#Bronco Berry

[simonkeyes]

circus adventures

[writersrumpus]

Meet Author/Illustrator Berrie Torgan-Randall!

Hi, Writers’ Rumpus fans! It’s my pleasure to welcome Berrie Torgan-Randall to our blog today. She not only wrote the words to her debut graphic novel for early readers, but she also created all the illustrations. This first book in a new series for children 5-9 years old was released by Blue Bronco Books, an imprint of The Little Press, on October 1, 2022. The series “celebrates life’s everyday…

[roosterforme]

Adult Education Part 9 | Hangman x OC

Summary: Jessica visits Beta Brewing and meets one of Bradley Bradshaw's former fraternity brothers. He's flirtatious, and she's surprised by it. But nothing surprises her as much as the way Jake can be so sweet and sexy at the same time. But she doesn't know he's only ever been like this for her.

Warnings: Fluff, smut, swearing, 18+

Length: 6600 words

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Female OC

This story is part of the Beer Boy and Sugar universe but can be read on its own! Adult Education masterlist

Seriously, who let Jake on my masterlist!? Banner by @mak-32

Bradley Bradshaw helped Jessica climb up into the backseat of the idling vintage Ford Bronco with her notebook, a pen and her overnight bag. He somehow looked even more handsome in jeans and a tie dyed shirt with a backwards cap than he did in his uniform. "I can't thank you enough for doing this," she said as he released her hand and smiled. 

"It's nothing," he replied casually with a shrug of his broad shoulders before closing the door. But it was definitely something to Jessica. It had been a very long time since she had friends. She watched as he climbed back into the driver's seat and leaned over to accept a kiss from his wife. His handsome cheeks flushed a little bit as he cleared his throat and asked, "Ready to hit the road?"

"Yes," Jessica said as she buckled in for the half hour drive up to Beta Brewing. Advanced Calculus was turned around in the front seat, handing her a snack box filled with mixed berries and artisan cheeses. 

"Bradley packed these for us," she said with a grin as she held up a second one. Sure enough he was blushing a little more now.

"Thank you," Jessica gushed, biting into a ripe raspberry and thinking about what Jake might be cooking for dinner later tonight. She'd never eaten this well in her entire adult life.

"It's nothing," Bradley said again as he turned onto the highway. "So how much beer do you think you'll need for this fundraiser?"

"At least two kegs?" Jessica said as she ate some of the cheese that was practically melting on her tongue. "More than that will kill my thousand dollar budget."

"I think you're better off with three," Advanced Calculus said. "I know you don't have a final headcount yet, but with the way Bradley and Jake drink, you'll run out with just two."

Bradley laughed. "You really think Jake and I could drink an entire keg of beer ourselves?"

"The two of you drank the equivalent of a keg of champagne on New Year's Eve," his wife replied easily as she fed him a berry.

"Ah yes," he rasped, "the inception of Dr. Tits." Jessica laughed as Advanced Calculus smacked his shoulder. Bradley looked in the rearview mirror and asked, "You know about Dr. Tits?"

"Yes," Jessica replied, recalling the story of drunk Jake and the low cut dress. Of course Advanced Calculus had been a good sport about it. 

"And you still want to date Jake Seresin? He's a goddamn menace."

"He's actually much less annoying since he met Jessica," he wife remarked. 

"Shit. You're right," Bradley mumbled. "Okay, you actually have to date him. You're never allowed to break up with him either."

After that, Jessica got some inside scoop and funny stories about her boyfriend. Apparently he tried to sleep behind the bar at their Navy hangout on his birthday last year. And at Starbucks, he likes to give Hungman as his name just to see if the baristas will say it, but at least he leaves them a nice tip for their troubles. And neither Bradley nor his wife could ever remember Jake having a girlfriend since he graduated from the Naval Academy. 

"Here we are," Bradley said as he pulled into a parking lot right next to a beautiful cliffside beach. Beta Brewing was written in huge graffiti lettering on the side of an industrial building. Bradley wrapped his arm around his wife and headed toward a door off to the side with a sign that said Tap Room.

Jessica followed behind them and asked, "What was your friend's name again?" She was suddenly very nervous that she was going to sound like an idiot asking for a deal on this guy's designer beer.

"Dev Borah," Bradley said, pulling the door open for the two women to go first.

"He's nice," his wife promised. "You'll like him."

Jessica took a few steps into the bar area that smelled delicious and was decorated like a tasteful fraternity house. "We open at noon!" boomed a voice from the long bartop. "Sorry!"

Bradley chuckled and said, "That's bullshit. You can't turn away a Beta Gamma brother."

"Oh shit!" the other man with dark hair and a big, beaming smile said as he looked up and slammed his palm down on the countertop. "Bradshaw! I completely forgot you were coming up today."

Jessica watched as Dev popped up from behind the bar and gave Bradley some weird, elaborate handshake before they both started laughing. "It's good to see you man. Been a few months," Dev said, eyeing up Brashaw's wife. "And it's honestly rude of you to try to keep this one away from me." 

"Hi, Dev," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I still can't believe the two of you got married. That's fucking wild," Dev replied before focusing his attention on Jessica. A crooked smile appeared on his lips, the kind that let her know he would have been quite a handful when he was in college. "And you're Jessica?" he asked, reaching out to shake hands with her. "Damn. I've gotta get down to San Diego more often." 

She laughed and shook his hand. Maybe she didn't have anything to be nervous about after all. This man seemed like a goof as he took the three of them on a tour of the brewery and back into the areas he assured her were top secret.

He also seemed to understand the entire process involved here. He answered all of their questions about brewing beer and the business end of things. "We're shipping as far as Pennsylvania now," he said when Jessica asked about distribution. "Making it hard for me to crunch all the numbers myself, but I'm really particular about who I let in on the details." When he stopped in front of an industrial looking door, he punched a code into the keypad and said, "Let's dip into my personal stash."

The room was his office, and it was massive with floor to ceiling windows and a view of the cliffs and the beach. Jessica watched him open a stainless steel refrigerator and select a few bottles and cans from his collection and line them up on his glossy desk. "This is incredible," she remarked, looking out the window while Bradshaw gazed longingly into his wife's eyes and said something about only drinking the good beers. "Your whole setup is incredible."

"Thanks," Dev said as he opened a bottle of beer called Greek Week and handed it to her. "Started the whole thing myself about seven years ago."

The beer was absolutely delicious, and Jessica wondered if she could buy a six pack or something to take to Jake's place. "I like this beer. Can I get it in a keg? For that event I believe Bradley mentioned to you?"

Dev smiled and said, "We don't keg this one. It's a limited release of 500 bottles."

She almost choked on it. "500 bottles and you're letting me have one? Are you insane?"

His laughter was contagious, because soon she was laughing too. "You can have one. His wife can too, if she wants. But Bradshaw gets one of the regular beers. That's what he gets for never helping me with my homework. That asshole graduated top of our fraternity."

"Yeah, I absolutely did," Bradley said, winking at his wife as Dev handed him a different beer. "Sugar made sure I spent plenty of time in the library. Studying." His wife looked a little bashful, but she accepted her own bottle of the limited release Greek Week beer and sipped it.

"If you want kegs," Dev said, "we can walk through the warehouse so you can see what's available. I have a few brews that were aged in barrels and a few others as well right now. You can try some samples in the tap room and take whichever kegs you want."

Jessica nodded and finished her beer. "Sounds great. I'll probably need three kegs, but I have a very limited budget, so two might have to work."

Dev just waved her off. "We'll talk about it down there." He led the way through a labyrinth of hallways and down an elevator to the warehouse. "Careful," he told Jessica with a wink as he held a door open for her. "Usually I don't let anyone in here with high heels, but I don't think I could tell you no to anything you wanted to do."

Jessica looked down at her jeans and heels and then back up at him. "I'll be extra careful."

