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fingaudioart · 4 years

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Hill House, and Audio Horror vs Film Horror

I got to thinking about this when an audio producer on Twitter asked what people thought the scariest parts of Haunting of Hill House, other than the jump scares. What struck me while reading the responses were almost all things that depended on the visuals, and would be very hard to move into the realm of audio.

I feel like many/most people think of horror movies as a template to build off of for horror audio fiction...which is fair, because for many of us, horror audio fiction wasn’t a thing we could find to listen to until recently (myself included). And it’s not uncommon to hear a successful, talent audio producer say something along the lines of “An audio drama is like a movie, without needing a million dollar budget.”

I agree with the thought, generally: audio fiction does have many similarities to film, but if you stretch it too far, it can be a dangerous approach. And it can be especially dangerous for Horror.

Let’s think about how we could move the Bent Neck Lady into audio (spoilers ahead). Except for one scream, she is silent and unmoving. To move it into audio, we’d either need a narrator (or someone to tell us what’s happening), or to make Bent Neck Lady move around. The first option would keep the nature of the ghost intact, but we would be robbed of having it happen in front of us. The second option would change the nature of the ghost entirely. This is before we even talk about the twist, that hinges on Bent Neck Lady largely being a silhouette, which obscures information without feeling like anything.

Horror is a genre that is especially dependent on craftsmanship, regardless of the medium. It’s a genre where--and you’re going to murder me for saying this--you don’t need a good story to be scary. You need a scary situation/scene, told with skill, but even if the scenes/plot/characters around it are terrible, you can still make the audience feel afraid (Looking at you, Argento).

That’s not to say the story doesn’t matter. In fact, a large part of what makes Haunting of Hill House so good is that it’s part horror, but also part family melodrama (and it actually spends more time on the melodrama than the horror), blended together so the ghosts have meaning. Bent Neck Lady is disturbing the first time you see it, but it’s the story behind it that makes her stay with you long after you’ve finished the show.

But if we set aside the story, and focus on the scary moments...they are pure filmmaking. Every aspect is working to create fear: the sets and art direction, the creature design, the pacing, the blocking, the editing, the sound design.

The same way a horror movie uses every weapon of filmmaking, a horror audio drama should use every weapon of audio to create dread/fear/suspense. But the flip side is, just as Haunting of Hill House isn’t using the tools of horror literature, your audio drama shouldn’t try to be a movie.

But I think we also need to own up to something: many of us (most of us?) have more experience watching horror movies than listening to horror audio dramas. So let’s get analytical here. What are films strengths? Audio’s strengths? Weakness? And how do these work in service of horror? Any tips for the audio drama producer?

Filmmaking’s Unique Gifts

Before I get into the list, I want to be very clear: I’m not to saying you can’t do versions of this in an audio drama. In fact, when these are successfully used in audio, they can be outright amazing. But they take a lot more work, either by carefully setting up signature sounds*, or by having narration, or some other creative way no one has done yet. The point of this list is that film does these things easily.

There are some obvious things, like, ya know, visuals. I don't think there's any amount of words or sounds that would allow me to imagine Giger’s Xenomorph. Some things just need to be seen.

One of film's special talents is it gives the audience an understanding of a location without even trying. I don’t mean the layout of a house (that can be confusing), but present an audience with one shot of a bedroom, and they’ll instantly understand where the bed is, the window, the door, the closet, the bedside tables. Films communicate small spaces so easily, they don't even need to stop to do it…a character walks in the room doing whatever, and as long as the space is seen by the camera, the audience gets it.

In horror, this is vital when the fear you're trying to create is that of a physical threat. Where is the killer? Behind the bookcase? Walking towards you from across the lawn?

Related to this idea of a physical space, films also have the ability to makes things appear--and disappear--quickly and unexpectedly. This is moments like Mike Meyers appearing in the closet in Halloween, or later, when Dr. Loomis looks over the edge of the Balcony, and Michael Meyers has vanished.

Perhaps film’s most famous strength is the montage. You can easily cut between different scenes and settings, without the audience ever getting confused.

There is one tool of film that I am very frustrated won’t work in audio: the Title Card. I don’t mean the title of the show, I mean those cards that say things like “Burbank, CA” or “CIA Headquarters” or “3:23pm.” Text on screen is a painless way to give the audience information without tripping up the storytelling.

Finally, let’s talk about one of film’s most powerful tricks...patience.

A film can stretch moments out, sometimes with slomo, but often with editing between close-ups. You can also have moments where nothing happens, you just linger in the mood/ambience/characters reactions.

A great example is the “Spielberg-Face”, those shots when the characters are reacting to something the audience hasn’t seen yet. In Jurassic Park, we spend a full 30 seconds watching jaws drop before we see the first dinosaur. This is pretty nuts, when you think about it. The true stars of the movie aren’t introduced with a speech, or a title card, or a curtain pulling back, but by the characters just staring in the distance for half a page.

Pausing the action, or even just stretching it out, is one of the fundamental tools of horror movies. It’s a way to create the mood: Show the spooky location, play the spooky ambience. It’s a way to create suspense in a scene, think of the long POV shot scanning the room for that noise. End the moment with something suddenly appearing, and you have the basic recipe for a jump scare. Even if you decide to be an artsy horror story, like Haunting of Hill House, silently drawing out the action is your primary weapon. Done well, the audience will be rapt, knowing that something could be about to happen any moment, even though as far as the plot goes, we haven’t moved much at all.

I’ll be honest, if I could go back in time and tell the younger version of me who hadn’t made an audio drama yet that you can’t draw out a moment the way you do in film, I probably would not have believed me. In my work as a TV Editor, it’s been one of the tricks that has really elevated my pieces...it feels like magic. But I’ll never forget editing my first audio piece, having a character fumble with a doorknob while trying to escape someone who was chasing them. They grunted at the door as the footsteps got closer and closer, and it was lousy. It felt like the manipulation it was.

Audio’s Unique Gifts

The thing that audio does better than any other media--and this is controversial--a narrator feels like they are talking directly to you, the listener (a narrator in a film feels more like they are talking to an auditorium). Now, here are people who find that narration is jarring and takes them out of the story. They aren’t wrong--you can’t argue someone’s experience--but that’s certainly not what happens to me. If you are one of these poor souls, I hope you take some time to listen to some narration and reprogram your brain, because you’re missing out on some magic.

The other great thing about sound is it activates the imagination. Films can also do this, of course, but audio does it be default.

Sound is also very good at evoking a sense of touch. Texture. Clothing. Almost anything you can feel in your hand.

While sounds is great at telling us about what’s very close, it also tells us about the world in the distance, i.e. ambiences. The sound of a forest transports us to a forest that exists in all directions. Distant traffic can tell us if the city is awake or asleep.

Audio also does an amazing plot twist that I’m gonna call the “Pull Back to Reveal” twist (yeah, that’s a film term). This is when, deep into a scene, something is revealed to the audience that the characters understood was there the whole time. While a movie can usually only sustain this for a minute or two, audio dramas can push this for a really long time. The Truth’s classic “The Dark End of the Mall” is a great example, as is the episode “Have You Seen My Mom?” It’s use in horror is more limited though...suspense works the best when the audience knows as much or more about the situation than characters (a.k.a. Audience Superior), and this is a twist that is Audience Inferior.

And, not for nothing: It’s way cheaper than a film. That’s not say the money doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t matter in the same way.

Film’s Failings

The hardest part of film is the flip side of its strengths: it’s so easily grounded in reality, it’s very hard to step out of it. That’s more of a problem than you think.

Take the sentence, “Andy called his sister-in-law.” While it takes just four words to write in a book, in a movie, you are going to be contorting dialog or some other clever trick, to get the audience to understand “that’s his wife’s sister.” (Non-narrated audio dramas also have this problem with exposition.)

Same goes for backstory. In the middle of a scene, a book can say things like “She’d been working on this for ten hours now, and was ready to scream.” One sentence. A film would have to lay out exposition, or clues for the audience to put it together.

Film also has a hard time conveying senses other than sound or sight. During scenes where a character walks into a place and says “Ugh, what’s that smell!”, I never really imagine the smell, I just see an actor pretending to smell something.

Visuals can be too intense. Gore or nudity are the first things that come to mind in this category, and are often alluded to in a film for exactly that reason. But even if they are merely hinted at, the film audience may spend a scene wondering “Are they going to actually show it?”, which knocks you out the movie a little.

Films are complicated to make, at every level. Casting is tougher---the actor needs to both sound and look the part. There’s the expense of sets and lighting, the effort of just getting a crew to a location can be monumental. And once it’s all shot, film editing is more complicated and time intensive than audio editing, and not just because it involves audio editing.

Audio's Weakness

The biggest: There's a big Blindspot right in front of the audience. Without some careful context, raw audio recording from real life is disorienting at best, intelligible at worst. Most sounds that come from the blank spot are descriptive, they generally tell us if someone’s shoes are wet, but they won’t tell who is walking around the room in wet shoes.

This blind spot can be especially dangerous to a producer, because in real life, our brain attaches sounds to the objects it sees, and when you understand what a sound is, it’s easy to place it. Because a producer knows what sound they are placing in the piece, it’s easy to think your sound design is intelligible. Sounds we don’t understand are also hard to place in the space. I personally find that while stereo and ambisonics can help make the sounds be more distinct from each other, they don’t really locate them precisely.

Another weakness of audio, characters are hard to tell apart. This can especially affect women's voices, who don't tend to have as much variation. This isn’t as true if the audience has seen the face of the actor talking, something about that seems to lock in our understanding of a voice (video though, not just a headshot). But without a face, it’s tough. EDIT: So I wasn’t very clear with that last point. To be clear, it’s not that you CAN’T cast people who sound different, or that you can’t direct people with similar voices to give different performances. It’s that you need to make a point of doing so. And while I have personally found that women’s voices are more likely to sound alike, that’s not the main idea. We remember face’s very easily, and names relatively easily (unless you’re me, I’m terrible at names). Voices without faces are easily confused.

This character confusion especially applies to large casts...I have a hard time imagining an audio only version of OCEAN’S ELEVEN, for example. Put twelve characters in a room for an audio drama, and it’s gets confusing for the listener really quickly.

If you aren't using a narrator, making time pass can be hard. A Rocky montage needs to be carefully setup. "Cut To: Five Minutes Later" is damn near impossible without narration.

Sound Effects need to be more meticulous. THE AVENGERS can sweeten a superhero punch so it hardly sounds like a punch at all, and the visuals on screen will lock it into place. Without a picture to give a sound context, they need to be much more realistic for them to be understood correctly.

So let’s put this all together.

Lets turn it into an “approach,” and design some scenes that work easily in the medium.

Ambiences are a strength, so we’ll pick a setting that has an interesting one, and avoid things like quiet rooms. We’ll have a small number of characters, let’s say four or less, and to make it easier for audience to remember who is who, we’ll cast actors with clearly different voices, and we can help on the script level by making sure they all have different motivations/goals/emotional states. To get that intimacy of the voice, we’ll have at least some of the characters close to each other (and the mics), and not shouting across the room.

The physical setup of the room will be straight forward, and our characters’ movements though the space will be clearly motivated and direct (“Does this key unlock this door?”), if a character has busy work that moves them through the space, the details won’t matter (like they are doing dishes). We’ll also want to have some moments that play on that sense of touch. Perhaps most importantly, we’ll want to paint some clear visuals for the listener to imagine.

For a horror scene, you really want to work your ambiences to make them add to the tension, vs just adding realism. We first want the monsters in the distance, say on the other side of a door or outside the house, or somewhere in the woods. Make our scared characters really close to the listener, play the sounds that you only hear when you are right next to them, like their breathing, swallows, adjusting the clothes or their make-shift weapon.

When the monster enters the room, have it spend as little time as possible in the blindspot, so avoid things like fist fights and fast-paced footchases. Instead get the monster right inside our character's personal bubble. If you’re aiming for a startle, instead of having it leap out in front of the hero like in a movie, you’d want to skip the blindspot, and have the monster pounce onto the hero--using those touch sounds that are so intense.

To me, that sounds like a scary scene.

It’s Not a Formula, and All of This is Nonsense

In fact, you probably wouldn’t want every scene in your piece to follow this, because a) it’ll get repetitive, and b) when you go against the medium, you’re more likely to make some magic (if you pull it off). But I do think it’s important to realize when the big moment of your piece is resting on some of the weaknesses. When this happens, you may want to make sure you’re leaning on something really strong to carry the weight. Other times, you may want to toss around some other ideas, make sure that it’s actually working, and to see if it could be improved.

Also, even though I’ve written a lot of words here, I fully expect someone has already proven every one of these rules wrong. But I also think it’s a good exercise to go through this and figure out why I’m wrong.

The medium matters. And I hate writing conclusions, so I’m ending it here.

*Signature Sound: A sound that the audience understands to mean something specific, such as a doorbell or a gunshot.

#audiodrama #horror #hill house

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paodequeijofeliz-blog · 4 years

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I would do it all again

Ride or Die Fanfiction (characters and main story belongs to Pixelberry Studios).

Pairing: Mona and MC (Annie)

Information: this takes place after the first book.

Summary: After what happened at the parking lot, each member of the crew tries to build a new life, following the “every man for himself” motto. But Annie doesn’t agree with that and tries to pull them back together, especially Mona, who she has been waiting for too many years.

Warnings: none.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

I would do it all again - Part 4

Annie felt her eyes closing against her will. Fuck, I need coffee. Didn’t she just have a mug? Things were a blur that morning. The clock struck 11 am, a vison that made her heartbeat speed. Shit, shit, shit, I need to finish these.

It was Sunday, a beautiful, hot, and sunny weekend, but the woman had barely looked outside. The doctorate selection was coming up, one test that could either put her back in college or push into waiting another year. The desk was filled with books, piles and more piles of them mocking her slow reading skills with their old covers and tiny letters. She scratched her eyes one more time before hiding behind hands, a heavy sigh of tire escaping the lungs. Then, something caught her attention.

First, it was the smell. Fresh coffee.

Second, the sound of steps. Low, muffled.

Third, the feeling of an arm holding her by the shoulders.

Annie finally uncovered the face to look up and find Mona’s staring curiously. She had put a mug of coffee on the girl’s desk. “Hey, Mon”.

“Hi, gorgeous.” She tightened the grip around Annie’s shoulders, feeling her melt and relax after placing a kiss on the side of her neck. “I’m not gonna distract you. Just brought more coffee.”

“Thanks. Is it with…”

“Sugar? Yes. Black, extra strong, extra sugar. I know.” Mona gave her a cocky smile. “Want something else? You barely ate breakfast today.”

“No, I’m good. I…” she moaned happily after tasting the coffee. “Good lord, you make great coffee. I think I just had a caffeine orgasm.”

The woman bit her neck, like a punishment. “Don’t sound so surprise, princess. I can do stuff.”

Annie giggled, taking a big gulp before putting the mug back on the desk. Her eyes travelled around the papers and books, but when she felt Mona’s arms loosing up, her hands went fast to hold it there. “Wait, no. Stay. Please. I need a break. Talk to me about Toby. How’s he?”

The Lebanese stopped for a second, hesitating. Then, she turned Annie’s chair so they could face each other, slowly climbing into the girl’s lap. “He’s fine. Let’s talk about something else.”

“What do you have in mind?” Annie leaned back, holding her by the waist. The sunlight shining against Mona’s feature was a vison strong enough to steal anybody’s breath away. “Wait Mon, first, have I already said you look sexy this morning? Cause you do. A lot.”

Mona opened a mischievous smile, fighting the urge to transform it into sex talk. That wasn’t the point now.

“Malika Calil.”

“Who?” Annie tilted her head, confused by the sudden change of subject.

“Me.”

“I don’t underst… Oh. Oh my god. Your name?”

Mona rolled her eyes. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

Too late. The girl’s face was all lightened up by now.

“That’s so pretty, and strong, it fits you! I love it. Malika.” For some reason, the sound of it on Annie’s mouth also made Mona love it. “Why are you telling me this so out of the blue?”

“Figured it was time. You didn’t peek so far.”

“Of course. I respect your decisions.” She said softly.

“Yeah, you’re a goody-goody. I know.” Mona teased, earning a dramatic and astonished gasp from her. “But thanks, I appreciate it. Now you know.”

“Which do you prefer?” Annie held her tighter, completely lost on those dark eyes. Suddenly, she felt safer in there. Closer.

“Whatever you choose, I don’t mind.”

“C’mon, there’s gotta be a favourite.”

“My favourite will be ‘boss’ when this auto shop is opened.”

Annie laughed, burring her face on the woman’s chest. “Okay, boss.”

Life could get so light when they were together. Suddenly, the teacher forgot all about her insecurities towards the exam, as the scent of Mona’s parfum slowly involved her like in a hypnosis. A hand stroke down the girl’s hair, brushing it tenderly. After a few moments hidden between her lover’s breasts, Annie spoke again through a muffled voice. “Can you tell me more?”

Mona twisted her lips, wondering what exactly to share. “Well, I already told you my father was a bricklayer. My mother was a designer, she’s the one who taught me how to draw. I have two younger brothers too. Twins. Haven’t seen them in ages. We never fought or anything, just… Life happened, you know. They went to live with our mother’s cousin in California after our parents died. Must be finishing high school this year.”

