#Sunshine Canyon Fire
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New fire start just west of Boulder. Sounds like it started as a house fire. There are evacuation notices going out. Winds are peaking at 44mph right now.
Good luck to the firefighters and stay safe everyone.
It is being called the Sunshine Canyon Fire. Despite it's current chaotic nature, Twitter has good updates.
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Two Sides of The Same Coin - Chapter 25: "Peace"
"I'd give you my sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you're standing with me. But I'm a fire, and I'll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade ocean wave blues come..."
"Is it enough if I could never give you peace?"
Pairing: Sunshine!Reader x Grumpy!Bucky Barnes
“Do you ever just want it all to stop?” you longingly sigh, staring out the window in Bucky's room. It's the dead of the night, the secluded area of the Compound leaving the horizon look endlessly pitch black. You were both sitting on the large window sill, but neither of you said anything until now, content to sit in comfortable silence.
“What do you mean?”
“Like don’t you ever get tired? Do you ever just want a little time when there’s no fighting, no missions, and it’s just…quiet?”
“Peace,” Bucky offers.
“Exactly,” you agree, turning to look at Bucky. “Don’t you ever want peace?”
“Honestly, I can’t remember what that feels like. I don’t think about it all that much,” Bucky quietly admits, taking a beat to clear his own rampant thoughts. All he thinks is that those stolen moments with you are the closest he's ever gotten to peace in the last century. “Is that what you want? A life without missions and fighting.”
“No,” you reflexively respond. “That’s not what my life is supposed to look like.”
“Says who?”
You don’t answer the question, instead you offer, “Nick rescued me, and then Sam took me in. I owe them everything.”
“I can’t speak for Fury, but I know Sam just wants you to be happy.”
You swallow the bitter reality of your situation, shaking your head slightly, “It doesn’t change that it’s not up to me.”
“It’s your life. I think it’s up to you to decide what you do with it.”
“My life’s never really belonged to me,” you admit.
"Then who does it belong to?"
You turn to stare at the dark horizon again. "I don't know."
"You," he answers. "It belongs to you."
You shake your head again, the bitterness rising in your mouth inadvertently leaking into your words, "I think we both know that that's not true."
"Aren't I supposed to be the pessimist here?"
You nod, he's right, you're supposed to the optimist. "I am positive that if I tried to leave, if I tried to walk off this Compound, walk away from it all, they wouldn't let me. And I think we both know that."
You look up at Bucky, who's lips are pulled in as if he's trying to figure out how to respond to that. “God, uh, I’m sorry that was really dark. Yeah, that wasn’t-” you trail off, shaking your head. “I’m sorry. Can we just forget it? I’m fine- great, even.”
He takes a moment, whether to press you on confronting what you're feeling or to allow the moment to pass.
"Where would you go?" he asks, redirecting the conversation because he knows you're right. You didn't even have all the information and you hit the nail on the head. And this just confirmed that you knew that. You knew that if you tried to walk off this Compound- tried to walk away from SHIELD or the Avengers, they'd stop you. That the second you stopped doing what they wanted you'd face retribution, punishment, or like Rumlow told you, you'd be an enemy in an instant. Walking away, leaving it all behind, having peace- it wasn't your choice to make.
“The Grand Canyon,” you reply after a moment.
“Huh?”
“The Grand Canyon, that’s the one thing I want to see. Don’t know why, don’t know where I heard about it- I just do. It’s on my bucket list.”
He chortles softly, “You have a bucket list?”
“Of course I do. I probably won’t get to all of it, but it’s there.”
“You plan on dying anytime soon?” Bucky chuckles halfheartedly, though the idea sends a chill down his spine.
“Does anyone ever plan on dying?” you retort. “Especially doing what we do.”
He shrugs. “Guess not.”
“Risk and reward, I guess.”
“And what exactly is your reward?” he challenges, getting angry at your resignation to the whole situation. That you've resigned yourself to being this half-free, plaything that's at SHIELD's beck and call, to bend to their whims and wants at any given notice.
And he gets even angrier because- it's not your choice at all.
“What do you mean?”
“What’s your reward? Sam told me you don’t get paid. Glory? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that you don’t care all that much about it," he states, though his tone is borderline accusatory, and getting angrier with each rhetorical question. "Retribution? You’re not the type. Atonement? You’ve got nothing to atone for. So what exactly are you getting out of this except being free in the world? And I use the word free very generously.”
You think about that for a moment before responding, “It’s a good way to go.”
“What?” he demands angrily.
“I mean, I don’t want to go, but if I did- doing this, I’d be okay with that.”
“You mean to tell me that you know the likeliness of dying being here, being ‘an Avenger’, and you’re cool with that? Even though you get absolutely nothing out of it.”
“It’s a good way to go,” you repeat. “Even if I do die, I got to know the world, be on the outside, I got to help people. It’s more than I ever thought I would get.”
“You’re thankful you get the opportunity to die a violent but heroic death?” he scoffs in disbelief.
“Well when you put it like that it sounds bad.”
“Because it is bad!”
“No. No, it’s not.”
“There’s more to life than this,” he furiously exclaims, gesturing to the room around you. “There’s more than fighting and missions and SHIELD and you haven’t seen any of it yet!”
“I know…But still, it’s more than I ever thought I’d get.”
“Then you really need to raise your standards,” he snaps.
“Why are you getting so upset about this? I’m not planning on going on any suicide missions- it’s all hypothetical.”
“You know why,” he grunts, though he's not sure that you do.
“I’m not going anywhere,” you promise, placing your hand on top of his.
"What else is on your bucket list?" he exhales, changing the subject because talking about this, talking about SHIELD's hold on you, it's pissing him off. He doesn't want you to see him fly off the handle because of a hypothetical scenario that you don't even have control over.
"Coney Island. Going to the planetarium to see the stars-"
"Why do you need to go to the planetarium for that?"
You shrug. "You can't see them in the city. Too many lights- why, is that not true?"
"No, it is," he says, pausing for a moment. And without offering any explanation, he grabs your hand, pulling you off the windowsill and out of his room. The Compound is dimly lit, so quiet that it feels like you two are the only people in the world right now. Still without explanation, he leads you into the elevator, taking you to the highest floor that it can go.
"James?" you question as the two of you step off the elevator. "What are we doing?"
He still says nothing, only offering a crooked smile as he leads you up a small stairwell, still hand-in-hand. He flings the heavy metal door open, leading you to the rooftop. Most of the Compound is dark, and the entire surrounding area is almost pitch black against the few dim safety lights.
"You can't see the stars in the city. Out here though- we're far enough away that you can," he says, pointing up at the stars scattered across the dark night sky.
"Wow...there's so many of them. It's beautiful," you quietly marvel, craning your neck to the stars for the very first time.
"It is," he whispers, looking at you instead of the stars.
And in this moment, in spite of every thing else, both of you are content to know that you at least had one moment of peace together.
Next Chapter
"Two Sides Of The Same Coin" Chapter List
AnonymityIsFun Masterlist
#anonymityisfunwriter#anonymityisfun#grumpy sunshine trope#grumpy x sunshine#james buchanan barnes#james bucky barnes#bucky barnes#bucky#sam wilson#bucky barnes fanfiction#bucky fanfic#bucky fic#bucky barnes fluff#bucky fluff#bucky barnes angst#bucky angst#bucky barnes x reader#bucky x female reader#bucky x y/n#bucky barnes x female reader#bucky reader#bucky barnes x you#bucky barnes x y/n#x reader#inspired by taylor swift#reader insert#marvel fanfiction#bucky barnes imagine#bucky barnes au#peace
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Spotify Wrapped Blurb Event 2022!
It's that time of the year again! Where I get to out my all yearly listening habits for the sake of your literary entertainment in the shape of song-inspired blurbs!!
First of, before we get into the list, a little housekeeping:
I really do not want this to flop so please interact with the post. Like, comment but most of all, please reblog it so more people can participate.
To participate: send me an ask with a fic request with a song of my Spotify Wrapped list.
The request can be just the character you want me to write for + the song title, or a whole prompt you want me to include. Up to you. It is possible I will interpret the song differently in the fic than you would want, so please be specific if you have any specific ideas in mind
MINORS DO NOT REQUEST SMUT
I'm thinking of writing for more than just Eddie Munson, so expanding the horizon to other Stranger Things characters (minus the kids).
Maybe even other fandoms? but those that I am familiar with, of course. I want to do your request justice <3
Do remember that I am a person and have my limits and comforts, and do have the right to refuse to write your request, but that is never my goal. So let's keep it nice - check the guidelines, to be sure! And send an ask with any other questions or comments youight have about this whole thing
DO NOT judge my music taste. I'm sharing this for fun so let's keep it that aight. <3
If you're a writer and want to do a blurb event like this, I deeply encourage it
I will be away this weekend (3-4 December) and have deadlines coming up soon so it might take me a bit of time to post the blurbs but requests are open from the second this post is sent out!
