Rebels & Mutineers is set in modern day New Orleans, Louisiana. R&M is fueled by player's plots and group input.
Supernatural people have always had their place in society, hidden in plain sight or locked away for their own protection. New Orleans, a haven for the strange and mysterious and a magnet for the supernatural.
Established: Oct. 27th, 2018 Recently Updated Posts && Recently Updated Threads
05.11.19
As the community reels from the untimely death of Lucia Lovelle, life has to move on. Primrose readies for the annual Prom celebration! Keep your eye out for a event board and have fun!
02.27.19
It's not too late to vote for February's OTM winners! The winners for January, keep an eye out on your messages for your winner's graphics for your signature. Already voted? Make sure you check out the Mardi Gras event board! Party up, have a good time, and enjoy!
Post by Aisling Maeve Donoghue on Dec 8, 2018 4:47:51 GMT
As Thanksgiving passed, Christmas seemed to appear without giving anyone a single moment to breathe. For Aisling, it was another stark reminder of the life that she once had and the people that had left her behind. It was difficult for her to come out of that shell and find positivity where darkness had been present for so long. It almost seemed impossible to find those moments of light, the things in life that made everything worth living. Aisling knew that in spite of how difficult it was there were things that she had now that she never would have had if she had remained in Monroeville. In some ways, they were things that she wasn’t sure she would have had if she had remained with her father. It was obvious that he was disinterested in his daughter in the way that a father should have been. He was absent, forgetful, and more often than not, she was left to her own devices. It wasn’t the way that a child should have been raised, but it had taught her how to survive on her own.
Something that she had to continue to remind herself about was that she didn’t need to be alone all of the time anymore. Aisling had formed friendships at Phalanx. Cameron Gallagher had been the first person that she actually connected with and to say that she didn’t have a soft spot in her heart for him would have been a lie. He was her best friend and she felt confident in telling him things that she might not have ever dared to tell someone else. There was also Astrid Isobel Perona and Cora Elaine Marshall , who were sort of like those younger siblings that she never really had an opportunity to have. They were all different in personality which meant that whenever they were all in the same room, there was no telling what was going to happen.
And then there was Jaxon Kane Davies . He had been at Phalanx for less than a month, but the bond that she had formed with him already seemed to be so much more than anything she had ever experienced. Aisling often found her mind drifting back to that night on the porch, to the blanket that her fingers wouldn’t seem to relinquish, the gentleness in his eyes when he looked at her. She had told him things that she hadn’t told anyone else, things that she didn’t feel others would understand and yet had found it so easy to do it with him. She started to find ways to spend more time with him. They were usually weak excuses, but he never seemed to mind. Instead, he smiled that dimpled smile that made her stomach feel funny in all of the best ways.
As she adjusted an ornament on the Christmas tree that had been decorated earlier in the day by all of the residents, she turned to look over where Jaxon stood. ”Is that better?” Stepping back to appraise her work, she tilted her head. ”I think it is, but I’ve been wrong once or twice before,” she said, flashing him an easy smile.
TAGSJaxon Kane DaviesNOTES ily and i hope this helps you feel a little better <3
Jaxon couldn't believe just how fortunate this year had been. It was honestly one of the best he had ever experienced and he was watching one of the biggest contributions to that fidget with some ornaments. Aisling. She was the first person who he really connected with at Phalanx. She was the one who made him think that he could have a home in the place. Getting out of juvie, that was a dream, but meeting Aisling. He didn't even know that he was capable of dreaming up such perfect things. He didn't think it was possible to even think that being around someone as strong and determined was an option. The warmth of Phalanx, the holiday spirit all around, he couldn't believe that he was part of this giant weird family.
Even better that his own family was there. Ezra and Eliot were safe and sound in the walls. Piper was still missing. He knew that she was somewhere in New Orleans, and he just hoped that she would find her way to him soon. He had spoken with Ash about it, and he promised to send some of the recruiters out with her name. Jaxon wasn't sure what he ever did good in his life to get into such a warm and happy home.
Ezra and Eliot were off hanging out, Jaxon helping Aisling get the tree in order. He watched her move around the tree, sneaking a few too many peeks at her butt when she reached up to higher parts of the tree. Jaxon grinned at how beautiful the tree looked all lit up.
