#but maybe it will !!! is she hiding being a lesbian or just being a werewolf. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

werewolfdays · 4 years

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first impressions

We’re gonna backtrack in their timeline a bit. Just have the normal Bring Your Werewolf Girlfriend To Meet The Family stuff. Yeah, totally normal. (CONTENT WARNING: abuse mention) -

We sat in our car, parked in front of the strange house, and I silently stared out of my window to regard it. Nothing about it looked particularly sinister or out of place in the slightest, it was simply another house on the street. There were two stories, a welcoming shade of sky blue with a white trim, the small lawn was perfectly green and mowed. If I had searched for stock photos of a suburban home on the internet, there would be countless versions of this house plastered all over my laptop screen. The entire image was meant to be calming and inviting. But this was the place where Nadya grew up. Where she spent most of her childhood in fear of her brother with no one else besides clueless parents to protect her. I hated this house. And we were about to spend the entire weekend in it.

I gripped the steering wheel in a white knuckled grasp for an entirely different reason than my loathing of the building. My jaw clenched as I prepared for what was about to come. Without turning to look at Nadya, I spoke, “You’re sure about this?”

“I have to do this, Jay.” Nadya answered.

“You don’t.”

“They’re my parents,” Her tone wasn’t as sure as the words she was speaking, “If I don’t at least try... then I know I’ll regret it.”

I finally turned to look at her beside me in the passenger seat. Nadya’s expression matched the apprehension and dread I sensed coming off of her, but she still managed to look determined. Her eyes implored me to trust her. Of course I would trust her no matter what. I also found it endearing that she was willing to put in this much effort to reconnect with her parents, even if I was certain that they didn’t deserve a daughter like her.

“Okay.” I relented with an exhale and threw a wary glance at the house again.

“Are you nervous?” Nadya asked curiously.

My gaze shot back to her with a frown. “No.”

She raised an eyebrow at me, not fooled by that lie in the slightest, “You are.”

“You’re nervous, so I’m nervous.” I deflected.

While that wasn’t a completely untrue statement, she still saw through it. Nadya studied my face for a few short moments before an understanding dawned on her, “You’re scared to meet them.”

I broke eye contact and focused back on the steering wheel, releasing another sigh, “Well, like you said, they’re your parents… a part of me still wants them to like me.”

Nadya’s hand reached out and wrapped around my wrist, gently pulling my hand away from the steering wheel and up to her lips where she placed a kiss to the back of it. My eyes locked on to hers yet again while her lips began to caress my knuckles and I felt my muscles slowly relax. I would miss being so candidly affectionate with her while we were here. I knew it would only be for the weekend, but I was already dreading having to keep my urges to touch her and kiss her whenever I wanted in check.

“I’m sure they’ll like you.” Nadya offered.

I gave her a grateful smile, “Maybe they’ll like me as your friend.”

She lowered my hand to cradle against her chest and pursed her lips, “I guess we’ll find out on Sunday…”

I sensed her anxiety spike at that sentence and it made both me and my wolf restless. Nadya truly didn’t have any clue how her parents would react to them knowing that she was a lesbian, that her and I were together, but she was adamant about telling them before we left. Until then, I couldn’t give anything away about her or us.

“Think you can pretend that you aren’t in love with me for a few days?” She asked with a small sly smile.

My head tilted to the side, resting on the seat of the car, and I continued to gaze at her. It was always far too easy to get lost in those warm brown eyes of hers, especially when they caught a single ray of sunlight breaking through the clouds like they were right now, “I hope so. I’ll try my best, at least.”

Her sly smile grew into a full grin, her cheeks flushing, “Maybe start by not looking at me like that.”

I felt my face grow hot, as I hadn’t noticed I was doing it, and I forced myself to look away. Then I realized this moment in the car with her would be the last place where we wouldn’t have to hide until the weekend was over. Like a magnet, my eyes found hers again, soaking up every bit of her that they could without apology, making sure I had enough of her memorized to keep myself satiated for a few days. There was just one more thing I needed to get me through it.

“I probably shouldn’t kiss you like this either,” I muttered as I leaned in.

The sensation of Nadya’s softness against my mouth seemed to slow time itself around us. My senses zeroed in on her, the rest of the world dimming like a dying fire, turning into an unimportant muffled buzz at the back of my mind. Her taste and her warmth pulled me in, pulled me closer to her as my hand reached up to tangle in her hair. The rhythmic thumping of her heart skipped a few beats and her lips parted mine in a silent plea for more. I was eager to give her whatever she wanted while also indulging in what every instinct inside of me was aching for.

Our passion was just as easy to get lost in as staring into her eyes. Maybe even more because soon it wasn’t just my surroundings that became forgotten, it was our reason for being here. If it were up to me, we would stay in this car until we had to break away for breath, then I would drive us far away from here where Nadya wouldn’t have to worry about a family that didn’t love her like my pack and I could.

But I knew that’s not what Nadya wanted. Not yet at least. So I had to be the one to pull away from her and bring her back from the intoxication that was consuming the both of us. She tried to follow my retreating lips and I couldn’t resist giving her one more soft peck before severing all contact.

Nadya blinked at me a few times to shake herself out of it. Her fingertips touched her own lips with a small smile, almost like she could still feel mine, “Yeah… probably not like that.” she uttered breathlessly.

I couldn’t hold back a crooked grin, “You think you will be able to pretend you aren’t in love with me for a few days?”

She released a quiet scoff and lowered her hand, “I can’t make any promises.”

I noticed her eyes kept shifting down to my mouth like she was fighting the urge to kiss me again. I leaned further away from her in the hopes of lessening the temptation. As much as I wanted to tease her, this would not be the place for it, “Are you ready?”

Nadya took in a very deep breath, holding it for several beats, and then releasing it in a sigh that nearly trembled, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay,” My hand squeezed hers in encouragement, silently promising that this wouldn’t be our last touch this weekend. I would find ways to remind her I was by her side, even if I had to sneak affection like some love-struck idiot teenager, “Let’s go.”

We got out of the car and I went to the trunk to retrieve our bags. A part of me hesitated to grab my duffle once I slung Nadya’s pack over my shoulder. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t need it, and if I got caught with it somehow, that would result in a completely different level of awkwardness, but I would feel too vulnerable without something. I did a quick glance over my surroundings, making sure there were no witnesses, and then opened the secret compartment in the trunk to pull out a handgun. After subtly checking the loaded chamber and making sure the safety was on, I slipped it into my bag and buried it in my belongings.

I looked up as I was rearranging things to see Nadya come into view. She looked into the trunk when I zipped the bag up and met my eyes again in a way that confirmed she knew exactly what I had been doing. I offered an apologetic wince, but didn’t remove the gun. Nadya didn’t say anything despite her disapproving expression. A part of me wanted to put the gun back, I really didn’t want to bring a weapon like that into her parents’ home, but I hadn’t survived this many years being hunted without being a little paranoid. I suspected Nadya understood that, which was why she kept quiet.

“It’s just in case. I don’t plan on using it.” I explained.

“I know.” She said with a simple nod, then gestured for me to follow her, “Come on.”

With the duffle’s straps in my hand, I pulled it out and shut the trunk. Every step closer to the house made my nerves prickle under my skin, almost as if my wolf wanted to protect both me and Nadya from the people inside. I had to remind myself that her brother was thousands of miles away, deployed overseas. With any luck, he’d get blown to bits and I wouldn’t have to worry about doing it myself one day.

Nadya didn’t bother knocking on the front door of the house. I suppose it was her house after all, but I was slightly thrown that I wouldn’t have the few moments to prepare myself that waiting for her parents to answer would have given me. She noticed my hesitation at the threshold and offered an encouraging smile.

“You’re gonna do great.” She promised quietly, briefly grabbing my wrist to pull me inside.

“Sure…” I mumbled under my breath.

“Mom? Dad?” Nadya called into the house, “We’re here!”

Towards the back of the house, I heard a running faucet suddenly shut off. The kitchen, I suspected. Then I heard someone else stir from a separate room, perhaps an office, soon followed by two sets of footsteps approaching us in the living room.

I cautioned a glance around, appreciating the fireplace and how surprisingly warm the atmosphere in the home was. A collection of picture frames rested on the mantle and I caught a glimpse of a much younger looking Nadya in one of the photos. I smiled to myself as my eyes lingered there, but it quickly faded when I saw Ruben standing next to her. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen in the picture, but I still wanted to tear his throat out. I forced myself to look away and took a deep breath to snuff out my short rush of fury.

A middle aged man, Nadya’s father, arrived first. The lines on his face that framed light blue eyes seemed to give him a permanent stern glower, even his grin did little to soften it, and his teeth were so perfect and white that it would put the Kincades’ flawless smiles to shame. His light brown hair, that was more salt and pepper at the sides, was gelled and styled almost formally, and he wore a button-up shirt as white as his teeth tucked into khaki slacks. Even the way he carried himself was professional.

He noted my presence, giving me a quick once-over and sizing me up. It wasn’t a very welcoming feeling to be scrutinized on the spot, but I stood my ground and allowed him to inspect the stranger in his home that was accompanying his daughter.

“Hey, dad.” Nadya greeted, pulling his attention away from me.

I watched Nadya’s father inspect her in almost the same manner as he had inspected me. Then I realized it had to be a long time since they’ve seen each other. Maybe it’s even been years.

He gave her another smile and a nod, “Good to see you, sweetie.”

It puzzled me when there was no attempt at an embrace. I hardly expected anything over the top, but there was a noticeable awkwardness between parent and child that I’ve never witnessed before, and certainly never experienced myself. My father would have wrapped me in a big hug as soon as he saw me, called me ‘pup’, and kissed the top of my head. At first glance, I would have never guessed these two were even related.

Before I was able to dwell on it any further, Nadya’s mother entered the living room. Long black hair, with only a few streaks of gray here and there, fell smoothly down her shoulders and to the woman’s mid back. Her eyes were the same warm brown as Nadya’s were and her skin tone was several shades lighter than that, but still noticeably darker than the fair skin of the father. It took me a moment to place the woman as a Native American.

Nadya shared more facial features with her mother than her father. The eye color, of course, but also the nose and cheekbones. Nadya’s mother also had a natural softness in her expression, just like her daughter did, one that made me more at ease in the strange home.

The reunion between mother and daughter was warmer than with her father, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re finally home.” Nadya’s mother cooed with a smile, grabbing her daughter’s hands and leaning in to place a kiss on her cheek.

“Me too, mom.” Nadya said. Her muscles were still tense, but I watched her relax a fraction under the comfort from her mother. Then Nadya turned to me, “This is my friend, Jayde.”

The word friend made me cringe internally, and I could hear a subtle fluctuation in Nadya’s voice when she spoke it that told me she didn’t like it any more than I did, but I still stepped forward and offered my hand, “It’s nice to meet you both.”

Her mother shook my hand first, “Nice to meet you too, I’m Winona.”

“Richard.” Her father said next, giving me an almost delicate handshake. Feeling a little offended that he held back, I squeezed his hand firmly and watched his brow perk up a centimeter.

A tiny bit of rebelliousness didn’t stop me from being polite and pleasant, “Thank you for inviting me into your home.”

“Please, it’s our pleasure.” Winona replied, then noticed the bags I was holding, “Here, I’ll show you where you can put your things.”

Nadya reached for her bag, I handed it to her and followed Winona towards the stairs. Nadya followed close behind me, but Richard remained in the living room. I felt his eyes on me through my entire ascent up the stairs and had to resist the urge to throw him a scowl. He was very unsure of me. Maybe it was my appearance that threw him off. I was a bit rough around the edges, even cleaning up couldn’t hide the scars and my unintentionally intimidating resting expression. If I had done something to deserve it, I could let it go, but I’d hardly done anything to arouse suspicion or mistrust yet, so I was a little annoyed.

“You can stay in Ruben’s room while you’re here.” Winona told me once we reached the top of the stairs.

I should have expected that, but the sentence made my stomach drop and the rest of my body recoil in utter disgust beyond my control. I tried to recover when Winona looked over at me, “Oh, that’s okay, I can sleep on the couch just fine.”

“No, you’re a guest here.” Winona insisted. She saw that I was about to argue further and put a hand up, “He hasn’t been home in a long time, I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Jayde can take my room and I can take Ruben’s.” Nadya offered.

“No.” I replied, probably too quickly and too firmly. Both Nadya and her mother looked a little taken aback by my intensity. I forced an easy going smile and relented, “I’ll take his room. Thank you.”

Winona brushed my behavior off rather easily, “Or course. Why don’t you two get settled and come downstairs so we can figure out where to go for lunch?”

“We’ll be down in a couple minutes.” Nadya confirmed, “Thanks mom.”

Her mother gave her a smile and squeezed her upper arm as she walked past us to go back down the stairs. As soon as her mother was out of sight, Nadya looked at me with deep regret. She must not have thought they would just offer up her brother’s room so easily, even in his absence. I simply shook my head with a small smile to ease her worry and made my way to the room Winona had motioned towards as Nadya reluctantly disappeared into her own room.

While I have never met Ruben, his stench still made me want to retch. There wasn’t anything objectively bad about it, I suppose, but it was so heavily ingrained into his room and all I could picture was his grin in that photo with Nadya. All I could imagine was that story about her confronting him for the first time in this very room and him nearly strangling her to death because of it. I eyed every wall, thinking, Was that where he shoved her? Where he threatened to take her life?

I did not want to touch a single thing, didn’t even want to set my duffle bag on the neatly made bed. The only thing I could do was stand in the center of the room and silently seethe. After a few long moments of trying to calm myself down, I just dropped my bag on the floor where I was standing, kneeling down to retrieve the weapon I had stashed inside of it.

“I’m sorry.” Nadya suddenly said behind me, causing me to look over my shoulder at her standing in the doorway, “I thought maybe they would let us stay in the same room or something. Guess this isn’t really like a high school sleepover…”

“It’s not your fault, Nadya.” I assured her quietly, focusing back on rifling through my bag, “It’s not like I’m actually gonna sleep in here anyway.”

“Still… you shouldn’t have to be in here.”

I looked behind me at her again, this time in shock. After a couple of confused blinks, I retrieved my gun, tucking it into my waistband to conceal it, and stood, “You shouldn’t have to be in here.” I corrected, walking over to her and gently leading her away from the room with my hand on her back, “You shouldn’t ever have to set foot in that room again.”

“I’m fine, Jay.” Nadya told me.

Surprisingly, her tone didn’t suggest otherwise, “So am I. Don’t worry about me.”

“Says the girl with the gun hidden in her pants.” She countered with a lighthearted grin.

I matched her expression, “Exactly.”

As soon as we arrived back in the living room, Richard spoke up, “Have you ever been to the city, Jayde?”

“You mean San Francisco?” I assumed and he nodded, “I can’t say that I have.”

“Perfect. I know an excellent deem sum place.” He didn’t wait for the others to approve before he retrieved a coat and made his way towards the front door, “Maybe we can even show you around a little afterwards, since you’ve never been.”

“That sounds great.” I agreed amicably, “Should we drive together or separately?”

“Oh, together.” Richard answered, like that should have been the most obvious thing, “You never want to take more than one car into the city if you can help it.”

“That congested, huh?”

“Some days it’s worse.”

“That’s usually why I try to avoid highly populated areas.” Too many people meant too much traffic, too much traffic meant no easy escape routes, no easy escape routes meant capture or death. I usually avoided big cities at all costs for this very reason, but surely I could convincingly act like a human for a few hours with Nadya’s family. I doubted San Francisco will be teeming with hunters.

He chuckled, “Very smart of you.”

I glanced at Nadya while we were walking out the door as if to say, Did you see? I can get along! Her response was an amused, yet encouraging, smile.

Richard owned a very well kept Cadillac. There wasn’t a single scratch on the black paint, its surface so spotless that its reflections were crystal clear, and the interior smelled of fine leather, which was more comforting than I expected it to be. Nadya sat next to me in the back with both her parents in front, making me feel better to be so close to her.

Most of the car ride was spent in a silence that wasn’t exactly comfortable. The closer we got to the cluster of tall buildings in the distance, the more tense my body became. I ran through all kinds of different scenarios, ranging from me completely blowing this entire visit to being jumped by hunters and having to figure out a way to get Nadya and her family to safety. The skyscrapers looming on the approaching horizon was a sight to behold for sure, but all I could see was a death trap.

As I was lost in my own anxious thoughts, I felt the barest brush against my pinky finger. I risked a quick glance at my hand that was resting on the seat in between me and Nadya to see her pinky subtly reaching for mine. When my glance traveled up to her face, she was silently staring out of her window, giving no indication that she was doing such a thing, besides the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

The small touch was significant in calming my nerves. I wanted nothing more than to take her hand in mine and pull her close, but I settled for sticking my finger out to caress her back in recognition. We were able to stay like that for a while, until we entered the city itself and Richard finally spoke up again, yanking me out of Nadya’s orbit.

“There are lots of amazing places to eat in the city, I have a few favorites to stop by on my lunch breaks, but we only go to this restaurant for special occasions.”

The sound of his voice made me reflexively pull my hand away from Nadya’s, but I was certain he didn’t notice. “You work in the city?”

“Yes, at my family's dentistry.” He answered while navigating the narrow streets, “What do you do for work, Jayde?”

I expected this to be a question, but I still struggled with an answer that wouldn’t give too much away. All of the overwhelming noises of the city outside weren’t helping, “Um, well, I’m a security guard of sorts.”

“A security guard, huh? What do you guard?”

“If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.” I replied humorously in hopes to deflect on the topic and I was relieved to hear some amused laughs.

“Sounds like you’re bound by an NDA.” Richard mused.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“You’re gonna love this place we’re going to, Jay.” Nadya spoke, changing the subject, much to my relief, “The food is so delicious and there’s an amazing waterfall indoors.”

“Yes, it’s the perfect place to bring someone you want to impress.” Winona added, casting a smile over her shoulder at me and Nadya.

Maybe it was mostly meant in jest, but I couldn’t help feeling a little encouraged by it, “Speaking of impressing people, I hope you guys don’t mind me cooking dinner for you tonight.”

