#I'm sorry the text formatting is off every now and then

[salamifuposey]

Orange Juice - Chapter 8 - The Aftermath

Orange Juice - Chapter 8 - The Aftermath

Much after the pandemonium had finally settled, Lemmy and his own friends had seemingly finally captured the ominous character Buloke.

As Buloke continued to persevere even despite all hits and surprises upon him, including Lemmy trying to sneak up from behind him, Hector barely able to be up to Buloke's own power and Garter's own help, thanks to the interference of Lady Miriam on one of V.I.V headquarter's helicopters, Dayley letting drop off Henrick to the scene of fight and letting Henrick buy off time enough for everyone to come together, Dayley stopping Buloke just in time before coming after Jayt had previously launched a fiery blaze towards him, and the assistance of one of Lemmy's friends that he had brought with him from Aurea to their world, Vonderv, they had managed to single-handedly capture Buloke Iron with Vonderv's own ability that allowed him to imprison Buloke Iron temporarily and seize his own madness.

Previously, Hector and Garter had been quite struggling against their greatest foe, only for Buloke to impose a threat upon him, causing Garter to completely pull all of his entire power to entirely pull and tug Buloke, causing himself and Buloke to shatter the iron factory's own side windows and ultimately falling from outside of it.

As Buloke had finally been seized and everyone had gathered up, Lemmy had also learned from his mother Buloke's own mysterious roots and from whence he came from, including his past as Hector's own mentor on that very same night, much of Garter's past also being solved.

Ever since then, they simply departed back from by using their own helicopters, the gang finally being able to catch a break and Miriam able to make truce with Buloke with him partaking as a instructor on the V.I.V headquarters, further accumulating and training their own recruits.

A long night that had certainly been quite a struggle and a fight to endure, our heroes then felt like they could finally take a breath, as they all headed back home to their own appropriate accomodations, once proper healing was applied from Adven in the headquarters.

As they were tended by Adven and their own repercussions, Buloke and the rest were giving out proper explanations on what it had exactly happened and how it led to such events, all while they were kept under supervision so they wouldn't inflict upon themselves over mere recklessness.

As the morning sun then rises, our heroes then finally meet a brand new day, as a certain familiar face now wakes from their own slumber.

Deep in Intile City, there was now a peek from a life of someone, as the morning sun was dawning on them.

On the bed, laid a man, completely stretched out, completely sore still from last night, as he breathed cozily on the rather thrown about sheets that laid on the sides of the wooden bed, while still barely making the most of that slumber.

This man had a strange coloration in his own skin, a deep red, as he slightly snores, his body slightly exposed.

On his chest, and spread throughout his torso, remains a rather faded mark of an attack, made by a claw, some time ago, as he softly breathed, still remaining quite rather turbulent and slightly quivering his body to cozy it against the bed.

He could still feel the slight pinch and sting from his own mark that persisted on his own chest.

As he was still groggily sleeping, you could see glimpses of a life lived by someone who had friends. On his bed table, there were frames and pictures of those he had been with along in his own life.

One contained him with a young promiscuous blue-dressed woman. Another shared a very old photo of himself and his own childhood friend. Some others contained pictures of his own relatives and family, including his mom and his own younger sister. Even although he had no such pictures of a few more recent friends, he still carried and had with him mementos from his own friends from the Aurea dimension, from which he had brought several memories across to this own world.

The home he was in was quite humble and quite small, as this man absolutely detested having too much work cut out for him cleaning up after himself. It was a small place he had gotten to have his own house, as he had gotten it through at least, some sort of effort.

He wasn't exactly very comfortable sharing his own place with others, given the man felt like people would probably not like it much and was more adapted to his own comfort, only having had very just recently gotten a tad few more feminine presents to help decorate it.

As he now groggily wakes up, he now barely takes a stretch, still feeling quite rather queasy from all the adventure from yesterday, including getting kidnapped off by his own childhood friend's own mentor.

"... Hhhrnghh..."

As this man stretched his arms and scratches his head, he then barely could keep his eyes open, as he slightly peeked over to his own cellphone.

"..."

As Lemmy now realizes the time, he then slightly groaned, as looked over the time in his own cellphone.

"... Ugh... It's nine in the morning...." He moaned. "... I overslept, I still feel groggy from yesterday night..."

He then makes a final stretch and slowly tries to get out of bed, as he prepares for yet another day.

Lemmy then takes a quick shower, slowly brushing his teeth a little after.

As he gets snug up and tries to dress up a familiar white t-shirt, of which he had plenty of and several other colors, his slightly worn shoes and dressing his own stout jacket adorning his mini-cape, he then goes towards his own mirror that he has near the quite small living room that had the front door not too far from him, ready to check up on himself as he readied to make it out the front door.

As he clutches his own mothers' dagger that had been safely rescued off from the iron factory off from the top of a drawer, safely inclined towards a base, he then rubs the front of his own face, thinking how it all led to such a situation.

"..."

"... Man, I'm glad I got my mom's dagger back... come to think of it, this thing's been with me through my worst moments..."

As he stared at himself, he couldn't help but think and reflect on what led to his own kidnapping.

"..."

"... I've got the same red tint as Hector..." He then wondered about his own fallacy.

"... I really wonder why I got kidnapped by Buloke of all people..." He then lamented his own weaknesses and thinking he had dragged Jayt into this, after seemingly also acknowledging Jayt just so happened to be with him at that time.

"..."

"... We both have the same super-human thing..." Lemmy then started associating his super human attribute to Hector's.

"... Could it have been that somehow... Buloke saw some potential in that?..." He then wondered about Buloke's true real motivations.

"... Back then, I was trying to hit him but then he slapped my dagger off..." Lemmy reminisced Buloke slapping his dagger away from him.

"... It was almost as if... he was trying to slap me out of his own way..."

He definitely did recall it. He was remembering Buloke seemingly just tossing him aside, after the same had grabbed him by his own shirt.

"... Did he really want to hurt me?..."

Staring at his own hand, he then comes to many several questions.

Thinking back to his own mother and then Buloke's relation, he couldn't help but think.

"... What if... he was trying to take me in to replace his own prodigy?..." Lemmy wasn't quite sure why he had thought of that.

"... What if... he just wanted to take me from my own mother to... perhaps... training me?... And keep me as..."

"... a replacement for Hector, who he thought was long gone?"

He then heavily stared at his own hand thinking.

"... Do I really have that much potential?..." Lemmy was almost grasping at straws theorizing Buloke's whole intents.

He then also had reminisced about how Buloke had completely eyed Jayt after the same had launched a almost flamethrower-like attack towards him, making Buloke completely going after Jayt, everyone trying to stop him until Dayley came to stop Buloke in his own tracks.

Even after hearing Buloke directly apologizing towards him, it still felt off. As in, not quite Buloke's own apologies but rather, how it felt like it was actually truly sincere, as he had truly felt guilty of it all?

"..."

"..."

"... I'm delusional... there's no way Buloke would ever kidnap me because of that." Lemmy then simply shook those thoughts off from his own head, as he knew he had to carry on with his own day.

"..." He then slightly frowns and tries to get ready to make off right out from the door's entrance.

"If I don't get out of here soon, mom'll think I'm going lazy..." He then tried to get off from that melancholic state, as he knew he still had a girlfriend to look after and also bumping up to meet the others, hopefully making sure everyone is well.

"... I gotta make the most out of my own day!"

As the scenery then changes of Lemmy then readying himself to set out of the house and steps towards a slightly cramped street, he then sets off to make his way to his mother's V.I.V headquarters by foot, as it wasn't actually too far off from there and he truly felt like getting an house any farther from it could prove to be detrimental to his mother's own safety, in case she were ever in any trouble.

As he basks on the already quite bright sun of the day and walking breezily towards there, he couldn't help but feel like he was glad things had turned out the way it did, with not too many actual casualties towards the V.I.V headquarters.

Seemingly, Buloke's very own men were also detained, but still with a lease to do as freely as they can, without limiting their own lives as it had been explained by Lemmy's own mother, for as long they don't hurt anyone within the city's boundaries, headquarters included.

As he was getting nearer and soon approaching the headquarters however, he soon then immediately noticed Hector off from the distance, who was at least, quite a bit farther off from the V.I.V headquarters and had also came from his own place.

Lemmy then shouted from the distance while trying to get Hector's attention.

"Yo, hey, Hect-!"

"... Whoa, dude, you alright, you look like a train ran over you!" Lemmy quickly exclaimed, as Hector was walking towards him.

Just as he easily guessed it, Hector looked like he had been through quite a long arduous fight, as his front completely almost falls and he tries to drag his own feet towards the headquarters, looking as if his whole back and arms were absolutely completely tired and beaten.

"... Hahahah, yeah, I guess Buloke really did a number on me, didn't he?..."

As he approaches Lemmy, he then completely stretches and even starts to moan out.

".... Auuuugh... my back's killing me! Welp! So much for that well-rested body and soul I once had!..." He lamented, but in a way, he also didn't quite regret it. "To be fair!... I don't think I exactly eased on myself since I tried to practice with Buloke yesterday night just like the good old times!..." He then spoke. "I kinda felt bad not having been strong enough being there to defend and protect ya!..."

"... Should have just called it a rest day!..." He then sulks a wee bit.

"Aw geez, Hec, you really did all that still thinking about it?" Lemmy then tried to gently pat him on his back. "Well, at the very least, award of commemoration for having been the one who did all the trouble of going after us!"

"... Heheh, I guess, but I still gotta owe Dayley for having been the one with all the worry on his own head!" Hector still felt like he had to do something at least for Dayley to thank him over it.

"Anyway, come on, we still gotta pick up Jayt in our way." Hector then suggested, Jayt's house being only a slightly bit more closer to the V.I.V headquarters than even Lemmy's own place, quite a bit more prestiged than his also.

"Ya know, I never even seen Jayt's own house. I wonder how it's like..." Lemmy then pondered as they left wandering off.

"Oh, it's great!" Hector already was seeming to imply he had already been at Jayt's house. "I really think you'd like it... definitely quite a bit more spatious than your crib, that's for sure. I've already hanged out with him quite a lot in his own place."

As they finally ventured and made their way towards the headquarters, they had just so managed to spot Jayt not too far from them, Hector trying to catch up to him and calling for his own attention. "Hey, Jayt! We're here!"

As Jayt then ever so slowly tries catching up on to them, Lemmy and Hector then quickly approaches him.

"Hey, you all ready to go?" Hector then tried to make sure Jayt wasn't leaving anything behind back on his own house.

"... Yeah. Thanks for picking me up. Always appreciate it, heh..." Jayt then immediately shrugged off and could immediately see Lemmy was with him. "You brought Lemmy with you as well?"

"Yeah, I've groggily been walking until here... Feeling sore and all, but that's nothing when I'm with ya!" Hector then couldn't help share his own joy every time he was with Jayt.

"Aw shucks... you never really stop embarassing me, do you?..." Jayt couldn't help but blush but then immediately comforting himself right next to Hector, who tried to hold Jayt's own hand, as he looked down, feeling quite unexpectedly cheerful.

"Anyways we gotta get going! Ol' Lady Miriam's waiting for us." Hector then was trying to keep them on their own toes.

As they had finally made it to the V.I.V headquarters, they just as easily approach the headquarters' security-proofed doors allowing them inside and being welcomed by the formal and rather cozy environment of the headquarters. Having a looming building such as this on the actual city, some citizens who still lived right next to these headquarters actually had nothing to complain of, as the sturdiness of the structure allowed the headquarters to function without any environmental noise nor preoccupations neighbors and near inquilins had to worry about.

They knew of Lady Miriam's operations, but having seen the woman actually leave the structure for her own business, they have also come to learn her maternal side and how she actually treated anyone who was hired by her, not viewing her as a threat unless to the most corrupted citizens and power on the city. It was especially peculiar, given the actual name of the headquarters.

Just as they made it in, a familiar figure then easily approached, with nothing but good news to bear, with Malcolm right by her side.

"Hey, mom!" Lemmy jolted, happily seeing the smile on her face while Malcolm gave a bit of a glare towards Lemmy, but happy her son was there.

"Good to see her own son thriving... even after having had their sorry bum kicked around by a hooligan by the likes of Buloke." Malcolm seemed to like poking fun at her own son even despite their own blood relation. "Aren't you quite the charmer!"

"Yeah yeah, I get it, good ol' Malcolm, good to see ya, you sure never miss a chance to always make a joke towards me, heheh..." Lemmy then simply had grown accostumed to Malcolm's own bold takes that were actually pretty amiable, if not just to have fun with him.

Malcolm then simply smiled, if not just because he still cared after her son and always liked to make him less reserved and bolder.

"... Good on you to finally make it!" Lady Miriam seemed rather pleased by the men that worked under her wing including her son being welcomed with a warm reception. "Looks like someone had a nice sleep last night." She teased, knowing the accomodations they had been given.

"... Heheh, all except for me, kinda!..." Hector couldn't help but yelp, as he slightly slouched rubbing his poor back.

"... Of course you had to stand out and make the most of the night trying to practice with Buloke!" Lady Miriam still seemed quite proud of the bodyguard that she herself had chosen to protect Lemmy. "You never really let me down, do ya?"

As they all stammered about, trying to speak with Miriam however, Lemmy couldn't help but remember one thing.

"... Oh yeah! Come to think about it, where's Buloke?" Lemmy himself was wondering what the hulking man was on about while during all the night they spent sleeping while trying to restore their own energy.

"... I'm right here."

As Lemmy and his own partners quickly take notice, they then quickly spotted Buloke coming in all the way from the training course field, where most of Miriam's own henchmen would go on to practice a lot of their skillsets, including physical fighting, weapon wielding, machinery driving and other such means of combat and defense to protect themselves and the rest of the headquarters.

"Woah, mom, you didn't even waste a single second making the most out of Buloke!" Lemmy was feeling quite impressed and flabbergasted at these whole operations to keep him under work and teaching the henchmen that existed and the upcoming ones.

"How would I not, given Buloke's an absolute prestige teacher? I'm not gonna look sideways and pretend he's not a great mentor." Lady Miriam wasn't exactly shy of finding ways to flatter the old man and his own ways at teaching.

"No need to flatter me." Buloke sensibly warned. "I've only been trying to make the most out of the headquarters' own henchmen. I'd dare say they do have quite a lot of potential so I wouldn't exactly blame you over picking such henchmen for your own." He them remarked.

"... Oh yeah, Lemmy, come to think about it, how on earth did you get your own Deep Reshon blade back?" Hector then suddenly tried to surmise, as he thought that Buloke could have possibly confiscated it off from his own hands.

"... Oh, this old thing?" Lemmy then tried to give explanations. "It was actually still being held by one of Buloke's goons... amidst all that trouble, I couldn't help but realize one of the knocked ones had it in one of their own pockets during all that chaos." Lemmy was honestly glad it was that easy to recover it. "Thank god, I wouldn't have known what I could have possibly done without it!..."

