#her first life ended pretty early but her second life was lived to its fullest | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

moonbeamoclock · 3 years

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art class (modern!Hanji Zoe x fem!reader)

a/n: If a couple of weeks ago you saw me post this and then promptly delete it two days later….no you didnt. Please give me feedback about my writing, it’s hard to get better when no one is telling you what you can fix ❤

Word Count:1.8k

Warnings: female-bodied reader, nudity, awkward reader, sexual themes towards the end but no actual smut

Masterlist

‘God this was such a stupid idea’ Y/n thought grumpily as she made her way across the campus. She’d much rather be resting in her apartment than having to go through with her last-minute impulse decision to pose nude for one of her school’s painting classes. Climbing the stairs she let her mind wandered to her significant other Hanji. They were pretty much the only reason she was doing something so out of character, Hanji always had a way of influencing the people around them to live life to it’s fullest, and Y/n guessed letting a bunch of strangers paint her naked was a pretty good place to start.

As she got to the classroom and pulled open the door she was relieved to find it empty; she walked across the room to where a folding screen stood shielding her from the view of the room. She dropped her bag and quickly started to undress, slipping on the plain white robe she brought with her. Hearing the door open again she peaked around the screen and watched as students started to file in.

Professor Shadis was one of the last people to enter, causing Y/n to straighten her back and step out from her hiding spot.

“Oh! Y/n, look at you being early! Let me put my stuff down and you can go stand on that little platform in the center. I’ll be there to position you in a second,” Professor Shadis instructed.

With a silent nod of her head, Y/n moved onto the platform, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other as she avoided eye contact with the students seated in front of her.

Standing in front of the platform the professor started giving her instructions, “Go ahead and sit on the floor cross-legged and put your arms through your legs to cover yourself….down there. Try not to cover your breasts though.” Y/n’s face felt slightly warm as she sat herself down, not yet removing the robe that was wrapped around her.

The professor did a quick walk around the room to make sure all the students had everything they needed, leaving the girl to fiddle with her hands as she waited for the class to officially start.

After a few moments, the door was pulled shut and she received a thumbs up and took it as the signal to remove her robe.

Just as the fabric was slipping past her shoulders and away from her breasts, the sound of the door slamming back open made her jump to cover herself once more.

Of course, it was just her luck that the person walking through the door would be Hanji, looking attractively disheveled as always. Waves of humiliation rolled over y/n as she made eye contact with them. Despite the two of them being close friends for the first two years of college, they had only been dating for a little over a month and have yet to take the next step in their relationship; now Hnaji got to see their partner naked for the first time ever along with the rest of their entire art class.

Her whole body burned with embarrassment, watching as Hanji walked to the only empty seat, which just so happened to be directly in front of the platform.

There was an uncomfortable silence as they set up their belongings next to their easel sparing cheeky glances up at the girl.

“Once they’re all set up you can go ahead and remove your robe, okay?” Professor Shadis told her with a small nod.

When Hanji’s eager eyes met her’s in anticipation, her heart dropped into her stomach and she quickly averted her gaze trying not to let her humiliation show on her face. They shamelessly waved at the girl in front of her, their shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

Y/n just rolled her eyes in response, a small smile finding its way to her face despite her embarrassment.

Trying not to give away how much her body was nervously trembling, she grasped the tie around her waist and pulled till the loose knot came undone. She let the sleeves slide down her arms holding in the shiver that overcame her as the cool air prickled her skin.

As the robe hit the floor, her eyes instinctively found Hanji’s searching for some kind of reaction. She was met with the sight of them barely holding back a cheeky grin and look of reassurance in their eyes.

Y/n gave a grateful smile back to her partner and watched as they started to sketch gently on their canvas, looking back up every few moments to take in more of the woman in front of them.

The two hour class was filled with the relaxing sound of brushes against canvas and Hanji’s soft smile helping to put the girl at ease.

“Okay class, your study of the female body should be pretty much done, don’t worry about the face or the hands we can do those another day.” Professor Shadis announced clapping his hands together.

Y/n quickly rushed to slip the robe back around her shoulder tying the fabric close to her body and turned to look at Hanji who had yet to move from behind their canvas. Not wasting another minute so vulnerable out in the open she scurried off behind the folding screen fumbling to put her clothes on as quickly as possible. Once fully clothed she emerged from behind the screen and watched as Hanji slowly packed up their things saying quiet goodbyes to their fellow classmates and then to Professor Shadis as he left the classroom. When the last person had let the door bang shut behind them, Hanji whipped their body around to look at the girl behind them, cackling at the way she cowarded at the sudden movement.

“Hey, pretty thang. Come here often?” they teased, stalking towards the girl.

Y/n got shy at the nickname but was able to spit out a playful, “Shut up” in response.

Standing directly in front of her, the glint in their eyes all the more visible, they spoke again wide grin unwavering, “It was a very pleasant surprise to see my girlfriend completely nude in my painting class on this fine afternoon, did you plan this?”

Y/n replied ‘no’ with a silent shake of her head.

“Oh, so the gods just desperately wanted me to appreciate your natural beauty, huh?” They retorted stepping even closer to her now deeply in her personal space.

Y/n swallowed harshly, eyes flitting down to their lips then back up to their eyes.

Leaning in further they let their breath blow against her slightly parted lips as they asked, “Would you like to see it?”

Sucking in a breath to relieve the lightheaded feeling she got whenever she was this close to Hanji she whispered a trembling “Yes” without really paying attention to what she had just agreed to.

Hanji turned on their heel and gripped her hand in theirs, tugging her over to their easel. They let Y/n stand in front of them, and placed their hands on her hips. They leaned their head down to speak gently into her ear.

“What do you think, baby?”

Y/n sucked in a shaky breath but didn’t respond for a moment, she was taken aback by the gorgeous painting in front of her. Even incomplete she could tell that every brush stroke seemed to be filled with pure adoration, she truly looked like a goddess.

“Don’t you think it’s a little….romantisaized?” she asked her partner in disbelief.

“What do you mean?” they asked, confusion laced in their voice.

“Is that really what you think I look like, Hanji?” Y/n questioned them in disbelief.

There was a pause where Hanji’s arms shifted to wrap fully around her waist bringing the two of them even closer before answering, “I do, I think you’re one of the most beautiful creatures to walk the earth. And that means a lot because there’s a shit-ton of animals out there that I really like.”

Y/n giggled and turned around in her partner’s arms, linking her own around their neck, to look them in the eye as they spoke again, “I have to say though, I am kind of jealous that the first time I got to see you naked was along with my entire class; I had imagined it going a little differently.”

“Don’t tease, I really didn’t know that you were in this class!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, so you were just going to let a whole bunch of random strangers see you nakey before me??!” They shot back feigning offence.

“No!,” She cried pushing their shoulders back softly mumbling, “I just wanted to build my confidence and maybe….I don’t know...impress you...?”

A cheesy grin spread across the brunet’s face as they listened to the girl in front of them stumble over her words.

“Can I kiss you, please?” they blurted out.

There was a slight pause as Y/n tried to process the question, eventually nodding a yes and letting her eyes flutter closed hands rising to rest on their strong biceps. The warmth from Hanji’s hands against her back seemed to spread through her body making her feel fuzzy all over. Their slightly chapped lips felt like heaven against Y/n’s, making her grip their arms even tighter.

Hanji’s hands slid steadily up her back softly digging the pads of their fingers into her spine, making her arch her back and press her body completely flush against theirs.

As Hanji’s teeth started to tenderly nip at her bottom lip begging the girl for entrance, a barely audible whimper escaped the girl’s throat; the vibrations of it practically making Hanji melt.

Pulling away slowly they opened their eyes and watched as Y/n desperately tried to catch her breath with her eyes still squeezed shut.

“Do you mind if we get out of here?” Hanji questioned lowly, sending a jolt of electricity down Y/n’s spine.

Snapping her eyes open to look at her partner she quickly tore away from them and scrambled to find her bag, “Yeah, yep, um yeah. Let’s do that, yeah, that sounds good. Great. Uh, yep.” she choked out as she tried to ignore the way her heart felt like it was going to jump out of her throat.

Hanji let out a loud laugh at their girlfriend’s flustered state and simply grabbed their own bag and slipped their hand into hers, intertwining their fingers and tugging her out the door.

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mybg3notebook · 3 years

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Gale Summarised Analysis

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were written up to the game version v4.1.104.3536 (Early access). As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information. Written in May 2021.

The majority of sources used for this article are in the game itself (this includes my Gale-solo playthroughs as well as a combination of the videos by munmomuu and selphie1999), and the few dev’s notes provided by pjenn. Gale as origin is not taken into account since it’s not finished and has little to none Gale-related content. There will be little datamining content as well since pjenn said the game contained almost no gale-related notes (only in the Weave and in the Revelation scene).

Additional disclaimers about meta-knowledge and interpretations in (post)

The number between brackets [] represents the topic-block related to (this post), which gathers as much evidence as I could get.

We can infer about Gale by analysing what he approves and disapproves of. Sometimes, we can even lightly infer some information from his neutral reactions, but let’s be honest: this way of analysing a char is pretty poor since it leaves everything to speculation. Neutral reactions can only be analysed, in very rare instances, by contrasting the same situation in other contexts, and seeing what other options Gale approves or disapproves of. With these considerations in mind, we can proceed to describe this character.

Disclaimer: this is a meta with my personal interpretation of the character, sticking as much as possible to the facts and leaving little to “desires” or “projections” of what I want him to be. If I do so, I will state it explicitly in the text for the sake of analysis honesty. I want to be clear about what is canon (facts shown in bg3 EA), from what’s personal interpretation with little proof.

Understanding Gale (integrated text)

We are none of us monsters. We are merely hatcheries for monstrous things. So we fight them

---Gale

Collecting most of the information provided in-game, we know he has a cat, a Library, and writes poetry sometimes. One of the first things that Gale will reveal is that he is a private person. He easily and clearly sets boundaries from the first moment, showing Tav where they stand. The second aspect he makes us aware of is his pragmatic thinking and his preference for diplomatic approaches. A third aspect that stands out on its own: he is a very verbose person, maybe as a result of his academia background in combination with his poetry hobby. He also has a bad posture when talking, but I’m not sure if this is intentional or a bug.

We can assure that Gale certainly is a man of the city [13], and may have a decent social status. It's impossible to say for sure if it's noble or rich or both, or it is just a natural consequence of being a wizard scholar: he is frustrated by the harshness of the camping life, he misses the civilisation of the city which offers well cooked meals, soft beds, and scented baths. Not by chance he is the only companion in the group who would approve of giving Oskar 200 gold to fight “the discomforts of the road” [13]. However, he adapts. Despite the lack of luxuries, he managed to survive in the wilderness.

Gale and his link with magic is unquestionable. Magic is life for Gale, metaphorically and literally speaking since it's magic what allows him to stay alive despite the "orb" in his chest. If we talk about Magic, we have to talk about Mystra and the Weave. The Weave is not only the embodiment of Mystra, it's an extension of Mystra herself. It extends across many planes of existence and is in almost all parts of Faerûn. By dragging power from it, Magic can be performed.

Mystra, for lore reasons and conjectures that I will discuss in the post "Mystra and her Chosen ones", turned teenager/young adult Gale into one of her Chosen, making their relationship more intimate and granting Gale a deeper access to the Weave. This put Gale into the category of an archwizard. It's clear that Gale was and still is a devotee of Mystra, which could give us a hint of his alignment since she is a neutral good goddess and she expects for her Chosen to align around it.

Gale likes confidence, in others and in himself. He is confident in his looks (he has described himself as a “handsome devil” and answered during the romance/Revelation scene that he knew he was beautiful under the light as well as Tav). But beyond these two lines, qualifying him as a narcissist seems extreme. He is surely very confident about his knowledge, and we see he is not just mere words: his Mind Flayer knowledge is at the the same level of what githyankis know. If we compare how Astarion/Tav struggled with the book of Thay, and then we see how Gale manages it (sadly the scene is not complete yet in EA, and there is almost no datamining info of Gale), we can conclude once more that his knowledge and power of the mind are real (he is, so far, the main companion who allows us to explore the lore of the game in a deeper way during his conversations). We also know it's a bit more complicated to intrude into his mind using the tadpole because he has knowledge and mental tools to protect himself (check the post about the Tadpole inside Gale). He is certainly a very verbose and confident scholar, who knows his limits, and in occasions he seems to dabble into an ego-teasing play as an attempt of levity, displaying his “insufferable side”, as he has described himself (his self-awareness of these traits is remarkable, and it is the reason why I avoid qualifying him as arrogant. Arrogant chars are hardly self-aware of their own bad manners or insufferable traits). But we can see it's usually done as a joke or, with an evil Tav, as an aggressive reaction. For a deep analysis of this aspect, check the post about "Gale Hypotheses- Part 2", section: "Narcissism".

Based on his approvals and disapprovals, we can see that Gale has a strong preference in avoiding fights, violence, and bloodshed [1]. He will always prefer diplomatic and persuasive approaches [2]. Reasoning is his best weapon, but if the individual we are dealing with can hardly be persuaded, he would approve of a deception or an intimidation as long blood is not spilt. Here is where we see his pragmatism in action, all the time. His primary goal at every moment is to avoid bloodshed. His philosophy could be summed up in the line “the means [as long as they don’t kill gratuitously] hardly matter if the end is worthy”. And for Gale, nothing is more worthy than life [3]. This doesn't cover only the life of innocents he cares about, it includes the life of the most dubious characters as well, such as Rugan or Crusher. Gratuitous death is meaningless for him. During the scene of Nettie we can have a glimpse of his philosophy towards life: he viscerally hates treating life as if it were nothing:

Gale: How dare she snuff out life with as much thought as snuffing out a bloody candle? […] It's not right to feel the cold breath of death in your neck, then move on as if it was nothing but a soothing breeze. One respects life by fighting for it, and one respects death by fearing it.

Gale: One should never be afraid to live life to the fullest.

Probably the limited amount of life he has due to the "orb" increased his sense of respect for life and its celebration. I personally understand Gale as a character who embodies the perspectives of a seriously ill person, knowing that their life may be short, but they will try to make the best out of it.

He doesn't only respect life per se, he also cares about its dignity. This can be seen in his explicit rejection to undead existences such as Connor (he explains that it would be merciful to put an end to his undead nightmare), or in his disapprovals of humiliation and torture [9]

We could suspect that this emphasis in protecting any life comes from the fact that only people who are alive can (sometimes) be forgiven or/and change. This is not explicit, but since he is a character who talks about being better and wiser than his previous self, about acknowledging mistakes, about forgiveness, this interpretation seems reasonable.

These concepts of kindness and compassion combined with “the mistakes of the youth” are repetitive in his interactions and approvals [5,12]. Of course, they echo in his soul since they are reflections and desires of his own experience. This pattern covers forgiving children in particular [5], and disapproving hard judgements [16], especially on matters whose story is not fully understood by Tav. This means he doesn't like quick judgements when he doesn't know the whole story first. This scenario can be easily seen during Karlach's quest, he reserves his judgment until knowing Karlach's side: There are always two sides to each story.

Gale: I have to say I don't know if agreeing to this hunt was such a wise idea. Who's to say who's the real villain in this tale of devils and masquerades? [...]When we track Karlach down, let's chat before we chop.

Similar concept appears during his Revelation scene, when he encourages and keeps asking Tav to listen to him first before judging. This is also the reason why in his Loss scene he would disapprove if Tav quickly assumes that his loss of Mystra was due to arrogance. Tav judged him without knowing the whole story. However, once Tav knows the whole story, Gale will accept any judgement from them without approval penalties during the Revelation scene.

He approves all actions that imply helping others in hard times and disapproves of them if they were done out of greed [4]. He is an animal lover [6,7]. Being kind to animals and treating them good will increase his approval, while animal cruelty will earn his disapproval. Same goes for humanoids: any display of gratuitous violence that could have been prevented with a trick or a diplomatic approach, any humiliation forced upon others, any torture or situation of slavery, is disapproved [8, 9, 11].

In particular, Gale seems to advocate the philosophy of “give others their own medicine”[18] or in other words: poetic justice. We can see this during the Myconid colony; he approves of helping the Myconid to avenge the young killed by the Duergar, adding the comment: “Wicked killers deserve wicked ends”. He is implying to give them a similar, wicked medicine to the Duergars. Another less deadly situation of this kind is shown during the foot situation with Crusher: Gale is the one suggesting “pungent poetic justice” and telling Tav that they should force Crusher to kiss their feet.

