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hakasims · 4 years ago

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The Most Important Review of Every Single Marwan Kenzari Film

If you’ve seen this one about Luca, you know the drill.

Now, Marwan’s brand is a little less defined than Luca’s but I managed to find similar tropes in a lot of his films. Also, rather than copy myself and give you a redundant Marwanmeter, I decided instead to recommend which Luca character best pairs with each Marwan character for your crossover pleasure. Let’s see if we ship the same things! Some of them are crack. You’re welcome.

(all gifs again by the awesomely amazing @weardes who did not ask to be my gif factory but life’s a bitch)

Het zusje van Katia (2008)

Will you miss him if you blink? Kinda. They talk about him a lot but his actual screen time is like 43.7 seconds. Also can I just say... he’s supposed to be from Italy?? The boy says literally one (1) Italian word, and you’ll never guess what it is. (Obviously, it’s “bella” like there’s a chance he could’ve said anything else.)

Is he hot? Painfully hot.

Is he naked? There’s this one scene where he’s wearing the sluttiest pair of speedos I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Does his hair look great? Actually, yes. Perfect hair, perfect beard, he looks amazing.

Does he fuck? Yes, a lot - off screen, including an M/M/F threesome he presumably, probably, most definitely initiated.

Best paired with? From what I’ve gathered, this hoe ain’t loyal, so the best course of action is to find him a Luca that would benefit from a one night stand with no strings attached and wouldn’t fall in love with him. The obvious choice here is Valerio from Slam - Tutto per una ragazza. They meet, they fuck, then Giac makes his 4-hour drive back to Pisa, and they don’t see each other again until the next time he’s in Rome. Everybody’s happy, especially the two sluts in question.

De laatste dagen van Emma Blank (2009)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, absolutely.

Is he hot? Very.

Is he naked? Almost constantly.

Does his hair look great? He’s got those cute short curls, he looks so good.

Does he fuck? That’s literally why he’s there: to fuck and to die.

Best paired with? Man, I wish I had something to work with here. The only thing we know about him besides his sexual prowess is his affinity for white suits and toy helicopters. And as far as I know, those might be the exact things Fabrizio from Nina finds hot in guys. So like, why not?

Loft (2010)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character.

Is he hot? Yeah, sure.

Is he naked? There’s a scene where he’s wearing underwear and a tank top but it somehow makes him look like a kindergartener.

Does his hair look great? It looks quite nice.

Does he fuck? Yes, though I wish he didn’t.

Best paired with? Tom is a very violent person and a drug addict. He does messed up stuff to his sexual partners I’d rather he didn’t do to any of Luca’s characters. Feel free to use him for your sadistic fantasies or as a villain or whatever.

Rabat (2011)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s one of the three leads.

Is he hot? Oh yes! And cute!

Is he naked? He’s at the beach wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

Does his hair look great? He’s got this extreme undercut thing that would look ridiculous on anyone less pretty, so like no, he doesn’t have great hair, but also like it’s Marwan, you know what I mean?

Does he fuck? Before he embarks on a road trip with his friends, he has an offscreen threesome with two girls he picked up at a wedding. Slut.

Best paired with? Gabriele from Waves. They’re both sweet guys who could meet in some Tunisian port and decide to sail the Mediterranean Sea together.

Black Out (2012)

Will you miss him if you blink? Not unless your blinking is very deliberate.

Is he hot? Not really. He’s a dirty cop with a shitty moustache and oral fixation.

Is he naked? No, but I wish he was: his clothes are awful. Marwan is 29 in this movie and he looks 50!

Does his hair look great? Nope. They took Marwan’s usual short hair and made it not work somehow.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? The one thing Luca’s characters all have in common is that none of them come off as bootlickers. All of them are either too soft for such a relationship or wouldn’t waste their spit on a cop.

Wolf (2013)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? *gestures wildly at the gif*

Is he naked? He’s got quite a few shirtless scenes.

Does his hair look great? It’s nothing special but suits his character well.

Does he fuck? Oh yes.

Best paired with? Hear me out. I know that some people ship him with Fabio, but in my opinion that pair, while hot, doesn’t work. Here’s my pitch: Cesare from Non essere cattivo. The drug connection is still there, but in this case Majid’s problem-solving skills won’t fall on deaf ears. Cesare needs a daddy, ok? Majid can be a daddy when he needs to, especially when he has a soft boyfriend to care for. And Majid needs soft, not psycho.

Hartenstraat (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist once again.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? There’s that iconic scene where he’s wearing nothing but black boxer briefs and boots while carrying a tray...

Does his hair look great? He’s got Joe-like curls and looks like what every male romantic lead should aspire to look like and then cry because they all fail.

Does he fuck? There’s one very unfortunate sex scene played for laughs. I’m pretty sure he’ll need therapy afterwards. I certainly do.

Best paired with? Paolo from Il padre d’Italia. Paolo deserves the best boyfriend, and who’s better than Daan, an extremely hot man who cooks? They both have daughters, so they can talk about that, I guess, and Paolo can finally have a family. Honestly, this is so wholesome I just made myself cry.

Lucia de B. (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? For sure.

Is he hot? He’s a cop. Again. But he looks good.

Is he naked? Fully dressed, but man are his clothes ugly. Is that a cop thing?

Does his hair look great? He has slightly longer curls, which is fine and the best thing about this character.

Does he fuck? ACAB. (I know this doesn’t answer the question, I just wanted to make it clear.)

Best paired with? See my bootlicker comment from earlier. While Detective *checks notes* Ron Leeflang isn’t explicitly corrupt, he’s obviously a dick, so the best I can do here is recommend any Luca character that has ever been in trouble with the law for any fics about power imbalance you want to write but aren’t comfortable with a nice Marwan playing the villain.

Bloedlink (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Oh no, he’s there the entire time.

Is he hot? In a weird way, yes.

Is he naked? So, so, so naked. Like, leave nothing to the imagination naked.

Does his hair look great? I’d say that little rat tail is the exact opposite of great.

Does he fuck? Probably more than is good for him. I should also add that he’s canonically queer in this.

Best paired with? Rico is a pathetic loser in need of someone who’s got his life together and has a lot of experience dealing with fuckups. Enter Loris from Il mondo fino in fondo. He has a stable job and a savior complex, and with his little bro gaying it up in Chile and not needing him anymore, all he wants right now is someone to fix. I should be a fucking matchmaker in real life, for real.

Pak van mijn hart (2014)

Will you miss him if you blink? Undoubtedly.

Is he hot? No. The whole point of his character is to be the lesser choice compared to a guy who looks like a completely ordinary bland white dude...

Is he naked? ...so of course he isn’t naked! What, are they gonna take this poor woman, show her Marwan Kenzari’s post-Wolf body and expect her to choose her deeply mediocre ex? Please! They’re gonna dress him in the dorkiest clothes possible...

Does his hair look great? ...and make him wear the most awful wig that was clearly run over by a truck.

Does he fuck? No. As you can observe, they tried really hard to make him unfuckable, but honestly, he seems like a perfectly nice guy.

Best paired with? You know what? Mattia from La solitudine dei numeri primi is in desperate need of some sweetness and normalcy. I’m sure Richard will treat him with kindness and respect.

Collide (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s the fifth most important character. Out of five.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? Not for a second! What’s up with American movies where people aren’t just casually walking around naked without any plot necessity???

Does his hair look great? His curls are so cute you guys! Look at them!

Does he fuck? Not explicitly.

Best paired with? Fabio from Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot. Again, the drug connection is there, but Matthias is soft enough not to butt heads with Fabio and, by the end of the movie, rich enough to satisfy his cravings for good living and fame. Also look at how good their color coordination is with those dark wine red clothes! Sometimes planets just align, okay?

Ben-Hur (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? Yes, especially if you aren’t watching the background.

Is he hot? Your usual Marwan hot.

Is he naked? No.

Does his hair look great? His typical short curls with a twist. I think the forehead area is supposed to invoke the Caesar cut? I don’t know. It looks fine when not hidden under that dumb helmet.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? A better script and a much better director. (Seriously, what is this blocking?)

The Promise (2016)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there a decent amount in the first half of the movie and then almost completely disappears in the second half.

Is he hot? Very much, yes.

Is he naked? Unfortunately, no.

Does his hair look great? He’s got short curls again, but this time they’re fashionably styled, it’s magnificent.

Does he fuck? Oh yeah! And there’s no way he isn’t bi or pan in this. No way.

Best paired with? Roberta from L’ultimo terrestre. Listen, Emre Ogan may be a slut but he’s a gentleman, okay? He’d treat Roberta right and he’s got daddy’s cash to spare on hundreds of gorgeous white dresses for her.

The Mummy (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s there, but barely.

Is he hot? Dangerously hot.

Is he naked? Not once! Instead we get a naked Tom Cruise literally no one asked for.

Does his hair look great? It’s your basic professional short hairdo.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Malik is a member of an organization tracking and destroying various monsters and historical artefacts related to them. Guido from Tutti i santi giorni speaks four languages, including Latin, and is a literature and ancient history nerd which makes him a valuable asset. Malik can fight and protect; Guido is bumbling and in need of saving. Guys, this writes itself.

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, especially not in the third act.

Is he hot? He’s okay.

Is he naked? Very naked.

Does his hair look great? They shouldn’t have greased his curls back. He looks like another victim of Fabio Cannizzaro’s stylist. Also I wish he’d either shaved or finished growing out that beard.

Does he fuck? He fucks and he fucks good. He’ll go down on you, he’ll deflower you slowly and gently, he’ll choke you if you want him to, he’ll spoon you all night, he’ll give you emotional support, he’ll murder people for you - he’s down for whatever.

Best paired with? There’s one Luca character who needs a lot of sex and even more emotional support. Alright, most of them do, but I’m thinking of Ettore from Lasciate andare. He needs it, okay? Good dicking, good spooning, a good ear, a fine piece of ass to cry into - you get the gist. Most importantly: someone who’d love him for who he is and with whom he could relax and be himself. (Also, I see you, people comparing him to Fabio. Shame on you for sleeping on this soft boy and judging him based on his appearance.)

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Will you miss him if you blink? He’s kinda always present, being very French.

Is he hot? Very hot.

Is he naked? No, but I’m willing to forgive that because he looks so good in his conductor uniform.

Does his hair look great? He never takes off his hat.

Does he fuck? No.

Best paired with? Mickey Miranda. They’re both murderers morally dubious characters who would look hot together. What else do you need? (Again, I see you, people who want Pierre for Roberta because he’s a “nice guy”, and I know for a fact you didn’t watch the movie. Spoilers, I guess.)

The Angel (2018)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the protagonist.

Is he hot? Oh yes.

Is he naked? Not once, but you won’t regret it because he’s wearing excellently stylish 1970s clothes.

Does his hair look great? It looks fantastic. The sideburns (not yet seen here) are a good touch.

Does he fuck? He can definitely get it, but he’s loyal to his wife.

Best paired with? As the most aesthetically coherent and fashionably hot pair in this post, Ashraf and Primo are a no-brainer. Can you imagine Primo calling him “Angel” in different contexts? When he’s being intimidating, not realizing how palpable the sexual tension between them is, and later not even hiding his arousal? Sometimes things just work because they’re hot. That’s all, folks.

Aladdin (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s the main villain.

Is he hot? It’s not like he went viral for being the “hot Jafar” or anything.

Is he naked? No! Fucking thanks a lot, Disney.

Does his hair look great? He has a buzz cut under that turban but he looks good in the turban, so that’s something.

Does he fuck? It’s a Disney movie, so he doesn’t fuck - explicitly or otherwise - but he still comes off as a thirsty bitch.

Best paired with? Jafar ends the movie as a genie who’s obligated to grant his master three wishes but is enough of a petty bitch to exploit the hell out of the “gray area” and screw them over Wishmaster style. My unconventional pair for him is Lui from Ricordi? So many scenarios with distorted memories and magic-induced mindfuck. So many possibilities for awesome and messed up crossover gifsets! Don’t say I never give you guys anything.

Instinct (2019)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, he’s very prominent.

Is he hot? I hate myself for finding him hot but I do.

Is he naked? He’s playing basketball shirtless in one scene, shaking his sweaty boobs everywhere.

Does his hair look great? His weird mohawk-like thing is honestly terrible, but if anything can make it work, it’s Marwan’s bone structure.

Does he fuck? Um, I’m pleading the Fifth on this one for the sake of good taste.

Best paired with? Prison. A very lonely, Luca-less prison.

The Old Guard (2020)

Will you miss him if you blink? No, unless blinking in your case means sleeping through the gloriousness that is the first ever canonically gay couple in an American action film.

Is he hot? Painfully.

Is he naked? Shirtless in one scene.

Does his hair look great? Soft curls courtesy of Luca Marinelli’s tireless lobbying.

Does he fuck? Not on screen, but you can just tell by the way he looks at his husband and reads impromptu poetry right to his face. And everybody knows nothing kindles the fires of passion quite like murdering homophobes together.

Best paired with? If you have to ask, you’re clearly reading this by mistake. In which case, kudos for finishing such a long and confusing post, now go watch The Old Guard and cry at the beauty that is The Immortal Marriage.

#marwan kenzari #luca marinelli #the old guard #and other movies #i'm lazy #immortal husbands #and their parallel versions i guess #crossover ships galore

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ootahime · 3 years ago

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analyzing every gojohime moment in the manga p2

part 1 is here :3

this post includes more excruciatingly long paragraphs so grab urself something and enjoy LOL

chapter 40

i know they’re not interacting in this panel but i still want to bring it up. i’m gonna give some context to this scene in case someone needs to jog their memory. so basically, mei’s ability to command crows is what allows the staff to observe the students from afar. however, gojo notices that there’s lack of footage where yuuji is and asks mei why that’s so. she tells him that they’re animals at the end of the day so she can’t control what they look at. he doesn’t believe her so he asks her whose side she’s on (for yuuji’s execution vs against yuuji’s execution) to which she responds with, “whose side? i’m on the side with money, of course. there’s no value in something that can’t be bought since you can’t exchange that for money.” in other words, she’ll always choose the side that offers her more money because she doesn’t care about how morally “correct” or “incorrect” something is. it’s not worth fighting for a cause that doesn’t benefit her in the long run which is why she views things that are unable to be bought (friendships, relationships, favors) as useless - they can’t be exchanged for money. it’s clear that gojo knows she’s not on his side because he replies with, “spoken from experience!” or “i wonder how much!” (translation varies). he says it out loud to perhaps let gakuganji know that he’s onto him. i find it interesting how utahime is in the panel as well with a “?” to express her confusion at his words. let’s overthink dissect that. why is she there in the first place? if the message was to let gakuganji know that gojo is aware of his ulterior motives then a panel with gakuganji and gojo would have sufficed. why add utahime with a question mark?

here’s a personal headcanon of mine that makes no absolute sense, but who cares? it makes me happy LOL. so let’s examine the panel. gojo’s face is more simplified and cartoonish with a grey background on top and some sort of white bubble surrounding the three characters. gakuganji is staring at utahime and gojo. in the official viz translation, he replies to mei with, “i wonder how much!”

normal and logical explanation: shading the principal by asking out loud how much mei was paid by him to avoid monitoring yuuji.

gojohime brainrot explanation:

mei: “there’s no value in something that can’t be bought since you can’t exchange that for money”

gojo: (in response) i wonder how much utahime’s love would cost if it did have a price.

utahime: ?

you’re probably thinking i’m delulu (true) BUT HEAR ME OUT. IT WOULD SOMEWHAT MAKE SENSE IN THIS CONTEXT...

mei’s saying seems to be what she lives by. relationships, love, friendships, etc. do not matter to her as this is evident when she ultimately abandons everyone in shibuya to escape to malaysia, selling all her stocks before japan’s economy goes down. she doesn’t care about anyone else. she even takes advantage of ui ui’s adoration for her. she contrasts utahime. utahime is loved by her students. children, especially teenagers, are picky when it comes to choosing the adults they admire and respect. while everyone trusts gojo, they do not respect him because of his childishness and overall absurdity. it’s refreshing to see how they always call him an idiot or have a -_- face when he’s around. when akutami says everyone absolutely adores utahime-sensei, it says a lot. we haven’t seen her interact with her students all that much, but she’s obviously close to them because she’s frequently arguing with momo. even a closed off person like mechamaru wanted to keep her away from danger. she most certainly expresses a lot of concern and care for her students, and gojo and her students can pick up on this.

i’ve talked about this in every post LOLOL but there’s a reason why he went to utahime first to help him investigate. utahime is a loyal person through and through. she would never do something that harms the students even if she was offered everything in the world. she values relationships above everything else. besides her concern for the students, how else was i able to come to this conclusion about her character? well, she got shoko to stop smoking because she was worried about how it might damage her friend’s health. from these two details, it’s obvious that she’s the complete opposite of mei.

maybe that’s why he calls her weak. she’s too selfless and compassionate in a world where every sorcerer is for themselves. the world is cruel as a sorcerer. no matter how hard you try to fight, in the end, you’ll always die alone. remember his talk with megumi after the baseball game? after witnessing megumi pull a sacrificial bunt to help his teammates advance, gojo has a talk with megumi about his attitude and potential. he says that being selfless and caring about others is not a bad thing, but in a world like this, where people always die alone, he is wasting his potential by being concerned with others. it’s okay to be selfish. this is why we see fierce independence in a lot of the sorcerers like mei, nanami, and gojo. they each have their own reasons as to why they work alone, but it’s still a common characteristic. i feel like utahime doesn’t have a selfish bone in her body. i speculate that her selflessness is the exact reason why she is being held back. during her mission to exorcise a grade 1 spirit by herself, the final task before being promoted to grade 1, she likely got distracted trying to help civilians out of danger and failed her mission. he’s right when he says she doesn’t have the guts to be the traitor, utahime doesn’t have it in her to do something so boldly solely for her own benefit.

after this long tangent, how does this relate to your headcanon, ootahime?

as you know, love is not transactional. you can’t pay someone to love you. what if gojo is asking himself how much it would cost to buy her love. hence, her confusion because she is oblivious to what he really means. it could be probable because gakuganji is observing not only gojo, but utahime as well. so what gojo says must involve her too, right?

or she could just be confused because his words seem out of place because she is unaware of what gakuganji is doing behind everyone’s back. that explanation makes sense for viz’s official translation but it doesn’t make sense when he says, “spoken from experience!” because his words make sense in that context. he’s basically saying that mei’s beliefs must be based on her past experiences so he understands why she feels this way. that’s an appropriate response to mei’s statement so i don’t see why utahime would be confused by this. unless i’m interpreting this whole scene completely wrong. in that case, whoopsies!

let me know if you’re confused because i’m willing to clarify. idk why but i found this really difficult to explain. maybe because i’m reaching so hard haha

chapter 40

he finds any way he can to tease her. they seem like a married couple watching a movie or something. does he take pride in being the only person she doesn’t get along with? i mean, she says it herself so he is aware she thinks he’s annoying, but he keeps picking on her anyway. he doesn’t even pick on his enemies this much LMAOOO i think the only other person he likes to make fun of is gakuganji but he does so because he doesn’t agree with his views. with utahime it’s different. he trusts her a lot and even looks out for her.

chapter 44

why are there two separate instances of gakuganji observing utahime and gojo’s interactions from afar? nah i’m just playing. he’s just looking because he’s concerned she’ll run into the semi-grade 1 curse he had for yuuji. OKAY BUT I NOTICED SOMETHING KINDA CUTE? whenever utahime says something suddenly, he always has those 3 little triangles near his head. it’s like he’s thinking, “oh! utahime is speaking, i must listen <3″ look at his face too. he’s looking at her like :O

this is also an example of her showcasing her concern for the students in front of gojo. i feel like he questions why she’s so caring because if it were him, he would have left the student to figure it out themselves. i really wonder how she would react if he answered her truthfully when she asked what he’d do if she were the traitor.

chapter 45

there’s not much to say here...they’re just cute. i know it’ll never happen but i’d like to see them fight side by side one day. i’m aware that gojo works best alone but i just want to see how they’d work together, okay? 😔

chapter 45

see the little triangles on his head again? UGH SO CUTE.

chapter 45

IS THIS NOT INTENTIONAL??? they share the same thoughts. he even finished her thought. mannnnnnnnnnnnn what is akutami doing? giving us false hope and stripping it away just for fun? making them work so well together for what??

chapter 52

cute how he looks out for her. i have nothing more to say LOL

chapter 53

notice how they’re sitting across from each other? HEHE

chapter 53

yet another instance of her caring for her students in front of gojo. in the anime she has the cutest expression when she says she’s glad the students are safe. i bet gojo saw that too. i also bet that she looks prettier from his point of view.

extra

from the manga and light novels, gojo and utahime are the ones that talk about sports the most. he most definitely chose baseball to cheer her up. it’s not a coincidence people!

i feel like i had a lot more to say but i completely lost my train of thought while writing this, especially with chapter 40. i’m once again writing this at 4 in the morning LOL........ please please please add on or share your thoughts! thank you for reading and sorry for any mistakes.

#gojohime #gouta #gojo x utahime

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nyasiaaaaa · 4 years ago

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The Little things

Pairing: Din Djarin x Fem reader

Word count: 8k

Warnings: established relationship, shooting, angst, Smut (18+), spanking, Dom/Sub, oral sex ( m and f receiving) P in V, fingering ( f receiving), spitting, use of good girl ( once), breeding kink if you squint, Fluff, helmet-less Din ( he only wears it when he’s outside), tw eating

A/N: First time writing smut and first time writing for a Pedro character. For @its--fandom--darling 1k follower celebration!!! Thank you @absurdthirst for all your help. Thank you @aripariii for looking over this.

 You throw your head back in frustration as you contemplate giving up feeding the kid. You had been trying to feed him vegetables for the past week. Every time you wanted to feed him some smashed peas with a spoon, he would use the force to push it into your mouth. You lift your head as you take a deep breath, ready to try again when Din walks in and throws jerky on the table for the kid. You look at Din in disbelief before getting up to clean the mess while you let the kid eat.

“I’ll be back in a few; this shouldn’t take long,” Din announced as he stood in place, scanning the room for his blaster.

“You missing something,” you asked, hopping on one of the crates looking over at him with a mischievous smile

“Give it,” he grumbled out, walking up to you holding his hand out

“Give what,” you questioned as you tilted your head. “Give this,” you smiled, pulling out his blaster.

Din tried to reach for it as you pulled back “nope, let’s make a deal.”

“I don’t have time for games, cyar’ika,” he replied trying to convince you to give it up.

“Then let’s not play any. I’ll give you your blaster if you quit giving the kid what he wants when I’m trying to give him a balanced diet, ok.”

“Ok,” he agrees to take the blaster from your hand.

“Also, you don’t have to rush back for lunch; just make sure you are here for dinner” he gave you a nod in response as he fished, packing up his things.

You pick the kid up and dust him over, carrying him over to Din so he could say bye. Din looked down at his son and ruffled his head before looking at you. He bent down, placing his cold beskar helmet against your head. He didn’t need to say anything you already knew and vise versa. Din straightened up and walked towards the ramp before typing in buttons and letting it down.

As Din was walking away, he stopped to remind you for the millionth time, “cyar’ika, don’t leave the ship, this is one of the most dangerous plants and-“

“I know you’ve told me all this before. I won’t leave me. The kid and I are going to chill here and watch cartoons or something,” you told him, interrupting his repetitive speech.

He stood there hesitantly, debating in his head before choosing to just walk down the ramp and away. You guys never did that stop and turn around things you’ve seen in movies; there was no need to. He was always going to come back; he had promised you.

As soon as the Din was far away enough, you closed the ramp and started getting ready to leave. Dins birthday is coming up, and you’re trying to make him a chocolate cake. In one of your late-night pillow talks, you asked Din what he remembers from his childhood before the Mandalorian, he replies that he doesn’t remember a lot. What he does remember is how every year, for his birthday, his mom would make him a chocolate cake. It was the best thing he has ever eaten in his life, well, the second-best thing he adds a few seconds later.

Since then, you have been collecting all the ingredients you need to make the cake over the next couple of weeks. You have everything but cocoa powder, the most crucial ingredient. You’ve looked everywhere, every plant, every website you couldn’t find it anywhere else but this plant.

You don’t want to go against what Din has asked you, especially because you said you wouldn’t. Still, you just wanted to do something special for him, for his birthday, because he deserved it. After all, he had done for you, you wanted to do something for him even if others might consider it a little thing you knew it would mean a lot to Din.

For example a few months ago, you tried to make sure Din started enjoying his meals more and eating meals more frequently. You did this by eating together like a clan Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner. You and Din sit next to each other at the small table you had built together, the kid in his high chair. Din had to adjust to it but never complained. He even started to look forward to it, rushing back to the ship sometimes after a bounty to make it in time for lunch or dinner.

You smiled, thinking fondly of the memories you’ve created with your clan over the past months as you started getting ready to leave. As you’re finishing up and was about to leave, you activate the droid; you have to watch the kid. This droid you had found in a past mission but never had a reason to fix it until now. You had been working on it the ship during flight and while Din was away on hunts.

When Din had asked you about the droid, you said you were programming the IG-11 to help clean around the ship. Din had been uncertain because of its killing background but ended up letting it go. You had lied though, you had kept the Droids programming and just added few changes to it. The changes were that when you left, its mission was to protect the child and take care of all its needs. It was to kill anyone or thing that came onto the ship unless it was you, Din, or the kid.

The little white lie was never a problem either because you only activated the droid when you and Din were out to watch the kid, and you always made sure to come back to the ship before Din to deactivate it, plus Din never questioned why he’d never seen the droid in “action.”

You set out to the local market nearby, where you were hoping to find the last ingredient so you could make the cake. Since you started a little late today and this is one of the most dangerous plants in the galaxy, you walked a bit faster than usual. The quicker you walked, the more excited you got. You were about to be done getting all the supplies to make the cake, just in time, because Dins birthday was in a couple of weeks. As you neared the market, you prayed to Maker that the thing you’re risking your life over was going to be here. You were incredibly proud of yourself for keeping this a secret from Din without him suspecting a thing.

***********

Din had tracked his bounty to a bar nearby; as he neared the bar, he could hear the noise of people inside. As soon as he stepped foot into the bar, it went silent, some people shaking in fear, others puffing their chest out and rising onto the balls of their feet slightly. Din looked around the bar; it wasn’t a bad bar. It just wasn’t the nicest.

The same color brown wood was throughout, green bar stools, plastic lawns chairs, mice having a party in every corner. Also, the floor was sticky; he could feel it with every step he took, he would have to use a little more effort than usual to lift his foot up, and you could hear it in every step. Din hadn’t spotted his bounty during his initial scan of the room, so he turned to the bartender to ask if he had seen the bounty. The bartender wasted no time and pointed to the backroom as he kept his head down. Din reaches the backroom and sees a smaller room same design and layout as the front with four men playing poker and three bodyguards. Dins usually not a man of words, but he doesn’t really feel like fighting today, so he tells them, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours.”

One guard rushes towards Din and tries to grab him, but Din is quicker; he pulls a blaster and shoots a bodyguard in the chest. He starts getting attacked by two of the bodyguards but takes them out with ease. After the last bodyguard fell to the floor, he heard footsteps pounding against the floor, then pressure is applied to his back, one of the poker players had jumped on him. Din falls backward, crushing the person underneath him; he then quickly rolls over, props himself on one knee, and pulls his blaster to shoot the guy. Din then whips his gun around to the other side of the room to find two people standing there shaking with their hands up, neither of them his bounty. Din snaps his head in the direction of the door he came in as he hears the bell ring that’s placed above the door. He pushes himself off the ground and starts chasing after the man.

*************

You had to go to three different vendors in the market, but you finally found the cocoa powder you were looking for, the lady dared to charge you three times its worth, but you didn’t care anything for Din. You had to wander deep into the market to find the cocoa, so on your way out, you were doing a slight jog. You had hoped you were making good time and would make it back in time, but you had no way of knowing for sure.

***************

Din is chasing after the guy, and he’s so close the guy knows this too. The bounty suddenly stops in the middle of a crowd; he pulls out a blaster and waves it. Sounds of shock and fear echoed threw out the public. Din steps forward to get the guy he needs alive; the man suddenly looks around frantically, pulls the closest person to him, and puts a gun to their head. It was you. The bounty had put the gun to your head. Din’s mind blanks. He has no other thoughts besides getting to you; he doesn’t care if the bounty is for him brought in cold. The bounty had touched what’s his.

Din quickly pulls his blaster ready to fire when suddenly you pull forward, folding over as you push down on your toes; you then spring up, moving your head back to strike the man’s head. The man then stumbles backward from the sudden impact. Din is quick to act as he runs towards the man and then shoots the man in his arm, the man falls to the ground, and Din proceeds to lift the man up and place him in handcuffs.

Din turns towards you to scan your body as he looks for any injuries. His beskar covered face then looks up towards you as he asks, “hurt,” and you proceed to shake your head no. Before you can ask if he’s hurt, he grabs your arm and pushes you in front of him, signaling to walk. You do walk as he follows, dragging the bounty behind him.

The journey back to the ship was quiet, too quiet even the bounty tried to speak on the tensions, “struggle in paradise, eh.”

Din pressed his finger into his wound for that one.

You’d been so distracted by the event that happened you had forgotten about the droid, but it was too late. Din had already typed in the code, and the ramp was coming down.

This was the first time, the one time Din wasn’t the faster person in the room; by the time Din pulled his blaster out, it was too late. It all happened in a blink of an eye. The bounty was dead. The droid shot him.

You were nervous, it’s not like you were in desperate need of the credits, but the money could have help, and you know Din just went through a lot to get him.

“The child is safe, would you li-“IG-11 started before Din shot him. You were about to complain, but then you remember the situation you were in.

