#would be really funny if I started using the tag 'ladies disc.'

[chireikiden]

Might be a pretty basic take by the standards of more seasoned yuri fans, but it's my perspective as someone who's mostly read yuri in a Touhou context (though a lot of it), and exclusively manga from the Japanese fans as opposed to i.e. written fics.

Touhou yuri (using it very broadly here to describe any kind of wlw shipping present) is, across the board, in a pool of fan literature going back twenty years, remarkably good at taking the lesbian part for granted. Not counting outright het content or works that simply don't bring it up, I have only very vague memories of a character's lesbian orientation being either denied or even brought to question (even in the cliche "But we're both girls!" manner, which even as a somewhat dead horse trope you might still expect to see, given plenty of doujin writing isn't exactly highbrow). You might be able to read "Does she like girls?" between the lines in the usual question of "Does she like me?" if you really want to, but the way it's still basically treated as default is fun to me. There's a reason Touhou basically has honorary yuri status on e.g. Dynasty Reader, even the stories with effectively zero shipping in them. You might not notice if you haven't browsed the site, but it's literally nothing but yuri + Touhou. We even got upload rights just so we could post more Touhou.

(Of course, Touhou being yuri city is part of the reason any hint of straight romance gets a really strong kneejerk reaction from people, including me. But that's also because the lack of usable male characters makes that shipping inherently hamfisted, up to and including literally making up cardboard villager OCs. Basically the only positive example I can remember off the top of my head is Hisona's An Old Poem for the Cuckoo Bird depicting Youki with a 1000-year-old mostly joking crush on Nue, which after some chin-scratching I decided I liked alright. And Hisona of course has plenty of yuri cred to cover for it.)

But although taken for granted, most Touhou yuri is one or more of: a.) On a "blushing maidens thinking about holding hands" level in its approach to romance, b.) Only depicting the starting moments of a relationship, at best - usually just pining, c.) Only off-handedly teasing, basically to acknowledge the ship is there, d.) Showing a very close and loving relationship but leaving the romance part subtextual, even if thinly veiled.

While those are all fine - some of my favorite artists like e.g. Ashiyama undeniably fall under d.) - it means that artists who depict more established couples, and couples that get depicted as more established, stand out. I love when a story is very blunt about two characters, whether the focus is actually on them or not, already being an item. Be it due to a difference in target demographic or what, many of these works seem to have a slight lean towards being more raunchy/horny even when not outright R-18, but I don't actually mind that too much when it does happen - as long as they're fun and raunchy, as opposed to only raunchy or, god forbid, unfun in raunchy ways.

I like how Moyazou depicts Mokou and Keine as basically-married. I like how Atoki depicts YuuParu or SakiYachi after drawing like twenty books of them (each). I like when Kawayabug depicts Tojiko as Miko's beleaguered wife. But the example of the day is obviously risui (of Ladies of Scarlet Devil Mansion), who you might have guessed inspired this ramble. Funnily enough, in LoSDM she seems to have walked back Meiling and Sakuya's relationship coincidentally at the same time she toned down the content to fit SCoOW's guidelines, compared to her usual works that have MeiSaku at a much more established and mutual stage.

But the point stands that it's really fun to see LoSDM almost rub it in your face from the very start - from Meiling's dream to every other conversation she has - that everyone in it is unapologetically and openly lesbian, assumes everyone else to be a lesbian, and doesn't hesitate to talk about it like a (romcom idiot) adult.

Also, risui draw lady very good

#would be really funny if I started using the tag 'ladies disc.' #losdm disc.

[eidetictelekinetic]

Fic Writers Tagging Game

Tagged by @nurselaney

Tagging @ofthedirewolves @rubickk7 @nellie-elizabeth @cosmonauthill and anyone else who wants to!

I started out on ff.net and then went to LJ, but I think all of my LJ stuff is on AO3 by now. Most of my ff.net stuff is... not, lol. Except my Tudors fics.

Please state and link/explain the following fics:

What you’d consider your first fic: Oh God. My first fics were a pair of OC-centric Stargate fics, one each for SG1 and Atlantis, published together. They were just-out-of-the-Academy Air Force lieutenants who I think were somehow related? Also, they were witches, with magic loosely inspired by a Nora Roberts trilogy, and there was some kind of dangerous family history involved (actually, I’ve never fully lost that vibe of shadowy powered families, which is kind of funny). Anyway, I was fourteen, they were terrible, and the only place where they still exist is on discs (yes, I used to save my drafts on discs) buried in amongst my CD collection. 

Your softest fic: Goodness, I really can’t decide between them, so I’d have to say it’s a tie between could not ask for more (than this time with you) and Cupcakes and Other Gifts, both Magicians fics done for ‘character birthday’ collections.

Fic you’re most proud of: Again, it’s a tie between fics: this time it would have to be If I Could Fall Into the Sky and The Lady of Rivers and Storms; Into the Sky is a Magicians fic, the first in a series that I’m very proud of in general, and Rivers and Storms is an ASOIAF fic. (It’s also, apparently, my most popular fic, which has actually blown me away a little.)

Fic which shows your progress: Standing Outside the Fire, a Tudors fic. I was writing it off and on from 2010 to 2019, so you can, in fact, literally trace my progress by way of the writing quality in the chapters. 

Your favourite WIP: Dance Upon the Air! It’s another ASOIAF fic, the earliest set of any of them I’ve ever done, and it’s always a lot of fun to work on. I’m also very fond of my Timeline 41 verse for Magicians, but I’m currently a bit mired in the kinds of scenes I don’t particularly enjoy doing (across multiple fics, which makes it worse) so some of the shine is off for the moment. 

#kate writes fic

[maggyoutthere]

It's funny how I'm actually putting effort on this. I'm putting actual effort on a shitpost.

Anyways I said I'd write a bad sonic creepypasta so here it is. Here's the catch: I like how its turning out so imma make it a 2-pary story. This is the first part. It doesn't have any scary shit but it has the basics for a shitty creepypasta: someone gets a old pirated/unreleased/defective game and tries them out despite getting warned that bad shit might happen.

Again I'm not a fluent English speaker so expect some grammar error and stuff like that ._.,

So ladies, gentlemen and non-bis, I present to you-

Sonic: Battle of Metal and Blood (Part 1)

Synopsis: Teen gets nostalgic mid-quarentine and starts playing old Sonic games. She asks for some cheat codes and shit happens.

So for context; I'm a 17 year old girl stuck home because of quarantine.

It had been 4 or 5 months since the virus sent everyone home. Students were playing Animal Crossing and DOOM all day to fill in the summer hours since no one could go outside. I never liked going to the beach so I was never really bothered by it.

Like many people, I found myself going back in time to easier phases of my life. I was rewatching old cartoon shows from my childhood, getting into MCR and P!ATD and just living in pure nostalgia. I also started getting into gaming again, even going to the point of setting up my Wii again just to play Epic Mickey, but I didn't exactly grow up with the Wii. I was more of a Playstation kid, so much that me and my bro got a Playstation 2 from our cousin when he eventually bought the 3rd one for himself.

My cousin was older than us; I remember him being 16 or 17 when I was like 12, so he was kind of our gaming hero. If there was a level in Crash Bandicoot we couldn't beat, we'd call my cousin and he'd do it in 15 minutes. He knew all the cheat codes, all the secret levels and extra content for the games he had; he was like a genius to me and my lil bro, so when he gave us his old Playstation 2 and games me and my sibling knew we were in for a treat.

We got this Sonic Gems Collection for the Playstation 2 from him. It's like a port of various older Sonic games like Sonic CD, Sonic The Fighters, Sonic R and so on. I grew up playing that game, especially Sonic The Fighters since I wasn't very good at the racing games.

I still had a working controller and a lot of free time so I asked my bro for help setting up the console. The thing was so dusty I was actually scared it wasn't going to work. We clicked the power button and the light on the console turned on. Me and my brother held our breaths as we put the DVD in the console and crossed our fingers. As the screen lit up with the SEGA logo and music started playing, I just hugged him and cheered. He set up the console in my room so I could play without having to go to his room (he was the one keeping all the electronic stuff) and told me to have fun.

I didn't even know where to start. There was so much I wanted to play now that I actually knew what I was doing. I thought about starting with my favourite one out of the bunch: Sonic CD. I'm a sucker for the retro 2D pixel games so that was a must. It was better than what I remembered; the music was so catchy and the art style was vibrant and it stood out from a lot of games nowadays that go for a washed out "hyper realistic" look.

As I kept playing, I eventually reached the level where Amy tags along with Sonic for a while before Metal Sonic bursts through a wall and kidnaps her. Oh yeah, Metal Sonic was a thing. I remembered him from Sonic R and Sonic The Fighters - and the fact he was in the fucking cover art of the DVD case. I absolutely loved the fucker in the games though. He had a cool design, and the idea of the villain being a copy of the hero gone wrong was so interesting to me at the time.

I ended up passing the level and even making it to Stardust Speedway. I was sweating since I'd never come this far at any game. My bro was there cheering me as I tried not falling on spikes or getting hit by Metal Sonic's attacks. I ended up making it till the end on top, but it was kinda sad seeing Metal crash face-first against the door like that.

I was done with that for a while, so I went ahead and played Sonic R and Sonic The Fighters for nostalgia. Again, the fucker was there, either as a boss or as an unlockable character. I ended up noticing how there were a bunch of games missing. There were empty grayed slots with question marks instead of the game titles. I couldn't understand if the game was broken or if there was something I was supposed to do, so I called my cousin in hope he would somewhat tell me what to do. He ended up explaining how the game made you complete all the other games to unlock new ones. I thought that was kinda stupid so I asked him if he had any cheat codes or something to make the whole thing available. He told me he was going to dig up his old stuff and ring me again if he found anything.

A few hours later, he sent me a message telling me he'd found something that should work. He told me he did have a cheat code but he thought it was best if I didn't do it. Here's the transcript from his message.

"There's something that might work but it's kinda weird. I got this memory card from a friend of mine and he said this should unlock all the hidden contents within the disc, but when I tried it some weird shit started happening. Most of the sonic games were unplayable no matter how many times I restarted the console or cleaned the disc. There should be an extra game slot but that's just a glitch. Something about the system trying to make up storage for the extra code. Just don't click on anything that looks like a glitch and you should be golden"

Well that was a bit discouraging, but we agreed to meet that afternoon so he could give me the memory card.

When I got home and plugged the cartridge into the slot on the console, I was kinda scared. What if the thing exploded or something? I gave it a try and the thing actually worked! As I clicked on the games section, everything was there! There were some vectorman games but I didn't know who that was at the time so I didn't really care about them. What I was more interested in was the museum. There were a bunch of unlockable promotional art and illustrations there that I never got to see as a kid, so you could imagine how joyful I was when I saw the museum section filled with pages upon pages of illustrations and renderings of the games. Some of them weren't even on the Gems Collection like some screenshots of Sonic Heroes.

I went back on the game menu and was surprised to see another game entry below all the vectorman ones. It was called "Sonic: Battle of Metal and Blood". What the hell was this? It surely wasn't in the cover art and a quick google search turned up nothing. Was it a glitch? It couldn't be; it looked too clean and intentionally made to be a glitch, not to mention that whole game titles don't just appear out of thin air. Game or not, something was programmed in there. I concluded it was probably someone's fan project that was in the memory card my cousin gave me. Why hadn't he mentioned it though?

I was too curious to turn down a mystery like this one, so I got up first to make a cup of coffee since it was already getting late. As I returned from the kitchen, I remembered to look at the synopsis of the game. I can't remember exactly what it said but it was something along the lines of:

"In this sequel to the famous Sonic CD, step in the shoes of Sonic's friends as they face their biggest challenge yet. Control Amy Rose and Miles "Tails" Prower and fight against the metallic faker himself, Metal Sonic, and stop him before he puts his plan to become the only Sonic in action"

Woah, that sounded exciting; I wasted no time. I got all cozy, kept my cup of coffee next to me

And pressed START.

To be continued in part 2

#sth #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #creepypasta #creepy story #short story #sonic gems collection #sonic: battle of metal and blood #battle of metal and blood #maggy moment #shhh i actually like how its turning out #i'm not that good at writing but this is the best i've written in a while

[daleisgreat]

Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased

WWE has release a few Shawn Michaels DVDs over the years, but continuing on the theme of my last few wrestling-centered entries, WWE Home Video stuck with their “unreleased” brand of DVDs in 2018 with the three-disc release of Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased (intro - I could not locate a trailer for this anywhere!). In that clip Shawn quips that the producers deserve an award for finding previously unreleased matches. I believe the criteria for this release is still similar to previous “Unreleased” collections where they may have aired on television (and thus likely in the WWE Network archives) or long discontinued VHS tapes, but this DVD will mark the first time the matches are available on disc. Also included is a new interview with Michaels that they broke up in several parts and sporadically inserted throughout the collection. The first disc is something special as it essentially is a “Best of Rockers” DVD. The first two matches are from Shawn’s rookie year in 1985 for Mid-South in quick enhancement matches for Hector & Chavo Guerrero and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Matches serve their purpose, but it is nonetheless fascinating to see how Shawn had that already apparent potential in him way back in 1985. The remaining 11 matches on the first disc are all Rockers matches, with the first three tag matches being from their Midnight Rockers AWA days with two bouts against Doug Summers & Buddy Rose and one more with Brian Knobbs & Dennis “I’m not booked” Stamp. The two Summers & Rose matches are show-stealers that had exhilarating beginning/middle/end structures, and was fun to watch the 1980s crowd go nuts for.

The first disc is almost all AWA & WWF Rockers matches!! For the eight WWF Rockers matches, they consist of almost an all-star lineup of a golden age for WWF tag teams where they square off against the likes of Demolition, Brain Busters, Hart Foundation, Natural Disasters and Legion of Doom. The sad thing about The Rockers back then is that as charismatic and agile as they were back then, they mostly made other teams look good in their WWF run and that is the case here as they lose six of those eight WWF matches. Even worse is the two matches they win is a DQ win against the Rougeaus after Jimmy Hart’s megaphone is used, and a countout win against the Orient Express. That said, a lot of the other matches are pretty damn good, with high honors going to the Brain Busters bout, two Demolition matches and surprisingly working in a lot of good stuff against Legion of Doom. Worth pointing out is another good match against the Hart Foundation where it seems noticeable the teams missed their cue to go home because the match starts to feel there is no end in sight when out of nowhere during an abdominal stretch a bunch of wrestlers run in and an awkward impromptu brawl ensues and the match is declared a draw.

