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maybedefinitely404 · 4 years

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American Dream

Genre: angst with a happy ending/fluff

Pairing: romantic Dukexiety

World: just-out-of-high-school AU

Content: homophobia, threatened abuse from parents (no actual violence), extreme cold, getting kicked out, minor religious talk, getting outed, AIDS and death mention, fluffy Dukexiety because my heart needs it.

Word count: 2.3k

Comments: She doesn’t have Tumblr, but I need to give a shout out to my kiddo for proof reading and beta-ing most of my fics. She pushes me to write more, and even if she won’t see this, I just need to say it.

This fic is inspired by the song American Dream by MKTO.

Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up…

The night coolness spread through Virgil like a sickness. It was unforgiving, toxic, seeped with the memories of the evening that curled through his stomach in dark tendrils. Below his bare feet, the sidewalk burned in the way that only ice does, small pebbles digging into his soles. He would do anything for socks. God, why hadn’t he grabbed socks?

Probably for the same reason he hadn’t grabbed shoes.

Please pick up, please pick up, c’mon, pick up already!

His eyes hurt. They already burned with unshed tears that he’d still been too scared to release, and the cool air didn’t help. Crying on the street was a vulnerability he wasn’t ready to face. His lungs burned. He’d been sprinting non-stop for who knows how long. His own panicked gulps for air and the all-too-loud hum of a blinking streetlight were the only sound on the silent street. Virgil had been watching the moths swarm at the fixture for who knows how long, finding odd solace in the fact that at least there was still some life in the darkness. They were still alive, untouched, same as they were yesterday and probably the same as they would be tomorrow, unfazed by the complete turmoil his life had become. And that was somewhat comforting.

“Virgie, you okay? It’s almost midnight!”

Thank fucking god. He opened his mouth to speak, to explain to Remus what had happened. Obviously, Remus would care. That wasn’t a doubt in his mind; that was the only reason he wasn’t anxious as all fuck right now… about the call, that is. He was anxious about approximately everything else. But as soon as the first noise made its way past his lips, the first utterance of a plea for help, everything that he’d been holding back burst forth like a broken dam. He clamped his hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the loud sobbing that he suddenly couldn’t contain.

“Shit. Virgil, what happened? I’m coming over. Are you at home?”

That’s the issue. “No,” he gasped, mildly surprised he hadn’t crushed the phone with the way his grip tightened, “I got kicked out.”

“What the fuck?!”

Virgil flinched. “Can… can you come p-pick me up? I’m at the corner of Jackson and Pullard. Please, please, come get me…”

“Yes. Absolutely. I’m on my way. Stay there, okay?”

Virgil hung up reluctantly after agreeing, not wanting his boyfriend to drive while on the phone, even if Remus gladly would have done it. In fact, he’d used to do it all the time; text, eat, do his makeup, all while cruising down the freeway. He’d only put a stop to it when he saw how much it affected Virgil.

He counted down the minutes on his phone, always having been nitpicky with times, knowing that it shouldn’t take Remus more than ten minutes to get there. If he remembered correctly where he was at the moment, that is. Remus had gotten kicked out of his parents’ house in his senior year of high school after a bad fight. They’d never really been great parents, always showing favoritism towards his brother (amongst other things), and he was more than willing to leave. Virgil had tried to beg his parents to let Remus stay with them, but they’d downright refused, calling him a bad influence and a string of other insults that Virgil didn’t even like to think about. God forbid what would happen if they found out the two were dating.

…Well, they did now. And God hadn’t exactly forbidden what they’d done.

But Remus hadn’t had a solid place to live since it had happened almost a year ago. He couch surfed for a while, bouncing between some old friends who had now gone off to college, or just lived in his car. He’d made it work, and had claimed to Virgil that he actually didn’t mind it that much. If he was telling the truth, Virgil wasn’t sure. He’d saved up some money and bought an inflatable mattress that filled up his back seat area, and Virgil was able to give him his family’s old camping stove by convincing them they lost it. It’s not like they’d gone camping since he was a kid, anyways. Last he’d checked, Janus was home for break and Remus was staying with him for the two weeks he was in town, but those two weeks were probably pretty close to done. Unfortunately, Virgil and Janus had never gotten along, so Remus didn’t bring him up. It was a mutual understanding.

As soon as Remus’ car pulled up to the curb, ten minutes on the dot, Virgil basically flung himself into the passenger seat. The car was warm, so so warm, he almost cried again, this time in relief. Remus pulled back onto the road as soon as he was buckled on.

“Vee, what happened?” It wasn’t hard to guess, there were only so many reasons his parents would have to kick him out. He’d narrowed it down to his parent’s finally having it with Virgil’s tattoo artist dream, or… well…

“Someone at my mom’s work found my Instagram. She went up to my mom, basically started gushing about ‘how handsome I was with my boyfriend’. Specifically the picture of us at Pride from a couple years ago.”

“Ah.” Remus knew the picture well. He’d printed it out and it was pinned to the inside of his sun visor.

“Yeah. Mom called my dad, they were both waiting when I got home. Had screenshots and everything. They grilled me about ‘dishonoring God’ and ‘throwing away my life’. Said I was gonna get AIDS. Die before twenty five. Ya know. The whole lecture.”

Remus didn’t. Surprisingly, him being gay was not a concern of his parent’s. His brother was gay too, and they didn’t give a rat’s ass about that. He nodded along anyways.

“They went on for so long. It was insane. Then they dropped the whole ‘you’re not our son’ thing-” Virgil’s voice cracked, but he swallowed around the lump in his throat and continued, “I figured this is where it was leading to, them kicking me out? I thought they’d give me time to pack, though. Except my dad started getting physical-”

“HE WHAT?!” Remus was tempted to turn the fucking car around and drive to Virgil’s house, just to give his parents a piece of his mind. He was fuming; fuck, he hadn’t been this mad in a while.

“Relax, Rem. I got out before he could actually land a hit. That’s why I don’t have anything with me. I had to run.”

“Doesn’t make it any better.”

“I know.” Virgil pulled his feet up onto the seat cross legged, trying to rub some feeling back into them. Luckily, they weren’t bleeding, just cold as hell. That was one less thing to worry about. “Thanks for picking me up.”

“Of course, Vi,” Remus’ voice had taken on a softer edge that he rarely allowed anyone to see, and he reached over to take one of Virgil’s hands into his own, “Speaking of which, why were you on Jackson? That’s, what, three miles away from your house?”

“When I say I ran, I mean literally. I was scared they would follow me.” Virgil shrugged, as if the statement wasn’t the most heartbreaking thing Remus had ever heard. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, I just ran. That’s why it took me so long to realize I should call you.”

Remus sighed, letting his thumb run against Virgil’s knuckles. “You don’t have to act all brave, Vi.”

“I don’t think I ever saw you cry when you got kicked out.”

“That’s because I didn’t love my parents. I honestly didn’t. I know your parents mean a lot to you. And I’m sorry it went down like it did.”

It was the truth, but he honestly didn’t want to think about it right now. What kind of loving family kicks out their child? Virgil took a shaky breath in and mumbled, “Can we talk about it tomorrow?”

“Okay. Let’s talk about something else. What’s our plan?”

Virgil was quiet for a long moment, as if deep in thought. He watched the scenery fade from his suburban area of town to the darker, rural parts of the town’s edge, not knowing or caring where they were driving. The escape from street lights was nice. “Why do we need a plan?”

Remus’ eyebrows shot up at the sudden playful tone in Virgil’s words. “Oh?”

“I mean, is anything really holding us here?”

“My, my,” Remus crooned, pulling into an empty lot and parking in the furthest spot from the street, “I thought I was the impulsive one.”

“I’m serious, Rem!” Virgil laughed, swatting lightly at Remus’ hand. The happy sound was like music to his ears. “I’m dead serious! What’s keeping us here?”

“Patton? Logan?”

“Both across the country. And you know they’re considering staying there when they graduate.” Janus’ name was an understood thing. They both knew his school was barely an hour from the other two. Even if Virgil couldn’t stand the guy, he knew that Remus and Janus went far back. Judging by Remus’ slowly brightening expression, he could assume that Janus would probably be down to stay there as well.

“Work?”

“I work at Walmart. They won’t miss me. Try again.”

Remus scrunched his eyebrows almost thoughtfully, even though this was maybe the easiest decision he’d ever had to make. Plus, they both knew Remus didn’t really ‘think’ in general. “It almost sounds like you want to take a roadtrip, my little emo.”

Virgil scrunched his nose at the nickname, but let a wider smile spread across his tear stained cheeks. “I kind of do.”

Remus shut the car off, turning to his boyfriend with a shit eating grin. “I like this new side of you.”

“Well…” Virgil’s voice turned sheepish under the almost cheshire cat level expression, “Should we?”

“Let’s make up our minds tomorrow.” Remus stated, gesturing to the mattress behind him, “Sleep for tonight. You must be exhausted, coming up with ideas like this.”

Virgil grumbled under his breath, something about ‘not being a baby’, but clambered into the backseat after Remus, double checking the locks on the doors as he went. The air mattress was comfier than he thought it would be, and it was only made better when Remus pulled him in like a teddy bear, tugging a blanket over them. They both sighed in contentment, then promptly burst out laughing at the synchronicity.

“Oh my god, what have we become?” Remus gasped, pulling Virgil in closer nonetheless. Virgil snorted in response, looking up to meet Remus’ eyes through a haze of sudden exhaustion and amusement. The laughter died down slowly as they both gave in to their fatigue, finishing the day with a slow kiss that left them both breathless. Virgil fell asleep with plans forming and circulating through his mind, the rest of the evening almost forgotten.

--------------------------------------------

His parents were at work, and Virgil knew their kitchen window didn’t lock properly, which was what led to him stuffing everything he could into a black duffel bag while Remus kept watch from his car. He wasn’t too concerned about the parents coming home, but it gave him ample time to look over the map he’d bought from the gas station that morning and plan a route. He didn’t want to admit that his leg was shaking from pure excitement. This idea had been somewhere in the back of his mind for a long time, but he knew Virgil valued his relationship with his family and liked being near them, so he never brought it up. Granted, the situation wasn’t great, but he considered this ‘making the best of it’. A twisted paradise.

He barely flinched as his trunk was thrown open and Virgil threw his bag inside before hopping back into his seat.

“Okay, so how about we drive up to Maine, apparently the sea food is legendary! Then we cut back through Ohio. There’s literally nothing in Ohio, but we can cross it off the list at least! And then-”

Virgil laughed, cutting him off, “I thought we weren’t planning!”

“Well, we need at least a rough idea,” Remus said with a pout, “What we do there and how long we stay, that’s up to impulse. I was thinking we should try to get through all the states, wouldn’t that be cool?”

Virgil could only nod, leaning forward to kiss Remus again. “Sounds amazing,” he murmured, so close they were almost touching. They’d talked to Logan and Patton earlier that morning, and they were equally as excited for the two of them. Remus had called Janus while Virgil was packing, quickly explaining the situation (and also why Remus had disappeared in the middle of the night), and Janus supported it. Made sense, since he was almost as impulsive as Remus. Plus, he was going back to school in a couple days, so it didn’t make much of a difference. That said, they still didn’t have a time limit. Their friends were just starting second semester, meaning they could schedule themselves to arrive in California for summer break, or they could spend longer on the road. But schedules are for chumps.

As they rolled out of the quaint neighborhood Virgil had grown up in, Remus reached down and took his hand again. “Say goodbye to white picket fences.” And god, the joyful expression on Virgil’s face was enough to make him melt.

By the time they hit the freeway, they were both nearly shaking with anticipation. Virgil stuck his hands out the sunroof, the wind whipping through his hair, and let out a whoop that was almost contagious. This was the start of something amazing, they both felt it.

Cali, here we come.

#lywrites #sanderssidesfanfiction #sanderssides #dukexiety

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luthienne · 4 years

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Hi ! I was wondering if you had quotes / thoughts about feeling lost in life, when nothing feels right and choices have to be made even though they all feel like lukewarm water when you wanted a hot bath. That feeling of losing a sense of grounding and not seeing the direction in which to move. thank you xx

(I’ve been wanting to compile this from the moment I received your ask in my inbox. I know the feeling intimately, and I love the way you articulated it. Hope any of these quotes resonate w what you were looking for xx)

“What shall we do my darling, when trial grows more, and more, when the dim, lone light expires, and it’s dark, so very dark, and we wander, and know not where, and cannot get out of the forest…”

—Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

“She had never figured out how to figure things out. She was only vaguely beginning to know the kind of absence she had of herself inside her.”

—Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star (tr. Benjamin Moser)

“But as it is / I lack myself.”

—Anne Carson, Grief Lessons; “Herakles”

“Even now I can’t explain. Something happened, a kind of earthquake that shook everything and I lost faith and touch with everybody.”

—Katherine Mansfield, Letters of Katherine Mansfield

“She felt suddenly as if she were a ghost in her own life—”

—Catherynne M. Valente, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden

“I hate seeing myself dissolve and slip and separate so that I’m living in one half of my mind, and I see the other half of me helpless and frantic and driven and I can’t stop it, but I know I’m not really going to be hurt and yet time is so long and even a second goes on and on and I could stand any of it if I could only surrender—”

—Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“It makes me tremble. (…) To think back. I remember exactly how I thought life would be.”

—Anne Carson, The Beauty of the Husband

Emily Dickinson, “I felt a Funeral in my Brain”

“and I didn’t care / and I was alone / and there had been war / and that thing (my soul) / was a lost star / or a lost boat / adrift,”

—H.D., Child Poems: “Dedication”

“She had a perpetual sense (…), of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day.”

—Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

“You know the feeling? One lies in a kind of daze, feeling so sensitive—so unbearably sensitive to the exterior world and longing for something ‘lovely’ to happen.”

—Katherine Mansfield, Letters of Katherine Mansfield

“I don’t care a bit—about anything—I just seem to be asleep and can’t wake up—”

—Georgia O’Keeffe, Art and Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe

“Life is what happens to someone else; / I stand on the sidelines and wring my hands.”

—Lisel Mueller, Waving from Shore

“…it is a little thing to say how lone it is — anyone can do it, but to wear loneliness next to your heart for weeks, when you sleep, and when you wake, ever missing something, this, all cannot say, and it baffles me.”

—Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

“My life now is a dream too, semi-detached, and seems to happen to somebody else.”

—Martha Gellhorn, from Selected Letters

“I don’t know—I don’t know anything. There is no one here I can talk to—it’s all like a bad dream.”

—Georgia O’Keeffe, Art and Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe

“…she does not know whom she wishes to catch, only that she wishes to catch someone, anyone, to be anchored, to be connected, to not be abandoned.”

—Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“I had lost my true rhythm. But what was my true rhythm?”

—Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin: Vol 1, 1931-1934

“People kept saying It’s only a matter of time so I persevered in the hope they weren’t lying. At the same time beginning to think I might’ve been lying to myself. Wasting everyone’s time with fantasies of this career I couldn’t have. The person I could never be. There was just so much rejection and not enough of me. I got so afraid. And I lost my nerve—”

—Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians

—Denise Levertov, Life in the Forest; “A Daughter (I)”

“I’m not lost. Or not lost much. Lonely. It is that and … I don’t know what to do. So I move. And cars move. And it’s almost life.”

—Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians

“What prevents you? The future. The future tense, / immense as outer space. / You could get lost there. / No. Nothing so simple. The past, its density / and drowned events pressing you down, / like sea water—”

—Margaret Atwood, “Up”

“What is there to say? I became physically ill. It was as if I had fallen into space and hung there while life passed me by.”

—Boris Pasternak, Letters Summer 1926: Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Rilke

“And nothing else happens. The days go by, lost, wasted, and I have no drive to write, no words come… And I grow more and more solitary.”

—Martha Gellhorn, Selected Letters

“I cannot write anymore, dears. Though it is many nights, my mind never comes home.”

—Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

“As time goes by, especially in the last few years, I’ve lost the knack of being a person. I no longer know how one is supposed to be. And an entirely new kind of ‘solitude of not belonging’ has started invading me like ivy on a wall.”

—Clarice Lispector, Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

“There’s a loss of personality. / Or rather, you’ve lost touch with the person / You thought you were. / You no longer feel quite human.”

—T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party

“My wings are cut and I can-not fly I can-not fly I can-not fly.”

—Katherine Mansfield, Letters of Katherine Mansfield

“Me, as ever, gone.”

—Anne Carson, Decreation; “Despite her Pain, Another Day”

“…and I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”

—Emily Dickinson, Letters

“…why this doubt that I have about everything I do, this void that frightens me, all these lost illusions?”

—Gustave Flaubert, Intimate Notebook 1840-1841

“What I fear I avoid. What I fear I pretend does not exist. What I fear is quietly killing me. Would there were a festival for my fears, a ritual burning of what is coward in me, what is lost in me. Let the light in before it is too late.”

—Jeanette Winterson, “The Green Man”

“Around. Around. There / should have been / a lesson somewhere.”

—Louise Glück, “The Game”

“Only occasionally do I find I have to break my peace: shout or be lost in the shuffle. But mostly I am lost in the shuffle.”

—Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

“Things went wrong. She lost confidence. She became apprehensive in crowds. I recognize how that she was feeling then as I feel now. Invisible on the street.”

—Joan Didion, Blue Nights

“She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible; unseen; unknown;”

—Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

“You might not remember me, dears. I cannot recall myself. I thought I was strongly built, but this stronger has undermined me.”

—Emily Dickinson, Selected Letters

“I have no world to go back into, or to go forward into. Because these years have cut me away from many things – from everything: not only materially, but also mentally, spiritually.”

—Martha Gellhorn, Selected Letters

—Rita Dove, “The Venus of Willendorf”

“…for we are in such fragile skin, so close to getting lost in the in-between.”

—Eimear McBride, The Lesser Bohemians

“I do not want revenge, I do not want expiation. / I only want to ask someone / how I was lost, / how I was lost,”

—Margaret Atwood, “Owl Song”

“I felt as if the sky was torn off my life. I had no home in goodness anymore.”

—Anne Carson, “The Glass Essay”

“Let it be over, she pleaded within herself. Let it never have happened—any of it. Let me be young again, and the story just starting.”

—Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

“The ultimate fantasy: the recovery of an irrecoverable past. But if I could daydream about an invented happy future…”

—Susan Sontag, As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh

“Tell me what’s the difference / between hope and waiting / because my heart doesn’t know / It constantly cuts itself on the glass of waiting / It constantly gets lost in the fog of hope”

—Anna Kamienska, Astonishments

—Denise Levertov, To Stay Alive

“I long to—ah, so much!! If that were possible I’d get back to my spirit.”

—Katherine Mansfield, Selected Letters

“I told my Soul to sing— / She said her Strings were snapt—”

—Emily Dickinson, Complete Poems; “The first Day’s Night had come,”

“Surely it is a privilege to approach the end / still believing in something.”

—Louise Glück, Averno; “October”

“There is a wild raging river flowing inside of me. I can’t dam it. I’m hurt so badly. Believe me—oh shit! Believe, believe—what’s there to believe anymore?”

— Henry Miller, A Literate Passion

“And life tasteless. And so eager, so eager that I should accomplish a miracle. People always expect miracles.”

—Anaïs Nin, A Literate Passion

“I want to be filled with longing again / till dark burn marks show on my skin. I want to be written again / in the Book of Life, to be written every single day / till the writing hand hurts.”

