where — theseus’ quarters
when — red dawn rising, middle of the night
with — @goldentheseus
He can hear it in his ears, his heart beating, his blood pumping and he almost has to wonder if his eyes are red. They might be — he’s been crying, he thinks. He can’t quite the confines of his body at present, when he shoves a Pontius security team member aside to keep walking when they’re supposed to be on lockdown the sound is hard. This is primal, familial rage. It’s not denial: that step has been moved on from long ago, abandoned in his own room.
Death was always on their heels. He just always expected it to get to him first.
Mino knocks on Theseus’ door, or perhaps bangs is the better word. If Pontius was made of anything less strong, the hinges would creak, the wood would budge, he might even consider breaking the thing completely. But soon enough he’s there, whipping the door open and Mino stares at him, then pushes through, past him, shoulder blade against shoulder blade. There’s none of the usual warmth in this touch, . The door’s kicked shut, eyes trailing through the room and then he looks at Theseus when he knows they’re alone. “Did you do this? Theseus, I swear to Chaos, tell me you didn’t do this, that you didn’t go this fucking far —” What would he say? That Ari killed them, in a way, because Ari had taken their futures? What would he say to justify his own greed, this time? Mino inches close, his height used to its full advantage. (He knows how to intimidate, after all: that’s what he does best.) “You kill him? Did you kill my brother?” Maybe, distantly, he wonders if this is a miscalculation — but Mino has cooped up his anger for half a decade and now it is white hot, blinding, nothing else he is able to see.
where — orpheus’ quarters, pontius
when — week one of kalavria
with — @orpheusaoide
It’s always like this. Artemis lives her days with little regard, flying through moments of indulgence and little enjoyments and then ending like this. Staring at her ceiling, going over little cruelties, her little moments of lack and abandon. The thing with Artemis Rhea is, of course, that she has always lived her life being watched, being witnessed. Silver sparkling in a spotlight. A thousand eyes watching.
Turn off the lights, take away the audience and what does it leave you with? A shell of a human, maybe, or maybe just a human. All little wants and regrets, all yearning and self-hatred. Tonight, she cannot sleep. She blames the soft rocking of the ship, the way these sheets are not her own, but she knows there are other reasons. Back in Olympe, when she gets like this, she sometimes turns towards the hallway, padding the floor on bare feet, creaking open the door towards Orpheus’ bedroom.
Why shouldn’t she do the same, here? She wraps her body in a robe, takes her phone and moves, quietly down the hallways of Pontius. Hopes no one sees Artemis Rhea slip in the room of Orpheus Aoide, because the last thing she wants right now is relationship rumours about herself and one of Gaia’s most in musical artists, even if they’d be true. Maybe especially because they would be true.
She knocks, waits for two seconds, then checks the door handle. The door opens, surprisingly enough, and Artemis slips through the crack she creates herself. Eyes fall on Orpheus in their bed and she closes the door behind her, turns the lock and makes her way over. Doesn’t need to say it, but does: “I can’t sleep.” Even before they’d found themselves in their current situation – quietly and privately exploring the depths of their relationship beyond just friendship – they had slept together, in each other’s arms. So Artemis doesn’t ask if she can sleep in Orpheus’ bed, just waits for them to make room. “I think it’s the wind. It sounds like a ghost singing.”
where — ceto, lab 69
when — first week of kalavria
with — @dolusmendacius
There’s a soft sound as the door slides open, a sound that Scylla has come to connect with reprieve. For all the years she and her team have spent working in the silent shadows, it is quite a change of pace to work on a ship the size of a city. Unbecoming, really, though she won’t admit to that kind of simple weakness. But the lab is quiet and the lab is theirs and she expects it to be empty upon arrival — but of course, it is not.