"You sure do have a streak of luck your enemies still having your weapon around..." Jayt couldn't help share his bit of honesty.

"You'd laugh, but it's actually not the first time it ever did happen..." Lemmy then guffawed reminding himself of something in the past.

"... So, what are ya gonna do now? So you're just going to be teaching our partners actual endurance and physical fighting?" Lemmy then pondered to ask Buloke, who was surprisingly lukewarm towards Lemmy.

"... Pretty much." He didn't seem like he had nothing to hide from them. "I'll be sure to teach you guys some lessons... and it won't just be physical training also," he remarked, "it also involves battle intelligence, outsmarting your opponent's wits and making the most out of your own environment, which Hector definitely took advantage of on our last battle." He had felt quite proud of Hector still retaining that after all this time.

"Many times, you wanna make sure you're one step ahead of your own opponent." Buloke emphasized.

"Huh..." Lemmy then quickly tried to process a bit of that knowledge. "Ya know, I sure could learn a thing or two coming from you."

"Easy for you to say, my training is often not for the weakling..." Buloke wanted to make sure this time Miriam's son not to get hurt.

"... But I could make an exception particularly for you." He then stared at Lemmy pointing towards him, acknowledging that despite his limber weak body, he could still make the most out of it in battle movement and being quick enough to catch your enemies offguard.

He seemed a little less stern during that moment, as Lemmy stared back, Buloke a little less tense and preoccupied.

"And I'm also gonna make sure I make your little fire buddy also have a little bit more of endurance during his own flamethrower attacks during his human form..." Buloke also made sure to try and also help Jayt gain a bit more resistance and stamina for his attacks.

"Anyway, I've got to leave, I've still got a lot of work to do..." Buloke then tried to appease and trying to depart for the moment. "Some of your own henchmen have already grown accostumed to me... They seem eager to try out some stuff. I won't mind sharing some of that knowledge so they can live freely and defend themselves from any sort of peril."

"Definitely wouldn't want to keep ya away for too long then..." Lemmy then thought it was best to leave Buloke to care after the rest of his mother's own squad. "... Can't even think about how you'll handle them..." He then gulps, already writing the squad's own fate.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of them..." Despite the fact that he said it in an incredibly somber voice, he really did mean it well.

"It still takes getting used to these headquarters, but I'm slowly grasping how it works. As conniving your mother is, she wouldn't leave me in the dark, which is surprisingly more what I bargained." Buloke was making sure the plates between him and Miriam were clean.

As Buloke makes his own leave, Lady Miriam then tries to adjust him to their own daily schedule, as she tries escorting him towards other facilities and parts of the headquarters he still didn't know about. Malcolm seemed to like the cut of Buloke's jib as he chuckled.

"Putting that aside, keep up the good work." Lady Miriam told. "Take as much rest as you need in case you still haven't recovered from last night." Lady Miriam wanted to make absolute sure her own men were completely restored and at the top of their wits today.

"Today's gonna be another busy day and who else but Buloke to help the whole crew?" Miriam then felt reassured about her teamworking with him.

They then finally make their own leave as Lemmy immediately drops his own share of thought, as he bids a goodbye to his own mother for now.

"Man, having someone like Buloke training us is DEFINITELY not gonna be easy." Lemmy then slightly shuddered, but at the same time, wasn't exactly too much against the idea as he knew the world of hurt he was about to get into.

"Easy for you to say, how on earth he's gonna handle someone who has fire powers like me?" Jayt then pondered, arguing the amount of proper knowledge he had over even handling such an element. "Don't tell me he's gonna make me endure stuff..."

"Nah, he's not that kinda fella," Hector then stopped Jayt right there, "I'd argue he'd tell you how to preserve your own energy without wasting it and output a consistent amount of fire so you wouldn't self-hazard yourself..." Hector then pondered.

"I guess, someone like you would certainly know about his own kind of training." Jayt simply pointed given Hector had once been under Buloke's own wing.

As they were then left with only but themselves to take care after, it didn't take much too long until one certain familiar face then tried to humbly and carefully approach them, all while they talked to each other about the potential of Buloke making marmelade out of each and every single one of them, up until Jayt notices.

"... Dayley!" As the young man quickly notices Dayley come up from upstairs, Dayley was in fact, as regularly content as he usually was.

Jayt was actually incredibly glad seeing him, as he approaches the group slowly, his cape following along with him.

"Hey guys! How you've been? Did you spent your night well?" He obviously questioned, as he knew they had been in a pickle and wanted to make sure they had been resting up well in case over any soreness they might have, despite the infirmary help.

"... We woke up pretty darn well! Although I guess there's still a little soreness from yesterday!..." Hector then chuckled, as he jokingly scratches the back of his own head knowing it'd definitely take some time to properly heal from it.

"Yeah, I'm still pretty beaten from yesterday!..." Although Lemmy thought it was lucky Buloke never actually got to lay much of an hand on him, remembering that the most Buloke had done was slapping the Deep Reshon off with the back of his own hand and threw him to the side.

"Although I guess it's just up from here now, huh?" Lemmy simply assumed and hoped for the best there would be no more incoming trouble for them.

"Oh, so I guess everything's fine for now." Dayley was at least thankful nothing particularly serious had happened yesterday.

"Yeah, and I definitely got to thank for somebody!" Hector then told with a genuine smile on his face.

A little after Hector speaking, Jayt then jumped slightly forward, incoming towards Dayley with even quite a big hug.

"... Oh! You kinda surprised me there!" Dayley had assumed Jayt was just happy to see him for some reason.

"I've still got to thank you! I'm just glad you came for all of us and even managed to bring everyone and Lady Miriam along with you..." Jayt then professed his own gratitude over the quite tall caped individual that was standing before him.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it!..." As Jayt slightly hugged him, Dayley then felt quite a bit undeserving of that and not doing much.

"Oh, I barely even did anything! I was only the one with all the worries! Hector was the one that came after you guys!" Dayley then tried to be genuinely sincere. "And I didn't certainly want to keep any secrets from Lady Miriam from her own son missing!"

"The rest was just me, trying to bring in Henrick and he was really dying to step up and try his hand at who it was at first!" Dayley had felt like he hadn't had much of a presence battle-wise as Jayt kept hugging him harder. "I was just so concerned about you guys..."

"... Still! You still came after us and you even tried to put a stop towards Buloke!" Jayt then reminisced Dayley stopping Buloke to a halt.

"... Hah, but all I did was hold his arm! And I may have gotten a bit carried away slightly punching him... I was containing that fist pretty hard..." Dayley wasn't sure what to make of that one single moment. "And I just stood stupid in the sky while you were launching those flames up against him!..." He pretty much had admitted to having felt a bit distracted during that, explaining the period he was missing.

"I don't care! I'm just glad you were there for us when we needed you the most..." Jayt definitely felt like he was in somewhat of a pickle.

"... Hah, I'm glad things sorted out as well..." Dayley even sighed in relief knowing it was also all over as he put his hand over Jayt's back.

"... I still feel like I could have done more to help..." Dayley was just hoping he was doing all he could in his power.

"And you did! You were there for all of us! You really felt concerned over all of us..." Jayt then simply tried to ease Dayley.

"Yeah, don't sweat it, partner, I bet you did as much as I possibly could do to help... If!... I also happened to also have superhuman powers!" Hector then chuckled to himself remembering he definitely wasn't as blessed as Dayley despite his agility.

"Yeah! Imagine if Dayley had not come for us!" Jayt then tried to surmise what Buloke possibly had in store for them.

"Buloke almost coming after me?..." Jayt merely had thought out the worst over himself.

"... I could have possibly died!..."

As those words suddenly rung on Dayley's own head, he suddenly stood very shook over the very realization that if he hadn't come for them, Jayt could possibly had been killed and his expression suddenly changing to a quite somber one.

Just a few seconds after Jayt said those words, Dayley then trembled as he kept being held by Jayt, at least, as much as he possibly could.

As Dayley felt quite restless, he just couldn't help dread that very notion and prediction.

As Jayt kept hugging him as much as he could, he then felt something quite fall on top of his own cheek.

Dayley then practically broke into tears as he trembled, looking down with tears streaming down his face as he tried to contain them to no avail, shaking and trying to hold on to Jayt all while still processing the very words that had been spoken and rung in him.

"... Dayley?"

As Jayt tried to usher out Dayley's own name as his tears quite dropped, the rest of the gang couldn't help watch him in this rather vulnerable state, Lemmy and Hector looking quite surprised.

"Woah, man! You're crying?! Are you okay?!" Hector then tried to reassure and ask what was wrong.

As Dayley still barely tried to contain his own sobs, he barely could contain his streaming tears.

But just as he looked at Jayt just one more time, he then remembered.

He didn't want to see Jayt sad.

And thought he'd be concerning him too much over his own self, hoping to keep him off from his sudden emotions.

As he didn't want to upset Jayt, he then slightly was trying to recompose himself, trying to stop the tears from flowing.

Slightly stuttering and trying to recover his words, Dayley then tried just gently reassuring Jayt.

"... Y... Yeah... I'm fine..." He then slowly tried to turn his expression to a soft genuine smile.

"... I'm just glad everything turned out for the best..." He then tries to ease Jayt as he slightly trembled, a tear in the corner of his eye.

He then hugged Jayt, in a simple warm embrace, knowing he was right there, trying not to hug him too hard.

As Jayt noticed Dayley's own change, he then tried helping Dayley as Dayley was making sure of Jayts' own presence.

"Oh, it's okay." Jayt then tried to ease him so that he wouldn't be bottled with emotions. "I made you uneasy..."

"No," Dayley then tried shooking that thought away from him, "you didn't do anything wrong..." He wanted to make absolute sure Jayt wasn't at fault here.

"... You didn't do anything wrong at all." He then politely smiled and tried to give a whole world of respect towards Jayt.

Just a simple seconds later, Dayley was back to being his old ordinary self, with a small plastered smile on his face, content and just being glad his friends and comrades were around there for him, knowing just how far he had come despite all the struggles.

"It's just thoughts, I was just frightful something could have happened to you." He tried to console himself and trying to act more mature, as he still knew he was the one quite a bit older than them and hoping to lend his own power to protect them.

"I got a bit carried away." He made sure he at least could be as genuine as possible and being as peaceful as possible.

"Still, for you to care so much about us..." Jayt couldn't help but think it wasn't exactly just because of that, but he still commended Dayley over wanting to protect them as much as he could. "It's okay feeling a bit overwhelmed. I don't want you feeling sad in the slightest."

As Dayley heard those words from Jayt, he definitely perked up quite a bit, feeling a somewhat heartwarming feeling in his heart.

"Yeah, from us all, you're the one out of all of us who absolutely deserves the biggest breaks." Along with time, to Lemmy, Dayley had really become quite a friendly acquaintance of his, even despite being administrator alongside with his own mother and easily forgot his qualms with him.

"It's okay." He then tried to make sure Lemmy and Hector weren't also too shook from his emotional outbreak. "I really am fine. Just hearing that from you and your concerns... It really makes me feel a whole lot better." He really hoped not to let the crew down.

"Seriously, thank you. We really can't thank you hard enough." Lemmy was really hoping him, alongside with Hector, were thanked well enough. "If it weren't for you... Or Hector... Who knows what coulda happened with me and Jayt... Although I guess help was also appreciated from quite a certain someone who just... somehow unexpectedly appeared along to help." Lemmy was, in fact, referring to the mysterious looking Garter, who seemingly had barged in somehow to get him and his friend back from Buloke's own clutches.

"Heh." Dayley merely smiled with a open mouth, just grateful of hearing that.

"Anyways, I got a whole lot going to happen today. Miss Miriam today really wants me to help with some extra duty. Nothing you guys might need to worry about." Dayley tried to assure them. "Your mom is quite special, even if a bit feisty... definitely not someone I'm used to handle, but she and your pops hit it really well. I can get how the headquarters are so prestiged." He complimented Lemmy's parents' own effort to keep the establishment afloat. "You guys really do put a lot into giving to these charities... You've really been helping a whole lot of people." He then finished off with that.

"I don't want to keep them waiting. They already do so much for me." Dayley then tries to resume back to his own workflow. "It's strange how easily they understood my situation, even although I don't want to bother anyone here with my own stuff."

"Being able to keep in touch with my own parents... I really do treasure that..." Dayley was really thankful for that. "The way how I got back my own men that wanted to be by my side..."

"Being able to still try to save the day and trying to protect all those I can reach, including Intile City... I thought I wouldn't be able being back to that... I'd never give up on my own people like that... I pretty much grew here..."

"... Anyway, thanks, guys. I'll see you later! I still have a lot to catch up with you all! Don't mind me."

As Lemmy and the rest tried to let Dayley off, Dayley seemed like he had been even almost born anew after being able to talk things through.

He cheered and even waved as he left off, hoping to meet the new requirements for today.

As Lemmy and the whole crew decided to leave Dayley to his own matters and assist Lady Miriam, they were then trying to get back to their old routines, just when a certain outlandish person that easily stood out then tried to abord them.

"Well that's one face I certainly wasn't quite expecting here." Lemmy blurted out just as Garter, the garishly dressed man had decided to then approach them as if they had been a part of the headquarters since a very long time ago.

"Oh hey, I didn't know you were going to be in here!" Hector was admirably surprised at this rather unexpected turn of events.

"Hey." Garter immediately grinned his teeth out just as he was presenting himself towards Lemmy and the rest of the gang. "Looks like you guys decided to finally show up!"

"So what are you even doing here, I thought it had already been settled everyone got rescued off?" Lemmy wasn't quite sure just why exactly Garter was meddling in during the headquarters' own operations, even though it was quite a relatively slow day of work.

"Let's just say a certain someone got themselves integrated as a part of these V.I.V headquarters, how 'bout that?" Garter still couldn't help giggling through his own teeth as he haplessly simply shares that bit of information about him.

"Wait, you?! You of all people?! Well, I guess I got nothing to object towards that considering you also sorta helped and you were the one fighting alongside Hector against Buloke..." Lemmy scratched the back of his head in quite a disbelief. "Guess mom really liked the idea of a snooping trickster swindling right into the headquarters and spying on others..."

"I mean, you're also a thief, so no qualms needed!" Garter was really fond of teasing and bickering with Lemmy's outstanding career.

"I even got a kick start and even already started training with beaver-head who was just here a few seconds ago!" Garter even proclaimed having initiated a course alongside with Buloke.

"I'm not sure you wanna call Buloke that..." Hector then professed his fears. "He's definitely quite a bit of a bear and can snap a little..."

"I even already started learning a few techniques while honing a few of what I already had!" Garter really was quite eager to show them off some day to a poor frightful soul who dared get in his way.

