Manifest

AGATHA ALL ALONG 1.04 "If I Can't Reach You / Let My Song Teach You"

AUBREY PLAZA as CAT ADAMS

No matter what, a conversation with Ryatt always gave him something to chew on and in this instance that became a literal thing when he fished a pack of gum from his pocket to retrieve two pieces and pop them in his mouth as he listened to her.

"One, I've never been a problem," Tyson lists, though never seeing himself as the problem was more truthful, "Two, never bottomed either. I thought about it once or twice but when the moment arrived I never managed to like the idea of getting fucked more than I know I like doing the fucking, you know?"

Married or not, he imagines she must.

"I bet you know. This is why you and me could never happen even if you weren't married and that wasn't tantamount to being incest adjacent. I know you'd try and peg me and we'd just end up arguing."

He's about to ask the same man Ryatt dragged into the conversation, when making out the words 'bottom face' in one of those grunts had him scoffing.

"That is pretty prejudice. You see how difficult life is for someone like me for something I can't help? I didn't ask to be so aesthetically pleasing but I find a way to carry on."

There's only a modicum of seriousness that enters the atmosphere when discussing the high-pressure and no doubt high-reward gift that was alluding her.

"Well, have you even got a short-list of maybe perfect gifts? Times a-ticking, you don't want to end up being Alan Rickman in Love Actually," He says in between chews of his gum, a movie he only recalled existed because Kouvr had insisted on taking the Netflix aspect of netflix and chill literally a couple of nights prior, "Easily. I'm not getting any. I've made that mistake before, chicks read too much into it. I'm not accidentally giftwrapping myself a saw trap that makes it seem like I want to go from situationship to relationship. Fuck that."

"Am I projecting? Should I ask any woman you've been with if you utilized them being dramatic in a fight?"

Ryatt looked at Tyson judgementally as he popped gum in his mouth. "Need more brain power?" She gave him a pity frown. "Sorry to say that a couple pieces of gum won't make up for your low IQ." She was proud of herself with how easy the hits were coming. To be fair, he was just setting himself up for them.

The brunette uh-huhed when he claimed he wasn't a problem. The second item on his list brought her to a valid point, "So are you being the one fucking for a control aspect? Cause you feel like your life is so out of control? Could also be a vulnerability issue as to why you won't bottom. Maybe you don't feel safe for others to see you in that way?" It was casually asked, her judgement on the back burner as she sipped at her drink.

A frown came over her features, "Bro, you won't let me peg? That's fucked." The jocular tone she had on showed how disconnected she was from the idea. "You'd probably like being pegged if you gave it a chance." It was honest in how she put it, a shrug as if to say he was missing out.

Victory developed in how the brunette stood straight up in her seat. Nodding with a little inaudible woo! as the patron also called Ty a bottom face. "Pretty prejudice?" Ryatt snorted. "Please, shut the fuck up. You know nothing about pretty prejudice, even if it hit you in the face."

Ryatt ignored the sign about vaping, pulling hers out and propping it in her mouth to rip at it. She was halfway through letting the smoke pool from her mouth when he mentioned Love Actually, and she started coughing. "Why the fuck are you watching Love Actually?" Her eyes trained on his face before a lightbulb went off in her brain, causing a grin to formulate over her lips. "What's their name?"

"What a chicken shit. You could just wrap your junk with each of them, you know. Think outside the box a little." She was there once, herself. No strings attached to anyone, but she made the holidays hit different before she ghosted.

when she saw ryatt walk into the sports bar, she relaxed. she turned to jerome and rested her hand against his arm, "can you take over for a few? i haven't seen ryatt in a while and i wanted to talk to her." when he smiled at her, she felt her stomach flutter and she kissed his cheek before hurrying out to rush over and hug the older woman.

It was almost instant how she caught sight of the other. Not that it was hard to spot Missy, with her being behind the bar. What was a new development was this Jerome figure that Ryatt wasn't 100% sure she trusted. The woman opened her arms to welcome the hug with ease.

"Hey. I felt like I was walking in on something back there." She commented with raised brows, an obvious tease for her daughter figure in her life. "Vodka cran me, babes!" It was a simple request since the offer was extended. "Can I come make it?" She asked, knowing damn well she was prohibited from going back there ever again after St. Patrick's Day of 2015.

