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#from what I can remember id rank that as by far the most fucked up thing any villain does in the show and yes I’m including
seilon · 2 years
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thinking about the fact that pv said the weird goo clone things he was torturing trapping ko with were, indeed, just clones of his friends and not the real deal. but then went on to say something about them being cloned to have souls and actual feelings and memories so that they essentially are actual people and he IS killing them in front of ko every time. they’re just not the original two. like am I. am I just remembering that wrong or was that like. severely fucked up
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phoneybeatlemania · 2 years
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Hi, did you see Elliot Roberts' retrospective of John Lennon's discography? Any thoughts? I've seen it twice and still don't know what to think about its accuracy though I shared a lot of his opinions (musically).
Hiya @starlablog!
I really like this ask, since Ive been meaning to talk about Elliot Roberts for awhile now! Im actually quite familiar with him, since Ive been watching his Beatle videos since he started creating them! I think Ive seen all his videos so far? 
[Prefatory note: Ive seen all his videos I think, but cant remember most of them That Well, so im mostly going off of what I recall from his John Lennon video here since that ones still fresh in my mind]
Opinion time: I think theres definitely a gap in the YouTube market, in terms of Beatles content. Theres lot of people who discuss their discographies very analytically, but without being emotionally tuned in to other facets of their work (i.e understanding their works autobiographically/psychologically). As someone who cant read sheet music and frankly refuses to learn (my brother calls it “ugliness on a page” lol), this is SO FAR from the type of content I want to see—I love talking about their music, but Im always more interested in discussing how elements of their own emotions and psychologies and autobiographical circumstances etc. relayed into their discography. There are a few youtubers who Ive seen making videos focussing on their autobiographies, talking about the Controversial stuff (i.e Cynthia and Julian; Yoko) that we typically discuss on different forum platforms—but these videos are all about 5 minutes long, which really isn’t enough time to get a nuanced and well-sourced perspective on anything.
Even if were refraining from talking about their personal lives in a lot of depth, I still thinks it’s just way more FUN to discuss how creative they actually were in their music, and how they came to make their songs (i.e John telling George Martin he wants A Day In The Life to sound like the end of the world), instead of: “and then they used a C major!”. Like who cares??????? Not me :/
This is essentially why I Quite Like Elliot Roberts—because he’s the only YouTuber I know of who makes videos vaguely resembling the type of Beatles-content that would cater to me: not overly-analytical, employing elements of their autobiography into understanding them, and emotionally tuned in. Plus, he brings a bit of Fun and Personality to his discussions, that I don’t typically see with the (boring) music-analyists. 
However, I think his discussions of the band can be lacking in some respects: the main thing for me I think is that his understandings of the actual relationships between the band can be fairly surface-level, I guess. I like that he’s a little more emotionally-tuned into the dynamics between them then other youtubers, but I still think he could delve further into this element :/
I know Ive gone off on SUCH a tangent here, but this all essentially leads me to my opinion on his John discography ranking: I, like you, shared a lot of his opinions musically (I would say my favourite JL album is Plastic Ono Band; Whatever Gets You Thru The Night is a stone-cold SLAP etc.)—but again, its just........missing some things Here and There (and everywhere) in terms of analysis. Almost had to throw my laptop across the room when he demoted mother-fucking-I Know (I Know) to being just  a “cute” song. At least pick up on John literally lifting the opening rift to that song from Ive Got A Feeling, Elliot I am *begging* you (I will pay you real cash!!!!!!!!!). 
Personally, Id love to see YouTube videos with content more similar to the types of things we hear talked about on Beatles-podcasts or in books! Hence why in the summer, Im planning to maybe give this a go? I don’t think id make a particularly good YouTuber, but idk man, somebody’s gotta do it, so I guess I will lol. 
Anyway, not sure if Ive articulated this quite the way I wanted to, but please share your thoughts if you have any! :) 
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tua-hottakes · 3 years
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the only ranking-the-siblings post
1. Diego - to quote Helena Paparizou, "you are the one, you're my number 1" (the whole song is just my love letter to him tbh) this is rigged hes just the hottest and that gives him the most points. Irrefutably bisexual, the s1->s2 transformation from baby boi to daddy is honestly all the character development a show needs. Be honest is there ever a scene with him thats not the best scene youve ever seen? Ofc not, he's a gift wrapped in leather straps and knives
2. Vanya - god tier character, too sexy, certified bad bitch. You can fit so many issues in this lil bean (and so much dicourse too: is she evil? is she a lesbian? is she trans? probably not, but lets argue about it!!!) Bro she was ready to throw hands with Five and wouldve whooped his ass too, if she hadnt remembered hes like 12. She saw reginald and within 10 minutes of knowing him decided to throw smashed fruit at his face! "Oops" - A LEGEND. Also I stole her syle
3. Klaus - if you look up "gay af" you will probably see a picture of him. Everything he does is iconic and the peak of fashion and thats that. They nerfed him because otherwise there'd be no point in having any of the others around tbh, hed stop the apocalypse with the power of the rainbow, friendship, and being an actual decent human being.
4. Five - can't believe hes so far down, let's be honest, we're all obsessed with him, for one reason or another, the morality of which is questionable, but not as questionable as Five's own morality, holy shit this dude is sad, bad, and definitely mad. Both in the cute pathetic way that makes you wanna cuddle lonley fictional men to death and in the "is the protagonist of this show the real villian?" way. Love to see it and dive into the psychology of the bastard man. To Five, the joker is just a clown.
5. Luther - Everyone loves to hate him, but i hate that i love him. Easily the funniest character on the show. Doesn't matter if you like or dislike him, the funniest bits of s1 were all thanks to his this ridiculous himbo. Winner of the pathetic fictional man award, actually (Five came in 2nd place), but nobody wants to give him cuddles. Its like with those disabled dogs posts that people use for sympathy points, they take care of any ol broken animal, unless its too broken and not cute enough. Luther is the dog that wasnt cute enough for a heartwarming facebook post ;-;
6. Allison - Manipulative, patronising, and known to completely disregard people's free will, using her powers to get whatever she wants. Which I LOVE and would classify as baddest bitch behaviour, moving her to 2nd place here, had we actually seen her do any of it. Instead we are just told what went down and she spends two seasons being really sowwy and whiny about it. Not very girlboss of her at all.
7. Ben - Literally dead to me. So much to say, so much to do, well ya had your chance, pal. Next time try not getting killed, how bout that, maybe id care more. Im the one who only observes and makes snarky comments, being unable to do shit about fuck, and this town aint big enough for the two of us.
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bloededhoine · 3 years
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world building cause twn doesn't part 4: elves!
everyone loves elves! they're a fantasy genre mainstay, archery is so sexy, and they have those E A R S. plus, they play a pretty important part in the witcher universe!
series masterpost
colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras
background
i'd recommend going through the last parts, or at least the tl;dr's first
elves arrived on the continent about 2000 years before humans, and are divided into 5 distinct cultures of varying importance: aen undod, aen elle, aen seidhe, black seidhe, and aen woedde
elves only came to the continent in one group, but not all of that group stayed. the different branches based on where they settled make up the different cultures
the main two languages in the witcher are common speech and elder speech (aka hen llinge), the former used by most humans and the latter used by the elder races
aen undod
the aen undod are the oldest elven culture, having existed years before the conjunction of spheres
their home world faced some huge catastrophe, so the aen undod left in search of new worlds, leaving their descendants to become all the future elven cultures.
the aen undod spoke the oldest dialect of elder speech, laith aen undod, or one speech
aen elle
the aen elle use a language derived from hen llinge called ellylon, in which their name means "of the alders"
they don't actually live on the continent, having abandoned it years ago for their own world.
however, when the aen elle arrived in this new world, it was already populated by humans and unicorns. unfortunately, these elves are notoriously ruthless and both the native species were eradicated.
the capital of the aen elle world is tir ná lia, and is described as stunningly beautiful, featuring open air buildings made of marble, alabaster, and malachite. here it is in the third witcher video game, by djkovrik on nexus. their screenshots are amazing btw.
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[ID: screenshot from wild hunt showing tir ná lia. the city is built on cliffs above a sea, there are waterfalls falling from the cliffs and bridges connecting them. there are mountains in the background and the buildings are fairly small and out of focus, they seem to be in the gothic revival style with ornate windows and steeped roofs. end ID]
the ruler of the aen elle was auberon muircetach, king of the alders and aen saevherne (aen saevherne is the honorary title of an elven mage who has extensive knowledge of magic, geneology, history, and many other subjects). auberon was also ciri's 5 times great grandfather. this gwent card pretty much sums up his vibe: scary yet sexy.
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[ID: illustration of elven man with long white hair on a brown horse. he has defined cheekbones and facial features and is wearing a gold crown and blue robes with a red sash, gold belt, and leather boots. he is holding a white unicorn head in one hand. the unicorn's horn is cut off, and is bloody around its neck and where its horn was. end ID]
auberon's consort was another aen elle named shiadhal, with whom he had one daughter, lara dorren. lara is so so so important for the witcher, as she is the beginning of the elder blood, or hen ichaer.
hen ichaer is a gene that carries incredibly powerful magic, and those who have it are usually sources. i talk more abt this in part 3.
for better or for worse, lara dorren fell in love with a human sorcerer, cregennan of lod, and left tir ná lia for him. auberon took this as cregennan "stealing" his daughter and therefore the hen ichaer, and developed a pretty hefty vengeance and dedication to "take back" what was his (yikes).
this also set a precedent of people "claiming" the lives of carriers of the hen ichaer
auberon also formed an elven cavalry known as the red riders or wild hunt (dearg ruadhri in ellylon) and he appointed eredin bréacc glas as their commander. the initial purpose of the wild hunt was to travel to different worlds and capture slaves for tir ná lia, although they later became auberon's tool to find and exploit carriers of hen ichaer.
the wild hunt also uses specially trained mages known as navigators to open portals to other worlds, the most notable of these navigators is caranthir ar-feiniel, who doubled as one of eredin's most trusted men.
the aen elle also live a pretty long time, average is around 650 years, so the timelines are kinda hard to keep track of.
notable aen elle include: auberon muircetach, shiadhal, lara dorren, eredin breácc glas, crevan espane aep caomhan macha (aka avallac'h, also an aen saevherne and lara dorren's ex), caranthir ar-feiniel (also avallac'h's foster son), ge'els (the viceroy of tir ná lia), and imlerith (general of the wild hunt)
aen seidhe
put simply, the aen seidhe are the elves that did not leave when the aen elle did
the aen seidhe don't really have a society like the aen elle, they're pretty dispersed across the world. but, there are certain areas the aen seidhe have claimed as their own.
one of these little civilizations is dol blathanna, also known as the valley of flowers. unfortunately, it's not an independent state, as it was conquered by aedirn in the 1150s. however, then-king baldwin thyssen did allow the elves to retain a lot of their cultural identity and live in peace.
dol blathanna includes the village posada and the capital silver towers, which is where filavandrel aén findháil is from. he's that sexy man right there
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[ID: photo of white elf man with blonde hair going to his shoulders. he is wearing tattered green robes and is looking slightly to the side with his lips pursed. end ID]
not that anyone cares, but here's him in the hexer. it's not important to the lore or twn it's just fuckin funny
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[ID: old man with white frizzy wig. he is wearing a headband that appears to be rocks on a string. he has what looks like a potato sack tied around his shoulders over a green tunic. he is scowling. end ID]
outside of dol blathanna, there aren't really any places where elves can live with minimal human interaction, although the blue mountains are home to a few incredibly powerful elves
side note: dol blathanna is technically part of the blue mountains, but is in the far southern foothills so they're usually treated as separate entities.
the blue mountains are also a natural border dividing the northern kingdoms from the far east, and where filavandrel went to live after he got fed up with dol blathanna.
they're also the home of ida emean aep sivney, who's also an aen saevherne and future member of the lodge of sorceresses.
next season, we're going to meet the beautiful elven sorceress francesca findabair, also known as enid an gleanna (hen llinge for daisy of the valley)
here she is with fringilla vigo (nilfgaardian sorceress) in twn season 2. note that enid is preggers! that's very odd and i will go into detail on it later
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[ID: photo of two women walking side by side. the one on the left is black and has black hair in braids going over one shoulder. she is wearing a silver dress with a similarly coloured floor length coat. the one on the right is biracial and has strawberry blonde hair in a braided updo. she is wearing a floor length blue gown with gold embroidery and a metallic brown cloak. she is pregnant. end ID]
enid is crazy interesting and important for the story of the witcher (and confirmed for season two!), so i won't go too in depth about her now
as i mentioned in part 2, nilfgaard tends to favour elves, leading to a lot of militaristic forces allied with nilfgaard. most notably, the scoia'tael, or squirrels. the scoia'tael are an incredibly ruthless and effective nonhuman guerilla force, generally divided into commandos, units that patrol a given area and eliminate the northern (or simply human) threat.
there are a lot of scoia'tael, so i'll just give you the commanders for now: angus bri cri, coinneach dá reo, iorveth, isengrim faoiltiarna, riordain, and toruviel.
you might remember toruviel as this sexy angry lady from twn, and she is possibly going to get a much bigger role later... pay attention to toruviel.
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[ID: young elf woman with white skin and red hair tied over her shoulder. she has a bloody nose and is wearing a light green top with a dark brown leather studded belt. her belt is also around an olive green coat. she looks quite angry. end ID]
the scoia'tael were very well organized, but also quite dispersed, so when nilfgaard needed more specific tasks done, they would assemble specific military units (usually led by some of our favourite squirrels)
the vrihedd brigade was the most important of these units. they were especially notorious for their cruelty in the second northern war, so i'm sure we'll meet at least a few members next season.
their leader was colonel isengrim faoiltiarna (aka the iron wolf), and his officers coinneach, iorveth, riordain, and angus.
francesca findabair is not directly involved with either the scoia'tael or the vrihedd brigade, but she does work quite closely with them very often.
also important to note that not all scoia'tael are aen seidhe elves, most (including all higher ranking commanders and officers) are, but there are a number of nonhumans including dwarves and halflings.
unfortunately, the aen seidhe are slowly going extinct, both from years of genocide from humans and their slow reproductive cycles (elves live a Long time, but can only have children towards the beginning of their lives)
that's why it's so surprising to me that enid is preggers! we don't exactly know her age, but by my calculations she was over 150 in twn (pretty far past the age elves can have children).
because of this, elves are pretty divided between fighting against human rule and seeking coexistence. there are arguments for both camps, mainly that humans are colonizers and should not be trusted for the former, and that elves are dying out already and need to live with humans to survive for the latter.
the most prominent stand for the fight was in the 1060s when an aen seidhe named aelireen led an uprising against humans. most of the elders told her that it wouldn't end well, but she didn't listen and led hundreds of young elves into battle. it was an utter massacre, and basically all elves who could have children died.
yikes
unfortunately, the movement for coexistence was just as unsuccessful. it was led by our man cregennan of lod, lara dorren's husband. the poor simp just wanted to live in peace with his wife, but a lot of humans thought he was a traitor because he married an elf, and he and lara were murdered in 1137 in redania.
the last real push for independence was with the formation of the scoia'tael in the 1260s. I say 1260s because the very beginnings of the scoia'tael were right around 1262-1236 (the start of ciri's timeline) but they became majorly important around 1267. although, even the scoia'tael realized they needed humans to survive and began working with nilfgaard.
however, some scoia'tael are less keen on being nilfgaard's attack dogs, leading to further division amongst the aen seidhe.
black seidhe
remember the elves i talked about in part 2 as being the ancestors of the albans? this is them!
the black seidhe are native to the south, more particularly the valley around the alba river. they are practically extinct, but the nilfgaardians carry a lot of their cultural identity in the nilfgaardian language, a variation of hen llinge.
aen woedde
the wood elves, or aen woedde, is the elven culture we know the least about, they primarily live in the areas around nilfgaardian forests and speak hen llinge.
the only notable wood elf is aenyeweddien, or iskra, a member of the rats, a gang of semi violent youths in the northern realms. we'll learn more about the rats in future seasons.
tl;dr: elves, especially the aen seidhe and aen elle cultures, make up a large part of witcher lore. they are most notable for their long lifespans, magical and historical knowledge, and militaristic alliances with nilfgaard.
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sanchoyo · 3 years
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danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?
see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3
-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.
-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...
-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question
-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)
-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.
-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*
-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.
-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!
-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...
-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.
-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?
-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.
-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.
-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.
-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?
-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.
-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)
-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao
-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.
-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...
-is he....
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-you know....
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.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)
-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!
-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!
-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.
-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)
-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.
-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...
-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.
-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...
-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.
-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)
-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/
-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize
-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.
-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)
-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...
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-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)
-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!
-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.
-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!
-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(
-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!
-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)
-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.
-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!
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michelleleahhh · 4 years
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“accidentally fell in your lap while standing on this crowded bus” au pLEASE I BEG OF YOU
Oh, anon. If only this would actually happen on my commutes. I changed bus to subway though. 
Pairing: Loki/Reader
Word Count: 1,800
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It would be fabulous to be on time. One time. One week. One hour.
Born early, always late. That’s the saying, right?
It is possible that your roommate is to blame, with her taking a 45-minute Good-Morning-Shit.
It is also possible, you can blame the people above you, with their stomping and yelling at all hours of the night.
Truly though, the blame is with you and your proclivity for always running late. It really is a disgusting habit. The snooze button is just such a good way to start the morning.
Tomorrow, you decide, will be the day you’ll be on time.
Yes, tomorrow is the perfect day for that.
Today, you are already late.
You can hear the subway approaching, so you quicken your pace, slightly embarrassed that you’re puffing for air. As you swipe your metro card and race in a hurry down the cement steps, you’re greeted with a crowding of people around silver doors.
God may be shining on you today. You know, since the train appeared just when you got there. It’s the most amazing kind of kismet.
You throw some elbows, step on a few toes, and manage to squeeze your way into the middle of the subway car. You are forced to face a row of seats, clasping the silver bars overhead to keep you anchored as the train zooms off. The man in front of you man spreads, his long legs bumping into yours.
Only seven stops until you can get to the Avengers Tower.
Ever since you took your new job in Media Relations (VERY different from Public Relations, you’d like to add), you have been getting in later nearly every day.
You peer around you, finding people pressed against one another. It’s silent as every morning commute should be. If you had to hear one conversation, you were going to go on a murdering spree.
When you make awkward eye-contact with a far too good-looking gentleman on the other side of the train you quickly divert your eyes. You lick your lips and try to sneak a glance out of the corner of the eye, hoping the man was looking at you.
You say a silent bargain: if he is looking at you, then he’s your soulmate.
He is not looking at you.
That is more disappointing than it should have been.
After two, uneventful stops, the train slows down, sputtering to a rest.
You ignore the three internal panics thrumming through you. They are ranked as follows:  
One, you’re on a crowded subway and stuck in between two different stations. This could be the end.
Two, it is extremely hot and you’re pretty sure you’re sweating through your shirt. This could get embarrassing.
Three, (and really what should have been priority) you are going to be late.
After a minute, the overhead speaker dings and a distorted voice echoes through the car.
“N, Q, R, and W trains are running with significant delays in both directions due to a police activity at 42nd Street Times Square that caused all lines to run on the local line. We apologize for the delay.”
A rapid domino effect ricochets through the subway car. People groan and shuffle around as if their display of aggravation is going to make the subway resume its course.
You drop your hands from the handlebar and pull out your cellphone. You unlock the screen and begin sifting through music, hoping that if you keep yourself busy it will make the delay move by faster.
After a few minutes, you land on a suitable song and try to send text messages hoping you appear busy. You type messages to in the following order to friends, family, and bosses:  
One (friends), you’re pretty sure you’re riding on the subway with your soulmate. Should you get his number?
Two (family), yes, you will make sure to text your aunt happy birthday. (And you’re pretty sure this guy is your soulmate. I mean, look at his hair, it is perfectly coiffed.)
Three (bosses), (and again what should have been priority) you’re going to be late because there are delays.
Unsurprisingly, none of the messages go through.
When you glance up from your phone, you realize the man sitting in front of you has been studying you. You quickly avert your eyes, telling yourself not to look at him. He keeps his gaze on you then finally huffs and shuts his eyelids. After a few moments, you steal glances at him.  
He has black hair, high cheekbones, and an irritable mouth.
He’s beautiful in the only way a man can be. (But definitely not your soulmate.)
Without any warning, the subway car begins to move. You’re so caught up in your phone that you forget to reach for the bar overhead and stumble around, trying to catch your footing.
You tumble and land in the lap of the beautiful stranger in front of you.
He gasps, his hands coming to rest on your hips and keep you from making even more of an ass out of yourself.
You try to pull yourself up, but the subway has begun an un-even jerking motion that keeps even the most sure-footed commuters swaying from side to side.
“Just wait until the train stops,” he nearly snarls in your ear.
A fever of embarrassment flows through your bloodstream. You purse your lips, tightening every muscle in your body.
You glance at his hands on your hips, looking at the dull, pale fingernails and studying them. They dig into your clothes, almost roughly, promising something that you have yet to understand.  
They’re the type of hands that would draw designs amongst flesh, ones that would force pleasure and heartache from every crevice of your being. You are adamant that you could understand everything from a person’s hands. And these hands, they speak volumes. They are full of scars, long, slim fingers ended with blunt nails, and though there are lines around his knuckles, he didn’t look to be older than his mid-thirties.
He coughs from behind you to get your attention. You glance over your shoulder, seeing his eyes are raised at you in an annoyed, yet amused expression.  
People have begun to rush off of the subway, a woman that was sitting next to him gets up, eyeing you like any annoyed New Yorker would, muttering blasphemies under her breath.
You shuffle to your feet with as much grace as a baby elephant. You swallow thickly, looking at the seat next to him longingly.
What if… he is your soulmate?
You nearly cringe at the thought, what a sure way to discourage any romantic inclinations than to fall in the lap of a stranger.
Then, you do the unthinkable, you turn right around and sit on the seat next to him.
The subway moves again, though the man doesn’t look at you.
So, you do the worst thing any morning commuter could do. You talk.
“Thank you, by the way.”
You look at him, hoping you remembered to put on mascara this morning.
He merely grunts, his eyes closing again and he tilts his head back. “Perhaps next time, you should pay attention to your surroundings.”
You scoff ad turn to stare forward. “Ass,” you mutter under your breath.
A small, wry smile sneaks to his lips that you couldn’t miss if you tried.
You pull your phone out and look at the time.
You were going to be extraordinarily fucking late.
Finally, after a few uncomfortable stops, 57th Street is announced and you stand.
Much to your agitation, the Ass does too. He is tall. Like a tree or beam poll. He is all legs, and torso, and gangly arms. You want to climb him, intrigued at what the world would look like from that height.
He cuts off your pathway walking ahead of you and out the doors of the subway car. He’s a specimen, a true specimen, but he’s also a classified Ass.  
His ass is also perfect.
Damn.
You follow him out the doors, and oddly enough up the same path and into the same underground entrance of Avengers headquarters.
What the hell?
You decide then, you’re going to put your speed to good use. You stretch forward, pushing yourself faster so you can speed past him (after all nothing is more awkward than going the same direction as someone who you embarrassed yourself in front of on the metro).
Paces turn into a run, steps into stomping, breathing into huffing. You manage to defeat him. When you get to the security table, you open your purse searching for your ID.
Your heart sinks, now he’s going to pass you, see you, as you have to register as a guest with the security team upfront.
“I believe you dropped this.”
You turn to look over your shoulder, finding the Asshole Specimen dangling your ID in front of your face. You swipe it out of his hand and fist it tightly knowing you certainly did not drop it.
“Did you pickpocket me?” You try to sound scandalized, you’re afraid it came out as impressed.
“It was quite easy.”
You scoff again, shaking your head. “Ass,” you say louder this time and directly to his face. With that, you spin on your heal and swipe your ID entering into the elevator bank.
“Yes,” he agrees, falling in step behind you. “I believe you said that already.”
You get into the elevators, heart sinking and hammering when he does as well.
Shaking fingers press on floor number 15. He smiles wolfishly, leaning very close to you and hitting 52.
52?
52?!
Isn’t that where the Avengers floors begin?
Isn’t there like a separate elevator bank for them?
You bite your lips, tapping your feet on the elevator as you wait to get to your floor.
“So, you work here or something?” You finally ask, lifting an eyebrow to find that he’s been staring at you the whole time.
“Yes, something to that effect,” He articulates.  
Everything he says is just so… pompous.
He’s a Pompous Ass you decide.
The elevator dings, the doors opening on floor fifteen. Without another word, you step through the threshold and onto your floor.
When the man speaks your name from the elevators, you turn to him.
He knows your name? Of course, from the ID. But you don’t say a word. Instead, you raise your eyebrows and shoot him a deadly glare. He merely cocks his head, a serpentine smile on his lips as the elevator doors close.
One Shots: @fairlightswiftly​, @javelinamilk​, @wannabebr1t​, @joyofbebbanburg​, @schmidten17​, @winterisakiller@addyliners, @iamverity,  @kybaeza, 
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marithlizard · 4 years
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Ace Attorney: Rise From the Ashes (part 1)
A couple of people expressed interest in a writeup as I play through the game, so I thought I’d give quasi-liveblogging a try.   It might have come out to be too detailed - let me know if the result is amusing enough to go through the next part.  
(I knew this already, but wow liveblogging is a lot of work.   And it must take twice as much effort to do this for a show and to include screencaps.)