The most iconic scene, however, is during Nettie's, if Tav lies during her interrogation. As a hot-headed reaction, Gale states that he would have poisoned Nettie if this situation would have happened to him. Although, after calming down, he approves of and confirms Tav's actions [if Tav managed to persuade Nettie to give them the antidote]

Gale: A taste of her own medicine is what she deserves! […] But you handled it, and you handled it well.

In this scene we also see a pattern: Gale is shown as a fallible human; his most visceral reaction during the first moment is anger and indignation, giving us a hint that he is not so rational when it comes to emotional states. An extremely obvious, human concept.

The scene of Nettie trying to kill a potential menace (the victim of a MF) reverberated in his consciousness, projecting immediately a fact in his mind: if he ever dares to reveal his "orb" problem, and anyone knows what a danger he represents—no matter how stable it looks—people will want to remove the menace by killing him.

This is the reason behind his words “It's just that, had it been me... had it been...” Gale knows that this simplistic and common thinking in removing what's dangerous would end up turning into a more destructive tragedy in his case than in any infected victim of the tadpoles. So this combination makes us see, for the first time, an emotional Gale. After some seconds, he cools down and returns to his more rational, diplomatic, and moderate self. What we can read here is that Gale would be very prone to rush decisions or to make mistakes under emotional circumstances. We will learn later that the other mistake he made under emotional stress ended up with the "orb" stuck in his chest. A third mistake was done during the party, once more under the emotional stress of a potential abandonment by Tav due to the true nature of the orb.

Everything related to the “orb”—which is his most traumatic experience—naturally makes him more emotional and prone to mistakes. To see how truly traumatic the "orb" is in his life we can notice the following patterns during the meeting scene: he speaks about the tadpole in a relaxed, rational way, despite the traumatising experience. He first asks for an archwizard instead of for a cleric, because his priority is the orb. Gale's main fear is not the tadpole, but the orb. If we remember his words after the consumption of the artefacts, we realise he lives in a permanent state of anxiety and raw fear, and probably pain too, given his facial gesticulation when anything interacts with the "orb" (whether artefacts or Tav's hand). His banter with Shadowheart reinforces the concept that he always has a knot in the stomach. When he accepts the deal with Raphael, it seems to be related to the orb, not to the tadpole. The effect of the "orb" has ceased, but the tadpole is still in Gale's head since we still need to roll against a high DC and not only against a 1DC during this scene, so we can assume he still has the tadpole despite Raphael's deal. See the post about "The Tadpole" in Gale for more details.

Gale is a character that represents human experiences deeply related to growing up: mistakes done in the past, and the acceptance of not being forgiven despite the desire of wanting to. This can be easily seen during the conversation of the second tadpole dream, where Gale's mood is foul and we learn that his deepest desire is for Mystra to forgive him, but he also knows it's impossible for that to happen. He detects the lie in this dream because he has accepted that Mystra will never forgive him. Gale is the story of mistakes done during youth with grave consequences, of acknowledging them and trying to make them right, of surviving those mistakes, and depending on the interpretation, he is also the story of an ill dying man, with a gentle vision and deep care for life.

The great majority of his approvals are based on actions that show kindness and compassion, both reiterative concepts that are so important in his character that they come from his lips when we see the goblin party:

Gale: The shadow within is spreading like poison, corrupting kindness and compassion. [Only after a tough DC of 15]

In combination with: Gale: I don't know myself anymore. All this... It's not who I am. Around you, I'm not who I want to be. I should leave.

These lines show how, in a sudden change to an evil path, Gale would start doubting his own morality, explaining that the cause of it is the "orb" itself, corrupting the most core aspects of his personality. This corruption may or may not be lore-related. It's not completely clear what Gale's "orb" truly is. For more details, check the post of the "Orb".

His constant critical thinking comes from his advocacy to non-conventionality [15]: a true scholar will always explore all the options and hypotheses before reaching a conclusion. Therefore, Gale would approve of any non-conventional way to fix a problem [15] as long as it doesn't potentially cause harm or bloodshed [1,2,3,8,9]. Due to his own background, Gale will always advise to be very careful of the consequences of one’s actions. This can be easily seen when, after encountering the caged goblin Sazza, Gale would advocate to explore the possibility of reaching Gut Priestess to cure the tadpole. However, when Tav helps Sazza to escape, Gale will comment briefly against this action.

Gale: I know I said it's not inconceivable a goblin priestess could help us. And yet... was it really wise to set another goblin free so she can arrange introductions? […] consider the consequences. What if she leads her entire tribe to the grove? Tav: I don't care, I owe this grove no allegiance. Gale: No allegiance, no. Though we don't need to sign its death warrant

Once more we see that Gale is up to using any (unharming) means to get a goal, but not at any cost. He has a clear line he doesn't like to cross: life [3]. Avoiding putting other people's lives in danger is very important for him. We see this concept over and over in most scenes.

He doesn't likerushed decisions, and in that same train of thoughts, he will disapprove any use of unknown magic or tricks when nobody in the group can truly understand how they work [17], for example the tadpoles or Raphael's deal (he is against accepting it quickly, but he will approve of having a more cautious attitude and carefully thinking about it).

Since the moment we meet him, we can infer he is obsessed with the artefacts. It's obviously understandable: he doesn't want to die, but also, he doesn't want to kill all those that will be caught in the eruption of the orb. For this reason he will insist on the loot in the Temple Ruins despite knowing that grave robbery is not correct.

Gale: Bad form, isn't it? Grave robbing? […] Let's have a look at the loot. It isn't for your pockets only.

He keeps pondering life over death: although he respects the dead, he will always value more the living creatures in the present. This is also what pushes Gale to suggest Tav to open Rugan's chest. Stealing from the evil Zhentarins is not something that will weigh on his consciousness too much. Besides, he knows it belongs to a wizard: meaning that the chance for it to contain a powerful artefact is really high. Similar suggestions will be said about the Idol of Silvanus, but talking with him in the camp will show us that he won't approve of taking it, only as a last resort. He keeps pondering the living over a sacred piece of stone, since he knows the druids won't take the stealing very peacefully. Once more we see Gale's respect and care for life, trying to minimise damage as much as the circumstances allow him.

Gale is also a survivalist. He doesn't want to die, he loves celebrating life in its more mundane and small details. He is an emotional character for a wizard, a bit strange since they are usually portrayed as more rational and cold, losing their lives among dusty books. However, Gale has shown in many scenes that he prefers to survive without killing, but if he has to, he will do it, dealing with the weight of it in his consciousness because killing unprovoked affects him (scene in the camp after killing the druids, or the goblin party scene).

His moral in preventing gratuitous death sometimes will conflict with his own survival, especially if he is by an evil Tav's side. He couldn't accept bloodshed when other peaceful options were available and possible to reach. This is clearly shown during the goblin party, where Gale's consciousness suffers and feels the corruption of the "orb" killing the kindness and the compassion inside him. He accepts that wanting to live is a powerful drive, but he doesn't support this massacre, questioning if all that blood was necessary. A Tav killing the tieflings seems to lose the possibility of pursuing Gale romantically, at least in EA so far. For Gale, survival is important, but the means to do it (when they can cause death) matter too. Life is worth preserving.

The usual archetype of survivalist tends to be an individualist one who would survive at any cost without remorse because that's the “law of the jungle”, the strongest must survive. However, Gale seems to embody a different concept of survivalist that it's hard to put in words: a sort of communal survivalist, trying to survive in coexistence with his community: he wants his survival to imprint the least harm possible (even though sometimes it would not be possible), trying to help those around him as long as his condition allows it; for example, despite wanting Gut's potential cure for the tadpole, he would disagree in helping Sazza escape because she will lead the goblins to the Grove, no matter the fact that doing this will grant them their introduction to the priestess.

His list of approval shows that his sense of survival is always pondered with the consequences that it can cause on others (check the post with the "Extensive list of Gale's approvals"). The whole concept of the "orb" has this motivation as well: he wants to live and survive, but he also can't give up because his body would kill many, so he needs to do as much as his moral allows him to keep it in check. If he cannot do it any longer, he promises to minimise the disaster as much as possible by erupting in the deep Underdark or in a desolated corner of Faerûn (and considering his ridiculous list of approvals and disapprovals, we know he is honest in not wanting to kill gratuitously). Gale acknowledges his own mistakes, trying—to the best of his ability—to deal with them without catching others in them. Although all his speeches keep emphasising that he is a mere human, and plans may fail.

At some point, if he wants to survive “not at any cost”, he will be forced to ask Tav for help during the scene of the stew (available only for medium approval or higher). As a gesture of honesty, Gale will set a boundary before making this request, acknowledging its unfairness but giving Tav the decision to proceed or not. He is not denying to explain the details later, but at the moment he can't speak the “why” of his condition no matter how curious Tav is. Tav will decide whether they can keep their curiosity on the matter.

We will understand later that this impediment comes as a precaution as well as consequence of his personal trauma with Mystra and the "orb" (See post about "Gale: Manipulation, Lies, and Trust"). So, he is very clear about setting the conditions in which this conversation will happen from the beginning. The easiest way for Gale to avoid this whole situation would have been by simply lying, but he opted for an honest approach with clear out-loud reservations, knowing he was asking for more trust than he was allowed to, but the intention behind is more than important. There is a clear, huge contextual detail that we can't miss: this scene doesn't happen because of Gale's whims, he is forced to ask for help since his condition “is not a patient one” and will endanger everyone if not kept at bay.

This detail where Gale explicitly asks for an exchange of trust is not present if Gale's approval is neutral or lower. In this case, Gale would not care about giving a context to his strange request: he doesn't trust Tav and he doesn't expect to be trusted either, he only wants the artefacts to keep his condition in check for his sake and the sake of others. We can understand this change of attitude depending on the approval as he doesn't want to give any extra explanation to someone he is not interested in building a relationship with. For more details, check the post about "Gale: Manipulation, Lies, and Trust".

I personally support the idea that nobody in canon Faerûn is free of racial prejudices since Forgotten Realms lore has been created based strongly on fantasy racism. I've read that WotC wants to move forward and improve this aspect in 5e, but so far what they allowed Larian to do with the Tieflings in BG3 seems to show the contrary. So, since apparently we are going to face fantasy racism anyways, I will try to analyse racial prejudices from all chars. When it comes to Gale, it's a bit far-stretched to point out unjustified racial biases. He has a vague comment about Rashemi that some people may consider a faerunian saying. Personally, I think that line is a bias forced into him to have a particular dynamic with Minsc (the Rashemi “silly” companion -we all can see where Larian seems to go with this). Gale clearly sees tieflings, gnomes, and even goblins as people, and has a cautious attitude towards some githyanki (at least that's what we can infer with Lae'zel when we find her in the cage), but given the githyanki lore it's pretty reasonable to see them as dangerous creature that could kill people on the spot. So far, he seems to have no racial preference either [10].

As it was said before, he prefers to avoid killing people, but that doesn't mean he won't do it if his life depends on it. He will prefer persuasive and defusing approaches, but if he needs to kill to defend innocents or his own life, he won't hesitate. So therefore, stories about characters making mistakes or having violent excess in an effort to protect themselves or what they hold dear will be understood by him but hardly approved [19]. He tends more to approve a call out of that excess than approving an excuse for it.

Gale has deep abandonment issues that can be easily seen when he defends Astarion from being handed over to Gandrel. We need to put this in context before going on: for Gale, Astarion represents a danger as a vampire who attacked one of them during their sleep. By the display of meta-knowledge, we know with certainty that their approvals and disapprovals are mostly opposite: What one approves, the other will disapprove and vice versa. Getting rid of Astarion should be something that Gale would approve, however, he doesn't. If we explore his comments we will realise that what Gale disapproves from this situation is Tav's abandonment. After Mystra's abandonment, he knows very well that “Loyalty is such a very rare commodity”, and the few situations in EA in which Tav can display abandonment, resound strongly in Gale.

Gale is a scholar with a strong balanced rational side. But unlike the trope, he also embraces an emotional side that, so far the info we received in EA, it's the side that makes him prone to mistakes.

As an amateur poet, Gale loves words. We can obviously notice this in his verbose attitude, but also in the way he carefully uses words. One of his characteristic words is “spectacle”. He has also shown a reiterative—although not always—uneasy use of the word “fun”. Using “fun” as a way to describe the night spent with Gale gives him a slight uneasiness. “That’s a word for it.” He disapproves of using the word “Fun” after the Mayrina/Connor situation, in which scene Gale alludes that “your new company may be a proof of how depraved and twisted you are to see that tragedy as “fun”. Personally I think this is a direct allusion to Astarion, who considers Mayrina's situation as “entertainment”, in the same way he considered as “fun” the show of Arabella's death (two of several instances where he used that word). Gale also doesn’t use the word sex during EA, instead he uses romantic ones such as love-making, intimacy, art of the night/body. In the most technical case: coitus (used only when he is talking about “goblinoid intimacy” in the expression “post-coital snack”). These details are showing not only his poet/romantic side, but also his interpretation of sex from his perspective: sex can only be possible through a connection. We know he doesn’t engage in casual sex with Lae’zel if he is not romanced, and his romance can only potentially start if Tav shares that deep connection with him through the Weave.

Another detail related to words is that Gale has always used an infection/disease-related vocabulary to explain the “orb” stuck in his chest: infested, taint, shadow spreading

[…] I failed to control [this chaotic magic]. Instead it infested me. […] This Netherese taint... this orb, for lack of a better word [..] […] the shadow within is spreading like poison, corrupting kindness and compassion. [...]

Gale apparently has a particular way to sense magic. I have no way to check this in-game, but it seems very strange how he immediately identifies magical artifacts without casting Detect Magic. There are some extra scenes as well where he says to taste or smell the magic in some objects. Even his encounter with Shadowheart, besides being considered a flirt, could be also interpreted as him detecting the magic that we saw later in her hand or maybe the dark magic that blocks her memories, since Gale pointed out about a curtain covering her soul: “if the eyes are the mirror to the soul, yours have dark curtains across the mirror” (a very ominous flirting if it’s only a flirt)

This makes me suspect that, if the "orb" is not giving him this skill, it may be a consequence of having been Chosen of Mystra (for more details read the post about "Mystra and her Chosen ones"). If this is the case, he may have hindered remains of theirs powers when it comes to detect magic at will.

Gale has a perception of magic with all the senses: he sniffs and tastes magic. During the mirror scene you have an option related to [Arcana] tag where he “Sniff the mirror, trying to understand the nature of its magic”. A wizard Tav will just “Inspect the mirror”. He also said that he could “taste” the magic in the necromancy book and in the runes of teleportation.

What we know of his family is little: when he was a kid there was a housekeeper in his life (mentioned only once during the scene of the harpies) and his mother that seemed to have personally raised and cared for him (mentioned twice: in the ruin temple scene, and in his banter with Wyll)

Tav: Why care about decorum in a long-abandoned tomb? Gale: Because my mother raised a gentleman. Then again, to be alive is to be curious.

Wyll: Between the orb and the bug you've got more than your fair share of unwelcome passengers. Gale: What can I say. Mother always taught me to be a gracious host.

This post was written in May 2021. → For more Gale: Analysis Series Index

#bg3 meta #gale #gale of waterdeep #bg3 gale #bg3 early access #bg3

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yelenasdog · 3 years

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bonnie and clyde (billy/4 x fem reader)

genre: angst

summary: there were five people at the funeral of billy jones. why did two, more specifically one, of them leave?

words: 1.3k

warnings: just vv sad my guy. literally no fluff i hate it here </3 mentions of death, billy’s funeral, and crying.

a/n: yo so idk if billy’s last name is jones but i saw someone on here refer to him as billy jones and i think it’s just bc of ben’s last name but anyway LMFAO. i for some reason couldn’t stop thinking abt this and so i wrote it (as one does fkefnkerjn). also y/n was not used so if u wanted to read this as an x another character or x an oc it would work as well. enjoy :)

🌃🌃🌃

There were five people at the funeral of Billy Jones.

This was common knowledge who would listen long enough to hear the vigilante talk about the experience he had only seen from afar, his own heart growing tender during, or at any mention of, the moment.

But Billy always failed to explain the situation with a full grip, to its entire truth. As to why, most anyone could figure out.

He was afraid.

Afraid of getting her hurt, afraid of thinking of her for just a moment too long, afraid of his impulse driving him to get his ass right back up and go say he still loved her.

Four was afraid of a plethora of horrible scenarios that could occur if he let the truth about his funeral slide to anyone except One (which was bad enough that he had to know by default as it was).

And the irony of it all, was how miniscule and ineffective something like who had left his funeral early and as to why, would be to anyone else on the team.

Sure they all had their secrets that would seep into the pool that was their little family, Three’s mother, One’s lover, Two and Three’s infatuation with each other (though, that one wasn’t really a secret).

