#p: am

[biiiig-z]

Victory Royale | Zaustlor

It had been a pretty long night for Zach, having a game earlier and now about to be on his way to Toronto to see Auston. He couldn’t believe all he had missed in the time he and Auston had spent without talking to each other, but all-in-all, Zach was ecstatic to see his best friend. From the time he got home from the game, Zach had taken a shower, gotten dressed, and packed the rest of his essentials with what he had already pre-packed from earlier in the week. He was kind of upset about the loss they took tonight, but he had gotten over it by the time he was about to walk out the door. Before he checked up around his apartment one last time to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything, he held his phone in his hands with Auston’s texts pulled up. Zach told him earlier that he would be coming in the morning, but he was honestly too excited to wait. He already bought tickets for a flight tonight, so it was a done deal. Zach decided it would be better to wait and make it a surprise -- not telling Auston that he’s coming early. Zach shoved his phone in his coat pocket before grabbing his bags and heading outside to catch his ride to the airport. His flight would be relatively short -- about 2 hours -- just long enough for him to get in a solid power nap. 

It was just about 3am by the time Zach was finally getting out of the airport in Toronto, and Zach was already geeking. He was so excited to be seeing Auston, but even more excited to be surprising him. His ass better be awake, he thought to himself as he stood outside, waving over his Uber. After shoving all his bags in, and telling the driver the address, he was finally on his way. This visit was completely overdue, but he was finally for it to finally be happening. Even if it was in the middle of the night. They had a bit of a drive to the house, so Zach sent Auston a casual text to make sure he was still awake. Hey, bro. Super excited to see you tomorrow. Zach hit send a looked at the text for a moment. Completely harmless. He scrolled through social media for a minute along the drive, trying to make time go by a little faster. A few moments later Zach’s phone vibrates, and its a text from Auston. He smiles looking at it before he looked up at the driver as he spoke, telling him they’re at his destination. Zach responded to Auston’s text one last time; Hey, look out on your porch. I got you something and had it delivered straight to you. Was supposed to be there tonight. Quickly, he thanked the driver, pulled his bags out and hussled his way up to the porch, he stood a few feet from the door when it swung open. Standing in the doorway, staring at him with a puzzled expression was his best friend, Auston Matthews. Damn, it really had been too long. “My guy!” Zach said excitedly as he dropped his bags and stepped toward him to give him a hug, squeezing him a bit before letting go. “So, uh. Surprise!”

[extraordinariies]

A.M.

“PLEASE! I’m not leaving you!” Her cry was hoarse and frantic, watching him attempt again to struggle up a wired fence. She hadn’t been thinking when she ran them down this alleyway, so inconsiderate to the injuries the Watchdogs had clubbed him with. All she could think about was getting HIM away from the Watchdogs and them to safety. They knew who he was ( or rather WHAT he was ) somehow traced him and cornered him down. Daisy, using her powers then to blast them off him, just took his hand and began to run. Flight kicked in before fight as they became the prime kill to the pack of merciless, driven people. So when seeing the fence, scaling it was such an old past time in her mind that her body didn’t even sweat about doing it. But he was hurt, and she hadn’t caught he’d fallen a couple of times until she leapt to the other side.

“I’m going to get you, hang on,” She started cto scale back up the fence hastily before hearing Lincoln cry out otherwise. He was both in pain from his injuries and to have to say it, she could hear it. She’d slipped up in her climb and was back on her feet when she slammed into the fence. “I’m NOT LEAVING YOU!” She screamed out at him enraged. Then she started to climb again, and she saw him try to climb again. He used a trash can to get a hand, but it went tumbling under his feet at his haste and harder he fell to the ground. Daisy made a pained sound, losing her grip trying to hurry. “We have to get home, Lincoln. We have to get home!” She tried encouraging him while covering her misstep. Her eyes started to cloud at his body that was giving out again, but she wasn’t giving up despite every time she’d get near the top of the fence she’d fall again. A horrendous engine roared far off into their ears. The chanting and the whooping yells closing in made her move faster–they were coming and closing in FAST. With another quick slip, Linc used the rest of his might to tell her to go. Tired, helpless, desperate, and the Watchdogs drawing ever closer Daisy began to cry. Weaving her fingers where his were in the wire, she pressed her head against where his hung. She delivered him to this, she couldn’t figure out how to save him without hurting him more in the process. She pleaded and begged for him again, but those tired green eyes looked at her knowing it was one last time.