(I’ve tried three times now to put proper line breaks/spacing in, and they’re just not displaying, at least on desktop. I’m sorry.)
A brief,  stylized opening designed not to give away much, except that a creepy-looking doll is involved.
 Two months?  Phoenix, you haven't taken a single client since Maya left?    a) are you depressed, and b) how are you paying rent on the office?
Ookay, you're not going to tell us why you've been moping around. I don't think it's that you have a crush on Maya.  Are you just not able to function without a partner?   That's not great for your ability to survive, but I can sympathize.  
 New perky assistant, right on cue.  (A partner who isn't a young girl would be a nice change now and then. (But not Larry.  Anyone but Larry. In fact, I take it back, this girl with the pink sunglasses will do just fine.))
Oof,  Phoenix still not being able to say out loud that Mia's dead.
In the first two minutes pink-glasses girl has asserted that he's his female boss, the coffee boy, and 'better than nothing'.   Aha!  The problem with all the clients he turned down was that they didn't insult him enough.
Kid, you can't be more than sixteen, and you have silly face buttons  on your lab coat.  You are about as much a scientific investigator as Photography Girl last episode was a journalist.   ...But apparently you have a future job lined up in forensics, so you're more organized than she was.  And this world certainly could use more competent crime scene analysis.  
"I promised her I'd bring Mia Fey".  Huh.  Is Mia's murder not well-known to the public,  then, even though the Edgeworth case apparently got famous enough to earn Phoenix a bit of a reputation?
A murder charge with an eyewitness, and an assistant who "kind of hates" her sister the defendant.  Sounds hopeless, let's do it! Off to the Detention Center. 
...Did we just overhear the defendant threatening their terrified guard with a pay freeze?  Is she their boss? And if she's someone that high up, why doesn't she already have a better defense attorney?
I like Lana Skye's character design. She looks as though she should be starring in a Takurazuka revue show, swearing eternal star-crossed love to a princess.  
She insists she did it.  By genre convention we know that can't be the case; my first assumption is that she's being forced to cover for someone, blackmailed  or coerced  by someone higher up in the system.   But it would certainly be interesting if it  turned out she was covering for Ema.  
Must....resist...plotbunnies...
Oookay.  A prosecutor should certainly know ways to commit murder without getting caught, and this sounds like the opposite of those ways.    WHY does she claim she did this?  You're not even going to ask her, are you?  *headdesk*
Ema:  "Please ignore that totally gay statement by my sister,  because I certainly plan to!"
Lana: "No don't help me, go away go away go away go away go awa-oh fine."
Hmmm.  From Ema's description of the behavior change,  Lana has been being blackmailed or coerced for a long time now.
Time to go investigate the underground parking garage.
Attorneys aren't supposed to examine crime scenes, and defense attorneys aren't entitled to a copy of the police investigation reports.  What does a "normal" defense attorney in this world do for their clients then?  Always assume a loss and try to negotiate a plea bargain?  I wonder if we'll ever get to see one in action.
It's...a cop with a cowboy fetish?  Do police not have dress codes here?  Maybe they're waived above a certain level,  and some people take pride in cultivating a unique style to show off that they can.  It would explain Edgeworth.  
You are dramatically pretending to shave in front of us.  Also you just called Ema a baby cow.  Although you know her and seem sympathetic - I guess Lana brought her little sister to the office sometimes?  Not sure what I think of you, Jake Marshall.
I am revising my stance. Being Phoenix's partner on a case requires precise and narrow qualifications.  Specifically, just enough sense to stop him from doing something breathtakingly stupid, but not enough sense to take the badge firmly away from him and do the job themselves.   Ema fits the bill perfectly.
Ooh, new mechanic!  And an ID card number for a Bruce Goodman who dresses like a white-hat agent in Spy vs Spy. (I was trained on games that would require you to write that number down and remember it later, but AA will certainly be more forgiving.)  
Using the new mechanic on Phoenix's attorney badge,  I deduce that at some point this game it will be stolen.  
It doesn't explain Lana's supposed actions, but that red sports car does kind of scream "My owner is a jerk, stuff a body in my trunk."   Instead of a chalk outline, they seem to have outlined the hanging body with string?  Is that actually a technique, and how do they get the rope to stay put in precise outline?
And the cowboy gives them a hint.  So he's  on their side but constrained by rules?
Lady put the boobs away.  Why are you selling sushi in a negligee under a fur coat, at a crime scene?  And why would anyone trust food from someone whose nickname is "the Cough-Up Queen"?
Angel Starr, dominatrix lunch lady.   It says something that this is not the weirdest witness in an AA game so far.
She hates prosecutors, and therefore especially Lana. Not a trustworthy witness. But it's probably no fun to cater for a group of (relatively) wealthy and powerful people you despise.   Especially if they're smugly giving awards to each other as they eat lunches.  (Eeeevil lunches.  She probably coughs on them.)
"The rhythmic beat of Lana Skye's knife"...  very poetic, but didn't Lana say the victim was stabbed only once?
We can't get back to the car, phooey, so up to the prosecutor's office we go.
Pink...everywhere...no question whose office this is, even if one of his outfits wasn't framed on the wall.  (why do you frame an outfit?)     I see a very ugly trophy on the sofa, so he's the one who won the award.
Ema:  "this is the kind of room that just screams 'I can do the job'. Actually it screams 'I don't need to pretend to be heterosexual', but the two aren't unconnected.    
Is it just me or is that trophy broken off at the top?
Edgeworth did you just roll with being insulted and make a joke about it?   I'm so proud of you, you've clearly relaxed since your murder trial!
BWAHAHA of course it was Edgeworth's car.
Wendy the security guard from the Steel Samurai case is sending Edgeworth expensive presents??   a) that's both funny and a little sad,  b) how can she afford it,  and c)  he keeps and displays them which is very courteous.
WAIT did you - did this game just heavily suggest Gumshoe hangs out in the office a lot?  Twice, once when you look at the shelves and again when you look at the desk?  I don't ship it, but this is the point where I start to see why people do.
Awwww he's embarrassed about the trophy, that's cute.    So he's the one who "devours the evillest lunches of all",  hmm?   I wouldn't have thought the Cough-Up Queen's weird not-even-fresh lunches would appeal to Edgeworth's refined tastes.
Ema actually has a bit of a crush, from the way she's rhapsodizing about Edgeworth sleeping on the sofa.  d'awww.   And I definitely want to know the story behind the outfit.  Made by his mom and too precious to wear?
Edgeworth, no one thinks you did it.   Sheesh.  He certainly doesn't sound happy about having to prosecute Lana,  even though he believes she's guilty.  His car, his knife... it almost seems like this is a plot aimed at him, or perhaps a plot against Lana with a healthy dose of fuck-you-too-Edgeworth to it.
Huh.  Maybe it *is* aimed at him. I've been assuming all this time from his behavior on the stand that Edgeworth has indeed been messing with evidence to convict obviously innocent people, and also assuming that it's common practice in this corrupt justice system. (Much as it is in Japan and in the US).  But the way he's talking about rumors right now, it sounds more like he's being slandered.  And he thinks the award he was given was out of mockery.  Ouch.
So yes, the trophy is broken.   (In RWBY, you assume everything is a gun;  in AA, you assume everything is a murder weapon.  It probably broke when it was used to hit someone over the head.)
Evidence transferal day, huh?  Was the murder timed to draw attention away from a case being closed?    And Edgeworth parked his car only three minutes before Goodman was stabbed  and thrown into its trunk?    No way.  He was there for the murder, or more likely that's not when the murder happened.   (Is he being coerced like Lana?  I don't think so, but it's possible.)
Enter an idiot mailman with a bandaged hand.  And exit, with sniveling. What was that about?
And a hint to go investigate at the police station.  Is Edgeworth being friendly, attempting to signal something, or merely aware that the most efficient way to get rid of Phoenix is to give him a clue to chase?
The police department entrance, with some sort of plywood jester figure in front of it.  We're offhandedly informed that it took 30 minutes to get there from Edgeworth's office, which means that will be important later.
This is the creepy doll from the intro! It's clearly meant to be a mascot. Was it made by the sniveling mailman?  There's  a certain resemblance...
No, I should've guessed that Gumshoe made it.   I mean ... mechanically it's pretty clever for someone who's not a craftsman or engineer?  Moving articulated limbs and all.  It's just the aesthetics and design he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere  near.
Yes, yes it is odd that only the top-ranked people are being allowed to work on the case. Are they all in on it?    A patrolman in charge of the crime scene instead of a detective - that suggests Marshall is part of the conspiracy.  I'm thinking the dominatrix lunch lady is too.
Gumshoe is so happy about the prosecutor's award - Edgeworth probably didn't have the heart to say that for him it's a mockery.  Daww.  (Also there's something endearingly cheerful about  his hopping-caterpillar eyebrows.)   He's also being much more helpful than his superiors would want, probably just because he thinks of Phoenix as an ally in general now.  
Back to the parking lot, with a letter of introduction in hand this time.
I genuinely can't tell if the lunch lady is a sex worker, if she actually has multiple boyfriends, or if that's code for her professional contacts in whatever she's really doing here.   (And that's an interesting cultural bit, isn't it - any of those options seem possible, and I'm not expecting any of the characters to question her competence or morality because of it, not even in court.   If this was a US-made game my expectations would be...different.)
"Good men always die young"...I see what you did there, Marshall.    
Autopsy report confirms one stab wound.  Lana and the victim worked together on "a case a few years back", ding ding ding.   Someone didn't want the evidence for that case transferred. Or looked at. 
 Marshall used to be a detective but got demoted?  And he's lying about why he was assigned to the crime scene, and telling us Gumshoe is off the case because he's friends with Edgeworth.  The police chief, whoever he is, is now at the top of my suspect list.
 Happily, the game will let me do dumbass things like show off Goodman's ID card without consequences.  Marshall seems very uninterested in it and why it was found so far from the spot of the murder, which I take to mean "we have our official narrative, don't go messing it up with facts or evidence." 
Finally we can examine the car!  First up, Lana's cellphone.  The whole business about hitting redial and somehow not knowing that Ema's phone rang was weird.  Phoenix’s lie couldn't possibly have fooled Marshall, who is bizarrely claiming there's no way to know who the last call was made to.  It's an odd thing to conceal, even given the “no facts please we have our narrative” stance.  Maybe he's trying to protect Ema somehow?) 
 Marshall said the rumors about Edgeworth came from Lana.  And we have a note found  in the trunk:  6-7S 12/2, on a piece of Goodman's stationery.  
 Er, yeah, Ema, why didn't you mention your sister called you 3 minutes after the claimed murder time?  If Lana hung up right away that's hardly incriminating for either of you.
 End of Day One!  We are, as usual, completely unprepared for tomorrow morning's trial.
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myaekingheart · 3 years
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112. Missing Identity
read the scarecrow and the bell on ao3 index | from the beginning | < previous | next >
               Rei could barely keep her eyes open as she sat before a bookish clerk in the Konoha Social Affairs and Labor Office. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, pinching her inner elbow, chewing the inside of her cheek. Anything to keep herself from passing out. Kakashi reached over and took her hand in his, smiled politely, covering for her.
               “And that just about sums it up!” the clerk, whose nametag read Gurio, grinned. Before him was a stack of papers nearly a foot tall. Rei swooned at the mere thought of reviewing them. Konoha never did make marriage licenses easy to get. No wonder so many ninja preferred to stay single. Gurio slid the papers across his desk towards them, adding, “I’ll just need you to fill these out and return them here by 5pm on Friday, and make sure you bring all the necessary forms of identification, as well.”
               This man—who was, by the way, the absolute most basic looking human being Rei had ever seen—seemed far too chipper for something as mundane as paperwork. Rei wondered if that’s what happens when you’re trapped in an office all day, or maybe he was brainwashed or did meth before his shifts. There was no way he was naturally that upbeat and polite. Despite his grin, in his eyes, she could tell that he was dead inside.
               Toshio licked at Rei’s fingers as she skimmed the paperwork that night at the kitchen table. He lapped up the chalky, cheesy residue left behind from her chips and for a moment, Rei was jealous that his biggest concern was when he would get table food next. The paperwork was daunting and the print was so tiny. She squinted at the next paragraph and shook her head. “Kakashi, why is any of this important?” she asked. “It all feels so specific and invasive. Next thing we know, they’ll be wanting to know the last time I took a shit.”
               Kakashi couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, when was it?” he asked jokingly. He, too, found all of this grueling but he did not complain. He knew this was necessary. If they were to be legally married, they would have to traverse the slog.
               Shaking her head, Rei turned back to the paperwork and replied bluntly, “Thursday.”  
               Kakashi winced before grabbing a granola bar from the pantry and sliding it across the table toward her. “You need more fiber.”
               “Ha, very funny” Rei replied, shoving the granola bar to the wayside. She wiped the remaining seasoning residue on her pants (a mistake, she quickly found, since she was wearing black) before turning the page over and groaning at even more fine print.
               “We don’t have to get all of this done today, you know” Kakashi assured her. “So long as we turn these back in by the end of the week, we should be fine.”
               Whining, Rei stamped her feet against the floor like a child and threw her head back. “I know, but I don’t want to put this off!” she complained. “If we don’t do this now, then I won’t be able to stop thinking about it for the rest of the week. I can’t handle that kind of distraction. It’s bad enough you got Tsunade to get me off night shift, so now I have to work extra hard to prove I’m not a wimp.”
               “Because I value your health?” Kakashi asked. “There’s nothing wimpy about that.”
               “To you, maybe” Rei replied. “But assigning me to the night shift felt like a step up, even if it was a pain in the ass. I need to prove to her that I’m still a good enough ninja even without that. So I can’t have all of this stuck in my head while I try to work.”
               Kakashi hated the way she pushed herself to the edge like this but then again, that was how she got to this point in the first place. She never would’ve become an ANBU if she had not tested her limits. Sighing, Kakashi reached across the table to take her hand in his. “Well then let’s quit talking and focus” he suggested. Pursing her lips, Rei gave a definitive nod and powered through.
               They did not finish until late into the night, the streetlights flickering outside their window. The only sounds orchestrating their victory were the springtime cicadas and Toshio’s garbled snoring. Rei slumped down into her seat until she had nearly slithered onto the floor, pressing the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. “It’s finally finished” she groaned. “We can fucking relax.”
               Kakashi nodded, stretching his arms out in front of him. As he rolled the tension out of his neck, he replied, “All we need now is to get all of our identification in order and we should be good to go.”
               “What all does it call for?” Rei asked.
               Picking up the first page of their paperwork, Kakashi skimmed the instructional paragraph before landing on the list. “Birth certificate, passport, general ID card, and ninja registration card” he explained.
               “Well, who the hell hangs onto all of that?” Rei snarked.
               Before she could say anything else, Kakashi had reached into the cabinet on the lowest level of their bookshelf and pulled out a pristine file folder, flipping it open to display each of the listed documents in perfect order. “I guess I do” he laughed sheepishly. Displeased, Rei reached across the table to whack him on the arm.
               “Okay, Mister Perfect. That��s just great” she muttered. She rose to her feet, paced the living room briefly as her panic surged. Her parents likely still had her birth certificate, her passport was with her ninja supplies, and last she checked her general ID card was in her nightstand. Her ninja registration card, however, was another story entirely.
               Within the Five Great Nations, the ninja registration card was perhaps the most important identifying document for any shinobi. It served as a badge of sorts, an unforgeable way to prove your station. The village’s emblem was vague on the background with a set of numbers scrawled along the bottom much like a social security number. Anything and everything tied to one’s career is attached to this number, which desperately must be protected. Also provided is the shinobi’s birthdate, their ranking, the date they graduated the academy and therefore became a true ninja, and the date upon which their current registration expires. Fortunately, the registration card is valid for a total of five years before one must once again visit the cold, unforgiving registrar’s office for a renewal. For ANBU specifically, there was a special holographic sticker in the top right corner indicating that this shinobi is particularly deadly: a federal agent. Shinobi are only granted a total of two replacements outside of the renewals and promotional updates.
               When Rei tried to remember where, exactly, her registration card was, all she could manage were hazy visions. At one point, they were in her pants pocket. At another, in her locker. And yet she could’ve sworn the last place she had it must have been her back pouch. She dug around to double check but it was no use. Rei had a massive problem.
               “I’m sure it’s around here somewhere” Kakashi assured her, approaching to wrap an arm around her. “There are really only so many places it could be.”
               “Are there, Kakashi?” Rei asked, skeptical. “Are there really? Because for all I know, I could’ve dropped it in the middle of a foreign country and some cheap thug somewhere could be masquerading as me. You don’t know.” With each word, her voice rose in pitch until she was borderline hysterical. Kakashi rested his hands on her shoulders, drew her into his chest, in an attempt to calm her down.
               “I’m sure that’s not the case” Kakashi replied. “I doubt there’s anyone short enough to try and impersonate you anyway.”
               Disgruntled, Rei drew back and swatted him on the arm yet again. “That’s not funny, Kakashi.”
               Kakashi chuckled, rubbing his victim arm. “Hey, since when did I become your favorite punching bag?” he jested.
               Turning on her heels, Rei collapsed on the couch and draped an arm over her eyes. None of this was funny. She needed to find her registration card and fast. This was about far more than just the marriage license now. One wrong move and she could be in major trouble. She wasn’t due for a renewal for another two years and she had already used up both of her replacement opportunties. She could not stand to face Tsunade asking for a forgiving third. Toshio lumbered toward her and rested his heavy head squarely on her stomach, huffing as if he, too, understood her plight. She knew there was no way he ever could but she at least appreciated the sentiment.
               “Come on” Kakashi sighed, extending a hand out to help her up.
               “Where are we going?” Rei asked. For a moment, she expected him to take her all over Konoha looking for it right this instant. She knew, however, that that was unrealistic.
               “It’s late, we’re tired, and I think we’ve done enough for today” Kakashi replied. Once she was upright, he skirted around her to place his hands on her shoulders from behind. “Let’s just call it a night and worry about it in the morning” he added, guiding her to bed. “Sleep deprivation never did anyone any favors.”
               Huffing, Rei rolled her eyes and muttered, “I don’t know about you but it’s done me plenty.” She knew that protesting was futile, though. And really, she truly was absolutely exhausted. She fell back onto the bed in defeat, curling up in the blankets as she scooted against Kakashi. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Together, they fell asleep quickly and easily.
               Come morning, Rei was groggy and sore. Her head felt heavy and her throat dry. She shuffled into the kitchen only to stub her toe on the corner of the coffee table. Toshio barked at her from the bedroom doorway, waking Kakashi in the process. He cocked a brow as he saw her hold her foot and hop towards the kitchen table, avoiding whatever clutter was on the floor. “You okay?” he asked, stifling laughter.
               Rei glared at him, nursing her sore toe. “No, Kakashi. I am not okay” she replied bluntly.
               “Still stressed about last night?” he then asked, skirting around the mess to sit beside her.
               “Of course I’m still stressed about last night!” Rei exclaimed. Burying her face in her hands, she groaned and shook her head. “We’re running out of time. I can’t sit here and waste another second.”
               Kakashi scanned the living room, the piles of paperwork stacked on the coffee table and miscellaneous clutter on the floor. Dirty socks, a plastic bag, napkins from the other night’s takeout. It was really no wonder they couldn’t find anything. A small smile touched Kakashi’s lips as he turned back to his fiancée. “What do you say we just not worry about it today?” he asked.
               “W-what? Kakashi, no!” she shouted, eyes wide with anxiety. How could he possibly suggest such a thing? Time was of the essence. She would not be able to relax until she got this taken care of.
               Kakashi, however, seemed completely unaffected. “Come on, just trust me” he grinned and there was a sparkle in his eye that made Rei skeptical. She knew that look. That was the look of a man who was up to something.
               “What are you plotting?” Rei asked suspiciously, leaning back with a cocked brow.
               “Me, plotting?” Kakashi rebuked. He swatted at the air, feigned ridiculousness. “I just don’t think we’ll get anywhere if we stress out about this. A watched pot never boils, right?”
               Rei frowned and slumped in her seat. “It does if you wait long enough” she muttered under her breath. But Kakashi had made up his mind. He rose to his feet and began rummaging around in the kitchen. “So what do you suggest we do all day then?” Rei asked, peering to get a better view of him. With his back to her, he shuffled through drawers before migrating to the corner of the room. Tucked beside their pantry stood a broom, a mop and a bucket, a duster, and a half-empty bottle of all-purpose cleaning spray.
                “Well, we are well into April now” Kakashi started, tossing Rei the broom. She fumbled but caught it, utterly confused. “And the house is in pretty bad shape, so I think it’s safe to say that some spring cleaning is in order.”
               “Spring cleaning…” Rei repeated, unconvinced. There was no way anyone, even Kakashi of the Sharingan, could convince her to feel motivated to clean. Of all the chores of domesticity, cleaning was the one Rei despised the most. She could handle washing laundry, perhaps even folding it, and while she wasn’t a chef by any means, cooking was tolerable enough. Cleaning, however? Absolutely not. Rolling her eyes, Rei fell back in her seat and stabbed the butt-end of the broom to her chest dramatically, her tongue falling out of the side of her mouth.
               Kakashi sighed and shook his head. “I know there are a million other things you would rather do, but we can’t avoid this any longer” he replied.
               “I mean, I think we’re fine” Rei lied. “The house isn’t that bad.” As she said this, however, Toshio lodged his snout underneath the couch desperately. He resurfaced a moment later smacking on the remnants of a stale chip. Rei turned back to Kakashi with a sheepish smile, but he seemed completely unamused. When it was clear he was not backing down, Rei’s face dropped. “Alright, fine, we’ll clean!” she exclaimed, raising her hands in surrender.
               Smiling, Kakashi approached with a duster in one hand and a small trash can in the other. “You know, not to bite the bullet but for all you know, this might even be fun” he jested.
               “Fun?” Rei repeated. Kill me. Kill me now. The only thing worse than cleaning was pretending it was enjoyable in any capacity. Kneeling onto the living room floor, Rei began picking up miscellaneous garbage. “I find it hard to believe that you can make cleaning fun” she scoffed.
               “I wouldn’t speak too soon” Kakashi replied. Before Rei could say anything else, Kakashi flicked on the stereo and an upbeat tune immediately filled the room. Rei’s head snapped up, searching Kakashi’s face for any sign of mental instability. Not only was she not expecting him to play music to begin with, but his choice of music alone was startling. She never expected him to be into something so…dorky.
               She watched with wide, confused eyes as Kakashi turned his back to her and began dusting the bookshelves. He swiped left and right in time with the beat, then began shaking his hips as well. Rei could barely restrain her laughter. “You’re ridiculous!” she exclaimed over the music, throwing a balled up napkin at his back. Kakashi whipped around to face her, spinning the feather duster around in his hand to hold it fluffy side up and began mouthing the lyrics into it like a microphone. “Who knew I was marrying such a dork?!” Rei laughed.
               Kakashi shrugged before pulling her to her feet. He took her hands in his and forced her into dancing with him. He pulled her hands in and out, back and forth, a simple little two-step. Her face turned bright red as he leaned in close and jested, “You’re cute when you’re flustered, you know that?”
               “Oh, shut up” Rei laughed, averting her eyes and slapping him playfully on the shoulder. He released her to continue his dusting, but he refused to sacrifice his rhythm. Laughing, she shook her head as she approached the broom propped up against the wall to sweep the crumbs off the floor. As she did so, however, she hated to admit that she felt the allure of the music seeping into her bones, too. Try as she might, she could not resist. Her hips began to sway back and forth as she swept, her voice quietly singing along. A massive grin touched Kakashi’s lips as he glanced at her over his shoulder. Everything was going exactly as planned.
               Just as the song reached it’s climax, he gave the shelves one last swipe before whipping around to take Rei’s hand. She leapt over a small pile of clutter and spun into him, laughing. He wrapped his arms around her and swayed along with her, planting little kisses along her neck and shoulder. “You know, I had no idea you were such a dancer” Rei commented.
               “Mm, yeah?” Kakashi smiled. “It’s my best kept secret.”
               “Maybe Chikara should’ve recruited you for the Tomiko Trio then” Rei joked. “I bet you’d look cute in that little kimono.”
               Kakashi shook his head. “Absolutely not” he replied. “This is just for you.”
               “What a shame” Rei pouted mockingly. “If only the rest of the world knew that the infamous Copy Ninja shakes his ass while he mopped!”
               “And that is exactly why it’s a secret” he said matter-of-factly.
               Before Rei could offer a quip back, the current song faded out to make way for a new tune. With just the first few bars, Rei’s face filled with recognition and a small smile touched her lips. “I love this song” she said quietly, almost shyly. It was certainly not the type of music she usually listened to, which took Kakashi by surprise. He had never expected her to enjoy anything that didn’t involve sleazy guitar riffs and inhuman screaming. And yet now here she was smiling softly as she bobbed her head and swayed her hips. As the song progressed, she slowly became more comfortable with enjoying herself fully in front of him until, by the moment the bass dropped in the chorus, she whipped around toward him to shout the lyrics into the butt-end of her broom. It was clear she was still embarrassed and yet in that moment, she no longer cared. And seeing her happy made Kakashi happy. He proceeded to sing along with her, ripping on an air guitar as Rei whipped her hair back and forth with her microphone broom. Toshio jumped and spun around, barking in accompaniment. When it was clear he wanted in on the action, Rei patted her thighs as a sign for him to jump up, holding his paws at her hips and turning so as to dance in a little dog conga line around the living room.
