I went with my boss. She said she wanted to go there by spacecraft instead of warp gate because she wanted to take in the sights when we travel between Mars and Earth. Being that I have no plans and it’ll only take about an hour and a half anyway, I said sure, why not? She took her craft out of her bag, unshrunk it, and we set course for Earth.

There were some sights worth seeing, alright. Ever since humanity became capable of space travel 30 years ago, we developed a newfound appreciation for it. New quasars recently started to form between the empty spaces of Earth and Mars and I am ecstatic I live in a time I get to see them up close. Those beautiful gas clouds would eventually turn to stars and I cannot wait to see them.

I pondered a bit during that car ride. All this wouldn’t have happened if the planet didn’t get its shit together. 10 years before space exploration became a thing, Earth was on the brink of collapse. Thankfully, every country decided they had enough and actually worked together to finally put a stop to global warming. My parents said that to this day, they still can’t believe the sheer scale of unity that happened back then. From what I have read in history, I couldn’t believe it either. Holy crap, we can actually work together. All of those countries eventually became unified as the Global Alliance, one big-ass country with a big-ass, but more efficient government. All this happened a decade before I was born. I wish I could’ve seen it.

We finally got to the lab, and we did all the things we had to do. But my boss asked me if I can stay with her for a few minutes and have a couple of drinks. Turns out she has a secret stash stored in her office. It’s not late yet, so I said yes. I also wanted to know her better because she honestly seems cool.

We got to talking. I told her about myself; how I grew up in Washington, D.C., nearby what used to be NASA headquarters because my parents both worked there; how I saw the prototype for future spaceships being built; how all that inspired me to work in astronomy and join Stargazer Laboratories, all of it. To my surprise, she pressed further and asked me to tell her stuff about myself that has nothing to do with work or outer space or whatever. I mean… I guess she wants to be friends, too. Okay, sure.

Sorry to disappoint you, I told her, but there really is nothing else to tell. I can sing and play guitar a little bit, but I haven’t done those things in a long time because of work. They’re more of a hobby, really. She cut me off and told me that she actually kinda sings too, which just didn’t surprise me anymore considering she just seems like the type. I dunno, by this time I’ve just learned to throw away my initial impression of her that I got because she is clearly very different from the idea I had in my head. At this point, it’s getting very late, but we both didn’t care, so I just went ahead and asked her stuff about herself. She said she was born and raised in Russia, no surprise there. She also told me how her parents both worked in what used to be Roskosmos, the Russian space agency; how this also served as a catalyst for her to work in astronomy; and how she is also the eldest child, with four younger siblings. Now I know why she can lead a team so well. I thought this entire thing might be awkward at first, but man I am glad this happened. She gave me permission to call her Val outside of work, so I guess we cool now. We finally went home after a few hours. I should stop now. I still have work tomorrow.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.09.2050

As I predicted, I woke up super late this morning; 20 minutes before work started, in fact. It’s times like these I am very grateful for the existence of warp gates. I managed to prepare my tired ass in 10 minutes and get to work. I thought that would be the worst thing that’ll happen today. I still wish that I was right.

I got to work without incident. We conducted more chemical analysis on the definitely alien goo. Yeah, the others say there isn’t enough evidence, but I’m calling it right now; it definitely is. While in the middle of analysis, the power suddenly went out for a few seconds before turning on again. We checked the wiring and the generators after that happened; there was nothing wrong with them. Out of suspicion, I placed an EMP detector in the middle of the room and confirmed that there was an electromagnetic pulse that burst out in that spot — the exact spot where the purple slime was. We immediately contained it in the titanium-alloy box, and then I passed out.

I woke up in an ambulance, but thank heavens I was well enough not to go to the hospital. From what Val and the others told me, the slime exploded again the second we contained it. It was strong enough to break it open, which just gave me a lot of anxiety. Fortunately, it absorbed some of the impact and we were all just knocked out. Some of us have a few bruises — I have one on my left side right now — but aside from that, none of us were badly injured. We didn’t break any bones or anything like that. Aside from broken glass, shattered microscopes, and other things, none of our equipment was badly damaged. The construction crew said everything can be fixed by tomorrow, so most of us just went home early.

Jane went home because she can’t walk very well, but I saw Sigrid and Paolo going somewhere together. I am very sure they didn’t go home; not very surprising from what we’ve seen a few days ago. I also planned on going home, but Val asked me to hang out with her for some reason if I was feeling well. I said yes, since I can still walk fine and all.

She insisted on driving me there instead of just using a warp gate. I saw extreme excitement in her eyes, so I said yes out of curiosity. She said the trip would take about two hours, so I took a nap. I woke up and, to my surprise, we’re nearing Mars. I thought we were going to your house, I asked her. She said yes. Silence hung in there for a bit, then I realized. I mean, while I am kinda surprised that she lives on Mars, it still wasn’t that surprising. She seemed like the sort of person who would do it. But it turns out the surprise does not and there.

I got to her house, and my jaw dropped all the way to the floor of her spacecraft. It looked real fucking amazing. It was a behemoth of a structure. The middle looks like two giant gears. Surrounding it was what basically looked like a bunch of giant spears jutting out of the ground. The most insane part, however, was that the entire thing was made of glass. All of it. Made of glass. Oddly enough, it looked familiar, too; then it hit me. It looks exactly like the glass structure thingy Doctor Manhattan made in Watchmen! I said this to Val, and she looked quite surprised. She said that she planned it on purpose, and I was the very first to notice. Guess that’s another thing we have in common.

The landing bay was in the middle, so that’s where we went. The interior of her house — if you can call this thing a house — looks surprisingly normal. Well, normal for the head scientist of the world’s best space station, at least. It’s still big and all, but it doesn’t give off the scientist vibe. She took me to her living room surrounded top-to-bottom with bookshelves and a large-ass flatscreen TV. She served coffee, and we got to talking.

I saw her own copy of Watchmen and I lost my shit. It was a physical copy! The edges were a bit frayed, which showed that it was a well-read copy. She doesn’t keep it in a glass case because it’s a collector’s item or any of that bullshit, which is dope. Classics are meant to be read, not kept in a shelf to preserve it in “mint condition.” Physical copies of any books are rare these days — not that I’m complaining, since the almost non-existent use of paper did loads of good for the environment — but it’s still nice to see an actual book and not just a holographic facsimile. I saw her suddenly smiling at me like a maniac. “Nice to see you finally nerd out around me,” she said. “It’s nice that I can fully relax around you now,” I told her. She told me not to relax yet because she has a surprise.

She went into another room and gave me this huge box with wrapping paper. I stared at her like an idiot for a few seconds. She asked what was up, and then it occurred to me to look at the date. I felt like a moron in that moment and I told her why; I straight-up forgot it was my birthday today. Holy crap, I’m 30 years old already. She laughed at that. She laughed real hard. I mean, work’s just overwhelming and we might be dealing with eldritch alien horrors beyond our understanding, so it’s not surprising I forgot. After her fit, she finally handed me my gift. I opened it and my day got a whole lot better.

