#but is it really pushing myself if none of the individual chapters are meeting that word count

[rgr-pop]

leadership’s meeting was monday night. the previous week i had workshopped the idea of a multi month political ed arc on gender and marxism for the general meeting. i thought i had some good ideas and was willing to start trying it out at the next general. was almost optimistic and excited to do it. all year i’ve been working on a reading list for the chapter anyway (it will someday be better than any other reading list…) i specifically told them that nobody other than me or maybe a should be allowed to undertake this (unless we turn up another experienced marxist feminist or maybe even a woman—but not anybody else.) so after they have their leadership meeting monday night i get the okay for a certain amount of time and i submit an outline for the agenda, of a half hour discussion . no readings or anything, just some foundations and breakouts.

the next morning i get that message from the chair saying that they don’t want the discussion to blindside the man who was screaming and waving the hammer against feminism in the last meeting. i immediately respond that i think it’s ridiculous to ask me to accommodate him in this way and that i would not be doing this discussion, would not be coming to the meeting, and may or may not come to any after that. another man (not leadership) had a conversation with me where he said that i could do or not do the political ed discussion as i please but either way i should not mention the incident at all. we argued, i stopped talking to him. this was tuesday.

i argued with a, who didn’t bring up the issue in leadership, and let them all think it was just a me problem again, even as i privately was supporting her and, you know how it goes, her crawling back to this man over and over again is why he escalated and dragged the only other woman he could find into it. so i resent that sometimes. so she talked to the chair and said she needed to be allowed to make a statement or she also would be bouncing. chair agreed. her statement turned out amazing, really incredible narrative piece on gender in socialism. she co drafted a statement for the rest of leadership. she told me that her vision was to ask each of them to sign it individually. (we are watching all of their responses.. they are all good, really, i swear, but right now nothing feels good enough.)

the meeting is sunday and the chair never sent out the announcement or agenda. they have a problem with chronic lateness on this. but i found out last night, when a sent her final statement to leadership, that none of them knew what had transpired with me. they had assumed that i was still on the agenda. days passed. it appeared to me that it was making me look like i had pulled out last minute in an act of dramatic sabotage, instead of what actually happened, which was that basically immediately after getting word from leadership about my spot on the agenda, i withdrew.

the agenda finally went out tonight at 9 am and i read it and it still had my work on it. like they’re going to do it themselves and fucking make something up. like they had any idea what i was planning to do or had any ability or baseline of knowledge about this issue. literally as if to scab. i lost it and almost sent a hell of a text but i decided to wait for a to do it. i truly could not

i’m so insanely hopeless and miserable. i would fuck myself up if i hadn’t been preparing for months for peoples pop 2015 noms tomorrow morning lmfao. i made plans to thrift with a coworker after. i am going to see matias at his lake michigan place sunday with the aforementioned woman friend. she’s really been taking care of us, i love her. we may watch the meeting via zoom but i want my absence felt. i don’t want any of the good parts of this because i’m so over being alive.

i have a labor project meeting wednesday to survive. i was so excited about how this was going. what are they going to come up with to push me out of that too

[babyjakes]

forever and a day | 21. wounded.

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summary | a story in which america’s favorite captain gives a new life and family to a five-year-old girl who has suffered well beyond her years at the hands of hydra.

characters | dad!steve rogers, girl/willa rogers (original character)

warnings | AU similar enough to OU to include spoilers to many Marvel movies (Age of Ultron and beyond). action and fight scenes with violence and killing. injuries/mild gore. mature themes related to and semi-graphic depictions of the aftermath of child abuse/neglect (emaciation, wounds, scarring, etc). mentions/descriptions of past CSA and CSM. medical abuse and experimentation. ptsd/trauma symptoms in a child (developmental discrepancies, de-humanized behavior, detachment, extreme fears). medical treatment of CSM and other aftermath of abuse.somewhat evil!Tony Stark (eventually).

[Steve]

As soon as the little girl’s bright green eyes meet mine, she lets out a muffled sob, twisting her body sideways to shield her wound from me. Glancing around anxiously, she searches for an escape, but finds none other than the doorway I’m standing in. Curling her little knees up towards her chest, she lets out a cry of pain, her head falling in defeat. Taking an instinctive step towards her, I try to open my mouth to say something, but for a moment my entire body feels frozen in shock.

What happened to her side? Did she do this to herself? What am I supposed to do?

After a few more seconds of processing all of my racing thoughts, I snap out of my daze, my heart shattering in my chest as Girl continues to weep helplessly before me. As slowly and carefully as I can, I begin to approach the wounded child, bending my knees down and holding my hands flat out in front of me in hopes of making myself seem like less of a threat. Girl peers over at me, her pink cheeks soaked with tears. When her eyes begin fluttering, her body jerking harshly against the wall behind her, I don’t even need to ask; I can tell by her face that she’s remembering the last time she saw me, the memory of the agent’s face being pounded in flashing through her terrified mind. Glancing back at me, the child whimpers, her little voice coming out broken and desperate, “Please, please don’t. Sorry, please. Please, wait- d-don’t hurt Girl.”

Softening my gaze at the little girl, I shake my head reassuringly. “I’m not here to hurt you,” I murmur softly, “honey, it looks like you’re injured. You’re bleeding, sweetheart. Please, please let me help you.” At this, Girl twists her shaking form further, pushing herself up against the wall as firmly as she can to try to keep the blood hidden away from me. But in the end, there’s nowhere to run. And I know that probably scares her more than anything. Her only way out would require her to pass me.

“Please, sorry,” Girl continues to plead as I take another step towards her, the space between us slowly closing. “N-no- wait, please.”

“Sweetheart, hey,” I coo, wishing I knew how to ease the little one’s fears. “It’s okay, Girl. You’re okay. I’m not gonna-” my voice cuts out as I feel something sticky beneath my shoe, prompting my gaze to fall to the trail of blood leading up to the quivering child.

“Sorry, r-really sorry- didn’t mean to, will clean it up, please,” Girl hiccups, her eyes widening at the sticky red liquid that’s been smeared across the tile floor. Pressing her hands further into her injured side, the girl winces, the sound of the balled-up tissue squelching against her bloody flesh causing me to wince.

“Girl, please let me help you. What happened, sweetie? Why are you bleeding like that?” I ask desperately, tears building in my eyes as I watch the poor kid writhe in pain.

“Sorry, please,” Girl sobs, her little feet kicking out in front of her under her knees that are still being held up close to her.

Pausing for another moment, I realize I’ve reached an impasse; talking the child through this isn’t seeming to be getting us anywhere fast. Aright now, without having any sort of idea what kind of wound could be producing all this blood or how long Girl’s been sustaining it, I don’t know how much time we have before she could very well bleed out right in front of me. Noting this, I sigh, deciding that even though I want to give Girl as much time and space as she needs, ultimately, time and space just aren’t a luxury we can afford right now.

Taking a deep breath, I forge the last several steps to the girl, finally lowering myself fully to my knees in front of her, only a few feet away from her shaking form. Girl slams herself against the wall again, this time, the side of her head knocking against it. “Hey, it’s okay,” I soothe quickly, not wanting her to hurt herself any further. “I’m not going to hurt you, doll. I promise, I pinky promise. Just… please, Girl. Please. I need to see it.”

The child ducks her head down fearfully at my words, not able to look at me. Getting no further response, I sigh again, knowing that I’m not going to be able to examine her injury without a decent amount of resistance.

As carefully as I can, I reach out my hands to the little girl. Her eyes widen at the movement, and she cowers back from them, but has no space left between her and the wall. Soft sounds of her breathing escalating fill the air. “Hey, shh, shh. Gentle, see?” I murmur, “gentle hands, sweetheart. I won’t hurt you. Nothing’s gonna hurt; I’m just gonna take a look at you, doll,” I tell her mildly, placing my hands on her shoulders and turning her body to face me. Girl lets out a pathetic whimper as I come in contact with her, tears dripping down her puffy cheeks. She tries to fight me, but as always, her weakened body is no match for my super-soldier strength. Her shoulder blades press back into the wall and her knees fall away lamely, her legs splaying out in front of her as she faces me, her hands still clutching her side as blood seeps through her fingers. “Sweetheart, what happened?” I ask breathlessly. The girl keeps her head down, not saying anything. Seeing my chance to finally find out what’s happened to her as she sits defeatedly before me, my hands move down and land on hers, and gently, I begin to pry them away from the blood source.

“W-wait, please,” Girl whimpers miserably, but it does little to stop me. Gathering both of her hands in one of mine, I use my other to gently remove the bloody tissue from the wound. Below it lies a relatively small opening, perfectly circular. Alarmingly deep, and as I look more closely, I can see a hint of metal flashing out from inside.

It’s a bullet wound.

“You got shot?” I all but yell, completely forgetting to soften my tone from the sheer shock of the discovery. Girl flinches back and her arms fly up in front of her face to shield herself from me; shaking inconsolably, she begins to cry harder, and I feel my body weakening, absolutely stunned by what I’ve found. “Oh my god, I-… sweetheart, I-… I had no idea. None of us did. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Th-thought you’d be mad.”

Guilt and heartbreak sweep over me as I stare at the gushing wound, tears building in the back of my eyes as I shakily reach up to tap in on my wire. “Bruce. I-I need you here, ASAP. We’re in- in the guestroom. Girl’s-… I-I-… she’s been shot. Please, hurry.”

Girl continues to sob as I wait for a response. After a few moments, there’s a buzz in my ear. “I’m on my way. What do you mean, she’s been shot? What the hell happened?”

“It-… back at the safe-house,” I reply. “I just found out. None of us knew.”

“Okay. I’ll be there soon. For now, just… apply pressure to the wound.” And then, with a break of the static, he’s gone. Sucking in a shallow breath, I force it out through my teeth. I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe none of us knew.

Trying to shake off my shock for the sake of hopefully saving the little girl’s life, I turn and throw the bloody tissue in the trashcan, reaching up and taking one of the hand towels off of the towel rack. Returning in front of Girl, I fold it up, holding it firmly in my hand. “Okay, sweetheart. I need to press this into your side, okay? I’ll be as gentle as I can. It… it might hurt a little, honey. We just gotta try to slow the bleeding.”

I wish there were something else, anything else that we could do, but Bruce was right. A wound like this needs pressure. If it were on an arm or a leg, we could tourniquet it, but it’s her side; our options are limited. Girl whimpers at my words, squirming up against the wall. “Please, please don’t t-touch it, don’t touch it.” I sigh, hating that I have to do this. Inching closer, I reach out and scoop the child up in my arms. Thrashing about, she continues to beg. “Please, p-please! No, please, w-wait-”

Placing Girl on my lap with her back pressed up against my chest, I wrap one arm around and hold her under the armpits to keep her held close to me and still. My other arm brings the towel to her side, and though every ounce of my being hates what I’m about to do, I convince myself I must. Bracing for the little girl’s protests, I press down, hard. Girl lurches at the contact, letting out a sharp cry of pain. A tear trails down my cheek as I hold her steadily, pressing the fabric into the tender wound.

“I know it hurts, I know. Shhh, it’s okay- I-I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’m so, so sorry.” I don’t know what else to say; I know that the only thing running through her mind is that I’m hurting her. She was scared that I would, and now I am. But I have to; what else can I do?

“Please, stop, s-stop!” the wailing child begs.

“Honey, we-… we have to stop the bleeding,” I try to explain, “it’s okay, shh-shh shhh.” Girl sobs, hanging against my arm that’s holding her up. “You’re okay, kiddo,” I continue to soothe through my own tears. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

As I’m finishing my sentence, Bruce bursts through the door, looking just as panicked as I feel. He hurries over, crouching down in front of us. “Oh god,” he exhales.

“No, p-please,” Girl cries at the sight of the doctor, struggling against my firm grip around her.

“We need to get her down to medical,” Bruce decides. “Can you carry her?” I nod without a word.

As the dark-haired man stands before us, I lift the child up in my arms, holding her close to me as I continue to apply pressure. “Please, n-no,” she whines, tears continuing to trail down her cheeks as we hurry out of her bathroom and room, eventually making our way down the hallway. When we reach the lounge, we’re met with shock from the group sitting at the sofas. Peter rises to his feet, a look of alarm spreading across his face.

“Oh my god- what happened?” he asks.

“Bruce, what the hell?” Nat adds.

Bruce is busy hitting the elevator button, though, and when he turns back to address the group, the doors slide open. Peter hurries up and joins us in the elevator. Girl’s now sobbing loudly against my shoulder; I wish I could reach up and stroke her hair, but my hands are full. “You’re okay, shh, shh,” I coo, gently swaying her from side to side in attempts to soothe her painful cries.

As soon as we land on the floor for medical, we’re all rushing out of the elevator in a blur and nearly running down the long white hallway. Bruce turns into the first exam room on the right, and I follow, Peter trailing close behind.

“Get her on the bed,” Bruce demands, flinging open the cabinets and beginning to pull out various medical supplies. Trying to keep the towel pressed to her side, I gently set the little girl down on the mattress. The child twists and turns slightly, appearing too weak to even sit up to try to escape. Bruce takes the cloth from me and lifts it up, revealing the wound. “Jesus christ,” he mumbles, turning back to get his tools ready.

As Peter stands anxiously to the side, I let out a puff of air, practically collapsing down on the edge of the bed as I reach out and brush Girl’s hair out of her face. She looks at me, her bottom lip wobbling in fear. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’re gonna fix you up, make you all better. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine,” I promise her. Bruce continues to prep his gear, and a question pops up in my head as I stare into the little girl’s watery eyes. “Girl,” I begin, sucking in a breath. “You got hit by a shot that went through the bed?” She nods. “Then why-… how come we couldn’t hear you? Why didn’t you-… how did-… sweetheart, how did you keep from screaming?”

Girl’s quiet for a moment, as if she doesn’t want to tell me. Then, her expression falls, and her voice comes out sounding more gutted and defeated than ever.

“You said t-to be quiet.”

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[pascalscenarios]

HOW TO LOVE (Marcus Pike x Reader)

HOW TO LOVE

Marcus Pike x Reader  

Summary: After a year being broken up with your ex, you move into a studio appartment just outside of Washington D.C. for a fresh start. You best friend gets your a job at the prestigious art museum he runs, and you have an encounter with someone you recognize.

Warning: None

Words: 3471

Author's Note: Surprise!!! AHH first chapter for How To Love! I’m excited for this one! I hope you guys in enjoy it! Let me know if you want to be on the tag list for this or the on main! Also if you asked and I didn’t put you in, I’m sorry, please remind me!

- K 

Chapter 1

“Alright, this was the last one in the truck,” Your father says as he sets the container on the ground next to the others. Your father had helped you pack up and move your belongings from your hometown in Virginia to an apartment complex that was just outside of Washington D.C.  

“Thanks, Dad.” You were grateful for his help.

“Do you want me to stay and help you unpack?” He was looking at the large boxes and containers piled on top of each other in the middle of your small studio apartment.

“No, that’s okay. I got it.” You smile slightly.

“You gonna be alright?” He says stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

You sigh, “I think so…” you turn your head to look around your small apartment. “I’m a little nervous, but I needed to do this...you know, move away from town and start fresh.”

“I know you do. If you ever need anything, your mother and I are a call away and a 45-minute drive.” He reassures you.

“Thank you, Dad. I love you.” You walk towards him, hugging him.

Your father wraps his arms around you, planting a kiss on your head. “I love you too. Call me if you need anything, yeah” He says, pulling away from you. You nod at him.

You both walk over to your front door. He opens it, stepping outside.

“Bye, Dad! Drive safe!” You call out as he walks down the steps and onto the walkway. You stand by the second-floor railing, looking down as he walks to his truck. He turns his body, looking up at you, giving you a wave. You watch him get into his truck, he honks, signaling a goodbye as he drives out of the parking lot.

You go back into your apartment shutting the door. You lean back against it, taking everything in. It was your first time truly living alone. You had spent years living with your ex in your hometown. He treated you terribly. You were constantly on-again, off-again with him. He had cheated on you a few times. You tried your hardest to make things work with him.

One day he decided that he was done with you, breaking things off and kicking you out of your shared apartment. You being a grown adult had to move back in with your parents. You spent a year in a tough place mentally, you decided you needed to get out of town and move somewhere else, have a fresh start, a clean slate. You needed more than what your hometown gave you.

Your best friend Elliot lived in D.C. working as a museum director at a prestigious art museum. He had offered you a job at the museum and even helped set you up with an apartment. You were nervous being on your own, but you knew you needed this time to grow as an individual.

You pushed yourself off the door, walking further into the open space. You stand there staring at all the boxes and containers. Your apartment was small. Only livable for two people, but it was perfect, and it was yours.

“Alright, let’s get to it.”

You had spent several hours getting things unpacked and organizing. You had managed to build your bed frame and set up your bed near the long and large windows. You placed your clothes into the narrow closet, set up your toiletries in the bathroom, and put kitchen appliances away. You needed to stock up your cabinets and fridge with food, so you decided to head to the grocery store.

You headed to the store in your pj’s. After your dad left, you had changed into something comfortable. You wore a worn-out Star Wars t-shirt, sweatpants, and your pink bunny slippers. You didn’t care if you rolled up to the grocery store like this. No one knew you and you knew one.

As you enter the grocery store and grab a shopping cart, your phone rings. You set your bag in the child seat, pulling out your phone. You looked at the caller ID, it was Elliot. You pick up the call, placing your phone against your ear, your other hand grabbing a hold of the cart’s handle.

“Hello?” you said, as you maneuver your cart around and in through the aisle.

“Hey! How’s it going? Do you make it to your apartment okay?” Elliot greets you.

“Hi, El…” you smile, “Yeah I did. My dad helped me out. We piled all my crap in the back of his truck. He drove it down, while I drove my car with the rest of my crap in it. I’m grocery shopping right now. The apartment is great by the way! Thank you for everything. Helping me get this apartment and setting me up with a job. I appreciate it. I can’t thank you enough” you say, picking up several Cup Noodles, tossing them into the cart.

“Of course! Don’t worry about it. That piece of shit put you through so much, you deserve to start fresh and to thrive! Maybe in D.C., you’ll find yourself a new guy…”

You scrunch up your face at what he said “Ehhh I don’t know about that…'' You traveled down the aisle picking up different snacks, foods, and drinks off the shelf.

He tries to encourage you, “You’ve been single for a while now. You should try to put yourself out there, meet some people.”

“I don’t know… I just don’t think I’m ready yet. He messed me up pretty bad, Elliot. I’m scared to get back into dating, you know?” you say sadly.

“And you have every right to feel that way, but not everyone is going to be like him. You’ll find the right person for you. It doesn’t hurt to try, but wherever you’re ready, I say go for it. Who knows, maybe you’ll run into someone in the grocery store.”

“Haha very funny, '' you say sarcastically, but you could help but laugh.

“Alright, I gotta run. I just wanted to check up on you. I’ll let you get back into shopping, but just a reminder, you to start work Monday, bright and early at 7:00 AM sharp.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then, love you.”

“I love you too! Bye!”

“Bye” you pull the phone away from your face, hanging up, and placing it back in your bag. You continued to shop. The majority of your cart was filled with your comfort junk foods, a few fruits and vegetables, and canned foods.

You knew the change of living in a new area and apartment was going to be different and a bit of getting used to. You wanted to have your favorite things to bring you some sense of joy and ease...and alcohol. Yes, you need to get a bottle.

You were turning the corner into an aisle with the alcohol when your cart collided with another person's cart that was leaving the aisle.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry!” You gasp at the man in surprise. He was a little bit taller than you. He wore a plain t-shirt, jeans, and shoes. Short brown hair, brown eyes, and he rocked a mustache and beard. You couldn’t lie, the man was handsome.

“It’s alright! I should be apologizing too, I bumped into you as well!” he chuckled. His eyes took notice of your outfit of choice.

Suddenly you felt shy and self-conscious about our outfit. You began to feel insecure that he was somewhat checking you out. I mean you wore PJs to the store, of course, you knew some people would stare and secretly judge you.

His gaze landed at your feet. He cocked his head to the side and smiled “Nice bunny slippers.”

“T-thanks..” you stuttered.

He must have noticed you were growing uncomfortable because he tried to lighten the mood. “I really should get myself a pair, they look comfy…I could see myself rocking some bunny kicks,” he joked.

You nod your head “Well make sure to wear them at home and not at the grocery store... along with your pj’s.. make sure you wear those at home as well because then you’ll end up going to the grocery store looking like a fool...” you mentally cringed. You didn’t mean to say your thoughts out loud. You were making this interaction more awkward than it needs to be. You just wanted to get your bottle of wine and leave.

You grab a hold of your cart, moving it into the space beside him to get into the aisle.

“I don’t think you look like a fool, it's a look. Matter of fact, I would kill to be in some Pj’s and bunny slippers all day. I live in work suits for my job. I hate it.”

“I say start a petition for pajama day at your work.”

He laughs. “I might just do that… I’m Mar-”

“Well, hopefully, that goes well for you. Good luck.” You gave him a small and quickly made your way down the aisle. Your heart was beating against your chest. You had to get out there. You picked up a bottle of red wine off the shelf and put it in the cart. You looked back to see the man, but he was gone.

…

You spent the rest of your weekend setting up and organizing the rest of your apartment. You had a few things left to do like setting up your tv, but other than that your apartment was done.

It was 5:00 AM, Monday morning, you woke up super early to get ready for work. You didn't want to be late. You took a shower, did your hair, and got dressed. You looked out yourself in the bathroom mirror after you finished getting ready. You were dressed professionally. You felt a little silly, but you were going to be working at a fancy art museum. You spent the past year living in pj’s, shirt and shorts. It’s been a while since you had to dress up.  

Leaving your bathroom, you walk over to your kitchen grabbing your reusable tumbler cup filled with ice coffee. You head over the door, slipping on your flats, grabbing your keeps and bag off the hook, and heading out to your car.

By the time you made it into the city, it was almost 7. The traffic wasn’t too bad. You managed to find street parking, putting in a bunch of coins into the meter.

Walking up to the building you were in awe. It was a wide building with tall and long glass windows in the front. You walk up to the stairs, opening the glass door. The lobby was a large space There was an information desk a few feet off to the side of the entrance, along with stairs leading upstairs. Benches and few art sculptures on display throughout the room. Bathrooms and elevators are located on the middle far back wall. Exhibits were down the halls on the left and right side of the bathroom and elevators, and upstairs.

Workers and custodians traveled around the room, preparing to open the museum in about an hour.

You hear Elliot call after you. You look up noticing Elliot coming down the stairs.

“El!” You smiled walking towards him.

“Ah! I can’t believe you’re here!” He embraced you into a hug. “I’m so happy you’re here in D.C. with me. We"ll get to hang out all the time now."

You laugh. “I'm excited! Thanks again for getting me a job. I feel kinda bad though. Like technically I skipped the whole interview phase and got the job. Isn’t that kind of abuse to your position?”

“Seriously it’s fine and I’m the Museum Director, I call the shots around here.”

“Elliot…” You say under your breath.

Elliot rolled his eyes, “Come on, you know what you mean. I’m responsible for the operation of the whole place and I know you better than anyone, I trust you.”

You still couldn’t believe Elliot was in charge of this whole museum.

“Come on, I'll give you a tour of Clemonte!”

...

Elliot gave you a tour of the Museum’s exhibits and even behind the scene things that the public doesn’t get to see. The museum had such beautiful pieces of artwork. This place was amazing. You loved it. There was so much more you wanted to see, but you only had enough time to see part of it. Maybe during your free time, you’d look around to discover the rest.

“So, what do you think?”

“Wow, this place is stunning” you stay as you both make it back to the lobby.

“So, how are you feeling?”

“I’m alright. I’m a bit nervous I’m not going to lie.” You pull away.

“Nothing to be nervous about, you’ll be fine.” He reassures you.

“So do I have to call you Mr. Regan, boss man?” you giggled.

“Pff, no one calls me that. I feel so old when people call me that. Everyone just calls me Elliot.”

“So” he claps his hands together. “You’re going to be working at the Visitors Information desk.” He says pointing to the large and round information desk near the stairs.

“El, I just got here I don’t know anything!” Your eyes widen.

“You’ll be fine, and besides you’ll be working with Ms. Laurie, she’s been here for years. She’ll teach you everything you’ll need to know. And don’t worry, we have a list and maps where everything is you can refer to.’’

“Come on” his head points in the direction of the desk.

“Hi, Ms. Laurie!” He smiles brightly at the woman. She looked about to be in her late 60’s.

“Good Morning, Elliot!” she beams.

He introduces you to Laurie. “This is my friend, the one I was telling you about. She’s going to be working with you.”

“Ah yes! Hello dear! It’s lovely to meet you! I’m so glad you’re working with me!” She holds out your hand to take.

You take her hand. “It’s nice to meet you too! I’m excited.”

“Alright well, She’s yours now, Ms. Laurie, let her have it. This is for you,” Elliot hands you your ID badge.

“Where the hell did you get this photo?” You say scrunching your face at this old and outdated photo of you.

“I pulled it off your mom facebook- Also, The FBI are coming it today-”

“My mom’s Facebook- Wait, the FBI? Why what happened?” You furrow your eyebrows.

“The FBI has a specific bureau that deals with international art theft, the Art crime team or they call himself the Art Squad. Sometimes they come in here to do research, sting operations, stuff like that, so don’t worry if you see a bunch of them waltz in here. They come around a lot.”

“Oh..o-okay.”

“Alright, I gotta go, I have a ton of meetings today, but have a good day, love you, if you need anything let me know!” He shouted quickly as he speeds walked off.

“We’re going to be opening in about half an hour, I better get started with teaching you the basics” Laurie announced. “Come dear, you can put your things over here.” She pushes open the short desk door that came up to about your hips, letting your step into the desk area.

Laurie gave you a rundown on the layout of the museum and most frequently asked areas such as where the most popular art exhibits, bathrooms, and the gift shop.

“You got everything?” Laurie asked you.

“I think so. Just a lot of stuff to memorize.” “I know hun, but once you get the hang of it, it’s going to be a breeze! You’ll know it like the back of your hand!” She chuckles. “You’ll get it in no time, if you need any help, I’m here, or you can use the maps and lists we have sprawled all around here.” She motions to the piles of paper around the desk.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Laurie.” You smiled.

…

Once the museum is open, you have a bunch of people come to the visitor's information center asking you questions. Some you were able to answer, others you had to ask Laurie or use the resources you had.

It was noon. Nothing happened, a few people came to stop by, many of the families with young children were leaving, probably headed to see multiple other museums. You noticed a group of men and women walk in. They were all wearing suits. You assumed that it was the FBI agents. They all stood in the middle of the lobby, one man stood in front of the group, giving them instructions.

The group disbanded, pairs of agents headed towards different areas and wings of the museum. You went back to filling out an information form. An Elementary school had called wanting to have a field trip. You filled out the information on the form for the school, and It had to be sent up to Elliot later to get approval.

“Do you happen to know where I can get some bunny slippers?”

“Excuse m-” You quickly lift your head from the form. Standing in front of you was the guy from the grocery store, learning to gain the counter.

He smiles at you. “I see you aren’t wearing pj’s today and no bunny slippers, damn” he joked.

You chuckled slightly. “W-well I’m working. I have to dress professionally. Guess your petition for pj’s fell through, huh?”

“Yeah, no one was down for it, but I still want some bunny slippers. Where’d you get yours?”

“um...Amazon..”

“Alright, I’ll make a mental note...I saw you when I came in. I didn’t know you worked here. How come I’ve never seen you before?” He asked.

“I-I’m new, I just started today actually…” you fiddled with the pencil in your hand. You were growing nervous.

“Well, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then…”

You swallowed hard. What was he getting at? “Oh, are we now-” You looked down at his ID badge that was clipped to his outer suit pocket that had the FBI in bold letters.

“Special Agent Pike” you read his name badge.

“Marcus” he held out his hand

You don’t take it. You were nervous. You had no idea what the Marcus guy wanted with you, and you weren’t looking for anything right now. Marcus Pike may seem all cute and harmless, but the next thing you know, he’ll be breaking your heart into two. He was probably trying to play nice to get in your pants.

After everything that happened with your boyfriend, you guarded yourself, bordering your heart with thick walls. You weren’t gonna let just anyone in. You had to protect your heart from things that hurt you in the past. You didn’t want to go through that pain again so it was better to keep walls up. You didn’t want to let anyone new into your life.

He moves his hand to scratch behind his head.

“So you gonna tell me your name?”

“No”

“No?”

“Why should I tell you my name?”

“I don’t know, because that’s what you do when you meet someone you new and you know what to call them by?” he furrowed his eyebrows at you.

