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#the original file name for this is 'WHERES MY SON' lol
eye-of-the-hawk · 2 years
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Mama’s PISSED
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sanssouci-sims · 8 months
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The Don x Malcolm Saga
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As y’all may or may not have heard, I decided to start a new save file because my original save (which I’ve had ever since I started playing TS4 last October) was frankly getting too convoluted and boring. I also got several expansion packs so I wanted to have a fresh new file for all the new content!!
Unfortunately, this means that a lot of the families my original townies started have now been wiped. One of these happened to be the crazy Caliente-Landgraab dynasty that came about mostly because Malcolm Landgraab and Katrina Caliente decided to get together. After she died, though, Malcolm decided to move onto her old “boy toy”, Don Lothario!
Here’s what happened to their family before I wiped my original save file!
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Yeah, Malcolm got pregnant.
Believe it or not, Malcolm was actually set to become pregnant within CAS! Since hooking up with Don, his romantic orientation had even been set for men only. He might have had the noncommittal trait, but MAN was he gay for Don.
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Don seemed pretty excited to be having another child with his beloved Malcolm, considering they’d already adopted Malcolm’s older kids from his marriage to Katrina Caliente and had two of their own.
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Jayme, the older of Malcolm and Katrina’s kids, seemed to support her father’s new marriage and thought it was kind of cute how Don tended to be quite affectionate with Malcolm.
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However, Jayme could not stand her two younger half-sisters, probably because they took a lot of her dad’s attention away from her.
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Can’t really blame her when one of her half-sisters, Jodi (who aged up from a toddler to a child), made her way into her bedroom at one point to do her homework... WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING.
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And while Don tolerated his older stepchildren, he tended to focus more on his own biological children, especially his youngest daughter, Alisa (who aged up from a newborn to a toddler - this was before the infant update dropped a few months ago). Clearly, Don enjoyed being a father very much, and as he was an elder at this point, it seemed perfect that he’d be able to enjoy his last golden years with his happy little family.
Soon enough, Malcolm was ready to give birth. But then..............
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DON BIT THE DUST!!!
Okay, it didn’t happen randomly (I have autonomy turned off, after all). I decided to pull a sneaky and shift-click-kill Don by ultimate mortification. No reason why, I just thought it’d be funny. (lol I’m a sadist)
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Malcolm didn’t seem to take notice at first, as he was busy rocking his new baby boy (unfortunately, I don’t remember his name). The Grim Reaper showed up, and Jayme and Jodi quickly came down to mourn their dad’s death (I don’t exactly remember where Alisa was, but thank goodness she wasn’t here to witness what would happen next).
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Then came Malcolm and Katrina’s younger child (and Jayme’s brother), Dusty! He had an angry moodlet for whatever reason (I like to think he was trying to get some sleep and was woken up by the commotion) so I decided to make him (with the help of the Extreme Violence mod, which I have since deleted) kill the Grim Reaper.
YES, HE KILLED THE MANIFESTATION OF DEATH ITSELF.
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Malcolm finally realized what was happening and starting freaking out alongside his daughters. How could his only son do such a thing!?
But there was no time to continue pondering that question, as ANOTHER Grim Reaper showed up.
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Dusty’s family begged him to plead for the dead reaper’s life, lest one of them call the police on him (no really, a notification popped up saying the police were called... but they never showed up for some reason??). He reluctantly did (see how annoyed he is here?), and luck must have been on his side because the other reaper was brought back to life, and the two harbingers of death soon disappeared.
And that, my friends, was the beginning of the end of the Caliente-Landgraab dynasty. A distraught Malcolm moved out to grieve on his own, leaving his oldest daughter Jayme in charge of the home. Who knows what happened to them afterwards, but as of now, there’s a new blank slate in their place. Malcolm and Don haven’t met (yet), and their kids have been wiped from existence. Until... (hush hush i’m planning something ooooooo)
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enigmaticxbee · 2 years
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✖️✖️ 10x02 Founder’s Mutation
The one where... a doctor’s experiments on kids with genetic mutations, including his own, make Mulder and Scully think about William.
Best: Mulder: You’re never “just” anything to me, Scully.
Worst: WHY doesn’t Scully have her name on the door - WHERE IS HER DESK?!! This makes me FURIOUS. Ughyfcggbhjjhb!!!!
✔️ Flashlights
❌ Woods/Desert
❌ Slideshow
✔️ Autopsy
✔️ Evidence Disappears
❌ Scully Misses It
❌ Mulder Ditch
❌ Sunflower Seeds
❌ Voiceover
✔️ Catch Phrase: (TTIOT)
✔️ Scully is a (Medical) Doctor
❌ Mulder is Spooky
❌ Scuuullllaaaaayy! Muullllderrrr!
❌ Fox/Dana
✔️ Inappropriate Touching (that I am here for)
✔️ Casual Scully
✔️ Casual Mulder
❌ Trench Coats
❌ Bad Tie Watch
✔️ Glasses Watch 😎
✔️ Taking! It! Personally!: Mulder & Scully
50 States: DC x102 (44/50)
Investigate: Together & Apart
Solve Rate: 50%
✔️ Bechdel Test
MSR: 🐝🐝🐝
Goriness: 👽👽👽👽
Creepiness: 👽👽👽
Humor: 👽👽
Rewatch Thoughts:
William check-in: The incubator conversation outside the hospital is SO clunky…. My baby, Scully? And it’s not like the idea that William was the result of experimentation is new - it’s threaded throughout seasons 8 and 9, Scully should not be shocked about this line of investigation. So much exposition needed to get revival viewers up to speed on William 🙄
Break-up check-in: It makes me sad that even in their dreams (or nightmares) Mulder and Scully imagine themselves to be raising William alone. They can’t share their grief over the loss of their son, or even imagine themselves as a family. But there doesn’t seem to be any tension or issues working together… Why bother with this breakup if they weren’t going to do anything with it?? They didn’t have to be split up for William to be a fissure within their relationship.
I believe this was originally the 5th episode in the production schedule, which I guess is why their return to the X-Files feels so low key here. Guess Skinner just made them Special Agents again!
Mulder: How do you know that? Scully: I’m old school, Mulder - pre-google. Lol poking fun at how much random knowledge they needed to have in the original run to keep the plot flowing. (Never mind Scully GOOGLING HOW TO DO BRAIN SURGERY in IWTB - no, I will never let it go)
GaY pAniC
Scully’s back in the autopsy bay 🥰
It feels weird to see Mulder and Scully in these big SUVs instead of their FBI rental sedans…
Skinner playing both sides as usual, but he brought them back to dig things up, not to play by the rules. It still just doesn’t feel plausible to me that they would rejoin the FBI after everything that happened. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if they were trying to investigate from outside the system and going to Skinner for help and insider access? (See This from next season, I wanted more of that!)
Scully’s worked at Our Lady of Sorrows hospital for 7 years? 🤔 But IWTB was 8 years before this 🧐 Who knows how time works in txf universe.
Oh hey Doug Savant! I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything since Desperate Housewives.
I know some of the genetic disorders the kids have are real disorders - are all of them?
The plot of this episode really bounces all over the place - especially with the detours to remind us about William. Lotsa leaps in logic needed to get to the janitor being the founder’s son.
Why is Mulder the only one who hears the sound? Is Kyle trying to send specifically him a message? Why him?
Bad things happen when the birds gather. Lolololol
I do love me some hurt/comfort and protective!Scully though
Why is the little girl blond in the flashback and has black hair in present day 🧐
I’ve always been into stories about super kids escaping from evil captors who want to exploit their powers - Escape to Witch Mountain was a favorite of mine.
Mulder imaging what it would be like to raise his son really gets me 🥺 - given the way he lost his whole family there’s so much to explore in his hopes and fears… I wish we got more but I do appreciate that we get this little bit.
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homebody-nobody · 2 years
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WIP game!
tagged by @largedenominationsplease
Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!
okay so here's the thing. I've been using my google drive to write original fic and fanfiction since I was fifteen, so. This is gonna be lawwwwng.
FANFICTION
outer banks
Engineering School AU notes home(where your heart is set in stone) home outline Jiara AUs Jiara week JJ's Lesbian Older Sister Meta katie's bday smut sincerity is scary outline the Parcels of Tannyhill
bellarke
"I got a dog" (She Returned) More Broken than Before All These Words I've Heard Before An Unexpected Guest Begginings of wicken fic (YOIKES) Bellarke fwp Bits and Pieces and To Be Used Clarke's Greek Pantheon Photography project Dancing in the dark devil's backbone - the civil wars domestic!bellarke bc im trash fire and stone (and a swingin trombone) Hot Boys and Indie Music (Make for a Pretty Great Summer) I have to tell you these flowers are for a dead person I'm Hers and She is Mine Library AU Library crush - bellarke fic more 30 minute fictions with the best friend Museum!Bellamy Rebel!Clarke hs au Silent Warrior, Screaming Youth SingleDad!Bellamy so go ahead and make your mark on me so go ahead and make your mark on me (REWRITE) Soulmate Words sweeter than sugar (colder than ice) the Bellamy Thing when the door sings closed you held my hand (and called me darling)
fleeting hyperfixations
beth x benny bones OC jatp college au jerin shoni fic ideas WayHaught Z nation
Percy Jackson
PJO lesbian Athena thing Solangelo??
Star Wars
Jyndor Lex and Gage
Voltron
klance high school AU shallura dancer au cause i have no self control Voltron Voltron AU#1 Young - The Chainsmokers
ORIGINAL WRITING
DnD
Cadogan Druhaven
other
A writer in venice throws his typewriter out the window one day Ace and Arthur Apparently sleep hates me Ari and Mel Band story Blacksmith Boy Brett and Nia Calliope and Wren long Castor and Pollux Chance and Ezra Denim and leather; Fire and ice Draconic Novice Draconic Novice Notes Dystopian society Elias and Charlie Ellie and Aaron Escape For Ryn's Birthday happy lesbians Henry, Tial, and Ellia Honos et Veritas I don't know what this was supposed to be but it was gay Isabelle the Ghost Whisperer Kira and Nell Kisae Dwellden Kyto and Petr Mark and Joanna start Men of the Moors Modern Magick modern magick Development Journey Modern Magick Trilogy Plot Outline Modern Magick Worldbuilding Modern Magick: Fire Modern Magick: Water Morgan and the Witch's son Nell doesn't look like a mafia princess Notes-Draconic Novice Paige and Katie Parker and Rae pirates story quarantine podcast Reece tells Kai that Jason is alive and he starts to cry Richard and Gabrielle? Runaway Mage Sign language zombie killers Some of Us Alive Stub The first thing he notices about her is her left hand The Four Suits the hill that grew the lindstrom sisters (bank robbers) the Rider General this is sad This wasn't where he wanted to be vegas motorcycle gang Vyvinuly wars beyond men wars beyond men rewrite (? third person ?) When War Comes white-Collar Trash wolves
so yeah there's a lot lol
tagging: @jojameswinter @a92vm @jiaraisinthegoodplace @smileymikey and whoever else wants to!!
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imonthinice · 3 years
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The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 2/?
Word Count: 2k
Author’s Note: Y/N - your name, A/N - any name (your best friend’s name)
Warnings: Swearing, no beta bitch we die like Jason Todd
Welcome Back! I have, once again, written more of Jason Todd because he’s a fucking teddy bear and I love him.
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)
Y/N and Jason both returned from that date feeling all giddy about each other, but trying their dammed-est to not let their hopes get too high about the other. However, that was extremely, extremely hard for Jason to do with family like Dick in his life. It’s like coming home to a hopeless romantic of a shipper as a nosey bitch. Lovingly, of course. No one’s like Dick.
“So, Y/N?” Dick asked Jason immediately as he entered the Manor.
“Yeah, what about her?”
“So, many questions: Was that a date? If no, will there be a date? Is there going to be a second date? Do you like her? Do you think we’ll like her? Does she know you’re Bruce Wayne’s son?” Dick rambled at his little brother.
“Okay hold on god damn, yes it was a date, yes there will be a second, yeah I think she’s cool and I like her, slow your roll Circus Boy, I don’t know when she’ll meet you lot, I don’t think she knows who I am, she’s from Metropolis, so I don’t think she knows the Waynes well.” Jason answered Dick with confidence.
“So you like her!” Steph mocked as she entered the hallway, probably heard her brothers talking about Y/N, so she wanted in on it. Somehow she had evaded Jason’s gaze though, so she startled him immensely.
“Jeez, how many of you will scare me today? And yeah, dumbass, I like her. But I’m doing this magical thing called ‘Not getting my god damn hopes up about her since it’s only the first date’ you hopeless romantic fucks.” Jason barked at them.
“Yeah, but you love us.” Dick said.
“That might be true, but your meddling is only going to cause chaos, Dick and Steph.”
“What about my meddling, Jay?” Bruce asked. Once again, he had heard the talking about Jason’s new crush and decided he’d parent the boy on his girl. Jason jumped out of his skin, because, he had once again, not seen Bruce enter the hallway despite his best efforts to not get startled again.
“You, are going to give me a heart attack.”
“Looks like this girl let your guard down.”
“Can we just go on patrol and stop badgering me?” Jason muttered under his breath.
“Nope!” Barbara exclaimed. Clearly, there’s a pattern with Waynes escaping Jason’s attempts to not get startled today, “We’re still going to badger you, Jay,” Barbara finished.
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When Y/N made her way back to A/N, she couldn’t help but turn her radio as loud as she could and try to take the longer journey back home. Pieces of quiet and tranquility always surprised and drew her in. Like a good book on a Sunday morning before the rest of the bustling city of Gotham or Metropolis awoke itself. If New York never sleeps, she thought, then what the hell do Gotham and Metropolis call themselves. She laughed.
There were a few good things about Gotham, like the people you’d meet on the street at 4am were some of the weirdest but kindest people you’d ever know. It’s like the city radiated off of the energy of the people in it, and in spite of the villains constantly hitting the city with their worst, somehow everyone never let it get to them. It was admirable. Metropolis was the same in that avenue, but it didn’t feel like the cold Gotham streets.
Y/N thought Jason was one of the kinder people she had met in her travels and classes. And she never thought that she’d meet someone she liked this much in her criminal psychology class of all places, but hey, the universe had different pen strokes for her.
She went and parked her car in the driveway of the rental house she and A/N shared. Only the two of them shared it, but if either of them lost their jobs, they’d be looking for another roommate immediately. Pulling out her bag which was full of notes written by Jason, the original notes written by her, and binders upon binders of criminal cases she was looking into at the time, she would get out of her car and begin walking to her door.
Of course, like most people, she would kick off her heels the minute she walked through the doors of the house, to which, A/N paused her music and went to go question Y/N about Jason.
“So, you know how this works, babes, lay it on me, how’s hottie? Is he kind?” A/N pondered.
“He’s so kind, he paid the printing fees for my notes and rewrote all of them, I guess it’s a system for us now. I write the notes in class while he tries to take it all in, we meet up, and he rewrites them all and pays the printing fee.”
“He paid the fee?! At that college?” A/N said, completely shocked.
“Is that shocking?”
“Well, the printing fees are so fucking expensive, hun. Mans must have daddy’s money to do that.”
“Really? Well regardless money doesn’t matter, he’s kind and I can make a name for myself if I graduate at the top of my class.” She said, fully believing this. Smart woman. She knew she could do it.
“I believe in you, do you have homework tonight? I can make dinner for you so you can study.” A/N offered.
“Nah, I’m just going to go file my notes and shower, I’ll come join you and help after.”
“Well, don’t drown.” A/N joked.
“Do you know how much effort that would take?” She laughed as she walked towards her room, once she got there she pulled out her papers and began the slow filing process of them into her desk.
About 2 minutes into this, she got a text:
Hey stranger.
If someone had a heart monitor hooked up to her, they could have bet their last penny on her heart skipping a beat. 
Hey Jason. She sent back.
I had a fun time today with you, do you want to do the same thing tomorrow, I could use your fast writing skills to get by in classes. And I just like talking to you. What do you say?
She thought. Maybe something legit is here, hopefully I’m not just used for notes. She worried about that, since she was just a tad insecure about him. He was pretty. She knew she was a looker, sure. But he was something more.
I would love to go on another budget date with you.
Budget? Actually yeah, I guess it is budget lol. Maybe next time I’ll actually take you out to lunch like I said I would.
I, honestly, completely forgot you said you’d take me to lunch, I was just having fun as we were talking.
Me too. You’re a hoot.
A hoot? That’s a book nerd statement if I’ve ever heard one. She joked. She didn’t actually know if he was a book nerd at this time, but they had been joking the entire time when she was filing her notes. She was no where near done filing her notes, Jason was a distraction from that, it wasn’t that important, she would end up finishing it later. She just liked some semblance of organization so she didn’t have to put it off.
I’ll have you know I’ve probably read more books than you.
Well book nerds are cute.
Eventually the messages from Jason and Y/N started slowing, Y/N assumed he was tired or working so she took her chance to file her notes and start running her shower.
Sorry Y/N, this has been fun but I’m going to get really sparse with replies, I got work to do.
That’s fine! Where do you work, by the way?
And she got into the shower. Halfway through her shower her phone pinged, she assumed Jason was texting back, so when she finished her shower, before she even got her towel on, she decided to answer him:
I work at Wayne Enterprises with my dad. It’s quite fun.  He had said.
Oh! I’ve heard the owner of Wayne Enterprises is a lovely man, have you met him? She asked him back.
And within an instant, he answered.
He’s my dad, so yeah.
You’re the Jason Todd? Heir to the Wayne Manor and Wayne Enterprises? She started thinking back on what A/N had said. Yep, she thought, Daddy’s money indeed. She started to slip into her pajamas, which were literally a mess and not put together, because this is the real world, not every girl has matching sets, when he answered:
I hope that doesn’t change much, Y/N.
Explains the camera I saw but didn’t mention, and that’s about it.
You saw the cameras? Damn it. I tried to shield you, they may have pictured us together, sorry.
Worth it for a lovely date. I’ve seen worse, my mum works with Clark Kent, who I guess you probably know since he’s Bruce’s best friend, and the paparazzi loves to take Clark’s picture.
Oh yeah, Uncle Clark. Yeah, the pap love him. You get used to it. I guess you somewhat know my family lol.
Nah, that’s about all I know. Wasn’t really interested in drama about you lot because it’s just not my business. Probably not a shared ideal with the general public.
She finished getting dressed and went to go cook with A/N, and share the news.
----------------------------------
“Girl! You were right about daddy’s money oh my god,” Y/N said when she entered the kitchen.
“Go on,” A/N urged.
“You know Jason Todd? Guess what. That’s hottie from Crim Psych 101.”
“Are you serious? That’s insane. You’re probably plastered across the internet right now for that date,” A/N laughed, “are you scared to date a famous man?” She asked.
“No, he’s really sweet and if this gets serious, I can just block out the flashes.”
The two of them laughed and started cooking. A/N was Latina, so, of course, she was in charge to cook most nights. But Y/N made killer desserts and pizza. Tonight was fajitas, so Y/N kind of sat bat and let A/N do her thing. Trying to know more so one day A/N wouldn’t have to do all the work, Y/N went onto the internet and the first thing she saw?
Globally Revered Son of a Millionaire, Jason Todd, out on a DATE with a Mystery Girl?
Like clockwork, Jason answered:
I guess I have a lot to teach you, and I hope you haven’t been on the internet recently.
I have. Globally Revered Son of a Millionaire. She texted back.
Fuck those damn tabloids. He said, she couldn’t help but agree, the paparazzi seem like they’re very invested in stories that aren’t theirs to tell.
Can’t agree with you more. We should put on a show for them tomorrow, actually give them something to write about.
I like your thinking.
You’ve opened up a lot today.
Is it your turn now?
What do you want to know? You asked him before turning to A/N.
“Tabloids talk too much,” you sneered at her.
“Cat should get their tongue and choke on it,” she finished, “did you at least look cute in their pics?” she asked.
“Somehow. Wasn’t even posing,” Y/N finished.
“Well, food’s done, are you still hungry?”
“Always.”
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Jason turned to his brother, Dick, Nightwing, and said, 
“She knows now.”
“That you’re rich?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess I have to be more wary of her now,” he sighed, “I hope she’s not in it for the Wayne fortune.”
“Doubt she is if she agreed the tabloids can suck it, Red Hood.”
“I pray you’re right.”
He then drew his guns and fired at the ground underneath their laest venture into crime-fighting. This was gonna be one hell of a ride Y/N embarked on, not even knowing what she was getting into.
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kaypeace21 · 3 years
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What's in a name? (Analysing all the names in stranger things)
*I'll be repeating some names more than once as I break down categories .
Show , book, and tv easterggs
Alot of character names may have deeper meaning but some are also refs to stories they liked. The stranger writers twitter posted a list of movies said to inspire s4 (which I’ll be referencing).
Dart- dustin names him this after d'artagenean (a 3 musketeers book character) and one of Dustin's fav candies (3 muskateers). Similarly his pet turtle yurtle is implied to be named after the dr Seuss’ story 'yertle the turtle'.
Brenner- main character from 'the birds', which was on the st s4 list.
Byers- john byers from x files. The duffers mentioned x files was an inspo for the show. Although John byers (from x files) resembles Murray as an unhinged conspiracy theorist. The documentary paradise lost was also cited as inspo for st- john byers and his son, terry, Michael, and Steve were names in said film
Jim Hopper- in Predator (another st inspo) he was a soldier who was flayed to death in the woods. Another character in the film with a similar fate was “Hawkins”.
Detective Wheeler and elle Holloway- from silent Hill franchise. Another ref mentioned by the Duffers. Holloway was the surname of st's Heather. Elle (is el) and Wheeler is Mike's surname. Wheeler was also on the ep of twiglight zone (another cited ref by the duffers) . In the ep 'mute' sheriff wheeler takes in a mute psychic girl as his foster daughter. So some hints at hopper too . Hopper even mentions el-anor (gilipse) in s1. The surname of a main character in the silent hill series.Lt. Colonel Sullivan (s4) could be a eastergg of silent hill 4 which had a Sullivan character.
Henderson- st twitter mentioned how all the bond films were on the s4 inspiration list . So Dustin's surname being the same as one of the bond characters is a nod. Duffers also mentioned ‘freaks & geeks’ as inspo- and 1 character’s surname was also Henderson (another nod).
Mrs Driscoll (from s3) - a nod to invasion of the body snatchers which was mentioned as inspo by the Duffers. And clear inspo for s3.
Powell (cop and partner of hopper ) - diehard films also on s4 list. He's named after the cop powell.
Callahan (cop and partner of Hopper) - father Callahan ref. He shows up in many of Stephen King novels. The Duffers have cited over 10 novels and books from him as inspo for st
Nancy- she's called ‘Nancy drew’ (from the novels). And the duffers have mentioned they are fans of elmstreet - who's main character was Nancy. Nancy also references 'Oliver twist" ,and that book has a character named Nancy in it. Nancy was also a first Lady in the 80s similar to her friend Barbara- who was also a first Lady in the 80s.Nancy's name might also be inspired by "Nancy Wheeler", a secondary character in the 1970 book Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret written by Judy Blume.
Fred (s4)- apparently a high-school journalist who may be friend or foe. This one is a stretch but given nancy maybe being an elmstreet ref- and her enemy being fred-die kreuger. Fred may have animosity to Nancy and that's why his name is Fred. I mean ... they even cast a new s4 character with Freddie kreuger's original actor.so...
Jason (s4) - is in the 1986 Nancy drew novel (when s4 takes place). He is similar to the duffers description. In the novel he's a rich, popular, arrogant jock and blackmailing students at the high-school . S3 even named one of its episodes after a nancy drew novel- so wouldn't surprise me.
Christie carpenter (s4/reffed in s1 by hopper)- christie is the main character in the hellraiser series (which is on the s4 st list). Carpenter is the surname of the director of 'the thing' name dropped in s3. (The flesh monster in s3 also resembles the thing) , and in s1 mr clarke watches it ,and mike has the thing movie poster in his basement.
Argyle (s4) - die hard 1-2 were on the s4 st list. And is a name of a diehard character.
Max- her name is 'mad max' like the 80s film. But since the Duffers like videogames. Her name may be a ref to max caufield from the ‘life is strange’ game as well. She has a 'never Maxine rule' similar to max in st. But the game character is similar to jonathan as she is a teen photographer and says similar words to jonathan in s1 saying she would rather watch people through a camera than interact with them.
Eddie munson (s4)- not going to lie. I have no proof of this but I immediately thought of the TV character Eddie Munster (the friendly monster ).
Possible comic book easteggs
The duffers are no stranger to comic book references. The duffers have already directly reffed xmen, wonderwoman, and green lantern. Kali's place also has a comic book ref to 'the invisibles' on the wall. While the s4 movie list mentions thor ragnock , age of ultron, and 2 batman films. Some of these refs will go over your head if you haven't read my DID theory. But a lot of this analysis will still be enjoyable. :)
Jane st ives (jane ives aka el). marvel. (jane st ives sees her dad k*ll her mom and vows revenge against him.Sort of similar to what brenner did to terry).
Stephanie harrington (Steve harrington)- 80s marvel comic. DP.7. Will DID ref. Antibody, is a medical resident who can project from his body a dark figure of himself (also called an "antibody", a word play on the medical term) that flies, can become intangible, and transfer its memories to another person by physical contact (mindflayer).  He later merges with the antibody. like how susie refs ‘wizard of earthsea’ -the novel where the young wizard Ged releases a shadow monster (said to be an ancient evil) but it turns out to be the dark aspects of his personality and the only way for the chaos to stop is to accept his darkness and merge as 1.
Barry bauman (Murray bauman) . marvel comics - Will did easteregg.Bauman lived in never ending darkness. He felt, that there was a realm outside the darkness and started to explore the entire content of his brain thus using now more than the usual 10 % .Also had telekinesis.He turned his attention to the stars in order to exact revenge on the human race which spends billions of dollars to kill each other, but wouldn't spend the mere million or so it would have cost to cure him. For his vengeance he transported the suns near our galaxy into his omnipotent brain. As the people of Earth would learn of the disappearing of the suns they would panic and feel Bauman's loneliness before he would destroy Earth.Despite the death of his physical body, Bauman's consciousness somehow survived and began hopping from body to body throughout the galaxy, his powers growing until the Star Thief was recognized as a major threat to galactic society.
Sinclair- last name of xmen rhaine.  Will Did ref. storyline Rahne Sinclair is mentally bonded to Havok against her will(Will/mf).She is subsequently manipulated by the Shadow King. Her bond with Havok causes her to act irrationally, sometimes threatening teammates, sometimes by flirting with them.  She undergoes more than one attempt to undo the bonding, with varying results. Her instability also manifests in many odd dreams, in which her identity is merged into pop culture figures. What’s funny is charlie heaton (jonathan byers) was just in an xmen movie with this Rhaine character.
Victor creel (s4)-sounds like mutant victor creed of the xmen comic. x men Mutant with ab*sive dad and poor socioeconomic background. He had a "birthday tradition" of ab*sing his young relatives on their birthdays. Which reminds me of Lonnie making jonathan cry for a week (because he forced him to k*ll a rabbit on his b-day). Not to mention Lonnie is prob coming back for Will’s b day in s4... so... the name is prob a ref to that ‘birthday tradition’. Could also be a stephen king reference -since Duffers love him. The Creel family was in sk’s book “pet cemetary’-which fun fact (the actress who plays El’s aunt is in the recent remake)!
Yuri (s4)-Yuri Topolov (Russian: Юрий Тополов) was a Soviet scientist and the first foe of the Hulk. 
Dimitri (s4)-Dmitri Bukharin was born in Kuibyshev, Russia (some sources say Moscow).  First appeared in Iron man.
Peter ballard ( s4 character) may just be a hellfire ref . since I guy with last name ballard was a double agent for the hellfire club (name of st s4 ep 1). And ballard means bald which the actor is certainly not lol. I don't think he's literally associated with hellfire but its just a ref. And because its implied in his st character summary despite working for the mental hospital-where brenner is most likely at- he's horrified by the treatment of the psych patients. So that may be where the double agent aspect would come into play.
Ian Hargrove (billy hargrove)- batman comics. had a history of mental health problems dating back to childhood, which his parents were unable to afford treatment for. His brother John hargrove tried to keep him out of trouble but Ian developed an uncanny talent for explosives (will the wise fire powers). He ends up at Archam asylum. Cough billy is Will's alter. Why he has the name billy (a nickname for William) . Jonathan in s2 mentions how he likes the writer vonnegut- who wrote slaughter house 5- the main character was Billy. Already mentioned how it connects to my did theory .
Jason carver (s4)- carver is the last name of the comic hero thunderbolt (in the flash)-the first name of thunderbolt is Will and his brother is named Lonnie. There was also a John carver in the comic.
Holland (barb's last name) last name of Swamp thing. I think its plot has quite a few s4/5 spoilers but Im not diving into it right now.
Names associated with religions or mythology 
(if you’ve read my DID theory- some themes will appear relevant in relation  WIll’s alters or to WIll’s past/tr*uma).