You stood in silence for a couple of minutes before deciding to look at Din only to find him staring at you. You turned your head away so quick that pain in your neck started to arise. “Din I-I-I’m so so sorry this is all my fault, I’ll take the blame, ok. Just tell Greef Karga, ok. Can he be brought in dead? I mean, it’s not a big deal, y-y-you’ve done it before. Greef Karga will s-still a-a-a-accept it right …. RIGHT!”

Din didn’t utter a word as he dragged the body onto the ship; he put the body into carbon freeze and closed the ramp. Then he just stood there. He didn’t move an inch. The tension in the air was so thick, you could even breathe properly. You knew this was your time to leave him alone. Earlier, you had noticed that the kid wasn’t in IG-11s arms, so you were planning on looking for him, assuming that he had been put to sleep because this was around his nap time.

“Ok, so I see that you need alone time; I’m just going to find the kid and take care of him,” you said as you turned to go look for him.

You didn’t even get to do a complete 180 before Din grabbed onto your wrist and twisted it, pulling your body closer to him. You could hear the hard deep breaths he was taking as he stared right into your soul.

“Why,” he whispered out, hurt invoice.

“I-I-I,” you tried to speak, your eyes moving back and forth as you tried to find his.

“Why would you be so stupid? I told you not to leave, I told you this place was dangerous. You didn’t listen, why can’t you ever just listen.” He snapped at you, saying every word with a tremble. He let you go and started to walk away from dragging his feet across the floor.

“I’m sorry,” you choked out, your eyes watering up, tears threatening to fall.

Your words had made him stop dead in his tracks. “Are you” he questions as he walks towards you. Each step he took towards you, you took one back till your back hit the wall. You were nervous but weren’t afraid, you knew Din would never hurt you, but you still didn’t like to be around him when he got like this.

“WHAT WAS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU RISKED YOUR LIFE FOR? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU COULD HAVE DIED TODAY? DO YOU EVEN CARE?”

You did understand how sideways things could have gone, and you were trying to tell him that, but the words kept getting caught in your throat. So you ended up just slowly shaking your head in agreement.

“Are you sure cause you don’t seem like it? What about that FUCKING droid? You lied to me; why would you do that? You already know how I feel about them, so why would you do that. And to leave THE KID with it. I hope whatever you got was worth it. Just do what I brought you here for and watch the child,” he growled out as he walked away towards the cockpit so he could set our next coordinates.

You stood there for a second shook but started to move to find the kid after the ship took off. He was in your old room, which you and Din turned into a toddler’s room after you moved into his. You picked the kid up and sat down in a rocking chair. You hugged the kid close to you as tears fell down your cheek. You were angry. Din had no right to talk to you like that. You messed up, you understand that, but to yell at you like he did have. Plus, you had risked your life for something for him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t know it; he should know you better than to just assume that you would have intentionally risked your life for something stupid.

***********

Din sat in his chair in the cockpit, feeling the weight of guilt immediately; the weight of his beskar couldn’t even compare to how heavy this felt. He felt awful; he regretted every word that came out of his mouth. He was just so angry; he had almost lost the only person he has ever cared about since his parents besides the kid. That was no excuse; he has had his fair share of screw-ups, the number of times he has almost gotten killed was too many to try to count on both hands.

He took his helmet off and put his hands in his head. He was stressed after all the events that happened today, but he was most worried about what had just happened in the bay. He deliberated on going down there and apologizing to you but ultimately decided to give you your space and apologize later today.

Din was going to apologize, he swore on Maker, but later that day, when he found you so he could apologize, you were sleeping in your old room. He was tempted to move you to the room you shared but then decide against it knowing you had fallen asleep in your old room for a reason. He slept in the cockpit that night; it didn’t feel right without you next to him. It’s funny Din spent most of his life alone; now he doesn’t even know how to sleep alone.

The next day Din did honestly try to apologize to you, but every time he entered the same room as you were in, you got up and left. Din understood that you probably need space after the fourth time stepping into the same room as you and you walking out. Din decided that you probably needed one more day.

The next day came, and you still were leaving every room he came into. He was sad; he missed the family dinners and lunches, he couldn’t wait any longer, he decided to apologize to you as soon as possible.

Din stepped into the kitchen area around lunchtime; he knew you were cooking something that requires your full attention, so he knew you wouldn’t step away.

“I’m-I’m sorry, I should have never yelled at you like that. I was angry because the bounty tried to run and then held you at gunpoint, he was touching what was mine, and I-I-I took it out on you. I should have never taken it out on you; I’m sure whatever you went out for was well worth it. I’m sorry, cyar’ika, ni kar’tayl gar darasuum.”

Din waited there for something, anything, you didn’t say a single word. You instead finished up your cooking, turned the stove off, and proceeded to fix you and the child a plate before heading off to the cockpit to eat.

Din stood there in shock; this is not how things usually go after an argument. Din stood there for a few minutes as he contemplated what to do next. Maybe he had said it wrong, he thought; Din hadn’t apologized a lot in his life, he could count how many times on one hand, and all those times he had been with you. All those times, you had also accepted it, so Din shook his head of the thought that he had said it wrong. He decided to give you another day to think about accepting his apology.

***********

A day turned into two, then three, next things Din knew, three weeks had passed. It had been complete silence for three whole weeks. Din was dying inside. He barely ate or slept; he missed you, everything about you, even things that seemed stupid. He missed the way your hair smelled, he missed the warmth of your body as he slept next to you, he missed your smile. Din has never been before addicted to something, but he will bet this is what it feels like to go through withdrawal.

He craved you mentally and physically; he had started waking up this past week on the verge of a nut. He always had the same dream to, he would apologize and you would accept. Then he would worship your body like never before, discovering new things about you, what turns you on and how flexible you really are. Each and every time right before he would nut, right when you give him permission to cum inside, he wakes up, every time like clockwork.

*************

It was around lunchtime, and Din sat in the kitchen debating his next move. He needed you. He missed the way you guys used to be as a clan; just him and the kid alone wasn’t the same. He looked up and saw you putting the kid in a high chair and turning to the fridge, taking stuff out to make sandwiches. He laid back, watching you move around the kitchen. You had one of his shirts on with some shorts that you couldn’t see unless you reached up to get something that made your shirt rise.

He watched as you bent over getting something out of the fridge, his dick twitched in his pants. He had been so deprived of you that anything you did got him hard; he grunted as he started to palm himself over his pants.

You had heard Din behind you, you smiled to yourself, you knew he was dying inside, you’d heard it every morning when he was rubbing one out. You honestly had stopped being mad like a week and a half ago. You just wanted to see how long Din could stay away from you; you really wanted to see how long till you had Din Djarin on his knees.

You finished cooking and made some food for the kid and you, but instead of going up to the cockpit like you usually do, you ate in the kitchen. You decided to stand up to eat, leaning over the counter, back facing Din. You moaned with every bite you took, doing a little happy dance.

You had unknowingly confirmed to Din that you were no longer upset and were playing. He had suspected it but wasn’t sure; you would do things like get changed with the door open or take a shower with the door open. He saw those things and thought that you were ready to talk, but when he tried, you walked away. He had assumed that you weren’t ready and wasn’t doing those things on purpose. He knew now, though, that you were playing some type of game, a game he was about to end.

You had finished eating and looked up to find the kid sleep in his chair. You took the kid and put him in his room so he could sleep in peace. You came back to the kitchen to clean up; you felt Din’s eyes on you everywhere you went. You walked over to the crates to put some things from the kitchen up, passing Din as you went. You had felt him before you saw him, his back pressed up against you. You could feel the heat radiating off his clothed body as he pressed up against you. You leaned in for a second before realizing what you were doing. You turned around, trying to leave, but Din stood in your way. You had no other choice but to look up at him and go along with whatever he was trying to do.

“What do you want, Din,” you asked

“I was going to say I was sorry.”

“Well, apology not accepted,” you said quickly, cutting him off before he said another word.

“See cyar’ika keyword, was, “he replied looking at you with his brown eyes

“So what do you want now, Din,” you asked as you walked backward, eventually running out of space as your back hit the wall. You swallowed the lump in your throat and asked him again what he wanted.

He didn’t reply; instead, he reached up and took a finger drawing it from your collar bone to your chest; you shivered as he stared circling your covered nipple before pinching it.

“You,” he said

“What”

“You had asked me what I wanted now, and my answer is you,” he replied.

You were about to question it when he brought his finger up to your lips to quiet you before bringing his hand down and up your shirt to play with your breast. He made a low groan in his throat when he realized that you weren’t wearing your band wrap.

“At first, I was mad that you had put yourself in danger. Then I was a little sad when you started dodging me; it really hurt when you didn’t respond to my apology,” he chuckled. You could hear the smirk in his voice. He lifted up your shirt up over your head. He placed his hands back on your breast and then pinched one of your nipples, making your head fall back as you moaned out loud.

“Then you started playing games with me, messing my head all up. To blame you for playing this game would be wrong of me,” he said as he left you boobs, and his hand traveled up to wrap around your throat. Your body leaned into his touch, your hand reaching out to wrap around his wrist that was at your throat.

His hand squeezed your throat tighter at your silent request as he pushed you back, bringing his head down to bite along your collars before mumbling against your skin, “I realized that it’s not your fault, I should have taught you better, and I will” he said and then quickly pulled away and grabbed a chair to sit down.

“What,” you asked, eyes popping out head. You were confused, but it was too late; Din had already pulled you over his lap. He had pulled down your shorts; he was excited to see that you were wearing a thong, so he left your underwear in place.

“Din, what are you doing?” you questioned as you shifted around on his lap, trying to get a better look at him.

“If you’re going to act like a little brat, then I’m going to treat you like a little brat,” he said as he processed to take his gloves off.

“I will give you an equal amount of slaps on each cheek, and you will count each one out, ok, and safe word is cake, ok, “He asked as he messaged each cheek.

You shook your head as consent, “I need to hear a yes cyar’ika,” he said, giving you a little tap on your right cheek.

You yelped, surprised by the slight sting that followed that slap, and wondered how on Tatooine you were going to endure more, mainly because you and Din have never done something like this before. A slap or two while he hit it from behind, was the closest thing that had ever happened.

“Yes,” you were excited, you’d never seen this side of Din; you might even start messing with Din more often.

Din was smiling; he always loved to try new things with you. He continued to run over each cheek for a few more seconds before he raised his hand and landed the first smack on your right cheek.

“One” You choked out as he rubbed the cheek he just slapped.

It was hard, and it stung, but there was something about it that turned you on.

Din lifted up his hand before smack the left cheek “two,” you tried to suppress your moan. You were kinda embraced at the fact you were getting turned on from this.

When Dins hand landed on your right cheek again for the second time, you moaned loudly as you said the number three. Din smiled at that; he was happy you were enjoying this new thing. Din continued to tear your ass up, each slap hurting more than the last. You were getting wetter with each one to the point where your wetness started to drip down your leg, your underwear no longer keeping it in as it was soaked.

You were preparing to feel a sting on your left cheek for the last slap. Instead, Din pushed you off his lap and set you onto the floor. You laid there confused as he spread your legs open and took your thong off. He got on the side of you and leaned down to kiss you. Your lips captured his in a passionate kiss. You were distracted as Din slipped his tongue into your mouth, so you didn’t see it coming. He had raised his hand and slapped your pussy. You throw your head back as you moan, tears streaming down your face from the intensity of the sudden, overwhelming rush of pleasure.

You shot up before going back down as you raised your hip as he started to rub circles on your clit. He reached down, placing kisses along your neck up and down your neck to your collarbone and back up. He took your ear lobe and brought it into his mouth, pulling on it before letting it go.

These slow circles on your clit were killing you, “Please,” you whimpered as you reached down, placing your hand on top of him, encouraging him to go faster.

He slapped your hand aways, stopping because of you. He rubbed his nose up and down on your ear before asking.

“are you going to be a good girl for me?”

You shook your head up and down, unable to speak as he started playing with your clit again. You didn’t realize that this game you were playing had affected you too till now. You were so desperate; you would do anything he asked just so you could cum on him because of him.

He took his hand away from cunt and brought it up to your lips. You looked Din in the eyes as you took two of his fingers into his mouth and sucked on them. You closed your eyes as you moaned, tasting yourself on his fingers. You weaved your tongue around his fingers before you hollow your cheeks, making a popping sound when he pulled them out.

He ran his finger down your body before shoving two fingers inside of you. You moved your hips down to meet the thrust of his hand. Your legs threaten to close as the pleasure builds, nonsense mumbling falling from your lips.

“More,” you begged

“Faster,” you cried as he gave in to both of your demands.

Suddenly he stopped, and your whines of complaint soon turned into a moan as he pressed his tongue against your clit. He shifted so he could wrap his hands around your thighs as he dove in. It was still the best thing he has ever tasted, he thought to himself. Your back arches as he bites softly on your clit before he sucks on it, and he pushes two fingers into you. You reached down your finger through Din’s hair, causing him to moan into you to moan as you clench around him. Din loves feeling the way your body reacts to him, the way you gripped his fingers, his tongue, his dick.

You were close. You can feel it, and so could Din, so he quickened his pace.

“I’m- I’m. “You tried to speak be couldn’t

“I know,” he said, moving his thumb to circle your clit

You were so close, you could feel it in your stomach. You were about to cum when Din pulled his fingers out and started to lick them clean.

You let a puff of air out as you lose your high. You prop yourself on your elbows as you looked at him, throwing your hands up asking why.

“I just wanted you to see how it feels to work so hard for something only to have it taken from you at the last minute.” He said, standing up but never breaking eye contact with you. You choked on your spit when you realized what he was referring to.

You tried to stand up, but he placed a hand on your shoulder, pushing you back down into your knees. You cocked your head to the side, and he just reached down and took your hand, placing it on top of his pants.

You looked up at him licking your lips before unbuttoning his pants and pulling down his zipper; you pushed his pants down along with his boxers down. You spit into your hand before wrapping your hand around his dick as much as you could. You stroked him before sticking your tongue out and licking the tip, then running your tongue up and down his shaft.

He grabbed you by your hair, yanking you back to look up at him. “Don’t play with me,” he said before taking his hand and wrapping it around your jaw to keep it open as he spits in it.

He let you go, and you stroked him a few times before taking him into your mouth. You moaned around him at the taste of him; this caused Din to lose his balance for a second, making him grab onto a crate to balance himself.

You swirled your tongue around his head before going back and forth, taking more of him in each time, you pulled back off of him, but strings of spit still connecting you to him. You purse your lips as you spit into your hand, reaching down to massage his balls before taking him back into your mouth, making sure to lick the pre-cum as you did.

He reached behind your head to grab your hair as he thrust into your mouth, you gag on his dick, but he keeps going knowing that you will tap against his leg if it gets to be too much. Din grabbed on to your head with both hands as he continued to fuck your face; you could feel him inching down your throat with each thrust. He was about to nut; you could feel it as his balls started to tighten. He griped your hair tighter, signaling for you to look at him. “Where,” he asked, slowing down so you could choose.

He let go of your hair as you pulled back, sticking your tongue out. He smiled down out at you before taping his tip against your tongue a few times as he started to stroke his dick. He quickens his paces and grabs onto your head, pulling it tight, so he won’t miss his target. Din grunted as if he was in pain as he painted your face with white streaks. He rubs his dick smearing the last bit on your tongue. You swallowed the bit in your mouth before feeling around your face the rest and swooping it into your mouth. You licked your lips, smiling up at him when you were all done.

He bent down and swiped his thumb across your cheek, getting the little you had left behind into your mouth. You sucked on it for a second before he pulled it out. He grabbed onto your hand, helping you up as his hands cradled your face, and he pressed his lips to yours; he moaned into your mouth at the taste of him. He reaches down to grab your ass before smacking up light and kneading it as you wrap your arms around his neck.

He pulls back, breaking the kiss as he taps your side, signaling for you to jump up so he could carry you. You jump into his arms, and he takes you into the room you shared and lay you against the cot. You lay there waiting for him as he finishes getting undressed.

He got onto the cot and got between your legs; he stroked himself a few times before lining it up with you. He looked up to meet your eyes looking for consent, and you nodded your head, giving it to him. He slowly pushed into you feeling your walls stretch around him before tightening. Your head falls back as your eyes rolled into the back of your head. You grab onto the sheets, bunching them into your hands as you feel yourself being starched to your limit. You take your legs and wrap them around Din’s waist. You cross your ankles as you try to push him into you to make him go faster. He stops suddenly, he’s not even all the way in, and he stops. You’re starting to regret trying to make him go faster, you can’t see much, but you can see him smiling. You know that smile, nothing good is about to come out of that smile.

Din pulls all the way out before slamming back into you completely. You didn’t even make a sound because the air is knocked out of you; your back arches as you try to catch your breath. As soon as you caught your breath, he steals it as he leans down for a kiss capturing your lips roughly.

As he continuously pounds into you ruthfully, he takes one of your legs wrapped around his waist and pushes it to your chest to get a better angle to go deeper. You cry out with every thrust, your voice bouncing off the walls, echoing in the room.

“Mine, This body, theses tits, this tight as pussy, it’s all mine,” he told you as he takes one of your nipples into his mouth.

“It’s yours; every part of me is yours,” you agreed as you wrapped your arms around his neck, bringing him in closers.

You were close, especially after being denied earlier; you need release. Din quicken his paces as he felt you clench tightly around him.

“I-I-I’m close,” you screamed out.

“Cum for me, riduur,” he whispers in your ear.

The name he calls you pushes you over the edge; you clamp down on his dick as you cum. That doesn’t slow him down as he continues for a few strokes riding out you high before pulling out, flipping you onto your stomach, and pushing back into you without warning or rest. You back arch into his thrust as he makes your legs go apart, spreading you wider. He pops onto one knee, driving into you mercilessly as he reaches down to press your face into the mat.

As he’s thrusting into you, you feel one of his fingers circle around your unstretched hole; you guys had been saving that experience, maybe for this moment. “Can I please? I’ll only put a finger in,” he begged you you nodding your head under his hand. He acknowledges the movement as he pulls out, reaching down swooping up some of your wetness before plunging back into you. He teases the hole before slowly pushing his thumb in, causing you to arch your back even more and let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. “ f-f-fuck, Din” you stutter out when he got fully in.

Din quickens his pace in you as he sets a steady pace with his thumb. This was new to you, so being stretched like this, you were close to began for more; you wanted to know how it would feel to be pushed to your limit in both holes. You decided against it as you feel Din reach under you to toy with your clit, you chocked on your spit as you tried to catch your breath, all this pleasure was becoming too much for you to handle, you couldn’t even seem to catch your breath.

The pressure builds up in your stomach once again as you feel your peak near. You let sob into the mattress as you feel yourself clench around Din like never before as you cum. Your back arching to the point of pain, which only adds to your pleasure. You feel Din slow down; at first, you are confused about what he’s doing, but then you realized he’s watching how well you take him. He’s looking at how your pussy quivers around him with every stroke. He then speeds up for a second, loving the sound of skin slapping and the gushing sound your pussy makes as your wetness flows out of you staining your sheets.

Din chuckles before pulling you up by your hair, pressing your back to his chest, as he starts to thrust into you. Your body naturally arching into him as he reaches up and cups your right breast, moving his other hand down as he rubs vicious circles on your clit. Your tried body slumping against him as he takes you from behind. He knows you’re tired even if the grip you have on his dick says; otherwise, he stills know. He leans down into your ear, telling you, “you have one more in you, I know do.”

You reach up to take his hand from your breast to wrap it around your throat; you gave his hand an extra squeeze encouraging him. You get that familiar feeling in your stomach as he continues to pound into you with one hand wrapped around your throat and the other one rubbing circles on your clit. You whimper as you try to tell Din you close, but your body is too tired to even conjure up the words. Din understood you though, he was close, not far behind you. He knew that the feeling of you coming around him would do him.

You throw your head back against Din’s shoulders as you felt yourself unravel on him. Din places a hand on the wall as he losing his balance the feeling of your tighten around him as you milk him dry, he continues to pump into you, riding out of yours. Din pulls out, turning you onto your back, laying you down before opening your legs and settling himself between them. He pulled back for a second because you had winced in pain, his dick had rubbed against your extremely sensitive mound; he pulled back, readjusting his self before laying back down. He played comfortably in your arms, his head in the crook of your neck as he rubbed circles in your side while you laid there with your arms wrapped him.

Din lifts his head up and leans down to capture your lips in a sloppy but passionate kiss that held a lot of emotion behind it. You pull away, and he pushes his head into the crook of your neck, and you reach up and run your fingers through his loose curly.

“I’m sorry about everything I said, it was wrong, and I was out of line.” He said but face still in your shoulder

“It’s ok. I should have been more careful when I went out; I didn’t even bring a blaster with me,” you replied as you continued to massage his scalp.

“What did you get from the market.”

“It’s a surprise.”

“I hate surprises. Do you not remember the droid.” He asked

“Hey, at least we know it effective,” you said laughing, but Din wasn’t

“Too soon,” you asked, but you knew it wasn’t as you felt Din smile against your skin. You guys fell asleep just like, you holding him in your arms.

********

The next day went by so smoothly; you guys were back to the daily routine like nothing happened. Din was excited to get back to the meal sharing, he didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to. You guys had eaten breakfast together but had your lunches separate because you each had your own projects to do. Which is what you told Din, but you had actually needed the rest of the day to set up everything for his birthday dinner and make the cake.

You weren’t even sure if Din knew today was his birthday, but even if that’s true, it will make for a better surprise.

Din was coming down soon; he just had to set new coordinates. You guys needed to come out of hyperspace to get gas before continuing on your journey to the next plant where the next bounty is at, which is two days away.

During one of your trips to the market, you found a pretty little black dress; you were so excited to wear it for his birthday. You don’t even remember the last time you were in a dress, and you knew Din had never seen you with one, so it would be like icing on top of the cake.

You heard footsteps above you move, and you were quick to act as you turned around, lit the candles on the cake, and flipped the light switch.

You heard Din slide down the step and walked towards you; your back was still turned to him, and it was dark, but something was illuminating your face; he just didn’t know what. He reached over to the wall next to him and flipped the light switch on. He turns and sees the kid in his high chair next to you.

“cyar’ika,” He asked, stepping closer to you.

You then turn around slowly, not wanting to make the candles go out. As soon as Din sees your face, he gives you a small smile, but it drops when he sees what’s in your hand. You were nervous for a second, thinking that you had crossed a line or something. Then you saw a single tear roll down Din’s face; you had never seen the man cry. You had been with him for close to a year and never have seen this.

You set the cake down and quickly went over to him, embracing him in a hug. He hugged you back so tightly as if he was going to lose you.

“Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum, ner Ridder,” he said, but you only recognized one of the words used.

You reached up and wiped his tears and took his hand and led him over to the cake, Din looked at you before bending down to give you a quick kiss, and he straight up, closing his eyes for a second before bending down and blowing out his candles. You clapped your hands in enjoyment and excitement and reached over to pull in your face for a quick kiss. You heard a slight noise, and you pulled back and turned to see the kid clapping also.

You laughed at that before reaching over and grabbing a knife so Din could cut his cake. Din happily took the knife from you as he cut himself a pretty big piece of cake; he took a fork and a huge bite. Din moaned as he took his first bite, slowly chewing on the chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting. His tongue dashes out to lick up any residue that he might have left on his lips.

“I might have to change my mind. This might be the best thing I have ever tasted,” Din said, bringing down the fork for another bite.

You faked gasped, “what does that make me second.”

“You know what? I think I need a refresher, especially with you in that little black dress,” I said, licking his lip, and he wrapped an arm around your waist.

“Later, the kid and I are hungry; it’s time to eat,” you said as you shoved him off of you.

He wrapped his arms around you from behind and kissed you on the neck before saying, “no, seriously, this is the best thing anyone could have given me. I have a question though, is this what you went out to get” he asked, you hummed in response.

“As much as I love my gift, and I really do, please do risk your life over something like this. All I need is you and the kid, and I’m happy, ok.” He said

“Ok”

Cyar’ika - darling

Ridder - wife/partner

Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum - I love you.

ner Ridder - my wife/ partner

#mando #mando x you #pedro pascal #star wars #smut #din djarin #din dijarin x reader #pedro pascal x reader #the mandalorian #the mandolorian x reader #din djarin x you #nsft text

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admiringlove · 4 years ago

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[ii] scents, coffee and turtlenecks

+synopsis: hq boys and their scent, their coffee order and the turtlenecks they wear.

+genre: fluff lol; headcanons.

+characters: kageyama tobio, oikawa tōru, suna rintarō, miya osamu.

+warnings: literally just fluff man, unless you cry because of cute stuff.

+order: hi!! i saw that suggestions are open and i was wondering if you could do more of the scent coffee turtlenecks? they were really fun and comforting to read. they got me through a tough situation, so thank you! i hope you keep writing and keep growing <33 [by anonymous]

+author’s notes: hi anon! funnily enough, i had written some part of this and it was sitting in my drafts halfway done, but your ask helped me get through the rest of it. hope you like it, love. here’s part one!

— KAGEYAMA TOBIO.

his scent is calming. it’s strawberries and mint, and it refreshes you. it’s funny really, the way his favorite flavor of milk is strawberry and how he actually smells like the fruit. whenever you embrace him warmly, a cooling feeling washes over you—it feels like a day off. when you’re overworked and you need time to spend with self-care? yeah, tobio reminds you of that. he’s constantly telling you to take care of yourself more too(which is the irony in this situation). you feel a small pinch in your heart whenever he lets go of you(if he goes out of town for matches or gets up from cuddling). if he’s leaving the city for work, you’d shed a tear, telling him you’d miss him. and when you’d come back home, you’d wear any of his clothing. because kageyama reminds you of a calm afternoon, filled with the scent of strawberries and the alleviating agent like mint.

he does not order coffee. definitely the type of person to go to the vending machine to buy flavored milk instead of getting coffee. he thinks coffee shops are a waste of time. why would someone pay ten extra bucks for average coffee when you can just get sweet milk from the vending machine? you definitely bully him for this(just point and laugh, [y/n]. point and laugh). he’d get all flustered and yell at you, but then he’d end up hiding his face on a pillow or something. you’d go up to him and hug him, which would lead up to kageyama asking you, “so... the next time you get coffee, i’ll just wait outside, okay?”. you laugh at him again, telling him that he didn’t have to wait outside, but then he retorts with how the barista looks at him weirdly after he asked her if they sold flavored milk.

kageyama likes wearing a fixed set of colors. he’s not the type of person to go out of the ordinary and wear some absurd color like neon-green, but something like different shades of blue. he definitely doesn’t have two same colored shirts—even if they are, they’re in different shades. he mostly wears blue and black turtlenecks, but he doesn’t mind trying whites or greys either. he does blush every time you compliment him though, so maybe dial it down a little or he’ll combust(you don’t have to, you can just watch his brain go haywire then kiss his forehead to make him go redder than before).

— OIKAWA TŌRU

his scent is so sweet, it’s addicting. it’s either something floral like rose or lavender. or sometimes he’d go with the plain old smoked vanilla. his hugs are the best, really. they’re filled with the sweet aroma circling around the two of you as you inhale his scent. he’d stroke your hair as you hum against him in contentment, saying, “like the cologne, [y/n]-chan?”. you’d tease him, telling him he smelled like an eleven-year-old girl and he’d reply with, “hey! at least eleven-year-old girls know what they’re doing!”.

he does not like coffee. will straight up go to the barista and order the sweetest drink on the menu. this boy just does not do well with the bitterness of coffee. he doesn’t like it, and he’s in shock by how you can drink it so easily. “[y/n]-chan, how are you doing that?!”, he’d exclaim. you’d raise an eyebrow, asking him, “doing what, bub?”. although he really wants to melt at the nickname, he’d say, “that bitter monstrosity!”. this conversation leads nowhere except laughter and jokes, really. some teasing comments are thrown here and there; some criticizing oikawa for having such low tolerance for bitterness, and some at you for what an utter abomination you are for drinking coffee. tie the bow on the gift-box with a small teasing kiss and dancing in the kitchen without music at seven in the morning, because oikawa felt like it. your relationship is like the marriage of bitterness and sweetness—somewhere close to perfect.

he can wear anything and still look good. has a wide variety of turtlenecks—and he’ll definitely wear them according to his mood for the day. although most of the colors are on the lighter side, he has a few blacks in the mix as well. he likes the pastel-blue one the most(because, according to him, “blue is just my color, [y/n]-chan!”). he has the tendency to match with you. loves buying you the same shirts as him, because he thinks it’s adorable when you walk around with him and match his clothing. basks in the glory of when people look and compliment the two of you, and you blush(he thinks you’re cute, okay?).

— SUNA RINTARŌ

suna definitely smells like cigarettes and lime basil. he doesn’t smoke often, it’s just the scented candles he buys online(he thinks it’s funny because the candles are cigarette-scented). you often tell him he stinks, but he knows you’re only poking around. he knows you love the scent he gives off when you hold on to him just a little tighter, just a little longer, just a little closer. the kisses linger for a smidge longer, and he knows. he knows you love his scent and he knows you love him. he’s not cocky about it until you tease him though, because if you do say he stinks, he’ll pull you into a passionate kiss(and obviously, you don’t pull away). after he breaks the kiss, he’d say, “if i really do stink, you wouldn’t be sticking to me like glue.”

his coffee is either completely black, or just a normal latte. he doesn’t like really milky, or sweet coffee. also most definitely just uses coffee as a way to stay up(suna likes nights more than days). he likes staying up late with you, doing homework or anything really, until you’re dozing off next to him and he’s left in comfortable silence. he’ll run his hands through your hair, his slow breathing silent and his sharp eyes softened just by looking at you. he likes coffee. he really does. he likes coffee because it helps him stay awake and watch you peacefully. he falls asleep by four in the morning, and now it’s your turn to watch suna sleep. you make him a mug of coffee and breakfast. it’s a leisure-filled morning, and rin loves every part of it. he won’t tell you he does though, because you already know. and he knows you do.

suna rintarō in turtlenecks is a sight for sore eyes. he has a lot of greens, blacks, and greys. his style is to effortlessly look good, so he doesn’t actually care about what he wears unless it’s to impress someone(*cough* you) or for work. if he doesn’t have the energy to do something that’s eye-catching, he’ll just wear a turtleneck and pair it with plaid pants to call it a day. man still gets stares from people because of how effortlessly cool he is. he’s not even trying, which is the best part. he looks so good(cue you drooling in the background because suna in a black turtleneck and green plaid pants is just wow). and if he’s actually putting in effort for a date or something, he goes all the way with the accessories. rings, necklaces, maybe even wears his reading glasses because they look good with his overcoat. olive green turtleneck and white dickies would definitely suit him. after all, he wants to look the best for you.

