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#cause somebody else does all the hard stuff like 'deciding what to draw' and 'picking a pose' and 'being creative' sfdgkjhdfkgj
blujaydoodles · 3 years
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Lisbet, the warlock in Aubree’s party-- done for her player’s DTIYS challenge! Go check her out on instagram and twitch @ azaleayosei !!
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jcmorrigan · 3 years
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Somehow, I can imagine Vinny, Al and Victor ""adopting"" Taylor so...👀
I’m just going to do this one off the top of my head and see what happens
-Taylor was accepted into RMU, but oh no! They don’t have enough money to cover the dorms. Their parents are just “It’s too bad you don’t have any friends in G4 to stay with″ and Taylor realizes...oh no...I have friends in G4.
-They didn’t want to admit how much they actually hoped Revenge House would accept them when they called. Taylor will tell anyone who asks that they called for the sole purpose of getting shot down and ruling this out.
-Vincent: “I see. Well - “ Albert: “YES” Victor: “I’ll fix up the guest bedroom” Vincent: “...I guess you’re staying with us then”
-There are a few house rules. Don’t go in the basement (there are cyborgs in there). Don’t roam the house after curfew (that’s when we let the cyborgs out). Don’t feed Winston (Taylor isn’t sure if this one is a joke or an actual warning).
-Otherwise they get a pretty nice bedroom, soft bed, quality blankets. Not soundproof and they can hear the screams and weird metallic noises from the rooms two floors down, but hey, they won’t complain.
-At first, the guys pretty much leave Taylor to their own devices. That’s the nice thing about them being a legal adult: they don’t actually have to be good or attentive parents
-Victor and Albert are the two who pay them the most attention. Victor actually carries on conversation like a normal person. Well, mostly. He still always kind of sounds like he’s gathering information to use for nefarious purposes, but Taylor’s used to that by now. Also being called “my dear Taylor” was offputting at first but now they see it’s a genuine term of affection.
-Albert is...an interesting guardian. He’s always approaching Taylor to talk about non sequiturs, usually morbid, and Taylor has gotten used to this and kind of enjoys it. “Speaking purely in hypotheticals, what do you think tastes better: the spleen or the lungs?” “Spleen. Why are you even asking me this? That one’s obvious.”
-But weirdly Albert is in exchange the one who actively cares the most for Taylor. He makes sure they’re stocked up on supplies, and by that I mean Taylor enters their designated bathroom to find no fewer than twenty toothbrushes, all different colors, bound with a ribbon and a note that says “Pick your favorite! ~AK”
-Also instead of taking them shopping for new college wardrobe, Taylor is awoken at 6 a.m. by a phone call from Albert. “I’m at Hot Topic and they have an assortment of androgynous leather accessories. What’s your size?”
-Vincent and Taylor don’t interact much, at first. But they develop a relationship based on their lack of relationship. They both enjoy the value of comfortable silence. They can be in the same room doing separate things and know they don’t have to bother with greeting one another outside of a quick nod or 0.2 seconds of eye contact.
-Right away, though, they all make it clear that Taylor gets free food. The trio does their usual routine of making extremely high-quality luxury food and just lets Taylor chill out doing nothing until the dinner bell rings. The catch is that some of these things, they weren’t sure were food before this, but hey, turns out they don’t hate sashimi.
-Classes start. Every day when Taylor gets home and brings their books and assignments of the day to the dining room to study, Albert and Victor flock around them. Albert: “How was school? Did you make any lasting memories? Do you have an ARCHNEMESIS yet?” Victor: “Does Professor Browne still have a stick up his ass, metaphorically speaking? Has anyone of your preferred gender asked you out yet?”
-Until dinner time, the dining room is Taylor’s study sanctuary.
-They know better than to bring friends home, however. Not a single college pal who’s entered Revenge House has left with at all a good feeling. Some of them have considered calling the cops because there’s no way these people aren’t going to murder Taylor in the dead of night (sillies...Taylor’s the one person they WON’T murder in the dead of night)
-And as for dates? Unfortunately, the few times Taylor has been asked out, they’ll keep it secret and arrange a meetup at a neutral location and show up at the restaurant only to, halfway through the date, realize that they can spot distinct flashes of pink, red, and black positioned around the restaurant like the Bermuda Triangle and greeeaaat, their guardians followed them to spy on the date.
-Which isn’t always bad because one time somebody actually tried to take advantage of Taylor in the alley out back of the restaurant and before any articles of clothing could be forcibly removed, the offender practically explodes from the impact of being shot by Victor, punched by Vincent, and stabbed by Albert at the same time (the bullet almost clipped Albert but it was worth it)
-Taylor’s never sure how to introduce these people. Parents? Guardians? Friends? Roommates? Usually, it ends up something like “This is my...this is...this is Vincent. He’s Vincent. That’s it.”
-They go out as a “family” unit sometimes, usually to dinner or something where they can all just have conversation. There’s usually going to be some rando who walks past the guys and goes “Your daughter is adorable!” and Albert pulls out a rather long and wicked knife while saying “Their preferred pronouns are they/them, and I HIGHLY suggest you respect that.” Victor and Vincent glare on in the background.
-Taylor is torn because they like having guardians who respect their gender identity but also some of these people are just making honest mistakes
-Victor: “I just want to warn you that when you engage with other college students, you may be pressured to try smoking, drinking, and other narcotics. In a strange environment, any of these may be laced with poison or spiked with different drugs. Here in Vincent’s mansion, our stashes are always pure, so if there’s anything you want, just ask us and we will get you a safe supply.” (Though “safe cigarettes” and “safe hard liquor” are oxymorons to a 19 y/o but Victor is trying. Taylor doesn’t even want any of those things)
-Sometimes, though........Taylor has to be the parent figure to these three
-They might end up trying to drink away their sorrows, falling asleep in a vomit-covered living room. Taylor will clean up any obvious mess and get them some pillows.
-Taylor: “So, did you ever want to...talk to me any more about the childhood stuff that was bothering you?” Albert: “...Yes”
-One night, though, they make a big breakthrough. They find evidence for the Myers revenge scheme and confront Vincent with it.
-Vincent tells them everything. Not without getting a little emotional.
-Taylor’s just like “Oh.”
-Somehow this turns into a hug.
-The guys FORBID Taylor from getting directly involved with Myers. That said...they do act a consultation role sometimes.
-Eventually they meet some of the basement cyborgs. Also they’ve gotten pretty friendly with the Dream Eaters. If all the guys are out of the house and Winston is doing his usual hermit thing, Taylor will be “babysat” by a group of awkward yet well-meaning monsters. (The Dream Eaters have been instructed to keep the cyborgs from eating Taylor, though, and they’ve had to actually step in several times. The Dream Eaters also like the taste of human flesh but Albert said this one is NOT FOOD so they respect that.)
-Those days when the guys come home dragging a corpse/an unconscious person, and Taylor catches them, and the guys stare at them like deer in headlights until they say “I never saw this. Carry on.”
-At some point, though, Taylor decides they want a little more, so they suggest “Do you guys wanna go to the mall and catch a movie?”
-Cue a mall trip that involves Vincent criticizing all the secondhand clothing, Victor flirting with the cashiers at every boutique, and nobody knows exactly what Albert is up to but there’s blood leaking from the dressing room so let’s not ask.
-They go to see a fall blockbuster that Taylor really enjoys and the three guys are having varying degrees of enjoyment toward. If it’s got deep themes, Vincent will be happy. If it’s got romance, Victor will be happy. If it’s horror, Albert will be happy. If it’s a superhero film, NOBODY BUT TAYLOR IS HAPPY (so they kind of like taking the guys to Marvel stuff to annoy them on purpose)
-They talk the guys into accompanying them on other Taylor-style adventures. Like bowling. Bowling was either the best or the worst idea they had, because it turned into a four-person DEATH MATCH. (Figuratively, this time. Maybe literally next time.)
-Vincent draws a HARD LINE IN THE SAND at pizza, though. He will not even look at a pizza, let alone eat one or enter a pizza establishment.
-After some months, Taylor and Vincent are conversing more, but it’s usually Taylor asking questions about how the legal system works because Vincent can explain it better than anyone else and in a way that doesn’t fly over Taylor’s head.
-Sometimes, though...Taylor gets sick. The first time, they didn’t actually expect any of the guys to do anything about it. But Vincent drops off hot meals without a word and leaves, and rude as he is, the food’s always DELICIOUS and particular faves of Taylor’s. Victor is the “Text me if you need anything, sweetie” guy who will drop everything if Taylor needs an ice pack or a barf bin. Albert will sit in the room at a safe distance to talk to Taylor about random things and make sure they don’t get lonely. Also, Taylor will have weirdly no nightmares whatsoever, and they know Albert has something to do with this.
-Sometimes...Taylor is sad. All three of the guys will sit around them, encouraging them to talk about everything that’s bothersome. Brief hugs will be exchanged (Victor’s are a bit too tight since, y’know, metal arms, but that’s fine by Taylor). And then if there was a particular entity that caused the sadness, well, that entity might end up dead in a pool of blood in a back alley later.
-There’s also a contract on the table stating that if Taylor is ever incarcerated, then Vincent, Victor, and Albert will break them out of jail at the earliest convenience. Taylor isn’t sure when this will ever have to be used but they’re glad it’s there.
-They make an even more amazing meal than usual for Taylor’s birthday and spend way, WAY too much on gifts. Some of which aren’t even things Taylor wanted (”It’s...a baseball bat with barbed wire around it. Uh...just what I always wanted? Thanks, Albert.”)
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scullysexual · 4 years
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What was originally just going to be a simple epilogue turned into a full blow sequel. Halfway through this a multi-chapter format began and I can’t see this being posted just one big final chapter so now it’s just a sequel which might or might not be a good thing but I guess we’ll see.
@today-in-fic @purrykat @baronessblixen @suitablyaggrieved @sarie-fairy Tagging you guys cause I know you’d want to be tagged haha. Anyone else wants tagging let me know. @kittydurs
I hope you enjoy this as much as you did Jewel.
Sunlight streams through the gap in the blinds. A small bedsit positioned perfectly that the first rays of light are bright enough to wake him up.
Mulder should be grateful for it, really. The first to wake means he’s the first to find a good spot on the pier, leaving the night owls to fight for the remaining places.
It’s been almost three months and this humble life has already proved to be much of a trial. He had underestimated it his whole life. Sympathy for those who lived this kind life he’d always had but the empathy had been lacking. Only now can he truly understand just how hard they had to work.
Beside him, Scully stirs, muttering something that sounds a lot like What’s the time? eyes struggling to open.
Mulder smiles, a hand reaching out to brush a stray strand of hair out of her face as she twists and turns to face him.
“It’s early,” he mumbles into the quiet room. “Go back to sleep.”
He watches as she settles, eyes falling shut once more.
The months passed since the disaster hadn’t been easy on either of them. When they had finally arrived at New York, the world had held its breath- maybe not directly for them but Mulder and Scully had felt it all the same, parting the ship, the miraculous survivors of a ship that couldn’t sink.
His dreams were still plagued with that night; icy water and chilling screams. When he slept, he had no escape- he was back there, clinging onto that rail, watching people drop to their deaths all around him. Sometimes he even saw Scully fall and those dreams had frightened him the most.
He never fell, though. Even when he was in the water, he could never die. Only those around him could die.
Scully fared no better. Sometimes she would just stop, get lost somewhere in the memory of that night. They never spoke about it, it was an unspoken agreement they had made stepping onto the docks. Nobody was aware they had been on the ship at all. After all, Fox Mulder had died and Dana Scully had never stepped onto the ship. It was easier that way, or so they told themselves.
With time wasting away he climbs out of bed. Their mattress in the corner has him scrambling over Scully to actually get out. His efforts to not wake her fail and, as he’s fumbling with his clothes, her eyes open for the second time.
“The pier doesn’t open until later,” she croaks. “Why do you need to leave so early?”
“Got to get the best spot on the pier, Scully,” he says, rolling up his sleeves. His attire had changed in the months that had passed. Gone were the handmade tailored suits he’d wear to dinners, now it’s just a simple shirt and some trousers. Even his shoes had taken a turn for the worse.
“You need new shoes.”
There’s a hint of worry in her voice, they barely have enough to pay their rent and eat.
He ignores the way the leather rips away from the sole.
“They’ll be fine,” he says, reaching over to grab his sketchbook- the only expensive investment he’d made after he lost his original in the sinking. He tries not to focus on that. There’s only a few drawings in this book, mostly personal stuff for when business is low and his hand aches to draw something real aside from the cartoon portraits of people willing to waste their cents.
Now ready, he walks the short distance back to the bed.
“I’ll see you later, okay?”
Scully nods and Mulder presses a kiss to her forehead and then her lips before he grabs the keys and heads out.
The hallway is littered as always, even this early in the morning, people sit on the stairs trying as best they can to sleep. They don’t live here but the landlord does nothing to prevent them from entering, he’ll just go round with a cup and a silent request for money.
“Good morning, Leif.”
It still takes him some time for realise that he is Leif, not many people call him by that name and he’s Mulder to Scully regardless. No, only one person calls him Leif.
Mulder turns to see Susi standing in the doorway of her studio, scantily clad as always.
He smiles, intending on continuing with his journey before Susi’s speaking again.
“You know if you ever get bored, my door’s always open,” she tells him, with her cracked-teeth smile.
Mulder awkwardly nods and smiles, saying nothing. He tries to keep his conversations with Susi brief after their first night here and she had gotten a little too friendly with him in the communal area, much to Scully’s dismay. He had only tried to make friends.
He leaves Susi where she is, unlocking the front door and making his journey to the pier.
 Scully spends her days counting coppers. Better with numbers than Mulder, they agreed that she would handle their funds and that’s how it had been for the past four months.
Yet her heart drops when she’s finished adding and subtracting the money away to find that there isn’t enough to pay the rent and feed them.
In the early days, when they’d discussed what they would do about jobs, the price of Mulder’s drawings had been brought up a lot. He’d argued that the drawings were worthless and if he was selling them at a ridiculously high price nobody could come to him. She, in turn, had argued that maybe the price should be decided on the work put in and the work produced.
It doesn’t work like that, Scully, Mulder had told her afterwards. People pay for what they get, they don’t care about how much effort has been put into it.
Scully could only scoff. How would you know? she’d asked. Everything you wanted has been handed on a gold plate. All Little Fox would have to do is throw a temper tantrum and Mammy and Daddy would cough up.
Perhaps it had been a low-blow but his words had only made her angry. He knew nothing of this, of trying to find a good-enough job to pay the bills. Once upon a time, he’d have inherited some big company, his wealth sealed in that outcome and until then he’d been all nice and cushy.
After a while, after what Scully had said had fallen to the floor, Mulder said, Perhaps it’s best we get away from each other for a while. We’ve been cooped up too long in this room. With that he’d left, leaving Scully to figure it out.
Just like she has to do now.
She stares at the numbers, maybe hoping they would magically change to the right number but no, they don’t, they stay as they are.
She can owe, she thinks. She’ll have to.
He hands the stupid drawing to the woman as the man drops the money into the pot.
The third person. The third person in five hours.
Despite it being August, despite it being lunchtime, the sun high in the sky and pier packed, nobody was interested.
Mulder cracks his back, already sore and aching. Still six hours to go, still a chance to bring home some real money.
“Business not going well?”
Mulder internally groans at the sound of a familiar voice.
“What do you want, Fuller?”
He tiredly looks over to the weasel-faced man casually poking around his stall, his face lacking stress, his hands in his pockets, and a cocky demeanour reminding him all too well of Alex Krycek.
“Just looking around,” Fuller says. “Seeing how the competition is doing.” He picks up Mulder’s money jar and pulls a face. “Ooh, not well I see.”
“You not got your own stall to man, Fuller?”
Fuller laughs. “I’m on a break. See, unlike you, I can afford these little luxuries.”
Mulder had met Fuller very early on. They both fought for the same spot on the pier- the spot Fuller now occupies- and since then it had been a race to see who could get there first. Fuller always beat him, regardless.
“Why don’t you have your little break somewhere else then?”
He goes to push Fuller out of his stall but the little weasel man is quick, hopping out of the way just before Mulder can grab him.
“Careful, Brevik,” he says. “Otherwise you won’t be around much longer to pay that rent.” He gives a sideward glance to the jar again. “Not that you’ll be paying it this month anyway.”
Fuller saunters off then, back to his own stall.
Mulder sits back down on his stall, wipes the sweat off his forehead and looks wearily at the jar himself. He thinks it’s rent day today and just hopes there’s enough at home to cover it.
“It’s Mulder, isn’t it?”
Mulder pauses. His real name being uttered by somebody else…He chances a glance up at the person, not really sure what to think.
“Christ, they said you were dead.”
Mulder frowns at the man who stands before him. He looks familiar but Mulder can’t for the life of him replace him.
The man chuckles. “You don’t recognise me, do you?” he says and holds his hand out. “John Byers, we met on the Titanic.”
Realisation sinks in as Mulder remembers him. He smiles, jumping up from stool and shakes hands with Byers.
“I’m sorry,” Mulder says. “A lot’s happened recently.”
“Yeah,” Byers agrees. He looks at the sign next to the stall. “First class suits on the Titanic to selling cartoons on Coney Island. What happened?”
“A lot,” Mulder says. “A lot happened.”
 They’re meeting lands them in a bar just off the pier. It’s still early, Mulder guesses it’ll start to pack up later.
“Didn’t think you’d survived,” Mulder says.
Byers laughs. “Yeah, Suzanne wouldn’t get on a lifeboat without me. The officer just looked at me and shrugged. What about you? They say you’re dead but you’re here in front of me.”
Mulder chuckles slightly, picking the label off his beer bottle. “I didn’t marry Phoebe Green,” he says.
Byers nods. “Yeah, your father put that in the papers. Said his son had died a dignified death, sacrificing himself to save women and children.”
“Of course he did,” says Mulder, begrudgingly. He hadn’t touched the paper. The headlines were everywhere, the story plastered on every newspaper being sold. He had lived the tale, he didn’t need to read some exaggerated version of it.
“So, you didn’t marry Phoebe because you died, what was the other reason?”
He looks up to the ceiling, trying to figure out the way best to explain it.
“I met someone,” he says. “Someone from the third class.” He hears Byers breathe out heavily but ignores it. “And after a day I knew I didn’t want to marry Phoebe. I didn’t want to marry her at all, I didn’t want to get on the ship but there was nothing I could do about it.” He shrugs, smiling. “Then I met Scully and I didn’t want to be anywhere else after that. I decided I was getting off the ship with her and the only way to do that was to change my name and pretend I died.” Mulder sits back in his seat and looks towards Byers, holding out his hand again. “Leif Brevik, by the way.”
Byers laughs, shaking Mulder’s hand again. “That’s quite the conspiracy,” he says and Mulder shrugs again.
“Listen,” Byers tells him. “I have some friends who have been looking into the sinking.” Mulder’s ears piqued up at that. “We think it might have been an insurance scam.”
Mulder frowns. “What makes you say that?”
“There’s just some evidence that seem to point towards it being a possibility. We have a base not too far away from here, if you want to see.”
Mulder looks from his pitiful jar of money, to the window where he can see Fuller’s long line of people queuing for their portrait. With one final decision, he nods.
 The dreaded knock on the door finally comes. Scully jumps slightly, taking her head out of the medical journals Mulder sometimes brought back with him.
Her stomach squeezing with nerves, she grabs the bag of money and with a deep exhale, opens the door.
Mr Roth stands on the other side, his arms already full with other tenants’ rent.
“You’re rent, Mrs Brevik.”
Cautiously, Scully hands the bag to the landlord. He snatches it- ever one without manners. As he begins counting, Scully’s fingers begin to nervously fiddle with her necklace.
Mr Roth shakes his head, muttering. “Where’s the other $9?” he asks.
“That’s all we have,” says Scully.
Roth looks at her for a moment and Scully waits.
“I want $35 next month,” he says and with that limps off down the corridor.
Scully lets out a breath.
“Better be careful.”
Scully looks up to see her neighbour hanging out of her front door.
“Last tenant who couldn’t pay the second time was out on the streets.”
Scully smiles, saying nothing and retreats back into her house. Maybe it was a time she got a job also.
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bleufrost · 4 years
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Crawl Home to Her || A Ben Hanscom Series
Chapter Two: The Call
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rating: m for graphic depictions of violence, gore, and adult themes
Nothing was making any sense anymore. After the incident in the bathroom, Ali was finding it difficult to know what she could believe. Obviously her eyes were playing tricks on her, but the fresh scars on her wrists that had not been there before told a different story and pleaded the validity of what she knew she had experienced. 
The sharp ringing of her cellphone cuts through the air and startles her for what feels like the fiftieth time in the past few days. Picking it up, she looks at the screen to feel yet another sense of dread that she can't quite place the cause of. An unsaved number lit up the screen, Maine written in smaller letters directly underneath. When was the last time she had thought of Maine? Why was it causing her hands to shake and leaving her wondering whether or not she should pick up? The phone nearly comes to a stop before she quickly presses the button that answers the call. She lifts it shakily to her ear and takes a deep breath.
"Hello?" On the other end there is a quick sigh of relief before a voice responds. "Hey Ali, it's Mike. Um, Mike Hanlon from Derry." 
Ali's knees seem to go numb beneath her and she quickly finds herself losing balance. She moves to sit on the bed and swallows down the panic stirring within her. "Oh wow, hi Mike. I...really wasn't expecting to hear from you." Michael let's out another breath and the rustling of his movements echoes into the phone. "Yeah, I've heard that quite a few times recently. Ali, something's happened and I promise to explain more later but I really just need you to come meet us the day after tomorrow." 
There's a look of confusion and concern etched on her face as she processes what Mike just told her. This has to have something to do with the weird things that she was seeing; there was no way that Mike calling was a coincidence when it coincided so perfectly with everything else. Just as part of her was hesitant to pick up the call to begin with, she was also hesitant to agree to meet with him again. She knew there was no way to deny him though, not when she had all but forgotten he existed until just moments ago. 
"Ali, are you still there?" Mike sounds a little nervous, maybe even desperate. There was something else that he said that was gnawing at her though. "Mike, when you say 'us,' who are you talking about?" 
****
Walking up to the restaurant, Jade of the Orient, was possibly the most nerve wracking thing Ali had done in years. Stopping in front of the entrance, she plays with the zipper of her jacket and does what she does best; allows her anxiety to overcome her. This may have all been a huge mistake. Mike had clarified a little more about who exactly she would be seeing here, but the details and memories were all extremely fuzzy. It was as if there was a mist layered over her childhood that no matter how hard she tried to see past, it was far too thick. 