Disc two has 12 matches from Shawn’s first singles WWF run from 1992-1998. Some highlights from this are an unsurprising technical showcase with Mr. Perfect, oddly having a positive dynamic with Bret Hart to team up against the Blu Brothers in 1995 and predictable-yet-high quality formula matches during his first WWF Title run against 1-2-3 Kid and Steve Austin. Disc two has a disappointing triple tag elimination match with Shawn, Diesel and Undertaker against Psycho Sid, Tatanka and Kama filled with lots of stalling and headscratching booking for the eliminations. There is also a questionable match against Vader a month after their controversial-yet-excellent Summerslam match, where in this match Shawn takes 95% of the offense and quickly squashes Vader in three minutes. There is also a fascinating bout against Yokozuna from the summer of 1996 in Kuwait, when Yoko is nearing the end of his WWF run due to him putting on excess weight, and the match kind of expectedly plods along, until something must have clicked for Shawn to motivate Yoko into a pretty watchable match in the back half, and the two show respect afterwards which was awesome to see….until Yoko suddenly darts off to the back like he really has to go to the bathroom. The third disc consists of 10 matches from Shawn’s return run to WWE from 2002-2010. All the matches here are from RAW, so that means they follow the formula that still holds true for WWE TV main events today where it is either a cobbled together tag match, or a really good one-on-one match with interference or a hokey finish. There are a couple exceptions with worthwhile clean matches against Ric Flair during a Japan 2005 tour and against Christian in 2004 when he was building momentum with Tyson Tomko by his side. HBK’s matches against Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho are the highlights on disc three, but all three contests have varying degrees of interference to effect the finishes, and in some cases it actually benefits the match as is the case with Angle with the story they were telling. I was delighted to see a post-RAW dark match included with Shawn teaming with Batista against Triple H and Edge. WWE is notorious for usually doing a fun untelevised promo or bonus match for the fans after the cameras go off the air with some quirky moments that would never fly in a televised match. That is the case here with Triple H doing lots of exaggerated selling and fun jawing with the crowd that absolutely ate it all up for a fun time.

Shawn didn't disappoint in his 21st century run, with matches included here that don't disappoint against Ric Flair and Kurt Angle. A couple of promos are uncovered like Shawn doing an open Q&A with the fans when Sensational Sherri was managing Michaels early in his singles run. Another amusing bonus promo is Shawn and Diesel doing a Times Square workout session to hype up their upcoming WrestleMania 11 match with the one-and-only Todd Pentigill hosting. The several interview clips inserted throughout the DVDs has Shawn hitting on certain parts on where he was at that stage in his career and reflecting on the infamous Barber Shop break-up with Marty, his 2002 return, rebooting a less edgy, more goofball version of DX in 2006 and retiring in 2010 (this was filmed before his ill-fated Saudi Arabia return match). From these series of introspections, it was fascinating to hear Shawn think back on why he was not all-in for teaming with Jose Lathario in his WWE Title run, and hearing him settling on being a family man in retirement and turning down multiple

WrestleMania return matches. There are also a few sets of interviews with NXT talent commenting on how lucky they are to have Shawn as a teacher at the WWE Performance Center. Shawn comments a few times here too on being proud of passing on his knowledge, and it is obvious he is genuine on his passion for his new role building talent in NXT. WWE has once again amassed another recommended collection of un-vaulted matches. I am digging this format following the Piper and Macho Man sets where they break up the action every few matches with a set of interviews. Wort mentioning is about a quarter of the 35 matches here have no commentary because they were either dark matches, or from arena shows WWE use to film at regionally in the 80s and 90s and never recorded commentary for and/or lost the rights for the commentary. While there are some skippable matches, the good-to-bad ratio is largely in the positive here, and the not-so-good bouts usually at least have an entertaining backstory or era they emanate from. This all adds up for Shawn Michaels: The Showstopper Unreleased being another must-have installment of the Unreleased branding. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold Randy Savage Unreleased: The Unseen Matches of the Macho Man RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Shawn Michaels: My Journey Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania III: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #Shawn Michaels #the rockers #wwf #WWE #awa #marty jannetty #ric flair #kurt angle #Christian #Bret Hart #diesel #psycho sid #dennis stamp #jake roberts #mr. perfect

[talesofphantombandits]

Zero to Six ~ Chapter Eleven.

CSorry, this feels really lame but I tried my best, then I was about to upload it when tumblr went down.

Here’s chapter Eleven though! enjoy <3 

Again, let me know if you want to be tagged.

Warnings: Swearing.

tags: @i-am-sarah​ , @whothefuckstolemykeds​ , @drowsyrrog​ , @culturefiendtrashqueen​ , @rogue-barnes-16--main-account​–main-account , @alliwantfromyouistomakelovetome, @valerie-weasley​ , @sueeatstheworld​ , @bleona2808​ , @pippin248​ , @myfatbottomedgirls​ , @httpfandxms​ , @cooliosmosh​ , @speckles-s​ , @walking-disgrace​ , @itsmeaudrieee​ , @fight-the-freaking-fairies​ , @irrelevant-pumpkin​ , @captain-sparkles-who​ , @podcasts-8-my-heart , @foulvintagenature​ , @imjustboredso​ , @loophoria​

___________________________________________________________

“So Billy eh, I mean it’s cute but it’s a little common.”

We were driving through a forest, Four in the driving seat with Five in the passenger seat. I was sat in the back in the middle, leaning against the seat with my tinted blue sunglasses on.

Four just scoffed.

“Well we can’t all be like you, miss my names unique.”

Five turned in her seat to smirk at me.

I looked from Five to the rear view mirror to find Four staring at me, I just smiled and raised my eyebrows. “Well I didn’t have a choice in picking it did I?”

“Well Neither did I with mine, sweetheart.”

I leaned forward, putting my hands on his shoulders. I was essentially back hugging his seat.

I leaned into his ear and whispered. “I love when you call me that.”

He peered over his shoulder at me as I sunk back, biting my lip.

He just shifted uncomfortably in his seat, double taking at Five who gave him a shocked but stern look.

“Hey you don’t have to tell me. She’s the one riling me up!” Billy defended.

“Let’s just get this over and done with, no distractions please Zero.” She looked at me pointedly.

“Sure.” I said with a smirk, catching Billy’s eye in the mirror again.

We got to the location about an hour later, parking 30 minutes out as to not cause suspicion.

We kept low in the brush when we finally reached the communications disc on top of Turgistan Mountains.

Guards where just at the top of the base but that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Hey, you afraid?” Five said breathlessly as Four got the wire cutters out of the bag.

He just looked at her with an unreadable expression and cut the chain. She looked to me, I just sighed giving her my best smile.

I managed to hack the cameras getting the screens up while also being in a position where I could keep an eye on the guards. Four had already started his acsent up the big disc.

In and out with no disasters, just how I like it.

On the way back Five decided to get in the back seat while I was packing the gear in the trunk.

Which meant was was sitting shotgun, about 10 minutes into our journey back she’d fallen asleep.

Four coughed shuffling in his seat. “You okay?” He grabbed my hand from my lap with his free hand.

“I’m fine, what about you.” He interlocked our fingers and rested them back on my lap.

“Am good just a little nervous. Listen about us? What are we.”

I stared at him. Why was he doing this now.

“I like you Billy.” I laughed. “Dam I’ve liked you from the first insult you threw at me.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Crazy I know.”

Now was his turn to chuckle. “But?”

“I think we should finish what we started here first.” I raised our hands so I could lean my chin on them. “We never know how a mission is going to go, we’re nearly there though.”

I kissed his knuckles and he just sadly smiled at me.

“I guess you’re right. But as soon as this is over and we both come out of it alive. Which we will! I’m taking you on the best date you’ve ever been on. And if you’re lucky at the end.” He leaned in to me trying to be all seductive.

“I’ll give you that decking you’ve been asking for.”

I let go of his hand scoffing. “You’re such a cocky little shit.”

He just give me puppy dog eyes, to which I rolled mine and interlocked our hands together again.

“Happy now?”

He just deeply hummed at me and kissed my cheek.

I smiled at him, deciding I too would nap. We had along way to go.

Finally the day of the dead came, I just hope all the preparations where going to be worth it.

“And this is yours.” I looked up from where I was sitting to see Two holding up a very expensive looking green velvet dress.

“Oh shit, it’s gorgeous.”

“Fours going to die when he see’s you.”

“I think everyone will be too focused on the mission to care what’s on my body.” She just shrugged in agreement then left to get changed herself.

I just looked at the dress, sighing before changing and doing a natural but darker makeup.

Our first job was to accompany the same man, one woman on each arm. I stayed quiet while I examined the scene and let Two do the wooing.

He pulled me in by my waist, it took all the strength in me to not show how uncomfortable it was. I just started a conversation about how beautiful the boat was.

Hoping to god the guys would get here fast so we could get this show on the road. Luckily Two was here with me.

Suddenly a load explosion came from across the water, everyone stood shocked while me and Two just looked at each other. A faint smirk came across her features.

Everyone started running in a panic, we just stayed where we were. Calmly we made our way deeper into the boat.

We finally made it into the control room, as Two delt with the guard I started messing with the controls.

“Side doors open.” I mumbled flicking the final switch. God I hope Billy gets on board safely.

“Coms cut, we’re good.” I let out a sigh of relief at his voice coming through my ears.

We climbed back up going to meet the rest of the team, when Two opened the door she was met with a gun in her face curtesy of Seven.

“Bonjour.”

A round of heys and we were back on track.

“Hey Papi, don’t you ladies look nice.” Three came hobbling out of another door, winking at us.

I just stood there awkwardly while One and Three started having a little tiff.

“Children please, god and you have a go at me and Four for starting things.”

“Because that’s awkward.”

“What and this childish bickering isn’t?”

“I hate that she gets sassy and more sarcastic everyday.” Three groaned.

“Yeah I wonder where she learns it from.” One looked between Two and Three.

Two just raised her hands in a ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ position.

One stormed away.

I pointed between Two and Three. “Best adopted parents ever.”

We all followed One out.

Following Two again we made our way to the kitchen area, champagne glasses in hand this was where the acting classes would kick in.

Putting on our best drunken ‘am a lost guest’ act, I surveyed the area and found the back door to Rovach’s suite, radioing the information to the others.

I looked around to make sure the space was clear enough before I learnt against the wood, Two was about to take the men down that were surrounding Three and honestly I was excited for the show.

I’d heard and see little bits of how amazingly skilled this woman was, obviously watching now I was kind of wishing her skills were in something a little less violent.

She walked up to me to check I was okay.

“Why don’t I have a gun? I think I need a gun.”

They both just started laughing at me.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“Am not giving you a gun Princess, I know you’re probably fully capable. But! I’m definitely not giving you a firearm until we’ve fully tested you back at base.” Three lectured me.

“So how exactly am I supposed to protect myself?”

Three looked around and found a metal pole from god knows where. “Here, use this.”

I just stared at him, mouth open. “What. Am I the all powerful Rey now?”

“Hey don’t mock Rey! She’s amazing in Star Wars, plus she really knows what she’s doing with that stick.”

I just tilted my head and squinted at The tall dark dumb idiot.

“Enough with the movie references!” Two shouted, dragging Three away.

“Guess it’s just you and me now.” I looked down at the metal pole and prayed for the best.

Chapter Twelve

#ben hardy #ben hardy fanfiction #ben hardy fanfic #ben hardy four #6 underground #6 underground four #6 underground fanfic #6 underground fanfiction #6 underground billy #four fanfiction #four #four fanfic #billy #billy fanfiction

[s1cparvism4gna]

I Like You A Lot

WARNINGS: violence and cursing

Pairings: Chloe Frazer x Nadine Ross x OC

Tags: @desertvvitch , @courtenbae

Chapter 10

Sunny’s POV

“We are….right about here. I can mark it up as we go along.” Chloe said, pointing to the bottom of the wrinkled map in her hands. I stood up in the 4x4 to look at the view. Clearly in the distance, there was a tall mossy tower. Vines beginning to climb its base as fog circled around the tippy top of it.

“That tower looks like it’s smack dab in the middle of everything.”

“Mm. Probably could get a good lay of the land from there.” Nadine added, knowing exactly where I was going with it. After a bit of conversation on the way over, the three of us managed to find a way to gel. Like an oiled machine. Barely working but it got shit done.

“Right then. So we have a plan. Get to the tower. Nadine, you keep an eye out for Asav. Not that I’m too worried about him.” Chloe shrugged, starting up the car.

“You should be. We won’t have the advantage of surprise again. I don’t think he was expecting much from you… Either of you really.” Nadine said, looking off somewhere. Chloe dramatically stopped the car.

“I’m sorry- did you just give us a compliment?” She smirked, looking back at me. I smiled small.

“Sounded like she did…” I tilted my head, matching eyes with her in the side view mirror and she shook her head with a light scoff.

“His guys are idiots but Asav…. look, we just need to stay the hell away from him.” She warned us. The way she spoke about him seemed to shake her a bit. I wondered what he did that got her so spooked. Chloe continued to drive like a maniac through the half dried up vallies. Much like Nathan did, she took the opportunity to drive over every rock and slope she could find. Every drop gave me a heart attack, every slip back worried the hell out of me. And yet… I felt totally safe with her driving the car. I could take a nap in this little bumpy ride and wake up unworried. Wouldn’t recommend it though… In a strange sort of comfort, I leaned my head back and looked at the clear skies and the ruins as we drove beneath the sculpted bridges and such.

“I never understood the appeal of people like Asav…” Chloe said randomly, filling the silence once again.

“It’s simple. He finds men who are weak and offers them power.” Nadine answered simply. “Gives them purpose.”

“Sounds like bullshit to me.” I commented and Chloe agreed. Then I figured maybe I’d start talking. I was going to be stuck with these two for a while. Might as well… “How’d you get caught up with this guy anyways, Nadine?”

“‘Purpose?’” Chloe mocked and I chuckled, hitting her shoulder playfully. Nadine grimaced and flared her nostrils.

“Rather not go into it.” She simply stated.

“He certainly seemed to have a thing for you.” Chloe teased. I raised my brows and moved to the middle of the backseat.

“Hwat?!” I exclaimed.

“Don’t remind me. Proved useful at the time but…. ja.” She brushed over the subject very quickly.

“And again I say- HWAT?!” I blinked at her, seeing her in a different light. Through everything, I somehow had forgotten that she was a woman above all things.

“Uh...do tell!!!” Chloe prodded in excitement. Finally, a conversation worth having.

“Rather not.” Nadine said, shutting it down quickly.

“Over drinks?” Chloe was adamant on getting her fill of gossip for the day but Nadine wasn’t having it.

“Not enough alcohol in the world.”

“Damn… and you talked about my taste in men….” I chuckled, leaning back in my seat as we drove along a shallow ravine.

“Well I don’t go sleeping around with two bit thieves.” Nadine commented.

“No. You just go sleepin’ around with spoiled emo rich kids and psycho warlords.” I fired back rather quickly. I smirked.

“Alright, you two. Enough.” Chloe giggled, changing the subject. She nudged Nadine in her side. “So you’re the military expert. What’s his strategy here?”

“He’s spread out his men. Hoping to stop us in our tracks. Rookie move on his part. Not what I would do…” she said.

“And what would you do, Nadine?” I asked. I somewhat cared but I also didn’t. Warming up to her was a challenge when she could be so snippy.

“Besides lose the beard?” She began. I chuckled. ‘Is that a sense of humor?’ I thought with a small smile as she spoke. “I’d hang back. Let you do all the heavy lifting then swoop in the grab the tusk once you’ve done all the hard work.” It was brutal but efficient.

“Jesus, Ross…” I crinkled my brows as I looked at her and she just shrugged.

“You asked.” She mumbled.