Jaxon stood up and wrapped an arm around Aisling's shoulders and kissed her temple playfully. "You did good kid." He looked at the tree, smiling happily. He knew that he didn't have enough to fill the bottom of the tree with presents like he always wanted to for his siblings, but now he really wanted to find something for Aisling. The small gift that he bought her didn't feel like nearly enough to make up for the care that he felt for the blonde woman.
"Yeah well, seems like you got it right this time." He joked, knowing that part of him wanted to be talking about himself. He knew that Aisling had been with people before, but he wanted to be the one who she fell in love with. He knew that he could see something with her. "Anything else on the decoration front?'
Post by Aisling Maeve Donoghue on Dec 16, 2018 4:40:57 GMT
Phalanx had giving Aisling some sense of purpose in life. It was through Astor’s guidance and reassurance that she had been able to get the job at Quarter Café and it was because of him that she was getting some sort of control over her ability, albeit much slower than what she would have liked. For so long she had felt like she was someone that was walking on the edge of reality and a nightmare-induced hell of her own design. She had felt like the world was passing her by and instead of taking any time to live in the moment, to enjoy the things as they came by, she found herself simply existing. It wasn’t the way that anyone should have felt like they needed to live life, yet Aisling couldn’t see to shake it. It was easy for her to go through the motions because it didn’t require her to think. It didn’t demand that she pay attention to the world outside of herself, but rather that she focus inwardly until suddenly days had passed and she didn’t even realize it. It wasn’t healthy, but it was the thing that she had gotten used to.
But now she had a home. She had some weird ass version of a family that actually gave a shit about her. It didn’t seem like it was real. If it weren't for the fact that Aisling had plenty of experiences, she might have actually questioned it. Her ability to dream lucidly had allowed her to decipher the differences between reality and what was essentially a hallucination within the mind. There were little nuances between the two that often were too subtle for the average person to pick up on, but when you found that knowing the difference was a matter of life and death, you started to figure it out. Phalanx wasn’t a dream, this Christmas wasn’t a dream… the boy that she was speaking to certainly wasn’t a dream.
Her heart had been filled with happiness knowing that his brothers were under the roof of the school and knowing how much it meant to Jaxon to have that. The first night they had met he told her about them, that they looked out for one another and had been torn apart when he was sent to jail. It wasn’t fair, but everything was falling back into place, somehow managing to connect all of the little dots like they were breadcrumbs leading back to one another. If she had been a more sentimental type of person, Aisling might have even cried. As it was, she simply stepped back enough to allow him the time that he needed to reconnect. She didn’t get it, but they had been apart for years and it wasn’t her place to stand in the way of that kind of reunion.
The brunette was grateful that they had this moment to the two of them. They seemed to be few and far between lately as the house continued to fill with new arrivals, but they were all doing the best that they could. Having to room with new people wasn’t exactly ideal, but she had found herself sneaking into Jaxon and Cameron’s room more nights than what she would ever admit. Their presence made things easier. Her best friend and her… Well, Jaxon wasn’t her boyfriend, but she knew that she had feelings for him that ran deeper than friendship. She suspected that he felt the same, between the way that they spoke to one another and how their body language seemed to speak when they were around one another. They just hadn’t gotten to the point of making anything official, but she had thought about it more than what was probably appropriate.
As she stepped back and observed the tree, the air behind her shifted as Jaxon came up and wrapped his arm around her. There was a moment where her stomach seemed to lurch into her throat as she suddenly became overwhelmed with feelings that she was still largely unaccustomed to when she felt the press of his lips against her temple. Still, she found herself smiling soft. ”Yeah, I suppose it does look good.” Many of her own experiences were from the movies that she had seen as a child and the trees that the larger stores always had on display during the holidays. Christmas stopped being a thing for her early on, though that was to be expected. This was technically her second Christmas at Phalanx, but it would be the first where she had felt like she finally found a place that she belonged.