The engine and the voices found them at the mouth of the alley. His fingers slowly slipped in parting, Daisy still didn’t listen with one last cry of his name. There was sinister laughter, a click from behind him and then….

Light.

It pooled into the room in all its glory through one of the windows. Daisy woke up entirely from it as she took a shaken breath brought on by reality. She would’ve called the light an intrusion if she had just woken up from the “World Made of Ice Cream” dream, but she was grateful for the intrusion this time. Still too bright, but grateful.

Laying still for a moment completely shaken, her eyes took the moment to attempt to adjust. Her brain then joined reality as well with a sudden sickening worry. Reaching around behind her first, her heart rate eased when she felt an arm and a wrist. Lincoln was there and he was safe in bed with her. She had shifted that it ended up her back was turned to him at some point during her sleep, so she missed out on seeing his face first thing this morning.

Moaning lightly, Daisy put in the effort shuffling back around in the sheets lazily. Turning and seeing him with his pillow half-suffocating his head was another, larger wave of relief that her heart leapt for. Plopping down closer to him and face burying into the ends of his pillow, she let out a deep breath of relief through her nose and gently closed her eyes. She wasn’t going back to sleep, that would be impossible right now, but the next best comfort was laying there to waiting for him to wake up.

[toujoursdriftless]

002 → They'll Call Me The Contender

Sebastian was barely listening to the speech Pentecost was giving him as they made their way to the Kwoon Combat Room. He had very little interest in this operation to begin with, but if the man wanted him to waste effort training a bunch of wide-eyed optimists who thought they could actually save this doomed world, then he was going to do it his way and his way only. Sebastian sped up, wanting to cut the Marshall's speech off as he turned the corner, only to find himself face to face with the crowd of rangers and officers that had come to see his first class. He sighed inwardly at the sight, annoyed again at his unwanted notoriety, but he had been first in his Jaeger class and the youngest Lieutenant Ranger across the entire organization. Impending apocalypse or not, that was still apparently cause for gossip and attention. Sebastian stepped through the crowd, ignoring the in-unison greetings and salutes of Marshall! Lieutenant! as he walked through the opening and stopped at the edge of the leveled platform that overlooked the room. The cadets on the opposite end stood up immediately upon their appearance.

"As I'm sure you are all aware, Lieutenant Smythe will henceforth be overseeing your combat training," Marshall stated in a booming voice. "Show him what you've got." Sebastian turned his head, giving the man a look that clearly stated he had seen quite enough of what they've got, and he very much didn't care to see more. Pulling in a resigned sigh, he stepped off the platform, his movements controlled and measured as he silently walked over to grab two bō from the stands on the side. Turning around, Sebastian slipped his boots off before stepping onto the center mat, his eyes sweeping over the crowd of cadets and stopping finally at the one directly across from him. Allison McMillan, the impudent and insubordinate cadet from yesterday. His brain rattled off her file as he met and held her eyes--nineteen, decent scores, drift incompatible due to excessive emotions, on probationary psych analysis. Sebastian wasn't sure what to think of her yet, but if her file was of any indication, she was hardly going to be of any use to Marshall's renegade army, and he had no idea why she wasn't placed in another division yet. "So," Sebastian said, not breaking eye contact as his sharp voice cut right through the silence, "Who's first?"

