Discover Top Posts Tagged with #paraecho

Learn to Love || Katie and Oz chatzy

Kate wasn't the type of person to randomly meet with people that she'd met over the internet. Mainly because that was kinda creepy. Or at least it had always been that way in her opinion but something about this felt different. The weird feeling that she'd had like she needed to find something important had slipped away when she'd been talking to him. Well maybe this was her something important. She had a lot of things on her mind, the upcoming mission to rescue Clint and everything really. Somehow she felt like she could tell Oz anything and well...he'd get it. Swinging her shoulder bag over her shoulder, Kate chewed her lip nervously knowing that she was a little early but she hoped Oz wouldn't mind. Reaching her hand up quickly, she knocked on the door loudly three times. Then she folded her arms, shifting her weight nervously from side to side waiting for him to respond.

Oz noticed the scent before he heard the knock. Warm cherry blossom and a hint of vanilla, with a promise of something stronger, something indescribable and somehow not clashing at all with the gentler shades of the scent. Running his eyes across the room to check whether there was anything undesirable in sight; Oz stepped to the door gently, opening it cautiously. Despite his best instincts, Oz knew he wasn't immune to trickery and spells. So far, so good, because the girl standing behind the door was lovely. Katie had an understated beauty, not the kind that advertised itself to the world at large, but it still radiated the warmth and youth that her blog had promised. Her eyes especially were mesmerizing, framed with thick lashes. "Hey," he said as his lips broke into a welcoming smile, stepping aside to welcome her in. "Drink?"

Kate didn't realize that she was holding her breath in until she laid eyes on Oz for the very first time. There was some sort of shockwave throughout Katie's entire system as if something was pulling her directly towards him, like those stories that her mom used to read to her when she was a child. That two people who were meant to be together had a red thread tied around their hands, it never broke and it just kind of...pulled them close together. "Hi," Kate said softly smiling gently back. "Uhm water would be great if you have it?" Stupid question Katie-Kate, she said to herself mentally, everybody has water unless they've been cut off. She felt like she really could trust Oz with anything even though they'd only laid eyes on each other about a minute ago.

Oz nodded, transfixed for a moment by her. It had been so long since he'd felt that initial rush, the initial glow that came with knowing that you're devastatingly and deeply in love. It was the kind of energy that filled you to the top and made you so still, just at one with the world because the world is at one with you, bringing you to those things you crave. A reason to stay, a person to love. Oz gestured for the archer to go to the sofa, as he poured himself the drinks. Quickly, he returned to her. It was as if an elastic band held them together, and moving apart became harder the further you went. Handing her the water, Oz took a moment to really drink in Katie's appearance. His eyes rested for more than a second on her lips before they returned to meet her eyes. "You're exactly what I expected. And you're still so much more. Who are you?" Deep down, Oz felt he knew that he knew exactly who she was. She was his. The Wolf knew it, and Oz knew it. Just like he knew that he was hers. Had done the second he'd laid eyes on her.

Kate was honestly really confused; she had never ever felt like this in anyway before. She didn't know what to do or whether or not this was right or what. But it felt right and that felt like it meant at least something. Something that was important. "W-w-what you expected?" Kate stammered a little which was definitely not her usual thing. Was he what she expected? Oh well maybe, she wasn't sure. Her head and heart were all in a whirl. "Oh I'm nothing special really; I'm just an almost twenty something who tries to do the right thing." She wasn't special not really but something about being in this room with Oz made her feel like she was something special especially with the way he was looking at her. Maybe she could even be a Hawk and actually fly, who knew.

Oz sensed the change in the atmosphere as the sour smell of nerves started to fill the space, and tilted his head in concern. That wasn't what he wanted, by any stretch of the imagination. Gently, Oz cupped Katie's hand into his own. The callouses on his fingertips, formed by years of strings pressing, traced reassuring patterns onto the back of her palm, reassuring notations of the beautiful languages Oz had picked up along the way. "That's what makes you so truly remarkable," he replied quietly, and, almost without noticing, he moved his head even closer to Katie. Maybe she'd never loved before. In which case Oz decided he would be even slower than usual. Katie could set the pace she wanted, she had to know that.

