#you are first of al SLEEVELESS

[feelingtheaster99]

When your parents pick up up after the first day of your freshman year of high school during which you got attacked by corn monsters, witnessed five people die, two of whom were kids your age (which despite them eventually being resurrected is still incredibly traumatic), one of whom you accidentally killed in self defense (and as they died they have a speech about how it was YOUR FAULT, sending you into a panic attack), and two of whom died in a murder-suicide to resurrect your newfound friends… but your parents are mad at you because:

You are SLEEVELESS

You defended yourself using your martial prowess (instead of magic)

You got detention

[catscidr]

hiiiii omg your childe fic was SO. CUTE. 😭😭🩷🩷🩷 sooooo could I request a scenario where alhaitham and reader are roommates???? romantic tension is real 🤭 imagine the lingering stares at his body (muscles) and getting caught ??? you cooking for him?? falling asleep on his shoulder on the couch?? helping him fix his tie for work???? he's so cute i am absolutely deranged i am so sorry ☺️☺️☺️ dating but not dating fr

i made this into a drabble-y format because i wanted to write things inspired by ur ideas without the story dragging on or being repetitive ueagdhfgs i GET the al haitham brainrot he’s so. aa. if i ever say no to romanticizing mundane life call the fire dept because that is Not me. also never apologize for being feral over a fictional man...... no one is immune to hot 2d men ⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝⸝ cw: fluff, domestic life shenanigans, reader ogles his muscles bc Yeah, lowkey crack a little bit includes: gn!reader, alhaitham, lowkey modern au sorta kindof maybe wc: 1,3k

Living with Alhaitham is easy. Living with your feelings for him, however, is not. At first you thought you would simply get flustered by him because he looked intimidating and because you didn’t know him all that well- you were just a little scared of him and the way your heart raced around him was because of your body panicking. Surely. But, the more time went on and you got to know him, slowly but surely, he came out of his shell and your schedules began to merge to allow yourselves to easily (metaphorically) dance around the other, a seamless waltz that you perfected to a tee. And, to no one's surprise, you weren't perpetually flustered because of how scary he could look.

-ˋˏ his and your chores

Cleaning up after yourself when you live with someone is imperative; when you live alone you can let yourself go a little, but when you share a living space with someone it’s only courteous to keep your shared space clean of any messes. 

You and Alhaitham had agreed that you’d share chores. Most of the time, when you were on picking-up-the-trash duty you wouldn’t need to do too much since he would have emptied out his own trashcan in the communal bin, and the same thing applied to him when it was his turn to maintain your shared bathroom clean since you’d do your best to keep it as clean as possible. However, one of the things you didn’t realize would affect you so much was when you had agreed to this “system” was when you’d see him do the dishes for the first time. 

Something as banal as your roommate standing over the kitchen sink, sleeveless shirt exposing his muscles as he scrubbed the plates you had both used to eat dinner. Was it the water that would occasionally splash on him, making his black tank look even the slightest bit sheer and making you stare shamelessly, drinking in the sight? Was it his small scowl whenever he touched soggy bits of food in the sink? (making you wish he was scowling at you in a strange desire to have his attention even if it was as a result of a bad thing)

...it was probably because, when he was doing the dishes, you realized he always had his headphones in, and it allowed you to stare at him all you wanted when he wasn’t facing you because he was so focused on his task. 

He caught you staring once, but you managed to convince him that it wasn't what it looked like (it was) 

-ˋˏ coming back from the gym 

Alhaitham went to the gym often, that much you could guess from his build. No one had biceps that thick from genes alone- you got to confirm your guess when you (literally) ran into him when he was coming back from the gym in the middle of the night. He promptly apologized (with an expressionless face) and explained that the gym was much quieter at 3am when you asked him why in the Seven he was at the gym so late. Though the flat was dark, you could still see the faint outline of his body from the small bits of moonlight shining through... somewhere. Peeling your eyes away from him you make your way to the fridge to do what you had come out of your room for- that good cold, mid-night glass of water. 

His eyes followed your sluggish figure, scoffing amusedly. With only a few steps, he catches up to you and grabs the glass from your hands, chugging it. Some water dribbles down the side of his mouth down his chin and you do nothing but gawk at him, emotions a mess. 

Should you be mad he so rudely took your glass of water? Or should you be grateful you could see how body properly, illuminated by the fridge light? One thing you knew for sure, you were going to need to grab a new glass of water since he stole yours. 

-ˋˏ making food

With your chores separated, there was one thing you had agreed to do on your own- that being anything regarding lunch and dinner. Breakfast was easy enough; you’d eat a normal portion of a normal breakfast while Al Haitham would eat almost twice as much as you because of his workout routine (he had explained how he had to bulk and offered to pay for the extra groceries) so you often ate the same thing since it was more convenient. 

Lunch was different. Sometimes you had places to be (whether it be work or class) and you wouldn’t be there to eat lunch, vice versa. The same thing applied to dinner. So, when you both were at the apartment at the same time for a meal that wasn’t breakfast, you’d make food for the other- but only occasionally. Basically, only when you felt like it. 

The first time he cooked you dinner he made a hearty soup that, by taking one glance at it, made your mouth water. You insisted that he make more to keep as leftovers so you could bring some to eat when you had time between classes, but he refused, saying that it was best fresh. 

So, he made you dinner more often. Every time he did you felt your heart clench at the domestic sight; Alhaitham in a corny, pink and frilly apron with his sleeves rolled up, carefully chopping up vegetables and tossing spices in the pot. 

One time he accidentally cut his finger and you rushed to his side to help. You held his hand under the running water of the sink and had to force your brain to act normally- it was hard not to let it wander when you kept focusing on the feeling of his hand in yours. 

A different time, he made you taste the broth by holding the spoon up to your mouth. The proximity nearly killed you. 

-ˋˏ convincing him to play games together 

Your roommate spent most of his time being productive, unlike you. Most of the time. 

You offered to play games together every so often when you had first moved in. His answer was a polite no (but still equally gut-wrenching and embarrassing to be on the receiving end of) and you gave up for a while. It couldn’t be that bad to have a beefy, intimidating roommate you barely knew, right? It was fine if you stayed strangers and just... respected the other person’s space. Probably. 

But eventually, your relationship changed from strangers to roommates to acquainted roommates. It was then that, when he saw you on your laptop in the living room, playing the role of Player 1 and Player 2 to solve puzzles, that he thought maybe he should just... play something with you. He told himself that he just felt bad for you, but part of him was actually interested in what you were playing. 

He sat next to you, startling you from the sudden shift on the sofa. 

“Is your offer still on the table?” he asked with an amused smirk, watching the character on your screen fall into poison. With a bashful smile you nod, placing the laptop closer to him so it could rest on your right thigh and his left thigh. 

Explaining the rules of the game was easy enough; you’re fireboy and he’s watergirl, each of you have to go through your own door to clear the level and to get to those doors you have to solve puzzles with the other one’s help. Needless to say, you both learned a lot from each other.  

You didn’t know your silver haired, perpetually calm roommate could raise his voice and he didn’t know you had such a wide, extensive vocabulary. 

[ali-r3n]

Of Babies, Rock 'N' Roll

Eddie Munson x Female!Reader

Corroded Coffin had taken off. While on their first tour, Eddie and Y/N get some amazing yet nerve wracking news

Fluff, Vomit, Pregnancy

During Soundcheck, Y/N stood in the wings of the stage as she watched her fiancé with an adoring smile.

As he strummed his guitar, Eddie turned to look at her and gave her a wink. She blew him a kiss before he had to direct his attention to his task.

She felt her stomach turn and bile rise up her throat. She covered her mouth as she turned to run to the bathroom.

Sweat beaded on her skin as she fell to her knees. She bent over the toilet and expelled the contents of her stomach. Her eyes and nose watered at the burn of the acid.

Eddie handed his guitar to someone as he walked off the stage. A large smile on his face as he expected to get a hug and a kiss from h woman he loved.

"Sweetheart," he called.

He frowned with his brows pinched when he couldn't find his wife-to-be.

He stopped a crew member.

"Hey. Have you seen Y/N?"

They nodded and pointed in the direction she ran in. "Yeah. She went that way. I gotta tell ya man, she looked a little green."

"Thank you."

Eddie walked the way he was told and came to the bathroom. He could hear the faint sound of vomiting and gently knocked on the door.

"Just a minute," Y/N called, weakly. Her voice strained.

"Sweetheart, it's me."

"It's not locked, Ed. Come in."

He pushed it open as she flushed the toilet. She stood up and sat on the seat. She gave him a small smile.

"Hi Baby," she greeted, quietly.

He kneeled in front of her and gave her a reassuring grin. He placed a ringed hand on her thigh and messaged her.

"Are you okay, Sweetheart?" he asked.

She nodded and touched her stomach. "Yeah. Just feel a little sick. I think it must've been something I ate."

He nodded. "Why don't we get you some ginger ale and saltines? Then get you settled on the couch in the green room. Sound nice?"

She nodded. "That sounds good."

Her head swam as he helped her to her feet. She closed her eyes and grabbed his sleeveless black shirt.

"Y/N?" His voice sounded far away before she lost consciousness. "Y/N!" he exclaimed as he caught her.

She woke up in a cold, sterile room with Eddie's fingers running through her hair. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead with a small smile.

"Hi Sweetheart," he greeted.

"Eddie? What happened?"

Just as he opened his mouth to answer, a man in blue scrubs entered the room.

"Hello Ms. Y/L/N. How're you feeling?"

"Confused."

"Thats normal after a fainting spell. I'm sure your fiancée will be able to explain it to you while he run some tests."

One quick conversation and a vile of blood later, the man returned.

"Congratulations, Ms. Y/L/N. You're pregnant."

Y/N looked over at Eddie, whose jaw dropped in shock. Once he processed it, his eyes welled with tears and he covered his mouth.

"I'm going to be a father," he whispered. He looked up at Y/N and cupped her face to lean in and kiss her.

"Thank you."

"You're happy."

"Happy, Sweetheart. I'm ecstatic." He took a seat on the bed next to her. "Are you? Because it’s your body. If you aren't ready for this..."

She nodded and took his hand. "All I want is to marry you and start a family. Looks like we're doing the latter first."

Eddie rested his forehead against hers with a grin. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too."

Corroded Coffin Frontman, Eddie Munson walks out of Hospital with Fiancée, Y/N Y/L/N

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eddie Munson Taglist:

@seros-bitch @eddiemunsons-girl @m-i-1-0 @lunar-flwr @winchester-angel @angelbbygrl @madnessismylover @cherrybean1116 @edwardjamesmunson @3ternalreal1ty

@meaganjm @sweetpeapod @eddiemunsonsfavbitch @fangirling-4-ever @zzokks @mattymurdocksbitch @fillechatoyante @luvbug4728 @doll-in-the-walls @ches-86

Stranger Things Taglist:

@valeriiecameron @maruushkka @rainbows-dreams

Stranger Things (Billy excluded) Taglist;

@sleepyhead1456

[piedpiperslists]

Jungkook One Shots (LXVI)

* s - contains smut

Tainted Love by @taintedjeon s wc~4.1k / rockstar!Jungkook, groupie!reader

You're My Light by @arainbowofchaos wc~9k / neighbors au Summary: Trapped by social anxiety within the confines of your home, your world transforms upon Jungkook's arrival, your new neighbor. Little do you know, he's not just a stranger but a figure from your past with some hidden history. Could Jungkook hold the key to mend your emotional wounds and lead you towards healing?

Hotter, Sweeter, Cooler by @seokjinger-ale s wc~2.9k / established relationship Summary: You and your boyfriend, Jungkook, have fun with a pair of pretty handcuffs.

Ode To The Nature Of Romance by @yeoldontknow s wc~9.9k / strangers to lovers Summary: As a classical violinist, you understand passion and romance better than most. So why does Poetry professor Jeon Jungkook seem to have such a difficult time getting you to understand?

Break Me by @bonny-kookoo s wc~2.3k / FWB Summary: You thought you knew he only wanted sex. He thought you knew he wanted love. Who's gonna break first- and who's gonna pick up the pieces?

When Two Worlds Crash Together by @army-author wc~2.6k / angst, parallel universes au, soulmates au

Orbit by @whatifyoulivelikethat s wc~8.8k / university au Summary: Ah, university. A time to get drunk, get laid, and (maybe) get an education. And Jeon Jungkook could do all those things. It was great. Until the moment he encounters an inescapable gravity, the kind of gravity that had already trapped all six of his friends… but left him out in orbit, circling alone.

Heated by @whatifyoulivelikethat s wc~5.8k / friends to lovers Summary: An (innocent?) conversation about D/s dynamics accidentally leads to you confessing that you think about your childhood best friend while getting off. To your childhood best friend, Jeon Jungkook. Erm. This is after he told you that you would be “an awful sub”, btw.

Le Deux by @whatifyoulivelikethat s wc~3.2k / strangers au, PWP Summary: One rebel from the waist down plus Jeon Jungkook in a sleeveless tee equals two in the back of a car, fucking like animals as Jungkook takes pictures of it all on your phone. Per your request, of course.

Wordless by @whatifyoulivelikethat s wc~5.4k / strangers to lovers Summary: A library is full of words and quiet. Jeon Jungkook liked to go to the public library a lot. It turns out, so do you. And that’s how it begins, from passing glances, to words on a screen, to Jungkook now sitting shirtless in his bedroom, heart racing as he presses the record button.

[lostywrites]

“Hey, Al? You still up? Can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure. Door’s unlocked,” he responded.

The door slid open with a soft whoosh , revealing Bart in a sleeveless shirt and striped shorts. His auburn hair was a tousled mess, and it appeared as though he’d experienced a noticeable growth spurt since they last saw each other over a month ago.

Bart wore a sheepish grin as he stood in the doorway, the faint hum of the Titans Tower’s technology in the background. “Mind if I crash in your room tonight?”

Robin leaned back in his chair, curiosity lighting up his gaze as he considered Bart’s unexpected request. Even out of costume, he continued to conceal his identity behind a mask. His casual attire reflected a laid-back comfort, with a t-shirt proudly showcasing his favourite band, The Clash, and a pair of baggy plaid pants.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Robin asked.

“Well, I share a room with Beast Boy,” Bart began, the door sliding shut behind him as he stepped into Robin’s bedroom. “And that guy shape-shifts in his sleep. It’s kinda creeping me out. I’m worried he might turn into a tiger or something and eat me.”

Robin snorted in amusement. “I highly doubt Beast Boy would eat you in his sleep, Bart,”

“But you never know! I’ve seen enough movies to be cautious,” Bart responded with an exaggerated look of mock concern.

“Fine. You can crash here for the night. But I think you’re safe from any shape-shifting predators.”

Bart let out a dramatic sigh of relief as he flopped onto Robin’s bed. “Thanks, Al. You’re a lifesaver.”

Robin’s curiosity got the better of him as he turned his attention to Bart. “Hey I hope you don’t mind my asking. But how are you adjusting to wearing the prosthetic kneecap?”

The speedster shifted his gaze away for a moment, a hint of hesitation in his features. “It’s...it’s been a process, you know? When I first got it, I had to limp around for a while until I gained full mobility.”

“I can imagine that wasn't easy,” Robin replied, his voice filled with empathy.

Bart’s shoulders tensed slightly, focusing on a fixed point in the room. “Yeah, well. I guess it’s just something I gotta deal with.”

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“I know.” Bart’s lips curved into a faint smile. “It’s just...it’s not something I like talking about.”

“I get it. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Just know I’m here if you ever do.”

They shared a brief, quiet moment of connection before Bart’s attention was suddenly drawn to something on the wall of Robin’s bedroom.

“Hey, who’s that?” The speedster’s curiosity surged, his finger extending to point directly at the skateboarder featured on the poster.

“That’s Daewon Song. A true legend in the skateboarding world,” Robin replied.

Bart raised an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued. “A friend of yours?”

Robin leaned forward in his chair, a mischievous glint dancing in his eyes, his arms casually resting on each knee. A smirk played at the corners of his lips, amused by Bart’s limited knowledge of this particular facet of his life.