It was a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure special edition boxed-set. All of the anime adaptations were in it, parts 1 until 10. It’s surprising Jojo even ended at all, but I guess even Araki had to retire at some point. Guess he’s not a vampire after all. But how did she even know I’m a fan? To answer that question, she told me how much I talked non-stop about Jojo back when we got drunk at that karaoke bar on Mars. She got it on video, even; although it was blurry as hell because she was also drunk. Damn, it turns out I talk a lot when I’m hammered. The party got started after that. She suggested we watch it together on her big-ass TV since she also hasn’t watched it in a long time, so we did. Holy crap, the animation looks better on a TV that large. Another fact about Val: she cooks a mean pasta.

After binging season 1, she told me to close my eyes for a bit. Guess the surprises weren’t over yet. I opened them after a few seconds, and my face suddenly got covered in chocolate icing. Turns out she secretly invited Jane and the others while I was distracted. We celebrated some more; we bungee-jumped off her balcony; we ate more food; we jammed to some songs, with me and Val singing some songs while I played guitar. We blended well when we sang some show tunes. It felt good to sing after a long time. I didn’t know that I missed it this much. I can definitely say this is the best birthday ever. Work begins again tomorrow. But for now, I rest. Can’t wait to binge Jojo again after all this.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.10.2050

For the first time in a long while, we finally had a breakthrough! We had to finagle the experiment a bit to get there, too. We already tested for temperature and got no results; putting the goo through varying degrees of temperature does not do anything to it. Lighting it on fire doesn’t yield any results, either. Because of that, we thought that maybe it’s being ignited like an actual bomb by an outside force and not through natural means. The idea we came up with is to simply put a small radio transmitter inside the damn thing. Yup. That’s it. It seems too simple to work, but it surprisingly did.

The transmitter lit up five hours after we put it in. Holy crap, we were right! The goo is somehow receiving radio signals from somewhere we cannot locate. A few seconds later, it exploded inside the two layers of the titanium-alloy box we put it in, so we know that radio signals can pass through the box somehow. I’m quite relieved and excited by this because it means two things: we’re just dealing with a criminal with sophisticated equipment and not extraterrestrial forces or whatever, and the solution to this won’t be too difficult. We just have to track the signal with better equipment, track down the criminal, arrest him and finally get some answers. After that, we put the goo back in the observation chamber with some signal jammers to ensure that it won’t ignite again.

I prepared to go home, since Jane and Sigrid are both sick so after-work hangout seemed impossible. But Val pulled me into her office. Paolo was also there, and apparently, he needs our help. He said that he and Sigrid finally became a thing a couple of days back, after almost a month of dating. Props to them. He said he hasn’t told her about it yet because it’s supposed to be a surprise; he plans on taking her to the restaurant peak of Olympus Mons tomorrow for dinner as their first actual date, and he needs us to take her there. Being the good friends that we are, we immediately said yes. He was so ecstatic he ran out the building skipping and yelling in glee. I was about to leave as well, but Val held me back. Okay, I guess she wants to talk a bit more.

She looked flustered as hell for some reason. I can tell she was blushing under the moonlight coming from her window. She kinda looked cute, actually. She said that it’s already been a month since we became friends, which was true. She also said despite it only being a month, a lot already happened and we were kinda close already and stuff, which was also true. I told her that yes, I also do think we grew closer in that time and that I think she’s really cool, especially after she threw me that surprise party. This was also the point that I asked her where she was going with this, and I am quite aware that I should’ve seen it coming. She told me she liked me for already quite a while now. It all started when I nerded out over her copy of Watchmen, she said, and that she’s been hinting at that the past few times we were hanging out. What I’m about to say next would be an approximation of the play-by-play of my thoughts during that moment and how I reacted: “She was hinting at it? How did I not notice? Am I that oblivious? More importantly though, do I like her back? I mean, she is cool. She lives on Mars on a giant glass mansion. She’s an anime fan, a singer, we click together. She’s a bit loud sometimes. She’s also assertive as a boss and a very chill person outside of work and I am definitely into that. She’s a very good leader and also a great friend and person so what do I really think--?”

That entire thought process went through my brain like lightning. My feelings for her immediately crashed down on me like a waterfall. It was insane. The reason my thoughts just stopped there was because I immediately kissed her suddenly, inside her dark office lit only by moonlight. I imagine she saw me blush after I pulled away. I profusely apologized after that and was almost out the door when I was cut off, this time by her kissing me back. Silence hung in the air for a minute after that.

So, she asked me back. “When did you start liking me?” I thought back, and I said it was probably the first time we drank in her office. We planned an actual date tomorrow, and we finally left the lab. I guess that’s that. I am quite surprised, although I know I shouldn’t have been. I went home feeling a bit giddy and at peace. I am gonna sleep well tonight.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.11.2050

[crying]

It’s been quite a long day. I… I’m not well. I’ll have to start from the beginning.

Work began normally, at first. When this day started, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I had a date after work and I was also gonna help my friends with theirs; I had things to look forward to. But that all changed, just like that. God, I can’t do this.

It all began when Val informed us that Jane had been missing since yesterday. She received a call from the police just this morning; apparently, it seems like someone broke into her house. Signs of a struggle can be found everywhere, and she’s nowhere to be found. So yeah, one can say it was a rough start. We went to work, hoping she eventually gets found.

The uh, the thing happened when we were supposed to start analysis again. Paolo and Sigrid went into the observation chamber to get the sample. The rest of us were setting up equipment when we heard the sound of metal tearing apart. We ran there as fast as we could; I wish I hadn’t got there first.

We were shocked to see Jane there, except by that point, she wasn’t even Jane anymore. Her red hair has been cut short; patches of bald spots could be found everywhere. There were cracks all over her face and body, all glowing purple. Her eyes were also glowing purple and [choking sounds] she was swinging a kitchen knife around. We tried to go in, but she ripped off one of the empty glass cases from the floor and threw it at us with ease. She screamed in a garbled voice that wasn’t hers and lunged at Sigrid with the knife. Paolo pushed her out of the way and he got wounded instead. Sigrid screamed in shock, but she suddenly got cut off when the creature held her on the neck and threw her at the wall head-first, instantly breaking her neck. I can still hear her screaming until now; the moment that scream suddenly got cut off for the last time is still fresh in my mind.

Before any more damage can be done, the creature suddenly collapsed. With all the commotion, we didn’t hear the alarm sounding and the police getting here. They said they used a small taser to take it down; when we investigated, we saw a small, circular thing around its neck. It was the size of a button and probably where the electric shock came from. We immediately worked with the police to restrain the creature, being that we had all the equipment we need. We contained it in a large titanium box, the ones used to transport dangerous criminals. The creature was also restricted in there by titanium straps around her forehead, waist, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles. As a final measure, the box also has electricity running through the outside so that it gets shocked when it breaks the restraints and tries to force its way out. The creature will be interrogated by all of us tomorrow. First, we took care of my friends and gave them a proper burial. After work, I just climbed up onto the roof of the building because the moon looked beautiful and I needed to be alone. Turns out Val had the same idea. We just sat there, alone, not saying anything. Eventually, we just cried with each other for God knows how long until our tear ducts simply dried out. Knowing I can’t bear to be alone right now, I invited her to sleep at my house. She agreed, and we went home.