Kate "I know I don't...I just..." Kate blushed a little and quickly stared at the floor. "I've just never y'know," she blushed a little more. She felt a bit like a moron right now, the weird feeling in her chest had just become a little more intense. She didn't feel awkward but she supposed that she should have done, Kate felt like she had no idea what she was supposed to do. It felt right and that was all that she really knew, she was going in blind here but it felt okay.

Oz nodded, before carefully slipping an errant lock of hair back behind her ear. Where his fingers brushed against her skin, Oz felt himself warm up. He'd thought his feelings for Willow had developed quickly, but that was nothing in comparison to this. In his heart, Oz dreamed that Katie felt the same, that she felt the longing to learn everything about him, the way he wanted to learn all of her. She was a flower, and Oz wanted to see how each petal turned towards the sun. "I know. It can be unnerving. You just have to let yourself feel it, let yourself go. I'll be there to catch you," he replied, before realizing he hadn't even lifted his fingers off her cheek. Oz's eyes flickered towards her lips again. However much he didn't want to, Oz could wait. She had to be ready. This had to be perfect, for both of them. Even if it only ever went as far as a kiss.

t. "You don't need to be nervous," he murmured.

Kate smiled a little, raising her eyes for about half a second to meet his before dropping her gaze down to the floor again. As stupid as this sounded it felt like one of those romantic comedies that most of the girls she knew in high school were going on about, the ones that she'd always hated. She'd thought of them as stupid but this well it didn't feel stupid at all, it felt okay and Kate liked okay. "I know you will, I've just never been good at falling or letting go. I like to cling on until the very end," Kate smiled a little more. Maybe she could try? This felt okay, it felt safe. She waited a moment and then reached up on her tiptoes to gently press her lips to his.

Oz’s eyes widened in surprise slightly when she pressed her lips against his. Flavors exploded in his mouth, warm and sweet. Katie's lips were soft, and nervous, unsure of how to go from there. He held the kiss for a second, before pulling away, checking for confirmation before he leant in again. This wasn't like his last kiss, which had been desperate and a bad idea. This inherently felt right, felt good, in ways that Oz hadn't known for a long time. Oz allowed himself to fully let his guard down, even as the Wolf inside reacted to the kiss, and made him purr a little. That was what love was, right, letting go? Even though it was relatively chaste, as far as kisses went, it felt like they'd spoken volumes through it, and the electricity between them was almost tangible now. Oz found himself not wanting to let go. As the kiss finally broke, Oz opened his eyes and smiled into Katie's. "See, I've got you."

Kate hadn't really known what to expect, kissing somebody. It felt nice though and she had to put her hands on Oz's shoulders so that she wouldn't fall off balance from reaching up on her tiptoes. Darn being so short. She smiled at what he said "I know," Kate bit her lip a little as she ran over what had just happened in her head, feeling a little dizzy from all of her feelings. "Mind catching me again?"

Oz felt odd, being the taller one in the relationship. It had been a running joke throughout the entirety of his life, his height, and now he truly felt like he was floating, held up by everything that meant Katie. She was the wind under his wings, the song in his heart. "Wouldn't dream of letting go," he replied quietly, before pressing his lips to hers a third time. And then Oz broke away, remembering that he had a... bad track record with love. Gently, he led her to sit down with him, keeping eye contact so that she knew he was sincere. "I won't leave you. Not unless you want me too, I won't do that again, ever."

Kate honestly didn't want to let go of Oz but then he pulled away and she walked to sit down with him, trying to keep holding onto him. Kate didn't want to let go, she just didn't and she couldn't. "Thank you," Kate smiled sincerely "I won't leave you either, people leave me a lot but I know you won't. I have faith in you," People left her a lot but she was sure that Oz wouldn't, he couldn’t - not if he felt the same way she did and Kate was sure that he did. Kate leaned over, wrapping her arms around him to hug him, she felt safe - she felt okay like she wasn't alone and she wasn't going to be.

