#Gold Stick in Waiting

[thepastisalreadywritten]

His Majesty King Charles III has presented new standards and colours to the Royal Navy, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and Grenadier Guards from the British Army, and the Royal Air Force in Buckingham Palace last week.

As the nation prepares to celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty The King, we dive into the British Army’s contribution to the big day’s pomp and ceremony you may not be familiar with.

Gold Stick in Waiting

A prominent role on 6 May will be played by Lieutenant General Sir Edward Smyth-Osbourne KCVO CBE, Colonel, The Life Guards and Gold Stick in Waiting.

This senior Army officer will ride on the wheels of the Gold State Coach during the Procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

Gold Stick in Waiting was created because of a conspiracy during the reign of Henry VIII, when the King was supposed to be in danger.

A trusted courtier was ordered to always be by the King’s side, carrying an ebony staff with a gold head.

On the Restoration in 1660, this task fell to the Colonel of The Life Guards.

A second Army officer, Silver Stick, was also placed close to the sovereign as Gold Stick’s deputy to protect the King or Queen from danger.

The role of Gold Stick, now only demonstrated on ceremonial and state occasions, is held jointly by the Colonels of the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, taking it in turns by monthly rota, both being Regiments of the Household Cavalry of the Household Division.

The Silver Stick is the Commander of the Household Cavalry, who holds the rank of colonel and oversees all Household Cavalry duties for the sovereign.

After the new King has been crowned at Westminster Abbey, the role of Gold Stick in Waiting will be played by The Colonel of The Life Guards, as it is their Sovereign’s Standard on parade.

The Princess Royal will ride on horseback behind the Gold State Coach back to Buckingham Palace as Colonel of the Blues and Royals and senior Colonel of all The Household Division Regiments.

Anointing Screen Bearers

Six members of the Army’s Household Division will carry out the sacred duty of carrying the Anointing Shrine/Screen that will cover and protect the Sovereign and Queen Consort while sacred oils are applied by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey during the Coronation service.

Colours

All British Army units taking part in the Coronation Procession will proudly carry their Colours, Standards or Guidons.

Infantry Colours are among the most sacred symbols of the British Army. These flags embody the honour, spirit and heritage of the regiments that proudly carry them.

Historically, the practice of carrying Colours, Standards or Guidons served to act as a rallying point for troops in the smoke and fog of battle.

British and Commonwealth infantry regiments usually have two colours, collectively called a stand.

The King's/Queen’s Colour is typically a union flag trimmed with gold fabric and with the regiment's insignia in the centre.

It reminds all ranks of their loyalty and duty to their sovereign.

The Regimental Colour is a flag of a single colour - usually the colour of the regiment's uniform facings (collar, lapels and cuffs) - again trimmed and with the insignia in the centre.

Handmade from precious silks, silver and gilt threads, the Colours are used on the regiment's most important occasions and bear the battle honours, or those inherited from its predecessors, and symbols of the battalions.

Standards and Guidons

In the British Army’s cavalry units, the King’s Cavalry Standard and the Regimental Standard (for the heavy cavalry) and the King’s Cavalry Standard and Regimental Guidons (for the light cavalry) are the equivalents to Infantry Colours.

The two units that make up the Household Cavalry have their own unique Standards.

The Life Guards only carry the King’s Standard, whereas the Blues and Royals carry the King’s Standard and may carry the regimental Guidon.

The Standard is ���senior” to a colour or guidon.

In the past, Cavalry would bear Guidons, which are smaller and lighter for carrying into battle on horseback.

In contrast, Infantry, who traditionally fought on foot, have the larger, heavier Colours, which are more easily seen from the ground.

The Sovereign’s Standard of the Life Guards is made of silk damask, with gold thread embroidery and fringe.

It bears the Royal Arms and the battle honours of the Regiment.

Queen’s Truncheon

Proudly marching down The Mall with all other British Army units during the Coronation Procession will be soldiers from The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR).

However, unlike their fellow service men and women carrying Colours, Standards and Guidons, the soldiers from Nepal will carry a ceremonial staff, known as the Queen’s Truncheon.

This serves as the equivalent of and is carried as the Regimental Colour.

The staff originates in the Indian Mutiny during 1857-8 when the Sirmoor Battalion (which later became the 2nd KEO Goorkhas, 2 GR) remained loyal to the British Crown.