She’s asleep right now, as I’m recording this. That’s where my life is at, I guess. We’re one step closer to solving this mystery, but my friends have died. That’s simply not fair. [choked sobs] God, I’m gonna miss them so much. We’ve been through a lot now, even though we’ve known each other for only a few months. I hope the creature that took my friend’s body gives us what we need tomorrow. I hope it pays dearly for what it did. [crying]

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.12.2050

Just came back from the interrogation today. I won’t record much. I feel a bit sick to my stomach from what I’ve just heard, and I don’t think it’ll go away soon. I’ll just listen to the audio log of the interrogation the ICD was kind enough to share with us.

[end of audio log]

Interplanetary Crimes Division

Interrogation Audio Log #48783

This is Detective Charles Chapman speaking for the Interplanetary Crimes Division offices located in Tromsø, Norway. Just yesterday, one of the scientists at Stargazer Laboratories had brutally murdered two other scientists there and had also caused significant damage to some equipment. Considering that the perpetrator seemingly has inhuman strength, glowing skin, and other physiological anomalies that cannot be found in other human beings, the possibility that the perpetrator is no longer human but merely an empty shell being used is being considered as a possibility. The creature is now properly restrained inside a titanium box with titanium straps. The cage is also lined with electricity and is inside a forcefield. The interrogation will be conducted with me outside the forcefield; communication will only be done through wireless communicators.

Detective Chapman: Who are you?

The Creature: [silence]

DC: Do you have a name?

H: I am called Helvig, but my people have given me the moniker of The Oncoming Storm, for all the planets I have brought destruction upon.

DC: If I recall correctly, your friends told me that your name is Jane.

Helvig: The one you call Jane is no more. What you see before you is nothing more than her empty body, hollowed out when I took possession of it.

DC: OKAY. I’m glad we cleared that up. I guess the next thing I have to ask is, how did you manage to infiltrate this planet?

H: I came here when I destroyed your moon using what you call the purple slime as my weapon. I hitched a ride inside one of the resulting debris then took possession of this biped’s weak body. Do you know how hard it is to control human brains? It took me almost a month to assert total dominance.

DC: Really? Well, if that’s the case, how come you’ve been able to manipulate your weapon before that?

H: I have been able to assert a tiny bit of control before, although this biped didn’t know it at the time. I’m just damned unlucky that the times I gained little authority over this body and attempted to kill you all didn’t amount to anything.

DC: I guess that answers that. So why are you here? Why this planet in particular?

H: Why do you think I am called The Oncoming Storm? I am here to bring destruction, nothing more.

DC: Now, why would you do that? Were you ordered to do so by your people?

H: My people are no more. My planet was destroyed when two stars near the place your people call the Kuiper Belt collided; the resulting supernova destroyed my home, and the blast was so strong it propelled my ship all the way to your moon. Had I not found this body to possess, I might have died. But I am here, and this planet shall be destroyed in the memory of my people.

DC: If I may ask again, why? What could the destruction of this planet possibly do for you?

H: Nothing! It will do nothing for me! My people are gone, and my planet is no more. Keeping up our tradition of destruction will be the only way of preserving their memory. After your planet, other ones that bear life will also fall by my hand.

DC: Well, thank you for answering my questions without any fuss. You are the politest criminal I have ever talked to; you know that?

H: Thank you, Charles.

DC: In return, I will extend the same courtesy; do not attempt to destroy this planet. Humanity has advanced beyond your imagination, and there are a lot of us. You will not succeed.

H: [laughter] None of you can stop me! The only reason I gave you information freely is because I know none of you will be able to do anything; you weaklings only managed to restrain me because my powers have not settled into this weak body yet! Give it a bit more time, and I will burn this place to the ground. After this, your planet comes next! [laughter]

I decided to end it there, because I’ve gotten all that I need. Orders from the top brass indicate that the next course of action to be taken would be a joint effort with Stargazer Laboratories to find ways to defeat this creature and save the planet.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 08.13.2050

I guess I was wrong. We are dealing with aliens. If not for what’s happened, I would be very happy right now. But not even getting a definitive answer to the question of “are we alone in the universe?” would excite me; especially because one of the answers to that question just killed three of my friends and is now controlling one of their dead bodies like a puppet. Work has been postponed due to the damages our lab has taken, so I honestly don’t know why I’m making the effort to record right now; it’s not like something’s gonna happen today, anyway. Maybe I just need to distract myself from the quiet.

I tried to distract myself by other means, of course. I attempted to binge that Jojo box set I have, but it didn’t work; memories of my surprise birthday party just resurfaced. It’s just too painful. [sobbing]

I… I can’t. I just… I just, can’t. It’s not fair! [crashing sounds] [crying] It’s not fa- [static]

[end of audio log]

There you go. So I, uh… I may have gone berserk earlier, but I’m doing kinda better now. I broke my audio log recorder, but I think I’ve fixed it. Before I stop though, something did happen today that’s worth recording, so… I’m glad for that.

After crying for I don’t actually know how long, somebody rang my doorbell. I looked through my security cameras and found Val standing in my doorway; which honestly came as a surprise, until it occurred to me that she probably wants to check how I’m doing. It stung a bit, knowing that I was too sad and didn’t even think about doing the same for her. I hastily prepared myself and went downstairs.

She looked kinda disheveled and sad, like she’s on a great rush to get here; she had that sad look on her eyes, too. But that’s hardly a surprise, is it? What was a surprise, however, was how beautiful she looked despite all of that. It just so happens that my house has an awe-inspiring view of the hills, and the sunset just happened to hit her as she stood by my door. My day got marginally better after that.

I let her in, and we talked. I asked her if she was okay, and she told me she’s holding up as well as I am, after a cursory look around the mess I made just before she showed up. My recorder was broken in some parts; furniture was everywhere; my glass table was in pieces, all that stuff. We sat in quiet for a while. She eventually told me if I wanted to have the date that we had to postpone two days ago. It took me about two full minutes to think about it, but I said yes; it looked like we both needed it.

We warped to the grassy, quiet park on Olympus Mons; I’m still amazed at how far humanity has gone in terraforming. She prepared a picnic and everything. I cooked some pasta, because of course I did I’m good at it, and I needed a win today. The whole thing wasn’t very eventful, but it was exactly what we needed. We talked, like we always talked. We looked down from the mountain we were on top of, and the view was exhilarating. We looked up, and stared in awe of the stars above us. We reminisced, and remembered the moments we had with them; how Paolo got drunk and vomited in zero gravity; how Sigrid bungee-jumped from the top of Val’s roof and the anti-climactic result of it as we remembered that the artificial gravity was turned off; how Jane accidentally got a face full of cake when I threw it at her; all these memories and others, we remembered last night under the stars on top of the tallest mountain on Mars. It stings, remembering them; but it’s also comforting, somehow.