We continued to drive about. Slowly but surely I was beginning to get annoyed with Chloe’s driving. She kept running under waterfalls, thinking it was funny. It was cute the first time. But after the third and fourth time, I was just cold and wet. We dried off some as we waited for Chloe to climb and examine the tower. As it turned out, there were symbols inside pointing us in the direction of each temple ruin. And with that, we started off for the first one. We drove up some cliffs to the top of a waterfall and suddenly slowed down. There was a big truck parked in front of one of the ruins.

“Asav’s men?” I asked.

“Ja.” Nadine whispered.

“Let’s get going then, ladies.” Chloe said, parking the 4x4 behind the truck and grabbing her gun as she hopped out of the car. I checked the clips in my guns to make sure I was good and followed suit.

We climbed the platform to be met with a structure that looked like the remnants of a temple. Carved into the stone was the shape of a trident, a motif carved into the very top of the ruin that was quite similar to Chloe’s disc. “Ganesh. Remover of Obstacles….” I heard Nadine mumble as I tightened the strap on my gun over my shoulder.

“Where’d you learn that?” I asked stupidly.

“Picked up a book. Same as you…” I heard her voice trail off as if she were distracted. When I looked up, she was staring at Chloe as she let her dark tresses down from her ponytail to wring out her hair. She blinked a moment and then looked away, flustered as she threw her hair back up into a new ponytail and began marking her map. I smirked. She was totally into her. It was clear as day. Poor Nadine thought no one noticed but I did. Compared to her two psycho exes, Chloe was a huge step up. Wasn’t exactly sure if I approved yet though.

“Alright, you lot. Let’s go.” Chloe ordered and we followed her into the temple.

Asav’s men were pacing at their posts all over the place. I had to give it to this guy. He suckered a lot of sorry saps to their deaths for this job. Poor bastards would never know what hit them. “Is the gate secured?!” I heard a man yell as the three of us crouched low in a patch of grass then taking cover behind a fallen pillar.

“Not yet! Waiting on Cobra B!” Another answered.

“Oi! Let’s keep this quiet, ja?” Nadine whispered to us. “Spurrs, have you still got that silencer?” She asked me. I rolled my eyes and groaned. I wanted to blow things up, make some noise. But Nadine, on the other hand, wanted to do everything quickly and quietly.

“Yeah I still got it on me…” I replied sadly.

“Good. So would you mind…?” She nodded towards one of the men pacing atop a singular platform with a machine gun resting on his shoulder lazily. I clicked off the safety and huffed.

“I got it.” I mumbled. Chloe just chuckled and rubbed my back.

“There’ll be plenty of time for more fun, later, Sunny.” She told me. I gave her a small smile before running the same plan as before. I ran through first, thinned out the group at the higher points. Then Chloe and Nadine would take out the others on the ground. We got away with it again but something was telling me that was the last time we’d be able to pull this off. The group was cleared as we watched Chloe deliver a final blow to a man’s jaw and she shook her hand to relieve the pain.

“Woo! You alright?” I heard her ask Nadine.

“Besides working for a reckless treasure hunter… ja. I’m good.” She responded. Chloe blew her bangs from her face and rolled her eyes. I joined the two at the end of the field and took a look at my surroundings.

“What is this place? Or what was it rather…” I asked Chloe.

“Honestly… hard to say. A fortress maybe? It’s not the right layout for a temple.” She told us, walking towards a ruin that housed an odd looking circular mechanism on the gate. Guess I was wrong about the place. We began pulling and pressing on the spokes of the wheel but it wouldn’t budge. “Hmm… how the hell—” Suddenly, I ran my hand over the middle. If there was something I learned from Nathan, it was to press everything. As I pressed it quickly, each spoke flipped revealing a carved golden side. “How’d you do that?”

“Natey presses things all the time. Looked like a button so I gave it a shot.”

“Huh…” She hummed curiously as we heard multiple clicks beneath us and in the distance. She looked behind her and a mechanism that looked similar to the wheel appeared on the ground. “What do you do….” She crouched low and placed a hand on the handle, turning it and pressing it into the ground. There was a low creak and a spoke on the wheel behind Nadine and I made a sound. A lock retracted when she did whatever she did. Chloe mumbled something inaudible to herself as Nadine called for her attention.

“One of the spokes just turned around.” She told her. Chloe chewed on her lip as we approached her.

“I saw a couple thingies like this one around the ruins on the way over.” I told her.

“Right. So let’s turn the others.” She said, stretching her arms. The three of us split up and turned the other nodules. It didn’t take very long for us to find them.

“Now back to the big wheel thing…” I said to myself after we made sure we got them all.

When we got back to the gate, Chloe took a spin of the wheel and the stone gate began to lift. “Teamwork makes the dream work, eh?” I smiled as it slowly rose. Suddenly, the door had gotten stuck about a foot and a half from the ground.

“Oh you’re kidding me…” Nadine groaned as we looked beneath it.

“Guess we’re going under…” Chloe commented as she crawled beneath it. Not wanting it to fall on me before we could get through, I crawled in right behind her without a second thought. Nadine followed behind me and just as her foot passed the threshold, the gate dropped closed behind her. It didn’t seem to freak her out at all though. I shook the nerves off and followed Chloe around a wall where we were met with a set of steps that led to what looked like a little stone gazebo and a mechanism in the middle of it. There was a gorgeous view of waterfalls and mountains from here. It was breathtaking really. Much like I tended to do (because I just love psyching myself out), I walked to the edge and looked down at how high up we were. ‘Fuck…’ I thought as I pulled away to bring my attention to the mechanism. There was a puzzle all jumbled up and right beneath it was a circular slot. I ran my fingers over it ready to solve whatever it was but there was nothing to move it with. Chloe suddenly hummed and pulled her disc from earlier out.

“What are you willing to bet…” she said, pressing the disc into the slot. Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle lifted from their locked positions. A smirk formed on her lips as she gestured to me. “All you.” She said, leaving me to quickly solve the ancient Hoysala jigsaw puzzle. I turned the pieces all together so that they’d fit and formed the image of a trident before locking together and back down into its base. Just as it clicked, the entire puzzle panel flipped revealing a beautifully carved image of elephant diety. I jumped back a bit as two poles then sprung out from the sides suddenly. “Well hello, sir!” Chloe commented respectfully, looking over my shoulder.

“Now what?” Nadine asked.

“I guess we turn the crank? See what happens next...” I guessed, putting my hands on one of the poles, ready to push. Chloe got on the other side to do the same but Nadine but a hand on her arm to stop her a second.

“Is it safe?” She asked in a rather sheepish tone; one very out of character for Nadine Ross. Chloe just chuckled.

“Y’know, treasure hunting isn’t a good gig for the risk-averse, right?” She joked.

“Neither is being a mercenary. Difference is- when I pull a pin on a grenade, I know what's going to happen next.” Nadine took a few steps back to let us do our thing. Chloe shrugged.

“My ways much more fun.” She said, winking at me.

I smiled and the two of us began to turn the crank. After a few seconds, we could hear a low rumble and it began to feed out into the floor below us. “You hear that?”

“You feel that?” Nadine asked, looking at her feet.

“What the hell…” I mumbled, looking around. Suddenly, behind us, we could hear the splashes of running water. “Yo….” I whispered in awe as we all looked over the edge. Nadine stood to look out at the view and tapped Chloe on the shoulder.

“Guys, look…” she said pointing to a mountain out before us. Chloe pulled out her binoculars and peered at it curiously. A bright smile pulled on her lips.

“There is a massive relief carved into the side of that mountain.” she said, handing me the binoculars to look for myself. In full view, there was a gorgeous elaborate carving with a bit of water streaming down the front of it. I chuckled and handed them to Nadine so she could see it as well. “And you were worried that we were going to turn that crank and die…” She seemed rather amused by her paranoia. Nadine just smiled nervously and looked into the binoculars. I looked at the pair of them together. It was still odd but maybe…

“Guess it’s good we’ve got an archaeologist’s daughter with us.” She commented. Nadine missed it but Chloe’s smile suddenly fell as she went into thought. “That must’ve been fun growing up, eh?”

“It had its moments… and I learned a lot… Hoysala Empire was kinda his thing.” she said, seeming as if she were trying to talk herself into believing something was better than it was. Trying to find the bright side in it as she’d done with everything in life. She leaned against a pillar and looked at her swollen knuckles, picking the dirt from beneath her bloodied nails. Then she gave a big sigh. “Took up a lot of his time though...” She said. Nadine and I looked at her as she chewed on her lip, looking out at the view pensively. I was beginning to understand. He wasn’t around a lot because of it. She just wanted to be with her father and he was probably too busy to see that. I knew that feeling all too well myself. I leaned on the bar of the crank as she continued. “Me, if I go digging for treasure, I’d better make a buck or two…”

“Sure. I don’t take risks without a good payday.” Nadine looked back at her with a gentle smile. My eyes widened a little. I’d never seen her look so innocent before. It was almost cute. I stayed quiet like a little fangirl to watch their interactions.

“Much like running an army, huh? That’s a big responsibility.” Chloe commented, gearing the conversation back towards her. Nadine always seemed uncomfortable talking about her life. Much like Chloe did. She winced as she turned back to the view, staring at the flock of birds that flew by.

“Second nature. It was my father’s business. He retired, I took over.” She said simply and militantly. When she did talk about herself, it was interesting to hear. It was like she was a human being or something and not a raging bitch for once.

“Family business… Made a real mess of it.” Chloe said rather insensitively. I raised a brow at her and chuckled at her.

“Well you should know. Like Spurrs, here, I heard you and those Drake brothers are close.” She retorted, throwing me into the mix as she handed back her binoculars. And just like that, we were back to square one. I scoffed at the nerve she had to bring them up like that. I stood up and started down the stairs. Chloe looked between the two of us awkwardly as she looked into her binoculars again.

“Yeah well, that’s a conversation for another time…” she said brushing the subject but Nadine wouldn’t let it go.

“If they didn’t tell you, I’m sure Sunny did.” She said. I made a face and turned my head to look at her.

“Why are you pokin’ the bear for? It’s done. Libertalia is done. It’s over. No reason to dwell on it.” I said as calmly as possible, sitting at the foot of the steps and lighting myself a cigarette. Nadine grunted as she turned back to face the mountains.

“So where to now?” She asked Chloe.

“Well there’s another fort embedded in the mountains that way. I’d say that’s a start. And definitely that fort in the lakebed.” Chloe answered, tucking her binoculars away and pulling out her map.

“Let’s get going then.” Nadine sighed. Yet and still, she just couldn’t drop the subject. “I suppose I should’ve asked about the Drakes before I took this job.” She said. I took a big drag and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke as I shook my head, chuckling in annoyance.

“Not much to tell.” Chloe said as she began to mark down the forts on her map. “I know Nate pretty well. Sam less so. He just seemed to fall right into my lap.” I chuckled at the irony.

“I’m sure he did…” I commented sourly. Chloe, thinking I was being funny, giggled mischievously. I shook my head as Nadine looked between the two of us.

“What- you slept with him, too?” She asked her in disgust, putting two and two together. My heart skipped. ‘Shit…’ I thought, tossing my cigarette over the edge in frustration. I began bouncing my knee anxiously, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. Chloe peeked up from her map, narrowing her eyes at her.

“What do you mean ‘too’?” She asked. I groaned.

“You and Spurrs, I mean. Hell, he’s practically her boyfriend-” Nadine elaborated.

“He’s not my boyfriend-” I snapped.

“Ja. Like I believe that. I do have eyes, Sunny.” She laughed briefly. I turned to look at the pair and Chloe was looking at me in surprise. “I saw the way he looked at you. How he protected you from Rafe in Libertalia every chance he got. It was obvious you two were together. And if either of you thought you were hiding it, you were doing a piss poor job of it.”

“Sam’s your boyfriend?!” Chloe asked as her face seemed to pale.

“He is not my boyfriend!!!” I exclaimed, covering my face in frustration.

“Isn’t he though?” Nadine fired back. I was having a flashback from my conversation with Sully when he said something similar. I had nothing else to say. So I opted to stay quiet.

“Sunflower…” I heard Chloe mumble softly.

“Have you finished markin’ up that map? If so, we should go. I wanna stay ahead of this Asav guy. Never met him and I don’t really plan to.” I said abruptly, standing to leave down the stairs and around the wall. My heart was pounding. I was nervous, I was embarrassed, I was angry. There were so many things to feel in that moment and it took everything in me to hold back a couple years. I sniffled and took a few deep breaths to center myself again. The girls followed behind me and Chloe couldn’t seem to stop looking at me. She didn’t know the full story but she knew something was wrong. She looked as though she’d done something stupid and didn’t know how to apologize for it. But in truth, she had nothing to apologize for. She didn’t do anything wrong. When I really thought about it, I wasn’t even mad at her. It was Sam and how he practically lied to me again. ‘Must come with the Drake territory… all that damn lyin’...’ I thought as Nadine approached me. She looked rather guilty but it was too late for that.

“Spurrs, I-”

“Just don’t. Help me lift this.” I said, dismissing whatever it was she had to say. She just nodded and bent her knees to help me lift the excessively heavy gate.

“You’ve got it?” She asked me and I nodded.

“Chloe, go!” I grunted, struggling to hold the stone gate up as she crawled under. Then she held it up from the other side. “Go.” I told Nadine, then she crawled under and held it up as well. I crawled through last and they dropped the heavy door as soon as I was out from under it. Without speaking to either of them, I started across the fort for the 4x4.

Just as I was walking by a ruin, I’d gotten a glimpse of a man in a generic camouflage uniform coming our way. My eyes widened and I turned on my heel very quickly, dipping around the corner to take cover. Chloe and Nadine stopped in their tracks as they watched me press my back against the stoney platform and I mouthed for them to back off; waving at them as they silently got the hint and took cover themselves. I could see their heads peeping at me from behind their corners. I rolled my eyes when suddenly the man walked right by me. He didn’t even notice my presence against the wall; his tunnel vision was clearly geared towards the gate we’d just left from. I did a quick once over of the weapons on his person and my eyes lit up at the sight of the massive knife tucked in its holster. With quick reflex and an excited smirk, I adjusted the gun in my hand to bust the heavy hilt upside the back of his head. Grunting briefly, he passed out and fell back into my arms. I laid him in the shallow water gently so as to not make more noise and patted him down for everything he had. Including that beautiful knife. The girls appeared from their corners, weapons drawn and anxious expressions on their faces. They carefully stalked over to me, bending to meet my level.

“Reinforcements are on their way. They must’ve seen the car.” I told them as I stole this man’s M39. I held it up and checked it’s clip that happened to be damn near full. “If we split up-”

“No! We don’t split up. That’s a sure fire way to get us all killed.” Nadine whisper-fussed at me, her eyes darting between me and the direction the man had just come from.

“Nadine, we don’t have a choice!” I snapped in a hushed tone when suddenly the man’s communication device began to produce a bit of static. This guy’s comrade started asking questions.

“Sadik! Do you see those mongrels?” We heard his voice say. Chloe made a face as we stared at the device.

“Rude.” She commented. Neither of us knew what to do.

“Well shit, do we answer it?” I asked Nadine.

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re the grown up here.” I told her.

“You’re not twelve, Sunny!” She snapped as the static began to come through again.