—Yehuda Amichai,“I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once,”

“I want / my heart back / I want to feel everything again—”

—Louise Glück, Averno; “Blue Rotunda”

#ask #compilation #words #lit #poetry #la sonnambula #on feeling lost

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disco-cola · 2 years

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dude i was prescribed physiotherapy cos i have such severe muscle tensions in my back i literally cant breathe sometimes and i get these warm mud packs and am supposed to just lie there for 25 mins and relax but the place im at has this well known modern local radio station playing and i mean my era struggle is never really gone but it has gotten soo bad again recently and having to lie still on that cot i have no choice but to actively listen to whats being played and being exposed to modern mainstream pop music i am literally on the verge of tearing up every time like how am i supposed to relax when i literally wanna rip my ears off and just realizing intensely all over again how much i hate being alive and young in this decade i even get so nostalgic for my childhood in the early 2000s and wish so hard i had at least been young then because i can totally vibe to a lot of songs and artists that have been popular then and remember so many songs from back then as ive always loved music from such a young age and other than that ive always been a huge fan of 80s and 90s pop like i dont think if i was young back then i would have been a 70s classic rock only chick hell i think i would have been mainstream as heck if i had been young in the 80s with stuff life michael jackson, madonna, prince etc. on the radio but being exposed to modern music from the last two decades is hitting me just so damn badly and gives me anxiety attacks cos i just realize all over again how i will never be able to be fully happy in this lifetime and live out my dreams first hand and not just vicariously through the music, movies, documentaries and books i am consuming (i mean its been almost 10 years that i have been in this "phase" of having trouble living in the now and identifying with it and i can safely say by now it is not "just a phase") but i guess i really just have to accept that fact as barely anyone understands it anyway and its like i dont even wanna fight it anymore ugh please invent a time machine so i can go back where my soul belongs @ scientists

#sorry i just came back from another treatment there and just needed to rant this off my chest

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we-are-inevitable · 3 years

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modern art // javid (ch. 1)

A/N: hi !! so some of you may remember an old songfic i did in march of last year, titled ‘modern art’ after the song “IDK You Yet” by Alexander 23. well, i’ve always thought that that one shot would work great as a stand alone fic, and here we are! i have ch. 1 edited and SO MUCH of it as changed- like, for example, the fic is a chapter fic now !! regardless, i hope you guys like this !!

WARNINGS: depression, anxiety, self-deprecation, past addiction, mentions of addiction, just general Bad Times- pls be mindful when reading !! it’s just very Not Happy rn ADDITIONAL INFO: all characters are in their mid-twenties in the fic. oh also this is probably important but it’s a soulmate au !!

Read On AO3!

tag list: @bound-for-santa-fe @wannabecowboypunk @shippingcannons @yahfancyclamwiththepurlinside @smallsies @deliciouspeachpirate @newsies-is-my-erster

Jack doesn't know what’s going on with himself, but he knows that he could really use his soulmate right about now.

They’ve communicated before. Never verbally, and never enough to reveal who they were. Perhaps they are both just... dealing with some unspoken fears, dealing with the worry of rejection sitting heavy in their chests. Perhaps they both like this mystery- the uncertainty that came with the notes scrawled across their bodies in a handwriting that isn’t their own.

Or perhaps they just aren’t ready to take the plunge. To grow up and face the harsh fact that, as soon as they meet, wherever and whenever that may be, a new chapter of their life will unfold. Consume them. Change anything and everything they’ve ever known or held dear.

They had been braver when they were children, that much was true. Jack remembers staying up late often, writing notes on his skin and watching in awe as the replies appeared. He remembers the giddy rush of trying to quickly wash off the ink on his wrist when they ran out of space to talk, and, oh, how they talked. There were school days when Jack would go to class exhausted, feeling like he’d been walking through quicksand for miles on end, but all of it had been worth it. The exhaustion he felt had been worth being able to talk to them until two, three, four in the morning. Sometimes he regretted it, of course, but only because it was harder for him to focus in class. Never because he was upset at them.

He could never be upset with them.

Even now, Jack remembers a lot about his soulmate. They liked music. They knew how to play the piano. They were into a few video games, even some that Jack had never played, and said that they always tried carrying a book with them wherever they went. Jack remembers that, as a younger kid, they liked Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but also liked analyzing Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe and a bunch of other fancy authors that Jack had never even heard of. They were intimidatingly smart, and sometimes, would carefully correct Jack’s grammar whenever he misspelled a word or something- but they were never mean about it, they were just… there. A steady presence that he could count on.

Fifteen year old Jack dreamed of finding them one day. But now, twenty-five year old Jack is losing hope.

He can’t exactly help it. For starters, he and his soulmate haven’t communicated in… well, shit, it had to be nearly a year. Maybe nine months or so, but there’s no way to tell for sure, and even then, their conversations since reaching adulthood have been dull, for lack of a better word. A few positive comments here, a ‘have a good day’ there- it’s all so mundane, and neither of them can be blamed for it. They both have busy lives- or, well, Jack does, at least. His job as a graphic designer is hard enough on its own, but the added pressure of doing freelance work and commissions on the side has been eating away at him for weeks, coupled with debilitating self-doubt and lack of motivation for… anything.

Saying that he’s overwhelmed is the understatement of the century.

There is always another design, another client, another meeting, another deadline, another sleepless night as he stares at a blank canvas and prays for a spark of inspiration from whatever God is listening. Usually his inspiration comes from the world around him- his friends, city life, even the quiet confines of his apartment, but right now... Jack is stuck. He had holed himself up in his room days ago, trying and failing to get out of bed every morning when the time came to work- and thank God that the majority of his work could be done from home. His boss was understanding, too, to an extent.

Still, though, there’s a constant heavy weight on his chest that prevents him from moving most days, and he’s lucky if he even gets up long enough to shower or eat or do literally anything aside from lie in silence and count the cracks in his ceiling.

Nothing had happened to him recently to bring this on, from what he can tell. Jack has always been the happy-go-lucky leader, the man with a plan, the guy who always knew just what to say to motivate others into doing the best thing for themselves, but when that responsibility is reflected back onto himself, Jack feels helpless. There are words waiting to be said, sketches waiting to be drawn, designs waiting to be sent to clients… yet Jack lies there, motionless in his room for three days before he even has the energy, the willpower, to pull back his curtains and allow the sunlight to shine through. There is so much he wants to do, so much he needs to do, but he can't bring himself to do any of it.

In all twenty-five years of his life, through all of the things he’s been through, the ups and downs and foster homes and graduations and birthdays and funerals and therapists and rehab facilities and whatever the fuck else life decided to throw at him, Jack has never felt so worthless, so… lonely. His closest friends are all moving on with their lives. Many have already found their soulmate, have settled down and hidden their rowdy, rambunctious pasts behind skeletons in a closet. They’d all gotten their adventures done and over with in high school and college, and most are moving onto bigger and better things in life. They have careers. Families. Some have children, others have pets, a few have an insane amount of plants to care for.

All have seemingly left Jack behind in the dust.

No one told him when to flip the switch.

No one told him when he had aged out of adventure.

Now, they would never say it, but Jack knows. He knows. Saturday hangouts and trips to the bar had been replaced by Sunday church services and playdates for the kids. Rather than hearing yelling from his living room after his friends had all been teetering just on the edge between tipsy and fucked up, Jack hears the news, and documentaries, and podcasts, and the ghosts of a past life that he still seemed to be desperately clinging on to.

Katherine had been the one to tell him that he needed to grow up, though she didn’t put it in such a blunt manner. No, she’s just.... gently urging him to find a bigger apartment, or buy matching furniture from a place that is not a thrift store, or purchase dishes that weren’t of the plastic Walmart brand. She says it was because she wants to see him in a more professional, "adulty" lifestyle, but he knows it’s really because she can see that he’s a mess.

Deep down, Jack knows she’s right. She’s always right.

He just can’t help but feel cemented in place, dreaming of the past while dreading the new future ahead of him.

Jack never asked to feel so broken for no reason. All of the hope and optimism he had felt as a teenager was gone, lost in a sea of uncertain plans and shitty jobs and bill extensions and canvases dropped onto the floor with no rhyme or reason. And, yes, maybe Jack would look dramatic to someone who didn’t know his situation, but Jack knows what dramatic feels like. Dramatic feels like watching his best friend, Charlie, belt onstage in front of a backdrop that he helped create for the school play. Dramatic feels like laughing at the top of his lungs while walking through a random gas station at two in the morning, joined by Race and Al, all while higher than a kite. Dramatic feels like driving to the outskirts of the city with Katherine, climbing onto the roof of an old building and screaming about all of their stress, their anxiety, their insecurities, just to have some form of emotional release.

Dramatic doesn’t feel like sadness. It’s not supposed to.

Not for Jack.

He had been so… so happy, as a teenager. Proud and defiant and carefree. He was the kind of guy to skate and smoke weed in Central Park until midnight and take a math test at eight in the morning the next day. He was the kid who stood on a table in the cafeteria and came out as bisexual to everyone around him, just because of a dumbass bet that he didn’t even get paid for. He was the boy who wasn’t at all good in an academic sense, but who always knew how to talk himself out of trouble, who always came up with the most ridiculous- or most believable- lies to cover his ass when he needed it, who was always the class favorite, the teacher’s pet without meaning to be.

Jack had felt on top of the world back then, but now he’s struggling to even get off of the ground. The longer time goes on, the more lost Jack feels inside his own life. He feels like something was missing, something big. Something bigger than himself.

When his mother was alive, which now felt like lifetimes ago, she would often echo this old wives’ tale about how it’s best to find your soulmate while you’re younger, just to save them- and yourself- the pain of being alone for a long time. Jack had always kind of believed her; logically, he knew it was true, but he had always told himself that it wouldn’t happen to him. That he would be fine alone, though it wouldn’t be ideal, and that he would have plenty of time for soulmates after he got out and made a name for himself.

He’s starting to think, though, that maybe she was right. Maybe Jack had waited too long to make a move, to make contact again, because now, he just feels nauseous even thinking about it.

Don’t get him wrong, he knows the negative effects of self deprecation and not taking his own mental health seriously, he’s been to rehab before, blah, blah, blah, but, fuck, how could he put his soulmate through something like this? This fucked up state of mind he has now. Jack can’t even imagine talking to Katherine about this, and Katherine had been his best friend for over a decade. He can’t just meet his soulmate now- it’s been too long, he’s too messed up, they won’t like him, they’ll hate him for not trying hard enough, and Jack will just end up alone again, wasting away in his bedroom because no one fucking cares. No one cares. He has nobody.

That’s not true. He has Medda, his mom, his savior, his impulse control, but the thought of telling her that everything is acting up again makes him want to scream. He has Tony, but Tony has Al, and Tony and Al have a kid- a sweet little five year old girl who calls Jack ‘Uncle Jackie’ and takes no shit from anyone. He has Katherine, but Katherine has her soulmate- this dude named Darcy, who Jack doesn’t have much of an opinion on because they just met, like, a month ago, and Jack hasn’t exactly been emotionally ready for a hangout session between the three of them. He also has Charlie, and Charlie has certainly seen him in worse times- like when Jack was kind of hooked on pills for the entirety their freshman year of college- but Charlie has grad school to worry about and Charlie would hate him if he bothered him with this.

Still, there are other people who would listen, probably. He could easily talk to Elmer, or Romeo, or Specs, or Jojo or Finch or Sean or a fucking therapist but that’s just it, isn’t it? If he talks, he burdens, and Jack Francisco Kelly would rather run himself into the ground than be a burden anyone.

So, he makes a vow.

He makes eye contact with his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He’s gripping onto the sink, holding on for dear life, as he stares into his own sunken eyes. He takes in his appearance. Damp, messy hair, falling down to cover his forehead. Pale skin, which isn’t normal at all. Dark circles have taken their place around his eyes, and his smile- one of his favorite things about himself- is… nonexistent.

Distantly, Jack registers himself dumping a full bottle of ibuprofen into the sink. And then, he does the same thing with the bottle of melatonin from his medicine cabinet. The valium follows. He lets the water run for a long time. It's not that he doesn't trust himself- he'd done so, so good in rehab, and he doesn't even feel urges that often anymore- but it's better safe than sorry, especially since he's like... this.

This is not the Jack Kelly he’s used to anymore. This is not the Jack Kelly he wants to be.

But this Jack Kelly is the one who vows not to reach out. The one who vows to only answer when his soulmate is ready, and maybe not even then.

He doesn’t have to wait long, though.

Not when a heart appears on the back of his hand the next morning.

It’s there when Jack wakes up, and, honestly, it almost brings Jack to tears- but not necessarily for happy reasons. Sure, Jack wants to be happy. Who wouldn’t be happy after seeing something like this? A lopsided heart drawn in red ink, right on the back of his left hand- it was the definition of a symbol, of a romantic gesture, and Jack wants so badly to write back, to strike up conversation, to draw a goddamn heart, but… he can’t.

He can’t, and that’s horrible of him, and he knows it.

Right now, though… Jack can’t even work up the courage, the energy, to call his mom.

His soulmate, whoever they are, is going to have to wait.

#if u wanna be added to my tag list just let me know !!#newsies #jack kelly #david jacobs #davey jacobs #javid #javey #newsies broadway #newsies musical #newsies fic #newsies fanfiction #newsies fanfic #livesies #toursies #jac writes #jac txt.

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weekendwritingmarathon · 3 years

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This weekly roundup includes fics written (at least in part) during the 1k1h sprints and/or the Weekend Writing Marathon events.

Fics are ordered first by fandom, then by word count from smallest to largest.

I’ll Follow You (Around The World) by vexbatch

Good Omens || Crowley/Aziraphale || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 2,414 words || Complete

Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale meet up, sometime before the end of the world, to have a coffee.

Other tags: fluff, pining, first kiss

Dancing By Myself (and baby, it’s the electric slide) by vexbatch

Marvel || Clint Barton || Explicit || No major warnings apply || 1,559 words || Complete

Summary: It’s Clint’s birthday, and Natasha actually got him a really nice gift. A really nice gift that he’d like to try out right now, thank you very much.

Other tags: trans clint barton, masturbation, violet wand, pwp

An Intermission (or two) by @pherryt

Marvel, The Old Guard || none || General || Major Character Death || 1,590 words || Complete

Summary: Two short vignettes focusing on Andy and Bucky (Separately) before the next big story hits: Chapter 1: Andy isn't sure of her usefulness anymore, now that Superheroes are becoming a thing. Chapter 2: Bucky isn't sure of anything at all. Until he is.

Other tags: off screen character death, canon divergent winter soldier, Avengers, Implied/Referenced Torture, Battle of New York, Family, loss of self, Memory Loss

Outside the World by @pherryt

Marvel || winterhawk (bucky/Clint) || General || No major warnings apply || 4,767 words || Complete

Summary: Bucky doesn't really remember who he is, and what little he does remember is impossible. All his therapists have said so. There's no way he can be who he thinks he is - a character from a children's book. And yet, the world around him just doesn't *feel* right - its too dark, too colorless and doesn't match the vibrancy of his dreams. Dreams he tries to capture both on paper and on his walls. Bucky doesn't have any answers he can count on, just the hat he's kept all these years, but that guy that started following him - as vibrant and eye-catching as the pieces of Bucky's dreams - Well, he just might.

Other tags: Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat , White Rabbit, March Hare , Wonderland, Amnesia, Lost!Bucky, stranded in another world, Magic, Portals, past self inflicted hurts (but not self harm), Reunions, Riddles, names have power, Protective!Bucky, Sacrifices, allusions to greater conflict, bucky's friends never gave up, Pocket Watch, Top Hat, Recovering Memories, unwonderland, steve rogers, steven strange

Finding Me (And You) Along the Way by @pherryt

Marvel || winterhawk (Bucky/Clint) with side Steve/Sam || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 10,031 words || Complete

Summary: When Clint retired - pre-Loki, pre-Avengers - he'd never expected that his leisurely world tour might be joined a couple years later by Captain America's best friend. A best friend who'd gone through things nobody should ever have had to go through and was just trying to find himself again. Even if Clint hadn't already promised Steve to keep an eye out for Bucky, he'd have caved in the direction of helping. There was just something about him...

Other tags: soulmates, soulmate miscommunication, telepathy (sort of) finding yourself, fluff, traveling the world, mutual pining, deaf!clint, retired!clint, nerd!bucky, soft!bucky, canon divergent, post winter soldier, journal, memories, scarf, minor references to nightmares and past abuse

Square One by @pherryt

Marvel, The Old Guard || nicky/joe (pre Nicky/Joe/Bucky) || Mature || Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Major Character Death || 15,709 words || Complete

Summary: It's been nearly 50 years since James sacrificed himself to save Joe and Nicky from a very Merrick like fate. They had no idea he was about to become a presence in their lives once more, looking almost as young as he had then. James wasn't an immortal, so it should have been impossible, but there he was on the tv, clear as day.

Other tags: Temporary Character Deaths, temporary suicide, On screen suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Healing, identities revealed, Angst, Family, finding sanctuary, There's another one, Hopeful Ending, protective Joe, Protective Nicky, Supportive Andy, supportive Nile, talk about past joe/nicky/bucky, Forgiveness, Winter Soldier, bonding all over again, post winter soldier, canon divergent winter soldier, post old guard, Tired Bucky Barnes

Not Your Guardian Angel (chapter 21) by @tryslora

Original Fiction (Welcome to PHU) || M/F/F (Shane/Pels/Jess) || Teen & up || Author chooses not to give major warnings || 3,464 / 83,881 words || WIP

Summary: When Pels wakes up, everyone she loves is there. Maybe they can heal from more than just the accident.

Other tags: Magic, College, Guardian Angel, Ghosts, Soulmarks

Not Your Guardian Angel (chapter 22) by @tryslora

As Above || 3,513 / 87,394 words || WIP

Summary: Jess wants to hug Pels. She wants to confirm that she's alive and well, but... that's something they haven't done yet.

Under the Surface by @pherryt

Supernatural || destiny (Dean/Cas/Benny) || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 25,842 words || Complete

Summary: Dean was kicked out of his pack because he couldn't turn into his wolf, but shifters aren't meant to be alone. He finds a traveling companion in Benny, who's been on the run from his own pack for years and is desperately lonely. It goes well enough, except that Dean keeps getting sick and Benny doesn't know why, so when they find what appears to be an abandoned village, they take refuge - only to find a lone wolf still lives there and he's not too happy to find strangers in his home.

Other tags: Found Family, Shifters, Wolves, Werewolf AU, touch starved, Alone, cast out, Traveling Together, Finding Shelter, Storms, Hurt/Comfort, Sick!Dean, hurt!Dean, Bad Pasts, Fluff and Angst, Pining, Mutual Pining, loner!cas, Magic, spells, Prophecy, Fantasy AU, not a/b/o, Shapeshifting, Domestic

Wyerd by tryslora

Teen Wolf || Stiles/Derek/Jackson || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 4,990 words || Complete

Summary: Stiles started writing the webcomic when he was sixteen. At the time, he thought the name was the height of wordplay humor. Now it's been picked up by Netflix for a six episode series covering the first published volume, and starring Derek Hale and Jackson Whittemore. What even is his life?

Other tags: AU-Actors, Comic Artist Stiles, Actor Derek, Actor Jackson, Getting together

Have you posted a fic recently? Any active WWM participant can Submit your fic here by midnight EST Wednesday and it will be included on next Friday’s WWM Fic Roundup post.

