magic_fratboy: (zee - now i know that happiness goes on)
"If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?"

==========

NOTE: Zee is [livejournal.com profile] zee_ali and is used with love and some permission.

“Why do you have to do this?”

“Because of you.”

He didn’t have to look at her jaw hanging agape to know she was shocked by his answer, but he looked up all the same, hands in his jacket pockets and fiancée standing before him with dark eyes so full of blazing fury he thought she might kill him just with her look.

He knew he was blushing, something he didn’t do quite as often anymore, but still his cheeks burned as he held up a hand to stop her from responding.

“Because you’re human, and you love me.” He pressed on, maybe a little too quickly out of nerves. “Because I’m strong enough to do it so long as I got you…’cause humans take risks, and that’s all I am: what humans are. That’s why I have to, that’s why I will: ‘cause of you. ‘Cause you take risks every day. You put your life on the line when you walk out the door, when you take a challenge…you put yourself out there every time you take a chance on some musical act-”

“Tommy Karras, this is *not* fair-”

“-or some dime-a-dozen Brooklyn boy who thinks he can draw and can’t tell a dirty joke without blushing.” He finished hotly, holding her gaze with a nod. “You remember him? I hear he’s doing some pretty amazing stuff now, all ‘cause you took the biggest fuckin’ chance of your life. He’s co-headlining at the Mirage, gettin’ married, had a baby girl…”

Pulling his hand from his pocket, he produced a black velvet jewelry box and opened it, displaying the sky blue topaz and sapphire necklace inside.

“…and remembered his girl’s birthday even though she thought he prolly forgot.”

He watched her face as she saw the necklace, knew he’d catch hell still for the whole Avalanche stunt, and still more hell for mouthing off at her…but for a second, he didn’t care.

He took a risk…and based on Zee’s face, he knew it was well worth the trouble.

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 340
magic_fratboy: (emote - staring)
NOTE: First section is a memory taking place some time after Zee's "death." Cinzia is an NPC used with loving permission from her writer. ;p

“You can never know. That knowledge is sacred. Let it be.”

“Why? Just because you say so?!” Cinzia snapped.

“Because it’s forbidden.”

“Fuck you, I’ve done my reading. When the hell have you ever cared about the rules?”

“Cinz…”

“NO! Fuck you. I want revenge, and you’re telling me I can’t get it. My girl, my Ziyah…*our* Ziyah is dead, and I want to find the man who did this to her. I want you to teach me what you do, you said it could be learned. If you don’t, Tommy…if you don’t, I swear to God Almighty, I will hate you until the end of time.”

..... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 613
magic_fratboy: (animate - believe)
The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

==========

“Do you believe in magic?”

She wasn’t particularly sad that day. Even though all she did was work the Dolphin Snack Bar at the Mirage, her life was good and her day was going well. Hell, she was happy…but when the stranger asked her, out of the blue, that single strange question, she felt her chest tighten and her heart twist in grief. She realized that she hadn’t ever asked herself that question before. She’d never stopped to wonder, to look…she didn’t actually know.

It was hard to breathe for a single, sorrowful second as she met warm brown eyes and found the answer easily. It was there like her next breath, like her pulse: she didn’t have to think about it.

“Yeah.” She replied, relief washing through her as she regarded the man in front of her with a small, surprised smile. “You know? I do.”

The man smiled and handed her a twenty for his food, leaving before she could give him his change…it wasn’t until later that she’d realize she’d been talking to the Avatar himself, Tommy Karras.

* * * * *


The thread of Hope runs long... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 559
magic_fratboy: (emote - deep thoughts)
NOTE: Ziyah is [livejournal.com profile] zee_ali and is used without permission, but heaping gobs of love. Takes place at the MTV Video Music Awards.

“And here I thought I was the daring one.”

Blushing furiously, Tommy rolled his eyes as he ducked out of the limo and hunched in on himself just a little. He felt self-conscious in just a vest, buttoned in front with no shirt beneath. Channing had helped him pick out the outfit, with the addition of the skull and crossbones fedora from Zee to top it off, and he felt like a piece of meat to say nothing of the cool air that touched his skin as they got out of the car.

“Just protect me, will ya?” he muttered, wrapping an arm around Ziyah’s waist as they started down the red carpet. “The media’s gonna kill me, I ain’t kiddin’.”

Ziyah just laughed, giving him a warm squeeze…then promptly released him as the crowd on either side began to scream his name. Mortified for a moment, gazing at the sea of faces touched him, drawing him forward to embrace people he didn’t even know, young and old men and women who somehow knew his name. Pain and ecstasy stalled him as he slowly shook hands and took pictures, signing a few autographs along the way.

..... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 727
magic_fratboy: (text - daredevil)
What kind of music does your Muse enjoy?

Tommy's favorite is heavy metal, but he's got a soft spot for the stuff he grew up around: classic rock 'n roll and doo wop. Stuff like The Rat Pack and The Beatles are examples of 'comfort music' for him, but his personal favorite band of all time is Alice in Chains.

What era is it from?

Primarily the era he grew up in as well as his parents' generation. He recalls some of the classics from Houdini's time fondly, but the old standard "Rosabelle" is really the only tune from that era that he holds in high regard.

What kind of music does your Muse hate?

Classical bores him, teeny bopper rock, most emo rock. He tends to pick and choose songs over artists when it comes to popular music.

Is your Muse famous?

He'll deny it, but yeah, he is. Lately he's been getting a lot of attention as a newcomer to the Las Vegas magic scene, and the more he ignores the media the more they seem to want to talk to him.

If so for what are they famous?

Tommy began as an artistic consultant to prominent Las Vegas magician Channing Vale, and later was promoted to co-star in her show, The Rapture, the first full scale magic show the Mirage has produced since the departure of Siegfried and Roy. Publicly, he's become popular because of his character in the show (a villainous male lead and sex symbol) as well as for his disinterest in the media. The less he talks, the more they want to hear from him...only part of this is intentional. Artistically, he's been praised for his development of new characters and set dressing for the show, and in the magic community he's been hailed as the heir to Harry Houdini himself for his escapes and public magic demonstrations.

..... )
magic_fratboy: (zee - i will be your witness)
Out of me, into you yeah
You can hide it's just a one way street
Oh, I believe I'm in you, yeah
Open wide, that's right!
Dream me off my feet
Oh, believe in me


==========

NOTE: Backdated to last night. Zee is [livejournal.com profile] zee_ali and is used with some permission and lots of love.

For a week, he drifted between worlds. He slept, he healed, but awoke with wounds in places only Ziyah could see. In his eyes, in his heart…the damage had been done.

He found no nourishment in food and drink. Friends and family barely fed his need for power…even she, the woman he could finally call his own in all the ways that mattered, couldn’t give him enough to keep him going for long. Drifting between life and death, he knew in his heart that there was trauma left he couldn’t heal.

He didn’t know how to stop the bleeding, didn’t know how to fix it. No one did…so every day he bled out. Every day he got weaker. One day, he would lay down his head and never lift it again. He’d join his uncle forever in the eternal sleep that gave The Darkness cause for celebration. There was no stopping it…unless he found the key to open the lock. Too briefly, he’d freed Vincenzo Karras and liberated Carbone, if he could only free himself…

It didn’t occur to him until the night Zee helped him into bed and he realized how warm his hand was in hers. His skin had been so cool since that night, so empty and devoid of life, but when she finally crawled in and curled her body into his he felt a flicker of heat.

It hadn’t occurred to him that the power he’d shared with her so briefly during the ritual might have lingered. The key to his chains could lie in her.

WARNING: Mild adult content beneath the cut... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 1,049
magic_fratboy: (emote - standing tall)
NOTE: Stephanie is [livejournal.com profile] effiecat and used with permission and love, Channing is [livejournal.com profile] what_its_not and mine to do with as I see fit. :P

“No!! Damn it, you two, I’m gonna stomp a mudhole in your butts and walk it dry, we ditched the jetè after the backflip! Do it right!!”

He tried as hard as he could to stifle the laugh that bubbled up, but he was caught as Stephanie spun around to face him, the picture of petite rage with her hands on her hips in the middle of the dance studio.

“Just what the hell’s so funny, Tormy?”

“Uh oh, now I know I’m in trouble.” He quipped, smirking as she scowled at him. “Sorry, babe, just…that crack loses something in translation when you say ‘butts’ instead of ‘asses.’”

“Hardy har, you think you’re so cute…next time, I’m gonna let these two smack you around for real. C’mon, you lollygaggers, do it again. Anton, go back to the corner. Harvey, get over here…Tommy, take your place.”

“Channing, you hired a slave driver!” Tommy pretended to complain as Stephanie stomped over to grab his hand and tug him to his mark in the middle of the dance floor.

“Someone has to keep you renegades in line when I’m not around.” Channing giggled from her seat in the corner.

Eyeing her balefully, Tommy planted himself where Stephanie positioned him and sighed, rolling his shoulders and settling in. “Okay…from the top?”

... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 898
magic_fratboy: (magic - asylum bed escape)
“I don't believe that's a name that I have ever you call me before. Would you be so kind as to repeat it? It sounded so lovely the way you pronounced it through gritted teeth.”

Narrowing his eyes, Tommy glanced up at Channing with a scowl, then winced as the ropes cinched in tighter around his midsection, driving the air from his lungs.

“Whoops! I’m sorry, Tommy!”

“Nah, s’ok.” He coughed, nodding to Stephanie in encouragement. “I need ‘em tight.” )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 709
magic_fratboy: (zephyr fotilas - hanging with aunt zeph)
What we have inherited from our fathers and mothers is not all that 'walks in us.' There are all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs. They have no tangibility, but they haunt us all the same and we can not get rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines. Ghosts must be all over the country, as thick as the sands of the sea.

====================

“You marry her, and you marry her quickly.”

Tommy looked up from the diaper bag he was packing to find his aunt standing in the doorway with a strange expression on her face. In the warm, weathered features that still held so much beauty, he saw more pain that he could imagine his sweet, vivacious aunt ever feeling.

“Aunt Zeph?...”

“Tommy…you know how we lost your uncle, moro?”

“Before I knew about the power? Massive stroke…after? He died fighting for the Fraternity.” He replied, dropping the spit rag in his hand and moving to sit on the edge of the guest room bed. “Why? What’s going on?”

Zephyr Fotilas sighed as she moved into the room and sank down to sit beside him, perched daintily on the edge with her hands on her knees. So delicate, too delicate, but in the knotted hands that curled into her slacks he saw all the strength he only wished he had. )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 826
magic_fratboy: (emote - determined)
Takes place some time after this.

"Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity."

====================

You have accepted power. With it, you must accept the consequences.

The consequences of power... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 636
magic_fratboy: (emote - titan fury)
The private revelation is harder to cope with than the one which came from his borrowed memory. It takes time to sink in as he prepares to share his good news with all the right people, planning the wedding and making everything ready…

Dog knew. So did Kate.

In his heart he believes there’s an explanation, but some wounds are slow to close. They bleed, and it seeps into his vision, covering his eyes in rage so black it dims the room. Lost time rushes past him like a storm on the horizon, echoes of sorrow so deep shake him hard enough to cause him to stir. The beast of a god wonders if he is needed again, and it’s all he can do to hold him off and keep his head.

The Titan is unforgiving, but Tommy understands. He’s human enough to know what’s allowed, what’s possible. He’s weak enough to hate them both for it, but has lived enough to realize what is and isn’t possible. How easily a head could have been taken, how knowledge may have saved Ziyah from a fate worse than the one she suffered.

Knowing helps him keep his head. Understanding stills his murderous heart.

Betrayal, however, isn’t so forgiving…and so he doesn’t call. He doesn’t summon Dog and doesn’t turn to Hekate. In quiet grief for trust lost, he is certain he will never speak their names again.

They knew Zee was alive, and they said nothing. Nothing can forgive that mortal sin.

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 252
magic_fratboy: (emote - titan fury)
“Please. Don’t speak to me.”

“Someone has to, brother. Someone has to speak for the one you took from us.”

He stilled in his tracks, turning to face the man behind him. It had been a while, but from what he recalled the face was still the same. The eyes glowed with divine knowledge, with eternity…but he was no stranger to those things.

“You had no right to sublimate him.”

“Don’t you dare speak to me of rights.” Epimetheus snarled in Tommy’s skin as he stalked straight up to Elpis, red eyes glowing with an unholy light. “I have seen what you know, you traitor! You could have prevented all of this!”

“At what cost? It was my lady’s vision, not mine.” Elpis shot back heatedly. “You expect me to defy the Fates and show favor to those responsible for granting it?! We serve those same Fates, brother, we do not own them.”

Epimetheus shook his head resolutely. “Had his struggle with self doubt been shorter, maybe he would have had the strength to face this final hurdle. You could have shortened his agony. You didn’t.”

“One more time, brother?”

“I said you did not--”

“Didn’t.” Elpis corrected, smirking. “Your speech is no longer your own. He’s getting stronger in you.”

“Were I you, child, I would fear death in spite of your divinity.”

Elpis lifted his chin with a proud sneer. “I am a god. I don’t fear death, nor do I fear pain.”

Epimetheus drew closer, stopping when red eyes met head on with dark, when a breath would have caused his lashes to brush the other man’s if he blinked. There was a pause…then a smile that promised every nightmare he next spoke of in simple, honest terms.

“You will.”
magic_fratboy: (days gone by - kissing zee)
"Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense."