“I’m sorry about your parents.”

“I’m sorry about yours, too.” Mona kissed the top of the girl’s head, still brushing her fingers through the brown waves. “What else do you want to know?”

“Hm… What’s your favourite colour?”

She furrowed her eyebrows to that question. “Really?”

“Yeah. Why, is that too personal?”

“Humpf.” Mona shook her head, thinking for a second. “It depends. I like it dark. Dark blue, dark purple, black, silver. Red is cool too, for clothes. I don’t think I’ve got a true favourite, but mostly I go for dark blue. Like the night sky. Happy now?”

“Extremely.” Ann finally peeked up to meet the woman’s gaze, a big smile opening to that view. “You’re a goddess. I’m sure of it. No human being can reach this level of beauty.”

“Well, then something’s gotta be wrong here, cause’ goddesses shouldn’t worship humans like I worship you, hotstuff.”

“Oh my, you do know how to make a woman blush, don’t you?”

Months passed as they kept that sweet routine. It was like taking a vacation inside your own house. Movie nights became a thing, both addicted to it, especially since Annie was out for the most part of the day. Every time she would get home to find something paused on the TV and take outs on the table. Mona couldn’t believe how happy someone was able to be while watching Jurassic Park at a Tuesday night. After six years locked up in a nightmare with her ex-girlfriend, it was about time she had a break. Besides, once the auto shop was set to work, things wouldn’t remain so peaceful anymore.

Her and Toby’s plans were to open it right away since most of the tools and licenses were already in order. Ximena was going to have her studio in the back, starting as soon as she could buy new supplies. Mona would be the one divided into these two worlds: working with cars, in the front; but also designing tattoos for Ximena, in the back.

Life had never tasted so damn good.

“Fourteen months and we’re ready to go, people!!” Toby was bouncing in front of the camera, a happy grin on his face.

“Do we really need to wait for my parole to be over? I want to start already.” Mona put her feet up on the table, staring as Ximena scowled on the screen.

“Yes, we do. Mine is over, Toby’s too, now we’re gonna wait for yours. They specifically said you can’t meet with us during parole. Don’t you dare risk it, Mona.”

“Yeah, Mon. It’s not for long. Besides, aren’t you living in a paradise there? Why the rush?”

“I just want to go on with it. Can I start fixing things around here? Maybe painting? I really need to do something.”

“Fixing, yes. But you’re gonna wait for us to paint it. I have ideas.” Ximena lowered her voice, her tone becoming a little more concerned. “And, hm… What about that other subject? Have you… Solved it?”

Mona stiffened. “No. I decided to let it die in prison.”

Before any of them could protest, the sound of a car parking outside alerted her. Without saying goodbye, the Lebanese just closed the laptop and went to open the door for a tired, but smiley, Annie.

“I did it, babe. I nailed that fucking exam.”

“Never doubted you would, gorgeous.” Mona pulled her in by the waist, holding the girl so tight she cofed. “Who knew I would be dating a freakin’ genius one day.”

Annie chuckled, looking up to find her gaze. “So, I went from ‘nerd’ to ‘genius’? That’s an improvement. Now let’s wait and see how long until I go from ‘date’ to ‘girlfriend’.”

Mona arched her eyebrows, surprised. “You are my girlfriend. Dumbass.”

“You never said it before.”

“We have been living together for ten months. It’s implied.”

“Nope. It isn’t. I’ll want it by written with your signature on the bottom. ‘I am Anna’s girlfriend’, in legible lett...”

Mona interrupted her with a deep kiss, suddenly pushing Annie against the closed door and roaming hands down her body. That made her gasp, breathless as the Lebanese kept teasing, following a path of kisses and bites down Annie’s jaw. Every bite came with the whisper of a word.

“You… Are… My… Girlfriend.”

Mona finished the sentence with a small kiss by her earlobe, smirking as she heard Annie’s response.

“Oh, yes. Yes, I am.”

#mona x mc #choices: ride or die #sorry it's smaller this time #probably there'll be more 3 parts

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thesvenqueen · 4 years

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Jurassic Park

Rating: M (welp) Pairing: Kristanna Also on AO3

Previous Chapters ( One Two Three Four )

Note(s): we’ve finally made it to the beginning of it all...bout damn time lmao

{Chapter 5}

Kids.

Why the hell were there kids here?

After that entire conversation they’d had, the voiced concerns and unsureness of the park itself, the underlying potential dangers Kristoff had started to think the scientists hadn’t even considered; Dr. Hammond had brought kids here.

“Grandpa!!”

His own grandkids no less.

They hugged the doctor, tackling him to the ground. Kristoff just watched but felt Anna squeeze his hand. He looked down to see her watching the scene, a soft smile on her lips.

“Don’t be getting ideas.” He joked, giving her his sideways grin that he knew she loved.

She rolled her eyes, bumping her hip into him. “I’m not.”

But Kristoff knew that was a lie. Could see it in her eyes when she peeked up at him through her lashes. It was a matter of time before she brought up the subject, he knew it too, sooner rather than later judging from the look she was giving the kids.

“Oh, Dr. Arendelle, come come.” Dr. Hammond called, motioning over to the kids. “These are my grandkids, Olaf & Alexis.”

“Grandpa, I’ve told you, it’s just Lex!” The teen teased.

“Oh, pardon me.” Dr. Hammond exclaimed, feigning hurt. “How could I forget.”

Anna had beamed at them, greeting them with her winning smile. She knelt down to Olaf, pointing at his shirt. Kristoff couldn’t make out what was on it, but whatever Anna had said about it had made Olaf gape at her.

She was always so good with kids, a complete natural. He couldn’t lie either at the fact that seeing her interacting with children always warmed his heart, made him smile at how every child just seemed to love her instantly.

But him, good with kids? God, not even close.

Kristoff stood at the bottom of the steps, now watching as Olaf had begun to converse with his Grandfather while Anna had begun slowly making her way to the jeep, Lex following close behind. The boy was going a mile a minute about the helicopter ride with Dr. Hammond nodding as he listened.

“I don’t know how to feel about this.”

Kristoff looked over as Sven came to stand beside him, arms crossed and brows furrowed. Sven looked just as annoyed as Kristoff felt, “About what?”

Kristoff had been surprised when Sven had voiced the same unease about the park during lunch. In fact, Sven had been the one to begin the conversation in the first place. Talking again about his theory of ‘life finds away’, how Dr. Hammond could not truly think he could control these creatures as efficiently as he claimed.

Anna had chimed in soon after, agreeing with Sven that there were way too many unknown factors involved, so many that she was sure the doctor’s team hadn’t considered. When Dr. Hammond had looked to him, smiling that same confident smile in hopes he’d side with him, it he had hesitated.

But once he felt Anna’s hand on his thigh, a gentle squeeze of reassurance, he confidently agreed with everyone else, much to Dr. Hammond’s dismay.

“I don't believe it.” He had exclaimed in disbelief, shaking his head, “I expected you to come down here and defend me from these characters and the only one I've got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer!?”

Now, it seemed, Sven thought they were on the same level. Since they were on the same side, both understanding where the other stood on the situation, it was enough for friendly conversations.

Far from it really.

Kristoff still thought he was far too cocky for his own good and most definitely needed to keep his hands off his wife but, he wasn’t an idiot by any means.

Least he had more sense than the lawyer had. He, on the other hand, had been ready to sign the papers and sell tickets the moment they had seen the first dinosaur.

Sven looked at him, “He knows this park is on a trial run, knows there are still risks. I mean, shit, we just gave him an essay’s worth of issues and concerns not even ten minutes ago. Now, before the park can even be given a seal of approval, he brings kids here?”

Kristoff sighed, finding himself agreeing with Sven. Again.

It was an odd feeling.

And he hated it.

“Yeah, not sure that was the smartest move.” Kristoff said, “Even before our little lunch discussion, he’s still risking it before the park has been deemed safe.”

“Doesn’t make sense to me.” Sven said, shaking his head as Dr. Hammond made his way to them.

“Have a heart gentlemen.” Dr. Hammond whispered. “They’re parents are getting a divorce.”

“And how is that our problem?” Sven murmured.

Dr. Hammond frowned, “They’re finalizing everything this weekend. The kids needed a diversion from it all, so I figured now was a good time as any to get them away. Not to mention, we did need to test the park on our target audience.”

“Target audience or not doctor, I’m not sure--”

“I’ll see you when you return!” Dr. Hammond called, ignoring Sven as he started making his way back up into the building.

“You’re not coming?” Kristoff questioned.

“Oh no, I’m going to be manning from the control room. Keeping an eye on things, making sure everything runs smoothly. You all have fun!”

Kristoff rolled his eyes, turning back around and nearly jumped when he found himself face to face with the youngest boy. What was his name again? Olaf was it?

“Hi!”

“Uh…” Kristoff said, looking the small boy up and down. He couldn’t be much older than 10, his new front teeth sticking out ever so slightly and his hair sticking every which way but the same direction. He had a t-shirt with a cartoon image of a T-rex on it and Kristoff had a gut feeling this wasn’t going to be good. “Hi?”

“I read your book!” Olaf said enthusiastically, standing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

His gut feeling was right.

“Oh uh...that’s great kid.” Kristoff said, faking a small smile and moving past him to head towards the rear jeep where Anna was still standing talking to the granddaughter at the hood of the car. He caught her eye, a devilish grin on her face, a telling sign she was up to absolutely nothing good.

“Do you really think dinosaurs turned into birds?” Kristoff flinched a little to hear Olaf’s voice from beside him. “And that's where all the dinosaurs went?”

Kristoff glared at the kid and moved to open the back door of the jeep. “Well, uh,” He climbed in, scooting into the seat. “A few species may have…” He looked up to see Olaf standing at the door expectedly, his eyes wide and wearing his toothy smile. “Evolved along those lines.” Kristoff finished.

They looked at each other for a moment, before Olaf motioned with his head for him to scoot over.

Oh for the love of God.

He began to scoot over, Olaf following when an automated voice boomed through the speakers of the jeep.

“Two to four passengers to a car, please. Children under ten must be accompanied by an adult.”

Kristoff looked back over at Olaf, his toothy smile still just as big. He looked out the other jeep, a door just then slamming shut. The lawyer had just climbed into the front seat, Kristoff spying the man opening his briefcase.

“So, Olaf right?” Kristoff asked, not taking his eyes off the car.

“Uh huh?”

“Which jeep are you riding in?”

“Whichever one you’re in, sir.”

That gave Kristoff an idea.

He looked at Olaf from the corner of his eye and then opened the back door once more. He climbed out, hesitating just enough to make sure the kid was following. As he walked a few steps, he peaked over his shoulder to see Olaf climbing out the car & jumping down to the ground.

Kristoff grinned.

He then began making his way to the other jeep.

“Because they sure don't look like birds to me.” Olaf continued, struggling to keep up with Kristoff’s long strides. “I heard a meteor hit the earth, right, and made like this one hundred mile crater,” he exclaimed, stretching his arms out in emphasis,“I think in someplace down in Mexico--”

Kristoff glanced down at the kid. He almost felt bad.

Almost.

Kristoff grabbed the handle to the back door of the front jeep, opened it and stood aside. He looked to Olaf, smiled and gestured for him to climb in.

“Oh, thanks!” as expected, Olaf climbed right on in and turned to look at Kristoff, “Like I was saying this crater--” And Kristoff slammed the door shut. Even with the door closed, Kristoff could still hear the kid going on and on about the other theories he’d read. He peered over and saw the lawyer glaring at him in the side mirror.

Smiling to himself, he turned to head back to the other car when he found himself now facing Lex. She was 13, hair braided down her back and smiling awkwardly up at him as she twisted the end of her said braid in her fingers.

“Um, she said.” She said, pointing to the rear jeep behind her, “I should ride with you because it would be good for you.”

Kristoff followed where the girl was pointing, only to see a blushing and giggling Anna in the front seat.

He glared at her, which only made her giggle more and look away.

“Yeah, well, she thinks a lot of things.” Kristoff said and brushed past Lex to head to car.

He knew what she was doing. That little minx. He watched her as he made his way to the jeep, holding back more giggles as she bit her lip and avoided his gaze. From the looks of it too, she was sitting alone.

They’d have the car all to themselves.

Perfect.

“Good for me, huh?” Kristoff huffed, climbing into the driver seat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Anna said, looking at him from the passenger seat, her feet propped up on the dash. If he didn’t know any better, it was like they were back in his truck. She always propped her feet on his dash, smiling sweetly at him as she did so. He’d been annoyed the first time, telling her so and he knew she kept doing it to annoy him. Now though, seeing her laid back, feet propped up in his truck, her arm hanging out the window as she sung along to some song on the radio; it was his favorite view.

And so was this current one.

God, if they didn’t have to go on this tour, he’d be having his way with her once more back in their hotel room.

Kristoff couldn’t help but smile at her, poking her in the side and earning himself a giggle. “Yeah, I bet you don’t.” he said, placing his arms on the center console so he could lean towards her, “Any other bright ideas for what’s ‘good for me’?”

Anna hummed, tapping her chin as she pretended to think, “I could think of a few other things.”

“Oh yeah?” Kristoff murmured, leaning ever closer, his nose just barely brushing hers. “Like what?”

Anna giggled then, pulling gently on the collar of his shirt, “You want me to tell you?”

“I’d rather you show me.” he said, winking at her. She giggled again, the sweetest sound he’d ever heard, and he closed his eyes as he leaned in to kiss her.

“I’d like to not be shown whatever it is, thank you.”

The pair jumped at Sven’s voice from behind them, Kristoff cursing as his head hit the ceiling. He groaned in annoyance as he leaned back into the driver seat, looking in the rearview mirror as he rubbed the top of his head.

He watched Sven grimace slightly, mutter an apology and lean back in his seat.

So much for a jeep to themselves.

Kristoff looked over at Anna who was blushing so red it nearly matched her hair. She had one of her plaited braids over her eyes and was slowly moving down in her seat.

A cough came through the speakers of the car and Kristoff looked to the center of the dashboard to see a screen sitting within. There were a few buttons along the left side, but on the screen was Dr. Hammond who was sitting in what looked to be the control room. It was then, Kristoff realized with a burn of embarrassment, that Sven wasn’t the only one that witnessed everything.

Fuck.

Kristoff pulled the sunglasses out of his shirt pocket as he looked out his window and slapped them on, knowing good and damn well it wouldn’t do anything to hide the rising blush on his cheeks but it was something at least.

“Well,” Came Dr. Hammond’s voice, echoing through the car speakers. “I think it’s time to start the tour, shall we?”

As Kristoff leaned back in the driver seat, the car jolted forward, signaling the start of the tour.

#kristanna #kristoff #anna #sven #jurassic park au #jessica writes #i got so tired looking at this chapter #just need the shit to finally hit the fan and oop we close now thank GOD #yes Olaf is the boy #lol im creative obvi

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queensdivas · 5 years

Text

Hidden Blade Chapter 3

Okay. This is one long ass chapter so be prepared. It’s about 5k if that shows you how much fun I had with this. So. Have a blanket, cheez-its, some water, a shot of absinthe and ready to have some good ass writing! Jk my writing sucks but some of y’all like it for some reason?

Also! I’m going to be writing a Eugene Sledge fic if y’all haven’t heard yet. Please message me directly if you would like to be tagged it in. It’s gonna be good and I can feel it in my soul that this one is gonna hit home. (If you don’t believe in my historical fiction writing. Read 39’ and The Great Mazzello).

ALSO! Never drink absinthe straight up! It’s way too strong for the human body. Here’s an article. www.absinthes.com/en/themag/the-absinthe-ritual/how-to-drink-absinthe-4760

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Dear God he looks like he snorted about 5 grams of cocaine and thought it would be a good idea to turn into Susan! Does he have a tennis ball in his crotch? Dear God what the flying fuck is going on? At Least two looks somewhat natural in her role while three just looks, he looks like a California surfer douche who thought the new trend of the year was tennis! Okay I’m done for now.

So. Now for the plan of action. One is heading to the track to listen in on the conversation with the Generals and the dealer. Once they get done with the trade, four and I followed him to wherever he’s keeping the gas, kill the supplier, destroy the supplies, and then come back to the hotel for a long time in the jacuzzi!

We sat in the parking lot of the race track with the engine off waiting for one to give us the cue. We needed to fit in today, so one bought a Hennessey Venom GT, while Four and I looked like something you would see on the cover of Afar Magazine. Yet we sit here in our usual clothes of sports pants, thin shirts, tennis shoes, and a crap ton of water and Powerade in the back. Ready to go kill an arms dealer!

I read over the binder again as these instructions we’re becoming a little more easier. Let me give you the spark note version. So you pop the hood off the chamber of where the gas is stored. They put the gas into a very fragile glass tube so if we break the glass we’re kind of fucked. But anyhow. You have to disarm the tube it’s around so that it will dispense the gas.

Remember the really cool scene in Jurassic Park where that dude was putting the Dino DNA or whatever into the bottle of shaving cream? Basically that except we have multiple bottles of shaving cream to move, a very small window before more people show up to kill us, no park to keep the power running, and no threat of dinosaurs. Just people with really big guns!