The nature of our friendship was contemplated as well. If Earth didn’t get its shit together all those years ago, the Global Alliance wouldn’t exist today; all the space travel and huge technological leaps wouldn’t have happened, and travel between countries would still be a pain. We were lucky that we were all brought together in one place. Thinking about the unlikeliness of our friendship just made both of us sadder, considering what happened. We eventually got up and left the mountain.

One last thing we wanted to do before going home was to visit the places where they’re now buried. We already conducted a funeral for them after the creature got arrested and sent them back to their families, but we wanted to see them again, so we can properly say goodbye this time.

First, we warped our way to Brazil to visit Paolo. His family was there, watching over him. We quietly mourned with them for a few minutes, although it felt longer than that. We eventually gave our condolences and left. Our next stop was Sweden, where Sigrid is. No one was watching over her grave, but we did see a few freshly-lit candles around it. The cold winds were swirling all around us, but we hardly noticed them at all. We had no idea how long we stayed, but the cold did get to us eventually, and we left. Our last stop for the night was in Canada, Jane’s home. This visit just made us sadder because we know that her grave is empty; her family will never have a body to bury. No one else was there, which wasn’t strange, considering it’s almost midnight, but we weren’t alone for long when two young women came there; they were her two younger sisters, it turns out. They brought warm tea, and they were kind enough to share it with us. We talked, reminisced about the memories we have with her, and we mourned. Before leaving, Val and I promised them that while we cannot bring their sister back, we can put her to rest by putting the creature down permanently.

I brought her back to Mars. We said our goodbyes, kissed for God knows how long because we didn’t count, and we went home. I… I miss them. I miss them so damn much. [crying]

[end of audio log]

Stargazer Laboratories

Log Entry – 08.15.2050

[crying]

I’ll admit. Considering what I’m about to do, I am scared. I fear that I may not come back from this, but strangely, I am also at peace. This insane, dangerous plan has a high chance of success, and I am more than willing to do it. But first, let’s go back to the beginning.

Yesterday, I got a call from the ICD at 6 am telling me that the prisoner has escaped. Apparently, it got out of its restraints and simply destroyed both the cage and the forcefield using brute strength alone. The thing that is defiling my friend’s body got stronger, just like it said it would. It killed almost all of the police officers before everyone got out and put the building on lockdown. The entire building was then launched through the sky via rockets attached to the foundation as a last resort security measure; it is now floating just a little bit above the atmosphere, surrounded by a bigger forcefield. The creature will be kept in there, but not for long. I immediately prepared and went to the lab with the others; I imagine they got the same call.

We immediately started to formulate a plan to defeat the creature. According to the police, the forcefield will only last until about 4 am today until it runs out of power. There’s also the trouble of the creature getting even stronger than it is now, so we had to account for that, too. The only consolation we have is that it can only use its psychic powers to activate the slime and nothing else; it has to be near it, too. One of the police officers suggested that we simply just have the rockets push the building farther into space, but that was shot down; the rockets simply weren’t built for that, so it doesn’t have enough fuel. We also thought of just straight-up making the building explode, but Detective Chapman shot this idea down, too. Turns out he already fired a couple rockets at the creature and it simply kept walking, unscathed. Our last idea was to warp the entire building to the other end of the universe, but we realized it was also futile; warp gates were made with humans in mind. Creating one as big as a building has never been done before; it might collapse in on itself and implode, or create a black hole that will destroy the Earth. We came to the conclusion that there is only one way to solve this once and for all; one of us has to go up there and destroy the creature ourselves.

A drone was sent to fly near the building and investigate. The entire structure was reduced to rubble. The creature was jumping around, throwing large chunks of debris at the forcefield in an attempt to destroy it. That gave us the drive to really solve this as soon as possible. I remembered what the creature told us back then; how it got to Earth because a supernova propelled its ship here while it’s trying to escape. Then I had a crazy idea.

I told them that the energy of two collapsing stars was the only thing we know of that almost destroyed the creature; I remembered how it told us it was on the verge of death and only survived because it found a host. Then I told them my idea; find three stars that’s the nearest to Mars, put an artificial gravity drive between them, wait for them to move towards each other, then siphon off the energy from the resulting supernova into the engine of a laser cannon. This is the easy part. The next step is that said laser cannon with the energy of three collapsed stars now have to be attached to a spacecraft and fired directly at the creature. The resulting recoil may destroy said ship; or it won’t. This is something no one has actually done before, so none of us are quite sure how this will happen. None of us can come up with a new plan, so this is what we have to go with.

We found three stars near each other just beyond the outskirts of Mars. Siphoning off large amounts of energy in a supernova was terrifying, but not actually that difficult. I, and two other scientists, finished the job in just a couple of hours. Val and I worked together to design a laser cannon strong enough to handle the energy of three stars. The next thing we have to do now is to decide who’s gonna fly up there and do the job. The ICD can’t do it; only two of them are left. One has no combat experience, and the other is Detective Chapman, who’s simply too old for the job. We can’t ask for help from the military, or the other offices of the ICD, either. All of the warp gates in the lab had been damaged, and the personal warp gates we’re carrying had also been messed up due to the star radiation we had to work with. We’re all alone in this.

I looked around the room and realized that the only person who can do this is me. I told this to the others, and Val vehemently opposed it, as I expected. After a shouting match, I told her we just have to talk it out in private. It didn’t really work; we just shouted at each other louder since no one was around to hear us. We finally ran out of energy and just sat down.

So… yeah. After calming down enough to talk, she asked me why I thought I’m the only one who can do it. I told her it’s because I built both the cannon and the modified ship with her, so I’m the only one who can use them. I also want to be the one to personally put the creature down. She got angry at me, told me that she’ll be the one to do it instead, since she knows the machines as well as I do. I tried to talk back, but she was still so angry and started speaking Russian, like she always does when she’s mad. I did something I didn’t expect to do; I laughed. It was real, too. I haven’t had one like it in what feels like a long time. She started laughing, too. We just did that until we ran out of breath again.

I explained to her that this was exactly what she did when I asked her if I can eat my rock pasta; it was also what she did when Paolo almost ate the purple goo. I told her that I love this about her; how passionate and caring she is for the ones that she loves; how I do not want her passion to be snuffed out of this world too early; and how I am sure I am the only one who can do this because she can still lead Stargazer Labs further into the future. I told her how I wanted her to see Earth and the rest of humanity go further into the reaches of space. Finally, I told her the simplest and most important reason why it has to be me; I told her I love her. I love her very much and I cannot bear to see her die and that is why I have to do this. After that, we just broke down together. The tears just kept flowing. She told me she loves me, too. She told me she can’t bear to see me go, either, but I told her she has to go on. I told her again how the lab needs her, and after this, probably the world. We just kept quiet, savoring each other’s company for what might be the last time. We eventually slept for two hours, in each other’s arms. We got up and made the last preparations. We had another short meeting on how things would be done. I simply have to fly up there and aim directly at the creature. Sounds too easy, but we all know it isn’t. After saying goodbye to them, I excused myself for a bit and ended up here.

