On my way, Love, as soon as I can. ❤️ Fucking Fitzgerald took it upon himself to corner me, and the bastard's difficult to slip away from without incurring dramatics of 'offense.' Which I'm about to risk, regardless, because he is keeping me from my Puppy.
I'd say turn and walk away, but— Mm. One, it's no good you coming into Fitz's orbit, and two, I've a suggestion of another sort.
You're right to guess he's never been to Rome. He has been to the Parthenon and Colosseum, but the trick, Enri, is that he found both in Florida.
One, a bakery; the other, a stadium.
Ask him, won't you, what the score was when he stepped out for that handie, and whether the crowd was booing when he came.
[ Enri hesitates, but that seemed like a command. He goes up on his toes and cranes his neck to see if he can spot Darius in the crowd; when he can't, he shrugs to himself...and asks about the hand job. ]
[...]
[...]
He said there's always a standing ovation when he comes, so I asked why his partner's still standing at the end if he's any good.
He got a weird look on his face and left, so. Okay, then.
[...]
Did she literally invite every single one of your exes? Someone said your ex-wife's here.
I'm not mad or anything. It's funny and I'm having a good time. But [...] how many guests would be here if she didn't stack it with people you fucked?
It's about to get real crowded; Clark and Cooper are on the way with half my coworkers. Are Sen and Rin getting here soon? Pretty sure I saw Costas and Alice.
1) This is a drunk text message. I am so glad that we are together forever. Tomorrow we will eat sandwiches in miniature. We both love soft. Flower.
2) Imagine if sharks could walk on land... scary.
3) Uh-oh. Found him nude in a tree again?
4) In another life could i be a baby alligator do you think? Not that I’m not happy now oh i AM Just i could also be happy a baby alligator I think but i would need my baby alligator Senan with me too c: a very long alligator, he!
5) Do you know, there is a song in my head. I cannot get it out and I cannot recall its title or even its words mostly, only there is the sound buzzing buzzing again in my head until my thinking begins to revolt, what shall I do?
6) Sometimes I think I only want to play Frogger, where I am the frog and the leaping is from one car to the next. But then jumping gets very old after the first few.
Enri forgive me! Only if you like, s’il sous plait! Yes I aM at home and yes poetry and yeS drinking very! much!
Allow me an amending! Forever is so, yes. Yes you are family you are here and this is wonderful also! For softness I do not think you are immune, you have at least and I believe Darius does have soft hair.
!!! It strikes me! Do you like sandwiches in miniature? We are going to have create some nice ones! Cucumbers!!
I like those Uncrustables. You know, the PB&J ones in the freezer section?
Daddy won't let me have them, though.
I mean, I shouldn't eat them, anyway, but he prefers it if I eat not-freezer-sandwiches.
[...]
He has really soft hair. Seems like it runs in the family? Sen's looks pretty nice. But yeah. I love it when he tosses his head, you know? And everything else he does.
How come you're drunk? It's...5:30, Twix Mx. Everything okay?
1) According to local mm legend, I decided I'm a stuntman after shot seven. RIP to my fingerprints, didn’t need em anyway
2) Too old to be getting shitwrecked and falling into koi ponds, yet here we are. Bright side is, it’s a top-tier hair day, sun’s out, and I just got cat-called from a Range Rover
3) What, Kraken dick? Knew him, heard about it. Never saw it, save the night he told about wanting to show me something beautiful, then just started peeing off the bridge into oncoming traffic
4) Nah, had to move on after painting the kitchen yellow, I’m talking mello yello piss, bright as the sun’s ass yellow. Gives me a headache thinking about it
5) He still pissed about the dime bag of crushed nerds? iirc, no one forced him to shove his nose in it.
6) I’m sitting here balls naked playing xbox in nothing but crocs with the fur. No regrets
Sure, I've got friends. Half of em are in your neck of the world right now. The point isn't them, though. Lolly said you could use a friend. Truth be told, dunno if he meant friend or 'friend,' but then he's not big on explaining himself.
GTA rn, Madden before. Tried for Sea of Thieves, but the crew was shit and right fuckin rude. At least curse me out in pirate speak if you're gonna be a pissant, right?
Sen: I wasn't present for that particular incident, but if he was predisposed to attempt inhaling a mound of multi-colored crystals, I doubt he remembers it. You might ask Vitaly.
Sen: ...I've forgotten to invite Vitaly. Fuck me. Wait a moment, I'll make a group.
[ Chat has been created: Puppy Adoption Planning ]
[ Five contacts have been invited to the chat. ]
[ Blake Navarro and three others have joined the chat. ]
Enri: That's not funny.
Verne: ya it is
Sen: Stand by. Forgot Vitaly.
Enri: Who?
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has been invited to the chat. ]
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has joined the chat. ]
Sen: Vitaly, meet Enri, Blake and Nova. Rin is still angry with you, Verne still believes you have been in a gulag in Siberia for six years, Darius is marrying a Puppy, you have three weeks to get here.
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has left the chat. ]
Sen: Fuck's sake.
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has been invited to the chat. ]
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has joined the chat. ]
Vitaly: [In Ukrainian-] Do you know what time it is? Do you want to know what time it is, dickhead? [In English:] It's 7:35.
Sen: You can't use that one anymore. I am deeply in the throes of wedded bliss and will not be unsettled by any future threats to my not-so-secret.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] Was my invitation lost in the mail?