Let's get on with the songs now. Spotify Wrapped list below cut:
Maroon by Taylor Swift
Keep Driving by Harry Styles
Lavender Haze by Taylor Swift
Kiwi by Harry Styles
Bejeweled by Taylor Swift
Slow by Airways
Suzie by Jojo Macari
Music For a Sushi Restaurant by Harry Styles
Sweet Nothing by Taylor Swift
Gone by the Station Breaks
Girls & Boys by Blur
Canyon Moon by Harry Styles
Vigilante Shit by Taylor Swift
Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac
Left Hand Free by alt-J
Late Night Talking by Harry Styles
Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift
Young Dumb Thrills by McFly ft. RAT BOY
Going Up The Country by Canned Heat
As It Was by Harry Styles
Karma by Taylor Swift
Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers
Don't Panic by Molotov Jukebox
Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes
The Great War by Taylor Swift
Dreams by The Cranberries
Carolina by Harry Styles
What I Like About You by The Romantics
Dear Reader by Taylor Swift
People Are Strange by The Doors
Sattelite by Harry Styles
Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison
You're On Your Own, Kid by Taylor Swift
Centerfold by The J. Geils Band
Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel
Grapejuice by Harry Styles
Would've, Could've, Should've by Taylor Swift
Beautiful Mess by Left on Laurel
Echoes by The Rapture
We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
Snow On The Beach by Taylor Swift ft. Lana Del Rey
American Pie by Don McLean
The Joker by Steve Miller Band
All Summer Long by Kid Rock
Midnight Rain by Taylor Swift
Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles
Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival
More Than A Feeling by Boston
Bigger Than The Whole Sky by Taylor Swift
Twist and Shout by the Beatles
There She Goes by The La's
MMMBop by Hanson
Paris by Taylor Swift
You Make My Dreams (Come True) by Hall & Oates
One Way Or Another by Blondie
Chateau by Djo
Glitch by Taylor Swift
Blister In The Sun by Violent Femmes
Kids In America by Kim Wilde
Wildflower by 5 Seconds of Summer
Labyrinth by Taylor Swift
Venus by Shocking Blue
Stuck In the Middle of You by Stealers Wheel
Golden by Harry Styles
Mastermind by Taylor Swift
Crocodile Rock by Elton John
Weapon Of Choice by Fatboy Slim
Son of A Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield
High Infidelity by Taylor Swift
Daydreaming by Harry Styles
Fever by The Cramps
Over the Rainbow by Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole
Question...? by Taylor Swift
Sugar, Sugar by Taylor Swift
I Want You Back by the Jackson 5
Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
invisible string by Taylor Swift
Daylight by Harry Styles
Footloose by Kenny Loggins
Uptown Girl by Billy Joel
Love Story (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift
Happy Together by the Turtles
Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams
Oh My God by Adele
Style by Taylor Swift
I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick
Dang! by Mac Miller ft. Anderson .Paak
Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks
no body, no crime by Taylor Swift
Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry
Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos
Cinema by Harry Styles
the last great american dynasty by Taylor Swift
Groove is in the Heart by Deee-lite
Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift
1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins
Dreaming by Blondie
Lie To Me by The Mots Nouveaux
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers
writing taglist:
@spiderrrling @theglitterymess @dorianelizabeth @theletterhart @niyahwhoreworld @chatnoirfangirl1624 @fopdoodle1624 @pastel-abyss-x @ghoulsgraveyard @prettytoxix @lovesickollie @xbreezymeadowsx @ssanjuniperoo @nxrdamp @meaganjm @yourmommilf @mischiefmanagers @greendinosaursocks13 @roseyykris @capybergara @brother-lauren @h0sh1verse @ghostlyreads @croweaterr @ladyapplejackdnd @bilesxbilinskixlahey @kbakery @sleeping-willow @lizzylynch1 @hellfire-state-of-mind @liltimmyst @escape-in-time-x @miscelaa @sweetpeapod @the-a-word-2214 @eddiemunsonbby @wh0re4munson @eddiesdingus @zoeyquinn94 @munsonmunchies @overthewhiteclouds @wroteclassicaly @groupies-do-it-better @stitchity @celestialsxturn @hoe4eddiemunson @inanausomewhere @witchyrivers @scoops-harrington @fluffyharrington
#Z's Spotify Wrapped Blurbs 2022#writing#writing challenge#fanfiction#fanfic writing#spotify wrapped
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CPC CHAPTER 140
My mood swings like a wreaking ball during this chapter
This review is gonna have lots of photos for the sake of referencing
Aw I like how Becket feels responsible and concerned towards Maria for what he said. He's a sweet guy. I hope he's not gonna get fired (..or maybe fired and then being Maria's lover haha)
I'm sure Gwen will be fine. Maybe some emotional and mental damages, but she'll be fine..probably.
Why is the technical difficulties so aesthetic for some reason? 😭 it's so aesthetically soft in a bloody way.
And Gwen's siblings staying by her side is soooo wholesome
Even in their sleep they still have the protective instinct of an older sibling 😭 I may be the youngest in my family, but I have a lovely cat whom I love and protect very much.
Prez is all of us in quarantine. I'm glad the medicine worked! Science, baby!
I wanna talk about 4 scenes
The first one
This is what I've been wondering the whole time. Where the heck is Jack? How long is this trip? All we know is he's grabbing the omniscient clam and going to wherever he's going. I think the canyon where the princes and the princesses were supposed to get married at? What is taking him so long?
The second and third scenes
We now know how Jamie's dream is. Sunshine rainbows and all, probably because of her sparkly magic. As the witch said: "They're usually mish-mash of each person's memories, acquaintances, and a lot of nonsense"
She also said "sometimes sounds and smells from the external world can seep in" So I'm thinking of this.
When Gwen ended up in her dream, she smelled flowers and heard birds singing from Lorena and Maria protecting her while she's asleep. Because Jamie realize she could be in a bad dream, I'm gonna bet the pastel family, Agatha and Molly, Frederick, heck maybe even cpc will tell her from the external words sweet messages like "You're loved!" "You're beautiful just the way you are" "I love you" "Please come back to us" over and over again.
What about what Gwen will see? Well from the next chapter's thumbnail we know she's gonna see Leopold. Most probably because of that one time where Leopold become a "therapist" for Gwen. Maybe dream Leopold will tell her the same thing he said in chapter 66:
"You'll never learn to love yourself.. if you can't honestly face your own feelings."
Other than that, she will surely meet her family and Frederick there. Maybe even flashback of when Frederick called her ugly.
But! What I really think is gonna happen is this:
Her memories of her mom is gonna appear like a repressed memory. That is definitely gonna happen I hope that will happen.
Okay! Stepping out from the dream..
AKSKAKAKKANAAAAAAAMWKJWJSWN NO NO WHAT IS HE— YO???? WHAT THE HECK NAH BRO C'MON 😭
WHAT DO YOU MEAN LELAND? What do you mean "tomorrow's the big day" the big day to what?! To what?! You know I could've kept my composure but I absolutely LOST it when I saw Lance's face. Like, boy?? Since when he can do THAT? This is bad. This is REALLY bad. Whatever this plan is, I don't think I'm gonna like it. Well, at least they're not being hung upside down anymore..
HAHA I LOVE THIS CLAM ALREADY.
Suddenly remembering when I said this and I HOPE I'M RIGHT.
So Jamie and Gwen ARE twins!! Maybe that's gonna play more role further on?
Ending this review with them because awww look at them :') They're such sweet couples look at how happy Leelathae is <3
See ya guys, gals, and pals
Mono out!
(But still in to listen to your thoughts :) )
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Lord, You Keep Me Crawling
Chapter Four: Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
“Are you sure about this?” Auguste asked for the fiftieth time since morning mass. “We can still bail.”
Uncle made a small impatient sound from the front seat as the rumble of the engine died.
“We’re here, Auguste,” Laurent snapped. “They’ve seen the car already.” The words came out sharper than he’d intended. That had been happening a lot lately.
“We could just drive away. They’d understand.”
Instead of answering, Laurent opened his car door and stepped out onto the driveway. The sun was setting behind the western treeline; orange fire bleeding out of the sky and a wave of indigo creeping in cautiously in its wake, as though the night were asking for permission to fall.
They were almost thirty minutes late. Uncle had blamed Laurent for taking so long to get ready that they hadn’t left in time to beat the rush hour traffic—which was completely unfair, because it wasn’t his fault that there was traffic or that he’d had nothing suitable to wear in his entire closet. In the end he’d settled on a midnight blue silk dress shirt with a subtle black floral brocade, his hair moussed and swept back out of his face, and a gold crucifix around his neck. He had put in and taken out his sapphire earring a dozen times over the course of getting dressed, but in the end he had decided against it, tucking it away in the jewelry box that he kept hidden under his bed.
He walked around the front of the car toward the cobbled walkway and heard the car doors open and close again as Uncle and Auguste followed. Juerre stayed in the car, waiting behind the wheel to take them home. The getaway driver, Laurent thought mockingly.
Daylilies flanked the walkway in rows of orange and yellow. As he walked up the path to the front door, he remembered a thousand other trips up that walkway—under sunshine and rain and indigo skies like tonight’s—skipping or running or dragging his feet over the cobblestones. Laurent had walked this path so many times he had carved it into his muscle memory like a river carving a canyon. He couldn’t escape it now if he tried. His legs carried him to the door.
Warm light poured out from the window. Laurent found to his surprise that he was tall enough to see in now, if he stood on his tiptoes. Immediately he noticed that the crystal chandelier in the foyer was not the same one that had hung there when the Fortaines lived here. He stepped back from the door, disoriented. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, centering himself on the pine and floral smell of the evening breeze. A chorus of peepers chirped a tuneless serenade from their hiding places among the low vegetation. He felt Auguste and Uncle step up on either side of him.
“Laurent?” Auguste asked warily.
Laurent opened his eyes and rolled back his shoulders. “Let’s get this over with.”
With one arm cradling a bottle of wine, Uncle used his free hand to ring the bell. Laurent realized that he had never touched that doorbell before in his life. He’d never needed to. Loyse used to leave the door unlocked for him.
As they waited, Uncle spoke with his eyes on the door, “I want you both to be on your best behavior tonight.” He didn’t seem to be waiting for a response from either of them. It wasn’t a request, but a simple statement from a man who expected nothing less than total obedience. A spark of anger alighted in Laurent’s chest. Auguste shot him a sidelong glance, and Laurent saw the same feeling reflected in his brother’s eyes.
The door swung open, and suddenly Uncle’s face was plastered with a smile—the humble and magnanimous one that Laurent called his saint smile.
“Hello!” Hypermenestra burst into view. “Come in, come in!” She beckoned them through the doorway with a manicured hand. Uncle presented her with the wine. “Oh, how sweet,” she cooed, “you shouldn’t have!”
Uncle bowed his head, gracefully deflecting the praise. “I simply couldn’t show up empty handed. It’s a vintage from Ravenel, a very good year.”
“I’ll have it set out to breathe.” She summoned someone from the kitchen and handed off the bottle.
“I’m sorry we’re late,” Uncle said as the doorman took his coat, “the traffic was terrible.”