#wwm fic roundup #good omens #marvel #the old guard #original fiction #welcome to phu #supernatural #teen wolf #fanfic

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 3 years

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Riverdale 5x04 Review

Wow I loved this episode it was really really good. It definitely felt like a fresh start for the show. It was fun seeing the characters as adults and seeing what they have been up to in the last seven years some of their storylines were really heartbreaking and they’ve all had their strugglings but all the storylines caught my attention and I am excited to see them play out. So lets dive in and talk about the episode. The usual disclaimer stands these are just my own thoughts and opinions and of course there are spoilers so the rest is under the cut.

Archie

So the episode jumps right into the action from the start where we see a dream or rather a nightmare that Archie is having. As predicted poor Archie has PTSD and is struggling with what he went through when at war. What was interesting is the dream gives us some details on what happened to Archie during the time he was in the war zone. It seems like he was part of a mission to rescue a fellow soldier who had fallen behind enemy lines. I am assuming that the soldier in question is Corporal Jackson. It also seems like Archie was definitely a hero in this scenario as his commanding officer says that the men in his unit are alive because of Archie giving the impression that he saved more than just Jackson’s life. It is also obvious that Archie feels alot of guilt about the ones that he couldn’t save. I do want to talk about the dream some more though as another interesting thing is that Archie subconciously melded his two worlds together to give us this surreal scene of a battle and a football game. I do think this dream could be symbolic of what is to come in the season. I could also be reading way too much into it but it is still interesting to explore. For example the first person to fall is Reggie and we see Archie pause and look back calling for him. When Archie arrives back in Riverdale it is to the news that Reggie now works for Hiram. So you could say that he was the first to fall under Hiram’s spell/ manipulation/ power or whatever you want ot call it. We don’t know yet why or how Hiram and Reggie came to be working together. The next person to fall is Jughead but unlike Reggie Jughead talks to Archie. But what he says I think is significant. He says ‘Archie, just a little help.’ I think this could indicate Jughead’s struggle with alcoholism. I do think Archie and Jughead could end up mirroring Fred and FP. When FP was struggling with alcoholism Fred was the one who tried to help him by giving him a job and later he took in Jughead when he found out Juggie was homeless and was willing to give FP a job again. I do think Archie will help Jughead get through these struggles in a similar way that Fred helped FP. However I also think some of this could be a representation of Archie’s guilt about how he betrayed Jughead when he kissed Betty and that maybe he feels some responsibility for the pain Jughead is going through now because of that.

It is also worth noting that Archie also sees his friends, Veronica, Betty, Cheryl, Kevin, Fangs, Sweet Pea and Pop Tate cheering him on from the sidelines as he tries to rescue Jughead. I do think this will show that while Archie will be the most involved in helping Jughead heal all of their friends are going to surround them with support. We have to remember that Archie himself is struggling and so I think this might indicate how the whole group will support each other. I also think some of it sybolises what kept Archie going whilst he was at war. It was the memory of his friends and his desire to one day see them again.

The last part of the dream is showing Hiram holding Archie at gun point as he tries to save Jughead and Archie freezing up. To me this scene did remind me a bit of the scene where the black hood holds Archie at gun point in Pop’s also that last gunshot before he wakes up reminded me of that gunshot going off in the season 1 finale when Fred got shot. I think in this moment Archie is confronted with what he fears the most, freezing up right when he is supposed to be saving someone he cares about. I also think its a foreshadow of the war that’s to come between Hiram and Archie.

Anyway leaving the the dreamworld behind, Archie is told that he is being reassigned to restart the RROTC at Riverdale high. So that means Archie is heading home. He obviously isn’t happy about the orders wanting to head back out to the frontlines but I think he’s probably being reassigned because of his PTSD. This is a bit of a divergent but I couldn’t help but laugh a little when Archie’s soldier friend said Riverdale sounded nice. But Archie gave him his address so it looks like that poor guy will showing up later to discover how wrong that statement was. I am intrigued by his character so am looking forward to seeing him pop back up again in Riverdale.

Once Archie gets back to Riverdale we get alot of information from Toni about what has been going on in Riverdale since they’ve all be gone. We learn that Hiram is stripping Riverdale’s budget to fund SoDale which caters to the rich. I have to say I’m ok with this storyline. When I saw the interview that Archie and Hiram were going up against each other again I was less than enthusiastic about it. But this makes sense to me, I can see why Hiram would do this and yes I do think it is very in character for Archie want to save Riverdale. Also I think because we know it won’t be just Archie but a whole collection of characters like Toni, Alice, Kevin and the rest of the core four going up against Hiram, it won’t feel too much like a rehash of the same storyline. Also this is a little silly but didn’t anyone else feel like Archie was more upset about the bus stops than he was with the fire station getting burned down. Like when he saw the fire station it was like hmm we should rebuild this but when he saw the bus stops he was all WHerE ArE PeOplE GoiNG To SiT!! I dunno maybe its just me but I found that kinda funny. Of course that did give us some more information, we learnt earlier that the Serpents now drive trucks and Toni says sometimes her trucks use the lonely highway. But they never go at night and that bad things happen at night on that highway. This is interesting because we see that girl at the end, who well its pretty obvious she was killed, get into a truck at night. So this tells us either its not a Serpent because Toni said they don’t travel at night or one of her serpents has gone rogue.

Archie decides that if they are going to save Riverdale then they need reinforcements and so he calls the core four back. I must admit it was a little sad when he said to Toni could they go and see if any of them showed up because it shows that Archie had doubts whether they would or not. I mean that last scene with the core four to me reminded me of the scene in season 1 when Vee and Bee were sitting together at Pop’s and then Archie and Jughead come in and Betty invites them to join them and its shows them all laughing together, only this one was really sad because they weren’t laughing together in fact the atmosphere was very strained and tense. It was sad to think of that comparison. But that being said I do think it is a testament to their bond that they did all show up when Archie called. I also liked that he said Toni was as much a part of it as anyone, like thank you Archie speak that truth.

Overall I liked Archie’s storyline this episode. I liked his new friendship with Toni and I hope that continues. I also feel like he has alot more maturity and seems more sure of himself, he seems alot more grounded than before. But whilst I think the Army helped him in many ways it has also led him to alot of trauma and pain. His PTSD I think will be a big part of his arc this season and I hope they do it justice.

Betty

The next person we are shown is Betty and to be honest I don’t think it was a coincidence that they showed us Betty right after Archie. I think their storylines are very similar. Both have gone through something horrifying and traumatic and both are struggling with PTSD, both have had their seniors give them different roles in their jobs and both of them are struggling with this believing they can be more useful if they could go back to what they were doing before the trauma. It does seem like both of them are denying that they are struggling and are refusing to confront that trauma. I do think that Betty and Archie are going to be going on the same journey this season, I think they will turn to each other for comfort and over time they will encourage the other to face their trauma and heal together.

We learn from Betty’s therapy sessions that she is still a trainee and also that she messed up on one of her investigations. It seems one of the villians this season is The Trash Bag Killer or TBK as they sometimes refer to them. I’m not going to lie when I first heard the name I half laughed and half rolled my eyes at how ridiculous a name it was. And then I found out why they are called that and that’s just horrifying, like suddenly that name didn’t seem so funny when its because he dismembers bodies and then wraps all the individual pieces up in trash bags. Like that legit freaked me out so I think we might get an actual real stakes scary ass villian this season which will be both terrifying and fun at the same time, I guess seriously though I am going to have nightmares about those trash bags tonight. We also find out that Betty was held captive by TBK for two weeks and that she hasn’t spoken about her captivity to the therapist. Obviously she has deep trauma resulting from that. Also to me Betty rushing in there without any back up is very in line with her character. When doing investigations in Riverdale she never waited for backup and I think this is one of the things she is struggling with adjusting to outside of Riverdale. I think she learned a hard lesson that she has to rely on help sometimes. Similarly to Archie I do think she has alot of survivors guilt she has to work through and is regretting not being able to save people that she feels like she should have saved like Teresa and the other victims of TBK.

The other thing we learn about Betty is that she seems to be in some kind of relationship with her boss Glen. I legit got so excited when I saw Glen purely because I recognised the actor who played a very sexy werewolf in a show called Bitten that I watched years ago so when I first saw him I was like CLAYTON??!! But once I got over the initial shock I decided I’m not a huge fan of Glen mostly because I didn’t like that comment about Betty’s serial killer brother. I mean he knows Betty has been through some crap and is struggling and he is just casually throwing out the reminder of her brother. Also it does not seem like Betty is all that invested in the relationship which makes me wonder if it isn’t really a commited relationship but more of a FWB kind of thing. I do feel like he wants more with Betty than she is willing to give. Like he was offering for them to get pizza and hang out at his place and she lied about meeting with friends and just went home to her cat which not going to lie relatable (except for me its go home to my puppy dog who is the most loyal man I have ever had in my life). So I am unsure on what their relationship really is as it wasn’t really made that clear. I mean to me he seemed really jealous and insecure when she said she had plans which again makes me lean more towards its a casual thing. We really don’t know anything about them, have they been on dates? Have they been intimate together? How did it start? How long has it been going on? We don’t have answers to any of this. I did see on IMDB that Glen is only listed for this one episode. However the main cast are only listed until episode 7 so I don’t think IMDB have information past episode 7 so he might still make an appearence after that. Also I don’t know if IMDB if 100% accurate but so far for me it has been very accurate. The reason why I say this is because we know next episode that Betty is going to be in the shower with someone. I did wonder when I first heard that Betty had a special relationship with a collegue that it might be them in the shower with Betty but Glen has a beard for one thing so unless he shaves it can’t be him, the person in the shower is clean shaven. Also like I said he isn’t listed as being in episode 2 on IMDB so I’m fairly sure its not him in the shower, which again makes me feel like it is more of a casual thing. I mean we know Betty can cheat shes done it before but I’m not sure if they would go that route with her again but we’ll see.

I again liked Betty’s set up. I am curious to see where this TBK plot is going. I also wonder if it will link up with the trucker killer I also wonder if TBK is someone we know already, maybe its Chic. I don’t think it would be Charles because although he is a killer I don’t think he would hurt any of his family. I know that they were in prison last we saw them but we don’t know if they still are so they could be a possibilty. I did hear that both actors were seen in the area where they film Riverdale so who knows. I really do hope that Betty does get some time to heal now that she has her friends around her again.

Veronica

Ok this one is not going to be a unpopular opinion I think, I haven’t been in the riverdale tag yet as I didn’t want to be spoiled before I saw the episode and then I started writing this review right away, so I don’t know what everyones opinion on it was but here it goes. I didn’t hate Veronica’s husband Chad. Like from the interviews I really thought I would hate him but to me he just came across as a husband who had seen his wife nearly die and was now being too protective of her. I know before the episode everyone was describing Chad as being a controlling abusive husband but I didn’t really get that from this episode. Now I do want to make it clear that I do feel like this might change. I mean the next synopsis says he is having her followed so I do feel like he is going to get worse and I’ll then end up hating him but from this episode alone not so much. I think its just that his reasons make sense. I also feel like the problems in the relationship are less to do with Chad being controlling and more to do with a break down in communication. For example the whole having a child thing. I think its perfectly natural for Chad to want to have a child with his wife, especially when they’ve just had a near death experience that might make Chad feel like they should sieze every opportunity before its gone. I also think its completely fine for Veronica not to want children and to focus on her career. But before we go painting Chad as the evil husband who is trying to force his wife into having children we need to remember that Veronica hasn’t told Chad she doesn’t want children right now. When Chad said he thought this would be the year Veronica replies ‘hopefully’. Now with that response it would seem to anyone like she too wants to have children. She might have told Hermione about her true feelings about the subject but she hasn’t told her husband. Even later when they are having an argument and Chad says ‘we’re suppose to be trying to have a baby’ she still doesn’t tell him that she doesn’t want a child. Also I was kinda on Chad’s side about Veronica lying about where she was working. Like I understand that Veronica wanted to avoid an argument but he is right that would have been very awkward and embarassing for Chad to show up at what he thinks is his wife’s place of work and talk to her friend and discover that his wife doesn’t work there anymore. But again that was a result of the lack of communication. On the flip side of all of that you’ve got Chad who is trying to bubble wrap his wife and its like Veronica said he has forgotten who is wife is, Veronica is a tough gal who doesn’t need to be bubble wrapped. I think all of the problems they are facing right now were brought on by the accident. Chad might have really struggled with seeing his fiery, strong and passionate wife in such a vulnerable position after the accident. Seeing her so fragile then made him want to protect her but he takes it too far wanting her to reduce how much she works and even where she works. Veronica also admits to giving into Chad to avoid arguments. I do think their conversation at the end was good it seemed like they were opening that communication back up. But then Chad gave Veronica that egg. Again I don’t necessarily think this is all Chad’s fault and I don’t necessarily think that because he has given Veronica the same gift her Father gave Hermione that means he is evil. It is obvious from the fact that he talks about how a new one comes out every year that he doesn’t know that connection. Once again Veronica doesn’t tell him that she doesn’t like the egg she just sells it. For some reason Veronica seems to feel like she can’t be open with her husband which is worrying, I do think they are both a bit at fault here and they are both making mistakes, it seems like they’ve both been walking on egg shells around each other since that helicopter crash. We know from an interview that Chad is going to be jealous of Archie and I do think alot of that is going to be because he will see that Veronica and Archie, because of their history together, have an honest and open communication with each other and his wife isn’t being honest or open with him, he and his wife don’t have that when really they should. Unfortunately I do think this will cause Chad to act more and more possessive and irrational which is likely what will then lead to me hating him.

As for Veronica’s job I am a bit confused about what it is exactly that she does. It looked to me like she was running a kind of underground slightly shady jewellery shop. But whatever shes doing it looked like she was flourishing. I mean she previously worked on wall street and it does seem like she really misses that line of work so hopefully one day she’ll be able to get back to doing what she loves. I am glad that it looked like she was standing up to her husband and making it clear to him what she wanted. I do hope she addresses the baby thing soon though and tells him that she doesn’t want one right now. Again I am interested to see where this storyline goes and just how far to the dark side they will take Chad’s character. Whether they will go full blown he’s the new hiram lodge or whether they’ll have him go pretty far but then give him a redemption arc. I could unfortunately see them give him a redemption arc and then killing him off which I hope they don’t do because that’s a worn out troupe.

Jughead

So last of the core four is Juggie. Again what is interesting to me is like Betty and Archie, Jughead follows from Veronica and their storylines too are similar. Both of them are dissatisfied with their careers and are having realtionship troubles. Juggie is not in the best of places lets be honest. He had one successful book but now he has writers block, is drinking too much, is in a toxic relationship with his girlfriend jessica and has debt collectors banging at the door and yet the thing I was most shocked by was his new tattoos. Like all the other characters to me this storyline for Jughead makes sense. He has always seemed to draw inspiration from Riverdale for his stories so I think he is struggling to write now that he is left. I do think once he starts investigating a good old Riverdale mystery those creative juices will start to flow once more. I would also like to point out how there was no Jughead narration throughout the episode until those last few moments when Jughead is back in Riverdale and he narrates over Squeaky getting into that truck which could be seen as reaffirming that Jughead will be able to write again once now he’s home. I do also feel like Jug is struggling with the Barchie cheating incident. I think it has left deep wounds for him and I’m hoping now that he is back in riverdale they can start to heal them. I do think its not just the cheating thing though but also because they all broke their promise to meet up a year later. I do wonder if Jug has any bitterness towards the fact they didn’t keep their promise to meet a year later but when Archie called everyone came running. I mean Jughead did not look happy to be there at all and there was definitely tension between them all. Though I would say there was less tension between Archie and Veronica and Archie and Betty. But I did pick up tension between Jughead and Betty and Jughead and Archie and also a little between Betty and Veronica.

Anyway going back to Juggie. His girlfriend eventually leaves him because at this point she is tired and feels like Jughead cares more about his book than about her. I do wonder if we might see her again later. Jughead gets over her seemingly pretty quick though when he meets Cora at the bar. I do find it kinda funny that the topic that gets brought up that leads to him getting laid is effectively his relationship with Betty. But we do learn from that conversation with Cora that Jughead’s book is called outcasts and seems to have been based on the serpents and his romance with Betty seems to have been included in it. I do wonder if Jughead wrote the book as a way to sort through his feelings about the break down of his relationship with Betty and ultimately that didn’t work because he still had that pain and that feeling of betrayal. One thing I will say is that I hope that they don’t do a similar thing they did in One Tree Hill where Jughead can suddenly write again and he writes a book about Betty because it would feel a bit too much like he is being saved by Betty and it creates this dependant relationship where he can only write if he’s with Betty. I don’t know I’d just rather he is able to write because he is creative and a good writer not because he is in a relationship with a particular person if that makes sense. I feel like maybe right now he doesn’t know how to function outside of his relationship with Betty which is why he is so quick to sleep with another woman right after Jessica leaves, I feel like he might have been using other women to fill that void, so I would like to see him learn how to be his own person outside of any relationship, I feel like he kind of needs to find himself again.

In regards to Cora, I mean that girl knew what she wanted but it made me so uncomfortable the way she went about getting what she wanted, I mean she effectively stalked Jughead. Also from the way she said if she didn’t hear from him she would call the debt collectors I feel like maybe she might show up again a bit later. To be honest whilst I feel like Jessica could reappear in a flashback I think Cora could show up and cause trouble in present day.

Toni

I am so happy with how much screentime Toni got this episode. She seems to have done pretty well for herself, she’s Serpent Queen and she runs the new White Wyrm, she’s got that serpent trucking business and she’s got a baby on the way which it seems like she is happy about. I am very curious about who the father is going to be. I am still thinking it could be a surrogacy thing with Kevin and Fangs. Maybe that’s why she isn’t telling anyone who the father is yet because fro whatever reason Kangs aren’t ready for people to know. It could be that the three will raise the baby together. Another person I thought it could be is Sweet Pea because of that moment when he talked about how when Toni came back and Toni cuts across him talking about them restarting the serpents. I could be projecting here but it seemed to me like maybe Toni was worried about waht Sweet Pea was going to say like he might say when Toni came back we started a fling and now we’re having a baby together. I’m not completely sold on that though it was just a thought I had. Another thought I had is maybe it is Jugheads. Maybe he came back to town for some reason or Toni met him in new york and they hooked up leading to her getting pregnant. Again I don’t think its very likely but it would be shocking and I do feel like they are going to try and shock us with it. I also feel like it has to be a character we have seen before.

I am a little worried about Toni though mainly because of the storyline of her having tht trucking business going on. We know that Vanessa has gone on maternity leave and that they recorded her scenes in advance but I still feel like she’s going to have to be a little more absent. I could see a storyline where the Trucker killer feels like Toni is getting in their way and so they decide to do something about her maybe kidknap her. Or maybe they threaten her leading to Toni leaving for a little while to protect herself and her baby.