Turning slightly to face him, she smiled up at him. ”I think everyone took care of most of the other things. I have something else, but it’s not ready yet,” Aisling said. It was secretive, but she had been working on a surprise for Jaxon and intended for it to stay that way until it was time for any sort of big reveal. Turning more fully so that she stood in front of him, she took her hands in his own and smiled warmly at him. ”Thanks for helping me. I’m sure you’d rather be spending time with your brothers.” There might have been a small, minuscule part of her that was jealous, but the logical part of her brain understood and she certainly wasn’t going to try and make him feel like he had to be there with her if he didn’t want to. ”Do… you want to get some cocoa?”
The time he had been in Phalanx was easily the best of his life. With Eliot and Ezra in the house and safe, he knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be able to find Piper and get her safe too. Astor already promised him that she would have a bed whenever she was ready for it. It would be a shared room, but there were few people at Phalanx who he couldn't get along with. His own roommate was a good friend, and Aisling's best friend. Cam was fine with Aisling's nightly hang outs in the room all together, and the nights in Jaxon's bed. Just like their first night meeting. Jaxon watched her fix some of the ornaments and watched her really focus on the tree and making sure it looked right.
He had known that night. That night sitting on the porch that Aisling was someone who was going to completely change his world. She was going to be a person who showed him a new side of himself, and she was going to be someone who he would come to depend for his life. In whatever capacity he had her, he wanted her. More and more- it was romantic.
He was falling in love with her, and he hadn't even been sure that romance was something that he could handle. The only relationships he knew in his life were filled with violence and pain. His mom and her various boyfriends and pimps who would tell her that they loved her and then hurt her. The boyfriends who would claim that she was the best thing to happen to them one minute, and then crawl into her daughter's bed the next. Jaxon didn't know how to do a healthy relationship, but if it meant waking up next to Aisling every morning without having to worry about Astor or Euphemia or any of the other staff of Phalanx finding out, he was willing to give it a try.
If it was for Aisling, he would be willing to just just about anything. She meant the world to him and he wasn't even her boyfriend yet. The gift in his pocket was hopefully going to help with that transition, even if he felt a pit in his stomach every second that it came closer to giving it to her. He knew deep down in his gut that she cared for him in all of the same ways, she had to. Okay, she didn't have, but he knew that she wouldn't be spending all of the time with him that she was if he didn't mean something to her. Wouldn't be finding her way into his room as often as she did, wouldn't be as important to Jaxon, if she didn't care for him on some level. He had considered talking to Cam about it, but couldn't pit Cameron between the two of them. It wasn't fair.
He wanted Aisling to meet his siblings, he wanted her to be part of the story of all of them coming together and rebuilding their life in Phalanx together. Jaxon would daydream during class about Aisling and Piper becoming close friends, about Ezra and Eliot going to her for advice. He knew one day he would have to think about how his own life was going to play out, and that one day Piper might want to live with someone. That Eliot could get married, or Ezra might want to travel the world. He knew these things would come and he would have to figure out what he wanted for his own life. The brunette woman fussing over tinsel. All his life he had never cared for anyone outside of his family members the way that he cared about Aisling.
He didn't want feelings this intense for anyone else. Every time he saw her he was convinced that his heart would just burst from his chest and reveal to everyone in Phalanx how much he cared about her.
As much as the dramatic display of his heart literally bursting from his chest would be, he wanted to show her in another way that he cared for her. That she was the person in his life who he wanted to share in all of the greatest moments with. She was the one who he cared for, when he came into Phalanx unsure about anything. She gave him certainty when he had none, and helped him create a home in Phalanx when he had needed one the most. He just wanted to always be around her. When they were together, he found any excuse to touch her that he could find. Even if it was just touching her hand during class, he needed something. A daily fix to keep himself going and get through another English lesson or another fire starter lesson. The way he spoke to her, the way he thought about her, hell, the way that he dreamed about her he knew that Aisling was meant to be so much more to him than just a friend. Part of him knew that she felt the same, he just wanted to make it official.
"You did a great job, I just supervised." He joked, holding her close. Their physical touches had been increasing lately, and Jaxon hoped that she was as comfortable with it was he was. He knew her trauma history, they had bonded over their damaged parts. They told each other the deepest darkest parts of themselves and they found that connection. The primal, chaotic force of the universe that screamed at Jaxon that she was someone who he would be lucky to fall in love with and to not let that connection go.
They bonded over arson and murder on essentially their first date. It doesn't get much of a better connection than that.