“No, don’t worry about it, Father. Stavos tells me that dinner is running a bit late as it is, and Damen hasn’t even come down yet.” She grinned at Auguste and Laurent. “Don’t you boys look handsome?”
Auguste certainly did, towering in his burgundy shirt and trim black blazer, with his easy smile and strong jaw. He looked like the very picture of manly splendor and dash. Beside him, Laurent felt like a kid playing dress up. He let Auguste and Uncle carry the conversation from there as Kastor, Jokaste, and Theomedes spilled into the foyer and made their greetings.
“I suppose you don’t need a tour,” Hypermenestra said with an awkward smile.
“We know the house better than you do,” Uncle laughed. Laurent was no longer sure that was true.
He had imagined that stepping into the house would be like falling backwards through time, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, it thrust him roughly out into the present and locked the door behind him—forcing him to acknowledge that the home he had kept alive in his memory these past few years was truly dead and buried.
He had known that the decor would not be the same, but knowing was not believing, and his brain kept insisting that what his eyes were telling him he saw was wrong. The hardwood floor was bare, the silk Patran runner that Laurent was used to having under his feet was gone. From where he stood in the foyer, he could see that the furnishings in the den and the dining room were now of a more open and simplistic, more traditionally Akielon design. Gone were the old Veretian antiques that Loyse had been so fond of. The whole place felt awkward and warped. Stretched out and shrunken at the same time.
Even the air inside felt different. It smelled different. The aromas wafting from the kitchen were distinctly Akielon herbs and spices, and a new-paint smell clung to the walls. Even the furniture carried its own smell—the wood and leather and the smell of the rugs not quite matching the ones that used to be here. It wasn’t something Laurent thought he would notice if he hadn’t been expecting the old familiar smell of the Fortaine household. It wasn’t something he could even put into words; it was just them. And now it was gone, scraped from the house along with every other trace of them, and replaced by the alien scent of a new family.
Despite all that, the floorboards still creaked at the bottom of the stairs when Laurent walked there, as though they remembered him. The new chandelier hummed the same subtle electric note as its predecessor. Whispers and echoes of the past still endured within the carcass of the house, and Laurent saw ghosts in every corner.
He laid a hand on the round top of the post at the bottom of the balustrade, feeling the familiar, almost sticky smoothness of the varnish under his palm. He closed his eyes, and it was then—without all the visual distraction—that the past closed in around him.
It began with laughter. The sound of two young boys’ breathless joy bubbling through the stairwell, accompanied by their percussive footsteps racing to the top. Laurent, nine years old and already nursing a fierce competitive streak, shoved Aimeric bodily into the wall and streamed past, winning the race while the other boy cursed and recovered his balance. Nearly six months his younger but just as competitive, Aimeric proposed another game. They took turns leaping down from the top stair, adding one more to their jump each time, until Aimeric landed heavily on his feet, just barely sticking his landing after hurtling down eight stairs. He grinned triumphantly, assuming that to be the end of it, but Laurent hated to lose. He lept, and aimed for nine.
Laurent didn’t remember the fall, but he’d twisted his ankle and tumbled the rest of the way down the hardwood stairs, breaking his right arm somewhere along the way. After, Aimeric had drawn the neck of a violin on the back of his cast in permanent marker, complete with all four strings, so that Laurent could still practice his fingerings while his arm healed. He ghosted his fingers along his forearm and remembered it now with a smile.
Auguste’s hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his reverie. He opened his eyes to see that he and Auguste stood alone in the foyer as the others drifted away through the arched doorway into the den. Auguste offered him a reassuring smile, and Laurent returned it before catching up with the group in the den where they lounged on white couches and picked at a charcuterie board.
Where a portrait of Loyse, Guion, and their four sons had hung above the mantle, now sat a white orchid growing in a ceramic pot. Laurent caught a glimpse of his own face on the wall, solemn and pale. He suffered a moment’s confusion, until he blinked and the face blinked back. It was only his reflection, framed alone in a mirror behind the flowers.
Hypermenestra tapped Kastor on the shoulder. “Would you go tell your brother that our guests are here? I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”
A few minutes later, Damianos thundered down the stairs after Kastor, apologizing for his tardiness. He wore a brilliant smile and a blood-red sweater that fit him well and complimented his warm skin tone, his curls gently tousled atop his head. He looked effortlessly perfect.
Laurent wanted nothing more than to wipe the smile off his face with one of several scathing remarks that had formed in his head, but Uncle’s watchful eye was on him, and Laurent had nothing against Damianos’s parents as of yet. It was for their sakes, and for the sake of his own reputation among them, that he granted Damianos a tepid greeting.
A man in a white apron appeared in the doorway. He cleared his throat. “Excuse me, everyone. Dinner is ready to be served.”
“Thank you Stavos,” Theomedes said. When the man had gone, he turned to the room. “It’s about time. I’m famished,” he said, patting his bulging stomach. “Let’s eat.”
When everyone was seated at the table and the first course of salad and bread with olive oil was placed before them, Uncle led them in saying Grace. Laurent noted with a stab of annoyance that there was a glass of wine in front of everyone’s place but his and Damianos’s. Auguste was toying with his glass already, an impatient twist to his mouth. Laurent watched him, frowning.
Uncle finished Grace, and Theomedes lifted his glass. “To peace,” he toasted in his sonorous voice, “and to new friends.”
“To peace and new friends,” echoed around the room as glasses clinked together.
Auguste tapped his glass against Laurent’s glass of water with an enthusiastic “cheers”, then lifted his glass to his lips and took a long, eager drink of wine. Damianos reached across the table to toast Laurent next. He felt rather ridiculous tapping their two glasses of water together; like they were children playing at being grown up.
Last, from his left, came Uncle’s glass. He leaned his head down toward Laurent’s, making the moment between them intimate. Amusement twinkled in his cool blue gaze when he saw Laurent eyeing his wine. As he lifted his glass to drink, he tapped Laurent’s chin affectionately with the knuckle of his forefinger. Laurent felt himself blush, and took a long drink of his water.
“That was a lovely mass you held this morning, Father,” Hypermenestra said as they started on their salads. “Applying the concept of ‘love thy neighbor’ to our two neighboring countries was very pertinent, I thought.”
Laurent found it difficult to focus on the conversation because Kastor had been staring at him strangely since the toast. He was grateful when Kastor’s attention was diverted by Jokaste.
“Kastor and I still think you should go back to the original sage green paint in the den,” she was saying to Hypermenestra. “It looked so beautiful in the pictures you sent us.”
“It doesn’t go with our furniture,” she protested. Meanwhile, Theomedes had struck up a lively conversation about football with Auguste and Damianos.
Laurent tuned them all out purposefully this time, poking absently at his salad with his fork. The sky was darkening, transforming the windows into mirrors that threw the dining room back at him when he tried to look outside. Each bright bulb on the chandelier and the orange flame of every candle on the long table burned double, their spectral twins floating out in the blue-black night.
His fork screeched against his plate when he heard his name. “I’m sorry,” he said politely, “could you repeat that?”
“Will you be at the homecoming game?” Theomedes boomed, as though the problem had been Laurent’s ears and not his wandering mind. “It’s Damen’s first game with the team. His new coach was so impressed with him, he’s putting him in as the starting quarterback. He’s a devil on the field, my son. Bound for the big league.”
Damianos grinned sheepishly. Laurent thought he saw a dark look pass over Kastor’s face, but it was gone in an instant.
“Not one you’ll want to miss,” Theomedes went on. “Bring your date to the game before the dance, if you really want to give her a night to remember.”
Laurent stretched his lips into a smile. He said, “I’m afraid I don’t know the first thing about football,” meaning it as a conversation-ender, but much to his chagrin, Theomedes took it as a request to learn. He spent the next ten minutes explaining the rules and nuances of football to Laurent in excruciating detail. Laurent made polite sounds to show he was listening, but in his mind he was attempting to unlock some latent power of telekinesis to make Theomedes’s head explode like a grape in the microwave.
He made eye contact with Auguste, who was hiding his laughter behind his knuckles. He glared when he was sure that no one else was looking, widening his eyes at his brother in silent communication of, save me, you asshole.
“Speaking of interceptions,” Auguste swooped in, “did you guys see that incredible catch by Orlant during the third quarter of the Arles-Aquitart game last week?”
“Ah, that was a thing of beauty!” Theomedes proclaimed. “Now there’s a man who would go far playing for Ios.”
Then Auguste dropped the bomb. “He’s a friend of mine, actually. We went to school together.”
“No way,” Damianos’s eyes had gone as round as the plates. Laurent was quickly forgotten as Theomedes and Damianos practically tripped over their tongues to interrogate Auguste about Orlant. Auguste glanced back at him, grinning. Laurent mouthed, thank you, and his brother tossed him a wink.
As the servers were clearing up the first course and preparing to bring out the second, Jokaste put down her silverware and looked up brightly. “So, I have a confession,” she said to the room with a twinkle in her eyes.
“You’ve come to the right man,” Uncle joked, earning laughter.
Jokaste aimed a conspiratorial smile at Laurent. “All week, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I recognized you from somewhere, Laurent. So, last night, I googled you.” His stomach fell; he knew where this was going. Jokaste turned to address the whole table again. “He’s the kid who won the Menuhin competition three years ago,” she finished triumphantly.
“The very same,” Auguste said, beaming with pride. He reached over and squeezed Laurent’s shoulder with a warm hand. Laurent smiled tightly and put down his fork, his appetite gone.
Across the table, Damianos’s face lit up from the light of his phone screen as he typed rapidly. His eyebrows shot up. “Holy shit,” he muttered.
“Damen,” Hypermenestra snapped.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, turning his phone sideways as music began to play quietly from the speakers. Laurent recognized his own violin by the first note, playing Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D. It was possibly his best performance ever, and that one that had won him the Menuhin.
He could still feel the moment in the middle of the first movement when his fierce concentration had turned to exhilaration as he surrendered himself to the music in a way he never had before; how it had all become so natural from there on, and the piece had seemed to come alive and take over control, guiding Laurent through the movements to the climactic finish.
