#How to manage yourself under quarantine

[itsa-me-lily]

God I love this au, it's feeding me so good today. The last one with the part about only one bedroom has me thinking about a sick reader, the gross kind of sick where you're sweaty and wheezy and snotty, and the fact that if it were anyone else Simon would be quarantining them. But because it's his spouse, he wakes up to you nasally wheezing and mouth breathing while sprawled across him, and all he can think about is when you're due for your next round of medicine and if he needs to buy more tissues.

Sometimes love comes coated in mucus, and is reciprocated with an artificial cherry taste. Also do the guinea pigs have names and what do they look like?

I'm dying. This is the first ever ask I've ever gotten (that I recall) and I'm going to pass away. Also "sometimes love comes coated in mucus, and is reciprocated with an artificial cherry taste" that is such a good line, I'm apologizing in advance if I steal it.

Also warning for content of being sick, this is based off my last bout of plague.

Also Also Here's the Simon & Thimble playlist

Also Also Also Here's the Military Program Spouse AU masterlist

Bedsharing in general does not happen at first. (Now I want to percolate an idea about sharing the bed for the first time). You're way to use to having your own bed that sharing with someone means you're not sleeping easily and I think Simon would rather sleep with the guinea pigs in their cage than have another human being that close to him when he sleeps. (This was also not something he initially thought about when being told a spouse was to be picked)

So what's the solution? Obviously bunk beds! Kind of, sorta...okay not really but the look on Simon's face when you had suggested getting bunk beds had been entertaining. Who knew so much indignation could come through a medical mask. Really his eyebrows did so much talking.

With the dream of bunkbeds dashed, the next best solution was either two twin beds crammed into the bedroom with a bedside's worth of space between them, or a pull out couch. You managed to find a couch same day that didn't terribly clash with the artwork you have yet to hang up.

You two actually manage to come up with a schedule for who slept where. Obviously you'd get the bed when Simon was deployed, made no sense for you not to. And when he was home the bed was all his unless he was having a night that he knew he wasn't going to trust a deadbolt to keep monsters at bay. Then he made himself comfortable, TV playing low until he managed a few hours in the early morning before you try to leave a silently as you can for work.

(Funny thing, even if you aren't sharing a bed traditionally, you both most certainly have your own sides, along with bed stands that told two different stories)

The first time you get sick is when Simon is technically deployed. Well actually, the day he returns is the day you spike a 101.8 fever and work forces you to go home so you don't become a walking petri dish and expose the college kids that come into your office.

Once you're home you appease the little beasts demanding some sort of vegetal boon, change into the rattiest clothes you have, and then huddle under a staggering amount of blankets that have made their home on your bed. (Simon may have side eyed them when you first set them out, but you've seen the mountain he creates under them, you knew the magic of weighted blankets)

Sleep isn't peaceful, you hadn't broken out the Nyquil quite yet, but you do manage to drift off for a few hours. And then the coughing starts. It's the kind that's a bitch to deal with, dry and pushing your ribs to the limit with how often they can expand and contract. By the time Simon comes home you've steamed yourself twice, taken only a smidge over the recommended amount of cough suppressant, and slathered yourself with Vic's Vaporub. All in all, you were properly miserable.

You're in the kitchen, staring into the abyss of your over-steeping tea as if it will magically make you feel better if you only sell your soul to it, really a tempting offer, when the wheeks of the pigs announce that another person they know has arrived.

If Simon wasn't clued in that something was off at seeing you home before the end of your work day, the pungent smell of menthol would have been a dead give away. You're still communing with your tea when he knocks against the wall, pulling you out of the deal for your soul to meet him with bleary eyes and a flushed face.

You croak out a greeting that makes Simon wince in sympathy, though that's about all he really does. Simon doesn't really do pleasantries and doting probably wouldn't be the first word people use to describe him, so with your brain function reduced by an overflow of mucus and fever, the kitchen was rather silent.

Until you started coughing, face buried into the crook of your elbow to try to keep your contagion to a minimum and back bowing to nearly double you over. That drives Simon to action, coming to try to keep you up incase you collapse, grabbing your free arm.

When you feel him touch you, you try to pull away, shaking your head and finally finishing your bout, gasping a little as you try to daunting task of breathing and speaking to dissuade him from getting close lest he catches what you have. He clearly wasn't persuaded, hands clenching and unclenching like he simply wanted to pick you up and put you...somewhere.

How exactly Simon Riley would take care of you, he didn't know but he'd be damned sure to at least try. He'd been left to fend for himself while sick before and he didn't like the idea of you going through that. When it was clear that he wasn't going to just leave you to your suffering you relented enough to try to reach a compromise; if he'd be alright watching the pigs while you were sick that would be more useful than a nursemaid while you camped out on the couch.

That...that was something Simon could do. He'd watched how you took care of the boys, surely this was something he could do. And then his brain caught up to the rest of what you had said. There was no way he was going to let you sleep on some pull out couch, as nice as it was. Being Sick meant sleeping in a proper bed, on a mattress that didn't spend it's days folded up.

You tried to insist it was alright but he wouldn't listen to a word of it. Instead he practically herded you back to the bedroom, ignoring your murmurs of your abandoned hot beverage. He didn't lift you to plop you onto the bed itself but it was a near thing. He had to bribe you with the promise of a proper cup of tea for you to even lay your head on your pillow, eyes already heavy with the need for sleep. By the time he had actually made a cup you were out for the count, nasally mucus filled snores letting him know you hadn't perished in the time it took him.

The next few days were filled with mucus, the attempted escape of your lungs via coughing fits, and more Vics than the human body should be exposed to. And the entire time you insisted that you could fend for yourself. Simon didn't push to play nurse, but your tissues never ran out, a dose of medication was always ready on your bedside, and a warm cup of tea stood waiting for you after each nap, like a solider committed to his guard.

Edit;

I'm going to make a separate post for the guinea pigs, because honestly I'm torn on if they're based on my guinea pigs I used to have, or guinea pigs I'd want to have in the future

[officialclangen]

Uh Oh!

It's come to our attention that anti-virus programs, most recently and commonly Windows Defender, have been quarantining files from the game for a lot of players, including the .exe file. This is likely because of changes within those programs and something we have no control over and can't stop from happening, unfortunately 😭 Instead we're going to tell you how you can get past this yourself if you are encountering this issue while using Windows Defender. Do note that this may not work for 3rd-party anti-virus programs. This is also a reminder to be kind to our tech-helpers while asking for technical help in our Discord!

Open Settings on your device and navigate to the tab called "Privacy and security".

Go to "Virus & threat protection"

Look for and go to "Protection History" under the Quick Scan button.

You should see Clangen listed here, under "Affected items" or "Threat quarantined". It should say the location of your Clangen game folder and the file that disappeared (Don't act on it if you see a file that isn't inside your Clangen game folder). Click on the "Actions" button menu and choose "Restore".

Go back to "Virus and threat protection" screen and from there, to "Manage settings".

Under "Exclusions", go to "Add or remove exclusions"

Choose from the "+ Add an Exclusion" dropdown to exclude a "Folder".

Choose the game folder that your Clangen game resides in. Finished! You should in most cases be able to play the game again. This is not the first time anti-virus programs have falsely flagged the game as a threat, but we assure you, it is not one. Thank you for your patience and we hope you have the best time playing Clangen!! 😸

[m4yasnotthatcool]

Can we have Andrew and Reader have a life after the events of the game (In the Bulletless Decay route)?

Reader would be an exchange student who would have gone to stay with the Graves family, but in the end she ended up being another 'victim' of the game's circumstances.

She would be a type of person who was indifferent to almost everything, cold-blooded, with somewhat sociopathic tendencies but with a kind heart.

Okay, let's do this, after Ashley's murder, Andrew and Reader finally got fake teeth and moved somewhere far away, but with all the recent traumas and along with the fear of being abandoned.

Andrew started to have possessive tendencies, a little clingy, toxic, manipulative towards our 'poor thing' Reader and that would result in them having children in the future, to keep her trapped in the coffin with him.

ANDREW GRAVES X F!READER

(a/n: okay so i think i understand what u mean, sorry if its not what you expected, im a little(very) rusty rn at writing) NOT PROOF READ!

okay so first of all, Ashley never liked you, and thats part of the reason Andrew liked you sm

like, yea, he always does whatever his sister wants him to, and he hated himself for falling for you

but there was just something about how you were so indifferent under almost any circumstances (oh how he enjoyed seeing you crack under the pressure when you ate the cultist!)

your cold blooded outer shell was something intriguing to him

he wanted to study you

he wanted to get to know you.

did he care about you from the begining? ha, no.

of course he didnt

his sister hated you, so he hated you too

she was afraid you'd steal him from her so he didnt give you the chance

a couple of days into the quarantine is when he'll finally give in and start talking to you

and low and behold, he loved you from the first interaction

you were just so interesting!

he, of course, felt guilty for going against his sisters wishes, but he still would spend mre and more time just talking to you

after killing ashley i think he would just be in denial

for a really (REALLY) long time he would just wait for her to come back, even tough he knows shes not going to

after somehow getting away and finding a permanent place to stay, you two got in a relationship

both of you had abandonment issues you should treat, but neither of you felt it was necesary

from the start he didnt let you talk to anyone else but him

at first it was something you despited about him, feeling it was too clingy. you needed space, you needed privacy

but at one point those needs started fading away

he would tell you "you dont need anyone else but me. im the only one who is capable of understanding what you went trough! and you're the only one who can understand what I went trough. but its alright! dont worry about me! just worry about yourself and what you want. its not like you care about me anyway."

so you belived him

you didnt need anyone else but him

you told him you didnt want kids

thats one of the many topics you talked about when you met

you didnt feel they fufiled any particular need of yours and you didnt want to have them if you were just going to regret them after

he managed to change your mind

after having your 2nd child with him, you were so far gone that you remained just and empty shell of the person you used to be

the lines between you two started bleeding into eachother and so he absorbed your presence

you were no longer yourself

you were just who he wanted you to be all along

he still loved you of course

also i feel like he would get a lot of his manipulation skills from his sister

or whatever is the feeling he gets thats closest to love

he just needed you to stay

and whenever it seemed like you were ready to fly away, he would cut your wings

________________________________________

final a/n

i know its bad dude, im sorry 😭

if you were to ask me right now what i just wrote i couldnt tell you (like im fr rn)

if you want me to try to re-do it just ask (if u didnt like this one that is)

so uh

thx for asking

and sorry its bad lmao

here are the other fandoms i write for!

have a nice rest of ur day/night!

[seancekitsch]

Can I ask you a Question?: An Adrian Chase x Reader Kinktober fic

here it is! the first fic of kinktober :) all of these are gonna be shorties but smutty

warnings: sex pollen, dub con, rough sex, spitting, slightest degradation, 

Heat spreads along your skin as you stare at the wall, a single focused point in the absolutely unremarkable plain wall of the ARGUS issued motel room, and still managing to fail completely at ignoring the other more than warm body in the room. Anger bubbles as you think about how you were shoved in here kicking and screaming in protest. It's not your fault and you should be allowed to sweat this out at home. Why does Chris even have a pheromone helmet to begin with? Why does that one just activate whenever it wants to like a malfunctioning furby? You wish you could have gotten a good punch in before Emilia shoved you in here claiming a needed quarantine, even though as Adrian pointed out, there are air ducts in the room which means nothing is airtight and if you and the air around you is the issue then the whole building is fucked.

Adrian sits beside you staring at the wall the same as you, but he walked in here willingly. He didn’t have to be in here; he doused himself in solidarity with women or some absolute bullshit that you barely heard over the near immediate effects it had on your body and the intense rush of heat towards your abdomen. You wonder if he’s feeling as hot and squirmy as you at this point, he has to be, unless he wasn't actually lying about being unnaturally fast at healing. If you were alone you’d be ripping your clothes off and hoping the sheets are cool, or maybe taking an ice bath and watching the most ick-inducing hallmark movie your can find. But instead you try to wait it out… however long it lasts. 

“Hey, can I ask you…?” Adrian trails off mid sentence, god, your scowl must be nastier than you think. 

“Ask,” you grit out, teeth bared as you try not to shiver under his gaze. Fuck, he’s so hot. Fucking annoying sometimes, but fucking hot. 

“Are you horny?”

What, like he’s going to do something about it? Heat bubbles and pools between your legs in embarrassment, even though the situation is already clear. How you’d like to just snap and ride his face, knocking those cute dorky glasses askew or— fucking shit dude. This is bad. You make the mistake of shifting how you sit. 

“I was dosed with pheromones,” you snap back, doing everything in your power to hide the the moan in your voice. 

“I know, but is it working?”

You feel yourself clench around nothing, the friction of your tight jeans a blessing and a curse right now. There’s no teasing in his tone, just genuine curiosity. You love that about him, but god does that make this harder.

“Is it working on you?” you sigh, trying to stay as still as possible, trying not to set your own body aflame. 

“Oh yeah!” he confirms, “I’ve been rock hard since before they threw us in here.”

“Please don’t give me that mental image,” you snap, and he immediately apologizes profusely, the hint of a frown on the corners of his lips. Shit, you’ve probably upset him and made him think you’re grossed out. He shifts farther away from you and groans at the movement. He’s got it just as bad as you. 

“I mean— with everything going on right now, I can’t handle that. Not you,” you try to reassure him. 

 “Oh! Well that makes perfect sense. I don’t know what I’d do if you said something like, ‘I’m so wet right now’ I’d probably—“

“You know what Adrian? I’ll answer your question. Yes, I’m horny… and you’re not helping the situation.”

“Should I leave?”

You look at him with pinched brows, incredulous.

“Emilia will probably kill you if you try.”

He grumbles something about being able to handle a stupid little bullet. 

Your eyes follow up and down his body, tracing and following the dips and bulges of his muscles to where they become obscured by armor, biting your lip to suppress a moan. You know he’s a good fighter, and it probably translates well in the bedroom. Christ, what those biceps could do, those arms wrapped around you and— head out of the gutter, you tell yourself, but it’s too damn hard, and you betray yourself and your mind flashes back to imagining his arms wrapped around you while he takes you from behind. An embarrassing little whimper escapes your lips as another wave of heat floods your core. Damn it. 

He flinches at the noise, because of course he heard it, that’s just your luck. His fists clench and unclench, gloves discarded so you can see the whites of his knuckles. He’s holding back, and he’s struggling with it. 

“Hey,” he starts, voice much more shaky than before, “What if we—“

“Yes,” you agree without thinking. Whatever it is. Yes. Whatever he wants. However he wants you. 

“Wait- Really?” he asks, voice rising in shock as he gets up, and then stumbles, clearly thrown off by his own arousal. Fuck. You lean back onto the bed, humming in pleasure as you do, trying to look as appealing as possible despite the sweat on your brow and the state of your dishevelment, even though judging by the bulge in his pants you don’t need to go through these extra steps. You lay against the sheets and throw your head back, showing off your neck and hoping he’ll sink those pearly whites into the side of your neck. 

But then he confuses you by heading towards the bathroom, walking awkwardly.

You pick your head back up, panic shooting through you. Did you get the wrong idea?

“Where are you going?” your voice does nothing to hide your desperation, and maybe you’d be embarrassed if you weren’t so turned on its starting to hurt. 

He has the nerve to look at you like you have three heads, that jerk. 

“I thought you said yes? I was gonna go jerk off in the bathroom while you do whatever you do best in here?” he hovers in the doorway with odd energy (well, odder than normal) and tilts his chin at you as if its a challenge. 