Cheryl

Ok Cheryl’s storyline really hit home for me and I got emotional about it. The whole story line where she hasn’t left Thorn Hill in years was particularly moving for me because I suffer from a condition called agoraphobia which seems to be what Cheryl is struggling with on top of other issues. It’s a very complicated condition and alot of people misconcieve it as meanign you can’t go outside but actually its more complicated than that. It is a fear of spaces precieved as unsafe. As a result alot of the time it will result in those with the condition being unable to leave their homes because their home is typically where they will feel safest. However at the same time it can make your home feel like a prison because even thoguh you might want to you physsically can’t bring yourself to leave your home. Cheryl believes that she is cursed and so many terrible things have happened to her that I’m not surprised if she now precieves as anywhere outside of Thorn Hill as not safe. It was also sad when she compared herself to Sarah Winchester and how she feels she is cursed and that curse will one day consume her. Cheryl is clearly in pain and I think she is using the painting as a coping mechanism. I really hope she is able to get help and begin to heal.

I do feel like something else might have happened to Cheryl that we aren’t aware of. I notived she was wearing one glove in all the scenes we saw her in which is similar to how Penelope wore a glove after she was burnt. So I wonder if Cheryl is wearing the glove as a reminder of her mother or whether it is because she herself has been injured in some way and is covering it up. It also seems like her Nana Rose might want her to start a Art fraud business which is odd. Maybe they are struggling for money? But other than that we didn’t learn much about Cheryl so it’ll be interesting to see where they take her character. I mean we saw in the trailer that she does eventually leave Thorn Hill.

Other Little Things

Ok so here I jsut want to talk about some things that were too brief to warrant a whole section to themselves but that I still think are important.

I am so happy that Kangs stayed together, they are super cute together and I hope we get to see more screen time for them and Sweet Pea.

I wonder why Hiram wants Cheryl’s maple groves. I am assuming its something to do with SoDale but I can’t think how its related.

It is interesting that they have brought Stonewall back into the storyline. It does make me wonder what happened to Donna after seven years. Is she still running from Charles not knowing that it was him and not knowing that he’s been caught?

Theories for the next episode.

So as I usually do I am going to finish off with theories for what I think will happen in the next episode.

1) The promo for the next episode starts off with a girl running from a truck. I think this girl will be Polly but I think it’ll come at the very end of the episode. the shot that was in the season trailer of Betty with a gun at home is also in this promo. I actually think Betty will hear a noise and go investigating and it’ll turn out to be Polly arriving there. Part of the reason why I think it could be Polly is because she has surprised Betty a few times before so it would make a parallel to those other scenes where Polly has popped up in the house surprising Betty. I think they will reintroduce her in this episode and then the last scene will be her running from the truck which will explain the synopsis for episode 6 where is says Alice, Kevin and Betty think Polly is in trouble.

2) Another person that could surpise Betty is Archie. A large part of this is because one of the writers released three emoji’s to describe Barchie which was a gun, a pizza and a key. I think this one could be the gun emoji. Also in the promo there is a shot of Archie and Betty in her room looking out her window and Archie saying he is going to take the town back. I think maybe Arch comes to talk to her and when she doesn’t open the door he just comes in thinking something might be wrong. I do think they might be at the window to spy on the ghoulies is Archie’s house. It is also worth noting that Archie is in the same clothes that he was in at the end of ep 4 when they were at Pop’s so I think this scene happens early in the episode. It is also possible that Archie stays at Betty’s to do like surveillence on the ghoulies.

3) There is also a shot of Veronica in the blonde wig and it looks like she is either buying or selling one of those eggs. In the synopsis in talks about how Veronica gets crafty when she finds out Chad is having her followed so I do think this scene is related to that. The egg to me looks just like the one she sold this episode so maybe she is buying one back for some reason.

4) We can see Hiram telling someone that maybe he should teach them a lesson. I think he might be talking to Archie here. I could see Archie going straight to Hiram after meeting with the gang and then going to Betty after that and making that I am taking back the town speech.

5) Another scene in the trailer is Betty saying when are we going to kick their asses. I think her and Archie are making a plan to get the Ghoulies out of Archie’s house. We do also get a shot of the ghoulies and it looks like there is alot of them in there. It also looks like they have trashed the place. I do think its possible this is where the pizza emoji will come in I could see them having pizza while they strategize and the key could be to do with getting access/ control of Archie’s home back. We do also see scenes of Betty and Archie beating up the ghoulies with baseball bats so I reckon they will be successful in driving the ghoulies out.

6) We see Jughead at one point hiding behind the counter at Pop’s. We know from the synopsis that he is hiding from debt collecters. We also know that he is getting a new job I could see him getting a job at Pop’s. Again I think Jughead is very much mirroring his father right now and this would be another parallel between them.

7) Ok so the shower scene. I am pretty sure that it is Barchie in that shower. But the question is how do they end up in the shower together. Well someone else earlier when that scene first came out said they thought the shower looked like Archie’s and yeah it definitely could be there is a window in the right place. So if it is Archie’s shower that maybe their blodd is running a little hot after beating up the ghoulies and the adrenaline is still pumping and that leads to them hooking up. Now I am being a very greedy Barchie shipper here but what if it doesn’t start out in the shower. What if they start out in the bedroom for example and then after decide to take a shower together and thats when they hook up for a second time. I’m just not sure why else they would both be in the shower. Unless they spend the whole episode having moments and the tension builds and builds as the episode goes on, then the fight gets their blood pumping and when one of them goes to have a shower to clean up the other just thinks to hell with it and joins the other one in the shower.

Well as I said earlier I really enjoyed this episode and I am looking forward to seeing where it will all go. So until next time.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #riverdale season five

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therainroguefanfiction · 4 years

Text

❉ 139 Dreams (Mark Tuan) Together

📑 Table of Contents

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Romance ☁

Word Count: 1,434 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Mark ☁

World: Kpop, Got7 ☁

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

You fidgeted again, staring down at the cup between your hands. Suri, your friend, was sitting across from you, talking animatedly about her most recent date and how cute he had been. It wasn’t that you didn’t care, you did, even if you had heard similar stories a hundred times before, but today your mind just couldn’t focus on anything.

“Y/N~” she whined, pouting at you. “Are you listening to me?”

“Ah, well…” you smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I guess my mind slipped away from me.”

She frowned. “We rarely get to meet up anymore, and when we do you don’t even bother listening to me. What’s the point?”

“I’m sorry, Suri.” You sighed, running your hand through your hair.

“And? Are you gonna tell me or what?” She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back against the chair.

You bit your lip, suddenly feeling nervous. You were scared to say it because you felt like if you said it out loud, it would finalize the situation and you honestly just wanted it to be a dream. Still, keeping it a secret was eating you alive – You had to tell someone. “I’m pregnant,”

Her nose wrinkled up at the thought of having kids. “Ew, no wonder you’re acting crazy.”

“I just, I don’t know what to do! I’ve always wanted children, but Mark and I have only been dating for a year and a half. Then there’s the age difference…” You were Mark’s noona by a few years, and while he constantly reassured you that it meant nothing to him, you still often worried about it. H was entering the prime of his life and his career was flourishing, how could you possibly ruin that with a child? You didn’t even know if he wanted kids.

“The solution is pretty obvious, Y/N.”

“Eh?”

She rolled her eyes. “Get an abortion! You don’t want to ruin his life, right? That’s the only way.”

“Abortion? I -” Your heart pounded in your ribcage painfully. All your life, you had dreamed of becoming a mother and now you had the chance, but… would it be right? What if things with Mark didn’t work out? It felt like your world was slowly starting to crumble.

“Don’t tell me… are you really considering keeping it?”

You frowned at her response. Why was she acting like it was a disease? There was a child within you, made from the love shared between you and Mark. It wasn’t a disgusting insect or piece of trash to just be thrown away. “Oh,” you suddenly realized the weight of those words.

A child born of the love between you and him… the child was just as much his as it was yours. Making such an important decision without him would be incredibly selfish of you.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

When you returned home, you got to work cooking his favorite meal – hamburgers. It was an easy dish to make, one you had prepared a dozen times before, but this time you were careful. You measured the seasonings, following a famous chef’s recipe to the letter. Everything had to be perfect.

Around ten-thirty, you heard keys jingling in the door. You forced yourself to remain calm as you exited the kitchen. Mark locked eyes with you and smiled softly, bringing you into his arms. Even after such a tiring day, seeing you reenergized him and made it all feel worth it.

“Damn, something smells good!”

Your heart dropped when Jackson stepped into the apartment, sending you a grin. You forced a smile, “I didn’t know you were coming over…”

He picked up on your tone but misunderstood as he wriggled his eyebrows. “Oh? Were you planning something freaky?”

‘No, I was just going to drop a bombshell that could change my relationship and life forever.’ You thought with a sigh, rubbing your temple. What were you supposed to do now?

“I’m sorry,” Mark rubbed the back of his head, chewing on his bottom lip for a moment. “He wanted me to help him with his lines, I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“I don’t mind,” ‘I just wish it wasn’t tonight’ You smiled at him, tugging him towards the kitchen. Jackson was already sitting at the table, stuffing his face with a burger.

“Y/N, you’re the best cook ever.” Due to the food in his mouth, his words were muffled, but you understood after years of dealing with him.

“Thanks, Jacks.” You chuckled. “I’m feeling a bit sick, so I’m going to turn in early. Goodnight,” you pecked Mark on the lips before heading down the hall and into the bedroom. It wasn’t a lie, the nerves and stress of everything making you feel sick to your stomach. That and the fact that you had a living creature growing inside of you. You groaned, sitting on the side of the bed.

Jackson, being the worried little shit he is, burst into the room moments later with Mark at his heels. “You’re acting strange tonight. What’s up?”

“Nothing’s up,” you chuckled, hoping he didn’t detect your nervousness.

“Come on~” He whined.

“Jackson, let’s leave Y/N alone.” Mark urged, but the male didn’t budge.

“It can’t be that bad. Did you kill someone? Did you get into a fight with someone online over Mark?” He teased, poking your cheeks.

Your hands fisted around the sheets and your eyes closed. You were starting to get annoyed now. You loved Jackson like a brother, but that boy just didn’t know when to quit.

“Jackson,” Mark’s voice was more firm this time, making him step back.

He frowned, “Fine.”

Mark ushered him out of the room, sending you a worried look before closing the door.

With a sigh, you crawled under the covers and grabbed your phone. Scrolling through Tumblr was a nightly routine that helped you fall asleep. It usually only took about an hour, but this time it wasn’t working out. Although the memes made you laugh and the baby animals made you smile, you still felt worry settled in the pit of your stomach. You weren’t even tired, not in the traditional sense. Your one-hour session soon turned into a three-hour session.

Mark entered the bedroom quietly, pausing when he saw your face lit up by your phone screen. “Baby, why are you still awake?”

You glanced up at him, watching as he changed into his pajamas. “Can’t sleep,”

He frowned, sliding under the covers beside you. His hand rubbed your arm lightly. “I’m worried about you, Y/N,”

You pushed yourself up into a sitting position, taking a deep breath. “I have something to tell you,”

His mind started to race with possibilities, most of them bad. Shaking his head, he sat up and moved closer. “You can tell me anything, you know that.”

“I’m pregnant, Mark.” Finally saying it, it felt as if a weight had lifted off of your shoulders but it was quickly replaced by fear when you felt him stiffen beside you. You peeked over at him, his face blank. “Say something, please.”

“I, uh… are you sure?” Mark’s heart was racing as his brain processed the information. When you nodded, his body acted on its own. He threw his arms around you, the weight of his body sending you back onto the bed as his face found a home in your neck. He breathed in deeply, releasing a shaky breath as he spoke. “I’m going to be a dad?”

“If you want…”

He pulled back to look at you, brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

You couldn’t look at him, feeling tears prick at your eyes. “If you don’t want to be a dad, I can…”

“Absolutely not!” He rested his hand on your cheek. “How could you think I would want that?”

“You’re young, Mark! And your career… this could ruin everything!”

“Idiot,” he mumbled softly, turning your face to look at him. “This is the best news I’ve ever gotten. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Y/N.”

Your cheeks burned, tears finally falling from your eyes. He kissed them away before pressing his lips to your forehead. The smile on his face made your heart flutter at how happy he looked.

He sat up, gently pushing your shirt up to press butterfly kisses on your belly. “We’re going to be the best parents in the world. I promise we will love you and support you and spoil you,”

You giggled at his promise to your unborn child, feeling relief and happiness mingling together in your chest. He smiled up at you, lacing his hand with your own.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

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bodytoflame-ao3 · 4 years

Text

born for this // two

a series of moments in the life of one lyra jackson-chase

read from the beginning��// AO3 Link

v //

“She’s crying again, Percy.” Annabeth yawns, refusing to open her eyes. No one told her she’d still be waking up in the middle of the night with a one year old.

He kisses her forehead, and rolls off the bed. “I got it.”

She thinks about how lucky she is — to have him; to have this beautiful part of both of them. The thoughts calm her — she’s almost back to sleep when she hears a thud, jolting upright and alert immediately. “What is it?”

“Sorry,” Percy rushes to her side, “I just stubbed my toe.”

“No monsters?”

“No monsters, Annabeth.” At least not tonight. “Everything’s okay.”

And it is, for a little while.

vi //

They do come. Once, twice; as she gets older, they lose count. Sometimes they’re real, sometimes they’re not.

“Daddy.” Percy can barely see Lyra rubbing her eyes in the shadow of the doorframe, tottering over to his side of the bed, only illuminated by the moonlight and light pollution.

He whispers, trying not to wake Annabeth (as he knows it’s hard enough for her to get to sleep once), “What’s wrong, baby?”

“Monsters.”

It’s silent, save for the ever-present hum of the city that his ears have learned to regard as background noise. There’s no monsters tonight.

“C’mere.” He scoops her up, tucking her in tight under the covers in the middle of their bed. “You just had a bad dream.”

vii //

Tonight, it’s gorgons. It’s nothing they haven’t dealt with before, and it won’t be the last time, but after he’s stowed Riptide back in his pocket, Percy feels an intense wave of exhaustion roll over him. It feels like he’s just going through the motions, fight after fight; living each day wondering if they’ll get any sleep.

“Annabeth.” Percy’s hand ghosts over her shoulder blade, seeing the rapidly forming bruise peeking out of her tank top. She winces. “Sorry.”

She turns to face him, taking his hand, “It’s okay. I love you.” It’s going to hurt, and she knows that — but it’s better than the pain she would feel seeing her daughter get hurt. She could get a paper cut, or a splinter, or some other normal kid injury, and Annabeth would have to hold back tears just to bandage her up. This pain is as familiar as her own skin, and she knows how to deal with it. So she will.

Percy squeezes her hand softly, and kisses her cheek. “I love you.” Just saying it brings a sense of peace to his tired body.

“I’m gonna go make sure she’s okay.” If they’re lucky, she’s fallen back asleep. If not...

Lyra runs straight to her, towing a blanket draped over her head, and clings to Annabeth’s leg, crying. She must’ve had a real scare.

“It’s okay. It’s gone.” Annabeth scoops her up, and holds her close, fingers threaded through soft brown curls. “You’re safe now.”

Lyra’s sniffles grow quieter; more infrequent as she calms in her mother’s arms. “Gone?”

“All gone, baby. I promise.” She lays her down into her bed, tucking her tightly into a sea of blankets.

Annabeth sings her to sleep, and as Percy stands in the doorway, still brushing dirt off his clothes, he thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard.

She gets up, smiling when she notices him, and the awed look on his face, “What?”

“I never knew you could sing like that. Thirteen years and I never knew how beautiful your voice is.”

Annabeth has no idea how to respond. All she knows for sure is how eternally grateful she is for him, and the life they’ve built together; and they’re safe, and alive, and happy, most of the time, and that’s all that matters. So she wraps her arms around him, strong and tight, and tries to hold back the tears that threaten to come. They both cry for everything they still don’t know.

viii //

“I hope you realize, this is extremely unprecedented.”

“You’re telling me we’re the only demigod couples to ever have kids?” Piper raises an eyebrow.

“Not the only, but one of the few.” Chiron pauses, leaving it to them to come to a conclusion as to why. It’s not something they want to dwell on. “And certainly not any of such… heritage.” He glances toward Percy and Jason. “When you all were born you received half of each parent’s DNA — in your case, half god, half mortal. The same principles apply to your children. With the way we’ve seen their powers develop already, at such young ages, I believe Calliope and Lyra may have a greater percentage of godly blood. I can’t say with any certainty just how much or from who — I’m sure we’ll see their powers grow with time — but I fear this is going to put them in danger. There’s a prophecy—”

“No,” Percy says, firm, “I don’t want to hear about another fucking prophecy.”

Annabeth smooths her hand against his back. “Percy…”

“I won’t let her grow up the same way we did.” His voice cracks as he finishes his sentence, trying to hide how upset the idea makes him.

She holds him closer. “I know.”

Chiron continues, “I’m afraid there’s not much I can tell you. It’s incredibly vague, as these things tend to be. A warning of descendants of powerful gods from two sides.”

“You thought it was us,” Jason says, “Percy and me. That’s why you wanted to see us.”

“Correct. It seems, though…”

“They shouldn’t see each other.” Annabeth juts in, quiet. “Lyra can already spill her sippy cups when she’s upset, and Piper’s seen Callie make people’s hair stand on end. That’s not a good combination.”

Piper looks like she’s about to speak up, but Jason takes her hand. “She’s probably right. It’s too dangerous.” She knows it is. It doesn’t make it any harder. When she found out Annabeth was pregnant all she could think about was how wonderful it would be to watch them grow up alongside each other.

“I want to hear it,” Piper says, loud and clear, demanding. “The prophecy.”

ix //

“Fuck,” Percy swears, wincing.

“Stay still.” She threads the needle between the edges of the laceration with a steady hand. It’s like her brain completely shuts off, its only directive to stitch him back together. “You wouldn’t be sitting here if you’d listened when I said to double back.” She know she sounds bitter, but her words are so disconnected from her thoughts, they feel foreign in her mouth.

“I thought I had enough time.”

“Percy,” she warns, “Don’t scare me like that. When you get overconfident you get reckless. You know that.” I know. I do too.

“I know, but— ow —if we get sloppy that’s just putting her in danger.”

Annabeth pauses, tying the last stitch off without another word. The silence doesn’t last long. “Maybe we should tell her.” It all feels selfish, like she's a bad mom just for thinking it. They’re her parents — it’s their job to protect her, not the other way around. But it’s painful to keep fighting, after so many years. “I wouldn’t have to worry about losing you like this. We could take her somewhere safe.”

“Annabeth… She’s 6. I don’t want her to have to carry that weight until it’s absolutely necessary.” This little girl is everything to him. He sees so much of himself in her, and every second they have to talk about the prophecy, it hurts him.

Annabeth stays silent; he’s right, even if she doesn’t want to say it out loud. And she hurts, too. So she nods — she never wanted to lie to her, ever. But this is too much to put on the shoulders of a child. One just as little as she was. She wishes someone would’ve considered that when she was young.

x //

“Are you two coming up for lunch anytime soon?” Annabeth rolls her eyes, standing at the edge of the lake. “It’s been half an hour.”

Percy surfaces, Lyra right behind him, giggling profusely.

“Did Daddy say something funny?” She raises an eyebrow, glaring at Percy.

“Daddy talks to the fish.” It sounds more like fith. She smiles wide, a toothy grin showing off her missing front teeth.

“Great,” she stares right into his soul, trying not to let on the slight bit of amusement it brings her, “She thinks you’re crazy.”

A tenet of her limited attention span, Lyra starts playing with her powers, splashing about, seemingly not paying any attention to their conversation.

He protests, “She just figured out the bubble thing, I had to show her something new!”

“And does she understand them, Percy?”

