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iatethepomegranate · 3 years

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We are not alone in the dark with our demons, Chapter 11

In which Caleb buys a house in Rexxentrum with Beau and Yasha, becomes a professor, and learns to be a person and protect those who have been hurt like he has.

Content warnings: Caleb's backstory, mentions of abuse from teachers, discussions of institutionalisation, implied medical abuse

Chapter summary: Caleb was hurting, but he wasn't the only one. If he could do nothing else, he could care for his friends, and they could care for him.

Chapter notes: Kirschtorte is just Black Forest Cake with the geographic reference removed because Zemnian. Chapter title is from Neptune by Sleeping At Last

Chapter 11: If brokenness is a work of art surely this must be my masterpiece

Dinner was a solemn affair, no matter how much Caduceus and Yasha tried to provide comfort in the food they made. The spiced, fried bugs that Yasha had convinced them all to try were actually very good. And they hadn’t made apple tarts today--Jester would have been furious if they’d tried it in her absence--but they made a different Zemnian dessert instead: Kirschtorte. Layers of chocolate sponge sandwiched with whipped cream, sour cherries and a cherry liqueur unique to the Zemni Fields, with a few cherries placed on top.

It tasted so much like home that Caleb stopped eating, folded his arms on the table, rested his head on them, and cried. He had been too tired to excuse himself.

“Was the cake that bad?” Yasha half-whispered.

“No,” Beauregard said thickly. “It’s good, babe. I don’t think that’s… I think it’s been a long day. Long two days.”

Essek rubbed slow circles into Caleb’s back, but the group let him cry without disturbing him. Caduceus handed him a glass of water when he was finished. Caleb did not miss Beauregard twisting away from him to wipe her eyes. And Caleb was struck by another wave of emotion, grief at how much Beauregard was hurting, that almost brought him to tears all over again.

After dinner, Essek helped Caduceus and Yasha with the dishes. They hadn’t let Caleb or Beauregard help tonight. Caleb caught Beauregard as she left the kitchen, and guided her to the couch. They sat together, quietly at first. Sometimes Caleb felt so many things that it seemed impossible to put them into words. But he couldn’t leave things like this; she had gotten involved because of him. She’d run into a burning house with him, she’d watched Felix so Caduceus could help him try to save the Baumanns, she’d spent a day and night watching over Nico in the same state she knew Caleb himself had once been in. Eleven years in Vergesson, broken under the weight of what he had done to his mother and father. She knew all that. She knew more than almost anyone what he had gone through; she had listened to his story and written it down so they could stop Trent from hurting anyone else, and give Caleb just a little shred of peace. She cared about Caleb. She cared about people like him. And she had also been abused by a powerful man.

And they’d had the chance to help Nico in a way neither of them had been helped when they most needed it (and what help they had received only came years after the damage was done). Then, all their efforts to help Nico had failed. She’d mobilised the monks and done her best to find him, and had come up empty just like Caleb had.

She was hurting, too.

Caleb took her hand in both of his and, feeling awkward about it, kissed her knuckles. Beauregard looked at him strangely.

“Uh, Caleb? You’re being weird.”

“You’re a good friend, Beauregard.” Caleb patted her hand, setting it down on her leg.

“Oh, we’re gonna have one of those talks.”

Caleb’s track record for emotional conversations with Beauregard was, for the most part, horrifying. They were both awkward people who sometimes understood each other well, and other times couldn’t understand each other at all. He had, on more than one occasion, stormed away from a conversation silently screaming.

“Beauregard…” He sighed. Caleb was running on sheer willpower, emotionally bruised and given to cry at a moment’s notice. But he wanted her to know how much he appreciated her, and how sorry he was for her pain. “Thank you.”

“Caleb, we’ve been over this. You don’t need to say this shit.”

“I do, though.” Caleb hadn’t meant for his voice to sound so small. So fragile. But he… Caleb needed her to hear this.

She looked away. “Sorry. I just… you’re going through a lot of shit, and I don’t want you to feel, like, obligated…” She trailed off, staring at the colourful, jewel-toned rug Jester had brought from Nicodranas.

“This is not easy for you, either,” Caleb said, and Beauregard sagged against the couch, looking at him like he had grown another head.

“Caleb, what the fuck?”

“You are a caring person, Beauregard. And you know better than most what those children have been through. You listened to my story and wrote it down for me. You stood with me while I faced Trent in the courtroom and recounted, again, everything he had done to me.” Caleb didn’t know where he found the strength to speak, to build up the steam he needed to spill out all his feelings, but he did it because Beauregard needed to know. For both their sakes. “You and Veth were the first people I ever told. You are… invested. You care. You are kind and good. I need you to know that I am grateful for everything you have done for me, and for people like me.”

“Caleb, I know you’re grateful,” Beauregard said, with that same tired frustration she often had when he was being emotionally obtuse. “You’re also a fucking wreck and need to stop wasting your time on me.”

“I am not wasting anything,” Caleb said. He had to fight down his frustration. Neither of them were comfortable having this kind of focus on them, and she was trying to be a good friend. “That is not all I wanted to say. I want you to know… I see you.” Caleb wasn’t great at eye contact, but he made a special effort now, locking eyes with Beauregard and hoping she got it. Hoping she understood he knew she was suffering, and that it mattered to him.

“Hard not to, man. I’m pretty hot.”

“I’m glad you know that about yourself.” It would have been easy to let her deflect, but Caleb steeled himself to drag this conversation where he intended it to go. “But that is not what I meant. You know that.”

Beauregard averted her eyes once again.

“Yesterday was hard. Today was hard. For all of us. And you…” Caleb reached for her hand, relieved that she let him hold it. “You have been abused as well. And yet, you ran into a burning house with me. You saw Nico unresponsive in Wulf’s arms, knowing I was once like that, too. You watched over Felix while Caduceus and I tried to save Nico’s parents. Then, you watched over Nico and had to witness what I was going through that day, and that night. You have seen me in a bad place before, and that was the worst I have been in a long time, and I know it was confronting for all of you. And you did everything you could to keep Nico from running, and you were there when it all fell apart. I know you are hurt, Beauregard. And you are allowed to be. Please allow that for yourself.”

She squeezed his hand, and some of her guardedness fell away to reveal the sheer depths of sadness in her eyes. “I love you, man.”

“I love you, too, Beauregard. Thank you, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”

“I know. You are a good person. I am sorry for your pain, because I am your friend.”

Beauregard clasped his hand in both of hers, staring down at the tangle of fingers. “I’m worried about you, Caleb. And about the kids. But I can do something about you, at least.”

“You have done a lot already, Beauregard. Thank you.” He tugged her by the hand until she shuffled close enough that he could throw his arms around her and drag her into the tightest hug he could manage. She squeezed him back, and his spine cracked a little in a way he didn’t know he had needed on both a physical and emotional level until relief flooded through his system.

****

Caduceus stayed overnight in case he was needed, and Essek dropped him back at the Grove the following morning.

“Call me any time,” Caduceus had said as his parting words. “Whatever you need, even if it’s in the middle of the night, I’ll be ready.”

The Volstrucker and the monks continued searching for Nico, and Caleb was at a loose end. So he launched himself into preparing for the upcoming semester, his first as a teacher. He split his time at home between his study in the dormer, the floor of Beau and Yasha’s living room, and occasionally the Cobalt Soul Archives while Beau was working, depending on how much his need for privacy warred with his need to have his loved ones close at hand.

Essek stayed. Caleb stewed in silent guilt whenever he let himself think about it too much, but he knew better than to ask Essek to leave when the man was clearly worried about him. More often than not, Caleb left the house with his hair braided, whether it was a single braid at the back or, Essek’s favourite, two narrow braids tucked into a half or full ponytail. Sometimes it felt like Caleb’s mental health hinged entirely on the presence of a braid.

Caleb sent daily messages to Felix and Nico. For Felix, it was simple to find a routine. A question about his day, little tidbits about a spell the boy had indicated an interest in, updates on the search for Nico, and whether either of them had received responses from him (the answer, thus far, was no). He didn’t push Felix for an answer about school. Not yet.

For Nico, Caleb weighed his words far more carefully.

On one day: “Hallo, Nico. It’s Caleb. How are you? I am working from home today. You are welcome here any time.”

A few hours after that: “Hallo, Nico. Caleb again. I just wanted to say: I know how you are feeling. I went through this as well. You’re in my thoughts.”

Another day: “Hallo, Nico. Me again. Are you safe? It’s cold out. Remember to drink water. Boil it first if necessary.”

And another: “Hallo, Nico. I am a teacher at the Academy now. I intend to watch these fuckers like a hawk. Keep the kids safe, ja?”

He burned a second spell for that one: “We deserved better. I will make sure the children who come after us get it. And you… come back when you’re ready. Let me help.”

And countless other messages, little updates about his day, about Felix, about work, about just… coming back in one piece.

And he did not receive a single response. Caleb cried more often than not after going through this. He preferred to be alone in his study in those moments, and the others had learned not to disturb him until he was ready to be around people again.

Overall, he felt he had been pretty good about it. He kept busy, spent time with his friends, let Essek hover around him and take care of him. Caleb let Essek help with his lesson plans, bounce around ideas for a presentation he would have to make in the first week of semester as a new teacher at the Academy. He had already told the Nein they were invited, and had spoken to Astrid to make sure the non-citizens would be welcome.

He also remembered to invite Nico, on the off-chance the boy needed a specific call to action to return to Rexxentrum.

“Hallo, Nico. I am presenting a talk next week at the Academy on the first day of semester. 7 o’clock. You would be welcome.”

Caleb met regularly with Bettina and Alphira to work on their lesson plans together. He spent most of that time with Bettina, given he would literally be taking over one of her classes. He was mostly assisting Alphira, though she was interested to get him in to talk to the senior Evocation students at some point about his experiences with the Sending spell. Including the funny ones with Jester. There was also an interesting discussion to be had about why Sending was considered an Evocation spell while Message was considered a Transmutation cantrip. Both professors spoke carefully in a way that suggested they knew what had happened with Felix and Nico, but they never brought it up. He was relieved they let him keep his academic work separate from that heartbreaking shitshow.

Between work, Caleb found time to catch up with Astrid and Wulf. He pretended not to notice their visible relief whenever they saw him, because he was genuinely unsure what they would do if he brought it up.

At a certain point, meeting in Astrid’s office brought up too many memories, so they moved their meetings to the dance hall. Beauregard, Yasha and even a disguised Essek had “accidentally” wandered in on more than one occasion.

“Are you still talking to Felix?” Astrid asked him as the three of them sat around a table in the farthest corner of the room from the dance floor.

“Ja, he doesn’t tell me everything, but he responds at least.”

“Still nothing from Nico?”

Caleb didn’t need to say it out loud; he couldn’t school his expression to hide the pain there. And Astrid and Wulf had once known him very well.

Astrid reached out, touched the back of his hand where it rested on the table beside his mug of ale. “I’m sorry, Bren.”

Wulf had his eye on Yasha, who was calmly drinking at the bar. “Astrid’s people are still looking for him.”

Caleb did his best to shrug off the hurt. “I know.”

Astrid squeezed his hand once and then retreated. “Now, about your lesson plans…”

She had been teaching for a while, so Astrid had plenty of advice to give. However, she was also hesitant to steer Caleb too much.

“You have good instincts,” she told him every time they spoke about it. “Trust them.”

On their way out of the dance hall, where they had sat for a good three hours, Astrid caught Caleb’s arm.

“One more thing. I have secured a venue at the Academy for the support group, mid-week. I have contacted most of the Volstrucker. We are ready to go ahead when you are.”

“Astrid, the point of this is not for one person to steer it.”

Astrid raised an eyebrow at him. “Bren, we need a dedicated person to drive this. And that person is you.”

The thought of that was frightening. Caleb was barely figuring out how to be a person himself, let alone be responsible for the healing of dozens of people who had been under Trent’s thumb for far longer than he had.

“Astrid.”

“I am not expecting you to have all the answers for them,” she said firmly. “But you have had more time to process than the rest of us have.” She gave a small, wry chuckle. “In fact, you may be the most stable of us all.”

“Astrid, that is horrifying.”

“She’s right,” said Wulf. “Besides, you have a way with people. Always have.”

Caleb was not like Fjord or Jester or Caduceus who always seemed to have something to say when someone was hurting, but he could talk when he had to. He feared some of the Volstrucker would not take him seriously because he had broken, or because he had gotten out long before they had. This would take time. Fortunately, Caleb was one of the few Empire wizards with in-depth knowledge of time, learned from a reliable source.

Astrid still held his arm. She slid down to grip his hand instead. “I know this will not be easy for you. You were always sensitive. But that is why you have a chance with these people. They are not…” She sighed. “Trent made sure we don’t know how to exist in a world without his boot on our throats.”

“We don’t know how to process our emotions,” Wulf said, and it was odd to hear him admit it aloud. “Well, most of us. You do all right.”

Caleb laughed at that, because it sounded like a horrible joke. Caleb, who felt so constantly bruised on the inside that even the slightest inconvenience threatened to send him into tears. Who still woke up gasping in the night. Who was so choked by pain sometimes that words left him. Processing his emotions? It was more likely that his emotions processed him. Like a fucking meatgrinder.

Astrid frowned at him. “Let’s take a walk. Just the three of us.” She glanced back at the door, where Yasha was visible. “If your shadow will allow it.”

“My shadow does what she likes,” Caleb muttered, letting Astrid tug him along. Wulf took his other hand, leaving him little choice to let the two of them take him where they willed.

They wound up in a small park they had used to visit regularly, especially when drunk after a night of dancing. It was strange to see it in daylight, and while Caleb was mostly sober. They sat on the grass beside a small ornamental pond, Astrid and Wulf pointedly bookending Caleb, sitting close enough for their shoulders to touch. The wind played with the strands of Caleb’s hair that had fallen out of his braid. He never bothered to fix them because Essek found it endearing.

“I apologise,” said Astrid. “I did not mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset, Astrid.” At her doubtful noise, he added, “Not at you.”

“You should get out of Rexxentrum,” she said abruptly. “Just for a few days. We have things well in hand. Your lesson plans are solid. Bettina and Alphira are pleased. You do not need to be here until next week.”

“And if Nico comes back?”

“You will be contacted. I promise.” Astrid looked to Wulf, who shrugged at her, which caused her to roll her eyes. “Jester keeps pestering me to make you visit Nicodranas.”

Caleb had been messaging with Jester regularly, and she had hinted that he should visit, but she was usually a lot more explicit when she wanted to see him. And he knew she was talking to Yasha, Beau and Essek, but none of them had said much about it.

It was odd. “Is there a reason she is pestering you and not the people I literally live with?”

Astrid shrugged. “I may have let a few things slip.”

“Astrid, you do not ‘let things slip.’”

She looked utterly unashamed. “Well, apparently you had not told some of your dearest friends you are going through a rough patch, so I did it for you.”

“In how much detail, exactly?” Caleb did not like to be angry with his friends, especially Astrid, but he needed to work out how much of a problem he needed to have with her.

“Very little, just enough that she knows you are not at your best. I would not rob you of that agency.”

That last part hit Caleb harder than he could have expected. “I… thank you.”