“Where are you going?” your voice does nothing to hide your desperation, and maybe you’d be embarrassed if you weren’t so turned on its starting to hurt. 

He has the nerve to look at you like you have three heads, that jerk. 

“I thought you said yes? I was gonna go jerk off in the bathroom while you do whatever you do best in here?” he hovers in the doorway with odd energy (well, odder than normal) and tilts his chin at you as if its a challenge. 

“Oh!” you exclaim a little too loudly, “Oh, I didn’t know thats what I was agreeing to.”

You smile sheepishly as he walks back into the room proper. 

“What, did you think I was suggesting we should tear each others clothes off and do things to each other?” he scoffs, and even though his face is flushed he still tries to joke as if he’s functioning like normal. Well, Adrian’s version of normal. Yeah, you totally did, and you misread this. But even his condescending tone has you pressing your thighs together and fills your head with the imagery of it all. 

“Well…” you trail off, not really sure where to go from here. You’ve reached an impasse of unbearable arousal, a work colleague, and the distance of about ten feet. Talk about shitting where you eat. 

Adrian blinks twice.

“Is what I just said an option?” he asks, his voice rising half an octave, “Because if it totally is, I change my suggestion. I was just trying not to be sexist because I remember you telling me to watch how I talk sometimes about women after I rated the team on how much I’d like to motorboat them and you were on the top of the list.”

Yeah, you remember that night. You slapped the hell out of Adrian right after that.

“Maybe you should come join me on the bed,” you suggest, and he crosses the room as if zapped with a cattle prod. 

The bed dips as his knees press into the mattress, and your hand involuntarily reaches out along the sheets closer to his heat to share it. 

He flops himself down next to you, grunting as he does so, leaning in close to you, but not touching you. God, you wish he was touching you right now.

“How do you want to do this?” you ask, your lips moving of their own desperate accord.

“Well, this isn’t how I thought I’d woo you,” Adrian admits. Woo you? Was he planning on making a move? Oh, shit. The pressures on now. You don’t exactly have a crush on Adrian but you’d never turn a body like that attached to a genuinely sweet dude like that down. 

“But?” you urge him on, placing your hand closest to him on his, making your move known. 

“But fuck it,” he shrugs and pulls you in for a rough kiss; a little too much teeth and a little too much tongue but you drink it in, pulling him in closer and gripping at his uniform.

He moans loudly into your mouth, only spurring you on to grab him more, pull him flush against you to soothe the heat inside you. It works, sort of. The heat quells for a moment when you feel his hardness press against you; but it’s only replaced by another heat, an arguably worse one. It’s the need to have him inside you, to let him wreck you, destroy you. He shifts his position to trap you beneath him, rolling you onto your back. He cages you in with his arms and legs, presses his hips into yours harshly, the fire is fed, growing stronger. You want out of these jeans and to pull him into you, want to cover him and yourself in bruises by the end of this. He moves from your lips to your mouth and you gasp, gulping at air as his lips and teeth move to your cheek and your chin and your jaw; he’s sloppy and rushed and feverish in his pace, trying to experience all of you as soon as possible.

“How do you want to do this?” Adrian asks, glasses knocked askew against the side of your face.

“Need you,” you pant, already lightheaded from making out like some novice. He rocks his hips up into your absentmindedly as he continues to press kisses into your jawline, himself desperate for friction. He chuckles.

“Need you too,” Adrian sighs, and picks his head up. You almost want to whine because he isn’t kissing you anymore.

“Do you want Adrian?” he asks, and for a moment you don’t understand, “Or do you want Vigilante?”

Fuck, how do you choose? Aren’t they both just him in some capacity? You don’t exactly know what either entails, but your brain is foggy and slow, needing and yearning and making your body writhe under him instead of thinking clearly.

“I want… fuck,” you interrupt yourself, and he pulls back to kneel on his knees above you. He looks like a god under the cheap fluorescents, the god of fumbling upwards.

“Use your words,” he demands, and you can tell he’s made the choice for you. Fuck yeah. 

“I- I want it rough,” you squirm under his gaze, your hands traveling from the sheets to the fly of your jeans, unbuttoning them preemptively. Adrian’s eyes flicker down to your hands and then back up to your face, and he smirks. 

“You think you can handle it?” he asks, newfound confidence as he moves one hand down to palm himself through his uniform pants. You nod weakly, licking your bottom lip. He tilts his head as if to shrug and uses his free hand to pull you up by your shoulder.

“Open?” he asks, as you get your arms under you to sit up. You obey immediately, opening your mouth for him and sticking your tongue out obediently. He smiles, before spitting directly into your open mouth. You swallow gladly, and the fire is stoked momentarily, as if having some of him quelled the hunger within. 

“Good girl,” he says, pushing you back down into the mattress before his hands begin roaming your body, he pushes up your shirt roughly, his warm hands splaying across bare skin, the expanse of your abdomen. His hips roll into yours again, rougher this time. When his lips capture your own, his teeth sink into your bottom lip. Your hands come up around his neck, fingers tangling themselves in his curls and pulling. He groans against your mouth, biting down. You gasp at the first copper taste of blood.

Adrian’s hands dip lower, finishing the job unzipping your jeans and hastily starting to push them down over the curve of your ass. You help him by pushing your hips up into his, giving him more wiggle room while you can rub yourself against him. He shoves the jeans down to your ankles and then stops. 

“Turnin’ you over,” he explains, and pulls your arms away from him. He removes himself from you, but only briefly. Just long enough to maneuver you onto your stomach for him and to pull your panties down to meet where your jeans confine you. 

He presses a hot hand to you, coating his fingers where you already soaked through your panties. He hums in appreciation. 

“Is this from the pheromones or from Vigilante at work?” he asks, and you groan, this time not from pleasure. 

“Ugh, shut the fuck up, Adrian,” you sigh. Of course, it’s a mix of both. The pheromones are actively probably killing you with hormones but Adrian himself is hot even if you haven’t admitted that to him. He responds with a sharp slap to your ass that makes you yelp, loud and actually embarrassing. 

“Call me Vigilante,” he tells you, and then you hear the zipper of his pants release. 

His full length enters you with no warning, but meets no resistance. You’re so slick and wet from everything, but you’ll let him stroke his ego if it means he keeps himself against you. Adrian wraps his arms around your middle, using it as leverage to slam into you harder; your body a tool to get off, but equally his body a tool to stoke the fires and make you feel real again. But fuck, if you don’t actually love this. This is the way you wish dates fucked you, the harshness and care rolled into one. Adrian’s hand wraps around you, shoved between your body and the mattress to your clit, rubbing in tight circles.  Fire ignites more, like a candle to a campfire. Adrian’s weight pushes you into the mattress, one hand pressed to the bare skin of your abdomen and the other between your legs.

“Fuck, Vigilante,” you moan, a particular movement of his middle finger making you buckle even more into the mattress below him. 

“That’s it, baby,” he praises, and presses harder. The fire stokes and spikes and calms and crescendos. Adrian’s hips don’t let up, thrusting hard and hateful, trying to break your frame with every move. Adrian will break you, and you’ll probably let him. You’ll probably let him do anything if he makes you come in the next ten seconds. 

“Are you only this slutty for me?” Adrian asks, and you nod into the pillow eagerly, whining and leaning harder into his thrusts. At this point, they hurt. It’s to the point he’s bruising your entire ass. Yeah, only for him. It’s not like your dating pool is huge here but it’s also not like you’d let anyone else on the team see you like this, but also Adrian has a certain charm to him. 

“I’m gonna- I—“ you pant, and he only speeds up the pace of his fingers and hips.

“That’s right, come for Vigilante,” he coos, and it’s like every fiber of your being releases it’s tension. 

You shout, pressing your face into the pillow as you do to avoid any embarrassing terms of endearment towards the man above you.  The shaking starts in your core, and the spreads outward. Heat spreads and explodes into almost cold in your toes afterwards. Your limbs go rigid under him. 

“That’s it, baby,” he hums, but he holds you through it, his arms holding you in place.

“Fuck!” you shout, and a particularly hard jolt of your nerves punches through you, and Adrian stills behind you. That’s all it took for Adrian to come, and he spills into you, holding you against him and moaning wantonly. 

You both breathe deeply as you try to calm down, not at all separating. You center yourself, trying to say some shit you remember from a college yoga course. You can’t see Adrian’s face, but he keeps kissing you business as usual. 

“Can we do this again?” Adrian asks, and you think for a moment. He’s a fucking psycho, maybe? but you’ve already fucked him.

“Sure,” you say, you voice still muffled by the pillow.

Why not.

[finniestoncrane]

It's Easy!

Lucy Maclean x Maximus, word count: 1.4k i have never related to a characters straightforward desire to fuck more than lucy maclean, you're my hero girl, keep trying to get your hole at every given moment, even if you have to take it upon yourself to uh... teach your partner how to treat you right... based on that scene from episode 6 which is where most of the dialogue from the intro comes from!! 💛💙 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi • masterlist minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: inexperienced/experienced, guiding, instructional, premature ejaculation, handjob, goofy losers getting it on my beloved

The harsh lighting was slowly giving Maximus a headache. Lucy, however, seemed to thrive under it. She was used to it, obviously, but he still marvelled at the way she seemed to soak it up, smiling under it's cool, white glow. An infectious smile, one that made her large, brown eyes sparkle like slightly irradiated water. One that pressed into her cheeks, pushing them up and out. One that made him smile back for reasons he wasn't quite sure of.

In fact, there were a lot of things about Lucy that made him smile, and as he ran through the list in his head, he found he had started saying one out loud before he could stop himself.

"You smell good."

There it was. Out in the open. No taking it back, so instead, he kept his eyes trained on the ground, acting as nonchalant as he could.

"Oh?"

With an immediate understanding, Lucy took a relaxed breath inwards before casually proposing an activity to pass the time away during their quarantine.

"Do you wanna have sex?"

That smile again, beaming over at him. With a surprised stutter, Maximus managed to respond.

"Y-you mean use my cock?"

Widening her eyes before looking from side to side, Lucy nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah!"

"I dont know... that weird thing could happen."

Maximus' nervous laugh preceded the statement that had intrigued Lucy to no end.

"What on Earth could he be talking about...? Has something else strange happened up here since... everything?"

Lowering one eyebrow and raising the other, she probed him for an answer.

"What weird thing?"

"Well, it's just... for some guys, and not me,obviously, but, uh... for some guys, you know... when they make it move..."

He gestured to his crotch with his hands, a quick but dramatic glance down to it for emphasis so there was no mistaking what he was talking about.

"... it gets all big an hard like a big pimple and then it pops. And they say it can happen to anybody, but it's still... it's... it's gross."

A knowing smile settled on Lucy's lips, her face blushing at Maximus' misunderstanding, the endearing naiavety he was displaying.

"You know, that's actually completely normal. It happens all the time. Every time, ideally."

With a grimace of disgust, Maximus felt his body moving backwards, as if he were trying to distance himself between himself and the notion that someone would want their cock to pop like that.

"Well, either way... I'm a Knight. Of the Brotherhood. We're... we're not really supposed to-"

"Okey dokey!"

Lucy interrupted him with a shrug and a polite grin, trying to save him from the awkward rejection he was trying to stumble through. But as she began to recline on her gurney on the other side of the small room, she stopped, leaning back on her elbows to listen to Maximus' rushed mumblings.

"Uh... but! B-but I... want to. Maybe? I just... don't know how..."

"Oh! If that's the problem, don't worry. It's easy! I can show you if you want? Teach you the basics at least."

He was a Knight. Well, no he wasn't. Not technically. But as far as Lucy knew... And as a Knight, he could stand to take matters into his own hands for once.

"I... I'd like that."

"Okey dokey, then! Let's do this!"

On that positive, overly optimistic note, Lucy stood up from her gurney and sat down next to Maximus on his. Her hand shifted tentatively to the side, pinky grazing against Maximus warm skin. He didn't respond in kind, instead stiffening up and staying completely still. So Lucy was once again the one to break the tension.

"We can try just kissing first if you'd like? Start off slow, get the basics down."

"Sure."

"Have you ever kissed someone?"

"No... have you?"

Lucy paused for a moment, considering everything she had done so far in life, everything she might do, and everything that had gone on between the first bombs dropped and now. The rules were different above and below ground, and she didn't want to risk offering any information about certain cousins that might make seem strange to someone like Maximus.

Aware that she had been staring wide-eyed into space for longer than necessary, she quickly turned to him.

"Yes, a couple. No one you would know."

His eyes narrowed in response, nose wrinkling up, mouth dropping open in a confused expression as he nodded in obvious agreement. And to prevent him from asking any questions, Lucy leaned into his parted lips and placed her own on them. A tender meeting of their bodies, far beyond polite handshakes, different from the way they had been clinging to each other in weaker moments.

Responding to the beat that his heart skipped and the way his body suddenly flushed with heat, Maximus raised his hand to Lucy's cheek, pulling back quickly with an apology and breaing off their first kiss. His first kiss.

"Oh, that's ok! You're kind of supposed to let nature take its course with this kind of thing. Deep down we all know how it should go... it's in our biology!"

He shrugged, averting his eyes once more, embarrassed to admit it, but confessing anyway.

"I'm still kinda scared... of the... pop."

Ever the dutiful problem solver, Lucy stopped for a moment, humming over potential solutions before beaming bright and excited when she thought she had the perfect one.

"Oh! I can show you what it's like. I'll take charge, and then you'll see it's ok. How does that sound?"

He nodded, slow and stuttered, all of the built up excitement hidden behind the shocked expression he wore. She was so forthcoming, so helpful, and the idea of her touching him did make him feel good. Different, but good. And that feeling was only amplified as Lucy started dragging down the zip at the front of his jumpsuit and dipping her hand beneath the fabric.

Her skin was soft, her palm warm as it glided past his stomach and down to the tuft of unruly black hair above his cock. And then she was touching it. Unafraid, bold and confident in the way she let her fingers trail along the length before settling the flat of her hand against him, semi-erect already and throbbing under her.

Smiling, smug with her effect on him, Lucy could feel his cock stiffening as she wrapped her fingers around it, beginning to stroke the length. As her hand moved up and down, Maximus noticed the way his length, and his whole body in fact, twitched when she reached the bottom and again when she neared his head.

"It's... it's happening isn't it?"

"Yep! But it's ok... totally normal... completely normal... very nice..."

He shifted, not uncomfortably, but awkwardly, as he took in the compliment.

"Feels good, doesn't it?"

Lucy was smiling at him, eyes glinting with something he hadn't really noticed before as she asked the question.

"It... it does..."

"Maybe we can go a bit further then? Give me your hand..."

She took his wrist, steadying his shaking limb, and placed his palm against her breast over the top of her suit. He let his fingers sink in a little, squeezing the soft mound and breathing in deep, shaking breaths. it felt comforting, but it made that coil in his stomach tighten as he felt her chest heaving against him.

"Now... if you think this my hand feels nice, imagine how good it would feel to have it inside my- oh!"

The words weren't particularly sexy, at least not in the cheerful, matter of fact way that Lucy spoke them, but it was enough to send Maximus over the edge. His cock twitched, that threatened moving, swelling, throbbing, his veins pulsing, and then the pop. His orgasm came fast and hard, cum spilling in warm, white ropes over Lucy's hand.

Immediate embarrassment came over him as he tried to clean it up, recoiling at the sticky texture of the liquid that had come from him. But as he looked into Lucy's eyes to show the sincerity of the 'sorry' that he repeated, he saw that she was still smiling. Ever cheerful. A sense of satisfaction about a job well done.

