all those remains

          watch me pour           them into the                      sea

[semiautomatxc]

Pandora isn’t mean to him like Bea is, but on a rare sober day he understood why she was so frazzled. Retirement didn’t bring in much money and losing Brynn after they already lost their mother was difficult to say the least. Roscoe wrapped his arms around his daughter’s waist and pulled her closer. He didn’t mean to cry, but he couldn’t help it.

“I love you.” he squeezed her tighter and sobbed. Roscoe’s always a mess but she still loved him anyway.

[shadowbxllet]

"Oh Daddy..."

Though she shouldn't be too surprised. Her dad was the Herros waste case. He wasn't used to kindness, not even from his family. Sighing, she hugs him just as tight. "You're silly," she says with a sweet smile before pulling away. "Do you want me to make you something to eat?"

[uncxertain]

The very air inside the room feels charged with magic. It’s radiating off Pandora, who looks radiant-as beautiful as ever, but somehow different. Not bothered by a change he doesn’t understand, Orion steps forward to close the distance between them.

“Funny, it hasn’t felt like home while you were away.”

[shadowbxllet]

Orion was sweet, and he smelled so. Nothing like the scent that'd been clinging to her when she first got him. Luckily, the shower had washed that all away. He didn't have to know a thing.

"Oh yeah?" she asks softly, taking his hands and bringing one up to her mouth for a soft kiss. Her lips drag across his knuckles before she smiles up at him. "Sorry it was longer than I expected." Two days longer. "My charge's castle got hit harder than we expected. These vampires, Orion, they're not like anything we've seen before." She could still feel the primitive creature snapping at her neck before she killed it.

[shadowbxllet]

Every day the skies grew darker, earlier. The air crisp enough to bite her nose. It was their favorite season. Pandora shakes her head, clearing the memory of her vampire from her mind. He was as good as dead.

A noise from the other room distracts her, and she looks up to find it. "Hello?" It doesn't take long for her energy to buzz in recognition, a smile spreading on her face. "Home already?"

[hybridthxory]

Bran didn’t have time to do much else before she was on him, he slides his tongue against hers savoring the taste of mint and magic. The electric feel under her fingers shocks his skin, but he loves the sensation. Bran holds her up with one hand and walks towards the couch. His other hand is wrapped around a breast, squeezing and rubbing his palm against it. He wants nothing more right now than to be one with her again.

When he reaches the couch he drops her on it then he rips his shirt in half to reveal her bare chest. For a moment, he stays suspended above her to drink in her body. His tongue slides across his bottom lip and he leans down to capture her mouth again. Rock hard against his jeans, he pushes his hips into hers and grinds against her pelvis.

“I missed you.” he breaks the kiss to whisper against her lips.

[shadowbxllet]

Everything was just as she remembered. Better. His kiss, his touch. The way he seemed to be starving for her, like no one else. When he exposes her body, she can't help but be bashful. She could walk around him completely nude and not care, but within context it was different. It was like he was stroking her with his transfixed gaze. "Bran..."

She lets out a bit of a squeak when he claims her mouth again, knees pushing nearly to her ears when he moves against her. "Mmm, missed you," she whimpers, too aware of the way her excitement is soaking through his denim. Her heartbeat must sound like thunder to his ears. Eyelashes fluttering, she reaches down to undo his jeans. Her fingers are nimble and quick, hand in his underwear in no time.

He feels good in her grip, and she makes sure to keep his eyes on hers. She wants to make him as crazy as he makes her. "Be with me," she murmurs, kissing the corner of his mouth. "Don't hide." It was clear he was holding back by the fact that he hadn't bitten yet. But she wanted it, she just had to convince him she did. "I want your bite."

[semiautomatxc]

Roscoe leans into her touch and yawns. He’s not sure how long he’s been up, so he ignores the question. She never answered his anyway.

“Don’t worry, Pan! I’m retired, I don’t have a bed time.” he laughs and puts his hand on hers.

[shadowbxllet]

Pan laughs with him, moving around the chair so that she can sit on it with him. She's more half on his lap and half on the arm of it.

She wishes she could tell him why she was home, but Bea had forbade it. Papa didn't need to know about the baby until they couldn't hide it anymore. She understood but she wanted to tell him because she's sure he'd be happy for her. He'd want her to be in love. "I love you just the way you are Papa," she says sweetly, tucking her head beneath his chin.

[semiautomatxc]

“Paaaann!” his smile is enough to stop anyone in their tracks, a genuinely drunk smile. He turns toward the door she walked in and asks, “How ‘avrey?”

Roscoe was drunk and confused, he couldn’t even get the words out correctly. He frowns and tries again, “Are you?” 

[shadowbxllet]

Pandora loved her Papa, no matter what anyone said. Sure, he made a lot of mistakes but he adored his girls. It was clear as day. She was just concerned for him.