Perhaps he should use this opportunity to share a slice of his personal history with a friend. They’d known each other for a good couple of years. Why not let Bart in on this piece of his world?

“He’s just someone I look up to,” Robin said, his voice carrying a hint of enthusiasm, the warm glow of the room casting soft shadows on his features. “I’ve always felt a deep connection to Daewon’s story.” He paused for a moment, allowing the words to linger in the air. “He started skateboarding when his parents went through a tough breakup, and he once said that skateboarding was like a healing journey for him. It might sound strange, but I really resonate with that on a personal level.”

Bart leaned in, captivated by the shared experience. “So, you’ve been through something similar?”

Robin’s gaze was still fixed on the poster. “Yeah, in a way. Skateboarding has this incredible way of becoming a sanctuary when life gets tough. It’s like a trusted friend that’s always there when you need it.”

“I totally get that,” Bart said. “I never thought I’d meet a fellow skateboarding enthusiast here, though.”

“You skate, too?”

“Fuck yeah! I love the rush of it,” Bart exclaimed. "It’s like flying on the ground. It’s freeing, and it helps me clear my mind.”

“Nice! For me, it’s about finding balance in the chaos and pushing through challenges.”

“Finding balance? Like, how do you mean?”

“Well, when you’re on a skateboard, you learn to balance your body, anticipate the terrain, and adapt on the fly. It’s like a dance with the pavement. But it’s not just physical balance; it’s mental, too. The concentration required to land a trick or navigate a challenging spot teaches you to focus in the midst of chaos. It’s a lesson that translates to life itself."

“So, it’s not just about nailing those cool tricks?”

Robin chuckled. “Don’t get me wrong, tricks are a blast, and they’re part of the thrill. But it’s the journey, the process of getting there, that’s the real magic.”

Bart’s smile widened, and he nodded with a newfound understanding. “I can see why you’re Robin now. It’s really on-brand for you to find something so philosophical in what most people would consider nothing more than a hobby or an extreme sport.”

“Being Robin has taught me a lot about life’s complexities, and skateboarding has been a big part of that,” Robin mused, reclining in his chair, his arms casually resting behind his head.

“Is that why you keep that mask on?” Bart’s voice held a blend of mock disbelief and genuine curiosity.

Robin shrugged. “I like being mysterious.”

Bart’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, right. I know Conner, Greta and Cassie have seen it. It’s not fair that they got to see your face and I don’t.”

Robin had no reason to hide his identity, but he quite enjoyed any chance he got to mess with Bart. There was something about keeping the speedster in suspense; he was in the mood for mischief and giving Bart the same dose of playful intrigue.

“Guess I’m not that much of a friend to you,” Bart lamented, eliciting a soft frown from Robin.

“Stop that. You can’t guilt me into revealing myself to you. I just don’t think you’re ready to see it.”

Bart’s pleading eyes locked onto Robin’s masked gaze. “Come on, Al. You trust me, right? I'm great at keeping secrets. Lemme see your face. Pretty please?”

“Of course, I trust you. But this isn’t about trust. It’s about...well, let’s call it a game of curiosity. A game where I get to see just how long you can resist the temptation to know my secret.”

Bart grinned. “So, it’s a test of willpower?”

“You think you got what it takes to win this little game?”

“You're on,” Bart replied, confidence brimming in his voice. “A little mystery won't break me.”

Robin couldn’t resist flashing a playful smirk. “We’ll see about that.”

As the night wore on and Robin started drifting into slumber, he keenly sensed Bart creeping his way into his bed, slowly edging closer to remove the mask from his face.

“I knew it,” Robin whispered, his lightning-quick reflexes taking hold as he grabbed the speedster’s hand, pinning him down on the bed. “You simply couldn't resist, could you?” His blue eyes locked onto Bart’s, the mask now removed, revealing his face.

Bart's eyes widened in recognition, and he couldn't believe his own eyes. The shock of the revelation left him momentarily speechless. "You're...you're not Alvin Draper. You’re Tim Drake. I know you!” The speedster finally managed to stammer out, his voice filled with astonishment.

Robin couldn’t help but tease his friend. “Took you long enough to find out," he replied, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. “Hey, Bart.”

More on Ao3.

[theroyalsims]

BREAKING: ELEANORE AND IBRAHIM ARE ENGAGED

What?! 

Talk about a major case of déjà vu!

This morning, everyone and their mother woke up to a surprise revelation courtesy of a new post via Royal Family’s official social media channels. The post officially announced the engagement of ex-royals (and ex-lovers) Ibrahim and Eleanore. The announcement, accompanied by a brand new photo of the newly-betrothed lovebirds, reads:

“Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Jacques are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Eleanore, to Mr. Ibrahim Fournierre. The couple will wed later this year.”

The very short and straight to the point announcement steered clear of the couple’s former titles, and referred to them simply as “Eleanore” and “Mr. Ibrahim Fournierre.” As earlier reported, following his departure from his post as Al-Simhara’s Crown Prince, Ibrahim had his name officially changed, and now goes by his late mother’s maiden surname.

The couple hit worldwide fame, and subsequently, notoriety, due to their earlier bombshell engagement. The “relationship” was revealed to be a fake orchestrated by the two, thanks to a series of leaked messages. Their previous engagement triggered a series of unfortunate events, that saw Eleanore being stripped of her titles and public grant, their engagement called off mere days before their supposed wedding, and of course, there’s no forgetting the public humiliation the two had to endure. 

(Above: A closer look at the photo reveals that Eleanore’s latest engagement ring is also an emerald and diamond piece.)

This time around, however, things are quite different. For starters, the announcement came from the Brindleton Royal Family, which means that the the two most likely informed Her Majesty and Their Royal Highnesses of their intention to wed, unlike before. Also, the Palace confirmed that the photo posted was a recent one, taken just days ago at one of the Palace’s many formal gardens, by none other than Princess Ingrid.

The lovebirds looked great in their brand new snap, with Ibrahim looking dapper in his three piece suit (sans tie), and his hair neatly slicked back. Eleanore, meanwhile, looked gorgeous as ever in a simple sleeveless blue dress, with her luxurious blonde locks styled in cascading waves. And then, there’s her new sparkler. Much like the last ring, Eleanore’s new engagement ring is an emerald and diamond piece, mounted on yellow gold. The ring looks to be a 5-stone design, with a large central emerald, flanked by two graduating stones on each side. Although less flashy and looks to be much more wearable, the ring still packs a punch fit for a Princess, err, ex-Princess. The emerald bauble is perhaps an obvious choice, since emeralds are said to be Eleanore’s favourites. 

Well, then! Congratulations are definitely in order! Eleanore and Ibrahim have been through a lot over the past year, and if anyone deserves happiness, it’s these two! 

It seems like it’s wedding season for our Brindleton Royals! First, Princess Alice nabs an Emperor, and now, Eleanore’s set to walk down the aisle, too! But based on the announcements, Eleanore will be heading off to the altar first, since Alice and Kenji’s wedding is scheduled in the Spring of next year. Either way, we’re super excited!

More details are expected to be revealed in the coming days, and we’ll definitely keep you posted!

[vipier]

don't say i didn't warn you .

GAMBLING UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES IS EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN AMONG THE RANKS OF THE CLONE ARMY. so, naturally, general patel not only enthusiastically participates, but offers himself as a subject, agreeing without much need for convincing to a bout of his own in the sparring ring. he can rarely back away from a challenge in the first place — and the ribbing of his officers certainly presented one. nobody can argue you’re impressive on the battlefield, general, they reasoned in the war tent after a lengthy strategic discussion, but we’re all a bit curious how you’d hold up in a match without those clever force powers of yours. tris had scoffed, dryly, saying that he’d fight if they were so desperate to see, but only if captain andor agreed to be his opponent. his miscalculation was thinking @k4ssa would flatly refuse — and perhaps, months ago, he would have, given his previous detachment from the troops — but he’d agreed instead with such an immediacy that it brought a smirk to tristan’s face. while unexpected, tris certainly did not regret suggesting such an interesting match.

that brought them here, to opposite ends of a makeshift sparring ring drawn out on a flat space of land just outside the village of troop tents. far more troopers had turned up to see the fight than usual, drawn by the participation of the general and the captain, both to verify its truth and out of curiosity for the result. conversation had circulated the camp all day. “ there’s no competition when the general’s a jedi, ” some insisted. others answered, “ maybe if he could use the force, but have you seen captain andor on the battlefield? never saw a fighter more decisive and efficient! ” tristan himself knows it wouldn’t matter if he used the force or not ; cassian matches him beat for beat. when they fight together, it’s like poetry in motion. cass’s proficient and clean brutality provides a steady reliable beat, while tristan’s feline acrobatics and precise accuracy sings atop it like a deadly chorus. despite occasionally training together before the war, they’ve rarely sparred since its beginning. now that they’ve fought side by side for so long, tristan is impossibly curious of the result.

“ LISTEN UP, BOYS! ” commander kilo’s voice booms above the noise with all the authority of a core world announcer. the gaggle of voices slowly fades into an anticipatory hush. “ this is the match you all came to see! for your entertainment and potential profit … our very own general patel and captain andor, head to head! ” the particular sound of the cheers make it clear that the ale has been flowing freely. discipline isn’t necessarily tristan’s strong suit as a general. the men deserve to cut loose every now and then, and he hasn’t known such endeavors to dampen their battlefield skills in the past. “ betting closes in two minutes, so place your wagers now! ”

tristan sits in a portable chair on one end of the ring, while cassian occupies an identical one on the other. for his part, the jedi dons a basic sleeveless tunic in wine red and simple gray trousers, breathable, movable, without excessive extra fabric to disadvantage him. as he finishes taping his knuckles, he leans backward casually in his seat, slinging his elbows over the back of the chair and spreading his knees to occupy the entirety of the seat. a smug smirk occupies his mouth as he gazes across the ring to catch his opponent’s eye. all confidence, all fire. all things he knows would drive cass half mad on a normal day. the other man meets his gaze with similar confidence, a bright hunger in his eyes that tristan recognizes well. cassian loves the fight, always has, and tris is wise enough to know not to expect his lover to go easy on him — which isn’t what he’d want anyway. the harder they fight, he expects, the more likely he is to see a similar look in cass’s eyes later, when they’re alone.

“ I bet an entire week’s wage on you, general, ” remarks commander specs from somewhere over tristan’s right shoulder. “ don’t embarrass me. ”

tris’s smirk grows at the fondly sarcastic tone of his commander. “ all is as the force wills it, specs, ” he responds airily, “ and if the force wills you to be bloody broke, then far be it for me to defy fate. you’ll be fine. ” he rises, then, as kilo gestures for both opponents from where he’s stepped into the middle of the ring.

“ rules! ” commander kilo announces, hands raised to one again quiet the crowd, which dies immediately to another hush. tristan stands opposite cassian, chin tilted up to look him in the face with confidence, with glee. he can feel his blood thrum beneath his skin, and even without reaching to test at the boundaries of the captain’s feelings, a similar anticipation sinks into him from the other man. a delight. a craving. “ no weapons! hand to hand only. no knockouts. THREE rounds! step outside the ring? round loss. ten second pin? round loss. in addition, while we know general patel can’t simply turn off those enhanced jedi senses, any additional force usage forfeits the round! we want to see what he can really do, don’t we, boys?! ”

the crowd erupts in an uproarious cheer, which somehow manages to give the opponents a moment to themselves. “ don’t say I didn’t warn you. ” when cassian speaks, tristan nearly barks a laugh, though he manages to bite it back. he did, it’s true, the night before, some playful refrain about how no amount of adoration or devotion will convince him to hand tris a win. tristan stands by what he said then: he wouldn’t love cass half as much if thought he would do such a thing. the jedi bites his lip briefly as he spreads his hands in front of him in a gesture that borders on arrogance. they’re posturing — and he knows they both love it.

“ you talk too much, captain, ” he answers, smirk fading to a shark like grin, the final word dangerously near a purr. “ we’re here to put your money where that smart mouth is. ” he adjusts his footing slightly as kilo steps out of the ring. adrenaline sings through tristan’s veins, even as he remains poised. “ I’ll even give you the first shot. ” his dark eyes burn as they continue to fix on cassian’s, pupils visibly dilated as he twitches the fingers of both hands toward himself with clear meaning. come get it. “ don’t keep me waiting, andor, ” he adds, just as kilo’s booming voice calls the beginning of the fight.

[blxckdragonfly]

Love Language (Darkness Finds You Universe-- Prelude #0)

(Song: "Love Language" by Ariana Grande.

Warnings: Drama, Slight smut on the page.

Pairing: Chris Motionless & Lycia Winters "Pronunciation of her name-- Lai-shuh" (played Ana De Armas)

Synopsis: When Chris invites Lycia to Furnace Festival to see his band, Motionless In White play for the first time-- some drama unfolds between her and Ash Costello, which pushes Lycia into finally telling Chris that she loves him and... the attachment begins.

Word Count: 4,856

Spotify:

A/N: And we're back! I wanted to give you guys a prelude of what took place before the first piece I wrote with these two, which is Love On The Brain. I hope you enjoy it! Co-written with @blackrose-92! x Tiger)

I was so excited to be here today– Chris had brought me to Furnace Fest to see him and Motionless in White play live as well as walk around the festival and take photos of the different bands headlining today for Jeremy and Outburn Magazine. It was my first time ever seeing them live. I watched as Chris was putting on the final touches of his look, which was his black vest with a patch that had a black and white spiral, black jeans and his boots. His arms are covered in black paint, hiding his many tattoos. 

Furnace Fest: Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark– Birmingham, AL. September 25th, 2021. 

I wore a sleeveless black wash Metallica “Ride The Lightning” top from Fashion Nova, a pair of black ripped disco skinny jeans from PrettyLittleThing, and a pair of boots. My hair is up in a pair of space buns and I wore light makeup knowing that most festivals are known to be pretty warm as I stood at the side of the stage, watching Chris and the boys as they’re about to walk out on stage. I heard the excitement of the crowd as Ricky, Justin, Ryan and Vinny walked out. 

Chris being the last to go out on stage, he stopped when he saw me standing there with a smile on my face. He walks over to me and places a soft kiss on my lips. 

“Have a good show,” I whisper into his lips. He nods and walks out on stage, the crowd roaring as he takes his place and starts singing their opener– Disguise. As I’m watching their set, I notice a bunch of black and red hair blocking my view from seeing Chris. It was Ashley Costello. 

I was confused as to why Ash was acting this way toward me and then it all made sense, when she looked at Chris– she looked at him like she was absolutely lovestruck. It lit a flame of anger inside of me. I step forward in front of Ashley with my arms crossed and a brow raised at her. 

“What the hell do you want?” My voice came out icy and cold as I glance at Ashley. Ashley clears her throat and shifts on her feet, avoiding my piercing yellow-green hazel eyes. 

“I just want to talk,” Ashley replies, her voice quivering slightly. I wasn’t sure if she was playing some kind of game to get under my skin or was she being serious? “About your relationship with Chris.” 

I was taken aback by her boldness and immediately became defensive of my relationship with Chris. 

“What about it?” I ask, suspiciously.

“I think you both should end it,” Ashley took a step closer to me, her nervous facade fading fast. “He deserves someone far better than you.” 

I stare at Ashley in disbelief, my heart racing in anger. How dare she try and get in between us like this. She has no right to do this and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let this happen. I clench my fists and step forward, determined to make Ashley understand that I wouldn’t be taking part in any games.  

“What makes you think he deserves someone better than me?” I ask, fiercely. “Do you even know him at all? Do you know how much he actually cares for me?” 

Ashley took a step back, intimidated by my ferocity and my refusal to be intimidated. I have three brothers, I know exactly how and when to fight if I need to. 

“I know him far better than you and longer than you,” Ashley says with a smirk. “And I know he deserves someone who will treat him right, someone who won’t take him for granted.” 

I grew more and more angry, I stepped forward with my jaw clenching and I grabbed her around the neck. 

“I don’t know what kind of game you think you’re playing and hell, I don’t care,” I snarl. “But if you ever, ever come near my boyfriend again, I will kick your ass.” 