"Let me know if you need to hold my hand," he said with that same grin before leading the way toward rows and rows of kegs where a handful of employees were working. "Point out the three you want unless you want to taste them first."

"I've tried all of them," Bradley told Jessica. "There's no such thing as a bad beer made at Beta. They are all good."

She didn't want to cause any extra work for anyone. She just wanted the event to be successful which meant staying under budget. "Can I just take three of your least expensive ones?"

"Is that really your deciding factor?" Dev asked, waving someone with a cart on wheels over. 

"Yeah," she replied with a wince. "I'm sure they're all great! The Greek Week was amazing! But I need this fundraiser to be as successful as possible, and the finances are tight."

Jessica wondered if she could come back up with Jake and his truck one day to pick them up, but Dev asked, "Can you fit three of them in your Bronco, Bradshaw?"

"Yep," Bradley replied, his arm draped casually around his wife's shoulders. 

"Okay then," Dev said to the man with the cart. "Load one keg of Gamma Rays, one of East Coast Girls, and one of Nerd Core into the fancy blue thing parked outside."

Jessica's math brain was swirling. "How much do I owe you?"

Dev shrugged. "They retail for three hundred apiece, but you can have them at cost."

"Well, how much is that?" She was starting to panic now. 

Dev was laughing again. "I'm not going to charge you a penny for the kegs. It's on me."

Bradley laughed, too. "That's just bad business, man. Didn't you study accounting?"

"Nah, I studied girls," Dev replied, smirking at Jessica as she blushed. "Come on, I'll send you home with some bottles."

Once they were in the tap room, Jessica insisted on paying for two six packs of beer while Bradley and his wife picked some out of the coolers as well. "I can't thank you enough," Jessica told Dev as he ran her credit card. "This whole thing is just really important to me getting tenure at my school, and... just, thank you."

"Don't mention it," he said as he handed the card back to her. "Bradshaw can make up for it in manual labor when I do my next brewery expansion."

Jessica looked to her left to where Bradley was setting down the beers he wanted to buy. "N-No," she stammered. "I wouldn't want anyone to have to do that!"

"I'm kidding," Dev promised as he took Bradley's credit card. 

"You could come to the fraternity event!" Jessica blurted out. "And I could definitely promote your brand, too."

Dev tossed the card back to Bradley and shooed him away with his hand. Jessica thought she heard Bradley laughing behind her as Dev leaned a little closer, his perfect smile back on his face. "Just to clarify, are you asking me on a date?"

Her jaw dropped open. Would it have been that easy for her to get a date with him? She was shocked. He owned a brewery worth millions of dollars. "Oh. No. I have a boyfriend."

Dev shook his head. "Not surprising in the least. Email me the details for your event. I'd love to come, even if it's just an excuse to see you smile again."

"Okay," she said softly, taking both six packs in her hands. "And thanks again."

Jessica stumbled outside into the sunlight where Bradley and his wife were practically making out next to the Bronco which was filled with three kegs of beer. Even when she approached them, he didn't bother to remove his hands from her butt, but Jessica supposed that was a good sign that they considered her a friend as well. 

"So? You ditching Jake for Dev?" Bradley asked, laughter in his voice. 

"No!" Jessica replied. "But I can't believe he gave me the kegs for free. Really, it's thanks to you."

"Don't worry about it," Bradley replied, opening the door for her before walking around to the passenger side for his wife. "Dev's loaded, and he's nice anyway. So if you ever do decide to ditch Jake, you have options."

--------------------------

The Longhorns game was on, dinner was ready to go into the oven, and Jessica just texted that she was on her way. Jake was lounging on the couch, ready to spend the rest of the day and all night convincing her that she should show him her pretty green underwear and let him take it off of her. 

He bought a new box of condoms, just in case. He felt a little weird digging into an open box for her, so he just tossed the last few he had, deciding to start fresh. In a lot of ways, that's what he was doing. Starting fresh. 

Everything around him was spotlessly clean. There were new sheets on his bed. He had Sam Adams seasonal beers in the fridge. He had his couch ready for snuggling. He just needed her. 

When she knocked, he rocketed off the couch, fixing his hair on the way to his door. "Hi-" The words died in his throat and he grimaced as he was met with Bradley Bradshaw, but at least he was holding some beers. "Rooster."

"Hangman," came the response with a smirk. When he pushed his way inside, Jake saw his wife was behind him, and then he finally saw Jessica. 

"Jake," she sighed breathlessly, and he collected her up in his arms. He kicked the door closed as she kissed him, but he was wondering why there were four people in his condo instead of two when all he really wanted to do was take Jessica to bed.

"Hey, Baby. How was the brewery?"

Bradshaw was laughing as he made his way to the kitchen. "You can kiss your girlfriend goodbye. Dev Borah wants her. He just texted me asking how serious Jessica is with her boyfriend."

"Who?" Jake asked, wrapping his arms a little tighter around Jessica.

"The beer guy. His fraternity brother," she replied, kissing him softly. "Bradley's just kidding."

"He's not kidding," Bradshaw's wife said as she picked up one of the journals on the coffee table. "Dev really texted him."

Jake didn't think he actually had any cause for concern as Jessica wiggled her bag down her arm and let it drop to the floor so she could snuggle against his chest. "Why don't you text him back and tell him to fuck off," Jake told Bradley who was now rooting around in his refrigerator. 

"What are you making for dinner?" he mumbled. "Bruschetta chicken? Sugar loves it when I make that for her."

"Bruschetta chicken?" his wife replied, also hustling into Jake's kitchen.

"Fuck," Jake whispered, "they're never gonna leave."

"Sorry," Jessica mumbled. "Bradley insisted on carrying the beers I bought up here for me. I got you a bottle of this one called Greek Week which Dev told me is a limited release, and I think you'll really like it."

Jake kissed her lips softly and asked, "What's it going to take for you to forget this Dev guy all together?"

She blushed for him and glanced toward the kitchen before she said, "I didn't wear my pretty green things for Dev. I wore them for you."

A smirk instantly appeared on Jake's face. Images of Jessica's bare pussy rubbing on his khaki uniform pants while she whined for him filled his mind. He would just have to make sure he was very good for her every single time, because there was no way he was giving her up now. 

"Can we stay for dinner?" Rooster asked from the kitchen. "I want to compare recipes." 

"No," Jake drawled as Jessica's lips found his neck in the briefest of kisses. "I'm going to say this as nicely as I can: Get the fuck out. Please."

"So rude," Bradshaw's wife replied, but she was smiling. Jake watched her lean in and whisper something to her husband. 

His eyes went wide immediately, and he was nodding as his tongue darted out to lick his lips. "Yeah, I can do that for you, Sugar," he said softly, but Jake still heard him. Then Bradshaw cleared his throat and said, "See you on Monday, Hangman. Bye, Jess." He dragged his wife behind him as he made a beeline for the door, and she waved as she laughed.

And then they were gone, and Jake was just thankful it wasn't awkward at all when Jessica whispered, "I was afraid they weren't going to leave," as she ran her fingers up underneath his Longhorns shirt. 

"He would have stayed, but she's a good wingwoman," Jake replied, kissing her temple, his lips meeting the cool plastic of her glasses. "And I just want to spend time alone with you. You want to sit on the couch? Have a few beers?"

The Longhorns game was on mute, but he'd lost interest in it anyway as Jessica carefully stepped out of her high heels. Now she really had to look up at him as she started to unbutton her blouse, and Jake's hands were on her denim covered hips immediately as he felt his cock twitch in delight. He was shocked and about to suggest taking things to his bedroom when he lost the ability to speak. She shrugged out of her blouse and draped it on the arm of the couch leaving her in a sheer, white camisole and her green bra. 

"Sure," Jessica replied casually like she wasn't nearly stripped bare from the waist up for him. "I'd love a beer. Want to try that one called Greek Week?"

"Yep," he grunted in response as she pushed against his abs until he was sitting on the couch. 