Oz smiled, grateful to have that off his chest, tracing the contours of her face gently with his finger tips, trying to memorize every plane, so he could convert the touch to notes, learn to write a song based off the warm glow in his heart. His arms were wrapped around her, keeping them close, and they stayed close, sometimes their lips trapped in endless symptoms of affections, sometimes just cuddling, whispering sweet nothings. Eventually, Katie had to leave, but the couch cushions held her scent, a single momento of her time there. Hopefully, there would many more times, another day. He couldn’t wait.

#katie #chatzyecho #paraecho #wildcard wednesday 2 #learn to love

Waxing Crescent || Drusilla and Oz

Cold blue scents wafted across Oz's nose. Spring had arrived, finally, but winter still owned the nights, and so the mist dampened Oz's senses. That was alright, it meant he could focus on clearing his mind. New moon had been just a couple of nights before, and Oz could sit easy, because nothing was pulling at his leash and he could trust that the Wolf was buried deep inside. Maybe soon he could try the next stage that the translations promised. But like Slayer guitar solos, you really had to build up to it, not jump the bandwagon too early. Unlike guitar solos, jumping the bandwagon too early in Oz's particular case could result in death, and not half likely his.

But the Wolf could wait. There were other pressing issues on Oz's mind, that needed processing. Since he'd gotten home to Lexie, he'd been so focussed on her, on making sure he was available. But at the same time, even though he was always within ten minutes of the appartment, it often felt like they were worlds apart. He could simultaneously know exactly what she was going through and not understand a thought in her head. This thought, of course, drew someone else to the forefront of Oz's mind. Not strawberry Willow, or woodland Tara, but the comforting homey scent of Bay. Bay who had rested in his thoughts every day for months, ever since she'd died.

Oz shook his head. The entire point of meditating was to let all of that go. He flushed the thoughts away, breathing deeply, allowing air to rush and fill his belly. Oh, that wasn't good. As well as the deep brown smell of decaying leaves and late night mists, there was something else in the air. Ashes. Well, the smell of ashes without the dryness. It was an impossible scent to explain, but Oz knew it well. Vampire.

Rising to his feet, he slowly looked around. The vampire wasn't far, but the trees of Central blocked his view, and he had no idea who the vampire was. Carefully, Oz picked up a branch, breaking it into something more pointy and wincing at the sound. With his other hand, he pulled out the chain of crystals that hung around his neck, the cross lying on his chest. So maybe Amethyst's protective properties were mainly spiritual, but he still felt better with it in view.

Oz followed the smell quietly, and it felt distantly familiar. He searched his brain, trying to place it. Unfortunately, his brain didn't pull a match until the vampire was infront of him. Too late now. Oz lowered his makeshift stake.

"Ah." Drusilla.

#paraecho #drusilla #waxing crescent

Love's Labour Lost || Oz and Lexie

Oh I’m home alright… We just don’t exactly have a front door at the moment. Just be careful when you move it. Faith managed to somewhat put it back on it’s hinges.

Oz stared at his mobile, trying to understand exactly what was going on. He kept trying to add two and two together, and ended up with something that possibly resembled four, but nothing close to any of the fours he liked. There was some old, daft, saying, about hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. From the little he knew, he knew the worst didn't involve Lexie being dead, nor did it involve Faith being dead. So worst was probably Lexie getting pretty depressive and then some demon attacked and Faith saved her, hence the broken door. Best case was she'd hit a rough patch and had like punched a door or something. No, Oz really had no idea how Faith fit into that. Wasn't sure why Faith was there at all.