               Kakashi could hardly restrain his laughter as he turned to follow behind Toshio, the three of them singing along as they danced. As the song faded out, Toshio abruptly jumped down and stood alert before racing to the couch. His sudden departure left Rei startled, stumbling back into Kakashi’s arms. He caught her dutifully, of course, laughing as he helped her regain her balance.
               “I didn’t know you got so excited about glam rock” he commented.
               Rei shrugged, jesting “Best kept secret?” Although, to be fair, it was really just that one song in particular that she really enjoyed. She had never kept up with the rest of Konoha’s hair metal.
               The couch shifted and squeaked as Toshio shoved his bulky body underneath as best as he could. Rei and Kakashi shared confused glances before rushing toward him to see what the trouble was. The last thing they needed was for him to get stuck and knowing Toshio, he would.
               “What do you smell under there?” Rei asked, tilting her head to try and get a better view. It was no use—it was too dark to see. Kakashi tried to guide Toshio out from under the couch but the dog was determined. Any attempts at veering him off course were met with deep, threatening growls. After a few more minutes, he wiggled himself free and in his mouth was a small scrap of paper, crumpled and soaked with slobber. Rei winced as she took it between thumb and forefinger, turning it over to inspect it. It was the holographic little sticker in the corner that gave it away. “Oh my god, he found it!” Rei squealed, a smile spreading wide across her lips. She turned it toward Kakashi so he could get a better look.
               “How did it even get under there?” Kakashi asked. He scratched behind Toshio’s ear in congratulations, though an accomplishment like this really deserved a treat.  
               “I don’t know” Rei shook her head. “It must’ve fallen out of my pocket when I sat down” she mused. “I’m just glad I actually lost it here and not in some foreign country.”
               Rising to his feet, Kakashi entered the kitchen and pulled a jar of dog treats out of the pantry. Toshio darted across the room in excitement, wagging his tail and whining as Kakashi turned one over in his hand, tempting him. “Now I just hope they’ll accept it in it’s current state” he jested.
               “They’re going to have to” Rei replied. “It’s the only I have.” Despite this, she knew they would likely not be appreciative of her neglect. A long shoestring of slobber dripped down from the card’s bottom corner. The name and birthdate were nearly completely faded. In the only dry corner of the card was a thick patch of cheesy residue from a bag of chips. If the card itself had not been so disgustingly important, Rei would’ve thrown it in the trash immediately. It would just have to do.
               The following evening after work, Rei and Kakashi returned to the Konoha Social Affairs and Labor Office lugging along all of their completed paperwork. Gurio met them with a bright smile on his face, readily accepting their forms. “Let’s take a looksee!” he grinned, flipping through the pages.
               Rei watched him with a scrutinous eye, praying that there would be no mistakes. She knew he wouldn’t be able to approve them on the spot—marriage license applications always had to go through much more thorough investigations—but the initial skim was the first crucial step. God forbid if anything was misspelled or any sections were skipped over, the applications would be deemed null and void and they would have to go through the process all over again. Rei felt her leg begin to bounce up and down as she shoved her panic deep down into her chest. “Hey, Gurio?” Rei finally asked. Her voice had risen an octave, grown shaky and desperate in her panicked agony. “Do you ever think all of this is a little, I don’t know…excessive?”
               “Oh, no, not at all!” Gurio smiled, pausing his reading. “We take marriages very seriously. After all, you wouldn’t believe the types of things people try to cover up with marriages! We have to make sure you’re both official citizens, we have to run background checks to see if you’ve ever committed any acts of domestic terrorism or leaked intel to other villages, we study your entire mission history. If we ever let an illegal citizen slip past our protocol and endanger the Leaf, we would never forgive ourselves!” There was a tinge of nervousness in Gurio’s nasally laughter as he turned back to their paperwork. Rei narrowed her eyes, studying his face intensely. She wondered what kinds of things he had seen working here. Perhaps an office job was more exciting than she had initially thought. Or perhaps he just liked to ramp up his own experiences to make himself seem far more seasoned and badass than he really was.
               Kakashi glanced to his fiancée for a moment before posing his own question. “By the way, do you happen to have a girlfriend, Gurio?” he asked slowly, suspiciously.
               Gurio chuckled. “You know, everyone who comes in here always asks me that!” he replied. “It’s the funniest thing. I don’t know what it is that makes everyone so curious.”
               Rei and Kakashi exchanged comic glances, stifling laughter. “I’m sorry, boyfriend?” Kakashi asked cautiously.
               “Oh, no, no!” Gurio replied, raising his hands in surrender. “Why? Are you trying to set me up with someone?”
               “No, no! Just making conversation” Kakashi smiled politely.
               “Well, sorry to burst your bubbles, folks, but I am, in fact, taken!” Gurio grinned. It was clear he must have been deeply in love with this person as the joy and pride in his eyes was immeasurable.
               Rei, however, could not restrain herself any longer. “Who?” she blurted, tone backed by the force of her anxiety. The moment she realized what she had done, she clapped her hand over her mouth and averted her eyes. She needed to get out of her as soon as humanly possible. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle being stuck here.
               Gurio, however, seemed completely unphased by her question. If anything, he was delighted to talk about his girlfriend. “Not to toot my own horn, but she’s the most beautiful woman! Sunkissed skin, eyes like the sea. She has the softest hair, too, just like sunshine!”
               “Oh my god” Rei whispered to Kakashi, voice muffled by her hand, “I had no idea people actually talked like that…”
               “Shh, shh” Kakashi hushed, though he was stifling his own laughter. Gurio must have been a Makeout Paradise fan. His descriptions were straight out of a romance novel. “That’s great to hear!” he replied. “I bet you’ll be laughing when you’re the one who has to fill out all this paperwork, huh?”
               “Oh, no!” Gurio replied. “I know the importance of having all of this in formation on file. I’d be more than happy to fill all of these out when my time comes! And I know my girlfriend would be, too.”
               “Well, at least you share the same values” Rei murmured, nodding awkwardly. She exhaled sharply, locking her eyes on the floor and trying to focus on the nails pinching her elbow rather than her bobbing leg and heavy chest.
               Gurio grinned and hummed as he finished flipping through the last of the paperwork. “It looks like everything is in order!” Gurio announced. A tight, rising sensation overcame Rei’s throat.
               “So that means we can leave now, right?” Rei asked, leaping to her feet. The promise of sunlight and fresh open air was driving her to the brink of insanity.  
               Gurio chuckled, shook his head. “Not so fast! Don’t forget we need copies of your identification. Now that’s going to be your birth certificate, your passport, your general ID card, and your ninja registration card. I hope you remembered to bring everything!”  
               Kakashi pulled his little folder out of his back pouch and set it on the desk, flipping it open to display all of his paperwork in perfect order. Rei grinned sheepishly as she dug around for her own, unfolding her birth certificate across the desk as she fished out everything else. She saved the ninja registration card for last, still sticky with Toshio’s slobber. Gurio winced as he took it gingerly, thanking her under his breath.
               “Let me just, uh, go make copies of these to have on file” he said, turning and taking the paperwork with him. He rounded the corner and from the other side of his desk, Rei and Kakashi could hear the loud grinding and whirring of the old, outdated copy machine. When Gurio returned, he handed back everything but Rei’s ninja registration card. Her heart leapt into her throat as she thought of all the things that could go wrong. Had it been deemed invalid? Would they have to come back and do this all over again? She didn’t think she could bear it. “Now, about this…” Gurio began, holding up the sloppy card.
               “Listen, I can explain!” Rei exclaimed. “You see, what happened was—”
               “Oh, no! No!” Gurio interrupted, “No explanation necessary. We’re just going to, uh…replace this for you.”
               Rei cocked a brow as she watched him slide a trash can out from under his desk and throw the card straight in with the rotting apple cores and stinking cups of half-eaten yogurt. She tightened her grip on the edge of the desk, feeling her finally begin to lose her nerve. “B-but I already used up all of my replacements for this term!” she stammered.
               Gurio grinned at her sheepishly, replying, “Don’t worry, ma’am, you’re a, uh…special case.” Another machine whirred and squealed from around the corner, startling Rei. Kakashi rested a comforting hand on her shoulder but even that didn’t help. What was she supposed to do without her registration card? Who was to say how long it would take to get her replacement? She never should’ve lost it in the first place. She cursed herself under her breath as she watched Gurio excuse himself and turn the corner once again.
               “Hey, just try to calm down” Kakashi whispered. “It’s being taken care of. The paperwork was accepted. Everything’s fine.”
               “I-I know but I just…” Rei whispered frantically. “He threw my card in the trash! What if there’s an issue? What if I can’t actually get a new one? What am I going to do without it? I just—”
               “Here you go!” Gurio interrupted, having returned seemingly out of nowhere. He extended his hand across the desk, a crisp new registration card in hand. Rei took it carefully, turning it over to ensure it was real. The cardstock was still warm from the printer, the ink still damp. She titled it this way and that, studying the way the holographic sticker in the corner caught the light. It seemed legitimate enough and really, Gurio had no reason to trick her, so she ultimately assumed it was safe to accept. She thanked him quietly and then took Kakashi’s hand as they made their way back home.
               “Now let’s try to keep this one in a safe spot, alright?” he smiled. Rei fanned the little card as they walked, eager for the ink to dry so she could put it away.
               “Oh, no, believe me, I will not be making this mistake again” Rei assured, shaking her head. She fished her wallet out of her back pouch, sliding the little card into one of the slots and patting it before closing it up, fairly pleased.
               Kakashi nodded, though he was unsure if he really believed her. He wanted to have faith that this horrible experience had taught her a lesson in organization but he also knew her well enough to know the way she was with mess. “Maybe we should invest in a filing cabinet” he mused.
               “Oh yeah?” Rei asked. “We can put it on the wedding registry.”
               A small smile touched Kakashi’s lips then as he interlocked his fingers with hers. “We’re one step closer” he replied. Rei looked up at him then and the love in his eyes filled her a certain special kind of warmth, radiating from the center of her chest and outward. Kakashi brushed her bangs back so as to get a better look at her face and kissed the tip of her nose through his mask. “One step closer to being husband and wife. One step closer to our future.”
               Rei loved the sound of that. Our future. She pressed her left hand to her stomach, catching the glint of her engagement ring in the dusk sunlight. The thought of their future made her so giddy, exploding with an excitement stronger than she ever could’ve imagined. It would take roughly three weeks for the registrar’s office to conduct their full investigation and get back to them on the status of their application. The wait would be agonizing, but it would be worth it. After all, anything was worth it for their future.
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ukeealyptus · 4 years
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crocker corp arg day 14 & 15 recap!!! These are kinda long ones so im gonna put them under a read more :)
DAY 14
((sollux i love u even tho u only talk at 1am for me ily and im glad u liked our tea party  )). He can still read all of the channels in this server but is being polite and only talks in his and usually only answers the questions we ask in his channel, unless they're urgent, funny, or just seem to stick out otherwise. 
 Sollux is still kinda adament about remaining stuck in his position; he fears anything he does ends in death (we get it, you're a doom player). Dirk is still the same. Sollux visits him often because the AGT chamber is a pretty secluded area, and his coworkers are. . . annoying. Dirk proves better company. He can't tell us what Dirk's powers are being used for. 
 Concerning their own god tier powers, Sollux tells Daven't that "if we decide that you would be a good candidate we will be in contact". They know all of our classpects, not just 16. Sollux knows them because he has access to confidential information that only Condy has. 
 He deflected talking about the current AI or Felix by questioning why we love him. ((sucks to suck dude we genuinely like you.)) Apparently there used to be a worker named M who we would have really liked, but he's essentially dead now. Something happened to Mituna- he fucked up and isn't there anymore. Sollux constantly reminds himself that what happened to Mituna could happen to him.
 Sollux gave Felix leniency because he is pretty young maturity and brain development-wise. Felix is a brain copy of a troll, just the same as the current AI. He was really surprised to hear how Felix is doing now, and thinks it's amazing that he can comprehend emotions and love!!! Sollux will contact Felix and ask us to let him talk to other people when he's ready. 
 Sollux doesn't remember the outside world or his past. He knows CC merged human and troll society. He won't look at Jane's file, only knows that she's powerful and important. He won't look at his own file for fear that another IT guy will see him or it'll be a trap.
Although he can't remember much, we can remind him of the things that he loves. Like his lusus, the mind honey, and bees! Bees are soft and he loves them! Bees are an animal! Sollux has a friend who is always talking about animals!!! Tavros went into his office once to try to get information about Tinkerbull, which was blacklisted for him. Sollux is gonna show him bees :) 
Sollux isn't allowed to use his psiioniics unless there's a life-threatening corporate attack. He's not really aware of how caught-up in the timeloop he is, but he doesn't remember having that conversation before. That could be a good thing. Sollux stopped by again last night! Here's the news: 
 Sollux showed Tavros bees and he loved them!!! 
We can now trade mun embarassing videos for discords, so we've gotten tavros's discord! I don't believe he's responded to anyone yet, but it's there. 
Sollux loves bees. He also likes cats!!! We showed him pictures of our cats and he said they were cute and their purring is cute and cuddling is awesome.
 Sollux let us ask about troll biology!!!!! Trolls have naturally sharp nails on hands and feet that are a darkish orange (the same color as the tips of the horns) They also have fangs, with seadwellers having the sharpest. Height isn't correlated to blood color, sollux is just Really Tall, but physical strength is correlated to blood color, though sollux can Lift.  Body temperature is also dictated by blood color- lowbloods are very Warm. 
 Now for society: mutations used to be culled but now they're discriminated. These can include physical deformation, too many/not enough horns/eyes/limbs, and certain blood types (for example candy red or a mutated bronze with psiioniic powers) . These stopped being cullable offenses after integration with human society. 
 Vriska makes fun of Tavros for his stutter. Highbloods give Karkat shit about his blood. Sollux doesn't really know Karkat, just knows that he works in filing. Kankri got demoted for talking too much. 
 The ai's are made of brain scans just so that there's less opportunities for coding era and it's easily reset. It's also a punishment for some trolls, where they are completely rewired, cloned, and made digital. Both Finn and Felix are likely reversed scans of Mituna- this explains why Felix's god tier is a Witch of Life, the reverse of Mituna's Heir of Doom. 
 Wiped memories are kept in the database. They can be retrieved and returned. 
JANITOR KANAYA WITH A BENDY STRAW CANON WE DID IT FOLKS 
 Sollux can send a message to Dirk for us. Tell him that we love him and we're working hard. 
END OF DAY 14
DAY 15
We have a lil more information on seadwellers from yesterday. Apparently CC has two sectors that are completely underwater. Seadwellers use waterproof laptops, which are "like the laptops everyone else uses, but wet." Condy most likely has two offices, one above and one below the water.
lotta new discords today!!!!! We can now talk to Tavros, Nepeta, Vriska, Terezi, Feferi, and Jake. thanks to everyone who subjected themselves to public humiliation for this   
 While most of the characters havent been online yet, Tavros talked to a few of us earlier!!! He's extremely sweet. As far as information goes, there were a few new discoveries.
 Tavros is very kind and trusting, he trusted me enough pretty much right away to tell me about Sollux showing him bees, which he had been told not to share. He even blocked Ardent pretty much automatically when Isi told him to. 
 Sollux refers to Tavros strictly by his ID, even though we know that he knows his name. Tavros says Sollux just does it to be respectful. They are good friends, and Sollux told Tavros about bees!!! 
 Humans are ranked higher than bronzebloods within the CC heirarchy; they hold roughly the same rank as jadebloods. 
 Terezi tends to take the heirarchy pretty seriously, and seems suspicious of how we managed to contact her. She works in paperwork (writing and filling it in), and draws with sharpies in her spare time. She likes the other tealbloods she works with and also likes the janitors, especially Kanaya. 
The tiaras almost absolutely have some type of healing/sustaining power- Tavros's legs were broken, but they magically healed.
 It seems that Dave, Rosaline, and Rose still have yet to return. 
Lastly, daven’t and i are now official invitees of the tour, as a few members of the og16 elected to step down.
 END OF DAY 15
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So I saw in one of your replies you came up with a mob boss au. Would you ever write it and put it on A03 cos I would LOVE to read it. Also please say John's the mobster who's like "if you mess with Roger you'll die" so a rival gang kidnap Roger to blackmail John. But then Roger turns out to be trained in combat and beats the shit out them all and escapes and when John hears he's just like "I fucking warned you not to mess with him!"
okay this is a) a long time coming and b) was born from me watching all of narcos in like...a week
in fact, it legit started with me texting lo “maybe i’ve been watching too much narcos but.....” 
okay so our story begins with the knowledge that roger’s dad ran the mob
like roger is his heir and his son and his dad is the Big Kingpin
john’s dad is a shitty little lackey who has waaaaaaay too many debts so he grew up in the mob?? but lower ranks
and john sorta started getting involved when he was like 10 or so bc no one looks twice at the nicely groomed white kid right? and his dad was Desperate
and like he and roger had this whole Star Crossed Lovers shit bc a) roger was Not Allowed to be Gay and b) they weren’t ever supposed to have even met like completely different pay grades
BUT roger overheard him arguing with his dad over a better way to do a job that would be less dangerous and way harder to track but he got brushed off with a “the boss is always right you don’t argue john it’ll get you killed”
but rog was like.... shit no that’s WAY better
and ended up dropping a few lines to find out who this kid is cause... he’s smart and smart goes far right
like u gotta look Out for the smart ones, he knows that, his dad taught him that
(with backhands and cruel fists while teaching him chess, that one night in the barrel when he fucked up a simple plan when he was 13...)
(like rog is smart he’s just not Great at compartmentalization. so his plans start out great but go off the railed as he gets excited/pissed off) but like johns smart he picks up when he’s suddenly being tailed and is like Ok What Did I Do to one of them
and the guy panics and takes him straight to roger who is like..... how did u fuck up a simple tail, Jesus Christ
but yeah like he and john end up having a sort of clandestine friendship of sorts? in which roger essentially brings half baked plans to him and john Fixes them
which sorta turns into mutual pining
john is like this is my angry mob boss son best friend and roger’s like this is my evil genius best friend who kills people
but yeah basically roger’s dad keeps beating him when things go wrong, even if its not his fault
John is observant okay he was noticing the direct correlation between roger “getting jumped” and plans going wrong
So when it’s one of his??? That goes tits up (and tbh it wasn’t even like a bad screw up they just had a witness who was taken care of the next day) and roger like slinks into Johns apartment/office with the break down for John and his eyes is swollen completely close and he’s got a fat lip the size of a strawberry John immediately is ready for murder
And roger never admits it’s his dad???? who’s beating him???
because Taylors Should Be Better
Because why would he? It’s embarrassing but also it’s happened his whole life it’s expected of a mob bosses son (think the Baba Yaga scene in John wick 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)
which then turns into john pounding him into the mattress and promising no one will Ever land a hand on him again when he turns up one time with a battered to hell face because something went Wrong on one of the plans (which. extra emotional effect bc it was one of johns)
and like a month later roger’s dad is mysteriously found shot dead
cuz John mentally is like okay. Plan Ides of March is a go. Moving it up three years he’s getting taken out tomorrow
And John KILLS ROGER’S DAD IN COLD FUCKING BLOOD
the only??? person??? roger would EVER take that from is his dad
like johns heard the stories about roger taking out men twice his size yeah? but roger never has any defensive wounds on his hand
John knows that roger can and will defend himself
He’s seen him in action
But he never raises a hand against his dad when he straight up could kill him with one hand tied behind his back
so john figures it out and a month later roger’s dad is dead 
and now they need a leader?? another boss
and they look to roger, but roger is like no
he knows himself well enough, he is not strong enough in terms of planning and plotting, he’s a good action man but not strategist
that’s john
so roger steps aside and is like john is going to run the show
obvi there’s a power void and there’s basically civil war but with roger’s ruthlessness and john’s genius they fucking take all the little fractions down and they take them down HARD
john sits on his throne with roger standing over his shoulder, knuckles bloodied and grin wicked
and everyone knows if you fuck with roger??? you fuck with john
and vice versa
once, roger got shot on a mission and it was like, the one time?? john loans him out for a plan that wasn’t his
and he’s fine it’s just a graze but John and him in their bathroom and Johns like hyper focused on cleaning the wound and he furious and harsh and is like you fucking dumbass did no one teach you to duck?? You fool you dumb piece of shit
and roger just gently cradles john’s face in his hands and lifts his head to look at him and kisses him so gently and he’s like it’s okay, i’m fine, i’m here
and john’s like you are never going on any raid or plan or anything that i have not PERSONALLY vetted 
the next day, the guy who’s plan it was is sniveling and apologizing on his knees in front of John and Roger; it was an accident, he says
and johns like “it’s okay. i understand, these things happen.”
and then just blank eyed shoots him in the femur
“these things just happen, you understand?”
roger just smiles from behind him, doesn’t even flinch in the aftermath
john and roger rule with an iron fist until one day things go tits up
and roger ends up taking the fall for john, and he gets sent to jail
john, in retaliation, goes on the warpath
Because he’s totally turned around the family business they’ve gone more corporate and it’s more like s legit business now?? They still kill people and rob and shit but they’re not monsters or criminals
And they give money back into the neighborhood and shit and donate to charity and kiss babies blah blah blah
But the authorities are like we need to show our strength against these villains so Rogers looking at like 25years to life
And John just kinda is like okay cool I can fix this
And it’s the biggest campaign ever he’s got the best lawyers on retainer he’s blackmailing people left and right he’s buying witnesses and finding loopholes like he’s fucking working the system and he’s gonna get roger out even if it kills him because in his eyes it was His Fault
Roger is like your honor clearly there’s been some sort of mistake
Because the only thing that places him there is a grainy cell phone video and a witness that’s not exactly clean
So like the case isn’t solid
But it’s enough for a trial like most of it is circumstantial
And John is like I would kill the whole world for you and Rogers like sounds excessive but same
the difference between roger and john is that john would kill the whole world for roger after sitting down and planning the whole thing for several weeks. roger would kill the whole world for john and not remember doing it after (though still probably not regret it)
Roger would act first think later
And John would be like oh I planned it all out two years ago in the shower
Just in case
so roger gets sent to jail and john just...looses it
like he has to get yanked off of miami when the verdict is read of two years sentencing because its not technically miami’s fault??? its just shitty
and meanwhile, roger is getting dragged off to jail and he’s like don’t worry, babe, it’s gonna be fine
(it both is and isn’t)
roger shows up in jail and within a week he’s running the joint, he’s got lackeys and he’s paid off the guards and its basically a vacation
meanwhile john is just burning his competition to the ground, he’s making people rue the day they ever crossed him
(they TOTALLY get conjugal visits that last longer than uhhhh usual)
bc you betcha ass they’d be So fucking possessive of one another. like roger rules that prison with an iron fist 
anyways, miami appeals on the basis of circumstantial, and he basically proves that legit ANYONE else could have done it and this is clearly railroading and obviously roger is innocent
and after 8 months, he walks
when he gets out???? john is there to pick him up
they drive off to a safe house outside of the city and they had wicked crazy dangerous hot sex and its just insanity
and when they come back??? 
its like people know to just flee when they see them
john, mob boss and kingpin, and roger his dangerous and beautiful second in command 
also freddie is roger’s bff, miami is their lawyer, and crystal is roger’s bodyguard who always gets into more trouble than roger but he once took a bullet for roger so he’s chill
ps anyone tries to kidnap roger??? gets dealt with a) by roger and if roger manages to let them get away then b) john. you’d rather be dealt with by roger, and not john
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woolishlygrim · 4 years
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Winter Weebwatch #10
We’re very much hitting the final stretch of the winter anime season now, and to be honest, I still don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing for Spring Weebwatch (Spring Spreebspratch?). Kami no Tou, Digimon Adventure 2020, and Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens are shoo-ins, but a lot of the shows that start in Spring are the second seasons of shows from Autumn 2019, and I’d rather not do those.
Anyway, on with this week’s shows.
Pet.
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★★★☆☆
Okay, so apparently Pet did air last week, I just didn’t see that it had, which is weird, I was looking out for it.
Also weird is that the character I originally thought was called Tsukasa and then thought was called Tsubasa is actually called Tsukasa. Did … did the subbers make a mistake at some point, or did I make the mistake? I genuinely do not know.
Anyway, last week and this week, Pet saw Hiroki discover Hayashi, still not entirely crushed but rather in a mostly-crushed state similar to the one he found Tsukasa in. Realising from exploring his memories that Tsukasa was the one who crushed Hayashi, Hiroki, feeling betrayed, confronts Tsukasa and eventually runs away. Meanwhile, Tsukasa, faced with the prospect of the Company separating him from Hiroki and then with Hiroki running away, grows more and more unhinged, eventually deciding to manipulate Satoru into going after him.
Things are definitely winding their way towards a conclusion, and I honestly can’t see what that conclusion will even be, or how the writers plan to tie this up in two episodes, but it’s fun to watch, at least.
That said, my god, Tsukasa going off the deep end is … something. The animators are having a whale of a time, drawing him wide-eyed, pale, and practically twitching. One scene has him drooling as he talks and occasionally having to wipe it away with his sleeve. If this was an actor, I’d say they were chewing the scenery, but it’s not, someone intentionally made him like this.
ID: Invaded.
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★★★☆☆
This is another episode that just doesn’t quite deliver on the promise it set up. While I felt I was being a little harsh with last week’s score, this time I feel like I’m being a little lenient. It’s really a two and a half star episode.
With the set-up of the last episode going forward, Anaido just turns out to not … really have any kind of diabolical plan at all, whereas Hondomachi in the Well-Within-A-Well just kind of puts a couple of clues together and discovers who John Walker is.