"Techniques, uh-huh..." Lemmy wasn't quite sure how much more Garter was even capable of, even though he had already seen quite a few battle skills Garter had previously used up against Buloke despite Buloke's tremendous conquering power. "I already know you can use, like, belts which you can use against your own enemies... not sure how you GOT those belts but I might be better off not knowing..."

"... You got also a really huge power somehow and you can also be quite unpredictable..." Lemmy was merely studying him just in case.

"You haven't seen it but I can also even use my very own banshee scream! I can shout and scream extremely loud and even shatter windows with my high-pitch!" Garter was very quite proud of his high-pitched screams. "Although I already quite knew that even while during our battle!"

"So why didn't you use it then?..." Lemmy was then quite asking the decision as to not use it while during Buloke's battle.

"Could have reaaaally proved itself to be quite useful during that fight..." Lemmy merely crossed his arms thinking about the battle.

"Ehh..."

Just as Garter was trying to come up with an excuse, he really couldn't help but having felt like he had been put in a corner as he then imagined that, had he done that, the windows that were right next to Lemmy and Jayt would then shatter, immediately sending shards towards everyone, including them. It wasn't exactly a thought he really enjoyed picturing considering they were Hector's friends.

"... no reason..." He felt quite nervous picturing that.

He also knew Hector was there, which added more towards the reason of not injuring Hector and the rest involved.

Screaming that much aloud would have also rendered them incapable of battling due to the high frequencies which could have resulted in Buloke trying to exploit that to his own advantage, merely trying to keep Buloke as far away from them as he could.

"Ooookay then..." Lemmy then figured he simply didn't want to share much details about it.

"I guess you're more than meets the eyes with that kinda attitude of yours..." Jayt merely commended to him, thinking nothing much about Garter but still thinking he was quite unusual, especially considering he was Henrick's own brother.

"You seem like a pretty smart guy also!" Garter couldn't help retribute that compliment back. "A little poindexter!"

"... Better to not call me that to not get burned then, hahah..." Despite it, Jayt accepted that compliment quite well.

As Henrick got to meet up with them, Henrick also couldn't help congratulate his own big brother on coming all this way to see his little brother.

"I'm just glad you also got to be of the headquarters I'm in!" He tried fistbumping his own big brother just before Garter rectifies him.

"Hey! Take it easy, nobody ever did say I'd be here at all times, only when I'm more wanted! Orders from me to that old bat, enough said!" Garter still was hoping not to spend his life on the headquarters, even though he did consider helping whenever wanted and as a backup for whenever Henrick needs it. "I also got gigs to play! I ain't got enough time lollygagging around just to frolick with you guys!"

"Heheh, sure, I'm just glad to have you around these parts, bro..." Henrick then chuckled as he couldn't help feel proud of him.

"I also know you also like having your own life! And together, we'll be the best brothers these headquarters are ever gonna have!" Henrick was seemingly quite proud that he could partner with Garter every once in a while whenever he ever needs help.

"Nothing like a pair of explosive brothers to help around each other whenever in need..." Lemmy couldn't quite help feel that he also hopes he could ever be like that towards his own sister Leticia. "You guys really got each others' back."

"You know it!" Henrick then blasted out from his own chest as a bellow. "With my bombs and my big bro's swerving, no one stands a chance!"

"Good to have your own back also, Henrick, baha, I think we really got to know each other quite a lot these past few days..." Hector couldn't help think Henrick was quite a vital part of the headquarters and wise of Lady Miriam having recruited his likes. "You really put those gloves into some good use! I didn't think anyone would ever be able handling those! Hope we get to work together more often!"

"Aw shucks, means a lot coming from you!" Henrick felt quite flattered after knowing Hector for quite a bit. "Yeah, did you check those out?! I really did brought all of their potential!" He was quite proud of being able to endure the impact of the blows.

"Maybe some day we can hit it off and hang out some day in the bowling alley! Really ram those pins, been a while since I last played it!" Henrick even had brought up a suggestion and suggesting the bowling alley he and his brother go to occasionally.

"Sounds like a cool idea, I definitely wouldn't mind that at all." Hector merely amused himself with that thought.

As the day went on, a few of the daily chores and prioritized tasks had been solved and most of the crew had a bit of a time-off in order to focus on their training for a bit. As Lemmy and the crew were assisting in the training course field, Garter was in fact trying to bring his ace game in primoring his banshee scream, along with a few other of Lady Miriams' own henchmen trying to practice their own fighting and honing their aim.

"You guys better prepare with some of your own earplugs!" Garter then pointed out as he started making jabs towards everyone.

"Don't worry, I already came prepared for this." Surprisingly, Buloke had already stuffed a few plugs inside of his own ears.

"You sure think of everything, don't you?" Lemmy then even snickered upon the thought of Buloke not being too savvy on Garters' genre.

As the windows even rattled, thankfully they were sound-proof enough as to not cause any internal damage around and near the field.

The shout was mind-blowingly loud as Garter was shouting out from his own lungs in a powerful singing heavy metal voice.

"Definitely not gonna be hearing so soon..." Hector even felt like that even had trespassed past his own earplugs as Lemmy and Jayt were even trying to cover their ears despite everyone having been given earplugs by Malcolm before he left.

"Malcolm even had to leave, otherwise he would be suffering an heart attack." Lemmy pointed out Malcolm's disappearance.

"I'm definitely getting better and better at this!" Garter definitely felt he was getting used to this, as his shout was already powerful much even before he had even formed a whole band with Henrick or even considered singing due to his shouting voice.

Buloke then tried to come towards Garter. "Good show, you seem like you're getting the hang of your high frequencies."

"Keep that going and you can vocalize it in such a way that you can actually disorientate regular opponents... not that you weren't already capable of doing that..." Buloke then surmised he still had to go under practice for more oriented strategy battle.

"And to think these were the two that were just brawling against each other yesterday..." Hector couldn't help but scratch his own head in disbelief despite the fact that they were commuting together in fairness while teaching each other new tricks.

After quite a bit longer, Lemmy was actually getting some slight practice with his Deep Reshon after some deep consideration after watching others being under Buloke and other mentors' own training.

As he kept slashing off towards a fake target, Buloke couldn't help but consider his own stance while attacking while on the distance.

He came in and then tried to school Lemmy, long after having a long actual look on the Deep Reshon dagger itself, which ironically, was the actual weapon he had previously taken off from Lemmy when he had been taken away.

"Hm." Buloke couldn't help think that despite the simple looking dagger, it also had distinct characteristics that could help its own wielder, including its own element of trying to possess and use the wielder's own negative thoughts, although he saw that more as its own peculiar detriment.

"Wield it like this." Buloke then incentivated and tried to show Lemmy. "Don't hold it too hard. Firmly grasp it as to keep it well tightened in your hands and secured, but not too hard that it detriments your own movement with it and be too stiff."

"Due to its length, you also need to realize you have to kick, punch and block any attacks simultaneously and use your dagger to counter attack. Mindlessly slashing away will make it easy for other opponents to read you so don't make it easy for them."

"Put out your thumb and hold it like this. Hopefully it can help assist you in securing a fast meaningful slash."

He kept holding on to the Deep Reshon and making sure Lemmy was holding it well enough, his burlish toughened hands many times gripping on it.

"Keep it always next to your body. It's especially useful if the enemy attacks you from behind and you can just easily grab it out of your own pocket and hit them on the torso, sides or leg." His stern gaze was quite threatening but also reassuring.

"You sure are teaching me a lot..." Lemmy couldn't help think Buloke was being incredibly supportive despite their previous quarrels.

"Nothing to it." Buloke merely tried to ease him. "You're still young, you still have a whole lot ahead of you."

"But surely with time, you'll greatly master battling with a dagger, even if it might take quite a bit of time." He wanted to make sure to not let anyone down under his own supervision, even though he himself also knew he also still has much to learn ahead of him as well.

"Also might be best to tell you that despite the dagger's own power, it's always best keeping your negative emotions on check and use them in a way that's not in excess." Buloke tried to reprehend. "Not doing so might cause peril and the spilling of emotions that might drown you."

"No one thinks with a clear head when you're clogged up in them. You start thinking irrationally, not thinking straight."

"Start using your head and consider all possibilities, even if improbable. Study your own enemy's flaws." Buloke tries to share his wisdom.

"Maybe consider that next whenever you have any incoming fight that might warrant using them." Buloke was making sure nothing would happen if such a thing were to happen and to avoid potential casualties. "Giving up is an hard option for those who have everything to lose."

"Gee, never really gave much of a thought about it... although I can definitely get it... I think..." Lemmy merely tried his best to merely hone his battling skills, but also hopefully, his own mentality as well and putting his honing to good use.

Lemmy then merely gave a gaze towards his very own Deep Reshon dagger, hoping to hopefully master its very own intricacies.

Not too long after, Buloke was actually wanting to put a fight against Dayley, even despite the fact of he himself knowing he would never compare to the likes of Dayley. He merely wanted to spar with Dayley instead, simply to try to hone himself and try to learn past his own human limitations, even despite the fact that he was already quite considered to be the world's strongest man by many.

As Lemmy and the gang merely gawked upon the quite rather strange sight of possibly assisting and seeing Dayley fight, the fight was actually quite one of endurance sparring, as Buloke was in fact quite practicing hitting Dayley, while Dayley kept easily defending each and every single one of Buloke's own punches and kicks, but more in a incentivating manner to keep pushing Buloke even further beyond.

They could quite clearly see Buloke hitting Dayley strong and hard and yet, Dayley persisted, with even a smile on his face, as Buloke kept pressuring and hoping to hone both his dodging, endurance and strength.

As Dayley kept receiving each and every single one of those blows by trying to block them, Buloke felt savvy enough for a jab.

"You really make quite a good sparring partner just because you're awfully quiet."

"People I'd often train with would run their whole mouth." Buloke would mention as he would try to land a punch on Dayley.

As Buloke pressured on, Dayley would still block his attacks, smiling upon that compliment and continuing their own training.

Sending countless flurries of punches and kicks, the training would then go on, Buloke hoping to even become better along with him if that meant even getting far more stronger and to be able to teach whole new techniques to his own apprentices. He knew his body had a limit, but he still wanted to try push it beyond his own capacity without sacrificing his own wellbeing.

As the day would then go on, the training having had ended and their whole tasks and missions were completely set in motion for the day, Lemmy and the crew would simply try setting off, in the after noon. As they had finished off everything, Henrick then appeared and proposed all for them to come and join him and his own big brother to come and watch their own underground gig around 5pm. Having nowhere else to go, Lemmy, Jayt, Hector agreed upon joining and even brought a few extra companions to join and come along with them. They seemingly had brought Adven, Vonderv and even Roberta who was just dropping by the dimension to pay a visit towards Jayt after Jayt had come to the dimension to help her for a slight bit on her own parents' restaurant, who was soon to be hers.

Joining in, they could then relax for the day, Garter still trying to care after them surprisingly, just so they wouldn't get caught in hot waters with any of his own friends who band practiced on their own secret underground territory in between a quite big crowd.

After settling in, they would then come to join Henrick and Garters' own band play called the Roosters. The play style seemed to mingle in between punk rock sung by Henrick and heavy metal by Garter as they'd each adapt to each others' singing genre, grabbing each their own stylized eletric guitars and having some backups that would switch places every now and then for them for bass and drums, Henrick even slightly knowing how to play the drums every now and then with his explosive energy but being far more suited for his own electric guitar.

Playing in their own ample stage, the crowd would roar as they would vigorously rock and sing through their hardened raw musics, the gang even being surprisingly getting carried while trying to cheer on for the mysterious underground band that they were rooting for.

Garter shouting blood-curling singing screams, his voice would penetrate throughout the entire underground they were at, even slightly causing quite a ruckus underneath, his excitement barely even being able to be contained, even more after having had practice from Buloke to enhance his own singing shouts, feeling like he was on top of the world and in charge.

Likewise, Henrick had less of a high-pitched voice and a lower one, but a more bombastic one, one that could backup his own big brother and strike power from his own vocal chords. He had no plans of stealing his big brother's spotlight, to him and Garter, they both shared the spotlight evenly, with no one overpowering the other in concerns of voice.

As the crew settled in along with the feisty comrades that were ganging up and rooting for the wild brothers, they were trying to ease up on the overall dark and yet energetic environment around them, the punks, the headbangers and even some quite wild road hogs, Roberta was quite piqued over her very own drink.

"The drinks on this dimension sure are interesting..." She said, as she twirled the straw inside her own soda drink.

Garter then ran towards and vigorously tried to approach them in quite a sporty cheerful mood, trying to let them submerge in their own activities and band playing, making the most of their own visit and his own teasing.

"Heyyyy, how are you guys finding this joint? Don't worry, these are all non-alcohol! Drinks on me!" He chippered, knowing he had seemingly noticed a slight tad hesitance from the cockroach girl. "... And don't worry, I'm also fine with gigantic chick cockroaches!... not that I'm really used seeing something like that around these parts..." He merely grinned, after Lemmy had explained to him that he just so happened to have some pretty unusual friends.

"... Don't worry, these guys just think you're on some kind of cosplay!..." He was trying to show everything was fine.

He then looked at the other side of the room and easily spotted Vonderv with his own giant size. "Heyyyy, you look fun at parties!"

"Look?! I'm literally the embodiment of party in the house!" Vonderv couldn't help but brag about his own relaxed and wild demeanor. "I like your style, freak! Take it as a compliment when I say you throw some mean wild parties around here!" He insisted on mingling along with Garter, if it weren't for Lemmy hoping he wouldn't cause any sort of trouble.

"Heheh! I like the way you talk, pork!" Garter found him devilishly conniving and fun to hang around with.

"Hey, not to be the party pooper around here, but I barely even got the chance to see it!" Adven then slightly did a small tantrum only because some of Garter's punkish friends kept cutting her short on seeing the show due to everyone on front being much taller than her.

"I had to ask Von to let me piggy back on him to watch!" Von slightly grinned as he had the pleasure to help her get around that.

"It's nice of Von having already helped you with that." Lemmy found Von to be a quite reliable friend. "That and it saves on my back, heh..."

As our pumped up crew had spent quite some time hanging with Garter and Henrick, the sun was already setting as they were already making ways back to their places, Lemmy still having to check back on his own mother back on the headquarters.

As they each grouped up, Lemmy split and joined with Adven and Vonderv, Hector on the other hand still had some thoughts on the back of his head, just as he was watching and accompanying Jayt as he stood on front of Hector.

"..." Hector seemed quite preoccupied with something even despite the fact they had seemingly just left a party.

As Jayt pitter pattered ahead of Hector and surprisingly having enjoyed the party, Hector then came up from behind while trying to get his attention, hoping he could catch Jayt and having him listen.

"... Hey, Jayt, err... About Garter... I think there should be something I should talk to you about..."

