#tbd|chris luna

[brooklynislandgirl]

@bewitchingbaker  {{xx}}

She turns but not enough to jostle his arm, until she sees most of him a certain periphery, little sharp teeth visible with accompanying crinkle at the corners of her nose. She doesn’t smile that way often but it is her most genuine self. Maybe it’s because she feels more at home here than she does in her own, especially with Andy gone.  The four of them had always been inseparable, and now more than ever she’s reluctant to be away for too long. But at least she brings coffees and snacks ~Chris’ fridge being full of Thai for dinner~ so at least it’s not such an imposition. She tells him it’s just acting pono ~in the right way though there’s more to it than those four words~ and it’s always better to share. She considers it a win when he laughs.

“I know, right? Is ‘cause I’m evil.” She absolutely isn’t, but likes to tease. But there’s something expectant drawn across her delicate features, bright and alive and sketched into her quieter places as she patiently awaits his summary.  She nods at each of his points. “No can blame you. Like...Smash Into You is such an undahrated song, but it’s so...just..” A little bird-flutter of her fingertips. A fill in for all the words she doesn’t know how to explain. “An’ I agree wi’ ya on Okoye, too. Mebbe especially cause it would be wor’d it. But hey, if we’re bein’ hones’... you’re pretty buff too.”  A squeeze of his arm and a wink.  But when he gets to her... Beth blushes and starts to tell him that she was just kidding. But he gets his say out before she can. Her face softens, if that’s possible, with a streak of vulnerability and her innate shyness. “We’re still friends cause ya amazing, an’ ya wonderful, an’ I t’ink ya awesome. Even when ya bein’ real embarrassing. Mebbe especially den.” Her voice, barely a robust whisper, becomes smaller still. “An’ I t’ink if I was evah gonna...you know. Wi’ anyone, I’d wan’ it to be wi’ someone I love an’ trust. A bes’ friend.” Like you hangs in the air, unspoken. “...so...Josephine, or....gonna risk it all wi’ Cassandra an’ likely come back as da one-arm Inquisitor? Personally couldn’ choose between Blackwall or Cullen.”

[brooklynislandgirl]

💽

Notes in a Quiet Room || Accepting

I. A Spoonful of Sugar || Julie Andrews

II. Desert Rose || Sting ft. Cheb Mami III. Season of the Witch || Lana Del Rey {cover} IV. The Mountain || Dead Can Dance V. Landslide || Bush {cover} VI. Feels like Summer || Childish Gambino VII. Because of You || Ne-Yo VIII. Never Never Land || Lyfe Jennings IX. A Kind of Magic || Queen X. Bottom of the River || Delta Rae

[brooklynislandgirl]

@bewitchingbaker {{xx}}

Ever since the Troubles, the family has stayed closer to home. Andy and Sam are the ones who trek into town, leaving early and sometimes staying late. Beth is happy to have Tabitha's company when she comes, and of course, Morgan when she has time to visit. Her cousin has settled in New York with her father, Uncle Harvey, to help with his new Law practice. The travel out west is time consuming so mostly the women make due with long and fond correspondences. The letters mean a lot to Beth as they aren't filled with the glaring eyes from the town folk. The whispers about her being an unnatural creature and the constant weight of superstition. The only thing that really keeps her safe, she would bet anything on, is the star on her brother's chest, and the rifles he and Sam carry. Maybe the fact that the people worry what kind of retribution the Manitou would bring if they could manage to lay a hand ~or a rope~ on her. She tries not to think about that. She tries not to think about a lot of things as she moves past the boundary of the house's fence. This is one of those supply days, and she's hoping that when the men return from town that they'll be bringing her one of the letters owed to her. The cattle are being looked out over in the northern pastures, Tabby's at her shift at the saloon. No doubt her brother will be stopping in for a visit. He's tried to talk to her about packing up and moving out to the ranch, mostly because the Troubles affected her, too, but Tabitha is far less docile than Beth is. No one would miss her if she wandered down to the creek. And this is where she is found. Skirts hiked up to expose stocking-less feet dipped down into the trickling water in such a fashion to be considered scandalous. Dark hair pulled back in tight braids that flow down her spine, book in hand and hat placed just so next to a little basket that seems to hold a water-skin, some parcels that are likely food, plants harvested between the house and here. Almost unnaturally green eyes grow wide in the delicate and dusky landscape of her face and her thin frame all but recoils in on itself as she lets out the smallest sort of gasp. She isn't used to being sneaked up on, and her hand hesitates. In that moment, the tall dark stranger speaks kindly, being somewhat of a gentleman. The shape of his accent suggests he's not local, as does his appearance. He doesn't look like a gambler, or a huckster. Government doesn't shine from his eyes or his clothes. Maybe he's looking for work. This time of year there's plenty of those, but she doesn't know how to take the comment he makes about being out here, alone. She discards her book ~a heart stopping tale from Mr Poe~ in favour of a buck knife that looks impossibly large in her small hand. "A-are you lookin' for someone or something, Mister...?" A question in reply to his, saturated with suspicion. She slowly gets to her feet. Her toes are muddy. Makes her look even younger than she normally does. "Town's about ten miles yonder," she tells him, gesturing slightly south and east. "If you're hungry, I got some food you can take..." Another pause as she looks around. "If your horse's lame or lost a shoe, we could maybe lend you one, and you can leave it at the stable."