Enri: He said Rin's angry with you. Probably got something to do with it.
Vitaly: ONE. TOOTH. One fucking tooth and I am off the guest list.
Blake: tf with rin and they teeth
Vitaly: Exactly. Like that one said: tf with rin and they teeth. Well spoken.
Sen: There wasn't a guest list. We eloped. Enri and Darius are not eloping. Mid-June, Vitaly.
Enri: The 16th!
Verne: you geeting married on juneteenth wtf
Blake: juneteenths the 19th Enri: That's the 19th Sen: Juneteeth is the 19th, Verne. It's a federal fucking holiday.
Verne: [...] [...] u sure
Vitaly: It might be the 16th. You know these shitheads only come to consensus when they're wrong. Maybe you should take a poll on the sidewalk, Lolly.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] Which one speaks Ukrainian, earlier?
Enri: Russian. Close, though.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] A little too close.
Enri: Fuck Putin. I just speak the language.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] You can sit with me at the wedding.
Enri: [...] [...] I'm the Puppy.
Vitaly: That so? Don't worry. Daddy won't mind.
[ A sound of rusty, snorting laughter comes from the sitting room of the Null Set apartment. Blake is trying to choke it back. ]
Would’ve eased off on the spliff if I’d know we were
Sure, first. All right, several points.
Cheers to the Puppy, pleasure to meet you. Enri. Enri? right. Husband-to-be and Puppy for life, that’s no small feat. Wilco speaks well of you, figure you’re golden.
…Hold up. Fucker went and took a new name. Not Wilco, then. [ … ] Renfield. There we are. that work for you, Sen?
Vitaly. Don’t think I’ve seen you? Got shit for recollection rn though. Question: Dime bag of crushed nerds. Darius. You saw that, or nah?
Blake, xbox, crocs, met you. Apologies about that. Some jag-off failed to tell the situation in full.
Speaking of. Lolly, where the fuck’re your sisters? Can’t get hold of either, and they took off with a handful of caps. Left me with nothing, least they could do is give a word. Added to which, Sher’s asking after you. Give her a call before I wreck my brains against a wall.
Who’s in which gulag? For pinching teeth, or what?
Love to know what languages are going on here. Lads, please; I ain’t on your level and I never will be. No fault but my own, admitted, but what I need understood is I’m too caned for sussing out rn.
Eh, nah, nm that, I’ll catch it later. Doing a wondrous job introing myself. You get what you get, what can i say?
1) Frank from Texas called again. I don’t know how many times I can say ‘please stop, I can’t use any of this’ before I pay a personal visit to convince him into silence. I’m so tired of this.
2) I know logically there shouldn’t be anything lurking in the closet, but monsters don’t give much heed to logic, so I’d be much obliged if you’d turn a light on.
3) I don’t see the problem; all I said was ‘There’s no telling when Bigfoot might come for you.’
4) Had another dream about Long John Silver’s.
5) That was the same night I walked in around four a.m. and found them playing Monopoly with gummies while making ‘worm pancakes.’
I'm sorry, I know your wedding is soon and you're probably busy. I hate asking anything of you, I always have, but -
Darius, the story is very long -
I
[...]
[ A photo follows - the same one Vitaly sent Nova, himself holding Sergiy. ]
This is Sergiy.
[...]
Madeline's and mine. The only good to ever come of it -
[...]
You're his godfather. In case something ever should happen to me, yes? Nothing will, don't worry, and if you don't want the responsibility, it's all right. My family will take care of him.
But [...] I wanted you to be this to him. Want you to be.
Fuck, this is
Madeline has him, Darius. I've been trying to get out of this fucking marriage for - She keeps him from me.
I'm scattered, my mind is [...] very scattered just now. I learned something from a friend of Nova's, and I need an American lawyer.
[ He sends the link to the postnuptial agreement.
He tries, then, to outline everything that's happened as he did for Nova, but it's all rather disjointed. He's badly shaken.
Eventually, when he realizes he's probably not making much sense, he settles for ending with: ]
I'll send the document, as well as your phone number, along to my lawyers. You've heard the Pendletons' names? The twins, Costas, Morgan. They're ruthless and effective, not given to neglecting details. They're on my payroll. And as I understand, neither of them bear fond feelings toward your soon to be ex-wife.
It bears noting that they have managed the majority of my business and [ … ] particularly fraught settlements. The notable exception being - owing to a pique of spite on my side; resulting in outcomes less than desirable - the matter of my own divorce.
I expect you haven't met their loyal third. Alice Colling, equally effective, equally threatening when he takes it on himself to be, though it's nothing I'd admit to him.
It will be managed, and I will of course keep you apprised.
(You may meet one or each of them in the city. Morgan is Enri’s father; Colling married the Pendleton runt. All three will be attending both our wedding and the part before. I won’t pretend any one of them is personable, but that’s nothing you can’t navigate.)
[ ... ]
[ ... ]
Vitaly. I'm sorry, I I [ ... ] hadn't realized.
What you’ve said is true: You've paid enough, and far beyond.
It ends here.
[ Shortly after this message, he passes the document along to Costas, along with an explanation of Vitaly's case and situation from what he's gathered, Vitaly’s number, and a further note: 'See to this ASAP, and consider your payment doubled for the next three months. I trust you and Morgan can pry some enjoyment from sending her to ruin. Bring Colling on it as well, and do keep me informed. Thank you.'