My words are full of fury and I can see that Ashley knew that I meant every single word. Ashley started shaking in my grasp and she put both of her hands up in surrender. 

“I-I’m sorry, Lycia,” Ashley stammers. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.” 

I wasn’t satisfied with her apology, I tighten my grip around her throat as my voice takes on a harshness and is full of warning as I speak. “This is your only warning, Ash. Stay away from Chris or else I won’t be as nice next time.” 

Ashley nods slowly, not daring to look me in the eye in fear that she would be met with the same cold rage that filled the air moments before. I step back and cross my arms as I watch Ashley walk away, and in the corner of my eye– I look up and I see Chris, who had just gotten off stage. 

I can see that his jaw was on the floor from what he had seen happen between me and Ashley as he walked backstage. He didn’t know how to respond. 

I face him and take a deep breath before looking into his brown eyes and speaking. 

“Look,” I confess. “There’s one thing you need to know about me. I’m extremely protective of the people I love– whether it’s family, friends or even my significant other.” 

I see Chris’s face turn from shock to being frozen and I realized why he’s looking at me that way. I just told him that I love him. 

“Are-Are you saying that you love me?” Chris says. 

I nod my head at him and smile at him, my expression full of warmth and admiration. 

“I am,” I murmured in a honeyed tone of voice. “I love you, Christopher Cerulli.” 

Chris steps forward toward me and pulls me into his arms, overwhelmed with emotion and happiness that I finally voiced out my feelings that I had for him. He kisses me deeply, passionately conveying all the love he has for me as we embrace tightly. 

The kiss felt like an eternity between us before Chris finally pulled away from me, feeling both relieved and exhilarated all at once. He looks into my eyes, taking in every single detail of me as I stand before him– from my caramel brown hair, to my yellow-green hazel eyes, to my tattoos like my red inked snake tattoo with flowers on my left outer forearm. His hands move to caress my face. 

“I love you too, Lycia,” His voice breaking slightly due to the overwhelming emotions flooding through him. "I love you so much."

I smile back at him, feeling an immense sense of relief wash over my entire body as I close the gap between us and I kiss him again, tenderly as I wrap my arms around his neck and my fingers sink into his newly dyed blonde hair.

I lightly nip on his bottom lip and I hear a soft growl erupt from within his chest, making me giggle. Chris slowly pulls away from the kiss, a look of contentment on his face, still keeping me close to him. 

“I can’t believe you actually said it,” Chris whispers in awe, referring to how I finally voiced my feelings for him. “Not just saying that you love me but also standing up for our relationship.” 

I smile up at Chris before resting my head on his chest, hearing the strong and steady beat of his heart beneath my ear. 

“You don’t have to worry about anyone getting in the way anymore,” I murmured softly into his vest as he met my lips in another passionate kiss. 

“Aw, look at the lovebirds,” I hear Justin’s voice as I quickly break away from the kiss and I turn around to face both Justin and Ricky.

“Hey, shut up, you two!” I snap as I flip them both off. Chris steps forward and rests a hand on my shoulder before turning his attention to Ricky and Justin. I see him take on a serious expression. 

“You guys should watch your back,” Chris says as he sees a mischievous look in my eyes, causing both Ricky and Justin’s eyes to widen in fear as they realize what he’s implying. 

Ricky and Justin both realize their mistake as they see the look in my eyes. Chris wanted to say something more but he was holding back laughter at the look on their faces. After composing himself, he shot them a warning look before turning back to me. 

“Hey,” Chris whispers softly as he pulls me close and presses a gentle kiss to my forehead. “It’s alright, I’m here.” 

I smile as I nuzzle my face into his tattooed neck, I feel so safe in his embrace and it makes me feel powerful knowing that I can stand up for myself and not have to face the fear of repercussions. 

I see Ricky and Justin sheepishly back away and look down at their feet as I hear muttered apologies to us from them as they scurried away. Chris chuckles as he watches them go, wrapping his arm back around my waist protectively as the other moves to comb loose strands that have escaped from the space buns in my hair in a soothing gesture. 

“I want to hear you say it again,” Chris mumbles softly into my ear as he places light kisses onto my jawline, taking delight in hearing my soft sighs with each brush of his lips on me. 

“I love you.” I whisper. “I love you.” 

Chris grins into my neck as he kisses it softly. “I’m never going to get tired of hearing you say that.” 

After the festival, when Chris and I flew back to his place in Scranton and I made sure it was okay with Jeremy that I could stay longer with Chris and take time off work, which it was, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. Chris wanted me and he wanted to be as close to me as possible. 

The moment the door to his house closed behind him, Chris pins me up to the door– kissing me with such a deep passion that it takes my breath away. Our lips move in perfect sync as I wrap my arms around him, my fingers moving through his blonde hair. He savors the feeling and the taste of me as his hands explore my body, our lips breaking away for a moment as his own drag slowly down my neck, making me close my eyes. 

I can feel his heart racing wildly but even I know he wants to take his time with me, which he scoops me up in his arms, making me giggle as he carries me upstairs to his bedroom, laying me on the black pillows below. I open my eyes and I meet his loving chocolate brown orbs staring back at me. My breathing is sharp with excitement. 

I promise it's the little things that you do

That make me wanna give it all to you

You know I do, babe

I bring my lips back to his, kissing him passionately as my fingers reach for the “Violent Gentlemen” shirt that he’d been wearing on the flight back and pull it up over his head. I see more tattoos that cover his body, including what looks like a haunted house that wasn’t finished yet on his chest and stomach. I run my fingers across his tattooed arms and down his chest.

He pulls me closer, his own fingers reaching for my own oversized Misfits tee and taking it off me, leaving me completely bare chested before him because I’d been too lazy to put a bra on underneath. 

He notices that I have more tattoos that he’d hadn’t seen before. I have a pair of deer antlers with some flowers on my right side near my right breast and a fox on my left side close to my left breast. I hear a soft gasp in awe from him of how beautiful I must have looked with my tattoos. 

I blush as his gaze runs over them, feeling a bit self-conscious to be seen this way, despite how much I’m enjoying this at the same time.  

You soothe me

You hold it down with every word you speak, oh, babe

Baby

Been a minute since I had somethin' so sweet

He reaches out and brushes his fingertips over the antlers, the sensation making me shiver as he moves his other hand to the fox on my left side. 

“You’re so perfect,” Chris murmurs as he rests his forehead on mine, bringing tears to my eyes over how sweet he's being. “You really are.” 

He continues his trail down my neck, to my collarbones, the center of my chest where he leans down and takes one of my breasts into his mouth– making me let out a moan as his hand caresses my other breast. 

I feel completely overwhelmed by the sensations as they coursed through my body, my back arching in pleasure as Chris kisses and licks my sensitive skin. He reaches for my jeans that I’d worn on the flight, unbuttons them and pulls them down to reveal my phoenix tattoo on my right hip. He kisses it tenderly before standing up and undressing himself, his eyes burning with desire for me. 

If you're gon' keep speakin' my love language

You can talk your shit all night

You the medication when I'm feelin' anxious

That's the kind of shit I like

I take in the beauty that is Christopher Cerulli, the Chris Motionless, every tattoo that covers his entire upper body. My heart beat in my chest, he wasn’t just beautiful. He’s gorgeous. I understand why so many girls want him, because of how stunning he is. The best part of all, is that he’s all mine. 

I bite my lip as he slowly crawls onto the bed, his eyes meet mine as I can’t help but feel a bit nervous, his brown eyes are so intense I feel like I can’t breathe. He moves closer to me, resting a hand on my face, caressing it as he notices my hands are shaking. 

“Lycia,” Chris murmurs softly. “Honey, you’re shaking. Hey, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” 

I shake my head, taking a breath to calm my nerves. I know what I want, it’s right in front of me, looking into my eyes. I want him. 

“Chris,” I say softly, my voice barely a whisper as I push away all of my doubt that comes up to the surface. “I want this. I want you.” 

Teach me how to love you

I'm unlearnin' what ain't right

I want you to keep speakin' my love language

Baby, talk your shit all night

Chris smiles widely and leans forward, pressing his lips against mine as he kisses me softly. I respond eagerly, heart fluttering at the tender gesture, wrapping my arms around his neck as he deepens the kiss, his hands moving from mine to my neck and then down again before finally settling on either side of my waist. I feel something awaken in me and makes me long for more of him. 

He moves lower on the bed, his mouth kissing along the curve of my neck before moving down to the phoenix tattoo that he admired earlier on my hip. I let out a gasp as Chris kisses the tattoo, his tongue tracing the intricate design and sending shivers of pleasure up my spine. 

I feel myself melt into him as he moves lower, his hands lightly caressing my inner thighs and pushing them apart, his fingers find their way to my most sensitive spot and I feel a wave of pleasure through me at the contact. 

Why would I double back or do the same thing twice?

A question, somethin' that I can't deny

Lеft my baggage at the door, I'll claim you mine

All minе

“Fuck,” I breathe softly as his fingers sink inside me, Chris feeling how turned on I am. He leans into my neck, nibbling softly on my skin as his fingers make circles inside me, the pressure and sensation growing within my entire body and it shakes as he continues to tease and tantalize me.

I gasp as his fingers move within me as my hips move into his hand as he looks up at me, brown eyes gleaming with desire as he watches me moan in pleasure. 

I can’t help but let out a moan at the sensation and I feel myself on the brink of an orgasm. Chris smiles wickedly into my neck, knowing that he’s driving me wild with every stroke of his fingers. His other hand moves up to caress my breasts. 

“Mm,” Chris whispers as he watches me while brushing each of my nipples with his free hand, making me moan louder this time. “I love the way you fall apart when I touch you.” 

You soothe me

You hold it down with every word you speak, oh, honey

Baby

It's been a minute since I had somethin' so sweet, mm, oh

Chris moves his fingers out of me and replaces them with his tongue, exploring every inch of me.

My moans increase in volume and fill the room as I feel myself getting close. His tongue moves in circles around me, alternating between soft and firmer licks, making me squirm in pleasure beneath him and pulling the best sounds out of me. 

My hands reach for his blonde locks, pulling on them slightly as I feel his teeth graze my most sensitive area. I cry out again as he teases me with his tongue, pleasure coursing through my veins and making my body quiver. 

“I-I can’t take this teasing much longer, babe,” I breathe out between moans of pleasure. “I need you so badly.” 

If you're gon' keep speakin' my love language

You can talk your shit all night

You the medication when I'm feelin' anxious

That's the kind of shit I like

Chris pushes himself up onto his knees and looks at me with a smoldering look in his brown gaze, he moves up onto the bed, crawling over my body until he’s positioned above me.

His hands rest on either side of my head, pushing back any strands of my caramel brown hair that have come loose from our embrace, he gives me a soft peck on my lips as he starts to slide inside of me carefully. 

I gasp as he fills me completely, my entire body feels alive with pleasure as he moves inside of me. I wrap my legs around Chris's waist, my black nailed hands gripping onto his back as he looks into my eyes, his gaze is filled with desire and passion.

“God, you feel amazing,” He whispers as he starts to move slowly within me, each thrust sending waves of pleasure through my body, making me arch my back.

I moan loudly in response to the sensations coursing through my veins, each movement harder than the last and pushing us closer to the edge of pleasure. 

Teach me how to love you

I'm unlearnin' what ain't right

I want you to keep speakin' my love language

Baby, talk your shit all night

Chris’s hands move to cup my face, keeping his gaze locked with mine as he continues to thrust, the strokes taking up a bit of speed but also remaining loving and intense, which takes my breath away as my black nails leave scratches up and down his back. 

I feel like I’m about to scream out in pleasure at any moment as Chris took me higher and higher. I could feel my skin becoming hot and flushed as every nerve ending in my body tingled with pleasure, the sensations overwhelming.

My nails dug into his back as I silently begged him to not stop but rather take me further along this blissful road.

Chris responded with each thrust, pushing himself deeper within me until it was too much for me to handle.

I shiver underneath him as an orgasm rocked through my entire body, the waves of pleasure nearly bringing tears in my eyes. He increases his pace even more, his breath becoming ragged as he came closer and closer to his own climax.

Finally, when I thought I couldn't be able to take any more, Chris follows closely behind, releasing himself into me after a soft but guttural growl escapes him as he collapses onto me.

We both lay there, panting for a few moments before Chris rolls off of me and pulls me into his embrace as he wraps his arms around me protectively from behind, holding me close as I relax into him. 

I smile contentedly and snuggle closer to Chris with my back against his chest, feeling completely satisfied from our lovemaking session.

“That was amazing,” He whispers softly while planting small kisses over my shoulders and neck, his warm breath tickling my skin. “You’re so incredible.” 

My smile widens as I turn to face Chris, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips before pulling back and propping myself on my elbow to look at him, tracing the lines of his face with my fingertips.   

Baby, pardon my French, but could you speak in tongues?

Never lost in translation 'cause you know what I want, boy

Treat it just like Givenchy (Givenchy), it's expensive to taste… 

My eyes were drawn to the beauty of his face, his strong jawline, sharp cheekbones and soft lips that has moments ago kissed me in ways that no person has before, the same face that I’d watched before in multiple music videos, in interviews, seen in magazines and posters of him and his band, Motionless In White over the years. 

I trace the path of each muscle until I reach his chocolate brown eyes that are now looking into mine intently. 

In that moment, I feel like there's no one else in the world but just us, and it made my heart flutter in a way I have never experienced before.

Chris smiles warmly at me as he gently takes my hand in his and brings it up to his lips, planting a soft kiss against the back of my hand.

“What are you thinking about?” Chris spoke softly as his fingers gently trail down my arm with my red ink snake tattoo, his gaze still locked with mine. 

I smile and move closer to him, my hands tracing the haunted house tattooed on his chest as I ponder his question for a couple of moments. 

“I’m just thinking about how lucky I am that I’m here with you right now,” I murmured against his skin softly as I trace one of my own fingers across his tattooed jawline.

Chris smiles down at me as his lips brush against mine tenderly before he tucks away a strand of my caramel brown hair behind my ear lovingly. He presses his forehead to mine, letting out a content sigh as we both lay in comfortable silence for a few more moments before I decide to break it. 

“It’s been a while since I’ve felt this way,” I begin, thoughtfully. “I’d never thought I’d find someone like you who could make me feel so safe and loved.” 

Chris looks into my yellow-green hazel eyes, understanding passing through us both like an invisible wave before he wraps his arms around me tightly, holding me close to him in comfort and appreciation. 

If you're gon' keep speakin' my love language

You can talk your shit all night

You the medication when I'm feelin' anxious

I smile against Chris’s chest as I run my fingertips along his arm lightly, tracing his many tattoos and feeling how strong he is beneath my touch. 

“I’m glad I found you too,” He murmurs into my hair as he nuzzles his face into it, taking in the scent of cinnamon and blood oranges. “I haven’t felt this kind of connection to someone in such a long time.” 

I look up at him with a soft smile on my lips before turning and pressing a gentle kiss against his cheek, finding solace in the warmth of his embrace. I rest my head back down on his chest and close my eyes for a moment as we lay there together peacefully, enjoying each other’s presence. 

Chris notices the peacefulness that this moment has brought and I can see that he wants to take it a bit further. 

“I want you to know something, Lycia,” He begins softly, taking my hands in his own and looking into my eyes intently. “You’re always on my mind, no matter what I’m doing, whether I’m touring with my band or even being in the studio or regardless of where I am. You make me feel alive again and I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

I smile wider as tears gather in the corner of my eyes from hearing such sweet words from Chris, words I never expected to hear from anyone, let alone him. I wrap my arms around him tightly in response before gently pulling away so I can look into his brown eyes one more time. 

“I love you,” I whisper softly before pressing another gentle kiss against his lips, conveying all the emotions that I was feeling once just through that single gesture. 

Chris meets my kiss with one of his own, full of both adoration and passion as he looks into my eyes and notices the sincerity behind them, a warmth swelling in his chest.

He presses his forehead against mine once more, sighing happily as he holds me close to him, not wanting this moment to ever end.

"I love you too," He murmurs against my skin, letting out a content sigh as we stay there together for what seemed like hours but was actually only minutes.

