there isn’t any, Edward told him earlier, which was a lie in on itself.

the majority of his humour is just nonsensical garbage from extinct vines with the occasional sprinkling of tiktok and twitter memes. he has the general tastes of your typical fratboi himbo millennial. he’s a casual gamer so overwatch, PUBG, resident evil, the last of us, batman: arkham city. a huge comic book nerd though he doesn’t talk about it as often, with his favourite characters being bruce wayne, diana prince and matt murdock. his favourite genre is post-apocalyptic or thriller — bong-joon ho enthusiast, black mirror, mad max: fury road, stephen king books, philip k. dick, kafka, aldous huxley, akira, christopher nolan, jordan peele. 

“if you were selfish, then you would have taken what you wanted long ago. that is not the case now, is it, my dear captain  —  are you afraid of your own gluttony when it comes to me?” 

                                     ( modern au ) ::: accepting.

[ [  P.M.  /  pantea mazarandani. ] ]

I am good for noon for that cabinet meeting. [ SECRET NUMBER ] Fuck, babe, you’re going to kill me on this fucking plane. Are you going to keep the shoes on?

[ [ DON’T PICK UP  /  edward boyne. ] ]

Yes we have the funds no we will not send them over until the press conference because of something called Optics. Look it up.

[ [ KID #1  /  cyrus harper. ] ]

Should’ve come through, check your venmo.

[ [ KID#2  /  timoti whetu roimata ngati ati awa. ] ]

Please no more sea creature gifs this is a public phone. too old for this shit.

[ [ unknown  /  vera hamilton. ]]

A MOMENT DURING CARNIVALE

?? - strange/vague text

[[ mal achey ]] hey, so, what’s the english name of the round ball of spikes and how poisonous are they in the uk?

► - not meant for you

[[ mal achey  ]]  aroha koe papa, bye! (love you dad, bye!)

↕ - scared/worried text

Rowan’s dizzy, the bow of Orion and splay of Andromeda found in the room’s obsidian left untouched by lunar beans; is it the words themselves, or the mouth they trickle from that has constellations scorching his periphery? Can Malachy see their effect, how they thread to form a noose to the thick of a throat, how they leave raven features a blanch to rival Aurora?

the time is late and it’s one of the nights when Edward has run out of options to aid his lack of sleep; hours of tossing and turning in his berth only made him feel more restless so for once he decides to head to the great cabin, see if the captain’s being plagued by the same thing—sometimes it feels like both of them haven’t had a single night of good rest ever since they set sail. 

in the end, he isn’t surprised to see Malachy still up, bent over a book by a dying light. Though it’s well into the night, they settle into comfortable talk, dancing around all the uncomfortable truths that they’re being dealt with. Sleep is supposed to be a way to shelter oneself from all the terrors of what the days bring them and the fact that it refuses to come feels like some sort of odd, but very fitting metaphor. 

only the night time feels appropriate for confessions like this and only the night time is suitable enough for the answer that comes. “Never,” the word feels heavy and light at the same time and it leaves the purser’s lips without a thought. “You know that. It’s you and me,” Edward looks up at the captain and then immediately drops his gaze, afraid that he’ll say something else he’ll regret come morning. He speaks up again anyway, even dares to look his friend in the eye, without looking away this time. 

“you and me, always.”