“Oh, you cook?” Winona asked excitedly.

“She’s an amazing cook,” Nadya jumped in with the same amount of enthusiasm, “She put together this beautiful dinner for our first- uh, for the first time we hung out together as friends. It was over a campfire and she cooked for everyone that was there. It had to be the best meal I’ve ever had.”

Winona thankfully didn’t seem to catch Nadya stumbling over her words and nearly mentioning our first date. Instead, she looked impressed by her daughter’s praise for my talent, “Wow. In that case, I can’t wait to taste what you have planned for us.”

“I hope you’ll enjoy it.”

Richard announced our arrival when the car came to a stop in front of one of the seemingly endless tall buildings in this city. I reluctantly got out of the car and tried not to get vertigo from looking up at the gargantuan structures all around me. The one we were about to enter wasn’t the largest one by far- actually, its size could be deemed modest compared to the others, but it still stretched several stories up, apart from a couple of wings branching off that only appeared to be about five stories.

I hadn’t realized how much the inside of the car shielded me from the cacophony of sounds and smells that assaulted my senses. Car engines, sirens, crowds, all flooded my hearing. There were far too many scents to name, almost all of them terrible enough to taste on my tongue, but I hung on to the ones that didn’t make me want to cover my mouth and nose to avoid gagging. Like the scents of restaurants serving food carrying through the wind. And the comforting scent of Nadya as she inched closer to me.

I met her gaze to see her studying me with a concerned frown. The corners of my mouth perked up to reassure her that I was okay. It was only a little overwhelming. I’d get used to it eventually.

We followed her parents into one of the shorter wings of the center and my line of sight was immediately drawn to the impressive glass ceiling. It rose up as high as the building, letting massive rays of light pour in and reflect off of the spotless tiled floor. It made the entire interior of the building look incredibly open and lively, almost like we were outside and not confined to a space. Then I noticed a square in the glass ceiling that was dropping a waterfall down into the center of everything, a glittering shower that looked enchanting in its own right.

I couldn’t hold back a grin at how beautiful this was. It calmed whatever anxiety was lingering in my head. “Wow…” I mumbled as I continued to stare.

Nadya playfully bumped my shoulder with hers, “Pretty cool, huh?”

“I see why you would bring people here to impress them.” I agreed with a nod.

“Wait until you taste the food.” Richard said with a proud look on his face.

The four of us sat at a table close enough to the waterfall that I could feel the occasional spray of mist on my arm. The food itself was well deserving of all the praise it had been given, every bite was as fulfilling as the last and I soon found my plate becoming empty. Small talk was the only kind of discussion around the table and I was trying my hardest to maintain a pleasant face despite the fact that it was starting to get unbearably tedious. That is, until a particular question from Richard made the remnants of my food suddenly inedible.

“So, Jayde, what does your family do?”

My jaw clenched for a moment as I reached for my glass of water, “My sister is a computer technician.”

“And your parents?” He pressed curiously.

“Dad,” Nadya said in a soft warning tone.

“It’s okay.” I told Nadya and cleared my throat before addressing her father, “They passed a long time ago.”

“Oh.” Was all he said, though he looked slightly embarrassed.

“That’s terrible.” Winona sounded more empathic, her hand coming up to her chest, “What happened?”

“An accident. I was sixteen.” I answered curtly.

Her head shook, “I’m so sorry for your loss, I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you.”

You have no idea, I wanted to say sarcastically, but bit my tongue, “It was hard, but it was also a long time ago.”

“The accident… Is that where…?” Richard pointed at his own face, around the areas where I had scars on mine.

“Some of them, yes.” I answered truthfully.

“Some of them?”

“Jayde was in another accident.” Nadya chimed in quickly, “That’s how we met. I was treating her at the hospital.”

Richard’s eyebrows raised in surprise and he looked back at me, “You don’t have much luck with cars, it seems.”

“More like I don’t have much luck with people.” I corrected him with a smug grin, “I’m actually pretty handy with cars.”

“Are you?” He asked in a patronizing tone.

My eyes narrowed slightly, “I was an apprentice to a mechanic for about six months a few years ago. I was in that shop all day, every day, and he taught me everything personally. I even still have the bike he gave me and I take care of it as well as the people you pay to take care of your Cadillac.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed back at me for a few long moments. I could tell he was trying to make me back down for the snide comment, but I held my ground and didn’t break eye contact. Just when I thought the tension had grown too thick, he let out a laugh. It still sounded a bit strained, but it lightened the mood once more.

“Well, maybe I’ll ask you for some pointers then.”

I bared my teeth in what could barely pass as a smile, “I’d gladly give them.”

Then Richard directed his attention to his daughter, “Since you mentioned it, Nadya, how are things going at the hospital? At school?”

The sudden change in topic caught Nadya completely off guard. She had been so focused on covering for me that she must not have predicted that this question would arise, at least not here, because I was fairly sure that her father knew she was no longer attending school in person or working at the hospital. His tone and expression, one of a scolding parent, confirmed that suspicion.

Nadya slowly sat up straight, her whole body frozen, and her mouth hung open as she tried to form words, “Uh, well, things have changed a bit…”

I shot Richard a contempt glare for making Nadya uncomfortable, but it was like I no longer existed to him in this moment. He was only focused on his daughter, staring her down for an explanation. Why he chose to confront her here in a public place, and in front of me, was even more puzzling. The only reason I could think of was public humiliation as a form of punishment. That thought made a quiet growl rumble at the back of my throat.

“I’ve noticed.” He said with a flat smile.

“Richard…” Winona pleaded under her breath.

He didn’t take his eyes off of Nadya, “She knows how much I’ve invested to get her into that school. To help her pay rent, utilities, whatever she needs. And suddenly she’s no longer there anymore?”

“I’m still going to school, Dad. I’m still learning.” Nadya’s leg started to bounce with nerves underneath the table, “Listen, I got an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. It’s a doctors without borders program and I’m helping people that really need it. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do… but I had to leave to do it.”

“It’s true, I’ve been with her the whole time.” I couldn’t stand by and leave Nadya fumbling to defend herself. I absolutely hated the way Richard was looking at her, the way he was making her feel with the overbearing posture he was exuding, “When she isn’t working, she’s studying. No one works harder than your daughter.”

After a brief glance at me, he continued his interrogation, “How come you didn’t talk to me about it first?”

“It was a last minute thing. I felt like I could make that decision for myself.” Nadya answered with a more confident tone, though her anxiety still pulsed off of her with every heavy heartbeat.

Just then, a waiter arrived to clear any empty plates. The momentary distraction allowed me the time to reach under the table and place a comforting hand on Nadya’s thigh without getting caught. I brushed my thumb across her leg a few times and felt relieved when the bouncing stilled under my touch, her body relaxing. Her hand came to rest on top of mine, but then the waiter left with a stack full of dishes and I forced myself to pull away from her before her parents could notice anything. Even though every cell in my body screamed against it, I couldn’t risk outing Nadya before she was ready.

“We’ll talk about this more at home.” Richard stated as he motioned for the check.

I didn’t even bother to hide my eye roll. It took more than a little will power not to snap at him. Just because Richard was her father, didn’t mean he could speak to her like she was a disobeying child. Especially when it wasn’t Nadya’s fault that she had to leave school. It was mine. Realizing that I was witnessing one of the consequences to dragging Nadya into my life made my shoulders start to slump in shame. I wanted to redirect Richard’s ire away from Nadya and towards me more than anything.

I tried to distract myself with some of the sights we ended up driving through, it was a beautiful city after all. All of the colorful houses and overly steep hills were something whimsical and unique to see, everything so mismatched, but it surprisingly fit cohesively. I listened patiently as I was told about this place or that, appreciating the history involved and nodding along like an eager student. Despite being such a large and crowded city, San Francisco had a handful of peaceful looking spots where you could pretend you weren’t in a concrete jungle.

One place in particular, that we visited at Nadya’s request, looked like something plucked straight out of ancient Rome. A small artificial lagoon surrounded a massive dome structure, flanked by Roman style columns and trees dotted here and there to make it look like it had sprung up in the middle of a forest. The lagoon reflected the whole scene like a mirror, giving the illusion of two separate worlds being connected at the edge of the water. Small clusters of tourists followed a trail around the lagoon that even went under the dome and I wanted to see it up close just like they were.

I followed Nadya and her parents as they led me down that path, feeling more at ease with the scents of a tiny piece of nature. I could see why Nadya wanted to show me this place. It was gorgeous, and I soon found myself getting so enthralled by everything that I was lagging behind a bit to appreciate it all at my own pace.

Then we arrived at the central rotunda. The underside of the dome was the most notable. It stretched well over a hundred feet up, the design reminding me of a honeycomb, and the acoustics echoed voices and footsteps in a way that almost gave me the urge to sing. The dome itself was held up by several columns, each had a statue of an angel of some sort perched on top and looking down at the witnesses to their beauty.

I must have looked like a little kid, staring straight up with an expression of awe as I slowly shuffled around underneath the massive work of art. This was worth coming into the congestion of a big city to see. The only thing that pulled me out of it was the sound of a camera shutter. My gaze shot back down to look for the source and I saw Nadya giving me a sheepish smile after she lowered her camera. I hadn’t even known she had it, but I suppose she secretly stashed it in her shoulder bag the same way I secretly stashed a gun in my waistband.

“I couldn’t resist.” she stated in her defense.

“I don’t mind.” I told her with a beaming grin and looked back up at the dome before quietly saying, “It’s a bit romantic, isn’t it?”

She nodded, “That’s why it’s my favorite place in the city.”

“I’m glad I got to see it.”

“Me too.” Nadya stepped closer to me, filling all of my senses with her presence, and then I felt her fingers lace with mine.

My eyes darted around in case her parents were nearby. They weren’t anywhere to be found, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t suddenly appear from around a corner.

“They went back to the car.” She told me, “They’ve seen this place about a thousand times already.”

Her words filled me with relief, finally allowing me to enjoy some bit of contact with her. I didn’t know how anyone could ever get sick of a sight like this, but I was grateful for their absence nonetheless, “Good.”

“Thank you, by the way,” Nadya said, caressing her thumb over the back of my hand. When I gave her a look in question, she elaborated, “For what you said at lunch. I was worried he wasn’t going to believe me.”

My hand squeezed hers protectively, “I hated the way he was talking to you.”

“I understand where he’s coming from though.” She gave me a sad smile, “He’s done a lot for me and it’s like I just up and left.”

“But that wasn’t your fault at all.” I pointed out.

“No,” Nadya agreed with a shake of her head, “But we can’t exactly tell him that without explaining why. And that isn’t an option.” When that made the weight of my guilt feel heavier, she gave my hand a gentle shake, “Hey, I can handle this. I promise.”

“I know you can, Nadya.” I said fondly.

She looked at me in adoration, the warmth in her brown eyes nearly glittering with the love she had for me, and I felt my heart swell. Suddenly nothing, not even the impressive architecture around us, couldn’t compare to how gorgeous she was. I would be content to stare at her for the rest of the day, everything else be damned.

Then Nadya took me by surprise yet again when she leaned in to press a kiss to my lips. The incredibly bold action made my muscles freeze up, but I was soon soothed by the familiar feeling and had to fight with every fiber of my being not to deepen it. It was over far too quickly, but it would have been too risky if we had indulged ourselves any more than that.

Nadya pulled back and looked at me, her expression becoming smug and amused, “I thought I told you not to look at me like that.”

“You’re killing me.”

She bit her lip playfully, bringing my hand up to plant another peck on my skin, and then backed away from me until our contact was severed. My chest pinched, but the smile on her face kept it from stinging too terribly, “Let’s get back.”

I was less uncomfortable when the awkward silence in the car returned because the butterflies in my stomach were still fluttering like crazy from the brief kiss Nadya gave me under the giant rotunda. Actually, I was glad to not have to engage in many words, for my mind to be free to replay the memory over and over. I couldn’t wait to hold her tonight when I planned to sneak into her room.

By the time we returned to the Bishops’ house, the sun was starting its descent into the horizon. I could also sense the growing tension in the family, understanding full well that Richard planned to confront his daughter yet again while I was occupied with cooking the dinner I had promised. No part of me wanted to leave Nadya alone to that, but she gave me a confident nod after I hesitated to exit the living room. After a few moments of a fleeting glance between us, I disappeared to the back of the house.

As time went on, being alone in the kitchen and watching over our cooking dinner while Nadya talked with her parents in the living room started making me more and more uneasy. But then I remembered her insistence that she could handle it. I believed her when she said that, but it just didn’t feel right not being by her side. At least I could distract myself with cooking. My role as chef tonight was one of the few things I was comfortable with.

The back door to the house came into the kitchen and it suddenly opened. My first instinct was to tense for an attack, reach for the gun that I had stupidly hid back in my bag upstairs, but I quickly calmed myself at the casual movements of the man entering the house. An intruder wouldn’t come into a home like he lived in it.

The young man was probably a few years older than me and I heard the clinking of dog tags around his neck. Military. When he saw me, we sized each other up curiously. There was something familiar about his features that wasn’t easy to place right away. After a moment, I realized that I recognized the face. I had seen a younger version of it in a picture on the mantle above the fireplace. A large and dark pit formed in my stomach when it finally clicked, swirling like an abyss, waiting to claim a victim. This was Nadya’s brother. Everything that she told me about him came back into my mind with a rush of blood and the blackness of the pit turned into roiling fire.

“Oh,” Ruben said, sounding disinterested, “You’re the friend.”

“I didn’t know you were going to be here.” I replied, grinding my teeth and desperately trying to keep my rage under control.

He shrugged with an infuriating smirk, “Don’t feel too bad, I didn’t tell anyone. I heard my kid sister was coming home and I just had to surprise her.”

Ruben’s words utterly disgusted me. I was certain he knew damn well that Nadya would be terrified to know that he was here. The sickening smile on his face made it obvious that he took pleasure in that. That’s when I noticed something slightly odd about him, besides the obvious. He certainly shared a lot of resemblance to Richard, but there was very little of Nadya and hardly anything resembling Winona. Where Nadya’s brown eyes were warm and comforting, his blue ones were cold and cruel. Where Winona’s face was calm and inviting, his was calculating and standoffish.

I listened for the family a few rooms away. They remained deep in conversation and were most likely oblivious to Ruben’s presence. There was still time to kick his ass out.

“I don’t think she would enjoy that.” I said, turning to face him completely. “Maybe you should leave.” My expression let him know that it wasn’t a suggestion.

Ruben’s eyes narrowed as he studied me for a few seconds. Then he scoffed, “What did she tell you?”

“Nothing.” I continued to stare him down, “I just know a douche when I see one.”

His lip twitched in anger and he took an aggressive step towards me. Ruben’s eyes sparkled with cruelty. It was the polar opposite of what I had grown to love in Nadya’s eyes, that sparkle being something I’ve never seen even a hint of in her. He couldn’t even outwardly hide his intentions for the world and it was shocking to think that someone so closely related to her could be this much of an asshole. Just standing this close to him, feeling the bad energy he exuded, made wolf under my skin bristle.

His body language practically oozed arrogance. “Nadya is a little confused about some things. She’s messed up in the head. Maybe think about that before you believe every dramatic story she tells you.”

My fury spiked when he mentioned her name, his words wearing what little patience I had even thinner. “This is the last time I’ll say it. You need to leave.”

Ruben’s grin was both chilling and enraging. “This is my house. The only way you’re getting me out of here is if you make a huge scene and something tells me you don’t wanna do that.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. I didn’t know him enough to tell if he was bluffing or not, but my instincts told me he was serious. If a scene broke out, then that would ruin everything Nadya was trying so hard to mend, putting her in more stress. On the other hand, Ruben would force her to relive the trauma that she thought she escaped. I wasn’t sure which option was worse for her right now. If Ruben had to stay, then I could protect her from him. As long as I’m here, he wouldn’t get anywhere near her.

The moment of silence ended with me swiftly wrapping my hand around Ruben’s throat and shoving him against the pantry. I held back slightly so the impact he made against the cupboard wouldn’t alert the others. My hand squeezed and a huge part of me just wanted to break his goddamn neck right here and now. Everyone would be a lot better off. But then I would have a body to deal with. Not to mention, I would have killed Nadya’s parents’ son right under their roof. Doesn’t really make the best first impression.

“Listen to me,” I growled, low and menacing, right in his face, “You stay as far away from her as possible. You don’t look at her. You don’t talk to her. Matter of fact, she no longer exists to you anymore.” Each slow word I spoke was dripping with all the rage I felt towards him. “If you break any of these rules, I will kill you. Do you understand me?”

The sudden fear I smelled coming off of him nearly threw my wolf into a frenzy. This pathetic thing in my grasp was weak and all I had was hatred for it. I wanted to rip him apart for everything that he did to her. I wanted to squeeze the life out of him and watch that cruel light of his flicker out. The last time I wanted to kill someone this badly was when I watched my father die. Raw fury made my skin tingle, my body shake, and I could tell my eyes began to shine, but I didn’t care as long as it got my point across.

Ruben’s horrified expression took me in. He didn’t react to my words in any other way, so I shook him roughly, “Do you understand me?”

When I saw him struggle to nod, I released my grip. Ruben scrambled away from me, desperately gasping for breath. Maybe I’d get lucky and that would scare him enough to run. “What the fuck are you?”

“Your worst nightmare.” I answered and turned back to cooking dinner. As soon as I let him go, I felt my eyes fade back to their usual color. Regaining my control, yet still feeling the burning rage within me.

“I’ll tell them-”

“Tell them what?” I cut him off with a dangerous look. “Nobody will believe a damn word out of your mouth.”

Ruben stood staring at me for what felt like minutes. No doubt trying to calculate exactly how many choices he had in this moment. My hard, unwavering glare reminded him that he didn’t have many if he wanted to come out of this in one piece. I may not kill him tonight, but every bone in my body, every instinct and impulse I had, wanted me to end his worthless life. Ruben’s days were numbered.

The moment passed with him unable to come up with anything to say or do other than try to move past me. I immediately knew I couldn’t let Nadya see him before I got the chance to warn her. My hand reached out, grabbing a fistful of his shirt to stop him in his tracks, “Go outside and come in through the front door.” I ordered, shoving him backwards. He scowled at me, but did as I commanded.