“Well, you’re an FBI agent. If you wanna know, use your investigation skills and figure it out.” With that picked up paper, turning around in your hair, and walking over to the fax machine.

Marcus stood there confused. You were being nice, but then switched on a dime? Was it sometimes he said? He didn’t know what happened, but if you weren’t going to tell him, he just had to figure it out.

Out the corner of your eye, you see him walk off to the elevators. You sign in relief.

“I see you were talking to Marcus Pike.” Laurie chimed in coming out from your guy's office. “He’s a really nice guy.”

“Is he really or is that just a front to get into people's pants?” You asked, continuing to stare at him.

Laurie gasped in surprise, “Marcus Pike? No! He's such a sweetheart and very well mannered, ask anyone here, they'll tell you that.”

You sigh, now you felt kinda bad, you switched and judged him too quickly. You had trust issues that you needed to work on. You sign rubbing your face. You might have screwed up.

“I know he may be a little cocky and comes off a bit strong, but he’s a great guy once you get to know him.”

He gets in the elevator turning around. You two lock eyes, but you quickly look away back down to the fax machine.

You look back up noticing the elevator doors have closed.

“We’ll see about you, Agent Pike…”

Main Tag: @icanbeyourjedi @sara-alonso 

[jungwon-crush]

(2) home - enhypen

(listening to the song while reading the chapter is recommended~)

in a long straight path, there lined eight houses, every two faced each other. this was what i considered my  neighborhood.

the houses looked completely worn out. there were still leftover hopscotch marks in the grubby street that separated the houses, and several cracks lined the outer front walls of the homes.

i hastily ran out of one of those houses, and onto the narrow roadway. i was in a bit of a hurry -  i decided to wash myself before going to sunghoon's place because the field made me feel sticky, which means i took an extra amount of time to get ready.

as i left my terrace, i heard gates clambering to my right side.

"oh, you're late too." niki pointed out as i approached him.

"didn't know you were going to eat at sunghoon's as well."

"sunoo ran out of food," niki crankily replied, "and everyone else is having dinner there anyway, so why not? it's free carbonara, might as well take the chance because sunghoon never shares anything unless his mom forces him to."

i gasped, "the others are there too-"

"hell yeah! goo goo ga ga hoon waaaah go cry about it! we're all going to drain your food supply tonight!" niki said as he childishly hopped up and down.

"niki, please don't be too happy. there will be three people slaughtering us tonight." i shivered at the thought while we both started to walk towards sunghoon's house at the end of the pavement.

jake, heeseung, and jungwon hate waiting for people in order to eat. they're literally a foodie trio, they get grumpy when they can't have their meals right away. they also tend to blame their hysteria on the people they're waiting for. the word blame is an understatement, heeseung takes food a bit too seriously for a twenty year old.

usually, they just go ahead if they get impatient.

however, sunghoon's flight-attendant mom is supposedly back home tonight. our parents have created this sort of rule that we have to eat all-together. this rule stems from when seven year old me threw a tantrum when i found out that the boys ate fried chicken without me, so we've been kind of following it for most of our lives because the elders get upset if one of us has a temper.

niki added, "actually, four people will have ideas that involve murdering us tonight. well honestly- only three for me. four for you."

i stopped in my tracks, "what the hell are you on about?"

"jay doesn't like when others take his stuff and wear it without his permission.."

clothes. niki was referring to my clothing. i looked down just to realize that i was wearing an oversized t-shirt that had 'park 02' printed on it. it was jay's custom tee from high school.

was i in such a rush that i didn't even register that i put on jay's shirt that i had secretly stolen?

"niki- you dumbass! why would you tell me this now? we just reached sunghoon's!" i yelled at the lanky being while i harshly slapped his abdomen.

"oh so i'm the dumbass? that's what you get for being an idiot, i can't believe you're a senior!" he yelled back at me.

i rolled my eyes and hit him one more time in the gut before taking position behind him as we slipped into the entrance of sunghoon's humble abode.

"using me as a shield won't do you any help." niki sneered while he opened the front door.

i wretchedly threw my head back and followed niki's back into the wood-paneled parlor. a chatter of voices could already be heard.

we moved past a set of stairs, and eventually winded up where the dining room was.

six people, who were previously facing each other and conversing, turned towards the direction niki and were coming from. they were seated at an old-fashion table with eight cushioned chairs. four individuals were settled on the side of the table that could see the room's entrance, while two people had their back facing niki and i as we arrived.

i scanned the room and surprisingly, nobody wore an irked look.

"byeol! looking good!" a puppy-like boy grinned. at that, i made my way towards him and teasingly pulled at his dark hair. jungwon, who sat beside him, elbowed his arm and mumbled something that sounded similar to "jake, focus on your food".

sunoo gleefully waved his hands then patted the seats beside him, gesturing for niki and i to sit there. the two of us shuffled and took our seats.

i found myself directly next to sunoo, with niki at the left end of the table facing heeseung.

i wrapped my arms around sunoo, he returned my actions and drew nearer to me which made our cheeks squish against each other. i creaked, "sunoo, my only source of sunshine! how are you? it's been a while."

"it has been way too long! i have been suffering lately- because of this moron called sunghoon! for the past hour he has been talking about how he received five confessions today even though it's only the second week of him attending college. my ears are so close to falling off!" sunoo wailed dramatically.

i hugged him tighter and jokingly sniffled, "i'm so sorry, sunoo... i can't imagine what you've been going through."

while i was comforting the poor boy, a hoarse voice sarcastically rang out, "i apologize for sharing my experience of being a really attractive, warm-hearted, and extremely smart person."

i let go of the hug and looked at the being past sunoo, "you don't need to ask for forgiveness. i think we all know that you don't have any three of those qualities, so what's the point in saying sorry?"

sunghoon just scowled as a response.

heeseung snickered at our exchange before his expression became serious, "start eating, byeol. the vegetables are gonna get cold."

i titled my head in confusion. wait what? i internally thought, did he just say vegetables?

i peered at the middle of the table, where an empty bowl with remaining white sauce stood alongside a plate filled with greens.

"you guys ate without-"

"yeah, byeol. you and niki were an hour late.. what did you expect-"

i cut jungwon off, "you were the one who told me there was gonna be carbonara! and now there's none? you could have made sure that heeseung and jake wouldn't hog it all for themselves!"

jungwon bit his lower lip guiltily, "i tried... but you know how they are."

niki shook his head as he grabbed the salad, "disappointed, but not surprised."

he put some vegetables onto my plate, then took the leftovers for himself. i began to bitterly munch it while making weird faces.

"i swear they're no older than six." jay whined. "also, byeol, is that not my shirt you're wearing?" he continued.

"now now jay, it is not the time to get mad at byeol. she 's already irritated, so she'll bite back even more." heeseung advised as if he was talking about an animal.

jay annoyingly pointed at me, "you're not getting away with this type of stuff next time."

i glanced at heeseung and gave him a quick thankful look. he gave a small smile back.

"considering you guys went ahead, is your mom not here, hoon?" niki probed.

"she's out running errands, won't be back until 10." sunghoon answered.

from there, the usual night-time conversation started. we discussed about the coffee shop heeseung was running, lutton high rumours, and how jake was unexpectedly doing well with girls in college too?

"did you know that i got invited to 3 dinner dates today? hoon's not the only one attracting ladies in the university of lutton." jake smirked.

"you should have went to one then." sunoo and i retorted at the same time. we playfully nudged each other.

"well, i was going to! until i heard that byeol was joining us for dinner tonight, she hasn't eaten with us for the past week!" jake countered.

jungwon's eyes flickered to mine while i told half of the truth, "sorry, i've been tired from school recently."

niki's eyes went wide, "oh right! you're still in the photography club? i heard hwang intak's the president this year!"

"who's hwang intak?" sunghoon strangely asked. he was rarely curious about others apart from us.

jungwon and jake's ears perked up at the question as well.

"lutton high's new it boy, also known as your replacement. except he's like ten times more friendly than you." sunoo taunted.

"yeah, right." sunghoon scoffed.

jay began to clap his hands and wheeze, "i thought the girls there would be heartbroken when sunghoon graduated. they move on quickly!"

"he's actually really nice though," i insisted, "during our club meetings, he always allows me to do homework before taking pictures. he even offers to help sometimes even though he's in a different section. i wonder why."

jungwon interrupted, "he's probably one of those overly kind people."

i shrugged, " i guess? i'm the only senior in the club apart from him, so he probably understands how i feel overwhelmed with assignments and stuff-"

"or," niki interjected, "he's into byeol!"

jungwon flashed a glare at niki.

niki responded with a face that said, "what?"

heeseung pondered out loud, "that may be true, i did something similar with the girl i liked when i was part of the student council."

sunoo's mouth was agape, "ahhhhhh! that explains why he comes into our class and studies with byeol sometimes during our free periods! it all makes sense!"

"who in their right mind would actually be interested in the lunatic?" sunghoon remarked.

"you've got to admit that she occasionally looks cute."

sunghoon's ears tinged red, "jake..." he paused, "n-no i don't think that she's-"

"i'm just saying!" jake hollered as he pushed back his hair.

"can everyone shut up for a second? you guys are being overdramatic. school just started last week- how can he like me in a span of  fourteen days?" i exhaustedly let out, ignoring jake's comment.

"you never know how someone truly feels byeol, you never know.." niki uttered.

i slapped his knee aggressively, "what do you know about love, niki?"

"trust me, i know more than you." he replied, his eyes fixed on something   behind me.

i let out a final huff of annoyance. i always question how i managed to survive eighteen years with these brats.

"shoot, it's already 9:30! i'm gonna go to bed, i have early morning classes tomorrow. and so do you jake." jay got out of his seat and waved his hand at us as he left the room.

"tsch, i guess i'll get going too." jake said as he started bidding goodbyes. when he got to me, he pinched my cheeks hardly and ran out of the room with a cheeky smile before i could chase after him.

i rubbed the area where he pinched, whispering exaggerated cries of how much it hurt.

"i think it's time we all go, it's getting late. you guys still have school tomorrow, and i have to open up the café." heeseung stood up and clapped everyones shoulders.

"don't stay for too long!" he finally said as he exited.

niki ridiculed, "yes, father heeseung!"

"hey, is anyone going to watch the game tomorrow?" sunoo inquired. there was only five of us remaining. "i don't want to go alone."

"i have to go, the photography club needs to take pictures of the game." i nodded

sunoo put his two hands into a prayer position, "oh, thank the lord!"

"i'm coming too, a few of my classmates are players." niki said as he was beginning to leave, "jungwon and sunghoon, you guys should come along too, since you two are so curious about photography club president intak."

after saying that, the younger boy immediately took his leave. he didn't wait for any comments, he just yelled, "see you, tomorrow!" before he slammed the doorway.

sunghoon pointed out, "i think he left straight away because jungwon had a knife ready in his hand."

"no doubt about it, hoon." i said as i looked at an annoyed jungwon who was gripping his utensil in a very uncivil way.

"i'll come, unlike those biophysics majors, i don't have any classes tomorrow."

sunoo hooted, "good! that's good, hoon! how about you, wonnie?"

jungwon sighed, "fine. now we're done here. i'll walk you home, byeol."

sunghoon chimed, "walk her home? she lives down the street..."

jungwon pretended that he didn't hear sunghoon and moved over to me. he tried pulling me out of my place while i held onto sunoo's arm, "i'll go home only if sunoo's sleeping over! my dad's at the city again!"

"i'll stay at your house tonight, byeol! don't worry."

i let jungwon pull me up, while sunoo followed suit.

"your dad's not here again?"

"i just said that, hoon." i put my arms around sunoo and jungwon and started leading us out of the house.

"just know you can come over anytime- like always!" he called out in an uneasy tone from the dining area.

"noted!" i yelled back before sunoo closed the door behind us.

"my legs are tired, can someone carry me?" i immaturely begged.

"really? they're worn out from sitting down for two hours?" jungwon declared.

"let the girl be! you can piggyback on wonnie, byeol." sunoo beamed while ushering me to get on jungwon's back.

regardless of his displeasure, jungwon crouched down.

i jumped onto the rear part of his figure and wrapped my arms around his neck. he jumped a little as he made his posture straight again, "i actually need to stop babying you."

"i'm pretty sure you said that yesterday too." sunoo chuckled as we plodded back to my house.

taglist: @wonwobbles

a/n: this chapter is pretty long compared to the first one, so im a little proud of it! i wanted to show how byeol banters with the others and how their characters react to certain stuff to show their personality!!! heheheheh

[ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa]

Footprints in the Sand

Part 7: River

Summary/Author's Note: Okay, I tried to get this out in a timely manner since part 6 was so painful. It's a sloooooow burn, I'm sorry but I promise it will be worth it. Trust me I want them happy and boning as much as y'all do. This chapter is Ellaria centric, I wanted to explore some of her thoughts and emotions but rest assured Oberyn confronts Jaime at the end and gets some things off his chest.

Pairing: Oberyn x Ellaria x Reader Word Count: 4.1k (See my loves? I’m righting the wrongs of part 6) Warnings: (R/18+) As always. Language. Threats. Ellaria softness. Ellaria is just as much in love with you--I ain't scared. Oberyn "a long sword is a bad choice when fighting in close quarters" Martell. Ellaria is Oberyn’s voice of reason, we all knew this, it is not a surprise. Prince-Douche!Jaime.

Don't say, don't you say it One breath, it'll just break it

Parts (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)

It felt like days had passed but in reality it had only been a few hours. The room at the brothel felt empty, colder somehow, and both of them knew exactly why--you were no longer there. Ellaria sat in front of the mirror, using a small stick of charcoal to frame her dark eyes. She reached for the red lip stain in the small copper tin but stopped to look over her shoulder at Oberyn instead. 

The Prince had been standing on the balcony for the better part of the afternoon. His hands balanced on the railing were gripping the stone so tightly she could see his knuckles turning white with the effort. With a clenched jaw and an unwavering stare, he looked across the city at the Red Keep--such obvious anger on his handsome face saddened her heart. 

"Oberyn," she called gently but he didn't move. 

She moved her dress to the side as she stood up and moved to join him on the balcony. Oberyn was already dressed for the evening, his dark blue tunic striking against his olive skin. The silver stitching of stars that went down the edges drew attention to the open expanse of his broad, bare chest. She would be thankful when they were back in Dorne where it was warm enough he could forgo a tunic all together. She loved coming up from behind him and running her hands down his chest, lightly playing with the soft hair line down from his navel. But she knew her touch was not something that could distract him from his rage, and if she was being honest, it couldn't even distract her from her own. 

"My love," she whispered as she stood beside him and put her hands on his arm tenderly. 

Oberyn blinked slowly and looked down at her. His gaze softened, never wanting to look at her with anything other than the adoration she deserved. 

"Talk to me," Ellaria said, giving his arm a squeeze.

"Is it wrong that I miss her?" Oberyn said, putting his hand over Ellaria's and looking back out at the city. 

"No," Ellaria shook her head and leaned her cheek against his shoulder. "I miss her, too," she added in a whisper. 

"It's only been a few days, but--" 

"That doesn't matter." Ellaria looked up at him. "Do you remember when we met?"

Oberyn chuckled and smiled for the first time since this morning. "I introduced myself by asking you to move into the palace."

"And how long had you known me?"

"Known you?" Oberyn raised an eyebrow and grinned. "If you count admiring you from my balcony--then a few hours."

"Exactly, and here we are. You're a man who has always known what he wants," Ellaria nodded. 

Oberyn agreed with her words and put his hand over hers on his chest, giving it a gentle grip. She knew the way they had met you was unorthodox, but then what part of their own love wasn't? She was a bastard daughter who had fallen for a Prince, who couldn’t wed her on the off chance an arranged marriage could benefit his family. It didn’t mean what they had wasn’t real. Did she know everything there was to know about you? Of course not. But she knew enough to know she couldn't bear the thought of seeing you hurt.

"If I thought she didn't want us, I would let it go. But she almost said yes, Ellaria." He sighed, remembering the feeling of your body on top of his this morning. 

"To going to Dorne?" Ellaried moved back slightly to look at his face.

Oberyn nodded. "And then that blond little prick stormed in. The disrespect of the Lannisters knows no bounds."

"My love, this is not our home. This is not Dorne. We must tread lightly--"

"Are you saying I'll do something rash?" Oberyn turned back to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

Ellaria pursed her lips and gave him an exasperated expression. "I'm saying, if you shove a dagger into Jaime Lannister tonight our odds of walking away unscathed are very small." She raised her hands as he narrowed his eyes. "Just a reminder."

He took her hand and brought it to his lips, gently pressing a kiss to her knuckles and looking into her dark eyes. "I promise to control my temper tonight. For you."

"And for (y/n)."

"And for (y/n)." He nodded as he pulled her against his chest and put his strong arms around her waist. 

--

Ellaria sipped wine slowly from her cup so she could watch the room over the rim. It helped her ignore the taste of the horrible swill that they were trying to pass off as decent wine. She badly wished to return home to where the wine was vibrant and the food was fresh and comforting. She pushed the meats and hard cheeses away from her plate in favor of the baked bread and fruits. 

Oberyn was doing what he did best and Ellaria was content to sit at the table and watch him. He talked, he laughed, he engaged those around him and it was no secret that Doran allowed his brother to be the face of Dorne for this reason. The women of the room all paid him special attention. They made any excuse to touch his broad shoulders, his solid arms, and Ellaria couldn't help but smile because he dodged each and every one of them and looked up to meet her gaze with a mischievous grin.

However much he seemed to be enjoying himself, Ellaria knew what he was really doing--looking for you. With only three days before they sailed out for Dorne, Jaime's intrusion this morning did complicate matters quite a bit. Who knew what he had said in the moments that followed after he stole you away. Ellaria took another large drink as she remembered the way you looked up at them, Jaime's arm tightly around your waist. It had made her sick. Such a man should never be allowed to touch such beauty. 

She scanned each and every table, looking up every time someone new walked in only to be disappointed when it wasn't you. 

Oberyn had said that you had almost accepted their invitation, her only hope was that nothing had changed that. She knew you were strong, knew your gentle nature didn't hinder your resolve, but she also knew the lengths that the Lannisters would go to achieve their means. And the other members of your family did not possess the same moral integrity.

Oberyn made his way back to her table and stooped his head to capture her lips. The taste of wine and fruit made him run his tongue along his bottom lip as he pulled back and smiled. "Exquisite," he said softly and Ellaria grinned. Always the charmer, he was. 

"Any word?" Ellaria asked, ending the tender moment.

"None," Oberyn shook his head. 

"I'm sure she will be here soon," Ellaria put her hand on Oberyn's arm. 

"If Jaime laid a hand on her, I'll kill him," Oberyn mumbled into the rim of his wine glass and Ellaria squeezed his arm. 

"I'm sure she can protect herself."

"She shouldn't have to protect herself from her own family." 

"I agree," Ellaria said, keeping her voice even. "But neither of us have the pleasure of calling the Lannisters family."

Whatever else she was about to say faded before it left her mouth. She gave Oberyn's arm a rapid pat as you turned the corner and walked into the throne room. Your crimson dress was striking. It flowed behind you, whispering against the stone and Ellaria wanted to feel it under her fingers. A gold plated belt cinched your waist and matched the golden bracers on your wrists. Your beautiful hair was pinned back in an ornate twist and that's when her stomach dropped. She couldn't pretend she didn't see the large, purpling bruise on the apple of your cheek. It stood out from across the room and took away from your face--that beautiful face that she had spent a great deal of time kissing over the last few days. 

"Fuck the gods," Oberyn growled, his hand reaching for the dagger in the belt around his waist.

"Oberyn!" Ellaria hissed, stopping him from pulling the blade.

"Do you not see her face?!" He turned around and looked at her with a fire in his eyes that she had seen very few times in their lives together. He was angry. He was teetering on the edge of rage, but even worse, under all of that, what made her chest ache for him, was the hurt in his eyes.

"I see it, my love," she assured him. "But this room is full of hundreds of people. The entire King's Guard is standing watch at these doors. I know you want to defend her honor but how do you think (y/n) would feel if this ended with you dead in the middle of the feast?"

Oberyn took his hand off of his dagger and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He glanced at Ellaria at his side before looking back to you with a shake of his head. "Why do you have to be reasonable all of the time?"

"Because the gods knew without me, you would have never lived this long." She took his hand gently and pried it from his crossed arms to lead him back to their table. "Come and sit down. We will have a better chance to reach her after the feast."

--

Ellaria hardly touched the food that was on her plate. She barely listened when King Robert gave his speech, thanking each individual house for their attendance. And the wine that she thought was insufficient now tasted unbearable. Nothing around her was enjoyable since she laid eyes on you. 

You sat at the table at the front of the hall with the other Lannisters and Baratheons looking more miserable than the day she first laid eyes on you. With tight lips and a blank face, you downed glass after glass of wine and didn't touch your food. It seemed to her that you were determined on having to be carried out of the hall, or forgetting the night all together--perhaps both. She missed your smile. She missed that infectious laugh and that quick wit that she had gotten to know over the last few days. It pained her to see the shell of a woman so far beyond her grasp, for no matter how beautiful, a shell was nothing more than an empty vessel.

Ellaria was drawn from her thoughts as the man at her side abruptly moved his chair back and stood up. And when she saw why, he heart began to race. 

"Oberyn don't," Ellaria said as the pair of them watched Jaime Lannister get up from his table and head out of the grand hall.

Oberyn had a truly empty grin on his face as he leaned down and kissed her cheek, mumbling against her skin. "I don't know what you're talking about, my love."

"I'm not a fool!" She grit her teeth, trying to keep her voice low as she grabbed the dark blue sleeve of his tunic. 

"I just want...a word." Oberyn was careful to keep his voice guarded. "It won't take long."

"Ober--" she stopped as he walked around her chair and she turned her body to follow his movements. "Oberyn--fuck." She watched helplessly as the stubborn prince put more distance between himself and their table and followed the same path out of the hall as Jaime had. Ever the silent, swift viper, no one seemed to notice as the prince moved in between them carefully, all the while keeping a firm hand on his blade. 

Ellaria stood but she didn't follow him. He didn't need her help and he certainly didn't need her drawing more attention to his careful pursuit of the blond. As he turned the corner and disappeared from her view she turned back to the head table to see you getting up as well.

You swayed slightly as you drained yet another glass of wine and kept your balance by gripping the back of your chair. You gave a weak smile to those around you and quietly excused yourself from the table. Ellaria had watched you all night, hoping for a look in their direction, a look of longing, anything--and you had not given either of them so much as a glance. Before she could stop herself, she lifted her skirts slightly and stepped back from the table to follow you at a determined pace. 

She followed closely as you walked down the hallway that led out into the castle gardens. Other guests milled about, laughing and talking, and she dodged them all, never allowing herself to lose sight of that striking red dress. 

"Excuse me." Ellaria nearly collided with one of the King's Guard but avoided him and stepped outside. 

The gardens we're lit with torches and had tables of wine and food set out for guests to partake in the mild spring evening. Each fountain contained about a dozen floating candles that gave the whole place a magical glow--the castle servants had really worked hard to make sure the last night of the feast was beautiful. 

She watched as you found a corner fountain, empty of other patrons, before sitting down heavily on the edge of the water. Her footsteps slowed as she admired just how beautiful you really were. Despite the bruise on your cheek and the sadness in your eyes, she still yearned for you like she did before you had even spoken. The memory of your hands in her hair as she kissed your thighs, of the feel of your lips as you smiled against her mouth and pulled her to your chest after she brought your release--she felt as if she had been without your touch for months. Watching Jaime drag you away made you feel unobtainable, and she ached because of it. 

She wanted to call to you, to feel your name once again fall from her mouth, to run and pull you to her breast but instead she said, "I think you left some wine unfinished at the table. Would you like me to go and get it?"

You stopped at the sound of her voice and glanced over your shoulder in surprise. "Ellaria," you breathed quietly before turning from her to quickly wipe your cheeks. When Ellaria realized you had been crying, her smile fell and her resolve crumbled.

"Oh, my sweet one," she got close enough to touch you but when she reached out you stood to avoid her hands.

"Don't." 

The one word was hard, sharp. It held a command, a finality that did not match the soft woman that she had gotten to know in her bed. 

"(Y/n)," she tried again and you shook your head.

"I don't need your pity." You wiped another tear angrily from your cheek. 

"That's not what I'm here to offer," Ellaria said, letting her hands fall to her sides. 

"Then why are you here?"

"Why am I--" she couldn't believe how cold your words were, and then she remembered--Jaime. "What did he do to you? Besides that." She gestured to your face and crossed her arms.

"He didn't do anything," you lied.

"Did he threaten you?"

"No."

"Did he threaten me? Or Oberyn?"

"No."

Ellaria stopped for a moment and raised an eyebrow. "What did he tell you?"

You hugged your arms around yourself and shook your head again. Did you tell her? You had to. No matter how painful it may be, you needed answers. 

"Did you know about Elia Martell?" You asked quietly.

Ellaria nodded without hesitation. "Of course I did."

"Why didn't Oberyn say anything?"

"What was there to say?"

"That my family murdered her!" You said, raising your voice and looking at her with desperation. The lump in your throat grew and you swallowed hard, refusing to cry anymore than you already had that day. 

"That has nothing to do with what has transpired between the three of us." Ellaria spoke firmly and took a step forward towards you.

"But doesn't it? I'm a Lannister." Your voice cracked on the word and Ellaria took another step in your direction. "I'm the enemy."

"You are not." She said, her lips pressing into a tight line. "You are not responsible for the sins of Tywin Lannister. Or Jaime Lannister. Or anyone else that has brought harm to Oberyn's house." 

"Then what am I? A pawn? A trophy? Something the Prince of Dorne can fuck as part of his plan to get back at those responsible for his sister's death?" Your words tasted like poison on your lips and you hated yourself for the anger that was directed at the woman in front of you but you had to know. 

"Never."

Ellaria's words were a whisper as she finally stood directly in front of you. She reached out hesitantly and put her hands on your forearms. When you didn't pull away she squeezed them and looked you directly in the eyes. 

"Oberyn may fight with a spear. He is expertly trained to fight with daggers. He is every bit the red viper they say he is, with fangs and venomous words, lying in wait for the time to strike--but to him, to me, love is not a weapon."

"Love." You laughed bitterly and she grabbed your jaw in her hand, stopping you from breaking her gaze. 

"I mean what I said." 

You didn't pull from her grasp, but you didn't move to embrace her either. "How can I know for sure?"

Ellaria lessened her grip on your face, her long, slender fingers tracing your skin gently as she looked you over. She hesitantly touched the bruise on the side of your face and when you winced it made her heart ache. She would kill a thousand King's Guard if that's what it took. But she knew such an act of violence would not be something required to win your kind heart. When it came to her and Oberyn, neither of them would settle for less than you wanting them back with just as much furocity as they wanted you. 

Ellaria leaned in and when you didn't pull away she took that for the invitation that it was and whispered with her lips a breath's space away from yours.

"Because if my kiss was a lie, it wouldn't taste as sweet."

She pressed her mouth against yours as softly as she spoke her words and you breathed her in like a woman who was drowning. She tasted like she always did, sweet and warm, and it did things to your body despite the heartache you had suffered throughout the day. This was Ellaria. A woman who wanted to know your thoughts, who wanted to know your body, who wanted to know you. Her kiss was not possessive, because you were not an object to be owned. To her you were something to be worshipped and her kiss was an offering of such. 

Her hands moved to cup your cheeks and you spoke against her mouth. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize." She said, whispering her mantra against you, a law in the religion of your relationship. "We wanted to stop Jaime this morning, please believe me."

"I know," you nodded before pulling her back down for another bruising kiss.

"You need to talk to Oberyn. You need to know that my words are not just my own. He deserves the chance to tell you himself." She said, fisting the material of your dress as she pulled you against her body and your arms wrapped around her neck.

"I will," you agreed, tilting your head so she could slip her tongue past your lips. 

She never wanted to let you go, never allow anyone else to kiss you like this, never allow anyone to take you from her arms--except of course Oberyn. She knew you still had not given your answer, that you only had one foot on the boat to Dorne and the other remained firmly planted to the steps of King's Landing. But Ellaria knew, with a determined heart, that at the end of the week she wasn't getting on that ship without you.

--

Oberyn walked slowly but with purpose. He watched the back of Jaime's head as the other man threaded through the small clusters of guests and around the corner. Oberyn didn't know where he was going, but he didn't care. All he knew was that he wasn't leaving the castle until he had had a few words with the young Lannister. He let his fingers play over the pearl handle of his dagger and the smooth texture grounded him. He remembered Ellaria's words and vowed not to end up at the wrong end of someone's sword tonight. 