-‘Kali prasad".Kali  is the name of a Hindu goddess . Kali’s iconography and mythology commonly associate her with death,  violence, s*xuality, but also paradoxically -motherly love. In myths ‘she only k*lls demons’ and is described as  ‘overflowing with incomprehensible love for her children’ - (aka ST’s Kali k*lling people from hawkins lab for hurting kids). Her third eye stands for wisdom (like Will the wise).Kali is called at times ‘ the bright fire of truth’ (will the wise/fire powers).The devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner cremation fire in the heart is the gyanagni (fire of knowledge), which kali bestows (cough Will the wise-fire powers). The goddess also could create a darkcloud of lightning (similar to the mf). The phrase “brilliant as a dark cloud” is a snippet of one such prayer dedicated to Kali.The name Kali is derived from the Hindu word that means “time”. Kali receives her name because she devours ‘kala’ (Time)- like clocks ticking when El sees demogorgan/clock being wonky when Will see mf/clocks in s4 promos.’ After devouring time she resumes her own dark formlessness. “This transformative effect can be metaphorically illustrated in the West as a black hole in space” (cough mf cough hopper blackhole/time refs). Kali’s s2 butterfly-“Kali is the Hindu goddess associated with eternal energy. ... The cocoon, butterfly and the karmic golden wheel reflect Her deep connection with life.”And Prasād (her last name) is a material substance that is a religious offering to gods in  Hinduism .
-While, EL is the name of a Cannanite (male) god associated with “salt water “ (pool filled with salt in s1) who “dwelled in a tent” (in s1 Mike’s blanket fort) .And his gray-beard was described as " "full of wisdom.” él’  in Spanish means ‘he’- which could be a nod at her ( androgynous) presentation in s1. El can also be translated to "God" or 'god'. The el character has various mythologies depending on which culture/ religion is using the term 'el'. In the post-biblical period, "el" became a regular element in the names of angels such as "Gabri·el," "Micha·el," and "Azri·el," to denote their status as divine beings.And Jane translates to " Yahweh (god) is gracious/merciful". The cannanite god El was also dubbed “Compassionate God of Mercy.”  Earlier, a ninth century B.C.E. inscription  identifies Ēl- the name of the Babylonian water god Ea, lord of the watery subterranean abyss (cough watery  dark void in st). Terry (el’s mom-aka Teressa) was originally used in the Middle Ages for a “child baptized in holy water” (El in the sensory water tank/Terry used it too,according to Becky in s1). Eleanor (called this in s1)- can mean "sun ray" (possible the opposite of the ‘shadow monster’ or Kali who can represent a “black hole”). 
-Will-the s4 st movie lists (‘red dragon’, gods of monsters, & ‘blade runner’ ) mention the artist and writer William Blake  (specifically his painting of the angel michael fighting a dragon in revelations - reffed in st s1). He was one of many painters part of the exhibition of “ The World Turned Upside Down: Apocalyptic Imagery.”The World Turned Upside Down explores the myriad ways that artists in England visualized the apocalypse in a period fraught with political, religious, economic, and cultural change. 
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During this period Blake was commissioned to create over a hundred paintings intended to illustrate books of the Bible along with revelations .  He also drew illustrations for the novel Dante’s inferno. Blake’s brutally satirizes oppressive authority in church and state.He said those who proclaim restrictive moral rules and oppressive laws as “goodness” are in themselves evil. Hence to counteract this repression, Blake announces that he is of the “Devil’s Party” (cough hellfire club ref-and dissing the satanic panic of the hellfire club and other marginilised groups) . He also says “men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.” So Instead of looking for God on remote altars, Blake warns, man should look within.He produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the “imagination as “the body of God.” He wrote his own stories based on biblical writings- one includes the fire wielding character of Los (will the wise) who represented jesus. Los (like jesus does in revelations) causes the destruction of the world and the second judgment unfolds. The poem ends with Los’s unfallen state rising up and shepherding in science and removing the dark religions. I also talked about  how this story ‘book of los’ hints at the DID theory-but this is getting long-so you can just read the explanation here if interested. Also, hellooo Both names are William B(yers/lake). Billy (a alter of Will-sharing the name William) in s3 he even wore “lady of pillar” medallion- i.e about jesus/mary.
JOHN (supposedly Jesus’ blood relative- who wrote ‘revelations’.) In scripture John was called “the disciple whom Jesus loved as a brother” .Fire is the most typical element associated with the Saint John's Eve celebration (Jonathan did light the demogorgan on fire). Many scholars consider John & Jesus ("apocalyptic prophets"). Jonathan itself translates to " yahweh (god ) has given" in Hebrew.
Michael- Similar to kali, he’s a religious figure known for killing demons. He’s the arch-angel from the book of revelations (Apocalypse). A evil Beast (with seven heads usually translated to ‘satan’ or ‘dragon’) appears .“it was a 7″ causes Will to be attacked by the demogorgan ( which in d&d is a demon with multiple heads). The Archangel MICHAEL fought and defeated this 7 headed beast/satan. Corresponding with Mike at the end of s1 writing a fictional d&d story for Will (based off defeating the demogorgan) which was about helping kill a 7 HEADED MONSTER! Michael is also the archangel who oversees on Earth the natural element of fire (Mike telling Will the wise to use ‘fireball’ to defeat this same 7 headed monster in the game, at the end of s1)! Ironically though Jesus /Christian god is also associated with 7s a lot (he has 7 angels and during the apocalypse causes 7 plagues , he has 7 candles etc .)cause the number seven, represented ‘perfection’ according to ancient numerology . Will’s b day is March 22- (3) +2+2 =7 (“it was a 7”). Will’s bday even falls in what christians call “the holy week”( the week immediately preceding Easter.)  At the end of s1 they even defeat this 7 headed monster because Will rolls a 14 (which can be broken down into two 7s). Michael & William also have 7 letters in each of their names respectively- equating to this 14. This dragon biblical story (of Michael) is also William blake’s most popular painting. Also, random fact in revelations god has a rainbow throne (with thunder /lightning -will the wise powers- coming from the throne, and seven lit torches next to it ) . He also wears a rainbow halo. Lol. Michael also roughly translates to  ( 'Who like el?' The answer being roughly translated to ' no one like el' ... which i mean literally is saying there is no one similar to her. But I still think its a linguistic pun/ burn that Mike is not actually into El romantically).
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Jim (James) hopper- According to the s3 script Hopper’s real name is James. JAMES (JIM) was an apostle to jesus- brother of john. And in the bible was called a ’son of thunder ’. Will’s powers/ hopper being an alter of Will's so technically brother of jonathan and thunder powers. Not to mention David on Instagram saying hopper has " he has risen. like bread" is a Jesus ref to 'he has risen"... even the bread ref could be a catholic ref to the last supper.
  Martin Brenner/marsha holland-  have their first name reference the roman god Mars who was originally a ‘thunder or storm deity’ (will the wise/mf powers). EL (in cannanite mythology) also allowed Baal the storm god to rule the entire earth.
ROBIN- was the God of Thunder’s- Thor’s- favorite bird. And Dustin also means ‘Thor’s stone.’The red belly robin is also an important bird in Christianity. Legend has it that the robin got its red belly from a fire in which it was trying to protect Jesus. Robin also name drops the greek god prometheus- the god of fire (will the wise) who brought human beings life and knowledge. And Steve looks at Robin and says "let there be light" a biblical passage. The robin represents selflessness for a higher truth. 
Barb- Saint BARBara- dad kept her locked away from the outside world (like el/brenner) . He tried to k*ll her when he learned she didn’t believe in his religion- so the dad was punished by “god” who electrocuted him with lightning/lit him on fire. (Will the wise powers).
Nancy- is derived from a medieval diminutive of Annis, an English form of Agnes.  There’s the christian saint Agnes- who was beautiful and from a wealthy family. She was the Christian saint of girls and v*rginity . And the duffers subverted this along with the problematic horror movie trope of the ' v*rgin female heroine surviving while her more se*ually liberated female friends are punished by the villain' ( by having her survive specifically because she decided to have s*x).Agnes was also led out and bound to a stake, but (allegedly) the bundle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her (will the wise fire powers). Also people claimed that any man who tried to r*pe her was struck blind.
Hopper's wife’s name -Dianne- is also the roman goddess of ,nature, hunting and wild animals( and greek equivalent to Artemis) .Becky  means ‘snare’ -for hunting animals .Teressa (Terry) means ' huntress'.  The name was originally used in the Middle Ages for a child baptized in holy water . Name of 2 saints-Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux. Lonnie’s gf (Cynthia) was originally an epithet of the Greek goddess Artemis, as well.
Power couple Angela & jake (s4) - Angela means 'messenger of God". And Jake (also means ”supplanter”) is derived from jacob. Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebecca in genesis. El’s aunt,Becky (Rebecca) is wife of isaac.Other theories claim that Jacob is in fact derived from a hypothetical name like יַעֲקֹבְאֵל (Ya'aqov'el) meaning "may God protect".The name jacob is also where the names James/jim is derived from.
couple Steve spies on in s3- Anna Jacobi & Mark Lewinsky. Anna ( name of the mother of the Virgin Mary) Jacobi ("he who supplants"-aka same meaning as jim since both names are derived from jacob). Mark (”the god mars”-same meaning as martin brenner) .Lewinsky (lion-same name meaning as Lonnie). Also derived from the Hebrew root לוי‎ (leví, “priest”)
Joyce means "lord". Could also be a ref to the ('unofficial') saint Joyce who gave up wealth to live in poverty.
Ted-is the short form of the names Theodore and Edward. Theodore is a Greek name meaning "gift of God", Edward has an English origin and means "wealthy guard." Eddie (from s4) also means ‘wealthy guard”
Holly (nancy and Mike's sis)- Holly meanings are 'One who is pious' or 'sacred'
Karen- can be short for Katherine-one of the first christian saints.”Saint Katherine of the Wheel “(er). A 4th century martyr who suffered t*rture on a spiked wheel.  Wheeler does mean ‘occupational name for a maker of wheels’ after all. 
Gospel of LUKE (lucas?) , or simply Luke, tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Sinclair- Catholic saint of computers and TV screens (i mean... he is in the av club).
MAXimilian was deemed a saint in the 1980s- saint of journalists and radios. (Both aspects of s3)
Saint stephen/steven ( STEVE)-an early disciple and deacon . Considered one of the first m*rtyrs of the church.Stephen is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food (lol icecream) .According to Orthodox belief, he was the eldest and is therefore called “archdeacon”.
Sara- Her name is a feminine form of sar (Hebrew: שַׂר‎), meaning “chieftain” or “prince."  She was the wife and sister of Abraham (ew -given her being an alter of Will though, such a name doesn’t surprise me). Similar to st Barabara’s dad - Abraham tried to k*ll his son isaac in the name of god. Becky (El's aunt) - is derived from Rebecca - wife of Isaac.
Claudia (Dustin's mom)- Christian woman of Rome greeted by Paul in his second letter to Timothy (in the bible).
Sam mayfield (max's dad) -  Short for Samuel or Samantha, from the Biblical name Shemu'el, which means "God has heard", from the Hebrew shama, meaning "heard" and el, meaning "God". Samuel is rumored to be argyle first name.
Marsha Kelly (s4)- Kelly means "frequents churches" or " bright headed". Given she's a counselor the bright headed pun makes sense. But maybe she's not to be trusted if she frequents churches during a satanic panic arc which was fueled by Christian religious extremism . Or she's someone who contrasts the rest of the religious people in town since she's not originally from hawkins...who knows. x files’ main character was catholic but in one ep she criticized a small town for the satanic panic occurring-and says how accusing these kids who listen to rock as satanic or being k*llers is ludicrous.
Peter ballard (s4) - Peter was also the name of an apostle. 
Tina (side character s2)- like christy (s4) it’s short for Christina which translates to "follower of christ" or 'stream'. Tina was the gal who hosted the t halloween party and also the name of one of Erica’s friends in s3.
Samantha (goth girl jonathan talks to in s2 party) translates to "told by god".
Tommy (s1-2) "God's gift" or "twin".Thomas is the Greek variation of the Aramaic name Ta’oma’. It came about because there were too many apostles named Judas; Jesus renamed one Thomas—meaning "twin"—to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and the Judas also known as Thaddeus.
carol (tommy’s gf)- Carol is the short form of Caroline and the meaning is derived from the English vocabulary word for “song” or “hymn". A hymn being a religious song or poem.
Benny ( who helped El at his dinner) - originally derived from latin bennedictus which means "blessed"
Stacey (s2-3 ) rejected dustin at dance. Stacey- "resurrection "
Grigori (the guy following and tracking hopper, Joyce, and alexi)- The name was adopted by early Christians heedful of the Biblical passage located in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful."grigory now means 'watchful and vigalent'
Alexi- prob based on the russian folklore story of alexy. A clever priest's son who tricks a dragon.
Harrington- similar to Robin's religious animal iconography. Harrington means 'he goat'.The most popular image of the Satanic goat dates back to the ever-mysterious Knights of Templar, who were accused of worshipping an idol known as Baphomet (a 1/2 human 1/2 goat man). Roman Catholic society decried it as a demon that demanded human sacrifice — but it would take a few more centuries before the goat became a truly occult symbol.Anton Lavey adopted Baphomet as the sigil of the Church of Satan in 1966, and it has appeared on countless metal album covers. But, Baphomet isn't the lone source of inspiration for our goat-like depictions of Satan.it's also believed that early Christians, seeking to demonize preexisting Pagan traditions, drew comparisons between the Devil and the Greek god Pan (god of nature), who happened to resemble a goat.Some cited how in revelations- during the apocalypse- Jesus separates the 'lambs from the goats'. ( supposedly Good vs bad)
Given the fact s3 alluded to the satanic panic. A Christian movement in the 80s that demonized and said d&d ,rock music, homosexuality, other religions, stephen King,horror films, wearing black,and non conservative ideology were 'satanic.' I wouldn't be surprised by this possible ref. Heck even William Blake criticized similar religious movements in his own time period. Several movies from the s4 list allude to this. The most obvious being the documentary paradise lost (named after the fictional retelling of satan/adam and eve story) - the documentary directly focuses on a witch hunt of rock loving teens (wrongfully accused of m*rders) in a small town during the satanic panic. Not to mention ironically s4 is hinted to be around easter. So Using such symbolism to address religious fundamentalism and the bigotry/hysteria it can cause isn't surprising. No i’m not lumping all religious people into this negative category- obviously.
Other Names with similar definitions
*Hunting /forests woods, nature, animals
Hunters and people in forrests
name meaning : becky - snare (a trap for catching birds or animals). Teressa-huntress. Dianne/Cynthia (Hopper’s ex wife/Lonnie’s gf) - is a roman/greek goddess of hunting and wild animals.  Rhadaghast- Will's password for cb is a lothr wizard who protects forests/wildlife.martin/marsha- previously god of agriculture/plants.As an agricultural guardian, he was believed to directed his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature (pumpkins rotting in s2). El in phoenician culture was called Elus and its Greek equivalent Cronus (god of agriculture) steve- he goat- associated with pan- god of fields, groves, wooded glens . brenner- ‘someone who cleared forests by burning’. the blond women, Brenner worked with,  Fraizer-  “of the forrest men”
* FUN FACT: Kali’s name originally was going to be ‘Roman’ (which is derived from Romulus-the son of Mars... aka Martin Brenner) .
Trees
Ives and owens- ives means 'yew wood' while Owen means 'yew tree. ' bauman- nickname for someone who lived near a tree.comes from the German word "baum," or "boum" in Middle High and Old German, meaning "tree’. Jennifer hayes- Jennifer  derived from Old English words "jenefer", "genefer" and "jinifer", all of which were variants of Juniper used to describe the juniper tree.Lonnie means "oak tree; or lion". Lion plushie in cb and the lion el has along with the tree establishes a connection between all 3 maybe? Oak groves were especially sacred to  the goddess dianna too. Buckley (it has many different translations) - Old English "boch ley" (with boch meaning beech tree and ley meaning wood, glade or clearing).
Nature
buckley if translated from "bok lee," means meadow, or field. mayfield- open country (field) where madder (mæddre) grows. Holland- wood land, Bruce (who was also possessed) - means WILLow lands . Keith (s2-3) : woods or forrest.Hargrove- meadow filled with rabbits (Jonathan’s hunting story).Holloway is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, or type of tree. Tina means 'river' . Burness (guy who claimed he jumped into quarry)-stream. Neil- cloud. Lowe (Bruce's last name)-This surname is derived from a geographical locality 'at the low,' i.e. the hill. Hayes means "hedged area'.
Flowers
Flo (hopper's secretary)- means flower. Suzie-  lily flower. Susan (Max’s mom)- means lily, lotus flower or rose. Karen (in Japanese can mean)- flower, lotus, or water lily. Heather is also a variety of small shrubs with pink or white flowers which commonly grow in rocky areas.  Erica is a type of "heather" plant. martin/marsha: in the legend of Mars,his mother become pregnant with him using a magic flower- which was given to her by the goddess flora.
Bright (aka intelligent)
Bob- nickname of Robert . Both Bob and Robert mean 'bright, shinning or fame'. Aka smart -he's called ' Bob the brain ' for a reason.
Robin- is also diminutive of Robert . And we all know robin is smart too. Being multilingual/ cracking the code.Robin (like Robert) also means 'bright, shining , or fame.'
Lucas- means "bright" or "shinning" aka he's also a smart cookie. His firework plan saving the day.
Lonnie and Larry (the mayor) can both be nicknames for Lawrence which also means ' bright one' or 'shinning one'. Well... both are cunning I'll give them that. Lonnie is unfortunately ...smart. I think this detail had other foreshadowing. Joyce to Will about Will the wise ' if he's so wise why does he need the fireballs? can't he just outsmart the bad guys? " Will: " yeah. Usually. BUT sometimes the bad guys are smart too." I never understood why on earth Joyce would be with someone as awful as Lonnie in the first place- than be with his literal opposite Bob- but maybe she just found intelligence attractive?
Names associated with thunder/lightning/fire (Like Will/mf/Will the wise)
Byers-reprsents Greek Zeus (god of thunder/lightning). Martin - references the roman god Mars who was originally a ‘thunder or storm deity’ .ROBIN- was the German God of Thunder’s- Thor’s- favorite bird. And Dustin also means ‘Thor’s stone.’Jim- “son of thunder”. Christian god- has throne (surrounded by thunder /lightning). Kali- could summon thunder storms.Nancy/Barb-both saints associated with fire. Kali-is called at times ‘ the bright fire of truth’ /and bestows the fire of knowledge. Robin also name drops the greek god prometheus- the god of fire. Mars -the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame . The Robin bird in a Christian story myth protects Jesus from hell's fire. William Blake- wrote about a fire wielding character of Los who represented jesus. Jesus during end times wields fire. Michael is the archangel who oversees on Earth the natural element of fire. Fire is the most typical element associated with the Saint John's Eve celebration (Saint John- called Jesus’s brother).
Animals (and their symbolism)
Byers- means ‘ cattle shed’.The Greeks considered the bull animal totem to be a symbol of Zeus (god of thunder and lighting - will the wise powers). He is the head of the gods and the almighty ruler of Olympus.  I”n hinduism, Shiva is known as Gorakhnath, means the lord of the cows.  And is also known as, Pasupathinath, the lord of all animals (similar to Rhadaghast). According to some scholars, Shiva’s association with cows and bulls might date back to the Indus Valley period. Cows have a special significance in Hinduism, as aspects of Mother Goddess and as symbols of selfless service. Mahatma Gandhi declared the protection of cows a central feature of Hinduism.Hindus worship cows as the Mother Goddess and symbol of motherhood, kindness and forbearance.”
Tigers: (Sarah’s plushie/ Hawkin’s macott/ Will & Mike have tiger posters in their rooms): The goddess Kali & God Shiva wore a tiger skin (this fact was actually mentioned by Kali in the prequel novel ‘suspicious minds’ ).”In many tribal traditions of India, the tiger (or lion) is worshipped as a god. In some Hindu hymns the domestic fires are compared to the tigers that guard the house.Tigers also figure prominently in many Indian folk-tales, Jataka-stories, and the Panchatantra.”
Lions:(Lonnie means ‘lion’ and el and Will have matching lion plushies)- In the Bible, the lion has two opposite meanings: it is compared to the Devil (1 Pet 5:8) and to Christ (Rev 5:5). Aka: Lonnie is the devil. The kids are the opposite. Nancy also compares the demogorgan to a lion. “In many tribal traditions of India, the lion is worshipped as a god.One of the ten incarnations of Vishnu is Narasimha, who has the head and shoulders of a lion, but the torso of a human.Goddess Durga, a fierce form of Parvathi or Shakti, has a golden lion as her vehicle, while Rahu, a planetary guard, rides upon a black lion as his vehicle.Lions form an important part of Hindu religious art. The face of the lion (simha-mukha) is used in images and sculpture in many Hindu temples to decorate the doors, walls, arches, and windows.The memorial pillar at Saranath  contains four beautifully carved standing lions at the top on a round abacus representing the imperial power. They now constitute the official emblem of the government of India.”
El almost k*lling a cat- “Some superstitious beliefs are also associated with cats in Hinduism. For example, killing a cat is considered a grave sin, for which one may have to offer prayers and give in charity at least seven golden images of the killed cat. “
Harrington- he goat. Buckley- has various translations. Anglo-Saxon: ‘bucc and leah’ meaning goat and wood respectively. And obviously there’s the robin-bird. And I've already discussed their symbolism. Goat= baphomet/pan. 
Robin- thor's fav bird/ helped Jesus from hell's fire.
Buckley- can also translate to " field filled with deer" (like the deer attacked by the demogrogan or the bambi film jon reffed in relation to the hunting story about lonnie).And Karen ( when from it’s Hebrew origins) can mean- antler or horn. Also the caananite God el was usually depicted with animal horns on his head.Diana in Roman art usually is accompanied by a hound (demo dog) or deer.  Because of the story of her turning an attempted r*pist-hunter into a deer/ and then causing dogs to attack him.  Deer is also one of the symbolic animals accepted since early Christianity as an allegory of Jesus Christ and the Christian Disciple. And when associated with Shiva (kali's husband) in Hindu iconography, the deer omen denotes sovereignty over nature and symbolizes the lord of all animals, humans, and the King of the Forest. In many visual and written illustrations, human beings and deer appear as close companions and in some cases, humans adopt the face or antlers of a deer, in images more common in stories of human strife. Deer also have a supernatural significance and appear as apparitions of divinity and in legends of spiritual awakening.
Hargrove- meadow filled with rabbits (like the rabbit lonnie made jonathan k*ll.) Hopper sounds like thumper the rabbit- which jonathan mentions in relation to bunnies . And ... idk... Hopper did make that pun in s3 about bunnies to Larry (lawerence) ? We also have rabbit refs elsewhere like with- el in Benny's. They play the song 'white rabbit' a song referencing Alice in wonderland and in el's room at Terry's house is the white rabbit from that story. Also paralleling to jonathan- el was almost made to k*ll a cat by her father (Cheshire cat aka Alice in wonderland ref + cats are associated with magic powers/witch craft).In Celtic folklore, the rabbit is seen as a supernatural being from the Otherworld.The rabbit symbolism in Christianity has found its way through the Germanic deity Eostre from which the name Easter came to be (s4 will most likely have the Easter holliday).One tale describes the rabbit as the pet of Jesus Christ. And rabbits were often inserted into art of jesus' mother .
Creel- basket or container of fish.fish is taken as symbolizing Christ’s faith, charity, and abundance. A biblical story goes how Christ fed his disciples with 2 fishes and called them “fishers of men.”  The Christians made an acrostic from the Greek word for fish, “ichthys” as early as the first century and it is, “Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter”, meaning Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
Names hinting at character traits (which are very literal)
Mr clarke (science teacher)- clarke means 'scholar'
Dottie (in kali's gang)- she was in an insane asylum . And ‘Dotty’ is a very old British slang term  for 'crazy'
War (usually relates to ‘villains’)
Troy- means ' foot soldier'. Martin brenner: Martin means 'war like'. Lonnie is diminutive of Alonzo or Lawrence. Alonzo means 'ready for battle'.
In contrast to Lonnie, Will can mean "desiring peace. " Axel  who is part of Kali’s crew (who i think Will created along with others ) even means "father is peace."
Twin
Tom (Heather's dad) and Tommy mean ‘twin’. Robin's crush Tammy ('twin') Thompson ( 'son of tom’).
* Besides similar/identical name meanings.There’s also a lot of other repeated names that go into this whole twin/mirror imagery which i find strange... makes me wonder about @strangertheory ‘s version of the did theory. If not...maybe it’s just a allusion to the whole Will vs Will the wise arc (possibly) coming up?
Jennifer hayes (popular girl) & Jen (Mr clarke’s gf). Tina (highschool gal) & Tina- erica’s friend- Tina & christy are also nicknames of christina (s4 character). Susie (dustin’s gf) & susan (max’s mom). Sam (max’s dad) and Samantha (girl at party)/ samuel (possibly argyle). Billy Hargrove, Bill (dianne’s new huband),  and Will-all being nicknames for William. Robin & Bob-nicknames for Robert. Lonnie & Larry-nicknames for Lawerence. Ted  & Eddie being nicknames for Edward.James (Will’s bully), Jim Hopper (real name James), jacobi, and jason- all 4 are derived from jacob . Marsha Holland (barb’s mom) and marsha kelly (therapist s4)/martin relate to mars. Tom (reporter), tommy (highschooler), thompson (other highschooler).
it’s definitely peculiar to repeat names like this in a story. Unless it means ...something... I talked about how David was mentioning alot of doppelganger/twin imagery recently-here. So the name mirroring could just be an allusion to the Will/WW arc coming up ...possibly?
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mytvjunk · 3 years
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Gossip Girl: S1 - EP 4
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We're only on episode 4 and the Julien vs Zoya storyline is already getting tired. Every episode they fight, they make up and continue this toxic cycle of abuse for absolutely no real reason. Either have them join forces or just keep them enemies; because this hot & cold relationship is serving no one. Perhaps the writers need to introduce a new character that brings their circle a different kind of conflict and changes the dynamics of Julien and Zoyas relationship. OR perhaps remove Luna & Monet from the inner circle, as they are the true villains of this show. Remove them from the equation and Zoya and Juliens relationship would flourish. But we all know that's not happening...as they are singlehandedly keeping the drama alive, which is the heart of this show. And at this point, it isn't even sibling rivalry...its just straight up nonsense that's egged on by outside parties and unfortunately Zoya and Julien take the bait every...single...time...which makes them look like straight up fools by the end of each episode. ---Also that whole "I am a bully" scene was all sorts of ridiculous 😆😆 She's taking accountability for her actions but she's not getting any consequences for what she's done...in fact she'll be the one that ends up benefiting from it, cuz she'll look like the good person at the end of it all.
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-Let's talk Georgina Sparks! I was so happy they gave us a glimpse of her in that collage of pictures (and also that random pic of Blair) as she was one of my favorite characters on the original series. Also can we discuss hows she's pictured with Putin, Kim jong un and Elon musk just to name a few 💀💀💀Which leads me to believe that she's still up to some wild shit as an adult LOL I wonder if that was a foreshadow to a possible Georgina/Blair appearance later on in the series 🤔 It was also pretty cool (but suped random) how they've included her son Milo in the story. He's even following in mama's footsteps with the schemes & messiness lol
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Obie & Zoya - I like them together but I'm not convinced by them yet. They come across more like good friends than actual partners. I wish the writers would've built that relationship up more, because they just became an item after one episode and barely knowing each other....There was no grace period or internal conflict with that fact he was about to date his exes sister and vice versa. I wouldn't be surprised if they breakup before end of season cuz they don't have a solid foundation and Zoya is too worried about the outside drama which Obie wants no part of.
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Monet & Luna - Do we care that we have yet to get any sort of back story or insights to their personal lives? As of now, for me, nope. Their entire narrative is Julien. They're like unpaid publicists, who do evil things in the name of Julien and many times without Juliens permission. The writers haven't given them any depth or point of view to make us care...they're just mean for being mean, which when done right can be entertaining to watch, but they're creating conflict and not really gaining anything out of it. But then again, it is only episode 4, so let's see if they surprise us before the end of the season.
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The teachers STILL being Gossip Girl- It's creepy as all hell that they've become so aggressively invested in these kids lives just to divulge their every secret; however it is clear that the writers are keeping them as GG, so as a viewer, I've just come to accept it and not give a shit anymore, cuz this show is so obnoxiously camp. And honestly the teachers aren't terrible at it. Kate has a very solid voice & creative way of painting a story...it does help that she has a strong writing background. But honestly if she were to dedicate this type of energy into her writing career, like she does to running the GG account, she could accomplish so much outside of this school.