As soon as Ruben went out the back door, I moved out of the kitchen and made my way to the living room. Nadya was still talking with her parents. A part of me felt bad for interrupting, but I had no choice. “Nadya, can you come help me with dinner for a minute?”

Nadya must have seen something in my expression that caused her to give me an odd look. Thankfully, her parents seemed oblivious. “Be right back.” Nadya told them and got up from the couch to follow me.

Once we were in the kitchen, Nadya asked, “Is everything okay?”

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair, turning to her and reaching to hold her hands in mine. “I want you to know that if we were anywhere else besides here, I wouldn’t have let this happen. And I am so sorry.”

“Okay, now you’re freaking me out.” she replied hesitantly.

“Ruben is here.”

All the color drained from her face as her expression went blank. “He, um… he’s supposed to be overseas.” Nadya’s voice was hollow.

I gently raised my hands to cup her face. “Listen to me.” I said softly. I might’ve even felt her temperature drop. Her eyes were bright with fear. “You are safe. I’m here and I will not let him do anything to you, okay? You just say the word and we’ll come up with an excuse to leave.”

Nadya gripped my forearms tightly and shut her eyes. She stayed like that for a full minute while she controlled her breathing. Thinking that my presence was helping, I rested my forehead against hers to let her know I wasn’t going anywhere.

“We can go.” I eventually said again. “We should go.”

“No,” Nadya shook her head, leaning back to look at me. “No, I can’t leave yet. Just- please stay close to me.”

“I won’t leave you while he’s here.” I promised.

Dinner was almost ready, so Nadya stayed with me until it was finished. I waited and listened, but it was almost ten minutes before I heard the front door open and close. Who knows why it took Ruben so long to just walk around the house. It made me nervous. I started thinking of ways to sneak upstairs for my gun.

“Did you talk to him?” Nadya asked quietly.

I nodded, “Tried to get him to leave, but he wouldn’t without making a scene. He’ll behave though. I made sure of it.”

“You don’t know him.” She warned.

“Well, I threatened to kill him, so,” I shrugged, plating some of our dinner.

“You did what?”

Her outright shock surprised me. I thought that would make her feel better. “I told him to stay away from you or I’d kill him.”

“Why would you say that?” Nadya’s voice became a frantic whisper, “You don’t know what Ruben is capable of when he’s pissed off.”

“Nadya, I can handle him. I didn’t just piss him off, he’s afraid of me. I doubt he’ll try anything.” Ruben likes to prey on people that he thinks are weak. He didn’t scare me, therefore he had no power over me. In time, Nadya will learn that she is more powerful than he ever was, but until then, I could deal with him to protect her.

“Jayde, don’t underestimate him.”

She was still staring at me with a mixture of disbelief and fear when we heard her mother call to us, “Nadya! Your brother is here, come say hi!”

Nadya finally tore her gaze from me, grabbing my shirt sleeve and tugging at it to get me to follow her. I couldn’t hold her hand, or put an arm around her, or even stand too close while we were here, but I wouldn’t leave her side. Hopefully my presence will keep Ruben in check. As much as I wanted to kill him, I didn’t want it to be tonight. But he had to know I meant it or he would never take me seriously and that was dangerous.

We got into the living room and as soon as Ruben saw me, he took a subtle step back. Good. Remember your place.

“Look who wanted to surprise us.” Winona said pleasantly.

“Wasn’t expecting you.” Nadya forced her fear down rather convincingly, though I could still smell it all over her. I guess she knew how to suppress it around her parents. Years of practice being under Ruben’s threats conditioned her.

The rage started to boil up again, making my skin tingle. I took a deep breath to settle my fury, making sure to keep my eyes down as much as possible. It was one thing to show some of my true nature in front of Ruben as a scare tactic, but I wasn’t sure their parents would react well to my eyes glowing.

Ruben addressed his parents even though he made it sound like he was answering Nadya. “Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve been home.”

“What a nice time for you to come visit.” Winona mused, “How'd you get the time off?”

I’d had about enough with the pleasantries. “Dinner’s ready.”

“Oh,” Richard chimed in like he had forgotten that I was there. “This is your sister’s friend, Jayde.”

I stepped forward and reached my hand out to shake with Ruben. He looked at me warily, but accepted my handshake. I gripped his hand hard enough that he had to suppress a wince. It was another reminder of what I told him, but instead of cowering like I expected, Ruben’s eyes burned and he squeezed back with all his might. The human’s strength hardly even registered, so all I did was smirk.

“Nice meeting you.” I told him coldly and he nodded.

All throughout dinner, I could feel how scared Nadya was sitting beside me. Even placing myself between her and Ruben did little to relieve her anxiety, it lingered in the air around her like a thick invisible cloud. Knowing and feeling what she was going through certainly made me lose any appetite I had. I wanted to reach under the table and place a comforting hand on her thigh like I did at lunch, but there were no easy distractions to hide behind. The best I could do was a subtle bump of my elbow to hers, hoping that reminding her of my presence would help. Nadya bumped me back in recognition.

I could also feel Ruben’s growing fury while we ate. Every few minutes I would throw a glare in his direction, but his jaw was set in such a tight clench that I was anticipating the sound of his teeth breaking any minute. Winona and Richard didn’t seem at all concerned with Ruben, despite him not bothering to hide the mood he was in, and I recalled that Nadya told me what an angry kid he was when they were growing up. This kind of behavior was normal to their parents. Which just made me angrier. I should’ve just killed him.

I couldn’t even focus on the conversations happening at the table. Richard and Winona praised me for the food I made and that was all I reacted to, giving them short responses to loosen my clenched jaw. It was so obvious that Ruben wanted to test the boundaries that I set for him. I was silently warning him not to, but the guy was just too fucking stupid and arrogant.

Towards the end of dinner, Ruben stood up, “I’m gonna go for a smoke break.” He announced, coming around to our side of the table, walking behind me, and placed a hand on Nadya’s shoulder. The pat was swift, and even gentle, but Nadya still froze like a statue under his touch. Then he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I’m happy you’re here, Nadya.” before continuing on his way.

Every cell in me ignited with a fire that burned hot enough to frighten me. Every muscle had suddenly tensed to the snapping point. I actually started to see red and immediately looked down because I knew my eyes were definitely shining.

No way. No fucking way was he getting away with that.

“Excuse me.” I growled, getting up a little more aggressively than I intended, causing the chair to screech backwards loudly.

“Jay,” Nadya started, but I was already gone.

Ruben wasn’t out back, but I caught his putrid scent. It led down the neighborhood, behind all the houses. I followed it. He was smart enough to know there was going to be repercussions for what he did and I was smart enough to know that he was probably setting a trap of some kind. I didn’t give a single shit. Didn’t even care that I hadn’t gone upstairs to retrieve my gun first. As soon as I saw him, I was going to beat him to death. Ruben couldn’t stop me no matter what he had planned.

In his bad attempt at an ambush, I found him pressed up against the side of a garage behind one of the empty houses on this street, tucked in the shadows. My hands gripped his shirt before he could react and I pulled him away from the brick wall only to slam him against it with enough force that must have cracked his skull. Not enough to kill him or knock him out. I wanted to take a little bit of time with this. Ruben grunted, just barely keeping his footing. As I held him up and pulled a fist back to smash his face in, I heard a click.

The barrel of a handgun was resting on my chest. “Not expecting this, huh?”

I stared down at it, then back up as his smug face. There was a moment of silence and I scoffed at him. My hand quickly snatched the wrist holding the gun, slowly forcing the barrel up towards the sky, and I squeezed with all my strength. The iron vice I had on Ruben was too tight to allow him to pull the trigger. After a moment, with even more unrelenting force applied while he was struggling against me, I heard and felt a pop in his wrist. Ruben let out a cry in pain and had no choice but to release his weapon. The gun clattered on the ground and I tore him off the wall again, shoving him into the alley hard enough that he fell.

“Not expecting that, huh?” I mimicked his tone. Leaning down, I picked up the gun. Ejecting the cartridge and the loaded bullet, tossing them all in different directions. Ruben didn’t deserve a quick death. “What did I say to you?” My rage was still prevalent. Bad enough that I started to feel some of my bones shift. I was dangerously close to turning. I haven’t been this close to losing control since my first few full moons.

Ruben sat before me, clutching his wrist and looking pissed as ever. “You’re not gonna kill me.”

“I am.” My growl sounded.

“Jayde!” Nadya appeared, breathing heavily and scrambling to place herself between me and Ruben. “Jayde, don’t do this!”

I stared at her, completely dumbfounded. “What are you doing?”

“Whatever it is you’re about to do, I am begging you not to.” She held a hand out like she was prepared to physically stop me if she had to, her eyes were so frantic and terrified that all I could do was stare at her blankly. Seeing that I was distracted, Nadya looked over her shoulder. “Go.” She ordered Ruben. He went to say something, but she wouldn’t let him. “Just go!”

Ruben hesitated for another moment, but shot up and stumbled away. I continued to stare at Nadya. Not understanding. It was jarring enough that my anger started to fade, allowing me the control I nearly lost. “Why did you do that?”

“He’s my brother, Jayde.” It didn’t even sound like it was Nadya who said that.

“What?” I said in disbelief, “He’s your abuser. He put his hands on you right in front of me after I told him not to!”

“This isn’t as black and white as ‘he’s the bad guy and needs to die’, Jayde!” She was trying to keep her voice down so no one would be alerted by our argument. “Think about the consequences!”

“I did!”

“No, you clearly didn’t!” Nadya took a deep breath, frustrated tears running down her cheeks. “I appreciate you trying to protect me, but you just almost murdered my brother in the neighborhood we grew up in, four houses from where our parents are wondering what the hell is going on. Don’t you get it?”

It made my stomach flip every time she called Ruben her brother. I didn’t know how she could claim him like that, but I understood what she was saying. My rage got the better of me. The timing couldn’t have been worse and I played right into Ruben’s scheme. I relented with a loud, groaning sigh. “I get it. I don’t really agree, but I get it.”

“That’s fine. Just think more, okay?” I nodded and Nadya moved closer to me, placing one hand on my shoulder while the other cupped underneath my jaw. “Now, are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

“No.” I reassured her as she was inspecting my face, “He can’t fight for shit.”

“He also holds grudges.” She warned, dropping her arms.

I rolled my eyes at the ridiculous concept of Ruben being a formidable enemy, “He doesn’t scare me.”

A small, sad smile came across her lips. “That makes one of us.”

My heart seized and I looked at her regretfully, “I’m sorry I didn’t stop it.”

“What could you have done without making a scene?” Nadya pointed out to make me feel better. It didn’t. “It’s okay, he’s done worse.”

That definitely didn’t make me feel better. I pulled her in for a hug and Nadya eagerly accepted it. I shut my eyes and held her as tightly as she held me. Her scent and her warmth calmed my restless and vengeful wolf, soothing what remained of my rage. Finally, I felt her body relax and melt against mine as she buried her face in my neck. I continued to hold her for as long as she needed to remind her that I was here and she was safe.

Nadya reluctantly disentangled herself from me and wiped at her stray tears. “Come on, we gotta go explain to my parent’s that you had a reaction to an ingredient in the food or something.”

“Okay.” I said with a sigh and followed her back to the house.

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tonystarkbingo · 4 years

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Tony Stark Bingo Party Prompt Meme

http://generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=25057 -- we took tags from this random generator and then made up more detailed prompts from them. These prompts are open use, even if you’re not participating in the bingo, but please tag us if you write one, we’d LOVE to see what you did with it! nonsense + everyone is gay + denial : Tony+harem - Tony, while an incorrigible flirt, does not believe that anyone actually likes him, let alone as many as do. They come up with increasingly ridiculous ideas to ask him out or at least let him know they like him, while he innocently thinks they're all just such awesome friends superpowers + bodice-ripper + sad Stuckony - something set in the Regency(ish) era but with secret superpowers as an added bonus. Let’s of angst over trying to hide their secret powers, and wanting to save people without revealing themselves and also cause they’re gay. clones + nighttime + wishes Coulson/Strange (StrangeAgent? AgentStrange? DrAgent?) - Coulson ends up spending the night in the NY Sanctum. Some of the artifacts happen to be particularly sensitive to subconscious fantasies... and isn't it lucky that cloning himself happens to be one of Strange's powers? cruising + flashbacks + bad boys Winteriron possible future Stuckony - small warning for drinking mention - Tony is driving around to distract himself so he doesn't get drunk. He gets in an accident because he is not actually in a state to drive. The accident is comparatively harmless, the flashback to his convoy being attacked in Afghanistan is less so. When Tony wakes up in the hospital he learns that the person who dragged him from his car to safety is one James "Bucky" Barnes, resident motorbike riding bad boy heartthrob and friend/visitor of Steve "regular ER customer" Rogers, who's his hospital roommate. room service + lifeguards + sharing Tony is a lifeguard who takes his job very seriously. He's attending a convention-slash-training seminar at a posh uptown hotel, but then there's a knock at the door. He opens it to find two room service carts, both with order slips on them that indicate they're actually destined for another room. Rather than call the obviously harried and beleaguered bellboy back, he pushes them down the hall himself and knocks on the door... which is answered by none other than the hot beefcake fellow-lifeguard that's been distracting Tony all day. They end up sharing the enormous amount of food... and then maybe some more. :wink: overthinking + pity sex + customer service Tony just turned 40, he's been friends with Bucky and Nat for forever, and they'd been each other's marriage backups for the longest time, like, if they weren't married at 40, they'd marry whoever wasn't married either in their little trio. Only, two years prior, Buckynat became husband and wife and so he's having a little pity party on his floor at the Tower, drinking virgin mojitos and seriously consider a particular customer service to cheer himself up in one way or another - might as well get an orgasm, as shitty and sad as it may be, it's his birthday ffs - but then Bucky and Nat appear in his elevator, and they pull him off the couch he's been sprawled on for three hours, and Nat is the first to kiss him, and he's too stunned to react much but when he does question wtf is happening, Bucky shushes him and Tony lets him. The next morning he is evidently convinced it was all just pity sex, or a kink of theirs or whatever.... certainly nothing to do with the fact that they've been courting him forever and got tired of waiting for him to step out of ObliviousStarklandia. Of course not. wolves + romantic friendship + wigs Okay, so, someone has been doing an excellent job of hiding his baldness from someone else, with whom he's been in a long term best-friends-but-in-love not-quite-relationship. He's got an elaborate series of wigs, and over the years he's gradually been replacing them with slightly more grey ones so that someone else doesn't realise. Aaaand then someone gets bitten by a werewolf, and when he shifts for the first time he is completely bald and the secret is out. accidental relationship + butt dialing + warlocks Tony Stark is not happy with today's mission, not like there's an occasion to enjoy dealing with magic. But now he's in a relationship with Bucky, which is not bad, that man is gorgeous, but this is not the way. He's ranting about it to Jarvis and doesn't realize that he sat on his phone nor that he dialed the other supersoldier in the team until he hears a muffled laugh beneath him. He's going to kill that warlock smuggling + fear + road-trip okay, a Star Wars AU. Farmboy Peter is fleeing from stormtroopers who found out his parents were Jedi. He runs into smuggler Tony and they take off in Tony's ship for an extended road trip in space. possession + loving marriage + gardens & gardening Pepperony, Morgan insists there's a spirit possessing the garden because she's seen the plants dancing. Turns out they've accidentally created sentient plants and Tony is like nope, call somebody else, I do mechanical engineering and they call Dr. Cho to fix it. The marriage is in there somewhere I promise idiots in love + bonding + resurrection Ironhawk - Clint tries to get Lucky back after he goes over the rainbow bridge, but he can’t actually read latin and ends up bringing back Tony from the 18th century. And poor Tony gets Clint as his guide to the 21st. Shenanigans and eventual fluffy ending improv + cultural appropriation + shield maidens After the Battle of New York, Tony's interviewing Thor about Asguardian tech and learns that they have all kinds of shielding devices, and gets interested in trying to replicate what Thor describes just in case aliens decide to pay a call on Earth again. Thor, for his part, is kinda shocked that Earth doesn't have any such shields, though on the other hand it is Midguard, so. You know. Tony gives it a shot and a couple weeks later he's launching the satellites into orbit for a preliminary test of the shields. He intends to test them with SI tech developed from seized Chitauri tech, but before he can get the chance an alien army shows up, guns blazing and very mad about something. The shields hold, thankfully, and the aliens send a strongly worded letter informing him that he has infringed upon their religious and cultural traditions by putting the Stark logo on them. Their planet was visited centuries ago by time-travelers that greatly influenced their culture, religion, government, etc. These time travelers carried devices with that same Stark Logo on them. The Stark Logo has become a complex cultural symbol over the centuries, and they don't appreciate him using it on war tech, even if on shields. Eventually, they figure out that the time travelers' tech was Tony's tech, and agree to leave in peace, but only after Tony spends a terrifying couple of days trying to improvise his way through a diplomatic disaster with an alien power. vampire family + slapstick + loss WinterIronWidow: So, Natasha's been a vampire for a long time, and she's lonely, so she decides to take on some mates, enter established relationship WinterIron. She vampirises them, which leads to Tony having fits about GARLIC and my god, I'm ITALIAN, you horrible woman! And Bucky's like "I'm... CATHOLIC?? OM-- I can't even say G-- now??" awkwardness + chatting & messaging + shyness Tony doesn't understand why everytime Bucky comes into the lab, Dum-E tends to drop whatever he's holding and go hide in his charging station. Dum-E's always a bit clumsy and silly but this is more than usual and Tony's worried that Dum-E doesn't like Bucky or something like that. Anyway after much discussion, with JARVIS as translator and go-between, it turns out that Dum-E has developed a bit of a crush on Bucky's fancy robotic arm. Which ends up of course being a hilarious & awkward situation for all involved. candles + explosions + blind date tony gets bullied by pepper to go on a blind date to get out of his funk, she insists that this Matt Murdock character is the perfect date and Tony will like him. reluctantly tony goes to fancy restaurant and meets Matt Murdock and they hit it off instantly the little snarky assholes. they have a nice dinner by candle light and it's all going so well up until dessert when they order some kind of chocolate lava cake which was tragically not cooked properly and ends up exploding on both of them and bam they fall in love and live happily ever after skeleton puns + reincarnation + deus ex machina A snap, that was all it took to snuff out something so bright amidst the rubble of what was once New York City, and, with Tony gone for good, the living seem rather, well…dead. Until, one day, someone they all thought long dead returned to them, a blue cube glowing in his grip and a sweet promise of a new beginning dripping from his lips. But of course, no new beginning comes without a price laundry + tenderness + dialogue “I hate laundry,” Morgan declared after trying to refold her sweatshirt for the seventh time. “Me too kiddo,” Tony whispered back, sneaking a glance over his shoulder to Pepper who was putting clothes into the wash. “But that’s why we do it together. It gets done and we don't have to do it alone.” world domination + paranoia + everything hurts Tony knew what was coming, he knew. He’d seen the future and he knew. The Kree were coming - why would no one believe him? Not his husband, not the team, not even his own son. He kept convincing them they had to suit up and defend the planet and Steve and Peter kept telling him that a engineering professor from Cal Tech can’t do that, that this suit he talks about is only in his delusions. But he’s not paranoid. Or crazy. Or any of those other words. He is Iron Man. He just has to convince everyone else. feels + useless lesbians + Santa's workshop Toni doesn’t think anyone could accuse her of overflowing with Christmas spirit. That hasn’t stopped the rest of the Avengers from turning the “festive cheer” dial up to eleven, and Toni thinks she might just have to spend the whole next month hiding in her workshop. (Hey, she let DUM-E wear a Santa hat – that has to count for something.) Too bad Jamie Barnes – cyborg superassassin extraordinaire, Captain America’s best friend, and Toni’s big gay crush – has gotten the exact same idea. Now the rest of the team thinks they’ve got a “thing,” and Toni can’t decide which is worse: putting up with the Avengers’ not-so-subtle attempts at matchmaking, or spending all her time with the woman she loves and who she is absolutely, 100%, totally certain doesn’t reciprocate. Getting through this holiday season without having her heart broken might just take… a Christmas miracle. shapeshifting + secret organizations + nurses “C. Barton - Orderly.” That’s what his tag said. But only a very few people knew exactly what kind of hospital Saint Natalis actually was, and just how busy they could be during the full moon. kissing games + pirates + book stores Tony always thought that the shop had a mind of its own. The books were one thing, whispering their secrets to patrons who managed to find their way to it. Jarvis always did warn him not to touch any of the artifacts. The "DO NOT TOUCH" signs plastered all over the crates. So maybe it was his fault that he managed to summon 'Buccaneer Barnes' after touching the shiny pirate sword. "Let's play a game. If you win, I'll help you put all those runaway monsters that jumped out of the books. If I win, you owe me a kiss. Whatdaya say Stark?"