"Good, huh? Next time you'll be able to last a bit longer, I think!"

As Lucy made her way back to her own gurney to lay down, Maximus muttered to himself.

"Next... next time?"

And now he began to smirk. Self-satisfied. Relaxed. Excited for this next time.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Old Scars

Author's note: This is the next installment of the Bully(ing) Cato Sicarius fic! First. Previous. Next. This fic was beta read by the wonderful @sistersofthelobotomy!

warnings: body horror, medical quarantine, spoilers for Space Marine 1

tagged: @egrets-not-regrets @the-pure-angel @i-am-a-dragon34 @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan

Summary: Titus visits you while you're in quarantine. So does Cato.

You couldn’t say how much time passed since your conversation with Sargeant Leandros. At first you had wanted to discard what he told you out of hand as either a clumsy attempt at socially sabotaging one or both of his superior officers… Or he could be one of the Astartes who believed that because they had been so heavily augmented and changed from baseline humanity, it meant that they were inherently superior to baseline humans such as yourself, and to interact more than the bare minimum with such lowly beings was to risk one’s purity.

You’d occasionally encountered Space Marines like that, and a few who thought like that were among the Ultramarines, or had been until Lord Guilliman had harshly reprimanded one such marine for his foolishness publicly. But the more you thought about your interactions with him, the less you believed that he had approached you because of some nefarious scheme, or twisted belief in the superiority of Space Marines above all other beings, including their fellow humans.

If you hadn’t been romantically and sexually entangled with Titus and Cato, would Titus have stayed to help Cato fight the flesh and mechanical chaos horror, while you had been escorted away by the other space marines? You wanted to believe that Titus had followed proper protocol…

But you couldn’t quite be sure. You were well aware of the fact that both Cato and Titus approached using the Codex Astartes as guidelines that could be worked around and were to be flexible, rather than rigidly adhered to at all times in all circumstances.

There was a rapid knock on the door, which was your only warning before Titus rushed into the room. There was blood and oil on his armor, and there was a wild look in his normally gentle and calm eyes as he all but flew to your side, kneeling down to be closer to your level as he dragged you off of the cot you’d been sitting on and into a near rib-crushing hug.

“Titus!” You call out, hugging him back as tightly as you could manage, barely able to breathe. You patted him twice on one shoulder and his grip on you loosened in response. “Titus, what’s wrong? Why are you so upset?”

“I was… I was worried what might have happened to you, after I heard that you were put into quarantine, under suspicion of Chaos Taint.” Titus explained, burying his face in your neck, taking in a deep breath.

They took some blood samples and told me to wait here. I’m going to be checked over by one of the Librarius after the planet has been cleansed of Chaos.” You realized he was trembling a little. You rub circles into his back, wishing that his armor was off, as he’d be able to feel your touch much better that way. “They’ve told me to stay in this room. Other than being a little bored from not having much to do, I’m safe here, love. As safe as I can be.”

“I… I know. I just…” Titus shuddered a little, giving you several gentle kisses to your neck and shoulders “Did you know that I used to be captain of the second company? I was the captain before Cato was appointed, as a matter of fact.”

You blinked a little in surprise, trying to process this information. It certainly explained a few things about why Titus and Cato could be so… Competitive with each other. And the occasional sir that Cato threw Titus’ way, especially when tired or distracted. “I did not know that. What happened?”

“I was sent to deal with an uprising on an imperial world, along with a squad of Ultramarines. One of our number died in the initial fighting, but I was able to reunite with Sidonius and Leandros during the fighting. We fought through many waves of enemies. From hordes of orcs to lesser daemon spawn and chaos marines.” Titus Explained, still holding you tightly to his armored chest as he spoke.

Ceramite was not comfortable to be held against, but your focus was on trying to comfort Titus as he spoke to you about something that clearly upset him very much. You weren't sure what, if anything to say, so you stayed silent.

At the end of it I was able to kill the Chaos Sorcerer that had opened the rift into the warp and with tremendous effort, slew a greater daemon. For this feat, Leandros called the Inquisition on me, fearing that I had been tainted by Chaos, which was why I was able to survive that one on one battle.” Titus explained, face still buried in the crook of your neck, his lips brushing over your skin as he spoke. He seemed to be slowly calming down as he continued the tale, his voice grim “The Inquisitor who arrested me hated Astartes and delighted in torturing us, when he didn’t have us in cryofreeze. He was eventually killed for Heresy and those of us who were trapped by him were put into death watch.”

“But why weren’t you reunited with the Ultramarines, if you were cleared of Chaos Taint?” You ask, deeply confused.

“As you know, Death watch is part of the Inquisition’s forces. We had been told that our chapters no longer wanted us, or that they had decided that the stain on our honor was such that they had washed their hands of us entirely.” Titus admitted, voice shaking a little.

You could feel something warm and wet begin to drop onto one of your shoulders. You hugged him tighter still, running a hand through his buzzcut hair, careful not to snag

your fingers on his ports. “That was obviously a lie they told you to keep you with them…” You kept holding him close, letting him speak at his own pace.

“I was a member of Death Watch, serving them faithfully until Father awoke. He recalled all Ultramarines and successor chapters to Ultramar, including those on loan to the Death Watch. Cato had already been made second captain in my absence, and I found that I had been mourned and missed as killed in action on Graia.” Titus explains, his voice trembling a little less. A small sigh left him as he continued to explain “As my position had been filled, and the Ultramarines don’t demote someone just because a dead brother is in fact alive and still loyal, I was assigned to be lieutenant. We have been working together ever since.”

He stopped speaking for a couple of moments, his lips pressed into a thin line, eyes overweight with bushed tears. There was a clear mix of fury, fear and sorrow running through Titus.

You ran your fingers through his short, dark hair and gave him several gentle kisses to his cheeks, silently encouraging him to continue speaking, if he felt like it.

“I wasn’t the only Brother saved by Father. Captain Ventris was being held by the-... By another chapter of the Adeptus Astartes also closely tied to the Inquisition for successfully dealing with Chaos in another form. When I… When I heard that you were put in quarantine for potential Chaos Taint. I was… I worried for you. Even though Father is unlikely to let the Inquisition just take you.” Titus continued, a low sigh leaving him as he slightly readjusted his grip on you, so that you'd be a bit more comfortable.

“From what I’ve been told, my tests so far have been clean… I also only briefly saw the thing that was apparently the chaos tainted creature.” You soothe, giving him a gentle kiss on the top of his head, allowing him to cry and hold you tightly for as long as he felt that he needed. You were quietly honored that Titus felt safe enough with you to cry and seek you to comfort. “Are you going to be staying long?”

Titus shook his head a little, a small smile appearing on his face as he kissed you, an adoring expression appearing on his face, before he pulled away and gently pressed his forehead to yours, taking in a deep breath and sighing .”I am here to sleep, and then return to the battle. The Chaos Cult has summoned and twisted a number of machines and people and are causing problems. Nothing that we can’t handle, of course. But it will be a long and frustrating campaign. The locals are cooperating with us, or at least the local leadership is.”

“Then you should go rest, love. I’m glad to see you, but you will need to sleep, in order to keep slaying the foes of the Imperium.” You respond. You will tell Ttius and Cato about your conversation with Sargeant Leandros, but not right now. Not when both of them are in the midst of a battle like this. It may prove to be exactly the sort of distraction that Leandros was worried that you would provide them.

“I’d rather sleep here, with you. I’ve proven to be warp resistant, and sleeping with you has been wonderfully grounding.” Titus hummed, a small smile appearing on his face as he leaned into your body. He yawned quietly and nuzzled into your abdomen, his body relaxing around yours.

“Alright… I can’t imagine that this isn’t going to be very comfortable for you, especially half on the ground like that.” You look at the cot and gently encouraging him to lay down on it. You’re not sure if you’re going to sleep for a while yet, having a lot to consider. But you want Titus to get the sleep he needs.

Titus starts to drift off to sleep when Cato enters the room. His armor is also covered in blood, oil and other fluids and joins you and Titus on the cot. It’s a tight fit with the three of you. Titus shifts just enough to snuggle into Cato as well.

Cato yawned and mumbled “Killed the giant bastard. And other things. Missed you.”

“I missed you too, Cato. Sleep well.” You hum, giving him a gentle kiss to the forehead, running the hand that wasn’t buried in TItus’s short hair through Cato’s.

He sleepily kisses you back before settling into bed. He fell asleep in your arms, his breathing deep and even.

You love both of these men deeply. Leandros' words echo in the back of your mind, and despite wanting to discard them out of hand as some sort of political maneuvering or attempt at social sabotage... Why would he? The space marine is one of the both of theirs sergeants. He works with the two of them frequently, and he had seemed earnest in his concern. Were you being selfish and diatracting?

[boo8008]

Three Months - Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto x Fem!Reader Chapter 02: Mince

Prologue | Chapter 01: Quadriller | Chapter 02: Mince

Series Summery: Its been one year since The Bear's soft open, and with everything running smoothly, Carmen's lost in his thoughts, until the final table of the night is seated.

Warnings: angst | fluff | ghosting mention | mentions of suicide | language | mental health | pining | unrequited love????? | substances (alc & weed) | yelling | grief | descriptions of panic attacks | eventual smut | mention of covid | self doubt | no proofreading just sleep deprivation & back pain running this show | awkwardness & cringe of a new friendship/relationship/situationship

Chapter Summery: After the minor introduction of you and Carmy, your about to prepare the first dinner post Covid and before Stevie and Michelle leave, one Carmen is also coming to. Only cooking dinner is not going as smoothly as you'd hoped.

Mince (v.) - to finely divide food into uniform pieces smaller than diced or chopped foods, prepared using a chef's knife or food processor

Word Count: ~3,865

My Notes bb: Hey….. How yall doin? Sorry this took so long to get out, work and life suddenly got busy and I didn't have time to write. I hurt my back though so it kinda forced me to write and crank this out. Hopefully its not as bad I as I still feel like it is but yea. Again sorry this took so long to get out. Hope you enjoy! (ps my therapist thinks this is a decent outlet though lol thanks Sandra)

2021 (December)

Carmen hardly ever came to dinner after those first few weeks, and Michelle said something about him working at Eleven Madison Park. While you were happy he head ended up at the high end restaurant, you knew he was working under one hell of an asshole. He seemed to be doing fine enough though. Granted, you would only catch small glimpses of him on nights when you stayed later than intended and he walked only into his room to sleep, with just a small mumbled ‘hi’ thrown your way. Eventually he managed to move out on his own and only came to dinner about once every two months when Michelle would insist on it.

Once covid hit though, you'd basically lost contact with him. Michelle even rarely managed to drag him into group facetime calls with you. They were mainly her or Stevie recounting their last two weeks of quarantine in a dramatic fashion and you and Carmen would be  listening half heartedly. If Carmen was there, he seemed to just sit out on a fire escape in his building and smoke, thinking about other things. Everytime you picked up though, missing being around the two people you actually liked. You would use it as a little reprieve from writing yet another ‘easy recipes for quarantine’ article, or to have company while you organized and re-organised random spots throughout your apartment. 

Mostly though you would use it to get away from the depressive thoughts of ‘what am I doing with my life?’ or ‘if something happened to me, only Michelle and Stevie would really know.’ you didn't realize how much you missed being around people until you couldn't anymore, just stuck with yourself and your cat in your apartment. You missed the mindless chatter from coworkers at your office and in person interviews with cranky chefs because they gave you more to think about than yourself. All you began to think about was how bad the piece you were working on was, even if your editor said it was great. You felt tired and tired of being tired. All you wanted was to have a nice dinner with Stevie and Michelle, and fuck even hearing from Carmen would be amazing even if it was another awkward conversation with someone you just barely knew.

In short covid sucked ass and made your already anxious brain even worse. Not to mentioned your sense of time became fucked and all of your normally scheduled daily things also hard to keep track of. While quarantine had somewhat ended, you all found yourselves too busy trying to get back into the groove of ‘normalcy’ and offices to have dinner again, canceling for meetings or being too tired. Leading to today, when after months of planning and rescheduling you had completely forgotten that dinner was not only being held at you place, but you were also cooking because Michelle and Stevie had nothing in their kitchen because they were leaving two weeks early to isolate before Christmas in Chicago, and to top it all off, Carmen was (for once) coming to dinner. You remembered only when Stevie sent you a text asking what time worked best to come over, and not wanting to cancel for the tenth time, you told them 7:00. So you left work early to run for the subway, then run to the grocers to get real food, and then ran home to start cooking. 

Only cooking was not going as planned. 

It was 6:30 and dinner was nowhere near done. It was like you had forgotten everything you knew about actually cooking, and you’re a food journalist for Christ's sake! This should have been something you could do fairly easy! You write about things like this all the time! Yet here you are, chicken suddenly burning in the oven from when you stepped away to check your recipe to make sure everything was going okay and you that were good to start the pasta. You quickly removed the now pucks from the oven and turned it off. You resolved to just sitting on the floor across from your oven and crying, thinking about where it all went wrong-not the dinner but everything. Quiet sobs racked your body as you sad down on your kitchen floor, forgetting about your phone and the fact your last text said “doors unlocked when you get here”.

Carmen didn’t want to go to dinner but knew he wouldn't hear the end of it from Michelle if he didn’t show up. And to be frank he wanted her to stop calling him a hermit too. So he grabbed his jacket after lunch service and headed home to shower and change, doing his best to not think of his shitty boss saying he was worthless for taking one evening off. He hadn't done that even during covid, constantly asking what the plan was or if the kitchen was open. He decided to head out early to your place sending a quick text and leaving. As he approached your door he could definitely smell burning, very unlike the pre-covid dinners you made. While not Michelin level, what you made were perfect home cooked and leftover meals to him. A nice change from his go to PB&Js with Doritos and a Coke. He checked his phone again making sure the apartment number was right and reread your last text again. He still knocked on the door before he opened it, out of habit. 

“Yo its me,” Carmen called out, peeling off his jacket as he looked around the entryway of your small apartment. You jumped at the knock and stood up as the door opened, and as Carmen called out, you turned to face the sink in your kitchen.

“In here!” your voice was wobbly but you preyed he wouldn't notice. Carmen followed the sound and walked into the kitchen, seeing the blackened chicken on the stove and the mess of the rest of the kitchen. 

“Jesus, the fuck did you try to cook?” he said it without thinking, and immediately you broke again. Crumbling in on yourself and to tired to try and hide it. Tears raining down your face and carmen short circuited, watching as you again sunk to the floor in a puddle. 

“Shit fuck I-I’m sorry. Fuck! Wh-what can I do? What do you want me to do? Fuck sorry I-I’m bad at this.” he panics as he looks down at you crying. “Wh-want me to go? I-I can go- I should go. Shit, Sorry again.” 

“S-s-stay?” 

“What?” Carmen's pretty sure he heard wrong, after all he just caused you to meltdown from his social awkwardness. 

“S-stay?” you say more clearly. You don't know why you ask it, let alone how it crawls out of your crying, shaking self. Its been so long sense you've been near someone else even a little close to you so maybe that's it. He stops for a minute looking down at you as you look up at him still crying. “Please?”

“... O-okay.” 

He isn't sure why he stays, or why he sits down next to you while you cry, but he does. The apartment is quiet outside of you sniffles and the occasional sob but carmen stays put. Neither of you realize how much you've started leaning towards each other until your head  is lightly lying on his shoulder. You’ve mostly stopped crying now but your face is still wet and your eyes are puffy. 