Caleb had to admit he missed his friends terribly. Especially Veth, who of all the Nein had seen him at his worst, helped him put the pieces of his brain together on the days he collapsed, who had cuddled up to him on bad days, who had been the first friend he’d had in many years. And Jester, who knew how to ruin a dark mood. Fjord, with his quiet understanding. Kingsley with his… Kingsleyness that was a little painfully close to Molly sometimes but more than welcome.

He always knew they would be worried sick if he told them even a fraction of what had happened in the last few days. Seeing the pain he brought to Caduceus, Yasha, Beau and Essek was hard enough. But they loved him. Those who did not know what had happened would want to know, so they could help.

And he was touched that Astrid and Wulf had taken the time to sit him down and discuss this with him. He didn’t know what they were now. Maybe he never would. Maybe they were friends again. They had all changed so much, Caleb especially, that it was hard to say if they could even be friends. But Caleb wanted it. He wanted it a lot.

“I suppose I can spare a day or two,” he finally said. It would be good for Essek to get out of Rexxentrum, too. Maybe he could drag Beau and Yasha out for a bit, even if Beau had obligations at the Archive.

Wulf and Astrid looked at each other in a knowing way he had not seen from them in seventeen years. The familiarity was strange, and a little uncomfortable, but also comforting at the same time. He had spent so much time emphasising how much he still cared for them, doing his best to drag them away from Trent, and then gently guiding them through sharing their trauma to put Trent away for good. But he had never forgotten that for such a long time, they were the ones looking out for him and protecting him. He had done the same for them, of course, but there had often been an unspoken understanding that Caleb was just a little bit squishy, needed just a little extra care.

Caleb was also keenly aware that sometimes it was easier to care for someone else than to care for yourself.

Wulf’s large hand found Caleb’s knee. “Good. Say hi to Fjord for me.”

“Tell him yourself,” Caleb muttered, because he knew Wulf would find it more funny than offensive.

Wulf chuckled and squeezed his knee. “Oh, and warn your boyfriend: if he hurts you, I will cut off his balls.”

“You will have to beat me there,” said Astrid.

Okay, this conversation had taken so many twists and turns that Caleb had half a mind to visit the Grove and ask Caduceus to check him for whiplash. Unsurprising, really. Things were complicated between the three of them and likely would be for a very long time.

He wasn’t sure what to say about the fact his exes were on the cusp of threatening his current partner, and not in the way one might expect. Caleb found himself fiddling with the end of his braid while he tried to process what the fuck was happening to him.

Finally, he said, “There are a great many people who would fuck him up if he ever put a foot wrong with me, and he himself is first in line. You need not worry about that. Thank you for your… concern?”

Astrid and Wulf shared another look, much more pained than the last. Then they both looked away, Astrid into the grass and Wulf at the pond.

“He treats you well?” she said quietly.

“Ja, very well. He came back to take care of me.” Caleb had no words for the depths of his gratitude towards Essek. He was always gentle with Caleb, sensitive to his needs. And these last few days, he had been nothing but a source of endless love and support, a soft place to land when Caleb felt like he was in freefall. He always offered this, but every protective and caring instinct in Essek had been cranked upward, like casting an old, reliable third-level spell at eighth level instead. Or ninth, though Caleb and Essek were not quite to that level of magical skill yet.

“Good,” Wulf muttered. “You play with your braid when you talk about him.”

Caleb chuckled, not even embarrassed he had been caught with such an obvious tell. “Ja, he likes to braid my hair for me.”

“Hard to hate a man who braids his partner’s hair.” Wulf’s voice was almost wistful; Caleb’s hair had never been long enough to braid when the three of them were together, but they had occasionally been able to get a small one into Astrid’s hair.

“Good. Don’t.”

Astrid’s hand found Caleb’s other knee. “You’ve been through a lot, even in the past few days alone. And… we know you are capable. You have the willpower and the support you need to get through all of this, and to guide the Volstrucker who agree to attend the support group. But we do worry for you. And we are… glad… you have people in your life who take care of you.” Once again, she could not look at him. “Wulf and I… we are sorry we failed you.”

That was a new one. “Astrid, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“Greater Restoration,” Wulf said quietly.

“If we had found the nerve to talk to a cleric ourselves,” added Astrid, “we could have gotten you out of there years ago.”

Right. Vergesson. “Trent wouldn’t have allowed it. You know that.”

“We could have tried.”

They had been teenagers. Frightened, grieving teenagers at the mercy of a powerful man. Of all the things Caleb could have held against Astrid and Eadwulf, this would never be one of them.

“You could have gotten us all killed,” Caleb said, forcing steel into his tone in the hope it would break whatever spiral Astrid and Wulf had worked themselves into. “You didn’t know that Greater Restoration would have done shit for me. Why would you? That is not the skillset Trent cultivated in us. He taught us how to hurt people, because we were to be his weapons. He had us murder our own fucking parents because all he wanted us to know was violence and pain and fear and utter reliance on him alone. You do not need to apologise for not taking on a fool’s errand.”

They refused to look at him once again. Jaws clenched. Eyes wild and staring holes into the ground.

“We were children,” Caleb reminded them, squeezing their hands where they remained on his knees. “We were children. Of all the things we have done or not done, that is the last thing I will ever let you apologise for. Do not hurt yourselves, hurt me, like this. Please.”

Astrid’s free hand pressed over her mouth, catching a sob. Wulf’s thumb drew a slow circle on Caleb’s knee.

“You’re right,” Wulf said quietly. “It would have been foolish. But we…”

“We were cowards,” Astrid snapped. “We left you there for eleven years. Trent made sure you were cared for, but… it was Vergesson. And you were defenceless.”

“I am well aware,” Caleb said before she could pull up memories that were far too painful for any of them. “I have told you before that I remember little of my time there. I would prefer it remain that way, I think.” Caleb wasn’t sure he could survive remembering that place beyond the flashes of awful that would sometimes come to him.

“I’m sorry, Bren. I’m sorry.”

“Shhhh. Enough of that.”

Astrid cleared her throat, straightened up. Evidently she had remembered they were technically in a public place.

“Do us a favour,” said Wulf. “Go to Nicodranas. Get some rest.”

“I will, if the two of you will also do me a favour.”

Astrid, newly composed, raised an eyebrow at him. “What is this favour?”

“Try to hate yourselves a little less. Hypocritical coming from me, but I think we could all stand to be kinder to ourselves.” Caleb had said almost those exact words to Essek in the Blooming Grove all those months ago, and he was struck by how much he had a type.

“All right,” she said, smiling with so much affection that Caleb was taken back to their first kiss in a freezing cold tower. “You first.”

They parted ways not long afterwards, and Yasha melted out of the shadows to walk Caleb home.

“That looked very intense,” she said, leading him by the hand like he was a small child bound to get lost in a big city. “Are you okay?”

“I think so. Think you can convince Beauregard to visit Nicodranas for a bit?”

Yasha chuckled. “I think I can manage.”

****

Making arrangements for Nicodranas kept Caleb from stewing too much in his talk with Astrid and Wulf. That was welcome. He appreciated the care they still had for him, but there were some things that were still too painful and probably always would be. He had already messaged Jester to confirm the Nein Heroez would be in dock at the time.

“Of course, Caleb! Did Astrid talk to you? She’s super nice, and she really cares about you a lot. I’m sorry I was mean to--” The message cut off at twenty-five words; Jester’s word economy, or lack thereof, would always be a source of joy even on a bad day.

Essek, mercifully, had messaged Veth for him; she would hear the exhaustion in Caleb’s voice and worry herself into a panic.

Despite the flurry of activity, Caleb still found himself occasionally caught, freezing in the act of folding a shirt or cataloguing his spell components. And he’d remember how much the two visits to Vergesson he had made since his escape had rattled him. The few memories he had were bad enough, and he knew so much of the pain the place brought him was buried in his subconscious. Or in moments that his body seemed to remember but his mind didn’t.

The bloodbath he’d caused while on the amulet heist. So on edge that he had forgotten a crucial detail about the Wall of Force spell until he had expended all his spells that he could have used to disintegrate it. Caleb did not forget things like that. Until he did, apparently. And then there had been his complete inability to do anything but fight when Trent had appeared suddenly, temporarily thwarting their escape. He’d fallen back on his training. Always his training. And the violence it entailed.

While part of him was a tiniest bit curious what had happened during those eleven years, if nothing else to further catalogue Trent’s sins on the public record and dig up his accomplices, most of him hoped he never found out.

As he stood a little too long in these thoughts, a pair of dusky purple hands lifted Caleb’s component pouch from his shaking grip, setting it aside. Essek sat Caleb on the end of the bed and wordlessly climbed behind him, knees gently pressing Caleb’s hips as he pulled the braid loose and began it anew. The gentle tugging motions slowly pulled Caleb back into his body, and the present.

Essek finished off the braid and kissed Caleb’s neck. “Do you want to talk about it?”

More like Caleb needed to talk about it before he imploded. “Astrid and Wulf apologised for not getting me out of Vergesson themselves. And… I think they know some parts of what happened to me there. Things I don’t remember. Things I don’t want to remember. Things I might know subconsciously that I don’t think I can handle knowing consciously. I’m just… out of sorts, I suppose.”

Essek slid his arms around Caleb’s chest, pressing himself up against his back, squishing their cheeks together. “I would like to turn them into spaghetti for making you think about this when you have enough to worry about, but you would be upset with me.”

“I’m not angry with them.”

“I know.” Essek kissed his cheek, nuzzling Caleb’s stubble.

“Vergesson is… I do not like the person I became when I was last there. I don’t think I could survive remembering what happened to me.”

“Then don’t try to remember.” Essek flattened his palm over Caleb’s heart and gently pressed down, forcing Caleb to focus more on his breathing. Remembering that his heart still beat. He was here.

More immediate, practical thoughts began to filter back into Caleb’s mind. He remembered he was going to Send to Caduceus and invite him to Nicodranas. Caduceus would hear the rough edges in Caleb’s voice, but he could handle it far better than most of the Nein.

“Hallo, Caduceus. It’s Caleb. We are visiting Nicodranas for a few days tomorrow. Would you like to come? We can pick you up in the morning.”

There was a slight pause, and then Caduceus’s warm, soothing tone filled Caleb’s mind. “Hey, Caleb. That sounds great. I’ll be ready, with fresh tea for everyone. And sunhats. You and Essek will burn in the sun.”

“Caduceus is in,” Caleb said, stifling a yawn. Essek laughed softly, his breath tickling Caleb’s neck. “Now for Yussa.” He cast again, directing a message to Wensforth. “Hallo, it’s Caleb of the Mighty Nein. We are visiting Nicodranas tomorrow. May we use the circle? It would be good to see you both.”

Wensforth replied quickly. “Yes, of course! The master is eager to speak with you at any time. Please… message before you arrive?”

Caleb let himself laugh a little. The Nein were notoriously awful at warning people of their arrival. And Caleb was touched that Yussa, ever a busy man, thought so highly of them now that he would happily drop everything to talk to them. They had spoken a few times since Cognouza, and if Yussa had been a less restrained man, Caleb had the strong impression he would’ve hugged each and every one of the Nein in gratitude for saving him.

And, to think, Caleb had once been so frightened of him that he could barely speak.

He felt better, so he got up and finished sorting his spell components, making a note that he would need to restock his teleportation circle chalk after a few more uses.

Caleb helped Yasha cook Eintopf that evening, a one-pot stew. Caleb had grown up eating dozens of versions of the stew, but he had his favourites. Carrots, leeks and celeriac were key to the base of the soup, as they were preparing their own broth. Along with a bunch of parsley. Yasha had found some excellent pork sausages at the market today, so those went in along with green beans (Caleb’s sentimental favourite), potatoes, and a ton of onion. Lots of garlic. Yasha had also found marjoram at the market today.

This was a recipe Caleb had helped his mother cook even as a boy, so he also insisted they add apple like she always had. For a little bit of sweetness and acidity. And surprise.

Caleb cleaned and steamed the beans while Yasha browned the meat and onions and potatoes and garlic. From there, they tag-teamed to get everything bubbling away until it was all finally ready to put into a pot and simmer away to completion.

It was a good use of the evening, and it kept Caleb busy and enveloped in happy sensory memories of his mother’s kitchen. While the stew bubbled away, he munched on a few green beans he’d set aside for the fun of it after they had steamed.

Essek hovered in the corner, reading a book about sea creatures Jester had brought him last time she was in town. Caleb pulled out his lesson plans and speech preparation, spreading it out across the dinner table, and made edits into the evening.

Beauregard arrived home from work--Yasha had visited her already to persuade her to come with them to Nicodranas. And then they ate dinner together at the table, and the taste of home did not send Caleb into a grief spiral tonight. This time, it just soothed him.

Before bed, Caleb sent one last message: “Hallo, Nico. It’s Caleb. I will be in Nicodranas for a few days. If you need shelter and the house is empty, take the key--” He cast again. “From inside the flowerpot on the right side of the house. I have an illusion set to guide you. Password: Wilkommen. Gute nacht.”

No response, but Caleb hadn’t expected one. He let Essek tuck him into bed. They curled up together, Essek slowly but firmly stroking his back with grounding pressure, until Caleb fell asleep.

#caleb widogast #professor widogast #shadowgast #essek thelyss #astrid beck #eadwulf grieve #blumendrei #blumentrio #critical role #cr2 #beauregard lionett #yasha nydoorin #my fics #fanfiction #the pomegranate's professor widogast fic

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alwaysahiccupandastrid · 4 years

Text

A dumb concept but hear me out.

Relating back to my post about how the four “rotten” kids didn’t deserve what happened to them, and what I said about the parents being the ones punished/harmed instead, I had some ideas.

First of all, Augustus nearly falls into the chocolate river but his mother rushes forwards to stop her son falling in, and she falls in instead, nearly drowning. Alternatively, we saw her putting candies into her bag, maybe she tries to get some of the chocolate river into a canteen/flask, who knows? She gets sucked up into the pipe instead, and Augustus watches in horror as the Oompa Loompas sing about how she’s encouraged her son’s gluttony, how he could meet a sticky end like her if he doesn’t change. As his mother is taken to the fudge room, Wonka sends an Oompa Loompa to get her out - but Augustus stays on with the tour. He noticeably doesn’t gorge himself as he did before.

In the inventing room, Wonka shows off the three course gum meal and Violet tries to grab it - however, she hesitates for a moment when he mentions how it’s not “quite right” yet. Her mother, however, snatches the gum from her, telling her “winners don’t hesitate, Violet”, before chewing away. Mrs Beauregarde then begins to swell up like a blueberry and has to be juiced. Violet is terrified that a stick of gum did that to her mother, and she listens as the Oompa Loompas sing about how bad chewing gum is, and about how she could end up the same way if she continues to be as competitive and like her mother. As her mother is rolled to the juicing room, Violet also stays on with the tour; no one sees her take her gum out of her mouth and toss it away.

The group goes to the nut sorting room, where Veruca sees the squirrels and decides she wants one. She goes to get one herself, only for the squirrels to leap at her; her father jumps the gate and races down to help her - suddenly the squirrels turn from Veruca and run to swarm him instead whilst she runs back up the stairs and clambers to get behind the gate once more. Everyone watches as the squirrels pronounce Mr Salt a bad egg and toss him straight down the chute; the Oompa Loompas sing about how her parents spoilt her, about how despite his money, he’s not anything more than garbage and that if she continues to act like a spoilt brat, Veruca will be as rotten as they are - rotten as the garbage. She stays on with the tour whilst Oompa Loompas are sent to retrieve her father from the garbage chute; she’s quieter and listens more as the tour goes on, not demanding a thing.