It is now 3 am, August 15, 2050. I will do what I need to do half an hour from now. From what we’ve seen of the drone footage, the forcefield will last until 4 am, as predicted. I wish I was recording this at home, using my own recorder, but I have no way to get there, so here I am, using the only functional one in the lab. I’m gonna end it here, so suffice it to say the next words I’ll be saying may be my last.

Val, I love you. I know you’re my boss, but I’m glad we did away with the professional awkwardness that might have arisen and just found the time to relax with each other. I am so happy that we met outside of work during that Hamilton premiere on Mars. I thought that I have what I wanted out of life, working in a space station; I am happy you were the one who proved me wrong. [crying] I love you, Val. If these are the last things I will ever say, then I want them to be these words. I love you, and I always will.

[end of audio log]

Log Entry – 10.15.2050

It’s been two months, Leo. Two months. Two long, agonizing months since you passed. [crying]

It’s still clear as day, what happened. I remembered the kiss we shared before you took off. I remembered seeing the blast from the cannon finally incinerate the creature after a minute. I remember how we cheered when we saw you succeed, then suddenly get silenced when your engine blew up. I remember being horrified seeing you fall back down to Earth, then zooming in on the cockpit and seeing you smile one last time before the drone was destroyed by the blast.

The charred remains of the ship landed just outside the lab. Although burned, you somehow managed to stay in one piece. After that, we did what we were supposed to do. We cleaned up the lab and the ship, and we had your funeral a few days later. I was the one who gave your eulogy, you know that? I hope you heard it, and I hope you liked it if you did.

This is the first time in a while I came back to Olympus Mons. I finally had the courage to go after hearing the message you left for me. Your parents let me have a copy of the other audio logs you did. I’ll admit, I haven’t been doing well in a while, but hearing your voice again really helped me.

I think it’s finally time. You said you wanted me to see space travel advance further, right? I already have an idea. Since we now know that life exists outside of Earth, I thought of how maybe we can come up with ways to reach them. I know the last species we interacted with almost destroyed us, but I know there’s more of them out there. Perhaps they are kinder. Perhaps they’re willing to break bread with us. I was thinking of calling it “The Cosmic Unity” project but it sounds too tacky, doesn’t it? I just hope I already have a proposal I can pass to the Global Alliance in a year or so. All of this is for you, Leo. All of it. It’s for the sake of the planet’s progress, too, but it is for you I do this, most of all. [sobbing]

I love you, Leo. I love you more in every day that passes.

[end of audio log]

[acraftedmistake]

A Person Who Has Never Played MCSM Writes A Story About MCSM Chp. 8

This chapter was a TRIP to write I have been so excited to write this chapter for a lil while now fnbdgsf

Hope you guys enjoy!! 

It was mainly Aiden and Cassie Rose who told Radar everything that had happened since they left The Shrine Of Eyes; Radar listened keenly and wrote down as much as he possibly could. He’d ask questions along the way and Aiden tried to answer them the best he could or would outright admit he didn’t know yet.

Once Radar had been filled in on everything he wondered if he could be of any use to them. Everyone was on board except for Cassie Rose, who was the most hesitant of the bunch, but Aiden told her they needed all the help they could get, and a friend like Radar with his knowledge being a part of their team would certainly be useful.

After their discussion, Gill made dinner for everybody--though Radar declined--and they all sat around tossing suggestions for what their next course of action should be. Most were picked apart or retracted, no one was certain on what to do. They had ideas such as going to Petra and seeing if she had any items related to portals, but they needed to know what they wanted. Cassie did mention Petra trades items with other people; since the portal had been activated recently, she could have interacted with someone who took part in said-activation. It was definitely worth checking out.

Aiden said they shouldn’t let the books from the library sit around; they could read some before going to bed to spark ideas. While they were all grabbing a book Aiden also suggested they go to bed early. He was met with a few moans.

“I know we all like to stay up late,” Aiden started, “but we’re gonna be busy tomorrow. Plus I’ll be waking you all early.” Aiden grabbed the small journal from Hadrian’s sitting on the kitchen table.

“Come on, Aiden!” Cassie pleaded, “It’s only 8 AM...ish.”

Radar jumped out of his seat, “Have I really been here for nearly 4 hours?!”

He collected his clipboard and pen and held them tightly, hurriedly making his way to the door.

“I apologize for taking so much of your time. I didn’t intend on staying for so long.”

“Radar, don’t apologize.” Aiden said, catching up with his finely suited friend and placed his hand on the door’s knob. “If we didn’t want you here, we would’ve said something.”

Radar glanced at Aiden, who wore a reassuring smile, then to the group behind him. He caught glimpses of Cassie’s look of annoyance before Stella stepped in the way,

“You asked for information and we provided. I believe that’s time well spent!” Stella chimed with certainty. Aiden nodded along to her statement.

“Time flies when you’re having a crisis.” Maya commented, her arms crossed as she leaned against the couch.

Radar nodded and took a deep breath. Aiden opened the door, letting in the crisp air that the early morning offered into their stuffy house. The sky was a calming light blue, not nearly as intense as it’d get in the early afternoon. Radar stepped a foot through the doorway and was about to bid the group farewell when Gill abruptly asked, “Will we see ya tomorrow?”

“Of course.” Radar adjusted his glasses, “I’ll be coming over at roughly 7:30.”

“Sounds good.” Aiden said as he watched Radar make his way outside, “Have a good one, Radar.”

“Good day.” Radar did a small bow and began his walk home.

Aiden closed the door and everyone stood still for a few moments listening to Radar’s steps get quieter and quieter till nothing but silence remained.

“Okay. Bed.” Aiden said. Everyone groaned.

Gill, Stella, and Cassie began making their way to their rooms, each with a book in one hand. They talked amongst themselves as Aiden watched them until they were no longer in his field of view. He wasn’t expecting them to fall asleep the second their faces touched a pillow, he was okay with them staying up an extra hour if they wanted to, or if they needed to read.

Ever since Jesse had nearly destroyed Cavern City and escaped prison, no one’s been able to get a goodnight’s sleep. The group would split up and search every building, corner, alleyway, and even checked the nearby forests surrounding Obsidian Town. They’d search while the Sun was high in the sky all the way until it dipped into the east horizon. They’ve asked anybody and everybody if they’ve seen any sign of Jesse and got nothing. Though Aiden and his friends knew there were always liars amongst the crowd, you could never tell who was speaking the truth.