But he'd let Lexie down again. He'd not been in town when it had gotten difficult again. But it wasn't like it was the first time he'd gone out for a gig. Every other time she'd been okay. Maybe that was the issue, that he was gone so often that Lexie felt he couldn't confide in him? Or maybe he was asking too often, maybe he was smothering her. But Oz knew what losing someone you loved that intensely was like, he still felt the black pit in his chest burning him every day. So it was understandable that he was asking so often. But then during his entire trip to Jersey he'd only asked once, and that hadn't been a positive answer. Oz took a deep breath. He could keep going over it and over in his head but none of that would help Lexie get through Lucy's death if he didn't calm down. Deep breath. Not that breathing deeply was particularily a good idea on the bus.

So there was his stop. Oz hopped off, adjusting his guitar case strap on his shoulder. Already, a strong sense of foreboding was swimming in his gut. He could definitely smell Lexie, as well as Faith, and both were recent smells, which was good, but linked in with that were some extremely intense emotions that he couldn't quite decipher from a distance. Oz hurried.

The smell of bad got intenser and worse, and it started mixing with the stench of vomit and something more medical. Which could just be people living on the floor below, but Oz knew instinctively that it wasn't. When his eyes fell upon his front door, his eyebrow flickered up a little in surprise. It was bent, long splinters protruding for the general wood. Obviously, someone had tried to bend it back into shape, had pushed it hard onto the hinges. The door handle had fallen off, too. Oz might have been moderately alarmed by the sight if he hadn't been forewarned. Instead he was just alarmed by the smell of sickness that trailed through the halls, originating in their flat. He pushed the door, but it was stuck against something, so Oz slammed his shoulder into it. He could repair it later. Or Xander could.

"Lexie!" He called, his eyes flicking around the room. Faith had definitely been here recently. A lot of both girls' scents came from the bathroom, where the acid stench of sick and medicine was clearest too. Oz just had to swing his head around the door to figure out what happened.

"Lexie!" he called again, Oz's stomache churning faster and faster with fear. He'd almost been too late, had almost come home to a cold body with no one to blame but himself, again. And Lexie too, but if she'd been dead he couldn't really blame her. She wasn't, he knew that. Well, Oz hoped he knew that. Nervously, he swung open Lexie's door, and sighed in relief as he saw her. Wordlessly, he sat down opposite her, and reached out for her wrist, not breaking eye contact.

Oz waited for something. Anything.

#paraecho #lexie #loveslabourlost

Bite of a Bullet || William and Oz

This was by far the thing Oz needed least. He wanted to be away supporting Willow and Lexie, trying to tame the wolf, hell, even doing the dishes. Really, really disliked visiting SHIELD. It was tainted. Tainted with his first visit and the memories that invoked. Like Dawn's blood, still trapped under the tiny unreachable crevices under his nails, like Xander's forced, comforting silence as he drove him straight from the plane to SHIELD's holding space, getting him away from Dawn's torn body as fast as he could, while Oz had struggled to repress the Wolf. It was also tainted with the memory of the woman he'd loved, as her body now rotted in a room no one would recognise. His second visit there had been just as disgusting, filled with blood and death and murder. So much pointless murder.

So imagine his reaction when Oz discovered that he was expected to return to the place on yet another consultation. Of course, this time it didn't link to the wolf, it linked to the building's invasion a few weeks back. So, when he walked through the doors, he was searched, his tranquiliser epipen was stripped off him, and he was given a Visitor's badge. The Wolf had growled at the removal of the epipen, and Oz had felt the exact same growl try to escape his lips, but he'd pushed it away, pushing the Wolf into the floor, like how parents pin their pups to the ground to discipline them. Instead, he allowed himself to be shown the way to the lift.

Tiny traces of bleach still stained the air, where men had scrubbed to get the blood of fallen friends off the floor. The smell of blood was almost completely gone, but it was as if the air was continuously spiked with fear; people were on edge, nervous about their visitors, their hands held slightly closer to their concealed weaponry. Oz hadn't wanted to get into the elevator, until he'd been told how high up the office of director North had been. Eleven flights of stairs weren't worth avoiding the paranoia that was eating away at Oz. Too much effort. So he didn't complain, just got in and dealt.