So after moving the gas from the compound to the desert, which is where five and seven come into play. We found an abandoned bomb shelter from where the US Government was testing in the 50s all the way up until the 90s. One obviously bought it so we toss it down there and destroy it.

That’s the plan. Disarm the gas, take it from the compound, throw it in a bunker and keep Turgistan away from their gas attacks. Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? But if Florence turned into the shit show that I read on Google then we’re totally fucked!

“You ever wonder why rich ass holes have to have loud race cars?” I asked as I closed the binder.

“I mean. When you truly think about it, a lot of old rich white dudes have tiny penises. And what do tiny penis people do?” He’s got a good point.

“They cause world wars and bomb their own country.” One butted into our conversation as we saw the dealer begin walking out of the track.

“You guys got a lock on him?” One asked as Four turned on the car.

“Yup. He just got into his SUV. Meet ya in the desert, over and out.” I pressed the button for the convertible hood to move back on top as Four revved the engine a little bit. He licked his lips as he was so damn eager to floor the accelerator. We waited for the SUV to almost get out of sight.

“Just don’t be stupid because I get kind of CAR SICK!” He floored it leaving a trail of smoke behind us and the smell of burned rubber. OH god I get car sick and this is a very smooth ride!

He had his five minutes of glory till we caught up to the SUV but being a few cars behind him. Trying not to look suspicious obviously which is easier than it sounds because we were behind two other very big sport cars. My stomach on the other hand is not have it’s five minutes of gloRY! Four made a sharp turn off the strip as I felt my stomach turn into more knots. Oh dear god. You’re on a smooth ride in a plane, with slight turbulence because a bumpy ride is a fun ride! A bumpy ride is a fun ride!

“Why don’t we turn on the radio.” I nervous laughed as I turned on the radio to get a blast of Elvis Presley through the speakers! TOO MUCH VIVA LAS VEGAS! Quickly changing the station to first classical music, then Mexican rap, and then finally a regular radio station. Which lead to Four turning it off because absolutely nothing good was playing.

“Well shit. Sadly nothing good is on. Do you do any pregame music for this or just go head on in?” I asked him as we began leaving the Vegas strip and out into the desert. One couldn’t find a house layout of this dudes place which is kind of shocking because I thought a billionaire could get anything! Four slowed down as the last car that was blocking us disappeared.

“Usually I’d rather just go head on in.” He was taping on the steering wheel with his leg really shaking hardcore. Is he getting nervous? Didn’t think anyone in this squad gets nervous since about all of us are hardcore killers! Well he is a thief so that kind of makes sense because I imagine killing people isn’t something he usually did in his career.

“Hey. I imagine this isn’t the first time you’ve broken into a dangerous compound, wanna know what I do before I get nervous?” He turned his head to me as I reached into my bag to pull out a bottle of Absinthe Eichelberger and two shot glasses.

“Takes the nerves away. Once we make it to the compound we’ll have a shot so that the Green Fairy will give us great fortune.” The SUV turned into what looked like a large fortress as we continued on, so we didn’t look suspicious towards them. We kept going until we were about a mile away as I pulled out my binoculars to watch them enter in the code to open the gate. Damn it! Can’t get a good look from this far. Get to it in a minute after a shot.

I poured us a shot then added some water to make sure we get the full affect. I handed him the glass as we clink our glasses together then down the hatch! Ah that’ll do it! We climbed out of the car to open the truck for our bags. He threw on his satchel as I for my book bag. I looked through my binoculars again to start the counting of the security cameras.

One..three..seven..nine..twelve and it looks like the only side the cameras that is somewhat accessible is the west side of the compound. There’s some type of tree that easily blocks one of the cameras. So. There’s about two ways we can do this and be successful. We can either A, we climb on the south side of the fence and find the gas. Or B, we try to get through with our car and possibly get shot since we don’t look familiar whatsoever. I’m going to with Plan A.

“So the westside has the least amount of the cameras and the best point of entry.” I told Four as he popped open the back of the trunk and threw his book bag on as I reached for my bag. Throwing it on my shoulders as he closed the door and locking it.

“You ready?” I asked as we began doing some quick stretching and loosen up the tension.

“Always.” We looked over at each other for a split moment as he looked a little scared. Me? Totally not shitting my pants over the fact I’m robbing a toxic compound.

We darted towards the west side as he followed the direction of the security camera. It began turning towards the opposite direction towards one of the other cameras. We made it to the wall as it turned the other direction. Just in time. Phew. I looked straight up as I got into my bag for the chalk powder, pouring a little on my hands then passing it to over to Four.

“So how do you scale walls then?” He asked as I looked straight up the wall. This place is definitely old so the walls have the knocks and crannies for an experienced climber to do their thing.

“Quickly yet carefully. You first.” Telling him as he didn’t move an inch up the wall.

“No you.” I don’t wanna go first! I’m new to the team! Newbies go last!

“No you!” We stood in front of each other till he reached into his pocket and pulled out a penny.

“Heads you go first. Tails I go.” He flipped the coin, caught it, then showed it before us. Tails!

“Yes! Have fun. Don’t die.” I chuckled at him. He groaned as he began climbing up the wall as I began planning my scale up the wall. He reached the top, looking over the wall to then motioned for me to follow up. I began climbing as he hopped over the wall to land in bushes.

“OW! Pointy!” As I looked down to see him crawling out of the pointy bush. I looked to make sure no guards were looking over in our direction. I climbed then fell straight into the bush for a not so soft landing.

“Gaaahh.” I whispered as I quickly crawled out then behind the massive palm tree. A few people came out of the SUV then more out of the house. A fat man came walking out with his hands opened wide to the dealer himself.

“You made the deal!” One of the men cheered as the dealer clapped his hands.

“Tell ya what. We finish some of the work then we head back to Vegas for a trip.” They laughed amongst themselves as we began moving towards the back of the compound. If this is where they make it, then I’m assuming they’re storing it in the basement of the compound because there’s no way this dude lives here, it’s not nice enough and it’s right outside of Vegas.

“Okay. So the gas is either in the basement of this building or it’s even back more of the compound.” He pointed to the side where it kept going way more.

“Alright. You check this house, I’ll head further back to see what we got.” We nodded till we noticed more people were coming out of the house, music started playing, and even a mariachi band came out? Two guards came walking by where we were then stopping a few feet away from us.

“So they got all the gas down in the cellar of the shed?” What a coincidence! Glad to know they got all the gas down in the cellar of the shed. Seems kind of rushing don’t you think? But ya know whatever makes my job easier than it needs to be.

We made our way over to the shed as a pack of women were standing around the balcony, talking, looking half naked, and doing cocaine off each other? Hollywood really needs to nail how these bitches do cocaine. Four stopped for a second as one of them tossed over the top of her shirt as her titties appeared before him.

“Four stop looking at the titties!” I ordered as I continued sneaking to the shed. I double checked to see if Four was following me, he’s still looking at all the now naked ladies on the balcony.

“Just a few more seconds.” I rolled my eyes as I grabbed his ear to start pulling him towards the shed.

“We’re dead and have a free night in Vegas. Just go on pornhub and watch your titties when we get back to the hotel!” I told him as we made it to the shed. He took one last look then got back into the game.

Four opened the window slowly as he climbed in as I quickly followed suit. I then closed the window as quietly as I could as Four busted open the cellar where the gas was being held. A foul stench of chemicals came out of the cellar. He reached into the bag to pull out two gas masks for us just incase something goes wrong.

“Got our shaving cream?” I asked him as he pulled out one of the bottles as I shined a flashlight into the basement. Nodding as we placed the mask over our faces then down into the dark hole of death.

The only light was my flashlight so no one would notice the lights or us moving around in the cellar. There were tables around the room with the materials they’ve been remaking the gases with. So they’re not in the bombs which is nice and makes us skip a whole bunch of steps. The only light besides my flashlight were tiny little windows that let only a little sunlight entering the room to show us the outline of the shelves. They haven’t started the production of too much gas so we hopefully have enough room for everything.

“One we made it in the cellar where the gas is. Starting our extraction.” I told one as I slid off my bag to start pulling out the bottles of shaving cream. I screwed open the bottle as we began shoving the chemicals into the bottles as quickly as we could.

A weird chirping sound began ringing throughout the cellar as four was too focused on trying not to drop any of the chemicals. It sounded like a mixture of a dying bird and a baby. It’s cries sound very familiar of one of a tiger. I grabbed my flashlight and began following the sound of the chirps. I was lead to the corner of the room where this little ball of orange, black, and white was curled up in the corner of the room. It lifted it’s head up and the poor thing look so malnourished oh my god!

I took off my jacket as the cub tried getting up, but it’s legs we’re so skinning that it could barely hold its own weight. Should I be taking you home? Yes. I wrapped it up in my jacket as the door above us busted open and what sounded like elephants running upstairs.

“Eight what are you doing?” Four asked as the cellar door opened as we both scurried around to hide behind the tables. Okay this is a horrible idea but the only way I’m going to get myself out of here is putting the cub in my bag. Dear God please don’t hate me little one, but you’re gonna have an endless amount of meat when this is over.

The guards came running down the stairs as I looked to see my book bag was only a few inches away from me after finding a table to hide behind. I put the cub on the ground as it stayed in the hoodie so I could try to reach for the hoodie.

“Hey! Who's been touching the goods?” One of the guards barked as they turned off the safety of their guns to start scoping out the cellar. I slowly rose from behind the table to see more of them coming down the stairs. Shit shit shit! Getting down as I turned the corner to just snatch my bag. I shoved the hoodie into the bag, leaving it opened at the top as the cub stuck it’s head out. I then put the bag on my shoulders as I began crawling through the cellar.

Ya know. If you take a bottle of ethanol and basically treat it like a Molotov cocktail, you can burn down a building much nicer than any regular whiskey and fire. Four was ready to kill one of the guys as I motioned him to stop, then pointing at the bottle of methanol. He nodded as he pointed to the cellar stairs as a cue for us to go up, Molotov those fuckers and kill a little birds with one stone!

On three I grab the bottle. One..two..THREE! I snatched the bottle almost knocking over a bunch of dishes. Shit shit shit! Four made his way up the cellar stairs as I crawled as quietly as I could to the stairs as the guards were beginning to come in my direction. Just stay calm..no need to panic! Just run up the cellar stairs and dump the ethanol! RIP IT OFF LIKE A BAND AID!

A very loud crash happened as one of the guards accidentally fell over one of the shaving cream bottles which gave me the cue to run up the stairs. I climbed up the stairs then popped open the bottle of ethanol to start dumping down the stairs. Once it was soaked into the wooden stairs, I kicked it down the stairs as Four pulled out his lighter then launching it downstairs. He then slammed the cellar door shut as we made a break towards the closest wall.

“Well not exactly according to plan.” He threw off his gas mask as we hid behind bushes. I think at this point we’re just waiting for the place to go BOOM! And I’d really like to see it go absolute boom because that means we just saved so many lives! The tiger chirped as four looked over to the back of my bag. I didn’t move at all as it’s head popped out of the bag which made Four almost scream.

“Why do you have a tiger in your bag!?” He whispered yelled as I turned to him.

“Why don’t you have a tiger in your bag hm?” I asked him as he rolled his eyes then just stared me down.

“We can’t bring a tiger back into the airfield! One will get rid of it!”

“I plan on raising it! I’ve worked with big tigers before!”

“Oh really!?”

“Yes real..” The shed exploded as we ducked down covering our heads as the explosion was beginning to ring through our ears. FUCK THAT WAS LOUD OH MY GOD!

The heat felt like it was going to melt our skin off our body and that's when we decided to make a break for it up the wall. I was the first climbing up as quickly as we could as the guards began yelling behind us! Crap crap crap!

“FOUR HURRY YOUR BUTT UP!” He was right behind me as they began shooting at the wall. I made it to the top then just jumped for it hoping that I don’t break my legs! I landed on the ground. Four landed right behind me as we made a mad dash towards the car.

“ONE PLANS CHANGED! WE BLEW UP THE SHED!” I yelled as he started the car as the place began catching on fire.

“What do you mean you blew up the shed? What the hell is going on?” I threw the bag into the foot area of the car as Four ran to the otherside of the car as he didn’t even close the door, just slammed on the accelerator then shifting into the fastest gear.

“I’m not much of a driver as six was, but hopefully we can get far enough away from this place.”

“Who was six.” He got quiet as he shifted gears as we slow down a little bit as we got close to Vegas.

“Six was a good friend before he got killed in Florence.” Before he could finish his story, one yelled straight into our headsets wondering what the heck has happened.

“Four! Eight! Are you two done having fun?” He yelled as I moved the ear bud out of my ear so I wouldn't go deaf!

“Well we destroyed the gas by burning the whole compound down. So mission accomplished on our end! Meet you back at the airbase in the morning. Four and eight over and out.” I yanked off the radio as I dove into the bag to pull out the cub.

“Four. How much do you think a few pounds of ribs are in Vegas?” I asked him as the cub was dead asleep in my hands.

“Ten pound ribs?” He asked as we turned towards Vegas.

“Make it fifteen. With a side of mashed potatoes.” Great minds think alike! The Tiger cub woke up a little as she began yawning.

“I think I’ll call you Anya.” Her beautiful yellow eyes opened wide as she tried licking my hand a little.

“That’s adorable oh my god.” Four commented as we were pulling up into the hotel. Damn right one got us a room at the Bellagio. I also think two and three are somewhere in here with us but on different ends obviously. He reached into the back for one of the bottles of water, pouring it into the empty shot glass from the absinthe. I held it up to Anya as she began slurping up the water from the glass.

“Tomorrow I’ll find some sort of wildlife sanctuary. As much as I would love to take care of her and turned her into a fighting machine, I’ve seen what control does to animals for most of my life. We’re just going to get ya to a bigger place with better help. Sound fun Anya?” She was so focused on the water she probably didn’t even hear me.

I know I focus on dealing with the horrid people of the world, sexual predators, corrupted Government leaders, and drug lords. But from this moment on. My ass will be going after poachers who hunt animals for money. Just now have to add them to the list which will make it ten times larger. Worth it so that one day Anya and her cubs can run around Russia in their natural habitat.

We made it to the bedroom as I put Anya down on the bed as she began sniffing around the room. Four immediately threw off his shoes and jumped onto his bed, picking up the phone to order room service.

“So we’re doing ten pounds of ribs, potatoes, and?” He asked as I grabbed the large glass so I can put some more water in it for Anya.

“See if they have any cheesecake. Make it an oreo cheesecake.” I poured the courtesy pitcher of water for Anya not to drink too much water.

“You wanna finish your story about six?” I asked him as I threw off my tank top I had on to reach into my bag for my hoodie.

“Six was a drag racer from somewhere out east who didn’t make me feel so out of place with the rest of them, till you joined the team.” My cheeks feel a little funny. They feel like they’ve been twisted a little bit as I tried to focus on Anya.

“Well. I’m glad I’ve made your experience on this team a little more relaxing because I can imagine being in this doesn’t have it’s relaxing or happy moments. Now order the food so we can stuff our faces and make One’s bank have a heart attack.” I told him as he dialed for room service then noticed something on the tv.

“Eight! We can go do a sky jump from Stratosphere tower!” Say what? I looked up from Anya to see an ad on TV about a bungee cord thing over by the tower.

“You in?”

“I’m in.” We’re two unknown people in this world and now declared dead. Let’s go have some fun then!

Now how do dead people usually have fun? Rob a bank, destroy a multi million corporation? Nope. You got bungee jumping and use the money to close it for the two of ya. Gotta love one’s money and how much can persuade two college students for the rest of their career.

“Ya know after the amount of buildings we’ve both jumped, dangled, and even fallen from. Yet I still am a little scared that it’s going to snap and I die.” Trying to calm myself down as we made it to the jumping area.

“Think of it as that jump oh my god this is going to be fun.” He was getting excited as he was the first to be put in the harness. He complained about jumping over a wall into a compound but now he’s dying to jump from a very tall needle thing in Vegas? Of course.

“See ya at the bottom.” He got a running start as he made the jump. I could hear him screaming in joy the entire way down. Is he doing flips? Oh my god it’s like being back home again. My body began to relax as it has before when I used to fly through the air when a time was much more simpler and full of color.

I was strapped into my harness as I made the running start just as four did! When my feet jumped over the edge it felt so damn freeing! The wind was rushing through my hair as I could hear the trumpets, trombones, drums, and the entire orchestra of a life before my true colors came into play!

“HELL YEAH!” I yelled as I finally did a front flip as I was getting close to the bottom. Four caught me from my jump as I tried to regain my balance from the jumping rush. He took a step back away as the kid came to help me out of this 80s tracksuit.

“Oh my god that was so much fun! I forgot how much fun that was oh my god!” I laughed as the other college student helped me get out of the yellow and blue jumpsuit.

“When we’re done with the whole turkistan mission. I think we need to take a climbing trip.” Four made the comment as I climbed out from the jump suit. A climbing trip?

“As in climbing a mountain?” I asked as we began walking off the target zone.