As we break away, I curl into his bare chest, feeling the warmth of his arms around me. I hear the strong beat of his heart under my ear and feel his fingers move through my hair. 

Chris holds me close to him, feeling the warmth of my body as our skin brushes one another’s. His heart’s beating steadily and strongly in his chest and I know he could feel the gentle rise and fall of my breaths as I press closer to him. 

That's the kind of shit I like

Teach me how to love you

I'm unlearnin' what ain't right

I looked up at Chris and our eyes met with a deep understanding. His gaze is so full of love that it feels like his very soul is pouring out through them. The sensation overwhelms me that a single tear runs down my cheek. I finally have found someone who understands me and accepts every part of me. 

Chris leans down and gently kisses the tear on my face before pressing his forehead against mine, a soft smile playing on his lips. He wraps one arm around my waist and pulls me closer while his other hand runs through my caramel brown hair, pushing some of the strands from my face. 

“You are my everything,” He whispers softly before leaning in for a passionate kiss. The kiss is full of warmth and promise as we both surrender to the feelings we are experiencing at the moment.

 I feel like this is where I truly belong; safe, warm and loved in Chris’s embrace. We break away after what seems like an eternity but in reality lasts a few moments before Chris gazes deeply into my hazel eyes again. 

“I won’t let go of you, I promise,” He murmurs quietly before tucking my head into his chest once again, kissing the top of my head tenderly as we lay there peacefully together until sleep finally claims us both for a little while before we woke once more and continued what we started before. 

We continued onward, making love from the darkest of night to the earliest of morning light. I was exhausted, sore but I loved every physical moment that I shared with Chris, even the lightest touch of his warm tattooed skin under my fingertips lit a fire in me and I’m happy. 

As I lay beside him in his bed, curled up in his arms with my skin against his, feeling his chest rising and falling as he’s breathing and his heartbeat. I love how innocent he looks as he sleeps with me in his arms, I run a finger down his jawline, making him stir slightly in his sleep with a small smile on his lips. His chocolate brown eyes open after a moment and he looks at me. 

“Mm, honey. Can't sleep?” He murmurs and his voice makes my heart melt.

I smile softly at him, I shake my head no at him and bite my lip to keep the tears from spilling out from my eyes, overwhelmed with emotion by how much I love him. 

Chris leans in ever so slightly and caresses my forehead with his lips before pulling back to look into my eyes. He brushes a few strands of hair away from my face tenderly, his thumb caressing my skin lightly.

“How can I sleep when I have the sweetest man to ever exist laying by me?” I whisper as I run my fingers through his short blonde hair, letting out a content sigh as he wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me closer to him, the warmth radiating off of him making it impossible for me to not feel safe and secure in his embrace.

Chris smiles fondly at me, his brown eyes twinkling with love and admiration as he caresses my face gently with one hand before leaning in for a passionate kiss that seems never ending; our tongues intertwining passionately while our hands explore each other’s bodies eagerly. 

When we break away from each other, Chris presses his forehead against mine while he lets out a small laugh.

“I’m so glad you’re mine,” He says before capturing my lips and I happily obliged him, we kissed until we both have to take a breath. 

I let out a light hum as I trace the tattoos that cover his arm, resting my forehead back on his. 

“I’m glad I’m yours too,” I whisper. “You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been.” 

Chris smiles at me and pulls me close into his arms.

"Me too," He says softly, nestling his head into the curve of my neck. We lay there for a long while in comfortable silence, only the sound of our breathing filling the room.

"I want to spend every second of my life with you," Chris says as he looks deep into my eyes.

I smile brightly and kiss him tenderly on the lips, feeling a warmth spread through me and a deep sense of contentment as I realize how lucky I am to have found someone like Chris.

I run my fingers through his blonde hair, playing with it absentmindly as I look into his warm brown eyes that holds so much love for me that I feel I could get myself lost in them forever.

I close my eyes and let out a contented sigh before pressing myself closer to Chris, savoring the moment we're sharing.

"I feel so safe when I'm with you," I whisper as I snuggle further into his embrace.

Chris smiles and kisses the top of my head before stroking my hair lovingly.

"Honey, I want you to always feel safe when you're with me," He said softly as he holds me close, letting out a satisfied sigh when I drape one arm around his body and nuzzle against him for comfort.

The two of us stay like that for a while, just enjoying each other.

"I never want this moment to end," I murmured, lifting my head so our eyes met.

Chris grins down at me and brushes away a strand of my caramel brown hair from my face tenderly.

"Me either, baby," He said softly before capturing my lips in a passionate kiss that seemed to go on forever, speaking volumes even without words about the love we have for each other.

When we finally break apart, I let out a content sigh before I snuggle against him again, letting the warmth of his body get me back into sweet dreams full of love and happiness.

I want you to keep speakin' my love language

Baby, talk your shit all night….

Credit to cafekitsune for the divider. 🖤🤌

[lichtecht]

okay ich pack das unter einen cut weil spoiler für dfk 2023

aber ich hab was zu sagen, was justus/nichtraucher angeht

okay first of all.

i was pleasantly surprised!!

this is the only movie that didn’t give either of them a female love interest!! direktorin kreuzkamm seems to be interested in dr bökh, but there is NOTHING from him. wtf. this is revolutionary.

the story was changed a lot though. but i don’t think it was for the worse?

basically.

the nichtraucher lives in his little garden all by himself. he smokes. he plays piano. he’s writing a book, apparently!

the whole scene with justus after the fight was. changed a bit. they cut the part about why the kids didn’t come to him and about trust and righteousness a lot. theo is also not present. the kids are sent to dr bökh's office and he’s like. „sigh. theo, will you get us some cookies.“ and then they cut to him telling the story of his school days.

WHICH GOES AS FOLLOWS.

he had an enemy. called robert. who was one of the externe, while justus was one of the interne. justus was jealous of robert, he seemed to have everything justus wanted. they fought a lot. but then justus' mother got sick. and justus couldn’t visit her. robert's father was a doctor in the hospital she was in, and he offered his help. and so robert and justus became friends. they had a band.

dr bökh tells the kids that his friend robert later studied medicine, but they lost contact.

and the kids piece together that this robert is the nonsmoker, who they’ve met recently.

so they take justus to the garden where he lives.

when they get there, the nonsmoker is currently chopping wood in a sleeveless shirt.

justus takes off the blindfold and is like: „robert!“ (happy/surprised)

der nichtraucher: „was soll das denn, warum bringt ihr euren lehrer hierher?“

WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS SHOCKED

jo: „uh… we thought you two knew each other.“

nonsmoker: „and?“

SO BASICALLY THE NONSMOKER IS NOT HAPPY TO SEE JUSTUS

justus: „du hast hier die ganze zeit gewohnt und dich nie gemeldet?“

robert: „warum sollte ich?“

the kids realize that they should leave. justus and the nonsmoker have a talk.

i think justus starts with: „schön hast du’s hier. vielleicht könnten wir uns ja mal verabreden… auf ein bier oder so.“

robert ist eher nicht so romantisch drauf.

it turns out that when marie, roberts wife, died, justus didn’t attend the funeral. he didn’t even contact robert. (it’s not really explained why, i think.)

justus says: „when you met your wife… you were just gone. what about the two of us? we had plans.“

BRO I THOUGHT THE NONSMOKER WOULD BE PINING FOR JUSTUS THE ENTIRE TIME BUT IT WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND

you cannot say that. you CANNOT say that in a straight way. dude. dude that’s gay

(i really wish i could rewatch that scene so i could pull quotes.)

justus: „als du deine frau kennengelernt hast… da warst du einfach weg. dabei hatten wir doch pläne. das hat mich sehr verletzt damals.“

robert: „…du warst verletzt.“

so basically robert is bitter. his wife died and justus didn’t even support him. and JUSTUS is the one who was in love with his friend and who was hurt because robert found a wife and left him??

naja.

das gespräch endet damit, dass justus sagt: „du weißt, wo du mich findest.“

ich glaub, das nächste mal, dass wir den nichtraucher sehen, ist, als er sich mit jo unterhält. sie besucht ihn im nichtraucherwagen. er bringt ihr klavier bei. <3

und er erzählt ihr ein bisschen von früher. dass es damals schon nicht so einfach war, „wenn interne und externe befreundet waren“.

hmm. sounds gay.

the next time robert and justus see each other is when robert decides he does want to talk to justus. he puts on a nice suit jacket and he goes into town, only to see that ULI is climbing THE WALL.

yeah, ulis accident, very tragic, robert was luckily there to help as a doctor. i’ll talk about ulis accident sometime else.

so.

the next time robert and justus see each other is in the hospital.

justus: „was machst du denn hier?“

robert: „ich war grade rechtzeitig da, um als arzt zu helfen.“

(irgendein cut, ich weiß es nicht mehr?)

robert: „so weit hätte es niemals kommen dürfen.“

justus: „während ich mir hier mühe gebe, um den kindern einen sicheren ort zu geben hast du [xyz, weiß ich nicht mehr]. also geh zurück in deinen waggon und leg die füße hoch. ich muss jetzt die eltern informieren.“ (geht)

robert: „…das hab ich nicht gemeint.“

also, robert will justus jetzt doch eine chance geben, aber justus fühlt sich zurückgewiesen.

während der aufführung des stücks werfen sie sich dann blicke zu. du hättest es sehen müssen, ey

und dann treffen sie sich auf ein bier.

robert: „ich dachte schon, du kommst nicht.“

justus: „natürlich komm ich.“

und dann kommt die szene, wo sie miteinander musik machen.

guys.

i know the story’s different, but i’m here for it. i’m here for the bitterness.

and they were just so gay. it was so gay throughout. best fucking part of the movie. it DELIVERED

[syrma-sensei]

Moon's Scarab → Ch. 6: Night Travellers.

Marc Spector x Layla El-Faouly.

pre-canon fic; based on the Marvel comics and Disney's series Moon Knight.

warning: violence, cursing, angst, smut maybe in the future (?), the majority of spoken Arabic in this story is in Egyptian dialect.

taglist: @kesskirata, @zinzinina, @psithurista, @urlocallsimp, @marcspectrr, @sherlolly-siya, @nowritingonthewall, @marcskywalker, @nyctophilic0vitnir...

tell me if you wanna be added to the taglist!

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° a/n: the song in this chapter is: Alf Leila Wa Leila (One Thousand and One Night) by the legendary Um Kulthum. Highly recommended to listen if you're fond of classic music.

Layla El-Faouly/Marc Spector

Layla El-Faouly gazes up at the dark sky. It's past midnight, and the moon is shining fully in the heart of the summer heavens. She smiles, leaning her head backwards as her hands set flat on the rooftop's floor.

She wears a sleeveless, cherry-red top, and a black pair of sweatpants, whereas her feet remain bare to the occasional summer breeze. Her coiled hair is loose, still slightly damp from the night shower she just took, a big crown of gorgeous, brown curls.

Her big eyes are still wandering the skies, hopping from a glimmering star to another. But every time, they go back to the white orb embedding the night sky.

The Moon is Al-Qamar in Arabic, or how the Egyptian prefer to call it; El-Amar. It's always been a place of fascination to Layla. That astral globe of silver gleam that illuminates the sky within the night. Even her name Layla has something to do with the moon; which means night darkness, that cradles the moon while it wallows in the cosmos.

“Ya habibi... my love,” A rich and resonant voice echoes from Layla's phone, “El-Leil wo samah, wo nujomo, wo amaro, wo saharo... The night and its sky, and its stars and moon, and its vigil,” The singer continues, “Enta wo ana... you and I,”

“We just ran outta tea,” Layla smiles as she hears Marc's steps on the staircase, “Remind me to buy some tomorrow, would ya?”

She looks at him as he emerges from the shadows, carrying a tray with an Arabian tea set on it. Just like her, he's wearing casual and comfy clothes; a sleeveless, dark shirt, and a pair of grey sweatpants.

“Yeah, sure,” Layla says as Marc lays the tray on the floor and sits, cross-legged, next to her.

Layla glances at the tray and grins, “Marc... what are those?”

The latter looks at her puzzled. He follows her gaze on the tray, then clears his throat, “Marshmallows...?"

“Yeah...” Her girn widens, “But what happened to "no sugars under this roof" rule tho?”

Marc smirks playfully, “Well, if you put it that way... we're practically on the roof,” She giggles. “Plus, you worked hard the past few days.”

“Well, thanks to you, Couch Spector.” With dialect fingers, Layla plucks a piece of the fluffy candy and stuffs it in her mouth. A small moan escapes her throat as the delectable savour tickles her taste buds. Although she's an athletic person, Layla is fond of sugars; she just can't help it, her weak spot for marshmallows.

“You earned it tho. But you're welcome anyway, Miss El-Faouly.” Marc smiles a bit and Layla swoons just like the candy in her mouth.

Layla knows that Marc isn't flattering her when he said she earned it, because first of all: he doesn't do sweet talks, that's what she worked out of the time she spent with him in the past couple of weeks. Second: he literally made her see hell in those two weeks.

When Layla moved in with him to the safe house he currently resides at, Marc worked hard on making zero interaction with her. He didn't speak to her unless it was necessary despite her obvious efforts to communicate with him.

Marc just couldn't. Yes, sure, he promised to find out the truth about the link between her father and The Committee, because he feels terrible about the matter. He's bound to that, for if he does so, it may lift something off of his chest. And when it's all done, he's going to confess to Miss El-Faouly his horrible crime and what he did to her father and the rest of his team, then will disappear and will never show his face ever to her again, and if he's lucky enough and she's fast enough, she'd take revenge and kill him on the spot —and he'd let her— and release him from this torture, and send him right into hell where he truly belongs. Yes, that's what a killer eventually deserves.

Furthermore, Marc seldom feels comfortable in a constant feminine presence. Or not used to it is more like it. Sure, he has his fair share of night-stands every once in a while. But fuck, the first —and last— serious relationship he had with a girl was when he was still at high school. Her name is Marlene Alraune, a Canadian girl he met at a school party; one of those times when he managed to escape his mother's violent hand and actually lived his life as a normal adolescent. She was pretty and smart, has gorgeous blond hair and remarkable body. He still remembers how anxious he felt when she confessed her crush on him after they hung out together multiple times, and still remembers the fragments of the grand happiness he once felt at the time when knew his feelings were mutual. He thought she might be the one to save him from the hell his mother organised. He believed she might see him for what he truly is, just a boy who wanted to be loved. Fuck, he even lost his virginity to her. However, and as it turned out, Marlene wasn't the one for Marc. She was too demanding, pressuring, and sometimes inconsiderate. How humiliated she made him feel every time she claimed he embarrassed her in front of her friends, but he might done so. Given his strict upbringing in religious Jewish house, as a son of a rabbi. How often she'd tell him that's his mother is right, and he's worthless, and only she made him of value; the popular girl's pet. But all that came to an end when he signed up for the military, after that he didn't hear of her ever since. And from henceforth, he never got serious with any woman, only fleeting flings here and there. Even that has reduced significantly when he became Moon Knight. It's as though this side of his life is as screwed just as the rest of it. Perhaps, indeed, what his mother and Marlene had said is true, that he's just scum who's now seeking any kind of atonement in taking the cape of Moon Knight although he hates it. But it's not his place to hate his only way of salvation, is it?

“If you should lay with women, then lay with women,” His god had once told him, when he felt the slightest of his avatar's uneasiness and turbulence, he thought he needed some kind of ventilation, “That's none of my concern, Marc Spector.” Khonshu doesn't mind actually, or doesn't really care more to it, as long as Marc is cautious not to knock up some woman. The most important thing is not to be deflected from his duties as protector of night travellers.

Nevertheless, and even though he is aware of the fact that no wind blows in one's ship's favour, one day he broke his oath to himself. The oath of protecting the doctor's daughter as long as she's under his wing, to protect her from himself. He had to. When he accidentally glimpsed at the crack of the training room. He saw her silhouette, and heard her snarls and grunts. He knew what she was up to; she was training. Marc allowed himself to watch her, he took advantage of her being bogged down in her training, and slithered in utmost stealthiness into the room and watched. She was wearing a sleeveless top and shorts pants, and her hands were covered by white wrappings.