Oz walked up to the secretary he was pointed towards, taking a deep, diapragmatic breath before stating his presence quietly. "Daniel Osbourne?" the man asked, checking the visitor badge against his database. Oz nodded, and the man gestured for him to wait, as he rose to knock on the Director's door. Oz, thankfully, didn't have to wait long, as he focused solely on his breathing for a minute. "He'll see you now."

Slipping between the gap between the secretary and the door, Oz flickered his eyebrows upwards in greeting to the man seated at his desk. Unsure of whether to sit or not, he just waited, on ceremony, trying to get a judge of the man in front of him. He smelt like the Old Spice cologne, surprisingly, Earl Grey tea, as well as the bitter taste of coffee, laced with the tiniest tint of mint. A strange and formal combination, which Oz didn't feel boded well for him. Already, he could feel the hackles of his Wolf raised, remembering other government leaders who'd thought of his as more beast than man. It was a fair thought, but not very pleasant for Oz.

#buffy rp #william #paraecho #bite of a bullet

Crystal Clear || Tara and Oz

The days in preparation for the full moon were always busy, but Oz had found himself some free time in between cleansing crystals and working with Lexie to find something to do. At the time, it'd felt appropriate to drop by at Dawn's place, touch base. They'd barely spoken, and after long deep emotional conversations, silence could form additional awkwardness, which was almost never good. Time sometimes ran away from Oz, so he didn't necessarily want to let Dawn think something was still amiss.

He gently rapped at her door, waiting silently, his hands in his pockets. The seconds ticked by, and Oz momentarily focussed on the smells coming from within the apartment. Definitely Dawn's summer kind of smell, of freshly cut grass, and it was pretty strong. But seeing as she already lived here, her smell was always kinda strong here, so judging whether Dawn was actually there rested on the hard side of things.

Finally, the door eased open, and Oz raised his eyebrows minutely in surprise. "Hey," he said quietly, feeling frozen to the spot. This was the woman who had died, had come back to life. Willow had loved her most, and she'd run away. This was the woman he'd once almost killed in a horrible fit of jealousy.

"Uh, is Dawn home?"

#paraecho #tara #crystalclear

Dark side of the Moon || Kayla and Oz

Some days you knew were going to go badly. Mainly when they involved getting up before eleven in the morning to go have shrink poke at your brain, to evaluate whether it was safe to keep you in the city and your general state of mind. All of this was worsened by the fact that the only such psychologists all worked for SHIELD, which, by and large, did nothing but remind Oz of bad things such as the days after losing Bay and the Initiative.

Oz had been safe in his original presupposition that the day was going to be bad. He had spent the last two hours doing everything from fine motor control tests to in depth descriptions of his high school relationships. ("And how exactly did you feel when your ex-girlfriend of two years chose a partner of the same sex over you? Did you feel emasculated or inferior or insulted in anyway?") The highlight of the entire session, however, were the last twenty minutes, when the psychiatrist worked hard to set off triggers in his mind to summon the wolf. Everything from her words to images to footage and even scents, to explore his limits. Every time Oz felt his blood start to boil, he had a buzzer to punch, and the stimulus would end immediately. A second punch of the buzzer would have started the stimulus again. He was proud to admit he had only had to use it once, which impressed both himself and the shrink.

Now it was finally time for him to leave the wretched building. Oz called the lift as two people approached. The first was a tall man, with broad shoulders and strong, lithe arms, an assortment of weapons attached to his hips. He smelt of sweat and fear and deep cinnamon brown. There was also a tiny smell of something sour radiating from the man's shoulder that Oz instantly recognised as baby sick. He noted a tiny ping of jealousy in his heart, then let it go, turning his attention to the second person in the lift with him.