It took perhaps a minute of stunned silence as the cadets looked amongst themselves, trying to see which one of them would be brave enough to be the first to challenge a veteran Ranger before an olive-skinned, short-haired cadet stepped forward. Sebastian's eyes flickered away from McMillan, eyeing the challenger as his mind automatically brought up the cadet's file. He tossed the boy the second bō, waiting for the cadet to assume the starting position before doing the same. Barely five seconds later, Sebastian had the cadet on the floor--4-0. Straightening to a splattering of applause and whispers, McMillan once again came into his line of vision as he said coolly, "Next."

[tia-fontaine]

a message ❥ kria

Swishing her milkshake around in the metal can Tia found herself sitting on a box near the kitchen of her pub, knees bumping with her co-worker, Alexis. "You didn't have to do this, you know," Tia sighed, taking a sip of her drink, which was sweet and practically ice cold. "Sweetie, if you saw you talking into the pub like you did, you'd be doing the same thing," Alexis chuckled sympathetically. "It was like something out of a movie...honey, those tears will get you places," she shook her head with a smile, the red locks moving along as she did so. "Well, I just...I didn't know what to do! I love him, and I know it's my fault, and I totally got defensive and stupid..." Tia explained as if she hadn't spent the last half an hour ranting about it to Alexis, stopping when she felt her throat tighten up a bit. "No, no, no more of that, sweetie. No more crying, drink your banana shake, which I did not put alcohol in because I'm a semi-responsible adult...and really? Banana is your favorite?" Alexis laughed once again, reaching an arm around Tia's shoulder and pulling her in for a sideways hug. "It's delicious, totally underrated on the scale of milkshake flavors," she replied quietly, snuggling up against Alexis's shoulder. "Well, Tee, I may be older than you...hey, don't smirk, only by ten years, but I'm not that much wiser. I mean, from the sounds of it, you obviously really love this kid, right?" Tia slowly nodded, wondering what point she was getting to. "Then don't let it slip that easily." "But I'm no-" she started to argue when Alexis reached over, placing an index finger on her lips. "You drink, I talk. Now, honey, if you didn't care, you wouldn't have come in here crying, would you? Yes, it sucks that this happened on Valentines Day, but is this the last fight you guys are going to have? No, it's not, and that's the thing about being with someone you love, there are gonna be days where shit happens, and there's gonna be days you hate each other and make each other feel like crap, but in the end, since you kids really love each other, you work through all this stuff together. Because you guys love each other, you forgive each other...and then you have really amazing make up sex," she finished off with a shrug, leaning over and stealing a sip of Tia's milkshake as Tia almost choked on her own sip, trying not to laugh. "Well that went from philosophical to perverted in less than two seconds," she smiled, feeling her face being squished as Alexis reached over with a free hand. "Now there's that million watt Tia smile I've been waiting to see. You're precious. Now, give me the rest of your shake and go find your man," she reached over, taking the metal canister and having another sip. With a sigh, Tia got up to her feet, her knees a bit wobbly, the nerves kicking in as she sadly asked,"What if he doesn't forgive me though?" With a sigh, Alexis stood up, pulling her into a tight hug, her lips close to Tia's ear as she spoke. "Then I'll make you spiked milkshakes for the rest of the night...but come on, look at you, all covered in red lipstick and tears, who wouldn't forgive you, you adorable, snuffly little bunny?" She cupped her face for a moment before letting go, giving Tia's butt a quick smack as she said,"Get at er, kid, you'll be fine." With a squeak, she shook her head and smiled lightly as she grabbed her purse and started to leave. "You're an angel, Lex," she called over her shoulder and Alexis simply gave her a wave, sending her back into reality.

Tia realized she should've had something warm to drink, her arms shaking as she crossed them over her chest and made her way down the sidewalk. It had to be way below zero outside, the frosty morning turning into an even frostier night. It appeared the sun was just setting, the sky filled with pink and orange clouds. She was glancing down at her feet and the pavement as she made her way to...where? Her movement stopped as she thought about that question; she wasn't really sure where she was going in that moment. Should she go home and change? To Kris's? Would he even be home, and would he even want to talk to her? It was mostly her fault for this all happening, and she thought she at least owed him some kind of explanation. The idea of Kris's apartment came to her mind, which wasn't that far away, but it was still a good couple of blocks from where she was now. She sighed, her breath hitting the air and turning into fog as she kept motoring on, head down and legs on a mission. It was when she bumped into someone that she had to stop, stumbling backwards. "Oh, shit...er, shoot! I'm sorry, I'm a klutz, I should've watched where I was going," she shook her head, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before looking up.