With that accomplished, he’s going to spend several minutes nuzzling Enri, whose lap he’s been perched on since the end of their early evening’s ritual, speaking soft love and admiration before writing another word. ]
You absolute bastard, the fuck didn't you tell me you have a
[ .. ]
Your son. That’s your son?
Does he know the unrepentant shithead he has for a father.
[ ... ]
Fuck’s name, you might have told me.
That you had a son. That you kept the marriage.
[ … ] Don’t for shit’s sake start in on reasons for silences kept heretofore. I can name them myself and require no enuumeration. I’m well aware of where the blame falls.
[ … ]
My godson.
Vitaly.
[ … ]
Wise choice, opting for god’s own aegis.
[ … ]
We’re agreed that there will be no need for worry, as nothing will happen to you. [ … ] [ … ] Even so. It isn’t a responsibility I reject.
He knows I love him. Whatever else I may be, I make certain he knows this without question.
[…]
I tell him about you. Only the good or funny, so if you soil your name in front of him, it’s your own fault - but I don’t believe you will. I’ve heard too much about Enri to think you would ‘shit the bed’ in front of Sergiy.
He’s six, but he’s smart enough to know when someone isn’t worth the air they breathe. (I speak from how I’ve seen him behave toward others, not from suggestion of your value.)
And a correction, please:
I didn’t “keep” the marriage. This divorce process has been dragging and stalling and restarting for eight years. Allowing me the divorce means she wouldn’t have the luxury she knows now.
[…]
I assume with Deforest. Senan mentioned something of that kind. Sergiy has mentioned it, as well.
I won’t cut her off so long as she has my son and she knows it.
[…]
The war has made it harder to do more than sit impotently by; life is going on in Ukraine, but then, it isn’t what it was. A fucking limbo of invasion and tentative existence.
I […]
Nova. He’s been […] encouraging. Helping.
[…]
You knew Enri only a week when you loved him, isn’t that so? And Senan, we all know Rin was love at first sight for him.
So it isn’t strange, is it.
Not so very strange at all.
Do you remember when I talked to you of Madeline all those years ago and I called her formidable? I said to you that I admired her. Was fond of her. I thought I loved her, didn’t I? I felt adrift in her presence, clouded, wanting the life I thought she symbolized.
[…]
Nova eases me, Darius. A word from him and my mind is clear. We’ve been talking as though writing letters, every day.
I understand something now about you and your Enri. About Senan, about people who fall in love so quickly that it changes everything they know: there isn’t a choice. How inevitable it all feels, now that I’ve met him. You don’t “fall”; you simply are, and there was never anything else you should have been.
That’s what he means, you know? Senan with his stupid tattoo. All my days, all my heart? It’s what’s past as well as what’s promised. A heart -
My heart.
My heart and all my days until now have been Nova’s. I simply didn’t know it.
He has a soul unlike any I’ve ever known, full of brilliance and shadow - like the night sky. He chose his name so well, didn’t he? Nova like newness, like starbursts, like perfect beginnings taking place in a cosmos older than can be conceived. Here is something that has existed countless times before, but never quite like him. Never with his beautiful nuance.
My Nova.
[…]
And then my Sergiy, who is breathtaking in a different way. My heart is composed of him, has been beating for him from the moment I first held him. Another kind of love, but just as inevitable.
He and Nova are so similar, do you know? Both of them so full of joy and simplicity, both prone to malaise.
I can imagine a life with them. A family. A time when I can speak with my son without the use of the internet or a twelve-hour flight. When I can have Sergiy in his own room in our home, without the sorrows that plague him, and also.
And also I can wake to Nova beside me in a bed we share. I can do this without worry for myself, or for my son. He makes me feel how possible - probable! - it all can be if I can just unshackle myself from Madeline.
[…]
Well. I mean to say I love him.
I mean to say I want to raise Sergiy with him.
I mean to say, as well, that I want you to be part of Sergiy’s family.
And mine.
You and Enri.
[…]
Yes, I’m rambling, but I have had to sit through Enri texting for two days about your many virtues, half of them sexual in nature and more than half of them unspeakable. Endure.
Let it be known that I sincerely hope - though I will not remotely be holding my breath - one of you has an adequate explanation for the years-past news I've only just now learned. Let it be known as well I've been informed courtesy of various news outlets via searches endeavored, rather than having been granted the courtesy of a single word from either Dr. Vitaly Kozak or D o c t o r S.D. Altair.
Shitheads, the both of you.
You and your anarchic fucking assholery.
(Before you speak a fucking word, Kozak I know you had cause for your silence until recently, but I'd be terribly interested knowing why the man who shares my alter ego surname as well as my godsdamned blood has held his smug fucking peace on this count.)
[Vitaly:] Oh, you finished your dissertation! Congratulations, Senan!
[Sen:] Not how I cared to break the news. [...] I didn't think to mention the book or my doctorate. It didn't seem relevant. Now it's becoming relevant in ways that cause me to suppose I may need to speak with Rin very quickly.
[Vitaly:] You didn't tell Rin?
[Sen:] I didn't tell anyone at all.
[Vitaly:] Don't make a habit of such omissions. Your liver, this book, it isn't wise. And Darius, forgive me for not mentioning. Even if we weren't precisely speaking, I could have sent a copy to you. I know you'd have read it. [...] You would have thrown it in a trash can first, but fished it out again out of curiosity.
