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danniburgh · 3 years

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Give you what you want (Javier Peña x f!reader x Horacio Carrillo)

Pairing: Javier Peña x f!reader x Horacio Carrillo

Summary: You’ve been crushing hard on Javier - and Colonel Carrillo. And when they both find out about it, they can’t help but indulge you.

Word count: +11.1k

Chapter warnings: mild angst, mentions of violence, divorce talk, discussion of polyamorous relationship. OT3 SMUT, oral (m and f receiving), fingering, double penetration, alcohol, a lot of cum lol

A/N: this is a collab between me, @maharani-radha-writes and @queenofthefaceless, okay, yes this is a repost (basically the blog in which this os was posted blocked me). originally posted on april 6th 2021

ao3 // Masterlist // ko-fi

comments and reblogs are eternally appreciated 💓

Carrillo slammed his face on the steering wheel of his car with a groan. He had just spent all day in court finalizing his divorce—which had been going on for months—and just as he had gotten home, he realized that he had forgotten his service pistol at the office. Something he was not allowed to bring in the courtroom.

Fuckers.

He had separation anxiety from it, so even though he had multiple spares in the house, he had one trusty weapon, and he wouldn’t be caught dead without it. He glanced at the clock, and saw that it was only eight o’clock, so it wasn’t too late for him to swing back to base and grab it. Shaking his head, he turned the ignition of his car back on and reversed out of his driveway to head back to the station.

When he got there, he used his keys to enter through the back doorway, not really wanting to have to greet the guards at the front. He was just… way too done with people that day. Although he and his by then ex-wife had separated amicably (or as amicably as it could get), the divorce had taken a huge toll on him. He and Juliana had separated about five months before, and he had spent that time sitting in lawyers’ conference rooms, arguing over this and that. He was ready to just give her everything and anything she wanted if it meant he could get that painful process over with.

Truth be told, Carrillo was lonely. He had been for a long time, even while he was still married to Juliana. They had been less of a married couple and more like roommates for the past year at least, and it was getting to them both. His job was tough and dangerous–Juliana didn’t understand a lot of it. To be fair, he kept most of it from her, but that got exhausting after a while. He longed to just...let go, and he couldn’t do that with her. And after a while, she had decided that staying married to him (and his job) was more trouble than it was worth. He couldn’t blame her, not one bit.

It didn’t matter any more. He had firmly closed that chapter of his life, and was ready to move on. He didn’t know what the future looked like for him, but the only thing that he was sure of was that Pablo Escobar would be dead. He would make sure of it–even if he died trying.

After finding his service pistol, which had been stuffed in a holster under his desk, Carrillo closed the door to his office, and proceeded to walk down the hallway to the back exit. But he stopped when he heard voices coming from the bullpen.

Odd.

He hadn’t seen anyone when he had come in. He turned slightly and strained his ears to try to see if he could discern who it was. Then he heard the distinct Southern American drawl of none other than Steve Murphy. The man had been pulling late nights in the office ever since his wife got up and left him.

“All right, kiddo, care to tell me what the fuck your problem is?”

Who–? Was “kiddo”? It certainly couldn’t be Peña. It was a Friday night, surely Peña was off….doing something (or someone) else.

“What’s my problem? What’s your problem, Murph?”

Oh, it was you. The lone female agent of the DEA. Carrillo had been quite wary of you when you had joined the team about a year before. He really wasn’t sure what, if anything, you would be bringing to the table. And he thought that having two DEA agents was two too many already. But over time, you had proven to be a strong, capable, and intelligent partner, and his respect for you had grown.

Bringing you to Colombia had been a good decision, on the part of your superiors.

Now that he had identified the two people still stuck in the base, he should have been satisfied and been on his way. But something about Steve’s tone of voice kept him rooted to the spot. He really, really shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, especially since he was sure that it was a conversation he was not meant to hear.

“You’re on edge. A lot more than usual,” Steve said, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, Steve. Just drop it,” you grumbled.

“Oh, so there is something?” Steve snarked, “Look, I normally would back off and leave you alone, but you’ve been highly distracted lately. And it’s affecting your work. I need to know what’s up or at least confirm that you’re going to get this resolved soon because we need your head in the game.”

Now that Steve mentioned it, Carrillo had noticed that you were...not yourself. And you hadn’t been for a while. But Carrillo was too caught up in his own drama to give it much of a thought.

“I’m sorry,” you sighed, “I’ll try not to be so scatterbrained. I’ll fix it, I promise.”

“Is this what I think it is? The thing you told Connie that I’m not supposed to know about?” Steve asked.

Carrillo knew he absolutely needed to leave. That was not a conversation he should be listening to. But he just could not help it.

“You’re going to have to be more specific, Steve. I’ve told Connie a lot of things,” you chuckled, nervously.

“I mean about–” there was a pause, presumably Steve looking around to check that nobody was there, “–your feelings. For, uh, ya know, Peña?”

Oh. That was news.

“And–uh–Carrillo I think?” Steve continued.

Wait...what?

Carrillo whipped his head around so fast that he winced as his neck twinged in protest. Since when...since when did you have feelings? For him? And Peña? What was happening? Someone needed to shoot him because that could not be real.

“Must you say it aloud?” you hissed.

“I’m sorry, kiddo, I don’t mean to embarrass you,” Steve apologized, “And normally I would mind my own fucking business, but this is getting out of hand. You really don’t think I notice the cows’ eyes you make at Peña when he’s not looking?”

“I don’t do that!” you denied, indignantly.

“Okay fine, maybe that’s a bit dramatic,” Steve conceded, “But the point still stands. You definitely need to get this fixed. Have you thought, oh I don’t know, telling Peña? Or even Carrillo?”

“Are you crazy?” you stammered, “Do you have any idea what that would do to my career? Not to mention that Carrillo is...fucking married?”

“Well, he’s divorced now,” Steve clarified, “And nobody has to know. It’s nobody else’s business but yours. I’m just saying, think about it ok? You deserve an outlet, just like everyone else.”

Carrillo decided that it was best to not stay and hear what you had to say to that. Instead, he hightailed it out of the base, as quickly as he could, trying to keep his footsteps light so as not to alert you and Steve to his presence. Once he was finally in the safety of his car, he put his head back onto the seat and let out a long breath, trying to figure out what he was going to do with that information. He couldn’t deny that the idea of you having feelings for him was incredibly flattering. You were a very guarded individual and quite hard to read sometimes–not so dissimilar to him. He would have never, in a million years, guessed that you would be interested in him, and that was mostly due to your closed off persona.

But to find out that you had feelings for both him and Peña? That was an interesting development. Carrillo didn’t know how to feel about that. But he can’t deny that it intrigued him...more than it should have. His mother would be completely mortified if she found out that he was entertaining this--whatever it was.

But his mother was not here. His wife was gone, and had taken the kids with her. It was just him, and his large house. And now, apparently, you and possibly Peña. Carrillo tilted his head contemplatively and started the ignition of his car.

Maybe...just maybe, there was something to this whole charade.

**Scene Break 1**

Steve was tired. Scratch that, he was exhausted. Not physically, but mentally.

Javier had been looking at you for far too long, and Steve could taste the yearning and the tension that lingered around the office when Peña looked at you. It was maddening, and Steve had no idea how Peña had managed this long without jumping you. After all, he never seemed to have a problem getting a woman’s attention and keeping it. So, why were you so different?

And the worst part of this whole circus is that you were so blissfully unaware of it. It made Steve’s mouth foam with rage.

When he told Connie over the phone, the previous night, what you had said to him and how you had confessed to being attracted to both men, she actually convinced him to talk to Javi on your behalf. Because Connie knew you, and she knew you would just shut up about it, guard it as if you were a dragon with a treasure, never say a thing, and suffer in silence until your feelings went away. And if they didn’t. Too bad. Steve hadn’t wanted to get involved. After all, you were an adult, and Javier was an adult. You should be able to sort these things out yourself. But alas, that had not happened. And if Steve didn’t do something about it, it was going to get out of hand, quickly.

So when you got up from your desk and got out of the office, Steve walked to Javier and slammed his hand on a pile of files that Javier was almost hiding behind.

“Yes, Murphy, how can I help you?” Peña drawled, trying to keep his voice as even and unaffected as possible.

“Don’t give me that innocent bullshit, Peña,” Steve growled, “I’m so sick of you.”

“What could I have possibly done now?” Javier huffed, pulling a cigarette out of his pack and lighting it. He figured that if he played dumb, Steve would go away.

Alas.

“You, and her,” Steve said, emphasizing his point by jabbing his finger in the direction of the door you had just walked out of, “There’s something between the two of you. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

Javier decided not to answer that. Instead he just took a puff of his cigarette and stared at Steve, daring him to continue.

“I’m serious Peña, stop playing coy. This is starting to affect your working relationship, and I’m getting sick of it,” Steve grumbled, “Do something about it. Now.”

It took a few moments of silence, but Javier finally decided to concede to Steve. Truth was, Javier’s head was full of thoughts. Full of you. Truth be told, getting infatuated with you was just a matter of time.

You were just… frustratingly attractive, incredibly strong and so damn smart. A dangerous combination, you were almost perfect. And that, scared the shit out of him. It had been a long time since Javier felt like that; he didn’t like the vulnerability of it all, he didn’t like how it was way too apparent that whatever you did, for small that it was, affected him in some way. He didn’t like the fact that he wanted to be with you all the time, see you all the time, talk to you all the time. He wanted to protect you all the time even when he knew you could perfectly protect yourself. And he had been feeling like that for months.

Javier interpreted that as karma, getting so madly, deeply into you and getting absolutely nothing in return. Until Steve chimed in, nosy as ever, to speak about something that was clear as a water drop but he just kept denying from himself.

He replayed what Steve had told him while he puffed from his cigarette and for a split second, and let himself smile at the words of his partner.

Steve was right. He was aware of how much he had been missing and how affected his job seemed to be because of how much time he spent thinking about you. It was so unlike him, and it was very unprofessional. But he just couldn’t help it.

You and your strikingly beautiful being. You letting him hold you close. You, with your hands on him. You and how sweet your lips must taste. You and how your naked body must look in the dimmed lights of his bedroom. Fuck.

So he decided, after his partner all but scolded him about being too dumb to realize, that he was going to face you and just… make things happen.

Steve smiled to himself while looking down at a file when Javier stood up from his own desk and walked out of the office.

“Attaboy,” he mumbled to himself.

**Scene Break 2**

You weren’t sure what it was, but suddenly the air in that bullpen had become oppressive, and you just needed to get out. Well, frankly...you weren’t stupid. You knew what was causing you to feel this way. It was stupid Steve and his stupid way of being right all the time, how the fuck did he do that? At some point, you were going to have to tell Javier (and possibly Carrillo, as well) how you felt, but if you could put it off for longer, you were absolutely going to do so.

You sat on the concrete wall bordering the police base, observing quietly as the citizens of Medellín went about their day, getting lunch and catching up with their colleagues. There was a man selling arepas just a few feet from you, and the smell was amazing. But no matter how tantalizing the scent was, you just couldn’t bring yourself to eat. All you needed was some air. Yeah, that’s what you needed. You’d be fine after a few moments.

Unfortunately, your peace wasn’t to last long, and as you were soon to discover, your observational skills would need a check up because Colonel Horacio Carrillo himself had just plopped himself next to you, and you hadn’t even noticed. Carrillo, for his part, waited a few moments before clearing his throat, startling you from your thoughts, and successfully getting your attention.

Ah shit.

One of the exact men that you didn’t want to deal with right now was sitting right next to you.

Joy.

“Those arepas look fantastic,” he remarked in that lovely accent you really liked, “Do you want one?”

You shook your head.

“No thank you,” you mumbled, “I’m fine.”

Carrillo hummed.

“I’m sure we could find something else if you would prefer. There’s all kinds of food in Medellín,” he replied. But you refused again.

“No, really, I’m fine. I don’t want any food,” you said.

Carrillo tilted his head and clasped his hands together, leaning forward slightly. He gave a small, almost imperceptible smirk, and if you didn’t know him so well, you would have missed it.

“I see,” he observed, amusedly, “So, then, Agent. What do you want?”

You frowned, and furrowed your eyebrows. What...what was he doing?

“I–I don’t want anything,” you replied, completely flabbergasted.

“Hmmm,” Carrillo began, “I don’t believe you. I think you want something.”

You raised your eyebrows at that. You’d never known the Colonel to be so bold.

“I want Escobar dead,” you quipped, “Same as you, I suppose.”

“Ah yes, I certainly want that,” Carrillo agreed, “But I want something else. Something that I imagine might be the same as you.”

You scratched the back of your neck, nervously, not sure where this was going.

“All right, Colonel, I’ll bite. What is it that you want?” you questioned.

Carrillo adjusted his position on the wall, turning so that he was facing you squarely. He looked you straight in the eyes before taking a deep breath, as if he was working up the courage to say something.

“You.”

You felt the air leave your lungs, Carrillo’s face was a puzzle laid before you but before you could say something else, you heard a deep, timbered voice calling your name.

You reluctantly turned around and saw Peña walking up to the both of you, you felt Carrillo shift beside you and let out a sigh, as if he knew something like that would happen.

“I was looking for you,” Javier mumbled, almost as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear but you.

“So, you found me,” your voice was shaky after the Colonel’s admission, and you tried to control it “What?”

“Can we–uh–talk?” he said, and you looked back at Carrillo.

“Can it wait?” you pleaded.

“No,” Javier declared.

“I think I know what this is about,” Carrillo announced, and you frowned at him, asking with your eyes for him to elaborate. But he just stayed quiet, looking between you and Peña.

“What do you mean?” Javier huffed, “This is a private conversation that I need to have with her.”

“I think we all need to have this conversation,” Carrillo mumbled, looking at the ground for half a second before returning his gaze to you and Javier.

“What are you two on?” you asked, frantically, “I am so confused.”

Javier glanced at the Colonel, at the way he was all but shifting around like a nervous kid. He realized Carrillo moved like he was hiding something, like he had a secret he so wanted to confess.

“Do you know something?” Javier questioned him, furrowing his brow. The Colonel turned to study him and there was a small moment in which they said nothing, and their eyes just locked.

And there, Javier saw him, as he was. Colonel Horacio Carrillo was an honorable man, everyone knew that, but as he was honorable he was dark, and Javier had a small suspicion of what he knew and was badly hiding.

Javier felt himself smirk at the man and Carrillo smirked back, and Javi knew it. Because he never misses things like that. For him is like having a sixth sense, somehow enhanced by his career and his experience. He just knows. Javier had never been indifferent to men. After all, being honest with himself, he had a little crush on Steve before he saw the wedding band. And Carrillo was… just his type. He never thought he would have the chance to even get closer to the Colonel like that. In the end, the time was not right and he was quite sure Carrillo wasn’t like that.

Clearly, he had been mistaken.

“Okay you two, I’ve had enough,” you grumbled, “What is going on? I’m sick of these games.”

“This is not a game,” Carrillo said, finally looking at you, you felt your frown get deeper.

“Then what is it?” you demanded.

Javier shrugged and took one last look at Carrillo, as if to confirm his consent, and replied.

“An arrangement,” he deadpanned, “With both of us.”

“If you want it,” Carrillo added, quickly.

You shot up from the wall you were sitting on and turned to glare at both of them. Javier put his hands on his waist and leaned on a leg, and Carrillo stood up as well, clasped hands in front of him, just waiting for you to say something. Anything.

Javier glanced nervously at Carrillo from the corner of his eye, searching his face for any sign of hesitation. I hope this is gonna go how you were planning, Carrillo, he thought, Because if it doesn’t and she refuses to speak to me again after this...I swear to god–

“Where did you get this idea?” you blabbered, feeling the sting of nervousness and insecurity settling into your stomach. Along with something else in your lower belly you refused to acknowledge at all.

Javier sighed, and shook his head.

“Steve Murphy has a big mouth,” he murmured.

“Dios mío,” you exclaimed, “He told you both?”

“Well, he told me,” Javier said, running a hand through his hair, “I don’t know about our Colonel over here.”

Now it was Carrillo’s turn to look sheepish.

“No, he didn’t say anything to me,” Carrillo admitted, “I overheard the two of you talking the other day.”

“You eavesdropped on me?” you gasped, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Is nothing I say private?”

Carrillo at least had the grace to look ashamed.

“It was an accident,” he tried to assure you, “But–I don’t regret listening in. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. About you.”

You scrubbed your face with your hands, trying to figure out what you were going to do. It wasn’t that you were–unhappy–more so embarrassed. You’d been carrying this secret for a long time now, and to have it so out in the open made you feel more exposed than ever. And you hated the feeling.

“I’m gonna need a minute,” you said, “Can we talk about this later? I need some space.”

Without waiting for a response, you briskly walked away from the police base and in the direction of the city. You weren’t sure where you were going or when you were going to be back. All that you knew was that your privacy had been massively violated, and you needed some space to collect yourself. Alone. And perhaps when you had calmed down, you could think about Carrillo and Peña’s proposal, like a functioning adult. But right now, you were too embarrassed (and aroused, let’s be real), to think straight.

Javier turned aside to look at Carrillo when your figure had disappeared into the city.

“So,” Javier broke the not-so-awkward silence, “Are you okay with this?”

Carrillo huffed at the question and glanced at the agent, noticing in him things he hadn't noticed before.

“Are you?”

Javier felt his stomach drop at the Colonel’s question… interesting.

“I’m all in,” he replied, smirking at Carrillo.

“Yo también.”

**Scene Break 3**

It was later in the afternoon by the time you had calmed down enough to return to work. You couldn’t believe what had happened today. You absolutely wanted to smack Steve. What you had told him was in confidence, and he had broken that trust. But you couldn’t deny that you were happy with the result. The idea of having even just one of those two men was enough to get you going, but both?

Men like them?

The pool of arousal was already forming in between your legs.

You could not deny how much you had wanted this, and how much you had been dreaming about it. And for a very long time. For god’s sake, you had lost sleep over this shit. It made you feel dirty, filthy, unprofessional. But you just couldn’t help it. You’d done a decent enough job of keeping your feelings in check, but now the cat was out of the bag.

And not only did these two men know how you felt. Apparently, they felt the same way. And for some godforsaken reason, they wanted you.

Were you really going to say no to an opportunity like that? Were you truly that stupid? No matter how much you were angry with Steve.

Connie would lose her shit when you'd call her to tell her about her husband’s work.

You walked into the bullpen and saw the office door opened, the first thing you saw was Javier’s face buried inside a file, his posture rigid and his hands grasping at the folder as if it were a lifeline.

He looked up and his eyes went wide when he saw you walk in.

But then you saw Murphy, sitting like nothing had happened and you saw red. You rushed at him and without a word your hand flew and you smacked him on the back of the head.

“What the fuck?” he yelled, and you heard Javier laughing behind you.

“You asshole,” you hissed, “Exactly what made you think it was a good idea to tell him? I trusted you to keep your mouth shut.”

“Excuse me,” Steve groaned, rubbing the back of his head, “I did you a fucking favor. I got tired of hanging around with you two idiots, just looking at each other and not saying shit.”

“You should not have done that,” you growled, fixing him with what you hoped was your most intimidating glare.

“Perhaps not,” Steve shrugged, “But I don’t regret it.”

“Can I–say something?” Javier asked behind you.

“No. Shut up.” you hissed without looking back at him.

“You do something like this again, and I’ll kill you,” you threatened Steve before storming out of the base, and into the parking lot. You sat in the driver’s seat of your car and banged your head against the steering wheel. You had had every intention of finding Peña and Carrillo and taking them up on their offer, but now all feelings of boldness had been once again replaced by shame and embarrassment. No doubt you were the talk of the police base, what with your massive crush on two of your colleagues.

Although you knew it was irrational, you couldn’t help but feel as though Carrillo and Peña were making fun of you. You knew it was stupid. Both of them were grown-ass men. They wouldn’t be so immature. If they didn’t like you at all, they would have just left you alone. But you just couldn’t help the raging insecurity you were feeling. Perhaps if you had actually told both of them, directly, how you felt, rather than let Steve Murphy do the hard work, then maybe you wouldn’t be feeling this way.

But that was all water under the bridge now, you supposed.

Later that night, you were heating up a pitiful TV-dinner in your apartment, not feeling up to eating, but you needed something, when your phone rang. You froze with the fork halfway to your mouth. There were only a handful of people who had your landline number, and even then, only a few of those people would have the guts to actually call it. This wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.

Sighing, you trudged over to the phone and lifted the receiver to your ear.

“¿Sí?” you asked, quietly, and you heard the low voice of Colonel Carrillo on the other end.

“It’s me,” he said softly, “You left work rather abruptly. I called to see if you were fine.”

“As fine as I can be, given the circumstances,” you grumbled.

“I’m sorry that things transpired the way they did, truly,” Carrillo mumbled, sounding genuinely apologetic, “But I meant it when I said I don’t regret finding out.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” you snarked, “You’re not the one whose colleague breached her trust.”