The Battalion, together with the Guides and the 60th Rifles, held a key position for over three months of constant attack, suffering 327 casualties out of a total strength of 490.

After the mutiny, the 2nd Goorkhas were designated as a Rifle Regiment as a mark of the bond created with the 60th Rifles.

Queen Victoria directed the Battalion be awarded a special truncheon to replace the Regimental Colours that could no longer be carried by a Rifle Regiment.

The ornate Gurkha Truncheon was given to the Rifles by order of Queen Victoria in 1863.

Also known as ‘Nishani Mai’, meaning symbol of the great mother, the Queen’s Truncheon was carried by 2 GR until The Royal Gurkha Rifles were formed in 1994, when it was laid up.

The Queen’s Truncheon remains in service with The RGR and is still accorded the honours due to a Queen’s Colour of Infantry.

The Queen’s Truncheon was also on parade during the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

This was the first time the Truncheon was presented to the sovereign. It was then presented a further seven times with the last being in 2019.

Military music

Bands from the Royal Corps of Army Music will perform on 6 May, with a 50-piece mounted band of musicians from The Band of the Household Cavalry leading the Coronation procession.

Four State Trumpeters from the Band of the Household Cavalry will perform fanfares in Westminster Abbey for the Coronation Service.

The State Trumpeters are professional musicians from the Royal Corps of Army Music and uniquely have to attend military riding school before being selected for a role in which they will have had to memorise up to 22 different fanfares.

Bands from the Foot Guards will be positioned throughout the procession and at key points along the route to keep the procession to time and to entertain the crowds.

During the coronation procession, the British Army Band Colchester will perform as a massed band with British Army Band Sandhurst.

Garrison Sergeant Major Andrew Stokes will be at the side of the Gold State Coach and will have the key role of stepping off the procession from his position in Parliament Square.

He has designed a method of uniting all 19 processional bands to strike up at the same time and maintain a constant beat, whilst playing the same bar, with bands separated by distance across a procession group over a mile long.

Bands from the Royal Corps of Army Music deliver musical support to the Army and across Defence, as well as supporting State ceremonial occasions such as the King’s Coronation.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the Army’s bands helped to raise morale by performing at major national events, including VE and VJ Day, the Queen’s Birthday, national Acts of Remembrance, and New Year’s Eve TV celebrations. 

The Royal Corps of Army Music also released free to download music for public enjoyment, online tutorials for aspiring musicians and virtual masterclass workshops for schoolchildren.

[screwpinecaprice]

Do your Connverse kiddos fight at all, or are they all pretty close to one another? Personally, I think Rohini probably wouldn't get along with her siblings, but that may just be me projecting based off my own kiddo headcanons.

Haha kinda with Rohini, though she mostly bickers with just Zachary, but it never gotten too serious. Other than that, there's the sibling rivalry here and there. (I mean at least so far, lol)

*inserts doodle I made that I dunno what to do with but kinda relates to the topic. Trying upper angle without reference practice.*

Ebony gets along pretty well with all of the siblings, usually acts as a mediator among them.

Rohini idolizes Ebony. Had that classic phase of younger sibling copying the older sibling. And although Rohini and Zachary have their squabbles, and she could not relate to Sakura's very feminine and vain ways, she's quite protective of them both.

The twins also look up to the Ebony, but they're relatively closer to Rohini, specially with the former started frequently going out on Gem adventure.. traveling stuff.

Basically, that's their fight to peace.. sibling meter... I dunno what's the actually term it is. (⁠ ⁠ꈨຶ⁠ ⁠˙̫̮⁠ ⁠ꈨຶ⁠ ⁠) They all generally get along fairly well and if there's fighting, it's expected to be Rohini and Zachary.

[larcenywrites]

I know it’s technically a hologram, but it lets me imagine my favs in the same room 😔

[melodybottles]

woe. olivia redesign be upon ye

[grandmaster-anne]

15 June 2023 King Charles III and The Princess Royal present Sovereign's Standard to Royal Horse Guards © ITN

[acetechne]

gearing up to start drawing again and i’ve been reflecting on why i draw and why it frustrates me when people say they cant draw or could never draw or whatever and, okay, yes i have spent years doing this for reasons which would involve a whole nother post than what i’m actually thinking about at the moment but i digress

i think people get self conscious of their art because they think if they don’t want to put the time in or get to a certain level that art isn’t worth pursuing at all and today i am breaking down your door and i am sitting down on the floor with you and i am telling you listen: the reason to do art is not to post it and it isn’t to be good at it and it isn’t to draw every leaf on every tree. the reason to do art is because you are a magician and you are putting a little guy there that wasn’t there before. and then later you can open your book of little guys and be like :)

