#side note: he will attack anyone but cyrus | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shemakesmusic-uk · 3 years

Photo

youtube

Texan-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and TikTok personality Allison Ponthier makes a splash with 'Cowboy' – it's the enthralling first taste of her upcoming EP. Finding a path away from her conservative upbringing, queer singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier is another artist making country music her own. Taking references from Kacey Musgraves and Orville Peck, Ponthier's take on the genre is high camp and features a kaleidoscopic visual world too. Growing a huge following on TikTok, 'Cowboy' marks the start of a whole new chapter for Ponthier with her debut release with Interscope and Polydor. The track itself references her move from the bible belt to New York City and her journey accepting her sexuality. Warm and inviting 'Cowboy' is cinematic pop with some real heart-on-sleeve confessional songwriting. Complete with a masterful music video that runs like a mini-movie complete with impressive special effects, on reflection, cinematic is an understatement. The video itself is a striking and exciting introduction to this new artist, “I probably watch movies more than I listen to music,” Ponthier says of the video. The clip, directed by Jordan Bahat (Christine and the Queens) adds a whole new cosmic energy to the track and aims to amplify the lyrics' detailed storytelling. As she unveils more of her forthcoming debut EP, Ponthier explains what we can expect from her; “a lot of my songs are about being uncomfortable in your own skin but getting to know yourself better, figuring out who you really are.” [via the Line Of Best Fit]

youtube

Miley Cyrus has shared the full video for 'Angels Like You'. The pop rebel returned in 2020 with her excellent album Plastic Hearts, a series of superb empowerment anthems. Album highlight 'Angels Like You' has received the video treatment, shot at the Superbowl in front of an audience of fully vaccinated healthcare workers. Miley has also provided a note for the video describing her feelings of gratitude to these workers. [via Clash]

youtube

LA punk four-piece The Paranoyds have dropped a new video for track 'Egg Salad', taken from their album Carnage Bargain which is out now on Suicide Squeeze. The video's director Nicole Stunwyck comments "The video presents the glitzy & glamorous world of a teenage girl who, after accidentally catching a beauty pageant on TV, dreams of her rise to stardom & subsequent downfall... It’s not a commentary on anything but an experimental depiction of my own personal fascination for young tragic starlets alà Valley of The Dolls."

youtube

Noga Erez and collaborative partner ROUSSO have shared a fifth compelling new single from forthcoming album KIDS which is set for release on March 26 via City Slang. 'Story' is a snappy, addictive song about how couples relationships are always a relationship between two people’s past and present. "Everyone brings their past experiences to the relationship even if things are great" Erez comments. "Sometimes past situations come in and take over." As with the album's previous singles 'Story' is brought to life with a captivating video, starring Erez and ROUSSO, who also provides vocals on the track. "ROUSSO is my partner in music as well as my partner in life" she explains. "This is the first time we tell a story about our relationship in a song and video. It’s a song about a couple fighting and how, in that situation, sometimes what you hear the other person say is not what they actually said. The making of this video was a 10-day couples therapy session for us. As we rehearsed the pretend fighting and martial arts moves we knew that, at times, one of us would get punched just a little too hard. It was so intense and interesting to live in this world, where our relationship comes alive in the most physical way."

youtube

After announcing Detritus with lead outing 'Stories' last month, Sarah Neufeld has unveiled the album's second single 'With Love and Blindness'. Neufeld says of the song and Jason Last-directed video, "The video for 'With Love and Blindness' came together through a long-time collaboration between myself and videographer Jason Last. I knew that Jason and I would work together again on some visual aspect for my third solo release, and it so happened that before I even began recording the album, we were presented with the opportunity to do a mini residence on Corsica with Providenza; an amazing collective with a farm, cultural laboratory, festival and residency program." She continues, "I was doing a short solo tour in Europe in the summer of 2019 in order to re-work some of the pieces from the dance collaboration to begin to find a shape for the album that was to be recorded in the Fall. In the middle of that tour, Jason and I travelled to Corsica for several days (graced once again with a suitcase containing Esteban Cortazar’s unique and beautiful creations). Besides performing in Providenza’s outdoor amphitheater, we were immersed in nature, literally staying in a treehouse perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the dramatic coastline." Neufeld adds, "I found that the pulse of the landscape resonated with the essence of the music, especially "With Love and Blindness"; a sense of rawness, of sensuality, of a strange gravity intensified by the hypnotic summer heat and the general otherworldliness of the place." [via the Line Of Best Fit]

youtube

Molly Burman was brought up around music. At every family event, every party, the soundtrack would resonate with her, providing an education in itself. Both parents were gigging musicians, and she always wanted to follow in their footsteps, to use performance as a means of self-expression. Lockdown brought the time and space to bring these ideas into focus, and she's working to unveil a series of one off singles. Her debut single proper 'Fool Me With Flattery' is out now, a blissfully melodic piece of indie pop with some whip-smart lyricism. There's a tongue in cheek element to her sound that is fantastically endearing, matched by the subtle lo-fi elements of her bedroom pop confection. She comments: "I wrote the song after a long day of feeling overlooked and ignored by some of the guys in my life. I was fed up, angry and used the stereotype of a mansplaining misogynist to let it all out. This song is for anyone who feels belittled and like they’re being made to shrink themselves; be as big as you possibly can, and don’t let anyone fool you with flattery." The video is a hilarious showcase for Molly's offbeat sense of humour. [via Clash]

youtube

Punk provocateurs Pussy Riot have unveiled their latest song 'Panic Attack', as well as a music video that features a hologram of singer Nadya Tolokonnikova. This is the final release from Pussy Riot’s new Panic Attack EP, a collection of three linked songs that, for now, can only be streamed as separate singles. The title track features punk guitars underneath a tinkling music box melody, as Tolokonnikova turns anxiety into a sports cheer. “Gimme an A,” she says, “Gimme a T/ Gimme a T/ Gimme an A/ Gimme a C/ Gimme a K/ Okay? Okay.” While upbeat and seemingly cheerful, the synth-punk song comes out of the trauma she experienced in a Russian prison camp. As she explained in a statement, “After serving 2 years in a labor camp, I’m still struggling with mental health issues. Trauma, fear and insecurity never fully go away, causing depression episodes and deep anxiety. ‘PANIC ATTACK’ was born as the result of me staring at the wall for 24 hours in the middle of the pandemic, feeling 100% helpless. I was trying to write something uplifting to encourage people to get through the tough times. But I was just failing and failing. Magically, at the second I allowed myself to be honest and write about despair I was experiencing, I wrote the track in like a half an hour. Depression is a plague of the 21st century, and it tells me that there’s something broken in the way we treat each other. The video ‘PANIC ATTACK’ reflects on objectification of human beings, loneliness, disconnection from the environment that causes us to feel small and powerless. And it’s us who caused it with our own hands – that’s why in the end of the video I’m fighting with my own clone.” The music video for 'Panic Attack' was directed by Asad J. Malik. He used 106 cameras to capture all angles of Tolokonnikova, then converted that information into a photoreal hologram. Afterwards, Tokyo-based creative technologist Ruben Fro built out landscapes reminiscent of video games through which the virtual Tolokonnikova could frolic. But as the visuals progress, those idyllic settings give way to a hellscape, and the singer faces off against a clone of herself. [via Consequence of Sound]

youtube

The wait is finally over. BLACKPINK’s Rosé shines like the star she is with her official solo debut. On Friday, she released two solo songs on her debut single album titled R, 'On the Ground' and 'Gone.' With its deep lyrics, angelic bridge, and Rosé’s high note at the end, 'On the Ground' is an exemplary song for her solo debut. Add the fact that Rosé is credited as a writer for the song, and one can really tell how much time she spent perfecting it for release. The accompanying music video, meanwhile, expands the story of life and growth. Rosé starts off looking lost and trying to find herself amidst all the wildness of life; she eventually encounters past and present versions of herself while searching for answers and purpose. By the end, she finds herself and her path forward, and one can’t help but smile as she sings an explosive outro. [via Teen Vogue]

youtube

On Ellise's latest alt-pop concoction the rising pop star gets gothic as 'Feeling Something Bad...' transforms a crush into an obsession. An expert at catastrophising everyday experiences, the LA-based artist has arrived fully formed with not only a consistent and cohesive sound but a striking visual identity too. That's even more clear when you press play on the accompanying video for her latest infectiously catchy track. With the clip directed by Joakim Carlsson we get to see Ellise in her absolute element as she brings "Feeling Something Bad..." to life in a macabre world of its own. “I just love dramatising little everyday feelings in life, so this is my big dramatic ‘I have a crush on you’ song,” Ellise explains – it's a song she wrote about a boy she barely knew. [via the Line Of Best Fit]

youtube

With President Biden determined to get the majority of American adults vaccinated by summer, bands are earnestly beginning to look forward to the return of live music. Purity Ring are the latest to announce 2021 tour dates, which they’ve shared alongside the video for their track 'sinew'. The song comes from WOMB, the synth-pop duo’s first album in five years that was released just before the pandemic struck. Directed by Toby Stretch, the clip brings back the abstract graphics and costumes that featured in the 'stardew' music video, continuing the enigmatic story of the domed bicyclist and their sun-headed sidecar companion. [via Consequence of Sound]

youtube

Australian Pop Princess, Peach PRC releases the official music video for her debut single 'Josh'. Peach PRC comments on the official 'Josh' visuals, “The music video was inspired by growing up watching the same five infomercials, morning news channels and old movies on my little pink box tv when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep on a school night. The idea was to have “josh” feel just as harassed the more he tries to call. Every creative step along the way was entirely my vision, from writing the music video script, to the lyrics and everything in between. I’m so happy and hope all the girls, gays and theys who dated “josh” will sing along.”

#videos of the week #allison ponthier #miley cyrus #the paranoyds #noga erez #sarah neufeld #molly burman #pussy riot #rose #ellise #purity ring #peach prc

10 notes · View notes

late-to-the-party-81 · 3 years

Text

ANGELS LIKE YOU

Summary

A small look into the relationship between Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton, examining their relationship and feelings for each other.

Author Notes:

N.B. - I haven't seen the Black Widow film yet - hopefully this is (mostly) canon compliant.

Not beta'd, hopefully it flows okay and their aren't too many grammar errors

I’ve copied this over from my AO3 account as an experiment as I’m getting used to tumblr

Track - Angels Like You by Miley Cyrus

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Natasha couldn’t pinpoint when the feeling of ‘wrongness’ had started, but she knew the exact moment it crystallised and could no longer be ignored.

Nine months ago Clint Barton had made a decision which changed both of their lives forever; he didn’t kill her. Instead he had brought her in, managing to incapacitate and capture the famous Black Widow, seeing something redeemable in her that she didn’t see in herself.

For the first few weeks the only people she had contact with were Clint and Nick Fury. It was Clint who tended her wounds, talked to her and reluctantly injected her with sedatives when she tried to attack them and escape. She was kept in a room which contained the bare minimum; metal furniture securely bolted to the floor – nothing to make a weapon from. Barely more than a prison cell.

But as the weeks passed, her fear diminished. She had never been scared of them, but she had been scared by what those in charge at the Red Room would do if they thought she hadn’t tried to free herself and return to them. If they had wanted her back though, they would have been here by now, surely? Therefore, she was no longer of use to them. Maybe they thought she was dead? But either way, it seemed that now she was free of them. She didn’t know what to make of that. Her whole life, her whole self, had been dedicated to them.

It would be easy to think that she had imprinted on Clint, like an orphaned starling, but they both knew it was more than that, the pull between them, this feeling of completeness in the other’s company. She knew he felt it as much as she did. And then one day, whilst training, preparing her for her first mission with SHEILD, the first major step in her new life, they had crashed together.

Lips, tongues, teeth. Hands scrabbling at clothes, nails scratching and breathless gasps. An absolute feeling of ‘rightness’ until it was followed by just that niggle of ‘wrongness’. She knew she loved him and he her. Surely this was what was supposed to occur between them?

Everything was odd between them for a few days until she literally bumped into him. His hands coming up to grasp her upper arms in reflex to steady her, his smiling face looking down at her. She thought he looked like an angel, the angel that had saved her. She didn’t know which one of them moved first, but they were kissing again, the heat between them undiminished. They made it to one of their rooms, full of the need to be close, completely connected. She remembers she cried out, remembers the tears that fell from her eyes as she was overwhelmed with it all.

From then on they were inseparable. They worked missions together, their skills complementary, and a bond that bordered on telepathic. Something happened in Budapest, but they never discussed it with anyone else.

Outside of missions there was barely an inch between them if they could help it, but the feeling of wrongness teased at the edges of her mind. She saw how Clint smiled to himself when they were out, undercover, and they he spotted families together, the father swinging around a giggling child. They observed family cookouts, couples together in restaurants, their love and affection on display for the world to see, and no cares except each other. She could never give him that. Never be able to give him the children he so desperately craved, despite him never voicing it. She didn’t think she would ever be able to relax enough in this life to have any of the other things either.

Natasha knew he could tell she was withdrawing. Their intimacy was still passionate and hurried; rough and fulfilling. But Clint was no fool. She needed him, in ways she couldn’t describe, but as he tried different ways to reach her, she knew, that eventually, it would end. She would make him miserable and he would hate her.

That end, the clarity of wrongness, came when she found him waiting for her, a bunch of flowers in his hand. He looked at her, sadness in his eyes, and he called her ‘baby’. They both knew this was it. She took his face in her hands and kissed him, soft and tender, the first and last time. That night their loving was slow, the most bittersweet of goodbyes. They had no need for words.

She left before sunrise that morning. She went to Nick’s office, unsurprised he was there so early. Without a word he slid a folder across the desk for her. A new mission. A solo mission. One that would take her away for months. Was there nothing this perceptive man didn’t know? It didn’t take her long to grab her ‘go bag’ from her room and then she was off.

But Clint didn’t hate her. He messaged her later that day, telling her to stay safe, and asked her to keep in touch when she could. It was awkward at first, but as they texted, then called, each other, they fell back into their easy rapport. When she finally returned he wrapped her in the biggest hug and they stayed up all night, eating pizza, talking and watching zombie movies.

Clint fell in love. Laura could give him everything he wanted. Natasha couldn’t help but love her too. Laura opened her heart to the other half of Clint’s soul, never jealous, never insecure. Then came Cooper, and Lila, then Nathaniel, and Natasha knew joy and love like she’d never known before. Her family, she realised, as unconventional as it was.

But with a snap of a mad man’s fingers it was gone, blown to dust. Clint, so bent on vengeance, abandoned her. And she couldn’t help but blame herself. Her soul, covered in red and violence had tainted his. Then, five years later, a glimmer of hope….

“Damn you!” There is hurt in his eyes as he realises she’s secured him to the rock.

“Let me go,” she commands, softly.

“No, please don’t.” Tears roll down his face, and she can see his heart breaking.

“It’s okay.” And she knows what she has said is true. If this works (and god, it has to work), everyone that she loves, that Clint loves, will return. This is a journey she has to make alone, her angel can’t fly down with her. She kicks off from the cliff, breaking his grip on her wrist and she falls. She loves him so much.

Laura stands, watching her husband. She doesn’t know how to comfort him. He is crouched down at the side of a grave stone. It was a quiet, private ceremony, as per the wishes Nat had given, many years ago. Clint is trying to reconcile the fact that he had to give up one part of himself to get another part back. He is angry and grateful and elated and sad and fucking traumatised. If he thinks too hard his head might explode. He screams, fingers curling into the dirt by the headstone of the empty grave. He screams and screams until his throat can longer make any sound and he is lying on side, sobbing. He feels Laura holding him, rocking him and stroking his hair, until at last he is able to return to his feet and be led to the car. He doesn’t know how he will go on without his angel with the red hair.

Notes:

This story has lived rent free in my head from almost the first moment I heard this song. Think what you like about Miley, but the emotion in the lyrics and her voice as she sings this - shivers!!! And I cry nearly everytime I sing along.

The pain of knowing you have to leave a loved one behind for their own good, because otherwise you will ruin them.

Okay, I'm waxing lyrical here, but please, do listen to it to fully understand this work.

#archive of our own #fanfiction #clintasha #mcu fanfiction

2 notes · View notes

need-a-new-hobby · 4 years

Text

Minimal Loss

note: i felt really bad switching out prentiss with bishop, but the angst possibilities were too tempting and a lot of these stories revolve around bishop \\ so sorry to prentiss stans. i’ll make it up to you with a story soon.

Spencer was worried about Piper. Just the other day, he’d caught her having a panic attack. He knew she wasn’t getting enough sleep. He also knew if he told anyone, she’d hit him with whatever book she could find and you could guarantee it would be thick. Derek had joked she bought hardcovers just so she could hit them. He received a bruise from Ray Bradbury. Despite that, she’d been the one to give him ointment. “I refuse to play nurse to your degenerate charms. You can rub ointment on your own bruise.” So it didn’t surprise him that she volunteered for the undercover assignment. It still worried him.

In the SUV headed to La Plata County in Colorado, they listened to the recording.

He comes into my bedroom and lays with me. He says it's god's will. I'm only 15. And I'm not the only one. Please help me!

“So it’s someone using God to sexually assault these girls,” Piper noted.

“Tell us about the 9-1-1 call,” Spencer asked Nancy, the Social Services agent.

“I believe the ‘he’ that they referred to is the church's leader, Benjamin Cyrus.”

“What else do you know about him?”

“It's rumoured that he's practicing polygamy and forced marriages.”

“Any idea who the caller is?”

“Uh, Jessica Evanson is the one who the age fits,” the agent from Social Security spoke, “but... we can't be sure. So I negotiated interviews with all the children. It wasn't easy.”

“Well, considering their view on outsiders, it would be best if you didn't identify us as FBI.” Piper remarked. “Just use our real names, and introduce us as child victim interview experts. Easiest way to avoid slip-ups,” she said as she passed Spencer her gun and badge to stow away.

Despite his worry, it was obvious why the two of them had been picked for the case. Piper had the most experience with kids out of the entire team. Spencer looked the most like a child interview expert. He just hated putting her in danger. “Y’know, Derek was whining ‘cause he wanted to go,” Piper chuckled.

“What did you tell him?”

“That no-one would believe it. Hell, I met him at a school and I still thought he made a living kicking down doors.”

“It’s his vibe,” Spencer nodded, leaning back in the car. He liked these moments. When he could pretend they weren’t part of the FBI, that they were together on a road-trip to Colorado. “What would you do if you were here on holiday?”

“In Colorado? Isn’t it mostly just national parks here?”

“Mhmm,” Nancy said. “Most popular here is Rocky Mountains.”

“What about that one with the cave dwellings in Montezuma County?”

“Mesa Verde National Park.”

“They have some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. What about you?” Spencer leaned forward, mock-whispering.

“There’s a haunted house in Denver called the Frightmare Compound.” Piper laughed at his excitement. “That’s not even the best part, they have three different houses.”

“Did you look this up on the way here?”

“Would it surprise you if I said no?”

“No.”

“It was founded in 1983 by Brad Holder. There’s a rumour that his final resting place lies somewhere on the property and that his spirit haunts the halls.”

“Of course it does. Maybe we should go, ask Hotch for a little day off before we go back.” Before he could assent, the car pulled to a halt outside a somewhat large white complex fronted with a large flagpole. Piper unbuckled her seat, breathing evenly. Nancy introduced the doctors to Benjamin Cyrus. Benjamin was handsome, Piper noted, if not a little old. He had a patchy goatee and wore a plaid shirt and jeans. He doesn’t look like a cult leader but then again, neither did Stalin.

“Savages, they call us,” He recited. “'Cause our manners differ from theirs.”

“We didn't come here to hear you cite scripture, Mr. Cyrus,” Nancy retorted.

“Actually, it's Benjamin Franklin,” Spencer corrected instinctively.

“And that speech was about the treatment of Native Americans,” Piper pointed out. “Good one too.” The man in front of them nodded.

“How far must we have strayed from God’s word for there to be a need to invent a job called child interview experts?”

“I’m sure if everyone followed the Bible as you do, there’d be no crime left,” Piper said, smiling at the potential sex offender.

“Well, you are welcome nonetheless. The children are in the school as I indicated,” he gestured and they walked up the steps.

“You're using solar power?” Spencer asked as he gestured to the row of solar panels on the side of the building.

“Yeah. We're completely self-sufficient-- electricity, food, water. Ben Franklin said, God helps those that helps themselves. You look surprised,” Cyrus questioned.

“No... Impressed, actually,” Spencer admitted.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For admitting that.”

Piper and Spencer made their way up to the classrooms, out of earshot as they spoke. “He’s intelligent, then again most cult leaders are. If he is doing this,” she pulled him aside, glancing around. “The people here probably worship him. You know how Hitler and Stalin were put on pedestals.”

“It’s likely what we saw out there was an act,” Spencer theorised. “Notice how he only ever quoted Benjamin Franklin.”

“Must have read his works though. Or he’s trying to prove that he isn’t perpetuating a religious cult by quoting Franklin instead of God. These girls could be hard to get through to.”

“You think they’ll tell us the truth?”

“If they believe what Cyrus is doing to be appropriate conduct around a teenager, yeah.” They walked into the classroom they’d been allocated. Jessie, their first interview, sat with her mother. Piper sat down in front of the child while Spencer stood next to her mother.

“We go to school,” the young girl spoke. “We do our chores. And we treat ourselves and each other with the respect God demands.”

“But you've never been off of the ranch?” Piper asked.

“I brought Jessie here when she was 2,” her mother said.

“You've talked to lots of children in your work. Tell me their lives are somehow better than ours?” Jessie demanded.

“We devote ourselves to God. That doesn't mean we're not devoted to our children,” the mother said vehemently.

“We are not here because of your religious beliefs.”

“Why are you here?”

“We received a phone call claiming that an adult male member of your church was having inappropriate relations with the younger women here.”

“You're talking about Cyrus,” the young girl grew agitated. “Is it inappropriate for a husband to share a bed with his wife?”

“You’re married to Cyrus?”

“Yes. Cyrus is my husband and a prophet. It's an honour to bear his children.”

“Jessica, you're 15 years old,” Spencer spoke, clearing his throat. “The state of Colorado requires parental consent.” Piper looked up at the mother and it dawned on her.

“She gave consent.” Piper sighed. She looked at Spencer but was distracted by Cyrus and other male members storming inside the classroom with AKMSUs. “What are you doing?” Piper got up, automatically backing up to a wall.

“We just got a very strange phone call from a news reporter. Is there anything you want to tell me about a raid maybe?” Piper blinked and her eyebrows furrowed. They hadn’t alerted their team and she looked to Spencer who was just as confused as her. “They don't know,” Cyrus sighed. He shoved them all into a hatch leading to a tunnel. Silently, Piper sneaked through the tunnel, trying to breathe.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she barked at him. “Keep moving.” She closed her eyes, trying to keep her breathing even, In...out...in...out, but the rapid gunfire echoing outside didn’t help. They walked through into a large space as Cyrus calmly instructed the group of women and children.

“All right, move quietly. Quickly go to the left. Everybody stay together. Children listen to your parents. Down to this end. Have faith.” Piper’s eyes flitted to the piles of guns pushed into a corner.

“Where'd all these guns come from?” Piper whispered.

“I don't know. Garcia checked with the state police.” They turned around. “Hotch knows we’re here, he’d never authorise this.”

“Unless someone went over his head,” she muttered. Her breaths were becoming shallower. As the room filled with children, Piper suffocated in a sea of helplessness, overwhelmed by the need to protect these kids. She felt a warm hand interlock with hers and felt herself calming down. “Thanks,” she murmured. Nancy pushed over to them and the two quickly let go.

“This is ridiculous.”

“I know, relax. You need to calm down.” The bitter irony of her words tasted rancid on her tongue.

“Screw calm,” she spat and pushed over to Cyrus.

“Nancy,” Piper hissed through the crowd and the agent whipped her head around.

“They’re state police. I’m an officer of the state. They’ll listen to me.” Piper saw the determination in her eyes and her own swept across the sea of kids.

“Be safe,” she yelled out, knowing two things. Nothing she could say would stop her and if she was honest with herself, she would have done the exact same thing. But knowing these things didn’t make it any easier when a bullet pierced her chest. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and her eyes kept darting around the room, her knees about to buckle when the firing stopped. “What is happening?” she whispered. Spencer didn’t answer as yells starting bubbling down from above.

“They're pulling out!”

“Not for long,” he murmured and Piper looked back up at him.

While the two of them sat down, silently observing the fallout, JJ marched through to the BAU bullpen, a remote for the large TV screen in her hand. She called Prentiss and Morgan’s attention before switching on the TV. As the news reporter droned about the shootout between state police and the Separatarian Sect, Morgan recognised the ranch. Turning around to face Hotch’s cabin window, he yelled as loud as possible. In a matter of hours, the team reached the hostage negotiation tent set up on the outskirts of the ranch. Going in, they knew nothing about Benjamin Cyrus but the founder, Leo Kane was currently serving a collective 17 year sentence for tax evasion and, as Garcia so eloquently put it, ‘going after 4 IRS agents with a Louisville slugger.’ Aaron Hotchner stepped out of the now very dusty SUV, turning around to address Rossi. “Dave, they've left the choice of negotiators up to me.”