Not to mention, Four despised painting her in a bad light, allowing others to think for a fraction of a second that she didn’t leave because her already frail heart couldn’t handle to see her beloved’s name etched onto a gray stone in a patchy field of a horrible green, couldn’t handle the idea that their Bonnie and Clyde reminiscent days (minus the killing of 13 people, that is) had come to an end.

There were two people at the funeral of Billy Jones who left early.

The first? An old friend from his hometown.

He was a wealthy businessman now, having abandoned the life of pretty crime and rush of his youth. He showed up to Four’s not-so-celebration of life in an ashen tux with an obsidian tie and shiny oxfords, and barely a minute into the service he had begun checking his shiny Rolex, probably counting down the seconds until he would be considered late to some important meeting for whatever corporate hoax he was a part of to be able to stay afloat. How ironic.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

The sound was like nails on a chalkboard to her, while the action itself felt like somewhat of a betrayal, even though Billy and the businessman hadn’t talked in years. It was a kind enough gesture that he had even come to begin with.

But she didn’t care.

Because before the service had even started, salty droplets were rolling down her reddened cheeks, dampening her hoodie, his hoodie, that she had coiled so tightly around herself and her limbs, almost like a corset.

So when the businessman turned to go after what could maybe have been a measly few minutes, she could barely control her anger.

But she did, for Billy. She sucked it up and stayed put, keeping her eyes trained to his mother who was now speaking, her striking emerald eyes also obviously wet. But in reality, Billy had wanted his former lover to turn around and smack that prick square in the face.

But then 4 took some time and realized that if it were the other way around and she had been dead, he could conjure in his mind how distressed he would be to where he would prefer to focus on wallowing in his sadness for her and her only, not be consumed by anger for some random fellow.

Billy truly wanted to leave One where he stood, wanted to run to where her shaking was escalating from ever so slightly to violently as could be, wrapping her in his strong arms she already missed. The strong arms that she believed should have kept him safe when he was dangling from that damned building with that damned necklace in his mouth.

The image could have been some renaissance painting with how beautiful he looked, even then, on the brink of what the world would know as the death of Billy Jones.

In fact, most of Billy’s and the girl’s adventures could be different renaissance paintings. Alive and free, bursting with vibrant colors and emotions that weren’t able to be captured with words, so rather, they were thrown on a canvas in what was somehow a meticulously put together flurry.

On that rainy day, the weather so fitting to what she had been feeling, she wished for nothing more than to somehow place herself back into those non-existent paintings, to even for a fraction of a second bask in his never ending love like some sort of oasis.

She wanted to run her fingers through his golden curls one last time, kiss his forehead goodnight one last time, to tell him she loved him more than anything in this universe, one last time.

But she didn’t, and she wouldn’t ever get to.

And her one final chance to say what she wanted him to hear, she had missed out on, as that’s when she had left.

It was long after the uptight man in the fitted suit, long after his crying mother had gone from where she was speaking up front, back to the shadows of her baby’s grim event that she should never have had been alive to see.

She had managed to drag herself halfway up to where his casket was sitting just above the ground, trying to not look at the box a second too long.

Rather, she pretended there was a pair of rose colored glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, helping her pretend that this was all some big misunderstanding, that Billy was just pulling one of his infamous pranks.

He would pop out from behind the tent covering the few who stood with their feet shifting on the damp soil, or perhaps from the headstone of his very own grave. She would gasp or shriek and then smack his arm, lecturing him as he grabbed his chest, doubling over in laughter, the sound like music to her ears.

God, what she would do to hear that sound one more time.

Nevertheless, in the end he would stand up, and wipe her tears from her sweet face, pressing gentle kisses on either of her cheeks to rid her of that pout he hated to admit he loved. She would crack a small smile and he would punch a celebratory fist in the air at the gesture, leaving her to only shake her head at his antics. He would sling an arm around her shoulders, nustling close to her as they would exit the graveyard, never coming back until the inevitable day they both had lived their happiest and fullest lives together.

He would say “You know you love me.” And without a doubt, every time, she would say “Yeah, I do.”

But not this time.

This time, she would let her eyes wander to a tall tree just over the hill, slimming her puffy eyes. She rubbed them and did a double take, and swore that for a moment she had seen what looked like his figure next to one of someone she had never seen before.

And that’s when she left.

She let out an ugly sob, running as fast as her feet could take her to wherever that wasn’t there, the sound of her shoes against the cold ground muted, but the sound of her uneven breathing was anything but.

As for all she knew, it was her mind playing a cruel, cruel, trick on her. Or even her mind trying to give her some sort of closure to move on.

Whatever it was, though, was simply too much for her to process, too much to handle. So she had left, given up on what she didn’t know was her only chance to give a proper goodbye.

“You think she saw you?”

“I hope so.”

🌃🌃🌃

we vibing w this?? i hope so hehe. WAIT PUN NOT INTENDED LMFAO I DID THAT PERIODT! anyway, have a wonderful day/night, and go drink water and eat protein, it’s all abt intention!! i love u! also if u have any questions abt this fic pls do lmk bc ik some of it was kinda weird!

p.s., pls pls pls reblog this! this is my first ben related fic and ik when it’s ur first fic for a fandom they can flop so it would be very cool if y’all could help me out a lil bit :) either way ily, thank u! kk bye

xx hj

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thoughtsofanexcitedspacechild · 4 years

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Why Avatar: the last Airbender is probably one of the best shows ever written (part one)

So after being away from Tumblr for about a month and a half (sorry!), I’ve come to a conclusion. Avatar: the last Airbender is my favorite show and probably the most well written and innovative show ever made. Many have rivaled it. There has been worthy competition, but all fail to reach the ingenious level that the writers of Avatar were able to reach, especially in the early 2000′s. The storyline, universe, and especially the characters in this show feel so tangible and real, that it allows viewers to understand and think about our own lives and world from a different angle. On top of that, it’s marketed heavily towards kids. It covers serious topics, and yet still manages to make it easy enough for children to understand too. There are three main reasons that I want to hone in on today, and those are characters and story arcs, representation, and universal enemies and problems.

The first reason that this show is incredible, is the reliability and complexity of the characters. The creators (and I’m gonna say this a lot when talking about this show, because it’s true) aren’t dumb. You can tell that plenty of research went into planning and developing the characters. There’s someone for pretty much everyone to identify with. Feel like the entire weight of the world is on your shoulders and you can’t do anything about it? Are you a child at heart that runs from problems instead of facing them?

Meet Aang.

Are you the mom friend of the group? Do you find yourself taking on way too much responsibility and were forced to grow up fast?

Katara’s got you.

Feel like your not special? Like your skills don’t matter and that you’re the odd one out?

Sokka’s your man.

Have a disability that you have to move past and prove yourself ten times over to be taken seriously?

Toph Beifong’s your kin.

Ya got daddy issues and an entirely wrong moral compass that needs to be fixed?

Hello, Zuko here.

The list goes on. These characters are much more complex than I just made them sound, and deal with very real and everyday human emotions that make you instantly relate to and sympathize with them. (I will dive deep into each characters analysis after this series, don't worry!) Not only are they amazing character’s individually, but seeing how they interact with each other and develop throughout the show really tops it off. Katara goes from being a naive, motherly peasant from the southern water tribe to being a powerful and badass water bender. Sokka goes from being a misogynistic, sexist, “funny guy” to being a smart, respectful, and strong warrior and leader. Aang goes from playful carefree child to a mature and extremely powerful avatar. Don’t even get me started on Zuko’s or we’ll be here all day. My point is that the characters are some of the most well researched and relatable characters in most modern day media.

Another reason why this show was and still is ahead of its time is the absolutely stellar representation of ethnicities and cultures that don’t get a lot of representation in the media. Believe me when I say that there is not a single white person in this show. I’m not lying. Instead we see diverse protagonists, each with their own cultures and values. The show takes inspiration from so many underrepresented cultures like the Inuit people (water tribe), Nepal (air nomads), China (earth kingdom), and Japan (fire nation). Not only is this a visual masterpiece, but the combination and representation of these cultures makes this show a true gem. Not only is the show racially diverse, but they even include characters with disabilities, which we first see with Teo in the first season and mostly Toph in the second season. Toph’s “disability” isn’t treated like one, and the rest of the characters often forget that she’s blind. The show doesn’t treat Toph’s disability like a weakness, and instead allows it to become one of her greatest strengths.

This show is also incredible in the way that it presents villains that we as humans encounter in our own world. Manipulative monsters of siblings like Azula, tyrannical world leaders and politicians like Firelord Ozai and General Admial Zhao, and ruthless and fascist dictatorships and countries. The entire point of the show is to stop a 100 year long war. The fire nation is ruthless and shows no mercy when it comes to capturing territory and inserting themselves pretty much anywhere they’d like. We also see corrupt leaders in the form of puppet kings and “symbolic” leaders with the Earth king and the Dai Lee. The way that the happy ending comes to be is by eliminating these systems and is only fixed when the Gaang (TM) takes betters into their own hands. In the same way, it urges us to look at our own society and take matters into our own hands to change the world for the better. It also reminds us that the villains in our own story can in fact be related by blood, and even though mercy should be granted at the fullest extent possible, its necessary and proper to cut out toxic and manipulative people from your life.

Cutting them out may be essential to your own growth, as was the case with Azula and Zuko. (Further in depth analysis on this to come.) In conclusion, the villains in this story are as scary and tangible as those in our real world.

So yeah. That’s it for part one. Part two should be up tomorrow!

#avatar the last airbender #show analysis #katara #aang #sokka #toph #zuko #azula

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hey-hamlet · 4 years

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Quarentine Recs

What with everyone munching through media like my dog munching on anything that could be considered edible, I thought I’d throw some general recomendations into the ring! Everything here is hopefully something you can start right away without needing to leave your house, if you’re ok with some quasi-legal pirating.

To watch:

Ore Monogatari / My Love Story Romance / Comedy One Season Fluff to the max, Gouda Takeo is a massive first year highschool student of exeptional size and strength. While hes popular with the boys, most girls think he’s strange. When he saves Yamoto Rinko from a creep on the train its love at first sight, but she’s convinced she’d into his hot friend. Comdey follows.

Somali to Mori no Kamisama / Somali and the Forest Spirit Drama / Fantasy / Good Dad Golem 12 Epsiode Season In a world where humans have been hunted right to the edge of extinction, one golem and his human charge journey in search of the remaining few to reuninte Somali with her kind. Golems live very long lives, but finite ones, and Somali’s guardian is reaching the end of his. I’m two episodes away from finishing it but its really sweet, great dad content featuring multiple guest dads and their children. Somali is so sweet she’ll give you a toothache

Isekai Shokudou / Restaurant to Another World Slice of Life / Fantasy / Is food a genre? Because food Every Saturday this restaurant closes it’s doors to the public and recives visitors from another world. There isn’t much plot here but it will make you very hungry and strangely greatful for processed flour, canola oil and freezers. I’m pretty sure the chef is voiced by Aizawa’s Japanese VA and its amazing.

Gravity Falls Mystery / Drama / Comedy Two Seasons A Classic - A set of twins, Dipper and Mabel Pines wind up spending their summer holiday with their sketchy grat uncle Stan. But, as they soon find out, the town is not what it seems.

Features loads of action, fun mystery and loads of twists set up so well you’ll kick yourself! Good family relationships with rounded characters and fun villains. This series has a special place in my heart as something I grew up watching when I was twelve, and it finished in my second last year of highschool, its just a great story. The comedy is really only big in the first season and dies down fast when things get serious. Be prepared to hate a tiny 10-ish year old boy.

Steven Universe / Steven Universe Future Comedy / Drama / Slow Burn / Action Six Seasons Considering it just finished, now is a great time to start. Steven Universe is a bubbly young boy who lives with the Crystal Gems, a strange set of gem creatures who knew his mother. Steven is half gem himself and the show features him growing up and helping the people around him grow as well.

The show is slow and starts a little rough but its very sweet and ernest. Steven Universe Future is far darker than the original show (but, a minor spoiler, does have a happy ending) so be careful!

Over the Garden Wall Mystery / Drama / Supernatural 10 Episode Miniseries Two half brothers, Wirt and Greg, find themselves in a part of the forest they don’t recognise with no clue how they got there. The deeper they go, the stranger it gets and the less certain their escape may be. And whats all this talk of a beast?

This show has Wirt learning how to be a good big brother along with some delightful autumnal scenery and American gothic fantasy elements. I recomend you sit down with some tea and baked goods and watch it like a movie.

To play:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Switch Brand new and very popular, you play a human on an island with delightful animal neighbours. Make friends, customise your island and live your life to the fullest! Features local and online mutliplayer with up to 8 people. Also feel free to play it with me because its taking over my life!

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles PC / Play Station 4 / Nintendo Switch / X Box One A sweet open world indie adventure and exploration game with farming and fantasy elements. You find yourself shipwrecked on a strange island with only your magic compass that I can’t remember the name of to guide you. This game is mostly about expolaration and discovery and the enviroment is pretty enough that it works well.

Niche PC A boardgame like turnbased strategy that has you controlling a small group of creatures and tinkering with their genetics and breeding to try and survive the harsh world around you. Cute creatures, fun game.

Temtem PC A pokemon-like MMO that sees you capturing creatures call Temtem to fight for you. The game is still in early access so keep that in mind, but it’s pretty fun and the creatures are very well designed.

Guild Wars 2 PC FREE TO PLAY VERSION AVALIBLE The only MMORPG I’ve ever played but boy it’s spoilt me. A one time purchase lets you experience the world of Tyria where you can play as one of 5 races or one of 9 classes. The personal story is great (unless you’re me and have played the sylvari stories so many times you can quote half of the lines) and the post game story gets real fast. Asside from that, its a really pretty game thats super fun with one of the nicer communities I’ve ever experienced. Co-operation is encouraged and the dynamic event system will have you playing with puppies one minute and murdering a giant undead behemoth the next. I have sunk so many hours in this game.

#recs #this took so long to type hh #lots of these are pretty popular but hopefull you'll find something new

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icannotreadcursive · 4 years

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Cats 2019, Dir. Tom Hooper

Overall Quality ⭐️1/5

Entertainment Value ⭐️1/5

Story ⭐️1/5

Visuals and Craft ⭐️⭐️2/5

There is so much potential for artistic and cinematic greatness in a modern, high budget film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's beloved, though admittedly peculiar, musical Cats. Tom Hooper's attempt squanders every drop of that potential. I expected it to be bad, just based on the trailer. I was prepared for it to be an unmitigated disaster. Somehow it managed to be worse that I ever imagined. It is the worst movie I have ever seen.

Cats is a very weird musical—among theatre folk it's pretty strictly a you love it or you hate it show, with some people falling in a third camp where it's not really their cup of tea and they're really not fans, but they can't help but acknowledge that the show is high quality theatre, regardless of how kitschy and odd it is. There are a lot of people, myself included, though, who love this musical. They are a built in audience of thousands, possibly millions, and they are who this movie should have been made for. The filmmakers' first mistake among many was that instead of making a Cats movie for the people who love Cats as it is, they tried to make a Cats movie for the people who don't get it and don't like it. That was an incredibly stupid decision. You're never going to bring those people around, it's a waste of time and resources to try, and the most damning thing is that all the baffling changes the filmmakers made to the musical and its story to try and make it more palatable to those who don't like the show as it exists, only serve to alienate the diehard Cats fans who should have been their strongest supporters.

Every problem in Tom Hooper's Cats comes down to gross misunderstanding of the source material and what people enjoy about it, and a shocking degree of disrespect for the show and its characters. I can comfortably call myself something of an expert on Cats in the theatre—I've seen several productions, been in one, written academic papers about the show, and the book of poetry upon which its based, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot, sits on the shelf about ten feet from me as I type this review. I do not expect anyone to have the same intensity of interest or depth of understanding for Cats as I do; it wouldn't be reasonable. But I do expect anyone making a film adaptation of anything to put effort and serious thought into their project, and to care for and appreciate the source material they're working with. No one in decision making positions on this film seems to have done that. I wouldn't be surprised if I learned that neither Tom Hooper nor screenwriter Lee Hall had ever even seen the show.

Where even to begin with all the bizarre and terrible choices that went into this dumpster fire of a film? This is going to take a while; there's a lot bad filmaking to break down on several levels.

Broad strokes, the movie completely misunderstands what the plot of the stage show actually is, then proceeds to shoehorn in new and unnecessary scenes in what I can only imagine is an attempt to make the plot make more sense. This fails spectacularly, since they're wrong in the first place about what the plot is, thus they succeed only in destroying the actual story of the show, muddying the overcomplicated and misguided narrative they've hamhandedly cobbled together, and interrupt the natural flow of what is supposed to be a sung-through musical such that the entire thing drags on like a last hour math class on Friday before school break. This is worsened by the fact that the film stops dead in the middle of musical numbers several times for the sake of uninspired, usually offensive, and extraneous gags.