“What are you doing here?” Her tone is sharp as she takes in Dolus Mendacius, eyes squinting a little at his presence. What a nuisance this person was proving to be, a fly in her ear, a mouse in the wall, a bird making a cacophony when she has not properly awoken. “Actually, never mind: do tell me what you’ve touched.” Meddlesome fingers: he reminds her a bit of a child that sticks his fingers in a tub of butter, licking them off before dipping in again. No doubt there’s a brilliant mind hiding behind all of it. “And what you thought of it.” In that regard, Pontius reminds her of GemTech: there’s clever people everywhere. Even if some are rather fucking grating. “Also, do you have any family residing on this ship? I met someone with the same surname as yours. Any relation or mere coincidence?”
“Whoever invented hors d’ouerves really deserves a raise. The smaller something is, the fancier I feel,” Cameron commented, picking some pastry thing up off a passing waiter’s tray and popping it into his mouth. “I guess that’s why I feel so superior when I’m around Levi.”
who: @santana-maribel and @finnsterhuddy.
where: santana & quinn’s apartment.
when: saturday 2nd may.
what: the “universe” aka santana’s clumsy ass interrupts yet another kiss between them during spin the bottle. but alone in the aftermath, they finally get their moment. with a surprising outcome. (surprising to everyone except jesse.)
warnings: drug mention.
Santana shuffled into Seb's arms and pressed her lips against his. It was an unnecessarily showy kiss, more tongue than anyone else seemed to be offering up, but that was just how they rolled. As she pulled away, she giggled again, before spinning the bottle herself. She watched as it spun round and round, making her dizzy before it finally stopped. On Finn. Santana lifted her eyes from the bottle, glancing up at him. She offered a small smile, her heart racing in her chest as she weighed up her options. She had wanted to kiss Finn for months now, but not like this. However, it was the rules of the game. The rules she'd invented in her head. So she leaned across, closing the gap between them. Her ears ringing, as their lips were closer than they'd ever been.
Finn was barely paying attention to the spinning bottle, and he hadn’t even noticed Santana was the one spinning it. It wasn’t until Chad stopped talking that his gaze turned to the bottle, the neck pointing straight at him. “Oh,” he huffed out, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. He meant to redeem himself from their failed attempt, but this scenario put some pressure he wasn’t expecting. Rules were rules, right? It would be idiotic for him to back down now, and it was Santana after all. He smiled back, adjusting his position so he could easily lean closer to her to meet her halfway, his pulse raising rapidly by the second.
Her eyes closed, her hand reaching over to cup his face as she shuffled forward. She heard the thud first, felt the wetness pooling around her knees second. As she pulled her face back and glanced down at the ground. She'd knocked over her glass, spilling the alcohol over the bottom of her dress and all over the floor. Her temper flared quickly. She fucking hated the universe. She was cursed, whatever was going on in the world, did not want her to kiss Finn Hudson. So fucking be it. She let out a forced laugh and rose to her feet, "i'm just gonna' clean up," she informed the group before leaving to her bedroom to get changed.
Finn was certain their lips had already met. Her hand was on the side of his face, he could feel her breath, even her body heat radiating onto his skin. But the next thing he knew, Santana had abruptly pulled away and his knee was soaked in alcohol. “Shit,” he muttered as he looked around for napkins or paper towels, but didn’t spot anything on sight. “I-I’ll join you,” he said in a rush, but she had already disappeared into her room. “Sorry guys.” He shuffled through the circle, grabbing some paper towels and patted them on the floor real quick before jogging after the party host. He arrived by the door frame of her bedroom, knocking lightly on the door. “You okay, San?”
Santana stood in the middle of her bedroom, her face flushed red with annoyance. This whole thing was stupid, she would have never gotten this angry about a fucking dude before. What the hell made Finn so special? Why was there this undeniable pull towards him? When she heard her bedroom door open, she half expected it to be Seb standing there, but when she noticed it was Finn, she brushed her hair out of her face and turned to look at him. "No, i'm not okay," she sighed, "it's so fucking stupid, all of it. I hate the fact I have this ridiculous crush on you, I hate the fact you ran out of my apartment before kissing me, I hate that the universe doesn't want us to like...even try and I really, really, hate the fact you fucked Quinn."