“Sadik! Brother? Are you there?!” The man’s voice said again. I was getting worried. He obviously knew something wasn’t right and was surely sending more boots our way. I looked up at Chloe as she chewed on her lip.

“Fuck it.” She eventually said, turning down the volume of his device and pulling her own gun off of her shoulder. “No guts, no glory, right?” I could feel that familiar surge of adrenaline pumping and I knew that I was finally going to get the fight I’d been waiting for.

It seemed to be every woman for themselves for the immediate second. Chloe and Nadine peeled off in different directions and I climbed the ruin in front of me, hiding behind the corner of a pillar. I peeked from behind to scope out just how many there were out there. And it was a nice little amount, too. I took a deep breath and watched as they began to split up. I aimed my pistol at a few men, shooting a few down one by one as the strategy seemed to be. When enough were down, I suddenly noticed Chloe recklessly jumping from the top of a ruin, striking a man across his jaw and bringing him down. She began to fire her guns almost immediately. Nadine had begun throwing her signature kicks, conserving her ammunition by using hand to hand combat instead of using her weapon. Gunfire began to ring out as I tucked my pistol away and began to use the stolen machine gun. I jumped from my spot and began powering through, my muscles resisting against the power of the gun as men dropped like flies. Unfortunately, the fight didn’t last as long as I had hoped. It was underwhelming compared to what Nadine brought to us in Libertalia. If anything, I had to give that to her. I groaned as I watched Chloe knock out the last man and started for the car. I could feel a set of eyes on the back of my neck as I walked away. But considering my options as to who’s eyes, I could’ve cared less. Just as I was about to climb the wall that led us back to the 4x4, I felt a gentle hand on my back. I was turned to be met with Nadine. She seemed a bit awkward. She was the type that wasn’t used to apologizing and I could tell that. But lord did she try…

“You handled yourself well back there. Both of you really... all things considered…” she said looking at the ground and picking at her cuticles. Chloe gave an airy laugh and placed her hands on her hips.

“All things considered? That’s high praise coming from you.” She said. I was still fuming from her little stunt earlier. Although I had mentally accepted her apology thirty minutes ago, I still felt indifferent. Staring at her, the stone like expression on my face never changed.

“I don’t want your praise.” I said simply before climbing the wall. Reluctantly, I bent down to reach out and help her up. She looked at me in confusion and I just waved my hand in her face. “If you don’t take it, I’m gonna leave you. And I have no problem doin’ that right now.” I told her sternly. Nadine pursed her lips and took my hand as I assisted her up. Then we helped Chloe.

When we got in the car, we sat in silence for a moment, just catching our breaths. I leaned my head in my hand against the car door as I looked out along the scenery. I should’ve been enjoying myself but there I was, just bitter. It was a sticky situation. And the more I thought about what happened, the more upset I became with Sam. All I could really think to ask was “why”. I rubbed an itch away from my nose and blinked away the stinging sensation in my eyes that began to come about. Once again, Chloe broke the silence. She turned to Nadine and looked her dead in her eyes. The younger yet more mature woman looked like a deer in headlights for the moment as she explored Chloe’s grey eyes.

“Just so you know… Nathan Drake is no longer in the picture. So you have absolutely nothing to worry about…” I heard her say. I forced out a laugh at the irony. ‘Can’t tell her about Sam though, can you, Frazer?’ I thought, biting the knuckle of my finger. Then she suddenly turned to me. “Sunny—”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s done. He’s a single man. He can do what he wants. I haven’t seen him in months anyway…” I told her a half truth… or a skewered one rather. Chloe just nodded and turned around in her seat.

“Guess we’ll start for the mountain side then. Since it’s closer…”

“Ja. That’d be best…” Nadine mumbled. Chloe looked at me from the rear view mirror with raised brows.

“Sunny, love? You still on board?” She asked me. In all actuality, I couldn’t really afford to go home. So I sighed and nodded.

“Yeah.” I answered, defeatedly. And with that, we started down the shallow rapids and onto the next fortress.

Read more on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555698/chapters/64735600

#poc #poc oc #uncharted headcanon #ao3 author #nadine ross #chloe frazer #chlodine #uncharted lost legacy #uncharted oc #uncharted imagine #sam drake x oc #Sam drake #Samuel drake #Asav #uncharted 4 #sam drake headcanons #sam drake fanfiction #chlodine headcanons

[incarnateirony]

So anyway, life updates on what I’ve talked about good, bad, and vagueblog.

But I introduce you to Betty White, or the Millennium Falcon, name pending.

Most of yall know that I’m on disability, dealing with some massively janky medical issues that Alabama’s bottom-ranked health care system doesn’t even know how to cover, and my wifey blew a disc in her neck at work, essentially debilitating her, too, but also earning a small settlement. In scale of it, 25K -- 21 after lawyer fees -- isn’t really much to do anything with.

So we had already known we had to fix up and sell the house and thought, hey, the land value went up substantially out here, we can pocket and flip it and be hella good.

Until her father finally came out here and in long story short, found out that the inspector that ran through this house when my wife first bought it (during our breakup period YEARS ago) didn’t do his job and it’d be 20-30K worth of repairs to even sell this place at the value her loan is for, meaning we pretty much have to short sell it to get out from under it. I mean bad shit. Fire hazard wiring and rotting roof and siding element under shiny things that hid it that have clearly been deteriorating since long before the house got a lipstick job.

So we went and found an RV, because it’s time to go. We have to GO. We have to get out of this state. There’s nothing for us here. There’s no medical care, there’s no worker protections, being LGBT women we’re extra up a creek in the area, it’s just bad. So RV it was! But finding one in the now suddenly cramped budget with the house turning up bunk entirely was FUN.

But like a stroke of providence I happened to find a listing the day it was upgraded on what has been jokingly referred to by my friends as the Millennium Falcon of RVs. 

It came from an older couple, almost 60, that had been RVing for a few years, and the thing was already used when they bought it. It’s a friggin 1994. It’s old, it’s Chonk. But it was a project RV they decided to start on and while it has a solid AF 454 engine in it,

 they’ve over a few years put in just about New Everything. New transmission, new air brakes, new air bags, new radiator, new septic lines, new alternator, new battery, new steering and suspension, new new new new new. Modified backup camera that tracks engine temp/tire pressure/etc like modern dashes and stays on constantly instead of just when backing up. It has its little hijinks with the in-n-out stairs being funky and the generator is a funny little bit because they didn’t want to spend 8K+ on a generator for an old RV so they got one that’s an external mount, which I imagine is why it was having a hard time selling.

Atop that inside the wife went bananas and got rid of the shitty old wallpaper and painted it bright colors different on every wall, removed the space consuming fold out couch since they didn’t need an extra bed and installed an armoire-storage-couch-thing that takes up half the outter floor space, stuff like that.

This was their baby and they intended to keep this baby and did great work on this baby, and the second I saw it in the advert, I knew it, because the images weren’t all spit cleaned sales stuff, it was vacation images with their shit still hanging inside it and their party lawn with their sports teams and stuff and the shiny lights they added on it to make it a party bus like

So anyway it turned out they basically got conned into getting a newer shinier one and just wanted to get the fuck OUT of Alabama but because of the generator and age it wasn’t selling at market value which was about 15K even as old as it is, and had price gouged it down to *8500*

Thought it was too good to be true, got our old construction and mechanic friend go out out there and go over it with a fine toothed comb and this thing, as he put it “goddamn if I had the money, I’d buy it myself, what the hell, you ain’t gonna get anything better for that price, hell, you ain’t gonna get anything as good for the price” THEY JUST WANTED TO GET OUT OF ALABAMA. And I mean, MOOD, BIG MOOD.

In fact the money they were asking for was basically to pay off loans and costs on all the New Stuff they put into it to begin with.

Because of them basically gouging their asking price in half an old lady had come to see it same day and at first the husband was like WHOEVER GETS US THE MONEY FIRST but talking to us the wife was like HELL NO THAT OLD LADY COULD BARELY GET IN THE THING SHES JUST GONNA DRIVE IT DOWN TO FLORIDA AND LET IT ROT THIS IS OUR BABY THESE GIRLS NEED TO TAKE CARE OF IT AND THEY WILL and she ran interference through the weekend until our mechanic friend could go check it out.

You might ask “if you have a buttload of money why an RV” but in trying to get out of Alabama and all the way back to Oregon where I literally KNOW I can make it work out in life for us, for reasons that are a whole story unto themselves, the moving costs cross country alone for a uhaul would be expensive AF. Downpayments. Finding pet friendly apartments. And then whether it was portland or somewhere else we could get STUCK. And we’re tired of getting stuck. So we’re packing up our own FUCKING house that we FUCKING own outright that fucking NOBODY can take away from us and with NO payment obligations and FUCK THE SYSTEM.

So anyway this big fuckin honker the wife was like WHY ARE YOU SO COMFORTABLE DRIVING THIS to Shea, but Shea worked for both Uhaul and Hertz so like hauling bigassed trucks around was kinda her thing and she also worked horses so giant ass horse trailers, you name it. So she just got up in there like she belonged and next thing you know we’re doing 65 down the bendy ass mountain freeways of central alabama like we been doing it for years

PS when you are in a literal fucking house 65 feels like 90, I’m just letting you know that now.

We’re still at our house cuz we gotta get this properly under our own tag/insurance and get a tow for the car. It was funny though cuz experienced or not knowing it was OUR LITERAL HOUSE Shea started like GOTTA BE CAREFUL GOTTA BE CAUTIOUS GOTTA MAKE SURE NOBODY DUMB and it turned into GET OUT THE WAY FUCKERS I’LL WIN within the 120 mile haul back home. Like BITCH I’LL TAKE MY FOOT OFF THE GAS BUT I AINT GONNA TRY TO JACK RABBIT STOP THIS FUCKER SO YOU BETTER GET SOME GIDDYUP IF YOU GONNA MERGE YOU FRIGGIN HONDA

This beast only has 65K miles on it. And that sounds like a lot but for an RV that isnt S H I T. People are like, if you can find a used one under 100K you’re doing okay. Half of those miles are just taking it out for a jog because you’re supposed to drive it once every couple weeks to keep it from rusting out basically. They just safely drove it in like a tristateish area down here for a few years as you can see on the cabinet stickers and moved around to sports games and shit and had fun.

The bedroom is purple. The kitchen is blue and yellow. KJSDKJFSjk she was like “Fuck the 1990 floral wallpaper we updating, there’s extra paint in one of the storage bins if you wanna touch any of it up”

So that’s it. We’re gonna do some work with said mechanic friend on the AC and a few tweaky details and as said, gotta tag/insurance/tow but once we get that worked out, that’s it, that’s home starting in a few weeks. 

We’re heading to Independence, Missouri first to touch base with my internet momma then swinging in Salt Lake City to meet old media friends like the folks at Arrowstorm and stopping to enjoy their stuff at Evermore Park before hitting Portland which, reasonably, I’ll guestimate we’ll be at like a week or two before Halloween but maybe we’ll make better time. If you’re en route to those destinations and wanna meet up, lemme know, we’re still gonna have fun on the way and try to record shit. 

Portland is the city I know how to work to and from the bone. I can turn any quarter into at least a dollar there, quite literally; I know how to eat eight times a day for free if need be. I reasonably think we can stay WELLLLLLLL above the line of needing that kind of assistance but because Shea is very anxiety driven to know we outright have a promised home and have promised food if worst case scenarios happen really made her go, you know what, fuck it, sure, Portland, you loved Portland, the wages are good in Portland, let’s do Portland.

If we start with dry camping at locations with free plug ups even still paying for Shea’s car and insurance, once major gas costs GETTING there are done, we’ll be running about 500 a month, and again, that’s including insurance for both vehicles and paying off her car note. Depending on the lot we land at, 700-900 a month. I can float that on my casual residual income. Everything after that is profit. Everything after that is success. I refuse to let Shea be anything less than Okay, but most of all, weird and nonconformative as it is, everything after this is scales of success. Hell minus the car note we’d be under 600/mo on the pricy end. We got dis. 

No more of my wife being convinced she needs to performatively pull loans on her livelihood and shelter for the illusion of a 3/2 middle class life with a picket fence and a job she hates in a place she hates that she doesn’t know how to get away from. Hell, if she ends up hating Oregon? WE CAN PICK UP OUR HOUSE AND MOVE.

QUEER CULTURE IS HAVING THE MILLENNIUM FALCON OF RVS RAINBOW PAINTED INTERNALLY TO HAUL ASS TO PORTLAND OREGON AND AINT SHIT YOU CAN DO TO STOP US, FUCKERS.

It’s literally parked in our yard right now awaiting our voyage.

You bet your ass we’re getting an aux cord and blaring classic rock on surround sound the whole goddamn way

Also gonna get a CB radio to roll with some of the better trucker herds out there. Trust me, solid investment for a multitude of reasons. And entertaining.

If you don’t know what Smokie In The Woods is on a CB radio, you don’t know the road.

It also comes with a lot of gadgets you usually have to buy, like converters for USB chargers in older vehicles and the cable antenna and an extra tent and hell they left two bikes on it like YALL WANT EM YOU CAN HAVE EM, SURE

So buying the RV, paying the friend for the loss of a work day, the necessary gas to get out there, and the tow all in all is gonna run us about 12,000 bucks total, which isn’t a bad deal for bringing your own house with you.

We already burned a few thousand of our settlement trying to fix this house before the bad news and/or upkeeping bills but now it’s time to burn it and walk. By the time we roll I’m expecting us to have about 4K over costs in the bank, which is... enough. It’s more of a nest egg than we’d have if we stayed here that’s for sure, covers emergencies on the way there and gives us a few months to get our shit together. Even the part-iest part time job out in Portland will float any overhead on bills much less if shea can fall in with all the media and digital work out there with her graphic design and art, we’re eyeing the portland saturday market to sell her stuff at in season too. SCREW THE SYSTEM YALL

#not spn #me #the road so far

[closetofanxiety]

Show Review: Constitution State Wrestling

Last night,  I went down to beautiful Groton, Conn. (”The Nuclear Submarine Capital of the World”) with Mark, Mike, and Joel to see a show put on by an indie promotion that was totally new to us. It was, in many ways, a prototypical Local Indie Experience. Let’s count the ways:

National Anthem

This, in many ways, is the earliest and most significant sign that you’re attending a Local Indie as opposed to a National (For Lack of a Better Term) Indie (the national anthem might be played before a Shindie, too, but that’s another subject entirely). Local indies always make everyone stand up for the national anthem, national indies do not. The local indie maintains, at least in vestigial form, a connection to the idea that this is a sporting event, and sporting events begin with the anthem. In this case, the anthem was a pre-recorded instrumental track, but people clapped after it was over anyway.

Public Venue

Unlike a National Indie, which will be in a bar or a rock club or a private fraternal organization’s event hall or a Catholic church with an absurdly Catholic name (New York City national indies only), the Local Indie show will take place in a high school gym or a town hall or a rec center or some other building they can get with a discounted rental fee because of political connections. In this case: Ella T. Grasso Technical High School, a magnificent example of 1970s brutalist school architecture. It was an air-conditioned gym, though, which you wouldn’t expect on the Connecticut shoreline, so kudos to the Constitution State Wrestling folks for that choice.

