i'll see you on

holy water cannot help you now. i don't want your money i don't want your crown see... ive come to burn your kingdom down

[dovetaiils]

@jxstiice​

it’s early — that much is certain. nero is one to keep early mornings and late nights as his work calls for it and today is no exception. it’s barely dawn as nero starts his routine and gets in touch with the world, combing through the thousand threads he has in play at the moment. in one hand, he holds his coffee. his other hand skims across the morning paper, feeling the ink as he internalizes the information he’ll need for his business of the day. a buzz of his phone gets his attention, a notification from his preferred news provider, the headline catching his attention immediately. he recognizes these names. 

he gives a hum and a tsk, lowers his mug from his mouth, opens the article on his phone. a barely contained smile dawns on his face as he scrolls through the article, making his way towards their bedroom. “darling,” he calls out as he reaches the door. his voice is purposeful, a tone that he reserves to let ajax know that business is afoot. “i think it might be time to get in touch with that cousin of yours. he’s in the news this morning.” his steps seem to glide as he makes his way over to their bed, sitting on the edge of it as he tsks again, seemingly in pity this time. “oh, it seems as if someone can’t let that silly old case die down. they’ve… well. done something damaging.” his phone is set beside ajax, black letters damning his cousin with no doubt illegally obtained phone taps. “i think i know that journalist….” nero’s eyes trail off onto their new york skyline, bringing his coffee back to his mouth for another sip. 

[jxstiice]

he awakens when nero leaves the bed, but makes no move to show it this morning, hovering between sleep and wakefulness for a while more. that is, until he hears nero call out. with a deep inhale, he sits up and blinks a couple times as nero sits, “hmmm?” brows furrowing with immediate focus as he reads the others’ phone. a lot growl comes from jax as he reads, “confessed? what kind of idiot--” he huffs a little, clearly annoyed that this sudden smear had appeared, especially to someone in the family-- not that he was particularly loyal to his blood, but they could certainly put a negative spin on his own carefully crafted public perception.

“what did this overly-concussed ogre do now?” he asked as he put the phone within view of nero as well as he pressed play on the video. jax releases a mix between a growl and a groan as the video shows his cousin intoxicated, bragging about fun with the girl from the trial. a couple seconds pass after the video ends as he thinks. in fact, he sets the phone on the bed and begins to pace in nothing more than his underwear, mind already working to find a fix.

“that video didn’t exactly look like a straight confession. it looks like a police wire,” his tone is thoughtful as he continues, “but would it be worth going after NYPD? risky.” after a brief pause, he huffs with a rather dramatic eye roll, “i’d rather lock him in a damn basement for the rest of his life. do we have to clean up every mess?” he lets out his own tsk before turning back to nero with a sigh. “can we use the journalist?” he arches a brow, “we’ll have to clean this up somehow.”

[jxstiice]

funkymysteries‌:

alex returns the smile. she’s significantly less relaxed ( whether or not alex cabot is even capable of relaxing in any work-related environment remains to be seen ) , but she enjoys ava’s company. more so than most of her coworkers. “ i’m sure that makes this whole … pageant more enjoyable. ” she’s glad , genuinely , that someone’s having a good time. alex was practically counting the minutes until it was acceptable for her to slip out , go home , pour herself a glass of wine , and watch an hour or two of some mindless gameshow until she fell asleep. “ my bosses might become suspicious if they sense i’m having fun. they’re still … watching , i guess. ”

“i’ve had scarier old men in weirder places, makes this kinda thing easy,” she chuckles as she settles in properly for a conversation, especially while it was just the two of them. the detective is careful to keep her voice so only alex could hear, not a hard feat in a room filled with voices and music. to everyone else, they were two more in the crowd, “watching? someone let something slip?” in other quarters, her reaction may have been a bit more protective. after her experiences, ava believed the world needed more people like alex cabot, ready to bend the rules for the greater good, “can i help?” she asks seriously, though keeps her face visibly pleasant.