He could still see his mother’s and brother’s beaming smiles in the crowd, and beside them Loyse’s eyes shining as she watched her star student bathe in the spotlight and the applause, while at that very moment her son, and his best friend since they both could toddle, left alone in a dark house, walked to the bathroom and grabbed his father’s razor blade—
“Turn it off,” Laurent said with a deadly edge to his voice. Damianos stared at him, startled. The music died, and he tucked his phone back into his pocket.
“What’s the Menuhin?” Kastor looked lost.
Jokaste sighed. “It’s an international competition for young violinists. Don’t you ever listen to me?”
“Her mother won second place in 1981,” Damianos said, “and now she conducts the Ios Symphony Orchestra. Ringing any bells?” Kastor shrugged defensively.
Laurent nearly dropped his glass of water. “Kalliope Agrippina is your mother?”
Now it was Jokaste’s turn for pride. “The very same,” she flashed a grin at Auguste when she echoed his words.
“She’s a legend,” Laurent said, his distress temporarily forgotten in his excitement. “I must have listened to hundreds of her recordings. She’s absurdly talented.”
Jokaste’s smile was warm. “So are you,” she said. “I spent all night watching clips of your performances. I sent some to my mother, and she demanded that I introduce you to her. She says she’d love to work with you someday.”
Laurent found himself at a loss for words. It was a dream come true, but it came too late. Two years ago, he would have taken up the offer with a singing heart and a golden future unfolding before him. But now … He tried to string together an appropriate response. “I’m flattered … Thank you, and please thank your mother for me. That’s a very generous offer.”
“But Laurent doesn’t play anymore,” Uncle added lightly, like he was talking about the weather. Laurent froze.
“What?” Jokaste and Auguste burst out in unison. It was hard to tell which of them sounded more dismayed. Uncle sipped his wine calmly, like he hadn’t just shattered Laurent’s whole world. Laurent stared at his plate. A lock of blonde hair fell down in front of his eyes, but he didn’t push it back. He stayed statue-still, tension singing in every muscle, afraid that if he moved he would tremble.
“But … you won the Menuhin.” Jokaste’s voice was raw with disbelief. But it was Auguste that Laurent was watching out of his periphery. His face was a study in pure shock. His mouth hung open, his lips forming and unforming the start of words he did not speak as a thousand tangible thoughts flashed behind his eyes in an instant.
“Since when?” he finally asked. “Since …?” He didn’t need to finish the question. Laurent knew what he was asking, and his face must have given away his answer. “You promised me you would pick it up again. Before I left, you promised.”
“You left,” was all Laurent could say, the words leaving his lips almost involuntarily.
Auguste went on like he hadn’t heard him, digging himself out of his shock and deeper into his anger with every word. “And on the phone—you must have told me a hundred times that you were practicing … It was all lies?” Auguste’s voice was rough. He whirled on their uncle. “You knew about this, and you didn’t tell me?”
Uncle’s voice dripped with pity, “Auguste, you didn’t really believe him, did you?”
Auguste worked his jaw, grinding his teeth. “So, you two keep secrets from me now? Thick as thieves, huh? And I guess I’m just the poor fool you conned.”
Laurent swallowed thickly. “Auguste …”
“No, that’s—” Auguste broke off with a mirthless laugh. “Fucking unbelievable. Two years.” The dishes clattered as Auguste slammed his palms down on the table and pushed up briskly. He looked down at Laurent, and for a moment his anger receded, and his deep blue eyes were brimming with pain. His voice went terribly quiet. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” A muscle in his jaw twitched and the rage swept back in like the tide returning. He threw down his napkin and stormed out of the dining room.
Kastor blew out a long breath, his eyebrows reaching for his hairline. He had watched the whole exchange with bright eyed amusement, popping cherry tomatoes into his mouth like popcorn. “Brutal,” he said, and crunched another tomato. Jokaste smacked him on the arm.
Laurent started to get up to follow Auguste, but Uncle placed a hand on his elbow and guided him back down to his seat. “Let him go,” he said. “The three of us will talk when he cools off.” To the DiAkieloses, he said, “I apologize for my nephew’s behavior. He has always been on the hot-headed side, prone to outbursts. He gets that from his father, I’m afraid.”
The front door slammed hard enough that Laurent felt the vibration of the impact through the floor.
Jokaste craned her long neck to peek into the hall. “Did he just leave?”
Laurent looked over at his brother’s abandoned place at the table beside him. There, lying face down next to his plate was Auguste’s phone. A cold fist closed around his heart. “Uncle …” He held up the phone and the room fell silent as a crypt.
It was Damianos who broke the silence. “Didn’t you guys all come in one car? How is he going to get home?”
Uncle dabbed at the corner of his mouth with his napkin, unperturbed. “I imagine he will walk.”
“We should send someone after him,” Hypermenestra said and started to rise. “We can have a car follow him.”
Uncle waved her down. “Let us not worry, a bit of walking is good for the soul, and God goes with him.”
After a period of uneasy silence broken only by the hesitant clattering of silverware, Uncle and Theomedes got to talking politics, and then no one else could get a word in until the servers brought out dessert. The table was piled with dishes of tiramisu and pistachio baklava, gelato in four flavors, and steaming cups of espresso for the adults.
Laurent had only picked at his pasta—much to Hypermenestra’s distress—but even while his nerves still danced in his stomach, he could not resist the chocolate gelato. He took small bites in silence, the hurt on his brother’s face never leaving his mind.
The conversation shifted from politics to Theomedes’s business, Angelico, and soon erupted into a heated exchange between him and Kastor.
“It’s hard to work with him breathing down my neck all day,” Kastor complained, “and frankly, he’s not great at his job. His methods are stale, he shoots down all my good ideas—he’s stuck in the past, operating on decades old strategies.”
Theomedes raised an eyebrow. “He has experience and wisdom, both of which you lack. Your job is to learn from him.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, Dad! I’m your heir apparent. Aren’t I? The optics on this are—”
“Optics?” Theomedes barked, “I piss on the optics.” His wife tsked.
“That’s great, Dad,” Kastor deadpanned. “Great business strategy.”
Theomedes dabbed at his beard with his napkin, then leaned back in his chair and leveled his son with a hard stare. “Makedon has worked for this company for nearly thirty years. He's a member of the board, for Christ’s sake, I’m not going to fire him.”
“I’m not saying you should fire him, just maybe don’t bring him to Arles. Leave him in Akielos.”
“These are delicate times, son. I need loyal people around me. Makedon is loyal. He’s coming to Arles. End of discussion,” he punctuated by slicing his hand through the air, palm down.
Hypermenestra smiled wanly. “That’s enough of that, you two. It’s not polite to talk business at the dinner table.”
“So, Jokaste,” Uncle said, changing the subject. “Are you a musician like your mother?”
Jokaste laughed lightly, “No, unfortunately I didn’t inherit her gift. I’m just a journalist.”
“Ah, yes,” Uncle nodded, “now I recall. You’ll be writing for the Arles Times, correct?”
“Yes, I start tomorrow. Before this I worked for the Ios Globe.”
Hypermenestra grinned. “Jokaste was their prodigy, their young star reporter. Last year she won a Pulitzer for her article about—ah …” She broke off suddenly. Tucking a dark lock of hair behind her ear, she threw a nervous glance at Jokaste as though asking for help.
“Oh,” Uncle swooped in, “you must be referring to that terrible business with the Ios archdiocese. I read about it. I can’t even imagine …” He trailed off, shaking his head gravely. “Uncovering that was your work?”
Jokaste said, “I was on the team, yes.”
“What terrible business?” Laurent asked. He had heard nothing about it.
A hush fell over the dining room, and the air stood still like everyone had stopped breathing. Laurent searched their faces. Theomedes and Hypermenestra appeared to be having a silent conversation with their eyes, both wearing faces full of consternation. Damianos stared at his plate, for once guarding his emotions, while Kastor leaned back from the table, slumped low in his chair, looking anywhere but at anyone else. Jokaste was staring at Uncle, her expression as indecipherable as the Mona Lisa.
Uncle sipped his espresso and set the porcelain cup down with a light clink that seemed to echo. Finally, in a mild voice, he said, “I’m afraid it’s not a story for young ears.”
Jokaste tilted her head to one side, her cool blue eyes never leaving Uncle’s face. “I disagree,” she intoned breezily. “I actually think it’s especially important for young people to hear these kinds of stories. Not the gritty details, of course, but having some knowledge of the dangers they may face can help kids protect themselves.”
Kastor threw his head back and groaned, “God, please don’t start with this again. I’ve heard nothing but this sordid shit for over a year. The investigation, the cover-ups, the trials—can we just let it go?”
“Quit being a jerk, Kastor,” Damianos said with a frown.
“Boys, language, please!” Hypermenestra threw up her hands, exasperated.
Jokaste leaned in toward Kastor, “Can we please not do this in front of our guests?”
Kastor snapped, “That’s what I’m asking. Can we not?”
Hypermenestra shook her head. “I just still can’t believe Father Antony was involved in all that. Of all people, I never would have suspected him.” Kastor sighed heavily.
Theomedes grunted. “Was he the fag?”
Laurent’s heart flipped in his chest.
“Theomedes. That is no way to talk in front of a child and a holy man,” Hypermenestra hissed.
“Apologies, Father.” Uncle waved his hand in dismissal of the offense. Theomedes’s beard hid most of his sly smile. “But … wasn’t he?”
Hypermenestra clicked her tongue. “You’re thinking of Father Leandros, who was a homosexual. Father Antony was the priest at Saint Sebastian’s, where Kastor and I went before you and I got back together. A very nice man. He was always so kind to us, wasn’t he, Kastor? I just can’t understand it.”
Kastor said with a dry smirk, “Sure, super nice. He touched a lot of souls. I recall that he was especially fond of touching children’s souls.”
Suddenly there was iron in Hypermenestra’s voice. “I’ll have none of that talk at the dinner table, young man.”
“You’re the one who keeps bringing it up, Ma!”
“Watch it,” Theomedes roared, jabbing a thick finger at his son’s face.
Jokaste placed a hand on her fiancé’s arm. “Kastor,” she soothed, “don’t.”
