#did i finish writing this to procrastinate on prepping for my interview tomorrow? maybe

[thosehallowedhalls]

Moment(s) of Truth

Book: Crimes of Passion

Pairing: M!Trystan Thorne x F!MC (Emma Rose)

Rating: General

Word count: 1059

Summary: They think they're being discreet. They're not. Trystan and Emma as seen through other people's eyes. Ft. Olivia Nevrakis.

Olivia

Her Eminence Anastasi Zimena of Lythikos?

Oh hell no.

Olivia’s focus zeroes in on the woman who walked in on Trystan Thorne’s arm two minutes ago, moving with an air that would lend credence to her claim – if Olivia didn’t know full well that there is no Her Eminence Anastasi Zimena, not in Lythicos, not in all of Cordonia.

For some reason, this woman and Trystan are pulling a con. Olivia intends to find out why.

She dismisses the impulse to march up to them and demand answers. Too unsubtle and inelegant, and Olivia Nevrakis is nothing if not elegant. So she bides her time. It doesn’t take long to figure out that “Anastasi” is conducting a series of interrogations, not that the lot of hopeless fools realize they’re being interrogated.

Whoever this Sonja person is, she’s important to her. She makes a mental note to learn who they both are.

She watches Trystan and “Anastasi” dance together, and… her identity isn’t the only thing they’re faking. There’s none of the ease and comfort of an established relationship, so whoever they are to each other, it isn’t a romantic partner. Still, they’re something. There’s a spark there. A personality clash, maybe. Or an attraction.

She watches Trystan walk away, with Anastasi hot on his heels, and makes her move. She puts one of her daggers to her lower back and whispers, “So… Anastasi of Lythikos, eh? What a pleasure to run into you here… cousin.”

2. Mafalda

Mafalda walks out of the police station and stops in her tracks. Trystan and Emma are standing close together, his hand on her shoulder and their faces inches apart.

“Aha,” she says under her breath. “I knew it.”

She’s had her suspicions about Emma’s relationship with her client/new partner/bane of her existence since the beginning. There’s been a certain… tension between from the moment Trystan told her he wanted to hire Emma, and Mafalda has spent the last few weeks wondering whether it stems from Emma’s annoyance with the arrangement or something more.

Looking at the two of them now, leaning closer to each other, she doesn’t have to wonder anymore.

“I’m not interrupting something, am I?”

They try to play dumb, which… seriously? She’s almost insulted. She’ll give Trystan a pass because he hardly knows her, but Emma should know better by now. She’s a detective, for god’s sake.

Oh, well. No one is particularly smart while within the grasp of infatuation, Mafalda thinks. She’ll be magnanimous and let this one go.

She fully plans to have a little fun at their expense, though. It’s the little things in life.

3. Lydea

Lydea wasn’t prepared to break a sweat, let alone get a serious workout this morning. After all, Trystan is good, but she’s better. Still, she knows very well how easily arrogance can lead to failure, so she takes half a dozen of her best people with her to arrest him. Just in case.

She wasn’t expecting the woman, but she shrugs it off as a mere detail. It’s hardly a surprise that her brother has company over. She even feels a little sorry for the traumatic memory this is bound to leave in the stranger.

Until she launches herself into the fray and takes three of Lydea’s best people down.

But she isn’t too upset. Trystan is clearly more worried about New York over there than he is about himself, so it’s an unintentional favor when she lands hard on her back and distracts him long enough for Lydea to incapacitate him.

It isn’t until the flight back home that Lydea realizes she’s seen that face before. In the intelligence files about Trystan’s new colleagues.

Detective Emma Rose.

“Oh, brother,” she says with a sigh. “Still mixing business with pleasure, I see.”

4. Ruby

Ruby hangs up the phone and turns to Luke.

“Babe, wake up.” She nudges him gently, then harder when he only grunts. “Wake up! Trystan needs us.”

He opens one bleary eye. “If he’s having a bagel emergency again, I swear to God…”

“Luke. He’s been arrested for his fiancée’s murder. He must be halfway to Drakovia by now.”

He sits bolt upright. “I’ll be ready in five.”

She jumps out of bed and drags on a pair of pants, going over her conversation with Emma again.