In the TV room, Mike is about to be teleported into the TV when his dad suddenly panics, runs and pushes him off the platform, taking his place himself as the lights flash a second later. Mike watches as his father nearly dies and comes out of the ordeal six inches tall; he hears the Oompa Loompas sing about how television rots the brain, hence why he tried to do something so stupid, and it humbles him a little bit. His dad is taken to the taffy puller to be stretched out, and Mike apologizes for calling Wonka an idiot as they go to continue.

Now Wonka realizes that the only ones remaining are the five kids and Grandpa Joe - and he grins as he announces that Charlie has won the special prize, that Charlie will receive the entire factory. Clearly, his grandparents and parents raised him to he not-so-rotten. The other kids are astounded but quiet, and congratulate Charlie - though they all seem a little down and different than when the tour started.

He leads the group down to the factory entrance - and there are the four parents. Mrs Gloop, covered in chocolate from head to toe, licking her lips and clearly trying to resist nibbling her fingers. Mrs Beauregarde, bright blue-purple and flexible. Mr Salt, reeking and covered in three weeks worth of garbage. Mr Teavee, eight or nine feet tall and as thin as paper. The kids are horrified by what they see - their parents are reflections of what they could become, what they could have become on the tour.

That’s when Wonka announces his proposition: the four kids have a choice. They can go home with their parents, and hope that their day in the factory has changed them, that their parents have learnt a lesson too, and that they’ll all hopefully be better people because of it - or they can stay at the factory, working under his and Charlie’s supervision and learning how to run a business together. He tells them that they’re good kids at heart, and that he’d be willing to take them on if they’re willing to make the effort, to change for the better.

None of them really know what to say, but they look at their parents - at how rotten they are, at how they could become their parents if they’re not careful - and they realize that no, they don’t want to be like their parents at all. It’s a crazy idea, yes, but as Wonka explains how each of their skills could be used and developed for good purposes, they realize that it’s better than what their parents have been raising them to be.

The parents are outraged but Wonka tells them not to worry - Charlie’s family will be living in the factory, and so the children won’t be alone with just one (kind of kooky creepy) adult male and hundreds of Oompa Loompas, because Charlie’s parents and grandparents will be there to take care of the kids and make sure they’re well looked after. Makes sense that the parents/guardians of the least rotten kid can help shape and form the other four to be better people, right? Besides, he adds, the kids are more than welcome to say no and go home with their parents.

The kids - including Charlie - decide to have a minute where they talk about this - their parents may suck, but this is still weird and a bit strange. Charlie tells them that he personally would not abandon his family, not for all the chocolate in the world - but then, he admits, his parents and grandparents are good and honest people who love and care about him, and that while they’ve never been able to afford lavish gifts or even more than one chocolate bar a year for him on his birthday, he’s always been happy because he loves his family and is content that they love him too. The other four realize that they can’t exactly say the same about their own parents - their parents have been neglectful, for the most part, and never encouraged them to pursue new skills or change their dangerous habits.

Having said that, despite the fact their parents are terrible parents, the children don’t think they can just abandon their parents completely - despite it all, the children do hold some love for their families. With that in mind, they make a deal with their parents and Mr Wonka: yes, they would very much like to live in the factory and work with Charlie, and develop new skills - but they don’t want to abandon their parents completely. They ask that their parents be allowed to live near to the factory and that they can see them as often as they like - they would ask if their families can come live in the factory too, but they don’t think a) their parents would want that, given what they’ve gone through, and b) Wonka would want these rotten adults living in his factory with his workers and potentially causing harm/problems with his candy.

It’s kind of pretty useful that Charlie’s family is about to move into the factory - Wonka, with their permission, decides he’s going to use it to make a building/area for the other four children’s families to live in. Not that the parents are thrilled by the idea at all - the Salt family has a whole nut business AND a massive estate in England, why would they give that up? Augustus’ family is from Germany and they have a meat/butcher business set up there, are they supposed to just drop it and move to this strange place?

Things do eventually work out though, and an agreement/deal is made...

Augustus becomes the taste tester for new candies, and he offers up some of his own ideas, as well as some of his own critiques or comments on each idea that Wonka and Charlie present to him. He decides to he healthier, however, and he learns to control himself instead of eating everything in sight - he enjoys things in moderation. As an added bonus, running around the factory as well as healthier eating means he sheds some weight too. His parents manage to set up a butcher business in the town, though it takes a while for them to get used to the way things are and to earn respect/customers; Augustus still visits them regularly, and they have family dinners at least once a week, sometimes with the other Golden Ticket winners joining them.

Violet uses her competitive nature to help with advertising and marketing Wonka products - her competitive nature makes her want to make sure that Wonka candy is the best and number one most bought candy in the whole world. Sales are constantly booming because of her and her marketing techniques - Wonka candy has truly never been so popular, which really says something. Her mother is still blue and flexible, but Violet visits her and soon Mrs Beauregarde learns to be proud of her daughter and what she’s achieving instead of trying to push her to be a mini version of herself.

Mike is somewhat of an expert when it comes to television, and he’s incredibly smart. He’s in charge of helping in the television room (running experiments on different candies to test the boundaries of teleporting food to television sets, etc), helping in the inventing room, and in making sure all of the machines are running properly in each room of the factory. He knows the technical stuff, the physics of how everything should work, but he also becomes a little more open minded about things because clearly Wonka’s factory defies all laws of physics a lot of the time, so he learns how much of it applies to Wonka’s factory and what doesn’t, which helps him understand the machines/science behind the work they’re doing. Given what happened to Mr Teavee, the family do move to be closer to the factory - after all, it kind of makes it difficult for the kids he teaches Geography to in high school to take him seriously when he’s...well, the way he is now. They move Mike’s video games into a television room of the factory - but he plays far less than he used to, and watches less television than he did before. His parents notice that he’s less angry, though still incredibly intelligent and full of snark - they still don’t understand what he’s talking about most of the time, but he’s more pleasant to be around and talk to; he’s more excited and eager to share information rather than snapping or looking down on people.

Veruca is arguably one of the most important people in the team. Veruca is heiress to the Salt Nut business, and so she organizes a merger between Wonka and her father for the factory to start using nuts from the Salt business in their candies. Mr Salt’s Factory continues to use human workers, and they shell nuts just as they did before, selling them as they are; Wonka’s factory uses squirrels of course, and the nuts are used in candy. Other than this, Veruca starts to learn business skills from both her father and Willy Wonka, and she’s in charge of handling the factory’s finances, such as budgeting, keeping accounts of investments and incomes, and making sure that the factory has the money for Wonka and Charlie to pursue their new ideas. Her father and mother aren’t exactly keen, however, on moving into the town and into that apartment Wonka has built for the families of the other winners - they enjoy their lavish lifestyle too much. Her father comes every weekend or so for a stay, and her mother once a month - surprisingly, it doesn’t bother her that much after a while, because she’s always known deep down that her parents have never been sure on how to love her properly. Her pets are back on the estate, with her parents, which she visits for a rare holiday from time to time - perhaps she even brings one or two with her back to the factory, on the condition that they remain on the top floor where the children’s bedrooms are, and they go nowhere near any food production areas.

Charlie, of course, is Willy Wonka’s heir and becomes his protégé, a chocolatier in the making. He has much to learn but he’s always eager and enthusiastic even if they’re having a slow day with hardly any ideas or breakthroughs. He’s working with Wonka, someone he idolizes/looks up to, and they develop a wonderful working relationship; Charlie looks up to his mentor, and Willy Wonka actually learns stuff from Charlie too. Charlie’s happy because his family are all living in the factory with him, and he knows this is where he’s meant to be. Life is good and he doesn’t take it for granted.

The kids actually all become friends, and it’s nice because none of them have actually had real friends before; Augustus was bullied for his size, Violet’s competitiveness drove others away and she was “too busy” for friends, Veruca didn’t have real friends but rather people who hung onto her and tried to get close to her due to her money, Mike was always too busy watching TV or playing games to bother with friends, and Charlie was somewhat of an outcast due to the fact his family was poor and he had secondhand/“poor” clothes. Working together leads them all to becoming friends.

The Bucket family - who have always struggled to feed the seven in their family - now has enough food for them all and more. They happily invite the children and Willy Wonka to dinner with them every single night, and it becomes a normal part of the evening; the five children happily chatting and laughing, just being kids, the adults chuckling with them, all of them eating until they can’t anymore. Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike see what a real family can be, and soon they feel like they’re part of the Bucket family themselves. The other parents are even invited to dinner with the Buckets on special occasions, and - with the exception of the Salts - everyone usually takes up their offer. Eventually though, the Salt parents do slowly start to come around - for Veruca’s sake more than anything else. They still see themselves as better than the others, and they’re kind of stiff towards the other parents/adults, but they agree to dinners on special occasions since it means they’ll get to see their daughter.

To be honest, the kids are all really happy with life nowadays; they’re happy because they’re all friends and they’re all a part of something special - they’ve all truly changed for the better. The friendship between these five lucky kids is sure to be one that lasts a lifetime.

Life has never been better or sweeter.

#charlie and the chocolate factory #augustus gloop #violet beauregarde #veruca salt #mike teavee #charlie bucket #willy wonka #long post is long

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wonkasmissstarshine · 3 years

Text

The Chocolatier’s Rose {Willy Wonka x OC} Ch. 6

GIFs not mine. Credit go to owners.

Summary: It’s the day of the tour. Rose Bucket and Willy Wonka meet for the first time.

Tagging: @holdmeicant @willymywonkers

Here they were, Rose and Charlie Bucket, standing at the front gates of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, waiting to be let in. Rose had dressed extra special for the occasion. Under her jacket, she was wearing a black dress with a white collar. There were red roses outlined on the black of her dress. She wore a pair of flats to match. "Aren't you excited, Rosie?" Charlie asked, looking up at his sister.

Rose smiled down at him. "More than you can imagine, Charlie" She looked back the at the crowd, seeing Mr and Mrs Bucket, and Grandpa Joe, smiling at them. Mrs Mason even showed up. She stood with the Buckets and gave a grin.

Rose looked forwards again. She then began to wonder what exactly Mr. Wonka looked like. Would he be as handsome as she pictured him to be? Would he smell as good as his chocolate?

"Daddy!" Veruca Salt whined. "I want to go in!"

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. Mr. Salt replied to his daughter, "It's nine fifty nine, sweetheart"

"Make time go faster!" Veruca demanded. Rose had to fight the urge to scream at the child she was stuck standing next to.

"Eyes on the prize, Violet" Rose overheard Mrs Beauregard tell her daughter. Of course, they were wearing matching outfits. "Eyes on the prize"

The gates opened and a voice came from the speakers. "Please, enter!" While everyone else was in a rush to be first, Rose and Charlie took their time. "Come forward!" Everyone moved forward until they were at the factory's entrance. "Close the gates!" The gates closed. "Dear visitors, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to my humble factory. And who am I? Well.."

The doors opened revealing a red curtain. Music began playing as the curtain was pulled back to reveal singing puppets. Rose smiled and began dancing to the song. The Gloops also danced along to it while everyone just stared.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

The Amazing Chocolatier

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

Everybody give a cheer!

He's modest, clever, and so smart,

He barely can restrain it.

With so much generosity,

There is no way to contain it

To contain it, to contain, to contain, to contain.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

He's the one that you're about to meet.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka

He's a genius who just can't be beat.

The magician and the chocolate 'wiz

The best darn guy who ever lived

Willy Wonka here he is!

A chair rose out of the floor, but it was empty. The pyrotechnics from the musical number caused the puppets to start melting. Everyone just stood in complete silence until someone started clapping and laughing. Everyone looked at the man who was now standing by Mr. Salt.

"Wasn't that just magnificent?" the man asked. Rose couldn't help but smile. She knew that this had to be Willy Wonka. "I was worried it was getting a little dodgy in the middle part, but then that finale. Wow!"

The man walked up the steps and turned to stare at everyone. "Who are you?" Violet asked.

"He's Willy Wonka" Rose said, in an almost dreamy tone. Sure, she pictured him to be handsome, but he was more beautiful than she could have imagined. And she already loved his quirky personality.

"Really?" Charlie asked, a smile on his face.

"Good morning, starshine! The earth says hello!" Willy greeted. Everyone stared at him like he was nuts, but Rose giggled, obviously amused by the man. Willy looked at her, and smiled a little bit. He was glad someone liked his greeting. He reached into his jacket and pulled out some cards. "Dear guests, greetings! Welcome to the factory. I shake you warmly by the hand" He extended his hand out for someone to shake it, but no one was stepping forward. That is, until Rose did. She could tell that he wasn't used to social interaction, so she wanted to be polite and try to make the situation a bit more comfortable for him.

She grabbed his hand and shook it, flashing him a smile. "It's very nice to meet you!" She whispered to him, before stepping back to stand beside Charlie again.

Willy just simply stared at her. He was already taken away with her. Not only was she the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen before, but she was kind and there was this warmth he felt when his gloved hand touched hers. He glanced back down at his cards when he felt he had been staring too long. "My name is Willy Wonka!"

Veruca pointed at the chair. "Then shouldn't you be up there?"

"Well, I couldn't very well watch the show from up there, now could I little girl?" This made Rose giggle yet again. Her angelic laugh was like music to Willy's ears. He couldn't help but smile at her again.

Charlie was quick to notice the silent interaction between his sister and the chocolatier. He may have been young, but he wasn't blind to notice when two people were already in love.

"Let's get a move on, kids!" Willy urged. Everyone followed him into the factory.

"Don't you want to know our names?" Augustus asked.

"Can't imagine how it would matter" Willy replied. "Come quickly. Far too much to see" He led everyone to a long room with a long red carpet, pale grey walls and bright lights. "Just drop your coats anywhere" Willy shed his coat, dropping it on the ground, and he took off his sunglasses as well, dropping them on top of his coat.

Rose gasped quietly when she saw his eyes. She had never seen violet eyes before. She had a better look at him now that they were under some light. His skin was so pale, due to the lack of sunlight from living in the factory for so long, and not one strand of his chocolate brown hair was out of place.

Everyone else opted to hang their coats on the posts of the velvet rope that was in the room. Rose glanced over at Willy to see him staring at her again. She blushed and looked down at the ground.

"Mr. Wonka, sure is toasty in here" Mr. Teavee commented.

"What?" Willy said, breaking out of his stare. "Oh, yeah. I have to keep it warm in here because my workers are used to an extremely hot climate. They just can't stand the cold" He explained.

"Who are the workers?" Charlie asked curiously.

"All in good time" Willy told him. He began leading the way down the hall. "Now..." Suddenly, Violet hugged him causing Willy to gasp.

"Mr. Wonka, I'm Violet Beauregard!" The girl smiled at him as she obnoxiously chewed on her gum. Rose rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long day with Violet's gum smacking.

"Oh" Willy glanced down at the girl and then muttered, "I don't care"

"Well, you should care, because I'm the girl that's gonna win the special prize at the end" Violet said with overconfident grin on her face.

"Well, you do seem confident and confidence is key" Willy said. Violet grinned up at her mother. Mrs. Beauregard gave an approving nod.

Willy gasped yet again when Veruca stepped in front of him. She had a big smile on her face. "I'm Veruca Salt. It's very nice to meet you, sir" She then curtsied.