Ryatt nodded slowly. "Basically, you're having issues with incorporating all that you want into the book?" She attempted to make it more digestible for herself for the sake of her attention span. "Maybe you could split the book into parts and discuss the negative versus the positive that way?" The brunette attempted to help further. Her laughter caused Ryatt to awkwardly laugh due to the editor aspect she was wrong on. "Maybe I should. Is Wattpad still a thing? I doubt a publisher would want the book with how horrid I write - but I'll give it a try."

the attics stairs had been pulled down, and claire watched from beneath them with baited breath as ryatt managed to lug down the boxes for the christmas tree. her hands rang together at her sides, and she bit her lip, only letting it go when her wife was safely down. a breath of relief at having ryatt on solid ground again and not the rickety stairs of the attic or any mediocre flooring above the ceiling, she relaxed and focused on the task at hand. coming around, her hand found the small of ryatt's back, resting there, thumb rubbing small circles. "thank you for bringing it down," she voiced her appreciation, before she took in the mess with a frown. "i thought we organized these last year before we put them in here?" but the mess of lights were atrociously tangled! they were so tangled that it would be a challenge to get them undone from each other. "whichever box looks not-so-tangled is the one we're using this year, honey." a laugh slipped from her lips as she looked down, palm sliding against the cardboard box before she found a string of lights and held it up... only for it also drag a bunch of the other lights out of the box.

"Never a problem - you know that." Ryatt smiled, the sensation of her wife's thumb rubbing circles into her lower back was beyond soothing. If anything, it was similar to having her body cleansed of any negativity that resided in her bones. Instead, making her a body full of Jell-O.

Ryatt cringed at the remembrance of why they got so tangled. It was her fault, obviously. She was a little too drunk, but pushed off taking the decorations down - the only real task she had around the house in the month of January. "I guess I just threw them in the box to get it over with." The brunette admitted with a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry - I didn't think it would become such a mess." She stated honestly, picking up the first lights box and moving it over to reveal the second one that was underneath. "Maybe these will be better?" If not, they were in desperate need of new lights a little late in the season.

Consequence one being; everything was much brighter when Claire was high. The very lights from Starlight diner seemed to zing through her, making her breath quicken in excitement for what was to come through the night. Her contacts had grown itchy in her eyes earlier, and she'd stopped walking to take them out, glasses slipping into place on the bridge of her nose. They weren't as great as her lenses, but the brightened effect of the weed had Claire grateful that she had them on hand always. She could feel the tips of her fingers stretching and searching, and it seemed an infinite amount of time just yearning until finally - cloth. Soft cloth, then something firmer, the vision of an arm under that cloth, before her greedy fingers were wrapping around Ryatt's arm, gaze slipping from the busy street to Ryatt's eyes. Electric. A pulse of an old beat she would recognize instantly searing through her as their eyes met. The world all at once seemed to be in balance.

“I can think of a few better.” And the words lilted on her tongue, a smoldering flame there before her eyes glanced up and down, one quick but lingering look, on Ryatt's form before she dragged them up again. And the idea to skip the entire night, to do something else at home, was teetering on the edge of her tongue. Especially when she met Ryatt’s eyes once more.

When it came to getting high, the Reyes woman did it often. What started out on the streets as a recreational conversation-started had turned into an anxiety excuse, but now the brunette didn't even care to utilize that excuse anymore. It was just a habit. One that some would suggest was a problem, but wasn't in her mind. She could stop when she wanted to, it's never hindered her relationships or work, and she can go long periods without needing a puff or two. It could've been worse, coming from Vegas, she could've been genuinely addicted to the harder stuff she lost friends to out on the streets.

Ryatt wouldn't allow her mind to go back there. How could she, when her wife was dressed-down in some jeans that accentuated her form in just the right places. Claire was always beautiful though; A fact that the brunette had known ever since their eyes met in Claire's class all those years ago. But, there was something more human to her when she was dressed-down. Almost like the mixture of the smoke and the way she dressed unlocked a different side of her that Ryatt had yet to see.

She was tapped out of her brain the moment her skin was met by her wife's hand. Her brown eyes meeting her blue ones was a charged look that she was sure both had felt in the moment. At first, the woman had forgotten she had said anything. Instead, her feet just going about her usual high-state routine. Then, with her brows furrowed in confusion, she recognized the flirtation from her partner and her heart practically halted.