"I wanna be here with you." He said to her truthfully, his brothers were off spending time together. They were old enough now that Jaxon didn't have to hover over them ever second of the day. Jaxon held her hands, running his thumb over the soft skin on her hands. "Yeah, hot cocoa sounds great, but um- first." He took his hands back and with a deep breath he reached into his pocket for the red box with a slightly crumbled box. "Um, I wanted to give this to you, and since it's just the two of us, I figured it was a good timing." He handed her the small box, knowing that it wasn't much. It was a silver necklace with a pendant hanging from it, on the pendant was a picture of the moon phase from the night they were on the porch together. The moonlight that witnessed their first meeting, and Jaxon knew it was cheesy but he saw it in the window of the shop and knew that it was for Aisling.
Post by Aisling Maeve Donoghue on Dec 27, 2018 2:41:00 GMT
There had been a time in Aisling’s life where she never would have imagined a place like Phalanx could exist. She had accepted her fate with a father that was disinterested in her and then a life within the walls of Monroeville. It didn’t seem like something that could be possible when she considered the grand scheme of things. Monroeville was such a terrible place, though it didn’t look like it from the outside. There bits and pieces of her time there that had remained foggy after leaving, but she knew that it had left a bitter taste in her mouth. The simple name on her tongue made her want to retch. She wished that it had been possible to bring people out of there with her; Lucy and Sophie had become two people that she had looked after and, to some extent, had considered them to be the family that she had always wished that she had. Her bond with them hadn’t been instantaneous, but it had been present nonetheless. Telling them that she had to leave them was one of the worst moments of her life, though that seemed to pale in comparison to the things that she had been through.
Adjusting to life out of Monroeville had been difficult, but somehow she had navigated that treacherous minefield. Having a mentor like Astor had been tremendously helpful - and the fact that he hadn’t lashed out whenever she broke a rule or flipped her shit at him spoke volumes. He hadn’t taken it, but he had been understanding. He had been to Monroeville and knew what it was like. Shifting from an environment that was traumatizing to one that offered something she had never experienced was an adjustment. His patience had been instrumental in offering her a new lease at life. While she still had a fair distance to go before she felt like she could actually function as a human being for herself, Aisling understood that she had made more progress than what she would have without that support. It hadn’t just been Astor, either. Cameron had become her best friend rather quickly and the easiness between them had only aided in making her feel normal.
This was her second Christmas at Phalanx and, in some ways, a celebration of her first full year of freedom. It was a celebration of a new life and every moment seemed to breathe new life into what had once only been possible in a dream. Aisling had a family, people who cared for her. If that wasn’t the best dream possible, she didn’t know what was. A quick look towards Jaxon brought another wave of emotion to the forefront of her mind. She had never thought that it was possible to care about someone so quickly, to feel their pain as keenly as she felt her own. It hadn’t seemed real, but she knew that it was. The dream walker had found herself inside of his head, had witnessed some of his darkest demons and it didn’t make her want to run away. It made her want to be a better person so that she could help chase them away instead of only being able to make things worse. Jaxon cared about his siblings, he cared about the people here at Phalanx; he was trying to change his life for the better. Aisling wanted that, too.
Intense emotions were not foreign to Aisling, but intense positive emotions certainly were something different. There had been happy moments in her life, things that made her smile or laugh, but they were rarely as consistent as they seemed to be when she was around Jaxon. There was something about him that lit a fire in the pit of her stomach and made her want to get to know him. She wanted to know his dreams and aspirations, she wanted to meet all of his siblings and maybe even develop a kinship with them so that she would have another thing to talk to him about. Aisling didn’t know what her future held, but she hoped that Jaxon would be in it in some capacity. There weren't many people that she wanted to carry with her throughout her life, far less that actually wanted to carry her in return. But that had been the life that suited Aisling.
Things, were changing, though.
There had been a time when a simple touch like the one they had shared would have her ready to break someone’s arm. Instead, she only leaned into Jaxon’s embrace, taking comfort in his warmth and the knowledge that he was holding her and not a certain time manipulator. The girl had barely been at Phalanx before she started causing problems. There had been rumors that she was looking at Jaxon a little too long, that there was a glare fixated from across the room whenever he and Aisling were together. That was all minor enough; the jealous knot in her stomach wasn’t going to rise to such bait. But when Aisling had caught the girl rifling through her things, that had been the final straw. A punch to the face had been the least of her problems when Aisling was done - and Riven was escorted from Phalanx. Aisling didn’t regret her actions and, while it had been made clear that it shouldn’t happen again, Astor at least didn’t throw her out, too.