"We can share it," she whispered as she walked into his kitchen like she belonged there. Even from behind, Jake was entranced. The white fabric looked soft and stretchy, and he wanted to know for sure. He also wanted to see her without that silly little shirt on at all. "Fuck."

He watched her open the bottle and take a sip before heading back his way. When he patted the spot on the couch next to him, she settled in with her legs folded up and her knee resting on his thigh. He was plainly hard in his briefs and gray sweatpants as she leaned on him. He had a great view of her tits down her nearly nonexistent top as they were pressed together now. 

"You want some?" she asked, looking up at him and adjusting her glasses. He wanted everything. It was actually fucking crazy how he reacted to this woman.

He leaned in and kissed her. "I want some of you, but I guess I'll try the beer as well." Then he took a sip, and it was good, which kind of pissed him off. He didn't know anything about this Dev guy, other than the fact that he was in Bradshaw's fraternity back in college in Virginia, but now he was imagining him flirting with his girlfriend. 

When he handed the bottle back to her, she took another sip before setting it on the coffee table. Then she settled back against him, her hand grazing his cock through his sweatpants. She gasped. "Are you comfortable?" she whispered as he ran his fingers up her bare arm. 

"Not really," he murmured, watching her head tip to the side in pleasure. He ran his lips along her soft shoulder. "You're teasing me right now."

"I'm not doing anything," she moaned. "Jake."

But he was too busy sucking gently on her pulse point below her ear while he worked his fingers underneath that pretty, green bra strap. She was half sitting on his lap now, reaching back with her hand to brush his cock again, this time intentionally. 

Her breath was a soft whimper as she asked, "Don't you want to watch the Longhorns?"

Jake pulled his lips away from her and paused with his right hand on her hip and his left fingers dipping down inside the front of her bra. He watched her trace the head of his cock through too many layers of fabric with the tips of her pink painted nails. 

"If you want to play games here, Jessica, I'm afraid you might lose, Baby."

That one sentence was enough to have her spinning around to face him,  straddling him and sitting back on his thighs. "You didn't answer my question," she whispered, looking at him like she meant business in her decadent little outfit. She ran her hands down the front of her body to the button of her jeans and asked, "Do you want to watch the Longhorns?"

His fingers flexed on her hips, and he leaned back against the couch, eyes fixed on her as she unzipped her jeans and let him see some of that green lace thong. She wiggled herself against him and reached for his left hand, guiding it inside her jeans. And if he thought her shoulder was soft, then the skin above her panties was heavenly. He was aching as he stroked her, watching her chew on her lip as her glasses slid down her nose a bit. 

Then she reached for the bottom of that white camisole and pulled his clean off over her head, tossing it toward her previously discarded blouse. Jake groaned at the sight of her pink nipples pressing against green lace. And there was a tiny green, satin bow right there between her tits on her bra. He couldn't decide if he wanted to chew it off or rub his nose on it, so instead he leaned forward and kissed it before pressing his lips to the swell of her right breast. 

She smelled like expensive perfume and she tasted like a dream. Her fingers were soft in his hair as he continued to toy with her panties, but he brought his other hand up along her ribcage to join his lips on her tits.

"Jake," she said firmly in what he could only imagine was her stern teaching voice. "Do you want to watch the Longhorns?"

He pulled his mouth away from her tits and reached up along her back to her bra clasp. He suddenly pulled her closer, making her gasp as she sat with her jeans pressed to his hardness and her hands on his shoulders. Then he looked her in the eye. "Jessica, the only thing I want to watch right now is your pretty pussy taking my cock."

Jake smirked as her mouth fell open, and she stared at him. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths as he licked her lips and undid one of the hooks of her bra. "And maybe the way your gorgeous tits bounce for me," he added with a smirk.

A moaning, whimpering mess. That's what was sitting on his lap right now. He watched her reach back and guide his hands so he was undoing the second hook closure on her bra. Then she pulled her hair to the side and let him guide the green lace away from her body. The way the straps slid down her arms was making him throb, and he kissed the soft skin in their wake. Then her breasts were free of the fabric, and she was looking at him expectantly as she chewed on her lip and stifled a moan.

"Baby," he gasped, throat suddenly dry as he let her bra fall to her lap and took her in his hands. She rolled her hips forward as he moulded his hands to the perfection of her tits and buried his face between them. Two flawless handfuls. And they were real. He could hardly remember the last time he'd been treated to something this exciting. 

He had his mouth everywhere on her, sucking one nipple and then the other between his lips. Licking long stripes from beneath each breast up to her collarbone and back down again. He squeezed and caressed and nuzzled until she started to shake, his name starting to sound desperate on her lips. "Jake," she moaned like a wounded animal, shoving his hands inside her open jeans and grinding. 

But he reminded himself that a horny quickie was not right for the first time. Second, third and fourth? Yeah, absolutely. But not right now. "Will you let me take you to bed?"

"Yes!" she practically shouted, fingers digging into his shoulders. He stood up, Jessica clinging to the front of him, and carried her to his bedroom with his hands on her ass. Her lips were on his neck, and he could hear the needy sounds she made as her nose pressed to his ear. 

There was soft afternoon sunlight filtering in through Jake's bedroom windows, and everything looked dreamy as he set Jessica down on the floor at the foot of his bed. A bashful smile ghosted across her lips as she reached for the bottom of his Longhorns shirt and guided it up his torso and over his head. "Oh," she gasped, and Jake nearly purred as she ran her fingers through his chest hair. "Ohh." Then her hands trailed down to his sweatpants, and it was over. 

"Jessica," he growled when she reached inside and yanked them down his hips. He was so hard in his black briefs, he had to beg her to be gentle as she pulled them down as well. Then she was stroking him with her small hands, giving him a few experimental pumps. 

He had to squeeze his eyes shut and take a deep breath when she whispered, "That's enough teasing, don't you think?"

"Get on the bed."

With a soft squeak, she did as she was told, scrambling onto her back so her tits shook invitingly. But he needed to focus here. He needed to be good. Great. Spectacular. This was his girl, not just some girl. His cock was bouncing as he watched her pull her jeans down over her soft hips and thighs, leaving her in just that sinful green thong.

He crawled on top of her, propping himself up on his elbows, and he let his cock rest on her thigh as he kissed her lips. "You're so fucking beautiful, Jessica."

Her fingers were back in his chest hair before she looped them around his neck. "So are you."

He hummed against her lips. "I bought condoms this morning. Give me a minute to get them?"

But she shook her head. "I don't want to use a condom with you."

The noise he made was actually perverted, and he thought his eyes were going to roll into the back of his head when she pressed her pussy up against him. "You want me to skip the condom?" he ground out, his hand cupping her breast. He stroked her nipple as she whined the word yes over and over again. 

"Please," she gasped. "I'm clean. I got tested last year. I haven't had sex in a year."

"Oh my god." She hadn't had sex in a year. How was that even fucking possible? Pretty face, perfect body, smart as hell, and she wasn't even getting fucked? "Jessica, are you on birth control?"

"Yes. Are you clean?" she asked, and Jake just kind of froze there. He had never skipped a condom before. Even at his drunkest. Even in the bathroom at the bar. Even in the bed of his truck on the Fourth of July. He had used a condom every single time he'd ever had sex since he was sixteen years old and lost his virginity. And right now he was afraid he was going to cum after two seconds inside her without one on. And if this perfect woman went a year without sex, she deserved to have him last an hour. 

"I'm clean," he confirmed, and she pulled him down for a kiss.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she whispered before swiping her tongue into his mouth. 

---------------------------

Jessica was so turned on, it felt like her skin was on fire. She was making this pitiful noise at the back of her throat, and she couldn't seem to stop no matter what she did. She was already thrusting up, rubbing herself on Jake like a needy cat, back arching off his bed. If he didn't fuck her soon, she was afraid she might start crying. 