Advertising and Local Celebs

It’s not a Local Indie without a program, and this show had a program listing the entire card, providing some detail on the two main events (there can be only one main event in reality but whatever) and listing all the local sponsors of the show. As a bonus, there were also signs leading to the venue that just said “Wrestling” with an arrow pointing vaguely in the direction of the school. I cherish these signs of Local Indiedom! There was also a woman from a rock radio station on hand, whose duties were limited to introducing herself and then, later, introducing the women’s match. It’s not a Local Indie without an appearance from a random local celeb: TV meteorologists, disc jockeys, mayors, and others are all perfectly acceptable. 

At Least One Wrestler Who’s in the Military

In our case, that was “The Soldier of God” Ronnie Ribbs, which is absolutely one of the best Local Indie names I’ve ever heard in my life. Ronnie Ribbs! “Soldier of God” is a little weird, though. Kind of a Taliban vibe there. Also, since that’s a lot of verbiage to put on your ring gear, that meant Ronnie Ribbs had the acronym “SOG” on the seat of his red, white, and blue trunks which, if you didn’t know what it stood for, could be a little embarrassing. Anyway, he was introduced as a soldier in the U.S. Army, always good for a patriotism pop at a Local Indie. Groton, though, is a Navy town, and when Ribbs was rolled up by opponent “Sensational” Scott Levesque with help from cheating heel manager “High Class” Rich Bass, a guy behind me said, “Just one more reason the Army sucks at everything.” 

Event Name That is Not a Cool Pop Culture Reference

Constitution State actually fell down on the job here, as this event did not appear to have a name at all. But a key distinction between a Local Indie and a National Indie is that the latter will usually go with some impenetrable hip pop culture reference (or, worse, just use numbers for each show, like they’re the UFC), whereas local indies are still committed to calling things, like, “Final Showdown” and “Summer Smash Up” and “Brattleboro Brawl” (Brattleboro local indies only) and, of course, “SEASON’S BEATINGS.” 

Random Ex-WWE/F Guy

In this case, that role was filled by Gangrel, who really should be getting some of the indie wrestling nerd attention being lavished on PCO. Gangrel is a blast to see live; he gets insanely into it, and takes bumps that are ridiculously bad ideas for a man of his age. He was in the main event here, and the crowd was pretty exhausted by the time it started, but he got them right back into what was really kind of a straightforward brawl with southern New England bad guy Trigga the OG, accompanied, of course, by evil schemer “High Class” Rich Bass, who I’ve never seen before. The crowd was NUTS for Gangrel. When he won, the pop was huge, although it was slightly disappointing that only Joel chanted “Fang and bang! Fang and bang!” Gangrel loved that though. He pointed to Joel and did the throat-cross-into-the-hook-’em-horns thing. 

Local Wrestling Academy Students’ Match

Often, this is a battle royal, but thank God that was not the case here. Instead, we saw Matt Taven trainees Joey Bones and Todd Harris, the latter working a “rich prick from Newport” gimmick. Both guys were decent, show real promise, and, notably, had really good gear. Invest in yourselves, aspiring wrestlers! You’ll stand out from the pack. 

A Comedy Match That Isn’t Funny

I like comedy wrestling. I know lots of people don’t, but that’s why they make different kinds of ice cream. However, there’s a Chuck Taylor/Orange Cassidy comedy match, and then there’s a Local Indie comedy match, which is basically like a Three Stooges short mixed with some inexplicable Attitude Era flourishes. In this case, it was the awesomely-named Necromancer (short, stout guy with Papa Shango face paint and no apparent ability to speak to the dead) vs. 2Buff w/ The Buffdad, a legitimate father and son duo whose gimmick is that they are not, in fact, buff, but that they constantly do that thing where they put their hands behind their heads and swivel their hips, kind of like a Chippendale dancer would do on an episode of “Designing Women.” Laughs were notably absent, at least from the four of us. Mercifully, this match was broken up by James Ellsworth, who was booked as a random ex-WWE guy but is now, once again, an actual WWE guy. What must he have thought, staring out at the 250 or so people in a high school gym, knowing that in three nights he’ll be facing Asuka on live national television in front of maybe 12,000 people. Anyway, Ellsworth issued an open challenge, and another classic Local Indie thing happened: some loud music hit, and a guy walked out to answer the challenge, but instead of the “Oh shit you gonna get it NOW” reaction from the crowd, there was puzzlement, as no one knew who the challenger was. It didn’t help that he looked like just A Dude in red basketball shorts and a white t-shirt. Later we would learn that he is Wildman Kongo and he would go on to have a bad match with James Ellsworth in front of a tired crowd.

Excitable Fans

Hot crowd, especially before the intermission! At the start of the lone tag team bout, which pitted Brutal Bob Evans and “Tough Tim” against two guys called Riot City’s Most Wanted who looked like indie wrestlers circa 2003, one young fan became so enraged at the heels that he jumped the rail, the first time I think I’ve ever seen that at a show. He was about 11, though, and his friends quickly pulled him back over, so we were spared the sight of Brutal Bob having to PROTECT THE BUSINESS by breaking a child’s jaw. Local indie fixture the Fogman was also there. He’s not really excitable, necessarily, but he’s a fan. We talked to him during intermission and, I mean, he’s an OK guy. He’s his own biggest fan, but what’s so bad about a little self-confidence?

A “Ladies’ Match”

Never a women’s match or just “a match,” on a Local Indie it’s always a LADEEEEES MATCH, the segregation compounded here by having the radio station woman do the only thing she did all night by announcing the competitors, Isana and Jawsolyn. The regular ring announcer was a rockabilly guy, complete with Rev. Horton Heat necktie and suede shoes. He was fine. Isana is a big lass but mobile and specializes in suplays, while Jawsolyn’s gimmick is that she is a shark. That should have gone over better in a coastal town, but people were mostly politely indifferent to this match which, in fairness, was slow and clunky. 

One National Indie-Caliber Match

Increasingly, the people who promote and book Local Indies are fans of national indie wrestling, or Japanese wrestling, or British wrestling, or what have you. In this, their tastes diverge from those of their fanbase, which mostly consists of normal, blue collar Americans who just want a fun night out instead of weirdos arguing about BOLA lineups on Reddit all night or people who will slash your tires if you so much as say a disparaging word against Kenneth Omega. To try to satisfy their own creative longings, the promoters and bookers usually put one match on the card that could be on the card of a PWG show or Beyond show or AAW show or whatever. This is normally received by the Local Indie crowd with the same quiet endurance 205 Live is received by WWE crowds, but tonight was an exception. Matt Cross and JT Dunn, meeting for only the second time ever, had a tear-down-the-house 20-minute match that had the good blue collar people of America’s Nuclear Submarine Heartland going absolutely nuts and bananas. This was, indeed, a great match, one of the best I’ve seen all year: neither guy worked heel, but both of them wrestled as though they were actually trying to win an athletic competition, which is rarer than it should be in pro wrestling. Dunn dominated the first half of the match by keeping Cross on the ground and softening him up with wear-down holds to try and create openings for hard strikes. In the second half, Cross was finally able to take to the air, and made his spectacular offense seem credible and devastating. There were, by my count, three “This is awesome” chants, a “Both these guys” chant, and a “Fight forever” chant. People LOVED this match. YOU SEE, VINCE? PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE WRESTLING WHEN ok I’m not going to start with that. But it was nice to see a normal American wrestling crowd go nuts for a match that would not be out of place in Reseda or wherever the hell PWG shows are now. 

#show reviews #indie wrestling #indy wrestling #Constitution State Wrestling

[dangertronic]

Not A Monster Chapter 20

Finally.

Sorry guys, I broke a couple of my fingers the other day so typing is actually pretty hard right now and it’s gonna take me a while to type up chapters / post them.

Ao3 Link

Taggity Tags!: @sten-bros @agrimny @areyareddie @soomar-wine @deamontesnothere @jakethezombiehunter @creamy-brown-eyes @trippy-alexissss @thetrashvoid

Twenty

Eddie woke with a start, his breathing laboured as he tried to recall the source of his sleep being disturbed. Pieces of the dream that had woken him slowly came back as he sat up an attempted to steady his breathing, setting into his brain and causing his chest to tighten with each little piece he remembered he remembered.

“Eds?”

A firm hand clamped onto his arm, drawing Eddie’s attention to the source of the voice. He wasn’t sure when Richie had woken up, but there he was, sitting up in the bed with his glasses askew on his nose from his haste to put them on, his hair even more of an unruly mess than usual.

This wasn’t the Richie from his dream who had much shorter hair that he’d learned to tame somehow over the years and had no glasses anywhere in sight. This wasn’t the grime and blood covered Richie that had terrified him into a state of consciousness.

This Richie wasn’t middle-aged.

This was the real Richie.

His Richie.

“Eds? Come on, speak to me.” Richie urged, his grip on Eddie’s arm tightening enough that his fingernails were leaving small indentations in the flesh where they were digging in. “What’s the matter?”

Eddie shoved the hand away from his arm and then threw himself at Richie, arms winding around him and clutching at him as though he thought Richie would vanish at any second. His fingers dug into Richie’s back, clawing at the flesh like he was trying to absorb the boy in front of him, his face pressing roughly into the side of his neck.

Richie felt his heart slow at Eddie’s sudden behaviour. He hadn’t seen Eddie this panicked since the summer they’d encountered Pennywise, and when Eddie began to cry, Richie bit back the smart ass remark he’d been about to spew, curling his arms around his distressed boyfriend and running a hand soothingly through his hair.

“I’m gonna need you to use your words at some point, Eds.” Richie said, pressing light comforting kisses to the side of Eddie’s head.

After what felt like forever, Eddie slowly pulled away from Richie, his eyes red and watery. Richie shifted one of his hands to Eddie’s face, running his thumb gently under his eye.

“You wanna tell me what that was all about?”

“I – it was – bad dream.” Eddie swallowed, waiting for some smart comment from Richie that didn’t come. Richie was watching him very carefully, one hand running through his hair while the thumb of the other continued to stroke comforting circles across his cheek. “I – we were older – we came back here – It was back, Rich.”

Richie furrowed his brow. “It was back? You know that It’s –”

“I know that, Richie!” Eddie hissed, taking in a shaky breath. “But part of me is always thinking… what if it’s not dead? What if it comes back someday? Ben said it himself. It comes back every twenty seven years.”

“You’ve had this dream before, haven’t you?”

“A few times, yeah.” Eddie admitted, sinking his teeth into his lower lip. “It’s always the same.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

Eddie’s fingers gripped at Richie’s sides as he swallowed, running the dream through his head again quickly.

“I – we weren’t together. I had a wife…” Richie snorted here and Eddie smacked his chest. “Shut up asshole. I know that wouldn’t happen it’s just… it was weird. I got a call. It was Mike. He said that It was back and we all came back. Well… Stan didn’t… he died… I don’t know why… and we went back into those sewers.”

Richie hummed, toying with the ends of Eddie’s hair absent-mindedly. “And then what?”

“And then… It was there… and… I can’t remember all of it anymore but I remember you were covered in blood and I was looking up at you and I was in a lot of pain and everything started to go dark and then –”

“And that’s when you woke up.” Richie finished.

Eddie nodded, and Richie placed both of his hands to his face, tilting it in his direction with a comforting smile.

“Hey, look at me, Eds. None of that was real, okay? None of that is ever going to happen to you, to me, to us. We’re gonna finish school soon – two months actually – then we’re getting out of this place. We’re going to the same college, and I’m not about to let some girl take you away and marry you. That’s my job. That thing is dead and the only time we’re ever gonna have to come back here is to see parents at Christmas. Everything’s gonna be fine, because I’m not gonna let anything happen to you – ever.”

Eddie couldn’t hold back the laugh, staring up at Richie’s face. “Did you just tell me we’re going to get married someday?”

Richie groaned, lightly shoving a fist against Eddie’s shoulder. “That’s what you took from all of that?”

“It kinda stood out the most.”

Richie grinned. “Well, then yeah. You’re gonna be Mr Eddie Spaghetti Tozier one day whether you like it or not, Eds.”

“You think I’d be the one taking your name? I can’t even say it half the time.” Eddie protested, shoving Richie playfully.

“Are we really arguing names right now? It’s two in the morning, Eds! I don’t have that kind of energy!”

Eddie glanced back over his shoulder at the digital clock on the nightstand where the large red numbers now read 02:10AM before he turned back to Richie, a grin curving onto lips.

“Good. That means I win.”

Richie rolled his eyes, dropping onto his back and closing his eyes. Eddie shifted on the bed next to him, and Richie could feel his fingers curling around the arms of his glasses before he removed them, leaning over Richie to place them onto the nightstand closest to Richie.

Eddie pressed a quick kiss to Richie’s mouth, resulting in one of Richie’s eyes opening to look up at the blurred Eddie who was currently leaning over him, no doubt with a smile on his face. Richie opened his arms and Eddie settled down into them, nuzzling his face into the side of Richie’s neck which was still somewhat damp from when he’d been crying.

Richie didn’t seem to be bothered by the wet patch of his neck, throwing his arms around Eddie as he closed his eye again and stared to hum softly, the sound vibrating through his throat. Eddie smiled, curling himself more into Richie’s side as he allowed the humming and the heat emanating from Richie to lull him back to sleep.

“Christ Eddie, you look like absolute shit.” Jessica said as Eddie and Richie climbed into the back of her car the following morning.

“Gee, thanks Jess.” Eddie groaned, shoving the back of her seat with his knee. “That’s just what a ‘boyfriend’ wants to hear.”

“Hey man, we’re off the relationship clock right now since we’re not around my parents or your mom.” Jessica defended, grinning and winking at Eddie through her rear-view mirror while Lucille once again fiddled with the radio; brow furrowed. “I can say whatever I want until about seven-thirty tonight when I take you home.”

“The lady has a point Eds!” Richie said, lacing his fingers with Eddie’s.

“Don’t encourage her.” Eddie scolded, smacking Richie’s arm with his free hand.

“Well, your radio is officially dead.” Lucille said, sitting back in the passenger’s seat with a huff as Jessica pulled away from Richie’s house. “Unless you want to listen to nothing but Static FM all the way to the quarry.”

“I’ll take a pass on that.” Jessica said, reaching over and shutting the radio off. “I’ll get a new one next weekend okay?”

“You should get one of those fancy new ones that play those compact discs.” Richie said, tapping his fingers lightly against the back of Eddie’s hand. “They look really nice.”

“And expensive.” Eddie pointed out.

“Then you have to buy the discs to play in them.” Lucille added.

Jessica groaned. “Which are also expensive.”

Richie huffed. “Now you’re just taking the fun out of it.”

Bill, Stan, and Mike were all present when they finally made it to the quarry, seated open some rocks not too far away from the somewhat beat-up truck that belonged to Stan.

“Where’s Haystack?” Richie asked, wasting no time in grabbing one of the soda cans from the cooler at Mike’s feet and throwing it to Eddie who barely managed to catch it since he was caught off guard.

“He said he’s gonna join us later when he’s done helping his mom with some stuff.” Mike said, shooting Richie a disapproving look when he tossed another can; this one at Jessica who was busy talking to Lucille and not paying attention which resulted in the soda can colliding with the back of her head.

