sun-swallowedme‌:

“There are worse people to find yourself agreeing with,” James said brightly. He had felt that Ms. Hurtz was a sharp lady long before he started writing into her column., and he couldn’t help but find the woman in front of him agreeable for her shared good opinion of the writer. 

“The right woman can drive any man to the brink of madness,” he said, his voice amused and light despite his words. “If the situation is like my own, I think any and all men could benefit from solid advise of a wiser woman.”

she shuts the newspaper that had been sitting idly in her hands during this conversation. “all, indeed.” she said, the corner of her eyes crinkling up with her small smile. “it’s only as helpful as you make it though, which some people just don’t seem to grasp.”

he seemed to be a man that actually took her advice, which was a relief that she just wasn’t out there writing to a brick wall. “but you seem wise enough to follow it.  have you at least gotten anywhere?”

tedsdefiance‌:

it seemed as if his patience would always be tested, whether it be with the death eaters or people he truly wanted little interaction with, if only to keep him sane. at this rate, he couldn’t excuse this as good practice for dora — it was simply exhausting.

“trouble only lives here because others haul it to this location,” he muttered under his breath. the mobs and the police, those who stick their nose where it shouldn’t be. the workers who wondered aloud how much the mob would pay if the miscounted stock.

it all underlined how much he didn’t want his daughter involved in any of it.

“all journalism is relevant,” he said with a sigh. “what is the piece you’re working on anyways? or is that a surprise for next week’s edition?”

“and it’s made a home here, regardless of who brought it.” she said shortly. that was the case. period. this place at nighttime, hell even in daytime, may have been an absolute nightmare. even talking about it with someone else made her think that she may have been getting a little too bold. she could go home, but to what ? call herself a coward in the dark hours of the night? she didn’t think so. 

“i’m currently telling a lonely old man that throwing money at a woman isn’t love,” she wishes she could share what rita was working on instead. far more interesting. “as if i know anything about the intricacies of that nonsense. the stupidity makes me want to - ” drink? “take a walk every great once in a while.”

marlenemckinno-n‌:

“Doesn’t sound like much fun for you,” Marlene said with a laugh, her eyes falling on the woman’s mostly uneaten food. “I suppose you’re right. I dunno if there’s anything I’d want to do if I was free from all this mess,” she said, the harsh reality sinking in that she didn’t have a life outside of the gangs anymore. She didn’t even know if she could call Grizel a friend anymore. 

“I…I didn’t know where we were going until it was too late to turn around. He made it sound important,” she said, though she knew she could have avoided all of this if she cared less about her honor or whatever Fabian had promised back. “I haven’t exactly been asking around. ‘m not sure there’s anyone I’d want to live with, anyway,” she said, though perhaps it would be safer with a roommate or two. “I know, I just…I’ll get a gun. It’ll be fine,” she said, knowing there wasn’t much at all that Grizel could do for her. Sometimes it was nice to just talk about it with someone who understood, who had been through it too.

“work is rarely fun, marlene, you should know that.” grizel knew for a fact that marlene wasn’t that naive. she wanted to comfort marlene, tell her that she could get out of that mess. but she couldn’t afford to help her friend, or? were they? regardless, she couldn’t afford to help her friend out of the mess she was in. “you’d find something, sometimes what you want to do just gets clouded by what you have to do.”

grizel pinched the bridge of her nose. “that sounds like it’s on fabian then.” grizel muttered, annoyed. there were very few prewetts she had been a fan of, one of them now dead, but fabian wasn’t one of them. “sometimes things aren’t about want though, marlene. a gun isn’t going to magically solve your issues.” she resisted the urge to tell the girl just just toughen up and tough it out. “you might get roughened up a bit, you know, but i’m not going to let you die out there.”

poisoned--lips‌:

Freddie could see the moment that Grizel realized who exactly had bumped into her. The two had been friends, once, though she forced those feelings down the moment Grizel had left, unwilling to feel anything kinder than resentment towards the woman in front of her. “Oh, spotted your reflection, have you?” she asked, her tone cool as she spoke the words.

grizel really just wanted lunch, not a brawl in the street. after all, if she came in to the office with a black eye, or didn’t come back in at all, there was no way she was going to be able to explain that to her boss. “no, it’s definitely the person preventing me from a peaceful break.” she blinked slowly, closing her eyes for a moment to refocus. “i don’t want any trouble, freddie. you should at least know that.”

marlenemckinno-n‌:

“You chose to respond to lovesick fools, didn’t you?” Marlene said with a laugh before taking another bite of her meal. How desperately she wanted this to be her normal; to be sitting around talking about a job other than a booze run or a dangerous deal. “You know, I didn’t know you were a writer,” she said, the words harsher than she meant them to come out. Marlene wasn’t dumb; she knew that Grizel didn’t tell her everything about her life. She just figured if the woman had a dream of working for the New York Times, Marlene would have heard about it at some point.