“oh but I couldn’t” shh! SHUT! i am TELLING you RIGHT NOW that if you draw the worst little guy possible and you look at that little guy and you laugh and smile, then that literal 60 seconds it took you to draw that is more worth all of the years that i spent learning to draw because i desperately wanted people to notice and appreciate and be friends with me in school (and yes, occasionally it does happen but mostly in my experience that motivation backfires because half the people just want shit for free but wouldn’t give you the time of day and half the people are too intimidated to even talk to you). maybe it’s because i’m old now but who cares about that shit, you draw because it’s good to create something and look at it and smile because it’s yours and it belongs to you and you did that.

[mandalhoerian]

I set out to develop an oc trying to figure out how to make a green color palette interesting when I don't vibe with how it'd look on armor (im sorry boba fett...) & messing with character creator picrews suddenly lead to a gold and white palette and now she's a yellow character instead of green. The pipeline

[illithilit]

Kophyn as Mourndax's guardian, bc that is the singular person Emp could have pretended to be and have had Daxie's trust at all.

[seud-luachmhor]

C'mon Charlie boy, dissolve parliament for us, babe. Sunak is about to tank the UK's green credentials and stand against everything you believe in - call a general election. 👏🏻

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Princess Anne and her Red Feather

Princess Anne as the Gold-Stick-in-Waiting — the person entrusted with the monarch’s personal safety on the big day.

Princess Anne arrived at the coronation in her formal robes and military attire, 6 May 2023.

[fezwearingjellybananas]

It was a close call after a bad morning but guess what I did yesterday

[vampiricgf]

☆ FAVORITE GIRL

ᝰ you think he's just another frat boy with meaningless flirty words for the person he sits next to in a boring class (he's down horrendous)

frat boy satoru x f!reader, college au, somewhat established relationship you guys are classmates, sfw no smut, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, just lots of him being an idiot with a massive huge earth shattering crush <3

"And how's my favorite girl?"

"Worse, thought you'd skip this class again and we'd have some peace." You roll your eyes as you slide the straps of your backpack over the back of your chair.

Satoru Gojo, nuance Sig Ep and unfortunately glued to your side since the first day of statistics for reasons unknown to you. You'd made an effort to avoid members of greek life on campus, not wanting to get involved in party culture or whatever new dramatics were unfolding with its subgroups. That only seemed to encourage him though, casually throwing his arm around you through the duration of lectures and begging in that whining tone of his for you to come by the house.

You never did, you also pointedly ignored most of his text messages and actively regretted ever having to give him your phone number after the one assignment you'd been paired up for. Outside the occasional drunk text where he'd plead for you to show up, which did make you feel both bad for ignoring him and a little high off the attention. Not that you'd ever admit to clicking your phone lock and grinning to yourself in bed on those nights.

"C'mon, I'm the highlight of your day!" He shoots you that signature megawatt smile and you stick out your tongue at him, scooting your chair in the opposite direction and creating a wide gap as you sit down.

You see him frown and for a half second it looks genuine, making a pang of guilt reverberate through you so you scoot back to where you were and he resumes pestering you with some latest escapade in the Eps house as you both wait for the stream of students to peter off and the lecture to begin.

"Hey so, why you been ignoring my texts?" He pulls a pout and god you wish it wasn't actually cute.

"You send me weird combinations of emojis Gojo, what can I say to that?"

"It's Satoru," he quips almost immediately, barely allowing you to finish.

"Alright, Satoru, it's because you send me weirdo shit. Say hi every once in a while and maybe I'll say it back." You shrug, opening your laptop and preparing yourself to block out his incessant whispering for the next hour while you take down notes.

~

"You actually came!"

The sheer volume in the cramped, would-be living room of the house made you wince in tandem with his shout as Satoru threw an arm around you.

"I'm just humoring you so you stop bugging me!" You shout back, accepting a cup of god knows what from his hands and already formulating a plan of when it would be polite to bow out for the night without a barrage of where'd you go texts.