He isn't sure what to say, with his mom asking if you were okay was off limits. It made everything worse. It lead to screaming and yelling and throwing things. He thinks about what someone normal, someone like Stevie, or Pete, or Natalie, what they would ask someone they hardly know if they saw them having a panic attack and decides to just do it, praying you’d be somewhat normal compared to his mother.

“You-you okay?” you'd almost forgot he was there, even if you were leaning on him, and sat up straighter, wiping your face.

“Yea, I’m-I’m sorry dinners ruined and for getting like that,” you say. Tears of embarrassment springing up at knowing that this (basically) stranger saw you cry. 

“No no your fine-your cool,” he can feel panic rising again at making you cry again. “No no no offense but I-I was kinda in the mood for pizza anyways.” He's only partly lying, he wanted a home cooked meal but the pizza place he passed on his way here smelled greasy and amazing on his empty stomach. 

“Are you sure? I still have the kitchen to clean and I just don't want you all to think that I don't care o-or anything that i-its our last dinner before you guys go back to Chicago for Christmas and I just-” 

“Yea, your fine , its fine if we have pizza, I’ll text Michelle to grab it on their way over, they wont mind.”

“Okay…” you mumble, caving in on the choice of pizza and leaning your head back on the cabinet behind you. Carmens already pulling his phone out of his pocket when he spots the new texts from Stevie and Michelle on his lock screen. 

Stevie: ‘Sorry gang, we dont think we can make it tonight, we still have a lot to pack 😕’

Michelle: ‘Yea I’m sorry i know its so close to dinner but maybe you two can get along without us????’ 

Michelle: ‘Sorry again lovelies xoxo 😘’

Michelle: ‘Dont be a dick carm 💛😘’

“Well fuck,” Carmen mumbled. He was now on his own to make conversation. “Looks like its just us for dinner. ‘Said they still have packing to do.”

“Oh,” was all you could think to say. Of course the universe would have the only two people you could actually converse with busy on the one night you were meant to see them. 

“Yea…” Carmen wasn't sure how to proceed. Does he leave cause the only bridge between you both isn't showing? Does he stay because he already committed to dinner? God he feels so awkward.

“Well we could still get pizza?” you ask. “I mean you came all this way so it kinda feels like a waste.”

“You sure?”

“Yea, I mean I still gotta clean the kitchen but theres a place around the corner thats amazing after crying,” you say with a bit of a laugh to help bring up the awkward mood.

“Let me help you and we can go?” he suggests, already rising to his feet and offering you a hand.

“Are you sure? I mean the chicken I think is welded on there at this point,” you say. As your taking his hand and he pulls you to stand from your floor, you see his forearms flex and your mind short circuits as you look probably a second longer than you need to at the muscles and veins there. Luckily he doesn't notice because he's already turning and grabbing the now cool baking sheet with the chicken on it. 

“Yea it’ll go faster, I think I can get this off too,”  Carmen quickly took charge of washing the bowls, cutting boards, and other kitchen utensils you had pulled out in your frenzy to cook dinner on time. 

In nearly no time at all the kitchen was clean and the two of you had left for the pizza parlor a block away. While yes the cleaning was a little awkward, the noise of the city on the walk made making any conversation difficult, meaning neither of you had to talk or struggle to make conversation. 

“Pepperoni good?” Carmen asked as the two of you stood awkwardly next to each other, both of your jackets zipped all the way up thanks to the near unbearable cold outside.

“Y-yea, they make bomb garlic knots too if you want some,” you responded, skimming over the menu even though you already knew what the plan was. 

“C-cool, um,” Carmen looked around the small shop, there was just the counter and a cooler for drinks, no seating. The place reminded him of the beef, dingy, and not that healthy, but god damn was this about to be the best food he could ever get. “Did you want to go back to your place? Cause… cause there's no tables and stuff…” Carmen cringed at the awkward way the words came out. 

“Yea if that's good with you?” you said taking a step forward, the two of you would look at each other before looking away, as if the tiled flooring was so interesting. You decided to take a page out of Stevie’s book, he was better with people than you were so you prayed the attempted joke would land. “I mean we could eat out in the cold if your more comfortable?” A smile pressed its way onto Carmen’s face and you considered that a victory. 

“Yea no, I love eating outside when its about to snow,” he snickered. “Reminds me of home.” You both shifted closer as the people in front of you pushed pass you both to leave with their pizzas. As you both stepped up to the counter Carmen was faster than you in not only placing the order, a large peperoni with a side of garlic knots, but also whipping out his wallet and paying, you on the other hand had barely stumbled out a hello and barely started shifting your bag to get out your own wallet by the time he was done.

“You didn’t have to do that,” you mumbled as you both stepped off to the side to wait.

“Yea well, its cool I got the money,” Carmen added. You only partly doubted it, he worked at the highest rated restaurant in the world but also lived in New York so it kinda balanced out. You both distracted yourselves for a few minuets looking at your phones, you taking to a word search game and Carmen playing the fun game of ‘who is this and why do I have their number?’ with his contacts. It felt a little more relaxing compared to earlier, more like the same air you both got when Stevie and Michelle would leave the room at your normal dinners, not pressured to talk but liking the fact another person was next to you.

“Order 447!” you and carmen both jumped as the number was yelled through the small shop. Carmen stepped forward and took the box and bag from the worker, turning to you, where you grabbed the bag and began to head out before he got up the words to protest that he's got it. 

Luckily the only awkward part of the walk back to your apartment was the elevator ride up. As you both stepped into your apartment you were both greeted by the loud yelling of your cat as she rounded the corner to yell at you for leaving for a whole 30 minuets.

“Yea yea your fine baby,” you told her as you took the pizza from Carmen. “You good with just sitting on the couch? I don't want to do anymore kitchen cleaning.”

“Heard,” Carmen carmen said as he took off his jacket. He was looking down at the feline weaving between his legs and bent down to let her sniff him so he could pet her, instead she smelt him and abruptly ran back deeper in the apartment and he smiled a little at the cat, following it with his eyes to you coming out of the kitchen with two cans of coke, paper plates, and paper towels. Something in him stirred at the mundane and domestic sight but he waved it off as more anxiety.

“Wait-shit-your not allergic to cats are you?” you asked panicked.

“N-no,” Carmen's voice broke a little as he said it and he cleared his throat. “No… My, um, my mom never let us have one when I was a kid, something about the furniture. I always wanted one though.” Why’d his voice break like that? Why’d he bring up his mom? Fuck now he's gonna have to explain everything.

“Cool-cool,” you were turning to head deeper into the apartment again and Carmen followed, getting a better look at the place now that he wasn't rushing to the kitchen. “That's Mince, cause when I got her she was tiny and I wasn't thinking ahead.” He took in the living room, a nice, small sectional couch with a blanket over the back was against one wall, and a tv with bookcases full of nick-nacks and heavy looking books with holiday lights around it. The center of the room had a buttery carpet and the coffee table with the pizza and garlic knots on it. 

“Make yourself at home,” you added. You’d never felt more aware of your actions than now, as Carmen looked at more of your space with posters and pictures around it and you were just trying to tell yourself to act normal. He took in the dining table with four perfectly mismatched chairs that was tucked into a corner on the other side of the wall from the kitchen. Mince catches his attention from the couch, batting at his hand from her spot on the arm rest. He again goes to pet her only for her to skip off and run to the opposite end where you are. Carmen finally takes a seat on the couch, the two of you as far as you could be. You both dig into the pizza and Carmen can’t help but think about how good it is. 

“Fuck,” he groaned. It definitely compensates for the shitty morning he had and the rollercoaster of emotions he felt around you.

“Right?” you said through a smile. You were turning on the tv and poking around for something to watch. 

“‘S so fucking good,” he said through another bite. “Chicago is still better though.” he mumbled.

“Fuck off,” you finally settled on Bobs Burgers that you left off on. You both ate in a mostly comfortable silence, focusing on the show and avoiding looking at each other. Once you felt you were full you settled back into the couch, and glanced at carmen sitting in your space, he had made himself more comfortable, and he looked nice there, leaned up against the arm of the couch with one arm draped over the back of the couch fiddling with a part of the blanket and his legs spread wide. You shifted your focus back to the television not wanting to make it more weird. 

“So… did you finish packing already?” you settled on conversation to distract you from the thought of crawling into his lap. “For Chicago I mean.”

“Oh um,” Carmen was a little startled by the sudden conversation, but fuck it you already cried in front of him today, it was his turn to share. “N-no I’m just staying here, rather not watch my mom drive the car through a wall and my brother fight my uncle again.”

“Jeez, I’m sorry,” Steve had told you some of what happened that Christmas, mainly summarized as a big blowout of a fight between Michelle’s cousin Mikey and her kinda-uncle Lee, and her aunt Donna driving her car through the living room. God why'd you bring this up? He probably didn't want to talk about it. “Did you have any plans then?” Please let this be a decent change of topic you think.

“Just work, go home, smoke and eat, sleep, just like the last two years,” he says with a sigh. “Wh-What about you?”

“No, I was just gonna stay in and watch some movies.” Carmen answers with an affirming ‘hm’, not wanting to overstep and ask more questions. Even with the both of you wanting to talk more, neither of you know how to go from here. You turn you attention back to the television as Carmen turns his head a little to quietly observe you. 

Curled up in the corner of the couch in a cozy, old, and ratty sweatshirt with some leggings and fuzzy holiday grippy socks, hair down, and face still a little puffy from the winter air and your tears, but still beautiful in the darkening light of your apartment, mundanely so. Not a supermodel ripped from the cover of vogue, or an unobtainable influencer with hair and makeup perfectly placed for pictures. You look like you belong there. You look real. Cozy and warm on your couch with the lights from the streets down below hitting you just so. Home he thinks, before quickly turning his attention back to the tv. Its not like he’d ever have a shot with you anyways, he’s always too busy, or too angry, or too much of an asshole in general. Where’d all of those thoughts even come from? He hardly ever felt at home with anyone, especially outside of the kitchen. 

As the show plays on the two of you get lost in it and enjoying the act of being alone together, occasionally steeling glances at each other. You find yourself kind of liking being with him, not necessarily talking or interacting but the feeling of another person in the same room as you feels nice. Carmen won't say it but he's enjoying himself too. The show and coziness of your apartment make him feel relaxed more than his barren dingy apartment ever could, and the abundance of stuff artfully placed helps give him something to look at and think on rather than get lost in his anxiety and self doubt. Why does she have a Halloween decoration out its December…right? He thinks. Your both trying to think on how to ask for what you want but you beat him too it. Probably because you grew up with Steve and his weird ball of encouragement always on your side.

“Did you want to hang out? On Christmas I mean,” you finally get the courage to ask. Phew, not that bad.

“I mean I-I don't want to intrude,” Carmen starts. “Plus I have work the next day.”

“You could sleepover? If-if you want,” you prepose. “We can still smoke, eat, and sleep if you want. All the traditions you enjoy, a-and I don’t think I’m far from the line you need?” 

You definitely aren't. In fact your apartment is somehow on a faster route to work than his own. The only reason you know is because of the Bake It Nice pop up bakery Eleven Madison Park does once a month that you always try to make time for. Carmen thinks on it for a second, and your sure he's looking for a way to let you down nicely.

“You sure your okay with me leaving at 5:00 in the morning?” he asks. 

“Absolutely,” you say with a smile, and something in Carmen stirs. “Plus I can pass the fuck out again when you leave anyways.” he smiles at that, still unsure what feeling he's having right now, but he likes it.

“Okay,” he says and you both return you attention back to the show smiling like children. Your legs a little more outstretched towards carmen and his body begging to sink further into your couch. Relaxing to the feeling of you.

[ilguna]

Supply Run: Can I get #24 from prompt list 2 with Joel Miller?

☼ stepping stones (Joel Miller) ☼

warnings; swearing, undisclosed age gap, death mention, murder mention.

wc; 2.4k

prompt; 24. "Don't let your fears dictate your life."

notes; i'm picturing game joel in my head. and this is set in boston but before he smuggles ellie.

--

A couple months ago you made the mistake of telling Joel a little secret about yourself when it comes to him. It happened during a game of Texas Hold’em with Tess and a few of your other friends in the quarantine zone. It came so casually, mostly because you weren’t entirely sober, and you knew that Tess was talking over you, anyway.

You didn’t expect him to hear, much less remember what you had to say, but it must’ve been one of those facts about you that he knew he should save for later. Which you can’t hold against him, because you would’ve done the same thing if you were in his position.

When you told Joel that he can pressure you into succumbing to any request with just his gaze, you were halfway kidding. You were referring to the game you were playing, because while you’re normally good at keeping a poker face, he always manages to crack you without doing it on purpose.

You knew the moment it came out of your mouth that it sounded stupidly flirtatious, but you meant it earnestly. Joel is one of those people where you feel safe enough to open up to him, trusting him with practically everything. Even though it’s difficult for him to do the same.

You’d like to say that Joel liked you from the beginning, but the truth is that he kept a fair distance and a sharp eye on what you did. He could tell just by looking at you that you were trouble. Or, at the very least, you came from it. When you joined the Boston quarantine zone almost five years ago, it was done out of desperation.

And you weren’t exactly the friendliest face around, something that you couldn’t help. Tess later told you that you had this specific look on your face, as if you were always waiting for someone to jump out at you. Which probably wasn’t far from the reality you were living at the time. 

Joel had a feeling that you came from a group of hunters, judging by the way you seemed to be prepared to defend your belongings at every turn. Since there was a period of time where he’d done the same, he couldn’t come down on you too hard, but everyone knows that the next generation of hunters are more brutal than the last. It’s because supplies are scarce to come by out there with every passing week.

Still, you preferred to be outside of the walls and not under the rule of FEDRA for the longest time. The only reason why you ended up changing your mind was because a group of travelers came through your hunting group and wiped absolutely everyone out. 

You managed to escape by yourself. If there were any other survivors, you never got to find out, because you were trying to put space between you and your camp that they were taking out. And when they found out that you were still alive, they didn’t let you escape so easily. You think they were afraid that you’d come back for them.

So, they ambushed you repeatedly. The first time they did it, they had too much confidence in themselves. They came in daylight with just two people, thinking that it’d be more than enough to bring you down. Once they were dead, you moved a few miles further out, toward Albany.

Well, they tried it again, coming in the daylight with almost eight people to bring you down. Fortunately, you’d scavenged in the area frequently, mostly because no one else liked going toward the big cities. You only had to bring down one person in order to secure your way out, but they followed you.

You basically drove them straight through the heart of the city, the infected did a bulk of the work for you. It didn’t deter them, especially since a few of them had survived the attack. The final time they came was during the night, and you’re still not sure how they managed to find you in that office building. You covered your tracks.

Regardless, they were so set on revenge that they abandoned the camp they killed your group for, and settled into chasing you across Massachusetts. You went straight to the Boston quarantine zone, knowing that they’d have a hard time trying to get you, then. 

The initial plan was to stay long enough to get your shit together, before going back out again. The longer you stayed, the more you decided that you liked the relative normalcy. You didn’t mind working, having a place to call home, food on your table almost every night. As soon as you started making friends, the nail on the coffin was sealed. You haven’t been able to bring yourself to leave since.

That’s why you can’t bring yourself to agree to what Tess and Joel are asking of you. It started out as a choice, but with Tess not feeling any better from the cold she caught earlier this week, they’re both telling you to help them. Which brings you right back to what you were saying ago with Joel making that face.

His steely eyes are piercing your soul right now, trying to get you to cave. You stare back at him, trying to replicate the intensity, but he’s so much better at it than you are. So, you resort to your words instead.