“Something a little smaller. Why not go scaling something in Wyoming or even Utah. I’ve heard there’s a lot of rock wall climbing out there.” Is he asking me out on a nature date? Or just a date in general? Although I’ve heard the southwest of America definitely has some beautiful views that is definitely worth the climb.

“Sure. Haven’t done a nature climbing thing in a very long time.” Well. Guess I have a date after we kill a Government leader.

How romantic. PFt hahahaha!

taglist: @filmslutt @bonafiderocketqueen @leah-halliwell92 @lazykittenstudent @radiob-l-a-hblah @itsmeaudrieee @intoanothermind @imjustboredso @4lendow-norris @wickedholland @takemetoneverland420 @raylan-c

#ben hardy #ben hardy fluff #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy x oc #ben hardy x female reader #6 underground #6 Underground Four #6 Underground Billy #Ben Hardy 6 Underground #Four/Billy #Four #Four x Reader #6 Underground Fan Fic #6 Underground Fiction

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indowolfgang · 5 years

Text

About Jurassic Park’s lack of feathers: (y’all this is long)

most dinosaur related media doesn’t have feathered dinosaurs and a lot of people blame Jurassic Park. dinosaurs are my special interest and Jurassic Park is a big part of that so ima prove them wrong. first off i wanna say haters get owned: 2011: NASA scientists said it was the 7th best SciFi movie and 2012: Popular Mechanics said it was the 6th accurate and “was faithful to early '90s speculative genetics theories”

anyways... lets get into it

Games (that i have lol):

Ark: Survival Evolved: 10/29 dinosaurs

Compsognathus, Deinonychus, Gallimimus, Megalosaurus, Microraptor, Oviraptor, Raptor, Therizinosaur, Troodon, Yutyrannus (this dino was actually found with direct evidence of feathers!)

at first i had no idea what type of ‘raptor’ they were referring to, but i checked and its a Utahraptor. the largest-known individual of Utahraptor was about 7 meters (23 feet) long so size is a-okay with me

i debated including the Pegomastax because the wiki says it has fur and quills, which could be argued as protofeathers, but since its from the early Jurassic its hard to say.. just to be safe i left it out

i only looked at dinosaurs cause there are a ton of made-up/mythical creatures, prehistoric birds/reptiles, and just a straight up vulture

The Isle: 3/30 dinosaurs

Therizinosaurus, Orodromeus (AI), Austroraptor

none of these are playable in survival mode btw

also i’m not sure if the game is going for accuracy or not, Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor are the right size but still... no feathers on known feathered dinos: Velo, Rex, or Utahraptor

technically feathers have never been found on Utahraptors but there is strong evidence that all dromaeosaurids had them since Microraptor and Dakotaraptor had them

Jurassic World Evolution: 0/69 (nice) dinosaurs

based on the movies Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom, and eventually they added a Jurassic Park DLC. despite the Jurassic World movies not counting the Jurassic Park sequels (Lost World and JP3) as part of its time line, the Jurassic Park DLC includes skins from those movies. not much to say here... i’ll get into the movies further down

i didn’t count the pteranodon, cause its not a dinosaur and, still, no feathers

Saurian: 4/8 dinosaurs

Dakotaraptor, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Acheroraptor, Ornithomimid

i’ve only included the dinos that are currently in-game, the wiki says they are planing to add another playable dino, Anzu (feathered), but so far it hasn’t even been added as an AI yet

they are actually going for scientific accuracy so all the dinos that should have feathers do and they are, as far as i can tell, realistically placed. Good Job!

games are hard to talk about... usually games that feature dinos will have an element of ‘fantasy’ (Ark especially) and JWE is based on the Jurassic World movies so its dinos can only look like the movies dinos. The Isle is most likely suffering from the status quo, most dinos in popular media look like big lizards so they didn’t want to take a risk. the game isn’t finished and its possible it’ll go from a dinosaur sim to a shooter, since there are human models in game and controls for weapons. i’ve also heard players rumor that you’re not actually playing as the dino but as a camera that follows it around (which would explain the nigh vision mode). chances are The Isle will end up like Ark: man vs dino

Movies:

i thought about discussing The Land Before Time movies (cause i was obsessed with them as a kid lol), but that was pre-Jurassic Park so i’ll give it an honorable mention. ANYWAYS... Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: Lost World, Jurassic Park 3, Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. none of them have feathered dinos. lets look at why that might be 🤔

Jurassic Park:

no feathered dinosaurs. BUT, feathered dinosaurs were not very mainstream in the scientific community until about 3 years after the movie came out,

“Three years after the first Jurassic Park debuted, paleontologists announced that the small theropod Sinosauropteryx was covered in a fine coat of fuzzy protofeathers. This was just the initial drop in a flood of feathery dinosaur discoveries which confirmed that a wide variety of dinosaurs bore archaic forms of plumage, from simple filaments to asymmetrical feathers that would have allowed them to fly.”

[from this National Geographic article (x)]

looking more into the history of feathered dinos, i found well... a lot. its really difficult to find a concrete time for when paleontologists discovered (and agreed on) feathered dinos, some places say 1860, 1923, 1979, 1983, it goes on forever, one source even said 2001. Archaeopteryx, which an early Jurassic creature, had complex, bird-like feathers. so why no feathers on other dinosaur reconstructions? its possible these discoveries were ignored by the larger scientific community in favor of the well established depictions of big, slow lizards

[if u wanna do even more reading about feathers check out this All About Birds article (x) and the History of discovery section on the Archaeopteryx’s wiki (x)]

JP definitely upped the Velociraptor’s size and did my Dilophosaurus dirty, so i will fault them for that. the big ass raptor has stayed in pop culture for-fucking-ever. it feels like everyone is making naked Utahraptors and calling them Velociraptors. and g*d... my poor Dilophosaurus... why’d they make you spit? and why so small? you’re really 6-7 meters (20-23 feet) long! you are a large carnivore!! also it is possible that Dilophosaurus had feathers, though again, because its from the early Jurassic, it would have been more like a fur

Lost World:

no feathered dinosaurs. i cant really fault them for not changing the dinosaurs looks in a sequel, also trust me when i say it could have been worse the dino depictions in the book are insane... Chameleon Carnotaurus anyone?

the movie also didn’t explain why there were different dinos at Site B compared to the actual park. my best explanation is from the book: Site B was where the dinosaurs were actually hatched and raised, they were moved to the park just before they got to big to handle. so we are to assume that any non-Jurassic Park dinos we saw in Lost World were originally planned to be moved. sucks that they left this detail out of the movie adaptation, cause a lot of fans got confused (including me lol)

Jurassic Park 3:

no feathered dinosaurs. an incredibly mild attempt at ‘feathered’ raptors was made in JP3 by giving the males quills, but at that point the movies had an established ‘science’ and completely changing the look of the animals at the end of a trilogy might have confused a few people (even if it was more scientifically accurate)

Jurassic World:

no feathered dinosaurs. they literally stated in the movie that they left out accurate feathered dinosaurs because Dr. Wu was asked to create: “Dinosaurs that look like what the public expects dinosaurs to look like. Scary. Scaly. Wild.” Dr. Wu also states that the dinosaurs have never been actual dinosaurs. their DNA is a melting pot of DNA.

(i swear i read something about Dr. Wu attempting to make feathered dinos, but because of all the non-dino DNA he couldn’t get the genes to stick, i can’t find a source or any proof of this so i guess that can be our lil headcanon lol)

though for a more real life reason,

“The reasoning behind this being continued through the subsequent movies, though, is more about how imposing the featherless versions look.” ... “It seems more likely that the filmmakers went with how most people would perceive dinosaurs in the hopes that dino experts would take notice.”

[from this Screen Rant article (x)]

so basically JW cared more about scary, recognizable dinos than accurate ones

Fallen Kingdom:

no feathered dinosaurs. again a sequel is a bit too late to change up your designs. unfortunately the change had to happen in JW or not at all

In Closing:

basically Jurassic Park came out just before paleontologists announced Sinosauropteryx, which popularized feathered dinos. even then Jurassic Park was restricted by the technology of the time. the early ninety’s was not the best time for CGI and i can’t imaging making feathered animatronic dinosaurs that could stand up to the rain they filmed in. new media is definitely stuck in the past, look at the movies that come out and compare how many are sequels or prequels or remakes or whatever. Jurassic Park was a great movie and obviously the vultures that make movies are gonna try and ride its brand into the sunset. blaming the movie for stopping new scientific discoveries from entering the mainstream isn’t fair. the movie did a lot to bring current science into the lime light, it popularized warmblooded, avian dinos and showed them as intelligent, fast moving animals instead of slow movie monsters

but JW had no excuse! they should get majority of the blame for making the public afraid of feathers cause they themselves were afraid of feathers! they had the technology, the budget, and the opportunity to follow in its parent movie’s footsteps. they could have at least TRIED to be accurate but they just stuck to what people knew cause that was more profitable. science is only as interesting as the toys you can make of it i guess...

a final note, just for my sanity: JP dinos aren’t real dinosaurs. not even in fiction. they’re DNA is so full of garbage that their inaccurate appearances could be explained away with that alone. the books get into this more, talking about all the failed embryos and how many diseases these creatures had. even delving into their lack of social skills and how the raptors didn’t act like a pack, but a group of aggressive individuals. unfortunately the average viewer isn’t gonna know about all this set dressing. hell, i didn’t even read the 2 books until recently (end of 2019/ start of 2020) so i was as ready to believe whatever the movies showed me. honestly the books and movies are all good in different ways, not accurate, but good. read the books if you want more gore and technical explanations and the movies if you want, well... more story, they add a lot of stuff that wasn’t in the books

one day i’ll get into the differences in the books and movies.. one day

[ this was originally a response to someone but tumblr hid it, cause links. so i’ve edited it to be a standalone post and also WAY longer. feel free to add on or correct any mistakes i’ve made (be respectful tho) ]

#paleoblr #jurassic park #jurassic world #Jurassic #originals

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cancerousjojian · 5 years

Text

peter parker college!au

part five: movie marathons and awkward glances ;

summary: you and peter have no trouble getting along on your very first date. one movie marathon later, and he finds himself blushing over star wars puns and frozen yogurt.

pairing: college student!peter parker x reader

words: 2k

a/n: okay this was written at one am please forgive me if it’s awful

[the series masterlist]

Maybe the universe was trying to give you a sign or to tell you something important, you didn’t know. What you did know, however, was that you’ve been crossing paths with Peter a lot ever since he asked you to come to the science department’s movie marathon, which you’re overwhelming stressed about (was it a date? Did he mean it as friends? You still don’t know. Julie swears on everything that it’s definitely a date and that he’s hopelessly in love with you. Typical). Nonetheless, you see him every day leading up to the night Peter shyly knocks on your door to hang out, even if it’s just in passing. You share a sweet smile and even an occasional ‘hey’. You’re starting to feel comfortable around Peter, so much so that you’re starting to think maybe the date won’t be so awkward.

That is until Peter lets you know he’s ready to go and that he’ll be at your dorm in five minutes.

“Oh god, Julie, I’m freaking out.” You say, sitting on your dorm bed and bouncing your leg up and down relentlessly. Your roommate pays no attention though, eyes focused on the book in the front of her. You hear her give a subtle hum of agreement under her breath but she doesn’t do anything else to acknowledge your predicament. You groan, rolling your eyes. Of course the one time where Julie was disinterested in your dating life was the one time you yearned for her input. “Hello?! Earth to Julie.”

The brunette just laughs, and you don’t know if it’s in response to you or something she was reading. Peter could knock on your door at any minute, and you desperately needed some sort of pep-talk before you leave for the night. At your absolute wits end, you grab a pillow from behind you and throw it across the room at her, knocking the novel straight out of her hands. He groans in frustration, but eventually sits up from her resting position. She clears her throat. “I was just getting to the good part, but I’ll let it slide because you’re my friend and you need me. And I can’t focus when you’re being all nervous,” she smiles, but you’re in no joking mood.

You throw yourself against the bed. “What if he finds out I’m not in a freaking biology class? He’s gonna be mad that I wasted his time teaching me and he’s never going to want to talk to me again and then when I actually need help in biology I won’t have anyone to--” You’re interrupted by your own pillow being thrown at your face. You shoot a glance at Julie, who sits cross-legged, smirking at you.

“Y/N, relax. I see the way he is when he’s around you. He’s totally into you, dude. And if he finds out, he’ll probably think it’s super cute and fall even more in love with you than he already is.”

You force a grin, sitting back up to look at her. “If he’s totally into me, then why am I so damn nervous?”

Julie reaches for her book again, reclining against the brick wall behind her. “Pfft, I’m sure he’s just as nervous, probably more.”

You don’t know it, but she’s absolutely right. Peter is checking himself out in the mirror for what Ned swears is the five hundredth time in ten minutes. He checks the time on his watch and realizes he has to leave to get you in three minutes. “Okay, dude, not gonna lie… I’m freaking out a little bit.”

Ned’s prepared for this. He saw it coming from a mile away, simply from the way Peter talked about you all night while he was trying to study for his advanced statistics test. He liked you, a lot. It’s no surprise to him that he’s more nervous than he was the first time he fought as a bonafide Avenger.

“Peter, look at me,” Ned says, gaining a sudden confidence. “You got this dude. This girl is way into you.”

Peter sighs. “How do you know? Did she tell you?”

“I know because she wouldn’t have said yes to tonight if she didn’t.”

Peter’s not sure if he believes his friend, but he checks his watch again. Two minutes.

“I don’t know, dude, what if she… finds out?”

Ned gives him a confused look, but his suspicions are confirmed when Peter glances down at the last lower drawer in his side of the dresser. It only contained one singular thing, without a doubt the most important and notable in his wardrobe; his spidersuit.

Ned squints at him, shaking his head. “How on earth would she find out about that?”

He tries to conceal the slight panic that comes over him. “I don’t know! You found out, didn’t you? And you know I talk a lot when I’m nervous, what if it slips out?”

“No no no, that won’t happen. Stop freaking yourself out, you’ll be fine. It’s gonna be great.” Ned offers a sincere smile, which Peter instinctively mimics. Suddenly, he regains his sense of self and fidgets with his collar, making sure it’s perfectly folding over before checking his watch one last time even though he’s likely to know what time it is already. 5:00 on the dot.

He gives Ned a wordless nod, grabbing his phone from his desk and slipping out of the dorm room with a single, toothy-grinned thumbs up from his best friend.

You and Julie are laughing about something your professor said so hard that you almost don’t hear the knock. But when you do, the room falls silent and Julie gives you an expected look. Your stomach is doing cartwheels when you walk over to the door, opening it with a smile. Your heart instantly starts pounding when you see Peter standing in front of you.

“Hey, Peter.” Julie calls out to him from behind you.

“Hey!” He looks over your shoulder and waves at her. “All ready?” He asks, his full attention turned back to you. You nod, looking back at Julie for a moment where she gives you a quick wink, and just like that you’re out the door, walking down the hall with Peter Parker on your way to what may or not be your first date.

It’s silent for the first few steps, but it’s surprisingly not awkward. “You look nice.” He says, turning to you a little and smiling, his pockets.

You look down at your outfit, a distressed denim jacket, black jeans, a black and white striped tee shirt, and some old beat-up Converse. Not exactly what you’d call nice, but your heart flutters at the compliment nonetheless. “Thanks,” you smile, looking down at your feet and surely blushing. “You do too.”

Peter flashes you yet another show-stopping smile. It’s a wholesome moment you don’t want to leave. “So,” you say as Peter speeds up to hold the door open for you as you exit the building. “Any idea what movies are on the roster for tonight?”

“Well, they’re showing a few classics in one auditorium-- Jurassic Park, Alien, Back to the Future, but they’re also showing the original Star Wars trilogy in another. It’s up to you which one we go to.”

You’re entering the science building while you’re debating if you should go ‘full-nerd mode’, as Julie would call it (who was she to call you a nerd for enjoying the movies when she was twenty chapters deep in an ‘Adventures of Han and Chewie’ fanfiction?), and suggest that you go to the Star Wars showings. But Peter is thankful when you do, and his crush on you deepens just a little bit.

You arrive just as A New Hope is starting, and you and Peter start quoting the script. It’s evident how much of fans you both were of the films, and you have to silence your giggles for the sake of the other viewers. At 7:00, you and Peter both realize you can’t even go another two hours without talking to each other and decide to grab some frozen yogurt at one of the campus cafes. You and Peter both agreed that the food at the cafes might not be the best, but the froyo was exceptionally delicious.

You sit down at an empty table and start devouring your individual treats. Everything feels right and normal and you wonder what you were even scared about in the first place. “I still can’t believe I found someone who is as big of a Star Wars fan as I am.” Peter takes your focus away from your pleasant thoughts, speaking between laughs and mouthfuls of vanilla dessert.

You grin and nod. “I’m not very vocal about it. It’s not exactly one of the most charming personality traits.”

Peter replies without missing a beat. “No, I think it’s adorable, actually.”

You feel your heart skip a beat and try not to blush too hard. “At least someone does.”

You and Peter talk for nearly an hour after you’re both finished with your froyo, receiving several displeased scowls from several students who tried to fit in a little study session for the night. You and Peter tried to conceal your laughs, but your moods and humor matched so well you were having trouble doing so.