There was a pause before Carrillo spoke again.

“Do you regret it?”

Now it was your turn to pause, contemplating your words and how you would respond. You didn’t want to hurt him, but at the same time, you wanted to make it clear that you weren’t pleased with the means---even if the end was fantastic.

“I regret how this started,” you replied, slowly, not trusting yourself to say anything further.

Carrillo hummed over the line, contemplating your words.

“I can’t blame you for that,” he said, “But forget about Steve for a moment, please. Have you thought about it?”

You inhaled and held your breath for ten counts, trying to calm down your racing heart. You couldn’t deny that just the mere thought of being in the same room with these two men, especially in a non-platonic setting, was difficult for you.

“I think you know the answer to that, Colonel. You aren’t stupid,” you quipped, “Have you discussed this with Peña? I must admit, I am surprised at you both. This doesn’t seem like something either of you would be interested in.”

“We’ve discussed this, absolutely,” Carrillo said, recalling the deeper conversation he had with Peña earlier that day after you had slapped Steve, “I think we’ve both surprised ourselves, if I’m being honest. But if the attraction is there, it’s there. But I want you to know, there is no pressure. This only goes as far as you want it to go.”

You frowned at that.

“What do you mean?” you pressed.

“Querida,” he sighed, “What happens between the three of us–well–Peña and I know where we stand–it’s up to you now. If you don’t want this, then just say the word. We’ll pretend this conversation never happened.”

You took a shuddering breath and tried to respond as best as you can.

“I–”

“You don’t have to give me an answer now,” Carrillo interrupted gently, “Think about it. Make sure it’s what you want. Then you can let us know.”

“I–ok,” you stuttered, for lack of a better response.

“I should leave you to your evening. But think about it, and let me know what you decide ,” Carrillo said, “Have a good night, querida.”

“Sure, good night, Colonel,” you mumbled, hearing the click on the other end, indicating that Carrillo had hung up.

You passed the rest of the evening in relative silence, going about your mundane business with an extra air of heaviness. Slowly you could feel the embarrassment from the day give way to desire. As you lay by yourself in your bed, clutching at your pillow, you couldn’t help the acute sense of loneliness that you felt. After all, you hadn’t really had anyone before you came to Colombia, and your job here certainly killed whatever chance of having a relationship you might have had. It was why you had so easily fallen for both of your colleagues.

You were lonely. And they were lonely too. But it wasn’t just out of loneliness. You’d seen what Peña was like when he just wanted to have a warm body next to him. Just as it had taken courage for you to confess how you felt to Steve, it must have taken just as much strength for Carrillo and Peña to admit the same to you. This wasn’t going to be a one time thing–born out of isolation and tragedy–it would be something much more meaningful than that. You could feel it.

You glanced at the clock, seeing that it was just past midnight. Although you knew that Carrillo usually stayed up late, you didn’t want to bother him, so you dialed the number of the only other person who you knew would be up this late.

“Hello?” Javier Peña gruffed on the other end, clearly annoyed at having been woken up.

“Javier, it’s me,” you said, by way of greeting. You heard some rustling of bedsheets, no doubt Javier was fully awake now.

“Are you all right?” he asked, concern coloring his tone.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you assured him, “I just–I’ve thought about your offer. Yours and Carrillo’s.”

You heard a sharp intake of breath over the phone.

“And what do you say, cariño?” he questioned, hope ringing in his voice.

You took a deep breath, steadying yourself.

“Yes. I’m saying yes.”

**Scene Break 4**

You sat inside Javier’s car, silently, as he drove the two of you through the streets of Medellín towards Carrillo’s address. It was a Friday–exactly a week from when Carrillo had overheard you talking to Steve, and you were completely floored at how your life had changed that fast. You didn’t regret anything though, not one bit.

You were nervous though. Having one of these men was enough to make you swoon, but both? You weren’t sure what was going to happen. All you knew is that it would be a fantastic night. You just hoped that you could keep up.

A hand on your knee brought you back to the present, and you glanced over to see that Javier was eyeing you out of the corner of his eye as he drove.

“Relax, cariño,” he ordered, “It’s just us.”

You laughed.

“I know, that’s what I’m worried about,” you said, jokingly. But Javier wasn’t having it.

“Why would that make you nervous?” he asked, turning to face you when you had stopped for a red light.

“You two are my friends and colleagues,” you stated, “I don’t–want to disappoint you. Especially since we will have to go back to work after the weekend.”

Javier shook his head and pressed down harder on the accelerator, hoping that if he got you to Carrillo’s place faster, you’d stop your fatalistic thoughts.

“None of that,” he grumbled, shutting down your line of thinking as quickly as he could, “What happens between us tonight stays between us. That’s it. No pressure or expectations. Just enjoy yourself, okay?”

You nodded, not quite trusting yourself to speak. And thankfully, you didn’t have to say anything because you and Javier finally pulled up in front of Carrillo’s house. It was a much larger property than you had expected, with a beautifully-kept lawn and a mango tree just at the front of the house. It was a stunning place to live, and the thought that Carrillo had been staying there alone, with nobody to share it with, for the past several months just left you heartbroken.

Well. That was likely about to change tonight.

“You’re still sure, cariño?” Javier asked, taking your hand in his and staring at your knuckles, “If you’ve changed your mind, I can drive you back now. No questions asked.”

You shook your head.

“I’m completely sure, Javi. Don’t worry,” you assured him, and Javier nodded.

“Bueno,” he mumbled, “Let’s go.” And with that, the two of you walked up the path to Carrillo’s front door and rang the bell. Carrillo answered almost immediately, face relaxing at the sight of you.

“I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding the place,” he greeted, stepping back to allow the two of you to enter his house.

“I have some wine if you would like,” Carrillo suggested, leading you and Javier into the kitchen after the two of you had kicked off your shoes.

Carrillo walked straight to the fridge and took out what appeared to be a pretty expensive brand of wine, but neither you nor Javier said anything in regards to it. Instead, you both sat down and exchanged a series of fugitive glances at each other.

You thought you needed the wine, the bitter, strong taste of alcohol to run through your veins in order to be able to process the moment in its entirety. But suddenly, as you glared at both Javier and Carrillo, there was no need for anything else. No liquid distraction to be drunk beforehand, no ridiculous and meaningless pleasantries or comfort words. You knew those men. You trusted them with your life every day when you went out there on the streets, and you trusted them just as much now. Their mere presence was sufficient to relax you and ease the tension, although you thought they would both agree that the tension was thicker than you could’ve imagined.

“I trust you both, and I care about you both, so damn much.”

It came out of the blue; you weren’t even sure you thought about it in your mind, and yet you said it nonetheless, standing up. Both of them seemed a little surprised by your impromptu confession, but patiently waited for your continuation, if there was any to begin with.

“What I mean is… why make this harder on ourselves? Why bother with small talk and awkward conversations when we can just… do it, enjoy the night?”

Javier was the first one who smirked. And of course he would, he was probably used to a lot of those moments, or similar ones, and had almost no issue baring it all, you thought. You swore, for a brief, almost too rushed moment, that you saw Carrillo hesitate with saying something and averting his eyes from both you and Javier, but you brushed it off. Instead, he looked tall and mighty at you, as his official position required, and smiled gallantly at you.

“You are the one in charge tonight,” he told you.

Simple, yet effective.

From the moment you heard that sentence, it did something to your ego. It gave you an unexpected boost of confidence, it sparked a desire, a flame so bright and hot you wouldn’t have believed it to be true in any other situation.

You took a few steps closer to Carrillo, all the while having Javier watch the scene unfold from the kitchen entrance. He stood up when you did, out of some long-forgotten courtesy that he didn’t used to care about anymore, and he just knew where it was all headed. He recognized the look in your eyes, the longing on your face. He knew what it meant, how much it must’ve consumed you, and he felt oddly enticed and captivated by it.

Just as swiftly as the night began, Carrillo’s hands rested on your waist while he kissed you. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he only brought you closer to him; his lips tasted surprisingly sweet, with just a faint tint of nicotine. Your chest was pressed against his, warm clothed skin found yours and you shivered against him. His hands gripped your waist as if saying farewell to them and he slid them up your body. You could feel Peña’s eyes fixed in your bodies, staring at the scene, and when the Colonel broke the kiss to nibble at your neck, you opened your eyes to see him next to you; half-lidded brown deep eyes, an opened bottle of wine in one hand and his lower lip in the other. Your skin was burning, and you had barely been touched.

You smiled at him when Carrillo took your jacket off, Peña smirked and took a sip of wine directly from the bottle, careless about any pleasantries.

Carrillo’s wet tongue latched softly at your pulse point and ripped a low moan out of you, you closed your eyes again when his hands gripped your ass over the fabric of your jeans.

“Colonel, please,” you muttered, sighing as you felt his large hands had fun with your flesh and grip it after hearing the way you called him.

“Words, querida” he just replied, putting some distance between your wet skin and his lips.

“More,” you bit your lip, Carrillo smirked at you and you noticed the way his eyes darkened with desire in front of you. He turned to look at Javier, who was still standing at the kitchen entrance, palming his erection over his jeans.

“Bring that,” Carrillo said, pointing at the bottle, then slid his hand from your ass to the small of your back and guided you towards the staircase.

Between your hazed eyes and the cloud of lust that had begun to invade your mind you looked around Carrillo’s space and wondered how a man like him could live in a place that big. You smiled to yourself when he put his hand on the small of your back and soon enough Peña caught up to you, you felt his ever so imposing presence behind you.

Carrillo opened the door to the bedroom and pushed you softly inside.

You didn’t even have time to take your surroundings in when you felt a pair of warm hands find your hips and a set of lips grazing at your earlobe. Your eyes closed by themselves and the sweet, strong smell of Javier’s cologne invaded your nostrils as he pulled your back flush against his chest.

“Sh–shit,” you let out, half a whisper, half a moan, when you felt Carrillo’s hands roam around your waist.

You were losing yourself between the touch of the two of them, you shivered when Carrillo cupped your breast as Javier nibbled at the skin of your neck, from behind, you tilted your head to the side to give him more room to do whatever–the–fuck he pleased with your neck.

“Mírate, chiquita,” Carrillo whispered, you felt his breath on your lips and when you re-opened your eyes you saw him inches away from your face “you’re already wrecked.”

You felt Javier chuckling against your flushed skin, and you bit your lower lip, bringing a hand to the Colonel’s nape to pull him closer and kiss him again.

One of Javier’s hands found itself under your shirt, his mouth was moving and his other hand pulled softly at your shirt over your shoulder to find more skin to lick and kiss. Carrillo found the hem of your shirt and broke the kiss to look at you, as if asking for permission and reassurance that you wanted what he wanted. Javier watched the silent exchange and smirked against the skin of your shoulder, he gave it a last brush of his mustache and a last kiss before you nodded to the Colonel and he helped you out of the garment.

Carrillo smiled to himself when he saw what you’ve been hiding under it, a black, only-lace bra that showed the shade of your nipples, you bit your lip again when you took in his disheveled figure, his notorious erection under his military green pants that made the pool between your legs grow.

“How are you this fucking beautiful?” Javier muttered behind you, his mouth leaving a trail of kisses behind your ear to your nape.

Your breath hitched when Carrillo kneeled in front of you and you felt your chest heaving with desire when his large fingers dextrely unbuttoned your jeans and his thumbs hooked on the hem. He looked at you again and you nodded for a second time. Javier looked over your shoulder at the Colonel slowly sliding your jeans off your hips then your legs and he left his hands roam around the now naked skin of your torso. Your hands landed on the back of his head, and he took the hint, attacking the skin of your neck once again.

Carrillo threw your jeans away once he helped you out of them and you moaned loudly when his lips grazed against your knee. One of your hands dropped to grab Carrillo’s head as his trail of kisses moved up, up, up until he reached the soft skin where your thigh and your hip joined. You were sure he could smell your arousal, you were sure he could feel it at that point and you didn’t care, for once you let yourself only feel and let all thought out of your mind while you felt two mouths, two men, take care of you.

There was no hesitation from Javier’s side as his fingers gently grazed up your spine, expertly unclasping your bra, taking in the image of the straps loosening on your smooth skin. He was damn near panting at the mere sight, but he had to remind himself that that was only the tip of the iceberg. The moans you were letting escape your mouth as Carrillo pressed gentle kisses on your inner thighs aided him in no way. He felt himself get harder and harder and fought off raging instincts to turn that moment into another one of his one-night stands.

Javier made sure he tasted your skin while he took the straps from both sides between his fingers and slid them off your shoulders, he felt you shivering under his hands and over Horacio’s mouth and you could feel the smirk on your skin, once the bra came off, Javier took your chin and moved your head to face him, he pressed his mouth on yours, his tongue hungry for your scent, invading your cavities and feeling your warmth rush through his body with the speed of light. Everything about your scent was intoxicating and consuming, and ever so addicting that he could barely find it in himself to stop.

But then his calloused hands found your breasts and oh–oh, shit.

That first squeeze, tantalizingly slow and powerful, took you out completely. You gasped, and you weren’t sure if it was Horacio’s warm breath in between your legs or Javier fondling your breasts, but you embraced the overwhelming effect both had on you. Javier squeezed again, and moved around to locate the sweet torture of his mouth onto your nipples, taking one in his mouth whilst his thumb moved over the other one, twisting it in between his fingers as he nibbled at your skin. His tongue left a glistening trail as he peppered kisses in between your breasts, moving up your sternum, collarbones and neck and focusing on one particular spot that seemed to drive you wild. So much so that you reached behind your back to grab a handful of his hair, pull him in closer however you could.

“Lay her down, Peña,” Carrillo cooed, and the man followed suit.

You saw the Colonel untuck his shirt and take it off while Javier kneeled on the bed and helped you lay down on it, the softness of the sheets embraced you and the coldness made you whimper softly.

It was a premiere for him to witness Javier Peña, of all people, being so submissive and attentive, but he had other matters to focus on at the moment. His mouth left your already glistening and plump lips to grab the bottle of wine, your eyes followed him as you felt Carrillo’s hands spread your legs open and kiss the inside of your legs again, Javier came back to the bed and kneeled next to you, his hand gripping the bottle and the other cupping your face, he smiled softly at you and took a sip from the bottle; you moaned when Carrillo’s hands worked to get you out of your lace panties and Javier leaned down to you, the hand that cupped your face moved to your chin and he opened your mouth with his thumb, letting the wine pour from his mouth to yours, the wine was warm and it tasted sweet, when you closed your mouth and swallowed, Javier’s thumb grazed your lips and you heard a hard pant next to you, you turned to see Carrillo’s lusted face, you gave him a soft smile and he all but threw himself to you, kissing your mound, you moaned again and Javier leaned back, bringing the chilled bottle closer to your body, letting the tip of it graze against your warm skin, between the cold sensation and Carrillo’s lips tasting you, you were about to scream, Javier looked at you, smirked and pour some of the wine all over your breasts and abdomen, immediately reaching down on your again to lick the liquid off. A bit of the wine had traveled down your abdomen to your lower belly and found its way into Carrillos mouth, the feeling of the cold wine and their tongues made you growl. You had two pairs of equally sinful and skilled lips teasing and licking deliciously well over your exposed skin, and you had half of mind to grab either one of them and get to business. You couldn’t recall the last time you felt so aroused, but it was all a masterful torture and all for a good time. If anyone else was allowed to have their downtime, why shouldn’t you?

It was somewhat futile to even attempt to please either one of the men in return; their own pleasure seemed to be revolving around yours and they were both doing such an incredible job out of it that you had a hard time trying to keep track of where did the waves of pleasure come from anymore. It was all one big tsunami of feelings, from overstimulation to lust and appreciation and love in some form.

Carrillo continued his ministrations while Javier licked the remains of the wine from your body, his tongue traveled to your sternum and he took a nipple on his mouth ever so briefly, then he stood up and quickly undressed, not bothering to be cool about it, he just threw his clothes to the floor while he looked at Horacio have the time of his life between your legs, you let out soft moans and whispers and while Javier took off his jeans he saw your hand grip Carrillo’s hair as your hips hatched against the Colonel’s face. You felt his tongue flicking your clit and he pushed a thick finger inside you, curling it around, building you up and throwing you off the cliff with the same force he had put you there. You came on his mouth with his name on yours.

As you laid on the bed, legs spread for Carrillo as he helped you ride off your orgasm, Javier kneeled back on the bed next to your face, his hand snaked its way around your neck, gently grabbing both sides and helping you take his erection in your mouth, which you were more than happy to do. You could tell he was somewhat tensed: he was doing his absolute best to control his motions and to keep it at a normal rhythm, but the more you involuntarily groaned as Carrillo began to glide his tongue across your slit once again, building up your second climax, the more Javier was slowly losing bits and pieces of himself. Within seconds, you could just tell you weren’t gonna last long, but neither would Javier as he picked up the face and jerked his hips forward more and more, thus obliging you to take more of him in. You couldn’t explain it, nor find any logic behind the action itself, but you swore you felt his release in Javier’s impatient thrusts and, sure enough, mere seconds later, he finally came, grunting as ropes of his seed dripped down your jaw.

Your moans returned when Carrillo added two fingers to his mouthy torture over your clit, and you felt like you could explode. Not long after that all-too familiar gut feeling, that almost persistent desire to burn, you came for a second time, eager to jerk your hips forward and meet as much as you could of Carrillo’s tongue, but this time, the man’s grip over your thighs was impossible to break. He held you in place ever so expertly and ate you out like you were his favorite five course meal, soaking up every ounce of juice that you provided him with.

You temporarily lost feeling in your arms as you tried to raise them to make at least Javier pay attention, but words also failed to leave your abused mouth.

“Que buena chica,” Carrillo said from somewhere down below. (What a good girl.)

Your brain didn’t register what he said properly. All you could feel was a fire so intense, so vivid, you nearly saw stars. And something told you that was only the beginning.

And you were proven right.

In the momentary lack of physical touch, you thought about the moment itself, having two of the strongest, most desirable men eager to please you–simultaneously, might you add–and the more you thought about it, the more it threw you off completely. Why? You weren’t really sure. Perhaps it was the idea in the back of your mind that you wouldn’t have thought yourself capable of that. Or them, really. The activity hadn’t been exactly on your to-do list over the past few years and yet now, you couldn’t have thought of a better way to figure out your feelings for them, and to spare time.

The freshly acquired ecstasy was not only enthralling, but efficient as well.

After your second orgasm at Horacio’s ministrations you saw him between your lusted, narrowed eyes, undress completely, Javier was next to you, trailing his fingers up and down your wet torso–wet with wine and his saliva, what a fucking thought– while the both of you saw Carrillo take the remains of his clothes off and took in his lean figure, Javier smirked when he saw him whole and thought to himself the things he would do to the man if he had the time.

Javier wrapped his arms around your waist and helped you roll over to the side to face him, licking his bottom lip in the process and made sure you watched as he did so. He had been eyeing you up and down the entire day, whether clothed or not, and every glance he threw you, ever so dark and desirable, filled with subtext and desire, made you weaker and weaker, just like Carrillo’s touches were.

You reached his face and took his lips in yours, his tongue slid inside your mouth and as he explored the insides and his hand grabbed fistfuls of your ass, you felt the bed shifting behind you, and another hand snaked from behind and found your breast, you were being pressed against and between two bodies and the wam of them was driving you insane, when Carrillo’s fingers played with your nipple you bucked your hips forward and you felt Javier’s erection graze at your lower belly. Javier moved his hand from your ass to your thigh and then he let it slide to your pussy, you bucked your hips backwards and you felt Carrillo’s erection graze at your ass.

“How are you still this wet, bonita?” Javier asked, while his fingers found themselves between your lips.

“Don’t you know the answer by now, Javi?” you muttered, feeling the way Carrillo’s mouth found your shoulders.

You glanced at him and Carrillo the same way Javier looked at you and you understood in an instant why he always preferred to be that way. It was enticing, addicting and sinful, just the way he was.

And by the looks of it, Colonel Horacio Carrillo was no saint either.

“How do you want this to go, chiquita?” Horacio asked behind you as you moved your leg up to allow Javier’s fingers to find a way inside you.

You sighed. Why was he asking you that question when you weren’t even sure something like this would happen? For a brief, brief second you wanted to hide, just grab your clothes and hide. But you found yourself sandwiched between the men that you most desired and you just couldn’t waste this opportunity for the life of you.

So you rummaged around your deepest, filthiest fantasies you’ve had when everything had just been a sinful dream, a product of your lascive thoughts giving into what you catalogued as your darkest secrets and desires and you found one you couldn’t stop think about after it had given you a stars–behind–the–eyes orgasm.

“I want both,” you muttered, feeling the way both men groaned at your sides, “both inside me, please.”

“You sure?” Javier asked, pulling out his fingers from your cunt and looking at the way they glistened, you nodded.

“Words, chiquita,” Horacio said and you turned to see him, he leaned down and stole a short, deep kiss.

“I’m a hundred percent sure,” you murmured against the Colonel’s lips.