He doesn't answer you, too busy immediately yelling at some other guy over the volume of the music but you don't miss the way his hand slides down your back to settle at the lower curve, just above your ass. It makes you smile a little, despite your own misgivings about the scene you're in.

But quickly it becomes too much, being jostled by a permanently sweaty and horny crowd in such a cramped space, and you find yourself drifting outside to a patio sparsely populated with only a handful of smokers. The alcohol buzzing inside your brain makes you crave one, a thick, acrid stream of smoke spreading like thick flower petals blossoming inside your lungs.

One girl catches your eye and slowly you meander over to where she's perched, away from the rest on a railing that's seen one too many coats of poor paint jobs.

"Could I bum one off you?"

"You got a dollar?"

Lamely you pat your hips, absentmindedly searching for one until she lets out a soft laugh and extends the pack in her hand out to you. Marlboro lights, the gold top of it shimmers faintly in the dim light as you slide one out and accept the lighter she passes you.

"I tell myself lights mean I'm working on quitting. What a load of shit." She huffs out a laugh to herself as you flick the lighter and it gives a few sparky coughs before the flame catches, burning the tip of the cigarette into a solid ember cherry.

"I'm Ieiri," she says cordially as you hand back the deep purple lighter.

You give her your name before taking a deep drag of the cigarette, enjoying the feeling of it settling in your chest.

"They should invent a kind of cigarette that doesn't kill you." You say absentmindedly and she cracks a smile.

"Too bad the "healthy " cigarettes of ye old days had asbestos in them."

That makes you laugh, enjoying the way it flows into the air with the breeze that plays against your skin, like a lover running fingers over it and giving you gooseflesh.

"Wait, you're the girl Satorus got statistics with right? Tuesdays and Thursdays?" She asks between puffs, flicking ash off into the dark.

"Yeah, the very same. I figured I should finally take him up on the offer to come over, I've blown him off so many times." Saying out loud makes you feel a little like an ass, he may get on your nerves but he's never been anything but sweet to you.

"You know he's like, obsessed with you, right?" She says with another laugh and it makes you raise a brow.

"Oh yeah?"

She shakes her head, another drag before continuing. "Oh yeah. Gets too drunk every weekend and cries in the bathroom because you didn't show, has a crisis every day because he doesn't know what to say to you in texts. I've never seen him excited about a math course before this semester either, usually it's any excuse to cut class until a prof bitches at him."

With every word a strange sense of giddiness grows in tandem with the alcohol drenching your brain, and you can't help but think about those devastating blue eyes. The opposite of rose colored glasses but it fits, a shade of comfortable blue that tints the world because of him and suddenly you're gripped by the urgent need to go back inside and find him.

"Hey, thanks for the cigarette but I'm gonna go find him. See you inside?" You crush the butt out with the toe of your shoe, grinding it down and giving Ieiri a wave goodbye as the wall of thumping bass and neon light swallows you back up.

It strikes you as incredible how a house can turn into a labyrinth when filled to the brim with bodies and only offering the occasional flash of strobe or neon lights to guide you in the dark. After when feels like hours and checking nearly every room you come across for Satoru, without luck, you find Ierie once again leaning against a closed door with a particularly bored expression.

"Satoru she wasn't saying she was leaving she said she was coming to find you, dummy. Open the door."

As you sidled up beside her she shot you a conspiratorial glance before pulling you closer so you could hear her over the din.

"Can you tell him you're right here? He's such a whiny drunk." She rolls her eyes but you can tell it's playful, although you get the feeling this has happened more than once.

Hesitantly you put your palm against the door, feeling the distant bass thrumming through the wood. "Hey Satoru? I didn't leave, I'm right out here with Ierie!"

There's silence on the other side, making you frown in concern until the door is suddenly wrenched open and you nearly fall right against him. Despite clearly being drunk his hands come to grasp your upper arms gently to steady you before yanking you inside the hazy dark of what you assume was his bedroom.

"You're welcome!" You hear Shoko yell through the door as he sits down in a huff, still holding onto you, against a well worn futon.

You can't help but giggle at the way he almost curls around you, as if determined to attach to your side like some sort of sucker fish. With a bit of wiggling you manage to pull back, sweeping a few stray strands of hair from those baby blues as you do.

It's in that moment, when your fingertips brush his skin, that everything seems to pause. The noise outside seemingly vanishes, and it's like only the two of you exist in a comfortable bubble of silence. You never really noticed how his eyes looked almost crystalline before, too pretty to exist.