His face falls. “Uh. No. I see your point,” he laughs. It seemed she hadn’t inherited that particular power from him. “She’s pretty amused by this, though.”

Tens of tiny blobs of water circle her, weaving around Percy, up into the air, and back into the lake.

“It took you a long time to be able to do stuff that precise,” Annabeth notes, wading into the water up to her ankles and handing him a sandwich from her bag.

“Yeah. It did.”

xi //

“How come you never told me about this?”

“Because it’s scary.”

“I can handle scary.”

Annabeth sighs, “I heard the Great Prophecy for the first time when I was your age.” It kept her awake with nightmares far too often, knowing she’d eventually be a part of it — which is why she’s so reluctant to tell these things to Lyra, despite knowing how important it is that she knows. “I spent two years waiting for a sign until I finally got one. He was annoying, and dense, and the son of my mother’s biggest rival. And then he was my friend — my best friend. Someone who was loyal to me no matter what. I wouldn’t change that for the world.” Not when it’s brought her here. “But we had to make a lot of hard decisions. And I—” She shakes her head. “I know you don’t completely understand.” Annabeth never intended her to. “I need you to know that it’s not always going to be easy.”

xii //

“I’m 11 now,” Lyra states, with an air of unparalleled confidence, “I can keep secrets.”

“Hey,” Percy says, patting her back, “We trust you. It’s just a big change.”

She crosses her arms. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“That also means you can’t use your powers,” Annabeth says, handing Lyra her lunchbox.

“I know.” You told me. Many times.

Annabeth kisses her cheek, pretending she doesn’t see her dramatically wipe her face off with the back of her hand mere seconds later. “Okay. I love you. Tell me all about it later.”

Percy walks her out the door, and down to the subway stop. They stand, and wait. “So, middle school. Kind of a big deal?” He sure thought so.

“I guess,” she shrugs. “I’m excited to make friends.” It’s the one thing that sucked about being homeschooled. She knows, as they’ve told her so many times, it was for her protection, because she never was able to completely control her powers as a kid. But the only kids she’s ever really known otherwise are other demigods; and what fleeting interactions she had with them while visiting Camp. And they weren’t like her, not really.

Percy reaches out his arms as the car doors open, beckoning her for a hug. She wraps her arms as far as they’ll reach around him, as tight as she can. So he holds her close against his chest for as long as he knows the doors will remain open, “You got this.”

xiii //

“Keep your feet apart. Knees bent.” Annabeth instructs her, feet firmly planted in the grass, beckoning for Lyra to follow.

Lyra clutches the sword, an iron-clad grip Annabeth recognizes from when she was this age — still too young to fully understand the weight of what she was doing, but old enough to feel the fear that came with the inherent danger of every battle she fought. “Loosen your grip.” Lyra follows, feeling the handle bounce with her new stance. “There you go.”

“Now remember, be ready to move. Stay on the balls of your feet.” That got her last time. And it had plagued Annabeth many times — feeling frozen, for even with a plan, there were so many unpredictable variables within combat.

Lyra nods, and takes a tentative swing, blocked by Annabeth. She staggers back, preparing a counterattack. Her blade catches against Lyra’s before she even gets close. “Good. Nice block,” Annabeth says, directing Lyra’s sword away with her sheer strength. “Now try for a hit.”

“You’re too quick.” Lyra breathes heavily, clearly intensely focused and growing weary. She blocks again, against her advice.

“No, you’re doing great. Keep going.” Annabeth encourages her, gearing up to test her reflexes. “Find an opening.”

She almost takes Annabeth by surprise; going on the offensive with such short notice. Her swing aims low, and Annabeth has to think quick, readjusting her stance to block the incoming blow. “You’re getting really good at this.”

Lyra sighs, her sword swinging at her side. “Thanks.”

xiv //

“Zeph! Lemme in!” Lyra’s voice sounds over the intercom, and he buzzes her up.

“Why is it always my place?” Zephyr asks, opening the door right as she’s about to knock.

“Our apartment is tiny,” Lyra shrugs, squeezing past him in the doorway. And we have a truly impressive stash of weaponry in the coat closet which I’d rather not have to explain.

“So. Graduation’s only a few weeks away.” he says. “Are you excited? For high school?”

“I don’t know. I guess.” It doesn’t seem like that big of a change. Same kinds of classrooms, cinderblock hallways; the usual cliques and groups. The same tendencies of teachers to constantly breathe down her neck about assignments and paying attention, despite her accommodations. She sinks into the couch, feeling the relief of taking her backpack off.

“That doesn’t seem very enthusiastic.”

“I just hate the drama. Did you see what they did to Jenna Thompson the other day?”

“Jenna hates you, Ly,” he laughs.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to get gum stuck in her hair,” Lyra mumbles, hugging her knees into a ball. Sure, she’s a menace and has never said a single nice word to Lyra, but she doesn’t wish ill on her for it. Everyone’s got their own shit, bullies included, and she’s trying her best to ignore it. Plus, she already got what she deserved.

“She called you—”

Her head snaps up to stare at him. “I know what she called me, I don’t need to hear it from you too.”

“Sorry. I just… I don’t understand how you can…” he sighs, “It just makes me so angry I—”

“Let’s just. Talk about something else.” She takes a deep breath, shifting the topic. “How’d you do on your finals?”

“Pretty good. Got straight B’s. Bombed the English essay though. And you know I killed that science project. So yeah, average all around.”

“As if you would ever get anything less than an A+. How’s the tomato plants?” He’s always liked gardening. Especially to bring a cold, industrial apartment to life. And of course it’d earn him an A — he knew how to take care of them, even in such a cramped space.

“Just picked ‘em yesterday. You ever had homemade ketchup?”

Her eyes widen. “No. You better have some left!”

“Of course I do. Meanwhile, I’m guessing you aced everything—”

“Except math,” they say, at the same time, bursting into laughter.

“Yeah. You know me.”

“Sure do.” He grabs a plate from the kitchen, setting it down on the coffee table. “All homegrown. I present to you, gourmet french fries and ketchup.”

She tastes it. “That’s… amazing.”

“You know you only like me for the food.”

“You’re gonna be on some Top Chef shit, or something,” she chuckles, imagining it. “And not true!”

“Yeah, you’re gonna miss me this summer. But especially the food.”

“I wish you didn’t have to visit your mom all summer.”

Zeph sighs. “I know. But it’ll be over before you know it.”

xv //

“I can’t do this, Percy. I can’t keep pretending this is okay. It’s getting worse. They’re getting stronger. We can’t keep doing this.”

“Annabeth,” he sighs, and she can hear the sheer exhaustion in his voice. “We have to.”

“And what happens if we get seriously hurt?” I can’t lose you. Her body aches, scrapes and bruises staining a fair amount of her skin, even with the ambrosia. She feels defeated, and battered. And there’s only so much she can hide with long sleeves and pants. It’s been a week of fending off monsters everywhere she goes, sometimes without their help; it hurts them to see the marks on her body from fighting.

“Better us than her.”

She doesn’t disagree, but it’s more than that. She can’t lose us. “Percy, look at me.” He does. “You know what we have to do.”

He sighs, staring out the window to study the city skyline. “I just thought we had more time.”

“It’s longer than either of us had,” Annabeth reminds him.

Percy lets the concept of two more years sink in, and it hits him hard. Two more years of normalcy. Of not fighting for his life. “Okay. But... let her have her birthday.” It’s the least he can do when there’s so much anxiety centered around his own. She deserves a day for herself.

“Okay.” Annabeth echoes, quieter. “Come here?” He slides into bed and wraps his arms tightly around her; stubble pricking at her neck as he curls up closer. She fits so perfectly into his embrace, like the curves of her body were made to fit against him. Like he was made to hold her.

“She’ll be alright.” She has to be.

Part Three

#fic #percabeth #annabeth chase #percy jackson #pjo #pjo fic #made #born for this

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otg2012 · 4 years

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“Save Me” Fanmix > Download link (AO3)

DAY 6: Any AU @jacksonwhittemoreweek | Stiles/Jackson

Fic based on this Fanmix / Prompt: “The Chemicals Beween Us”

Jackson Whittemore’s life as a lawyer is good… maybe too good, with late nights spent working with clients and easy access to alcohol, and women and men who are impressed by his track record. When his success rate starts to slip, his best friend Danny becomes concerned and tries to convince him to get on the wagon. Jackson refused, positive that he can manage his career and his drinking until his father finds him drunk at his desk in the middle of the day rather than at an appointment. After a blow up fight, Jackson is forced to leave Whittemore and Whittemore and enter rehab. Stiles Stilinski has it all. He has the best career any guy could want as a celebrated rock star. But he refuses to listen to his bassist and best friend Scott when drugs start to overtake his life, and the tabloids eat it up.

Soon there is more bad news that good coming out about the band, and the record label can’t take it any more and drops the band. Stiles starts to spiral out of control, using drugs to get back the high he had when he was on stage, and there is nothing Scott can do about it. When he hits rock bottom, he is lost until Scott makes the suggestion that he goes into rehab.

Instant attraction makes for a rocky beginning when Jackson and Stiles meet. They know there’s something between them, but they have no idea how to talk to each other outside of the physical. Jackson’s from money and education, and Stiles is all about the music. But once they manage to set aside their differences and find a friendship, they also discover just how good they can be together. They anchor each other, offering support to get through rehab, and they stick together when they finally are able to leave. Jackson goes back to the world he belongs in, but Stiles drifts, uncertain what to do in a world without music. He moves in with Jackson and takes a job in the supermarket, but it’s unfulfilling and frustrating to the boy who dreams of being on stage and speaking with his music. Jackson tries to encourage Stiles to play and sing again, but without the band, and knowing the risks that it involves, Stiles barely tries, and eventually stops. But life isn’t without risks, and Stiles quickly realizes that being Jackson’s trophy “wife” comes with its own set of temptations. He is left on his own at high-powered gatherings, surrounded by people who are more than willing to offer him just a little hit to take the edge off. Bored, tired, and frustrated, Stiles can’t resist, and he accepts. Once… twice… three times and it’s becoming a habit again. But it’s okay. Stiles can keep it under control, he’s sure of it. It’s just at parties. Just once a week, maybe twice, and never where Jackson can see. Except Jackson does find out and begs him to stop using. Stiles promises to stop, but it’s not that easy. Addiction is a difficult thing to shake, and he slips again, even though Jackson tries to help. Soon Jackson can’t trust Stiles, and he’s not sleeping, worried about the man he loves. Danny notices the effect it is having on Jackson and tells him that he needs to do what’s best for himself and he should cut things off with Stiles before he’s dragged back down into the pit. Jackson realizes that Danny has a point and he goes home to do just that. Stiles begs him not to end their relationship, but Jackson sticks to his decision. Stiles has to move out, and the only place he can go is to Scott, who takes him in. But Stiles can’t stay away from the drugs, because they are the only thing that makes him feel good. He loses his job and he loses his happiness all over again, and when he is at his worst, Scott and his father do their best to pick him up and help him. Stiles knows that it’s his own fault that he has ruined his life all over again, and he goes back to rehab. He comes back to Scott when it’s over, finally feeling stable, but he still doesn’t know what to do with his life. Scott and he talk and Stiles admits that music is the one thing that made him feel alive, so Scott tells him that they should do that then. If music helps Stiles, then he should rely on it. And Stiles starts writing again, some of the best lyrics he’s ever put out. Break-up songs, and songs about addiction and loss and recovery, and the most heartbreaking songs that he can come up with. But he also writes songs about digging out of the depths and finding hope, and finding his way and still being alive after it all. He and Scott start playing together in small gigs, and are found by a private record label and signed for a two record deal. It isn’t perfect, and it isn’t what he had, but he’s playing again and Stiles is finally settled and almost happy. He’s been out of his second stint in rehab for a year when he comes backstage after a gig and finds Jackson standing there, waiting for him. They begin all over again with coffee and slow dates, taking it easy this time, making it work. And this time it does work, and together they are stronger. Stiles doesn’t write any more sad songs after that… but it’s still the best music he’s ever written, and Jackson is always there, at every show, waiting for him in the wings.

#JAW2020 #stiles x jackson #stackson #teen wolf fanmix #jackson whittemore

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woodshorenews · 4 years

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upon waking up on valentine’s day morning, many residents will be excited to find a glass vase ( or perhaps, even, more than one ) left outside the door to their room containing freshly cut, fully bloomed red roses. miraculously, it seems like not a single one has a thorn on its stem. some of these flowers come attached with a note and name, while other senders have chosen for the thrill of remaining anonymous. the arrangement would look beautiful on your kitchen counter, don’t you agree?

did you get one? keep reading to find out...

ANONYMOUS RECIPIENTS.

Aiya Ren – 1 ' ;) '

Aiya Ren – 1

Alek’ha Arand – 1

Anakin Skywalker – 1

Anakin Skywalker – 1 – for making me remember

Anastasia Romanov – 1

Andromeda Tonks – 1

Anduin Wrynn – 6

Anna Minkova – 3

April Kepner – 12

Arya Stark – 1

Bellamy Blake – 7 – 'for all the times i've wanted to punch you in the face'

Bellatrix Black – 1

Ben Solo – 1

Ben Solo – 3

Brienne of Tarth – 1

Buzz Lightyear – 12

Caleb Widogast – 1 – i hope you remember soon. i miss you.

Clark Kent – you know i’m terrible at words, but thank you. i remember what matters because of you. – 12

Daenerys Targaryen – 12

Daenerys Targaryen – 3

Daphne Greengrass – 1

Dean Winchester – B====D – 1

Derek Morgan – 6 – from your pretty boy

Evelyn O’Connell – 3

Faith Lehane – 1

Four (Tobias Eaton) – 1 – You're something I never expected and it both frightens me and excites me.

Georgie Weaver – 1

Irene Adler – 1

Han Solo – 1

Harry Hook – 1 – don't get cocky

Harry Hook – 1

Hayley Marshall – 1

Hayley Marshall – 6 – happy valentines day. hope we can talk again soon.

Henry Mills – 1 – "Surprised?"

Hermione Granger – 1

Hope Mikaelson – 1

Jessica Moore – 1

Jester Lavorre – 1

James T Kirk – i’ll let you guess who this is from. – 1

Jon Snow – 1

Jon Snow – 12

Jyscar Ren – 1

Klaus Mikaelson – 1

Laszlo Kreizler – 1

Laszlo Kreizler – 1 – thank you for being as you are.

Leia Organa-Solo – 12 – 🐾

Leia Organa-Solo – 6

Lucifer Morningstar – 1 – cool name.

Lucifer Morningstar – 12 – ;-P

Lucifer Morningstar – 1 – you don’t need more than one rose to know how much i care about you.

Luke Skywalker – 1 – for keeping my memory alive

Lyanna Stark – 1

Maleficent - 1

Marinette Dupain-Cheng – 1 – Daredevil

Matthew Murdock – 3

Mandalorian – 1

Merlin – 1

Mike Warren - 1

Miles Morales – 1

Narcissa Malfoy – 1

Nick Scratch – 1

Nyota Uhura – 1

Olivia Parker – 1

Phyrra Amakiir – 1

Regulus Black – 1

Remus Lupin – 1

Remus Lupin – 12

Rey – 1 – for a fellow scavenger.

Rhaella Targaryen – 6

Sam Winchester – 3

Sansa Stark – 1

Sharon Carter – 1

Sirius Black – 1

Sirius Black – 12

Snow White – 12 – ;)

Steve Harrington – 1

Thor Odinson – 1

Thor Odinson – 6

Tony Stark – 1

Will Solace –1

Woody – 6

Wynnona Earp – 6 – 'beautiful but deadly sums you up'

Wynonna Earp – 1

Wynonna Earp – 1 – cool name

Zaeda Z'shysa – 12

Zaeda Z’shysa – 1

KNOWN ADMIRERS.

Aang – 1 – Suki

Ahsoka Tano – 1 – Obi-wan Kenobi

Ahsoka Tano – 1 – Stephen Strange

Ahsoka Tano – 1 – You’re a sight for sore eyes! – Padmé Naberrie

Aiya Ren – 12 – i love your perfume, what is that? the stench of death? – Harley Quinn

Alice Kingsleigh – 12 – Through all the craziness and mayhem, you've always been there. I could never thank you enough. – Harry Osborn

Anakin Skywalker – 1 – Wynonna Earp

Anastasia Romanov – 1 – Clarke Griffin

Andromeda Tonks – 12 – "For the woman of my dreams" – Ted Tonks

Anduin Wrynn – 1 – Dana Scully

Andy Trudeau – 1 – don’t tell the others, but you’re my favorite. Thank you for the lovely chat, inspector. – Astoria Malfoy

Andy Trudeau – 4 – Thank you for always having my back. It's never taken lightly. Love Prue – Prue Halliwell

Anna Arendelle – 12 – happy Valentine’s Day, best friend! – Jasmine Badroulbadour

Anna Arendelle – 12 – For my sister and my best friend. I’m sorry for everything. I love you. – Elsa Arendelle

Anna Minkova – 5 – It doesn’t make up for the years I was gone. I’m sorry. – Wanda Maximoff

Annabeth Chase – 12 – love you, blondie. Thanks for putting up with me. – Piper McLean

Annabeth Chase – 1 – happy Valentine’s Day, little sister – Haven Barthelemy

Annabeth Chase – 12 – happy Valentine’s Day to the best big sister I could ever ask for. – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Annabeth Chase – 12 – I love you, wise girl! We can finally celebrate Valentine's day without any monsters interrupting us for once. – Percy Jackson

Anne Shirley – 3 – you are a princess in every sense. – Ella

Annie Marks – 12 – have you considered ponytails? we could start a club! – Harley Quinn

April Kepner – 3 – Happy Valentine's Day, April! – Nancy Wheeler

April Kepner – 1 – Dana Scully

April Kepner – 2 – One for you and one for Harriet! – Rose Granger-Weasley

Arya Stark – 6 – Jon Snow

Arya Stark – 1 – Tony Stark

Astoria Greengrass – 1 – Welcome to the family! – love, Melinda Halliwell

Astoria Greengrass – 5 – I figured your boyfriend has you covered with flowers, but as your brother I wanted to get you some more.– Lukas Zapolya

Ava Diaz – 12 – Thank you for being the best mom to our twins, and the best wife and friend to me. I love you, mi amor. – Lorenzo Diaz

BB-8 – 1 – Rey

BB-8 – 12 – I love your face, friend! – D-O

BB-8 – 3 – Jyn

Beauregard Lionett – 12 – for my favorite expositor of the colbalt soul. – Jester

Bellamy Blake – 3 – Clarke Griffin

Bellamy Balke – 1 – Emori

Bellamy Blake - 1 - Happy Valentine's Day! - Hermione Granger

Ben Hanscom – 6 – Here’s to remembering this time around. For better or for worse. – Mike Hanlon

Ben Solo – 1 – i hope you have a good valentine's day! – Leia Organa

Beverly Marsh – 6 – If only you knew how good it was to see your face again. – Mike Hanlon

Bruce Wayne – 6 – To your memories. I’m sorry for the bad ones. – Clark Kent

Bruce Wane – 12 – kisses!!!! xoxoxo – Harley Quinn

Brydda llewellyn – 1 – from your secret admirer... happy Valentine’s Day, baby. – Kasey Monroe Sawyer

Bucky Barnes – 5 – I hope you’re having a good day! – Hermione Granger

Bucky Barnes – 3 – Before you say anything, I tried. – Steve Rogers

Buttercup – 12 – "I love you" – Westley

Caleb Widogast – 12 – for my favorite stinky wizard, even though you’re not stinky anymore – Jester

Cassian Andor – 3 – Leia Organa

Cassian Andor – 9 – thank you for being my guiding force – Jyn

Castiel – 12 – has anyone ever told you you look like you’re trying to pass gas all the time? – Harley Quinn

Catherine Alexander – 12 – I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me most. I love you, little sister. – Haven Barthelemy

Chloe Decker – 12 – As usual, I am sorry. Come to Lux this evening so I can make it up to you. – Lucifer Morningstar

Chris Halliwell – 12 – I love you, Chris Halliwell. I always have and I always will. Happy Valentine’s Day! – Astoria Malfoy

Clarke Griffin – 2 – Regulus Black

Clarke Griffin – 12 – A reminder to grasp that chance at happiness. – Thor Odinson

Clio Celestia-Palpatine – 1 – Rey

Connor Murphy – 1 – 'love you bro' – John Murphy.