#TonyStarkBingo2020 #prompt meme #party games

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 4 years

Note

The Trouble Trio and Gail and Chiara for the sleep ask, please c:

You never disappoint! Let us begin -

The Trouble Trio:

Who is a night owl:

I think this might vary from night to night, but most often it would be Merula. I just get the feeling that she prefers to sleep in more than the others do, so she would be more inclined to stay up late. Luca always has trouble sleeping, but considerably less so when they sleep beside their partners. They would frequently need to convince Merula to come to bed already.

Who is a morning person:

Tulip. I really see Tulip as the kind of person who would instantly crash and have an alarm clock to wake up her up earlier than the others want to. The thing about Tulip is that, while she’s an agent of chaos, it’s always organized chaos. Even if that sounds like a paradox. Compare Tonks, who is just kinda free-wheeling it. Tulip’s mayhem is always methodically planned. I can just envision Luca and Merula grumbling sleepily as she gets up before cuddling up to each other to try and get another hour.

Are they cuddlers:

Big yes. Tulip is definitely someone I can see being physically affectionate. I think Luca might not lean that way of their own accord, but would gladly accept that dynamic if it was presented. Merula would the one to show reluctance, not because she doesn’t want affection but because she’s terrible at admitting that she does. Also, Tulip strikes me as the ultimate tickler, and Merula very much strikes me as someone who would become violent upon being tickled. Leading to a war with Luca wedged in the middle.

Who is the big spoon and who is the little spoon:

Another one that would probably vary, based on the emotional place everyone is in. Tulip strikes me as the big spoon type, Luca is definitely a little spoon by nature but they can function as a big spoon too. Merula? She’s easily a knife a little spoon. Not sure how the “spoon” cuddle position would function with a trio, but they’d make it work.

What is their favourite sleeping position:

Aha! Speaking of, let me see. I can just envision a kind of sandwich where they all cuddle up together. Exact positions might vary based on how the day went and who is in what emotional place, but what I’m picturing is Merula kind of hiding her face in Tulip’s neck/shoulder, and Luca either embracing one of them spoon-style, or else kinda pressed between them. Possibly nestled between their chests, because that’s an adorable image (And if anybody makes lewd jokes about it, so help me Merlin...)

Who steals all the blankets:

Tulip, probably. At least on a conscious level. She would steal all of the blankets and use them to help build her fort, or else use them to pounce on the others. Then again, Luca had a particularly bad experience with a Lethifold when they were a kid, so maybe she wouldn’t do that to them. Either way, Merula would be the one to steal the blankets unconsciously. When she’s very sleepy or already half asleep and just wants to bundle up in them as makeshift robes.

What they wear to bed:

Luca would have the cozy pajamas that the game offered as an exclusive reward, right down to having badger shaped slippers. In general, they tend to go full on, and even have a sleeping hat. Merula would probably be much simpler, like I could see her throwing on a jumper and not much else - bonus points if it’s her Weasley jumper because it gives me warm fuzzies to imagine that she keeps it and treasures it even if she won’t admit to such. Tulip, on the other hand, probably just crashes in whatever she’s wearing. I can see her jumping into bed and instantly nodding off, only for Luca and Merula to roll their eyes and try to take her shoes off without waking her.

Who likes seeing the other wearing their t-shirt:

This is just a wonderful shipping trope in general, and here’s the funny part. I feel like they all do this now and then, but I like to imagine that Tulip technically does have sleep-wear that she just never uses, probably some really fancy and cool looking robes, but Luca ends up wearing them more often than her. Likewise, Luca has a tendency to wear cozy jumpers and Merula loves them so I feel like she would frequently have one of Luca’s shirts on in the mornings. Tulip would grab whatever she could find, be it hers, Merula’s, or Luca’s.

Who falls asleep mid-conversation:

Luca. They’re the type of person to stay awake well past their body’s desire to stay awake for the sake of their partners. Whether it’s some form of mischief either or both of them is getting up to, or just because someone needs to talk something up. They’d be laying on Tulip’s shoulder listening in to the conversation and nod off, only to feel embarrassed and apologetic when they wake up.

Who wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares:

Merula. I mean, I think this is canon? Maybe not, but I recall seeing something about her wanting wideye potions. All three of the trouble trio have nightmares now and then after the war with R, but I think Merula easily has them the most often and having her partners there so that she knows she’s safe...it helps somewhat, but it doesn’t entirely fix the problem. Which is a good segue to...

Who accidentally punched the other in their sleep:

Miss Snyde, once again. She’s definitely the most inherently violent of the trio, but even then, not by much. I think of it as being more like Zuko instinctively fire-bending at Toph when he jolts awake. Merula has nightmares, she can sometimes be on edge in her sleep and when she’s just waking. I can’t imagine any lasting damage would come of it, though. Luca and/or Tulip would immediately forgive her, as the other magically healed any bruising. Merula would feel terrible and probably react awkwardly, but it would all be okay.

Who can’t keep their hands to themself:

Well, definitely not Luca. They’re an asexual cutie, so definitely not one to normally initiate bedroom activities that are not sleeping. I’ve seen head-canons that Merula is a character who low-key has high libido and...yeah, I don’t normally have nsfw headcanons, but I can kinda see it. So probably Merula first and foremost, but definitely Tulip as well. Not that Luca won’t reach for them though, they definitely like holding hands.

Gail x Chiara:

Who is a night owl:

More like a night wolf, but I think you get the idea. Chiara strikes me as someone who just feels more at peace when it’s dark out. Probably used to staying up late during shifts at the Hospital Wing/eventually St. Mungos. Of course, she wouldn’t feel nearly as relaxed on the Full Moon, but...she’d also be staying up late that night whether she liked it or not, alas.

Who is a morning person:

Gail values herself on her own productivity, and has built her life around meeting some imaginary standard of success that no one has set but herself. How could she not be a morning person? I feel like she wouldn’t even need an alarm - it would just be physically impossible for her to wake up later than six in the morning, or fall asleep again afterward.

Are they cuddlers:

Gonna say no, not initially. Eventually, yes. But I feel like this relationship would go through a major phase of getting over awkwardness. You know that meme about how lesbian culture is dating a girl for months before you realize that you’re actually dating? I could see this being very much the same way. Even if they were sleeping in the same bed, both Chiara and Gail might hesitate to reach for each other, or even do as much as hold hands - but that would probably be a significant step.

Who is the big spoon and who is the little spoon:

Once they do cross that threshold though, it would be a journey of increasing closeness. I think the big spoon in this situation is likely to trade off, and go from being usually Gail at first, to slowly becoming something that Chiara does more often, as Gail shows more and more of her vulnerability and inner turmoil around Chiara, letting the mask slip.

What is their favourite sleeping position:

The funny thing is, I don’t think the spooning position would be something that Gail and Chiara would actually favor. I think their favorite position would be more of a hug where they face each other. Perhaps in the beginning, they sleep back to back, all uncertain and nervous, and gradually shift into an embrace on their sides, Gail resting against Chiara’s arm, and her resting against Gail’s hair - as she normally has quite a lot of it.

Who steals all the blankets:

Aww, are you kidding? These two characters are both so incredibly polite, that I don’t see either of them committing blanket theft. Gail might steal the blankets as a joke for like a minute, before pouncing on Chiara and wrapping her up in them, but I don’t see either of them genuinely hogging the warmth. In general, I tend to have a head-canon that being a Werewolf raises your overall body temperature. Not necessarily making you feel warmer, but you would be physically warmer, if that makes sense. This would also have an interesting impact on cuddles.

What they wear to bed:

Gail’s going to have very big, cozy shirts. This is just a constant for the Fawley kids, they’re drawn to jumpers and similar types of top-wear. I can also see her having some leggings, maybe? They’re not really common garb in the Wizarding world but she’s been exposed to the muggle world from a young age. For Chiara? I have no clue. But I can see her having like, gowns and robes that resemble hospital scrubs. Is that adorable to anyone else, or am I just silly?

Who likes seeing the other wearing their t-shirt:

This is something that I think Gail does a lot, like it’s one of the signs that she feels comfortable with someone. She’ll wear their clothes, if she happens to be living in the same place as them or visiting frequently enough. So you can bet that she’ll come downstairs one day in Chiara’s shirt and make her sweetheart werewolf girlfriend blush. I’m sure Chiara could do the same, but it would probably be Gail’s idea or something that inspired her.

Who falls asleep mid-conversation:

Between the two of them, I think Chiara would. I’ve said before that she and Luca are very alike, in how I see them. So I can see Chiara being exhausted and having very obvious bags (she’s a pale gal, they’d be noticeable) but trying to insist that she’s not tired and she can keep going, treat one more patient. Cue Gail wrenching her away and apparating her home, giving her a gentle lecture on self care as Chiara just kinda mumbles and nods and is already asleep by the time Gail carries her up to the bed.

Who wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares:

Chiara. Come on, you don’t contract Lycanthrophy in an Anti-Werewolf society that forces you to keep your true nature secret (on top of having to keep being a Witch secret from muggles) and also saw you lose your best friend at a young age...without coming away from it all with nightmares every now and then. But I think this is where Gail’s power-hugs come into play. She would hold Chiara through her tears and fidgeting and help her make it through the night because no matter what, the sun will always rise - and Chiara draws strength from MC like she said. (Seriously, whoever wrote “Lone Wolf” was totally a Wolfstar Shipper. You cannot change my mind.)

Who accidentally punched the other in their sleep:

Gonna be a little bit boring, but I just don’t see either of them doing this. Gail is more likely than Chiara, but I feel like if it did happen she would feel so ashamed that she’d confine herself to the couch for at least a week. Cue Chiara coming out to join her on the couch, assuming they were past their point of shyness, because if anyone knows how it feels to worry about accidentally hurting someone in a state you can’t control...it would be Chiara.

Who can’t keep their hands to themself:

Chiara doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would initiate that often, but if they got into the swing of hooking up regularly, she might more often. But the first person who would have the courage/have the desire to initiate something, would probably be Gail. She’s definitely not ace and would probably be extremely flustered to sleep next to Chiara. She would be thinking about it well before it actually happened.

#Tulip Karasu #Merula Snyde #Chiara Lobosca #Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery #The Trouble Trio #Chiara Lobosca x Jacob's Sibling #Luca Fawley #Gail Fawley

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artificialqueens · 4 years

Text

Houroubing to Aruba, Chapter 3, (Branjie) - Blackhighheels

(Read at AO3)

Chapter 3: The ballgame

It is shortly before ten when Jose finally stirs. Brock has been replying to emails, checking up on social media and just surfing the net on his phone for the last hour and a half.

“What you doin’?” Jose mumbles, his eyes barely open.

“Just taking care of some things, reading emails.” Brock isn’t surprised when his boyfriend takes the phone out of his hand, throws it to the foot of the bed and places his head on his chest. His eyes close again. “You wanna go back to sleep or you up for some breakfast?” Brock runs his hands over Jose’s back, rubbing it lightly.

“You hungry?”

“Mmmh, slowly getting there.” Just then Brock’s stomach rumbles and Jose opens his eyes.

“Fine, let’s get up before you starve to death and everybody will think it’s my fault. All them cat owning lesbians will hunt me down.” Jose climbs over him to get out of bed and Brock uses the opportunity to pat his butt. “You better stop,” Jose warns him with a smile and a wink before he walks out of the room. “Lord, what did I drink last night? I have to pee so bad, I might be dripping and dropping all over the floor already. My bladder feels like it’s the size of a fucking water-melon. Fuck…hope this toilet is built correct and you said all your prayers, ‘cause we might have the flood upon us.”

Brock titters as he gets out of bed, used to the stream-of-consciousness kind of talking Jose does on the regular, when it’s just the two of them. He loves that he has no filter and stopped censoring himself a while ago. Not only does it provide Brock with countless hours of entertainment, but it also gives him a very clear view into his man’s mind - even though peeing might not be the topic he would have chosen.

After getting ready, they make their way down to breakfast and fall into the usual routine they’ve developed while touring together: Jose gets fruits and vegetables, Brock is responsible for yoghurt, porridge, scrambled eggs and bread. Whoever is back at the table first gets coffee and juice.

They choose a table outside on the terrace which has a view of the beach. The table is in the shade, so they can eat without getting roasted by the sun. It’s really warm already and Brock sighs in relief when he sits down in his cool chair. Even the wide tank top and shorts he’s wearing feel like too much clothing.

He looks around and notices that there is just one other couple sitting a few tables to the right, since breakfast ends at eleven and most other guests are already by the pool or at the beach.

“They have a barista here to make our cappuccino right. None of the machine crap.” Jose lets him know and points to the cup. There’s a palm tree painted into the milk foam of Jose’s cup and a heart in his. It’s whimsical, typically Jose and it makes him smile.

“It’s really amazing here. Feels a bit like a dream.”

“Did you sleep alright?” Jose asks him then.

“Yeah, until like eight, maybe? Longer than I’ve slept in a while. You?”

“I think I was up around four and got up to close the blinds.”

“The moon taunting you again?” Brock smiles knowingly.

“I must be half werewolf, I’m telling ya. Full moon and I’m up for no reason in the middle of the night.” Jose rubs one hand over the stubble on his cheeks “Would explain all this, too.”

“Don’t you always say your hair grows so fast because you’re Puerto Rican?”

“Might be lyin'… sneaky cover up and all.”

They fall silent for a moment, just eating and watching their surroundings. “So, what’s the plan for today?” Brock finally asks.

“Plan?”

“I thought you arranged it all with Henry?”

“Not really. He gave me a list of stuff we could do, if we want to, but I didn’t sign us up for nothing today. Thought maybe we just chill on the beach or by the pool? We can take a look at our options later and see what we wanna do the other days and then let Henry know?” Jose adjusts the black baseball hat he is wearing, the right way for once, and takes the sunglasses off.

“Sounds good,” Brock nods and gets distracted by his vibrating phone. It’s a text message from a booker in London and he quickly reads it.

“Hey, Brock?” Jose sounds a bit hesitant.

“Mmh?” he asks and quickly checks his calendar, so he can reply to the message.

“I think maybe we should talk about the phone and social media stuff now?”

“Just a second…” He quickly types out his answer, sends a copy of it to Steve and then puts his phone down. “What? Phone and social media stuff?” He’s lost and doesn’t really know what Jose means.

“You know, if and what we post and what rules we should have for the use of our phones while we’re here. We’ve never really decided on anything, just started talking about it and then dropped it 'cause we were too busy.”

“Oh, ok. I didn’t know we needed rules for our cellphone use, like we’re ten or something.” Brock wrinkles his nose, but the look on Jose’s face gives him pause. “Sorry,” he says quickly, realising this is not the time for flippant replies.

“No, it… I just… I don’t wanna fight. If you think it’s silly…”

“Jose, no, you’re right.” He needs to intervene and stop Jose from agreeing to everything and bending to his wishes during this trip, simply because he wants it to be perfect. It happened yesterday at the airport and again just now. “What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t really know. I’m not sure… so, don’t take this as a rule or nothin’, okay?”

“I’ll be your sounding board, just go ahead.”