"Who gave you eyes like that?" You murmur, more to yourself but nevertheless he beams down at you.

"So you do like me, huh?"

The way he says it, so boyish, so... happy. You can't help but smile back, a shy thing that barely tugs at the corners of your lips.

"Duh, of course I do."

That makes him frown a bit, brows knitting in thought and somehow it made him look even cuter. No fair.

"Then how come you never showed up before? And you don't text me back?" A little pout forms on his lips as he finishes and you're struck with the overwhelming urge to kiss him.

With a superhuman effort you keep yourself focused on answering him. "You're, well... All this," you gesture broadly with your hands as you pull away slightly. "And I'm just a girl you have stats with. I thought maybe you were just yanking me around, being flirty in class but that's it, you know? I didn't wanna look stupid getting my hopes up."

"A girl I have stats with? You're joking, right? You're everything." He says incredulously, eyes wide as if more shocked than insulted that you could've looked at the situation that way.

Heat rushes beneath your skin at that, you're everything, and you know it's not the alcohol making you lightheaded. In your silence he continues.

"Y'know I'm not just messing around with you, I think about you all the time. Sometimes you're all I think about all day-"

With a surge of confidence you grab him by the front of his shirt, pulling him down and cutting him off with your lips pressed against his. It grips you like a fever, a crushing need to taste him. It's all sloppy teeth and tongues and spit but it feels perfectly serendipitous at the same time, an otherworldly calm that takes hold of your mind as your lips move against one another.

As you open your eyes into his you can't help the grin that now stretches wide across your mouth, giggling as you press kiss after kiss against his lips, his cheeks, his forehead and soon enough he's dissolved into a puddle of giggles and faux pouts in your arms.

"Will you tell me I'm your favorite girl again?"

"I'll tell you that forever."

[thelostconsultant]

Not a gold digger

pairing: Max Verstappen x reader

summary: Fans think you only want Max's money. But as it turns out, you were wealthy before he came into your life--you just don't make it obvious.

warnings: No smut, but there's a part that makes me say MDNI.

note: So... I'm kinda back? Idk, I'll see if I'll stick around.

The toxicity of the fandom was becoming quite entertaining, really. It was the third time since you and Max had made your relationship public half a year ago that someone started an anti gold digger campaign to protect your boyfriend. They truly believed they were doing this for a greater good, and they all begged Max for his attention.

It always began after they sniffed out he had given you something expensive as a gift or took you shopping to a luxury boutique. While there were some people who tried to protect you by pointing out that maybe he enjoyed showering you with gifts, the rest didn't care about that. 

You lived in a small apartment back home, you were driving a five years old Renault SUV, and no one knew what you did for a living. This was enough to enrage them and make them believe all you wanted was Max's money at the end of the day. Just think about the way she's looking at him, one of them wrote about two months ago, she's so clearly not in love with him. Poor Max, someone please save him. 

Ridiculous.

“Is everything okay?” he asked when he got home and kissed the top of your head. 

You were sitting in his sim rig, using the time while it was free to practice, because you wanted to play with him when you weren't here together, and he was more than happy to show you the basics. “Someone started another campaign to cancel me,” you replied casually as you got out with his help. 

Even when you were standing in front of him, he didn't let go of your hand, instead he raised it to his lips to place a soft kiss on its back. “Gold digging?” You nodded with a sad look on your face, but less than five seconds later you were both laughing. “Look, I know you're having way too much fun with this, but–”

Without waiting for him to finish, you raised your hand to make him stop. “I'm not stepping out of the shadows, Max. I've been hiding for years, even fucking Forbes doesn't know my real name or face,” you told him.

Back in the old days, when Bitcoin appeared, your geeky uncle had gotten into mining and trading it. He knew the potential, so he put most of his savings into buying them, then he held onto them, and by the time he got sick years later, he knew they were valuable and would be worth a lot more in the upcoming years. In his will, he left his savings and his wallet to you, giving you the chance to use them as you wished since you had learned everything about crypto from him.

So now you had Bitcoin as well as old fashioned investments, and you had used your money to help out an up-and-coming tech company for a forty percent share, and it was later sold to a tech giant for a lot of money. But despite your wealth, you chose to stay under the radar, because you loved your small apartment, and you weren't about to trade it for some fancy penthouse. 