“Let’s get you ready, then,” Javier whispered on your neck and you sighed when his fingers slid back into your slit, you closed your eyes when Horacio played your nipples around his fingers and then his hand roamed down your body, finding their way to your pussy.

“Déjame entrar,” Horacio said under his breath, Javier stopped moving his fingers inside you and you squeezed your eyes tighter when Carrillo slid two more fingers inside your cunt.

“Fu–fuck, fuck,” you gasped, Javier let open mouthed kisses around your face and the skin of your neck within reach while your walls tightened around their thick fingers.

“You okay?” Javier asked and you nodded a few times before your body relaxed and got used to the intrusion.

“Mo–move,” you pleaded, feeling Horacio’s mouth nibbling at your shoulder and your neck.

Javier and Horacio moved their fingers at the same time inside you, looking at each other as if marking a dancing pace. You didn’t know what to do with yourself as they moved in and out and curled their fingers in all directions inside you, making you moan and whimper and open up more for them as they somehow found an identical pace to torture you with.

“Eso, eso nena, lo estás haciendo muy bien,” Carrillo praised behind you, feeling the way your walls were giving into the attention and dilating around their fingers (That’s it baby, you’re doing great)

“Más,” you pleaded, rolling your hips against their hands “Más, más,”

They grinned at each other, Javier’s eyes landed on your face and took in the way your features quirked in pure pleasure. Their fingers moving at the same time, pacing in and out faster. Javier’s mouth landed on your shoulder and Carrillo only took in the lewd noise his and Javier’s fingers were making as they pulled in and out at a murdering pace.

“Oh, sh–shit,” you bit your lip and tried to hide your face inside the crook of Javier’s neck but Horacio pulled you away with his other hand.

“We wanna hear you, querida.” he whispered behind your ear, you shivered again at the feeling of his warm breath and then it became too much, their fingers were covered in your arousal as you spread your legs impossibly wider as your throat began growling and your hands landed on both of them, digging your nails on their flesh. Javier hissed against your shoulder and Carrillo bit the skin of your mouth, both of them throwing you together from the cliff and your body spasmed between them.

“Oh my god, oh shit, fuck!” you screamed between their bodies and they slowed their pace to help you ride down your climax “please, please, fuck me, please,” you let out, almost desperately, eager to feel the same with them inside you. They slid their fingers out of you and you shivered again.

Your body was already a mess, after three powerful orgasms you were panting for air, the only thing you wanted was them inside you, you wanted to feel every ridge and every vein of them, you wanted; you needed to cum around them both.

“What is taking you so long?” you opened your eyes, quite frustrated at the lack of attention to your bodies, but the sight that you took in was otherworldly.

Carrillo had his fingers, his covered–in–your–arousal fingers inside Javier’s mouth.

“Fuck,” you let out, dropping your head on the mattress, looking at the way Javier grabbed Horacio’s wrist to keep his hand on his mouth and lick them clean of you while Horacio’s deep gaze took Javier in with a smirk adorning his face.

Horacio pulled his fingers out with a soft pop and they both looked at you, panting and brushing a nipple with your fingers.

“Next time you’ll have to put on a show for me,” you teased.

“You’re ready?” Javier asked, leaning down to kiss your temple, you looked at Carrillo and smiled at him as he licked his fingers.

“Very,” you replied, softly, your voice was already hoarse because of the moaning and screaming they had pulled out of you, they got comfortable on each of your side and you took a deep breath when Horacio lifted your leg and hooked it on his hip.

Javier was the first one to tease your entrance with the dripping head of his cock, when you felt it sliding up and down your slit you gasped and as he pushed himself inside you you grabbed his arm and licked any part of his skin available for you.

“Oh my god,” you cried out softly.

Javier was having a hard time staying still when your walls were warm and wet around him, his hands roamed around your body as Carrillo lined himself with you and him as well and then he pushed.

“Holy fucking shit,” you had close your eyes at the feeling of Horacio making his way inside of you, you breathed and panted and tried so hard to relaxe but they were thicker than their fingers and your pussy was clenching already around them. Javier took your hand and you squeezed his as both of them bottomed up inside you.

Horacio put his hands over the entanglement of yours and Javi’s and the three of you gasped and panted until your body stopped squirming between them and your walls stopped closing themselves at the feeling of two thick cocks making their way inside.

Javier had to close his eyes as well when he felt how your cunt clenched him tight closer to Horacio and he felt himself throb inside you, when he opened his eyes he saw you, open mouthed gasps leaving your body as it got used to being that full, and then his eyes traveled to Horacio, that buried himself in the crook of your neck, he supposed he was feeling the same way as him, trapped in a oh–so–tight hole with him.

“Move, move, move,” you all but begged, the initial sting of being filled like that disappearing and being replaced with the darkest, deepest, hottest desire you had ever felt, “fu–fucking move already!”

Horacio smirked against the skin of your neck at your demand and moved slightly to look at Javier, who nodded once and then, murdering pleasure; Javier pulled out and as he was thrusting slowly back in, Horacio pulled out and moved in as Javier moved out and you gasped and the air in your lungs left you for the time being as your cunt was filled with the two men you wanted the most.

It was pleasure delivered in a delicious swing of two hips rocking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth into you, making you impossibly wetter, incredibly hornier, and way too lost in the haze to even care about anything else.

The way that they were fucking you was shameless, the noises were lewd and your moans invaded the room as soon as they picked up the pace and kept driving into you at the same pace but in different directions.

Four hands caressed your body, two sets of lips nibbled at your skin, two tongues tasted the salty sheet of sweat that had covered your body, two thick cocks used your body at their will, making you want to explode; it was an eager combination of feelings and sensations pulled out of the most sensual, lechery, degenerated dreams you could ever had.

“Harder, please, pleasepleaseplease,” you panted out, gripping any skin and limb your hands could find. Your hips started rolling and rolling and rolling with them as they thrusted and pounded inside you.

“Mierda,” Horacio gasped behind you, biting at your skin, making you whimper.

“You’re so fucking tight, so fu–fucking good, baby,” Javier cried out as your pussy clenched around them and you absentmindedly rolled your hips harder.

It was an entanglement of limbs and wet skin, mouths clashing against skin, hands gripping and grabbing available flesh, a swing of bodies and a symphony of licks, kisses, hums, gasps, pants, begs and praises.

“Shit, sh–shit,” you panted harder and clawed at Javier’s arm when you felt the well-familiar tug on your belly of an incoming orgasm, you hummed and moaned and you felt lips in your ear, licking and nibbling at your earlobe, “I’m so close, más,”

Javier gritted his teeth when you demanded more and angled his hips to pound inside harder, Horacio followed his lead, dropping his hand on Javier’s shoulder for leverage. Carrillo’s touch burned in Javier’s skin and he felt his body stiffen with the feeling of his second release.

“Por dios, querida, me estás matando.” Horacio cried out behind you, feeling as well his body falling from the cliff. (My god, you’re killing me)

Javier’s free hand slid through your wet, glistening skin and his finger circled your clit slowly, you screamed his name, your legs buckled and your entire body squirmed with the sea of sensations your body was feeling and flooding with.

“Cum inside me, please, please,” you panted again, feeling the way your legs started to shake as both of their thrust became erratic and Javier’s finger kept circling around your bundle of nerves you exploded around them, gushing out and soaking them as your orgasm made you scream both their names.

“Mierda, querida, mírate,” Horacio grunted before he gave into the lustfulness of it all and came inside you and around Javier.

Once Javi felt the warmness of Carrillo’s release and the way you soaked both of them and his hand, he locked his hips with yours and spilled himself inside as well, gasping out your name.

“Ohmyfuckinggod,” you let out as a sigh, feeling your legs tremble with the strength of your climax.

The three of you stayed like that, joined, for a while. As your bodies relaxed you finally opened your eyes and saw the way Horacio’s hand was resting on Javier’s shoulder, wrapping you as well between them. Both of them breathing heavily, eyes closed, recovering from whatever the hell you had done was called. You sighed and smiled to yourself. If it weren’t for the four orgasms you had and the way your cunt was throbbing after the abuse and dripping with their seed, you wouldn’t believe it was real at all.

“How was that, cariño?” Javier asked, grazing a hand up and down your arm.

“That was–magnificent,” you gushed, not sure how else to describe that positively euphoric experience, “I think–you two have worn me out.”

Horacio chuckled and moved your head to press a kiss to your forehead, and shifted to allow all three of you to lie somewhat comfortably under the covers. You whined when they pulled out of you, solely because at the loss of them, you felt empty.

“Rest now, querida, we’ll be here in the morning,” he whispered into your hair, and that was all the permission you needed.

“We should–” you brought a hand to your mouth to cover a massive yawn, “–do this again sometime.”

After that, it didn’t take long before you had succumbed to the tempting pull of sleep. Horacio sighed and glanced over your shoulder at Javier, who looked rather worn out himself. Tenderly, Horacio reached over and brushed aside a small strand of hair that had fallen in Javi’s face.

“So, same time next week, then?” Horacio asked, giving Javier a lazy smirk, which was returned in kind.

“Yeah,” Javier mumbled, turning over to drape his arm around your way and bury his face in your neck.

“Absolutely.”

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jq37 · 4 years

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 14

Brennan Says It’s My Turn With The Daddy Issues

So we’re in hell--literally, not emotionally (at least for the moment). We being Fig, Riz, Gilear, the Hangman, and the blood-imp valet that Fig created last week who is ostensibly named Wretchrot but also picks up the nickname Baby this episode because of shenanigans. Wretchrot brings them all to where they’ll be staying, says a bunch of wild stuff in his weird Rita Repulsa voice, and drinks Fig’s blood which is what he is made of. Riz is bullied by the Hangman and misses the other half of his Nerd Squad.

Anyway, Wretchrot takes the group on a little tour of Gorthalax’s stuff starting with the library which includes books that steal souls and also legal texts (redundant). Fig looks for a book on devil dating advice while Riz looks for something on the Hellish legal system On a 17, Fig finds a Manual for Succubi and Incubi about extracting souls via the penis. More helpfully, on a 16, Riz finds out that coups are baked into the ruling system of hell and killing someone to ascend to the throne is pretty par for the course.

Next up is the hall of treasures where there are suits of armor themed to the 7 deadly sins including kinky, gimp, Lust armor they briefly consider equipping either Gilear or Kristen with (Ally breaks at that). There are also these Venitian style masks through which the people who failed to kill Gorthalax to take his place are forced to watch him do his thing.

They pass through a hall of mirrors which they realize is a kind of security system as it shows things as they really are. Wretchrot appears in the mirror as a drop of Fig’s blood. The Hangman appears as a huge puppy!!!! (OK, a hellhound but all canines are puppies). Riz holds up the photo of Kalina to the mirror and, in the mirror, can’t see her in the photo. However, he does she her in the mirror itself. She waves at him and then appears “in person”. Fig doesn’t know this is going on and asks Riz if he’s emotionally OK with the fact that they just whip out the photo of his dead dad on the regular. Riz says it’s fine but he quickly becomes less fine when Kalina asks if he'd like to see his dad. He starts to answer her out loud but she tells him that, by talking out loud, he’s tipped off Fig potentially so he should lose her and then meet her alone. The Hangman guards everyone while Riz and Fig split up, to find stuff to test in front of the mirror. Well, that’s the stated plan anyway.

Back in Arborly, Adaine is getting to check an item off of her Teen Girl Life Experiences checklist: Spilling Tea About Your Friend’s New GF. She gleefully does the whole, “I can’t tell you but I’ll tell you if you guess right,” routine before outright confirming that while crustacean shenanigans were happening in the house Fig and Ayda were sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Everyone in the group goes feral over the news, especially the Gay Squad. She vaguely recalls that Ayda also told her some information about a rune or something but everyone agrees that she retained the most important information.

They decide to call Aguefort about their coins and the rune (Kristen wisely having all the infected people leave the room). Aguefort tells them that the coins that they have comprise Kalvaxus’s hoard but not his original hoard as it has been spent and invested and put into the economy. Classic Ship of Theseus problem (ie: If you have a ship and you start replacing damaged parts of it, by the time you've replaced all the parts, is it even the same ship?). He also reminds them that spending the gold as quickly as possible is a good idea to avoid the dragon madness curse which is on all dragon gold (a weak but very hard to break curse). That prompts Adaine to describe the rune she discovered to him and he tells her basically the same stuff Ayda did last episode. She wonders if dragon madness could be the larger, static curse under which the trojan horse curse (the spellbook) is hiding. Gorgug wants to give all of the gold away and Fabian is not about that life at all.

Back in hell (literally and emotionally now) Riz prepares to meet Kalina. With a 25 Investigation, he finds a sliver of mirror that he can bring with him to keep from being tricked. He’s also mindful of being paralyzed while he’s with Kalina at the edge of a hell cliff so he anchors himself with a rope tied around his waist. Kalina is her usual aloof, darkly charming self when they speak and Riz is pretty flustered, asking if she was his dad’s familiar (no). Kalina says that Riz didn’t really know his dad and the question he isn’t asking but should be is how did his dad meet her in the first place.

She takes him to a little secret passageway which she says goes to a liminal place where he can see between the levels. She gives him the help action to get a good look (which makes Murph extremely nervous) but he only gets an 11 which means all that he sees is a cold, white light coming from the opening. He tries to use his mirror to look inside but on a 13 dex save, his footing is shaky and some rocks fall down the side of the cliff (he’s fine). Kalina says that he’s gonna have to man up and walk down the tunnel if he wants to see what’s going on. She fully reveals that she’s incorporeal and can’t actually touch him to mess with him if that helps at all.

Riz is clearly struggling with the choice but he ultimately decides that he can’t pass up this chance and that he can trust Fig to rescue him if things go south. He leaves her a note and then steps through. Within the tunnel, he can feel things watching him and hear a chittering that’s weirdly somehow coming from him. In front of him is a smoky room lit by a cone of light--think interrogation room in an old detective show. In a chair, covered in blood and shit and tattered clothes is Pok Gukgak, gagged and chained. Riz reaches for him but, as he tries to step forward, he reaches the end of his rope. Someone unseen splashes Pok with water and tells him to “confess” and “tell us what you know.” Riz pulls out his gun--his dad’s gun--to shoot out the light. As he does, a thought comes unbidden: You know what the kind thing to do with that gun would be. That shakes Riz so he lowers the gun and starts to untie himself. He’s stopped by Kalina (speaking in his mind) who tells him that if he steps in the light, he’ll be on another level of hell in the Iron City of Dis for real. Not just looking in. Riz pulls out his mirror shard and confirms that it really is his dad in there being tortured. He leaves the tunnel.

Kalina says that she knows Riz is all hopped up on doing his quest and stopping the Nightmare King but if he just stops, if they all stop, none of his friends will have to die and, bonus, maybe there will be a little rescue mission for his dad in it for him. Riz wants to know if Pok knew what her true nature was and he seems to think he cheated on his mom with her (“I know what happened between you two. I can do the math.” Which seems logistically improbable but OK). She reminds him that Pok was a spy which means it’s naive to think that every thing he did was good and taunts him about his clue hound nature before vanishing.

Riz meets up back with Gilear and Fig and he spills about everything. Gilear wants Riz to have lunch and drink some water before he does anything rash. Fig says that they don’t need Kalina to rescue Pok. They know crazy-person Bill Seacaster who’s also in hell. She lights a beacon to help him find them (if you remember, the Hangman has been attempting to contact him for Fabian). One thing I didn’t mention before is that Fig brought up the idea of temporarily installing herself as the ruler of Gorthalax's section of hell so she’d be a powerful enough devil (or devil-adjacent entity) to get them into Sylvere. Wretchrot said it was probably a no-go since she’s half mortal but, now, on a 29 Riz re-reads his legal book and realizes that Fig wouldn’t actually have to kill Gorthalax to take his place, she just needs to defeat him, which she technically has by putting him in a gem and they put that together almost before Brennan is done narrating. They have a new plan.

The other Bad Kids are discussing what Arianwyn is up to and Gorgug suggests that maybe she’s not actually working with Kalina. Maybe she’s playing along but actually has ulterior motives. Kristen looks at Arianwyn’s notes and on a 24 “Empath Roll” (Brennan converts this Ally-ism to an Insight check) sees that at a certain point, Arianwyn started making leaps in her research that were too lucky and suggest someone was helping her--possibly the entity she was researching. Adaine thinks about calling her mom using Sending or her new Sinod of Spire spell but Ayda calls Adaine and asks if she can come over. Of course she can. She comes with her recently summoned tropical fish familiar in a bubble of water--it has the very Albus Severus name of “Garthy and Adaine the Fish” which Adaine is thrilled about but also suggests shortening to GAF (and also considering reconstituting it into a cuddlier form--though the image of her dumping Boggy into GAF’s bubble is super adorable). Meanwhile, Kristen is thrilled to welcome her to “the family” because being gay is the same as visiting an Olive Garden (this is a shirt now because Ally said it which is too much power to give to Ally). Ayda kinda sucks some of the fun out of teasing her about her relationship with Fig by being extremely forthright about it but Kristen and Adaine brighten at the thought that Fig will be a lot more fun to tease.

But, back to business. Ayda has not slept because she’s been working on getting to Fig. The whole group is like, “Bitch, are you OK?” and give her an ice cream sandwich which is proper Good Friend Protocol if you have them on hand I think. Ayda is super worried about Fig and is just about ready to unmake everything standing between them (Normal lesbian move according to Kristen). They talk her down for the moment in favor of sending Fig a message: Fig you sneaky bitch. Ayda’s here. She wants to invade hell. You good? PS: OOOOOOOOOOOH. PPS: Ask Kalvaxus about dragon madness. Fig completely misses the fact that they know what’s going on with Ayda (you’d think they’d be more in sync which each others’ texting shorthand) and sends back a message saying she hopes they have fun with her but, “not too much fun,” and also that she, “is king” with no further explanation. Wild.

Ayda, who is still super keyed up to get Fig, thinks she can figure out the Planeshift spell but she needs more time to work on the spell which she could get...if they steal her dad’s time stopping pocketwatch. Considering they watched Aguefort grab the sun out of the sky the other day, they’re not super down to have a possibly adverse encounter with the man but they hear her out. While they do that, Gorgug takes his now working phone and just straight up calls the guy, explaining the situation (including Ayda’s involvement) and asking to borrow the watch. Aguefort is a little taken aback by the fact that Ayda would want any kind of contact with him at all because about 300 years back, she told him to never contact her again and that she would leave notes to her future self detailing why, which is why he hasn’t really been in her life. He lets him borrow the watch for a week (after which time it will return to him) and asks him to tell Ayda what they talked about, leaving the door open for a possible future relationship between them. When Gorgug returns with the watch and the news, Ayda breaks a little and reveals she didn’t even know she was that old. Presumably because her notes start about 150 years ago with an apology that her past self wanted a fresh start and destroyed the last several batches of notes. She hates herself for doing that and Kristen gently tries to get her to cool it with the negative self talk. Then, they hit the button on the watch and they have a week to work.

The Wizards work on Planeshift. Fabian and Kristen go to the shrine and Kristen--mirroring her vision from episode 1--sits down to draw the unknown goddess from the mural. Her Spirit Guardians emerge and start to kinda deride her for the sincerity of her action. She in turn decides that she’s done with this wishy-washy “above it all” attitude and dismisses her Spirit Guardians for good (making her, as far as I can tell, the only cleric in Solace with a 100% turnover rate on her Spirit Guardians). She finishes the picture and it feels somehow significant, to her and to Tracker too (who can look at it without wolf-raging out). Gorgug uses the time to “get smarter” which bumps his score from an 8 to a 9 (which has no mechanical implications). Ayda is also working on a side project but she’s keeping it a secret from Adaine.

In hell, the tribunal is called back in session. Fig comes in ready to claim her hell passport and the throne along with it. On a big ol’ 30 persuasion check--and because the law is on her side--Vrath is reluctantly convinced to confer upon Fig the title of arch-devil (via a full lip kiss which is some Poison Ivy bs) The new title comes with an upside pentagram mark on her forehead, full fire immunity (very convenient considering her new constantly on fire gf), and resistance to poison. However, Vraz is about to force the Hangman to stay in hell due to a legal technicality when who walks in but BILL FORKING SEACASTER, who invokes the law of the blade and immediately starts stabbing their way out of there and hustles the group to his ship (Goldenhoard’s reshaped corpse) which was indirectly named by Fig we learned after the thing that would annoy him the most--The Goldenrod.

Bill gives Fig (who is feeling iffy about her archdevil decision) a pep talk before fully signing up for the rescue mission of the dad of his son’s BFF. We also learn that Alastair Ash is interning on Bill’s ship! He’s pretty happy to see Fig and Riz but if he sees Fabian he’s fully gonna kill him. Right around now, the Bad Kids not in hell remember they can talk to the group via the Hangman and check in since the week of stopped time is up. The Hangman is like, “YOU NEED TO COME HELP US RIGHT AWAY!” They (everyone but the HangVan) Planeshift onto the deck of the Goldenrod which is being targeted by monsters and devils commanded by Vraz. Alastair makes good on his threat and starts trying to shank Fabian immediately (which Bill is hilariously blase about). Ayda opens up a portal to the sea and tries to flood Hell from the top down but Fig stops her, saying that they need to get to the second level to save Pok which seems like it will be quite a task with all the monsters Vraz is throwing at them. Luckily, Bill has money for days (and that money is somehow worth something in hell) and has a whole fleet to back them up for our big Hell Pirate Battle next episode!