But as Hector tried to regain all of his force and courage to try and say it, Jayt then slightly interrupted him as he slightly turned around and faced his eyes back at Hector, all without anything to hide.

"..."

"... Garter is Daisuki, isn't he?" He then slightly caught Hector in shock after somehow learning that.

"... Gh!... Gah! How did you know about that?!" After Hector stood with his eyes widened in surprise and even flinched over the sudden revelation, his arms recoiling in fright, Jayt then came upfront about it as he poked fun with it.

"You're a terrible liar, Hector! Heheh." Jayt then was hoping he could help enlighten him about the situation and his calm composure.

"Guess I really can't fool someone like you then..." Hector then scratched the back of his head thinking his partner really was quite smart, thinking he didn't had what it takes to pretend something.

"So... er... how did you even find out about it?" Hector then felt quite astonished in wanting to know when Jayt had figured it out.

"Well, it really was way back in the Honey Sun Park." Jayt had then brought up the amusement parks' name, the one where he was back in alongside Hector, Lemmy and Daisuki when they first met him.

"... W... What gave it away then?" Hector was actually blown Jayt had even figured out that early having just met Daisuki.

"... Hmmm." Jayt then gave quite a musing thought about it.

"... Oh yeah, I remember now. It was when we were actually walking along with each other and you were all about hiding his hair under his sunhat just so he wouldn't be caught acting around just trying to have some fun."

"Then I saw a brief moment when he was actually leaping on front and I actually saw a glimpse of his hair, incredibly quite tucked in." Jayt had seemingly had a keen eye moment upon spotting some red hair spontaneously with quite a few odd tips. "That's a lot of hair by the way."

"What you didn't know was that the odd man following Lemmy we were mentioning just before you briefly mentioned Daisuki also just so happened to be Garter, so it was easy enough to remember his hair color and his golden tips even more since he actually stands out quite a bit." Jayt then simply easily deduced by connecting the dots and Daisuki's rather rambunctious and chaotic personality despite her implied shyness.

"Not to mention how uncombed his hair actually is and very frizzy. It couldn't have been anyone other than him." Jayt then finished off.

"So, when were you going to tell me about it?" He then happily smirked towards Hector.

"Well I was going to address it to you just now!..." Hector then felt happily embarrassed he didn't have to keep that secret any longer. "Good thing I've got a smart boyfriend though!..."

"So... are ya gonna tattle of me?" Hector then wondered if the rest of the gang would be fine about it.

"Nah." Jayt then simply easily understood his possible reasoning. "Besides, I already know you. And they'll probably just find out either way, hahah."

"You're just a earnest guy trying to be for those around you. A bit intimidating but your eyes beam and radiate when you're really truly happy and eager to help even if you're supposed to be just strong for the job." Jayt really just assumed Hector to be quite a sensitive man.

"You wouldn't lie to hurt me." Jayt merely smiled at that.

"Aw shucks!..." Hector was surprised at that insight in regards to him.

"But... you're still my man!" Jayt then proudly said. "I still won't forget how much you promised being by my side... And how much you tried to fight for me..." Jayt merely assumed Hector still loved him from the bottom of his heart even if he had originally a crush on Lemmy.

"Not sure why you would bother with someone like me!... not like I think I actually deserve it... but... I still really appreciate it!"

"You're an incredible partner I never thought I'd have... but I love that kind of surprise!" Jayt then hoped he wasn't being too full of himself towards Hector and truly meant every single one of those words.

As Jayt had finally concluded his own confession, Hector was actually very taken by his own words.

"... Guh! Jayt, you're really good at making my eyes water!" He then poorly tried to shake these tears of happiness off, as his eyes slightly brimmed with joy. "I dunno how you keep doing it, but you oughta write a book on how to make people conquered by your own words!"

"Eheh! I don't think I really say anything in particular that's so special..." Jayt then tried not to think about it. "Besides, that's just how I think about you... I really do love you..." Jayt then tried not looking like he was blushing.

"See?! There it is again!" Hector then kept pointing it out. "You know just what to say for every situation!"

"Heheheh, don't make me laugh, Hec." Jayt then simply giggled off while admiring and being fond of Hector's more fun side. "Besides, I feel like I'm the one that owes up to you." Jayt then became only a little bit serious. "Especially after that whole conundrum back at the Aurea dimension..." He had seemingly brought back memories of those places.

"Not to mention... you really were the one that rescued me and all..." Jayt politely told. "I know I shouldn't have to owe anything just because one does something like that but... You honestly really truly cared about me back then."

"Otherwise, I would have just been stuck there and we probably wouldn't have found Lemmy." Jayt then slightly readjusted his sunglasses.

"True but, if it weren't for you happening to get in that place, I probably couldn't have done it without ya!" Hector then referred to himself as perhaps too oblivious and less-than-adequate to properly explore in search of Lemmy.

"Nah, you're smart. You have a whole lot in ya that you probably don't even realize." Jayt tried to still change the subject.

"I'm not sure what my future lies ahead of me or whatever I could do if something happened to you or what I would do afterwards, but for the time being? I'm more than happy to cherish the time I have with you now, as much as I possibly can and never forget you." Jayt even seemed rather humbled having met Hector.

"I'd sincerely miss you... so please, Hec, even if you like the idea of being a bodyguard for me?..."

"... I still want you to live with me as long as you possibly can." Jayt seemed rather distraught, but those words bore meaning to them.

"Be with you as much as I possibly can... I'd love that, if you wouldn't mind..." He seemed almost soft-spoken.

"Woah, what got you this mushy?" Hector even slightly guffawed at that. "But I get it, not let myself get hurt over yourself. Become independent and be by your side, no matter how often we might clash." He sincerely hoped it was something like that.

"Now you're getting it." Jayt then proudly smiled back towards Hector as he even knew Hector had matured quite a lot.

"Besides, there's still a whole lot of you I still want to learn about!" Jayt then suddenly tried to pique Hector's own interest and tease him. "Come on, I'm sure you wouldn't mind sharing, I bet he was the kind of spicy boyfriend you never knew you wanted!" He giggled at that.

"... O-oh! L-let's not get ahead of ourselves, alright?!" Hector then simply tried to shoo off such implications. "B-besides, I'm not sure if past boyfriend quibbles are exactly the kind of things you want to talk about!..." Hector felt like he preferred keeping Garter's past safe.

"Heh, sure, I don't mind if it makes ya uncomfortable." Jayt tried to at least respect that.

"Anyways, maybe it would be for the best to keep on going, heh… don't want to keep anyone waiting for us! We're lagging behind and we still have to come back to Miss Miriam at the headquarters." Hector mentioned after noticing everyone ahead of them. "I wonder if the lady's fine with all our little vacations..."

"I'm sure she’s more than glad for us to have our own breaks, especially after what we've been through with someone like Buloke… Man, that guy sure was one heck of a doozy to confront… sure would have helped you mentioning you once had a mentor..." Jayt then remembered the struggles they had been through just because of Buloke.

"Hey, give me a break, I sure wasn't expecting both my mentor and an ex to come bite me back!" Hector then scratched his head bewildered due to the remarkable twist of plot that brought back his own past.

"Hehe, suit yourself." Jayt merely wanted to tease for a bit. "Besides, I think I already see Lemmy in front getting the best of us… how about we hit your place right after? I sure could go for a quiet evening along with ya..."

"You sure took the right words right off from my mouth, bud!" To him, Hector wasn't exactly against the idea either, finding it more than piquing his own interests. “How about a movie? You could pick one for us!"

"Hehe, sure, Hec, that sounds lovely." Jayt seemed even quite pleased with the thought. "My taste ain't exactly the greatest, but I think we could go for a thriller? How's that sound?” Jayt seemed rather interested in a heart pumping flick for him to muse over. "Maybe a mystery or a horror one, hmmm..."

"You're a little peculiar, but I dig your style! I can follow that, make sure to pick a extra interesting one! And... not just one that gives a bad impression for axes in general..." Hector wasn't fond of axes being given a bad name as a weapon.

"Hehe, sure, Hec..." To him, Jayt was more than glad to give his love a nice movie time.

As they tried going and follow Lemmy, Hector and Jayt then kept side to side, each holding the other one's hand. With the sunset overlaying our heroes, they were sure to be back home, long after a perilous struggle that's now long gone. With Lemmy considering hitting back and having a moment with Naddy, he still had to talk back with her, having already met her parents and how kind they were over having her get some well deserved freedom with her own folks and taking advantage of the city's culture.

As the setting changes once more, the day was already setting, the evening having already quite turned into a nice cold but not completely dark night as of yet.

As the view of the headquarters goes into play, you could see inside the quiet and rather quite emptied main lobby, far stretching towards a few sets of stairs, an elevator in between them. Above, there remained quite a few floors, each dedicated and segmented into their own specialized area of focus. The main lobby was not in fact, too far from the training grounds, having a partial part of the building devoted to a wide spread training field installed within. A few more floors above, lies the administrators' own offices and rooms, to which both Lady Miriam and the rest of the administration laid their ground, one of these being Dayley's new recently prepared room office, where he could be around and another room just in case near the main lobby. A few installations were also there for stray recruits who were also in dire need of a place to stay, in case they didn't happen to have any location to live in.

Within Lady Miriam's own offices, she was now standing, taking a now proper talk with Malcolm while trying to address several situations that had previously happened and tackling them beforehand. She made sure her decision making to never fail her, provided it can lend her the best scenario possible for those involved and the actual Intile City's own citizens.

"My, how the day goes by so fast... why, you could even say it went in the blink of an eye!" Malcolm joshed but he slightly recalled their mercenary having shortly mentioned how time would be fast on Aurea dimension. "It was nice being able to witness such a wondrous dimension just the day before I make my own leave..." Malcolm seemed to appreciate the dimension's unique geography after having taken a trip to it via the guidance of the interdimensional transporter.

"Missing that dimension so badly? My, the food there must have been quite a treat!" Miss Miriam seemed to have recalled.

"Quite so." Malcolm seemed quite fond of the Peperas that he had tasted, the equivalent that of a regular pear. "They feel so soft to dig right in through..."

"Well, there's plenty more where that came from..." Miriam seemed to allude to the dimension's quite plentiful harvest, which seems untainted compared to their world counterpart.

"My my, I still think you have done a wonderful job acquiring that real help of Lemmy's new friend!" Malcolm was quite in fact, mentioning about Vonderv, one of the dimension's real guardians of the lusted over Half-Faced Charm. “He truly is quite a talented big creature! I've heard he's only one of the four? He seems to be quite gifted with haunting powers!"

"Yeah, I honestly didn't think I would ever be able to befriend someone like that... guess I've got my son to thank for... he's really big-hearted, truly, to make friends with someone like that... he reminds me of his father, eager and trying to help others in need..."

"I've yet to fully completely grasp the true folklore of the dimension, but I adore the mysterious background surrounding them." Malcolm seemed quite interested in learning more about Vonderv but hopefully not intruding in on his own privacy. "They're the closest to elemental entities the dimension's got, I believe." He was quick to learn and realize all four shared spectral electricity powers, each with its own twist. "To believe they had an early death... they must have had to atone for great responsibilities."

"I'm not entirely sure how the Afterlife in that dimension works, but Vonderv and the remaining immediately adjusted according to him." Lady Miriam was fascinated how each generation worked and how they could even live for thousand of years.

"That young poodle also seemed to quite learn her way through our medicine as a nurse." Malcolm felt quite proud that their headquarters could help foster teaching young talent such as Adven. "Dayley keeps referring her as a poodle and some as a chipmunk... I'm quite torn as to what she exactly is, but she seems like a chipmunk hybrid of sorts."

"She's a fast apprentice, she really had no problem taking care of our wounded, which makes me think our medicine ain't perhaps so different from Aurea's own dimension." Lady Miriam was quite sure she'd be able to hone her skills in no time if she so desires. "She seems particularly interested in also learning more medicine from our own world to further expand on her own knowledge. To her, not knowing means more to learn for her. That and it helps expand on their own culture if she so desires teaching it to her educators and future apprentices."

"Deep down, we all could use a little more knowledge between our own worlds... be it striving for peace or protecting and healing those around us..." Malcolm lamented the fact that despite many trying so hard, there are people willing to ruin the world for them by needless wars or any form of oppression. "If only some people knew about that before..."

"Some times, the world just likes to remind us how cruel it can be to challenge our own humanity." Lady Miriam felt like she couldn't possibly answer more than that, but that ultimately, it was up to the individual whether to take revenge or to bring good to this world. "Not all's bad though, more often than not, punishment always comes back to the real culprits and humanity always strives, no matter how bleak the darkness, even if it is to remember the fallen."

"There's still more good people than bad ones in this Earth and it's up to us to protect it." She felt a bit shaken but still sure about those words.

"You ever think you could wind up regretting founding the V.I.V headquarters alongside Edgar?" Malcolm then spontaneously questioned her own morale. "Has it ever been too daunting of a task for someone the likes of you?"

"Of course." Miriam sincerely spoke with honesty in her heart. "Has it ever not been daunting, that's the question."

"But regret founding the V.I.V headquarters? Not even in the slightest chance possible." She then perked up with a small, but quaint smile.

"I still owe everything to Edgar. But he won't stop saying that it wouldn't have happened if not for me." She side eyed assuming he was the one that made the idea possible.

She then neared her own window blinds and tried pulling them down to avoid drafts in her own office, as Malcolm remained by her side, quenched by her own determination. He twitched his own mustache, thinking how far had she come fully taking her own leadership in the V.I.V headquarters, quite proud of the woman Edgar had found.

"At least I can be fulfilled knowing we can leave it all in your hands." Malcolm then smiled through his own satisfied wrinkly face.

"And hopefully... in my own son's hands..." Lady Miriam still didn't quite feel like impinging such a hard task to her son. "Him or whoever, I just hope I can reassure someone trustworthy in my own place, someone who can properly take care of my own family."

"Knowing him, I'm quite sure he wouldn't quite certainly let his own mother down." Malcolm guffawed slightly at Lemmy's own predicament.

"Heh, that's quite certainly true..." She couldn't help but feel like Lemmy perhaps looked up too much to her.

"And besides, you've got trustworthy henchmen by your side. Even if not Lemmy, I'm sure they wouldn't want to let you down." Malcolm then tried to bring to mention trustworthy colleagues that stood by her side.

"But surely, it would be quite the challenge." Lady Miriam smirked as Malcolm suddenly realized a question his mind brought up.

"By the way..." Malcolm then itched for an answer, one that he wasn't quite sure how it would be answered. "What about... that one man?"

Lady Miriam immediately knew who Malcolm was probably talking about.

"... The killer?" Lady Miriam tried to be as direct as possible.

"... He's taking full charge of those crimes. Every single last one of all those crimes that he had committed. He's going to take all those sins along with him and I'm sure he'll be happy in one place we all know well." Lady Miriam was being blatant and she couldn't be any prouder.