You had met Max the year before in Las Vegas. F1 was a sport you watched with your uncle while he was still alive, and you were hell-bent on getting a VIP pass for the weekend. If you asked your boyfriend, he would say it was love at first sight, but in reality he was just annoyed by you. For a solid ten seconds, he would correct you every time you talked about it.

You agreed that you would hide in Max's apartment until this latest campaign died down, which gave you some time to spend together in peace. Every now and then you checked the tags to see how things were going, and after the silence of the past few days, today your name was trending again. Ready to have a good laugh, you opened the tag, but the most popular post gave you a minor stroke.

“Oh, fuck me,” you yelled as you launched your phone into the couch.

Max pulled the headset down to his neck as he looked over at you. “Is everything okay?” You raised your finger to your lips as if you wanted him to stay quiet, but luckily he got the message. “I'm muted. So?”

You grabbed your phone and went over to him. “They know. One of those idiots from the company I helped back in the day posted a tweet to protect me, saying that if it wasn't for me being an angel investor, they wouldn't be millionaires now,” you summarized as you gave him the device.

He scrolled through a series of tweets, and found a post from a journalist of Forbes in which he promised a proper investigative piece based on this info. He handed you the phone, then wrapped an arm around your waist. “It's okay, schatje. I know that's not what you wanted, but maybe they'll stop with the recurring hate campaign now,” he tried. “And if you’re worried about the article… Don’t be. There is nothing compromising about you. Yes, you inherited the money, but you have proven you know what to do with it.”

“Maybe you’re right,” you admitted with a sigh. 

“I’m usually right. C’mere,” he said as he reached out to pull you closer, but you glanced over at the camera. Rolling his eyes, he quickly turned it off, then gave you an expectant look. “Will you hug me now? And I want a kiss too.”

With a laugh, you leaned down to wrap your arms around his neck and gave him a soft kiss. But he wanted more, his hand slowly sneaked under your shorts, his fingers running over your clothed cunt before he decided to pull your panties aside and dip a finger between your folds. You moaned into the kiss, but he pulled away a second later to lick his finger clean. 

Shaking your head with a chuckle, you patted his shoulder and walked back to the couch. You could feel Max’s eyes on you the whole time, and when you looked at him again, he flashed a devilish smile at you. “I should quit the stream. Now that I had a taste, I want more,” he told you. 

“I’m not going anywhere, just try to be patient.”

He looked back at the screen, then put the headset back on his head and unmuted his mic. “Sorry, I have to go. See you next time,” he told the others, then logged out. You couldn’t remember the last time he left the sim rig this fast, and only a few seconds later he was kneeling in front of you, eagerly reaching up to pull your shorts off you.

liked by user1, user2 and 947,896 others

f1gossips: Breaking news! Turns out Max Verstappen's girlfriend isn't a gold digger after all as she has her own fortune according to the investigative article published by Forbes. Will the fans apologize?

view all comments

user2: And here I was, thinking she's just a greedy airhead...

user3: Easy to be wealthy with your uncle's money.

↳ user4: Have you read the whole thing? She invested the money and helped out several startups--that later became pretty successful--as an angel investor. Yes, maybe she inherited a lot of money, but she knows what to do with it.

↳ user5: May I remind you how many F1 drivers started their careers with their families's money?

user6: Told you she wasn't a gold digger. Suck it, haters.

liked by yourusername, landonorris and 1,577,353 others

maxverstappen1: If you don't buy your girlfriend gifts every once in a while, you're a bad boyfriend. I love to spoil her, it's not a crime. I love her, I'm proud of her, and you can send us as much hate as you want, it will only make us stronger.

tagged: yourusername

view all comments

yourusername: I'd be perfectly fine without the gifts, I already told you.

↳ maxverstappen1: I don't care.

landonorris: You're absolutely right!

↳ maxverstappen1: You're single, how would you know?

↳ landonorris: Just FYI, I've been in relationships before.

danielricciardo: You're so disgustingly smitten with her. (I love you both.)

[grandmaster-anne]

15 June 2023 King Charles III and The Princess Royal present Sovereign's Standard to Royal Horse Guards © ITN

[nightingale-prompts]

Batboy Meets Batfam

First | Previous | Next

"Relax Batty, it's just one dinner." Dick parked the car inside the Wayne family manor's garage.

"But I hate billionaires. Can't we just go to Batburger and go home." Danny whined slumping in his seat.