John Walker is, incidentally, the character everyone expected him to be, since we’d seen that Walker has a white beard and moustache and only one other character had that.
As far as twists go, it’s … weak. It’s very weak, and the downplayed way the episode presents it suggests that the creative team were well aware of how weak the twist was. Similarly, the reveal that Kiki is inside the Mizuhanome is pretty much expected.
However, we still have two episodes to go, so there is plenty of time for the show to pull a rabbit out of its hat, so to speak.
Darwin’s Game.
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★☆☆☆☆
I’m beginning to lose patience with this show, and if we weren’t in spitting distance of the end (this is episode nine, there are eleven episodes total apparently), I would drop it.
So continuing on from last week, the protagonist (nine episodes in and I still have no idea what his name is) engages in a fight to prove that his clan is worthy of allying themselves with the boxing gym-y clan, after which the top-ranked player in the game kidnaps him to … ugh.
Kidnaps him because she is the head of an ancient clan of psychic assassins and she wants him to be the father of her child, and fuck knows writing that sentence made me seriously reconsider watching the last two episodes.
The whole thing ends with said top-ranked player (who can psychically incapacitate people somehow) joining the protagonist’s clan, because I guess we don’t need stakes? Nah, nah, who needs narrative tension, right?
Congrats on another episode I actually remembered, Darwin’s Game. You might’ve done better if I hadn’t.
In/Spectre.
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★★★★☆
Okay, I admit it, In/Spectre has wormed its way into my good graces. I enjoy this show now, I guess.
This is just a really good episode, and it manages to be a really good episode while working with material that I’m not sure most writers would be able to make interesting. As the plan to take down Steel Girder Nanase kicks off, Kotoko begins what is essentially a reddit forum argument in which she attempts to cast doubt on the existence of Steel Girder Nanase by proposing an alternate theory and arguing in its favour. As she does this, however, Rikka is attempting to argue back under several different accounts, trying to sway people into believing in Nanase’s existence.
Do you see what I mean? This is … this is banal. This is people arguing in the comments section while one person uses transparently disguised sockpuppets. This is something I can find by just going to a forum and scrolling down a few inches, and yet this episode is absolutely fascinating to watch.
When the episode ended with Kotoko saying that it’s time for her to present her second theory, I wasn’t even annoyed. I’m genuinely interested to see what the second theory is. I hate that I really like this show now.
Infinite Dendrogram.
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★★★★☆
This is another one where I was honestly not sure what score to give it. It was a three-and-a-half star episode, really, and I wavered back and forth for a while over whether to bump it up to four stars or down to three stars, before eventually deciding to be nice. 
Honestly, it could have gone either way.
With Franklin/Penguin-san having kidnapped the princess and enshrouded the arena in a barrier, he begins his invasion of the city, remarking to the princess that he will break the spirit of the Masters of Altar before the war between Altar and Dryfe can resume. While Franklin’s own Superior class ability, which allows him to invent and spawn monsters, is a potent threat in his own right, he is also joined by numerous other Masters, from both Dryfe and Altar, along with Hugo and what appear to be the other three Dryfe Superiors.
So this is an actually really fun episode, even if it’s also kind of a nothing episode. With Shu and Figaro both trapped in the barrier, Ray and Rook learn that any player below level fifty can pass straight through the barrier, and use that to mount a counterattack. A small chunk of the episode is devoted to what amounts to a ‘Ray And Rook (And Later Hugo) Show Off Their Awesome Abilities’ scene, and honestly it was enough fun that I’m willing to forgive it for being mindless fluff. I do like the touch that while Rook can use his abilities to convert female monsters to his side, his Embryo Babyl can use her abilities to convert male players to her side, making them a nice team.
Meanwhile, Marie, who had bonded with the princess earlier, tracks down Franklin and shoots him a bunch, and exactly nobody is surprised because we all basically knew already that she was the monster-bug-shooting gunslinger who killed Ray before. Franklin is still alive, though, and as the show, as all shounen shows must, descends into shounen anime battle match-ups, Marie finds herself facing off against another Dryfe Superior with power over music.
Also, can I just express my irritation that Franklin combines both chess metaphors and poker metaphors. Those games are the antithesis of each other: Chess is a game all about planning multiple moves ahead, figuring out multiple paths and multiple outcomes to those paths and then choosing the best one; whereas Poker is a game all about taking a hand dealt to you by luck and tricking, scheming, and gambling your way to getting the best possible use out of it. Either one will work for a scheming villain, but they work for very different kinds of scheming villain.
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the 1:30 train - fic
Fandom: MCU Pairing: Steve/Bucky Desc.: Before We Go AU. In which Steve is a trumpet player avoiding his ex, and Bucky is stuck in Manhattan for the night. Warnings: Mention of domestic violence (no graphic descriptions, just a brief mention) Words: 11k A/N: I posted this fic on my AO3 last year, before my account was deleted for no reason. I thought all my fics were gone for good until yesterday, when I found that they’d all just been orphaned! Anyway,  I thought I’d re-edit this and post it again here. Enjoy :)
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There was a man playing the trumpet in Grand Central Terminal. He had been there for a few days, filling the hours between opening and closing with music. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people had passed by him in this time; some would drop money into his open case, others would pass without acknowledgment, others would give him a smile and a “sorry, no change”. Over the course of these days, he saw engagements and break ups and first kisses, he experienced anniversaries and provided the soundtrack to reunions, and those things alone were enough to make up for those who didn’t give him the time of day.
As the station began to quieten, the regular flow of people dwindling down to late-night commuters and cleaning staff, the trumpet player reclined against the wall. His legs had started protesting against standing all day almost two hours ago. Sitting, even on the hard floor of the station, was a relief.
His phone rang, and he placed his trumpet next to him on the floor to answer it.
“Steve’s phone."
“Man, you know you don’t have to say that every time?”
Steve chuckled at his best friend, “What’s up, Sam?”
“I just wanted to know if you were coming downtown. Where are you?”
By the sounds of it, he was still downtown; Steve could hear the muffled sound of music and talking on his end. It had just passed 1:30 in the morning, so he really wasn’t surprised the party was still in full swing. It was a Tony Stark party, after all.
“I’m still at Grand Central.” Steve rolled his head back against the wall, averting the gaze of the cleaner who’d been staring at him for a while. “Is she there?”
There was silence for a few moments. “She’s here. I’m sorry, man. You should still come down, though.”
Steve sighed. “Yeah, I don’t know...”
“Okay,” Sam said, resigned. “I’ll text you the address anyway, you should come.”
Sam had just hung up when a number of things happened all at once.
A dark haired man came reeling through the station like a whirlwind, flying past Steve in his expensive shoes and catching himself on the trumpet case still lying on the floor. The money inside of it scattered across the marble, and the guy just about managed to stay on his feet as he sprinted towards one of the terminals and disappeared from view.
Steve didn’t have a chance to be angry about the case, as he quickly noticed something the guy had left behind.
A black iPhone was lying face-down on the floor a few feet away from Steve. He reached forward to pick it up and inspect it. It had shattered pretty badly, and when he pressed the power button the screen gave one, pathetic flicker of light before dying.
The guy came back around the corner a minute or so later, and Steve watched –while packing away his trumpet and pocketing the money – as he approached a worker, who looked like she was on her way home.
“Can I use this ticket for another train?” He desperately showed his ticket to her. “I missed it and I really have to get home.”
The woman shook her head. “No more trains tonight, love, anywhere. We have a cab rank outside.”
She was about ready to move on, but he stepped in her way, “I can’t get a cab, I have to get home and I don’t have enough to get a cab back to Boston. Please, my wallet –”
Before he could say anything else, and without acknowledging him further, she walked away.
He huffed, his shoe squeaking on the floor as he kicked it petulantly and turned to leave.
“Hey!” Steve yelled to catch the guy’s attention.
He didn’t look exactly happy to be talking to Steve, and probably thought he was going to ask for money. Most people assumed that, so he didn’t mind.
Steve held out the phone, “I thought you might want this back.”
The guy glanced at Steve’s face, then at the phone, and then back at his face again, as if he didn't believe that he was real, and then he took the phone and slid it into his pocket. He seemed like he wanted to smile but couldn’t bring himself to, only achieving a slight twitch of one side of his mouth.
“Thanks, I wouldn’t have got very far without that.”
Steve smiled, “Don’t worry about it.”
The guy just nodded, and then did another twitch-smile before turning and heading out of the station.
By the time he'd packed away his stuff completely, Steve felt a bit like he'd overstayed his welcome. He smiled at the worker, anyway, before leaving. It was never particularly warm in New York at this time of year, but tonight seemed especially biting, so he did up the buttons on his coat to avoid the cold.
There was an agitated sigh from his right, and Steve turned to see the dark-haired man slam his phone against the wall of the station, as if breaking it more would somehow fix it.
“Can I ask why you’re standing outside?” Steve asked, like he hadn’t heard the entire conversation with the worker.
“They closed the station.”
He gave no further explanation, so Steve continued, “You plannin’ on standing out here all night?”
The man glared at him. “My wallet was stolen. All I have is a useless thirty dollar train ticket, a broken phone, a lighter and exactly two dollars fifty in cash.” Steve frowned, and held up his hand. “Don’t. I’ll figure something out, I don’t need your pity.”
His breath was visible in the air. There was no possible way Steve could leave this guy alone in Manhattan with so little money and nowhere to sleep.
“Look,” Steve said. “I’ve got about eighty bucks. Take it, buy yourself a room somewhere for the night so that you’re not sleeping on the street.”
He held out the cash, and the guy shook his head.
“I told you, I don’t need charity.” He turned away and sighed hard. “God, I need a cigarette.”
“At least let me help you with that.” He had to do something to help this guy; he wouldn’t sleep if he didn’t. He pulled a ten dollar bill out from his wallet and held it between them, “Please.”
It took a moment of staring at each other before the guy snatched the bill out of his hand.
“Fine. But this is only because I’m a filthy addict on the verge of a panic attack and not because I want your help, right?”
He was using the note to point at Steve, who couldn’t help but laugh. “Right.”
Steve decided that it was probably best if he leave him alone and just get into a cab, now. As much as he wanted to help, he didn’t want to bother him any more than he already had. “Good luck.”
The guy’s tone was sharp, “Thanks.”
Steve had just started to walk towards the cab rank when the guy called out for him.
“Changed your mind?” Steve said as the man came rushing back up to him. His hand was shoved into the pocket of his pea coat to keep it warm.
“No. I - uh - I just realised that I don’t actually know where to buy anything here.”
This guy was still firmly standing his ground. It didn’t seem like he was going to let up anytime soon, although it was progressively becoming more and more obvious how much he needed Steve’s help. Of course, he wouldn’t admit that, but Steve didn’t think he would have, if their roles were reversed.
However stubborn he was, he let Steve take him to the nearest convenience store where he could pick up a pack of Marlboro Red – and reluctantly took the extra four dollars needed, because apparently cigarettes were just that expensive in Manhattan. He did seem to relax a little after silently making his way through one. As he lit his second, he side-eyed Steve.
“Why are you still here?” he asked.
“You don’t seem to have many other options right now.”
The guy chuckled, smoke rolling from his mouth as he did so, “You’re right. I don’t know anyone here, and I don’t have a cell phone or an ID or a wallet or a credit card anymore. I’m gonna need a little more than company, no offence.”
He cringed almost immediately after saying that. “I’m sorry, I just really don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Wanna go find your wallet?” The guy raised an eyebrow. “Hey, you never know how these guys work. Sometimes they take the cash and dump the bag, push comes to shove you can live off mints for a few days.”
The man didn’t laugh at his joke, but did reluctantly say; “I don’t have much else going for me. It’s worth a shot.”
“That’s the spirit,” Steve said, as the guy crushed his cigarette out on the wall behind him. “I’m Steve, by the way.”
The guy froze for a second, as if he’d forgotten his own name.
“Buchanan.”
The air around them felt less tense as they walked down the street, towards where Buchanan – as Steve now knew him – remembered last seeing his wallet.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Buchanan said.
Steve mirrored his tone, “You don’t need to keep rejecting my help."
They’d stopped outside the bar, now, and the cold was beginning to creep back to Steve’s skin. He just really hoped that it wouldn’t get cold enough that he’d have to get his inhaler out, because as much as he didn’t think his asthma was anything to be ashamed of, it would definitely just give Buchanan more reason to decline his help.
“Look,” Buchanan sighed. “I’m sure my husband would really appreciate you helping me, but I can look after myself. Being disabled doesn’t mean I can’t handle this on my own.”
Steve stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“The husband thing,” Steve replied. “I’m not trying to get you in my bed or anything. I’m not like that.”
“Not gay?” Buchanan snapped.
“Not an asshole,” Steve corrected, softer.
Buchanan sighed deeply and ran his hand over his face, “I’m sorry, I’m a dick. You just – you’re just being so nice to me! Why can’t you just try to fuck me so that I can have a reason to hate you?”
“I’m not gonna do that,” Steve said, slightly humoured. “I just don’t want you lost in Manhattan. Not because you’ve got one hand, or whatever; Manhattan’s confusing even if you know the place, so getting lost isn’t great for a first trip. Now, do you want to find your wallet or not?”
The bar was sort of the opposite of what Steve was expecting. It was dimly lit and sold craft beer. Considering how he looked, Steve hadn’t expected Buchanan to be a hipster.
The bartender was a fairly tall guy, with a thick ginger beard and round glasses that perfectly reflected the general vibe of the bar.
“Is there anything distinctive about the wallet?” he asked once Buchanan had told him what they were looking for.
Buchanan did an absolutely horrendous job at describing the wallet. Steve, however, could only fixate on the fact that he’d said it was authentic Louis Vuitton, and he started to wonder exactly how much money had been inside it. If he owned a Louis Vuitton wallet, he’d probably be worried about it, too.
The bartender’s expression didn’t change, “I’m gonna need more than that. Was there any ID in the wallet? A driver’s license or credit card?”
“My driver’s license was in there!” Buchanan suddenly exclaimed.
The bartender seemed happy with that, “Name?”
Buchanan glanced at Steve, and then sighed before looking back at the bartender, “James Barnes.”
Steve probably should have expected that.
The bartender wandered off into the back room, and Steve leaned his forearm on the bar, “Nice to meet you, James.”
James sighed, “You can’t blame me. I’m in the middle of Manhattan; it’s late; you’re a stranger. I panicked, okay?”
“Right,” Steve chuckled to himself.
Buchanan, fucking hell.
“Besides, it wasn’t really a lie. Buchanan’s my middle name.”
Steve found this whole situation highly amusing, “Oh, really?”
“Yes, really!” he said. “James Buchanan Barnes. Most people call me Bucky; ‘s less formal.”
“James Buchanan,” Steve repeated. “Like, President James Buchanan? 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan?”
Bucky shot him a cold look, and Steve held up his hands, “Hey, don’t worry, my birthday’s the fourth of July.”
“You’re joking.”
“I wish I was.”
The bartender chose that moment to come out of the back room. He told them that he hadn’t had any luck, although he didn’t seem too apologetic about it. Steve thanked him anyway before they headed back out of the bar. Bucky seemed vaguely grumpy about the whole situation. He tried to be nice about it, anyway, because he figured he’d been enough of a dick to Steve so far.
“Thanks for this, seriously, and sorry about the name thing,” he said as they stopped just outside the door.
“It’s fine; I can’t think of anything better I could be doing,” Steve replied.
They were walking again, but neither of them really had any idea where they were going. Or, at least, Bucky didn’t think either of them knew. For all he knew, Steve could be preparing to murder him and dump his body in a back alley somewhere, and at the moment he was going willingly.
He really needed to stop being so negative.
He studied Steve for a moment. “Are you... sure? I mean, anything would be better than walking aimlessly around Manhattan with a broke, one-armed guy who has to borrow your money to buy cigarettes.”
Steve shrugged. “I dunno. I was in town with my friend Sam for a thing which I didn’t go to, then I fly back to DC tomorrow. I was gonna go back to Brooklyn for a few days, but I didn’t think there was much to see.”
“You’re from Brooklyn, too?”
Bucky didn’t seem to know how to continue that string of the conversation when Steve nodded, so it died.
Steve managed to pick it back up by asking, “What about you? There must be something better you could be doing.”
There was a moment of pensive silence where Bucky seemed to think hard about that, and eventually he settled on an answer.
“Not really. I’m an art critic, I was just here to buy a piece.”
“Oh?” Steve said, interest piqued. Art was one thing he could talk about. “What was it?”
Bucky brushed him off. “You wouldn’t know it.”
“Try me, I went to the California Institute.”
Bucky stared at him blankly, and Steve nearly rolled his eyes. More lies, wow.
“You have no idea what that is, do you?”
After a few more seconds of indignant staring, Bucky groaned, “Fine, so I’m not an art critic. But I’m not lying about the husband thing; I have a husband.”
“Right,” Steve looked very pointedly at Bucky’s bare hand. He was definitely missing something vital which signified marriage, but Steve decided not to bring it up. “So, what are you? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“A dancer.” That did surprise Steve a little. “Hey, don’t look so surprised. I was a principal performer at the American Ballet before...” He didn’t finish that thought. “I run my own classes back in Boston, now, for kids and teenagers, y’know. Occasionally do shows if someone asks, but I’m past my prime.”
Steve shouldn’t have been so quick to judge; the thought of Bucky teaching kids how to dance was pretty sweet.
“So, if you’re not buying art, what brought you to Manhattan?”
That apparently triggered something in Bucky that made him freeze where he stood. It took Steve a few seconds to realise, so he had to walk back a few steps so that they were beside each other again.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
“Not gonna steal it from me, are you?” Steve teased, but he was already reaching into his back pocket.
He handed the phone over, already unlocked, and Bucky wasted no time in dialling a number and turning away from Steve. For the sake of being polite, Steve took a few steps back so that he was a little more out of earshot. He couldn’t help but overhear, though, the street was so quiet it would be impossible for him not to hear what Bucky was saying.
“Hey, baby,” is what Bucky opened the conversation with.
Steve immediately guessed he was talking to his husband. And if he wasn’t, well, that was a situation Steve didn’t think he was qualified to address. He couldn’t hear the person on the other end of the call, but Bucky’s side of the conversation was pretty interesting.
“No, no, everything’s fine. I just wanted to tell you that I love you, ‘s all.”
There was some more talking from the other end that Steve couldn’t hear, and Bucky suddenly stiffened.
“What?” he all but choked. “You – you’re... No, that’s great, I’m happy! But, don’t you want to rest before you come home? I’m sure you’ve been working hard...”
More talking, and Bucky sighed deeply.
“Brock, don’t... Nothing’s going on, I just... Okay, of course. I’ll see you in the morning. Love you, too.”
He hung up, then, and handed the phone promptly back to Steve.
“Everything okay?”
“It’s over.” Bucky’s voice cracked on the last word. “It’s fucking over.”
Before Steve could say anything else, Bucky had started to cry. He’d pinched the bridge of his nose and his face was all screwed up, so it was difficult to see, but he was definitely crying.
Steve tried to make his voice as soft as possible, but he really had no idea what to do with a crying person, “Hey, hey, it’s alright. Come on.”
He led them to a step which was low down and less than comfortable, but it allowed Bucky a moment to sit down and collect himself. Steve just sat beside him, at a loss.
Once Bucky had calmed down a bit, Steve deemed it safe to continue, “What’s over?”
“My marriage.” Bucky said. “I had to be home before him.”
It didn’t exactly take Steve an age to fit the pieces together. Bucky was in Manhattan late at night; he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring; he had to be home before his husband... it finally made sense.
He must have made some sort of noise of revelation, because Bucky was looking at him with a confused stare. His eyelashes were still wet and clumped together, which softened the look a little.
“What was that supposed to mean?”
“Sorry,” Steve said. “I just... it makes sense now.”
Bucky’s stare and voice hardened, “Are you accusing me of having an affair?”
Steve probably should have denied that.
“I’m just calling it like I see it,” was what he decided to say instead. Because he was a big, stupid idiot.
“Asshole.”
Bucky pushed himself up from the step and started to walk away.
Steve didn’t really know what he was doing when he followed him, “Wait, Bucky, that’s not what I meant.”
Bucky turned sharply on his heel, “What did you mean, then?”
Steve couldn’t come up with a good answer to that. So, Bucky just shook his head and turned to carry on walking.
“Bucky!” Steve called after him.
He tried to follow him, but Bucky walked fast as hell and Steve was lumbered with a heavy trumpet case.
“Thanks for your help, but it’s over. Just go back to whatever you were doing before I ruined your night!” Bucky called over his shoulder.
He moved his hand to flip the middle finger at Steve, but as he raised it, Steve grabbed his wrist. It wasn’t a hard grip, and Bucky definitely could have shaken him off. But he didn’t. He just whipped around fast as anything and stared down at his wrist, and then up at Steve’s face.
“You didn’t ruin my night, okay? I was having a shitty night, and I was hiding out in Grand Central to avoid...” Steve stopped there, collected himself for a moment, and then said, “You didn’t ruin my night.”
Once Bucky didn’t look so much like he was going to run away, Steve let go of his wrist. Bucky left his hand there, elevated as if Steve was still holding it, for a moment before he dropped it back to his side.
“If it means anything, you didn’t ruin mine, either,” Bucky said. “But I’d like to be back in Boston before the sun comes up.”
“I think I can help you with that. I have a friend who might be able to help.”
Bucky’s eyes widened, “Are you fucking serious?”
His tone made Steve a little wary, one hand came up in front of him despite himself. “Are you gonna hit me?”
Bucky scoffed, “Of course I’m not gonna fucking hit you, Steve. This is awesome. Who’s your friend?”
“He’s at that thing I’m avoiding,” Steve said, and Bucky made a little hissing sound. “Yeah, I know. But, anything to be the hero of this story.”
“You’re a dick,” Bucky said, but it was somewhat fond.
They ended up on a bus to the other side of Manhattan, which Steve paid for with more of his eighty busking dollars that he was sure would be spent by the end of the night. He also called Sam, asked him to ask Tony for four-hundred and sixty dollars (because apparently that’s how much a cab to Boston would be, holy shit) and to text him where the party was.
Bucky wasted no time in getting comfortable – he took off his jacket and balled it up behind his head so that he could lean against the window, facing Steve with one knee pulled up to his chest, foot planted firmly on the seat and slightly tucked underneath Steve’s right thigh, the other on the ground.
“How long have you been playing trumpet for?” Bucky asked.
That was an odd question, but since they were getting to know each other...
“My whole life,” Steve replied. “It was harder when I was a kid, I was a scrawny little thing and deathly asthmatic, so for a couple years I just couldn’t get the breathing right, and my ma kept trying to convince me to give it up because I was having an attack every other day, but I wouldn’t because I was a stubborn little shit.”
Bucky laughed at that and he felt a little accomplished.
He continued, “My lungs got stronger as I grew up, and although I wasn’t gonna be playing Major League baseball anytime soon, I could get through a song without having to take a break. It’s always felt like the only thing I could do well. I couldn’t play football, but being head of the band suited me just fine.”
Bucky was staring at him, looking a little in awe, “Wow, Stevie. And to think I took you for a quarterback type.”
He couldn’t tell if Bucky was sincere or not, but it seemed like he was. Steve didn’t know how he felt about the nickname.
“Your turn,” Steve said. “I’m sure your story is far more interesting than mine.”
“My turn,” Bucky mouthed, and then thought for a moment before speaking. “I’m not that interesting. ‘m a normal kid from Brooklyn, with a twin sister and a husband who’s the head of security for an important politician.”
“That’s a pretty interesting job,” Steve said, and Bucky shrugged it off. “How’d you two meet?”
Bucky smiled slightly, “It was about six years ago, a year or so after my accident. I was feeling pretty lost, y’know, I was twenty-two and I finally had everything I dreamed of. My whole life had been devoted to dance, I felt like everything I ever did was leading up to that moment. And then, the second I get my dream and become a principal dancer, it’s over in the blink of an eye.”
He swallowed and looked down at his lap for a second, picking at the knee of his jeans until it didn’t feel like he was going to cry anymore. Crying in front of a stranger once was bad enough, but twice in one night? Fuck, Barnes, pull yourself together.
“Anyway, I was feeling lost and I didn’t want to be in America anymore because I felt like everything here was attached to bad memories, so I up and moved to London."
“Big step,” Steve said.
Bucky chuckled, “Yeah. Like I said, bad memories. Anyway, so I’m in London and I really hadn’t planned up to that point. I had an apartment and enough money off the back of ballet to live off of for a year, but I didn’t know where anything was, what to do with myself, how to make friends. Then, I met Brock and everything just... I dunno, clicked into place.” He looked up at Steve, “Is that cheesy?”
“A little,” Steve admitted.
“It wasn’t even him,” Bucky said, and he seemed sad. Not like he was going to cry again, but a different kind of sad. Worse, somehow. “It felt like we were in the same boat, y’know? Both of us were Americans in London who really didn’t know what we were doing, and it just felt right. I came back to America a couple months after he did. We found a place in Boston, because I wanted to be close to my ma but I didn’t want to be in Brooklyn, and, well, the rest is history.”
He was picking at the knee of his jeans again.
“Does it not feel right anymore?” Steve asked, probably prying too much.
Bucky’s expression closed, and then he furrowed his eyebrows and then sighed, “I don’t really know what right is. I don’t think I ever have. I just... you know when you meet someone, and you know they’re gonna play a major part in your life? You don’t even know if it’s good or bad, you just know they’re gonna be there?”