"I'm glad he was stopped. You can't tell how much trouble that man was giving." Lady Miriam felt like justice had actually been done.

"I don't care how much Dayley thinks he himself is the culprit of it all. That man had to be stopped at all costs." Lady Miriam kept thinking Dayley didn't deserve to be framed whatsoever. "I'm sure Dayley will never change his own stance but that man was framing and using Dayley, getting intertwined with too many crime rings, mobs, gangsters, even trying to mess with super-heroes and getting all of them against each other and trying to feign innocence when all he did was trying to manipulate and blackmailing those who worked with him. He had too much power and kept tricking and messing with crime scenes so everyone would be framed but him."

"Even Jayt was having issues resolving his own case. It wasn't already bad enough being involved, I know Jayt and he had already solved numerous murder scenes that helped me catch ruthless goons." Lady Miriam shook her own head thinking Jayt had already done so much for her.

"Jayt is an incredible crime investigator, I can definitely tell why he aspires so much to be in a crime forensics position... The way he organizes and goes through each file meticulously, nothing would ever slip through his eyes, so to think this man absolutely making my life and Jayt's challenging, I wanted to make up for Jayt, but I didn't once think..." Lady Miriam remembers how she first met Jayt.

".... I keep calling him Jayt." Lady Miriam then pointed that one out.

"... I'd also rather call him by his own accepted name. He had grown attached to Jayt now." She recalls his own previous codename. "I liked calling him Jecter because he slightly remembered me of Hector in a certain way... Never would have guessed them getting hitched together."

"That man had complicated Dayley's life so much, that to think Dayley getting thrown to a corner like that..." Lady Miriam felt like Dayley had atoned far too much at that point. "... Dayley was bound to break. I'm not glad for what he had to go through, but that man pretty much dug his very own grave and the consequences of his own actions flew right into his face."

"As if Dayleys' own life wasn't already hard enough at that point..." Malcolm lamented Dayley's own obstacles.

"Some times I do wonder, what does Dayley think about all of this?... not to mention..." Malcolm kept solemn to himself.

"..." Lady Miriam then stood in silence once more.

"..."

"... Dayley... I really do think Dayley is trying to make up for everything in his past..."

"... Sure there's some stuff people might not be able to forgive him for, as much as he tries to solve."

"But... he really is trying all his best to make up for it..." Lady Miriam only knew of what she had to witness with Dayley by her side.

"I've seen him, I've seen..."

She wasn't quite sure how to address quite something. Malcolm kept staring back at her, as if waiting for her to finish up her sentence.

"... he really wanted to do it out of his own volition, just because he felt like he had to, like it was out of his own obligation..."

"..."

Lady Miriam couldn't help but put the palm of her hand on her cheek, slightly proud of him and yet, feeling bad for him.

"He had nothing to gain for himself..." She kept thinking only but the future.

Having already been informed beforehand, Malcolm already knew of this situation, thinking of it as nothing but commendable.

"... I'm sure he's fine on his own self." Malcolm tried to lighten the room with his speech. "As much of a hard background he possibly had to endure through, he also acknowledges that he must atone for his very own mistakes." He acknowledges Dayley also as a grown adult.

"He's not dumb, he's a bright young adult. He even considers himself as having been spoiled, probably having been too detached from emotional warmth." Malcolm preferred to treat him as a responsible person with his very own grievances.

"But I digress." He then looks up to Lady Miriam once more to try and get her own attention.

"Miss Mira, you did great on having humbly requested him to work alongside you as one of the V.I.V headquarters' own administrators." Malcolm then commended that towards Lady Miriam, after she had gone through so much to try and bring her son back.

"And not just that, but also keeping Buloke around town! We sure were needing someone the likes of him to help our henchmen train and prosper, to make them expand upon their own skills!" Malcolm felt like that was most likely, the most worthy position for Buloke as a teacher and trainer. "To think we could change someone the likes of him and make him a humble man upon our facilities!"

"It really truly does feel like an honor to foster such a talent as his." Malcolm truly appreciated someone iron-fisted like Buloke.

"It is true that it can be a little fearing keeping such a untameable man such as him but!... then again, nothing like getting to know more hard-working villains such as him!..." Malcolm felt like he sure could pose a threat and as a warning for those who want anything against the V.I.V headquarters and impose a threat against their safety.

"Hehe, that is quite true." Lady Miriam then humbly laughed to her own hand, politely in jest finding Malcolm acting quite amusing.

"That's not even mentioning several of Dayley's own men who have worked under his own wing as crime fighters now sharing our headquarters." Lady Miriam was still quite shocked having learned of Dayley mostly using his own men to pursue treacherous criminals.

"It's a shame some of those men had already been under the killer's own wing before joining Dayley and even then, Dayley somehow had managed to make some even turn to his own side." Malcolm was astonished to say the least.

"Even as a rogue, Dayley sure was intent on making sure to keep the city safe at all costs." Lady Miriam thought that for a person, Dayley definitely stood out as having perhaps a determination to make criminals redeem themselves.

"And having so many problems solved all at once..." Malcolm definitely appreciated the closure on Buloke and Hector's own chapter while having Buloke redeem himself towards his very own pupil. "Hopefully I'll get to know this man a bit more..."

"And not to mention the quite amusingly strange mystery surrounding Henrick's own life and his own brother Garter..." Lady Miriam also appreciated Garter also being able lending an hand just in case anything ever happened and Garter easily being able to track even more criminals down or any pursuer in chase of anyone in the headquarters.

"But I don't think I should be the one taking in all the credit." Lady Miriam then admitted.

"If anything, I think I owe quite a lot to my own son. Had it not for him and his... life-risking personality, we probably wouldn't even be here." She fully admitted he was a key factor to a lot of situations. "He also really cares for his sister and always comes back with a adventure to talk about... He also hopes that some day, his bad influence won't brush her into bad attitudes."

"I like to think she's a little like him, just a little more restrained to herself." She politely smiled thinking about Leticia.

She then finally sat on her own office chair, the day finally ending to a closure.

"Ah, I missed this."

She then looked at her hands, finally being able to breathe, having everyone together in the headquarters.

As they both tried to relax and take a brief moment to appreciate the silence of victory, Malcolm then tried to break the ice.

"... I see that you have already more than accomplished quite a lot."

"It's been a long day, so I think I'll make my own leave." Malcolm then hoped that, as the night finally had fallen, that Miriam could finally take her very own break, as he was hoping to leave so the headquarters could finally be left for its own security and so she could go back home to her own husband and family, Lemmy not far from their own home in his own house.

"And... whatever may happen, I'm sure Dayley is doing the right thing." Malcolm then ended it at that, hoping to leave Miriam quiet.

"I hope you have a good rest, Lady Mira. You did good and that's more than what you could ever ask for." Malcolm felt quite proud of her, no matter how many arguments they must have had in the past, as he always swore being by her side as someone she can rely on and talk to.

"... Thank you, Malcolm." She then slightly bowed towards Malcolm, whom she deeply respected as a elder.

"... Sweet dreams! May you have a nice proper rest."

"... especially after almost having a heart attack with Garter's screaming." She then giggled all to herself, even making Malcolm laugh.

"... Hahahahah! It's definitely not punk rock singing that's gonna bring me down!"

As they chuckled and laughed to themselves, final glimpses could be seen of the crew finally adjusting themselves back at their cozy homes, with Lemmy comfortably lying around, albeit with just some slight heat from the summer tormenting him in his own house, Hector and Jayt having fallen asleep while watching a movie, Vonderv and Adven back on their very own dimension to make a slumber on their own cozy spots for old time's sake, Dayley's slumber slightly becoming easier with each passing night in his very own more organized apartment, to Henrick and Garter having both split rooms in their own trashy apartment and Henrick's snores slightly keeping Garter awake.

Even Buloke, who somehow was the cause of so much trouble, had seemingly found himself back in his own wooden old house, not too far from the forest that had started Hector's own mentoring, to eventually building up to this very day.

He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt like he had grown accostumed to everyone's faces in the headquarters, meticulously remembering those he had to train and hopefully teach a whole generation his very own practices and battling knowledge or what little he seemed to think he knew of.

What was once a bear that couldn't be poked, slowly became one with a lot of patience and a will made of iron.

He rubbed his stern face, seemingly quite threatening to some, hoping to take quite a well deserved break with a loud groan.

He scratched his big mane and tried to drink of what remained of his can of beer, hoping to try and remain focused on his own teaching.

Finally putting his champion belt down, he took one final stretch before he could finally hibernate for the night, as a very ruffled, old bear who still persisted in being as stubborn as can be.

Laying his big hefty boots down, he somewhat had made peace with himself.

"..."

"Maybe it's not so bad settling down after all..."

He took a moment of his mind for a good break, fondly remembering what he had teached to those he had influenced.

"..."

"... I taught him good..."

"... Hopefully..."

He had hoped that at the very least, Hector wouldn't repeat the very same mistakes Buloke was prone to making.

As he knew Hector was greater than even he himself and his potential is limitless.

He had never been a father. Nor he knew how to parent others.

But deep down, he took care of others or at least, he tried to, in his own way.

Thus, as the great black bear then slumbered, it was finally time to get some rest, at least, for the upcoming day, as everyone very little know what was to come for them, as tomorrow would also be another eventful day very filled with surprises just for them, as our quite colorful cast began settling for the rest of the day.

From being able to change a man, Lemmy knew how many new faces he had to adjust himself to, including meeting Henrick's older brother and how a single choice led them to this path of possible redemption. Having to learn more about Hector's past, he only knew how more invaluable of a friend Hector had become ever since their own childhood and how Buloke had turned him into a confident, strong and resilient person without giving up of who he was as a person, as someone who deeply cared about protecting Lemmy and build even more of a trust relation between Jayt, one who he several times helped in their venture throughout the Aurea dimension in search for Lemmy.

Knowing his past, Hector also learned to face head-on against the likes of Buloke, using and taking advantage not only what he learned from Buloke, but what he also learned throughout his life as a person, acknowledging his strength and knowing not to quit.

Perhaps having been inspired after his own childhood friends' life-risking attitude, he also tried to use that as a benefit, even if it meant not exactly succeeding. Throughout his mistakes, he still realized he had to keep going for his friends, but also be able to learn from the enemies' actions, much like Buloke.

Having joined forces with Garter let him acknowledge when to team up against greater foes, instead of going head-on against them without enough strength. No matter how outnumbered a enemy may seem, they can still turn the tides in their favor or are merely too strong.

Knowing when to suceed or knowing how to use the right strategy, Hector had to learn how to implement that to his own combat as to allow him to win bigger battles against him. At the very least, this was what Buloke was trying to teach and achieve by continuing to push him further, allowing him for more growth.

Feeling divided in their battle, Buloke also knew deep down that he presumably wouldn't be able to defeat Hector, by the mere fact that he already knew how much Hector meant to him as a pupil and merely wanted him to acknowledge his very own potential.

He also realized he was definitely outnumbered, but also allowed him to teach Hector how to exactly team up with unexpected allies, such as Garter's distinguished form of fighting. Garter's form of belt fighting alongside Hector's axe wielding allowed him to see just how exactly to adapt himself to Garter's fighting techniques. Despite not having been the most coordinated battle against Buloke, this still allowed Hector room for his very own improvement, such as learning how to adapt his axe battling skills alongside Lemmy's own dagger attacks, or presumably, alongside Jayt's very own fire powers which allowed him a very great range of battle.

Nonetheless, Hector still had pretty much a lot to learn. Or at least, that's what Buloke thought.

After being quite spared by Dayley despite being restrained, Buloke then realized there was still a chance of redemption. He was quite scared if just because he didn't really want to let Hector down as his mentor nor did he fully expect a trump card such as Vonderv to completely restrain him via a somber power of electricity.

Despite anything, after having finally learned about Lady Miriam's true intentions and how she was actually noninvolved with the situation of his missing men, he then only knew he had to give in to be able to have a chance to at the very least an act of redemption towards Hector and those he definitely thought he was going too far against.

A lot of thoughts were definitely going through Buloke's head, but for now at least, he knew some of them had at least waned after discovering just how far Hector had trained even without him.

Knowing this, that was what settled his mind into knowing that Hector also didn't need him as much as he thought for his own training. With that in mind, he then felt it finally allowed him to be able to interact with Hector as a reliable person and someone he knew he could trust on any incoming battles that may appear against the V.I.V headquarters and threaten their existence as the headquarters now hold a reliable raw strength that prove itself worthy for them and become a distinguished quality from the headquarters alongside with the administrators.

With their combined forces and of administrators who meant well for this world, Buloke was a force to be reckoned with and an amazing addition for their allies to rely on, as Lemmy and his mother kept focusing on the growth of their headquarters to assist further associations, for those who were in need, for those who were oppressed, against those who used the system to their advantage, for those who needed their support above anything else, for those who merely want equity and safety towards the safekeeping of the city and the world throughout.

As such, there was really no need to worry about the future of the V.I.V headquarters as a whole.

To be continued?

[theblacklewinsky]

Note: I'm feral for this man and this song + struggling w my writing format ( im new to this omg )

JADED | AARON PIERRE.

Toxic!Terry Richmond x Black!Female Reader.

warnings: MNDI!! this story is 18+ with depictions of but not limited to; sexual content ( finger!ng), extreme language (cursing, use of n-word, use of b-word), talking you through it. lil bit of exhibitionism if you squint, mild daddy k!nk.

summary: in which you decide to end the toxic situation-ship you share with Terry— except this man only know how to suck you back in.

tell me that we locked in, locked in, look in my eyes.

tell me that you mine and we ain't just fuckin, ain't just vibin.

Why were you nervous? It wasn't like you'd never been in the very same GMC pickup before—oh you'd been in here plenty times, plenty times. Your eyes flickered to whatever they could, other than him.

The backseat.

The same backseat you'd been folded. flipped, and fucked out on. It was clean now, he'd definitely had some detailing done, the remnants of how he made you squirt only two weeks earlier had vanished, once etched into the seat itself.

And why were you sad about that?

You averted your eyes away from the backseat, firmly turning straight forward in the passenger seat, teeth nervously gnawing at the skin in your jaw. It was way too silent and tense in the truck. Way too silent. "Hi..” you sheepishly muttered, tucking a stray curl from your wash and go behind your ear, eyes darting around the parking lot of your apartment complex. The parking lot was the safest option for you, you knew how incredibly intoxicating Terry was, which meant the more space from your bedroom, the better.

Out of your peripheral, you could see Terry's face contorted into a twisted mix of confusion anger. His brows furrowed together, a mug presenting itself on his face. "What the fuck?" He spat. "Wassup?" He asked, his tone more accusatory than anything.