— MIYA OSAMU.

he has one of the most comforting, woody scents ever. he has two bottles—one vetiver(it gives a smoky scent and he usually wears it to work) and one patchouli(more woodland-ish kind of scent. he wears it when he’s going out with you or on special occasions). you love the way he smells, because honestly, the most comforting time of the day is when he comes back home, and the first thing you do is hug him. you’ll take the dinner he made for the two of you at the restaurant and set it up as he changes and freshens up. his aroma overcomes you as the two of you sit down an talk about your day through the meal. his tired grin and you small giggles enough to make you feel content. and man, he’s the best to cuddle with as you sleep. he smells so good, it’s kind of scary. in the mornings, it’s almost hard to let go of him so you can get to work.

okay, we all know osamu is a sucker for food. but he’s also a pain in the ass when the two of you go to coffee shops. orders something fancy like café au lait, then continues to complain about how this particular coffee shop didn’t do the french drink justice. all the while, you’re just listening to him criticize the place(but you still love him, because he looks cute talking about the things he loves). you’ll leave the shop after an hour or so, and then just settle for a bowl of ramen from a small diner by your apartment because that seems to be the only thing that gets osamu off his high horse. by the end of the night, you’d tell him to quit acting like gordon ramsey. he’d retort by telling you that you would obviously prefer his food over gordon ramsey’s anyday(i mean, you can’t disagree with that. even if you tell him he’s being dumb, you know he’s right on the inside. osamu basically is a wizard with food).

osamu likes grey and black, and that’s about it. he’d try more stuff if you make him though. gets annoyed at the mall because you’re just picking out different colors for him to try and he’s just standing off to the side holding like ten different articles of clothing. he looks amazing in a chartreuse-green if you get him to wear it(will like how it look on his abs, he doesn’t tell you though). every canonical color suits him to be honest, just don’t go overboard with the neons or purples. he likes to keep it simple with the dark colors(black turtleneck osamu is a looker). and he definitely becomes all blushie-blushie if you tell him he looks pretty. looks away and puts his hand over his mouth a little(you should definitely take a picture of this, it looks so wrong and suggestive but it’s just him being a blushing mess). please, just hug him or something.

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osir-ethria · 4 years ago

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This is long as I began writing and couldn’t stop but enjoy if you decide to stop and read it.

When team RWBY plus Jaune and Neo return everyone’s gotta be tackling them.

If not tackling then please let it be emotional for the Vacuo survivors. They thought RWBYJ, and Neo but not too emotional for her because she was the enemy but y’know, was dead. I can imagine this.

Nora tackling Jaune, like how she tackled Oscar (the tag says ozcar... Omfg), crying and calling him an idiot while Ren rushes over falling next to them and holding him there with Oscar short after.

Qrow pulls Yang and Ruby into a hug and starts crying which is the first time his nieces have seen him like this. They smile and hug him tighter as he goes off on how he thought no couldn’t handle loosing more people he loved, aka Summer. (I don’t think they had anything romantic I just like to say that they had more of a sibling bond than him and Raven.)

Sun would most likely be there and I’d like to see Ilia there because she witnessed the message that was broadcasted all over the world. She would have found out that Blake’s ‘dead’ but seeing her there would make her happy. Balked would be hugged by both of them as they cry and she’s tearing up happily as she tries to calm them.

Emerald, Ace Ops, Happy Huntresses, team CVFY, and their other found friends in Vacuo would be standing to the side. As well as Winter who’s pulled away because she still blames herself and saw Weiss dissipate into golden light and can’t believe what she’s seeing. She got a little closer as she would but stops herself as she feels undeserving of that affection.

(Or she full on runs to her and pulls her into a huge hug as she breaks down crying but wait I’m not done.)

Whitley full on tackles Weiss, she doesn’t fall but she does lose a little balance. (He isn’t that meaty still but he’d be working on it... I hope.) He’d cling onto his older sister like a life line, crying as Weiss hugs him back. His tears becoming happy as he is reminded of that warmth the first time they hugged. Willow would be right after, remember Winter is still in the background just standing stunned and ashamed, pulling Weiss and Whitley into the most protective motherly hold.

I would say Klein would hug her but I’m sure he’d wait. He was closest to her besides Winter and he knows her boundaries plus Winter hasn’t hugged her yet.

When Weiss realizes that Winter’s warmth isn’t there she lightly pulls away from Willow, still holding Whitley as she looks over to Winter. She can see Winter frozen, paler now than she was in Atlas looking as if she’d seen a ghost. (Now don’t mind me as I add some dialogue and story narration.)

_________

Weiss - “Winter...”

Winter freezes more, sucking in a breath. She remembers the look Weiss is giving her just like the one she had before running from the Academy and being announced as a criminal. Before Atlas fell apart. It was remorseful, full of sadness and pity.

Winter - “Wei-“

She tries to stutter something out but she can’t say it. It doesn’t come out and she feels like she’s breaking. She wishes that she could hide behind a wall but all this time, after losing Weiss she couldn’t put up that barrier anymore unless it was in a battle. She had lost her sister seeing her disappear in front of her, dying but here she was alive. She had gotten lucky but she doesn’t feel like she deserves this, this chance to see Weiss again.

She looks up to see Weiss pull away from Whitley entirely only holding onto his wrist, turning to face Winter. There was no more pity in her eyes, no it wasn’t there to begin with she had just a massive amount of sadness, remorse, something else Winter couldn’t describe. That look however broke Winter. Tears now flowing from the older sister’s eyes still nothing coming out of her mouth. Winter’s vision blurring as she couldn’t concentrate, Weiss becoming a blur and all the prior exhaustion she had from countless nights of ensuring civilians safety was catching up to her.

She could feel gravity weighing on her, then an off balance before she felt gravity take its effect on her entire body. She’s falling now, fatigue finally getting the best of her as she closes her eyes awaiting impact of the rough, sandy, earth of Vacuo... but it never comes at least not entirely. She’s on her knees now being held up by something. Winter doesn’t move for a second before her tired curiosity got the better and she reaches for what’s holding her.

She feels something, something soft, alive. She can hear a beating heart and finally feels the two arms around her back that had been wrapped around her to catch her. Her vision, still slightly blur from the tears, cleared of fatigue and tiredness as she began to address what had caught her. She the blues, pastel lilac, inner red tones, the blues and whites. She see the pale skin and remembers the softness of it every time she had held it. She can see the glint of metal as a familiar sword, one someone was so excited to show her when it had gotten finished as it was a self custom design.

She remembers this warmth that feels like home, calmness, and entire comfort. Her little sister’s touch which had managed to snap her out of rages against their bastard of a father. The one she yearned to feel again after what happened in the other dimensional road way. The warmth she had full freedom to break in but refused as she didn’t want to be veiled as week, but now. Now she wanted to break, to fall apart in her sister’s arms. Apologize for everything, for being so put back, for not following the first second she noticed Ironwood slip, for not catching her when she tried to save her from all other hardships, but it wouldn’t come out.

Instead all she could do was move her arms around Weiss and hold her sister’s warm, blood pumping, heart beating, alive form with distress. Her head still resting a top Weiss chest so she can hear the heart beat bot not in a way that makes it loud and clear or hurts Weiss. Her Ingres tighten around the clothing her sister has on before she starts stuttering out, or attempting to stutter out anything.

Winter - “I-I’m sorry W-Weiss.”

All that’s coming out now are stutters of an apology. Apology for what? The she couldn’t get to her in time? For not being there for her more? Not being as open with her emotions as Weiss was with her? Not telling her what she thought of her little sister and how proud she is of her? Maybe all of those. She can’t say anything else but feels one of Weiss’s hand remove itself from her back which only Winter can reciprocate with clutching Weiss tighter. She feels that hand on her cheek as she’s forced to look up, right at her sister, and into Weiss’ eyes. That sadness still there but there is a smile on her face, an understanding and relief in her eyes.

Weiss - “Don’t be sorry.”

Don’t be sorry? What... why not? Especially after everything that happened. After all the times she’s failed her. Why was she being so forgiving to her? Is all Winter could think of as her jaw clenched, more tears began building, her eyes squinting now at the sun that was so conveniently behind Weiss, outlining her form. She couldn’t deny Weiss’s beauty even when she was younger than this.

Her sister’s hair down and draped over her shoulders, all curled from being in a braid far maybe a little to long. Her scar over her left eye the one she got from father’s test to be allowed to go to Beacon, a smile that radiated warmth and an inward kindness, a softer look in her eyes as they glazed over once again with relief. Winter’s muscles slacked a lot at this view as she remembered all those stories that portrayed stories of beautiful angels sent down to protect and spread wellbeing’s among others. That guardian angel that each individual was to get that would disguise itself and ensure their individual was protect. Now Winter never believed those stories to be true, but she’d couldn’t help but think if her sister was that guardian angel meant to protect her and not the other way around.

She thought for years that she was protecting Weiss but instead she was being protected by her or was all her supports to fragile heart, holding it together when she felt as if she failed from pulling Whitley away from Jacques. Her drive and momentum to keep gong to ensure that one day she could fully be free, and when following Ironwood failed she was rescued again by Weiss and her drive to save the lives of Mantle. No, she wasn’t just Winter’s guardian angel, she was Whitley’s and mother’s safe haven as well.

Picking them up if every they were to fall, and waiting for them, reaching out, pulling them from darkness, and helping them shatter their mirrors’. Helping all those who were suffering by the use of her songs no matter how angry it made Jacques or how much she was struggling for freedom as well. Changing all those expectations on has of Schnees when they meet her and get to know her.

Still when she was finally brought back to reality at the tilt of Weiss’s head and growing smile as a thumb ran over Winter’s cheek again and again. Speaking once more with her soft and calm voice.

Weiss - “You’re my sister and I could never blame you for anything that happened.”

This broke Winter as her tears came falling out without pause. She buried her head into Weiss’s chest needing to hear her heart beat. Holding her closer and tighter but still nothing. Well not until...

Weiss - “I love you Winter. I will always even if I’m dead, sister.”

I love you.

There it came, all at once the pain, remorse, sorrow, distraught, but most importantly relief. Relief that her sister was alive, that she survived. Relief that she was holding her. That, whatever fucked up fate this world had going for it, she could hold her sister again and was given a second chance.

That she’d defeat anything in her path if to ensure that this unlikely chance was not wasted one bit.

_______________

Wellllll.......... I got carried away with Winter finding how to express her emotions again. Began writing and couldn’t stop. Maybe I should make more of these just with different characters and not pick on Winter’s fragile state...

Or I could continue this Schnee angst and cry myself to sleep.

Anyways, I’ve got one more thing for the reunion.

Emerald is hugged, lightly but not without meaning as she holds onto the people that first called her a friend who she thought died. She’s crying by now as well.

Qrow also hugs Weiss and Blake, by now I’ll say he adopted Blake and Weiss and holds them close to his heart like family. This surprises everyone minus the people that travelled with them for most of their journey. Especially when Weiss and Blake hug him back just as tight, well Weiss a little less because she’s not used to being physically affectionate with anyone other than her team and the repaired bonds between her and her siblings and mother.

Klein gets a hug from Weiss because he is true Schneeblings’ dad, and to top it off all of his split personalities fight for control as he cries about how worried he was and how much he missed her.

After that Weiss drags Winter over to Whitley and holds them both close as Willow hugs them. Them just standing there, not entirely fixed but just glad that all the pieces to fix their family was there again.

And that’s my take on a reunion. And no I’m not sorry about the Winter and Weiss angst with hurt/comfort.

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kathyprior4200 · 4 years ago

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Kathy Prior Comforts Alastor

Another ordinary day at the Hazbin Hotel. Having died in the 2020’s due to covid, I appeared as a watered down human, not quite a demon unless influenced by Alastor’s dark magic. Originally I was going to be transformed into an angel reminiscent of my supposed spirit animal. But Heaven’s elitism rubbed me the wrong way, thus I refused to submit to God. I was banished down to Hell, living in a cardboard box. I was soon fleeing from the exterminators not too long afterwards. If they had gotten me, I’d either be killed or sent back to Heaven to be brainwashed as a white Exorcist. Then Alastor of all people decided to take me in and I arrived at the Hazbin Hotel. There I was good friends with Alastor, Charlie and Niffty, half convinced that they were the voice actors playing some kind of trick on me.

Aside from my demon form that is activated by Alastor’s magic, my afterlife form wasn’t very impressive. I looked like I did when I was alive, except my skin was ghostly pale, my long hair was gray and my eyes had black sclera, purple irises and white pupils. Although I didn’t fit in with the other demons, I could see in the dark and my instincts were heightened.

It’s not a lot of fun when Alastor possesses me or when he decides to swallow me whole. Apparently, there’s something powerful about me that allows him to heal, feel full and even get some rest. Often times, he sits me in front of a radio and has me listen to several of his favorite jazz songs. The little speakers start to glow and static buzzes in my head. His soothing voice washes over me and I find myself in a daze. My eyes glow red with moving black radio dials and my remaining thoughts are shoved to the back of my mind. Alastor soon has control of my body and mind. He calls the process “getting tuned in.”

I then transform into an alligator/red doe hybrid demon named Cerva. In this form, I’m a vicious killer and cannibal who accompanies Alastor, Husk and Niffty on various missions. Using my sharp claws, teeth and some dark magic, I take down pedos, rapists, criminals or anyone that stands in the Radio Demon’s way. My scaly skin helps protect me from most attacks, though I can still be killed by angelic weapons like everyone else. When he releases control of me and I morph back, it feels like a great weight is lifted off my chest. I cannot remember what I did before.

Like Husk and Niffty, I’m stuck under Alastor’s contract for a while. He persuaded me to work for him at the hotel and that “It’s a dangerous world outside.” Naturally I agreed.

Today was fairly busy. Charlie had a meet and greet event to welcome the newcomers Crymini, Mimzy and Baxter. When I wasn’t greeting any guests, I helped Niffty clean the rooms, make the beds and sweep up the floors. Sometimes I would help Alastor and Niffty make tasty jambalaya (with spicy sauce) and other dishes to serve to all the clients. I wasn’t very good at poker but it was still fun to play and watch as Husk skillfully won almost every game. Often, the characters would mostly talk amongst themselves, me fading into the background, being an OC. I was fine with that…it was almost like watching the show I dearly loved on Earth…except now I was a part of it in a way.

After I finished cleaning beer bottles at the Jackpot portion near the lobby, I heard Alastor and Husk talking not too far away by a pool table.

The cat demon let out his usual grumpy sigh. “Man, what a ruckus. I just served dozens of drinks to these annoying tourists who didn’t even stay. What’s the meaning of that?”

“Why Husker!” Alastor said with a laugh, “Ever since our three new demons arrived and signed up for Charlie’s program, more folks are becoming curious about it. Providing them with drinks and entertainment is surely the way to go!”

“Without any breaks?” Husk scowled. “And why’d you make me stretch my wings and do a stupid dance onstage when I got wasted earlier?”

“It was so funny, I had to!” he chuckled. “Even when you’re getting drunk, you can still do your new job well.”

“I’m here to serve drinks and get my money and booze. That’s it. I’m not some fucking clown you can roll into every little scheme of yours.”

“Hmm…maybe you are.”

“I don’t think so. Remember I’m only here because you bribed me with booze. But even that will only go so far.”

“Come now, my friend, why not liven up a little!” Alastor spoke in a loud voice, making Husk’s ears flinch back. “I provided you with some resources to make your life down here more…livable…or rather less dead.”

Audience laughter came from his microphone.

Husk rolled his eyes and muttered. “Your dad jokes make you a fucking joke.” Alastor snickered. Husk seethed, “Ugh great, now it’s rubbing off on me!”

Alastor pulled Husk in close with his arm, much to the cat’s disgust. “Just have some fun and follow my orders and things will go smoothly. You are my good friend after all.”

Husk’s white furry face turned red as he hissed and shoved Alastor away. “I’m not your fucking friend! You’re nothing but a red psycho freak I happen to unfortunately work under. If I had my way, I’d be a rich free man who could gamble and do whatever I want! Better yet, I’d be far away from all you morons.”

Husk picked up a few cards and shuffled them in his hands. “I had a full house and was about to win the pot. And then you pulled me out of nowhere and placed me in this dump for your own amusement.” He pointed a claw into Alastor’s chest a few times, making him flinch a bit. “When ae you gonna get it past your egotistical head that I. Want. To. Be. Left. Alone?!”

An uncomfortable silence followed. Niffty briefly looked over while she was busy dusting a bookshelf with a white feather duster.

“Looks like our pussy cat’s in his usual bad mood,” Alastor mused in his radio voice. He tilted up the corners of Husk’s mouth into a smile, which quickly fell when he let go. “You know I love to see that smile…”

“Shut up!” Husk pounded his furry fists onto the pool table, making the colored balls rattle. “Just shut the fuck up! I’m sick of you touching me all the time and getting into my face. I’d say you’re lost in this ridiculous musical world of yours…you think you can do anything you want but you don’t seem to be aware of who’s right in front of you!”

The large yellow smile remained on Alastor’s face, though his red eyes looked concerned and confused.

“You’re delusional, thinking Hell revolves around you like some sort of audience.” Husk’s eyes had faint red veins popping out. “You may be powerful, but guess what? You can’t have your way all the time. I learned that lesson the hard way. I may be in your partnership for a while…” He hiccupped, “…but here’s what I really think of you…”

Husk’s breath smelled of booze as the cat spilled out his previously hidden angry thoughts.

“You’re an insufferable…”

Every word was a jab to Alastor’s chest…

“Egotistical…”

He felt the shoves of surrounding boys in a long ago life…

“Filthy…”

The taunts of “dirty boy” and the n word…being forced into a tub of water, scrubbed all over roughly and feeling like he was drowning…

“Immature…”

Authority figures looking at him in disapproval as he auditioned for various radio stations…

“Maniacal…”

Alastor slashing down his hunting knife onto a helpless victim in a snowy wood…

“Heartless…”

Alastor dancing and flirting with pretty women but turning away when they tore desperately at his clothes…

“Couillon…”

Running away as police dogs bit and tore at his legs…

“Retard!”

Pounding on a door in a cold empty asylum room, cold stares from the towering wardens and nurses. Words like “loon”, “wacko,” being mouthed at him as the gray walls closed in…

A sharp record scratch pierced the air.

A black and red gloved hand clutched at Husk’s throat. A tight grip lifted the cat several inches off the ground. He struggled to pry off Alastor’s hand, but his hold was firm. Husk struggled and gasped as he frantically tried to gulp for air. The room darkened and soon filled with radio static and floating red Voodoo symbols. Alastor’s large orbs turned pitch black, with small red dials twitching menacingly. He slowly brought Husk close to his face until they were almost nose to nose.

He spoke in a low demonic radio voice, his mouth not moving.

“Remember who you’re dealing with. I gave you your privileges, and I can easily take them away.”

Just when Husk was about to pass out, he casually tossed him aside. He landed with an “oof” onto the floor. The static and symbols vanished as Alastor’s eyes returned to their normal shade of red. Husk groaned and stood up on shaky legs. He took several deep breaths and glared.

“Guess cats don’t always land on their feet,” Alastor mused as more microphone laughter followed.

“Get ready for another big day tomorrow!” Alastor called cheerfully to Husk as if nothing had happened. Husk flipped him a middle claw in response as he slouched away. Alastor walked on.

“Oh Husk,” Niffty called out. “Don’t forget that you need another bath tomorrow. I‘ll be happy to clean you all up!”

“Suck it, shrimpy bitch!” he yelled.

“Language, kitty!”

Niffty hopped down from the bookshelf and scurried toward Alastor. He looked down at her.

“Well hello little darling!” he greeted to the cyclops maid.

“Hello Alastor,” she beamed. “I was just finishing up my rounds for the day when I heard you and Husk talking. It sounded like arguing…”

“Oh it was nothing, my dear! Just Husk in his grumpy cat mood as usual. I was trying to cheer him up.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow, so much stuff to do! Is there anything else I can do to help out, sir?”

Alastor waved his hand, “Nothing at all. You did a splendid job today.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her large golden eye darting back and forth. “You know, you look pretty dirty, no offence. Perhaps you could use a nice clean…” She looked over at his staff, then stared at the area around his legs a little bit too long. “Your staff I can so easily reach…”

She extended her hand with a hungry expression.

“Ha! No.”

Alastor instinctively stepped back, his frozen smile still on his face. He walked briskly past her without another word.

“See you in the morning!” she trilled with a happy wave before scurrying off.

The room was quiet and empty.

What in the world just happened?

A nagging feeling spread through me as I walked in the same direction as Alastor. It was a strange urge to go and talk with him. His tall frame strolled down the hall and up a flight of stairs. I silently followed, careful to stay a distance away and out of sight. As I almost entered my room, Room 42, the feeling compelled me to wander towards Alastor’s room instead.

His room was across from Charlie’s and Vaggie’s, not too far away from Angel’s. The black door was etched with red Voodoo symbols and had a golden deer knocker. Strangely enough, he left it slightly open. I inched closer and peered through the opening into a dim room.

“Come in, dear.”

The door opened wider on its own, revealing Alastor sitting in a dark red throne-like chair on a small balcony. He was facing the sunset sky, but must have sensed my presence. He had taken off his red pinstriped suit and had it neatly folded on a chair, near where his staff was. He appeared to be wearing a dark red old fashioned nightgown with slippers made of deer fur.

In the room, there was a king-size bed with red satin sheets on it, an elegant bedside table and dresser to match. A small chandelier made of bones hung from the ceiling in the center, illuminating blood red carpets decorated with small golden eyes and antlers in rows. There was a large vanity mirror framed by round theater lights and an array of softly lit candles here and there. And of course, there were old fashioned radios all over the room in various sizes. A four-eyed deer head stared back at me from a plaque on the fancy red wallpaper. More disturbing were the various skin-stitched Voodoo dolls and skulls hanging from the ceiling.

A cool soothing evening breeze met my face as I stepped outside into the inferno air. I sank down into another chair next to Alastor. The sky was painted a brilliant red and orange, the magenta pentagram glowing and moving above like a revolving clock.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you sir…” I began. A small radio sat beside Alastor, emitting radio noises and various sound clips. Strangely they sounded almost the same every time I heard them. In fact, his habit of using his microphone for sound effects…it was almost like a comfort mechanism for him.

“Well usually at a time like this I do prefer to be alone, but since you were nearby…”

“I just…wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“I’m perfectly splendid, sweetheart, no need to worry.”

For a millisecond, his eyes told a different story. Not only did I have better senses, I could read expressions and sense intentions better as well.

“I believe there is more than that. I heard you guys arguing. Frankly, Husk was being a bit of a jerk.”

Alastor waved his hand. “That’s what he does.”

“But it was different this time, wasn’t it?”

Alastor just shrugged.

“Charlie and I were talking today and we both can agree: you can’t hide your feelings forever.”

“Whatever are you talking about?”

“I can sense that you are lonely, deep down. You want to find a place to belong but your sadistic nature makes others afraid of you. You’re afraid to trust other people.”

He turned to me with a deadly glare but I remained where I was. “If you’re planning on killing me, there’s no point as I’m already dead. Hear me out for a second.”

He paused and leaned back to listen.

“I’m not saying you should reveal your sad secrets to everyone. I’m just saying you should embrace the fact that we all have vulnerabilities and bad days. It’s perfectly okay to cry once in a while. Perhaps your search for entertainment is more than just that. It’s a search for your mother, your friends, a search for your true place on the stage of life.”

“I’m never fully dressed without a smile,” he seethed with his plastic smile. “End of story. Since when has an audience member gave the star of the show directions?” he inquired, eyebrow raised. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Well perhaps you need a better script,” I added, arms folded. I stared at his long yellowed nails, his gloves off for a rare moment. “And serious bodily care.”

A brief silence. Had I been anyone else, I’d be a pile of ash.

I continued. “Husk did have a point, though. He wanted to be left alone but you still decided to invade his space. You told Charlie that you want to see people fail, despite her not wanting to hear it. Plus, I’d expect an evil killer like you to take joy in the fact that people run away from you in fear. But you don’t like it. Because you seek something more.”

“I don’t need to hear your delusional words.”

“I’m more observant than you think. You created me to be submissive, but also tough and smart. It’s my duty to serve you and the hotel right now. And you bet your bottom dollar that me and your friends will try and do what’s best for everyone.”

More silence as we watched the sunset in deep thought. After several minutes, I turned to him and couldn’t believe what I saw. I spotted a stray tear fall from Alastor’s eye…and his smile slowly faded.

I covered my mouth with my hands as I let out a soft surprised gasp.

His look alone told me that I’d be demon meat if I told anyone else. Fortunately, I never break my promise.

I thought of all his behaviors I noticed and it suddenly clicked. There was the feeling again, a sense of a peculiar deep connection between me and him. And I figured out what it was.

“Alastor…do you know what autism is?”

He gave me a perplexed look. “Stop making things up.”

“It’s a real thing…but I imagine no one talked about it in your time. Autism is one of many developmental disorders that impairs socialization. Your behaviors appear to be very similar.”

Alastor growled, teeth bared in warning. “I can assure you that I’m perfectly talkative enough. You call me dumb and I can easily…”

“I know because I have it too.”

Alastor’s eye twitched. “What?”

“Do any of these traits sound familiar to you? Being a nerdy child lost in your own world? Being preoccupied and very skilled in your many talents as you grew up? Never quite fitting in with your peers no matter how hard you try?”

Nothing was heard but the sounds of radio glitches. Orange light glinted off his monocle under his right eye.

“Those with autism are often very knowledgeable, setting their minds to something and never letting go of it. But they have a hard time seeing things from another person’s perspective. It’s not that they are antisocial and heartless. Rather, they feel things deeply…but they don’t know how to communicate properly with others around them. Some of them aren’t interested in romance, either.”

Alastor rolled his eyes. “I have shows to plan for my demonic audience. I don’t have time for feelings and…”

I continued on. “You’re content with living in your own world of radios, music and murder…because for you, it was the only way to survive and make yourself known in your previous life. Communicating through the radio, playing music, dancing and singing on stage… that is when you feel truly alive. Because your listeners hang onto your every word, not caring who you are on the outside.”

His pupils grew slightly. “You’re making assumptions. You’re forgetting about murder…”

“Bringing joy to others outweighs bringing suffering...at least that’s how it should be. There’s nothing wrong with doing what you love…except when it causes harm to others.”

“Demons kill and eat other all the time. Surely you must know that sometimes death and torture are necessary.”

“You do have a good point. But…I’m talking about your previous life, and why you were sent down here…”

“I killed those racist bastards for good reasons. When you discover there’s an afterlife full of magic, you go out of you way to make deals for power. It’s what I’ve been doing for years. It’s impossible to be sinless, for sinners lost their chance to ascend the moment they died on Earth!”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. Say we take the necessary steps to prove Heaven wrong…”

“Heheheh, there you go, sounding delusional like Charlie.”

“Just be glad I’m not as distrustful or hateful of men as Vaggie.”

“Angel Dust is probably worse…”

I chuckled out loud at that. “Personal space isn’t in his vocabulary.”

I took a breath. “Look Alastor, I’m not saying it will be all be rainbows like Charlie claims. I’m just saying it’s not impossible to redeem sinners. Back to the main topic: we both have autism. Your special interests are radios, entertainment, murder and dark magic.”

Alastor made a face and shook his head. “That term you mentioned didn’t exist when I was alive,” he said. “Anyone who was considered strange or deviant were ignored at best. At worst, they were arrested, killed or thrown into asylums. If it weren’t for my beloved mother…I would’ve wasted away a long time ago. And despite enjoying the company of beautiful ladies, I’ve never had much interest in intimacy. My broadcasting career was my life.”

This time I listened quietly. He continued. “I’m only telling you all this because you technically don’t exist in the Hazbin timeline. And because…I can trust you enough, like Charlie and Rosie and Mimzy…”

He sighed again. “Like a skilled actor, I learned not just how to present myself on the air. Thanks to my mama, I learned how to socialize and mimic others around me. It was a way for me to be confident in the face of daily disdain. Smiling became my way of life…my survival skill. If I were to cry and appear weak, who knows what might’ve happened to me. Eventually I became famous for my broadcasting and my music all throughout Louisiana, but it still wasn’t quite enough. I then found another coping mechanism…”

The aura around him grew red…

“One that made me feel like I found my place in the world. How good it felt when I could hear their screams…see the life leave their eyes. How from the moment their bodies turned cold, I knew they could never take advantage of me and my family again…”

His black antlers arched slightly past his face. He lowered his head as static faded in and out. Here was the infamous and ferocious Radio Demon pouring out his secrets to me. I almost didn’t know what to say.

He covered his eyes with his hands, long fingers in claw shapes almost tearing at his pale gray skin. His voice broke in a record scratch…and this time he spoke without the radio effect, barely audible: “I miss her so much.” His fluffy ear tufts briefly drooped as he conjured the loving smiling brown face of his French Creole mother in his head.

We sat in silence for a while. “I hope you can see her again,” I said. “But…you need to have faith. Not in Charlie’s program per se…but in yourself. I know change is hard…I’m not saying go play with dogs and use new technology. I mean, don’t be afraid to explore your feelings, figure out what you truly want in your second life.”