“I taught most of the hostage negotiation unit. You want a recommendation?”

“I'm making you the lead negotiator,” Aaron told him and Rossi’s face was surprised. “Why go to the students when I have the teacher?”

“Because the teacher is emotionally involved. So is the agent in command.”

“I know I am. This is a unique situation. We have 2 agents who could affect the outcome on the inside.”

“True. But I can't be objective! I know them too well.”

“This outcome depends as much on our ability to predict the moves of Bishop and Reid as Cyrus. That's why you're the best man for the job.”

“Assuming that Reid and Bishop are still in a condition to make moves.”

“I know how bad this is. That's why I want you doing the talking.” Rossi saw the plead in Aaron’s eyes and relented but just as they came to an agreement, another dispute erupted. They turned to see the State Attorney-General, Jim Wells, arguing with another agent.

“I demand to know why I wasn't told that the FBI was sending undercover agents into the Separatarian Ranch.” Rossi saw Aaron sigh and walk over.

“The only thing that you're in the position to demand is a lawyer.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“I'm Aaron Hotchner, unit chief. I'm the guy who's gonna tell the Attorney General of the United States whether to charge you with obstructing a federal investigation or negligent homicide.”

“You can't talk to me like that.” Aaron stepped closer, staring hard at the man who endangered his best agents.

“Get off my crime scene.”

Piper leaned her head against the tunnel wall as women and children filed out to the temple. “What’s the procedure now?” She murmured to Spencer as he paced in front of her.

“They’ll establish a mobile hostage negotiation centre. Get someone to make contact with Cyrus.”

“I really hope Hotch is out there.” She got up, pulling off her blazer.

“How does this keep happening to us?”

“The universe clearly hates us,” Piper scoffed, pulling up the sleeves of her cream button up. “So what would you do if you were out there, not in here?” Spencer stopped pacing, a look of fear stretched across his pale face.

“I’d establish a minimal loss scenario. They have to be prepared to accept that they won't save us all.” Piper’s face fell as she understood the weight of those words.

“So they try to get the women and children out. It’d be impossible to get the die-hard believers, which’ll be most of the males,” she hissed to him, acutely aware of the guards at the door.

“They’ll have parabolic arc mics fixed on every window, won’t get much with the blinds all down, in which case they’ll do anything to get some kind of package inside with mics attached.”

“Like medical supplies?”

“Exactly. We need to get people talking.”

“The men won’t talk. They’re all believers. You’re the best shot at appealing to Cyrus.” Spencer nodded darkly.

“You can talk to the women and children?” Piper agreed and as the last of the women and children filed out, they followed to the chapel. They stayed there the whole night and when it was light again, Spencer jolted awake at a knock on the chapel doors. He nudged Piper who had been snoring softly on his shoulder. They tried to keep their faces curious but scared as they saw Rossi enter the chapel with a box of medical supplies. Piper couldn’t help but feel alone as Rossi surveyed the room and left with a handshake. “At least they’re here,” she murmured, masking the noise as she got up to stretch. She moved to the back of the chapel, Spencer following, and they observed Cyrus pour wine into everyone’s cups. “Look at Jessica,” she prompted Reid as they watched her gaze at Cyrus as though he was her world, her god, her everything.

“She really does love him,” Spencer remarked.

“That’s not love,” she sighed, moving to tie up her hair. “That’s adulation.”

“She literally worships him. There's no way she made that 9-1-1 call.”

“So who did?” Piper looked at Spencer, mentally trying to walk through the different possibilities. Spencer focused on the scene playing out in front of them. Cyrus lecturing them on God and trust. Jessica hanging on to every word. Her mother walking over, holding her own cup and leaning down in front of her to have a conversation.

“Watch the mother. Look how she comes between Cyrus and her daughter. She's inserted herself between them.”

“It’s possible she pretended to be her daughter.” They watched as the sect members drank the wine but Spencer felt his heart rate rise.

“We have drunk the poison together.” Spencer looked down at Piper.

“They’re committing mass suicide,” he whispered.

“No, something’s off,” Piper murmured as she turned her head while scratching her ear. “He’s too calm, he took a pause after he told them and look at the guy behind him.”

“The notepad. He’s bluffing.” Piper nodded.

“They're scanning the audience looking for reactions. They're writing down the names of the people who are crying. It's a loyalty list. So he knows who will follow him to the end.”

“Jim Jones pulled the same stunt. They did a test run just like this years before they did the real thing,” Spencer added.

When the sermon was over, the agents were ushered into the tunnel and Piper kept pacing. “So we know the medical supplies are bugged, that Cyrus is a manipulator and that Mrs Evanse--” Piper trailed off as Cyrus slammed the door open and walked into the room with his guns and henchmen, which was the only word appropriate for them.

“So which one of you is it?” Cyrus tilted his head to look at the two of them.

“I’m sorry?” Piper asked, confused.

“Which one of you is the FBI agent?” Piper and Spencer stared at each other. She instantly ran through the possibilities. She didn’t know how or how much Cyrus knew but before she knew it, Spencer interrupted.

“What makes you think one of us is an FBI agent?” Her heart pounded rapidly as Cyrus lifted his gun to Spencer’s head.

“God will forgive me for what I must do.” Cyrus looked him in the eye calmly and cocked his gun as Spencer sputtered.

“It’s me.” Spencer stared at Piper who had stood up, as calm as though she was going through paper work. She smoothed down her shirt and stared at him. “I’m the agent.” He lowered his gun from Spencer’s forehead. Relief coursed through her veins and she wished he didn’t have to see Cyrus dragging her away by her small ponytail. She held in her wail and mouthed an apology to Spencer.

He dragged her to the storeroom where he then started hitting her. “I... can... explain...” she moaned through gritted teeth between each kick.

“Get up!” he barked at her, pushing Piper into a mirror.

“Gah! Let me explain!” she yelled, hopefully loud enough for the mics to hear within the medical supply boxes. “I’m not an agent anymore.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying,” she swiped at her bloody lip. “I was discharged from the FBI a month ago. I have the wound to prove it.” She pulled at the shirt she was wearing enough to show him the wound. “Trust me. I hate the FBI just as much as you do,” she said as she spat out the blood from her mouth.

“How do I know that’s the truth?”

“Ask them. Ask the negotiator.” Shit. She wasn’t supposed to know that. He grabbed her shoulder, throwing her into a cabinet. “I’m not an idiot. I saw the man coming in with the medical supplies.” He pulled her up by the collar of her shirt, her shoulder still stinging.

“He wasn’t wearing ID. Lying is evil. Proverbs 20:30 tells us blows and wounds cleanse away evil.” Piper spat at him.

“He’s the one I took the bullet for. He’s the reason I’m not an agent. So if you think...I would protect him,” she seethed as she stepped to his face, “you’re as dumb as you are religious.” He gripped her head in his hands before slamming her into the ground. She groaned. The lies weren’t working. Fuck. She glanced at the medical supplies in front of her and whispered. “I can take it.” She winced as he kicked the air out of her lungs and keeled over. “I can take it.” He pulled her up by the hair, launching his right fist into her face. She went limp and he dropped her, surveying the bruising on her before calling a guard to tie her up and take her upstairs.

Spencer was still in the tunnel. He couldn’t hear anything and he’d paced the tunnel 5 627 times. Another guard came down to take him to Cyrus’s office. It took everything in him not to yell at the cult leader, even more so when he saw the man blowing softly on his knuckles, trying not to imagine that state she’d be in now. Instead he stood there quietly, going through every moment they’d had together. He almost chuckled at the idea of going to a haunted house after this waking nightmare. “You know she was FBI?”

“Nancy told me the woman was a child abuse interview expert from Denver. In 4 years I worked with her, Nancy never lied to me before.”

“As far as you know.” Cyrus stood up. “Their law says that a 15-year-old girl is a child. 50 years ago that same law said a 14 year old was an adult. Have children changed so much in 50 years?

“I can't tell you the number of times I've investigated abuse charges against small religious groups. Almost all of them turn out to be false.”

“What do you think of that?”

“Doesn't really matter what I think.”

“It does to me.”

“Why?”

“Because God wants to save you. I mean, that's why he sent you here. That's the reason.”

Spencer licked his lips before starting. “On the next call, you should test them. Test the negotiator. Make him prove that he isn't a liar.”

“How would you suggest I do that?”

“Ask for the F.B.I. agent.”

“No. We already know her story.”

“They don't know that.”

“Yeah. But the F.B.I. would never tell us.”

“They keep on asking you to release people. Tell him you'll release a kid, and you won't harm the agent. And if they really care about the children, they'll have to tell you.”

“You're trying to get us to release a child.”

“It's one kid. If they don't hold up on their end of the deal, you know they can't be trusted.” Cyrus stared at him, weighing his words for truth. Eventually, he nodded.

Piper tried to memorise Spencer’s features. His hair was slicked back since they got back from New York. She winced smiling trying to remember Emily’s laugh as she flicked his hair forwards and when she touched his cheek, insinuating he was a robot. She groaned getting up as she tried to remember Spencer spooking Derek on Halloween or when she’d catch him staring sometimes as she did her paperwork. She grabbed a towel and the bowl of lukewarm water Mrs Evansen had left, dabbing at her bloody nose and glanced out the window. Still dark. That’s when noticed the med bag in the corner of the room. Figuring out her location in the dark, she muttered the room she was put in. Finally, she slowly lowered herself back onto the bed and exhausted, her eyes fluttered shut.

The next morning, Spencer followed Cyrus into the room with the landline and watched intently as the latter called Rossi. “I will release a child if you tell me the identity of the F.B.I. agent. I promise no harm will come to them from this point forward.”

“I can't give you that information.”

“I will send the child now.”

“We're taking a big risk here, Ben.”

“Trust is earned.”

“Her name is Dr Piper Bishop. I...I had her fired after she took a bullet to the shoulder for me. I’m here to atone for my sins.” Rossi followed along with the story Piper had fed him.

“There's a good chance we can work this out, Dave. I'm gonna provide another sign of good faith.”

“You're doing a good thing here.” Cyrus cut the line and told his henchman, Christopher, to assemble everyone in the chapel, including the injured doctor upstairs.

Spencer stood at the back of the chapel as the men, women and children took their seats, glancing as he saw Piper hobble in leaning on the wall. He moved over to her, surveying her injuries. “You look terrible,” she joked. “And he looks pissed.”

“Don--Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Joke. Not after what...” He trailed off, clearing his throat.

“Ahh, it isn’t that bad. Nothing a hot shower won’t fix.” She said, barely paying attention to the names Cyrus was calling out. “Did Rossi get the message?”

“Yeah. He did. I think Cyrus trusts me.” She just nodded, then winced. “We'll get word to the team. Wait for a sign from outside to indicate what time the raid will come,” he directed hastily before he walked away.

Outside, in the tent, the rest of the team were slightly panicking. Emily, Hotch and Rossi were listening to the mics as Derek paced behind them, going through everything he knew. Rossi had figured out their plan the moment Piper claimed to hate the FBI and said ‘trust me’. Now they had one released hostage and no idea what to do next until JJ pointed outside to the multitude of men, women and children leaving the chapel doors. As they left the tent to retrieve them, Emily heard Spencer’s voice over her mic. “Guys, listen.”

“They failed the test. They--they had a chance to prove their faith when Cyrus told them that they'd sacrifice themselves for God. But instead they showed they weren't worthy. That's why he wants the media to bear witness to your true final act of sacrifice.”

“How do you know that?”

“I'm always looking for signs of things to come.”

“Reid's talking to us. He wants a sign when we're coming in. He's telling us this is it,” Emily explained.

“Time’s run out. We have to go in,” Hotch said, gazing at the ranch outside.

“Best time to hit 'em is when they're least mentally prepared,” Rossi noted.

“3:00 am. Biorhythms are at their low point then,” Emily pointed out.

“We need a diversion. Something that plays into his expectations,” Hotch prompted.

“Cyrus brought up Waco.”

“Right. I know exactly how to use that. We need some Humvees,” Rossi got up to the phone lines as Hotch continued to sketch out their plan.

“The plan depends on Reid and Bishop separating the diehards from the followers.”

“And delaying Cyrus's diehards from reacting to our assault,” Emily added.

“That's not my main concern. Reid and Bishop know what they need to do.”

“So what is your concern?”

“Letting them know when we're coming. The whole things hinges on them being ready for us at 3:00 am...” He trailed off, staring at the food containers they were preparing. “Perfect.” He instructed the officers preparing the food plates to write a single message on every plate. Prentiss whirled at a soft, familiar voice coming through the mics.

“If you can hear me, I know you're coming. I can try to get the women and children down to the tunnel, But I need to know when you're coming.”

“What is it, Prentiss?”

“She's talking to us.”

“If you can hear me I know you're coming. I can try to get the women and children down to the tunnel, but I need to know when you're coming.”

“Let's go.” Prentiss grabbed the nearest sniper rifle and creeped over till she could see the window of the third floor. Angling the rifle, she turned on the laser beam.

“I can try to get the women and children down to the tunnel, but I need to know when you're coming. If you can hear me, I know you're coming. I can-- Okay. I got you.What time? What time?” Emily turned the beam on, then off three times.

“3:00 am? Got it. Reid’s on the first floor somewhere with Cyrus. There are still children here. Someone's coming.” The mic went silent.

^-^

Mrs Evansen walked in with a glass of water. “Thank you.” Piper gulped down the water as best she could with her hands tied. “Cyrus is planning a mass suicide. You know this.” The mother moved to leave. “Wait. I want to protect your daughter just like you do. Would you do me a favour?” The woman turned around. “I heard he’s planning to blow everything up at 3 am.”

“But he said--”

“He’s a liar and a manipulator. If you really believed in him like your daughter does, you wouldn’t have called us. Now he may not, but if you want to save your daughter, take her to the basement just before 3 am. 2 30 even.” The woman just nodded hastily and left, nearly bumping into the doorframe. Now to get out of these ropes. They’d left nothing sharp except-- Piper’s eyes fell on the mirror. She limped over to the mirror and carefully propping it between her knee and her chin, she plopped it onto the ground, mirror side up. Her reflection shattered into pieces as she slammed her heel into it, then quickly kicked it all under the bed. Checking that everything was silent, she used her teeth to gently pull a big shard out and dropped it onto the bed. She clutched it gently between her fingers and began sawing at the ropes. She rubbed her wrists gently before treating the blisters on her skin with whatever cool cream she could find and wrapping it in gauze. She wrapped her hair up in a tiny ponytail and used the remaining gauze and gauze-like material around her entire hand. Delicately she rolled a pair of rubber gloves and held the large mirror shard, gripping it tightly to see if it cut through to the skin. She lay on the bed, hands as though they were still tied behind her back. She’d never been more thankful to not be able to sleep.

Hourse later, Mrs Evansen returned, letting her know it was 2 45 am, that her daughter had gathered the women and children in the basement and that Reid was in the chapel with Cyrus and that the door was left unlocked ‘accidentally.’ Piper edged out the door, keeping to the shadows, hoping she’d never have use the shard. Reaching the stairs down into the chapel, she heard footsteps and stabbed the lightbulb as she tucked herself into a corner. She held her breath in the darkness as a man, Christopher she thought, moved past her. In the middle of the staircase, he stopped and looked at the shattered lightbulb. Before he could yell anything, Piper leapt forward to grab the rifle in his hand before smashing the butt of the rifle into the back of his head. She dragged his body and propped it up in the corner. She sneaked the door of the chapel open just a smidge and saw Spencer and Cyrus in there alone, surrounded by explosives.

“Jeremiah 29:11-- "I have for you, " declares the lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to bring you hope and a future," he quoted. “Is blowing yourself up part of the prosperous future that God wants?” Spencer asked him.

“You think you know the word better than I?”

“No. I'm just demonstrating that you can use the Bible to manipulate anything.”

“Matthew 10:24-- "do not suppose that I've come to the earth to bring peace. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." You cannot convert my brothers. No one had to follow. God could have stopped me.” Spencer just stared and moved slightly an inch over to his left. “What are you doing, boy?” Cyrus felt a sharp metal poking into his back.

“She just did.” A gunshot fired and Piper dropped the rifle she was holding. “That’s for punching me, you dick.” She exhaled. “Can we go now?” It was almost 3. They locked all the doors to the chapel and bolted the main door from the outside. Piper leaned on Spencer as they hobbled to the car.

“You have the--” Spencer trailed off as Piper grabbed her shoe and smashed the heel into the shot gun side window, unlocking the side door. “--key?” he finished. Hastily she leaned over to the driver’s seat unlocking it. Pulling the mirror shard from her pocket, she cut two wires and jumpstarted it. She shoved herself into the back the same way before yelling at the dumbstruck doctor to drive. Exhausted, she leaned into the leather seats. “How’d you--”

“I’ve been friends with Morgan now for 3 years, Spence. I picked it up. Emily taught me how to pick a lock too. Haven’t quite got it yet.” They drove away from the burning chapel behind them.

Once in the tent, Piper grabbed the most extensive med-kit she could find and pulled off the gloves and gauze, wincing. She pulled off the tape from her wrists, rummaging for cleaning fluid. She finally pulled out a napkin and, dousing it, started to clean the wounds. Spencer gently took the napkin and her wrist, despite her protests. “Just shut up and let me do this.” So she did. “That was stupid.” She opened her mouth to protest but he just put up a finger. So she shushed. “I could’ve taken it. I’m as much the agent as you are.”

“Spence, there are two very important reasons why I confessed and neither of them have anything to do with bravery or strength. The first is that we’d already establish that you were the only one who could get close enough to Cyrus. The second was...” She hesitated. Clearing her throat, she continued. “I’ve already watched someone torture you before. I wasn’t strong enough to see that again, or know that...that I could have prevented it this time.” Spencer let go of her wrists and stared at her, dumbstruck for the second time that day, while she dabbed soothing cream around her wrists and wrapped it tightly with gauze.

“I don’t know how JJ’s meant to tell Lucy and Daniel,” Morgan spoke as the walked into the tent. “Or Reid’s mom for that matter.”

“I just wish-- Oh my God!” Emily screamed and she tackled Bishop. Morgan mirrored her, in tackling Reid, not screaming. “We didn’t know what to think. Rossi had to pull us back from the chapel and--”

“My ribs, Em. I know, I love you too.” Emily released her.

“Well, excuse me for freaking out! We thought you two were freaking dead! What were you thinking, locking the chapel?”

“That maybe we could contain the blast bet--” Emily looked murderous. “I am injured. You can murder me next week.” Rossi stumbled in.

“You’re alive,” he stated. “You’re actually alive.”

“You could sound a bit happier about it, Rossi,” Spencer chuckled.

“I need a drink, anyone in?” Piper announced, getting up carefully.

“As long as Rossi’s paying.” Emily chuckled as Piper leaned on her and limped into the SUV, asleep in minutes on Spencer’s shoulder.

#criminal minds #criminal minds x oc #criminal minds angst #criminal minds fluff #bau #bau x oc #dr reid #dr spencer reid #dr piper bishop #doctor spencer reid #spencer reid #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid angst

15 notes · View notes

pokeprism · 3 years

Text

Pokemon Found Family: Chapter 1 (The Shooting Star)

This this the first chapter of Pokemon Found Family, my pokemon fanfic! The raw text is below the cut as usual!

I’m always up for questions!

This pokemon world is not like any others you’ve seen. It may be fully populated by pokemon, but this world’s maintainers are treated like gods amongst the more common pokemon. The region that begins this tale goes by the name of Mischief Valley. As far as features go for this region, it’s a valley with a large town settled inside of it, and surrounded by forest on its east and west edges. The valley’s climate is usually warm and arid, with natural rain being uncommon. The pokemon of this valley are often ghost or dark type, thanks to a history of tolerance. This leads us directly into the valley’s most important structure, at least according to this world’s historians, also known as the Temple of Cyrus Pyroar. In life, Cyrus Pyroar was the pokemon who had opened the valley to the rest of the world, and at his request, he was buried there once he had passed. As time passed, his final resting place became a place for the rulers of the surrounding lands to pledge their loyalty to keep the valley secure and independent. The curators of Cyrus’s temple have always been manually selected by the valley’s governor, which leads us directly into what’s happening right now.

The current curator of Cyrus’s temple is Geist the gengar. His role as curator may have ruffled some imperial feathers, thanks to some rulers and nobles being distrustful of ghost types, but Geist has largely proved his worth as the temple’s curator. Even better for him is that his home is across the way from the temple, so it’s not a long walk to get there. Thanks to the valley’s more flexible schedule, Geist is able to curate at night rather than in the heat of midday. However, on this mid-spring day, something’s not right for Sir Geist. Unlike usual for him, Geist woke up with a start, thinking someone was calling for him, but upon looking around, found that it seemed to be his imagination. The unfamiliar voice sounded like a young girl, though he’s never heard anything like it. Geist notices the starry sky and looks at his wall clock, and then sighs in relief. It’s an hour and some change before his usual curation time. He slumps back onto his bed and starts to drift off before hearing a quick shout.

“Geist! Look outside!”

Geist, despite thinking he’s hallucinating thanks to the absence of any nearby pokemon, gets off his bed and cautiously looks out where his front door would be and puts a hand on the door frame. Unaware of what to look for, Geist glances around for a moment before seeing a strange glimmer in the sky. A moment after seeing it, the strange glimmer streaks through the sky. For the first couple moments, Geist simply raises an eyebrow at the strange ball of light, but then starts to get concerned as the light streaks toward the valley. Geist watches in horror as the light hurdles toward and busts through the ceiling of Cyrus’s temple. In a panic, Geist snaps to action by moving his hand from the door frame and leaping off the front platform of his home. After a few seconds, Geist hits the floor of the valley, and unaffected by the fall thanks to being ghost type, Geist begins to dash toward the temple. Seemingly unaware of the source of the disturbance, the pokemon around the path Geist is taking to the temple watch the running gengar with raised eyebrows. Geist makes it to the temple’s front entryway, and after cautiously stepping into the building, he looks inside the temple to assess the damages. The scene inside the temple isn’t too bad. Strangely, the only damage is to the roof, and the path of the light missed the back of the room, where the usually cordoned off stairs to Cyrus’s coffin is located. However, the ball of light is still existent, even after plunging through the roof of the temple, and is defiantly hovering over the seal in the center of the room. Geist, as he squints in the direction of it, cautiously steps toward the ball of light while trying to not fully blind himself. After almost five complete steps, the ball of light begins to descend to the floor, stopping Geist in his tracks, and once it touches the ground, the light dissipates, revealing an eevee beneath it all. The eevee that was now free from being encased in light attempts to stand, but stumbles onto the floor a moment later, then silently shakes in pain all while in view of Geist. Geist’s vision readjusts to the level of light as he examines the eevee on the floor, and comes to the realization that this eevee is covered with injuries. No blood was present anywhere on this eevee, but the wounds seemed to be recent based on how visible the lacerations were at the moment. Geist, very concerned at this eevee’s condition, steps closer to them and begins to prepare his words, but snaps to attention as the eevee weakly utters something. Geist didn’t clearly hear what was said.

“Hmm?”

The eevee says it again, but barely above the volume of a whisper.

“Er… You’re hurt! Can I take you to the hospital?” Geist says.

After a brief hesitation, the eevee nods.

Geist sighs in relief before gingerly lifting this eevee off the floor. He carefully walks out of the temple with them in his arms, then turns in the direction of the valley’s closest hospital. The valley folk who previously raised their eyebrows at Geist’s run now watch the gengar with more mixed feelings. Despite the weird looks he’s getting, Geist continues on, largely unfazed, toward the hospital.

It’s been a slow night at the Central Valley Hospital so far. The receptionist, a chatot who lives outside of the valley, is on the verge of being tired thanks to a lack of guests to attend to. They perk up as Geist cautiously steps through the front entryway, and upon seeing the gengar, Hover, the chatot receptionist, hops off the counter and flutters toward Geist.

“Welcome Geist!” Hover cheerily says. Hover flutters in place as they look down at Geist’s arms when they add “Who did you find toda-”

Hover goes white as they see the condition of the eevee Geist has in his arms, and almost stalls when they briefly forget to flap their wings. Hover quickly corrects their flight pattern just before exclaiming “Oh goodness! Let’s get this eevee to Doctor Clefable right away! Follow me!”

Hover flutters in the direction of the doctor’s room with Geist following closely behind them. The eevee, despite exhibiting pain from being jostled around in Geist’s arms, keeps their pain to themselves for the moment. As Hover turns into Doctor Clefable’s office, from close behind them, Geist hears a small vocalization from the eevee he’s holding, and stops. The eevee notices the stop and looks up at Geist.

“Oh. You didn’t have to stop for that. Sorry, heh heh…”

Geist simply raises an eyebrow in response, and before Geist can say anything, Hover and Doctor Clefable exit the office, ending up in front of where Geist is standing.

“Geist, the eevee is still on your person?” the doctor asks.