Where the fuck did he get off acting hurt and confused? That was supposed to be your stance in this whole thing, hurt and confused. And most of the time it was. But tonight, it was a nice change of pace, the hurt and confusion lingered on Terry instead—in which you could finally take on the nonchalant and curt demeanor. It felt so good too. So good to finally not be the one with the lump in their throat, eyes burning from blinking back tears. This felt, good.

"Nothin', just chillin," you simply responded, playing with the smartphone in your lap, acrylic nails tapping at the casing.

"Fuck you mean just chillin?" He asked his brows furrowed as he tried to catch your darting eyes. "You ain't been seein' me text you?"

"Yeah?" You responded slowly in a questioning tone, as you focused on the ASICS on your feet. "Been busy lately."

You seen Terry texts. Shit, the past couple of days he'd been the one blowing you up. It started the other night when he rung your bell and you didn't answer, you knew it was him, and he knew you were home. Lights still on and bright in the kitchen.

Private Ryan: Just rung the bell

Private Ryan: Come out.

Private Ryan: I'm sorry for the way I acted the other night. I ain't handle that situation like a man. Lemme make it up to u

It was so hard ignoring Terry, he made it hard. He didn't text or call often, he wasn't hardcore into his phone like the rest of the generation, maybe the marines played a part in that? Hell, he made sure to stay active in an effort not to get addicted to his cellular device—that's why when he texted it was a big deal.

But no way this nigga thought that you'd be at his every beck and call when he couldn't even solidify a title between the two of you? Casual sex and jealousy gets old—especially when it isn't under the terms of a relationship.

It was fun at first, linking up and sneaking off. Getting folded like a lawn chair when you least expected it, but there was something about Terry that brung the strings to a no-strings-attached situation. You started craving him, wanting him, and you made that very clear, but Terry made his intentions crystal clear from the beginning. How could you fault him for not wanting what you want? But how he could he also fault you for the change in your attitude?

"Busy?" He repeated the word like it disgusted him. His burning gaze tore through you, you could feel the heat radiating from his glare. Terry let out a heavy breath, gently tapping his fist against the staring wheel as he finally averted his gaze to the windshield. Thank Q!

But as he tore his gaze away from you, you centered yours on him. And why the fuck would you go and do that? Knowing how gorgeous he was, especially when he was pissed off? Clenching and unclenching his jaw. He had some nerve coming over here with a fresh cut. Everything so lined up and sexy—

"I came over here, a few days ago," he sternly spoke, the rough edge to his voice only setting off the throbbing in your pussy, "and you know that 'cause you was home, lights on and shit, I'm textin' you and you reading the shit in real time. What the fuck?" He repeated the three words once again. His voice growing rougher by the second.

"Two weeks ago, I'm fillin' you up and today you actin' cold as hell? Fuck is goin on?"

And why did he keep saying all the wrong shit? Filling you up was an understatement, he was stuffing you to the brim quite literally, to the point where he had bottomed out and was still tryna give you more. Filling you up, ha.

"I can't do this anymore, Terry," the words came out of your mouth abruptly, almost like you could trust yourself to say them. Terry sat there unwavering, he didn't speak, he didn't move. This only prompted you to continue. "It's too much, we both want...different things. And I'm tired of feeling like I'm overextending myself to you, being too available for you. I can't do...whatever this is anymore."

"Pea..”

"Don't do that," you firmly responded. The direct eye contact didn't seem to deter you this time. There he went. Playing those mind games. Calling you that nickname. Pea. A shorter version of the popular nickname your grandfather frequently referred to you as, sweet pea.

Terry kissed his teeth. Oh he thought he knew what was up. It'd became clear as a day. "You fuckin' somebody else." The words came out soft, quiet almost as if there had been a realization.

You let out a heavy sigh, your eyes rolling at the comment, " I'm not having sex with anyone, Terry." You spoke truthfully. As if you could. He made that hard enough, he stuffed you perfectly. He knew how to find that spot inside of you so easily, almost like he vacationed there in his spare time. He knew exactly what made your eyes roll back, what made that squeal in the back of your throat come barreling out, he knew your body too well to let anyone else come and have a gander.

"But I am dating," you said more quietly than you anticipated. Maybe it's because the recent dates haven't been anything to brag about. Not that your online dating profile and messages to your homegirl hadn't been highly specific, you've been attracting the same types. Baby daddies and men way too old to still be trying to just hook up. "And I know what I want, and it's not this...anymore. I wanna be able to climb in bed with a man and wake up beside him too, and not worry about him being hot or cold, or when I'll see him again," yuck. Why did you feel that damn lump in your throat again?

"I'm so tired of feeling disposable." You finalized. Flashing your watery eyes to the window adjacent to you. You weren't gonna cry in front of him. Shit, you weren't that tender. But all your feelings hitting you at once in this situation made you more emotional than you gambled for. You knew the nonchalant facade would only last so long on you. Terry was trained in that shit. He had a poker face like no other.

Terry didn't deter his gaze from you, his gorgeous eyes soft and lingering. "I don't try to make you feel disposable, Pea."

"Yeah, well, you don't have to try. You just do." You mumbled quietly. "That's why I don't wanna do this shit anymore."

Terry kept his eyes on you, reaching his large hand out to grasp your smaller one at a failed attempt at interlacing your fingers when you snatched away.

"Stop, Terry!" You frowned folding your arms. "I'm serious. No more calling, and texting, and popping up at my place."

He barely acknowledged you, kissing his teeth and leaning over the center console to rub his hand across your tummy, gripping your sides. "Why you actin' like that? Like you don't miss daddy?" He mumbled softly, pressing soft kisses to your temple.

This man didn't give up. Your restraint was at zero, and just like that you were putty.

You shook your head, arms still crossed as you let out a small whimper in which you claimed to be a protest. Eyes lowering at his wandering hands. "Hm, you don't miss daddy?" He asked in response, his hand sliding back over your tummy, fingers fondling with the button on your shorts.

This is exactly what you wanted to avoid, that was the whole point of the parking lot. Far away from a bed. But you should've known that you didn't need a bed with Terry.

And yet, just like a dumb bitch you shook your head once again. Playing into his sick little game.

He trailed his soft, teasing lips down your cheek until he reached your neck, leaving a searing trail behind on the skin there. You sucked your bottom lip in, a solid attempt at trying to keep whatever moans he was pulling out of you at bay. You couldn't betray yourself even more than you had already done. You came down here to end things, and instead you were about to get folded in half once again. The circle of life if you will.

"You don't miss me? So why you lettin' me take these off you right now?" He asked. Oh he was soo condescending. He tugged on the bottom of your shorts, and look at you, lifting up to help him earning a chuckle. You were so easy. "Nipples been hard ever since I touched you," he mumbled in between kisses to your neck, his hand busying itself up to your breast while your shorts slid down your legs, rubbing your hardened nipple through the thin fabric of your tank top.

You suck in a sharp breath. Your body was on fire. You felt like you were on fire. Every kiss made you hotter, and the way he was touching you had your pussy fluttering. You had to be ovulating, this shit wasn't normal.

"That pussy so wet, I know it," he spoke, his voice lower, lips sucking on the thin flesh on the side of your neck, hand roughly parting your thighs earning another isolated whimper from you. His hand rubbing the inside of your thighs, leaving a lingering tingle behind. He was such a fucking tease sometimes.

He kissed his way back to your cheek, all the while his hands left soft slaps, and grips to your inner thigh. Your eyes fluttered closed at his constant teasing, breathing uneven as hell. You felt like you were swelling with need.

"Look at you, baby," he hummed against your ear, "you a horny fuckin' mess," he tsk'd in your ear, fingers dancing over to your pussy. Fingers lazing dancing over your slit through the thin fabric of your panties. A shaky breath slipped past your lips a soft drawn out moan following. Hell, the betrayal was already done.

"Niggas not treatin' my bitch right, huh?" He rhetorically asked referring to your dates, his own eyes focusing on the lazy dance his fingers were doing on your barely exposed pussy, until he quickly got bored and used those same fingers to move the fabric aside. "Can't be, otherwise you wouldn't be this fuckin' turned on right now." He answered his own questions, fingers immediately doing slow, hypnotizing circles on your clit.

"Fuhhh," you moaned out in response, arms immediately parting so that you could grip onto the sides of your seat for a sense of stability.

"Mhm," he hummed in response, "pussy wet just like I thought," he mumbled dragging his pointer and middle finger up and down your pussy a few times before slowly slipping the both of them in your heated core at once earning a choked out moan from you. You fit around his fingers so perfectly, almost as if he'd molded your pussy to do so.

His brows furrowed as his fingers searched inside of her, knuckle deep, "fuck," he cursed, "look how you suckin' my fingers in you like that. You missed daddy, this fuckin' pussy missed me."

It wasn't like you could respond at all, he was literally pulling your moans out of you with his fingers. His free hand had busied itself with pulling up your tank top and exposing your braless titties.

"Look how you came out here," he kissed his teeth, fingers massaging your slippery insides, the lewd sounds of your pussy squelching on his fingers filled the pickup truck, his other fingers pulling and tugging on your hardened nipples, squeezing softly before quickly pulling away. "Barely fuckin' dressed, you wanted this. You wanted daddy to get you right, huh?"

"Talkin' about' dates, you don't want them fuckin' clowns," he hummed peppering soft kisses on your cheek, his fingers attacking that delicious spot inside of you. "You just want daddy to flood that pussy again? Make you his bitch?"

"Oouu shit, daddy!" You moaned out, eyes squeezing shut as your head lazily fell against his shoulder. Him humming in agreement to your moans followed by a cocky chuckle. "Right there, right there!" You rushed out. Your resolve had slipped away a long time ago.

"Where baby?" He cooed,his tone condescending. "Right here?" He asked his fingers never deterring from the spot, instead he pushed them deeper, faster.

Your eyes rolled back into your head as his fingers continued to work inside of you, he whispered other obscenities to you as he finger fucked you good. Deliciously good. So good that you couldn't decipher or comprehend anything he'd been saying. The sound of your pussy around his fingers was sending you to another bliss you didn't know you could reach.

"Listen to how messy that pussy sound on my fingers, baby," he groaned, his free hand gripping your face firmly, tilting your head up from his shoulder so that he could watch your facial expressions closely. He smiled as he watched you; eyes squeezed shut, lips forming into that familiar frown he knew so well, a long whine following suit.

"Yeah, that pussy wanna cum for daddy don't she?" He asked placing a sloppy kiss on your parted lips.

"Oh my god," you whined your brows furrowing as you opened your watery eyes to Terry looking down right at you.

"Yeah, she do," he mumbled nodding his eyes focusing in on the assault his fingers were doing to your pussy before slipping them out slowly, rubbing the stickiness he accumulated on his fingers onto your clit in slow, agonizing circles earning a whine from you. "You better not fuckin' cum though," he mumbled quietly to you, hand softly tapping against your cheek.

"Don't..cum?" You slurred through a moan for confirmation. You could barely comprehend what he was saying, you were so deliciously close. So close.

"Don't cum," he slapped his finger against your pussy lightly, the wet plaps almost enough to send you over the edge. Only almost though. "Get in the backseat, I wanna get in that pussy." He spoke hand slapping down on your sensitive pussy once again, sending trembles to your already weakened legs.

—

cheers to my first fanfic on here lolz! feedback and criticism always welcome 💗💕 hope you enjoyed xx!

[forpiratereasons]

i found a genre of longform videos that is just 8-10 hours of someone driving around freeways during thunderstorms and i have a lot of thoughts about this but also: stede the driver who films long pov driving vids and extremely stressed ed who gets addicted to his channel

it's meditative, and it reminds ed of being in the car with his mum, driving across aotearoa. he feels like she's there with him sometimes. but the more he watches, the more he becomes aware of the driver--a sigh here, the shuffle of fabric in the seat there.

there's almost no information about him on his channel, the gentleman driver, not even a name or a pic, and ed becomes a little fixated on picking up details about him. doesn't happen often, but once or twice ed catches the driver humming a few beats before falling silent again, clearing a throat, sighing, clicking his throat like he's talking silently to himself.

once, on hour six of a ten hour vid, ed's rewarded by the view of an elegant hand reaching across the screen to grab something that must be on the dash in front of the camera. four seconds ed plays over and over.

"is there someone in the car with you while you drive?" ed asks in a comment. "or is it just you?"

the gentleman driver writes back, "just me and the open road!"

maybe it's the format that makes ed ask, the anonymity. maybe he's just half asleep. "don't you ever get lonely?"

it's days before the gentleman driver writes back again. "do you?"

ed's not got an answer for that. or, he does, but not one he's willing to face head on. he asks instead how the gentleman driver chooses his routes.

the driver doesn't get very many comments and definitely not very many questions, and soon they're having little conversations in the comments of every video. ed gets another glimpse of that elegant hand, with a big turquoise ring, freckled forearm; hears another few bars of 'here comes the sun' hummed.

then the driver does something new: he stops at a rest stop.

and he leaves the camera rolling.

ed watches in rapt fascination as the driver crosses the screen in front of the car, goes into the rest stop. blond hair, broad shoulders, floral shirt. he's actually wearing jeans for an eight hour drive which is insane, and ed gets a glimpse of his profile as he smiles. insane.

if the driver's ever stopped before, it's been very carefully edited out. maybe he forgot this one. maybe he wanted ed to see. that's delusional, ed thinks, but he still navigates to the driver's about page and pokes around until he finds an email address.

nice shirt, he sends.

oh god, the driver sends back, and the video disappears from his page half an hour later. i forgot the editing. i'm sorry if it was distracting.

no, i liked it, ed tells him. it was nice to see the man behind the steering wheel. and then, hesitating only a bit, he adds: i'm ed.

hello, the driver writes. i'm stede.

the emails go on, and on, and eventually they turn into texts too, and promises from stede to check in on his longer drives, to "call if you ever need someone to keep you awake."

"i'm supposed to be sending you to sleep," stede argues.

"i'll sleep better knowing that you're safe," ed writes back.

the next video stede posts, he lets the camera run all the way until he's pulled into a parking spot at a roadside motel just outside of denver. the camera runs one minute, then five, and any reasonable person would've turned it off by now, but ed waits until he hears, very quietly: "safe and sound, now. go to sleep. goodnight."

is it stupid, to think you can fall in love with someone after just one sentence? is it still stupid, if that one sentence repeats at the end of every new video?

then one night the phone rings. it's late, dark out, and ed knows stede was doing a drive that wouldn't have him at his next stop until nearly one in the morning. he picks up. "hello?"

"oh, ed," the voice says. "you've no idea how good you sound just now."

it's a voice he's only heard before in hums and whispers, but it doesn't matter. lots of things about love are stupid, ed decides. this isn't one of them.

stede's blown a tire. "i'm okay," he insists. "i was just hoping for some company while i wait for the tow."

"where are you?"