She has a remarkable body, as graceful as a doe's, but something was wrong, her movements were erratic, amateur. That stirred great upset in him to the point of irritation; her moves are so clashing with the agility of her body. And before he could stop himself, his mouth beat him to it.

“What are you doing?” Marc found himself utter.

Layla flinched; clearly, she wasn't aware of his presence before as she was too busy kicking the shit out of the punching bag.

“Umm... training?” She shrugged her shoulders, picking the water bottle up from the table to drink.

When Marc got a closer look at her, he wished he didn't. Under the lights of the room, her olive skin was glowing beneath a layer of fresh sweat, and her coiled hair was tied up in an elegant yet messy pony tail. She looked... beautiful, roughed up, but utterly and purely beautiful. Marc's breathing grew short. He gulped, but his usual furrow didn't leave.

“Do you call that training?” He crossed his arms as his voice came out curt, jeering.

Layla rolled her eyes, “Well, yeah, that's what they taught us at the gym.”

“Must be a really shitty gym then.” His tone remained cold.

Layla raised an eyebrow at him, “Yeah, right,” She nodded quizzically, “You're saying this just because I'm a woman?”

“No,” Marc answered firmly, “Because what you're doing is shit.”

The twitch of her perfect brow didn't go unnoticed by him. She turned her head away for a moment, muttering something in Arabic that he couldn't quite catch, before she darted upon him in a sudden onslaught. Fortunately enough, his normal reflexes didn't betray him this time, and with a swift twist of his arm, he rendered her motionless on the ground. He made sure the impact wasn't hard though as he crouch right above her head, both of her hands clasped in his large grip. Layla groaned and huffed in his face as it was just inches from hers.

Marc stilled for a moment. The sudden proximity to her made his knees buckle without solid reason. His eyes rammed her face quickly, to finally be ensnared by hers. Her usual sweet odour was mingled with the smell of training sweat.

A ghost of a smirk slipped into his lips as her attempt to wriggle out of his grasp failed, “Like I said: khara.”

She huffed a laugh, “Fi wishak,” [In your face]

Marc snored a bit and Layla laughed. The latter took advantage of this and swung her arms in order to push him down and lock him between her legs. But again, he was faster than her as he had her wrists behind her back after he flipped her over her stomach. Layla whined at her utter defeat.

“You let your movements control you more than you control them,” He commented, “You won't survive if you only rely on instincts.” He stoop up and extended his hand for the panting woman.

“But I saw your style, it's worse than mine.” She remarked, accepting his offered hand.

He let the fact that she'd been watching him training slide as he shook his head, “Yeah, but normally I have a suit that heals me and stitches my wounds close. You won't.”

“Kept me alive all this time tho,” She quirked her brows haughtily, and a sting flushed within the beatings of his heart.

“Yeah,” He said, “Last time didn't go quite well for ya, did it?”

Layla groaned, rolling her eyes, “Okay, fine! I get it! You're super cool and have super cool superpowers.”

He grimaced, “Hey, true that's the suit enhances my abilities and heals me up, but not everything comes from it.”

Layla huffed a sarcastic laugh, “Ya Allah, oh God! You're more arrogant than I originally thought.” She shook her head.

Marc's face dropped, a horrible feeling making the muscles of his shoulders ache. He watched Layla untie her ponytail and tie it again in a graceful manner. He pursed his lips thinly before stating.

“It's not so cool when it sucks the life out of you.”

Layla froze, and turned her body to fully face him now, “What do you mean?”

“Imagine with me, your fragile human body is possessed by godly powers. It takes every bit of your energy to cope with it well.” Marc answered, spite visible in his voice.

Layla blinked, whispering, “You didn't choose to be The Protector Soldier of The Moon?”

“The what?”

“You don't know what the hieroglyphics decorating your own suit mean, do you?” There was both shock and disappointment in her voice. Marc felt a bit uneasy. “Damn, you really don't.”

Marc looked at her in puzzlement, “When I took the cape of the moon... He called me his Moon Knight.”

Marc was taken by the way Layla's eyes sparkled and by the her lips stretched in a wide smile. “But of course!” She exclaimed, smashing a grip into her other palm, “The word Knight didn't exist in ancient Egyptian languages!” Her glimmering eyes snapped back to him, “God, this is brilliant, Marc!”

The latter found himself scratching the back of his neck, a very slight blush rising to his cheeks, “It is?”

“You don't see it, do you, Mr. Spector?” Layla smiled at him knowingly, “You're a soldier of a god, Marc, a guardian of people. You... you defend the weak and venge the wronged.” Layla let a laugh of excitement, “You give people hope...”

And hope he is indeed, at least for Layla El-Faouly he is. Her dad died at the moon's tomb, and the moon's knight saved her, and still keeping her safe, and helping her to find out the truth about her baba. If not that a sign, she doesn't know what that is then.

“Ya habibi... my love,” The singing voice exclaims, “Yallah ne'esh fi oyoun el-leil, wo no'ol le ashams ta'ali ba'ad sana, mush abl sana... Let's live together, in the eyes of the night, and tell the sun to come after a year, not before a year,”

Layla notices Marc staring at her, and the moment he's aware of that he tears his eyes off of her. He clears his throat, jutting his chin in Layla's phone's direction.

“Um Kulthum, right?” He questions.

Layla's eyes brighten, “Aywah, yeah. It's Alf Leila Wa Leila, one of my favourites.”

“Mine is Al-Atlal.” Marc smiles.

“Oh, so you listen to her?” She gives him a gentle smile of her own.

“Yeah, I mean who wouldn't listen to Kawkab El-Sharq, Star of the East?” He shrugs, but deep down, there's a hope huddling within his chest that he may impress her by that.

“Do you understand the full lyrics tho?” Marc picks up on the curious sparkle in her dark eyes. He's pleased.

“Yeah, kinda,” He drawls, scratching his chin mindlessly, “I speak Egyptian Arabic pretty well as far as you know.”

She nudges his arm playfully, “Show-off.”

He chuckles, “Your English is perfect by the way.”

Layla feels the heat raise to her face all of the sudden, this is the second compliment he says tonight, and it makes no better. She tugs a curl behind her ear nervously.

“Thanks,” Layla sips from her tea, “I speak French too,”

She face-palms herself internally. Why did I say that?! It's completely unnecessary!

Marc's forehead creases, his hand behind his head scratching his scalp, “I speak Hebrew and Yiddish,” He glances down at his Megan David. “Obviously,”

“Obviously.” She hums delightfully, and for a moment, Marc feels a pressing urge to kiss her lips; the way they pursed so delectably in a small smile, he craves to have a taste. Desperate for their touch on his. But his lips press against the rim of his tea cup, nevertheless.

Layla learnt about his Jewishness by accident, when they were having a training wrestle. His pendant hurled out when she managed to throw him onto the ground and straddling him. He was too astonished to notice his necklace was visible to her eyes.

“That's a win for me!” She cheered, a giddy smile adorning her perfect lips.

Marc grunted, “Yeah, there's a first for everything.” He rolls to his right thigh as Layla got off of him.

“You make it sound as if it's my first and last win against you.” She teased.

Marc's eyes widened when he realized his David Star is shimmering on his chest. “Yeah, we're done for today.” He said absentmindedly, and swept out of the room as she began to unfold the wrappings around her fists and wrists.

Late that night, when they sat at the table to have dinner, or late lunch, together. Mulukhya and rice, cooked by Layla herself. After years of running away from his home, depending on himself entirely, Marc of course had to feed himself; the crap he cooks and eats developed an astounding talent of detecting the good cooking and savouring it. It's one of the fewest things he let himself enjoy from time to time. Meat is something Marc appreciates the most in food. He doesn't know how Layla could perfect such skill, but he had to admit, she does it well, and maybe too well that he was so immersed in his dish when she asked him.

“So, you're a Jew.” He stilled; he knew how most Arabs reacted to Jews.

He gulped down the food in his mouth before answering, “Kinda.”

Layla chuckled a bit, and he felt a coil at the tip of his stomach, “You have a problem with that?”

Layla shook her head, “No, not at all. But I find it a bit ironic.”

Marc raised an eyebrow, “How so?”

“You're Jewish, and an avatar of an Egyptian deity.”

Marc caught her drift and nodded, “My God abandoned me a long time ago, so I didn't see any reason why not to abandon him as well and adhere to another.”

Marc's voice came out cold and solemn, a mask he learnt to wear when a train of awful memories of his past life would come gushing into his mind.

Where was his God when Randall, a child, had to drown and die. Where was He when his mother showed him hell throughout the years. And where are his proclaimed soldiers? His father was one of them, but he was too weak to snatch him out of his misery. Where was this God when Marc tried to save Abdullah El-Faouly's life against the greed of his partner. But Khonshu was there, and he gave him his life back. He rather serves a cruel god than an indifferent one.

“I have issues with him too, y'know.” Layla commented, bringing him back to their lunch. “Allah...”

“Oh, you do?”

“I've been raised by a Muslim father.” She replied, “Even though baba did believe in the existence of other deities, but his faith in Allah didn't waver.”

“But... shouldn't a Muslim deny other gods?”

“Pretty much so,” Layla confirmed, “But baba believed that denying other gods do not necessarily erase their presence.”

“Oh,” Marc raised an amused eyebrow, “Wish mine had been that open-minded about the matter.”

“Why?” Layla shook her head a bit.

“My father is a rabbi.” Marc said blankly, “He's the sweetest and gentlest man I've ever known. But when it comes to faith, he's the strongest of all.”

“Well, if you put it that way... the two are pretty similar in that regard.” Layla chuckled.

“Can't disagree.” Marc let a chuckle of his own.

“Marc...”

“Yes, Layla?”

“We are gonna catch them, right?”

A small smile crept into Marc's lips. “Yes, we are.”

“Di laylat hob helwa be alf leila wo leila... This is a beautiful love night, worth of one thousand and one night.” Um Kulthum's sonorous voice continues, “Bkul el-omr, howa el-omr eh gher leila zay el-leila... In one's lifetime, what is a lifetime if not this night...”

“You know, I don't think you work alone, Marc.” Layla says, after swallowing another piece of marshmallow.

“What gives you such idea? I have a god by my side.” Marc raises an eyebrow, pouring tea for the both of them.

“You're more of a field kind of individual.” She thanks him for the cup and continues, “You must have a man behind the screen, do the gods of Egypt know how to hack security systems and stuff of the sort?”

“Oh,” Marc grins playfully, “Yes, I do, have that one.”

“Mind I meet them?” Layla sips from her tea.

Marc chuckles, imaging how Frenchie would react if he were to meet Layla. He'd absolutely freak out, and scold him for being such a reckless idiot, and he is an idiot. But Marc thinks he'd hit it off with Layla immediately.

“I think you're gonna meet him at some point, yes.”

Layla smiles before gazing up at the moon again. Marc follows and he plunges into the sky with her. For once, he feels like one of travellers of the night he's complied to protect. And he finds the night sky unexpectedly alluring.

Marc feels Layla's hand touching his, and he doesn't flinch away. But in contrary, he welcomes her warmth, her scent, her presence next to him.

“Ezzay awseflak ya habibi ezzay, able ma hebbak kunt ezzay kunt wlla imbareh fakrah... How should I describe to you how, my life before I loved you, how was I, how I don't remember yesterday... Wlla andi bukra astnnah, wlla hatta yomi ayshah, khadtini behobbak fi ghamdet ein, warrtni halawet el-ayyam fin, wel-leil ba'ad ma kan ghurba malletu aman... I didn't have a tomorrow to wait, I can't even live within my current day, you took me in your love in a blink of an eye, you showed me the beauty of the days, and the night is no longer a stranger under your protection...”

The moment she squeezes his hand, the singing of Um Kulthum gets interrupted and replaced by the ringtone of her phone. Layla draws her hand away and picks her phone up. “Sorry.”

He shrugs and waves his hand as she picks the call.

“Aywah ya Usama?” [Yes, Usama?]

Marc keeps looking at her. The smile adorning her face vanishes, her eyes go wide. “What?!” She stands up from her place on the floor, and Marc follows her.

“I'm on my way.” Layla says before hanging up.

“What happened?”

Layla gulps, shock still from whatever she just received. “Our leader, Khaled Mahmoud.” Tears gather in her big eyes, “They killed him.”

“Fuck.” Marc hisses.

“Marc...” She inhales, “They've taken his daughter as a hostage as well.”

[only-luce-the-goose]

Meeting Wyatt (Part 1?)

POV: You’re a human meeting Wyatt the werewolf for the first time

This takes place just after Zombies 3 and Wyatt and Eliza don’t have anything for each other. I got mad respect for them both, but in this scenario, it doesn’t exist 😅

You had just moved to Seabrook yesterday and you kept begging your parents to let you stay home and finish unpacking your boxes, but they didn’t want you missing any of your school. You were the top of all your classes. You got dressed in a white, blue, and pink tie-dyed t-shirt, with ripped black jeans and black converse high tops. You parked in the student car park, grabbed your bag out of the back seat and walked into Seabrook High, making your way to the office to collect your timetable and find your “buddy”. It seems weird that high school students need buddies, then you found out why. Zombies, werewolves, and aliens. All in the same school. You ended up finding the office and met the principle who took you into her office and gave you your timetable and quick rundown of what was going on at the school. She told you the story of the zombies, then the werewolves, then the aliens. After about 5 minutes of sitting in her office there is a knock on the door, as the principle goes to open it, you turn around in your chair to see who’s at the door.

The principle opened the door and in walked a werewolf with piercing dark brown eyes, shoulder length hair white a strip of white, brown pants paired with combat boots, a purple shirt, and a sleeveless jacket. He was gorgeous, his fangs were just coming in and you could tell he was struggling due to his lisp when he spoke to the principle. He wore a moonstone neckless around his neck and you were drawn to him. “Hey, I’m Wyatt.” He held his hand out for you to shake. He had black triangles painted on his nails and rings on some of his fingers, he had bracelets and what looks like tattoos. “Whass your name” he looked into your eyes with his beautiful brown eyes, he had 2 purple triangles under his left eye as he smiled, showing his fangs. You shook his hand “y/n, I’m y/n”.

“Lovely name. I’ll be your buddy for the week. Would you like to come with me?” he responded. I nodded and stood up, picking up my bag and taking my timetable from the principle. We were walking through the halls making small talk, laughing, and having a great time. The bell rang for the first class of the day. “thow me your timetable, I’ll walk you to your class.” I handed over my timetable. I found out we both had economics together as he passed back my timetable and we went on our way. We showed up at the door and he opened it for me, then he followed me inside and took me to his seat and brought over a chair for me. We pulled out our textbooks and tuned into the class. We shared small giggles and made jokes; it was amazing.

Wyatt took me to all my classes this morning and I had al of them with him, it was awesome. When the bell rang for lunch, he asked if I wanted to go off and find my own friends or if I wanted to join him. “I might try find my own friends, but if I can’t, can I come find you?” you asked. You still wanted to hang out with him, but you wanted to try and your own way as well. “Of courthe, I’ll give you my number tho we can talk, yea?”. You handed him your phone and he put him number in, smiling at you as he handed your phone back “thee you later”. You walked off, finding an empty table and pulled your lunch out of your bag. After you sat down you began to eat as a boy walks up to you, “this is my table, nobody sits at my table but me and the Acey’s” he was quite rude. He had black curly hair and brown eyes, dressed in a cheer uniform. “umm I’m sorry, I’m new here. I’m y/n.” you smiled at him. He gave you the death glare, so you got up and left.

Then you tried a mixed table of zombies and humans but the stuff the zombies were eating was really gross. You walked over anyway, introducing yourself. They looked up at you, mumbled hi and turned bac to their food. You left the cafeteria deciding to try and find your next class, you lunch left forgotten in your bag. The bell rang for the lunch to end so you pulled your laptop out of your bag and walked in, taking a seat up the back of the class by a bench with only 1 chair. Unbeknownst to you, you had every class with Wyatt. You missed talking to him, you wish you had just listened to him and gone to eat lunch wit him and probably his pack.