Geist snaps to attention. “Oh! Yes indeed.” Geist steps closer to Doctor Clefable and makes the eevee he’s holding more visible to the doctor. Doctor Clefable instantly recognizes the eevee’s condition and prepares the move life dew by raising their hands, then gently setting them on eevee. As the dew spreads through the eevee’s fur, the injuries cease to be as they magically heal and the fur grows over where they used to be. The eevee’s twitching stops as they perk up and begin to move without hesitation in Geist’s arms.

“Do you feel able to walk now, Eevee?” Clefable asks.

“Y-Yeah.” the eevee stammers.

Geist softly lowers Eevee closer to the ground, and Eevee hops out of Geist’s arms and safely lands on the floor.

After observing Eevee for a moment as they examine themself, Doctor Clefable says “Anyways, I have some questions I need you and Geist to answer.”, then turns to Hover and adds “Hover, it’s time for you to go back to the counter.”

Hover answers with a cheerful “Got it doc!” then flutters back to the receptionist’s desk.

After Hover is back on the counter, Doctor Clefable walks into his office, then gestures for Geist and Eevee to come in. They both obey, Geist coming in before Eevee. The doctor takes a seat on the floor as he clears his throat, prompting Geist to take a seat before the doctor has his words prepared.

“For the sake of politeness, may I ask your name, age, and pronouns, little eevee?” Doctor Clefable asks.

Eevee’s ears perk up. “Oh me? I’m Jane, I’m seventeen, and I use female pronouns.”

“I see.” the doctor answers. Clefable then turns to Geist. “May I ask where you found her, Geist?”

“Do you want the longer explanation or the shorter one?” Geist asks.

“Give me the whole situation.” Doctor Clefable says.

“All right then.”

Jane’s focus shifts to Geist as he begins to explain.

“So I woke up this evening when I thought someone was calling for me. I didn’t notice anyone, but then I looked outside and saw a bright light crash into Cyrus’s temple. So I ran over there and found her on the ground covered in cuts. I came over here, and the rest is stuff you know.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Clefable says. The doctor turns to Jane and asks “What is your side of the story, Jane?”

Jane snaps to attention. “Oh me? Um…”

“It’s fine if you don’t have the whole picture, Miss Jane.” Clefable says.

“Oh no, I do! It’s just… Weird.” Jane admits.

“Okay then. Tell me what you’re comfortable with then.”

“Well, the basic gist is that another pokemon was attacking me before a friend of mine sent me here…”

“Uh huh. I’ll take note of that.” After a pause, Doctor Clefable adds “Anyways, where do you plan on going from here, Miss Jane?”

Jane goes silent for a moment. Geist turns in Jane’s direction as the doctor raises an eyebrow.

“I imagine you can settle in Mischief Valley fairly easily under the Runaway Turn Citizen Program…” Clefable mentions.

Geist suddenly pipes up. “She can stay with me if she wants.”

Jane’s ears twitch. She’s never heard any offer like that before in her life. She’s usually scraped by on assistance from just her friend, but now it seems that someone else has extended a hand to her by making this offer.

Jane looks squarely at the gengar in the room. “Geist, you’re willing to do that?”

“Of course.” Geist begins, “I mean it’s a free living in the valley, so you’re not weighing me down by being here.”

Jane’s eyes shine with gratitude. “Okay, it’s settled! I’ll stay with Geist!”

Jane zips over to Geist’s leg and begins rubbing her head on it like a cat would. Geist almost flinches at the gesture, but figures “it’s just an eevee thing” and starts to laugh it off.

Clefable looks over to Geist and says “You know you will have to register her, right?”

Trying to contain his laughter, Geist makes eye contact with Clefable and replies “Oh I know, I’ve done it before. It shouldn’t be hard.”

Doctor Clefable raises an eyebrow, but then resists his urge to ask anything more. “Anyways, I can assure you that Jane will enjoy some rest. She is welcome to sleep here if needed.”

“No, it’s fine.” Geist looks down to Jane, and after the final moment of her cat-rubbing Geist, she notices his gaze and stops. “So, Jane, would you like to sleep here, or my place?”

“Your place. If I’m going to live with you, I might as well get used to where I’m going, right?” Jane says.

“Fair enough. Come on, follow me Jane.”

Geist and Jane begin to walk toward the hospital’s lobby, away from Doctor Clefable’s office. Clefable starts to follow them, but then stops as he remembers his own matters.

The doctor’s ears twitch as he hears “See ya later, Sigmund. I’ll be registering Jane tomorrow.” from Geist from down the hall.

Sigmund, embarrassed, just patiently smiles and waves as Jane and Geist leave the building.

Time has passed. Jane has followed Geist to the foot of the other side of the Valley, and is looking at all the surrounding buildings. Geist then stops, and Jane, being behind the gengar in question and not looking where she was going, collides with Geist’s side.

Jane quickly restabilizes herself. “Oh! Sorry Geist.” She notices that Geist is looking up at the valley wall. She looks in the same direction, and notices some structures sticking out of the valley wall. “Wait, your home is up there?!”

Geist looks at Jane. “Yeah.” Geist then notices Jane’s worried expression. “Is there a problem?”

“I uh… Don’t like heights.”

“Oh. I usually jump up there, but I can use phantom force to get ya up to my place.”

“Is phantom force like teleport?”

“I mean, sort of.”

“Get me up that way then please.”

“Okay then, I’m going to have to hold you though.”

“I’m fine with that.”

Geist puts his arms forward, and Jane jumps into them with no issue. Geist initiates phantom force, and both him and Jane sink into a dark shadow-like place. For Jane, this pseudo dimension is nothing but darkness, but she’s only in there for a moment as Geist reenters the world, emerging from the back wall in his home. Geist lowers his arms to the ground, and Jane jumps out, without missing a beat.

“Oh wow. I love your house!” Jane squeals.

“Thanks.” Geist replies.

“Where should I sleep for tonight?”

Geist looks around. He then remembers that he doesn’t have another bed ready at the moment, but knows where some extra blankets are. He quickly zips toward his closet, surprising Jane with his speed. After opening the closet and pulling out the extra blankets, Geist zips back to a place next to Jane with an armload of blankets in his grasp.

“Hey Jane, wanna make your bed?” Geist then sets the mess of blankets on the floor, and adds “Here’s what I got.”

Jane’s eyes shine as she walks up to the blanket stack in front of her. She sets her dominant paw on the pile, and marvels at the texture present in the stack. She then jumps onto the stack of blankets, and starts to knead the stack into a more comfortable shape for herself. Once she’s done, she looks up to an intrigued Geist.

“This works, Geist!” Jane says.

Geist, impressed at how quickly Jane made her bed, dumbfoundedly smiles for a moment and replies “Okay then. Goodnight Ja-”

Jane had already fallen asleep within the moment Geist had briefly looked away. Geist smiles again and chuckles to himself as he slots into his bed, then drifts off to sleep, ready for a busy day tomorrow.

#Jamie W. (Pokeprism)#pokemon #pokemon fic #pokemon found family #chapter 1 #the shooting star #1/15/2021

4 notes · View notes

rosedavid · 4 years

Note

Tyrus + flower crowns (fic)

Cyrus wakes up in a joyous mood. The never-ending frost covering Shadyside has finally melted for the season, causing flower buds to spring up all over town. Already, a plethora of flowers have bloomed happily toward the brilliant sun peaking out from behind the clouds. Snow has turned into rain, nourishing the plants and allowing them to grow. Cyrus is certain that spring is one of his favorite seasons. It’s a season of growth, a season of happiness, a season of new possibilities.

Even though it’s the weekend, Cyrus finds himself unable to sleep in as late as usual. Instead, he peers out the cracks of his blinds as soon as the sun streams into his room and beams at the blue skies and barely moving wind. He takes notice that some of the flowers in their own yard seem to have sprouted overnight. Even the lawns around the neighborhood looker more green than the previous day. Looking at all the flowers trailing around gives Cyrus a great idea, one that’s reminiscent of his elementary school days with his two best friends. If only they were here to celebrate springtime with him. Unfortunately, with Buffy out of town for basketball and Andi busy with her gallery opening this weekend, it will just be him. Still, this doesn’t damper his spirits much; at least it’s still a glorious day outside.

After getting dressed in something random and grabbing the supplies he needs, Cyrus trips down the stairs. Although he knows his mother will patronize him later for not eating breakfast, he feels as if he can’t wait one more second before venturing outside. He stumbles as he tries to pull on his shoes while standing, only getting them after a few hops and support from a nearby wall. Finally, Cyrus yanks a light jacket and scarf from the closet by the front door before hurrying out the front door.

Once stepping out, he sucks in a deep breath of fresh, slightly chilled air. He smells the dew on the grass and the flowers by his doorstep. Smiling to himself, Cyrus wraps the scarf around his neck once more before heading toward his destination. Along the way, he can’t help but admire all the flowers that have popped up over town. They’re everywhere, from gardens to lawns to the sides of the roads.

It doesn’t take long for Cyrus to reach the spot he was searching for. It’s a little nook just outside of Shadyside, a place that he, Andi, and Buffy discovered many years prior. It looks just the same as it did 5 years ago, so much so that vivid memories overtake him.

“This is our secret, special hiding spot,” Andi declares, waving her arms around the area.

“What about Andi Shack?” Cyrus asks, confused and slightly terrified of the wilderness around them.

“Andi Shack will always be our clubhouse, but this place...isn’t it just so peaceful and quiet? Plus, they have tons of flowers!”

She pulls back a bush and sure enough, dozens of plants in all varieties peak out, a beautiful pastel forest hidden behind the trees. There’s so many flowers leading all the way around them. Buffy and Cyrus gape while Andi smirks triumphantly.

“Woah,” Buffy marvels, “I can’t believe how many there are!”

Andi nods, “And that’s exactly why it’s perfect for our latest craft adventure!”

The trio spends the rest of the afternoon learning to make flower crowns, courtesy of Andi’s instruction. Buffy gets frustrated at her mistakes more than once, and Cyrus just tries to focus on making it someone decent. Andi’s crown of course is perfect, definitely fit for a queen. Then, afterward, they spend the rest of the time together playing make believe, with Buffy as the knight, Cyrus as the prince, and Andi as a heroic princess.

Cyrus can’t believe all that’s happened since then. If someone would have told Prince Cyrus 5 years ago that he’d be here, still best friends with Buffy and Andi as well as having new friends and a boyfriend, Prince Cyrus definitely wouldn’t have believed him. He’d also for sure call his parents because stranger danger.

So Cyrus sits down on the familiar rock slab, pulling out his crafting supplies. It’s been so long that he hopes he remembers how to make one. Around his feet, wildflowers cover the dirt like a burst of color. He picks them mindfully, making sure not to take too many. Then, after a bit of trial and error, he finally starts to get the hang of how it works again.

As Cyrus continues to make his flower crown, he gets so enthralled in the process that he fails to hear the rapidly falling footsteps growing nearer to him.

“Underdog?”

Cyrus jolts, dropping a few of the flowers from his lap. Thankfully, the flower crown is still in one piece. He peers up above him, squinting past the sun which makes a halo around TJ’s head.

“TJ,” Cyrus greets with a large grin. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I like going on my morning run out here,” TJ responds, wiping sweat off his brow before sitting beside Cyrus who suddenly notes the athletic clothes and shoes TJ is wearing. “But what about you? You’re usually not an early riser.”

Cyrus blushes for several reasons. One: TJ is suddenly sitting so close to him that Cyrus can see the golden speckles swimming in his eyes. Two: He never expected anyone to know such random facts about him (besides Andi and Buffy, of course) yet here TJ comes once more surprising him with how much he truly knows about Cyrus. Three: TJ sees the half made flower crown still sitting in his lap but doesn’t make fun of him; instead, he smiles sweetly at Cyrus as he admires the crown, fingers gently tickling over the petals.

“Yeah, uh...” Cyrus stutters, lost for words. This has been a common phenomenon recently, especially when he’s around TJ. “I just love springtime and wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. Andi, Buffy, and I used to come here as kids and make flower crowns like these, so I figured why not?”

“That’s really cute,” TJ comments sincerely. Before Cyrus can respond, he asks, “Do you think you could make one for me?”

“Wait, really?” Cyrus questions, blush still evident on his cheeks. “You don’t think it’s stupid?”

TJ shakes his head and kisses Cyrus’s cheek lovingly. “Not at all! I just think this crown is beautiful and want you to make me one. Of course, nothing could be more beautiful than you.”

“TJ Kippen, are you flirting with me so I’ll make you a flower crown?” Cyrus giggles as he nudges his boyfriend.

“That depends...is it working?”

Cyrus laughs, head thrown back. TJ is one of the only people who can make him laugh so freely and unrestrained. “I’ll make you a flower crown, Teej, but you don’t need one because you already look like a prince.”

“A prince, huh? Just call me Prince TJ.”

“Or Prince Thelonious Jagger,” Cyrus snickers. TJ suddenly attacks him, fingers going to Cyrus’s sides as he relentlessly tickles him in retaliation.

“That was confidential,” he complains, although he sounds more happy than upset.

Cyrus gasps out between laughter “I-I’m sorry P-Prince...w-w-ill you have m-ercy?!”

“I suppose.”

Finally, TJ pulls back, allowing Cyrus to catch his breath. Both of them grin at each other like idiots. After calming down, Cyrus finally gets back to his flower crown, picking up the scattered flowers along the ground again.

“This one can be yours,” Cyrus declares as he stares at it. “It looks like you.”

“Looks like me?”

“Well, yeah. Fiery, orange wildflowers at the exterior, surrounded by pale blue and calming pink flowers at the center. You’re a burst of vibrant colors, but it’s only when you get deeper in your personality that the soft, sweet undertones come out.”

TJ places a hand beneath his chin, staring at Cyrus lovingly as he speaks. He uses his other hand to take Cyrus’s free one. “Will you teach me? I want to make one for you.”

Cyrus strokes the top of TJ’s hand with his thumb. “Of course.”

The two of them spend the rest of the afternoon braiding flower crowns. They leave the nook donning wildflower crowns on their heads and more around their arms. They walk back toward the center of Shadyside smiling at each other under the sun with conjoined hands, blooms growing at their feet.

Read my other Andi Mack fanfiction here!

#I know it's not spring but y'know #andi mack #tyrus #tyrus fanfic #andi mack fanfic #tyrus fic #andi mack fanfiction #tyrus fanfiction #andi mack fic #cyrus goodman #tj kippen #cyrus x tj #tj x cyrus #drabble #fanfiction #prompts #asked #answered

120 notes · View notes

realityandrebirth · 4 years

Photo

Femslash February: Turing Test

Summary: Pixal has never considered herself human, and she isn't about to start. When an old villain returns, she's forced to confront the traits that make her different from the humans she loves. A Nya/Pixal fic.

Notes: hey hey hey here’s a late post for day one of femslash february! my apologies for starting a new chaptered fic, but this one is only gonna be like, 8 chapters long & finished by the end of the month.

all my fics for femslash february are gonna be posted on tumblr first and collected on ao3 at the end of the month. have fun!

Chapter One

Ninjago City's bright lights gave the night sky a soft glow. Even from miles away, she could pick out her father's tower with its shining blue logo. She wasn't looking at the skyline that night, but even so, she felt it when all the lights went out.

Pixal snapped her head up. Zane looked over, concern written across his face. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

"The power went out in Borg Tower." Pixal stood up from the couch, checking her system for the other connections that had gone out. "The rest of the city, as well. Generators are bringing emergency services online, but I can't get in contact with my father."

She moved to the window. The horizon was dark. Her processors whirred as she tried to figure out what had caused the blackout – she hadn't noticed anything wrong in the moments before. She couldn't connect to the internet. Pixal checked the most recent flow of data into her systems, but even for her, thinking in milliseconds, it would take hours to comb through everything.

Zane put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped. "I'll tell the others," he said. "Do you us to go ahead of them?"

"I can go alone," Pixal said. "I will call if I need backup."

"There might be danger, Pixal. We don't know what caused this blackout. Isn't there supposed to be systems to prevent this sort of thing?"

Pixal shrugged off Zane's hand. "My first priority is making sure my father isn't trapped in his office without a functioning elevator," she said. "As I said, I'll let you know if I get into trouble."

Zane frowned, but didn't protest further. Pixal left the room and went to put on her armor.

She was greeted on the street by panicking citizens. "Samurai X!" someone shouted, and they all turned to look at her.

"I thought she was Pixal?" someone commented. Pixal herself scoffed. They clearly weren't in significant danger if they could debate the semantics of her name.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked, looking around. The buildings were intact, and there were even some cars still driving around. "What's the situation?"

It took some argument among the crowd, but eventually, someone stepped forward to explain things to her. The blackout had happened without warning and with no explanation. The emergency broadcast system was down, too. With no way to find out how or why this was happening, and with no sign of when it would improve, people were starting to panic. Pixal confirmed that emergency services like hospitals had generators running, and faced the rest of the crowd.

"Don't worry," she said. "The ninja will be arriving shortly to assist in any way they can. If there's nothing that needs my attention before they get here, I need to check on Borg Tower."

No one argued otherwise, so Pixal left to check on her father.

Pixal didn't see any of the usual employees in the lobby to greet her, and no one as she ascended the stairs. Around floor thirty, she did a quick sweep through the rooms just to make sure no one was stuck somewhere, but when her search came up empty, she resumed her climb.

Was Cyrus Borg even here?

His room was empty. Pixal shone her flashlight in every nook and cranny, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Was he in his office? He often worked late nights, but it was almost three AM. Pixal found that her mind was using excessive processing power going through potential explanations for what had happened. She killed the routine and headed to the hundredth floor.

"Father?" she called out, shining her flashlight around the dark room. "Are you here?"

For a long few moments, no one answered. Pixal was prepared to turn back, but something kept her standing there, and she heard a weak voice respond.

"…Pixal?"

"Father!" Pixal took a few steps into the room. "Father, where are you?"

"…over here…"

Pixal pointed her light at the desk at the opposite of the room and ran to it. Cyrus Borg was on the floor behind it, and he looked up at Pixal with a small, crooked smile when she kneeled down. "Thank goodness," he croaked. "I thought…"

"Father, your arm!"

Long ago, an evil force had taken her father's arm and replaced it with a mechanical prosthetic. The invasive procedure had rendered it impossible to remove, and all Cyrus could do was accept that it was part of him now.

Now, the prosthetic was in pieces, warped bits of metal scattered across the floor, and there were wires sticking out of the remainder that was still attached to his shoulder. Cyrus winced away when she reached out to examine it. "Ah, Pixal…"

Pixal's mind whirred. "The doctors said the wiring reached to your spinal cord," she said. "Removing it entirely was too risky. The procedure could kill you. Father, what happened?"

Cyrus took a deep breath. "There was a virus," he said. "Not the Overlord, no, but… something he placed to… to monitor me? To… I don't know."

"It was in your arm?" Pixal eyes scanned the pieces strewn around him. None of it was together enough to still be functional. "Father…"

Cyrus pushed himself up, his face contorted in obvious pain. "You're hurt," Pixal said, and she took hold of his good arm and let him lean on her. "Did something attack you?"

"The virus was dormant after the Overlord's defeat," he said instead of answering her question. "But… it was reactivated. I don't know how or why, but when I realized… no, Pixal, I did this myself."

Pixal took a moment to process his statement. "The power went out," she said, preferring to think of something other than Cyrus smashing his own prosthetic. "Was that caused by the virus?"

"It… might be related. It went out shortly before the virus was reactivated. Pixal, are the ninja coming?"

She nodded. "Zane knows I'm here, and I can send a message to him and the others. We need to get you to a hospital."

"Of course," Cyrus said, and he let out a half-laugh cut off by a pained groan.

Pixal picked Cyrus up, careful not around the shoulder where his prosthetic had been. She didn't know the full extent of what the Overlord had done – not even her father knew – and if something had been damaged internally, there was no telling what might happen. Her father was clearly in pain already.

"We're going," she said, and she stood up.

Someone was at the office entrance. Pixal couldn't see them clearly in the darkness, and they disappeared into the stairwell when she shone a light on them. All she saw was a flash of green. Pixal frowned. Cyrus had gone stiff, and she could hear his rapid breathing.

"Just a moment," she said, and she placed Cyrus back on the ground.

"Pixal, wait –"

"I'm just making sure there's no danger," she said. "Stay here."

Despite Cyrus' protests, she turned and strode towards the entrace. "Show yourself!" she shouted, drawing her sword. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

No response. Pixal stepped into the stairwell. It was quiet, and she didn't see anyone, but there was a presence in the atmosphere that was impossible to ignore. Pixal gripped her sword and ran a program to scan the area.

Something slammed into her side. Pixal tumbled down a flight of stairs before locking on to her assailant's position. She threw the sword without confirming visuals, and looked up to see her sword pass through empty air, with no sign there was anyone in the stairwell with her.

No – there was someone there. She caught another ripple of translucent green coming towards her before she rolled out of the way.

Pixal heard the thud as the invisible figure hit the ground where she had just been. She righted herself and pointed her sword. "Show yourself, ghost!" she demanded.

"Is that what I am now?"

She knew that voice. Pixal tried to calculate the probability of her situation. It was inconceivable. All the villains that had come back on the Day of the Departed had been banished again – how was Cryptor here now?

Slowed down by her calculations, she didn't react in time to stop him from slamming into her again.

She crashed to the ground, losing her grip on her sword, and reached for the second one on her back. Just as her hand closed on its hilt, something sharp was jammed into the joint of her shoulder.

Electricty coursed through her. Her mind filled with hundreds of warnings and failures that she was rapidly losing the ability to comprehend as her systems killed every unnecessary routine. In one last, desperate move, she took all her power and rerouted it to her chest.

The world went white. Pixal's last conscious thought to hope there was enough of her left to reboot.

#femslash february #samuraishipping #lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago pixal #fic update #formatting on tumblr is TERRIBLE oh my GOD #but I don't wanna start a new chaptered fic on ao3 lol #SORRY TO EVERYONE IF THE READ MORE DOESN'T WORK

17 notes · View notes

27emailsicantsend · 5 years

Text

I JUST WATCHED THE FINALE AND OH MY GOSH MY HEAD IS SPINNING I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS

I’ll give you my quick thoughts and then jump into Muffy because you already KNOW I am saving a whole section for them

Celia’s growth was amazing. I love that she went from being strict to being so carefree and trusting of Bex

Bex in that wedding dress 👏🏻 Bowie in that Tux 👌🏻 like they didn’t have to do that but they did 😭

The slow dance was SO CUTE OMG

I loved that all of them sang lady Gaga- the song was perfect for them but sad Garren wasn’t on stage with Sofia

However, they showed the ships singing together and whenever they showed Buffy they showed Marty so I was like 😩😭👏🏻 ya know

TJ playing the piano was all I could have asked for

I LOVED the scene when Cyrus and Buffy talked about “relationship woes” like wow. 😭😍 that hurt because the parrallels were so blatantly obvious but Terri made sure to take EQUAL time to explain their woes with each character.

Also WTF KIRA STOP TOUCHING TJ AND PUTTING YOUR ARM ON HIM. This has been my PSA

I LOVED watching TJ just RIP into Kira. Boi 👏🏻 told 👏🏻 her 👏🏻 off. He literally called her out for bullying and asked her to stop (likkkeeee not only was it great bc he was protective boyfriend mode™️ but because he showed growth. He defended Cyrus for something he used to do). It was great and a no Kira redemption was the best way they could have done that and it was was beautiful. 💯

I loved that Jandi scene! I have said I am actually ok with Jandi, but they needed more maturity. Andi needed to find herself and Jonah needed to be ready for a relationship. In time and when Andi can handle conflict, I think they would make a good pairing. But WITH TIME, like they said. Until then, Jonah has the cute bracelet. I think that was such a valuable lesson for kids to not rush something, just because you like someone. Make sure you are actually ready because crushes aren’t all just about endgames (which will sound hypocritical considering what I write next lol) but that they are a LOT of work and you have to have your head on correct to make sure you can handle it. Just *chef’s kiss*

I know Muffy was around this time (sorry my thoughts are so scattered- I am writing this post watching it so not everything is in a congruent timeline) but I am going to come back to them like I said earlier. They have a special reserved™️ section in this post 😍👏🏻

THE B[REDACTED]H SCENE. WAS SO CUTE. UGH

I laughed so hard at TJ’s name but gave all my uwu’s I had left post Muffy (which weren’t many but I reserved some for Tyrus) to that cute little line from Cyrus about how he liked his name 😭

That 👏🏻 hand 👏🏻 hold 👏🏻

Like watching TJ’s shaky fingers get all close I COULDN’T BREATHE-

They really out here making all benches gay huh?

And you could see how SHY TJ was talking to Cyrus. It was so sweet how flirty and awkward he got. I loved it.