“Not owing favors to some crazy man. After Molly strictly ordered against it,” she said, her voice wavering for only a moment. She pushed the food around with her spoon for a few moments, before glancing back over to Grizel. “Who would I be living with, hm? I just…I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she said, her voice a little stronger now.

“i write what people want to read” grizel said, although her tone was somewhat indifferent. she found herself playing with her food more than eating it, although she was quite fond of the dish. “there’s a lot fo things that aren’t important when you’re just trying to make it through the day, you know? it’s not like i went to school or anything special.” she shrugged, feeling somewhat guilty. marlene and her had shared a lot of things, but she couldn’t quite remember everything.

“well if it wasn’t an order, why do more than you have to?” grizel did the bare minimum usually. she did it fast, had a fast turnover, but she never did anything extra. she sure as hell wasn’t getting paid any extra. “i don’t know, there’s no other lackeys looking for a roommate in those parts? and sometimes, if you don’t hurt them, then they hurt you.”

sun-swallowedme‌:

“Lovely to meet you, Greta,” he said with a smile aimed in her direction. He noticed the stutter when it came to her name, but James was around enough of seedier sorts to know that sometimes it was for the better. “I’m James, James Potter,” he introduced himself with ease. Whether she was lying about her name didn’t matter to him-he was never one to shy away from his identity and he wore his family name proudly. 

“Ah, you sound like the lovely Ms. Hurtz!” James teased Greta slightly, “And I do have to agree with you on that; I could stand to think a bit more before I speak to her,” he admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. “Though sometimes I do find it hard to think around her at all-she’s quite captivating, really, beautiful and fierce and she’s got a bit of a temper. Never hesitates to put me in my place,” he spoke of Lily fondly.

“lovely to meet you too, james.” she said a little dumbly. the more he spoke of his lady, the most pieces started clicking into place. yes, she wrote to a lot of people. but they all describe the people they were infatuated witha  little differently, and she knew exactly who she was talking to. 

“i’d say we agree on a lot of things, ms. hurtz and i,” she said with a small smile, although it was nonchalant. she had never been one to play things cool, she’d admit. grizel had spent her whole life not playing it cool. “there is nothing that makes a man more foolish than a beautiful woman, i suppose. though, i don’t think they need the help, even if they do seem to be level headed like yourself.”

tedsdefiance‌:

he withheld a sigh at the sight of grizel raising her hands in surrender. there was a wavering notion to believe her, that maybe this time she wouldn’t stick her pen where she shouldn’t unearthing details he didn’t wish for her to find. 

it was selfish, to try and hide the fact that he was being hounded by the death eaters. but if he could control the spread of the news, ensure that no one could hold that information against him, then it would be for the better. for his family. for himself. that’s all he ever wanted right then.

“truly, whether you’re not looking for any trouble, it seems to follow,” he says, pinching the bridges of his nose. “what is it you’re looking to report on, grizel?”

“my faux journalism isn’t something you’d be interested in.” she said a little defensively, although there was no real malice in her voice. if she really wanted to report about what was going on down on the docks, it wouldn’t be new or groundbreaking to her- of course, ted didn’t need to know that. she was just seen as rita’s sidekick for the most part. 

“and i think trouble lives here anyway, no need for it to follow at all.” she shrugged. “just came by to finish up this piece. the water and the sounds and some,” she paused. “of the people. clears my head.”

marlenemckinno-n‌:

It felt similar, in a way, to many nights they shared before. Merely sitting beside one another, sharing a meal and chatting about everything that had happened that week. Perhaps it was silly of her to wish she could have some of the familiarity back, but she did miss feeling as if everything was under control with the Prewetts. 

“You miss the excitement, hm?” Marlene said with a laugh. She picked up the bowl and took a few bites, knowing that Grizel was expecting answers. She didn’t want to pull the woman back into this mess, though she was already sitting on her couch, wasn’t she? “Fabian had me go with him to retrieve the missing police files, but now I owe BCJ a…a favor,” she said, her eyes trained on the bowl in front of her. “I don’t even know if Fabian’s told Molly yet, or if she knows what was in the file. It was…definitely the information he wanted, though,” she said, finally glancing down at the woman. “Should I get a gun or something? I live alone,” she said, still stating facts the woman already knew.

“oh you know what i mean,” grizel tried not to roll her eyes. “helping lovesick fools is all fine, but they tend to have the same problems. and my boss doesn’t believe in the oxford comma, so you know i am truly suffering.” it occurred to her that with all the things she had talked to marlene about in their time together, writing hadn’t been one of them.