Wyatt walked into chemistry and saw me sitting up the back of the class by myself. He wandered over and brought a chair to sit next to me, nudging my shoulder to get my attention. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back “how did lunch go, you didn’t come tho I athume it went well?” my smile sank as I recall my lack of luck. “I didn’t find anyone; I gave up and wandered around until I found the classroom. Oh shoot, I didn’t eat lunch, damn it” I realised I was actually really hungry. “How about I take you on a tour next break, thow you everything?” he asked me. I looked up at him, leaning my head on his shoulder, “that sounds awesome, thanks Wyatt”.

As the class was finishing, we packed our stuff up and I pulled her sandwich out of my bag and began eating, finishing it just as the bell rang to leave. “you, uh, you got a thomthing on your theek.” He tried to say, he was really struggling with his fangs. “I got what?” I giggled. “I can’t understand you, I’m sorry but I can’t”. He ended up wiping it of with his thumb. We walked out of the lab and he offered me his arm, I linked us together with my arm and he led the way through the school. We had one class left, agriculture. We got to go into the woods, I’m stoked.

He showed her around the campus, we even watched the cheer squad for a bit. As the bell rang I took her to the gate where the teacher was waiting for us. “Ok everybody, we have enough for you all to evenly split up in groups of 2, stay together and don’t go too far” he announced. Wyatt linked his arm through mine and we walked outside the gate.

We had just entered the woods when Wyatt stopped you, turning to look you in the eyes, “you wanna thee thomething cool?” I saw a glimpse of hope in eyes when he asked so, of course, I said yes. “absolutely, what it is?” he smiled, giggling a little bit. “it’s a surprise” he said as he turned his back, “jump on and hold tight printhess” you jumped on, wrapping your legs around his waist and your arms around his neck. “Princess?” you asked him. He haltered for a second, “ith that too muth?” he sounded worried if anything, liked he’d just messed something up. “no, I like it” you responded, resting your chin on his head. “yay” he let out, not thinking you could hear him. “I heard that” you giggled. “What are you showing me anyway?” he looked back at you, smirked, and winked at you. Then he took of running, the forest was a blur, you fuelled with a rush of adrenaline. “Woooo!! This is awesome!!!”

He stopped just outside a huge cave and took you inside. You jumped off his back and sat down on the ground, it was beautiful. “Wyatt, wow that was crazy. How do you know about this place?” you watched him as he sat down next to you. “werewolveths haven’t alwayth lived in houthes ya know” he joked. He explained how this was their den until they moved into Zombie land, and how he still liked to come here and just think. “Why did you decide to bring me here?” you were curious, you couldn’t help it. This was his place only for himself and he brought you here after only meeting you this morning. He hesitated for a bit before turning his body to face you “I trust you. I get a good feeling from you, and I like being around you”.

[pega-chan]

First Impressions: Sri Asih (2022)

i have waited 2 years for this movie and it did NOT disappoint. quick thoughts after i watched it yesterday:

i understand it is the movie so they have to pack everything in, but some of the exposition feels clunky. this also leads to some of the dialogue being unnatural

the pacing in the beginning of the movie was a little too fast

there are some scenes that i wish would've lasted longer or had more purpose, like the charity ball. yes it was fun to see Al and Kala dress up but ultimately nothing happened there and the real showdown happened in Adinegara's office

some scenes didn't have a smooth enough transition but i can overlook it

i do wish they would've given more exposition for Alana's age and career/life in the movie. i'm sure she's an adult, otherwise she wouldn't have all that free time. but is she a full time professional fighter? why did her mother decide to have her be one? at the end it's revealed Al's adoptive mom knew she was the next Sri Asih and decided to take her in because of it, but why mold her into a professional fighter and not some other athlete that gives her similar capabilities to fight, like a silat athlete? with silat, Al could've had actual practice using a selendang in battle bc a selendang is a silat weapon

so is Alana's mom part of Jagabumi or something? Kala never explained his connection to her

how did Al adapt to her new powers so quickly? she wasn't even briefed on what they are. her experience as a fighter gives her a leg up, but Eyang Maryani just did not explain that she can fly, use the selendang, have enhanced srength and durability, or multiply, at any point during the movie

she didn't even use all of her comic canon powers, like growing to giant size or purifying dark spirit energy were not utilized at all. they gave her super speed i guess, which is a new power

i am glad romance just does not exist in this movie. Alana is an aroace icon driven by rage and bloodlust just like i've always hoped she'd be <3

no mentions of Ganis :'''''''''''' like okay Ganis and Al are one timeline but i just want my Sundanese homegirl acknowledged

i'm not a big fan of Al being the next Sri Asih by virtue of being directly descended from Nani Wijaya. i don't think superheroes should be chosen by blood relation, they should be determined randomly based on if they're capable or not, bc anyone can be a hero if Dewi Asih decided they are one

casting Najwa Shihab as Nani was GENIUS btw. Nani was a journalist so it makes absolute sense to cast an actual journalist as her!

you know what would be cool though? they could have referenced the 1954 Sri Asih movie by finding someone that looked like Mimi Mariani and referencing the plot of the movie too. if only the movie wasn't lost media :'(

i will say Nani's costume looks absolutely nothing like in the comics and i'm disappointed by it, but hey, you gotta connect Alana's cameo in Gundala to this movie somehow. my advice is they could've made it similar to Nani's costume by adding her batik and then having Al choose not to wear the batik when she suits up to help Gundala

let's talk fashion! Al has a very practical and utilitarian wardrobe in muted colours. its mostly sporty with many sleeveless shirts which she tends to wear bc she sweats while fighting so often. it reflects her priorities as a professional fighter, and she has some high-end/more expensive pieces (like the combat boots and a significantly less utilitarian backpack) that screams of her wealthy background. i'm disappointed none of her clothes seem to have any wear or tear pre-battle, bc you would think some would look pretty ratty if Al has a habit of getting into scuffles, but that can perhaps be chalked up to her having a rich parent that can replace worn out clothes easily. i don't mind the amount of crop tops in her wardrobe, bc Pev Pearce absolutely deserves to show off those abs. the leather jacket was my fave fit.

not a fan of the multiple braids. bro that's cultural appropriation

i love love love her friendships in this movie. with her fellow pro fighters Gilang and that high school kid, Tangguh, and even Kala

i love that Gilang and the high schooler are like, not fair skinned and not with conventionally attractive features. there's a lot of diversity in this movie and i love it

what happened to all her pro fighter friends, anyway? they just up and disappeared after the hospital blew up. i get Al has bigger things to worry about, but the fighter's ring is her mom's work and those and her friends who are threatened by Adinegara. Gilang and co. are just replaced by Tangguh and Kala

Pev did a phenomenal job embodying Alana's character, but i can't understand why they would cast a half-white actor. i'm not being ethnocentric /gen, but i think Sri Asih should be represented by the ordinary class that doesn't have white privilege. biracial Sri Asih is an interesting concept to explore, but i wish they would've cast someone fully indonesian or even a minority. a chindo sri asih would be so cool

Tangguh is MY poor little meow meow. he's doing his best, truly! just a wimp of a man who tries to get context but fails every time. i support him going feral and tasing that guard.

i lowkey want more female characters in this movie. like if you compare it with the amount of guys (that play a significant role) it's just disproportionate, and doesn't make sense for there to be such an imbalance in a girl power film

Kala. has little personality. he's a tool that helps Al take down the bad guys and we only start to see a glimpse of his character when he interacts with Tangguh. official sources describe him as "charismatic", "kalem", and "mysterious". the REAL mystery is his personality babes.

speaking of, while Al is aroace for sure. the tension and chemistry between Kala and Tangguh has more romantic weight than anything they have going on with Al

Eyang Maryani is also just there as a tool. it's her job as a mentor, sure. but i wish she embodied the mentor part more

how did they get Al's mom out of the hospital in the first place??

it's also unrealistic how quickly Al decides to trust Kala tbh. "i know your mom" does he have proof?? girl he could be lying

this film has a lot going on, and there are some threads i wish they would've tied up more neatly. who murdered Mateo? are we supposed to assume Jatmiko did? how did Jatmiko get his hands on the Roh Setan necklace? what was Adinegara doing with HIS necklace, and what was it for? what about the businessmen working with Adinegara who were in on the plot to sacrifice a thousand souls? why are they concerned with Dewi Api and want to bring forth her army? did they know Jatmiko was behind the mask? did they know the necklace Adinegara had wasn't the real one? who are they in the grand scheme of things other than scummy rich men stepping all over the poor?

also Giselle. what happened to her and what was she hiding about Mateo's murder?

is Adinegara even stopped in his tracks?

i honestly wanted Tangguh to be placed in more imminent danger. if he already has a target on his back for being too intrusive, then maybe have Adinegara send goonies after him. this could connect him more solidly to Al, who is also being hunted down by Adinegara. it would work out better than randomly meeting each other in the rusun.

Tangguh does end up helping Al by having the motive to help out his neighbours and the working class in the rusun, who are being mistreated by the rich. but considering his whole gig was as a journalist, he should've had a mission about documenting the whole story and could've introduced Al to the public after she saved them

the ACAB plotline could've been done better. Jatmiko was the villain disguised as a grey character but he's not grey enough imo bc he didn't have a solid intention for playing both sides

the action scenes were spectacular btw, i usually get bored at action scenes if they go on for too long but this movie did not make me sleepy

that's all i have currently. i'll be watching the movie again next week, so i'll be adding onto this after a rewatch as i think of more stuff. overall the movie was a 9/10! totally worth the wait

[99point9percentwhump]

WHUMPTOBER 2022, DAY 2,Cornered

Bodie devilishly went to say something when Doyle interrupted two arms of bitter.”

She eyed with a with a knowing look as Bodie who still smiled at her eagerly “Two bitters it is” and went off to fill the beer glasses and thumped them down on the wooden bar the pair grabbed their drinks and went and sat at a table each enjoying their cold drinks “can't believe we have a night off finally.”

Doyle sighed his comment caused Bodie to nearly choke on his ale then sigh heavily “ah Sunshine what’d I tell you about saying that kind of thing.”

Doyle shrugged “I was only stating it's been a while since we had one.”

“No, you're jinxing us is what you're doing now you watch before we finish the Cow will be calling us in.” Bodie paused for a minute “Did you bring your radio in?”

Mid sip Doyle shrugged and shook his head

“Yeah me neither.” and went on drinking the glass of bitter as the evening crawled on.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It wasn't long before the two CI5 men had just about finished their first round.

“Another?” Doyle asked Bodie threw back and gulped the last of his “Why not.” he quickly glanced back his eyes, finding the barmaid still working “Shall I?”

“You haven't a chance in the world.” Doyle scoffed and Bodie shot him a challenging look “oh and you do?”

Ray rose gathering the glasses “Nope cuz Im not gonna try for that one.” he put simply and went off for another round.

Bodie shifted back in his seat when he heard the door to the pub open, habit caused him to check on anyone that entered the pub, he was not disappointed by what he saw.

A brunette with her high heels clicking with each step flowing skirt sweeping back and forth across her legs as she walked in slowly a sleeveless pleated front blouse tucked in giving her hourglass figure and a small handbag perched on her shoulder Bodie liked the look very much.

As she got close he quickly stood “You looking for someone?” a wiley smile perking on his lips she shyly tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced nervously around Bodie’s instincts were picking up something was wrong.

“I don't want any trouble I'm just trying to avoid my former boyfriend at that moment the pub door opened Bodie looked up in synch with the girl a man was staring dangerously at her he was average height but his dark eyes burned Bodie tensed ready but the man looked towards the agent obviously standing between him and his prize he slowly backed up and let the pub down shut leaving the pub in peace the blonde let out a sigh of relief Doyle came stepping up a pint in each hand having watched the interaction while collecting the drinks “What's going on?”

Bodie gently wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulder “Why don't you stay with us for a while.”

Bodie noticed as he put an arm around her she felt his pistol snug in its shoulder holster under his jacket she pulled away “it's alright sweetheart.”

Bodie smoothly pulled out his CI5 ID card “We're the good guys”

Her eyes read the badge “I think I should just go.” she wasn't out fast that was obvious Doyle piped in “Want us to take you home?”

She pulled free of Bodies protective arm “I really should go thank you” she stated quickly she took no more than two steps when the heel of her shoe sheared off nearly sending her tripping to the floor if it wasn't for Bodies quick reflexes catching her by the arms “Why don't I call you a cab then.

Look there's one outside Bodie pointed through the glass windows showing a taxi sitting waiting for pub crawlers looking for a lift home

The girl went to counter the agent but Bodie was having none of it he scooped her up in his arms she gasped in surprise finding herself suddenly in the man's arms.

“Can't have you limping through the pub on a broken heel can we.” he smiled warmly at her she looped her arms around his neck “ok but just to the cab.”

Doyle was still standing there, still holding the bitters “You'll be back in a minute?”

“In a minute old son don't spill my beers eh I'll be right back.” he smiled a glint in his eye Doyle rolled his eyes and sat at the table two pints of bitter in front of him as his partner swept the girl out the pub into the night.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The night air had a chill as Bodie carried the girl smoothly out to the cab but they hadn't even gotten through the door when another patron closed the taxi door and it took off “Ahhh.”

Carefully putting the girl down she kept an arm on him for support and she slipped off her heels going barefoot “What's more silly barefoot or trying to walk on one leg?” she giggled

“You wanna go back in?

“No can you walk me to the phone booth?” she pointed to a booth on the corner

“Course.” Bodie offered his arm as the two went

“Won’t your friend be worried? She asked as she slipped her hand bag off her shoulder to her hand as they walked “he's a grown lad he’ll be alright for a few minutes.” the agent reassured with a wink a they crossed the road towards the booth

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Doyle was getting restless; his second glass of bitter was empty and his partner was now playing the hero. He looked at the still full glass he'd gotten for Bodie “Sod it.” he said to himself as he took the glass and took a sip while he waited.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The girl had relaxed so much more Bodie was enjoying her light laugh as they came up to the booth he heard something approaching but the girl distracted him enough to miss how fast the sound of steps were coming up on them.

A man came running and grabbed her handbag and took off around the corner, instantly Bodie took off after the man rounding the corner he slowed the man was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly a clanging of a glass bottle skidding across the pavement grabbed his attention in an alleyway that looked to wind back to the pub, he started down in getting about 10 yards in when he saw the end of the alley it was a dead end various discarded items and smashed bottles lined it.

Bodie kicked a long abandoned whiskey bottle in irritation, he turned to head back out of the alley when he turned he found not one but two men standing menacingly watching him.

where the hell did they come from

“Now gents I don't want any trouble.” he held his arms by his side weighing what to do next he's taken two before it's doable he plotted out his actions as the two took a threatening step towards him.

Bodie went for his pistol but it barely cleared the leather of the holster when something heavy smashed into the back of his head sending the agent sprawling to the ground and his gun skittering across the tarmac.

Not missing a beat, Bodie twisted around and kicked his assailant sending him reeling back then jumping to his feet he turned to find the first two men charging, Bodie ducked the first swing and threw a right hook at the second sending him back when arms wrapped around him from behind.

The agent drove an elbow back hearing a satisfying 'ooph' and then he was free as two decided to try again as they got close on ducked lower grabbing Bodie around the torso the second catching his swinging arm and threw a punch into the CI5 man's jaw.

With a forceful twist Bodie freed himself of the man holding him and kicked the downed man in the ribs the man howled in pain.

But recovered quickly grabbed the agent's assaulting leg causing him to misstep giving the others a chance to hit the agent sending him falling heavily to the ground.

Bodie couldn't see who lashed out at him but he felt every blow landing one especially solid kick to his gut knocked all the wind out of him leaving him gasping he saw a motorcycle boot swinging up towards his face and then he didn't see or feel anything else.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Doyle was getting impatient or more accurately worried Bodie took his time when dealing with girls but this was a bloody long time and he'd finished the glass that was meant for Bodie deciding this wasn't going anywhere fast.