These people had not seen her in years. She had put a lot of effort into becoming someone she could look at and love; most of which was in vain, but still, there was a stark difference between who she was and who she has become. Her black glasses still framed her face and her unruly hair still blew wildly in the wind, but that was nearly as far as the similarities ended. Would they hate her for becoming someone new? Was she even someone new; or was she still the same scared little girl that allowed the opinions and eyes of others obstruct her ability to see herself the way in which she truly was? This was without a doubt a mistake and the tug of fear instantly turns from a dull pull to a sharp stab that drives her away from the restaurant; away from them. Before she can move to turn back to her car and leave, a gentle voice carries through the wind and graces her ears; acting as a beam of light that breaks apart the mist. 
"You want a lollipop?" The voice halts every movement she was making and any that she was even considering. It takes her back to a time she swore that she had forgotten about long ago, yet standing here now she wonders how she could have ever allowed it to slip away. 
****
It felt like yesterday, sitting on the steps of school and waiting patiently for Beverly to make her way out the front doors. It was the last day of the school year and Ali had decided to forego her last class, opting instead to sit outside and draw her newest interest. A boy named Ben Hanscom had recently started attending school here and Beverly had introduced him to her friend not long after she ran into him in the hall. He was extremely adorable and honestly interesting to talk to; much smarter than most of the other kids that went here anyway. He was quiet and really liked to read, something she found comfort in when all the rest of the school appeared far too loud. 
Kids started filtering out around her, and it wasn’t long before shouts could be heard in the yard. Looking up, Ali saw Henry Bowers tormenting a group of kids that she had had a few interactions with in the past. They all shared a common habit of constantly being picked on by Bowers, Greta, and the awful group that followed the two leaders around. Greta was nowhere in sight, giving Ali a chance to breathe for once, until the commotion in front of her got a little more physical and Ali felt as though it was only right to help out the group of boys who had done the same for her on a few previous occasions. 
“You have some big balls beating up on people who are smaller than you, Bowers!” Ali stood tall against the boy and his friends, staring him down as much as her smaller stature could. Henry looked back at her for a moment with shock on his face, but that lasted for only the briefest of moments before it turned into a sneer. He threw glances at his gang and erupted into laughter. 
“Oh yeah you ugly fucking bitch? I bet you would love to see my balls. Too bad that easy friend of yours is the only one who can get any action. You’d know, right? I’m sure you try all the time but no one’s willing to sleep with a fucking four eyed piece of shit like you!” The sting of tears sparks within her at his words, but she refuses to let them spill; there were few things she was not willing to do in order to ensure that Bowers was not granted the satisfaction of successfully hurting someone else. 
Straightening the glasses on her face, Ali looks back at him with a twinkle in her eye that Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan had all come to learn meant she was about to say something that would end the argument. “I can’t do anything about needing to wear glasses, but you can do something about that ugly ass mullet on your head. Seems to me like we’re both ugly, but you’re the dumbass that’s choosing to look like that.” Bowers’ eyes come alight with anger and Richie hollers about a murder having taken place. Bill, knowing that she won’t back down just as much as Henry will refuse to, starts to make a commotion that gets the attention of the police officers standing off to the side. Henry quickly looks behind Ali and makes eye contact with the officers, he reaches down and pulls the sketchbook out of her hand, ripping a few pages and throwing it to the floor before turning and motioning for his gang to follow behind him. 
“Thanks for the help.” Stan nods to you and the rest of the boys offer up a smile as they turn and start running off, Richie still screaming about the look on Henry’s face. Ali also smiles, but that fades quickly when Beverly comes up behind her smelling slightly like garbage and leans down to pick up the book and torn drawings. 
“Everything alright?” Ali sighs and faces Bev, shrugging and brushing off a stray piece of trash from her shoulder. “Just about alright as it usually is.” The two girls make their way back to the stairs to grab the rest of Ali’s stuff, only to find the way blocked by the new kid, Ben. 
“Is there a password or something?” Beverly smiles and laughs as Ben fumbles with his stuff nervously. It was abundantly clear that the poor kid had already fallen victim to, not only the typical pains of being new at school, but also the all too common sting of being an easy target for bullying. 
When it is clear that Beverly is messing with him, he returns the laugh. Ali giggles as well, picking up her backpack once he has moved a bit, and reaching in to find something that she hoped would make everyone’s day a little sweeter. Passing one to Beverly and then unwrapping her own, she steps forward and smiles at Ben, holding out her hand. 
“You want a lollipop?” 
****
Turning around, the face that had eluded her for years finally became clear
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a/n: i appreciate every read, like, reblog, and comment so so much! feedback is always welcome and i hope you guys are enjoying this. the next chapter will HEAVILY involve ben, i promise!!
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spectraspecs-writes · 4 years
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Tatooine - Chapter 82 (Jolee)
Link to the masterpost. Chapter 81. Chapter 83.
@averruncusho @ceruleanrainblues @chubbsmomma thank you for reading, you get a tag. @skelelexiunderlord thank you for support, you get a tag.
——————
But it’s a long flight. And I have to find something to do. The first thing I tried to do was access the archives on Dantooine to look into the terentatek, but the archive’s computer locked me out of pretty much everything. I could get a picture of a terentatek, which doesn’t do me any good since I’ve already seen one. And it told me about reports on Korriban, which I already knew about from Guun Han’s journal. I don’t see the point in locking information away. What happened to “there is no ignorance, there is knowledge”? Well, if there’s an academy on Korriban, maybe they have archives I can get to.
Bastila isn’t up to talking, not after yesterday night. She’s spending a lot of time with Canderous in the swoop hanger. Well, I hear them more than I see them - they’ve set up a little area of sorts behind the swoop where they mumble softly to each other. Probably more than mumble. But that’s none of my business. If she’s happy, more power to her. I can’t work on HK, either. Mission found a shooting program in him that lets her practice with a gun turret, which frankly is more useful in the long run than solving the mystery of where he came from. I can’t really tend to any of the things on my mind.
Which leaves me camping out in the main hold, with nothing but my racing thoughts to keep me company. Jolee pops in and chuckles at me. “Bored out of your skull, hmm?”
“To put it mildly,” I say.
“Let me guess - Carth has his mind on his son, so as much as you want to talk to him you can’t. Bastila and Canderous are all but joined at the hip. And you can’t work on the droids because you’ve misplaced your tools.”
“Two out of three, not bad. I’ll never misplace my tools.” I sigh and move my hair out of my face. “Guess this isn’t like those adventuring days of yours after all, huh?”
“Did I say anything about that?” he asks, mocking forgetfulness, “Strange the tricks memory plays on you when you get older.”
“Come on, old man, I’m bored!” I say, “You don’t just tease me with a story and then dangle it in front of me like a kath hound with a steak.”
“I’m not here to alleviate your boredom!” he exclaims, “No staring at the old man, that's what the sign says, dammit! And besides... you don't really want to hear about me. You’re only talking to me because there’s no one else to talk to.”
“That’s not true at all!” I say, then I add jokingly, “I could go talk to Juhani.”
He laughs shortly. “We're talking ancient history,” he continues, “probably before you were born. History bores kids. Proven fact.”
“Oh, yeah?” I say, “Well old people love to talk about history. Proven fact.”
He laughs again. “Oh fine, fine,” he concedes, “have it your way. Just don't cry about it later.” Never. “Yes, yes, I was an adventurer,” he says, sitting down near me, “Happy now? I wasn't even done with my Jedi training back then. I had a full head of hair and an eagerness to see absolutely everything. Sound familiar?” I suppose. “The Council was never very happy with willful, brash Jolee Bindo, you see. Even less so when I began my smuggling career.”
I stifle a chuckle. “You were a smuggler?” I say in dubious disbelief.
“Don't look at me like that, dammit!” he says with a gentle smack, “I wasn't always the wrinkled coot I am now, you know. I can still fight, too, so wipe off that smirk I see there.” He shakes his head a bit. “At the time the Ukatis system was interdicted by its own King. He preferred to keep his people starving and poor, all the better to oppress them.” Asshole. “That’s what I thought, too.” There he goes, getting in my head again. “The Senate was trying to negotiate a peace, but they were getting nowhere as usual. I decided I wasn't going to wait. I found myself a ship and a partner and we began smuggling food and supplies to the Ukatis citizenry through the blockade.”
“Alright! That’s badass!” I exclaim, “Blockade running - that’s dangerous stuff.”
“Oh, it was,” he agrees, “I was a half-decent pilot in those days... and with the Force guiding me, we made it through some tough spots nobody else would have.”
Really? I don’t know why it never occurred to me to use the Force to be a better pilot. I’ll have to keep that in mind. “So where’d you get all the supplies from? Obviously the Senate or the Council didn’t give you any credits to buy any.”
“Well, we didn't buy all the equipment, per se. Some were happy to donate goods. Some we just, ah, knew had more than they could use…”
“You stole it? All right!” Who knew such a badass was living on the forest floor of Kashyyyk?
“'Stole' is such a harsh word,” he says, “They would have donated those goods readily enough if they were compassionate. I considered it a tax on the greedy.” Badass! My kind of guy. “We only got caught once. A lone Ukatish frigate shot us down and forced a crash landing. I thought the Force had abandoned me, as I remember.”
“What happened?”
“Well, as it happens, getting shot down turned out to be very fortunate,” he says, “That day was the day I…” 
And then he just trails off. “What?”
“Well,” he says haltingly, “that… that was the day I met my wife.”
Whoa, whoa. So that’s how he knows about love, that’s how he’s made his opinions. “You were married?”
“You know another way to get a wife?” he says brusquely, “But, yes… that's when I met her.” He stops again. “I... If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to stop talking now.” What? No! “My mouth is starting to draw flies.”
Uh-uh! You’re not -- no! I need to hear more. I bend down to pick up a passing gizka. “Here - for the flies.”
Much as he doesn’t want to, he laughs. “That’s disgusting,” he says between laughs. When he manages to stop laughing, he sets the gizka back down on the floor. “Really, I- I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Jolee, I don’t mean to pry, but…”
“Yes you do,” he interrupts, “You may mean well enough, but my private affairs are just that: private.” Then he points at me, like he’s about to become a finger-wagging old person. “Let me tell you something,” he says, and I can tell he’s got a powerful point to make here, “Once you've lived as many years as I have, you'll have yourself a long, long list of memories. If you're lucky, most of them will be good. If you're not, some will be bad. If you're really unlucky, some will be so bad you never want to be reminded of them again… ever. You'll go far away, to a place that doesn't hold any memories at all. And there you'll be happy just to forget and be forgotten.”
“Jolee, I want to hear what you have to say,” I say, “I need to.”
“Need to?” he repeats, “I hadn’t figured you to be the type to seek advice from a so-called ‘wise old Jedi.’”
“And ordinarily you’d be right,” I say, “But you know what’s been going on in my head lately. I’m getting conflicting opinions and I have no idea what the hell to do about it. Normally, I’ll just stumble into a situation and figure it out from there. But if I make a bad decision here, I could lose a very good friend and I don’t want to do that anymore!”
He just sits and waits until I calm down a bit. Just sitting and looking at me, calmly. “All right?” he asks when my breathing gets a bit more regular. I nod. He nods too. “Let me ask you this,” he says, “Have you ever been in love? Truly in love, I mean, not just simple infatuation.”
“I…” I think for a minute. “I don’t know. I think so, but…”
“Exactly,” he says, “You're still at the beginning of your life. There will be men in your life, perhaps many men - women, too, maybe - but if you're fortunate you'll find love once. The Jedi, with their damnable sense of over-caution, would tell you love is something to avoid. Thankfully, anyone who's even partially alive knows that's not true.”
“I’m not sure, though,” I say, “I mean, Bastila’s warnings seem like an overreaction, but she wouldn’t have anything to say about it at all if it wasn’t a thing, right?”
He waves off the notion. “Love doesn't lead to the Dark Side,” he says, “Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled, but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love -- that's what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you, not condemn you.” Then he shakes his head. “Ahh, but listen to me go on as if I had all the answers. What do I know of love anymore? I'm just a lonely old man who's not even a Jedi.”
“No, I told you, I want to hear what you have to say,” I say again.
“You do, do you?” he says, “I wouldn't listen too closely. I'm no authority on anything. I just think that the greatest things in life shouldn't be avoided because they come with a few complications. Love causes pain, certainly. Inevitably love is going to lead to as much sorrow and regret as it does joy. I suppose there are perfect, eternal loves out there, but I haven't seen any. How you deal with the bad part of love is what determines your character, what determines the Dark Side's hold over you.”
Take that, Bastila. She’ll never say Jolee’s wrong. I don’t think she could bring herself to. “So…” I start to ask, “what happened between you and your wife?”
“Nice try,” he says, “I haven’t changed my mind, I’m still not going to talk about it. You go and tell Carth if you want to know love so badly.”
“As if I’d do that right now.”
“I'll tell you one thing: sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you and the one you love simply aren't meant to be together. The trick is to know when that is, to know when it's time to fight and when it's time to part ways.” After a moment, he huffs. “There I go waxing philosophical again. Somebody blast me already! Get going before I start talking in riddles, dammit!”
Well, that was very reassuring. That clinches it. I’m going to tell Carth.
Eventually, I mean, now isn’t really a good time. However he feels he won’t feel it now. Now he’s focused on Dustil, which is totally understandable and I don’t want to distract him, I don’t want to split his focus, I don’t want to do that to him. He’s in dad mode right now, and to try to put him into boyfriend mode would be an ill-fated endeavor. As any droid tech knows, you don’t try to introduce new programming if the old programming isn’t finished being executed. Once we’ve found Dustil and dealt with that, maybe then. 
But I have no idea how to go about telling him. I’m really not good with words. I’m way too wordy when I speak all the time, and when I get stressed out it’s even worse. I stammer, my words are full of “I mean”s, “like”, false starts, it’s not pretty. Sure, I can get the point across, but the efficacy depends on what the point is. If I’m trying to explain that we need to avoid a certain hill because we don’t want to run into what’s on the other side, then I can do that. Professing a persistent, undying love? Not the sort of thing I can easily express through words. Which could prove to be a problem because I don’t know if Carth will understand if I put it any other way. Like if I ask him to hold on to my droid tool kit for me - that would be huge on my part, because I don’t let anyone hold my tools, never have. They’re mine. But would he understand the importance of that? Would he understand that I wouldn’t let anyone hold my tools unless I trusted them, really trusted them? Or would he just think I was asking for a favor? If I hugged him from behind, or even just took his hand, would he understand what I was trying to tell him? Would he understand what that would mean for me? Or would he just think it was a hug? I don’t know. I don’t know how I could make him understand that I love him without outright saying it, which would take me forever and it may not even end up that clear.
I wish there was a way I could just show him. If he was a Jedi then I could just show him, send it right into his head. He could feel how I feel, I could feel how he feels. No words, no nothing. Just the Force between us. But he’s not a Jedi, so that’s not possible. Well, not as far as I know. It’s nothing Master Zhar told me about. It’s easy enough to know what someone else is feeling, especially if they wear their heart on their sleeve. Getting an emotional vibe is something I was doing before I even knew I was doing it. But for one thing, love is a lot different than happiness or confusion or fear. It’s more complex. It feels complex, anyway, and it’s very transient. Like, sure, I love Carth and nothing can change that, but I don’t feel it in the front of my mind all the time. For another thing, transferring your own feelings is not a thing if the other person isn't open to receive them. Carth doesn’t know how to open that door. He’s not a Jedi, he never would have learned how to open that door. And even if he did know, I wouldn’t know how to ask him if he knew how to open it without saying why.
God, this is so frustrating. At this point, I’ve basically spent hours meditating about it. Trying to figure out exactly how I want to approach it. I finally stand and head towards the cockpit to check the map, see how far we are from Korriban. About seven hours. I look a little further - Carth has fallen asleep in the pilot’s chair. God he’s cute. Troubled bunny man. T3 has taken over piloting, interfacing with the console. After accidentally staring at Carth for God-knows-how-long, I pat T3 on his little droid head and leave. I need to get some sleep before we get to Korriban.
Is that Canderous I hear in the swoop bay still? This late? And… Bastila, too? Sounds like they’re - ahem - having fun. But that’s none of my business. I don’t want to know. I just want to get some sleep.
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Right-Side Up AU, Part Three: It’s the End of the World {AO3} {tumblr} {Part One} {Part Two}
Chapter Two → The Radio
“Shit, shit, shit!” 
Mike rubbed his eyes as he walked down the hall, stopping at Jonathan’s door. He could hear Nancy’s muffled voice, shouting something about how they had to hurry the hell up; Mike didn’t remember her saying she was staying over last night. He knew he should probably knock on the door, but, well, he wasn’t very good at that yet, and by the time he remembered that rule had been established he was already pushing the door open. 
“Mike!” Nancy shouted. She had just thrown a dress on, shoving on a belt as she shouted. “What did we say about knocking?” 
“I forgot.” Mike admitted, noticing Jonathan on the other side of the room, also throwing on clothes. “I thought you went home last night.” 
“Yes, well, um. Decided to stay over. Surprise!” Nancy said. She gave him a smile, and continued, “But, unfortunately, we can’t do anything fun right now, because the power outage knocked out Jonathan’s alarm, we forgot to reset it, and if we don’t move we’re gonna be late for work.” 
“You hate work.” Mike said. 
“Work’s not that bad.” Jonathan said, quickly grabbing his camera bag. 
“Maybe for you.” Nancy said bitterly. “They love you.” 
“They love you!” 
“Yeah, as a coffee fetcher.” 
“Look, they’re gonna realize how great a writer you are someday-” 
“Do you want me to throw them across a room?” Mike asked. 
Nancy sighed. “No, but put a pin in that conversation. We gotta go. Tell Will we said ‘hi.’” She leaned over, giving him a kiss on the forehead, and said, “You’re taller than me now, stop it.” 
“I’m taller than everyone, I can’t control it.” 
Nancy laughed. “Alright, I’m going out the window.” 
“Why?” 
“Um, more fun.” 
“Can’t argue there.” 
Mike waved at Jonathan and Nancy, and then walked back to his room, where he’d forgotten his bag. He slung it over his shoulder, returned to the kitchen, and said, “Nancy’s climbing out the window.” 
Joyce sighed, looking up from the table, where Will was drowning his pancakes in syrup. “I wish she wouldn’t. She can just say hello.” 
“Why doesn’t she sleep over with me? My room’s big enough.” Mike said. 
Will giggled, as Joyce very slowly said, “Well, she just… wants to spend time with her boyfriend.” 
Mike nodded as he sat back down. “Like me and El.” 
“...sure.” 
Jonathan ran by, and Joyce jumped to her feet. “Oh, hey, hey! Wait up!” 
Jonathan paused, an apology in his eyes. “No, no, I’ll eat at work-” 
“No, cheek.” she laughed a little as she wiped a lipstick mark off of his face. 
He gave her a nervous smile and said, “Alright, gotta run. See you later.” 
“Alright!” Joyce turned back to the kids. “Will, slow on the syrup.” 
“Yeah, it’s my turn.” Mike took the syrup and immediately dumped it onto his eggs. 
Will glanced up towards where Jonathan disappeared. “Can you make him and Nancy stop being gross? They’re as bad as El and Mike.” 
“Shut up.” 
Joyce smiled a little. “I don’t think you’ll find it gross when you fall in love.” 
Will hesitated, before stabbing at his pancake. “Yeah. Maybe.” 
Mike gave him a curious glance, but kept quiet. 
“Now, hold on! Hold on!” 
El groaned and turned around. “Dad, this bag of shit is heavy!” 
“And Steve has to get to work, you don’t want him to be late.” Max added, tying her hair back into a ponytail; she’d recently got more used to tying it up, to keep it out of her face. 
Hopper sighed and gave them all quick looks. “I don’t want you out late in the field.” 
“Dad.” 
“Back to the Byers’ by ten, okay?” 
“Back by Dustin, got it.” Max nodded. “Can we go now?” 
“And El.” Hopper gave her a look. “Three inches.” 
El shot Max a glare, who shrugged an I didn’t tell him! shrug. “Dad, chill, it’s just Mike. What’s he gonna do? Feed me too many eggos?” 
“I trust Mike,” Hopper said, and he put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “I just don’t want you growing up too fast, okay?” 
“Dad, don’t be weird.” 
They heard a car horn beep from the driveway. “Great, now you pissed off Steve.” Max said. “Thanks, Hop.” 
“Stay safe.” 
“You, too.” El nodded. She and Max ran out the door, running towards the car. 
“Seriously, though, chill with Mike for today, it’s weird.” Max said. 
“You’re just mad cause you wanna date Lucas.” El said. “Seriously, Max, be more direct with your flirting. He was raised in a Lab, he doesn’t pick up on that stuff.” 
Max’s face turned as red as her hair. “I’m not flirting with Lucas. I just like hanging out with him.” 
“Sure.” 
They hopped into the backseat, where Lucas gave them a wave. El slammed her bag onto the ground as Max shut the door, and Steve said, “You know, if I’m late for work, I don’t get money, and Dustin and Lucas don’t get arcade trips.” 
“Sorry.” El huffed. “Dad was being weird about me dating again.” 
“What does that mean?” Dustin asked, as Steve pulled out of the driveway. “Why would he be weird?” 
“Because El’s not a baby anymore and has a boyfriend and keeps sucking face with him.” Max said. 
“Max, I’m going to throw you out the car window.” 
“Do it! I dare you!” 
“No one’s dying in this car while I’m driving!” Steve said. 
“Obviously she wouldn’t die in the car.” Max said. 
“No mutinies or I turn this car around and drop you off at the goddamn grocery store.” 
“I think we’re still banned from that.” Lucas said. 
“Exactly!” 
The kids burst into the Byers house just as Joyce was grabbing her things to leave. 
“Hi, Ms Byers!” El waved, running past. “Where’s my boyfriend?” 
“Will’s room.” Joyce said, smiling at the other boys. “They’re both in there. You’ll be alright?” 
“Yep! Be back before dark!” Dustin waved. 
“Won’t fall into any alternate dimensions!” Max added. 
“Call if you need anything.” Joyce nodded. “Have fun!” 
El was already gone, and the boys and Max shared a quick look before ducking into Will’s room. El was, indeed, already sitting beside Mike on the floor, the two of them locked in a kiss. Will was focused intently on his drawing, enough so that he noticed neither them nor the teens entering. 
“El, we talked about this whole ‘being gross’ thing.” Max groaned, averting her eyes to the ground. 
El flipped her off. 
Will finally noticed everyone, sitting up from his doodle of a butterfly. “Did you get it?” 