Alastor’s remaining tears sizzled off his face and his tufts lifted back up. “That’s easy. I want to entertain others and have everyone do what I want…endlessly feast on flesh and never be bored…”

“We both know it doesn’t work like that. What you want is nothing compared with what you need. You need love. Friends. The joys of music and a purpose. Instead of killing individuals…you need to kill off your own barriers.”

“Easier said than done. What if I don’t want to change?”

“You’ll either spiral downward into madness, or you’ll slowly change for the better while still retaining your good qualities. If you want to see your mother in Heaven, you’re gonna have to put in some effort. I may sound like Charlie when I say this but…I know you can do it.”

Alastor gradually relaxed, his antlers retreating back to their usual stumps. He soon stood up, anxious to have some space. “Thank you for this lovely chat. Now I’m off to read my scripts and go to bed for a little.”

I stood up and followed. “How long do you usually sleep?”

“Thirty minutes,” he shrugged. “I rest by the wall with my eyes open.”

I gasped out loud and bared my teeth. “Not on my watch, mister. Get into bed, now!”

“Deer don’t need sleep.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Everyone needs sleep, especially you! I promise nothing is going to happen. Your shadow will guard your room and suck the soul out of any intruder. Plus you have several friends and kingpins who are loyal to you. You want to truly be the star, Alastor? Start by taking care of yourself. You are the most important person in your life.”

Alastor smirked. “Like I don’t already know that.”

“Good. Now rest.”

I turned to leave before I freeze. Gathering my courage, I turned to Alastor who sat on the bed. “Alastor…may I give you a hug?”

He stared at me, taken aback. No one had ever asked him for a hug before. He almost flinched when I slowly walked toward him.

After a moment, his face softened. “Just this once.” He leaned into my arms and chest. I got over my brief surprise by returning the embrace, my eyes closed, tears falling. I opened them and saw to my utter delight, his fluffy red and black deer tail wagging a bit! We soon parted and he wiped the tears from my face with his fingertips.

“Now darling, don’t forget to smile! You’re never fully dressed without one.”

I laughed through my tears. His charm worked every time. “Hey, don’t forget to ask people if they want to be touched before you do so. That’s lesson one.”

“You’re my servant, not my teacher,” he spoke up.

I spread out my arms. “This is Hell, Alastor, we can be anything. The world is a stage after all!”

Alastor chuckled, but I sensed that he wasn’t content with taking my advice any time soon. But I had tried nonetheless.

We bid our goodnights, me feeling slightly better. Just before I closed Alastor’s door and headed for my room, his whisper of a voice floated by my ears:

“Thank you Ms. Prior. Stay tuned.”

#alastor #autism #hazbinhotel

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matiastm · 4 years ago

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hi ho, i’m ac. she/her, gmt+1 and 23. i bring you my son matias. he’s an onion, lots of layers. i love him tho, i basically just use him for every rp lmao so if you’ve seen him around ??? well

❛ ✶ ( CODY CHRISTIAN , CIS MALE , HE/HIM ) . who the hell is blasting BAD INTENTIONS by ALEXANDER OSCAR at one in the morning ? nevermind , that’s just MATIAS BORGES from 1106 . apparently , they are a TWENTY-THREE year old SOCCER PLAYER from PROVINCETOWN , MASSACHUSETTS , and they’ve been living at the complex for 1 YEAR . i heard they can be a bit JUDGMENTAL , but they make up for it by being so CHARISMATIC — which makes sense , considering that they are a ARIES ! when i think of them , i imagine GYM BAG THROWN RIGHT AT THE DOOR, DOG TOYS LAYING AROUND TO TRIP OVER & A BLACK AND WHITE ASSORTMENT OF SNEAKERS . and of course , don’t forget to follow them at ( @MATIASBORGES ) ! ooc . ac , 23 , gmt+1 , she/her .

first of all, here’s his pinterest !

BACKGROUND:

okay so, matias grew up in provincetown,massachusetts, i know wtf. it was very idyllic, and both his parents were quite happy with the outdoors, with a love for sailing and soccer, and his mom loved gardening, which they had plenty opportunity to do there.

his dad is like aby rosen, real estate tycoon and entrepreneur, owns a lot of prestigious buildings around the world. his mom is a retired supermodel and is basically like chrissy teigen at this point, socialite making cookbooks and fucking dishing out life advice on twitter and what not.

he has a younger sister, whomst he’d 100% throw hands for. even if all she does is probably roast his ass, it is what he deserves. she’s way smarter than him but then again, it’s not that hard.

so although he did live in provincetown and there were plenty fancy private schools in boston and what not, his parents had a designated fancy private/boarding school in new york. so he moved to new york for high school.

matias was always an immense soccer talent and all he dreamed of while growing up was to one day play for the big european teams, like barcelona, manchester, bayern munchen and what not. i wouldn’t say soccer was/is his life, but like it kinda is. it takes up a lot of his time and thoughts. if he’s not playing soccer he’s probably out for a run or in the gym.

so he graduated with a degree in sports management from ucla, cause if his career as a soccer player falls through. especially since he’s had injuries before and knows that certain injuries are career ending and he wants to do something within the sport even when he can’t plau. his dad has always lowkey wanted for him to take over the company but has also never outright not supported matias’ soccer dreams.

currently he’s playing soccer for the new york red bulls, which is a pretty sick deal and he’s just out here vibing to be honest.

PERSONALITY:

so matias is like a walking contradiction. on the outside he’s very grumpy and gives off a very snobby vibe, like he’s too good for you and like talking to you is a waste of time.

i’d say he’s an introverted mind stuck in an extroverted body. he like can’t help but socialize and talk to everyone but it’s not that he really wants to, in reality he’d rather just be left alone or with the few select he doesn’t mind having around. but has this energy that makes people think the opposite and also quite often is found smiling or cracking jokes lol. is rarely ever serious.

generally dislikes people, like immediately he’ll find something to dislike about someone, maybe he’ll be forced to realize it’s bullshit or maybe he’ll find even more to dislike, but he approaches anyone and anything with some level of dislike.

most of the negative shit stems from high school and realizing how shitty people actually are? like don’t get me wrong, he was like the golden boy and he loves attention pls, but high school was definitely where he started to like realize how fake all these rich people are, and like developed this facade to play along with them. definitely changed a lot in high school, least on the outside.

he’s very much a mama’s boy. full of energy and curiosity. honestly, quite caring when it comes down to it, even if he doesn’t actually give a shit, he will try and cheer up a stranger and make sure someone is okay, even if he miserably fails, he will try. very observational??? will notice even the slightest change in people, not always he acts on it or acts the right way on it tho, but yeah.

honestly, probably falls in love like five time a day and then the next day he’s over it. but when he falls he falls, like flat on his face.

he’s very straight forward, also very good at covering insults and shit up with jokes. if he doesn’t like you though, you’ll know, he wont try to hide that.

he’s mostly down to earth though, appreciates a good party and hanging with the boys getting some beer. enjoys giving out shitty advice, don’t ever listen to him he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, talks just because he can.

is honestly pretty flirty but it’s rarely on purpose, if he actually likes you he probably doesn’t know what to say and he’ll easily just wrap around your finger. boi where’s your backbone...

HEADCANONS/TIDBITS:

doesn’t have any sense of time, if you wanna invite him to something, do invite him an hour early and he might make it on time, that is unless he got a better offer.

soccer wise he’s centre midfielder.

although his family is pretty known in the socialite and business world matias has managed to stay out of the news except for one time when he was vacaying in the hamptons with some friends and they accidentally sped across fragile dunes and the protected nesting area of the piping plover, on ATV’s. it is basically the most powerful resident in the hamptons and it’s a bird. anyway he was taken to court but since they hadn’t found evidence of the bird on their ATV’s they weren’t charged with anything.

drives an audi rs7 sportsback in red because he’s just such an audi driver like….do i even have to explain?? such an audi driver.

very important! he has a son, called thor, he’s a one year old belgian malinois and he’s everything. the apple of his eye. definitely spends more time on his dog than any actual person. click here for thor.

in this universe he’s taller than cody actually is, ‘cause he’s a midget, so you know, here he’s a nice height akgha. like 6ft or something

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

ex(es) honestly give me all of it, the boy is stupit so that alone is enough of a reason to break it off. nah but honestly, it could’ve been one that stung a bit ‘cause if he really does invest in someone he’s actually not a terrible boyfriend. but yeah some relationships that didn’t end well, or some that did perhaps, idk. i’m here for it all.

hook-ups, because that’s fun and we all gotta hoe it out sometimes.

some sort of friends to lovers??? will they wont they???

his sisteeeer *eyes*

teammates?

rivals? enemies? just a general dislike i imagine, matias can be rather hard to work with and be around because he’s annoying tbh so yeah.

i’m gonna add a tag for wanted connections at one point fo sure.

#astoria.intro #me reusing intros? more likely than you thinl #think*

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anti-anti-a-la-bi-bi · 4 years ago

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Can you rant about pkmn sword? Rants are enjoyable to read

Alright, so it took me a bit to get my thoughts in line. Lets start with how I feel about the pricing: I am all for having 30 euro DLC over a third version for the full price, however, I do think that if they do that, as well as with the dex cut, they should quit with having there be two versions. Nowadays, with internet communication, it doesn't really do much for social interaction, it's just another hurdle for those of us who wish to complete the pokedex(and especially when they remove the GTS and make you pay for it later). It's still a scummy tactic, and no one will complain if there's just one version+DLC. It makes a big difference in the pricetag, since being forced to buy nintendo online, or two switches and two games to trade, are both mandatory payments to make in order to achieve one of the encouraged goals within the game. Furthermore, people within one family will likely be using the same cartridge, so if there is only one version, all in all, it'll make a huge difference for people who use a whole switch as a family as well. Also, I do not think that sword and shield are worth 60 euros. I think they're worth 30 at most, since the base game is worse than x and y/sun and moon. They also locked following pokemon behind a paywall, which is bullshit and yeah, fuck that. I think swsh are enjoyable, but not when they sell at the same price as games with way more content, games that look much better, and usually both combined. For what the switch can do, swsh look really bad, actually. There are a few pretty spots, but that's the exception, not the rule. To add on to things that I think are horrible; the raid battles, especially the more difficult ones, in single player. I don't have switch online, and as such, I need to do all raids alone. But, the raids are near-impossible in a lot of cases unless you get really lucky with the npcs and ai. I got two gmax Toxtricity by using wide guard with Zamazenta for over four hours until I finally got lucky for each. This is both to blame on the ai, and the horrible selection of pokemon. Pokemon that should have evolved at level 60, well, they are still in their first form, so you have magikarp and mudbray at a 5 star raid. At least have them evolved. They have good moves, yes, but their base stats are so low that it doesn't matter. Also, the shield mechanic. It is predetermined how much damage you can do, and if you land a supereffective hit, it's not unlikely for it to only do a sliver of damage and then the shield goes up. It's annoying, makes battles extremely difficult because a lot of npcs just won't attack while the shields are up, and it just becomes a waiting game if your pokemon is just there to act as support(such as my Zamazenta with wide guard to prevent Toxtricity from 2-hit ko-ing all my teammates). Also, the fact that even if you beat a gmax pokemon, there is still a chance not to catch them. It often takes ages to even defeat them, and then, 'Congratulations! You just wasted over half an hour of your life! Get fucked!'. I had this happen with Applin t w i c e. Also, the wild area is... It's okay, really. Nothing exceptional, my immersion is ruined by the sheer amount of pop-in, something that happens even when there aren't a lot of models on-screen, the Onyx in Motostoke being a rather infamous example. The trees look like shit, the berry trees look like they don't belong, to put it bluntly, it looks like something a student would make in unity. You'd expect something better from the highest grossing franchise in the world. The ai of the pokemon is often pretty bad, with them just moving in circles, I have seen so many synchronized pokemon at this point that it's just... Egh. Also, the customization options are still so limited? Can't choose eyeshape, can't choose clothes that actually make your character stand out, and you can't even choose your challenger uniform after you become the champion. Why does Leon get a special uniform? I have never seen a pokemon game so set on making you feel like a celebrity after you win, yet you don't get to have much of an identity in the game even after you win. It didn't have to be difficult, just a customization screen inside the dressing room of the Wyndon stadium, perhaps some extra clothing options? As for things I like: I like the atmosphere. The music, though sometimes repetitive, does help my immersion. The gym leader theme is dynamic, shifting with what happens in the battle, making me feel like I'm actually standing there, and the ambient themes work well as well, though those were rarely encountered at all. I love the characters, the trainer cards giving you some backstory on them, they are, together with the Unova leaders, the most present gym leaders today, with a history of their own. It felt amazing to just read the trainer cards(and I enjoyed making my own as well). The towns have their own themes, and while I can't remember the names, I do remember each location well. But. There was so much wasted potential. The castle in Hammerlocke? The large building in the east? Hammerlocke's castle: the vault, 1 room and a roof. The large building? Nothing. You don't even get to see the attraction inspired by the London Eye. Wyndon is so small??? It has a small shopping street, the stadium and the inn and that's about it. Castelia City was bigger than that. Overall, the game feels rushed. The gym challenges at the start were cool, but by the end it's more of "battle these trainers in a row haha". Also, the animations. Gamefreak claimed to need to remake all models(they did not, the 3ds models were used with better textures), and to make better animations(only for newer pokemon, most pokemon used their pokemon amie animations and further animations from the 3ds titles). The animations are still bad, especially for something as powerful as the switch. I enjoyed the lore behind the region, but I really, really dislike Dynamax. I like gigantamax because the pokemon usually changes in a way that is distinguishable, but regular dynamax... Nah. Give me mega evolution back, perhaps update its mechanics so it changes the gameplay more and requires more strategy, but Dynamax just feels like something that is so low-effort. Pokemon but beeg. The curry making, on the other hand, I love. Pokemon should not be a cooking game, but it made me feel like I was actually bonding with my pokemon, that they were present in the mc's daily life. I would love to see more additions like that, the possibility to become the kind of trainer you want. Enjoy swimming? Perhaps go for a swim with your pokemon? It doesn't need to be complex, but I'd just love to see my pokemon interact with each other and with my actual character more. The routes are too linear. The last route is literally a straight line with some trainers, with next to no effort in it. I also think that the handholding needs to be talked about. When you get to Motostoke and have signed up for the gym challenge, a staff member will lead you to the in, which is literally one screen to the left. Such examples are found all over the game, and I hate it. They do let you skip some tutorials, which is a welcome change, but characters are so willing to force you to stop with whatever you're doing and make you listen to their speeches that it still often feels like a slog, especially because you don't get to do shit besides gyms until the very, very end, in which the fucking champion tries to catch a legendary in a regular pokeball, not even a great or ultra ball. The lore is great, but the actual story is so nonsensical that I just didn't bother to pay attention. Hop literally recycles Hau's animations. I would love for him to have his own, so he'd feel more separate, because they ARE different characters, with different goals. But Hop is even more annoying than Hau because he just won't shut up. You walk 5 steps and he shows up somewhere, for no reason at all. Meanwhile, there's this big event going down, a crowd has gathered, you get there and... Leon has already resolved it. You just get a picture, that was what you wanted, right? That sums up most of the game 'the adults will deal with this!' . The picture doesn't even look good. Swsh is fond of just showing you pictures, for example, right before the climax when Rose and Leon are talking. There's no background music or anything, just pictures and the sound of the textbox. It feels so low-effort. Also, if you have a character that is a singer, and he uh, he sings, it MAY be a good idea to include VOICE ACTING. They had someone sing in Black and White 2! Surely they can do it on the fucking switch, several years later? The mouths flapping about just feels incredibly awkward. I would recommend the game if you can find it somewhere for cheap, not for the full price. There is enjoyment to be had, but it's subpar in comparison to other games for the same price. I may rant further depending on how much time I have.

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starwarsdestroyedme · 5 years ago

Text

Toe-socks

So, this turned out longer than expected. Also, thanks for the notice on the other post about the taglists!

One-shot

AO3

Relationships: Intrulogical, background prinxiety, Platonic LAMP, Platonic Logince, Platonic Royalty

Summary: Remus always loves to make an entrance. Logan only wanted to finish his presentation. Everybody is confused.

“Precisely because I can tell that Patton and Virgil are more reactive to Remus’ outbursts I suggested for them to stay with you. You agreed to this. Half an hour ago this wasn’t an issue”. “Half an hour ago I didn’t know you were banging my brother!”

Word count: 4837

Warnings: Roman may seem unsympathetic at the start, but I promise, it all gets sorted out and justified in the end, so, please, bear with me. Remus being Remus. Arguing. Logan and Roman say somewhat nasty stuff to eachother (they talk it out though), and none more I can think of.

Opposite Warnings: (self-explanatory name. I just wanted to also highlight nice things!) Patton being a proud dad, protective Virgil, Roman addressing his feelings and talking about them, Remus caring about Logan, CARELESS WHISPER PLAYS NEED I SAY MORE?

Edit: Now there’s a related story! Head over heels

Toe-socks

Logan passed to the next slide of his power-point. Today he was doing a presentation for his proposal about Thomas’ new schedules.

It had been a while since they all agreed to make a collective effort to meet once a month to correct various problems. That month specifically, the meeting was to be at Logan’s room - they too had established to rotate locations between the main room, Logan’s and the Imagination, depending on the topic, Patton’s and Virgil’s rooms were excluded for everyone’s safety - because the order of the day were the schedules.

“So, if we set bedtime to nine we’ll be able to regulate properly sleep schedules, which would noticeably improve overall daily performance”.

Virgil raised his hand.

“Yes, Virgil?”

“If the aim is for Thomas to get 8 hours of sleep why don’t we move bedtime to 10?”

“Ah, that’s because I’m taking into account the time he may take to fall asleep”.

“That won’t grant that he falls asleep at 10, specially if a certain someone appears…”

“It will be okay, I have a contingency plan for that situation”.

Logan went to the next slide, revealing his action plan.

“So, as Virgil kindly pointed out: if the Duke showed up, Patton and him should go to Roman’s side of the Imagination”.

“Are you okay with that?” Virgil asked, looking at Roman.

Roman nodded with a smile while he gently pressed on Virgil’s knee.

“I asked Roman prior to the meeting and--”

Roman stood up and stroke a pose.

“Fear not Dear Evaneshansen and Papá*, my castle and I are at your service! I’ll keep you safe!”

“That” Logan gestured at Roman and took a deep breath.

Logan adjusted his glasses and skipped to the following slide, eager to retake control of his presentation. They still had a few points to discuss, and it wasn’t as if Logan didn’t have more things programmed for today, so he couldn’t afford wasting time.

“We still have more to go through, so if you could please pay attention I should be able to get it done in--”

Then, the lights went out.

“Great, now what”.

“Hey, Lo! Who turned the lights out?” Patton joked, just as Virgil turned on a small torch.

“That, was a really dark reference, Patton” Logan answered.

“As dark as this room?”

“Oh, for the love of…”

Suddenly, Careless Whisper’s instrumental roared across the room.

“What is going on?!” Roman shouted.

Logan closed his eyes, his mouth contracted into an exasperated line. He sighed tired and turned to the left. A door, frame included and all, appeared next to the table. It opened at the purest Doraemon style, making way for a slithering cloud of smoke inside which green and white lights scattered.

A pair of toe-socks up to the knee, decorated with horizontal rainbow stripes, slid on the wooden floor doing the moonwalker. Inside of said socks was Remus, letting his hair down singing the first lines of Careless Whisper.

“I feel so unsure, as I take your hand, and lead you to the --” Remus turned around with impetus, pointing with his right arm extended, placing the other behind his head.

Remus’ expression was a picture the entire time, first biting on his lower lip suggestively, frowning in an expressive manner; then, eyes wide open, a hint of annoyance in them, and his jaw dropping into a grimace of indignation.

Logan corresponded him arching his eyebrows and making an effort to turn his lips into a two point thick line. Or, said differently, an angered mother face.

Remus blinked several times. He took a glance at the rest. Virgil had his arm placed in front of his brother, who was holding back more due to the authority of his boyfriend’s gesture rather than the force Virgil could be exerting against his abdomen. Patton had turned into the colour of a low-fat yoghurt. The father looked at him up and down positively horrified.

Grand entrance, check. It didn’t go as expected, but, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not unless the horse asked for it.

He went back to focusing on Logan.

“Was it today?!”

“Indeed”.

“Well, fuck me!” he cursed.

Logan adjusted his tie with annoyance and turned to his presentation. He looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Let me finish this first”.

The monosyllabic equivalent of a horse laugh escaped out of Remus.

“That wasn’t what I meant, but, works for me!” he smiled from ear to ear.

Right after that, he shrugged and set course back to the door doing the moonwalker.

“--guilty feet have got no rhythm. Though it’s easy to pretend, I know you’re not a fool…” he picked the song back as he disappeared, taking the door with him.

The room was left in sepulchral silence. Virgil looked at the floor with a face that said something along the lines of ‘I’m rethinking my entire life’, Roman’s eyes wouldn’t stop going back and forth from Logan to where the door had vanished. Patton had sat down on the couch and looked at Logan as to encourage him to speak.

“Sorry about that, now, where were we?”

Virgil glanced up and he made a contained version of one of Roman’s wild gesticulations.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Remus, of course, you saw him too” Logan played the matter down, wanting to go back to the presentation.

“I saw more than I wish I had seen” Roman said.

“He does not like wearing clothes” Patton added, as to agree with Roman.

“He was wearing socks, so, technically, he was dressed. I swear he only does it to be annoying”.

“I mean, why did he do that?” Virgil asked with a mixture of overwhelm, annoyance and confusion.

“That depends on what you’re asking about. If you’re referring to the… uh… nudity issue, then it’s because I told him I wouldn’t talk to him if he wasn’t dressed”.

Virgil furrowed his brows. Considering Remus’ personality, he found it very odd that he had even bothered to get ‘dressed’... or whatever that was. He knew first hand that if the Duke didn’t feel like doing something, persuading him otherwise turned out to be tricky, not to say almost impossible.

“On the other hand, if you mean the whole situation, well, I believe he was attempting to have intercourse with me” said Logan, trying to be conciliatory and failing miserably.

“Uh… okay, what?” Virgil muttered to himself.

“Is there something you need to tell us, kiddo?” Patton inquired.

Of course, Logan took this as a prompt for him to continue with the presentation.

“Yes. Thank you, Patton. As I was saying before we got interrupted…”

“Oh my god! Why is my brother trying to get into your pants, nerd?!”

Logan frowned and looked at Virgil for help.

“Get into someone’s pants, as in trying to have sex with them”.

“I think the answer will upset you, but, if you must know, we had it scheduled for later today. Remus has poor impulse control, so he came here earlier. He, also, completely forgot that the reason why, was because I had a meeting with all of you”.

Patton looked at Logan with muted worry.

“Well, I wouldn’t say upsetting… more like... shocking?”

“Deeply disturbing” corrected Roman.

"We’re all… a bit shaken up, but that’s no reason to say things so negatively charged--”

“What?! How am I supposed to react? Nerd over there is… ew… my evil twin brother, who, by the way, tried to kill him several times and we’re all going to pretend that it’s fine?!”

After Roman ended acting all fussy, he just stood there, taking a glance at the rest, expectant. Patton looked back at him. His lips pressed together and turned to the right, it was hard to tell if with disapproval, pity or empathy. He leaned to say all three. Then there was Virgil, who was still standing with a thoughtful semblance, and Logan, with his face of indignation half-dissolved in indifference, clearly denoted by the eyebrow he just raised.

“Taking into account that Remus’ direct actions don’t affect me, and he knows that, I’d hardly consider it a murder attempt, therefore, I don’t see your argument neither pertinent nor relevant”.

“We understand what you mean, Logan, but it isn’t particularly nice to see how you collapse on the floor with a shot to the head. Even if we kinda know nothing will happen to you it can still… frighten us up a little”.

“More like almost scaring Patton to death, and V being on the verge of an anxiety attack”.

Virgil turned his head towards Roman and gave him a look of ‘dude, no. Now’s not a good time and we agreed not to talk about it, I can’t believe you just brought it up only to tell Logan off on dating your brother’. Or, what Roman interpreted as: ‘you know it affected be a lot and we agreed not to talk about it, least when I’m impacted with all this new info’.

“I’m sorry, Virge. But it’s true, the fact is that both Virgil and Patton need to come to my side of the Imagination because Remus can’t manage to be nice to anyone for a even two seconds”.

“I don’t think you’re objective enough to be able to judge Remus’ capabilities properly. That, to begin with,---”

“Logan!” Patton exclaimed.

“Did I say anything incorrect? Roman cannot be objective with his brother because he deeply despises him”.

“Dude, sensitive topic” said Virgil whilst leaning his head.

“Roman may not like the Duke, but that doesn’t make his opinion any less valid” Patton began to say, looking at the logical side, and then moving onto Roman “and it’s not alright to say things tactless, Roman”.

“I say things tactless?! Have you heard any of what the nerd said?! I’m not the one who’s ignoring that you can barely be in the same room as my brother!”.

“Precisely because I can tell that Patton and Virgil are more reactive to Remus’ outbursts I suggested for them to stay with you. You agreed to this. Half an hour ago this wasn’t an issue”.

“Half an hour ago I didn’t know you were banging my brother!”

“That changes nothing, because hadn’t you found out, my arrangement with Remus would have remained the same, so the problem and the situation would not change, thus, this has nothing to do with Patton or Virgil. You’re simply determined on demonising Remus because of your disagreements”.

“Disagreements, that’s a light way to put it. Remus is bad for Thomas!”

“And that may be so at the moment, but it's still unrelated as to my relationship with him”.

“How do you expect me to look you in the eye knowing there’s something going on between you?”

“This conversation is useless and ridiculous”.

Logan went to the table and took a book from it, he then sat down and started to read its contents trying to keep exasperation at bay.

“Roman, we’re not here to judge Logan. I understand it’s hard to process, but it isn’t okay to---”

“No! You all think the same and the only one who’s being upfront about it is me”.

“I don’t think that… well, not exactly, but although I’m not the Duke’s biggest fan, it’s not okay for us not to support Logan’s relationship”.

“Oh, lord, they’re just having sex! I don’t see how it’s worth it for us to have a bad time just because Remus feels like having a fling with Logan”.

The deafening sound of a chair moving backwards cut the conversation. Logan, gripping his book with anger, had stood up.

“That’s it. Enough nonsense for today! Seeing that I can’t finish my presentation, I’m leaving”.

“Oh, yeah, run away from the conversation” Roman replied, just as mad.

Logan held back his desire to throw the book at the Prince’s face.

“Firstly, I’m not running away from anything. What happens is that the only explanation I owe you is that from my presentation, which was why we met today. You’ve spent forty-three minutes without letting me speak, interrupting me and deviating from the topic. Today, I only planned to talk about the new schedules. My relationship, or, as you so eloquently decided to put it, ‘fling’ with Remus is none of your business, nor open to debate. It is something private and you have no sort of authority to make value judgments about it. Secondly, I have tasks to do and very strict schedules that you are messing with. On another note, your sensitivity to the topics Remus brings up and his ability to be nice to others aren’t correlative. It merely makes him incompatible with you. You can’t universalize that. Lastly, your opinion is biased and you can’t assess the situation accurately without all of the data; which I have no obligation nor want to provide you with. I’ll send you a briefing of my presentation and will see you tomorrow. Goodbye”.

Logan sank back right after he was done taking.

“Logan, wa--!” Virgil tried to call for him in vain. “Oh, shhhhoot. Roman! Where the hell did that come from?”

“Are you going to take his side too?” answered Roman sounding genuinely betrayed.

“Yeah, he may have been a jerk, but you went waaaay further than that”.

“Well, you didn’t say any of that before Logan left”.

“No, because I was too busy trying to process everything everyone was saying, or rather, shouting” said Virgil, his nerves on edge.

“Are you fine, kiddo?”

“Yeah. I’m just having a hard time at dealing with it, it’s a lot to take in. Everything has escalated way too quickly”.

“That’s an understatement”.

“Ro… leave it”.

“So you both think it’s okay for him to elope with the Duke”.

“I don’t think that it’s right nor wrong, I simply make nothing of it because is none of my goddamned business”.

“This affects the three of us”

“No, no it doesn’t” said Virgil with frustration. “We’re not the ones dating Remus”.

“Look, Roman, I know you say this because you’re worried about your pop and your Virge, but that’s no reason not to support Logan. What we need is to work out together so we can find a solution” added Patton.

“Yeah? Well, how are we going to do that if Logan just vanished?”

“Maybe he wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t hurt his feelings” Virgil shook his hands as if Roman’s head was in between them, and by doing so he could get the idea through that thick skull of his.

“I can’t possibly hurt LOGIC’S feelings, and I’m not the one saying it, it’s him who keeps on bragging about how he doesn’t have them”.

“Hmm… but we all know that’s not true”.

“Gosh, Princey, seriously you think Logan would get so mad if he didn’t care about Remus?”

“Logan gets angry whenever we don’t tell him he’s right, which is what all of that was about”.

“But it wasn’t, heck, imagine how you’d feel if someone said all that’s between you and me is just sex”

“But we don’t have… it’s not the same thing!”

“You don’t know that”.

“Yeah, if Logan’s reaction is anything to go by, I’d say it’s more than just that” said Patton with a face that had written sympathy all over it.

“Logan’s reactions can literally mean anything because he’s the least expressive out of all of us”.

“Okay, you don’t want to trust Logan’s reaction? Fine! Then let’s go by the fact that Remus left the room because Logan told him so, wears those ridiculous socks because of him and ACTUALLY has conversations with Logan about his schedules. You and I both know there’s no way your brother would do that if he didn’t give a damn about what Logan thought about him. Heck! Not even freaking DECEIT could get him to do what he wanted, he barely kept him under control. Only I used to manage to do it, and not without using a toxic amount of fear and anxiety first”.

Roman just stood there, looking at his boyfriend, deeply worried.

It was one thing for Virgil to defend Logan, but going to the extreme of bringing up his time as a Dark Side, now that was a whole different story. A wave of guilt run him up and down. He knew how triggering Virgil found it to even mention it.