"What's so bad about it? He's your grandfather now." Dick asked.

"The last billionaire I met was the only other of my kind. And he was awful. Tried to kill me, clone me, marry my mom, kill my dad, ruined my life. That last one was something he achieved." Danny's wings materilized and wrapped around him as he sulked.

"I know it's hard Danny and I can't promise no one will ever try to hurt you like that again but I can promise I'll stick by you. I can also promise to kick the butt of anyone who tries messing with you." Dick said ruffing Danny's black hair that popped out from under his leathery wings.

"Still don't wanna go." As Danny said this he began to shrink.

Dick sighed, he had learned recently that Danny was a shifter of some kind. It was useful to hide his identity but he would also use it to get out of doing things. When Dick told Danny to clean his room or study Danny would shrink to the size of a toddler and say "Im baby" to get out of it. Dick is ashamed to admit that he's let Danny get away with it because baby bat pictures are precious and worth their weight in gold. He has a wallet full of pictures now.

But Dick has to put his foot down this time.

"Danny being little won't get you out of this. Do you really want to meet your new family like this?" Dick asked.

Danny huffed and turned in his now ill-fitting hoodie the size of a 3-year-old.

"Alright come on." Dick gave up scooping the toddler-sized teen under one arm and walking into the manor. "Alfred still has Bruce's old baby clothes somewhere."

"Ahh!"Danny yelped.

"What? Don't want that? If you show up as a baby, they will think you are one. You know Tim Drake is going to be there. He's going to be in the same school as you. Do you want him to think you're a baby?" Dick said holding the kid at eye level.

In surrender, Danny grew back to his normal size.

Dinner was oddly quite as everyone studied Danny closely.

Barbara was the least concerned as he talked about work with Dick and pushed Danny a bowl of strawberry salad. She wanted good aunt points. Danny would love her the most.

Cassie studied Danny's features. It was almost creepy how much he looked like Dick. She'd believe it if Dick was his biological father. Except for the eyes. Danny had a very particular eye color they were blue in the center but kind of had a green ring on the iris. The condition was called central heterochromia and it's rare.

Damian wasn't glaring like he usually would. He looked almost wide-eyed at Danny but remained silent.

Jason was absent as always apparently he was moved by Dick's announcement.

Then again Danny was supposed to be a surprise.

Tim and Danny seem to strike a cord immediately. Danny despite how silly he was the teen was very intelligent. Tim wasn't as subtle as he wish, mostly because Danny cornered him in conversation.

"So you're more used to living in a small town?" Tim smiled politely.

"Hmm? I didn't say that exactly. I said Im just new to the city." Danny responded.

"So you're from a different city? Metro or Star?"

"Neither, It's nowhere you'd know. Not really notable."

"You're going to be family soon, of course i want to know."

They went back and forth for a while. Tim was probably irritated after finding nothing about Danny's identity. And that meant Bruce was probably suspicious as well. Dick had to bet that Bruce's overactive paternal instincts would overwrite his need to investigate.

"So Danny, have you heard of the new vigilante in Bludhaven? The one they call Batboy?"Bruce asked wiping his mouth with a napkin as he ate.

This was the question Danny was waiting for.

"Of course! Have you seen the pictures on social media! Everyone is talking about him. Like, he has wings like a bat. Do you know what I'd do to get that power?! I mean he's not Superman but come on its so cool. We don't have metas-Is that what you call them? Yeah, metas. We don't have them where I'm from so I didn't think I'd ever met one. Dick said he met him the last time he saw Nightwing and promised to get me a picture but he didn't and he said he forgot." Danny put on a pretty convincing fanboy routine.

"I see. So Dick told you he's friends with Nightwing?" Bruce probed.

"He didn't need to tell me. Nightwing found me after I ended up in Bludhaven. I was pretty banged up and he parched me up and took me to the police station. I tried to leave but he told me that Detective Grayson would look out for me." Danny said digging through his salad to pick out the fruit and nuts.

"What about your parents?" Bruce asked softly.

"Bruce," Dick said in warning.

"Its fine...my parents didn't want me anymore. I can't go back. They'd probably kill me. But it doesn't matter anymore, they aren't here." Danny said stiffly feeling uncomfortable for saying a bit of truth.

They say the best way to lie is to have a bit of truth. Danny disagreed. The best way to lie is to have no truth, so they can't tell the difference.