[toujoursdriftless]

001 → Stranger

Sebastian breathed a sigh of quiet relief when he finally managed to slip away from the crowd of onlooking Rangers and Officers that had come out at his arrival. The anonymity of his life before his service had begun was something he sorely missed, and though Sebastian had long since gotten used to the attention as the European Unions' top Jaeger pilot, it was steadily more difficult now when he knew much of today's publicity came from his last (and final) drop. The whispers and stares were something he would have to get used to though, given the close proximity he was to pretty much all that was left of the Defense Corps. From the looks of things, Marshall seemed to have brought every last straggler to Hong Kong--some faces Sebastian knew from the war, and others as nauseatingly bright and hopeful as he expected the recruits to be.

Letting out a haggard sigh, he shook away his thoughts. Sebastian was exhausted, and all he wanted was to get to his quarters, shower, and sleep. He still needed to be debriefed, but the damn war could just hold the fuck off for one moment because he had no interest in dealing with his new duties just yet. Or ever. Sebastian knew what this transfer was really about, and he wasn't looking forward to the conversation he knew was going to come. He was done. Forever. And not even Marshall and his rousing Rosie Riveter-esque speeches were going to change that. Inhaling a long, calming breath, Sebastian re-shouldered the strap of his bag and continued to the wing where his assigned room was. He had heard vague mentions from the other Rangers of a churlish cadet that had apparently sent every other person packing from this area, but it was blissfully quiet on this side of the Shatterdome, so Sebastian didn't much care who the fuck they were all whispering about. Finding his door, he climbed the two steps and reached out to turn the wheel.

[itsuniqueatdalton]

A MONTH??? : Samnique

It's been a full month since Unique had seen Sam. She'd gone to New Orleans and picked up a few masks for herself and Sammy, for the Masquerade was coming up. She'd also picked up some other gifts for him. But for now, she had put on her Mardi Gras dress that she had gotten, and a beautiful mask with a beak and three long feathers sticking out of the side, waiting for Sammy. 

[wickedadrianna]

Anger Management | Mike + Adrianna

How she and Mike were related was something that Adrianna pondered after hearing he wasn't going to handle a car blocking something he really wanted. Honestly, Adrianna pondered how she and Mike were related some other times, too. The Everetts weren't a very happy and sane family – or at least her part of the family wasn't. She was raised with a very vicious mindset and Mike seemed to be nicer than she was and far more sane, even with how close he and Harper were before Harper's death.

She hadn't bothered to change out of her training clothes, which was a simple pair of black yoga pants, a black tank top and zip up sweater. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail, her feet weren't adorned with her usual boots, but instead a pair of well-worn gym shoes. Her hands were wrapped with black knuckles tape and covered by fingerless gloves. There was so much anger building up inside of her that she was practically jumping at the opportunity to take it out on something that wasn't her punching bag.

With a bat settled nicely in her front seat, Adrianna turned the keys in the ignition of her black Audi A4 (it was slightly beat up after accidentally hitting a guard rail on the drive down from Seattle) and started the drive to Taco Bell where her cousin was angry at some guy who blocked the door but wouldn't do anything about it.

Adrianna pulled the car next to Mike and turned it off. Without a word, she pulled the bat from the front seat and stepped out of the car before moving to the other (a nice Cadillac) and sending a sound swing at the windshield. It cracked with a loud rippling sound and Adrianna felt a smile of satisfaction cross her face before turning to look at Mike, "It mightn't move the car, but I can guarantee that if I keep hammering the car, the owner will come out and move it eventually. Or try to kill me, either way it should be fun." She swung the bat gently, not hitting the car, but assessing the next place to swing.