"middle of nowhere," stede says, but when he names the spot, it's only two hours out. ed can be there faster than a tow probably would, and there's a note of anxiety in stede's voice he doesn't much like.

he's got his shoes on and his keys in his hand before he can think twice.

stede hems and haws but in all his fussing he doesn't actually tell ed not to come, and he stays on the line while ed piles blankets in the car and as he gets behind the wheel and as he sets out on the freeway. he stays on the line and they talk until they're both creaky with exhaustion and dry air, and then they're quiet, just like in stede's videos, but together this time. then ed crests over a hill and there it is: a car pulled off to the side with its hazard lights blinking. reminds ed of a lighthouse. 'i'm here,' the lights say. 'i'm here.'

he pulls to a stop behind, starts his own hazards. the driver side door of the car opens, and then there's a leg, and a body, and there he is. stede. he's still got his phone pressed to his ear; ed can hear him breathing.

"i'm going to get out," ed says.

"okay," stede says.

it takes another long moment, watching stede stand there in the dark, waiting for him. stede, with his hair and his voice and his hands and the way the quiet in him already feels like home.

"i might kiss you," ed says.

he watches stede swallow, hard. eyes widen. "okay," he says.

ed reaches for the handle. pops the door open. puts one foot out on the pavement and looks up to meet stede's eyes as his cabin lights come on, as the car starts to ding its door-open warning.

"oh," stede says.

ed takes a step. they both still have their phones in their hands, their breathes in each other's ear. ed takes a step and takes a step until he can reach out to take stede's phone from him. press the call end button.

"hi," he says.

stede kisses him.

after that there are other, shyer hellos, and other, more awkward ones too. there are ten minutes to a 24-hour macdo drive-thru for coffee and another ten to a motel and a late night that becomes an early morning by way of conversation. there's laughter, and more kisses, and careful fingers learning the planes of each other's faces. in the morning there's breakfast and a tow truck and an invitation to a place just two hours away.

and there's a long break in updates to the gentleman driver's channel.

when he comes back, weeks later, his update schedule isn't quite as frequent, and his drives don't usually go as far. there's giggles sometimes, in the background, like there might be someone else in the car with him.

"do you miss it," ed asks. "driving the long drives?"

"no," stede says. "i found what i was looking for."

*

@ kninjaknitter also podficced this one!

[jog-hog]

Siblings and secrets don't mix

Dipper x Pacifica

W/C: 1k+

Summary: Mabel's trying to figure out who Dipper is texting so much and finds out it's a certain popular princess of Gravity Falls.

Note: This fic is pure fluff absolutely tooth rotting also I've never posted a fic on Tumblr before I'm mainly an AO3 user so sorry for any formatting issues!

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶

Back in Gravity Falls

After the events of their first stay in Gravity Falls the twins are not only well known,semi-well-liked they have friends. Friends that come and meet them at the bus as they pull up, friends that sneak out the house to hang out with them and recently friends that text them A LOT when they're not in Gravity Falls.

Dipper had never been big on the whole phone thing instead enjoying nature whenever possible and appreciating literature and writing but recently Mabel's noticed theres been a significant rise in notifications and a very big increase in him checking them (and him showering has gone up marginally). Mabel knew what this meant.

All signs pointed to pine tree having...a girlfriend ?! Of course Mabel has been in her fair share of relationships so it's not really a shocker but Dipper? She didn't even know someone could like Dipper back!

However whenever she'd try to introduce the topic to their conversations he'd shut it down quickly... suspiciously quickly.

Heres what she knew: they texted ALL THE TIME which means they're probably not in our school since she's also caught him sneaking peaks at his phone in school, they care about Dipper showering and that's about it...he really is a stubborn one isn't he? So obviously she had to concoct a plan, dare she say a plot to look onto Dippers phone and answer the very important question: WHO ARE THEY??

As Mabel sat awake in bed trying to figure out who it was she went down her mental list of potential suitors. She knew they weren't that far, Mabel probably knows them too...

Then a lightbulb moment occured

"GRAVITY FALLS!"

She though to herself jumping up in bed, it had to be. Theres only one person, one possible person: Pacifica Northwest! Mabel couldn't believe it, she always got a vibe from the two but couldn't sell herself on it due to Candy's crush but given she's over it and that the two are texting non stop it just HAD to be Pacifica!

In the morning Mabel awoke to the sound of tapping on a phone, Dipper was awake before her which was abnormal and even stranger he was on his phone! Mabel looked at him and smirked

"Who're you texting lil bro?"

"No one!" Dipper exclaimed going red and hiding his phone away from his twin.

"Aw come on Dip we're twins we need to tell eachother everything!"

Dipper sighs going red, Mabel looks at him intently waiting for him to confirm her suspicions.

"..Well" he starts quietly "come closer I'm embarrassed" he says hiding his face in his hands. Mabel simply walks forward

"Whisper I promise I won't tell mom and dad come on!!" She begged

"I've been messaging Pacifica and..." He begins and stops just as quickly getting visibly embarrassed

"AND?" Mabel continues. "AND I think we're dating" he blurts out quickly like he's ripping a band aid off.

There's a silence until Mabel breaks it

"OH. MY. GOD" she begins rambling a mile a minute about how cute they are, begging to see the messages just to know SOMETHING, her little twin was in a relationship!

Dipper sits there laughing grabbing her after a few minutes of this intense rambling

"You can't tell anyone okay? If we tell mom and dad they won't let us go to Gravity Falls it's only a few weeks away now"

Mabel promises her silence and they go about their lives (with much more drama than once before).

On the bus ride to Gravity Falls Mabel notices some persistent texting occurring right next to her, she desperately wanted to know what they were talking about but Dipper would hide away every time she got close enough to read it. Dipper was being far too secretive about this relationship for Mabel's liking and as siblings she had to be annoying at least once on the bus ride over, at this…this was her calling.

Abruptly she snatches the phone out of Dippers hands and shoots herself to the other side of the backseats on the bus, he immediately yells at her to give it back and chases after her as she kicks him off, she begins reading and exclaims

“‘I MISS YOU SO MUCH??’ OMG ‘I LOVE YOU TOO’” she giggles looking at how adorable their conversation is as Dipper yells at her to stop, she continues anyways (as any good sibling would) until he finally manages to crawl over and grab his phone back. Mabel continues laughing as Dipper pouts.

“You need to stop doing things like that” Dipper says moping and shooting his sister a look.

“You need to stop hiding things from me nerd” Mabel says back, shooting him the same look but with a smug grin on her face.

Dipper still looked a bit upset, she realised she probably went a bit too far by reading it out, her smug smile dropped as she looked down at the ground and played with her sweater.

As the awkward silence grows Mabel pierces it again.

“Awkward sibling hug?” She proposes looking at him with a sympathetic ‘this is for real’ look on her face stretching her arms out toward him.

Dippers face breaks it's serious expression and a small smile creeps onto his face, exhaling and turning to face his sister.

“Awkward sibling hug” he says while quietly chuckling and messing with her hair after the semi-robotic “Pat Pat”.

Mabel laughs realizing they're near their real home Gravity Falls and naturally she takes her opportunity:

“We're close to getting off and seeing your new GIRLFRIE-” she says the last bit loudly even though there is no one on the bus at this point except for the poor bus driver who's had to witness all this. Dipper quickly puts his hand over her mouth and pulls away before she licks his palm (again). As they pull up Mabel notices how Dipper immediately scans the crowd for Pacifica as they make eye contact.

“They really like each other don't they ?” Mabel thinks to herself as she smiles and grabs her bags.

The two can't wait for another beautiful and terrifyingly strange summer in Gravity Falls.

[the-moon-files]

Aaaaa, hi!! I'm the anon who sent in the fairly recent ask with the Guide!Reader ideas (martial artist mention, Dehydrated Ganon, strength possibilities, Ganon not being able to escape from Guide!Reader's voice, etc)! I'm really glad that you liked my ideas so much!! 😊 I was so pleasantly surprised to see you expand on my discombobulated thoughts, haha! Thank you so much! ^w^ I loved reading them!!

I said that I made memes for the Guide!Reader/Space Orc concept, and now I shall deliver them >:D Firstly, I'm super sorry that I took so long to share these with you!! Life decided to kick me in the shins for a hot second 😭 And secondly, I made a LOT of images for this one,, Fair warning, this is going to take up a lot of space 😭 orz

But anyway!! Here are the text memes first:

Guide!Reader: We’re playing Scrabble. It’s a nightmare.

Wars: Scrabble? Scrabble’s great.

Guide!Reader: Not when you’re playing with Zelda, it’s not. She’s out here putting in words like “ephemeral” while I’m putting in “dog.”

☆

Guide!Reader: *pointing out Magic Powder* Legend, look, it’s the good kush!

Legend: …This is the Rupee Store, how good can it be?

☆

Ravio: Hi, welcome! Are you part of our Super Savers Shoppers Club?

Guide!Reader: No, I’m not.

Ravio: :D :) :| Oh.

☆

Legend, looking into a banged-up Water Temple: …It’s trash.

☆

Time, whenever Guide!Reader uses modern slang: We need IRL subtitles. What are you even saying.

☆

Guide!Reader: My Furby died in my arms when I was a child.

Hyrule, has no clue what a Furby is: I’m so sorry for your loss.

Guide!Reader: It wasn’t a loss. I had never felt more like a god.

☆

The Chain: *getting told off by Time*

Guide!Reader in the back: …

Guide!Reader: *starts playing the ukulele* 👁👄👁 🎸

Time: 🧍

☆

Four, talking about Guide!Reader: So, I’m interested in someone…

Dot: :D Oooh! What do they look like?

Four: *slow realisation*

Four: I don’t know

Dot: Wh

Dot: What do you mean you don’t know?

☆

Guide!Reader/Ganon, about hearing Guide!Reader every dang game: The universe has a sense of humour, and I respect the commitment to the bit, but girl please.

☆

Guide!Reader, to Link once they reunite with the Chain: Now… *puts hand on his shoulder* We’re back on our bullsh*t.

☆

Guide!Reader and Wild, meeting Sidon for the first time:

Guide!Reader: …Would.

Wild: Would what?

Guide!Reader:

Wild: (Name)? Would what?

☆

Wind: When you become famous you’re called a legend because your leg ends.

Guide!Reader: What? 

Wind: Your leg. It ends.

Guide!Reader: I’m not a linguist, but I think you’ve got it wrong.

Wind: Are you saying your leg doesn’t end?

Guide!Reader: I mean, at some point it does, yes.

Wind: Then what’s the problem?

☆

The Chain, waking up at dawn to get ready:

Guide!Reader and Sky, just trying to process being alive:

☆

Guide!Reader/Time: You need to get out of bed faster than this.

Sky, struggling: I’m giving it all he’s got, boss

☆

Guide!Reader at Ganon: Your anger amuses me. Please don’t find inner peace. Please.

☆

Guide!Reader, playing through LoZ game: *at an annoying NPC* Let me ask you a very fair question. What do you do successfully? Quickly. :|

Link, trying not to laugh:

☆

Hyrule, probably: I hate it when a recipe tells me to add two cups of onions. They don’t come in cups. They come in onions.

Guide!Reader, head in hands: Please

☆

Hyrule/Twilight, looking at two NPCs: Are they lovers?

Guide!Reader, who knows the lore: Worse.

☆

The Chain, enjoying Guide!Reader’s affections:

Legend: 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️

☆

Legend, defending himself from the “You like him” allegations from Wind: 🤸🤸🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

And now, onto the images- I hope you don't think the sheer amount of these memes is too excessive or anything!! 😭 /gen

Aaa and that's all the memes I've got! I hope you like them,,! orz

I'm also still pretty new to Tumblr, so I'm sorry if the format looks a bit weird,,

Oh, but also?? That last point you mentioned in your most recent post about the cultural differences between humans and Hylians on physical affection/touch?? I am VERY excited to see that,, 👀 👉👈 

U HAVE NO IDEA HOW IN LOVE W/UR BRAIN I AM RN

IM SO FUCKING ECSTATIC TO SEE THESE >>> ANYTHING IVE EVER WRITTEN U MADE MEMES??? FOR MY BS?????? DAOHGHOAKJSALKGFS;NDFKNDNFKJBDBFLN;

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

BLESS YOU, BEHEAMOTH SCREAMOTH MY BELOVED <3333

HAVE THAT HYLIANS V. HUMANS AFFECTION CULTURE POST HERE, THE ONLY PAYMENT I CAN THINK OF FOR THIS 😩😩 🛐 🛐 🛐

I LIED ITS TOO LONG, ITS GONNA BE A SEPERATE POST COME BACK AND PLS READ IT AS PAYMENT (but dont read the nsft/w if ur a minor)

BRO u got all the energy, and the dynamics i was pushing ilysm 🥺🫶

like the Hyrule = beloved agenda ive been pushing, bc i need more underrep links content, the way u carried the ganon eternally getting haunted by guide reader voice?? 10/10 ahdsfkhadl

AND WIND’S CONSTANT ENERGY OF A YOUNGER BROTHER LOOKIN U DEAD IN THE EYE LIKE “u kiss the homie (singular not even plural) goodnight?? Brother, that’s GAEY.”

u have no idea what this means to me, the impact, the understanding u have to have of my bs to make these, and how many posts youve read of mine?? im so sorry for ur loss w/my rough writing lmao

thats how you know youve made it tbh is if someone makes memes of smth u made, anyway day brightened, complexion clear, depression medicated, by this post

I HOPE BOTH SIDES OF UR PILLOW ARE COLD, UR PETS CUDDLE U EXTRA, U GET ALL THE GRADES/GOOD WORK SHIFTS U NEED

Peace out my beloved <3,

🌙

[oct0bra1ns]

Oki oki I know you're probably like busy and stuff but I just thought of a good one (well I like to think I did). Obv take as much time as you need to get to this, don't you dare rush or overwork yourself

But basically, (possibly illegal?) racer yandere with a reader who's absolutely terrified of driving and generally hates most vehicles. Especially the loud ones, like he'd usually use

Also yay, you're alive! Also yay, I'm alive too

-💌

i'm so close to dropping my entire format bro, it takes so much time and half my motivation disappears the moment i'm reminded i have to do all that shit LOL and YAY YOUR ALIVE, MY BELOVED ANON!! I'm so sorry if this seems rushed UGEFWBJC'

reblogs and comments are appreciated

♡ Yandere racer who had an entire career in front of him, big dreams to make it to the big leagues only for it to have it all crumble in a matter of seconds because of one stupid scandal. It took everything from him and no longer was he the person who people greeted and brought random things to sign, he was abandoned, the crowd that gathered to greet him no longer cared about him.

♡ Just when Marcus thought all hope was lost, he met you, a cashier at a new coffee shop he decided to try out. Everytime he went there you greeted him with a phony smile, giving him the customer greeting as though he was like any other person and not a disgraced racer.