“Trystan was arrested this morning.”

“What? But…”

“I called Marguerite, her plane leaves for Drakovia ASAP. Are you in?”

“Obviously, but what happened?”

“His sister broke into his apartment this morning saying he was under arrest for Juliana’s murder. I tried to stop them, but there were too many of them. I’ll fill you in later, for now, try to meet us at the airport in thirty.”

Even as she begins to pack, Ruby’s mind keeps coming back to one question. What was Emma doing in Trystan’s apartment so early?

5. Olivia

She watches Trystan walk up to the dais, and maybe it’s because she remembers Liam’s coronation so well, but she easily recognizes the fear in his eyes.

But there’s also something else, something she can pinpoint precisely because it’s so unlike how it was with Liam. Where her best friend was proud to be taking on the mantle, Trystan looks like he’s walking to his execution. This isn’t a happy, if scared, man. This is someone who wishes he could be anywhere but here.

In many ways, he reminds her of Leo. But Leo had the good sense to recognize how unsuitable he was for the job and walk away in time. Apparently, that’s beyond Trystan’s capabilities.

But no. Olivia remembers the way he looked at Emma – first back at the Iverson gala, and again after his recoronation. She refuses to believe he’s going to be such as an idiot as to go through with this.

“We need someone who loves Drakovia above all else.”

She follows the direction of his gaze knowing full well what, or who, she’ll see. Really, it’s exhausting being right all the time.

Still, when Trystan places the crown on Lydea’s head, Olivia surprises herself by feeling almost sentimental. A king abdicating for the person he obviously loves? It’ll take a stronger person even than Olivia to be unaffected.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Liam whispers next to her.

She exchanges an amused look with Riley.

“Trust me, Liam. We know.”

[rusalkii]

It was Friday when I started this so it still counts, I guess.

From last time:

- Did financial things, did shopping/laundry etc, fooled around with HackerRank long enough that probably counts, yay me I guess. 

- Procrastinated sending the damn email. Procrastinated it more. Left it until today in the hope that admitting my shame to other people would motivate me to do it. Procrastinated writing this post instead of writing the email. Ugh. 

TODO tomorrow morning once I am fully awake: open original email. open paperwork. fill out paperwork 1. fill out paperwork 2. draft email with apologies for putting it off for TWO FUCKING MONTHS. obsess over the phrasing of it for no more than 10 minutes. send the email.

- Did not contact the other interview person because I forgot.

TODO: Adding this to my list for tomorrow in the place I actually check regularly.

In general, had a very lazy week, which I mostly planned for. Spent more time reading fanfic/playing stupid phone games/etc than ideal, but this was not supposed to be a Responsibilities week. Did not go dancing, but did go climbing and was going to go hiking until we looked at the humidity. I’ll (hopefully!) go dancing tomorrow and backpacking Monday-Tuesday. Failed to deal with LW meetup things like a decent human being. I think I’m developing an ugh field around organizing for it, which is Not Ideal. Did clean my soles (god they needed it). Saw my Shire and started my veil/scarf thing, finally. SCA people are so good. Being around them always leaves me wanting to make things. (No, I should not buy wool for a cloak without getting to touch it, even if it is $12/yard.)

Food things have not been ideal - might be generic appetite issues, might be lack of variety, might be lack of protein/some other nutrient? Generally have been much pickier than I tend to be, have had a lot of “nothing looks good” moments. For some reason keep craving my very specific Sweetgreens order I occasionally had for lunch at work? This could be either protein or literally any of the vegetables in it, or just a salience thing. Should try for at least slightly more protein, for a first pass - more nuts, peanut butter, maybe get myself pilmeni but that feels like cheating. I guess I could in fact get the Sweetgreens thing sometimes but that’s like 10% of what the three of us spend on groceries for a single meal and that’s kind of ridiculous and doesn’t actually feel worth $12. Should weight myself, if I drop below 100 that’s in Actually A Problem territory. Something to keep an eye on even though I’m not particularly inclined to worry unless it doesn’t change once I’m on an unlimited meal plan with enough variety and also shrimp.

Next week:

- Call TsL!

- ....book club. Please.

- Moving back to dorm logistics/most of actual packing. If you need anything from parents know this by the end of the weekend.