“I know we can’t just vanish on the gram for like three weeks. You know, we have to feed the children or they’ll riot. But I don’t know, if I want pics from this trip to show up online: A. I don’t want no geo tags on nothing, so they don’t know where we at, 'cause some stalker ass is always close by and B. I wanna have this for us. If we take crappy pictures with fucked up lighting that we keep to remember this trip by, then that’s our business. I want no opinions or comments on how cute we look, or how we need to work out more, or if these fuckers like our outfits. When I went to Australia with Matt, no one knew shit and that was real cool. But I also don’t want you to think I’m hiding or holding back or some fucked up shit like that, like with the video.” Jose speaks calmly, but Brock can tell that it’s very important to him. “And while we at it, I think we shouldn’t work while we here. We both crazy and will get sucked in and I don’t want us to spend all the time checking mails and replying to texts on the phone, especially your micro-managing ass. We have assistants, they can take care of it for three weeks and when it’s real important they’ll call, right? Meanwhile, we can concentrate on each other.”

Brock takes a deep breath, because only the thought of being out of the loop for three weeks might send him straight into an anxiety attack. Jose takes his hand and moves his chair closer in silent support. Brock thinks about it, weighs his options and mulls over what Jose just said.

“I’ll let Steve know that he should filter the emails for me and put the really important stuff into a separate folder, so I can just ignore the rest. Give me like, an hour a day?” he offers.

“Twenty minutes?”

“Forty?”

“Deal.” Jose gives his hand a squeeze.

“As for social media: I think we should tell Tammy and Courtney to, like, post old pics and announcements for upcoming gigs, so we don’t vanish? Maybe they could also repost some stuff? Art we are tagged in or something? You’re right we shouldn’t worry about taking pictures for insta or about comments. We’re here for us. If we wanna share something we’ll decide spontaneously, ok?”

“Sounds good, toes.” Jose’s smile is wide and Brock knows they’ve made the right decision.

“But I think we should maybe call Andrew, Steve and your mom and let them know we’ve arrived safely and tell them what we’ve come up with so they don’t start worrying.”

“And then we go into flight mode and haul our asses to the beach to chillax and get a tan on?”

“Absolutely.” They seal the deal with a quick peck, chuckle when Jose’s hat nearly falls off as Brock bumps against it. “So, what do you say: Is it a swimming shorts or briefs kind of day?”

“With your white ass, it might be better to go with the trunks, otherwise you’ll burn the goods on the first day, which would be a shame. And you just bought new trunks. The Ralph Lauren ones look pretty fresh.”

“The Ralph Lauren ones it is,” Brock agrees and keeps Jose’s hand in his as they get up to go back to their room and get ready for the beach.

***

“You think Andrew’ll still be alive when we get back?” Jose asks as he spreads his towel out on the lounge bed of their beach cabana. He ist still chuckling because Brock just told him about the phone call he had with Andrew.

“I can’t believe both Henry and Apollo have already bit him.” Brock can’t help but laugh about it again.

“Told you, you spoil them kitty cats too much.They ain’t listening to shit you say. Why would they listen to Miss Nina, who thinks she’s Cinderella and they’ll dance and sing songs with her while she makes the bed?”

“But I’m their mommy,” Brock pouts, knowing full well that Jose is right.

“You definitely are, but one of those moms who always say: 'Wait until daddy gets home!’” Jose continues teasing him and sits down.

“I still don’t know how you stopped them from sleeping in our bed.”

“Girl, I kicked their furry butts out, that’s how. You can cuddle them all you want on the couch, but I never want to find no vomit fur balls in my bed, ever again.” He shudders at the memory and Brock laughs, when he remembers the incident. Jose’s screams of terror so loud, he thought he’d been attacked or something. “Can you do me?”

Brock snorts at the request. “Here? In public?” he fakes outrage.

“Stop playin’. You know I’m talking about the sun lotion,” Jose smirks and holds up the bottle he just dug out of his bag.

“Only if you 'do me’ next.” Brock takes the bottle from him and sits down behind him. He squirts the lotion on Jose’s shoulders then starts applying it and rubs it in all over his back.

“You better watch them fingers, perv,” Jose says when he swipes his hands underneath the hem of his trunks.

“As if you’d really say no,” Brock whispers in his ear and bites it gently, but takes his hands out of Jose’s pants.

“I don’t know which adult plus gay resort you used to spend your vacations at, but here at this gay friendly but very straight-people beach, shit like this will get us thrown out. So you better channel your very christian upbringing and manners, cause, bitch, I will not be kicked out of this resort, because you decide to finger me first opportunity on the beach,” Jose rants and Brock cackles when he hears his words. He really hopes no one is close by to overhear them.

“And you pretend to be a good catholic boy?”

“Don’t have to pretend. I am!” He gives him an exaggerated fake Vanjie smile, that shows all of his white teeth. “And now lay down on your stomach like a good little gay boy, so I can get the sun block on you, so you not you roasting and toasting.” Jose doesn’t simply rub the lotion in, he gives him a really good massage and by the end of it Brock is so relaxed he’s nearly asleep. “There you go,” Jose says when he’s done and presses a kiss to the back of his head, before he climbs over him once more and flops down beside him. He crosses his arms behind his head and looks around. “What do you think their stories are?"

"Huh?” Brock turns around so he can see what Jose sees.

“The other couples. What do you think their stories are? Like, why are they here?”

“I don’t know. Like, vacation or honeymoon maybe?”

“Honeymoon? These two over there haven’t spoken a single word to each other since we’ve gotten here and he stares at every ass walking by. If this is their honeymoon, she’ll better have the divorce papers ready.” Jose is talking about a couple that’s maybe in their early forties and lying a bit further down on the beach on the normal sun chairs. She keeps flipping through her phone while he ogles the other women at the beach.

“Maybe they’re not a couple?”

“They’re wearing matching wedding bands.” Of course Jose would zoom in on details like this.

“Then I’m out. But maybe we’ll find out while we’re here?”

“Maybe. If we ever get like this, boo, even Laurie might not be able to save us.”

“We won’t. I mean, you just limited my cellphone time and I’d be scared for my balls if you caught me ogling anyone like this. He’s not really subtle.”

“You’d better be, cause I’d go all Lorena on ya, but wouldn’t tell anyone where to find the parts!” Jose confirms. “But hey, maybe they have one of these open relationship things and he’s just looking for prey?”

“Honestly, as long as he keeps his paws off you, I don’t give a fuck.” Brock decides to end the speculations that Jose can get lost in.

“It’s cute when you all jealous and possessive.” Jose leans over and kisses him like it’s the biggest compliment ever. Brock has to admit, that since they got back together not only is he not missing his freedom at all, but also he has become what he’d earlier would have called “clingy”. He’s just lucky that Jose is totally into it. “You wanna go swimming?” Jose accepts the topic change.

“Not right now. Your massage nearly put me to sleep.” A wide yawn follows his words.

“Want me to put you to sleep?” Jose offers and wiggles his fingers. Sometimes when Brock has trouble sleeping, Jose makes him curl up to him and rubs his back until he relaxes and falls asleep. Usually it works.

“It’s too hot, papi. I’d be dripping sweat all over your shoulder.”

Jose guffaws. “That’s not the only thing you’re dripping all over me on the regular.”

Brock just rolls onto his side, so he is facing his boyfriend and moves a bit closer. “Just be quiet and let me nap,” he counters, but takes his hand and places a kiss on Jose’s palm and then licks it, before he closes his eyes.

***

“You wanna go swimming now?” Jose asks as soon as he realises that Brock is awake again. Brock stretches lazily, nods and sits up. Jose basically jumps off the bed.

“Help me up?” Brock requests and holds out his hands.

“Sure, grandpa.” Jose pulls him up and leads the way to the water. Brock watches him as he carefully dips his toes in, then walks in a bit further.

His boyfriend really is beautiful and not only because he’s in great shape, Brock muses, lost in thoughts. It’s the way he carries himself, wears his heart on his sleeve, his bronze skin, the hair that’s always falling into his face because it’s just a bit too long. His strong legs, tiny waist and delicious ass - even in swim trunks. And it’s also the way he fits right under Brock’s arm, how he loves to snuggle with him, how he makes him laugh and how he can communicate with just one look how much he loves Brock in return. “It not too bad,” is Jose’s verdict, before he jumps in and lands in the ocean with a loud splash that leaves Brock dripping wet.

“Oh wait, you little shit!” he threatens and jumps in after Jose, but his boyfriend is faster in the water than Brock thought. While he never really mastered how to do the crawl, Jose surely knows how and uses it to his advantage to get away from Brock.

“Haha! You can’t get me, grandpa!” he screams and splashes more water in his direction with both hands.

“No, but I can wait you out!” Brock yells back and keeps treading water and tries to find a moment to counter attack, but Jose is simply too fast. He decides to go back to where he can stand. As soon as his feet touch the ground, he turns around to keep an eye on Jose, but he can’t see him anymore. How far can he swim in just a couple of seconds? Suddenly something pops out from under the water behind him and a second later Jose has jumped on his back. Narrowly Brock avoids falling and Jose’s boisterous laughter is ringing in his ears.

“Gotcha!"

Brock wraps his arms around Jo’s legs and holds him there, basically giving him a piggyback ride. "I think I got you, papi.” Jose’s arms tighten around his neck as he adjusts his position. A second later he leans forward and places a kiss on Brock’s cheek. When he turns his head, another kiss follows, on the lips this time.

“You taste like salt,” Jose states and smacks and licks his lips when he pulls back.

“So do you.” Brock walks them further into the sea again and dips down so only their heads are above the water. “I didn’t know you were that good a swimmer.”

“I told you. You should have believed me.”

“Ever took lessons or were in a club at school or something?”

“No, but my brother used to take me to the beach with him when we were younger. All of his friends were there and they always thought it was fun to throw the little brother around in the water like a football, or see how long I could hold my breath. I had to be faster than them to get away.” Jose tells the story like it’s a fond memory, and maybe in some ways it is, but Brock has enough knowledge to understand that Jose didn’t have too much fun back then and was scrambling for his older brother’s attention without getting it in a positive way.

“I’m surprised your mom let you go with them if that’s what was going on.”

“Mom never found out. I never told her, 'cause we would have had to stay home all day while she was working.” Brock lets go off Jose’s legs and pulls him to his front instead. Jo’s legs are now wrapped around his waist. He doesn’t know why, but every time Jose talks about his childhood, all he wants to do is shower him with love and affection to make it all better. His lips find Jose’s again and he kisses him gently, but with enough heat so Jose makes these little noises in the back of his throat that Brock loves so much. It’s a wave crashing into them that makes them break apart after a while and they both start laughing.

“Let’s get out and get dry. Then we can take a look at the list Henry gave you,” Brock suggests as they wade towards the beach. A group of people, mostly guys, is standing there, talking about something and they all turn towards them when get out of the water. Brock hopes they don’t recognise them.

“Hey,” one of the guys calls out as a greeting.

“Hey,” Brock replies and wants to keep walking towards their cabana, but Jose is already en route to them, always one for socialising even with large crowds of complete strangers.

“You’re new right?”

“Yeah, we got here yesterday. I’m Jose, this is Brock,” he introduces them.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Bill.” The guy who is talking shakes Jose’s hand and claps him on the back, while Brock remains standing slightly behind him. “We were wondering if you’d join us playing volleyball. We really need some more people.”

“Of course, I’m game,” Jose agrees before Brock can stop him, because, really, playing a ball game he sucks at with a bunch of strangers is the last thing he wants to do. Also, they have plans, right? They wanted to see what romantic things they could do over the next days, just the two of them. “Brock, you too, right?” Jose turns around to him.

“I think I’ll sit this one out,” he tells him and some of the guys grumble and try and encourage him to join in.

“Come one! You sure?”

“Yeah… uh, you’re sure you wanna play with you knee and all?” he tries to talk him out of it without being too obvious.

“My knee’s fine,” Jose shrugs. “See you in a few?"

"Yeah,” Brock nods and walks off to the cabana. He can see and hear them perfectly from where he is sitting, wrapped in his towel.

They quickly form two teams and start the game. Jose isn’t half bad, but every time he misses the ball he pretends he is the worst player ever. In no time he has all of them cheering him on and laughing about everything he does or says. He weirdly fits in with these straight men, jocks, and banker-types, who have all come together to play volleyball but instead have fallen under the spell of Vanjie without knowing it. Bock watches it with fascination and envies his boyfriend for a second. He wishes he was that charismatic and engaging in social situations. Jose lives and breathes entertaining crowds of strangers, while it gives Brock anxiety. He wishes he could be there and play as well, get some of Jose’s attention and jokes directed at him, but knows he would be all awkward and would quickly become the guy no one wants on the team.

They all love Jose and they all have Jose’s attention as he makes them laugh, makes them cheer him on, makes them feel like they’re his buddies.

His good mood fades more and more, the longer he watches the game. He doesn’t want to analyse what he’s feeling and finally lies back and closes his eyes. He can still hear them, can hear Jose’s happy laughter and hilarious comments, neither of which are directed at him.

“Hey, you asleep?” Jose pants a while later, standing beside him in the sand, completely dripping wet.

“You done?”

“Nah, half-time. We just went to cool off in the sea for a second.” Brock knows Jose is observing him closely, even though he can barely see it, because he is blinking against the sun. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Why you saying it like that?” Jose’s eyes narrow further behind his shades, Brock can tell just by his tone.

“I’m not saying it 'like that’. I’m just doing nothing.” He knows he is pouting, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. “Why don’t you go back to your game and let me get back to my doing nothing,” he suggest and closes his eyes again.

“Get up!” Jose suddenly sounds like his mother when she’s pissed, a latin accent even comes through.

“What?” he opens his eyes again.

“Now, white boy,” Jose orders and waits until Brock is standing beside the bed. Then he kicks Brock’s flips flops towards him and puts on his own, before he drags him off by his wrist.

“Hey, what are you doing? Let go of me! Where are we going?” Brock complains and tries to free his arm, but Jose just keeps dragging him through the resort until they reach their penthouse. Jose unlocks the door, drags him in and pulls out a chair from the table in the living room and places it in the middle of the room.

“Sit!” he orders and Brock is so dumbfounded he complies. “Talk!”

“What?” he crosses his arms in front of his chest and plays dumb while Jose glares down on him. His refusal makes Jose take a deep breath and he pulls out a chair for himself.

His voice is softer when he speaks again, just a bit. “Tell me what got your trunks in a twist. We done playin’, Brock! No drama on this fucking vacation! Just spit it out.”

“I thought we were making plans for all the romantic stuff and then you go off and play volleyball with all these guys.”

“You could have played with us.”

“I suck at all sports involving a ball and they would have just laughed about me.”

“You an idiot, Brock.” Jose sighs loudly. “A pouting, jealous idiot.” He gets off his chair and walks over to him. “Get up,” he says, but there is no more authority in his voice. He sounds a little bit amused, which rubs Brock the wrong way.

“You just told me to sit down!”

“Bitch, really?” Jose sniggers and raises one eyebrow. Brock knows he is acting ridiculous, he doesn’t need Jose to rub it in. As soon as Brock stands, Jose is on his knees in front of him, pulls down his swimming trunks and sucks his dick into his mouth.

“Jo, what the fuck?” Brock exclaims in surprise, but the hand that flies to Jose’s head and tangles in his wet hair is certainly not pulling him off.

“You need some attention, 'cause you’re being a jealous little whiny bitch, and I wanna suck your dick, because…do I really need a reason?” He shrugs. “Any problem with that?” He licks his cock like it’s a popsicle and Brock is sure his eyes roll into the back of his head. He moans.

“None, your honour,” Brock says when he finds his voice again.

“Then shut up and hold on tight.” With these words Jose goes down on him again. He starts slow, licks his shaft and his balls and focusses on the head for a while. Then he takes him deep, even gags one time, then continues, bops his head fast and sucks like he’s starving. It’s truly ridiculous how fast Jose has him going from being limp and jealous to coming down his throat with a loud groan.

“You really are fucking crazy,” Brock chuckles as he helps Jose stand up and pulls him against him.

“Do you feel better or not?” Jose’s hands find their way to his naked butt.

“I do. Thank you.” He kisses him deeply and gets a thrill out of the fact that he can taste himself on Jose’s lips. Take that you damn volleyball players!

“You ready to go back down and stop the drama or you wanna stay here and pout some more?” Jose is back to teasing him, which is a good sign.

“How about I return the favour first?” He cups his crotch through his wet swimming trunks and unsurprisingly finds him half hard.

“No! First you gotta earn it by playing some volleyball with me and the guys and then we gonna tackle the damn list, so the romance is back on.”

“Fine, but I might need a snack in between. I’m getting hungry.”

“I’m the snack!” Jose points out and pulls Brock’s shorts back up.

“You are, but you’re not letting me suck you off.”

“Come on, you attention whore, maybe Imma feel more giving later.” Brock smiles when he gets another kiss before they leave their penthouse. Jose stops him again just before they reach the others on the beach. “Oh and just so you know: There’s a ballgame, where it’s really good when you suck!” His wiggling eyebrows make Brock chortle and forget about his anxiety about being faced with a group of strangers and having to play a game with them. They both learn that day that Brock likes volleyball and isn’t bad at it at all.

***

After cooling off once the game is done, they pack their things and make their way back to the terrace by the restaurant. While drinks were served on the beach, they needed something to eat, because dinner was still hours away.

“Hello gentlemen, what can I get you?” It’s Henry who shows up to take their order

“Henry, hi. You being a waiter today?” Jose asks him happily.

“I simply saw you coming up and decided to check in on you. I hope everything is satisfactory?”

“Everything is amazing, thank you,” Brock replies.

“We gonna make the romance plans now and then let you know, ok?”

“Very well. What can I do for you meanwhile?”

“Can you get us a large bottle of non-sparkling water and two salads with tuna and garlic bread?” Brock orders.

“Make that two bottles of water. I feel like I’m drying up from the inside out,” Jose supplies.

“Thank you and see you later.”

“Bye Henry,” Brock tells him and waits until he’s gone before he speaks again. “You think he’s spying on us? That was kind of creepy.”

“Maybe he ordered the Vanjie tracking device when he heard we were coming,” Jose jokes and leans in conspiratorially. Brock decides not to go on with this topic, because if Jose is already opening with this statement, only god knows what will come out of his mouth next.