NOTE: Though history does dictate that Houdini first met his wife when she was singing the song "Rosabelle," I'm taking a few artistic liberties with pretty much everything else surrounding the event.

He loved her because she excited him, and she excited him because he was terribly curious about her... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 413
magic_fratboy: (emote - thoughtful)
You said yourself before
Where are you?
I'm needing you much more
I bet you never knew

And now everything
Is gonna fall apart
I need you here
Not just in my heart


====================

The slow, sensuous techno beat pouring out of the speakers of the club wasn’t like the usual dance music that filled the air. Around them, the dance floor was packed with a sea of warm, faceless bodies writhing to the pulsing rhythm.

She was warm and yielding in his arms, the lean planes of muscle and skin perfectly molded to his body as they moved with the music. There was something unusual about the way he came alive for her, something alien and
other about the warm rush, the excitement of holding her…of wanting her.

“Come home with me.”

“I can’t.” )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 711
magic_fratboy: (profile - troubled)
We're flirtin' with disaster ya'll damn sure know what I mean.
You know the way we run our lives it makes no sense to me
I don't know about yourself or what you plan to be, yeah
When we gamble with our time we choose our destiny


=============================

“You can’t do this.”

“I have to.”

“Tommy Karras, if you think for an instant that I’m going to sit here and let you commit suicide--”

“It’s not suicide if I succeed!!”


He still wasn’t convinced of his own argument, but he really had no choice in the matter now. A crowd had gathered, the dealership had made the agreement…and if he tried to run, dozens of human lives were at stake.

The same humans he stood in front of, eyes on the ground instead of the crowd. He couldn’t look up, not if he wanted to do this, not yet…

The Darkness was there. In the faces, there was one he would never be able to see unless it revealed itself, and if it did he would die. )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 1,182
magic_fratboy: (emote - loss)
“It’s…her story.”

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s her story…all of ‘em. Oh God, it’s her.

“Tommy, what are you talking about?”

Blinking, Tommy stared at Channing as if seeing her for the first time, though they’d been comparing fabric swatches for her backdrop onstage for over an hour. The revelation hit him in the middle of agonizing over three different shades of crimson, slamming into him so hard that his hands were shaking and he couldn’t quite catch his breath.

“Tommy, you’re shaking…you’re white as a sheet! Are you okay?”

His knees were jelly as he moved to the center of the theater’s stage, then strode over to grab a bolt of cloth from the left side and shook it into the air. Blood red streamed behind him as he stalked back swiftly, creating a ribbon of color that rippled and fell like water to reveal a series of paintings that hadn’t been on the empty stage a moment before.

“The dreams, the paintings…it’s her, Chan.” )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 529
magic_fratboy: (emote - tongue!porn)
“I just can’t keep doing this anymore!!”

Tommy blanched reflexively at the sound of Channing’s voice ringing out sharply through The Rapture’s production offices, which still weren’t much more than a back dressing room lined with folding tables and crammed with people. Reflective of his apprehension as he lifted his gaze, his bare toes dug into the dark berber carpeting one last time before wistfully inching forward and into his office sandals as he got to his feet.

“Something wrong, Chan?” )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 550
magic_fratboy: (emote - evil look)
“It’s a lovely sentiment, but…are you sure you want to do this?”

He could already tell she was looking for a reason to turn him away, the pretty tattoo artist that looked far too much like the mortal incarnation of Hekate for his tastes. Not that he could talk, being that two of his best friends were identical twins and totally unrelated…

“I got cash, and I ain’t askin’ for ‘The Love Butt’ tattooed across my ass.” He replied flatly. “It’s a simple design, I’ve given it plenty of thought. You gonna do it or not?”

Tommy watched her frown and stare down again at the drawing he’d brought in of a large black crown with the Latin inscription at the base.

Nunc scio quit sit amor. ‘Now I know what love is.’

“I can do it a lot smaller. Let you--”

“Hide it with a ring? No.” Tommy replied flatly. “It’s going on my left hand.”

“I know, but that’s…” The woman trailed off, regarding him thoughtfully. “What was her name?”

He swallowed hard, staring down at the drawing. “Ziyah.”

“Were you two…”

“No. And now I never will.”

She fell silent again, then finally sighed and picked up the drawing. “I’ll need about twenty minutes to stencil this...but for the record, honey? This isn’t gonna stop the hurt. It’s just gonna make it worse.”

He watched her leave, then stared down at his bare left hand…at the finger that would never bear a wedding ring. Just a scar left behind by wounds he still couldn’t feel.

“I know.” He whispered to no one. “That’s the idea.”

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 276

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