I’m sure their hands were v sweaty but that’s a point for another day lol

I thought the scene was handled well considering their limits and tried to keep my expectations low, but TBH I was pretty bummed they didn’t actually say the words that they liked each other. I wish there was more dialogue than vague questions ya know? Oh well 🤷🏼‍♀️

I was also really REALLY hoping for some canon Muffy and Tyrus scenes at the party and kept checking the time stamp during the last scene hoping they would show SOMETHING but they didn’t say anything. Even just a quick “Hey I’m dating this person now and I love them all my uwu’s” would have been fine but it was like that was completely forgotten

However I’ve seen a few Tumblr posts about someone working on making fic text posts with the GHC talking about their canon ships so I’ll take what I can get :)

The Andi Shack and Andi getting into SAVA didn’t surprise me, but it was sweet

I really liked the whole side by side photo thing they did

What did surprise me was Jonah saying he loved Andi 😭 like that was such a sweet sentiment and I was just like, “Alexa play I Cried by Jonah Beck” you know?

Kinda also dissapointed we heard nothing more about Jonah’s panic attack’s, the hole in the wall, and possible Kippen Siblings

REALLY REALLY want an Andi Mack movie- they made a Lizzie McGuire one after only two seasons so they could with AM to address any plot holes (BUT IF THEY DO IT THEY BETTER HAVE CANON MUFFY AND TYRUS JOIN SO HELP ME BC MIRANDA WAS GONE IN TLMM AND I WAS READY TO SHOW HANDS)

Also other side note: I got kinda frustrated with all of the dancing/singing scenes. Like they were cute but also felt like a lot of wasted screen time (much like 3x19 or the Jonah/Cyrus camping scenes) when other plots could have been addressed

And no speaking lines for Amber? At all? Like...? Even with the Jonah stuff? Or redemption paralleling TJ. IDK seemed a lil wack to me

Ok here’s the good stuff

Muffy:

Again, Alexa play “I Cried” by Jonah Beck BECAUSE OH MY GOSH THEY WERE MY EVERYTHING

Surprisingly didn’t cry as much as 3x14 but I think that’s because I was shaking so bad (seriously I looked like I just went through a terrifying haunted house and stayed overnight in it, my hand trembling so much)

I rewatched the scenes WHICH ONLY MADE IT WORSE BECAUSE I CRIED MORE

I enjoyed writing my fics, but really really liked the way Terri handled this

I loved all of their scenes dancing together and it was funny because after Cyrus and Buffy talked, Buffy was like, “he doesn’t like me” but then Marty spent the ENTIRE night like RIGHT NEXT TO BUFFY. Not with the other girl. Literally physical space is not a real thing with them. Watch when they dance, or when they see CeCe in the Dino costume or any other time, Buffy and Marty are ONLY next to each other and Marty even moves closer to Buffy when they are all huddled around CeCe if you watch closely enough

The frog parallel? 😭👌🏻

Buffy addressing Marty instead of the other way around? 😭👌🏻

Marty “what’s going on?” 😭👌🏻

I loved when Marty called himself a dope 😂👏🏻 13/10 sweet boi

Also, watching Buffy get worked up because they can’t have a real conversation I’m 😭😭😭 you could see actual tears in her eyes and THEN GIRL WENT RUNNING OUTSIDE FOR SOME FRESH AIR

AND GUESS WHO CHASES AFTER HER- I’M—- UGHHHHHH I’m getting worked up thinking about it tbh

Marty tries the conversation again and she SAYS SHE LIKES HIM. NO HESItation what kind of ROMANCE—

Heidenjfbdhewiejdkdk

And then it was literal poetic cinema when he said he NEVER STOPPED LIKING HER AFTER THAT AWKWARD PAUSE AND GRABBED HER HANDS

It was so SOft-

And then they KISSED AND IT WAS REAL

I got my Muffy kiss 💅🏻 I just. I. You guys don’t understand. I was shipping this WAY before anyone really got on board. I remember trying to look up Muffy fan videos after two episodes of them together because I already fell in love with them and there was one like barely edited thirty second video on YouTube. I tried to post something on here and like two people liked it. I LIKED THEM WHEN BASICALLY NO ONE ELSE DID AND SO I FEEL LIKE I AM ONE OF THE MOST DESERVING OF THIS SHIP BEING ENDGAME AND NO ONE CAN FIGHT ME ON THIS JUST LET ME LOVE THEM

MUFFY KISS (sorry needed to say it one more time for emphasis)

And then they walked away together with their arms around each other 😭 If you watch closely Buffy kinda tucks her head into his arm and I’ve seen fics of them doing this so it made me heart 💗💓💓 when they actually did

I JUST WANT TO SEE THEM AS A CANON COUPLE IS THAT TO MUCH TO ASK

Please Terri Minksy, I beg of you, if you don’t get a S4 make a movie but it is REQUIRED BY LAW that Muffy and Tyrus are in the ENTIRE movie- being canon and cute. They don’t even need angst but I still want scenes with them together just being in love.

I will be spending the entire next week in complete denial that this show is over, while rewatching this episode ten times and reading every Muffy fic I can find. Thanks for coming to my Tedx talk.

#andi mack #marty from the party #buffy driscoll #muffy #tj kippen #cyrus goodman #am #andi mack spoilers #am spoilers #tyrus #jandi #amber #cece mack #bexie #bex mack #bowie mack #jonah beck #kira #jamber

128 notes · View notes

bricousland · 4 years

Text

The Sunwell

The Void has been haunting Ada'Lene since her encounter with it while on a mission in Outland. It's been acting like a virus, slowly eating away at her ability to use the Light and forcing her to use Shadow Magic more and more. Visiting the Sunwell and asking M'uru for her help is Lene's last-ditch effort to re-balance the Void and Light within her. However, since Alleria's visit to the Sunwell, the priests have been limiting access and things aren't as easy as Lene had hoped.

This is a short story I wrote to fill in a time gap between my RP group's World of Warcraft Campaign. It’s the second story to feature my Blood Elf Priest, Ada’Lene Lightweaver. Like many of my WoW shorts, it was written for my RP group so, much of the details are left out since the group knows everything that’s happened to Lene leading up to this moment. If you’d like to know some of the details surrounding what happened, send me an ask and I’d be happy to fill it in for you or maybe it'll inspire me to write a detailed account for you!

A Note on Ada’s name: Ada’s full name is Ada’Lene Lightweaver and she has two sisters who go by Ada’Nara and Ada’Leya. The prefix “Ada” is an old tradition in her family for the female line. Her actual name is simply “Lene” and her sister’s: “Nara” and “Leya”. The group, however, doesn’t really know this and have always just referred to her as “Ada”. Up to this point, Lene has never been bothered to correct them since, at the time of this story, they don’t know her sisters and Lene has no incentive to introduce them. Ada is as good a name as any for her.

The summer sun filled the garden and warmed Ada’Lene’s face as she turned it towards the sky. Surrounded by the smell of golden overgrowth and flowers, she was reminded of the solace being back in the Temple could provide. The silence and isolation eased her mind in ways the city simply could not. It allowed for moments of temporary normalcy. When the sun was bright and she was among the foliage, the whispers would dull for a time. In these fleeting moments, she could feel the person she wanted to be fighting against the darkness that had plagued her for so long. The Temple gardens of Quel’Danas had been a sanctuary to her for the years following the destruction of the Sunwell and her Mother’s subsequent descent into madness. She needed that same feeling of safety now.

Failure.

Ada’s heart thumped against her chest when she heard the voice. It sounded more and more like her mother every day. It was learning, and that made it difficult to ignore and even more arduous to dismiss. The moments of contemplation were always fleeting, no matter how beautiful the day. The whispers always found a way to slither back into her head it’s why she’d decided to come. She had strived her whole life to be anything but a burden to those around her, and after seeing her friends rally behind her and fail, she knew this was something she’d have to solve on her own.

Ignore those thoughts. Deep breaths, clear your mind, find your Chi. Just like the Mistweavers showed you. Find your focus.

Lene lifted Kaivus’ small lantern from her hip and held it between her hands. She used the soft flow of the Light to help her focus on the sweet smell of the garden and the warmth of the sun on her back. Pleasant things, good things, not the thoughts trying to drown her. The small lantern in her hands grew warmer and the Light was snuffed out as she felt her body absorb the last of it to push back the whispers. Her mind calmed again and she breathed out a sigh of relief. The Pandaren’s method didn’t always work but coupled with the lantern it could numb the Void and give her time to feel like herself again. Even a minute was worth the effort.

Her mind cleared, but just as she felt the turmoil in her come to rest she was disrupted by the heavy sound of boots coming her way. The priests never came this far back, not did they walk with such heavy steps.

Priests are light-footed. LIGHT-footed, ha. Kaivus would appreciate that one.

With her focus broken, the whispers came flooding back. The Light in the lantern didn’t, however, it needed time to recover. She’d be on her own for awhile. Her attention turned to the approaching footsteps, only to see Cyrus rounding the corner.

They don’t trust you to handle this on your own. They know you can’t.

Ada stood. She’d told him to leave her alone. She wanted to try to deal with this without everyone looking at her as if she were a problem to be solved. Of course he wouldn’t listen, he never listened to anyone and had a penchant for trying to fix things when they were broken. Especially her. “I told you not to come.”

“Since when do I listen to you?” He was a child who had no regrets about being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Lene narrowed her gaze on him, “But, before you get angry, I come bearing good news.” Cyrus slid onto the bench and patted the spot next to him. Lene pinched the bridge of her nose but slid into the spot beside him. “Nara pulled rank.” He explained, “And has gotten you access to the Sunwell.”

Ada’Lene opened her mouth to berate him for coming. Just like everyone else, Cyrus was a distraction. He was more than that, he was an absolute pain in the ass. Then he mentioned Nara and all of a sudden Lene found herself staring at him, slack-jawed and with eyes as wide as the sun, “She what?” Nara didn’t use her political sway for anything. Especially for something she considered a personal matter, and Lene had heard her use that term, ‘personal matter’, everytime they talked about her visit to the Sunwell.

They’re losing faith. They know you’ll fail. You always fail Ada’Lene Lightweaver.

“Don’t get too excited.” Cyrus’ had an amused smile as he took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Lene tugged it away and stood on her own, “She wants to talk to you first, to know what your plans are if this doesn’t work.” Cyrus walked with Lene towards the front of the gardens, an arm sliding over her shoulders and holding her close as they moved along the path.

She walked beside him for a time but then slipped out from under his arm with a gentle smile and took a few long strides so she was ahead of him. “There is no other plan. The Sunwell will work.” She let her fingertips glide across a few soft petals which stretched out onto the path. Lene and Cyrus were officially courting, but lately Lene found herself less than enthused about the idea than when she agreed. She loved Cyrus, he was like a brother to her and took care of her during a time in her life where there was a lot of uncertainty. She felt she owed him the chance to be something more. She should have known better than to try and force these things. Lene touched the small golden lantern at her hip.

“Well, you can tell her that.” Ada bowed her head as the whispers continued to try and dominate her thoughts. They were bold little things, they poked and prodded until they felt the walls she’d built lower. Once they sensed even an inkling of instability, they sunk their fangs in and held on for as long as they could. They found the holes in her soul and filled them with doubt and paranoia. The priests had taught her to manage most of their attacks, but there were the ones which couldn’t be managed. The priests warned that eventually, Lene would have to choose to control them or succumb to them.

She wanted neither

Cyrus caught up to Lene as they came to the front of the garden. He put a hand on her back; he was always like this. She didn’t understand his desire to marry her, he didn’t even love her. It was all about following through with their fathers’ wishes. Lene hadn’t minded before, she wanted Nara and Fe’Lana to have their chance and so Lene had finally agreed to the match. But now things had changed. Ada shrugged him off and gave him a solid punch to the arm. “Stop. I can’t deal with your flirting today. Where’s Nara?”

Cyrus barked a laugh and rubbed his arm. “Over there.” Cyrus pointed to one of the private pavilions scattered throughout the temple grounds. They were made of rose tinted glass and stabilized by tall golden pillars molded to look like broad-leaved hyacinth vines. This particular one had real vines climbing up along the pillars and at the top large yellow and red flowers reached for the sun.

Cyrus opened the door for Lene and she stepped through feeling a sudden weight of life changing decisions pressed on her shoulders. Nara had that effect on people--on a room. She could make anyone feel small. Even if she was the shortest sibling. She sat on a bench reviewing some papers and scratching her signature across the bottom of a few pages. She wasn’t in her typical Paladin armor. Today she was dressed the part of a House Lady -- or in her case Lord. Nara would never be caught dead in a dress. Instead, she preferred a pair of deep red and gold leggings, flats, and a comfortable blouse. Her hair was tucked behind her ears with minimal effort but she still managed to look regal with perfected posture and a natural sternness in her features. The scar that marred the left side of her face did not make her look softer, even the pink tinted windows could do little to soften the General.

Nara looked up from her work and set it aside, laying her pen on top of the small stack of papers. “How are you?” There was a rare hint of concern in her voice; it threw Ada’s initial response out the window. The extent of her sister’s worry was written all over her face.

“Fantastic, now that I’ll have access to the Sunwell. Nara, thank you.” She ran up to her sister and hugged her. She felt Nara relax beneath her affection and Nara held Lene tight. She wasn’t completely made of stone.

“You’re my sister; and this has gone on long enough. I can’t watch you isolate yourself like this anymore. But Lene,” Nara pulled away and held her at arm’s length. Her bright golden eyes studying her. The look Nara gave her made her heart race. It was hard to tell what kind of answers Nara was looking for when she watched someone like that. It made it especially hard to lie.“I need to know what you’re going to do if this doesn’t work. You need a path, I won’t have you continue being lost like this.”

She’s lost her faith in your abilities. Everyone has. You’ve become a useless memory but you can find your purpose again. Just listen to us.

Ada grabbed her sister’s forearm, “Nara, this will work. The Sunwell connected me to the Light before. It can do so again.”

Why do you try? The Light has abandoned you, but we’re here.

“Maybe. But you need a plan. Will you learn to control the Void better? Take up another skill perhaps? You’re trained in battlefield medicine. A little bit more training and you’ll be able to heal in another way.”

This again? She’d thought about taking that path. Long and hard but then she remembered standing in front of an infected fel corpse. It needed to be put out of its misery and yet, as she strangled it and heard its neck snap, Ada felt dirty. Even as Qeldaras and Lahkrimosa had praised her for a job well done, all Lene could feel was the pulse of Void magic tightening its grip on her. The way the it sat with her, taunted her, gave into its base need for violence sent chills down Ada’s spine. She hated the feeling, “Nara, I won’t be a Shadow Priest. I won’t become our mother.”

“You’re not her, Lene! Shadow Priests have been using the Void to fight for good for as long as the Light has. Your closest friends are Demon Hunters. Corruption doesn’t have to mean degradation. With proper training you’ll manage. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

Like she protected you from your mother? She let your mother torture you while she drew power from a dying Naaru. She should be ashamed of who she is, not you.

The whispers baited her anger and yanked the vitriol out of her mouth before she could contain it. “Like you kept me safe before? You left me to be beaten and broken. Everyday, it was something: I smiled too much like Father, I couldn’t use the Light, I wasn’t happy enough, I wasn’t sad enough. Every meaningless thing became an affront; an excuse to torture me, and yet you prioritized your training over being at home! We needed you!”

“Lene, calm down.”

She hurt you too. No one cares about what you want. No one cares about you -- except us, of course. We care, we’re here for you.

There was a warning in Nara’s voice but Ada’Lene chose to ignore it. “I don’t want to manage. I’m not a killer. I’m not you.”

“That’s enough!”

“Don’t like being reminded that you’re the reason our mother is dead?”

“Which did you want, Lene, to be saved or to have our mother alive?”

“I wanted both!”

“Alright, you’ve both had a good row at each other.” Cyrus stepped between them and took Ada by the arm. “Lene, let’s go.” He pulled her towards the door.

Nara bristled as Cyrus got between them, but she didn’t stop him. Instead she looked beyond him and set her gaze on her sister, “I chose you, Lene. You’re going to the Sunwell tomorrow. This ends, one way or another. Have a plan.”

Ada opened her mouth to respond, but Cyrus shoved her out the door. “You’ve said enough.”

She spun around to face him as she was pushed out the door, “what do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you think your doing? Lene, snap out of it.”

“Ari’s right. She believes she’s so much better than us. She’s the one who drained a Naaru and put her training over her family. She’s the one who abandoned Mother to Outland.”

“You know it’s more complicated than that.”

Ada’Lene slid onto a nearby bench and watched the glass pavilion. Through the rose stained glass she could see Nara’s outline standing as still as a statue. Her posture was straight and rigid and her back was turned towards the door. Nara wouldn’t come after her, it wasn’t the way her older sister did things. Lene sighed and with the sun warming her, the voices whispers subsided. She slumped forward and put her head in her hands. “By the Light, I am turning into my mother.”

Cyrus sat beside her. He didn’t say a word, he only pulled her close. This time, Lene didn’t fight it and leaned into him.

Weak.

The whispers creeped back into her head, they wouldn’t be extinguished so easily again. “I can’t do this.” Ada pulled away from Cyrus and took off along a narrow path away from the small neighborhood of pavilions. “Lene!” She heard Cyrus calling after her, and so she took longer, more determined strides deeper into the quieter, more secluded area of the garden. Where the trees were older and their heavy branches blocked out the sun. She needed just one moment of peace.

She followed the moss covered stones and even as she realized Cyrus had not given chase, Lene continued her frantic pace. Farther away, she needed to be farther away. Nearby priests greeted her but she could only manage a quick nod as she rushed under an arch made of thin green vines and wide golden leaves it was newer than the rest of the garden but forgotten.

They know what you are. They’re afraid of you. Afraid of the power you have, of your potential. Kill them all and show them you are not to be pitied. You’re not that same powerless girl that hid from her mother. If only you’d accepted our gift ...

Ada found what she was looking for: a massive sculpture of thorns and roses trimmed and pruned into the form of a Naaru. It had been tended to and shaped since M’uru sacrificed herself to save the Sin’dorei. Her thorns were thick and sharp. Ada seized a vine and all at once, several small thorns pricked her palm and Ada loosened her grip.

This is insanity.

Coward

She tightened her hold on the vine and the thorns dug deep into her palm. Blood welled up and slid down her hand in rhythm with the heartbeat in her ears. The whispers retreated to the back of her mind, cackling, as the pain flared in her hand and thrummed up her arm. Through the pain, Ada’Lene breathed a sigh of relief; her heart felt light again. She could feel a piece of herself trying to push free. The part of her that smiled and laughed, it was at the edge of her heart to remind her what she was fighting for. The darkness was there though, creating a wall between who she wanted to be and what she was. The small reminder crawled away as the thorns became more of a comfortable pain. She flexed her muscles to reignite it so she could coax the little spark of light deep inside of her back to the surface. The warm trickle of blood that slid beneath her sleeve was a small sacrifice for the moment of peace the pain produced.

“Ada!” A pair of strong arms grabbed her from behind and pried her hand off of the thorns she clung to. Lene panicked as the light began to slip away. She struggled in Cyrus’ grip and tried to grab the thorns again.

Just a few more moments.

“No! It was working!” Lene kicked him and with a grunt he released her. The whispers swarmed with rage and twisted her gut in knots.

See, what did we tell you? No one cares about what helps. They don’t want to be embarrassed. They’re ashamed of us.

Lene spun around in a fury but the single gold eye she met did not belong to the hunter she expected. They were far warmer and confused, “Kaivus?” Chest heaving, hands shaking, and hair in a red disheveled mess, she stared at him not believing what she was seeing. He’d come to the temple, but why? Nara wouldn’t have called him here. There was no reason to.

Ah, the letter...

Lene’s attention returned to her hand, it was smeared with blood and seeping more. She followed the stream of blood and watched it drip off her fingertips and fall onto the stone below. The small lantern on her hip had caught some of the blood and was already drying against the cool metal. Guilt struck her, she should have been better than this. She stared at the small lantern, devoid of light. It was better than facing the judgement she’d seen from everyone else come from Kaivus too.

What good are you to him? You can’t help him. You can’t save him anymore. Leave the saving to that little paladin nipping at his heels. Let this Light possessed fool be on his way. You’ll be much happier with us.

“Ada, you’re crying...”

Lene’s head snapped up at the sound of his voice. “What?” she touched her face and found her cheek wet with tears she hadn’t realized she’d shed. She used her sleeve to wipe them away. “I...” She started; she wanted to tell him she was alright, everything was fine. Everyone at the temple hugged rose bushes, didn’t he know? It’s why most priests were so prickly! It was tradition at this point, and he had nothing to be concerned about. Everything was completely fine and normal -- so what wounds could she heal for him today?

The jokes evaporated as soon as they sprung up in her mind, Lene knew her humor couldn’t hide her appearance: standing alone, bloody, crying and in complete disarray.

She looked insane. She was insane.

The whispers were right, it didn’t matter why Kaivus was here. She had nothing to offer him. There were no answers she could give him and she was far too lost to offer him guidance. It’d be better if she sent him away to Nara. Even Nara’s squire Kailee would be a better choice than her. The Void had rendered Lene useless and so she remained quiet, using the dull throb in her arm to ease the whispers away as best she could.

Kaivus closed the distance between them which forced Lene to look at him. She was surprised to see him full of concern. Not the kind that lended itself to pity, nor the kind that pressed for final goodbyes. It was concern for concern’s sake with that hummingbird trademarked spark of hope shining behind it and the whispers which were simmering in her heart were squashed. It was the same look he had for her back in Gadgetzan. She didn’t remember much of her time there, but she did remember him.

Kaivus picked up her hand and studied the torn and bloody flesh. “Is it that bad?”

Lene nodded, “Yeah.” She gently pulled her hand from his and pulled out a roll of bandages from one of the small pockets in her robes. “I’m going to the Sunwell tomorrow, so all of this will be over soon.” Lene fumbled with the bandages, she never was good with her right hand and the way the whispers had shaken her made her movements even more cumbersome. “I’ll get this Void infection purged and I’ll be back to healing your broken toes in no time -- Damnit!” She cursed as the bandages refused to stay in place and the roll slipped between her fingers. Kaivus caught them before they could completely unravel and took her bloody hand in his.

Use us, you don’t need those primitive methods. We’ll stop the bleeding, stop the pain. We’re here for you Ada’Lene. Let us give you purpose.

“I won’t!”

“Ada, let me help.” The calm in Kaivus’ voice pierced the cacophony of whispers and once again planted Lene’s feet firmly on the ground. Being pulled back from the anger the whispers insighted was like breaching the surface of water and taking a fresh gulp of fresh air after almost drowning. Her emerald eyes fell on Kaivus, ready to apologize. Her outburst had been sudden, but he wasn’t afraid and his smile lingered as a small crease on either side of his mouth, “I need to clean it first, right?” He held out his free hand and waited for Lene to hand over the bandages he knew she carried.

“Thank you, Hummingbird.” She was tired, she could feel the tears in her throat this time, beckoning to be let loose in a tsunami of anger and frustration. Kaivus wiped the blood off her fingers, taking a little too much care to avoid the deep thorn pricks. He cleaned where the blood had flowed over her palm. Lene watched as his nose scrunched up with extra focus as he tried to wrap her hand. She laughed, “When did you learn this?”

“A while ago… maybe?” His guilt made Lene grin, Kaivus used the bandages to apply pressure to the wound. She watched him pause and scratch his chin several times before making adjustments and increasing the pressure around the deepest part. It wasn’t perfect but it was far better than she could do at the moment. “I’ve been watching you, and practicing.”

“No, twist the bandage over the wrist. You’ll get more pressure -- yeah, that’s good.” He secured the bandage and focused on rerolling the others. “So, all those times I came to patch you up, you could have done it yourself?” She gave his shoulder a playful shove, eliciting a shy laugh from Kaivus.

“Well, yes -- but -- I just wanted to make sure it was done right. You would have just corrected me anyway!”

“I feel very betrayed right now. I woke up from very productive napping for you!”

“What a sacrifice it must have been.”

“It was.” The two of them shared a laugh. It was hard not to feel better with Kaivus. His enthusiasm was infections, even Qeld and Lahk had a hard time frowning around him-- and frowning was basically their favorite hobby. She glanced passed him and saw a stack of books dropped and strewn beneath the archway behind him. A little pang of guilt jolted through her. “Why are you here, Hummingbird? Does this visit have to do with your Light?” She helped him collect the books. The covers were embossed with titles Lene was familiar with. Some were wild stories about the Old Gods and titans. Fairy tales. There was just one book she didn’t recognize but it seemed to be more of the same, except it was from a journal of a historical records. Lene waited for an answer from Kaivus, and his his cheeks turned a soft shade of red as he took the books from her.

“No… I mean yes -- but more importantly, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to you at the Exodar. Then, I came across an old childhood story my mother used to tell me. It reminded me of another story I’d heard, and so I started digging. Maybe, it could help?” Kaivus, with the books safe in his arms, left the little alcove and walked back towards the warmer parts of the garden. Lene stepped beside him with a smile; she showed him the cover of a book at the top of the small pile in his arms. It was a traditional story about an old god who stole a princess and was eventually slain by prince charming. Leya had loved that story as a child, “So, you want to be my prince? Prince Windfire or Prince Hummingbird?” a little shock of excitement jolted up her spine, “Prince Hummingbird is definitely meant for storybooks.”