It wasn't long before he was almost caught up with Jaime. His swift movements and steady pace gave him an advantage of speed against someone in full plate armor. He watched as Jaime went around a large stone pillar and Oberyn took the other side. Pulling his dagger, he nearly let the man collide with him as he grabbed a fistful of his golden cloak and shoved him into the shadowed alcove with a grunt. 

"What the--" Jaime hissed before focusing his gaze and looking eye to eye at the man before him. "Prince Oberyn." He said cordially, and Oberyn gave a smug grin in return.

"Jaime Lannister," he said, putting the edge of the dagger against the blond's neck. "I thought we could talk."

“Talk?” Jaime glanced down at the blade briefly and then back up, careful to keep his expression blank. "I forgot Dornishmen have a unique way of speaking."

Oberyn gave a hollow chuckle and nodded. "Something you'll do well to remember."

Both mean glared at the other. Neither of them refused to relent even though it was obvious that only one of them had the upper hand. Jaime finally broke the silence.

"What is it that you want?"

"Didn't Joanna ever tell you not to strike a woman?" Oberyn asked without pretense, casually speaking the name of Jaime's deceased mother.

Jaime grit his teeth and rolled his eyes. "I should have known it was about that little cunt."

Oberyn jerked forward and pressed the dagger into Jaime's neck hard enough to make the other man wince. "Watch it, boy."

Jaime swallowed hard, rethinking his words before focusing back on the Prince. "You can't fool me, Oberyn. It's too much of a coincidence. You and your bastard courtesan show up out of nowhere and try to bed my cousin? If this is your way of getting to my father, you'll have to do better than that."

"This has nothing to do with Tywin." Oberyn said, trying to hide the mild surprise he felt at the mere suggestion. 

"Doesn't it?" Jaime raised a blond eyebrow. "Tell me. Is she something to fuck and discard or do you really plan on taking her to Dorne? She can’t be that good in bed--”

“Enough--”

 “Or do you plan on repeating what happened to Elia? Because I have to say--I didn't think you had it in y--" His words stopped short as Oberyn flexed the blade and it drew a small drop of blood from Jaime's neck.

"Don't say her name," Oberyn said through clenched teeth. 

"You're going to regret that," Jaime snarled but Oberyn ignored him.

"I know the culture is different here in King's Landing, but where I come from the rape and murder of innocents is considered an unforgivable atrocity." 

"Ahh, yes, I forget the noble constitutions of the Sand peopl--" Jaime stopped talking with another press of the steel. 

"I am not here to debate our clearly different opinions of what is right or wrong, little lion. I am here to tell you," Oberyn leaned in and lowered his voice. "If you lay another hand on (y/n), I will remind you that all Lannisters bleed. Just like any other man."

"Is that a threat?"

"It is a promise," Oberyn spat, making Jaime flinch as he removed the dagger suddenly and put it back at the sheath at his waist. He adjusted his tunic before adding, "Enjoy the rest of the feast."

Oberyn didn’t have to turn around to know Jaime was giving him a look of death as he adjusted the cloak that the Prince’s grip had wrinkled. He knew Jaime was probably already planning his retaliation, but for now, it was clear that you were under the protection of Dorne. 

--

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[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars CXXXI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: Right now Val’s fic and mine are screaming ‘Fuck Harry Potter!’ But in entirely different contexts and I love it jsdjsdj -Danny P.S. the Twins’ leaving always makes me cry when I read that.

Words: 4,428

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Listen to: ‘Fine Line’ -by Harry Styles

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Twins' Farewell.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"I need a moment."

"You've been quiet for five minutes."

"Well, I found out my mother used to be a bully," She snapped. "I kind of have a lot to think about!"

Their parents had treated Snape the same way Dudley used to treat her and Harry when they were younger. Not only that, but Harry's mother appeared to hate James with a burning passion. As if that weren't enough, Emily had actively taken part in attacking Snape and threatened Lily with hexing her if she interfered. Harry was holding back information though, and she needed to know what it was.

"What is it?"

"Hmm?" Harry said nervously.

"You have that look on your face. You haven't finished the story.”

"I have."

"Don't lie to me."

She took advantage of his inexperience and forced the memory out.

Mel looked at the fifteen-year-old version of her mother and saw herself reflected on her. She had her eyes, hair (exactly as long as her mother's when she was her age, and it fell in the same elegant fashion). She also had her lovesick gaze, which caused her to realize Emily was head over heels for none other than James Potter.

It was uncomfortable to watch, not only because Matt and Sirius would glance from time to time with a grumpy expression, but also because they were so similar to their parents that it was like looking at a very odd mirror. James was utterly oblivious, he would look at Emily like she was an adorable toddler. 

Emily, on the other side, was a lost cause. James would constantly look back at the group of girls that were hanging out by the lake, where Lily Evans was chatting happily. His eyes would light up the same way Harry's used to. 

Then she had to witness the look of pleased evilness when they attacked Snape, the way Emily pointed her wand at Lily, ready to attack...

She pulled back abruptly.

"I told you not to do it!" Harry groaned, closing his eyes tightly and pressing his palm on his temple.

"I can't believe she never told me!" Mel exclaimed.

"What were you expecting? 'Hey, you know that boy you're friends with? I used to have a crush on his dad!"

"I don't know!" Mel blushed. "I... Sirius told me my mum had the longest crush on this boy before dating my dad... I never thought it'd be James!"

"I never thought my dad was an arrogant twat," Harry said miserably. "I can't believe Snape was telling the truth..."

"What if..." Mel pushed her hair back, and she grimaced at the thought of doing it in the exact same way her mother used to. "What if Snape tricked you into believing he's telling the truth?"

"How?" 

"Well... we can't trust our brains, let alone someone else's! I mean, we treat Malfoy rather badly but we're not bad people, are we? If you were to look at us through his eyes we would look like monsters..."

Harry considered the idea, then shook his head miserably. 

"Snape didn't want me to look at the memory, he'd hidden the Pensieve and I was the one who snooped around."

Mel thought back on all those years uncle Lupin never talked about his relation to his mother, how they said she was too young... They had been right, but Mel was old enough now.

"I think," Mel said, standing up and indicating Harry to do the same. "We deserve an explanation."

"But why haven't you got Occlumency lessons anymore?" 

"I've told you, Snape reckons I can carry on by myself now I've got the basics... He says that if I need help, I can ask Mel," Harry shrugged, avoiding looking up from his parchment.

"Is it true?" Hermione raised her brows in polite surprise.

"Yeah," Mel lied. "We got this under control."

"So you've stopped having funny dreams, Harry?"

"Pretty much," He replied, his face almost completely hidden.

"Well, I don't think Snape should stop until you're absolutely sure you can control them!" Hermione frowned. "Harry, I think you should go back to him and ask —"

"No. Just drop it, Hermione, okay?"

"Are you done with the schedules, 'Mione?" Mel asked, trying to change the subject.

"Why are you making studying schedules, exams are ages away," Ron yawned.

"Exams are only six weeks away, Ron," Hermione sentenced.

"They're what, now?" He straightened up on his chair.

"How can that come as a shock?" 

"I dunno..." said Ron, "there's been a lot going on..."

"Well, there you are," Hermione handed three identical schedules to Harry, Ron and Mel, "if you follow that you should do fine."

"You've given me an evening off every week!" 

"That's for Quidditch practice," said Hermione. 

"Yay," Mel said without excitement. Next game she was playing seeker against none other than Cho Chang, so she was starting to feel nervous.

"What's the point?" Ron pouted. "We've got about as much chance of winning the Quidditch Cup this year as Dad's got of becoming Minister of Magic..."

"All you need to do is stop the Quaffle from entering the bloody goal posts, how hard can that be?" Mel huffed. "I have to find the smallest little thing against a well-trained seeker!"

"You're well-trained," Ron argued. 

"I'm not even close to being at her level—"

"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione interrupted.

"What?" Harry gave a start. "Nothing..."

He picked up his Defensive Magical Theory book and Grey jumped onto his lap, Harry barely acknowledged him. 

"I saw Cho earlier," Hermione started tentatively, "and she looked really miserable too... Have you two had a row again?"

"Wha — oh yeah, we have," Harry nodded.

"What about?"

"That sneak friend of hers, Marietta," He said.

"Yeah, well, I don't blame you!" said Ron. "If it hadn't been for her..."

The boy went off for several minutes about what an awful girl Marietta was, looking back on it, it was a bit unfair not to warn her about the risks...

Marietta was scared for her family, it was obvious she'd try to do the best for them. People are allowed to change their minds! 

Mel was hoping her parents had done the same, otherwise she would have to live with the fact that they were... not the best of people.

‘CAREER ADVICE

All fifth years will be required to attend a short meeting with their Head of House during the first week of the Summer term, in which they will be given the opportunity to discuss their future careers. Times of individual appointments are listed below...’

The four of them were going through a bunch of pamphlets of different wizarding careers, trying to decide what thing suited them better. Mel was quietly reading the pamphlet on Magizoology when Fred and George sat down between her and Harry.

"Ginny's had a word with us about you," said Fred, putting his legs on the table and kicking pamphlets in the process. "She says you need to talk to Sirius?"

"What?" Hermione spat.

"Yeah..." said Harry, "yeah, I thought I'd like —"

"Don't be so ridiculous," said Hermione. "With Umbridge groping around in the fires and frisking all the owls?" 

"Well, we think we can find a way around that," said George. "It's a simple matter of causing a diversion. Now, you might have noticed that we have been rather quiet on the mayhem front during the Easter holidays?"

"What was the point, we asked ourselves, of disrupting leisure time?" continued Fred. "No point at all, we answered ourselves. And of course, we'd have messed up people's studying too, which would be the very last thing we'd want to do."

Hermione looked at him as if she could not believe him to be so thoughtful. 

"But it's business as usual from tomorrow," Fred continued, putting an arm around Mel casually. "And if we're going to be causing a bit of uproar, why not do it so that Harry and the lady can have their chat with Sirius?"

"I never said I wanted to talk with Sirius," Mel raised a brow, giving her wand a light flicker and making the pamphlets go back to the table neatly.

"But you do though," George replied. "You wouldn't miss the opportunity to check on your mum, would you?"

Mel pondered. "I guess not..."

"Yes, but still," said Hermione, "even if you do cause a diversion, how are Harry and Mel supposed to talk to him?"

"Umbridge's office," Harry replied matter of factly.

"Erick said that's the only floo line that isn't being watched," Mel nodded.

"Are — you — insane?" Hermione asked angrily.

"Yeah, people keep telling me that," She smiled.

"And how are you going to get in there in the first place?"

"Sirius's knife," Harry said.

"Excuse me?"

"Christmas before last Sirius gave me a knife that'll open any lock. So even if she's bewitched the door so Alohomora won't work, which I bet she has —"

"What do you think about this?" Hermione hissed at Ron.

"I dunno," Ron blushed. "If Harry wants to do it, it's up to him, isn't it?"

"Spoken like a true friend and Weasley," said Fred. "Right, then. We're thinking of doing it tomorrow, just after lessons, because it should cause maximum impact if everybody's in the corridors — We'll set it off in the east wing somewhere, draw her right away from her own office — I reckon we should be able to guarantee you, what, twenty minutes?"

"Easy," George nodded.

"What sort of diversion is it?" Ron frowned.

"You'll see, little bro," said Fred, getting up at the same time as his twin. "At least, you will if you trot along to Gregory the Smarmy's corridor round about five o'clock tomorrow." 

"Okay then," Mel sighed. "We'll do it."

"Hey," Harry whispered once everyone was back in their business. "Don't you get uncomfortable with the way Fred treats you?"

"Huh?" She blushed. "Oh! I don't even notice, you know? Yeah, no big deal..."

She hid her face behind the pamphlet, fearful that Harry would insist on asking questions.

"I'm sorry," McGonagall blinked. "Could you repeat that?"

"I'd like to pursue the careers of Auror, Magizoologist," She smiled, "and Unspeakable."

Umbridge (who had been supervising the interviews that day) let out the faintest little chuckled, but they ignored it.

"Miss Dumbledore, are you aware of the work—"

"Yes. I require a minimum of five N.E.W.T.s and nothing under 'Exceeds Expectations' for the Auror position. They ask for a character and aptitude test as well. I'm aware that they haven't taken any new blood for the last three years, but fortunately, that's the same time I have to finish my studies, so maybe by then, they'll have a spot — As for my character and aptitude test, well, I'll work on that. Moving onto Magizoology: I need to pass Care of magical creatures, Defense against the dark arts, Potions, Herbology and Charms. My weak spot is Herbology, but I'm sure I can catch up. As for the Unspeakable position, well, it's all of the above."

She knew it was ambitious, but Dumbledore had told her she could achieve it with hard work and the proper schedule, and she wanted to believe he was right.

"For two of those you'll need to have a respect for authority," McGonagall stared at her. "Something which I've noticed doesn't come easily for you."

"It's not that I don't respect authority," Mel replied. "I respect you and the other teachers, I respect most of the Aurors I've met, I respect my mother... I just have zero patience with idiots."

"You'll have to accept that some people will know better than you, even if you find them idiotic."

"Well, I respect Snape don't I? I have a solid 'Outstanding' in his class."

She might have been wrong, but she saw the faintest hint of a smile on the woman's face.

"Very well, Miss Dumbledore," She drew out a parchment from Mel's folder and started to write down subjects. "I won't deny it'll be a long time before you get everything you want, but I've seen your abilities and I trust you'll get there—"

"Excuse me," Umbridge spoke. "It's blatantly clear that a Dumbledore, one that's proven to be mentally unstable, has no place in the Ministry."

"Good thing the Unspeakables aren't obliged to respond to the Minister, then," McGonagall replied with disinterest.

"What?" asked Mel and Umbridge.

"Miss Dumbledore, I thought you'd done your research," McGonagall then did show a polite smile. "The Department of Mysteries is a closed ward, they don't talk about their work outside office hours and most certainly they don't talk about it with people who do not belong in their area."

"No one is above the Minister," Umbridge replied with outrage.

"You're quite right about that," McGonagall finished whatever she was writing and folded it. "The Unspeakables work in the basement. You're free to go, Miss Dumbledore."

Mel took the parchment McGonagall was offering to her, but the professor held onto it for a moment.

"Best of lucks," She said, gazing up at Mel through her glasses.

As she slowly made her way to Divination, Fred ran into her, looking more energized than ever.

"All right, Lady?" He smiled.

"Yeah," She said brightly. "McGonagall just approved my future careers, she says I have a good chance to do them all!"

"Nice! Are you ready for what's coming?"

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" She asked. 

Fred had told her this was it for him and George, they wouldn't stay to get detention or being officially expelled. They were planning to run away, and Mel was dead worried.

"I'm brilliant," He smiled. "Everything's okay. Especially between us — I promised, didn't I? I'm keeping my word, and I promise to write as soon as I'm safe —"

"No!" Mel said. "Umbridge goes through our mail..."

"Don't worry, just leave it to us."

He started to walk away and Mel did too.

"Mel?" The boy called right before she left the hall, the girl stopped and turned to look at him. "Don't waste your chances."

Harry and Mel made their way to Umbridge's office as soon as they heard explosions at the far end of the school. They crouched in front of the fireplace and threw floo powder in the centre, the flames surrounded their heads.

"Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!" Harry said out loud. 

She closed her eyes until the feeling of being pulled forward came to a stop.

"Sirius?" Harry asked.

However, when Mel opened her eyes she saw her uncle.

"Mel! Harry! What are you — what's happened, is everything all right?"

"Yeah, I just wondered — I mean, I just fancied a — a chat with Sirius."

"I just want to know how my mum's doing," Mel replied clumsily.

"I'll call them," said Lupin. "He went upstairs to look for Kreacher, he seems to be hiding in the attic again. Emily's having a nap, she takes lots of those lately..."

"Is this really a good idea?" Mel asked the boy next to her.

"We're already here..."

Lupin returned with a short-haired Sirius (apparently he'd given in to Emily's desires) and Mel's mum, who was now six months into her pregnancy.

"What is it?" Sirius and Remus knelt, leaving Emily on a chair facing them so she could look at the kids. "Are you all right? Do you need help?"

"No, it's nothing like that... I just wanted to talk... about my dad..." Harry started. "About something I saw in one of Snape's memories."

Lupin and Sirius exchanged a look of surprise, Emily's frown deepened. When Harry finished his story, Lupin was the first to speak.

"I wouldn't like you to judge your parents on what you saw there. They were only fifteen —"

"We're fifteen!" 

"Look, Harry," said Sirius, "James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts."

"Yeah, but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because — well, just because you said you were bored." 

"And Mum helped him," Mel said, pouting. "You threatened to hurt Lily if she tried to help Snape!"

"I'm not proud of it," said Sirius.

"Neither am I," Emily stated. "As you've heard countless times before, I want you to grow having better morals than the ones I had when I was your age. I can't erase what I did, but I've learned to live with it."

"What you've got to understand is that your fathers and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did — everyone thought they were the height of cool — if they sometimes got a bit carried away —"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean," said Sirius. "Matthew was the only one who knew how to keep his feet on the ground. He was a flirt, yes, but he was never a total prat."

"He kept messing up his hair," Harry said quietly, referring to James.

"I'd forgotten he used to do that," said Sirius, laughing.

"Was he playing with the Snitch?" asked Remus.

"Yeah," said Harry. 

Mel felt tempted to mention her mother's crush; but what was the point, really? It'd been years since that, and in the end, Emily had stopped liking him, it was long over. Bringing that up would only make things awkward, and Mel knew there was no use in reliving things of the past.

"Well..." Harry started, "I thought he was a bit of an idiot." 

"So that's where you got it from, then?" Mel teased.

"Of course he was a bit of an idiot!" said Sirius. "We were all idiots! Well — Ruddy and Moony not so much..."

"Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape? Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?" Lupin grimaced.

"Yeah, well, you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes... That was something..."

"Matthew wasn't afraid to be brutally honest, though. He would say the truth no matter what," Emily tilted her head. "Perhaps that's what made me liked him. I had an awful temper and he would always stop me from doing stupid things."

"That explains your temper," The boy whispered to Mel teasingly as well. "Oh! And... he kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him!"

"Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around," said Sirius. "He couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her."

"How come she married him? She hated him!"

"Nah, she didn't," Sirius smirked.

"She started going out with him in seventh year," Lupin explained. 

"Once James had deflated his head a bit," said Sirius.

"And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it," said Lupin. 

"Even Snape?" 

"Well, Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn't really expect James to take that lying down, could you?"

"And my mum was okay with that?"

"She didn't know too much about it, to tell you the truth. I mean, James didn't take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?"

"I was already friends with Lily by the end of our fifth year," Emily said, "actually, right after that day when we finished our O.W.L.'s we had a talk... yeah, I reckon that's when we decided to call a truce. I made sure she never got anywhere near Snape after that day, for her own sake, really. Snape was always awful to her."

"Look," Sirius said, "your father was the best friend I ever had, and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it. So did Emily, but they never did anything that could be considered a crime."

"Yeah, okay... I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape."

"Now you mention it," said Lupin, "how did Snape react when he found you'd seen all this?"

"He told me he'd never teach me Occlumency again," Harry shrugged, "like that's a big disappoint — Ouch!"

Mel had pinched his arm to stop him from talking, but it was too late.

"He WHAT?" Sirius yelled.

"Are you serious, Harry?" said Lupin. "He's stopped giving you lessons?" 

"Yeah— But it's okay, I don't care, it's a bit of a relief to tell you the truth, and Mel said she can teach —" 

"I'm coming up there to have a word with Snape!" said Sirius, trying to step into the fire but stopping when Lupin grabbed his arm.

"If anyone's going to tell Snape it will be me!" Lupin said firmly. "Emily needs you here. But Harry, first of all, you're to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons — when Dumbledore hears —" 

"I can't tell him that, he'd kill me! You didn't see him when we got out of the Pensieve —"

"Harry, there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency! Do you understand me? Nothing!" 

"It's true, kid," Emily said, a look of sympathy on her face. "We need you safe."

"Okay, okay," Harry responded. "I'll... I'll try and say something to him... But it won't be..."

Mel raised a hand to quiet him down, they both heard footsteps.

"Is that Kreacher coming downstairs?"

"No," said Sirius, looking over his shoulder. "It must be somebody your end..."

"We'd better go!" 

"Thank you for the talk!" Mel said quickly. "See you!"

They both pulled back from the flames, falling on their butts.

"Quickly, quickly!" Filch wheezed outside the room. "Ah, she's left it open..."

Harry pulled her close abruptly and Mel put the cloak above their heads just in time. Filch rushed over to the desk without paying attention to his surroundings.

"Approval for Whipping... Approval for Whipping... I can do it at last... They've had it coming to them for years..." He ran out holding a piece of parchment.

Harry and Mel left the room in a hurry, one floor down they took off the cloak and followed the noises. They ran to the marble staircase and found the entire school there.

It was just like the night when Trelawney had been sacked. Students were standing all around the walls in a great ring (some of them, Harry noticed, covered in a substance that looked very like Stinksap); teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd. 

Prominent among the onlookers were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking exceptionally pleased with themselves, and Peeves, who was bobbing overhead, gazed down upon Fred and George, who stood in the middle of the floor with the unmistakable look of two people who had just been cornered.

"No..." Mel tried to enter the crowd but someone held her arm before she could get in.

"Wouldn't do that if I were you," Erick whispered. "Let them handle it. They're about to leave anyway."

"How do you know?" Mel asked in surprise.

"I helped them buy half of the things they needed for this. Umbridge doesn't check my mail."

"So!" The woman exclaimed. "So... you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred unbothered.

"I've got the form, Headmistress," Filch exclaimed in joy. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting... Oh, let me do it now..."

"Very good, Argus. You two are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what? I don't think we are. George," He turned to his twin. "I think we've outgrown full-time education." 

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," The boy responded. 

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?"

"Definitely."

"Accio Brooms!" They yelled in unison.

Harry heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Looking to his left he ducked just in time — Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor toward their owners. They turned left, streaked down the stairs, and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.

Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd.

"If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley — Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes," he said in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.

"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset. 

Mel clapped along with her classmates, she'd promised not to cry over silly boys, but this was a different kind of crying. No more afternoons with Fred and George around to make her laugh, to tease her about her height or her temper. It hurt, but she also felt proud to call them friends.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked. 

"I don't know."

"You'll be okay," He assured her. "I'm sorry Fred and you broke up, though."

"You and Fred broke up?" Erick asked in a strange voice.

"Have you been living under a rock?" Harry grinned.

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world​ @just-here-to-escape-from-reality​ @21bruhs @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual @dielgonacoffee

[twinkleallnight]

I am sorry for the long break and thank you if you are still there looking for the update.

Marshmallow

Story till now: Drake has build up his individual life as a veterinary and is working at the royal palace. His childhood friends Liam( having a social season), Max ( sponsoring Riley) and Olivia ( a mystery, may be they had a past) are moving on in their lives. Drake has met Hana and is attracted to her but is confused. At the Beaumont bash he is seated with Hana and Olivia for dinner. God help him.!

For previous chapters: Catch up here

The Debate

Book: The Royal Romance AU

Pairing: Drake x Hana.

Word count: 1,681

Disclaimer: All characters belong to pixelberry.

Rating: Mature

Thank you @yourmajesty09 for beta reading!

“Hell, this is going to be one crazy night!” I shuffle in my chair with discomfort.

“Why now, Mr Walker? You seem to have forgotten too soon all the fun we had. Together.” Livy raises her left brow, an indication of an impending doom she is about to cast.

Hana clears her throat, making Livy shift her gaze and she aims at Hana now. “A very good evening to you too, Lady Hana! Your presence has not gone unnoticed. I wonder what your parents have to say for your blooming relationship with a commoner.” I wince at that but I think its better to ignore.

“He has shown more integrity than any of the nobles here. I am sure they will be pleased to meet him, not that it is any of your business.” Hana retorts.

Hana 1, Olivia 0.

I make a mental note and quietly sip the hot and sour soup in front of me.

The next moment Hana’s eyes are warm as she smiles at me. Her hand rests on my thigh. “He is a thorough gentleman. I have known him for six months now.”

“And I know him since I was six years old.” Livy says in a cold voice.

Olivia 1

“I am not counting quantity. It’s the quality time that matters. And I am blessed to have it all.” Hana keeps looking into my eyes, totally ignoring the fiery duchess. I try giving her the pleading look, in an effort to tell her about the unconquerable Nevrakis. In vain!

Hana 2 Olivia 1. I quietly stick to counting.

Hana seems to be unstoppable today as she continues, “We can talk anything on earth with each other.”

Livy cuts through, “We never felt the need to talk, it was understood.”

I groan but the girls are not even noticing me anymore. Livy continues her attack, “You sound like that stupid girl Anna hardly knowing her fake Prince Hans.” My eyes go wide, it’s unlike Livy to be quoting a fairy-tale. But she is not giving me any heed, and rather fans her hand casually at me with her sharp words. “Just because he moves around with a prince doesn’t make him a prince material”.

Hana “Why does only a prince complete a fairy tale? I am proud to have the one you call a commoner, to sum up my tale. And it’s not just about knowing him. It’s the comfort he gives me.

This is really hot and sour; I don’t know if I am relishing the sour taste of the soup or the heated talk between the ladies. Wait, how is this happening? Since when did I become so much important between ladies? Wasn’t this Liam’s routine?

I lose the count of the score of the debate.

----------

As the dinner wraps up, we are still at the end of the hall, standing near our table. Bertrand is bidding farewell to the king and queen as the formal party comes to an end. Liam is standing next to him with Riley on his side. They share a joke and smile at each other, lost in their own world.

Hana winds her hands around my arm and is unable to contain herself. “Aww they are so sweet together!”

Livy standing on my other side, still in bad mood says, “What’s sweet about it? Giggling like fools all the time.”

“That’s what love does. Makes you happy.” I finally speak. Livy's eyes narrow down on me and she storms away to stand with Madeleine ahead.

“So much for a peaceful dinner!” I sigh. “What’s gotten into you?” I chuckle at Hana.

She sniggers, “I wish she accepts herself. I don’t know what she is trying to hide behind her fierce look. She is sweet inside, isn’t she?”

My gaze settles at Livy's tall figure standing at a distance. Many fond memories of the soft- and warm-hearted girl I knew once, flood my mind. “ Yes, she has been the most caring and loving girl I have known as I grew up.” I place my free hand on Hana’s hands that are still clinging on to my arm.

We all move to the Grand hall for the after dinner festivities. It is more of chaos with everyone engaging in the revelry.

As Hana is pulled into a zig with Max and Riley, I excuse myself to the bar. Liam joins me in some time. “Enjoyed your dinner?” he smirks.

“Seems the king takes pleasure in pain of his subjects.”

He gives out a hearty laugh. “Your expressions were quite comprehensive. You should be glad you were left in one piece after that interaction with the Nevrakis Duchess.”

“I don’t know what I have done, to be her target all the time!”

“She is going through something, I guess. She should be back soon. Don’t worry.” Liam reassures.

“I wish I could help her.” I sigh. “But right now, I need to concentrate on something else.”

“Something or someone?” Liam asks.

“Yes, someone I mean.”

“And does this someone happens to be Lady Hana?”

I roll my eyes. “Yes boss! Hana it is. Since her last conversation with her parents, she seems to be more bold, more rebellious and aggressive.”

“And what are you scared of? Commitment?”

“I don’t know exactly. She is here on her parent’s behest who are looking for some prince or Duke or a lord as a match for her.”

“Well even my parents expected that. Marrying into a noble house. Yet, here I am…” he says fondly looking at Riley.

“Hana belongs to a very different part of the world, Liam, where it’s union of families and not just two people. The equations, the restrictions, the complications are all whirling up and my own feelings feel like being curbed under all those expectations.”

“Why don’t you take one step at a time? Start by speaking out your feelings first to the lady. You can deal with other matters later.”

“Hmm.”

“I think time to stop pondering and take some action.” He looks across my shoulder. I turn around to find Hana walking towards me. “All the best.” Liam whispers in my ear and walks away.

Hana sways smiling at me. “Hana, how much did u drink?”

“ Enough to forget the worries and enjoy the moments.”

I look around and find that most of the guests are falling off one by one. I sit with Hana at the bar as she continues saying silly things in her tipsy mood. After few more shots, she manages a sprig of mint from the bartender and starts plucking out the leaves. “He loves me, he loves me nottt, he loves me, he loves me….”

“Hana, what are you trying?” I interrupt by holding her fingers plucking at the leaves.”

“Shhh! I am trying to find out if Drake loves me.” She whispers a note higher.

“Why don’t you ask him?”

“He won’ttt tell me.” She says with extra emphasis on the T.

“How do you know that if you never asked him?”

“His horse told me. You know his favourittte one. Amber. She told me aaaall.” Hana dragged her last word.