Kastor shrugged her off and hiked his voice up to a falsetto impression of his mother, “‘What a kind man Father Antony was, what a good priest.’ I swear to God, if I have to hear one more word of that shit I’m going to throw myself off the Arles River Bridge.”
Hypermenestra was stunned into silence, blinking rapidly. Kastor grimaced, dropping his eyes to his plate where he began to smush up his tiramisu with the back of his fork. Uncle’s head had perked up like a hound that had caught the scent of blood. Laurent felt hopelessly out of the loop. He made a mental note to look up Jokaste’s article later.
“Son,” Theomedes said the word like an accusation, his face carved from stone as he stared Kastor down, “what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Hypermenestra snapped out of her stupor. “Theo! Listen to yourself! A fine example you set for your sons.”
Rage darkened Theomedes face. “You’re going to blame me for him?”
With a chuckle of bitter exasperation, Kastor pulled himself up from the table.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hypermenestra called after him as he fled the dining room. She got no response.
Kastor’s footsteps retreated up the stairs, and the echo of a slamming door reverberated through the house.
Theomedes turned to Uncle. “Well, Father, now we’re even. One outburst on each side.” He stabbed his tiramisu angrily with his fork.
When dessert was cleared away, the adults moved to the sitting room to have “adult conversation”, which Laurent knew just meant normal conversation over hard liquor. He and Damianos scattered; Damianos went off to the bathroom or something, and Laurent wandered toward the stairs.
During dinner, Laurent had been so focused on the people that he’d nearly forgotten where he was. It was impossible to forget now, with the stairwell looming before him like the gaping maw of some great beast. The stairs climbed up into shadow, the top stairs completely swallowed by the dark. Laurent climbed into the beast’s mouth, letting the shadow swallow him too as he ascended. He didn’t need the light. He could walk this path in his sleep.
Upstairs, the only light came from a thin strip of gold beneath the door at the end of the hall. Laurent followed the light, and opened the door to Aimeric’s old bedroom.
Kastor looked up from his desk where he was bent over a laptop, startled. When he saw that it was Laurent in the doorway, he grew irritated. “What do you want?”
“This is your room?”
Kastor eyed him warily. “Temporarily,” he said slowly. “Jokaste and I are hunting for a place of our own.”
Laurent stepped over the threshold and entered the bedroom. Kastor slammed his laptop shut and swiveled around in his chair so that his back was never to Laurent as he drifted through the room. Laurent trailed his fingers along the wall as he walked. The paint was cool against his skin—eggshell white now, where before it had been a deep blue. “The walls are different,” he said stupidly.
Aimeric’s presence—or perhaps it was his absence—felt closer here. Laurent carefully avoided looking at the bathroom door, but even from his periphery it seemed to call to him. It seemed to scream. He hardened his grief and his fear into a cold stone and buried it deep within his chest, and he did not look.
Kastor stood and cleared his throat. “Hey, um, I actually wanted to talk to you,” he said, “about what happened at the airport? I really did think you were a girl, at first. I’m not, you know … that way. You must get that all the time, though. You’re very pretty for a boy.”
Laurent stopped walking. He turned to look at the young soldier-turned-businessman and cocked his head to one side. “What is this, Kastor?”
“I just wanted to—I’m trying to say … I’m sorry for scaring you,” he forced out, looking constipated. “I was just dicking around.”
“In the future, you might want to apply the concept of ‘dicking around’ a bit less literally,” Laurent said.
Kastor huffed out a laugh. ��Yeah. I walked into that.”
“And you didn’t scare me.”
“Right. Well, what I’m saying is …” Kastor stepped closer, leaning down to his level. His breath was a warm cloud tinged with the sour tang of the wine that Laurent had not been allowed to drink. This close, he could taste it. He forced himself not to step back. Kastor spoke low and collusively, “It was all just a misunderstanding, yeah? Nobody got hurt, so, really, it’s like it never happened. Nobody else needs to get involved. Water under the bridge, right?”
Laurent put on a smile. “Water under the bridge.”
He touched the wall again, a plan solidifying in his mind. “Jokaste mentioned that your mother sent you pictures of this house before the walls were repainted. Are they on your phone?”
Kastor hesitated, no doubt sniffing for a trap. “Yes.”
“Were there any pictures of this room?”
“A few, I think. There were all these little doodles along the baseboards in permanent marker.”
“I want the pictures,” Laurent said. “I left my phone downstairs. Give me yours. I’ll send them to myself.”
After another moment of hesitation, Kastor relented, as Laurent had known he would. Really, he couldn’t refuse Laurent anything now that he held a secret over him. That was the beauty of it.
Laurent took the proffered phone, and found the pictures right away. He quickly selected the ones he wanted—three photos of Aimeric’s blue walls, and the drawings of animals, cartoon characters, and superheroes lining the baseboards—and sent them to his own phone, regretting the fact that he had to leave Kastor with his number. A necessary sacrifice, he told himself.
He did not hand back the phone when he was finished, nor did he reveal any indication that he had accomplished his task. This was where his plan got a little risky. Laurent began to snoop.
He found nothing damning in Kastor’s text messages besides some truly horrific sexting exchanges with Jokaste that left Laurent wanting to rinse his eyes with bleach, and nothing suspicious jumped out at him from his emails.
“So,” Kastor said, hovering anxiously, “just to be clear … you haven’t told anyone? About our little … thing?”
“No, I haven’t told anyone,” Laurent replied without looking up from the phone. Kastor’s calendar was a wall of business meetings and corporate events. Only the morning of Friday, October 6th stood starkly empty. That was the same day as the homecoming game and dance at school. Laurent wondered if there was a connection.
“Good. Yeah, that’s for the best, I think.” Kastor was still talking. “Because that’s not me. I’m not—I don’t do things like that.”
Laurent, only half listening, hummed noncommittally. Scrolling through Kastor’s outgoing calls revealed something interesting. Kastor had called Guion Fortaine just this morning, and that call had lasted over an hour. Laurent didn’t jump to any conclusions yet; the DiAkielos family had obviously been in touch with Guion about the house at some point. It was not until he saw yesterday’s call to Vannes, and one to Audin shortly before that, that Laurent allowed himself to theorize.
The only connection that Laurent could think of between the three of them was that they were all members of the board of directors at the company that was now Angelico. There was nothing strange about Kastor speaking with his board members in preparation for a meeting. But no … Laurent didn’t recall seeing any board meetings coming up on Kastor’s calendar. And surely there would have been corresponding emails … unless it was unscheduled. Unless there was something afoot that Kastor needed to keep off the record. Laurent went back to the calendar, the empty morning of October 6th singing to him like a bird.
A burst of triumph rushed through Laurent’s blood. I see you, he thought with an inward grin.
“What’s going on here?”
Laurent stilled. The voice came from the doorway behind him, and it belonged to Damianos.
Laurent quickly closed all the apps and handed the phone back to Kastor before acknowledging Damianos. He turned slowly, crossing his arms, and watched Damianos stalk into the bedroom. He circled around Laurent to place himself within arms reach of both him and Kastor.
Laurent pierced him with a cold glare. “I was just sucking your brother’s dick in my dead friend’s old bedroom. The proximity to the bathtub where he slowly bled to death really sets the mood.”
Damianos’s mouth fell open, disgust warring with shock and then pity on his face. All that passed his lips was a breathless whisper, “… Jesus, Laurent.”
“The kid died in my bathroom?” Kastor croaked. Both Laurent and Damianos ignored him.
“It’s what you were thinking, isn’t it?” Laurent accused. “Is that not why you followed me up here?”
“I wasn’t … I didn’t know that about your friend. I’m sorry,” Damianos said, infuriatingly gentle.
“He’s lying, by the way, about the … sucking.” Kastor grimaced at his own words. “If anyone cares to hear my side of things.”
Damianos’s tone hardened. “No, Kastor, not particularly. I need to talk to Laurent. Alone.”
“Yeah, sure. At your own peril,” Kastor said, and with that, he was gone.
When the sound of his footsteps had dissipated down the stairs, Damianos said, “I’ll make sure he deletes your number.”
Laurent held himself perfectly still. “If it makes you feel better.”
“Listen, Laurent,” Damianos began. He ran a hand through his brown curls, tousling them to the point of messiness. The flyaways glowed in warm hues of gold and red where they caught the light. “I know you don’t like me, and frankly, I’m not crazy about you either. But putting that aside, I just want you to know that if you decide you want to tell someone about Kastor … about what he did at the airport—or if you already have told someone—I’ll back you up.”
Laurent blinked. That was not what he’d expected to hear. “Am I supposed to be moved by your readiness to betray your own brother?”
“It’s not a betrayal to tell the truth,” Damianos said in a voice as hard as steel. “He betrayed me when he asked me to lie for him.”
That did not sound right to Laurent. He fought to keep his confusion off his face, but he couldn’t quite stop the slight scrunching of the muscles around his eyes. As soon as he felt it, though, he smoothed it out and faced the Akielon as a statue. “He trusts you to protect him,” he countered.
“Why are you defending him?” Damianos flared.
“I’m not, I’m—” defending myself, Laurent had been about to say, but he could think of no way to explain it so that Damianos would understand. Frustrated, he turned away and walked to the window. He wondered where Auguste had gone, and if he was safe. Part of him had hoped to see his brother out the window, down in the driveway or in the yard, but it was fully dark outside now. All Laurent could see in the glass was his own pale reflection; a ghost made of light. It was a foolish hope, anyway. Auguste was long gone by now. Rather than stare at his own sullen face, Laurent picked at the thick paint on the window frame, carving off small white chips with his nail.
He heard Damianos sigh behind him. “It’s just a matter of principles, Laurent. Right and wrong. Yes, Kastor’s my brother. I love him, I always will. But I saw what I saw. What he did was wrong. I’ll help you make it right, if I can.”
Laurent dug his nail deep into the paint and twisted. “And if I asked you to continue the lie?”
“Why?” Damianos sounded so profoundly baffled that Laurent found himself wanting to explain; wanting to be understood.