"Maybe we'll all just have to learn to accept the fact that the Duke may care about Logan in his own way" said Patton looking at nowhere "and apologize to our dear old teach" he fixed his eyes on Roman.

"I… perhaps you're right. I simply… when I look at Remus I see everything I don’t want to become and it’s hard for me to digest that Logan and him are together, because Logan’s always shooting down my ideas. I know he’s already apologised for it, we’re trying to get better… but he still antagonises me and, although it can help me improve, the rest of the time it makes me feel as… as if I wasn’t good enough. I mean, yeah, there’s pressure everywhere,” hearing this coming from Roman, both Patton and Virgil walked up to him to stay beside him “but with Logan I notice it more. Him dating Remus makes me think that perhaps he’s better than me, that maybe I’m the side of creativity that Thomas shouldn’t listen to”.

“I didn’t know you thought that”.

“Oh, Roman, is that how you really feel? Why didn’t you tell us?” said Patton placing a hand on the Prince’s arm.

“Hmmm… I know I should have talked about it, but you already have your own issues and it didn’t feel important enough. Besides, it’s not easy to admit that Prince Charming” he gestured at himself moving his hand up and down, smiling bitterly “is afraid of not being able to make Thomas’ life into a fairytale”.

Virgil threw himself at Roman’s arms and held him tight after hearing all that.

“I know it’s hard… I know very well… but you can always come and talk to me, or to Patton… or Logan”.

“That’s right Ro, we’ll always…” Patton moved fast and gave him a hug from behind “have your back!”

Roman loosely held onto one of Patton’s arms, that circled his shoulders, and caressed Virgil’s head, a smile of contemptment beginning to appear on his face. How could he be so lucky to have them?

“Thanks guys… guess I should go apologize to Logan, I just have to find out where he is”.

It didn’t take long for that question to be answered. Remus materialised himself in the room without warning, like the living pop-up he was. It was possible perceive in his expression, characterised by that mix of smugness and diva, a glimpse of superlative anger. With that in mind, Roman disentangled himself from Patton and Virgil, placing the last one behind him too.

"I am going to end all of you, assholes" said Remus, with a tone more serious than anyone watching were used to.

Roman extended his left arm and conjured his katana, unsheathed already, with an agile wrist move.

"Starting with you bro" Remus aimed at him with his morningstar and positioned himself, as if all of that were just a baseball match.

Roman braced himself for disaster and the cleaning that would follow after. Scrubbing his brains off the wall wasn’t going to be particularly pleasant. Virgil stepped forward, or rather to Roman’s side.

“Try that and I’ll make you regret it” Virgil’s distorted voice flooded the room as if it were coming from the walls.

He responded by flinching the tiniest bit. Regardless, his resolve was clear: he wouldn’t back off.

“Oh, Virgil! This display? Just for me? But you haven’t closed the door! We may be seen! YOU may be seen. Are you willing to show your true colours in front of your new buddies?”

“They are not my buddies, they’re my family and if necessary I’ll get you off the way”.

“You should have thought about that before messing with my nerd” Virgil’s eyes opened wide with realisation. What about Logan? He couldn’t harm Remus. But Remus would definitely do it, judging by the lightning-fast morningstar moving towards Roman’s face. “Let’s put your theory to the test!”

Virgil pushed Roman to the floor, behind him, ready to take the full impact of the morningstar. He closed his eyes and waited.

"Remus, that's quite enough" said Logan.

Logic stood in between Virgil and Remus, effortlessly holding the shaft of the morningstar. Remus stared at Logan’s rest in bitch face dumbfounded.

The Prince’s body was spreaded on the floor, he leaned on his forearm, with a spooked expression directed right at the back of Virgil’s head. He only came out of the trance to find Patton. Morality gestured at him, trying to help him get up.

"What? Bitch, are you serious? He asked for it!" Remus pointed at his brother, releasing his grip on the weapon.

"I don't care. No matter how impermanent it might be, I'd rather you didn't kill, maim, harm not harass him".

"He deserves to…"

"Remus, I understand where this comes from” he began to say, putting the morningstar down “and I'm aware of how hard it is for you to exert control over your impulses. But this isn't helping me".

"But! But he's an asshole! He deserves to have his testicles bitten off by a hyena".

"Remus," Logan conjured a notebook with a pen clipped to the cover "I need you to write it down as we practiced. Let me handle this myself"

"But…"

Logan took a long, exhausted, breath.

"Please".

Remus’s body language changed completely, fully giving up. Loose. He took the notebook and sank back.

Logan turned around, giving the rest a chance to finally take a look at him.

Logan wasn’t wearing his glasses.

His tie was undone, and his hair look the slightest bit disheveled. Reddish spider webs were imprinted in his puffy eyes, matching his blushed nose.

“Wow, Logan, you look like shit” Virgil was the first to voice everyone’s worry, as per usual.

“Oh, my apologies” he conjured his glasses and put them on. Then proceeded to get his tie knot done.

Patton stepped forward to hug him, unable to hold back.

“Logan… dear mother of waffles!” The dad cupped his face. “Have you been c-- are you okay?” he bit his tongue on the last second, reminded of Logan’s reticence to talk about feelings.

“I… I have been preoccupied”.

“Logan…”

“Roman, I do not wish to engage in conversation with you. I got Remus to leave, okay? I’m not in the mindset for debate” said Logan, ready to sink back again.

“Wait!”

“What do you want?”

Patton and Virgil made a non-verbal pact to leave them some space and moved away, limiting themselves to watch the situation unfold, ready to intervene if necessary. Patton gave Roman a conciliatory smile.

“I’m sorry! I was too rash, and it wasn’t my place to judge your relationship with Remus. I guess I got angry when I found out that you’re dating him, because of how much you criticize me, it makes me feel that he’s better than me, and that maybe you’ll just want him to do my job instead…”

“Roman, there’s no way Remus could perform your job. He isn’t constant and gets more distracted than you. Even though his ideas are transgressive, they’re barely practical and don’t fit Thomas’ audience. You, on the other hand,” Logan joined the tips of his fingers and gestured at Roman “take production more into account and strive to create content that satisfies the audience”.

“But what good is that if I don’t challenge them?”

“Good content doesn’t have to be at odds with pleasing the viewership. If your aim is to entertain, or, as Patton would put it,” he briefly glanced at him “make people happy, how can achieving that be bad? If what you create does what it was meant for then it is a good content”.

“Well, that may be right, but Remus can handle more mature content better than me”.

Logan frowned and rethought his strategy.

“Would you consider Steven Universe bad content?”

“What?! No! Also, Steven Universe treats mature topics”.

“Indeed, but addressing mature topics isn’t a synonym for mature content. Roman, your ideas are perfectly capable of accomodating mature topics. You don’t need to make mature content to be a good creator”.

“But Remus is right, what will Thomas’ legacy be if we just keep doing the same things over and over?”

“Falsehood. We’re not doing the same things over and over, and, even if that were the case, that doesn’t mean we can’t change the content, if Thomas eventually decides to do so”.

“But what if I’m not good enough for whatever he chooses to do next? What if he replaces me for Remus?”

Logan smirked after hearing this and went on.

“Ah, I see what the problem is. Roman, would you refrain altogether from acting if you failed at an audition?”

“No” Roman answered with a hint of indignation.

“Good. Then we can extrapolate that to what you said.” Logan made a pause and considered his next words. “There is always a chance for failure, but failing doesn’t restrict our chances for future success. If we consider your ideas from the angle of whether or not they achieve their purpose, then I’d be inclined to say they’re good. Thus, making you a good creator”.

Logan paused yet again, leaving Roman room to speak. Interestingly enough, the Prince remained quiet, letting Logic’s words sink in.

“Of course, one could argue that what makes a content good or bad is inherently subjective, but entertaining that thought isn’t useful as a means of judging the quality of what you produce” he added, anticipating what Roman might have been pondering on. “Moreso, it is counterproductive because it only leads us to overthinking. Your desire to grow should not be a discouragement, but a source of motivation”.

“What about Remus?”

“Well… while I do believe that Remus should be allowed to be part of the conversation, he can’t act as a substitute for your contributions. Just as Remus can come up with things you can’t, that also applies the other way around”.

“Then you don’t like Remus better?”

“The nature of our relationship is completely different to the one I have with any of you, so I could not effectively compare them, thus value one above the other”.

Roman’s arms fell to his sides, he stared at the teacher, unsure as to what to say next.

“Well, thanks Logan, that was... really nice… I’m very sorry for before”.

“No problem, I can now understand why you reacted the way you did. I suppose an apology is due. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to correctly assess the way you were feeling and that I may have been somewhat insensitive”.

“We’re both at fault, I guess”.

“Correct. You were unfair and I was” Logan searched through his vocab cards until he found one and flipped it. It was written in all caps with black chinese ink, using thick angular strokes “an r/iamverysmart”.

“What?” Virgil began to laugh.

Patton went to Roman’s side and squeezed a bit on his arm.

“I’m very proud of you, Ro” he said in a low voice.

“Remus wanted to contribute to my efforts of understanding modern slang and gifted me with new vocab cards I’ve added to my research. Did I use that one properly?”

“Naaah… not really” Virgil replied and began to give him some examples so he could frame the concept properly.

“I’m glad I talked about it”.

“Me too. I know how hard it is for you, Roman, and I’m so, so proud”.

“Thanks, Dad” the Prince smiled. He went back to looking at his emo nightmare and Logan.

“Leaving aside the most gruesome traits of his writing, I’m now proofreading a mystery novel he’s begun, and it’s very engaging” the tiniest of smiles appeared on Logan’s face.

“Isn’t that your favourite genre?”

“In fiction, yes. So, understandably, I was pleased to assist him. He gave me the chance to contribute with plenty of Agatha Christie references”.

“Well, it might turn out you and Remus may make a good couple” said Roman, too distracted by how surprised he found what Logan had said to really think about the wording he had used.

Virgil looked at him in confusion, while Logan waited for him to elaborate.

Roman opened his eyes wide, mentally rewinding. Oh.

“Not that I am saying that’s what you are… I know you don’t need my approval, but no matter what’s in between you and Remus, I’m cool with it” he placed a hand behind his head and stood awkwardly.

“That’s… quite alright. I appreciate that. And, regarding your previous statement, yes, I believe we do”.

*so I’ve seen Roman call Patton padre a lot, but dad in Spanish translates into papá rather than padre. You see padre=father, papá=dad and papi=daddy. So I chose to go with papá.

Taglist:

@coffeemeryspace , @theantisocialghost , @musical--llama , @ambersky0319 , @tacohippy56900 , @1-800-im-not-ok , @dabookwormcat , @starkerparkerx , @littlestliu

@creativity-killed-thekitten I tagged you seeing that in ‘Rain on me’ you told me to, but if you wish to be removed from the taglist please do tell!

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the-headbop-wraith · 4 years ago

Text

1 _ 19 Brambles

Soft voices glide through the room, cutting and retuning to a new scene or tone or voice with rhythmic pauses. It was a delicate matter to set one claw to the button of the remote and press with a stiff finger, cycling through the dull white noise that made up the blubbering television theme of each channel. What was defined as ‘news’ was scarcely credible, many channels were dedicated to realty programs, infomercials that promised ‘satisfaction guaranteed or money back,’ and as always the static infused HBO special feature.

Therehad to be a better use for television. Humans just refused to find it, or the general population was content tonumb their minds into oblivion with this toxic waste of ozone. Mystery huffed into the folds of the blankethe lounged over, and pressed his paw to the button again. None of his companions had said anything, aslong as the soft background chatter remained below audible they were somewhateased by his habit. The dog halflistened as Vivi went over the next destinations marked on the map, there werea few but they had lost time after the van was put into the body shop for repairs. Mystery rolled over, sliding the telly remote along the sheet cover as he did, for ease of access and the minimal of movement required of reaching it.

The argument between Vivi and Arthur had been typical, Arthur on the opposing side wanting no pair of hands on the van aside from his own, and Vivi adamant about getting the exterior of the van patched up. Lewis had been like Mystery, huddled outside in the parking lot where it was relatively safe. In the end, Arthur had folded under the assurance that nothing within the vans metal hull would be tampered with. That had been the case of course from the beginning, even Vivi didn’t want the off chance of strange people poking through the vans back, and seeing the mess that none of them had made the effort to pick up. There was no concern shed over the ward scripts, carved stones, and endless containers of sage and salt stashed in the cuvees – all over the floor. Long ago Vivi had given up any attempt to explain these items to the inquisitive outsider.

“But the baseball stadium sounds more interesting,” Vivi said. She and Lewis had the selection narrowed down – a hospital, a maternity store, and a bed and breakfast that was on their route. Mystery personally preferred the bed and breakfast, and they might just stop in along the way since it was literally on one of their roads. “A batter ghost? Why is he there, and who is he?” She scrolled through one of the tabs she had opened on the main page, there were a few pictures but nothing clear, no definite image of a spirit aside from a gray glob that could be easily be explained as lens flares or rudimentary odd shadows.

Behind her hovered Lewis, just above the head rest of the hard chair she had claimed. Mystery had caught Arthur glancing over at Lewis a few times, from his position on the opposite side of the one bed. It was probably difficult for him to wrap his mind around the sight, with Arthur being the analytical one of the group, struggling to rationalize whatever science there was into a free floating body. To describe it, imagine bungee cords that are not visible, Lewis’ body was parallel of the floor but suspended a good two feet above the headrest and peering over Vivi’s fluff of blue hair and into the computer she held on her lap.

“What’s this activity about?” Lewis inquired. His body dips down, folded arms coming within inches of the headrest above Vivi. He spoke aloud before she could read off the page, “‘Seen after games end on the field, sometimes caught in the stadiums big screen.’ Groovy.”

“There’s speculation he, or she – we don’t know – they could be a fan,” Vivi continued. “There’s a case where one of the spectators suffered a concussion from a free flying ball, but they never went to the hospital and by the time they realized how serious the concussion had been, it was too late.” She shifted in the uncomfortable seat, and Lewis raised himself a foot more reflexively. “They could be trapped there or something. What do you think, Art?”

Mystery recoiled from his leisure sprawl when Arthur jerked on the bed. “Who- what?” Arthur sputtered. He had met eyes with Lewis, when the free suspended body had shifted so Lewis could see him better. Vivi kindly reminded Arthur the subject they were discussing, and Arthur set aside his notebook as he thought it over. “Batter ghost sounds the most low key, but what about the rumors?”

Vivi tapped at the laptop, and Lewis shifted to view the key words she searched for. “There are all the usual grainy shots, most caught when there’s a game. Lots of people, lots of cameras going off?” She rubbed her finger over the scroll pad quickly, eyes flashing behind her magenta glasses. “There are a few post game pics, but they don’t look any more better.”

“We could do with another low key investigation,” Lewis chimed in.

“You liked the ‘Owl Widow’ ghost?” Vivi accused, half a smirk on her face. The Owl Widow had been horrifying as hell, but she was all bark and no bite.

“I can sympathize with anyone who would terrorize people that would hike all the way out to my house, to wreck the furniture and break the windows,” Lewis grumbled. “But… she had such a gentle heart. After all those years, it’s a tragedy.”

Vivi sighed and sank down in the chair, she pushed the laptop higher up onto her knees for Lewis viewing ease. “She’ll be okay,” she persisted. “Decades gone by and she just keeps on protecting those owls.”

Mystery folded his wrists together and pinned the remote under his lower paw. Those that study the occult would recall a myth which went, when a person and an animal die in each other’s company the souls are bound, and if the trauma of the event was powerful enough, a spirit would return. The people of the town spoke of a young birder who had a favorite owl she took out to train. It was believed that hunters may have mistaken her for some animal and shot her, and her owl, or some variation of the scenario. Murder was suspected but due to lack of evidence ruled out, and the case was never solved. However, not long following the incident hikers and campers began to tell stories about an abandoned home in the area, where dozens of owls would congregate to roost, and at night the shrill cry of a woman or a shrieking owl was heard within. Few would dare stay in the home, and those that attempted only made it a few hours into the evening before the ear splitting shrieks would drive them out into the night.

The Mystery Skulls had no problem with the Owl Widow and even believed the rumors false, until they as a group ventured up into the unexplored attic where the owls roosted during the day. Vivi had no way of hailing the spirit, and the Owl Widow was as feral and skittish as any bird. When the Owl Widow realized she was discovered, she abruptly vanished without a trace. Later, Vivi learned that it was the local’s thrill seekers sport to stay in the home or try to draw out the Owl Widow for a good scare, and that was commonly done by vandalizing the home. This disgusted Vivi and she refused to do anything more that would negatively affect the spirit.

Arthur climbed off the motels bed and gave Mystery’s head a warm rub as he waked by. Mystery took his cue and climbed off the bed and followed his companion to the door, where Arthur pivoted and stopped him.

“Stay here,” Arthur urged, motioning the dog with his metal hand as his other hand took the door handle. Mystery sat down and tilts his head as Arthur backed out. “I’ll be back in a gif, I’m just gonna check the laundry.” Mystery raised an eyebrow as Arthur turned away and shut the door between them.

“Hurry back, then,” Vivi answered. Mystery glanced her way as she resumed scrolling. “It irks me though.” Lewis hummed in question and Vivi continued. “This would be a lot of work running around, for one ghost. Stadiums are huge, unless we find a binding object.”

“What’s the info on our subject?” Lewis asked, and pointed to the screen. “Is there anything? A name?”

“We could just use any old baseball I guess, if that’s what caused their death.” Vivi was clicking links, hunting for a newspaper article in the cities historical database. “There’s a lawsuit, but when s’there not? Mystery.” The dog looked up at Vivi when she called his name. “Arthur said he wouldn’t be gone long. Don’t worry.”

“That link there,” Lewis cut in, pointing to the un-highlighted title among the few darker cousin links on the screen. “I got a good feeling about that.”

“Keep your socks on. I got it.” She clicked it and the two read silently to themselves.

Mystery shrugged his shoulders and returned to the bed. The layout of the motel room was as basic, dry, and boring as the thousands they had the privilege to stay in before – table, armchair, lamp, vanity desk, single bed – a picture print of a pasture with deer grazing in the tall grass, a distant lake and tall trees surrounding the scenery – framed and hung on the wall above the bed. Mystery stretched out over the tussled sheets and adjusted his thin ankles over a stiff fold of the covers. He raised the volume only slightly and resumed his meditation through channel surfing.

“There was also this guy that overheated and died while in the mascot costume,” Vivi mentioned. “You’d think he’d come back as some sort of demon bonded to his costume.”

Lewis often wondered over Vivi’s unique style of thinking. “What was the costume?”

Vivi fixed her hairband, then put her hands back to the keyboard and scrolled. “A badger?”

“The stadium no longer sounds low key?” Lewis humped. He rolled sideways in mid hover and folded one arm under his neck, as if to support his head by some invisible tabletop. “None of the reports remark on any aggression, accidents?”

“No, you big chicken.”

“Bawk-bawk,” Lewis droned, void of any enthusiasm. “Is it too much to ask that we return to cases where some… angry thing doesn’t come crashing out of the shadows with a huge chip on its shoulder? Have I mentioned, I would like that?” He nods, as if agreeing over an important matter.

“Well…” Vivi let her voice trail off, and glanced up at Lewis. They had those cases too often. Failed cases she categorized them. The encounters which were too volatile for traditional techniques and it was advised by any veteran paranormal investigator, that if you have no training in that particular field, you have no right to meddle with it. In those instances it is strongly advised to pack up and book it rather risk harm, or worse. It was another topic she wanted to ask Arthur about, but she wouldn’t bring it up with Lewis since he was in that realm himself.

That place, it would have been one, it should have been a Failed case. They just didn’t recognize the danger in time. Another notch, a proud scar in their resume. They never failed a case, but often the case did fail them, and she had failed them.

Packed up and ran away. No matter what danger they left to those that came in their wake. Let the experienced, the demon hunters, deal with it.

“Huh?” Lewis asked, slanting one dark eye at her.

Vivi gave her head a shake and returned her attention to the screen. “I thought of something. Anyway,” she paused, noting she had exited out of some of the history articles. “Just a bunch of sightings. Nothing threatening.”

“Great,” Lewis chirped. “What were you thinking, then?”

“I was wondering,” Vivi mumbled and curled down into the chairs back. She looked up as Lewis peered down at her, prompting her to go on. “Well….”

“Well what?” There was something in his voice, something that had been absent until recent. Vivi had only realized it herself, but his voice was sounding more natural, vocal rather hollow. Solid as if projected, rather than suggested through the vague scratch of an outdated radio. The slight transition had been lost to her, while in constant company of her subject. She wondered what sort of voice outsiders heard when Lewis spoke with them, or were they oblivious? She could ask Arthur how much Lewis’ voice had changed. “Vi?”

“Are you aware you’re floating?” Vivi looked between Lewis and the floor, through the back of the chair she was nestled in. “Can you do that intentionally or—” She winced to the audible thud that came. “Uhh….”

“I was not aware,” Lewis’ garbled voice came, somewhere beyond the chairs back. “Thank you for notifying me.”

“Explain that to me.” Vivi set the laptop down on the seat cushion and stood up, to peer over the chairs headrest. “How can you not realize you’re free floating?” She pulled back and sat on her knees when Lewis poked his head up, skull in place of a face, and he resumed a buoyant hover above the floor.

“I’m kidding,” he said, as he fixed the jacket collar. Lewis felt his face, recognized the common distinction of solid spectral that symbolized his skull. “My concentration broke— I knew I was, but….” He fumbled, voice breaking off into scratches and he gave up. “Hard to explain.” He winced and looked up to Vivi when she set her hand on the side of his skull. The embers of his eyes brightened, most noticeably in Vivi’s glasses as she smiled at him.

“I get it,” she hummed. “I’ll try not to do that again.”

Lewis let his gleaming eyes dim and fall away from her tender gaze. He pressed his cheek into Vivi’s palm and let his ethereal essence sooth out, calming from the choppy ripples that dug through his usual insubstantial eminence. Passive waves rolled through Vivi’s aura, strong, vibrant, and cool. No wonder she had such power over the spirits; how could she not? It was compelling and desirable, more than the once strong call that had persisted on him in that early time. As the days ticked away the call became less, and less vibrant, until the draw had subsided into faint tugs; unpalatable and easily ignored. Bleu Moyen. High blue waves to dose his fires, severing his ties to the ravenous fury and blind ambition. So clear. Everything became so crystal clear when he was with Vivi.

A low shudder burned in Lewis, when Vivi leaned over the headrest to kiss the upper edge of his jaw. His eyes brightened in their dark sockets and a wisp of flame faded as Vivi drew back. Lewis didn’t want to lose her, he could scarcely recall that time of the between. He only wanted to believe his feelings were genuine.

An interesting segment was on the history channel, describing ancient magicians of centuries past. Mystery turned his ears up as the narrator described a priest of the pharaoh whom became famous for cutting the heads of various animals, and that animal would function normally, walk around, but without a head; after some time the priest would restore the head to the creature and it would resume life as normal. This spectacle was never performed on a human, never a servant, the priest would always refuse, and what matter of the illusion was never discovered, though attempts have been made to recreate it.

By the programs end, Mystery was on his side fully content to watch out the conclusion. No animals were harmed during the making of the program. A hollow promise, but it had some effect of easing him a little to see the message and be reminded that some humans did care. He rotates his head over to see Vivi more or less in the chair, she would be in the chair if Lewis wasn’t under her. They had resumed discussion of what case was more favorable, but softer, as if Mystery wasn’t there. He took a deep breath and let the air wheeze out of his nose.

Wait.

Mystery rolled over, off the bed and padded to the door. He sniffed along the edge picking up Arthur’s most recent scent, and pawed at the scuffed up white paint of the door. Mystery whined and looked up to Vivi and she peered over the computer in her lap, down at him.

“What’s up, Mystery?”

He barked and sidestepped at the door. Arthur. How long has Arthur been gone? Mystery resumed scratching at the door, and reared up on his hinds legs to take the L shaped handle between his wrists.

“He should’ve been back,” Vivi paused as she looked to the clock on the laptop. “Forever ago.” She stood up off of Lewis and crossed to the vanity desk, where the telly was stationed. She unplugged the computer, shut it, and stuffed it into her overnight bag on the desk. She fished around for the room key as Lewis raised up from the chair.

“Maybe he had to re-dry the clothes,” Lewis suggested. He stepped up beside Vivi and set his hand upon the shimmering surface of the mirror, and stared into the steady state of his skull and bright eye sockets. He had worked on this off and on, he could ‘jolt’ his state back into his more favorable appearance with a flash of a thought.

“Or he could’ve gone for a walk.” He briefly examined his face, the stubborn dark eyes, then turned to Vivi. “Clear his head. Think for a bit? He’s been really quiet lately.”

Vivi’s attention was directed past Lewis, toward Mystery standing on his rear legs. Mystery had tottered backwards with the door following his movements, and was now stepping out. The door began to slip shut, but stopped when Mystery blocked its progress and gave a bark at them to hurry. “Mystery doesn’t like to be away from Arthur for too long,” she said, as reason. “I worry about him, I have to.” Mystery ducked out of the doorway when Vivi stepped over to him.

“I know.” Lewis snatched his sunglasses off the table as he followed Vivi out the door, and into the blazing sun of midafternoon. Way past noon, the sky was getting the dusky soft purples that Lewis appreciated. He wanted to converse with Vivi about the one time when the group managed to get hopelessly lost and spread out around the motel, only because they kept following each other around the main office building, with a length of the wall distancing them apart. What messed them up was that they were just barely in ear shot, they could hear the nearest person but in all the confusion they never got it across, “Stay right there, I’m coming.” They had run around in circles all day, but the scenario was straight from a cartoon and they had great fun anyway.

He decided not to encourage the memory. It wasn’t so much for her benefit, but the thought of it pained him worse than….

“We just barely ate an hour ago,” Vivi mentioned. She and Lewis followed Mystery down the steps and through the small hallway that cut between the two halves of the motel. As per destiny, the nearest convenience mart was adjacent to the motel. Night or day, it didn’t matter to Arthur when he drank an energy drink. Hell, he’d drink one before taking a nap. Vivi would check there next. “You didn’t have to come.”

Lewis gave a sheepish smirk, missed by Vivi. “Well, you didn’t stop me.”

Vivi could smell the warm scent of the dyer heaters as they walked along the wall to the laundry room; beside the kids play area, and the gated and tarped pool. She pulled the door open and let Mystery and Lewis enter before she followed them into the cramped room. “Not here?” she spoke, as she moved into the adjoining room with the washers and laundry detergent vendor.

Mystery’s paws scratched and clacked on the cool tile as he wandered around, sniffing under a table and then at the edge of a wall. He turned to Vivi and gave some soft barks that echoed, unintentionally loud, off the walls. Arthur hadn’t been here lately, but with all the oddball scents it was a trial to discern accurately a time.

The dryer was still thumping and rumbling. Lewis examined the timer and found it had fifteen more minutes. “If you don’t think you’ll need me, can I have the room key so I can get this stuff up there?” he asks.

“Sure.” Vivi pulled the car key out of her wrist sleeve and handed it over to Lewis. “We’ll see you back in the room in’a bit.” She waved to Lewis as she returned to the glass door, Mystery scratched over the slippery linoleum to catch up with her at the door. “Chao.”

“Good luck,” Lewis answered, as the door shut. A few minutes drift by and a thought occurred to Lewis. When Arthur stepped out, Lewis wasn’t certain but he didn’t think Arthur had picked up the laundry bag. If Arthur had come to the same conclusion, Lewis might run into him on his way to or from the room.

The room was still empty of Arthur and provided no insight of a short return. Vivi shut the door and took the opposite path along the rooms, her eyes scanned about as she walked, in hopes to catch the faint blur of yellow contrasted on the open car lot below. Mystery padded at her heel as they took the route for the back stairs that ran above the main office. Below, a group of kids laugh as they race by, shoes slapping on the hard cement. Vivi tottered at the rail trying to catch sight of the jovial youths; maybe Arthur was down there lost in his own thoughts and mildly discomforted from the innocent play. It seemed like the situation he would be tossed into when he craved some seclusion. The sounds fade somewhere, and if Arthur is below she cannot see him from the angle she’s at above.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Vivi murmured. She paused on the steps to look out from the narrow arch and scanned the clear sky, the moist tinge still on the air from the recent rains. “There was a park when we rode in, wasn’t there?”

Mystery stood sideways on the steps and stares at the sky. He gave a soft yap.

“I know this deal with the van put us on a tight schedule, but we can do with a lil TLC.” She continued down the steps, and Mystery followed. “We’ve spent so many weeks cooped up together, I forget what open air feels like.”

The road that cut through this section of the city was not very busy, even throughout the day when people would be busy with errands. Vivi with Mystery crossed to the nearest shop mart with the highest gas prices she had seen in a hundred miles. Down the sidewalk from their current residence, it was only a few blocks among the stores and cafes to the open flat of the body shop where the van was being adjusted. The body shop was only going to fix up the ragged sides where the van had fallen and scraped, part of the deal was allowing Arthur to do the paint job himself. That would leave the van looking half finished and metallic until they returned to home base.

As Vivi pushed the door of the convenience store open, a blast of balmy air hit her. Immediately the clerk at the cashier counter piped up:

“I’m sorry, miss. No dog’s allowed.”

Vivi let Mystery in anyway, and Mystery went on his way examining the racks assorted foods, and the doughnut case positioned across from the cashier counter. “He’s a therapy dog,” Vivi answered.

The cashier, a tall woman with curly hair, hesitates as she looks back to the white dog free of a leash. “Do you have papers?” She seemed uneasy as Mystery sniffed along the corner of the tall doughnut case. In Mystery’s defense, the doughnuts smelled exceptional that day.

“That depends,” Vivi rebuked. She turned from the woman and looked over the near empty store, a few people drift around picking at the inventory in various sections – sweet, salty, and standard household goods. “Did you see a guy come in here? Shocked yellow hair, quail curl, orange vest.” She turned to the cashier and the blank stare the woman wore. Vivi motioned her elbow. “Metal arm?”