[tarnishedhalo]

Chris sits in what was Andy's room, looking down at an old photo. Jess, Chris, Beth and finally Andy at the local arcade, all wearing fake moustaches. The Fantastic Four of they dubbed themselves once they all began hanging out (though Jess wished for a cooler name). Damn near inseprable, even when the elder siblings moved onto the next step of their education and career. But when they got the news of Andy's passing, it was nothing short of devastating. Those soft brown eyes stare at the whisky in his hands, "Happy Birthday, Andy. We miss you everyday, hope you and my folks are getting along up there."

One thing Riley knows, without having to explain how or why, is that Chris has to be held tightly in the palm of God's hand. He knows his sister is particular and in a lot of ways peculiar. Photographic memory tells him nothing has been moved since the last time he'd been here...and that was almost a decade ago. And yet the boy ~scratch that~ the man sitting there still has his flesh on his bones. No open wounds seeping blood onto the bed. The echo of her screaming for Chris to get out of Riley's room haunts the air nor shatters glass. Suddenly, he feels...old. He unhitches his bag from his shoulder then rolls his neck from side to side. It cracks quietly before he leans in the door frame, folding his arms across his chest. His chest aches for the loss. For the missing years. For seeing Chris without his emotional armor on, and can only imagine what Jess might say. He can almost feel the sting of her palm and the air being cut off from a hug. But he is here. Maybe not in one piece but...it's better than where he's been. The things he's been doing. "I dunno, kid. Your moms honestly scares the crap out of me. Whenever I looked at her, I felt a chancla in my future."

[brooklynislandgirl]

The young man's eyes are wide with fear. Darting between nurse and the direction slowly approaching sounds of a much more ruthless set of survivors. His family would tell him to leave her as she's not a part of their group. Selfish? Yes. But kindness got you killed in times like these. Maybe he should leave. But that's not Chris. A hand reaches out to help her to her feet. "come on, they'll kill us if they spot us..." [ 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 ] [walking dead/post apocalypse au]

Lost Sparks || Accepting Beth remembers watching a documentary that feels like more than two lifetimes ago. Most of the details seem fuzzy now but the main point of it had been the meeting of two different lions at a particular watering hole. One had been drinking when cautiously approached by the other, each of them belonging to different prides. Rather than the imaginable territorial dispute, both of the young lions drank peaceably and parted their ways. That was what it had felt like when Beth lifted her head while refilling her water bottle in the stream and saw the boy. She didn't know if he looked surprised because he wasn't expecting to see someone else, or he wasn't used to people nowadays smiling. He didn't seem to even want to move until she nodded and waved an idle hand toward the water. "Go ahead 'f ya gonna." Thus was the extent of their conversation. Each one very much aware of the other, watching the other, and still doing what was necessary. She couldn't see if he was unarmed but she gave him the courtesy of knowing she had a m1911 in her satchel along with medical supplies, and knife almost as long as she is at her side. He did not respond in kind, and that is fine. She tenses when he crosses the stream and sits down beside her. She knows better than to let anyone get close but so far the boy...some ten years younger than her, if she guesses...seems to be fairly harmless, further proven when he gives her his first name and offers to trade her... some fresh baked bread in exchange for a couple of the small perch she's got in a reed-woven basket. And that's about as far as they get when they hear it. Or rather, he does. She isn't sure what catches his attention; people or walkers. Both are equally deadly as resources grow smaller by the day. She's still trying to collect all of her things; the food and the herbs when the boy reaches for her hand.