To be clear, the plot of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, as spelled out fairly explicitly by Munkustrap early in the show, is that every year, one night on the full moon, all the members of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles get together to have a big party called the Jellicle Ball, at the end of which their leader, Old Deuteronomy, selects one member of the tribe who has lived a full life and can now be reborn. Over the course of the Ball, several prominent members of the tribe get songs sung about them. The general vibe is very much big family reunion where your uncles, siblings, grandparents, and cousins tell stories about what they've been up to since you last saw them, or about how things were back in their day, depending.

The plot of Tom Hooper's Cats is that every year, one night on the full moon, a bunch of cats get together, allegedly to have a party called the Jellicle Ball, even though most of the movie they seem to be more or less aimlessly wandering the same two or three streets, and over the course of the party some of them sing songs about themselves as part of a competition to try to convince their leader, Old Deuteronomy, that they are the one she should pick to be reborn so they can come back and be “who they really want to be.” This year, it just so happens that a completely unrelated cat has been abandoned in the exact back ally where the Jellicles are hanging out before the Ball. Oh, and this year this one other cat, Macavity, has decided to kidnap all of the other cats that are competing to be chosen to be reborn, so he'll be the only contestant left and Old Deuteronomy will have to pick him.

The idea that the cats with individual songs about them are competing to be chosen to be reborn is a pretty common misunderstanding of the show, but it's one that doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. For one thing, several of the individual songs take place before Old Deuteronomy arrives at the Ball, so the songs clearly are not being presented to Deuteronomy for judgment. For another, most of the characters who have individual songs come across as quite young, only one (Gus) is elderly, and if you pay any attention to the lyrics of their songs, these cats are loving their lives. It makes no sense that they would want to die and give up the lives they are still living to their fullest. Clearly no one involved in this movie bothered to take even two seconds to think that through. As for the idea that the chosen cat comes back as “who they really want to be,” I have no idea where the filmmakers got that.

The central themes of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats are identity, community, and dignity. The film kind of, sort of keeps the theme of identity, at least as far as they kept in most of the song “The Naming of Cats,” which is about identity, sense of self, and the difference between how one is seen by others and how one sees oneself. They omit roughly half the song.

The theme of community is mostly lost, and what little of it remains is twisted strangely by the decision to make Victoria an outsider. In the stage show, all the cats are Jellicles, they are tribe, a family, and they are proud of it. Grizabella is ostracized because she left a long time ago and, it seems, abandoned the tribe. So, now that she's old and lonely and wants to come home, they don't want her back. The emotional climax of the show is when, after the iconic lament of lost youth and righteous demand to be respected as an individual that is “Memory,” Victoria reaches out and touches Grizabella, accepting her back into the tribe and recognizing her as a fellow with the first feline contact Grizabella has had the entire show. This moment is robbed entirely of its power in Tom Hooper's film, largely because all of Grizabella's agency has been taken from her and given to Victoria. Instead of Grizabella stepping up for herself and asserting that she is still a part of this community and deserves to be treated with respect, Victoria physically escorts her in and instructs her to sing. Bear in mind that in the context of the film, Victoria is not a member of the tribe, she's just been inexplicably allowed to tag along, and thus is in no position to be the one accepting Grizabella back.

When it comes to dignity, Grizabella suffers as well. Not only is she stripped of her agency, but “Memory” is turned into a melodramatic self-pitying mess. Bad directoral choices remove every bit of strength and self esteem Grizabella has, especially during that song, which is an unforgivable waste of Jennifer Hudson. Almost every other character is treated as badly, or worse.

Macavity is taken from a truly frightening and threatening—but sexy—figure of mystery and demoted to pathetic, desperate cartoon villain that I think was supposed to be funny. He wasn't funny. This was a waste of Idris Elba, an excellent actor who could have brought refreshing and terrifying depth to what is an often neglected character.

Rum Tum Tugger does not have his usual badboy rockstar jerk with a heart of gold persona, he's just an egotistical asshole.

Grizabella, Macavity, and Tugger are the only characters in the film who visually read as POC through all the CG. They are all pathetic, unlikable, or both. Intentional or not, that feels really racist.

Bombalurina loses her entire character. Instead of a lovable rogue, member of the tribe who knows a questionable amount about Macavity, which gives her her own air of mystery, she's reduced to a flat, weirdly sexualized henchman. This may in part be due to Taylor Swift being too expensive to give more screen time, so they couldn't allow the character to breathe. If that's the case, they should not have cast Taylor Swift—she's not a bad choice for the role, but she is not worth destroying the character for. She certainly hasn't helped the film so much as break even on its budget.

Gus the Theatre Cat is played by Sir Ian McKellen, who is probably the best actor alive on the planet for that role, they could not have cast anyone better, and yet they waste him as well. Gus is old, Gus is physically and mentally feeble, but—on stage—the tribe still love and respect him. In the film, he's framed as pitiable, even laughable. The ageism isn't as overt as it could have been, but it is sickening.

Bustopher Jones (James Corden) and Jennyanydots (Rebel Wilson) are treated worst of all. Both characters are usually portrayed as on the heavy side. Bustopher is directly described in his song as “remarkably fat,” and Jennyanydots tends matronly by theatre tradition. Both characters are unambiguously described as very proper and clean freaks. The filmmakers elected to ignore this characterization in favor of making them both crude, messy, food obsessed slobs, which is shockingly fatphobic.

The only characters who come out more or less unscathed are Old Deuteronomy and Munkustrap. I personally do not agree with the casting of Dame Judy Dench as Old Deuteronomy, the gender flip strikes me as unnecessary and a cheap grab at woke points, but I love Dame Judy and she is a fantastic actor. She brings the grace and poise the role requires and embodies the character as well as anyone could in the middle of such a mess. For his part, Robbie Fairchild as Munkustrap benefits from neglect. The filmakers don't seem to have given Munkustrap much thought or much direction—the role is unchanged from the stage show, except, maybe in that the film doesn't allow him to be as central a character, since it's so obsessively focused on Victoria. Fairchild himself clearly studied Munkustraps in other productions. He feels like the same character, even in how he moves, while still making the role his own.

Several characters are simply deleted. Jemima is awkwardly combined with Victoria, who keeps getting other characters' agency and purpose bestowed upon her, yet isn't allowed to have her crowning moment of awesome in the White Cat Dance to herself. Demeter supposedly exists in the film, played by Daniela Norman, but gets left out of her main musical number so that Taylor Swift can hog it. Jellylorum is omitted entirely, which leaves Gus seeming both isolated and full of himself.

The visual effects are awful. Trying to make the cats look “realistic” was a horrible choice, and poorly executed. The faces are all far too human, and everyone looks uncomfortably naked. The ears and tails aren't an inherently bad idea, but the tails are too long and move too much and just wind up being creepy. Frequently, characters' feet do not look like they're in contact with the floor—Gollum in Lord of the Rings was better rendered and incorporated eighteen years ago. On the subject of feet, some cats have shoes, all of which look somehow wrong, and those that are barefoot have extremely unsettling hybrids of human feet and cat paws. Once, Victoria seems to dance en pointe barefoot on those mutant toes, which illicited in me a visceral body horror. Much of the character design is just baffling. Victoria, whose defining physical characteristic is that she is the one white cat in the tribe, is not a white cat. She has spots now for some reason. Jennyanydots takes off her skin to reveal bedazzled fur, hot pants, and a halter top underneath. Skimbleshanks looks like a rejected member of the Village People. I can't tell if Deuteronomy's fur is supposed to be her fur or a coat.

The cats are inconsistent in size with relation to the world around them, and that world is inconsistent is seeming like it's for humans or for cats played by humans.

The music from the show is great, and should have been a redeeming quality in the film, but they managed to screw that up too. Almost every song has the life drained out of it, which is not the fault of the actors, all of whom I know from their previous work to be strong enough performers to carry their roles, if only they had been directed well. I've already discussed how “Memory” was ruined. “Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer” is unrecognizable, the tune and many lyrics are changed. Despite the 1930s-ish setting, several songs have been pop-ified or hiphop-ified seemingly at random. There are weird lyric changes throughout, often taking the form of altered verb tense, that serve no discernible purpose. The film is apparently allergic to group musical numbers, so sections that are usually sung in groups get split up one line at a time, which does not work, and all the cats that have individual songs sing about themselves rather than their peers singing about them, which makes them all come across as self centered and narcissistic.

Cats is a musical usually marked by having a huge among of excellent dancing. The dancing here is all awkward and often unsettling. Additionally, the language of movement companies of actors performing cats usually exhibit that lets them read as feline is entirely lacking. Robbie Fairchild is the only one who seems to try at all. To his credit, he succeeds.

The best we can hope for this film is that it quickly fades of public memory. To the cast, I hope they at least had fun making fools of themselves. To T.S. Eliot, I'm sorry this happened. To Andrew Lloyd Webber, how did you let this happen? To Tom Hooper, your movie is bad and you should feel bad.

The worst thing about this unredeemable disaster of a film is the handful of times you can just catch a glimpse through all the bad decisions and worse CGI of how good it might have been.

#movies #movie review #eiiri reviews movies #cats #cats musical #cats movie #cats 2019 #tom hooper #cats review #long post

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chaos-of-the-abyss · 5 years

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After the misogynistic shitshow by Dumb&Dumber, do you have any recommendations (can be books/movies/shows/etc.) for series with women in power written well? Something that is, you know, beyond Dumb&Dumber's two brain cells to understand?

My apologies for how long it took me to answer this, anon.

I’ll be glad to point out to you some well-written stories of women in power. The issue is that I’m not certain what you mean by “women in power”. The most common interpretation that comes to my mind is a woman in political power, but there are several kinds, so I’ll give you a broader range of suggestions.

Now I have to say, I’m no expert in this topic, and I probably can’t give you as many recommendations as I’d like. Sorry about that. And also - all of these series I’m recommending have shortcomings, and none of them are perfect. I’ll make sure to list the (perceived, in my eyes at least) shortcomings of my suggestions. I do have to warn you first, though, that my descriptions contain minor spoilers.

*These are in no particular order

1. Tolkien

Whenever I’m asked a question about a series with well-written women, my first answer is always to read Tolkien’s books. The history of his legendarium spans thousands and thousands of years in earthly time, and even goes back to a time when time itself didn’t exist (a la the creation of the Ainur). There are many, many well-written female characters in the professor’s legendarium, and the best thing, to me, is that they’re varied. Tolkien doesn’t stick to one type of woman to serve as his female ‘icon’, so to speak, he writes women in many different kinds, and I can appreciate all of them.

Some examples: Galadriel is probably the most well-known, and I stan a wise, powerful, revered queen. Other examples include Varda Elentári (I literally worship her lol), Nienna Qalmë-Tári, Melian the Maia, Lúthien Tinúviel, Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, Morwen Eledhwen, and Idril Celebrindal.

Now for the shortcomings. I really only have one shortcoming when it comes to Tolkien, and that’s the fact that he never writes from the direct perspective of his characters, the way, say, GRRM does for ASOIAF. And while that style does have its great points which I enjoy to the fullest, such as leaving everything open for interpretation, it also prevents us from having a full look inside the characters’ heads and completely humanizing them. Although, actually, I tend to enjoy that aspect of Tolkien’s writing, as it allows me to explore and settle on my version of a character (which I usually do through writing fanfiction, lol). Still, this can be a drawback for some.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire

Assuming that ASOIAF’s ending won’t be like the ending for Game of Dumbasses, which I’m 99% certain it won’t be, GRRM generally does quite a good job when writing women in power in the midst of a world as misogynistic and shallow as ASOIAF’s world. He very realistically explores the rewards and consequences of their actions, personalities, and so forth. There is quite a large multitude of female characters in ASOIAF’s world, and they’re all quite varied as well.

Some examples: Daenerys Targaryen (my queen from this day until my last day), Arianne Martell (I love her I love her I love her), Asha Greyjoy, Sansa Stark (she’s become rather controversial as of late thanks to Game of Dumbasses, but I still like book!Sansa despite having my gripes about her), Arya Stark, Alysanne Targaryen, Rhaena Targaryen, and Margaery Tyrell. I might even tentatively name Cersei Lannister, who, while certainly not a good example or representation of a woman in power, is a very well-written example of the consequences that living in such a misogynistic, stiflingly patriarchal world such as ASOIAF’s.

Now for the shortcomings. As much as I love ASOIAF, there are some rather sexist and racist themes in it, and also, the fact that there’s such detail about nudity, especially in Dany’s early chapters, when she’s a freaking thirteen-year-old, make me very uncomfortable.

3. Empress Ki

Unlike the others on this list, Empress Ki is not a book series (if it was, though - God, I would buy the books so fast). It’s a Korean drama set in Ancient China during the reign of the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongol Kublai Khan following the life of a real-life historical figure, Empress Qi. Qi began as the daughter of a lower-ranking noble in Koryo (the name for Korea at the time), a vassal state of China. She was sold as a concubine for the emperor, Toghon Temür. Despite having an empress at the time, Toghon Temür fell in love with Qi and favored her. Eventually, Qi did become empress of the Yuan Dynasty.

Empress Ki, the k-drama, follows this history loosely, but it’s by no means historically accurate. Nevertheless, it paints a dramatized version of Empress Ki’s journey. What I like about the drama is that Empress Ki’s ambition is never framed as evil. She becomes very politically astute and manipulative, even vengeful, but maintains her heroism nevertheless. There was never even any hint of “Oh no, her ambition is making her evil™”. I liked that very much, and it was such a breath of fresh air after the vomit-inducing misogyny that D&D didn’t even try to hide in their writing.

Now for the shortcomings. Unfortunately, since this is set in the royal court of imperial China, where empresses and concubines all lived and all grasped for the emperor’s favor, there is a fair bit of cat-fighting going on between the women, a tired and overused trope. While it’s understandable because of the circumstances the women are in, it still tired me to watch. Empress Ki herself was also subject to being forced to behave, at least publicly, in a very narrow and stereotypical line of behavior for a concubine of the emperor, since she needed support. Imperial China was pretty misogynistic as well, and the k-drama is true to that kind of setting, though unfortunately never addressing or framing it as a particularly bad thing. But as I said, Empress Ki follows real history, and I understand why the writers couldn’t throw in something such as women receiving equal rights to being heirs or something to that effect.

4. The Nevernight Chronicle Series

The Nevernight Chronicles is set in a fantasy world with three suns, in which night only arrives once every few years. The main character is Mia Corvere, who is the daughter of an executed traitor in the Itreyan Republic. The story follows Mia as she goes on a journey for revenge against the people who killed her father, and her aim is to become an assassin of a cult, as she believes this would help her achieve her goals. Sounds cliche, right?

Despite this kind-of-overused trope (kid loses parent, becomes an assassin to avenge them), Nevernight caught my attention because Mia, our protagonist, isn’t exactly human. She’s a darkin, and has the power to bend shadows to her will. This power, though, comes with drawbacks. I can’t say too much more, as this isn’t a very well-known series and much more would be spoilers.

Admittedly, I’ve only read the first book and am still trying to get my hands on the second one. In any case, I’m recommending this because I very much enjoyed the way Mia, as an assassin, was written. There’s a very fine balance between her ruthlessness in trying to become a hired killer and the remnants of her morality. I also liked the writing style, although I suppose it’s not for some. The author uses footnotes to help with his worldbuilding, which I found kind of tedious at times unless the information in them was interesting.

Now for the drawbacks (besides the thing about the writing style, lol). I must warn you: although Mia is sixteen at the start of the series, this series is not classified as YA, but rather as adult fiction. And there’s good reason for that. It has some rather explicit descriptions of extreme violence, blood, and gore, and also, characters are put in mature sexual situations despite being only in their teens. Said scenes were pretty well-written in my opinion, but it still made me uncomfortable. There is also some underlying racism.

5. Game of Queens

Game of Queens . . . had its good points and its not-so-good points. The reason I’m putting it on this list is because it follows the story of the two Biblical queens, Vashti and Esther. As you may know, Vashti was ordered by her husband, the king of Persia Ahasuerus, to appear before him and his men in the men’s banquet hall, which was considered extremely scandalous and something no decent woman should ever do. Vashti refused, and because of her refusal, she was either deposed, exiled, or executed. The Bible doesn’t mention her again.

Ahasuerus’ second queen, Esther, was a Jew but had to hide it (I believe the Persian Empire disliked Jews or something to that effect, but frankly I can’t remember exactly why). However, Ahasuerus, influenced by his villainous counselor, almost ordered war on the Jews. To save her people, Esther revealed her identity as a Jew, putting herself at risk, and pleaded with Ahasuerus to call off the war, which he did.