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Aki & Audrey - They're cute but kinda stale together. They're both lusting after Max, while he's just using them as play things, but ultimately I do see them having a threesome at one point...especially now that Aki is discovering more about his sexuality. This is another couple I don't see lasting very long. Their communication is really bad & the chemistry is lackluster. I'm still having a hard time with Evan Mocks (Aki) acting. I don't know if this was the direction he was given or if it's his abilities that are not up to par, but he's scenes are a bit rough to watch. He's stiff & delivers his lines in this monotone lifeless way that's a bit unnerving. But if this is what production wants from him, then he's doing a stellar job! -- Side note, It will be interesting to see how Audrey's world is going to change now that her mother is filing for bankruptcy. I wonder if they'll be any possible power shifts within her circle of friends, when they find out or will she keep it all a secret hmmm
Max & Rafa - I really wish the writers didn't take the route of the teacher/student troupe. Its especially messed up that they decided to trigger their sexual relationship during a time where Max is clearly going through personal issues that's left him emotionally vulnerable. I do wish the writers would've handled his grieving differently. --Also can we discuss how Max looks about the same age as Rafa? 💀 Are no actual teenagers working in Hollywood anymore? Too funny.
With that being said, the writing on this week's episode of Gossip Girl was a special kind of terrible. But because I enjoy mess, I will continue to watch every episode, of every season.
Xoxo
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infernwetrust · 3 years
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In His Office [Michael Langdon x Fem Reader]
Summary: A recent change in your shift allows for you to have lunch with Michael at his brand new dealership.
Warnings: SMUT, SMUT, SMUT. Swearing. I think that’s about it.
WC: 2.5k
A/N: This idea came to me recently today lol. We all know Michael Langdon isn’t a stranger to a little office sex. I imagined this one with F&R Michael. Thank you for reading! -Juno
Michael walked around his dealership, hands clasped behind his back as he silently studied his employees at work. Not wanting Michael to always stress over his job as the anti-Christ, you convinced him to pursue something else that he was interested in. Why not start a business, he had thought. He decided that he would own a decent sized car lot, divided into 3 sections; luxury, middle-class, and pre-owned vehicles. The business took off well as he constantly won awards throughout the year whether it be for most sales or outstanding customer service.
He could feel the eyes burning into him as he walked passed, from employees and customers alike. He knew he was attractive. He knew that some of his workers wanted to screw him, but he paid their nasty thoughts no mind. He dressed in all black as usual. A black button up shirt that hugged his figure perfectly, tight black jeans, sporting the Michael Kors belt you had gotten him for his birthday, and his favorite pair of black dress shoes to go with it. He never went anywhere without wearing the platinum chain, which proudly displayed his last name, around his neck. That was also a gift from you.
His hands shifted behind his back and his thumb brushed against his wedding band, causing him smile a little bit as he finished walking the floor, returning to his office and taking a seat at his desk. He looked down at the wedding band, reminding himself of the passionate encounter that the two of you had shared a few nights ago.
"Michael..." you whispered against his lips as he lay comfortably between your legs.
"Hmm, my love?" he questioned, his blue eyes meeting yours, his lips not moving an inch away from yours.
"I want you to wear your ring while you make love to me. I want to see it. I want to be reminded of your commitment to me." He smiled against your lips because funny enough, it was something he always thought of too. Normally he would take it off to avoid it flying off his finger due to any sudden hand movements while the two of you got lost in each other.
"You don't have to tell me twice."
"I have your weekly sales report, Mr. Langdon." his lovely Ms. Mead said, walking into his office and gently placing the folder on his desk. He smiled warmly at her, taking a bite of his now cold bagel before moving the folder closer to him. It was only right that he made her head of the financials. She was so good with numbers and always had Michael's files correctly placed together.
"Now you know you don't have to call me that." he said to her. "Michael, Mike, even son, works just fine for me."
"I know." she said. "But we're in your place of business, my dear. I will always address you with respect."
"You're too good to me, you know that?" All she could do was smile. "Took care of me when no one else would, never left my side, always provided for me. I won't ever be able to thank you enough." She was going to say something else when Michael's front desk receptionist walked into his office, his shirt drenched in coffee.
"Jeremy what the fuck happened to you?"Michael questioned, furrowing his eyebrows as one of his first impression's of his establishment was now completely a mess. "You can't fucking greet people like that. What type of business do you think I'm running here?"
"There's a woman, in the lobby." he began, out of breath. "She keeps demanding that I direct you to her office and that she's your wife. I think she's crazy, but I tried letting her know that you're a very busy man and that she'd have to call in advance to meet with you, but she wouldn't take no for an answer." A smile crept its way across Michael's face as he snapped his fingers, restoring Jeremy's outfit back to its original state. Yup. That was you.
"Yeah, that sounds like my wife." Michael said, grinning alongside Ms. Mead. "Perhaps you should of listened to her the first time."
"But sir, I was just trying to-,"
"Ah ah. I've heard enough. Walk her back here and make sure you get nothing else thrown on you for the rest of the day or your fired. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir." Jeremy said lowly, turning to exit Michael's office and get you.
"These fucking new hires, huh?" Michael questioned, looking at Ms. Mead.
"You let Jeff and Mutt do the hiring when you really should pass that job along to Gallant. He would make sure the right people were working here."
"That he would. That he would..." Michael agreed, rubbing underneath his chin. And then you walked into the room. With a recent shift change, you now got off at 2PM, which means you were able to meet Michael for his lunches that he took at 2:30. He stared at you, smiling devilishly, running his fingers across his bottom lip.
"You're lucky I don't fire you my fucking self." you said to Jeremy as he escorted you in.
"My apologies, Mrs. Langdon." he said, with his head low.
"Yeah, whatever. You can get out now." He wasted no time, quickly leaving the room, accidentally bumping into the side of the door, causing the 3 of you to giggle. "Ugh, Michael, don't tell me you're still chewing on that bagel I sent you to work with." You walked over to his desk, engulfing Ms. Mead into a tight hug, which she gladly returned before planting a kiss on your cheek.
"I'll leave you two, to it." she said, giving Michael a nod before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.
"Why so bossy today?" Michael questioned, sitting up in his chair and resting his hands on his desk, admiring your unique figure.
"Between work today and your stupid front desk agent, I'm just ready to eat lunch with you and for you to come home."
"It was that bad today?"
"If I could throw my computer out of the window with no consequences, I would." Michael chuckled, grabbing his bag of Panera Bread. You knew his favorite. Turkey Bacon Bravo, with avocado, extra, extra, avocado. Cheddar Broccoli soup and a Coke.
"You and me both, my Queen." Michael grabbed a remote, the one that control the shades in his office. He lowered them, half way, just so that no one walking by would be able to peak in at the two of you. "Staying with me until I get off at 5 or do you just want to take my car and go home and then come back for me?”
"You know I am. I've missed you terribly today."
"Is that why my front desk boy ended up covered in coffee?" The two of you looked at each other with a grin. "A temper just like mine. Mrs. Langdon, I love it, just as much as I love you."
"I love you too." you responded. "My temper is how I keep things in order."
"Mmmm." Michael hummed. "Tell me about it."
After lunch, Michael returned to his duties, going over his sales reports, moving things where they needed to go, and sending out emails and reminders. You loved watching him work. You loved how fast his fingers moved a crossed the keys and how his gaze never broke away from the task at hand. You were mainly focused on his outfit choice for today. You had no idea he would be leaving the house in an outfit that pointed out ALL of his features. Though he was soft, you could still see the full outline of his length through his jeans when he sat down. His chest, outlined against his shirt perfectly, you could just make out his nipples. The size of Michael's thighs drove you insane, that you couldn't help but come over in the chair you were sitting in and start rubbing them.
His focus still didn't break and while you knew he preferred to stay focused on his work, today it didn't seem like he cared. He allowed you to rub his thigh, his breathing slightly increasing as he typed up a inventory report. When he paused for a moment, wanting to crack his knuckles, you took the opportunity to spin his chair around so that it was facing you. The both of you immediately made eye contact, but no words were spoken. You could read his face and he could read yours. You were both on on the same page. He grabbed another remote, this time the stereo remote, turning it on, leaving the music at a reasonable volume.
Your hands were already fumbling with his belt as you got it unclasped. You quickly unbuttoned his jeans, Michael kicking off his shoes and moving them to the side. You pulled them down, bringing his boxers down with his, revealing his semi-hard cock. And all you did was touch him. You knew how much Michael craved you, both intimately and non-intimately. He was weak underneath your touch most of the time. You got on your knees in front of him, hands on his thighs as you slowly took him into your mouth. He let out a Godly sigh, leaning his head back as you got to work on him.
"Ssssh." you said, popping him out of your mouth. "It seems to be a busy day for you. You don't want your customers to know what's going on behind your office doors do you?"
"And what if I do?" Michael questioned, his cock twitching from missing your mouth.
"Well let's pretend you don't. No noises. Can you do that for me, daddy?" Michael's jaw clenched at the name and he bit his lip slightly. Silent Michael was sight to see. While extremely audible Michael was one of your favorites, nothing beat looking up at him and watching as he expressed his pleasure with his face and body.
You took him back into your mouth, slowly bobbing your head up and down on his length. Michael's jaw dropped. He desperately wanted to moan. He wanted you to know how good you were making him feel, but he kept it quiet. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, never taking his eyes off you. He didn't bother to take it off, his chest and torso for the most part exposed, his chain landing perfectly in the middle of chest. You licked up and down the sides of his shaft, using your hand to stroke circles around his spit glazed tip. The sound of the wetness drove the both of you crazy. Your own arousal soaked through your panties.
Putting him back in your mouth, you sucked on just his tip, using both of your hands to stroke the rest of his length. Looking up at him, he looked so beautiful. He was breathing heavily as he peered back down at you, running his hand through his hair, his hips starting to thrust upwards in your hand to try and match your pace. His foot found its way between your legs and using his big toe, he slowly rubbed it across your clit, causing you to moan lowly around him, the vibrations ripping through him.
You were sucking faster now, moving your hands faster. He gripped both sides of his office chair, before deciding to let them go, wanting his hands wrapped up in your hair instead. You moved your hands, knowing what he was wanting to do. Welcoming it. And you loved watching him do it too. His thrusts in your mouth started off slow and gently, before they became rough and fast. You looked up at Michael again, who was now breathing so rapidly you thought that maybe he could be hyperventilating. You could see him mouthing the word fuck over and over and over.
He stood up abruptly, pulling you up with him before smashing his lips onto yours, immediately sliding his tongue into your mouth, the two of you fighting for dominance. He was quick to rid you of your clothes before pulling his shirt all the way off. With a quick wave of his hand, everything that was now on his desk, was on his office sofa, neatly stacked so that he could return to it lately. He picked you up, setting you down on his desk.
"Now can you do the same for me?" he asked, quickly sliding into you, catching you off guard. Sensing your impending loud moan he quickly put a hand over your mouth. "No noises yes? Or I'll stop and we'll have to finish this at home." You nodded against his hand and he slowly moved in and out of you at a rhythmic pace. You pulled him by the back of his neck, closer to you, putting your lips directly against his ear. His hands roamed all over you, squeezing your breasts, playing with your nipples as he gradually increased the pace at which he fucked you. Your hands travelled up and down his back when suddenly he grabbed them, pinning them above your head.
You swore the desk was inching farther and farther away from the area it resided in as he now pounded into you relentlessly and you could help but let out a cry of pleasure, or at least you tried to, but Michael knew you all to well. He used his powers to keep you quiet, your mouth wanting to make noise, but nothing but breaths and pants coming out.
"Poor, girl." Michael said between breaths. "Dishing out challenges you can't even do yourself. Now look, I have to use my powers to keep your mouth shut. Pathetic. You enjoy being my little office toy?" You nodded vigorously. Not only had your shift change allowed you to have lunch with Michael, but it was just the fact that you were now able to spend the rest of his work filled day with him, sex or no sex.
"That's what I thought." he continued, his pounding becoming sloppier and sloppier as he neared his climax, you not following too far behind. When he let your hands go, they immediately found their way to his hair, giving it a sharp tug to which he inhaled sharply to stop himself from cursing. You grabbed him by his throat, pulling him back down towards you as you neared your orgasm, foreheads pressed against each other with nothing but pure love and lust in the both of your eyes.
You let go first, squirming violently against Michael, who sloppily kissed you following his own release shortly after, breathing and panting loudly in each other's mouths. You both rode out your orgasms until the pleasure was completely gone.
"This shift change is going to be so much fun." Michael said as he rested his face in your neck.
"So much fun, Mr. Langdon. So much fun." you said back.
Taglist: @jimmason @angelicmichael @whatcodysaid @theneverendinghunger
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itsmeevie01 · 3 years
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A Moment in Time-Ch 5
I'm back! lots of things to come, and a slightly longer, Tim centered, chapter! and...the build-up to the Timari subplot! 
Yay!
 I know that is what everyone is actually here for lol.
Tim was tired of looking for Jason.
He wasn’t at any of his normal safe houses, and none of his usual contacts had heard from him in the last few weeks. Three weeks after the ridiculous scandal had broken, the press had all but forgotten Tim for the time being. As he ducked through alleyways, the teen couldn’t help but be thankful as he climbed back on his bike and sped back towards Wayne Manor.
He was done waiting for his brother to show up. There was something sketchy going on in their city, and if Jason wasn’t going to show up, then it was no longer his concern.
When he got home, Tim found Bruce waiting for him in the study looking over the side gardens. The older C.E.O.’s face was grim.
When Tim approached the desk, Bruce handed him a stack of papers. As Tim started to page through them, he had a flashback to when Jared Stone had brought the pile of tabloids.
As he flipped through the new stack, Tim realized that it was Jason’s credit card statement. And-was that…? “did he buy a ticket for Paris? Why didn’t we get notified about his passport passing through customs? Why is Jason in France of all places?” when he looks back at his adoptive father, the man’s face was grim.
“I don’t know, Tim. But we sure as hell are going to find out. Go to his apartment. I know you have a key. We need to see if he left anything out from before he left.” Bruce paused before adding, “he’s been gone for two weeks. There has to be a reason.” Tim nodded as he moved to stride from the room before Alfred spoke, shocking both Bruce and Tim.
“Maser Bruce, did you by chance call Master Jason? Last I remember, his cell phone was still working.” The father and son froze, before turning to the family Butler, slack-jawed.
“We really are stupid.”
 Damian didn’t see anything wrong with Todd being gone. It was quieter around the Manor and it meant that the 13-year-old was allowed to patrol through Crime Alley by himself, something none of his predecessors had been able to do at his age.
As the young teen flew over the city, his mind raced. He found this the most relaxing part of his time with his father.
At the manor, there was always something going on and there was always someone looking over his shoulder. Here, as he went rooftop to rooftop, arching over this city, the boy was able to finally find some peace.
A sound over his earpiece broke Robin from his quiet elation. “Robin, how are you doing? Is everything clear?” oracle’s voice filtered through, bringing him to relax. Oracle he could handle.
“it’s a regular night, Oracle. A few of the regulars. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“perfect. Finish up and head back, B wants you back before 2 because you have school tomorrow.”
The annoyed “Tch” that came down the line made the redhead laugh from where she sat at the computer.
 Tim had texted Jason before he had left for patrol. When he got back, there was a response waiting for him.
Jason: in Paris. I’ll be back soonish
Tim: Jay, what’s soonish?
Tim: there’s a situation we need your help with.
Jason: kid, I'll be back when I can.
Jason: if B cares, tell him Gina kidnapped me. I’m staying with her right now.
Jason: otherwise, just wait. It's personal business.
Tim: Jay, we are your family. Doesn’t that make it our business too?
Jason: in this case, no. fuck off, replacement
Tim: See you when you get back Jay
 The teen sighed. It was just like Jason to try and handle everything himself. This time, Tim couldn’t play interference either, he was stuck across an ocean. He just hoped this Gina person wasn’t as impulsive as his older brother. If she was, they would all be in trouble.
 As he made his way to his room, having showered and gotten himself ready for the next day, Tim paused by his desk.
He had taken the time to compile a file on the girl from a few weeks ago but hadn’t read it yet. He knew that if he was to read it, it would be violating her privacy, but he did that every day, so was this any different? To Tim, the only difference was that this girl wasn’t someone to watch or take in. she was just a normal girl with a normal life, who had run into him for a split second.
It wasn’t like he was going to meet her, right?
The teen shook his head and flopped onto his bed. It wasn’t worth it tonight. He could have the moral debate with himself when he was properly rested.
 Maybe he should have called in sick. Tim was definitely finding a way to leave early, as he looked at the list of meetings that he had been scheduled for.
Why had he agreed to this again? He could have sworn that he had told his assistant that Wednesday was his day to go home and work on his college classes. Instead, Tim had a feeling that he was going to be at the office late.
On his off night too.
 Partway through the day, he noticed an email that he didn’t recognize in his personal inbox. The inbox that he probably shouldn’t have been checking on the company computer but…
After a moment of hesitation, the young C.E.O. had clicked on the new email and blinked at what pulled up.
Mr. Drake,
My name is Marinette Dupain Cheng. I believe that we ran into each other quite literally a month and a half ago, approximately. As I am sure that you have at least seen the fictitious stories floating through the media, I assume that you are aware of the interaction that I am referring to.
Originally, I had no intention of reaching out, but a friend of mine encouraged me to reach out. (had actually was the one to give me your email. Does the name Jason Todd ring a bell?) I do hope that this whole press fiasco hasn’t hindered you too terribly.
Kindest Regards,
Marinette Dupain Cheng
 Tim blinked once before rereading the short email that the girl had sent. No. no way. She knew Jason? And what did she mean, Jason was the one to encourage her to reach out? Opening up a new draft, Tim hesitated before flicking his wrists to rid himself of tension and trying his reply.
Miss Dupain Cheng,
I was surprised to receive your email, but it seems that it came at a fortunate time. Yes, I do know Jason Todd. I know him quite well, actually. He and I were adopted by the same man, Bruce Wayne. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you meet my brother?
I must apologize, for the whole scandal from last month. I know that neither of us were directly responsible, but I do feel bad for any trouble it may have caused you. If it is not too much of an intrusion, I might also ask, how were you able to respond so quickly? The only reason I knew about the incident was Bruce’s old friend Jared. The man came into my office in a fit about the nerve of the photographer.
(if you ever meet the man, you will understand what I mean when I say that he never does things halfway. He had picked up a copy of every magazine or tabloid that ran a story about it. When he came in, he actually brought his crocodile as well. Fang scared the lobby staff more than anything has for the past bit, I believe.)
I hope this finds you well,
Timothy Drake Wayne
 After reading through his email one more time to make sure it sounded professional enough, Tim hit the send button and let out a deep breath that he didn’t know he had been holding. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that this was the start of something important.
Suddenly, Tim was very glad he hadn’t read the girl’s file.
 As he was preparing to head to yet another meeting later that afternoon, Tim glanced at his personal email again. To his surprise, the teen was met with another email from the French girl.
Mr. Drake (or is it Drake Wayne?)
Jason was sitting next to me when I opened your last email. Imagine my surprise when he panicked. Apparently, he had decided against informing any of his family of his departure. I must say, his reaction was quite entertaining.
Onto your question from your email, Penny Rolling, a good friend of mine, dropped off a box full of the tabloid trash that her husband, Jagged had shipped to her as soon as she got it. After my initial reaction, the two of us got a good laugh out of the whole situation. Especially when we heard that Jagged tried to bring Fang into your office! I guess to you, he would be Jared, but to me, he will always be my Uncle Jagged.
In other news, I thought it would be polite to pass on that Jason will be returning in the next few days. He has been fretting over a family emergency, not that he will tell me what it is but, there is only so much I can do. However, I thought it might be prudent to forewarn you that he will be bringing my grandmother back with him. Nona said it was something to do with one of his ‘side hustles’. Knowing those two, however, makes me think that Jason has gotten himself into something significantly illegal this time.
No need to apologize for something that neither of us could control! You did not ask for the photographer to take that ridiculous photo, nor did you ask for the fiction writers who work for the tabloids to write a piece of the photo. That said, I do feel that it has opened many new avenues. I know that Jason and I reconnected because of the photo, and it has given my lawyers something to focus on while we wait on proceedings for other matters.
Have a good day,
Marinette Dupain Cheng
 Jason was coming home sooner than he planned. It seemed like Tim’s text had actually gotten through to his older brother.
With a sigh, he marked the email as important so that he would remember to respond to it before he started on his homework.
The teen C.E.O. snagged his thermos of coffee on the way out the door, he had a meeting to go to.
And...there it is! this week I'm going to try and work out my posting schedule. what did everyone think of the emails?
  i know that there are a lot more people in the Wayne/bat family, so I'm going to work them in a little bit at a time. as far as Dick Grayson is concerned, btw he knows about the scandal but not about Jason's sister or that he's not in Gotham.
MasterPost
Tag List
@moonlitceleste @redscarlet95 @ultimatetornshipper @mochegato @liquid-luck-00 @maskedpainter 
@trippingovermyfeet @nathleigh @m0chick0furan @susiej1118@t1dwarrior-of-earth
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alexis-medina · 3 years
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Dissecting: Edens Zero Ch. 130-134
Kleene/Jinn
I was reading Ch. 83 and found this.
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See, I don’t know if Mashima plans his story out or if he develops certain plots on the spot because everything is connecting. “Oh, I could use this later...” Brilliant. Amazing. For real though, I was like damn it’s the Mildian/Sun Jewel arc again (Xiaomei’s battles foreshadowing).
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Shura vs Ziggy
It was interesting to read that Shura isn't the biological son of Nero. This leads me to think...what if Shura and Shiki are related? I mean they both have gravity ether and they both were taught by Ziggy. They both are also strong in their own right. We also have the theme from Fairy Tail of Good vs Evil (Zeref and Natsu) but in this instance it would be Shura and Shiki. We also don't know where they came from - their origins. Plus, Nero says that his power was incompatible with Shura but he was able to match with Ziggy's gravity powers.
Later, when the crew of Edens Zero find another relic (Robo Cola cap), they infer that Mother could be a place and a person. I was also thinking that because in FT: 100 years quest, Aldoron was a dragon god but his body was home to 5 cities.
So, if I'm right then, Shiki and Shura maybe are from a city on Mother...and maybe even Rebecca.
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I'm noting that Shiki is younger than Shura. When Ziggy was training Shura, that was 15 years ago but, that's also the same time Ziggy found Shiki as a baby....unless Ziggy is lying and he has false memories. 👀👀👀 Is Ziggy truly good or bad? Does Shiki have additional powers like Rebecca?
What is the all-link system? Looks like Shura and Ziggy have the same idea. I think if Shura and Ziggy battle - Ziggy will win. What did you guys think?
Xenolith and the Crew of Edens Zero
I wonder why Xenolith's maintenance is lasting longer. Perhaps it may be revealed in the future. I would laugh if he moved his consciousness/personality data into a younger robot body.
Weisz stays being a perv lol with the bondage training.
Did Xenolith teach Shiki 'Black Sky?' For me, I feel like in the next arc, when Shiki is facing a really tough opponent we will get flashbacks of his training with Xenolith and him learning Black Sky. Then, he'll perform it against the enemy...which could be Ziggy. So, yes, I think Xenolith did teach him. Could be wrong but we'll have to wait and see!
Both Xenolith and Xiaomei have stated that Rebecca's power will change/save the world/universe.
- Xiaomei (Ch. 64): "She has only just begun to unlock the secrets of Leap’s real power. This power may truly save the universe one day."
- Xenolith (Ch. 132): "Her power is weak…but it is the most special. Special enough to change the world."
Witch calling Rebecca a 'Chrono Witch' is giving me Scarlet Witch vibes...
Math for Dummies lol
Stronger heart = Stronger gravity Strength + Tranquility = Strong Heart = Rise from darkness Strength - Tranquility = Weak Heart Weak heart = Weak gravity = Fall to darkness
Fan service with the bath scenes but, at least it is keeping the story going, in that, she has to train in the bath in order to get stronger. Sister makes me geek, "You better get out of those ropes before this turns x-rated." When I read that scene, it gave me Virgo vibes from FT.
I also want to see how Xenolith met Ziggy. So, I'm wishing for a flashback.
I don't know if I put this on a post before or not but, my thoughts are that Ziggy did reach Mother and found Shiki there. He erased the Four Shining Stars memories because something bad would happen if he didn't (like they would get infected the way he is now). So, he did it to save them.
UGHHHH BUT THAT CLIFFHANGER...WHYYYYY - It'll probably blow my mind when it gets revealed.
Also, WOOHOOO! Jinn and Kleene joined the crew. That cute ass smile!!! OOOMG his face when he isn't able to untie Kleene. 🥺🥺🥺
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The Oceans
So cool to see the winners of the Edens Zero character competition featured as the Oceans 6! I'm a fan of all of them and don't you worry...we won't forget Shura's assistant even though she's not part of the 6. However, she might be since Shura killed off Cyca. Yikes.... RIP Cyca
Their designs are so clean!! (Sorry if the images look blurry Tumblr only allows 10 photos per post so I tried stitching them together in Illustrator but I think the file size is too big for Tumblr so that's why it may be blurry but, I hope you get the gist of their designs.)
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Holy
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I wonder what she means by that...I feel like this will be important later. We also don't know much about the other members of the Oración Seis Interstellar. I'm excited to see what their ether gear is...especially Eraser. 👀👀👀 Does his ether have something to do with erasing things? Are they corrupt or good guys? I guess we'll found out soon...
B-Cube
Rebecca has carved 'Edens Zero' onto her B-Cube. Did you guys notice in Ch. 134 that Rebecca's ingrained B-Cube is the same one we see in Ch. 4? That's the scene where there are two robots 20,000 years in the future who find two bodies (a man and a woman) and a B-Cube which we can now confirm is Rebecca's.
The Ships + Other Notable Mentions
LOL I feel like if I was a B-Cuber, I would be an entertainment/fashion channel....basically like Sorcerer Weekly but make it Space Weekly or a cool name like Into the Void. Maybe a play off of 'Cosmopolitan' but shorten it to 'Cosmos.' So many options.
Anyways lets get into the ships. I talked about this first ship in a recent post.
#1 Homura and Creed
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I'll say it again...I SHIP IT! I am hoping for some more scenes with them together. He always looks so cute when he blushes <3 He's a Homura stan too hahah. 🥺🥺🥺
Predictions: - Creed and Homura will fight - Creed will protect Homura again - Homura will save Creed - Creed will join the Edens Zero crew
Now, I was reading on a few discord channels that people are comparing Creed to Mest (Fairy Tail). Now, I am really trying to understand this comparison because frankly, I don't see it. Creed has a crush on Homura. That's valid. Also, Creed doesn't just have pictures of just Homura, he has Weisz, Rebecca, and Shiki. He's not creepy like Mest.
Mest was a weird guy when we first met him laying in the pool or eating flowers. Their personalities are totally different IMO. We could talk ages about the age gap stuff but I'm not really gonna go into that.
Do you see the comparison?
#2 Rebecca and Shiki
Shiki escaping from his restraints to save 'Rebecca' made me happy lol. It makes me think what he would do if it was Homura or Weisz in that situation. What would Shiki do? Plus, after the simulation was over...we can see Rebecca in awe and blushing.
Then, Shiki is hugging Rebecca and they're both blushing 💕 That's a cute moment ngl.
"I'm not THAT into Shiki." - So, you don't deny that you like him 😉
#3 Hermit
I don't know if I mentioned this but I fucking love Hermit's name. It's such a cool name.
#4 Justice
Ch. 130 he was looking gooooood with his bandages. 🥵🥵🥵
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Ps. Did you get a chance to view Edens Zero PV 2?!?
Did you notice the homage to Fairy Tail in Ch. 134? "Why are your ideas so Fairy Tale?"