Beth knows better. She does. She takes his hand and leaves the fish behind.

[brooklynislandgirl]

[Dad+] a bespectacled young man knocks at the door, an much too big vintage Janis Joplin shirt matching his slightly skater inspired jeans. Despite his skate inspired outfit, he stood straight as if he were making a delivery. Helped by the appearance of the light purple box holding a few cupcakes from the bakery. “Oh!” The somewhat deep voiced cracked like he was 13 again. “Hi, Mr Riley…how are you? Are Andy and Beth home?”

The man was unaccustomed to answering his own doors. The housekeeper is shopping. He's on leave so none of his regular staff is about the sprawling ranch house. He looks the boy up and down, and does not recognise him from amongst the throng of Andrew's friends. Clearly by the way he's dressed, his casual attitude, he certainly isn't part of the family's social circle, however easy his address. "Admiral," he admonishes the boy. They are of a height, and the boy might be bulkier but he is not nearly as imperious as the Riley patriarch. "Andrew has taken the girl to an appointment. Are you confused son? Deliveries go to the side entrance."

[tarnishedhalo]

A much much younger Chris finds himself in the Riley home. Bespectacled eyes watched the television, arms hugging his knees. His eyes look between the tv and Andy, a bit anxious since it was just him. "Um...Andy? It isn't annoying that I'm always over here, is it? I know you and my sister are friends and I don't wanna impose as the younger subling..."

The kid is thirteen, five years younger than Riley himself, the same age as Beth. And it makes sense that the two would make fast friends, just like he and Jess had become, though there's no truth to the rumours that the elder Luna and he were dating. Maybe not for lack of trying on one part of the other. The girls are out shopping for whatever it is they need ~it was a mission of mercy that he'll owe Jess for later, because one more awkward afternoon trying to find Beth new clothes for school and he might just throw himself off the nearest mesa~ but that meant Chris was stuck at his place while he's more or less...not babysitting per se, but keeping the kid company. Riley rolls his eyes in the kid's direction. "Oh my god, you're just the worst. Like I wanna chew my own arm off to get away." It is said so seriously and for a second he can see the near-horror rise in Chris' face. Then Riley laughs. "Of course not. First, I like having you guys around, and second you're a lot less trouble than Beth is. Also you're not sticking your foot in my face or making faces when I order meat on the pizza."

Which should, in fact, be here any minute now. "Not for nuthin' but...you sound...what's on your mind, kid?"

[brooklynislandgirl]

"Well," a blushing Chris began, "I always thought your teeth were cute. I honestly think about how good it would feel if you bit me while we did the thing." (for the sinday meme)

Little Fires Everywhere || Accepting It's maybe a good thing that Beth had put the knife down on the counter where she'd been slicing strawberries for Chris' latest recipe, and the one ripe, large berry that she'd teasingly held out for him between her teeth falls into her hand after she runs what he says forwards and back and wrangles it into understandable words. It's not that he doesn't speak clearly, he does, it just takes her a time or two to catch everything if she's not watching his mouth. Over the years she's playfully mouthed all over Chris because of course she does. She's as comfortable with him as she is in her own skin, possibly even moreso. He was the first person to make her feel welcome in the waterless landscape, her most ardent supporter and friend, and the adventures they've had over the years reads like something out of a fairytale. And those bonds only grew stronger when they each had to....she doesn't think of the missing pair right now because she can't. Instead she blinks, and there's as much colour in her cheeks as there is in his, though it's easier to tell on her face. "What kine?" The question is innocent enough. They practically do everything together....so maybe she needs him to narrow it... Oh. Oh. Her voice drops down into near silence. "Have...have you...ya know. Da kine?"