As Jaxon reassured her that he wanted to be there with her, Aisling heard the sincerity in his voice. She smiled softly at him, her gaze drifting briefly down to where his hands held her own. This - it was nice. He spoke again and her eyes turned back to him, brows furrowing inquisitively as he pulled his hands back and retrieved a small box from his pocket. ”Jaxon, you got me a present?” If her tone didn’t reflect the shock that she felt, her expression certainly would have. Accepting the box from him, Aisling looked back at him once more before her eyes turned to the gift. Carefully, she pulled the lid from the box and tucked it beneath the base, inhaling sharply at the necklace within. There was an unnatural beauty in the simplicity of the gift - and she knew immediately that the phase of the moon had matched the night that they met on the porch. While it was not the first gift that she received, Aisling suddenly found that it had more meaning than anything else did.
”I love it,” she said softly, lifting her eyes back to his. ”Will you help me put it on?”
Jaxon could remember his first Christmas with his siblings. They had a one bedroom apartment in Seattle. Their mom sat with them and gave them candy canes and small toys from the dollar store. It was the only one where she didn't have some scumbag boyfriend who liked to smack her or them around. Compared to his first Christmas at Phalanx, that was a pitiful memory. This first Christmas at Phalanx, spending time with Aisling and reconnecting with his siblings, it was everything that he could have wished for. There was warmth, there was kindness, and happiness. It was even hot chocolate and candy canes. It was like something out of a Hallmark movie and it made him feel almost normal. The comfort he felt with her, it was unreal.
Some mornings he woke up and was convinced that he was going to be back in jail. Then he would see Aisling asleep next to him and he would remember that he was safe and in a place with someone who cared about him. When she opened up the box, he held his breath. He really wanted to impress her, and he wasn't someone with a lot to impress someone else with. He was a runaway, an orphan (sorta?), with very little to give anyone as amazing as Aisling.
He just wanted to make her happy and to see her smile. He watched her features light up when she seemed to understand that the moon phase was from that first night they met each other. That night meant so much to him and all he wanted to remember it forever. It was the first time they talked, the first night she curled up with him in his bed. It was the best night of his life, and a level of intimacy that he never thought he would be able to have with someone.
Even if there had been someone who tried to get in the middle of things. Riven had tried to get him alone, when they were she would always touch him. He had to ask her to back off and she only seemed to be more convinced. What didn't help was that Riven and Aisling were roommates at the time. It might have been a little petty, but they were suddenly spending more time curled up in Aisling's bed than his own and were on the receiving end of some pretty icy glares. When Riven and Aisling fought, it seemed to be the final straw for her at Phalanx. Astor asked her to leave and put Aisling on a warning.
He wasn't sure what he would do without Aisling at Phalanx, and he was sure that he would have some strong words for Astor if the wolf ever tried to make that a reality.
He grinned when she liked the necklace and took it out of the box and walked behind her to latch it around her neck. "I got it because that first night together, that was the greatest night for me. I never thought I would be somewhere where I was safe, somewhere where I was accepted the way you and the rest of Phalanx have." Jaxon clasped the necklace and fixed her hair so it would go back into place.
"Being with you, is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me. I want to always be with you. I want you to be my girlfriend." He said, holding one of her hands. They fell asleep together almost every night. They held hands, he kissed her temples and cheeks. They just had nothing official, and Jaxon really hoped that she would say yes.
Post by Aisling Maeve Donoghue on Dec 27, 2018 4:49:13 GMT
The first Christmas that Aisling could recall wasn’t much of note. Her father had gotten her a few toys, things that he felt would placate a child who was constantly needing attention and asking questions that he didn’t want to give the answer to. So many times she had gotten the runaround, something that continued even as she got older and her curiosity about her mother only grew. The answers that Cillian gave were vague and, for the most part, seemed to be entirely unfounded. He claimed that Monroeville was the only place that could help Eileen. He said that she would have killed them both if she had stayed around. He said she was a freak who lacked the necessary discipline to control her power and make herself a functioning member of society. The older Aisling had gotten, the crueler his words seemed to be regarding the woman that had been his wife. It didn’t make sense to Aisling; even less so when she had stumbled across the old photo albums where they had looked so happy together.