Indeed it was a beautiful day. Arthur was glad he had stepped out to enjoy it, get some fresh air. He hoped the van was all right, he hated the thought of strange people putting their greasy hands all over his pride and joy. Even if the van liked to break down in the harsh weather conditions, or guzzled gas like a leech did fresh blood, they didn’t pay for it. He never asked how much it was going to cost, but Vivi had been the one driving at the time and she always insisted on these matters. Arthur gave up trying to fight her about it long ago.

He sighed and leaned back into the cool wall in the stores shadow. It was cold only in the shadow, but standing in direct sunlight had warmed his chest too much and so here he stood in the shade, listening to the children in the nearby neighborhoods whoop and holler in play. He put his hand back in his pocket, pushed the pack of gum aside, and pulled up the chainless pocket watch. Four thirty-nine. The laundry should be done by now, he didn’t want a collection of his pants in bacon ripple style. Sickly yellow, bacon ripple style… whatever.

The watch went back in his pocket and Arthur brought the cigarette back to his lips for another draw. His eyes half closed and he let the sizzle work in his throat. Two more minutes. He calculated the time up in his head, two more minutes coupled with the walk back to the motel—, he forgot the bag. Get the bag, go back down and collect the freshly dried pants and shirts. Or he could forget the bag, have five more minutes to let his blood mellow.

“Arthur!”

He jumps in place and turns to Vivi’s accusing stare. “Hey. I didn’t worry you, did I?” he rasped. Arthur took another breath and looked down from Vivi, to Mystery huddled behind her legs. When Vivi began towards him, Mystery turns and bolts out of sight. Arthur backed up and hit the wall. He gets out a vague question as Vivi slaps the cigarette out of his metal hand. “Whoa now! What gives you the right—” He shut his mouth when Vivi grips the front of his shirt and heaves back a fist.

“You promised me you quit!” she snarled.

“I did! I DID!” Arthur tenses but makes no move to defend his face. He probably deserved it.

It was on the prescription, among the long list of drugs compiled into his blood to keep his kidneys from shriveling up, his heart pumping, his capillaries clear of toxins. They worried about toxins in his blood. Arthur had laughed that day, it was so out of character they had to call in a psychiatrist to evaluate whether or not his brain had suffered mental trauma that was not foreseen since his earlier evaluations. Oh what medical science was blind to; oh what they were willfully ignorant of. The only person that might’ve gotten the joke, wouldn’t have gotten it anyway. That cruel irony made looking at her twice as difficult for the remainder of the month, but he found his way out of it.

The doctors advised Arthur to quit, obstructed capillary networks was what they labeled it. It was common in amputees.

“Was this your first pack?” Vivi growled, tugging Arthur towards her.

He choked and spat out a no. “I’m gonna stop though, I will!” he stammered, leaning back. Why was Vivi so strong? Arthur was no heavyweight, but she could pick up Lewis when he was alive. “It always helped, with the… it just helped!”

“We have sage!” she hissed, face twisting, tears brimming in her eyes.

“But that’s so rude!” Arthur cringed down fully expecting the blow to connect and knock some sense back into him. He bought gum and sometimes chewed that instead, but it wasn’t the same. He’d show Vivi once she calmed down. He was hauled forward, staggering through the dark shade of his thoughts and awaiting the flash of light from her fist to cleave through his mind… but the harsh blow never comes. Instead, soft arms wrap around him. Arthur risks opening his eyes and stares down on the weed riddled pavement behind her blue heels. His muscles remained locked, he didn’t dare move even when Vivi’s shoulders quivered. Arthur clenched his fists at his sides and rested his chin on the poofy sweater around her neck.

“I should have asked,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “I should have asked you.” She squeezed tighter around Arthur’s chest, as if fortifying his presence with her embrace. “Why didn’t I?”

“You…” he began, and hesitated. Vivi said nothing, hadn’t calmed down, and Arthur went on, “already knew the answer. Nothing’s changed. This is fine.”

“No, it’s wrong.” She pressed her forehead into the collar of that stupid amber vest Arthur always insisted on wearing. “I wasn’t thinking about you, I wasn’t worried that…. Jesus, I don’t think.” How could she forget? Why had she been blind to this? For all her intuition, her flexible and quick mind, how could she overlook such simple, yet crucial details? Essential, yet fragile. Delicate, but poisonous. A balance that tipped dangerously.

Arthur brought his arms up and wrapped them around her shoulders, gently. “Vi, we’ve talked,” he insists. “I told him I was solid. I don’t have the right—” Arthur froze again when Vivi recoiled and pushed him back by his shoulders.

“That’s not an invitation!” She snapped. “That’s submission! That won’t do.” Arthur let his head hang, but Vivi cups his chin in her fingers and pushed his face up. “No, Art. Look, I’m not mad, I’m frustrated. Well, maybe that’s not the truth. I’m mad at me, not you. But— Would you look at me! I’m frustrated, that’s it.” She stares into Arthur’s face as his eyes crease and his brows stretch, into a conflicted expression she was too familiar with. “You’re not allowed to destroy yourself. Are you listening?” He nods, and tries to let his eyes drop from her steady gaze. “What did I just say?”

“Don’t wreck myself,” he mumbled, below a breath.

“That’s good enough, I guess.” Vivi sighed, and raised a thumb up to touch the lone tear that had made it past Arthur’s resistance. “How do I save you? How do I save my boys?”

“I miss Lewis,” Arthur says. He shuts his eyes and begins to slip down to the cold ground, his knees fold up under him. Vivi helps him down, pulling at his vest and trying not to grip the upper space of his left arm where metal met flesh. “I’m keeping it together, pulling myself back.” Vivi kneels in front of him and pulls him upright when he begins to sag sideways over his knees. “I’m not gonna fuck this up too. I can do this.” He shuts his eyes and presses his metal palm to his forehead in an effort to cool his fevered brow. “I can do this. Just… just give me some time, and I’ll work it out.”

“Hey.” Vivi brought her hands up and clasped Arthur around his forehead, his shocked blond hair folded under her palms as she held him. Arthur tucked his eyelids shut and winced to her touch. “Don’t push yourself so hard. It’ll… you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I know my limits,” he murmured. Arthur feels his heart being ripped in two, skewered by icy teeth and shredded across his ribs. “I can endure. I can.”

“Don’t give me that,” Vivi hissed. “You’re not impervious to— Art, wait!” Arthur had ripped himself from her hands and managed up onto his feet, stumbling a bit as he spun away from Vivi still crouched on the broken asphalt. Vivi hopped to her feet and followed his stabbing steps. “Art’ur!” She jerks back when he whirls on her.

“I’m not fragile, Vi! God, I’m not going to come apart and scatter in the wind.” Arthur screams, his body movements erratic as he gestures with his hands; the prosthetic arm is dull and awkward while he’s amid a state of distress. “My legs are strong, my mind’s still here! I’m okay! Just… chill.” He motions his arms, bringing them down to his hip level as Vivi watched. “You don’t trust me? Do you?”

Vivi searched for something else to focus on, and settled for the edge of the motels roof beyond the corner of the convenience store Arthur had hidden behind. “Sometimes you forget Art,” she says. “You’re so focused on anything else, you avoid the little things.” She shakes her head and then looks back to Arthur. “I don’t want to forget for you. I can’t drag you down.”

Arthur stuffs his hands into his pockets and toes at the crumbling cement, trying to dislodge a thick stubborn stalk of a wilting weed. He recollected on Vivi before the Cave, ambitious headstrong Vivi, always leading the way. Lewis always right there for her, to grab her and pull her back from the edge of disaster when it suddenly opened up in her path. And Arthur… him, always a step behind, the last one into the room, always lagging behind the others. The first to run, or the one somehow caught.

“Vi,” he says, “you never dragged me. If anything—” He stopped, and looked up at her. “You brought me back. You were there when I woke up.”

Vivi doesn’t meet his eyes as she moves towards Arthur. She takes him by the wrist of his metal arm and pulls the hand into hers and examines the stiff, numb digits, Arthur had carved himself. “I wasn’t always there,” she confessed. “I didn’t want to be there. Art?”

“Hmm?” The air became chilled when a cloud, or the sun, had inched behind some obstruction that blocked the strong yellow rays. He couldn’t feel Vivi’s fingers tracing the mars and etches in place of his metal palm, he could only detect the vibrations he had grown accustomed to when faint touch fell onto his false limb. When he had built his first prosthetic and attached it, Vivi had never taken a second look at it. He had always been gratified by this.

“We should look for Mystery,” she suggests, and tugs him by the wrist with no force applied. “I think he went this way.”

Arthur followed without protest. “We should talk a bit.”

“We’ll talk a bit,” Vivi echoed, leading Arthur behind her by his hand.

“It’s such a nice day, or was,” Arthur muttered, and squinted at the darkening contours of the sky.

Vivi led their way towards a dark alley behind the convenience store, chain link fences and the clay floor packed down, overgrown with trees and weeds. It looked more interesting and secluded than the open sidewalk beside a road. “I thought we could hit the park tomorrow.” Vivi’s voice brightened a bit.

As they departed the wall and Vivi’s voice twittered with the prospect of a day for just them, a dark shadow rose across the glossy paint of the brick. The shadow seeps from the walls surface and reforms itself, bright magenta illuminates along its outline and spreads across its torso and legs. A gilded heart pulses at the broad chest as the dark hue fades by degrees, until it is restored to its pacified shape.

Lewis took a step from the wall and leaned back onto it, he crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Vivi and Arthur disappear down the alley. He thought of following them and making certain Vivi was safe, but he decided that may have been a lame excuse to eavesdrop on following conversations. He’d… done enough of that.

“What happened to us? I mean, why did we let this happen?”

Vivi’s words rattled in his mind. He remembered Arthur then, catatonic, sleeping. His aura had been in its most indolent in that state, and Lewis had for a moment believed Arthur had died, if not for the shallow movement of his chest.

The questions plagued his deepest contemplations, alternating, “Why did we? What happened?” As if she were before him now asking the same question, inquiring for some form of answer he too yearned insight into. There remained the questioned he flittered away from, the ones that he could ponder over for long hours, while time held him prison to witness superficial events from afar. The locket thrummed at his chest, always steady, sometimes thunderous, and then at other times its as somber as a coo. The questions in their most basic function nibbled at him: What and Why?

It was all a ruse, he promised himself. He only intended to frighten them. Get them to abandon his mansion and force them far-FAR away, never to return. Leave him to sleep and forget, and fade away with each pulse of his heart. That was his intent, he swore it was all that he meant to do. Play up the theatrics, convince them it was not worth their time or sanity. He was incapable of killing.... unlike Arthur; it was beyond his nature, he swore it wouldn't go that far no matter how much… he suffered. The long, endless cycle of time tormenting his existence, abandoned and betrayed by someone he thought of as a dear friend. Something... somewhere… it all went wrong.

Reuniting with Arthur. The event brought something out of him, something he never genuinely contested before. Not with earnest. The unbridled horror in Arthur's features when Lewis emerged from his coffin, the unsightly attributes which cost everything he held dear and precious; his brazen perplexity upon seeing this… ghost. It pissed him off. He wanted to wipe it out, make Arthur taste some of that spite that curdled his soul. He couldn't stop, he absolutely could not stop himself. How far could he drive Arthur on before he broke? Arthur deserved the suffering, the torment and hostility unleashed by his failings. Nothing would make this right, but Lewis also couldn't elude that anger. It was as much of a part of him now as the locket affixed to his chest. Inseparable.

And then she was there. It had happened so fast and Lewis couldn’t bear it. The ache in his hollowed chest when he saw her for the first time since….

He said goodbye.

Why he remained far past his expiration was never a controversy for him. The question that stumped him when he was not careful, and it came upon him when his defenses were down: What was he now?

Lewis rounded the corner of the convenience store and walked across the parking lot. He saw Mystery on the sidewalk beyond the gas pumps waiting for Vivi, or him, he was on the sidewalk beside the crosswalk marks that bridge across to the motel. The dog perked up at Lewis’ approach, and Lewis said nothing until he reached his four legged ally. “How’s it going?” Lewis rattled, his voice near toneless.

Mystery’s answer was to tilt his head and lower one ear at an angle. He stood and pivots to cross the road, glancing around for any speeding traffic; there were no cars but Mystery was careful to look anyway. He spins about when Lewis begins to walk off, and Mystery pads up to follow at a distance.

“I’m not going back to the room yet,” Lewis explained. “Vi and Art are looking for you.”

Mystery’s steps slowed and he fell back. That didn’t make sense, any one of them knew without a fail that if he was separated from his company, he would either turn up at the van or the current place of occupation. He gave his head a shake as he resumed his quick pace, struggling to keep up with Lewis long stride. It was evident Lewis was in no hurry, but Lewis probably wanted to be alone and Mystery knew he couldn’t allow that.

They came to the busier district of the widespread city. Mystery recognized it down the road from the motel, an easy to and from for some of the better diners and the cafes. Arthur was impossible when it came to the prospect of being stranded, and the distance to a place for a worthwhile cup of coffee. Mystery woofed at Lewis’ back. Lewis didn’t need a reminder that he was out in public, and not dressed for one on one interactions. Numerous shops throughout the city block catered to tourists, featuring carved wooden animals, jewelry, or rugs and quilts. The small clumps of people they passed would give Mystery odd stares, and Mystery began to wonder what for. It wasn’t unusual for people to stroll around with a ‘pet’ off the leash, was there a city ordinance he was not aware of?

Then it dawned on him. No shadow was cast under Lewis and he had no reflection in the shop windows. Lewis was hiding.

This didn’t alarm Mystery, if it was Lewis’ wish to go unnoticed then he was entitled to that. For Mystery matters were complicated. Head up, chest puffed out, ears proud and forward facing. He had someplace to be and that was where he was headed. He observed that humans rarely bothered a dog with confidence, minding his or her own business and on their way to wherever dogs go. What humans did not trust was a timid, confused, lost creature that scuttled away from attention or drifted around. If he kept moving it would make tracking him difficult. Even so, he had his collar and tags and people would regard that and conclude he was just a regular out for a walk. He would be fine, and he had some notion of Lewis’ destination.

As predicted they arrived at the body shop where the van was left. Show Car Remake and Renew, a general garage and minor vehicle repairs. The main garage was a long gray building with a few windows along the uppermost walls, and the large shutter doors at the base drawn down and locked for the evening. The far side of the lot was overnight parking, the cars and trunks caged in by tall barbed wire fence. Mystery followed Lewis to the fence but was forced to wait, as his transparent companion slipped through the metal links and entered amongst the many vehicles.

Mystery lost sight of the ghost as his tall figure weaved around the portion of large vehicles and trunks. Mystery spun around and looked back to the road as the first streetlamps snapped on, cars sped by and after a short time of waiting the street quieted. It was getting late, the air grew colder. He sat down and gave the spot behind his ear a dedicated scratch, working to straighten out the hair bent there. He tensed when a white utility trunk drove by and seemed to slow down – at least to Mystery it looked like the vehicle was stopping – but no, the truck sped up and the dog let out a sigh. Never was the best time to run off and get lost somewhere in a strange city, with strange people, and strange beliefs.

Vivi and Arthur would be wondering where he was, if they had managed to reach the room by now. They shouldn’t worry, but Mystery admitted he was not immune to dangers, or the mild irritations offered by the few humans he could do without meeting.

The sudden awareness of a presence at his back caused Mystery to twist around. It was only Lewis, slipping through the large chain links in the fence. Mystery examined him over and noted the piece of cloth tangled in his hand. Ah.

Lewis looked at the cloth between his fingers as he untangled it. “Are you still afraid of me?” Mystery raises his snout higher and glares through his spectacles at Lewis. “Would it be enough if I apologized?” He unfolded and refolded the cloth and straightened out the creases to the best of his ability. It had been folded and pressed wrong for quite some time.

Mystery give a soft woof and steps back from Lewis. They should head back now. The dapper specter wouldn’t budge.

“You were there for Arthur,” Lewis whispered, traces of flames bud from his shoulders and hair. “But not for me. Why not? Why is it…?” He tightened his fist around the sad piece of cloth, “Why did I have to be the one abandoned?” He looked down when Mystery stepped forward and set a paw on his foot, the white face looked up at him. Before Lewis could utter a word, Mystery had whisked away and was already halfway across the parking lot, the faint tapping of his claws fade as the ghost stares after him.

He could have just haunted Arthur. Or he could have remained in his mansion, his sanctuary from the world ticking by with the tempo of the seasons cycling through, worlds moving; moon sweeping through crescent to quarter, harvest and back to the new moon. What time had passed while he had slumbered? Existing but not in a state of present, not dispersing but not fully cumulative either. A piece of himself was lost in every wedge of every day, not noticed and not missed. Small segments of his childhood, the places they frequented as kids, the warm smiles of his parents. How could he miss what he couldn’t reflect with? It may have been a process of Acceptance, or it just happened naturally. He ceased to worry, and he couldn’t care. The lethargy of simply existing drained him heavily, and he fed on the lone coal of his passion, his raison d'etre. What purpose, and what meaning had come to him, when the cycle of existence had evicted a squatter?

It was Mystery’s aura that had stirred him. That wild, untamed thing – a font of composer and class, with a writhing tangle of insanity that clawed for escape. He would know it anywhere, it was the last, and first thing he had latched onto before the fulcrum of his final volition had scattered. He didn’t remember much in that span of time between… before….

The light of the motel room was out. The curtains were drawn shut, as Vivi had left them, and the walls would be absolutely silent, if not for the dull rattle of the heater. Night was well upon the motel now, and Vivi and Arthur would not be far behind it. Without a thought Lewis pushed his palms into the cracked stucco of the wall, and allowed his unsubstantial shape to slither through the cold molecules of cheap drywall and plaster. Mystery gave a soft yap at his back as he faded, and then, the room was opened up before Lewis. The interior air warm from the buzzing heater in the wall, bags and a few essential supplies sat in grainy detail along one wall, the bed was overtaken by blues and yellows. Lewis turns back to the door and pulls the handle, but stood in the way when Mystery tried to nudge through and enter with him. Lewis picked up the piece of cloth he had dropped, but paused as Mystery searched for a way around him.

Somewhere in the parking lot below the walkway, Lewis could pick up on the soft warble of Vivi’s voice accompanied by the timid tones of Arthur’s speech. “Hold on,” Lewis murmured, as he shooed Mystery out of the threshold. “They’ll let you in, but I have something to do real quick.” Mystery stiffened when Lewis gave his scalp a comforting rub, an action Mystery was unaware of how much he missed. Mystery stepped away when Lewis straightened up and shut the door.

What… just happened?

Mystery whined. That was not fair! He scratched at the door and sniffed at the crack along the frame and listened for the muffled sounds from behind the door. He tugged at the handle, though he knew the door couldn’t be opened without a key.

“What up, Mystery?” Arthur was the first to ask. He stepped behind the dog and raised his knuckles to the door, rapping gently.

Vivi leaned down and hugged Mystery around his shoulders, plucking him up off his front feet as she rocked him. “Did Lew leave you outside?” Mystery whined and stared at Arthur, pleaded at Arthur’s back with his eyes. “I’ll talk to him about it, and we’ll fix this.” Mystery strained his whimpers, and Vivi took note of that tone in his voice. “D’you have a key, Art?”

“Hmm? Yeah, sure,” he muttered, as he began digging through his pockets. Arthur found the thin plastic card easily, and with one swipe the red light on the handle lock flicks to green. “Lew?” He asked softly as he pushed the door open, intent to enter before Vivi for once. “You left Mystery outside.” The heater of the room chattered as it stuttered off, and the dark plain before Arthur was left with the reverberations of its silence, along with the strange emptiness of the room. The scarce glow of the few streetlamps outside tumbled around his shoulders as he stood in the doorway. He was startled only briefly by his own reflection in the mirror, directly across from the doorway. “Damnit,” he gasped, and clutched at his chest as his heart pounded behind his ribs.

“Lew?” Vivi chimed in, as she and Mystery pressed in behind Arthur. She shuffled to the tall lamp stationed in one corner of the room and flipped the light on, coating the walls and floor with its pale white coat. “Are you here?” She had the impression that he was hiding for some reason. Vivi brushed past Arthur and crossed to the bathroom at the furthest side of the room. Mystery followed, sniffing along the bed and the corner of the wall.

There was nothing in the bathroom. The light blazed harshly over the white walls and plastic floor, a few bottles of shampoo sat around but mention nothing of guests. Vivi was usually comforted by the fragrant soaps, but she had only noticed them now when she was uneasy. It didn’t feel right. The bathroom heater came on with the light, but the air retained a chilled quality. The whole of the room felt reticent, inhospitable.

Vivi shut the light off and stepped out. She felt unnerved and was not certain where this sensation had crept out from, but it was there and she couldn’t shake it. She heard the door shut as Arthur entered fully, he cast his eyes over the walls and the short carpet as if anticipating Lewis to pop out from a surface at any given moment. Arthur sprang in place when Mystery poked his head up from the opposite side of the bed. Vivi shared a look with the white face, then their sight feel onto the bed.

The scent of fresh laundry overpowered the room, and Vivi with Mystery examined the shirts, skirts, and pants laid out over the bed covers where they wouldn’t wrinkle. Further evidence of Lewis’ presence was not visible, aside from the large leather jacket draped over the back of an uncomfortable armchair. On the table rests the room’s twin key card, beside a pair of dark purple sunglasses. There was nothing to suggest anyone had been in the room recently.

#msa #mystery skulls animated #msa fanfic #mystery skulls fanfic #msa fanfiction #msa lewis #msa arthur #msa mystery #msa vivi #mystery skulls fanfiction #msa ghost #mystery skulls

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banashee · 4 years ago

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Close To You

Clint all but kicks open the door to the safe house, shuffling in as fast as humanly possible while he curses up a blue storm. The door falls shut behind him just as fast as he opened it, and while he kicks off his wet, snow crusted boots in the hallway, Clint curses some more - because he can and because he really, really hates being cold. As it is, he spent most of the week in a perch, high up and in the elements, only to find out today that their Intel had been shit, so he'd listened to Phil explain and try his best not to curse on an open comm-line. He's a professional, but goddammit, this was a waste of time and for nothing.

Clint, however, has no such qualms about cursing on an open line. In fact, he'd done so the entire way back to their safe house and Phil can hardly blame him for it. He is well aware of how much his asset - best friend - hates cold weather and he knows the reasons for it. This is not an issue of an agent being a primadonna, it's old injuries and cold-related trauma of an unkind life.

Phil understands, and he is genuinely sorry that things have turned out that way. The least he can do is crank the heat up in the whole house and put the towel and change of clothes over the heater for Clint.

The agent in question shuffles past Phil on his way to the bathroom, shivering, wet and miserable.

"Hey."

"Hi. Do you want to eat when you're done? I'll heat something up while you shower."

That does stop Clint, just for a second. He nods.

"That would be great - thanks."

As soon as the bathroom door falls shut, Phil is already in the kitchen. This safehouse is, as far as SHIELD standard goes, pretty nice and well equipped. The pantry is full, and so are the fridge and freezer. It is a nice change from living on nothing but MREs and shitty coffee when they're headed out.

While Phil is standing by the stove, stirring in a pot of broccoli cheese soup from the day before, he can look out the window.

The chill from outside is creeping inside, and the landscape around them is covered in sparkly white. Snowflakes are falling as the wind howls around them - the sound alone makes Phil shiver, and he is glad that he could set his office up in here. Not so much luck for Clint though - the poor guy had spent 12 hours a day for a whole week out there, sitting in a tree and growing more and more quiet, which is unusual for him. Normally, he'd chew Phil's ear off about whatever comes to his mind, just to focus on something while staring at literally nothing. But on this mission, the colder it had gotten, the more quiet he grew.

For a change, Phil had started talking to him over their private line, telling him anything and everything he felt like, just to take his mind off of things. And if the occasional hum or short answer had reassured him that the young agent was still okay out there, well, it was an added bonus.

As soon as the water shuts off in the bathroom, Phil can hear a groan and a muffled

"Fuuuuck yes." from behind the door - he smiles. It sounds like Clint found the warmed up clothes.

Phil turns off the stove and keeps stirring the soup on the rest of the heat until the other agent arrives in the kitchen, dressed in clean and most of all warm clothes. On his way into the other room, he sniffs the air and smiles a little bit. Hot soup is an amazing idea just about now. He is still feeling cold, despite almost boiling himself in the shower.

Clint takes the offered bowl and spoon and sits down with Phil.

"Thanks, you're the best." he tells him, and he means that. After years of working together and building a close friendship, Clint doesn't know what he would do without Phil in his life. Literally - he probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry the mission went like this. We'll have to wait out the snow storm, too. I checked in with HQ earlier." Phil replies, shaking his head. It is what it is, but he is always annoyed when a mission is a bust. Especially when his asset is freezing his ass off in a perch for no reason after all.

"Honestly, as long as I can stay warm I really don't give a shit." Clint shrugs, and pushes his empty bowl away from him, leaning back in his chair, eyes closed for a moment.

"You will. None of us will be going anywhere until we're picked up - not sure when this is going to happen, but it's likely going to be a few days. Maybe closer to a week, depending on the weather."

Clint hums, indicating he is listening.

"How about food? Are we stocked up for that long?"

"We're fine. Fresh food will last for another three days, non-perishables are stocked for at least three more weeks from then."

Phil tells him this in detail, despite both of them having checked upon arrival. He knows Clint, knows he needs the reassurance that they'll last here when they can't leave due to the weather. It has been cold and wet the entire time, but the snow storm is only just beginning. As if on cue, another burst of wind is howling around the small, wooden house.

Nodding, Clint gets up to gather their empty plates and starts to put them into the dishwasher - he is so glad that they have one. He really doesn’t feel like doing them by hand.

“You want coffee? I’ll make some, or I’ll fall asleep in no time.” he asks Phil, who is washing the empty pot in the sink.

“Yes, I’d like that.” But when he looks up, he can see the slight tremors that are still running through Clint.

“Okay, wait. You look like you’re still freezing. Go warm up on the couch, I’ll get the coffee.”

“‘s fine, you don’t have to.” Clint mumbles, not looking at Phil. Even now, after so many years he isn’t really used to being treated with more than basic human decency at best, let alone being used to being taken care of.

“Clint.” slowly, Phil reaches out and places a hand on the other man’s wrist. The skin is cold under his touch, and now he can not only see but also feel the shaking. Subconsciously, his thumb is stroking up and down in a soothing motion.

“Go warm up.” Phil repeats, firm yet gentle in that way that is quite unique to him, and this time, Clint doesn’t protest.

“Thanks.” he says quietly, then shuffles off to the living room.

When Phil joins him a few minutes later, Clint has buried himself under at least two blankets. He silently accepts the mug of coffee and holds up a corner of the pile for Phil to slip under.

They’re off-duty, and there is no reason to keep up any protocol now. In the field, they’re professional, but otherwise, there is no reason to keep distance. Amongst working close to one another for years and a quickly developing friendship, the two of them have been home to each other for a long time now. It’s not surprising, given how much time the two of them spend around each other, in any context.

As they drink their coffee in silence, Clint slowly slumps against Phil. He is still shaking, despite the warm house, hot drink in his hands and the warm body of a friend nearby.

Phil places his mug on the coffee table and slowly wraps an arm around Clint, giving him the opportunity to pull away if he wants to. He doesn’t lean away. On the contrary, he leans into the touch and shuffles closer.

“Are you alright?” It is a stupid question, since the answer is likely “no”, but it is an opening that works most times. The offer to listen is heavily implied, after all.

For a long time, Clint remains silent, but when he has finished his coffee, he places the mug next to the other, empty one and shuffles back under the warm blankets. His skin is still cool to the touch, and it worries Phil.

“Not really.” he says in regard to the question, and pauses for a bit. Then, he shakes his head in defeat.

“I’m frustrated that this whole thing was a bust. Sitting out in the freezing weather for a week with no result just sucks… Gives me way too much time to think. You know the shit I’m talking about.” he adds, clearly unwilling to go into the details again.

Phil knows. He still remembers the files and most of all the personal conversations, which took place in pretty similar circumstances to now - quiet, private moments when the hard times hit. Being alone together in a safehouse or either of their apartments.

SHIELD has their ways to find out a lot of things. They collect data about people and their lives, but they have no way to access memories and feelings, not unless either of it is shared by the people themselves.

Over the years, he’s learned a lot about his asset and friend - mostly that he doesn’t trust easily and the fact that Phil knows these things in the first place are a near-miracle. A sure sign of trust that is precious to him.

A childhood spent in poverty, surrounded by violence and fear. Living in houses, apartments and trailers with no heat, living on the streets. That is the sanitized version of Clint’s former life, anyway.

Being cold, it brings back all of those memories. It makes old injuries ache and overall, leaves Clint miserable.

Spending the better part of a week out in freezing wind and snow was bound to be trouble.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Phil asks, wishing, not for the first time, that he could go back in time to kill a few people.

“Just - stay?”

“Of course.” As if there was a possibility he’d say no to this.

As it turns out, “stay” means stay.

The fireplace is on, crackling in the background as the sun goes down outside, until the landscape is only lit up by the moon and stars. The light is reflecting off of the snow, and it looks beautiful - the chill of the wind is still creeping inside though. Slowly but surely, the snow gets higher and higher, and there is a pretty good possibility that they’ll be snowed in by the time they wake up tomorrow.

Their conversation is slow and quiet - despite the caffeine, exhaustion is about to pull them under.

“We should move. This couch is a back-killer.”

“...In a minute. You’re warm...” It doesn’t sound like Clint plans on getting up any time soon. In fact, he holds onto Phil just a bit more tightly.

In all those years, Phil has learned that “You’re warm.” is pretty much code for “Please don’t leave me alone.” because Clint would never ask this, at least not outright.