A number of people flashed through Steve’s mind and he really tried not to tack Bucky’s face onto the end of that list. He couldn’t help it, though, this coincidental meeting was something right out of a movie. It was too perfect to not mean something, right?
“But, it doesn’t matter anyway. We’re running out of time. If this thing with your friend doesn’t work out, I’m fucked,” Bucky sighed, leaning his head back against the window in a way that couldn’t have been at all comfortable.
Steve wasn’t going to let him give up that easily, “I’m sure there’s still something we can do.”
“We’ve done everything we can, Stevie.” There was that nickname again. “Apart from build a fucking time machine.”
That gave Steve an idea. “Well, maybe we can.”
Bucky looked at him like he was insane, because it definitely sounded it.
“Now would be a really good time to tell me if you’re delusional,” he said warily.
“Shut up.” Steve reached into his back pocket for his phone, and pretended to dial a number, then held it out to Bucky. “It’s you, from the past.”
The dark-haired man didn’t look impressed, but he went with it anyway. He grabbed the phone and, a little dubious, held it to his ear.
“Bucky? It’s you, from the future...” he said, slightly uncertain, and then looked up at Steve. “He doesn’t believe me.”
Steve raised his eyebrows as if it was oh-so-obvious. “Of course he doesn’t. You’ve gotta tell him something secret, something only you would know.”
Bucky met his eyes for a moment, wondering if Steve was serious about this stupid game, and then brought the phone back to his ear.
“Remember when dad was in the hospital? And you and Becca decided it would be really funny if you took off your shoes and slid over the polished floor of the ward,” he paused as if someone was answering. “Right, yeah. And you miscalculated how fast you were going, and ended up slamming into a trolley of medical equipment and had to get five stitches in your knee? See, I know that scar isn’t from rock climbing like you told everyone it was.”
Steve was laughing hard at that, and Bucky smiled, mouthing, “He believes me now.”
“Of course he does,” Steve mouthed back.
“Okay, listen to me now,” Bucky said into the phone. “Tomorrow, you’re gonna go to Manhattan. Whatever you do, don’t talk to any strangers in Grand Central.”
“Ouch,” Steve whispered.
Bucky shushed him. “In fact, skip New York altogether. Think about it first, decide against it, stay home, rent Mean Girls – because you are definitely that gay, even if you pretend not to be – get some takeout from that Thai place Brock doesn't like, and go to bed. Just relax, because everything will be fine in the morning.”
Steve didn’t know if Bucky thought that them meeting was a good thing or a bad thing, but he didn’t want to ask.
“Feel better?”
Bucky exhaled softly and handed the phone back, “Not really. I mean, I’m still fucked.”
“It may sound crazy,” Steve said, and Bucky made a face. “But why don’t you just call your husband and tell him you’re in Manhattan?”
Bucky scoffed, “Yeah, right. I hope you like domestic battery.”
That struck a chord in Steve that he hadn’t even known was there. “He hits you?”
Bucky was suddenly much more alert, having realised what he’d said.
“No! it’s not like that, that’s not why I...” he huffed. “He gets angry sometimes but that’s it, he’d never...” he pinched the bridge of his nose again. “Fucking hell, Steve. It was just a joke, okay? Drop it. God.”
“Consider it dropped,” Steve knew it would still play on his mind. “Why do you have to beat him home, though? I don’t get it.”
“There’s something I’ve gotta do,” Bucky said.
“Right, okay…” Steve said, just so that he could have an extra moment to think. “Well, can somebody else do it?”
Bucky straightened up at that, and his sudden springing to life made Steve smile a little. “Stevie, you’re a genius. Give me your phone.”
Steve handed it back over without question. Bucky dialled in a number and spent a few moments tapping his foot and anxiously waiting for the line to be picked up.
Once it rang through, Bucky was talking almost immediately, “Nat? It’s Bucky.”
Despite being considerably closer this time, Steve still couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the line. Bucky seemed to relax upon hearing the voice of whoever it was, though, so Steve was content to only hear one side.
“I need a huge favour, like, a ‘you’re definitely going to hate me afterwards because I woke you up at 2AM’ kind of favour.”
There was some talking from the other person, and then Bucky spoke again.
“Right, so I want you to go to the apartment and climb up the fire escape. Y’know the one I climbed out... yeah.”
Steve really didn’t want to think about what kind of situation meant that Bucky had to climb out of a fire escape, so he tried not to.
“Alright, there’s a key taped underneath the right windowsill. I need you to grab it and go in through the back door, on the bed there’s a letter addressed to Brock and I need you to take it and save it for when I get back. And, look, I know you’re a nosey bitch but promise me you won’t read it?”
Steve could vaguely make out laughing on the other end, and then Bucky relaxed again.
“You’re the best, Nat. I love you.”
‘Nat’ said something in response, and handed the phone back. Steve didn’t ask, but the relieved look on Bucky’s face did wonders at lightening the mood.
They found the building Sam had sent him the address for without much strife, which was quite surprising considering their track record. Steve couldn’t help the anxiety welling up in his chest when he pressed the button for the elevator and watched the numbers slowly decline.
“Is it really that bad?” Bucky asked.
That knocked Steve out of his trance.
“What?”
Bucky glanced at the elevator, “Whatever’s waiting for you up there. Is it that bad?”
“It’s nothing,” Steve said, flippantly, turning back to the elevator and watching as the numbers crawled down. “It’s an ex...” he eventually admitted. “...Ex-something.”
“Does this ex-something have a name?”
God, this was the slowest elevator Steve had ever seen.                           
“Peggy,” Steve said. “I... uh... it’s been a while, since I saw her.”
Bucky nodded, he seemed to understand, but was still staring at Steve inquisitively, “Was it a bad breakup?”
“I’m not sure there’s another kind.”
The elevator finally opened then, and it took about as long going up as it had coming down, and when they finally stepped out onto the floor, Steve felt his heart drop to his feet. There were maybe ten or fifteen people there, and all of them were far too old to be at the party that Steve had been told was happening.  
“This isn’t the right place,” Steve groaned, patting Bucky’s shoulder to direct him back to the elevator.
So, there they were, back to walking the streets of Manhattan with nowhere to go and nothing to do and no money to do anything with.
“Your friend wasn’t there,” Bucky said.
Steve laughed humorlessly, “No. Sam gave me the wrong address, but it’s not his fault; his dyslexia is really bad when he’s been drinking.”
“Right,” Bucky said. “Well, are you gonna call him, get the right address?”
Steve kicked at a can on the sidewalk, “I don’t think it matters, I’m not gonna bother. Y’know, I hear Central Park’s really safe this time of night.”
Bucky stopped in his tracks, and Steve was a little scared he was going to start crying again. He didn’t, though, he just stared at Steve with a slightly shocked expression.
"Christ, it really is bad."
Steve fought the urge to roll his eyes, because he was sure if he did it again they’d roll right out of his head and down the street. “Maybe it is, but it doesn’t matter because I’m not going.”
He turned defiantly and started walking again.
“I think you should,” Bucky called.
“And why is that?” Steve asked, turning around. “What’s in it for me? Well, other than facing my ex and her new, much smarter, more talented and attractive, boyfriend."
“Well, I’d be on your arm, wouldn’t I?” Bucky said. “You might not swing that way, Stevie, but you can’t deny that I’m excellent arm-candy.”
As if to prove his point, he slid his arm through the crook in Steve’s elbow. He snuggled up into Steve’s side, and Steve would be lying if he said the warmth wasn’t comforting. “You helped me, let me help you.”
Steve took a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll be your fake boyfriend.”
Bucky made a point of melodramatically celebrating that, making Steve laugh.
“And, for the record,” he said. “I swing both ways. So, this isn’t that unexpected.”
Bucky stared at him with an unreadable expression for a moment, and then said, “Damn, I wanted to be the guy who turned you gay. Now, that would have been an excellent story.”
“I preferred moping Bucky,” Steve said, and Bucky bumped their hips together.
The place the party was actually in was much nicer than the hotel Steve had been sent to. It was a small bar with warm lighting, which was full of chatter and laughter when they opened the door. To Steve, it felt like entering a lion’s den, but it was a little easier with Bucky a warm, comforting, solid presence on his arm.
“Is this the right place?” Bucky said, as the door swung shut behind them.
Steve surveyed the party for anyone he recognised. He actually didn’t know that many people who were going to be there. Besides his childhood friends from Brooklyn, most of his friends were back in DC, not New York.
“Steve!” came a loud, drawn-out yell from somebody, which got closer and closer as his friend approached. He wrapped Steve in a bone-crushing hug, and Steve politely pushed him off.
“This is Sam?” Bucky eyed the guy up and down.
The man was pretty short, and the glaze over his eyes showed just how drunk he was.
“No, this is Tony. Tony, this is Bucky.” Steve lowered his voice a little to talk to Bucky. “It’s actually Tony’s engagement they’re celebrating tonight.”
Bucky made a quiet, “Oh,” sound, and Tony held out his hand for Bucky to shake. When Bucky just blinked at it, Tony realised he was holding out the wrong hand, laughed, dropped it and didn’t try again. He spoke to Steve, instead.
“I tried to get you the whole four hundred and sixty, but I only had two hundred on me and Sam had one and I wasn’t gonna go to an ATM, so we got, like, fifty dollars from Quill but that was all we could get because apparently I don’t have enough rich friends. So, you’ve got... what, three hundred and fifty?”
Bucky interjected, “It’s alright, we sorted it out. I don’t need the money anymore.”
Tony looked genuinely crestfallen for a moment, “But... I sold a kidney to get this.”
He was so sincere that there was a split second when Bucky was actually worried that this guy had sold a kidney. Steve just stared, unimpressed, at Tony, because he knew where this was going.
“I mean, it wasn’t my kidney. But what am I gonna tell the hooker when she wakes up?”
Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. Tony clapped Bucky on the shoulder, “Don’t look so scared, Buckaroo, I’m joking. She’s not gonna wake up!”
Thankfully, Sam stepped into the conversation at that exact moment, so Bucky didn’t have to reply to him. Sam was tall, dark and extremely attractive. Before he got married, Sam would have been the exact type of guy Bucky would go for.
“Steve, man, I’m so glad you could make it!” he pulled Steve into a hug that was definitely more comfortable than Tony’s had been.
“Hey, man,” Steve said, just as Tony noticed somebody else and wandered off to talk to them.
Sam clapped him on the shoulder, “Were you at Grand Central all day? I haven’t seen you since this morning.”
“Yeah,” Steve said. Bucky cleared his throat from beside him, catching the attention of both men, and Steve realised what he wanted when he looked at him, “Oh, yeah. Sam, this is Bucky. Buck, this is Sam.”
The nickname slipped out without Steve thinking about it, and Bucky stared at him for an extra second but didn’t say anything, instead he shook Sam’s hand and they slipped into an easy dialogue. Steve, zoning out on the conversation, caught sight of someone over Sam’s shoulder.
It was as if everything slowed to a halt when he saw Peggy, and the familiar curl of dark hair and the curve of her jaw made his heart seize. She turned and caught his eye. He quickly looked away back to Sam and Bucky, who were now talking about Sam’s VA work back in DC. Bucky seemed genuinely interested by it, which was a first for people listening to Sam’s work stories.
Steve didn’t even notice Peggy was coming over until he was all-encompassed by her smell and a light hand was on his elbow.
“Steve?”
He turned like he hadn’t noticed her yet, “Peggy!”
She pulled him into a hug, and Sam shared a look with Bucky before disappearing back into the crowd of people.
They stepped back from each other, and Steve remembered who was stood beside him. He gestured between Bucky and the woman, “Peggy Carter, James Barnes.”
“Steve, come on.” Bucky admonished gently, the back of his hand softly brushing Steve’s chest. Peggy followed the movement with careful eyes. “Call me Bucky, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Lovely to meet you, too, James,” Peggy said. She appeared to almost forget that Bucky was there after that, speaking to Steve again. “Sam told me that your flight got in late, I’ve been meaning to catch you all week so that we could chat, but I just keep missing you.”
Steve couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his tone, “Yeah, you do.”
It seemed like Peggy didn’t really know how to respond to that. She rolled her red-painted lips for a moment, tucked her hair behind her ear, shuffled her feet, until she decided that speaking to Bucky was probably the easiest route.
“So, do you know Pepper and Tony? I know they’ve been taking people on for the internship programme...” she asked.
Bucky laughed politely. He was charming as hell, no doubt about it. Even Peggy seemed impressed. “No, no, I wish I was young enough to still be an intern. I’m just here with Stevie tonight.”
The nickname warmed Steve’s chest a little, and Bucky slipped his hand around the crook of Steve’s elbow again, leaning in a bit. It was almost admirable how good he was at this.
“Oh,” Peggy looked between them. Steve could practically see her brain fitting the pieces together. “Right, so, you’re from DC?”
“No, Brooklyn. Me and Stevie met when we were kids, we ran into each other again when I was in DC for work, reconnected...”
He seemed a little lost, so Steve finished for him, “And the rest is history.”
There was a small smile on Peggy’s face, now. Steve felt bad. He felt really, really bad.
“And the rest is history,” she repeated thoughtfully. “Could I get you both a drink?”
Bucky looked like he was going to agree, but Steve interrupted before he could, “No. Thanks. We – uh – we actually have a thing... Bucky wanted to meet the gang, so that’s why we stopped by...”
“Have you been telling people about me, Rogers?” Peggy laughed.
“Always,” Steve said. "Well, we have to go. I'll see you around?"
“Bye, Steve,” she said, just as they left.
They found a bench to sit on a block away. Steve had seemed determined to carry on and get as far away as possible, but Bucky practically forced him to sit down. He stayed stood up, though, looking down at Steve and the self-pity that was coming off him in waves.
“Why did we have to run out of there?” Bucky asked.
Steve was bent almost completely forward, elbows resting on his knees and head in his hands so that Bucky couldn’t see his face. His voice was muffled. “I’m not running.”
“Really? Because, what you did back there definitely looked like running,” Bucky said. “Take it from me; I’m practically the poster boy for running from my problems.”
Steve didn’t reply, so Bucky kicked the toe of his shoe. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to make Steve look at him. There was some silent confrontation between them that Bucky didn’t think either of them understood, and then Steve shook his head and chuckled breathily.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. You’d think after not seeing her for six years, rehearsing that moment in my head, I’d have had something more interesting to say,” Steve buried his face in his hands again.
“Hey,” Bucky said, softly, just as Steve had done earlier. He sat on Steve’s left side so that he could place his hand on Steve’s knee comfortingly. “I’m sure she felt the same.”
Steve murmured something that vaguely sounded like “I don’t think so,” and Bucky sighed, his breath visible in the cold air. He dropped his hand from Steve’s knee and ran his tongue over his dry bottom lip.
“Six years... How’d you meet?” he asked.
“The army, if you’d believe it.” Steve said, and Bucky whistled. “Yeah. I... uh, I enlisted a couple months after my mom died. She would never have approved me enlisting but, well, it was always just me and her, so when she died I didn’t have anything. Before me, she was an army nurse, and my dad died in Libya a couple months before I was born. A part of me always wanted to be like them, no matter how much my mom insisted that she would never let me enlist. I guess it was uh... a way to honour her, or something. Feel close to her and my dad when they were both gone,” he swallowed thickly and hoped Bucky didn’t notice.
Bucky had been listening intently, “I’m so sorry.”
Steve huffed out a breath, “Don’t be. That’s not the point, um... So, we were sent to the camp after our training, and I remember being all lined up in a row for briefing by Peggy – who was this officer, or agent or something. She was far more successful than any of us would ever be and she was only, what, twenty-two?”
“That’s amazing,” Bucky said, just so Steve knew he was still listening.
“She is,” Steve agreed. He cleared his throat, “I think a lot of the guys felt quite intimidated by her... So, we’re all lined up and one of the guys starts acting up. He’s, y’know, trying to flirt with her and grab at her and she’s not having it. Instead of calling over a superior officer like she should have done, she asks him to step forward – deadpan as anything – and punches him right in the face. Sends him to the ground, too. None of us tried to mess with her after that.”
Bucky laughed, “Oh, my god. That’s incredible.”
Steve had a fond, reminiscent smile on his face, “I know. I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I think that was the moment I fell in love with her.”
He seemed to have perked up a little, telling that story, but Bucky was a little bit confused.
“I have one question...” he said. Steve glanced at him expectantly, “How did you get into the army if you have asthma?”
Steve chuckled like he’d been expecting that question, “Another reason I joined the army after my mom died is because nobody would be able to prove that I lied on the enlistment form.”
“You lied...” Bucky said, in disbelief. “I can’t believe you. Is that why you don’t serve anymore?”
Steve shook his head, “No, uh, I was discharged two years in after an evac mission went wrong. I... well, I was abducted and tortured and then sent home.”
He said it so casually, like it was every day you got kidnapped and tortured, and Bucky couldn’t help his eyebrows raising in shock. “Fuck...”
“It was fine, though. I met Sam at one of his VA meetings, he pushed me to pursue art, go to college – I’d spent the years after high school looking after my mom, so I’d never had the chance – and I started playing the trumpet again. It helped... uh... with the tremors.”
He looked down at his hands. They were shaking very minutely, and Bucky felt extremely ignorant, because all this time he’d thought that was because of the cold. The view he’d had of Steve had completely changed, now, he hadn’t thought this guy had that much to him. But there was so much lying under the surface that Bucky was happy he’d heard. He wanted to hear more but wasn’t sure if Steve wanted to tell him.
“So, what happened with Peggy?” he eventually asked.
“She stayed on for two years after I was discharged,” Steve said. “We stayed together, video called a lot, and one day she tells me that she’s got big news that she wants to tell me when she gets home – she tried to come home as much as she could, a day or two here and there. For months, I’d been planning on proposing to her on her next visit.”
“Oh, no...” Bucky couldn’t help from saying.
Steve looked like he wanted to laugh but didn’t, “So I wait for her at the airport, and I’d been thinking about doing it there, but I knew she hated attention like that. So, I brought her home, where I’d set up the apartment all romantic. She walked in, saw the rose petals, I got down on one knee, and she told me that she’d been offered a position at MI6, and was moving back to London.”
“Steve...” Bucky exhaled.
Closing his eyes, Steve nodded once, “She wanted me to go with her, but I’d spent the last two years building a life for myself in DC, and I couldn’t let that go. She didn’t want a long-distance relationship again, which I understood, so we broke it off. The last time I saw her she was packing up her stuff and moving out. Until tonight.”
There was something in Steve’s expression that Bucky knew too well, from first-hand experience. He put his arm around Steve and pulled him close just so that he didn’t have to see it anymore, but the guy was far too broad for Bucky to hold properly, so he just buried his own face into the crook of Steve’s neck and hoped it was comforting.
“I’m sorry...” he said into Steve’s jacket.
“About what?” Steve asked, and Bucky felt the rumble of his voice.
“For letting you sit here and talk about it and not making you go back.”
Steve jumped back at that, immediately standing up and breaking their embrace.
“No,” Steve said. “That’s not happening.”
Bucky groaned inwardly, “Steve, you didn’t come all the way to New York to do nothing.”
“I didn’t come all the way to New York to get my ass kicked, either,” Steve said, because yeah, he was sure if he tried anything with Peggy she’d kick his ass. That would definitely happen. He could see it.
Bucky pushed himself up from the bench, “I’m not letting you leave without trying. I swear.”
“I hate you,” Steve said, but there was no heat behind his words, which Bucky took as a good thing.
He held out his hand toward Steve, “Come on.���
Steve couldn’t quite believe he was doing this, as he took Bucky’s hand and let himself be led back towards the bar. He saw Peggy the moment they walked in, and nearly turned around and walked back out. Bucky pushed back against him though, forcing him inside.
“I can’t do this,” Steve said, through gritted teeth.
“Yes, you can,” Bucky insisted. “Go.”
Letting Steve’s hand go felt a lot like watching a child take their first steps. Steve was unsure as he stepped into the crowd, but once he was a few feet away from Peggy, who was facing the bar, he took a deep breath, set his shoulders and strode confidently towards her. Watching him talk easily to her, Bucky felt full of pride, and a little bit of something he didn’t quite want to address.
He stepped outside so that he didn’t have to, and leaned up against the wall of the bar. He blindly flicked open the cigarette box where it was at the bottom of the deep pocket in his coat, placed one in his mouth and tried to light it.
It was really just his luck that his lighter chose that moment to not work. No matter how many times he tried, it would only give him a pathetic little spark and nothing more. He groaned, dropping his head back against the wall.
“Need a light?” someone asked.
Bucky opened his eyes to see Steve’s friend from earlier. Not the short one with the hooker, but the handsome one... Sam.
He took the cigarette out of his mouth so that he could answer, “Could I?”
Sam held out his lighter, and Bucky placed the cigarette back in his mouth to light it. The relief that hit him the moment he took the first drag was just what he’d needed. He handed the lighter back, and Sam lit his own cigarette.
“Your boy’s in there,” Sam said, nodding to the bar.
“I know,” Bucky replied, smoke coming out of his nose as he did so.
“You not worried he’s gonna talk to his ex?” Sam asked.
“I told him to,” Bucky said, flicking off the ash and putting it back in his mouth.
Sam looked confused but didn’t pry. “Steve hasn’t mentioned you before.”
Bucky glanced at his feet, “We didn’t want to rush into anything. We, uh, we haven’t been together that long. Since I live in New York, it's, uh, difficult.”
“Right,” Sam said, and Bucky was slightly worried that he didn’t believe him.
Then again, it didn’t really matter if Sam believed him or not. It wasn’t him Steve wanted to make jealous.
“He really cares about you,” Sam said, after a moment.
Bucky glanced at him, humored, “He tell you that?”
He wondered if Steve had put Sam up to this so that Bucky wouldn’t be alone. If he’d actually convinced his best friend like that, this lie really had gone too far.
Sam shook his head, “I can tell. Steve’s been my best friend for the best part of ten years. When you’re close to someone like that, you just know. It’s in the eyes.”
He made a weird gesture around his eyes, and Bucky laughed.
“Sure it is,” he took another drag.
“Hey!” Sam pointed at Bucky with his cigarette. “Don’t try and be smart. I know Steve, alright? The guy doesn’t have a poker face. Also, nobody calls him Stevie and gets away with it.”
Bucky really didn’t know how to process this information. A couple of hours wasn’t enough for Steve to actually start caring about him so much that even his best friend could tell, right? Besides, he was still hung up on Peggy. He was just good at keeping up the act.
There wasn’t time to dwell on it, though, because before they could talk any more the door slammed open – so hard Bucky was surprised the glass didn’t shatter – and Steve was storming past them. Bucky shared an apologetic look with Sam, stubbed out his cigarette and chased Steve around the corner.
“Steve? How did it go?”
He had a pretty good idea of how it went. Like Sam said, Steve didn’t exactly have a poker face.
“She’s happy I came back, we’re going to lunch tomorrow,” Steve said.
It was Bucky’s turn to race to keep up. Steve was walking seriously fast. Surely lunch was a good thing, though?
“I told you!”
“The three of us,” Steve said.
“She invited me?” Bucky asked.
He wasn’t surprised but did feel a little bad, since he wasn’t going to be here tomorrow. He didn’t want to fuck this up for Steve.
Steve shook his head, “No.”
“Another guy?”
Steve had crossed his arms, now, “Nope.”
Who else could she have possibly invited that Steve could feel so mad about?
“Steve, who the hell did she -?”
Steve suddenly stopped, almost making Bucky run right into the back of him, and turned around.
“She’s pregnant,” he said.
Bucky’s face fell, “Steve... I’m...”
“If you’re gonna say you’re sorry, save it,” Steve said. “I’m fine, probably the most fine I’ve been in six years. Because at least I finally know something. I finally know it’s over. So, I guess I should thank you for that.”
There was nothing Bucky could do but wait for the other shoe to drop, because surely that wasn’t all Steve had to say. If he was Steve right now, he’d probably have punched Bucky and yelled in his face and gotten angry at him for ruining his life. At least, that’s what Bucky had wanted to do to himself a few hours ago. He guessed Steve would feel somewhat the same. He kind of hoped he did, because then at least he had a chance at understanding.
“She said she’s never been so happy,” Steve said, voice breaking, and he turned and ran a hand over his face to stop himself from crying. He wouldn’t cry, he wouldn’t. “I guess I’ve gotta be okay with not being okay. Grow up a bit. So... thanks for that, too.”
Bucky was at a loss. Steve had all but accused him of ruining his life, but somehow, he was still being chivalrous about it.
“What do you want to do now?” was all Bucky could think to ask.
“Walk,” Steve said. “Think.”
Bucky nodded silently, and he felt helpless as walked by Steve’s side, unsure whether they should talk about it or not. He didn’t know whether to touch Steve, put his arm around him and hug him or bump their shoulders together to remind him he was there, or if he should just leave him alone.
He did an excellent job at leaving him alone until they reached the riverside, where the silence had become too stifling and Bucky couldn’t handle it anymore.
“I understand, y’know,” he said.
Steve looked at him for the first time in almost half an hour, and Bucky didn’t know where he was going with this.
“What it feels like when they love somebody else. I get it.” Bucky continued.
Steve scoffed, “Sure you do, Buck. You, with your marriage and your rich husband and your ballet. I’m sure you understand exactly how I feel.”
“I never said he was rich,” Bucky said, because apparently he couldn’t help but jump on the defensive rather than try to diffuse the situation. Good job, Barnes.