He turned from the window to look Damianos in the eye. “I’m not a child,” he said. Judging by the furrowing of Damianos’s brow, that had clarified nothing for him. Laurent tried again. “I’m not helpless. I can handle Kastor.”
“I don’t think you’re helpless,” Damianos said gently, “but I’m offering you help anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.”
Laurent couldn’t bear the pity in the Akielon’s eyes. He looked away. He mistakenly glanced to his left, and caught sight of the bathroom door, hanging slightly ajar like an invitation. A bitter taste filled his mouth. He looked again at Damianos, in his sweater as red as blood. “You think you know everything, don’t you?” His voice was like ice, and it burned his throat. “You think you have the whole world figured out, with your ‘right and wrong’. Some things aren’t right or wrong, they’re just things that happen.”
“You don’t think what Kastor did to you was wrong?” Damianos asked, seeming genuinely confused.
“He didn’t do anything to me,” Laurent said.
“Laurent, I saw—”
“It was provoked.”
“Provoked?” Outrage flashed openly in Damianos’s dark eyes. “Nothing could provoke—”
“Stop trying to rescue me,” Laurent snapped, every word the crack of a whip. “I don’t need rescuing. So you can take your hero complex and go fuck yourself with it.”
“I don’t have—”
“You do,” Laurent made sure that his tone brokered no argument. “I’m done talking about this, understand? Let. It. Go.”
It was Damianos’s turn to brood. The furrow in his brow deepened as the silence stretched on, until finally he shook his head and started for the door. Something stopped him before he’d passed through the doorway, and he turned. “Just tell me one thing. Why did you give him your number?” he asked. Laurent had been wondering when he’d get around to that.
“He had something I wanted.”
“Aren’t you worried about what he wants?”
“I know what Kastor wants,” Laurent said with a light smirk. “I’m not the one who needs to worry.”
Damianos blinked. “What does that mean?”
“My poor dear brute,” Laurent said playfully, “have you truly so little mind for deception that you can’t see it right under your nose?” He sauntered to the doorway. Damianos did not move aside, so Laurent made to slip past him.
He was suddenly acutely aware of Damianos’s sheer size—this close to him, it was hard to be aware of anything else. Laurent’s eyes only came up to his chest, and for a moment his whole world was filled with the red of Damianos’s sweater and the dark smell of his cologne. He had to crane his neck to look up at his face. He wasn’t quite as tall as Auguste, but he was broader. He was like a mountain with wide brown eyes, staring down at Laurent with his lips slightly parted, as though his voice had been snatched from his throat. Goosebumps prickled to life along Laurent’s arms.
“I should get back downstairs before my uncle misses me too terribly,” Laurent murmured as he squeezed by. He could feel the heat of Damianos’s body everywhere, but he managed to make it past without touching him.
As Laurent fled down the hallway, Damianos found his voice again. “Wait—Laurent! What does that mean?” Laurent descended the stairs two at a time and rejoined the party.
Later, as the car pulled out of the driveway, Laurent looked back and watched the house fall away out the rear windshield, until it was no more than a spec of light in the dark. Uncle sat beside him in the back seat, as silent and cold as a winter night in Vask. Laurent rationalized that maybe Uncle had used up all his warmth on the DiAkielos family tonight, and had none left for him. But a small voice inside insisted that it was more than that; that his uncle was angry with him. Laurent ran through the whole evening in his head, trying to figure out what he had done wrong, but couldn’t think of anything to warrant this reaction from Uncle.
Laurent frowned, defeated. He stared out his window with a sinking feeling in his gut, searching for a glimpse of golden hair on the sidewalks and at every street crossing, but saw none.
#lykmc#captive prince#laurent of vere#my writing#damen of akielos#auguste of vere#capri fanfic#captive prince fanfic#lamen
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It was so simple of things were the most holy or kadosh to Erik. Twigs snapped and the puffs of purplish plumes of Pampas Grass and with their silky hair brushing their legs as they passed through the trail; and mini golden sun daisies intertwined with wild wheat.
They collected some blaze red bunchberry, elderberries, huckleberries, and entire blueberry bush. Even found a black cherry tree and harvest the bark and some of the berries which he would show Pietro later how to make an effective cough syrup. Pine cones not only good for starting fires, but also edible acorns, butternuts (a cousin to the walnut, and the hickory nuts. Erik promised his son and the sun of his world a mix berry pie once they got back to the mansion.
The grounds around the mansion were surprisingly filled with so many forging plants, Charles might have to teach a survival class with all this abundance. What was even more surprisingly to Erik was that Charles came along; it didn't take him for the type. But, then again Charles was just filled with surprises.
A sharp whistle and a jolted nod to his son. Pietro stopped and in a blink he was next to him. Sinking into a squat, point to the purple four petal flower that almost looked like an orchid, "This is a violet both the petals and leaves are eatable," Before asking, "Do you want to pick some?" Pietro nodded so hard, Erik worried that his head might fall off. His little hands pulled at the flower and handed it over to Erik to put in their satchel. Charles snapped a photo.
They had been out for more than a few hours, sweat dripped the canyon of his spine. The dark blacks, blues, and purples and turtlenecks that were associated with him was transformed into billowy and loose sheer white shirt and khaki pants
Charles always followed behind him...that tricky son of bitch! Got tsu dánken! Pietro was chasing monarch butterflies so enraptured by the setting ahead of them that he remained oblivious to their relationship.
Coming to a fallen log, Erik sat down followed by Charles and Pietro was he noticed that his Dadneto was no longer behind him. Unbuckling the leather bag and brought out clear containers of raw hexagonal amber honeycomb and handed them out. opening up Pietro's.
The comb flakily soft and tender, gushing out sweet honey tasted like the first ray's of sunshine and freshly cut hey and wildflowers field. The golden liquid sticky nectar In the corners crystalized all the more sweeter for it. Erik laughed when Pietro with honey smeared all over his face and sticky fingers
This was the life he wanted for Pietro free from Shaw. To that promise land. To that land of milk and honey. zavat halav u‘dvash. To where they could all be free.
Liberation for all of mutantkind.
@iwillshipyouman
#Dadneto and quickson flash fic#dadneto#peter maximoff#erik lehnsherr#quickson#charles xavier#magneto#quicksilver#cherik#x-men#stepdad! charles xavier
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to be watched list (movies)
#
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
3 Generations (2015)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
13 Going on 30 (2004)
27 Dresses (2008)
48 Hrs. (1982)
50 First Dates (2004)
50/50 (2011)
A
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
A Cinderella Story (2004)
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
A Happening of Monumental Proportions (2017)
About Time (2013)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
Addams Family Values (1993)
Adopting Audrey (2021)
Aladdin (1992)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Almost Famous (2000)
Along Came Polly (2004)
Always Be My Maybe (2019)
Amazing Grace (2018)
American Psycho (2000)
And Then We Danced (2019)
Anger Management (2003)
Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
Another Cinderella Story (2008)
Aquamarine (2006)
Armageddon (1998)
Artless (2019)
Atonement (2007)
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
B
Band Aid (2017)
Bandits (2001)
Barbie (2023)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Before I Fall (2017)
Before Sunset (2004)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Being the Ricardos (2021)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
Big Daddy (1999)
Big Fish (2003)
Big Momma's House (2000)
Big Momma's House 2 (2006)
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011)
Blind Ambition (2021)
Booksmart (2019)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020)
Bowfinger (1999)
Brain on Fire (2016)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Bring It On (2000)
Bros (2022)
Bruce Almighty (2003)
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
C
Cadet Kelly (2002)
Cake (2014)
Can You Keep a Secret (2019)
Capernaum (2018)
Carol (2015)
Casper (1995)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Center Stage (2000)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factor (2005)
Chocolat (2000)
Chuck Berry (2018)
Cinderella (1950)
Cinderella (2015)
Click (2006)
Clueless (1995)
CODA (2021)
Coming to America (1988)
Coming to America 2 (2021)
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004)
Cool Runnings (1993)
Coraline (2009)
Corpse Bride (2005)
Coyote Ugly (2000)
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Cunningham (2019)
D
Dara & Ed's Road to Mandalay (2017)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Dear Zoe (2022)
Death Becomes Her (1992)
D.E.B.S. (2004)
Destination Wedding (2018)
Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Disenchanted (2022)
Do Revenge (2022)
Dream Scenario (2023)
Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Dumb and Dumber To (2014)
E
Easy A (2010)
Echo in the Canyon (2018)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Eight Grade (2018)
Elf (2003)
Ella Enchanted (2004)
Emily the Criminal (2022)
Enchanted (2007)
Enough Said (2013)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Evergreen (2020)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Everything Is Copy (2015)
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
F
Flee (2021)
Flight Club (1999)
Footloose (1984)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Frankweenie (2012)
Friends with Benefits (2011)
Four Good Days (2020)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)
G
Generation Um… (2012)
Get a Clue (2002)
Ghost (1990)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Glass Onion (2022)
Godzilla (2014)
Gone Girl (2014)
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)
Grease (1978)
Grown Ups (2010)
Grown Ups 2 (2013)
H
Halloweentown (1998)
Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)
Happiness for Beginners (2023)
Harriet the Spy (1996)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Haunted Mansion (2023)
Heat (1995)
Heathers (1988)
Her (2013)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Home Alone (1990)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Hope Springs (2012)
Horrible Bosses (2011)
Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
I
I Care a Lot (2020)
I Know What You Need (2023)
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007)
I Smile Back (2015)
I Used to Be Famous (2022)
Identity Theft (2013)
If I Stay (2014)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
I'm Totally Fine (2022)
Inception (2010)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Into the Wild (2007)
It's Complicated (2009)
J
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Jawbreaker (1999)
Jennifer's Body (2009)
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Joker (2019)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Juno (2007)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Jurassic Park III (2001)
Jurassic World (2015)
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Just Go with It (2011)
K
Kiki's Delivery (1989)
Kimi (2022)
King Kong (2005)
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
Knives Out (2019)
L
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Lady Bird (2017)
Land (2021)
Late Bloomers (2023)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Let Them All Talk (2020)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Liar Liar (1997)
Life as We Know It (2010)
Little Forest (2018)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Little Women (1994)