The red in his cheeks deepened as he stumbled over his words. Lene felt her smile growing. The moment with the whispers had passed and for the first time in awhile, she was absorbed in watching Kaivus stumble and blush his way through the conversation. “Not at all! I mean, I do want to help, and fairy tales are sometimes rooted in a kernel of truth.” He gave an exasperated sigh and sat on a bench, “Just look.” Lene sat beside him and he handed her one of the books opened to a bookmarked page. He took the other books and opened them too, balancing them on his lap and handing a few others over for Lene to deal with. She skimmed the text as she listened, “All of these stories are about people who were possessed by the Void and had the corruption removed or destroyed by some sort of stone.”

“It’s an interesting connection,” Lene admitted, but looked at the books with a bit of skepticism, “But it’s not uncommon. You can find fairy tales that are similar between us and the trolls. It doesn’t mean they’re true, it means our cultures have had a lot of interaction. War, in this case.”

Kaivus leaned across her to point at a text Ada had in her lap, “This one is Shal’dorei, I had to get Thal to translate it for me.” He gestured to the one in his lap, “And this one is Tauren, and the one in your hand is the most recent text I’ve found, from a human. Three cultures, who didn’t interact with each other until recently, all with similar stories which date back well before they began to communicate with one another.”

Lene studied the books again and fell quiet. His hunch was just that, a hunch. Most of his sources were fairy tales, and the only historical account he had was a minor mention -- a sentence which would have easily been forgotten if Kaivus hadn’t been looking for it. It wasn’t anything to be excited about; yet he had come all the way here to share it with her. He believed in this and if she were honest with herself, she was excited.

A plan

A plan born of desperation and denial. Ada’Lene, don’t entertain this Lightbound fool. You know we’re stuck together, you and I.

“You don’t think I should… learn how to control it?”

Kaivus looked a little dumbfounded by her question, but he barely skipped a beat in his answer, “That’s giving up.” He said it as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. But to Kaivus it was, it was always so easy for him. “And that’s not what we’ve worked this hard and this long to do. But most importantly, living in the Void, isn’t what you want. So, we find another way. It’s that simple.”

She should have expected that answer. Save everyone, be the hero.

The confidence in his smile sent Lene into a fit of laughter. Kaivus was unable to be anything other than himself. The books threatened to spill onto the ground, she had to catch them before they went sliding off her lap. She held them tight and let her eyes meet his. Her laughter softened at the sight of his smile; he hadn’t changed, not one bit. It was her who had changed. “Trying to prove and track down a fairy tale is simple?”

“We’ve done more impossible things.”

Lene dropped her gaze to the book in her lap. Her bandaged fingertips gently traced the embossed etching across the leather cover. She set the books aside and turned towards Kaivus who was still looking at her with a soft, confident gaze. She pulled him into a tight hug. His whole body tensed beneath her touch but as he relaxed, he pulled her into a warm embrace. Lene rested her chin on his shoulder, “Thank you.” She released him, sitting closer to him than she had been. Kaivus’ gaze shied away from hers when he realized their closeness and he rubbed the back of his neck, tanking more interest in a few flowers across the way. In the quiet of the garden, he cleared his throat and his soft golden eye found its way back to her. He smiled and let out a soft laugh.

He was the same Kaivus she’d been taking care of for well over a year. Hopeful, determined, and barely able to walk on a flat surface without hurting himself. He was Qeld’s brother and someone whose company she enjoyed. She’d never thought much beyond that, not until recently. Gadgetzan, and the day at the beach urged her to look at him differently. Lene had wanted to avoid it, she tried, but this shy, compassionate person in front of her was making it impossible. He was clumsily pulling on her heartstrings in a way no one else had.

She closed and stacked a few of the books in her lap. “Alright, let’s do it. If … if something goes wrong, we’ll look into this. ”

Kaivus snapped back to attention. “Really?”

“Yes, but you have to promise me we’ll do this together. I don’t want you dying under a stack of books, alone.”

“Deal, but you have to promise you’ll stop hurting yourself.” He looked at her hand, some blood had already seeped through the wrap, but it was healing. “If the whispers become bad, you can talk to me. I’ll remind you how wrong they are.”

Ada laughed, “I promise, but what if you’re not here?”

Kaivus shrugged, “Send for me. I’ll come.” his voice didn’t ring with the same hint of jest Lene’s had. He was being serious.

Ada’Lene stood, holding the books and looking at Kaivus with a grin. “I will make you regret that promise.”

We’ll make sure of it.

“I look forward to it.”

Ada’s cheeks grew a little warm and she rolled her eyes, “Why don’t we go have lunch and spend some time going over these stories. You can catch me up on your theories.” Kaivus agreed and the two of them walked the narrow mossy stone path together. Lene stayed beside him as they conversed and laughed The whispers continued to swarm her mind, they hated Kaivus. It made Lene want to keep him closer.

Do you really think you can control this? Think about what you did to your sister. You’ll do it to him, just give us time. We’ll make the little runt fear you.

Lene tried to push the whispers away as they dug into her insecurities, but what they said was true. Eventually, the Void would get to her again, like it had with Nara. It always did. She would do or say something to Kaivus she couldn’t take back. She’d hurt him.

Her chest tightened at the possibility. Kaivus was smiling at her as he talked about the port and his new projects, much of the details she’d missed. Consumed more by the Void’s taunts and threats. Kaivus caught her gaze, there was a soft nod of understanding and without hesitation back tracked and started explaining again, the warm smile on his face never faltering. This time, Lene made sure to listen.

Kaivus had so much ambition; he was turning his father’s port into an international sanctuary. He wasn’t dividing the docks between Horde and Alliance. He was throwing them all together in one big messy stew to prove they could work together, with a bit more understanding. It was dangerous, and Lene foresaw a lot of growing pains. It would take more than his two hands to handle it all, but as always, Kaivus seemed unconcerned and more focused on the big picture.

She was going to ruin it.

You’ll become a burden to him. He’ll resent you for this.

The Void pulled on the strings of anxiety again and it must have shown. Kaivus’ excited smile softened. He pushed the whispers away with a playful jab of his elbow. “They’re wrong.”

At least someone wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.

~ ~ ~

The sun was barely a pink stripe on the horizon as Lene rolled out of bed and dressed herself for the Sunwell. It was a long flowing white robe, draped with a red and gold sash. An initiate’s robe. She adjusted the sash so it sat evenly, pausing to caress the soft silk between her fingertips.

I haven’t worn one of these since I was a girl.

She straightened the golden edged bell-sleeves that draped over her knuckles and were stitched into intricate lacing meant to represent the same curves and edges of a Naaru. The thread kept the lacing from falling apart and was enchanted with enough magic to make the edges glow with a soft golden light which circled her hands and again at her feet.

You will regret this.

She ran a hand though her vibrant red hair in a weak attempt to tame it. As always it had a mind of it’s own and even after a good brush it was a wavy mess around her shoulders and a stray piece fell in front of her Fel stained eyes. Unlike many of the other Sin’dorei, Lene’s had never changed. Hers were a relic of a time she wished to forget.

The Light abandoned you then, it’s abandoning you now. Yet here we are, loyal as ever and you wish to purge us. What kind of person does that make you, Ada’Lene Lightweaver? Ungrateful.

She stood in the stillness of her room. The wound from yesterday throbbed and itched beneath her bandage. She tried to pull on the Light to heal it, but nothing came. Only the Void responded with its slithering whispers.

Let us help. This ritual is a farce, only the Void knows the true way of the world.

There was a loud knock on her door, “Lene, let’s go.” Her sister was small but her voice carried like she were in the room with her. Lene hands straightened her robes one last time before she met Nara at the door. She stood outside, her back to Lene’s roomas if she were guarding it.

She probably was.

She glanced over her shoulder and up at Lene. Next to Ari, Lene was the tallest of the Lightweavers and it was rare when Lene let Nara forget it. Today was no different as Lene shot her sister a knowing grin and it was met with one of Nara’s icy glares.

They walked the halls in silence. The stained glass windows reflected the morning sun in colors of rose, blue and gold onto the emptied tiled halls. The Temple was asleep, there were a few elderly priests shuffling towards the kitchens, and a few cooks arriving to prepare breakfast, with those exceptions, Nara and Lene were alone.

“About yesterday…” Lene began but Nara quickly cut her off with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“It’s fine, Lene.”

“No.” She said, “It wasn’t. I know you did your best when it came to Mother. I lost control, and it won’t happen again.”

“It’s done.” Nara grunted and turned a sharp corner and the two moved down a long steep ramp. As they moved into the inner sanctum of the Temple, the density of people began to increase. Guards stood at every entrance, heavily armed and they saluted Nara as they passed. There were priests in long ceremonial robes decorated with ornate collars and sleeves scurrying about, gathering items, preparing rituals, or organizing books. Seeing Lene, they paused to stare; she was an anomaly. The choice of the Void had not been given to her. It’s curse was simply thrust upon her. It made the other priests suspicious -- a Ren’dorei in the making. They pitied her as well -- a once gifted, young priest brought down by the very beings she fought against. Lene refused to meet any of their gazes, this was the end of it. She’d walk out of here with the balance of the Light and Void restored to her. Even if she didn’t, there was the artifact from Kaivus’ tales. She wasn’t a Ren’dorei and she wasn’t to be pitied, she had options.

In a child’s fairy tale book.

I must be desperate.

The Sunwell lit up it’s room with a warm golden light which mimicked the sun on a warm spring day. The statues which once revered Kael’thas, had been removed or covered with long flowing red drapes and now had the symbol of Silvermoon stitched into them. The priests said the Sunwell belongs to all Sin’dorei. Yet, since Alleria’s visit, that had become more limited. It was not only available to those who seeked meditation and prayer. Should the Void come anywhere near it, and the priests would do all they could to keep them at bay. Without Nara, it was likely Lene would have gone insane before being allowed into the room.

Nara dismissed the inner sanctum guards, leaving the two sisters alone. “I’ll be right here.” though Nara spoke quietly, the echo of her voice sounded off the high ceiling and seemed to come from all sides. Lene gave her sister a soft nod and slipped off the white cloth slippers on her feet before she approached the Sunwell. The warm light rose and licked the edges of the pool in playful, soft swirls of Light. At her approach, the small wisps did not retract but swirled around her ankles, inviting her into the pool. The Void snaked through her mind and squeezed her heart, a shiver ran up her spine as she felt it recoil in disgust. She hesitated like she was being held back at the shoulder by a strong hand. The Void pushed all of her fears and worries to the front of her mind. She felt the overwhelming need to turn and run. This was a fool’s errand. The Light was going to kill her, not help her. Nara was right, she should just learn to control the shadows. She’d be better off.

They’re wrong

Lene fought through the thoughts and took her first step into the well. Her defiance was met with sharp papercut pain through her skull. She stumbled, but persisted towards the deepest part of the pool.

YOU BITCH, YOU WILL SUFFER FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!

The warm light lapped at her hips and curled around her arms. “Hello old friend.” There were sharp stabs of pain still reverberating in her mind, small warning shots. Lene took a deep, controlled breath, “I kind of need your help right now…”

For a long time, nothing happened. The Light did as it had, soft gentle swirls rose up and gracefully fell back into the pool. The pain receded and was replaced with an echoing chuckle.

What did we tell you? The Light is playing games with you, Ada’Lene.

Lene caught her sister’s watchful gaze. Nara didn’t move from her station, but Lene could see the worry. She’d been apprehensive about bringing Lene here, but neither of them considered the possibility that nothing would happen. Lene’s heart hung heavy; the Light had gone still, it flowed around her like rushing water and no longer reached up to brush against nor did it playfully dance between her fingers.

With no more words left in her, Lene waded back towards her sister. It had been a failure beyond her expectations. The Light didn’t even want to save her, the Void won and had dug it’s tendrils far too deep for even the Light to counter. The whispers were right, she belonged to them.

Submit.

The sound of armor against tile drew Lene from the waves of doubt. Nara was running towards her. Lene stopped, knee deep in the well. The Temple was the safest place in Silvermoon and her sister looked at her like she had sleep-walked onto a battlefield. She may not have the Light, but Lene was not defenseless. The power of the Void rushed to her fingertips as she faced whatever it was Nara was rushing to get her away from.

It was the Light

An immense, snaking pillar of Light.

“Nara, no!” Lene yelled back towards her sister and she halted at the edge of the pool. The power in her hands fizzled out, what was only a short moment felt like minutes as she and the towering font of Light considered each other. “It’s ok.” There was an understanding between them, it didn’t have eyes, a form, or gestures, but Lene knew. The Light had been with her for as long as she could remember. She knew it’s ebbs and flows as well as she knew her own, and this time it meant to fix her. She felt empty without it after the destruction of the Sunwell, and she felt that same emptiness now, even as the Void tried to fill it.

The Light was warm, but it wasn’t kind.

It hit Lene with such force that it threw her into the air. The weight of the Light was strangling, but she didn’t fight it. Lene’s muscles tightened as the Void pulsed in panic just beneath the skin. Her ears rung with indecipherable whispers of the Void and loud chimes of the Naaru, though they sounded more like nails on a chalkboard. When the Light finally managed to push the Void away, it disappeared from the outside and Lene hit the ground. Her body shook in pain, its own contained war zone between the Light of the Sunwell and the Void.

Her mind exploded into shards of searing pain, the Light and Void tore through her so quickly she hadn’t the time to discern what was happening. The sounds of the temple became muffled, her vision blurred. She could barely hear her own screams as she rolled onto her back and clutched her head, unable to carry the weight of the pain which swam through her. Nara’s boots sounded in the distance, but she was too paralyzed to stop her.

Let them fight, she wanted to scream.

Let it happen. Nara grabbed Lene by the arms and started to drag her away from the pool. She was talking, but the sound of her blood in her ears superseded the other sounds for her to make out anything her sister was trying to say. As she was pulled away, the Void screamed in the pitch of an angry harpy and the Light rang like a bell in her ears. Lene opened her eyes to see a blurred vision of her sister, bent over her and talking to her, though she didn’t know what she was saying.

Everything stopped all at once. The pain, the rush of Light and Void that filled it faded away so fast that every piece of her felt tired, like she was dead weight in Nara’s arms. She tried to grab Lene’s attention, but she still couldn’t hear Nara. So, her sister gently hit her cheeks and gave her a firm shake, but Lene could do nothing except fade away.

~ ~ ~

Lene woke up to the sound of rain and a pounding in her head. Small flashes of memory blinked in and out of her mind. The Light, the whispers, and her sister. She groaned, the mattress beneath her was hard and unforgiving against her back. Her muscles screamed for her to lie back down as she sat up in bed. Her muscles were stiff and her head screamed in pain, she would have given in to the demand for more sleep had Nara not grabbed her and helped her up.

“Finally, you’re awake.” Nara sat on a small stool beside the bed, there were stacks of paper on a small desk on the other side of the room along with a half eaten lunch.

Lene rubbed her face and fluffed her hair, “How long have I been out.”

“Two days.”

“Two days?!” Lene winced as the sound of her own loud voice caused a nice thrum of pain to echo in her head. Nara got up to pour her a cup of water.

“Yes, whatever happened at the Sunwell took a lot out of you.” She handed her sister the cup of water and sat on the edge of the bed with her. “Did it work?”

Lene’s head was silent. She couldn’t hear or feel the susserations of the Void creeping around her mind. She looked over at the small Lantern at her bedside, radiating the soft, warm energy of the Light. She took a sip of water and set the cup aside. Her heart pounded in her ears and a nervous shiver ran up her spine. She held her hands out infront of her, just one spell. One flicker of Light was all she’d need to produce to know for certain that her sanity had been restored. One spark of Light and she’d have a talk with Kaivus. A real one. She just needed to prove that she wasn’t going to hurt him. She could still protect him, she was still Ada’Lene.

One spark.

She pulled on the power that lay dormant at her fingertips. It came with a ease as it always had and she could feel the tendrils of power, wrap around her arms, ready to release from her hands in a small, midnight ball. Lene’s blood ran cold as she saw the power that swirled in her hands. There was a sudden boom of cascading laughter that overtook her thoughts. The familiar, crazed laughter of her mother danced through her mind.

Lene’s hands shook and the tears were hot on her cheeks. “No.”

“Lene…” Nara spoke to her at a distance as Lene’s reality started to fall into place. “It’s alright.”

“No!” The ball of shadow disintegrated in her hands and she threw her cup across the small room, the rage at her failure overpowering her for a brief moment. The Void relished in it’s victory and the Light of the small lantern next to her bed flickered out and slowly, the whispers were dulled to more familiar, dull chuckles.

“Lene.” Nara’s voice was a a little sterner as she spoke, “Take a breath, calm down and --”

There was a sudden bang on her door and a jostle of the door knob. Ada jolted upright as she heard a familiar muffled voice from the other side. “Ada, are you awake? Are you alright?!”

“Kaivus?”

The look of annoyance on Nara’s face was clear as Kaivus’ voice rang through the thick wooden door. “Lord Windfire has been stopping by to check on you multiple times a day. I’ve tried to run him off but he’s been persistent.”

If the whispers become bad, you can talk to me.

“Let him in.” Lene threw the blankets off her and strode over to the closest to grab a fresh gown.

“What? No. You’re not even dressed.”

“I don’t care open the door.” Lene stepped out of the gown she had worn to the Sunwell and pulled a fresh, dark green dress from the closet. She clutched the gown in her hands as her attention flickered towards the door.

“Lady Ada’Nara?” Kaivus called out again.

“You can see her in a moment, Lord Windfire.” Nara snapped at the young pup yapping on the other side of the door. “What are you doing?”

The void boiled in the back of her mind. It had been wounded but she could feel it’s heels digging in. Laying claim. A pang of fear hit her, she couldn’t do this to him. She’d sworn to Qeld that she’d look after him, and she wouldn’t let the Void try to twist and manipulate her feelings. It was better to swallow them for a little while. Lene pulled a small golden belt around her waist and grabbed a brush. “You wanted a plan. We have one.”

“You and… Lord Windfire have a plan?” Her sister looked un-amused as Lene let her wild red locks hang freely around her face. “And what plan might that be?”

She picked up a small book next to her bed. One that she’d taken from Kaivus after their stroll in the park. She gave it to her sister before stepping around her and unlocking the door. “Have you heard of The Void Lord and Princess Ferra’nah?”

#WoW #world of warcraft #creative writing #Writing #fanfiction #original Characters #original writing #Adalene Lightweaver #Kaivus Windfire #Blood Elves #sin'dorei #sindorei #Silvermoon #The Sunwell #Interlude #RP #wow rp #Void #Whispers

1 note · View note

crystalelemental · 2 years

Text

Champion Stadium - Bonus Effects

One of the things about Champion Stadium that’s generally important to know but something you can forget depending on the strength of your pairs is the special effects of each match. With 10k coming up, I think it’s going to be a bit more important to consider some of these secondary effects. Some. Not all are that dangerous, but some are really, really challenging to work around, and specific pairs or conditions tend to be more or less beneficial with these conditions. So I figured I could talk a bit about these effects, and how I tend to approach each condition.

Use Powerful Moves Quickly Move gauge acceleration, but permanent. Honestly pretty nice for double damage-dealer comps, since they’re throwing out a lot of high gauge cost attacks, and need the gauge to come back as soon as possible. This is almost always in the player’s favor, since the foe will only ever act one unit at a time. When this condition is up, if part of the game plan is lowered speed to try and manage the sides’ attacks after the center drops, it’s unlikely you can slow those down. But I’ve never once heard of someone taking that approach, so this condition feels pretty free.

Cyrus/May is a good combo for this condition. Both have a 3-gauge attack, and need the recharge as soon as possible to keep effects up. It’s a really solid condition for any comp involving Diantha, who needs 4 gauges for her Moonblast. I find Sycamore’s really good here too, since he’s a supporter that has a bunch of 3-gauge moves. You really need the quick gauge for him to be able to attack and support a high-gauge damage dealer. This condition is really good for anyone who can give speed buffs too. You will never run out of gauge.

Use Physical/Special Attack Moves Against Foes with Low Def/Sp Def Self-explanatory, but sometimes hard to pin down without entering a battle first to see what attacks they actually use. With the current first week in Kanto, knowledge of the main game might lead you to think that Blue’s Exeggutor is specially offensive, but it’s mostly physical. Lorelei’s Lapras actually has both types of offense. Whether it’s entirely “Safe” depends on what the foe packs. Bringing your offense to match the stated weakness is a generally good plan. But it’s important to note, this is a flat bonus. It’s not really something that can be mitigated, so at the very least, you really don’t want to bring this condition to a fight where your foe gets the buff, and you’re trying to stall.

Make Use of Physical/Special Damage Reduction Quite possibly the most useless condition. It’s a temporary Reflect or Light Screen, usually gone before foe’s first sync, that you can just crit through. If nothing else, it’s a good freebie spot to apply to almost any fight at any time and still be okay. No one tends to gain anything from it.

Use Sync Moves Quickly The single most devastating and awful condition available. This one sucks. Your sync is up in two turns, and if you’re not ready, your foe is going to sync one turn after you do. This makes it really, really hard to clear this condition on offensive parameters. HP is almost always better, but then you run into issues like this week’s Fire-weak Blue, who will apply Gradual Healing right after sync, and be a menace. There is no real way to mitigate this either; status like sleep will just cause them to pivot to stat boosting, which gets them to sync anyway. Worst of all, setup is typically multiple turns. A good supporter like Hilbert and Sabrina still typically need three turns to get anywhere, and sometimes a fourth. You can delay sync until its set up as needed, but then you cut it really close to your opponent just blasting you anyway. Double supporter comps for a sufficiently powerful sync nuke to get set up right away is not a bad idea.

The only effective way I’ve ever found to deal with this condition is having one of the newer turn 1 setup threats. If there’s a Ghost-weak stage, Anni Lillie is going to annihilate it. These kinds of heavy sync nukers with quick and easy setup are basically your only hope. If your team is really, really good against the type of offense the opponent has, you can attempt stall. It can be done, but you need a specialist. Someone like base Leaf likely buffs too slowly to provide enough safety. Users that activate conditions on sync also enjoy this one. Silver, Lyra, Summer Steven; anyone who can set a weather or something on sync can get that weather up really fast under this condition. Halloween Caitlin’s also really good here for the dual screens setup that gets you through first sync. Realistically though, this is best left to an EX striker, and is a matter of team comp. You need someone who can buff fast, so a combination of Hilbert, Blaine, and Silver is pretty solid, as Hilbert can get Silver to max crit and a bit of buffed speed, while Blaine sets sun for Silver’s nuke to set sunlight, and that one extra Sacred Fire before the foe’s sync may be enough.

If you can’t raw offense your way to a win, surviving first sync is top priority, and avoiding the fallout of post-sync damage is next. Obviously, avoid Sync Buff if you can, that’s going to start hurting you real fast, but if you can take out the center immediately after and take out the sides in one shot, don’t worry about it. Same with half HP, you likely can’t heal fast enough to avoid death by sync. Avoid boosting the foe’s HP if possible, as the longer the fight goes on the worse it gets. Oddly, Power on Hit is fairly reliable here. Because those only provide powerups based on how often the foe has actually hit you, and they get few turns to sync, you’re more likely to survive with those conditions on than the pure Atk/Sp Atk up conditions.

Use Sync Moves As Much As Possible And now for the exact opposite feeling. Sync moves offer 50% more bonus damage. It’s a fantastic, easily applied condition that I think works best for units who are more about their base attacks than their sync nuke. Think your team comps where the first action is usually sync with the support EX to get double buffs, and effectively hit 300%, then you have a strong offensive move that tears it up. That’s what this is best for. Alternatively, sync nukers who have some kind of access to a sped up cooldown.

Lysandre/Sycamore is a fun one. Sycamore’s first sync buffs Lysandre (no EX yet, sadly), while Lysandre’s trainer move can speed up sync cooldown after the first hit, landing you the offensive sync before the foe’s first. Again, Cyrus is on the mind, but in Rain he’s literally never using his sync, but spams Hydro Pump like crazy; he’s great under this condition. Anni Steven also comes to mind, because his sync nuke is ass, but his base damage is pretty good, and he tends to partner with Skyla who can be an EX supporter, so good all around. I’d say a threat like Serena is also really, really good here, since the main source of damage is Overheat with her move damage multipliers, and you can rely on the support to sync.

Use Field Effects That Give Your Team The Upper Hand My absolute favorite condition. If you have Halloween Caitlin, this condition is an automatic win, which is probably why we haven’t seen it in like two months. Any unit that packs accelerated move gauge, Reflect/Light Screen, crit guard, or a weather effect loves this condition. It is so good for so many teams. Optimal choices tend to be weather and terrain. If you don’t need to take time to re-apply those massive damage modifiers, you’re able to actually abuse those modifiers, and break out incredible damage quickly. But Halloween Caitlin stall is unrivaled under this condition too; permanent screens and crit guard for the whole team is...so good.

Now, sometimes, your opponent has conditions too. If they have a Reflect or Light Screen, that’s fine. If it’s a weather, that’s usually much more damning, but if you can apply your own, you’re okay (think Water-weak Shauntal; her sun is easily overwritten by your rain). But under no circumstances except stall should you ever select this condition if the foe has Critical Shield. There is nothing you can do once they get that up.