On your way back to your dorms, Peter’s hand brushes yours a couple times before he eventually catches it in his. It feels like a cheesy movie and you wonder how many more times you’re likely to find yourself blushing before the night is over. You end up standing in front of your dorm room, and you regrettably let go of Peter’s hand. He’s giving you a dream-like smile that makes you feel nice and warm. You find yourself not wanting to go inside and call it a night.

Peter soon realizes he doesn’t know what happens next. He thinks he might regret it later, but he decides to drop the facade. “Um, I had a great time tonight, and I’d love to hang out again if you-”

“Yes,” you beam, not really meaning to cut him off. “Yes.”

He grins, a breathy laugh escaping his lips.

It falls silent again and you’re both dancing around doing what both of you are really, really wanting to do.

Peter is thinking about how beautiful you look in the dim hall lighting and how you still want to hang out with him and how well you both get along when he can’t resist the overwhelming urge anymore, and he leans in to press a quick yet deep kiss your lips. It’s a little unexpected so it takes a moment before you reciprocate, and Peter is starting to think he messed up. That is until you lean into his touch, placing a soft hand against his cheek. The kiss is just delicate enough that it leaves some room for newness. It’s pleasant and innocent and everything a first kiss should be. When you pull away, you’re positive you’re glowing.

Peter feels like he might faint, but in the absolute best way possible.

You’re leaning against the door, still grinning at the beautiful boy in front of you. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” You ask with just enough hope in your voice to communicate to him that you really, really want to see him tomorrow.

He thinks that if he says anything he might yell in happiness, so he just nods and gives you a “Mhm.”

“Goodnight, Peter.”

“Goodnight.”

Once again, you smile at him through the crack in the door before completely shutting it, and you slowly turn around to find Julie still nose-deep in her novel. She looks up expectantly when she hears you enter. “So?! How did it go?”

“Well,” You don’t even know where to begin. “It was definitely a date.”

Your roommate takes a moment to put the pieces together, and he jaw drops a bit in awe, her eyebrow quirked in a question you knew the answer to. You nod at her, and she throws her fists up in the air in victory. “I knew it! Totally into you.”

Totally.

tag list: @deadlyaffairs @satellitespidey @clairesrainbow @asgardunicorn @dangerousluv1 @darlingtholland

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker au #peter parker imagine #peter parker fluff #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x you #marvel fanfiction #peter parker college au

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emmysimmy · 5 years

Text

Get To Know Me Tag Thing

Rules: Always post the rules. Tag 11 new people you’d like to know better.

Tagged By: @abysims and @luckiselki Tagging: (if you already did this ignore me, I went 7 pages back in all your blogs to check, but I may have missed it) @whyhellosims, @spooky-day, @witchysims17

dude its really late here i dont know 11 people... ummm if you want to be tagged this counts as me taggin you. goodnight zzzzzzzz

(oh boy get ready for this yall are about to find out i’m THE WORST)

1. Dogs or Cats?

Cats, but you wouldn’t know that because I have two great danes and babysit 3 yorkies 5 days a week. But cats are so much easier to vibe with than dogs.

I also have a secret talent for being able to just pick up stray cats off the street and take them home

2. YouTube celebrities or normal celebrities?

I’m lowkey over the whole celeb thing. no thanks yall

3. If you could live anywhere where would that be?

Okay, within viewing distance of the grand canyon in Arizona. I literally have real estate alerts for the area.

4. Disney or DreamWorks?

I highkey do not engage with disney stuff, i worked with the company for 5 years and I’m not about giving them any money. Dreamworks is okay. but they’re on thin fucking ice.

5. Favourite childhood TV show?

Courage the Cowardly Dog (does it show?) and Sailor Moon

6. The movie you’re looking forward to most in 2020?

Ok, probably Wonder Woman 1984, but I just saw the synopsis for Free Guy, so I’m gonna say that.

OH WAIT SHUT UP THEYRE RELEASING A SEQUEL TO CHiCKEN RUN???!! THAT~! That’s my answer

7. Favourite book you read in 2019?

lol nerd i cant read. JK. I’m gonmna plug my friend’s book, Revalations by Kay Sanders. I haven’t finished it yet but uh, it’s literally just porn so if you’re under 18 dont read it

8. Marvel or DC?

Pfffffffffttt. Dark Horse, fools.

9. If you choose Marvel favourite member of the X-Men? If you choose DC favourite Justice League member?

Hellboy. Ron Perlman as Hellboy. I have a huge crush on ron perlman

10. Night or Day?

I guess night if it’s hot and day if its cold, i live in florida i hate the sun

11. Favourite Pokemon?

Raichuuuuuuuuuuu

12. Top 5 bands:

This is bands, no solo artists: Honne, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, OK Go, and Aly & Aj

13. Top 10 books.

A series of Unfortunate Events, end of list.

14. Top 4 movies

Ratatouille (i’m a hypocrite but i also only watch it on a pirated dvd soooo), Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, and Uptown Girls

15. America or Europe?

Europe I guess.

16. Tumblr or Twitter?

tumblr, but they’re on thin fucking ice

17. Pro-choice or Pro-life?

Pro-Choice, duh.

18. Favourite YouTuber?

Jenna Marbles and Simplynaillogical and whispersRedASMR

19. Favourite author ?

Uh... me??

20. Tea or Coffee?

Both!

21. OTP ?

Ok, Level with me here, I’m about to reveal some deep personal information.

My two OTPS are Bulma/Vegeeta from DragonBall and Usagi/Mamoru from Sailor Moon.

22. Do you play an instrument/sing ?

this is where you’re gonna hate me

I play the banjo, ukulele, guitar, and I just started learning piano and I started voice training.... so... I also used to play violin but uh... my teacher was the worst.

#ask meme response #this took???? an hour????

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twoghostys · 6 years

Text

the one where they’re soulmates

10.6k words

Zayn handed her glass of water and a pair of Alanna’s best heels, “come on,” he rushed, “you’re going to be late.”

Dawn sat on the edge of Zayn's couch and took her time drinking every drop of water before bending forward to strap the shoes belonging to Zayn’s soulmates into her feet. She fumbled with them a bit, confused as to how to wrap the strips around her ankles before huffing in exasperation and sitting back. Zayn sighed and knelt down without a word to wrap them himself. “Anna can’t do them herself either, don’t know why she bought them. I always end up having to fix them for her.”

“You’re her soulmate,” Dawn responded, “it’s what you’re made for.” Zayn smiles fondly, the way he does whenever anyone mentions that Alanna’s his soulmate. Dawn couldn’t help but mirror his smile as she watched him, her best friend was absolutely smitten with his girlfriend. His countdown had gone to 00:00 on the same day Dawn had gone into a shelter to adopt a kitten. They were standing at the front desk, waiting for an employee to bring her new pet when Alanna walked up with a cat in her arms. Dawn remembers how Zayn tensed, grabbing her arm and shoving his wrist in front of her eyes for her to see his countdown rush to zero. Just as it did, Alanna looked up, clueless that her countdown was mirroring Zayns. She handed Dawn the cat and was telling her some last minute details, but Dawn was gaping at Zayn and he at the beautiful chestnut skinned beauty across from him. They’d been inseparable since, and Dawn still claimed she was the one that brought them together.

Zayn tsked, “I know what you’re doing. Don’t try to distract me, you have to go to this release party!”

Dawn groaned, kicking her leg at him in a small fit, “you know I hate these things.”

Her best friend nodded, “it’s why we’re friends, we’d both rather stay here and marathon Jurassic Park instead of going to a bougie social event. But this is for your future, and I’ll be your date. So how bad can it get?”

“I don’t know anyone there, they’re all going to be Ph.D. owning rich people and I’m going to humiliate myself.”

Zayn finished tying the last strap and clapped in celebration, “it’s a good networking event, plus, you were invited by the author of the book! You belong there.”

Dawn took the hand he had extended for her and let him pull her up, “he’s only inviting me so we can meet face to face before the school year starts. He’s my thesis advisor.”

“He could meet you at a coffee shop, this is him introducing you to his academic circles. The man’s already started mentoring you.”

But Dawn was still nervous to go. Realistically, she knew she had too, and that it would be good for her. But the list of reasons not to go was a mile long. For one, she knew that all those accomplished academics would make her feel stupid. Hell, they probably think she’s stupid. And, she’d have to explain over and over again that No, Zayn isn’t my soulmate. Just my friend. Yes, I’m a woman in my twenties and haven’t found my soulmate yet. My countdown is broken.

As Zayn locked the door to his apartment behind them, Dawn pulled out her phone to double check the address her advisor had sent her. She read over his email one last time before locking her phone. Her eyes shifted to the numbers on her wrist, and she couldn’t help the feeling of devastation that clawed at her chest as she watched her countdown continue to glitch, like it had been for the past three months.

30:00

05:00

00:00

20:00

02:04:00

She doesn’t know what caused it, and the experts she consulted were just as baffled and lost. So Dawn had since accepted that her countdown was broken, that something was wrong with her, and she wouldn’t find her soulmate. Quickly, she covered her wrist with the sleeve of her blue dress before Zayn saw her moping. He always got upset when he saw her looking at her countdown. “Ready to go?” he asked, a comforting hand finding its place on the small of her back. Dawn hummed her response, and they set off.

~~~

The book release party was a bigger event than she thought it would be. Dawn had been there for almost 20 minutes and hadn’t yet met her advisor. She knew what he looked like from his info page, and because she had a multitude of his books on soulmate research stacked on her desk at home, so there’s no way she could have missed him. In her time at the book release, two people had walked up to her and started a conversation. It seemed like everyone knew that the author had taken on a new graduate student, and she must have looked like a grad student because they both assumed it was her. The two conversations were nice, they started off asking questions about her research, and Dawn explained that her thesis would be about the impact of the soulmate culture on societal rules. For example, there have been many articles about how two men in a very religiously dependant culture find out they’re soulmates, and how it had devastating consequences for everyone. The people were always amazed at her idea and knowledge, one even gave her his card and said he’d like to discuss it further! Then came the haunting part of the conversation.

“Well,” the second one had started, “it’s no news you’re so passionate about soulmate culture, since your soulmate here is ever so handsome.”

Zayn practically choked on his cocktail that time, trying not to laugh at the compliment he was given as he gave Dawn a cocky glance. The man knew he was good looking, but loved when he heard it from other people. Dawn then tried to ignore him as she smiled at the professor in front of her, who was clearly confused by Zayn’s reaction, “he’s not my soulmate,” she would throw in a lighthearted laugh with that, “just a close friend.” Then they would ask her why she didn’t bring her soulmate, because she had to have found them by now. “I haven’t,” she would force a smile, “not yet.”

That time, she was spared the sad oh, and attempt at awkward comfort by an accented voice behind her. “Professor Harmon! I see you’ve met Dawn before I have.” Dawn and Zayn turned to see her advisor walking towards them, a large smile plastered on his dimpled face. Dawn knew he was good looking, she’d seen him before. But the countless pictures on the back of his books did the man standing in front of her no justice. His heeled boots clicked on the wooden ground as he walked to them in his patterned, and clearly expensive, well fitted, suit. But the beauty of his wardrobe choice was dwarfed by the leafy green eyes that fixed themselves on Dawn with a friendly look. She could see little swirls of brown circling the irises and felt as if she could lose her bearings just by looking at his eyes. And his hair, wonderfully styled to make it seem like he didn’t style it at all, with brown curls perfectly circling around the back of his ear and a few falling onto his face. He was perfect, one of the youngest professors in his field (just a few years older than her) and one of the most successful, and now he’s also one of the most beautiful beings she’s laid eyes on. Dawn snapped herself out of her trance as her advisor finished talking to the professor and turned to face her. “Well, I was starting to think you stood me up.”

She must have still been gaping at him, because Zayn elbowed her in the rib to stir her into action. “Oh, of course not! I’ve been here for almost 30 minutes, you’re just too popular is all.”

He chuckled, definitely just humoring her, “ah, all of these people probably think I’m a nut. Anyway, nice to finally meet you Dawn! I can’t wait to discuss your research. I’m Harry Styles.” He extended his hand, introducing himself as if she didn’t already know who he was. The gesture somehow comforted her though, almost as if he were telling her they’re on the same level.

“Nice to finally meet you Dr. Styles,” she shook his hand, ignoring the goosebumps that spread across her body at the contact. “This is my friend Zayn.”

Harry turned to look at Zayn, who was once again in the middle of downing another drink. He looked at the two of us wide-eyed before forcing himself to swallow a big gulp, “it’s nice to meet you,” he coughed, shaking Dr. Styles’ hand, “I’ve heard great things about you.”

“Are you in academics as well?” He asked, his eyes not leaving Zayn’s, as if his answer was incredibly important and he didn’t want to miss a word.

“Um, no I’m an artist,” Zayn smiled.

“Have I seen any of your work?” Once again, Dr. Styles was invested in this conversation, and Dawn could see Zayn perk up at the attention.

“Probably not? I do a lot of contemporary work and it only features in small galleries downtown.”

Dr. Styles nodded, “I go to those all the time actually.”

“Really?” Zayn and I asked at the same time, and he nodded. “What are some of your favorites? Zayn asked.

He thought for a moment before saying, “last week there was this exhibit, it was three paintings set up next to each other and they were absolutely breathtaking. You could tell they were all of the same woman, but each was drawn so differently, yet I couldn’t imagine them not being together. There were no facial features, but the way her hair and body were drawn had an expression to it. I must have stood at that one for fifteen minutes just taking it all in.”

Dawn’s jaw had reached the ground long before he had finished talking, and now she looked over at her best friend, who seemed like he’d forgotten how to breathe, his eyes were practically popping out of their sockets. “That’s uh… that’s mine. Yeah, wow! I can’t believe you saw that.”

“No way!” Now it was Styles’ turn to gape, “you are incredibly talented! What inspired those?”

“My girlfriend,” Zayn had that smile again, “they’re of my girlfriend.”

Styles’ eyes softened, “that’s lovely, your soulmate?” Zayn nodded, and he was practically radiating fondness that all Dawn wanted to do was just coo at him. But before she could, he thanked my mentor again before saying he’d leave them to talk.

It was silent between the two for a while, Dawn could feel him studying her and busied herself by picking up a drink from one of the caters walking by so she could have something to do with her hands. “I see why Zayn keeps drinking these,” Dawn laughed, “they’re wonderful.”

“Don’t let him drink too much,” Styles responded, “most academics need to be loaded with alcohol to socialize like this, so they’re pretty dangerous.” She hummed in response, looking around to spot Zayn grabbing another drink as he made his way to the garden outside.

“This is a lovely home,” Dawn finally spoke up. It truly was, the place was grand and screamed professor. The walls were a calm beige and the decor had a cozy, vintage feeling to it. It reminded Dawn of her own apartment, which had a similar decor style, but everything she had was from thrift stores.

“Thank you,” he responded, “have you had a chance to look at the book?” As he said that, he reached for a stack and opened one, “not to brag but there’s some interesting stuff in there. I think it would perk your interest, considering your work.”

“I was planning on purchasing one before you even said that,” Dawn nodded, “I have all of your books, your work is amazing.”

He rolled his eyes and waved off the compliment with his hand, “here, take this one. Lord knows I have plenty.”

Before Dawn could say anything, a man with a camera walked up to them. “Hello,” he smiled sweetly at the two of them, “Dr. Styles, I’m Liam, the photographer you hired.” Liam nodded his head at Dawn politely. “Would you mind if I take a picture of you as you hand her the book?”

“Um, if it’s okay with you?” he looked at Dawn, his eyebrows quirking up curiously, and she couldn’t say no.

So Liam helped them pose for the picture and snapped it. Before he left, he looked over at Dawn once again, “you look lovely in that dress. Blue is your color.”

Dawn’s face flushed as she thanked him and he walked away. Her mentor gave Liam a tight-lipped smile as he was leaving before turning to Dawn. They talked for a while about meeting times and how she plans to go about her research before he excused himself to go see the other guests. “Find me before you leave,” he gave her a dimpled smile before walking away.

Dawn turned to find Zayn, suddenly feeling drained and unreasonably upset that she was standing alone. She tried not to think that it was because she wanted to talk to Styles’ more. As that thought crossed her mind, she remembered to find the photographer and ask him for that picture. Dawn continued to weave through the people in search of Zayn, growing more and more agitated before realizing that the source of the agitation was the bracelet on her hand. “Must be allergic or something,” she mumbled, slipping it off and folding her sleeve back to itch at the spot. She looked down at the redness, and her heart stopped.

There on her wrist, it read 00:00. And it wasn’t glitching anymore.

~~~

She finally remembered that she’d seen Zayn go to the garden and ran out to find him crouched down amongst the flower bushes, snapping pictures with his phone. He knew she was walking up without looking, “I think I’m going to paint these, there are so many colors it kind of turns me on. Is that weird? Nah, I’m allowed to be weird. You know what else turns me on? Your advisor, kind of. Now that’s weird, but he’s like really pretty and he likes my art. His soulmate is so lucky. Of course, I’m lucky too, I think I’m a little drunk. Those–”

“Zayn shut up.”