“Yeah, and we owe Mr Clarke money.” Max said. 
El pulled away from Mike, glaring at her. “We’re borrowing it.” 
“It’s a lot of shit.” 
“He said we can do it so long as we show him. He likes encouraging science, and when we told him the boys had never built a radio-” 
“This is gonna be the shit!” Lucas said. 
“We better get going, then.” Max said. “Come on. You, too, lovebirds.” 
“What, you don’t wanna draw?” Mike asked, eyes wide. 
“This radio’s gonna take some time, now move your ass!” 
“Geez, fine.” El rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be the dictator.” 
“And you don’t have to be glued to Mike, but there ya are.” 
“Max?” Will asked, leaning on Dustin’s shoulder while they walked, “Do we have to go so far?” 
“Do you wanna carry the bag?” 
“I could carry the bag.” Mike volunteered, stretching out his hand. The bag then flew out of Max’s arms, levitating beside them. “Easy.” 
“Mike!” El giggled, though she tried to look stern. “Stop it, somebody could see!” 
“We’re going up a hill, who else is here?” Lucas shrugged. 
“I’ll just-” Mike waved his hand, and the bag flew to the top of the hill, up ahead. 
To Mike and El’s confusion, Max looked a bit annoyed. “Cool. Thanks.” she said blankly, before moving back towards Will to say something about his art. 
El glanced around the field as they finally made their way to the top. It was a bit darker than they’d thought it would be, but that was alright, they could stay out a bit late. It wasn’t as if they had anywhere to be. 
“Isn’t Summer great?” El whispered to Mike, leaning on his shoulder. “No school, so we can hang out all day.” 
“School sucks, you should stop going.” Mike said, fiddling with her hand, running his fingers inbetween hers. 
“I dunno. You might like it. You like learning.” 
“I don’t like crowds and sitting still.” 
“You liked Mr Clarke, when he met you in the store.” 
“Everyone likes Mr Clarke.” 
“He was nice at the Snow Ball.” Dustin remembered. “He told me and Lucas that we looked good.” 
“He was lying.” Max quipped, glancing back at him. 
Dustin flipped her off. “We looked great! Didn’t we, Will?” 
Will bit his lip. “I guess.” 
Dustin’s face fell slightly. “You guess? What does that mean?” 
“I don’t know what’s pretty and what’s not.” Will said quickly. “I mean, with clothes.” 
“I mean, that much is obvious.” Max rolled her eyes and elbowed him. “You still dress like Jonathan.” 
“I like looking like Jonathan.” 
“You like looking like a nerd?” 
“Yeah?” 
“What’s a nerd?” Lucas asked. 
“You all are.” Max said. “And we’re here.” 
They stopped at the top of the hill, where the bag waited, and Max spread out her arms. “Look around, my labrat friends! This is what nature looks like!” 
“I hate nature.” Lucas muttered, flopping onto the grass. “And walking.” 
“Don’t call them lab rats.” El said, leaning her chin onto Mike’s shoulder. 
“It’s alright, it’s funny, and we know she’s not being mean.” Dustin said. “When do we get started on the radio?”  
“Right now!” Max knelt down to unzip the bag. “You know, I haven’t been up here since the mall opened. It’s weird having it in the view. Right, El?” 
“Hm?” El and Mike had sat down beside each other. “Oh, yeah. I guess.” 
Max bit her lip and turned to face the other boys. “El and I would sometimes come up here when Hop needed us out of the house. Play D&D or have a picnic or throw rocks.” 
“Build radios?” Will asked, peering into the bag of supplies. 
“Not really.” Max laughed. “This is new for us, too. Right, El-? Oh, they’re making out again, okay. You boys wanna help me get this up?” 
“Of course!” Dustin beamed, racing forwards and brushing past Will to pull something out; Will backed up slightly, startled. “What’s this do?” 
“Well, that’s part of the legs- no, don’t just- lemme get the instructions Mr Clarke made us first.” She pulled out a slip of paper. “It shouldn’t be hard. Once it’s up, we can try to hack into other radio signals.” 
“To listen to people?” Dustin asked, uncertain. 
“No, no. Just find music that stations around here haven’t got.” Max said. “El and I used to talk about doing this all the time, and now we can. Isn’t that great, Ellie?” 
El didn’t respond, so Lucas said, “How do we start?” 
Max smiled at him and spread out the instructions. “Alright, so- first of all, Mike and El need to get their asses over here.” 
“Fine.” El said, her and Mike finally dragging themselves over. 
“Now,” Max said, “We start with the initial setup.” 
Melvad’s was empty again. Joyce had gotten used to this over the last few weeks, and had found new ways to occupy her time, such as fixing up old clothes for Will, or sewing an extra pillow or blanket with spare material. At the moment, she was patching up a shirt when Hopper came in. 
“I’m going to guess,” Joyce said, barely glancing up, “That you’re here to complain about our children again.” 
“I’m not complaining.” 
“They’re spending the day out again, though.” Joyce said. 
“It just worries me. I don’t like them running around without supervision.” 
“They’re fourteen, Hop, what are they gonna do?” 
Hopper smiled a little, leaning against the counter. “Well. You remember the shit we got up to when we were fourteen?” 
Joyce finally looked up, a smile brightening her face. “Okay, but we were idiots, and four out of six of them have superpowers. And two of them can kill any threat without so much as breaking a sweat.” 
Hopper sighed. “It just… you know, feels like El and Max are always gone.” 
“Well, they’re at that independent stage.” Joyce shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I mean, we always knew this was going to happen with our kids, when they hit that age they wanna try things on their own. It’s part of being a parent.” 
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” 
“So long as you don’t take it out on Mike.” Joyce said. “Because Nancy might kill you.” 
“If she doesn’t kill her bosses first.” 
Joyce bit her lip. Nancy had ranted to her about the sexism she faced in the office once or twice, and she was starting to wonder if it had been appropriate to mention that to Hopper. Of course she made him swear not to bother all the editors of the paper, because she knew if she didn’t he’d burst in guns blazing and find some reason to arrest them all, and that would just cause more trouble for Nancy. She was already doing so much for them, it would be unfair to throw her under the bus like that. 
“Still, Hop, you know what Mike’s been through- what they’ve all been through. It makes sense they’re all a bit…” 
“Feral?” 
“That wasn’t the word I was looking for.” 
“Joyce, Lucas and Dustin still dig through the trash whenever they’re over to try and find ‘useful things,’ and one time I swear to God I saw Mike bark back at a dog.” 
“Oh my God.” Joyce laughed. “Are you serious?” 
“Of course I am. And that’s who El decided to date.” 
“Well, first she decided to hide him in your attic and rescue his friends from a government base, and then she decided to date him.” 
“Don’t remind me.” 
“I feel like you’re going to be reminded for the rest of your life.” Joyce hesitated, and then said, “Look, if it’s really bothering you, talk to them.” 
“It feels like every time I try I just- you’re better at words than me, why don’t you do it?” 
“Cause they’re not my kids.” Joyce said, leaning over the counter. “Listen, why don’t you write down what you’re thinking and use it as, like, a cue card? Get it all out and then you’ll remember-” 
The door swung open, then, a small bell going off. Joyce stood up and said, “Hold on, customer. Be right back!” 
She ran off to the door, smiling jovially at the woman who came in, looking for something for her son’s party. Hopper smiled after Joyce, content for the moment to just watch her. As she grinned, sunlight bouncing off her hair, he couldn’t help thinking how perfect she was. 
Max flipped a switch, and grinned as they heard some fuzzy music. “Y’all! I found another channel!” 
It was getting darker, and Lucas kept nervously checking his watch; if they were late back to the Byers’ house, they’d worry everyone. Will and Dustin were spread out on the grass, giggling and pointing towards the stars; Dustin had just gotten an astrology book, and was excitedly pointing out constellations to his friend. 
“I had no idea there were so many stars.” Will muttered. 
“I never would have thought of making shapes out of them.” Dustin said. “Who do you think was the first person to do that?” 
“I don’t know, but sometimes I like seeing things in the sky.” Will said. “Like, there- you said that was the Dragon?” 
“Draco, yeah. After the Latin name.” 
“Well it kinda looks more like… a snake. There aren’t legs, but you can see the head. And that star down there, that could make a tongue.” 
“Hey, you’re right!” 
Lucas sat beside them, pointing up. “Look at those stars.” They followed his finger, as he moved it to point out specific shapes. “It looks like a bear.” 
“Yeah!” Will nodded, sitting up a little. 
“I mean, there’s already a bear constellation.” 
“You mean the one that looks like a pot?” 
Max glanced away from the boys’ conversation, her attention drifting to Mike and El; while he braided flowers into her hair, she was making some kind of grass chain. Max moved over, saying, “Hey, mind if I join in?” 
“Not at all.” El said. She finished her chain and started tying it into a circle. “But we should probably get back soon.” 
“We only barely finished the radio, though.” Max said, starting to tie two stalks of grass together. 
“But it’s getting darker. They’ll freak, you know they will.” 
“We’re probably late.” Mike said, not sounding very concerned. 
Max sighed. “Well, maybe if you guys had been more help it would have been set up faster.” 
“We were helping.” El said. 
“Don’t fight.” Mike said, shrinking back slightly. 
“Sorry.” El turned around, putting her hand on his. She glanced at Max and said, “We can come back later. Maybe tomorrow?” 
Max bit her lip. “Sure.” 
El waited a moment, to see if she would say anything, but after a while, she tried to shrug off the awkwardness, and then put her grass chain on Mike’s head. “Grass crown for the Grass King.” she said. 
“What does a Grass King do?” Mike asked, smiling. 
“He wears grass crowns and carries his Grass Queen back down the hill.” 
“Alright, then.” Mike stood up, and El let out a delighted laugh as he picked her up. 
Max rolled her eyes. “Listen, El, just because your boyfriend is tall-” 
“Race back to the Byers, go!” El shouted, and Mike nodded at Max and took off. 
“Hey, no fair!” Max jumped to her feet. “Player Two, get back here! You have to-” she groaned. “Boys, come on, we’re racing back!” 
“Okay!” Lucas jumped to his feet, excited. “I’m faster than Mike, let’s go!” 
“Um,” Will bit his lip. “I might stay here a bit longer. Stars.” 
Dustin noticed his glance, and said, “I’ll stay with him. Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.” 
“Okay, but if you don’t meet us at the Byers’ in thirty minutes,” Max said, “Nancy and Hopper are gonna come up here and kill you themselves.” 
Will’s eyes widened, until he realized Max was joking. Lucas waved at him and Dustin and then ran down, grabbing Max’s hand and dragging her after the rapidly disappearing Mike and El. 
Once they were out of earshot, Dustin glanced back at Will and said, “What is it?” Will shook his head. “Come on, it’s okay. You can tell me.” 
Will sat up, shaking his head again. “It’s dumb.” 
“I doubt it.” 
Finally, Will moved over to the radio. “I was… I was hoping we could… try and call Kali. And her gang. I… I worry about them. They’re still out there alone.” 
Dustin watched him silently for a moment, and said, “That’s not dumb.” 
“But they won’t have a radio. I don’t even know where they are. I was just gonna- gonna flip through channels until I-I heard something- this is dumb.” 
“No!” Dustin scooted forwards, his eyes lighting up. “Here. Start flipping through, and I’ll try to force a vision. Maybe it’ll tell me what channel they’re on.” Will shook his head wildly. “Seriously, it’ll be fine. I’m getting better at it! I’ve been practicing when I’m bored, and I’ve been able to predict small things! Sometimes I can get the visions to tell me what I want! Let me try, okay?” 
Will hesitated. “Only if you’re okay-” 
“Of course! Come on, start flipping!” 
Will hesitated. “How- how do I do that?” 
“Shit, I forgot you don’t know… well, just gimme a moment. I’ll see something.” 
Dustin scooted back, sitting cross-legged and gripping his hands together, hmming slightly. Will’s eyes widened, and he fiddled with the grass, watching his friend try to slow his breathing and concentrate. 
After a moment, Dustin’s hands flew to the radio controls, and he started moving very fast, so fast Will blinked in amazement and leaned forwards, trying to pay attention to what he did. 
“Did you see something?” Will asked. 
“Just… a… flash…” Dustin said, very slowly. “Recently I’ve been getting small… flashes… hold on.” 
He landed on a channel, and Will said, “Is it Kali? Wilder? Mick? F-” 
“I don’t know, I just… had a flash…” Dustin leaned back. “Do you hear anything?” 
Will listened, and then slumped. “No.” 
“It- it could’ve been wrong. Or maybe the wrong time. I can try again-” 
Will shook his head. “It’s not your responsibility. Mike and I should’ve- I should’ve figured something better than just running.” 
“You were in a rush. And if you and Mike had arrived any later, we would’ve been Demodog food.” 
“Well, that was mainly Mike. I… I wasn’t useful.” 
Dustin’s eyes widened. “The hell does that mean? We were all useful! We all went into the tunnels and saved Mike!” 
“I-” 
At that moment, they heard a faint voice from the radio.
“What the…” 
Dustin moved back to the controls, adjusting them slightly. “Does that sound familiar?” Will shook his head again. It sounded male, but it didn’t sound like Funshine or Axel. In fact, it sounded like gibberish.
“Didn’t Max pack a recorder?” Dustin asked. Will nodded, and ran to the bag, which she’d forgotten beside them. He brought out the recorder, remembering her saying something about how her and El used to sing into it and maybe they could do group karaoke or something. He brought it to Dustin, who had finally gotten the voice much louder. 
And now that it was clearer, Will understood what the man was saying. He gaped, and turned to Dustin. Almost instinctively, he tapped on the side of the radio, several dots and dashes. 
Dustin nodded. “That’s Russian. Mike knows Russian, right?” 
Will shuddered, tapping out Papa taught him little. Enough? 
“Record it, we’ll see if we can have him translate when we get back.” 
Will handed him the recorder, thinking. He recognized one or two words thrown in- the boys had all been given basic Russian lessons, in case they were “needed undercover”, whatever that meant. But Mike had been given the most, because he could see people. In the Void. At least, they thought so. Mike never paraded his lessons from the Lab around, but Will remembered some of the doctors discussing “classes,” and occasionally Mike muttering words in other languages under his breath while visiting. 
Dustin was recording, so he didn’t want to speak aloud. So instead he waved his hand until Dustin looked at him, and then he tapped on the ground. A simple question: Do you really think this is important? 
Dustin responded very quickly. At least it will be interesting.
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lyricalbowties · 4 years
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Somebody That I Used To Know.. pt. 2|| Selfpara- Anderbros
Tagging→  Blaine Anderson, Cooper Anderson, (mentions of Rachel Berry, Hunter Clarington, and Sebastian Smythe) Where→  Blaine’s apartment When→ 1/10/20 Warnings&Notes→  Finally part two!  Link t part one HERE.
“How...who..” Blaine laughed nervously. “What I meant to say w-“
            “Yes, Blaine.” Cooper interrupted him, “Tell me, what did you mean to say?”
            Blaine stared at this brother for a long moment before his shoulders relaxed a little. “How did you know? Was it that person you had following me around campus?”
            Cooper chuckled, “No. It wasn’t…I’m drawing a blank on the name. Anyway, no I’ve known for a little while now. I was just waiting until you told me. But I could tell that wasn’t going to happen. Especially since you were trying so hard with Rachel.”
            “I wasn’t ready to tell anyone.” Blaine murmured. He still wasn’t.
            “So, you had Rachel pretend to be your girlfriend?” Cooper asked.
            Blaine hesitated. How he wished he could say that was case instead of the actual truth. He looked away from Cooper, ashamed all over again. “No, it wasn’t like that.”
            Cooper blinked and stared at him, his expression changing ever so slightly as he put the pieces together. “Oh my god. Did Rachel even know you were gay?”
            “Until recently? No. No, she didn’t. Listen, I didn’t plan for it to happen or for it to get as far as it did!” Blaine continued on, cutting Cooper off before he could respond. “I walked her back from a party on campus, we were both really drunk and she kissed me, and I kissed her back and I guess she thought we were dating. And when she announced it at the next party, I had to go along with it and from there I got too afraid to tell her because of how far it got.”
            Cooper gasped. “You slept with her?”
            “No!” Blaine practically shouted, getting to his feet. “I didn’t sleep with Rachel! I know I should have broken it off sooner and I didn’t. I didn’t go into this with the intention of hurting her.”
            Blaine buried his face in his hands a moment and took a deep breath trying to calm himself. Cooper was leaned back in his spot on the couch, one arm now thrown up along the back. There was a long silence that followed. Blaine watched his brother waiting to see if he was going to continue. His mind raced wondering what Cooper was thinking right now, his expression was neutral and hard to read.
            “Who told you?” Blaine decided to ask.
            Cooper shrugged. “Why does it have to be someone? I could have figured it out on my own.”
            “Did you?”
            “I had my suspicions.” Cooper smiled a little, “But I didn’t know for sure until your friend told me—”
            Blaine saw red. He didn’t let Cooper finish before he was shouting. “He is not my friend! That lying asshole, he said he only told Hunter.” He kicked the table causing the liquid in the mugs to slosh out and onto the wood. Ignoring the pain in his foot Blaine paced back and forth, furious with Sebastian all over again. How did he even know Cooper? How would he have contacted him? It didn’t matter how; the point was he was lied to again.
            Cooper’s reaction to Blaine was that of alarm. He lurched forward and quickly tried to clean the table with some of the tissues. He looked up at his brother, “Blaine, woah calm down!” He said, dabbing the wood and lifting one of the magazines that unfortunately sat in the splash zone.
            “He lied! Not that I’m surprised.” Blaine was talking more to himself than his brother.
            “Blaine!” Cooper’s raised voice finally landed on Blaine’s ears and he stopped his pacing. “Who the hell are you talking about? Rebecca told me. You know, cute little curly haired girl you went to high school with. You ‘dated’ her too, if I remember correctly.”
            Rebecca?
            Blaine’s face softened a little. He hadn’t spoken with Rebecca in months, she lived in another state. “What? I..how did-“
            “Your graduation party,” Cooper replied as he finished drying the table. “She approached me and told me that she was going away to college and couldn’t keep an eye on you. She said it wasn’t her secret to tell but she needed someone who was close to you to know. Something about you being alone, and she didn’t like the idea of that.”
            Rebecca was Blaine’s best friend since they were young and moving away from her hurt. She was the first and only person, at the time, to know about Blaine. And she was right. When Blaine came to Ginsburg last year he felt alone. Sure, his classes kept him occupied but he still felt alone. Cooper knew for a year and a half and said nothing.
            Blaine smiled a little, “Yeah. That sounds like her. Why didn’t you say something before now?”
            Cooper sighed, “Because I didn’t want you to have another reason to hate me. I wanted you to tell me in your own time. But then all of this Rachel stuff happened, and Thanksgiving…I couldn’t wait.”
            All Blaine heard was ‘because I didn’t want you to have another reason to hate me.’ And it hurt in a way Blaine wasn’t prepared for. He blinked and his eyes stung as tears rolled out and he quickly reached up and wiped them away. Blaine wanted to tell Cooper he didn’t hate him but that would open the door for discussion of the resentment he felt for so many years and Blaine couldn’t emotionally handle that right now. He avoided eye contact with his brother and turned his gaze to the floor.
            “You didn’t tell mom and dad?” He asked.
            “No.” Cooper scoffed. “Please, I’m not that stupid.”
            “You told them about Rachel.”
            “Yeah, in hopes you’d come clean. I got tired of waiting.”
            Blaine drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, smirking at his brother. Cooper returned the smile for a moment before it dropped.
            “Hey, who were you talking about? Who told Hunter and who is Hunter?”
            Shit.
            Blaine’s eyes went wide trying to think of some kind of talk off while simultaneously scolding himself for jumping to blame Sebastian. He didn’t deserve Sebastian or Hunter as friends in any capacity with the way he acted. “No one.” Blaine shrugged but he could tell Cooper wasn’t buying.
            “Liar. Did this guy, this person who told Hunter, did he out you? Is this the guy who got you the flowers?” Cooper started off angry at the idea of someone outing Blaine but as he tried to connect the dots back to the flowers coming to an incredibly wrong conclusion, he looked more pleased with himself. 
            “What? No! He didn’t get me the flowers, that was someone else.”
            “Ah-ha!” Cooper stood and jabbed a finger in Blaine’s direction, which Blaine promptly slapped out of the way. “There is a someone!”
            “Will you stop that? Yes, there is a someone. No, it is not the person I was referring to. And no, I don’t want to talk about it right now because I’m still processing that you know right now.”
            Cooper pouted. “Aww, come on Squirt.” He walked over to Blaine and poked him in the side.
            Blaine scowled and retreated. “Hey.”
            Cooper poked him again with a large cheeky grin on his face. “Oh, is someone ticklish still?”
            “C-Cooper!” Blaine tried to back away from his brother and held his hands out as a warning to keep away.
            A devilish laugh came from Cooper as he rounded the table and pursued Blaine, poking him in the side when he found an opening. Each poke elicited a surprised yelp from Blaine.
            “Cut it out! We’re not kids anymore.”
            Cooper arched a brow and stood a few feet from Blaine looking for an opening. “I don’t think there is an age restriction when it comes to the older brother picking on his baby bro.”
            Blaine’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not funny, Coop. You know I hate being tickled. I can’t promise that I won’t swing.”
            His brother chuckled and slowly approached him. “And as I always said, I can’t promise I won’t tag you back if you do.”
            They stared each other down for a few more seconds, Blaine ready to retreat and Cooper ready to pounce. Cooper wiggled his fingers at his side, as if he were flexing them to prepare for his attack. Blaine still held his hands out waiting to block his brother. A smile wanted to stretch on Blaine’s face as this moment sent a wave of nostalgia flooding through him back to when they were both little. A time when Blaine looked up to his brother and a time when Cooper had time to play with him, tease him (all in good fun), and simply be around before they drifted apart and Blaine’s admiration turned swiftly to resentment.
            “I’ve been taking boxing lessons.” Blaine warned.
            Cooper scoffed, “Oh yeah? I still have about seven inches on you, so I’d like to see you try.”
            “Seven? I’m not that short! You’re six foot even, Coop. I’m five eight, that’s four inches!”
            Cooper stood there and appeared to be doing the math in his head. “Really? Are you sure you’re not measuring yourself without the gel? You know, the natural poof adds about 2 or 3 inches.”
            “That’s it!” Blaine charged at Cooper with a slight smile and Cooper, caught off guard, went down at Blaine wrapped his arms around his torso and knocked him back. Cooper let out an OOF as his back hit the floor followed by a laugh. Blaine thought he had Cooper pinned until his brother reached up and poked his side causing Blaine to jerk to the side giving Cooper the advantage to flip Blaine onto his back.