But right now he was just kissing her forehead and cheeks and looking at her while his golden chest hair teased her breasts. His cock was heavy on her thigh, and she needed it inside her. It was an absolute necessity right now. The fact that she could go from completely normal all morning at Beta Brewing to a filthy mess for him right now was startling. 

"Baby," he whispered, shaking his head. "Jessica."

Then he let one hand trail down her body and slip inside her underwear, and as soon as he touched her clit she sighed in relief. His fingers were sure and steady as she stroked the back of his neck with both hands, scraping along through his hair with her nails. 

"Jake," she gasped, and he kissed her lips as he fucked her with one long finger. But even when he added a second, she already knew it wouldn't compare to his thick cock. She was aching for it. He was going to make her beg for it, she needed it that badly. It had been a year since she had sex with Brian in his office, and he was nowhere near as big as Jake. This anticipation was almost too much now.

The swirl of his thumb on her clit was delicious though, and Jake trailed his kisses down her neck to her chest. He pulled her nipple gently between his teeth before sucking. Her back arched off the bed again as she rode his fingers. "Oh god," she moaned. "Jake." 

Okay, okay. He seemed to know just what to do with his mouth and hands to make her wild. Just the right amount of pressure. Just the right speed on her clit, too. All she needed was for him to fuck her. 

"Please?" she asked softly. Then she reached for her glasses. Maybe that was the problem. They always seemed to be in the way for activities like this, so she took them off. 

That seemed to draw him out of his daze as he released her breast and gasped, "What are you doing, Baby?" His face was blurry to her now, but he still looked handsome.

She ran her foot along his bare leg up to his hip and brushed his cock. "I want you," she whispered, hips jerking as he continued to work her clit. "Thought maybe you'd want me to lose the glasses?"

"Back on," he instructed sternly, so she slid them back on her face. Then he kissed her lips again as he drew his soaking fingers out of her pussy and used them on her clit in place of his thumb.

When she ran her fingers along his face, he moaned into her mouth. "Jake, please," she whispered, breaking the kiss and shaking her head from side to side. "I need it."

He groaned and laughed softly, and she was searching his face. "I want to make you feel so good, but you do a number on me Reedy. I'm a little concerned I'm gonna come immediately."

"You are?" she whimpered. 

He nodded and kissed her softly. "Yeah." She watched him pull away from her to gently ease her thong away from her pussy and down her legs. He held the green fabric to his nose and grunted, keeping it in his right hand as he took his time to press kisses along her thigh before kissing her pussy. She bucked against his face, already clenching as he kissed her again and again. Then he brought his hand down to his cock and pumped a few times before lining himself up with her and pressing the tip inside.

Then his face was hovering over hers again as he planted his hands near her head. His kisses were a little desperate, but so was she. Then he started to move, and it was everything she needed. "Jessica," he hissed, his face contorting in pleasure as he filled her all the way, stretching her out. 

And if he was the one who was afraid of coming right away, he had nothing to worry about. She was whimpering, she felt so full. He was thick, and the stretch was so good, it was almost painful when he started to thrust. She laced her fingers through his silky hair, pulling him closer so he could feel her lips quivering.

"You're so big," she moaned, and he absolutely devoured her mouth just the way she wanted him to. Her fingers tightened in his hair as he rocked into her, and when he brought his fingers back to her clit, she was already fluttering. 

She slowed him down just a little bit with the roll of her hips, and then it was perfect. He actually felt perfect to her. Whispering her name against her neck and moving his fingers just right as he kept her full. When he gasped, "Baby," she clenched around him, and it brought on a tidal wave. 

"Oh," she moaned, digging her fingers into his neck as she rolled her hips and started to come. She was whining for him as he sucked on her collarbone, and she just kept getting louder. Her voice was strained to her own ears. There was a crescendo of her gasping his name, and then she was just panting softly and shivering beneath him, her hands limp by her sides on the bed as her pussy continued to clench.

Jake met her gaze, still fucking her as he combed his fingers back through her hair. Then he smiled, as she bit her lip and whimpered his name. "You feel good?" he asked. 

"So good," she whispered. Jake adjusted her glasses and kissed her before tucking his hands underneath her and lifting her up. He flipped them so he was on his back and she was straddling him, and she had to brace her hands on his chest. 

She combed her fingers through his chest hair again, and now she was the one leaning down to kiss him. She felt powerful now that she got her pleasure and felt sated. She was ready to give him what he wanted. "Do you feel good?" she asked, turning his question back around on him. 

Jake responded by propping himself up with one hand and wrapping his other arm around her waist. "Incredible."

As she leaned back a little bit, she kept her hands braced on his shoulders, and sure enough, his gaze drifted down to watch as she slowly slid herself up and down along his cock. God, he was thick, and she could tell she was really gripping him. "You wanted to watch me take your cock, didn't you?"

Sweat was breaking out on his forehead, and he swallowed hard. "Jesus Christ, you're gonna be a fucking handful." Then he thrust his hips up, ramming himself deeper, and she shrieked in delight at the stretch. 

"Do it again!"

So he did. And again after that. And again. His head was tipped back now as the tempo increased, and she pressed him flat on his back again as she rode him. He seemed so much more confident now too as he brought his hands and mouth up to her breasts. His white teeth looked so pretty as he ran them against her peaked nipples, and she fucked him a little faster. But his trimmed pubic hair was rubbing her clit at this angle, and the faster she went, she realized she was getting close. Again.

"Fucking gorgeous," Jake muttered, switching from her left nipple to her right and sucking. And then she bucked her hips, and he looked up at her as she parted her lips and tried to speak. But she just made another embarrassing noise, and her hair fell in front of her glasses as she sank all the way down around him.

But this time she took him with her, his fingers tangled up in her hair as he grunted, "Jessica." Pleasure rippled through her, not as intense as the first time, but it was still incredible, and she eased herself down to rest against his chest as his hips slowed as well.

Jake carefully ran his fingers through her hair until she could see his face again. "There you are," he whispered, coaxing her a little closer for a kiss. His cheeks were flushed, and he looked like he was as affected by everything as much as she was. His movements were languid and unhurried, and the smile on his face was dreamy and genuine. Had she ever been with a man who looked at her like this after he unloaded inside her? He wasn't even making any move to get up yet.

"I really like you," she blurted out, immediately embarrassed. 

"Yeah, well, I just made you come, so..." he said with a little shrug as he ran his thumb along her lips.

"It's not that," she said, letting him trace her lips before she continued. She looked down at his neck as she whispered, "You seem excited by me."

"I am," he confirmed as she started to sit up. "Where you going?"

She wiggled her hips and let his softening cock slide out of her. "Just going to get cleaned up."

Jake's left hand shot out to hold her in place as she straddled him. He was propped up on one elbow, staring at her pussy as she felt his cum dripping along her thighs. "Oh my god," he growled. When she looked down, she watched his cum drop onto his abs, and she could feel herself blushing. 

"You're looking at me like you've never enjoyed a creampie before."

He sat up so she was straddling his thighs and making an even bigger mess. "I haven't. I've always worn protection in the past."

She was shocked as she let her arms slide around his neck. "Always?"

Jake kissed her as her forehead came to rest against his. "Yeah," he whispered sheepishly. Maybe that's why he seemed to get a little nervous for a minute there. But Jessica was so incredibly turned on right now by this information, she was about to ask him if he could go again yet. But he was holding her so sweetly now, just cradling her against his bigger body and kissing her like there was nowhere he'd rather be. "Okay, Smart Girl. Let's clean up, and then I have something I want to show you."

"What is it?" she asked as he stood with her in his arms. 

He ran his nose along her jaw and kissed her. "Oh, you'll love it, Baby. It's a spec sheet on the new Super Hornet outfitting."

She gasped. "Jake. Really?" This had to be the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for her.

He chuckled softly as he took her into his bathroom. "It's an archive copy, so a few things have been redacted, but I have it all memorized so you can work out the math as many times as you want."