Dare I ask how you had planned on breaking the news, and how many decades off that breaking might have come to pass.
[ ... ]
I'm curious [ ... ] and I should like to know what your dissertation was, and what precisely you made study of.
Regardless, take my congratulations as well, though I'll warn you against believing I'm not irate with you just now.
(...Not so very irate. I'm certain two esteemed authors such as yourselves can discern that I've far too much cause for elation to expend much energy on grudging a quiet-kept book.)
[ ... ]
And, Vitaly.
As it happens.
I may have ordered and received the book already.
I may have unwrapped the thing and flung it into the trash in a show of spite witnessed by myself and Enri alone.
Then, yes, retrieved and read it through.
Well done, the both of you.
Vitaly, I'd harangue you for maintaining presence around the shitshow formerly known as Twitter, but you're arguably one of the few putting it to its rightful use.
Sen, I've no idea whether you've a presence on the same site, though I'd be unsurprised to hear it's another of your omissions, and I'd expect your use of it to fall in line with Kozak's.
Speaking of, would you care to clue Vitaly in onDoes he KNOW and did he know before you told mGiven what we've discussed and my past moods, I can't say I'd blame you
I'll add my encouragement toward clueing Rin in sooner than not, though fuck knows they don't need any further reason to sing your praise to every ear.
1) I dreamt they lost all power of speech, and ah, the peace I felt.
What I wouldn’t give for one day of silence. One day of a ‘Closed’ sign given heed, a shop uninvaded, my senses unassailed.
Well. Until that blessed day arrives, I shall content myself with treating all trespassers to the sight of true love— In the form of a Puppy thoroughly petted, kissed, and dare-I-say (I do dare to say!) deep-throated.
2) Puppy [ … ] do you think that
I sometimes wonder whether I
I have never been capable ofI worryAll that I have proven to be
[ … ]
I’ve ruined the life of one child already
[ … ]
I know the father you’ll bewould bewill be to our pups. I [ … ] fear, at times, that I may prove unequal to the challenges of
Puppy. What if I hurt them? It isn’t impossible that the fact of my being necessitates
What if I could cut the harm out of myself
[ … ]
[ … ]
Puppy. My Love. Forgive me absence from bed this morning. I was [ … ] awakened by an inkling, and have become engaged in its pursuit.
Know I set a kiss upon your brow before departing.
Know my love is with you now, as always.
And if you need your Daddy, as always you need only call my name.
3) The baker.
Sonny.
He’s here again. Back at haggling over Hummels, only I suspect another purposes lurks behind his presence. He’s dropped hints about [ … ] enjoying a glass of orange juice or lager or scotch now and then? About wondering whether you or I have considered the merits of a home-cooked chicken pot pie, or whether we prefer [ … ] games of cards, or chance, or strategy?
Puppy, please— I haven’t a clue what to do about this man.
Help?
4) They act as if I stole those children. As if their parents didn’t willfully signs their own contracts. As if those same parents gained nothing from the exchange.
It isn’t my fault they’ve taken it on themselves to harbor regrets. Or that they ran through every last coin or favor they’d earned through our exchange.
[ … ]
[ … ]
Additionally. If anyone inquires about [ … ] the woman who now exists as ‘Ashley.’ That was also a deal presented without obfuscation.
WHY SHOULD IT BE MY FAULT IF THEY CHOSE NOT TO READ THE FINE PRINT. Or any of the print, at all?
Christ, she's been pregnant for [...] thirteen, fourteen years now, hasn't she? That's got to be hell on her internal organs.
I guess I'd be crying, too.
[...]
Wait, which one is she? I think she's in my "gaps".
Anyway, about those children: if memory serves - which it doesn't, or not very well, and this is me just speaking on pure vibes - I might’ve been more of a problem than you were. Not to suggest I was a man-eating monster, but. You know.
Snacks.
Strange thing, spending all this time as a person with no recollection of being what I am, then suddenly having a Pavlovian response t
I'm hungr
Huh.
Well. Some men (and more than men) taste delicious. 😉
In fairness, there is much to be said about the nutritional value of newborn humans.
Just as well, about the nutritional value in tasting certain more-than-men.
My Puppy needs his sustenance. 😌
[ … ]
Do you know, I—
There were many contracts signed, exchanges made resulting in acquired newborns. Some became commodities [ … ] tools for bargaining. Passed along to positions of could-be-power or given over to despairing would-be-parents.
…Some were put to use in varied spells. As ingredients, you know. Components.
It’s strange; I cringe against the thought of it now. And I know that I— At some point, I ceased to use my acquisitions in this way. I can’t for the life of me remember why, or precisely when I stopped.
I don’t know what became of every child.
Odd, these gaps in memory.
Telling, I suspect.
[ … ]
It doesn’t trouble you, does it?
I’ll return to our talk of contracts shortly, but first, Love, tell me: Does it trouble you? This supposition based on vibes, about yourself.
It strikes me as perfectly natural, but my concern is for my Puppy, my wolf, and how he feels. ❤️
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2) That night ended with a "car accident,” which really meant he was stuck in a toy car and pushed down the steps.
3) Did he tell you the story about his ex and the handjob at the Parthenon? Because that man’s never been to Greece.
4) Who on earth needs a lapdog when you have your Puppy’s lap?