[jxstiice]

throwback - 2015

[jxstiice]

dovetaiils‌:

nick isn’t a stranger to fun — not by a long shot. it’s made him more than able to keep his head in the face of copious amounts of alcohol, something he prides himself on; a talent of sorts. in the face of this night, the liquor has been free-flowing in the presence of old friends. now, with just the two of them left, he can feel the evening winding down. he gives ava a loose smile, painfully aware they’re nearing last call but finding it in himself to let that go and just enjoy the last scraps of the night. “i mean, do i have a choice?” he answers her first question with a question — though, he’s sure she doesn’t need an answer to it: it’s a given by now that’s he’s all for sticking it out with ava. “mira,” he mimics her start of the sentence as he takes the shot from her hand. “you trying to get me drunk? is that what’s happenin’?” he gives a short shake of his head and raises his shot to toast with her. “salud.”

"gotta fuel up for the rest of the night, right?” she reasons with a charming smile, raising her own shot to him. where she so often shouted a deep ‘oorah!’ she now let herself enjoy sliding back to her home traditions, “salud,” she says with a little reverence, one may not notice if they weren’t paying attention to her, because after tossing it back she made a smooth recovery with a satisfied sigh. she was about to make another witty comeback when she heard the music shift to a telltale beat of drums followed by a loud set of strings. ava’s entire face lit up as she recognized KISS come on. in a swift movement, she made sure his shot glass ended up back on the bar and hooked her hand around his arm, “shut up, we’re dancing,” she announces rather abruptly with an excited smile, the first ‘I want to rock n roll all nite,” beginning as she tries to move them to an open space.

[jxstiice]

dovetaiils‌:

her defense of barba goes down just as she expected. he’s not exactly popular amongst her little circle ,  and while she’s disappointed in the verdict ( and the ada’s performance ) , she can’t not speak up for him. he’s not here to defend himself , so it just didn’t feel right to sit back and let them talk shit about him , even in their justified anger. “ look , i’m not saying he did that out of the goodness of his heart just to save our precious jobs , ” she glances at both , trying to make them understand , trying to get them to see both sides of this shitty equation. “ his job would’ve been on the line too , so yeah , he saved his own ass. but the defense could’ve found out how we got that. they could’ve walked anyway. ” it’s the sad , disappointing truth. the fact sometimes , it just didn’t matter. the bad guys could still get away with their crimes.

eyebrows raised , eyes darting between jules and the memory stick. she takes another sip of wine , considering his suggestion. she’s never been a risk taker , not like her friends , but this time , it might just be worth it. “ liv … ” she starts , measuring the words that come out of her lips. “ doesn’t know about the tape. ” she pauses , letting it sink in. she knows she’s practically giving them the go-ahead. not like they’re the kind of people who wait for permission anyway. she continues , answering the unspoken question in the air. “ i talked to barba. he’s not telling liv. ” sure , barba would know the leak came from either jules , ava , or bea. and he could still tell the lieutenant after the fact. but that was a problem for future beatriz. “ do it. ”

the moment ava speaks, he feels a pang go through him. doubt or dissuasion, he’s not sure but he stays quiet through it all. then bea brings up the amazing fact that ava’s claim has no basis. not only that, she encourages him. it makes him raise both eyebrows, chuckle out a laugh. “beatriz,” he says, scandalous tone bordering on incredulous. “that’s the spirit, huh?” he snatches the drive from its space, twirls it around his fingers like the world smallest drumstick. “leaks come from anonymous sources all the time. hand it over to the right people and… destiny takes over from there.” the way he looks out of the window at nothing but another brick wall would be poetic if not for the overly analytical tone he takes. “it’s not our call if a reporter uses it or not. we simply provide it at their own discretion.”

he looks back at his friends. “’course, you guys didn’t hear anything. plausible deniability or whatever a lawyer might say.” his smile is something wry, mischievous. up to no good. “what else is there to talk about? boys? girls? hell, how are your dogs?”

the whole bad guys can get away is a concept ava has had trouble with her whole NYPD career. she was often careful about comparing her past job overseas to her current job. too much comparison felt dangerous around civilians, and she’d seen vets go south. ava burns was determined to never let that be her, so her reaction to all this was something she was desperately trying to control. she was angry, insistent that enough hadn’t been done while knowing that the ‘more’ she’d try to do would be crossing a line. so, when julián gives the option he does, and moreso when bea encourages him, it feels like a bright shining spotlight has found the ‘more’ and ava is ready.