He pecks his lips and changes the topic. “So where is the famous romance list?” Jose digs through their bag and hands it to Brock just as their drinks arrive. “You know if you wanna do something sporty or with a group?”

“I think we had enough group and sport action today. Send you right into a jealous fit. How about just the two of us? Something relaxing?” Jose changes his sunglasses for another pair, so he can read along. The lenses in the stylish other pair are great for everything except reading, because they are designed to fix Jose’s myopia.

“Tomorrow evening is the movie night under the stars. They’re showing 'Notting Hill’, but that’s with a group, I guess,” Brock thinks out loud.

“We could maybe do the picnic in the afternoon and go to the movie night after dinner. If we still feeling like being alone, I don’t think anyone will care,” Jose suggests.

“Sounds good. Should we plan the rest of the week already or you wanna be more spontaneous?”

“We could maybe do the segway tour the day after?"

Brock immediately shakes his head forcefully. "No! No way you are doing a segway tour. I saw you once on a scooter and on ski, uh-uh, ain’t happening.” His words only make Jose chuckle.

“Fine. How about this hike? Seeing the best places of Aruba and go snorkelling in between doesn’t sound too bad.”

“I like it,” Brock agrees, because he really wants to see a bit of the island and not only the resort.

“We really good at this shit now,” Jose points out.

“Planing trips together?” Brock asks just as Henry comes back with their salads.

“Talking, toes. But sure, planing, too.”

“Have you found something?” Henry asks them after placing their food in front of them.

“Yes, we’d love to go on a picnic tomorrow around noon and then join in on the movie night. And the day after, the hike with the snorkelling sounds really great,” Brock lets him know, while Jose is already devouring his salad.

“Of course. Do you have any special requests for picnic stops? By the beach, in town?”

“No, just surprise us, we trust you.” Brock shrugs and Henry leaves them alone again.

“Look at you being all spontaneous all of a sudden,” Jose points out.

“I can be spontaneous.”

“Good, but swallow before you talk or Imma tell your mama,” Jose laughs when salad nearly falls out of Brock’s mouth.

“And apparently I can be very sexy, too,” he laughs about his own mishap.

“Wanna spend the rest of the day being sexy by the pool before we have to get ready for dinner?” Jose asks him, still sniggering. Brock agrees, and once more they have a plan.

***

After dinner that night they go back out on the restaurant terrace and order themselves some gin tonic. Their table is on the edge of the terrace and so it takes a while when more and more couples come out, until someone comes up to them.

“We’re sorry, but may we join you? All the other seats are taken.” A tall woman, maybe in her sixties, with bright blue eyes and white hair, asks them. Her tan skin makes her eyes even more striking, even in the near darkness.

“Yes, of course, please do,” Brock nods and Jose even gets up and pulls the chair out for her.

“Oh thank you, darling. I’m Margaret and this is my husband Magnus,” she introduces them and they all shake hands as Brock and Jose introduce themselves.

“Jose? You’re Spanish?” she asks.

“Puerto Rican, but I live in LA now.”

“And you, Brock?” her husband asks. He is also tall, a bit on the heavy side and looks like Santa Claus, Brock thinks.

“I’m originally from Canada, but I live in L.A. now, too. And where are you from? I think I hear a bit of an accent.”

“And he should know about having an accent,” Jose teases him.

“We’re from Sweden.”

“Oh how nice!” Brock gushes. “I’m like a quarter Swedish or something and I’ve been to Stockholm a while ago. You live there?”

“No,” Magnus laughs about Brock’s enthusiasm. “We’re from a very small town up north. Just three hundred inhabitants.”

“Up north? Like at the north pole?” Jose asks and waves for the waiter.

“No, that’s even further north,” Margaret smiles.

“But it real cold there, right? He from Toronto that’s damn cold, too. Never seen so much snow in my life, Mary.”

“Yeah, we have a lot of snow.” She confirms.

“What do you want to drink?” Brock asks them when the waiter has arrived.

“What is it you’re having?”

“Gin tonic. Oh, you could bring us two more,” Brock decides, making use of the opportunity that the waiter is there.

“Make that four, we’ll have the same,” Magnus decides.

“You here to get away from the cold?” Jose asks curiously and places his hand on top of Brock’s leg underneath the table, his fingertips gliding over the naked skin of his knee with comfortable familiarity.

“Yeah, that too” Margaret confirms. “But mainly we’re here for our 25th wedding anniversary. We spent our honeymoon here and decided to come back. It’s even more beautiful now, with the resorts they built and all.”

“25 years, wow, that’s a long time, mama.” Jose nods his head as he speaks.

“It really is. Thirty years together, 25 married.” She nods along with him.

“That’s the goal, isn’t it? No matter if you married or not, just stick together through thick and thin,” Jose muses and Brock takes his hand that is still resting on his knee.

“It’s not always easy and we’ve had our moments, but we don’t regret it.” Magnus adds. “And what are you doing here? You’re here with your girlfriends or wives?” The question is asked good-naturedly, but still makes Brock a bit nervous. He doesn’t really know how to reply without making it uncomfortable for all of them. Jose has no such reservations, of course.

“Ha! If you want we can flip a coin and then tell you who the wifey is,” he guffaws. “We here together for our first vacation.”

“Oh you are a couple, how sweet!” Margaret seems genuinely excited. “You know you two are the first real gay couple I’ve ever met. Otherwise this way up north we only get gay people on the TV.”

“I think you’d be surprised,” Brock can’t help but snort. “My sister was married for years and had a couple of kids before she came out as a lesbian. Not everything is as it seems, no matter how small the village.”

“What’s the statistical statistics stuff?” Jose asks and turns towards Brock.

“Something like 5%, I think?”

“As in 5% of people are gay?” Magnus asks. They all wait for their drinks to be set on the table before they continue their talk. “That would be like 15 people in our village? I wonder who that could be!”

“Maybe old Sverre? He never got married and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a woman?”

“I could google the exact percentage for Sweden, but my man here has banned cellphones for the time being.” Brock says and wraps his free arm around Jose’s shoulders.

“And you’re right to do so, darling. It’s horrible when all this people are only staring into their phones and don’t talk to each other anymore.” Margaret pats Jose’s arm.

“You had your forty minutes of internet time today, toes. The rest of your time belongs to me,” Jose smiles up at him and slurps the rest of his gin tonic. “And I’m a darling, you heard that?” He looks so proud and smug that Brock just has to kiss him.

“I heard, papi.”

“There is this couple here at the resort, they have been here for four days… or is it five Magnus?"

"Which couple do you mean?”

“Gianna and TJ. She’s always on the phone and he keeps ogling everything on two legs?”

“Mami, we know exactly who you’re talking about!” Jose exclaims excitedly, Brock pulls him closer and they are off to kiki about the real tea at the resort until the bar closes and they stumble back to their room, so drunk they barely find the way.

“I still haven’t got to suck your dick,” Brock remembers when they are lying in bed beside each other, clad only in their underwear.

“You drunk… I’m more drunk. Can wake me up with a blowjob if you want,” Jose slurs, barely awake.

“K… blowjob t'morrow mornin'… G'night.” Brock repeats and closes his eyes, hopes that the bed will stop spinning soon.

“G'night.”

TBC

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #fluff #smut #drama #canon compliant #houroubing to aruba #blackhighheels

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serendipitioussurvival · 5 years

Text

The Problem with Reality, Pt 2

<Prev> The Monologue of one Maczysz Stilinski/Hale

“They say that, when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Honestly though? That’s such a load of bullshit. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve almost died? Do you know how many of those incidents I’ve seen a play by play of my life? None, not even when I actually fucking died! I’ve been cheated out of a lot of shit in my life, a lot of good shit too, so I’m going to do the play by play! Ahem.

I was born Maczysz Angelika Stilinski to humans Claudia Stilinski and Jeorek ‘John’ Stilinski. I was an angelic kid no matter what anyone says. The first few years of my life were great, eating, sleeping, pooping and having someone else clean it up. That was nice, I guess, but then I got to be introduced to the wonderful world of education. Let me tell you - hell doesn’t even need to exist when you have fucking ADHD and a hyperactive imagination, okay? Not only that, but you put it in the body of a girl whose father was a Deputy and whose mother was a nurse. I was literally exposed to so much information - as much as I could get my hands on!

Believe me, by the time I was six I knew how to hide keys until my dad made copies or had to use the backup. I had a key for his filing cabinets, for the car, and for the front and back doors. I was never going to use them for evil though, maybe to do things I wasn’t supposed to, but never for evil. Anyway, getting off-topic. So, by six I was bilingual for Portuguese and English, a hell of a combination for a kid with ADHD who could barely form coherent sentences, let alone sentences with words that weren’t English.

BUT - it was because of that multilingual gibberish that I landed my best friend, Scott McCall, who also knew Portuguese from his mother and bam! A friendship that lasts throughout multiple realities thank you very much. Then… then I lost my mom. I won’t go into that, I don’t want to, you already know the full situation in detail and it’s still painful. I - it’s my one regret, that little Mischief will have to go through that again, all because I couldn’t save her…

Uh, where - where was I? Oh, anyway, mom died. Dad started drinking. I hated it, had to learn to cook and do laundry. He never hit me or cursed me or anything, but he would - I dunno just give me these looks. Like he was looking for any trace of my mom in me, or he would look at anything but me. So, in true Max fashion, I shaved all my hair off. Scott thought it was punk as hell and told me we were totally brothers now. Hehe, it never bothered me that he saw me as a guy, made me really happy honestly since all my dad could see was my mom in me. So I started spending the night over at his more, studied with him, ate with him and Mel while she taught me how to cook certain dishes - she even let me help, the few times she was free to actually do that.

Then dickhead Rafe - and no I don’t care that it isn’t his real name, he doesn’t deserve to be called anything but Rafe because he hates it so goddamn much - went and left because he chose to drink instead of fixing things with his family after Scottie got hurt. Suddenly we really were siblings, either staying the night over at his while my dad worked over night, or over at mine when Mel worked overnight. We slept in the same bed until we were thirteen - which other people still find weird. Let me tell you, we didn’t stop until he got his first morning wood at fifteen, and we celebrated it because, for the longest time, my poor Scottie thought his dick was broken.

Can I - can I even cuss here? Like, I’m not going to get smited, smote - whatever. I’m already here, fuck it.

Continuing on! At sixteen Scottie and I went all red riding hood into the woods and met the one, the only, Peter Hale. He was half-crazed and the other half of him was running on wolfy instincts, but it was Peter, and the prick decided that he liked my jacket on Scottie and bit him, turning him into a werewolf.

Fast forward a couple more months of Scott trying to kill me, his first full moon where he made out with my crush and cemented the fact that I was definitely not lesbian, and then we get to the juicy bits where Peter killed Kate Argent - I hope that bitch is being burned to death, repeatedly, in hell. In fact - could I, like if I don’t get into Heaven or whatever comes after this, can I go to hell just to burn her? Like, that’d be my heaven. No..? Okay.

Ahem, anyway, uh, Scott hit Peter with a Molotov, killing him, but Peter is crafty so he came back to life a little more sane but no less sassy, and decided to grace my doorstep every few nights with a letter on my window. They weren’t love notes, in fact, I’m pretty sure the first one was him telling me that he wished he had bitten me even though I said no just so his legacy wouldn’t ride on Scott’s shoulders. Looking back it’s funny, but back then I was furious. How dare this sociopathic nut job think my best friend lacks anything.

Peter though, was different. Maybe death really does change you? I dunno, either way, he became more involved in the pack - or, well, he got more involved whenever I was involved. He gave me the research material he’d put together as his family’s bestiary and helped to figure out how to ‘cure’ Jackson’s reptile problem.

Then he helped to deal with the Alpha pack and saved me from being tossed off the roof of the hospital by Ennis. Ah, there was also Scott betraying us, me, for the first time. That was fun, I think - honestly I think that was the first time that I actually touched Peter? Like he was always touching me and brushing against my arm, but I think that had been the first time I had touched him.

It wasn’t anything special, but he stopped my panic attack somehow, and that was great. He was also really firm - ah, nevermind. That’s - that, I was seventeen for crying out loud. Okay? His body was hella nice and his smirk pissed me off and aroused me even when I wanted to kill him again. That night though, it was kind of the turning point. I no longer thought of immediately killing him whenever he annoyed me.

Then the Alpha pack was dealt with, Scott was a ‘True Alpha’, and Deucalion was sent off - which I still don’t agree with, but whatever, I fixed that shit. Deuce gets to see his baby girl grow up now and Gerard is totally burning in hell next to Kate. Hehe, can - like I feel like I’m definitely gonna be sent to hell, so can you like, assign me to them? It’s gotta be their personal hell to see me again. No..? Gosh, I can’t tell what you’re thinking or feeling with that damned mask, whatever. Continuing on with my flashbacks. Ahem!

What was next? Oh yes, the Nogitsune.”

#The Monologue of one Dead(?) Stilinski #Maczysz Stilinski #Female Stiles name is Maczysz #Maczysz Stilinski is Stiles Stilinski #female stiles #Rule 63 Stiles #Steter #Peter Hale #Referenced #Teen Wolf #Time Travel au #au #Character Death #After Death monologue

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manifestoonmoralmanlove · 5 years

Text

Gormless Ch. 13 – Everything’s awful but lesbians are in fact REAL

A well-meaning friend gave me a book series that is hilariously bad. The first book was Souless and my riffs were entitled brainless. This second book is entitled Changless and these riff are then gormless.

I mean to say I have entitled them gormless! Not that my riffs are dumb, and the effort I spend on them stupid since I’m the only one who enjoys them. HAHA!

The story is SUPPOSED TO be about how a badass lady wearing a rad-looking carriage dress hits baddies with her umbrella and bangs her hot werewolf husband. In reality it’s mostly poor attempts at being witty, flirty, and superior.

For the last book check out the brainless tag.

If you want the TL;DR version but want to read these new riffs anyway?

This story is set in supernatural Victorian steampunk England. Alexia is our NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS protag. She is a soulless, which means she’s able to negate the abilities of vampires and werewolves by touching them. She’s recently married a big oaf, named Lord Connel Maccon. He’s the manchild in charge of the supernatural police with a zillion dollars and he’s totes super hot too ok. Their relationship is mostly arguments about how Maccon can’t tell her fucking anything. Alexia has also recently become head of ~Soulless affairs~ in Queen Victoria’s government. She has a dumb friend named Ivy, a gay vampire friend named Akeldama, a family who’s evil because they do the same shit as her but while being blonde, and most importantly Alexia is better than everyone cause…cause.

Last time on Gormless:

Turns out a preserved corpse of a Soulless person that the Kingair pack stole from Egypt is causing the humanization problem. However somebody is after that coprse, and knocked LeFoux and Lord Maccon unconscious. Alexia gonna have to fix everything herself HURMPH!

Chapter 13 – Everything’s awful but lesbians are in fact REAL

Wowzers! Here’s the climax chapter. It won’t be the height of tension, but it will be the height of my irritated confusion. My apologies for length, it was a long chapter, and full of a lot of bullshit. LET’S GO!

We get a rare good moment where Alexia looks at the passed out Maccon and worries about him. She makes a cute note about how his eyelashes are super long and once when she commented that she was jealous of his long eyelashes he tickled her neck with them. This will be the last genuinely good thing in this chapter.

Alexia goes to a recently woken up LeFoux. LeFoux is all distraught, and there’s a bullshit line about how being upset made her look slightly more feminine and Alexia, “Didn’t know if she liked that.”

CAUSE SADNESS IS A WOMAN DISEASE AND ALEXIA ONLY CARES WHAT LEVEL OF CURRENT FUCKIBLITY YOU ARE! THE LEVEL OF EGOMANIA ON THIS BITCH!

LeFoux is like, “Hey don’t be mad at the woman who shot me and your husband. She didn’t ~mean~ it.”

YES TURNS OUT THE BIG BAD OF THIS BOOK SERIES I FUCKING CALLED BACK IN CHAPTER 4 OF THE LAST BOOK! It was Angelique! GOSH WHAT A FUCKING TWIST! YOU KNOW THE CHARACTER WHO, AT THE END OF THE LAST BOOK WAS DESCRIBED IN TEXT AS A BLATANT SPY! Yet the entirety of this book Alexia thinks its LeFoux and goes so far as to think she’s faking being shot? She turns out of the room and all the werewolves are sleeping and instead of…I DON’T KNOW letting them know she’s identified the attacker? She just huffs that she must do everything herself.

GOD STUPIDITY AND A POINTLESS MARTYR COMPLEX IS REALLY FUCKING HOT! ALSO I’M GLAD THAT EVERY SINGLE WEREWOLF FELT COMFORTABLE FALLING ASLEEP WITH AN ACTIVE SHOOTER IN THEIR CASTLE THAT WAS EVEN ABLE TO PUT DOWN THEIR FORMER ALPHA!

So Alexia goes to the room where the mummy is, but Angelique is not there. So instead of disposing of the body that Angelique is clearly after, she’s runs up to the Aethongrapher room. Angelique is there and shoves her aside to escape the room. So they go back to the mummy room, and Angelique is trying to drag the body out of there. Alexia goes to shoot some of her sleepy darts at Angelique but just as she’s about to Ivy shows up to stand in front of Alexia and whine that Alexia is being callous to her. But as I have described before, this is not Ivy’s fault. Ivy’s kink is inconvenient timing. Blithering obtusely in front of a weapon while the bad guy gets away makes her CUM. The TV hasn’t been invented yet so she can’t stand in front of it during a crucial part of a show/game. SHE HAS TO FIND SOME WAY TO GET OFF!

DO YOU WANT THIS WOMAN TO NEVER ORGASM!?

Despite that Alexia is able to catch up to Angelique and knocks her unconscious with a hefty umbrella swing. She takes the mummy outside, and dissolves it using the acid function on her umbrella. I mean, I was hoping she’d go whole hog and it would come to life and fight them but WELP guess that would be stupid fun and we’re only allowed one of those things in this book and it ain’t fun. When the corpse is just about pudding, Alexia goes back in and hears Ivy scream.