"Damn, Taco Bell turns you on too?" Fell from her lips as their eyes met again. This time, it was a look of knowing. Was Ryatt being a wise ass, or was she just acting up again? Who knows. Not even Ryatt, herself, could tell you up from down in that moment. A laugh radiated in her ribcage, and suddenly she was opening the door to the establishment for her wife.

"Trust me, it's the best thing to ever grace this Earth. Especially when you're high. You're going to thank me." She stated as she maneuvered them to the self-ordering machine that was set up at the counter.

Too complimentary at times it could be argued, which often landed him in trouble.

( Trouble was exactly where Tyson liked to be. )

He leans forward on the bar top, his attention less divided between the other ambling patrons of Five Star and instead dedicated almost wholly to his friend who was always unpredictable on what she said and how she said it. She gets a laugh from him easily, the sound genuine for once.

"I'll try anything once, including being spanked by Krampus. Let's go, Kraddy. Or maybe I'll be doing the spanking. Don't put me in a box, Ryatt. I contain multitudes," He could see the barfly who was within earshot raising an eyebrow in their direction, but he paid him no real heed, "Has the resident witch pulled out all the stops and gotten her wife a Christmas present to end all Christmas presents or is she too concerned with my Xmas kinks to?"

"You don't have to say it. It's just a collectivist standpoint men have on women, you moron." If her eyes rolled any more than they already have, then they'd fall out of their sockets; Something Ryatt was convinced of. "Complimentary or are you just a problem?"

His laughter caused her to laugh as well. "No, I'm serious." The brunette fixed her face, wiping the smile off of it. "You can't call Krampus, Kraddy!" The woman practically shrieked.

"You literally have bottom face. I don't know what you're going on about." Ryatt noticed the other patron raising his brow at their conversation and instantly opened it up to him. "Doesn't he have a bottom face?" The guy grumbled and shrugged which made Ryatt laugh with a pointed, "Ha!"

There was a sigh that left her lips. "I didn't get a gift yet. But, that's because it has to be perfect. Without the perfect gift, the holidays cease to exist." She then blinked, "Wait, don't you have a million and one girls to get gifts for? How the fuck are you pulling that shit off this year?"

the first snowfall in new york was fucking magical from up high. the streets were full of gray slush and your feet got completely soaked on the wall to the subway, but from the warmth of his own home, it kind of looked like a snowglobe. being the midwestern boy he was, though, watching the heavy flakes fall along the road outside, he felt the need to scope it out. was it sledding snow or snowball snow? he pulled on a hat, gloves, and boots and climbed up onto the roof, the snow crunching with each step. he scooped up a handful and grinned when he realized it was firm, snowball snow. he formed it into the perfect snowball and took aim, chucking one at the stop sign below and raising his arms when it landed true.

he spotted a familiar figure walking along the slippery sidewalk and reloaded, yelling out a "heads up!" as he threw the snowball in ryatt's direction. a burst of laughter followed, his breath floating away in a puff as he clutched his stomach. "hey! come up and we can try and hit those kids who keep fucking with the christmas lights!" he held up a hand, hold up, and ducked back inside to grab a couple of beers. he lifted them over his head in what he hoped was a tantalizing sort of way. "i'll make it worth your while."

Ryatt was on her walk home. The snow falling somehow mystical even though she wanted nothing more than to be inside with the warmth of a fireplace. At the sound of a familiar voice, the brunette ducked. To her surprise, a snowball whizzed by and hit a nearby tree. Standing back up, the woman shielded her eyes from the lingering rays of the sun that managed to peek through the clouds above in order to spot Austin who looked like he was having a stroke on the roof.

"You know, your ass looks like you should be in a padded room - right?" Ryatt rolled her eyes, though a smile managed to creep up over her features.

It was tempting to hit the brats with snowballs, but the thought of how Claire would react seeped into her brain. "I'm sorry. Are you 12?" But, he had already disappeared. When she caught a glimpse of the beer, she sighed. It was almost as if he was aware of how this whole interaction would pan out before she opened her mouth. Being predictable was something she hated, but she wound up hissing, "Fuck - alright, I'm coming up."

After finding her way up the fire escape, she took the beer from him. "What gave you this bright idea?"