The past several days have been rather… Stressful. And sleepless. Heck, maybe their sleep schedule’s been butchered long before Cavern city. When’s the last time any of them slept well?

They needed the energy for tomorrow.

They couldn’t afford dozing off, getting distracted, nor getting grouchy all because they didn’t want to go to bed at an earlier time. Aiden knew he was guilty of acting in such a manner when he was sleep deprived.

“I’m gonna stay down here for a little.” Maya said to Aiden.

She went over to a chest beside the bookshelf in the living room, took out a couple of swords, an axe, and took them over to the kitchen table.

“Just gonna polish these. Maybe sharpen ‘em.”

She pulled open a drawer in the kitchen, grabbed a thick cloth--roughly the size of her hand--and sat back down. “I’ll go to bed soon. Try to read some as well.”

Aiden nodded before going upstairs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Radar walked through the barren streets of Obsidian Town, his oxford shoes making small tapping sounds with each step he took. He had started creating his schedule for tomorrow; helping Aiden and doing a tour all in one day would be no easy feat, but nothing a little planning and organization couldn’t fix.

Radar read what he had written down aloud, “At 5:30 I’ll wake up, I should be cleaned and dressed by 6:00… I’d have enough time to have a proper breakfast before meeting with Aiden...”

His voice dwindled and he began tapping the pen against his chin, resisting the urge to chew on the end of it like he usually did. He couldn’t recall what Aiden, Stella, or anybody had planned for tomorrow. Was their next step even decided?

He continued to stare intensely at the unfinished list, walking aimlessly as he thought to himself, ‘They did mention going to Petra’s… Her place is rather far from the town but if our time is used wisely, we should be left with enough time for the tour.’

Radar had never been to Petra’s home before, he only knew it was a distance away when Petra told him herself while visiting a few months ago. If he recalled correctly, her house was in the northwest forest by the mountains. Shouldn’t be too long of a walk.

Hopefully they’d only be going to Petra’s tomorrow. He wouldn’t be able to save the tour for another day if Aiden and his friends decide to pile on more trips. Jesse and Olivia need to get home, after all.

Radar began clicking his pen at a steady pace, ‘Back to their universe…’

Seeing the two of them was a shock; he was amazed to see a deceased friend back in tip-top shape. Maya, Stella, Cassie, Gill, and Aiden all spoke of how they felt dissociated with Olivia and--as bitter of a taste it left in his mouth--he had to agree. The Olivia he saw back at the house was more like a stranger who looked identical to their Olivia. Of course, seeing her and knowing she’s from another universe fascinated him nonetheless.

His encounter with Jesse? A near heart attack experience, to put it nicely.

To see someone share the appearance with such a… Such a despicable man, while wearing a genuine, welcoming smile sat terribly with him. A part of his brain was shouting this was deception, yet no alarms went off.

But he was still Jesse. Radar knew he wasn’t the Jesse he knew but he was still Jesse. Running into him like that… Running…

Radar’s hands started becoming clammy.

‘Stop thinking about it.’ He told himself. He held his breath and gripped the clipboard tightly, hoping it wouldn’t slip from his grasp as he forced his mind to search for another subject.

A question popped up: ‘What would the tour consist of?’

Radar’s eyes brightened and he unclenched his jaw. He took a moment to observe the area around him for a spark of inspiration, Obsidian Town was the home to many and contained a rich history of their world. St. Stephen’s Library would be a wonderful place to start off! On their way there, they could stop at some of the monuments scattered throughout the town and he could explain what they represented!

His eyes drifted to the left where the town’s park entrance stood; a wide arch made of cool gray bricks which were cracked and moss covered. Perhaps he, Olivia, and Jesse could stroll through and he could answer whatever questions they had.

Nobody was at the park. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the place completely empty.

He looked around the rest of the town and realized he was the only one outside, though deep down inside, he knew he was never alone. Everyone else was closing their stores for the day, finishing their dinners, getting ready for bed… The world was a much different place under the Sun and it’s plain sky compared to the lively, colorful evenings.

A bird flying by caught his attention, his eyes followed and watched the creature as it sat in its nest on top of the roof of one of the many stores, singing its song.

Everyone was ready to sleep yet the rest of the world’s creatures seemed wide awake.

‘You should be going home.’ A voice in his head said.

He should. He can plan the rest of the tour before bed, or--worst case--tomorrow.

Regret filled his mind when he started walking as the thoughts of Jesse and his universe were starting to come back. It wasn’t the… ‘Good’ Jesse he was worried about, but his mind would go from that Jesse to theirs and he didn’t want to work himself up over nothing.

Radar forced his hand to write whatever gibberish came to him, his pen was getting coated with sweat. Why did he have to remind himself of Jesse?

He kept walking. The world was becoming noisier. The pen would scrape the paper as he wrote nonsense, the light breeze which swayed the trees started sounding like a windstorm, the chirps of bugs and birds blared in his ears, even the tapping of his own shoes were getting distracting.

Radar tried to block out the noise but then he noticed… The tapping didn’t sync up with his steps.

Was he hearing things incorrectly?

He began walking faster. So did the tapping. It still didn’t sync.

Something was wrong.

Radar held his breath and gripped his clipboard.

He spun around and let out a cry, his heart nearly bursting out of his chest.

Jesse jumped as well, taken aback by Radar’s reaction.

“OH MY--” Radar held the board to his chest and shut his eyes tightly, “You scared me!”

He took in mouthfuls of air, trying to settle his pounding heart down.

And he thought the first encounter with Jesse was terrifying.

“One moment. One moment.” He told the brunet, whose eyes were wide with surprise.

Jesse stood perfectly still, his hands held behind his back as if patiently waiting for Radar to collect himself.

Radar opened his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and took one more deep breath.

“I apologize,” He started with a shaky voice, “I didn’t--I thought Aiden said… He said…”

Radar found himself stumbling over his own words. He attempted to rephrase the sentence, but all he could manage to do was repeat “I… I-I…” over and over again.

He was waiting to calm down again, for his heart to beat regularly, for his voice to return to it’s usual flatness. But it didn’t.

Something is wrong.

Beads of sweat formed on his face and his body began to tremble as if freezing.

As realization seeped into Radar, Jesse’s mouth curled. His smile got bigger and bigger as he peered into Radar’s fear-filled eyes.

“What did Aiden say about me?” Jesse asked in a curious tone with the mocking smile. He leaned forward while remaining in place, hands still behind back.

“N…” Radar struggled to speak, “Nothing--None of your concern!”

He should run. He needs to run. Aiden’s would be the safest. But Jesse’s right there. Right in front of him. Radar couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He can’t.

“Really?” Jesse clutched at his chest, “I’ve been gone for a whole week and Aiden hasn’t said anything about me?” He said in that sham of a sad tone Radar was all too familiar with.

Stop looking at him. Stop looking at him. Think straight. Do something. Look away. Do something.

Radar forced his head to the right, facing away from him, but he could still see the vibrant red straps of Jesse’s suspenders out of the corner of his eye, tempting him to look back.