“I already told the both of you I’m not interested.” You raise your eyebrows, tearing your eyes from Joels, to Tess, who might as well be glued to her bed. “I don’t want to leave the quarantine zone.”

“You’ll hardly be going that far.” Tess holds her hand out in the direction of the window. “It’s just a few miles out. That’s where you’ll meet Wayne, he’ll give you the pills, and then you’ll come right back. Joel and I will do the work of bringing it to a different part of the zone.”

“The mileage doesn’t bother me, it’s being out there.”

“What are you so afraid of?” Tess scoffs. “You used to live out there.”

“Used to.” You emphasize. “It’s been five years, Tess. It’s not going to be a quick adjustment.” You turn your attention to Joel, shaking your head. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to find someone else, or do it alone.”

“We don’t have anyone else.” Joel says. “I can’t take the trip alone, I need a partner.”

You shrug, “I guess you’re going to miss the trade, then.”

“(Y/n).” Tess sighs from her bed. “Don’t make me get up to kick your ass.”

“Try.” You roll your eyes.

She ignores your comment, sitting up a little. “You have to miss it out there a little, don’t you want to experience it again?”

“I do.” You have no issue admitting this. “But I don’t want to get hurt.”

“You’ll be with me.” Joel stands up from where he’s leaning against the wall. “I’ll have your back.”

Your mouth opens, going to tell him no again, when you hesitate. You know that he’s not lying, Joel is the best person you can ask for while being outside of the walls. You can’t remember the last time he came back with a scratch on him after navigating the streets for days at a time. 

He recognizes your hesitation, pushing it. “Don’t let your fears dictate your life.”

When you look at Tess, she has this knowing smile on her face. She’s won, and she knows it. You close your eyes, shaking your head slightly, and then you let out a sigh.

“Fine.”

There’s a moment of silence as Joel looks at Tess. “I told you she’d come around.”

She tilts her head, face impressed. “I guess you were right when you said she had a soft spot for you.”

Your eyes narrow at Joel. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not standing right here.” You tell them, crossing your arms over your chest. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Joel will take you to the apartment we regularly sneak out of before midnight. You’ll meet Wayne a few miles out, Joel will trade him, and then you’ll come right back.”

“Easier said than done.” You look at Joel to see that he’s giving you a halfway smile. “I still need gear.”

“One step ahead of you.” Tess waves her hand. “You’ll just use my bag, everything you could ask for is in there.”

You press your lips together, but give her a nod, agreeing. You wish that you still had your old backpack—FEDRA confiscated it as soon as they could. The only things you were allowed to keep from it was an old family picture and your knife. Everything else got thrown away or cycled into their own weapon supply. 

You had a really nice gun, too.

“Tonight it is.”

—

For someone that didn’t want to do this a few short hours ago, you find yourself glad that you caved and agreed. It was anxiety inducing for the first hour or so, as you jumped at every sound and searched every shadow. But it’s like riding a bike after a while—you get the hang of it.

Besides, there’s not many infected surrounding the quarantine zone due to the consistent FEDRA patrol. By the time you realized they were there, Joel had already taken them down and was moving onto the next house. This eased your mind considerably, allowing you to relax and mindlessly follow hi,.

A part of you is disappointed that this had to be done during the night, and not during the day. Not only would it be easier for you to see, you like inspecting the area around to see how it’s changed over time. 

When you brought this up to Joel, he wasn’t very impressed, remarking that had you listened to them earlier in the week, he could’ve arranged that. Since it’s so late and they’re going to miss their window, there’s not much of a choice left in the matter.

You couldn’t help but to roll your eyes at him. You weren’t looking to complain, you were actually going to skate directly into a conversation about what he likes best of the great outdoors. You decided that it would be best to leave it, despite knowing that he would likely realize as soon as you asked.

There are times where you can’t tell if Joel wants to have a quiet day or if he’s willing to let you chat his ear off. He seemed pretty fine earlier this afternoon when you were visiting Tess, but when you regrouped with him in the apartment complex, he was gruff and slightly irritated. 

It makes you wonder if it was something that Tess said after you left. He did tell you that he was going to stay back with her for a little while longer to talk about the deal with Wayne. That way he’d be able to catch you up to speed on the way to the fire station, which is just outside of Brookline.

Why you’re traveling so far for a bag of pills is beyond you. And you would be mad about the distance, because Tess blatantly lied to you, but it’s not the first time she’s successfully deceived you. It’s your own fault for believing her.

The pills must be pretty important if you’re going out of your way like this. You know they make a pretty good income with smuggling. They’ll be so well-off sometimes that they’ll slide extra ration cards your way, as if they aren’t practically made out of gold.

Either way, Joel hasn’t let you in on what’s happening. You’d say he’s forgotten, but he’s got a pretty good memory. He’s choosing to keep the reasoning from you. Which could be for a number of reasons—like he’s afraid you’re going to freak out. You’d like to think you’re level-headed enough to hear him out first.

A sigh escapes you, pace slowing. Joel glances over his shoulder at you, seeing that you’re not walking as quickly as before. He matches your speed, even turning his body to look at you better.

So he is open to conversation.

“Curiosity’s going to kill me.” You start, Joel raises his eyebrows. “You said that you were going to fill me in, and I’m all empty.”

He looks away from you. “Tess told you all there is.”

“Did she? ‘Cause all she said was that we’re picking up pills from Wayne.” 

“That about sums it up.” He says.

You squint at the back of Joel’s head, not liking the answer. Maybe you read the situation right earlier. “Okay, sure.” You murmur, looking away from him, to the houses off to your left.

It’s quiet between the two of you for a few minutes. This must be burn for Joel, because he ends up clearing his throat. “We’re supposed to work out an agreement with him.”

Your eyebrows twitch. “What?”

“Tess and Wayne got into a fight last month, he said he’d settle it the next time we met.”

You come to a stop in the middle of the road. “Are you telling me that we’re walking straight into an ambush right now?”

“No.”

“What was the fight over?”

Joel hesitates, “Tess cut his payout.”

You stare at him for a long second before looking away, around at the neighborhood you’re walking through. There could be dozens of people in these houses, and you won’t know until it’s too late. You’re not sure what was going through their heads with leaving a detail this large out, but Joel was right to try to keep this from you as long as he could. 

Sometimes you wonder why you even consider yourself a friend of theirs.

“Do we have enough to make it up?” You ask, he shakes his head.

“Honey, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You were going to let me walk into a fight blindly.” You raise your eyebrows. “How do you even know Wayne?”

“He’s a friend of Bill’s.”

Your face drops completely, as you reach up with one hand to grab your temples, turning away from him with another sigh. You met Bill once, and it was before you’d joined the quarantine zone, but it was while you were on your way there. You ran across him by accident, and got the full force of his insanity and violence. 

“If he’s anything like Bill, then we need to go back to Boston.” You point down the road you’ve been walking. “I’m not prepared to deal with something like that.”

Joel reaches up, hand grabbing your shoulder to squeeze it. “I’ve got you.”

--

this was part of my 3k celebration!!

[pixyys]

thou shalt not be sad!

making corny jokes and pick up lines for them

ft. the flags + chuuya + verlaine + adam

warnings. possible storm bringer spoilers; fluff/humor + hurt/comfort

notes. romantic/ platonic; huuuuge thank you to @silverbladexyz for these wonderful pick up lines ♡; reposting bc oh god, tumblr was in a silly mood

art by @/shan_zeze (twt)

❝you have a little bit of some loose screws in your head. everyone knows this well enough. but seriously, every person in your vicinity are just so depressed and gloomy! surely, that's nothing some some good ol' one liners can't solve. ❞

LIPPMANN

Our little story starts during a time when The Flags have the pleasure of gathering together. Everyone has been busy with their businesses for quite a while. But they finally get the time to relax and act like normal young men without the burdens and horrors of their line of work.

Of course, you are there too! For.. whatever reason you have. No one minds nor questions your presence, so you sit there, simply observing; grinning with a dumbstruck smile at how everyone is happy and enjoying their time.

Especially lippmann. You saw his recent movie, the one that blew up on the internet, yeah. He's been flying all over the world for premiers and promotions. Even now, he just got back from one of his world tours.

"Lippmann," you make your way towards the end of the billiard table. "How was Europe?"

"Europe?" he recovers from his hunched position, the billiard cue still in his hand. "It was quite nice. Do you want me to take you when I go on another tour in the future?"

Whoa. Traveling Europe with 'the' Lippmann?

"Yes please," the response comes a bit too eager than you intended. "But won't it be a hassle? Was there any quarantine during your latest travel?"

"Well, for safety measures-"

"-Because you can't spell quarantine without U R A Q T."

The room falls silent as those words leave your mouth, save for the ticking of the clock and someone's pool ball falling on the floor.

"Ah.. well," Lippmann laughs nervously. For a flit moment, burying yourself six feet under sounds like a very tempting escape. But the thought dissipates as the charming actor chuckles, with a very lilting voice and a cute-looking smile that could've made you keel over right there and then.

"I suppose there will still be momentary quarantines since the virus is still around," he continues. "After all, you can't spell virus without U and I."

Well.

"Oh hell no! Not this again!"

Something cracks with a horrible crunch, probably Chuuya breaking his billiard cue. Not sure didn't care. You're too busy gaping at the actor slash mafioso like some dying fish. Either way, this dying fish got that world tour free pass! yeah!

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PIANO MAN

Looking back, you have no idea how you managed to crawl out from that pit of embarrassment and continue life as usual. Maybe your sense of dignity just dried out. Maybe you're the kind of person who just rolls with everything. You pulled through, either way.

As it goes, your existence and role in The Flags is a peculiar one, as peculiar as your personality. A wildcard, if you will. Again, maybe that's why you find yourself helping Piano Man with those 'supernotes' of his.

"Say, Piano Man, do you play the piano?" you ask, mind drifting wistfully as you watch him send away some of his underlings. Some others are still waiting for their next order, standing by within the vicinity—you included.

"I don't," he regards your curious question.

"I think you'll be a great pianist."

Piano Man offers a raise on his brow, "On what ground?" he said.

"I mean, better yet, you can be Bae-thoven."

To put it in the most less-heartbreaking sense, his response is both something you definitely expected but nevertheless didn't prepare for. The silence that follows is reminiscent of that time you landed a free Europe tour pass with Lippmann, so is the forced laugh that grows from Piano Man's mouth.

Another, painfully awkward silence that comes after it, however; you can't help but reel from it.

"Piano Man, please. That's the worst possible response," you half-whispered.

"Ah, apologies. I suppose.. thank you?"

THAT IS THE WORST POSSIBLE RESPONSE.

The room is dead silent, and it doesn't look like it's because Piano Man's underlings are too afraid to laugh in his presence. No, at this rate, your sense of dignity will really dry out, dissipating out of existence. That is until you saw a glimpse of Piano Man's subtle smug face.

Ah, right. It is Piano Man you're up against.

[name]: i showed you my best pickup line pls respond

piano man: no <3

In bitter shame of such pitiful defeat, you toned down your puns ever since. But one time, when you cross paths with your arch nemesis once again, Piano Man strikes up a conversation.

"About that thing about not being able to play the piano, [Name]. I think I'll start learning it."

"Really?" you turn to him.

But what did he do? he, in turn, closes the distance, leaning his face to your ears, "How about you give me some piano lessons?" he whispers, and you can almost, almost feel his breath lingering on your earlobe.

"We can play all night and make sweet music." you can feel his smile.

You ascended; jaws dropped, eyes popped out, cheeks hot. You didn't remember if you passed out or dropped dead.

Really, it's best to only pick battles you can win.

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ICEMAN

"Iceman is it? You seem like a cool guy. I hope we can get along."

Iceman knew you're a walking embodiment of a headache the moment you exchange names and shake each other's hands.

He still wonders why he still puts up with your shenanigans. Or why he still agreed on helping you do combat practice and friendly spars. All the while trying to not accidentally stab or decapitate you, probably.

He watches you pat down your light bruises, making use of the momentary rest. Objectively speaking, you are no weak opponent. Sure, he can likely kill you in your sleep. But at least not without some struggle in your part.

"This place is pretty neat for sparring, like a very comfy practice room," you comment, still holding the shoulder that might have a nasty bruise- or a sprain? He hopes not. Iceman wonders if he threw you too hard just now.

"Oh! Speaking of," you suddenly turn to him, "Are you a practice room? Because I want you and I hope you're not taken."

Yeah, No. he really should've thrown you harder.

Iceman, once again, questions why he puts up with you. You both are not even musicians and you manage to force that line into this context, and for what?

"..Iceman?"

He remains passive.

"Uh, please laugh?..At least?"

You made it a mental note to not mess with Iceman again. Poor guy. He still helps you patch up those sparing bruises though, so you should be good👍

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

DOC

"Sorry, can you help me? I think something's wrong with my eyes."

Being sent to the battlefront is tough. Guns and fists and knives don't exactly line up with an unscathed body. But you're tougher! And you have your reliable good friend, Doc. Iceman's training retinue polished you like a coarse diamond grinder, so Doc didn't have to do much than patch up minor cuts and scratches.

Doc decides to hold back further questions at your remark. Instead, choosing to appraise your face- the eye you claim to be 'wrong'. There's a subtle crease on his brow as his hands frame your cheek, trying to observe visible damage on your eye.

Of course. Even the most skilled doctor won't find anything. your eyes are fine.

"I think I just can't take them off you." you wink.

Doc tilts his head, then blinks.

Cute! Yet, the silence is starting to trigger the PTSD you got from Piano Man and Iceman. You hope it won't be the same case for this 'Doctor-Man.'

He finally nods, as if making up a decision. "Does it feel numb? Or painful?"

"No, I mean-"

"Maybe something is wrong with your extraocular muscles. I can open them up and-"

"You know what? Don't worry about it," you cut him off, rushing to swat away the current topic. "I think it just healed! That's amazing! I knew you're the best doctor one could ever ask for!"

Yeah.. better be careful next time. Getting your eyes dissected and cut open must not be fun.

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ALBATROSS

You're not saying you have a favorite in The Flags, but you're saying you have a favorite in The Flags, and that might or might not be Albatross. (It's definitely Albatross).

He is your true partner in crime, aiding you in your eternal quest to annoy every single living existence (especially Chuuya, but don't tell him that). Albatross isn't very keen on puns or pickup lines, but he picks up the habit as soon as you start greeting him with those daily doses of corniness.

"Morning!" you send the energetic wheelman a lighthearted smile, waving as you pass by the hallways of the headquarters.

"Oh, mornin' [Name]-"

"-Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?"

By normal standards, a perfectly normal person normally does not start their morning with a badly-placed and badly-formed, relatively corny pickup line. But abiding by the normal standards isn't exactly how you roll, and neither does Albatross. That moment marked the day The Flags must put up with a brand new headache.

"I'm confused… I thought happiness started with an H, but mine seems to start with U."

"Life without you is like a broken pencil... totally pointless."

"Are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile."

"Are you a loan? 'Cause you've got my interest-"

"Alright. i believe that's enough, you two."

It takes Piano Man a lot to get him to lose his patience, and apparently, you've done abundant. Don't worry about Chuuya, the little precious bundle of rage is long gone. He knows better than to risk exhausting his voice or accidentally ransacking the whole hideout (lmao).

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ADAM FRANKENSTEIN

You are suffering from success. Or winning from failure? These jokes and pickup lines became something of a second nature to your tongue. You can't even remember what you said to this robot- er, supercomputer agent Adam Frankenstein.