“And just how did this Amber tell u all?”

“As a matter of facttt, she neighed.” Hana explained in worldly wise manner. How can she be so cute and stupid at the same time, I thought? Drunk Hana is cute!

“She said that he won’t tell?” I am finding this charming.

“Yessss.”

“Well, I think you should try asking him once. I am sure he won’t hide.”

“He won’tttt.”

“Nope.”

She suddenly straightens up, “Drake Walker, do you…”

“Not here, Hana. Not now.” I literally snub her. I am rather taken aback by her action. I am scared. I need to accept.

She pouts her lips and slumps back on her stool. I cover her tiny hands with mine and look into her honey orbs.

“Talk to him when you are sober and I promise he will open up to you.”

“Promisss?” Her eyes sparkle.

“Promise!”

Soon it’s just the hosts, Liam and Hana left around me.

Hana takes another shot that Max offers. “Hana, I think you have had enough.” I try to warn her but she is distracted by Max as he starts bragging about his peacocks that he has as pets.

“Aww, that must be so cute.” Hana squeals like a child. “Wǒ ài xióngmāo. Tāmen zuì kě'ài”

“Hana, English please. None of us understands Chinese.”

“Panda, I would love to have pandas as pets. They are cute."

Riley hugs or I may say literally hangs with her arms around Liam’s neck as she purrs, “No one is as cute as my blue -eyed beauty.” She pinches Liam’s cheeks.

Amused, Liam looks at me, “Guess we are the only two sober here.”

“I am awake and in senses too.” Max

Hana swings on my arm. “Would you like to have pandas?” She bats her eyes innocently at me.

“Sure, we can talk about it later. We need to get you back to the palace now. It’s late.” I push towards the exit.

Riley is ecstatic as she stands with Max to see us off while we get into the limo.

Hana cuddles up to me and Liam sits across grinning at me.

Hana’s eyes are almost drooping as she lifts her head and nails it, “Drake, I wanna be your duck!”

I slap my forehead and instantly plead, "Hana, you are better talking Chinese please.”

Liam has covered his mouth and is unsuccessfully trying to control his laughter. Max is doubled over, laughing out while Riley tries to decipher what just happened. I wish everyone was as drunk as Hana at that moment. She tilts her head on my shoulder and shuts her eyes blissfully. Thankfully the vehicle moves and I am relieved.

By the time we reach the palace Hana has passed out. Liam helps me by directing us through the backdoor entry so that no one notices as I carry Hana in my arms to her room.

I tuck her in her bed and quickly retrieve to my room.

My phone buzzes with a message alert.

I keep my phone aside and crash down in the bed. I groan and speak to the walls, 'Good night Livy. Dont have the energy right now for the debate.'

ToTags: @ao719 @aloneautumn @bebepac @charlotteg234 @choicesficwriterscreations @choiceskatie @cordonia-gothqueen @cordonianroyalty @drakewalker04 @gkittylove99 @glaimtruelovealways @kat-tia801 @hopefulmoonobject @hopelessromanticmonie @iam-the-kind-and-thoughtful @idontknowwhysblog @islandcrow @jovialyouthmusic @jaxsmutsuo @kingliam2019 @lovablegranny @mrswalkers-blog @mom2000aggie @no-one-u-know @ntoraplayschoices @princessleac1 @ritachacha @speedyoperarascalparty @shanzay44 @texaskitten30 @queenrileyrose @sanchita012 @sfb123 @theroyalheirshadowhunter @xpandabeardontcarex @yourmajesty09

[youllallriseintheink]

Prison Cell, Chapter 3

Sorry this took so long- it got so long that I had to split it into two parts. Anyhow, from this point forwards, you can expect a lot of violence, so be warned. This chapter will have a lot of interpersonal stuff, and the final chapter will be pretty much entirely action.

---

Sammy unlocked the door. On the other side of it was a demon. The demon. The one that had stolen her blood.

Its body was humanoid and wearing a suit and white bow tie, but its hands were made of ink. The top of its head was covered in black ink, which spiraled up into horns and spilled down its face, leaving only its mustache, mouth and chin visible. Seeing it in the light for the first time, Susie recognized it as the bottom of Joey’s face.

“Joey?” Susie asked, her voice full of wonder and fear.

“Once,” the demon said, and its voice was not Joey Drew’s. It deep, and rough, and horrible. “But I have taken over. Don’t worry- I don’t want this any more than he does. Once I find a way to separate humans from ink, I’ll go back to my dimension and free all of you to yours.” The demon turned and beckoned Susie to follow him. “Come.”

The demon led Susie through the basement, seemingly one large room full of very strange things. Pentagrams littered the floor. Scattered iron cages contained a few emaciated, ink-covered people. Shelves full of sharp tools and unknowable ingredients lined the walls.

“I can still hear him, you know,” the demon mused, taking a syringe and a number of bottles from a shelf, “Joey. His mind. I can see into him. Learn how to manipulate humans. I asked him how to crush your insurrection, and he said that I’d need to destroy your little story.”

The demon led Susie to a door and opened it, and when he did, she lost all her breath.

It was Norman, chained to the far wall. He was wearing the same clothes he had been when he was taken away several weeks ago, but now they were hanging off of him at sharp angles. Susie ran to him, and he cringed away from her. He didn’t want her to see him like this, or to feel how thin and bony he’d gotten.

“What did you do him!?” Susie demanded.

“Nothing beyond the obvious. You see, you thought that some of you could overcome us with physical power. That was your story- that your hope and your resilience would lead to freedom. I needed to show you that rebellion only forces me to take your strength. This isn’t something I wanted to do. Strong, healthy people do better work, and unfortunately Joey’s desire to manage the studio is in me. But... you forced my hand.”

The demon then pulled Susie Campbell up by the collar, pushed her against the wall, and put the syringe to her throat.

“He can’t protect you now,” the demon explained, perfectly calm. “His ability to do so was always under my control, and you made me take it away.”

All Norman could do was bury his head in his hands and listen to her whimper. The chains were too short for him to reach her, and he didn’t stand a chance against the demon anyhow. Not like this. The demon released her blood into one of the bottles, then reinserted the needle, working at an unhurried pace. He repeated the motion several times before letting her go. She fell onto her hands and knees, faint from blood loss.

---

Utterly haunted, Sammy escorted the two sickly individuals back to the music room, carrying with him the two first-aid kits and a message that Joey had written. The second he entered the recording studio, The instruments went silent. A bassist got up from his instrument and tackled Sammy to the ground.

“Okay, someone get these two to the infirmary and look after them,” the bassist ordered, “And Johnny, get the rope. We have a loyalist to hang!”

“Wait!” Sammy cried, “I carry a message from your lord!”

“Can it! You let this happen to them. Why would we listen to your stupid ‘message?’”

Meanwhile, Jack Fain picked up the message from the ground and read it. “Guys! It says if three days go by without incident, they’ll release our prisoners! Let’s not do this. Please.”

The man who’d tackled Sammy got up, snatched the message out of Jack’s hands, and skimmed over it. “Huh. You’re right. Fine. Take him to the elevator and I’ll take this to Abby. Hopefully she’ll actually use it.”

---

Abby read over the letter.

To the upper levels,

A lot of violence has occurred between the upper and lower levels recently, so let me make myself clear: I do not want war, and no matter what level you come from, you should not want loyalists to die. Without our work, you would starve. I’m sorry to have done what I did, but I think you all needed a reminder of what’s coming for you if you keep interfering with our work. I do not wish to have to do this again.

Simply put, be peaceful, do what’s needed of you, and everything will be fine. As a final peace offering, I will release your prisoners three days from now if the rebellion stops entirely.

-Joey Drew

Abby knew the letter was full of lies. That thing wasn’t Joey, and it wasn’t forced to keep them here. She knew that the others knew that, too, and she knew that now that the upper levels had tasted hope, complete compliance would be even more impossible than before. This so-called war was going to happen sooner or later, so she needed to make sure they started at an advantage. She called on Henry to help her make a plan, and called everyone into the recording studio that night to announce it. Thankfully, it seemed to satisfy even the most rebellious of souls.

---

The door to Susie’s room opened, and Abby stepped in. Susie's eyes opened weakly.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Sorry you had to miss the meeting tonight. Big things are happening, and I thought I’d let you know about them.”

“Okay,” Susie said.

“So... Joey, or, his demon, rather, has threatened to come down hard on us if there are any more signs of rebellion- and we both know that there will be. He also promised to release our prisoners if there are three days of good behaviour. So, I’ve decided that we’re breaking out the same night that our prisoners are released. The plan is for someone stealthy to go down there in the dead of night, steal the keys, and come back. After that, we’ll leave in groups of seven in order to sneak out of the portal. We’ll do it as quietly as possible, but we’ll also be packing axes and spears made from the knives you brought up. Hopefully there won’t be too many causalities.”

“Why seven?”

“We’re expecting to have ten injured people, and we’re not leaving anyone behind. There are going to be 68 of us in total, assuming that none of the prisoners died, you know, I thought that one per group would have the least chance of really compromising a group’s chances of escape. Plus, smaller groups will be quicker and quieter.”

Susie nodded.

“Oh, and I’m sure you’ll be better by then. And Norman is fine, too, by the way. Well, physically. We looked him over and he doesn’t have any issues aside from the obvious. He won’t talk to any of us. I don’t know what that’s about. Maybe some kind of spell.”

Susie should have felt something in regards to that, but she was honestly too exhausted from the blood loss.

“Alright. I’ll let you rest now- but tomorrow, I’m going to have to ask you about everything you saw down there- especially anything that might help me plan. Goodnight, Susie.” With that, Abby left.

---

The rebellion required planning, and management. Every axe was pulled off the walls and moved into Sammy’s sanctuary, along with the knives- just in case a loyalist decided to take them away one night. Two people guarded the elevator on each floor and at all times, and not to keep loyalists out. Loyalists were allowed right through, but any especially rebellious souls had to be kept from ruining their plan. Henry and Abby were busy planning the groups and drawing up an easy-to-follow map to the portal room. Every department head struggled to keep the remaining workers to their jobs. It seemed pointless for them to work jobs they’d quickly be fleeing from, but it was essential in order to keep suspicions to a minimum.

---

It was the night before the march. Most were turning in early, knowing that tomorrow, they would have to be on their guard well into the night. Susie had tried to do the same, but she couldn’t sleep. There was too much on her head. Too many factors that had to align if she was ever going to make it out. The horrifying possibility of facing the ink demon again if they failed. And her mind, despite there being there bigger fish to fry, kept going back to Norman, if they could ever have what they had once had again, and if Norman even wanted that anymore.

“Has Norman talked to you, yet?” Susie asked Grant once he entered their room. Since Norman hadn’t rejoined them, there was no real reason for them to still be roommates, but they’d stayed roommates anyhow, just out of habit.

“No. As far as I know, he hasn’t talked to anyone.”

“I saw him speak today. Wally wanted to help him carry something, and Norman snarled at him to back off. So, it’s not a spell- just mental stuff from being imprisoned. I wanna help him, but he won’t talk to me. Can you try?”

“Sure,” Grant said. “I can’t guarantee it’ll work, but I’ll try.”

“Okay,” Susie said, biting back tears. “I just wanna know that he’s in a place where he’ll be able to handle things tomorrow. And... I know that this is the last thing that should be on my mind, but... can you ask why he’s avoiding me?”

“Oh, Susie. I...” Grant tried to find the words to comfort her. “I’ll talk to him.” Honestly, it didn’t seem like Norman was the only one who had to pull themselves together for tomorrow night.

Norman wasn’t used to being pitied. Even as a kid, after all he’d been through, his adoptive family had known that he was a problem child who needed to be set straight before he got even bigger and his aggression became more dangerous. He’d never wanted pity, either, and now that he had it, he couldn’t say that his opinion on it had improved any. He never thought he’d miss his coworkers looking at him like he was a frightening beast. Though he did cut the long, greasy hair he’d grown while imprisoned as soon as he had the chance, he’d been half-tempted to just wash it and keep it, just to somewhat retain that beastly image.

Mostly, he wanted a way to cope. He wanted to talk with his sister, or go for a walk in the woods, or somehow get out of the sight of these people without isolating himself in one room. That had been what he was doing in his off hours- both because there was little else he wanted to do and because he didn’t have the stamina he used to. It wasn’t Susie’s room. Honestly, he’d been too scared to even look at her.

Norman knew of the plan. Honestly, it had happened so quickly after he was released from his imprisonment that it was a little hard to take in. Yes, late tomorrow night, he and everyone else would end up escaping or die trying, and Norman would either reunite with his sister and put his life together from there, or it would be the end of him. It was happening, but it didn’t seem real.

There was a knock at his door. Norman pulled himself up and answered it. It was Grant. Well, out of everyone in the studio it could have been, Grant was the most tolerable.

“Hey, Norman. You... wanna play some cards?” There was a little pity in Grant’s voice. Thankfully not too much.

Norman ushered Grant into the room. They sat down on the floor, and Grant started shuffling the cards.

“So, you ready for tomorrow?”

“I guess. Kind of hard to believe it’s happening.”

Grant’s face lit up. “You’re talking!”

Norman shrugged. “It’s easy when it’s you."

“Uh, thanks. Do you want talk about... you know, what’s happened?”

“No,” Norman said, and the two played cards in silence for a while before Norman spoke up again. “Is Susie okay?”

“She’s fine. She’ll be strong enough to make it out, assuming the plan goes well.”

Norman’s face was unreadable. “Good." A long pause. “Y’know, she’s childish, and shallow, and stupid. But she was impressed with me because I was strong and I could protect her. And so, you know, she was pretty, and we did... things together. I thought that could be all it was, but she was sweet and kind to me and I went and caught feelings for her. Of course, shallow attraction based on one thing won’t last now that I look like starving stray dog, but whatever. So long as she’s okay. She’s a good girl. So long as she’s okay.”

Grant just stared at him. “Have you... looked her in the eye recently?”

“What?”

“Uh, sorry. It’s just that you’re usually so good at figuring this kind of thing out that it borders on the supernatural, and right now, you’re really, really wrong. This entire, organized rebellion started with her trying to put together a rescue team for you. She wanted to be the first one down in loyalist territory, for you. She’s actually the one who sent me, because she’s worried about how you’ll do tomorrow.”

With the last line, Norman’s face went from appreciation and disbelief to twisted anger. “For God’s sake! Joey didn’t cut my fucking legs off!”

“Well, she can’t know how well you’re doing if you avoid her. Look, if you aren’t up for it, I can go back and try to comfort her, tell her you’re fine.”

“No. No. I’ll do it. And I’m sorry that I’m not my most pleasant right now.”

Grant smiled. Nothing ever changed- the best way to get Norman to do anything was to offer to do it for him. Susie slept in Norman’s arms that night, knowing it could be their last chance to be together.

[kerikaaria]

If I Never Met You: Chapter 4

(??? X Reader) Idol!AU, Manager!Reader

Genre: (PG13) Some fluff, angst 

WC: 3.1k

Warnings: None

Series Masterlist

Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

By the time another week and a half passed, I started to get the hang of balancing everything without over-exhausting myself so much – although of course, it still wasn’t easy. If Bang PD-nim will let me stay after my contract is up, I am definitely not going to stay full-time as a student, but I’m just glad I won’t feel like I’m suffering as much from now on.

Sejin oppa has been spending his time with me to show me everything a manager is supposed to do. I’ve learned that the managers work directly with the celebrities and in particular, anything to do with their schedule. From setting up the schedule, to taking them to the different schedules and back, to making sure everything runs smoothly at each place. There were other things as well of course, but that’s one of the biggest parts of the job.

So that’s mostly what we’ve been doing – he’s been showing me all the duties of a manager and teaching me how he does it. Since they haven’t debuted there’s not a lot of things for us to technically do quite yet, but there are still small things the boys can do, like being a backup dancer for someone else’s music video, prior to debut. When they get closer to being ready for their debut, we will have to start working really hard to get their official debut scheduled. He’s already warned me that it won’t be easy to convince a station to debut a group from a company who hasn’t had any big celebrities yet.

It was a Saturday and there were no classes, so when I woke up early I went to the boys’ shared dorm to meet them there before heading to the company. Sejin oppa shared  the boys’ schedules with me now so I knew when they had anything to do. Whenever possible, I’ll be helping with getting them to their schedules. And I had a particularly difficult person to wake up today.

I knocked on the door. I had a spare key, but there was no way I would enter without at least making my presence known. I didn’t want to see any boys walking around in their underwear.

To my surprise, Jin answered the door quickly. “Good morning, (Y/n). What brings you here so early?”

I made eye contact with him and said, “Yoongi.” He understood right away and placed a hand on my shoulder to offer his sympathies.

“Well, I am making breakfast so once you manage to wake him up, you’re welcome to eat,” he suggested.

“If I make it out alive, I will definitely take you up on that offer,” I replied as I entered the dorm and placed my belongings in the living room. I turned towards Namjoon who was the only other one awake in the dorm. “Is it safe for me to enter?” I asked.

Namjoon flashed a smile. “They’re all presentable, no mental scars for you today noona.”

I took a deep breath as I slowly opened the door to the boys’ bedroom where five very sound asleep bodies lay in their beds. I looked for the 2 who needed to be at the company for lessons in an hour, contemplating if I should start with easy or hard mode. I decided to climb the ladder to the bunk of the boy curled up hugging a pillow.

“Taehyung, time to wake up,” I gently tried to shake him awake. When he didn’t respond, I tried pulling the pillow out of his grasp, but he just held onto it tighter. Was he actually awake, or does his sleeping body have that good of reflexes? “Taetae,” I called in a sing-song voice. “Seokjin is making you breakfast.”

His eyes opened just slightly at that. “Really?” he asked groggily.

I giggled at the adorable picture. “Yes, really. Now get up before you have to witness my massacre at the hands of Yoongi.”

He sat up and deciding I no longer had to worry about him, I made my way to the bunk where my biggest obstacle lay still. I breathed in a large gulp of air as I prepared myself for what was to come. “Yoongi,” I tried in the same sing-song voice I used with his younger brother. “Time to get up, Yoongi.”

I heard a grumble come from the otherwise lifeless rock. I tried nudging his shoulder but still nothing. “Come on, wake up Yoongi,” I tried again. He responded with weak swats of his hand to tell me to go away. I paused for a second while I thought of how to best wake him up.

I watched Taehyung climb down from his bed and an idea popped into my head. Before he could walk away, I stopped him and gestured to Yoongi’s bed followed by a hugging motion, hoping he’d understand what I was asking of him. He frowned back at me, not wanting to die today, but after I pleaded with my eyes he sighed and shuffled over to Yoongi’s bed. He laid next to his hyung, curling around him and wrapping him in his arms. I quickly snapped a picture with my phone while the older boy tried shoving him off. I gave Tae a thumbs up so he knew it was safe to run for his life.

“Yoongi, if you don’t wake up I’m going to show this picture of you and Tae snuggling to everyone in the company.”

At that, the reluctant sleeper sat up in bed, turning his head in my direction. I’m sure if his eyes were open, I’d see him glaring at me. “Noona, don’t you dare,” he grumbled.

“Then wake up, sleepyhead. Seokjin’s making you breakfast anyway.”

He slowly pushed his covers to the side as I pulled him out of his bed and pushed him out the door to make sure he didn’t go lay back down.

As we walked out, Namjoon looked up surprised. “You made it out in one piece, noona?”

I nodded, happy that my mission had been accomplished so easily.

Yoongi sat down at the table and held his hand out towards me. “Give me your phone, noona.”

“Nope!” I teased him. “I need to keep this for future blackmail.”

“Yah, don’t even think about it,” the grumpier boy retaliated.

Ignoring him, I sat down at the table across from Taehyung to wait while Jin finished making breakfast and placed a very delicious looking meal in front of me. The five of us had a quiet, peaceful breakfast together and Seokjin covered the leftovers for the rest to eat when they woke up.

I walked with Taehyung and Yoongi to the company while the older boy lectured his younger brother for our conspiracy this morning. Despite Yoongi’s seemingly angry demeanor, I swear I saw hints of a smile and a look of endearment flash on his features a few times. It was a rather cute scene.

When we got to the company, they went to their individual lessons – Taehyung to his vocal lesson and Yoongi to dance. I’d be getting some more training today, but Sejin oppa was busy until afternoon, so my only mission for the morning was accomplished. With nothing else to do, I decided to hang outside of the room where Tae was receiving his coaching and pulled out my schoolwork to pass the time.

I was quietly listening to music and after sitting there for a little while, I heard some other employees talking nearby. I was going to ignore them, if it wasn’t for the fact that I heard my name.

“What do you think about the boss hiring that (Y/n) girl?” a voice asked, enticing me to remove my ear buds.

“I don’t get what’s going on in his head sometimes. She’s so young, probably has no job experience, and she’s not even Korean. What did he see in her?” another responded.

“I have no idea. He’s trusting her to be able to debut a group. Sejin no doubt could do it, but I’m sure all that girl is doing is pulling him down and making it harder for him.”

“At least she’s a temp employee, she’ll be gone in a few months then he can get them back on track with their debut.”

“Yeah, I’d hate to see their potential and everyone’s work get wasted over a stupid spur-of-the-moment choice.”

“I can’t wai-“ the voice stopped abruptly and the conversation seemed to end.

I finally placed the earbud in my ear. I had heard small whispers and seen people giving me strange looks out of the corner of my eye here and there throughout the past couple of weeks so I had my suspicions that there were those in the company unhappy with me. But I had never heard anyone talk about me like that before. I knew they didn’t matter and it shouldn’t bother me, but I couldn’t help but find myself upset over the words.

I leaned my head against the wall behind me. As I looked up, I saw a very silent Seokjin staring at me.

“Oh, you’re here?” I conjured up a smile for my friend while putting my ear buds away, music no longer needed with him here.

He sat next to me. “You heard them, didn’t you?” I guessed him walking past them is what halted their conversation.

I placed my head on his shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”

Seokjin wrapped his arm around me, gently caressing my side to comfort me. “We have faith in you, (Y/n). I hope you know that.”

I sighed. “I learned to not pay attention to what other people think of me a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t bother you, though.”

“The only opinions here that matter to me are you and the boys, Sejin oppa, and Bang PD-nim’s. Everyone else is insignificant to me.” I said the words more in an attempt to convince myself, and I’m sure Jin knew that because his grip on my side tightened as he lay his head on top of mine.

We sat in silence for a while until I felt the familiar vibration of my phone. I looked to see a message from Sejin oppa telling me he’s here and it’s time for me to go to his office. Jin let his hold on me go so I could meet with my mentor, and jokingly blew me a kiss as I walked away. I shot him a hand heart back and he grabbed his chest, pretending to faint at the gesture. I giggled, glad that I could always count on my friend to be there for me.

Since we had more time today than most other days today, Sejin oppa took advantage of that to test the knowledge he had given me up to this point. He ran a bunch of management scenarios past me, such as issues that could happen during various events, and I had to explain how I would handle them on the spot. I understood a lot of what was expected of a manager and I seemed to have a good grasp on how to do these things in theory, I just hoped that I’d be confident and stable enough to be able to do the same in practice too.

Eventually, hours had somehow passed and Sejin oppa had other things he had to do, so he let me go and I was free to do what I wanted. Not wanting to go back to my dorm just yet, I made my way to the boys’ usual dance studio. I knew it was about time for their group dance lesson, but I planned on hiding in the corner and to do some school assignments by myself. I just wanted to be somewhere I was much more comfortable.

I snuck my way into the room while they were attentively following their instructor’s lesson and found my way to the back corner where the couch was. I quietly pulled out my work and put in my headphones to help me focus.

I would periodically glance up at the boys’ hard work, admiring their skill. No matter how many times I saw them it still always amazed me. The amount of work and effort that the trainees put into improving their skills was so admirable, it made me almost feel motivated to work equally as hard at what I wanted to accomplish in my life too.

But what did I want to accomplish? When I chose my college major I was so sure of what I wanted to do, but ever since coming here I can’t help but find my schoolwork tedious and almost pointless now. I found myself wanting to focus on learning how to be the best manager I could be for the group of wonderful boys working hard in front of me.

I stopped working on my schoolwork as my mind flooded with thoughts. I felt like I really wanted to stay here, but could I? I wanted to help my new friends achieve their dreams but what if I wasn’t good enough and ended up messing it up for them? Suddenly the conversation I overheard earlier plagued my mind. As much as I wanted to be here and prove those people wrong, as much as I felt that I could do well if I just tried my best at this job, there was a part of me deep down that just made me feel so insecure about if I really could do it.

Someone quite literally snapped my mind back into reality. I looked up to see Jimin looking at me curiously.

I pulled my earbuds out of my ears. “Yes, Jimin?”

“Nothing. Our lesson is over,” the boy responded. “You seemed really lost in thought there, noona. Everything okay?”

I offered him a smile. “Yeah, everything’s fine.” I looked around the room and noticed that they were putting on jackets and gathering some belongings.

“We’re going to go get some dinner, want to come?” Jimin asked.

“Sure! And you know what? It’ll be my treat,” I said.

Hoseok seemed to be the only other one to hear my offer. “NOONA! You’ll buy us food? Oh my gosh, can we get samgyeopsal? Please? Please, please, please, please?”

His volume got the attention of the rest of the group, so they all started chiming in asking the same.

“Okay, okay. I can splurge on you guys, just this once,” I teased as I made my way out the door first. Everyone followed closely behind.

Eating dinner was about the same atmosphere as it usually was with these seven, full of chatting, laughing, and playful banter. I found myself laughing along with them as we ate.

I sat across the table from Seokjin. He placed about the twentieth piece of meat that night on my plate and I shot him a look.

“Seokjin, stop feeding me and just eat,” I lectured. “I can feed myself.”

“But (Y/n), you need to eat more,” my friend defended.

“And so do you,” I retorted. “You guys work hard all day, you need to eat.”

He gave me an unreadable look as he somehow stuffed 5 pieces in his mouth at once, making me laugh.

As the boys kept conversing, I tried to enter the conversation here and there. It was hard, with there being seven other voices and of course a lot of the things they talked about where from before I knew them or things that I didn’t have much to say about. As we were starting to wind down and finish our food, I excused myself to the bathroom but I’m not sure any of them noticed.

It made me happy seeing them all have a good time like that, but I couldn’t help but feel a little left out. I didn’t necessarily blame them; it couldn’t be easy to add one more person into the mold when they were all so close and fit together perfectly already. I closed my eyes and shook my head, as if to literally get rid of any negative thoughts that were surfacing in there.

When I walked back to the table, I was shocked to see it void of any people. I quickly walked up to the register to pay for the meal and left the restaurant as fast as I could to go find the boys. Relief washed over me when I saw Seokjin leaning against the wall just before the door. He pushed himself upright when he saw me so we could leave and start walking.

“Thanks for waiting, Jin,” I said.

He put his arm around my shoulder, “Of course, (Y/n).”

“Why’d they all leave?”

He shrugged. “I guess they just didn’t pay attention, maybe they thought you left first? I saw you head to the bathroom though, so I waited for you.”

I looked at the ground as we walked, contemplating the words of my friend. It was hard to not feel upset that I was that unnoticeable, for them to just leave without me as if I were never there in the first place. No, I can’t think those kinds of things. They’re not like other people I’ve known, they wouldn’t do that. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. I shook my head to rid myself of the thoughts once more.

“You alright, (Y/n)?” Jin asked, looking down at me.

I mustered up as much of a smile as I could and nodded. “Let’s just get back.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence as we headed back to the dance studio, where the boys were planning on getting some more practice in before heading back home. Jin opened the door to the studio but paused for a second before turning to look at me. I was about to ask him what was wrong as he went to close the door before I heard a voice from inside.

“She’s just going to leave us anyway, so what’s the point of trying to be close?” I heard Jungkook say.

I stopped Seokjin from closing to door to listen in on the conversation a bit more.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh, though?” Jimin responded.

“I don’t know, aren’t we just temporary to her too? It’s not like she’ll see us after she leaves,” Yoongi’s voice pierced my heart.

“We should still be nice to her while she’s here,” Namjoon said. “It’s not like we can just ignore her.”

I couldn’t register the rest of the conversation, as their voices turned to inaudible mumbles while my head started spinning. I felt Seokjin’s concerned gaze on me as he closed the door, my hand no longer holding it open.

“(Y/n)…” he started.

I didn’t let him finish. All I could think about was getting out of here. Getting out of this place where I clearly wasn’t wanted. So I ran.

(A/N) - I'm not an expert on anything related to being a celebrity manager so I'm sorry if any of the information I put in this chapter regarding what the job entails is inaccurate. This is just how I picture the job to be. I'm trying my best to be as accurate as I can with most things, but I can't know everything about everything lol. 