"Papa," she says softly, shaking her head. "How long have you been up?" She looks at the bottles surrounding his chair and puts a hand on his hair.

[hybridthxory]

Bran’s hands snake around her body to find comfort in her warmth. He has to lean down, but he nuzzles her neck and listening to her every word. If it wasn’t his fault, then how did they end up like this? So many years passed by and he never thought to try and talk about it with her. Bran is ashamed, but at the same time very relieved.

“I missed you, too.” he says into the crook of her neck. He breathes her in as much as he can while he’s buried, and there’s something otherworldly about her scent. It had a twinge of some kind of magic or herb he could never put a name to, but it reminded him of when they were young. He’s careful not to break her skin with his teeth as he speaks, but it isn’t too hard for him anymore. Even though he really, really wants to he won’t take a bite right now. “Let the council pick up the creature.”

Squeezing her more, he starts to lick her neck softly, “Please… stay. You’ll be safe for the night.” He hasn’t seen this much love from her in a long time and he wants it to last forever.

[shadowbxllet]

Oh he knew how to work her. Shivering in excitement now, she has to bite down all the noises he hasn't heard in too long. It's not like they hadn't gotten close before, when tensions were running too high and all they wanted was to hold the other close. But not this close, with her thighs actually opening rather than pressing tightly together. He can smell her, he has to know how badly she wants to stay and the way he held her told her that he was terrified of her backing out.

"I know you'd keep me safe," she murmurs, head tilting to offer him more of her neck. The shirt she borrowed from him is hanging off her shoulder now. Her hands have dropped to the hem of the shirt he's wearing, slipping beneath so that she can lightly trace the definition of his torso. "You would do anything to keep me safe." She should fly away, she shouldn't do this but she felt so raw. She felt so loved. Breath shaking, she rubs her cheek on his until her lips find his.

Stars explode behind her eyes, whole planets falling out of the sky. The whine that results is almost inhuman, and in half a second she's jumped up to straddle his waist after having ripped his shirt open. She lets the tattered piece of cloth fall to the floor, hands still tingling with magic as she places them flat on his chest.

[hybridthxory]

Bran takes a step back as well as if she physically wounded him. She didn’t say it, she didn’t but she was going to and his face fell completely. His father… he hadn’t meant to do it. Those feelings he tried to deny back then, he knew they were love. It wasn’t tolerance or anything he tried to pretend it was. Growing older meant grower wiser sometimes and he had a thousand years to look back on it. It haunted him every day. Now he wanted to run in shame, he wanted to hide in his room and pretend nothing every happened.

She doesn’t give him a chance to explain he thought their little Bean died because of him. Bran didn’t get to say he was a monster and he was broken, so she was broken too. He didn’t get to tell her he stayed away because he believed she wouldn’t want to see him. She said ‘need’ and his eyes were back to staring at her very confused and lost like he misheard. When she clarified, he knew she was lying.

“Why do you think I would keep track of these numbers for you? You don’t come when I tell you willingly.” Bran doesn’t test the waters, he jumps right in and walks toward her to enter her space again. “I’m sorry, Pan. I’m sorry for leaving you to suffer alone and everything I say is going to sound like an excuse, but people grieve differently and I thought… you blamed me.”

[shadowbxllet]

"No." Pandora doesn't know how to respond, it's all she has. Staring at him with wild, wide eyes, she moves even closer. "No, no, I didn't..."

It's like second nature, the way her hand slides up his arm and over his shoulder. Behind his neck, to lead his face to the safety of her neck. Nails dragging through his hair, she murmured against the side of his face. "No, Bran." She's still stuck, but she doesn't think he can hear it enough. What happened wasn't anyone's fault. She'd spent years going over it in her head. Centuries. What could she have done differently? There was nothing. Somehow that made it worse, somehow that made her more ashamed. She hadn't stopped to think that Bran could end up at this conclusion. What a fool she was.

"Come here," she whispers, her other arm swinging up to wrap around his neck and pull him even tighter into her warm. "We can't change it Bran. I wish we could, and there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss her." It was strange, loving someone you only saw once. Sniffling, she pulls away just to lean their foreheads together. "That I don't... miss you." It makes her heart race to admit it, but he needs to know she wasn't hiding because she was ashamed of him.

[hybridthxory]

Bran doesn’t say anything before she gets up, but when she freezes at the door he takes that as his time to say anything. Bran sighs and rubs his face with his hands, suddenly exhausted by the conversation before it even started. “Pandora, have you ever thought that maybe I don’t want to do your job for you? If you need these numbers so badly you wouldn’t be hiding away.”