Finn awkwardly stuffed his hands down his jean pockets, taking careful steps towards Santana, but stopping when she made her last confession. A wave of guilt flushed through his body, his cheek burning red as he looked at her ranting about her feelings. How was he going to explain that he felt the same in a believable way? “For what it’s worth, I wanted it to happen really bad. I really wanted to kiss you,” he admitted, inching closer to the girl as he slowly removed his hands from his pockets. “Quinn’s great and yeah, that happened and I know it complicates things between us, but we agreed that it wasn’t going to happen anymore. It’s done, but it’s in the past.” He wanted to cringe at how horrible he sounded to his own ears. “But I gotta be honest, Santana. You and Seb have been all over each other tonight and you guys have been for a long time now, but you walk around flirting with me, saying you like me and you’re upset I didn’t kiss you and that I slept with Quinn? I know you guys got your own thing, but I never really got that dynamic. And I think a part of me, that I haven’t even realized myself, is backing away a little because Seb hates me and I don’t wanna stir up anything else by being with you.”
Santana watched as Finn edged closer towards her, the same dopey look on his face that she adored. Nope. She wasn’t going to crack, she wanted to rage, let out her annoyance at him, at the situation. She rolled her dark eyes, pupils blown out to hell from the drugs, as he admitted that he wanted the same things too. “Like you could have screwed any girl on campus, any one of them, but no, you’re here telling me that you wanted to kiss me then like a week later, your balls deep in Quinn? No fucking bueno, Hudson,” she seethed, although she knew that she was a hypocrite considering she’d been banging Seb for nearly two years. But still, rationality wasn’t something she was big on, especially not right at that moment. She stilled as he brought up Seb. In hindsight, she should have known that it was coming, but still, she crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. "Seb and I…We're just friends. Friends...who fuck." The words sounded weird as she said them aloud. People didn’t understand their dynamic and she wasn’t about to start explaining it to Finn. “I would have put the Seb thing on hold for you,” she huffed, narrowing her eyes at him.
“That’s not how that works and you know it,” Finn shot back, his guilt being slightly dimmed by his building annoyance for her stubbornness. “Seb’s got his balls deep in you God knows how many times a week. Don’t see me complaining over here.” Knowing both Sebastian and Santana for all of their college career so far, it wasn’t a secret that they were hooking up. But it was truly starting to get to him seeing them make out once every two minutes and it didn’t sit right that Santana was so angry with him. “Don’t you think I know that? I’ve been listening to him bragging about you these past two years, and it’s not exactly like you’re keeping things behind closed doors either.” His pulse was raising again, although not for the same reason as last time. “On hold? So, hypothetically, we start dating and maybe I wanna be in a long-term relationship, but in your mind, you’re putting another relationship on hold?”
Santana scoffed at him. “You never made a move, Finn,” she barked, “not once. Was I supposed to sit about and wait for you to one day decide that you wanted to kiss me and see if we could start something from it?” Her anger was at its peak now, her jaw clenched as he spat truth directly into her face. “We’re not in a relationship,” she stammered, although, they basically were. They just hooked up with different people and didn’t change their facebook statuses. Very non-traditional. “Seb is my best friend. It’s been convenient and I love him, but I would have fucking ended it if you wanted me, I would have ended if you asked me out,” she admitted, her voice quietening slightly, a small wave of emotion coming over her. “But hey, looks like the universe has once again decided our fate, no big deal.”
"So that grilled cheese night didn't count for anything? Yeah, I might've chickened out and bailed, but at least I tried something." He hated bringing up that moment again, yet it was the thing that kept coming back to them. "You're an adult, Santana, you don't have to wait for anyone to make a move. You can make your own," he huffed, his hands tying into fists by the sides of his body as he made a mental note to breathe. "I've been a total idiot around you, that's not a secret. But I'm here now, admitting to you that I want you. What are you waiting for? I'm kinda sick of letting the universe or whatever decide that it's not happening. It was a silly excuse that we laughed about over the years, but are we gonna let that defeat us?" Finn stepped closer to Santana, almost hovering over her at this point. "What do you really want?"