Series Masterlist

Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

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[coredrill]

alright here are my rwby8 thoughts now that i’ve had a few days to sit on ‘em!! spoilers for the entire volume under the cut

so if anyone happens to open this and is like “wow this is more words than i’ve seen you use ever” lol yup! it’s probably the most words i’ve written since high school lmao. feel free to read through if ya really want but this is mostly just my own way of organizing my thoughts for this kind of stuff rather than making a million different posts on random parts of it. this way if i want to look back in the future and say “haha wow can’t believe i thought THAT” it’s all in one easy location! i don’t expect anyone else to be reading all this shite lol

thoughts on the volume as a whole:

honestly i loved it!! there’s very little that i would’ve changed and most of that is nit-picking stuff. i’m very impressed that this volume was made in quarantine lmao. the animation in and of itself was STUNNING (shout out to the finale’s water animation...the aura break particle effects...the cinnamon topography of the amity scenes...all of the facial & body expressions...the whale disintegrating...)

i’d honestly say that it’s probably my second favorite volume?? volume 4 is still my beloved but v8 was so good. i’ll probably need to watch it through a few more times but god. i LOVED IT.

honorable mention cause idk where else to put it: some of the scores were breathtaking!!! i tend not to notice background music on my first watch unless it really sticks out to me and there were quite a few scenes where that happened in a good way this volume. the ones where cinder breaks into the atlas control room and the one at the end when atlas is flooding are probably my favs!!! also there was this one part where it was just screeching over ironwood and it worked really really well.

okay so now for individual characters. let’s start with ruby:

i would like to fund her therapy

very surprised that she didn’t “break” this volume! i was sort of expecting it to happen--between ironwood, the amity plan only kind of working, the hound, the virus, and the fact that she was separated from her usual support system (qrow, yang, and jaune), i was definitely expecting her to. i’m glad she didn’t though cause it’s gonna be so much harder when she actually does (probably when she finds out that cinder has the relics and penny’s dead...)

massive shout out to lindsay jones for managing to make squeaky-voiced ruby still sound like ruby even while going through a whole host of emotions we’ve never seen ruby go through before!

god. that scene where crescent rose fell into the drink and ruby scrambled after it. my heart dropped lmao.

also. this is likely because i’ve got an engineering degree (which came with a free stick up my butt when it comes to technology in media) but the line where they say “mass no longer matters” wrt her semblance??? WHAT??? bro splitting mass up into smaller chunks doesn’t change the actual mass of the material itself what is going on here 😭😭😭 (this isn’t a real criticism of any kind i just yelled WHAT after they said that line lmao)

weiss:

i have one single weiss criticism and its that, in the scene where she’s leaving whitley to go fight the hound, she says “we still need to work on your attitude” and for whatever reason, the voice track doesn’t sound like it was quite mixed right? like it sounds like she’s just standing there rolling her eyes but my girl is BOOKING it out of the room lmao

other than that: weiss you are PERFECT. she really spent this entire volume saving and taking care of the people she loves!!! and i loved every second of it!!!

i would’ve liked to see more of her and klein/whitley/willow. i think there’s a lot of great stuff in that dynamic (not me crying when klein showed up at the manor...) and especially between weiss and her mother. i hope we get one big schneeuinon in vacuo once they + winter are all in the same location (but that’s gonna be a while i think lmao)

it’s been said a million times before but weiss?? shaking and crying but using gambol shroud anyway?? even though she thinks her teammates are all dead?? giving ruby the staff and pushing her out of the line of fire and pulling blake back to safety??? fighting cinder, a fucking wholeass maiden, with no aura because she needs to protect penny?? only unable to get up and keep fighting after she watches gambol shroud (the last physical piece she has of her teammates) go over the edge??? bro. BRO. i’m legit tearing up just TYPING THAT. god she’s gonna find her team at that island resort and never let them go. gonna be like v4 jaune all over again huh??

blake/yang:

not as much here since they didn’t get a whole lot of focus this volume, but i enjoyed all their scenes! yang just fuckin going at salem was 1000/10.

i will say...i think blake’s gonna kiss yang when they meet up in tropical paradise. and good for her!! (especially if this volume’s been planned since the beginning, it makes sense that this would be the writers’ idea for where they wanted their first kiss to be)

jaune:

going from ren saying “he has no fear. he believes that we can do this” about jaune to, five chapters later, forcing jaune to deliver a killing blow to penny was just CRUEL

the fucking dissonance of jaune haha!-awkward-renora-moment-exit vomit-boy-through-the-portals hit-in-the-head-with-a-rock arc being the one that penny asks..............bro. don’t hmu.

it’s going to be such a long time until we see him smile again.

also. the moment when crocea mors snaps in half...again, my stomach dropped.

but it’s okay! he’ll be fine without a weapon! he’s the ~strategist~! *breaks the fuck down*

it hurts so much too to think about, like oscar mentioned.....even if/when he does reunite with ren and nora, he’s not gonna be the same person he was when they last saw him. he’s not gonna be their goofy, wholesome, soft, snarky, healer team leader anymore. he just got his shit sorted out, he just stopped being actively suicidal, and tbh i think this might affect him worse than what happened with pyrrha. especially since they were compounding in his brain--what he did gave penny more of a choice than pyrrha ever got, but GEEZ.

pain. just. pain.

nora:

NORA MY BELOVED

okay. OKAY. so like she was passed out for half the volume but what we did get of her was fucking amazing

nora’s mom i am going to find you and have some words. i’ve mentioned this before but this woman has the same energy as the mom from grave of the fireflies who was like “i know we’re actively being bombed right now but i’m going to abandon my children and get myself to safety.” SQUARE UP BITCH. i hope we never see nora’s mom in the show because i will become filled with rage

but nora herself??? flawless. perfection.

i really did love her journey this volume. realizing that she wants to become her own person apart from ren, and then telling him that when he says that he loves her?? nora sweetie that was heartbreaking but i am SO SO PROUD OF YOU.

nora putting herself first for once and being told that people love her WE FREAKING LOVE TO SEE IT

except NOW that’s all gonna go haywire 😭😭😭

like...the moment in the finale where you can see she’s hesitant to leave jaune to to go vacuo but she goes anyway because he’s her leader and he doesn’t like splitting up either and she loves him and she trusts him only for her to get STUCK ON THE OTHER SIDE BANGING ON THE PORTAL. that scene fucking BROKE me. you just KNOW she’s gonna be hating herself for going through and leaving jaune (even though nobody knew it was one way!!!) and when the portal dissolves and he doesn’t come through........

she really thinks that she’s lost TWO teammates now. that’s TWO teammates that she wasn’t able to save. she saved ren from the nuckelavee but pyrrha’s dead and as far as she knows jaune’s dead too

and jaune’s her fucking family!!!!!!!

and like. when we see her on the vacuo side of the portal, we see that she’s got the happy huntresses behind her. she did her job and she gathered them but now she can’t get back through and AHHHHHH. FUCK. when she drops to her knees because she realizes.........that fucking killed me. i’m tearing up now just typing this sdmndbm

and like. the worst part is that she just realized that she wants some time away from ren. but everyone else is gone and just like when they were kids he’s all she’s got and they are gonna lean on each other harder than ever because this time they both lost EVERYTHING. not just jaune, but ruby, who was their teammate for a while too. weiss, who took such great care of nora while she was injured. penny, who nora helped with blake’s advice. yang, who ren had time to bond with this volume. FUCK

it’s gonna hurt so bad to watch but i cannot WAIT to see what nora does next and how she moves forward. god. this is gonna kill her. it’s killing ME and i’m just a viewer lmao

ren:

remember that one week where neath went on twitter and was like “i love renora and i’m gonna make that everyone else’s problem”??? yeah. that was a good week lmao

speaking of neath. MASSIVE PROPS TO HIM FOR HIS WORK. he managed to give ren every single emotion in the book this volume and none of it sounded ooc despite ren being such a repressed character before. he did incredible!!!!

I LOVED REN SO MUCH THIS VOLUME GOD. i mean i love him in every volume BUT HE HAD SO MANY GOOD MOMENTS AND SUCH A GOOD ARC

i’ve already talked about it at length but the scene where his semblance evolves is one of my favorites in the whole show. he’s so fucking full of love that it’s literally tearing him apart and when he finally accepts that fact his ENTIRE SOUL levels up!!! he looks at himself and there are pink petals falling off of him because he can’t contain the love in his body anymore!!! it’s there in a literal, physical manifestation and it’s so. fucking. GOOD. FUCK.

and also my obligatory remark about how he was thinking about oscar and pyrrha and his parents in that moment. people he loved platonically and familially. rwby goes so fucking hard for platonic love and i can’t ever thank them enough. to see ren have this realization because he was thinking about oscar.....god i’m gonna cry again LMAO

and then after that the way that he just. looks at jaune in every scene with the biggest fucking heart eyes. i’m gonna fucking combust he loves his  leader SO MUCH. (which. as i mentioned in the nora section. pain now)

and the nora stuff........JUST AS GOOD

another thing i’ve talked about a lot but to see him apologize, be emotionally open, listen to what nora’s saying and what nora needs, TELL HER THAT HE LOVES HER FIRST, not holding a single thing against her, agreeing to wait for her to be ready.........literal perfection holy shit

romance is normally not one of my favorite aspects of any media but i will make an exception for whatever the fuck ren and nora got going on

basically as a ren stan / jnpr stan i was thriving this volume and then that finale hit me and i know i will be in pain until they reunite again

i have a handful of jnr gifs that i was planning to make during the hiatus but now they’re all PAIN aksjhdasjdh

oscar:

deeply worried about the quickly approaching merge. i’m really hoping that oscar and oz stay separate but i also love seeing all the animation/voice acting nuances that indicate that they’re getting closer to the merge.......AH

this volume really hammered home just how strong this kid is. he stands up to SALEM and does the right thing even despite the torture cause he’s so BRAVE and STRONG and when he trusted hazel with the password DESPITE IT ALL. ugh. so good.

i love oscar so much and i’ve loved seeing him grow!!!

penny:

serious stuff coming in the next bullet point but. GOD. her model’s head is so big and i don’t know WHY but this stuck out to me every time she was standing next to someone else. it might be because of the volume of her hair (but yang’s hair also has a lot of volume, and her head is normal sized)??? idk it just threw me off a lot. every time she was like, talking to ruby or something, all i could think about was how her head was bigger than ruby’s ENTIRE TORSO lmao. (also why didn’t they give her human body shoes skdjhaksjh)

that said.........oh, penny 😭😭😭😭😭

i’m surprised that she died but only because i thought her plot armor was pretty thick LMAO. narratively it makes a lot of sense and i’m glad her story ended the way it did.

i’ve seen a lot of people interpreting her actions in the finale as “choosing to die,” but i don’t think that’s the case?? penny’s friends all saved her every single time that she presented her own death as an option. that’s what makes this so tragic, is that they successfully saved her every time she offered that, and that in the end, she still died. she was gonna die anyway. she was impaled by cinder--jaune didn’t have enough time to heal her before cinder defeated weiss (who had no aura!!) and turned on them again. penny made her own choices when 1. she asked to die at the hands of a friend, rather than by cinder’s soul-sucking grimm arm and whatever horrible fate that includes and 2. to choose her successor. and i don’t blame her for making either of those choices! she wanted to die with as much dignity as peace as she could and to choose whose life she would be intertwined with. and while it’s very sad, i’m glad that penny finally got some sense of control over herself and her legacy.

and like...she was so happy when she met up with winter!! she was so happy to have full autonomy for once!!! that scene was both heartwarming and heartbreaking!!!

i also think that penny’s death reinforces the idea that remnant is gonna be very different by the time rwbyjnorqe is done with it. now not one but two kindhearted girls have gotten killed because they got tangled up in the maiden powers—which were originally meant to be a gift!! and i’m very interested to see what the resolution is gonna be!! (i know it’s gonna be in like. volume 52 or something alsjfndnx but still!!)

also, if nothing else, i am very glad that whole “pietro sacrifices the last of his aura to revive her” theory is gone. i hate that theory lmao

i will say, while i enjoyed penny’s role this volume, i do think that maybe some of her screentime could’ve gone elsewhere. i get that there needed to be a lot of focus on her, so that we would be attached when she died, but i think it would’ve been beneficial to spread that screentime elsewhere just a bit, especially since she wasn’t really developing at all. hitting the same point with her like seven times did start to feel a bit repetitive lol. my vote would be for extra time with the schnees, or the jn(o)r reunion at schnee manor, or maybe a scene checking in with pietro and maria!!

emerald:

EMERALD MY BELOVED

YOU DEFECTED!!!! GOOD FOR YOU GIRL!!!!

i hope we get a LOT more time with her in the future. she’s still gotta work out the cinder thing of course but i also think it’s gonna be super interesting to see how she acts now that she (alongside oscar, ren, nora, the hh, and winter) is one of the closest things their group has to a “leader”

also like........good for her for being one of the LEAST traumatized people this volume despite being THREATENED BY SALEM

somebody give emerald a nice long hug

i love her

that is all

winter:

WINTER OH MY GOD

seeing her struggle with her emotions all volume.....only to finally accept them and save marrow’s life.....and because of that choice she realizes how long overdue it was and goes all in on helping the heroes.....and is eventually chosen to become the next winter maiden by the girl who challenged her to accept her emotions in the first place......😭😭😭 chef’s kiss

“you chose nothing. this was a gift.” *demolishes ironwood but doesn’t stick around cause he’s not worth it* *fights cinder* POETIC CINEMA!!!!!

also i cannot wait to see her schneeunion with willow, whitley, and klein.......even if she does have to be the one to tell them what happened to weiss 😭

cinder:

CINDER I HATE YOU BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN

her backstory was pretty self explanatory but i think this was a good time to spell it out especially while we were in atlas. the culmination of that, her consistent failures to achieve her goals after v3, and watts dragging her really all just came together to make her so much more intimidating and efficient and i loved watching it.

like i know there’s people who don’t like her as a character but she’s always so fun to watch and her va does AMAZING and she’s just. so INTERESTING

also. i cannot wait for her to find out that ruby and neo are both alive (and especially when salem finds out they’re both alive LMAO)

also also her line to ruby about never being born feels.......awfully specific??? i wonder if it’s a hint at some other part of salem/cinder/ruby/summer lore (like her “and i refuse to starve” line from last volume)

also also also CINDER.......lying to salem is gonna backfire on you at one point or another.......HM

salem:

gosh i love salem. she’s such a good villain and i loved all her scenes (especially the fight scene...SO COOL).

very interested in whatever she does next!! since the only remaining lackey she has is cinder (who is now starting to try to manipulate her) and tyrian and mercury, who are in vacuo, i’m curious about her next steps. is she gonna keep recruiting, now that people know who she is?? is she gonna come to vacuo herself?? she could definitely do a WHOLE LOT OF DAMAGE with the refugee situation there, so i’m super excited to see how her next moves play out!!

hazel/tyrian/watts/merc/neo:

rip hazel. glad we were able to get an INSANE fight scene out of him before his death BUT ALSO WHAT’S WITH YOU BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF A 14 YEAR OLD HUH

listen. listen. i know merc-rescues-oscar was never a possibility BUT i still love that idea. it lives in my mind rent free!!!

i feel like mercury’s gonna be so insane after the worst road trip ever in a confined space with tyrian that he’s gonna be immediately redeemed by team sssnn and the power of himbofication upon landing in vacuo LMAO

real talk though, i am VERY interested in what happens when mercury sees emerald again and learns she defected. like, this is his friend, who he’s tried to keep safe the only way he knows how (by keeping his head down and not angering their abuser) and she got out but he didn’t. GOD. AND in the first fight she was in after defecting, she used the move that she learned by watching him!!!! that’s gonna be SO GOOD and i can’t wait to see it!!!

neo is a wildcard and i love watching her fight and i think it’s SO INTERESTING that she went over the side with rwby and jaune and i CAN’T WAIT to see what she does next.

WATTS MY DUDE. what a GOOD volume for him. like the stuff where he yells at cinder was SO COOL to see and it was so funny that he thought that wasn’t gonna come back to bite him LMAO. i think this was super fitting for him and while i like him as a villain, i think this was a good place for his story to end. i had a lot of fun watching his scenes this volume.

qrow/robyn:

I LOVE THEIR SIBLING ENERGY. robyn talking qrow down and them bonding over their semblances together was so great.

i also loved qrow’s semblance...evolving?? changing?? idk what exactly happened yet, but i know that if i too hung out with robyn hill for 48 hours straight my outlook on life would improve dramatically.

i do hope robyn makes it to vacuo soon because she will be invaluable at handling the refugee crisis there.

on the other hand, if qrow gets to vacuo and finds out that ruby and yang (and three more of his adopted kids) never made it........PAIN. oh my god it’s gonna be like summer all over again 😭😭

aceops:

did not expect to get teary-eyed when vine died. and yet i did. that “themes of death” cw on the finale was CERTAINLY SOMETHING HUH

hell yeah marrow!!! what a good boi!!! i loved his defection ofc and him going off on ironwood...chefs kiss

i hope marrow sticks with the main cast. he’s my favorite and he deserves to see his friends again!!!

as for elm and harriet, i’m not sure?? i think harriet still has a lot of work to do before she’s redeemed in my eyes. maybe they can be dropped off at beacon to help glynda fight the grimm/rebuild so that they can be back for the show’s ending but the cast is somewhat trimmed for vacuo lmao

also. i know they’re not aceops. but WHERE ARE FLYNT AND NEON ARE THE MEME KIDS OKAY

happy huntresses:

may marigold is literally perfect in every way

loved them! would’ve loved to see more of them lmao. maybe even just cutting back to them in the crater reacting to some of the stuff going on.

i very much hope we get to see them in the future! i know the vacuans aren’t gonna be happy with the atlas/mantle people showing up unannounced but i feel like if there’s anyone who’s gonna be able to earn their respect, it’s the organized-and-saved-the-lives-of-those-downtrodden-by-atlas-happy-huntresses.

maria & pietro:

okay. SO. my thoughts are either that they made it to vacuo (penny did see where amity would touch down, so it’s possible that a portal was placed in that location and they made it through) or qrow picks them up.

either way, i hope we get to see them again. I LOVE THESE TWO GEEZERS!!!

oh, pietro......... *cries*

ironwood:

not much to say here except that i loved it. i loved how he got more and more paranoid, i loved that he vaporized jacques schnee, i loved that he only went cartoon-villain at the last moment, i loved that he died unceremoniously surrounded by the thing he thought would save them all. i love that cinder got in one final chess reference beforehand. 10/10

the hound:

it feels like a lifetime ago that this guy died but holy shit. holy SHIT.

i want whitley to summon the hound!! it was an enemy that pushed him to grow, i think it would be neat!!

ambrosius:

LOVED THIS DUDE. i LOVE how his powers work!!! like, even though it’s magic, it’s so realistic because that’s how creation works!!! you gotta design the EXACT thing you want or else its gonna be fucked up!!!

like. okay. so (back on my engineering bs again lmao) for example. let’s say i’m writing a program where the user enters a number from 1-10 and it’s displayed on the computer screen. so i write whatever code i need that says “take user input and put on screen.” that’s what ambrosius did when he created the portals and the pathways between them!

and then let’s say i also put a warning to the user that says “only enter numbers from 1-10.” that would be ambrosius saying “do not fall.”

but...the user can still enter whatever they want. what happens if they put in the number 100? what happens if they type a letter? this program only puts numbers from 1-10 on screen, so who knows what’s gonna happen. and that’s what happens when people fall off the railings!!!

“oh, but you told them what numbers to enter” yeah but humans are unpredictable and ya gotta account for the human element when doing stuff like this!! team rwby didn’t account for people falling off--because why would people fall off if they were told not to? but the human element messed that up anyway!!!

anyways i’m a fucking nerd apparently but it was super cool to see that reflected in ambrosius!!! i’m a big fan!!!

like whenever people call him tricky or sneaky...no!!! he was just doing exactly what he was told to do!!!! so good!!!

also i wanna see him hang out with his sister jinn lmao

alright and here’s my thoughts/predictions for v9:

first off i just wanna say that this entire section (this entire post really, but especically this section) is just me spitballing lmao. we literally have ZERO clue what’s happening next or where they are, i’m just throwing out some stuff that’s crossed my mind! whatever crwby gives us is gonna be infinitely better than whatever i come up with lmao

that said, i have two ideas for what could be happening in madagascar.

option one is the one i’ve seen other people toss around, which is the whole wonderland-land-of-the-dead thing. i’m kinda torn on this because i think it could be good for penny’s storyline, but not really anyone else’s?? sure, yang and ruby could see summer, but weiss would see...jacques?? and blake would see...adam?? i’m not sure what weiss and blake would have to say to them/learn from them the same way ruby and yang would.

on that same idea, jaune could definitely see pyrrha, but again, i’m wondering what purpose that would serve? obviously jaune’s actions in the finale were guided by pyrrha (or specifically her mom, and realizing that pyrrha never had a choice either), but it’s clear that that’s the case for all of team jnpr, and it will be probably forever. their scene together at pyrrha’s memorial felt like they were closing the door--specifically--on their grief. on the other hand, those actions are super relevant right now and i will never turn down the chance to see pyrrha!!! it’s just free waterworks babey!!!

neo also has roman, but i can’t really see roman admitting to anyone that he got swallowed by a grimm 😭😭 just seems too embarrassing for him LMAO

for penny, i think this could work nicely. all she ever wanted was to not have her life controlled by others--kind of like alice in wonderland (the disney movie version because i am fairy tale illiterate lmao). if penny gets to exist after death in a land where she gets to choose everything for herself i think she would be very happy!

again, if this ends up being the case, crwby could 100% make it work! (and i am 0% opposed to maya model pyrrha.) i just personally am not as sold on this being the case as some others are.

option two imo is vacuo but in the past. which i know seems kind of weird BUT i have reasons!

so we know a few things about vacuo. one, it used to be an oasis and was considered a paradise until atlas and mistral destroyed it for the dust. two, it has giant motherfucking crabs that people like to eat. yes this is all i have to go off of BUT both of those things are in the end credits scene we got!

also, them landing in past-vacuo makes sense on ambrosius’ level. their “one way ticket” probably didn’t include all four dimensions of coordinates--so i could see them landing in the same x, y, and z as the official doorway, but at a different time. the creation would still do exactly what it was asked to do--drop them in vacuo.

there’s also a couple other things. “vacuo” means “in a vacuum” which i’ve heard v9 is supposed to be. also in before the dawn, sun saw some bigass magic tree that awakened his semblance which this one definitely could qualify as

(okay. side note. when i first saw the tree i thought of the glowy tree from james cameron blue people avatar. IDK WHY, i haven’t seen that movie in years??? i also had to google it to make sure i wasn’t making it up and apparently it’s called the “tree of souls.” which would also make sense if it helped sun awakened his semblance. i don’t think rwby based something off of blue people avatar, it’s probably more likely that blue people avatar is based off of some fairytale/mythology that i don’t know anything about LMAO)

i don’t actually think option two is gonna happen, but it was fun to think about!!

also either option opens the opportunity to time not passing 1:1 in current vacuo & rwby’s island getaway which???????? AHHHHH

alright so now to the actual characters lmao. i mentioned wby earlier. i honestly have no clue what neo’s gonna be up to, she’s such a wild card and i LOVE IT.

ruby and jaune is gonna be...........PAIN. NO MATTER WHAT. i have no idea how ruby is gonna react--she might just be so overwhelmed by everything that she snaps/yells at jaune which. PAIN. but she also might not?? which. ALSO PAIN. i feel like no matter what ruby does, jaune’s gonna blame himself anyway. god. i love their friendship SO MUCH and this is gonna HURTTTT

and on that, he doesn’t have ren and nora this time to pull him back from the ledge. this dude’s guilt complex is gonna go crazy especially since he doesn’t have his team and double especially if ruby/rwby blames him for what happened. god it’s gonna HURT TO WATCH.

on a wildly different note, i hope we do get to see vacuo/qrow throughout volume 9. if i go a whole volume without ren and nora i WILL cry lmao.

also it’s gonna be super interesting to see how their group fares!!! vacuo’s fuckin nuts and i’d love to see winter just destroying the grimm there (3 headed giraffe my beloved) and see how the atlas/mantle refugees handle the climate--and how the vacuans react to all of them LMAO

ALSO!!!! THE SULFER FISH WERE THERE!!! very glad to see that they’re in vacuo too because from the concept art it seems like they have super unique abilities and i’m excited that we may get to properly see them, instead of just cameos!!!

team cfvy pspspspspspsps theodore and rumpole pspspspspsps team sssnn pspspspspsps

and, of course, i gotta mention that any possible jnr reunion WILL tear my heart out and i will probably cry for days. i gotta start emotionally preparing now LMAO

alright and that wraps it up!! if anyone makes it down to the bottom props to you!! i don’t expect anyone to actually read this mess lmao. tldr: INCREDIBLE volume and i’m so hype for v9 already!!!

[yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy]

Chapters: 12/? Fandom: Incredibles (Pixar Movies) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Violet Parr/Buddy "Syndrome" Pine, Violet Parr/Original Male Character(s), Invisigirl - Relationship Characters: Violet Parr, Invisigirl - Character, Little Miss Disappear, Buddy Pine, Buddy "Syndrome" Pine, Bartholomew Pine, Original Male Character, Original Male Superhero Character Additional Tags: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Corporate Espionage, Modern AU, Spy Invisigirl, Smut, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Aged up characters, Still, A bit of an age difference, Safe Sane and Consensual, Love Triangle, Assets & Handlers Summary:

Ten years after the events in the movies yet in a modern setting. Violet Parr as Invisigirl, has since disappeared from the public eye several years ago. She became a protégé to none other than Mirage and has had an incredibly successful career still working for The Agency but working as a spy and agent behind the scenes and foiled more Villains without anyone but The Agency ever knowing that she was the one who foiled them. However Superhero Work has it's price- mentally, emotionally and most of all physically and now Invisigirl has to come out of the shadows and work one last job as a public handler for an aristobrat, genius, billionaire, playboy- Mr. Phillip Sebastian who has his own tricks and agenda and requests Invisigirl specifically. Which in turn- put's her back on the radar and put's her under an iron clad contract with not just The Agency but with Mr. Sebastian. And it's this one last job that will be the answer to all of Violet Parr's problems. After this, she can disappear for good and never, ever, be found again. It's a three year contract and she is already a year in and everything is going perfectly. Until- Buddy Pine decides to try his hand at corporate espionage. His target? Phillip Sebastian.

And just in case you don’t want to click the link- I’ll have a read more.

Why So Jaded?

Chapter 12

"What did you sign?" Violet demanded of her brother, trying to keep her rage in check as she prayed her brother wouldn't be stupid enough to sign anything without having at least one lawyer.

"I didn't sign anything." Dash reassured her before she blew out a breath of relief.

"I have a healthy enough fear of you Ms. Parr to know that if I would even entertain the possibility of hiring any relation of yours that I would have several lawyers involved." Phillip offered with a charming smile as Violet smiled politely in return but she was ready to roast Phillip on an open spit for even entertaining the idea of hiring Dash as Violet simply crossed her arms over her chest and popped her hip. She had to get Dash out of this building before he did something everyone would regret. She would never forgive herself if something ever happened to Dash and that burden would be too much even for her to carry. She needed to get Dash out of this building and away from Phillip before Dash came to any more harm. Because Dash probably had at least one suicide seed planted in his head, who knew how many others Phillip had already planted there with just him being in this office.

"A private word Mr. Sebastian." Violet urged, she needed to intervene. She would pull the overbearing, controlling bitch card if she had to if it meant her brother could walk free.

"Oh come on, give me a chance before you shoot me down Vi." Dash argued.

"Mr. Parr had quite the convincing argument as to why I should hire him along with Mr. Traeger." Phillip explained.

"Then I have a counter argument which you should find even more convincing." Violet insisted. She hated to do it but she needed to make Dash out as the worst possible candidate for Phillip. It would be like opening up old wounds between herself and Dash and rubbing new salt in them but it would save his life and make sure that he in turn would be alive to at least watch his own children grow up. She didn't care how she would come across or who would hate her for this, it was for his own good.

"Come on Vi." Dash pleaded.

"Dash, this is your one opportunity to get up and walk out of this here and now. This is not the time or the place for you." Violet insisted as she gave him her own pleading look while doing her best to keep in control of her emotions, praying that Dash wasn't going to push this because she knew he was too stubborn yet alone, mentally weak enough to fight against anything Phillip was pumping into his head, she needed to fix this before it became a catastrophe. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to Dash because of her, the blood of other Supers was already a torment to her conscience. She couldn't have Dash's too.