Detention

Gorgug for Bad Gossip Etiquette

Look, obviously Kalina was the worst person in this episode. Like, duh. But, also, it feels like cheating to punish the Vader of the series for doing something bad. Like, yeah! That’s what she’s supposed to be doing!

So, instead, today’s dubious honor goes to Gorgug for the much less damning but more relatable sin of making his girlfriend aware of tea but not spilling it. Say it all or say nothing!

Honor Roll

Gorgug for Being More Insightful Than His 8 9 Int Would Suggest

Back to back double awards.

Wisdom is not the same as Intelligence and I actually have no idea what Gorgug’s Wisdom score is on paper but he showed a lot of in this episode.

I think he’s been the first person to suggest that whatever’s going on with Arianwyn might not be as cut and dry as it seems and then, of course, he decided to, instead of trying to Ocean’s 11 Aguefort to just slip out and have a quick heart to heart with him. One that affects him surprisingly deeply. And him bringing up his own experiences with no knowing who his birth dad was was just the chef’s kiss on top of it all.

I don’t think Brennan actually intended them to Oceans 11 Aguefort because that would be crazy, but Gorgug is the one who stepped up to solve the problem for the group with a little compassion and I think that more than earns him the spot.

Random Thoughts

Trailer for Season 5 is dropping Thursday so get hyped!

“Are you looking for the Teen Zone of the bottomless pit?”

“The fief of this dom.”

“You’re a little nerd. Tell the cool girl what you know.”

“If I had new parts, where would they go?”

I love Fabian’s confident assertion that Ayda would “love shrimp river”.

Line of the night goes to Ragh for, “Frankly, bringing up the rune in this context is homophobic.” And Adaine’s followup of, “I apologize. As an ally, I’m always learning,” was also great.

I love that the girls instantly understand Fig’s earlier hot tub comment with the new context but the boys are still clueless.

Watching Emily and Murph have their own little side adventure was so great. They are so fun together and they were clearly having a blast.

I wonder if Gorthalax can tell than Fig just got his title. Either via the title itself or his patron status.

Fig bringing up Riz’s dad to be like, “Are you OK?” caught me so off guard and it seems like it caught Riz off guard too. I hadn’t really thought about it but the fact that Fig had is just another example of her being extremely bighearted and doing a bad job of hiding it.

Emily’s impotent “rage” as all the party members loudly gossiped about her and Ayda and she couldn’t do anything about it because she wasn’t in the scene was *golden*.

Kalina leaves Riz so he can watch his dad but, if you think about it, that’s all placebo because she couldn’t do anything to him whether she’s appearing to him or not and she can watch through his eyes regardless anyway so it’s just like, “Do you want me to be visibly watching you or invisibly watching you?”

Does Kalina have, like, a range? Like, if she can literally just see out of the eyes of people that she’s infected, that limits her to a certain cone of vision and range of movement. But it seems like she can appear to a person and move independently around them to some degree, see things they can’t, point things out, and move away from them. How far away? How independent can she be? What are the logistics here?

Also, on the topic of logistics, it seems extremely hard to know someone for as long as Pok knew Kalina and not realize they’re non-corporeal. Like, even if you’re not a touchy person, eventually you’re gonna bump into them (or, in this case, not bump into them).

Man, the dice really hated Murph this week and, honestly, good. His scenes, imo, work so much better if he doesn’t get to Ally his way out of them with a Nat 20. Him being toyed with by Kalina and unsure and lost is the more interesting version of this sequence of events.

I feel like he made some big swings and misses this ep though. Like, asking if she was Pok’s familiar? Why would that have been a thing? I’m surprised he didn’t ask if he was the goddess’s familiar--though I guess they might not want to let on how much they know but bringing up the concept that she’s anyone’s familliar I think is kinda of giving the game away.

“I have a hard time making conversation with my friends, let alone you” Riiiiiiiiiiz.

Kalina brought up Kristen to Riz specifically, which I find interesting. (She also said that Kristen used to worship Sol which isn’t strictly true, she worshiped Helio, but same family and that was likely just a slip of the tongue from Brennan. Just wanted to point it out).

Who does Kalina even work for? Like, it seems like she’s working with the Nightmare King but if she’s the mystery goddess’s familiar like we all think then that’s weird because it doesn’t seem like the NK and mystery goddess are together. Like, a part of me is just dumping everyone antagonistic to the Bad Kids into the same “Bad” bucket in my head but there’s no way all of these people have totally aligned goals.

“Dragon madness 69”

It’s brought up again in this episode that some of Arianwyn’s research was requisitioned by Pok earlier which I want to ascribe significance to but I’m not in a theorizing headspace right now so I’ll just point it out for anyone who does want to play Gukgak.

I’ve been kinda wondering about the logistics of Aguefort and Ayda and how old that dude is but I totally forgot Chronoancy was a factor which I guess indirectly answers any and all questions about that. It also adds some dimension to his character that time travel is a thing that kinda makes you feel unmoored from time, which I think goes some way (though not all of the way) in explaining why he’s so feral. And, speaking of Aguefort insanity, he was also at the party Zelda was at last episode in the form of an owl as the beer pong mascot. Which Gorgug has Thoughts about.

I really really want Adaine to talk to her mom in the Synod of Spires. Have you guys realized that, for as much of a driving force Arianwyn’s been this season, she’s had almost no dialogue? She has talked I think 3 times total in all of FH: During Adaine’s intro, Apologizing to her when Aelwen was arrested, and the Message Adaine found from her last episode. That’s it. We know almost nothing about her. What is her deal? Also, Siobhan just always kills during all of her one-on-one scenes and I’m biased.

Love the return of the Bad Kids being unable to make a phone call and stealing the phone from each other to tag in with their own nonsense.

Wild that Gorgug was able to get through to Aguefort since he has a history of pissing that dude off by saying the wrong (well, “wrong”) thing.

Shoutout to Gilear for being the Designated Dad of the Hell Trip and making sure the kids were eating and stuff. That was a very endearing moment.

Also, while we’re on the topic of Gilear, he also cleared up that Sandra-Lynn never seriously propositioned him in an irresponsible, “Let me give you a Magic STD” kinda way which was something I’d been thinking about so I’m glad he said something (though the kids kinda aren’t even though I think we’re way past the point of TMI here).

“Hiss at her litigator.”

Riz, who Fig is Looking to be the Voice of Reason re: Her Arch-Devil Upgrade: This is super rad.

I’m very curious about whether Brennan fully planned for Fig to decide to take Gorthalax’s place because, on the one hand, my brain didn’t go there at all but, on the other, getting Emily Axford to install someone--possibly herself--into a position of power is like getting Siobhan Thompson to steal a book I feel.

Fig Upon Being Told That Ayda Told Everyone About Them: Fuck.

I feel like Kristen is gonna wish she had her big moment of emotional catharsis AFTER this big hell pirate fight and not before when she can’t summon her Spirit Guardians.

Man, we haven’t gotten a big, enthusiastic, “Papa!” from Fabian in a while have we?

No crits in either direction this episode which is wild considering Fig got a THIRTY at one point.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 spoilers

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newmusickarl · 4 years

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Have neglected my blog for the past week, at a time when there has been a shedload of great new albums and tracks. To cover everything worthwhile from the last two weeks, here is a few short, sharp album recommendations for your weekend’s listening:

Forever Blue by A.A. Williams

Haunting, gothic, and incredibly stunning, singer-songwriter A.A. Williams’ debut album Forever Blue is the perfect showcase for the talented multi-instrumentalist. Both bleak and beautiful, it is a stirring listen that also sees Tom Fleming (of Wild Beasts and One True Pairing fame) lend his vocals to one of the record’s highlights, Melt.

The Glow by DMA’s

Australian indie rockers DMA’s have been threatening their best work to date through the lead singles for their third studio album, The Glow, and now with the record out in the world, they have made good on that promise. Although there are a couple of misfires here (Criminals is…well, criminal) there are also plenty of huge anthems to help cover the cracks, with Silver, Learning Alive, Strangers and Cobracaine some of the best songs they have ever written.

None of Us Are Getting Out of This Alive by The Streets

Nine long years since 2011’s supposed swan song Computer & Blues, Mike Skinner has resurrected The Streets for the outfit’s first mixtape. Although the record is not quite up there with their best work, the excellent production and collaborations with Tame Impala, Ms Banks and Idles make this still well worth checking out.

Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave by Love Fame Tragedy

The chances are if you like The Wombats, you will be a fan of frontman Matthew Murphy’s debut solo album under the Love Fame Tragedy guise. Across the record’s 17 tracks, Murph presents his signature mix of indie pop sensibilities and witty, self-damning lyricism, however many of the tracks here are as good, if not better than his output with The Wombats. Not since 2011’s This Modern Glitch has Murph got in touch with his darker, edgier side like he does on tracks like 5150, Backflip and Everything Affects Me Now.

One Takes Vol. 1 by Nothing, Nowhere

Emo prodigy Joe Mulherin, better known as nothing, nowhere, has spent lockdown recording stripped back live versions of some of the best cuts from his back catalogue. Now brought together on One Takes Vol. 1, this collection highlights what a stunning talent Joe is, with songs like cherry red, wooden home and clarity in kerosene never sounding better. There is even a glorious cover of American Football’s classic never meant slipped in at the end.

Legends Never Die by Juice WRLD

Posthumous albums can sometimes be tricky, with the real motives behind their release often questioned. However, with Juice WRLD leaving behind a trove of hidden treasures, it does seem the effort has been made here to deliver an album that acts as a fitting testament to the legacy he leaves behind. Although it is understandably a heart-breaking listen, the main takeaway is just what a special artist Juice WRLD was prior to his tragic passing at the end of the 2019, and how his music will now live on. At 21 tracks long the album does not overstay its welcome either, with the likes of Halsey and Marshmello also lending their talents whilst still letting Juice WRLD shine the brightest.

#juice wrld #marshmello #come and go #legends never die #nothing nowhere #one takes vol. 1 #the wombats #murph #love fame tragedy #mike skinner #the streets #dmas #the glow #a.a. williams #forever blue #new music #best new music

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kindofchaoticgood · 6 years

Text

Til the Storm Comes and the World is Quiet - Chapter 5

Ariel, Queen of Seaside, former princess of Atlantica, is curled up on a couch and reading a story to her children before she receives the call.

Callie and Storm are sandwiching her, their heads pillowed on her sides. Storm is trying valiantly not to fall asleep, but he keeps nodding off, and then awakening with a start. Callie is also fighting a losing battle with sleep; her sandy eyelashes are fluttering over her cheeks.

Melody is pretending not to listen, but Ariel can clearly see that her phone screen has long gone blank. Moana is making no such pretensions; the girl from Motunui is listening with an enraptured expression. She has never heard the mainland fairy tales, and treasures each story that she hears each night. Once, when Melody had tried to pull her away to go watch a movie, Moana had waved her off and insisted, “Melody, these stories are wonderful! I don't care if they're for little kids, I’m staying!”

Melody had protested, but Moana refused to budge, and Melody had at first gone off on her own, but eventually came back, setting herself down on a chair with a sulky scowl. Callie had flung herself into her older sister’s lap while Moana and Ariel exchanged amused glances.

Eric is usually there for story time as well, but tonight is his meeting with the leaders from Maldonia and Dunbroch. Technically, this is his night to read to the children, but she's happy to take over for him. King Fergus is notoriously heavy-handed with the ale, and Naveen and Eric get along like a house on fire, so it's going to be the early hours of dawn before her husband makes his way home.

The room is quiet, save for the sound of Flounder’s aquarium buzzing in the corner and Ariel's voice, until her phone starts playing the theme from Hamilton.

Storm mumbles a complaint against her side, and she pats him absently on the head as she reaches for her phone and checks the number on sees Jasmine’s name flit across the screen. She wouldn’t call this late unless it was important, Ariel thinks, sliding the Call button. “Hello?”

“Turn on the television,” Jasmine’s voice is tense. “And after you’re done, come to Agrabah. We’re convening an emergency meeting of the Council.”

“Jaz,” Ariel says, alarmed. “What’s going—”

“Watch first,” Jasmine orders, then hangs up.

“Mom?” Melody is standing now, and Moana has half-risen out of her chair as well, a worried look on her face. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not really sure,” Ariel confesses, reaching for the remote on the coffee table and switching the television on. Snow White’s face fills the screen for a moment right before a video starts to play.

As the video goes on, Melody flinches when the guards and the children start to fight, and Moana looks horror-stricken when the Auradonians point their guns at the two boys. Ariel only stares at the screen, but her hands are covering the eyes of her children, who are starting to squirm around in complaint.

When the video ends and the news feed comes back on, Moana blinks hard, and tears fall down her cheeks. “What was that—” she begins, but her voice breaks halfway through.

Ariel is already on her feet, and her mind is racing a thousand miles. Part of her wants nothing more than to bundle up all of her children and stash them away from the world forever, but the bigger part is telling her to keep it together, because she has two very young children in the room and one very traumatized girl to take care of. “Mel, I need you to take Callie and Storm to your room. Try to get them to sleep, but if they don’t, then just have Carlotta look after them. I need you and Moana to try and find Eric right now, he’s probably already heard about this, and we need to figure out what our statement is going to be. Take Sebastian with you, he’ll have some input in this as well—”

“Don’t I need to attend the Council meeting as well?” Moana asks thickly, wiping her eyes. “As the representative of the Islands—”

“No,” Ariel says firmly, walking over to her as Melody starts to lead Callie and Storm out of the room. “You need to have Carlotta make you a hot chocolate and cuddle with your pig for a while. I’m not going to let you go to the meeting when you’ve just seen - that.”

“I’m fine,” Moana protests. “I - I was just shocked, that's all. I'm fine now-”

“No, you're not,” Ariel counters. “You just saw a room full of children being threatened with guns. No one is fine.”

Moana’s eyes, usually so bright and full of life, look absolutely shattered, and Ariel hates that, hates how the girl’s worldview has just been shattered by that act of cruelty. She wraps her arms around her, and feels Moana's frame shake under her. It saddens her, but mostly enrages her, because how dare Adam and Belle let this happen in their kingdom?

“Listen to me,” Ariel says quietly, pulling back slightly to look Moana in the eye. “Your parents appointed me your guardian while you tour the Realms, and as your guardian, I’m telling you to stay here until we figure out what's going on in Auradon.”

I refuse to put her in danger.

Moana sighs shakily and disentangles herself from Ariel. “Do you think there's any chance that it could be a mistake?”

Once upon a time, Ariel would have said yes without hesitation. She would have defended Belle and insisted that she would never let something like this happen. But she hasn’t spoken to Belle in two years, and she is no longer the naive little mermaid who believed the best in people.

“Absolutely not.”

*****

When the car screeches to a halt, Uma is up and out of the car before Marya and Gonzo even have a chance to process that the car has stopped moving.

I cannot believe that I cried like a little dick in front of them. What the hell is wrong with me?

Her skin feels itchy and too hot for her body; she isn't entirely sure if those Auradon bastards poisoned her or not with that stupid milkshake, but she wouldn’t put it past them. She's sure Ben has had an entire team of lawyers interrogate him about the exact wording of his vow to find all the loopholes. After all, if she is poisoned, it wouldn't have been Ben harming her, it would have been Melendez.

Uma grits her teeth and storms through the doors to the Chip Shoppe, Marya and Gonzo lugging the limo’s entire supply of food behind her. (Note to self, she is a dick for not helping.)

As soon as she steps through the doors though, an eggplant-colored tentacle wraps around her throat and lifts her into the air, cutting off her air supply.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Ursula snarls from the floor, taking a swig out of her ever-present cough syrup bottle. Her other tentacles are writhing dangerously and her eyes promise absolute murder.

But Uma just rolls her eyes, and pries a few suckers from her throat so she can talk. “Hello, Mother.”

“Don’t fucking try to change the subject with me, you little slut,” Her mother slurs the last three words, so they come out more like yalitleschlut. “I asked you a fucking question. Where have you been?”

Instead of answering, Uma casts her eyes around the room. Her mother must have opened up anyways, despite the fact that she sent Cook home today and had the closed sign up. Luckily, there aren't many people, only a few people at the tables and one over at the bar/counter area.

Thankfully the kids seem to be gone; Desiree and Murph must have taken them outside once her mother made an appearance. Ursula isn't exactly above strangling a child who isn't quick enough to get out of her way, and she especially hates her nieces, who make up the bulk of the children that hang around the Chip Shoppe at any given time.

Her crew is scattered around the room; Ashe and Claudine are in the middle of serving customers, all of whom look terrified, which means that Ashe must have shouted them into submission. Jonas and Reggie - what the fuck is Reggie doing here? She told him to go home and look after his brothers - are behind the counter, pretending that they know how to cook. Sierra is casually covering the sword check with her body while Gil and Bonnie are sweeping up the floor. Bonnie is handling the broom while Gil tries to sweep up the dust, but he keeps on sneezing and scattering dust everywhere again. Marya and Gonzo are quietly edging along the wall, trying not to draw attention to them or the large amount of food that they're carrying. Everyone is studiously avoiding looking at her or her mother.

Except for Harry, who is outright glaring at Ursula, despite the purple-black bruises forming on the left side of his face. And from her current position in the air, she can clearly see bright red sucker marks around his throat.

Blood roars in Uma's ears, but she forces herself to remain calm, because losing her temper will just make things worse, and she really doesn't have the fucking time to get into a screaming match with her mother right now, she needs to turn on the television and see if her plan is working. At the same time though, part of her is screaming for her to grab the knife in her boot and fillet the bitch. (She's never claimed to be rational when it comes to Harry.)

“School,” Uma lies coolly, making sure not to move too much. Her mother's grip is tight, but Uma knows that Ursula doesn't give a damn about dropping her.

“School,” Ursula repeats, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “That's interesting, considering today is Sunday.”

Fuck, the one time she looks at a goddamn calendar!

“Is it?” Uma asks, trying to keep her tone bored. “Well then, I guess that's why it was closed.”

“Maddy Mim mentioned that she saw you over by Yen Sid’s house,” her mother accuses, cinching her tentacles tighter in an unspoken threat.

From the corner of her eye, Uma catches a glimpse of purple hair and sees Morwenna Mim curled under a table. She jerks her foot discreetly and the younger girl looks up at her, revealing a cut lip, which stretches out as she grimaces at Uma. Uma closes her eyes, irritated beyond all belief because fucking Maddy Mim just doesn't know when to stop, does she?

She’s let Maddy live for this long because her grandmother is still a scary motherfucker, despite being a thousand years old, but Maddy just keeps on coming back like a V.D. Claudine and Morwenna still haven't given her permission to kill Maddy yet, and while Uma respects Claudine's views and the fact that Maddy is Morwenna’s sister, she's just going to have to kill her at this point. Not just for Claudine's sake, but for Morwenna's. Every time the younger girl comes back with a new scrape or bruise, Uma has to restrain herself from telling Harry to bring her Maddy's head.

“Come on Mama,” she croaks out instead, letting a smirk drift across her face. “Are you seriously gonna listen to a Mim instead of your own daughter?”

There is dead silence in the Chip Shoppe as Ursula’s bloodshot eyes run over her, and Uma can practically see her mother weighing whether it’s worth it to press this further. Her mother doesn’t have a particularly long attention span, and she knows for a fact that that tent dress she’s wearing is new, so Ursula probably doesn’t want to wash blood out of it just yet. She meets her mother’s gaze evenly, willing her body to exude indifference.

After what seems like an age, Ursula unwinds her tentacles from around Uma’s body and unceremoniously dumps her on the floor. But Uma has had a lot of practice falling by now, so she mostly manages to take the brunt of the impact on her side before rolling up and drawling, “Thanks.”

“Get to work,” her mother commands, tone surly as she heads towards the door. “I don’t want to see your face again until morning. Do not even think about closing up, I will find out and I promise you, you will regret it.”

With that lovely parting remark, Ursula slithers outside and Uma lets out a heavy sigh, briefly putting her head down to try and control her expression before standing up and yelling.

“Alright, bitches, show’s over! Get out now, and I’ll let you keep your wallets.”

“But your mom said you couldn’t close!” Kellan Stabbington protests, his red-haired cohorts grunting in agreement.

Uma rolls her eyes and pulls her pistol out of her left boot, firing two shots into the wall behind Kellan’s head. “Do I look like I care?”

Luckily, the other customers quickly take the hint and exit quickly, but Kellan still looks like he wants to say something stupid. After a dark look from Harry, he realizes that he’s severely outnumbered and strides out of the Chip Shoppe huffily, not noticing Morwenna quietly snatch his wallet.