“Oi!” he snapped his head to glare at her, “ok! No need to be rude, what’s got you all wound up?” Without a word, Dawn shoved her wrist down to his eye level. Zayn grabbed it and pulled it closer, yanking her down with it. “Holy shit! What does this mean? Did you find them?”

“I don’t know!” Dawn squeaked, trying not to panic. “I stopped looking at that thing a long time ago! I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Okay, okay don’t worry!” Zayn stood up a little too fast and wobbled a bit, “yeah I’m definitely drunk.” He shook his head, “okay focus. Who did you talk to since we got here?”

“You, the two professors, and Dr. Styles?”

Zayn nodded, “who else?”

“No one! What if it’s just broken? I didn’t talk to anyone else I– Oh my god!”

“What? What!” Zayn yelled, still holding onto her wrist and jumping up and down anxiously. He always got loud and weird when he was drunk.

“The photographer!”

“Who? He hired a photographer? This guy’s loaded” he exclaimed, then shook his head. “I don’t care. Focus Malik. Let’s go find your soulmate!”

They found Liam leaning against a wall, deep in concentration as he cleaned one of his camera lenses. Once Dawn pointed him out, Zayn started to pointedly walk towards him until he was pulled back by his best friend. “I don’t know about this.”

The tipsy Zayn rolled his eyes and let out a childish groan, “why? He’s right there! You had given up and he’s right there!” When Dawn chose to bite nervously at her nails instead of respond, Zayn softened, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “Hey, it’s okay to be nervous, yeah? I’ll be right here the whole time. I was terrified when I met Anna, and you helped me through it. So this is the least I can do.”

Although his words soothed her nerves, Dawn was still hesitant to approach the photographer. Something in her was screaming no! That this wasn’t right. Zayn was patient as she stood there, trying to sort through her thoughts. Dawn had read a multitude of books about soulmates, and you were supposed to know the minute your clock struck zero and you looked into their eyes. Everything was supposed to click immediately and make perfect sense. You were two parts of a whole, and you were supposed to feel the countdown to zero in every atom of your body. But she didn’t feel that, and right now, looking at Liam, she didn’t feel anything.

But if it wasn’t him, he’d tell her, right? He’d confirm all of her doubts and it would be a little humiliating but she’d get it over with. Then she’d know for sure that she doesn’t have a soulmate and she could go on living her life as normally as she could. Right, he’d fix this. With that resolve, Dawn walked up to Liam, conscious of how Zayn was practically vibrating beside her with excitement. “Hi,” she greeted, and Liam’s gaze met hers.

“Hello, would you like a picture?”

Dawn was thrown off, did he not know his clock had gone to zero? Maybe, if he was her soulmate, what was wrong with her was wrong with him too, and he hadn’t noticed yet. “This is going to sound weird but–”

“She’s your soulmate!” Zayn nearly screamed, turning a few disapproving heads. “I’m sorry I couldn’t contain myself. I’ll leave you guys alone. I think they have more cocktails somewhere.”

Before either of them could say anything, he had disappeared. Dawn turned sheepishly to Liam, “are you?” Liam’s face was skewered in a confused frown, and she had to admit he was kind of adorable, reminded her vaguely of a puppy. She tried to explain everything to him, about her countdown and seeing him and the itch that happened when she remembered him. She watched as his expression changed, and Liam then slowly lifted his long sleeve and looked at his wrist, head snapping up to look at her.

“Holy shit! It’s you!”

Something snapped inside of Dawn, and she cried in relief while rushing to hug him. She wasn’t broken, she had a soulmate! Liam held onto her for dear life, and she to him. He smelled like vanilla, her favorite lotion was vanilla scented.

~~~

Dawn cared about him, a lot. But it wasn’t as smooth sailing as she thought it’d be at first. The feelings weren’t as intense as Zayn’s were for Alanna. When he had first met her he hated being apart, and he kept telling Dawn about these crazy similarities in their lives and these intense feelings that made him want to punch a wall or do cartwheels. Dawn didn’t feel any of that. She knew, from her research, that not everyone had intense feelings when they first met their soulmate. It’s very rare, but sometimes there’s awkwardness and a lot of avoiding each other. Sometimes the feelings come slowly, in slow bursts. That’s what kept her going, the slow bursts. Because butterflies always seemed to spread from her stomach to her toes when Liam bought her gifts or called to wish her goodnight. And she always felt a little light headed when they kissed. She liked him, but it was slower than she would have liked.

He gave her all the space she needed, that was one thing she loved about him. Liam understood that her feelings weren’t as intense as his and he wasn’t hurt by it. Usually, soulmates move in together right away, because when they meet it means they’re ready. But Liam didn’t push her to do that. Sometimes he spent the night with her, when she asked, and during those nights he cuddled her and cooked for her and tended to her in ways that made her toes curl. She liked having him over for nights, but then she’d always wake up with a nasty feeling in her stomach if they did something remotely sexual during the previous night. She felt like she’d betrayed herself, or cheated on someone. They hadn’t even actually had sex yet and she was already feeling terrible. So she always asked him to leave, and he did. Then she’d shower and go to work, Dawn always felt better at work.

When she wasn’t in her office doing research and writing, she was either doing her job as a teaching assistant or going over her work with Dr. Styles. Dr. Styles was her favorite part of the week. They met twice a week to discuss her work, and he was always excited and amazed at everything she did. He’d read her work and shower her with compliments that made her warm. And he’d listen as she spoke with his eyes glued to hers, a soft smile playing on his lips. “I love how passionate you are,” he had said once, “your eyes almost literally light up and your energy captures everyone in the room. It’s inspiring, really.” His words made dawn feel dizzy, she felt her heart beat faster and her face turn red, and that feeling was followed by guilt as Liam’s face floated into her mind. She should be feeling this for Liam, not her advisor.

Dr. Styles must have sensed that it made her uncomfortable, “I’m sorry,” he shook his head, confusion etched on his features, “I don’t know why I said that.”

That conversation was weeks ago, since then her and Dr. Styles had developed a friendship. They no longer just talked about their work but also their favorite books and TV shows. Dawn guiltily told him she sometimes watches kids TV shows and he nearly fell off his chair with laughter. Then, to comfort her, he told her about his love for children’s books, and how he tells people they’re for his nephew but really they’re all his. She knew small insignificant things about him that he admitted no one else knew, and it was the same for her.

She knew that he developed emotional connections to some of his shoes, and wore them until they fell apart, then he’d get sad when he had to throw them out.

He knew that she named her cat Tika after the elephant from Barbie and the Island Princess

She knew that the nighttime made him anxious and he didn’t like to spend it alone, although he did a lot.

He knew that she got angry when she watched sad movies instead of crying.

She knew he started studying soulmates so he could understand his own better someday, and she knew it was hard for him to talk about so she never pushed.

They were friends. He knew her in ways that Zayn didn’t, in ways she didn’t want Liam to know her. And it scared her a little. Is it possible to fall for someone else when you’re already with your soulmate?

~~~

“Sloths! Of course it’s sloths. End of discussion!”

Liam snorted, “wrong, the cutest animal on the planet is a baby chimpanzee.”

“I don’t know where you’re getting your information but it’s wrong.”

He rolled his eyes, reaching over his empty plate for one of her french fries, “I could say the same for you.”

Dawn whacked his hand away, but he caught hers in his before she could pull away and left a light kiss on it. It had been a little over three months since she met Liam, and she could now confidently say she was absolutely smitten with him. She didn’t know when exactly it clicked for her, maybe it was when they were talking during a movie and he said, “sometimes I’m convinced I have an extra finger on my right hand. I know I do!” and it was so out of the blue that she soda spewed out of her nose because she was laughing so hard. Or maybe it was when Zayn got food poisoning and Alanna called Dawn in a panic, then Dawn called Liam and he somehow got to Zayn before she did, and took him to the emergency room. She found him comforting Alanna when she rushed in, and he assured her that everything was alright.

The food poisoning night was when she told him she loved him. It was when she threw all her anxieties out of the window and let him in because Liam was so good. And he made her feel amazing so of course, he was her soulmate.

“So,” Liam said, giving her back her hand and snatching a hand full of french fries, “I have a gift for you.”

Dawn raised her eyebrows at him, he was always showering her with gifts. And she knew by now that rejecting them was hopeless, “oh yeah?”

Liam dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a black velvet box the size of Dawn’s palm. Her breath hitched in a panic and Liam laughed, “don’t worry, I’m not proposing. I know you’re not ready for that.”

She hummed gratefully, pushing away the feeling of unease in her gut as she took the box from him and opened it. It was a necklace chain, and right in the middle of the box, attached to the chain, was a key. “Think it’s time we moved in together, yeah?”

Her nerves seemed to freeze, her brain refusing to work. Liam sat across from her, his smile slowly fading into confusion and then hurt. He sat back, his lips forming an ‘oh,’ and he suddenly found the grease stains on the table incredibly interesting. “I...I’m not saying no,” she croaked, although it still felt weird, “can you give me a few days?”

He shrugged, “I thought we were moving forward is all, I’m sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.”

Guilt gnawed at her chest, “just a few days, I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Liam sighed, then nodded. “Ok, whatever you need.”

“I love you.” She said, and she meant it.

He smiled, “I love you, too.”

~~~

Alanna’s face lit up when she opened the door, “hi! come in! Zayn! Dawn is here!” she shooed Dawn in and went into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out the pomegranate juice they always kept around specifically for her. Alanna was amazing, she and Zayn were total opposites, kind of like Dawn and Liam. Where Zayn was quiet and mellow, only getting loud when he had a few drinks in him, Alanna was talkative and energetic. She was always doing something. If she wasn’t working at the shelter she was volunteering or working out or helping Zayn with his art. There were days when Zayn and Dawn would lounge in his apartment and watch movies and she’d bustle in and out, doing a million things while they barely did one.

“I feel like it’s been forever since I saw you! I keep telling Zayn that the three of us should hang out more together but you know how he is at making plans. How’s Liam?” she handed Dawn a glass of juice and waited patiently as she drank the whole thing.

“I’m actually here about Liam.”

Zayn ambled out of their bedroom, zipping up his jeans and throwing a jacket over his shoulder. “Hey Dawn, you alright?” while Alanna was clueless to Dawn’s sour mood, Zayn picked up on it the second he saw me. “What is it?”

But she saw that he had a nice jacket on his shoulder and Alanna was wearing those fancy heels, and knew she couldn’t ruin their date. They’d both stay here if he even suggested she might want them too and throw their whole night away. But ruining one pairs day was enough for Dawn, so she waved it off. “Nothing, I just came to pick up some books I left here.” She got up and picked up a stack of books she left there from the yesterday before hugging them both goodbye and humming as she walked towards the door so as to seem casual. From the quizzical look Zayn was giving her, she knew he didn’t buy it, but he wasn’t going to push, so he waved goodbye as she shut the door.

~~~

Dawn didn’t know what she was doing, she felt dumb and pathetic and her arms hurt from carrying all those books all the way to campus. And now she stood in front of Harry’s office, staring at the closed door and wondering how she got here. She was just deciding to turn and run before he sees her when she heard his voice, “Dawn? Did we have a meeting?”

She shook her head, refusing to face him because for some reason there were tears pooling in the corners of her eyes, “no, I was around, just thought I’d drop by and say hello.”

Her feet had finally started carrying her away when she felt a gentle grip on her shoulder, “you’re crying.”

Then she couldn’t hold it in anymore, Daw let a sob rack through her body as she continued to fade away from Harry, “sorry, I don’t know why I came here I just couldn’t go home and I didn’t want to ruin Zayn’s day because I seem to be ruining all the men in my life’s days and now I’m here ruining yours I’m so—”

Harry shushed her, “stop that. Come in, let’s talk.”

Dawn rushed to decline his offer, “no you’re probably busy I don’t want to—”

“I don’t care,” he interrupted again, “I don’t care how busy I am. Let me take care of you.” He tugged on her sleeve, taking the books from her hands then fixing his in between her fingers. Dawn tried to ignore how her breath hitched and she instinctively squeezed his hand. He pushed his office door open and lead her in. Dawn reluctantly let go of his hand and walked towards the couch at the far end while Harry started to make some tea. “This should calm you down, it’s not as great as tea made properly with a kettle, but that’s a fire hazard and they told me to stop bringing portable stoves into my office so this electric one will have to do.” Dawn cracked a smile at that, and Harry chuckled, “that wasn’t a joke, but I’m glad it cheered you up. Now, what’s wrong poppet?”

Dawn’s heart squeezed at the new pet name, it made her feel warm and comforted, but it also hurt her, making her unexplainably sadder. “Is it…” she huffed, closing her eyes and taking a sip of her tea as she scorned herself for asking this question, “is it possible to end up with the wrong soulmate?”

Harry cocked his head, “what do you mean?”

She huffed, knowing it was too late to go back now because she knew Harry and he wouldn’t drop this. “I mean our countdowns went down at the same time, and I love him,” she ignored how his jaw tightened when she said that, “but I don’t have those intense feelings or that feeling of completeness with him. If anything I feel like something’s missing.”

Harry nodded, “there are cases where two pairs would meet at the same time, and then get their partners confused. But they always find their way back, because if you’re with the wrong person after your timer has stopped, your body starts to reject them. Even if your mind doesn’t, those people may think they love their partner but they always get sick until they find their true soulmate.”

Dawn sighed, a little upset and a little relieved because her body wasn’t doing that. She wasn’t rejecting Liam, and she did love him. She would die for him. So he had to be the one. “What if, it is the right person but you still have those doubts?”

Harry played with his lip, something he did when he was deep in thought, Dawn loved that habit, she’d even started to pick up on it herself. “Soulmate is an imperfect science, you know that, because everyone is so different. No two minds and bodies are the same or react the same. Again, there have been cases, although very rare, where it took the couple a longer time than usual to get into the swing of things.”

“But we are in the swing of things!” Dawn couldn’t help her voice cracking in frustration, “and he doesn’t feel any of this. He’s fine! It’s just me.”

Harry places a comforting hand on her knee, and again, Dawn tried to ignore how her mood immediately lifted but her heart hurt even more. “Do you think that could just be you being in disbelief? You said you had started to think you didn’t have a soulmate. So maybe you’re just doubting it because you can’t believe you do?”

“Maybe,” she nodded, although her heart tugged at that. “What do I do in that case?”

Her advisor shrugged, “fake it ‘til you make it. You said you love him, and that you're certain he’s your soulmate. All those doubts will go away if you stop mulling over them.”

Dawn exhaled, “you’re right. You’re right! I just need to stop running away every time I voice in my head whispers for me too. Thank you, Harry.”

“Anytime love, you can always come to me.”

Dawn doesn’t know what pushed her to say what she said next, but once she said it surprised her more than it did him. “What’s your deal? With your soulmate.”

Harry’s eyes widened, he always shifted the conversation when she tried to get information about his soulmate. Now it’s been months and she still didn’t know. He was studying her, playing at his lips again, before finally saying, “I don’t have one.”

Dawn’s heart broke for him, because he looked so defeated after that confession, playing with the fabric of his pants and refusing to meet her eyes. “What about your countdown?”

He showed it to her, 00:00. “It’s been like that for as long as I can remember. I don’t know why. An expert once said that maybe they died when we were young. But if they did I’d feel it, and I don’t. So I just don’t get a person like everyone else does.”

She shifted closer to him, not knowing why tears sprung at her eyes from his confession. All she knew was that someone with as much love in his heart as Harry deserved to be loved, and the world was cruel and unfair for not giving him that. “Harry, I’m—” but he shook his head, silently asking her not to apologize. He never liked pity, but it was so hard not to feel sad for him when he looked so broken. Dawn ran her fingers through his hair, he once told her that always comforted him, and her heart seemed to sour when his eyes fluttered closed and he leaned into her touch.

He was so beautiful, in every possible way. Harry was kind and generous and passionate and loved everyone. He also had the most mesmerizing eyes and the perfect curve of his nose. He had a voice that calmed Dawn’s biggest worries, and a dimpled smile that made her want to coo every time she was granted one. Harry also has unbelievably pink lips, lips she always found herself staring at. Ones he liked to play with and cones that drew out every word he chose with care and precision. She knew his lips were soft, she knew it like she knew her name. And she wanted so badly to feel them.

His eyes were still closed, a comforted hum slipping out of his lips as Dawn massages at his hair. That sound was enough to make her lean closer and brush her lips against his.

Harry’s eyes shot open and he straightened up so quickly that Dawn's hand fell limp onto his led. Neither of them said anything, Dawn didn’t know what he was thinking. As she waited for him to say something, a fire seemed to grow inside her, getting hotter and hotter until she felt like she was going to melt. The brush wasn’t enough, she wanted more, needed more and she was certain she’d suffocate if she didn’t get it.

Dawn didn’t get a chance to think of what to do because Harry leaned in, his lips crashing with hers so quickly it knocked the wind out of both of them. He kissed her hungrily, with a monstrous passion as if his whole life was building up to that moment. And Dawn kissed back, she pulled at his hair as he sucked on her lower lip and pushed him closer to herself, so close that she could almost feel his heartbeat through his lips.