Bran stands up and is next to her in seconds pushing on the door to keep it shut. He leans into her personal space close enough for her to feel his breath on her cheek, “I never asked anyone to leave, you all just did it. I was treated like a monster so I became one. Do you want the number of humans or others hmm?” He’s whispering everything angrily, finally getting something off his chest he’d been holding on to for a thousand years. Bean nearly dying earlier set him on edge, seeing Pan only made it worse.

[shadowbxllet]

Pan's fight or flight instincts are kicking in, and she's literally shaking. She could just fly away, disappear. Her magic was low, but she could do it and she wouldn't have to face this. Trembling, she gathers the courage too turn her face up to him.

"I never did," her voice is quiet at first, thick like she's going to start bawling at any moment. It was embarassing, how many times he's seen her cry. "I never treated you like that, Bran." Her hand on the doorknob is sweaty so she drops it and stumbles back to put a little distance between them. "But what is your excuse for what you did, huh?" Her voice is growing in volume, more shrill than loud and now she has the courage to stare him down. "You weren't the only one in pain! I didn't go off the fucking deep end and-!" No, she wouldn't say it. She wouldn't throw that in his face, not the way everyone else did.

"How could you say that to me?" There is dead silence ringing in the room, and instead of running away she steps closer to him. "I was in so much pain, Bran, and you just... You lost it. You left me." Swallowing hard, she looks back down at his feet. "So yeah, I want the numbers and then I want to hide because looking at you reminds me of how much I fucking need you. Ok?" It's a moment before she catches her blunder, heartbeat picking up until even she can hear it. "Needed. I meant..."

[hybridthxory]

This close to her, he gets a whiff of fear and something else that causes his eyebrow to raise. “Yeah, yeah.” he waves off the usual like he always did and takes his seat across from her again. Bran feels like he’s staring at her for ages and the tension is growing with each moment of silence. It’s not exactly bothering him, but it’s making her uncomfortable and that’s the last thing he wants. Bran doesn’t want her to leave.

Her question makes him uneasy. So many of his coven had been lost, he could count the number he had left on one hand. Bean, and the two she saw when she got here. If he counted Arthur and his gang, that’d make eight total. Well… if Lila and Liam even counted. They were kind of their own thing. He sighs, “I haven’t had time to keep track of my kills for you.” He avoids the members because she didn’t need more reasons to be depressed.

[shadowbxllet]

It's hard to believe him. Pandora stares at him for almost a full minute before huffing and rubbing her forehead in frustration. "Brandon," she says tersely before looking up at him again. "You know that's part of the agreement. I stay out of your hair as long as you keep me up to date."

Pushing up off the sofa, she begins to make her way towards the door. What was the point in staying? If he did know the answers to her usual questions, then he obviously wasn't sharing with the class. She was stupid to think he'd change. "Call me next time you're getting your ass kicked," she bites, reaching for the doorknob. But something in her freezes when her fingers wrap around the cool metal. Then she softens, if only just a little bit, if only just long enough to look over her shoulder at him.

In a lot of ways, they're still just kids when they were with each other. Pining and longing and aching just to breathe the other in. But there was too much hurt there, and an emptyness she still can't fill.

[attire-broadcast-blog]

Big Girls Don’t Cry

[sayashley6]

I must take the baby steps ‘til I’m full grown, full grown Fairytales don’t always have a happy ending, do they? And I foresee the dark ahead if I stay….

[hybridthxory]

At that very moment, something in him seemed to slow down the rest of the world. Maybe he was just moving way too fast, but he saw everything because she seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace. Her top was already off, but when she brushed by her tights took years to fall to the ground. Bran could see blood cells rushing around through her veins as her muscles tightened to make the dive. Are his eyes working right? When she kicks up back above the water, he’s frozen with his fingers still resting on the zipper of his pants.

“It’s fine!” his voice is hoarse and his throat is begging for a taste, “We’re just swimming and it’s night, doesn’t matter really.” Bran tries to focus on the water instead and shoves his pants down. He steps out of them and leaves them along with his shoes in a pile next to her tights. Bran runs the rest of the way and jumps in a few feet from her.

[shadowbxllet]

Pan watches as he seems lost in time, her skin slowly heating up. Pounding, her heart was pounding. Blood pumping like a tidal wave. What was wrong? Then it clicks, she must look like dinner. "Oh, okay," her voice is small, watching where he lands. So oddly graceful, like when he was hunting. The perfect killer. Shivering, she fights back her fear and wades closer to him. Her smile is timid.

"Did you know that my element is water?" she asks softly, her magic already making the molecules surrounding them vibrate. "Cool, right?" The water goes from cool to warm from the vibrations, steam picking up around their forms. She stares into his eyes for a moment before squinting, resulting in a splash aimed at his face. Giggling, she dives to her left and tries to run away.

[hybridthxory]

What was it about her that made him hesitate to even take the bag? The smell emitting from her was an emotion he couldn’t put his finger on, but his mom smelled similar every now and then. He stared at her now with both hands at his sides, as still as the dead man he was. Or was he alive? Bran was different than most vampires, that was all he knew. 