“fuck,” the curse is a habitual exclamation, and she says it quietly and she looks between them. slowly, she begins to nod, a grin coming across her face. truly, she couldn’t ask for two better friends. her eyes came to rest on the flash drive with a slow nod and a simple, “well alright,” before a ufll grin spreads across her face. she sips her wins again before whistling. with a quick clickclicklclick on the hardwood floor, lugnut came lumbering in and began happily sniffing among the three, searching for pets. the retriever was gentle, though quite insistent with the two guests at this point. [ @funkymysteries​ ]

“he’s a fluffy n’ happy boy, as he should be. and the only man i need in my life,” she pauses briefly before performing an affectionate eyeroll, “excepto papi, no one’s allowed to say i hinted at that to win brownie points either, jules.”

[cupcakeblake]

#my heart is healing #my skin is clear #my bank account is full #i am alive

[jxstiice]

throwback - 2015

[ @dovetaiils ] many of her friends had departed, but the normally-dedicated marine on leave was ready to enjoy herself a little bit more. sure there were times to drink overseas, but never in such a relaxed state, and certainly never with the face of makeup she had on now. no, but she sure liked being back in the city, asking for another shot of her favorite tequila that her favorite Queens bar had. she spotted one other late nighter, grinning as she settles against the bar next to Nick Amaro. her hair tumbles around her shoulders as she tilts her head, "you sticking it out late with me?" she asks as the bar tender arrives with her shot. she nudges her old friend next to her encouragingly as she nods to the bartender, who moves to get Nick a shot as well, "mira, I've been living off of shitty jack for too long now, this patron is everything," she chuckles, and for all her talk of enjoying the patron, she's still steady on her feet. she's not interested in losing the night, or being miserable the next day. she just wants to have fun, in a way that’s impossible where she’s due to go back in a few short days. when the bartender comes back, she takes both shot glasses, offering him one hopefully, simply raising an eyebrow to him with a wide smile.

[jxstiice]

dovetaiils‌:

rafael doesn’t get to dwell on his mistake for too long because — then ava is there, in front of him, risking her life like the great cop she is. and it’s all — it’s so much. his mistake might cause ava’s death because she’s put herself here in front of him. she’s talking and rafael watches the thug’s face change, he can pinpoint the moment when the man has had enough of her. 

a second later, and it’s all shifted. ava finally identifies herself and the man gets spooked, rafael notices the way his eyes widen. he steps back, loses his footing, and — his breath catches itself in his throat as he hears the gun go off. 

it’s deafening in his ears, makes him startle with the sound. he winces, the man falls on his back, yelping. rafael can’t tell if the shock has made a wound unidentifiable or if he was actually lucky enough not to be struck. his right ear is ringing with the sound and when he touches a hand to it, it comes back slick. blood. the tip of his ear is bleeding. he’s been nicked by the bullet, just barely inches from his head being blown clean off. his held breath leaves him in a few short gasps, stumbling back a few steps as a sense of relief fills him. his ear. his goddamn ear. 

she blinks, and realizes very quickly she’s not shot, before the man on the ground does. she completes three rapid things in the span of a few seconds, training more than kicked in by now. first, she ( perhaps a little roughly ) puts one knee into the mugger’s back as she cuffs him, “you stay the fuck down or i guarantee you rot in a cell for the rest of your life,” she doesn’t need to yell, she can feel him panting under her. second, she retrieves the freshly-fired gun. with expert knowledge, the magazine slides out and she catches it, stuffing it away in her back pocket and before tossing the gun away. finally, she turns to barba and rushes over. only the sight of him standing told her she could take care of the other two things, only a few seconds passing with them, but when she looks back the blood is more pronounced. she can tell he was grazed, and doesn’t hesitate before going in for a closer look.