It had all clicked into place one drunken night when her father had told her that her mother lied about everything. She had never come clean about her ability until it was too late and, at that point, he feared for their lives. When Aisling had been born, within the walls of Monroeville no less, he demanded custody of her. What his wife wanted didn’t matter. She was unfit to be a mother, especially while she was residing in a place like that. He had forced his daughter to grow up without a mother and the second she showed an ability of her own, one that was dangerous, he attempted to throw her away, too. It wasn’t what one would expect from a father and, more often than not, Aisling was filled with more resentment than she thought one person could actually feel. He had treated her like garbage, had abandoned her so that she might rot in Monroeville.
But that hospital hadn’t broken her.
If anything, it had made her stronger. Aisling grew into someone that didn’t take shit from anyone; she refused to let people get close enough to hurt her. The walls that she had built around her heart were miles high and the foundation as sturdy as anything could have been. Even with the people that she was comfortable with, those walls didn’t fully retract themselves. There was a part of Aisling that was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for this seemingly perfect world to come crashing down around her before she could even blink her eyes. It was the reason that she had been so afraid to sleep after first arriving at Phalanx - and again after meeting Jaxon. He was too pure, too kind to be real. It would have made sense that her mind was trying to compensate for the horror and tragedy that it had been forced to witness. But time had gone on and Jaxon remained. He was no figment of her imagination. He was tangible and he had stayed.
He gave her a reason to try and open up more, to allow people in. He had proved to her that his words were true, no matter how many times she might have questioned the sincerity behind them. Every doubt hadn’t been voiced out loud, not like the ones that she had spoken to him tonight, but they were felt strongly in her heart regardless. Jaxon had soothed every hurt, had provided a level of consistency that she hadn’t gotten a lot of experience with, and that was something that seemed to change every single thought she might have had about someone being able to care for her in such a way. They were both far from perfect - perfectly broken, perhaps. But that was the beauty in who they were. Even Cameron had felt that they were going to end up together.
As Jaxon stepped behind her, Aisling gathered her hair and lifted it out of the way, holding her breath as the chain dipped in front of her, the metal cool against her skin, before it was settling comfortably upon her neck. ”It’s perfect. I love it.” Letting her hair back down, she smiled as Jaxon adjusted it for her while her hand immediately moved to the necklace, fingertips gently caressing the charm. As he stepped back around her and took hold of her hand, Aisling’s gaze was once again meeting his own. That familiar softness had entered his eyes and she found herself wanting to stay there forever, to hold onto this moment in a way that she so rarely wanted to hold onto anything.
And then he was speaking again, his words bringing a soft look into her own eyes. He was sweet; he had been sweet from the night that they met. There were too many times when Aisling told herself that he was too good for her. She didn’t deserve someone like him in her life. Her mind caught up with the question that he had finished with and her eyes flew up toward his own, trying to gauge just how serious he was. Her knee-jerk reaction was to refuse, to pull her hand from his and lock herself into her room where she wouldn’t have to deal with this. Why mess up something that was already going just fine? Running from a potential heartbreak seemed to be the logical thing, but her fingers hadn’t stopped their stroking against the moon that hung on her neck.
”Jaxon, I…” What? A soft breath inward saw her taking a leap, plunging from the precipice that had threatened her for so long. ”I like the sound of that.”
Phalanx was his chance at having a normal life. Phalanx was a chance for him to feel safe for the first time in his life. His first chance to put his siblings in a truly safe situation for the first time in their lives. Not safe because he managed to shove them into a bathroom or a closet before the punches landed on him. Not safe because he slept leaning against Piper's bedroom door when the foster dad looked at her a little too long during dinner. Not safe because he burned a couple of houses down.
Safe because they were.