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little-de-vil · 3 years
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Dress up games are a great way to help me make my characters since I can’t draw for the life of me! So, after much deliberation with both myself & @bogbodyalien, I’ve decided to show you all my OC’s! Honorable mention & the biggest hug to @lunasdestiny for getting me back on the GR train! Thank you both!! Oh, & @bogbodyalien​ you’ll enjoy a pic below of El complimenting VK’s cooking! Below is my list for each of my OCs (pets not included, but some more pics are!) L-R Anissa (Annie) Kleiss: Youngest (20) & just a baby!!! She was the first OC I created around GR & so she’s been my baby for 11 years! She has wee wings (not so wee, actually. Think like this guy but with just a human body that can also shoot out projectiles as feathers) Lives in London & even though she doesn’t have an accent, she uses the same vocab. She grew up wanting to be a gymnast (her skills & flexibility still intact, but it’s a lot harder to do clean & elegant flips with 20 ton wings on your back) Now she’s a sort of EVO MMA fighter, & Rex is A FAN! He just doesn’t know that his favorite fighter is the daughter of his mortal nemesis (a recurring theme) Out of the three of them, she’s easily one of the sweetest & most caring, even if her job description makes you think otherwise. Very short temper! OH & AN ADHD BABY! Dr. Clara (Ra, or Ra-Ra) Jones Eldest (31) & the mother of the group (& life) Has two kids, one from a previous relationship, Rafael [5] (after her sons grandfather hehe. His name was originally Sam, but I changed it b/c I wanted to add a bit more ~drama~ lol), & Marcus [3] (from her current husband) She works for Providence as a like a nanite historian. This wasn’t her first option, or passion in the science/Super Science Nanite Family world, but after The Event, she decided to work for them in an effort to regain some bit of her past with what she did before. The reason she chose that nanite historian part of the job was because she’s one of the few people in the world who still has access to those files and handful of tech and samples. (Granted she gets most of the older files from Dear Old Dad, but AT LEAST SHE’S GOT ‘EM!) Rex hasn’t met her & she likes it that way. She prefers to distance herself from the few people from her past, especially if the one person in close proximity to her has amnesia. She knows if ever she does end up properly seeing Rex again, she’ll no doubt have a wee breakdown after. Rex has always wondered how Clara gets to Providence since she doesn’t live in HQ, and comes to find that she doesn’t just live in the desert in the middle of no-where, but just gets there through Breach. (just like how everyone goes to whichever house is hosting dinner that week) She’s an EVO (of course)! She’s telekinetic, with some orange-yellow energy glowing about. She doesn’t use it that much (and has a form of inhibitor bracelet that VK made for her so she can be able to use her power in wee spurts. If ever she takes it off [very rare, but it does happen] everything around her starts to float with that same orange-yellow glow) OH! And you best believe that VK babysits the boys when the girls go out for weekly dinner dates! There’s also Wednesday family dinners where every Wednesday, each member of the family hosts dinner at their respective home, and everyone gathers for a good catch-up, wine and hugs! It goes: Clara, Anissa, Danielle, VK & so on. Danielle (El) Mere (they goes by their mothers maiden name) Middle child (25) & they are just pure fun! Uses she/they (prefers they) She’s a chef & a helluva perfectionist & overachiever. She does prefer baking. They use their cooking skills to make meals & distribute them to homeless EVO’s & those who were displaced or disenfranchised from Providence. There’s a lot of animosity between Ra & El because of their work. El thinks Ra should do more with her job at Providence to make the lives of incurable (mostly humanoid) EVO’s that live poor lives because of the way Providence has shifted the world to have treated EVO’s the way that they are. It was their idea for the weekly family dinner night. Mostly because everyone depended on her for food (it’s top tier the work she makes, but it can be exhausting!). She always says she won’t cook unless it’s her night, but almost every time it’s Annie’s week, she gets to London early enough to go to market & get a bunch of fresh produce and protein & dumps in all in Annie’s flat & they cook together as everyone else walks in. VK loves the work that El does in helping EVO’s. They do wish that they could send EVO’s to Abysus & make it the real save haven for EVO’s like he keeps saying it is, but it never happens. El is still really pissy at VK for not hiring her do the catering at the party at the Abysus Consulate when VK was a diplomat for that one day. She walked up to him, looked him dead in the eyes & said “Your catering sucks,” left & got take-out. El is (of course, like all of them) an EVO! She has the abilities like Kitty Pryde’s Shadowcat where they can walk through solid objects. She uses it when she’s rushing anywhere & when she’s up against Providence agents. She isolates a spot on the ground & sort of “quicksands” them in & runs off. El gets arrested by Providence more times than she could count, mostly for, y’know, helping EVO’s. Ra is always the one to bail them out. El doesn’t use their powers to escape from Providence because they’d rather pay the consequences than get it even worse than others around her. Their current big Chefy project is making a however long course meal of foods that are indigenous to Abysus. Granted, that list is a bit weird since VK can just sprout whatever whenever, but they do try to reel him into not doing that if they run out of whatever. The reason they’re doing this is not only so VK stops apologizing about the Abysus Consulate catering incident, but also just for fun father-daughter bonding. Picrews are a godsend !!!!!         
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Mages Don’t Meddle
Rating: M
Genre: Angst/Mild Fluff
Word count: 16091
Summary: In a world where magic users must fear each other, Baz Pitch, a British born hex hiding in the 19th century American southwest, is just trying to stay alive. But when he meets a fellow British hex, his world is turned upside down in the most awful, amazing ways possible. PLEASE READ FIRST AUTHOR'S NOTE!!!!
Read on AO3
AN: Alright some of you may know that my favourite book series of all time is The Hexslinger Series by Gemma Files. It’s a gory but brilliant horror/dark fantasy weird western trilogy about gay cowboy wizards fighting Aztec gods. (It's also where my AO3 username comes from). I've been writing this AU on and off for like two years now lol. So when I saw this event, I saw it as motivation to finally finish it. And I did! Idk how many people are gonna like this, considering the obscurity of the books. The mythos is a bit complicated so here are the basic rules of the Hexslinger world:
1. Magic users exist, called "hexes" or "hexslingers” by most English speakers. They’re commonly known of and feared by some humans because of their immense, usually unstable power. Their magic is usually called "hexation" and a common descriptor for anything to do with them is "hexacious." Being a hex can either be passed down from parent to child or appears randomly. Most are children of a hex man and a human woman as pregnancy for a hex woman can be very risky to mother and child, but it's still possible.
2. Hexes aren’t usually born having magic. Their powers manifest at some point later in their lives except in very rare circumstances. For women it usually appears after their first period, while for men it’s usually after some sort of grievous bodily harm, e.g getting hanged or beaten. Before manifestation, some hexes show no sign of magic at all, while others have hints like perfect aim or weirdly good luck. It depends on the person and their power level.
3. Hex magic varies between people based on personality, culture, family history, and power level/type. For example, an experienced Chinese born hex with refined power will have a very different kind of magic than a newly manifested American born hex with more chaotic power. (That’s literally just from the original books lol.) Even hexes similar in multiple aspects can be completely different in the way their magic is expressed.
4. The only universal trait between hexes is that they all have the urge to feed off each other’s magic. They’re like magic vampires (wink wink). If they get too close to each other, they have the immediate urge to absorb the other's power and kill them. It’s completely instinctual and very hard to resist. Hence why hexes can’t be around each other. Or, to use the common phrase from the universe, “mages don’t meddle.”Okay that's the basics. There's A LOT of other stuff but I think that's all you need to know for this fic imo.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: So there's some period typical racism scattered around due Baz being brown in the 19th century American south. It's not too harsh imo but I still want to warn people. I hope I handled it alright, considering I'm a white af Canadian Irish-Jew, but if I didn't I'm very sorry. There's also a bit of period typical homophobia at the start. The closest I get to slurs is the use of "red" and "Indian" in reference to Indigenous people, "queer" in a negative context, references to sand because Baz says he's Egyptian, and Baz being called "darker folk." I felt it would be disingenuous to not include bigotry of the past and pretend things would be all okay for a queer POC like Baz. Especially since Hexslinger itself has major themes of homophobia, racism, and not being accepted in the majority of society. A few mentions of suicide, self harm, and torture too in relation to hex powers emerging too, which is also major in Hexslinger. The series itself is pretty brutal and dirty with lots of bigotry, blood, guts, and death. So those elements have gotten in here. There is some flesh burning stuff but I don't think it's that graphic, feels pretty typical for Carry On imo. Hopefully this all works well/makes sense.
As always, big thanks to Raegan of @carryonmylovelies Now with that all out of the way, enjoy!
———————————————
I gingerly take a sip of my whiskey. It's a horrible rotgut shite, but there’s worse stuff out in the wild west. This Slipfoot Joe’s seems to be okay by my now very, very low standards for this area.
“Well well, if it ain’t a pretty red boy,” the man behind me croons. His voice makes evey inch of my skin crawl.
I let out a deep sigh. I’ve been expecting this, but I’m still not pleased. “Piss off, arsehole.”
“Oh! Didn’t know Indians could sound English!”
“I’m British Egyptian, you twit.”
The man leans on the bar, smiling wide. It’s easier to count the few teeth he has than guess how many he’s lost. “What brings your sandy ass to our great country?”
The Call. The unending Call that signals all of us to come here.
I take another long sip. “Your gorgeous face, obviously. How much do you charge? I’ve heard American men are cheaper here than in England.”
The man reels back scowling. “You think I’m some queer?!”
“Well, I assumed so. Considering you were just flirting with me, a man.”
He snarls, whipping out his pathetic little pistol. The barrel shakes nonstop. “You got some nerve, boy!”
I finish the whiskey and delicately place the glass rim first on the filthy bar. “And you’re a racist bastard. You don’t see me getting all pissy.”
The gunshot happens in slow motion for me. I don’t even need to turn. I simply hold one hand in front of me and let my magic pour from me like a dragon’s breath. It curls out in front of me, a circle of blacks and charcoal greys and burning scarlets. Every hex’s magic is different. Mine is like a constant roaring fire, always threatening to consume me.
The bullet hits the shield with a tinny clink. Racist Man is frozen with wide, terrified eyes. I turn to him, orange and red reflecting in my grey eyes.
“You- You’re... a hex?!” He splutters.
“Thought that was pretty bloody obvious. Now go, before I drink your blood.”
Racist Man and his buddy scamper out of the tavern. I let the force field dissipate, crackling and popping in the air like a dying campfire. Joe, the bartender and eponymous Slipfoot, sighs as he cleans another glass.
“You know,” Joe says, “I’ve met other hexes. They’re stupid reckless assholes but they ain’t ever drank blood. Just suck each other’s magic.”
I chuckle. “Well they don’t know that, do they?”
“No, lucky for you. What’s a Brit like you even doin’ here anyway?”
My mouth presses into a thin line. I envy him. He can't hear The Call from that damned Hex City. I heard it all the way in Washington, and before I knew it I was on a train southeast. The only reason I haven’t actually gone to the horrid place is sheer stubbornness.
“I’m a hex. Where else would I be going?”
Joe freezes. He stares at me with more concern than fear. “I’d be careful, son. Those hexes I met? One of them was Reverend Rook himself. He’s beyond bad news, ‘specially with that heathen goddess by his side.”
“I know.” I trace my finger on the old wood, trying to focus on that instead of the ringing in my head. “But what choice do I have?”
———————————————
1867, two years after America’s bloody civil war, and it seems they’re about to be plunged into a new one. Except it won’t be slavery versus abolition this time, but humans versus magic. 
The news has spread like wildfire. In the final days of the war, a confederate soldier and unofficial chaplain named “Reverend” Asher Rook was sentenced to hang for abandoning his regiment. But he survived, and the suffering of the ordeal caused his hex powers to emerge. Rumour has it one Bible verse from his lips can level an entire town. Rook decided to use his new powers to steal and murder his way through the west, aided by his ruthless gunslinging lieutenant (and rumoured lover) Chess Pargeter.
He should’ve been just another hex outlaw for those American Pinkertons to take down. But somehow, a mere month ago, Rook made a pact with an Aztec goddess. And together they’ve created New Azteclan, or Hex City to the common man. According to the magical homing signal I hear, that every hex hears, it’s a place where hexes can lose their insatiable urge to feed off each other’s magic. We’ll no longer have to be loners by nature, picked off one by one by humanity. We could be together. We could be safe.
But at what cost? Nothing in life comes without a cost. I know that too well. My magic cost me my home, my family, and a good part of my sanity. I’d do anything to not be a danger to others anymore. And the possibility is right there. All I need to do is go further south and cross the border into Mexico to reach Hex City. But once I do that, there’s no going back. The temptation of the Call will be too strong. And whatever price The Reverend wants, he’ll get it from me.
I sit at the fire, chewing on some absolutely horrific jerky. I’m trying to focus on the flames instead of the voice in my head. I’m not sure whose it is. Maybe Rook’s, maybe his witch goddess’. It doesn’t have a discernible tone, just sort of an indistinct everyman sound, or a thousand voices speaking the same thing. Either way, it’s very annoying.
Come, it whispers. Come seek out Ixchel, the Mother of Hanged Men. Come stand before Her priest-king, to offer up your service. Come to build the First City of the Sixth World- the world of wonder, the world of power. Come, and join New Azteclan.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” I shout into emptiness, slamming the side of my head with my fist.
“I haven’t said anything yet,” someone replies weakly.
I bolt up. My magic roars to life inside me, a fireball forming in the palm of my hand. “Who said that?!”
The man slowly steps out of the darkness. He must be no older than myself, with his young, round freckled face. He has curly bronze hair, capped by an old second hand cowboy hat. His brown leather coat, plaid shirt, riding boots, and jeans are all filthy with desert dirt. A horse with saddle bags stands behind him. His blue eyes are wide and nervous. I notice a smell on him. Like green fire and smoke, with a strong scent of something brown and sweet. He smells like something I would gladly eat.
He’s a hex.
“Don’t you dare come any closer, you prick,” I say between gritted teeth. “I won’t hesitate to burn you to a crisp.”
The other boy shakes his head. “I’m not here to drain you. I...I just wanted to ask for some help.” He sounds British like me, but more rough and nervous, stumbling over his words.
“Yeah, right. Do I look that gullible? ‘Mages don’t meddle.’ We’d all drain each other dry if we were given the chance.”
He sighs heavily. “Well, of course I want to by instinct, but I’m not going to. I was just wondering if you had any food. All of mine got stolen by some angry humans.”
I consider just turning him away, or draining his magic and leaving his dried out corpse for the vultures. But he looks so desperate. How long has this young man been out here alone? My aunt had always warned me to be wary of all other hexes. We’re a bloodthirsty species, Basil. Never trust another hex, ever. Not even me. But I’m not my aunt.
I sit down again. “Fine. You can have some jerky. Just don’t come too close alright? I’d like to keep my magic and soul where they are, please.”
The man smiles (he has a nice smile) and sits opposite me at the fire. I throw a bag of jerky, and he catches in one hand. He shoves it in his mouth like a ravenous animal.
“So,” I say, “what’s your name?”
“Simon Snow,” he rep;ies, mouth still half full. “Your’s?”
“Baz Pitch.” Simon chuckles a bit, and I frown. “What’s so funny?
“Well, Baz Pitch is a pretty ridiculous name.”
“No more ridiculous than Simon Snow,” I snap. “What, were you named by circus performers?”
“Maybe. Not sure, actually.” Snow looks at the fire, but it feels like he’s looking right through it, his gaze very far away.
“Why’s that?”
Simon shakes his head. “Hey, are you going to Hex City?”
I huff, blowing some loose, dirty hair out of my eyes. I’m too tired to stop him from changing the subject. “I don’t know. Are you?
He shrugs. “Maybe. So far I am. The stories and Call do make it sound so wonderful.”
I scoff loudly. “Of course they do. Rook wants people to come. Then we’ll get there and be sacrificed to his bloodthirsty goddess. That’s probably what happened to Pargeter. No one’s heard from him lately, according to the locals.”
“But we’ll lose the hunger! What if the Reverend just wants us to be safe? Y’know, as a kindness to his own people.”
“No one does anything out of kindness, Snow. Least of all hexes.”
“You gave me food out of kindness, didn’t you?”
I glare at him over the flames. He shrugs with a faint smile. Fuck. He has a really nice smile.
 “I’m going to sleep,” I mutter. “But I’m putting a shield around me. Touch it and you’ll be burned alive. So don’t get any ideas about taking my magic.”
Simon throws his hands up in innocence. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I lay down on my pallet, throwing up my force field. The crackle and hiss of magic around me distracts from the beautiful mage no more than seven feet from me. Whom I’m not sure I want to kiss or kill. Maybe both.
———————————————
I wake when the sun's centre in the sky. I’m breathing, so this Simon Snow hasn’t drained me dry. That’s good, I guess. 
I sit up bleary eyed. Snow is passed out on his own cot, drooling profusely with his mouth wide open (mouth breather). He’s put up his own shield, of course, (at least he’s somewhat sensible). It sort of looks like an electrical explosion, white bolts constantly combusting around him in bubble form. He smells so powerful. It’s taking all of my willpower to not hurt him. To not submit to my basic hex desires.
I take my sweet time to pack my things and douse the fire pit, secretly hoping Simon will wake up before I run out of excuses. Luckily, with a very loud snort, Snow bolts upwards. There’s terror in his eyes, and his breath is uneven and shallow. I know that look. I’m no stranger to nightmares myself.
“A good morning to you, Snow,” I say.
Simon lets out a long breath, waving a hand to dissolve his shield. “You didn’t kill me.”
“And you didn’t kill me. What a miracle.”
“I’ll say. Are you leaving?”
“Obviously.”
“Where to?”
I sigh heavily. “Well, my map says, there’s a town southeast from here. I haven’t been there before but it probably isn’t too bad. I was going to hide there for at least a bit.”
Simon picks at his nail beds, even though they’re already ragged and bloody. “Can I...can I come with you? I haven’t been around anyone in so long, y’know. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to”
I look at him with the most neutral gaze I can muster. “Are you going to kill me?”
He shrugs. “Haven’t killed you yet, have I?”
“There’s still time.”
Simon stands up, brushing the dust off his pants. “Alright, then I’ll make myself very clear. Baz, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not going to fight you at all, alright?”
I must admit that I’ve been lonely these few months in the desert. Hell, I’ve been lonely for the past few years. I’ve actually missed the company of others. But it’s not like humans or hexes want to be around me. Except for this one, it seems. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. If we don’t kill each other first that is.
“Alright, fine. Just don’t try anything or I’ll burn you from the inside out.”
Simon keeps smiling. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
We mount our horses and ride off. I try to keep my eyes ahead instead of on Snow.
———————————————
“I can’t believe the food here,” Snow says. “It’s so much more spicy than in the North.”
“We are closer to Mexico, Snow,” I reply. I’m trying to figure out our route, while also listening to Snow when he’s more than six feet away. The hunger is manageable from this distance. Mostly.
“Well, yeah, but it’s so insane! Why can’t the north people get some spice from here? It would make their chicken more tolerable. London street food was awful but at least it had some flavour!”
That makes me snort out a laugh no matter how much I try not to. Snow grins at me, and his face is literal sunshine. Why must he be so perfect? It’s not fair. “London street food? You mean fish and chips? Those aren’t half bad, if I’m remembering correctly.”
Snow’s tawny face gets a little pink. He rubs the back of his slightly sunburnt neck. “Y-Yeah, they weren’t too bad. Just...other stuff was terrible...”
“Like what?” It’s not late at night now. I’m less inclined to let his dodging go. Call me crazy, but I’d like to know about the man I’m travelling with.
“Um...” He looks down at his horse’s neck. “I-I lived on the London streets, literally, until I was old enough to work for room and board. Finding anyone who would house a hex though, that was a challenge.”
His laugh is tinny and hollow. My heart, or what dark horrible mass we hexes have in place of one, twists at the words. I wish I was surprised. His story is all too familiar.
“You don’t need to be ashamed,” I say firmly. “We all have our own rough pasts. It’s practically required for hexes, in my eyes.”
Snow doesn’t look up, but his (pretty) plain blue eyes flick over to me. “Really?”
I nod. “Yes, of course. Hexes are usually shunned and harmed. Finding one who hasn’t been in a dire situation is more rare.”
“Have you met a lot of hexes?”
“Some. Mostly, I’ve heard stories. Far too many are like your’s.”
“Is your’s?”
My grip on the reins is so tight my knuckles are going pale. Memories rush through my head no matter how much I want to stop them. The darkness, the pain, the fire, then the stench of burnt human flesh, all capped off by years of trying to survive on my own.
“Unfortunately, ye-”
“What the fuck?!”
Simon’s screech is ungodly in volume and tone. His horse lets out a similarly panicked bray. She bucks up, but can’t get very high with the red vines tangled around her legs.
“Oh fuck,” I hiss. I try to pull back my own horse, but his legs are similarly wrapped up. The vines circle up and around us. I kick and stamp them with all my might. The blood red flowers look like the gaping mouths of monsters.
“What the fuck are these things?!” Snow bellows. He tries to rear his horse back, but nearly throws himself backwards off his saddle instead. “Fucking shite!”
“Don’t do that, Snow, it won’t help!”
“Then what should I do?!” 
“Just stay still!”
Thankfully, Snow does as I say. Not thankfully, I’m not sure what to do. I know that human blood gets rid of the Weeds, but even if I count as human in this regard, you need a relatively large amount of it. So unless I want to pass out, I’ll need to think of something else. But what else can curb evil bloodthirsty Aztec plants?
“Baz!” Snow’s horse pancis the more the weeds wrap around her, which makes Snow panic in turn. He looks at me with desperate wide eyes. “Baz, do something!”
Oh, fuck it. I’ll solve this the way I solve my other problems.
I reach deep within myself, down to the flames that burn in what’s hopefully my soul, or at least what hexes have instead. I grab that power and let it out through my arm. Fire roars to life in the palm of my hand, and I unleash the full force of it on the Weeds. A tidal wave of blackened-red flames engulf the plants.
“Jesus Christ!” Simon shouts. The plants don’t burn per se, I’m not sure they even can. But they still shrink away from us. I keep pushing more magic out until they Weeds a good distance away. 
“Run,” I say, “now!”
Snow and I both wrench our horses 180 degrees and run like the wind. We ride fast and far with no destination, but we keep each other in sight. Only when my pulse is no longer hammering in my ears do I start to slow down. Snow follows, and eventually we stop near a large tree. All four of us are breathing hard.
“Bloody hell,” Snow says. “W-What the fuck were those?”
“Red Plague Weeds,” I reply, dismounting my horse. “They’ve been popping up all around here. No one knows where they come from, but we’re all pretty sure they have something to do with Rook and his witch goddess. Just like every other bizarre thing nowadays.”
“How come I haven’t seen them before in the towns?”
“Because the way to get rid of the Weeds permanently is blood, Snow.”
Snow’s eyes go wide with horror. “Blood? Any blood?”
I sadly shake my head. “No, only fresh human blood. I’ve heard a bowl full collected from the townsfolk is good enough. I don’t even know if hex blood counts. No one’s ever tried, as far as I know. We’re extremely lucky we got away.”
“So I gathered,” Snow sighs. “Now what? We’ve gone a good way backwards now, if I had to guess.”
“Agreed. We’ll have to try and move around the Weeds. If we’re lucky, the town will still be reachable.”
“No one has ever called hexes lucky.”
We both laugh a little. Sometimes laughter is the only way to deal with our horrible existences. I pull the waterskin out of my bag and take a deep, long drink. “Let’s stay here for a moment, though. That blast took a lot out of me.”
“Y-Yeah, that makes sense. Um, I’ll just...”
He turns his horse to the side, trotting away from me. My stomach drops out. Where’s he going? Am I going to be alone again? I’ve only been with Snow for one day. That’s nothing compared to the last two years I’ve been on my own. But now I can’t imagine going back to that crushing, never ending loneliness.
“Heading out, Snow?” I keep my tone neutral, holding back the desperate tremor that threatens to bleed out. “Suppose I’ll see you around, then.”
Snow whips his head around. If I were a more hopeful person, I’d say he looks even more panicked than when we were tangled in the Weeds. “W-What? No, I was just gonna go a little further away...”
“Do I smell that bad?” I probably do. Hygiene is not a priority in these parts.
“No! The opposite, actually...” Snow looks to the side, a little red on his face. “You used a lot of magic before. I can still smell some of it. I, uh, want to keep my promise...”
Oh. Right. I should count myself lucky that he didn’t drain me the minute we stopped. “Yes, yes, of course, makes perfect sense.”
“Unless...you want me to go...”
I gulp down the massive lump in my throat. “Do you want to go, Snow?”
Snow scratches his neck. He points his thumb to the side. “I’ll be waiting over there, until we’ve both cooled down. Alright?”
I would never admit how much relief that brings me. “Alright. We’ll set off again in an hour or so.”
“Okay.” Snow trots over to a good distance away. His brown, sweet smell still lingers in the air, but it fades just enough for me to rest properly. I sit back against the tree, drinking a good portion of my waterskin. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Snow doing the same. I try to not watch him. But it’s very, very hard.
———————————————
Nightfall hits before we reach the town. Snow can’t ride very fast, and I’m still more than a bit drained. So once again, I have to sit opposite the man who will most likely kill me soon.
He fidgets endlessly, picking at his nails and sleeve. It’s infuriating. He gnaws on the jerky like a crazed cat or something. I huff and shake my head. Snow looks up at me.
“What?” he says through a bite.
“Do you ever stop moving? We’ve been sitting here for over an hour and there hasn’t been a single moment of stillness from you.”
Snow snorts. “I don’t see how that affects you.”
“It’s annoying.”
He snorts again, but there’s a small smile now too. “Maybe this is the real reason hexes don’t interact. We're all arseholes.”
“That is hardly a hex thing, Snow. I’ve known humans and hexes alike that I can’t tolerate.”
“Am I one of them?
I hope my face doesn’t flush too hard. “You’re still here, aren’t you?”
He chuckles quietly and goes back to eating his jerky, with far less fidgeting this time thankfully. We sit in silence for a while. I keep sneaking looks at him, then tearing my gaze away every time. The firelight makes Snow’s tawny skin almost glow and his bronze hair sparkle gold. He’s a constellation of moles and freckles. He’s a gorgeous mess. Just looking at him, I can almost forget that we’re supposed to be enemies.
“What part of England are you from anyway?” Snow asks through a mouthful of dried out meat.
“Hampshire. Though if you asked the people here, they’d say I’m from Buckingham bloody Palace.”
Snow throws his head back laughing. It’s a ridiculous, wonderful sound. “Damn true! I’ve lived on the streets of London for the past ten years and an American asked me if I’m related to the bloody queen! They have no idea about accent differences. They think every Brit is royalty.”
I freeze. Snow’s laughs slowly subside. He must notice the utter panic in my eyes. “You lived on the streets of London for a decade? That long?”
He pulls in, curling his thin body in on itself. This Simon is a hex like me, a terrifying being filled with unimaginable power, yet right now, he looks so...small. “Well, not the whole time. It’s been on and off. I found some places to live for a bit but they never lasted. Thank God for magic. Or thank the Devil, if the humans are right about us.”
He chuckles nervously. I shift uncomfortably in my spot, trying to hide the way his laugh makes me face heat up even more. “I guess so. It’s taken care of me since-”
There’s a crack. It’s small, far off, almost indistinguishable from the regular sounds of the desert, but it’s there. My aunt always said I have the ears of a bat. I swing my head around.
“What is it?” Snow says.
“Hush! I think I heard something.”
Slowly, I stand up, crouched over with my fists clenched. My magic sizzles and sparks inside me, begging to be used. I see Snow stand too at the edge of my vision.
“Die hex scum!”
The man launches himself out of the darkness, jagged knife in hand. He knocks me flat down to the ground. All the breath is forced out of me as my back hits the sand.
“Fuck!” I wheeze.
I push at him with both arms, thankfully keeping my pretty face out of his slashing range. He writhes and struggles like a rabid wolf. His dirty crazed smile, missing most of his teeth, looms over me. I recognise him.
“You,” I growl. “Did you really follow me all the way here from Slipfoot’s, you pig?!”
“Die!” He says that like it means absolutely anything, like I haven’t heard it a hundred times before.
Racist Man has no technique. He just screeches and flails with his knife. Aunt Fiona’s words come to my mind immediately. “Every self respecting hex needs to know how to defend himself, Basil.” She said just before pinning me to the ground in one move. I hook my leg around his and flip him onto his back. He gasps and lets out a rattling cough. I hover over him, knee on his chest, pinning his knife hand to the ground.
“You don’t deserve to live, you sand demon.” He spits at me, splashing against my cheek. I flick it off with ease.
“Such an original opinion.” I feel the fire blazing in my gut, threatening to consume myself and everything around me. “I should scorch off all your skin.”
“Course you would. All you hexes, just filthy murderers. No wonder y’all are fleeing to Rook’s heathen paradise. Your kind don’t belong around civilized folks.”
I growl again. First he despises my skin colour, then he thinks he knows anything about hexation. This bastard, so stupid and ignorant. We’re only monsters because we have to be. Because men like him come at us with knives and guns and nooses. There’s no holding the fire back. My hand heats up around his wrist. He screeches as his skin sizzles under my fingers. He drops the knife, but I don't stop. All my rage pushes out through my hand and onto his increasingly scorched skin.
“Get off me!”
I turn to see Simon, struggling against another man. His fingers spark and sputter uselessly as he pounds against the guy with a hand around his throat.
“Better save your man over there,” Racist Man hisses.
I give him one last good death stare. I see him shiver just slightly. At least he has some good sense. “Run fast and far. If you come near us again, so help me God I’ll melt through your entire brain.”
The look of terror in his eyes is enough of an answer. I jump off him and run towards Snow.
“Oi! Off him, now!” I roar.
The other man turns to look at me. He has the same crazed look as his friend. “Or what, you piece of devil shit?!”
“Or this.”
I turn to the fire. With only one hand outstretched, my magic wraps around it, and pushes my power into the very core. The flames shoot nine feet upwards, illuminating the vast dark in blinding light. I turn back to the terrified human. With one swing of my arm, the pillar slams into him. He’s sent flying in a shower of flames and skids on the ground, tossing up a cloud of dustin his wake. I start to march towards him. But Snow throws up his arm to stop me.
“Let me,” he growls.
The tone of his voice stops me in my tracks. Simon stomps towards him, his entire hand now covered in tiny sparks like fireworks. His assaulter sits up, panting heavily.
“You better run now,” Snow says.
He sneers. “Don’t tell me-”
“GO!”
Snow’s magic explodes like a fucking bomb. It’s a bolt of violent and powerful energy that hits the assailant square in the chest. He flies back even farther. I stumble from the sheer force of it. The magic disperses as quickly as it appeared. Snow is panting, bronze curls still staticy with stray sparks. The human scrambles and runs away into the darkness.
We’re left there, breathing hard in the darkness, the embers of the now dead fire our only light. Simon tries to pull out the crackling electricity still clinging to his hair. It curls around his fingers and won’t dissipate no matter how much he shakes his hand out. Finally, I find my voice again.