Anyway, I very much liked Vashti and Esther’s characterization in the books, for different reasons. Vashti I liked because she began as a pawn: naive, carefree, wanting for nothing, and then she began to realize that she was being used. Her story in Game of Queens is about moving past and growing from the manipulated, unthinking child she was into a competent and intelligent manipulator herself. What I find noteworthy, though, is that despite her increasing cunning, she retains her gentle nature, and her kind personality never really changes. Too often have I seen stories where women lose innocence and become cold and hard as they learn to play the political game. And while I enjoy stories like that too, I admit it was very refreshing to see something different.

I liked Esther because she defied the norm of a woman during that era. Esther was a skilled horse rider, and strong and fit physically, not at all delicate. A moment I really, really liked in her story was when her aunt commented that she must be tired after a long journey, and Esther, raised more as her father’s son than her father’s daughter, replied that no, she wasn’t, and that she was very used to traveling much further distances.

Lastly, Vashti and Esther also became friends in Game of Queens, and I very much enjoyed reading the moments of their friendship. There’s no jealousy between them, no pettiness, no catfighting. Just two young women working together and becoming close.

As for the shortcomings, I disliked two things in particular: Amestris, Ahasuerus’ mother, is the classic power-hungry seductress who attempts to manipulate everything from behind the scenes. It’s not that I disliked her in and of herself - she was a very competent, very intelligent woman, but her character is such a stereotype that I felt it detracted from the story. She’s given no real backstory, no real motivation. The other thing I disliked is that Esther fell in love with Ahasuerus at first sight, based only on his handsome looks. For someone as witty, determined, and tough as Esther’s portrayal in Game of Queens, I was disappointed that her falling in love with Ahasuerus was such a swift process with no logical or emotional backdrop.

My dear friend @martaaa1506 also told me that the Wheel of Time series and the Witcher series are very good. I’d actually advise you to check her out for more recommendations, lol.

#tolkien #asoiaf #empress ki #the nevernight chronicle #game of queens #book recs #book recommendations #recommendation #anti got #anti d&d

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green-eyeddragonfanfiction · 6 years

Text

War of Attrition: Chapter 14

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier x Reader Summary: Best friends with Steve Rogers, renowned Howling Commando, and married to one James Buchanan Barnes, your life wasn’t perfect, but it was as close as it could possibly be in the middle of World War II. Then you fell from a train in the Alps, and everything changed. You spent nearly 70 years as a tool of Hydra alongside your beloved, though your past with him was more often than not forgotten. Per usual, trouble follows the Avengers around like ugly on ape. However, their timing presents an opportunity to you and Bucky, and the two of you use it to the fullest. Warnings: Swearing (always) Word Count: ~4,380 A/N: I apologize for the slow updates. I’m taking summer classes so it’s quite likely you won’t see updates from Monday to Thursday.

Masterlist // Book One // Book Two

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

“Shit!” said a voice you recognized from countless interviews and reports. Anthony Edward Stark.

“Language!” said a voice you’d know anywhere. Steve Rogers. You nearly laughed at that. It seemed that Steve’s knee-jerk response of rebuking your and Bucky’s foul language had survived the ice.

Bucky paused the audio log and brought up a different one. “At long last is lasting a little long, boys.” Natalia.

“They’re here, (Y/N). Attacking the base.”

“No sign of War Machine or Falcon. I’m sending the drones in,” you told Bucky over your comm. There’s little to no video surveillance equipment in and around the base and you wouldn’t let Bucky go in blind, not with the Avengers and Hydra after you.

“Got it, Doll. I’m getting close,” he said quietly. Your drones flew over the thick canopy of trees and, though you knew he was somewhere below them, you couldn’t spot him with their video cameras until you set them to infrared.

You and Bucky had mobilized quickly after he told you about the Avengers’ attack. There was a perfect opportunity to sneak in and retrieve the data you needed after the Avengers vacated with whatever or whoever they were after but before law enforcement showed up. If they happened to take the data you needed... well, that’s a bridge you’d cross when the time came.

From your bird’s eye view you were able to survey the damage the Avengers were unleashing on the Hydra base and, though you appreciated the sight, you really hoped they’d leave the base in one piece. The Hulk was being particularly effective, smashing through entire guard houses like they were paper-mâché.

“Try to stay out of sight. I don’t think Steve or Natalia will let you escape if they-” you paused, eyes flicking to one of the other screens. You swore you saw something, but-

Your gaze was drawn to another screen. The same silver-white flash that had appeared in the first one was now occasionally flitting through the other ones. You saw it rush past Hawkeye and flip him onto his ass. Turned out it was a person, who stopped long enough to taunt the archer.

A boy, really, in his early 20′s at most. White-blond hair and a cocky grin that almost reminded you of the old Bucky.

“We have enhanced Hydra hostiles on the field, Buck,” you said quickly, trying to keep an eye on the speedster as he made his way around to the other Avengers.

“Understood,” Bucky said gravely, moving with even more caution than before. You watched as the fast kid tried to do the same thing to Steve that he did to Hawkeye, but he only half succeeded. Steve landed in a graceful crouch and immediately warned the others.

Iron Man was blasting away at the Hydra troops on the ground. If there was any doubt in your mind that Hydra had access to a Tesseract-level technology, it was eradicated by watching the Avengers fight the bastards.

A particularly loud blast sounded off near you and you knew from the way the room shook subtly that it wasn’t from the video/audio feeds.

“Town’s taking fire. If it gets any worse I’ll have to start evacuating the people,” you frowned. You didn’t want to leave your spot; this was the only way you could help Bucky at the moment. You both decided it was too dangerous to go in together. If either Hydra or the Avengers got a hold of you it’d be the job of the other to free them.

“Got it. Keep me updated. I’ll keep my distance until they clear off. See if you can’t get a drone inside the building; I’d like to know what Steve’s team is after.”

You watched as Iron Man- Tony Stark- fired an explosive from his suit. It buried itself in the ground and a second later the shielding faded, opening the way for him and the rest of the Avengers.

And, unknowingly, you.

“Shield’s down,” you said, already sending a few drones into the Hydra compound. They had cloaking so it was unlikely even Stark’s advanced sensors would pick them up. You didn’t know if Hydra’s technology would be able to, but you hoped they’d be too preoccupied to notice your snooping.

You watched the screens that had the live feed from the drones inside the base while also keeping a close eye on the status of the town. A few of Tony’s bots had flown in, but the townsfolk weren’t exactly appreciative of the gesture. You watched as someone chucked a bottle of something corrosive at the bot closest to the statue in the center of the city, wincing as it ate through the metal.

However, your attention was drawn back to the main screen when you caught sight of a flash of red and gold.

One of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits was standing in place, turning slowly with its hand raised. You knew immediately that Tony wasn’t inside it. The man didn’t seem able to sit still for even a second.

Your eyes narrowed as your drone slowly crept further into the room, just a few inches below the ceiling. You kept waiting for the suit to turn and blast your drone out of the sky, but it never happened. The camera panned, revealing the rest of the room to you.

Computer servers, research equipment, and a lot of dirt. You narrowed your eyes at a hole in the wall and it took you a second to realize it was a hidden doorway.

“Betcha anything Tony’s in there...” you mumbled distractedly.

“What’s that, Doll?” Bucky asked, though he sounded slightly preoccupied. You supposed he had a lot to pay attention to on his end.

“Drone Phoenix found the main information hub... and a secret door. Tony’s suit is on standby, and I’d bet Alfred that the man himself is in the secret room.”

“You gonna send the drone in?” Bucky asked quietly.

“Nah, hallway’s too narrow. If I time it wrong there’s no way Tony won’t hear it. Hell, it might even hit him in the head or something. I’m gonna set her down and let her watch. With any luck we can find out what Steve and the others are after.”

“Any sign of explosives? Plans to blow the place up?”

You frowned and flicked through the other screens, but didn’t see any sign of tampering from either Hydra or the Avengers. “None that I can see. They seemed pretty single-minded. Don’t think they plan to blow the place to kingdom come, though.”

Bucky let out a tiny sigh of relief. “Alright, keep me updated. Now that the shield’s down Hydra has better things to do than keep a lookout for me. I’m gonna get a little closer, keep an eye on Steve’s team.”

You bit your lip as you flicked back to Phoenix’s feed. “Alright. Drone Chicago is keeping an eye on you. Be careful, alright?” you asked, worry seeping into your voice.

“Always am, Doll,” he responded instantly.

You rolled your eyes at that, but bit back any snarky response because you watched something flash across the screen.

“The speedster’s in the secret room with Tony,” you said, panic setting in slightly. That was Howard’s kid down there and he didn’t even have his suit and- “Bucky, I-” your words died on your lips as the screen flashed again. You slowed the video down enough to confirm that, yes, the speedster had left the room, but this time he was carrying a young woman in his arms.

“Alfred, run facial recognition,” you said distractedly, eyes glued to the screen.

Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. You pleaded silently. You didn’t have any right to watch over and care about Howard’s kid, but you did anyway. You flinched as one of the gauntlets of the suit flew away from the rest and rocketed down into the room. That was a good sign, right?

“I’m afraid the footage is not of a high enough quality to get an accurate match, but I will do my best,” Alfred said dutifully.

“Thanks, buddy,” you mumbled, dread settling deep into the pit of your stomach. He still hadn’t come back out. If the speedster had gone in there to kill Tony, there was no way in hell you’d make it there in time to save him. He was long dead without his suit there to protect him. If by some miracle-

You watched, shocked, as Tony walked back out of the secret hallway, a glowing scepter in-hand.

“He’s alive. I know what they were after, too,” you breathed, relief and apprehension warring in your head in equal measure.

Bucky made a grunt of acknowledgement about Tony’s status. “What did they get? Data? Weapon? Artifact?” he murmured.

You leaned back in your chair, staring at the frozen image of Loki’s scepter in Tony’s armored hand. You ran a hand over your face and blew out a long sigh.

“All of the above.”

“So what is it?” Bucky asked, looking up from the tablet at you.

You didn’t even look up from the screen as you fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to find even a single scrap of data. Someone, presumably List, had thoroughly deleted nearly every piece of information on the servers and you were scrambling, trying to salvage anything you could. It didn’t help that a SHIELD or Avengers cleanup team was likely on its way, meaning you and Bucky had to be far, far away by the time they showed up.

“If you’re asking me exactly what it is and what it does, I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for you. Not without more information, at least. What I do know is that it first appeared in the Battle of New York on May 4th, 2012, in the hands of Loki, brother of Thor. While in his possession it exhibited mind-altering powers along with the ability to fire energy blasts. From my own experience, I can say it definitely resembles the Tesseract in its power and abilities. It disappeared after Loki was defeated by Steve and the rest of the Avengers. I shouldn’t be too surprised SHIELD got its hands on it. Chances are it went to the Hydra operatives hiding in SHIELD and stayed there after... well, everything happened,” you said, wincing. You’d been part of “everything.”

Bucky frowned as he stared down at the tablet, which you knew had various images of the scepter on it, along with the video recording from Drone Phoenix. “If I had to guess I’d say they’re using information they obtained from the scepter to do experiments on people. It would explain why they took ‘volunteers’,“ Bucky said with a hard, angry edge to his voice. “It would also explain the speedster and the girl with the weird red energy hands.”

You sighed and slammed your hands down on the table in frustration, making Bucky jump and reach for his gun. He looked over at you and relaxed slightly, concern lining his features. “What’s wrong, Doll?” he asked quietly.

You growled and fought the urge to kick the table across the room. “Hydra was damn thorough and I don’t have the time to work my voodoo computer magic with the authorities on their way,” you spat, renewing your efforts despite your words.

You froze when you felt Bucky’s arms go around your waist, not having heard him walk over to you. “It’s gonna be okay, Doll. If we can’t get the intel before the authorities arrive we’ll just break in and steal whatever they get later,” he said soothingly.

You snorted and leaned back in his arms, though you resumed digging through the deepest recesses of the computer you were on. “I love you, you know that?” you asked, smiling softly.

You felt his smile against your skin as he placed a gentle kiss to the back of your neck. “I did, actually,” he said. His breath ghosted against your skin and you fought back a shiver. “But I still like hearin’ it.”

You huffed out a laugh. “Go look for any hard copy files? IS-003 was developed in the late 40′s so it’s possible the information about it was never transferred into the digital era.”

He placed one last kiss to your cheek before he let you go. “Now that I can do,” he said determinedly.

“Start with the secret room?” you said distractedly as lines of code flew across the computer screen. “And don’t touch the giant space whale monster!” you warned him as he disappeared around the corner.

“Yeah, yeah. I heard ya. Touch the giant space whale monster!” he called back.

You were so engrossed in your work it took a second for his words to sink in. Your head whipped up so quickly you almost gave yourself whiplash. “James!” you said, exasperated. You could hear his low rumble of a chuckle echoing up through the hallway. You rolled your eyes and returned to your work, hoping his curiosity wouldn’t get the better of him.

Alien contaminants weren’t your specialty, after all. If he wasn’t careful, he’d embody the phrase “curiosity killed the cat.”

You closed the door as Drones New York and Houston came in, toting the last of the boxes filled with files between them.

“In the spare room, Alfy,” you said distractedly. As you meandered after them you flicked through the meager files you managed to salvage from the Hydra base’s servers, looking for any mention of IS-003. So far, the only things you found were records of the human experimentation they’d been performing since they obtained the scepter. The information was grisly, which didn’t surprise you. Hydra cared little for most of its patients, and this experiment was no different. Only two out of the nearly one hundred test subjects had survived; Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, twins from Novi Grad. “Got the names of the speedster and the red one,” you called out into the apartment.

Bucky’s head popped around the corner from his spot in the kitchen. Now that you’d stopped long enough to take in some of your surroundings you noticed a sinfully delicious smell wafting from the kitchen. “Are they names we should know?” he asked distractedly.

You shook your head and flipped the tablet around so he could see the photos you’d found of them both in the data and online. “Nah, their names are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Twins. Locals. Orphaned at ten when a bomb collapsed their apartment,” you said, frowning.

Bucky’s expression went stormy. “They’re just kids...” he muttered bitterly.

You sighed. “Young adults, technically, but yeah... not that much younger than we were when we signed up to fight in the war...”

“They volunteered,” Bucky said, half-question, half-statement.

You nodded and let out a long sigh. “Yeah... doesn’t say why, or if they knew who they were signing their lives over to. Judging by their psych evals, though, they didn’t really care. Hydra offered them a chance for power and they took it. They stayed, even when everyone else around them started dying.”

Bucky frowned and leaned against the doorway, absently turning the spatula over slowly in his hand. ”Sounds like there’s a story there,” he said, lost in thought.

You bit your lip and nodded. “And I have a feeling we should look a little more closely at them... but for now, we have work to do. IS-003 first, freaky twins later.”

Bucky’s gaze focused on you and he tsked. “No, food first. When was the last time you ate?” he asked knowingly.

Your brow furrowed as you thought about it. You couldn’t remember.

Bucky rolled his eyes. “That’s what I thought. Food’ll be ready in ten. Wash up,” he said waving you away with the spatula. You nodded and turned on your heel, nose already buried back in the tablet. “And no phones, experiments, or tablets at the table!” he called testily after you. You waved his protest away as you turned into the room.

An hour later you sat back-to-back on the floor in the spare room, buried in files and blueprints and tech. Holograms flashed as Alfred cycled through information, bathing you and Bucky in shifting blue, orange, and green lights. You worked silently with 40′s swing jazz playing softly from the speakers in the living room. You didn’t have to speak to communicate with Bucky. Working together for the better part of 70 years meant that you could practically read each other’s mind. Occasionally your thoughts floated over to the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, which was now full of biological samples. Bucky had been less than thrilled with putting scientific samples right above the food, but you didn’t have anywhere else to store them on such short notice and they’d have to stay there until you ordered or made the machinery you’d need to analyze all of them.

It was possible IS-003 was one of them; the labels on some were faded or lacking them altogether (while that specific practice was appalling to you as a scientist you weren’t all that surprised by it. Hydra was paranoid at best). Until then, your best bet was searching through every piece of information you’d stolen from the base. The authorities had arrived not long after you’d left and they’d quickly cleared it of nearly everything you and Bucky hadn’t taken yourself. Only the heavy machinery that couldn’t be removed easily had been left but you wouldn’t be surprised if that was gone by the end of the week, too.

So it was a surprise when, in the middle of the night, the lights of the base turned back on. You and Bucky both looked over the largest screen on which Alfred had already plastered the video feed.