"You're a dream," she whispered against his lips. 

--------------------------

Nice to see Dev again! It's been a while! Nervous Jake, I love you. He almost fumbled things for a minute there with his woman. Are we taking bets on round two later in the weekend? Think he can keep it together? Thanks @mak-32 and @beyondthesefourwalls

PART 10

@blahehblah

@sotalife

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@rosiahills22

@daggerspare-standingby

@je-suis-prest-rachel

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@cottagecori

[pad-wubbo]

All AAI2 official English character and case names rated based on whether I think they're better or worse than the fan translation equivalents:

Di-Jun Huang > Di-Jun Wang - It's the same.

Horace Knightley > Bronco Knight - Worse.

Ethan Rooke > Bastian Rook - Worse.

Nicole Swift > Tabby Lloyd - Much better.

Raymond Shields > Eddie Fender - Slightly worse.

Jay Elbird > Rocco Carcerato - Much better.

Simon Keyes > Simeon Saint - Slightly worse.

Sebastian Debeste > Eustace Winner - Sounds worse, fits better.

Justine Courtney > Verity Gavèlle - Much better.

Sirhan Dogen > Bodhidharma Kanis - Much better.

Patricia Roland > Fifi Laguarde - Much better, they've already done "patrol" twice.

Jeff Master > Samson Tangaroa - More unique, less punny. Not sure.

Katherine Hall > Judy Bound - Slightly worse because no food pun.

Isaac Dover > Artie Frost - References his nature as an artist, better.

Pierre Hoquet > Paul Halique - Same as Japanese name, no longer parrot.

Dane Gustavia > Carmelo Gusto - Worse, doesn't sound as awesome.

Delicia Scones > Delicia Scone - It's the same.

Karin Jenson > Florence Niedler - Much better. Florence Nightingale and needles.

Bonnie Young > Hilda Hertz - Better, because alliterative.

Jill Crane > Rosie Ringer - Better, alliterative. Different nursery rhyme.

Blaise Debeste > Excelsius Winner - The absolute Winner among these names. It's so pompous, contains "celsius" and "excel" and just sounds like he went to Oxford.

John Marsh > Shaun Fenn - It's the same. Shaun means John and fen means marsh.

Amy Marsh > Amelie Fenn - It's the same.

Dai-Long Lang > Da-Long Lang - It's the same.

Jack Cameron > Alf Aldown - Better, only because it's a Deid Mann tier awful name rather than a boring realistic name.

Turnabout Target > Turnabout Trigger - Better, sounds more like a presidential assassination attempt.

The Imprisoned Turnabout > The Captive Turnabout - Better, less long-winded.

The Inherited Turnabout > Turnabout Legacy - Better for same reason as above.

The Forgotten Turnabout > A Turnabout Forsaken - Sounds more pretentious, but probably better because less confusion with The Lost Turnabout, where Phoenix forgets.

The Grand Turnabout > Turnabout for the Ages - Worse, I think. It sounds cooler, but doesn't have any chess connotations. They should have called it "The Grandmaster's Turnabout" or "Turnabout Checkmate", I think.

Also, have updated case cards to help you get used to the new names.

EDIT;

Some extra things:

* iFly Airlines in AAI1 has been reverted to its Japanese name of "GoYou". This was probably done because iFly is the name of a real Russian airline with global sanctions against it since 2022.

* As a result, Hugo Ifly is now Ugo Hughes and the tanuki called Mr. Ifly is now Captain Ugo.

* Moozilla is now Taurusaurus, which I think is a better name.

* The Grand Tower is now the Bigg Building, suggesting that Big is not merely its size, but a Mr. Bigg is its proprietor.

* The Zodiac Hall galleries are now referred to as seasonal "Wings" rather than "Palaces". Makes more sense.

* Edgeworth Law Offices is now referred to as Edgeworth and Co. Law Offices, the Co. being Eddie Fender (aka Ray Shields). Again, makes more sense.

* Rocky the bear is now Teddy, since his owner is now already Rocco as a Rocky reference.

* Anubis the hunting dog is now Helmut, a lame pun on "hell mutt".

* Astique the elephant is now Azea, like an "Asian" elephant.

* Ally the alligator is still the same. Regina Berry is not very good at naming animals.

[folkdances]

my opinions on the sexualities of (nearly) every single main aa character and some side characters also

mia fey: bi

phoenix wright: bi

larry butz: straight. he tried to go gay it just didn't work 😢

winston and gaspen payne: straight

maya fey: in my heart she's a lesbian. textually? idk. i will say dubiously lesbian because she said regina berry was cute but most likely i think she is aro

dick gumshoe: straight but he has fooled around with men before, he just doesn't take it seriously. like he doesn't mind banging boots with men but when he pictures a future he has a wife

miles edgeworth: do i even have to say it. gay

will powers: straight and transfem.

dee vasquez: gumshoe situation where she's straight but i know she has gone down on a girl at least once in her life

lotta hart: straight

gregory edgeworth: he's like a spore to me. asexual reproduction. he cut his fingernails one day and the next a baby had spawned into being. but like straight i guess

manfred von karma: straight. his earring doesn't fool ME!

ema skye: lesbian and ace she will have sex every now and again but mostly out of curiosity whenever she forgets what it feels like

lana skye: lesbian.

angel starr: bi

jake marshall: straight

damon gant: gay

maggey byrde: straight but in a larry way. she tried going gay and it didn't work. her and gumshoe are like schrodinger's bi couple

morgan fey: straight but perhaps a lesbian in another life

mimi miney: lesbian but in a tiktok astrology sapphic way

franziska von karma: she thinks she's straight for a while but she is a butch lesbian (butch in the gender identity sense as well)

matt engarde: gay

adrian andrews: straight. sorry.

dahlia hawthorne: EXTREMELY loaded opinion here. i will say straight but in a very complicated 'there's more important and weird stuff going on' kind of way so no way to really know

ron and desiree delite: straight

diego armando: straight but i do think he thinks about it in prison

viola cadaverini: lesbian idgaf

iris hawthorne: straight but she fools around a little after prison at phoenix's insistence (they are friends don't test me)

kristoph gavin: gay

olga orly: lesbian. what else was i supposed to make of the nickname 'quick-fingers'.

apollo justice: gay and transmasc (the voice training? hello.)

trucy wright: another loaded bomb. i will say aroace but with a lot of weird pseudo comphet stuff happening where she knows she doesn't like boys but she's been acting for long enough that she's semi-convinced herself. she'll figure it out one day

wocky kitaki: straight and he gets really offended if you suggest he's gay but he has thought about it at night

klavier gavin: bi and cis but he goes by she/him pronouns

juniper woods: beat me and take my blood but straight

athena cykes: lesbian and ace. she did have a crush on juniper

simon blackquill: straight until he gets out of prison and edgeworth is his gay awakening. he doesn't really care that much though. probably aro as well

aura blackquill: lesbian. like textually

pearl fey: straight

nahyuta sahdmadhi: straight and cis

dhurke sahdmadhi: bi.

rhoda teneiro: straight

kay faraday: lesbian and nonbinary also

shi-long lang: he doesn't care that much probably bi though

tyrell badd: straight but one day he gets asked if he's gay and he sticks his lollipop in his mouth for a long time before saying "... who hasn't had ... gay thoughts?" and it's never brought up again.

raymond shields: straight

justine courtney: straight

sebastian debeste: straight and transfem but she only figures that out a few years after aai2

abstaining from commenting on bronco knight and simeon saint. for now

[saccharinetrash]

What the fuck do they put in bronco berry sauce that shit is indescribable. I want it. In jars. Large jars of bronco berry sauce from Arby’s.