Little Women (2019)
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Lou (2022)
Love Actually (2003)
Love, Rosie (2014)
Luck (2022)
Luzzu (2021)
M
Maggie (2015)
Maleficent (2014)
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Man on the Moon (1999)
Marry Me (2022)
Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013)
Maybe I Do (2023)
Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
Mean Girls (2004)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Megamind (2010)
Memento (2000)
Mermaids (1990)
Metro (1997)
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Monster House (2006)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
Miss Congeniality (2000)
Miss Sloane (2016)
Mommy (2014)
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Mr. Wrong (1996)
Murder Mystery (2019)
Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
My First Summer (2010)
My Girl (1991)
My Girl 2 (1994)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
N
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
Now You See Me 2 (2016)
New York Minute (2004)
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Next Exit (2022)
Now You See Me (2013)
Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
Notting Hill (1999)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
No Strings Attached (2011)
No Sudden Move (2021)
Nomadland (2020)
Norbit (2007)
Not Okay (2022)
Now You See Me (2013)
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)
O
Ocean's 8 (2018)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
On the Basis of Sex (2018)
One Day (2011)
One Life (2011)
One Life (2023)
Oppenheimer (2023)
Out of Office (2022)
P
Paint (2023)
Peter Pan (1953)
Phoebe in Wonderland
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Pippi Longstocking (1969)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Plan B (2021)
Ponyi (2008)
Poor Things (2023)
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Pretty Woman (1990)
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Psycho (1960)
Psycho (1998)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Q
R
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raise Your Voice (2004)
Rango (2011)
Ratatouille (2007)
RED (2010)
RED 2 (2013)
Red Eye (2005)
Remember Me (2010)
Ricki and the Flash (2015)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Robot & Frank (2012)
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)
Room (2015)
S
Scary Movie (2000)
Schindler's List (1993)
Shallow Hal (2001)
She Said (2022)
She's All That (1999)
She's the Man (2006)
She's the One (1996)
Short Term 12 (2012)
Shotgun Wedding (2022)
Siberia (2018)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Sleepover (2004)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Slumberland (2022)
Snatch (2000)
So Undercover (2012)
Something's Gotta Give (2003)
Sound City (2013)
South of the River (2020)
Speak (2004)
Speed (1994)
Spider-Man (2002)
Spirited (2022)
Spirited Away (2001)
Stand by Me (1986)
Steel Magnolias (1989)
Stepmom (1998)
Suffragette (2015)
Summerland (2020)
Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
T
Tangled (2010)
Tenet (2020)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
The Accountant (2016)
The Addams Family (1991)
he Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
The Big Sick (2017)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
The Connected Universe (2016)
The Craft (1996)
The Craft: Legacy (2020)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
The Do-Over (2016)
The DUFF (2015)
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
The Estate (2022)
The Fallout (2021)
The Family Stone (2005)
The Favourite (2018)
The First Wives Club (1996)
The Florida Project (2017)
The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)
The Girl on the Train (2016)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The Half of It (2020)
The Hangover (2009)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The Holiday (2006)
The Incredibles (2004)
The Last Song (2010)
The Lion King (1994)
The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)
The Lost City (2022)
The Lost Daughter (2021)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
The Lovely Bones (2009)
The Mask (1994)
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
The Maze Runner (2014)
The Mexican (2001)
The Mummy (1999)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Notebook (2004)
The Notebooks (2021)
The Nutty Professor (1996)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
The Pez Outlaw (2022)
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
The Princess Diaries (2001)
The Proposal (2009)
The Secret World of Arriety (2010)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Spectacular Now (2013)
The Switch (2010)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
The Woman Who Ran (2020)
The Worst Person in the World (2021)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Thirteen (2003)
Thumbsucker (2005)
Ticket to Paradise (2022)
To the Bone (2017)
Toy Story (1995)
Trading Places (1983)
Transporter (2002)
Transporter 2 (2005)
Transporter 3 (2008)
Twilight (2008)
Tyger Tyger (2019)
U
Up (2009)
Uptown Girls (2003)
V
W
Walk With Me (2021)
WALL-E (2008)
We're the Millers (2013)
What a Girl Wants (2003)
What Happens in Vegas (2008)
White Chicks (2004)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
Wild Child (2008)
X
Y
Yes Man (2008)
Your Sister's Sister (2011)Your Name. (2016)
You're Ugly Too (2015)
Yours, Mine & Ours (2005)
You've Got Mail (1998)
Z
Zodi & Tehu, frères du désert (2023)
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✨ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday ✨
• the firey sun and the sickly sweet smell of smoke remind me of home • ❤️
• it reminds me of cold, calm desert nights alive with the ferocity of the flames, kept at bay by only the voice of the raging river deep in the canyon • 🌘
• there’s a deep freedom and beauty that fire encompasses, somewhat like the majesty of the ocean • 🌊
• sometimes what is scary is also magical and beautiful beyond belief •🔥
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There it was again...
It came so softly but it came quickly.
Moisture imbued to the air. the rain a mere hush before it quickly built power and with it; the war of the heavens began to pound on their drums and take up their spears. Violet crashed against indigo, the rain became a howling drizzle drowning out the world utterly in its drenching crescendo. The earth bled out freely, petrichor relished as it was beaten savagely by the needles of water pounding. Flashes of purple struck, the roaring creature of heavenly wrath fleeting in its war across the skies.
It couldn’t be ignore.. No, not ever.
the charge of the air..
the snap of that roar that would make the trees themselves tremble.
Heat and Hate of the Sun’s glare had all but scorched this arid land for months now. Fires nipped at whatever flesh there was to be had left upon a barren bone bleached white of the canyons and wide open prairies. The sky had been clear.. dashing the hopes of whatever creatures were struggling but Fortune would find favor today. It rained from the heavens not in peace but as a declaration of battle meant to pierce deeply into flesh and remind the world of who reigned supreme with electrical fury blinding the eye and casting the world to darkness as the beating of the storm gouged further.
A drizzle. A tempest. A Storm.
Every fine hair could pick up that sensation.. sticking upright with the collection of negative energy and know when the blow would arrive before the flash. Each time Darkened eyes saw that spectacle.. his heart couldn’t help but race, muscle flexed.. the boom calling a primal instinct to cradle a savage, brutal heart. Each breath measured itself, the moisture strangling the air with its heaviness, but it was all needed...
The land Needed to be Strangled....
It needed to be Beaten.
Harsh and without Relent.
All for the soil to be Resplendent once more.
His flesh ran cold with the sleek rain, hair and cloth sticking close to his flesh but it was a much needed cleansing. He know not how long he stood out there, basking in the brutal punishment of the deluge until it too passed and the sprinkles of a peaceful end allowed the world to fade back to his focus. The snarls of the heavens quieted, clouds darkening not with the promise of more rain than the simple passage of time as evening drew near and the sun was killed until it rebirthed tomorrow.
he could almost feel the earth loosen up beneath the soles of his feet..
Dry and cracked soil became soft.. nurtured by the violence.
Droplets caressed down his face, eyes that had seem so focused were now lost to a dream-like state.. as though he’d only woken up from a pleasant dream. A shake of his head gently snapped the excess water from his mane, the extent of a tail careful to avoid dragging itself in the mud as it trailed behind him in content sways. The days were so harsh.. even for him. Endless sunshine.. endless heat.. how far he had to go to find water as the land dried up but all of it seemed so far away now.
Storms were a gift of violence,
and the world Needed Violence.
#|| Drabble: { Broly }#( MMmm another rainstorm came by. )#( i didn't have much inspiration to write until now. just... saiyans and storms. can't help it. )#( i could write the same thing a thousand times and it'll be different each time. )
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Discovering Banff: A Guide to Wilderness Exploration
Banff National Park is a site of unmatched beauty and wonder, tucked away amid the untamed grandeur of the Canadian Rockies. Banff is more than simply a park—it's a monument to the unadulterated strength and amazing beauty of nature, spanning over 6,641 square kilometers of pure wilderness. Banff has a wide range of experiences that enthrall the spirit and capture the soul, from its towering peaks to its glistening lakes. We'll explore the numerous attractions, activities, and seasonal variations of Banff National Park in this all-inclusive itinerary.
Discovering Banff's Natural Splendor
At the heart of Banff's allure lies its diverse and awe-inspiring landscapes. Towering mountain peaks, cascading waterfalls, and emerald-green forests create a tapestry of natural beauty that is nothing short of breathtaking. One of the park's most iconic features is Lake Louise, whose turquoise waters reflect the surrounding glaciers and snow-capped peaks with stunning clarity. Nearby, Moraine Lake captivates visitors with its vibrant hues and dramatic setting, earning its place as one of the most photographed locations in the Canadian Rockies.
For those seeking adventure, Banff's extensive network of trails offers endless opportunities for exploration. From leisurely strolls through verdant valleys to challenging ascents up rugged mountain peaks, there's a hike for every skill level and inclination. Johnston Canyon Trail, with its scenic pathways and breathtaking waterfalls, is a favorite among visitors of all ages. Meanwhile, the Plain of Six Glaciers Trail rewards intrepid hikers with panoramic views of glaciers and alpine meadows, showcasing the park's untamed beauty in all its glory.
Engaging Activities for Every Season
Banff National Park is a playground for outdoor enthusiasts, offering a plethora of activities to suit every interest and season. In the winter months, the park transforms into a winter wonderland, with world-class skiing and snowboarding opportunities at resorts such as Lake Louise and Sunshine Village. The crisp mountain air and pristine snow-covered landscapes create an idyllic setting for snowshoeing, ice skating, and ice climbing while cozying up by a crackling fire with a cup of hot cocoa is the perfect way to unwind after a day of exploration.
As the snow melts and spring arrives, Banff bursts to life with vibrant colors and renewed vitality. Wildflowers blanket the meadows, and the sound of rushing water fills the air as rivers and waterfalls swell with the melting snow. Spring is the perfect time for wildlife viewing, as bears, elk, and other native species emerge from their winter slumber in search of food and mates. Guided wildlife tours offer the chance to observe these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat while learning about the park's delicate ecosystem and conservation efforts.