"Well in the spirit of fairness, please, enlighten me as to why Mr. Parr wouldn't be a good fit. But don't do him the disservice of saying it behind his back." Phillip offered and Violet was never more furious for being pitted against her own brother especially by Phillip but if Phillip wanted an entertaining show, she was going to give it to him if it meant that Dash could walk away from this. She could deal with Dash being pissed at her for "ruining" his chances. But if she had to worry about not only keeping her own head and her own wits, she couldn't handle juggling Dash's too.

"First off, what exactly do you want to hire Mr. Parr for?" Violet asked, hoping that by some miracle, that it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe he wanted Dash as a PR man? Maybe?

"As an associate handler." Phillip answered and Violet was ready to curse, scream and cry because of course Phillip would want to keep his leverage against her as close to himself as possible.

"Does Mr. Parr have any handler experience?" Violet asked as she looked from Phillip to Dash pointedly.

"I handle myself just fine." Dash answered and Violet snorted a laugh as she pretended to pat her hips down.

"Are you missing something Ms. Parr?" Philip posed.

"Yes, Mr. Parr's microphone because he's obviously trying to do some stand up comedy." Violet answered as Leo snorted a laugh in turn as he simply sat in the chair and looked over at Violet fondly. Violet was always a special treat to be in the presence of, no matter the circumstances around their meetings.

"Mr. Parr, you have never, in your life, handled yourself well." Violet answered dismissively.

"How can you say that?" Dash demanded before Violet came over and perched herself on the corner of Phillip's desk between Phillip and her brother because there was no other chair for her to sit at at the desk and she didn't want to sit in Phillip's lap or actually bring another chair over from where the living room space of his office was.

"Mr. Parr, if you are even going to apply for that kind of position, for not only a fortune 500 company but for an asset worth billions who in all respects is a very high value asset, you need to have a minimum of 2-5 years experience of being a handler for other high value assets and handling yourself doesn't count you also need to have at least three to five, preferably seven, very glowing letters of recommendation and be vetted by at least two to four, maybe five individual, independent and completely objective guarantors. Do you even know how to spell guarantors?" Violet put to Dash.

"G-u-a…." Dash tried to think.

"And have a body count of at least 10." Violet interrupted.

"Oh I got that in the bag." Dash scoffed.

"Really? You've killed more than 10 people in cold blood and buried all evidence that you were the one to kill them?" Violet asked and watched as Dash's face fell as he realized that she was asking for that kind of body count, a kill count. Not a "body count" as in had sex with at least ten people.

"Mr. Sebastian, go on The Agency's data base and inform Mr. Parr what my body count is." Violet invited as she scooted back onto the desk to sit more comfortably.

"I don't know if.." Phillip began as Leo simply raised his eyebrows and bit his lips to keep his face from splitting in half from a smile because he could sense this was about to get really ugly in the most entertaining way.

"Do it." Violet ordered as Phillip nodded and did as she asked.

"You have 3,744 confirmed kills and another 2,317 additional assumed kills," Phillip read off as both Leo and Dash's eyes got wide.

"So, Dash, what's your body count?" Violet repeated.

"Uh, well, we did kill like a dozen henchman when we stormed Syndrome's…" Dash began.

"No, you tipped off their flying hovercrafts so they could run into each other, how many people have you either shot, dismembered, strangled, poisoned, bombed, or just outright slaughtered?" Violet asked.

"Well how many have you…?" Dash asked.

"7,834." Violet answered.

"Damn." Leopold coughed like he got shot in the gut.

"And over a thousand of those were mid coitus." Violet grinned triumphantly.

"Fuck." Leo coughed again before he got his glass of water and drank it like it was whiskey, he knew Violet was lethal and one of the more dangerous Supers at The Agency, but that would put her in a league all her own as Violet seemed to appear a whole lot more sexier than she ever was in his eyes, no wonder Phillip adored her, he could see why, she was all femme fatal.

"You've killed, over a thousand guys, while their dicks were.." Dash paled.

"845 men, the remaining 347 were women." Violet smiled like 'fuck you' was written on her teeth as Dash looked downright scandalized as Leo couldn't help but whistle lowly and mutter a 'wow' under his breath.

"But moving on from the body count. Dash, you don't fucking listen. You don't listen to anyone about anything, you don't listen to your own handler or your own manager or your own coaches for crying out loud or anyone else in any position of authority. If I tell you to duck, you ask why and argue with me along with everyone else. Your immediate and unquestioning obedience to orders given, no matter who gives them, means your life in this business. Even when you don't agree with it or don't see the sense in it at the time. You had a hard enough time being obedient to Dad, let alone Mom. And your sexist bullshit has no place here because you don't listen to women especially even when those women have earned that place of authority to tell you what to do. Not to mention you're a selfish, self absorbed asshole whose ego can practically touch the moon and you need a measure of humility in this job, of which you have none. You don't know how to walk into a room and not immediately want to be in the center of attention in it." Violet leveled and even Leo had to agree with her very valid points because Violet knew what she was talking about.

"Dash, you are a great Super and an awesome hero and you know exactly how to play to the media to make yourself the star of the show because you have a ton of charm and charisma, which you get honestly from Dad. But it's because you are those things that disqualify you from this kind of position. Because in this job, you're not the star, you're not even supposed to be on the damn camera or even in the shot. You are offscreen supporting cast only and an asterisk in the credits. You don't get any limelight and when you do, it better be pointing it Mr. Sebastian because since he's the asset, he's the star of the show, he's the focus, he's the target, he's the focal point. And if you detract from that, you're not doing your job correctly. Also if you're working for Mr. Sebastian, that means that your life as White Lightning, not to mention Dash Parr the Olympian, gets put on hold and on the last back burner. Because you'll be working as yourself which means that White Lightning has to be completely separate from this. Which means you won't be able to do any stunts or any press or any media work for yourself. Which means your own popularity will wane and the focus at The Agency will focus away from you and find someone new to push onto the masses. Someone younger, prettier, bigger and better, faster and stronger. New Supers are found and practically made- every day and that eventuality is the given, it's the rule and the expectation which is why I never bought into it. Which means, that your time in the spotlight, your own fifteen minutes of fame- should you take this position, will be over. And when you're done being in this kind of position, mounting a comeback- isn't going to happen with any measure of success, because you will just be a has been and old news and a passing fling for all your adoring fans. Also your training as an Olympian will also wane and fade. Which means you won't be an athlete anymore. At least one that won't and can't compete professionally. Which means your "real life" persona, will also fade. What brand wants to sponsor a has been? Old news? Your ego already can't handle your rival's popularity if it overshadows yours, you'll implode on your own downward spiral and fall from grace and your current media darling status." Violet warned, hoping and praying that Dash was listening to a word of this because she was pulling out every stop she could think of to make him see sense and make him see that this would not serve him well in the long run and knew that Dash held his own fame near and dear to his heart and if anything was going to snap him out of the spell Phillip put him under, this should be it. 

"Also, loose lips sink ships. And you can't keep a secret to save your life. For someone as selfish as you are, your own sense of self preservation is next to zero because you can't help but reveal your own secret or super identity because there's no difference between the two. I'll give you a fairly recent example. How much money, would it take for me to offer Bianca, the Victoria Secret model who you spent your weekend with to find out how many times you showed her your 'human vibrator' trick? A hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? Ten thousand maybe? You do it with almost every girl you sleep with. And it's the reason you can't keep a condom on that pecker of yours because you literally burn through them because you're a show-off. Because whoever you are fucking, her adoration and her being in a state of impressed is always like a drug to you because you're addicted to always being the best, no matter what you're doing. Because the only reason that Ashley and Amy get as much child support from you is because half of it is practically hush money which they abide by because you're a cash cow for them, and as long as they keep their mouths shut, they get to live comfortably and raise your kids in your absence because you can't be bothered to actually raise them half the time because if word got out that the reason you're the fastest man alive and the reason you're always a gold medal Olympian is because you're a Super, imagine the fallout. Every girl that you fuck, can put it together that you're really White Lightning. And everything will get taken away once that barely held secret comes out and then all your popularity, all your sponsorships and endorsements on both sides, both for Dash Parr and White Lightning will be taken away and you'll go from most popular to most hated overnight because you're a cheater in every sense, you cheated on your high school sweetheart with your first college crush for crying out loud and your two sons by two different women are only six months apart. Do you really think that speaks of your character in any kind of good light?” Violet posed. 

“Mr. Sebastian has enemies in both high and low places. Enemies that pay more money than you can comprehend to find any cracks or kinks in his armor. I would give it, maybe 12 hours at the soonest, 72 at the very latest, that the moment you are even rumored to be involved with Mr. Sebastian that every deep dark secret you possess would be offered up to them on a silver platter by all their moles and hunters and then that very dirt is used against Mr. Sebastian and yourself or because you're a greedy, selfish, two timing, cheating motherfucker, who is to say you won't go to them yourself? And not only tell all your own secrets but tell on mine, or tell on Mom or Dad or tell on everyone you know or you're associated with, let alone Mr. Sebastian's? And you'd do it for one thing, money. Because you blow money faster than you spend it and you're drowning in debt and yet the moment you make a hundred bucks, you're spending a hundred and fifty? You've fired every money manager I've gotten you because they told you things that you didn't want to hear like 'stop buying everything in sight'. Do you really think that I, let alone Mr. Sebastian of all people are going to bend over backwards to protect you when all you are to us is a liability, when you can't even perform the fucking job in the first place?! You are in way over your head and you have no business in this business." Violet plainly and yet strangely, honestly appraised and didn't know if it was Phillip urging her to be honest or her own will to finally let all this air out because she had been stamping all this down since she came back.

"And the word on the street may be that I'm a hateful, mean, domineering and controlling bitch. But you know what? I perform my job with a margin of error that is in the fractions of a single percent and I have earned every single person's loyalty and respect on my team to the point we take bullets for each other all the time on the regular. I not only have to deal with ransom situations and assassination attempts but also deal with corporate espionage that makes just regular governmental espionage look like child's play and you wouldn't even know what any of that looks like because you'd again, hand over everything for a pretty face with a smile and short tight skirt." Violet accused evenly as Dash simply sat there and pouted like a child being told no while Leo sat there as realization hit him over the head how much sense she was making because while Dash was his bro. Violet was speaking nothing but truth and if Leo really had to be in this job himself, he didn't know if he'd be willing to have Dash's back when Dash was so clearly ill equipped to have his.

"And I can see it written all over your face because you have a shit poker face, that I'm just being mean right? I'm just out to ruin everything for you? That this is a personal attack on you and I've taken this all too far? Well I got news for you. I'm literally just being honest. I'm not a bossy bitch, I am the big boss bitch. I have dozens of others coming to me for mentorship and advice on how to do this job the right way and the most successfully viable way because I've been there and done that with everything that can happen. Because I have set the precedent and the standard. And it is the gold standard in this industry for very good and valid reasons. All that money that I make that you're so jealous of, because all this really is to you- is about the fucking money and nothing else. Guess what, I've earned and payed for every cent of it with my own blood and every drop of my enemies blood as well because Mr. Sebastian's enemies which in turn are my own by principle alone. Because that's what a shield does. And while on paper I'm a handler, what I really am is a shield and a deterrent and every other Super in my position, is a shield for their assets in turn and the reason Mr. Sebastian is safe is because who is left of his enemies knows that they can not strike at him without me giving a counter strike and when I strike, I hit hard and they stay down and they never get back up. I'm a hunter and I always hunt to kill and I'm always successful because my life depends on it and my life is spent serving others and I am perfectly happy and content with that and that’s your problem, you’re never happy or content with anything. And that's what's the biggest disqualifier for you, you only know how to serve yourself. You don't know how to best serve others because you've never cared enough to learn how to do it. And the reason all of this has worked so well is because I hold myself to a standard of perfection that you can't even dream of holding yourself to. I operate with surgical precision because I have to because not only does my life hang in the balance, but so does my asset, and his family and everyone he cares about and everyone who depends on him works for SEB and all of Mr. Sebastian's companies depend on me to protect the man who signs their checks and gives them their means of living along with every single person on my team and all of their families and loved ones, not to mention my own." Violet specified.

"Tell me Dash, how many back up plans do you have? If a swat team decides to storm this building, which has actually happened more times than I can count, and if they decide to blow out these windows again and open fire from a helicopter that is hovering just outside this office- right this second. What would you do? How do you protect yourself? Are you even carrying a gun or any kind of weapon or is your plan always to just 'duck' and use your powers to move faster than the bullets themselves? Do you protect yourself or do you protect Mr. Sebastian first? How do you counter attack? How do you get to safe spaces? Where are the safe spaces even located? And what happens when you get shot dead? What plans do you have in place for Dash Jr and Dillon and Ashley and Amy? So they don't raise those boys all on their own or are you going to leave it to chance and the universe to take care of them when you're not around to? Do you just get to hope and pray that whoever will marry those girls will treat their future step sons ok? Or will they be the proverbial redheaded step children who get left out in the cold? Do you even have life insurance? Who gets to bury you? And where do you want your body to be laid to rest? What kind of funeral do you want to have? You're a 'take it as it comes, I'll figure it out when I get to it' kind of person. You can not be that kind of person in this job, you need to not only have your day planned out, your week, your month, your year. But you also need to have plans, structure, protocols and contingencies in place for whatever happens and be ready to react however you need to and not always how you want to and you need to have all that memorized and your body to be ready to go into action and evasive maneuvers in the blink of an eye and do you have any idea how exhausting it is not just physically but mentally because that can happen at any moment without warning, whether you're on the clock or not. Because if you are not in complete control of every situation in every moment, accidents and chaos will happen and will always surprise you and do it's utmost to catch you with your pants down when you're not ready and recovering from the damage inflicted in those moments will take the rest of your life. However long or short that will be. You have dealt with some pressures in your life, but these pressures here, are too much for you. It will take at least a year or two or maybe three, to get you properly trained in all the disciplines you'll need to know to even attempt to hack at this job and all that time is going to cost at least seventy five to a hundred and fifty grand per year. And your value as a person and your value as a production entity, and what you produce is protection and safety- needs to outweigh your liability and your investment. And from where I sit, you're a bad fit who needs too much work to be made viable who's own liabilities are too high risk and whose value of protection will never pay out in any meaningful way. And your connection to me is a hindrance, not a help. Nepotism kills in this industry. Everyone has a 'I tried to get my nephew or my brother or someone else I know into this and they're dead now and we've had a fall out in the family since and we don't talk anymore' story. And I don't want to have one of my own, and neither should you." Violet insisted.

"With all due respect Mr. Sebastian, with respect to everything that Ms. Parr has brought to light. I will not be signing on if Mr. Parr does. Because I am in agreement with Ms. Parr on this 100%. Mr. Parr isn't right for this. The closest I would want Mr. Parr is just a friend and not a close one at that in light of all those liabilities, and frankly, I'm underqualified for this, the fact that Ms. Parr even mentioned my name in the first place is very high praise that I'm not worthy of and I'm frankly honored to bear witness that Ms. Parr lives up to her reputation of being the best in the business for every good reasons that she just demonstrated, to the point that she is so professional that she won't let familial ties cloud her judgement or keep her from making the right call and to ignore her or go against her very sage advice, would be courting disaster." Leo formally answered Phillip who frowned. Not thinking that Leo would rather side with Violet instead of Dash, here he thought he would have it easy to have a three against one but right now it was two against one and if he wasn't so hell bent on his own objectives, he would immediately dismiss Dash. He had to find a way to make everyone happy while still serving his purpose.

"But..." Dash began to argue before Leo reached over and clasped his shoulder to stop him from making a fool of himself.

"Dash, Violet has you dead to rights, to sign on with this is signing your own death warrant and you have too much to lose if anything goes sideways and you're just plain, not cut out for it, it's not gonna work out man and it's ok, just accept it. No amount of money in the world should make you want to risk not watching your kids grow up. And you may be pissed at your sister and your pride and ego might be bruised right now but she just saved your life and you're an idiot if you don't see that. I wish I had a badass sister like you who looked out for me the way she just did for you. And she honestly did you a favor and every word out of her mouth rang true and she just gave you a priceless service of pointing out, in less than, say 20 minutes, where your weaknesses are and what you need to work on as a human being to be better. She did her job right. And she did right by you by making sure you stay out of harms way, which this job has more than it's fair share of. You can't ask anything more from her. Now, let's get out of here, I'll buy you a drink." Leo offered.

"Mr. Sebastian, thank you for your time, we'll be in touch and I'll give you my answer when I have a chance to think it over and sleep on it. Ms. Parr always a pleasure to see you." Leo offered as he stood and shook Phillip's hand. then Violet's hand.

"Mr. Traeger." Violet returned.

"Thanks for at least hearing me out." Dash offered to Phillip as he shook his hand but still offered Violet a dirty glare as he passed her to leave with Leo.

But Violet could handle Dash's hurt feelings more than his innocent blood, she did it, she saved him. And what's more is she at least had Leo to back her up before she swiveled in her spot on the desk and turned around and faced Phillip, ready to take on whatever bullshit he would come up with to excuse himself.

"You were too hard on him." Phillip offered to Violet.

"No. I'm the only one who can see through bullshit apparently. What is wrong with you? Did you think that just because he shares some of my blood that he'd be anything like me? How many times have I told you about how he needs reminders to pay his own child support and bills, how he can't even function as an adult. He can't even cook or take care of himself properly and how the only thing he knows how to keep clean is his shoes, his car and his super-suit, because he can’t do laundry to save his life and he just drops all his clothes off at the drycleaners so they deal with it. The guy buys paper plates and bowls and plastic cutlery because he can't even bring himself to actually wash his own dishes. If he can't take care of himself, how in the fuck is he supposed to take care of you? What kind of sob story did he try to ply you with?" Violet posed because she knew outright accusing him of trying to hire Dash to use as leverage against her wasn't going to work. But if she could shift the blame to Dash, it would effectively make it look like she was letting him off the hook.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I didn't take any of that into consideration and as always, you did bring up some very valid points, so I conceded, I will not be hiring Mr. Parr as my handler and anyone who hires him in any position where his own liabilities endanger others is foolish." Phillip cooed to sooth her anger because her rage was palpable even without his powers before her anger seemed to abate as his own spark of genius thought of ways he could get around this.

"Before you sign anyone else, at least run it by me. I appreciate you doing everything to keep things from off my plate, but Dash was the worst candidate for that job. Or really any job that doesn't involve his own ego and his own popularity and fame, because he is shallow, like a puddle, or maybe the Habsburg gene pool." Violet teased with a laugh as Phillip simply chuckled with her.

"Anyway, do we have anything new for Mr. Pine this evening?" Violet asked.

"Nope, nothing new, good night Ms. Parr." Phillip bid her.

"Goodnight." Violet grinned as she nodded and hopped off the desk and walked down to Buddy's floor.

"Good evening Mr. Pine." Violet greeted.

"Good evening Ms. Parr." Barret greeted.

"Any new business?" Barret asked before Violet started laughing that laugh that portrayed how close she was to losing her goddamn mind.

"What happened?" Barret asked.

"Some damn foolishness, that's for sure." Violet answered as she pulled up the feed from Phillip's office from about an hour ago on her tablet. "Not to be an imposing guest, but could I trouble you for about an hour of your time and a glass or two of wine?" Violet asked with a giddy smile because she wanted Barret to see what had happened.

"You're never imposing." Barret immediately reassured her as he immediately put down what he was working on as Violet happily pressed a button on her sleeve and her outfit changed into one of just a casual outfit of a nice blouse and leggings with flats as she followed him into his apartment and took a seat on his breakfast bar as Barret went through what he had before he threw together the leftovers from the weekend as an offering for her before he got up on the other barstool next to her as Violet felt cameras and listening devices power down now that she was on this side of his space before she pulled up the video for Barret to see.

"Who's this?" Barret asked.

"That's Dash, as I'm sure you've figured out, is really White Lightning and that, is Leopold Traeger, aka Mysterio, but obviously, don't tell, anyway it's Leo who I suggested to Phil because Mysterio has a decent head count and has his own fair share of scandal and cover ups who's been around the block a few times and wouldn't judge Phil for his vices and would be flexible to work the schedule and wouldn't mind the cage too badly. He's not the greatest but he'll do for now until someone awesome becomes available because obviously I've been reassigned to you." Violet murmured quietly with a happy smile before she pulled up the video as Barret opened the bottle of wine and started to pour two wine glasses full before Violet put the tablet on the counter between them as they watched Dash try to spit his best game trying to get whatever job Phillip could use him for.

"Desperate much?" Barret muttered with a frown.

"That's Phil." Violet breathed in Barret's ear.

"What?" Barret asked as he moved his arm to rest on the back of Violet's backrest of the stool as Violet happily cuddled into his side as she put her mouth over his ear, her other hand cupping between her lips and his ear.

"That's Phillip. It's not that he can read thoughts per-say, he can read emotions, and he manipulate your emotions, even if all Dash did was look at him and go 'damn I wish he was my boss so I could make as much money' he takes that and turns it up to 11. He can make anyone feel desperate, desperate for him or what he could give them. Which in this case- is money. Phillip probably made Dash feel like if he didn't get a job from Phillip today- that he would starve to death before he would get evicted tomorrow. That kind of desperate." Violet revealed into Barret's ear as he fought not to shudder in delight, having her that close to him as his fingertips curled around her arm once the inside of his forearm made contact with her back and shoulders as her warmth seeped into his soul.

He knew it was going to be her job to "seduce" him, thankfully slowly. But he'd be lying if he tried to deny that he hadn't already fallen for her. But he also knew, the "harder" he made it for her to get close to him, the better for her in the long run because that would buy them both time to figure stuff out with Phillip, but in these moments, it was hard not to give in because his heart was ready to turn itself into an airplane runway and start waving her in.

"I see." Barret nodded in understanding before they watched the rest of the video as Barret watched on in awed amazement to see Violet do her best to try to counter all of that as he thought Leo's reactions were hilarious if not incredibly appropriate as he found himself mirroring the same reactions to everything Violet said.

"So I take it had you not been there to intervene and interfere, Dash would have been the real take." Barret realized.

"Yup. Now if Phillip goes to my father to try to do the same thing to him, I'll end him. So my question would be, should that happen, do you want me to take you with- after I do?" Violet asked.

"Please." Barret found himself saying before he could stop himself.

"Awesome, well, until then and while I'm here and while the spiders are sleeping, you and I should really talk about how we're going to proceed with 'the give'. Because I feel like the moment Philip is sure that you've fallen for me, he's going to order me to undo you. And I don't want to do that, for real at least. But even if we have to play this up for the camera so to speak, I think there's a way we can do it without hating each other's guts by the end of it. So I have an idea." Violet began.

"Ok," Barred prompted.

"I know we agreed about the Mr. Pine, Bartholomew, Buddy, Barret thing. As much as this hurts to say and I feel sick to my stomach just saying this out loud but, when the time comes for when Phillip orders for me to undo you. If I absolutely have to and have no other choice, I would prefer to undo Tully, not Barret and just in case you need to undo me for any reason, undo Eloise, Ellie for short, not Violet. Eloise is my real middle name and it's a nickname that very, very few people use or would even know to use and it'll be something that can also get by the sensors and it'll give Phillip something somewhat tangible for when we have to put on a show in here and that way I can "hurt you" at least mentally and emotionally without actually hurting you, or at least, the real you." Violet suggested and Barret was ready to kiss her because his love and adoration for her just about overpowered him.

"Violet and Barret, Ellie and Tully." Barret nodded in agreement.

"So tell me about Ellie then." Barret invited as Violet smiled happily.

"Well, Ellie…" Violet began giddily as she settled in and took advantage of the fact that they could talk for now without anyone overhearing them.

[sparrow-flies-south]

Ten Things Chapter 8

Fandom: Sanders Sides Pairings: Anxceit, Royality Intrulogical Summary: Ten Things I Hate About You AU When Roman Prince learns that Patton Foster isn’t allowed to date until his older brother, Virgil, is, Roman is crushed. Roman’s twin brother Remus, however, comes up with a plan: find someone who is willing to date Virgil. And who better to ask than Janus Verona, who according to rumours is willing to do anything for the right price? Taglist (ask to be added): @glitchybina @ellietempest @imlikeaghostzombiejesus @anxiety-ismy-name

Notes: And I’m back! Thanks all of you for your patience with my break, I feel a lot more enthusiastic about this after some time away.

AO3 Link - Chapter One - Chapter Two - Chapter Three - Chapter Four - Chapter Five - Chapter Six - Chapter Seven

Roman had evidently learned some measure of subtlety in the last couple of days, because this time he asked to meet in a secluded part of the school where no one was likely to see them.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Janus asked, leaning against the wall.

Roman was grinning widely, and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. It was rather sickening to watch.

“Patton and I are dating,” he said.

“Really?” Janus asked.

Roman nodded. “Yeah. At lunch on Monday I-”

“This is certainly news to me. The two of you aren’t obvious at all.”

Roman scowled. “We aren’t that bad, Lies and Dolls.”

“You loudly pronounced your love to him this morning. Is there a point to this?”

“Okay, first of all: How do you even know that? And second of all the point is that the scheme worked.”

Which meant that there was no use for it any more. The thought was not a comforting one.

“I don’t give refunds,” Janus said. Roman looked confused. “For the date tonight.”

“Yeah, I figured. You should probably go anyway, cancelling would be a dick move. Then just… I don’t know, let him down gently or something?”

Well, that had always been the plan. There was no need for him to be mean about it. Even so, there was only so nice you could be. Virgil would still be upset, though he would try to hide it.

And Janus would stop getting paid.

“I could,” Janus said, slowly, a plan forming in his head. “But that won’t work out in your best interest.”

Roman narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it. Imagine your boyfriend broke up with you, right after Remus suddenly starting seeing someone. An act that was conditional on you dating.”

“I wouldn’t suspect this!” Roman protested.

No, Janus thought, he probably wouldn’t. “Perhaps not, but Virgil is the suspicious type, wouldn’t you agree? And what happens if he decides to tell Patton about his suspicions?”

“Well, then what are you suggesting?”

Janus smiled internally. “Simple: we keep up the pretence. Give it a few weeks, and then I’ll find a reason to end things, and Virgil and Patton will be none the wiser.”

Roman looked torn. “I don’t know, won’t stringing him along just make it worse when you end it?”

“Worse than him knowing it was fake the entire time?”

Roman didn’t reply.

“If you wanted your conscious clear you would come clean to them,” Janus continued. “You just don’t want to think about what we’re doing. So don’t look. Let me handle everything; all you need to worry about is the money.”

He was so close now, Janus could feel it. All he needed was to give Roman the final push.

“No one needs to get hurt. Patton doesn’t need to get hurt.”

He could pinpoint the moment Roman decided; his shoulders slumped, facial expression turned defeated.

“Fine,” Roman said. “Do what you want.”

“Oh, Roman,” Janus said as he began to walk away. “I always do.”

 ***

“Maybe I should cancel,” Virgil said.

He was rummaging through his drawers for his old black hoodie. Patton was perched on his bed, watching. Janus had refused to dress anything less than perfect at school, so he’d gone home to get changed. Virgil supposed he should probably pick Janus up, then, but Janus had insisted on meeting at Virgil’s house.

“You’re not allowed to cancel,” Patton said.

The morning after the fight, Patton had smiled at Virgil at breakfast, and then began to talk about school, not mentioning Roman, and Virgil had gone along with it.

They continued to not mention Roman for the rest of the day, and the day after. And Virgil had been too busy thinking about his date to even attempt to bring it up.

“This was a terrible idea. He’s going to figure out a weirdo and then hate me forever.”

“He won’t hate you.”

Virgil snorted. “How do you know? He’s Janus, who knows how he thinks?”

“You really care about how this goes, don’t you?” Patton asked softly.

“I mean, yeah.” Virgil tugged at the hem of his t-shirt. “It’s a date. Doesn’t everyone care about how dates go?”

“Probably. But most people aren’t going out with Janus Verona.”

Virgil frowned. “You don’t like him?”

“Isn’t that what brothers do?” Patton asked, slightly bitterly.

Virgil grimaced. “Look, Patton-”

“Anyway!” said Patton, his voice too light. “You have a date to get ready for.”

“I don’t think there’s much more getting ready than this,” Virgil pointed out. “Patton-“

The doorbell rang before Virgil could say more. Patton leaped off the bed excitedly.

“That’s him!”

“Patton,” Virgil repeated, but Patton just shook his head.

“You’re going to miss you’re date. Go.”

“We’ll talk later,” Virgil said.

“Well of course! I want to hear all about it.”

That wasn’t what Virgil meant, but he didn’t bother arguing. He let Patton usher him out of his room, and to the front door.

Janus was dressed in sweatpants and a faded band t-shirt. It was so different from his usual, perfect appearance, that Virgil couldn’t help staring.