“everything about what you do is owing favors.” grizel said. “just politics. that’s all.” she tried to think for a moment, but her eyebrows raised almost dramatically. “two counter questions: you still live alone? you don’t have a gun? at least have one, marlene, even if you don’t actually need them. it never hurts, you know, just in case.” grizel added. “although i don’t think i’d trust you with a gun in your hand.”

I love her ferociously, and am frequently irritated by her.

Margaret Atwood, from Cat’s Eye  (via merrymusings)

grizel was usually torn between working lunches and lunch on the go, and today is was the later. she had her haphazardly thrown together sandwich wrapped in a cloth and was lucky enough to hold on to it tightly as someone shouldered past her. “may i ask what your prob-” grizel began, only taking a few moments to realize exactly who she had run into. a cold feeling creeped its way up her spine. “oh. nevermind. i see exactly what the problem is.” she straightened up a bit. 

where: a street corner near where grizel works

who: @lcvehurtz

when: lunch time

Freddie wasn’t sure what drew her to this part of the city, wasn’t sure how she ended up with Grizel in her path. It had been months since she had seen the other woman, and the sting of what Freddie perceived as betrayal cut deep as she took in the other woman’s appearance. “Oops,” she said as she rammed her shoulder into Grizel as she walked past, “how clumsy of me.”

sun-swallowedme‌:

James tilted his head towards her in a half nod, “I think you might be on to something there, Miss,” he replied. Things were chaotic in New York, they always were, but lately they seemed to take on a whole new level. 

He wasn’t one to blush, to feel the sting of embarrassment, and James wasn’t quite sure what compelled him to tell the truth to the stranger he was chatting with. “For the sake of full disclosure, I’ve actually written in a few times,” he said. “There’s this girl, you see,” his grin was rueful at the admission, “and I can’t ever quite seem to get it right when I’m talking to her.”

“oh, why thank you, sir.” she said with a smile. things said to grizel were usually not kind, and if they were? they were a little back handed. it was refreshing to have a conversation with someone who didn’t seem like a complete scumbag. “but you can call me gr-” she stopped for the slightest second. “greta.”

she doesn’t know why she wouldn’t just tell him her real name, but she was kind of scared to do so. thus far, the conversation had been going pretty well. “most men can’t, sadly.” grizel said sympathetically. “but you’ll get there, just gotta have a good filter between your brain and your mouth, i think.”

 thamarlenemckinno-n‌:

“Oh, she sounds just lovely,” Marlene said with a bit of a chuckle. She’d seen far, far worse in her apartment building, and been dealing with far worse since she joined the Prewetts. “I’m stronger than I look,” she said with a bit of a shrug, as if Grizel didn’t know that already. 

“Sounds…nice,” Marlene said, a longing in her voice that she couldn’t exactly control. She knew that she was stuck with the Marauders for the foreseeable future, and figured that wasn’t such a bad thing. But sometimes, when she thought about the life that Grizel had made for herself, she wondered if it was possible for her too. “Depends on what you mean by trouble,” Marlene said, her voice already a little defensive. 

weaving her way back to the couch, she set the bowl down in front of marlene on the coffee table. “she’s a character all right.” she said with a slight chuckle. she sat herself right on the floor, curling her legs up under her.

“it’s nicer than i thought it would be, although not as,” she paused to choose her next word carefully. exciting didn’t seem quite right. “thrilling.” that word didn’t seem to hit right either, but she powered through. between two bites, she opened her mouth to speak again. “you know what i’m talking about marlene.” she said, blowing on the hot food. “i can’t help you with anything if you can’t even tell me what you’ve gotten into. unless you don’t want my help anymore.”

crownedglcry‌:

molly raised a brow, staring down the audacity of this nobody. she pressed her lips together, before taking a step closer. “are you certain you want to go about with sticking your nose into business that it doesn’t belong in?” she asked carefully. this was nothing more than a traitor, someone who she had accepted in her own family with very little hesitation. it seemed that molly had a bad habit of letting her personal life bleed into the business, but who could blame her. everyone who worked for her - with her - was her family, meaning she’d do just about anything to protect them.

and then, there were the few people who’d turned their back on the family, and essentially turned their back on her. “you have quite a lot of nerve showing your face in this section of town, especially so close to the swish n’ flick. should i be warning the security there about you becoming a problem?” 

grizel hadn’t even realized who she was speaking to, far too focused on getting the notes she needed to write something cohesive. she was often someone that was filled with a sense of paranoia and urgency, but this was something different. she felt a little small, smaller than she had felt in a while. it was no fault of molly, really, besides her somewhat harsh words and intimidating nature. grizel didn’t really think of the streets in terms of what speakeasy she was closest to anymore. “i just need ten responses, please. i’ll be on my way.” she said quietly.

at the mention of her becoming a problem, she shook her head without even a second thought. “i won’t be a problem, i haven’t been a problem.” she insisted. “i’m just trying to do my job, molly. that’s it.” she rushed out. “that’s all. i won’t get any closer.”