Jesse brushed aside a long curl of hair in his face, “What were you doing at Aiden’s? Must’ve been important. Or maybe!” He recreated Radar’s pose; pretending to clutch a board and  looked in another direction with a terrified expression, “It’s the only place you feel ‘safe’ in! The big, strong heroes will protect you from all the eyes!”

“I don’t--I--” Radar pushed past the ridicule, “How do you know I was with them? Were you watching us?” He tried to steady his voice.

Jesse’s faced him again, “Not this time.”

Radar flinched and covered his face with the board on command.

Jesse stepped closer, Radar stepped back.

“I could hear your shrieky voice from across the town,” Jesse’s once mocking--though still expressive--tone had been dropped. “You could put it to use and tell me what you were doing.”

“If you… If you’re so interested,” Radar tried to gather as much courage as he could from his quivering body, “Why do--Why don’t you ask Aiden yourself?!”

“Hm.” Jesse took a step back and thought to himself. “Not a bad idea.” He shrugged and spun around, slowly walking away.

Radar’s hands clutched onto the clipboard so tightly he was afraid it’d snap in two. He was surprised to see Jesse on board with the idea. When he’d get there, Maya, Aiden, Gill, Stella, Cassie Rose, they could all deal with him. Yes, yes. They wouldn’t have to stress over finding Jesse if he was right in front of them! Perfect! Brilliant! No one would get hurt. No one. Not his friends, not him, not… Olivia and Jesse.

The other Jesse and Oliva.

Their Jesse couldn’t see them.

No, no, no. If he saw either one of them--No, no, he couldn’t let that happen. And it’d be Radar’s fault. His fault. Maya. Aiden. Cassie--they would get hurt or taken or killed, this town would be destroyed and it’d all be his fault. His fault, his fault, his fault--

Jesse’s distanting steps were nearly drowned out by Radar’s pounding heart. He bursted into a panic-fueled sprint.

“NO--!” He reached for the man’s arm to stop him, but Jesse whipped back around and grabbed Radar’s wrist with a crushing grip. Radar recoiled from the pain and immediately attempted to wriggle his way out of the grasp of Jesse’s… Disgusting hand… The filth on his hands traveled up his once clean white sleeves which were decorated with strange, washed out, brown stains. Some reached the shirt itself.

“Stop dragging this out, quitter.” Anger was becoming more and more detectable in Jesse’s voice. Radar squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel tears forming. He didn’t want to cry. He didn’t want to cry. Not now. Don’t let Jesse see. Things will only get worse. Hold it in. Jesse will get upset and leave. He should.

“If you…” Radar was caught off guard by how brittle his voice was but he trudged on, “If your plan is to c… Call me n-names and invade my personal s… Space…” He swallowed, “Th-then you’re in for a disappointment.”

Jesse was about to speak but stopped to eye Radar, whose eyes were welling with tears and mouth stuck open, struggling to say another word. He could feel Radar’s arm shaking intensely in his hand. His eyes trailed down to the clipboard, where he saw snippets of words. A small smile appeared.

Without warning, Jesse snatched the board out of Radar’s hand. Radar gasped and shot his other arm towards it only for Jesse to crush his wrist harder.

Radar needed that. He needed that. Jesse couldn’t take it--couldn’t let him see it.

“Last chance.”

“You…” Radar stuttered as he glared at Jesse, “You don’t scare me.”

Radar’s words were met with a painful punch in the gut, knocking the air out of him. He let go of Radar’s wrist and watched him stumble back.

“Not what I wanted to hear.” Jesse said as Radar gasped for air, hunched over and clutching his stomach. Jesse threw the clipboard to the ground and walked towards Radar as he gripped the fabric of his pants tightly.

Radar saw tears stream down his face and hit the ground. He kept staring at the ground. He didn’t want to look up. He didn’t. He wiped away the tears with his sleeve and tried to control his breathing with no luck.

“Are you crying?” Jesse’s face scrunched.

He came closer, “You’re making this a much bigger deal than it needs to be. You have no reason to cry!” His voice was rising.

Radar didn’t respond. He couldn’t.

Jesse dug at his legs then grabbed both of Radar’s arms, yanking him forward so they were face to face. He stared at the teary eyed mess whose body trembled terribly.

“You used to talk so much.” Jesse said calmly with a look of concern he struggled to maintain. “What happened?” Looking at Radar’s face started to boil an intense bitterness within him. He was the weakest person Jesse knew yet he was making everything difficult. This shouldn’t have gone on for so long. He should be with the others already. But he wasn’t.

And that fact alone angered him.

He didn’t give Radar the chance to stop crying--let alone respond. His dirtied fingers dug into his arms more and more with each sob let out. Jesse was sick of them. Sick of the cries. He threw Radar’s body down, sat on his legs and lifted up the top half of his body by the shoulders.

“Can’t you do anything besides crying and running away?!” He shouted, shaking the mess that was Radar violently.

Radar tried to say something back but it was all incoherent. He shook his head intensely.

Jesse couldn’t take this. He couldn’t. How incompetent can a person be? How useless can someone be? Wasted his time. His damn time. And for what? Listening to a quitter’s cries and staring at its pitiful face?

“Come on then! Do something!” He grabbed Radar’s head, nails jabbing into his face, and bashed it into the cold, concrete road.

Radar heard a cracking sound--praying it was his glasses--followed by a flash of colors. The colors came and went, everything became blurry and right before he regained his vision, Jesse slammed him into the ground again.

The pain wasn’t instant. For the first several seconds, he didn’t feel anything, and what a blissful several seconds they were. The pain started out small and more of an annoyance before it flared up, took over his head, and made its way down his spine.

‘Is he trying to knock me out?’ Radar thought hazily. His head was pounding. Half of it felt like it had been set on fire. Jesse held Radar by his hair and shouted at him. He couldn’t make out whatever he was saying. His glasses had fallen off. Radar could vaguely make out Jesse’s bloodshot eyes.

‘He’s going to kill me.’

Jesse would never.

‘He’s going to kill me.’

Maybe he wasn’t.

‘He’s going to kill me.’

Those were the only words booming in Radar’s head. Don’t take any chances. Do something. Anything.

Radar felt his head being lifted up again.

‘Scream.’

The instant his head made contact with the ground he screamed at the top of his lungs. He hated screaming. He hated it as much as crying. But he screamed. He thought his voice box would explode, that his tonsils would fly out and his lungs would shrivel.

Jesse’s body jolted and he froze.

Radar kept screaming.

Jesse shook off the surprise and immediately locked his hands around Radar’s throat,

“Shut up. Shut up.” He ordered through gritted teeth.

The screaming was replaced by gurgled attempts at gasping. Radar grabbed Jesse’s arm with his shaking hand, trying to get him off, but Radar couldn’t muster enough force. He could only hold onto the arm with a barely detectable grip as tears began mixing with his saliva.