"Oh. This is what humans call as puns, also known as paronomasia, a form of wordplay that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous effect."

"Yeah-"

"But yours wasn't funny."

>:0

"W-well," you cough, recovering yourself. "Funny isn't the only intended effect. It was a punny pick-up line."

Adam nods.

"A pick-up line or chat-up line is a conversation opener with the intent of engaging a person for romance or dating. Are you trying to woo me?"

:0

"W-wwwhat?"

So, a literal robot just pulled an uno reverse card on you. Yet still, that's a good question. Are you really trying to woo him?

"I- I thought you'll start making one of those android jokes." you make an unsteady smile.

"My android jokes? Of course. They are not made with the intention of expressing romantic expression, so I can make one for you if you wish so."

Well. This tin man just indirectly reject your yet-to-exist confession.

"Either way, I am flattered by your attempts. However, I'm afraid that it will be impossible. You are a human and I am an autonomous humanoid supercomputer, the first to be used for law enforcement use-"

Yep. the tin man just directly rejected your yet-to-exist confession. Adam woke up and chose violence. At this point, you're better off going home and curling up in your blanket with some sad love song playlist. You think Chuuya winced and made a very pitiful expression for you. But you choose to mark that off as your imagination.

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

PAUL VERLAINE

For a reason you can't fathom, you somehow end up in Verlaine's, Chuuya's, and Adam's theater of bloodshed.

Right here, right now, you're a vanguard of the battlefront. You shouldn't be thinking 'this'. Your chest hurts so bad from dodging Verlaine's attacks, your limbs are aching from bruises and cuts, your head is spinning with adrenaline, and this French man is trying to kill you and kidnap your ginger friend.

But darn, he's fine- You slap yourself.

"You good?" Chuuya rasps, struggling to make his step as he flanks your side.

"No, but-" another flying car flings towards your direction, and muscle memory forces you both to flee from your position, escaping death by a grasp.

Well.

This man is merciless, and *cough* attractive. Had he not currently trying to throw cars at you, you'd take him to some nice cafe and start serenading him with, uh, 'sweet' words.

Might as well.

"Whoa sir, you have some killer moves!" you roar heartily, uncaring by the way chuuya is eyeing you like an incredulous mother daring her child to do something stupid. "I'd simply die to have you." you wink.

"[NAME], WHAT THE HELL?!"

In that split second, your words seem to catch Verlaine in a trance. Adam's fancy iron man laser beam almost grazes the French man's shoulder..somehow.

Hey, that worked! :D

[name] : chuuya, i think he's french.

chuuya : no shi-

[name] : i think eiffel for him.

chuuya:

‎

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NAKAHARA CHUUYA

This is it. The curtain calls, and it's time to face the final boss; it's time to unleash the ultimate torment to this poor boy.

"Ooh! Don't you look dapper? I always liked your fashion sense. You look good in that suit."

Chuuya doesn't immediately answer, opting to silently trace the paved sidewalk you both are treading on. By all means, both of you have no trouble with resources that a personal car, or even a whole limousine won't be impossible. It's just that the moon shines beautifully that night, so you drag your grumpy friend for a breath of fresh air.

"But you know what you'll look better in?" you chuckle, following his steps. "My arms."

Nothing. Mo reaction. No swatting your finger guns, no annoyed and incessant curses. Chuuya treats you like a nonexistent ghost, until he halts and simply stares at you with an inexplicable expression.

"Chuuya?" you falter, "Did- I go too far? Or did it finally get you? my jokes..?"

Oh, it did get him. No, you got him.

He shifts closer to you, like he finally loses it and is about to choke you to death. But this feels different. There is no malice or raw anger in his movements. They feel.. heavy, tired. Wordlessly, he leans his weight on your body, resting his forehead on your shoulder.

His breath is warm against your collarbone; the slight shudder from his long exhale stripped the corny jokes off your tongue.

"Oh, Chuuya.." you mirror him, putting your arms around him in a reassuring embrace. He is now here, in where you both want him to be: Your arms.

Some things come, and some things simply go. But some other things just don't change. Chuuya is grateful he can still hear your annoying jokes and lines, and that you are still by his side.

[theexaltedbride]

Dead Island 2 Slayers X National Guard Reader (Gender Neutral)

(Art is not mine. Its taken from the old, and sadly dead, zombie Tabletop RPG “All Flesh Must Be Eaten” by Eden Studios.)

You were part of the failed attempt by the military to wipe out the seemingly endless hordes of the undead in Los Angeles. After its failure you were re-tasked with aiding in quarantine for Hell-A and evacuation procedures for the remaining survivors of LA before Zero Hour. The moment when no one, alive or dead, would be allowed to leave the city to stop the risk of infection spreading to the rest of the country, the continent...the world. 

You’ve seen so much horror, so much suffering and heard so much screaming, but you still strapped on your boots like everyone else. Some may have gone too far, others not far enough, in trying to stop the infected, but you did everything possible while still keeping your soul. 

Not all of you were even originally from LA, but the outbreak was so bad that National Guard units even from as far as Texas were being called up to come in and reinforce the quarantine zone around the infected regions. Not even a single zombie could be allowed to escape and cause outbreaks elsewhere. All options were on the table, and everyone had to go above and beyond the call of duty to save humanity, which for some (like your unit) meant going in and destroying clusters of the infected where they seemed to strangely be congregating in areas that would keep them safe from artillery and airstrikes. 

This is how you discovered you were secretly a Numen. You were immune to the infection. One of those things got too close and ripped off your mask before your pistol went under the monster’s chin and fired off a round.

Some of the infected matter got into your eyes, your nose, your mouth, you knew that was when it happened...deep down you knew you were infected. But you were too scared to tell anyone. So, you covered it up, and while you managed to pass out somewhere private, you woke up as yourself. The disease which turned others into monsters had given you new strength, made you feel younger, stronger, faster, healthier. Were it not for the occasional head splitting headaches, you probably would call it the best thing to ever happen to you. 

It certainly made the coming days easier as you fought through countless swarms of the undead, saved who you could, and even gave up a seat on an evacuation plane so that others could get to safety. 

You were there at the failed attempt to burn out the undead from around the Hollywood Sign, you can still smell the roasting corpses, before finally falling back with the others to the last evacuation flights out of LA. Somehow you ended up as part of the security detail for the same flight as Emma Jaunt. But then her husband turned out to be infected, and it spread like wildfire inside the plane.

You survived the plane crash by assuming the crash position, only to wake up being carried out by one of the other survivors, who saw you writhing in your seat, this same person...a fellow Numen of all things, would eventually become your lover.

Amy:

-At one point Amy’s prosthetic slipped and she landed on the ground, your training kicked in and you grabbed her and carried her to safety, all the while firing round after round from your pistol into the oncoming swarm, driving them back just enough for you to get away. You swept Amy of her feet figuratively and literally. 

-Amy and you both share the same story of having given up a flight to safety so that others could get out first. You’ve bonded over this and its not uncommon to hear Amy call you Superhero for it, even though she did the same thing.

-She’s not normally one for uniforms, but likes the way your PT gear fits on you when you both hit the gym at Emmas Mansion. Though her regiment is more designed for stamina while yours is an all purpose strength builder. she still loved to see you sweat all the same and hit the showers with you.

-As a sign of trust, you let her carry your dog tags, and she keeps it tied together with the little cross she sometimes prays to when she’s afraid. She even went so far as to look into a prayer for soldiers, so she can pray for you when things get tough.

Bruno:

-Tends to keep thinking you’re in the Army despite how many times you explain how the National Guard works as his only experience with anything military was the evacuation, movies, and videogames. 

-He loves to joke that the footage he gets of you could be used for recruitment videos, or how you already are a super-soldier, even without the Numen part of you.

-He happily shoots guns Gangsta style until you teach him the right way to do it. The entire time you had your hands on him and helped Bruno shoot straight, he was just blushing and nervously nodding. It would take several tries for the lessons to stick, which gave you plenty of material to tease Bruno with later on.

-Likes to watch you flex your muscles when you’re alone together, and when you sleep in bed, he tends to idly play with your dogtags enjoying the sound and feel of them, while committing the details in them to memory. He kind of wants to get a set of his own now, only far more tricked out than yours. 

Carla:

-Loves to arm wrestle you because she knows you can take it and sometimes likes to play the knife game with you. (Carla wins most of the time and your poor fingers would be covered in bandages, were it not for your Numen abilities healing you up faster). Carla has also been a bit rougher with you in sparring matches and wants to learn what you know, half of the time its so she can really learn to fight like a soldier, but the other half of it is just so she can spend more time with you working out and pushing your bodies to the limit.

-Can’t keep up with you during PT runs around the mansion and makes excuses about leg cramps, or that she does it so she can check you out as you run. In truth it’s really that you run faster than her, but at least she gets a nice show out of it. 

-She thinks you look good in your uniform, but thinks it would be a little tighter.

-Tends to be disappointed when you explain real military life isn’t like the movies, but appreciates you being honest with her. 

Dani:

-Surprisingly good with firearms once you taught her the basics, you soon discovered she was putting in extra practice with Curtis to impress you and to look good for you while shooting. She’s also the most serious about trigger discipline out of everyone in the group.

-Loves to swear and drink, and tends to challenge you to a contest of one or both of those things since soldiers do both in ample amounts. Or at least that’s what she learned from movies. 

-Tends to take your camo-cap, beanie, beret, or helmet, from off your head and put it on herself. If you want it back you gotta pay the toll. Or you could try to put her in a friendly headlock, whichever works.

-Geeks out over deciding which military focused tattoos would look great on you and which ones she can get for herself so you both have a matching set.

Jacob:

-”Yes Captain, my Captain!” Is a common phrase from Jacob when he’s messing around with you. It was annoying at first, but the sincerity and positive energy he puts into it brings a smile to your face...of course its also led to some confusion as others think you’re a Captain now.

-He can’t stand all the pomp and circumstance of a regimented lifestyle like the military, always taking orders and having to obey etc etc. But he has to admit, you make it appealing in your own way. 

-Jacob’s not into any of that PT and weapon drills you run for the other survivors, but he does like watching you do it while sitting back with a cigar. He can also be found cheering you on when you have a sparring match with one of the others. 

-He might occasionally make a comment about soldiers or military being mindless drones who kill, but he won’t say it to you or around you. 

Ryan:

-You actually remembered Ryan from the airport and kept referring to him as a firefighter, until he (in one of his first displays of affection to you) shared the truth that he wasn’t really a firefighter. Just a male stripper who used the costume to get past the guards. Something about that sent you into a deep fit of laughter, and 

-You’ve both had shirtless (or even fully naked) flexing contests in the mirror to see who has the best body from all their training and working out. Ryan always says you look better than him no matter what.

-He jokes about perhaps dressing up in a uniform too and taking on the role as your CO, which you tell him no because you’ve grown to really like his Firefighter persona. (Especially since impersonating a soldier like that is disrespectful and in a crisis situation might be even more illegal than impersonating a firefighter.)

-Ryan has a keychain that reminds him of his brother, and so you gave him one of your tags to add to it, so he can think of you whenever you are separated for a while by your missions.

General Interactions and Headcanons:

-Due to your position, duty, and uniform, survivors tend to call you ‘Trooper’ ‘Guard’ ‘Soldier’ or by the rank you are wearing at the time.

-You have a growing collection of dog tags from every undead soldier you put down. They might have been monsters when they attacked you, but before that each one was someone’s father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter...someone’s lover. Its only right they get some kind of closure when all of this is over. 

-Your bayonete is slowly becoming your lucky charm. Its always there when the swarms get big or when the ammo runs dry. Its also pretty intimidating to hostile survivors and when stabbed into a zombie it gives you some good distance to catch your breath and figure out your next move.

-You are the best at handling Grenadier Walkers, and can sometimes re-arm from them if you manage to take them down without igniting their explosives.

- Thanks to Ryan and you both wearing uniforms that seem to indicate you are in positions of authority, random survivors defer to you both for help and guidance. You are starting to become somewhat of a team leader because of this.

-Surviving military personnel, like those at the beach, are a little more lenient to you and the Slayers if you speak first. They might be willing to part ways with some extra supplies if you ask nicely or can offer something in return. Teh extra bit of firepower is going to really help out in the days to come.

-You made sure that everyone learned proper gun-safety and trigger discipline. Emma, Andrea, and Michael nearly shot someone by accident when you first arrived at Emma’s mansion. There are no hospitals, so accidental shootings are even more dangerous now than before. This is a crisis situation and everyone needs to know how to handle a firearm, even at its most basic level, without hurting themselves even if they don’t like guns. Out of the whole group Bruno and Luciana appreciated the lessons the most. While Amanda is absolutely not allowed to handle a gun ever again.  

-Andrea looks to you for guidance as an authority figure more so than the other Slayers and taught Amy a soldier’s prayer to say for you.

-Carlos is happy to help you do maintenance on your firearms, and even watch as you explain certain things so he can help repair the group’s equipment.

-You’ve taken to occasionally having shooting competitions with Curtis.

-Luciana was excited to learn from you that in their off time a lot of soldiers indulge in nerdy hobbies like miniatures, tabletop RPGs, or Anime weaboo stuff. Its not always just guns and marching and chest thumping. 

-Dr Reed was initially worried about your presence, as not everything about his operation is actually approved of by the CDC, but you presented more valuable data and were of too low a rank to know the full truth and be a risk to his plans. 

-The Other Numen of the Eschaton group don’t exactly like you. They see you as an agent of the old order, one which must die out (along with the ‘unevolved’ parts of humanity). But so long as you don’t get in their way (and because you have six other Numen on your side/one devoted lover) they hold off on trying to harm you. Someday your two groups may come to blows. Not now, but eventually.

-Sam B did not initially trust you as he’s been burnt by the authorities too many times. But after everything you’ve all been through together, he trusts you as much as he does the rest of the Hell-A Slayers. He may not have much love or trust for anyone in authority, but in his eyes, you are one of the good ones, maybe even the best.

-Patton initially saluted you, old training taking over as he mistook you for an officer, and then was a little hostile to you. Like many veterans abandoned after their service, he has a bit of resentment towards the military for using him and tossing him away. But when he sees you being an action hero and saving people, that will quickly turn around. 

-The Nightmares can get bad sometimes. You can remember the screams of people you considered your brothers and sisters, you can still hear the calls over the radio:

“Ghouls are climbing over the fence, we’re hanging on by a thread!”

“3 O’ clock! One of those big fuckers just flipped a humvee!”

“The Earthquke cracked open the sewers, we got...we got fucking monsters spilling out of the ground!”

“Oh God we just lost the civvies! The quakes knocked over the evac bus!”

“The quakes just knocked over the artillery over by the hill, I repeat, artillery battery is unable to engage.”

“This is the boardwalk FOB, we’ve taken 90% losses! We need a ride out of here or we’re all going to die!”

“Get those Little Birds out of here! The fucking ghouls are jumping on them!”

“Ghouls breaking through the...shit...we cannot hold this position any longer. Broken Arrow! Broken Arrow! Broken Arrow! Turn our position to glass! I wanna die quick by the bombs....6-4 signing out...God help us...”

You’ve been left twitching in bed or reaching for a weapon, only for your lover to calm you down. They brush away any shame or fear you might have. They’ve fought through swarms of the undead, killed monsters alongside you and stood up to the Eschaton Group for you. They won’t abandon you because you have some chronic night terrors. They love you and once all this is over, they will do whatever it takes to get you the therapy you need, and be by your side to support you no matter what.