Connor Murphy – 12 – The son of Aphrodite being terrible at writing love notes, can you believe that? But I hope you enjoy the roses because a cutie like you deserves them all. – Lukas Zapolya

Cordé – 3 – Sabé

Cordé – 1 – Padmé Naberrie

Cordé – 12 – Thank you for taking care of Alex like he is your own, and just being his other mom. You were and still are the exact person we need in our lives and I'm glad to call you my girlfriend. Love you, sweetheart! – Narcissa Black

Daphne Greengrass – 12 – I love you, Daph. You’re the best big sister I could have ever asked for. – Astoria Malfoy

Dean Winchester – 6 – see you later ;) – Sharon Carter

Diana Prince – 3 – Bruce Wayne

Diana Prince – 6 – We wouldn’t be a team without you. – Clark Kent

Diana Prince – 12 – you’re deadly and beautiful. like a poisonous snake! – Harley Quinn

Dominique Weasley – 1 – happy valentine's day, cousin! – Roxanne "Rox" Weasley

Dominique Weasley – 1 – happy valentine’s, cuz! – Rose Granger-Weasley

Dorothea Wildes – 12 – I can have two valentines, right? – Georgina “Georgie” Weaver

Dorothea Wildes – 12 – Don’t tell Georgie. – Sirius Black

Dorothea Wildes – 6 – For a woman with taste. – Lestat de Lioncourt

Dorothea Wildes – 2 – Best professor ever. – Rose Granger-Weasley

Draco Malfoy – 1 – Rose Granger-Weasley

D-O – 1 – Rey

D-O – 3 – Jyn

Eleanor "Nell" Crain-Vance – 3 – Happy Valentine’s, Nell! – Nancy Wheeler

Eleanor “Nell” Crain-Vance – 1 – I carry your heart with me – Olivia Crain

Eleanor “Nell” Crain-Vance – 2 – I love you, Nellie. – Steve Crain

Eleanor “Nell” Crain-Vance – 1 – Sending you wishes of happiness. – Laszlo Kreizler

Eleanor “Nell” Crain-Vance – 12 – Let’s adopt that lizard. – Jim Halpert

Ella – 12 – Cherie. – Lestat de Lioncourt

Ella – 1 – To a life free of unkindness. – Laszlo Kreizler

Elsa Arendelle – 2 – "Sisters forever, love Anna" – Anna Arendelle

Emma Swan – 6 – Killian Jones

Emma Swan – 11 – Eleven roses for the eleven years it's been since I found you in Boston when I was ten. Love you, mom! – Henry Mills

Emori – 12 – 'for the future mrs murphy' – John Murphy

Emori – 3 – happy valentine’s day! – Anduin Wrynn

Enjolras – 12 – Grantaire

Eros – 12 – for the god of love and beauty on the day of love from a beauty! – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Estelle Blofis – 3 – For my partner in crime. – Varian

Estelle Blofis – 5 – Happy Valentine's Day, Starshine! – Eros

Faith Lehane – 1 – to prove that i am very sweet and not scary. – Jester

Finn – 1 – Rey

Finn – 12 – Poe Dameron

Finn – 2 – Congratulations. Give one to Poe. – Mando

Finn – 12 – happy Valentine’s Day, sunshine! Thank you for always seeing the good in me. – Sonia Tate

Finn – 1 – Leia Organa

Finn – 12 – Congratulations, friend! – D-O

Frederick Frankenstein – 6 – for my favorite doctor, even though the traveler is a way better doctor because he’s the coolest – Jester

Flynn Rider – 12 – I love you so very much! – Rapunzel Corona

Genevieve “Genna” Fair – 12 – Thor Odinson

Genevieve “Genna” Fair – 1 – I hear sorcerers are especially sweey on Valentine’s Day. Just a thought. – Liv Starfleet

Genevieve “Genna” Fair – 1 – I’ll do my best not to step on your toes next time we dance. – Stephen Strange

Genevieve “Genna” Fair – for my doppleganger. – Ella

Georgina “Georgie” Hart – 12 – you make my tail wag! – Sirius Black

Geralt of Rivia – 1 – Get that DICK! 8====D – Wynonna Earp

Ginerva “Ginny” Weasley – 2 – You’re the coolest auntie ever. – Rose Granger-Weasley

Han Solo – 6 – Leia Organa

Harry Osborn – 12 – to my bestest friend and my partner in crime. Love you, darling! – Alice Kingsleigh

Harry Osborn – 12 – I will love you always – Peter Parker

Harry Potter – 2 – one from each of the dumbasses you look after. Thanks for keeping us alive, babes! – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Harry Potter – 6 – Thinking about you! – Hermione Granger

Harry Potter – 2 – Not to scare you or anything, but you’re a bangin’ uncle. – Rose Granger-Weasley

Harley Quinn – 3 – Bruce Wayne

Harley Quinn – 1 – for my fellow chaos agent – Jester

Haven Barthelemy – 5 – I know these don't fit your aesthetic, but still I hope you enjoy them. – Henrik Mikaelson

Hayley Marshall – 1 – I would be remiss not to send you a rose the color of my now blood stained shirt. – Lucifer Morningstar

Helga Hufflepuff – 1 – Roxanne "Rox" Weasley

Helga Hufflepuff – 1 – Sirius Black

Hermione Granger – 6 – You’re the best mum. I love you! – Rose Granger-Weasley

Hope Swan-Jones – 12 – "Did I make you smile?" – Killian Jones

Hope Swan-Jones – 5 – For the sweetest little sister, I just actually met! I hope you like your flowers! – Henry Mills

Isobel Reinwood – 2 – Regulus Black

Isobel Reinwood – 12 – Thank you for making me a father, and just the happiest I've ever been in a while. Through the good and the bad, I'll always love you. – Sebastian Blackwood

Jack Frost – 2 – Thank you for always making me so happy, I can't not smile around you. – love, Hope Swan-Jones

Jack Frost – 1 – Royal Dupuis

Jack Skellington – 3 – from your dearest friend. I love you, jack. – Sally

Jaskier – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Jaskier – 1 – I owe you this. Meet me by the shore. – Geralt of Rivia

Jasmine Badroulbadour – 1 – "To my best friend, love Anna" – Anna Arendelle

Jasmine Badroulbadour – 12 – I've never been the best with words, but I love you more than anything in this world. – Varian

Jennifer Jareau – 10 – thank you for showing up – Spencer Reid

Jessica Jones – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Jessica Jones – 1 – I told them to pick the least romantic. – Matt Murdock

Jessica Jones – 3 – for a fellow archivist – Karen

Jessica Jones – 12 – you look like you’ve never smiled a day in your life, so: knock knock – Harley Quinn

Jester Lavorre – 12 – happy valentines day, valentine! xoxoxo – Mollymauk Tealeaf

Jester Lavorre – 1 – happy valentine’s day! – Rapunzel

Jester Lavorre – 12 – you’re cooler than the traveler – Sirius Black

Jester Lavorre – 1 – Your new look is rather horny. – Lucifer Morningstar

Jester Lavorre – 5 – i hope these find you well. frumpkin sends his love as well. happy valentines day. – Caleb Widogast

Jester Lavorre – 12 – welcome to earth, we love aliens! – Harley Quinn

Jim Halpert – 5 – Eleanor Crain Vance

Jo Wilson – 2 – April Kepner

Joey Potter – 12 – It was good to see you again after all this time Jo. Happy Valentines Day. x Pace - Pacey Witter

John Murphy – 6 – Emori

Jon Snow – 5 – I’ll always be on your side, Jon Snow. – Daenerys Targaryen

Jon Snow – 3 – You’re my favorite person. – Arya Stark

Jyn Erso – 1 – thank you for being there. – Cassian Andor

Jyn Erso – 1 – Leia Organa

Karen Page – 1 – Sharon Carter

Karen Page – 1 – I missed your voice. – Matt Murdock

Kaz Brekker – 12 – you look like the kinda guy who really puts the ‘fun’ in ‘funeral’! – Harley Quinn

Kiarace – 1 – Anduin Wrynn

Korra – 3 – Thank you. – Elsa Arendelle

Lara Croft – 3 – Happy Valentine’s, Lara! – Nancy Wheeler

Lara Croft – 6 – for giving a damn. – Max Rockatansky

Leia Organa-Solo – 1 – Rey

Leia Organa-Solo – 1 – I love you. – Ben Solo

Leia Organa-Solo – 1 – Not even my dreams for the future could have captured everything you’ve become. I love you. – Padmé Naberrie

Leia Organa-Solo – 1 – here’s to many more years together again. – Jyn

Leonard “Bones” McCoy – 12 – thanks for not sticking a needle in me for the last 12 hours – James “Jim” Kirk

Leonard Snart – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Lestat de Lioncourt – 12 – i cannot fit all the reasons why i adore you on a note, monseuir. – Ella

Lexie Grey – 2 – April Kepner

Lexie Grey – 2 – I’ve heard so many stories I feel like I know you. Happy Valentine’s! – Mike Hanlon

Liv Starfleet – 12 – I love you so very dearly. – Loki Odinson

Liv Starfleet – 1 – Have a good Valentine’s day! – Genevieve "Genna" Fair

Loki Odinson – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Loki Odinson – 12 – please send anonymously – Thor Odinson

Loki Odinson – 4 – Is that magic in the air, or are you just happy to see me? – Liv Starfleet

Lorenzo Diaz – 10 – for every year we were together, for every year we were apart, and one for every person I left behind. – Ava Diaz

Lucifer Morningstar – 8 – One for every inch ;P – Wynonna Earp

Lucifer Morningstar – 6 – proof that i am very sweet even if i do make fun of you sometimes – Jester

Lukas Zapolya – 12 – missed you, brother! Thank you for always being their for me. – Piper McLean

Lukas Zapolya – 12 – thanks for being stupid with me, lover boy. – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Luke Castellan – 1 – 'happy v day, asshole' – Faith Lehane.

Luke Castellan – 6 – for every year I wasn’t there. I’m sorry, little brother. You’re stronger than I ever was. – Haven Barthelemy

Luke Crain – 1 – I carry your heart with me – Olivia Crain

Luke Crain – 1 – Eleanor Crain Vance

Luke Crain – 1 – Steve Crain

Luke Skywalker – 6 – Leia Organa

Luke Skywalker – 1 – I’m so proud of you, and I hope I soon find the courage to tell you personally. – Padmé Naberrie

Lyanna Stark – 1 – Tony Stark

Mal Florian – 12 – For each year i've loved you and more – Ben Florian

Mal Florian – 12 – Did I mention that I love you and always will. – Ben Florian

Malcolm Bright – 6 – i hope you have a great valentine’s day! – Anna Minkova

Mando – 12 – You'll always have a place in my heart. – Finn

Mare Barrow – 12 – don’t be afraid of the lightning that comes from inside you – Thor Odinson

Maria Stark – 6 – Tony Stark

Marinette Dupain-Cheng – 1 – From one hero to another. – Clark Kent

Matthew Murdock – 6 – Karen Page

Max Rockatansky – 3 – 'a reminder that earth is beautiful' – Lara Croft

Max Rockatansky – 1 – happy valentine’s day! – Leia Organa

Melinda Halliwell – 2 – one for you and one for our darling nephew! – Astoria Malfoy

Merlin – 3 – to my favorite magician. – Ella

Mike Hanlon – 12 – April Kepner

Mike Warren – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Mike Warren – 1 – happy v-day, man – Jim Halpert

Millie Harcourt – 12 – what would I do without you? – Mike Warren

Minerva McGonagall – 12 – Thank you for always believing in me, professor. I’m sorry I was never as strong as you thought i was. – Emma Vanity

Minerva McGonagall – 3 – happy valentine’s day, professor! – Hermoine Granger

Minerva McGonagall – 1 – happy v-day, mcgonagall!! – Georgina “Georgie” Weaver

Minerva McGonagall – 1 – Dorothea Wildes

Mollymauk Tealeaf – 5 – i know my memory isn't much, but i felt like i should still send you something for today. i hope your day is well. happy valentines day.– Caleb Widogast

Mollymauk Tealeaf – 12 – for my favorite tarot card reader. – Jester Lavorre

Montgomery “Scotty” Scott – 12 – fix my ship. – James “Jim” Kirk

Montgomery “Scotty” Scott – 3 – add some rose to your teas, it tastes delicious. – Ella

Naivara Galanodel – 3 – Rapunzel Corona

Nancy Wheeler – 1 – Lara Croft

Nancy Wheeler – 12 – Thor Odinson

Narcissa Malfoy – 12 – the love of my life, the mother of our son, my reason for coming back. Happy Valentine’s Day, beautiful! – Cordé

Natasha Romanoff – 3 – Thinking about you for Valentine’s day. – Steve Rogers

Natasha Romanoff – 1 – have a good valentine’s, romanoff. – Tony Stark

Natasha Romanoff – 1 – they said to keep this short, but remember italy and that forged painting? – Sharon Carter

Nick Scratch – 12 – I know things are a little complicated right now, but know that I love you. – Harvey Kinkle

Nyota Uhura – 12 – no one speaks klingon like you, but please don’t yell at me in it anymore. – James “Jim” Kirk

Obi-wan Kenobi – 1 – Rey

Obi-wan Kenobi – 1 – You have the kindest smile in the universe. – Padmé Naberrie

Obi-wan Kenobi – 1 – you are the force and the force is with you. trust it. – Jyn Erso

Octavia Blake – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Olivia Crain – 1 – Eleanor Crain Vance

Olivia Crain – 1 – Steve Crain

Olivia Crain – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Padmé Naberrie – 1 – Rey

Padmé Naberrie – 1 – Happy Valentine’s, Padmé – Sabé Andierre

Padmé Naberrie – 6 – happy valentine’s, padmé! – Obi-Wan Kenobi

Padmé Naberrie – 3 – reaching towards a better tomorrow – Jyn

Percy Jackson – 2 – two peas in a pod, water boy – Piper McLean

Percy Jackson – 1 – I love you, big brother. – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Percy Jackson – 1 – You're my something permanent, seaweed brain - love, Annabeth Chase,

Persephone – 12 – i love you – Hades

Peter Parker – 2 – thanks for putting up with me, petey! Glad to have you back. – Estelle Jackson-Blofis

Peter Parker – 12 – I couldn't image my life without you. It's always been you, Pete. – Harry Osborn

Peter Parker – 12 – enjoy the day of love, spiderling! – Thor Odinson

Phyrra Amakiir – 1 – Sharon Carter

Phyrra Amakiir – 1 – Have a magical day! – Snow White

Pietro Maximoff – 3 – Anna Minkova

Pietro Maximoff – 12 – Thor Odinson

Pietro Maximoff – 12 – for every minute between us. – Wanda Maximoff

Piper McLean – 1 – A beautiful rose for a beautiful girl - love, Annabeth Chase

Poe Dameron – 1 – Rey

Poe Dameron – 1 – Leia Organa

Poe Dameron – 12 – For my future husband, the absolute love of my life. – Finn

Poe Dameron – 12 – Congratulations, friend! – D-O

Poe Dameron – 1 – thank you. – Jyn

Prue Halliwell – 1 – thank you for giving the family I never had – Astoria Malfoy

Prue Halliwell – 1 – Andy Trudeau

Rapunzel Corona – 12 – will you m... just kidding. not yet. – Flynn Rider

Rapunzel Corona – 6 – Elsa Arendelle

Rapunzel Corona – 3 – You're the best friend I've ever had. Thank you for accepting me as I am. – Varian

Rapunzel Corona – 3 – have a day as beautiful as you. – Ella

Rebekah Mikaelson – 5 – Have a wonderful Valentine's Day, Sister. – Henrik Mikaelson

Rebekah Mikaelson – 12 – remember, barbie: boys stink! – Harley Quinn

Red – 1 – Sam Winchester

Red – 1 – Steve Crain

Regina Mills – 12 – happy valentine's day, i love you! – Tony Stark

Regina Mills– 12 – Roses as red as the apples from your apple tree. I wish I can give you twenty one as that's how long it's been since we first met when I was a baby, but twelve would have to do. Love you, mom! – Henry Mills

Remus Lupin – 3 – Georgina "Georgie" Weaver

Rey – 1 – i hope you have a good valentine's day! – Leia Organa

Rey – 1 – Obi-wan Kenobi

Rey – 2 – Ben Solo

Rey – 12 – You are the best friend! – D-O

Rey – 1 – I’m so glad I can be a part of your life. – Padmé Naberrie

Rey – 12 – Thank you for seeing me like no one ever has. – Finn

Rey – 5 – here’s to new friendships – Jyn

Rhaegar Targaryen – 5 – Daenerys Targaryen

Rose Granger-Weasley – 12 – roses for my rose <3 – Royal Dupuis

Rose Granger-Weasley – 5 – i hope you have an amazing valentine’s day! – Anduin Wrynn

Rose Granger-Weasley – 6 – Happy Valentine’s day, love! – Hermione Granger

Rose Granger-Weasley – 1 – happy v-day, cousin! – Roxanne “Rox” Weasley

Roxanne “Rox” Weasley – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Roxanne “Rox” Weasley – 3 – happy valentine’s day, rox! next time i go off a cliff i’m taking you with me. – Rose Granger-Weasley

Royal Dupuis – 12 – You always know how to make me smile. – Rose Granger-Weasley

Sabé Andierre – 12 – You have a nice laugh but I’m bad at telling jokes on paper, so hopefully this at least gets a smile. – James “Jim” Kirk

Sabé Andierre – 1 – Padmé Naberrie

Salazar Slytherin – 2 – from the twins – Isobel Reinwood

Salazar Slytherin – 1 – "Thanks for everything" - Anne Shirley Cuthbert

Salazar Slytherin – 12 – "I cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together" - Helga Hufflepuff

Sam Winchester – 3 – happy valentine’s day! – Sharon Carter

Sansa Stark – 6 – Jon Snow

Sansa Stark – 1 – Tony Stark

Sebastian Blackwood – 3 – one from each of the people who love you the most. Happy valentine’s, darling! – Isobel Reinwood

Sherlock Holmes – 1 – Cheers! – Lucifer Morningstar

Sherlock Holmes – 1 – Don’t forget to celebrate. – Laszlo Kreizler

Sirius Black – 6 – sorry for painting a dick on your door, next time i’ll choose a more tasteful place ;) – Jester