Jesse heard a door open in the distance with voices accompanying it. Someone was coming. Even if they weren’t heading to them specifically, he wasn’t going to risk being seen.

Jesse dropped Radar and said something indecipherable before he ran off, leaving a pitiful Radar to lay on the empty streets of the town.

Radar was motionless. His hair was sprawled everywhere similarly to his body. He so desperately wanted to get up or find his glasses, but the thought of moving made his head pound harder.

The tears had slowed.

He heard footsteps approaching. He couldn’t see, but maybe that was a good thing. It’d save him further humiliation.

Radar laid still. He should stay here. Here is safe. Jesse’s gone. He’s safe. Here is safe. Only here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Maya stared at all the weapons she had polished and sharpened. She wasn’t originally going to sharpen them, but she found herself restless and had hoped this would tire her out. When she found herself still wide awake, she decided to spiffy up her friends’ weapons, she even made Stella an extra set of arrows to pass the time.

Maya wished she could’ve done something with Cassie’s axes, but Cassie always carried them around with her and insisted she could take care of them herself.

At the end of the line of weapons was the book she had picked from earlier. The book was a really pale red with a title whose words were nearly scratched off. Aiden had asked them to read; she could’ve spent her spare time doing so. She’s known Aiden long enough, he wouldn’t get upset over her not reading, but she’d feel a little bad if she didn’t do so much as peek inside of it.

Maya sighed, pushed herself out of the chair and was about to grab the book… But then she heard a sound. It was faint but noticeable. It sounded human. She listened to the sound for a moment longer until her heart came to a screeching halt and her body became cold.

‘Radar.’

She threw the door open and ran. Her shoes hit the ground and burned her feet as she ran faster and faster.

Anything in her path--people, signs, stands--was avoided on command. The layout of this town was ingrained into her brain, she didn’t need directions. Her legs would take sharp turns with only one goal in mind: Find Radar.

He couldn’t have gone too fair if she was able to hear his scream.

Maya took another right turn and saw multiple people standing and staring at a shaking figure on the floor, several feet from the park entrance. An older woman looked like she was trying to talk to it.

The first thing to grab Maya’s attention was the figure’s green suit. Her eyes widened. When she got close enough, she slid on her knees and yielded before the quivering figure which was Radar.

“What happened?” She asked as she grabbed Radar’s glasses and clipboard, her voice remained its gruffness but worry could be heard.

Radar carefully lifted his hand and placed it over his chest, his breaths started out slow and unsteady but soon sped up.

“Je--” Radar hiccuped, “Jes… Je… He- He wa… Jess--” Tears welled up and gushed down his face.

He couldn’t finish a single sentence. He didn’t need to. Maya heard enough. Her mouth hung open for a moment before rage filled her; she clenched her jaw and grinded her teeth. Jesse was out there. He was here. He could be close. Maybe she could run after him and knock him cold.

Radar’s stifled sobs washed away the red she saw, and brought her mind back to what was important.

“Radar, I need you to take deep breaths.” She said.

He shook his head recklessly, “I c… I can… ca… Can’t…”

Maya started biting the inside of her cheek. She needed to bring him back home, but he was in awful condition. There’s no way he could walk, let alone stand.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Olivia and Jesse rushed downstairs. When they reached the bottom they saw Stella and Aiden standing by the open door, talking.

“What happened?” Jesse asked.

Jesse had no idea how long he had been asleep. He was surprised to have even slept at all. One second the world was dark and restless, the next second a loud sound had awoken the both of them and the sun was shining.

Aiden turned towards them, “Maya ran out. I’m gonna look for her. You guys stay here and--”

Stella shook Aiden’s arm and directed his attention to the outside.

Maya came running in carrying Radar, his arms dangled and his face was stained with dirt and tear streaks. Jesse only caught a glimpse of the state Radar was in, but it was all he needed to see. He couldn’t believe that sobbing man was the same person they saw hours ago.

Jesse was about to ask a question but Maya ran up the stairs, shoving past him and Olivia with little acknowledgement, and went down the hallway before running into her room slamming the door behind her.

Jesse ran after her--with Olivia behind--and pressed his face against the door. He could hear Radar sobbing and Maya saying something to him, but her words were muffled.

He knocked, “Is everything alright?”

He began opening the door only for Maya to stop it with her foot. The door was cracked open enough for Maya’s face to peek through.

“Don’t worry about it.” She said coldly.

“Wh--” Jesse sputtered, “But Radar’s hurt and I wanna--”

“I know you mean well,” Maya’s voice softened, “but you’d make things worse if he saw you.”

Jesse didn’t know how to respond. He couldn’t argue with Maya, she probably knew him better than he did, but seeing Radar in such a state--even if it wasn’t the Radar he knew--without knowing what had happened was going to haunt him.

Olivia heard the rushing footsteps of Stella and Aiden nearing and signaled Jesse to step back.

They both pressed themselves against the walls of the cramped hallway as Aiden and Stella skid to a stop at Maya’s door.

“Maya, what happened?” Aiden asked, looking through the crack.

“Jesse.” She answered in a whisper.

Everyone froze. Jesse’s entire body stiffened and his pupils shrunk.

He instantly zipped his head to Stella and Aiden, who were already looking at him, “I didn’t--This wasn’t me! I was asleep this whole time! I swear I would NEVER do this--”

Jesse didn’t even know what had happened, but he didn’t give either of them a chance to speak. Based on Stella’s look of absolute revulsion, he already had an idea on what they were thinking.

“It’s true!” Olivia confirmed, “He never left the bed! He only woke up when Maya ran out!”

Stella put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth, ready to go off on Jesse when--

“They’re telling the truth.” Maya said.

She shifted her head to the two of them, “I was downstairs the whole time. I didn’t see or hear any signs of Jesse breaking out. This was our Jesse.”

Maya closed the door and locked it.

No one said anything for a minute.

Stella turned to Aiden, the two were frantically discussing what must’ve happened and what to do next. Jesse struggled to swallow; his mouth was dry. He held his hands together tightly and took deep, steady breaths to calm himself down; Olivia saw the fear in his eyes.

Olivia carefully placed her hand on his shoulder, “What should we do?”

Aiden and Stella faced her with equally distraught expressions.

“We should--” Aiden paused. “We need to go back to bed. When everyone’s up we’ll tell them what happened. We can’t do this now. Not now.”

Olivia wanted to argue that it was morning, they should be figuring this situation out now. However, the desperation in Aiden’s voice told her to listen to him. She didn’t want to, but maybe it was for the best.

Olivia shook Jesse lightly, “You heard him, Jesse?”

“Mhm.” His response was rigid and barely audible.

Olivia began walking back to the guest room, dragging Jesse behind. They probably wouldn’t be able to sleep again, but they could use the time to think about what’s happened. Maybe Jesse needed the time to collect his thoughts on this situation.

When they entered their room neither of them said a word to each other, but shared the same question: How horrible is the other Jesse?