            “Too easy.” Cooper sighed and sat on Blaine’s stomach.
            “Cooper!” Blaine wiggled trying to get free but also struggling to breath easily. “Get off!”
            “Nah, I’m kind of comfortable right here.” He said and settled in more.
            Blaine laughed, despite how painful and difficult it was. “Cooper!”
            “Mm? Yes? Did you want some Squirt?”
            “Off! Blaine did his best to flip Cooper or at least nudge him off but it wouldn’t work.
            “You know the drill.” Cooper said sounding bored, “Say the magic word.”
            “Bite me!” Blaine groaned.
            “Nope.”
            “Cooper!”
            “Oh, you’re almost there. You have the first half.” Cooper was clearly enjoying this as much as he did when they were young.
            “Get your ass off of me!”
            “Language.” Cooper poked Blaine in the side and he squirmed even more. “Come on Blaine, you know how this goes.”
            Blaine scoffed and his back was starting to hurt now. He gritted his teeth, “Fine! Cooper Anderson is the bestest, most handsome, of the Andersons.”
            “Ah, one more thing.” Cooper said preparing poke Blaine again.
            “Ugh, and I Blaine could never measure up to him!”
            Cooper was satisfied and stood up, air rushing back into Blaine’s lungs. Cooper reached down and helped Blaine to his feet. The smile on Cooper’s face fell to a more solemn expression. “You know that was just a stupid thing I made up as a kid, right? I don’t want you to think that you don’t measure up. Of course, you do. I’m proud of you, Blaine.”
            He threw an arm around Blaine’s shoulder and pulled him close. He ruffled Blaine’s hair, pulling his hand back to examine it before wiping his hand on his pants. Blaine slowly smiled, still a little out breath. He couldn’t even be upset with Cooper for messing with his hair, not after what he said.
             “Thanks Coop. That means a lot to me, more than you know.”
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Hiya ★
Can I get matchups for A3 and ikevamp ? ( And maybe ikerev ? Hehe~)
I’m an only child who’s a virgo and INTP-T who like to draw traditionally (but only with pencil & pen tho) and loves basically all kinds of music. I like seeing people playing games, and I play some games a bit myself too. I draw and read novels/story books / comics in my free time ♥ ( I’m not into Harry Potter but apparently I’m a Slytherin according to a test I take ).
I have many kind people surrounding me, but I have a hard time expressing what I want or what’s on my mind, so I kinda keep to myself from other people, except a few people that are very close to me, and I also keep a distance between myself and new people, thinking that all the people that I know now are enough. This also makes it easy for me to be treated badly ( thank God I only have good people around me ), but don’t worry, I know my limits and I will fight back to those who mistreated me if I’m super pissed. HARD.
Although I’m like that, I’m always open to people who just want somebody to lend an ear to their problem. I’m probably the mom friend because of that. Though I don’t always properly “listen” to their rants, as sometimes they go into one ear and go immediately out the other ^^
I treasure people who are close to me, so once you get to know me, and if you’re a decent person, I’ll stay loyal to you. And maybe because of my nature in the paragraph before, I may not show it if I love/care for you even tho deep down I really feel that way, but I will express it in any way I can ( though I can be shy doing so sometimes >//////
With friends, that’s my age or close to my age, I’m VERY wild around them 😅. I talk endlessly, I joke around, I get mischievous and play pranks with or towards them. Because I can adapt to other people’s personalities ( except the ones that are being mean for no reason ), I have many types of friends, from the nerds to the bad kids and popular ones, and that means my personality being influenced by all of them.
I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing, but I kinda regret it a lil bit from being influenced by the bad kids, since I curse a lot and getting into fights as a grade-schooler. But aside from that, I don’t really have regrets, since I think a lot about my life but I don’t let it sink an impression on me, so I can easily move on from a bad experience and treasure the good ones.
I act pretty much the same around other people, but how I act still depends on which friend group is I hanging with, since my mom is outgoing, and therefore I have many friends/connections/acquaintances through her. It makes it easier to get what I want because of her ( but I’ve been less spoiled than how I was before, tho )
I don’t really do any kind of physical activity, whether it’s martial arts or just plain sports. The only thing I enjoy is dancing, swimming, and badminton, as I’m pretty good at the latter ( though I rarely swim and been playing less badminton since I came to america). I don’t have good stamina, and just by walking pretty far, or by plain running got me feeling like I’m on the verge of dying TT.
I’m quite open to experiencing new stuff, and I’ll be able to adapt to the new environments pretty easily ( at least that’s what I think judging by how I’m doing in America for four months since I went away for school ).
I’m more of a “behind the scenes” person rather than the one who’s in the spotlight, just because I don’t like all the troubles that go with being the center of attention. So when there are a group project and all that kind of stuff, I’ll be the one who tells everyone what to do (but not the leader), and people sometimes rely on me if there no one else available. Even though I’m heavily involved in things, if something goes wrong, I’ll never take the blame first and try to blame it on something else lol, even if all fingers point to me. ( I’ll try to make excuses for myself )
I have a straight, shoulder-length black hair with dark brown eyes, and I’m pretty annoyed that I’m around 5'0 ( I wish I can get taller ). You can say that I’m chubby, with a few acne here and there decorating my face, and when I’m hot, my whole body turns red ( my friends even joke about it saying my skin is like tomato or boiled crab every summer ). Because of this, I don’t like extreme temperatures, whether it’s very hot or very cold.
I’m bilingual, and also know a bit of vocabulary in some other languages. I know quite some stuff, anything from what we learn in school, to useless fun facts, and it’s because I like to learn about new stuff ( not studying, they’re two completely different things ). I’m not big on practicing the knowledge that I have thought, I’m only big in the theory department.
So, I think that’s all for the description of myself. I’m sorry if it’s too long or too short, as this is my first time requesting longer matchups ^^ thank you again in advance ★
Thanks for the request and I hope you enjoy the matchup! Also, the length is totally fine because the more info, the more I get to use for your matchup. (I just cut the post at the very beginning because it would be a long scroll for everyone else lol).
A3!
I’d pair you with…………………… Citron!
Now matchups for A3! can be difficult because I have 20 different options, so there are way too many possibilities in my head. There were a few contenders for this one, but I ended up choosing Kazunari as your runner-up. Kazunari is an energetic fireball, so the two of you would have so much fun together! He loves your mischevious side and appreciates how much you contribute to the company with your “mom friend” attitude. He can’t help but shower you with affection. 
However, I ended up choosing Citron as your match! He’d really appreciate the fact that you’re one of the few people who don’t roll your eyes or ignore him when he makes mistakes while speaking.  In fact, the two of you would spend time together to improve his English. You’d make some fun games to help him to understand the right words with the right definitions. He does fairly well at first, but he seems to forget all of it after a day or two.
In return, Citron helps you with your mischevious shenanigans. He usually distracts the victim with his bright smile or confusing words, giving you more than enough time to lay your traps before the victim can notice. The only issue is that Citron gets very close to blowing your cover, but he manages to compensate for it in other ways.
Citron loves that you’re open-minded. With that mentality, he can show you all his favorite foods, clothes, and customs from his culture. The two of you have a great time as you’re introduced to new flavors, try on beautiful cultural clothing, and experience a different way of life. Every time he shows you something about his culture, it makes him feel closer to home.
As for your listening habits, Citron doesn’t really mind! Although he has a lot to say, he understands that it’s very easy to get lost with his vocabulary. Every time you find yourself zoning out, he assumes you got confused by his wording and simply moves on. There’s no arguments or squabbles here.
Citron is also amazed that you’re really good at leading despite being a behind-the-scenes person. Since the director is always busy, he often comes to you to see if there’s anything he can do to help improve the quality of the plays or improve his acting. After having a one-on-one session with you, he always walks out feeling like a new and improved man.
Another Possibility: Kazunari Miyoshi
Ikemen Vampire
I’d pair you with………………… Napoleon Bonaparte!
I was really getting Napoleon vibes from your description, but I also thought about Comte! He’d love how you care for everyone in the mansion, especially since he has worked quite a bit to keep them all together. Also, you’d be the mom friend while he’d be the dad friend, so that’s automatically an amazing ship. However, I ended up going with Napolean instead.
Now Napoleon is the easiest to trust (besides Comte) because he’s more human than anyone else in the mansion (so he’s not out to suck all the blood out of your body). He constantly keeps an eye on you, making sure that none of the other vampires harm you. It’s really hard to keep you from harm, however, since you easily make friends with almost all the residents. Luckily, he’s caught Arthot creeping almost three times now.
Napoleon is the perfect muse for your art! You have him sit down in various poses so you can draw the perfect portrait. Although the French leader doesn’t understand why you chose him out of everyone in the mansion. Every time he asks, you look up from your painting board and ask, “Would you like me to paint a nude Arthur instead?” Napolean laughs and doesn’t ask any more questions during the rest of your painting.
Napoleon is the first person to tease you about your red skin during extreme climates. Whenever it’s freezing outside, he’ll look to you with a hearty laugh and ask whether his presence is causing your entire body to blush. All you can do is glare at him because your teeth are too busy chattering against each other to form a response. So Napoleon takes off his jacket and slides it onto your shoulder.
He’s also amazed that you don’t have any major regrets in your life, so Napoleon always encourages you to live your best life. Even if he doesn’t see the point of some of the things you do, Napoleon is always by your side. He’s always willing to participate in your shenanigans for that reason, no matter how crazy they might be. 
You also introduce Napoleon to some of your favorite novels and comic collection. As he picks up a book, you begin to explain the synopsis of the story. After flipping through a few pages, he decides that he’ll take a look into it. A few days later, he’s read the entire novel and unfortunately ships your least favorite pairing. The two of you squabble over it all the time. 
Another Possibility:  Comte de Saint-Germain
Dangerous Fellows
I’d pair you with……………….. Eugene!
Originally, I was going to go with Harry. Similar to what would have gone down with Comte, the two of you would be in charge of keeping the morale high within the group. Also, Harry is drawn to the fact that you’re willing to listen to his problems, especially when he needs a shoulder to cry on. However, I ended up going with Eugene.
Now Eugene is quite some trouble because of his less-than-friendly attitude. However, your friendly nature would slowly bring him closer to you. Although he tries to hide it, it’s very clear the Eugene likes your motherly attitude towards him. No one else gives him that much attention or affection (besides Harry).
Also, Eugene’s personality blends perfectly with your’s. He’d a loud child who needs lots of attention without a sense of direction, while you prefer to stay on the sidelines while assigning roles to others. You give him purpose and love, which allows him to let his guard down around you.
The two of you bond because of your shared interest in music. While Eugene was more involved in music than you were, he’s glad that there’s someone else who understands his passion for the subject. Sometimes, the two of you sneak away to hear Eugene play the piano in the music room. When he does, you close your eyes and forget about all the bloodshed around you. When he’s finished, you quietly applaud him and praise his skills. It reminds him of how much he used to love this feeling.
He declares his love for you by giving you a bag of his favorite chips. It’s not a lot, but he really likes his chips. The fact that he gave you his chips means that he likes you more than his chips, which means he likes you a lot.
Additionally, both of you try to flake out from missions as much as possible. Neither one of you are great at running or other physical activity, so you guys try to convince Lawrence not to let you guys out. Unfortunately, everyone has to do their part and the two of you are shipped out together (Lawrence was trying to kill two bird with one stone), but y’all managed to come back without too much damage.
Another Possibility: Harry
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The daughter of the honorable thief- Harry Hook x Reader- part 1
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 Harry Hook x Daughter of Robin Hood!Reader
warning: offensive slurs
key
 h/c- hair color
 e/c- eye color
 h/l- hair length
 s/c- skin color
 y/n- your name
clothing reference:
harrys auradon look for this part
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your gear for this part(when Harry can see you properly)
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your hair (length and color doesn't matter its just a reference)
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___________________________________
-Harry Hook POV-
It’s been 2 weeks since I've left the Isle to come to boradon, and it's …so so, most people here don’t think my friends and I belong a *cough* Audrey and Chad *cough* so they kept trying to get us in trouble. Like trying to get us to fight them, as it’s a threat that if we get into a fight we’ll get sent back. Weirdly enough, Peter Pan’s son, David, and the next gen Darling kids seemed to not care who was my dad, HELL! Even Wendy herself had decided to ignore my last name and basically adopt me. I’m not kidding! She sends me fucking cookies and shit!!! She invited me for brunch!!!
(and now we return to our regularly scheduled program)
Grabbing my math book and stuffing it in my bag, I sighed to myself and closed my locker, heading out to class.
‘never thought I’d be going to math class, hell on the isle I couldn’t count! I-‘
My thoughts were interrupted as I was slammed into the lockers beside me, turning I glared at the banes of my existence.
The descendants of the lost boys, five of the group of 10 grinning at me with malicious intent
“hey Hook!”
Glaring at them I tried to walk away, breathing deeply as to keep my temper in check.
“come on! we wanna play a game!” Calvin, the son of slightly, grabbed my flannel and threw me to the floor, my head smacking on the floor and black started to edge in my vision, my hearing also beginning to fade out.
‘godamit I can't fight back’
But they didn’t care, they simply just started to beat down on me, hitting my ribs and one kicking my face, pain exploded everywhere.
‘someone, make it stop, please!’
“HA HA! Come on get up Hook! I thought you were tougher than your dad! HAHA!”
“HEY, GET AWAY FROM HIM”
“SHIT ITS-“
The only thing I heard was skin hitting skin, and the yelps of the lost boys. Soon five sets of footsteps ran off and I felt a hand press to my cheek, I softly hissed in pain, and the new person yelled for somebody to get another person. I felt someone pick me up, then I passed out.
---
I could see a light behind my eyelids, moaning in pain as I felt the bruising on my face and ribs, soon I heard someone shuffling over to me
“Mr. Hook? Are you awake?” groaning and nodding my head I slowly opened my eyes, a woman with auburn hair in a bun, wearing a school nurse uniform, stood by the bed, staring at him with worry in her eyes.
“Mr. Hook? Are you feeling alright?” nodding my head I sat up and rubbed my head, feeling a bump at the back of my head.
“what happened?”
“you were apparently assaulted by some of the lost boys and Ms. Loxley brought you here after fending them off.”
I furrowed my brows and asked her who Ms. Loxley was “Ms. Loxley is (y/n) Loxley, daughter of Robin Hood”
I nodded and asked if I could leave the nurses office.
“in a minute, I just need to give you an examination and some medication and then your free to go, oh also your excused from classes for the rest of the week.”
I placed my feet on the ground and stood as she shuffled around the medical room grabbing medication and other stuff
“okay this is for your head and this is for everything else, take both once a day”
“aye, by the way, were is Loxley? I want to…um”
The nurse smiled and informed me that she was at the archery range “do you know where that is Mr. Hook?”
“uh no”
“okay one second”
She walked to the door and looked out and gestured for someone to come
“Mr. De’vil? Can you lead Mr. Hook to the archery range? He would like to see Ms. Loxley”
Carlos looked at me for a second a glint of fear in his eyes before it disappeared after seeing my bruises.
“uh yeah sure come on Harry”
I grabbed my bag that was resting on a nearby chair and followed Carlos (and dude) out the medical room and walked silently behind him, keeping my gaze in front of me, seeing Carlos glancing at me in concern.
He bit his lip before gaining the courage to talk to me, “so what happened? Why were you in the medical room?”
I raised an eyebrow at him before answering “Calvin and his cronies decided I was an easy target cuz of that stupid “vks cant fight” rule” Carlos Hummed in agreement ���yeah Jay hates that rule too, he says it deprives him of the honor of kicking the dudes who insult the VKS asses”
That’s when dude decided to speak “yeah mal hates it too, she has almost snapped many times, but Ben holds her back” I blinked in surprise, I honestly forgot the dog could talk.
“I forgot yer dog could talk.” Carlos snickered, “yeah that surprises people still, it’s really funny when dude does it randomly”
I hummed and saw the archery range, I sped up a little, Carlos keeping up. “ya know, ever since you got to Auradon, you have gotten a lot less scary” I rolled my eyes, I know why.
“Maybe it’s because I can't do anything, I used to be able to do on the isle hmm~?” I pointed out, slightly glaring at the son of Cruella.
“yeah I guess” he mumbled, curling back slightly under my glare. I rolled my eyes (I seem to be doing that a lot) and turned my sight back to the archery range where I saw a female figure walking across the field, carefully aiming at each target, and hitting them with absolute precision.
“whoa” the three of us breathed, never seen anything like that before. She took notice of us staring and made her way towards us, doing her hood to reveal her face, smooth (s/c),(plump/thin) cherry lips, athletic body, (h/l) (h/c) hair messy and framing her face perfectly, those piercing (e/c) eyes staring at me once again, that’s when I realized, this was the girl I saw the day I came!
‘dang she’s actually really pretty’
“hello,” she grinned “what brings you three down here?” I don’t waste any time, “are ye the one who thrashed the lost boys?” a proud glint came to her eyes and she confirmed that yes, she was the one who saved me.
“oh well.. um... I…” dammit why was it so hard to say thanks! She giggled and waved me off “you’re welcome Harry! Are you alright by the way?”
“uh yeah, the nurse gave me painkillers and stuff”
“that’s good”
Carlos stood awkwardly before picking up dude, announcing that he was going to head to his dorm.
“see ya Carlos!”
“see ya (y/n)”
Harry only waved and turned back to you.
As Carlos left the two of you talked and Harry walked with you as you retrieved your arrows, soon you both heard the dreaded sound of other people, Chad and his ‘‘friends” walked around the edge of the range, laughing obnoxiously to themselves.
Chad looked around, saw you and Harry and turned to his “friends” and gestured to the two of you, the boys grinned maliciously and headed towards you.
“hey look” both you and Harry groaned, turning to look at the son of Cinderella, “it’s the dyke and the fag!”
Harry gritted his teeth, and your glare became deadly. You facepalmed at the use of the slurs, Chad was so narrow-minded.
“go away Chad!” he smirked “no I don’t think I will~”
Harry mumbled to you “why’d he call ye a dyke?”
“I've dated a few girls in my life so he decided I was lesbian cuz I haven’t dated a boy”
“ah” “Why'd he call you a fag?”
“im a pirate, it's kinda the stereotype that goes with it”
“got ya”
“you two fags done talking?”
Harry was really close to punching Chad, but he couldn’t cuz of that stupid rule. You glanced at Harry  knowing he couldn’t do anything, but you could, drawing three arrows you lined them up and glanced at chad, he froze like deer in headlights, knowing your skill, his “friends” started giggling
“come on girly!”
“yeah we all know archery is a man's sport”
“Yeah, I bet you can't even draw the string!”
Keeping your breath calm you spoke in a deadly voice, shocking Harry.
“you all have three seconds to leave and stop bothering us before I do something you'll regret”
“hahaha is she serious!”
“one”
“id love to see this!”
“two”
“shoot shoot!”
“three”
Tumblr media
Drawing the string back you aimed at Chad, releasing the arrows pierced Chad's shirt and pants and pinned him to a nearby tree, Causing his “friends” to shut up, never having seen something like that before.
Harry jaw dropped open ‘holy crap shes good!’ you smirked and drew another arrow, the group reeling back in fear
“I warned you~” you sang,”now leave! And take charming there with you” the idiots nodded, unpinned Chad and bolted for the school.
You and Harry stood there for a moments before bursting out laughing
“that” Harry gasped “was amazing!”
You giggled and retrieved your arrows “thanks!! That was really fun!”
*briiidng*
Hearing the bell ring, you packed up and started to make your way to your dorm “hey! Were ye going?”
“my dorm, the bell rung, my free periods over so I gotta get to class, you should get going as well”
“Oh okay” waving to harry you exited the range before Harry called after you “(y/n)!” turning to harry you saw his face flush, “um,…thank you”
You grinned at him “you’re welcome Harry”
The two of you went your own way, Harry to his dorm to rest, you to your dorm to put your gear away.
Only one thought rested in your minds
‘why is she so kind to someone like me?’
‘who knew the son of Hook could be so handsome’
 --end of part 1-- if part 2 is wanted, please comment or message me.
@lunarwitch6 @holythingdragonpaper sorry this took so long
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sheepsandcattle · 5 years
Text
Chapter 3
When Curly was really young, he’d get these nosebleeds for what seemed like no reason at all. He remembers one summer when he was fifteen, where he pulled his school shirt over his head without undoing the buttons, running too late to faff about with them. It was a tight squeeze but when he eventually got it on and looked up into the mirror, the white cotton was wet with deep shades of red, smudged over his mouth and chin and the sight alone made him queasy.
Even before that, he’d wake with his face in puddles of the stuff - he remembers the first time that happened and how he thought he was dying, coughing up blood as he scrambled out of bed. The doctor didn’t seem that bothered by it (“some children’s noses just bleed,” he’d said) and he was probably right because, as Curly grew older, the nosebleeds became less frequent. His nose still always bleeds on planes (always) and on results day it bled too - all over the papers (he never was too bothered about that though; he only passed two classes anyway, so sod it) but otherwise, the nosebleeds were and still are rare and mostly random.
He’s holding half a dozen tissues up to his face, absorbing the blood as he uses more to mop up the spots that have landed on the counter.
“Maybe you should step into the back.” Emily is handing him more tissues, tearing them from a Kleenex box like she has been for the past five minutes. Curls recons she’ll pull a rabbit out of the thing any minute now. “Do you need to leave early?”
“M’alright, Em,” he says, muffled by the tissues, before he throws them into the nearest bin and hurriedly takes the next handful from her. “It’ll only last a bit. S’just migraines.”
He can’t leave early, not after already doing so yesterday because he was sick in the staffroom sink from drinking and smoking and doing whatever else until 5am the night before - only to go out again just a few hours after he left work. He thinks he covered it okay, but he’s not certain.
His mum always said his nosebleeds were stress-related; said he’d get too obsessive over silly things and let them take over his life until his body couldn’t take the strain, and sometimes that stress would cause his nose to bleed and his head to get cloudy. He supposes she could be right, because he has been just a bit stressed recently.
It’s not a massive deal; when Jules and Oscar would complain about how the police were always on their backs, Curly thought they were just being dramatic, trying to sound hard when, in reality, nobody is really all that threatened by them. But he has a criminal record now. It’s only for possession, and he knows it could be so much worse, but he feels stupid and shaken and then he had to walk into the shop today, wringing his hands guiltily as he explained it to his boss.
She said “it’s an awkward situation, Curly” but “work today and we’ll figure it out from there.”