“That was...”
“Awful?” Snow mumbles. “Yeah, I know. Half the time my magic doesn’t work, the other half it explodes. Pretty fucking annoying.”
I turn to look at him properly, still trying to dust off the little sparks. “No, it was incredible. I’ve never seen magic that powerful, or beautiful.”
Oh fuck, why did I say that? I’m going to explode myself any second. Simon freezes, then turns to me. His lovely plain eyes are soft. Half of his mouth pulls up into a smile. My pulse is pounding in my ears. “N-No one’s ever called it beautiful before. And...no one’s tried to save me either.”
He starts to reach out to me with his spark kissed digits. I see the little bolts pulling towards me like I’m a magnet. My own magic flares to surface, reaching back towards him. Tiny flames from my fingers curl around the lightning. And a part of me, that horrible instinctual part, desperately wants to grab his hand and add his beautiful, terrifying energy to my own until his body is nothing but an empty husk.
I take a large step away, hands behind my back. Simon does the same. His eyes are wide with terror now. We both know how close we came to giving into temptation.
“We should go to bed,” I mutter.
Snow nods furiously. I speed walk to my side of the dead fire. We both lay down and pull the blankets to our reddening ears. The only sound for ages is the desert wind whistling through the cacti. Until Snow decides to speak up again, God help me.
“Baz?”
“What, Snow?” I snap. I can’t talk to him anymore, it’s too damn painful.
“Have...Have you ever actually fully drained anyone?”
Oh. I wasn’t expecting that. The question hits me in my heart. All that comes to mind is my aunt’s face as I saw her for the first time in weeks. Her happiness turned to utter horror in seconds. The memory still aches deep inside me. I can almost feel that horrible hunger when I first manifested. I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath. “No. But I’ve come close. You?”
Snow pauses too. I can hear his shaky breathing clearly. “I had a hex friend back in London. Penelope. She was really good at magic, like you, so she tried to help me. We could only see each other for an hour a day for safety’s sake, and it worked for awhile. But one time, my magic got so out of control that I came this close to draining her.” He makes a loud sniffing noise. I hate imagining the tears I know are rolling down his face. “She told me it wasn’t my fault but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to hurt her. Next day I got on a boat to America. That was almost a year ago. I’ve been alone ever since, and it’s awful.”
“Is that why you want to go to Hex City?”
“Yeah. I mean, I just want to be able to have some choice, you know? Not make choices because of this power I never asked for. Don’t you feel like that?”
I think about my mother, who lost her life because of what we are. Or my six weeks of torture by that madman. Or how I had to run away from my family in fear of what I’d accidentally do to them.
“Yes,” I whisper, closing my eyes, “all the damn time.”
———————————————
We ride leisurely under the blistering sun. The desert has melted into more of a hot, grassy plain. Surprisingly, the climate and terrain actually gets less tortuous the further south you go in this awful state. I’ve only gone this far south once before. The Call somehow gets even stronger here. It threatens to fill every nook and cranny of my brain, but I beat it back. No disgraced Confederate chaplain or Aztec witch woman gets to decide what I do.
Snow is mumbling to himself about it being too hot. My head is whirring with a terrible, awful idea, but it won’t go away. My eyes keep drifting towards his beautiful face, and my mind keeps thinking of his beautiful magic. I got only a taste of the endless, consuming feeling of it, and it was exhilarating. If only he could control it.
I groan. “Snow, stop your horse.”
He looks at me confused, but does as I say. “What is it?”
“Get off. I’m going to help you with your magic.”
His eyes bug out of his skull. “What?! Why?”
“Because as incredible as your magic can be, I’d rather not have you explode when you sleep ten feet away from me.” 
It’s a convincing lie. Honestly, I want him to be able to protect himself. I don’t know exactly how long it will take to get to the south, or what could happen before then. Simon might’ve been killed if I wasn’t there. And I don’t know how long I will be with him.
I swing off my horse and Snow follows. We walk out into the empty plateau. He shuffles his feet nervously, chewing at his nails.
“Stay here,” I say.
I walk out and place my old empty flask on a cactus (it’s rusting anyway). Snow looks at it confused. I gesture to the metal bottle, then put my hands behind my back. “Hit that with a blast but avoid the cactus.
“O-Okay...” I watch his throat as he gulps. God, I want to touch that throat, I want to touch everywhere. But I’ll kill him if I do. It makes me hate my magic even more.
Simon raises his hand and takes aim. Small sparks dance between his fingers. One by one, they begin to increase. A small ball of lightning collects in his palm. Snow curls his fingers in, but they seem to be struggling. The ball starts to grow larger and Snow clenches harder. With little to no warning, a lightning bolt shoots out and hits the side of the flask. A blackened mark is left in its wake, but that’s nothing compared to the cactus. A massive chunk has been blown out of the top. It’s charred remains lay strewn on the gras.
“Fuck,” he groans. “Sorry, I was losing control, I had to let it go. Would’ve been much worse if I didn’t.”
“That’s alright, Snow. You technically did hit the flask.”
Snow scoffs, running a hand through his beautiful, sweaty hair. “Sure, I guess...”
I pluck the flask from the half destroyed desert fauna. Another horrible idea is coming to my mind, and I just might be mad enough to do it. “Maybe you need a greater motivator for staying in control.”
“Huh?”
I place the flask on my hand and hold my arm out to the side. “Hit the flask, but not me.”
Snow goes wide eyed again and inhales sharply like he’s been kicked. “A-Are you serious?! You just saw what I did to that cactus, right?”
“Well, you’re going to have to be accurate, unless you want me to end up like said cactus”
He pulls at his curls anxiously. The tiniest of parks fly off the ends. “I don’t know, Baz. I don’t want to hurt you...”
I try to ignore my rapidly beating heart. It’s been so annoying this past week, trying to get what it can’t have. I just flash a smirk at him. “Well, I believe that you won’t. Care to prove me right?”
A red colour spreads across his face. Part of me hopes that’s not just the sun affecting his pale, freckled complexion. “Alright, I’ll try.”
He rubs his hands together. His skin simmers with magic once again. It smells intoxicatingly good. Snow holds his right hand out, palm flat. The electricity builds on the surface. He keeps his hand clenched, but the energy threatens to spill over his fingers. I resist the urge to run in as fast as I can. I didn’t lie, I do trust him. But living on my own for almost three years has given me quite the self preservation instinct.
Sweat prickles Snow’s brow. He uses his opposite arm to keep the other one steady. “C’mon, Simon,” I whisper. “You can do it.”
The jagged white bolt shoots from his skin, far less formless than the last one. It zigs and zags, but in the end hits the flask straight on. The bottle explodes in a shower of jagged metal. I throw up a makeshift shield just in time. When I look at Snow, he’s flat on his ass, panting hard.
“Holy shit,” he says.
“‘Holy shit’ is right,” I respond with a chuckle.
He looks at me with a wide grin. It shines brighter than the midday sun. “I did it! That’s the most controlled my magic has ever been! Thank you, Baz.”
I nod. “You’re welcome, Snow. My aunt always said danger is a great motivator to learn. Especially when it comes to magic.”
Snow lays down on the grass, panting hard. It seems he’s not going to get up any time soon. “Your aunt, was she the one that taught you about magic?”
I kick at a piece of rusted shrapnel, my back to the resting Snow. “Yes, before it manifested, obviously. She wanted me to be prepared just in case. Her whole side of the family has a history of magic. It only appears every few generations or so. We both drew the short ends of the bloodline straw I guess.”
“You’re lucky with that, y’know. I never had anyone to teach me properly. Penny tried, but we never got far enough to make a difference. When I first got magic, this guy called the Mage offered to help. But it turned out he just wanted to drain me. I killed him by accident when he tried. I really didn’t mean to hurt hum, but he wouldn’t stop...”
I turn to him. There’s far too much pain in his eyes. “You had every right to defend yourself. Don’t feel bad.”
He lifts his head up. His smile is sort of sad, but it’s still gorgeous. “Thanks, Baz.”
I smile back as best I can. “You’re most welcome, Snow.” I place my hands in my pockets, desperately clenching my fists in hopes to keep my emotions at bay. “Unfortunately, I’m out of flasks. But we do have an oversupply of fauna. Want to try and not destroy a cactus this time?”
“Okay.” Snow nods, breathing steadily. “Okay, I’ll try.”
Snow takes his stance across from another unfortunate cactus. I watch him and give advice, but slowly have to back away as Snow’s sweet scent permeates the air. I try not to imagine being close to Snow, not having to fear him, him not having to fear me. Oh, what a life that could be.
———————————————
After another week of dodging the Red Weed, we finally get to somewhere. Covent Gardens, a town I suppose is named after the London borough. It’s sizable enough to have a slightly good inn; as in none of the panels are falling off and the sign is missing only a single letter. That’s practically a palace in these parts. I walk in with gusto, making the shutters rattle, Simon following behind me with his head.
Everyone looks at us. I’m not sure how obvious our hexation is, but I suppose we look enough like trouble. Plus my skin tone isn’t an asset here. Or anywhere, honestly. So I sneer and most turned away.
“They’re afraid of us,” Simon mumbles.
“As they should be,” I reply deadpan. I go straight to the barkeep, a bulky white man with truly horrific mutton chops. “I need two rooms.”
The man crosses his unnaturally large arms. “We don’t serve... people like you.”
I grip the bar lip, nails digging into the half rotted wood. “Like me how? Hexes or brown people?”
He sneers at me. “Neither.”
The fire blazes in my eyes. Wood blackens under my skin. “Now listen here, you stupid bastard, you better rent us a room or-”
“Now, now, Basilton,” a familiar voice says, “no need to be so rude. I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”
“Hello, Nicodemus.”
Nico moves to stand next to me. His suit is cheap, the stitches fraying at the seams. He’s still got that sort of menacing look, but he looks tired too.
“Fancy seeing you here, Pitch. How’s your aunt?” He smiles, showing off his missing eye teeth. It makes me want to punch him in his stupid face.
“Why would you care, Petty? You’re the one who left her after everything she did for you.”
He hangs his head back with a groan. “Still defending your family’s honour, I see. Ain’t my fault I wanted to realise my full potential.”
“What, by getting your teeth pulled out so you could get magic? Even when my aunt warned you what a curse being a hex was? You’re still an arrogant idiot then.”
Nicodemus growls and grabs my wrist. His magic reaches out to clash with my own. It’s slick like oil, wrapping around my fire like a snake. But there’s a roughness to it. A sort of mangy, wild energy that I remember all too well from the hex duel with my aunt. Now, I can smell the acrid tang of it too. It leaves a sour taste in the back of my throat. I’m not surprised his magic is as disgusting as he is.
“Looks like you went through some shit too, Basilton,” he hisses. “You’ve got the same fire as dear old Fi. What, the guilt of letting your mum die finally get to you? Try to end it all? Too bad, you just became the monster she never wanted you to be instead.”
His power gnashes at mine, trying to rip it apart and eat it. But Nicodemus has made a fatal assumption; that he’s more powerful than me. I push back against him hard. The fire rushes through my every vein. I revel in the way Nico’s eyes go wide. My hand shoots up to his throat and I shove him down so hard his back bends against the wooden bar.
“You bastard,” I growl. “After all these years you still don’t know how to keep your bloody mouth shut.” I hold his throat even tighter. His eyes bug out of his skull. “Maybe I should shut it permanently.”
I open the gates within, and his magic begins to pour into me. It’s the world’s greatest adrenaline rush. I’m invincible, powerful, a bloody god. Nico gasps and tries to push me away. But I’m still stronger. He could never stop me.
“Baz!” Snow shouts. “Stop it!”
I turn to him with burning eyes. Everything I see is cloudy, like a smoke screen or rippling water. “Why?!”
“Because,” his voice is desperate, and maybe even caring, “we shouldn’t be the monsters they think we are. Just look at them, Baz!”
I still have enough sense to hear what he says. The patrons cower in fear, eyes wide with terror as they look at me. It’s not an expression anyone wants to be subjected to, or cause. And though I hate him, Nicodemus is right. My mother never wanted me to be this. Another terrible, murderous, evil hex.
With all my strength and good sense, I find the will to let Nicodemus’ neck go. His power rushes back into him with a sputtering gasp. I glare at him as I pull away, fingers still trailing with flames.
“Leave,” I say flatly. “Now.”
Nicodemus runs faster than I’ve ever seen a man run before. I take a few deep breaths. It takes a moment for my magic to balance out. It still yearns for Nicodemus’ power, but I beat it back into submission. I won’t let the hunger control me. Then I walk towards the now terrified barkeep.
“Rooms still not available?” He shakes his head frantically. “Good.” I slap down some American money. “Two rooms, please. Also throw in some whiskey. I need a drink after all that.”
The man picks two keys out of a box, then a bottle and glasses from the shelf. He shoves them both forward on the bar and takes two large steps back. I snatch them up with a tip of my ridiculous cowboy hat.
“Cheers, mate.”
Snow and I take a table in a corner. No one dares to look at us. I pour drinks for both of us and shove his glass to the other side of the table. We’re as far apart as we can be but it’s still risky. My power is still hungry. And Simon still smells delicious. But I won’t hurt him. I can’t.
“So,” Simon says, vowel drawn out, “who was that?”
I throw back the whiskey. It’s sour and burns my throat, but it's better than Slipfoot’s at least. “His name is Nicodemus Petty. He and my aunt Fiona were friends growing up. They bonded over their mutual family history of hexation. But when my aunt and his sister, Ebb, manifested magic as teenagers, Nico was jealous. Fiona and Ebb both tried to tell him that hex magic was far more of a curse than a blessing, but he never listened. He wanted the power. When I was about nine, he finally succeeded in activating his own latent magic.”
“By having two of his teeth ripped out...”
“Mhm. First thing he did was stumble all bloody mouthed to my aunt’s flat.” I clench the glass so hard I nearly break it. “The bastard attacked her by surprise, and tried to steal her magic. He almost killed her, but Fiona got a lucky shot and threw him out the window.” I take a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “As you can guess, I was there. It wasn’t pretty.”
“I can imagine.” He pulls in, picking at his nails nervously. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking...w-what was he talking about? With your mum?”
I pour myself another helpful shot of whiskey. I want to drown my brain in the stuff, honestly. I’ve never talked about my mum, it’s too painful, like ripping out a fingernail. But Snow has shown so much of himself to me. It seems unfair to hide. “My aunt and I aren’t the only hexes in our family.”
His eyes go wide as the revelation hits him, “Your mum is a hex too?”
I nod slowly, then drink the alcohol in one gulp. The warmth tingles in my veins and loosens my tongue. I stare at the glass, watching the light refract through it’s bends. “She was, but my father is human. They loved each other enough to not be scared, I guess. They never meant to have children. I was an accident, but my mother wanted me in spite of the risks. My father said she cried with happiness when she saw I was a boy. She thought if she kept me safe, I’d never become a full hex.” I flick a paint chip off the table with more force than necessary. “Then she died protecting me, doing what she promised.”
“How? Was it another hex?”
“Even worse, scared humans.” 
Snow’s face falls even more. He takes a long sip from his own drink. “So they tried to kill her?”
“They tried to kill all of us. Someone heard of my mother’s hexation, and they rallied a group together to fight our family. It wasn’t a real fight though. The cowards snuck in and tried to stab us. My mother killed almost all of them quickly” My fists clench so tight it hurts. “The last one nearly got me, but my mother stepped in front. He burned to ash just after he stabbed her through the throat.”
“Oh. Not even a hex could come back from that kind of wound...”
“I know,” I say between gritted teeth. “I know that very well, Snow.” I delicately place the glass down with a strained hand. “I...I tried to stop the bleeding but there was nothing I could do. I had no magic then. Even so, I doubt my powers could’ve helped.” A little flame pops up in my hand with barely a thought. Making fire is more natural than breathing for me, after all. I watch the scarlet snake dance between my fingers. “My family’s abilities have always been better at destruction.”
Simon takes another long sip, polishing off his drink. “I don’t know what my family’s like, but I hope they’re not like me. This power...it’s too much for anyone to have. I’d give it up in a heartbeat.”
“We all would, Snow. That’s what the humans don’t get. Most hexes are just as scared of themselves as humans are.” I pour my third drink. It’s been awhile since I’ve drank so much in one sitting, but if I’m going to get sozzled, tonight is a good time. “But that’s not up to us. We’re born like this. Nothing we can do but try to survive.”
“Believe me, I know that. All I’ve ever done is survive. In the orphanage, on the streets, here in America.” He lets out a small, sad laugh. “Hexation is how I ended up on the street, actually.” Snow looks directly down at the table. “When I was 11, I, uh, had a dream that I was exploding. When I woke up, the entire orphanage had been blown to pieces. Luckily no one was hurt, but the matron couldn’t very well keep a hex among other children.”
“So she thought sending you to roam among other humans was safer?”
He shrugs. “I don’t think she cared as long as I was far away from her.”
I scoff, swinging the glass between two fingers. “Sounds about usual for humans. What made you manifest? A particularly bad paddling from the matron?”
Snow chews on his bottom lip. His fingers drum the wood slowly. “I, uh, actually didn’t have to suffer. I’m one of those rare cases of sudden manifestation, apparently. That’s what Penny called it anyway. She said it was rare but possible.”
My grip on the glass gets even tighter. A sudden jealous rage consumes my mind. So Snow just exploded one day at eleven. That’s awful, of course, I’ll never deny that. But all I can think of is the coffin. The endless night of being trapped in that box, waiting for a relief that wouldn’t come, until I finally broke and became the last thing I ever wanted to be. I went through absolute hell. Of course I assumed Snow had to, like all other male hexes. But he didn’t. He’s never had the acute kind of torture I did. It’s not fair.
“Excuse me,” I say more harshly than I mean to, “I’m tired. I think I’ll turn in.”
Snow’s pretty plain eyes go wide. “O-Oh...okay. Good night, then.”
“Night.” I snatch the bottle up and leave the key for his room. Then I stomp up the stairs with irrational anger still burning me up. I know it’s stupid, but I can’t get past it. Male hexes get their magic through suffering. It’s a well known fact. How could Snow be like me without the same kind of pain? How could he ever fully understand me the way I thought he could?
The second my room door is closed, I drink down the last of the whiskey bottle. I’ve tried to avoid alcohol over the past few years. It would be far too easy for me to drink away the pain, the memories, the horrible guilt. Eventually, I’d drown myself in a bottle. That’s not a way I want to go. But one night of indulgence will be fine.
I wobble towards my bed, shedding my outer layers as I go. I collapse face first onto the old mattress. Whiskey clouds my mind. And when I finally pass out, all I see is empty darkness. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than the nightmares.
———————————————
“...safe?”
“Out cold...”
The voices stay patchy as I slip in and out of consciousness. I try to force my eyes fully open, but the pounding in my head is too much. Indistinguishable figures move on the edges of my blurry vision. There’s little to no light. It must still be night, maybe only a couple hours since I passed out.
“Is..right thing?”
“Hex...Rook and Pargeter...dangerous...we...safe.”
“Fine.”
Something grabs both my wrists and my ankles. I try to struggle but I must still be too drunk. I can’t get my limbs to move save for some squirming. I try to summon my magic, but my mind can’t concentrate. It’s no use. Bloody hell, I’m trapped.
“Night night, hex,” a horrible voice says. Something soft is pressed hard against my face. I can’t take in air, I can’t breathe, I can’t fucking breathe. It’s like the coffin. No, I can’t do this again. I try to thrash harder and scream but it’s still no use.
Oh Lord, I’m going to die here. I wonder if I’ll see my mother on the other side. I wonder if I even have a soul to go to the other side. And I wonder how if Snow is okay. Christ, my last conversation with him ended in anger. If I had known, I would’ve said everything I’ve wanted to say this past week. But the first thing would be ‘I’m sorry.’
I’m sorry, Snow, for everything I said and thought. And I’m sorry for leaving you alone.
“Hey! Get off him, you bastards!” That voice is familiar even in my half drunken state. Thank whatever gods are listening that he’s okay.
“It’s the other one!” one of my assailants shouts. “Wasn’t Garth supposed to take care of him?!”
“That damn idjit fucked up!”
I hear the telltale signs of punches and kicks thrown about. One of the hands on me pulls off. All this excitement has thankfully sobered me up some. I kick some stupid bastard right in the stomach.
“Fuck!” they wheeze. The other humans are wise and let go of my wrist. I’m on my feet in a second.
“Bloody humans,” I growl out, still slurring slightly. “You can’t even let me fucking sleep?!”
The burly barkeep scowls at me. My would be murder weapon is still in his hand. “Eat shit, you demon.”
I scowl right back at him. “Oh, you want a demon? I’ll give you a fucking demon, love.”
The fire blazes up in me, all shining black and scarlet, and I make little effort to contain it. I let the flames fly out and encase the man almost completely. He screeches as his skin bubbles and burns under my powers.
“Stop it!” a woman yells. She comes at me with a knife raised. A whip of fire forms in my hand instantly. With one crack, it wraps around her wrist. She screams in the exact same way and lets her weapon clatter on the floor. She goes to her knees, clutching her blackened, blistered skin.
“You bastard,” she cries. “How could you?!”
“How could I!?” Even more fire plays over my hands. “I could ask you the same thing, human.”
“We’re trying to protect ourselves, monster!”
In that moment, in her eyes, I see every human who’s hurt me. The people who mocked me, who killed my mother, who turned me into this. All sense leaves my mind in an instant. “I’m a monster only because of you!”
With one wave of my hand, she’s thrown against the wall hard enough to make it shake. I spin around to see a man trying to crack Snow’s skull open with a butcher’s cleaver. One well aimed blast sends him flying as well. Another casts two aside. They don’t move much afterwards, but I find myself caring little. Let them die like my mother did.
“Baz, stop it!” Snow shouts. I ignore him as I send the last assailant against the wall, listening to their screams as I burn their chest. “Baz!”
“Fuck off, Snow!” I roar. “I- Ack!”
Pain rips through my shoulder. I clutch it and my hand becomes wet with what I assume must be blood. I fall forward. My nose cracks against the floor. I scream in pain and flames roar out of me in a massive plume They hit everything, including my shooter and the walls of the room. I can feel the whole space burning around us.
“Baz!” Snow’s voice is beyond panicked. I hear his footsteps rush toward me. His hands hover over me but won’t touch. He can’t touch me.
“Get out, Simon,” I rasp , turning my head to the side to look at him. He’s covered in bruises and ash. Yet he’s still so beautiful. “Run before more of them come.”
“Shut up, arsehole! I haven’t turned my back on you yet, and I’m not going to start now!”
If the world weren’t literally on fire right now, I’d find that touching. I close my eyes. At least my dying image will be of him. “Don’t be an idiot, Snow.” Surprisingly, the bastard fucking laughs. My eyes snap open again. The bloody back of his hand is pressed against his mouth as he giggles. “What the fuck is funny about this?”
“You,” he laughs, “called me Simon before.”
My face heats up, and it’s not from the fire. “No I didn’t.”
“We’re fucking dying and you can’t admit you used my first name?”
“I’m dying. You’re being an idiot and not running away like you should!”
“You’re too stubborn to die, Baz, and we both know it.” He jumps to his feet. “Get up, we’re getting out of here.”
“Snow-”
“Or are you too much of a yellow belly to get up and try?”
Oh, this bastard. In only two weeks, he’s learned me too well. I scowl at his stupid pretty face as I push myself up on my good arm. At the same time, thundering footsteps can be heard from the stairwell.
“That route is out of the question,” I say. “Where are we to go, Snow?”
“This way.” He holds his hand and in a mere two seconds, the opposite wall is blown to pieces in a rain of spark. “Now let’s go!”
“We’re on the bloody second floor!”
Snow runs towards the gaping hole and throws himself out. I rush to the edge, blood pounding in my ear. No, Snow cannot die, I can’t let him die. But to my utter shock and awe, Snow is floating his way down to the ground. He stops and starts and still hits the ground in an uncoordinated roll, but he’s okay.
“Oh, Snow, you brilliant moron,” I whisper.
“They’re probably still in there!” someone shouts from the hallway. I take a few steps back, breathe deep, and run off the splintered edge just as the humans burst through the door.
Instead of sending my fire outwards like usual, I keep it within me. I will my body to rise high like flames from a candle. My legs move slowly like I’m running in the air. Fuck, this is actually working. Slowly, I let my flame flick and die down, lowering myself along with it. I reach the ground with my own thud but stay on my feet. Snow grins at me. In all this horror, that is the greatest thing to see.
“Let’s get the horses and get out of here, Snow.”
“Agreed, Pitch.”
We sprint to the stables and thankfully find our steeds unharmed. I count ourselves lucky that our attackers didn’t consider them demonic too. Mounting is difficult with my left arm fucked up, but let it never be said that a human bullet could stop Basilton Pitch. I hold the reins with one hand as I spur him into a dash.
The wind whistles in my ears. Snow and I run even faster than we did from the Red Weed. Our kind is always good at running. It’s our natural state.
———————————————
Snow and I ride until it’s nearly dawn. The sky turns purple then crimson with the rising sun in front of us. When I see orange, my horse finally starts to tire out. Snow’s does the same. We slow down then stop.
“Think we’re far enough away?” Snow asks, breath short and strained.
“Yeah,” I reply, sounding the same. “I think they would’ve caught us by now if they were still after us.”
“Good point, good point.” Snow leans forward, putting his forehead on his horse’s neck. “God, I’m fucking knackered. I barely slept.”
“Me too. We should both sleep.”
“What if someone comes after us?”
“Point. Sleep in shifts?”
Snow nods. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Good.” I slowly dismount my horse, but get my footing wrong and start to fall. I grab the reins with my left arm and practically scream in pain.
“Baz!” Snow rushes towards me, but stops when I raise my good arm.
“Don’t...” I pant, “don’t come any closer. I’m injured, Snow, and my self control is severely weakened. So unless you wish for death now after just barely escaping it, back away.”
“Oh, yeah, right...” Snow backs far away just as he should, but my heart still aches. “What are we going to do about your shoulder?”
“I can fix it, but I’m going to need your belt”
Snow’s brows shot upwards. “My belt? What for?”
“Just throw it to me, Snow, for Christ’s sake.”
Thank God he doesn’t ask another stupid question. He just unbuckles the belt and does what I ask. I try to not let my hands shake as I fold the belt in half. The last time I did this was three years ago, when I sat in a London alleyway after a drunkard broke my leg, a mere four days after fleeing my home for good.
“Baz, what are you-”
“Snow,” I say firmly, “I need you to do me a favour.”
“Okay...?”
I sit on the ground, belt held tightly in my hand. “I need you to stay right there no matter what. Don’t move, don’t try to help. The best way you can help is to stay fucking still.”
“What the fuck is-”
“Promise me you won’t move, Simon.” I look him right in his blue eyes, my mouth a thin, serious line. “Promise me.”
Snow gives me a once over, then thankfully nods. “Okay, I promise.”
“Good.” I put the belt between my teeth. When I check on Snow, he looks beyond panicked. “If it makes it easier,” I say clumsily between the leather, “you don’t have to watch.”
“Baz-”
I slap my right hand over my left shoulder, and it feels like I’m burning from the inside out. My magic scorches my body as it wraps around my injury. The buck shot is pulled through my muscles and skin, ripping and tearing as they go, and I can feel every bit of it. I can also feel as my tissue and bone stretches to knit back together piece by agonizing piece. It’s an indescribable kind of pain. It’s what I imagine hell must feel like. I scream, I can’t help it, but luckily the belt is muffling as well preventing me from biting off a chunk of my tongue. Snow gasps in horror but he doesn’t move. He keeps his promises. I knew he would. He’s a far better man than me.
The burning fades as the skin finally seals shut. I cautiously move my hand, shaking off the shrapnel and gooey viscera that trails between my fingers. God, it's a nasty scab, mangled and uneven and horrifically inflamed. I can only hope the scar won’t be too bad. The one on my calf has faded overtime.
“Are you-”
“Not yet,” I say, cutting off a frightened looking Simon. “This one won’t take as long though.”
I touch my nose, feeling for where the breaks are. I squeeze my eyes shut, and with a horribly painful crack, I move it mostly back into place. I let out a short yell, but just pant and seethe as the bone and cartilage knit back together. I try to wipe the bloody snot from my hand but it's no use. Disgusting, but better than a broken nose. I feel around to make sure things are okay. Well, the tip is a bit crooked, but I can live with that. Right now, I’m thankful to be alive at all.
“Okay,” I sigh, finally taking the teeth mark covered belt out of my mouth, “now I’m done.”
“What the fuck was that?” Snow’s voice is somewhere between fascination and absolute horror. In short, a proper reaction.
“Something my aunt taught me. Hexes are essentially manipulators of energy and matter. And what are bodies but living energy and matter? With practice, you can fix any part of yourself.”
“But isn’t it painful?”
“Was that not obvious?” I snap. But Snow’s genuinely worried face softens my demeanor. “Yes, it’s excruciating. Hence why I try not to use the technique as much as I can.” I massage my still aching shoulder. “Today it was unavoidable, unfortunately.”
Simon runs a nervous hand through his dirty hair. “Fuck...”