Uma stashes the pistol back in her boot. “I told you to stay home,” she snaps at Reggie, who has the gall to look unashamed.

“Jonas told me your plan,” he says, grin crinkling the freckles on his face. “Are we really going to Auradon, boss?”

“If we get our shit together, yeah,” Uma mutters, then says loudly. “Move your asses, people! Jonas, stop cooking and go get Desiree and the kids back. Reggie, Sierra, I need you to make a list of kids on the Isle including our crew. Marya and Gonzo can split the food up among all of you. Gil, turn on television and start taking notes on what's happening. I want a full report by the time I get back.”

“Where’re you going?” Gil asks, already looking alarmed at the prospect of responsibility.

“To set myself on fire,” Uma growls. Now that her mother's gone, she can acutely feel where the sweat has dried on her clothes and she's either about to cry again or scream if she stays here any longer. “I smell like a do-gooder.” She starts to head up the stairs to the flat above the Chip Shoppe, then pauses to yell over her shoulder as she catches sight of Harry helping Morwenna up from under the table. “And can someone get those two some medical attention?!”

Harry makes a move to follow Uma as she storms away, but Marya blocks his path. “I wouldn't do that right now,” the fire-haired girl warns. “She's been in a mood since Auradon.”

“She's always in a mood,” Harry retorts, trying to push Marya aside, as Bonnie grabs his arm and forces him into a chair.

“This time it's different,” Marya replies uneasily. “She . . . Threw up on the way back.”

Harry's gaze snaps up to hers. “Was it on . . . ?”

“I don't think it was on purpose,” Marya says quickly, and Harry looks like a giant weight has been lifted off his shoulders. “She mentioned the other day that she was seven months without an incident and seemed really proud. I don't think if she was that happy about it she would you know . . . Fuck it up.”

Harry considers all of this as Bonnie shows up with an ice pack and presses it firmly to his face. “Motherfucker,” he finally mutters, glaring at the floor.

“Did she eat anything?” Bonnie asks, handing the ice pack to Harry and starting to examine Morwenna's face.

A look of panic came over Marya's face. “I can't actually remember,” she confesses sheepishly.

Harry groans and Morwenna rolls her eyes. “Some help you are,” the younger girl snipes.

“She may have had a fight with Evie or something,” Gonzo says, walking over and handing Morwenna a large bag of gummy worms, which she tears into instantly. “When I came in to get her, the windows were shattered.”

“What the fuck?” Bonnie twists her head to stare at Gonzo, still trying to force a struggling Morwenna to stay still.

“Yeah, but here's the thing: Uma's hands weren't bloody and neither were Evie's. So I have no idea what the fuck happened-”

“Gil, stop flirting with Claudine and turn on the goddamn TV when I tell you to!” Uma descends down the steps like a storm, already having changed into an oversized flannel shirt that clearly belongs to Harry and leggings. Her hair is pulled up, and there is a thunderous scowl on her face.

Claudine blushes furiously and starts playing with her hair, while Gil turns bright red and mumbles something about how he wasn't flirting, Uma, God, and goes over to the television to turn it on.

The dim clamor in the room slowly stops as an image of Jonas with his hands up fills the screen.

*****

Ariel manages to catch a last-minute portal to Agrabah after sending a series of quick texts to Eric to warn him about Melody and Co. 's impending arrival as well as an explanation about where she's going. As she steps through the portal door, her heart is hammering wildly in her chest and her skin feels feverish. Portal traveling is the absolute worst generally, but after what she's just seen? So much worse.

The Portal opens out to an ornately decorated hallway and Ariel has to blink a few times to adjust her eyes to the sheen of the gold surrounding her. Jasmine obviously sent a servant to go get her, because there is a young woman in front of her with an earpiece and a harried expression.

“Queen Ariel?” She asks desperately, fiddling with the stack of bracelets on her arm.

“That's me,” Ariel replies politely, trying not to make any sudden movements. The woman seems like she might burst into tears at any moment, and Ariel doesn't want to startle her.

“Right this way,” the woman takes off at a clip down the hallway, and Ariel hurries after her, silently cursing herself for not changing out of her heels earlier.

“They're in here,” the woman points at the door and Ariel walks in, bracing herself for anything.

There are several televisions clustered on one wall, all blaring at full volume but broadcasting different channels. Unlike the gold splendor of the hallway, the walls in here are painted a simple cucumber color, with comfortable armchairs and a sofa scattered on top of a creamy carpet. A white desk with two large computer monitors crouching on it and two matching cabinets next to it are facing the same wall as the televisions, along with a high-backed chair. There is a hallway leading out to a small kitchenette, and through it, Ariel can see Tiana furiously slamming dough on a board, flour sticking to her curls.

Jasmine is pacing around the room, her cerulean hijab whirling wildly. She's muttering angrily under her breath in Persian, arms gesturing wildly in a silent argument with an invisible foe. Ella is leaning against a wall, focusing intently in the centermost television, face drawn. Pocahontas is sitting next to Aurora, one hand resting protectively on her bump while the other holds Aurora close to her. There are tear tracks down Aurora’s face and her phone is clenched in a white-knuckle grip in her hands.

“Welcome to hell!” Jasmine exclaims once she catches sight of Ariel. “Don't linger in the doorway, come in and suffer with the rest of us!”

“What's going on?” Ariel asks cautiously, entering the room and sitting on an armchair.

“Adam and Belle arrived in Auradon just now, but my father still refuses to let me give a statement to the press until 'we have all the facts’. What the hell is that supposed to mean? There’s a video, we know what happened,” Jasmine’s voice is rising and she looks about ready to kill someone. “Al’s on the phone with the Prime Minister right now, they’re trying to convince my dad to let me give a statement. I had to leave the room, I was about to start throwing things if I heard Dad say ‘give them a chance to explain’ one more time.”

Ariel winces. “I’m sorry, Jaz.”

“Whatever, I’m over it,” Jasmine strides over to the desk and presses a side button, making a vanity mirror rise up from the middle, along with a selection of makeup. She unscrews a bottle of eyeliner and continues. “I’m going to give the statement even if Al and the PM can’t convince him. It’s just a matter of how angry he’ll be at this point.” Her hand moves the brush steadily across her eyelids, movements precise even though she is clearly agitated.

Ella sighs. “At least you can do something. My father-in-law and Rory’s parents are refusing to do anything.”

“What?” Ariel turns, horror stricken, towards Aurora, who lets out a sob against Pocahontas’s shoulder. “Why?”

“Because he’s an awful human being who cares more about keeping the trade agreement between Montcavrel and Auradon alive than about children almost getting shot,” Ella snaps out, fingers fiddling with the large diamond solitaire on her ring finger. “Kit got into a shouting match with him, and they were still arguing when I left. Meanwhile, Rory’s parents are insisting that everything is fine and that this is all propaganda.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Pocahontas calls out grumpily, still stroking Rory’s hair.

“Believe me, I know,” Ella sighs, sharing a commiserating look with Ariel.

Rory looks up, eyes full of tears. “Those kids are so young, and they look so scared . . . and I know it’s stupid, but every time I see them, I just think that it could have been Audrey being shot at . . .”

“No one would dare lay a finger on Audrey, Rory,” Jasmine says quietly, turning around in her chair to face the room. “She’s royalty.”

“I know, Jaz, but I’ve been calling her nonstop and she isn’t picking up her phone. Her phone is practically attached to her hand, why isn’t she answering?” Rory asks, tears starting to slip into her voice again.

Jasmine has nothing to say to that and an uneasy silence falls over the room for a few minutes until Tiana appears from the kitchenette, two plates of beignets in her hands.

“You know,” she says quietly, eyes fixed on the screen. “I can't help thinking that this is our fault,”

“We couldn't have known that this was going to happen,” Ella protests, but her tone is half-hearted.

“Didn’t we though?” Tiana asks, her voice distant. “After what happened with Ursula, we knew that they were capable of sentencing innocent children to die.”

She looks away from the televisions, tears falling down her face.

“Face it,” Tiana murmurs bitterly. “We knew that this was coming, but instead of doing anything about it, we just sat by and pretended that nothing was wrong.” Her voice is breaking, but her tone is freezing. “And now, because we did nothing, children are getting shot at.”

Abruptly, she places the plates on a coffee table and heads back to the kitchenette, the door slamming shut behind her.

*****

In a rare stroke of luck, Uma's mother hasn't come back and fucked up all of her schemes, so she and the rest of the crew are able to work, undisturbed. Reggie, Gonzo, and Murph are talking in low voices in a corner, drawing a crude map of the Isle in preparation to leave once Claudine finishes the list of people to come to Auradon.

“Damn Auradonians,” Ashe grumbles, scowling as she examines the smears of ink across her left hand. “We’re doing their job and they don't even give a damn about us.”

“I can't believe they didn't know that the kids were dead,” Sierra whispers, glancing around to make sure that her sister and Uma's cousins aren't paying attention to her. “I knew they didn't care about us but - goddamn.”

Uma shrugs, shifting Lala (one of the aforementioned cousins, currently playing with a tattered stuffed animal) in her lap. “When she told me she didn't know, I honestly didn't know if it was better or worse.”

“Worse,” Ashe and Harry say in unison, Jonas nodding in agreement.

“There's no use in cursing them out now,” Claudine studies the list on top of the table, absently doodling on a corner. “We just need to focus on getting as many people out as possible.”

There is a murmur of agreement about the table, but Harry still looks like he wants to argue with someone, so Uma quickly yells over to Gil, “What's happening in Auradon?”

“They aren't letting the press in,” he calls back, stuffing his face with fried rice and eggs. “Also, they mentioned something about the King not giving a statement yet,”

“Fu- I mean, figures,” Uma manages to catch herself after Lala looks up at her curiously. “They're probably still trying to figure out a way to play this off.”

“Bitches,” Ashe mutters, then lets out a startled yell when Jonas jabs an elbow into her side. “What fucking gives?”

“Ashe said a swear word! She owes us candy!” Lala announces to her two-year old sister, Talea, who glances up for a moment, before continuing to play with the buttons on Harry’s jacket.

“What have I told you about swearing in front of my sisters?” Jonas hisses at Ashe, who scowls at him unrepentantly.

“By that age, kids have seen orgies—”

“Screw you—”

“Can we please focus?” Sierra cuts in, but then Desiree appears at the table, holding a wailing baby and looking harried beyond all belief.

“It's your turn to take Poppy,” she shoves the baby unceremoniously into Jonas's arms as he lets out a noise of protest.

“I'm busy!”

“I don't care! We agreed this morning, I would take her during the day, and you take her at night. And wow, look at that, IT'S NIGHT. So you will take your baby sister Jonas, because I am going to make up for all the sleep I wasn't able to get last night.” With that, Desiree storms upstairs, the stairs creaking in displeasure.

“So who has suggestions for names to add to the list?” Claudine asks, raising her voice to be heard over Poppy's crying.

“Rick Ratcliffe,” Jonas suggests, standing up from the table and starting to walk around, pillowing Poppy's head on his shoulder.

Uma wrinkles her nose. “Isn't his dad a racist?”

“Yeah, but I don't think he's about that ‘whiter than thou’ stuff that his dad's always going on about. I mean, he looked embarrassed when his dad accused me of being a drug-selling negro trying to corrupt his son,” Jonas says nonchalantly, whispering something soothing to Poppy.

“Jesus,” Harry says disgustedly.

“To be fair though, I was in the middle of selling him some weed, so I see where he was coming from.”

Claudine carefully pens in Rick Ratcliffe's name. “Anyone else?”

“That we don't hate and isn't already either related to us or in the crew already?” Sierra asks sardonically, then turns serious. “I think we got everyone. I mean, we even asked the kids for names, and they listed out everyone they had ever met.”

At that moment, Jia, Sierra's little sister, chose that moment to wander up to the table and pout at her sister. “Si-Si, I’m hungry.”

“Go ask Bonnie or Marya for more food.”

“They already gave it to people.”

“Then that's tough, little sister,”

“You can have my food,” Uma offers, pushing her bowl of broth towards Jia.

“No,” Harry says instantly while Ashe shoves Uma's bowl back towards her and Claudine shoots her a quelling look.

“That won't be necessary,” Sierra says quickly. “Jia, we don't have any food. Just go steal Talon’s food or something.”

As soon as Jia heads over to her brother, Harry rounds on Uma. “Stop doing that,” he accuses, somehow managing to look intimidating, even with a two year old on his lap.

Uma looks immensely frustrated. “Come on, there is no way that I am going to be able to eat all of this—”

“I don't care,” Harry cuts her off. “Stop trying to get rid of your food.”

“And stop trying to pawn it off on the kids,” Sierra adds, scowling at Uma.

“Are you saying that they don't need to eat?”

“I'm saying that you need to eat, because we need you alive, Uma Triskelion, so pick up the damn spoon and eat your broth.”

There's a dark look on Uma's face, the one she gets right before she verbally destroys someone, so Claudine intervenes. “Just a few more spoonfuls, that's all we’re asking.”

For a few seconds it seems like Uma isn't going to do anything, but then she reluctantly sips a spoonful of broth, making a face at all of them. “Happy?”

“Ecstatic,” Ashe says dryly. “Girl, you can't be mad at us for wanting you to eat—”

“Holy shit - Uma!” Gil vaults over the table and starts frantically turning up the volume on the television. “The press just broke through the gates!”

****

The text messages from her mother and father say basically the same thing. Stay put. Comply with everything they tell you to do. We're handling this.

Lonnie has never been one for just sitting down and letting things just happen without her say. When Ben had been kidnapped, she had insisted on going with Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to rescue him, and when it seemed like Agrabah and China were about to come to blows over their trading outposts, she had been the one to initiate diplomacy.

But she has no idea how to even begin handling this.

King Adam and Queen Belle - sorry, former King and Queen - had showed up, stone faced, to Auradon an hour ago. Fairy Godmother had rushed up and the three of them had had a hushed discussion before Adam had thrown up his hands and yelled, “I don't care, Verity! Just handle it!” He had then stormed off in the direction of the Royal Offices, but not before curtly ordering Lumiere that nobody was to disturb them. When Evie had tried to follow them, Belle had gently told her to go stay with the students, before following her husband, skirt swishing on the floor.

Fairy Godmother had stared after them for a few minutes, before visibly gaining her composure and announcing gravely that all students were to go inside the common rooms and wait inside until further notice. She suggested that they all text their parents that they were safe, but that they wouldn't be able to contact them anytime soon because effective immediately, Auradon Prep was on lockdown.

This had drawn gasps and people had started demanding answers, but they received none. Instead, all of the students had been ushered into common rooms by grade, and the doors had been locked securely behind them.

After the doors had been closed behind them, Jay instantly tried to open them again, and then cursed when they didn't budge. He had been dragged over to a couch to sit down by Carlos and the two of them and Evie had entered into a hissed conversation, occasionally gesturing at the doors. Jane sat by them, listening and occasionally whispering something as well.

Strangely enough, only a few other people seemed to find the lockdown odd. In a corner, Audrey, Jordan, Ally, and a group of other girls were painting their nails and gossiping about the new coach of the swim team - “He’s so dreamy!” “I know!” - while Chad was telling anyone who would listen that this way, they were guaranteed a night off from homework. All around Lonnie, people were pulling out decks of cards or just leaning against the walls and chatting. No one seemed the least bit concerned.

But all of that had changed once Mal walked through the doors, looking absolutely shell-shocked.

“M?” Evie stood up and rushed towards her best friend. “What’s going on?”

The purple-haired girl seemed to be in a bit of a trance though. It took Evie repeating her name three times for Mal’s eyes to focus on the room, and Lonnie noticed that there was nervous, prickly energy all around her.

“I - it’s bad, E,” Mal said haltingly, eyes darting around at everyone. “It’s really bad, and I don’t think anyone knows what to do—”

“What’s bad?” Jay was standing now, and Carlos was half-risen from his seat as well. “What’s going on, Mal?”

“Turn on the TV,” Mal said faintly, sinking into a chair. “It doesn’t matter what channel - the video is everywhere at this point.”

Carlos had switched on the television, and nothing had been the same after that.

No one is playing cards anymore; the cards are lying abandoned on the floor, while the participants, stare at the TV, their faces pale. Chad is no longer laughing; he had actually snapped at someone to shut up when they had dared to suggest that they turn the television off and do something else. Carlos looks sick to his stomach, and Jay looks queasy as well. Evie and Mal are having a whisper-fight in the corner of the couch, and Mal is shaking her head obstinately at what Evie is saying. Ally and Jordan are having a hushed conversation that Lonnie can only hear snatches of, (she heard the words ‘highly illegal’ and ‘racial profiling’ being used by Jordan though,) and Doug is furiously scribbling notes on what the news reporters were saying. Audrey is staring at a wall, her face utterly blank. When she had tried to answer her mother’s calls, her cell signal had failed, and that was when they had all realized that all communications in and out of the castle were blocked until the lockdown was over.

“We can see what’s happening, but we can’t send or do anything,” Doug muses grimly, flinching when the camera zooms in on the children being backed to the wall by guns.

“They can’t just keep us in here,” Lonnie declares, because, well, they can’t, right?

Doug looks unconvinced. “I have a feeling that they would disagree.”

“My mom’s not answering any of my texts,” Jane says worriedly, holding up her phone. “I have no idea when we’re going to be let out of lockdown.”

“That’s just—” Jay begins, but they don’t get to find out what it is, because someone says, “Hey Lonnie, isn’t that your mom up there?”

Lonnie whips her head so fast towards the television that her neck cracks uncomfortably, but sure enough, it’s her mother onscreen, looking utterly cool and collected in her black suit and her jet-colored hair in a high ponytail.

“When did they let the press in?” Chad demands, looking furious. “They’re keeping us prisoner in here while the paparazzi fawns over them?”

“I wouldn’t say they’re fawning over them, Chad,” Jane says slowly as reporters rush up to Mulan, who is currently walking down a hallway.

“Fa Mulan! Fa Mulan! Can we get a comment on the shocking video that was just released?” One lady asks, thrusting her microphone into Mulan’s face and nearly smearing her red lipstick everywhere.

“Some people are calling this a racial matter. Do you think that’s true, or does this purely have to do with them being villains?”

“What do the king have to say about this, and as Consul General, how does that affect your point of view on the matter?”

Lonnie watches, as her mother leans into the microphone, her voice calm and reasonable. “I think the video was appalling. No child deserves to have a gun pointed at them, whether or not their parents are villains.”

“People are saying that the children refused to comply—?”

“Even if the children didn’t comply, those guards still had a choice of whether or not to use violence to deal with the situation. The guards are adults, and they should have known better than to ever point a loaded firearm at children who can barely walk. I think that the bigger picture is that we have guards that have no qualms about shooting children due to who their parents are, but at the same time, I do think that race has a factor in all of this, and that is a very troubling thought for me, especially since I have two kids of my own.”

Lonnie feels her mouth quirk up, and her mother continues. “As for how the king’s opinion on the matter and how that affects my opinion as Consul General . . . well, as of five minutes ago, I just resigned from my position, and therefore, the king’s opinion has no bearing on my own.”

Mulan gives the press a tight smile and says, “No further comment,” before continuing to walk down the hallway, the reporters chasing after her and demanding for clarifications on her resignation.

Evie's mouth is in a perfect 'O’, Jay is staring between her and the TV,between her and the TV, dark hair whipping back and forth, and Jane’s eyes are the size of dinner plates. Audrey has stopped staring at the wall, Chad is gaping at her, and Mal looks frustrated beyond all possible belief.

Lonnie smiles uncomfortably at all of them, not used to being the least surprised person in the room. “Does anyone want to play poker?”

*****

“Oh my God,” Claudine whispers. “Did that really just . . .?”

“It did,” Gonzo confirms, though he looks like he can’t quite believe it.

“What an icon,” Ashe says, her eyes wide.

“Sierra? Are you okay?”

Uma glances over. Sierra is staring at the television, hazel eyes unfocused. She’s muttering something under her breath and her face is unreadable.

“Sierra?” Bonnie repeats, her tone starting to get concerned.

Sierra lets out a long groan. “How the fuck am I supposed to live up to that?”

“ . . . What?”

“Come on! Fa Mulan just gave up her job for us! All of my life, my father has told me; ‘Remember, Shaoyen, it is no use being like me. I was defeated. Instead, be like the girl who outsmarted me. If you can be like her, then I can die a happy man’. Well, I can’t be like Fa Mulan, because she is too much of a damn legend. Do you see my problem?”

“No, not really.”

“Sierra, none of us speak to our parents anymore,” Harry reminds her, rolling his eyes.

“Shut the fuck up, my life is over,” Sierra moans, collapsing on a chair and burying her head in her hands.

Gil and Ashe shrug at each other, bewildered, but go back to paying attention to the television.