He sucked at her lips and she bit at his, his tongue danced around hers and she let out sounds she’d never heard before. His hands held onto her face, directing her where he wants her to be and Dawn was certain she’d have a mark on her face for days because his touch was so hot. Liam would definitely—

She pulled away with a gasp, and Harry tried to lean in again but she shook her head, “this was wrong,” she said, almost trying to convince herself, because she felt no remorse, and wanted more than anything to continue to kiss him. She finally looked at Harry, who’s swollen red lips were now pointing down in a pout, “I have a so— I have Liam. I’m sorry.”

Harry seemed to want to argue with her, and she wished he would. She wanted him to give her a reason to stay with him all night. Instead, he coughed and said, “right. Liam.” Dawn waited for a little bit more before forcing herself to walk out of his office, out of his building, without turning back. If she turned back she’d go all the way back, and say screw Liam. Screw soulmates and kiss me.

The guilt started to seep in when she was a few minutes away from her apartment. It was a nasty feeling, she was used to feeling guilty but it didn’t hurt her stomach the way this did. It didn’t make her hands shake until she dropped her phone, and it didn’t make her lose her bearings until she was crying in the middle of the street. This is what happens when you cheat on your soulmate, she thought, I’m going to die. It hurts so much it’s going to kill me.

She didn’t want to go back to her apartment and be alone, so she kept walking until she was at the one place that never filled her with confusion and turmoil. Zayn opened the door this time, and only saw her face for a second before pulling her into a hug, “oh, button.” Dawn blubbered, in the middle of sobs and sighs, her apology about ruining their night. “Nonsense, love. We just got back and Anna’s tired anyway. Come on, let’s clean you up.”

Alanna and Zayn forced her into the shower, and now she had on a pair of Alanna’s softest pajamas and socks. She was laying on the couch, covered with a blanket and her head in Zayn’s lap as she recounted the events of the day. From Liam asking her to move into kissing Harry, and Zayn listened quietly through the whole thing, humming at the right parts and playing with her hair to keep her calm. Her body still aches, especially as she explained how guilty she felt. Zayn squeezes her arm when she told him it felt like dying, and he peppered her hand with soft kisses and comforted her with kind words when her body started to ache again. Dawn wondered then if Zayn was her soulmate, not in the way he was Alanna’s, but as her friend. She sometimes felt like he was her other half, like him and her were made from the same fabric and sent down to watch over each other, even though most of the time it was him protecting her.

“You know what you need to do, button.” He said softly, massaging circles into her scalp, “it’s the only way to make yourself feel better.”

“But what about him? It’ll break Liam, I know it.”

“He’s stronger than you think. And he loves you so much.”

Dawn groaned, covering her face with her hands, “I’m the worst soulmate ever. Why did he have to get stuck with me?”

“No, you’re not. No more of that, okay? You’ll stay with us for a couple of days until you feel better, I’ll tell Liam you’re sick and I’m taking care of you. Then you can tell him, he’ll understand. Soulmates always do.”

“Soulmates don’t cheat.”

“Yeah well, your story was never like everyone else’s was it?”

~~~

Soulmates always understand.

Liam understood. Of course not at first, at first. At first, there was yelling and crying and Dawn feeling so sick she had to run to the bathroom before she emptied her stomach on his carpet. But then he took care of her, he helped her clean up and made her some lemonade. Liam sat down across from her, his head in his hands for what seemed like an eternity before finally speaking up, “what are you going to do?” Dawn didn’t understand, “do you want to fix this?”

“Yes! Of course I do Liam I’m so sorry! Please let me fix it, it’s killing me.”

“What are you going to do to fix it?”

She fixed it, she did. Dawn emailed Harry the next day and requested a new advisor. She didn’t see him or think about him again. For a very long time, the guilt still ate at her. She was sick and fatigued and irritable, “a proper monster,” is how Zayn described it. But Liam was patient and tended to her all throughout that. And the more time that passed between her and Harry, the better she felt. Yes, every now and then she’d get sick again. And sometimes she couldn’t bear being near Liam or the guilt would eat her up. But that was better than before, things got better.

Harry did give her good advice. She faked it until all the bad feelings about Liam were gone, and she only got them when she thought about Harry. It worked. And a year later, when Liam proposed, she was able to say yes without a second’s hesitation. They were soulmates after all.

Everything was wonderful. They were engaged and living together, Liam’s photography was getting more recognition, and Dawn was almost done with her thesis. Her new advisor was kind, strict, but kind, and she respected her. It was almost Christmas time, and nothing could go wrong.

Liam and Dawn were gift shopping, walking hand in hand through a pet store as Dawn looked for a cute Christmas outfit for Tika. She had met Liam at the mall after a meeting with her advisor. Harry had walked in during that meeting, not knowing that Dawn was there. And when she saw him she felt her hands start to shake again. Her mouth was dry and her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her chest, so she excused herself and came back when he left. Other than that, the meeting went great, and Dawn was telling Liam about all of her research and the possibility of it getting published when someone approached them.

“Liam? Liam is that you?”

Liam froze, squeezing Dawn’s hand once before turning to face the voice. Dawn saw it was a woman, maybe a few years older than the two of them. She had a short blond bob cut and big blue eyes, and she her face was one of wonder when she saw Liam, but then her eyes turned to Dawn and were confused. And when they saw their interlocked hands they got angry, was she an ex? Sometimes people dated others before they found their soulmate, it was rare, but it happened. But usually, there are no hard feelings when the soulmates are found. “Daisy,” Liam forced a smile, “it’s been a while.”

Something felt off, Liam was being so cold, and he was such a sweet person. Daisy cocked her hip and crossed her arms, “yeah no shit, you told us you were leaving town to deal with everything. Yet here you are.”

Dawn wanted to ask what was going on, but the tension between her fiancé and Daisy made her keep quiet. “I was out of town.”

“Yeah?” she cocked her eyebrow, “and who’s this missy?”

Dawn responded before Liam could do it for her, “I’m his fiance, his soulmate. Who are you?”

Daisy gasped, then threw her head back and laughed. When she stopped, she looked from me to Liam, “his soulmate? Well I know that’s not the truth.”

Dawn’s mind was reeling as she tried to keep up with everything, “I’m sorry?” she asked, confused.

“His soulmate’s dead baby girl,” Daisy rolled her eyes, “I should know, I’m her sister.”

Dawn froze, not being able to comprehend what was going on. The girl didn’t seem to be lying, and Liam was frozen as well, unable to say anything. Was it true then? He already had his soulmate? There’s no way, because that would mean Dawn wasn’t his soulmate, and that would mean he’s been lying to her. “Liam?” was all she could force out.

Liam threw daisy a dirty look and pushed Dawn away gently, “ok listen to me, she’s right. I had a soulmate before you. Her name was Sophia, and she passed away. But you’re my soulmate too! You’re my second one.”

Second soulmates were rare, but they happened. When someone loses their soulmate, their clock resets again, and they find another. “But that’s like... everyone in a million,” Dawn choked out, starting to calm down, “and why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want it to bother you, babe,” he comforted, “you’re my one in a million.”

Daisy wasn’t done yet though, “another lie!” she cackled, “oh my God Liam, I can’t believe you. You’ve always been a snake.”

“What?” Dawn questioned, “what is it now? Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

“I’m trying to help you, baby, his clock never reset after Sophia. He doesn’t have a second soulmate.”

Liam growled, “she’s lying, Dawn.”

That seemed to push Daisy off the edge, “lying? I’m not a liar! I have proof.” She opened her phone and after a few long seconds, turned it to me, “this was before the funeral. We were all standing outside and my mom snapped a picture, remember that? Then she wanted to process it and put it with Sophia so she could have us all with her but she didn’t have time? Remember when we were all there together grieving for your dead wife?”

Liam made a sound at the back of his throat, no doubt saddened by the mention of his late soulmate. But Dawn paid that no mind, because she zoomed into the picture, where Liam was fixing one of his sleeves, and his wrist was turned towards the camera.

00:00

It felt as if the air was taken out of her, like she’d been hit in the head and forgot how to breathe. She looked at Liam, who was frozen, guilty. She spent her whole life looking for him, only to find out after two years of them being together, that he wasn’t him. Everything she felt, or didn’t feel, it was all valid and she was made to be the bad person in the relationship because of it, while he knew the whole time, that she didn’t feel everything because he wasn’t hers.

Liam reached for her, but she dodged him, not wanting to touch him ever again. All she could do was force out a “don’t follow me.” Before turning and walking away.

She wound up in the apartment they shared, surrounded by pictures of them and the things they owned together. Tika pawed at her foot, wearing a collar Liam bought her. Dawn knelt down and took the collar off, tossing it across the room and it hit the front door, which swung open right after to reveal Liam. “Dawn,” he breathed, “please listen to me.”

“Get out.”

Liam stepped into the apartment, shutting the door behind him, “Baby, please we can get through this.”

“So it’s true?” she asked, part of her hoping he’d say no.

“Yes but that doesn’t matter! I love you, and you love me. This whole soulmate thing is shit anyway.”

Dawn scoffed, finally getting angry, “the past two years have been a lie! Everything about us is built on your pathetic lie! You’re shit, you are. You’re a liar and a psychopath and I want you out.”

Liam’s face twisted, “oi, this isn’t on me! You’re the one that walked up to me and told me you were my soulmate!”

“And you didn’t think to deny it? Instead, you had me believing that I was your soulmate! And that I was a shit soulmate at that because I didn’t love you at first, and I didn’t trust you. My whole being was telling me something was wrong about this, but every wrong feeling I got just made me feel worse, and you let that happen.”

He stepped closer, his arms extended towards her, but Dawn stepped back. Tika looked from her owner to the man she’s grown used to, sensing the negative energy and decided to go hide in a room. “But we got through all of that, right?” Liam continued, “every time you had a doubt or started pulling away I was understanding! I took care of you and loved you even when you treated me like shit and ignored me all the time. I was patient with you. I was patient with you when you wouldn’t sleep with me for a month and I was there even when you cheated on me! You’ve hurt me time and time again and I always forgave you. Now it’s your turn.”

Dawn was disgusted, she wanted to throw up. The thought that she fell in love with him, slept with him, has lived with him and was going to marry him without knowing all of this. “I didn’t lie to you about being your soulmate! I thought you were mine and I tried so hard to love you! I did love you!”

“You’re crazy! What were you going to do when we got married huh? When we couldn’t have kids because you’re not my soulmate? Tell me it was my fault?”

“Dawn please.”

“Get out! I don’t want to see you again.”

Liam clenched his jaw, “this is my apartment love, if you’re going to refuse to talk to me then you get out.”

Her blood was boiling, and if she didn’t get away from him she’d either hurt him or hurt herself. “Fine, I’ll fucking leave. Can’t stand this stupid place anyway.” Dawn stormed to the room they shared and started shoving her belongings into a stray backpack. “I’ll send Zayn for my stuff, don’t talk to him, and that’ll be it.”

Liam then started to grow desperate, “no, I’m sorry Dawn don’t go. Please, Dawn, we can work this out. I love you. I’m sorry I lied please just stay I can’t lose you.”

“I’m just your fucking replacement, Liam.”

“But I fell in love with you. We can fix this, I can fix this and we can still get married.” He blocked the door, “please, Dawn. You probably don’t have a soulmate anyway, this is better for both of us.”

That was it for her, she swung her backpack onto her back and shoved him out of the way, “anything is better than being with you. You stay the fuck away from me.”

She forced off her engagement ring and threw it at him, “Dawn!”

Dawn picked up Tika and grabbed her purse. “If you bother me or my friends, I’ll tell the police you faked being my soulmate. And you’ll go to prison. Stay. Away.”

Liam finally gave a defeated sigh, “fine, ok. Just don’t turn me in, please.”

“You’re pathetic.”

~~~

When she told Zayn what happened, he was livid. If it wasn’t for Alanna yelling at him to stay put, he would have gone and done who knows what to Liam. Zayn was gentle, but he had a temper and it was scary when he got mad. Instead of taking it out on Liam, he put all his energy into caring for Dawn. He and Alanna set up the guest bedroom for her, “you’ll literally live with us until our grandkids kick you out. Shut up about being a bother it’s really annoying.”

Zayn didn’t trust that Liam would stay away, and he insisted on driving Dawn to and from work. In order to try and forget everything, Dawn threw herself into her work. She increased her office hours and helped more of her students, and spent all her days in the office, working on her research or studying for her classes. The deadline was approaching fast, and she had allowed herself to get distracted with all the wedding planning, but now she was back on track, she’d get her masters on time.

Dawn was typing away at her laptop, so lost in her work that she didn’t notice a figure at her door until he knocked on the wall. Harry stood at her office door, looking nervous and holding a wrapped present in his hands, “Hello, can I come in?”

There was no longer a reason for her to say no. Harry sat on a chair, “I just wanted to congratulate you on your thesis almost being done. I’m a little upset I couldn’t read it but I will when it’s published. I got you something to celebrate.”

He handed her the present and Dawn opened it to find two CDs. A Dragon Tales, seasons 1-5 and CD featuring three Barbie movies. She laughed, her eyes springing tears because he remembered such small insignificant things about her. “These are wonderful,” she breathed, “thank you so much.”

Harry beamed, his dimples pinching in and giving her a feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time, one she only felt around him. “Your welcome. Maybe I’ll get you Teletubbies as a wedding gift.” Her smile faded and she didn’t respond. “How is Liam,” Harry pushed, clueless to everything that happened.

“Harry,” Dawn sighed, “thank you for the gifts, but I really don’t want to talk about him right now. And I have a lot of work to do.”

His smile dropped and he looked like she wounded him, “right. Sorry, I overstepped once again.”

As he was walking out, Dawn spoke up, “I’m sorry, Harry.” He turned around, “I didn’t mean to snap like that. You never overstepped, it was always me. You shouldn’t feel bad about anything.”

He gave her a small nod, “I don’t think you overstepped either. With me.” Dawn didn’t know what to say, so she just gave him a forced smile and looked back at her computer. “I miss you.”

Her head snapped up, her blood feeling like electricity at those three words. But Harry left before she could say anything.

~~~

She couldn’t sleep, every time she closed her eyes she saw Liam, and it made her afraid to sleep. She also had a pounding headache. It was three in the morning, and she couldn’t stop thinking about everything. Her countdown had turned to zero, which means someone else’s must have too, right? Her real soulmate was out there somewhere. She wished she could remember the party clearer, but it was too long ago.

There was also a possibility that she didn’t have a soulmate. Her countdown had been glitchy and maybe that was just it finally breaking down. Maybe she still was broken.

She had to do something, so she got out of bed and went to get a glass of water. Once she returned to her room, Dawn started rummaging through her unopened boxes, looking for something to make her feel better.

“Dawn?” Zayn’s sleep filled voice yawned and he flicked on the lights, “what are you doing up?”

“Did I wake you?” she said guiltily, “Sorry.”

He shook his head, squinting at her as he tried to keep his eyes open, “was going to get a drink and heard you. Can’t sleep?”

“I’m looking for something.”

“What?”

Dawn sat back on the bed and Zayn joined her, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, feeling dizzy. “The picture.” Zayn hummed for her to go on, “the one Liam took from the party, I don’t want it around anymore. I have to get rid of it. God!”

“What?” Zayn asked, concerned this time, because Dawn had knelt over, gripping her head. “Dawn what’s wrong?”

“Dizzy,” she croaked, “my head hurts. My whole body hurts.”

Her best friend stood up, “ok lay down, I’ll go get you some medicine.”

“No, I need that picture.”

“Dawn that’s not important right now.”

“Yes it is!” she yelled. She didn’t know why she needed the picture so badly, but she just did.

“Okay, okay. Lay down and I’ll find it for you.”

She must have dozed off, because the next thing she remembered is Zayn waking her up, the picture in his hand. Dawn sat up and took it from him, studying it. Harry was giving her his book, his dimpled smile present as he looked at her. Dawn was enamored by the book, probably focused on not dropping it. The picture made her sick, “this is what started everything,” she hissed, going to tear the picture.

“No, no! Dawn wait!” Zayn practically tackled her for the picture, taking it out of her hands before she could tear it in half. She glared at him, hoping he had a good reason for doing that, “look.” He said, pointing to the book. But Dawn didn’t see anything, she cursed Zayn for being too sentimental and went to take the picture back. “No stop it! Look!” This time he pointed at her wrist, where the numbers were grayed and rapidly approaching zero. Her breath hitched, Liam had captured the moment her countdown went to zero. But that wasn’t what Zayn was referring too, because after he made sure that Dawn saw her countdown, he moved his finger and placed it just above Harry’s wrist.

~~~

This was stupid, this was so stupid. But Dawn could barely think straight over her heart beating so fast. She had taken Zayn’s car as soon as she noticed what he was pointing too, the picture was crushed between her hand and the steering wheel. She didn’t know if he’d be at his office at three in the morning, who’s at their office at three in the morning? But she had to go.

Dawn practically ran to the building, the door was open. That was a good sign, nevermind the fact that it could be any of the hundreds of people that worked in this building. She rushed up the stairs and down the hall, stopping short in front of his office. Her hands were shaking so hard she almost dropped the picture multiple times, so she shoved it into her pocket before putting a shaky hand to the door and pushing it open.