OH NO!

We take a break from this regularly scheduled programming to swap over to Biffy, Channing, and Lyall at the Westminster Hive. Biffy apparently snuck in and broke their Aethonographer. This is just to let us all know that the message Angelique tried to send before didn’t get through. I mean targeting the Aethongrapher only, doesn’t make any sense AT ALL from their perspective and honestly you could have written the entire thing out to tighten up the story. But like I guess it was real important to have that bit where Alexia has to try 2 rooms to find Angelique.

FUCK ME RUNNING!

So Ivy screamed because a woken up Angelique puts a knife to Ivy’s throat and is leading her up the stairs. All the werewolves are there as well as Tunstell. Tunstell gets out the magic gun, which by the way they start calling the ‘tun tun’ which makes a lot of sense and is totes keeping it tense. Shouldn’t it be the tun gun? WHATEVER!

They go up to a room and Angelique makes Ivy open a window. Meanwhile Tunstell tries to sneak around the side while Alexia tries to distract her. By the way this is the first time we hear that Tunstell is apparently a big dude. I had totally assumed that since he was described as a meek servant/actor coated in freckles that he was a 5’5” adorable waif boy who weighs 110 lbs on a good day. I’m glad you waited till now to tell us that. After a bit of a scuffle Tunstell wrestles the knife away, saves Ivy, and Angelique tumbles to her death out the window. The gun is never shot and Chekov leaps out to die on the cold hard Scottish earth like Angelique.

Apparently there was a rope ladder leading down that window that Angelique was really hoping she’d be able to escape down, with the knife to the throat of a hostage? OKAY THEN! When Angelique woke up, why didn’t she just try to make a break for it, to avoid being persecuted by the supernatural police? What was the point of the hostage thing? Why did she have this rope ladder prepared?

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST BOOK! IT’S NOT GOOD ACTION IF THE ENTIRETY OF IT FALLS APART LIKE A BISCUIT IN TEA WHEN YOU ASK LITERALLY ANY QUESTION REGARDING IT!

You know what would have been a thousand times better? If Alexia goes to question a recently recovered Angelique, and Angelique in a panic puts a knife to a dipshit Ivy’s throat by a window. Angelique demands to be given the body. Alexia explains that she destroyed it. Angelique at first doesn’t want to believe it but eventually concedes. Saying something along the lines of, “…If I can’t deliver the body…then…then they’ll kill me…” The people there try to reassure her that they can protect her. However in Angelique’s stunned grief she slips from the window, Tunstell is able to grab Ivy but not Angelique. Was it an accident? Did she want to die on her own terms? WE’LL NEVER KNOW? The chapter ends where the crowd goes to check on her and Angelique is FOR SURE dead. LeFoux seeing the shattered body of her former lover, clutches Alexia and wails.

BUT NOPE IN FACT THIS HAPPENS NEXT!

So Alexia is the only one to go check the body. Angelique is in fact dead, but turns into a ghost. Angelique tells Alexia to perform the exorcism, which means kill her for real real. Alexia wants questions answered first. Angelique says she’ll answer 10, Alexia agrees to this.

So like…why are you going to respect her wishes now? Doesn’t she need to be persecuted under the law, or have proof of the Hive’s wrongdoing? You maybe want to give LeFoux a chance to talk to her, since she was obviously really upset and protective of her before? GUESS NOT!

Angelique, before the questioning is revealed to have done this whole task for the immortality, since she previously and is still working with the Westminster hive. She is GIVEN immortality in the form of being a ghost and is immediately like NOPE I’D RATHER DIE. HUHHHH? MAYBE IT’S NOT IDEAL VAMPIRE THING BUT REALLY?

GOD WHATEVER IT JUST GETS WORSE ANYWAY!

Angelique says that it wasn’t her who tried to break into her bag or poison her. Alexia asks if LeFoux is trying to kill her, Angelique says probably not cause you’d already be dead. AND LIKE WE ESTABLISHED THIS EXACT ANSWER TO THIS SAME QUESTION BEFORE. WHY ARE YOU WASTING YOUR QUESTIONS YOU COMPLETE IMBECILE!

It’s revealed that Quensel, the kid LeFoux was taking poor care of before, is Angelique’s son. Angelique was trying to hide the fact she had a son from the vampires cause the vampires won’t turn her if she has any family. Apparently LeFoux, was trying to get Angelique to take care of her son and to stop the vampire biz by threatening to tell the Vampires about her son. That didn’t work apparently. We also confirm that yes, SHOCK OF SHOCK, Angelique and LeFoux used to be an item for many years. So we have this OH SO DELIGHTFUL paragraph:

“Alexia had seen something of the kind in her father’s collection, but she had never imagined it might be based on anything more than masculine wistfulness or performances put on to titillate a John’s palate. That two women might do such things voluntarily with one another and do so with some degree of romantic love. Was that possible?”

(Irritated Stare with the phrase [stares in gay judgement])

You’re 26 years fucking old, you’re well aware that gay men exist, LeFoux has been hitting on her blatantly this entire book and has been pretty much screaming how much of a lesbian she is. Like you can have Alexia in bi-denial, sure, but for her not to even realize two girls can have sex and romance at one another outside of men JACKING IT!? FUCKING WOW! I want to be clear and say that there is a myth that Queen Victoria didn’t think lesbians were real when she was enforcing the no homosexuality laws. TO BE CLEAR THAT IS A MYTH! PEOPLE IN VICTORIAN TIMES KNEW LESBIANS WEREN’T JUST A MALE CREATED HORNY MYTH LIKE HOW WOMEN LOVE THE TASTE OF JIZZ, YOU THICK-HEADED TWIT!

The last questions that Alexia asks basically are, “Is it possible for women to love each other?” and “You’re a cold bitch aren’t you?” QUEEN PICKED TOP INVESTIGATOR HERE! She then FOR REAL kills Angelique. Also I’m glad she didn’t ask Angelique what they were planning on doing with the humanization corpse, because that mystery is probably what the entirety of the 3rd book is about.

So we head back in the castle to try to wrap this all up, and boy is it pointlessly messy. I’m going to recount the items in order, so you TOO can realize what a clusterfuck this is.

Alexia tells LeFoux that Angelique is dead which makes LeFoux cry. Alexia has a normal human response to seeing a woman she likes grieving.

“Lady Maccon envied her skill of crying with aplomb. She herself went all over splotchy, but Madame Lefoux seemed to be able to execute the emotional state with minimal fuss.”

By performing some pretty sweet mental gymnastics to make it about herself. CONGRATULATIONS! She does later say that the scene was painfully sad…but…your first thought, and the one you dedicate more than a sentence to is… “I wish I could cry as hot as she could?” MOTHER OF FUCK LADY!

Maccon takes Alexia aside and explains that LeFoux and he are besties despite not interacting with her at all this entire book. He told his BFF4EVAH to keep an eye on Alexia. Don’t know why he would have lied about this? Maybe Alexia would have felt patronized? Alexia was attacked 5 times last book and needed to be saved 3 of those times. There’s nothing wrong with that ratio, but there’s also nothing wrong with wanting to have back up if you’re in a dangerous profession. Besides that the two both love science and gadgets, and if he couldn’t predict that LeFoux would awaken his wife’s bisexuality too, it seems silly to lie to her about it.

But my pity for Alexia runs dry again when, upon hearing Maccon and LeFoux are buds…she accuses Maccon of sleeping with LeFoux. And it’s like…

(Honestly, you people, and by that I mean straight people…are ridiculous.)

If Alexia is bi, it don’t matter she’s still in denial and acting like a straight up straighty.

You just found out that lesbians are real and that LeFoux is one of them, and YOU were the one to almost cheat on him with her, and you ACCUSE HIM? Are you FOR REAL!? I mean this is just a set up for Alexia to realize SOME MORE that lesbians are real. I’m glad I’m reading one of those books where everything needs to be explained 5 times.

Alexia brings up the fact that Angelique turned into a ghost but exorcised her right away without considering if literally anybody else wanted to talk to her INCLUDING THE LONG-TERM –EX-GIRLFRIEND WHO WAS RAISING HER KID. LeFoux is rightly upset at this and Alexia retorts with

“There’s no need to wallow.”

Now even Lord Maccon steps in like, “THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, SHE’S RIGHTLY UPSET!” To which Aleixa points out OH SO RIGHTLY that LeFoux didn’t want to be girlfriends with Angelique again, so like…it makes no sense why she’d want to have some parting words or care about her living or dying.

THEN THIS TRANSITION SHEESH VERBATIM:

Lord Maccon looked at his wife appreciatively. “Good Lord, woman, how could you have possibly known that?”

“Well” – Lady Maccon grinned – “Madame Lefoux here did play a bit of the coquette with me while we were traveling. I do not think she was entirely shamming.”

I’m sorry what? We already established that LeFoux is a vagatrian and had a relationship with Angelique. Is she saying the fact she was flirted with PROOF that LeFoux is not in a relationship? Alexia, you were flirting back and you’re married. This is not a brilliant deduction. We only have this transition so that Alexia can brag about almost BUT NOT ACTUALLY cheating on her husband. And like…it’s one thing to take the piss out of him because he’s irrationally jealous. However Alexia herself was like REALLY, REALLY irrationally jealous a second ago and it’s not really irrational since Alexia might have had sex with her if she came to the conclusion earlier that girls can like other girls. SoOOoOOoOOoo great!

We continue to have pissing contests. Maccon is mad that Alexia never told him she was almost poisoned, even though you’d THINK Tunstell would have brought that up to him since he’s his servant and he was the one actually poisoned. LeFoux admits she was looking around for Alexia’s bag and that she wanted the humanization weapon too. However she wants it NOT because she’s in the Hypocras club, but in the Organization of the Brass Octopus (OBO.) The Organization of the Brass Octopus is a secret group of Scientists that is working to curb the power of Supernaturals and that the Hypocras Club was a ~militant branch~ of the OBO. Alexia is bothered that Maccon didn’t tell her about OBO, since YANNO Alexia spent half the book thinking that her crush LeFoux wanted to genocide people like her husband. Which yanno REALLY STOPPED HER FROM A LOT THERE! Alexia tries to ask more questions about OBO and Maccon just answers them all with, “But it’s a secret!”

Really love that Maccon gets super mad when Alexia doesn’t talk to him, but when she asks questions he huffs and won’t tell her. You could maybe argue that since it’s a secret society thing that Maccon shouldn’t tell her. He was sworn to secrecy or some shit. But like also…a branch of this club nearly killed them both… and she’s in charge of the entire English government’s Supernatural balance system….Maybe it’s okay for her to know a little about a powerful organization in that country that’s supposed to do the same thing?

WHATEVER!

We end with LeFoux admitting she was LOOKING FOR Alexia’s bag but never went through it or messed up her room to find it. Alexia for once has a normal reaction which boils down to, “FUCK THIS SHIT!” and storms out. CAUSE WHY BRING UP SHE WAS LOOKING FOR IT AT ALL? That is pointlessly confusing.

So below I made a little chart with how easily it could have been to make this conversation flow better. Even if you want to keep in jealousy pissing contest which is also an EVEN WOMEN WOULD SEX ME STUPID HUSBAND!

I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about editing books…but I feel as if either the editors gave this a soft touch. It seems like a simple fix that could have tightened it up and made it an easier read.

Say something nice Faps:

It was technically a climax

They technically tried to wrap things up

It has been acknowledged that yes LESBIANS ARE REAL

I did genuinely like Alexia having a vulnerable moment looking upon her knocked out husband and feeling protective of him.

#gormless #senseless #riffs #riffing

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thanatophobix-blog · 5 years

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🖊 + all do it coward

Yelling about my OCs // ACCEPTINGRabbit, you are a fool and so am I. I’m just gonna, like… give a headcanon per OC on this blog under the cut.

Achilles - His semblance is called Disconsolate. It makes others able fully feel what he is feeling, from absolute sorrow, blind rage, to pure joy, right down to the last ounce of pain he gets from a paper cut. It can take over other people’s rational thinking processes and make them react as he would, which is often never good (and leads to his death).

Alexus - She doesn’t have any real senses, even if she says its a simulated thing, she has none. She’s a cpu program! HOWEVER, she can still smell charred flesh from when her girlfriend shocked & burned to death. It’s burned into her mind even though her mind can no longer comprehend what a sense is.

Artharrachadh - Doesn’t actually like 7/11 or gas stations, they just give off the vibe he strives for in life. The mystery, the scandals, the robberies. It’s so out in the middle of nowhere that its perfect. Although, thanks to 7/11 he developed an addiction to slushies. Cherry/blue raspberry, for our god of liminal spaces, baby!!

Cas - Her powers have limits. Without her power retaining equipment (essentially, a choker, two bracelets, and two ankles), she would have ripped herself into shreds after a few usages of her powers. Her speed could send her cells into different dimensions, her ‘pyrokinesis’ could set herself on fire since she is not impervious to fire, and if she uses her luck too much, karma returns the favor with brain bleeds.

Cephriel - As angelic as they are, they are more monstrous and demonic than they’d like to admit. They eat sinners alive for nourishment, but it is all for the holy conquest. Plus, the more souls they consume, the stronger they get. The stronger they get, the quicker they can accomplish the holy conquest.

Dolores - She really wanted to get back in touch with her son but she could never find him. She went back to LA looking for him only to find that he’d been adopted and shipped off to Germany. She felt so, so horrible. It’s her fault that he was sent off to a totally abusive household and she lives with that guilt so, so horribly.

Dominique - Has never once acted like a true criminal, more like a robin hood type figure. He doesn’t kill, he doesn’t hurt, he doesn’t do anything like that, the worst he does is steal from the rich and give to the poor. Either through charity donations or through mysterious wads of cash showing up at people’s houses. However, since he steals from the rich and not the poor, that makes him evil for the media.

Eirian - Has never been one for conflict. Avoided school drama all throughout high school (minus his tiff with Lizzie which was created by him being an idiot). Now he’s running from town to town with an eldritch being chasing after him with so many guns in the back seat of his truck its almost fucking criminal. He’s learned, so, so much combat things that it scares him. He’s practically a weapon himself.

Erik - Has the hardest time keeping the ‘we’re all monsters or demons’ secret a secret out of all of Clearfall’s citizens, and he’s the one that made the whole thing happen. Lucky for him, Corey Booker, the human reporter, is kinda dense. Unlucky for Erik, he thinks that Corey is hot shit and would gladly sell him his soul to stay in Clearfall. But, for Corey to stay in Clearfall, he’d have to be turned into either a werewolf or a vampire but he doesn’t want to do that because Erik’s both a wimp and doesn’t wanna hurt

Eva-Marie - In Hell, everyone wears the sign of how their died. People shot have their bullet wounds, knife wounds, the blood loss makes you incredibly lethargic and cold, sickness makes you permanently sick and tired, burning makes you always feel like you’re on fire, and maybe you are! But Eva-Marie doesn’t show signs of her death, or at least, not if you’re not paying attention. She has perfect posture and never lowers her head, the thick choker on her neck is blood red, sometimes she starts choking and coughing up blood. She was killed via beheading, and she takes perfect care to make sure that her head never falls off.

Fane - Has extreme commitment and attachment issues because of how many loved ones he has lost. He couldn’t save… anyone. When one of his last surviving relatives, his great great great great hella fucking great nephew, Lucas, died, he was there. Fane was teaching him how to drive and they got in an accident because Lucas couldn’t take his fucking foot off the gas because he was scared shitless and they got whacked by a semi and Fane has never, ever forgiven himself for that. Or any other of the deaths.

Florian - Is destined to become fully evil, and will thrive in that evil. He was never meant to be a florist, to live and survive off of cuddles on couches and cheap pays for a good job well done. At the end of the day, he has a strong sadistic streak that was never fulfilled as a child. Florian is all smiles and no substance on the inside, and was going to kill himself if he ever had to live another second in that flower shop doing nothing, that’s what the explosion was, an attempt to end it. Now? He’s soft and sweet on the outside as a cover, and on the inside, he’s ready to seduce your husband and blow up your house.

Fritz - Doesn’t need to sleep and doesn’t sleep. You see, on his home planet, people move so fast that sleeping was essentially something of a social death sentence. Entire empires would rise and fall while one of them was asleep, your wife could start another family and leave you behind because you would be out cold for another millennia. SO! To bypass that, they engineered a serum that would alter their chemical makeup so they’d be constantly producing energy to replace sleep.

Henri - Does not miss being a royal. She knows that the second she gets back, she’ll be forced into an arranged marriage with a guy who a) she will never love because she is a lesbian to every degree and b) she hates anyway, the guy’s a fuckin’ douchebag to every degree. She just wants to stay in NYC with the punk rock and the grunge and the Crownweaver gig with her punk gf, Dex, and never look back.

Jack - Used to be a Team Spectre Admin. Dated Salem for years, was there when the whole team got launched under Salem’s reign. They were really, really into the whole thing too, believed that the world would be better if they could just wipe everyone’s memory clean and start over with the same people, but have everyone listen to a group ‘concerned about their health, their sanity and their well-being’. Eventually realized that it was all bullshit, all of it, shit, bullshit, and that Salem? Asshole! Shit boyfriend, shit person, shit… just shit. Left, went legit, went good.

Julia - Knows everything about you. She has no clairvoyance or telepathy or omniscience or anything like that, but she knows everything about you. She has connections, her connections have connections, she’s met practically everyone in town and if she doesn’t know everything about you when you first meet? You can be sure that she’s going to hunt down someone who at least knows something. She’s incredibly well informed, scarily well informed, and also good at social cues.

Kennedy - Killed a man in university. It was her first kill and by far, her favorite. The rush she felt, the understanding of why people murder for fun, it made her understand. She had a knife on hand, took it out of the restaurant she was eating at just beforehand and completely forgot about it, but she was glad she had it. She gutted him, top of the chest all the way down to the lower stomach, and she hanged him from a fire escape by his own intestines. He was coming onto her and she was not about that life, rest in peace, fucker.