Right now, Phil knows, he is lost in thoughts, exhausted and in pain. No matter how warm the room, Clint probably feels like he is still freezing.

“Hey. I’m not going anywhere unless you want me to. Bed’s big enough for both of us - minus the sore back.” Phil offers, and is relieved at the nod he gets in response.

This is far from the first time the two of them are sharing a bed. It’s the nature of safehouses sometimes, when there is little to no space or when the couch that was supposed to serve as a second bed is either moldy or way too short - it happens.

Sleeping together is not an issue, but some nights, when they are curled up next to each other, later around each other because it is more comfortable, it is hard to keep the emotions in check.

In moments like this, Phil thinks he should just say something. Tell Clint how he feels, but it always seems wrong. The rumor mill says they’ve been an item for ages - if it wasn’t so sad, Phil would laugh. he fucking wishes he and Clint were an item. But he remains silent because he doesn’t want to lose the hard earned trust and friendship. Even more so, he doesn’t want to take either of these things away from Clint, just in case a romantic relationship isn’t what he wants.

Right now though, Clint is as close as humanly possible to Phil. Their arms are wrapped around one another, legs tangled and they’re almost close enough to share a bit of breath.

Moments like this feel intimate and incredibly precious.

Part of Clint is longing for more, but then again, what if he messes up their friendship?

Some nights, like now, when he can be this close to Phil, or in the field, when they keep each other going despite all odds, it only seems natural to love him. Or when they share days like today in comforting silence, Clint thinks - hopes - that maybe, just maybe, Phil might love him back just as much. He’s too afraid to ask or say something.

Part of Clint is still convinced that he doesn’t deserve love, or a partner who sees more in him than something to use for their own gain and pleasure. Although he knows that if a relationship with Phil was an option, things would be widely different than they used to - different than what Clint is used to. But risking their friendship - the best thing to ever happen to him - is impossible.

The thoughts seem to run away with him again, and Clint sighs unhappily. Blunt nails start scratching the nape of his neck, steady and gentle. He melts into the touch, unable to find any words, even if he wanted to.

“Clint. Talk to me, please.”

The request is so quiet and filled with worry, especially paired with the soft touch, it makes him want to cry. A thick lump is in his throat, and Clint is glad that the room is almost entirely dark, because he isn’t entirely sure if he will be able to hold back the tears.

“I’m-” he cuts himself off, trying to swallow the lump in his throat and keep breathing as evenly as possible. It takes longer than he wants to, and he faintly realizes that Phil is slowly rubbing his upper arm in an attempt to comfort. Skin on skin, so incredibly warm and soft, even as he shakes apart under it.

“Just thinking too much.” Clint forces himself to say, attempting to keep his voice as even as possible. It betrays him as it breaks towards the end of the short sentence.

Despite being wrapped up in a warm bed with multiple blankets and his favourite person in the world, protectively wrapped around him to keep him warm, Clint feels like he is freezing. It’s nothing physical, he knows, but his brain keeps jumping back and forth between scenarios in split seconds.

Hiding from his fathers drunken anger in the middle of january, out in the barn with no jacket or shoes on.

Hearing Dad yell at Mom because the power has been turned off for days now, conveniently forgetting that he is the one spending every penny they have for alcohol.

Shivering in the fall air as he stares down onto his parent’s tombstone.

Running from foster family number 1, 3 and 4, trying to escape more heartbreak and violence.

Sleeping in the orphanage with no heat on in the dead of winter.

Shivering and shaking apart under a thin, ripped blanket in a cramped circus trailer that reeks of cigarettes and unwashed bodies.

Barney looking at him with cold, unmoving eyes as he watches Swordsman kick him to the ground, still in his thin costume as the freezing wind is biting at him and his split open face.

Bleeding on the ice covered concrete floor as the circus leaves him behind.

Living in the streets, doing whatever he has to do in order to make it through the night.

Being stationed in freezing cold places, his body aching and his mind being clouded with old and painful memories.

Phil, being close to him, talking calmly and holding him through the struggle, again and again and again.

‘You don’t deserve love.’ the mean voice in the back of his head is telling Clint, keeps him from starting the conversation that is long overdue.

If only… If only.

Phil can feel the steady drip of hot tears into his shirt long before he hears anything, apart from the change in breath. He knows how quiet Clint can be when he wants to, especially when he is trying to hide himself away.

Something twists up painfully in his chest, like ice cold hands are wrenching his heart as the person he loves most is crying almost soundlessly against him. Clint is desperate and exhausted, and there is nothing Phil can do, besides holding him close, trying to comfort.

Eventually, he drifts off into a restless sleep and Phil waits, staying awake on purpose as he keeps stroking Clint’s hair in an attempt to soothe. Just in case.

The wind outside picks up, howling louder and louder as it creeps in through the tiniest cracks and crevices in the wall.

By the time they wake up, the sun is up but hidden behind dark clouds - It’s not like they could see it from here. Snow covers most of the windows, tinting the room even darker than it already is.

The storm is still howling around the house, loud and without mercy as ever. It is strong enough to make the doors and windows clatter from it, but thankfully, it is still warm under the covers in bed.

Clint is waking up slowly, eyes gritty and with a massive headache - probably from dehydration. But he finds himself enveloped in a familiar pair of arms as Phil is still wrapped around him, nose buried in his shaggy blond hair. The chill from outside makes Clint shiver, and he burrows closer as the events from last night are slowly creeping back into his mind. Damn it.

He knew the aftermath of this week would be rough, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad. And despite being warm and safe now, just the knowledge that they’re essentially trapped in here, no matter how well equipped, almost sends Clint spiralling again.

He doesn’t realize he is shaking until the hands on the back of his shirt and the skin of his arm start rubbing small circles, both in an attempt to comfort and keep him warm.

Skin on skin contact is nice, and Clint leans into the touch without thinking. If Phil is offering it, he’ll take however much he can. He only wishes there could be more between them, but hoping will only hurt him more in the long run.

“You’re safe. We’re safe.” Phil quietly tells him, again and again while remaining as close as possible until the tremors slowly die down.

“Sorry. I didn’t think I’d be doing this bad.” Clint says after a while, already exhausted despite having just woken up and not even left the bed yet.

“Not your fault - this is okay. I just wish I could do more to help you.”

A sad smile creeps onto his face, still hidden from Phil’s view. What Clint wants to say, is something along the lines of “You’re here - that’s more than enough.” but what comes out of his mouth is an almost soundless

“I love you.”

When he realizes what he just said, Clint stiffens up, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Breathing is getting harder and harder as his heart starts hammering violently in his chest.

‘You fucked up, you fucked up, you fucked up’ the voice in his head keeps yelling at him, because he didn’t mean to say this out loud - what follows are stammering apologies as he half expects Phil to pull away from him, but he doesn’t and Clint doesn’t understand why.

There is a good chance the ‘you fucked up’ mantra doesn’t stay in his head like he intended it to, because Phil is still hugging him, still trying to comfort. He is talking to him, voice calm and even as he carefully combs his fingers through shaggy blond hair.

“No, you didn’t. I promise you, everything is okay. Breathe, Clint. Keep breathing… Yes, just like this.” Then, after a short while, he carefully asks,

“Can you look at me, please?”

He does - eyes huge and rimmed red, Clint lifts his head until their gazes meet and Phil gently cups his face in one hand. He looks concerned, but there is also something entirely different in his look.

“You did not fuck anything up.” he repeats, “And nothing needs to change if you don’t want it to, but: I love you, too. I love you a lot.”

Now it is on Clint to look like he suddenly got hit by a train - he can’t believe it.

“You- Uhm.” He seems to be lost for words, but Phil is patient as always - he waits for the answer and remains just where he is. A single stray tear is dripping down his hand and he gently wipes away it’s wet track.

“Can I - kiss you?” Clint asks eventually, half expecting the answer to be ‘no’ but he gets a warm smile and even warmer “Yes, of course.” as an answer.

Phil waits for Clint to make the first step to close the distance between them, but as soon as their lips meet, he kisses back.

It is a slow and gentle kiss, nothing heated at all. The feeling is steady, and Clint is almost on top of Phil now, trying to get as close as he possibly can. Fingers are stroking over beard stubble, brushing through already messy hair and holding onto one another. They only stop to get some air, still close enough for their foreheads to touch, and then Phil is leaning in again, holding Clint’s face in both hands as he kisses him, as soft and gentle as he possibly can, putting all the love and care into it.

There is so much they want to say, so many emotions out in the open, but there are no words to talk about them in detail. Not yet and not now, but both Clint and Phil are perfectly happy to stay in bed for now - it’s not like they need to be anywhere. They keep kissing until they finally settle down again, wrapped around one another and feeling hammering hearts as they are pressed together.

As much as Clint would love to go back to sleep and stay like this forever, he is almost high on adrenaline now. But he is happy - shaken up and exhausted from too many thoughts and emotions, sure, but nonetheless happy that the seemingly unlikely scenario is true:

Phil loves him, and they just spent who knows how long kissing each other senseless. He settles down again, face hidden in the crook of Phil’s neck as he presses another kiss there.

“I love you, Phil. A lot.” he tells him, and smiles against his skin when the other man turns slightly, kissing the top of his head as he holds him close.

“I love you, too.”

There is a lot they need to talk about and they know it, but now is not the time. For now, they want to remain close, chasing the cold away as best as they can. By the time they finally get up to make breakfast, they move around each other in the familiar way they have been used to for so long, only with the added bonus of occasional hugs, kisses and holding hands over the table as they wait for the coffee to finish.

The important thing is that they finally know that their love is very much mutual - they’ll figure out the rest, eventually.

It takes 8 more days until they can leave and return back home, but until then, they pass the time keeping each other warm, in front of the fireplace while reading books or finishing mission reports, always touching in some way, always remaining close to one another.

At night, when the wind is howling around the wooden house once again, they stay tangled together, skin on skin in as many places as they can possibly touch. Familiar arms around him, gentle kisses and even gentler words of reassurance keep Clint going when the panic hits and the nightmares start again, but it helps to know that he doesn’t have to do this alone.

Back in New York, on their first morning in the office, Phil finds a purple sticky note on his desk.

“We’ve got a dinner reservation tonight - I’ll pick you up at 7” it reads, in the familiar messy scrawl that Phil would recognize anywhere. Even if he didn’t, the lopsided heart with an arrow piercing it would make it very clear who wrote the note. Especially since Clint also drew a pair of sunglasses on the heart.

It makes Phil smile, and a small laugh escapes him at the sight of the tiny masterpiece drawn in place of a signature.

He is already excited, and when 7pm finally hits, he leaves the building with Clint by his side, who is smiling and overall a lot more relaxed than he had been in the snowed in safehouse.

His posture is a lot more leaned back and secure. There also is a slight spring in his steps - clearly, Clint is just as excited as Phil, and his blue eyes are no longer bloodshot and dull. They’re sparkling with life, mischief and love, like they should, and Phil’s heart stops for a moment.

Happiness, genuine happiness suits Clint incredibly well, and Phil would give anything to see him so happy more often.

Their hands find one another on the way to the car, fingers linked and squeezing gently every now and then. Even though their feelings and relationship are abundantly clear, being on the way to their first proper date is thrilling. Just a bit of normalcy in their usually hectic life.

Lord knows, they need it - especially if that means they can laugh and flirt and eat out like any other couple would, without any threats or dawning horror lurking in a corner for them.

Right now, they are simply themselves, and most of all: relaxed and head over heels in love with each other.

*+~

Prompt 7: Snowed in

*+~

Trigger warnings: - Past abuse / past child abuse - blood mention - non-graphic violence - trauma - mental health issues, insecuriry - overwhelmed by thoughts and emotions

#banashee writes #marvel fanfiction #65 Random Prompts #phlint #clintcoulson #hurt/comfort #friends to lovers #tw past abuse #tw blood mention

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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years ago

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Movie Review: Birds of Prey (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review a week after the movie airs worldwide, so if you have not yet seen the movie do not read on until you have.

Characters:

Harley Quinn:

This is most definitely Margot Robbie’s signature role. Just like Johnny Depp has Jack Sparrow and Gal Gadot has Wonder Woman, Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn and I am not just saying that because she’s the only cinematic version we have.

I really enjoyed the “Galentine’s” movie angle as this movie was released around the traditionally loved-up holiday and Galentine’s is an anti-approach to it. But showing how Harley bounced back after being dumped by the Joker with the traditional break-up tropes of a bad haircut, partying, drinking and generally hitting self destruct was a lot of fun, particularly from Harley’s perspective.

Also the link with her roller derby hobby at the start of the movie showing how she’s moved on to the end of the movie when she uses her roller derby skills in a positive way was really great, and one of the few things I really like about her comics redesign.

As I said in my non-spoiler review, I thought Margot Robbie’s comedy as Harley Quinn had greatly improved from Suicide Squad to here, whether or not that’s better writers or Robbie’s own performance I don’t know. But Margot Robbie, to be fair to her, is funny when given the right material. Just look at how she delivered Brad Pitt’s acceptance speech at the BAFTAs.

But she had a lot of great one-liners and even character moments where it was just physical acting or face acting that just make me laugh every time I watch the movie, and I so far have seen it three times.

My favourite funny lines from her are “Run piggy run!” when she’s gunning down the GCPD officers with glitter rounds, “Does she have to keep running?!” when trying to chase Cassandra through the evidence room while also battling with the mercenaries looking to claim Sionis’ bounty, and when she is explaining why the main women of the movie need to team-up in the most realistic way possible ending with “...so unless we all want to die extremely painful deaths and let Roman go finger fondling around the kid’s intestinal track...”.

In terms of her silent comedy, I loved when she ran for the truck she used to blow up Ace Chemicals, Margot Robbie is a good drunk actor. The way she ran with her arms out but then momentarily stopped seeing the actual driver before continuing anyway, I’m cracking up now just thinking about it.

Also whenever she came across someone who was after her or she had an idea, the way she would sign or look confused or have her trademark devilish grin was fantastic.

In regards to her character development, I am beyond thrilled that they let Harley be Harleen in this movie.

During Suicide Squad she had one or two moments where she did analyse the team and especially in the extended cut she went through the group.

Here though right from the start with Roman in his club she lays out his psyche in front of him and in turn I believe throughout the movie analyses all the main players with the exception of Zsasz.

It did weigh in to the comedy but the fact she had an analysis for everyone so unique to them; Sionis with his insecurities, Canary being a harlequin of sorts, Montoya being stuck in the past, Huntress and her childhood trauma. It was all superb and exactly what I want from Harley.

Even psychoanalysing herself when explaining herself to Cassandra, how she was a psychologist working at Arkham before falling in love with her patient and helping him escape, then being arrested herself and becoming a member of the Suicide Squad, but escaping before being dumped. Serious and professional Harley is just as important to me as the wacky Harlequin of Chaos.

Also the fact she is still a dangerous character both with her actions and unhinged mind. She is a very calculating individual and that’s again a lot to do with her psychological background.

When she manages to save her skin (literally) with Black Mask by telling him she can get his diamond back from Cassandra Cain, the fact she’s clearly hesitant from just turning her over and simply wants the diamond, you can see the frustration in her when Cassandra originally refuses to hand it over before admitting she ate it.

Speaking of what I want to see from my Harley, her action sequences were so good. Harley is an acrobatic character and while we saw shades of that in Suicide Squad, here not only was she doing kicks and flips, but the way she used that baseball bat and her roller skates was everything for me.

Yes Harley with a mallet and a form of firearm will always be Harley, but this is old-school Harley and it works so well.

While I do think Margot Robbie’s storytelling style could be considered all over the place, in the context of Harley Quinn it is such a good narrative because Harley’s mind is all over the place.

I love me a cute animal sidekick and, while neither animals in this movie are cute (or real), I thought Bruce the Hyena was a great addition despite not really doing anything. If you’ve seen him in the trailers you’ve seen him in the movie.

I am hoping that some day soon they could afford to render two hyenas so we can finally get Bud and Lou on the big screen because Harley with her hyenas is such a great partnership.

Harley with a beaver on the other hand...I am just glad it wasn’t played up and used in cheap inuendos. It is slightly annoying that when her apartment was blown up, she had to save the beaver and even at the end of the movie, once it was revealed that Bruce was safe, the beaver was also there. I just don’t get the fascination with it.

Black Canary:

Jurnee Smolett-Bell, as I said in my non-spoiler review, is the breakout star of this movie for me. I know Black Canary quite well thanks to Injustice 2, the Arrowverse and even some animated properties, but seeing her in a more realistic setting rather than the suited up version was very refreshing.

Even the smaller moments for Dinah worked really well thanks to Smolett-Bell’s acting. For example, when that one guy roufees Harley and tries abducting her, the look on Dinah’s face as she’s deciding whether or not to get involved or not was really great.

Giving Black Canary some good action sequences was also the right thing to do because that’s partly what Canary is known for. Not only did she have some great kicks but it was just her attitude and her bravado about how she engaged in her fight choreography.

Also allowing her to sing, I haven’t talked about the music in this movie because while I do love some of the songs used here it wasn’t a lot to rave about, “Man’s World” may be slightly too on the nose for this movie but Smolett-Bell delivered it very well.

And let’s not forget the other way her voice was used, we have our Canary Cry and I am thrilled...mostly. Having it used once at the end of the movie and that’s it does seem like a bit of a waste, but it does make sense with in the context of this movie.

Black Canary is the only metahuman in this movie and on the team and so if she used her power all the time there would be no need for Huntress or even Harley.

However, the fact she fainted after using it once I found interesting. I am not taking the same approach as some by saying it was stupid because I feel the way Dinah’s story is told in this movie that she may not use it a lot and so she may not be vocally trained or durable enough to sustain.

On that note, the nod to Dinah’s mother, aka the original Black Canary, originally being a vigilante with the same Canary Cry as Dinah I also felt played into Dinah’s character. She knows what her mother was like and the fact she died, so of course she didn’t want that life and so didn’t use her power which is why it’s so overwhelming for her.

I do wish her outfits had been more Black Canary-esk. I would have loved more fishnets and definitely a leather jacket rather than that weird disco suit jacket she had on for a lot of the movie.

However, the gold trousers and matching boots were fabulous.

Black Mask:

Ewan McGregor can do no wrong for me really, there is just such a charm and charisma about the actor that I can’t help but like him in everything he is in.

That being said, I will say I know nothing about Black Mask from the comics other than he is a psychologically damaged crime lord. I do not believe he is this campy but I am sorry it works for the movie.

I did like how the movie played up Black Mask’s insecurities which Harley diagnosed at the start of the movie. When that one woman was laughing and he thought it was at him so decided to humiliate her, then later on when Zsasz revealed that Dinah betrayed him and he just flipped.

I’m not entirely sure if Black Mask is this misogynistic in the comics but it seems to be that every woman in this movie was at his mercy. At the start of the movie he clearly had a begrudging relationship with Harley because of her association with The Joker, however, after it was revealed that she had been dumped it seemed like he wanted her but then it’s revealed he just wants to kill her.

Bottom line, Roman Sionis was definitely a dangerous individual and Ewan McGregor played that brilliantly, but there was also a campy and somewhat sadistically comedic edge to him which gave way to a rather brilliant DC villain.

However, the very fact that his tenure in the DCEU is short-lived given that he was literally blown up at the end of the movie, it is sad that we will never see him going forward.

Also on the subject of his actual mask, I know it’s supposed to be welded to his face or something, I’m kind of glad it wasn’t but do wish we had seen it more throughout the movie. Also I feel it would have popped more with the white suit rather than the black, just saying.

Huntress:

While Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a great choice for Huntress here, I do feel that the movie missed a trick and a way to bring other strong female characters into the movie.

Alright so the movie honours Helena’s origins of being the daughter of a crime boss whose entire family is murdered and so she trains to become an assassin and comes to Gotham seeking vengeance.

However, how great would it have been if, rather than Sicily, if she was trained by either the League of Assassins or even Lady Shiva herself.

I know that this is more of a Cassandra Cain origin, which they still didn’t do, but it would have been a great way to tie-in these characters and also show a bond between Helena and Cassandra being raised by the same woman maybe.

Then also, if Black Canary and Huntress do get their own spin-off, Lady Shiva could come in as an antagonist and it would see Huntress going up against her old mentor.

I do think that Winstead did a good job with what she had, I am hoping that Huntress is meant to be socially awkward because that’s definitely the vibes I got from her.

I appreciated her tracksuit attire because Gotham is meant to be in New Jersey and it’s a very gangster Jersey attire.

I hated her last outfit though right at the end, loved the mask but that actual outfit was hideous.

I do see a future for Huntress going forward which is great, I’m not as disappointed with the character as I thought I would be.

Victor Zsasz:

This was an interesting conundrum of a character for me because, like the other two left on this list, if you don’t read the comics or watch the TV shows with these characters in, you’re not going to know who Victor Zsasz from this movie.

I will say, having seen the actor’s transformation from how he normally looks to his Zsasz look, it is a very impressive change and does fit in with the Suicide Squad level changes made to the characters.

Unfortunately though this is where the impressiveness stops. Yes, Zsasz is an assassin and I did like how they confirmed that he works for various employers, despite the fact it seems that the crime boss who had the Bertinellis killed was in fact working for or with Sionis so was Zsasz just on loan?

But the misogyny of the character was so cringe-worthy and at times unnecessary that it actually makes me side with the fans who put misogyny as this movie’s biggest problem, despite knowing logically that is not strictly true but I do accept it is one of the big problems.

For instance, it is implied that Zsasz only cuts himself to tally the number of women he’s “set free” as opposed to everyone he kills...that is not how Victor Zsasz is supposed to operate. He gives himself a point for every person he kills, that’s what makes him such a terrifying and grotesque adversary.

Okay so I know Anthony Carrigan on Gotham also didn’t go deep into that side of the character, but they didn’t have that Zsasz single out women either.

Also, when he paralysed Harley with that dart and then was effectively playing with her while she was unresponsive...I get she was still aware but even so where I thought that scene was going to go was both unnecessary and only added to why fans were laughing when Harley started repeatedly stabbing Zsasz with that same dart despite him already being dead.

I did like the subtle LGBT representation they tried to showcase with him and Sionis, because even if Sionis wasn’t reciprocating, this was a case of one guy crushing hard on another and feeling he knew what was best and wanting to protect him. That I liked and they played that rather well in my opinion.

But overall, I just didn’t feel that threatened by a supervillain who is essentially the living embodiment of torture porn. I know he cut off people’s faces and had visible scars, but there wasn’t a lot of anything else to make me believe this was the same Victor Zsasz that can easily inspire nightmares just by looking at him.

Cassandra Cain:

I’m just going to put this out there, I don’t know that much about Cassandra Cain. From what I have been told, she was someone who became Batgirl, I know in Young Justice she is in it as Orphan despite I don’t think ever speaking or having her real name revealed, and I know her mother is Lady Shiva.

Which brings me back to a potential storyline going forward for a Black Canary/Huntress TV series to feature Lady Shiva which could also include the return of Cassandra Cain...because I don’t think we need to see her again in the movies.

It is very harsh to judge a child actress, but much like Zsasz honestly if you are unfamiliar with Cassandra Cain as I am you would not really have much takeaway from the character based on this movie.

I also recall there being reports that Margot Robbie stole Cassandra Cain from the upcoming Suicide Squad as a plot point...but now I want to know what the original plan was for Cassandra Cain in The Suicide Squad and if James Gunn would have handled her better.

There just wasn’t a lot of depth to her character. She had a broken arm, potentially from her foster parents, but other than that she was just so angry all the time. She tried being sassy particularly with Harley but it fell flat.

Then in the climactic battle, she is the girl everyone is after to either kill or protect, but in that fun-house scene, as cool as the action was, Cassandra was essentially a hot potato going from character to character and it reminded me a lot of The Jungle Book when Baloo and Bagheera were trying to keep Mowgli away from King Louis and the monkeys.

I don’t really see the point of Harley having an apprentice either, I like the idea that she’s a free agent with no ties. Now that the Birds of Prey are formed she can float between helping them out and doing her own thing or going on another Suicide mission but the point is she rides solo...how are we going to explain where Cassandra is in The Suicide Squad?

Renee Montoya:

I continuously keep calling Rosie Perez’s character Maggie Sawyer because, in my opinion, this is who she is most like, not Renee Montoya.

Renee is young, determined and the woman who can stand alongside Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. She comes from the same origin as Harley Quinn which is Batman: The Animated Series. Yet so far the only incarnation to get her right outside of that has been Batman: Bad Blood where she had a minor appearance as Batwoman’s love interest...which is actually supposed to be Maggie Sawyer.

I said how Cassandra was played as angry, Renee was simply one of these rather aggressive soccer mom characters, especially in that final battle.

She had her funny moments and I do understand where the movie was coming from in trying to show how she was hard done by because of her male colleagues always stealing her glory, but this is a character who again led GCPD missions when Gordon and Bullock were detained in the past, yet I am not getting that essence from this character.

Also Renee, like Maggie Sawyer, is an LGBT character, but while her ex-girlfriend was shown here, if it wasn’t for Harley narrating that fact you would not know they had that history.

I don’t understand why she also became a founding member of the Birds of Prey, I get that in the comics she has been a liaison between them and the GCPD, but to actually quit her job and fight alongside Black Canary and Huntress? There is a third member needed in that line-up but Renee Montoya is not it.

DCEU Connections:

I will keep calling this universe the DC Extended Universe because until DC itself makes up its mind I am going to stick to what I know.

So in the wider scope of the DCEU, this movie definitely is a follow-up to Suicide Squad, not only because of Margot Robbie’s Harley and the flashbacks we saw of her diving into the acid vat from Ace Chemicals, but also the cheeky Easter-Egg of Captain Boomerang’s wanted poster at the GCPD.

I don’t understand why Captain Boomerang is wanted by the GCPD particularly when he is supposed to be a Flash rogue but I just loved seeing Jai Courtney getting some love.

Also, when the women are suiting up to fight Black Mask and his army, we see Black Canary equip herself with Harley’s Good Night bat from Suicide Squad but also Renee pick up Harley’s “Daddy’s Little Monster” shirt from said movie which Harley takes back as “sentimental value”. I love little connections like that.

In terms of where this movie could branch out to, again I do see a Black Canary/Huntress series in the future maybe including Cassandra Cain and Renee Montoya as guest characters, but movie-wise aside from Harley returning, I don’t see any of this lot coming back.

Also, despite Arrow severely screwing this over, the Black Canary/Green Arrow relationship I could see happen in a TV series but the way they have developed this version of the character I do not see Dinah needing an Emerald Archer in her life.

Overall I rate the movie a solid 7/10, I know I rated Suicide Squad the same and have said this was a better movie, but with everything that DC is pushing recently like Wonder Woman and Aquaman I expected something at that level rather than Shazam! level. Maybe if we got a Gotham City Sirens movie the mark would be higher.

So that’s my review of Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC Movie Reviews as well as other reviews and posts.

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wainwrightjakobshammerlock · 5 years ago

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finally. i decided to do this. anyways hello there, i am jake and today i want to talk about something; you see, if you are in the tf2 fandom, you probably know about heavymedic. Wherther you are a hardcore gamer who resents f2p’s or a person that never played the game but has trillions of notes on their art- you know heavymedic exists and most of all you probably ship it.

And I find that weird. In the few fandoms in my life I have been in I had never seen a single ship be so widely if not shipped, then accepted. Sure, maybe everyone in the GF fandom knows what Billdip is - for better or for worse. Sure, maybe the HS fandom is 70% shipping.

But I have never ever seen such a phenomenon in a prominent multiplayer game fandom. A fandom, sadly, oftentimes filled with toxicity. Overwatch is very similar here - yet ships are either a hot topic of discussion or straight up ignored. But TF2? In here for whatever reason we ship these two mercenaries. And in this essay I will try and find a reason or two why is that.

Apologies for any mistakes or incoherency. English is not my first language, I need to ramble, and my vocabulary is all over the place.

Content warning: mentions of homophobia, blood, death, mentions of WLW fetishization, nsfw mention. Also MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE TF2 COMICS.

Part 1: Canonical Evidence and Interactions

Let’s be honest: I could ramble about this one for days on end. But I’ll try and keep it short.

First and foremost we have the official videos. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is Meet the Medic.

At the very start of the part where Medic himself appears, we see him telling a joke about a particularly gruesome situation to Heavy.

He laughs along with him, visibly enjoying his company. He even smiles as he waits for another joke. Heavy only shows genuine fear a lot later.

And of course this damn scene always cracks me up. Medic slightly pinches Heavy’s cheek and strokes his lip gently (the other part is almost not noticeable unless you play the video at slow speed).

Of course we all know about the Hand Hold that happens somewhere halfway in the vid. I don’t think I have to explain the gayness in that. The fact their hands stay interlocked even after Medic helps Heavy up. The deep breath Medic takes because even he cannot handle the emotions. That few seconds is unresolved sexual tension manifest.

Overall the short shows a strong feeling of trust between these two. Medic confides in Heavy and reverse. Yeah he puts a baboon heart into his friend’s chest cavity but the fact (as proven at the end of the video) that Heavy was the first one to have an Ubercharge implanted into him shows that Medic at the very least considers him a lab rat.

I treat End of the Line as non-canonical, as do many others, and as such won’t discuss it here. But it will forever crack me up that Valve endorsed such levels of homoerotic subtext.

These two have some short moments in other videos, like for example in Invasion Heavy helps Medic up (CINEMATIC PARALLELS) but it’s nothing major so I guess I’ll skip forward.

Second is their interactions ingame. You might call me a weirdo for trying to find stuff in there but holy shit I have things to say and I’m going to say them.

You thought I was going to fanboy over the “i love this doktor” voiceline huh? Well not really. I wish these two had unique lines if they assist one another.

Heavy is literally listed on the official wiki as the “ideal medic buddy” and multiple pages on that exact wiki say some pretty interesting things.

I have to say something about the Gentleman’s Ushanka and/or Pocket Medic. They are both community cosmetics - but the fact they both got accepted by Valve says a lot. Above is text snipped from the actual wiki.