“estás pero si pinche pendejo!” she unleashes a shout at barba without missing a beat. her words don’t stop one hand from going to his ear to put pressure, the other reaching for her phone, “yeah, just tell everyone with a gun you’re some rico cabrón ” she shakes her head at him as she dials 911, “pinche brillante,” she mutters just before the dispatcher answers, “detective burns, 16th precinct SVU, we had an attempted mugging, perp in custody, we got a minor bullet graze on an a.d.a, roll a bus please,” she shoves the phone back in her pocket before making eye contact with him.

“you feel this, right?” she could guess, but she wants to hear him speak. her heart rate is settling, “you’re good, your ears may be lopsided, but you’re good,” her voice holds a few ounces less harshness now. with a quick glance back, she assures the man is still laying cuffed on the ground. she simply catches barba’s gaze again, shaking her head, though with the addition of a small, steadying chuckle, “realmente eres un afortunado hijo de puta.”

[funkymysteries]

morgan stands at the foot of the courthouse steps , gazing at the path she’s so often walked down after winning yet another case. this time , she’s dressed casually , and holds a large cup of black coffee in each hand — she’s not here on business. she’s waiting for someone else to walk down those steps , someone she’s scared she might be losing forever after she drops this bomb. [ @jxstiice ]

“ aves ! ” she beckons her over , coffee raised. she hopes the old nickname and friendly smile will make things easier. “ we should talk. ” as much as she would like to just catch up and chit chat with ava , she’s never been one to beat around the bush.

[jxstiice]

she walks out of the courthouse as if it’s normal, rushing down the front steps and not delaying with the flurry of activity around... that is, until she sees morgan. she stops and turns on her heels to the woman, small smirk appearing as she approaches, “hey, what’s up?” she greets happily, though she can’t help her eyes narrowing and head tilting, “everything okay? doesn’t exactly sound like I’m in for a load of sunshine,” she comments wryly.

[jxstiice]

the weight of her sigh could be felt, if anyone else had been in the office with her. at the moment, olivia was alone, glasses slid down the bridge of her nose as she read the witness statements again... and again, and even once more. she’d told lucy this was going to be a late night, but still olivia’s mind drifted to noah, long asleep by now. after a few more minutes, she puts the papers down and stares ahead as she ponders for a few more moments. she’s snapped away from her thoughts when she hears a knock at her office door.

“come on in,” she calls as she stands, minorly stretching a moment before crossing to the front of her desk. she removes her glasses and looks expectantly at the newcomer, a small smile on her face in greeting, “here with news, or to drag me out of here?”

[jxstiice]

he’s prepared to let her off with a warning. rafael knows that ava is a good cop, a great detective — but he also understands how she got caught up in the pursuit of what she perceived as justice. he understands — doesn’t condone it in the slightest — but he understands. the ghost of a smile on his face is in response to her version of an apology, one he will surely accept….

it drops the second the man appears. rafael has lived in new york his entire life, he knows what being mugged is like. that doesn’t make this any less awful. he squares his jaw, looking defiantly at the mugger in response to his crude insult he hurls at ava. he’s survived more than this. he simply refuses to be a victim of this man.