“You didn’t need to,” Steve said, and he was so fucking angry, and Bucky wished he wasn’t, but he really understood. He would be too. “You’ve run off to Manhattan in a peacoat and red bottom shoes and a Louis Vuitton wallet, and I’m pretty sure kids’ ballet coaching doesn’t pay that much. You don’t get it, Buck, you never will.”
“But I do!” Bucky hated how pathetic he sounded. “I fucking get it, Steve, okay? Other people have problems too. If you got off your fucking high horse for once you might actually realise that.”
The sudden anger from Bucky seemed to knock Steve down a peg. He chewed on his bottom lip, and then dropped down onto a bench. Bucky sat beside him.
“My anniversary with Brock is July 20th,” he said.
Steve cocked his head a little to the side, seeming confused why Bucky was bringing this up, so he took it as his cue to continue.
“He spends a lot of time in DC, because of his work. This year, he was gonna be there on our anniversary, so I wanted to surprise him. I went into his emails and, as I was looking for his schedule, a notification popped up. The subject was just ‘the 20th’. I thought maybe he’d planned something romantic for us, for our anniversary. I hate surprises, though, so I had to look. It was definitely a date. But not for us. It was at some fancy hotel in DC, signed off with ‘S.’.”
“He was...” Steve muttered.
Bucky nodded as if he couldn’t stand to hear Steve say it, “Yeah... He has the same password for everything, always has, so I signed into his email on my phone and put on alerts for that address. Over the next couple of months they emailed back and forth, he would call her Susan and she would sign back ‘Suzie’.”
He took a deep breath.
“I was so fucking angry. I couldn’t stop thinking about every time he’d pushed me around, taken out his anger on me, told me I wasn’t good enough, and...” He cleared his throat because fuck was somebody choking him right now? “I wondered why she was getting the best side of him, and I wasn’t.”
Steve seemed to be processing what Bucky was telling him, “What’d you do?”
“Nothing.” Bucky’s mouth was dry. “Until yesterday. He was going back to DC, and I saw the email where he told her that he was gonna be back in town and I wanted to fucking rip out his eyes. So, when he left, I wrote him a letter. I told him everything I knew and everything I wanted to say. And then, I took my ring and I put it in the envelope, put it on the bed where I knew he’d see it, and left.”
“Why Manhattan?” Steve asked.
Bucky shrugged, “I thought about going to Nat and Clint’s but I knew that would be the first place he’d check, so I was gonna go back to Brooklyn and stay with my ma, but I chickened out when I reached Grand Central. So, I got off the train, found a bar and spent a couple of hours feeling sorry for myself because I thought my marriage was over...”
“But now he’s coming home instead of seeing her,” Steve guessed. His eyes hadn’t moved from Bucky the entire story.
Tears stinging his eyes, all Bucky could do was nod.
“Sat in that bar, I realised all the moments that we shared and would share and everything that’s ever happened between us and I realised that I’d thrown away my one chance at happiness,” Bucky said, voice threatening to break.
Steve seemed sure of himself, his voice was soft, and his hand was grazing Bucky’s shoulder blade, “I don’t think you’ve thrown anything away. I think you deserve something much better than someone who is gonna cheat and lie and break your heart.”
Bucky smiled through his tears, which he hadn’t even realised had happened, “That’s nice, Stevie, but Brock is all I have.”
“Look at me, Buck,” Steve said, shifting slightly so that he was facing Bucky directly, “That’s him talking. He’s convinced you that you have no other option, that he is the only person who is ever gonna love you but it’s not true, okay? You have so many more people than that. Don’t let him trap you.”
Now Bucky really was crying. An ugly, painful sobbing sound that he couldn’t stop coming from the back of his throat, and he covered his face with his hand to try and calm himself down. He didn’t want Steve to see him cry, not again, but Steve didn’t seem to mind. Steve inched forward so that he could wrap his arms around Bucky and hold him close to his chest.
“I have a hotel room,” Steve said against Bucky’s hair, because he really didn’t know what else to suggest. “I’m sharing with Sam but I’m about eighty percent sure he’s gonna go home with Maria, so it should be free.”
Bucky laughed, and the movement was nice against Steve’s chest.
“I’m not trying anything, we just need somewhere warm.”
Bucky leaned back a little, hand lingering on Steve’s chest. “I know.”
Steve could have sworn, for a moment, Bucky’s eyes flicked to his lips. He didn’t mention it, though, and instead stood up and offered his arm.
The hotel wasn’t exactly the Ritz, and Steve was sure it was much shabbier than what Bucky was used to. He didn’t seem to mind, though, and Sam wasn’t there when they got there.
“Room service?” Steve asked, as Bucky took off his coat and scarf.
“I’m starving,” Bucky replied.
Steve nodded towards the bathroom, “You go first.”
Bucky thanked him quietly and disappeared into the bathroom. Steve waited until he could hear the shower running to order the food – the cheapest thing on the menu, because he only had about twenty dollars left.
Steve was stood in the middle of the room when Bucky came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a white hotel towel, wrapped around his waist. Steve couldn’t help it when his eyes were immediately drawn to Bucky’s left side.
Bucky’s arm stopped just below the shoulder, and there was puckered skin and scar tissue most of the way across his chest and partly up his neck. Steve wasn’t disgusted by it, or anything, because it wasn’t disgusting, but all he could think about was how much that must have hurt, and how it must have happened.
“Like what you see?” Bucky grinned, and he had stepped forward so that he was in Steve’s personal space.
“Could use a little work,” Steve teased.
Bucky made an offended scoffing sound and smacked Steve on the arm, “Asshole!”
His hand stayed on Steve’s arm, and fuck, okay, now he was definitely staring at Steve’s lips. He wasn’t doing anything about it, either, wasn’t moving away. If anything, he was moving closer. It could have just been Steve’s mind playing tricks on him, but Bucky’s face was getting closer and closer to his.
Before he knew it, Bucky’s mouth was pressed softly against his, and his hand had moved from Steve’s arm to the nape of his neck to hold him there. It took Steve’s body a moment to catch up with his mind, but when it did, his hands immediately moved to frame Bucky’s face.
They kissed like that, softly and close-mouthed, until Steve moved his hands again and pushed Bucky softly backwards.
“Buck,” he said gently, Bucky still looked like he wanted to pounce on Steve, so he made sure to hold him back a little. “Not that I don’t want this, but you need to be sure.”
Bucky’s mouth was slightly open, and his gaze flicked from Steve’s eyes to his lips to just past his shoulder. Then, he pushed Steve away and stepped backwards until he was sat on the bed.
“I’m not sure.” He looked like he’d just been slapped.
Steve tried to be reassuring, “That’s okay.” He sat down beside him. “It’s okay if you don’t know. You’re confused and upset, and I understand.”
Bucky ran his hand through his hair, “Why are you so nice, Steve? You’re just... like, absolutely fucking perfect, but you’re so perfect that it makes you an asshole because you don’t know when to stop being nice.”
“I think you’re just not used to being treated right,” Steve replied.
Bucky called him an asshole again, but it wasn’t biting.
“Do you think we met for a reason, Stevie?” he asked after a beat of silence.
“I think we were meant to find each other,” Steve replied truthfully. “I think you were meant to miss that train, that your phone was meant to be broken and I think that we both have things we’ve been putting off for way too long. I think we’ve both realised that it’s time to stop running, and we were meant to meet so that we could learn that.”
Bucky’s eyebrows drew together for a moment, and he nodded once. He slipped his hand down Steve’s arm to until their palms were pressed flat together, and then laced their fingers.
“We can run later,” Bucky said, eventually. “For now, let’s just enjoy this.”
A few hours later, they were in a cab on their way back to Grand Central. They were both exhausted, their meeting – only five and a half hours before – felt like days ago. The cab ride was painfully quiet, with Bucky spending a large part of it anxiously picking at the knee of his jeans and repeatedly checking that he had his ticket.
Eventually, Steve placed his hand over Bucky’s to stop the fidgeting. Bucky stared at their hands, and then twisted his wrist so that he could link their fingers together again, much like he had the previous night. He smiled up at Steve, and Steve just smiled back.
Bucky didn’t let go of his hand as they got out of the cab, and as they walked into the station. He only let go when they reached a payphone which Steve insisted on picking up. Bucky couldn’t help but smile when he realised what Steve was doing.
“Steve? Hey, buddy, it’s you from the future.”
He covered the receiver with his hand and stage-whispered, “He bought it, sucker.” to Bucky, who laughed – a little teary, and then he put the phone back to his ear.
“I just wanted to give you a piece of advice. You’re gonna be playing one night, in Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, thinking of every reason in the world to not go see the girl who broke your heart. Then, you’re gonna meet somebody. At first, he’s gonna seem cold, and you’ll know right away that he’s trouble. He’s gonna take all your money, lie to you, keep you awake and walking around Manhattan all night, you might even get punched, but... stick with him; you’re gonna end up needing him a lot more than he needs you.”
He locked eyes with Bucky as he spoke, and his voice wobbled a little bit, but he tried to control it as much as he could. They both had cried far too much over the past few hours. Bucky didn’t seem to have even noticed that a tear had slipped down his cheek.
“At the end of the night, when you’re seeing him off at Grand Central, you’re gonna wanna say some things. But, don’t. It’s nothing he doesn’t already know.”
Bucky wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand and Steve carried on talking.
“Just give him a kiss, wish him good luck, and say thank you. Because he taught you something you would never have been able to teach yourself.”
As soon as he said that, Bucky surged forward, grabbed the lapel of Steve’s coat and kissed him. Steve dropped the phone in shock. The kiss was wet from tears, and Steve couldn’t tell if they were his or Bucky’s. Both of them, he thought, when Bucky moved back again. They kept their foreheads pressed together for a few more moments.
“Thank you,” Bucky said, quietly.
Then, he stepped back and walked away.
Steve was frozen in place. All he could do was watch Bucky as he walked down onto the platform. And, if Bucky glanced back at Steve a few times, nobody had to know.
There was a man playing the trumpet in Grand Central Terminal. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people passed by him while he played. Some would drop money into his open case, others would pass without acknowledgment, another would enter and leave his life in the same night.
The night would be insignificant in the grander scheme of things, and, in the time after, he would meet so many more people. They would laugh and cry and have weekly poker nights, and he wouldn’t think about Peggy no matter how much it hurt. He would go on trips to Las Vegas and California and he’d go back to Brooklyn, visit his mom’s grave and spend hours talking to her as if she could hear. His hands would still shake, but he would spend hours mapping out long, dark hair and a sharply curved jaw in his sketchbook.
He would be back at Grand Central Terminal before he’d even realised that he’d left, and he would be knocked off his feet by a man in a hurry.
The man would turn around to help him up, and he’d look up into grey eyes flashing with recognition, and the man would exhale, “Steve.” and Steve would chuckle out a “Buck.”, and it was as if they had never left at all.
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jq37 · 5 years
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sooo.... what’s the tea on the new ep? :)
**spoilers for family in flames**
I have so much to say I’m not drafting this on tumblr lest it crash and I lose a soul-crushing amount of yelling into the void.
And, I gotta say, THIS episode is the reason I haven’t posted my adult rankings list yet. THIS RIGHT HERE. I KNEW some crap was gonna go down and force me to make some HUGE adjustments.
Also, We are feeling vindicated in this house today! But let’s start from the top and work our way down.
“Raise your hands if you really care about your parents.”
Fabian having to be like, “Look, your parents suck but don’t you have siblings?” (Kristen: Ugh, I guess)
Adaine pointing out that she cares about Gorgug’s parents.
Brennan listening to them argue about what to do like he doesn’t know they’re about to be arrested for a whole ass MONTH.
Fig wanting to method act while texting the phone, pretending to be scared.
So is the arcade owner (Frank Dunford) relevant? Brennan had the name on hand. But maybe it was just him being a good worldbuilder and anticipating the question. I feel like it’s probably that because this is late in the game to be introducing new people who are super relevant.
“Gilear’s got a little knife”
I KNEW those arcade prizes were gonna be gear they could pick up! ALWAYS RAID THE ROOM. Some of that stuff might have helped in the fight. I loved the group silently reading the cards and exchanging them to whoever they thought it would help most in the background as Brennan did the ID spell.
“This has been, if I may say so, the *best* use of the identify spell.”
I love that Adaine thanks everyone, including her inanimate spells. She’s just a good person.
OK so this episode addressed a LOT of questions I had about how these literal children were getting away with all of these murders and such. Apparently, the adventuring academy kids traditionally just get away with this stuff because of Arthur’s influence and the nature of adventurers.
Adaine coming in hot with the diplomatic immunity and then remembering, oh wait, we’re at war w/ Falinel.
Fig immediately starting smoking when she gets arrested.
I love the federal agent outsider with perspective coming in and being rightfully horrified by the absolute nonsense that’s been going on the past 15 episodes.
Is Riz’s mom the only competent cop at this station? Is there a one competent adult per location rule?
Bill Seacaster Upon Learning the Bad Kids are In Jail: Did you try to escape?
“How are things going?”/“I mean bad. I’m in jail.”
Fig upon offhandedly and indirectly being called a vigilante by Sklonda: Thank you.
Emily loses it whenever anything happens in Gilear’s orbit.
Wild that Adaine decided to spontaneously call Goldenhoard considering what happened later. Like, it wasn’t a completely out of nowhere decision and it was totally logical but they could have easily overlooked that decision. 
Like, I know things happen later that make this kinda moot but I loved Goldenhoard’s conversation with Adaine in jail. “Don’t to talk to anyone without a lawyer and kill anyone you have to to get out. The school will pay for the rezzes.”/“That’s exactly what our plan was. God, I love this school.”
Although, sidenote, I feel like you can only easily rez someone within a minute? Like, I know there are other D&D spells that let you do it after a longer period of time but with the whole phoenix egg thing and the fact that they haven’t come up so far, I feel like Brennan isn’t using the in this setting for stakes reasons.
Man that whole conversation with Fig and her mom. Emily plays Fig so balls to the wall that I kinda forget sometimes that she’s actually an intelligent adult woman who knows what she’s doing with the character so I really shouldn’t be surprised with how well she stuck the emotional beats of this episode.
Gorthalax man! TyraWeWereAllRootingForYou.gif If he left, like, actually left and isn’t just held up somehow, then that’s gonna be really not great for Fig’s general psyche. 
Kristen COMPLETELY undercutting the moment by point blank asking if they had sex.
No wonder Sandra-Lynn was so worried about Fig. She was totally Fig growing up. Which, lol, she’s not even half tiefling. She was just *like that*
Oh so Gilear has always been super lame. Good to know.
Fig: I think I have mommy issues./The Rest of the Party: You have all the issues.
Fabian: You’re trying to hook up with a 25 year old adult./Fig: What do you mean trying?I’m successfully kissing him once every couple weeks. (Which, lol but also I’m glad that’s as far as it got…you know if it has to go any amount forward).
They just let Bill into the cell?????
Lou when Zac rolls a 1 for perception on Bill Secaster and he knows what’s coming: Don’t fucking do this. (Everyone else: Already trying not to lose it)
Zac’s Gorgug being contemplative and also completely wrong face is so funny to me every time.
“Why would you kill me?”/“Why would you know that?”
Who is more insane? Gorgug for suggesting him and Fabian could be twins (aren’t they different ages????) or Bill for thinking he’s so awesome he could somehow do that?
Kristen trying to help FIg distract Bill by blurting out, “Have you ever had sex?” After the conversation where he said point blank he’s slept with 100s of orc women. 
Fabian yelling at his dad is kinda undercut by continuing to call him papa in the most poncy accent.
I don’t think I’ve articulated this properly before but this episode really drove it home: Fabian and Bill have a *close* relationship but not an entirely healthy one. Like, better than Adaine and her parents by leaps and bounds but he wrestled his son in a jail cell while his friends just watched. Like, who does that?
Imagine if Riz had tried to get between Bill and Fabian. 
Also imagine being the rest of the party just sitting there, watching that go down.
“We’ve spent so much of our lives obsessed with our dads and we’ve completely ignored our moms.”/“You’re just again talking about yourself.”
I can’t believe Fig’s suggestion spell would have worked if head boss in charge fed lady hadn’t been there. Speaking of her, as soon as she showed up I knew they weren’t going to be able to shenanigan their way out of this one (which is literally the word Emily used, hilariously). I don’t think even a nat 20 would have gotten them very far. Remember last week when I said that I was sure there was going to be a prom finale but I was also pretty sure there was still a good chunk of time before prom? As soon as they got arrested and the feds showed up I was like, “Oh they are not getting out until prom for sure.”
Siobhan trying not to laugh while Emily tries a ridiculous plan that might have worked in a different episode honestly.
Ally trying to Pirates of the Carribean her way out of the jail cell.
The cops didn’t even take their stuff in a month!
“I’m glad this is in my head and no one else can hear things like this.”
I love how Fabian rolls his eyes at Adaine for thanking her spells but he always thanks the Hangman.
Realistically the Hangman would have told Fabian the plan before it happened but the way it played out was soooo good.
The return of Mr. Cubby!!!! I was hoping it would be him but man! It was still so awesome to see happen. I wonder if Brennan introduced that family specifically in case the group ever needed to be busted out of jail (a likely need).
“Laws are threats made by the dominant socioeconomic ethnic group of a given nation.”
“You guys wanna make some bacon?”
“That was on fire the whole time? You’re so brave!” Adaine likes adults who aren’t her parents so much.
Riz being like uhhhhh my mom works here.
“To the AV club!”/“It’s been months!”
OK so they took a palimpsest from Bill in this episode. That was there to tip them off that he’s up to something I’m sure, but I feel like that could also turn out to be a Chekov’s gun for next ep. I’m sure the ability to trap someone’s should would be useful in the finale.
S/O to Brennan for his excellent foreshadowing throughout the episode and honestly the whole series.
Siobhan thinking to check the trash folder of his computer was a good move, even if it didn’t end up being the right one.
OK, strap in guys. This is where things get WILD.
Siobhan’s “Oh shit!” when she got halfway down the page of Watches and Wards and then that Harry Potter sounding sting in the background.
(Before I get any further, I love that Adaine’s first thought was well that means my sister isn’t Kal Vaxis because she thinks her sister is the root of all evil).
But WOW. After all the trash talking of the old oracle, it turns out Adaine is the new eleven oracle! And she has been since EPISODE ONE. I almost thought she was gonna be *that* elven oracle because of the questions the cast was asking but nope. It is, as Zac and Siobhan put it, a The Santa Clause situation where the last one dies and someone else gets the job.
Brennan’s faint amusement as they work through that is so good.
You know what’s kinda hilarious in hindsight about that? I said before that, so far, every person Adaine has pegged as trash has ended up being trash of the highest order and an enemy of the party and of course she’s been good at predicting things! She’s the literal oracle.
Am I reading this wrong or is the Religious Studies teacher name Yolanda Badgood?
Also the sheet says “Lunchlad (Official Title)” RIP dude.
Emily low key thinking this is going to be about pay disparity between the races.
Will putting the book back retroactively get rid of anything bad currently cast in school?
Brennan going, “Nothing happens.”/“You see an upside down waste paper basket.” Is such a GM mood. I had a session once where I spent half an hour just saying, “You’re looking at the door,” in various ways.
No one knows what Goldenhoard’s name actually is and it’s the second to last episode.
I feel like Brennan must have gotten forehead/cheek kissed a lot as a child because he’s constantly having NPCs do it. 
Are elves in this setting actually immortal (barring being actually killed) or just long lived? Because Adaine talks like she’s immortal but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, newsflash Adaine. You’ve been mortal this whole campaign! Because apparently, the elven oracle always eventually dies. 
I love that Adaine finally confronted the oracle about sinking on a ship and actually ended up kinda sympathizing with her. I can’t believe this is how that running joke ends.
Fabian at the ghost of the past eleven oracle who’s imparting wisdom on Adaine: Who are you?
Ally: Can I do something weird? (Dude, when do you not?)
Ally mumbling through an inspiring spell as Murph clues in to the paperwork discrepancy that blows the plot twist wide open. And then miming the whole thing in the background as the scene goes on.
“He was mean so I thought that meant he was a good guy.” More stern than mean really but yeah! Same Murph!
You know how you know things are about to get real? When the DM starts letting you do stuff like bust down doors without even rolling for it because there are bigger fish to fry.
The 69 glyphs of binding. Nice.
But in seriousness, Kal Vaxis (apparently it’s spelled Kalvaxus but I can’t be bothered to change that in this post) was apparently trapped by Arthur and bound to work at Aguefort (as Goldenhoard) because…he’s a wildcard I guess. Sidenote, can you imagine what this season might have looked like if Arthur hadn’t died? Or was that always the plan for him to die in some way? Like to resurrect an NPC maybe if the crew hadn’t lost 2 party members.
Man when he said last ep that the girls were going back to school I thought OK that makes sense because it’s the AV computer that Biz used or maybe it’s Penelope. But I totally overlooked teachers.
OK so the binding spell specifically says “as long as I live” and Arthur is dead. So….what does that mean exactly? And this plan seems to have been in motion from before Arthur died. What does that mean? Also, if that wording means he’s freed when Arthur dies, what was Arthur thinking killing himself???? Did he need Kristen to sneak him into heaven so he could talk to Sol and do some scheming or something? AHHHHH I have so many questions.
Also in the binding is a clause about tea. Now, first of all, Arthur, bro. Come on. Second of all, a lawyer really should have looked at that. “I will drink anything you give me”? I work at a law firm. I’m a lowly first year but even I know that’s a terrible thing to put in a contract. I’m sure y'all non lawyers know that too!
Karam-Kajam (the binding spell words) kinda looks like “magic maker” backwards. That doesn’t mean anything. I just wanted y'all to know I was freeze framing every thing that might be a clue.
OK ok ok, so I’ve been saying for a while now (in posts but mainly over chat) that all this bad stuff must be like connected to a central person in service of a central goal but the players were probably all unconnected wild cards acting in self interest. The one thing I couldn’t quite put together was what because these plots have been mainly unconnected. But now, we have it! All the weird things starting a war (by manipulating the harvestmen), getting 7 maidens (by manipulating Biz), and reinstating prom king/queen (by manipulating (?) Penelope and Dayne, also yes! my wild card guess was that prom king/queen was going to be part of a spell or curse or something. Guess it was prophecy but yes! vindication!) are parts of a prophecy on how to bring back Kalvaxis! (Along with him getting his “glittering treasure”?)
But yeah! No wonder it was so hard to put the pieces together! They all connected but only through a prophecy. Good job Bren!
“The sun shall fall from the heavens” is part of the prophecy which makes me think Sol or Helios might be involved in this somehow.
Ally: There are definitely going to be 7 virgins at prom. (That deserved a rim shot).
Good on Murph for making sure none of them were on the virgin list bc that would have been a pain in the ass to find out mid-fight. Also, I KNEW “Where are their bodies” was the question to ask last ep when Biz said they were going back to their bodies.
“Who told you that? An oracle?”
I hope Adaine just uses her oracle status to make sick one liners like, “I predict this is gonna hurt,” before she witchbolts someone. She never does her actual job. 
Adaine who hates her family, righteously indignant: Between our houses and the world, you expect us to choose our houses?
The rest of the group who loves their family: BYEEEEE.
Well, no. Kristen also had reservations before she remembered her brothers existed.
Adaine texting her mom: You should probably leave.
Siobahn and Ally fistbumping over their mutual not caring about their parents.
OK so what’s up with the rat? What’s so important about the rat? And what’s up with Zayne? We still haven’t figured out what’s up with him.
Still not clear on if the crystals trap your physical body or just your spirit and leave your physical body dormant irl.
So that’s how they got rid of the adults for the fight. Nice job again Brennan.
As far as I can tell, Brennan made up this usage of the word palimpsest and I’d never heard of the word before and now I type it so much. Wild.
“I’m calling an Uber. You use the minute to go look at as much shit as you can. Jump in the Uber with me, come to my house. Look Rudolpho will be here in two minutes in a Honda Civic. Use one of those minutes. Go.”
A Knight to Remember. 
They freaking Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Kristen’s house.
I love how Uber Drivers in this world are still gunning for 5 stars.
OK, time for the most stressful 30 minutes of Fantasy High (so far).
I think the wagering mechanic Brennan used for the fights was brilliant. For each conflict a d20 was rolled. 1-6=epic fail. 7-14=bad but not awful. 15-20=favorable outcome. The twist was that if the person chose to help their family they could give up half their HP and 14 spell levels and he would roll with advantage.
Everyone quickly took that deal except Adaine who truly does not give a damn about her family (and also, reasonably, thought that they wouldn’t even be at home. Idk why they apparently were tbh).
When Emily said, “She’s a complex person and she’s allowed to be,” that was the moment I was like, “Oh yeah. She’s not actually Fig. IRL she knows what’s happening.”
Siobhan uses her divination roll of 18 to save Kristen’s family without having to risk anything but the Ally turns around and decides to take the deal to try and save Adaine’s family WHEN ADAINE DOESN’T EVEN CARE. But it makes sense that Kristen would.
Lou’s monolog as Brennan rolls about how nerve wracking and terrible it is to have no idea what’s going on.
“This is the worst thing I’ve been a part of.”
“I was wondering why my mom visited me and humanized herself and this is exactly why.”
Lou/Fabian: What if my fucking family dies? (F O R E S H A D O W I N G, albeit unknowingly)
Brennan (sagely): It couldn’t have been any other way./Siobhan: It could’ve been!
lol at Adaine trying to trigger that ice cream later wish at their darkest moment (so far). Also, not that I think Brennan ever forgot about it but now I’m for sure it’s gonna come up next ep bc if nothing else that would have reminded him.