[angsty-twihardxx]

YOU ARE THE REASON | 3 | T. MILLER

Summary: Happily moved into Jackson with your love.

Warning: As always my fics are generally 18+ cuz swears and also mentions of bullet wounds and tommy being sad :( besides that its super fluffy enjoy <3

Tommy Miller x fem!reader

A/N: I loved writing this and I'm overwhelmed with the love I recieved for it. Lemme know plz if you would like another fic about our sexy texan man. ILY <3

6 MONTHS LATER

Winter was at the end of its cycle, the snow on the ground slowly began to melt away. What was left of it crunched under your boots as you walked along the street. Small yellow beams from the  string lights guided your way up the hill where your home sat. The colours of Jackson still took you by surprise, being used to the military grey you had surrounded yourself with for nearly twenty years. 

You had finished in the garden for the day, taking home with you a few extra vegetables for your own dinner. Since moving to Jackson you had taken up a few little jobs, you loved how effortless it was. No soldiers breathing down your neck, no life or death stakes, just watering plants and turning soil. Of course you did work at the town’s clinic, you helped out a bit here and there. Being one of very few qualified doctors in the compound, so you didn’t mind. 

The sky was filled with pinks and oranges as the sun was getting ready to set for the day, it was your favourite time. Mainly because it was around the time that patrol finished, which meant that Tommy came home. It was like before, when your life was normal. The two of you would leave in the morning to go to work, then come home to each other at the end of the day. 

Reaching the home; the wooden boards of the porch creaked under each step. You kicked the snow off of your boots, shedding off the layers as the warmth of your home engulfed you. Never in years have you had a fireplace, it was something that you never realised that you took for granted. This was the first winter that you didn’t spend completely freezing. You even had a whole bed, not just a mattress on the floor, an actual bed. In fact it quite reminded you of your own home the two of you had before, warm yellow sheets reminded you of the ones you bought for your first home. The ones Tommy said looked like cheese. 

You were quite sore from working all day, so you opted to have your cup of coffee outside on the porch. Wrapping a blanket over yourself you bundled up on the old worn out sofa you placed on the porch. A content sigh left your mouth, the hot liquid warming you up from the inside. 

From your porch you could see the main street, you watched silently all the people that were going in and out of the Tipsy Bison, sure enough going for some food and drinks. You heard that Maria was on bar duty today, so you knew the food would be good. 

Outside the cinema were kids running and throwing snowballs at one another. You smiled as you heard their delighted screams all the way from here. It was part of the promise that Tommy made to you. 

You kept your eyes on the gate, on the wall furthest away from your home. It was like this every afternoon, waiting patiently for Tommy to come home. This was one thing that was the same as living in the quarantine zone, the anxiety as you waited, whether or not he would come through the gate. Because although unlikely, you couldn’t imagine what you would do if something happened to him. 

Birds screech as they soar into the sky, the gate they were perching on suddenly shuddered open. Everyone rode in on their horses and gathered at the stables, your eyes falling on the familiar dark mop of hair. Your heart settled knowing that he was home. 

You wondered how he managed, after the incident in the hospital. The two of you tried not to bring it up anymore, you knew it was very hard for Tommy to talk about. You knew that he would have nightmares about it, being awake as well you would him gasp himself awake, then his hands would search for you in the dark. Once he successfully latched himself into you he would go back to sleep. Or the mornings that you decided to get up before him to get an early start to the day, he would walk down the stairs in a panic. For a brief moment, you recognised the frightened look in his eyes that would disappear the second he found you. 

You didn’t remember much about what happened, Joel told you some parts.  When you were all still in Boston and Tommy would finally sleep. He would stay up and answer whatever questions you had.

All you remembered before you passed out was Tommy’s fear-struck face and his glassy eyes looking down at you. It definitely was a memory you wished you could forget. The sound of his cries as you started to feel your eyelids get heavy. It would be those visions and sounds that kept you up at night, waking you up from your dreams in a cold sweat. 

You woke up a couple days later, in a smaller hospital on the other side of Boston. One that had not yet been attacked by Fireflies, removing the bullet that was plunged in your abdomen. The few days you were asleep felt like an eternity for Tommy, spending the entire time awake, wondering if you would wake up. For the first time in a long time he prayed, not to anyone specifically. Just promising that if you woke up, he would keep you safe, he would be a better person. Even if he felt that he didn’t deserve to be forgiven, he knew that you did. You spent the entire twenty years helping people, keeping them alive. Even if it was for fucken FEDRA, everything you did was so good. And he would do anything to have you stay with him. 

If his life depended on it, because it in fact did. 

He cried to himself thinking what he would have to do if he had to spend the rest of his future alone, it scared him more than anything. His whole life had been about you, living with you, marrying you, having a family with you and getting old with you. 

You opened your eyes for the first time after having surgery, he was sitting in a chair beside you. Not awake, but not entirely asleep, he held his heavy head in his hand. Heavy bags under his eyes and tear-stained cheeks indicated to you that he hadn’t slept, nor had he changed, wearing the same blood-stained jacket you saw him in.  You winced at the amount of blood on him. The bed creaked as you shuffled uncomfortably, the noise quickly startling the man next to you. 

Within seconds he was on his feet and by your side, his large calloused hands engulfing your cheeks. “Holy shit baby, I thought I lost you.” He breathed out, his eyes beginning to brim with tears again, his eyes scanned you quickly. You knew what he was doing, convincing himself that you were really here. 

He had been sitting alone in this room with no one to talk to but himself, his mind went to the worst possible scenarios. What if you didn’t make it? What if the surgery didn’t work? He blamed himself, he should’ve taken you away from this place sooner. He should’ve fucken known that the fireflies were going to ambush, he should’ve told you to stay home. 

“Tommy–” You breathed out in relief, unknowingly bringing him back. He had you in his arms in seconds. You hissed at the sharp pain piercing your side, Tommy dropped his arms just as quickly. His eyes moved up at yours, and there was that look again. You hadn't seen him look so scared. “Hey, I’m alright.” You declared softly, raising your hand to hold his cheeks, for a second the two of you sat on that bed. Tommy relished in your touch, your thumb grazing his stubble. Something that he thought he’d never feel again. 

“I thought you were gone.” His voice breaks as his eyes move up to connect with yours. 

The words you had ready, fell out of your mouth as he crashed his face in the crook of your neck. Which usually you would thread your fingers through his black curls, but this time his shoulders shook into your hands as you tried to soothe him. No matter how many hush whispers into his hair he continued to cry, and you let him for as long as it took. There was nothing that you could say to him that would make him feel better, he just needed to know that you were okay. 

“What if this is a sign? That we should stay in Boston.” 

“What?” Your brow furrowed in confusion, you pushed gently on his shoulders forcing him to look up at you. He looked like a broken man, you had never seen him so conflicted before. “Tommy this happened in Boston, because of the Fireflies-“

“Yeah and I couldn’t get to you, if those soldiers weren’t there then— then we probably wouldn’t be here right now.“ 

There it was, Tommy was never much the type of man to directly tell you how he was feeling. You knew how much he wanted to leave, there was absolutely no doubt about it. But now you understood why, not because he was scared of the risks. He was quite aware of them but was so willing anyway. He felt guilty, worried he won't be able to help you again. 

“Tommy.” You couldn’t stop your voice from quivering as you held him. “None of this is your fault, no one would have known this was going to happen. You know that right?” 

You sighed when you were given no response. “We’re going to Jackson Tommy.” 

Your eyes finally caught Tommy's figure, walking up the hill to your shared home along with his brother Joel. His eyes look up to meet yours, which he returns with a wide grin. Even though he had spent all day out on patrol, he was a lot more cleaned up then when you were in Boston. The access to electricity and warm water was another luxury for you guys. Here in Jackson, it was the norm. 

“Hey baby.” Tommy greeted you happily, sauntering up the stairs towards you. “Hi there cowboy.” Leaning over your seat, his lips met yours for a chaste kiss. You smiled into it, a content sigh leaving your mouth. You tilted up your chin at an attempt to deepen the kiss but to your surprise he pulled away before you had the chance. Furrowing your brow you cocked your head up at him, looking at him in confusion. 

“Put your coat on, got a surprise for ya.” 

“But I’m so warm.” You sighed, Tommy shook his head as he stood you up by the blanket you wrapped yourself in. “Sure you don’t want a shower first?” 

“Okay fine, but then you are coming with me for the surprise.” He shouted to you as he walked into the house, which was great because you bought yourself a few more extra minutes in your blanket. You figured that he was taking you somewhere in the town, Tommy explored alot more of the town before you. When the two of you arrived you were still quite sore, you spent your first few weeks simply resting and giving your body time. But now Tommy was determined to get you out and about, showing you everything that this town had to offer. 

As the two of you walked closer you noticed the warm yellow lights inside the local bar. Not that you had been in there, still slightly traumatised by the dinghy bar in Boston that was usually full of drunken soldiers looking to start something.

But this was nothing like it. You stood in the entrance completely taken aback by the amount of people. Everyone was here to celebrate with the newly married couple that had been here much longer than you and Tommy. The groom worked with him on patrols, so he introduced you to the couple. You tried to remember the first time you had been to a wedding. 

There was music, laughter and even more lights that were strung along the rafters. It was something you’d never imagine that you’d see again in your lifetime, yet here you were. You must have been standing there for a while, a hand on your arm brought your attention back to Tommy. “Y’alright?”

“Y-yeah this place is beautiful.”  You sighed happily, letting Tommy guide you to the bar where Joel and Ellie sat. “You guys hungry? Got some extra sandwiches for ya.” Ellie chimed in patting the stool next to her, which you took. 

You liked Ellie from the second you met her. She was quick-witted, funny and most importantly she was smart. And you also liked how she kept Joel in line, it felt good seeing him happy for a change. She u an easy transition into your small little family, you’d imagine that she and Sarah would’ve gotten along well. You were glad Ellie offered you the food because it took you by surprise with how good it was, definitely better than what you could get with rations in Boston. 

“Holy shit! What the fuck is that?” Ellie shouted, her arm pointing furiously outside. After regaining your composure and eating the last of the sandwich you nearly choked on, you looked past her pointed index finger to where there children were playing with some sparklers. “Y’never seen sparklers before?” Joel asked her, mid chew. 

“Fuck no dude!” She looked back at you with excitement plastered over her face. You absolutely adored how easily excited she was over what you would consider normal. Although in this instance you didn’t blame her, you don’t think you’ve seen these in years. “How about you finish your food, and we’ll go get you some.” 

And you did, because you never break a promise. Tommy leaned against the wall outside as you watched Ellie proudly, holding her hand with the sparkler and writing her name out with the bright yellow ember. He loved how patient you were with her when she dropped the first sparkler you gave her, scared of the yellow sparks. So you waited a moment for her to get her composure back and you tried again. 

A part of him felt crushed with the fact that he never gave you any children. But to be fair neither of you felt it would be right to bring a child into this world. But maybe in Jackson, after all that was why you came here. For a better future. 

“What’re the big heart eyes for lover boy?” You leaned into him, bringing him out of his trance. “Just admiring’ ya is all.” You scoffed at him playfully, the fact that he could still make you blush after all this time. With a content sigh, you dropped your head onto his shoulder. His arm wrapped around you, your eyes watched over the now dark sky. The string lights doing nowhere as much damage as the bright lights that would be on everynight in the QZ, the stars shining as bright as you remembered it. 

Ellie had joined the rest of the children that were playing on the street, you didn’t think you would get used to hearing their cheerful screams. You were glad that you decided to bite the bullet and push down those insecurities and do this with him. Especially now, you don’t think that you could live without this. You were content and you were grateful. 

“This place is pretty perfect Tommy.”

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

i don’t think my writing skills are up to the task of describing what it’s like, so if you’re gonna go play the game Just Go Do That, but it’s like.

you’re in space cruising by a planet and for some reason your ship decides to explode. so you crash-land on this alien planet and your escape pod barely survived entry. shit’s busted. scanners offline. you know that you need to go make a repair tool, and that’s it. so you go for a swim in the nice safe shallows, gather up the supplies you need, and repair your little home base.

scanners come online. HIGH LEVELS OF FOREIGN BACTERIA IN THE WATER, it helpfully informs you. EXPLORATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED WITHOUT FULL PROTECTIVE GEAR. and you look outside your little pod and it’s just fucking water for miles. and you’ve already gone for a dip. hell, you’ve probably already drank the stuff without doing much more than running it through a makeshift filter. so you immediately know infection’s a foregone conclusion, you’re just waiting on When, and How Bad Is It.

and you’ve got a little scanner, it’s one of the most basic pieces of your kit, and one thing you can do is self-scan. it comes up green the first few times, but small comfort, right? every you’re okay is immediately followed in your head with: for now.

oh yeah, the other thing you immediately repair is a radio. ...and distress calls start coming in almost immediately, from the other people who were on the ship with you. in their own escape pods. but by the time you make it to any of their coordinates, you find the same thing every time: sunk, wrecked, pieces ripped out of the hull by god-knows-what. it’s starting to look more and more like you’re the only one who made it.

and then you get a new transmission: from a ship called the Sunbeam.

you don’t have the ability to transmit yourself, all you can do is receive, so all you can do is listen. the Sunbeam is rerouting to your planet. looking for a landing spot. it’s coming for you. they send you coordinates for dry land: it’s not a fantastic landing spot, but it’ll have to do. not a ton of options, as it turns out. so you head for it.

and when you get to the island you see... a building? it doesn’t look organic, jutting up out of the water into the sky, but it’s also unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. your scanners say it’s impossibly advanced. inhuman. you can forge your way inside, do some poking around, and if you’ve timed it well you can get all the way into its control room before the Sunbeam gets there. your little PDA can’t translate much of the language it’s using, except that this is apparently something called an enforcement platform.

(if you happen do a self-scan around this time, you’ll realize it’s started coming up red: INFECTED.)

so if you do happen to get all the way to the control room, and try to interface with this thing, it will: grab your arm, take a blood sample, and then spit you back out and lock itself up. this is the first thing your PDA manages to translate from the alien language: INFECTED INDIVIDUALS MAY NOT DISABLE THE ENFORCEMENT PLATFORM.

THIS PLANET IS UNDER QUARANTINE.

around now is when, if your timing’s good, the Sunbeam starts to land. and this is when the whole alien building turns on, activates, starts to blare a warning, starts to grind and turn itself, and you realize this isn’t a building at all, it’s a massive fucking gun, and now it’s pointed right at the Sunbeam coming in for a landing.

it blows it out of the sky before it can so much as attempt an abort. the Sunbeam’s smaller than your ship. there aren’t even any pieces of it left big enough to salvage.

nobody comes in. nobody goes out.

this planet is under quarantine.

[ladymordecai]

I read a fascinating book, Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, which both goes into the epidemiology of rabies and world societal and historical effects of rabies. There were two stories that have stuck with me the most.

First: Louis Pasteur (yes him) worked for years to create a vaccine for rabies, moving through different animals, desperately trying to weaken the virus enough to be useful. As he was starting to have success, a boy contracted rabies (I don't remember how, but statistically, probably bitten by a rabid dog). Everyone knew it was a death sentence. But people also knew about Pasteur's work, and how close he was, and she brought her son to him because there was literally no way the situation could be worse. Pasteur's first human trial was a child whose mother was trying to save him.

It worked.

That's a miracle, okay? Rabies has a 100% death rate. Before a reliable vaccine, if you got rabies you died. If you don't get the vaccine quickly enough today, you will die, and it will be horrible for you and everyone around you.