“Obviously it counted for something. Obviously it meant something, Finn. Otherwise I wouldn’t be so jacked up about it,” she argued back, incensed that he would assume anything otherwise. “I have spent so long, flirting and teasing and inviting you over, after you made your great escape after the fire alarm, I thought I’d read the signals wrong,” she explained, “I didn’t want to get hurt.” She stayed silent during his next bout of words, her fists clenching as she held them on her hips. He was so close, she could practically feel his heartbeat from where he was standing and she dropped her hands to wring them together. “You,” she breathed, “I just want you. I just want a chance to see if there’s something there or if we’d be wasting our time.”
Finn wasn't sure why it had been taking so long for something to happen between them. His interest for her had already peaked weeks ago, and her feelings for him wasn't exactly unknown either. Guess he was stupid enough to let everything else become a distraction, even excuses, to avoid drama. Yet, it had only left Santana hurt and himself feeling horrible. "I obviously hurt you. And I'm really sorry about that," he apologized sincerely, grabbing one of her hands with a tad force to untangle them, squeezing it lightly. "Then, so be it." He wasted no time, not even give her a second to think before closing the gap between them and softly pressing his lips against hers. The immediate sensation of bliss hit him like a lightning bolt, excitement and euphoria rushing through his veins as he felt her body close to his. He cupped her face with his available hand to deepen the kiss, barely able to think as he was overwhelmed with passion. He had barely pulled away when a metaphorical light bulb lit up over his head - she was his soulmate. A breathy "wow" escaped his lips as he tried to catch his breath. It was like he had to hold onto something or else he would collapse from utter dizziness. Right as he was about to speak again, he looked down on her left arm and saw it - a silver scar identical to his. With the exact same shape and length as his. On the exact same spot as him. "It's you."
She felt to spit yet another barbed remark in his face when he grabbed her hand and pulled her against him. Maybe she could just...give in. Just this once, it seemed like fate was on their side, as he finally pressed his lips against hers. It was like she'd been dead this whole time and his lips against hers brought her to life. It was like a fire had been lit inside of her and it was burning quicker than anything else she could comprehend. Every sense in her body was heightened, colours were brighter, everything felt clearer, the entire world just seemed to both stop and make sense all at once. She poured a moan into his mouth and her arms wrapped around his neck as she pressed up on her tiptoes to hold him tighter. Her fingers laced in his hair to keep him close, she didn't want. One of the results of taking mdma was a feeling of complete euphoria. Santana had taken a ton of drugs in her time, hell -- she was high right now. But this was like nothing she had ever felt in her entire life, she was completely enveloped by euphoria. And only one thing was clear. Finn was her soulmate. He pulled back to catch his breath and she did the same, her hands trembling as she released her arms from around his neck. Her breathing was so heavy that she almost didn't hear what he said, her eyes following his down to her left arm and settling on the scar that resided there. She'd had it her whole life, no one could ever remember how she got it. But the second she looked at his arm and spotted the matching one, she knew. It was their bond, their manifestation, the one thing that they shared. It was him; it had always been him. He’d been there, nestled deep within her heart for her entire life. "Oh my god," she whispered, her eyes wide.
Finn thought he didn’t care about who his soulmate was. While he was curious when he realized he had met his soulmate at freshman orientation, his curiosity only lasted a short moment before he ultimately decided to live his life as is, taking things day by day. He never truly felt prepared to be in love anyway, or so he thought. But now he finally understood what it was all about - why Jesse had to give it a try with Rachel, why Tina ran off and got engaged, why people’s lives seemed to complete when they found their soulmate. His world has finally opened before his eyes, and in front of him was Santana. Then, it struck him that it wasn’t that easy for them - she seemed to hold resentment over him for sleeping with Quinn and Seb was still in the picture. “What happens now?”