Doyle rose and made his way out of the pub and stood on the kerb the cab and Bodie nowhere to be found, he shook his head this was low even for Bodie leaving him in the pub and taking off with a bird he looked towards the Capri parked and started for it when he saw across the street the girl Bodie had been with at the mouth of the alley.

That didn't make any sense.

His copper nerves were going off and he walked across and up to her “ ‘scuse me?”

The girl jumped a mile, recognizing him she started crying and pointed in the alley “Help please!” she shrieked

Doyle's eyes peered in the alley seeing a lump in the middle unmoving Doyle felt his stomach drop “Bodie!”

He drew his sidearm and rushed in scoping the alley as he went, finding it vacant except for Bodie he slid the revolver back into his resting place and carefully rolled bodie onto his side.

Doyle placed his fingers on his partner's neck, happy to find a steady beat. The girl's voice spoke from behind him “What shall I do?” She sounded partly hysterical.

Doyle remembered both their R/Ts were in the car.

Without glancing back “Call an ambulance!

Bodie's eyes flickered open and connected with Doyle's. Doyle smiled in relief, Bodie was a bloody mess,literally.

His expression was dazed and smiled back at his partner ever so slightly then his eyes went wide Doyle was just about to ask what was wrong when pain exploded at the side of his skull.

He'd lost all sense of what happened next till he started to come to, he was on face down on the tarmac forcing his eyes open Doyle managed to get a look at his partner who still lay where he'd seen him last the thought of trying to rise made the CI5 man stomach turn but the alarm bells were going off in his mind there was something bad happening but he couldn't bring his mind to catch up.

The pub something about a pub his hearing picked up in a sharp clicking that seemed to walk up on his other side he didn't want to turn his head with the pain he was in but his nerves were telling him he really needed to look, he swallowed back the nausea.

Doyle turned his face from the view or his downed partner to find on the opposite side a pair of bright red high heels he cast his eyes up accidentally finding their way up a skirt he forced them passed to see a familiar face of the girl

Bodie helped from the pub then…

He recalled he saw her in the street then the scene in his mind began to piece back together her once pretty face was now scowling down at him movement behind her caught his attention.

Two men sauntered to her he went to tell her to look out but was cut off when the girl swooped her leg back and drove the rounded toe of her heel into Ray’s forehead sending nearly all sense out of him

Thought she broke her shoe

That was the last fleeting thought playing through his dazed mind: the roar of engines and the screech of tires skidding up and people shouting were the last thing Ray Doyle's conscious mind registered.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When Doyle started to wake he knew he was somewhere else the smell was clean, overly clean, which even in his foggy mind told him hospital part of him wanted to drift back to the comforting nothingness when his mind sounded an alarm Bodie!

He sat bolt upright his head pulsed a terrible pain and he groaned clutching the side of his head finding a bandage wrapped around it then another memory the girl then pain he wince but more at the thought of what he walked into he wasn't sure where it hurt more the front or back of his skull but his thoughts were interrupted by a gentle hand on his shoulder.

He looked slowly to his side and found his partner Bodie looking like he'd been to the wars and back bruises on his face and a split lip, his eyes full of worry but seeing Doyle look at him turned his worry into a small smirked

“Thought you we're gonna sleep through the dawn.” He said a grin forming Doyle couldn't help but grin back

“You get beaten by a girl too?” Ray grimaced as he ran his hand over his forehead Bodie didn't try and his amusement at the statement as he retrieved a glass of water and offered it to his partner “No, not me old son took three blokes to take me.”

Doyle groaned again he knew this was gonna be brought up a lot the next few weeks Bodie wasn't going to let him live this down.

Ao3 link

[arjaandsimoni]

Bad Blood

The Peters Cartridge Company Building, Cincinnati Ohio

It had originally been an ammunition manufacturer founded in 1887 which supplied multiple countries with weaponry during both the first and second world war, but their fortunes had ended with the end of the second of those and the company folded. It fell into disrepair after 1968 but was soon put on the registry of historic buildings in the mid-80s. Today the building is home to a brewery and an apartment complex… at least on paper.

In private however, the old building is home to quite a bit more.

Nelen pulled up outside the building in the largest rental vehicle he could obtain on short notice… but the simple fact of the matter was not all of them could come. Drusilla would have taken up most of the back by herself, and then there would be the matter of Lupe and Natasha, as well as the changeling prince and princess, Tex, and their recently arrived Indian allies Arja and Simoni… so it was decided that Drusilla would have to remain behind to guard the Smith Household.

Tex stayed back as well, the only human of their party besides Nelen would have been an obvious target for their foes. Nicu and Lupe stayed as well, though Natasha had insisted on coming to see this prince who would encourage suicidal levels of exposure among the vampires herself.

As he found a secluded area to park in he looked behind him, Dawn sitting shotgun in the bus. “Alright, we all remember the plan? If we can expose Al for what he really is then its entirely possible the vampires will join us or run for the hills, either way that means we won’t have to deal with them.” he nodded firmly, the magus dressed in just a winter jacket over his jeans and teeshirt, with sturdy boots.

“Quite, few vampyr would be insane enough to willingly side with a being of Hell. Our souls are in a tenuous enough state as it is.” agreed Natasha. She had dressed as she often did, in gothic finery. Even going into a battle she would not demean herself by wearing different garb.

Stephy was dressed in the same outfit he wore to fight Clarence, the changeling princess checking their purse again. “Got a few nasty surprises. Some more of those sunflowers that I told you about, a few bellbomb peppers…” he nodded as Sammi checked the edge on his rapier.

“Well, we’ll just have to hope that this does not go against us Nelen…” murmured the princeling, “If all else fails I can open a path to the Hedge, but we will have to come out somewhere, and the Hedge around here is… well…” he looked around, “Lets just hope it is not needed...”

“We’ll take that chance when it comes… and Arja?” asked Nelen.

“Yuth?” she replied, her voice muffled.

Nelen frowned, “… aren’t you being just a bit melodramatic?”

Arja sat there bundled against the cold, the vanara girl wearing a sweater and a pair of jeans with long underwear under a jacket that was also under a winter coat, two scarves wrapped around her face, and a bobble hat pulled over her head, her hands covered in thick woolen mittens and her feet crammed into fur-lined snowboots.

“… nuh.” she replied, narrowing her eyes at the magus.

Sammi grinned, chuckling to himself, as the vanara glared at him. “Wut?” she growled.

“Oh, nothing… just remembering all those times when I commented on how unpleasant the weather was in New Orleans, or Texas, or India…” he whistled innocently as he sheathed his weapon.

Simoni sighed at her, the garuda girl wearing a pair of woolen leggings under a denim skirt and her own snowboots, along with a sleeveless green sweater under a thick winter coat. She had to find a good balance that would allow for talons and wings if needed and had taken Stephy’s advice on leggings. All her legs really did was change shape, and leggings had no feet, so they worked as far as her transformation went. “Arja, we’ll just have to deal as best we can… if we’re fighting against vampires they’ll need someone who can use fire.”

Finally however, the group had to get moving… Dawn went in first, scouting the way invisibly as Simoni and Stephy managed to talk Arja down into ditching the coat and mittens. As a vanara her fighting often relied on agility, and it would be extremely hard to be agile in such bulky winter-wear.

Dawn crept her way through the building, her yellow eyes occasionally shining in the gloom as she made her way further and further towards what Dusty had told them. There was a hidden basement, all she had to do was know where it was and she could teleport them all in at once… and after a bit her sensitive ears picked up the sound of a lot of voices below her.

The cheshire focused, then suddenly was a good fifty feet straight down, standing on the ceiling, and wincing in shock.

There were a LOT of people down there… at least a few dozen that she could see, and she could tell that not all of them were human. A good chunk of ghouls obviously, or just mortal cronies hoping to get in on their master’s good graces to get offered their blood… but on the stage…

She narrowed her eyes, hissing, “Gotcha… ‘Al.’” she frowned, teleporting back to the bus and appearing in the front passenger seat.

“He’s here, and I don’t see his backup dancers anywhere so far.” she nodded.

Nelen grinned, cracking his knuckles, “Alright kids, lets go.” he nodded, taking Dawn’s hand and holding his back towards the rest. The other five put their hands on his and in a swirl of magic they all vanished!

The Hidden Basement under the Cartridge Company Building

“Now… I hear there’s been some bitching about the new policies…” began Al, the vampire prince wearing the same suit as before, but now with several fancy rings on his fingers and a pendant around his neck. He wore a thick pair of sunglasses over his eyes and a fedora hat. The sunglasses he felt made him look impressive, and the hat went with the suit.

He’d found Archibald’s old jewelry box and had taken some choice items. His left hand had several solid gold rings set with large gemstones etched with the image of strange creatures on them. On his ring finger was one with a huge ruby showing a shape like some strange lizard, his middle finger had an emerald with a scorpion design, and so on. The pendant was a stylized dragon, a symbol of power among some circles of vampires. Even among the undead, some believed in the power of the ’Son of the Dragon,’ Vlad Dracul.

“… and I heard rumors that one of our big shots has been staked.” he added, “I checked with my advisors, and ain’t nobody fuckin’ told me that the Mill Creek Monster got taken out! So those rumors stop NOW!” he slammed his fist down. “The Rat can do what he fuckin’ wants! If he wants to go play hide ‘n seek I don’t give a shit.”

There were several murmurs among the crowd, including among one very confused coterie who had been sent to the old Paper Mill personally by Astaroth… he had lied to the Prince about Clarence’s death? They saw some pretty obvious proof that he was gone for good…

“But the main thing is there’s still little chicken shits out there who don’t want to live like TRUE vampires!” he snarled, “We ain’t human, so stop pretendin’ to be! We’re BETTER than human! They’re our goddamn FOOD! They’re LESS than us! They don’t fuckin’ MATTER anymore unless they prove they do!”

The ghouls in the crowd shared worried looks at that, as did their mortal counterparts… as if they were just now realizing that they were swimming with the proverbial sharks. They looked to the vampires they served, but the undead refused to meet their gaze.

“I got Walter out tonight, ‘n he’s dealing with another group that was planning to ice me… so if anyone gets any dumb ideas…” he began…

… and that’s when the door to the basement was blasted off its hinges.

Wood splinters and embers soared over the heads of the crowd as a cry of alarm went up among the assembled undead and their minions and into the room rushed Nelen, a silver tipped stake already in hand, alongside Dawn whose hat and glasses were gone to reveal her feline features.

Stephy and Sammi came next, the changeling princess generating a swirl of ice and snow around his hand as the prince drew his blade and held it ready. Alongside them strode Natasha, her cane already opened to reveal her own weapon should it be needed.

Finally Arja jumped over the group and landed before them in her vanara form, her tail thrashing behind her as flames flickered behind her monkey-like fangs. She hated how cold it was here and was quite eager to turn up the heat. Simoni landed next to her, the garuda shedding her wings and scales to return to her human form.

“That’s ENOUGH!” snapped Stephy, stepping forward as he reached into his purse, pulling out a fresh bellbomb pepper. “We know who you really are! Did we not beat you badly enough last year ‘Al?’”

The prince rose from behind the podium where he’d taken shelter when the door was blown apart, hearing the changeling’s declaration… though, his reaction may not be what Stephy expected.

“… the fuck are you talking about? Who the hell ARE you?” he asked.

Stephy glared back, “Don’t play dumb! I heard Astaroth say your name and there’s only one ‘Al’ we know who could cause this much trouble!” he retorted… until he felt Nelen’s hand on his shoulder.

“Stephy…” he frowned, raising his eyebrow at the prince. “… that’s… not Al.”

“What?!” asked Stephy as Sammi faltered, his sword lowering a bit as Dawn stared at him. Arja and Simoni looked over their shoulders as well. Even Natasha looked surprised at this, glancing between him and the prince.

“Uh… well, that is my name…” commented the Prince. He was able to hear them even in the back, the basement had very good acoustics, and vampires had excellent hearing. The crowd was stunned, not sure how to react yet at the sudden interruption by a gaggle of supernaturals.

Stephy shook his head, “That’s the new prince! That’s the one who took over! We saw him in Dusty’s vision! That’s gotta be Al!” he insisted.

Nelen sighed, “Yeah, well Cernunnos can sense demonic auras and he says this guy is just another bloodsucker… That’s NOT Al!”

“Yes he is!” insisted the changeling.

“Yes I am…” commented the increasingly confused prince.

Stephy looked at the prince, then back at Nelen, “But… But I heard Astaroth…” he started, Nelen held up a hand however.

“Stephy… Did this guy say ‘Al,’ or did he say ‘Agaliarept?’” asked the magus in a rather strained tone.

“… er… he said… ‘Al.’” replied the changeling, their cheeks coloring as they began to realize their error.

“Stephy… do you know how COMMON a name like that is?” grimaced Nelen, “He could have been talking about an Albert, or an Alan, or an Alberto, or… THERE’S A LOT OF DAMN NAMES THAT START WITH ‘A L!’”

Dawn coughed, looking around, “Well… this got awkward in a hurry…” she muttered, glancing back at Nelen, “So… uh… Nelen, should I just yoink us outta here or…”

However as soon as she said that there was an audible snapping sound.

The group looked up, as did the assembled undead and their minions.

The prince’s face was an enraged grimace, his hand gripping the podium so hard he’d broken a chunk of it away, crushing it in his hand with his vampiric strength. “What… did you say his name was?” he asked.

Nelen frowned, stepping forward and looking straight at the prince’s face. “Its Nelen Fullmoon. Whats it to you Dracula?” he asked.

The prince stepped down from the podium, grinning at them… and it was a very nasty grin indeed. “Oh this is TOO fucking perfect! I’ve been waiting years for this!” he snarled, taking off his glasses and tossing his hat to the side.

Nelen squinted at his face, then his eyes widened, “You…” he glared back, “YOU MURDEROUS SON OF A BITCH!” he spat in fury as the rest of the group looked at the prince.

“Wait, Nelen… YOU know him?!” asked Stephy in shock.

“Oh I fucking know THIS piece of shit!” he growled, “He’s the reason I wound up saddled with a demon for a fucking decade!”

The vampire prince slowed to a halt, flexing his hands, “The little fag had it coming Fullmoon.” he retorted.

“SHUT YOUR GODSDAMN MOUTH MURDER!” he snapped, striding forward as if he’d forgotten all about the other undead in the room. “He’d never done anything to you, you wouldn’t have even known his fucking name if you hadn’t heard about him coming out… and what did you do?!”

Simoni stared, the pieces clicking together in her head, “Oh shit…”

“You and your rich asshole friends CHAINED HIM TO THE BACK OF YOUR TRUCK AND DRAGGED HIM UNTIL HIS BODY FELL APART!” he spat, every line in his face showing nothing but blind fury. “Yeah, I know exactly who this fucker is…” he growled, “Alfred Ludsthorp… heir to one of the local political dynasties… and someone who should be trapped in the quarantine ward at St. Elizabeth for the rest of his pathetic life.”

There was silence all around. Nelen’s allies knew his story now, about how his friend had come out as gay in the days before it was even remotely safe to do so, how the wrong people had heard about it, and how he had been tortured to death by a group of their well-to-do classmates.

How, when one of them went to his father to protect them, he was able to get away without even so much as being arrested because his father put pressure on the police to ignore the crime. How this drove Nelen to seek revenge in the worst way possible. He could have simply beaten them to a pulp with his own inborn Fullmoon strength… but instead he’d gone with something much darker.

He wanted those who had tortured his friend to death to suffer for what they’d done… and he made a deal with something awful to do it.

Standing before them was the man who had committed the murder that had sent Nelen down the road that led to him making a pact with Merihim, Demon of the Court of Wrath.

One Year Ago…

Francis Ludsthorp was a broken man. He had spent every cent he had to try to cure his son, to no avail. Antibiotics were useless, gene therapy was a lost cause, they’d even tried experimental radiation therapy without success.

He was running out of money. His political career was in shambles. About four years after his son wound up hospitalized his personal financial records had been stolen and leaked onto the internet showing how he’d been embezzling funds from the local government to line his own pockets. How he’d been using them to pay off investigators… there were even videos of the more recent meetings (god only knew how! The video looked like it was recorded from the ceiling!) A recall vote came shortly after, and when the dust settled nobody would trust him to run a gas station nevermind hold public office.