[transfemininomenon]

for dinner i was scraping the bottom of the freezer for anything and so my meal became two fish fillets between the last two remaining pieces of bread we had and i didn't want just That and we were out of tartar sauce so i searched through the fridge and found a single tucked away package of Arby's berry bronco sauce and you know what it Worked but i did also feel like the world's saddest most broke bitch grizzly bear on god's green earth eating that meal

[luckyluan]

CHAPTER 6.1: THE FITTING

“Kids okay?” Maxim asked. 

“Yeah,” Antwan remarked. “They caught a fuckin’ leprechaun.” 

Maxim’s shoulders bounced up and down with his shaking laughter. He dabbed at his eyes as a few tears dropped onto the steering wheel. 

“Gotta love Berry.” he snickered. “She say anything else? Any intel?” 

“Nah, Let’s fine Berry.” 

The Sharpes split up. Antwan, once again, hopped down out of the Bronco and melted into the bustling crowd. Maxim came to life. He climbed down out of the rickety SUV and walked up the street toward a posh boutique. The graphic storefront was covered in luscious ivy and twinkling lights. Its display windows held silver male mannequins and wore, what Maxim guessed, were the latest fashions. He ducked inside. 

A retail associate with a friendly smile greeted him. Their asymmetrical blonde sliced across their high, tan cheekbones and their pursed lips were slathered in pink gloss. Their facial hair—eyebrows and goatee—were almost invisible in their blonde hues. 

“Hi,” Maxim started. “I’m in a hurry. I have an account under Conrad Darbonne. I also have a standing appointment.” 

The associate brightened and their bob swung gayly when they gesticulated. 

“Oh, it’s always nice to meet an associate of Mr. Darbonne. I’m Amour. Right this way.” 

Maxim followed Amour and they swished to the back of the store. Amour pulled back a black velvet curtain and motioned him inside. Maxim thanked Amour and dipped behind the curtain. Amour pulled the veiled entryway closed behind him. 

“Falcon.” called a friendly voice. 

“Osprey.” Maxim exclaimed. “Good to see you, bro.” 

A warm sensation blossomed in his chest when he heard his codename. It felt good. He enveloped Osprey in a tight embrace, and they clapped each other’s shoulder thrice. 

“What’s going on, brother?” Osprey asked. 

“A lot, man. That job I did is back to haunt me and...” 

He hesitated. The Sharpes kept their family private per Berry’s instructions and she was quite clear about keeping the loop small, but Maxim and Osprey were familiar. He took a deep breath and told his truth. 

“...my family is in danger.” 

“Huh. I never thought I’d see the day the Great Falcon settled down. Who is the lucky lady?” 

“His name is unimportant.” Maxim corrected. 

“Ah, the rumors are true.” Osprey teased. 

“Yeah, I killed an Eternal.” 

Maxim pressed his back against the wall and Osprey’s smile widened. He sat with his legs crossed and his hands folded neatly in his lap. His black suit was a tailor’s magnum opus and his voluminous handkerchief spooled from his suitcoat pocket in the shape of an overgrown flower. Osprey looked at him over his black, thick framed glasses with a mischievous gleam in his brown eyes. 

“What do you need?” Osprey asked. 

“A disguise.” Maxim said. 

“Anything else?” Osprey asked. 

“And a shower.” Maxim added. 

[reiverreturns]

9 + sereshace

OOOOOH this one got my brain going so good!! the outcome ended up being a slight divergence of the original prompt but i hope you like it anyway! Send me a prompt and some characters/ships for a ficlet or drabble

Sereshace + Teal

Coming home these days is like coming into colour. 

To Natasha, this is Bradley; a glittering gold, bright and radiant and burnt around the edges. Rich charm, warm music, amber beer. Hair lightened and skin tanned in the sun. Sand almost too hot to touch. The hazy crash of waves. Patches of shadow that deepen the dunes and the quiet dream of brighter days. 

Jake, by comparison, is red. Big. Bold. Danger, once, before thrill, and long before safety. It had taken time for Natasha to understand the nuance in him. The early night sky of his character. Deep, soft. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shifts into tones of blue and orange. Dark chocolate chased with red wine. Neon reflections guiding the way home after a heavy storm. The sharp bite in the first berries of summer, and the promise of sweetness in the season to come. 

They’re bickering so loud in the next room they haven’t heard her come in. Natasha drops her keys at the door and shakes her head. 

She’s long thought of where she fits in this picture, though there has never truly been any ‘fitting’ to do. She’s always been caught somewhere between the open sky and the brush of treetops; now she’s blending teal between the powder blue of Bradley’s Bronco and the green of Jake’s eyes. A cool, silken morning mist that edges off the harsh lines of dawn. Deep, sparkling water without hidden threat of fear of its depths. Sea glass kissed smooth. Moonlight illuminating a gravel path that stretches on for miles. 

Jake and Bradley are sitting on opposite ends of the couch when Natasha walks in, twin scowls replaced with a beat of surprise before they dissolve into something more placid. She spares a cursory glance at the television in front of them. Some home improvement show plays on in the background. 

“Dare I ask?” Natasha says, raising an eyebrow. 

Bradley waves a hand towards the television, his scowl returning. “Jake’s trying to tell me the colour they’ve painted this room is grey when it’s clearly beige -” 

“And they let this colour-blind idiot fly jets,” Jake interjects, arms folded. “The paint was called Lady Jane -” 

“Which doesn’t mean anything -” 

“Which means it’s fucking grey, Bradley. Jesus Christ, did you open a book in high school?” 

“Listen dipshit, you’re the one who can’t split the goddamn colours out of the laundry so don’t tell me…” 

As they argue Natasha crosses the room. She winds her head across Jake’s lap and her legs across Bradley’s. Their back and forth is noisy and colourful and loud but on her their hands are immediate and soft. Carding through her hair, running down the planes of her shins, over the tops of her thighs. Painting in the relaxation. Feeling like home. 

Natasha couldn’t give a shit about grey walls, about paint names, about the too–white teeth of the tv presenter or their questionable taste in trendy pantsuits. She leaves those drab, unsaturated things outside. Between her boys, against their touch, everything is in balance. 

(And with them, she can paint this life in whatever colour she wants.) 

[smallumbrella369]

Five (random) things found in my WIP

Tagged by @jamilas-pen Thanks lovely! 

Coyotes

Hail storm

Sound bath

A character named Wolf (Wolfgang)

An immaculately restored 1977 Ford Bronco

tagging anyone that wants to play!  @walnuts-and-berries @five678patty @demora00 @stereopticons @statueinthestone @missgeevious @mostlyinthemorning @apothecarose @apothecarypants @sspaz1000

[something-tofightfor]

How was your Arby's sandwich? Was it as good as it looked? I've never had Arby's I just know the commercials

well if you've never had it, you're missing out!

It's one of my favorite fast food restaurants, and their curly fries are amazing (when they're fresh, that is)

Boyfriend does not like beef and cheddar and prefers just the roast beef, but I'm a sucker for the liquid cheese.

if you ever get the chance, you should try Arby's; their mozzarella sticks are GREAT, and so are their jalapeno bites with bronco berry.