- Other prep for school as needed. (Textbooks, etc).

- General vague goal to be much more of an actual human doing actual human things. They don’t have to be productive things, you are totally allowed to read more studies on Tasmanian Devil cancers or something, but a lot less of the deaful lounging around under a blanket reading glowfic, please.

Good things but not necessary: Once again, dance; there’s a ballroom thing tomorrow evening. Getting yarn for a new crochet project would be good (maybe pick up what I have at home and start something, it’s not like I would mind another shawl), likewise warping my cards for something new. Plushki! Ordering a bag before school starts. Make my dad fix my sewing machine, which he broke, so I can finally finish the seam on that dress because I am not doing that by hand.

Meta notes: Took ~30 minutes. Reminder I had set for 4pm failed to go off, should fix that. Not sure what level of granularity I’m using here - this one is a bit more zoomed out, not putting in things like laundry, specifics of packing, etc. Those should be worked out in daily lists.

[canaryatlaw]

okay it’s late let’s go. today was pretty good. I was being lazy and just sleeping for a while since I didn’t really have anything I needed to do by a certain time today, so I eventually got up at like 2:30. I put on a podcast episode and spent a while making an instacart order for a couple things I was in need of and a few more random things, then watched some of the big family cooking showdown show which has been pretty entertaining so far. I spent a while looking through job listings and sending in some applications, it was fairly late in the day so I wasn’t really expecting to hear back today but I did get a reply on one of them which stated I had a “very impressive resume” and wanted me to come in for an interview next week, so that’s cool to hear. they do general family law and wanted someone with experience in different areas of it, which I certainly have so that works. I also sent an application in for one that could work, it was a somewhat short term gig (like 6 months, maybe more depending on workload) for a firm in Evanston (so the suburb just north of the city, and I live pretty far north so it wouldn’t be a terrible commute) that does social security disability appeals and wanted someone to write briefs and like, I could get into that really well. Writing has always been a strength for me (even if it gives me a lot of anxiety sometimes, but when I know I can do it it’s really good and super satisfying) and it’s definitely a cause I could get invested in. So I wrote up a paragraph specific to that in my cover letter and sent it off, I felt like I met their requirements listed out so we’ll see if I hear back from them I feel like there’s a fairly good chance there. the groceries came so I put those away, and a little past five I started prepping things for dinner. I was planning on making this cheesy taco pasta I made not too long ago that came out really well and was fairly easy to make (it’s legit just ground beef/turkey, pasta, tomato sauce, cheese, and taco seasoning). Jess showed up a few after six and I finished cooking dinner. The plan was to watch the BBMA’s for Taylor Swift and BTS, but apparently my tv doesn’t get the channel that was doing the red carpet coverage (the awards were on NBC but the red carpet was on “E!”??? weird) so before they actually started at 7 we ended up watching like, wheel of fortune while eating dinner lol. We correctly predicted that Taylor Swift would open the show, with Brendon Urie of course which was cool to see because we love him. Then it was a bunch of people we don’t care about for a while with the exception of like, Halsey, whose performance we did watch, but I was also in the kitchen for a bit because I wanted to make this recipe for a banana pudding cake (which, contrary to popular thought, doesn’t actually contain banana pudding) which took a little bit to put together and then bake for like 25 minutes, so I got that done and then went back to watching while it cooked. We also predicted they would put BTS significantly later in the show, so they didn’t end up coming on until like 9:30, although since they were in the front row we did get a ton of cameras panning towards them throughout the night. So we ate the cake and watched them perform with Halsey which was cool to see live. So it was a pretty solid performance. Jess headed home after they performed, and I watched the rest of the show into the news and then Jimmy Fallon (shaking it up a little bit with my late night hosts, but I still love Jimmy Kimmel the best) until I decided it was time to shower and start getting ready for bed, which I then proceeded to do and then procrastinated for a bit but ultimately ended up here, and that’s about it. Tomorrow I have the chiropractor and then I’m gonna go on a dinner date with the guy I got coffee with a few weeks back, so that should be fun. It’s almost 2 am so I should be getting to bed now, so I will be doing that now. Goodnight loves. Sleep tight.