Uma leans back in her throne and surveys the room. The Chip Shoppe is filled to the brim with people now, some of them sitting at tables, some leaning against the wall, and the little kids are running around gleefully. Gonzo is teaching Morwenna how to clean her blade properly, while Murph is chasing his son around, trying to convince him to go to bed. Her cousin Piper is comparing knife sizes with Sierra's brother Talon, (ha, that's gay) and Bonnie and Desiree are fussing over Jonas's hair. Meanwhile, Harry has his makeshift tattoo parlor set up on the longest table, and is carefully tattooing anchors on their brand-new crew members. Rick Ratcliffe has challenged Nia to an armwrestling contest, but judging by Nia’s sneer and the amount of sweat pouring off his face, he’s regretting this decision. However, Nia’s sister Allegra is eyeing Rick with great interest, so maybe the night won't turn out so bad for Rick after all.

She herself is on Poppy duty; the baby is finally asleep, no thanks to Jonas, who kept yelling at his other sisters and waking up an increasingly cranky Poppy. Finally, Jonas had passed Poppy onto her, and after a few minutes on her shoulder and no yelling, the baby had fallen asleep.

Harry finishes up a tattoo on La Foux Deux, and the smaller boy thanks him before scampering off to try and flirt with an uninterested Ashe.

Uma carefully makes her way over to him, careful not to jostle Poppy too much. The bruising on his face has gone down, but his face is an interesting mix of purple and green. His jacket is off, revealing bandages on his right arm. When she had demanded to know what had happened, he simply told her that he had gotten a tattoo sleeve, nothing to freak out about. She believes him, but she knows exactly what happened to his face.

“You have to stop doing this,” she orders, sitting down across from him.

Harry gives her an innocent look. “I don't know what you mean, darling.”

“I thought I told you to stay out of my mother's way. She already hates your guts, and seeing you just makes her even more pissed off.”

He gives her an unimpressed look. “I'm not staying away from you just because your mum has anger issues.”

Uma scowls at him. “It also doesn't help that you keep on antagonizing her every time you see her,” she gestures to his face.

“Alright, this time it wasn't my fault. She was the one who threw me into a wall first.”

“I don't care,” Uma snaps. “I can't worry about you getting hurt by my mother. There's too much at stake here for me to get distracted.”

A slow grin plays across his face. “If I didn't know any better, I would say that you cared what happened to me,”

“I'm serious.” The lack of mirth in her tone makes the smile tilt off his face. “We have a real shot at getting into Auradon. For the first time, the cards are in our favor. And I need all hands on deck, especially you. I can't always be here, so I need you to look after them.”

Harry nods, eyes fixed on her. “I know, love. I won't let you down.” The conviction in his voice is real, and she feels calmer as she reaches across the table to take his hand.

“Good.”

*****

“I do not care if they are villain children, they have rights, same as every other citizen of Auradon,” Jasmine hisses at King Hubert, fighting to keep her voice level. On his other side, Snow White is fighting a smile and the Auradon News Network anchors are exchanging baffled glances, wondering how the conversation got so off the rails.

“Go off, Jasmine,” Pocahontas beams at the television, taking a delicate bite of her beignet. Next to her, Tiana just smiles and shakes her head. Her eyes are still red, but after composing a succinct, but brutal condemnation of Auradon that Maldonia had released as its official stance on the video, she seems to be less furious. Mulan’s public resignation had helped to improve the mood of the room as well, and they are all getting a lot of joy out of watching Jasmine debate King Hubert, who has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. Ariel catches Tiana’s eye, and they both grin at each other before turning their attention back to the television, where the aforementioned King’s face is growing steadily redder.

“Now see here young lady-” King Hubert blusters, but Jasmine corrects him, tone icy.

“Sultana.”

“What?”

“Oh, you poor fool,” Rory sighs, watching her father-in-law resignedly.

“I am the Sultana of Agrabah, your Majesty, and you would do well to address me by my proper title.”

“I’m sure his Majesty didn't mean to give offense, Sultana,” one of the news anchors interjects, and Ariel can clearly hear Ella wince from the other side of the room, and she wants to bang her head against the wall, because that is not how you pronounce 'Sultana’. “Besides, can we really claim that the villain children are entitled to the same rights as us? After all, that girl did initiate the fighting.”

“Yes, because the guard refused to take his hands off of her, even when she asked,” Snow retorts, then claps a hand over her mouth, blushing crimson as everyone stares at her in disbelief.

“You know you're a bad person when you get Snow White, the nicest person in the Realms, to tell you you're wrong,” Pocahontas declares, fingers flying across her phone.

“What are you doing?” Ariel asks, eyeing her phone suspiciously.

“Posting that to my StoryTime followers,” Pocahontas replies breezily, just as a swoosh noise echoes through the room, signalling that the upload has been successful.

“To add on to what Snow said,” Jasmine says on-screen, casting a smile at her friend, whose face is still bright red, “I don't know about all of you, but I’ve told my children many times that they are never to go anywhere with someone they don't know. It doesn't surprise me that the girl punched him in the nose, I’m rather surprised she didn't punch him earlier.”

“Are you seriously trying to play this off as a case of Stranger Danger? I think that shows a severe oversimplification of what happened-”

“Of course it's not Stranger Danger, but still, her actions are understandable for someone in her position-”

“There they go again,” Rory says wearily as King Hubert starts arguing with Jasmine again, with the two news anchors desperately trying to stop them. Next to her, her phone is vibrating so violently that it's threatening to fall off the table, but she ignores it.

“Aren't you going to get that?” Tiana asks, casting a wary glance at the phone.

“Absolutely not,” Rory scowls at the phone, which looks strange on her normally cheerful face. “It's my mother again. I'm not picking up until Audrey calls me.”

Ariel frowns. “She still hasn't called you back?”

“No, and logically, I know she's okay, but I cannot keep listening to my mother insist that everything is fine, when clearly, it isn't!” Rory's tone is bordering on hysterical, and inwardly, Ariel thanks the gods that she and Eric refused to let Melody attend Auradon Prep.

“It’ll be okay, Rory,” she says outwardly, trying to inject a soothing tone into her voice. “Whatever I may think of Auradon, they’d never lay a finger on Audrey. Like Jaz said, she's royalty. She has nothing to do with this. As for your mother-” she pauses because Queen Leah is a menace at best, and at her worst – well, that's too scary to think about. “Actually, I can’t really give you any advice on that front—”

“Oh, I know,” Rory sighs miserably, wiping her eyes. “I was just about to tell her about my conversion to Buddhism before I got the call, and the first thing she said when she saw me was; ‘where’s that lovely diamond cross your father and I gave you’?”

“Rory!” Ariel stares at her friend in horror, who winces and cringes back. “You’ve been a Buddhist for six months now! Are you seriously telling me that you haven’t told your mother yet?”

“I know!” Rory wails. “I’m a schmuck, I admit it, but you know my mother Ariel! She’s insane!”

“True story,” Pocahontas calls over, balancing the plate of beignets precariously on top of her bump. “No offense, Rory.”

“None taken,” Rory says sadly as Ella gives her a sympathetic smile.

“Chad isn't texting me back either,” she says quietly, then groans. “Dear God - now I'm saying it too.”

“It's a very catchy nickname,” Tiana suggests tactfully.

“Oh, don't give me that! He has a perfectly lovely name, why would he want to be called a name associated with a drunken frat boy?”

“You're asking the wrong people,” Pocahontas shrugs. “Personally, I like the name Chance. It's poetic!”

“Exactly! And he used to think so as well!” Ella's face hardens. “This is my father-in-law's doing, I just know it. He’s always hated Chance’s name, something about it not being 'masculine’ enough. And now, thanks to him, my son sounds like a drunken jackass you avoid at parties!”

“Wasn't he the one who suggested that you send him to Auradon Prep?” Ariel asks.

Ella rolls her eyes. “Yes. And now because of 'diplomacy’ and 'strengthening the bond between our kingdoms’; I can't speak to my son!” She leans back in her chair, looking exhausted. “Thank God we sent Adele, Dexter, and Lainey to different schools.”

“Agreed,” Ariel and Tiana murmur.

Pocahontas strokes her belly. “All of this has just confirmed my initial inclination not to send little Minnow to Auradon Prep, no matter how much King James pesters me.”

Tiana side-eyes her in horror. “Are you seriously naming the baby Minnow?!”

“No! Give me some credit, T, I don't want the kid to grow up to be some sad emo child in a corner-”

They're all laughing when the news anchor announces, “This just in - we are about to go live to Auradon, where King Ben will be making an official statement on the video-”

That brings their laughter to an immediate halt. Ella straightens up, Rory and Tiana already have their eyes glued to the screen, and Pocahontas is already switching off her phone, in order to have no distractions. Ariel just turns her phone on silent though, because she has a feeling that even with the insurmountable evidence, Auradon will never admit anything they did was wrong.

For them, those children are just collateral damage.

59 notes · View notes

zoemurph · 6 years

Text

your midnights

posted on ao3 on new year’s eve!! only getting around to posting it here now cause uhhhh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

on ao3

For flor

I wrote and upLoaded this from my phone. It's surprisingly hard to do. Also I wrote this in a few hours with no editing at all while at a family party so it's a mess but it had to be done

Is alcoholic champagne better than non alcoholic cause uhhhh gross

Will probably be edited when I get back home!! I'm away visiting family and have no wifi so. Wild.

Enjoy~

Evan glances to the clock. It's not even eleven yet, but it feels like they've been waiting for midnight to come for hours. He leans back against the couch and watches Zoe win another round of Bullshit. Jared throws his cards in the air as Zoe laughs and Alana flips the pile of cards in the center over to see how much of it is actually correct.

It's nice.

Evan's never really done anything for New Year's Eve before. There were parties, there are always parties, but he didn't go to the ones that were open to all and he was never invited to smaller ones before.

The last time he did something for New Year's Eve was probably six grade. Back when Jared and him were still close.

Connor drops down next to Evan on the couch. Connor lifts his cup in a toast to Evan and Evan rolls his eyes and knocks his own plastic cup against Connor's. He's only drinking apple juice, but Jared insisted everyone use red solo cups for the party aesthetic. Alana agreed, but only as long as no pictures with red cups end up in the internet.

"Colleges look at the internet," Alana had said seriously.

Evan had swallowed thickly and hoped that they don't read into any of his tweets. He didn't think he'd ever written anything bad but he wasn't not sure.

"Let's hope they don't find Murphy's emo tumblr," Jared had said with a smirk.

Connor had rolled his eyes.

"What are you drinking?" Evan asks Connor.

Connor swirls around whatever in his cup. "The alcohol free champagne Jared brought."

Evan wrinkles his nose. He tried some when Jared pulled it out, but he hated the taste. Jared also brought actual champagne, but they're saving it for after the ball drop. Evan probably won't have any, if it tastes anything like the fake champagne he's perfectly fine without it, but Zoe made everyone promise they wouldn't have any more than two cups.

"We aren't getting champagne drunk in Evan's house," she had said.

"We could," Jared pointed out.

Zoe threw a pillow at his head.

Connor laughs at Evan's expression. "Don't like it?"

"It's gross," Evan says. "How do you stand it?"

Connor shrugs. "It's not that bad."

"You also ate dirt once," Evan remembers, "so I don't know why I'm talking to you."

Connor bumps their shoulders together before he moves his arm to rest on the back of the couch. If Evan was braver, he could grab Connor's hand and pull his arm down around his shoulders.

Jared shouts as Alana beats Zoe and ends her running streak. "I love you, you over organized disaster!" he yells before launching himself at her over the pile of cards.

Zoe snorts and falls backward onto the floor as Alana laughs and tries to shove Jared off him as he smothers her.

Evan smiles and leans a little closer to Connor.

Connor lowers his cup. "He's gonna hurt himself one day."

"You say that like he hasn't."

Connor raises his eyebrows. "Has he?"

Evan shrugs and takes a sip of apple juice. "I love embarrassing Jared, but he'll probably kill me if I tell you the story I'm thinking about."

"Really? I could take him."

Evan shrugs. "Ask him about the biology incident sometime."

Connor narrows his eyes.

"Are you talking about me?" Jared asks, looking up from where he's still flopped on top of Alana.

"Maybe," Connor says. "What is it to you?"

Alana pokes Jared in the side. He yelps and rolls off of her as he curls up in a ball. Zoe takes Alana's hand and pulls her so she's sitting upright as she giggles.

Jared flips Alana off as he gets to his feet. "Don't go and give away my secrets, Hansen."

Evan mimes zipping his lips.

"I can't believe you don't trust me," Connor says. "I thought we were closer than that."

Jared scoffs and grabs his cup off the table. "Keep dreaming, Murph."

"I wasn't talking to you, Kleinman." Connor taps the top of Evan's head with the hand that's been sitting next to his ear. "I was talking to Evan."

"Evan would never betray me."

Evan puts down his cup. "Okay, so we were in seventh grade and we had just started the unit on—"

"We get it!" Jared interrupts.

"No keep going," Zoe says from where she's sitting on the floor. "I wanna hear the rest of this."

Jared carefully puts his cup on the coffee table and backs away from Evan with his hands raised. "Don't hurt me, I won't hurt you."

"Are we done?" Alana asks, gathering up the cards.

"Yes," Jared says immediately. "I'm not losing to Zoe again."

Zoe smiles brightly. "I don't know, I kind of want to kick Jared's ass again."

"Nope!" Jared flops back onto the couch, narrowly avoiding landing on Connor. "Let's do a social media check."

Evan shifts uncomfortably. "Or we could...not?"

"Social media check?" Alana asks. Zoe hands her the last cards and the card box.

"See what the other parties are like," Jared says, pulling out his phone.

"What we're missing," Connor mutters into his alcohol-less alcohol.

"We aren't missing anything," Zoe says sharply. "Unless any of you want music that's too loud and massive hangovers in the morning."

"We can have hangovers here," Jared says. He doesn't look up from his phone, but points in the direction of the kitchen, where there's too much pizza and a bottle of champagne. The twist off kind, not the cork one.

"We aren't getting drunk on champagne," Zoe says. She gets to her feet. "Remote?"

Connor scoots over and pulls it from between the cushions. "Catch." He tosses it to Zoe and she catches it with minimal fumbling.

"What are you putting on?" Alana asks.

"Ball drop?" Jared suggests.

Connor groans. "That's boring as fuck, let's not."

"He's right," Alana agrees. "It's incredibly anticlimactic. It doesn't even drop, it just lowers. I expected more."

"Life motto," Jared mutters.

Zoe flips through a few stations before opening Netflix. "Anyone have any preference?"

"Nothing targeted for children," Alana says.

"Does that mean no Disney?" Zoe asks as she scrolls through movies and tv shows.

Alana fixes her glasses. "No that's okay. I've been spending a lot of time with Theo this week and I'm getting sick of her shows."

"You should've asked me to babysit," Connor says before taking a sip of his drink. "I don't mind watching that shit with her."

"That's because she loves you," Alana says. She holds out her hand and Zoe passes her her cup. "And you don't have to see her every day."

"I could."

"Whipped," Jared stage whispers into his cup.

Connor shrugs. "I won't deny it."

"It's sweet," Zoe says. She crams herself into the space on the couch between Evan and Connor, and Evan regrets not moving closer to Connor before. "I can't believe he spends so much time with a six year old."

"How long until midnight?" Evan asks.

"It's eleven oh three," Alana says.

"And I want pizza," Jared announced. "Anyone want anything from the kitchen?"

Connor holds up his cup as Jared passes by. "Fake champagne."

"Grab me a slice," Zoe says. "It can be cold."

"Sweet." Jared takes the cup from Connor.

"Don't destroy the kitchen," Evan calls out after him. "You had to clean it up if you do."

"You're a bad host, Evan," Jared shouts back.

Evan huffs and leans back on the couch, careful not to pull on Zoe's hair.

Jared comes back with a drink for Connor and two slices of pizza. Jared joins Alana on the floor and Evan grabs them pillows and blankets as Zoe and Connor bicker over what Disney movie is best.

They both turn to Evan.

"Lilo and Stitch," Connor says.

"No, Tangled," Zoe argues.

Evan blinks. "Uh..."

"Treasure Planet is better," Jared counters.

Evan rolls his eyes. "That's because you had a crush on Jim."

"That I did," Jared says with a serious nod.

Alana takes the remote from Zoe as Zoe and Connor go back to their argument.

Zoe slides down off the couch to join Alana and Jared on the phone, effectively ending the argument.

Connor smiles triumphantly at Evan. "I win by default."

Zoe scoffs. "That's not how this works. I'm just trying to enjoy time with my good friends."

"Good friends," Jared echoes sarcastically.

Zoe shoves him away.

Alana ends up putting on Trolls. She admits that she can quote parts of it, which Jared thinks is hilarious and Zoe thinks is incredible. Evan tries to inch closer to Connor without him noticing.

Evan finds himself weirdly invested in the movie and physically a lot closer to Connor than he expected to be when Jared sits up with a jerk.

He leans over Zoe to grab for the remote "Pause it! Five minutes until midnight. We have to find the ball."

Connor knocks the side of Jared's head with his foot. "I thought we greed that it was boring."

Jared shoves Connor's foot away. "Yeah but it's still tradition."

Alana hands over the remote. "We don't have any traditions."

"Well we're making them now." Jared pauses the movie and starts flipping through the channel guide. "If someone wanted to Google the channel number that'd be cool."

"I'll grab the champagne," Connor says, standing up.

Zoe glances up at him. "Not drinking it, right?"

"Nah," Connor stretches his arms up. "I'll stick to the fake stuff."

"Hey, Evan, your mom still have champagne flukes?" Jared asks, not looking away from the screen.

"If you promise not to break them." Connor offers Evan his hand and pulls Evan to his feet.

"Cross my heart, hope to die," Jared promises.

Connor follows Evan into the kitchen. Evan directs him to the top cabinet where they keep wine glasses. They carefully cover the counter in glasses so Connor can pull the champagne flukes from the back.

Connor grabs the two champagne bottles, actual alcohol and fake alcohol, and then starts helping Evan put the glasses away.

Evan finds himself leaning against the counter as Connor reaches up over him. Connor glances down at Evan. Evan feels his face heat up as he hands Connor the last glass.

"Three minutes!" Jared shouts from the living room.

Evan inhales sharply as Connor closes the cabinet. "H-how do you um— do you want to grab both bottles and I take the glasses or do you want me to take one or we could take two trips and—"

"I'm early," Connor says.

Evan blinks at him. "You're...what?"

One of Connor's hands comes up to brush against Evan's cheek. "Like by two minutes."

Evan is about to ask what Connor means like that because he's not making sense when Connor leans forward and presses his lips against Evan's.

It's quick and gentle and leaves Evan breathless when Connor pulls away, gathers up three of the flukes in one hand and a bottle in the other, and disappears back into the living room.

Evan brushes his fingers against his lips.

"Two minutes!" Zoe and Jared shout together. Zoe starts laughing and Alana says something that Evan doesn't hear.

"Took you long enough," Jared says.

"Couldn't find the glasses," Connor explains.

"Evan get in here!" Zoe shouts.

Evan takes a deep breath. He grabs the bottle of champagne that Connor left, the real one with actual alcohol, and the two remaining glasses. He walks into the living room and tries not to look too much at Connor.

Evan puts the glasses on the table with the others and the bottle far away enough from the half finished bottle of nonalcoholic champagne that they shouldn't get mixed up.

"One minute!" Jared yanks Alana to her feet.

She laughs. "Jared it's just another day."

He grabs her face. "Lana, it's the end of another shitty year. And we all made it. Celebrate."

Alana's eyes flick to Connor. He's too busy elbowing Zoe as she tries to put beads over his head — where she got necklaces Evan has no idea but Alana's wearing a golden one and Jared has about six — but Evan notices. Alana and Evan make eye contact and Evan quickly looks away.

"Celebrate," Alana repeats. "One minute till midnight," she says with a gentle smile.

Zoe manages to get a string of purple beads around Connor's neck and hands Evan some blue beads with a smile. Evan dutifully puts them on without a fuss.

"Ten!" the crowd on the television shouts.

Jared throws his arm over Alana's shoulder. "Nine!" he chimes in.

"Eight!"

Zoe laughs and lets Jared wrap his other arm around her waist and pulls her in. "Seven!" she yells.

"Six!"

Jared grins at Evan. "Five!"

Evan smiles weakly and then glances over to Connor.

"Four!"

Jared gives Evan a serious look and nods. Zoe gives him a thumbs up.

"Three!"

Evan inches closer to where Connor is on the other side of the room, watching the television with a weird amount of intensity.

"Two!"

Evan wipes his hands on his pants. They're shaking.

"One!"

He grabs Connor by the collar of his shirt and pulls him down to him and kisses him. Their noses bump and it's kind of messy but Connor's arms wrap around Evan's waist to pull him closer and Evan is kissing Connor and Evan's heart is pounding in his ears, so it's not all bad. There's cheering in the background and Zoe is laughing and Evan just smiles and kisses Connor harder.

When he breaks away, Connor leans back in and kisses the corner of his mouth before pressing their foreheads together.

"Happy New Year," Evan whispers.