“my friend,” he starts in the steadiest voice he can muster. “i’m a new york city a.d.a. you might not want to do this.”

and that… that seems to be the wrong thing to say. it was always fifty-fifty and rafael is one for big gambles but he knows he’s made a mistake as soon the mugger turns the gun onto him. aimed square at his chest. it glints off the dim alley-light, shines like something out of a movie. rafael can feel his nerves fraying as the seconds pass. the mugger’s voice is a growl as he shakes the gun in rafael’s direction, doubling down on his threat. “get your fancy fuckin’ money out. now.”

ava shoots a wide-eyed look at rafael as he speaks, reveals who he is. if there wasn’t a gun in play here, she may very well have exploded with a flood of expletives, though there wouldn’t be much a reason then. ava moves with the man, putting herself between the gun and the lawyer, looking at the man with a deep warning in her eyes. by official military standards, she was deadly even without the gun at her waist, and in moments of threat she knew how to show it. [ @dovetaiils​ ]

“you want to stop. now man,” she speaks as she moves her hands to her back pocket -- conveniently right next to her gun -- and doesn’t pause in an attempt to distract him, “because this ends bad for you no matter what. just put that down and walk away, right now. hey, you got some problems? i get that, yeah, but we ain’t the ones you wanna hit tonight, so just--”

and then, everything happened in a rush. as he moved the gun to ava, clearly looking pissed that she talked so much, she revealed her own gun and put herself square between the a.d.a and the man. all at once, both are shouting to put the gun down, ava adding in her shouts proclaiming she’s a cop. as the sound of NYPD registered in the man, his eyes go wide. he moves, she tries to move with him, keenly aware that protecting rafael was the priority here. to the soldier, it was simple math. 

it’s pure chance that the gun goes off, and that fact is what ava ends up remembering above all else. she’s sharp, always has been, and she sees the man turn to run away from the cop. she also sees his ankle twist just too far. she sees his arm slip and the gun fire. the noise hits, and though she cursed herself for it hours later, she closed her eyes. she braced herself.

[jxstiice]

likecaskets‌:

just a few feet away from ava , beatriz lies on her stomach , propped up on her elbows as she leafs through some trashy tabloid magazine without really reading it ( she’s just looking at the pictures ). “ it’s justified , ” bea concedes with a shrug. it always sucks when months worth of investigation go down the drain on a technicality. “ i don’t think there was much of a buzz to kill in the first place. ” the loss hit them all pretty hard , so instead of a fun , light , giggly sleepover , their gathering is more of an bitter , gloomy , sulk party. “ we can fix that , however - ” she pushes herself up so she can reach her own wine glass. “ - by actually getting buzzed. salud , ” she toasts , tilting her glass toward each of her friends.

she’s on ava’s side , obviously. like any good partner , she was right there to back her play and hand over the flash drive to the prosecution. it was their hail mary , a last ditch effort to get justice. in that moment , she takes a sip , and pretends to savor the taste like she’s someone far more sophisticated who knows the first thing about wine tasting. “ yo sé que esto es una mierda , but barba’s just looking out for us. ” she knows the ada isn’t popular among this crowd , but thinks is still worth defending him. it was one of those cases where distance was practically impossible - they couldn’t separate their personal feelings from it. bea understands ava’s anger. but she knows the attorney’s hands are tied. “ estaríamos jodíos if he actually used it. ”

he’s bitter. of course he is. this whole ordeal has soured him from day one. evidence was delivered and not acted upon and it’s upset julián more than he’s let on — and boy has he let on, especially to the both of them. he raises his glass in response to bea’s toast. her next words make him roll his eyes but he hides the worst of it by tilting the glass to his lips, not very much savoring the wine as much as gulping it down. he can always count on bea to be the devil’s advocate when it came to barba. not exactly what he wanted to hear in this moment but he lets it slide enough to sigh and return his eyes to his phone.

“i don’t get what the point of being a lawyer is if you just let scumbags walk,” he murmurs under his breath, scrolling down his timeline. okay, maybe he’s not ready to let this slide. “maybe he just saved the thing to cover his own ass. ever consider that?” he lets his eyes wander to the the memory stick that sits between them, considering. scheming. “what do you think would happen if the tape just… leaked?”