I cough out a small laugh. “Yes, that sums it up pretty well.”
He laughs too, just as shaky and sad. “Sums up the whole night.”
The two of us keep chuckling softly in the wee hours of the morning. The ascending sun hurts my tired eyes. Using so much magic has taken everything out of me. I let out a long, deep yawn.
“You sleep first,” Snow says. “I’ll keep watch.”
“No, no, I can-”
“Baz.” He sounds firm, but also tired, and maybe even a little fond. I’m probably imagining that last one though. “Go to bed. I’ll wake you up in about eight hours.”
If I weren’t sleep deprived, magically drained, and recovering from grievous injuries, I would protest more. But Snow is damn lucky today. I simply sigh and stand up to get my cot from my saddlebags. I count our lucky stars we didn’t bring in too many of our supplies to the inn. Maybe God hasn’t completely abandoned us heathen monsters.
“I don’t have the energy to put up my shield,” I say, hoping my tone conveys enough.
“Okay,” Snow replies, “I’ll stay away, don’t worry. I keep my promises.”
My pulse flutters involuntarily. A smile creeps across my face no matter how hard I try to stop it. “I know you do, Simon.”
Snow gifts me one of his sunshine smiles. That’s the last thing I see before turning over and letting myself rest.
———————————————
Snow lets me sleep longer than eight hours. I’d be more mad if I wasn’t so exhausted. In return, I let him oversleep too. We’re both passed out by the time it’s dark again. Even hexes with all our inhumanity need to rest sometimes. Snow and I are lucky we get the chance this time.
In the morning, I reluctantly go to the next closest town. We did leave some of our things behind sadly, including most of our clothes. I’m damn well not going to keep roaming around the south of Texas in my bloody socks, and neither will Snow. I get us some new jackets, boots, and hats, ignoring the strange looks I get from the lily white shopkeeper. 
I grab us some more of that disgusting jerky too. If only good food could keep in these horrific conditions. When I reach the counter, the shopkeeper frowns at the things I lay out.
“You can pay for all this?” she asks. I scowl deeply. I’m too tired for this shit.
“Are people like me not allowed to have money here?” I snap.
“Ya can now, but in my experience, y’all darker folk are better at stealing my stock than paying.”
Bloody hell, I’m too tired for this racist shite. I slam two bills on the counter. “There. Hope I didn’t dirty these up too much for you.”
She glares at me hard. As she reaches for the money, I deliberately brush my finger on hers, and she yelps loudly. The edge of her index is red and inflamed. An undeniable burn mark, but far too small for anyone to believe it came from an evil, bloodthirsty hexslinger.
“Oh dear,” I say deadpan. “Your register must have gotten in the sun. Do be more careful.” I shovel the supplies in my bag as she looks at me wide eyed. “Have a nice day, ma’am.”
I can feel her scared eyes on my back as I leave. I get on my horse and ride out fast. No reason to stay in this shithole any longer. And I need to get back to Snow, where I belong.
———————————————
“Everything okay in town?” Snow asks.
I toss the bundle of clothes at him, along with a bag of jerky. “No one attacked me, if that’s what you mean. I didn’t get made for a hex. But I did get some flack for my skin tone.”
Snow’s face falls a bit. There’s something far too close to pity in his eyes. “Oh. I’m sorry-”
“Don’t, Snow. You’re in no place to apologize for some racist American bastards, it’s not your responsibility. Sorry from you means nothing.”
“But-”
“Would you accept an apology from me on behalf of all the rich men who have treated you like trash before?” Snow’s gaping mouth slowly closes. “Exactly. Now get those on. They’re slightly less dirty than our current garments.”
Snow nods and does what I say. I unbutton off my bloodstained shirt and wince as the tacky fabric peels off my skin. The scab has gotten a little better. That’s something I suppose. My eyes slowly move over to Snow without realising it. I steal a glimpse of his broad, bare back, golden like the rest of him. There are some jagged pink scars but they take nothing away how brightly he shines. I look away before I’m too tempted by what I can’t have.
“Much better,” Snow sighs as he slips on the new boots. “I’m surprised my feet haven’t been ripped to shreds yet.”
“Me too. I’m glad though, I didn’t want to do any more healing.”
“I don’t want you to either, fuck.” I hate how his concern makes me feel so good inside. “I’ll start setting up the fire. It’s going to get dark again soon.”
“By all means, Snow, do all the work. I won’t stop you.”
Snow snorts out a laugh, giving me a cheeky smile I can still see at this distance. Christ, I’m on fire, and for once it’s not from my magic. It’s so much better. I have to look away again before I do something ridiculous and deadly.
By the time the sun is down, Snow has made a wonderful small fire for the two of us. We both warm our hands from opposite sides. I don’t need to do it too much. My magic has almost fully replenished, for better or worse. And I’m so hungry that I actually enjoy the extremely salty bison jerky. Bloody hell, I’m turning into an American.
“Where are we going to go next?” Snow asks, mouth still full. “I’m guessing we should avoid any more towns.”
“Agreed. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not jump out of another building.”
“We certainly agree there. Christ, I was worried I was going to die.”
“Me too, Snow, me too.” I nervously fiddle with the string on my cloth bag. The words are coming out, and I can’t stop them. “I’m sorry, Snow.”
His brow adorably furrows. “Sorry for what?”
“Sorry for the way I acted that night, before I went to bed. I was very rude to you and I deeply apologize.”
“Oh...okay. Thanks.” He looks down, rubbing the back of his neck. “I-I was confused. Did I do something bad?”
“No, Snow,” I sigh, “you did nothing wrong. It was all me being stupid.”
“Okay...”
I sigh again. God, I can’t dance around it anymore. I have to tell him. After putting up with me for this long, he deserves to know.
“I was angry and...somewhat jealous of you.”
His eyes get very big. “Jealous? Of me?!”
“Yes, in a way. Because...you didn’t have to go through the same kind of suffering I did when I manifested. Which isn’t fair, because you lived on the streets while I grew up in a bloody mansion. It’s just not the same suffering I had, and I was angry I had to go through it when you didn't. Which is absolutely ridiculous, and I’m sorry I pushed that on you.”
“If you don’t mind me asking...what happened?”
I stare at him for a long moment over the fire. He holds my gaze, eyes round with worry and care. It hurts me in the most exquisite way. “It’s not a pretty story, Snow.”
His mouth pulls into a sad, slight smile. “Weren’t you the one who said that all hexes live through hardship, and we have nothing to be ashamed of?”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Using my words against me, a tactic of a true devious hex.”
He shrugs, still wearing that little smile. “What can I say? I can live up to our reputation sometimes.” Snow’s face falls again. “So what happened?”
With a deep sigh, rubbing my forehead, I start the horrid tale.
“My family always knew there was a chance I could be a hex,” I say. “But since my aunt couldn’t sense any magic on me pre manifestation, we assumed that I wasn’t too powerful, and manifestation could be avoided if we were careful. So I lived in the aforementioned secluded mansion all my life and I was never allowed to leave the grounds. All my time was spent reading, doing school work, or learning about hexation from my aunt, just in case. Everything in my life revolved around my mere potential to be a hex. I could never do or see anything. I felt like a prisoner. And when I was 18, I had enough.
“One evening, I snuck out of my room and went into the nearby town. I just wanted to see what was outside my home. But I was a naive sheltered kid. Of course I got lost on my way there and went into an area I never should have. Someone had knocked me out cold, and next thing I knew, I was in a cramped, dark box.”
“A box? What do you mean a box?”
I clench my fists tight until the shaking stops, then slowly let go. “It was a coffin, Snow. I had been trapped inside a coffin.”
I can almost feel the way Snow’s stomach must drop out at those words. I know, mine did the same when I realised where I was that night. “W-Why?!”
“It was hard to hear him through said coffin, but I got the main idea. He came from some old witch hunter family but had never caught an actual hex, until me. He’d heard the stories about my mother and had been secretly spying on me for months. When I escaped, he took his chance to kidnap me.”
“So he took you just to taunt you from outside a coffin?”
“I wish that was all he did,” I grumble. “He told me that the coffin was a test. There was a chance the hexation had skipped me over. If I was a hex, being stuck in the coffin would make me manifest, then he could kill me in good conscience. If I wasn’t and didn’t manifest, well, as he put it; ‘there are always casualties in the war for righteousness, boy.’”
Snow’s jaw drops to the grassy ground. “So even if you were human, he would’ve killed you anyway?”
“Mhm, mad bastard.” 
“How long did he keep you there before you escaped? A few days?”
I take long, steady breaths, beating back the old fear that creeps up my throat like bile. I can almost still smell that unique rotten scent from the coffin. I’ll never forget it. I never can.
“Snow,” I say slowly, “I was in that coffin for six weeks.”
And I thought he looked horrified before. Snow drops his jerky bag, hands shaking. I want to grab them, hold them still, comfort him in whatever way I can. The urge is almost stronger than the Call.
“S-Six weeks?! How are you still alive?”
“Thank the witch hunter,” I grumble. “He drilled very small air holes in the lid, and gave me enough food and water to keep me alive but starving. I think, hex or not, he wanted me to suffer because I was my mother’s son. A hex’s child was just as guilty of sin in his eyes.” I rub the bridge of my nose. It aches with the pain of my past. “At the time, I had no idea how long I was in there. It was just one endless night of torture. I begged and pleaded with the hunter to let me go, but he only laughed and called me pathetic hex scum. After six weeks, well, he finally got what he wanted.”
“You manifested.”
“Almost as violently as you did.” I trace the lines of my hand, the skin rough from my fire. I remember my mother’s hands being the same. “The details are blurry, but I remember enough. It started as just a tingling in my gut, but soon it became a burn. And then it spread as quickly as a forest fire.”
“Is it always fire with you?” The corner of Snow’s lip quirks up. The bit of teasing lilt in his voice makes me feel a bit lighter. I can't help but smile back a little.
“Usually, yes. It's always run very strong in my family.” I bounce a flame between my fingers. The movement is strangely calming to me. “I quickly learned I was no different. Before I knew it, I let out a massive ring of fire in every direction. It blew the coffin apart, of course, and turned my captor into a charcoal husk.”
Snow scoffs, a surprisingly vicious expression on his face. “Better than he deserved.”
“Agreed. I have no idea what happened to his body. I left almost immediately, though I wasn’t fully conscious. Six weeks in the coffin had deprived me of most of my mental faculties. Luckily, he kept me not far from home, and I could wander back on pure muscle memory. But going home turned out to be a terrible idea.” I grab the small fire and snuff it out in one go. But my fist stays clenched. “My aunt had been staying there while everyone searched for me. The second I walked through the front door, I could easily smell her. She was overjoyed to see me, until she smelled me too. And as I said, most of my mental faculties were gone.”
“So you attacked her on instinct.”
I chuckle sadly. “Quick study there, Snow. I didn’t even know what I was doing. I was just so bloody hungry all of sudden. I can’t even describe it.”
“You don't need to describe it to me, Baz.” He brings his knees under his chin. “I’ve felt hex hunger too. It’s...awful when you’re in the middle of it.”
“And when you’re not, you try to drown it out or distract yourself. But deep down, you know one day you’ll give up and listen. Then it will take over.”
Snow nods, looking at me in the eye. I’ve seen so much profound sadness in a person’s face. “And you’ll hurt someone, no matter how much you’ll regret it later.”
If I have a soul, it’s aching horribly. How could fate be so cruel as to give me Snow? So wonderfully brave and kind to a fault, and who actually understands what my life is like. The perfect man. And someday soon, he’s going to kill me. There’s no doubt I’ll be the one to die. I won’t kill him, not ever. I’d let him take everything from me before I’d kill him.
“Did you hurt your aunt?”
Thankfully, I can shake my head to that. “No, not at all. She was an experienced magic user, while I was a starving, half crazed newly minted hex. She took me down in seconds. When I woke up again, I was cleaned up and in my room. It took a second to regain my bearings, but I soon remembered what had happened...what I had become. There wasn’t any debate in my mind. Within an hour, I had packed my most practical clothes along with any small valuables I could pawn. Then I ran away and never looked back.”
“Which is how you ended up in America.”
“What better way to protect my family from me than by putting an ocean between us? At first, I stayed in an empty little corner of the American frontier. I just wanted to live out my lonely hex existence as long as possible. I didn’t expect the Call or this looming hex war.”
“No one did,” Simon sighs. “Hexes working together has never been possible before. Who could’ve imagined some American preacher would team up with an Aztec goddess to do just that?”
“Fair point. But now he’s made our existences much harder in a way. Look what those humans tried to do to us at the inn. They were even more scared because of Rook”
“Yeah...”
I groan, pushing my face into my hands, rubbing it up and down. “I never asked to be like this. I tried my hardest to avoid being like this. Then that choice was ripped away from me by some madman. Now I’m trapped between murderous humans or a bloodthirsty witch goddess. Why am I here? Why do I have to be here?!”
“Baz-”
“I don’t want this,” I choke out through my building sobs. “I want to see my family again. I just want to go home!”
I breathe hard and fast, holding back tears with all my strength. No, I refuse to cry. I swore to never cry again after the coffin, because I wasn't sure I could survive falling apart again. Yet here I am. I thought I had shed every tear I have there. I’m so pathetic.
“It’s okay,” Simon says. His voice is far louder than before. “Whatever you’re feeling is okay. It’s...it’s okay if you’re not.”
Slowly, cautiously, I lower my hands, blinking away the tears that had collected. I inhale sharply. Snow is less than two feet away from me. I can count the moles on his face, see the golden highlights in his bronze. But worse, his unbelievably delicious scent fills every cavity of my nose.
“You really shouldn’t sit so close, Snow,” I whisper. My eyes fall down and become completely fixed on Simon’s plush lips.
“I know,” he says under his breath, “but I don’t care.”
He touches my hand, and I feel his magic run through me. That explosive sensation pulses through my veins so hard it almost makes me gasp. The instinctual part of my brain goes fucking mad. It wants me to grab his throat and drain every drop of his magic, his essence, his very soul. My breathing gets shallow and laboured.
“Simon...” I say.
And then he kisses me.
It’s cautious and shy. His lips barely brush against mine, but I feel it everywhere else, especially in the way our powers rise to meet each other. The magic collides, but doesn’t clash. They meld and twist together at our points of contact, desperately needing to connect.
Snow opens his mouth, turning the kiss into one of pure heat and hunger. I gladly do the same. He grabs either side of my face and shoves his tongue down my throat. I grip his collar and push back against him. My entire body is filled with endless energy. I’m a star going supernova. And I want to explode with Simon. My nails scratch viciously across his neck. He clenches his fist in my hair, pressing our faces closer. I shudder as Simon bites hard on my bottom lip. I’m wrapped in cold heat, wrapped up in him. I feel so alive. It feels so right. But it’s wrong.
With all the strength I have, I shove Snow off me. We both fall back on the ground, breaking our closed circuit of feeding on each other simultaneously. Simon scrambles further away panting. I’m similarly out of breath. Both our lips trail white smoke, like they’ve been singed by ice. My magic readjusts after being sucked away and added to all at the same time. A bit of Snow’s explosive energy still sits in me, swirling around like a miniature star. We just stare at each other wide eyed for a long time.
“Shit,” Simon whispers.
I sigh heavily, running a shaky hand through my hair. “Well said.”
“We nearly killed each other.”
“Mages don’t meddle, Snow. We both know that.”
Simon groans, clutching his hair in his fists. “I know, I know. I almost killed Penny last time and I swore it would never happen again. But look at me now. Of course I fuck up.” I can see tears forming under his eyes. “What’s the point of being an all powerful hex if it means being alone forever?! I can blow up a building with my mind but I can’t even bloody kiss you! It’s not fair!”
I pick at my shirt sleeve with shaking fingers. “Maybe God is punishing us.”
“We didn’t ask to be like this, Baz!”
“That doesn’t change what we are, Simon! We’re freaks of nature, cannibalistic monsters!” I nearly rip through the fabric of my shirt. I'm so angry and so fucking tired. “Maybe we truly are devil spawn or something, like all the humans say. Maybe they’re right to be scared of all of us...”
I turn away from him, just staring at the fire. The sting of the smoke keeps me from sinking too low into my self loathing. Snow moves in my peripheral. We sit side by side. My skin prickles as he hovers his hand over mine. It takes every bit of my will to not try and drain him again.
“There’s somewhere we can go where we aren’t 'Devil spawn,'” he says.
I tense up. “Simon, that’s risky. It could all be a farce.”
“I don’t care if you think it’s just a farce, Baz! It’s still a chance. For you and me, for us.” He lightly brushes one of my fingers. I have to rip my hand away before I hurt him again. His pretty eyes are filled with pain. “See? Wouldn’t you like to stop doing that? Isn’t it worth the risk?”
I’ve been running for most of my life. I ran from my mother's legacy for as long as I could. I ran from my family when I feared my own hunger. And I could run now, from Simon and the fear of killing him. But I’d also be abandoning the chance for some sort of happy life. It may not be perfect, but it would be far more than my ancestors ever had before. Can I sacrifice that for fear?
“I’m tired, Snow,” I say weakly. “We should both get some rest.”
“But Baz-”
“Let me sleep on it, alright? Please?”
Snow takes in a deep breath, and lets out a long sigh. “We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
I want to kiss him so badly right now. Just grab his gorgeous, sunshine face and kiss him goodnight. Since I can’t, I smile as genuinely as I can at him. It’s not easy for me, but I mean it with him. “Goodnight, Simon.”
Snow stares at me for a long moment. But slowly, a smile creeps across his face too. The fondness threatens to melt me, “Goodnight, Baz.”
We keep our eyes locked for as long as we can. When I finally lay down, putting my crackling shield around me, the image of Snow’s wonderful face relaxes me into sleep.
———————————————
I bang my fists against the wood over and over, ignoring my already numerous splinters.
“Help!” I yell. “Someone help me! Please, get me out of here!”
All my pleas fall on deaf ears, as usual. No matter what I do, no matter how loud I scream. I’m stuck in this damned coffin. I scratch at it until my fingernails tear from their beds. Blood drips into my mouth, leaving an iron taste in the back of my scream sore throat.
“I’m not a fucking hex! I just want to go home!” I sob so hard I nearly choke on my own breath. “Just let me go home.”
My aching arms finally fall. I curl in on myself as much as I can within my confines. I close my eyes, but there’s little to no difference in the endless pitch black. Tears run hot down my face. They leave small trails in the dirt that’s accumulated over...however long I’ve been here. I don’t know anymore. Time is meaningless where there’s no sunrise or sunset. Life is meaningless in here.
“Baz?”
His voice is far away, but it still rings clear. My eyes slide open. “Simon?”
“Oh lord. Hang on, Baz! I'll get you out!”
I can only hear as Snow desperately tugs at the coffin lid. It should be impossible, the thing is nailed shut, but somehow Snow rips it open. The light is dim yet still hurts my eyes. I can't help but hiss at the pain.
“It’s okay, Baz,” he says in that unbelievably soft tone.
His hand reaches to me through the blinding light. Slowly, I reach back. And when I hold it, I know I’m supposed to be in pain, but I’m not. Instead, I’m just calm, happy, safe. Snow slowly pulls me out. His arms snake around my back, holding me up. He looks me over, taking in my decrepit, decayed state from ages in that damn box. And miraculously, he smiles. Even like this, he looks at me with such care.
“You’re alright now, Baz. I’m here.” He cups my face. “I’m here for you.”
Emotions clog up my throat and tears run down my cheek, but this time they’re for a good reason. I put my own shaking hand on his golden face. He’s so warm. “Yes, you are. And I’m here for you too, Simon.”
He’s still grinning as I lean forward, pressing my lips to his. But this time there’s no fear I’ll kill him. There’s just the utter joy of being with the one who understands me best, the one I want the most.
Oh, how I want this.
———————————————
I blink awake slowly. The morning sun is just rising over the horizon, turning the grassy landscape violet. I sit up and see the now familiar body on the other side of the fire. Snow sleeps in a knot, arms and legs pulled in. The furrow in his brow says he’s in the middle of a nightmare too. Though mine wasn’t one by the end. Not when he was there.
My mind is made up.
Once again, I’m packing my things lowly, waiting for Snow to wake. Luckily, he stirs while I’m only halfway through tying up the cot. He rubs the sleep from his eyes in such a terribly adorable way.
“Morning,” I say.
“Morning,” he yawns. “Are we going now? Or...are you?”
My heart seizes, but only for a moment. He’s right to be concerned. The fact that we’ve travelled together for two weeks without killing each other is a miracle among hexes. After last night’s close call, a sensible man would leave and never return. I was once a sensible human man. But I’m a deranged, bloodthirsty hex now. Why not act like one?
“You should get up and start packing, Snow. If we’re going to make it to the Mexican border before nightfall, we’ll have to ride fast.”
His eyes go rounder than a full moon. “You mean...”
I pull the pack tie tight. “We’re going to Hex City.”
“What changed your mind?
I sigh heavily, then walk over to him. I stay at a safe distance of course but Snow’s magic pulls me to him, my body begging me to take it. Instead, I simply hold out my hand to him. Snow stares for a moment but does catch on. He offers his own to me. Once again, our magics reach out to each other, wisps of fire and lightning twining together. It sends a faint whisper of that explosive adrenaline through my veins. So incredible and so wrong.
I snap my hand away, fists clenched hard. “Because of that. If I were a more selfless person, I would simply leave, but unfortunately I’m not. Are you?” Snow looks me over. His eyes pierce me in a way no one’s ever has before. He slowly shakes his head. “Exactly. I may be scared of Rook and his goddess, but I’m more scared of hurting you. There’s only one place where I won't.”
“Hex City.” He chews on the corner of his bottom lip. “What if you’re right though, and Rook’s price is too high?” 
“Then at least we’ll pay it knowing we tried to have a real life, instead of running like we’ve always had to.” I stand straight with my head held high. No matter the fear, I’m sure of this. “I think we’ve both suffered long enough, Simon.”
The way Snow’s face relaxes means the world to me. I love seeing that, seeing what he looks like without the heavy burden of hexation on his shoulders. Maybe I’ll be able to see that more in Hex City.
“It’ll probably be nice there,” he says. “I mean, a city made for hexes by hexes is going to be weird, but I bet it’ll look amazing in it’s own way.”
I chuckle and nod. “Agreed. Buildings and roads made by magic will certainly be interesting.”
“Penny would probably want to study them.” He sighs, but there’s a lightness to. “Maybe Penny will come one day, and I could see her again.”
“Maybe. I would love to meet her. I might be able to see my aunt again one day, too. I could introduce you to her.”
He beams so bright at me I fear I’ll get sunburnt. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Me too, Snow. So let’s get going.”
We finish packing very quickly. Snow gets on his horse as clumsy as he usually does. I snort at the way his American cowboy hat nearly falls off his head. The death glare he gives me has little impact, what with the way he’s grinning. He hasn’t stopped grinning almost since he woke up. I can’t blame him. I have trouble controlling my smile either.
“Ready?” he asks. As if he even has to. I’ve made my choice, and I’m sticking to it.
“Ready,” I say. “Let’s go.”
Snow and I both send our horses into gallops. We soar across the grassy plain, the Texas sun illuminating our way. The impending hex war still looms over us. But I will fight until my last breath to keep any happiness Simon and I can find.
I can almost see our future. Soon, we’ll reach the terrifying and wonderful Hex City. Rook will ask for his price, and we’ll pay, because it’ll mean a freedom we've never known before. We’ll be able to hold hands, kiss whenever we want, sleep in the same bed, simply be around each other with no fear of our hexacious hunger. It’s more than I could have ever dreamed of even a few months ago.
For once, I’m going to run towards something good, instead of away from the darkness inside me. I cannot wait.
———————————————
AN: And that's all folks! I hope people enjoyed that, even if y'all have never read Hexslinger. If you wanna read the books, I highly recommend them, tho be warned they require trigger warnings for all the stuff here and more. Almost anything that usually needs a trigger warning is in those books. I'm okay with reading it, but I also completely understand others not liking that shit.
In the positives, it's an extremely interesting and complex series dealing with survival, discrimination, identity, the pain that can come with love, and the unlikely bonds formed between people. The world building is amazing and the magic system is super cool. What I love the most are the characters, who are all very interesting and complex. No one is 100% good or evil, they're just people trying to find ways to achieve their goals or simply live. What actions they take are up for moral debate, but a lot of the time they're at least understandable. There's a lot of period typical bigotry, and it's much more vicious than what I wrote here, but what I love is that there a lot of diverse characters who say "fuck that" and fight back against the shit they get. You've got queer, Indigenous, black, latinx, Chinese, and Jewish main characters in a wild west story who are all well rounded and interesting. That's pretty awesome imo.
Okay enough gushing about Hexslinger lol. Hope this story was good. No guarantee when my next fic will be out. Work and school are killer. Until then, see you later!
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bigskydreaming · 3 years
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tagged by @rose-blooms-red
rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!
Only going with Batfam fics since that’s the fandom I share with Ro, and like, I’m ridiculous and work on literally dozens of WIPs for years at a time in fits and starts, in the idea of occasionally finishing one and posting it in completion which works great in theory but never seems to work out that way in practice OH UNKNOWABLE UNIVERSE, INEXPLICABLE ME.
Which means my Batfam WIP folder, as in fics that are actually in existence in bits and pieces because non-linear writing FTW (dubious), is already ridiculous enough as is. Keep in mind this is the accumulation of like....literally five or six years of adding content and writing stuff here and there. But yeah, also keep in mind like, I’m just ridick. Thing you gotta remember is I write primarily for me, to just get things out of my head. Like, I do really like external validation too, but I’m very very weird in that like, I have tons of stuff people have never read, original and fic-wise, and its not like...because I don’t want people to read them, its just......Things Happen and then they don’t and....yeah. This has been a presentation of Deep Thoughts, By Me. Let’s just say management is aware of the issue and its being worked on.
SERIES 
KINGS OF THE SKY (aka that one where Jason doesn’t die, one-shot installments)
Weapons of Choice - Dick POV during his Robin days
Teachable Moments - Jason POV when he calls Dick after the Felipe Garzonas case and everything jumps ship from canon
Blood of the Covenant - Jason POV while Dick’s recovering from the Church of Blood storyline, plus enter The Adoption Issue
There are other later installments that make sense to me but wouldn’t make sense to anyone else without the in-between pieces, so just leaving them out even though whole ones are entirely written ahfishflahfal
BURY YOUR DEAD, LAY THEM DOWN, LET THEM REST (aka Ric fix-it series, plus addressing Lots More, one-shot installments)
Tell Me Your Secrets, I’ll Make You A Ghost - Duke POV with Dick pre-shooting, plus with Cass in near aftermath
You Can’t Take It With You, But Don’t Leave It Behind - Cass POV immediately following previous one, Interlude-ish
The Dead Don’t Live Here Anymore - Ric POV, bonding (slowly and awkwardly and very very dysfunctionally) with Jason and Cass at the same time, hello powderkeg, meet match
The Good Die Young and the Bad Aren’t Dead - Jason POV investigating things hinted at in the previous
Welcome To Purgatory, We Hope You Like Your Stay - Tim POV confronting then awkwardly teaming up with Damian who has Plans re: these Nightwing impostors
Life After the End of The World or What the Hell Are We Even Supposed To Be Doing Now - Jason POV confronting Cass about the secret she’s been keeping re: Dick but its not what he thought it was
 A Ghost, A Zombie and a Dead Guy Walk Into A Bar - Ric POV, with Cass and Jason again
The Long Dark Night of Richard John Grayson - Ric vs the door keeping his memories locked up tight
Two Houses, Built In Shadow (aka that one where I build a rival family of villains/antiheroes to act as the Batfam’s foils)
Smoking Guns and Smoking Mirrors - Dick POV and Babs POV, introducing Dick and Babs’ counterparts - 3 chapters plus epilogue
Werewolves of Gotham - Jason POV, introducing his counterpart, 5 chapters
Ghosting the Machine - Tim POV, introducing his counterpart, 3 chapters plus Interlude-y epilogue
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil - Duke then Steph then Cass POV, three long-as-fuck-dear-god-what-was-I-thinking chapters
Providence - Bruce POV, introducing his counterpart, seven thankfully much shorter chapters (its all relative, shut up)
Queen’s Gambit - Dick POV then Cass, pinning down the identities of the rival fam before they can figure out theirs first, format to be determined as everything written for this part is an incomprehensible mishmash of paragraphs out of context hahaha I do things smart
Way Down Deep Where The Sun Don’t Shine - Jason POV, the climax and denoument, five chapters plus epilogue
MULTI-CHAPTER STANDALONE FICS
They Never Said Saving the World Would Go Like This - that epic saga of Dick and Kyle
The Spy Who Forgot To Come In From The Cold - the Spyral + amnesia fusion fic
Ghosts of Graysons Past - John Grayson makes a deal with his old buddy Boston Brand to save his son from his fate at the hands of the Court of Owls, and Jason gets roped into riding shotgun via ‘so apparently I can see dead people now, but not all dead people, just SOME dead people, the really really loud ones’
99 Views To A Kill - that Dick and Boone Vengeance Academy AU
Been There, Done That - Dick fosters then adopts a kid being fucked over by the system in ways eerily similar to his own past, aka does the Bruce Boogie and projects like whoa
The Vienna Game - the Batfam versus a global criminal gang with secrets upon secrets and unveiling some of theirs in the process
The Brothers (Most) Grim - that one where Jason is thrown by Dick being a mob enforcer then supervillain as he prepares to make his return to Gotham, Things Then Do Not Go According to Plan, Dammit Dick 
The Patron Saint of Robins - the one where Dick doesn’t forget but everyone else still does
Shadows Cast - that one where Jason becomes Flamebird and he and Dick focus on abused kids in specific
Hunt the Dark - that one where Dick learns some magic in the in-between Robin and Nightwing time, which comes in handy when Jason’s return from the dead is accompanied by some unseen supernatural predator stalking the ghost that got away
SHORT(ish) MULTI-CHAPTER STANDALONE FICS
First, Do No Harm - aka the one where Dick saves a fairy and the fairy’s a little shit about it
We’ve Only Got Nine Lives, Let’s Waste Not A One - aka the one where Dick and Selina bond over something and Bruce has no idea what it is and its driving him nuts - not cute, very angsty, I am sorry
The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side of the Tracks - aka five times Dick taught a sibling how to trainsurf plus one time they reminded him he gave them good stuff to go with the bad 
The Boy in the Red Hoodie - years later, Dick realizes the kid he taught a few self-defense moves during that brief time he ran away in Robin: Year One wasn’t really named Peter anymore than he was really named Freddy
Once Upon A Time In Gotham - that de-aged to a teenager fic
Forget Us Not - Jason and Dick are revisited by reminders of a case they worked on together when Bruce was ‘out of town’ years ago while Jason was still Robin
The Centuries Can Wait - that one with Amelia Crowne versus William Cobb over the course of generations
ONE-SHOTS THAT HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR NOT BEING DONE, WHAT AM I EVEN DOING (oh right, I guess technically I have SOME excuse for fanfic not having been the biggest priority in my life for a few years but look I am Drama, hear me wax rhapsodic whilst emoting most verily)
Where Other Leaves Did Fall - Dick POV, Dick discovers relatives from Amelia Crowne’s side of the family, aka his grandfather had a half-sister he never knew about
Point of Origin - Jason POV, fall-out from the Bruce mindwipe reveal in Identity Crisis and how it might have made his relationships and way of interacting with Dick and Jason in particular like...swerve
Two Wings and a Prayer - Dick POV, Court of Owls wingfic, look, I am me, you had to know there was a wingfic in here somewhere
Sitting In Darkness, Still Waiting On That Dawn - Jason POV, Dick dealing with the revelation of his family’s history re: The Court of Owls
Tell Me No Lies - Jason POV, despite the years and the death between them, post-UTRH, Jason still knows his brother’s tells, and his brother knows his....its why they’re avoiding each other
Witness to a Crime - Cass POV, that thing where you notice things no one else does, but not always knowing what they mean
We’re Just Not Gonna Talk About These And The Passage of Time, That Asshole
Born Under a Bad Sign - and its sequel. They still exist! In theory!