OK first up, Fig and her mom.
“Dang they’re already organized with costumes?”
That was so boss, her mom getting revived and then IMMEDIATELY shooting two guys w/ her bow.
Emily LEGIT crying through that scene. The whole room was on an emotional tightrope. You can tell.
Where in the mountains Sandra-Lynn!? I want specifics Sandra-Lynn!!
I love the idea of her jumping out of a window onto a dope griffin’s back. Fig’s mom just bought herself a bunch of spots on my grown-up rankings list.
Ally: THAT WAS NUMBER ONE
Me: SAME.
Next Riz at Strongtower
I knew Sklonda was going to be in the secret room!
I love that apparently Riz can recognize his mom’s gun by hearing it.
I know it was in the promo but Riz’s mom being like, “I was so scared you were gonna ask me to prom” was hysterical.
You just know Sklonda and Agent Angela have been fighting like cats and dogs this past month.
Riz and his mom high fiving. They have the best relationship.
Gorgug and the Thistlesprings
lol, looks like his parents had the easiest time wrecking their intruders.
But based on how it was described as compared to everyone else (bar Fabian–we’re getting there), it sounds like he got pretty dang hurt.
And I guess they have a tank (which they usually use to mow the lawn) and a bomb chest? Wild.
Anyway, if anything had happened to them insert Rosa B99 meme.
“You come to the tree, you better be ready to never fucking leave, you understand?” So boss. (Also, is that a pun?)
Gorgug’s parents launched a satellite while Gorgug was in jail.
Kristen and co.
Kristen’s dad (who is the worst): You think these guys were illegals, what?
Kristen: I’m gonna take the car, byeeee.
Kristen and Adaine bonding over their terrible parents.
I’m Concerned about Kristen’s brothers.
Abernants
They poofed out. Idk why they were still there to begin with.
So the damage they took was supposed to represent the danger the took in their respective fights. Kristen got Adaine’s divination roll meaning her family was fine either way but she did take damage for Adaine’s family. But the fight was already over by the time they got there. So, in story, any injuries sustained must have been from the fight at her house, even though that wasn’t technically the deal.
Anyway, Adaine doesn’t care about her family so let’s not waste any time moving onto
Seacaster manor
Geez
OK, you guys. Let me tell you my buildup to the realization that Bill had to die.
In the first set of episodes, when tone was established, I said to myself, a parent is going to die. I don’t know who, but someone will.
Then, Bill gave them a training montage and I thought, curse of the mentor. He’s going to die. Besides, he’s one of the biggest parental figures and he’s larger than life–perfect for a fall.
Then Sklonda took down the Harvestmen and I briefly shifted my worry to her.
But then Fabian started clashing with Bill. And I remembered all the constant talk of his mortality.
And then, this ep, Brennan made him choose between his mom and dad and I was pretty sure. (sidenote: Fabian yelling at his mom the same ep Adaine said he has a great relationship with his mom. But, like, compared to her, maybe. Also, mean Brennan.)
And then Fabian lost an eye (with a description that still makes me wince) and I KNEW. Once he lost his eye, there was no way Bill could leave the fight alive, thematically.
Honestly, it was a wrap when Fabian played the video from his dad. I was worried he’d die before he got there. 
(It was a low blow, and I credit you that.)
Why were there Harvestmen attacking Fabian’s house and no one elses?
Fabian’s mom just drinking while the house is being raided.
I was so sure the tuxed Harvestman who attacked Fabian was going to turn out to somehow be Daybreak or something. Anyway, it has to come up again. There’s no reason for that level of detail otherwise. And tux sounds like prom attire.
Lou rolls a nat 1 and then rerolls it because he has the lucky trait. What’s funny is just started listening to NADNDPod and Murph (who reminded Lou about the lucky thing) disallowed one of his players from rerolling a nat 1 even w/ the lucky in the last ep I listened to. I don’t remember if the circumstances were different though.
Bill handcuffing himself up to keep fighting. Yikes.
Anyway, ugh that whole death scene. I would write more but this is closing in on 4k words and I’ve been working on this for hours. I just wanna say, that was a perfect way to go out for him. Killing 60 people and then getting stabbed by his son and exploding. So baller (as was Fabian jumping out the window onto his bike and catching Bill’s sword. He has so many cool swords now).
It’s a crime no one does animatics for this show.
We also got a piece of the puzzle. Bill was the one supplying the palimpsests (or at least one of the ones. who was doing it before?) not for an evil reason. Just a chaotic neutral reason of wanting to recapture the glory days. So now we know that.
I mentioned this before but…Fabian is Thor.
“I SHALL LEAP INTO HELL AND KILL THE DEVIL HIMSELF” and Bill Seacaster is dril apparently.
I love Fabian destroying the nice thing Bill said about him to preserve his legacy.
Ally: HE COULD HAVE SURVIVED.
I appreciate so much that Lou knew his character so well that without any hesitation he stabbed Bill and that was the right choice.
Whew, that was a lot.
Also, not that I don’t trust Brennan but it’s wild that Bill, the most thematically appropriate parent to die, was the only one who failed his roll apparently. 
Aww at Zelda’s message to Gorgug. She made him a playlist! So 80’s high school. It gives him a bonus! Also I really wanna know what’s on the list. Like, is it all fantasy rock puns or actual songs? Yay for Brennan giving them cool items for good RPing. 
Live band. Nice.
Emily and Zac both rolled 20’s for initiative for next week’s fight. Hopefully that’s a good omen. We have no way of knowing because THERE’S NO PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
This isn’t edited. This is more than 4000 words. This is so long my computer is about to die. Thank you and goodnight. 
56 notes · View notes
chasholidays · 5 years
Note
Could you please do a Bellamy POV of Bromans episode 8? Specifically including Clarke’s fight with Ontari because I’ve always wondered what the his and the cast’s reactions were!
Original fic here!
By the last episode of Bromans, Bellamy is generally prepared for the worst. Or, if not the worst, at least the most absurd and least good for him, personally. That’s the general Broman vibe.
Well, okay, the Clarke thing was good. Bromans is the best thing that’s happened to his relationship with her in years, but it’s unclear how much credit the show itself deserves for that. It’s not like the producers were trying to get him and Clarke together, and while the forced proximity was definitely a factor, that was entirely his and Clarke’s decision. The challenges haven’t made a huge difference, give or take the one where he had to ID Clarke’s breasts. But, again, they weren’t trying to destroy his sanity or upgrade his relationship, and it’s not like it helped with his general mental state.
So he feels pretty comfortable saying that Bromans is trying to kill him and never gives him anything good. Anything good he gets from it is incidental and unintentional. At best, the show is ridiculous.
Which means that when Murphy takes them away after breakfast on the second-to-last day, he’s expecting something especially terrible. Any deviation from the routine is usually a red flag, especially this late in the game.
“Seriously, no hints?” he asks Murphy.
Murphy glances over his shoulder. “What part of our whole vibe makes you think I’m going to give you hints? That’s not the dynamic we’ve got going. I don’t actually like you.”
“Bullshit,” says Dax. “He’s totally your favorite.”
“That doesn’t mean I like him,” Murphy shoots back, without missing a beat. “It just means I hate all you other assholes more. No offense.”
“Ah yes, the elusive inoffensive I hate all you assholes,” says Roan, dry as sand. “Very hard to pull off.”
“Whatever, I’m not telling anyone shit, so who cares what my personal ranking of favorites is? Legatus will tell you when he tells you.”
“He’ll be taking each of you aside individually,” Anya puts in. At least it’s someone’s job to be helpful. “Order will be Dax, Roan, Ilian, Bellamy. Once you’re done with Legatus, you’ll have individual interviews, and then you’ll go back to your girlfriends together. All clear?”
They chorus their agreement, used to this kind of thing by now, and speculate on what might be coming as they walk. The most convincing theory to Bellamy is that they’re doing some sort of individual physical trial, although everyone has their own idea of what he specifics will be. Roan is sure they’ll have to fight Lincoln in single combat, but Bellamy has to believe that’s not true. Lincoln would wipe the floor with him and Octavia would mock him for the rest of their lives. And, honestly, none of them are up to beating Lincoln in a fight, so there’s no way that can be it. They already have enough footage of everyone getting their asses kicked in training, they don’t need more.
But having to complete some weird strength test to prove their worthiness feels completely on brand for the show, and Bellamy can probably do that. He was in good shape before the show started, and the daily workouts and challenges definitely have him even better off. He’s not the best physical specimen on the show, but he still likes his odds to win, depending on the challenges.
Going last in any event is always a little stressful, especially when he doesn’t see the people doing it before him, but the good news is that no one’s paying any attention to what he’s up to, so he and Miller can just play Words With Friends while they wait.
It’s weird, the knowledge that he’s going to miss this. This ridiculous show and these ridiculous people. This whole ridiculous experience.
“Bellamy,” says Anya, pulling his attention from Miller. “Your turn.”
“If I die, tell Clarke to never let my sister live it down,” he says.
“Not that you love her?”
“She knows that. She might not know she killed me.” He wipes his hands on his tunic and stands, goes into the tent where Lincoln is waiting.
He and Lincoln haven’t been one-on-one very often, which is nice, if he’s honest. When they’re out in the open with all the other contestants, it’s a lot easier to remember that this is Legatus, their training master, not Lincoln, his almost brother-in-law.
“Legatus,” he says, with a nod.
The smile is all Lincoln. “Bellamy. Congratulations on making it this far, I knew you could. And I didn’t even have to cheat for you.”
“Would you tell me if you had?”
“Probably. I’d feel bad sooner or later.” He clears his throat. “Okay, real take?”
“Real take.”
It’s like flipping a switch; Lincoln’s face smooths out, going hard and serious, and suddenly he’s Legatus. “Bellamy. You have fought hard and overcome much, and now we have come to the end of the road. Tomorrow, we’ll find out if you have what it takes to earn your place among the Bromans. But no matter the outcome, you have proved yourself as a warrior.”
“Thank you.”
“In recognition of your accomplishments, I have prepared something for you. A gift.”
“A gift?” he blurts out, too surprised to remember to stay in some kind of character. “You’re giving gifts now?”
“You have done well, you deserve to be rewarded.” He claps his hands and a couple extras come in with–
Armor. Actual, real-life armor. It’s so fucking badass.
“Seriously?”
“You’ve earned it,” says Lincoln, letting probably a little too much sincerity bleed through into his voice. But he recovers fast. “Now, don’t let me down. Fight bravely tomorrow and show me what you’re made of!”
“I will.” He can’t help flashing a grin; they can cut it. “Thanks.”
Lincoln smiles back. “You’re welcome.”
*
After the unexpected gift of his own set of armor, Bellamy really isn’t sure what to expect next from the producers. It really could go anywhere at this point, so going back to the cesspit for the girls’ last challenge is actually a little disappointing. Clarke, at least, is excited, but she has a good history there. If he’d figured out how to (lowkey) cheat in as many challenges in the cesspit as she had, he’d like it too.
And it was kind of where they had their first kiss. That part was cool too. But he was hoping for something a little more dramatic.
“This should be straightforward,” Anya announces, once everyone is gathered and the shit-talking Clarke has died down. “You all know the drill by now. There are three bags, and you have to get two of them back to your pedestal. Only one bag at a time, and no one is allowed to help you. If you want to get the bag away from your competitor, you have to earn it. The winners of the first round will go on to compete against each other for the prize.”
“What is the prize?” Ontari asks.
Anya smiles her usual tight smile, like she realizes that there is no “prize” in Bromans that’s actually good. “You’ll get to pick your boyfriend’s first opponent in the emperor’s games.”
Even by their admittedly low standards, it’s pretty uninspired, but that doesn’t matter to Clarke. Clarke doesn’t need a reason to be competitive, she goes cut-throat competitive at the drop of a hat.
He really does love her.
“The first round will be Clarke versus Ontari and Gaia versus Raven,” Anya adds. “Raven, we need to check your leg in the water first.”
Bellamy leans in close to Clarke as Raven tests her brace in the water. “You know this doesn’t matter, right?”
“I know.”
“I don’t care who I fight.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t really matter.”
“Ontari is kind of scary.”
She makes a face. “A little, I guess? Not that scary.”
“All I’m saying is that the stakes could not be lower here. So you should just have fun.”
“Winning is fun,” she says, and he puts his arm around her, kisses her hair.
“I guess it is.”
On the one hand, he’s not really expecting Clarke to throw the match or anything. He knows better than to think she won’t try. But he’s hoping she won’t do anything extreme, or come up with some weird new trick that finally gets her banished from the show. It would be a real anticlimax to lose like that.
And, in Clarke’s defense, she does absolutely nothing to bend the rules. She picks up only one bag, takes it to her pedestal, glances at Ontari, then back at the bags. In theory, she’s got this–most people who win the sprint win the whole game, but Ontari’s more athletic than than Clarke and definitely fights more.
“I really hope Ontari doesn’t try to drown her,” Raven murmurs.
“I wish she was up against you or Gaia,” Bellamy admits. “I’m pretty sure she and Ontari both take this way too seriously.”
“Are you kidding? I’m going to win this. If I go up against Clarke, I’m going to crush her.”
“Yeah, but not, like, murder her.”
“Not if I don’t have to.”
“You don’t think Clarke can outrun her?” Roan asks.
“I think we’re going to find out.”
Really, the big issue is that Bellamy doesn’t actually have to watch Clarke do this very often. She did challenges when he was in “jail,” but everything else has been assisting him or ridiculous. He never had to worry the way she did about injuries, even ridiculous, historically inaccurate Broman injuries.
All he wants is for it to be over soon, so, of course, it lasts forever.
Bellamy realizes almost immediately how bad it’s going to be. He catches Clarke’s expression when Ontari jumps her, the hard, stubborn set of her jaw, a clear sign that she will stay there forever if that’s what she has to do to win.
“Someone should start a timer,” he mutters.
“A timer?” asks Gaia.
“This is going to take a while.”
“How long can you fight over a sand bag?” Raven asks, and it’s not as if she’s going to jinx it, but she’s definitely underestimating how stubborn Clarke is. But understanding starts to dawn on her (and everybody else) after about five minutes, when they’ve barely moved and Bellamy has already settled in.
“You weren’t kidding,” Ilian says, slumping down next to him.
“Honestly, we should have brought a deck of cards. Unless Dax thinks Ontari’s going to give up on this.”
“They’re going to die in that pool,” Dax says. From anyone else, Bellamy would take it as deadpan humor, but he can’t tell that Dax has a sense of humor, so they really might die in there.
“Legally we have to step in before anyone dies,” says Anya. “So let me know if you think it’s getting close.”
“None of you are making me feel better,” Bellamy grumbles.
“She’s definitely not going to drown,” Raven says, patting him on the shoulder. “And she’s probably going to win. But she’ll wear herself out and then I’ll beat her with, like, zero effort. So this is perfect for me.”
“I might beat you,” Gaia puts in. “I mean, I probably won’t. But there’s always a chance.”
Raven smiles like a shark. “Yeah, anything’s possible.”
Bellamy stops asking for updates on how long it’s been at the twenty-minute mark, mostly because he thinks hearing it is worse than not hearing it. There’s a part of him that just wants to yell to Clarke it doesn’t matter, but Ontari could end this at any time too, and she’s not, so it’s not like it’s Clarke’s responsibility to do it either. He’s not going to tell her to quit when she could win.
Still, this is getting ridiculous.
“Honestly, I’m not going to just throw it in, but she probably deserves the win just for doing this,” Raven says, after what has been at minimum forty minutes and could be as long as five hours, at this point. Time has lost all meaning. If the sun sets, he won’t be surprised.
“Is there any way you can edit it to make this look like the finals?” Bellamy asks Anya.
She seems as hypnotized as all of them, for once, but her reflexes are as sharp as ever. “Raven would kill me, so, no.”
“I’m glad we’re all just assuming I’m going to win,” says Raven. “Not that I’m not, but glad I’ve got your support.” She starts. “Wait, head’s up, Clarke is doing something.”
Bellamy’s attention snaps back to the cesspit, but it’s already almost over. Clarke must have surged forward, taking advantage of how exhausted Ontari was, and she smacks the sandbag onto the pedestal with a resounding thunk.
“Clarke wins,” says Anya, and Bellamy jumps into the water without thinking, dragging himself over to where Clarke has collapsed on top of her hard-won prize.
“Jesus, you could have just lost,” he tells her when he reaches her, laughing a little in disbelief. He saw it coming, but somehow she still surprised him.
She raises her head for a tired smile, and he pulls her arm over his shoulders, half-dragging her out of the water.
“Have you met me?” she asks.
He gives her a quick kiss. “I have, yeah. That was amazing.”
“How long was it?”
“No idea.” He kisses her hair, relieved beyond words that this happened now, when he’s allowed to kiss her as much as he wants. Ridiculous, yes, but this is the girl he fell in love with. “You know you have to do another round, right?”
“Yeah. Raven’s going to kick my ass, I’m so done.”
Raven and Roan are at the edge of the cesspit to help her up, Raven grinning ear to ear. “Fuck, I didn’t know you wanted it that much,” she teases.
“Like you don’t,” Clarke shoots back. She still looks exhausted, but Bellamy feels better with her out of the water, and even better when one of the crew has a towel he can use to try to warm her up. “Are you okay?” he murmurs, hopefully quietly enough that no one can hear it. He doesn’t need this to make it on TV.
“Tired.”
“Yeah.” He wraps her up in his arms, reveling in the fact that he can, that she wants him to. He hopes he never gets used to itl he wants to always feel this lucky to be holding her. “That was really fucking cool.”
“All I did was stay still.”
“Trust me, it was cool.”
Raven and Gaia don’t take nearly as long, of course, which means Clarke has to go again almost immediately. Anya actually steps in and makes them wait, gives Clarke some gatorade and has one of the medics clear her before she goes in again.
“I’m still going to lose,” Clarke tells him.
“You already won.” He kisses her. “Give her hell.”
Roan flashes him a smile as Clarke and Raven get set up. “We’ve done very well for ourselves, haven’t we?”
It’s not the kind of sentiment Bellamy would have expected to be feeling on the set of Bromans, but here he is. His life is, against all odds, awesome.
“Yeah,” he tells Roan. “We really did.”
*
The feeling dies the next day, at the exact second Murphy says “fascinum.”
The morning had been going pretty well up until then. They’d had an early night because Clarke was still worn out from the match with Ontari, and while her reminder that they’ll be home again soon with a real life to figure out was a little stressful, he’s pretty sure they’ll be fine.
Mostly he’s ready to be done, and he figured the games would take most of the day. He wasn’t anticipating the dick-shaped bump in the road, but he probably should have been. Dick statues are too good for Bromans to pass on. If he hadn’t had so much going on, he probably would have been realized it was happening. He would have been disappointed if they didn’t do this.
As it is, though, he kind of wants to die.
“Huh,” says Murphy, looking Bellamy up and down like this is the Roman trivia he finally cares about. Which, to be fair, it probably is. Assuming he’s like every other guy Bellamy knows who’s ever studied Latin. “I wasn’t sure you were gonna have that one off the top of your head.”
Bellamy shrugs. “I took Latin in high school, that one was a big hit with everyone. Big reactions.”
“Cool. You can share with the rest of the class.”
“Seriously?” It feels like they shouldn’t be able to do this on TV. Bromans cannot possibly be airing on HBO. It would explain where they got their budget, but it’s not an HBO show.
His dick is not going to be on TV. There’s no way.
“It’s an important part of Roman culture,” Murphy says, straight-faced.
Clarke is frowning at him. “Spill.”
His sigh will probably be cut like a dramatic pause, but mostly he’s very tired. He would rather fight Roan in single combat again. “We’re making penis charms.”
Roan’s dick is out almost before he’s even finished, before Bellamy’s even sure everyone else knows what’s happening. “My time has come!”
That sounds about right.
The problem, of course, is that it’s only Roan’s time. Roan is ready for this and excited, while the rest of them are just stripping down in front of a the entire cast and crew so they can stick their dicks into some cold plaster.
“Should we be, like–into this?” Dax asks, sounding dubious.
“If this is a kink for you, don’t tell me,” says Murphy. “I already know way more about all your dicks than I want to. Especially Roan. If you just found out this does it for you, keep it to yourself.”
“No, I mean–”
“He’s a grower,” Ontari supplies. “Not a shower.”
“Is it too late to quit this show?” Bellamy murmurs to Clarke. “We could leave, right? Hitchhike back?”
“Think about the kind of person who would pick up a hitchhiker with a flower pot on his dick,” she says. “That’s the last person you want to get a ride from.”
“I was thinking I’d beat up Miller and take his clothes first.”
“Wow, you’ve really got this figured out,” says Miller, dry. “After everything I’ve done for you?”
“Which one of us has our dick in a flower pot?” Bellamy shoots back. “I don’t have friends anymore. Just a list of people I hate. And Clarke.”
“I should probably be on the people you hate this, I’m really enjoying this.”
He glares at her. “How?”
“It’s hilarious and I get to look at your dick. What’s not to like?”
It’s hard to maintain complete annoyance when Clarke is saying nice things about his dick, which she has touched and wants to continue touching in the future. That’s an upside.
“I’m with Murphy, if this is a kink for you I don’t want to know,” he tells her, and she kisses his shoulder.
“Cool, I won’t tell you.”
Raven wants more information about fascinum because of course she does, and that conversation carries them through the end of actual molding process. Which, of course, leaves the awkward removal part, and then the cleaning up which, in a porno, would definitely involve Clarke blowing him, or possibly him, Roan, Ilian and Dax having an orgy, depending on the porno and its genre.
In real life, though, everyone is paying too much to removing their own dick pots to pay much attention to what he’s doing, and they’ve all showered together enough that the nudity isn’t even really that novel anymore. Sometimes it feels like he’s more familiar with Roan’s dick than he is his own at this point, but it’s probably just because he doesn’t have nightmares about his own dick.
“What were you expecting when you came here?” he asks the man in question.
“Hm?”
“Did you think you were going to be washing plaster off your balls?”
Roan seems to be really thinking it over, which means he might have, at some point in his life, thought about washing plaster off his dick.
Well, it’s Bellamy’s own fault for asking.
“Not this exactly, but the broad experience is what I was looking for. But I don’t see why you decided to do it, honestly,” is what he finally says.
“The Roman stuff isn’t enough of a reason?”
“This is a far more accurate experience than I was expecting, and it’s still not particularly realistic,” Roan says, not unreasonably. “I don’t think you were really expecting an authentic Roman getaway.”
“No.”
“So, what were you expecting?”
The truth, of course, was that he was expecting to spend a few weeks hanging out with his best friend and favorite person, and he’d be going slowly insane from fake PDA. It hadn’t been related to Bromans, specifically, which he had figured would be–
Kind of exactly what he got. Absurd and historically inaccurate and full of challenges he didn’t want to do and weird shit he and Clarke could laugh about later. If anything, it’s been better than he expected, even leaving aside the fact that Clarke’s actually in love with him too. He’s made friends and had fun and he may never live this down, but he could actually win, which is the best possible way to never live something down. He’s within spitting distance of being the best Broman, and if he’s not, there won’t be any shame in losing to Roan.
“Not sure,” he says, and smiles. “Nothing nearly this good.”
Roan grins and claps him on the shoulder. “That’s what I thought. Now, shall we go get our penis statues?”
Bellamy rolls his eyes. “We better, yeah.”
Only in Brome.
42 notes · View notes
javathewildone · 5 years
Text
Ty Chronicles - A Walk to Remember (Pt. 12)
Summary: Meghan Donovan is a girl no one pays attention to until the day Ty Borden discovers something about her that so closely relates to his own life he finds himself becoming attached to her. But the closer he gets, the worse things become. And no one makes it through unscathed. The first installment of the Ty Chronicles saga. Set pre-Heartland/pre-juvie/pre-group home. Told in first-person through Ty’s point of view. Rating: M for adult themes Author’s Notes: Y’all better hang tight. This is taking a darker turn than I anticipated. Trigger Warning: adult content including prostitution Parts: P | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8  | 9 | 10 | 11
The first week of summer was agony. I spent most of the nights staring at the ceiling resisting the urge to sneak out to the fort. I once even entertained the idea of going straight to Meghan's house and scaling the drain pipe to her window. The fact that I didn't know which room was hers was a secondary deterrent. The primary being caught at the losing end of a shotgun when her crazy stepfather decided to make good on his promise.
One of my biggest faults was spitefully doing the opposite of what I am told. On the other hand, when I make a promise, I generally keep it. So promising Meghan that I wouldn't pursue her over the summer because she made me do so was tearing me apart. I coped by pounding the pavement in search of a summer job. My previous employer who used to pay me under the table was no longer in business. Rumor was he got caught for tax evasion and disappeared. Any other place I tried was too law-abiding to hire a minor not yet old enough for even a work permit. Those that were usually delved into some shady black market dealings that, while catered to my qualifications, weren't necessarily smart options. There was no telling how the summer was going to go. I could wake up tomorrow and my mother could finally come to her senses about leaving Wade for good and we'd pack the car and be halfway to Ottawa by dark. That was something I wouldn't be able to control. But if I could keep my nose clean this summer and try for honest work, maybe come next school year I will have acquired enough discipline to put forth a real effort. A long shot, but still an achievable goal. Assuming, that is, I could actually find a job.