Safe because they were surrounded by good people who wanted to help people like him and people like his family. Safe because they wanted to be his new family. He had people who he cared about. People like Cora and Jude and Jae and Cam. People like Aisling that he honestly couldn't picture any of this without. He didn't want to even imagine what Phalanx would be like if he had been alone on the porch that first night. If he would have stayed without someone standing by his side helping him adjust. Someone to curl up with and chase the nightmares away with.
He was safe because of Aisling, and he never would be able to thank her enough for it. She was everything to him. The first person outside of his siblings who he knew that he would be able to care about. The first person who he wanted to care about him and enter into this crazy life that he had. He wasn't embarrassed to show her his scars, because he knew that she had her own. He wasn't afraid to let her in, because she had just as much to lose as he did.
She was a reason to open up to people and learn how to trust them. She showed him how to make friends, how to trust adults in his life like Euphemia, Carver, and Astor. He never had that and he wasn't sure it would have been possible without the small but reassuring smiles that he would get from Aisling right when he was convinced that he was going to lose his shit on someone. In return, he did the same for her. He held her close while she slept and chased away the strongest nightmares. He sat with her on the couch so no one she didn't like would sit with her during movie night and he held her hand during the sad parts and parts where a mom died in a movie. He never asked her more than she was willing to offer, but he still was curious about her life without judgement. Their first night together, sharing their crimes, that was proof enough that no matter what she told him. That no matter what she said or believed about herself, she was the one for him.
Certain things were just meant to be, and Jaxon knew that was one of them. He was meant to set fires. He was meant to protect his siblings at all costs. He was meant to love Aisling with all of his heart.
He had been worried about the chain being too short or too long, but seeing it perfectly fitting her he felt a wide smile break out on his features. "I'm glad." He had been raking his brain with what he wanted to give her and while he had some drawings of her, he wanted to save them for another time. He liked her a little too much, and letting her into his secret that he enjoyed drawing her and other Phalanx residents as superheroes was not a conversation he wanted to have with the prettiest girl at Phalanx.
Let alone a lamp wielding superhero with mighty fists of justice and an arch nemesis time manipulator.
The way she said his name, he felt the breath collect in his chest. She was going to say no. That there was someone else, or that it wasn't what she wanted. He watched her beautiful face and could hardly contain himself when she said yes. "Yes?" He confirmed and wrapped his arms around her, picked her up, and spun her around in a circle.
"My girlfriend." He said, still holding her up. the lights from the tree, the moment, he didn't know what. Jaxon leaned forward and kissed her softly, wanting to savor his first kiss with the first girl who meant the world to him.
Post by Aisling Maeve Donoghue on Jan 9, 2019 22:11:13 GMT
Phalanx was a chance to have a new beginning. It was the thing that kids around the world were in desperate need of, but so few were actually able to get to a place that offered them any kind of safety. Aisling wished that there were more people in the world like Astor, people who were willing to take in kids that came from concerning backgrounds and offer them a chance to start fresh. The fact of the matter was that the people that came here weren't necessarily the most stable of people. That wasn’t to say that they all had something wrong with them, but most of them came from backgrounds that didn’t offer the most stable of lives, backgrounds that saw them struggling at every single turn they came to in hopes that someone would throw them a bone. They just wanted someone to see them for who they were, no matter how hopeless such a feat actually seemed.
Astor had provided them all with the thing that they were lacking in their lives. It was a place of comfort and a place to learn how to control the abilities that had manifested in what were already difficult times for the majority of them. Though Aisling wasn’t the type of person to warm up to someone quickly, she had to admit that she respected Astor. She appreciated the home that he had set up for the wayward youth and she admired the fact that he did what he did without much complaining. The things he did say were typically said in fun and not meant to be taken so seriously. He understood that there were going to be high points and lows that seemed like they might never come back up, but he didn’t stop to give up on any of them. He gave them the time that they needed to adjust and the time they needed to believe that he wasn’t there to hurt them. That didn’t mean that he sat back and allowed them to what they wanted, but he was more of a guiding hand than someone who demanding things be a certain way.