Reality hit her like a fucking truck. What did happen now? She couldn't stop her hands from trembling, her heart from pounding in her throat to even think straight. Seb. What was she going to tell Sebastian? She always thought that if it happened, she could just go right on living her life, the way that she always did. But now, with the reality weighing so heavily on her, she knew that wasn't something she could do. To Finn or Seb. "I need to go," she stammered, pulling back out of his hold. This wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening. "It's my birthday party, people came to see me. I can't be locked away in here, I have to go," she was rambling now, fighting off waves of terrified nausea. She moved to her wardrobe and stood out of sight behind the door, shimmying out of her wet dress and into another one. She had come into her bedroom to get changed after all, that was it, just to change out of the alcohol soaked dress. Nothing more.
“But—“ Before Finn could utter another word, she moved to her wardrobe, leaving him standing there awkwardly. Should he stay? Should he go? “Well, I’m gonna head back to the party,” he announced, his voice shaky and insecure. “Let me know when your high has worn down or something. Or not. I don’t know. See ya anyway.” He stood there for a few more seconds in case she came back out again, but from how she rushed off, it didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. Was that how she felt like when he bolted out the other night? He shot out a timid “bye” before stepping out of the bedroom and back into the party, although this time quietly into a corner to hide a little. The kiss was magical and beyond his wildest fantasies, so why did he feel so sad?
She leant her hand against the cool wood door and let out a slow, shaky breath. Her entire world seemed to be collapsing around her, with absolutely no certainty at all. Except for him. It felt like a cruel joke was being played on them, their long lasting joke of the universe wanting to keep them apart, when they should have been together. She heard his remark and sucked down a greedy gulp of air. She stuck her head out from behind her wardrobe, watching as he turned his back on her to leave, a rare moment of clarity shooting through her. "Finn, please don't leave," she called out, but it was too late, he'd already departed the bedroom, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Her fingertips traced over her lips and she was practically able to taste the electricity still lingering on them from the kiss. Another shaky breath let out, she closed the wardrobe door and brushed her hair behind her ears, as she looked in the mirror. Her eyes were wide, a look of undeniable terror on her face. Yet, there was something calm to her too, a sort of sereneness that she assumed one only understood when they found their soulmate. Leaving the bedroom, she closed the door with a small thud and grabbed an open bottle of champagne, from a side table, before strolling back into the circle and settling back into her previous spot between Aubrey and Seb. She brushed off Aubrey’s question about whether or not she was okay with a forced smile and glanced around to see if she could see Finn anywhere. When she couldn’t, she focused back on the game, watching as Seb spun the bottle to land on Aubrey. It certainly wasn’t business as usual, but she’d take it.
“Yeah, me and Mogs went matchy-matchy on the swim trunks, but we need a better name for it. Trunk buds just isn’t cutting it. Swim twins? Suit sisters?”
“what the fuck is up with carnival food? why is everything fried?” noelle was never the biggest fan of greasy food. anyone who knew her knew that. yet here she was, sitting at a picnic table, inhaling the scent of all the different varieties of food. “i swear, if i see another fried twinkie i’m going to vomit.” of course she was being over dramatic. because here she was, chomping away that slice of red velvet cake from three tiers. “don’t look at me like that, barbara gave this to me for free.”
the brunette had been wandering around for what felt like hours. but in reality it had only been thirty minutes. alongside her was her black pug, wearing his service animal vest. she was mentally thanking luca for allowing her to snag one from his vet. getting away with bringing her best pal to the festival was fun, no doubt. but it was such a hassle to get the lazy pug to move. “boba -- boba no! get up!” he had sat down for the fifth time within the last twenty minutes. “boba!” she yelled at the dog again, yet he seemed completely unphased. “get. up.”
