venerable but not clairvoyant

There’s no real magic in this world, only love – the rest is just smoke and mirrors.

[the-kapok-kid]

Old @allvalley100 prompts.

 Prompt: Sunrise And Sunset.

Rating: K. M/M.

Pairing: Hawk/Demetri.

***

Hawk hates sunrise. 

Demetri leaves. For a fraction of a second he pauses; looking back, eyes glowing red and gold in the glare of the demonic day.

Sunset is comfortable. Hard edges and sludgy purple skies broken into jagged lines. For six thousand and twenty two sunsets, Hawk drinks a Coors Banquet, throws the can into the roiling waves below, and wishes it were his heart instead.

Six thousand and twenty three sunrises later, Demetri returns. He walks along the beach, slender profile grown lean and confident, eyes softly mellow in the light of the newborn day.

Hawk loves sunrise.

[the-kapok-kid]

Old @allvalley100 prompts.

 Prompt: One Last Time.

Rating: K. Gen.

Character: Daniel LaRusso.

***

"Great spot he found, your shrimpy sensei," says Johnny. Ten yards to the west, the sun dips over the silent sea in a blaze of crimson.

"Shimpo," Daniel mutters softly.

Behind him, there's a clink of a sake glass against a Coors Banquet; a subdued murmur of "Karii!"

"Hey LaRusso, your drink's getting warm!"

His fingers shake, reaching for his glass, the knuckles knotted with years of fighting. Chozen's eyes gleam warm in a weathered face. Johnny's hair is equal parts silver and gold. 

Daniel smiles. His heart lifts, circling with the breeze, into the skies of the dying day.

[the-kapok-kid]

Old @allvalley100 prompts.

 Prompt: Breathing Space.

Rating: K. Gen.

Character: Robby Keene.

***

After the tournament, there’s a medal on his chest, money in his bank account, a full ride to a top business school, and a gaping void in his heart.

Robby leaves.

The gif is scheduled to send when he’s on the plane.

He’ll learn to live with the discomfort.

*

Seville implodes, packed streets and houses jumbled together. He sends the first postcard, and breathes easier. 

*

In Kerala, his fingers stop twitching, his mind stops whirring, and he sends another postcard.

*

By the seventh year, the discomfort turns to tranquility. Robby sends the card, the ticket, crosses his fingers, and waits.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[the-kapok-kid]

Old @allvalley100 prompts.

 Prompt: Ghosts.

Rating: T. Gen.

Character: Terry Silver.

***

He won’t go out in battle. ‘Nam taught him that.

If he fights, he wins.

I’m not afraid to die –

Funny he’d always meant that about fights. He can’t fight with the voices in his head.

Some days, they battle it out –

He steps out.

Twig – twig – twig –

Still small voices follow him everywhere, a plaintive threnody rising above the dull low roar of the crowd.

He can see them still, with every twist, with every punch –

Shadowy faces in the periphery of his vision.

And now, engulfed in the depths of this blazing hell –

The flaming faces close in.

[the-kapok-kid]

Old @allvalley100 prompts.

 Prompt: Gamble.

Rating: K. Gen.

Character: Mike Barnes

***

“No,” the man says, “No IOUs from you again.”

“I’ll pay it,” Mike mutters. “I swear.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, son.” A whiff of heady perfume. Mike steps back. “How do you feel about a job instead?”

Mike shrugs. “I can turn my hand to anything, sir.”

“I’m sure you can. Call on me.” He pushes a card into Mike’s hand; touches his hat, walks away.

There’s a name on the card – and an address in the respectable part of town. He flips it over. Peverell Fine Furniture, it says, in elegant cursive. Mike grins and pockets it.

[the-kapok-kid]

We must all find pointless causes to live for, or why bother with breath?

Because, on reflection, once you have seen your own face and recognised the colour of your eyes, tasted the air and smelled the soil, drunk from the purest fountains and the dirtiest wells, this is the kindest thing you can say about life.

It's not nothing.

- Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

[travllingbunny]

just a thingy I made this morning

[ltwilliammowett]

Being a captain is hard work (Ship cat Tigress aboard the Barque Picton Castle)- von Barque Picton Castle

[theblindassassin]

DONNA CLARK/EMERSON & JOE MACMILLAN

HALT AND CATCH FIRE - 1x04/1x08/2x05/3x10/4x07

bonus:

[pressure-machine]

ENDEAVOUR REWATCH season two, episode one: Trove

[donske]

Lee Pace as Joe MacMillan HALT AND CATCH FIRE (2014 - 2017)

[dailybruhl]

DANIEL BRÜHL for Hunger Magazine (2013)

[mytohlogy]

[the-kapok-kid]

For @allvalley100 . Prompt: Cute as a Button. #2 Amnesty Week.

Rating: K. Gen.

Characters: Daniel, Johnny, Bert.

***

The original Miyagi-Fang students are grown and gone, but Johnny and Daniel can still be proud. Robby is EXO at LaRusso Auto. Sam is the leading face of the Valley’s Women in STEM. Demetri heads a game development firm.

But someone else has reached unprecedented heights.

“Look at that,” Johnny says, pointing to a billboard on Van Nuys’.

Across the poster is splashed a familiar face, with spectacles and a bashful grin. “VOTE BERT FOR POTUS!” It says in bright, bold letters.

Daniel chuckles and shakes his head. “All these years and still” –

“As cute as a button,” Johnny finishes.

[the-kapok-kid]

For @allvalley100 . Prompt: Boys Don't Cry. #1 Amnesty Week.

Rating: M. Gen.

Character: Chozen Toguchi.

Warning: Suicide Attempt.

***

Weeks after the storm, the waves run high, tossing white-crested mounts against the still-lowering sky. He wades, further and further out, until the grey waters form eddying pools around his knees, his waist, his shoulders.

He revels in the sting of the salt in his wounds, his nose, his eyes.

I cannot help him – I cannot –

Now to you – I am dead –

On the shore, someone shouts.

He laughs. The sound, like broken glass, torn from his throat and flung above the roaring torrent.

Out here, nobody can hear him scream.

Beneath the waves, nobody can see the tears fall.

[the-kapok-kid]

For @allvalley100 . Prompt: First And Last.

Rating: T. F/F.

Pairing: Tory Nichols/Sam LaRusso.

Warning: Mention of character deaths. But happy ending.

***

They live a thousand lifetimes, and in every one, Tory loves Sam.

In some lives they get together. In others, they don’t.

In the first lifetime, they meet in parting. Tory dies as Sam approaches, staring into burning eyes as she bleeds out in an alleyway.

Some lives are dark and tumultuous, others long and lingering.

In the best one, they have decades together. Hours merge into months into years; rosy cheeks turning wrinkly, shimmering grey threading blond and brown hair.

And this time, as Tory closes Sam’s eyes, those burning blues stilled forever, she knows it is their last.

[the-kapok-kid]

For @allvalley100 . Prompt: Wanderlust.

Rating: K. M/M.

Pairing: Robby/Hawk.

***

After the Sekai Takai, Robby disappears. Without a single trace –

Almost.

A solitary text to Eli – a gif of a bird in freefall. He’s eighteen; stretching his wings in a way Hawk never will.

-

There are photographs. They follow Eli everywhere – home, to CalTech, to Okinawa, and back home again.

A pigeon in Seville. A peacock in Kerala. An ibis in the Masai Mara.

-

No words, save the postmarks – until Eli’s twenty-fourth birthday.

He flips the card – a kiwi in a burrow – and finds a one-way airplane ticket. Beneath, in a long-remembered scrawl it says: from one ex-asshole to another.

***

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3