Sonia Tate – 12 – To my absolute best friend, and platonic soulmate. – Finn

Spencer Reid – 1 – Malcolm Bright

Spencer Reid – 6 – i hope you have a happy valentine’s day! – Ella

Spencer Reid – 12 – it’s nice to see a fellow freak with a phd! – Harley Quinn

Spock – 12 – happy valentine’s day, you pointy-eared bastard. – James “Jim” Kirk

Stephen Strange – 1 – happy valentine’s day! would you be mine? :) – Genevieve "Genna" Fair

Steve Rogers – 3 – I’m glad we got you out of that ice. – Natasha Romanoff

Steve Rogers – 12 – I’m glad you kept the beard! – Thor Odinson

Steve Rogers – 1 – For believing in me. – Wanda Maximoff

Steve Rogers – 1 – You’re a terrible flirt. – Bucky Barnes

Steven Crain – 1 – I carry your heart with me – Olivia Crain

Steven Crain – 1 – Eleanor Crain Vance

Suki – 6 – happy valentines day! thought you'd like something :) – Aang

Thalia Grace – 1 – Wynonna Earp

Thalia Grace – 1 – I'm so grateful to have you as a best friend/sister - love, Annabeth Chase

Thor Odinson – 6 – I hope you have a good Valentine’s Day! – Nancy Wheeler

Thor Odinson – 1 – Clarke Griffin

Thor Odinson – 1 – happy valentine’s to the strongest avenger! – Genevieve “Genna” Fair

Tinkerbell – 12 – I just have a question, would you like to be my girlfriend?– Wendy Darling

Tommy Shepherd – 1 – I hope I can be the mother you deserve. – Wanda Maximoff

Tony Stark – 6 – Thank you for being mine. – Regina Mills

Tony Stark – 1 – Get over it. – Natasha Romanoff

Tony Stark – 12 – Thor Odinson

Valis – 12 – happy Valentine’s Day, darling. I love you, my deliciously beautiful wife. – Damaia

Varian – 12 – happy Valentine’s Day, baby! You make me so happy, and I fall in love with you more and more each day – Jasmine Badroulbadour

Varian – 2 – guess who’s partner in crime is back? – Estelle jackson-Blofis

Varian – 1 – smile, kid! – Flynn Ryder

Varian – 1 – happy valentine’s day, varian! – Rapunzel Corona

Veronica Lodge – 1 – Royal Dupuis

Vex’ahlia de Rolo – 2 – one rose for you and one for trinket! – Jester

Wanda Maximova – 3 – Happy Valentine’s day! – Anna Minkova

Wanda Maximova – 1 – I hope you have a good Valentine’s Day, Wanda. – Steve Rogers

Wendy Darling – 12 – you’re it. You’re my dearest thing. My darling little Wendy bird. I love you. – Tinkerbell

Wes – 1 – Royal Dupuis

Westley – 1 – farm boy... love me, will you? – Buttercup

Will Byers – 1 – Roxanne "Rox" Weasley

Wyatt Halliwell – 6 – You deserve more. For what it’s worth, you’re still my friend. No matter what. - Astoria Malfoy

Wyatt Halliwell – 12 – "I know I fucked up" – Newt Glade

Wynonna Earp – 2 – One for the day you penetrated me, and one for the day I penetrated you. – Lucifer Morningstar

Wynonna Earp – 12 – coolest. gun. ever! – Harley Quinn

Zuko – 1 – Suki

Zuko – 6 – i hope you're doing better. i miss you and am here if you need to talk. happy valentines day. – Aang

#woodshore: news

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gtseven7 · 4 years

Text

Seven Princes

Summary:

Seven handsome travelling entertainers capture hearts of the crowd by their amazing voices and artisic dancing as they slowly drain their audience's inner soul magic.

A/N:

This chapter focuses on our favorite boys! The scene takes place before chapter 2 events :)

prev/next

----

What happened in Dilfae nine years ago was as vivid in Jaebum's dreams as if it was reality all over again. The heat of fire, screams of people and his father's last breath. It was still fresh in his mind. Waking up from the nightmare that is his past, Jaebum took deep breaths to compose himself. Sweat drying off his skin, his heart still pounding.

"You okay?"

The man in question looked at his side and saw the small boy in his dreams. The shy crying boy now became his rock and confidant. Jinyoung did not even look at him as he puts their clothes in a small travelling bag.

[[MORE]]

"Yes. I'm...I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

Both of them have settled into this comfort and closeness that the meaning behind their words could easily be deciphered by each other. Jinyoung knows what that dream was, as it haunts him at night too.

"Well, a hearty breakfast may help. Get your ass up. I'll wake the boys."

Jinyoung left the room after sealing their bag. The older of the two heard the other pick up a pan and laddle from the kitchen. It's not for cooking of course. Then a loud banging from the kitchen can be heard. Repeatedly. "Wake up! Wake up!" singsonged Jinyoung. By now, Jaebum knows that his right hand man had gone inside the other rooms to give his lovely morning call. Their housemates, the group they have gathered along the years, collectively groaned. Their night of drinking took a toll on them apparently.

"Get up! We have to get moving!"

"Ugh, Jinyoung hyung. Why are you so noisy in the morning?" said one of their twins, Yugyeom. Following closely, his brother BamBam wiping the sleep from his eyes. They both sat down on the dining table and saw a feast waiting for them. The twins smiled and happily dug into the food. Jinyoung's homecooking is the best. "Hyung! You are the best!" BamBam exclaimed to their pseudo-chef. Sometimes, the twins think that Jaebum and Jinyoung are their parents. Both had taken care of the twins when they had nothing.

The leader of their group finally went out of bed to join them. Jaebum blearily walked towards the twins who were eating enthusiastically. He sat down and waited for Jinyoung to settle beside him. His right hand man came back to the dining table and set down his wake up call instruments, knowing that he had successfully woken up the remaining three members of their group. Just as Jinyoung sat down beside Jaebum, one of their members cheerfully strutted towards them. "Good morning everyone!" The 'parents' smiled warmly at Youngjae; 'Ah, our sunshine.' Came to both of their minds.

Sensing the shift in mood, Yugyeom pouted. He has been always a little jealous of Youngjae. Everyone favors him and was very fond of the guy. Of course he does understand why. Youngjae is literal sunshine. He brightens everyone's days when they see him. It's just that, he wants an affection like that from his Hyungs too. And he and BamBam are in charge of their group's charms, they should be the irresistable one. But nevertheless, the jealousy is only fleeting. Yugyeom moved past it enjoyed the food. His dynamic with his two Hyungs are different anyway. Thinking on it, the twins have a much more playful relationship with the two. Yugyeom was satisfied with that.

"What's the commotion early this morning?" came the voice of their eldest member Mark. He's a very quiet person but when his peace is disturbed, he can be very scary. "Nothing! Just the usual!" BamBam answered. The eldest nodded and sat between Jinyoung and Yugyeom. He silently ate, his face showing appreciation towards the food. He beamed at his left, towards where the cook sat. While the twins were bantering and Youngjae laughing at them, their leader noticed that one was missing.

"Where's Jackson?" He asked, peering inside the room where the other was supposed to be. "He went for a run early this morning." answered Mark, who's roommates with him. Jackson values his physique that's why he takes his exercise seriously. Coming from a family of well known knights from his homeland, the man had adapted the lifestlye of one.

Jinyoung nodded in agreement. "Ah yes, I think I did see him leave. He better be back soon though. We need to leave immediately after this."

"Yah! Hyung, why do we have to leave so early?"

"Yes, this place is great!"

"There's nothing to harvest here anymore BamBam."

The banter grew louder and louder as the twins and Younjae argue to Jinyoung their feeling about leaving the current town they were in. As usual, the right hand man was calm and collected as he tried to explain (he doesn't even know why he had to, they've been over this so many times already) that leaving this place is best for them.

After their successful shows two nights ago, they have managed to extract whole lot of soul power from the people who came by and watch. Capturing their hearts as they sing, the twins will do their work. They will trap their audience inside their charms, magic laced through their motions as they soften everybody's hearts. Once caught, the real game begins.

Hearts would open as Jinyoung sings his lines. Slowly, the doorway through the soul woud be wide open. His fatal voice will lull the people to contentment and fullness, making their hearts accessible to the boys.

Since they have done their jobs pretty well in this town, the danger of them being found out was more likely. Magicians are abundant in this world and they would be able to sense their work there. Leaving would erase their footprints in that town until the people recovers from their lack of will to live. Being the magic inside their souls is what keeps them alive, though not physically.

The town of happy boisterous people became a sad lonely place because of them.

Just as Jinyoung's patience is almost at the end, Jaebum saves him. Calling the attention of everyone with seriousness that commands to be listened to.

"Stop. Just eat and pack up. We're leaving after thirty minutes."

Everyone murmured their obedience.

The leader of what they call themselves, Seven Princes, is usually lax and forgiving in his natural state. Of course when it comes to it, he has to hold them with an iron fist seeing that his friends sometimes could be a little too much. But because of this morning, like any other mornings that he woke up from a vivid dream of his past, his mood soured a bit. He hates to think of that day but flashbacks were too detailed and too realistic. Like he was still living that day.

Jinyoung shot his long time afriend a grateful smile. He loves their group of friends, but sometimes he wants to kill them too.

Just then, Jackson came back. He happily jogged towards them and dramatically slumped beside BamBam. "Ah! I'm hungry!"

"Eat up." Said Mark as he hands over a plate. Jackson pouted and whined.

"I can't! I have to follow the steps or the exercise I did earlier would be nothing." He looked at the delicious food longingly. Oh how we missed eating Jinyoung's cooking.

"Suit yourself. More for us!"

And as the youngest of the group, the twin's jobs would be to annoy their older brothers. Both grabbed a lean meat and savored its flavor with over enthusiastic moans of appreciation. Youngjae joined the two and ate with so much vigor that Jackson felt his stomach grumble. Damn these kids.

"This is so delicious! Mmm!

"Wow it's so tender and so juicy!"

"Too bad Jackson hyung can't even taste them."

Triple kill.

The three elder boys of the group: Mark, Jaebum and Jinyoung pitied their friend. The raw look of astonishement and disbelief evident on Jackson's face.

"You punks!"

Jaebum is glad to have these people around him. His new family. Even the silliest thing makes him grateful to have the backs of these rowdy boys he had grown to love.

Whatever it takes, the goal that had bonded them together, Jaebum will make sure it happens. He swears deep inside him, at the end of their road, he will make sure his boys would have their happy ending.

#got7 #got7 imagines #got7 fanfic #fanfic #im jaebum #choi youngjae #park jinyoung #bambam #kim yugyeom #mark tuan #jackson wang #magic #jjp #markson #jjparents #yugbam #2jae #jinson #markjin

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secret-diary-of-an-fa · 4 years

Text

An Invisible Bastard and Five or So Underwhelming Fantasies (Invisible Man and Fantasy Island Review)

TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of domestic abuse, gaslighting and implied rape in a film with reference to how abusers who commit those things work in real life.

ALSO, SPOILER ALERT!

The Invisible Man is one of the most tense viewing experiences I’ve had in a cinema for a long time, despite the fact that its big horror-movie threat is just a normal dude wearing a suit that makes him invisible. The reason for this is that it’s a tale about abuse, gaslighting, trauma and psychological isolation that actually seems to have a pretty good handle on how those things works. The titular Invisible Man was an abuser who controlled every aspect of his victim’s life even before she ran away and he figured out how to turn himself invisible to pursue her like the world’s rapiest poltergeist. Thanks in large part to the sterling sympatico acting going on between Elisabeth Moss (playing our victim-hero) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (the Invisible Cunt himself), he’s a terrifying and unsettling presence even before the film’s more fantastical elements kick in. Just watching him have a freak out and punch through a car window while still fully visible is unnerving in a way that even unstoppable monsters usually aren’t. Moss’s reactions as the traumatised abuse-survivor Cecilia feel entirely sympathetic and reasonable, balancing the need for the character to have agency with a realistic portrayal of someone being driven mad by a threat nobody else can perceive. The fact that nobody believes what she’s going through, even when she lays out exactly what’s going on, heightens the pervading sense of dread because we’re aware that, in real life, abusers can manipulate and arrange situations that force implausibility onto their victims while real-life trauma simultaneously affects the brain in a way that makes it hard to convey your experiences in an ordered and believable fashion. It’s genuinely scary because- invisibility aside- it feels completely real. All of which makes the inevitable cathartic pay-off all the more satisfying.

Hollywood (here meaning the whole mainstream film and TV industry, not just a small, Gwyneth Paltrow-infested corner of L.A.) is really bad at portraying abusers and telling stories about abuse. Abusive, controlling bastards in movies and television tend to suffer from one of two problems:. Number One is the ‘Straw Abuser’ problem where their behaviour is so unlikely and badly-explained that it’s impossible to take them seriously as an antagonist. They exist solely to prove somebody’s point and as such warrant neither the audience’s hatred nor its fear. One good example of this is that bloke from Colossal, who seems to be evil for no other reason than the fact he’s a working class guy with a beard. Pretty sure there should have been more to it than that. Problem Number Two is ‘Killgrave Syndrome’, where the abusive bastard’s antics are so malevolent and otherworldly and their screen presence is so compelling and entertaining that you forget you’re meant to loathe and fear them. Instead, you just find yourself rooting for them to sink to ever-greater depths of malice and depravity because it might be funny. Your brain takes one look at them and files them in the same category as Wily Coyote, Dick Dastardly and Doctor Evil (who didn’t spend six years at evil medical school to be called ‘mister’). As such, I have to praise The Invisible Man for creating a story about abuse with a horrifyingly believable abuser, that still keeps the victim at its emotional centre.

It’s hard to make such a well-worn and pre-loved premise as “guy turns himself invisible and goes mad with power” scary, but The Invisible Man manages it by making the invisibility almost incidental and focussing instead on creating a believable scenario with characters who feel like real people.

However, for every amazing film, there must be a film made of ennui and poop to balance it out. Such is the rule of the universe: no light without its shadow, no high without a corresponding low, no Leonard Cohen’s The Future without The Human League’s The Lebanon. Conveniently for me, I don’t have to look very far to find The Invisible Man’s counterpart. If The Invisible Man takes a boring, overdone premise and makes it great, then Fantasy Island (which came out around the same time) takes a brilliant, wondrous premise and turns it into a study in disappointment.

The premise being wasted in this case is that there’s a magic island that can make your fantasies come true, but will also twist them to punish you in macabre and horrifying ways. In a horror film with a core concept like that, you’d expect to see all sorts of insane things. You’d expect to see nerds exploring fantasy worlds only to discover what it’s like to be cooked alive inside their armour by dragon-fire. You’d expect someone’s sexual fantasy to devolve into a Cronenberg-esque nightmare straight from The Society or Bodymelt (google it). You’d expect to see people who dream of being beautiful ending up mutilated in the name of aesthetic perfection. You’d expect fantasies about meeting famous painters or musicians or writers or stars to turn into fights for the death against warped and malevolent versions of those people (just like in the internet musical thing about actual cannibal Shia LeBoufe). None of that happens. In fact, nothing remotely interesting happens.

You see, the people who end up on Fantasy Island are all boring cunts. There’s a couple of tedious brothers who dream of having it all and get to live it up in a mansion with supermodels until its invaded by the previous owner- a mob-boss in a clown mask. There’s a generic guy who dreams of serving in the military with his dead hero father and ends up having to watch his dear old dad die with his own eyes (which should have been an emotional moment, but wasn’t, because he has no discernible personality). There’s a lass who spends her whole time moping about shitty life choices and fantasises about going back in time to change them. She does and ends up with a loving family, which doesn’t change the fact she’s consumed with guilt about someone who died in an accident she was involved in. She asks for a do-over on that, instead, throwing away the family, and nearly dies trying to save someone she can’t save… not because it’s impossible, but because she’s basically bloody useless. Finally, there’s a girl who dreams about getting revenge on a childhood bully and the childhood bully herself who gets kidnapped and taken to the island to be punished.

The bullied girl is the only interesting or relatable character in the whole debacle, since she seems to be experiencing an emotion relating to something that actually happened to her, while the bully herself is a loathsome vacuous berk. Unfortunately, Fantasy Island thinks it’s smarter than it actually is, so the bullied girl turns out to be the one manipulating the fantasies to make them turn out badly (oh, fuck you: there was a spoiler warning at the top and I refuse to feel guilty about ruining this dreck for you), while the bully gets to have a redemption arc and save the day. Just fucking once, I’d like a modern horror film to present me with a hateful, vapid turd and then let me watch them die in an entertaining way while the weirdo gets a happy ending. This whole ‘let’s explore the hidden humanity of total twats at the expense of interesting characters’ thing is no longer fucking subversive: it just validates dickheads. And trust me, dickheads are really good at self-validating. The self-absorbed pricks don’t need any fucking encouragement. Fuck, I miss when horror films used to use these fucking tossers to bulk out their body count. Actually, I miss when spree killers used to use these fucking tossers to bulk out their body count, too, but that was more recent. And since I can visualise the expressions of horror on many of your faces, I should also say don’t get yer knickers in a twist: I’m joking.

Expect more reviews when people finally realise that coronavirus isn’t the end of the world and the cinemas reopen. Until, then, expect increasingly surreal and tangential blogs about whatever the fuck I feel like.

#Secret Diary of a Fat Admirer #The Invisible Man #Fantasy Island

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makistar2018 · 5 years

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10 Years Later, Taylor Swift’s ‘Fearless’ Still Slaps

When it was released in 2008, Swift’s sophomore album launched a thousand takes. Today, it’s best remembered as a simple time capsule

By LAUREN M. JACKSON November 12, 2018

Taylor Swift during the "Fearless" tour at Madison Square Garden on August 27, 2009 in New York City.

Theo Wargo/WireImage for New York Post

Like Propel water, The Scarlet Letter and mechanical pencils, Taylor Swift’s Fearless pairs well with the sporadic squeak of team-issued sneakers, overpriced hot lunches and the kind of angst that defines comfortably suburb-bound teenage years. Sliding open the album on Spotify with my iPhone 8, I can still feel my limbs stretched in all directions, hear the snap-crackle-pop of a dozen adolescent girls’ joints going through the motions of yet another warm-up to what would become the soundtrack of my high school varsity dance team’s inner and outer lives, as well as leave poptimism forever changed.

I am 27 now, still anxious but inflexible, no longer clinging (as) tightly to singular albums to tell the emotional landscape of my life — but back then, Fearless was god. Swift was barely into legal teenagedom when compiling her sophomore album’s original 13 tracks, but more than the happenstance near-synonymy of our ages (I’m younger by 1 year, 6 months, 27 days), the four-walled, high school claustrophobia induced by the album is a matter of skilled musical mood setting. From the first downbeat of the inaugural title track to the last flippantly rebellious “hallelujah” on “Change,” Swift traps us in the mind of an ungainly teen as she was once trapped, as I was, as so many others wading the ambiguity between comportment and desire that doesn’t quite end when gowns come on and caps fly up.

Like so many notebook pages on the golden screen, Fearless is filled with boys. Stans and haters have their theories, but I like to think of each song as an archetype, less true stories of relationships gone sour than a young woman’s true to life hetero-ethnography. There are the boys who do good — the “Fearless,” “Love Story,” “Hey Stephen,” “The Best Day” boys (the last a tribute to Dad) — the boys who nurture and love intensely. They do all the usual country boy things, all the usual cinematic things: driving slow, kissing in the rain, flouting archaic inter-familial squabbles. They honor their promises and, most of all, leave the narrator better changed for her affection.