"I always thought a verruca was a type of wart you got on the bottom of your foot. Haha!" Veruca glared at Willy, but Rose giggled again. Willy smiled at the sound. But that smile was quickly gone when Augustus stepped between him and Veruca.

"I'm Augustus Gloop" The gluttonous boy introduced himself, before taking a bite of the chocolate bar he had with him. "I love your chocolate!"

Willy eyed the boy up and down. "I can see that! So do I. I never expected to have so much in common" Before he took another step forward, he turned around and looked at Mike. "You. You're Mike Teavee. You're the little devil who broke the system" Then he looked at Charlie, but a genuine smile seemed to appear on Willy's face. "And you, you're just lucky to be here, aren't you?" He looked up at everyone else. "And the rest of you must be their p...p..."

Willy was struggling to say the word. To Rose, it looked like he was going to vomit trying to say it. "Parents" Mr. Salt finished for him.

"Yeah! Moms and dads!" Willy smiled but it quickly dropped when he looked off into space and muttered, "Dad? Papa?"

"Actually," Rose's voice pulled Willy back into reality. "I'm Charlie's older sister, Rose"

"Rose" Willy quietly repeated her name, a smile forming as the word left his lips. "Like the flower"

"Exactly" Rose nodded.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment. Everyone stared awkwardly at them, except for Charlie and Mrs. Beauregard. Charlie smiled at them, looking between the two. Mrs. Beauregard kept a jealous glare on Rose.

"Shall we?" Willy said, addressing everyone though his eyes were kept on Rose. He finally peeled his eyes away from her to lead everyone down the hall.

"Is it just me or does Wonka seem a few quarters short of a buck?" Mr Teavee had asked Mr. Salt.

"I'm sorry, I don't speak American" Mr. Salt replied.

Augustus walked up to Charlie. Rose watched the two of them carefully. Maybe the Gloop boy wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Maybe Charlie would make a friend with him. "Would you like some chocolate?" Augustus asked Charlie.

"Sure" Charlie nodded.

"Then you should have brought some!" Augustus teased before taking a bite out of the chocolate. Rose glared daggers at the boy.

Violet and Veruca looked at each other. "Let's be friends!" Veruca suggested, with an obviously fake smile.

"Best friends!" Violet said, the same smile plastered on her face. The two girls linked arms and their smiles quickly dropped.

Charlie grabbed Rose's hand and gently pulled on it. "Yes, Charlie?" She asked her curious brother.

"I think Mr. Wonka likes you" Charlie concluded.

A deep blush appeared on Rose's cheeks. "Charlie, he just met me. He couldn't possibly like me already"

"But he keeps staring at you and smiling at you" The next words that came out of Charlie's words surprised Rose to say the least. "Do you believe at love at first sight?"

"Of course I do, Charlie, but I also believe you should get to know the person before you decide to spend the rest of your life with them. That way you're sure that you absolutely do love them" When Rose said that last part, a train of guilt passed right through her. She stopped walking and stared off into space, much like Willy had done moments earlier.

"Rosie, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Charlie" Rose assured him when she was back into reality. "Let's just enjoy our day, alright?" She ran a hand through his hair. They finally reached the end of the hallway.

"An important room this," Willy explained. Rose noted something odd about the door. It was so small that a mouse was the only thing that could get through it. "After all, it is a chocolate factory"

"Then why is the door so small?" Mike questioned.

"It's to keep all the great big chocolatey flavour inside!" Willy answered him, and then laughed. He crouched down to unlock the door with his key. He then stood back up and pushed the bigger door open with the palm of his hand.

The view that appeared before Rose was only the kind of thing you'd see in your dreams. But here it was in front of her.

#willy wonka x oc #willy wonka x reader #willy wonka #rose bucket #my oc #rose and willy #the chocolatier's rose

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perseusjackson-jasongrace · 3 years

Text

Day 4: “Did it mean anything to you? Did I mean anything to you?"

Actors AU

Tears roll down Annabeth’s cheeks, the bright lights making them glisten against her pale skin.

“Did it mean anything to you?” Reyna chokes down a sob of her own, “Did I mean anything to you?”

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth shakes her head, like she can’t process what's happening, "I didn't mean for it to end this way.”

“But it did.” Reyna’s voice is clipped, strangled on emotion.

“AND CUT!” Someone yells from behind them. “That was perfect ladies! Don’t even need to do another take.”

Immediately they both relax, loosing their shoulders, and giving each other beaming smiles. Their director comes over, as does the rest of the crew, and starts debriefing them. Tomorrow they’d start on the first of many action scenes so all of them needed to be prepared. Weeks of stunt and action-training would all be put to the test, and Reyna for one was beyond excited. Although she had been in a fair number of movies at this stage the action scenes had been minimal and she hadn’t needed such high-intensity training till now. The crowd disperses as everyone packs up to make their way home for the night.

“That was good.” She grabs her co-stars hand and squeezes.

“So good!” The blonde agrees, “And now I'm ready to go home and crash onto my couch with a burrito and a good movie.”

“Oh so anything with me in it then?” She smirks.

“You wish Arellano, there must be something to drool over. I’m thinking ‘Persephone’s Fall’ so I can stare at both Persephone and Hades.”

Reyna can’t help but agree because those two actors are truly delicious, and from what she’s heard unbelievably nice on top of that. She doesn’t know Silena Beauregard or Charles Beckendorf personally but she had seen them around a few times at award shows and after-parties.

‘What are your plans?”

“Oh,” She thinks about it for a second, and comes up empty. “I don’t know. I guess go home and crash.”

Grey eyes roll, “You are such a bore. You are coming home with me. We can both eat messy burritos and copious amounts of ice-cream and watch the movie.”

“Oh?” Her shock is evident on her face and it makes her co-star laugh.

“Come-on let’s get out of all this and go home. I need a shower desperately.”

Reyna makes haste of stripping and folding the clothes she needs to return to the costume department and then tugging on her own grey sweatpants and lavender hoodie. Her makeup is a problem for later so with a final glance around her trailer she slips into her sneakers and grabs her keys. The nights are starting to get chilly as they slowly slide into winter and it is particularly evident tonight when a west wind blows across her cheeks, biting at the flushed brown skin.

“You ready?” A voice calls from the darkening lot.

“Yep, just have to drop this off in costumes.”

“We can go together. And then you’ll meet me at home?”

“Sure, do you want me to stop and get anything?” The place their clothes in the bin labelled ‘Used on set’, huddling together as they step outside into the now icy wind.

“No, I think I got everything. I’ve already ordered the burritos, they’ll be there by the time we are, and I already have chocolate and chunky-cookie ice-cream in the freezer.”

Reyna nods, “See you in a bit.” And then she’s hopping onto her motorbike and shoving her helmet over her head. With a rev she is off, racing out of the studios and to Annabeth’s. She can no longer feel the wind on her face but that doesn’t stop it from seeping through her clothes and freezing her insides. She hates winter. Luckily her destination is not far and soon she is pulling up to the apartment buildings and parking in the visitors section. Bright headlights catch her eyes and she recognises Annabeth's car, a bright blue Mini Cooper. The first time Reyna had seen it she laughed so hard the blonde had punched her in the arm. She had to start line runs with a numb arm and a very unhappy co-star. Luckily a custard-filled doughnut and a hot cup of coffee made her a very forgiven friend.

The blonde walks towards her, a brown paper bag swinging in her hands. “I forgot I didn’t tell you where I live and I was panicking the entire ride over that you’d gotten lost and I'd never be able to find you and then I'd have to work with,” She makes a disgusted face, “Hera. Ugh that would have been a disaster.”

“Glad you have no concern for my personal safety,” Reyna huffs, “You only care about you’d replace me.”

A teasing smile twitches at those pink lips, “You can injure yourself after we finish this.”

She shoves her as they get into the elevator and they both end up squished against the cool metal, laughing.

“Leave me be Arellano, or we battle to the death!” She whips out her car keys and points them menacingly.

“Never Chase! We duel till dawn.” Her motorbike keys are gripped tightly in her hands, the grooves digging into her skin, and there is a gleam in her eye that promises war.

As the elevator jerks to life they stand opposing each other, legs apart, brows furrowed, and barely restrained laughter twitching at their lips. It is very awkward, then, when the elevator door slides open to reveal to very confused people on the other side. Quickly they straighten up and move to the back of the box, biting their lips to hold in the giggles threatening to escape. Their shoulders press together as they wait for their floor and they absolutely refuse to look at each other.

It is a blessing when the elevator dings to indicate their floor. They race out of there, hand in hand, and breathless with laughter.

“Did you see their faces?” Annabeth snorts, clutching her stomach as she tries to let air into her lungs.

“What if they thought we were two robbers fighting for the right to steal in the building?” Reyna gasps.

“Or two cosplayers trying to fight for the princess’ hand.” The blonde falls to the hallway floor, unable to hold herself up.

“They probably thought we were absolute weirdos.”

“We are weirdos.�� She giggles, “Come on let’s go inside before we traumatise more residents.”

So they stumble into her apartment and collapse onto the couch to collect their breaths and composure. Reyna takes the time to glance around the place she’s only briefly seen twice and is surprised to note the sheer lack of personality on the walls. She thought there’d be pages full of weird facts ripped out of old-fashioned medical books, and tons of half-done architecture drawings scattered on the coffee table. And a picture or a few of Annabeth’s beloved Greece with its old structures and beautiful oceans.

“Are you judging my blank walls?” Those grey eyes are still closed to the world so it is an amusing surprise to hear the question.

“Why are they blank?” She doesn’t bother to deny the judging.

“In a burst of inspiration i took everything down a few days ago to redesign and then i lost all that inspiration and haven’t had the energy to put anything back.”

Indeed there were small hooks, and bits of tack stuck to the wall. “Want me to help?”

There is quiet for a while, and she almost believes the blonde had fallen asleep but then, “That would be great. But not today. Today we feast and laugh!’ And with that she launches herself off the couch and races to the kitchen.

Reyna laughs and follows suit hopping onto the counter as Annabeth worked around her. She offered to help with prep but she was instantly shooed away so she sat contently on the granite top and watched her friend busy herself around the kitchen, unpacking the bag she’d brought in that held the still warm burritos, and grabbing the ice-cream from the freezer along with two spoons.

“Drink?”

“Just water.”

“You grab the glasses, i’ll get everything else.” She points to the cupboard next to the sink. “I’ll have water too, there should be some in the fridge.”

Finally they had both settled down in the lounge, shoulders pressed together and feet tucked underneath them. The blonde fiddled with the TV for a little before the opening credits to Persephone’s Fall starts playing. She looks over, grinning wildly, and holds up the foil cylinder. “Cheers!”

They bump their food together and settle in to watch the movie. And as Persephone falls for Hades, despite their sarcasm and smart-ass comments, Annabeth laughs herself silly and Reyna drowns in the sound. And she thinks, sitting their in that cosy apartment, shovelling ice-cream into their mouths that maybe falling wouldn’t be so bad. She already has her Hades afterall.

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

Tags:

@nishlicious-01

@leydiangelo

@spoopylucy

#reynabeth #12 days of fanfics #pjjg challenge #pjjg series #pjjg fanfic #reyna avila ramirez arellano #annabeth chase

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godsworn · 3 years

Text

meet phoebe alwyn : hello y’all it is taylor with ( 2 / 3 ) poorly written intros ! if you’d like to plot with phoebe or any of my other characters please hit me up on discord you can find her info under the cut and i’ll update this later on 2 add her pinterest bc i had nothing prepared ! ( trigger warnings : anger issues , being turned unwillingly , alcoholism , technically self harm like as a werewolf , undiagnosed ptsd )

i .

age : thirty

nicknames : questionably none

species : werewolf

date of birth : october 29th

romantic orientation : homoromantic

sexual orientation : homosexual

gender : cis woman

pronoun(s) : she / her

like(s) : cheap hair dye , blueberry muffins , long walks through the woods , big dogs , oversized sweaters , indie rock , horror novels , collecting flowers , the snow , peppermint bark , mac miller , old cartoons , most alcohols .

dislike(s) : hot weather , sand , lifetime movies , full moons , how angry she is , new country music , getting lost , long drives , white chocolate , alarm clocks , birds , attention from men , the idea of being alone forever , pears , being sober .

distinctive features : very tall , has partially dyed hair quite a lot , covered in scars

character insp : beauregard lionette ( critical role ) ellie williams ( the last of us ) remus lupin ( harry potter ) ginger fitzgerald ( ginger snaps ) dolores abernathy ( westworld ) theo crane ( haunting of hill house )

choice of karaoke song : she does not do karaoke but if she did should i stay or should i go by the clash

ii .

phoebe had a complicated childhood . her parents while loving were absent and that caused a lot more trauma than she thinks they ever realized . she was desperate to get on her own and pretty much vanished after college .

she was turned by someone she trusted greatly midway through college and she had no clue of well anything in regards to werewolves prior to the experience . it was traumatic and probably an accident but she was left alone and never fully adjusted to becoming a werewolf due to it .

phoebe became angry and distant , gradually dropped out of school because she didn’t know what to do with her life when she was decently absent for several days a month .

she’s been moving around the country for roughly eight or nine years on a whim but her parents more than likely do not know she is still alive and out there somewhere . she kind of fell off the map and moved from oregon to louisiana .

with only half of a college degree and a kind of broke bank account phoebe ended up traveling and living out of her van for a while which wasn’t so bad but enjoyed finally being able to settle in and get a normal job .

her time in new orleans so far has been quite brief but it’s felt more like home than any other places she’s shifted between in the past few years . being around more people like her even within restrictions has made things a bit easier given that she still hasn’t figured the wolf thing out a decade later .

super socially awkward , very gay , probably needs a hug but cannot ask for one .

she drinks to cope and “ keep the wolf at bay “ but really it’s her way of forgetting how she wasted her twenties and still doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life .

iii .

wanted connections or plots include : ex - girlfriends , the person who turned her , one half - sibling younger or older , work friends , maybe an enemy , friends with benefit .

#ofmintro

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songofwizardry · 4 years

Text

make sure you kiss your knuckles

beau had been distantly aware of the fact that turning her phone off and tossing it underneath her bed might lead to a dozen missed calls and her friends worrying, but—it hadn't seemed important, in the moment. which is how she's now ended up with caleb, outside her door, refusing to go the fuck away.

[or: the empire siblings and the aftermath of punching shit to deal with emotions]

this fic happened because of 1. my inability to deal with my feelings through any medium other than fanfic, and 2. this empire siblings playlist I found. you can find the fic on ao3, or after the cut here.

[cw: implied self-harm, implied parental abuse, and some vague descriptors of panic] -

It’s Caleb who comes to find her. She’d been distantly aware of the fact that turning her phone off and tossing it underneath her bed might lead to her friends y’know, worrying, but in the moment it hadn’t seemed very important. So when there’s a knock on her door and Caleb’s voice calls, “Beauregard?” she is, for a moment, surprised. Then the cause-and-effect chain clicks through, and she realises that nope, this fucking group is really predictable.

“Fuck off, Caleb,” she calls back. Her throat hurts a bit, and she hopes he can’t hear that her voice is a little hoarse.

“Ah, yeah, can’t do that, sorry. Can you let me in?” She doesn’t respond, and after a moment, Caleb says, “Beauregard, Veth is downstairs, she can pick the lock if I ask her to.”