I'm also a Big Fan of their French Dip sandwich.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 11.3

Beer Birthdays

Charles J. Vopicka (1857)

Rick Lyke (1960)

Matt Vandenberghe (1972)

Five Favorite Birthdays

John Barry; composer (1933)

John Montague; sandwich inventor (1718)

Joe Queenan; writer, columnist, humorist (1950)

Jake Shimabukuro; ukulele player (1976)

Osamu Tezuka; Japanese animator, manga artist (1928)

Famous Birthdays

Adam Ant; rock singer (1954)

Stephen Fuller Austin; Texas colonial leader (1793)

Karl Baedeker; German publisher (1801)

Roseanne Barr; comedian, actor (1952)

Ken Berry; actor (1933)

Jeremy Brett; English actor (1933)

Charles Bronson; actor (1921)

William Cullen Bryant; poet (1794)

Kate Capshaw; actor (1953)

William H. Dana, astronaut (1939)

Adolf Dassler; German founder of Adidas (1900)

Edward Adelbert Doisy; biochemist (1893)

Michael Dukakis; politician (1933)

Walker Evans; photographer (1903)

Bob Feller; Cleveland Indians P (1918)

Aria Giovanni; model, porn actor (1977)

Hal Hartley; film director (1959)

Larry Holmes; boxer (1949)

Hal Jackson; radio DJ (1914)

Colin Kaepernick; football player, activist (1987)

Kathy Kinney, comedian (1954)

Goseki Kojima; Japanese manga artist (1928)

Lucan; Roman poet (39 CE)

Lulu; pop singer (1948)

Dolph Lundgren; actor (1957)

Andre Malraux; French writer (1901)

Harrison McCain; Canadian French Fry king (1927)

Terrence McNally; playwright (1938)

Dennis Miller; comedian (1953)

Lee Montgomery; actor (1961)

Ed Murawinski; cartoonist (1951)

Bronco Nagurski; Chicago Bears FB (1908)

Stephen Oliver; English biochemist (1949)

James Reston; journalist (1909)

Gary Ross; film and tv director (1956)

Daniel Rutherford; Scottish chemist (1749)

Takao Saito; Japanese manga artist (1936)

Samuel Scheidt; composer (1587)

Darren Sharper; football player (1975)

Jake Shimabukuro; ukulele player (1976)

Phil Simms; New York Giants QB (1956)

Martin Cruz Smith; writer (1942)

Frits Staal; Dutch philosopher (1930)

Vilhjalmur Stefansson; Canadian explorer (1879)

Julia Taylor; Hungarian porn actor (1978)

Mick Thomson; guitarist (1973)

Gemma Ward; model, actor (1987)

Edward Douglass White; U.S. Supreme Court chief justice (1844)

Anna Wintour; English-American journalist (1949)

[stalkerkyoko]

Ashely liking aizen how about clown masterminds the entire 2nd game.

We got a manupliator on our hands all accoriding to keiku

[pad-wubbo]

Every Ace Attorney victim tiered based on how much of an asshole they were. FULL SERIES SPOILERS ahead.

To be here, they have to be:

(a) Murdered (eg Cindy Stone, Rosie Ringer)

(b) An attempted-murder victim (eg Carmelo Gusto, William Shamspeare)

(c) A fake murder victim (eg Kazuma Asogi, Kira)

(d) Killed or almost killed in a tragic backstory (eg Bat, Selena Sprocket)

(e) Assaulted as the designated victim of a case (eg Olive Green, Olivia Aldente)

or (f) Killed in a bad ending (Vera Misham, Orla Shipley, Simon Blackquill).

Basically, theft victims (eg Maya Fey in Stolen, Guy Eldoon) and characters who are mentioned to be dead but not as the result of a crime or accident (eg Manfred von Karma, Ami Fey) don't count.

This is a personal ranking, of course, but the categories are as follows:

INNOCENT - They did nothing wrong, ever.

FLAWED HUMAN BEING - They were a criminal but their death is still tragic, and they were not necessarily a bad person.

ASSHOLE - They are a dangerous, unlikeable and/or evil person, but their death doesn't necessarily do good.

SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS! - Usually a worse person than their killer. Their death is actively a cause for rejoicing.

Notes:

* The real Di-Jun Wang would be "Innocent". He shares a portrait with the bastard who is his body double.

* Joe Darke, Turner Grey, Tobias Gregson and Klint van Zieks are serial killers, but they were badly framed or deceived in some way, and their deaths don't feel to me like a happy occasion, even in retrospect.

* Regina Berry is an "Asshole" because, no, being sixteen years old is not an excuse for mauling someone with a lion for fun and getting away with it. I sympathise with her immensely, having been treated as an infant in my late teens, but she is certainly above her country's legal age for criminal responsibility and it's very easy to understand why Acro snapped and attempted to kill her.

* Dhurke Sahdmadhi is a criminal only in that he's a fugitive from custody. Simon Blackquill, only the fact that he obstructed the course of justice to incriminate himself.

* Bat being 21 when his girlfriend was 16 doesn't actually make him guilty of any sex offense. Get off Twitter.

* Bobby Fulbright here means the real Fulbright, not the "phantom".

* Finally, Mimi Miney's portrait here is used to represent Ini, since Ini's appearance is usually used to represent Mimi.

* I may have, as a reblog pointed out, treated Bronco "lock your best friend in a freezing car, protect the president who keeps sending assassins at said friend, and murder your coworker to usurp his position" Knight a bit too harshly. While I think he's a worse man than Saint, whose crimes are only in the interest of overthrowing a corrupt cabal in revenge, Knight isn't a worse man than Laguarde, and his death is seen by the game as an avoidable mistake, and he didn't even get a trial. In retrospect, I move him up to "Asshole".

[pcttrailsidereader]

Theodore Solomons -- A Father of the JMT (Part 1)

Excerpted from Michael Hoberman, "Jews in the Wilderness"

This post focuses on the role that Theodore Solomons’ played in the shaping of the nation’s best-loved and most spectacular long-distance footpath, the John Muir Trail. For those readers intrigued by the early history of the JMT, I would refer you to a chapter in The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader: California (2011) written by Solomons in 1940, "The Beginnings of the John Muir Trail."

On July 12, 1895, Theodore Seixas Solomons and his friend Ernest Bonner left Jackass Meadows, a camp 100 miles northeast of Fresno, for an exploratory excursion through California’s Sierra Nevada range. The two men wore felt hats, layered wool shirts, and “shoes with slightly projecting hob-nailed soles.” Their canvas backpacks brimmed with the latest innovations in outdoor equipment: eider down quilts that each weighed four pounds, kola nuts (for headache relief), extra buckskin straps, and 60 pounds’ worth of “ham, canned salmon and corned-beef, flour, white corn-meal, oatmeal, and hominy.” As Solomons recounted a few months later, they were on their way to an area that had been “represented on the map by blank spaces drawn in such a way as to indicate that the topography thus indicated was mythical.”

Bonner & Solomons, King’s River Canyon, Sierra Nevada photographs / Taken by Theodore Seixas Solomons

Theodore Solomons knew what he was doing, even when he didn’t know exactly where he was going. Late in his life, Solomons recounted that the dream of walking the length of the High Sierra had first come to him in the summer of 1884 (a year after his bar mitzvah) while he was out “herding [his] uncle’s cattle in an immense unfenced alfalfa field.” In an essay that he published in the February 1940 edition of The Sierra Club Bulletin, he tried to recapture the moment in which it had come to him. “The Holsteins were quietly feeding,” he wrote, “and I sat on my unsaddled bronco facing east and gazing in utter fascination at the most beautiful and the most mysterious sight I had ever seen.” Mesmerized by the “flashing teeth of the Sierra crest,” Solomons projected himself eastward and upward: “I could see myself in the immensity of that uplifted world, an atom moving along just below the white, crawling from one to the other end of that horizon of high enchantment.”

When Solomons reached the age of 18, with no educational or career goal otherwise occupying or distracting him from his love of the mountains, he made his first trip to Lake Tahoe. His family was hardly thrilled at this fairly unconventional choice of pastime. By the early 1890s, however, his father had died, his siblings had already launched their careers, and his mother, Hannah Marks Solomons had made her peace with his quirky interests. While the family had once known and would eventually regain financial prominence, the period of Solomons’ early manhood coincided with a decade long downturn in their fortunes. Theodore funded most of his youthful mountain ventures through extended stints as a court stenographer.