He’s got to see his mum today for dinner and he’s not sure how to look her in the eye. It’s so stupid; he’s been doing all sorts of shite for months, but now he’s in trouble with the police and they have his address and they already knew Jules’ full name and will probably remember his now too and he doesn’t feel like himself.
When his shift ends, he walks home because he knows he’ll still have a bit of pot in his system and doesn’t dare get behind the wheel in case somebody with a badge spots him and recognises him from the night before.
The night before: that’s when it all happened. In an abandoned building just outside the town centre. It was just pot - thank God it was just pot - and Jules’ mate, Blake, parked far enough away to somehow get away with it when they said they hadn’t driven there.
If he thought getting locked in the back office of Tesco in Chelmsford after nicking a hand-full of mini-eggs from the pick’n’mix was bad, then last night was another level. Crying and apologising and having his dad pick him up was a perfectly fair option for him when he was thirteen - not so much last night. Not that he really tried; just sat quietly, answered honestly and sulked home when it was all over while Jules, Oscar and that Blake lad scoffed at how uptight the cops had been ‘this time around.’
***
“Wait wait wait,” Curls splutters, snatching Jules’ wrist to still him. “Hang on a minute. Give me a second.”
Jules rolls his eyes because it’s the fourth time Curls has leaned away from the syringe now. His hands are getting cold, losing circulation from the band looped around his bicep. He slips a finger beneath it, tugs to ease the pinch a bit, just for a second.
Daft bloody idea, this is. He’d walked into the apartment to Jules holding a fat spliff between his lips as he helped Oscar shoot up. Oscar says this shit calms his nerves, says he only really uses it when he runs out of them pills he keeps in his drawer with his boxers, but Curly recons the bloke does it a bit too much to use a lack of anything else as an excuse.
He’d said, “how are you getting high after what happened?” As he flopped down on the sofa, hands still shaking and nose still sore from the dried blood catching his hairs and causing his eyes to twinge a bit.
“How aren’t you?” Oscar had barely opened his mouth to speak through his teeth, already spacey even before Jules had loaded the needle. “Aren’t you stressed?” A shrug. “It helps.”
“I’m not sure a hit would help when getting high was what got me in this mess in the first fucking place,” Curly had scoffed.
But now he’s here, sat beside where Oscar now lays on his back, shaking his leg anxiously as Jules swirls the metal tip around in a grubby-looking liquid.
“It’s not gonna fucking kill you, man,” Jules huffs around the blunt that he’s holding in his mouth again, and he waves his hand about as he speaks like the needle he’s holding is nothing. “Hold still and let me take some pity on you.”
Curls groans as Oscar pats his shaking knee, then rests his hand there until it stills. “The shit about it being so addictive ain’t true, Curls,” he mumbles.
But Curly’s not daft. He’s sniffed it before and it was fine. If he thought it’d be that easy to form a reliance, the thought of touching the stuff would never have even crossed his mind.
His dad always said he’s got an addictive personality, would get obsessive over the stupidest things like people or habits or foods. Nothing serious, but then, yeah, he’s also taken his chances with suspicious pills and alcohol and even gambling for that one month when he turned eighteen before he decided that more logic went into it than he thought and he couldn’t really be arsed with it.
Smoking is the only thing that’s stuck, and he considers it a sign; proof that he’s got more restraint than his old man thinks. But still—
“It’s more about the bloody needle than the chance of—“ He huffs, can’t be arsed to argue. Instead, he says, “just… Count me in.”
“Okay, one…“
“Do to five.”
“Two…”
The needle slides into his skin.
“Prick,” he hisses, but is ignored as Jules focusses on drawing the tiniest bit of blood before he’s pushing the liquid out of the syringe. Curls forces himself not to twitch as the metal slips back out. “You’re a prick,” he says again.
“It’s done now.” Jules just shrugs. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Curls inspects his arm, a tiny welt in the crease of his elbow now, then observes Jules as he tidies up around himself (doesn’t take a hit - rarely does), all of them silent for a while.
“Listen, you’re not risking shit. We told you before: the cops are always on our backs. Have they shown up here before?” Jules holds out the blunt but Curly shoves it away. “Nobody gives a shit about possession, Curly. You’ll live. Besides, you’re not exactly conspicuous…”
He feels heavy. Eases himself down onto his back like Oscar had and, yeah, makes sense now.
“… you drive a Corsa, pal.”
He can feel the dull throb in the crease of his arm. Feels Jules loosen the band on his bicep and slip it off, and feels this fingers heat up as blood fills them again, adds more weight to another limb.
Taking ket with Brandon that one time took away every bit of mobility he had. He felt so heavy that he sat paralysed as he fell into a k-hole; flashes and blurs suffocating him as he sat helplessly on his mate’s bed, against a poster that tore beneath the weight between his back and the wall as he slumped.
This weight though is oddly comforting, blanketing him as his eyes become heavy. He closes them - feels like he’s getting sick, or getting over a sickness and it all comes on so suddenly. All fatigued and… The need to put some curtains up. The light burns through his eyelids.
“You carry a flip phone,” Jules goes on distantly. What’s he on about now?
It does seem a bit daft, he thinks. Being worried about something that’s happened already. It’s not a huge deal, Jules had said as Curly glared down at the paperwork he was left with - had requested a copy as his mates took the piss out of him for it. The police officer had looked sorry for him.
“… You’re on record now. Done.”
It’s not a massive deal. It’s not a massive deal.
It sort of doesn’t feel like a massive deal now - and he knows it’s the drugs; knows the effects, but he welcomes the new feeling of calm; understand where Oscar was coming from before.
“… It was gonna happen eventually.”
“Look, he’s nodding,” Oscar chuckles like he does, and then hits the back of his hand against Curly’s chest. “Better?
“Mm.”
Nodding?
It sounds like Jules is still clearing his shit up, dropping bits and bobs into a tin and closing the lid, goes, “don’t know what you were worrying about.”
He wants to say ‘yeah, you’re right’; is going to; uses all of his effort to sit up because maybe he owes him an apology for being so stroppy before. But then he opens his mouth and—
“Mate.” Swallow. “I’m goin’ be sick.”
***
It gets easy after that.
Jules is right, the idea of getting caught isn’t quite as daunting, but he’s still a little more careful now - just in different ways.
He learns that it doesn’t matter what you’re up to as long as it doesn’t look like you’re up to anything. Jules and Oscar still smoke, drink and sometimes shoot up in daft places, but Curly opts out of it now - never takes that shit outside his own or other people’s homes.
He hangs out with Jeff and Dean more instead, who always said it was lame and immature to smoke up in parks and alleyways anyway.
Instead, they watch films from the 80’s. They introduce Curly to cheesy but golden American sitcoms, and Curly introduces them to some of his favourite songs from home - something he’s delighted to discover they’ve heard little of until he shares it. Nowt much better than introducing your mates to a mint band they’ve never heard of before. He makes a playlist for the next time he meets someone that he finds worthy of it.
It’s funny how much more mature this duo is, yet the things they do for fun are so pleasantly mundane, so innocent in comparison to whatever carnage his roommates get up to in his absence.
“They forgot how to have a good time without getting fucked up,” Jeff says one night, never afraid to speak his mind.
Dean tends to be a little more sympathetic. He adds, “we all did,” shrugging as he goes on. “Except we snapped out of it and they never did.”
Curls offers, “I don’t think they want to,” because he’s seen them when they’re back here, at home, content with how things are ticking along.
He sees the fun in it too, he can admit that to himself, but he chooses not to share it here.
It reminds him a bit of when his mum and dad got divorced. He thinks about it one night when Jeff and Dean go on about how things have changed, only for them to leave as Jules and Oscar return and give a similar speech on the opposing party. Curly nods and agrees because they’re all his mates and he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s picking favourites.
Except his mum and dad at least tried to act like they weren’t slagging each other off.
It doesn’t really bother him. It’s quite funny, really.
After a while though, Jules and Oscar seem to catch on to the change. Curls tries not to offend them when he explains himself, tries to express exactly why he chooses hanging out at home with his mates over getting shitfaced in some abandoned warehouse. Whether they agree or just miss seeing Jeff and Dean’s faces around, they seem to spend more time in the apartment after that.
He feels a bit bad, feels like he’s isolating them, but they seem to have fun at home anyway. It only happens in the space of a few weeks, but Jeff and Dean must have been hanging around with him out of guilt for his lack of company, because they fizzle out when his roommates bring their drugs back home with them instead.
Shame really, because sometimes he thinks he prefers their company.
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ecofinisher · 5 years
Text
The Adventures of Super Nathan 2 - Chap 22
Chapter 22
https://archiveofourown.org/works/18224606/chapters/47744572
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13243294/22/Miraculous-The-Adventures-of-Super-Nathan-2
https://www.wattpad.com/769049273-miraculous-the-adventures-of-super-nathan-2
Little warning: This chapter might be a little too "naughty". Or just cringey, because of certain situations caused by Naughty Boy 
At the rooftops of a building, Super Nathan ran along with Miss Vixen as they saw from the far the supervillain Naughty Boy pass by aiming a few citizens to convert their personality traits. The superheroes jumped to the next building crossing it, then took another gap to the next building heading to the end of the building, then stopped in front of a wall and ducked down to hide from the villain.
“Stay down!” Ordered Miss Vixen leaning against the wall with her partner.
“Where is he? Questioned Super Nathan glancing over the wall to see the villain throw another paper plane at someone down at the streets. “Another one was caught,” Super Nathan said gazing at Miss Vixen, then looked up at her fake-fox ears looking over the wall a slight bit. “Uhm you know your ears are showing, right?” Questioned the purple-skinned superhero, then Miss Vixen passed her fingers under her hair to reveal her normal human ears.
“They’re right here” Miss Vixen mentioned covering them again.
“I mean the fox ears,” Told Super Nathan. “They’re long and notable”
“My ears aren’t the only long thing here,” The vixen heroine said with a smirk, making Super Nathan shriek in embarrassment.
“Lila!” Exclaimed Super Nathan turning light purple on his cheek.
“Hey don’t you worry. No one else is here beside me” Miss Vixen assured the boy, which groaned at her comment.
“Yeah that’s great and all, but hide your ear before he spots us” Ordered Nathaniel’s superhero identity looking worried at his girlfriend.
“I don’t think his eyesight is that good to spot us by my ears”
“Who knows”
“I do” Responded the heroine making the boy roll his eyes.
“Good, but when he actually finds us, it’s because of your ears” Super Nathan pointed out.
“We’ll see it then,” Miss Vixen said slowly moving her head out of the wall to watch the supervillain look down at the ground, then she ducked down again to look at her boyfriend. “Imagine how our relationship would be if we didn’t know each other’s identities”
“One thing would be your innuendos every time we’re together. They wouldn’t probably exist”
“Yeah most likely.” Agreed Miss Vixen. “Unless I also would find it amusing to provoke you like that”
“Hahaha”
“Dork” Miss Vixen replied with a giggle, then over the two appeared Naughty Boy staring down at the two superheroes, which afterward had looked up in surprise to see the supervillain over there.
“Oh, who do we got here?” Naughty Boy said descending down at the two superheroes. “Mr. and Mrs. Vixen”
“What?” Questioned Miss Vixen at his strange quotation. “I don’t think Super Nathan would take my name if we got married”
“Not even her. I don’t think she would even change her name to Mrs. Vixen or Mrs. Super Nathan-Vixen, or Mrs. Vixen-Super-Nathan….man those combinations sound awful. I think with our real names it would sound better”
“I don’t care about, what sounds better...where are Lila and Nathaniel?” Questioned the duo-colored supervillain.
“You have to be more precisely, Naughty Boy. There are many Lila’s or Nathaniel’s in this city” Miss Vixen said at the supervillain, which got angry at the girl.
“Kurtzberg Nathaniel and Lila I’m gonna steal yo man...whatever her name is!”
“I’m going to pretend I haven’t heard this, but I don’t think she hasn’t stolen your man,” Miss Vixen said.
“You just shut up. You don’t even know, who you’re talking about” Naughty Boy ordered, surprising Miss Vixen at his behavior.
“Naughty Boy listen, Nathaniel already has somebody he loves and cares about it. He also seems very happy about it. Do you really want to ruin his relationship with Lila, just because you love him?”
“I should be the one in her place! How did she manage to get out with him?”
“That’s a question I don’t know, how to answer, but...”
“Listen to me Naughty Boy, I know this is very hard for you, but you have to see it from another perspective. Nathaniel is happy in his relationship with her and I tell you, there’s nothing better than seeing your love happy, even if it is with another person”
“And there’s nothing worse, than ruining your crush’s happiness, just because you wanted so badly to be with her. I don’t know, if you understand us?” Super Nathan asked glancing at the supervillain, which looked down thinking about the words of the two superheroes, then he shook his head and raised his arm up in the air, snipping with his fingers making an airplane appear over his fingers.
“Oh no, you don’t” Super Nathan said holding his tablet up to capture an image of him, then before he could do anything on Naughty Boy, Miss Vixen took off hitting with her flute on his hand to avoid him from using it.
“Hey!” Shouted Naughty Boy watching Miss Vixen fly off, then he looked at Super Nathan which grinned at the supervillain, then as he snipped with his fingers to get another paper plane, Super Nathan searched quickly on his previous stored drawings for the recent ones and picked a bunch of basketballs and dragged that layer into the screen over Naughty Boy’s live image, so that in real life the sports balls would appear over him, falling down on his head, causing him to fall with his vehicle down.
“Sorry, you didn’t leave me any other opportunity.” Super Nathan said shrugging his arms, then he pressed on his 3D-render model on his tablet and restored from the saved layers his jet pack and took off in the air to follow Miss Vixen, which heads at the arc de Triomphe.
“Do you think we’re alone in this situation?” Questioned Super Nathan glancing at the girlfriend.
“I don’t know” Responded Miss Vixen. “We took a little in tracking Naughty Boy. He must have reversed them during the time we couldn’t find him”
“If Lady Red was caught we have to deal with Naughty Boy on our own until she’s freed”
“Yes, good thing we can at least break the things, where the akumas are. Imagine we also needed Lady Red to do that”
“That would be a catastrophe” The redhead mentioned earning a nod from the superheroine. “I just wonder, if they’re alright” Super Nathan said fleeing along with the heroine.
Inside a bar many young teens were watching a group of girls dancing the macarena in the middle of the room, amazed by the joy they had.
In the middle of the crowd was the tan-skinned boy Wayhem observing the girls do the macarena, then he tried to copy their dance moves slowly and memorized them quickly, so he could dance. Wayhem also was enjoying it to dance, then he watched beside him pass a tall light brunette girl with a plaid shirt and blue jeans, then stood in front of the girls, which had stopped to see the girl there, which started to do the heel-toe very professionally, making the audience clap at her, then the girls tried to copy Alya Césaire, but they couldn’t move their feet as great as she could with her sneakers.
“I can do that too!” Wayhem said running at the center next to Alya, then started to do the same move as the brunette. “I bet you can’t top that!”
“Ah, I can top that,” Alya said stepping on the floor watching Wayhem observing her and trying to improve his feet skills, then he steps on his other foot falling back on the floor. “Loser!” Alya said holding her finger and thumb in front of her forehead in the form of an L.
At the entrance, a few teens rushed into the room and in the middle of the crowd was Adrien Agreste being pulled by his girlfriend Kagami Tsurugi.
“There is one and there are two spaces free for us,” Kagami told the blonde, which nodded then got pulled again by the girl, which guided him to a hookah, where two other teens were sitting together inhaling the smoke.
“I always wanted to try to smoke out of these things,” Adrien said sitting down on a chair, while Kagami sat down on the chair next to him.
“Oh this one is with honey,” Kagami said putting the hose into her mouth to inhale the dark yellow colored smoke, then exhaled the smoke out. Adrien placed the end of the hose in his mouth, then inhaled a long bit of the stuff into his mouth, then he opened his mouth to release the smoke.
“Holy shit…..that’s some good stuff,” Adrien said wrapping his face in disgust, then watched the boys vice versa to him exhaling out the fume while sitting there relaxed. Adrien smirked and decided to start a conversation with the two. “Are you two often here?”
“Every weekend man” Responded the first guy with short black hair, earning a nod from Adrien, then the boy glanced at Kagami, which was slowly removing the hose off her mouth releasing smoke from her mouth smiling at how delicious the flavor tasted. “Your girlfriend is horny. Is she Asian?”
“She’s Japanese” Responded Adrien inhaling a little bit of fume into his lungs to let it go afterward.
“You’re doing it wrong. Do it like this” The boy instructed the blonde taking a suck from the pipe, then exhaled the fume out of his lungs. “Now you”
“I’m kind of not used into this flavor,” Adrien said placing the hose in his mouth, then breathed the smoke in and exhaled it out. “Oh boy”
“You’re not a smoker, right?” Asked the second boy looking at Adrien, which was about to answer the question, then got blown with smoke by Kagami. “Hey?” Questioned Adrien watching Kagami put the thing into her mouth again inhaling the fume into her and exhale it out at Adrien’s face, making him close his eyes to avoid it to get into his eyes.
“Why do I get turned on, every time she does that?” Questioned the second boy looking at the first, which smirked at him taking a breath from the pipe, making the boy frown insulted by the friend and got blown by his friend with the smoke. “You jerk”
“I was just kidding,” The boy said watching the two smoke, then the door at the entrance got broken as an orange dressed person had crashed against it causing it to break, shrieking a few of the new visitors of the bar.
“It’s Miss Vixen!” One of the guests said, then Miss Vixen got up on her feet looking at the guests all glancing at her, while the rest were busy dancing around. “It’s an emergency, hide all inside the restrooms or any other places, except here. Now!” Ordered Miss Vixen making the others panic and ran around to look for a room to hide. “Come on, all of you.” Miss Vixen demanded watching another part of the group still dance around like nothing was going on.
“Yeehaw! I won! I won! And you have lost my friend! Oh yeah! Uh hu, uh hu!” A voice hollered from the near of the heroine and the brunette turned around to see her classmate Max Kanté stand on a table dancing while in front of him on the table sat two guys half-naked and one of them was Jean Duparc from the other 12th grade, which was fully naked and Miss Vixen could see him there holding his hands to cover his genitals, making Miss Vixen cover her eyes in embarrassment at the sight of it.
“I think they were already caught by Naughty Boy before,” Miss Vixen said, then behind her arrived Super Nathan landing beside the heroine.
“Get prepared Miss Vixen, he’s coming,” Super Nathan said, then widened his eyes in confusion as he saw the same picture as his girlfriend. “Uh….Naughty Boy?” Asked Super Nathan earning a nod from the girl, then in front of them passed Kagami guiding Adrien behind her gazing flirtatiously at him while Adrien just followed her keeping his soft smile on his face.
“There they are and…..I think they were caught too” Super Nathan mentioned watching the two head to a corner, which had a few couches and there was already another couple sharing one and cuddling together there.
“Look after the mission we could just sit down there and snuggle with each other?” Miss Vixen suggested with a wink at the purple-skinned boy.
“S...sure,” Said a little abashed, then looked at the corner, where Adrien had just sit down and the blue-haired girl had got on his laps placing her knees beside his legs and grabbed the boy behind his head, going in for a long kiss.
“If Kagami could see herself acting like that around Adrien….boy I wouldn’t know, how she would react,” Miss Vixen said glancing at her boyfriend which nodded, then the two jumped shortly as they heard Naugthy Boy yell as he got into the room.
“You two really thought I wouldn’t find you here, didn’t ya?” Naughty Boy asked staring angrily at the two superheroes.
“How should we think that, if I got catapulted here” Miss Vixen mentioned making Naughty Boy growl and snipe with his fingers to recall a paper plane he could use against the heroes.
“I’ve got enough of you two. Why don’t you leave?” Questioned Naughty Boy throwing the paper plane at Miss Vixen, then Super Nathan jumped up in front of the girl to grab the paper plane, which disappeared as soon as it touched his hands and Super Nathan landed on the ground in front of the fox-themed heroine.
“Super Nathan!” Yelped the brunette watching her boyfriend got up and look at her.
“Hey hot stuff, got a soft spot for a tiger like me?” Super Nathan asked with a smirk, making Miss Vixen giggle at the weird pick-up line, then shrieked as the boy grabbed her on the taille, forcefully to go for a kiss, but Miss Vixen kicked off with her fists her brainwashed boyfriend away from her, causing him to fly across the room landing on top of a crown, which then moved the defeated boy over the crowd, similar to a rock concert.
“Oh yeah! Super Nathan is our star!” Wayhem cried loud jumping at the stage to observe the crowd, then he got ready to throw himself at the ground and behind him he heard something squeak, afterward he turned his head back to see Myléne Haprèle descending down a pole making some strange chicken sounds, making Wayhem smile goofy, then jumped up at the pole to join her. “I love this song!” Wayhem announced continuing the song, while Myléne tried to climb up on the pole again.
“I’m so sorry babe,” Miss Vixen said apologetic, then glared up angry at the supervillain. “Stop reversing all the citizens, none of them has ever done anything to you”
“They’re all happy. Everyone is in a relationship with anyone, all have friends and best friends… and I’ve got nothing”
“The reason you’ve got nothing is, because you’re always alone in the breaks by yourself, writing stories, fanfictions. Why don’t you try to befriend someone from your class, Nathaniel’s class?” Suggested Miss Vixen. “Or wait….you and Nathaniel are friends, aren’t you?”
“Yes and I wanted more than that, but this stupid Italian girl got in the way”
“Naughty Boy, stop blaming everyone else for your failures. It’s not their fault. If Nathaniel doesn’t love you the way you do, it’s not his fault. It’s like that. Full stop. You prefer to spend your break in writing inside a notebook anything fictional instead of hanging with any of your friends. That’s not Nathaniel’s fault nor Lila’s, that’s yours. There’s nothing wrong with fiction thought, it’s your favorite hobby, so it is mine, except I’ve haven’t had enough time due to being a superhero.”
“Shut up!”
“NO!” Yelled Miss Vixen. “Just listen to me! Don’t blame the others for your own failures. Don’t blame others, if you’re attracted to guys, don’t blame others, that you don’t have or think you don’t have any friends, don’t….”
“Tell me, how I should befriend people, that don’t feel interested in befriending a freak?” Naughty Boy asked loud, making Miss Vixen raise her left eyebrow bewildered.
“You’re not a freak Marc. Why do you think that way?”
“Because they all call me like that”
“Who?” Asked Miss Vixen.
“All! Okay!” Shouted Naughty Boy angry.
“Nathaniel would never call you like that!” Protested Miss Vixen loud.
“And how do you know that? Are you his girlfriend or what?”
Miss Vixen frowned at the villain, which wide his eyes at her figuring out, who’s behind the mask of the vixen-themed miraculous holder.