Connor is smiling and Evan swears he would do anything to see that smile all the time. "Happy New Year, Ev."

"We did it!" Jared shouts. "We killed 2017!"

Evan turns away from Connor to see Jared twisting open the champagne and pouring it out. He shoves a fluke at Alana as Zoe holds out a glass to Connor.

Connor takes it from her, but keeps his other arm around Evan's waist. "Happy New Year, Zo."

She smiles and hands Evan the other glass. "Happy New Year, guys." She presses a kiss to Evan's cheek and ruffles Connor's hair.

Jared hands her her champagne before lifting his own fluke in the air. "We made it!"

Zoe raises her glass to clink it against Jared's.

"Happy New Year, everyone," Alana says and Evan thinks there might be tears in her eyes.

"We made it," Connor says softly and, Evan thinks, mostly to himself.

Evan smiles and taps his fluke against Connor's. "We made it."

#convan #tree bros #deh #deh fanfic #evan hansen #my fics #hoooooo lil late @ myself!!!!!#but now its on both my platforms so *ok hand emoji*

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magpieandsons · 4 years

Text

47 - What to Do?

You reach for the knife, then pause, gripped with uncertainty. Darrel lets out another stream of vicious barks, the noise echoing percussively off the stone walls. Cursing under your breath you turn towards the door instead, ready to run for it; you only make it a step before turning back to the table. You vacillate a moment, caught between fight or flight, the skulls drawing nearer every moment. Their laughter rises to a hideous cackling that fills the room, threatening to drown out even Darrel’s barking.

You dive for the knife, but the second it’s in your hand you know you won’t be able to hold it for long: it’s grown hotter. The thin blue-white line of flame continues to burn just along the very edge, but as it burns the heat has built in the metal turning it red and spreading down its length. A thin sheet of smoke rises from the wood of the hilt where it meets the narrow metal guard. You try to transfer the knife to your other hand so you can pull your sleeve down around your fingers for protection, but the flame starts to catch on the sling, and your hand is too weak. The knife clatters to the table.

In a near-panic you lunge for the doors. As you hit them, something slams into the floor near your feet, sending chips of stone flying up at you. Another hits the riveted metal of the doors just beside you - a blinding blue bolt of energy that scores a melted gash above your shoulder. You fall to your knees, covering your head, just as another bolt slams into the doors. Shouting in fear and frustration, you dive for the only cover available, under the table.

Darrel springs after you and fortunately there is just enough room for both of you to hide there huddled close together. You duck your head beneath your one good arm, certain another blast of energy is about to strike at any moment. When none does for several seconds, you uncurl yourself a bit and look around. As cautious as can be, you inch your head out of cover.

Above you, the skulls have formed a circling, swarming mass over the table. They hover, and swoop, and turn, none of them stopping, and none striking each other, like a school of fish. In the mass of movement, you never see which lone skull blasts at you. The blue flame splashes against the table leg, so close it knocks your head against it and seers a line of pain from your forehead to your temple. You drop, trying to shield your face with your arm again.

Something clangs beneath the hideous laughter, and there’s a groan of metal. Darrel barks beside you, and there’s a flurry of blasts elsewhere in the room. You hear Caspin shouting spell words, and suddenly a hand latches onto your collar and drags you across the floor. Murph dumps you on the other side of the threshold then returns for his master. The two men back from the room of skulls and shove the doors closed amid a flurry of blue fire.

“Wondrous,” Caspin murmurs, placing a hand on the doors. The blasts stop abruptly. “There must have been a mechanism for control - did you see what it was?”

Murph takes a knee beside you and peers at the burn on your forehead. “Still alive?”

You reply that you think you are, probably.

He chuckles. “That dog of yours is as good as an alarm bell.”

“Imagine the other secrets this place holds.” Caspin has turned his gaze to the rest of the chamber.

Whatever illusion spell someone tested on the torch-lit hallway you passed through, is perfected along the walls here. Ornate sconces line the room, and above each floats an unconnected globe of bright, flickering fire. The space is more or less round, a set of white, marble stairs describing an open, elegant spiral at its center. The walls are rough rock, with several more doors like that of the room of skulls heading off to parts unknown.

There’s a hunger in Caspin’s face as his eyes shift through the room. “The knowledge - the power - the treasures! - that may be interred here, locked away from the world for all this time.”

- If we’re looking for treasure now, I demand my cut.

- Shouldn’t we concentrate on the task at hand, and lay the ashes to rest?

- What is WRONG with your family?!

https://strawpoll.com/kcbg9h3d poll ends 5/29/20 at 10pm

#choose your own adventure #choose your own adventure fic #dungeons and dragons #dnd

0 notes

shirosucc · 7 years

Note

Me: yeah, I don’t really need the discourse and salt in my life. I’m pure. Wholesome. Above it. Also me, going through your salt tag: Wow, the tea is piping hot, thanks. ☕️☕️☕️

you are a treasure murph pls never change and also enjoy your stay in my salt tag

#honestly i love going through my own salt tag #me @ salt lia u r doing amazing sweetie!#mutuals #shenaniganenthusiast

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cutsliceddiced · 4 years

Text

New top story from Time: These Heroes Went Above and Beyond in 2019

From a 9-year-old boy who wanted no kid to go hungry to a high-school coach who reached out to an armed student, here are TIME’s heroes of 2019.

Defenders of Notre Dame

William Daniels—Panos for TIMELaurent Prades, left, and Antoine-Marie Préaut on Nov. 29

As flames leaped from the roof of Notre Dame cathedral on April 15, those who knew its innermost secrets ventured into the pitch darkness of the smoke-filled nave. Their aim: to rescue some of the most valuable treasures in all of Christianity. “There was no electricity, there was a lot of water, there were alarms going off,” says Antoine-Marie Préaut, conservator of historic monuments in the Paris region, remembering the moment he entered the cathedral with Notre Dame’s operational director, Laurent Prades, and a group of firefighters. “The atmosphere was apocalyptic.”

Millions across the world watched aghast as fire shot from the medieval masterpiece in the heart of Paris. Less visible was how close Notre Dame came to total collapse, and how narrowly its treasures were saved.

About 400 firefighters battled the flames for more than nine hours—some climbing the staircase in its north tower, despite the danger of being trapped, to keep the cathedral’s set of 13-ton bells from falling and potentially bringing down the towers and the entire cathedral with them. The roof was already almost gone. “I found a situation that was completely catastrophic,” says Jérôme D., a firefighter who climbed to the top, and who cannot be named in full, per the rules of Paris’ fire brigade.

Préaut and Prades were so focused on rescuing the relics that they tuned out the chaos. Then they heard a giant noise as the spire crashed into the nave, collapsing the roof. Inside the cathedral, the fire now raged at ground level. “We felt utterly powerless,” Prades says. “But then everything happened very, very quickly. We lost all sense of time.”

Amid darkness and flames, the men fumbled to unlock a strongbox in a back chapel. Inside were Notre Dame’s most precious relics—including the Crown of Thorns that worshippers believe Christ wore to his Crucifixion, as well as pieces of wood and a nail believed to be from the True Cross. The two became part of a human chain, passing the priceless items to safety. “We told the firefighters, ‘Take everything you can carry,'” says Préaut, 38. “They were shouting at us, ‘Get out, get out!'”

Toward midnight, police finally escorted Préaut to city hall, where the relics were locked up for safekeeping. As their van crossed a bridge over the Seine, Préaut was stunned to see crowds jamming the entire area. “There were thousands and thousands of people just standing on the street silently, in shock,” he says. “I had the impression like it was the end of the world.”

Indeed, that night was the end of an era for a tight-knit group that had worked together for years at Notre Dame. As the months have gone by, the memory has weighed on Prades, 44, who has been at Notre Dame for more than 20 years. Préaut still has trouble sleeping. “There is a trauma from the event itself, from the hours that I spent in the cathedral,” Prades says. “There is also the trauma of knowing what might have happened.”

The two men are among a handful of people who have spent months working in trailers in the cathedral’s backyard, helping to prepare for the mammoth reconstruction ahead. The treasures and relics have been moved to a safe room within the Louvre Museum, and Notre Dame is wrapped in scaffolding and plastic. It will be shut perhaps until 2024, while its roof and spire are rebuilt. Until then, its ravaged state is a daily reminder of that terrifying night. “We would be happy to turn the page, to recover and go back to normal life,” Préaut says. When that time comes, the relics will go home, to their place of honor in a cathedral that, against the odds, still stands. —VW

A boy who helped change the law on school-lunch debt

Courtesy Kylie KirkpatrickRyan Kyote used his saved allowance to pay off his grade’s lunch-money debt

Nine-year-old Ryan Kyote was eating breakfast at home in Napa, Calif., when he saw the news: an Indiana school had taken a 6-year-old’s meal when her lunch account didn’t have enough money. Kyote asked if that could happen to his friends. When his mom contacted the school district to find out, she learned that students at schools in their district had, all told, as much as $25,000 in lunch debt. Although the district says it never penalized students who owed, Kyote decided to use his saved allowance to pay off his grade’s debt, about $74—becoming the face of a movement to end lunch-money debt. When California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill in October that banned “lunch shaming,” or giving worse food to students with debt, he thanked Kyote for his “empathy and his courage” in raising awareness of the issue. “Heroes,” Kyote points out, “come in all ages.” —M. Carlisle

A one-man crew amid the flood

Courtesy Angela ChandlerSatchel Smith worked over 30 hours straight at Homewood Suites during Tropical Depression Imelda in Beaumont, Texas in Sept.

It was supposed to rain for only a few hours. When then 21-year-old Lamar University student Satchel Smith got to his job at Homewood Suites in Beaumont, Texas, on Sept. 18, he planned to leave promptly when his eight-hour shift was done; he had class in the morning. But the rain didn’t stop. By nightfall, Tropical Depression Imelda had flooded the highway. No one could reach—or leave—the hotel, and Smith was the only employee there to tend to the hotel’s roughly 90 guests.

According to the Texas Tribune, Imelda dropped up to 43 in. of rain in parts of southeast Texas and caused flooding that killed five people. But inside the hotel, Smith didn’t panic. He answered the phone as it rang all night. In the morning, people started looking for breakfast. Despite not knowing how to cook, Smith raided the kitchen and made sure everyone got a hot meal. The storm set off the fire alarm; he ushered tired guests out and back into the building.

Angela Chandler, an educator from Nacogdoches, Texas, was one of those guests. She had come to Beaumont for a business trip and was already nervous about being away from home. But as she watched Smith, she suddenly felt grateful. “Satchel was in and out of the kitchen, answering the phone, taking care of guests with a smile on his face,” she says. “And I looked at him and realized, ‘That baby is only a year older than my son.'” She was floored by his composure, and shared her observation on social media.

As the day ticked on, it became clear Smith would also have to cook dinner. By then the guests had started pitching in. Helping him cook and clean, they made chicken and pasta. A few people walked food and water out to truckers stranded on the highway. Someone brought out playing cards.

“We all came together. They made sure I was all right; I made sure that they were all right,” Smith recalls. Finally, another employee was able to get through the water in a monster truck to relieve him.

He had worked over 30 hours straight, and stayed awake the entire time.

Chandler’s post about Smith’s steadfastness quickly went viral. While he says it’s nice to be recognized, Smith adds, “I kind of feel like I was just doing my job.” —M. Carlisle

A bus driver who brought kids in from the cold

YoutubeNicole Chamberlain, a bus driver in Waukesha, Wis., brought two kids in as temperatures fell on Nov. 11

As temperatures fell below 20°F on Nov. 11, Nicole Chamberlain, a bus driver in Waukesha, Wis., peered through her windshield and saw two children wandering alone outside, headed toward a busy intersection. “They were upset, frazzled,” says Chamberlain, 44, who pulled her bus over and called out to them. When the children—a 2-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother—came bounding over, Chamberlain realized neither was wearing a coat and the girl had on only a T-shirt and a diaper. “It was mind-blowing,” says Chamberlain, who was captured on the bus’s surveillance cameras wrapping her coat around the toddler’s bare legs. Chamberlain stayed with the children until police arrived, along with the children’s grandmother, who was babysitting when they darted out of the house. “It’s nice to have a feel-good story to share,” says Chamberlain. After a fellow driver tipped off a local news station to the story, strangers from all over the country agreed. “You saw something amiss and chose to step up to prevent a potential tragedy,” one wrote on her Facebook page. “I hope your example inspires others.” —M. Chan

A coach who embraced an armed student

Jordan Murph—Sports Illustrated/Getty ImagesParkrose High School football and track coach Keanon Lowe in Portland on June 25

When a distressed student appeared before him, armed with a shotgun, Keanon Lowe had no time to think. The football and track coach at Parkrose High School in Portland, Ore., lunged for the firearm, as students knocked over desks in panic. “It was a very surreal moment,” Lowe says, “all the kids screaming for their lives.” After a tug-of-war that seemed to last forever, Lowe, 27, wrestled the gun out of the student’s grasp. Then, in an unexpected move, he pulled the student in for a hug. “I didn’t see an evil kid,” Lowe says. “I saw a kid that was going through a lot.”

The student, identified by authorities as 19-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz, had been suicidal for several months, according to prosecutors, when he took the loaded and legally bought shotgun to school on May 17. Before Lowe intervened, the teen had already tried killing himself outside a bathroom, but the shotgun did not discharge. “What he needed was a shoulder to cry on and someone to hug him,” says Lowe, who has been coaching and serving as the school’s security guard for the past two years. “I don’t know the last time he got a hug.” While Granados-Diaz resisted the embrace at first and tried shoving Lowe away, the coach’s comforting words soon softened him. “I told him that I cared about him and that I was there for him and I was there to save him,” Lowe says. “He was surprised that I had said that. He said, ‘You do?’ and looked me right in my face. I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ He gave in to the hug, and that made a huge difference.”

Lowe and Granados-Diaz were strangers until then, but they held their embrace for at least 20 seconds, as Lowe passed the shotgun to another teacher. The moment, captured by a security camera, moved tens of thousands of people who saw it on social media. “No one would have batted an eye if he responded more aggressively,” says the school’s principal, Molly Ouche. “But he had compassion.”

For his bravery and kindness, Lowe was awarded a civilian medal of heroism from Portland’s police chief, and the city’s mayor declared May 29 to be “Coach Keanon Lowe Day of Recognition.” The accolades have been humbling and overwhelming, says Lowe, who played football at the University of Oregon. But he’s ready to move on, mostly so Granados-Diaz can do the same. On Oct. 10, Granados-Diaz pleaded guilty to having a loaded firearm in public and was sentenced to 36 months of formal probation, which includes mental-health treatment. According to prosecutors, his gun was loaded with only one round, meant for himself. It was evident that day that the student was “fighting demons,” Lowe says.

“This was just one moment in my life that’s not going to define me,” he adds. “And it’s not going to define Angel as well.” —M. Chan

A woman who kept dozens of dogs safe during Hurricane Dorian

ZumaChella Phillips has run Pawtcake Refuge in Nassau since 2015

Chella Phillips has lived in the Bahamas since 2004, and she knows what a storm can do. When Hurricane Dorian barreled toward her home, she got to work. Phillips has run Nassau’s Pawtcake Refuge, which cares for homeless dogs, out of her home since 2015. She had 82 dogs there already but searched out more. By the time Dorian arrived, she was hunkering down in her three-bedroom house with 97 dogs, and she dashed off a quick Facebook post about the mayhem. Then she lost power. It was only after Phillips emerged that she learned her post had gone viral. Nassau was largely spared, but the storm devastated the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, killing scores of people and leaving many with a sense of hopelessness. Her story had become a bit of positive news to hang onto, drawing thousands of messages from around the world. “I [said], ‘Why are people so impressed about this?’” she says. “Anybody who cares about these animals would have done that.” Still, she’s grateful for the extra attention on the dogs: in the week after Dorian, Phillips sent 68 to homes or rescue groups in the U.S. —M. Carlisle

This article is part of TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year package. Read more from the issue and sign up for the Inside TIME newsletter to be the first to see our cover every week.

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

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lostsole702-blog · 7 years

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LOSTSOLE702 IS TYPING... greetings, goners ! elena here, coming to you with a post where you can find a quick introduction that should explain everything you need to know about warehouse duties. as always, if you still have questions, i’m only a message away !

WHAT ARE THEY?: while the warehouse is for a group of runaways, it still needs structure in order to function properly. the duties are select jobs (some permanent and some weekly) that take care of the warehouse’s inner-workings.

WHERE/WHEN WILL THEY BE POSTED?: they’ll be posted here, to elena’s account, every friday at 5 PM (EST). you'll be able to find every job-related post in this tag. once the weekly schedule is made, you’ll be also be able to find it on this page !

you’ll find a list of all rotational jobs and permanent jobs, as well as how the employees are selected, below the cut ! please like this post once you’ve seen it.

ROTATIONAL JOBS: these jobs should fall in the skill set of every runaway, hence why the employee list changes weekly. employees are selected by using a generator.

recruiters

recruit pick-up

food runs

look outs (report back if suspicious people are checking out the warehouse, warnings when police roll by, etc)

kitchen duty (food prep, dishes, etc)

housekeeping (laundry, sweeping, etc)

runners (people who swipe essentials like bathroom supplies, sheets, etc)

PERMANENT JOBS: these jobs require a more specific skill set, therefore the employees listed are permanent. those interested should send an im stating which position they’d like; first come, first serve.

kitchen chef (0/2) --

weaponry adviser (1/1) -- @dvscrtiing

treasurers (1/2) -- @willtedroses (simone)

hackers (2/2) -- @gvbriellas, @willtedroses (stevie)

hitman (1/?) -- @xblk @willtedroses (gabriel)

muscle (1/?) -- @willtedroses (murph) [willing to throw punches, intimidating front]

forger (1/1) -- @gizmomartin

if you feel your muse could offer another job with their special skill set, be sure to send an im and we’ll discuss how it would benefit the goners !