Beau sighs, lets her head fall back against the wall with an audible thump. There’s a steady headache building behind her eyes now, and it’s almost nice, a counterpoint to the throbbing in her knuckles. “Well, fuck her too, then,” she mutters, but before she can think too hard about it – because she really doesn’t want Veth breaking the lock to her room – she pulls herself to her feet, unlocks the door, and pulls it open. There’s a split second where she can see Caleb taking in the mess – of her, of her bruised hands, of the pillows and books strewn across her floor – and his too-damn-fast brain whirring, but thankfully, he doesn’t say anything, just steps past her into the room and shuts the door. After a moment of standing there, looking awkwardly at each other, Beau gives in and flops onto the floor, where she’d been before Caleb so rudely interrupted her. Caleb follows suit after a few seconds, settling himself, cross-legged, in front of her.

Beau waits for the questions. But Caleb just opens his satchel, pulls out a water bottle, opens it, and hands it to her. She’s too confused to do anything else, so she takes it, and drinks. (Somewhere, some part of her brain that’s mostly still offline points out that her hands are shaky and Caleb will notice. She ignores it.) When she turns back to Caleb, he’s holding out a chocolate bar, already unwrapped.

“What’s that for?” she asks.

“You will have a crash,” Caleb says, matter-of-fact. “Sugar helps.”

Beau is suddenly, forcefully, reminded of Dairon; of the fridge-cold bottles of lemonade they’d pass to her after a session; and she thinks her eyes sting for a moment. “Uh, thanks,” she says instead, and takes the chocolate. She chews in silence, watching Caleb. He’s turned back to his satchel, and is now pulling more things out of it: antiseptic, bandages, a white rag that he pours some of the water on, then squeezes out, letting water drop onto his trousers and her floor. He meets her eyes then, and she can tell he’s analysing, he’s got that look in his eyes, that furrow between his eyebrows.

“Beauregard,” he says, levelly, scooting closer to her, “I’m going to put this on your face. Okay?”

Beau looks at him, all scrawny in his fucking omnipresent coat, wanting to dab at her forehead as though she’s sick or something, when she’s not, she’s just fucking angry, and she’s angry just because it makes sense to be, because who fucking wouldn’t be angry, not when—

“Beauregard.”

She blinks, and realises that sometime in her spiral she’d started clenching her fists again, and what remains of the chocolate bar – thankfully still in its wrapper – is cracked into multiple pieces in one hand. As she opens the fist, and Caleb reaches out to take the chocolate away, she realises, yep, she’s definitely shaking. Okay. Cool. Maybe the fucker has a point, and besides—it’s not like it could hurt.

“Yeah, okay, fine,” she manages, and lets her head fall back against the wall once more and her eyes close as Caleb scoots even closer. She can’t see him, but he’s close enough that she can feel one of his knees pressed against her, and she waits, anticipating the cold touch on her forehead.

To her surprise, that’s not quite what happens. Caleb starts talking again, instead. “I am going to wipe down your face first, ja? There’s some, ah, I think it’s mostly sweat but there is blood too, and it is probably uncomfortable.” Beau holds perfectly still as Caleb does exactly as he says, and the cloth is cool and a bit of a relief, even if all she’s thinking is she has no idea how there’s blood on her fucking face. “Hmm,” she hears Caleb say, as the cloth makes its way down to her too-warm neck. “Beauregard, does the back of your head hurt?” She can’t see it, but she can hear the thinking-face he’s making.

“Dunno,” she says, not bothering to open her eyes, because the too-fast thrumming in her chest is starting to settle into something boneless and dazed and unthinking, and she does not want to poke at anything too much.

“Hmm,” Caleb says, again, and this time, one of his hands finds its way to the back of her head, and when he lifts it away from the wall, turns her head, she lets him, even though she could fight. “Yes, okay, there’s some injury here, I’m going to wipe here, okay?”

It takes Beau a moment to realise he’s waiting for an answer. “Yeah, sure,” she says. She keeps her eyes closed. As Caleb takes up the rag again and starts working on the back of her head with one hand – and yeah, ow, she’s definitely done something there – his other hand is scratching, absent-minded, at the shaved-short undercut on the side of her head, like she’s Frumpkin or something. Beau wonders if he even knows he’s doing it. She lets him.

Time gets a little vague then, and it’s really only because Caleb insists on cleaning her up, and doing it so slowly, not because she’s crashing or anything, but—it does get a bit vague, stretching out between Caleb narrating what he’s doing, and the cool cloth on her neck, then her forearms, then finally on her unbandaged knuckles. By the time Caleb gets there, the thinking part of Beau’s brain is starting to, annoyingly, wake up again. She opens her eyes, not entirely willingly, and takes it all in: Caleb has one of her hands in his lap, frowning, and is wiping a bit of gauze down her hand, between her fingers. The gauze is sharp-cold, which tells her he’s doused it in spirit. There’s a dozen scrapes and bruises across her hands that she hadn’t noticed, and they sting at the touch of the spirit, but she doesn’t mind that. She considers telling Caleb to stop – it’s not like any of the cuts are deep enough to be an issue, and if she said something, he would – but he’s very methodical about this all, not really looking at her, just focusing, and there’s a nice rhythm to it all. She decides to let him be, just for a little bit more, and closes her eyes again. By the time he switches and moves on to her other hand, even more of Beau’s brain is online, and the buzzing-thrumming in her chest seems to have mostly gone, which is—well, it’s good. She breathes in, out, and it feels like it goes deeper than it has in a while, and when she opens her eyes this time, Caleb is looking at her.

“Doing better?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Beau says, and she doesn’t think she’s entirely lying.

Caleb considers her for a moment longer. “You do not seem to be shaking anymore. How is your breathing?”

Beau resists the urge to roll her eyes, and instead breathes in, out, in, out, deeply, to demonstrate. “It’s fine, Caleb, see, no need to fuss.”

“Hmm.” Caleb nods, apparently satisfied, and looks back down at her hands. “They were not wrapped, but do you want me to bandage them, Beauregard?”

Beau doesn’t quite remember why they weren’t wrapped to begin with, whether it was unintentional or intentional stupidity, because there’s a lovely patch of rage-panic-pain-induced blurriness in her memory. “Yeah,” she says instead, pulling her attention away from the blurry patch. “Please, thanks,” she adds after a moment, at the urging of a voice in her head that sounds suspiciously like Fjord’s.

She thinks she notices Caleb’s lips quirk upwards, just slightly, at her attempt at politeness, and then he’s setting aside the gauze and grabbing a long, clean roll of bandage – and gods, the man doesn’t seem to wear a clean coat, but he has gauze and methylated spirits and rolls of clean bandages? What gives? – and starts wrapping around her right arm first, methodical and practiced.

“How’d you get so good at this, anyway?” Beau asks, because now that her brain is functional, the silence feels weird.

Caleb raises an eyebrow. “Wrapping bandages?” In response, he raises one hand, letting the sleeve of his coat slide down to reveal his own, slightly tattered, wrappings.

“No, dumbass, I know about those,” she says, as he turns back to his task. “I mean, y’know.” She pauses, considers the words, as he ties off the first bandage and moves on to her left arm. “Y’know, all of this. Like, the, I don’t know, the water, and the sugar, and the disinfecting—you get me?” It’s the sort of thing Beau is only competent at because of years’ training, and Caleb is definitely not someone who has her skillset.

Caleb looks up, blinks, and then says, deadpan, “Beauregard, in case you had not noticed, I have a fuck ton of trauma.” She’s not quite sure how to respond, and he gives her that half-smile again. “I have practice with most methods of fucking yourself up.”

She has to grin at that, which is probably what he intended, because his smile grows wider. “Fair enough.” After a moment, she adds, “Thanks, by the way. For, uh, y’know, the chocolate, and–”

“Yes, Beauregard, I know,” he says, and she thinks he may be using his soft voice, the kind he usually directs at Frumpkin. “Anytime, ja?” Before she can respond to that, he ties off the bandage, and says, “There, they are both done. Feel all right?"

He lets go of her hand, and she turns both wrists, flexes her knuckles. They still hurt, but less so. The wrappings are done differently from how she usually does them, but they’re clean, and snug, and hold her joints well enough. “Yeah, they’re great, thank you.”

Caleb nods, gives her that half-smile again, and starts collecting up his things, putting them in the satchel. Beau wonders if he’s going to leave, and tries not to think too much about that. As he’s doing this, he says, not looking up at her, “Beauregard, did something cause all this?”

Beau sighs. She’d known the questions would come, but the reprieve had been nice. Besides, after all this time – after all the crap they’ve seen – she knows enough of Caleb’s shit, and she thinks he knows just enough of hers. At least, he seems to—and he’s probably figured out the bits she hasn’t got words for yet. “I dunno, man, what do you think.” Caleb looks up, lets go of the satchel, but doesn’t say anything. Beau sighs again. “Yeah, just—I mean, it wasn’t even that big of a thing, just a fuckin’ message, but–”

“From your father?”

“Yeah, yeah, I mean—it wasn’t like, anything new, or that bad, you know? I just slightly–”

“Beauregard–”

“–slightly fuckin’ lost it, and it’s stupid, but–”

“It is not, Beauregard, listen–”

“–but yeah, that’s what happened, just a fucking text.”

“Beauregard.” When she finally stops talking and looks up, Caleb has moved right up next to her again, his side against the wall, facing her. “It is not stupid,” he says, firmly, and Beau considers arguing, but Caleb is fucking stubborn, and the two of them could argue all day if they wanted to, so she lets him have this.

“Yeah, okay, fine,” she says. “Anyway, that’s what happened.”

Caleb is still looking right at her. “I am sorry,” he says, after a moment. She just nods. “I’m going to hug you now, ja?” Whatever she was expecting him to say, that wasn’t it, but then his worn-soft coat is around her, and he’s pulling her away from the wall and into him. They’ve done this enough now, progressed past their awkward shoulder-hugs and gotten to exhausted-collapse-pile territory now, and Caleb, like the rest of their friends, is familiar in a way Beau doesn’t think anyone else has been familiar for her before. His coat smells like soot and a musty library, and Beau settles into the embrace, letting her head rest on his shoulder. There’s little orange cat hairs scattered across the fabric of the coat. Beau smiles, and thinks, see, Fjord, I can be taught.

“You know,” Caleb says, and as he speaks, his stubble scratches against her shoulder, “How Jester keeps calling Ikithon ridiculous things like icky-thong, or whatever she has decided on now?” His words are slow, measured, but she can’t miss the slight intake of breath before he says the name.

“Yeah?”

“Perhaps, if you like—I can ask her to come up with a similar, ah, nickname for your father.”

Reflexively, Beau’s hands ball into fists, grabbing Caleb’s coat as she does so. She doesn’t know why, but that—it makes her breath catch for a moment and her eyes sting. Whatever it is Caleb is trying to say – that her Dad is a dick? That he deserves a nonsensical and slightly gross nickname? – it’s nothing she hasn’t thought, or even said, herself, but hearing it from someone else feels like something cracking in her chest, something growing, and she wants to cry, and laugh, and fucking find him and punch his stupid fucking face, all at the same time.

“Beauregard?” Caleb’s arms are pressing tighter around her, now. “I am sorry, I didn’t—”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Beau manages, suddenly glad Caleb can’t see her face like this. “I just—I think Thoreau may be harder to work with than Ikithon, y'know?”

Caleb’s hold on her doesn’t loosen, but he chuckles. “Don’t underestimate Jester. I am sure we can figure something out.”

“Yeah,” Beau says, and it’s a bit shaky, and she thinks of all six-and-a-half feet of her Dad being faced with all of them: Jester and her fucking innuendoes, Caduceus and his terrifying calm, Veth and her not-entirely-idle threats of violence, Fjord’s and his smooth-ass charm, Yasha and her… well, all of her, really. Beau breathes out. “Yeah, I think we’ll figure it out.”

#critical role #critical role fanfic #empire siblings #caleb widogast #beauregard lionett #cr beau #cr fanfiction #my writing

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stranger-awakening · 4 years

Text

Audio Gifts

Hey, everyone!

It’s the end of the year again so I’m gonna gift out my audio masters from this year in case anyone’s interested. There’s 7 audios under the cut!

You’re more than welcome to trade/gift these but if you do just list them as ‘revolution-trade’s master.’ Oh, and don’t ever list them for sale. Thanks!

In The Heights I Australia I January 20, 2019 (Evening) I MP3 I Untracked Cast: Stevie Lopez (Usnavi), Olivia Vazquez (Vanessa), Joe Kalou (Benny), Luisa Scrofoni (Nina), Marty Alix (Sonny), Margi de Ferranti (Abuela Claudia), Monique Montez (Daniel), Libby Asciak (Carla), Alexander Palacio (Kevin), Ana Maria Belo (Camilla), Stephen Tannos (Graffiti Pete), Richard Valdez (Piragua Guy) Notes: Closing night of the shows four day run in Sydney. There were a few sound issues, but this cast is amazing. [link]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I Australia I January 24, 2019 (Matinee) I MP3 I Untracked [link] Cast: Xion Jarvis (Charlie Bucket), Paul Slade Smith (Willy Wonka), Tony Sheldon (Grandpa Joe), Lucy Maunder (Mrs. Bucket), Jake Fehily (Augustus Gloop), Octavia Barron Martin (Mrs. Gloop), Karina Russell (Veruca Salt), Stephen Anderson (Mr. Salt), Monette McKay (Violet Beauregard), Madison McKoy (Mr. Beauregard), Harrison Riley (Mike TeaVee), Jayde Westaby (Mrs. TeaVee) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I Sydney, Australia I July 21, 2019 (Matinee) I MP3 I Tracked & Untracked Cast: Paul Slade Smith (Willy Wonka), Xion Jarvis (Charlie Bucket), Tony Sheldon (Grandpa Joe), Octavia Barron Martin (Mrs. Gloop), Jake Fehily (Augustus Gloop), Madison McKoy (Mr. Beauregarde), Jayme-Lee Hankeom (Violet Beauregarde), Stephan Anderson (Mr. Salt), Karina Russell (Veruca Salt), Jayde Westaby (Mrs. Teavee), Harrison Riley (Mike Teavee), Lucy Maunder (Mrs. Bucket), Danielle O’Malley (Grandma Josephine), Johanna Allen (Grandma Georgina), Kanen Breen (Grandpa George), Todd Goddard (Jerry/Ensemble), Madison Green (Cherry/Ensemble) Notes: Closing performance in Sydney. A bit of shuffling as there were people around me eating. During curtain call, all three Charlies were brought out for a final bow. [link] Billy Elliot I Sydney, Australia I October 10, 2019 I MP3 I Tracked & Untracked Cast: Wade Neilson (Billy Elliot), Kelley Abbey (Mrs. Wilkinson), Justin Smith (Dad), Vivien Davies (Grandma), Drew Livingston (Tony), Robert Grubb (George), Dean Vince (Mr. Braithwaite/Ensemble), Danielle Everett (Dead Mum/Ensemble), Aaron Smith (Older Billy/Ensemble), Mason Kidd (Michael), Ella Tebbutt (Debbie), Oscar Mulchay (Tall Boy) Notes: Opening night of the 10th Anniversary Australian production. Includes brief comments from the Associate Director, Simon Pollard. Act 1 is full but Act 2 starts at ‘Deep Into The Ground’ as my phone glitched and I missed the first number. [link] Chicago I Sydney, Australia I October 13, 2019 (Evening) I MP3 I Tracked & Untracked [link] Cast: Tom Burlinson (Billy Flynn), Natasha Bassingthwaighte (Roxie Hart), Alinta Chidzey (Velma Kelly), Casey Donovan (Matron ‘Mama’ Morton), Rodney Dobson (Amos Hart), J. Furtado (Mary Sunshine). Ensemble: Todd Dewberry, Mitchell Fistrovic, Andrew Cook, Samantha Dodemaide, Ben Gillespie, Chaska Halliday, Travis Kahn, Hayley Martin, Kristina McNamara, Joe Meldrum, Tom New, Jessica Vellucci, Romina Villafranca, Rachel Ward, Zachary Webster, Mitchell Woodcock, Amy Berrisford. School of Rock I Sydney, Australia I November 13, 2019 (Evening) I MP3 I Tracked & Untracked [link] Cast: Brent Hill (Dewey Flynn), Amy Lehpamer (Rosalie Mullins), John O’Hara (Ned), Nadia Komazec (Patty), Thea Sholl (Freddy), Brendan Rutledge (Zack), Samantha Zhang (Katie), Tobi Clark (Lawrence), Nakita Clarke (Summer), Jacob Drew (Billy), Ezekiel Sciacca (Mason), Julien Daher (James), Jenna Keenan (Shonelle), Lucy de Hosson (Marcy), Anja O’Connor (u/s Tomika) Billy Elliot I Sydney, Australia I November 20, 2019 (Matinee) I MP3 I Tracked & Untracked Cast: Omar Abiad (Billy), Lisa Sontag (u/s Mrs. Wilkinson), Justin Smith (Dad), Vivien Davis (Grandma), Drew Livingston (Tony), Robert Grubb (George), James Sonnemann (Michael), Gabrielle Dagger (Debbie), Mason Kidd (Tall Boy), Danielle Everett (Dead Mum), Aaron Smith (Older Billy) Notes: The scenes in Act 1 are a little quiet, but they’re clearer in Act 2 because I adjusted my phone. Billy dropped his chair during Swan Lake and you can hear it thump, but Omar recovered quickly. [link]

Here’s to more theatre in 2020!!