“You’re Lila Rossi!” Hissed Naughty Boy enraged. “You…..manipulating….vicious….beast!” The akumatized boy roared creating another orange paper plane with his fingers, aiming Miss Vixen, which snarled back at the boy like a fox, waiting for him to throw the plane at her and as he did Miss Vixen filled her lungs with air to released her vixen scream causing the supervillain to get blown away and hit with his head on the deck, then fall down on the floor, while around him the wall had collapsed due to the wave of the cry. Miss Vixen looked down at the paper plane on the floor, then took her flute from behind her back and jumped against the vehicle breaking it with her instrument, then saw from the paper vehicle the akuma flying up in the air, a little shaky due to the impact of the special power of Miss Vixen.
“Good” Miss Vixen said, then observed Naughty Boy transform back into Marc Anciel, then Miss Vixen went to the boy sitting him up to check for his safety. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine” Responded Marc placing his hand in front of his forehead. “What happened?” The boy asked looking at the crowd in front of him happily holding Super Nathan, then seconds later they had turned normal and stopped cheering, while on the top the art miraculous holder, moved his head up to look, where he was and he fell into the crowd on the floor. “Whoa!”
Miss Vixen chuckled at his fall, then watched Max Kanté hold his eyes covered as he had seen Jean and another boy picking up their clothes blushing embarrassed at that moment, while at the stage Myléne sat on the end of the stage with her boyfriend Ivan Bruel in front of her trying to calm her down about the situation and Wayhem holding on his hands his shirt unknowing about, what had happened.
“I was akumatized, wasn’t I?” Marc asked looking at Miss Vixen, which nodded with a sad face, then Marc looked tragic at all the people together with Miss Vixen, which wide her eyes in shock and ran towards the couches at the corner, where her friends Adrien and Kagami were.
Miss Vixen shrieked as she saw Kagami still sitting over Adrien’s lap, noting the blonde had his belt opened up to the side and Kagami’s leggins were pulled back to the thighs, but the skirt censored to the heroine anything immodest.
“Kagami, get off. You need to catch the akuma!” Miss Vixen ordered moving the blue-haired on the arm, which was deepened in the kiss with Adrien. Kagami opened her eyes, then let go of the boy, which also opened his eyes and looked down, therefore he wide his eyes in shock as he saw his and Kagami’s hand under the skirt, which made Adrien’s face turn redder than a neon light.
“Kagami” Adrien yelped, shrieking Kagami which jumped off Adrien’s legs, just to see Adrien’s front of the pants open and a bulge forming inside his boxers, which were just pulled down by an inch  before he was uncovered.
“What happened?” Asked Kagami in panic, then Miss Vixen placed her arm on her left shoulder to calm her down.
“You were brainwashed before by an akuma to act naughty, but nothing happened between you, luckily” Miss Vixen explained. “Quick you have to catch that akuma, before it leaves to multiply”
“Hey! I can hold it!” Super Nathan told holding the akuma by its wing. “Quick”
“Go ahead, hide into the restrooms or somewhere else to transform” The brunette whispered earning a nod from the blue-haired girl, that left her back and Miss Vixen watched Adrien get up to close the zipper of his pants and to adjust his belt.
“We didn’t really get that far, didn’t we?” Asked Adrien a little tensed about the situation.
“I don’t think so” Miss Vixen assured the blonde, which looked down at his pants and up at the heroine. “The only thing, that might have happened was, you getting excited” “Thank god,” Adrien said, then Lady Red raced beside them and threw her yo-yo to catch the akuma, to activate the healing light to restore everything, that was destroyed during the fight with Naughty Boy. “I couldn’t live with this if it had happened”
“I don’t think Kagami would be mad at you. You were caught by Naughty Boy. You were just acting differently, you didn’t want to rape her or anything”
“I know, but I still don’t feel well about it,” Adrien said disappointed.
“Just talk with her about it, she will understand it,” Miss Vixen said, then she walked at Lady Red and Super Nathan.
“Okay, I’m done” The ladybug-themed heroine announced earning a nod from the fox-themed superheroine.
“Sure, go check the others,” Miss Vixen asked watching Lady Red leave the two, then Super Nathan gave his girlfriend a tight hug.
“Whatever I did to you under Naughty Boy’s hands, I’m so sorry!” The purple-skinned hero apologized making the heroine smile and peck him on his cheeks. “How bad was I”
“You were fine” Responded Miss Vixen. “You just called me hot stuff and described yourself as a tiger”
“I don’t even look like one if I did probably a white one with stripes...or an extinct one”
“I’m just glad, you’re yourself again,” Miss Vixen said placing her hands on Super Nathan’s pecs, making him grin and lean his face closer to Miss Vixen’s to kiss her.
“Miss Vixen?” A voice called, then the heroes stopped and both looked to two different sides, only Miss Vixen found out quick from where the voice came, which was from Naughty Boy’s alter ego.
“Oh, there he was,” Super Nathan said looking from the other side back at the raven-haired boy.
“I just wanted to apologize for everything I cause, when akumatized. I wish I could remember what I did and who I hurt during it, but I just can’t remember, not even from the time I was Reverser and haunting Nathaniel and Marinette all over Paris”
“It’s alright,” Miss Vixen said.
“It just happened, just give your best to keep your negative feelings down, as long as we haven’t taken care of Hawk Moth’s new successor, or whoever he is” “All in your superhero squad are professionals. You’re gonna manage this all”
“Thanks boy,” Super Nathan said. “And I know this is hard for you and you probably don’t want to listen to it at all, but….”
“I’m going to apology to all, mostly Nathaniel and Lila. I should have told him earlier about my feelings, not making him feel bad for not knowing it before or judge people I barely know” “You’re going to make it Marc. Also the people in the art class sure see you as a friend and there’s no reason to think, they’re not”
“I think you’re right. I hope they will understand me” Marc said earning a nod from the superheroes, then Miss Vixen’s miraculous started to beep.
“Oh look, I’ve gotta go,” Miss Vixen said. “Will you be okay?”
“Sure” Responded Super Nathan.
“Goodbye, Super Nathan” Miss Vixen said pecking the superhero on his forehead, making him grin foolishly.
“Miss Vixen is really amazing girl, Super Nathan” Marc complimented making the redhead smile embarrassed.
“I know” Responded Super Nathan scratching the back of his neck. “Who knew a girl like her would love a dork like me?” Super Nathan asked earning a nod from the short boy, watching Miss Vixen take off in the air outside of the club, making the boyfriend smile.
Meanwhile….
“Fuck, I was so damn close to the success. With Adrien and his girlfriend under his influence including Super Nathan. Everything would have worked out, if it wasn’t for Miss Vixen's vixen scream.” A woman in a dark purple women suit complained stomping with her cane on the ground scaring the fewer of butterflies around her, which hide on a wooden board with buckets and cleaning materials.
A doorbell rang, which the villain heard and looked back at the door of the utility room. She opened the door, leaving the room, then before she ran the corridor along, she realized she was still in her miraculous form and used the activation phrase to transform back.
“Dark Wings, fall!”
At the outside waited for the house owner a small brunette boy with a  medium-sized cage full of butterflies, then in front of the door, there was a dog door, which was opened up from the inside and from there appeared a hand with a white envelope with the name Kevin on it and the boy looked down at the envelope.
“Madame Mayura, should I bring you the cage into the house instead?” Questioned the boy.
“No, it’s okay. I….was going to take a shower right now and I’m not wearing any clothes at the moment”
“Oh alright, I’m sorry,” Kevin said, then the woman waved with the envelope for the boy to grab it. “Thank you”
“There are 200 Euros like you wanted, including 50 more as a bonus”
“Thank you Madame Mayura. You can always count on me to help you” The boy said leaving the place, soon as the boy was gone the door got opened and the hand from before pulled the cage into the house, after that, it was closed by the woman.
Who could be this mysterious woman, Kevin had been paid for? :O
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ficdirectory · 6 years
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Somewhere Inside (Disuphere series #4) Chapter 8
(To listen, click here - 13:03) 
It’s hard, because, no matter how much Jesus hates telling half-truths?  He finds himself doing it anyway.  He can’t exactly tell Pearl his honest thoughts about Levi.  Not when she’s struggling the way she is, and not when Francesca could have stuck her head out of the swing at any time and decided she wanted to make hot chocolate right then.
Which did happen, for the record.
So, it’s not like Jesus could’ve just said:  “Hey, I’m hella jealous right now.”  “I’m jealous that this kid could show up out of nowhere and you weren’t suspicious of him like you were of me.  You don’t just tolerate him like you tolerated me.”
It’s apparently a thing, too, because Dominique had been super skittish around Jesus, and she is not at all around Levi which is seriously bugging Jesus.  Yeah, Levi’s slighter than Jesus, a bit shorter.  But it just...kinda sucks watching his friends embrace this kid so easily when it had taken them forever to warm up to Jesus.
It makes him wonder what feelings everybody else might be holding back from each other.
For dinner, they heat up a frozen lasagna and they all eat together.  It’s good, and no one has to cook it.  It reminds Jesus he still has to pay Pearl back.
“Mmm,” he says, reaching into his pocket for his wallet, and taking several $20s out.  He offers them to Pearl.
--
Dominique’s fine one minute and the next, without warning, there’s money changing hands at a table in front of her.  Her pulse picks up in her throat, but her face stays calm.  Practiced.  
She wonders what she can do, as she loses seconds of valuable time contemplating.
“Mmm, you actually wanna give that to Levi,” Pearl insists.  “He did the grocery shopping.”
Dominique’s heart drops as she sees Jesus offer the money to Levi.  She holds her breath.
“Oh.  No.  I was happy to do it.  Keep your money,” Levi says, calm.
Jesus isn’t taking no for an answer.  Dominique is used to this.  Expects this.
(Things seem okay but she keeps watching Jesus, in case he’s covering how pissed he really is.  But Levi doesn’t even look her way.)
This is seriously confusing.  She needs someone to explain what’s happening right now, but she can’t speak.  So instead, she waits.  It’s agony counting the seconds to see what will happen next, but it’s literally all she can do.
--
Mariana’s spent most of the day just trying to recover all the sleep she lost coming here.  She somehow still feels exhausted, but at least she can function.  The chaos of dinner means that she’s coping by honing in on just one thing at a time.  And right now?  It’s how hard Dominique’s grabbing Mariana’s hand under the table.
Glancing at her, Mariana can see she looks perfectly at ease.  But she can also see the pulse in Dominique’s neck.  It’s beating fast.  That and the way Dominique is gripping Mariana’s hand mean that something is wrong here.  
With her free hand, Mariana opens a new memo on her phone and types a row of question marks.  No cell service here.  That had definitely not been one of the perks.  But Mariana’s nothing if not creative, and since her accident, Mariana’s ingenuity has only gotten better.
Mariana tips her phone so Dominique can see it, and she glances at it.  Types back dollar signs on her own memo screen and shows Mari, all low-key so no one notices.
Mariana doesn’t know a ton about what happened to Dominique before they became friends.  Knows she had something similar happen that happened to Jesus.  But Mariana also knows it wasn’t too similar either.  She’s never heard of a money trigger.  Still, Mariana does her best to do what they all try to do for each other when triggered.
As escape isn’t an option - Dominique seems frozen - and Mariana doesn’t trust her own balance and stamina to try and get her anywhere.  (Plus, consent.  Dominique doesn’t seem like she can speak, much less clearly approve of contact.)  So, Mariana’s gonna have to do her best to get the boys to put the money away ASAP, while not drawing attention to Dominique.
She’s keeping cool.  Nobody would guess she was having this much trouble.  You have to really know her, to be able to see the flash of desperation in her eyes.  It’s so subtle that it’s easy to miss, especially with how good she is at pretending.
Mariana takes a breath - wills the words she needs to actually be here when she needs them.  “Money’s kinda dirty, you know?” she offers, wrinkling her nose.
Jesus and Levi turn to her.
“Seriously, think of how many people touched it.”
“She’s right,” Pearl nods.  “Levi, put it away.”  After he does, Pearl actually offers him hand sanitizer.  And Levi actually uses it.
“Okay?” Mariana asks, keeping her voice low.
Ever so slightly, Dominique nods her head yes.
Mariana’s not sure if she should take Dominique’s word for it or keep checking.  It doesn’t escape her that Dominique still has a death grip on Mariana’s hand.  It’s the one with nerve damage, so she’s got major pins and needles happening.  She uses her own right hand to peel Dominique’s own free of Mariana’s left.  Then holds Dominique’s hand in her right.
“Sorry,” she apologizes.
“You’re fine,” Dominique reassures.
Mariana’s not exactly sure what to make of this trip so far.  She’s hardly been able to stay awake for any of it.  But it seems like it’s not going as well as they dreamed it might.  There’s tension in basically every dynamic here (and yet it’s still so much better than home with Moms.)
Before Dominique can get up and start cleaning after dinner, Mariana uses the fact that they’re still hanging onto each other to take her aside.
They step outside.  To the front porch.
Dominique pulls her hand away abruptly.  Mariana doesn’t miss how Dominique’s breathing is shaky.  How her hands are trembling like Pearl’s do sometimes.
Mariana doesn’t say anything.  It’s not for any deep reason.  It’s that there literally are no words anywhere for Mariana to even say right now.  Not to mention the fact that sometimes?  Trying to tell somebody it’s okay or take it easy might backfire, especially if all they need is for somebody to be there.
So, Mariana is.
After a while, Dominique meets Mariana’s eyes and nods.  They go back in together.
--
Levi’s about to make a quick escape when Jesus speaks up after everything’s cleaned up:  
“Can everybody stick around?”
“Ooh!  Is it for Family Game?” Francesca asks.
Levi watches, fascinated, as Dudley moves closer to Jesus, like he’s shielding him.  Cleo’s too small to really do the same thing for Pearl, but she tries sometimes.  It’s awesome seeing another service dog do it.  Levi’s so intrigued by what Dudley’s doing that he doesn’t have time to wonder why a mention of a family game is stressful for Jesus.
“No, I thought we could all catch up.  Like, for real.  Check in with each other?  Kinda like we do in Avoidance.”
Levi’s happy he gets this reference, but his happiness fades as Francesca casts doubtful looks at him and Pearl.
“But they don’t have disabilities, or trauma or anything,” she stage-whispers, indignant.  “I thought Avoidance was just for us.”
“We don’t know that,” Jesus answers, matter of fact, not outing Pearl’s stuff, which Levi has a strong hunch Jesus does know.  “Let’s stop with the ‘us’ and ‘them’, though, okay, buddy?  It’s ‘we’ here.”
“Fine,” Francesca sighs.
Levi’s relieved, but only a little.  He keeps noticing how Dominique’s all the way on the other side of the room from him.  How she won’t look at him.  Levi wonders what he did wrong now?
Even though it seems like Francesca and Dominique are having second thoughts about being friends, Pearl looks like she thinks checking in is a great idea.  Plus Levi’s got work the rest of the week, except this weekend.  So he should really hang out with these guys while he can.
--
Pearl has never heard of this avoidance thing, but she is very good at avoiding things, so it sounds like something she will excel at.  She takes a seat beside Levi and listens as Jesus mentions that there are some ground rules.
“Can I say them?” Francesca asks, waving her hand around in the air like it’s school.
“Sure.”
“No teasing each other, and go one at a time,” she pauses for a breath.  “And slow down.  That one’s hard.”
“You’re doing a good job,” Mariana nods.
“Thanks,” Francesca ducks her head.
“So, what is this exactly?” Pearl asks.  “Are we avoiding things?  People?  Topics?”
“Ignorant assholes,” Levi supplies, sending a knowing glance Dominique’s way.
Francesca claps a hand over her own mouth.  “Unnecessary,” she breathes.  “We avoid mean people,” she says, trying to stifle a smile.
“Right.  My bad.” Levi apologizes.
“But what is this?  What’s the purpose?” Pearl wonders, petting Cleo as she sits, curled in her lap.
“Think of it as...emotional laundry sorting…” Dominique offers, quiet.  “It’s vulnerable.  Personal.  But done with friends?  There’s eventually less laundry, and it’s manageable.”
“Huh…” Pearl muses, intrigued.  “I’ve never heard it put like that.”  (She’s starting to see why everyone else seems so taken with Dominique.  Her Hermione costume is an obvious additional point in her favor.)
“So, who has laundry?” Francesca asks.
“I do, I guess?” Jesus offers.  “I’ve been kinda feeling jealous.  Because some people are easier to be around than me.”
Pearl raises her eyebrows.  Definitely not her, then.
“Jesus, even if we like other people, we still like you, too,” Francesca offers so sweetly it makes tears come to Pearl’s eyes.  It reminds her of the first time she saw them together.  Him scooping her up so she didn’t slip on the ice as a tiny four-year-old.
“For sure,” Mariana agrees.  “Everybody’s different, but that’s what makes us...good?”
“Yeah, but it’s not good if you’re just left feeling like the one that freaks people out…”
“Are you talking about when we trigger each other accidentally?” Dominique asks.
Pearl’s forgotten about how gloriously clearly Jesus in particular communicates.  Seems like it’s brushed off on his friends and family, too.  Or maybe, Dominique’s always been just this way.  Maybe it’s what caused them to be friends in the first place.
Jesus shrugs.
“Hey.  Don’t do that,” Mariana reprimands lightly.  “It matters.  How you feel matters.  What you think.  Okay?  Is Dominique right?”
“Yes…” Jesus admits.
“Okay, so we all trigger each other.  Without meaning to.” Dominique stresses.
Pearl puts her hand up slightly, waving her fingers a little.  “I can relate, though.”  She offers.  “Sometimes people’s niceness...their goodness...it feels personal.  Like it magnifies your own faults.”
“You can just say it,” Levi mutters softly.  “It’s me.”
“Okay.  It is, yes.” Pearl nods.
“Hold on.  Let’s give Levi a turn to sort some feelings,” Dominique interjects calmly.  
Pearl breathes and tries not to be offended that she was cut off in what she was saying.
“Levi?  You got any?” Dominique wonders.  
“No,” he says.  “I don’t.”
--
Francesca raises her hand.  
Dominique nods at her.
“So...I don’t understand.  Pearl doesn’t like Levi because he’s nice?” she asks.
“It’s complicated,” Pearl allows.
“But I’m asking,” Francesca points out.  “Is that what you mean?  Like being around him makes you feel extra mean or something?”
“Sort of…” Pearl admits.
“But Levi can’t help it if he’s nice.  Maybe he’s just born that way.  And maybe he’s not doing it on purpose to make you feel extra mean.  Maybe blaming that on him makes him feel bad,” Francesca says.
She knows all about being blamed for things she can’t help.  Because CP gives her a lot of those things.  And Dominique says they aren’t her fault.  That her CP is a valid reason.  Just like Levi being born nice is a valid reason, too, probably.
“Thanks, Francesca,” Levi nods.
“P.S. Everybody has feelings,” she says, remembering Levi said he didn’t have any.  “So, do you have like...sock feelings or what?”
Levi laughs.  “What’s a sock feeling?”
Francesca shrugs.  “Like a stinky feeling?”
“Kinda, yeah.  I have sock feelings….” Levi nods.
Francesca feels good.  Like maybe she helped a little, even though she’s only eleven.  “It’s okay to have sock feelings, right?” she checks with everybody at the table.  “And it’s okay to feel extra mean or jealous as long as we don’t hurt other people.”
“That’s a good point,” Dominique nods.
“How do we not?  Hurt people?” Pearl wonders.  “Because some of us,” (Francesca wonders if she is the only one noticing that Pearl is pointing to herself when she says some of us…) “haven’t done feelings laundry in a long time.  And so the feelings are kind of out of control right now…”
“I think...we maybe help you put them where they go.  You trust us.  And we help you.” Mariana offers.
“Like it’s that easy…” Pearl scoffs, wiping her eyes.
“And also apologize for hurting.  Like, I’m sorry for saying you guys couldn’t be in Avoidance with us.  And for being mean to Levi earlier.” Francesca says.
“Fair.  Levi, I’m sorry I made you feel bad.  For...contributing to your sock feelings.” Pearl says, like she really means it.
Levi just nods his head yes.  He doesn’t really look Pearl in the eye.
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thistlepath · 6 years
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stuff about Aggy
this is for that meme i rebloged a bit ago, i was asked to answer “all of them” for a character of my choice. this is gonna be kinda long.
What is your OC’s favorite color?
Dark purple :3
Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect?
No, he’s not very materialistic and hasn’t had much of a chance to collect anything anyway.
What kind of things is your OC allergic to?
As a Carlec he’s automatically incapable of eating plants or dairy without getting really, really sick if that counts.
What kind of clothing does your OC wear?
Basically pink pygamas and a cape, that’s just how Carlec dress.
What is your OC’s first memory?
A vague memory of some kid being annoying and him scratching their face way back when he was about 7 or 8.
What’s your OC’s favorite animal? Least favorite?
Favorite: their version of turtles, he thinks they’re cute and they like to eat his /least/ favorite animals.
Least favorite: it’s a tie between a type of fish that enjoys trying to eat kids that fall into rivers and a type of beetle that enjoys trying to eat dead, dying, and/or injured unconscious critters and people.
What element would your OC be?
Fire, i think. He can be destructive and horrifying, but also helpful and fun :D
What is your OC’s theme song?
Hmm… there are a lot of them XD
maybe i’ll post a list later.
Do you have a voiceclaim for your OC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5m_W31hDeU
He’s jeremy.
What deadly sin would best represent your OC?
Wrath. Definitely wrath.
What are your OC’s hobbies?
He likes to make dye, dance, and rip the legs off of beetles :3
How patient is your OC? How hot-headed are they?
That depends, most of the time he’s /incredibly/ hot-headed, like murderer levels of hot-headed, but if he really, /really/ likes you he’s incredibly patient and understanding.
What is your OC’s gender / sexuality / race / species / etc.?
male. weird Carlec sexuality that most resembles a combo of bisexuality/pollyamory (i don’t know all the different sexualities and such, if there’s a name for that i’d be happy to hear it) but is basically the Carlec version of being straight. mountain/marsh Carlec :3
What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?
He likes to eat beetles and large, winged insects. If you only count food he can eat safely, his least favorite food is turtle. They’re too cute to eat and he doesn’t like breaking their shells.
If your OC could have any pet, what would they choose? Why?
Probably a turtle, though an Alvean bird would also be pretty cool!
What does your OC smell like?
At the very beginning of the story: dried blood, mildew, and an odd acidic smell that builds up on Carlec when they’re unhealthy.
After a while of being outside and a nice change of clothes: dead leaves, dirt, and just a hint of blood.