5) Fuck off, I broke my foot jumping out the window on YOUR watch so who was really to blame there, hm??
6) Bets on how easily I can slip past security covered in blood, wearing only a robe?
7) where is my Puppy’s lap ;.;.; i need it ;.; how can i recharge ;.; how ca i leave it empty??
3 - From Across the Room at Esma's Party
I don't know why he's telling me any of that. We were talking about international travel???
Don't leave me over here by myself :(
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I'd say turn and walk away, but— Mm. One, it's no good you coming into Fitz's orbit, and two, I've a suggestion of another sort.
You're right to guess he's never been to Rome. He has been to the Parthenon and Colosseum, but the trick, Enri, is that he found both in Florida.
One, a bakery; the other, a stadium.
Ask him, won't you, what the score was when he stepped out for that handie, and whether the crowd was booing when he came.
1/2
[...]
[...]
He said there's always a standing ovation when he comes, so I asked why his partner's still standing at the end if he's any good.
He got a weird look on his face and left, so. Okay, then.
[...]
Did she literally invite every single one of your exes? Someone said your ex-wife's here.
I'm not mad or anything. It's funny and I'm having a good time. But [...] how many guests would be here if she didn't stack it with people you fucked?
It's about to get real crowded; Clark and Cooper are on the way with half my coworkers. Are Sen and Rin getting here soon? Pretty sure I saw Costas and Alice.
2/2
DADDY
SHE INVITED HIM
I'm gonna ask for tips on limbering up so I can suck my own dick.
1/2
2/2
1/2
2/2
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2) Imagine if sharks could walk on land... scary.
3) Uh-oh. Found him nude in a tree again?
4) In another life could i be a baby alligator do you think?
Not that I’m not happy now oh i AM
Just i could also be happy a baby alligator I think
but i would need my baby alligator Senan with me too c:
a very long alligator, he!
5) Do you know, there is a song in my head. I cannot get it out and I cannot recall its title or even its words mostly, only there is the sound buzzing buzzing again in my head until my thinking begins to revolt, what shall I do?
6) Sometimes I think I only want to play Frogger, where I am the frog and the leaping is from one car to the next. But then jumping gets very old after the first few.
1
Are you drinking or like...writing some poetry?
Is Sen with youAre you at home?
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[ ... ]
[ ... ]
Uh oh
Enri forgive me! Only if you like, s’il sous plait! Yes I aM at home and yes poetry and yeS drinking very! much!
Allow me an amending! Forever is so, yes. Yes you are family you are here and this is wonderful also! For softness I do not think you are immune, you have at least and I believe Darius does have soft hair.
!!! It strikes me! Do you like sandwiches in miniature? We are going to have create some nice ones! Cucumbers!!
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Daddy won't let me have them, though.
I mean, I shouldn't eat them, anyway, but he prefers it if I eat not-freezer-sandwiches.
[...]
He has really soft hair. Seems like it runs in the family? Sen's looks pretty nice. But yeah. I love it when he tosses his head, you know? And everything else he does.
How come you're drunk? It's...5:30, Twix Mx. Everything okay?
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2) Too old to be getting shitwrecked and falling into koi ponds, yet here we are. Bright side is, it’s a top-tier hair day, sun’s out, and I just got cat-called from a Range Rover
3) What, Kraken dick? Knew him, heard about it. Never saw it, save the night he told about wanting to show me something beautiful, then just started peeing off the bridge into oncoming traffic
4) Nah, had to move on after painting the kitchen yellow, I’m talking mello yello piss, bright as the sun’s ass yellow. Gives me a headache thinking about it
5) He still pissed about the dime bag of crushed nerds? iirc, no one forced him to shove his nose in it.
6) I’m sitting here balls naked playing xbox in nothing but crocs with the fur. No regrets
6
You got friends . Talk at them bout balls n crocs. Sen aint never busy
Who gave you my fkin number ??
stg if it was verne
[...]
[...]
What game ?
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Sure, I've got friends. Half of em are in your neck of the world right now. The point isn't them, though. Lolly said you could use a friend. Truth be told, dunno if he meant friend or 'friend,' but then he's not big on explaining himself.
GTA rn, Madden before. Tried for Sea of Thieves, but the crew was shit and right fuckin rude. At least curse me out in pirate speak if you're gonna be a pissant, right?
You play, or nah?
5 - Group Text, three weeks before the wedding
Sen: ...I've forgotten to invite Vitaly. Fuck me. Wait a moment, I'll make a group.
[ Chat has been created: Puppy Adoption Planning ]
[ Five contacts have been invited to the chat. ]
[ Blake Navarro and three others have joined the chat. ]
Enri: That's not funny.
Verne: ya it is
Sen: Stand by. Forgot Vitaly.
Enri: Who?
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has been invited to the chat. ]
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has joined the chat. ]
Sen: Vitaly, meet Enri, Blake and Nova. Rin is still angry with you, Verne still believes you have been in a gulag in Siberia for six years, Darius is marrying a Puppy, you have three weeks to get here.
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has left the chat. ]
Sen: Fuck's sake.
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has been invited to the chat. ]
[ 011-380-44-405-0111 has joined the chat. ]
Vitaly: [In Ukrainian-] Do you know what time it is? Do you want to know what time it is, dickhead? [In English:] It's 7:35.
Sen: You can't use that one anymore. I am deeply in the throes of wedded bliss and will not be unsettled by any future threats to my not-so-secret.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] Was my invitation lost in the mail?