“Surprised?” Janus asked.

“Kind of, yeah,” Virgil admitted. “I didn’t think you could dress less extra.”

“No one will ever believe you,” Janus said, and Virgil laughed.

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where we’re going?” Janus asked once they were in Virgil’s car.

“It’s a surprise.”

“What if I were to bribe you?”

Virgil glanced over at Janus. “What would you bribe me with?”

“How about a kiss?”

Virgil’s heart stuttered in a way that probably meant he was about to have a heart attack, but for once he wasn’t worried. “You know,” he said, trying to be light, “If you keep flirting I might crash the car.”

Janus hmmed. “And I would so hate to miss our date. Very well, what should we talk about instead?”

Virgil considered. “How many of the rumours about you are true?”

He’d been wondering it for a while. Pretty much since they first spoke, and Janus had acted… well, not terrible.

“Very few,” Janus said. “How many of the rumours about you are true?”

“There are rumours about me?”

“You lurk at the back of classrooms and never talk to anyone. Occasionally you act rather menacing to certain individuals. Of course there are rumours about you.”

Virgil spent his time at school trying to not attract attention. Apparently, that had worked. He grimaced at the thought.

“I only act ‘menacing’ when I have to.”

Like when someone tried to take advantage of Patton. Or when someone invited Patton to a part and then broke his heart.

“I wasn’t judging,” Janus said. “I find fear can be a very good protection. What rumours were you wondering about?”

The change of subject was welcome, and Virgil wondered if Janus had done it deliberately, if he’d somehow picked up on how uncomfortable Virgil was.

“Did you really blackmail the principal?”

“Oh, you heard that,” Janus sounded pleased. “I actually made that one up myself.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, fear can be a very good protection. Any others?”

Virgil considered this. He’d never actually payed much attention to the rumours before he’d spoken to Janus. Virgil knew enough to keep away from him, and it always seemed impossible that someone like Virgil would catch his attention.

But that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard about them, and most of the things he heard came from a single source.

“Luc Edwards,” Virgil said at last.

“What about him?” Janus asked.

“He says you’re a monster.”

“Yes, I know,” Janus said. “It’s hardly a new development.”

“What happened between you two?”

Janus was quiet for a while. Long enough that Virgil began to panic, thinking he’d over stepped a line. He should probably apologise now, before Janus told him to shut up.

“I revealed something Luc wanted kept secret,” Janus answered.

“That’s kind of a cryptic answer,” Virgil pointed out.

“Maybe so.”

Virgil considered whether he should keep digging, when he spotted a large sign. He pulled off the road and into the parking lot.

“Paintballing?” Janus asked.

Virgil chewed his lip. “Yeah. Is that a problem? Because we could always do something else.”

“Not at all,” Janus said. “I was just trying to figure out if I should go easy on you.”

Virgil grinned. “Oh, it is on.”

 ***

When people said to beware the quiet ones, they were talking specifically about Virgil Foster and paintballing. It wasn’t that Virgil was faster than Janus, or even that he had better aim. No, Virgil was sneaky.

His tactics were to find somewhere to hide (usually on top of something he probably wasn’t meant to climb on), wait for Janus to go by, and then ambush him and run off before Janus had even realised what had happened.

“How are you so good at this?” Janus complained to thin air.

Someone sniggered behind him, and Janus spun around to see Virgil perched on some bales of hay that had been piled up. While Janus was covered in paint, Virgil appeared mostly clean.

“Pure talent,” Virgil said. “Are you ready to concede defeat yet?”

“Oh, I never concede defeat,” Janus said, and he fired his gun.

Virgil shrieked as a paintball hit him in the chest, finally, and ducked back behind cover. Janus charged forwards. He turned the corner and fired without looking at when he knew Virgil was hiding. It was only when he came to a stop that he realised no one was there.

Something hit Janus from behind. He spun around, and there was Virgil, grinning at him. His gun was still pointed at Janus’ chest.

“Well,” Janus said. “It appears you have me at your mercy.”

“Really?” Virgil said, stepping closer. “Because I feel like you’re planning on shooting me.”

“There is nothing I’d like more,” Janus said, crossing the distance between them.

Virgil lowered his gun as Janus came forwards, so they were standing almost chest to chest. Without quite meaning to, Janus laid his hand against Virgil’s cheek. This close, he could hear Virgil’s breath hitch.

“Do it,” Virgil said, and Janus pressed his lips to Virgil’s.

Virgil’s lips parted immediately, deepening the kiss. Janus let the paintball gun drop from his hand so that he could bring it up to rest on Virgil’s shoulder. Far too soon, Virgil gently pulled away.

Janus could only watch, dazed, as Virgil’s look shifted to one of mischief.

Something splashed against Janus’ chest. Virgil had hit him with a paintball.

Laughing, Virgil darted away. Janus didn’t bother with his gun, just chased after him instead. He tackled Virgil into a pile of hay that Virgil had hidden in earlier in the game. Virgil laughed and struggled out of Janus’ grip, knocking Janus onto his back. He flopped down next to him, so they were lying shoulder to shoulder.

“Tell me something true,” Virgil said.

“You’re amazing,” Janus said without thinking.

Virgil began to turn red. “Stop,” he said, smacking Janus lightly on the arm.

“You’re the one that wanted to hear it,” Janus pointed out.

“I said true, not flattering.”

“Can’t something be both?”

Janus leaned in for another kiss, which Virgil received eagerly. “You’re amazing,” he repeated, and the strange thing was he meant it.

“You’re not bad,” Virgil said, and then laughed at Janus’ expression.

A buzzer sounded, letting them know that their time was up. Janus got to his feet and held out a hand to help Virgil.

“No, but seriously,” Virgil said as they walked back to the entrance. “You’re amazing too.”

It was only later, when Janus had said goodbye to Virgil and was on his way back home, that he remembered that none of it was real.

[mimiplaysgames]

A Powerful Enough Dream (Ch. 7)

Pairing: Terra/Aqua (eventually) Rating: T Word Count: 5,632

Summary: Terra hid Aqua’s Keyblade somewhere. She starts looking for it in Radiant Garden, which holds more secrets than she realizes.

Read on AO3

A/N: I said last chapter that I had two more and here is one of them! Thank you so much for the responses from the last chapter. I’m really pushing through these fast, so I apologize that their quality is not up to my to my standard, but I hope they’re fun nonetheless! I’ve really missed playing with different characters, I don’t get the opportunity in my other fics.

~*~*~*~*~

Stones, pt. 1

Radiant Garden relies on surgical intervention to remain standing: pipes on pipes on pipes, holding the foundations together and distributing water, electricity, and steam to individual homes, both the rebuilt and the not-quite-there-yet. 

If Aqua paints a vivid memory of what it used to look like in her mind, she can vaguely see the similarities. She spared Terra here, of all places, and look what happened to it: another on her list of casualties. 

Does it make me terrible that I don’t regret letting him live?

Is it even possible to regret only the consequences and not the cause? 

It’s not the time to wallow, she tells herself. Radiant Garden is massive and Terra’s crumbs could be anywhere. She instructs Riku to land his Gummiship on the same terrace she last saw her Keyblade, right in sight of Ansem the Wise’s castle, which is worse for wear and will probably never earn back that former glory. 

She finds Ansem awaiting her arrival on the ground. Kairi is excited, wanting to see how things in the city have improved, grabbing Riku by the elbow and demanding him to take her to the Marketplace while pulling on Sora’s shirt and asking him to let her visit Merlin. Donald grumbles about wasted time, and Goofy rides along with it. Aqua is more than happy to stay with Ansem for now. 

“I’ve locked myself in my home for days,” he grins when she meets him. “There’s a miracle in seeing a familiar face.”

Two large bodyguards, dressed in decorative suits, flank Ansem. By his side is a short, lanky young man in a white coat. Definitely not a soldier: no one who allows that much hair to cover his face would be serious about going to combat. He smiles (not too much, but not too timid), and introduces himself as Ienzo. 

“We should continue the pleasantries inside if we want to avoid any trouble,” Ienzo says, adjusting his collar three times but never getting it straight.

“Yet trouble comes without our consent,” Ansem says, his gaze glowering beyond the Gummiship when a group of people, dressed in handmade uniforms, approach. He gives Aqua a wink. “They have knocked on my door every day since my return. Might as well use the opportunity at hand.”

Leading the group of oncomers are two people with the most severe faces Aqua has ever seen on anyone. They stride with such determined cohesion that she realizes they’ve been idling around, waiting for a chance to corner Ansem.

One of them is a tall man with brown hair and a single scar scraped over his nose. His blue eyes swallow her into a deep, cold well. He observes everything with a distance, his skin so unmoved that Aqua wonders if he’s ever had the pleasure of laughing. He dresses like he’s casual: leather jacket with a fur trim and too many belts to sit comfortably, but he doesn’t wear the impression that he’s good with people. 

The other is a woman with a permanent glare on her face. It’s a hard expression against the soft curls of her rose-colored hair. But she’s nothing elegant - if anything, this woman is power in short stature, a red cape hanging off one shoulder and a sheathed weapon prepared on the other. Aqua’s impressed by her presence - she wishes she could carry herself the same one day, and hopes she only caught her in a bad mood.

“Leon, Lightning,” Ansem greets, “I see you waste no time.”

Aqua hitches her breath. Noctis and Garnet are so gentle by comparison, it’s difficult to see how they can sing praise for these two.

“I’m usually not the betting kind, Ansem,” Leon says, hands at his hips. Aqua never expected such a comforting voice to come out of his mouth. “But you’ve made me a different man. I’ve wagered you dug your tomb in there.”

Lightning makes nothing subtle when she rolls her eyes.

“I may already have,” Ansem says, his fists tense under his sleeves, but he keeps pleasant. His bodyguards are on alert, and Ienzo throws glances, not looking at anyone in the eye. “Never leaving my chair, however, wreaks havoc on my old joints.”

Lightning crosses her arms and tosses a disgusted look. “We gave you a set of conditions on your stay,” she snaps.

Leon holds a hand up. “Lightning-”

“No one wants you here.” She’s so much shorter than Ansem’s bodyguards, who are ready to pounce, but there’s no way she’d lose to them. “So what’s it going to be?” 

Aqua expects Ansem to retort to such an unnecessary comment, but he doesn’t. The way his eyes cast downward acknowledges some uninvited truth. Instead of running to his defense, Aqua hesitates: his silent admission makes her wonder if there’s justification to all this. 

“You’ve given me little of a choice.”

“The hard or the easy way. It’s more than you deserve when his Restoration Committee has done everything you should have claimed responsibility for.” Lightning points to Leon, who hides half his face behind his hand before realizing there’s no point to his modesty. 

“I suppose I cannot offer a token of peace,” Ansem says, not really a question. “An olive branch. A new Keyblade wielder for the cause.”

Aqua inhales sharply. Under no circumstances is it appropriate for her to meddle into world affairs by inserting herself directly into their politics, especially as a bargaining chip. 

Ansem introduces her, “Keyblade Master Aqua. Competent, strong, a formidable survivor and a dear friend.”

She wants to bite back. She bites her tongue. 

Lightning’s eyes are as light as a distant sky that they’re almost silver, and they glint at the recognition of her name. Solemnly (shockingly), she says, “You’re Terra’s wielder.” 

But Leon scrutinizes. “Is he not around?”

“Not right now...” It’s far enough from the truth that it’s not a complete lie. Aqua’s always been terrible about that.

A muscle twitches in Lightning’s jaw. “I’m so sorry.” 

Leon recognizes what she’s trying to say, losing the stiff nerve he had moments earlier as his eyes find a moment of silence in the horizon.  

You’re Terra’s wielder. They expected him and Aqua would be inseparable. 

Leon joins his partner by crossing his own arms, all the threads that grieved tying up again. “Aqua, welcome to Radiant Garden. We still have some growing pains to deal with.” He shoots an icy look towards Ansem that is so solid, it’s almost metal. “The conditions stay the same. You have until tomorrow to decide.”

As they turn away, their proclamations made, Lightning gives Aqua one more compassionate glance - at least as much as this woman is capable of making. 

“That wasn’t appropriate,” Aqua murmurs to Ansem. It’s a sickly feeling to be used that way, a sour taste in her mouth. She wants to forget it ever happened.

Ansem studies the cobblestone beneath them. “There’s much in my life I will have to atone for, things I should have done instead of underestimating their importance. Things I should not have committed when I was blinded by them. I will start with your forgiveness on this matter.”

“Is it true that no one wants you here?”

“Aqua,” he breathes, “would you believe me if I told you that I was single handedly responsible for the destruction of two children’s lives?”

“...Children?”

“Two unique children.” He says it so assuredly that it sounds absurd. “Two unnatural children, unlike you and me, and I’ve reminded them as such. Would you say they have a right to exist?”

“Of course they do.”

“I wasn’t as kind.”

Aqua swallows bile. 

Ienzo steps forward, his eagerness ready to scream. “We’re doing all we can to repent for this, and are already on our way with our plans.” Softly, he says, “I’m glad Sora is here. We can officially start our experiments today.”

“Then what shall I do for you, Aqua?” Ansem asks. I will start with your forgiveness on this matter.

“I need to find my Keyblade.”

He chuckles. “Does it resemble you?”

Aqua blushes. A Keyblade is meant to reflect the person, but it’s such a vain thought. “You could say that.”

“Then my castle is the best place to start.”

At the entrance awaiting them is none other than Lea, leaning on the wall like he owns the place. From where he stands, high atop a staircase that makes up for a hill, he had a good look over the action that transpired below.

“What’s the verdict?” he asks. Does he even have a right to know? Aqua has to wonder.

Ansem ignores him. Ienzo looks down on him as though he’s the one who’s taller. Lea brushes them aside with gusto.

“They’ve never been fun to talk to, anyway,” he tells Aqua when the bodyguards only give him so much of a passing glance.

She smirks. “Do you even belong here?”

“Please, I have better taste than this bunch. Zexion knows why I’m here and he hates me for it.”

“Who?”

“Oh right, he calls himself I-en-zo now.” He smacks his lips, the flavor unpleasant. “Doesn’t roll off the tongue.”

“Why would he hate you?”

“Over a dumb little thing.” He swats with his hands before hiding them in his pockets. “Dying’s not a relevant topic for Nobodies.”

“Did you kill someone he cared about?”

“Do I look like a savage to you?” Lea shrugs. “I actually targeted him - but look. He’s fine.”

Lea leads her inside. This place desperately needs a maid. Pipes line the walls, pummeling through holes and leaving dust and debris in crumbles on the floor. The castle itself is loud with overlapping voices in spitting debates about what procedures to follow next, with exhaust and machine whirring, with computer speakers flatly informing their users. Everything trails down the hallways, accepting the reality that it will be eavesdropped. It’s ugly compared to the Land of Departure, but Aqua figures that’s an unfair judgment.

She wants to be taken to where Terra’s body had slept for years during his apprenticeship. She doesn’t ask. 

“What was Ansem’s choice?” Lea asks. “Leon and Lightning have been pestering him for an answer.”

“He still hasn’t given them one.”

Lea scoffs. “He’s delaying the inevitable.”

“What were the conditions?”

“He either gives them free reign to enter the castle and use its services as they need it, or they kick him out.”

Aqua stops, but Lea keeps his stride. “They would take his home either way.”

And he gestures for her to follow. “Do you blame them?”

“It’s not right.”

Now he stops. “This world didn’t exactly fall into the Realm of Darkness, but it made little difference. Heartless everywhere. Halls without voices. Sora’s a bright and lucky guy, a shining star, and he gave it back to the people. They madeshift an army out of no one, and brought their home back to life. Ansem did nothing.”

“You think it’s a just punishment.” Aqua shifts her weight. “I know about the experimentation that happened here. But that was all Xehanort.”

“Sure, but that makes Ansem a weak leader.” Lea steps close enough for her to get a good look into his eyes: a fiery emerald that is too polished, intense and nothing like she’s seen in other people. His pupils flicker something black, engorged with something vengeful. “For what he’s done to some vulnerable people, he doesn’t deserve the sympathy.”

Some. So it’s personal. 

“I grew up here,” Lea continues. “There’s been witness accounts of moans and cries coming from the dungeon here. We all heard it. Yeah, that was Xehanort’s doing, but Ansem’s not deaf.”

He turns over his shoulder, leaving her stranded in a long, humid hallway where the steam leaks out. The castle struggles to breathe as though the pipes serve as its ventilators. 

The Aqua before the Realm of Darkness would have turned her nose up to such scum. 

The Aqua now believes she still would but… they both survived the Realm of Darkness together. They talked about memories of the sunset, of their favorite desserts that they’d enjoy if they ever went free…

And Ansem constantly repeated how much he deserved to watch the moon freeze in orbit for the rest of his life. It sounded so overdramatic at the time.

I will start with your forgiveness on this matter.

That’s a fate he’ll have to walk on his own. Right now, he’s somewhere in a room hashing away for whatever experiment they’re preparing for. Aqua doesn’t want to know a single detail. 

She follows the last of Lea’s steps, taking the only hallway down until it lets her into an office, where it greets her with the face of a ghost.

A painted portrait hangs high on the wall opposite the entrance. Slashed just above the nose, the bottom limps and curls over. Terra looks good with brown eyes, but she doesn’t have to see the entire thing to know that his expression is ugly. 

Lea rummages through books (if they’re in good enough condition). The office in general has seen better days, what with the singed furniture and ashy pools of dust littering the shelves. The walls have the scientific scribbles from someone hypnotized and the battle scars from someone flailing weapons and fire about. 

Hypnotized, Aqua stands before the painting, gently rolling up the crumpled canvas to bring the face whole. White hair and with a faraway look in his eyes, Terra is a warm embrace and a creepy stranger all at once. She traces her fingertips at his taut jawline, the flat bumps of painstrokes unyielding and cold. This Terra will not and would never smile at her. 

The pages of Lea’s books continue to sputter, but he’s only reading her. Aqua lets go and looks away. 

Brisk footsteps stutter into the room. Ienzo rolls his eyes but doesn’t have to warrant a hello for Lea to ask: “Is this all of it?”

“The rest is in your imagination.” Now, Ienzo is confident, straightening his wrist cuffs with impeccable accuracy.

Lea’s usual bemused expression freezes. “I don’t like working too hard, Zex. You know that.”

The air between these two is electric. It needs to be redirected before it cracks a skull open. 

“What are you looking for?” Aqua asks. 

“All of Xehanort’s notes and diaries regarding his experiments,” Lea says like he’s looking for candy. Not batting an eyelash. Not hesitating, nor embarrassed. He’s turned into a different person in the blink of a moment.

“W- Why?”

“Old Ansem’s going to destroy them all. Isn’t he, Zex?”

Ienzo teeths. “Of course doing the right thing would be beneath you, Axel.”

“We shouldn’t be keeping any of it,” Aqua says. “Darkness like that in the wrong hands-”

“You’d be dooming us all,” Lea says, one hand on a hip. “We could find new ways to protect ourselves from the darkness if we knew more about it. We could make stronger barriers, or help those step away from the wrong path. How are we supposed to prevent people from repeating Xehanort’s mistakes if we forget they ever happened?”

“Those experiments were disgusting,” Ienzo says in broken murmurs.

“You’re going to tell me,” Lea says, only to Aqua, “that you’d parade about Keyblade wielders fighting the darkness without truly understanding it? Is that what a good teacher does?”

No… 

“We have teachings we rely on,” is the best she could say. 

“If it’s the same garbage Yen Sid rambles about.” Lea snatches a book from up high on the shelf, one of the few that was spared from whatever chaos ensued here, dust fibers hanging on for dear life on the edge of pages. Lea reads the cover. “Affairs of the Heart by the Master of Masters. Funny stuff.”

As much as she hates that book, he can’t possibly consider that ancient Keyblade texts are inferior to Xehanort’s self-obsessed, cock-bulleted disorders. 

“How can you say that about something so important?” 

“Thou shalt strut your holiness and scream at spiders because they look scary. Remember children, darkness is bad for you,” Lea mimics. “I’d be surprised if the Master ever spoke like this in real life.”

“He was a pioneer.”

“He was a quack.” Lea tosses the book on its back. “None of it is relevant anymore. I want to help Sora. I can’t do that on outdated superstitions you’re desperate to call science.”

“We are helping Sora,” Ienzo says. “The way we’re doing it will have nothing to do with darkness.” 

“It better not.” Lea takes a breath to calm down. “But don’t act righteous with me when we both know your current methods are based on what Xehanort started.”

Aqua hasn’t known Lea for long, and yet seeing him unravel like this raises the hair on her skin. He’s otherwise so composed every second. She can’t imagine Ienzo hurting someone Lea cares about, and maybe that’s nowhere close to the truth. 

“What kind of experiments are we talking about, here?” she asks Ienzo. 

“The kind that rights our wrongs,” he says with worship in his voice. “The kind that gives our friends,” he glances at Lea, “the life they deserve. A chance to bring them back and make amends.”

“Xehanort’s not capable of giving anyone the tools to do good,” Aqua quips. They stare at her, and a destructive wave of shame washes over Ienzo’s face. Yet, nothing he’s promising sounds so bad. Why is it so difficult to accept?

“Burning Xehanort’s books will make sure we will never repeat his particular methods.”

“It won’t,” Lea stresses. “It would only lead you blind. You need them as a reference.”.

“Please do not worry, Master Aqua,” Ienzo says as though Lea isn’t in the room with them. “We would never endanger anyone.” 

Lea snorts. “With Vexen heading the work?”

“Even is smarter than I am,” says Ienzo. 

“He has little boundaries.”

“I will no longer bore the Keyblade Master with such trivial disagreements that have nothing to do with her matters.” Ienzo irons the creases on his sleeve with his hand. “Master Ansem has mentioned you were in need of help. You were looking for your Keyblade?” he asks Aqua.

Suddenly, she wants to leave this place behind. 

“Is it blue and skinny?” Lea asks, flipping through pages. “It was way too small for Terra.”

“I seem to recall something like that in Xehanort’s possession,” Ienzo says, his chin dug into his fingers. “Or rather, Terra’s.”

“Terra found it downstairs.” Lea’s cynical gaze on Ienzo suggests some hidden language only they understand. “In the Superior’s chamber of all places.” 

“How-”

“He had help.”

“We’ve set up security measures to prevent anyone from going back.”

Lea scoffs. “You didn’t notice it the first time.”

Aqua holds a hand to her chest. “Would he have returned it there?”

“The dungeons were where Xehanort conducted his work,” Ienzo says. 

“And Terra doesn’t strike me as the masochist type to put himself through that hell twice,” Lea goats until his confidence wavers. “But if I think about it… he loves punishing himself.”

That depends on the what and the why. 

“So it’s a possibility,” she says. 

“If he went down there again, I would have noticed it,” Ienzo says.

“Whatever you say,” Lea says. “Repeat it enough times, and I’ll believe it, too.”

The wall where the painting proudly stands serves as the way through - a secret passageway to an armory of giant vials. Ienzo says they all used to carry hearts. When Aqua asks what happened to them, Ienzo replies with the hope that they found their way back to where they belong. Wherever that is. 

At the computer terminal, Ienzo says he will not escort them. 

Lea doesn’t think it’s a problem.

Aqua doesn’t know what difference it would make.

The way down is a stupidly long spiral staircase hidden underneath a trap door. The trap door itself is a terrible defense mechanism, but anyone with right minds would simply give up halfway down. Despite being so fit, Aqua is gasping for breath by the time she reaches the bottom, and Lea doesn’t fare much better. 

“That bastard knew what we were getting ourselves into and never said anything,” Lea pants when they approach the door that opened up to a single, bleached hallway.

The air changes immediately when they enter, and the breath Aqua desperately needs turns sour. Weakness sinks heavy and creeps up her legs, shaking them into noodles. An airiness sits at the top of her crown, but she wills herself to stay standing. 

This place sweats darkness. The walls cry, the floor drools, and the locked doors they pass writhe for a breath of fresh air. There’s been a lot of agony and screaming in these rooms. Aqua can’t hear them, but nothing in the Realm of Darkness - so primal, so omniscient, so ancient - compares to the sins that happened here. The Master always said that darkness is evil. Here is the proof, and here is her answer. 

“Terra would never come back here,” she says, her stomach hurling sideways. 

Lea acts like he’s taking a normal stroll. “Are you absolutely sure?”

“It’s torture. You don’t feel that?”

“Eh, I’m not convinced of poltergeists if that’s what you’re asking.” He snorts. “Are you old-fashioned Keyblade wielders always this sensitive?”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“As long as it’s not on my shoes, do it wherever you like.” He points down the hallway. “Come on, it’s just at the end.”

An open chamber awaits them. The room in here isn’t sickly - if anything, it’s dead. It isn’t witness to anything sinful; it’s just nothing. 

But the layout of this place...

Aqua forgets she’s nauseous. “Who built this room?” she commands, storming inside. 

It’s near identical to the throne room she left Ven in. Corrupted and sterilized, but still home. Whoever did it had to have known. The chair is a mirror image, as though Ven could easily nap here. 

“Xemnas,” Lea says casually, arms crossed and leaning on the door frame. “Guess it’s his thinking room or… whatever he used it for. Censored reasons? I don’t wanna know.”

“That can’t be. That-” She grits her teeth. That means Xemnas was looking for Ven when he found me. That was all I was worth. 

She wants to slap herself. The moment she learned he was Xehanort’s Nobody should have been the moment she stopped caring about his companionship. She doesn’t care. She’s just an idiot who should have known better of a voice living in the darkness. 

At least Ven is safe.

Lea chortles. “I swear I can see the steam coming out of your ears.”

Aqua realizes she’s balled her hands into fists. “When I see Xehanort, I’ll make him regret he’s ever met Ven. I’ll make him mortified of the memory.”

“You mean Xemnas.”

“Why does that matter? I’m killing him. Anyone with Xehanort’s face.”

Lea gapes. “But not anyone with Terra’s face?”

She glares at him, and he holds his arms up to defend himself. “Forget I asked.”

“There’s nothing here,” she spits. “We’re wasting our time.”

Her fury gives her immunity from the hallway’s ailments, which is now still and quiet, except for the stomping of her feet all the way out. She’s blind, running through thoughts in her mind that don’t finish, clammy from the heat. She only sees where she’s going when she halts at the bottom of the stairwell, cursing her terrible luck that she’ll have to climb the entire way back up for nothing.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” she hears Lea say from behind her, his arms crossed.

“Excuse me?”

“For befriending Xemnas.”

Aqua draws a long, agonizing inhale. “Don’t mention his name again.”

Lea gawks, a mocking smirk spread on his lips. “Or what? You’ll spit bubbles at me?”

“I can make them hurt.”

Hands on hips, Lea leans forward and wags his face. “Xemnas, Xemnas, Xemnas.”

She snaps out of it, hiding her face behind her hand. Deadly bubbles sounded stupid as soon as the words left her mouth. Foolish.

Lea bursts out in laughter. “Terra must find your temper really amusing.”

Temperamental is not a description she’s proud to wear. Surviving the Realm of Darkness should have made her stronger than ever, not explode at every whim or thought. 

“I wouldn’t have befriended Xemnas,” she murmurs, “in my right frame of mind. If he succeeded, then Ven...” She exhales, but it doesn’t cool her down.

Lea considers her, all his mischief flying away from his eyes. “Xemnas was really good with very desperate people.”

She stays quiet.

“You and Terra share that in common.”

“Hmm?”

“Self-flagellation.”

“I’m not…” Aqua brings her hand to her chest. Her heart thumps loudly, more sluggish than it should. She always relied on Terra to step around the corner and banish her awful mood. It’s hard to imagine him being this pathetic. 

“He’s more whiny about it.” Lea breaks out a grin.

Then again, did Terra depend on me to do the same for him? If I’m not around, who does he turn to? Is that the reason why he went to Xehanort?

How much of his absence played a role in welcoming Xemnas into my life?

“Is it always that simple?” she asks. “Being deceived?”

Lea softens. “I find it hard to believe you’re easily tricked. If I say Knock, knock, you’d say, There’s no door.” 

Aqua has to admit she cracked a smile. 

“But it isn’t you, it’s Xemnas,” he continues. “Come to anyone who has nothing, who is Nothing, with promises of a better life and a reason to live - of course you’d eat the sweets out of his hands. He had twelve followers in the original Organization, after all.”

“I wish Terra believed in himself.”

Lea frowns: a boggy sight, something that slowly rolled over his face where he can’t find the smile again. “I had a best friend growing up. He joined the Organization with me. Smarter than me, one rank higher. Xemnas learned to confide in him really closely.” 

She sighs. “That can’t have been comfortable for you.”