Last but not least: The Comics. Darned comics. The pair of mercenaries has basically no interaction - unless you count issue 6.

Heavy getting absolutely PISSED when Medic is killed by Ch*avy. Their reunion. Medic referring to Heavy by “my friend” in a totally straight way. Kind of sad Valve wasted an opportunity for them to hug. Maybe they knew their comic artist ships them and wanted to avoid having to answer the Question™.

Part 2: Dynamics

This part’s a bit trickier, mostly due to the reason that I’m new to this whole dynamic analysis thing. Yeah I’m good at spotting canonical evidence but very specific shipping dynamics often escape my gaze.

The most obvious one is Big Guy, Little Guy. Quoting the TVTROPES page:

[…] This trope describes a pair of guys who always fight together, are best friends forever, and quite often have a very obvious hierarchy: The little guy is often in charge […] The little guy is usually listed first, since he’s the leader, and they are always listed together, as if they are one entity. In fact, some episodes may center on the fact that they can’t live without each other. […] If this is a case of Brains and Brawn, the Big Guy is usually the Brawn, and the Little Guy the Brains. It’s almost never the other way around, but in some cases the Big Guy can be rather smart too. […]

A sub-type of this, a common favorite here on Tumblr is known as “small chaotic big calm” and hoo boy if that isn’t these two. I don’t really have much to say here - again I am not an expert.

Part 3: Fandom Impact

So you don’t think Red Oktoberfest (as Heavymedic is sometimes called) is super popular on anywhere else than Tumblr? Wrong.

It’s hard to find TF2 fics on Archive of Our Own not tagged with Heavy/Medic. Of course most of them only contain hints to their relationship but go in the main tf2 tag and I can guarantee you, you’ll gonna see “implied heavy/medic” all the time.

But these two go further than AO3 or Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. They are recognized even within the wider circle of the fanbase. Take this SFM, for example. (I am using the Saxxy Awards version of Secret Lives here mostly due to the fact that the Heavymedic moment is much gayer. In the normal version, the dialogue isn’t changed, but they simply hold hands.)

youtube

But it gets deeper. (WARNING: THE GAY MOMENT IN THIS ONE IS NSFW. NOT EXPLICITLY SO BUT JUST A HEADS UP TUMBLR PLEASE DO NOT FLAG ME)

youtube

And the best part? The comments are extremely positive. You’d expect hoards upon hoards of homophobes screeching but no, the comments are supportive. Even on places such as Reddit or Youtube, comments like “yeah they’re gay and in love” do not get downvoted/disliked to hell; in fact the opposite.

Part 4: Canon Status

Let’s be real. Most ships are shipped because people want to explore the dynamics in fanfic, fanart or something else. But Heavymedic is shipped because… well, I have no idea.

Actually, I kind of do - but only theories. You see, while the canonical evidence is here, the creators have never said anything about them. No confirmation, no disproval, no hinting, nothing.

But the ship is so prominent! There has to be something causing this!- you say. And to that I present you 2 theories on why Heavy/Medic is so popular.

Theory number 1 states that we simply all choose to interpret their interactions as homoerotic. And this is very easy to disprove - there’s simply no way we just collectively agreed on these matters out of nothing. There has to be something bigger.

And theory 2 states that, well, our interpretation is the desired interpretation. But this is even more ridiculous than theory 1 for a number of reasons. If they are in fact gay, why hasn’t Valve made them canon yet?

A Theoretical Scenario

I am going to ramble big time on this one, so buckle up lads. I’ll discuss a theoretical scenario in which, well, if that was not obvious, Valve confirms Heavymedic as canon. Maybe then we will see why they will probably never do so.

TF2 is considered by typical capital G, alt-right Gamers as a “non-political” game. This means no women (in the game itself, at least, and if even, sexy women only), no queer folk and no minorities (for some reason they accept Demoman but throw a fit if someone draws any other merc as not being pearl white). Team Fortress 2 was around before Gamergate and other things like Gamers Rise Up. It’s a classic and Valve is regarded as the good guy to Epic Game’s bad guy. If Valve did anything to confirm doubts, wherther it be clearing up popular fanon or confirming ships, these people would throw hands. (Although they seemed to ignore when one of the writers confirmed Miss Pauling is a lesbian. Huh.) Even those that don’t play TF2 would come to the aid of their bros.

Let me illustrate with two very similar examples. In both cases these confirmations were the first made by the company as a whole, both are fairly recent and both confirm a character as gay.

First we have the confirmation of Tracer from Overwatch as a lesbian. It was done in one of OVW’s comics. Tracer is the FACE of Overwatch as a whole and while most of the fanbase accepted it (thankfully the Gamers are reluctant to infest ow), some people threw what I can only describe as a hissy fit. At least her girlfriend’s a background character.

Second is Neeko from League of Legends. Unlike Tracer she was added a while before it was confirmed she was gay. LOL is much more toxic and filled with Gamers than OW and holy shit people smeared LOL so much.

Of course these are not accurate to Heavy/Medic. In both of the cases I listed it was girls being wlw and we all know how much cisgender heterosexual gamers LOVE yuri porn. Apparently only girls can be gay because they can jack off to it - if it’s two guys then it’s disgusting. Nevertheless I think these are good approximations - in every case the company gets “shat on” on social media and other sites. With the community that Valve has, I think even if they wanted them to be gay, they would never ever confirm it.

Conclusion

I’m sorry for that ending. I had to theorize a bit. Regardless I’d love if you shared this on other sites, reblogged or whatever - I wasted at least 1 and a half hours of my life on it. Feel free to cite this as a source if someone asks you why you ship the big heavy weapons expert and the feral battle medic.

#my post #text post #tf2 #medic #heavy #heavymedic #long post

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madlyinlovephff · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter Seven

“X Marks the Spot”

“When someone finds something they have been looking for”

-------------------

“Escapes me why you wouldn’t just get ‘Air Edwards’ printed on it, its your’s for god’s sake” Amelia joked at me as the car stopped on the runaway.

I threw her an annoyed look, having heard the joke before “Shut up or I won’t let you on it”.

She pushed me as we got out of the car, her huffing behind me. My security detail including Kyle and Gary had already started getting both our stuff out of the cars and into the jet.

“Answer me sister, why buy it when you don’t even want to claim it?” Amelia winked at me as she stepped towards the jet and I rummaged through my purse for my phone.

Karol and Lima had gone their merry way already, knowing having a complete week off while working for me is both a blessing and a rarity, they decided to leave before me to start their fun; whatever it was. As much as I know and remember, Lima had gone back home to her mother’s for the week.

“Because we share the surname and there’d be no telling exactly whose it is” I sent a cheeky smile her way as we both laughed getting up the small stairs and into the private jet.

We’d decided to travel apart from the rest of the bridal party and a few hours before both the parties to get the house in order. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but my vacation homes are much more used by my friends and family than me. It was almost an occupational hazard of sorts.

It wasn’t long before the plane had taken off and my sister and I settled low on our seats as we were served dinner. The flight was long; 12 hours and a few minutes to be exact but Amelia and I were no strangers to long flights and sleepy nights; particularly in that order.

She turned to look at me when she heard me sighing, “Hey Addy, thanks for coming out for me today. I don’t know how you do it, but you really don’t let me down”.

“I should be the one saying that, idiot. You’re the one who is always there for me before I even ask you. And what kind of a sister would it make me if I couldn’t even make it to your show while I’m on a break?”

“Yeah, a break that began not even 4 days ago. You’re not really taking a break, to be honest Adds”, she gave me a concerned look.

I frowned at her, “I am taking time off and going to Greece for 5 days. How is that not taking a break?” I asked her, confused.

“Mary Olivia’s wedding is very last minute, I know you didn’t know about it 2 days ago because I didn’t either. Don’t use this as an excuse because we both know you would be here even if you weren’t on a break” she said.

I sighed and turned away from her, knowing I couldn’t win with her.

I heard her open her laptop, starting to type. “Well if you’re not going to talk to me, I won’t make you”

I rolled my eyes, “Keith told me to take a break, you know” I confessed.

If Amelia was shocked she hid it well, “You mean to say Keith told you to take a break too” she said.

I chucked, “Yeah. Said my songs are starting to sound the same; repetitive”

She was quiet for sometime. “He’s not wrong, you know. Addy, I love you but your personal life has been a flat road for years now. I honestly am shocked sometimes by the media attention on you because to be honest, you aren’t the most interesting person out there for them”.

I cackled at that, having missed her blunt tongue.

“I know right? I wonder about that too sometimes. How are they not bored of me yet?”

She smiled softly, “You’re going to have to let someone in, you know. Sooner or later” she whispered.

I nodded, feeling drained of having the same talk with everyone. Could I get a break from this?

________________________________________________________________________________

“Kyle, what did Victoria tell you about the house situation again?” Amelia asked as we both scrolled through her Instagram, me laying my head on her shoulder as we were on our way to the villa in the outskirts of Santorini.

The weather was better, trees were greener, vibes were warmer in Greece. It was one of my most favourite places in the world; and that’s saying something because I’ve been to a lot of places.

The sea is the best in Greece, hands down. It is the absolute best here.

Kyle didn’t turn behind, instead met her eyes through the rear view mirror as he replied, “Vic just said the caretaker had gotten it cleaned. The security has been posted around the perimeter and at the gate and the pool’s been cleaned too”

I hummed. “What about the cook?”, I asked.

Kyle cleated his throat, “Victoria said she was told not to get a cook”.

My eyes widened as I started panicking. No cook? Who the hell was going to attend to the 14 guests that were on their way to the villa?

“Wha-

Amelia shushed me, “Hey, don’t worry. I was the one that told Vic to do so. I said I’d cook”

I turned to look at her, incredulously, “What? Why would you cook?”

“Why can’t I cook, Adelaide?”

“It’s not that. Why would you cook for 18 people? Have you gone mad? We don’t have Nana’s help here, if you’ve forgotten” I ranted, now anxious.

My sister sent me an exasperated look as if I was worrying for no reason. “You react so violently sometimes, I almost want to slap you”.

“You always want to slap me”.

“Not always”, she winked.

It wasn’t long before we were reaching the familiar neighbourhood and I started getting my purse in order, sighing in relief as we entered the gated area, stopping for security reasons. I made sure Victoria called ahead for extra security, specially at the entrance for everyone that is entering the villa because all in all, I took security as a responsibility if the entire bridal and groom party of my old friends were to be held at one place.

Being too careful never hurt no one.

“You carry so much security. Sometimes I think you’re a country’s president”, of course my kind sister had to have a comment about everything. But she wouldn’t be Amelia if she didn’t make fun of me for everything.

“Shut the fuck up, Em”

She threw me a peace sign just as the car stopped at the entrance of my beautiful white villa, very aged in reality but it had been with me for just a little under 3 years.

Some of the workers were cleaning the gardens and the pools, I noticed at once. There was a man using the land mower, making a lot of noise but I was fine with it until and unless they were done with the cleaning before the guests started arriving.

“I thought the house was polished already?” Amelia asked Kyle, stepping inside the main foyer area, the white walls standing tall beside her petite figure. Kyle shrugged, indicating he was going to place a call regarding the same.

It wasn’t soon before we were both bounded inside, our luggage being dragged in after us that we were sat at the familiar couch in the living area, a coffee already on the stove courtesy of my sister.

“We have so many memories here, no?” I sighed, as I looked around.

Amelia chuckled, “Every summer for the last 4 years now? I love this place Addy, don't know what I’ll do if you decide to ever sell it” she said.

I frowned at her, “We both know you’d never let me sell this house; and even if I do, you’ll probably buy it from me just so you can stake a claim in your name. You’re forgetting I know you too well” I rolled my eyes, laughing.

“Probably”

————————-————————————————————

There was a knock on my door. “You’re done changing or what? Security is sending them in as we speak” Amelia said, hanging halfway inside my room, then almost slipping on her feet.

I rolled my eyes at her, “You aren’t even wearing heels, Em” I say and I follow her out of the room, turning the lights off as I exit.

She looked down at my feet, seeing my 6 inch stilettos and face palmed, “I feel under-dressed now so let me just go and change. You know, I really hate being your sister”.

“Yeah right”

It wasn’t long before people were bounding inside, Charlotte Wellesley being the first one to step inside, her Hermeś bag on her right arm. Sophia, Willa and Mary Olivia were the next ones followed by a lot of men, most of whom were from Robbie’s side. However, I could hear a commotion outside.

“Look at this place! I always underestimate you, Addy” Charlotte exclaimed, in a tone I knew I didn’t like. So it wasn’t a surprise that my fake smile didn’t bother her in the least. Sometimes you have to deal with aristocrats like her too.

“What’s going on outside?” I asked Robbie, as I pulled out of our hug. Amelia had just arrived on the scene too, now in her beige 5.5inch heels.

Robert, Robbie’s brother, laughed at that, “Harry’s security isn’t being allowed to come inside. Your security is giving them hell because of some issue” he said.

After kissing everyone’s cheeks, I was outside like a breeze, worried about the issue. I took hosting at my place way too seriously even if the event had nothing to do with me. I hated tarnishing a good hosting.

Apart from the 7 more cars in my driveway, and more people stepping out of the cars or others getting help from my service for getting their luggage out, there were about 6 people right outside the main gate, clearly in a heated argument.

“Kyle? What seems to be the issue here?” I said, not even noticing that my voice had taken an authoritative tone.

Kyle and Gary both turned towards my voice, along with the rest of the men. All of them were dressed in black suits, and badges indicating how 2 of them were someone’s security detail.

“Look, miss, His Royal Highness will not be stepping inside if his security detail isn’t allowed to. However, he is here off-schedule so we request you do not waste his time on such a trivial matter” a buff man said, very formally.

I squinted at him in anger, how dare he speak to me in such a manner! I ignored as Gary said something to him as a rebuttal.

“No, you look here, mister. No one steps foot on my property until and unless their background checks were sent to my security prior to their arrival. This includes other personnel of security as well. This is my property and an event I’ve taken under my supervision. So I apologise if I’m wasting someone’s time, but this isn’t a trivial matter for me. This matter is solved, Kyle. Gary, show them the way out where they can wait while I speak to Robbie and Mary in private” I said, anger in my tone and fire in my eyes because if there’s one thing I don’t react well to; it’s authority from someone who clearly has no authority over me.

“Yes ma’am” both Kyle and Gary said in unison, before the rest of my security started showing them the way out and I turned.

“Well, that was quite a speech. I must say I’m impressed” came a voice, I detected the posh British accent in it in a second.

I turned around to face the man, already done with this shit. I hate dealing with stuff like this.

It wasn’t long before I stopped in my tracks, and I noticed the man did too. For a few seconds, we just stared at each other and I wondered why I had to be in this situation with this man, and this man alone. Couldn’t it be anyone else in the whole wide world?

It was Prince Harry.

Ofcourse. Robert mentioned the name Harry and his security dropped the HRH. It was right in front of my face.

He recovered first, smiling beautifully. “Adelaide, I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you yet” he said, putting his hand forward.

I caught his hand, still not breaking the eye contact. I don’t know why I wasn’t able to look away from those baby blues in this instant, but I hoped I didn’t look like a creep.

“Your Royal Highness, likewise”.

He chuckled, something dimming in his eyes as I called out his title and I noted that he probably didn’t like being called that.

“Uh I’m sorry for the mishap, Ms. Edwards. I fully recognise that it was a mistake at our end-“

“So then you also understand how my security can’t do their work if they let inside someone they had received no prior information about” I cut him off, crossing my arms, almost forgetting who I was talking to but I was in my element in that moment.

He paused for a while there, probably not expecting me to act the way I did. He looked at his 2 bodyguards and shook his head at them.

“What is the solution to this then?” He asked, turning to look at Kyle and Gary.

I frowned at him as my security detail looks at me as he questions them. I cleared my throat, now fully realising that everyone was outside at the garden patio and involved in our drama.

“The solution to this is them stepping out of my property for the next 24 hours which gives my security proper time to do background checks” I said, exaggerating a little but I was triggered.

Harry visibly sighed, “Is there no other way? They are royal security, if they’re with me that means they already have gone through an extensive background check.”

I took a beat, “Look sir, I have a policy about this that I plan to uphold; it’s the same as if you were here without any security and someone else brought in two highly trained personnel with guns on my property”, I gave him a look because I knew I had hit a correct point with this one.

“Ma’am, you have more than a dozen security officers here right now, it is not possible for His Royal Highness to step in without any prior knowledge to this either”, one of his protection officers said.

I frowned, not acknowledging that he was right to a certain degree too.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair and turning to look at Kyle and Gary, “Alright, here’s how this is going to work; these two security officers will be allowed to enter the grounds, however they will not be entering the building or be allowed in the backyard and the private beach”,

I then turned towards the Prince and his officers, “As is the rule for all of my security detail except for Kyle and Gary, here. This is the best I can offer you” I gave them a look, ready to step out of the conversation because I was suddenly reminded of the fact that we still have no cook and almost 2 dozen people to feed.

As I walked away from the scene, I heard Harry berating his officers but by then, I was over this issue. I walked inside the place, noticing numerous luggage bags all over the place and 2 people in the pool already before I entered the kitchen, squinting at Amelia who stood there, hands on her hip and barefoot.

“Is this the time when I get to say I told you so?” I chuckled, laughing harder when Amelia turned around with an extremely offended look on her face.

“I really didn’t realise just how hectic it’d be considering we just travelled overnight too”, she pouted and I decided to just be the bigger person at the moment because we quite literally have a lot of people to feed.

“Dial Kyle’s number and ask him to come inside, lets just get him to get the cleaning people to distribute cookies and juices in everyone’s rooms” I instructed her, and within a minute Kyle was stood in the doorway to the huge white kitchen, trying not to laugh as well.

“Shut up, get me a cook or two from the city as fast as you can, and get me two of the cleaning staff that can give around juices and biscuits, atleast till we figure this stuff out”

“On it, Addy”, and he was gone.

“I have an idea” Amelia said, and I rolled my eyes. “Spare me another one of your ideas, please”.

“Can you just listen? So let’s just start with salad and cocktails because we are going to be able to get done with them in the next half hour while the cook situation gets fixed” she said and I thought that might have just been the only good thing she’s said all day but I didn’t voice that particular opinion.

“Alright, you can get started on the salad, I’ll take the cocktails-”

“What’s this about cocktails, I hear?”, came a voice from the doorway and I turned so fast at that familiar voice, Amelia almost gave me a weird look.

There stood Prince Harry of Wales in all his glory, visibly relaxed than I’d seen him earlier in my front porch, and I pretended the blinding smile of his didn’t bother me. Because, it didn’t.

“Uh Your Royal Highness, I had no idea you’d be joining us”, my poor sister sounded so confused as she threw me a similar expression, but obviously held her own because we at the end of the day, we were British.

Harry laughed politely at that, “Yeah, a lot people wished they received the guest list earlier”, he said smiling at me, to which I squinted my eyes at.

Amelia gave me another look and by this time, I was so done with her obvious looks; I wanted to get out of the kitchen. Cutting my train my of thought, 2 of the cleaning staff we’d hired entered the kitchen, throwing uneasy looks at the occupants in the kitchen and not having a clue as to why they were sent here.

“Hello, I’ve called for you here; just do me a favour and hand out some cookies and juices to the guests in all the bedrooms and by the pool, yes?” I said as my sister started getting the said stuff out of the cabinets and onto separate trays. All this while, I noticed how calmly Prince Harry stood leaning against the plush doorway seeing the scene in front of him and didn’t utter a word until the staff was out.

“You were serious when you said this was your property” he stated.

My sister laughed at that, already getting started with her famous Mediterranean Salad as I noticed her fetch the soya sauce out of the fridge, “How come you two have never met before?” She mused, pretending as if she was asking the question to herself.

I sighed, not wanting this to turn awkward, “I don’t to know to your question and yes I was serious to yours; now Amelia, can we please figure out the starters at least until Kyle gets the word out?”

“You take this hostess thing pretty seriously, don’t know?” Harry asked and I could almost sense a teasing tone underneath his words as my sister and I ran about the kitchen, setting stuff up for the preparation of the salad and cocktails.

Amelia glanced at me as she noticed I was in no mood to reply to that comment, mostly because it was true, “You have no idea, it gets taken for granted most of the times too” she said, smiling at him.

“Hi, I’m Harry; it’s a pleasure to meet you” he said after a heartfelt laugh as Amelia introduced herself and they shook hands on it. He looked at me for a moment, probably deciding whether or not he should do the same with me but my teasing smile must’ve made the decision for him.

“Hello there, they call me Harry; what do they call you?”

“They have too many names for me, kind sir”

“Well, what name do you like to be called by, fair maiden?”, he asked, eyes twinkling.

I pretended to think it over, getting ice from the ice-cooler, “Ms. Edwards, if you will”.

He squinted his eyes at me, the teasing smile still on his face and I could just feel Amelia’s eyes on us throughout the conversation; it wasn’t until we heard a crash that we broke eye contact, just to see that my sister had dropped the knife.

The vibe in the kitchen was too chill for me to even think twice about a Royal’s presence in the kitchen of my home with my sister in attendance. He laughed at my sister’s antics and picked up the knife before she could, turning to look around the kitchen as if he was seeing it for the very first time.

“It’s a nice place you got here, Santorini has the most beautiful water”, he said casually and I smirked as I remembered how I said exactly that to my sister earlier in the day.

“Thank you, I got it on sale actually”

“Oh, did you now?”

It was quiet after that comment as I shook my head, “you can go right ahead to the pool if you’ve freshened up already; we’re sorting the food situation out”.

Harry leaned against the customised white marble counter, “I heard something about making cocktails and decided it would be highly impolite if you weren’t made to taste some of mine specialities”.

“We aren’t having you work while we host, Harry”, Amelia said, shaking her head at him.

“I’m offering it to you”

“Well, we didn’t ask for it. Our nana would turn in her grave if she were here” I said, setting up all the beverages in front of me to get started on the drinks.

He sighed, looking at the two of us as if he couldn’t believe we weren’t accepting his help. “Is it because I’m too handsome?”

A burst of laughter sprung out of me before I could even think about it, “That definitely isn’t the reason why”.

It wasn’t long before he had convinced us that no one in the world could make a better Black and Tan than him, after he saw the bottles of pale and dark beer on the counter.

“You will love it, just trust me”, he said and I rolled my eyes as I got started on my cosmopolitan.

A few minutes later, Kyle walked in with three people; two men and a woman. He stopped short when he noticed Harry standing beside me, trying to snatch the single vodka bottle we had left. He didn’t comment on it because he knew better and just introduced us to the three cooks he managed to get to us in the short amount of time. Amelia thanked him before asking him to get more beverages, to which he quietly responded and promptly left the kitchen.

We decided to set up the late lunch in the beautiful wooden Gazebo outside, that I had had visions about for the longest of time before it got installed in this villa. It could seat well over 25 people. Amelia and I argued about that too but we reached a decision pretty quick when we saw the weather outside.

The smell of the Greek Sea reached my senses, as the temperature already started to get a little chilly since it was early February. Harry was helping us throughout, bringing his special cocktails out in the sun, walking alongside me, as he placed the tray on the large bamboo table (that I got custom made specially in Brazil).

“This might just be one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen”, he said, eyes trained on the vast sea in front of us, which was just a few steps down from the rock the villa was built upon.

I hummed in response and noticed how quickly he got involved in conversation with the rest Robbie’s groomsmen, hearing the word Hazza over and over again. I went inside the kitchen again, checking up on the food when Amelia entered after me and just stood there, staring at me.

“Yes?”

“Don’t yes me; what the hell is going on between you two?”

“Between who two?”, I knew who she was talking about because how could I not with all of her obvious stares.

“Don’t think you can play me, Adelaide. I thought you’d never met Prince Harry before?”, she asked, confused.

I looked around, satisfied that none of the three cooks looked even mildly interested in our conversation. “That’s because I haven’t; well, not before today”, I replied.

“It certainly did not look that way. Why is he being so chill with you?”

“Hell if I knew. Maybe he’s a fan” I threw her a cheeky smile at that, walking out of the kitchen as she followed me.

“Yeah sure, that’s definitely it”, she said and I didn’t reply to her because for one, I didn’t have an answer to her and second, we were amongst 20 other people as we stepped out once again.

Everyone had started mingling, as I found myself in conversation with Louis Spencer, someone I’d met numerous times before because of his on-again, off-again relationship with my cousin, MacKinley Edwards. He even had been to our family estate over Christmas Holidays two years back.

MacKinley is my first cousin on my paternal side; being the only daughter of my Uncle, Matthew Edwards who is the younger brother to my father. To be honest, I had zero idea about Mac’s and Louis’ current relationship status and I was too afraid to ask.

I caught Harry’s eyes as I was laughing at something Louis had said and his eyes flitted over to him, frowning as he stepped out of his circle, clearly intending to join Louis and I.

I raised my eyebrows at him, as he handed me another Martini, side hugging Louis as he did some weird fist bump thing.

“You two know each other?” Harry asked, pointing at Louis and I, and we turned towards each other, smiling.

“A little too well, no, Addy?” Louis smiled a Cheshire grin, nudging me with his shoulder.

Harry was clearly very confused at our relaxed attitude. He asked Louis to explain; and I was suddenly hit by the realisation that the two of them looked a little too similar. The resemblance was definitely there.

“You remember MacKinley, don’t you? Adelaide Edwards here is cousins with her”, he replied, sipping his drink.

“MacKinley Edwards? You’ve been going out with her forever”

“The very same one. Afraid the surname is the same one” I sarcastically said, biting my tongue afterwards as Louis shook his head at my response.

“I’ve known Addy and Amelia just as long as I’ve known Mac; we even spent a Christmas at her estate two- three years back?”

“Two”

“Two years back”

Harry nodded, clearly a little thrown off by that information as I took that opportunity to ask about their relation, slapping my forehead as Louis relayed the information about them being first cousins as well, on Harry’s mother’s side and Louis’ father’s. I obviously was privy to this piece of knowledge beforehand, however it hadn’t hit me until just that very moment.

“That was wee bit weird, no?” Harry laughed as Louis walked away from us.

“It just keeps hitting me how we’ve never met before today” I replied, taking a sip of my Martini.

He took a deep breath, “That ought to be the truest thing I’ve heard today”.

It wasn’t long until food was being served and everyone was seated around the bamboo table, people pulling their white chairs back to sit. Pizza was being cooked in the natural oven we got installed outside, the smell of chicken overtaking my senses and I realised I didn’t have my phone on me to click the picture of the delicious scene on the table.

I started asking everyone to help themselves as Amelia sat on my right and Louis on my left. Robbie poured everyone Champagne as he remained the only one standing. Once he was done, he told us that he’d like to make a toast and then turned to look directly at me.

“To Adelaide and Amelia ofcourse, for so graciously accepting to host us here and always being the friends that Mary’s frustrated at awful hours of the morning. We love the both of you” He raised his glass as did his fiancé; my sister and I raising it back to them as everyone yelled.

“This is such a beautiful property, Adelaide. I’m in love” Sophie commented and I smiled at her.

Robbie continued his toast only to be cut off by Mary-Olivia as she started hers. We all laughed at their antics. Late lunch which had already turned into an early supper, finally started as everyone helped themselves to it.

I caught Harry’s eyes somewhere in the midst of it, throwing him a smile as he replied with a similar one. I asked Amelia to turn on some music as I didn’t have my phone on me at the very moment as she teased me with ‘Should I play one of yours, hm?’, and I slapped her shoulder at that.

It got worse when someone asked Amelia what had happened as she let out a loud laugh at my reaction; and then she continues to tell them exactly what happened. I rolled my eyes as everyone chuckled at the taunt, Louis being the loudest of them and I mimicked shooting him in the head before he came to an abrupt stop.

An hour later, the guests were sprawled all around the area, some in the pool; others in the hot tub and a few just lounging on the beach chairs. Mary-Olivia and Robbie were dancing quietly and I was conversing with Charlotte because we both happened to be at the outside bar at the same time. I was getting myself a whiskey and I didn’t bother to know what she was getting herself; ducking out of the conversation as soon as I had my drink in one hand and my phone in the other.

I headed down the rocky steps to the beach, initially standing and then just sitting down as I took a deep breath, the wind running through my hair and I felt alive for the first time in a long while. I continued sipping my drink, glad to be away from all the noise when I heard a voice behind me.

Turning to look back at whoever had followed me, I saw Harry; clearly on a with someone. I didn’t think he me until he cut the call, swiping at his phone and turned to look ahead, finding my eyes. I could sense he thought twice about coming over, as he reached me and plopped down beside me on the chilly sand.

“This shouldn’t be considered safe, you know. High tide’s on” he said, eyes locked on the ocean ahead.

“Pretty sure it isn’t”

We sat in silence for the next few minutes, laughter from the house above reaching our ears; clearly someone was thrown into the pool as a shrieking followed. Probably Mary-Olivia.

“I feel like I should apologise, for this morning” he said, turning to look at me.

I shook my head, sipping my drink as his eyes followed my movement; “I wouldn’t worry about it a lot, I do apologise if I let myself get too heated. I just take this stuff seriously because that’s exactly what I’d expect from someone else, you know?”, to which he hummed.

“Also for not letting them inside the property”, he chuckled as he continued.

I joined in the chuckling fest, “You’re very welcome”.

Another silence crawled its way in but it was nice. It was a different kind of silence that wasn’t awkward but serene. Sitting out here with him didn’t feel like an intrusion from either of our sides, and I found myself breathing a little easier.

Not much had to be said, we were two strangers after all; but at the same time, it felt comfortable. It wasn’t like me to feel so relaxed with someone so soon. There were so many things two complete strangers could talk about, but we chose to be silent.

I caught him looking at me a few times, the blue in his eyes so mellow because of the dark. I thought about what he saw when he looked me.

It felt nice. Normal, even.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Addy’s Vacation Home in Greece

Addy at the Airport

Addy in Greece

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