Enri: He said Rin's angry with you. Probably got something to do with it.
Vitaly: ONE. TOOTH. One fucking tooth and I am off the guest list.
Blake: tf with rin and they teeth
Vitaly: Exactly. Like that one said: tf with rin and they teeth. Well spoken.
Sen: There wasn't a guest list. We eloped. Enri and Darius are not eloping. Mid-June, Vitaly.
Enri: The 16th!
Verne: you geeting married on juneteenth wtf
Blake: juneteenths the 19th
Enri: That's the 19th
Sen: Juneteeth is the 19th, Verne. It's a federal fucking holiday.
Verne: [...] [...] u sure
Vitaly: It might be the 16th. You know these shitheads only come to consensus when they're wrong. Maybe you should take a poll on the sidewalk, Lolly.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] Which one speaks Ukrainian, earlier?
Enri: Russian. Close, though.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] A little too close.
Enri: Fuck Putin. I just speak the language.
Vitaly: [Ukrainian:] You can sit with me at the wedding.
Enri: [...] [...] I'm the Puppy.
Vitaly: That so? Don't worry. Daddy won't mind.
[ A sound of rusty, snorting laughter comes from the sitting room of the Null Set apartment. Blake is trying to choke it back. ]
Sen: Christ. Still with us, N?
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[ … ]
[ … ]
Lot to unpack here.
Would’ve eased off on the spliff if I’d know we wereSure, first. All right, several points.
Cheers to the Puppy, pleasure to meet you. Enri. Enri? right. Husband-to-be and Puppy for life, that’s no small feat. Wilco speaks well of you, figure you’re golden.
…Hold up. Fucker went and took a new name. Not Wilco, then. [ … ] Renfield. There we are. that work for you, Sen?
Vitaly. Don’t think I’ve seen you? Got shit for recollection rn though. Question: Dime bag of crushed nerds. Darius. You saw that, or nah?
Blake, xbox, crocs, met you. Apologies about that. Some jag-off failed to tell the situation in full.
Speaking of. Lolly, where the fuck’re your sisters? Can’t get hold of either, and they took off with a handful of caps. Left me with nothing, least they could do is give a word. Added to which, Sher’s asking after you. Give her a call before I wreck my brains against a wall.
Who’s in which gulag? For pinching teeth, or what?
Love to know what languages are going on here. Lads, please; I ain’t on your level and I never will be. No fault but my own, admitted, but what I need understood is I’m too caned for sussing out rn.
Eh, nah, nm that, I’ll catch it later. Doing a wondrous job introing myself. You get what you get, what can i say?
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2) I know logically there shouldn’t be anything lurking in the closet, but monsters don’t give much heed to logic, so I’d be much obliged if you’d turn a light on.
3) I don’t see the problem; all I said was ‘There’s no telling when Bigfoot might come for you.’
4) Had another dream about Long John Silver’s.
5) That was the same night I walked in around four a.m. and found them playing Monopoly with gummies while making ‘worm pancakes.’
Text to Darius
I'm sorry, I know your wedding is soon and you're probably busy. I hate asking anything of you, I always have, but -
Darius, the story is very long -I[...]
[ A photo follows - the same one Vitaly sent Nova, himself holding Sergiy. ]
This is Sergiy.
[...]
Madeline's and mine. The only good to ever come of it -[...]
You're his godfather. In case something ever should happen to me, yes? Nothing will, don't worry, and if you don't want the responsibility, it's all right. My family will take care of him.
But [...] I wanted you to be this to him. Want you to be.
Fuck, this is
Madeline has him, Darius.
I've been trying to get out of this fucking marriage for -She keeps him from me.I'm scattered, my mind is [...] very scattered just now. I learned something from a friend of Nova's, and I need an American lawyer.
[ He sends the link to the postnuptial agreement.
He tries, then, to outline everything that's happened as he did for Nova, but it's all rather disjointed. He's badly shaken.
Eventually, when he realizes he's probably not making much sense, he settles for ending with: ]
Please. I've [...] paid enough.
For what I did -
I've paid enough.
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What for fuck's sake
[ ... ]
You're still married to h
Kozak
[ ... ]
Consider it covered.
[ ... ]
I'll send the document, as well as your phone number, along to my lawyers. You've heard the Pendletons' names? The twins, Costas, Morgan. They're ruthless and effective, not given to neglecting details. They're on my payroll. And as I understand, neither of them bear fond feelings toward your soon to be ex-wife.
It bears noting that they have managed the majority of my business and [ … ] particularly fraught settlements. The notable exception being - owing to a pique of spite on my side; resulting in outcomes less than desirable - the matter of my own divorce.
I expect you haven't met their loyal third. Alice Colling, equally effective, equally threatening when he takes it on himself to be, though it's nothing I'd admit to him.
It will be managed, and I will of course keep you apprised.
(You may meet one or each of them in the city. Morgan is Enri’s father; Colling married the Pendleton runt. All three will be attending both our wedding and the part before. I won’t pretend any one of them is personable, but that’s nothing you can’t navigate.)
[ ... ]
[ ... ]
Vitaly.
I'm sorry, II [ ... ] hadn't realized.What you’ve said is true: You've paid enough, and far beyond.
It ends here.