“Motherfucker.” Jessica hissed, grabbing at the back of her head with one hand as she bent to pick up the can.

“For fuck sake Richie, try to not give people concussion.” Stan scolded as took out another can and held it over his shoulder towards Lucille.

Richie opened his mouth to retort, but the only sound that made it out was a scream of ‘fuck’ as the can he’d thrown at Jessica suddenly slammed into his face with a sickening sound between a clink and a clang before it hit the ground at his feet and rolled towards Bill.

Eddie choked on the sip he’d been taking from his own can in his attempt to hold back his laugh, Lucille reaching over to pat at his back a few times.

“Dats dot funny.” Richie snapped, voice muffled behind his hands which were clutching at his nose, attempting to glare at his boyfriend through his now slightly watery eyes. “Da fuck you learn dat drow?”

“Softball, eighth grade. I was a monster.” Jessica said, walking over to Richie and prying his hands from his nose. “Come here you big baby, let me have a look.”

“Wow, cause that’s not stereotypical.” Lucille joked, dropping her hand from Eddie’s back. “Gonna be okay now?”

“Y-yeah.” Eddie said, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. “I just didn’t expect her to do that, let alone land the hit. How’s the patient Jess?”

“His pride took a really big hit from the wild soda can but he’s gonna live.” Jessica announced, patting Richie on the shoulder.

“I’d be mad you wasted a can if that throw wasn’t so badass.” Stan said, holding out an intact can towards Jessica.

“Ah-and hilarious.” Bill said.

“Glad you fucks take amusement in pain.” Richie grumbled, wiggling his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “Shit this hurts. For a second there I thought you’d actually broken it.”

“Trust me Rich, if I was gonna break your nose, I’d use something stronger than a can of soda to do it with.” Jessica said, taking the fresh can. “Also I did not waste a can, Staniel.”

Stan sighed heavily, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “If that name sticks I’m murdering you.”

“The can is perfectly fine. It’s just a little dented.” Lucille said, picking up the can and giving it a once over. “Kind of like me.”

“You’re confusing dented with bent, dear.” Jessica pointed out, popping the tab of her can and taking a quick swig. “You’re more like one of those flexible rulers. You know… someone bent you a little bit and you never straightened back out?”

“Ohmygod.” Eddie choked.

“How did you think of that joke but I didn’t?” Richie demanded.

Stan snorted, crushing his now empty can in his hand before tossing it into the trash bag that was set out next to the cooler. “I think you might have broken his brain, Jess.”

“Good, because I’m pretty sure he rattled mine.” Jessica grumbled.

“Are you actually implying it was ever in one piece?” Lucille asked, returning the dented can back to the cooler.

“Ouch Lucille.” Richie said, a look of mock hurt on his face as he placed a hand to his chest. “You really not how to hurt a girl’s feelings.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Richie.”

“Hey –”

“You walked into that one on your own, idiot.” Eddie said, hoisting himself onto a rock near Mike.

“It’s amazing how often I do that.”

Lucille snorted, perching herself next to Eddie and parting her legs wide enough for Jessica to sit between them. “Worrying is a more accurate term. So Stan, when were you going to tell us you and Bill are dating?”

Stan choked on his drink, coughing a few ties as he glared at Jessica. “Jess! You promised!”

Jessica held up her hands in defence. “I didn’t say anything! My lips have been sealed this whole time! It’s not my fault you’re coming to classes with hickeys and he’s going back with messy hair and his clothes wrinkled!”

“It’s definitely not her fault you guys are practically undressing each other with your eyes whenever you’re talking or looking at each other.” Mike said, tossing his empty can into the trash bag and grabbing a fresh one.

“And it’s also not her fault that you guys happen to run off at the same time for something or be at each other’s houses when we call one of you.” Eddie added with a smirk. “We’re onto you assholes.”

“Did everyone catch onto this but me?” Richie asked, standing between Eddie’s legs which were draped over the edge of the rock.

Eddie snorted, curling his arms and legs around Richie. “You always seem to catch on last. Are you sure you’re smart?”

“Fine. We’re dating.” Stan said, throwing his hands up in frustration. “We just didn’t want to say anything yet.”

“Wuh-we wanted to make shu-sure we felt something ruh-real. Like you guys.” Bill said, popping open another can.

“Yeah, we figured.” Lucille said, toying with the ends of Jessica’s hair. “That’s why we didn’t say anything.”

“You discussed this?” Richie asked.

Jessica tilted her head back to look up at Lucille. “Where the fuck was I?”

Lucille grinned, pecking at Jessica’s nose. “You were in that detention with Richie for… what was it? Not paying attention in class?”

“Oh yeah.” Jessica mused. “I was trying to tell Richie to shut the fuck up in Literature because he was being distracting. Thanks for fucking helping Stan.”

“You’re welcome.” Stan said, flashing her a smirk.

“Asshole.”

Lucille snorted against Jessica’s shoulder. “If you keep hanging around Richie I’m gonna have to start washing your mouth out with soap once a week.”

Eddie chuckled, tightening his hold on Richie slightly and pressing a kiss against the crook of his neck. “We could just wash Richie’s out for good so he can’t influence her.”

“Come near my mouth with a bar of soap and you’re going to regret it, Eds.” Richie warned.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “You’re forgetting something Richie. I know all your weak points. I can and will use them against you.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Oh Rich… whoever said we had to play fair?”

Richie groaned, tilting his head back until it smacked into Eddie’s shoulder.

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #typing is hard right now #leighwritesathing

[creative-frequency]

Ardyn x Fem!Reader: Sweet Disaster Ch. 1

Word count: 4901 Warnings: Eventual explicit content, Ardyn being a douche Notes: Romance, slight angst, broship banter. Includes game rewrite scenes, spoilers ahoy. This is me procrastinating multi-chap fics..... by writing another one. Thanks for the ideas @lucianhuntress! Thanks for the insight on the mentioned injury @alicemoonwonderland! Tagging: some who might be interested @valkyrieofardyn @poisonous-panda @tyncri @insomniacapples

Sweet Disaster -series Masterlist | Playlist for this story

As the first step of tackling the issue that is Noctis forging the covenant with the Titan, your party of five heads down the hot streets of Lestallum. Your destination is the outlook across the main road. From there you can see the Disc of Cauthess and its crystal formations that grow up into the sky. Your intentions are to devise a plan of approach there, even though, as Ignis has just said, “it doesn’t replace being on site, but it’s a good start”.

As you reach the location, you’re greeted by a tall, suspicious stranger. “What a coincidence,” he says with a wave of his hand.

You scan over his... attire in bafflement. Despite the heat that forced you to abandon your jacket, he is wearing at least three layers of clothing; complete with a long coat and several scarves. His hair is a dark auburn shade of red, locks floating airily around his head. The waves look so soft that you catch yourself thinking about how they would feel between your fingers. The stranger’s posture is relaxed, but not without a sense of nobility, which leaves you wondering about the contradictory signals his hobo-esque appearance sends.

Furthermore, the guys seem to know him.

“I’m not so sure it is,” Gladio rumbles with a disapproving look.

The stranger’s eyes stop at you as the last member of your group and he begins to pace forward. His scarf waves with the motion from the steps.

How on Eos can he wear those clothes in this heat?

He doesn’t look old enough to be your dad, but maybe he could be your uncle or something. Weird, hot uncle.

“Aren’t nursery rhymes curious things?” the stranger asks. You notice that his eyes are a peculiar shade of amber, which you haven’t seen before. He also has a bit of stubble.

You and Prompto look at Ignis in utter confusion in seek of advice on how to act, but the advisor’s narrow-eyed attention is fixated elsewhere.

The strange man continues speaking, pointing his words to Noctis, who looks defiantly back at him.

“Like this one: ‘From the deep, the Archaean calls...’”

His voice is pleasant, oily and the words sound like he is reciting a poem in front of an audience. There is certain easiness to the way he speaks and it makes you tilt your head in to listen.

“’...Yet on deaf ears, the gods’ tongue falls, The King made to kneel, in pain,’”– for some reason, he glances at you–“’he crawls.’”

You could swear his eyes were glinting.

“So how do we keep him on his feet?” Prom spurs forward to ask.

The stranger walks away from you to the ledge of the lookout, turning his back to you. “You only need to heed the call. Visit the Archaean and hear his plea.”

He makes it sound really simple.

Then he turns with a tight-lipped, wide grin on his face.

“I can take you.”

The motion is so ridiculously theatrical combined with the rhyme from the cosmogony he just recited, that you barely hold back your snort. Maybe he notices your amusement, but he pays no mind to it.

The guys and you huddle together to mull over what you just heard. “We in?” Gladio asks, looking at Noctis.

“I don’t know,” the prince says. Prompto shoots a suspicious look at the stranger and you follow his gaze to see a lingering, confident smirk. He can hear your every word as your groups weighs the situation.

“We take a ride...” Prompto says conspiringly.

“...But watch our backs,” Gladio ends.

Prompto nods in agreement.

“Fair enough,” Ignis says.

“Let’s do it,” Noct concludes.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” you add.

The stranger shrugs in amusement at your rhetorical question, and his smile only widens. He looks positively creepy and the expression makes you wonder what he could possibly have in mind. With a grin like that, he can’t be without an ulterior motive. Pure kindness from a perfect stranger sounds too good to be true.

“I’m not one to stand on ceremony, but such an occasion calls for an introduction. Please, call me ‘Ardyn’,” he introduces himself, satisfied with your group’s decision and begins to stride towards the parking lot. “Come with me to the car park. That’s where I left my automobile.”

Automobile? Seriously? You blink several times and bite your lips to hold back your laugh. Fortunately, Ardyn is too busy to notice you pulling faces.

The guys trade looks after Ardyn’s parading steps and you grin at Prompto, who quips a brow in question.

“She’s a dear old thing.”

You’re not sure whether Ardyn is joking in that tone of his, or just downright weird.

“Pales next to your Regalia, but she’s never let me down,” he continues as your group skittles after him. None of the guys can think of anything to reply, though it doesn’t seem that Ardyn is even expecting any commentary.

“So we take two vehicles – a convoy of sorts. Shall we?” he suggests.

You take a look at Ignis to see his reaction, which is only a passing furrowing of his brows. Ardyn leads you through the lookout terrace. His car is conveniently parked in the same row as the Regalia and the fact doesn’t escape Ignis’s notice. He is definitely suspicious of the stranger.

“All set?” Ardyn asks and before Noctis can answer to him, you cut in.

“Give us a moment, please?” you flash an innocent smile at Ardyn.

“Of course.” He doesn’t sound surprised at all, but the emotion is obvious on the faces of your traveling companions. You gesture the guys to the side.

“I should go with him. Try to figure out what he really wants,” you suggest, keeping your voice down so the mysterious new acquaintance can’t hear your group conspiring.

Ignis’s brows furrow and he peers at you in thought while humming. “I suppose that wouldn't–“

“What? Absolutely not!” Gladio huffs and crosses his arms over his broad chest.

Noctis and Prompto trade worried looks, but stay quiet.

“There’s no telling what that creep might try to do,” Gladio continues. He shoots a glare at the rest of the guys. It speaks volumes about his big brother instincts kicking in.

You shrug. “Not like I can’t defend myself, Gladio,” you say and take a glance at the auburn-haired man standing next to his automobile, as he referred to it just a moment ago. The silly word makes you smile. The car is a convertible model, a purple-ish shade of red with a white stripe going lengthwise over the paint. The vehicle has a very classical feeling to it and you’re amused by how it suits perfectly its owner.

Eccentric and kitsch.

Happy with yourself from coming up with a description for Ardyn’s style, your eyes glide from the car to the man again. The guys met the peculiar stranger earlier in Galdin Quay, but to you the acquaintance is new. There is a piqued curiosity in your look as your eyes meet his amber ones again. His lips instantly form an inviting smirk and you turn away after flashing him a one of your own.

Your interest is definitely piqued.

“What do you think Noct?” Ignis inquires. He doesn’t want to put you into danger, but the potential chance of finding out who the awfully helpful and suspicious man is, is too tempting to ignore.

Noctis sighs and looks at you. He shifts on his feet, slight worry etching his brows. “You think you can handle it?” he asks quietly and Gladio lets out a groan of frustration. He can’t believe Noctis is even considering.

You nod sternly and find the giddy feeling of excitement and curiosity spur inside you. This is going to be interesting.

“Haha, I don’t feel too good about this,” Prompto says with a nervous chuckle.

You spare another look at the strange man. He seems to be perfectly calm as he waits for your conversation to end. In fact, he looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, but maybe that’s just because he knows your entourage is in hurry.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be okay,” you assure and pull a smile to support the words. It does nothing to calm Gladio, but it suffices for the others.

“Alright then,” Noctis concludes, “Y/N will go with him. We’ll be right behind you so you’ll be safe.”

Ignis inhales and lets out a sigh. “Do be careful.”

“Yeah,” Prompto agrees.

“I don’t mind feeding him his teeth if he touches you,” Gladio grumbles and the sentiment makes you chuckle.

“Thanks Gladio,” you quip and grin, “but I’m sure I can do that myself should the need arise.”

Gladio scoffs and rolls his eyes, though he looks amused.

You return to Ardyn and he looks to each member of your group expectantly. His eyes linger on you, but his confident expression never wavers.

“All set,” Noctis informs.

“You wouldn’t mind the company of a lady for the ride, would you?” you ask cheerfully, all smiles on the outside. Your heartbeat is picking up its pace as the rush of adrenaline from pulling an act enters your veins. You can feel Gladio’s disapproving look at the back of your neck, but you resolutely ignore it.

Ardyn takes a curious look at you. “You might find the cab fare to be more than you bargained for,” he muses and hums as if he said something funny.

“It’s a long drive and I’m sure we could find something interesting to talk about.” Ardyn quirks his brow at your flirtatious tone. “Besides, it’s really crammed in the backseat of the Regalia.”

While the guys hold back their incredulous reactions, you smile sweetly to Ardyn as he thinks about your suggestion.

“I suppose it would be wrong of me to deny the chance of a comfortable ride from a lady. Very well,” he agrees. There is definitely interest in his eyes as he once more takes a look over you. This time you’re sure it’s more as to check you out than just out of platonic curiosity.

“Sounds good,” you purr and continue ignoring your friend’s expressions.

“With that decided, let us be off,” Ardyn confirms and turns to speak to Noctis, “Follow me and drive safely.”

The guys turn to leave and Ardyn opens the passenger seat door to you into his automobile. You have to bite your cheeks to hide the snicker that tries to escape your mouth.

“Here you go, my dear,” he says in a tone more soft than he had talked with before. You can almost hear Gladio gritting his teeth.

“Thank you,” you say and make sure you make eye contact with Ardyn before stepping into the car and sitting down on the deep purple leather seat. You notice a pom-pom on the antenna over the hood and chuckle.

A gentle and musky whiff hits your nostrils with the wave of air when Ardyn sits down on the driver’s seat.

He smells nice. I need to know what cologne he uses.

You look at him blatantly as he ignites the engine and the steady purr of the motor starts. The guys are already at the Regalia, waiting for Ardyn to lead the way.