♒

♒:my muse’s reaction to finding your muse bruised and beaten on their doorstep

grizel heard a weak knock on the door and looked over to her brother, who was cooking something over on the stove. dinner time was fast approaching, and for the hurtz siblings that meant around eleven in the evening. what could they say? they were night owls. another thing about them is that they never had company, at least with not telling the other.

she could only think of one person it could be, and it made her blood boil. grizel had given incredibly specific instructions when handing over the address, and even doing that was like standing out on a ledge. knocking on the door when her brother was here was like pushing grizel right off.

she started speaking before she even opened the door. “marlene, what do you-” her voice was harsh until she saw the girl in front of her, who had obviously gotten into more than a small scuffle. “oh my lord,” she whispered, flinging the door open the rest of the way. she ushered the other girl in. she didn’t utter a word about the agreement, she didn’t dare ask what had happened. the door shut behind them, all three locks with it.

grizel knew she would have some explaining to do.

marlenemckinno-n‌:

“You certainly have interesting neighbors, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen,” Marlene said with a shrug, her eyes falling to the floor. She didn’t know what she expected from this visit; perhaps just being handed the key and being asked to leave. However, she didn’t hesitate to step in the door once the woman moved aside, taking in the woman’s new home. 

“Yeah, I suppose I’m hungry,” she said, her eyes finally meeting Grizel’s as she moved further into the apartment. “Nice place you have here,” she commented, the teasing tone in her voice back. There wasn’t much difference between Grizel’s apartment and her own, surely something the woman still remembered from the numerous nights spent together there. It didn’t take her long to sit down on the couch. “How was your week?” she offered meekly, not knowing what to say to the woman anymore. She wasn’t expecting to be invited to stay, much less offered a meal. 

“she’s quite the fan of tripping people as they bring up their groceries,” she said, sounding irked. there was nothing worse than not even making it in the door before seeing all of the produce you had bought scattered all over the floor. “but i’m sure you’ve dealt with worse, i’m not even sure why i was concerned.”

“amazing.” grizel said. “i made too much for just me and frazier is not too keen.” she moved towards the kitchen and grabbed some of the old mismatching bowls that they had lying around in the cupboards. “it’s the same day in and day out, which i feel like i’m still getting used to. have you done anything besides getting yourself in trouble?” she grabbed the ladle, scooping some of the pilaf out of the pot.

marlenemckinno-n‌:

With the paper still tucked into a pocket, Marlene took the last flight of stairs before reaching Grizel’s apartment. A part of her still worried that she had been given the wrong address, but she figured that it would be cruel for Grizel to set her up just to stumble into a trap. So, with a deep breath, Marlene knocked on the door. 

“Did you expect me to get lost?” she said once Grizel opened the door. It felt odd to see her in a new apartment with a new life, but she knew she should just be happy that Grizel hadn’t completely shut her out. “Can I, uh, come in?” she asked after standing there for a moment, her voice still slightly unsure. 

“no, didn’t expect that at all. although the neighbors don’t take too kindly to strangers.” grizel shrugged. “thought they may have scared you off, especially that old woman who always sits down in the lobby..”

grizel took a step to the side and opened the door as far as the rusty old hinge would allow, making an open path for marlene to get through. there wasn’t much in the small apartment. a worn out couch, a coffee table covered in various papers, the small kitchen. her “bedroom” was pushed into a nook, separated by a curtain. “feel free to step in, i’ve got food cooking if you’re hungry.”

sun-swallowedme‌:

“If I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath,” James said with a grin. “He’s been around long enough that it’ll probably take the city collapsing to get him replaced.” He was mostly joking-the writer had been around as long as James could remember, so surely he was close to retiring by now? James had no way to be sure, but he could hope. 

“A fellow fan of Ms. Hurtz!” James exclaimed, overly jovial. He largely kept his reading of Ms. Hurtz’s column-and the letters he sent in-to himself, knowing his friends would be merciless in their teasing if they found out. “I have to agree with you there; her advice always seems so sound, I can’t imagine anyone not taking it.”

“it feels like the city might just do that very soon.” she said somewhat, as if new york wasn’t always on the verge of some crisis. no amount of advice could fix that, she was afraid, but if the city managed to go down, it’d be a miracle that dr. medusa might finally have a chance of getting out of the office.

she felt the color rise to her cheeks a bit. “yes, a fellow fan indeed.” she nodded. “although she’s been giving an awful lot of romance advice lately. do you apply it? or just read it for the entertainment?”