She wore long sleeves, and gloves too. Oz understood; the weather outside nipped at his ears every morning, the wind howling as it chilled him to the bone. But here it was relatively warm, and there was no need to have gloves on quite yet. Oz pressed the button for ground floor; the man pressed for a higher level. Keeping his eyes on the door as they rose, he frowned slightly, made curious by the wiman's scent. Mint was the strongest smell, it curled around the room in turquoise clouds, mixing with the contrasting - but not clashing - smells of rosemary and eucalyptus, adding a soft light brown to the texture of her scents. But they all felt superficial, masking what she truly was - the main problem with scented soaps. Shrugging it off, he felt the lift slow to a stop.

#fubar friday 1 #paraecho #kayla #darksideofthemoon #ff

Pack Moon || Lexie and Oz

Ever since securing a safe place for Lexie's first full moon under his tutelage, Oz had been trying to get hold of everything that had helped him first master the wolf. Thankfully, he had most of the supplies available to him, and finding the rest didn't require too much effort on his part. The incense was available in tourist shops in china town, he owned most of the necessary crystals, and Lexie was good at the various exercises he'd practised with her. Knowing how difficult training was, Oz had been more lax on her than the monks had been on him. Admittedly that was partially to alleviate his own workload.

Now, he was loading the supplies into the tiny dingy car that Oz had bought recently to help get around. Lexie had agreed to meet him at Slayer HQ to help with set up, and more importantly, learn to do it for herself. In a weird way, Oz was proud of her. Lexie had been through horrors he couldn't imagine, but she was holding everything together very well. Dedicated too. Lexie also played her guitar like a boss.

The first thing Oz noticed arriving at the building was the intense smell of Slayer. There wasn't really a word for the smell, but he'd first recognised it in Buffy, and later in Faith. Now, it was the overcurrent, blurring all the other ones. He could just about pick out Xander's one in the throng, which made sense as he operated as a main Watcher in the group. There was a chance that if he took a deep breathe, that Oz would recognise some of the others. He didn't want to tempt the Wolf yet, though, not when the moon was calling so loudly, so Oz simply strolled over to the room Buffy was lending them.

It didn't take long for Lexie to arrive, smelling like cigarettes and leather and the rich, dark purple that Oz had gotten used to the past couple of weeks. This was one of the few things that made being with Lexie difficult. He was happy that she was happy, no doubt about it, but there was something familiar about the smell of a loved up werewolf that brought back all the worst - as well as some of the best - memories to the front of Oz's mind. There had been an influx of incense and candles used recently in their sessions.

"You alright?" He asked quietly, knowing how scary full moons could be, especially when there was no way of knowing how things would turn out. Perhaps teasing would help alleviate some of the difficulties. "How is your friend going to cope without seeing you for three whole nights?"

Perhaps not.

#paraecho #lexie #packmoon

Yellow Brick Road || Willow and Oz

Oz was practising his Astavakrasana when he smelled her. The pose was trying, and maintaining it for more than twenty seconds on either side was just a little too much on Oz's frame. Managing Lexie's everything was taxing, and Oz found it hard to find time to practise the more complex poses. But Lexie was out, at a concert or something with someone, so he didn't feel the need to break his routine.

Until, of course, Oz smelled a very familiar scent. For some reason, he had expected everything to seem so different. Of course, a person's scent changes over the course of their life, and Oz was sure that up close Willow's scent would show that, but honestly, when he was expecting her not to, you know, smell like Willow. She'd changed a lot, Xander had said, been through a lot. But it was still Willow.

Losing the pose, he pulled off his salt-and-slightly-bitter tshirt, swapping it for a cleaner grey one. Willow would be at the door soon - her smell was becoming stronger. Oz filled the kettle and set it to boil, and rolled up his matt. There were four lit candles, for each corner of the living space, but Oz figured she wouldn't mind those.

It wasn't like the poor boy had forgotten about Bay. It was just easier to pretend he forgot. Slowly, he opened the door, just in time to see Willow reach to knock.

"S'not exactly Istanbul," he commented, lifting the corner of his lips the littlest bit. Oz stepped aside for her to come in, appraising how she had changed.

#paraecho #yellowbrickroad #willow