Tapping his fingers at his sides impatiently he decides against taking the blood. Maybe later. He could hold off for a bit, he was sure of it. “Ha, just messing with ya!” He turns quickly on his heel to go towards the water behind him, maybe a dunk in the river would wash away his appetite. What in the hell did he just do that for anyway, why did he care what anyone thought about him? Bran shoved a hand through his hair before ripping off his jacket and shirt to toss them aside.

“Let’s go swimmin’, huh? It’s a nice night.”

[shadowbxllet]

Pan can't hide the way her mood soars when he decides not to take it, but it's not like he gets the chance to see her thousand watt smile. Unless he can smell how happy she is. She drops the blood bag back into her pack, out of her skirt and top in less than two seconds. Sprinting past him in just her tights, she kicks those off too before diving into the water. The coolness envelopes her, making her hair feel like a curtain of velvet and caressing her skin. She kicks to the surface and smiles at him. "Come on! It feels great!"

Her expression changes quickly when she sees that most of his clothes are still on. "Oh, right." She forgot that whole nudity thing could be an issue. Looking at her trail of clothes on the dock, she wonders if she should hop out and at least put her tights on. "Do you want me to...?" She gestures.

[positiveconduit]

Attempting to flap her wings was strange, she didn’t even know they were there until the world threw a fit when she nearly burned to death. A few specks of sparkly dust fell off of the twitching things as she walked which caused her to smile from ear to ear. Maybe a running start would help, so Lina backed up in the nearly empty main hall of her mother’s castle and set her posture as if she were about to run a track race. “On your mark!” she shouted cheerfully, “Get set!” she wiggled her butt in the air, “Go!”

Unfortunately, when she leapt she thought stretching her body like Superman would help. Landing hard and flat right on her face caused the sparkly dust to billow off her like dirt. Her eyes were shut and she wasn’t moving for several moments like she was now glued to the ground.

[shadowbxllet]

Pan watched from the balcony of the main hall, cleaning her favorite blade. It was weird, Queen Cat having a daughter. It was something the kingdom would have to get used to, but she's sure they'll take to it quicker than Lina would take to being a fairy. Seriously, what was this girl doing?

Still, it was kinda cute. Lina reminded her of her sister, Brynn. Every day she missed her older sister, who before Lina, Pandora had considered the literal embodiment of sunshine.

Sighing, she slips her blade back into her thigh holster and pushes herself off the balcony. Her wings slowly flap, bringing her down onto the floor beside Lina's prone body. "You're not going to learn to fly on a flat surface," she says blankly before leaning down to help her up. "Come on, let's go upstairs." She gestures to the balcony with her chin as she scoops Lina up under her armpits.

[hybridthxory]

Unlike his father, Bran thought he was smooth when it came to love or lust. He knew just the right thing to say and when to say it, but with Pan he thought his silver tongue turned to putty and he tripped over his words more often than he liked to admit. Or he just said the worst thing at the most inopportune time nearly every time with her. She walked away and he stood there, staring after her wondering if he should just follow her and do what he’d always wanted to.

Pan didn’t want that, or at least he’d never asked and was either completely oblivious to the signs or he was trying not to notice them. Bran ventured to the cellar quickly while she was away and ripped open a bag to eat and heal with. It was disgusting while it was cold, but he did what he had to in order to keep from feasting on her. Luckily she isn’t there yet when he gets back, so he just fixes his hair and sits in his chair across from the couch.

His eyes were glued to her face when she got back, and even worse than before now she was covered in his scent. Not only that, but her attempt to cover everything was failing miserably. Bran stood up and walked over to her and placed his hands on her knees. “Can I?” his voice was lower than it was earlier, he hoped it wasn’t noticeable. He didn’t wait for an answer before pushing her knees down so that her feet touched the floor. “And no, I’m not hungry.” 

[shadowbxllet]

Now that he is closer, she can smell the blood on him. He always smelled that way. Pan's spine goes rigid at his touch, and noticeably so. He doesn't give her enough time to prepare, and suddenly she's lurching slightly forward until she's leaning into him. Clearing her throat, she shifts until his hands slide off. "Well, you know the drill," she says softly, managing to keep the desperation out of her voice.

Her toes are digging into the rug beneath them, fingers toying at the hem of the shirt she's wearing. More than anything she wanted to be done with this check in so she could take the ancient vampire downstairs back to the Council. The longer she stayed in his presence, the harder it was to keep her hands to herself. "Any new coven members? How many kills this month?" She didn't really want to know, but she didn't let it show. Besides, he could smell how sad she was that she even had to ask.

[thewalkingcast]

Lauren Cohan talks about the fight scenes in The Walking Dead 6.13: ‘The Same Boat’