#audio gifts #audio gift #bootleg gift #in the heights #charlie and the chocolate factory #billy elliot #chicago #school of rock #school of rock musical #charlie and the chocolate factory musical #i did this last year as well but i only went to two musicals last year so this is ... an improvement lmao #jess rants about life

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the-community-mascara · 4 years

Text

Fun Facts About Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

I'm gonna do a couple every day until after the cast party Saturday.

Our Veruca is also slightly tech obsessed, more with her phone than games like Mike, so she takes pictures on stage and we get great action shots.

Our Gloop Family wears very traditional German clothes and everyone else is in modern clothes.

During the gate scene, when we meet Willy Wonka, the kids are in front of the parents. So we are standing in this order: Augustus, Mrs. Gloop, Violet, Mrs. Beauregard, Veruca, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Salt, Mike Teevee, etc. Anyway during that scene we are interacting in character and my good friend plays Mrs. G so she turns to offer chocolate to my daughter (Violet) and I shove her away. Well opening night she did it and I shoved her away and dropped the chocolate. It rolled all the way off the stage and into the audience.

During cast pictures my daughter's biological brother ran on stage and plopped down into her lap and she stayed in character taking him back to her bio mom.

Stay tuned for more!!

#high school theatre problems #high school #highschools theatre #shit high schoolers say #highschool theatre #high school theatre #community theatre #charlie and the chocolate factory #theatre #theatre kid #theatreblr #theatre class #drama club #drama class #drama

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incorrect-catcf-quotes · 3 years

Conversation

Wonka: [looking around room to see if anyone notices the smoke] Does anyone smell anything smoky?

Mrs. Gloop: Did you bring your jerky in again?

Wonka: [clears throat]

Mrs. Beauregarde: [points to smoke] Oh, my God! Uh, Oh my God!

Violet: What–

Mike: Whoa, fire!

Wonka: Oh, fire! Oh my goodness! What’s the procedure? What do we do, people?

Mrs. Beauregarde: The phones are dead.

Wonka: Oh, how did that happen?

Charlie: It’s out in the hall.

Wonka: No, we don’t know that. The smoke could be coming through an air duct.

Grandpa Joe: Oh my God! Okay, it's happening. Everybody stay calm.

Wonka: What’s the procedure, everyone? What’s the procedure?

Joe: Stay calm!

Wonka: Wait, wait, wait.

Joe: Everyone, now calm down!

Wonka: No! No, Joe! No! Touch the handle. If it’s hot, there could be a fire in the hallway.

Joe: What does warm mean?

Everyone: [groaning] Oh my God.

Wonka: Not a viable option.

Mrs. Beauregarde: Try a different door.

Wonka: Okay, what’s next?

Joe: Don’t run.

Wonka: Oh! Here’s a door. Check that one out. How’s the handle?

Mike: It– it’s warm.

Wonka: Well, uh, another option. [everyone chattering at once]

Mr. Teavee: Back door.

Wonka: Back to our options. Jeez! Ok! settle down everyone. No bunching!

Violet: Oh! I forgot my duffel bag.

Mr. Salt: Leave it, girl!

Joe: Get out of the way! Go, go, go!

Wonka: Things can be replaced, Violet! People, human lives, however, can…

Augustus: Ah! Mein hand! Zat’s hot!

Mike: Aah! This one's hot too!

Joe: Okay, we’re trapped. Everyone for himself.

Wonka: Okay, let’s go.

Everyone: [shouting] Out of my way! Let’s go. Get out of my way!

Wonka: Calm, please.

Mike: Get out of the way!

Wonka: Have you ever seen a burn victim?

Mike: Move it!

Wonka: Okay! Procedure, procedure. Exit options. Where do we go folks? Wha– Use a what to cover the mouth?

Mrs. Gloop: [pulling her cat out of a filing drawer] It’s okay. Shh shhh.

Wonka: A what? A rag. A damp rag, perhaps. Let’s remember those procedures. What are the options? Okay, that’s the wrong way. We’ve already tried that. Remember your exit points. Exit points people.

Mrs. Gloop: Liebchen.

Wonka: What’s next?

Mrs. Gloop: Liebchen!

Augustus: Stay alive! I’m getting help!

Mrs. Gloop: Pull me up!

Augustus: You’re too heavy!

Mrs. Gloop: I only veigh 150 pounds! Uh– save Herr Jones! [throws cat into air duct and he falls out through the other side] Oh!

Wonka: How about 911? Anyone? 911. [Joe throws a chair at the window, Charlie smashes a chair through the vending machine and begins to grab snacks, everyone is shouting.]

Mrs. Beauregarde: What do we do?

Wonka: Use the surge of fear and adrenaline to sharpen your decision-making.

Mr. Teavee: Okay, I am not dying here. Come on. [everyone is coughing from the smoke, Wonka lights some fire crackers and they start popping]

Mrs. Gloop: Vat is zat? Vat is zat?

Mike: The fire’s shooting at us!

Violet: What in the name of God is going on?!

Mike: Yes! [Wonka pulls fire alarm] Yes, ba– Yes, battering ram! Battering ram!

Violet and Veruca: Ahhhh!!! [Augustus’ leg crashes through the ceiling]

Mike: Go, go, go, go, go!! [Mike and Mr. Teavee ram the door with the copy machine]

Joe: [throws the projector out the window] Help!! Help!!

Mr. Salt: I’m about to die!

Wonka: [blowing air horn] Attention everyone! Employees of the Wonka Chocolate Factory! This has been a test of our emergency preparedness. There is no fire. It was only a simulation.

Mr. Teavee: What?!

Wonka: Fire not real. This was merely a training exercise. [Augustus drops down from the ceiling] So, what have we learned? [Mr. Salt falls to the floor] Oh come on. It’s not real, Rupert. Don’t have a heart attack.

Joe: No, no, no! You will not die! Rupert! Rupert! You will not die! Rupert! Rupert! Bill Gates is alive! You are rich, Rupert! I’m gonna give him mouth to mouth.

Mr. Teavee: No, no, no! Don’t give him mouth to mouth for this!

Joe: He’s going to swallow his tongue.

Mr. Teavee: No. Joe. Joe.

Joe: Open your mouth. Come on. Don’t swallow it.

Mr. Teavee: [everyone shouting at once] Joe! Joe!

Joe: Leave me al–

Mike: You’re choking him!

Joe: Saving him!

#willy wonka #Charlie Bucket #grandpa joe #augustus gloop #Mrs. Gloop #veruca salt #mr. salt #Violet Beauregarde #Mrs. Beauregarde #mike Teavee #Mr. Teavee #so basically the whole cast #source: the office #Charlie and the Chocolate Factory #catcf #Incorrect quotes

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thetrainwreckjournals · 5 years

Text

The Little Wolf Queen Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Connection

Ava is woken up too early, is stared at by one of the boys on the hockey team and feels weird. Shawn goes to school, his nose is on overdrive and he finds his mate.

The first thing she heard was the shrieking blare of her alarm followed by her stepmother Elena calling her name from downstairs. Groaning, she slammed her hand down on the alarm before rolling back into her sheets to enjoy the warmth, closing her eyes….and immediately opening them when she heard her door open.

“Ava” Elena’s gentle voice came through her room. “Ava sweetheart, you gotta get up for school”

“No” Ava grumbled.

“Ava honey, school is important” Elena chuckled.

“It’s not, I’m gonna make a killing being a grumpy judge on a talent show like Simon Cowell” Ava muttered from under her covers.

“You still need to finish school, now come on and get up before-”

“AVAAAAAA” came the loud voice of her three-year-old sister before a small mass crashed into her body with much more force than it should’ve.

“Oof” Ava groaned upon the impact.

“Chelsea!” Elena chastised the small girl. “Don’t do that, you could hurt your sister!”

“Sorry Mommy” Chelsea said bashfully.

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to your sister” Elena scolded.

“Sorry Ava” Chelsea smiled before throwing herself to hug her older sister.

“S’alright kid” Ava smiled back before reaching for her phone to take a quick snapchat of her sister being all cuddly and cute.

“Let’s get you both downstairs, gotta get you both ready for school” Elena smiled.

Reluctantly hauling herself out of bed, she remembered why she loved her blankets so much. It may have been spring in Canada, but the mornings could be chilly. Her sleep jumper and shorts were perfect until she removed the blankets, even on the carpet and with socks on, her legs felt slightly cold. Walking down the stairs somewhat drowsily with a big yawn coming up, Ava couldn’t help but smile as the twins stood at the bottom of the stairs with big curious eyes as they watched their mom with big smiles to match.

“Oh, by the way, they ate the rest of the chocolate cake” Elena smiled apologetically. “I can buy some more from the bakery when I drop them off at Mum’s”

“Elena darling” Ava’s dad called from the kitchen, “Where on earth is the cheese?”

“Back of the fridge” both Ava and Elena answered at the same time.

“You don’t suppose he’ll ever get his eyes checked, do you?” Elena quizzed gazing into the kitchen.

“It’s Dad, what do you think?” Ava stated like it was obvious.

Elena laughed her bell like laugh and took the hands of the twins while Chelsea grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her down the stairs.

“Morning sleeping beauty” Ava’s dad smiled fondly at his somewhat disheveled daughter.

“Dad” she acknowledged. “Can you grab me that cereal?”

Passing the cereal to his daughter, he watched her as she sighed upon looking at her phone. “everything okay?”

“Yeah, but last two weeks of school and then summer. Which means feeling too lazy to do those last pieces of work that get me into the 11th Grade” Ava groaned miserably.

“Just two more weeks baby” Elena smiled kissing Ava’s temple.

“Elena do my work for me” Ava begged.

“You’re a capable woman Ava” Elena reminded her stepdaughter.

“Fine” she grumbled.

Eating her cereal, she was joined by an equally grumpy Jesse and a very sleepy Noah.

“Do you want some of my fruit loops?” Jesse asked with a big yawn.

“Nah that’s alright, you want any coco pops?” she asked him.

“Just a spoon” he smiled dopily.

While he got his cereal, Noah glanced at them while eating his wholemeal ham and tomato sandwich with his favourite cheese.

“Those cereals have lots of added sugar in them y’know. You should eat something lo GI that has protein in it” Noah told them in his four-year-old “I know everything” tone before walking off to sit on the porch with their Dad.

Narrowing her eyes in confusion, Ava reminded herself that he was four and not 30. Then she turned to Jesse as if he had an explanation, which apparently, he did.

“He’s been watching the food network on his sick days” Jesse shrugged.

Elena loved the food network. It made sense.

Finishing her cereal, she went upstairs to throw on her jeans and Coca Cola t shirt and converse before heading to her mirror. She blended out her foundation and concealer before debating if he could be bothered with proper eyeshadow. Deciding she could not, she set her face with powder, bronzed her cheekbones and used the same bronzer for eyeshadow and contouring her nose before applying a nude lip and mascara. She almost forgot her highlight but then remembered that Katie was planning on polaroid’s at school today so she applied some.

She threw her books in her bag, her tissues and bounced her way downstairs before making her coffee.

“Well you certainly seem to be in much higher spirits” Elena smiled.

“All things are possible with coffee and mascara Elena, all things” Ava smiled back brightly.

“Wanna go and round up your siblings?” Her dad asked.

“Sure” Ava agreed. “GET DOWN HERE MY ARMY” she yelled at the top of her lungs making Elena and her Dad wince.

“I meant at a lower volume” Her Dad grumbled.

“There’s too many to find individually” Ava shrugged.

Just then, a mess of four children came hurdling down the hallway giggling and laughing while they raced each other to the front door.

“School drop off time. Alex and Levi, just where do you think you’re going?” Elena said in fake sternness with her hands on her hips.

Alex and Levi were meant to be waiting with Ava’s Dad. Instead they had their animal bag packs on and their jackets.

“They’re coming with us” Chelsea stated proudly. “I put their jackets on and Jesse got their bags Mom”

Raising her eyes to the ceiling, Elena sighed. “You can come to the drop offs but then we’re coming back home to say goodbye to Dad and the dogs”

Giggling victoriously, they all packed themselves into the car and drove off to school.

“Have a nice day. Two more weeks, that’s all Ava” Elena reminded her stepdaughter before driving off.

Groaning in despair, Ava turned and walked her way through school.

“Morning Ava” Monty smiled nervously at her.

“Morning Monty” Ava smiled back.

Monty was the socially awkward geek in her History class who seemed to have a crush on her. She wasn’t to alarmed by him, it was his friend Gavin, the extroverted creep who bothered her.

“Babe!” she heard the exaggerated happiness in the voice of Heather Wilson, the school’s very own demon, as she rushed over to very sloppily kiss her newest toy, Dustin Kirk. Dustin and Heather belonged to the popular kids of the school. While Ava wasn’t unpopular, she didn’t have the whole “queen” status going on for her. She noticed that some of the hockey players were present, bit early for them. She spotted Katie’s older brother and then she saw Shawn Mendes with his friends Cameron Dallas and Brian Craigen. They played on the hockey team and were kinda cute. His mom was friends with Elena and her Dad. Karen was a sweet lady. But then she spotted the one who made her heart stop. Jake Henderson. All 5ft11 of his blonde-haired, blue-eyed muscle. Snapping herself out of it before someone noticed her staring, she walked around their group and onto her friends.