Home was never a word that Aisling had associated with any place. As she got older, her father grew more and more distant and home seemed like to be something only heard of in the books that she read. It wasn’t tangible; there wasn’t a place that she could run and feel like she was home. There had been a point in her life where she was positive there would never be a place like that for her. She could have gone her entire life wandering, searching for something that resembled what she had always heard that home could be. But Phalanx had seemingly popped up out of nowhere and provided to her that safe haven which she so desperately needed. The longer that she spent there, the more she realized that home wasn’t about the place that you lived. It was the people that filled that place with a variety of feelings that it was hard to distinguish where one ended and another began. It was people like Cam and Cora. It was people like Jaxon who gave her a reason to smile and feel that maybe this wasn’t as terrible as her mind wanted to make it out to be.
For Aisling, the necklace that Jax had gifted her with sat perfectly along her neck, just above the line where her cleavage started in the scoop-neck shirt that she was wearing. She had meant what she said; it was perfect and she loved the way that the coolness of the metal felt against her skin. It was one of the nicest gifts that she had ever received, if you didn’t include Astor getting her out of Monroeville. That seemed to be one of those gifts that wouldn’t be able to even come close to topping anything in her lifetime. She was only twenty-one though, so there was plenty of time to see what sort of things would come her way.
Aisling noted the way that the weight of the air around them seemed to intensify as he waited for her reply. It was a big step, something that she didn’t exactly know if she was ready for, but there was always a very real risk that she would never feel ready for taking the next step in any kind of relationship. Being alone often seemed like a better option, but Jaxon made her want to try; he made her want to give her all to something, even if it was only to him. ”Yeah,” she affirmed, unable to stop the grin that broke over her features as he embraced her, picking her up into the air so that her feet lifted from the ground. It wasn’t until he set her back down and she gained her wits about her from the momentary dizziness that she heard the words he spoke, words that made her heart flutter in a way it never had before.
As he leaned down, her heart seemed to stop as her breath caught in her throat. His lips brushed against her own, the touch soft against her own and Aisling found herself growing pliant beneath his touch, kissing him in return. While it wasn’t her first kiss, it was the first one that made her feel like her body was on fire. It was the first one that made her feel like someone actually cared about her. For the first time in her life, she felt like things were good.
Growing up, he always assumed that he was going to end up dead before this point, or homeless, or in jail, or taking care of his siblings full time. While he might have gone through all of those things. it was still better than anything he could have ever imagined. He still had a family, even if they were mostly in pieces right now. He knew that they were going to come all back together and he was going to be able to introduce Aisling to each of them proudly. He would be able to share stories with them about some of the better moments of their lives. About how their mom was a horrible cook and would burn everything. The first time he ate popcorn that wasn't made by her, he thought that he stumbled upon some hidden stash of the gods.
He didn't know that it wasn't supposed to be served black and charcoaled.
Now he realized that some of the things he expected for his life were right on where they were supposed to be, but not how he expected it. He never could have imagined a life like this, it was too good. Far too good for what he ever expected that he could deserve. He was a screw up with a mop on his head. He didn't deserve someone to look at him the way that Aisling did. He didn't deserve a caretaker like Ash who seemed to get it. He didn't deserve a friend like Cam who never pushed and just got it and made him laugh until he was sore. He didn't deserve any of it, but he was going to hold onto it with dear life.
He was going to do everything that he could to keep his friendships, his relationship, his family. He owed so much to Phalanx, because it led him to this moment. Clasping a necklace on a pretty girl who for some unknown reason seemed to like him back even a little bit. The two of them curling up together nearly every night, the nightmares that she seemed to keep at bay ever since that very first night. She said that she usually made them worse, but Jaxon could say with a certain amount of certainty that she was the reason that everything was getting better in his life. She was perfect and she was flawed, and he loved that about her. She didn't try to hide or pretend. She didn't try to pretend to be something she wasn't. He cared for her deeply and she was someone who he wanted to figure out all of this with. Right by her side.
When he kissed her, there was a tender sweetness about it. He just wanted to share an experience with her that he knew was weird for someone his age to not have. They had woken up next to each other for weeks now, they fell asleep together, they spent so much time together, and this was still the moment that he never anticipated having between them. She was so perfect and kind, he pulled her a little closer, wrapping her up against himself. He wanted to keep her safe from all of the pain and misery in the world, and he wanted to be there for her to depend on more than anything. Show her that she could trust people.
He didn't know what he would be able to do if he broke that.
He broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, kissing her nose softly. "Best Christmas present ever."