“Shall we then?” Ardyn asks, turning to face you.

“Yes, please!” you say with a nod and a smile. Your pulse is faster than what is comfortable and you silently begin to question your own decision to hop into the purple car.

You don’t make it out of Lestallum before Ardyn talks again.

“I introduced myself earlier, but I’d very much like to know your name.” You let his soft, oily voice shamelessly coddle your sense of hearing. Everything that comes out of his mouth sounds so sincere, but in almost a sarcastic way – insincere sincerity? The way he talks makes you think of a cat stretching out sweetly. You smile inwardly at the thought.

“I’m Y/N. Pleasure to meet you, Ardyn,” you say politely, but keep up a friendly, conversing tone.

He repeats your name quietly, as if thinking that you surely have met before.

“What is it?” you ask and turn to glance behind to see the Regalia following at a safe distance. Noctis is driving. Poor Ignis.

“Oh, nothing. You have a beautiful name,” Ardyn replies coolly.

“Flatterer. I bet you say that to all the ladies,” you retort, but smile at the compliment.

He laughs at your wittiness. “I assure you, it has been a while since I had the chance to enjoy such pleasant company.”

A wave of uneasiness flushes through you, but you are not one to stand back from a chance to play. Besides, there is something attractive about how he is the definition of a creepy, slimy guy who acts like a real charmer. You kind of want to poke him to see how he responds in that oily voice of his.

“Mm. Is that so? I suppose we should make the most of it then,” you hum complacently. Ardyn glances to see the smirk decorating your features. Your heartbeat still hasn’t calmed down and you hope you can keep your bodily reactions under control.

You take a moment to inspect his profile while he is focused on the road. His hair is fluttering in the wind, wavy, auburn locks no longer framing the strong features that are actually quite handsome. Ardyn looks like he harbors no worry in the world – his posture is laid-back and his grip on the wheel relaxed.

Despite being strange, he is quite charming. Maybe I should ask for his number.

“Tell me about yourself,” Ardyn asks suddenly, well aware of the fact that you’re still scanning over him.

You take a moment to think about what to tell him. It’s obvious that he knows who you’re traveling with, though he hasn’t said a word to hint into that direction. Anyone who knows something about anything could add one plus one and figure out it’s the supposedly dead runaway prince of Lucis, who has business with the Archaean.

“I… was a field nurse,” you reply nonchalantly. You force your thoughts away from the destruction of your home. There will be a time and place to dwell on that, but it’s not right now.

“Interesting,” Ardyn hums, “So you’re the designated healer of the group?”

“Regrettably, yes.”

He lets out a joyous laugh and glances at you with the smirk lingering on his lips, before returning his attention to the road ahead. You’re already out of the long tunnel that leads to Lestallum.

“The guys can be a handful sometimes,” you explain.

“Yes well, the job of a healer is traditionally an ungrateful one,” Ardyn says mysteriously, “I do hope you get your due recognition.”

Is that concern, I hear?

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I make sure the guys know who keeps them alive,” you assure with a chuckle.

“Good,” Ardyn remarks with a hum.

Chatting with Ardyn is actually easy and you find yourself relaxing against the leather seat while trees and occasional buildings pass by as blurred images. He keeps carefully inquiring about you, but not touching the reason of your traveling with the four guys. This suits you just fine and you stay away from the topic as well.

When you think you have warmed the waters enough, you begin to toss questions about Ardyn himself – just out of curiosity, of course.

The answers you get are infuriatingly vague. As if he knows you’re trying to figure him out. Each of your questions are countered with a one directed at you of similar topic, so you end up sharing a lot more about yourself than actually gain the information you joined the ride for.

After an hour or so, you give up the direct approach and decide to continue your flirtations to warm him up to further inquiries.

So you talk about the weather, politics, history of Eos and brush the sensitive topic of the war – before Ardyn apologizes saying he didn’t mean to upset you. You’re still amused by his way of speaking. There’s something old fashioned in the way the words glide from his lips. You smile to yourself, thinking that Prompto would say he talks like a grandpa.

The only thing Ardyn really cares to talk concerning himself, is his travels. You have no idea how someone of his age has seen so much of the world, but he has. When you ask about it, he just offers his work as the obvious answer, but declines your further inquiries. You make a mental note to pry the information of his occupation out of him later.

The dark of the upcoming night begins to creep onto the sky as the sun begins its set. There are still hours left in the day, but Ardyn insist you stop at the next Coernix Station to rest for the night. You’re sure the guys won’t like the plan.

“What say we call it a day here?” Ardyn suggests when the Regalia pulls to a stop next to his automobile. You get out of the car, stretching your limbs.

“’What say’ we continue on to Cauthess?” Gladio snaps back as he leaves the car, slamming the door shut after him so hard that he earns a warning look from Noctis. It’s his father’s car after all.

“The Archaean’s not going anywhere,” Ardyn reminds him in that theatrical tone of his. You notice the clear difference to when he was talking alone with you. The revelation is something you need to come back to later on.

“Neither are we, under your stewardship,” Ignis sasses.

Nice one, Iggy. You toss a beam at him, chuckling lightly. Ardyn sees it out of the corner of his eye and a look of disappointment flashes through him before the usual confident smirk is back on his lips.

“So we make camp… with Ardyn?” Prompto summarizes. He doesn’t sound too happy and to be honest, you didn’t expect the journey to turn into an overnight party either. With or without Ardyn.

“Hell no,” Noctis agrees and crosses his arms defiantly.

You’re not sure what there is to be done any more if your guide refuses to continue and Gladio seems to reach the same conclusion as you.

“Might as well get the tent up,” he says with a deep sigh.

Ardyn tilts his head. “Oh, I’m afraid I’ve never really been one for the outdoors. I shall foot the bill, so let us stay at the caravan over yonder.”

The guys trade looks. You shrug when Noctis looks at you inquisitively. Maybe he is waiting for you to warn him that Ardyn is planning on murdering all of you when the night falls.

“Suits me,” you say and reach the Regalia to grab your bag. Ardyn is pleased by your show of faith and the others start gathering their overnight supplies as well. Ignis begins to ponder out loud what he should prepare for supper, while Gladio marches past you to the caravan and you can hear him mutter under his breath.

While Prompto is helping Ignis with the food supplies and Ardyn has gone inside the station to pay for the overnight rent, Noctis motions you to him.

“What did you find out?” he asks in a low tone, eyes peeking to each side to make sure Ardyn isn’t within hearing range.

You heave a displeased sigh. “He’s cleverer than he seems. We gotta be careful,” you say, “He really won’t tell me anything important.”

Noctis cocks an eyebrow at you. “So what did you talk about for the whole ride? The weather?”

Your cheeks feel warm. “This and that after I realized I can’t get anything out of him.” Your eyes escape the prince’s examining stare.

After the amazing supper that Ignis cooked is eaten, your entourage sits outside of the caravan, talking and joking around as per usual. Ardyn paces for a while, claiming it’s better to move around a bit because of the long ride in the car. He is telling even less about himself to the guys than he told you, when Ignis shoots him with sharp questions. Somehow Ardyn manages to weasel his way out of each one or twist the replies into so ambiguous mess of words that no one can really make any sense of them.

Ignis follows your footsteps in quickly giving up the cross-examination and moving on to more pleasant topics.

Oh and Ardyn can be charming when he so chooses. You and the guys are laughing at your shared stories and jokes, and even Gladio, who seems to still hold a grudge against Ardyn for appropriating you for the car ride, is booming with laughter despite the man’s presence.

At some point of the evening, Prompto takes out his camera to snap a few more shots. He calls you to pose dramatically, like he usually does, and you have good laugh about the next addition to the on-going series of “camp-side supermodels”. Prompto shows the photos he has taken during the day and Ardyn seems quite pleased and surprised when his image pops on the display.

“Well, well, if it isn’t yours truly,” he says in that ridiculous, theatrical tone of his that is very far from the voice he used when speaking alone with you.

“Um, if you’d rather not be in photos…” Prompto starts. He seems a bit awkward about the fact that he hasn’t told Ardyn he is being photographed.

“Oh, I don’t mind at all! Snap away – for His Highness’s collection.” The smug grin on Ardyn’s face is almost amusing.

Noctis turns his head. “Err, what?”

You lean back in the chair, exchanging meaningful looks with Ignis. So far Ardyn has not clearly mentioned that he indeed does know who Noctis is. Maybe he just didn’t want to make noise out of it in public, because you refuse to believe he doesn’t have everything about your journey figured out already. You make another mental note to ask about the matter later.

It’s getting late and Ignis is the first one to turn in, soon followed by Prompto and Noctis, even though you know they’re gonna stay up longer than the others and play King’s Knight on their phones.

Gladio yawns and stretches his arms in the air.

“Would you care to join me for a small stroll around the premises?” Ardyn asks from you and offers his hand.

“At this hour?” you question with a curious glance at the outstretched palm.

“I believe a little exercise lets one sleep better,” Ardyn explains with an innocent chuckle.

All the while you talk, Gladio’s look skips between a worried one towards you and a downright murderous towards Ardyn, who seems to be blissfully oblivious of it.

You place your hand on Ardyn’s palm. Excitement bursts your heart into pounding like a drum. His hand feels cool and the leather of his fingerless gloves is soft, but worn. You catch another whiff of his alluring scent.

“Don’t go far,” Gladio says in a warning tone more to Ardyn than you.

“Don’t worry,” you shoot him an assuring smile and resist the urge to wink. It’s best to not rile up the Shield any more than he already is. Besides, if he didn’t trust your ability to take care of yourself, he wouldn’t have let you go with Ardyn in the first place.

“We will stay within your sight at all times,” Ardyn assures to Gladio as you stand up from the plastic garden chair. You’re sure Gladio rolls his eyes at Ardyn’s words, but he lets out an almost approving grunt.

You begin to pace forward at a leisure pace. Ardyn let go of your hand as soon as you were on your feet and the brief touch left your skin tingling.

“The stars are so bright here,” you say quietly to make a conversation.

“Oh?” Ardyn looks up too, as if he only just realized the stars are visible, and then his amber gaze lowers down to you.

You shake your head under the curious look. “Insomnia has… had… so much light pollution that you couldn’t really see them,” you explain.

“You said this is your first time outside the city?” Ardyn questions, quickly steering the topic from an unpleasant one. You’re grateful for his thoughtfulness.

You turn your head to look at him walking next to you, and realize that he is really tall.

Suddenly there’s no surface under your sole. You step into something that feels like an endless pit and land awkwardly on your right ankle. There is a weird sensation of something shifting and you can barely even start thinking about what just happened, when a flashing pain makes you wail aloud. You stoop forward and end up on your knees and palms on the asphalt.

“Oh my! Are you alright?” Ardyn is already crouching next to you, caring hands on your shoulders and ready to help you up. “Looks like there was a hole in the road…”

You can hear Gladio’s quickly approaching steps. You move your legs and wince again. Your knees and palms sting, but the pain is secondary to the one burning your ankle. You can literally feel the blood rushing and pulsing inside it.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” Gladio asks in a concerned tone. You know he is ready to pick you up if you just say the word, so you focus on clenching your jaw and cursing under your breath.

“I just tripped…”

After a good while and with Ardyn and Gladio’s help, you sit on your rear on the cool asphalt. This was not how you wanted your day to end.

Fulgurian’s hairy ass.

“I think it’s sprained,” you say finally after very carefully examining your ankle. It’s tender and hot to the touch and pulses of pain course through it constantly. Ardyn and Gladio follow your motions; waiting for any instructions on how to aid you.

“Can you walk?” Gladio asks. A little panic enters his voice and his hands hover over you, unsure of what to do to help.

“Yeah, it just hurts a little,” you assure. Or more like hell.

Ardyn shakes his head while tutting quietly. “My dear, let us help you back to the caravan.”  

You ignore the glare Gladio throws at Ardyn and take hold of both of the men’s shoulders. They help you up to stand. You take a couple of calming, deep breaths and extremely carefully begin to put on weight on your right foot.

Okay, careful now…

The instantly following jolt of pain makes you yelp and you lift the leg again.

Nope.

“So you can’t walk,” Gladio gathers with a huff.

“I’m gonna need some ice for it,” you say while hopping forward with one leg. You have a tight grip on Ardyn’s sleeve on your right side and your arm on Gladio’s shoulder on your left side.

“I think there was an ice machine by the gas station,” Gladio says. You’re almost at the caravan and, oh boy, aren’t you glad that Ignis is already sleeping, so you don’t have to listen to his nagging.

The men help you sit down on one of the plastic chairs. You’re still not putting your feet down and the pain is getting worse by the minute. You must have stretched or torn the ligaments on the outside of your ankle.

Great. Just perfect.

Ardyn crouches in front of you, amber gaze finding your pained expression.

“You should take the shoe off before it swells, my dear,” he says calmly, “May I?”

You nod and brace yourself for the torment.

“I’ll go get the ice,” Gladio says and jogs off after throwing a cautious look at Ardyn, who is now holding your leg gently.

Ardyn opens your shoelaces as much as possible, and then slowly begins to work the shoe off your foot. You stare at his focused face. His brows are lightly furrowed and his lips pursed together, yet the look in his eyes is tender and somehow it makes your stomach flip. His motions are very careful and, to your surprise, you don’t feel any sharp stings of pain.

You release the breath you didn’t realize you were holding, when Ardyn places the shoe on the ground.

“Thank you,” you mumble and when he looks up to you with sincere concern in his eyes, your cheeks feel warm.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help but feel a little responsible of your injury,” Ardyn says softly and straightens his back, but doesn’t stand up.

“What? Why?” you ask with raised brows.

Ardyn just looks at you with an inscrutable expression and lets out a wry chuckle.

“Here you go,” Gladio suddenly rumbles next to you and a bag of ice appears into your view.

It takes two seconds of you to rip your eyes off the smile that has appeared on Ardyn’s lips and you turn to accept the bag from Gladio. “Thanks…”

Despite holding the ice on it for a good while, your ankle soon becomes swollen and every little bit of movement hurts, making you grit your teeth in pain. A nice set of lilac bruises soon flower on your skin and you’re no longer wondering did you twist your ligaments or not.

Next Chapter

#ardyn x reader #ardyn izunia #ffxv fanfiction #ffxv #final fantasy xv #fanfiction #trash jesus #noctis lucis caelum #gladiolus amicitia #ignis scientia #prompto argentum #sweet disaster #my writings

[romanceinthevice]

Early Refills for the Lonely Girl’s Soul

Chapter One: “Life Skills to Kill”

“The tide is high but I’m holding on.”

And the tide is made up of 75 (edit: 80mg actually, they allowed me an increase today) milligrams of thick Methadone that runs a marathon through my bloodstream. It always wins the race for nothing. It’s all for big nothing.

Welcome to the static years. I’ll be your unreliable narrator with a heart of a darkness. Did anyone else read that in University English-lit? I couldn’t get through that book. Then again, I could barely get through campus mid semester.

Die with the lie? (Insert French for yes)

I’m questionable at best. And a terrible fake crier at worst. I need my Methadone every morning or I think about stabbing the walls of my apartment. I need my coffee for the ride to the clinic or I think about crying in the middle of the parking lot. Middle-class tragedy. Spoiled since day one. I NEED. I NEED. I NEED. I need you to read this.