“Hello Ava” Katie greeted. “How was the weekend, we didn’t see you at all”

“Talk about missing the fun” Leah grinned. “I don’t think Laura’s ever seen so many shirtless men in her life”

“It was a wonderful sight to behold” Laura smiled.

“How was games night?” Stacey smiled.

“Good, you know Elena’s parents, heavy on the food, heavy on the wine and heavier on the desert” Ava sighed contently.

“You know I swear you’re never happy without food in your mouth” Laura laughed.

“Food is good for the soul. And I need about all the soul I can get in these last two weeks” Ava muttered grimly.

As the girls continued gossiping about the latest party, Ava couldn’t help but feel she was being watched. She looked up to see the last person she was expecting to be looking at her. Shawn Mendes was watching her with an odd sort of gaze as he caught her eye. Affection? Admiration? It was strange. Suddenly she felt this odd sensation in her stomach and slightly dizzy. Before she could linger on it, the bell rang and their classes had begun.

SHAWNS POV

He was early to school today. Brian’s parents had taken his brother out of town for a specialist appointment for his little brothers hearing, so they were at school before the bell rang for once.

He was watching Heather and Dustin be their usual selves and then he smelt it. That same sweet smell he caught lingering in the hallways. Except this time, it was stronger, much stronger. Overwhelmingly so. It was all his nose could focus on. A cross between vanilla and baking sugar. He took a deep inhale and turned to his left. A girl walking by seemed to radiate the smell.

Mate. His inner wolf told him.

He suddenly felt dizzy, his hands were sweaty, his body was warm and he felt a tugging sensation at his stomach. The smell seemed to overpower all his senses as shivers went down his spine. Could it really be?

She was small and she had black hair. All he could see was the back of her covered by a denim jacket and a backpack. When she had sat down, she was against the wall and her could only see half her face. Caramel skin. And then by some sort of mercy she frowned. Was she okay? Was something making her sad? Then she looked up, right at him and he felt his whole world shift. He got lost in her brown eyes and he felt a drop in his stomach and a fluttery feeling. It was her. He had found his mate. She looked so familiar, but did he know her? Did she know him? He didn’t have a chance to linger as the bell rang and he was pulled in one direction whilst she was pulled in the other.

He had spent the whole day with his head in the clouds thinking of her and when he was leaving school, he saw her once more getting into a car with… no…Liam Beauregard? He was notorious for his womanizing ways. He didn’t do love or commitment. He was in simple words, a dog.

Walking his way to Jake’s car, he stared out the window in misery. His mate with another wolf? A deplorable one at that.

“Uhh dude, you getting out or coming home with me?” Jake laughed.

“Sorry man, see y’all at practice” Shawn grinned, shaking it off. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to tell his friend yet.

He was lying on his bed formulating a plan to murder Liam when his thoughts returned to her and all he could do was smile.

He had found her. He had found his mate. And she was perfect. Petite in height, quite slim from what he could see, not that he’d care if she was otherwise. Black hair, dark brows, chocolate brown eyes and caramel skin with plump lips. She was stunning. He wondered if she was Spanish or something. She definitely looked it.

Broken out of his thoughts by his Mom’s voice telling him to leave his bed and the sound of a car pulling up, he suddenly remembered his Mom telling him Elena Prescott would be coming over for afternoon tea today. Elena was one of the few wolves mated to a human in their pack. Her mate actually helped out by playing the role of pack doctor on Wednesdays. They were both nice people. Besides, Elena was Shawn’s favourite babysitter as a kid. He could ask her about her human mate bond. Rare but possible, as Shawn now knew. Or did he. Was she human? He didn’t have time to dwell as he trudged downstairs to greet Elena.

After saying hi and being told to make tea by his Mom, he returned to smiled at his babysitter who now had 5 children of her own now if he remembered correctly.

“Hey there Rockstar” Elena smiled.

“Ellie” Shawn smiled brightly at her.

“You and Aaliyah are the only ones to get away with calling me that”

“we were the best kids you ever babysat and you know it” Shawn grinned.

“Quite possibly” Elena avoided answering

“How are you kids?” he quizzed, genuinely interested.

“Growing” she said ominously. “and fast”

“How old are they all now?”

“Jesse’s five, Chelsea is three and Levi and Alex are 18 months.”

“Man, your house must be loud” Shawn laughed.

“You’ve no idea. The dogs are quieter than my kids and you can hear them bark from here” Elena said dramatically.

Suddenly Elena moved and knocked her keys off the coffee table which Shawn immediately picked up for her before spotting the keychain and the photo on it. Of Elena, her husband, her kids and Shawn’s mate.

“Ellie who’s the older girl? You’ve only got 4 four kids” Shawn observed.

“Oh, that’s Ava, our biggest ray of sunshine. She’s not much younger than you actually, Lewis actually had four kids from his previous marriage, she’s his third child and second daughter” Elena explained.

“Does she know about all of this?” Shawn asked.

“No, we agreed to keep her out of it until necessary” Elena said. “We’ll have to tell her eventually because of Jesse” Elena sighed. “Her best friend comes from a wolf family too actually, Katie Beauregard”

“Marcus’ daughter?” Karen asked.

“One and only, her and Katie have been attached to the hip since she moved her. More like sisters than friends those two are”

He couldn’t believe his ears. Elena’s stepdaughter was his mate. He’d hit the jackpot. He could find out everything from her.

“I feel like I’ve seen her before” Shawn muttered. “Does she go to my school or something?” he feigned ignorance.

“Year below you actually” Elena told him.

“Oh, well if ever see the two of you I’ll make sure I come and say hi” Shawn smiled politely before turning to his Mom. “I have practice now, I’ll be home for dinner, just later than usual. Bye guys”

Turning and running out of the house he walked his way to Kyle’s house two blocks over, smiling the whole way there.

Ava. Her name was Ava Prescott. The name suited her. Just thinking of her made him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. He’d locked eyes with her for a split second but it was enough for him to know she was his mate. Beautiful chocolate almond shaped eyes and a gorgeous smile based off what he’d seen when she was dragged out by her friends, grinning at their enthusiasm. He didn’t notice much too overcome with his initial emotions and heart eyes.

He did however notice Jason Lewis eyeing her up like a piece of meat as she got dragged past him.

Asshole.

All Shawn knew was that he had to find a way to talk to her, get to know her and somehow manage not to freak her out in the process.

He was going to be with his mate.

Part 2

169 notes · View notes

princessamericachavez · 5 years

Text

Fjorester Week | Day 1 | AU

“So, tell me again, why am I here?” Beau grumbles, before shoving a fistful of corn chips into her mouth.

Fjord lets out a heavy sigh, glaring at his best friend from the mirror.

“Because you love me and won’t leave me to go face my neighbor’s housewarming party on my own?”

“I don’t love you that much, big guy.”

“C’mon, what’s so bad about it? It’s a party. We’ll work on your people skills.”

“If your people skills are so damn good,” Beau shoots back, “why do you need me to wingman at all?”

“Because I don’t know anyone else there, and there’s gonna be free booze. Also, I already kinda put my foot in my mouth with this girl before, would really appreciate some help to avoid doing it again.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Beauregard sits up on the couch, grinning. “Mister Perfect put his foot in his mouth.”

Fjord turns away from the mirror to ignore the blush crawling up his face and gives his gym buddy a half-hearted glare.

“Oh, c’mon. If you tell me, I’ll go.”

“It’s not a big deal. She’s just... very enthusiastic. I went by the other day to pick up a package that’d been dropped at her place while I was out and she was very nice and she kept asking if I wanted to go in for a cup of coffee or water or something.”

“She was hitting on you, so what? Girls do that all the time, Fjord.”

“They don’t. Thing is... I panicked,” Fjord mumbles rubbing the back of his neck. “I think I yelled something like ‘thanks, I don’t drink water,’ and I ran away. It’s a miracle that she even invited me over today.”

“Oh my god, dude!” Beau chuckles, jumping to her fit. She brushes off the chip crumbs from her shirt and tightens her messy bun over her head. “This girl makes you stupid. I’m so coming with you to see it in person.”

“Thanks, Beau. Appreciate the support,” Fjord deadpans.

Well, at least that’s something.

Before Fjord gets a second to gather his thoughts, Beauregard knocks on the door. Even through the thick wood and the faraway music, he can hear the clacking of heels rushing to the door that swings completely open to reveal the party’s hostess. His next-door neighbor.

Jester is pretty in a way Fjord’s never seen before. Sure, there’s conventional pretty like the girls from tv, and there are hot women in magazine ads, and there are beautiful women in the street’s every day... but something about this girl just throws him off balance. It might be the blue streaks on her short dark hair, or her nearly violet eyes, or her tan skin covered in freckles like a clear starry night out at sea. Or it might just be the way she beams at him as soon as she sees him awkwardly standing at her door, holding a bottle of wine and a grumpy college student.

“Fjord! You came!” She exclaims, and he’s shocked by how genuinely glad she sounds.

“Uh, hi, Jester. This is my friend, Beauregard.”

“Friends call me Beau, actually.”

“Oh! Can I be your friend?! Can I call you Beau?”

“Uh- sure.”

“Perfect! Come in! Come in!” Jester grabs them both by the hands and pulls them into her house with a strength that doesn’t seem to match her tiny size.

The inside of Jester’s apartment is different than what he expected, and somehow exactly what he should’ve imagined. Sure, it’s very pink and colorful, and lively, but there’s a refined style in the decoration that screams money and taste. It might be the same size as his place, but it feels far more welcoming and cozy.

“Come on! I wanna introduce you to some friends!”

Jester hasn’t let go of either of them. She pulls them along towards the living room, where four other individuals are sitting around and talking. Fjord thinks it’s the weirdest mix of people he’s ever seen in his life. One of them has long purple hair and hippy clothes —real hippy and not whatever hipster stuff kids buy in Urban Outfitters— and he’s giving a card reading to a man with shaggy red hair and an unkempt beard. They both sit on the floor, being watched closely by two women: one tall and muscular, with dark makeup framing her eyes, and one short and scrappy that keeps taking long swings of her flask.

“Hey, everyone! This is Fjord!” Jester has no qualms interrupting their reading. “Fjord, this is everyone.”

“Oh, hey, Caleb,” Beau’s voice catches him off guard before he can even say hello. “What are you doing here?”

“Beauregard,” the redhead murmurs with a heavy German accent as he stands up. “I am here with my friend Nott. She’s a friend of Jester’s.”

“You are my friend too, Caleb!” Jester complains.

“Cool. I’m here with Fjord,” Beau says, pointing at him with a thumb. “Fjord, this is Caleb and that is his not-sister but not-girlfriend, Nott.”

Fjord shakes Caleb’s hand, as he tries really hard not say out loud that Nott sounds like a fake name. The more he looks at the short woman, the more he realizes he might not want to know the answer to that question after all.

Jester introduces the other two people: Molly and Yasha. From the second the woman stands up and comes to shyly shake their hands, Fjord knows Beauregard is a goner. He shouldn’t be surprised when, five minutes later, she’s disappeared from his side to go follow Yasha and her purple-haired friend elsewhere. And so, he is all alone with Jester.

“You know, you look very handsome, Fjord,” she says, as casually as one would comment on the weather. “I mean, I always thought you were handsome, but you look even better today.”

“Oh- uh- hum... thanks, Jester,” he manages to get out, thankful for once that his friend isn’t here to laugh at his flailing.

“You want something to drink?” Jester asks, and without waiting for an answer she grabs him by the hand again and leads him across the apartment towards a table filled with bottles and sodas.

As they walk, Fjord’s eyes trail down to her small frame. She’s wearing a sundress with a sunflower pattern, the thin straps of which leave her neck and shoulders mostly uncovered. He can’t help but stare at the sunkissed skin and the trail of freckles that makes its way across her shoulder blades.

“What would you like to drink, Fjord?”

“I don’t know, what are you having?”

“A chocolate shake,” Jester shrugs. She says it casually but he can see the spark of satisfaction that crosses her face when he reacts with confusion. “Oh, I don’t like the taste of alcohol very much. I mean, I’ve had some before, but it’s really not fun to me. I like sweet things better. Also, it’s very funny when you are sober and all your friends are being drunk and stupid, really.”

Fjord lets out a loud chuckle. “Yeah, I bet it is. I’ll have a beer then.” Nothing too strong that will make him join the drunk and stupid team.

Speaking of. He turns around and sees Beauregard and Molly already arguing loudly with each other about... something. Music, as far as he can guess by the way they gesture to the vinyl collection in the corner. Jester is watching too, smiling.

“I’m so sorry about that,” he sighs.

“It looks like they are having fun,” Jester shrugs, handing him a beer. “Molly argues a lot with people. That’s how you know he likes them.”

“A’right,” he nods taking a sip. Jester slurps her milkshake and Fjord almost stares at her until he kicks himself into making conversation. “So, Jester, whatcha do for a living.”

“Oh, I’m a doctor.”

“You are?” Fjord’s eyebrows arch, maybe a little too much. He can see a hint of offense cross her eyes. “I mean, sorry, you don’t look the way I expect doctors to look.”

“Why? Because I’m too young?”

“Too pretty,” he corrects, without thinking. “I- I mean- most doctors are, you know, cranky old men.”

“They really are,” Jester giggles. “I’m actually finishing my residency now, and then I will start my specialization.”

“On what?”

“Cardiology. I’m all about the heart,” she says giving him a wink.

“I’m sure you are,” he ducks his head to hide the blush that crawls up his face.

“Come, I’ll show you the house,” Jester gestures for him to follow down the hallway.

Fjord stops by a big framed picture of a movie star. He recognizes the seductive smile, the dangerous curves, the long flow red hair, the old-Hollywood air that no other actress seems to have any more.

“The Ruby of the Sea. You must really like her movies,” he points out, taking another sip of beer.

“I’ve watched all of them!” Jester grins. “She’s my mom.”

“Marion Lavorre is your mother?!” Fjord all but screams. Jester shushes him immediately. “Sorry,” he lowers his voice. “I just didn’t even know she had a daughter.”

“Oh, yeah, well... I wasn’t out very much, you know? My mom was trying to keep me away from all the paparazzi and stuff when I was little, so I spent most of my time with private tutors at home.”

Fjord isn’t sure how to respond to that. He’s not sure if he's jealous of the having a mother part, or saddened by the loneliness she describes.

“It was nice, you know,” Jester goes on, and he can tell by her tone she’s nervous as if she needed to fill the silence to justify her own past. He knows the feeling. “I had a lot of great teachers. I learned how to paint. I made most of the art in this apartment.”

“That’s very impressive, Jester. You’re quite an artist.”

“Thank you!” She grins.

“So why’d you move all the way to the east coast, then? Isn’t your mom in L.A.?”

“Well... it’s a bit of a complicated story, you know? If I told you I’d have to kill you.”

Fjord lets out a hearty laugh at that.

“Hey, Jester, we are about to leave for the gig, you coming?” Molly announces a while later.

Fjord blinks at him, waking up from the past several hours where he’s enjoyed Jester’s non-stop stream of words. Time’s flown by and when he looks at his clock he realizes it’s past one in the morning.

“Of course we are coming! Fjord, you are coming, right? Molly is a DJ downtown and he’s very very good. Yasha works security in the club, too. It’s going to be so much fun!”