#jobs.#goners:imp

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stephanietwilleylarper · 7 years

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Hey all. I need to know. Do I have your support

Tomorrow I will be officially creating my website for my new and slowly improving LARP and costuming and unique items store called Hidden Treasures it started out as just nothing more than a thrift store and vintage and antique jewelry store and grew too much more thanks to an idea that I had to make our community better I want to spend all day tomorrow coding and choosing just the right templates all together to make the perfect website for the most convenient shopping in most appealing look from my website and Facebook will no longer be the source of my sales so be taken more seriously as a store my store will be on Wix because it is free and I cannot afford a server or someone to create a website for me because I can create one on my own first of all and cannot afford it it may take up to two days at tops but when is finished I will link it here and I hope you all will take a look and be supportive because it is supportive of you I take into account every character I've ever met at any LARP or battle game or unique character that I've seen at a convention and wondered where they got their costume pieces. The sad truth is many of us have to get our costume pieces from various stores at flea markets thrift stores and make some items yourself because they aren't available for sale. My store aims to be the perfect costuming store it will appeal to all those odd characters that have hard to find costume pieces and accessories like webbed fingers or fluffy tails that you have to go to conventions or special stores just to get at high prices I cater to the characters that are half deer or mermaids or werewolves. All cheaper than you could find anywhere else I have things like any style of course that you could imagine for any kind of theme you could want. I have a small selection of LARP weapons that I hope to grow that are cheaper than anywhere you will find anywhere else and I hope to grow them by having them added by larpers who make homemade LARP weapons because the helping larpers is the point of this whole store. I'll have costuming at all kinds of arrays styles for affordable prices. Props you wouldn't even think of for your character that would be perfect to add to characters life story and their personality. I'll have more props and accessories than any other store that exists because pops and accessories are just as important as the costume character wears they Define your character. I hope to offer wigs hair extensions and alike in order to change your appearance for your character. I'll have all kinds of crowns and various prices from $5 to 10 or more for example at very high quality. One special thing that I'm going to add to my shop one day is bottles on the necklace filled with natural real remedies for our healing characters if your friend character has a headache you can just apply to jobs to a piece of fabric and rub on to their Temple and naturally relieve their headache and play as your character as a Healer and be turku as hell LOL I'll be the one store that actually offers in medieval style headache treatment in a bottle on a necklace that healers can wear as an accessory prop and headache treatment that you don't have to break character to use that is a breakthrough in Murph store capabilities. no LARP star is gone so far as to try to make a healers roleplay so realistic they don't have to break character to get someone some Tylenol. and everything that you buy comes with a free small gift inside each package and I haven't even touched based on what I provide in my store. and when you return three times as a customer you get $10 off the purchase $40 or more plus you still get free gifts! I try to keep all my customers happy is my goal with this list to make players happy and give them the store they deserve even if it means I'm not making any money and I'm just keeping the store alive and that's literally was happening I don't make profit and make enough money to order a few more items to add to the store every time I I sell a few items my goal is to be a part of the community that really matters now that I'm no longer a LARP YouTuber that can give you important information tutorials and conversational points that may help you along the way and now that I can no longer LARP. Now my dream is to make the perfect store for lovers cosplayers and people who just want to dress up and wear of the most unique things they can find it is called hidden treasures and is the cheapest store with the most unique items thanks to buying cheaply overseas and smartly. I have no minimum purchases I have to make and I can buy whatever I'd like from whatever Factory i like I have no contracts unlike the LARP stores that we are used to I know one in particular that was my sponsor for a while that has a contract with a company overseas and his minimum purchase every time is $10,000 no matter what he buys so either has to charge a ton for items or ends up with a ton of leftover inventory that he can't sell and may lose money. I'll never have this issue. I buy what I want from factory with cheapest price that day. No minimum. And you save a ton. I also don't try to profit. The sword I've been posting lately... At its current promotion price I make $10 tops and that goes to the.store. look I'm here to give you the perfect LARP store the one I've always wanted and the one that I think you deserve I hope that you guys take the chance and try it out. You have nothing to lose except connections with other companies. You no longer have to spend so much time spending so much effort going to other sites stores and even conventions to get what you need for your costume. I want to be the one stop shop for costumes cosplay live action role play and unique items and props. That is what Hidden Treasures is all of that at the cheapest prices I can possibly find for you at the least cost overall just to keep the store to run and row for you. I even have a warehouse now that is bigger than two houses ready for inventory to fill it up now I just have to sell items make money to buy more items and keep filling it up and I will officially be a real retail store with jewelry props costume accessories Aesthetics hair pieces anything you can think of and if I don't have what you're looking for you message me personally and tell me what you're looking for and I will order it for you and you will pay only $1 more than what it cost me that is because I should have everything that you need that is my personal promise to every customer. I ship everywhere at the cheapest possible price in way to ship and as always with at least one surprise present in the package in the more times return as a customer the more discounts you get as well so I reward my customers for coming back to my store and you get free gifts and every package and this the cheapest store with the cheapest items that I know of with the highest amount of various items that I've ever seen and items that most stores are scared to carry because they think they won't sell I'm not scared to carry webbed fingers for you and Fabius characters or two different types of horns for you and have fear characters I'm not scared to carry different costing pieces for you to be a mermaid character for example I have leggings skirt and the perfect beautiful mermaid necklace made of pearls shells and painted gold all you need is a seashell bra or a bathing suit top and instant mermaid tada I even offer very cheap werewolf heads and hands 4 plot member used or even character use at the cheapest price I could find when usually something like that would cost almost $100 together well I'm guess I'm done with examples of items and Tanya hello my purses are you just have to see for yourself for my website is complete and ready for viewing. I really hope that you guys will support me because this is actually all for you I don't get anything out of this for a long long time until it grows to be ignored your company it's really just getting on its feet it doesn't even have a website yet it started out with just a few items and $100 to start it had hardly any chance of making it what it really means this to your support and you guys to believe in me and I need customers so I need you guys to look at what I have to offer you may have to pre-order items and wait a few extra weeks if I don't have it in stock. You still pay the same you just wait a little while and get an extra gift. Daniel was really serious is this is depending on the support of you guys I can't do it all I need customers for this to work I can't put all of my heart and soul into the perfect store for larpers and cosplayers if you don't check out my store and see that I have the best prices and so many items that other places don't have for that are hard to find for you usually I need you to have faith in me at least take a peek at my website when it's done I need all of my old supporters to believe in me and believe in my new project that is all for you and at least look what I'm reading for you to make your life better and to make larping cheaper and easier than ever. because while I'm here sleeping on the couch living out of the trash bag my birthday wish was $100 and space for inventory to start a company my mom said yes and I took it and ran with it and I don't regret the choice that I made to start this business with nothing and just pure integrity and struggling. If I can start a business helping my fellow players in our community while I'm homeless and not make a profit at the same time I'm okay with that all I care about is being part of the community and helping them make the best of their games and making better costumes getting better props easier in a better price because it's been long overdue and you all deserve it and I know how to get it to you and I'm not a money hungry business so when the website is ready by tomorrow at the very soonest take a look. I think a good way to describe what my website will be is if you took every LARP costume store ever and at sea and every prop especially medieval ones and every other costume shop that exists plus all the other things that don't exist and actual stores like you don't find those weird costume pieces for unique characters like different types of Van Horn's in webbed fingers and smoke from your hands kits and all kinds of medieval and Victorian props and wooden boxes and our glasses and Victorian comb and mirror sets and maps and all kinds of styles of leather bound journals spell books maps of all different kinds and then there's the endless supply of character jewelry that is always under $20 for the most extravagant large pieces individual rings for just $5 we have everything you can think of and like I said if we don't have what you want we will get it for you we are the most unique store we aim to be and will ever exist I hope unless we Inspire and new age of larp stores ones that are made for us not just by LARP companies hoping to make money off of this hobby with up price products that I can get for half the price. but by people who truly love the Hobby and want to make it cheaper for the players and a better shopping experience. And here is a thought would you rather keep going to Walmart when you always know what they have in store or would you go to a new antique store that you don't know what they have in stock will there stores will sell items that you may or may not want both may have some of the same items just one is a little more rare than the other which one would you pick the generalized store with high prices that is replicated all across the u.s. and usually the same everywhere are unique store where you could find anything that you might like. which one sounds like a more appealing shopping Adventure with the antique store being likely some high and mostly very low prices this analogy Compares my very unique shop to all the other workshops across the world that carry basically the same things basically the same prices. my goal is to offer everything one day not all at once and not immediately will eventually be the best store ever I hardly have an inventory list of everything I can sell its pre-order only and that means you have to wait a few weeks to get your item that is all that means no extra price and that is all. This is because I only had $100 startup money that was the hugest challenge of all but I made it work I bought cheap items that I could sell quickly I think and unique items that were versatile and could sell to different types of people and not just larpers they could sell to my hippy friends as well and when they sell I can buy more inventory and so on and so forth until I feel like that I'm building for the future and need to know I have support

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dunia-it · 5 years

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Deal: Drive traffic to your blog with tips from the master

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perfectnewgadgets · 5 years

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Deal: Drive traffic to your blog with tips from the master

How to Write a Blog Post That Drives Traffic with Darren Murph is a treasure trove of tips and tricksthat will teach you the secret to growing traffic…

View On WordPress

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kindofchaoticgood · 7 years

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I Did Something Bad (Why Does it Feel Good?)

Nobody is actually sure whether Uma and Harry are together or not.

Sure, he flirts with her incessantly and sometimes she flirts back, but there's never any concrete proof that the two are actually in a relationship.

Evie sees Harry casually wrap his arm around Uma whenever they're walking out on the quad together, but the next day, she sees him hold out his arm for Claudine Frollo to take, and she's utterly confused.

Jane catches Uma running her fingers through Harry’s hair during lunch, but then the next minute, she’s ruffling Gil’s hair, so she supposes that doing things with someone’s hair is just a sign of friendship with Uma.

All of the teachers know that Harry insists on walking Uma to class everywhere, but some of them swear that they’ve seen Harry escorting Gil and Sierra around as well. None of them know what to make of it.

And then there’s the singing.

The first time is during a regular Monday lunch, and the students have decided to take their lunch outside today. Even King Ben has decided to take a break from his work and take lunch with his girlfriend and their friends. The birds are chirping and the sky is blue, and everything is peaceful.

Until Harry Hook swaggers up with a boombox and a microphone and plonks it right next to the table where he, Uma, and the rest of the crew eat. Uma has an eyebrow raised and Claudine looks confused, but Ashe is hiding a smirk and Gil looks on the edge of his seat with anticipation.

“You may be wondering what this is,” Harry begins, looking around the courtyard. Everyone is staring at him, and from across the courtyard, Mal has her eyes narrowed.

“What’s he doing?” Evie hisses, but Harry continues before anyone can answer.

“Well, as a thank you to the king for being so gracious and allowing us to come to Auradon, I’ve decided to pay a little tribute to him,” Harry says with an evil smile as he presses a button on the boombox.

An eerily familiar beat begins to play and Mal grips the edge of the table, looking haunted. “Oh fuck.”

“Oh no,” Ben chokes out, sinking down on the bench. “He wouldn’t . . .”

“He would,” Carlos says, watching with wide eyes, as Harry brandishes the microphone and starts singing.

“Did I mention, that I’m in love with you. And did I mention, there’s nothing I can’t do. And did I happen to say, I dream of you every day?”

Jay’s mouth is open, Evie looks utterly horrified, and Carlos’s eyes are the size of dinner plates. Mal is looking green and Ben looks like he can’t figure out the fastest way to kill himself.

Uma is laughing at first, but then her eyes go absolutely wide when Harry falls to his knees in front of her and starts singing directly at her.

“I met this girl that rocked my world like it's never been rocked. And now I'm living just for her and I won't ever stop. I never thought that it can happen to a guy like me. But now look at what you've done, you got me down on my knees.”

With that last line, he jerks his hips lewdly and Ashe bursts out laughing, getting up to join him. Gil follows her, grinning sheepishly at Uma when she glares at him. She turns her glare to Harry, who has the nerve to smirk at her and keep eye contact the entire time he sings at her.

“I do not remember this many pelvic thrusts in the song,” Evie says hoarsely as Harry does a move that would make a stripper jealous.

“Or this much sexual innuendo,” Carlos mutters.

“I’m gonna throw up,” Ben says, looking queasy.

Funnily enough, the other students don’t seem nearly as shocked as them. In fact, most of them are singing along. Jordan and Lonnie are wolf-whistling and Audrey is openly laughing and cheering Harry on. Unlike the last time that this song was sung, she isn’t the one who’s getting dumped in front of the entire school, and it’s Mal who looks like she’s been punched in the stomach. (Oh give her a break, she’s only human after all.)

Not to mention, the horror on Uma’s face is priceless, and the amount of teasing she can take out of this moment will be treasured forever and brought up at every possible opportunity.

Harry finishes off his song with a large flourish and falls to the ground dramatically. The students break into applause and hollers as Gil and Ashe bow, grinning wildly. Next to Uma, Marya Rasputin is doubled over with laughter and Claudine is trying hard not to smile.

“Is it done?” Ben asks, his voice muffled. He slid down to the grass after Harry had sung the entire ‘Ridiculous’ phrase directly at him, and had remained there ever since, contemplating existence.

“I think so,” Jay says, looking vaguely shell-shocked. “If it’s any consolation, Uma looks ready to murder him.”

“This, I gotta see,” Mal laser-focuses her gaze on the other side of the courtyard, green eyes glimmering murderously. She may hate Shrimpy, but right now, she hates Harry a bit more, and watching him get killed will only be what he deserves after that performance.

The ‘Rotten’ Four and Ben turn their attention with bated breath to the other side of the courtyard, where Uma is glaring at Harry so hard that it’s a miracle he isn’t dead yet from the force of her glare.

To their disappointment, Uma merely gets up, takes Harry by the ear (“Bloody hell, lass, easy!”) and storms off, ignoring everyone’s protests as she drags Harry away.

“Goddamn it,” Jay groans, eyeing the way Uma’s beads are flashing in the sunlight (they’re so shiny . . . ) as the pair continue striding up to the castle. “I really wanted to see her unhinge her jaw and swallow him whole.”

“Someone’s been doing the English homework,” Carlos says approvingly, holding up his hand for a high five. When Mal gives him a deadly look, he tries not to gulp too audibly. “Not relevant, okay,” he mumbles, looking embarrassed.

“I can never go outside again,” Ben groans, looking utterly mortified.

For the next few days, all eyes are on Uma and Harry, in order to see what exactly has transpired between the two. Uma doesn’t seem at all fazed by the extra attention, she just holds her head up high and scowls at anyone who gets in her way, as per usual. Harry, on the other hand, absolutely revels in the attention. His usual swagger gets even more exaggerated, and he preens like a peacock whenever he catches someone staring at him.

“You’re such an embarrassment,” Claudine mutters, adjusting her headscarf nervously as a group of girls burst into giggles when she and Harry walk by, arms linked. She’s starting to regret taking his arm when he offered it to her, there are too many people staring at their arms and whispering.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Harry says innocently, winking at the girls, who scowl accusingly at Claudine for daring to be on his arm.

“I hope Uma wins,” she hisses at him, shooting a dagger-filled gaze at the girls, who pale and scatter in all directions.

Harry grins at her condescendingly. “In your dreams.”

Jay, Mal, Carlos, and Evie make sure to sit near Uma and her crew for the days following Harry’s performance, and Ben makes sure to join them for lunch each time. Mal is convinced that Uma is planning revenge on Harry and will take it out on him soon, but her cohorts aren’t so convinced.

“Can we please go back to our table?” Evie asks, looking disgusted as Ashe stuffs a handful of French fries into her mouth and downs an entire can of soda. “Nothing is going to happen. Uma’s probably already beaten Harry up, and then they got over it.”

“Lies,” Mal counters. “I remember how hard Uma hits. The bruises last forever, and even then, she’s wearing rings and her gloves have brass knuckles. There is no way that the bruises faded that fast.”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Jay complains. “When I waved at Claudine, Marya flipped me off, and I’m pretty sure she cast a curse on me.” He scowls at Mal accusingly. “I came here to see Harry Hook get beaten up, not to get cursed.”

“Tough it out,” Mal replies dismissively.

“Honey, I don’t think anything’s going to happen,” Ben says gently, taking her hand.

“But - !” Mal looks at the rest of them for support, but Jay is already looking bored with the conversation, Evie is shaking her head, and Carlos isn’t even there, he gave up on them a while ago and went to sit with Jane.

“One more day,” she finally says, looking defeated.

Jay and Evie look at each other consideringly. “Fine, but you're buying the lattes,” Evie declares.

The next day, they take their seats at the table near Uma's crew, bearing lattes.

“I hate this,” Carlos mutters, taking a sulky sip of his large chocolate-raspberry latte (with an extra shot of confidence, he’s having dinner with Jane and her mom tonight). Uma's older cousins, Desiree and Jonas, are visiting, and they keep on staring at the five of them like they've sprouted pansies from their ears.

“Be quiet,” Mal commands, taking a bite of celery and making a face. (God, why are vegetables so terrible? They're the only thing about Auradon that's as bad as the Isle.)

“Come on, Mal! The only revenge thing that I’ve seen is when Bonnie punched Jonas in the arm after he gave her a hickey! And Uma isn't even here! Face it, nothing's going to-”

“Attention, losers and squares!” Uma’s voice booms across the courtyard.

“-Happen,” Carlos finishes weakly as Mal and Ben spin around and Jay and Evie exchange money, the latter scowling.

Uma, Harry, Gonzo, and Big Murph are standing on the other side of the courtyard. Uma’s holding a megaphone, and Big Murph and Gonzo are shirtless, their backs to large speakers. Harry's leaning against a table, looking amused.

“All of you were witness to a very special performance that Harry decided to perform for King Ben the other day,” Uma says, which draws cheers and applause from the crowd. Harry raises a hand in lazy acknowledgment, and Ben sighs tiredly. Mal bumps her shoulder with his in commiseration.

“Wait, was this the video you showed me the other day?” Desiree whispers to Marya, who snickers, but shushes her girlfriend.

“The performance . . . It was . . .”

Harry grins evilly at her, and she scowls at him for a minute before continuing. “Well, either way, it moved me a lot, and so I also decided to also make a performance dedicated to someone. Harry?”

The boy in question raises an eyebrow at her.

“This song is about you,” she nods at Gonzo, and he reaches around the side of the speaker and presses a button and a beat that Jay vaguely recognizes blares out, as Uma begins to sing.

“Sometimes, something beautiful happens in this world, and you don't know how to express yourself . . .”

“This isn't revenge,” Jay complains, looking disgusted. “It's a godddamn love song!”

“I'm sorry guys,” Mal sighs, just as Uma starts in on the chorus.

“I just had sex, and it felt so good!”

“-Sorry that you guys are dipshits and I'm right all the time!” Mal finishes, as the courtyard roars in approval.

“A woman let me put my penis inside her! I just had sex! And I’ll never go back, to the not-having-sex days of the past!”

Uma punctuates that statement with a triumphant smack to her inner thigh, Gonzo and Big Murph gyrating beside her. Harry is staring at Uma like he's never seen her before.

Marya and Desiree are clutching each other for support, Claudine is wiping her eyes with her headscarf, and Gil is pounding the table, doubled over with laughter at the look on Harry's face. Bonnie is trying to close Jonas's mouth, which is hanging open.

“This is the best thing ever,” Mal says with a dark grin, eyes sparkling with malice. Ben gives her a strange look, but decides to let it go. Jay cannot take his eyes off of the scene, because there is only a little space between where Uma’s grinding and Gonzo's hips are . . .

Goddamn, he’s lucky that Mal can't read minds, otherwise he’d be dead.

Meanwhile, Jonas has his head buried in his hands, and Desiree keeps laughing at him and telling him to calm down.

“It's a performance, big brother-”

“I'm gonna fucking kill Gonzo, that bitch is going down. Murph as well, who cares if he has a kid-”

Uma turns towards Harry with a wicked smile and sings the next line directly at Harry.

“She kept looking at her watch!”

“Doesn't matter had sex!” Gonzo and Big Murph join in, pointing at Harry, who gives them a look of betrayal.

“But I cried the whole time!” At that line, Sierra slides down from the bench, and Ashe lets out a gleeful laugh as she high-fives Bonnie.

“Doesn't matter, had sex!”

“I think she might have been a racist!” Lonnie is trying to film the performance, but her hands are shaking too much from laughing, and Jane keeps trying to cover the phone, insisting, “No, this is wrong!”

“Doesn't matter, had sex!”

“She put a bag on my head!”

“STILL COUNTS!” Uma, Gil, and Murph shout into the megaphone, simultaneously flipping Harry off.

Chad Charming has the flashlight on his phone on and is leading everyone in waving the lights back and forth.

Jonas is groaning into his hands as Bonnie rubs his back soothingly. “My baby cousin . . . I can never look her in the eye again, Bon, do you realize that?”

“I know, baby, I know.”

“NEVER!” Jonas wails, burying his head in Desiree's shoulder, who shoves him off with a disgusted look.

Uma throws down her megaphone at the end of the song, but luckily, Gonzo quickly switches off the speakers before she can deafen them all with feedback. She strides up to Harry, who has his face in his hands.

“So,” she says cheerily, voice saccharine-sweet. “What did you think, honey?”

Mal, Ben, and the rest of the courtyard are watching this with wide eyes, and half of them are fumbling with their phones to take videos.

Harry slowly raises his head, and Mal really hopes that tears of defeat are falling down his face so she can capture the moment and make it her home screen. (She's a petty bitch, but at least she admits it.)

But he's grinning widely, and his blue eyes are sparkling with a feverish energy, not tears, like she had hoped. “Bloody brilliant, love,” Harry laughs, wrapping his arms around Uma and lifting her off her feet. “You’ve outdone yourself with this one,”

“In your lowlife dreams, Hook,” Uma says smugly, tolerating Harry's affection for three seconds before shoving him out of the way and bowing at the crowd, all of whom are applauding enthusiastically. “I’ve just set a new standard. I’ll break it in no time.”

“Sure babe,” Harry turns to Gonzo and Murph, who are being swarmed by students. “You two might want to leave - Jonas is heading over here and he has Marya’s baseball bat.”

“Well that was traumatizing,” Evie says sourly as Jonas chases Gonzo and Murph past their table (“Dude, come on, she paid us!” “I'm gonna feed your dicks to my dog, you sons of bitches!”). “The only good thing to come out of this is that we finally have an answer to the question of whether or not Harry and Uma are dating.”

“What?” Mal asks distractedly, re-watching the performance on her phone with glee.

“Why else would he profess his love to her, and then why would she mock him through sex? They're obviously together-”

Evie's impassioned monologue is interrupted by Sierra's triumphant cackle. “I win! Pay up loser!”

“Fucking hell, I don't even know why I bet on that boy anymore,” Ashe grouses as she reluctantly hands over ten dollars to Sierra. “He has been a disappointment ever since the time we had sex, and he’s been letting me down ever since.”

“What?” Evie says, so loudly that Ashe and Sierra stare at her. But it's Claudine who answers her.

“Harry and Uma had a bet going all week over who could embarrass the other more,” she explains, a smile curling her lips up. “And as you can see, Uma clearly won.”

Evie stares into her latte as though she's considering drowning herself in it as Jay laughs at her. “Ha! I should've put money on you being dead wrong.”

From across the courtyard, Uma and Harry are watching the crowd and enjoying the chaos.

“Should we let them out of their misery?” Harry asks, smirking down at Uma.

“Not until Wednesday,” Uma replies nonchalantly, grinning evilly as Audrey and Jane begin arguing, gesturing furiously at her and Harry.

Harry raises an eyebrow. “Rather specific.”

“Claudine has a bet going on with Jordan that you’ll turn her down if she asks you out. Claud promised to split the profits with us, and then you'll have enough to get new ink for your tattoo gun,” Uma says, a wicked grin in the corner of her mouth.

Harry grins and wraps his arm around her, pulling her closer to his side. “That's my girl,” he says admiringly as Uma smirks and laces her fingers with his.

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