Summer in Banff is a time of endless adventure and outdoor pursuits. Hiking, biking, and rock climbing are popular activities, with trails ranging from easy family-friendly walks to challenging backcountry treks. The park's pristine lakes and rivers provide ample opportunities for kayaking, canoeing, and paddleboarding, while fishing enthusiasts can cast their lines in search of trout and other native species. Camping under the stars is a quintessential summer experience, with campgrounds nestled amidst towering pines and breathtaking mountain vistas.
Timing Your Visit: Seasons and Climate
The best time to visit Banff National Park largely depends on the activities you wish to pursue and your tolerance for crowds and varying weather conditions. Summer (June to August) is the busiest time of year, with long daylight hours and mild temperatures ideal for hiking, camping, and wildlife viewing. However, be prepared for crowds and book accommodations well in advance, especially if you plan to visit popular attractions like Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.
Winter (November to April) transforms Banff into a snowy paradise, with world-class skiing and snowboarding drawing winter sports enthusiasts from around the globe. The ski season typically peaks between December and February, offering optimal snow conditions and a wide range of terrain for skiers and snowboarders of all levels.
Spring (April to June) and fall (September to October) offer a quieter and more tranquil experience, with milder temperatures and fewer crowds. Spring is particularly beautiful, with wildflowers in bloom and wildlife emerging from hibernation, while fall brings vibrant foliage and crisp mountain air, making it an ideal time for hiking and photography.
Banff’s weather is characterized by cold winters and mild summers. Winter temperatures can plummet well below freezing, with heavy snowfall common in the higher elevations. Summer temperatures are generally mild, with daytime highs averaging around 20-25°C (68-77°F) in the valleys, although temperatures can vary significantly depending on elevation.
It's important to come prepared for changing weather conditions, especially if you plan to explore the higher elevations. Dressing in layers and packing essential gear such as waterproof clothing, sunscreen, and insect repellent will ensure a comfortable and enjoyable experience.
Conclusion: Embrace the Adventure
Banff National Park is more than just a destination; it's an experience that awakens the senses and nourishes the soul. Whether you're drawn to its rugged mountain peaks, tranquil lakes, or abundant wildlife, Banff offers a wealth of opportunities for exploration and adventure. From exhilarating outdoor pursuits to moments of quiet reflection amidst nature's grandeur, Banff invites visitors to immerse themselves fully in its timeless beauty and create memories that will last a lifetime. So pack your bags, lace up your hiking boots, and embark on a journey of discovery in one of the world's most awe-inspiring wilderness destinations. Banff awaits, ready to enchant and inspire all who venture into its embrace.
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I'm working on another fire book right now, this one inspired by my experiences during the Marshall fire last year since I covered that one so closely both here and on Twitter. I really wanted to write a book that dug into what it was like to digitally cover that fire, and explored an urban fire rather than a wildland fire like my last fire book.
I titled the book "Welcome to Sunshine" specifically because of this image:
I had this really distinct cover/promo image in my mind of one of those "Welcome to ~town~!" signs with a very chipper name in the middle of all the fire.
And now, not even a year later, there is a fire very near where the Marshall Fire was and it's being called the Sunshine Fire.
Bah. Feelings. Small worlds. Climate change. Feelings.
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Aspen's Fics
referencing the wip game for this post but there's been some minor changes. this will help me keep track of my fics. 🫨 cuz there's a helluva lot of em and the list keeps growing. 😩😅
legend
fics with * have working titles
fics in italics are loosely plotted out but are not currently in production
fics in bold are currently in production
fics with 😈 are coming out soon
fics with 😮💨 will be planned and written some time in the future
completed fics
series
blade of nightshade, be my strength not my ruin
🩶 all the fire that ever burned you has turned you into gold
🩶 tell me a lie to keep me in line, you swear it's a sign but it's the tortured who rise
🩶 those that live between sunset and moonrise
🩶 a dance of shadows and light
bleak are the heavens, darker the gods
🩶 in his house beneath the sea, he waits dreaming of you
🩶 casting a spell on your heartstrings, you’re caught in my snare
🩶 bound by blood, thy lovers kiss spells death
🩶 you became the devil, yet i crave certain dark things
🩶 oh how i adore the ways in which you bleed for me
🩶 when fire meets fate, the tempest doth fade*
burning embers of a dying world
🩶 crimson courtship: a death race for love
🩶 fall of the house of the black sun
from what i've tasted of desire, i hold with those who favor fire 😮💨
🩶 the sun also delights in moonlit nights
🩶 the twilit shadows await the dusk
🩶 the starlight preys on the midnight void
shades of grey
🩶 join the rage at night, relieve my heart of the malice
🩶 i'm letting go, before this hope becomes a noose
there's a decadence in visions of black and red 😮💨
🩶 crawling on my knees, watch me while i bleed
🩶 rise of the eternal blood
🩶 embracing winter's moon
wonder if it's room in heaven for savages
🩶 if you can show your scars, then i can stitch your broken heart 😈
🩶 if you're too far gone, i’ll follow you into the sun
mini series
fighting this fire with fire
🩶 got a taste of the bitter in me, now i keep it just to feel complete
🩶 and the weight upon my shoulders won't fade
oneshots/stand-alones
an ode for stucky
beyond the enchanted forest 😮💨
call of the moon
crown of the winter realm* 😮💨
emeralds drop like rainfall but i'm breathing the sky 😮💨
hoping these roses dull the pain, cover the scars and turn the page
i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream
maybe we’re just born with stardust in our blood
of spies and sunshine
only through fire and blood does winter come 😮💨
something in the way
something wicked this way comes
the devil and the huntsman 😮💨
the secret of canyon springs
the taste of blood and wine 😮💨
there's a traitor in your midst* 😮💨
to become a monster
whispers in the quiet hours, whispers in the shadows
winds of the wandering mage* 😮💨
updated 04/17/24
#creative writing#writeblr#musings#fanfic writer#stucky#my fics#aspen's fics#fics in progress#series in progress#all iterations of evanstan#am writing fiction#collecting aus like infinity stones#haus blackwood#haus of the blackened wood#fic updates#fantastical tales#darkling fics
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Day 10, Mon June 5: Las Vegas to Kingman to Seligman to Williams to Grand Canyon to Flagstaff. 632 km
I start an hour earlier today at 6:00 AM to beat traffic and the desert heat and head south for 200 km from Vegas on I 95 then swing east to Kingman and the start of Route 66. I miss the Welcome to Arizona sign in Laughlin, so the picture of me having breakfast in Kingman, Arizona will have to do.
It's hard to believe that before the Interstate 40 was built in 1984 that Route 66 was the major highway between Chicago and Los Angeles. Lots of old replica gas stations and police cars and Burma Shave ads can be seen along the way to remind you of its history. The next stop is Seligman, another major stopping point along Route 66. From 2,001 ft in Vegas to 3,333 ft in Kingman, it is clear that at 5,243 ft in Seligman we are gradually climbing our way to the Grand Canyon (6,804 ft) and Flagstaff (6,909 ft).
Between Seligman and the Grand Canyon, I must first pass through Williams (6,765 ft), which is the Grand Canyon's equivalent of Sunshine's Banff, or Mammoth Ski resort's Mammoth Lakes. It is hard to believe, viewing the vastness of the Grand Canyon, that it was created by the small glimpse that you can see of the Colorado River far below.
The ride from the canyon to Flagstaff is scenic forests and comfortable temperatures given the elevation. One intriguing feature is the many blackened tree trunks. This is caused not by forest fires but by controlled burns that the forest service aggressively carries out, as ridding a forest of dead leaves, tree limbs, and other debris helps prevent destructive wildfires.
Upon reaching Flagstaff, I find once again that my motel has a pool. It's been a long day - it's going to be good.
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Sunshine Canyon Fire, Road Closure From Wildfire Smoke, Boulder, Colo.
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a song for milo, a song for phineas, a song for greg/q <3 <3
Milo:
88. Beautiful Day - U2
You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day (Oooh, ooh)
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me love
I know I'm not a hopeless case
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
Day, Day
Day, Day
It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case
What you don't have, you don't need it now
What you don't know, you can feel it somehow
What you don't have, you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day
Milo has puppy, sunshine energy, and what song has more sunshine rainbow energy than Beautiful Day? Everyone knows this song. It's the 'it's a good day!!!' song. Actually listening to this song and reading the lyrics it's also just so much like... a Milo turning back into a human song. It even says PHILADELPHIA. Really a banger though. Makes me wanna scream it - this song makes me feral.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY. BEAUTIFUL DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. YOU CAN TOUCH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. TAKE ME TO THAT OTHER PLACE. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEACH ME. I KNOW I---- sorry.
Once again - this is the specific version on my wrapped so.
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Phineas.
54. Waste the Night - 5 Seconds of Summer
I don't wanna say goodbye to another night
I don't wanna let it burn in the city lights
I don't wanna say goodbye to another night
And watch you walk away
I don't wanna let it burn in the city lights
And make the same mistakes
This time
I don't wanna waste it, don't wanna waste it
Me trying to find the most 'dude bro' song I have on here lmfaooo. but I decided on this song because I feel like it gives 'seize the moment' vibes and that's what I get from Phineas. Wants to take any opportunity he can get and doesn't want to let chances slip through his fingers. Life is short! Except for the fact that this is exactly what Phineas is doing by not making any moves on his possible love life :)
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I truly don't...have songs that encompass the level of fury and disdain that is Greg and Q............... can I.... can I give them...
91. Daechwita - Agust D (Suga)
I was born as a tiger, at least I'm not a weak like you
Pathetic fucks putting on a talent show
Not gonna lie, what a shitshow
I got no pretensions, just kill ’em all
Ain't no exceptions, I watch you fall
Flexing, I got none, I don't need one
Who's the king, who's the boss?
You all know my name
All shit-talk they got no game
maybe a little too aggressive but it's a song about the HATERS. What bigger haters than Q and Greg @ each other ya feel.
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