“and since when do i need some culo abogado looking out for me?” she shoots at bea, instantly recognizing she was too harsh. she sighs and drinks, softening so her friend recognizes she didn’t want to fight ( sometimes a tough distinction with ava. ) after a moment, she relents, at least in that moment, “sí, lo sé... supongo.” [ @dovetaiils​ ] [ @funkymysteries​ ]

she raises an eyebrow as julián speaks, a small smirk at the first part. their distaste is similar, no one can deny that, and she does feel bad occasionally for piling it onto barba around bea... but then, it wasn’t like ava would be able to hide it for long. better to be up front about it. of course, she was also up front in the utter shock that spreads across her face at the next suggestion.

“uh, well, liv would probably fire my ass before i got three steps into the fuckin’ door,” she says quickly before pausing a moment. realistically, the lieutenant or a jury couldn’t prove it. sure, she was the cop with all the motive in the world but... if jules did it, it wasn’t like anyone would trace it to her. certainly he’d make sure no one traced it to him. her face went from shocked, slowly sinking into a more serious curiosity. she set down her wine glass and leaned in, “you serious right now?”

[flowflow24]

[rivermilfs]

[aliceshermione]

[melancoliedesames]

[jxstiice]

likecaskets‌:

with the last of the dishes from dinner done and dried, all that’s left is putting them away. he’s humming as he does so, at ease in the relaxation nature affords him. it catches him off guard but doesn’t startle him when ava calls to him, her question making him smile already. he’d had to learn constellations back in his park ranger days, though he’d had his eyes to the stars since before that, looking up their meanings since he was a kid. out here, knowing which star was which and in which season it was at was crucial to survival. he sets the final plate into the cupboard and calls back to ava, “sure do.” rudy walks outside, face already turned to the sky. “gotta know ‘em if you want to be a ranger. or at least, had to know them where i worked. plus, it’s always handy to know where a star’s pointing you, case you get lost in the woods.” his smile is small as he turns to ava, making his way over to sit by her. “which one’s catching your eye?”

“yeah? huh,” she does an approving frown with a nod as her eyes follow him once he appears, “they never made marines learn. couple guys knew ‘em and taught me easy ones. the belt one, that’s easy, but I never caught on in the field,” surely there were others she served with that seemingly spent their whole lives outside compared the girl raised in queens, and stars had never been high on her priority list, she was always moving too much. everything seemed to move slower out here, including time... and truly, she didn’t mind it too much, “i know the basics for navigating but... i dunno, the zodiac’s are up there, yeah? a buncha different little pictures hanging out above our heads,” her eyes travel from him back up to the sky again,  gazing over the tiny specs of silver dotted against the milky black backdrop. a soft smile was planted on her face as she perches her chin on her knee and looks back at him through a thin veil of her hair, “think you can teach me any?”

[quickasafoxandtwiceaspretty]

She’d had better first dates. 

It wasn’t as though Isabella could lay claim to a plethora of them or a trail of broken hearts in her wake. The guy seemed nice enough, but seemed a bit too interested in showing off his money and putting down other women for Isabella’s tastes. The carriage ride in the park had been far too showy. Her brief conversation with a pretzel vendor in Central Park had been the best part of the date.

“That was a waste of a good night,” she muttered under her breath as she took a seat at the bar. Seeing someone next to her nearly had her jumping out of her skin. “Shit, you scared me. Did I sit in your buddy’s spot or somethin’?”

[jxstiice]

it was a normal night for her, ending up at her favorite bar. she’d been in a casual conversation with the bartender, recalling an old case from when she was a beat cop, breaking up a family party that had been more amusing than alarming. however, traffic picked up and the bartender went along when the other woman took the seat next to her. ava heard the comment and she couldn’t help but turn her attention, she was always a sucker for a good story.

“nah, only me,” ava smirks in greeting, “you all good? need to share a story?” she went easy on the questions, not jumping into cop mode since the woman seemed to be put together, “ava. take a seat, have a shot,” she says, making quick eye contact with the bartender who started to come over.