The second story that I remember was of a team traveling through the rural countryside of a south asian country (I don't remember which one, sorry, and I don't have the book at hand), trying to vaccinate all the farm dogs. They always had trouble when they first approached a town or farm, because these people were rightfully wary of strange westerners! But once they managed to communicate why they were there--to vaccinate the dogs against rabies--the farmers not only let them in, they would gather all their free-running dogs up so they could get vaccinated, and often would go with them or otherwise communicate to their neighbors what was going on, and everyone in the community would rush to get their dogs vaccinated.

The book was very clear: their cultural relationship with their dogs looked very different from the relationship we have in the urban west, but they loved their animals and they knew rabies was horrible and they did everything they could to protect their dogs and themselves.

Vaccinate your dogs. I believe they are still, worldwide, the number one vector for rabies to humans. Also, if your dog isn't vaccinated and they do get exposed to rabies, most places (in the US at least) mandate euthanasia. If they have an up-to-date vaccine, or have been vaccinated at least once, then the CDC recommendation is quarantine under observation.

Vaccinate your cats, especially if you let them outside. Regardless of your stance on outdoor cats, according to the CDC, cats in the US are becoming a larger vector for rabies because of looser laws around their control and vaccination.

If you're interested, I highly recommend reading Rabid--it's a fascinating look at a disease that has played a major role in human cultures since the agricultural revolution.

And get yourself and your pets vaccinated!

"I've decided not to vaccinate my animals. Think about it, how often do you see a rabid dog?"

Yes Heather think about it. Think about how few rabid dogs you see in your comfortable western country with easy access to vet care. Think about why it might be that you've never seen a rabid dog. Really dig deep here you absolute fucking fool.

[petdelmovers]

Understanding Common Pet Travel Obstacles

Moving or traveling with a pet can be an exciting adventure but comes with its fair share of challenges. From navigating the logistics of Pet Transport Service to dealing with the stress and anxiety that pets may experience during travel, understanding common pet travel obstacles can help you better prepare for a smooth and safe journey. 

In This, We Will Explore Some Challenges Pet Owners May Encounter When Travelling With Their Furry Friends And How To Overcome Them:

Finding Reliable Pet Transport Services

One of pet owners' first challenges when planning to travel with their pets is finding reliable pet transport services. Whether you are moving to a new city within India or traveling to a different country, it's essential to choose a reputable and experienced pet transport service.

Look for Pet Transportation Services in Bangalore or pet transport within India that have good reviews, proper credentials, and comply with all necessary regulations and requirements. It's also essential to inquire about the safety measures they have in place to ensure your pet's well-being during transit.

Managing Pet Anxiety and Stress

Pets can experience anxiety and stress during travel due to changes in their routine, environment, and the unfamiliarity of the situation. This can display in various ways, such as excessive barking, panting, restlessness, or aggression. To overcome this challenge, it's crucial to familiarize your pet with their carrier or crate well before the travel date. You can also use calming aids, such as pheromone sprays or natural supplements, under the guidance of a veterinarian. Additionally, spending extra time with your pet, providing comfort, and maintaining a routine during travel can help reduce anxiety and stress.

Ensuring Proper Documentation and Health Requirements

Depending on the destination, travel with pets may require specific documentation and health requirements. This can include health certificates, vaccinations, and permits. It's important to research and understand the specific requirements of your destination and ensure that you have all the necessary paperwork in order before your trip. Failing to comply with these conditions can result in delays, quarantine, or even denial of entry for your pet. Consulting with a veterinarian or a professional pet transport service can ensure that you have all the necessary documentation and health requirements for a smooth travel experience.

Adapting to Transportation Regulations

Transportation regulations for pets can vary depending on the mode of transport, destination, and airline or transportation company. These regulations may include crate or carrier specifications, weight restrictions, and travel restrictions during extreme weather conditions. It's essential to familiarize yourself with the transportation regulations and guidelines of your chosen mode of transport and communicate with the airline or transportation company to ensure compliance. Professional pet transport services can also guide and assist in navigating these regulations and ensuring your pet travels safely and comfortably.

Planning for Pet Comfort and Well-being

Pets have specific comfort and well-being needs during travel; planning for them is essential. This may include providing ample food and water, scheduling regular bathroom breaks, and ensuring adequate ventilation and temperature control in the carrier or crate. It's also important to provide familiar items, such as their favorite blanket or toy, to help reduce stress and make them feel more at ease. Planning ahead and taking the necessary steps to ensure your pet's comfort and well-being during travel can help make the journey more pleasant for you and your furry friend.

Handling Travel Emergencies

Despite careful planning, unforeseen emergencies may arise during pet travel. This can include unexpected delays, cancellations, or health issues. It's crucial to be prepared and have a contingency plan in place. This may include carrying extra food, water, medications, and essential supplies for your pet. Having contact information for local veterinarians, pet hospitals, and emergency services at your destination is also crucial. It's also advisable to have a backup plan for your pet's care if you cannot travel with them due to unforeseen circumstances. Professional pet transport services can assist in handling travel emergencies and ensuring your pet's well-being during unexpected situations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, traveling with pets can present various challenges, but these obstacles can be overcome with proper planning, preparation, and the assistance of reliable pet transport services. Finding reputable pet transport services, managing pet anxiety and stress, complying with documentation and health requirements, adapting to transportation regulations, planning for pet comfort and well-being, and handling travel emergencies are key factors in ensuring a safe and smooth travel experience for your furry companion.

If you are in Bangalore or planning to transport your pet within India, choosing a professional pet transportation service like us, Petdel Movers handling domestic pet transport is essential. Get in touch with us if you are looking for reliable pet transportation services in Bangalore or Pet Transport Within India because we have a good track record, comply with all necessary regulations, and prioritize your pet's well-being during transit. With the right preparation, care, and assistance, we can help your pet adjust easily and comfortably to a new home or travel destination easily and comfortably.

[fridge-reviews]

Mini Games 7

The criteria for this is very simple, all of these games can be completed in three hours or under (without using exploits etc). The reason for this? Well I find that sometimes, often in fact, that people just don't have time to play a longer game. So I thought I'd show some of the shorter ones some love!

Developer: Final Boss Entertainment Publisher: Final Boss Entertainment Rrp: £6.99 (Steam) Released: 30th September 2014

I've been noticing a trend of 'old school' inspired games lately, especially within the genre of the first person shooter. Many try to ape their predecessors by having a lower graphical fidelity or simplified mechanics. Wrack isn't one of these games, if anything this game reminds me more of Bulletstorm than something like Quake. While Wrack does have a story its clearly paper thin and only intended to be a flimsy justification for progressing the game. The thing is if you're playing this for the story you're really missing the point, this is about high scores and trying to build up combos and on that front it does a pretty decent job.

If I do have a bone to pick with this game its that the enemies AI is extremely simplistic, every enemy will start to advance toward you once they see you, even if they have ranged weapons. This meant that in quite a few occasions I just stood around a corner to avoid projectiles and then hit anything that rounded it with a sword (usually killing in a single blow). This isn't a bad game by any means but for only eight pounds more you can buy Doom and get a longer more full and challenging experience. -------

Developer: Bithell Games Publisher: Bithell Games Rrp: £4.79 (Steam) Released: 22nd May 2018 After the success of Subsurface Circular (and it was a success even if it wasn't all that well known) Mike Bithell is back with Quarantine Circular. Unbelievably this game was made a good two years before anyone had even heard of Covid-19 because it almost feels like this game was written for it. This game is set in the near future with humanity facing a global pandemic, one that seems set to wipe us out completely. However it seems that help has come from beyond the stars, or rather the vistor may help depending on your decisions.

The whole game is over in just about two hours but I have to say it was a great two hours. I replayed this over and over again trying to get all the various scenarios.

-------

Developer: Colestia Publisher: Colestia Rrp: £3.99 Released: June 9th 2020 This game is a bit of a strange one, for starters its a thriller which isn't a genre something video games really manage to pull off often. The other thing that makes this game so unusual is that the events that you're investigating are all true. It's your job to piece together the actual international conspiracy that was happening during the Cold War and you'll be doing this by carefully searching through archives and using an evidence board to show how it all connects. The closes game I can think of that this is somewhat similar to is Her Story, because you're left to piece it together for yourself.

It might not have been the intention of the developers (though I suspect it was) but even though I was only searching through files this game had me feeling a strange feeling of tension. Every so often you could hear the sound of people pulling boxes of evidence even though you know you're the only one in the room, security cameras move, suspicious looking cars appear in the street outside and drive off when you see them... it all adds to this odd feeling that you're being watched and that you might not be entirely safe. Nothing happened to me during my play time but it was damned effective at making me paranoid.

I'd say this game well worth a look for those of you looking for something just a bit different.

-------

Developer: Dreamlike Publisher: Dreamlike Rrp: £1.69 (Steam Released: 12th April 2021 I think this is the shortest game I've played in a quite a while, lasting a whole twenty five minutes and that was with me getting stuck for a moment. Chicken Holmes (no, I'm not writing the rest) is a escape the room style point and click adventure game.

I've played a few games like this before however this one was made somewhat more difficult simply because of the translation or rather because of the poor translation. I'm not entirely sure what the native language of the developers are but I'm quite certain that they are either Spanish or Portugese speakers. Sadly whomever did the translation wasn't quite up for the task. There were a lot of grammatical errors and typo's that made the game a bit more difficult that it should have been and... well there is an entire section where there is no translation at all. It's near the end and its apparently some kind of movie line but its an untranslated one which meant that whatever it was referencing completely passed me by.

To be honest I'd not really bother with this game, I didn't hate the game but I didn't enjoy it either and there are far better games you can play for this price or even less.

-------

Developer: Onyx Lute Publisher: Onyx Lute Rrp: £3.99 (Humblebundle and Steam) Released: 18th November 2016 Putting it simply this game is just a bunch of small, yet challenging, jigsaw puzzles. Although rather than it being a jigsaw in the traditional sense you put together stained glass clock faces. Why clock faces? Honestly I haven't not a clue. What I can tell you though is that I found this game a joy to play, I just put a podcast on in the background and unwound.

The thing is the music in the game is great too but I just really wanted to listen to my own stuff after a while and usually I'm not the sort of person who can do that with most games. This one though felt almost built for that kind of use. Mentally stimulating but not taxing to the point I'd really have concentrate.

[weabbynormalblog]

Day 19 of Canadian Quarantine.

Ground breaking method for managing stress. The Min Hoff Technic below.

These days I count myself as lucky.

I'm lucky there's food in the fridge. I live in Canada. My meds are up to date. My family and those I care for are safe, warm and dry. No one's sick so far that I know personally. 😀💕

We all really need to appreciate all the good. Especially when things seem so bad and there's clearly more suffering in the world. Let's not add to it. The news is sensationalized there is no doubt, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I know it's difficult to believe that there is a silver lining here. Change is happening all the time, you never know when the tide will shift again, maybe on better winds.

Being proactive about anything like health is worthwhile. Whether it's by staying home, being more self reliant, organized, getting more rest or doing less, meditation, eatting fresh produce, exercising and maybe even following a "lifestyle" schedule, or you could be learning something new like painting by Bob Ross to Taichi or a Yoga pose will be beneficial to you the reader. Under the stress of what we are all experiencing in some in epic proportions.

We all need some beneficial distraction and support. I'm here!

All we need as individuals is to manage our lives as best we can in the right now moment. True some humans are better equipped than others. Everything we do now as humanity will have the butterfly effect and will potentially ripple for years to come.

No pressure... lol

Some people are dealing well under the circumstances picking up better health regimes, learning new skills, working together as a business, as a family unit or helping out in the community. Then there's others who have lost everything. We all must pitch in and find a way to pick ourselves up and feel out our way together as we stumble out of the darkness. All of us will experience this at some point or another. Life is difficult, never predictable and we are always learning and adapting.

Everyone needs to learn to accept their fear of the unknowns. I know its really scary with all that's going on. We must learn to face our fears so we can still see and find realistic solutions.

How do we find some peace with all of this? Keep power in the facts. Have a level head. Choose to table brainstorming with your co-inhabitants. Weighing the pros, the cons, possible solutions and possible draw backs will always have better results in the long run, opposed to knee jerk reactions. Agree to disagree in the wake of what is a priority. Contact your relative branch of the government to support and maintain humanitarian efforts. We all bleed the same. Above all stay positive or at least adopt a more neutral attitude not depended on a certain outcome. Change your vocabulary. There's no such thing as perfect or normal. When we change our thoughts and vocabulary we have the power to transform our lives. Face it, we are responsible for each other now. Our very hygienic habbits and isolation abilities depend upon it. It's not through hate, fear or gluttony that humanity will prevail but in spite of everything else we will overcome, grow and adapt.

The world is changing and so are we. We can decide how to build our future. As a human animal we are evolving from this Pandemic whether or not we choose to accept it. 9/11 changed how we live in this world. It only stands to reason that this too will show us humans what we are really made of.

When lightening strikes a forest, it burns and smoldiers often causing fire, havoc and destruction and loss. In the wake of the destruction of plants, trees and animals they will return to grow and flourish again as nature dictates.

Any positive changes made to amuse our bodies and minds has serious pay outs under these global stressors. Suddenly we are forced outside our "comfort zone" for the 1st time in hundreds of years. Adversity can make you stronger. The human animal must choose to flee or stay. To support or destroy. We have time to ponder and it's never been more vital than now. How do wish to go on from here? What will we prioritize and choose to celebrate will mean so much more in the future. All that is more precious will be protected to remain.

We have time to listen, to discuss and change. Above all accept some certain hard truths about faith, science and personal beliefs. To take a leap and to choose to trust in others, to be a part of a better coalition for humanity and our planet this is important. How will the human in the future look back on us during this time. What is our message for them?

This is our wake up call people. We have the power to make this a better world, one moment at a time.

Yes our livelihoods have crumbled under the pressure of what is essential and necessary to human kind. Those who can are paying it forward, it's a beautiful thing to see. Yes some humans run from the fire, some dive underwater. Some also learn to fly. Those who lead by good example show us our gifts like inclusion, compassion and empathy. With hard times ahead we will need altruism and all kinds of usefull skills, like clear communication,creativity, patience and lots of wisdom too. We can learn so much from each other when we are not divided by prejudices. We can choose this "time" we have been given as a gift or a curse. It's all a matter of what perspective that you are experiencing it from.

I've always assumed that this world would never stop for anyone. I guess I was wrong. I used to say stop this world I want to get off. Now the world did stop. I don't have to pay my taxes till September. Maybe there's no death too, or it will be waylaid in some miraculous fashion. The human brains' perception can be tricked and fooled too so who knows. We haven't had to run or fight our "foe" for a long time. Now it's microscopic. We can still strive for greatness while serving ourselves and our neighbors good health. We can learn to become stronger, co-create more mutuality beneficial solutions. In the end we will more resilient and less fearful of the unknown because we can take care of our right now. So let go of what you can not change, accept what you can and go boldly forward into the unknown with peace in your heart.

THE MIN HOFF TECHNIC

Breath in and out as deeply and quickly that is comfortable for you, in through your nose and out your mouth to the count of 30, it's exhal and hold it untill your are comfortable to inhale and hold and then breath normally. Please note you may experience some lightheadedness as well as the ability to think clearer under situations of duress. As it helps your body to make better use if oxygenation during a stressful event or situation. This guy stoped himself from getting frostbite from using this type of breathing method. All situations were scientifically measured. Conscious breathing can be a miraculous amazing thing.