[ Shortly after this message, he passes the document along to Costas, along with an explanation of Vitaly's case and situation from what he's gathered, Vitaly’s number, and a further note: 'See to this ASAP, and consider your payment doubled for the next three months. I trust you and Morgan can pry some enjoyment from sending her to ruin. Bring Colling on it as well, and do keep me informed. Thank you.'
With that accomplished, he’s going to spend several minutes nuzzling Enri, whose lap he’s been perched on since the end of their early evening’s ritual, speaking soft love and admiration before writing another word. ]
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You absolute bastard, the fuck didn't you tell me you have a[ .. ]
Your son.
That’s your son?Does he know the unrepentant shithead he has for a father.
[ ... ]
Fuck’s name, you might have told me.
That you had a son. That you kept the marriage.
[ … ] Don’t for shit’s sake start in on reasons for silences kept heretofore. I can name them myself and require no enuumeration. I’m well aware of where the blame falls.
[ … ]
My godson.
Vitaly.
[ … ]
Wise choice, opting for god’s own aegis.
[ … ]
We’re agreed that there will be no need for worry, as nothing will happen to you. [ … ] [ … ] Even so. It isn’t a responsibility I reject.
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[…]
I tell him about you. Only the good or funny, so if you soil your name in front of him, it’s your own fault - but I don’t believe you will. I’ve heard too much about Enri to think you would ‘shit the bed’ in front of Sergiy.
He’s six, but he’s smart enough to know when someone isn’t worth the air they breathe. (I speak from how I’ve seen him behave toward others, not from suggestion of your value.)
And a correction, please:
I didn’t “keep” the marriage. This divorce process has been dragging and stalling and restarting for eight years. Allowing me the divorce means she wouldn’t have the luxury she knows now.
[…]
I assume with Deforest. Senan mentioned something of that kind. Sergiy has mentioned it, as well.
I won’t cut her off so long as she has my son and she knows it.
[…]
The war has made it harder to do more than sit impotently by; life is going on in Ukraine, but then, it isn’t what it was. A fucking limbo of invasion and tentative existence.
I […]
Nova. He’s been […] encouraging. Helping.
[…]
You knew Enri only a week when you loved him, isn’t that so? And Senan, we all know Rin was love at first sight for him.
So it isn’t strange, is it.
Not so very strange at all.
Do you remember when I talked to you of Madeline all those years ago and I called her formidable? I said to you that I admired her. Was fond of her. I thought I loved her, didn’t I? I felt adrift in her presence, clouded, wanting the life I thought she symbolized.
[…]
Nova eases me, Darius. A word from him and my mind is clear. We’ve been talking as though writing letters, every day.
I understand something now about you and your Enri. About Senan, about people who fall in love so quickly that it changes everything they know: there isn’t a choice. How inevitable it all feels, now that I’ve met him. You don’t “fall”; you simply are, and there was never anything else you should have been.
That’s what he means, you know? Senan with his stupid tattoo. All my days, all my heart? It’s what’s past as well as what’s promised. A heart -
My heart.
My heart and all my days until now have been Nova’s. I simply didn’t know it.
He has a soul unlike any I’ve ever known, full of brilliance and shadow - like the night sky. He chose his name so well, didn’t he? Nova like newness, like starbursts, like perfect beginnings taking place in a cosmos older than can be conceived. Here is something that has existed countless times before, but never quite like him. Never with his beautiful nuance.
My Nova.
[…]
And then my Sergiy, who is breathtaking in a different way. My heart is composed of him, has been beating for him from the moment I first held him. Another kind of love, but just as inevitable.
He and Nova are so similar, do you know? Both of them so full of joy and simplicity, both prone to malaise.
I can imagine a life with them. A family. A time when I can speak with my son without the use of the internet or a twelve-hour flight. When I can have Sergiy in his own room in our home, without the sorrows that plague him, and also.
And also I can wake to Nova beside me in a bed we share. I can do this without worry for myself, or for my son. He makes me feel how possible - probable! - it all can be if I can just unshackle myself from Madeline.
[…]
Well. I mean to say I love him.
I mean to say I want to raise Sergiy with him.
I mean to say, as well, that I want you to be part of Sergiy’s family.
And mine.
You and Enri.
[…]
Yes, I’m rambling, but I have had to sit through Enri texting for two days about your many virtues, half of them sexual in nature and more than half of them unspeakable. Endure.
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message to vitaly and sen
Let it be known that I sincerely hope - though I will not remotely be holding my breath - one of you has an adequate explanation for the years-past news I've only just now learned. Let it be known as well I've been informed courtesy of various news outlets via searches endeavored, rather than having been granted the courtesy of a single word from either Dr. Vitaly Kozak or D o c t o r S.D. Altair.
Shitheads, the both of you.
You and your anarchic fucking assholery.
(Before you speak a fucking word, Kozak I know you had cause for your silence until recently, but I'd be terribly interested knowing why the man who shares my alter ego surname
as well as my godsdamned bloodhas held his smug fucking peace on this count.)no subject
[Sen:] Not how I cared to break the news. [...] I didn't think to mention the book or my doctorate. It didn't seem relevant. Now it's becoming relevant in ways that cause me to suppose I may need to speak with Rin very quickly.
[Vitaly:] You didn't tell Rin?
[Sen:] I didn't tell anyone at all.