“What the hell?” you asked quietly. “How did someone get inside without the other sensors going off? I calibrated those myself,” you said, glaring at the screen.

“The sensors you placed at the perimeter have not been activated since the authorities left over eight hours ago, Mistress Barnes. I have been monitoring them closely as you requested and can confirm there was no mistake. No one has entered or exited the building,” Alfred informed you, which only caused you to frown harder.

“So the base just turned itself on?” Bucky asked quietly, looking up at the screen in disbelief.

“It would appear so,” Alfred said dubiously.

You frowned and turned your head so you could look over your shoulder at Bucky, who was peering at you with a single grey-blue eye. “Secret entrance?” you asked.

Bucky shook his head. “Alfred and I both checked. I don’t think there’s a way in hell both of us missed a hidden entrance.”

“Remote activation?” you guessed, turning back to stare up at the screen. Even more lights had come on in the last minute or two and the power usage was spiking. Someone was doing something down there and they were using a lot of energy for whatever it was.

Bucky narrowed his eyes at the screen. “Who else do you think has that kinda access to that base? From what information we have, all of the Heads of Hydra should be dead or locked up now.”

You harrumphed and leaned heavily into Bucky’s back. “We’re gonna have to check it out, aren’t we?” you asked, resigned.

Bucky turned and pulled you into his lap, and you grumbled as papers fell a few inches to the ground or were messed up as you moved. “Well, we don’t hafta do anything we don’t wanna do... but I think that’d be best, yeah. If it’s Hydra we shut ‘em down, and if it’s not...”

You buried your face in his neck and wrapped your arms around his waist, taking comfort in his familiar smell and warm embrace. “We see what they’re after... and go from there.”

“I don’t like you goin’ alone,” Bucky’s voice said in your ear, slightly digitized over the comm.

“I heard you the first fifteen times you said that, Buck. But someone has to stay with the research and keep an eye on the other sensors and video feeds. You bein’ here won’t do us much good if we both walk into a trap we coulda otherwise seen comin’,” you murmured as you passed over the edge of the property.

“Well your sensors are workin’. They just lit up like a Christmas tree... Gotta say, that’s a nice angle,” Bucky said somewhat filthily.

You rolled your eyes. “Focus, Buck.”

“I am focused,” he said, all suggestive and flirty.

“James,” you hissed as you crept closer to the base.

“Relax, Doll. I’m keepin’ my eyes peeled. Just get in and out fast, alright?” he appeased.

“I’m getting close. Keep communication limited to vital updates only. Talk to you on the other side,” you told him, voice barely louder than a whisper.

“Alright, Doll. Good luck,” Bucky said quietly, his dislike of this entire situation evident in his tone.

You couldn’t help yourself from saying one last thing. “Don’t need luck, Buck. I have you.”

You could hear him huff out a laugh and could picture his exasperated smile in your head, but you had to focus.

You pushed open the door, thankful for the sound of heavy machinery that covered the high-pitched squeak of the rusty hinges. The machines on the first floor had been moved around. In fact, every single one of them was missing. The sounds were coming from the next floor up, along with a high-tinny voice that took you a second to place.

“There are no strings on me!” it sang over the loudspeakers, barely audible above the din of metal on metal.

Pinocchio? you mouthed, confused. Why was a movie that came out circa 1940 being blasted out in the speakers? And why only that one line, over and over?

Something odd was happening.

You followed the loudest sounds, moving slowly and carefully through the hallways. When you finally turned the corner and found the source of all the noise, you froze, dumbstruck.

The machines had been automated by someone, churning out humanoid robots at an unholy speed. You looked a little more closely, frowning as you saw bits and pieces you recognized.

It reminded you of Tony Stark’s bots- the Iron Legion- but something was different. These were sleeker, darker, all hard lines and angles. They lacked Tony’s bright colors that were so signature for all of his suits and robots up until this point.

You stayed in the shadows, not wanting to risk getting closer. If they had even a sliver of the sensory tech that Tony’s bots did, they’d notice you the second you got too close. In fact, you shouldn’t stay here any longer than you had to.

What struck you as odd, though, was that you hadn’t seen a single human. you thought you’d spotted one earlier, but it was simply a taller, more advanced bot than the rest.

It had sent a shiver down your spine, just the wrong side of the uncanny valley. It was dangerous.

Satisfied by your recon, you quickly retreated the way you came, fighting the urge to break into a run, to put as much distance between you and the robots as possible.

The moment you were outside and far enough away, you were talking. “Something big’s goin’ on, Buck. The base is churnin’ out robots kinda like Tony Stark’s, but meaner lookin’, packed with more weapons. Didn’t see a single human being.”

Bucky’s voice immediately set you slightly at ease, even as you broke into a run and began sprinting through the woods towards town. “’Like’ Tony Stark’s? You don’t think they’re his?” Bucky asked.

“I’ve studied Tony’s tech pretty closely. I know his style, and this isn’t it. Some’a the parts are his, though. I recognize the method of construction as well, so it’s definitely based on his tech.”

“But you still don’t think they’re his?” Bucky asked as you reached the edge of town.

You frowned. “I dunno for sure, Buck. It always could be, but I’ve kept an eye on Stark Technologies. He’s going legit. Clean energy, alternative fuel, tech to save the world. As soon as his weapon contracts ended he didn’t renew them. I don’t think he’s suddenly gone rogue. This feels like somethin’ else.”

Bucky grunted as he chewed on the new information. “Balcony door’s open,” Bucky said, probably watching your progress on his screen.

You rounded the corner and glanced up at your apartment’s balcony; three floors up and the third one from the left. Sure enough, the door was left ever so slightly ajar. “Shouldn’t leave the door open, Buck,” you chastised.

“I have your drones poised to shoot anyone who ain’t you or me,” he retorted.

You sighed and gathered energy in your legs, leaping at the last second. You made it as far as the second floor before you had to jump again, hands digging into the wrought iron as you gathered strength again. You jumped up and over the railing of your balcony with ease, metal feet clanking ever so softly against the ground.

Sure enough, three of your drones were facing the doorway, energy guns pointed directly at you.

“Welcome back, Mistress Barnes,” Alfred’s voice chirped out from the closest one, Drone San Diego.

“Thanks, Alfred,” you said, giving it an affectionate pat as you closed the balcony door then closed the shutters that’d stop anything but the largest missiles. Bucky was standing in the doorway of the spare room which was filled to the brim with tech and Hydra intel. He stared expectantly at you, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“So, we stayin’ or runnin’, Doll?” he asked, though he sounded like he already knew the answer.

You thought about the residents of Novi Grad, how Hydra had destroyed their lives. How yet another threat loomed on their doorstep and not a single one of them knew.

And how you could help them.

Your jaw clenched as you looked Bucky dead in the eyes. “We’re stayin’. And fightin’.”

Bucky’s eyes were alight with amusement, even as he let out a long-suffering sigh. “Somehow I knew you’d say that.”

Next Chapter

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☕ Buy Me a Coffee! ☕

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moody-by-nature · 5 years

Text

Rescue Me | Chapter Six

Andrea’s POV

"Alright, fine. We'll do it your way this time. Emma has taken on more of an ownership role in the company and Shayla is now my assistant. She's wonderful, but my life has been getting busier and busier each day and we could use an extra set of hands. So, I wanted to ask if you'd be interested in working for me as an assistant? You'd be the perfect addition to the team, what do you think?"

My mind was racing, 'did he really just ask me to work for him?' I pulled my feet up and wrapped my arm around my legs, "I don't know Jared, that's a pretty big change to make so suddenly."

"Says the woman who packed her car and transported her life to Los Angeles without anyone to fall back on! You're obviously strong willed, what's your hesitation?"

I listened to him chewing on the other end of the phone, processing what I wanted to say to him. "I don't want to sound selfish, but I moved here to chase my dreams of acting and directing Jared, and I can't do that if I'm working for you. I mean, sure, I'd love to travel the world with you and learn from you, absolutely. But I feel like what I want would fall on the back burner."

"I promise you it wouldn't. Working with me could open a lot of doors for you. All the events I have to go to, you'd be right beside me. Rubbing elbows with the very people you want to work with."

"So you want me to use you to get what I want? That seems a bit silly and incredibly unfair. What's in it for you?"

Jared laughed quietly, "Honestly, it's an I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine situation, Andie. You help me keep my life together and organized and I'll do whatever I can to support and help you. You get a call to audition? Schedule it and go. You get offered the part? I'll be your biggest cheerleader. I'd never stop you from living your dreams."

I could hear the sincerity laced in his words. They spoke directly to my adventurous side, which wanted to instantly say yes. However, my logical side refused to let up just yet.

"Ok, and what about when we are in the middle of a tour in Europe when that audition happens, hmm? You just expect me to think it's ok to just leave you?" I asked incredulously.

"Shayla will still be around and she can pick up the slack when you're gone. Your role is being created to help take some of her work load off. Occasional trips to audition wouldn't be an issue."

I shook my head at his reply and grinned, "You'd be an excellent salesman if this multihyphenate thing doesn't pan out." Giggling, I added, "You could sell ice to an Eskimo!"

Jared let out a breathy laugh, "So is that a yes?" He asked in excitement.

"No! That was just a discussion of expectations of sorts. I need to think about it Jared."

"Ok, I understand. Hey, I have an idea! We have a show coming up at the Hollywood Bowl. Come to the show and hopefully by then you'll have your answer. Award season will be approaching soon and I'd like to have you with me by then, but no pressure."

I chewed on my cheek as I thought about his offer, "Yeah! I'd love to see you guys play again and I've yet to see a show at The Bowl."

"The Bowl. Listen to you, you already sound like a local." He said with a laugh. We continued talking for hours, just like the first night we met, until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

"Hey, J," I yawned, "I need to get some sleep, I have the early shift tomorrow at the coffee shop."

"Oh shit, I just realized the time! I was serious about my offer, Andrea. But I want you to take your time deciding and do what's best for you."

I sighed, "I know J, I will think it over, I promise."

"I like it when you call me J." He responded, "Goodnight, Andie, sweet dreams."

With a big smile on my lips, I replied,"Goodnight J, sweet dreams to you, too."

After disconnecting the call I walked into the bathroom to complete my nightly routine and climbed into bed. Lying there in my cozy bed, I generated a mental checklist of pro's and con's, the pro list was gaining traction quickly when I fell into a peaceful sleep.

The next four weeks flew by quickly. All of those auditions under my belt and I had finally landed a small part on a tv show. Along with that role, the exposure had granted me some advertisement work. I was asked to model for one of my favorite local boutiques. With those two projects lined up, I felt it best to resign from the doctor's office and picked up supplemental shifts at the coffee shop in between my time on set and photo shoots.

Jared and I spoke via text almost daily and on the phone at least a couple times a week. Things had been much better since he'd asked me to join his team and our friendship was progressing quickly. Shannon had kept his promise of staying in touch as well.

When I last spoke to Jared he said they were due to arrive home later today. Excitement bubbled through me as time ticked by waiting to see them again.

Unfortunately, that won't be until show day. The next two days were jam packed full of fourteen hour work days, and I know they will be just as busy prepping for the show Saturday.

In an attempt to make the days pass quickly, I threw myself into my work. I loved being on set so much. This is exactly what I want to do with my life. Every morning, I pull onto the studio lot and pinch myself as I glance up at the Hollywood sign to make sure I'm not dreaming. I spend any time I'm not in front of the camera sitting next to the director absorbing everything I can, and learn as much as possible from different crew members.

When Saturday morning arrived, I awoke before my alarm. Today was my first full day free of work in a solid month. Surprisingly, I felt refreshed and ready to enjoy this day to the fullest.

The sounds of Fleetwood Mac flowed from the speakers of my turntable as I danced around my kitchen preparing my favorite tofu scramble with sautéed veggies and coffee. I sat cross legged on top of the counter eating when my phone buzzed with a text.

"Please tell me you're free all day and what time I'll get to see you?" A big smile crept across my face as I read Jared's words again before sending a reply.

"Yes, free all day and how soon do you want to see me?"

Just as I hit send the doorbell rang. I jumped down and rushed to the door looking through the peep hole. Mumbling, "Are you serious right now?" before I opened the door as far as the chain would allow, "How does now sound?" Jared asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Great, except for the fact that I'm not decent! I'll unlock the door, but don't you dare come in here until thirty seconds have passed."

Jared smirked at me, "What are you smirking about?" I asked.

"You just said thirty seconds." He chuckled

I laughed and rolled my eyes, "Unintentional pun, but I'm serious." I shut the door before he could respond and unlatched the chain, then ran down the hall to put pants on. Jared let himself in and walked into the kitchen.

After a few minutes rummaging through my closet, I threw on a pair of black sweatpants, a fresh t-shirt and grabbed my glasses. I glanced at my reflection on my way out of my closet trying to decide the fate of my unruly curls. I made my way into the living room, deciding to toss my hair into a messy bun.

I found Jared sitting on a barstool next to my breakfast, gazing out the window. The sound of my bare feet on the hardwood floor alerted him of my approach. He smiled at me and leapt from his seat, "Hey!" he said, spreading his arms open for a hug.

"Hey." I smiled back, "Are you happy to be home? Would you like some breakfast? I have plenty and it's still fairly warm."

"Very happy and yes, I would please. It smells amazing!"

I pulled a plate out of the cabinet and filled it full of food before placing it in front of Jared. Then I walked back around the counter digging a fork from the drawer, "I have some tea if you'd like? Or some dark chocolate almond milk?"

Glancing up at Jared, I waited for his response, "I haven't had chocolate almond milk in a while, that sounds delicious."

I felt his eyes on me as I moved about. Butterflies danced in my tummy and I couldn't stop smiling. My hands trembled as I poured milk into a glass for him. I shook my head and quietly laughed at my silliness and placed the glass in front of Jared, taking a seat next to him.

Jared took a bite of his breakfast and moaned lightly, "Damn, Andie, this is delicious!" I shivered at the sound he made as it reverberated through me. I gazed at Jared as he said, "That's two meals you've made for me now that we're both great. Even more reason for you to join the team." He winked.

"I'm glad you like it, and don't push your luck, Jared, I'm still processing."

"Yeah, you've been quite the busy bee lately, how's your show going?" he asked.

"Well, it's hardly my show, but I love it!"

As we sat there eating I felt like my body had a mind of its own. My feet bounced uncontrollably on the barstool, my heart was racing and I had to focus on regulating my breathing. Surely it was just excitement for the show tonight. It's been so long since I've seen them play. Or was it something else?

Jared broke my concentration when he asked, "Hey, you ok? You've been staring at your plate for five minutes."

Readjusting my glasses, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about the show tonight, I'm really excited to see you guys play."

Jared smiled, "I'm excited too, should be a great show. You sure you're ok? I should have called before I came over, I'm sorry." He said with a sigh.

"No, no. It's fine, really. I just got lost in my thoughts for a minute there."

I stood up and started clearing our plates, while Jared finished his milk before he walked over and placed it next to the sink.

"Ok, well, I've gotta go. I have to get some things rolling for tonight. The meet and greet with the Echelon is at three. So if you want, you can get there around two and we will have a little downtime." He stated as he walked towards the door. I followed him, wringing my hands together as I listened to his instructions.

"Sounds great, I'll be there around two." I answered, smiling up at him just as he pulled me into another hug. I wrapped my arms around him once again, squeezing him a little tighter before letting him go, and held the door open as he left.

"Bye Andrea, see you in a bit. Oh, when you get there give them your name at the talent entrance."

"Ok. Bye, J."

Shutting and locking the door behind him, I stomped across the living room, fell face first into the couch and let out a frustrated scream. "Get it together, Bennet!"

Around noon I made myself a small pizza and decided to start getting ready. After a shower, I perused my closet for tonight's outfit. My goal was comfort, so I opted for a dark grey crop top with a pair of cutoff shorts, my favorite flannel and my comfy converse. I left my long hair down to air dry, praying for my curls to behave. I switched out bags to a small cross-body purse and made another sweep of my home to ensure I had everything I needed and called Jared.

"Hey, Andie!" He said

"Hey Jared, I'm headed over, need me to bring you anything on the way?"

"See, you're a natural." He chuckled

"What are you talking about?" I asked before it dawned on me what he was referring to. "Ugh. I was just being nice, forget I asked. I'm on the way. Bye."

I arrived at the venue just after two o'clock and checked in as instructed. The big burly man named Steve according to his credentials announced my arrival into a two-way radio. Moments later I hear a female voice say, Let her in, I'm making my way down the hall to meet her." Steve opened the door and I started walking down the empty hallway.

"You must be Andrea, I'm Shayla! It's nice to meet you!" She smiled warmly at me, I smiled back, "Hey, yes I am, it's nice to meet you too, Shayla." She turned and gestured for me to follow her, making idle chit chat as we walked until she stopped, knocking on a door as she pushed it open. "Jared, Andrea's here."