“Of course we are coming,” Beau gives Fjord’s arm a painful squeeze.

“Actually, I- Uh. I’ve got work tomorrow morning and-”

“Dude, you’re killing me.”

“Okay, okay, fine. I guess Beau will kill me if I say no.”

“I will.”

“Yes!” Jester jumps, clapping. “C’mon, everybody! We’re leaving!”

For the third time in the night, Jester grabs Fjord’s hand and pulls him along towards the entrance.

Fjord meets a lot of interesting people at the club. Most of them he can’t quite put a name to, but he can tell everyone is happy to see Jester. He wonders, idly, if he should worry at all about the many guys tripping over themselves, trying to keep up with jester’s energy, but she holds on to his arm the whole time and keeps sending him smiles sweet as candy.

The only guy she actually seems to pay attention to, a friend from medical school who was apparently covering for her tonight. He looks nothing like a doctor either, tall, lanky and with a mohawk of long pink hair. He’s drinking something that doesn’t smell like tea and smoking something that doesn’t smell like cigarettes. But he’s nice.

Not nice enough that Fjord isn’t delighted when Jester pulls him away to a quiet corner.

“What?” He chuckles.

“I wanna show you something,” she whispers. If he didn’t know she’s been having chocolate milk all night long, he’d suspect her to be drunk. “Do you still wanna know why I came all the way here?”

“Yeah,” he breathes, entranced by the way her eyes sparkle.

With a tilt of her head, she leads him towards a back door. He follows closely. Of course, he does. At this point, he doesn’t know that he can do anything else. They exit to a narrow back alley, Jester pushes him against a wall and for a second he thinks he’s about to get a very welcomed make out session... but then she turns him around and makes him face the club’s back wall.

There, on the brick wall, there’s a graffiti. It’s big, colorful, filled with sunflowers, jellyfish, a few little dicks hidden here and there. The signature reads: The Little Sapphire.

“Woah, that’s-”

“Mine.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait. You mean to tell me you are Sapphire?!”

“I am! You see, one of my private tutors, he was an artist, and he told me people called him the Traveler.”

“The Traveler? People say that he’s the new Bansky.”

“Oh, Fjord, c’mon! He’s so much better than Bansky! He’s the best!”

“And he’s your teacher?”

“He is! Well. He was. Until I made this one thing in L.A... I had no idea that it was one of the big mob houses! It got all of the paparazzi attention and they got found out by the cops... So now these guys want me dead and I had to come here to lay low for a little while.”

“Mobsters.”

“Yep.”

“They... want you dead.”

“Kinda, yes.”

Fjord frowns again, feeling his chest knot. He looks at his tiny sunshine neighbor, imagines her in any sort of danger, and feels an old kind of fury burning in his veins.

“So,” Jester sing songs.

“So?”

“Are you gonna tell me what you are doing here? I mean, you are all mysterious. I see you come in and out every day, you work nine to five but then you spend all night out. What’s your story, Fjord?”

Deep breath. Fjord thinks about his past, about the orphanage, about Vandran. He thinks about his nightly search across New York, asking about a Texan sailor gone missing months ago under mysterious circumstances. He thinks about the Serpent mafia and all the danger he would put her in if he shared that with her.

All the danger he would put her in if he shared anything with her. All of the things already clouding his mind...

“I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” he grins, leaning closer.

He can feel Jester stand on her tiptoes, her breath brushing his mouth.

“Hey, Jester! Come back in here! We are singing happy birthday!” Nott shouts from the backdoor.

“Coming!” She shouts back, pulls Fjord back and presses a chaste kiss to his lips. “You get the rest of that when you tell me your story,” she whispers, then runs away and back into the Nein club.

Fjord stands there in the dark street while his brain tries to process what just happened.

Oh, fuck him, he’s going to tell her everything. How could he not?

#fjorester #fjoresterweek #fjord #jester lavorre #critical role #sofia's nonsense

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how-to-survive-a-factory-tour · 5 years

Text

How To Survive A Factory Tour - Chapter 12

A Sanders Sides / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory FanFiction

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Patton will be fine, I just have to remember that. Patton will be fine. The Oompa Loompas will rescue him, and I’ll see him again when we all leave the factory. Everything will be okay…

That’s what I keep telling myself as we retake our seats in the large boat on the chocolate river. The Oompa Loompas pull in the anchor, push us away from the wall, and start to row us away, back down the river to where the door to the Inventing Room is. As we go, Ethan speaks to me. I have to admit, he was the last person I’d expect to speak to me.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm?”

“About what happened to Patton. You really do care about him, don’t you?”

I nod. “I usually don’t get this attached to anyone, especially so quickly. But something about him... He’s different. Special…”

“Well, I’m sure it’ll be okay. You’ll see him again soon.”

I give a small smile. “Thanks… It was rather impressive, how you managed to keep your cool back there. I mean, even I lost mine, and I’m rather collected.”

Ethan just shrugs. “Let’s just say I’m used to high stress situations.” Before I can inquire, he changes the subject. “So, what do you think about Roman and Virgil?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s obvious chemistry between the two of them. I mean, they won’t stop teasing each other, they literally spoke in sync earlier when they were talking about their ‘dessert war’, and they’re literally the embodiment of the ‘popular jock falls in love with the weird antisocial outcast’ trope. I mean, just look at them.”

I turn my head slightly. Roman and Virgil are having an animated debate about the morals of Disney movies (that pun was unintentional, I swear), but despite opposing each other, they’re both smiling and laughing.

“Well, I don’t know much about romance and love…” I turn back to Ethan. “But they seem oddly compatible.”

“I know, right? I’m gonna be disappointed if they don’t just admit it and confess to each other soon. I don’t want to miss it whenever it happens.”

I nod. However, that’s the only response I have time to give, as all conversations on the boat are cut short by the ringing of a phone. Roman huffs, pulling his from his pocket. “Yes, Remus? … Fine, I’ll put you on speaker…” He pulls the phone away from his ear, and presses a button.

“Hello, other tour members! I’m Remus Duke, Roman’s brother. So, who am I talking to?”

“Virgil, Logan and Ethan.”

“Huh? I thought there were five of you…”

I bite my lip, and Ethan speaks for us. “There was an incident in the last room. Patton… isn’t with us anymore.”

“Ooh, do tell! Did he die?!”

I wince at the comment. No, Logan, it’s okay, that Oompa Loompa said it would be easy to save Patton, therefore it’s almost certain he is alive.

“No, he’s fine,” Roman sighs, obviously used to his brother’s morbid curiosity.

Ethan shrugs. “Well, we don’t technically know that for sure… It’s just most likely he’s okay.”

“Aww, that’s boring…” Remus whines.

“You are extremely messed up in the head…” Virgil mutters.

“Thank you! That’s kinda what I’m going for.”

“Anyway, as lovely as it is to talk to you, we have to go, Remus. We’re almost at the next room we’re looking around. Bye,” Roman says, eyeing the nearing door reading ‘The Inventing Room’, looking like he couldn’t be happier to hang up the call.

“Bye, bitches!” are Remus’ last words before Roman hangs up.

“I hate him…” Roman huffs, slipping his phone back in his pocket.

“He doesn’t seem that bad,” Ethan shrugs.

“Oh, you don’t even know the half of it! That’s just the beginning of his twisted mind that you just heard. You’re lucky you didn’t have to live with him for multiple years...”

The boat begins to slow as we arrive at the door to the Inventing Room. When we stop, Wonka climbs out, and the rest of us follow, however he stops us before he opens the door.

“Now, before we go inside, there are some things I need to tell you. It is very important that there be no touching, no tasting, and no telling.”

“No telling?” Virgil asks. “No telling what?”

“Well, as I said, all my unfinished candies are being made in there. If my competitors were to find out my creations and how I make them, and release these before me, it could be devastating. You’re very lucky I’m even allowing you to see it. So, do you promise?”

We all nod. “Promise.”

“Good! Come on in!” Wonka pushes the door open, and we all follow him inside.

Oh. My gosh. If Dessert Island had been Patton’s personal heaven, this room is mine. It’s basically a giant laboratory. Yes, it’s a very messy and disorganised laboratory, but it’s a laboratory nonetheless. The whole place is filled with machines of various sizes and shapes, and I’m immediately filled with curiosity as to what they all do. All sorts of scents waft through, smoke rising from some machines, steam from others. There’s practically an assault on my hearing with the various whirrs, clunks and groans from machines, but I manage to tune it out mostly.

Wonka leads us through the room, pointing out different machines to us. “That one there makes Dragon Drops, candies that make you breathe fire. However, they aren’t quite right yet. They burn the tongue a bit too much. Oh, and over there’s the Three Course Meal Gum Machine. We still haven’t quite worked out the issues with the dessert… Anyway, I trust you to all be responsible enough to look around by yourselves for a bit. If anything interests you and you want to ask me anything, don’t be afraid to call me over. But once again, I must emphasise: no tasting .”

And so, we all head off in different directions. I follow Virgil, who heads over to the gum machine that Wonka pointed out. He bites his lip as he looks up at it.

“Virgil? Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah, I just… This machine kinda makes me nervous.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Well… the defect in the gum that this machine creates is what apparently caused Violet Beauregarde to, um… experience an incident that made her have to leave the last tour. It probably wouldn’t make me this uneasy if it weren’t for what happened to Patton...”

“Oh… Well, then maybe we shouldn’t stay by this machine. How about we go and see what Roman’s looking at, shall we?”

“Okay, yeah, that’s probably a good idea…”

We both move away from the gum machine, going over to the machine Roman is looking at. It’s under a cover labelled ‘Top Secret’, which Roman is trying to peak under.

“Should you really be looking under that?” I ask, causing Roman to quickly step back.

“Well, he said we could explore! Don’t see why not…”

“It’s literally labelled Top Secret, Roman,” Virgil points out.

“Still…”

I sigh, rolling my eyes. “Roman, if you want to know what it is, just ask Mr Wonka, and he’ll tell you what it is if we are allowed to know.”

“I guess… Mr Wonka!”

Wonka is currently stood by a pod-like machine over by the wall, talking with an Oompa Loompa, but looks up upon hearing Roman’s call. He doesn’t hesitate in coming over. “Yes, Roman?”

“What’s this machine do?”

“Ah, this one has been in the works for a while…” Wonka reaches his hand under the cover and there’s the sound of a lever being pulled. Immediately, the machine springs to life, the cover being tossed around as parts move. The noise grabs Ethan’s attention, and he comes over and joins us. A conveyor belt that pokes out of the cover starts to move, and after a moment, starts bringing out spherical sweets of all sorts of bright colours. When the machine finally stops, Wonka picks one up. “These are Everlasting Gobstoppers, for kids who are given very little pocket money. They last forever; you can suck ‘em all day and they’ll never get any smaller. Well, they’re not supposed to. Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten them to last longer than ten years at the moment. A few more adjustments and tests are needed before we release them.” He pauses, before picking up the rest from the conveyor. “Say, why don’t you four take one each?”

“Uh, are they safe?” Virgil asks.

“They’re perfectly fine! Everyone who’s had them is okay. The only problem is that they don’t last long enough. They’re the safest thing in this room. I wouldn’t give you something that wasn’t safe to ingest.”

“Okay…”

Wonka hands each of us a gobstopper each. I get a blue and purple one, Roman gets a red and gold one, Virgil gets black and purple, Ethan gets green and yellow. “Looks like there’s an extra one… Everyone got one?”

The others nod, but I ask, “Mr Wonka, can I take the extra one to give to Patton when we see him again? I think it would be rather unfair for us to all get one and him to miss out…”

“Of course!” he hands me the extra one, which is light blue and yellow. “You can all continue to explore now. Enjoy the gobstoppers!”

I pocket my gobstopper and Patton’s, before looking around again. My eyes drift to the pod-like machine Wonka had been by earlier, and I make my way over to it, curious. The outside is rather nondescript. However, through the glass door, the inside looks extremely complex. There are numerous buttons, wires, lights and panels of various colours, shapes and sizes. I have no idea what this is supposed to do or create, but I am very very intrigued…

“Ah, I see you’ve taken an interest in the teleporter.”

I turn to Wonka, who has appeared just behind me. “Teleporter?”

“Yes, I adapted it from another invention of mine. Transporting ingredients around the factory can be rather difficult, due to how large it is. So, making a teleporter seemed like a good solution. There are a few problems, however. Not quite ready to be used yet.”

I turn back to the machine. “How does it work?”

“Simple. You put whatever or whoever needs transporting inside, use the buttons inside to select whatever pod in the factory you need to send it to, and then press the activating button that’s by the door there. Whatever it is your sending is deconstructed in one pod, sent from that pod in millions of microscopic pieces, and then put together in the other pod. It’s quite like the teleporter in that movie… Oh, what was it called again…? Oh, The Fly. However, so far there’s only two teleporters, so they can only take you to the other side of the room and back. We’ll make more for the whole factory once all the kinks are worked out.”

I nod along as he talks, unable to take my eyes off the teleporter. This is a revolutionary piece of technology! Like creating life, this is something else people have wondered about for centuries! If this was shown to the wider world, we could have a more efficient, interconnected society. Supplies could easily be sent to those in need. Government officials could easily speak to those of different countries, preventing misunderstandings that could lead to war, and allowing better discussion as how to solve problems like the climate crisis. And then just imagine how teleportation could help us in exploring the final frontier. Space… One day, with teleportation, the entire solar system - nay, the entire universe - could be at our disposal. Imagine, one moment being here on earth, and the next being on a planet in a distant galaxy with the extra-terrestrial life that lives there, because there has to be at least one other planet somewhere in the universe that has conditions similar enough to our own that allowed some form of life to evolve there, the likelihood we are the only ones is near impossible-

I’m rambling, aren’t I? My apologies. Space and astronomy are two of my favourite things to study. I get rather passionate about them…

Anyway, the point is, I find this teleporter extremely fascinating, and I am desperate to know exactly what engineering was done to make this possible. So, I do the most logical thing I can to start to find out: I open the door and step into the pod.

Whoa… The complexity is astounding. I wish Wonka hadn’t walked away; I really want to drill him about how he created this. Where did he even begin?

Guess the only way to find out is to keep looking. I start following the wires, seeing how they interconnect, running from the buttons inside into a switchboard. If only I had a screwdriver so I could open it up and look at the internal mechanisms…

CLUNK!

Shit. Please don’t tell me I’ve broken something…

Oh, thank god, I haven’t. A jar was just rolled into the pod.

Wait. A jar? I bend over, picking it up. It’s a jar of Crofters. The ingredients say it’s blackberry and pomegranate, but when I turn it over to look at the front of the label, it says it’s loganberry flavour.

No, hold on… It says Logan’s Berry. And there’s a picture of me on the label… What the hell…?

SLAM!

I look up at the noise, seeing the door of the teleporter has closed. I step over to it, trying to push it open. It won’t budge…

What’s that whirring? Oh no. The lights inside the teleporter are flashing, and smoke is filling it… I think it’s been activated. My mind brings back up Wonka’s words: “There are a few problems, however. Not quite ready to be used yet.”

I go back to desperately trying to open the door, praying that if I am teleported, it doesn’t malfunction. There’s a bright white flash.

And then I’m gone.

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Taglist: @clone-number-1, @pumpkinminette, @i-have-n0-idea-what-im-d0ing, @jessicakennedy957, @why-should-i-tell-youu2

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