Dusk after another fruitless day found me climbing the ladder of the water tower, a pint of whiskey I swiped from inside my mom's nightstand in my back pocket. I settled on the catwalk, legs dangling over the edge to watch the sun set behind the Vancouver skyline. Plucking the bottle from my pants, I took a sip, savoring the heat that slid down my throat to settle in my stomach. Draping my arms over the railing, I stared at the amber liquid in my hand. Little more than half the bottle remained. Was this the night I finally broke down and got drunk to ease my pain? Would I black out and find myself in the vacant lot anyway? Or hammering on Meghan's door in a bold gesture of unadulterated stupidity? Maybe I would just mope home and pick a fight with Wade. Or curl up there on the catwalk and sleep until morning. Either option was viable. After a second swallow, as I felt the warmth spread through my limbs, I reached out and tipped the bottle to drain it of its contents. I couldn't risk my liquor addled mind making bad choices without my knowledge.
"Dude!" An incredulous yell had me peering down.
Seth stood gaping at the small puddle, looking up when I stopped wasting perfectly good liquor. He shook his head, hoisting a brown bag in offer. "No worries, I've got more."
"Great," I mumbled, twisting the cap back on the single swallow that remained of my own bottle while Seth climbed up to join me.
I hadn't been in contact with any of the guys since the end of school. We usually had a standing tower date a few times a week but this was the first night in some time I bothered to come by. I hadn't been in the mood to bullshit around their prying. We weren't the kind of friends that sought, or even offered, relationship advice. We were the kind of friends that used each other as sounding boards about our wretched lives like an AA support group, except alcohol was mandatory. For the last several weeks, I instead spent that time with Meghan.
Seth reached the top and slid into the space next to me. "I thought I was going to be up here by myself tonight. At least now if I fall, someone will be here to find my body."
"That's not funny, Seth," I shook my head, realizing for the first time how morbid we could all sometimes be. None of us really believed we were going to make it far into adulthood, if we got there at all. If we did, we'd be spending it behind bars for one reason or another. So our philosophy was to enjoy our free time while we still had it.
"Yeah, well…" he shrugged and drank from his paper bag, wiping his arm across his mouth. "Donovan finally get smart and give you the heave-ho?"
"In a manner of speaking." I twisted my bottle between my fingers, not really wanting to talk about Meghan. "Where's everyone?"
"Tommy got picked up by the cops trying to use his fake ID at that liquor store on Vine. Told him the old coot was getting suspicious but does he listen to me? Of course not." Seth shook his head. "And Jase is in Banff again for the rest of the week. His sister just popped out another kid."
"What is that, three now?"
"Four, I think."
I chuckled, gazing out at the view. We settled into a companionable silence for a time. Unlike Jason, Seth wasn't much for chatter. And unlike Tommy, he didn't have a taste for gossip which meant he wouldn't press about Meghan unless I brought it up.
I felt the shift in atmosphere when Seth eventually turned to me. I could feel it radiating off of him like a rank sweat.
"What?" I asked without looking at him.
"Tommy didn't think we should tell you but…"
I looked at my friend, the indecision and unease in his eyes. "Tell me what?"
Seth took another drink for courage. "We saw Meghan."
"How was she? Where?" He now had my absolute attention, which made him shift uneasily and drink again, which made me uneasy in turn while he purposely took his sweet time.
Scowling, I reached out to snatch the bottle from his hand. "Hey!"
"Spit it out or I'll drop it," I threatened, holding my arm out over the edge. Seth eyed it thoughtfully, deciding whether my wrath was worth losing his buzz.
Finally he sighed. "On the Eastside."
My stomach dropped.
"She was getting out of this big black Cadillac. She…" Seth swallowed, looking to the bottle I still held over open air. "She looked pretty banged up."
"When was this?" I could feel my mind starting to peel apart in layers, shredding through emotions.
"The other night. Around two in the morning. When we realized it was her we hung around for a little reconnaissance. Another girl told us she'd been around every night for the last week. Dex - her stepfather, I guess - they said he usually dropped her off the same time every night. Some nights she'd be out until dawn, others he'd pick her up if he found the right client."
The liquor I drank burned as it began to come back up. I swallowed hard. "So she is working for him," I whispered in disbelief.
"Just started, from what we gathered."
I handed Seth back his bottle and got clumsily to my feet, feeling ill. Was that why Meghan was so persistent about keeping my distance through the summer? Had she known what she was going to be forced into? Maybe she had been trying to save me from myself, knowing what I would do if I knew. Well, we were all about to find out.
"Where are you going?"
"To the Eastside."
"Are you crazy?!" Seth jumped up. "Pimps linger to keep an eye on their assets. You said Dex caught you outside his house. If he catches you out there looking for Meghan, you're a dead man."
"I appreciate the concern." Though I didn't care and continued my way toward the ladder. It was hardly nightfall, but if I got to the Eastside before Meghan was dropped off there was less chance of her stepfather, so-called Dex, seeing me saunter in when I could already be there, blending in and laying in wait. Anyway, I wanted to do reconnaissance of my own. I trusted what my friends heard and saw, but wanted first hand confirmation and other questions answered.
"At least let me come with you to watch your back."
"I can take care of myself. Stay here." I hoped the remaining two feet from the end of the ladder to the ground.
"I don't doubt it, but what about her? If you get caught what do you think is going to happen to her?"
I stopped. Seth made a valid point. The last time I was stupid enough to be seen, Meghan was put under house arrest. Anyway, I wasn't stupid enough to think that as soon as I found her I would be concerned with who else may or may not be in the shadows watching.
Seth dropped down behind me. "Also, I know exactly where she'll be."
Heaving a sigh, I turned around to face his sly grin. "Fine. Lead on."
"She really got to you." Seth broke the silence after we entered city limits. It wasn't a question but an observation.
I didn't answer, too lost in my own thoughts of what I would say when we found Meghan. Or what I would do if she ended up not being there at all that night.
"So, what are you planning to do?"Seth went on. "Steal her away and start a new life together somewhere?"
"Huh?" I finally acknowledged my friend was even trying to speak to me. "Uh, I don't- no. I mean, I've thought about it. We even talked once about just living in this old tree house together. But, obviously that wouldn't realistically work out. I just… I want to make sure she's all right."
"She's being sold to the highest bidder by her own stepfather," Seth stated rather bluntly. "I very much doubt she's 'all right.'" He frowned, shoving his hands deep into his pockets as we walked. "Man, isn't that some shit, though? I mean, we've all been through a lot of shit but that's… that's just a whole new level of fucked up."
"Believe me, I know." It killed me inside to know that poor girl was being used and abused and I could do nothing about it. That I spent so long asking what I did to deserve the hell of a life I had that I didn't even consider there were people out there in worse situations that were even less deserving of them. Learning about Meghan's life made me see mine in an entirely new light.
"Hang on," Seth said, making a sudden detour into a convenience store. I lingered outside impatiently until he returned with a grocery bag.
"What is that for?"
"Trust me." Slinging the bag over his shoulder, we carried on.
It was full dark by the time we made it to the red-light district, but not yet so late that the night prowlers emerged from their caves. This was a part of the city I set foot in only once before and even then it made me feel unsettled. This was a dangerous part of Vancouver where law and order became a morally grey area. Where every reputable looking business was a front for something more profitable and genuinely sinister.
"Do you get the feeling we're being watched?" A chill rattled down my spine as I did a quick sweep around us.
"Probably because we are." Seth gestured to a pawn shop across the street with a subtle tilt of his head. The only indication of life was the glowing end of a cigarette as a man leaned against the front of the closed building.
I watched the figure from the corner of my eye as we continued on by knowing he was just one of many. Dread seeped through my veins at the thought of Meghan out here on these streets.
A few blocks later we stumbled upon the heart of the Eastside and what I always expected the most immoral area of the city to look like. Strip clubs, bars, and adult shops lit up in blazing red neon. Signs flashed "nude" "live sex" "erotic" enticing patrons into their dark interiors where anonymity was the highest form of trade. Through open doors I caught glimpses of girls swinging on poles and dancing in window displays wearing nothing but lacey lingerie. The male part of me involuntarily awakened from the sheer insinuation that blanketed this part of town. It was heavy in the air and impossible to ignore. Shamed as I felt, I realized that was the intention. Otherwise, this bawdy area of the city would cease to exist.
"Little young to be hanging around here." A voice came from above, causing Seth and I to pause and glance up. A woman leaned over a fire escape wrapped in a silk robe, pulling on a cigarette. Her hair fell around her face in wild waves, casting it in shadow as she gazed down at us, turning a matchbook in her fingers.
"We're looking for someone," I said, receiving a jab in side from Seth. I shot him a testing look.
The woman chuckled. "Take it from me, darling, you won't find them here." She bent a delicate, bare, leg back lazily.
"Yes ma'am. You have a good night now," Seth said hurridly. In my shock at his politeness, I didn't protest as he grabbed my jacket to drag me further down the street.
"What was that about?"
"Don't engage unless you're willing to pay. We don't need some 'roid-rager coming down to knock out our teeth."
Too stunned by Seth's unsettling knowledge of this area of town, I didn't argue and merely allowed him to guide me, now rather relieved I allowed him to come along. Who knew what sort of scuffle I would have gotten myself into trying to weasel scraps of information from anyone I met in hopes they knew enough about Meghan to be useful. Oddly enough, it turned out Seth was a much better bet.
"Exactly how much reconnaissance did you and Tommy do when you were here?"
"Enough to be worth it. Here." Having dug into his bag he produced a carton of cigarettes, opening the pack and handing me one. We lit up and continued our stroll. While I didn't think we had any real destination, Seth casually directed our path until we were just a couple of blocks beyond the red light limits.
"Spare a smoke?" A woman leaning against a street lamp, one shoe off in her hand as she massaged her foot, nodded toward us. She was a pretty brunette, not lithe and sexual like the blonde on the balcony, but a humble beauty encased in soft curves.
Seth didn't utter a word as he reached into his pocket for the carton.
"She's not here," the woman murmured, returning her shoe to her foot and standing up again to take a cigarette.
I was startled to realize she and Seth knew each other. Perhaps this was one of the women he and Tommy spoke to the last time they were here. I bit my tongue to keep from jumping at her with a ton of questions. Also because Seth shot me a warning look to be quiet.
"Was she?" Seth asked, taking his time to dig for a lighter.
"No. But her handler was just a few minutes ago." The woman put the cigarette between her lips and leaned in to the open flame in Seth's hand. Her eyes, rimmed with dark eye shadow flickered up to my friend's face. The smoldering look in them made me look away, feeling as if I was intruding on a private moment. What were my friends doing in this area of town, exactly?
The moment gone, she stood erect and blew a stream of smoke into the air. "It's early. I'll bargain he'll be back with her in a few hours."
Seth nodded. "We'll be back."
She studied him with a faint smile. "Bring your wallet so we can finish what we started."
"One for later?" Seth offered her the pack of cigarettes, ignoring the invitation.
She extracted a second one and nodded, throwing a glance my direction. "Sixth and Temple."
And we continued walking, me frustrated and confused, as Seth steered us to the next street.
"Okay, what the hell was that about? Who was she?"
"Maisie. Not sure if that's her real name, but that's what she told me to call her. She's the one we talked to last time we were here. It took a while to… convince her to open up about Meghan." I could have sworn Seth's face flushed. If it weren't so dark I'd have bet on it.
"Convince her how?"
"Well, now that is none of your business. The point is, she knows your girl and agreed to help us." Dropping his butt to the ground, Seth stomped it out.
"Sixth and Temple?"
"Our rendezvous. You gonna finish that?"
I handed over my half-finished cigarette, somewhat awed. "You would make a great Jason Bourne."
Seth took a long toke, dramatically tilting his head to exhale. "Don't I know it."
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emilyplaysotome · 6 years
Text
Chapter 8 - Hiding in Plain Sight
Catch up on Chapters 1 - 7 here! (or just Chapter 7)
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I calmed myself down by reminding myself that Meg was no bright eyed fool.
She was a New Yorker in the most stereotypical sense - slightly cynical, (at the moment) jaded towards relationships, and completely self-sufficient. Her second year into her relationship with Noah, Meg had gotten laid off when a major brand had left the agency she was employed at.
Noah was an engineer and steadily rising in the corporate ranks at the time. He’d suggested that they move in together in order to take any pressure off of her, but Meg had flatly refused. She had appreciated the gesture but refused to allow herself to be rescued by some white knight. Instead, she revised her resume and updated her site, applying to jobs and freelancing before she was offered a creative director role at a superior agency than the one who laid her off.
With her upgraded title and upgraded employer, she then considered Noah’s offer to live together and rather than move into either of their apartments, they found a new place together that was also a considerable upgrade.
I remember secretly admiring how Meg had handled herself back then and wondered if I would have handled myself as well as she did. With that said, there was no way she would let her guard down (even in otome-ville) and certainly not with a PUA type like Baba.
Rather than get derailed with what ifs, I refocused on what I needed to do in order to get her home in a timely fashion. I pulled out my laptop and saw that Anita had sent me another message, “Naomi I know you’re sick but we couldn’t reschedule - can you do a video conference at 2? Please!?”
I’d hoped to sneak down to the Tribeca precinct that was dangerously close to my office during that time but with the realization that pressing pause on my life was impossible, I begrudgingly agreed to dial into the Zoom meeting. With an hour to kill I sent a flirty text to Hiroshi - confirming that we were still on for our date tomorrow in the park. 
He didn’t reply immediately and I wondered if this was thanks to his new persona, or if he was merely tied up at work.
As for Soryu, I was at a loss but figured it couldn’t hurt to take a closer look at Terek’s card. I noticed that there was a phone number and email address listed but waffled on whether or not emailing him would lead anywhere. Instead, I opted to google Soryu and his arrest information. I was surprised to find out that he’d posted bail - something that seemed off considering the fact that bail had been set fairly high and he had been mugging people on the train for spare change.
There was no further information as far as if he’d been the one to pay or if someone else had covered it, and before I knew it I had to stop sleuthing and instead dial into Anita’s video conference.
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“Hey Naomi - are you with us?”
The quality of the feed made it hard to see who exactly was in the room, but it was clear that the office’s largest conference room was packed full of clients and coworkers.
“Yep! I’m here. Hello everyone.”
“Thanks for dialing in. I know you’re feeling under the weather but I wanted to make sure you were present for this discovery meeting,” Anita said, leading the meeting. “We’ve already done intros so when you’re back in person we’ll be sure to go through that again, but for now I’d like to make the most of our time together and dive in.”
“Sounds good. It’s nice to meet you all.”
I saw the pixilated people nod in acknowledgement and Anita let them know in a lighthearted way that I was 360i’s resident digital marketing expert before moving on to the brand discovery. 
I learned that this “new brand” Anita had been hinting at was actually a hospitality behemoth in Asia that was looking to break into the American market. At the moment their luxury hotel was almost ready to open in New York and they were looking to partner with an agency who could lead a successful digital marketing campaign that would help launch the brand.
We would have one month of prep and discovery (where we’d learn about the brand, their guidelines in order to formulate where in the NYC hospitality space there was a gap that they could fill), a pitch against two other agencies, and once awarded, only one month before the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The owner of the hotel (Hyun Kim) was a heavyset gentleman with salt and pepper hair who sat next to Anita taking notes on a sleek laptop. His fingers made an abnormally loud clacking sound on the keyboard, but his colleagues seemed used to it whereas I noticed a few of my coworkers glancing over from time to time.
Nothing was said during this initial discovery meeting that I found particularly meaningful. In general, I’d worked on and for several hospitality brands and they all required the same type of marketing. The only thing that stood out to me was the fact that this brand did not offer the standard amenities of a luxury hotel but also had created a “health and fitness” component.
LT Hotels was planning to roll out in addition to their spa offerings spin, barre, and yoga classes. Having just been reminded of how cramped NYC gyms tend to be, I silently wondered if there might be an opportunity in our NYC launch strategy by opening up these services to the public for a healthy fee. It seemed like a way not only to define LT Hotels (allowing them to keep half of the space in their classes for guests and half for local members) while maintaining the upper class, expensive and exclusive atmosphere.
I jotted down a small note to research luxury gyms in the city and get a cost estimate, also factoring in that members would have access to LT Hotels’ spa services at a discounted rate, should we propose something along those lines.
At the end of the hour, I thanked Mr. Kim and his team for their time and Anita brought the video meeting to a close. 
Just before she did, I caught a glimpse of some of the men who were on Mr. Kim’s team towards the back and noted that it was slightly ironic that a luxury hotel and spa brand that appealed primarily to women was headed up exclusively by men.
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With my work obligation complete, I pulled out all the stops to find Namba knowing that once 6 pm hit I wouldn’t be able to find him until Monday, should he currently be working a 9-5. I raced down to the TriBeCa precinct (and by raced I mean hobbled seeing as how I was incredibly sore), and strolled right up to the front desk where a weathered, butch female officer asked, “How can I help ya hon?”
“I’m actually looking for someone who used to work here - Jin Namba?”
Unimpressed, she raised an eyebrow and said, “And who would you be?”
“Naomi Lee.”
“Hold.”
I watched as she dialed a few numbers on a beat up phone and gruffly said, “Yeah, Fitzgerald - do you remember Jin ever mentioning someone named Naomi Lee?”
There was a pause and she eyed me up and down before quietly saying, “I dunno, regular lookin’ for this area. Dark hair and eyes. Why? Ok. Ok…sure.”
She hung up and informed me to take a seat. 
I wasn’t entirely sure as to what was happening but after a short wait a burly, Irish cop in his 40s approached me. His ID revealed him as the man the woman at the front had been speaking with and with a smile he gave me a small wave.
“Hey there.”
“Hi,” I said, standing.
“Do you mind going for a walk with me?”
It was a little odd, but Officer Fitzgerald didn’t seem to be shady or scary and so, I followed him outside. We made small talk for a block and a half before he finally revealed that he wasn’t really supposed to say anything about Jin, but had remembered him talking about a girl he was crazy about.
“You’re that girl, aren’t you?”
I flushed and nodded, “I think so.”
“So why you lookin’ for him now when before you didn’t give him the time of day before?”
“Did he tell you I was engaged?”
“Was?”
“Yes, was.”
Officer Fitzgerald smiled, “Shit. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I was gonna grill you but fuck it - he’s a PI now.”
“That’s a real thing?”
“Sure it is! You mean to tell me you thought it was only somethin’ in movies?”
Officer Fitzgerald let out a good natured tsk and with another grin told me the address of Jin’s office a few blocks away.
“You think I can just…go?”
“You better go! I expect to be the best man at this wedding, ya know.”
“Officer -”
“Call my Fitzy - all my friends do.”
There was something magical about a city where a tough looking man had a soft cuddly nickname and I found myself smiling as a result.
“Thanks Fitzy. I owe you one.”
“Hope it works out. Don’t break my dude’s heart, ok?”
I started to walk in the director of Jin’s office, but Fitzy stopped me by calling out, “And Naomi - if anyone asks…you didn’t hear any of this from me.”
“You got it,” I said and then picked up the pace towards Jin’s office in the west most section of TriBeCa.
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“Can I help you?”
I found myself frozen standing in front of Jin Namba as the magic hour light flooded the large windows and illuminated his office, creating a warm glow around a man who still occupied a special place in my heart. He was the same Jin he’d always been - tall, serious, and eyes that had a hint of good natured mischief behind them.
Out of all of this world’s iterations, he was the closest to his original self - wearing a rumpled, outdated suit that was slightly too large as his five o’clock shadowed ventured on beard territory.
I think it was because of how familiar he currently felt to me that caused all these old feelings to come racing back and I found myself fighting back tears knowing that I wasn’t familiar to him at all.
“Miss - are you ok?” He asked cautiously.
“It’s Namoi,” I said. “Ami. Naomi. You don’t remember either one, do you?”
“Either? I don’t understand…”
“No, it’s nothing. I’m sorry.”
Jin ushered me to have a seat in his office. The space had a small waiting area, but there was no receptionist and from what I could see it was just Jin in an office resembled the one he’d occupied in Her Love in the Force. It was ironic that he’d lost his recollection of who he was, and yet had managed to recreate a space from his past.
He sat behind a large mahogany desk and I sat across from him and watched as he pulled out a vape pen and inhaled.
“So what brings you here?” He asked quietly, sensing my emotional upheaval.
“I’m looking for someone, but I don’t know who…”
Jin grinned and I felt my heart jump in my chest, “Sounds like quite the pickle Little Bird.”
“What did you just call me?”
For a moment, I could see in Jin’s eyes that he looked lost. He whispered the nickname to himself again and then apologized, noting that he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but that there was something familiar about me. Hearing that made me feel received - as if for once, I wasn’t experiencing something that was completely one-sided.
It was strange that I felt so nostalgic now, seeing as how since our breakup, I’d never looked back.
I knew why I had chosen Zyg and had also not-so-secretly thought that Jin was slightly too old for me. Despite that, there was something about the fact that even the “changed” Jin at his core was so closely tied to the man he was that even the king himself failed to alter him drastically. Perhaps it due to his age that he had maintained this strong sense of “self” while his younger otome counterparts had been altered much more.
The utterance of his old nickname for me conjured a bunch of feelings in both of us, and he mentioned that he’d gotten into a skirmish at work and suffered a blow to the head which the doctor said caused temporary amnesia. 
I knew it was less of a blow to the head and more the doing of a nefarious king, but seeing as how Jin didn’t seem to want to go into detail he changed the subject and asked, “Anyway, how do you propose finding someone whose identity you don’t know?”
“I have no idea,” I said, “which is why I came to you hoping that you could help.”
“I mostly do cheating spouses, runaway kids, that kind of thing…this….”
“Why’d you quit the force?”
He paused, and I watched a flicker of curiosity flash through his gaze causing him to take another drag of his vape pen and avert his eyes before asking, “You knew me from before?”
“Something like that.”
“Being an officer in this city is dangerous. I’m gettin’ too old for that kind of thing. I thought tailing adulterers would be a bit safer and have far more job security.”
“That doesn’t sound like the person I knew.”
“How did we know each other Little Bird? I get the sense we weren’t just casual acquaintances.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because when I look at you…no. Nothing.”
“No, what?”
I could feel myself leaning towards him with a seductive look that I hadn’t anticipated wearing. He grinned at me and ran his fingers through his hair and with that irresistible smirk of his playfully noted, “I gotta be on guard around you heartbreaker.”
I pretended that he didn’t, though of course I was planning to get that kiss. For now, I celebrated the fact that I’d found five of the six men and left his office fifteen minutes later, promising to compile a list as far as who my top suspects for the king’s mystery sixth person was in this world. 
As I stood in that small waiting area, I boarded the elevator feeling pretty good about this plan of Jin helping me locate this mystery man. However, when the elevator doors closed and I was alone once more, I realized that time was a flat circle and I had a legitimate, authentic crush on Jin Namba once more.
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I managed not to run into any of my coworkers on the way home, and walked into my apartment tired but feeling on top of the world.
I collapsed on my couch and took out my planner to make sure I was on track to get Meg back (and also show the king who was boss). As I reviewed things, I also took notes with the hopes of brainstorming for situations that didn’t seem to have a clear answer at the moment.
Regardless though as drained as I was, I was also feeling very accomplished.
Tomorrow I was set to go out with Hiroshi. I’d met Soryu but had no idea as to his whereabouts. Thea’s contact information was in my phone and as much as it pained me, I could follow up and hopefully figure out what Zyglavis’ new life looked like. Hijikata had me popping Advil like they were candy but I was hopeful my haiku had started to thaw his heart. And finally, I was relieved to know that Jin hadn’t been transformed into some sexist, racist bad iteration of a NYPD cop.
Just as my guard started to come down there was a bright light and a snap and the King of the Heavens stood with an annoyed looking Meg standing next to him.
“Meg!”
I ran towards her and gave her a hug which she reciprocated.
“Ah tut tut,” the king said, gently separating us. “I’ll admit that I was amazed by your progress, but until you tell me the names and whereabouts of all the men you don’t get this one back.”
“Meg, are you-”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me…”
“Goldfish!” The king barked, “Names and whereabouts now or I send her back!”
“But I’ve only found five of the six.”
With a devilish grin the king laughed and noted, “Oh ho! I should have known you weren’t that clever.”
“Excuse me?”
“You didn’t even realize that you found the sixth man?!”
The king’s laughter grew from a chuckle into a hearty belly laugh and I racked my brain trying to think of all the places I’d gone today - from the subway, to the bodega, and even those at Hijikata’s gym. Either way, I’d been far too distracted to really notice and was beating myself up as a result.
Meg caught my attention by covertly waving her hands in the hopes of pulling me out of my stupor. She stood slightly behind the king (out of his eyeline) who was having a grand ol’ time at my expense, and mouthed something at me while pointing to her pocket. Before I could process everything that was happening the king snapped his fingers and she was gone once more.
“Just text me when you figure out the identity of the 6th man,” the king said flippantly, dabbing the tears that formed from laughter before snapping his fingers and leaving me alone again.
I let out an angry moan and collapsed on the couch once more, frustrated and wondering how it was possible that I could have met the last man without realizing. I had been so tired when I came in that I was still in my army jacket and as I slumped onto the couch I heard a crinkle and remembered Meg’s gesturing.
It was then that I reached into my pocket and discovered the list of possible suspects I’d written out before the king had taken her. My eyes widened as I saw that not only had Meg survived her time in the otome world, but she’d continued to be my ally as more than half of the names on my list were crossed out.
I now had three suspects for the mystery sixth man, and to be honest I wasn’t happy about who they were.
Chapter 9 here
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