My death wishes used to be bad-girl-charming at 22. Cute in that worried type of way. “She’s such a mess, isn’t it fabulous? I just love how complicated Cat makes everything.” Fast forward three psychiatrists, two evictions, one overdose and a series of voided lovers. Currently they’re just a broken record of empty. No! Really! I look in the mirror and regret it instantly. These days I see right through my own smoke and static; the attempts to distract my social circle from the rattling pharmacy bottles. There’s not enough black lipstick to mute a friend who cares. But there should be. (MAC, take note.)

Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the shameful of them all.

You are. You really are.

End of Chapter One

But maybe it’s mandatory for an author to have a loud reputation. You know what?A writers persona should be shrouded in rumors anyway. Fuck it. The checkered past. An affair with their professor. Or maybe their student. A secret arrest during the holidays years back. Maybe a forgotten relative with unfinished business. A hit and run inspired by Johnny Walker Red. A blood soaked sweater in the back of their closet to remember.

I have convinced myself that every writer deserves a notoriety to keep the masses at arms length. My, my, my, the mystery!

But the troubled-addict-writer is a cliche. And writers hate cliches. But writers also hate themselves.

Well, the good ones do anyway. What? Too far? And where was I before I launched a tangent of misplaced-poor me-bullshit?

Mmmmm. Methadone. My clinic has the pink kind.

I’m not the only one hurting myself, I tell myself over and over.

I think about how dramatic I’m trying to be, wanting to sound right and profoundly right at that. I feel like a bad actress in a dying career resurrecting a classic play. No need for an encore. Just cut. Besides there’s an after-party that I need to disappear into for eight hours.

I hate introducing myself in the first blog. Anything I write feels like the wrong thing. It’s so forced, I’m convinced no one knows themselves that well. Especially not I. Isn’t it better to keep a distance? Perhaps we can be strangers who make prolonged eye contact across the room.

Hi, I’m Cat. I feel like I just moved here. (Wherever here is.) I don’t know how to describe myself without comparing myself to the status quo. So, shallow generalizations about women, here I come!

Most girls find peace in an afternoon of shopping. Or make-up at Ulta. They get lost in the aisles and yell funny remarks to their friends about fashion sensitive culture. Maybe I’m jealous. And by maybe, I mean, absolutely.

Or perhaps They stalk their ex’s social media for clues about them, as if they were solving a murder. A new Facebook friend? An instagram story that makes no sense? It’s not adding up now, but it will. Oh, it will. By the way, who the fuck is Alicia and why are you tagging her?

I’ve always been sicker than the others.i win! Damnit. As the in crowd of seventh grade used to call it, I am “fuckin’ weird, no offense.”

“None taken” I nodded back taking a knee during gym class.

I do like to shop, although always by myself in the lonelier corners of shopping centers. And duh! I stalk many lucky persons on a semi-regular basis. It’s the American way at this point, I do it for my country. But on top of these typical hobbies of the expected feminine divine, I’m orbiting a different side of town. The side that no one thinks to go to for good reason; it smells weird and has no relevance to most standards of living.

Bare with me.

I’m a curious party. I’m also a drug addict in the harshest way. The combination of these two factors equal my favorite hobby; reading pharmacology research papers. Yes, sir. complete with abstracts and hypothesis that outlines the right balance of factual accuracy. Gets me giddy just thinking about it!

I like knowing what the new, FDA approved antidepressants are categorized as. And why they aren’t as good as Prozac. But better than Paxil. And less harmful to the female orgasm. Ladies, you know what I mean. It’s a cruel game when you finally stop thinking suicidal thoughts but suddenly can’t orgasm. God is really a piece of work. A sexist piece of work, come to think of it.

These new prescriptions hold possibilities, a potential change for an addict in the screaming cycle of addiction. It’s hope, baby. I’ve got that shit, I can’t play the bad ass who doesn’t care about anything anymore. I’ve been there and got the t-shirt. I had to rip it off.

Goodbye apathy. I’m blowing you a kiss. Of death.

I’ve been a pharmacy baby since day one. Hell, I was a pharmacy baby hopeful-groupie-wannabe-poser before ever cashing my first Celexa prescription. Or maybe it was Lexapro. Oh well. Same thing. I was so excited to be an official member of all the statistics I read about.

The few. The proud. The prescribed.

It began with therapy in ninth grade for a knot of emotional problems that caused me to isolate and skip class 80% of the school day. My counselor found this worrying. I thought nothing of it. Who gives a fuck about geometry? I wanted to listen to Celebrity Skin on my disc man and walk around the outdoors. If life was a one off, I was going to sit in this meadow with Malibu blaring my ears into deafening bliss.

Girl power. I understood my selfishness on a promising level, one that spoke volumes about who I was going to be, a stunningly poised sociopath with nothing to offer most of society. Adults felt the aura on me most of the time and soon their would be meetings about my “goals” and “friends.”

No wonder people were worried. I was a walking red-flag of rage and I hadn’t even gotten my first period. I didn’t have many good reasons to be pissed off and I was usually morbid about something if I wasn’t in my bed. This wasn’t looking ideal for a freshman with zero college ambition and no interest in recreational activities that would accompany academia and no doubt introduce me to new social groups. I wasn’t athletic enough to play school sports, and I was too wrapped up in my depression (which had no real cause, according to my family).

And they were rightful in their judgment. I was better off than most of my school friends, sporting the latest lava lamp that glowed my room a deep purple or concert tickets that we would countdown the days too. I got to see Ja Rule and Ashanti up close and personal much to the dismay of my classmates deep in the bleachers bitching constant complaints.

I didn’t have it bad. And I knew it, which made me feel worse. I hadn’t the faintest idea what my problem was. I couldn’t smile anything or even pretend to for the sake of my parents, who just wanted me to have a normal teenage existence that didn’t kill every mood with some invisible, existential threat. I must have been the most annoying fourteen year old with a lava lamp.

This stubborn depression led me to weekly ninety-dollar checks that were flawlessly made out to one Dr. Pat. Pharmacy Baby’s first shrink. Awww!

We all have to start somewhere. My start was Thursday’s at 4pm. This appointment made me vacate the bu on an earlier stop than the routine one. Kids soon began to take notice. And they couldn’t comprehend why I had to see a doctor four times a month. I must have leukemia or some other young person disease they saw on Dawson’s Creek. I must have been really sick, dying really! Afterall, my sole school-bus pal Kendra saw her hair stylist more than her primary care physician and the dentist combined. Highlights are a serious thing, she would state this as seriously as a heart attack. It made me chuckle and she never understood.

Unfortunately, the punchline was that I was dying. At fourteen years old I knew this was the start of a love-hate relationship with “irony.”

At my worst I was existing and not knowing why. I was wanting to sleep life away. Sleep was the answer.

At my best I was killing my old-self, the girl who reeked of unexplained trauma and bad moods and now this annoying trademark “irony.” The metamorphosis came around the third month of counseling. An anniversary with Dr. Pat meant we drank hot cocoa and did worksheets revolving around behavior and choices. Fuck prom, I had Dr. Pat! I was blossoming.

And i was learning about the power that was “change” and how it could empower you like a butterfly. Or whatever insect fit the worksheets. I sometimes felt like a spider, but I never told Dr. Pat this.

It’s never easy to kill the old you. Even more demanding to bury the old body, and just praying it won’t come back from the dead and replace you. Hoping wasn’t enough. I had to ask with my eyes closed.

I wanted to be a butterfly. I needed my wings. (Commence the beginning of secret plans that were thoughtlessly detailed in my diary, ready to be exposed any minute to a league of jealous girls re-enacting Mean Girls). The writer inside me cringed. Privacy truly died before Twitter. No girls thoughts were safe. They would never be safe. I would need to find new ways for my secrets and dreams. Then, I would fly away into the night, into a new city of strangers, outside of a small minded town of familiars. I wouldn’t need numbers in my yearbook. I was going to find what I was looking for.

But what the fuck was I looking for. Sweet sixteen started to taste sour.

I remembered Dr. Pat told me, “Happiness is a butterfly.”

I wrote it down in my diary, much to my own dismay, hoping that it would be both safe and true.

By: Caitlin Alysabeth Thomas, March 10, 2020, “pharmacy baby blogs,” “Romance in the Vice.”

[chriscoleman]

Potlatch 2017

Potlatch is a 3-day ultimate tournament in Redmond, WA where teams of 10-30 players compete for no prizes at all. We come together and run for 3 games each day, for about 90 minutes each. Handing out gifts, drinking beer, throwing hucks, and generally having a fun time in the sunny Seattle summer.

Wednesday, June 28th at Lance Camarena’s house is when Potlatch started for team Waldo. We gathered in Ballard for a final planning session before the big tournament weekend. Shawn, Andrew, and Summer handed out our jersey’s, the spirit game was explained, and general expectations were set. Lance even put together a slideshow of past Potlatch memories – a real treat to get us into the mood.    

Friday the 30th our captains and a handful of teammates went to the fields and set up the campsite. Sleeping on the fields is tradition, all the teams do it. I personally slept in my bed.

Saturday morning is when the circus really kicked into high gear. Our first game was at 9:00am, which we all knew was ultimate speak for 9:30am. I got to the fields early – where campers were toasting provided bagels and even making pancakes. Meeting up with the crew at our campsite as everyone came together in matching red and white striped jersey’s. Our Where’s Waldo theme was easy to spot – since there were 28 of us in matching hats, tank tops, and shorts.

Our first game was vs. the Wizards. A rag tag group of players from Portland and beyond. They had a super tall dude and plenty of players who were obviously experienced. It turned out that they were mostly club players from all over the West Coast. We only scored 2 points against this crew – a rough start to our competition. Luckily they were quite fun and played our Waldo games well. After the game we taught them our spirit game.

Spirit games can get quite extravagant at Potlatch, taking 15 to 30 minutes each. Ours was a relay race including a balloon station, beer ‘gun’, hula hoop, bucket toss, and ultimately a butt slap. It was a way to bond with teams after we played hard together (plus drink alcohol together). We also gave out gifts to honor their captains and exceptional players – which is where the term Potlatch comes from in the first place.

Next we played The Professionals, a team in costumes like they worked in an office – including ties. They had 1 especially active, super short, player who really had skills. They also dominated us, only allowing Waldo 5 or 6 points. What helped our team was the ‘pods’ that our captain’s setup. Groups of players with similar skills that were designed to spread out our talents. I was with 3 other handlers and our job was to cycle out evenly – making sure that too few or too many handlers were not on the field together. Lance, Shawn, and Joe were in my pod – so I basically never played with those dudes all weekend.

In general Saturday was hard because we had long 2 hour breaks between each game. These ‘buys’ were designed to give us time to relax but they kept us from getting any rhythm and in the end making us more tired. We ended up watching other teams play and continuing to drink cold things. The sun came out about noon although the temperatures never really got above 75F.  

Our final game was vs. Continental Airlines. They were all dressed as pilots in white shirts/jerseys. A fun theme and an extremely friendly team we bonded with well. This field was on the far end of the 60 acres park – next to more campsites and a horse pasture. Shawn’s family came out to watch us lose again, but we still had a ton of fun. They played a funny game with us after the match where we had to ‘go through TSA’ and find our boarding gate.

We closed out the day by watching Team USA play Team Canada, as we ate tournament provided pizza. Team USA won and I went home to shower and relax. Many other teammates stayed at the fields and camped out.

Sunday morning I was less sore than I expected. Plus we got a first round bye, so I ate breakfast with Julia and casually packed the cooler. People gathered at the campsite, which was luckily right next to our first game field. We watched 2 teams play, heckling and cheering for almost 2 full hours. At 11:30am we began our game with the Bear team. A SUPER fun group of dudes and ladies who just wanted to have a good time. Unfortunately, they were also really good at ultimate and we had yet another loss. They also played a spirit game with us, truth or dare (aka what would you do for a Klondike bar), plus lots of bear hugs and general silliness.

Waldo had a game-within-a-game all weekend. We gave our opponent a set of player cards, each with 1 teammates face and a ‘special ability’ on them. Once they ‘activated’ a card during the game – our player and theirs would have to do that ability for 1 point. Alex had one for diving for every catch, Sam had to skip the whole time, David was running backwards, and mine was smiling. It was fun to watch players do these during a high speed point where everyone else was playing normal. One of my favorite aspects of the weekend – very unique.

The sun came out hot after the morning clouds burned off. I setup the canopy next to our next field and relaxed – watching the ‘friends tv show’ team play (who were REALLY good). After our bye we played a team that was quite drunk. They partied Sunday morning a bit hard but were still ready to run. We bonded heavily on the sideline, sharing shade and beverages. Marty (our injured teammate) especially had a fun time this game, getting close with their lady captain. We lost the game and Marty lost his backpack.

The final game on Sunday was vs. Tutu – a team wearing pink tutu’s and a love for nakedness. It was nearing the end of the day and we agreed to keep this match to only 11 points. It was super close the whole way but after many ‘pants off’ points they also beat us. I did get a bunch of jello shots from them, which was sweet.

The tournament party is a highlight of every tournament, and Potlatch does it big. We rented out Red Hook brewery a few miles from the fields and had a blast. Salmon, burgers, beer, and loud music – with a bunch of ultimate players dressed in neon outfits. Waldo team was represented well and really enjoyed ourselves until the sun went down (which is late in Seattle in summer). Back home again so that we can wake up and play again on Monday.

The final day of Potlatch is a bracket format. Based on our record we were in the very last bracket - J. 77th place out of 80 teams. WooHoo.

Our first game was at 9am, and we surprisingly had a big crew ready to go on time. Even Marty was alive and crutching around (looking for his backpack and straw hat). We played Tang, a team of other Seattle area players - mostly from a league team named The Big Huge. They supplied us with ‘tangaria’ and even a gift of a full bottle of tang powder. It was a competitive game but when the hard cap of 2 hours hit we were down by 2 points and therefore lost the game.

We played again right away on the same field vs. Beach Owls - a team dressed as lifeguards. They even rolled out a full size lifeguard stand to the sideline, along with a cardboard Hasselhoff. More friends from Seattle were on this team. We came out strong and took half for the first time all weekend. We continued dominance and won our first game! Played our spirit games again and celebrated with a 2 hour break before our final game of the tournament. I also went to find our opponent, which was complicated, to make sure they were sticking around to actually play this last game. They were.

3:30pm on Monday was our 9th game of the weekend, and everyone was tired. My heels hurt, Joe’s legs were shot, Summer’s knee was done, and a variety of other not-serious-but-not-fun pains spread throughout the Waldo’s. Somehow we played well and easily dominated the Two Spooky team for our second win to solidify 77th place. After we played Whisky Disc throwing/drinking spirit game to finish off the weekend in drunken style. I abstained and happily drove home to shower and ice my feet.

Now it’s the 4th of July and I’m stoked to have played with such an amazing group of Waldo’s. I became friends with new dudes and ladies and solidified old friendships too. I plan to make this an annual event, running and partying with this great group of ultimate players. I might even camp next year…

Balls to the Wal-Doh!

-Chris Coleman