By Lost Ways - oh yeah, I was supposed to get back to posting that huh, I should do that, okay, righteo, that’s a mea culpa my dudes
Tagging anyone who wants to be tagged lol, cuz I suck at this but if you see this and are inspired to do this as well, you can totes blame me for the tagging!
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ggukcangetit · 4 years
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Dreamcatchers 6
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Pairing: jungkook x oc
Summary: DI Jeon didn’t need a new partner. Unfortunately, his superiors felt otherwise; especially considering the extremely high-profile murder that had just taken place in the port city. Recent transfer, DI Choi Yuri finds herself confronted with a new cityscape, unfamiliar people, a hostile partner, and a homicide that is certain to bring back unpleasant memories.  
Genre/AU: fluff/action/mystery | detective! au | police!jungkook, police!oc
Word Count: 5.2k
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: mentions of violence, alcohol, blood, drugs, death. basically stuff you’d associate with a murder mystery/crime drama.
Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 
A/N:  it’s been a while since i posted and even longer since i updated this fic but its still here and so am i! lol. updates are not gonna be very frequent but i have a list of works in progress that i plan to finish so there will be something or the other being posted at the most random moments.
also, reminding everyone that this story features a named oc because i’m still very unfamiliar with writing second person reader inserts. i’m not aiming for strict accuracy in this story, and all criminal investigation/forensics knowledge i have has been gathered by watching crime drama/procedural dramas! my knowledge of geography is also not totally accurate so apologies for that. once again, one thing right by @hobios​ prompted me to write a police inspector! jungkook story. would highly recommend reading that because it’s probably one of my most favorite pieces of writing!
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21st December
"Is this how you conduct a sample analysis?! Where did you even train? I've half a mind to report you and get you kicked out!!"
Yuri stopped at her desk, surprised to hear Seulgi's yelling so loudly that she could be heard all the way from the floor above. She was usually extremely calm and even-tempered, but the past couple of days had seen her irritable, snappy, and downright furious.
"Dr. Ahn sounds really angry," whispered Jisoo, clutching a file close to her chest. "I've never heard her yell at anybody before. I hope she's okay."
"I'm sure everything's fine," said Jeon, walking over to his desk and dropping a bunch of files on it. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Yuri raised an eyebrow at him, but complied nonetheless. They walked outside, standing near a clump of trees outside of earshot of anyone in the station.
"Guess who I've just brought in on suspicion of murder for the 2nd Nov case?" he asked, lowering his voice.
"No!" gasped Yuri. "Minhyuk?"
"Yep. He's been in the country for a while now. Fancy giving me a hand with the interview?"
"Me? I mean," she bit her lip. "I wasn't part of the original investigation."
"I know, but in light of what you've found out and the fact that you're now my partner, Goh thinks it's okay."
"You told Goh?!"
"I had to. I can't restart the investigation without his permission."
Jeon stared at her for a few moments, trying to gauge her reaction. "So, what do you say?"
"Alright. Let's nail this bastard."
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Ahreum was late. She had a meeting with one of her professors to decide on which medical stream she'd specialize in. Despite using forensics as an excuse to distract Seulgi, she was seriously considering it now. Deciding to pursue medicine had been a drastic career switch for Ahreum, and a lot of people had questioned her decision relentlessly. But if there was something she had learnt in the years following her parents' divorce, it was patience and the ability to block out irrelevant conversations. Namjoon had always been immersed in his studies, barely affected by the bitterness existing between their parents. Ahreum, barely in high school, felt lost and helpless during those times. After the divorce, things had become less tumultuous and she was able to see her parents as individual entities. That was when she realized that her father was never going to like any of her decisions, no matter how hard she tried to please him, and her mother preferred to stay aloof at the best of times. Ahreum learnt pretty early in life, that she needed to be there for herself. She loved her brother and parents, though the latter a lot less than the former. Her decision to study English Literature and Creative Writing had been a spur of the moment one - dictated more by the fact that her high school boyfriend was going to study at a major Arts university. She didn't really regret any of her decisions. Her degree had led her to finding a hobby she adored - photography. And having a freelance job meant that she could stay with Namjoon - who earned a significantly larger amount than her - and move whenever he needed to move as well. This was also how she had met Taehyung 3 years ago - a happy coincidence of events when she had been taking pictures outside the museum at Seoul. They had started talking about art and photography, eventually realizing that they lived in the same part of the city. In addition to Yuri, she also considered Taehyung to be her best friend. She had seen him during one of his lowest moments when Seokjin had left home; and then some time later when he had found Seokjin living in the town Ahreum and Namjoon had recently shifted to, she had stayed by him as he grappled with his anger and frustration towards his older brother until an eventual reconciliation.
But at this moment, she was beginning to lose patience with him. Five minutes before she was about to leave for her meeting, she received a bunch of frantic texts from him.
8.25 am
T: ahreum?? are u up??
T: jimins still in custody
T: im so worried
8.26 am
T: u there?
T: i want to visit him...
T: will u come with me?
8.27 am
T: hey
T: ???
T: i didnt sleep much so i dont wanna drive there
8.28 am
T: are u sleeping?
T: ???
He knew she had a meeting today. He knew how important the meeting was for her. She had spoken about it many times. Not for the first time, Ahreum wondered whether Taehyung cared about her beyond what directly concerned him. If it wasn't somehow relevant to him, he never seemed to remember much. It was a careless apathy that had hurt her during the beginning of their friendship, but she had accepted it as a part of him.
Her meeting was at 9 am and she usually needed 20 minutes to get there on her bike. She closed her eyes and mentally rehearsed the points she was going to bring up during her meeting. Her phone pinged once more, breaking her concentration.
8.30 am
T: hey
T: can u pick me up?
She frowned and shot a quick text before pocketing her phone and strapping on her helmet.
A: sorry have a meeting... talk later
As Ahreum sped through the narrow lanes, she was convinced that there was no way she was going to talk to Taehyung today. He would have to manage on his own for once.
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Yuri and Jeon sat across from a very nervous Park Minhyuk, his bloodshot eyes indicating that he had been brought in after a rough night.
"Good morning." Jeon began the interview, his notes stacked neatly in front of him. "You were very hard to get a hold of, Mr. Park. Specifically because your company categorically states that you've been out of the country for business."
"I-" His face was white as a sheet.
"When we called your office, we were told that you are often out of the country on business trips. Short trips," Jeon flipped through his notes. "A fortnight, 20 days at max. Your secretary was very obliging - he told us that you traveled on October 12th and returned on October 27th. Then left the country again on November 1st and returned on November 16th. Another trip between November 22nd and December 6th. And finally, one more on December 10th from which you still haven't returned."
"Your phone records are very interesting, Mr. Park," said Yuri, joining in. "I'm DI Choi, by the way, and I will be assisting DI Jeon as his partner on the case. Now -" she opened the file in front of her and took out a particular page - "is this your cell phone number?"
"Yes, but-"
"Our Telecomms division looked over recent activity over the last 3-4 months. While your office confirms that you have been on multiple trips out of the country from October onwards, your phone has been operating in Korea for almost two months. Can you tell us why?"
Minhyuk remained silent, his hands clenched on the table.
"Do you recognize this?" Yuri placed a plastic bag on the table and moved it towards him.
The remaining color drained from Minhyuk's face as he stared at the ring inside the plastic bag.
"Let me help you out, Mr. Park," she continued. "This is an heirloom from your mother's side of the family. There was three such rings - one buried with your mother, one on your brother's finger, and one found at the scene of Son Eunbi's murder. Can you tell us how your ring found its way to a murder scene?"
"I didn't kill her!" Minhyuk looked like he was going to pass out. Jeon poured some water into a glass and passed it to him.
"She was dead when I got there!" he said after gulping down the water. His hands were shaking by this point.
"If she was dead when you got there, why didn't you call the police?"
"I..."
Faced with a possible murder charge, Minhyuk looked frightened but not nearly as forthcoming with an alibi as one would have hoped.
"Mr. Park," Yuri spoke after a period of silence. "Did you know that Ms. Son had a three year old daughter named Gina?"
Minhyuk gulped, his eyes breaking contact with hers. He removed his hands from where they had been clenched on the table, choosing to hide them in his lap.
"Are you Gina's father?" she continued. Minhyuk head shot up at her question.
"H-how did-"
"When did you find out?" she asked.
Minhyuk sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I guess there's no point in denying it since you know everything." He reached out and finished the remaining water in the glass. "In October, after I came back from a trip, I happened to meet her by chance and Gina was with her. It was odd, the way that she tried to avoid talking to me. And the fact that Gina also had clear grey eyes."
For the first time since the interview started, Yuri realised the resemblance between the Park brothers was limited but striking. Their eyes were the exact same shade of grey - while Jimin looked cold and unwelcoming, Minhyuk's glasses did well to give him a warmer appearance.
"I asked her why she hadn't contacted me when she got pregnant. Or in the three years since Gina was born."
"What did she say?" asked Yuri, softly.
"She was scared that I wouldn't believe her." Tears had started to roll down his cheeks. "I loved her... so much. And then she just disappeared one day. I tried so hard to find her but..."
Jeon poured another glass of water for him.
"I told her how happy I was to hear about Gina. That I wanted us to be a proper family. I was willing to do whatever was necessary if that's what she wanted as well. I think she was beginning to warm up to the idea. I even told my father to postpone my next trip so that I could spend a little more time with both of them. But-"
"But?"
Minhyuk stared at his hands, looking tired and dejected. "He - uh, he wasn't happy when he heard about Gina. My father has very particular expectations."
"What did he say to you? Did he threaten you, Mr. Park?"
Minhyuk let out a soft chuckle. "My father doesn't threaten. He suggests."
"And what did he suggest you do about Gina and Eunbi?" asked Jeon.
"That I stay away from them. For the sake of my inheritance."
"And did you?"
"I was planning to... I-I was meant to travel the next day and I thought I would go and see her once more before I left. But when I got there..."
Minhyuk covered his face with his hands, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself.
"What happened when you got there, Mr. Park?"
"She was lying there... in a pool of blood. Gina was asleep in the back. I-I didn't kill her. You have to believe me."
Yuri and Jeon exchanged a quick look as Minhyuk protested his innocence. They were aware that the homeless man had killed Son Eunbi. The DNA found at the crime scene confirmed the fact that he had stabbed her. But they needed Minhyuk to give them as much information as possible.
"I'm afraid we do not conduct our investigations based on belief, Mr. Park," continued Yuri, shuffling her notes meaningfully. "You still haven't provided us with an alibi for that night. Strange thing - the Park family seem to have a particular aversion towards providing alibis. Your brother was also extremely resistant when we spoke to him."
"You spoke to Jimin? What for?" Minhyuk's expression had changed completely. He looked strangely alert.
"I guess you aren't aware that Jimin was arrested for the murder of Kang Eunwoo on December 15th." Jeon spoke deliberately, hoping to elicit a reaction. And he was successful.
"What?! That's impossible! There's no way he could've done that!"
"Why are you so certain of that?"
"Because he was with me on December 15th!"
"I'm sorry but we can't take you at your word. You can't even provide a proper alibi for yourself on the night of Son Eunbi's murder. How can we be sure that the two of you aren't just covering up for each other?"
It was then that Minhyuk realised that he would need to come clean. There was no way to save Jimin without telling them the entire story.
"Fine," he sighed. "I'll tell you everything."
"Everything?"
"Yes. If it can help Jimin, I'm willing to risk my father finding out."
Yuri glanced at Jeon who gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
"Go on."
"After I saw Eunbi... lying there, I couldn't leave Gina. No matter what my father had said, I couldn't leave my daughter in such a situation. So I... took her away with me."
"Where is Gina now, Mr. Park?" Yuri asked, frowning.
"She's safe."
"Where is she?" asked Jeon, sharply.
"In Busan. I have an apartment there and she's been with me since that day."
"Why didn't you tell the police that you had her? Why does your company believe that you are abroad on a business trip?"
Minhyuk rubbed his eyes tiredly and drank some more water. "I couldn't let my father find out. Jimin and I have an apartment in Busan that we bought under a different name. It was a place our father couldn't find us. Gina's been staying there with me since 2nd November."
"Are you sure your father thinks you're abroad? It doesn't seem like something easy to cover up."
"Jimin helped with that," said Minhyuk, leaning back into the cold metal chair. "He told father that I had run away because he hadn't been understanding of my situation with Gina and Eunbi. Jimin's good at convincing people - it's a talent he's barely ever put to good use."
"So Jimin knew that you were hiding in a secret apartment with your recently discovered daughter?"
"Yes, he did. I have an alibi for 2nd November. I was in a meeting till 9 pm and then stopped for drinks at a nearby fried chicken place till 11 pm. I was a bit tipsy after that, which is why I decided to visit Eunbi and Gina. After taking Gina away from there, I went to Jimin's place, got the keys to the apartment and drove straight there. I think I reached around 2 am."
Yuri jotted down all this information, making a note to check on every new detail that had been mentioned.
"What about December 15th? You said Jimin was with you. Why?" asked Jeon, folding his arms across his chest.
"We meet once a week to make sure everything is going okay," said Minhyuk, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Sundays are usually the best days for that."
"Where did you meet?"
"At the local ice-cream shop," Minhyuk frowned, trying to remember something. "You know the one near the end of town?"
"The Dairy Berry? Yes, I know which one you're talking about." Jeon gave Yuri a brief nod to confirm that this was a legitimate spot and not something Minhyuk was making up on the spot.
"Gina loves sweet things and I thought it would be easier to take her with me the same day I met Jimin. I think we were there till 10 pm. After that, I dropped Jimin at a bar and drove back home."
"Which bar was this?" asked Yuri.
"Sunset."
"And you drove straight home after that?"
"You can check the dash cam on my car and the security tapes at my apartment building, if you want."
"We definitely will, Mr. Park," said Jeon, surveying him carefully. "In the meantime, you will be in custody until we have verified each and every single thing you just told us. So I suggest you keep yourself hydrated."
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Yuri could feel a pair of eyes on her as she spoke to Jisoo and Suho.
"We need to verify everything that Park Minhyuk told us. But there's a lot of ground to cover and we've lost quite a bit of time since the murder of Son Eunbi. So I suggest you recruit some uniformed officers as well." Jisoo jotted down the locations and the times they needed to verify, and nodded to Suho to indicate she had forwarded the details to him. "We need to get the information as soon as possible."
"Will do," said Suho, giving her a reassuring nod.
Yuri waited for them to leave before walking over to the person who had been watching her for a while.
"Did you want to talk about something?" she asked Seulgi.
"I-" Seulgi tugged at her sleek, high ponytail, looking oddly hesitant. She seemed in a better mood than earlier in the morning when she had almost scared one of the interns into leaving the country. "Do you have a minute?"
"Yeah- " Yuri checked the clock on her phone - "just a minute though. I'm waiting for Jeon to get a warrant from Goh."
"Did he-? I mean, Jimin, uh... have you...? You know-" It was strange to see her grappling for words. "Are you certain he's done it?"
Yuri stared at her for a second. This wasn't what she had been expecting Seulgi to talk about. The doctor's relationship with Jimin was even more puzzling than she had originally perceived it.
"We're looking into it right now." She paused, trying to gauge Seulgi's reaction. "But you already know about the blood sample match - that, in itself, is pretty damaging."
"Y-yeah, I know."
Before Yuri could say anything more, Jeon came out of the Chief Inspector's office. "We've got a warrant to search Minhyuk's apartment. Let's go."
Glancing one more time at Seulgi's ashen face, Yuri put on her coat and scarf and followed Jeon out the exit.
Once inside Jeon's car, Yuri debated whether or not she should attempt to engage him in conversation. Her decision was made for her when he drove onto the main road, and lowered the volume of the police scanner.
"What was Seulgi saying?" he asked, his eyes focused on the road.
"Just where we were in the investigation."
"I see."
Yuri fiddled with the button on her coat, itching to say more.
"What's the deal with her and Jimin?" she finally asked.
"I- what do you mean?" Jeon raised his eyebrow and gave her the most puzzled expression he could muster while trying to stay focused on the crazy traffic.
"Their relationship is... weird. He keeps flirting with her, and she is on the verge of ripping his guts out at every given moment. But just now, she seemed almost worried about him."
"I don't really know... they've never really seen eye-to-eye on much." Jeon checked the rear view mirror to make sure he was clear before deftly changing lanes. "Jimin has always been the person who tries his utmost to push everyone's buttons. And Seulgi... well, she has a lot of buttons."
Yuri snorted loudly. "That tells me nothing and everything at the same time. You really have a way with words, Jeon."
He smirked at this, his eyes never leaving the road. "So does that mean you trust me now?"
"No." She looked at him and caught the way his face fell slightly at her response. "But who knows what the future holds..."
The smirk was back.
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Ahreum had a terrible headache. She usually didn't get many headaches. So on the rare occasion that she did, it put her in a really terrible mood. The only person who knew how to handle this situation properly was Namjoon. He knew that she needed silence, dim lighting, green tea, fresh bread, and absolutely no unexpected company.
So when Ahreum got home after her grueling 3 hour long meeting, hoping to relax and recuperate, she wasn't too pleased to find Taehyung sitting in her living room, playing a very loud game on his tablet.
"You're back!" he yelled, once she slammed the door to make her presence felt. "I've been waiting for hours. How was your meeting?"
"'S okay," she replied, shortly. Taking off her coat, she opened the middle cabinet in the kitchen and searched for the green tea.
"Great! So do you wanna go and visit Jimin now?"
"No."
"What? Why not? You don't have anything else to do right now. Just come with me. Please!" He had walked into the kitchen and was standing in front of her with a pout on his lips.
As endearing as she always found his antics, Ahreum was at breaking point. She placed the cup on the counter with a loud clink, and turned to face him.
"Because I don't have time to follow you on your every whim, Taehyung. Because I have a life of my own. Because I am studying medicine, which, if you aren't aware, is a very taxing occupation." She paused for a breath, as his mouth fell open in shock. "Because I am not your babysitter. Or your handler. Or your caretaker. And I'm tired of being responsible for you. You're a grown ass adult and it's about time you acted like one."
"Ahreum, I'm-" His eyes were wide and worried, and she felt a tiny sliver of remorse. "I don't think you're my babysitter or handler or whatever. You're my best friend."
"I thought so too. In fact," she said, looking away from him. "I thought we were, or we could be, more."
"W-what? Ahreum?" Taehyung sounded so lost and confused that she was tempted to console him.
She walked to the front door and held it open for him. "I think you should leave now. I'm tired, I have a headache, and I don't want to be around anyone right now."
"Wait! What did you mean by that?" he asked, hesitantly standing at the entrance.
"I'm tired, Taehyung. I don't have the energy to explain everything to you. Now, please," she began closing the door slowly. "I want to rest."
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"It's clear!" The uniformed officer confirmed to them, before opening the door further.
"Okay, let's see whether little Gina is here," instructed Jeon, his face drawn into a frown.
Yuri nodded and walked into the room on the left of the large living area. It was a study of sorts, with a large wooden desk, a swiveling chair, and shelves upon shelves of books. She quickly checked to see if there was anyone in the room before shouting "clear!". There was another door connecting to a smaller room, it's walls bathed in bright sunlight and smelling of soft lavender. This was clearly some sort of guest room, judging by the inconsistent decor theme. The furniture looked sleek and modern, but the sheets on the bed were soft and pastel colored. A bunch of soft toys stood leaning against the flat screen tv, and Yuri realised that this was probably the room that had been hastily fixed up for a small child's unexpected stay. And sure enough, soft strands of brown hair peaked through the large covers on the bed.
She walked over to the bed slowly, not wanting to startle the child. Yuri barely managed to stifle a gasp as she looked into the child's clear grey eyes - the same color as both Park Minhyuk and Park Jimin.
"Hello," she said, softly. "Are you Gina?"
The little girl nodded, bringing the covers closer towards her.
"I'm a police officer. I help catch bad people." She didn't respond, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Do you want to go to your dad, Gina?" She nodded vigorously, sitting up at the mention of her father. "Okay, we will. But first, tell me, are you okay? Do you feel pain anywhere?"
The little girl shook her head.
"Are you sleepy?"
Again, she shook her head.
"Are you hungry?"
Slowly, she nodded her head.
"Okay, we'll go and see your dad, and also get you something to eat. Is that okay with you?"
"Yes."
"Wonderful."
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It was just after 2 pm and Yuri felt completely drained. After they had found Gina, she had insisted on returning to the station to ask Jimin about his alibi for the night of Kang Eunwoo's murder. From what she had understood, he had refused to provide an alibi to protect his brother and keep him out of the police's radar until the situation with Gina worked out. Even though she still couldn't get herself to consider him a pleasant person, his desire to protect his brother had humanized him a great deal in her eyes.
Sure enough, once he was made aware that Minhyuk had come forward and spoken about his daughter and the events of the past month and a half, Jimin looked much less hostile than before.
"I was at Sunset from around 10.30 pm to closing time - which is 2 am," he said, sighing tiredly and rubbing his face with his hands. "You can confirm with them."
While Minhyuk and Jimin's alibis were verified, Yuri received a text from Namjoon, asking her and Jeon to meet him at Seokjin's bakery. It was barely a 2 minute drive there, so Jeon suggested they get lunch over there and make it before Goh finished compiling the list of paperwork for them to finish.
The smell of freshly baked milk bread wafted out of the kitchen, adding another layer of warmth to Seokjin's cozy shop. The man in question picked up the large tray filled with various different confections, and brought it over to the table by the window.
"Peach danish and americano for Namjoon, chocolate fudge brownie and vanilla bean ice cream for Jeongguk, and a snow croissant and hot chocolate for Yuri." He placed everything on the table, before grabbing his lukewarm cup of tea and sitting down with them.
"So you finally find the child, then?" asked Seokjin, sipping the tea. He made a face at the odd taste that tea acquires when it's between comfortingly steamy and soothingly chilled.
"Yeah we did," Yuri replied, when her partner remained silent. "Goh is dealing with Minhyuk and the custody charges. It's no longer in our jurisdiction."
"Namjoon, how's grad school treating you?" Seokjin diverted the conversation, realising that his friend wasn't ready to talk about the case at that moment. "How much longer do you have?"
"A few more months and I should be done." Namjoon wiped the pastry flakes from the corner of his mouth and nearly tipped over his americano in the process. Yuri chuckled at this, suddenly remembering those random moments in high school where Namjoon was a lot thinner and less confident, but still had a propensity for knocking things over.
"Remind me why you're putting yourself through this?" Seokjin broke off a piece of the peach danish and popped it into his mouth.
"The last time I tried to explain that, you spaced out and created a new pastry recipe for your menu. As much as I like helping your business flourish, I'm gonna preserve my energy and only talk about things when necessary."
Seokjin chuckled and picked up a spoon from the dispenser. "Jeongguk, can I get a bit of ice cream from you?" There was no response, and looking at him for confirmation Seokjin's eyebrows shot up in alarm.
"Okay okay, I won't eat any of your ice cream. You don't have to tear up about it!"
Yuri and Namjoon turned towards him as well, not sure what to do when they saw tears slowly sliding down Jeongguk's cheeks.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" asked Namjoon, patting his shoulder softly.
They sat in silence, as Jeongguk sobbed softly and wiped his face with his coat sleeve. He turned towards Yuri, his eyes glazed with tears but holding a soft radiance unlike what she was used to.
"Thank you."
Yuri felt her face heat up suddenly. This wasn't what she had been expecting. The soft sincerity in his voice startled her. It was nothing like the person she had met only a week ago. She looked away abruptly and nodded her head.
"There's nothing to thank me for. This is our job."
Jeongguk smiled and resumed eating the disgustingly sweet dessert combination in front of him. He nudged Seokjin to take some ice cream like he had originally intended. There was silence once more, but this time, it was very different.
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Back at the station, Yuri finished the paperwork for the day. There was a lot to complete, and since they had stopped at Seokjin's for a break, they had lost some time as well. Goh had been very clear about completing all the paperwork for social services to take over the case from them now that Gina had been found.
It was barely even 5 pm but Yuri felt a large yawn coming on for the third time in the past few minutes. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to carry on without getting proper sleep at night. At this rate, she would eventually burn out. There was only so much coffee could do for her.
A light tap brought her attention to another person standing in her cubicle. She looked up to see Jeon holding two steaming cups of ramen, tilting his head slightly to confirm whether it was okay for him to sit down.
"Did you need anything?" she asked, after moving her slightly. He placed the ramen on her desk and pulled up his own chair and sat down.
"I've got a peace offering," he gestured to the ramen. "I wanted to apologize properly for being an absolute dickhead to you. I-" He hesitated, looking down at his hands that lay clenched on his lap - "I don't really have an excuse for my behavior but I had a lot on my mind. Particularly about finding the little girl. And, well... you really don't know what solving this case means to me."
Once again, Yuri wasn't sure how to react. She felt embarrassed that he was thanking her for doing her job - something that he did as well. While she appreciated his apology, his entire being remained confusing to her.
"Don't worry about it," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "And thanks for the ramen; food is always appreciated."
Thankfully, her computer ping-ed with a new email before the atmosphere could get any more awkward.
"Okay, we've confirmed Minhyuk's alibi's for 2nd November and 15th December. He wasn't involved in either murder. Jimin was with Minhyuk till 10.15 pm on 15th December - his car's dash cam confirms that he dropped Jimin off at Sunset bar around that time."
"Fantastic! And what about the CCTV footage at Sunset? Does it confirm Jimin's story? He said he was there till 2 am."
"Hang on, I'm opening the report. Th-" she stopped abruptly, frowning at the screen.
"What?" asked Jeon, looking over her shoulder to read the email.
"CCTV footage does not place Jimin at Sunset from 10.15 pm till closing time at 2 in the morning. He doesn't have an alibi for Eunwoo's murder."
She turned to look at him, an odd sense of foreboding hitting her as she realized that they would have to charge Jimin for murder by the next evening. He held her gaze, his dark eyes reflecting a similar shadow of doubt.
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please reblog and leave a comment if you liked this part! thank you! 😊 
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wanderchyld · 4 years
Text
More PBIO/IOTNBO Theories
Read my theory on Do Heejae and Head Nurse here
Again, note that if I quote anything, it might be a mix of Netflix’s subs and my translation because I know Korean and Netflix tends to miss nuances sometimes so I sometimes ignore their subs or change it another language.