There was no reply, but Shayla said, "Go on in, he may be in the restroom. I'll be back to check on you in a bit. I have to get a few things taken care of." I hesitated entering his dressing room unannounced, but Shayla nudged my arm in encouragement and went on her way.

Jared's things were strewn haphazardly throughout the room. I glanced around at my surroundings looking for a place to sit, settling for the couch in the corner.

I sat there quietly for a couple of minutes playing with the ends of my hair when I heard a door. Jared walked out of the bathroom, completely unaware of my proximity, with nothing but a towel wrapped dangerously low around his slim hips; his hands busy drying his hair with another towel. I suddenly felt like I was violating his privacy, so I quickly grabbed for my phone to distract myself from looking at his body.

I opened my phone, but hadn't managed to get much further when he cleared his throat, "Andrea."

#rescue me #jared leto fanfiction

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injusticeff · 6 years

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Chapter Seven

Simone

Waiting in the Starbucks line for my daily iced caramel macchiato, I looked over my surroundings and took in the scent of the freshly grounded coffee beans. I don't think there's not one time where I didn't have to wait in a line over here. It was ridiculous.

I already knew how much my drink would be so I already had my money out and prepared for the cashier to take. I really just wanted to get in and get out because me, Junior, and Saint are watching all of the Shrek movies before Saint has to go to work tonight.

I know how much my baby love his Shrek, plus I love the message of not judging a book by its cover. It's hella funny too. A damn classic.

Once I finally made it to the front of the line, I told the barista what I wanted to drink before paying for it and stepping aside to wait. As I took the step sideways, I accidentally collided with someone causing their coffee to spill all over the floor and a little bit on them too. Luckily it was iced coffee or that would have been a world of hurt.

“Shit! I’m so sorry.”

“Don't be. My luck’s been trash ever since I found the beginning of the rainbow instead of the end.” The petite caramel skinned girl responded as she wiped some of the coffee off of her pants with a spare napkin.

I giggled but tried to keep it as silent as possible so I wouldn't seem like an asshole for laughing but this girl clearly has hawk ears.

“Oh, you like that huh? I’ve been working on my pick up lines all night. Rate one to five, go!” A smug grin spread across her face causing me to laugh again before shaking my head.

“Unfortunately for you, I have a boyfriend. But I could definitely buy you another coffee for spilling all of yours. Plus, you seem pretty cool.” I smiled at her causing her return to the grin and nod as we made our way back in the line. “So what’s your name?”

“Nae. What's yours?”

“Nae? Is that like short for something? And my name’s Simone.”

She shook her head. “Just Nae.”

Confidence was literally oozing out of this girl. Her energy was mad bright and I felt like I needed something bright in my life for once. Strictly as a friend though, fucking with a girl has never really crossed my mind because I'm so used to dick.

I'm getting back on a good note with Tiarra so another positive female energy will definitely help. I feel like if even an ounce of her confidence rubbed off on me, I'd be happy for life.

“So Simone, how many cups of coffee does this make for you?”

As if on cue, my drink was ready and my name was called. "That's actually my first." I pointed over to it before going to grab it then swiftly getting back in line.

“This is gonna be three for me.”

“And it's still early.” I gave her a cheesy smile causing her to roll her eyes and laugh as she nodded in agreement.

“I’ve tried to quit since forever but the beans, they just get me every time.”

The playful sarcasm was pretty refreshing since I'm so used to the hateful sarcasm I always used to be subjected to. It kind of reminds me of how my mom is with my dad during one of his shenanigans. Sarcasm was a super power she used to the fullest and it made my dad mad but then they'd both just end up laughing about it together. Goals as fuck.

We talked some more about random stuff before finally reaching the front of the line. She ordered her drink and a chocolate chunk muffin on me.

Feeling my phone vibrate in my back pocket, I pulled it out as I sipped on my ice coffee. I read the text from Tiarra from my notification bar. Damn, I totally forgot she was even coming to meet me here today as payback for her running out on her plans last time she was here.

From: 👑

pulling in the parking lot now.

I didn't really feel the need to respond so I just turned to Nae who was now getting her coffee and halfway through with her muffin already.

“Damn girl, is it good? And you wanna sit down?”

She nodded as she gulped down her drink like it was nothing before starting to follow me towards one of the tables. For some reason, I can't drink coffee too fast because it gives me a bad headache.

“Oh, by the way, my sister’s coming to meet me here in a couple of minutes so I hope you don’t mind the company.”

“If she’s anything like you then I’m sure we'll get along just fine.” She gave me a cheesy grin causing me to roll my eyes and wave her off. Honestly, I don’t know whether Saint would be happy or angry that a girl is trying to hit on me. There’s so many different ways this situation can go but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Once Tiarra finally walked through the door, I waved her over to our table signaling her to us. She smiled as she reached our table, greeting me with a quick “hey girl” as she dropped her bag in my lap.

“Hm, watch that. I gotta go get me a vanilla latte.” She then excitedly hurried off before I could say anything else, leaving me and Nae to just stare at each other in surprise as she raised her eyebrows at me.

This wasn't a very good first impression. Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing but I know Tiarra just loves her a cup of coffee. She's literally been drinking coffee for as long as I could remember. I used to hate the taste when I was younger, I really just started actually drinking coffee about a year and a half ago.

“So... what's your sister's name?” She asked as she downed the rest of her drink. Damn, that was fast. Guess she really wasn't playing about the whole bean thing.

“Tiarra.”

She raised an eyebrow before chuckling. “Uh, is she a prissy princess like her name implies or can I be cordial this afternoon?”

“Well... Tiarra is... well, she's very... charming once you actually get to know her. She's just got that tough exterior up but don't we all?” I laughed out nervously. I didn't want any problems. Tiarra might be a brat but one thing about her is, she never backs down from anyone.

Nae shook her head no in response. “I don't.”

“Well, then consider yourself lucky to not have those burdens weighing down on you.”

“Nah, I'd consider myself lucky enough to be able to let go and accept the past for what it is. I don't regret anything I do because at the time, I wanted to do it. So should I feel bad and down myself because society tells me what I'm doing is wrong? Fuck no, what is society doing for me right now? Look, the way I see it, all I got it myself so at the end of the day, that's who I live to please. Myself.”

My eyes stayed widened throughout her whole speech. Too be honest, a lot of that shit was true. I have all of these things I'm holding onto and worrying about but I never make time for myself and what I love.

All of these years, I've just wanted to be surrounded by the love of my family and now that I finally got that, I feel like the luckiest woman on the planet. I have my baby boy, a man who loves me the exact same way I love him—maybe more, and my sister and parents. I've actually gotten to visit them now that officially free of the confinement I've been subjected to for the past four years. Man, it feels so good to finally be free.

The sound of a chair screeching against the floor broke me out of my thoughts, causing me to realize that Tiarra had taken a seat right beside me with her drink in hand and steaming hot.

“Hey sis, who's your friend?”

Earth to Simone. “Oh, Tiarra this is Nae. Nae this is Tiarra, my sister.” They shared a clearly forced cordial nod at each other as they were being introduced. I don't even know what their problem is, they have no reason not to like each other already. They just met.

“So, when'd you two meet?”

Thank God. I thought there was gonna be that silent awkward pause and I'm so bad at try to get out of those. “Actually, in here. We bumped into each other and I offered to buy her a drink to make up for the one I spilled when we bumped into each other.”

“Aw, my baby sis is so generous. Although, I would have went half and half because I mean, it takes two to not be paying attention and collide with each other.”

I quickly started sipping on my coffee at how the conversation was taking a turn. Nae made a “bitch I know you fuckin’ lyin’” face at her before turning to me with a nonchalant expression.

“I don't like her.”

Nae blurted out so loud that even the next table over could hear what she said. I nearly spit out my drink. Honestly, I wasn't even mad because Tiarra was being kind of a bitch but it still was hell of funny seeing them go at it over nothing. Although, if I didn't do something quick, somebody was gonna be dragging somebody up and down this Starbucks.

“Ok, so Nae let me get your number so we can hang out some time. I gotta get going but I could really see us being friends.”

Tiarra and Nae shared this intense silent glare for a few seconds before Nae finally turned to me with a smile. “Yea, sure babe. Here. Put your number in my phone and I'll call you so you have my number.” She handed me the phone and I did as she said then gave it back to her.

Once everything was settled, we both made our way out of the establishment departing in two separate ways.

“You know, I only did that so nobody would pop off. Why you always gotta act like that T?” I whispered angrily to Tiarra once we were out of earshot from Nae.

“I can't help that other females hate me ‘cause I'm a bad bitch. That's like being mad at someone for breathing. They don't have no choice.”

I rolled my eyes at her little analogy. She knows damn well she was wrong for that. “Whatever, you know what I'm talking about. You need to quit, one day you gonna run into someone who don't give a fuck.”

“And on that day, that person will realize they have met yet another person who does not give a fuck.”

I just shook my head because I was done talking about this with her. I swear she is the last person someone could get through to. She's so stubborn and she always thinks she right all the time and never sees a fault in anything she does wrong. I guess she got the self-esteem or both of us mixed into one because she sure does love herself.

“Hey, can I use your phone right quick? Mine died and I needa call my boyfriend to tell him to leave the door unlocked when he leaves. I need to make another stop.”

“I thought we were gonna hang out together.” I pouted, stomping my feet in a small temper tantrum.

She sighed. “I'm sorry, I just have so much shit to do. This weekend, I promise.”

I let out a disappointed breath before pulling out my phone and unlocking it then handing it to her. Starting to get my things settled in my car, I drunk the rest of my iced coffee then went to throw it away. By the time I came back, she was done with the call and handing me my phone as she embraced me in a hug.

“Alright, I'll see you later Monie. Don't forget to text me.”

I smiled because she hasn't called me that since we were little girls. We used to be hella close back then and I think her calling me that again is a really good sign.

Things are finally going back to how they used to be.

Xae

I laid the last petal down perfectly completing the array of other rose petals that now decorated our bed and floor.

Ever since that night, I’ve been trying my best to make things up to Bree by just focusing all on her. Shit, little mama deserves it with the way she’s been putting up with my shenanigans lately. I don’t know what’s been fucking with my head but all I know is that I need to stop before I lose the love of my life.

I was never the type of nigga to only realize what he has when he loses it because I won't have to lose it if I'm already giving it the recognition that I'm supposed to. I'm high all the time so I actually just be sitting there thinking about that kind of shit. Them other niggas be acting too impulsively to stop and just think sometimes.

Although I’ve done something nice like this for her before, for some reason, today I was especially nervous. I didn’t even know what I had to be nervous about. She’s my girl.

Initially, I was going to take her out on a date night but I wanted shit to be romantic. I didn’t want anything to seem like it was planned last minute or for things to be too cliché. So I gave her some money to go get her nails and feet done since she’s been complaining about her nails growing out since last week, while I set up any and everything I could think of. I just hope she doesn’t get home before I get a chance to finish.

Looking around the room one last time to make sure everything was in place, I smiled to myself because I just knew she would be surprised and I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she first lays eyes on it.

On our nightstand, there was a small bucket of ice with a bottle of wine sitting perfectly on top. There were rose petals literally everywhere. Soft slow R&B was playing lightly through my portable speaker while Netflix was already all prepared to watch. And candles decorated the perimeter of the room.

Everything looked amazing.

Finally hearing the door start to unlock, I quickly shut off our bedroom lights and closed the bedroom door to add on more to the surprise. I jumped onto the bed, frantically trying to fix and smooth myself out before she got back here.

I almost chuckled at myself because of how skittish I was acting but if I laughed now, it would just fuck up all the hard work that I put into this.

She finally opened the door, immediately freezing in motion as she took in her surroundings before her eyes ultimately landed on me. A grin spread across her face as she made her way over to me, leaning across the bed to plant a kiss on my lips.

“You are so damn corny, you know that?” She spoke once we pulled away from each other causing a light snicker to leave my lips. “Te amo mucho cariño.”

I knew what those words meant because she said it enough for me to be able to catch on. “I love you too. And I just wanted to show you how much you mean to me by doing something nice for you. We always going out and shit but tonight, I just wanted to do something personal that came from the heart. I already had all this planned and got you out of the house by getting your nails done.”

“Deceiving your girlfriend? Bad boy...” She took another glance around the room and smiled in satisfaction. “But considering how much work you put in and how beautiful everything looks, I can forgive you.”

“Girl, you had no choice. Come here.” Grabbing her by the wrist, I snatched her down in my direction causing her to squeal as she fell on top of me giggling.

I tucked some of the hair that was in her face behind her ear to get a better look at her while we just stared at each other. Melancholy soon took over me as I remembered all of the good times we had together just by the sheer look in her eyes. They told me how she felt about me without her even having to speak a word of it.

I slowly leaned down and our lips met each other once more as I felt her hand cup my face. I bit my bottom lip as I pulled away. “Please tell me you haven’t eaten yet. I made your favorite shrimp Alfredo.”

“Mm, so that’s what I smelled when I walked in. You just had everything all planned, huh? You must be trying to get some major pussy tonight.”

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes and mushed her playfully before getting up to offer her my hand. Once she took it, I led her to the kitchen where our food was still simmering lowly on the stove. I dished out both of our food as she poured us some of the wine from our bedroom.

As we ate and talked, I kept stealing some of her shrimp off of her plate which I know she hates because that’s her favorite part. Every time I did it, I got smacked somewhere; anywhere. Eventually she got fed up and launched a noodle at my face with her fork causing me to form an “O” shape with my mouth.

“Oh, it’s on.”

Scooping up some of the creamy noodles from my plate, I grabbed her by the neckline of her shirt and shoved them down that guy. “Xae! Ew! That’s feels like little worms!” She said as she tried her best to shake all of the noodles out of her shirt causing me to shrug.

“You started it—” I didn’t even get to finish before she tossed some food straight into my mouth with the leftovers slapping me in the face in the process.

That turned things into a full blown food fight that I knew neither one of us was going to want to clean up later on. It would be nice to have a maid right about now. She officially ends things by just taking her entire plate and smushing it in my face. There was literally a Parmesan sauce mask on my face.

“Alright. You win.” I surrendered causing her to stick her tongue out at me just as I scooped her close to me and started to spread the sauce equally on her face. “Never let your guard down, the battle is never over!” She couldn’t help but to bust out laughing which only caused me to do the same in response.

Once we were finally able to settle down, we both looked around the dining room at the mess we made then looked at each other with that same ‘I wonder who’s gonna clean all this up’ look on our faces as if we could read each other’s mind.

“Let’s worry about this later. For now, we gotta get ourselves cleaned up.” She said, breaking the silence.

A mischievous look instantly formed on my face as I raised an eyebrow. “Shower together?”

“Shower together.”

***

I mean, you already know I had to beat them cheeks in the shower. It was only right. She might have won the food fight but I still had to show her who was the boss around here.

“Every time I step back in here, it looks more beautiful than the last time I saw it.” She sighed lovingly, referring to our bedroom. I was hoping she liked it so I’m glad all of my hard work paid off.

Now I just had one more thing to do.

Going to my side of the bed, I opened the drawer of our nightstand and pulled out a small red box. I chose red because it went perfectly with the roses.

I walked over to her with my hands behind my back causing her to raise her eyebrows at me. “Xae, what are you hiding? I can’t do another food fight, I just got all of that Alfredo out my hair—” I cut her off with a slow and meaningful kiss. One that made her forget all about what she was saying just a few seconds ago as she melted into the kiss.

“No more fights.”

Getting down on one knee, her eyes instantly grew wide at my actions as I pulled the box from behind my back and opened it up so she could see the ring that was inside.

“Bree, will you marry me?”

She stared at me for a long time as if she was trying to process everything that was happening. “Are you serious? Like, don’t play.”

“I’m not playing.”

As soon as I said that tears started forming in her eyes but after a few seconds, I realized that they weren’t tears of joy that she was crying. I got up and snaked my arms around her waist, pulling her into me. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“No.”

I grabbed her shoulders and backed up a little bit to get a good look at her face and make sure I heard what I thought I heard correctly. “What you say?”

“No. My answer is no.”

“What? B-But I thought this is what you wanted? Is it not?”

She sighed, wiping her tears and looking up at me so that we were staring directly into each other’s eyes. “Yes... but I don’t want you to do this because you feel guilty and obligated. I want you to do it because you truly want to be with me for the rest of your life.”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t want to.” I tried to reassure her which only made her straighten out her expression.

“Tell me then. Tell me I’m the only person that you one hundred percent honestly want to be with until the day you die.”