Try Not To Let Sync Pairs Faint This is a huge indicator to leave No Stat Reduction unchecked. You want the debuffs. You’re also going to want spread damage. Taking out the sides is hugely important with this condition. Unless you can brute force the center pre-sync to make the sides less threatening. More often it’s the first thing. Frankly, I think this is the rare condition that benefits the foe more than you. If they take out your lead through sheer firepower, you’re weakened and less likely to be able to finish the job. It’s just not a great condition for the player, since the foe always has AoE sync.

Princess Hilda is a really noteworthy option here, thanks to high damage spread move. Sygna Suit Lusamine and Anni N can be too, thanks to spread damage that isn’t impacted by the AoE penalty. Really, any EX Striker loves this condition, because it’s really easy to just blast the sides and hit the center for -2 in everything to seal the deal. This is another where you want to avoid the HP conditions. Even with a ton of offense buffs, the debuffs can cut it down enough that you’re able to survive some hits anyway.

Use Status Conditions Against Opponents The Toxic/Trap stall condition. This is a huge modifier on the amount of damage your status moves do. But it also has a lot of impact in terms of secondary effect. They’re more likely to be fully paralyzed, and I think Burn more sharply cuts attack. What it does not do, to my understanding, is make Confused more likely to hurt themselves. Confuse, like Trap, is considered a different kind of ailment, not a strict status effect like poison, burn, or sleep. So no, sadly, Sidney does not get much benefit from this condition.

Outside of the obvious Toxic/Trap stall, there aren’t a ton of benefits to this condition. The main one I use it for is Serena/Summer Lyra, to extend the Sleep duration so Lyra can focus on dishing out good damage. You could also utilize someone like Palentine Serena or Halloween Morty’s AoE status, and hope for some shenanigans on that front. But mostly this one’s just stall condition, and the stall parameters apply.

Make Use of Moves With Additional Effects This one tends to be a bit more fun. Secondary conditions are nice, but often inconsistent, and this increases your odds substantially. Now I may be wrong about this, but I am relatively certain that it only increases the base rate of the move. Meaning that for someone like Sygna Suit Leaf, where the major condition of Toxic is applied through passive skill, this condition doesn’t increase those odds. It’s just the natural effect. I’m also not sure how much it increases the probability, but it’s...a lot. Documentation suggests that, for instance, Volkner’s flinch and paralysis chances are both 100% with his passive and this condition. It also notes that AoE moves seem to have their chances reduced based on multiple targets, much like the damage formula is, but only for effects like flinch, not for stat reduction. Which is goofy to me, but okay.

As mentioned, Volkner is a tremendous threat under this condition. A guaranteed flinch is nothing to sneeze at. BP Morty and Acerola are also really good under this condition for similar reasons. Lisia’s a fun one too, having AoE flinch on Twister with Aggravation, which can cause some serious disruption if successful. May’s accuracy debuff is more likely to take effect, which is great for her sync nuke, and something like Bianca’s Psychic is practically guaranteed to drop special defense. If the foe has a known secondary condition, then it’s time to worry. Notably, a lot of sides have Rock Slide, so I find that this condition is best undertaken when you can deal with the sides easily. It’s also probably best to leave No Status and No Stat Reduction unchecked, as most secondary conditions fall into one of those two categories.

Use Stat Lowering Effects On Your Opponent The reduction of stats is increased by a nebulous amount. Note that this is not a situation where a -1 debuff is instead -2; rather the raw stat number drops more at -1 than it otherwise would. Obviously, this is great any time debuffs are required, but especially great when you have a damage dealer whose sync or move multipliers rely on the foe’s stats being reduced. Champion Iris, Anni N, and Ghetsis are MVPs here, as are Leer users like Busy/Scyther or Kukui. If you have Palentine’s Dawn, this is a great condition to help set up a nuker like Giovanni or Darach, who need special defense or attack drops respectively.

Obviously, you don’t want the foe to have stat dropping effects either, which usually take two forms. Offense drops, or speed drops. I find defensive drops are rare, but plenty of Dark-type stages have Snarl, which is a massive pain here. But since you’d usually buff special attack if you needed it, it’s usually not that bad. The worst is stuff like Rock Tomb, which lowers speed. Speed buffing isn’t as essential to most units, and so you may not pack a way to negate those debuffs, which can cause tremendous problems for gauge control.

Final Thoughts To my knowledge, this is all the possible effects they throw at you in Champion Stadium. I think I speak for all of us when I say that half sync time is the absolute worst condition to run into. Best is probably permanent field effects. There are just so many options that benefit.

That said, I do wish we had other conditions, and I wish there were options that just...weren’t beneficial. Like the objective of a lot of these is to play to strengths, and use something good under the condition, but I want conditions that nothing is decisively “good” under. Like oops, your sync buff is halved, guess your supporter isn’t doing much. Or sync damage is halved, find another way to deal damage than your EX striker. Or moves cost one less gauge but are weaker as a result, so fights against Marshall with Mega Kick aren’t as scary because the damage is dropped. I just think it’d be funny to have effects that aren’t about strengths, but are more about casting a plague on everyone.

#pokemon masters #champion stadium

3 notes · View notes

i-am-church-the-cat · 5 years

Text

Play Me A Memory

So, I finished it. It was long. I wrote the last few parts about ready to keel over so don’t kill me, please. Anyway, here’s the singer!Cyrus and pianist!TJ fic I promised y’all

Word Count: 10k+

--------

Cyrus and Jonah paced around backstage, both boys trying to not have panic attacks. Andi looked at them with a concerned expression, trying to think of a way to calm them down. She played with her girlfriend Buffy’s fingers as she thought, leaning back into the other girl. Buffy was pretending to be exasperated by the boys’ nervousness, but Buffy was also worried about what was coming next. The friends were about to perform a set in front of hundreds of people. Plus, scouts from Westerlin Music and Sound Academy were rumored to be in the crowd.

Westerlin Music and Sound Academy was the top music school on the continent. It had been the band’s dream to go there since they had made the band back in freshman year. Jonah had started in music in seventh grade and when track and basketball season had both finished, Buffy had ended up letting her dad teach her how to play the drums. In eighth grade, the two had found out that Andi had a secret talent: she could play the keyboard. They just happened to discover this talent when they overheard Andi playing a song she was going to use to confess her feelings to Buffy. It worked pretty well, in the girls’ opinions.

They now had a drummer, a keyboard player, and a lead guitarist/lead singer. Bowie had even let them use the Red Rooster for practices and loaned them instruments. The only problem was that Jonah couldn't cover all the vocals himself and Andi and Buffy were both hopeless in that aspect. Plus, all great bands had a bassist, Jonah implored. So, they went in search of one. They did auditions for weeks, but they were no closer to finding anyone who fit with them. They had officially given up the summer before sophomore year. Then one day, Cyrus came with them to one of their practices at the Red Rooster. He was doing homework while the band worked on one particularly difficult song.

“Uggh”, Jonah exclaimed after missing another note. “I can’t do this. This song is supposed to be split between a bassist and an electric guitarist. It’s too much.” The girl’s looked at the singer nervously, trying to figure out a way to calm him down, but they knew he was right.

“Let me see”, Cyrus said, grabbing the sheet music off of Jonah’s stand. He examined it before looking over to the girl’s and asking if there was more. They found another copy and gave it to him. Cyrus set the copy on a stand, grabbed a bass off of a stand in the corner of the room, and then nodded at Buffy to count them in. She did and started playing, Andi joining in and soon Jonah. They were coming upon the point where the bass was supposed to join in and they were sure it was going to be terrible. But the notes came and Cyrus did the unimaginable. He played perfectly, his notes fluid and precise. But he wasn’t done. Jonah started singing and Andi was preparing to try to do back up, but before she could, Cyrus cut her off. His voice was surprisingly pleasing to hear and he hit the notes almost better than Jonah. The band played the entire song all the way through and when they were done, Jonah, Andi, and Buffy turned to stare incredulously at the Jewish boy who was giving them a bright smile.

Finally, Buffy couldn’t take anymore, “How in the world did you know how to do that. You can play bass? You can SING?! Why didn’t you tell us, you knew we were looking for a backup singer. How did we not know this?”

Cyrus’s smile turned shy. “My step-dad had been teaching me how to play the bass. You guys were all so musically talented and I wanted to be able to do something as well, too, so I asked him to teach me. Then, when my voice changed, I found I could sing really well. I already knew I had perfect pitch but I had never been able to actually hit the notes before. So, I practiced a little bit before I was confident enough to show you guys. I was planning on surprising you, but I figured that you needed me right now.”

The group continued to stare at the boy in shock. Suddenly, a large smile broke out on Jonah’s face. “Well girls, It looks like we have our last member.”

Ever since then, they had been practicing and performing together in Shadyside and surrounding cities. Not everyone liked them, but the amount of support they got was a pleasant surprise. They had a small following and were known throughout Grant as being “surprisingly pretty great for a cover band”, comments of the school newspaper. They had gotten better over the last two years and had decided to participate in Utah’s Battle of the Band’s their senior year. They had gotten all the way to the finals, where the two band’s that were left would perform a set of about five songs. The had argued about the set list for days before eventually settling on:

“Runaway” Bon Jovi

“Lady Madona” The Beatles

“All the Way from Memphis” Mott The Hoople

“Should I Stay or Should I Go” The Clash

“Let It Be” The Beatles

Buffy and Jonah had argued that they shouldn’t do two songs by the same artists, or if they were it was going to be Bon Jovi, but Cyrus and Andi had argued that, though Bon Jovi was a rock classic, The Beatles are indisputably one of the best bands of all time and would be more likely to gain them favor with the judges. In the end, Buffy and Jonah couldn’t dispute that, ergo, two Beatles’ songs.

Now, here they were, about to perform in front of the largest crowd they had ever faced(except for Buffy who had played and won the girls state championship all four years of high school) and two of their members were about to spontaneously combust. Buffy would have joined the boys in their pacing, but she was busy holding Andi, her girlfriend of four years now. As the nerves started to get the better of her, Buffy pulled the smaller girl closer to her chest.

The boys were still performing their destructive thought processes when a stagehand came up to the group. The four immediately whipped their heads toward them and they took a slight step back. “Uh, you’re on in five”, they told the group before hurrying off to whatever their next task was. This, surprisingly, seemed to calm Jonah, Buffy, and Cyrus down. The four of them exchanged glances with each other before heading over to the side of the stage. They looked out onto the stage where their competition was currently performing. They were good, that was a fact none of them could deny. But they were going to win. They were going to play until their bodies gave out until they couldn’t produce one more note, and they were going to win. It was a fact no one could dispute.

The other band finished their set and were met with roaring applause. The members smiled smugly at the small town kids as they passed them. The group was unfazed. They approached their respective instruments calmly and got set. They faced the crowd and they each took a deep breath. Buffy counted them off and then it was only them and the music. They had practiced this set so many times, they had had dreams of playing it. Even the toughest music critic wouldn’t be able to find a flaw in the band’s performance. The songs might not have been their own, but it was their music. They made it come alive unlike anyone in that hall had ever seen. The crowd was in awe.

As the last note faded into silence, the band became acutely aware of the crowd. Jonah was sure he was about to start panicking when a roar went through the crowd. The audience rose like a wave, cheering louder than even when Buffy had scored the winning basket in the state championship a few months ago. The band looked out in wonder as the crowd chanted their name. It was something out of a dream. Buffy, ever the leader, took Andi by the hand and pulled her up to where the boys stood together. The other band trudged onto the stage solemnly. The two competitors stood next to each other as the announcer called the winners. The other group never had a chance.

-----

Two weeks later, Cyrus woke up to his phone ringing off the hook. “Hello”, he answered, not even bothering to check it.

“CYRUS!”, screamed Andi on the other line. “Guess who just reached out to Bowie?”

“A hand?”, Cyrus answered jokingly.

“Westerlin Music and Sound Academy, dummy”, Buffy, who had taken the phone from Andi, answered. Cyrus was awake.

“No way, what did they want to talk about?”

“They want a meeting with us”, Buffy replied. Cyrus could hear Andi squealing in the background.

“Oh my god, does Jonah know?”, Cyrus asked, not believing his ears.

“No, we were just about to tell him”, Andi answered, having reclaimed the phone.

“Here lets all facetime him”, Cyrus offered, pulling the phone away from his face. Andi hummed her consent and hung up. Cyrus opened the facetime app and got on a joint call with Jonah and Andi. Andi picked up and the window showed her and Buffy curled up together on the couch. Buffy’s dad was on a business trip for the weekend, so Buffy was staying with her girlfriend. Cyrus had been so excited when they had gotten together, even if he did end up third-wheeling a lot. They were so perfect together and Cyrus couldn’t be happier.

Jonah picked up on the third ring, looking rumpled and sleep-deprived. “What’s so important that you have to call me at 9:40 in the morning?”, he asked blearily.

“JONAH!”, Andi and Cyrus shrieked in unison, causing the older boy to jump. “Westerlin Music and Sound Academy want to meet with us!”

The Boy’s face broke into a huge smile as he sat up in his bed. “No way, that’s awesome! When?”

“This Friday at one o’clock at the Red Rooster”, Buffy answered. The band had made the Red Rooster their official headquarters junior year, the same year that Bowie had bought it from its owner to keep it from becoming another chain store. The band had performed to raise money to put in a small recording studio for when they started recording some of Jonah’s songs. It was the perfect place to meet people who had an interest in them.

“Oh my god, this is so amazing”, Andi squealed again. Cyrus and the others agreed. They had been hoping for something like this for forever. Cyrus wasn’t surprised, though. Everyone had been great at the BotB. It was something these guys deserved after all the long hours they had put in. Not to mention how stressed Buffy and Jonah were.

The band talked for a while before deciding to meet at the Spoon for celebratory milkshakes. Buffy said you shouldn’t celebrate before the game is over, but one look from her girlfriend ended that argument. They weren't going to meet until noon, so Cyrus decided to pull up Westerlin’s website for like, the umpteenth time since the boy had heard about them. Its header was a sprawling picture of the campus with a menu bar below it. Cyrus scrolled through the upcoming events before his eye caught one:

Classical Training Program Auditions

Monday, May 8th, 9:00 am

Robert Basil Music Hall, Hansen, Utah

Hey, that isn’t too far from here, Cyrus thought. Maybe he could convince the others to come. Then, he thought of the implications of the band at a classical audition. Nah. Cyrus was really the only one in the band who could enjoy the intricacies of classical music. The others, though able to enjoy a few pieces every now and again, would not be able to sit through multiple hours of music without lyrics in a fancy hall. Despite this, Cyrus felt an urge to go. If he was correct in assuming that Westerlin wanted him and the band to attend the school, he should start paying attention to other genres and potential rivals. The thought of being against anyone was slightly disconcerting, but Cyrus knew that if he wanted to attend the school, he would have to outperform the best of the best. The only problem was that he needed to find the best, first.

Cyrus continued to scroll through the University’s website until it was time to leave. He told his mom that he was going out with the others and that he would be back in a few hours. Cyrus grabbed his wallet and keys and was soon walking down toward the diner. Normally he would drive, but he wanted to enjoy the scenery that came with Shadyside in the springtime. He was always so stressed about school or the band or his future, that Cyrus rarely took time to just look around. The walk was not too long but it gave him ample time to just relax and take everything in. He enjoyed the relative silence knowing that it would be quite ruined when he reached he and his friend’s normal hangout. Cyrus was almost tired of being right.

As soon as the boy walked into the confines of the blue and white eatery, he was assaulted by loud sounds and the invasion of his personal space. The Spoon was packed. People were spilling out of the booths and crowding around the tables. Some friends and significant others were sitting on each other's laps. Cyrus was sure that they had exceeded the legal limit for customers, but he shook that thought out of his head. He looked around and found his friends sitting in a secluded booth in the corner. The small teen pushed through the crowd to reach his three friends.

Andi squealed when she saw him approaching. “Westerlin, guys! Can you believe it?” Her cry was answered by a fond look from Buffy, a small shake of the head from Jonah, and a bright smile from Cyrus. The group talked about what could happen at the meeting, all the sets they would play at the annual music presentation put on by the school, and what classes they could end up taking. The group talked for hours, the diner slowly emptying of its other patrons. When it started getting the dark, the band realized the time.

“Oh, we should get going”, Andi said, nudging her girlfriend.

“Date night?”, Cyrus asked as the couples slid out of the booth.

“Date night”, Buffy confirmed before they were out the door. Cyrus got up and switched to the other side to talk to Jonah better. The other boy gave him a smile, though it was clear to Cyrus that the boy wasn’t all there. Probably thinking about song lyrics, Cyrus thought as he sipped his drink. The two boys sat in comfortable silence while the sky steadily got darker. Cyrus supposed he would have to go home soon, but his thoughts were interrupted when he noticed Jonah staring at him.

“What?”, Cyrus asked, coming to attention.

“I think I like someone.” This was quite a shock to Cyrus. Jonah had had a plethora of girlfriends in middle school but after his second break-up with Amber, he hadn’t dated anyone. Cyrus had started to think that maybe Jonah was ace/aro and that dating the girls in middle school was just what he thought he should do, like what he did with Iris. This was a relatively big announcement.

“Really?”, Cyrus said loudly and Jonah gave him a look. “What’s her name?”, he asked in a quieter tone.

“Um, well”, Jonah began, looking down at the table, his hands fidgeting nervously. “It’s not a girl.”

Cyrus smiled and took Jonah’s fidgeting hands. The other boy looked up and Cyrus gave him the most reassuring smile he could muster.

“What’s his name?”, Cyrus asked softly.

“H-His name’s Reed. You don’t know him. I met him at the concert a few weeks ago and we’ve been talking. I-I think I really like him, Cy”, Jonah said softly. “Also, I’m bi, by the way.”

“Well, I’m glad you could come to me with this. Does Reed know you like him?”

“I don’t think so, I only figured it out while I was sitting here.”

“Well you can be a little oblivious, Jonah Beck”, Cyrus teased. Jonah rolled his eyes and nudged Cyrus’s arm. The two boys smiled at each other for a bit before Cyrus realized that he should probably leave if he wants to get up early enough to make it to the audition’s tomorrow. The boy’s exchanged ‘good-nights’ and went there separate ways.

-----

TJ tugged at his suit nervously adjusting his collar and his cuffs. His friend Reed noticed his fidgeting and tugged his hands away from his clothes.

“Hey, calm down. You’ve been practicing for weeks, and even my punk ass knows that you’re awesome. You’re going to rock this”, he insisted, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him as if it would help loosen him up.

“He’s right, dude”, his other friend Marty agreed. “You’ve practiced your butt off. There’s no way they won’t take you.” TJ smiled gratefully at his friends. TJ had known Reed since kindergarten, and TJ and Marty had played basketball together before track took over Marty’s life. TJ and Reed dated in middle school, and TJ had really gotten to know Marty after Marty broke up with Reed freshman year. TJ had also dated Marty for a bit, but they had soon come to terms that they were better off as friends.

Reed and Marty had made a duo thing sophomore year, and they had already flown through their audition last week with their guitar/drum duo. They wouldn’t be getting their results for another week, but it was pretty clear that they had been the best group there. Now, TJ was at his own audition and he was freaking out. But not about what his friends thought.

“Thanks, guys, but I’ve worked harder for this than basketball. It’s just”, TJ paused, scanning the crowd again before turning back to his friends. “He’s not here.”

The two bandmates exchanged glances before turning back to the pianist. Marty offered him a sympathetic smile, but Reed gave him a look. TJ knew how they felt about his boyfriend, trust him he knew, but Alex had been TJ’s constant since his dad left. Yeah, he had Reed and Marty, but they had been to close to the situation and they didn’t really know how to help. Alex had held him up while TJ tried to take care of his mom and sister, and they had been together for the last two years. In those two years, things had become more strained between them, though, and the relationship probably wasn’t worth what TJ did to maintain it. Still, he didn’t want to give it up, and it wasn’t like Alex was trying to destroy their relationship. Though, he wasn’t doing much to preserve it, either.

Like today. Alex had been busy with family stuff the past few weeks, so they hadn’t gotten to see each other as much. He had promised that he would come to TJ’s audition and support him, but it was almost time for him to go on and Alex was nowhere to be seen. TJ checked his phone again, but there were no new messages from his boyfriend. The performer on stage was coming to their finale and it was almost time for TJ to go out. He turned back to his friends who were giving a mixed look of sympathy and encouragement before the stagehand indicated that it was time to go out.

TJ walked out and stood next to the piano before turning to address the judges. “Good morning. I am Tobias Kippen, and I will be playing Liszt's Liebestraume No. 3.” The judges jotted down a few things before the head judge signaled for him to begin. TJ sat down on the bench and took a deep breath before scanning the audience one last time. But the door stayed closed and Alex was nowhere to be seen. His eyes landed on a brown-haired boy at the end of a row. He couldn’t make out much of his features due to the lights in his face, but he could see that he was paying rapt attention, even more than some of the judges. TJ grinned for a reason he didn’t really understand before laying his fingers carefully on the keys. TJ closed his eyes before bringing the first notes to life.

TJ started off rather formal, playing the song as it was written. But as the pace got faster and the notes got louder, he pushed all of his feelings into them, the emotions roaring. The song cooled down and he got smoother, the notes coming out like buds in springtime, as he delved farther into the song. The notes seemed to communicate with each other, sometimes soft, sometimes crying out in bursts. The emotion in the song was the reason why he picked it, he could make people feel things through this song, but now he was regretting putting in so much emotion. He felt like he was tearing out his soul and was showing it for all the world to see. As the song faded out, he was scared to open his eyes. Gently, he pulled his hands away from the instrument and stood up.

Slowly, he turned to face the audience. He meant to look at the judges but he found his eyes landing on the brown-haired boy. His features were still obscured, but his eyes glowed. It was like the boy could feel the same emotions TJ himself was feeling. He found the boy staring right back at him and he was unable to look away. The audience applauded and he realized it was time for him to go. He tore his eyes away from the boy and walked to the eaves. Backstage, his friends were fist pumping and congratulating him. TJ smiled, but his mind drifted back to the boy in the audience. I wonder what his name is, TJ thought before heading off to change. He wouldn’t learn the results for a while, so there was no point in hanging around.

The trip made their way to a diner that they frequently populated and slid into a booth. It wasn’t too busy so a waitress came over right away.

“Hey guys”, the waitress, Sam said. Sam was an honorary member of their group. They had met her the start of sophomore year when she moved from Boston. She was epic, she had the best wingtips TJ ever saw and they really brought out her grey eyes. She had blond hair that was always highlighted with different colors, today’s being purple and green. She had come out as a lesbian at the end of junior year and had stolen Reed and Marty’s potential interests more than once.

“Hey Sam”, TJ said, while the other two scarfed down the fries Sam had knowingly brought to the table.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t go to your audition, Teej, but how did it go?”, Sam asked.

“It was awesome!”, Reed exclaimed, though his mouth was full so it came out more like “if hars aresome”.

“Yeah”, Marty continued. “Seriously, I’m pretty sure that’s the best you’ve ever played, dude.”

TJ shrugged and slumped back in his seat. Marty and Sam exchange looks while Reed continued to fill his mouth. TJ knew why they were concerned, they thought he was hung up about Alex. In all honesty, TJ hadn’t really expected him to show up. Sure, it would’ve been a pleasant surprise, but TJ could tell that whatever Alex had going on was just a way to avoid TJ and their crumbling relationship. No, TJ was bothered that while his relationship was worn and fraying, he was caught up on some guy he saw, one who he wouldn’t even recognize if he saw him again. TJ sighed. I’m all kinds of a mess, he thought. At least I can do music well.

————

Cyrus walked up to his friends who were freaking out in the backroom of Red Rooster Records. They all look quite frazzled, but Cyrus was unusually calm. Maybe because he wasn’t entirely focused on the meeting about to take place. Cyrus hadn’t been able to get the image of that blonde guy at the piano, nor the sound of the piano. He had found the song that the guy, Tobias, had been playing, but it sounded nothing like the way he played it. It just lacked the emotions that the guy’s playing had given him. He could still hear the song playing faintly in his head.

He was snapped out of his memory by Bowie approaching them with a man and a woman in formal attire. They exchanged pleasantries before heading into the studio’s meeting room. The woman explained how they had liked their performance and that they thought the band could go quite far in the music game. They ended their pitch with scholarships to Westerlin for the four of them, and even though they tried to play it cool, Cyrus thought Andi had replied a little too eagerly.

The rest of the meeting was filled with signing papers and discussing the terms of their scholarships. They would all go to classes and they would perform at school venues regularly. They would be playing with other bands that share our style regularly, so it was a key factor to get the best spots in the show so that you more well-known when the entire year plays at the showcase in the winter. The band nodded along, understanding. When they had finished everything, the two officials had shaken their hands and left, leaving the band to freak out in peace.

Cyrus smiled at his friend’s antics as they jumped around the room, Buffy spinning Andi around and Jonah fist pumping. I wonder if that guy got in, Cyrus thought as Bowie patted him on the back.