How do they make a living? What kind of job do they want / not want? What is their dream job? What do they think of their current job?
Currently he doesn’t, he’s working to get his /freedom/ back, he isn’t getting paid. He wants to be a dye-maker like his mom once all of this is over, it’s been his goal since he was little. He /really/ doesn’t want anything to do with mining, he’s spent long enough trapped without sunlight and warmth, thank you very much. He also doesn’t want to be a hunter.
His current job is basically escorting an idiot and an old lady from point A to point B without them getting murdered, it’s fun when he gets to threaten people or fight wolves, but it’s mostly just walking around (at first.)
What are your OC’s greatest fears? Weaknesses? Strengths?
Hmm. the Carlec have this idea where you basically have to /earn/ having a soul, and doing stuff that makes their deity upset with them starts to slowly destroy their soul. Murder is one of the things that makes her angry, and he keeps getting put in situations where he basically /has/ to kill people. He’s terrified that by the time he dies he’ll be so far gone that he’ll just disappear. It doesn’t help that he’s almost entirely sure that if he /doesn’t/ fade away he’ll end up as some kind of ghost.
He also has a fear of deep, fast water :3
What kind of music do they listen to? Do they have a favorite song?
Carlec music is nothing like any human music i’ve ever heard, so it’s a bit hard to pick out different styles and such. He likes happy music being sung by groups, which sounds a bit like if you crossed a choir, a barbershop quartet, a bunch of purring, mewling cats, and a bunch of little birds together and had them sing pop songs.
If they came from their world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react? What would they do?
He’d be absolutely terrified. Our world is incredibly foreign to him and i seriously doubt people would have a very positive reaction to him. Plus, unless he ended up somewhere really warm and humid he’d likely get sick pretty quickly. He’d find some place to hide and then stay there, to scared to come out for anything but food.
What personal problems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?
Well. he just got out of prison and now has to babysit an insensitive, ignorant Alvean and a grumpy old lady, he’s convinced that he’s missing a chunk of his soul, his dad died while he was away and he didn’t have a chance to say goodbye, he’s constantly anxious and lashes out at people violently when startled, he feels incredibly uncomfortable in the center of attention but also feels like he has to be the most intimidating, loud person in a room to feel safe… the list just goes on.
He really doesn’t like being interrupted or asked stupid questions.
What kind of student were they/would they be in high school?
If the teacher was nice he’d be incredibly respectful and work very hard to do well. if they were a jerk (or he saw them as one) he’d be a rebellious little monster, seeming to do everything in his power to either get them fired or get himself kicked out of the class.
What is a random fact about your OC?
He wears his cape over his right shoulder to hide the lack of spines on his upper arm. He’s asymmetrical, something that isn’t too uncommon when Mountain and Marsh Carlec mix, but that’s still incredibly uncommon in the general population. He was teased for it as a kid and is still insecure about it.
What is their outlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think in general about living?
He tries to be optimistic, but a life of bad luck and being treated like garbage has kinda made that hard.
What inspired you to create them / how did you create them? Were they originally a fancharacter? What was their personality / design like when you first made them?
I was bored one day and ended up coming up with a scene of a token-evil teammate finding out their mom was super sick and trying to hide their panic and sadness from their team because their merciless, sadistic reputation needs to be upheld, dang it! And i wanted to draw it. I used a random generator to get the basic idea of what the Carlec look like (slender, delicate build..same height as the average human..reddish/grayish brown skin..muted black hair..very large ears..giraffe-like spots on arms and legs..large, brown/red eyes..colorful, modest clothing.) and made a ton of potential designs for him before eventually settling on one that’s very similar to how he looks now, just with smaller ears, more spots, slightly different hair, and a slightly different face shape. I never ended up drawing that scene, but i decided to keep him anyway. His personality started out as a manipulative, sadistic, just about irredeemable monster with the redeeming qualities of “he loves his parents” and “he /eventually/ cares about his teammates.”
Who is the most important person in their life? Why? Who is the least important to them (that still has an impact and why?
His mom. After the events that caused his issues she was the only person who really stuck with him. His village decided he was possessed and thus dangerous, his dad disapproved very vocally of his decision to become a maker instead of continuing his training as a hunter, and his best friend/fiancée eventually betrayed him. His mom never stopped supporting him and believing that he could get better.
Hmm. Aggy’s weird in that once he cares about you he /doesn’t stop caring/ no matter what you do, so i don’t know if his friend can be counted here? If so, then definitely her. She was one of two actually good things in his life, then she had him sent to a human prison for murdering a pair of assassins. That place was absolutely /horrible/ and it was probably the worst thing that could’ve been done for his mental health.
If she doesn’t count, then probably the first prisoner he ended up killing while in prison. That idiot trying to kill him is what set him firmly on the path towards what he is today, if that hadn’t happened the queen probably would have had him released years ago.
What kind of childhood did your character have?
A not very nice one. Way too much being treated like some kind of monster, too much of his parents arguing about him, too many former friends avoiding him, too many injuries, and nowhere near enough support, love and guidance.
What kind of nervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds of addictions?
When he’s nervous he tends to swish his tail back and forth like an angry cat, and also often bites and chews on things when they’re available.
If those count, then i suppose so? I don’t know a whole lot about the subject.
Not at the moment, but he used to have a bit of one to this special drink the Carlec have at parties. It makes people more energetic and cheerful, then incredibly tired as soon as it wears off. The Carlec have a lot of parties, so most have at least a bit of an addiction to the stuff.
If they could choose their epitaph for their grave, what would they choose?
Hmm. he’d just have somebody else chose it if he could, but if he absolutely had to choose it’d be something along the lines of “i promise i won’t haunt you guys. Probably. I’ll have to think about it.”
Do they want to get married? Why or why not? Would they ever want kids? Do they have kids? Why?
No. he’s pretty much done with romance after what happened with his Ex. there’s a chance that someone could change his mind with enough time, but it’s gonna be difficult.
He’s not sure about having kids, but he doesn’t think there’s much chance of it anyway if he never gets married.
What is their most traumatic memory/experience? What is their favorite memory?
Most traumatic memory: his entire village turning on him and his best friend in the whole world not only not defending him, but making sure he gets punished even more harshly than he would’ve otherwise.
Favorite memory: this one’s more vague, it’s stuff that happened almost every day and kinda blurred together, but it was all equally amazing as far as he’s concerned. Waking up every morning, warm and safe in his comfortable, cozy home. Spending several hours making dye with his mother and laughing with her about how it had somehow gotten all over their hands and faces while his dad went out hunting. All the little things that he had to go without for so long.
If they could have one thing in the world, what would it be?
Freedom, of course.
Would they ever kill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to kill someone? If they would kill someone, why?
Hahahahahahahaha
Aggy’s got this thing, it happens sometimes to Carlec who’ve been through something traumatic, where he’s constantly on edge and automatically reacts to perceived threats with violence. It’s incredibly difficult to keep under control, and even when it is it often just builds up until they eventually snap and get even more violent than they would have otherwise. In serious cases the Carlec will seem more like a feral animal than a person, luckily Aggy doesn’t have it that bad but if things continue the way they have he’s gonna get there within a few years.
What social groups and activities does your character attend? What role do they like to play? What role do they actually play, usually?
He used to love helping with the music for parties, he’d play bells and sing.
How is your character’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of the time? Living in memories?
His imagination is a bit caught up with imagining horrible situations he could end up in, potential escape routes for every room he enters, and stupid nicknames for everyone he meets.
What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?
To go home and be happy. That’s his main goal at all times, ‘make sure this goes well so i can go home’, ‘save [insert person here] so i can redeem myself so i can be happy’ etc.
He needs to hurt critters and fight people and kill things. He gets super anxious all the time, and that’s the one thing he’s found that helps him calm down.
He’s willing to do a whole lot of things. He won’t hurt anyone he cares about, and he’d prefer not to die, but other than that he’s pretty much gonna do anything to get what he wants.
What’s something that your character does, that other people don’t normally do?
Well.
He eats his food raw. He kills people. He torments small creatures. There’s a lot of stuff he does that most people wouldn’t.
What would your character do with a million dollars?
Use it to try to free one of his old prison-friends and then give him whatever’s left. Carlec don’t really use money.
What is in your characters refrigerator right now? On their bedroom floor? Nightstand? Garbage can?
He’s currently homeless and has no possessions other than the clothes on his back and a knife.
Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?
Well, if he’s free to have a night out in the first place he’s probably home, so most likely some kind of party, his party outfit, and either his team or his parents. He doesn’t have many friends :D
What does your character do when they’re angry? Why?
Attack things. Make things hurt. Cause whatever pain he can in whatever made him angry. It makes him feel somewhat better.
Does your character have any scars? Where did they get them from?
Not really, it’s hard to scratch a Carlec through their scales, and it takes a lot of damage for an injury to show through them after it’s healed. If he were human he’d have scars all over from fights, running through dense forest, falling in a river and nearly dying as a kid, etc.
What was the most offensive thing your character had ever said?
Oh, that’s hard. Aggy loves to offend people, it’s one of his favorite hobbies.
How does your character react/ accept criticism?
That depends on both what’s being criticized and how the criticism is given. It could be anything from quickly accepting it and asking for advice to /literally/ killing you.
If your character was given a slice of pineapple pizza and they HAD to eat it (or something bad would happen), how would they react? Do they even LIKE pineapple pizza?
Well. almost literally /nothing/ on pineapple pizza is edible for him, so he’d react pretty badly. Whatever this ‘something bad’ is has to be pretty bad. He’d eat it, but would clearly hate every second of it and would get really, really sick afterwards.
Your character is given a voodoo doll of themself. What do they do with it? Do they see if it actually works?
He would immediately believe it was real and quickly hide it in the safest place he can possibly find.
Can your character draw? What do they like to draw? Do they doodle?
Not really, he could probably make little stick-figures, but that’s about it.
What were their parents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult?
Evr, Aggy’s mom, was very loving, supportive and comforting, she was his mentor and primary source of advice, help and positive social interaction.
Kven, his dad, started out the same. Unfortunately Aggy becoming ‘possessed,’ deciding to be a Maker despite clearly being a natural Hunter (that’s a huge deal to a lot of Carlec), and losing his cheerful, friendly attitude kinda messed up their relationship. He was usually either angry at him or ignoring him.
He doesn’t know Rili or Tin very well, they married his mom about two years after he was kicked out.
Does your character like candy? Do they get sugar rushes? What are they like when they get a rush?
The closest thing to candy the Carlec have is this super sweet nectar that they make into drinks or soak meat in, and it’s literally made to give anybody/anything that drinks it a sugar rush. When Aggy drinks it he gets even more jumpy than usual, but also super giggly so it seems like he’s having fun?
If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count?
He’d be horrified and depressed, this means that he won’t get his chance at redemption or see his family again. He’d do everything he could to both prevent/delay his death and get home as soon as possible, desperate to see Evr again and at least say goodbye.
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mbtizone · 7 years
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Fa Mulan (Mulan): ISTP
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Dominant Introverted Thinking [Ti]: When Mulan decides on the best solution to a problem, she just goes for it without stopping to discuss it with anyone. She analyzes her obstacles and thinks around the facts. She doesn’t need to have a conversation about it. Instead, she just isolates what her best move is and does it. She realizes that her father is in no condition to go off to war. He’ll die if he goes. So, she chops off her hair, takes his sword, and sneaks off in the middle of the night to fight in his place. She thinks quickly and creatively in stressful situations without losing her cool. Mulan is intelligent and good at defeating her enemies using her brain rather than brawn. While everyone else is fighting in expected ways, Mulan comes up with an innovative method of dealing with her opponents. She takes into account that they are outnumbered and decides to uses Mushu to light the cannon fuse. Instead of aiming at the oncoming men, she uses the cannon to cause an avalanche instead. She also sees that their way of trying to save the Emperor will take too long, so she comes up with the idea of dressing the men up as women and having them use sashes to climb the pillars. Later, she thinks fast on her feet again, pretending to be out of weapons, pulls out her fan, which Shan Yu pierces with his sword, but Mulan turns the tables on him and uses it to disarm him.
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Auxiliary Extroverted Sensing [Se]: Taking risks doesn’t frighten Mulan. She charges into war with no combat experience whatsoever and doesn’t spend much time worrying about the potential consequences if her true identity is discovered. Despite Mushu’s warnings, Mulan bathes out in the open where any of the men could walk by and see her. She takes the chance of getting caught and ruining everything because she doesn’t want to smell bad. Mulan is great at improvising in the moment and taking action. She’s extremely resourceful, which she proved by combining her awareness of her surroundings with quick thinking, allowing her to come up with the idea of causing the avalanche to defeat the Huns. She makes bold moves during battle, and though it takes her some time to fully hone her skills, she learns to become aware of her environment and becomes adept at using whatever is available to her advantage.
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Tertiary Introverted Intuition [Ni]: If Mulan really wants to commit to something, she doesn’t let anything stop her. She impersonates a man to fight in the war in her father’s place and she works hard to transform into a warrior. She’s able to save China due to her dedication and perseverance. When she has a goal in mind, she doesn’t stop until she achieves it, whether it’s stopping the Hun army or saving the Emperor’s life. Mulan can fail to account for how future events may unfold, which causes her to be somewhat careless. She becomes fiercely determined to climb the pillar and continues trying long after everyone else had left, not stopping until she ultimately prevails.
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Inferior Extroverted Feeling [Fe]: Mulan wants to fit in and embody everything that her family expects of her, but she struggles between what she wants for herself and what her family wants her to be. Mulan puts aside who she really is and what she wants in order to please the people around her. Not being able to live up to what people expect from her is upsetting because she wants her family to be proud of her. Mulan deals with an internal conflict because while she hates the thought of disappointing her loved ones, it’s also hard for her to blend in and be like all of the other girls.
Note: I considered inferior Te, inferior Si, and inferior Fe for Mulan. She has a hard time navigating established rules and systems and functioning within them (inferior Te). It’s also difficult for her to follow traditions and remember the information she acquires, as she has to cheat by writing the correct responses for the matchmaker on her arm (inferior Si). However, for her to have inferior Si, she would need dominant Ne, which isn’t there. And she exhibits too much Fe/Ti for me to consider her using Te/Fi at all. Some people believe that the song Reflection indicates Fi, but I feel that it actually screams inferior Fe. She doesn’t want to dishonor her family, and even though she’s trying to play the part of the girl they want her to be in order to make them proud, she feels that she falls short. She is willing to be someone other than who she is if it makes them happy, it’s just that she can’t seem to actually do so despite her efforts.
Enneagram: 3w2 6w7 8w9 So/Sx
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Quotes:
Mulan: [Using chopsticks to balance a grain of rice] Quiet and demure … graceful, polite, delicate, refined, poised… [she picks up a paintbrush and makes a mark on her arm] punctual!
Fa Zu: Mulan. You should already be in town. We’re counting on you to- Mulan: Uphold the family honor. Don’t worry, Father. I won’t let you down. Wish me luck!
Mulan: Ancestors, hear my plea, Please don’t let me make a fool of me And to not uproot my family tree Keep my father standing tall.
Matchmaker: You are a disagrace! You may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honor!
Mulan: Look at me … I will never pass for a perfect bride Or a perfect daughter Can it be? I’m not meant to play this part? Now I see That if I were truly to be myself I would break my family’s heart. Who is that girl I see Staring straight back at me Why is my reflection someone I don’t know Somehow I cannot hide Who I am, though I’ve tried When will my reflection show Who I am inside? When will my reflection show Who I am, inside?
Mushu: Hey, this is not a good idea. What if somebody sees you? Mulan: Just because I look like a man doesn’t mean I have to smell like one. Mushu: So a couple guys don’t rinse out their socks. Picky, picky, picky. Myself, I kinda like that corn-chip smell. Mulan: [Jumps in the water] Ah. Mushu: Okay, all right, alright, that’s enough, now c’mon, get out before you get all pruney and stuff. Mulan: Mushu, if you’re so worried, go stand watch! Mushu: Yeah, yeah. Stand watch, Mushu, while I blow our secret with my stupid girly habits. Hygiene.
Mulan: How ’bout a girl who’s got a brain, who always speaks her mind?
Shang: Ping! Ping, come back! [Frantically, as Shan Yu draws nearer, his sword raised, Mulan fumbles with the match] Mushu: Okay, you might want to light that right about now, Quickly, quickly! [Mulan is attacked by Shan Yu’s hawk and loses the match.] Yao: C’mon, we gotta help! [The Gang of Three run toward Mulan, swinging their swords. Mulan uses Mushu to light the cannon fuse, and it shoots off toward the overhang] Mushu: You missed! How could you miss?! He was three feet in front of you! [The cannon hits the overhang with a bang, and causes an avalanche that rains down on the Hun Army, burying in them. In fury, Shan Yu roars and hits Mulan in the side with his sword blade. She quickly runs away from the avalanche, pulling Shang with her. Khan runs toward them, and Mulan gets on and tries to give Shang a hand, but he loses his grip and is dragged into the snow.] Mushu: [riding down the snow in a hubcap] Mulan! Mulan! Mulan? [He pulls a Hun’s head out of the snow.] Nope. Mulan! [He reaches down and pulls out Crickee.] Man, you are one lucky bug. [Mulan and Khan break out of the snow and race toward Shang, who, unconscious, is sliding on the snow toward a cliff.] Mulan: Shang! [She pulls him up onto the saddle.]
Shang: Ping! What’s wrong? [Mulan moves her hands to reveal blood.] He’s wounded! Get help! [Mulan sinks into unconsciousness.] Ping, hold on. Hold on. [The doctor emerges from his tent and says something to Shang, who looks disturbed and rushes inside. He looks at Mulan, who sits up in bed, her side bandaged. Shang stares at her, recognizing her as a girl. Mulan realizes her mistake and pulls the blanket back on.] Mulan: I can explain! Chi Fu: So it’s true! Mulan: Shang! Chi Fu: [yanking Mulan out of the tent and pulling her hair out of a bun] I knew there was something wrong with you! A woman! Treacherous snake! Mulan: My name is Mulan. I did it to save my father! Chi Fu: High treason! Mulan: I didn’t mean for it to go this far! Chi Fu: Ultimate dishonor! Mulan: It was the only way! Please, believe me!
Mulan: I should never have left home. Mushu: Hey C’mon. You wanted to save your father’s life. Who knew you’d end up shaming him, disgracing your ancestors and losing all your friends. Y’know, you just gotta… just gotta learn to let these things go. Mulan: Maybe I didn’t go for my father. Maybe what I really wanted was to prove that I could do things right. So that when I looked in the mirror [she picks up her helmet] I’d see someone worthwhile. But I was wrong. I see nothing. Mushu: Hey, that’s just cause this needs a little spit, that’s all. [He spits on the helmet.] Let me shine this up for you. I can see you, lookit you, you look so pretty! The truth is, we’re both frauds. Your ancestors didn’t send me; they don’t even like me. I mean, you risked your life to help people you love. I risked your life to help myself. At least you had good intentions. [Crickee starts to cry] Mushu: What do you mean, you’re not lucky! You… lied to me? [Crickee nods. Mushu turns to Khan.] And what are you, a sheep? Mulan: I’ll have to face my father sooner or later. Let’s go home Mushu: Yeah. This ain’t gonna be pretty. But don’t you worry, okay? Things will work out. We started this thing together and that’s how we’ll finish it. I promise. [The shadow of a hawk flies overheard, and around a bend. Shan Yu climb out of the snow and looks around. He lets out a roar. Soon he is joined by five of his soldiers. They start down the path toward the Imperial City. Mulan watches them, grabs her sword, mounts Khan and turns after the Huns.] Mushu: Uh, home is that way. Mulan: I have to do something. Mushu: Did you see those Huns? They popped out of the snow! LIKE DAISIES! Mulan: Are we in this together, or not? Mushu: [looks guilty] Let’s go kick some Hun-ny Bunch! [He and Crickee jump on Khan, and they ride down the mountain, whooping.]
Mulan: They’ll never reach the Emperor in time. [She looks around, then at the tall pillars by the side of the palace. She whistles to them.] Hey guys! I’ve got an idea! [The Gang of Three looks at each other and then follows Mulan, dropping the statue. They all take off their equipment, and put on dresses and makeup, and they use the silk belts around their waists to climb up the pillars. Next to them, Shang takes off his cape and climbs up. Inside the palace, on a balcony, the Huns hold the Emperor. Shan Yu sticks his head in their faces.]
Shan Yu: No! [He turns to Shang, who is now conscious.] You! You took away my victory! [He is hit by a shoe.] Mulan: No! I did. [She pulls back her hair.] Shan Yu: The soldier from the mountain! [Abandoning Shang, he chases after Mulan, who is putting on her shoe. She slams the door shut, and he rams his fist through the wood. Mulan is joined by Mushu and Crickee, riding the feather-less hawk.] Mushu: So what’s the plan? Mulan: Ummmmm… Mushu: YOU DON’T HAVE A PLAN? Mulan: Hey, I’m making this up as I… go … [as they pass a window she notices a pile of fireworks and two men.] Mushu– Mushu: Way ahead of you, sister! C’mon, Crickee! [They jump onto a paper kite decoration and float across to the tower. Shan Yu attacks Mulan, and she shimmies up a pole. Shan Yu cuts down the pole, and Mulan and the pole go through the wall. Mulan jumps up and grabs onto the roof and pulls herself up. She looks across to where Mushu and Crickee are gathering ammunition.]
Man: Look! On the roof! [Mulan backs along the roof, mesuring the distance with her hands. Shan Yu crashes through the roof and raises his sword. Mulan pulls out a paper fan.] Shan Yu: Guess you’re out of ideas. [He stabs the sword through the fan; Mulan turns it around and readies the sword.] Mulan: Not quite. Ready, Mushu? Mushu: [with a rocket strapped to his back] I am ready, baby! [He breaths fire on a stick and hands it to Crickee.] Light me! [Mulan kicks Shan Yu in the face, then trips him and pins his shirt to the ground with the sword. Crickee lights the fuse, and the rocket slams Shan Yu straight into the firework tower.] Mulan: [picking up Mushu] Get off the roof, get off the roof! [As the fireworks explode, she jumps, catches a lantern and swings down the cord, then drops onto Shang, who is running down the stairs. Shan Yu’s sword and Mushu land nearby.]
Fa Mulan (Mulan): ISTP was originally published on MBTI Zone
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super-not-naturall · 7 years
Text
Enough
SPN Fanfic
-Y/N and the boys begin getting frustrated with their research.-
(Eventual SamxReader)
1544 Words
Warnings: Again, more mental health/angst. I’m sorry! I promise the next part will not talk about anything mental health related! Although, if that kind of stuff bothers you, I’d advise just not reading this series because having a depressed main character kinda makes it hard to avoid, ya know?