“Ha.” Lea flexes his shoulders. “Whatever purpose he found in that role completely changed him… but I guess the possibility was always there. He schemed long cons like they were children’s puzzle pieces - give him one clue and he’ll figure out who done it. He stepped ahead of every drawback that I swore he had psychic vision once. If you needed to get out of a tight situation, he was your man. There’s no one better.

“But he needed to be in absolute control, and eventually his genius ideas lost their brilliance and his visions lost their point. The moment he forgot who I was to him, he forgot us. That grass-eating bastard.”

“You’re hoping he’ll bounce back.”

“I have to hope, the same way you do.” He shrugs. “If Terra can make it, then Isa can make it. I’ll buy out every green vegetable that exists in this multiverse if it means I can hear him terrorize me with the way he chews his celery one more time.”

“Chews his celery?”

“Like a damn rabbit.”

She bubbles first, a warm turn in her chest before it spills out of her mouth. Then she can’t stop herself. It takes several seconds for her to recognize that laughing is familiar. Lea doesn’t join her, running a hand through his hair.

“I needed that,” she gasps. “Thank you, Lea.” 

“You’ll be back at throwing empty threats when you remember what we got to do.” He nudges his head upward, toward the spiral staircase that’s too tall for them to see the top. “You really should work on those if you want to seem intimidating.”

“I shouldn’t make threats at all.” She takes the first step up.

“Sure. You’re too innocent for that.”

“It’s not dignified.”

“Well excuse me, Master Distinguished.” He huffs and puffs. They’ve barely climbed up ten steps. “Do you have any idea where Terra might have hidden your Keyblade if not here?”

“Home.” That’s the quick answer, but it would have been true if he had the chance. “Somewhere he felt secure.”

“He might as well have shoved it in his pants,” Lea groans. “The dungeon was the most secure place in the castle.”

~*~*~*~*~

Outside the city limits is nothing but badlands where the forests had been, darkening as the sun dips closer to the horizon. But as Aqua walks down the steps that lead her back to the town square, the badlands fade from her view, engulfed by rooftops with missing tiles and hurdles of white and yellow flowers here and there, doing a poor job at framing the steaming pipes. 

Lea left her to commit to his work: How will I get the rest? Easy. I’ll tell Ienzo that if he doesn’t cough up all the reports, I’ll rip his heart out myself and find the first Heartless to feed it to. He’ll really believe I’ll do it… Don’t look at me like that, you know he deserves it.

A long way down to a dead end. Terra would have not wanted it to be this hard. With him, it never was, at least not until Aqua passed the Mark of Mastery with perfect scores. 

Every step she’s been on since coming back was a stone, lodged on the surface of an ocean that stretched forever. Terra’s stepping stones, tracing his history from one clue to the next, and eventually she assumed she’d reach solid ground. 

Now she’s on her last stone, with nowhere to go but to drown, as if he vanished before he was able to finish his path.

Aqua bumps shoulders with another woman, thinking of nothing but deep, black water. 

“I’m sorry,” Aqua breathes. The woman has flowers tucked into a weave basket, some of them knocked over to the ground. “I’ll pick them up for you.”

“You’re new,” she says as Aqua scrambles. She’s feminine, eyes as dense as grass, her long brown hair beautifully arranged in a braid with a pink bow. “The new Keyblade wielder?”

Word travels too fast for Aqua’s liking. “Yes.” She hands the bouquet of flowers over, trying not to crush the petals together. “I’m Aqua.”

The woman gasps loudly enough for passersby to lurch over their shoulders. She leans in close enough for Aqua to only see green irises around dark pupils. “You look like an Aqua.”

Is ‘Thank you’ a proper response to that?

“I’m Aerith.” She looks over Aqua’s shoulders. “Is Terra with you?”

“He’ll come by later.” Aqua is relieved at how assured she sounds.

“Good. I won’t forgive him if he forgets me.” Aerith’s smile widens as she studies Aqua’s hair and her outfit. “You’re lovelier than I imagined. Have you met Lightning and Squall?”

“Squall?”

“Oops.” Aerith shakes her head at herself. “I meant Leon. Sorry, it’s so hard to call him that.” She clears her throat. “Leon won’t take back his birth name until Radiant Garden is sparkling again. But nothing’s ever good enough.” She pouts, jutting her bottom lip out. “Do you think it’s ugly?”

Behind Aerith is a wagon with more flowers. She’s the one planting them throughout the city in a feeble attempt to hide the rusty pipes. 

“It’s charming.” 

Aerith claps her hands. “You should tell him that. He’s such an oaf.”

Aqua thinks of Leon’s iron wall for eyes. “He’s certainly professional.”

“Oh,” Aerith murmurs, “did he scare you?” She snaps her fingers. “I bet Lightning did worse. They’re both idiots. Trust me, they’re mostly harmless.”

“Really?”

“Mostly. They’re thick.” Aerith tends to her basket, a memory brightening up her face. “Squall- I mean, Leon was my neighbor. We grew up together. He used to lock himself up in his room and I threw rocks at his window to get his attention. He’s still the same.

“Lightning went to the same school as us. A boy there - I think his name was Tseng - used to yank at my braid all morning before class. He had the biggest crush on me and I didn’t want to say anything… but I admit it hurt. Anyway, it drove her crazy, and when she had enough, she slammed his face onto his desk, breaking his nose. She met Leon at detention later that day. I don’t remember why, he was always in detention for talking back at teachers. 

“Ever since then, the three of us have been inseparable.” Aerith giggles. “Terra reminds me a lot of Leon: sensitive and to themselves.”

“Terra’s not that mean,” Aqua says before she could stop herself, blushing behind her hand. 

But Aerith is loving it. “That’s because he’s too smart for that.” She pauses. “You should see Tifa. Terra stayed with her and she’d love to meet you. She’s not far.” She points down an alleyway. “Just five blocks down and then you’d have to take the street to the left. Once you get close to the outskirts, you’ll see a sign for Seventh Heaven. You can’t miss it.” 

“Oh, I-” It’s the polite thing to do. But Ven. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“I won’t forgive you if you don’t see her.” Aeirth winks, then adds for compensation: “It would make Terra smile. I believe it, deep within my heart.”

Maybe it’s the use of the word “heart” that makes it sound like a prophecy. 

“Ah.” Aqua inhales. “I guess a short trip won’t be too bad.”

Aerith squirms - she’s restraining a knowing laugh.

“What?”

“It’s easy to get you or Terra to do anything if I hold one of you against the other.” She shrugs her shoulders as a way to hug herself since her arms are busy with the flowers. “That’s your secret weakness. All the heroes have one.”

[norafike]

Despite all this, I still love you 10

*Contains spoilers for Chapter 3 mission; A short walk in a pretty town.

Depictions of violence, please read at your own risk as the material can be unsettling for viewers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a day or more's journey to travel as far as Rhodes from the business she underwent back at Valentine. Even longer due to Maggie's distraction.

The female hitched her horse near the Gunsmith, noticing the unsettling silence that haunted the town. Nobody could be seen for miles and the store's looked empty whenever she peered through the windows inside. She wondered why Arthur sent the letter, requesting for her help, given that there was not a soul around.

“Hello?” She called out for nothing, expecting something to call back to her. Silence was met and so she decided to walk deeper, seeing where the men she was meant to meet lurked. “Arthur?.. Sean?”

She saw them eventually, hiding near a building all talking amongst themselves. She smiled at Sean and took a stand near him before whistling for her horse to trot on over to where they waited. She tethered him to the correct post, standing near. “How are you feelin' gentlemen?”

Micah snorted the minute she opened her mouth, gripping his gun belt and kicking his leg up onto a crate near to trap her between him and her animal. “Jus' fine, yourself?”

She tried not to visibly cringe once he spoke up, but could not help but scrunch up her nose in disgust. She used the tip of her finger to push him away. “I was doin' so much better before you started talkin', Mr. Bell.”

“I feel like we've gotten close enough, call me Micah.” He grinned and she had to bite her tongue to not snap back at him. “Of course, I'd like to know you.. a little better.”

“A shame I'm gettin' to know Kieran a little better first.” And Sean let out a roar of a laugh at her subtle way of dismissing his offer, this displeasing Micah enough that he left her alone.

"I am only kidding of course." She made it known so none of them would go ahead and tease the poor boy when they returned to camp, after all he was not considered highly amongst the group and the last thing he needed was someone taking her words the wrong way.

Micah snorted again before walking away from the female, ignoring her subtle giggles from behind and taking the lead with Sean on their walk into town. It had been far too quiet for Nora's liking before but now, while they were exposed like how they were.. well she felt more uneasy than ever.

“None of it feels right.” She mumbled under her breathe, going unnoticed by the others. They talked before Arthur raised his voice over them, finally addressing the situation and repeating what Nora had said earlier.  Sean turned around. “Now none of it feels right?” His accent was thicker here but before anyone had time to process what they were saying and shot rang out, setting them into ‘fighter’ mode. Nobody had noticed Sean, yet.

She covered her ears as she followed the men behind cover, finally taking a moment to compose herself and assess the situation. Here, she counted visible faces and let out a choked sob when she counted one short; Sean not being present. Nora faced Arthur, fear reflecting in his eyes and through a shaky voice managed to ask him the dreaded question. “Where's Sean?” He frowned; not asking and instead taking her deeper into the alley they hid in once the bullets to close to be comfortable.

“We'll worry about Sean later.. are you okay to fight? I feel we got half the family after us.” She slowly nodded to answer. “Good.”

He ran out of the alley, both revolvers in hand and began to fire blindly down the road. She watched until he disappeared around the corner, taking a shaky breath she soon followed, her revolver in hand.

“Sean.” Her voice was small once she noticed the boy lying in the dirt, an unmistakable pool of blood around him and only growing. With the little strength she had left she managed to force herself into hiding behind a few crates, her vision growing more blurry from the tears that kept falling. She wasn't even trying to hit anything, only shooting behind her to make it seem as though she was helping but in reality she was only trying to not blackout as she always does. Her voice was called by an invisible creature, sounding similar to Lem but not quite her friend but it was familiar enough to feel safe.. she focused on it, it repeating one phrase over and over. ‘Come back to me, Nora.’ The very thing Lemuel had said that night with the flammable-moonshine explosion. It kept her distracted and it kept her awake..

“Stay low, girl.” Arthur seemingly appeared from nowhere, crouching by her side and shooting in any direction he heard bullets. He knew of what happened to Nora in situations like this, seeing it many times before and when the reality of Sean's fate kicked in the thought of preventing Nora's emerged. “I'm stayin' low. Make way to the General Store and sneak around the back through there, bastards are hidin' away where we can't see 'em.”

“And risk endin' up like Sean?”

“You can stay here, but I'm going. Prevent you lot endin' up like the kid.” With that she made haste over to the shop, ignoring Arthur's cries for her to run back. It was silent inside but that didn't mean she wasn't careful creeping through, her gun entering or leaving a room before she did at all times. She presumed that Micah and Bill dealt with a lot of the Gray's as the numbers were thinner now, but that didn't mean she didn't take out any herself.. feeling no guilt in doing so either.

“Bastards.” She cursed under her breath as she searched for the remaining bunch.. slowly finding one cowering behind a few barrels. He begged for his life, raising his hands in the air. She staggered for a moment, moving to holster her weapon and the man began to thank her for her “generousity” yet Sean had so much stripped away from him and she remembered it quickly. She put the gun away, opting for a more *satisfying kill and using her knife, she placed the steel against the man's neck and cut as deep as allowed. His blood ran down her hands, onto her lap and he fell lifeless.

She didn't notice the blood, didn't care for it.

…

“Where's Williamson?” She asked; met with silence from the two men who provided no answer.

“Well..?”

“We don't know, lady. Why, you gonna kill him too?” Micah spat and without thinking she lunged towards, gripping the lapels of his jacket and pushing him back. He made contact with the side of the wall, gasping with the wind knocked out of him and not expecting such a small woman to have this much strength, she was almost as feisty as Mrs. Adler and he admired her for it. “No, but I'll kill you asshole.” She shouted and finally Arthur stepped in, wrapping his arm around Nora and pulling her off of the antagonistic individual.

“You're fucking crazy, woman.” Micah hadn't learned his lesson.

“Enough!” Arthur yelled; scowling at the pair of them. “Let's find Bill and get out of here.”

“Whatever.” Nora grunted, walking past the men and back down towards the gunsmith. Arthur watched after her, maintaining a distance as he soon followed behind. She wasn't in any place to be alone right now and he knew it.

“Stop right there!” Sherrif Gray in his bitter tone called out, revolver pointed straight for Nora. She froze in her tracks and raised her hands, looking at the group with a fake smile. In some man's arms she noticed Bill and subtly pointed at him so Arthur could see.

The two finally joined her, Micah on her right and Arthur on her left so she stood perfectly in front of Leigh Gray. How she could spit at his name, a disgusting roach of a man she never had any liking for.. the killing of her only friend which he allowed being the final straw and so god help her she was going to make sure he got what he owed. “You gonna let our friend go, Leigh?”

“I plan on takin' you all in.. or killin' ya if need be.” He replied; his threat meeting deaf ears. She didn't care, couldn't find it within her. “That a threat..? Or a promise?” And Micah looked over astonished as she continued teasing him.

“I ain't playin' games girl-.” Leigh began, but Nora raised her hands to dismiss him. “Never said this was no game, jus' let my friend go.”

“Ain't gonna happen.”

“Very Well.” She was quick, just as skilled as Arthur and unexpecting. A few shots were fired and the Gray's fell, some falling off of the porch of the gunsmith and onto the roads.

Bill clambered forward, completely astonished but holding thanks he needed to pass on. He placed a sweaty palm on her shoulder, reluctantly muttering a quiet ‘thanks’ and walking away.

“Sean.” She cried before running over to the body. The thrill died down and reality kicked her in the face with a steel toe cap boot. Her friend really had been killed, his face disfigured and unrecognisable and her chest tightened when she saw him lying there, on the ground. Her brave face shriveled and she let out sobs, earning an eye roll from Micah but a gentle pat regardless. “Bill, take the boy an' get him buried. I'm gonna ride with Nora back to camp, I don't think she should be alone.”

She chuckled at Arthur's instruction, despite there being no humour behind it. “I'm twenty-four. I can look after myself.”

“Trust me, I know that. I've seen it.” He replied with a light smile. “Jus' need an excuse for me not to be seen alone cryin'.” She laughed as he tried to lighten the situation, there was no time for mourning.

“Come on, let's get you out of here.”

She managed to wipe away a small tear, following him over to Casper and climbing into the saddle without fail despite an ache in her muscles slowly kicking in. Everything coming down and having an effect. “Thank you.” She managed to whisper, following Arthur out of the town.

“It ain't nothin'.”

[deputyrhiannonhale]

Nodus Tollens Chapter 2

(ooc) In this chapter, the same general trigger warnings are applied here! And once again let me know if you wanna be tagged or don’t anymore!

Chap 1

tagging: @returnofthepd3 @ja-crispea @f0xyboxes @shelliechen @xbaebsae @deputyjessicaquinn @dieguzguz @hopecountygazette 

~~ It took Rhi longer than it really should for her brain to register the imminent threat of drowning, and the fact that Burke was once again not giving a second thought to making sure she was ok, just swimming away from the truck as it sank closer to the river bed.

'Just wait until I get to the surface. I'll kick your ass before the Peggies can.' Rhi thought to herself as she pushed against the metal of the truck door to propel herself upwards and began kicking her legs.

When Rhi broke the surface, she gasped loudly, needing oxygen badly, before she paddled towards the bank. Rhi crawled up on the soft muddy surface, flipping onto her back, still taking in deep breaths, staring up at the starry night sky, fading in and out of consciousness.

"Stop! I'm a U.S. Marshal!" Burke was screaming off to her left and Rhi lifted her head to see the bouncing beams from flashlights and her heart rate spiked again. She still couldn't relax, footsteps brought her head to her right in time to see a tall bald man standing above her. He didn't have the cult look about him, but he still looked menacing in the paleness of the moonlight, she wanted to run, but the darkness pulled her under completely.

Rhi vaguely remembers being carried, she groaned a few times, but couldn't keep her eyes open. Flashes of her past with John filled her mind's eye. How sweet and kind he had been towards her. Spending months together as she recovered, learning about each other, and yet...he kept something this big from her. Had it been obvious and she was just too naive to put it together? Probably.

It was the night before Rhi was leaving to go back to Billings, she was packing her bags, getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, when an unexpected tapping sounded from her window. She jumped in surprise, her head snapping to the right to find John peering in her window, he gave her a small smile and a wave, motioning for her to open the window.

"What are you doing here?" She whisper-shouted at him, laughing as she opened the window and leaned on her elbows onto the window pane. 

"You really didn't think I wouldn't come and see you off, did you?" John replied in his normal almost cocky manner and Rhi scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Considering I asked you not to because goodbyes are really hard for me and I can't get out tonight...yeah I did." She admitted, resting her chin on her palm, giving him a playful smile and wink. "Also...why didn't you just come to the front door? At least then you coulda come in." She asked, her brows furrowed in confusion, a subtle shift in his gaze went unnoticed by Rhi and John shrugged, chuckling softly.

"I guess I figured this seemed more Romeo and Juliet." John answered, causing Rhi to snort loudly, and she covered her mouth and nose quickly, until the laughing passed.

"Well...that's a love story that ended really well, huh?" They both shared a laugh then before John motioned for her to climb out of the window and join him. She knew she shouldn't, she needed to finish packing and go join Earl for dinner. Rhi looked over her shoulder at her door before finally deciding. "Fuck it." She clambered out the window, and took John's hand.

Rhi startled awake to find her hands zip-tied to a bedpost. She yanked at her restraints, growling loudly. She was mad at herself for being so stupid, that fucking look in his eyes that night should have been a warning. Mad at being restrained by who knows who, she was just mad at the world at this point in time.

"Why the fuck am I tied up?!" She shouted, yanking with every word, as she looked around the room and spotted the man she seen before she passed out.

"The cult is looking for ya. Smartest thing for me to do would be to hand you over." The man answered and Rhi scoffed, giving him a very vicious smile.

"Please, please do it. Let me at that fucking cult." Rhi was nearly frothing at the mouth in her anger, still pulling and twisting her arms trying to get free. The plastic ties were beginning to burn her wrists as she struggled as the man approached her, pulling out a knife and sliding through the makeshift cuffs. Rhi growled, tossing the zip ties across the room before rubbing her wrists gently.

"Now, there's some clothes over there that should fit. We need to burn that uniform." The man pointed over to a line of lockers against the wall as he spoke, and Rhi stood to her full height, giving him a quick nod. "Meet me in the back once you're done."

Rhi sighed loudly, opening up the lockers and digging through what meager amounts of clothes were there. None of it was her style, however that didn't matter at this point in time and she understood that; a denim vest, a shirt with 'TROUBLE MAKER' in black letters across her chest and a simple pair of jeans and combat boots were the closest to comfortable she was going to find.

Strapping her sheath with her bowie knife to her right thigh, she began to make her way to where she heard the man's voice calling out to different individuals.

In this room, Rhi discovered a conspiracy theory style mapping of Hope County complete with Joseph's, Jacob's, John's and a woman named Faith's pictures. She studied each person and what this man had written about them. Her anger had been so high she hadn't registered Faith standing behind Joseph as well at the church. She hadn’t shown much interest in Rhi considering her outburst.

"Oh good, you did find something that fits. I didn't properly introduce myself properly before. I'm Dutch." Dutch stated, as Rhi approached him, she gave him a quick but polite nod.

“Rhi Hale.” She introduced herself, holding out a closed fist, offering it for a bump in lieu of a handshake. Dutch stared down at her closed fist long enough to make Rhi shrug and give a heavy annoyed sigh and shove her hands deeply in her pockets.

“Wait, you’re Earl’s niece, right?” Dutch finally said after a few more beats of silence. Rhi gave him a tight smile, and another quick nod.

“The one and only. Now about getting to those fucking peggies...they’ve got Earl. I’m gonna get him back.” Rhi promised, looking over Dutch’s shoulder at all the monitors on his table top, and he laughed.

“Well, there’s a problem missy. I haven’t-”

“Don’t call me that.” Rhi interrupted him, her eyes shifting back to him to give him a very stern look, and he held up his hands in a placating manner.

“Understood. However, I still haven’t heard from Eli, Jerome or Virgil. I think the cult has messed with the radio tower on my island. Think you could help me out? You do this for me, and I help you however I can.” Rhi rocked on the balls of her feet as she thought about his request. She didn’t know him, even though he seems to know her, but given her affiliation, that wasn’t overly surprising. Yet, she still wondered if she could trust him. How does she know that he isn’t a part of the Project, and just steering her into more danger? Rhi let out another heavy sigh. She knew she wasn’t in a position to be picky at this moment. She had people to help. She pinched the bridge of her nose before running her hand through her hair.

“Yeah, I’ll help. I’m sure you’ve got people out there too that need help. This isn’t just about me.” She said on an exasperated sigh, what has she gotten herself into. This isn’t how her job as a police officer in a small town like this was supposed to go. Rhi expected the occasional drunk and disorderly kind of stuff and it’s nearly always the same people every weekend.

“There’s a gun and map in the safe over there that you can have. Once you get your bearings I’ll let you know where to go.” He instructed, pointing over to the safe to Rhi’s right back towards where she had come in here. She mumbled to herself as she walked over to the safe, picking up the gun and ejecting the magazine to check it, finding it not fully loaded. Replacing the magazine back into its spot, she racked the slide and placed it at the small of her back before picking up the map. Giving Dutch a two finger salute, she left the room to find her way out of this bunker.

Rhi shielded her eyes when she emerged, the sun proving to be way too bright for her, cursing under her breath at how much it stung her eyes. Once her eyes adjusted, she looked around at all the vegetation surrounding her, it was deceivingly peaceful here, she even took the time to breathe in and just bask in the natural music of the woods, but that didn’t last long before her radio beeped. 

Rhi trekked on, after finally having received more information from Dutch about how the cult was snatching people and how she should try and save as many as she could to get them on her side. Done and done she has told herself, knowing she would need as much help as she could muster from the way Dutch made it sound. She froze when she heard voices and what sounded like a loud punch, Rhi crouched and eased forward until she found the culprits; two cult members and a civilian.

Rhi didn’t even waste time, she picked up a metal bat that was leaning against the tree she was behind and snuck up to the female cult member, standing at the last second and thwacked her hard on the back of the head. The two men left looked at her in surprise as she pulled out her gun from its spot nestled at the small of her back and she trained it on the other cult member firing without hesitation. The man she saved stared up at her from his position on his knees, it was clear in his eyes that he was unsure if Rhi was a savior or more bad news. She finally smiled at him, replacing her gun at the small of her back and extended a hand to help him to his feet.

“Name’s Rhi.” She introduced herself as he dusted himself off, and she bent down to pick up the rifle one of the cultists dropped and tossed it to her new found friend. He caught it and juggled it a couple of times before finally giving her a quizzical look. “And you are?”

“T-Tom…” Rhi gave him a bigger smile and winked at him.

“Hope you know how to use that Tom, we are going Peggie huntin’.” She informed the still confused Tom as she walked by him and he turned, falling into step with her.

“Wait...you’re the new deputy, right?” Tom was a nervous man, she could tell just by his tone alone, she used to sound just like that in her younger days, and it took her back to all the times she tried to ask her step-ass for anything.

“I am. I’m going to take this cult down for fucking with me. Can I count on ya, Tom?” She looked up at the taller man, and he was smiling, the fire was lit behind his eyes.

“Absolutely!”

Tom proved to be more of a fighter than she had given him credit for, he was very stealthy, very quiet even when moving through the brush and tall weeds. He informed Rhi that it’s all about knowing her own body and how it moves, while also keeping the wind in mind. Move when the wind moves the weeds, and stop when it does. It was all information Rhi was taking to heart, knowing anything valuable now would prove priceless later. With Tom’s help, it didn’t take Rhi long to clear out what Peggies were inhabiting Dutch’s little island. 

“You know where the radio tower is, my dude?” Rhi asked Tom, smiling triumphantly at him, and he returned her bright smile, before motioning with his head over his shoulder.

“Just right over this way.”

Rhi stood at the base of the ladder leading up to the top of the tall tower, her hands on her hips, her head tilted all the way back, staring skyward. “Fuck…” She whispered to herself, before eyeing Tom. “All the way up there, huh?” He chuckled before punching her shoulder in a light playful manner.

“After all that, you trying to tell me you’re scared of heights?” Tom teased her and she laughed weakly, pushing him gently.

“Not the height...the fall is more the problem.” She confessed, as she rolled her shoulders, and began her climb to the top.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not gonna have you climbing radio towers all over the county. Just this one.” Dutch radioed to her and she scoffed, pulling the radio off her belt once she made it to the first flat surface.

“Not really...what I was thinking. But that’s good to know.” Rhi countered sarcastically, which caused Dutch to chuckle slightly.

“Same humor as your uncle. Now, don’t go falling.” Dutch suggested and Rhi rolled her eyes, sighing heavily.

“How did you know what I was planning, Dutch?” Rhi retorted, Dutch replied with a sarcastic ‘har-har’ before Rhi put the radio away and continued climbing.

Rhi hugged along the center of the tower, moving easily to the switch to bring it back to life, the wind stronger so high up and she took deep calming breaths, as she looked down. Big mistake, now all she was thinking about was missing her footing and falling to her death.

“You’re doing great!” Tom’s faint voice reached her ears and she couldn’t help but laugh, he obviously couldn’t see her sweating bullets up here. Rhi pulled in another shaky breath before turning and pulling the switch to start the radio signal again.

“Hey, that definitely did it, kid, I’m getting a good signal now!” Dutch praised her, and she slid down to a crouching position while she waited for more instructions, trying to steady her shaking hands. “Fall’s End needs your help. That’s in the Holland Valley. John Seed’s region.”

“Of course…” Rhi muttered out before grabbing the radio. “Do you know where Earl is at?” Dutch remained silent for a moment.

“Sorry...I don’t know that kid, but I can ask around for ya.” Dutch promise and she couldn’t ask for more.

“Thank you Dutch.” Rhi put the radio back and looked around, there was a zipline attached to the radio tower and she debated if she wanted to take the quick way down. Sweat was trickling down the back of her neck, and she looked down the ladder. Either way she could fall, but maybe the zipline would be faster, and she wouldn’t have to be worried about her freezing up halfway down, and having to embarrassingly call down to Tom to rescue her. She took a deep breath and zoomed down the zipline.

Right as her feet touched the ground, she wobbled trying to catch her balance and her radio beeped again, assuming it was going to be Dutch, she was shocked to hear John’s voice calling out to her.

“Deputy.” His tone was dripping with contempt, and it caused her to growl. As if he had any right to be upset about her for anything when he lied to her for so long.

“What do you want, bitch?” She hissed, her fingers squeezing hard on the device, and she heard him chuckle on the other end.

“Now...is that anyway to address an old friend?” He taunted her, provoking her to let out another growl, and she used both of her hands to mimic a strangling motion on the radio, pretending it was John’s neck.

“Friend?” She hissed again. “What kind of friend hides something so major?” John made a tsking sound at her question.

“Judging by your uncle's reaction, you hid our tryst from him.” That pulled Rhi up short, she hadn’t lied about her relationship with John back then, but Earl had also not asked her what she had been doing either. Earl had always just been concerned with getting her better from her head injury, bless his soul.

“He never asked, so I never brought it up.” She responded lamely, and she mentally slapped herself for sounding so stupid.

“Omission of truth is the same as a lie, my dear.” John continued to taunt, knowing he was getting under her skin just by how heavy her breaths were coming out.

“Fuck you ‘its the same as a lie’!” She shouted into the radio, shaking it violently. “You’re in a brainwashing cult.” She bit out as harshly as she could. “You were trying to get me in there! Do you even give a fuck?”

“We are not a cult!” He shouted back just as loudly, but then there was a long pause as he collected himself. “Why don’t you come by my place and I’ll show you how much I care.” John's tone was velvety smooth, and Rhi glared at the radio in her hand, had he really just tried to flirt with her? She grimaced, the audacity of this man was baffling to her.

“Not in a million years.” She quipped, a frown deep on her face, daring him to say one more thing.

“You couldn’t stay away from me, even if you tried.” Came John’s cocky response, and Rhi’s brows furrowed and she tilted her head, anger quickly rising in her soul. She bit down on the radio hard enough for it to creak in her wrath, and she promised herself shouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. Just as she was getting ready to find Tom, the radio beeped again, and she nearly threw it into the woods when Dutch’s voice sounded.

“Earl is in Faith’s region. Don’t believe everything you see there, and don’t listen to what she says, you got it?” Dutch had come through for her. John thinks she can’t stay away? Well, she will show him.