-------

TJ paced around his room while his sister Amber lounged on his bed. It was a week after the audition and the results were supposed to be sent out today. Reed and Marty had already gotten their letters and were going to start moving up there next month. Sure, TJ had gotten a lot of offers for basketball, and he had some pretty good schools to fall back on, but it was more the fact knowing that even his best couldn’t get him into a school like this.

“Calm down”, Amber said, not even looking up from her phone. “There’s nothing you can do right now. If you get in, you get in if you don’t, you don’t.”

Amber had gotten into NYU last year and according to her, she was “on top of both the class and the social ladder”, though TJ wasn’t so sure since she was home at least two weeks early and checking her messages every other minute. She claimed that she had just finished her exams early and she was looking to see what classes she could sign up for next year. Ok, Amber, flashed across TJ’s mind before the worry set in again. When TJ started to think that maybe he was overexaggerating, his computer pinged.

All thoughts of overexaggerating left his head as he dove toward his desk. He saw the new notification badge and an email from Westerlin beneath it. Now that the email was here, TJ started freaking out even more. He stared at his inbox for a while before grabbing a small rubber basketball he had on his desk and tossing it between his hands. Again, he started to pace, still tossing the basketball. Amber, supposedly sensing his distress, finally looked up from her phone.

“Did you get in?”, she asked, confused.

“Haven’t looked yet”, his simple reply came. She gaped at him before throwing a pillow at his head.

“Well, look already!” TJ glared at his sister before sighing and turning back towards his computer. He sighed and, knowing he had to do it eventually, stalked over to his laptop and clicked on the notification. Amber threw another pillow at him.

------2 MONTHS LATER: MOVING DAY FOR THE GHC+JONAH

Cyrus hauled his luggage up the stairs, trailing behind Jonah as they made they’re way to their dorms. Buffy and Andi had their own buildings across the street and the boys had already helped them up to their dorm, though they had stayed behind to set their’s up. They said that they would help bring up the rest of the boys’ stuff when they were done. So now, Jonah and Cyrus were hauling what they could carry up the dorms to find they’re rooms. Finally, they made it to their floor.

“Looks like we’re across the hall from each other”, Jonah said. There were whiteboards on all the doors, and on two parallel entrances were the names ‘Cyrus Goodman’ and ‘Jonah Beck’, both below two unfamiliar names. Cyrus sighed, disappointed to not be with his friend, but he shot the boy a smile and went to open his door.

Cyrus had opened the door and was carrying his suitcases into the room before he noticed two people lounging on a bed. He looked up suddenly to see two blonde boys, one rather skinny, the other obviously experienced in years of athletics, and rather familiar.

“Oh”, Cyrus said surprised, straightening up. “I’m sorry I didn’t know anyone was in here.”

The athletic boy laughed, and sound that gave Cyrus a slight tingle in the bottom of his stomach.

“It’s no problem dude, Cyrus?”, he asked, standing up and offering his hand, which Cyrus shook, not taking his eyes off of the boy’s. “TJ Kippen. This is my friend, Reed.”

Cyrus was reminded of where he had seen the boy when Jonah appeared.

“Hey Cy, need any…”, Jonah trailed off as his eyes landed on the blonde boy on the bed. Reed’s eyes seemed to shine less with mischief and more with pleasant surprise when Jonah appeared.

“H-Hey”, Jonah stuttered, cheeks darkening.

“Hey”, Reed answered, sitting up a little straighter. The boys just stared at each other while the two roommates looked back and forth between them.

“I’m guessing your Camp Guy?”, TJ asked Jonah, breaking him out of his boy-induced daze.

“Camp Guy?”, he asked with his usual obliviousness while Reed threw a pillow at TJ, giving him a glare. TJ laughed as Reed started to ramble.

“It’s nothing, he’s being an idiot, as usual, let’s go outside”, Reed pulled Jonah from the room and down the hall before Cyrus could interject.

TJ watched the two go with a smile on his face before turning back to Cyrus. He looked over his stuff before picking his luggage up and carrying it to the other bed. Cyrus, already quite surprised at the revelation of his roommate's identity, was even more confused when he did this. Nonetheless, he was able to get some form of thought out.

“I know you”, Cyrus blurted. TJ turned back and raised his eyebrow and Cyrus quickly carried on. “At least, I saw you, at the classical auditions. Y-You were really good. But you introduced yourself as Tobias.”

TJ got a strange look on his face, a mix between surprise, recognition, and another emotion Cyrus couldn’t make out. Suddenly, he was really close and he was staring into Cyrus’s eyes. Cyrus felt like he couldn’t breathe as he stood frozen underneath the other boy’s gaze. With his eyes boring into him, Cyrus couldn’t help but get a little bit lost in them.

“It’s you”, TJ murmured, before his eyes really started to focus on Cyrus. The boys stayed frozen, just looking at each other. Suddenly, TJ seemed to realize what he was doing and quickly backed out of Cyrus’s personal space. Cyrus could immediately feel the lack of his presence.

TJ looked down and cleared his throat nervously. “Well, uh, do need help moving your stuff?

-------FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

TJ cracked open his eyes as his alarm continued to blare. Across the room, Cyrus groaned and rolled up tighter in his cocoon. TJ smiled tiredly at the sight before reaching over to shut off his alarm. Inch by inch he got out of bed, before finally escaping his comfort cave. He sighed before grabbing his bathroom stuff, shaking Cy a little bit to get him moving, and heading to the showers. On his way there, he contemplated the last month since he’d met Cyrus.

It was obvious--to TJ anyway--that they had been drawn to each other from the start, something that could be quite dangerous in the long run. Especially since TJ was still with Alex, though you wouldn’t know unless you had talked to Reed or Marty, which, unfortunately, Cyrus had. Now that Reed and Jonah were dating/not dating and Buffy and Marty had basically been joined at the hip due to their bi-ness and love of percussion, their friend groups were properly tangled. Which might not be the best thing when you’re interested in someone who wasn’t your boyfriend.

As TJ properly tried to decipher the mess he got himself in, he quickly got ready for the first day of classes. Well, the first day of general classes, TJ and the rest of the classical program had already had their first uniform lessons. The classes for the less specific programs and the general course classes only started today. These were the classes the others were taking and the few courses TJ would share with the rest of his friends, some of which also had specific courses.

TJ went back to his room, where Cyrus was stumbling around, gathering his stuff in a tired daze. A smile formed on his face at the sight and help direct the tired boy around the room and out the door. When his roommate had gone, TJ gathered up his stuff and shoved them in his bag, though he doubted he would need many books. He paused for a minute, before getting Cyrus’s stuff ready as well. Cyrus came in, showered, dressed, and a little more awake, while TJ was rechecking their class schedules. TJ looked up with a smile to find Cyrus looking at him sleepily, making TJ’s heart stutter.

“Uh, um”, TJ articulated gracefully, pulling his eyes away from the brunette. “We should get going. Is Jonah up?”

“Uh, yeah, he said he’d meet us downstairs”, Cyrus replied, turning his face away, but not before TJ caught a slight blush on it.

“Cool, I guess we should head down, then”, TJ said offering Cyrus his bag, which he accepted bashfully. The two roommates then made they’re way downstairs where they found Reed and Jonah talking with Marty shooting Reed looks that he was ignoring.

“Hey, y’all ready to go?”, Marty asked, seeing the boys coming down the stairs.

“Let’s roll”, Reed replied, draping his arm across Jonah’s shoulders and making the other boy blush. The five of them headed out and met up with Buffy and Andi, also draped against each other. When they reached the main school building, Andi, Jonah, and Marty split off to their own classes, leaving Reed, Cyrus, Buffy, and TJ to head to their morning class.

The four walked into the building with little thought of the class inside. Cyrus seemed to be the only one paying attention because the other three nearly walked past the classroom. The four entered the room to find a few rows of rafters, different instruments scattered around the room, a desk at the front, and about 20 kids scattered across the room in groups. Reed and Cyrus went to check out the guitars, Buffy the two sets of drums in the corner, and TJ walked over to the baby grand in the back, the only abandoned instrument. Guess there aren’t a lot of classical musicians in this class.

------

The kids wandered around examining the instruments for a while when suddenly the door opened again, revealing a middle-aged man in jeans and a leather jacket. Everything about him reminded Cyrus of Bowie.

“Well, you guys sure seem excited”, he said with a grin, walking over to the desk and shrugging off his jacket and revealing a t-shirt for a band Cyrus didn’t recognize. The kids chuckled and settled down, lounging on whatever free area there was in the room as the teacher went through roll call.

“Ok”, the man began, clapping his hands together. “Welcome to General Sound 101. In this class, we’ll be combining all different type of musicians together to create sounds that aren’t very mainstream. I know a lot of you got here through your own bands, but our goal in this class is to pull apart and reorganize people to create something new.”

The kids nodded, though a few seemed apprehensive of the idea, Cyrus included. He didn’t know how well he could play without his bands. Sure, he knew he could in essence, but it wasn’t something he was very confident in.

“Reed Glas, Jonah Beck, and Buffy Driscoll”, the teacher said, drawing the classes attention. He waved his hand and they came up to his desk. He said a few things before handing them all sheet music and directing them toward their respective instruments. Buffy got her sticks and sat at the drums, and Jonah and Reed both picked up guitars before saying a few words to each other. They seemed to come to an agreement because they soon started playing. Cyrus knew exactly what they were playing and grinned as Reed began to sing.

“I’ll be strumming my ax in a basement dive, with my totally kickass band…”

The trio really started to get into it as the reached the chorus.

“When I climb to the top of Mount Rock. And I’m there staring down from the heights…”

The class really started to get into it and Cyrus was very amused by the fact that they were singing a song from a musical, knowing Buffy’s and Jonah’s opinions on them. They were starting to reach the piano part and Cyrus was wondering how they were going to pull it when he heard the notes coming from the back. TJ was sitting at the instrument like it was made for him. He spared a look up and he and Reed shared a grin as the song got faster and Buffy and Jonah joined back in. When the trio was back to their pure rock song, TJ slid off the bench and strolled over to Cyrus as the watched Jonah riff. The song ended to applause from the class.

“Well, I see you know your musical theater”, the teacher said, also clapping.

“Musical theater?”, Buffy asked in disbelief causing Cyrus to burst out laughing. The teacher grinned before heading back over to his desk.

“Cyrus Goodman”, the teacher suddenly called, causing Cyrus to snap his head up. “Don McLean, 1971.”

Cyrus grinned. Way too easy, he thought as he pulled a confused TJ toward the piano. There was sheet music on the stand and Cyrus didn’t have to shuffle around too much before he found it and set it in front of him. Cyrus turned around, hoping to get some help, but one guy was already getting on the drums, and a girl and boy were strapping on an electric guitar and a bass. They looked up and nodded at Cyrus who grinned and indicated for TJ to start.

“A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile…”, Cyrus began as TJ started to play. As he sang the opening verses, he started making his way over to an acoustic guitar, strapping it on.

“I can’t remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride. But something touched me deep inside, the day the music died....”

Cyrus started strumming as he sang and he knew that’s when he caught them. Buffy and Jonah stared at him just like that first day as the others joined in. The song was long, but it was definitely one of Cyrus's favorites. Unlike most of the songs today, it told an actual story. It was one of the only songs that made Cyrus feel like he could do anything in the world. He closed his eyes as the music washed over him. He could tell it was affecting the class as well. Cyrus had never played with any of the others who had risen to help, but he could feel the connection the song was giving them. The song faded back to piano and Cyrus relaxed walking back over to TJ, who was focused intensely since he’d never played this song before.

“And they were singing, “Bye, bye, Miss American Pie…”

Cyrus strummed as the others joined in making up the chorus. The last notes fell away and Cyrus was hit with an overwhelming sense of calm. The class applauded and Cyrus thanked the people who had helped, before heading over to his friends, who were still awestruck.

“So, what did you guys think?”, he asked, knowing he was being a little cocky.

“Cy-Cyrus”, Buffy got out.

“When did you learn that?”, Jonah asked.

Cyrus shrugged. “My dad played it a lot, so I figured I would learn how to play it, though I only know the vocals, bass, and acoustic guitar parts.

Reed shook his head, “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.”

Cyrus chuckled before turning back to TJ who was smiling back at him.

“Thanks for coming to help. I didn’t know any other piano players”, Cyrus said.

“It was no problem, Cy. It’s a good song, and if you like it so much, maybe I should learn it.”

Cyrus blushed, but before he could answer, their professor was calling up more people and the process started again.

------

It was two weeks later and Cyrus and TJ were in their room working on assignments, Cyrus strumming his bass and TJ trying out cords on the keyboard he had gotten. Suddenly, Reed burst through their door.

“Dude”, he said quickly. “Did you know Alex was here?”

“What?”, TJ said jumping up.

“I saw him in the lobby”, Reed cried. “I rushed up before he could see me.”

“Are-”, TJ was cut off by his phone ringing. He felt like an animal trapped in a corner. That’s absurd, you haven’t done anything, he thought, but he just because it was true, didn’t mean he believed it. TJ grabbed his phone and clicked the answer button before answering.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?”, he asked on reflex.

“Nothing much”, he answered. “Just hanging out in the lobby of your dorm building.”

“Really?”, TJ asked, trying to sound surprised.

“Reed told you, didn’t he?”, he replied, unimpressed.

“Yeah, but it’s still a surprise. I’ll be down in a sec okay?”

“Yeah, see you in a bit.”

TJ hung up and slipped his phone into his pocket before throwing on a shirt and slipping on his sneakers. He was just about to leave when a voice made him stop in his tracks.

“Your boyfriend’s here?”, Cyrus asked from his bed. Seeing him sitting there sent butterflies to his stomach and a stake through his heart.

“Yeah”, TJ answered. Cyrus nodded and looked down at his bass, strumming out a melancholy chord. All TJ wanted to do was sit back down and maybe listen to Cyrus sing again, but he didn’t. He made himself turn around and head out the door, making his way to his boyfriend. Your boyfriend, TJ’s head reminded him. Who came all the way from SLC to see you.

TJ’s head was still full of worries as he walked into the lobby. He looked around and saw his boyfriend leaning up against a wall staring down at his phone. The sight of him used to send butterflies to TJ’s stomach, but now he just felt guilty. TJ took a breath to steady himself and made his way over to Alex. When he got close, he looked up and his signature smile appeared on his face, though his eyes didn’t quite match it. TJ forced a smile before kissing him, but it was like kissing a stranger.

“Hey babe”, TJ said, trying to sound happy. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I had some business here and so I figured I’d come and surprise you”, Alex said, pushing back his too-long brown hair. “I haven’t seen you since I helped you move up.”

“How long are you staying?”, TJ asked, hoping not for too long.

“I have to meet some guys today, but I figured we could go get dinner tonight? My treat of course.”

“Y-Yeah”, TJ agreed surprised. It’d been months since Alex had planned a date. “Yeah, of course. What time?”

“Uh, seven?”, Alex suggested. TJ nodded and he flashed TJ a smile before kissing him on the cheek and taking off.

Once Alex was gone, TJ released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He sighed as he turned back around to find Reed standing a ways behind him. He had his arms crossed and was giving TJ a look that he promptly ignored. TJ headed back up the stairs and only relaxed once he had gotten to his door. He shot Reed, who had followed him up, a look before heading inside.

TJ didn’t look at Cyrus as he headed back to his bed, but he could feel his eyes all the way. He plopped onto his bed and pulled his keyboard back into his lap before glancing at Cyrus.

“What?”, he asked though it wasn’t defensive.

“Are you not going out with your boyfriend?”, he asked unabashedly.

TJ shrugged. “We have plans for later tonight but we both have stuff to do right now.”

“Oh”, Cyrus said quietly. TJ glances up to see Cyrus looking down at his sheet music, a slight smile on his face. TJ’s heart skipped a beat before he looked back down at his own music.

—————

Cyrus watched as TJ moved around their room, getting ready for his date. Thinking about TJ’s boyfriend downstairs sent a pang to his heart, so he moved his eyes up to his roommate. That wasn’t such a good idea he realized when he saw what the blonde boy was wearing. TJ might have been an athlete, but he was always finding ways to break gender norms. He had on dark-wash jeans and a pink cropped hoodie. He had done his eyeliner in Winehouse style and wore a little bit of foundation, but other than that his face was clean. He wore his hair mostly ungelled, but he wore his contacts since he was going out. Stunning, was the only thought Cyrus’s gay disaster brain could form.

When he saw Cyrus looking at him, TJ smirked in his usual infuriating way. He turned around and rummaged in his closet before pulling out two pairs of shoes. One pair were some uber-expensive kicks TJ almost never wore and some low-rise heeled boots.

“Whattya think?”, TJ asked, holding up the two pairs of shoes for Cyrus to see.

“Um”, Cyrus articulated gracefully. TJ quirked an eyebrow and Cyrus knew he was enjoying Cyrus’s meltdown.

“Boots”, Cyrus said suddenly. TJ gave him a slightly surprised look but nodded and put the sneakers back. He sat down on his bed to put on the boots. When he stood up, he was even taller, though the height difference between him and Cyrus was already so large, the added inch didn’t really do anything. TJ nodded, satisfied and smiled at Cyrus before giving him a small salute.

“See you later, Goodman. Don’t have too much fun without me”, TJ said as he grabbed his keys, phone, and wallet and left the dorm.

Cyrus sat on his bed for a while. He didn’t like how attached he’d gotten to TJ. Good job, Goodman, he thought. You went from crushing on straight guys to crushing on gay guys with a boyfriend. Cyrus groaned and flopped backward, hating life at that moment. He laid like that for a while before he felt his phone buzz. He checked it and saw it was his band. Apparently, they had been able to find an unbooked practice room and was wondering if he wanted to join them.

Cyrus didn’t even think about declining, standing up and pulling on his shoes and grabbing his keys and phone. He walked out of the dorm, his anger rising steadily higher. What was he angry at exactly? Cyrus couldn’t tell you. Maybe it was himself, maybe TJ, maybe TJ’s boyfriend, maybe the whole universe, but the only thing that mattered to Cyrus was that he was mad. He walked to the training rooms in a haze. He walked down hallway after hallway before finding the door. Cyrus slammed the door when he entered the music room.

“Cy?”, Andi’s concerned voice asked as the boy grabbed his bass. Instead of standing at his normal mic, he walked to center stage, prepping his guitar. He was too angry to feel guilty about not asking first, but the others seemed to know what he wanted. Cyrus scrolled through the electronic music sheets on the iPad standing in front of him. He finally found the song and sent it to the others. It wasn’t his normal genre, but it got the point across. He took a deep breath and the band began to play.

“Hey, hey, tell me what you want me to say. You know I’m stupid for you...”

Cyrus got lost in the music of the stupid song. He pushed all the emotions that he’d been holding back for the past few weeks and just played the new song as best he could. If his band was bothered or surprised, they didn’t show it. Cyrus doubted they had ever heard the song before, Cyrus didn’t until Marty had showed it to him, but none of them were complaining. If anything, Jonah was playing just as hard as Cyrus, though he didn’t know why since this limbo state he and Reed were at is usual where Jonah flourished. Things must have changed in the last four years.

Cyrus could feel his anger draining away as they closed out the song. He was breathing heavily and when the last notes where played, he flopped down onto the floor. He just sat there with his head buried in his arms while his band looked at him worriedly. Cyrus heard the door open and close, but he didn’t think anything of it. He only looked up when he felt another body sit down beside him. Jonah just sat next to him in silence for a bit before deciding to start talking.

“I don’t know where things are going with Reed”, he said, looking at his hands. “I know where I want things to go, but neither of us are the “let’s discuss our relationship” type of people.”

Jonah sighed. “I just wish I knew what he was thinking.”

“Why don’t you ask him?”, Cyrus asked quietly, his head still laying on his knees. Jonah shrugged before turning toward Cyrus and giving him a small smile.

“Why don’t you ask TJ what he’s thinking”, Jonah countered.

“That’s different”, Cyrus mumble, looking away. “He has a boyfriend.”

“Does he want that boyfriend?”

“I’m not going to let TJ cheat on his boyfriend because I like him”, Cyrus exclaimed exasperated.

“I never said you should”, Jonah replied. “I just meant that you should ask him if he would rather be with you.”

“I can’t do that Jonah”, Cyrus sighed. “I can’t get in between him and his boyfriend. And what if he says no? Then I have to share a room with a guy who rejected me because I asked him to break up with his boyfriend for me. Does that sound like a reasonable thing to do?”

Cyrus was quite exasperated now, but Jonah just shrugged and laid on his back. After a minute, Cyrus groaned and flopped back.

“I just don’t know what to do”, Cyrus groaned. “I can’t share a room with the guy I’m pining for! It just...it’ll hurt too much.”

Cyrus’s anger had long drained out of him. Now he was just a mess. Cyrus was pretty sure TJ already knew Cyrus liked him but living with a guy he knows he could never have. It shouldn’t feel as bad as his crush on Jonah was, but it was, and that’s how Cyrus knew he was in some deep trouble. Way too attached, Cyrus thought as he just stared at the ceiling. It seemed like he had only been lying there for a few minutes, but when he finally sat up, he found himself alone, and hours have passed. It wasn’t unusual for Cyrus to lose time thinking about stuff but it had been a while since it last happened.

Cyrus staggered up and slowly walked out the door. Laying on the hard floor had not done good things to his back, neck, and shoulders. Cyrus tried to massage his muscles as he made his way through the hallways. He was about to turn a corner when he heard soft notes coming from a room down the other hall. Cyrus cautiously approached the room. It had been dark for a while and the only light in the room was coming from the iPad on the piano that showed the sheet music. The notes coming from the instrument were soft and sad. Cyrus made out light green eyes and wavy hair leaning over the piano. TJ.

Cyrus tiredly made his way across the room, careful not to scare his friend. There was a couch in the corner, so Cyrus slinked onto that. He sat for a while just listening to the song. He could tell that TJ was aware of his presence. Cyrus closed his eyes, letting the song wash over him. He started to drift off to the sound of TJ’s heartbreak.

————

TJ had walked out of the dorm confident. Well, as confident as you can be when you’re going on a date with a boyfriend that you didn’t love anymore. He knew the very-not-subtle flirting he had done while he was getting dressed wasn’t fair, not to Cyrus nor to him. But he had needed to know if Cyrus felt the same if he was going to finally do this. Alex was his safety net. The only way he could cut himself free from the boy was if he knew that someone was there to make sure he didn’t break. Of course, he won’t know he can catch you if you never tell him how you feel, TJ’s mind shot back. It was too smart.

TJ sighed as he walked out of the dorm building. He was just about to check his messages when he feels a hand touch his elbow. He looked up to see Alex looking up at him.

“Hey”, he said. “Ready to go?”

TJ nodded and they started walking. They fell into silence, not awkward, but not comfortable either. More routine. TJ could feel it, the thing they had become. They weren’t a couple, TJ had realized when Alex had shown up. They hadn’t been for a long time. Now, they were just each other’s safety nets. Alex was following TJ through the town, but TJ wasn’t going to a restaurant. He might’ve been dressed up for a date, but it felt more like business, so he made his way to a small all-hour cafe TJ and his friends had found. Alex was confused, but he followed TJ in. They sat at a table and silently waited to be served. The waitress came and went but neither of them talked until their drinks were cold.

TJ sighed. “We can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what?”, Alex asked, playing dumb.

“This, us. Neither of us are happy. You’ve been so distracted lately and I’ve”, TJ paused. “And I don’t love you anymore.”

“You love someone else”, Alex completed the sentence TJ wasn’t strong enough to. TJ nodded feeling guilty. Alex had been looking down at his drink the entire time. He finally lifted his eyes to TJ’s.

“You’re right”, Alex complied. “I haven’t been a boyfriend to you. I got so used to the idea that’d you’d just be there, that I started taking you for granted. That’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

TJ nodded and they stared at each other before Alex started to get up. He was about to leave when he called over his shoulder, “For the record, I did love you, Kippen. I hope this guy of yours knows how lucky he is.” And with that, he was gone.

TJ has wandered around for a bit, trying to think of a way to explain all of this to Cyrus. He finally decided to go to the training rooms to clear his head. He played a few songs varying between sad and freeing. The song he was playing was particularly sad when Cyrus wandered in, looking exhausted. He stumbled to the couch as TJ continued to play. Even after Cyrus had drifted off to sleep, TJ played. Finally, TJ was too tired to play another note. He went over to the couch but Cyrus wouldn’t wake up. TJ groaned but picked up the smaller boy anyway.

TJ carried Cyrus through campus and into their form building. TJ glared at the stairs before he broached the challenge. Eventually, TJ made it up the stairs and down the hall. He carefully opened the door to their room and laid Cyrus on one of the beds. TJ tiredly wiped the makeup away from his face before collapsing into the other. Sleep quickly overtook him.

———— TWO MONTHS LATER

It had been two months since the breakup and Cyrus and TJ were still dancing around each other. Their friends constantly complained about it, not understanding, but the two boys knew they couldn’t jump into a relationship immediately. So here they were, two months later and stuck between friends and the need to be closer than that. Cyrus found that it was significantly easier to live with the guy he was pining after when he was pining after him too. But the most infuriating part was that neither of them knew when to say enough was enough. How long were they just going to flirt and glance at each other across rooms and go on not dates before they turned it into a relationship?