A/N: As promised, here is Part 4 of Poisonous Soul! This one is normal length (Yay!) and may possibly be a bit boring cuz it’s a filler chapter, but the next part it more exciting, I pinky swear! As always, feedback is appreciated and welcomed. You can be as brutally honest as you want (As long as it’s, ya know, constructive and not just mean. Let’s be nice, people!) Next week will be back to normal with a chapter posted on Wednesday at 4:00pm EST. Thank you to everyone who is still with me on this, I love you all! Okay, now I am done talking; enjoy!  
*I do not own any Supernatural characters and/or gifs I may use!
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There was a time when I was younger that I thought I wasn’t human. I was so sure that I had to have some type of super power because I felt different from everyone else around me. In my seven-year-old mind, I knew I was special.
I decided to test my theory out one summer night, just as the stars had started to appear slowly, one by one.
To watch me fly, I had told myself−So confident that I was about to join them up there in the night sky.
I jumped out my second story window, putting all of my trust in these imaginary super powers. They were going to save me. I just knew it.
Gravity had other ideas, though, and I fell straight to the ground.
After two broken bones in my leg and a fractured wrist, I realized that I had made a mistake.
Trusting the Winchesters feels a lot like that moment before I took the leap: scared and yet confident all the same.
Watching Dean scroll through his laptop at my desk and Sam flip through the pages of an ancient book beside me, I’m starting to wonder when I’m going to feel my bones break again: when I realize that I have made a horrible mistake trusting these two.
“And you’re sure you don’t have any type of ability?” Deans asks me for the hundredth time, “No visions? Controlling people with your mind?”
I shake my head firmly, “I already told you, Dean, I’m one-hundred percent ordinary.”
Dean runs his hands over his face, groaning out of frustration.
“Well, I’m not finding anything.” He says, “Sammy?”
Sam glances up from the book in his lap to give his brother a shake of his head, “Maybe instead of trying to figure out what we don’t know,” He says, closing the large text with a thud, “we focus on the facts.”
I sit up straighter and grab a notebook from the top of my dresser, hoping that I might be able to actually help them this time.
“We know that Y/N does not have any sort of ability like the other people in my visions.” He glances over at me, probably still waiting for me to freak out about his visions, as he calls them, but after everything that’s been going on in my life, I’m not about to judge.
“We know that I was kidnapped by a demon.” I supply, jotting down what we know.
“A demon who probably works for yellow eyes.” Dean adds, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. A part of me hopes he loses balance and falls to the ground to provide some type of laughter in my life.
“And they don’t want you dead.”              
“Not at the moment, at least.” I respond to Sam with a smirk, but he doesn’t find my sarcasm very funny.
He frowns and shakes his head, “I’m not going to let you die, period, Y/N.”
His large hand rests on my knee, making me feel things I should definitely not be feeling towards the man I barely know.
I clear my throat and look down at my messy handwriting, trying to tear my thoughts away from how warm Sam’s palm is on my skin.
“So, in all, we know that some yellow-eyed demon hired another demon to kidnap, but not kill, me, who is not special in the slightest, and this all has a connection to Sam somehow.” I look up at the two brothers who look just as frustrated as I feel. “How does this help?”
“Well, we know that we’re missing the connection.” Sam says, “Maybe you and I could try to find the connection between us and Dean can look for any signs of demon activity in the area. I assume there was a reason that the demon wanted to draw Dean and I out; maybe we can catch it before it happens.”
“Can we at least do this over food?” I ask, resting my hand on my stomach. “I am in need of some sustenance.”
Dean smiles before looking over at his brother and throwing him his keys, “You can take Baby if you promise not to scratch her.”
Sam rolls his eyes, expertly catching the keys with one hand as if it’s an automatic response by now.
I slip on my flip-flops and throw a sweatshirt on all while walking towards the door, driven by the thought of French fries and a milkshake.
“And bring me some pie!” Dean yells at us, causing his brother to shake his head with laughter.
“I know,” Sam calls back before shutting the door and hurrying through the hall with me, not wanting to run into anyone from my floor.
Everyone will be moving back into their rooms in a couple of hours and I’ll eventually have to come up with some lie explaining who the Winchesters are and why they are here, but I want to put that off until the last possible minute if I can.
I wrap my arms around myself as Sam opens the door to the building, leading me outside where the wind bites at my cheeks.
“Baby?” I ask Sam now that Dean is out of earshot.
“The Impala.” Sam rolls his eyes, but there’s a fondness there as well that tells me he doesn’t find his brother’s quirks as annoying as he makes them out to be.
We continue weaving through the buildings on campus and to the closest parking lot closest to my dorm.
“You know you guys won’t be able to be seen once everyone arrives, right?” I mention, glancing up at the giant man walking beside me.
Sam nods his head, sticking his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, “We’re good at blending in, Y/N.”
“Okay, but this is a Christian college. No boys in the room past visiting hours …”
“I did the research; I know what the rules are.” Sam’s lips pull up into an amused smirk, “We’ll be fine.”
I want to push the subject further, but keep my mouth shut. Maybe they do know what they’re doing; who am I to question the monster hunters.
I rely on Sam to take me to the car because I have absolutely no knowledge on vehicles.
The Impala ends up being one of those classics that old men tend to fix up and drive out to car shows. It’s a large, black, boat of a car with disgustingly shiny rims. Dean must take a magnifying glass to the paint every day just to make sure he hasn’t missed a speck of dirt.
I slide into the passenger side, noticing that the both of them have somehow managed to get their hands on a faculty parking permit.
“So how are you doing, Y/N?” Sam starts the car up.
I pick at the skin around my fingernails and stare out the window, avoiding eye contact with the beautiful man beside me, “What do you mean?”
I jump at the weight of his hand on top of my own, putting an end to my fidgeting.
I look up and into hypnotic, hazel eyes that make me want to pour my heart out to him; to explain all the pain and self-loathing I’ve been harboring inside for years. It makes no sense; I barely know the guy, and yet I don’t think I’ve ever been as comfortable around somebody as I am with him.
“You know what I mean.” His voice pulls me out of my head and back into the present.
I offer Sam a small smile and a shrug, deciding to be as honest with him as I’m willing, “As good as I can be after be kidnapped by a demon, I guess.”
He purses his lips, obviously not pleased with my vague answer, “Y/N …”
“What?” I interrupt him, “What do you want me to say, Sam?” I pull my hands away from his. The car suddenly seems too small for the both of us. “That I’m fine? That everything is fan-freaking-tastic?”
“That’s not what−”
“Because that’s never going to happen!” Tears burn behind my eyes. I look up toward the ceiling to fight off the inevitable break down. “I’m never going to be as good as everyone wants me to be.” I clench my trembling fingers into a fist, hating how claustrophobic and trapped I feel, “I’ll never be happy enough or safe enough or−” I swallow thickly, unable to continue with my train of thought.
I close my eyes as tightly as I can and try to focus on the biting sensation of my nails digging into my palm: anything to keep me from crying.
“But I’m alive and I’m here.” I finally say, taking a deep breath and looking over at Sam, “Isn’t that good enough?”
My throat constricts and tears have broken to the surface, I try to breathe normally, but sobs wrack my body and make it impossible.
Large arms encase me, pulling me closer into a comforting embrace smelling of old spice and musk.
Fingers trail through my hair while I bury my face deeper into the crevice of Sam’s neck.
“Of course that’s enough, Y/N.” He whispers, “That will always be enough.”
Forever Tags:
@energeticallyem @27bmm @impala-dreamer @lipstickandwhiskey @jotink78 @babypieandwhiskey @wheresthekillswitch @notnaturalanahi @mysteriouslyme81  @mrswhozeewhatsis @hannahindie @pinknerdpanda @keepcalmandcarryondean @assbutt-still-in-hell @sammy-moo @trexrambling @a-strange-world @mogaruke @keelzy2 @my-favorite-fiction67 
Poisonous Soul Tags:
@halfwaytoneptune @curlyblondexoxo @deaths-damn-fruit-basket  @messy-buns-and-shotguns  @oneshoeshort
-Part 5-
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waldos-writing · 7 years
Text
World Hungers for Bones: Chapter 8
Nobody Writes a Letter -June 17th, 2000-
Who in their right mind decides to live in Nebraska? Not just that, but in a little you couldn’t find on your average map? Who rolls their dusty old Cadillac through town, looking for cheap accommodations at a shitty little motel called the Tempest Inn when, get this, The Gold Star Stay is right next door but the thing is condemned? Two motels. In Jonas, Nebraska. But that isn’t even the start, because besides moving to Nebraska to a little town you couldn’t find on your average map and staying at a shitty little motel called the Tempest Inn across from The Gold Star Stay, there was also a promise thrown into the mix. Oh yeah. Promise to meet up at the only burger join in town. Two motels. One burger joint. Three bars. A comic shop. Priorities were out of whack.
Anyways, right, promise to meet up at the only burger joint in town every day and go over some new spells with a skittish little twerp who fought what he learned the entire time. Yes decided she liked that best about him, but damn if it wasn’t at least a little aggravating.
But who does that? Yes had half a mind to change her name to Nobody; it suited her better. Somebody else held that epithet.
She was an early riser. Yes came up before the sun and liked it that way. She picked out amulets from a small velvet bag she kept on her person, one she’d Written all over. It gave her silver moon rings and bells on bangles and the little tiger-eye stone earrings. She dressed and brushed her teeth and looked through the Book. It was a peaceful ritual.
Yes was just about done deciding what they were going to learn that day when there was a knock on her door. A quick three tapper, soft, discreet, and gone before she had a chance to ask, “Hello?” or “Who’s there” or “Whad’ya want?” Yes closed the Book and tucked it up into her leather vest so that it made a blocky shield over her heart. Almost obscene, just snug enough that she didn’t mind.
Yes checked the peephole first but saw nothing. She rested scorched fingertips on the door for a moment. Nothing to feel, but there was that unmistakable scent of cinnamon and orange peels.
“How?” she whispered and whipped the door open.
Empty.
Yes shot her head out the door and looked left, then right, expecting a mob. He liked to send out goons before he showed up on his own. Made it neat and tidy for his arrival. But, instead of goons, there was an envelope on the floor with a small black rock placed on top to keep it from drifting away in the wind. Yes stared down at it in silence. She almost kicked it away and turned to slam the door.
“Alright,” she said the floor. “Alright, fine. You wanna go? I’ll go.”
There was a name on the letter in short, clean lines. He had her name. Nobody was the only one left who had it. He held her in those lines. He grabbed her in that ink.
Yes punted the rock away with a swift kick and dragged the letter inside. When she closed the door and locked it, she drew her wards and locked it again and again, doubling down, tripling down.
Yes stared at the envelope with her name as she sat on the bed. She’d have to read it. She’d have to face it, sooner or later. The Book’s corners dug painfully into her stomach rolls, but she didn’t move to relieve the pressure. She’d graft her skin over the Book and lock it in her chest if it meant she’d get away.
“Well,” she said, resigned, painfully tired, but read. “Shit.”
  It was No’s idea to go to Burger King, of course. He said that since he still didn’t really know her and he wasn’t going to just let some stranger figure out where he lived right off the bat, they needed a place. No got a ride in a big old pick-up truck from a girl who was juts barely old enough to drive. She had dark hair in twin braids and a face that matched his. That was the unnamed oldest sister. Turned out No had a big family, which was something. Yes didn’t know why she was surprised. Maybe because she’d been an only child and many of the other witches she knew were the same. Most were only children, many had lost parents, grand parents, hell the trunk of their family tree. Lot of orphan witches. It’s how it was, she thought, but she thought wrong.
“Hey there,” said Yes, swinging her keys on a rope lanyard. “You hungry?”
“I ate,” said No, like he did every time. “Are you?”
“Nah,” she answered in kind. “You ready?”
“Ready.”
This was their routine, their ritual. Then they’d get into Yes’s caddie and drive out to the hills. No might not trust her with the location of his family, but he seemed easy enough with hitching a ride. Kids have dumb priorities.
They got into the old beast and started for the road. No didn’t have any more trouble with the door, which stuck sometimes. He knocked it with his cane and it popped open for him easy as grease. Yes had taught him the sigil for the door on their first ride and he had it down so quick, she wasn’t even sure she saw him draw it anymore.
“What’re we learning today?” asked No as he slide his hand over his chest, the closest thing he had to a seat belt. Magic would hold him better anyways.
Yes touched her pocket where the note was burning hot as fire. The thing would probably engulf her in hellfire by the end of the day. Dramatics and hyperbole, sure, but Nobody had her name and number and it was up.
“Gonna teach you something special, kiddo,” said Yes and revved the old Cadillac’s engine.
It wasn’t a long drive. Shorter still cause it was so early and no one really out on the road except a few ranch hands and busy morning people. Yes had her eyes peeled wide for anybody walking along that didn’t look like they belonged. She wasn’t a regular yet, but she was good with faces and familiar with the usual crowd. None of them were wearing black coats, none getting out of a gunpowder gray BMW, none of that familiar aroma. Her heart was pounding hard all the same.
“Are you alright?” No asked.
“Hmm?” Yes could see out of her peripheral that he was watching her, reading her. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” said No. He studied her hard and she didn’t care for that shit at all. “You keep looking around like somebody’s gonna pop out and shoot you or something.”
“Or something.”
“What?”
“Nah, nothing. It’s nothing.”
Yes wrung the steering wheel, trying hard to relax. She touched her bangles and adjusted the rings so that the smiling moons looked up. The bag had picked them for her. The bag knew what she needed, always did. Yes fingered the cat-eye earrings. Those were last. They had to be last to count.
“So, you’re alright?” he asked again, persistent.
“Sure am,” said Yes, her heartbeat thumping in her throat hard enough the artery might burst.
“Mm,” said No and bit his lip. He looked away, focusing on the road stretched out ahead of them. “Okay.”
The hill where they first met and subsequently practiced for two weeks now was a couple of miles outside of Jonas. It was technically the property of a Mr. Flowers, some rancher from Arthur, but the space was out in the open and no one had said nothing when they were there. Yes saw the hill coming up, saw No all quiet and sullen in the seat next to her, and kept driving.
“H-hey,” he said, pointing out the window as the hill came and went. When it was in the rearview mirror, he twisted around to watch it. “We…we passed it. Where’re we going?”
“Mm,” said Yes and nodded.
“You’re not gonna tell me?”
“Not yet,” she answered, and grimaced when she did. It was like she had just admitted to kidnapping.
“Why?”
“Just a surprised,” she said and gave him a small smile. It was not a confident one.
For a moment, in a crazy panic, Yes thought, hell, let’s do it. Let’s go. She thought she was going to just keep driving. She’d take them all the way across Nebraska and then maybe out west, see where the Cadillac ended and then they’d walk and hitch a ride and keep going until they found the ocean, and then beyond the ocean. She’d heard there was a way you could find Atlantis. Fine, she thought, let’s go find Atlantis. She’d already got No to trust her, she’d just take him with her and No, more powerful than she’d ever be, would protect her. He’d be by her side until the end. Nobody could never get her then.
Yes was ready to smash her foot on the accelerator and just go, go, go, but No had a ratty backpack on his lap. He dug around in it and finally pulled out a small action figure of a cowboy on a palomino. He looked at it, head tilted and nose scrunched up, before he finally sighed and said, “Jamie.”
“What’s that?” Yes asked, trying to be casual.
“It’s just one of Jamie’s stupid toys,” No answered, reverently brushing the plastic finish of the horse. “He must’ve stuck it in there the other night. We were fighting about…something.”
“Fighting about what?”
“No, it’s stupid. It’s nothing.”
“Aw, come on.”
“It’s just stuff,” he mumbled and shoved the cowboy toy back into his bag. “Dumb stuff. He’s….” No sucked in another breath and pushed it out between his teeth. “He’s the youngest, right, so he fights a lot. We fight a lot, I guess, you know. Boys. My mama always says that. The others fight too, but they like to use their words instead and it’s really mean stuff, I mean, it hurts just the same as how we fight, but, I don’t know, it’s not the same either. I mean, Ruthie will still hit, but I don’t think that’s fair. You can’t hit a girl, even if it is Ruthie, right? She’s better at her words anyhow. Meaner.”
“Lot of sisters?” said Yes.
“Lot,” No answered and scowled at the window.
No had the older sister, the girl with the dark hair in braids. And there were others, too, not said by name. Yes didn’t know how many. And then there was little Jamie, the fighter, the youngest, the one with the cowboy toy that No held carefully, like he was afraid to break it even though it was plastic. There was a big family waiting for him, this little fragile kid.
“Ssssshit,” Yes hissed, kneading her forehead into lumpy wrinkles and tight planes, back and forth, back and forth. Family. He had a family. He had to have a goddamn family, didn’t he, just to much everything up.
Yes slammed her foot on the brakes. She even threw her arm out to protect No as the Cadillac’s old breaks squealed in angry protest. They locked up and the car fishtailed a little on the dirt road, but Yes kept that nose pointed towards the horizon until they ground to a halt. The two of them lurched and fell back into their seats. Then there was silence, dragging on for a minute and then a minute more, threatening to eat up the rest of time at the rate they were going.
“What was—”
“Look,” said Yes, cutting him off, slicing the air with the side of her hand. “You’re a smart kid. You’ve got guts and you’ve got brains and you’ve got a hell of a life for you. It’s coming up fast, I just know it. I can feel it, can’t you?”
No put his claw over his heart again, paying attention to the vibrations. He was wide-eyed, almost on the verge of tears. Or, not tears, no, just shock. Maybe not even shock. Maybe just acceptance.
“I don’t have much time left,” said Yes, specifically not touching the pocket with the letter. “Not here, anyhow. In Jonas. I’ve gotta move on and keep trekking if I want a life for me too.”
“You’re leaving,” said No quietly, not desperate, but very understanding for a kid his age.
“I don’t want to,” said Yes and she took his shoulder and gave it a firm, loving squeeze. “You know I don’t.”
“Mm.”
“I don’t! Hell, I thought I was going to put roots down, almost ready to dig my toes in,” said Yes.
“Do you mean that?”
“Have I ever lied?” Yes asked, assuming it was rhetorical. No shocked her when he answered, “Yes.” Not her name. Not the name they joked about. It was an answer. She blacked, let go of his shoulder and asked, “When?”
“Today. When you said you were alright, even though you weren’t.” No looked up with his big wet eyes. “You’re afraid.”
“Oh.”
“So this is the last time I see you then.”
“I suppose,” said Yes, even as it broke her heart.
They stared out at the empty landscape. It was all yellow and brown fields scraped across the earth and beaten by wind and rain and human hands. It seemed impossible to think there was anyone out there. They could’ve just been plucked out of existence and thrown away into a void dressed up to look like Nebraska. Wasn’t that a thought? A void. Well, Nobody couldn’t go there, could he? Not to a purgatory like that. But, if that were true, if that was the way to go, Yes didn’t like it. Felt too much like giving up.
“I’m gonna give you something,” Yes said to the windshield. “It’s very important, not just for you, but for all of us.”
“All of us?”
She reached into her vest and tugged at the small book. It had once been a journal. The cover was worn and the pages were old, spotted with stains with fox-eared edges. It was thick, too, and there were little post-its tagged throughout with questions and amendments. The four previous owners never dared write in the actual pages. Yes brushed her thumb up and down the fabric of the spine.
Singing back to her through her memories, Yes could hear Dominic Velasquez say, “It’s gotta go. You carried it here and now you’re carrying it to him.”
“Who?” she had asked, her neck sore on the patch of rock in the desert.
“No,” the Two readers answered in unison and laughed hard just as the fire popped and spit little firefly embers up into the sky.
“No,” said Yes and laughed too, softer, sadder. She handed the Book to him without saying more. He took it, holding it with due respect.
Yes turned the car around and pointed it back towards Jonas. The sun wasn’t high. The radio didn’t work and the cassette in the player was jammed in good. Yes could have turned it on but decided the orchestra of wind and gravel and tires and engine played just about the best damn symphony she’d ever heard.
“W-wait,” said No, coming out of his reverie. “You’re not going to teach my anything today?”
“Nope,” said Yes. She put them into fourth gear and smiled at the sky. “I’m teaching you goodbye, I suppose.”
“I know goodbye,” said No. His fingers were white on the cover of the Book.
“I know you do, No,” said Yes.
The wind felt good in her hair. She was going to miss it like a sawn off limb.
There was another beat between them as they digested the moment, until the kid couldn’t hold it in. He doubled over, miserable in the bucket seat and Yes almost didn’t hear him.
“What was that?”
“It’s John,” he said louder.
“Oh, that’s alright.”
“Where will you go?”
He looked small. He looked younger, a little shrimp with his crutch and his big eyes and his limp hair. He was afraid when he shouldn’t be, since he now had the Book. Or, maybe he definitely should, but he shouldn’t know. Yes felt a great big stab in her heart, that empty feeling of losing the Book and the relief that came with it and the shame of that relief too. Her head was dizzy.
“I’m gonna go where Nobody won’t find me,” she said with a sad twist in her smile.
Yes topped the car outside the burger joint. She opened his door and he sat there without picking up his crutch. The Book was open to the front page with the old scribble in rusty ink: Property of Margot Telling.
“Is this you?”
Without asking, the two embraced and held on a long time. He was brimming with emotions, with questions, and Yes could only hold on a moment. It burned. Her scorched fingertips gripped him tight like they’d hold on forever, but then she let go. He sniffed and wiped his nose with his forearm. She batted her eyes quick, thankful for the round prem-o sunglasses.
“You’re gonna be good.” Yes’s voice was rough. She coughed to clear it so she could try again. “You’re gonna be good. You’re a natural.”
“Thank you.”
No got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk to watch her drive off. He didn’t wave and neither did she and that was fine. Yes stared at the filth stacked up in the back seat. There were just a few belongings that made up life breeding in the old Cadillac. It wasn’t good, but it was good enough. It had to be. Yes punched the music on and sped away, her eyes blurry until they weren’t and her cheeks wet until they weren’t.
Okay, you know where people actually plan to go? California. That’s the ticket. West coast. The witch in question hadn’t been to the Golden State in years and that highway was playing a siren’s song. She raced across it, her Cadillac the damn ship ready to crash on the rocks. When she was good and gone, she unrolled the window and let the crumpled note sail off in the wind, whipped in the wake of her car. Queen cheered her on through the speakers like the damn champion she was. And California called her too. That was the place to be until it wasn’t.
Previous - Chapter 7: Dinner At My Place
Next - Chapter 9: Cooking Lessons
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