I opened my mouth up to speak but I couldn’t even find any words to speak right now. It closed just as quickly as it opened. Disappointed in myself more than anything, I looked down at the ring as I slowly closed the box back up. I felt her hand cup my face as she brought it up to look at her.

“I love you Xavier, with everything in me and I want you to propose to me when you’re ready too. Not just when I’m ready.”

Her being so understanding just made me feel even more like shit. She gently pressed her lips against mine and I could still taste the tears that were previously there. I’m so stupid. Why couldn’t I just say that I wanted to marry her? I brought the ring out so what the fuck was stopping me? It’s like something was literally stuck in my throat and stopping me from even making a single noise.

I guess maybe it was because I wasn’t expecting that reaction from her? Or maybe... just maybe...

It was something much deeper than that.

Tiarra

I slowly ran my hands down my face with an exasperated sigh.

This was all too exhausting. I had been finishing myself off to Saint's picture every day after me and my boyfriend have sex because for some reason, I just can't finish with him anymore. I was very good at masking it though. In fact, I've probably mastered it after all these years. Not a soul would be able to tell you how I'm really feeling or what I'm really thinking about.

No one except me of course.

Sometimes I'm part of the reason people be having trust issues. But what can I say? I get over on people before they have the chance to get over on me. I don't expect anything from anyone because expectations will only disappoint you. It's better to accept the fact that anyone's capable of everything and only people close to you can betray you; so, it's best not to get too close.

***Flashback***

“Baby, we can't right now. You know I gotta go pick my little sister up from practice.” I reminded him with a small grin as I pushed him away causing his lips to leave their previous spot on my neck.

He sat back and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don't even know why you always have to do everything for her. She's sixteen, she's not no baby. She should know how to drive her damn self.”

I rolled my eyes in response. We've already had this conversation over a hundred times and every time it went the same way. He was just going to have to accept the fact that family comes first, I don't know what he didn't get about that.

Pulling out of the parking space my car was parked in, I headed off in the direction of our school. I was already pushing my time and her volleyball practice was over in five minutes. I didn't want her to just be sitting out there waiting because I know I wouldn't want to be in that position. He's acting like he can't just get some pussy after I drop her off.

“You're so impatient, man. Why you always acting some type of way towards Simone anyway?” I'm not even going to lie, I was starting to catch an attitude because this was getting old. He always had a damn problem with something.

I looked over at him for a quick second as I waited for an answer, only to see him just staring out the window with an annoyed look on his face as he shook his head. “Nothing bruh.”

You don't have to tell me twice. I just shut my black ass up. I ain't sign up for this.

The rest of the ride was just angry silence from the both of us. Once we got to the school, I parked right out front before shooting Simone a text letting her know that I was here. After a couple of minutes, I saw her open the door as she laughed alongside this dude she had been talking to. They were actually a really cute couple, he had been chasing her down for half the semester and she finally gave him the time of day. With a bit of my persuasion of course.

Looking at my boyfriend, I noticed he was staring at them too. They looked like they were happy to be talking to each other. Ah, young love.

My boyfriend's nostrils flared at the sight of them before he averted his attention back over to me. “Look, all I'm saying is you always putting yo sister above me and shit when she not even doing the same for you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

He chuckled bitterly. “Yo precious baby sis been tryna hit my line for the passed two weeks now.”

“You're lying.”

Shrugging nonchalantly, he sat back a little farther in his seat. “Don't believe me if you want to.”

Honestly, I didn't know what I wanted to do. As far as I know, he's never lied to me so it's hard to just dismiss what he said just because she's my sister. If it's the truth and I don't want to believe it, I'll just be sitting there looking dumb.

“Where's the proof?”

“I, uh, reset my phone last night 'cause it was acting slow but that's besides the point. Point is, I'm sick of that girl always getting in between me and you. I promised her I wasn't gonna say anything though so do me a favor and keep your mouth closed about it.”

Scrunching up my face, I looked at him like he was crazy. How the hell am I not supposed to say anything about it? That was the first thing I wanted to do when she says bye to her little boyfriend and finally gets her ass in the car. “Fuck you mean? So, you making deals with her to keep shit from me now?”

“I told you, didn't I? Don't start with that shit man.”

Our conversation was cut off by Simone hopping in the car causing me to grip the steering wheel tight with clenched teeth. I wanted to say something so fucking bad.

“Hey T. Hey Marco.”

“Wassup?” He said as he responded to her greeting with an unconcerned nod.

I kept silent as my jaw clenched though because I already know if I opened my mouth, ain't no telling what would come out of it. I was fuming.

***Flashback ends***

I stared back at the number I had gotten earlier that was on my phone screen. I was really just contemplating and weighing out all the pros and cons. Pro: dick. Con: drama.

Drama that I've already had the pleasure of going through and don't feel like dealing with now. Sighing, I stared down at the number just sitting there on my phone screen. I was really debating on whether or not I should do this. I could be risking a lot if I decided to text his number but then again, it's nothing I haven't risked before.

Asking for Simone's phone because mine was "dead" was genius if I do say so myself. She didn't even give it a second thought. I really had to call someone so it looked legit but really I was just trying to get Saint's digits. Attempted and succeeded.

I don't know why but right now, I was starting to have second thoughts so I hurried up and called before I talked myself out of it. After the third ring, I heard his deep voice boom through the speaker of my phone.

“Hello.” He answered with a strong accent causing me to bite down on my bottom lip, already getting turned on by the bass in his voice.

“Hey, is this Saint?”

“Yea, who this?”

Well shit, I can't just up and say my name right now. I need to know that I can trust him to keep this a secret first. “Let's just say you have a secret admirer.” I responded in a more seductive tone.

“Sorry, ion want no girl scout cookies.”

The call suddenly ended causing me to just stare at my phone with a scrunched up expression on my face before rolling my eyes. Niggas is too childish. For real though. I guess I'll just have to try another time.

Feeling my phone vibrate, I saw that it was a text from Simone causing my heart rate to speed up. Please don't tell me that he snitched on me that quick. These hoes ain't loyal.

From: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

Hey T, you doing anything rn?

I sighed in relief. That was a close one. I couldn't decide whether I was going to answer or just pretend I'm sleep so that I didn't have to get dressed up and go anywhere. Being the nice sister I am though, I typed up my reply back to her.

To: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

nothin... why?

Honestly, I just might as well start getting ready now because I know she's about to invite me somewhere. Hopefully, we're hanging out at her house because I need some more pictures of Saint. I been using the same picture and I mean, he still looks fine but a girl needs variety to go along with her mood. Ya feel me?

From: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

Me and Nae are going out dancing and I want you to come with us. I know you and her didn't get off to a good start so I want y'all to start over and have some fun. You know I can't have fun and turn up without my big sister there so at least be cordial. ☹️🙏🏽

I rolled my eyes harder than I probably ever have in my life. I didn't wanna go anywhere with that bitch. I just know that it's not going to end well... for her, that is.

To: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

🙄 i don't like her!!

You could tell that bitch just thought she was the shit, I don't know how Simone didn't see it. She walks around like her shit don't stink. But you know what? Maybe she needs a bad bitch like me to take her down a few notches.

From: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

Pleeaaasssseeeee.

Sighing, I got up and went into my closet to find an outfit. I think a cute sparkly dress would do me justice underneath all the dim lighting. If you're going to stand out, at least do it right boo. Okurr?

To: Baby Sis 👶🏽🍼

fine 😐 but you owe me.

It took me no longer than ten minutes to get dressed, now I just needed to do my hair and makeup and I could meet them at the club.

***

Pulling up to the establishment, I vibrated in my car due to the bass from the loud music being blasted inside the building. This place looks lit to be honest. There was a line out the door and everything, it was packed.

I texted Simone to let her know I was here since we most likely wouldn't be able to just find each other in this crowd. She let me know she was almost near the front of the line before she told me to look up as she waved me over to them. Making my way over there, I flashed Nae a smile with sarcasm written all over my face causing her to roll her eyes in response.

“Behave y’all. I want us to all have fun tonight.” Simone told us in a stern voice.

“Woah baby sis, your mom tendencies are showing.” I responded with a light chuckle, making her do the same as her friend just stayed quiet.

I could already tell that this was going to be a long night. Once we got into the club, we all eyed our surroundings with smiles on our faces. Literally everyone in here was getting lit somehow. It’s like everyone who didn’t know how to have a good time was kicked out and replaced by someone who does.

We all immediately made our way to the bar to order a round of drinks. Nae's presence wasn't completely annoying once I had a few drinks in my system. I don't know about anyone else but after my third drink, I was feeling hella tipsy and insisted that we all go dance.

“Nae girl, you should find you a man. There are some cute niggas here tonight.” Simone yelled out to her as we all made a little sandwich with my sister by dancing mad close together.

Her friend just replied with a chuckle. “Not interested, if you catch my drift.”

“Oh, so you're gay? Now I get it.”

She stopped dancing and scrunched up her face at me with furrowed eyebrows. “What do you mean you get it?”

“The reason why you ‘hate’ me so much.” I replied, using my fingers as quotation marks. “You really secretly feeling a bitch but don't know how to express your feelings.”

I just smirked at the thought because honestly, I've never known a female to think of me in that way; at least not that I know of. She responded simply with a loud cackle, taking a few moments to catch her breath as Simone and I just stared at her. My face immediately fell.

“Don't flatter yourself slick. I wouldn't fuck with you even in your wildest dreams. You ain't my type.”

After she said that, she sized me up with her eyes with a disgusted face. I know this bitch didn't just give me no stink eye. She'd be lucky to even kiss the feet of a bitch like me.

I clenched my teeth. “Simone... I'm tryna be cordial tonight but this bitch is pushing it and I don't wanna have to whoop nobody ass in this club tonight.” Nae only laughed more as Simone just stood there speechless.

“You don't even look like you can whip your own ass. You been starting with me since this morning and you talking out your ass right now because you got a few drinks in you so please just give me a reason.”

I didn't say any words, I simply just sloppily pushed her with all of the strength I could muster up causing her to respond by doing the same as Simone stepped in between us.

“Hey! What the hell did I say bruh? Be cordial. Damn, can you not do that for a couple hours Tiarra?”

I looked at her like she had five heads. “Me? I'm your sister and you switching up on me by taking up for this bitch you just met today?”

“T, get over yourself. Wrong is wrong no matter who you are. I specifically asked you because I knew you would try to say something slick and just like I predicted, you did!”

“The bitch is gay, it's not like I was saying some shit she didn't just say. Damn, you acting like I called that hoe a faggot or a dyke or some shit.” I was getting heated now because it really be your own family. That's one of the reasons I still don't trust her ass now. She probably likes the bitch on the down low and don't wanna tell nobody but I already peep game. “Whatever, I'm out. Have fun with your new friend. I'm pretty sure you don't need me no more.”

Before she could say anything else, I left the club and made my way to my car to get home as quickly as possible. Now I know that she’s way too quick to switch up on me. And to think I was actually starting to feel bad about borrowing Saint's number off her phone. Psh.

Since she wants to play that game, I can too.

#chris brown ff #saweetie #urban ff #chris brown #chrisbrown #saweetie ff #injusticeff #cb

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fivndfyre-blog · 6 years

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--- love flows through my veins. i am made of it.

VICTOIRE DELACOUR-WEASLEY really is the spitting image of ANA DE ARMAS, right? For someone only TWENTY-FIVE years old, VICTOIRE has been forced to endure so much. Yeah, that ONE-EIGHT VEELA has been scraping by at the sanctuary for EIGHT MONTHS now, working as a LEADER AND CARETAKER in the DIVISION OF CIVILIANS. SHE identifies as CIS-FEMALE and is known to be STUBBORN and IMPULSIVE but also LOVING and PLAYFUL. Best of luck surviving through this. ⊰ DRIZZLE, 20, GMT/GMT+1, SHE/HER ⊱

your local steve harrington here to protect the young ones from monsters tbh

okay so !!! vic’s obviously part of the large wotter clan, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. she loved growing up in a large family, surrounded by siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles. she’s got so much love in her heart for them, she’s ride or die for every single one tbh. growing up in a large family really made her want one of her own, as well, and so from a really young age ( i’m talking like.... pre-hogwarts ) she’s dreamed of having a lot of kids like her grandma molly.

vic was one of those lucky, rare few people who figured out very early what she wanted to do after she graduated and what she wanted out of life, so it was never something she had to stress over. it really only took a few visits to her uncles’ joke shop growing up for her to know that’s where she belonged. she wanted to bring smiles to kids faces, to come up with new inventions, and continue on the legacy of weasleys’ wizard wheezes. ideally, she would have like to started there immediately, but you can’t really hire a 10-year-old, so she had to suck it up and attend hogwarts first.

once she got to hogwarts, she was sorted into gryffindor, though hufflepuff was a close second. her admiration for bravery, courage, and loyalty was what convinced the hat to sort her into gryffindor, however, and she fit right in.

since vic already knew what she wanted to do after hogwarts, and she didn’t really need to get great grades to achieve it, she was never a student who really took her studies seriously. instead, she was one prone to pranks and rule-breaking, probably driving the professors a bit mad. she wanted to enjoy her hogwarts years to the fullest, and make sure that her classmates did as well, so she always tried to take it upon herself to lighten people’s moods and make sure they didn’t overwork themselves, especially around exam seasons. however, she always tried her hardest to make sure that her pranks were harmless and didn’t upset anyone.

vic can be an extremely playful, mischievous and often immature person, which was likely what most of her classmates saw of her in hogwarts, but she has her heart in the right place and is always there to help anyone who needs it. whether that is a shoulder to lean on, a distraction, or simple a cup of relaxing tea, she’s willing and ready to do whatever she can to make the people around her feel better. she especially tried to look out for the younger students, and helped them settle in away from home as much as she could.

since she was sixteen, she worked at weasleys’ wizard wheezes during holidays, before joining her uncles there full-time once she graduated ( with pretty low test scores, mind you, but graduated nonetheless ). working there was everything she imagined --- despite the occasional rude customer, she was excited to go to work everyday, to come up with new product prototypes, to make a little kid’s day.

once she turned 20, she decided that she wanted to start working on her family. she’d dreamed of having kids since she was one herself ( was always the first to offer to babysit her other family members, even when she wasn’t even old enough to go without one herself ), and though she wanted to one day find a loving and supportive relationship like that of her parents, she knew you couldn’t predict love. she didn’t want to wait for love to come around in case she didn’t find someone to settle down with until she was much older, so she got a sperm donor so she could begin to form her own family. at age 21, she gave birth to her first two kids, eléonore and adrien, and at 23 she had her third kid, tom.

i think some people were probably like ...... yikes that can’t end well when they heard she was gonna be a single mum so young, especially her old professors, because she didn’t exactly give off the best picture at hogwarts - she was immature and careless and irresponsible and seemed to lack any drive, which was all true, but there’s nothing she’s ever wanted more than to be a mother, so it wasn’t a careless decision she made on a whim. she’d done her research, she knew what she was heading into. and despite all the hard work that came with being a mother, the struggles through the pregnancy, the sleepless nights, the expenses, she’s never once looked back and never once regretted it.

when the war began, victoire quickly joined the order alongside her family. she wanted her kids to grow up in a safe world without war, and she wasn’t going to just sit back and hope that the situation sorted itself out --- she would do anything she could to help make it better and protect those that couldn’t protect themselves. it would go against everything in her to just turn a blind eye to what was going on.

the inferi outbreak was something she never saw coming --- really, who did? the thought of it terrified her, especially of it happening to any of her family members. she left for hogwarts as soon as it opened its doors to the public, since she knew her kids would be safer there and that the rest of her family would travel there too. since she was living in hogsmeade with her kids, it thankfully wasn’t a far trip, and she got there quite quickly and efficiently.

vic has now been at hogwarts for eight months, working as a caretaker and leader in the division of civilians. at first, she considered taking an active rescuing role or one guarding the castle, like some of her relatives did, but she honestly couldn’t bear it to spend that much time away from her kids in a situation like this, especially considering how young they all are. besides that, she just wanted to take care of all the kids there who have no chance of defending themselves, and since there has unfortunately become orphans due to the zombie outbreak she wants to make sure someone’s really watching over them. she applied for a role as a leader within the division because she wanted to do more to keep things going and help people adjust and stay calm, and although she does everything she can for everyone within the division, her priorities are often focused on their kids and their wellbeing.

should worse come to worst and the zombies breach the premise, she wants to be there fighting tooth and nails for these kids tbh. she refuses to let anything bad happen to them on her watch

#inferi intro #me: stopped caring 2 pics into this graphic #aNYWAY #( ch: victoire delacour-weasley. )#( about: victoire delacour-weasley. )#( intro: victoire delacour-weasley. )

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