Two months apparently.

Now, Cyrus was sure it would’ve gone on for longer, much, much longer, but luckily for them, one of them wasn’t very good at keeping things a secret. Well, at least that’s how Cyrus saw it anyway. TJ still thinks it wouldn’t have happened if Cyrus hadn’t been Spotify stalking him, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing was that it happened. And yes, it was because of music.

It was like any other day for Cyrus, TJ woke him up, he rolls out of bed and tried not to stare too much when TJ came back from the showers, showered, headed to breakfast with his friends, goes to class, has lunch, comes back to the dorm and plans on studying. Except Cyrus didn’t have any homework. And TJ had an extra class that day. So Cyrus was just sitting there, bored to death. Music usually helped, so he went to Spotify, but he couldn’t get interested in any of his playlists. So he goes over to TJ’s account and looks through his public ones. The most recently played one was titled ‘Play Me A Memory’. Despite the reference, not one Billy Joel song was in there. Instead, the first five songs were the set Cyrus played with his band. He got curious, so he listened to the playlist.

Oh, Cyrus thought as he listened to the songs. He played our memories. The second song was the one TJ auditioned with. The second and third were the ones they played in class. Then there was the song Cyrus had sung the night TJ and Alex broke up(how he knew about that, he only guessed one of his friends). Then there was the song that Cyrus had heard when he first walked into the room TJ was playing the piano in. After that, it changed. It went from songs that involved them, to songs that must have reminded TJ of him.

Cyrus day on his bed in shock. He knew that TJ liked him, maybe even loved him, but this is beyond what he thought TJ could feel for him. The more he listened, the stronger his emotions got, and the more he just wanted to run out of the room to find him. But Cyrus just continued to listen as his eyes filled moth tears. That’s how TJ found him, kneeling on the bed, crying to a playlist TJ had made about him. When TJ walked in the door, Cyrus marched up to him and kissed him, without any hesitation. No more dancing around. TJ was surprised, but he returned the kiss quickly. When they separated, Cyrus buried his face into TJ’s chest.

“I can’t believe you”, Cyrus said quietly. When TJ just gave him a confused look, Cyrus rolled his eyes and gave TJ one of his earbuds. TJ eyes widened when he heard the song. He tried quickly to explain, but Cyrus just held up a hand.

“You could’ve just asked me out, you know?”, he asked, a slight smirk on his face. TJ rolled his eyes, but then looked down at Cyrus rather seriously.

“Cyrus Goodman. Will you go out with me?” And oh, it was the sweetest song Cyrus had ever heard.

So now, here they were, two weeks after that and now on their third date, which Buffy and Andi insisted being a triple date with Reed and Jonah. They were hanging out around campus and just enjoying the company. Adding more memories to the playlist.

yeah, so that was fun. love posting at four in the morning. (anyone who liked the post was tagged unless problems occurred)

@judgemental-llama @thattyruslover @babytaters4life @paytonotinthemood @itslynxa @that-multi-fandom-boi @optimisticbailiffpurseempath @tyrusmuffins @forthemystery @dearrinsecurity @tyrusgavemerights @tyruswimgs @a-bittersweet-gal @meanie13 @aka-introvert @sadiesviolets @lolabug722 @godshrimpdick @lillianpage019 @spawnofthemarauders

#Andi Mack #tyrus #bandi #jonah x reed #marty by himself #Singer!Cyrus #Pianist!TJ #fanfic #tyrus fic #oo oo it's finally done #now i can go back to my other six things

125 notes · View notes

connan-l · 4 years

Text

Game Evening

Fandom: Rose Guns Days Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Rose Haibara & Stella Maiougi & Meryl Tanashi Summary: Rose, Stella and Meryl come back late at the Maiougis’ apartment after a long day, and decide to kill time by playing a simple game…

Content Warning: This should be obvious given the story and characters but, there are mentions of prostitution, and some crude conversations about sex/sex jokes. Nothing really explicit though.

________________________________________________________________

Link on Archive of Our Own

________________________________________________________________

Notes: This is just a short story I wrote on impulse when I discovered that there was a Rose Guns Days section on AO3 but got saddened by how empty it was. The main lady trio is great and it was the easiest relationship to write about for me!

I have to precise that I read RGD only once and it was… something like three years ago, thus my memories of the VN are a bit blurry. So I’m sorry if there are some details I missed or that I don’t really have the characters exactly right.

This takes place before Season 1, shortly after Rose became the madam.

Also, I have no idea if truth or dare was a thing that existed during 1930s Japan, but you know, whatever.

________________________________________________________________

The first thing Rose did after entering the apartment was to collapse into the sofa, her long, beautiful pink hair scattering all around her like a sumptuous veil. Her body was numb, her mind dazed, her eyelids heavy. If she stayed like this for a few more minutes, she would probably fell asleep. Never had she felt so tired after a day of work. A mischievous giggle from behind her managed to drag her back to reality though.

“Being the madam is not easy, huh?” She heard Meryl say in a teasing voice.

“Leave her alone, will you?” Stella added. “She worked hard today, she deserves her rest.”

“I wasn’t trying to be mean!”

Rose sighed, her mind unable to bring itself to keep up with her friends’ familiar bickering. Both Stella and Meryl had the night off today — something pretty rare — but Rose had spent the day running around because of all the work she had to take care of. It has only been a couple of months since she’d taken the title of the madam of Primavera, and she already felt overwhelmed. Thankfully, all the ladies of the night had been exceedingly supportive of her so far — even Amanda seemed not utterly disapproving of her choices — and of course, Richard had been by her side to help her at every steps. He had a business meeting tonight, to which Rose had wanted to accompany him, but he had told her he and Cyrus would take care of everything, so she needn’t worry. Stella was supposed to be the one to go home to babysit Yuuji tonight, so both Meryl and Rose had chosen to stay with her.

“Anyway, I’m going to make some tea,” Stella said. “Or do you want something else?”

“Nah, tea’s good,” the blonde woman replied. “Right, Rose?”

“Hmm…”

Stella exited the room, and Meryl crashed into the armchair next to Rose — who was still motionless, her face sunk into the cushion. From afar, she’d look almost dead.

“C’mon, Rose,” Meryl said, before starting to poke at her with her finger. “You can’t fall asleep here. At least make the effort to go to a bed.”

“Hmmm…”

“Roooose…”

“Hmmmmm…”

Meryl sighed and rolled her eyes… then an impish smirk stretched her lips. She stood up, slowly advanced towards her friend like a cat, trying to make the less noise possible (not that Rose would have heard her given the catatonic state she was in)… and then she jumped on her.

“Take that! Goozy, goozy, goozy!”

“Ah— W-Wait, what are—”

Rose squeaked, but Meryl didn’t let her have the time to react that she was already straddling her and tickling her. The madam tried to resist, but despite being a really petite woman, Meryl was very physically strong, so she ended up having no other choice than to explode in laughers as the other kept attacking her.

“Hey, be quiet a little!” Stella scolded them while entering the room, a tray full of scalding tea in her hands. “Yuuji’s sleeping just next room!”

She had an uncharacteristic stern face and motherly tone — the one she took whenever her baby nephew was concerned. Stella wasn’t as overprotective of their little boy as Richard, but she would still definitely bare her fangs at anyone who would try to cause troubles to the child.

Meryl moved away from Rose and smiled awkwardly with an apologetic expression on her face, while the other guilty one instantly whispered a soft, full-of-remorse “I’m so sorry” — and as always with Rose when she looked at her with those big, innocent clear blue eyes, it was impossible for Stella to stay angry at her any more longer than that.

“It’s fine,” she said, before putting the tray on the small table in front of them. “But please be careful. Yuuji may be adorable most of the time, but if you wake him up, then he becomes a true little demon. It’s a nightmare to get him back to sleep afterwards.”

“Right, sorry,” Meryl said. “I really don’t wanna deal with a crying baby tonight.”

“Then learn how to be quiet.”

“Sheesh, I said I was sorry! Plus I wasn’t the only one making noise, Rose was super loud too!”

“Y-You’re putting the blame on me?” Rose exclaimed.

Meryl shrugged. “Well, at least now you’re awake.”

“Ahh, whatever,” Stella intervened, rolling her eyes. “Drink your tea before it gets cold.”

She sat next to Rose all while talking, while the other two women grabbed their cups and silently started to sip the hot beverage. Stella’s tea was always very refined and delicate, just in her image. Rose took another gulp of the drink, its sweet flagrance tickling her nostrils, and then she let out a long yawn. Stella smiled gently at her.

“You’re going to go to sleep right after, you, right?” She said softly in an affectionate tone, while putting one of her friend’s pink hair behind her ear. But to her surprise, Rose shook her head.

“No, I think I’ll be fine. I prefer to stay up with you and wait for Richard.”

“You sure?” Meryl insisted. “You can go snooze off while Stella and I take care of everything. We know you’re exhausted. No need to play tough with us, Rose.”

“I-I’m not playing tough, I’m really fine,” she argued. “You truly did wake me up earlier. Furthermore…”

Rose looked down on her laps, her gaze falling into the dark, auburn liquid in her cup of tea.

“I am the madam now… so…”

That was the only sentence she said, no further explanation. Meryl and Stella looked at each others, a clear look of concern they both shared for their friend. But neither of them spoke up about it. Instead, Stella just sighed.

“So what do you want to do in the meantime?” She said. “Play a game or something?”

As soon as she pronounced those words, Rose’s blue eyes lit up like a child’s. All of her sleepiness from a while ago seemed to instantly disappear, so maybe what she had just said hadn’t been a complete lie. “Oh yes! What a good idea. I just have the perfect thing!”

“What?”

Just as the two other ladies of the night exchanged a surprised look, Rose grabbed her purse and began to ransack it. After a few long seconds, she finally took a small box out of it, as a triumphant smile spread on her round face. “There it is!”

“What… What is that?” Stella questioned.

“You proposed we play a game together, right?”

“Well, uh, not really…”

“Well, I have a nice game idea! Let’s play truth or dare.”

“Truth or dare?” Meryl repeated. “Oh yeah. I used to play that when I was a kid.”

Rose flashed an impish smile at her two friends, which made her look at least ten years younger, then opened the box. Inside was a bunch of scattered pieces of paper, with seemingly handwriting scribbled on it.

“Claudia gave these to me this morning, as a gift,” Rose explained. “She said it’s a game she and the other ladies made together.”

Her two friends narrowed their eyes at this, the exact same suspicious expression placarded on their faces.

“What?” Rose asked.

“Well, it’s just,” Meryl started. “You know…”

“Don’t you think Claudia and the others made this as a new way to pick on you?” Stella finished for her.

Rose had always been really beloved amongst the ladies of Primavera, and everyone cherished her as a colleague and a sister. Her natural kindness and sincerity was a big part of it, but she also had a strange charisma that instantly attracted others to her. And now that she was the madam, it was even doubly so. However, she was still Rose, and she tended to often be a little bit… on the naïve and innocent side. Which meant that, while the other women were quite fond of her, they still often loved to tease her. Nothing too mean, of course, just enough to have a good laugh out of her, and Rose was just so easy to tease. Meryl and Stella sometimes took part of those little good-natured pranks themselves. Rose had never seemed to take offence at their habits of gently making fun of her, but she always ended up falling for it.

“Now, don’t be like that,” Rose said. “Claudia even said that she and the others played it quite a few times before. It sounds fun, really. So? What do you think?”

Meryl and Stella exchanged a dubious look. “Fine, I don’t care either way,” the latter said, shrugging.

“Sure? Why not,” Meryl added. “It’s not like we have anything better to do anyway.”

Rose’s smile widened. “Let’s start with the first question, then! So… ‘What’s the—’”

But then she suddenly cut herself short, her enthusiasm vanishing and her cheeks getting redder and redder. Stella and Meryl exchanged an interrogative glance, then stared at their boss expectedly.

“So?” Meryl pressed her. “What’s the question? Come on, we’re waiting.”

“That… That is…”

Rose fidgeted, her discomfort clearly increasing, but she finally managed to blurt out in a very small, trembling voice: “‘What’s… what’s the size… of your… penis…’”

The other two women blinked at her in silence for a moment. And then, finally, they both burst out in laughers.

“I knew you were going to react like that!” Rose exclaimed, halfway between embarrassed and angry.

“Oh my God! That’s a good one!” Meryl blurted out between two chuckles.

“Yeah, they definitely got you fine, huh!” Stella added while wiping the corner of her eye.

“Stop laughing now! Geez!”

“So? We’re waiting, Rose!” Meryl replied. “What’s your size?”

“Ooooh, I bet it’s huge!” Stella said.

“True, true! Rose just has those big balls! I’m sure her meat is even bigger than any of the regulars at Primavera!”

“The clients would be so ashamed if they were to see hers!”

“That’s enough!”

Rose screamed, now as red as a tomato, before throwing at them a few pillows which directly crashed into the women’s faces, but that didn’t stop them from laughing with all of their souls.

“Well, if it’s like that, let’s take the next one!” Rose continued, fumbling among the pieces of paper. “It’s your turn now, Stella! Truth or dare?”

“Hmmm… Truth!”

“All right… er, so… ‘Who in this room you’d like to have sex with—’ Wh-What on earth are those questions?” Rose shouted.

Meanwhile, Stella and Meryl exchanged a look, and stared at their pink-haired, blue-eyed, too-innocent-for-her-own-good friend from head to toes, before replying in the same voice:

“Rose.”

The concerned lady gasped, her cheeks the same color as her dress and hair. “Wh-What?”

“I mean, that’s kinda obvious, isn’t it?” Meryl said. “You’re pretty and cute, and the only other choice I have is her, so really.”

Stella snorted. “Hmph, that’s what I was gonna say. I’d rather die than sleep with you.”

“Hey, I’m glad we’re on an agreement for once!”

“N-Now, now, no need to fight… It’s your turn now, Meryl.”

“Truth.”

“All right, then…” Rose looked at the question, then lightly rolled her eyes, which told the two of them that it was yet again going to be an inappropriate one. “‘What’s the biggest age difference you’ve had between yourself and a sexual partner?’”

Stella chuckled while she was drinking her tea, and she had to put the cup of tea away from her mouth to not spill it over.

“Ohh, that I know!” She exclaimed.

“Ugh, did you really need to remind me of this?” Meryl said.

“I-I’m not the one who choose the questions! If you have a problem, go complain to Claudia and the others!”

“Ah, fine,” Meryl replied while crossing her arms, a clear annoyed look on her face while Stella still struggled to contains her giggles. “It was around two years ago, I think. Some old dude showed up at the brothel. A really old dude. And he was… probably around seventy.”

“Stop lying! He was way into his eighties!” Stella added. “And you never know the best thing about it. When he got into the room with Meryl, he couldn’t even get up his—”

“All right, it’s okay! I’ve heard enough,” Rose quickly cut her off. “S-So, um, anyway, it’s my turn now, so… ‘Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?’ Oh, that’s actually a pretty normal question this time.”

“Huh. So? Do you?’” Meryl asked.

Rose frowned. “What? No, I don’t.”

Meryl and Stella exchanged a glance. “You don’t?”

“Of course not! I’m not a child! Why would you even think that?”

“Well, I had just pinned you has that kind of person,” Stella replied.

“Well, I’m not!”

“I bet you did sleep with a plush as a kid, though!” Meryl argued.

“W-Well…” Rose hesitated, her cheeks slightly. “Yeah… A pink rabbit. B-But I don’t even know where it is anymore! And that’s normal, every kids does that, right?”

“I didn’t,” Meryl answered, almost proudly.

“Well, if you have troubles sleeping tonight, Rose, Yuuji has tone of rabbit plushies, if you want!”

“Oh, shut up!” A red Rose yelled back at her two chuckling friends. “It’s your turn now Stella, so let’s see if you’re gonna keep laughing for long… ‘Take a shot of vodka.’”

There was a long, awkward silence following this.

“No!” Meryl and Rose exclaimed at the same time.

“But… that’s the rule—”

“It’s just a game!” Meryl said. “There’s no reason to do everything it says at the letter!”

“R-Right, you can just, uh, take a shot of your tea. That’s perfect.”

“We’re supposed to look after Yuuji, right? We really can’t deal with a drunk Stella Maiougi right now!”

Stella stared at both of her friends, then let out a heavy, defeated sigh all while grabbing her cup of tea. “Fine,” she grumbled, and Rose was pretty sure she looked… almost annoyed? Did Stella actually enjoy drinking? Or maybe she just had fun getting on everyone’s nerves when she was drunk? Both possibilities were probable.

“A-All right, your turn, Meryl!” She exclaimed, avid to switch the topic before Stella change her mind.

“Right! Uh, uh, truth!”

“Er… ‘What do you appreciate more — love or money?’”

“Money,” both Stella and Meryl answered at the same time, without even an ounce of hesitation.

“Wh-What, really?” Rose exclaimed.

“You’re talking to a bunch of prostitutes, Rose,” Meryl replied. “What did you expect?”

“Actually, she’s technically a prostitute too,” Stella added. “So wait. Does that mean you prefer love, Rose?”

The concerned blushed. “O-Of course I do! That should be obvious.”

Meryl and Stella exchanged a smile, which was halfway between amused and endeared — like something two big sisters looking after their youngest innocent sibling would have.

“Of course, Rose’s always the romantic one,” Stella commented.

“Ahh, it must be nice,” Meryl added, sighing.

“Don’t act as if I’m a kid,” Rose replied, annoyed. “We’re all about the same age.”

Then she paused, her expression more pensive.

“You don’t think love is important?” She finally asked.

“I don’t have anything against it,” Stella clarified. “But having money, food and a roof on top of my head are the most important things to me.”

“Yep,” Meryl agreed. “I already have everything I need, honestly. A good job that pay well, great friends. Love is just a complication in my life that I don’t need right now.”

Their respective answers made sense, given both of their personalities and past life experiences… but for some reason, a part of Rose still felt… a bit saddened by this. Did that make her naïve after all?

Her feelings must have shown on her face, because right after Stella added:

“That’s only for us, though! For you, it can be different. Don’t worry, I’m sure one day you’ll find love. I want to be the one to walk you to the altar, actually!”

“Ooh, me too. Though we’ll be there to make sure the guy you chooses treat you with the respect you deserves.”

“For sure! Otherwise we’ll kick his ass.”

“Oh, we’ll do far worse than that. If he ever hurt Rose, dude can say good bye to his tail!”

Both women started cackling like witches, and Rose smiled awkwardly.

“I… I’m starting to feel sorry for my hypothetic future husband…”

“Anyway, it’s your turn, Rose!” Stella said, while grabbing the box this time and picking one of the papers. “Would you rather be smart or pretty?” She read out loud.

Meryl let out a snort, and Rose cocked an eyebrow. “Um… Smart, I think?”

Stella giggled. “What a silly question. Why would I choose? I’m already both.”

“Ohh, really now,” Meryl commented. “Are you certain about that?”

“I am way smarter and prettier than you, at least, that’s for sure.”

“Wh-What did you just say?”

“Aaall right, next question! S-Stella, it’s your turn! Truth or—”

“Truth.” Stella sighed, and while she still took the time to throw a glare in Meryl’s direction, she turned around towards Rose, who proceeded to read the question out loud.

“So… ‘If you had a time machine, to which time period would you go?’”

“Huh? Uh…”

Suddenly, Stella’s face became pensive, then… slightly nostalgic.

“I…”

She looked at Rose and Meryl, seemingly hesitant to answer. And then, strangely enough, she looked over towards Yuuji’s room, where the door was half-closed. There was no sound coming out of it, suggesting the boy was still profoundly asleep.

“Stella?” Meryl asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

“Ah, sorry, I…” She sighed. “I think if I could do that, I would… go back before the war. Before…” She swallowed. “Before my parents and sister’s deaths.”

Rose and Meryl’s expressions changed to a more somber one, and the ambiance in the room became a lot drearier. Stella’s purple eyes, usually bright with grace and malice, were now dark and focused on her laps, as if she couldn’t bring herself to look at anyone while speaking.

“I’d like for us to be together again as a family like before, even just once. Just the five of us… And especially… I wish Yuuji could meet his actual parents…”

She fell quiet, her words echoing and hanging in the room, while none of them dared to disturb the heavy silence that had taken place. Finally, Stella was the one to cut through the awkward atmosphere, chuckling softly and smiling at her friends.

“Ahh, sorry about that! I didn’t mean to make everyone feel gloomy, hehe.”

“No, it’s fine,” Rose murmured, and she reached forward to gently take Stella’s hand in hers. “We’re not gloomy.”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Meryl replied sharply. “There’s nothing wrong about reminiscing about the past from time to time. It’s okay.”

The other two stared at her with wide eyes, and Meryl puffed out her cheeks. “What? Is that such an odd thing for me to say?”

Stella blinked, and she and Rose exchanged a smile. “No, not at all,” the former replied.

Meryl sighed and rolled her eyes, before leaning over on the table to grab a piece of paper. “Anyway! Better to change the subject before one of you starts crying.”

“As if you’re not the one who cries the most easily out of the three of us,” Stella commented.

“Shut up! So, uh, it’s my turn now. Dare! Uhh… ‘Kiss your closest neighbor on the cheek.’ Oh, okay, that one is cute. Come here, Rose!”

“Hey, wait! It says your closest neighbor. Stella’s closer to you than me!”

“What? She’s closer to me from what, a millimeter? C’mon!”

Rose arched an eyebrow and grinned. “That’s what the rules says,” she simply replied.

“Ugh… since when did you become cocky like that?”

“Becoming the madam really did a wonder on her, huh,” Stella remarked.

“The point is that I’m right,” Rose replied. “So. If you have to kiss someone, you kiss Stella.”

Stella and Meryl both looked at each other defiantly — the expressions on their faces clearly telling that they’d rather kill each other than kiss each other. But the two of them also knew better than to try arguing with the madam of Primavera. Rose may be a sweetheart most of the time, but she was a hardened, hella stubborn sweetheart. So, slowly, Stella moved towards her blonde-haired colleague, leaned towards her, and pressed a brief, soft kiss on her round cheek. Then she immediately pulled apart, and crossed her arms — which Meryl mimicked.

“Happy, now?” Stella asked begrudgingly.

Rose giggled. “Yes, very.”

“Fine, well, it’s your turn now,” Meryl quickly added.

“Oh, right! Uh, truth! So, let’s see… ‘Where do you want to be right now?’”

Rose stared at the piece of paper for a moment in silence. For some reason, this question gave her a pause, and she felt as if her mind had blanked out. It wasn’t a hard question, though. She’d always liked the idea of traveling. Across the country, of course — going to Kyoto, or Sapporo, or Nagoya. Since she was a child, she’d always wished to visit Greece too – her father’s hometown, which she had only heard about from the few tales he had told her. There were a lot of places where she would love to be, a lot of people she’d love to be at the side of… But none of these answers seemed right to her now.

“Rose?” Stella called out quietly.

“Ah, uh…”

“Where I’d want to be, huh?” Meryl repeated. “Personally, I’d really love to have some vacations at the beach. Just spending my days lying on the sand and listening to the ocean…”

“Oh yes, vacations like that would be nice,” Stella added, followed by a heavy sigh. “If only we had enough money for that.”

“What about you, Rose?”

“I…”

Rose looked up at the two women in front of her, and smiled softly.

“I want to be here.”

Both Stella and Meryl stared blankly at her. “What?”

“I’m fine with where I am right now. I really don’t want to be anywhere else. Sure, it may be a pretty difficult life at times, but… I love this town, and this country, and all the people who live here. I love you two, and Richard, and Wayne, and all the ladies of Primavera. And… I would exchange it for nothing in the world.”

For some long seconds, a silence took place in the room — which made Rose anxious. Surely her answer wasn’t that weird, was it? But then, all of a sudden, the other two began to laugh.

“Wh-What is it?” Rose exclaimed. “Did I say something that funny?”

“No, no, that’s not it!” Meryl replied. “We’re not laughing at you. It’s just…”

“That’s such a Rose thing to say,” Stella continued. “Really, here we were, fantasizing about vacations at the beach, and you answer this kind of mushy tirade!”

“I-I didn’t mean to diminish your wishes,” Rose replied. “I mean, I think it’d be nice to have some vacations too…!”

“Nah, it’s cool, we get it,” Meryl said. “Actually… I think I agree with you. Vacations sure would be great, but… at the end of the day, I’m fine where I am right now. It may not be an ideal life, but it’s mine and I like it nonetheless.”

Stella didn’t say anything, but the wide smile on her face was more than enough to tell she shared those thoughts too. Meryl giggled again, and then she ruffled Rose’s hair in that big sisterly kind of way she often had towards the women of Primavera. Stella got closer to their madam before affectionately resting her head on her shoulder, and Meryl, sitting on the other side, imitated her.

The three of them stayed snuggled together like that for a quiet, peaceful moment.

Like a way to prove themselves that they were, indeed, all of them happy to be here right now.

Like a quiet prayer that their lives would continue as such, with all its ups and downs — but that, either way, they would always have each other’s backs.

5 notes · View notes