Harry was laying on the couch, a mug of black coffee sat on the floor beside him and he was reading a paper, a red pen settled behind his ear. His legs kept warm by sot grey sweatpants and instead of a dress shirt, he wore an old Rolling Stones T-shirt. He turned when he heard the door open, startled, then confused when he saw who it was. “Dawn?” he sat up, taking in her pink pajamas, the bun of hair toppled on her head, and the star wars slippers that belonged to Zayn, “are you alright?”

“When did your countdown go to zero?” she was panting.

“What?” Harry tilted his head, “Dawn what are y–”

“Tell me! Please,” she calmed down, “when did your countdown go to zero.”

“I already told you, love,” his eyebrows knitted in concern, “are you drunk?”

“You lied.”

His eyes widened, “excuse me?”

“You lied! Tell me the truth, please, Harry.”

Something in her voice unwound him, and he leaned back onto the couch before saying, “at the book release.”

“Why didn’t you notice it?”

“Dawn what’s going on?”

“If you knew that your time was approaching, why didn’t you notice it and know who your soulmate was?” Harry’s jaw twitched, he was embarrassed of the answer, and she knew why. “Because you didn’t expect it to ever get to zero, right? Because it was glitching for months before that and you had given up, so you didn’t notice it was at zero until way after.”

He stood up, eyes wide, “until after the party, when it was too late. How do you…” his jaw dropped when the realization hit him. Harry looked at his wrist, then back at her, then at his wrist again. He went to sit down, putting his head in his hands and exhaling through his nose. “What about Liam?”

“He lied to me.”

Harry fell silent, he laid back on the couch, then sat up straight. Dawn watched him repeat the motion over and over, then stand up and pace the length of his office. He was in shock, she understood that. Harry had thought he lost his soulmate forever and now here she was, in oversized pink pajamas, wide-eyed and panting like an animal. She looked away, trying to give him some privacy. “What are you doing?” Harry spoke, she turned around to answer, but was stricken silent by his dimpled smile, “come over here so I can kiss you.”

She practically jumped on him, and Harry laughed as he stumbled from her weight to the couch. Dawn tried to take in all of his features, to look at him and take in two years worth of him. Everything made sense then, why she was always drawn to him, why she felt guilty when she was with Liam. Why she kissed him, and didn’t feel guilty about that. Even why she started getting sick after they kissed. Her heart knew, it always knew that Harry was her person, it just took two years and a Zayn for her to catch up.

Harry’s lips captured hers, and he hummed happily as she kissed him back. Dawn could swear she heard their souls clicking together. She knotted her fingers with his hair, and Harry pulled her closer until all that's separating them was the clothes on their bodies. Between his kisses and their happy giggles, Dawn felt like she could finally breathe. His tongue on hers was fresh air, his lips on her cheeks and neck and mouth were fresh air, she felt like her soul could have floated all the way to heaven if it staying here and kissing Harry wasn’t more enticing.

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eottoghe · 5 years

Text

Little Boxes - Thirteen

A Jeonghceol Domestic AU where they live in suburbia with their six year old son Chan. Jeonghan is an active member of the PTA, a soccer dad and chauffeur, and a supportive parent all around. His loving husband cares deeply for his passions and will follow him to the end of the world if it keeps him and his family happy. Follow their journey as they get caught up in fun and zany adventures when they fall outside of the guide lines of your average neighbor. Don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I want to see how many different domestic prompts I can get out of this AU before I run out of steam.

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

________________________________________________________________

It’s Monday. Chan usually doesn’t like Mondays all that much because they mean having to restart his routine of waking up too early and sitting through reading time for what seems like foreeeever. There’s no Saturday morning cartoons on Mondays and no Seungcheol-appa to cuddle with on the couch while they eat Cocoa Pebbles. But today is a special Monday. Why?

Because he is officially turning seven years old today!

He doesn't feel any different. Not yet anyway. But he's excited, nonetheless. He likes holidays. All kinds of holidays because most of them only come once a year. And this is the one time a year he gets a holiday all to himself.

At school, Jeonghan shows up right before lunch time with two rectangular boxes nestled close to his chest and a red tote bag hanging off his shoulder. The classroom instantly goes mum at the spectacle before them, thrilled whispers and inconspicuous glances being passed around the room. They know the drill.

They’re all getting really good at math so they can easily spot the solution to this equation. If they sang Happy Birthday to Chan at the start of the class and his parent comes to the classroom during lunch time, then the boxes in his hands must be cupcakes! It happens often enough for them to know, but the excitement never really wears off.

“I can help you, Mr. Choi!”

“No, me!”

“I can get the napkins!”

The kids jump at the opportunity to help hand out the goodies. It’s a great feeling because Jeonghan knows in a few years, it’ll be torture just asking for a simple chore to get done. For now, he revels in the kindness that they exude and smiles the same gentle smile that won them over during the first fundraiser event he’d helped with.

Chan gets out of his seat, running to his dad. He hugs his thighs and Jeonghan has to re-balance himself to make sure the cupcakes don’t go flying due to the sheer magnitude of the impact. Chan showing public affection? He’s put aside his childhood bravado just for this sweet moment and Jeonghan couldn’t be more soft for it.

“Please stay in your seats. I’ll choose a couple of you to hand out napkins and Mr. Choi and I will pass out the cupcakes.” Their teacher calls out to the class. Chan is reluctant to pull away but thinks about getting a red sticker on his birthday. He would hate hate hate getting a red sticker any day for not listening and even more if its on this day so he scurries off to his table and plops back down in his mustard yellow, plastic seat. He is beaming at his dad with rose dusted cheeks as his classmates say happy birthday to him and high five him from where they sit. He loves the attention even if he still gets shy sometimes.

Once they’re back settled and the two designated helpers pass out all of the napkins to each kid, Jeonghan and the teacher divide and conquer. Jeonghan was smart and decided to purchase cupcakes that were as uniform as possible. He knows how picky kids can be and wanted to avoid arguments over who got what.

Chan gets first pick though and his table is glad to have the birthday boy in their assigned group because that means they get next pick. Jeonghan and the teacher go table by table, weaving between the chattering children bouncing in their chairs. The chirped thank you’s rang out in high pitched squeals as they dug into the sugary sweet cupcakes, blue frosting staining their tongues. (Probably the best kind of treats are ones that can be shown off by their visual residue).

As they eat and talk amongst themselves, Chan’s teacher starts up a conversation with Jeonghan standing shoulder to shoulder, looking out across the classroom. “Thank you for coming in today. The kids just seem to adore you, Mr. Choi.” The teacher is a bit new and exultant in her teaching methods. She hasn’t been beaten down by the hardships that come along with the job yet so every moment she sees the kids smile is a win in her book.

“I do my best. I love kids. In another life, I could see myself as a teacher at a school like this one.” He laughs to himself thinking about how completely exhausted he’d be with small aged children filling up every corner of his life. It’s not much different from now only he doesn’t have to deal with the responsibility that accompanies teaching at a public school.

“I could see that too. Chan is always talking about you and your partner like you’re the best things that ever happened to him. We’re so lucky to have Chan and you both as his supporters. He’s got lots of friends here and he’s such a cheerful kid.”

Jeonghan, try as he may, is unable to stop the proud smile from spreading across his reddening face. He feels his ears tingle, looking at the ground to avoid the eyes of the grateful woman.

“Thank you. I feel secure with him in your care.” He nods his head in mutual appreciation. He definitely doesn’t pop in to the classroom nearly as much as he did in the beginning of the year when he couldn’t trust any teacher to govern over his one and only child for such a significant portion of the day. He thinks she’s done well.

She reminds the class that they should RSVP to Chan’s birthday party by tomorrow after Jeonghan mentions it in their casual talk. She also gives her thanks to Jeonghan for giving an invite to every kid as feeling left out in this age is such a saddening thing to see on a child’s face. Invitations were handed out a week ago and Chan was happy to report that everyone seemed eager.

They close out the mini celebration with Chan being wished happy birthday one more time in a cacophonous harmony. Jeonghan kneels and gives him a quick kiss on his forehead before the now seven-year-old decides it’s too embarrassing. The extra cupcakes are left for the other teachers Chan might want to share with and Jeonghan hands over some extra hand sanitizer bottles and tissues he bought for the classroom. The teacher thanks him once more and he’s off.

Chan still has a couple hours left of school so he decides to stop by a Michael’s craft store to avoid the drive back home just to turn around and fight traffic back. There’s still shopping to do for the vast decorations he has yet to gather. He was so inspired, he even made a moodboard from various Pinterest posts he’d come across. Chan wanted a Jurassic Park theme and it allowed Jeonghan to let his creativity set sail.

He’d picked up the plates, cups, and utensils all in a convenient party pack from Party City along with table cloths and enough supplies to craft some pretty kick ass goodie bags. What he’s most excited about though is the zookeeper outfits they’d come across. It took lots of asking around, but they’d found some. The adult size was definitely going to fit Seungcheol better than himself (He was biased. He thought Seungcheol was smoking in everything he wore), but it worked out well enough that when they all stood together, they looked like they were off on an expedition, slashing through vines and palm fronds deep in the jungle. Chan loved it (He was biased. He loved everything).

He’d also already ordered the “party hats”. Of course, they weren’t any regular party hats. If Jeonghan had been any regular person or a part of any regular family then maybe he would have done the regular thing. BUT he’s Yoon Jeonghan and decided that the “party hats” would in fact be Safari hats and made sure to order them in bulk early.

So now he’s pushing a cart through the crowded aisles of Michael’s with Jisoo balanced between his head and his shoulder, speaking animatedly through his cell phone.

“You invited the entire class and the soccer team?” Josh stresses. He wishes Jeonghan would have mentioned the number of expected guests before he signed on for this project.

“It’s not that bad. Not everyone will show up. You know how these things go.” Jeonghan shrugs his shoulder as if the other can see him, brushing off his questioning tone. He’s cutting his eyes back and forth between two very different styles of leaves. Leaves larger than his head surround him in the plastic flowers section. He picks up a handful of both under the guise that the jungle has many different types of plants. He doesn’t have to be climatically accurate. These children won’t be able to tell the difference when they’re maxed out on sugar.

“It’s Valentine’s weekend. Literally everyone is coming because parents are going to dump them for a few hours of alone time.”

“Oh… I forgot to get Valentine cards for the class. Thanx for the reminder.” Jeonghan answers, his mind drifting a few aisles down to where he remembers inflated, pink balloons and mega stuffed teddy bears. He considers getting one for Seungcheol. Seungcheol’s a lot softer than he looks.

“Hannie… This is going to be really expensive… Seungcheol does know all that you’ve planned right?”

“Yah! Stop scolding me. I’m a grown man.” Jeonghan feigns exasperation, but he bursts into a fit of giggles before he can finish. “It’s fine. I’ve been saving up. And don’t try and turn my husband against me. He’s very much so on board with me…” He mumbles after, “…sort of.”

“So on top of helping you set up, you’re calling me in to babysit too.”

“It’ll be fun. Your daughter and Chan can have a play date while we get ready and she’ll pretty much babysit herself at the party. It’ll be great.”

~~~~

Great is an understatement.

From the front of their home, much isn’t revealed to the expectant children being dropped off. In fact, the house is still difficult to find due to the 50 other ones built with the exact same model. What sets it apart are the shiny apple red and onyx black balloons tied to the mailbox and the sign hanging on the door saying, “Welcome to Jurassic Park”.

The kids are met at the door by Jeonghan (the responsible one who is actually paying attention to the doorbell) and are led through the simple living room, hopping along plastic dinosaur tracks that are set out. The sliding door leading to the backyard is opaque, covered in a dark backdrop, obscuring the view to the party happening just on the other side. But they can hear music and laughter and the anticipation balls up and rolls through their tummies.

When the door finally draws opens, it attracts them in like a beacon, beckoning forth the tiny adventurers into the wonderful world of dinosaurs. Joshua stands at the entryway with safari hats to hand out. It’s such a funny thing to see the kids blank, sensory spasms making it hard to decide what to avert their attention to first.

There’s greenery everywhere and it truly feels like their own little contained jungle. Wooden planks jut out on display with caution tape strategically draped over them; the fraying at the tips looks like they’d been ripped through. Beware posters tie in the setting.

A table is filled with snacks and foods all made to fit the theme. White chocolate covered pretzels transform into dinosaur bones, doughnut holes dusted with sugar mimic unhatched eggs. Pudding cups with dirt-like, cookie crumbles sprout miniscule palm trees and the tiniest dinosaur figurines. And there’s chicken nuggets! There’s a tyrannosaurus and brachiosaurus and some other saurus they still can’t pronounce. Seungcheol has the grill going and the smoke makes it look like a volcano has erupted in the background.

And is that… a bounce house? In the backyard?!?!

(Jeonghan may or may not have rented that one without Seungcheol’s knowledge but when the crew came knocking to set it up, there was little he could do to argue about it.)

And yes, Jeonghan will admit he outdid himself this time, but he was damn proud of his work. They all were impressed. “You should consider party planning. This looks great!”, his husband said in awe when he’d seen the finish product of Jeonghan’s creation. But with great power comes great responsibility. And responsibility brought big headaches.

The night before, he got the minimum amount of sleep preparing. Everyone helped, but once it got late, he coerced them into bed while his hyperactive, perfectionist mind fussed over the most minute details. He’d ended up finishing the goodie bags, creating labels for the food and pre-made all the snacks he could get away with. He’d hit the bed at around 4 a.m. and woke up hours later to get the backyard ready. On top of mild sleep deprivation, the inevitable over protective side of him resurfaced as the children ran freely, playing make believe. He was stressed™.

“You look like you need a nap.” Joshua sidles up next to him, poking his cheek.

“I just want everything to be perfect.” He admits with a sigh and a tired smile.

Joshua pans over the immaculate scene of their movie-set-ready layout. Seungcheol cooking on the grill as he nods along to the music, the kids—Chan cheesing so hard, letting forth such an innocent, unbridled laugh that breaks the heavens open to let pure sunlight spill down upon them.

Joshua thinks this is perfect. The party. Their family.

“You’re doing amazing. Everyone is enjoying themselves. You should too.” Joshua rubs his hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. “I’m listening out for the door, go talk to Seungcheol and grab something to eat. Relax.”

Jeonghan takes his advice.

He opens his mouth to say something and instead gets it filled with a piece of meat hot off the grill.

“I just finished up. How’s it taste?” Seungcheol already knows the answer but asks anyway with a knowing smirk.

“It’s haa… Whew. It’s hot.” Jeonghan speaks around the beef burning his tongue. The flavor is savory, but when he says hot off the grill he means it in its entirety. “Yummy.”

Seungcheol kisses him on the cheek, pulling him into a side hug with one arm loosely around his waist.

“I can’t believe I’m really going to do this.” Seungcheol speaks after a minute of watching the kids play.

“It’s really adorable what you’re doing. They’re going to love it.”

“Sure hope so.”

“Hurry up and go! I wanna cut the cake.” He honestly doesn’t mind what time the cake gets cut. The younger brunette is finally starting to relax and knows that this portion of his day will be the most iconic. Although Jeonghan had planned the majority of this party, Seungcheol planned something of his own. And this one was a surprise.

“Oh no! Kids watch out!” Jeonghan shouts a warning to the crowd playing in the patch of grass. They all look up, startled and Jeonghan makes sure he has the camera rolling.

In less than a second, their attention focuses in on the person(?) standing by the sliding door. It’s…

A dinosaur?

They don’t move or speak for a second.

And then they hear a roar. The dinosaur darts out toward their huddle. They scatter, screaming like they’re being chased by an actual creature and not a grown man in an inflatable dinosaur suit. Screams melt into giggles and the laughter builds as the kids continue to run away from who they’ve now realized is just some clumsy person fumbling around in a costume.

Chan doesn’t know who it is until the dinosaur trips over its own feet, landing ungracefully in the grass. His yelp is distinguishable even between the screams and laughs and music.

“Daddy!” Chan runs up to the dinosaur, any possibility of him being afraid flying out the window. By the time Seungcheol finds his way back up, Chan runs into his legs with a tight hold. It sends the dinosaur back to the ground and soon all the kids are piling up on the lump of dino dad roaring unconvincingly.

Joshua and Jeonghan stand by each other, every single second of it caught on video. They’re holding their stomachs with how hard they’re laughing. He imagines this being one of those clips that end up on AFV.

It takes a while to get everyone to calm down. Eventually, they make it to the table to eat and sing happy birthday and share slices of cake. Pictures were taken. So many pictures. And the night ends with children slowly being picked up while they cuddle around the couch and watch the latest Jurassic World movie.

Right before Chan falls asleep, he pulls both of his dads in for a hug, an arm around the neck of each.

“Thank you for the best day ever.” He yawns with the same smile he’s adorned all day. Truly, it hasn’t left his face once.

Jeonghan thinks he can finally rest now. A successful weekend it was.

~~~

Finally got to posting the birthday chapter on here. Tumblr has... changed? There’s not a function to add a line to separate things anymore??? Oof. I’m on twitter now :) @eottoghe

#jeongcheol #seungcheol #jeonghan #coupshan #seunghan #dino #lee chan #fanfic #seventeen

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