Dick pulled the teen closer as Danny pulled his hands inside this hoodie hiding one of the burn scars on his arm but just enough to show that they were there.

Bruce didn't say another word.

Damian seemed to make his mind up at some point and joined in the conversation.

"Do you eat meat, Nightingale? I've noticed you haven't touched anything with it." Damian sounded oddly cordial.

"Ew, no. I don't eat meat. My friend always said meat was murder and taught me about how evil slaughterhouses were. We once raided a local farm to-oop. I forgot there are detectives at the table. I promise I'm a law-abiding citizen and not an eco-terrorist...anymore." Danny smiled too innocently.

Damian nodded in understanding. They had found common ground. That still doesn't mean he liked Nightingale. But he couldn't fight him since he didn't seem to know anything about their vigilante lifestyle.

Damian had to begrudgingly admit that Danny's presence was welcome. Soothing even.

It didn't matter. He and Drake still had bigger plans. Finding out who this "Batboy" was. They just needed Dick give up some information about the bat metahuman.

Tim had his suspicions that it was Danny but Batboy had stark white hair with black streaks and green eyes. Not to mention wings.

They would have to agree to disagree.

"Danny you have to eat something other than fruit. Eat the rest of the salad." Dick tried to sound stern but caved almost immediately when Danny pretended he didn't hear that.

Bruce internally sighed. Does he step in and help or let Dick figure it out. How does one be a grandpa to a non-vigilante who you can't threaten with no patrols?

*Bonus*

Danny when he see fruit.

[ddejavvu]

tyler owens who has the fattest crush on someone who’s the complete opposite of him

poor girl is terrified of literally everything (me irl) and he’s just head over heels in love with her

come participate in tyler owens night !

--

"Baby," Tyler croons, eyes a mixture of pitiful and amused, "It's wind."

"And it's rain," You urge, standing firmly in the doorway and refusing to budge, "I'm not driving in a storm!"

"It's not a storm," He insists, "Baby, my truck can withstand EF-4s. There's no way a little rain's gonna shake us."

"But we could spin out," You reason, "Or someone else could, and they could hit us, or an EF-5 could strike, or-"

"Or the ground could open up, swallow us whole." Tyler lowers his head, gaze steady on you as the amusement-pity deepens.

"You're right." You nod, clearly missing his sarcasm, "It's safer at home. Let's stay."

"No, that's not- what I meant." Tyler grabs your bicep, and you're useless against his strength as he drags you out towards his truck, "Baby, a tornado could whip through the farm and blow you away anytime. But y'gotta live despite all that. Come out with me, I'll drive real slow and I'll stick to the main roads."

Tyler stops to give you a boost up to the seat of his truck, his strong hands framing your hips and raising you to the lifted vehicle, "Just get all cozied up in that blanket of yours, and we can listen to your music on the way there. Nothin' that I like, none of that rowdy country stuff. M'kay baby?"

You're still nervous about driving in the rain. Maybe you always will be, no matter how many times you do it unscathed. But Tyler's eyes are soft and sweet as melted chocolate, the same color, too, and they stare pleadingly up at you where he's watching you from the ground. Slowly you settle into the seat of his truck, reaching for the blanket he keeps in his glovebox for you, and click your seatbelt firmly into place.

"I'm gonna use the harness," You warn, and Tyler reaches up to help you fasten your seatbelt despite your complete ability to do it yourself, "No making fun of me."

"Never, baby," He promises, hands lingering at your lap far after the click of the seatbelt, "You do whatever makes 'ya feel safe, and I'll handle everything else. Just a nice, slow ride into town for some hot chocolate."

"Just get in already." You plead, but it's a pity to lose contact where his hand stops squeezing your thigh, "The longer you wait, the more time I have to run back inside and hide under the bed."

The truck rocks as Tyler gets in, shutting the door firmly and gripping the steering wheel more gently than when he's tornado wrangling, "It's alright, baby. You're safe with me. And I'll get you whipped cream and marshmallows on yours for bein' so brave."

"Even though they're extra?" You glance up at him with what Tyler's pretty sure are better puppy eyes than he's seen on any dog before.

"I'd pay for you to get gold flakes on top'uh yours, darlin'," He smiles, not a grin but a real, warm smile, and he leans in to nudge his nose beside yours, "No amount of money I wouldn't spend on you."