By the time that he and Ernest Bonner were preparing for their July 1895 expedition, Solomons had spent the better part of three summers hiking through (and, on a few occasions, barely surviving) the rigors of the Sierras. He had thoroughly explored Yosemite’s Tuolumne Valley and had also ventured southward from there to the lesser-known area surrounding Mount Ritter, Banner Peak, and the Minarets (all three mountains now comprise a large portion of the Ansel Adams Wilderness). He had bagged peaks, glissaded down glaciers, subsisted for days at a stretch on berries and mule meat, and been pre-hypothermic more times than he could count. On most of these trips, he, his friends, and his pack animals lugged a large camera, tripod, and several pounds’ worth of glass plates along with them. The archives at Berkeley’s Bancroft Library contain 250 of Solomons’ photographs of the Sierras, all of which he took between 1892 and 1896.

Solomons was also well acquainted with the Sierras’ most famous personalities. John Muir was a generous, if occasionally stern, mentor. Muir’s contributions to Solomons’ knowledge of the Sierras, however, were of a decidedly inspirational, as opposed to practical nature. In a 1935 article, Solomons described Muir as “exceedingly generous” and especially solicitous of “young mountaineers” like himself. At the same time, he judged Muir, “by the standards of the geographic world,” to be “a very poor sort of explorer.” Well past his youth, Muir had been fearless in his forays into the wilderness and indefatigable in his efforts to preserve it. While “he could aptly describe every place he had seen,” Solomons wrote, “you could seldom tell where it was, for he seldom oriented himself in his excursions.”

Solomons’ travel companions belonged to an eclectic group that included fellow Sierra pioneers “Little” Joe LeConte and Will Colby, as well as Leigh Bierce. On one memorable occasion he accompanied a group of four Cal-Berkeley “bloomer girls” on their ascent of Yosemite’s 13,000-foot Mount Lyell. The trip concluded with an exhilarating mile-a-minute glissade down a glacier that it had taken them several hours to climb.

The friend he chose to accompany him on his 1895 trip, Ernest Bonner, was a Berkeley law school associate of Solomons’ brother Leon. On his trips into the Sierra backcountry Solomons also regularly visited and consulted with the Portuguese and Basque sheepherders who brought their flocks to graze in its alpine meadows. His privileged childhood and adolescence in the San Francisco area could have ushered him into an easeful professional or business career. Instead of adhering to that path, Solomons cast his lot with people who shared his enthusiasm for and familiarity with the mountains.

Sources of Middle Fork, San Joaquin River, Sierra Nevada photographs / Taken by Theodore Seixas Solomons, 

Solomons and Bonner came as close to locating the pass as anyone would in the succeeding dozen years, and had it not been for an early season snowstorm that drove them off the peak of 13,558-foot Mount Goddard on July 17, they would almost certainly have found it. In his 1896 report on the trip with Bonner, Solomons described the desperate situation whose onset prevented their triumph: “I had never passed a night at a higher altitude than this,” he wrote, “nor do I care to.” Huddled in the relative shelter of a tamarack grove, the two men managed to get a lifesaving fire going thanks to some “pitch saturated logs.” On the following day, trying their best to maintain the crest of the divide “in a blinding storm” for several hours, they held a course toward the still-hypothetical pass for as long as they could before seeking shelter in “a deep gorge that had captured [their] admiration and curiosity” the previous day from the steep slope of Mount Goddard. Before they made their descent, Solomons had formed as precise an idea of where the pass had to be as anyone could have. “From several heights,” he wrote in 1940, he “could see that at the head of the basin was an easily accessible gap or pass to the highest Middle Fork streams of Kings River.” On the map that he drew immediately following his 1895 trip with Bonner he went so far as to demarcate its approximate location.

Solomons’ and Bonner’s inability to cross over what is known as the Goddard Divide in the summer of 1895 was a temporary, if frustrating, setback to the development of the John Muir Trail. It was also one of several factors that seem to have cost Solomons the recognition he surely deserved—and had already more or less earned—for having been the path’s founder. “Had they not panicked,” speculated one late-20th-century Sierra mountaineer, Solomons and Bonner would most certainly have gotten to the pass. Thanks to Solomons’ thorough documentation of his 1895 trip, his friend and sometime hiking companion Joe LeConte managed to sight and then hike over the pass in 1908, thereby earning a place in the history books as the first person to travel the entire distance between Yosemite and the area around Mount Whitney. In the 1930s, trail builders erected Muir Hut, the only edifice that lies along the 212-mile length of the John Muir Trail, at the 11,980-foot summit of the pass.

When Theodore Solomons died at the age of 79 in 1948, only a handful of his contemporaries acknowledged the role he had played in the trail’s creation. His 1940 Sierra Club Bulletin article had attempted to set the record straight by documenting everything from his 1884 gaze up at the Sierra crest from his uncle’s cattle farm, to his multiple trips through the 1890s (including the 1895 trip with Bonner) to his years of collaboration and correspondence with several other Sierra explorers. Solomons frankly admitted to the many setbacks he had faced along the way. During his lifetime, nothing that he had done or said earned him more than passing references in the Sierra Club’s official history of the trail’s development.

In 1965 veteran Air Force pilot, photographer, and Sierra Club member Hal Roth published a pictorial chronicle of the John Muir Trail called Pathway Through the Sky. The book included a chapter that summarized Solomons’ 1890s efforts to map out the trail. Two years later, the United States Geological Survey’s official designation of the 13,000-foot peak that hovers just to the south of Muir Pass as Mount Solomons helped to shore up the trail-maker’s legacy, at least among inquisitive map-readers. In 1974, Solomons was memorialized with a trail of his own, but even that act fell short of achieving its purpose of raising public consciousness about his contributions to wider knowledge of the High Sierra. The Theodore Solomons Trail is a rigorous 280-mile, lower-elevation alternative to the much more popular and well-known John Muir Trail. It receives comparatively little traffic, however, and, as a consequence, is often difficult to follow and inconsistently maintained. As one 2019 hiker put it, “If my experience is anything to go off of, almost no one knows about the bloody thing.” The same blogger claimed that when he called the Forest Service to request a hiking permit, he was told that they issue about three a year, as compared to the 1,500 or so that they provide to John Muir Trail hikers. To this day the story of the better-known trail’s pioneer remains mostly unknown, even to the hundreds of backpackers who complete its length each summer.

[bluepoodle7]

#Arbys #ArbysBigCheesyBaconBurger#Arbys4PcFriedMacNCheeseBites#ArbysRegularStrawberryShake #CurlyFries#FastFoodReview

I tried the Arby's Big Cheesy Bacon Burger, 4pc Fried Mac ‘n Cheese Bites, a Regular Strawberry Shake, and some curly fries these were pretty good.

The meal was microwaved but the milkshake was a little melted.

I tried the Arby's Big Cheesy Bacon Burger and it was pretty good.

The bun was soft and firm while having a light cheesy taste.

The burger tasted fresh while firm but soft in texture.

The toppings were firm and crunchy.

The bacon was the paper thin crispy microwavable bacon that had a light smoky taste.

The sauce were creamy and lightly sweet and salty that went well with the burger meat.

I would eat this again.

I tried the 4 Pc Fried Mac N Cheese Bites and these were okay.

These were a little greasy and well seasoned.

This had a light breading coating to them that made it crunchy in texture.

The noodles were soft but were tasteless and had a light cheese taste.

These were lightly salty to me but with the bronco berry sauce this added a lightly spicy sweet taste.

I would eat this again.

The Strawberry Shake was pretty good.

The strawberry milkshake was a little melted when I got it but to me it had a light strawberry Nesquik taste in a low fat milk and it was creamy in texture.

This was lightly sweet to me.

I would drink it again.

I had some Arby's Bronco Berry Sauce and it was pretty good.

This sauce is more liquidly in texture and is a little spicy & sweet.

But not overly of both to me.

I would eat this again.

I had a few Arby's Curly Fries and these were pretty good.

These were lightly greasy but crunchy this is also soft inside.

These fries were crunchy and had a light potato taste.

I would eat this again.

I used the small size as a reference for the fries calories.

I added the calories if you want them.

This was for the Nickelodeon Good Burger Two tie in meal.