Is Moonyoung an orphan? Probably.
Moonyoung has mentioned twice that she’s an orphan, and… I think she really might be an actual orphan adopted by Go Daehwan and Do Heejae. (Ahem, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy is an orphan too.)
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In ep 1, she told Juri that she’s an orphan and she knew that. Juri replied, "But your mother is alive," before Moonyoung interrupted that she registered her death a long time ago.
Considering that they were friends and fell out before Moonyoung transferred schools (I assume due to her mother’s death and her father landing in the hospital), Moonyoung definitely didn’t confide in Juri about what happened to her parents. Juri didn’t know Do Heejae died. Then how would Juri know Moonyoung’s an orphan if Moonyoung meant she became an orphan from Do Heejae’s and Go Daehwan’s soul’s deaths? Moonyoung probably told Juri she’s an orphan when they were still friends.
In ep 11, Netflix subbed her words to Sangin as "Family? I’m an orphan," but the original words are actually, "Family? I’m originally an orphan." Dun dun dun~
Someone (I forgot who and when) said Go Daehwan built the house to celebrate Moonyoung’s birth and for his wife to focus on her writing. Only Moonyoung knows the accuracy of this information. In ep 6, when Moonyoung told Sangtae the Bluebeard story, she voiced over a flashback of Go Daehwan showing a woman around the house (which strangely looked already lived in, completely furnished and decorated with full shelves), but her stomach was flat and they were not carrying a baby. She was also wearing heels; no pregnant Asian would wear heels even in the first term.
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Now, let’s take a look at Sangtae’s collection of Moonyoung’s books. (He has 2 copies of Moonyoung’s bestsellers or his favourites of her books! 1 for keeping and 1 for his drawings. How cute is that ❤️)
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Left to right: "The Boy Who Fed on Nightmares", "The Anglerfish’s Grip", "Even If It’s Money, Oh? Mummy", "The Ugly Dog’s Child", "The Girl Who Rode The Wooden Horse", "The Cheerful Dog"
Technically, 머니머니해도 어? 머니 (Even If It’s Money, Oh? Mummy) translates to Even If It’s Money, Oh? Money but “어? 머니” is a play of words on mother. When you put these 2 words together, it’s 어머니 or mother. The cover also has a mother and child to confirm the word play.
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Why isn’t it "Oh! Mummy" and not "Oh? Mummy" like they’re unsure about the mother?
Back to ep 1, Sangtae was playing an ep of Dooly.
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The particular scene played was of a conversation between Dooly and his guardian Go Kil Dong, where Dooly said he decided he would love Go Kil Dong.
The point: Dooly’s an orphan and he loves Go Kildong. Moonyoung told Sangtae, in ep 9, that she likes the character Go Kildong too.
There have been some mentions that Moonyoung looked like her mother and that she’s as beautiful as her. But maybe Moonyoung’s birth parents are beautiful too? Lol
Moonyoung’s obedience and abandonment issue
Moonyoung has always known she’s an orphan. When a child is adopted, it is natural they feel insecure and become afraid of being abandoned. Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing mentioned an interview that he was adopted and grew up with a lot of love from his adoptive parents, but he still had that insecurity and was afraid they would send him away so he worked very hard to be good since he was young.
Moonyoung must have felt the same, and I’m betting Do Heejae used abandonment against little Moonyoung so she would be obedient to her.
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What else could cause excited little Moonyoung to be mean to Kangtae in a split moment with her mother? By that age, most kids would have felt comfortable talking back to or disobeying their parents even just a little, and the parents would allow it sometimes (even my 4-year-old cousin started at 3). But little Moonyoung couldn’t even assert herself.
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There have been hints that Moonyoung has abandonment issues and it is embedded in her brain that children have to be obedient to their parents or they would be abandoned.
1. What she said to Kangtae in ep 3 caused Kangtae to be got offended by her objectification, however, it really reflects on what she thinks about the parent-child relationship.
“Children dump their parents when they pass their expiration date and reek a rotten smell. Parents embrace the children who often behave cutely, and dump the stupid and useless child.”
(These are Moonyoung’s actual words. I know Netflix translated differently but this explains better why Kangtae was so offended he had to get off the car.)
2. In ep 7, Director Oh read Go Daehwan’s files to look into the family’s relationship. In one session, he mentioned that Moonyoung was obedient to her mother.
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Had insomnia for 3 days. Said his daughter is so scary he couldn’t sleep. Then he smiled and described his daughter as pretty like her mother. Seems to have ambivalent description of daughter. When asked if his daughter is good-natured, he questioned whether a daughter who is obedient to her mother is good-natured. When I answered I’m not sure, he doesn’t say anything and stared out the window. . . . Session ended as he looked tired.
So obedient that if her mother told her to do bad things, she would do it.
3. She felt abandoned when she learnt Juri didn’t want just one friend.
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4. She has a book (The Ugly Dog’s Child) named after The Ugly Duckling which is about a baby swan born into a family of ducks that felt unwanted by practically everyone (ducks, geese, etc.) before a bevy of swans accepted him.
Fun note: The Ugly Dog’s Child is a wordplay. Just remove 1 character and it's The Ugly Son of a Bitch. 😆
Go Daehwan’s deal
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Here are some things Go Daehwan has said about Moonyoung and Do Heejae.
To Juri in ep 1:
“If Moonyoung comes… die.”
This could be interpreted in 2 ways:
He would die because Moonyoung would kill him. (Juri’s interpretation)
Moonyoung would die.
This scene comes after the horrible dad tried to kill his daughter thinking it would protect her. This insinuates that Go Daehwan tried to kill little Moonyoung to protect her.
To Head Nurse:
“She’s so pretty, just like an angel. Moonyoung’s mother.”
To Director Oh:
“My wife? She’s very intellectual and elegant. She loved our daughter terribly. Very terribly.”
A conversation with Director Oh:
Go Daehwan: She’s the same as that woman. Everyone’s deceived by that woman. A devil lives under that angelic face.
Director Oh: Every human has good and bad traits.
Go Daehwan: That woman is a monster. She killed someone. I’m telling you, she killed someone. Director Oh: Where is that monster?
Go Daehwan: I killed her. I’m sure I killed her but she came back. She came to kill me. She’s going to kill me.
Go Daehwan’s condition corrupts his memories, so he has been mixing Do Heejae and Moonyoung up. This condition may have caused him a mental breakdown too when Moonyoung was little. 
Earlier, Director Oh suspected Go Daehwan strangled Moonyoung at the hospital because he mistook her for someone else (Do Heejae).
Park Ok Ran told Head Nurse that Othello killed his wife because of a misunderstanding.
I’m guessing…
Do Heejae found out she killed Do Heejae so he killed her.
Moonyoung was seen by the lake with a woman drowning. Maybe he thought Moonyoung was the culprit.
He realised Do Heejae was grooming Moonyoung to be a mini-me, so he tried to kill her to release her from Do Heejae’s clutches and prevent her from becoming worse. (Remember he questioned whether a child is good-natured if she was obedient to her mother.)
The Anglerfish’s Grip might be based on Do Heejae’s obsessive control over Moonyoung.
End.
I have no idea how this links to Head Nurse aka Do Heejae’s sister if it’s true.
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I have another theory but let’s see what happens in this weekend’s eps 😅
Random note: The Anglerfish’s Grip was a little hard to translate. 손, 아귀 directly translates to "hand, anglerfish" but when the 2 words are read together, 손아귀 translates to "grip." The book cover has an anglerfish (the book Kangtae picked up in ep 1 in the meeting room) so I translated it as The Anglerfish’s Grip.
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captainsolare · 4 years
Text
Forgotten Promises - ProHero!Bakugo
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A/N: The banner makes this look way angstier than it is lol but anyways, I hope you enjoy this. It was an idea that was bouncing around my head for a while. When I first got this idea, it was originally going to go down a different path, but I think this came out better than I what I was originally thinking. I did a lot of research so I hope this comes across well!
Summary: A young pro!Bakugo makes a promise to a dying man, little did he know that promise would come back unexpectedly years later when he is named guardian to a girl he has never met. 
Warnings: angst, blood/injury mention, fluff, Pro!Hero Bakugo
Word Count: 4474
---
The heat hit his skin in waves, the smell of smoke accosting his lungs and clawing its way out in coughs and gags. “Come on, I know there’s one more extra in here.” Bakugo hissed into his sleeve, trying to find the said extra in question. “C’mon Ground Zero, what did we say about calling civilians extras?” Kirishima said in his earpiece. “Shut up Rock Hair, I’m a little busy trying to do my job here in case you hadn’t noticed.” “Yeah yeah ----Over there! I think I see the last one!” Kirishima exclaimed, pointing at an arm waving frantically from under a pile of rubble. 
Bakugo and Kirishima carefully but quickly picked their way across the rubble. 
“Are you okay?” Kirishima called, and received a weak groan in response. “They’re alive! Let’s get them out.” Bakugo grunted in response and the two of them worked to move the rubble that was trapping the civilian. Kirishima used his hardening to help hold it up while Bakugo pulled the civilian, it was a man, out. They immediately exchanged a glance upon seeing the man’s condition; it looked bad, definitely broken legs, ribs and maybe an arm. He also had a head wound that was bleeding excessively. “Alright Red, let’s get him out of here.” Bakugo said gruffly. Kirishima nodded and as they prepared to bring the injured man to the awaiting paramedics, he weakly pulled at Bakugo’s sleeve. “Wait, my niece she’s still in there somewhere, last I saw she was by the fountain.” Kirishima looked at Bakugo for confirmation that he could make it the rest of the way on his own, and Bakugo nodded. Kirishima set off, back into the smoke and heat. 
As Bakugo carried the man to safety, he tried to keep him awake and talking after they cleared the smoky area. “Hey, don’t you go passing out on me old man.” He said gruffly. “Your name is Ground Zero right son?” the man asked. “Yeah that’s right.” “Can you promise me one thing?” “What is it?” “Please take care of my niece, Cecilia, when I’m gone.” “S--” Before Bakugo could fully answer,, the man was whisked away by paramedics for treatment. When the area was cleared and the ordeal was over, Bakugo and Kirishima headed to the hospital to get checked out, per procedure. “Hey nurse, is this the hospital where all the victims from the incident this afternoon were brought?” Bakugo asked. “Yes I believe so Mr. Ground Zero, is there a particular reason why you’re asking sir?” “There was a civilian brought in earlier, lots of broken bones, is he going to be okay? And his niece.” “Umm, let me check my chart sir. I’ll be right back.” 
“What’s that about? You usually aren’t that interested in the civilians after we save them.” Kirishima asked, giving him a puzzled look. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.” “Ground Zero sir?” Bakugo looked up at her expectantly. “It looks like all the patients brought from the area you’re asking about are all currently doing okay.” Bakugo let out a small sigh of relief. “Thank you ma’am, we’ll be going now.” “No problem! Be safe out there Red Riot!” As they exited the hospital, Bakugo seemed distracted. “You okay man?” “Fine, nothing to bother with. That man we saved, he just asked me a weird question.” “What did he ask?” “If I would take care of his niece if he died.” Kirishima stopped short and gave him a worried look, “And what did you say?” “That’s the thing, he was taken away by the paramedics before I could reply.” 
“Hmm, well I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, I hope they pull through.” “Yeah…” 
The man lived, and so did his niece, so Ground Zero thought this would be the end of his ordeal, oh how wrong he was. 
-----
Several years passed and Ground Zero, now in the top 10 in the charts, was sitting at his desk doing paperwork when there was a knock on his office door. “Mr. Ground Zero sir?” his assistant asked. “Yes? What is it?” He asked, looking up briefly. “There’s a man here to see you? A Mr. Ikeda? He says it’s an important personal matter.” Bakugo was puzzled at that, he didn’t recognize the name and he hadn’t been involved in any scandals recently. There was only one way to get answers though, so he decided to speak to this mysterious visitor.. “Okay, send him in.” He said. The assistant nodded and buzzed the man up. 
Out of the elevator stepped a short man in a black suit and dress shoes.Yeah, no idea who this guy is.  “Ahh you must be the famous Ground Zero. It’s nice to finally meet you.” The man extended his hand out to shake and Bakugo took it. “Uhh, yes that’s me. My assistant mentioned you were here on an important matter?” The man nodded. “Please, step into my office.” Bakugo said, gesturing to the open door in front of them. Once they were inside, Ground Zero’s assistant shut the door behind them. “Please have a seat, uhh Mr. …” Bakugo said, awkwardly trailing off when he realized he didn’t remember the man’s name. “Oh dear, I didn’t introduce myself, I’m terribly sorry. I’m Mr. Ikeda a lawyer, and I’m here on behalf of my client Mr. Kobayashi.” 
That name rang a bell somewhere in the recesses of Bakugo’s mind, but he pushed it aside for the moment. “Ahh I see. Well, what can I do for you Mr. Ikeda? Is this about property damage? Because if so, my legal team can help with that.”
Mr. Ikeda chuckled, “No sir, I can assure you it’s nothing of that sort. The truth is you have been named a beneficiary in my client, Mr. Kobayashi’s will.” Bakugo widened his eyes in surprise, “Really? I don’t remember having a close relationship with the man, this, Mr. Kobayashi.” “Are you sure? He came into my office several times near the end of his life as we were updating his will and he talked about you frequently.” When Bakugo still looked puzzled, Mr. Ikeda decided to try to jog his memory. “He specifically recounted the incident a few years ago when you and Mr. Red Riot saved his life and that of his niece’s.” Alarm bells began to ring in Bakugo’s brain. “Oh, yes, I remember him now. And he named me a beneficiary in his will?” 
“Yes sir. He left a significant portion of his estate to you.” “I see, did he tell you why?” “He did, but I’m afraid I can’t go into all the details right now because I have another appointment across town. Here’s my card,” Mr. Ikeda said, standing up and handing Bakugo his business card. “Please come to my office tomorrow at 1:00 PM, we can discuss this matter further there. It’s rather complicated, legally speaking.” “O-Okay, I will stop by tomorrow then.” Bakugo replied, as he escorted him to the elevator. “See you tomorrow.” Mr. Ikeda said with a wave. 
“Fukuzawa, cancel all my meetings for the rest of today and tomorrow.” “Yes sir! Should I move them to later this week?” “That works for me, thank you. Duskbreaker!” Bakugo yelled. “Yes Ground Zero?” “You’re in charge for the rest of the day, I have business to take care of.” “Yes sir!” His sidekick said. Bakugo changed out of his hero outfit and tried to gather his thoughts. So the man I saved in that disaster a few years ago named me in his will? I don’t know why I have such a bad feeling about this. 
The next day, Bakugo went to the address on the business card; the building looked cold and sterile from the outside but once inside, he felt like he had stepped into a completely different building. Everything looked to be made out of cypress or pine, paintings hung from the walls and potted plants were strategically placed around the entryway. He finally made his way to the reception desk and stood there awkwardly until the receptionist looked up. “Hello sir, do you have an appointment with us or do you need to schedule one?” “Umm, I think I have an appointment, but it might be under my hero name. Mr. Ikeda didn’t make that clear yesterday when he stopped by my agency.” 
“Oh yes, you’re Mr. Ground Zero correct?” Bakugo nodded. “Great! He’s been expecting you, go down the hallway to your left, his office is at the end.” “Thank you.” He replied, and followed her directions. 
Despite his calm demeanor, Bakugo was quite anxious about this meeting; the words “complicated, legally speaking,” weren’t comforting at all. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. “Come in!” he heard Mr. Ikeda’s voice call. Bakugo pushed the door open and was met with an office full of plush furniture and a big oak desk. “Have a seat and we’ll discuss your inheritance from Mr. Kobayashi.” Mr. Ikeda walked over to a file cabinet and pulled out a manila envelope. 
“Okay, so Mr. Kobayashi outlined you and one other person as beneficiaries to his will but in this meeting we will only be discussing what pertains to you.” Bakugo nodded, gulping a little bit. Mr. Ikeda pulled his reading glasses out of a desk drawer and put them on fishing the papers out of the envelope. He scanned through the document, finally getting to the last page and cleared his throat. “So you have received a large sum of money from Mr. Kobayashi, a little over 1 million yen.” Bakugo’s jaw nearly dropped in surprise, “He left me that much? But why? Doesn’t he have family?” 
Mr. Ikeda gave him a bleak look. “He does have a niece, but he was her guardian. To my knowledge, her parents passed away in a plane crash so she had to move here from the states to live with her uncle because he was her only family. Her uncle put all of her inheritance in a trust but since his niece is a minor she can’t access it until she is 18. That’s where things get complicated, he named you as guardian of the estate and guardian of the person.” 
Bakugo blinked, “Wait, what does that mean exactly?” Mr. Ikeda sighed, “In simple terms, you have been put in charge of her finances and physical assets until she is 18, and you are now her legal guardian.” Bakugo fought the urge to stand up and raise his voice. “Wait so, now I’m just expected to take in this kid, that I don’t even know, and take care of her? I’m not even in a relationship at the moment and now all of a sudden I have to take care of a child?!” “I understand that this is a shock,” Mr. Ikeda said, “You are allowed to relinquish guardianship, but unfortunately since she has no living relatives she will go into the foster system.” Bakugo took a few calming breaths, “Can I have a few days to think about this?” “Of course! But decide soon, a child’s fate is in your hands here.” Mr. Ikeda said with a smile. Bakugo took another deep breath, “Okay, I’ll try to let you know my decision soon.” “Great! My assistant will walk you out, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to call.” 
As soon as Bakugo was in his car, he screamed at the top of his lungs. He wasn’t quite sure what emotion he was feeling, anger? Loss? Guilt? All of the above? None of the above? All he was certain of was that he needed to figure out what to do. He wasn’t sure why Mr. Kobayashi had put this responsibility on him, he was just a hero in his twenties and now he was in charge of a little girl he had never met. 
His mind flashed back to that day, and that damned promise. Heat was everywhere, the smoke choking, people screaming, people crying, and an old man, asking if he would take care of his niece if he didn’t survive this. He remembered the sense of relief he felt when he had learned that the man would be okay; since then, he’d saved many people, many survived, some didn’t. Those he didn’t save haunted him, but the old man and his mysterious niece lingered in the back of his mind, not ever occupying his daily thoughts, but it came up in nights where he wondered if he’d ever have to make a promise like that again, a promise to a dying man. 
Bakugo hit the steering wheel with his palm, still at a loss of what to do. He decided that going back to the office in this mindset would be unproductive, calling his sidekick to inform them they’d have to take care of things for the day. Then he called his mother, asking if he could come over. Mitsuki of course, said yes, and he drove right over. 
He didn’t even have to knock, his mother was opening the door and pulling him into a hug. Much to her surprise he hugged back, tightly, as if he didn’t want to let go. After they pulled apart, Mitsuki pulled him to the living room to have him sit on the couch. “What’s bothering you?” She asked. Mararu soon appeared, mugs of coffee in hand. 
“I’m in a difficult situation.” Katsuki began, taking the mug of coffee gratefully. “What kind of situation?” Masaru asked. Bakugo took a deep breath and told them the situation, starting from the beginning. Masaru and Mitsuki’s eyes widened as he told the story. Once he was finished, they all sat in silence for a moment. “Well, what do you think the best thing to do is?” Bakugo asked, brows furrowed. 
“Well, I don’t really know either honey.” Mitsuki replied, exchanging a glance with Masaru. “Personally, I think that you just have to weigh your options carefully. If you surrender guardianship, you’ll still be in charge of her assets right?” Masaru asked. Bakugo nodded, “Yeah, I think so. I think that’s what the lawyer said.” “Okay, with that in mind, are you confident that you’d be able to know what she needed if you weren’t living with her? You’d have her foster parents or whomever was taking care of her to deal with if she wasn’t living with you, and they might try to put their own agendas into whatever they ask of you in regards to those assets.” 
Mitsuki nodded, “Yes, unfortunately there are a lot of greedy people out in the world, who might take advantage of the fact that you might just give them whatever because you’re so busy with your hero work.” Bakugo nodded at their words, taking a sip of his coffee. Masaru reached over and placed his hand on his son’s knee, “I hope you know that whatever you decide to do, we’ll support you fully. If you decide to have her live with you, we can help watch her on nights you have hero work, or when you have long missions.” 
Bakugo breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t know he needed, “Thank you, I needed to hear that. I’ll let you know when I make my decision.” After he finished his coffee, his parents walked him to the front door and waved as he got into his car. He took a long glance at the place that shaped him before driving off. Could I be that place to someone? 
--- 
He pulled up to his apartment complex and got out with a sigh, he felt strangely defeated somehow even though he hadn’t even made a decision yet. He walked inside, nodding to the doorman, and rode the elevator up to his floor. His large apartment felt empty when he entered it, no lights were on save the one above the stove. He walked down the hallway and opened the doorway to his guest room, currently there was no bed and he was using it for storage; he stepped back and made a rectangle with his hands, like an artist trying to fit the world in a canvas, and imagined the room with a bed, and the walls perhaps painted pink, or whatever color little girls are into these days; and despite his usually prickly nature, the corners of his mouth tugged upward into a smile. Maybe… Maybe I should say yes. 
He shut the door, a little surprised with himself; his eyes were drawn to the running shoes at the end of the hallway and pictured a smaller pair next to them. He shook his head, “I’m getting way ahead of myself here.” Maybe a run will clear my head. 
Bakugo got changed into more suitable clothing and went outside into the warm evening air. After a while of running, he stopped at the park near his apartment and took a breather on a bench. His attention was soon grabbed by a little girl squealing happily as her father pushed her on the swingset. He wasn’t sure if the sight made his heart melt or hurt, but either way, he wanted to get home. He decided to walk back to his apartment rather than running. As he walked, he thought about the day's events, they had been unexpected that was for certain; he had a feeling that his heart was already swaying in a particular direction, but he wanted to at least take 24 hours on it, like Mr. Ikeda had said, a child’s fate was in his hands. He returned to his empty apartment, ate dinner alone, and took a shower. Before he turned his light out to go to sleep for the night, he took one last glance at the guest bedroom and as he crawled into bed for the night, he wondered if the child was doing the same. Is she lonely? He wondered as he stared into the dark, she must be. I can’t imagine being alone in the world. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to do so, but he threw open his curtains and stepped out into the moonlight on his balcony. She won’t be alone anymore, she’ll have me. 
The next morning, the first thing he did was call his parents, they were overjoyed to say the least. He then phoned Mr. Ikeda, who told him to come in later in the day to sign the proper paperwork and discuss meeting his new ward. At the agency, his sidekicks could all tell that he was distracted but only Duskbreaker dared to ask him why. “Less chatting, more patrolling.” Bakugo replied. He pulled his assistant into his office and asked her to arrange for “the best children’s bed money can buy that a young girl would still like” to be bought and dropped off at his apartment. A confused Fukuzawa nodded at the request but nonetheless complied. “Right away Ground Zero.”  As soon as he could, he headed back across town to meet with Mr. Ikeda once more. 
“How wonderful to see you again Mr. Bakugo, can I call you that?.” He said, shaking Bakugo’s hand across the desk. “Yes sir, I don’t mind. You too. So… how does this work exactly?” Bakugo asked. “All you have to do is sign a few papers, and then you will officially be Miss Cecilia’s guardian, and in charge of her assets.” “Okay, sounds good.” Bakugo replied, grabbing a pen from the desk with shaking hands. Mr. Ikeda marked the places he needed to sign with xs and handed them over to Bakugo to sign. Once Bakugo was done signing he wasn’t sure if he was elated or feeling physically ill. “When do I get to meet her? How old is she? Does she know what her quirk is yet?” Bakugo asked, the questions coming a mile a minute. 
“We can arrange for you to meet her whenever you want, does tomorrow evening work?” “Absolutely, hero work permitting.” Bakugo replied, his heart was racing. “Cecilia is 8, her birthday is December 13th and her quirk is an emission quirk, I believe that she can emit flames from her fingertips up to a certain distance.” “Okay, okay.” Bakugo tried to commit these facts to memory, he knew just the person to help with understanding the fire part, even though it would be a pain to ask IcyHot for help. He was inwardly elated that she had an emission quirk that had to do with her hands, if she wanted to do hero work someday, he would be able to help quite a bit because it was similar to his own. “Well, that’s all I have for you today. Hero work permitting you shall meet your ward tomorrow night. I’ll call you in the morning with details of where to meet.” “Okay, thank you for being so helpful with this sir.” 
On his way back to the agency, Bakugo called his parents, and then Kirishima. It was an interesting phone conversation to say the least, but once the initial shock had passed, Kirishima was supportive and offered to come over to help build the bed if necessary. “Order in and have drinks while we work?” “Just as long as you promise not to break anything Rock Hair.” Even over the phone, Bakugo could tell that his friend was smiling. “Stop smiling doofus, I’ll see you tonight.” “Yeah yeah whatever, see you tomorrow Dadugo.” Kirishima said, hanging up before Bakugo could protest about the new nickname. 
Everyone at the agency could tell that Bakugo was both happy and nervous for the remainder of the day and the next. Bakugo was even nice to the civilians bombarding him for autographs for once. Finally, the evening arrived, luckily the city was quiet in his district and so he was able to get off and get ready for the important meeting. Bakugo got dressed in a suit, wanting to make a good first impression, but ditched the jacket upon looking in the mirror. Why the hell am I trying so hard? This feels ridiculous. He made a quick stop at a convenience store to buy some flowers and a teddy bear, “Hot date?” The clerk asked with a smile. Bakugo tried not to glare, but his nervousness made his response harsh. “Mind your own business.” 
Bakugo pulled up to the restaurant and checked his hair in the mirror one last time. He sat down in the booth Mr. Ikeda had reserved, Bakugo was the first to arrive. He checked his watch, leg bouncing uncontrollably. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants, sure that he’d never been this nervous in his life. When Mr. Ikeda and the social worker arrived, Cecilia in tow, Bakugo thought he was going to cry. They introduced her to him, then departed for another table, leaving Cecilia and Bakugo alone at the table. 
“Hi, Mr. Zero.” Cecilia said quietly as she sat down. Despite his trademark gruffness, Bakugo chuckled, “No need for that. You can call me Bakugo, or Mr. Bakugo if you feel more comfortable. Heck, you can even call me Katsuki if you want to.” Once they each got past their initial shyness, Bakugo found that beneath her shy exterior lay a precocious and energetic girl, fascinated by the world around her and very well-spoken for her age. And Cecilia found that beneath Bakugo’s intimidating first appearance, he really was a kind man, and he was just as nervous about this as she was. (It also helped that he gave her a teddy bear, teddy bears always help.) 
Once dinner was over, the social worker helped move all of Cecilia’s belongings into Bakugo’s car. The car ride was quiet, and once they moved all of Cecilia’s belongings into his apartment, they were both exhausted. “Do you want me to help you unpack tonight or would you rather wait until morning?” Bakugo asked. Cecilia thought for a moment, “I think tomorrow will be fine, thank you Mr. Bakugo.” “Okay, I’ll be up in the living room for a little while longer if you need anything. The bathroom is right across from your room if you need it.” Cecilia nodded, and began getting acclimated to her new space. 
Bakugo was reading a book on the couch when Cecilia wandered in, “Umm Mr. Bakugo, would you read me a bedtime story and tuck me in?” she asked nervously. He looked at her with wide eyes, surprised that she would ask such a question. “Sure.” He answered slowly, “Umm, you pick a book and I’ll be in there in a second?” “Okay.” 
Bakugo lingered at her doorway, not sure if he should just walk in or wait to be invited. Cecilia sat on the bed, new teddy bear next to her and book in hand. “You can come in and sit, you don’t have to just stand there.” she said. “Right, sorry. I’ve… never done this before.” Bakugo sat cross legged at the end of her bed, and read a few chapters of the book she had chosen; it was a series he hadn’t heard of before, probably American. After he was done, Bakugo awkwardly pulled the blankets up to the girl’s chin, “Goodnight Cecilia, anything you want for breakfast in the morning?” She looked up at him with a sleepy smile, “Chocolate chip pancakes?” Bakugo smiled, “You got it.” 
Bakugo retired to his room to get ready for bed after she drifted off to sleep, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders; despite his nervousness about all this, it seemed to be going better than he thought it would. He switched the lamp off, and just as he was about to drift off to sleep a sniffling shadow appeared in his doorway blanket and stuffed bear in tow. “Mr. Bakugo, I had a nightmare, can I sleep in here tonight?” Bakugo tensed at the question, he wasn’t prepared for this, but he thought about how he used to go into his parents’ room at night when he had nightmares and figured this was the least he could do. “Sure, just be warned, I get up super early.” “That’s okay, I don’t mind.” Cecilia crawled into the bed, and Bakugo was grateful that he had invested in such a big one; he figured with all the messed up things that happened to this kid at her young age, this might be a common occurrence. Bakugo switched off the lamp once more, and said a goodnight. And they both drifted off into sleep, ready to embark on this new, awkward and unexpected journey of being a new “Dad” and being a kid living with a pro hero. 
They didn’t know just how good yet, but things would definitely be good, and the goodness would officially start with chocolate chip pancakes.
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