Then, one day, he got a call from the hospital. That year, just near the tail end of February, his son’s disease had just… stopped. It’d just vanished, all trace of it in his body. The virus cells were just suddenly gone.

He’d almost called it a miracle, until the hospital told him the rest of the story. The virus was gone, but the damage had been done. His son’s body was a disaster. The disease was akin to leprosy with a nasty grudge against its host and ten times more destructive than any strain they’d ever seen. Alfred would likely never walk again, his arms were atrophied to the point of uselessness, he was almost totally blind, it was a miracle he was alive at all…

Desperation took him. He wanted something, ANYTHING, that could help his son… and after weeks of searching, he found his chance.

The more superstitious doctors had commented that this disease almost seemed more like being cursed than sick with how little effect medicine had on it… and why not replace one curse with another. He was in politics, he always knew that there were some extreme ways to get power in the Greater Cincinnati Area… well, maybe that could save his son.

Thus, in the dead of night, he brought his son to a secluded warehouse, and met a man he would only ever know as William.

He didn’t stay to watch the deed get done, he couldn’t stand to see such a thing happen. Once it was over he insisted on taking his son home with him, despite William's warnings not to.

That next evening he went into his son’s bedroom to find him sitting up in bed, looking straight at him.

Francis ran forward to embrace his boy… and found out why William had tried to convince him to leave his son with him instead.

When Alfred finished with his father, and facing the horror of what he had done, William was waiting for him… and that was where his life as a human being had ended.

The Cartridge Company Basement, Present Day

The room was deathly silent, Nelen and Alfred staring each other down… then suddenly there was a small snicker.

“Wait… his name was Alfred all this time?” asked Dawn, “Like… Batman’s butler?” she snorted as Sammi put a hand to his mouth, trying to hide his grin as he held his rapier ready. Even Arja had to let out a small chuckle at that.

The prince’s eye twitched, his vampiric hearing able to pick out several stifled chuckles from the crowd as a few others made the connection themselves.

Nelen ignored her though, “How the hells did a worthless sack of crap like you wind up as the Prince?” he demanded.

Alfred sneered, “Like I’d tell you Fullmoon… but you’re right, I am in charge here… EVERYONE!” he snapped his fingers, “This is an order from your Boss! KILL ‘EM!” he shouted!

Nelen blinked, then remembered he was surrounded by the prince’s allies. “Fuck.” he whispered, then an instant later he vanished and reappeared behind the others as Stephy and Simoni ran forward and tore the stems off a pair of bellbomb peppers.

“BOMBS AWAY!” shouted Simoni, throwing her’s to the right as Stephy threw his to the left, the plants landing amid the crowd of vampires and their minions.

“Hope you guys like it spicy!” laughed Stephy as the peppers exploded into a massive cloud of capuchin and glamour, cries of pain erupting from within the mob as Arja moved forward, took a deep breath, and exhaled a huge cone of flame directly at Alfred!

The prince’s eyes widened as he grimaced, a wall of fire racing directly towards him! “SHIT!” he cried out, covering his face with his hands, and the flames hit home, blasting out around his form and scorching anyone too close to flee in time!

Several ghouls and a couple vampires went down, the latter screaming in terror as the flames ate away at their undead flesh… and then the flames died to reveal the prince crouching defensively… but totally unhurt.

Alfred looked up, clearly every bit as surprised as Arja was, a strange glow fading from the ruby ring he wore. “… uh… yeah… totally knew that’d happen…” he coughed, standing up, “WELL? DON’T JUST STAND THERE! GET THEM DAMMIT!” he shouted.

At this point the mob was quite likely to agree with them, several of them half blind and in pain from the peppery goblin fruit, the others recognizing that whoever they were they were definitely their enemies! All around them they could hear the cock of handguns, the sound of knives being drawn from boots or belt sheathes, and see the vampires assembled readying their own attacks.

“Dammit! DAWN!” yelled Nelen, “PLAN FIFTY THREE!”

Dawn nodded, then the group huddled together as she focused, and with a loud thunderclap they vanished from the room.

Plan Fifty Three: RUN LIKE HELL!

The group reappeared on the ground level outside, next to where Nelen had hidden their vehicle. “GO GO GO! GET INSIDE NOW!” he shouted, running towards the driver’s side as he fumbled with the keys, the rest of the group frantically rushing into their seats and bracing themselves.

Nelen stomped the gas hard and the van lurched forward, then he spun it around and gunned the engine as hard as it would let him go as the doors to the building burst open and after a few minutes several cars raced out of the parking lot after them!

Dawn glanced at the mirror and let out a low whining meow, “Neleeeeeeeeen! They’re coming!” she warned.

“Yeah! I noticed!” snapped the magus, pushing the engine until it cried as he tried to gain distance… but this vehicle had been built for hauling, not speed! “Shit, can SOMEONE slow them down?!” he asked.

Simoni whined, looking outside, but trying to fly in that chill would be borderline impossible! She’d be an ice cube before they got halfway above them...

For Stephy however… “Dawn! Get me and Sammi onto the roof!” he nodded, shrugging off his jacket and kicking off his boots. The cheshire nodded and grabbed both their hands, then teleported them up ontop of the van before warping herself quickly back inside as Stephy transformed, spreading his wings and trying to hold onto the swerving vehicle with his talons as Nelen fought with the icy roads below.

Sammi took his sibling’s purse, then climbed atop his back and nodded to him, the changeling princess letting out a loud birdlike cry as they took to the air!

Stephy yelped in surprise as the cars shot past below them, then whistled up a sharp tailwind and shot forward after them as Sammi dug through his purse. “Moving too fast to freeze the roads under them… bellbombs are worthless, they’ll have the windows up… no… not this one either… AHA!” he nodded, pulling out what looked like a strange straw doll, but made from a thorny vine rather than straw. “Stephy! Get ahead of them if you can!” he nodded.

Stephy focused, then let out another cry as they shot forward, the princess glancing below, then Sammi nodded and took the doll, gritting his teeth as he intentionally drew a thorn over his finger. “A little red water to help you grow m’dear…” he whispered, then tossed it down infront of the cars. It missed the first two, landed right infront of a second pair, and by the time the two following them reached that spot the drivers found a rather nasty surprise! The road was suddenly covered with a huge mass of razor sharp, unnaturally strong, and four-inch-long thorns! There were several loud bangs and their cars spun out of control as their tires were shredded to ribbons!

“Nice throw!” grinned Stephy, then he shrieked as several loud bangs came from below them. Their pursuers had realized they had enemies above, and they’d come prepared for a fight! Bullets whizzed by them as Stephy flapped to slow down, narrowly dodging a hail of lead… but this meant the windows were open now.

“Sammi! Get ready!” he nodded, shooting forward in the sky and angling downwards. They drew nearly level with the ground as Sammi pulled a bellbomb pepper out of his purse, biting the stem off… and as soon as they got close enough to one of the cars he threw it in through the passenger window and Stephy immediately flapped as hard as he could to regain altitude!

They were close long enough to hear, ‘is that a fucking pepper?’ before there was a massive splattery sound and the windows were covered in pulp and spices, screams coming from inside as the car swerved out of control before crashing into a ditch!

The changeling princess yelped as another spray of bullets shot up from below… then they looked forward to see the backdoor of the van opening.

Dawn was there, holding onto a handle built into the back of the van, and she was holding something… She grinned, then opened a cardboard box and poured out what looked like a bunch of shining metal objects, and another car went spinning out of control before slamming headlong into a tree!

That still left two though, and they were close enough to get a clear shot now! Several gunshots rang out, but the shadows under the door suddenly stretched down and hardened, and the bullets bounced off the barrier of darkness it created!

Of course… all this chaos couldn’t go unnoticed forever… and Sammi looked out across the snowy landscape to see something else on a nearby road. Several vehicles were approaching at speed, with flashing red and blue lights. “Oh oak and ash… someone called the police!” he swore, “Stephy!”

“I know I know… dammit what are we gonna do…” he whined, looking around. It’d be foolish to assume that the local vampire courts wouldn’t have agents in law enforcement. They could easily arrange for an ‘accident’ to occur in custody, it happened often enough already!

Then they saw ahead of them, a large bridge, a covered bridge to be specific. “Sammi… I know its dangerous around here… but we don’t really have any other choice!”

Sammi frowned, “I fear you’re right… blast it all, we’ll just have to take the risk!” he nodded as the two focused on the archway the bridge made and drew upon their own connection to the Wyrd.

Inside the van Nelen’s knuckles were almost white as he raced towards the bridge, bullets whizzing past on both sides of the vehicle as Arja and Simoni held on for dear life.

Suddenly, the space infront of him seemed to distort, the magus frowning. “What the… OH SHIT!” he swore as he realized what he was seeing, the view of the bridge shifting to reveal a pathway of thorn covered trees in a moonlit forest. “KIDS! HANG ON TIGHT!” he shouted as the van barreled over the bridge, the two cars behind it swerving to a halt as they saw the strange display… just in time for Sammi and Stephy to shoot past above them through the gateway, the portal slamming shut as the bridge returned to normal.

“The fuck was that…” asked one of the drivers as they got out of the car, staring at where the van had disappeared.

“Man I got no damn clue… c’mon, lets head back.” replied the other as they got back in their cars.

Soon the police arrived and took stock of the carnage along the roadside and the four wrecked vehicles… but of the van there was no sign.

Somewhere else…

Nelen slumped over the steering wheel of the van, the front end totaled from where it’d hit one of the trees. He raised his head with a groan, then looked around…

He’d grown up around here, he knew most of the area, but this was well beyond the fields he knew.

Stephy and Sammi had saved them from their pursuers and local law enforcement by sending them into the depths of the Hedge.

Next Story

Previous Story

[uaevacay]

Cultural Etiquette in the UAE: Tips for Respectful Travel

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a captivating mosaic of traditions, cultures, and modernity. As a country that welcomes millions of tourists annually, understanding and respecting the local customs can significantly enhance your travel experience. Here are some tips to help you navigate the cultural nuances and ensure a respectful and enjoyable visit.

1. Dress Modestly

While the UAE is modern and cosmopolitan, it is also deeply rooted in Islamic traditions. Dress modestly, especially when visiting mosques, local neighborhoods, or public places. For women, this means covering shoulders and knees, and for men, avoiding sleeveless shirts and shorts. At beaches or pools affiliated with hotels, western swimwear is acceptable, but always be prepared to cover up if you're walking through public areas.

2. Public Conduct

The UAE culture values decorum and politeness. Public displays of affection, such as kissing or hugging, are frowned upon. Always use your right hand for eating, greeting, and giving or receiving items, as the left is considered unclean. While taking photos, avoid capturing local women without permission, and be mindful of photographing government buildings or military establishments.

3. Understanding Ramadan

During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until sunset. Out of respect, avoid eating, drinking, or smoking in public during daylight hours. Many restaurants and cafes are closed or have altered services, so plan accordingly. It's also a time of peace and reflection, so maintain a quiet and respectful demeanor.

4. Language and Greetings

Arabic is the official language, though English is widely spoken. Learning a few Arabic phrases can go a long way in showing respect. When greeting someone of the same gender, a handshake is common, but wait for a UAE national of the opposite sex to extend their hand first. Use titles and last names until invited to do otherwise, as this shows respect.

5. Tipping and Bargaining

Tipping isn't mandatory but is appreciated for good service, typically around 10-15%. In markets or souks, bargaining is a part of the culture. Start at about half the asking price and negotiate with a smile. It's an interaction meant to be enjoyable, so maintain a friendly attitude.

6. Respect Local Laws

UAE laws can be very different from those in Western countries, especially concerning alcohol consumption, drugs, and behavior. Alcohol is only served in licensed venues, usually attached to hotels. Drugs are strictly prohibited, with severe penalties. Familiarize yourself with these laws before you go to avoid inadvertent offenses.

7. Invitations and Hospitality

Emiratis are known for their hospitality. If invited to a local's home, it's customary to bring a small gift like chocolates or pastries. Remove your shoes at the door, and be prepared to sit on the floor and share a communal meal. Accepting a little of every dish is polite, and always compliment the host on the food and their generosity.

By following these simple etiquette tips, you'll not only enjoy a smoother travel experience but also gain a deeper appreciation for the UAE's rich cultural tapestry. Whether you're exploring the glitzy streets of Dubai, the tranquil deserts of Abu Dhabi, or the rugged mountains in Ras Al Khaimah, respect and understanding are your best travel companions. So pack your bags, and embark on a respectful journey through the UAE, where tradition and modernity meet in harmony.

And if you are looking for the best vacation apartments in UAE — look no further! Our apartments are located in the magnificent island of Al-Marjan, Ras Al-Khaimah. Comfortable bedrooms, spacious living space, convenient apartment buildings with indoor fitness & shopping facilities, golden beaches, free parking — and all of it at an affordable price. UAE Vacay — your perfect stay in UAE — Book now

[bluemoonfantasiesiii]

Vincent just chuckled at what was happening and felt a bit worried for the kids. They all share the meal as the two elder couple finally joined in, and everyone enjoyed the meal.

As usual, the adventurer helped clean the plates when the voice of the boss came from the outside of the door. "Good morning, kids! My boys are free for now, wanna play with them?" He asked with a cheerful tone.

Lily was already done alongside Ruby "papa can we go~?" She asked, and her dad nodded with giggles watching her pulling Rubedo along while running out the front door to meet the man who was petting the sweet beast that was resting beside him "Come, Lily! Ruby!" He said with joy

Rubedo happily followed Lily, excited to make more friends.

After the grown-ups finished eating, Nigredo made good on his promise to tail Albedo and Tighnari as the former assisted the latter with his duties around Gandharva Ville. All was going well until the gardener’s eyes fell on a figure tending to a young sumpter beast.

The young man stood out like a sore thumb with his Inazuman clothes. A white haori with long, blue sleeves partially covered a tight, black sleeveless top, both tucked into a black and deep purple obi. Black hakama shorts stopped above his knees. A wide-brimmed, blue hat with gold lotus-shaped decorations sat atop his head.

But what really gave Nigredo pause was the man’s face. Short, indigo hair in a bowl-like undercut, porcelain skin, and deep purple eyes with red liner on his top lids. He recognized that face instantly from files he’d seen from the Knights of Favonius.

“Everyone get back!” he shouted, summoning his catalyst.

“Nigredo?” Albedo asked. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?!” Nigredo echoed, looking at his brother incredulously. “There’s a Fatui Harbinger standing right there in broad daylight!”

Tighnari and Albedo exchanged confused looks. The commotion seemed to have caught the Inazuman’s attention as he looked over at them.

“I’ve seen and memorized visual references of every Fatui Harbinger as part of my training with the Knights of Favonius. I assure you he isn’t one of them,” said Albedo.

“Are you seriously fucking with me now of all times?! Are you that mad at me for ruining your little date?!”

“As far as I’m aware,” Tighnari added, “he’s simply a nomad from Inazuma with no name. He’s been going by Wanderer.”

“You cannot be that dense—”

“You know,” came a new voice, interrupting Nigredo. The gardener shrieked as he realized the Inazuman had approached them, his arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face. “It’s awfully rude to talk about other people while they’re in earshot. Look, I’m just a wanderer, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Bullshit!” Nigredo said before turning back to his brother. “Al, how do you not recognize him?! He’s number six! The Balladeer!”

The Inazuman’s eyes blew wide at that.

Albedo’s brows furrowed in concern. “Nigredo… The position of Sixth Harbinger has been vacant for centuries… I’m getting a little concerned about these delusions of yours. First it was about a previous Dendro Archon, and now this ‘Balladeer’ figure? Is your mental state deteriorating?”

“No!” Nigredo shouted. “I just— Ugh, forget it!”

“No, hold on,” said Wanderer. He pointed to Nigredo. “You. Come with me. Now.”

Nigredo glared at him. “If you think I’m going to— H-HEY!!”

Before he could protest, Wanderer had grabbed his wrist to drag him away from the others. Despite his best efforts, Nigredo couldn’t break free from his grasp.