[Vitaly:] Don't make a habit of such omissions. Your liver, this book, it isn't wise. And Darius, forgive me for not mentioning. Even if we weren't precisely speaking, I could have sent a copy to you. I know you'd have read it. [...] You would have thrown it in a trash can first, but fished it out again out of curiosity.
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Senan.
Dare I ask how you had planned on breaking the news, and how many decades off that breaking might have come to pass.
[ ... ]
I'm curious [ ... ] and I should like to know what your dissertation was, and what precisely you made study of.
Regardless, take my congratulations as well, though I'll warn you against believing I'm not irate with you just now.
(...Not so very irate. I'm certain two esteemed authors such as yourselves can discern that I've far too much cause for elation to expend much energy on grudging a quiet-kept book.)
[ ... ]
And, Vitaly.
As it happens.
I may have ordered and received the book already.
I may have unwrapped the thing and flung it into the trash in a show of spite witnessed by myself and Enri alone.
Then, yes, retrieved and read it through.
Well done, the both of you.
Vitaly, I'd harangue you for maintaining presence around the shitshow formerly known as Twitter, but you're arguably one of the few putting it to its rightful use.
Sen, I've no idea whether you've a presence on the same site, though I'd be unsurprised to hear it's another of your omissions, and I'd expect your use of it to fall in line with Kozak's.
Speaking of, would you care to clue Vitaly in onDoes he KNOW and did he know before you told mGiven what we've discussed and my past moods, I can't say I'd blame youI'll add my encouragement toward clueing Rin in sooner than not, though fuck knows they don't need any further reason to sing your praise to every ear.
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private message to Sen
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for jack
What I wouldn’t give for one day of silence. One day of a ‘Closed’ sign given heed, a shop uninvaded, my senses unassailed.
Well. Until that blessed day arrives, I shall content myself with treating all trespassers to the sight of true love— In the form of a Puppy thoroughly petted, kissed, and dare-I-say (I do dare to say!) deep-throated.
2)
Puppy [ … ] do you think thatI sometimes wonder whether II have never been capable ofI worryAll that I have proven to be[ … ]
I’ve ruined the life of one child already[ … ]
I know the father you’ll bewould bewill be to our pups. I [ … ] fear, at times, that I may prove unequal to the challenges ofPuppy. What if I hurt them? It isn’t impossible that the fact of my being necessitatesWhat if I could cut the harm out of myself[ … ]
[ … ]
Puppy. My Love. Forgive me absence from bed this morning. I was [ … ] awakened by an inkling, and have become engaged in its pursuit.
Know I set a kiss upon your brow before departing.
Know my love is with you now, as always.
And if you need your Daddy, as always you need only call my name.
3) The baker.
Sonny.
He’s here again. Back at haggling over Hummels, only I suspect another purposes lurks behind his presence. He’s dropped hints about [ … ] enjoying a glass of orange juice or lager or scotch now and then? About wondering whether you or I have considered the merits of a home-cooked chicken pot pie, or whether we prefer [ … ] games of cards, or chance, or strategy?
Puppy, please— I haven’t a clue what to do about this man.
Help?
4) They act as if I stole those children. As if their parents didn’t willfully signs their own contracts. As if those same parents gained nothing from the exchange.
It isn’t my fault they’ve taken it on themselves to harbor regrets. Or that they ran through every last coin or favor they’d earned through our exchange.
[ … ]
[ … ]
Additionally. If anyone inquires about [ … ] the woman who now exists as ‘Ashley.’ That was also a deal presented without obfuscation.
WHY SHOULD IT BE MY FAULT IF THEY CHOSE NOT TO READ THE FINE PRINT. Or any of the print, at all?
4
[...]
Christ, she's been pregnant for [...] thirteen, fourteen years now, hasn't she? That's got to be hell on her internal organs.
I guess I'd be crying, too.
[...]
Wait, which one is she? I think she's in my "gaps".
Anyway, about those children: if memory serves - which it doesn't, or not very well, and this is me just speaking on pure vibes - I might’ve been more of a problem than you were. Not to suggest I was a man-eating monster, but. You know.
Snacks.
Strange thing, spending all this time as a person with no recollection of being what I am, then suddenly having a Pavlovian response t
I'm hungr
Huh.
Well. Some men (and more than men) taste delicious. 😉
[…] What were we…?
Contracts, that was the point.
Bold of you to assume they're literate, my Love.
no subject
…Did you really.
I suppose it only follows. Lovely wolf, indeed. 😌
In fairness, there is much to be said about the nutritional value of newborn humans.
Just as well, about the nutritional value in tasting certain more-than-men.
My Puppy needs his sustenance. 😌
[ … ]
Do you know, I—
There were many contracts signed, exchanges made resulting in acquired newborns. Some became
commodities[ … ] tools for bargaining. Passed along to positions of could-be-power or given over to despairing would-be-parents.…Some were put to use in varied spells. As ingredients, you know. Components.
It’s strange; I cringe against the thought of it now. And I know that I— At some point, I ceased to use my acquisitions in this way. I can’t for the life of me remember why, or precisely when I stopped.I don’t know what became of every child.
Odd, these gaps in memory.
Telling, I suspect.
[ … ]
It doesn’t trouble you, does it?
I’ll return to our talk of contracts shortly, but first, Love, tell me: Does it trouble you? This supposition based on vibes, about yourself.
It strikes me as perfectly natural, but my concern is for my Puppy, my wolf, and how he feels. ❤️
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