These boys who do good are short-lived. By Track 2, “Fifteen,” we’re already checking in to Heartbreak Hotel for the upteenth time with an account of that age generic enough to warrant a fan-made montage of clips from Degrassi: The Next Generation. The song tells an allegedly universal story of freshman year woes, complete with riding in cars with senior boys who also play football (because of course). It’s saccharine, sung in the vernacular of normative coupling that would become Swift’s enemy in the gossip pages. But the limited lexicon is not necessarily untruthful. “Fifteen” has aged about as well as anyone would expect, but some of those refrains make me yearn for arms long enough to slap all the powers that be responsible for belittling the whims of young girls. And according to the greater duration of Fearless — tracks like “White Horse,” “Breathe,” “Tell Me Why,” “You’re Not Sorry,” “The Way I Loved You,” and “Forever & Always” — the greatest threat to the happiness of teen girls are boys.

November 2008 looks rosy from here. America had just elected its first black president, the man who promised too much hope and change to possibly be true, but faith felt good back then. Men had committed just five mass shootings over the past year with one more on the way in December (2018 has 307 mass shootings to its name so far). The nation boasted just under 150 recognized active white supremacist groups (that number would climb to over 1,000 during Obama’s presidency). Global finance was in crisis but cable networks were still winning Emmys. Amy Winehouse was alive. Kanye still made sense and a bright-eyed, hair-tousled new country darling was exclusively concerned with dating, rather than local politics.

Like any celebrity who is also a woman, but also in a lane quite her own, Swift’s relation to mainstream feminism wanes and waxes with the season. A female artist beloved by the girls for whom her songs are written, Swift and her music are therefore more scrutinized, more rigorously excavated for signs of harmful messaging than her male singer-songwriter peers. Fearless frayed Swift’s reputation in a way that wouldn’t let up for years, if ever, largely because of its critical success. Swift took home four Grammys at the 2010 awards, including Album of the Year, beating the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, The Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D., Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierceand, most egregiously, Lady Gaga’s debut studio album, The Fame. The perceived slight invited robust inquiry into this supposed album of the year, and the aesthetic discrepancy between the two quickly turned to politics.

Autostraddle’s Riese called Swift “a feminist’s nightmare,” the enemy of “brave, creative, inventive, envelope-pushing little monsters” everywhere. An accompanying infographic, “a symbolic analysis” of Swift’s works to date, cataloged her most damning motifs, including “virginal” imagery, “the stars,” “crying,” and the 2AM hour. At Jezebel, Dodai Stewart agreed that Gaga was the rightful winner, speculating that in a race between “Gaga the liberal versus Taylor the conservative,” the latter “makes the Academy feel more comfortable.” One joy of pop culture is the revelation of how melodramatically things can change. Last month, Swift announced her endorsement of Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper for the midterm elections; meanwhile, Lady Gaga hews the path of glamorous respectability on her lengthy A Star Is Born Oscar campaign.

Feminist readings of Fearless weren’t wrong, exactly. Allies on the album come in strictly male form, while other girls are competition for Swift’s persecuted first person. Even the red-headed bestie Abigail becomes a lesson in chastity, losing her virginity — “everything”! —to the boy who broke her heart (the foil to Swift’s main character, whose dreams of living in a big ole city protect her from such a fate). The charting single “You Belong With Me” is a bouncy jaunt through the valley of me versus those other girls. The video that won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards over Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” — to seismic effect — stars Swift as both the frizzy blonde, bespectacled weirdo in band and the sleek brunette cheerleader with the man (Lucas Till who now plays MacGyver on CBS). In true romantic comedy fashion, Good Swift, clothed in white, ends up with the guy in the end, defeating Bad Swift, whose only crimes it seems are great taste in footwear and not appreciating her high school boyfriend’s likely moronic sense of humor. Both the song and video became emblematic of a kind of Swiftian all-for-one girl power. Her 2017 video for “Look What You Made Me Do” resurrects and buries all sorts of Swiftisms, including the iconography of the uncool girl who features so heavily in the Fearless-era of her oeuvre.

Pop music exists not to elevate our souls or our politics, but to safely wade in the muck of our pettiest appetites, whether they come with trap drums or in serenades. Pop music deserves interrogation, but it will never exceed us. Fearless was a diary, sounding like the selfishness that bubbles up regardless of one’s intellectual or political guards against it. The debate it ignited wouldn’t happen were it released today, amidst all this. It’s a relic of a time when determining exactly what an album meant, culturally and aesthetically, was a crucial discussion to have in public, when nuance had stakes. Compared to the basic moral tenets we now expend so much of our energy defending, such communal acts of criticism feel small and regretfully scarce. Fearless was a moment, now relegated to a time capsule, no longer a prompt.

Rolling Stone

#taylor swift #fearless #rolling stone #2018.11.12

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marshaeb · 3 years

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P.S: I'm Mated With The Cursed Alpha!

Chapter Fourteen

Hey guy! Don’t forget to Like, Comment, Review, and Follow for more updates! My apologies in advance for all the grammatical errors. Book will be professionally edited when completed.

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Miss Joel, Happy Birthday to youuu!”

The entire day-care staff and the pups surrounded me, singing off-key in my ear.

“Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Joel!” Ms. Sumpter exclaimed, resting a chocolate cake in front of me.

“I know it’s not much, compare to what’s in store for you.” She winked. I smiled, but my heart was ready to erupt in my chest. “But please accept this token of our appreciation.”

I was overly emotional but also happy that I’ve finally reached a milestone in my life. From a little girl, I’ve always dreamed of this day. Finding my mate, falling in love, starting a family, but unfortunately, that could all change in a matter of seconds.

The things in life I wish I could control.

That day in the library was the last time I’ve seen Alpha Darius. I haven’t spotted him anywhere since, and it was nerve-wracking.

Damn, he’s so unpredictable! But little by little, I’m starting to figure him out.

Then again, I haven’t heard or seen Jackson since he told me returned the other day.

The suspense of it all...it was eating me alive! They’re both aware that it’s my birthday. Who knows what those two have planned for today.

My stomach started to breakdown as I overthink about the worst possible outcomes. What if...just what if those two run into each other.

All the demons in hell would break loose! And here I am, caught up in the mix.

I zoned out everyone in the room...my mind was far and my heart was too heavy to focus on those celebrating for me.

“Ms. Joel?” Ms. Sumpter called me out of my daze, concerned. “Is everything alright?”

Gosh! If only she knew...

I placed a happy facade on my face and smile up at her as a few of the pups gathered around me. They were only there because they wanted to blow out my candles.

“Everything’s alright... I’m just thinking about this big day.” I whispered.

“Oh yes, didn’t we all on our Eighteenth Birthday,” she said as the other caregivers agreed with a smile. “Today you turn a new leaf...that lucky fella is out there waiting for you.”

I wish it was that easy. I’m in a living love triangle at the moment and it’s driving me nuts.

“Yes,” I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”

I lean forward and blew out my candles. The pups cheered and popped their party time confetti at me.

Since it’s my birthday, Ms. Sumpter gave me the rest of the day off to enjoy myself, but to be honest, I was far from enjoying myself.

Any second now things could turn around, and Alpha Darius could be my potential mate.

Arriving home, just a the door, Samantha waited for me with a small box in her hand with a bright smile on her face.

“It’s from yours truly,” she said, placing the small box in my hand.

My heart melted for a second and for the first time for today a genuine smile widened on my face. Jackson sent me a box. He always loves to surprise me.

I took it in my hand and shook it near my ear. Something was clunking inside. I wanted so badly to see what it was, but first to my room.

Before I could make it to the second step, Mom called out for me in her office down the hall. The door was wide open.

“Yes, Mom?” I said, entering her office.

She leaned back in her chair, her desk full of paperwork.

“I heard Mr. Hamilton is Sarah’s mate and they are engaged to be wed next month.” She said, eyes fixed on her yellow booklet.

I rolled my eyes annoyingly and sighed “Yes, good for her...”

She rests down the booklet and looked over her glasses at me confusedly.

“Wow, you said that quite coldly for a best friend.” She said, taking off her glasses. “What’s going on with you two? She said. “She told me you two had a little scuffle at the hospital. Ever since she been trying to reach you, but you’re deliberately ignoring her.”

“It’s nothing really,” I mumbled. “She has her mate...and I got my problems.”

“But, she’s your best friend.” Mom replied. “She called to wish you a happy birthday. And told me to tell you, that as soon as she comes out of the hospital, she’ll be stopping by to see you and patch things up face to face. She wants you involved in her wedding plans.”

“She has her mate...let him help her!” I exclaimed heatedly, then I shut my eyes feeling shame for overreacting.

“I see... I don’t know what happened between you two, but obviously, I sense that it’s jealousy.” She said.

“Jealousy?” I repeated, upset that she called it out for what it was. “Jealous of what?”

“That she already has her mate...and that you are in a more complicated situation,” Mom replied. “You envy her. I’ll admit it’s kind of cute. It reminds me of when you two were younger and always had fallouts.”

“Well, this is different!” I said, getting even more upset. “I’m not interfering with her life any longer.”

“Don’t worry, you two will patch things in no time—

“No, Mom! I mean it this time.” I said, not giving my decision a second thought.

Mom folded her arms and shrugged her shoulders. “If you say so.” She said not taking me seriously, but I was as serious as a heart attack.

“Anyway, that’s not the only reason why I called you in here.” She said. “Are you enjoying your birthday so far?” She asked tiredly.

I breathed out anxiously and nodded my head, “Y-yes ma’am...so far so good...and thank you for everything—”

“No need to thank me for the breakfast in bed and the gifts...” She said. “It was mainly your father’s idea... You should thank him.”

“I-I did thank him before I left for work,” I said wanting to finish say what had I to say, but she kept cutting off. “But—

“I wanted to take you hiking to the lagoon, but obviously Alpha Darius ruined my plans.” She said, tapping her pen against the desk.

Mom wanted to take me to the lagoon?! I’ve always wanted to go there...ever since I learned about its magical healing powers in school. Almost every day in junior high, I would beg her to take me, but she was always too busy and promised me she would take me on one of my birthdays...my eighteenth birthday!

“Sorry for interrupting you...what were you going to say?” She said.

“I just wanted to thank you,” I said holding back tears. “I— I haven’t got the chance to do it earlier... Now that we’re alone, I just thought I’d tell you.”

“What are you thanking me for, Joel?” She asked. “Not for... protecting you... as I should, right?”

I cleared my throat and nodded my head. “But it’s not just that...these couple years I’ve been nothing but a troubled teen. Disobeying you, shaming you. Even though I’m not your biological daughter, you still put up with my rebellious behavior and loved me anyway. The gifts are nice and all, but...nothing can top you, Mom...” I said wiping my teary eyes. “And of course Dad, Sammy, and Samantha.”

She paused and shook her head at me. “You’re my daughter...it doesn’t matter, biological or adopted...your mine, Joel.” She said to me. “You know that I love you.”

I nodded my head. Her words touch me deeply. I couldn’t hold back the tears. They just kept flowing and flowing.

“Come here.” She said as I shuffle towards her slowly. She took my hand in hers. “You’re nervous aren’t you?”

I nodded my head, looking down at my feet.

“Nah uh, use your words...” She said.

“Y-yes ma’am.” I sniffled.

“I know you are...any second now you won’t belong to me any longer...it’s such a hard pill to swallow,” she said. “Especially for me and your father.”

A warm, relaxed sensation came over me for a split second as she rubbed her thumb over my knuckles.

“Who do you think it might be?” I asked softly.

She glanced up at me, “What do you mean?”

“My...Mate.” I said, seeing images of both Alpha Darius and Jackson in my head.

She sighed, releasing my hand, “I don’t know.” She said. “But there’s no doubt that you are Alpha Darius’s mate. Because of his curse, his chances of his mate accepting him in return is very, very scarce... but because of that, you have a chance of finding another.”

Part of me felt thrilled because my heart beats for Jackson, but a part of me felt bad for Darius... All he wants is for someone to love him in return, but Moon goddess why me? Why?”

“If that’s the case, why is he so determined if you know what’s to expect?” I asked.

“Because it’s obvious that you have an attraction for him as well. The stronger the connection the weaker the curse will be.” She said.

“I-I don’t have an attraction for him...” I said strongly, but deep down apart of me really did. Even when I don’t want it to. “I mean he is awfully handsome, but...but so is Jackson.”

“Jackson is nowhere close to Alpha Darius in looks, stature, and dominance, but they do have one thing in common... agility.” She said. “Regardless of who ends up being your mate, just know that you will be the most loved and protected thing in their life.

“Mom, w-what are you saying?” I said giving her a hard, confused look. “I thought you wanted Jackson to be my mate?”

“I’m just saying what it is, Joel.” She replied. “Of course I want Jackson to be your mate, but that doesn’t change your situation, does it?”

I shuffled uncomfortably where I stood and softly reply, “No...”

“Good, now the only thing we could do is wait and see what happens.” She said. “Jackson’s back and he sent a surprise for you. It’s upstairs in your room.”

Immediately I turned around and rushed upstairs to my room.

My bed was covered in rose petals, a few gifts, and a silk emerald dress. My heart fluttered in my chest...it was the sweetest thing. I was falling in love all over again.

I walked over and started with the smallest box. It was from Sarah.

Read:

Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Joel!

About the other day, please forgive me, I love you,

Love, Sarah

Getting overly emotional, I forcefully bite back my tears and opened the box. It was a silver bracelet with stars, my birth sign, and a blue moon that represented my birth month.

It was beautiful, but being immature and narrow-minded, I rest the bracelet back in the box and rest it on my nightstand.

My mind was solely focused on the surprise Jackson had for me. I opened his first gift, revealing the most beautiful black and silver rhinestone heels I always wanted. I took out a shoe and marveled at its beautiful detail.

Then my eyes drifted to another small box. Inside revealed the most beautiful drop diamond earrings I’ve ever seen.

“They’re beautiful!” I whimpered as I blinked back my tears.

My sweet, sweet Jackson. He did all of this for me not having a clue that our relationship is being compromised by another man. The same man that seduced me and in return I willingly seduced him behind my boyfriend’s back. Guilt and sadness started to take over me. Questioning myself if I should accept these lovely gifts that he wholeheartedly went out of his way to get me, his unfaithful girlfriend.

I looked over at the small box Samantha gave me at the door.

I opened it up and stared at the two chocolate kisses, my favorite candy, but there was also a folded piece of note inside. I unfolded it and read it aloud.

~Happy Birthday, sweetheart! I hope you love the gifts I sent you, there’s more to come...I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again. I’m going to wine and dine you tonight. Meet me at the Closure at 7:00 pm in your pretty, little dress.

Love, Jackson.

I instantly grew all bubbly inside and quickly ran into the bathroom to prepare my bath with the bath&body works Mom gifted me this morning for my birthday.

After soaking, shaving, moisturizing, and applying a small amount of makeup over my face and my neck, I fixed my hair into a curly afro.

The dress fit me so perfectly, showing my natural curves. The drop earrings complimented my complexion nicely. I felt like a million dollars, but deep inside I was still so nervous...nervous about what to expect.

As I walked downstairs, all eyes were on me.

“Is that you, Jo?” Sammy said with his eyes wide open.

Samantha playfully nudge her elbow into his shoulder, “Of course it’s her!”

I chuckled softly as Dad called for me.

“You’re so beautiful!” he said holding my hand. “My baby’s all grown up!”

“Ah, Dad you’re gonna let me ruin my makeup,” I said trying to force back the tears, kissing him on the cheek.

“Which we don’t want!” Mom said, sipping on a can of soda. “So it’s a date, that’s nice! Where to? I’ll drop you off.”

“It’s at the Closure,” I replied.

They all gasped sharply.

“The Closure, eh? That’s quite expensive.” Samantha said.

“Yup, Lad got that coin I see,” he said. “Maybe he can take me and my girlfriend out next.”

“Get a job, heffa!” Samantha said.

“Let’s get going.” Mom said as we headed out the door.

“Have a goodnight!” Dad and Samantha said waving as we left.

“Bring me a spare plate, Jo-Jo!” Sammy said as Samantha pulled him back inside the house.

After a short drive to the Closure, Mom dropped me off at the entrance.

“Tell Jackson there’s still a curfew for you,” she playfully winked. “Enjoy your night and stop worrying.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said as she drove off.

I turned around and face the entrance of the door and slowly walked towards it, but something felt off. The wind had a thrilling feeling to it and all my senses were growing sharp.

As I stepped inside the five-star establishment, I marveled at the elegant interior design as the hostess welcomed me.

“Welcome, to the Closure, ma’am,” she said.

“Oh, thank you,” I said looking around for Jackson, but it seemed as if he hadn’t arrived as yet. “table for two please.”

She escorted me to a comfortable seating near the frosted window under a stunning chandelier.

“Thank you!” I said as I took my seat.

This was so romantic, but where is Jackson? Probably late on purpose to surprise me. He always does that.

I glanced at the couple a few tables before me, indulging in a warm kiss. The scene made me melt inside a little, but then my mind went on Alpha Darius. Remembering the intense kiss we shared. I shook my head, trying to forget all about it, but my heart kept racing as I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat.

I have to stay focus. I have to get him out of my mind!

Five minutes turned into seven, then ten. Still, Jackson was nowhere in sight.

I was starting to grow worried. My mind raced with every disastrous thought I could think of. What if Alpha Darius got a could hold of him on his way here. He’ll find out that I’ve lied to him when I said I had broken up with Jackson when really, I didn’t.

“Oh, goddess! I can’t take this!” I muttered to myself.

I got up promptly and headed towards the lady’s restroom.

I looked myself in the mirror and took deep, sharp breaths. I just needed to calm down, but nothing seems to work.

“Come on, Joel, calm down,” I said. “Deep breaths...deep breaths.”

Gradually I became at ease when suddenly the restroom open and it locked behind the person who entered.

“You look really nice in your dress, princess.” The familiar deep voice said.

My ear flinched back as a sharp, chilling sensation rolled through my body. I slowly looked over, gasping deeply at the man standing before me. He was dressed in a fitted black suit that displayed his gold chain laying on his muscular chest. His jet black hair was slick back with a diamond stud in one ear.

He stared at me with those blazing golden eyes as a dark, cunning smile formed on his face.

It was Alpha...Darius.

“Happy eighteenth birthday!” he said with a smile.

Instantly, it hit me.

Every hair strand on my body stood upright as I inhaled a big whiff of his scent. It was a sharp, hazel, vanilla mixed with a hint of mango passion. It burned in the back of my nostrils, hitting my brain like a strong drug.

He took a step closer and his scent became even more potent.

I hunch over, feeling a slight churning feeling in the pit of my stomach. “That’s right...take me all in, baby girl,” he said. “You can’t fight it...the more you fight, the stronger it gets.”

My nails were shifting and unshifting into claws and the same with my teeth.

“I’ve kept my word...I’ve waited...” he said.

My wolf, she was raging, flipping, and howling from within, ready to emerge for the man standing in from of her. She has finally found her mate.

“I told you an Alpha knows when something belongs to him!” he smiled hungrily at me. “You officially belong to me, princess. Get ready for a hell of a ride!”

A/N

How do you like the book so far guys? Are you happy for Darius?

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