Klaus-Michael - Has a really hard time hiding his job from his father, aka the Spider-Gold job. Yes, his father is in Germany and Klaus-Michael himself is in NYC, however, it is a requirement between the two that they have a video call once a week. He comes home after fighting off an army of bad guys with so many bruises and so many cuts and dings and busted lips and broken bones and casts and oxygen tanks that his dad should be suspicious, especially since his dad is a genius. But, Klaus-Michael always seems to have some sort of excuse tucked up his sleeve.

Liz - Finds Atlantis. She does! With help, she arrives, and, unlike the dis.ney movie, there is no one alive. Skeletons line the streets of the drowned city, the location is crumbling, and she is horrified. The haunted location gives her the creeps the second she is in there, and for good reason, because something is watching her. Not something living, but machinery, and once it catches up to her, it brands her on her side for the rest of her life. A marking, a warning.

Lizzie - Has slight celestial heritage. Didn’t think Arhkangelskaya was chosen as her last name for a reason? It was! While she doesn’t have archangel blood per say, she has guardian angel blood, and that’s what brings her back (her ghost back) from the dead to look after Eirian’s dumb fucking ass. The guardian angel blood comes from her great grandfather who was her great grandmother’s guardian angel, ever since then, the arhkangelskayas have returned as ghosts to the person they feel needs the most help.

Lori - Is destined to die at the age of twelve. In a way, she feels invincible because who in their right mind would kill a child? She thinks, that, because she’s so young, nobody is gonna raise a finger against her when she walks in to kill them, because she thinks that they don’t think that she’s going to kill them! And then, one day, she realizes that everyone is an assassin and assassins don’t have rules, assassins just want money. And, on that day, that is when she dies.

Lukas - Is not out for anyone but himself and his town. If you die, and it’s his fault, it’s not on his conscience. He’s not here to fix your problems, even though he fixes way too many of them anyway, he’s here to get the money and go. He’s here to get enough cash to either buy enough medicine to last him and his hometown years and years and years, essentially ridding them of their poisoning, or, he is going to use that money to entice scientists to search for a cure. He’s tired of having slag course through his veins, it hurts, more than he likes to admit.

Lux - Is not impervious to fire. If she emits it from her body, she only does so from her hands for this reason, she’s not some hum.an tor.ch lookin’ chick, she’s completely human to every regard and her powers are created by machines. She can use her powers of vibrating molecules to a frequency on objects that she is not holding that are within close range, but she can also ‘set the air on fire’ (more like oxidation). She doesn’t realise this, but its how she makes her fireballs. The palms of her hands are incredibly scarred.

Madeleine - Killed a man in self defense and nobody will ever, ever know about it. Or, at least, she hopes so. She doesn’t want anybody to find out about it, because she knows that she’d be sent to jail. Sure, it started out as self defense when the main pulled out a gun at her at semi-close range in an alley way after a case where she sent a criminal away for life and she stabbed him through the heart with her rapier. It was when she took the gun and the sword and started going overkill with panic that it became less about self defense and more like making sure that that guy would never come back. She got an old friend with connections to clean the scene.

Marque - Isn’t trying to provide chaos to provide the world with equal opportunity to rise from the ashes and anarchy as a new, better evolved race, he’s doing it so he can control Giratina and take over the Reverse World. If he takes control of the pokemon, then he is also, by default, the master of the Reverse World. If he allows other to live within the other dimension, he will become their leader by default. And, by causing chaos in Kalos, Sinnoh and the other regions, he will have more and more people wanting to move into the Reverse, gaining more and more subjects and more and more power.

Matthew - Will not be able to survive if he ever leaves the Entity’s realms. His body is emaciated beyond what should be humanly possible (not like the hag is, more like he’s 6′4″ and 90lbs) and he’s surviving based on the Entity alone. His blood is complete and utter drugs at this point and he’s fragile. He’s skeletal, but in the same way that b.ane works, the drugs kind of give him a boost? They give him the strength to keep moving, but he will die if all of them ever get out because he was only a little better than this before he got into the realms.

Myles - Is suffering from unknown internal damage thanks to the facial scar that he is unaware of. The deal with this is, the scar pushed the outer layer of metal inward and, while it hasn’t damaged any of his inner workings yet, if anything happens to his face… welp! A good hit to the cheek, falling head first, anything like that will push the sharp metal further inward and damage his internal wiring. This could potentially be fatal depending on how hard the hit is, or how many times he gets hit. He is very stunned after a good head injury.

Ollie - Is a little hypocrite His whole episode is about the importance of not doing drugs, but in itself, the episode really leans towards how ‘some drugs are good’. Big companies will gladly sponsor a tv show into corrupting the minds of children to think that certain drugs are alright to take by hiding information about them, just like the tobacco industry in the past with cigarettes. Ollie, the pill bottle filled with prescription drugs, may say that some are bad, but he himself offers the pills he contains to the members of the show, getting them addicted, like a fucking hypocrite.

Richard - Wants to move onto news reporting on television, but is held back by Thomas. Their personalities are incredibly similar thanks to the method of their creation, but Richard’s has always been a little bit louder and more personable and much, much more suited for news reporting. He’s always taken to celebrity incidents more, so he’d be suited for something like…. eta.lk or en.tertainment toni.ght. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to report a death on tv that you caused?

Salem - Does not understand that he is in the wrong. Like, you know how some villains understand that to do some good things, you need to break a few eggs? And they deal with that guilt?? LIke uh, shit, like Negan had guilt on cheating on his wife and all that, like they can realize that they’ve done bad shit? Salem is so insecure that he projects all guilt and anger and anything wrong onto other people. World falling apart? People losing their families to memory loss? Not his fault, all yours.

Shae - Never wanted to be the hero. She’s watched too many superhero movies to see how it all turns out. Metr.oman? From Meg.amind? Yeah, she doesn’t wanna turn out like that, but she knows that she’ll burnout from all the people saving and all the heroics and that one day she might just have to kill her best friend so as sunshine-y as she is she’s always dealing with this black cloud that hangs over her head and heart and it hurts her that the world is always so in danger and she can only do so much. She wants to have a break.

Sinclair - Has never lived for himself. He only ever helps others. When Jack disappeared, he took it upon himself to defeat the Team Spectre residing within the League. He took over so that people could still experience the League even though he didn’t actually technically become the champion. After all that happens, he leaves to go help others because he has nothing else to live for, he doesn’t know what to do but help. Even as a child, he poured himself into others rather than building himself up.

The Boys - Used to travel the world to sate their hunger before fully settling in their new home, a now dead, formerly economically booming, rural town that still sees some people coming in. When they travelled, they were not known as the boys, more as The Figure, as they did not hivemind as much. It is only thanks to their new setting where they take place in the high school like to eat teenagers that they hivemind as seven different boys (the most they can manage with having separate personalities and appearances while still being connected).

Thomas - Once tried to have a family outside out of Richard without Richard knowing to see what it was like. They aren’t connected other than their purpose, so they share no hivemind, just basic personality. He soon realised that a family would not be for someone like him, as they would always die before him, leading him to fake his death so it’d make human sense. He lost track of where his descendants are now, however, he doesn’t care because he’s dependant on Richard.

Virgil - In Agents of Mayhem, Virgil becomes M. Squelette, the title gained when becoming the leader of the Ivory Skeletons. Either way, his Saints Row verse, he still was a member of that gang, but he left the gang life there to move to Stilwater and then got rescooped into it. He has a lot of Saints ink, the fleur de lis and all that shit, one on his neck, y’know. However, he has a piece of Skeletons ink that he refuses to blot out because its… really nice. Like the tattoo artist obviously worked really hard on it and as loyal as he is to the Saints, he also has a large respect for the arts so there is no way in hell he’ll blot out something so nice looking. Besides, he can just pass it off as something he got when he was drunk considering that he never talks about his time as a Skeleton to anyone.

Woodland - Learned how to ‘speak English’ thanks to the dying screams of the people she killed and ate alive. Some people would try and bargain with her, others would just string together a stream of ‘shit’s and ‘no’s. Of course, this doesn’t help when learning English, as you only learn certain words and all their connotations are fucked and disjointed. She tries her best though. Also, she doesn’t actually have a name. Woodland is just a term.

Xander - Found out that he was a god when he didn’t die when he should have. By all means, he should have died. He was in a car accident with some sorta not really friends (all his other friends were in the other car, thank gods) and all the other ones died horrifically. Someone got flung out the windshield and into a tree, someone stepped out of the crash and got hit by a passing truck, when the car caught on fire, two people were stuck inside. Only Xander lived, but he was in a hospital with wounds that should have never healed, but they did. He then got a message from his fathers telling him about his true parentage.

#Ah ha ha. Bless your soul. (answered)#death mention //#suicide mention //#blood mention //#burn mention //#abusive relationship mention //#child death mention //#anorexia mention //#drug mention //#that is a lot of mentions #yikes #this took WAY too long but theres 37 oc headcanon like things #enjoy #time to suffer

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mairzymarzipan · 5 years

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Night of the Full Moon Character Reviews: The Big Bosses(Minus Werewolf)

Hello again

I know I said I’d be talking about the Hunter, Old Mage, Fallen Priest and so on today, but I realized that those characters were actually more interesting in the context of other characters, so I put them off for later. I decided instead to talk about the main bosses of the game, as it so happens, are the closest people to Red Riding Hood. Because this game wants to be an ironicy soap opera/anime that way.

When I say Big Bosses, I mean that you always fight one of these characters at the end of the game. Unless you’re like me and you start all over at the end because you’re bored and tired of all four of them playwise.

Werewolf

Wait, no, never mind. This is another one of those characters who’s more interesting in the context of different, non-Red Riding Hood Characters. We’re saving this boi for later. But, you shouldn’t too surprised, if you read the title. Instead, I’ll just use this space to talk about a mechanic.

Throughout the game, you can get ‘courage’ and ‘reputation’ points by talking to characters. Very very generally speaking, you get courage points by doing brave things, and you get reputation points for doing nice things. You also can get courage points when a character talks shit about the werewolf, and reputation points when a character talks shit about the witch. So naturally, if you have more courage in the end, you get to fight the wolf, and if you have more reputation, you get to fight the witch. I guess what they’re going for is only a meanie would fight this doggo? And the witch is who any empathetic person would hate???

I feel like the latter is not the case, but more on that later.

Witch

“Only your Hope family can lift the dark magic curse. This is what the priest is most afraid of. That’s why monsters run wild on full moon nights. First they made your grandmother disappear and then they drew you into the forest...but they never anticipated that you would make it this far.”

By the way, you’re part of a prophecy. Only someone in your family can lift the curse on the forest. jsyk

Yeah so, as you see, the Witch’s description does not really tell us much about the witch herself. This description also pretty unique in that none of the other character descriptions go into the second person like this. The description also kind of hints that Red dies in the timeline where she fights the witch, so that’s depressing.

Nah, to figure out what the witch is about, you have to delve into the fragments around her.

So, you actually do encounter the witch earlier in the game. In the third or sometimes second chapter, she will recruit to find some magic apples she lost. She makes a mention about suspecting a queen of stealing them. The apples, I guess, are just lying around on the forest floor, and you bite into each of them bc you’re a dumb lkid. Each apple changes your stats by a few points and the witch does not at all seem upset that you hand her a bunch of bitten fruit at the end. In fact, she offers you the choice of two random buffs, so that’s fun.

You’re likely to hear about her way before that, though, depending on who you talk to. Generally anyone who’s been cursed feels like it’s the witch’s fault.

But if you choose to fight her(or you might not get a choice in the matter) she accuses you of stealing said apples. She’ll also talk to you throughout the battle until you defeat her- a trait that only the big bosses and a few of the newer ones have. Her lines...make her sound pretty unhinged. She’s speaks of disbelief that you would do such a horrible thing, and threatens you with with her magic, and talks about how misunderstood she is.

When you defeat her, she’s got a really interesting line, tho.

“No! I don’t want to fight you! I can’t!”

Huh.

Before I move on, let me talk about this other witch character.

Yep. That sure is the art style this game is going with.

So this is one of the shopkeepers. There are four different shops you can find along the way, only two of which have characters you can see in them. This character is known as the Witch Apothecary...but you can only see that on the outside of her store. Otherwise she’s just called “Witch”.

The thing is, along the way, characters will talk about the Witch and, they don’t specify that it’s not the one with the white hair. They just talk about The Witch like she’s the only witch that matters. So is this woman not really a witch? A witch wannabe? Nah, we already have one of those characters. Could it me that the shopkeepers don’t actually exist in the story of the game? That would bum me out, bc there’s this lesbian owl I want to be real.

But...I think they’re the same person using shapeshifting. Or if you want a really wild theory, maybe there are time travel hijinks and she’s the Magic Apprentice grown up. But I’m going to go ahead with the former.

Anyhoo. I like the witch. I’m gonna give her 🍎🍎🍎🍎 four apples

Priest

“They mistakenly thought that on the full moon night they could help the monsters quietly eliminate Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. Once the Hope family was wiped out, the legend of lifting the curse on the Dark Forest would disappear completely. However, they didn’t expect they would have to go personally and pay such a high price to fight their enemy. When the priest fell, the cursed monsters reverted to their human forms and the Dark Forest was no longer covered by snow all year round, but the church’s blind greed still remains.”

Again, not much is said about the priest himself. The most interesting thing here is that he apparently is the keystone holding the curse together. Interesting, because he seems to be letting the witch do all the work for him. Usually in these stories, you have to kill the person who casts the spell to break the spell, not just their friend. Is it because he, himself, is a stone? That is to say, he turns into a statue sometimes.

Why the heck is he having her turn all his enemies into cartoon monsters instead of killing them, anyway? Don’t tell it’s to make the game family friendly, bc in one of these timelines a child kills another child.

Honestly, the priest/church just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. His big plan is selling everybody from his town as slaves. Gross. And the way he accomplishes this is by...making it snow all the time, and turning people into vampires and fire bears? What?

He is. A delight to fight. I’m being sarcastic. He’s a religious edgelord who likes to go on about how humans are sinners and everyone deserves to be punished. Also she cheats by turning into stone. Eh.

It feels like someone just spun a wheel for of evil traits and just stuck them together haphazardly. His evil plan is...human trafficking! His personality is...self righteous! His means is...tf! His super power is...turning into a statue!

He’s the biggest of bads but also not that thought out. He’s super important to the over-arching plot and yet I have no idea why this guy does what he does. I’m gonna give him 🗽🗽 two statues.

Mystery Men

idek why this person is called “Mystery Men”. I’m guessing it’s supposed to be mystery man? Or mysterious person or something? I know I haven’t talked about the art much but, I do appreciate how much their face looks like a dog snout and her hood looks like dog ears. It’s a neat touch.

This description was actually changed. The new text is longer and more awkwardly worded. I don’t like it! And I don’t get why it happened.

But, yeah. The very last enemy of the game- who you can only reach by playing through at least four times and defeating all three others- is your Grandmother! Le gasp!

So what exactly went wrong with her? Oh, nothing, she just has a big wolf growing out of her back(told you the concept was backed up by canon)

Is this her daemon or patronus or something? I have no idea. I’ve been calling her a werewolf sometimes, tho, bc she’s better at being a werewolf than the titular werewolf. Which is to say she can revive instead of just healing. Her buffs and deck change throughout the fight. She’s a long battle, fun, except for her ear piercing voice. She sounds a bit possessed.

I’ll give her 👁️👁️👁️ three big eyes. She’s a fun battle, but I always mute it. Also not real big on how the text got changed for the worse. But she does add some good details to the story.

In Conclusion...

Grandma’s text tells us a few things.

1. Not only is the Hope family connected to this prophecy, but family members actually have the power to control the curse. That leads me to believe that the person who got the curse started was a Hope themself.

2. The church came along long after the curse was in full swing. So the priest is not responsible for it. Whether he’s a Hope himself is not relevant.

We also know these things:

1. The witch is still the one casting all the tf spells, which is part of the curse.

2. There are two timelines were Red has a natural gift for magic

3. In the Little Witch timeline, the Witch is teaching Red magic. On top of that she’s v patient, which is surprising, for some reason.

4. The Witch seems a little out of touch with reality. She sends you to find apples, and then yells at you for stealing them. Almost like she thinks you’re another person.

5. The witch verbally expresses her desire not to fight you when she realizes who you are.

I have to conclude that the Witch is a Hope. A Hope who’s close enough to have a fondness for Little Red Riding Hood, and is invested in her well being/education. And yanno, is turns her enemies into pig people because she can.

She helps you on your quest by giving you one of her own. But earlier on, she takes on the form of the other witch offer you potions and the like. She even gives you the first one in each chapter for free.

“My potions can change your appearance!”

Of course she can’t get too close to you. She can’t reveal that she’s helping you. Hence putting on a new face when she’s a ‘good’ witch. One wonders if she’s trying to hide her identity from you, or the people she’s allied with.

Hey can we look at her description again?

Red doesn’t get addressed in the second person in any of the other descriptions. There is a character who talks about his life in the first person, and we’ll get to him. But this is odd to me.

What if Red isn’t being addressed here? What if it’s someone else? What if it’s the Witch?

What if the Witch was captured and ensnared in the priest’s plot? What if he messed with her memory? So then who is she? Red’s sister? It seems like she’s been working with the church a lot longer than Grandma’s been missing. Also Grandma went into the woods on her own accord. You could say that the grief the church caused her *made* her go out, but it seems weak.

So maybe a Hope in another generation, who lost her grandmother to- either the church or monsters? Was it this other Grandmother who *started* the curse?

Dude, what if she’s your Mom?

What if instead of killing her the priest did...something...scared her enough to get her to work for him. And messed with her memory so she couldn’t conceive a way out? And sort of had her transfer the power of the curse to him so that people had to kill him to break it?

What if he had the Church Doctor scoop her brain out and put it in another lady’s head? Who knows.

I’m not certain about the witch being your mom. I think I would like that to be the case because it’s fun, but I’m not quite convinced yet. I AM certain, tho, that the Witch is a Hope, and she cares about you. She’s not just this cackling meanie turning people into flowers. She’s...complicated. And she needs help just as much as all the trapped monsters.

#mairzy posts #night of the full moon #notfm #the werewolf #the witch #the priest #the mystery men #headcanons #character reviews

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