♡ His obsession only grew when consistent pestering, asking if you knew him or how famous he was ended with you slamming his cup on the counter, giving him a curt smile , told him that you did not care for such matters.

♡ He decides he wants to know everything about you, from your likes to your dislikes, where you live, how you travel from place to place, when you clock in, when you clock out. All this information to make a 'chance' meeting happen.

♡ Marcus knows your running late waiting for the bus, he takes it as an opportunity to pick your up in his sleek sports car, claming how he was heading the same direction and how he felt bad leaving you when he had enough time to drop you off.

♡ He who tries to show off with his speed, only to see how unfortable you look when he glanced at you through the corner of his eyes. He's aware of the way you clutch the seatbelt, how your eyes keep flickering to his speedometer, how you seem to flinch every time his engine roars.

♡ He wastes no time in offering you a deal, he'll drive you to work everyday so that you don't end up late and you can treat him to a coffee on the house every now and then and if you can't give it to him on the house, he'll pay for it, no worries. If you decline, he'll find more and more ways to make you late, running the risk of getting you fired, finding ways to keep making you late. If you use the fact that his sports car makes you uncomfortable with it's speed and noise, no worries, he has plenty of other luxury cars for you.

♡ Sometimes you wonder how he makes all the money for all these cars seeing as how he was basically forced to step down from his work but oh well, as long as you could get to work on time, what did you care?

♡ Usually Marcus would let you go back on your own, as he didn't want to seem too clingy with you but when he gets a text from you at midnight, asking if he can drop you home, he's got tough choices to make.

♡ He'd never give up the opportunity to pick you up but if he didn't make it to his race, his sponsor would have his head on a plate. Alas he has no choice but to take you with him to the race.

♡ He spends the entire car ride apologising to you, about how he didn't want to leave you but how his sponsor was insistent on him attending. Hell, he'll even beg for your forgiveness as long as you don't as him to let you off anywhere.

♡ Marcus makes it a point to feed on your fear on cars when you reach the venue, make you stay close to him all the time, making sure you stick close to him all the time, holding your hand, draping his coat over you so nobody has the audacity to talk to you.

♡ He takes every chance to get you to stick closer to him, taking up seats in the front, closer to the venue, even the attendants are surprised when they see someone whos always in the back, not only bring someone along with him but also take seats in the front.

♡ If you don't want to spend time with him after this, no worries, when your employer finds out just where you've been and be running back to him.

[catboybiologist]

yo I'm actually kinda curious now I'm not a geneticist and I guess you aren't either to my knowledge but what the hell does the y chromosome do? specifically in trans people on hrt and stuff I mean. to my understanding you said that trans women have everything they really need from one x chromosome, so. what's the other one up to. and also for trans men who lack a y chromosome, are they like. missing anything? hormones do 99% of the heavy lifting, right?

much love and whatnot btw. sorry about the freak in your inbox

Bit tired right now, so I hope this doesn't come out too rambly.

The one function that the Y chromosome has on sex determination is the Sry gene. This gene is responsible for testes formation, and ultimately, testosterone production. That's pretty much it. All of the other genes required to make something male or female are present, but inactive, in everyone. Hormones tell cells which ones to switch on and off, and at what times.

There's no explicit reason why Sry has to be linked to the Y chromosome. Most non-mammalian animals have different methods of sex determination, either from different sets of chromosomes, environmental triggers, or similar sex determining genes associating in appropriate ratios.

Why the Y, then?

All chromosomes, sex and somatic, are paired. Each member of the pair has the same genes on it. This is why you have two copies of most genes, and different "forms", or alleles, of a gene are possible. It's why mendelian genetics works. One of the cleanest examples is blood type. Blood types A, B, and O are all different forms of the same gene. You have two of these genes, and can therefore end up in combinations like AB, AO, etc (O in this case is no protein, A and B are slightly different forms of the same protein).

The Y chromosome is different. It's a shortened version of the X chromosome. So every gene on the Y chromosome has a pair on the X, but some genes on the X don't have a partner on the Y. And these genes have nothing to do with sex determination- the gene encoding for the red-sensitive protein in your eyes is an example of a gene in the part of the X chromosome that is "chopped off" to make the Y, and is therefore not carried by it. Every organism NEEDS at least one copy of these genes- from that point, you can upregulated that one copy and end up fairly normal.

Large chromosome deletions are fairly common, but oftentimes lethal to a developing embryo (not so fun fact, this is why the miscarriage rate is something like 70%, oftentimes so early and invisible that even the mother doesn't notice). While we can't know for certain without a time machine, the rationale is that one of these large chromosomal deletions happened to the X chromosome at some point in mammalian evolution. From that point, the only way that offspring can be passed down with that new Y chromosome in the gene pool is if you have a system that somehow forces every offspring to end up with at least one X chromosome.

Sry being linked to the Y chromosome accomplishes just that. It's an evolutionary band aid, a patch, a bodge, on a deleterious mutation. It forces the XX to XY pairing, ensuring that YY offspring don't happen.

In fact, we can see something similar happening in real time with a population of white throated sparrows: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7725849/#:~:text=Thus%2C%20not%20only%20do%20white,et%20al.%2C%202016).

A large chromosomal deletion is forcing new reproductive rules for pairing, to reduce the number of non viable offspring.

Hope this was somewhat digestible! It's a cool topic, but I'm very eepy atm

[pluckyredhead]

hi! i'm new to comics and i got in through reading your fics and wayne family adventures. i've since started reading more of the mainstream verse and i realized that most comic fans consider wfa to be totally fanon. you're one of the few i saw that disagrees. would you mind elaborating a lil on why? i'm too new to really form an opinion either way but i'd like to know your's!

(also yes i really did stalk your blog back years worth of posts i'm sorry! 😭😭)

Aw I love this! Welcome!

So I think it's really important to be clear on definitions here:

Canon means it's part of an official text. It's literally in a comic (or book or movie or other property) published or licensed by DC.

Fanon means it's made up by fans. That doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it comes from fandom and is not part of the official text.

Wayne Family Adventures is an official licensed comic by DC, so by definition, it cannot be fanon. That doesn't mean everyone has to like it, but it's not a fan comic. It's an official DC product. It's not fanon.

Now, WFA isn't part of the main DCU canon. It takes place in a separate universe. The Jason in Batman #138 and the Jason in WFA are not the same and they are having very different experiences. (And I'm sure the Jason in WFA would be grateful if he knew.)

But that's no different than a comic that takes place in an alternate universe, like Dark Knights of Steel or DCeased, or a movie like Blue Beetle or a show like My Adventures with Superman. They all take place in their own universes, but all of those universes are canon. None of them are fanon.

What I think most people mean when they say WFA is fanon is that WFA draws on tropes and characterizations that are popular in fandom. Which...yes, absolutely. This is on purpose, and honestly, it pisses me off when people complain about it. (Not you, anon! Your question was lovely, you just triggered my unskippable cut scene of dialogue. Sorry lol.)

Wayne Family Adventures is probably the single best idea DC has had in the 20 years I've been reading comics. (The second best was the kids and YA graphic novel lines.)

I just checked, and WFA has 1.3 MILLION subscribers. That's more than every floppy comic starring Batman sells in a month, combined. It's more than literally any superhero comic has sold in decades - in this century! The combined strips have over A HUNDRED MILLION VIEWS. That is bonkerstown. That is a readership like DC hasn't seen since the 1970s. That is unparalleled success, and it's introducing characters like Kate Kane and Duke Thomas to a whole new audience.

Now, WFA was clearly designed to appeal to Batfans who were active on social media and fanfic sites like AO3 and Wattpad, and Webtoon readers. The readership of Webtoon is mostly young and female. Fandom as a whole is mostly female. The writer of WFA is female.

And maybe I'm not being fair here, but when I see people dismiss WFA as "just fanon," I always catch a whiff of "It's not a real Batman comic. It's a girl comic for girls."

I have spent the past 20 years begging DC (and Marvel, DC is not alone in this) to see women as a viable audience - as their largest potential growth audience! I have watched in dumbfounded frustration as they ignored the juggernaut success of Raina Telgemeier and Ngozi Ukazu and Alice Oseman running rings around the NY Times bestseller list and counted a 50k shipment here and there as a resounding triumph. I have literally seen them throw out survey responses from women because "those women had an agenda." (This is a true story. 2011 was rough, y'all.)

And all of a sudden, they gave us a comic actually catering to women and young people and fandom, and they put it on the most popular, current, modern platform for comics availably - and it's brilliant. It's smart and funny and stunningly drawn and every episode makes clever, inventive use of the scrolling format. They FINALLY gave us a girl comic for girls, and it's a masterpiece.

And yes, it riffs on fanon concepts. It also has its roots firmly in mainstream DCU canon. It references deep cuts. CRC Payne and StarBite know their shit. Jason Todd being a bookworm may be a fanon staple, but he does plenty of reading - including Jane Austen - in the 100% canon mainstream DCU comics.

It's not going to be for everything, because nothing is. It's completely fine if you don't like WFA. No one has to read it or enjoy it. If you're into Batman for the darkness and the crime and the ongoing plotlines and the angst, WFA won't be for you, and that's totally fine!

But to finally, finally be valued as a reader by DC, to have them do something smart and innovative and so, so well executed, and have the exact people they made it for dismiss it out of hand because Bruce has a "World's Okayest Dad" mug or whatever? Yeah, that chafes.

[roxtron]

Day 5: Rabbit, Reclaim

AGJGDFJF FINALLY IT'S DAY 5 SO I CAN POST THIS

For some reason everytime i draw him he looks so young because i'm accidentally overcorrecting since i'm used to drawing older characters. So unfortunately he looks way younger than i meant him to lol, whoops.

But wait there's more- AHAHAHA

While I did initially plan this for GGY week I eventually got the idea to use this as an excuse to draw other GGY designs, soo..

(Not sure why tumblr formatted it that way with 1 of them big but it doesn't matter lol)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, I put the tags of each person next to their design but ofc I'm still gonna tag them in the post itself so you can see their art for yourself if you haven't already. But I enjoyed each of these in their own ways so if you don't mind I think I'm gonna type a bit of text next to them..

@chipistrate This was one of the first I drew out of these, the design was pretty fun to draw but sorry if I messed up a few details, it was a bit difficult lol. The mask and goggles are really fun to draw and they make for a cool design, along with all the glowing blue. (and yes, I tried to subtly include the heelies lol)

@lunzi0 This was the first fursuit one I did lol. I adore the little stars in the design, they personalize it so well and make it really unique. I wanna try this design again since I feel like the other ones show my improvement a bit better, but I hope you can appreciate the effort I put in on my first attempt <3

@carouselrabbit This one was really fun to draw, I absolutely love the eye shape/lashes, it stands out and I always love drawing eyes with a bit of eyeliner lol, the daycare theme legwarmers is a cool nod to the balloon boy arcade machine being connected to them, and was just a fun addition in general lol, I like the style of legwarmers what can I say, fnaf changed my fashion sense a bit. also the subtle paraells to freddy's design is a nice way to connect a bit to gregory himself.

@puhpandas I can't remember if I talked about this design last time I drew it but, overall I'm really happy with how this came out, it's such an indicator of improvement since I started drawing this and I'm glad I was able to draw it better than last time lol. All the patchwork and similarities to Vanny's suit work really well, and the rabbit you chose to base it off of was a good fit, the colors make it a bit more difficult to shade for but i like detail lol, hope you like it too :)

@dykevanny I knew I wanted to do this since I started but I wasn't sure if I'd have time, and I'm glad I did! I hope you don't mind I combined aspects from the first design I saw and the second one you replied to my ask with, I liked the big purple sleeves lol. (I just realized after doing all the shading I forgot to include the oil splatter on his jacket, sorry!) It was definitely a bit difficult due to the head shape being so different but.. fluffy. i love drawing fluff. And the glowing swirl on the goggles, the shape of the ears, I love a lot about this design. :D

I have a hard time with writing compliments but I wanted to get some of those thoughts out, some of the things I like about these designs apply to multiple lol. I adore every one of these designs but I find it hard to put into words what I enjoy about them, hope the original creators are happy with these. <3

I also kept the ggys without as much lighting effects on a separate file, I felt like I should add them since they're a bit brighter lol, makes them look different.

Okay now that I've gotten all that- Sorry this post is so long! I didn't think it'd end up taking up so much space lol. Buut.. working on this drawing and thinking about it and potential context behind it gave me an au idea for it, but I'll put it under the cut since I understand most people probably won't care and just wanna see the drawings lol.

Idk if I'm confident enough to write for it but I'll give a bit of a summary.. I'll keep it under the cut for people who aren't interested and just wanna see the art though lol.

After the main events of SB and Ruin, now that the mimic's been set free, Cassie's taken control of by what's left of Vanny, using her as a new host. But with Cassie being the only human left alive down there, after being reawakened, Dr. Rabbit has nowhere left to go but back to his old host.

Vanessa, Freddy, and Gregory hadn't gone back to the Pizzaplex after ruin, but they were trying to figure out a plan to get Cassie back safely. One night after Freddy and Gregory disappear, Vanessa leaves to go find them. As dangerous as the pizzaplex is, it's her best guess for where they might've gone. She doesn't want to think about what could've happened to them, in denial for the worst case scenario. She tries to keep herself calm by telling herself they probably just left to go back for Cassie, maybe they didn't want her stopping them.. but deep down she knows it can't be that simple. She knows something's off, even if she's not ready to admit it.

When returning to the pizzaplex, she brought along her own V.A.N.N.I. mask, though unlike the one Cassie used, it was clear of the mimic's influence. After all, she was going to need some way to travel through potential blocked routes.

By the time she found Gregory, she'd still been wearing the mask, seeing him down the end of a dark hallway. He looked confused, afraid, his mind was a wreck of conflicting emotions. She started rushing towards him, happy to see him okay, until he finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here."

She stepped back, taking off the mask, only to be faced with the worst case scenario.

It was a wreck, covered in stains and tears, but it was still recognizable. He was wearing that old suit again.

As he waved, she could see Freddy's claws peeking out from the doorway, as the two stepped closer towards her.

So, she did what he told her to do, and started running. She could hear a faint voice coming from the mask, and put it back on before finding somewhere she could hide.

It was his voice again, telling her which way to go.

I guess that was the dramatic way to summarize the main idea behind it, lol. Basically Gregory and Dr. Rabbit work the way Sun and Moon work in Ruin, whichever one is in control in the real world, the other is left behind in the AR world. Or at least that's my interpretation of how they worked, considering Sun was always in mask-on scenes and moon was mask-off. I'm not too sure where the plot might go from there, and maybe I'll consider writing for it, I dunno. I've never wrote fanfic before because I get deadly afraid of writing them out of character lol, but maybe?? I have ideas for scenes and premise and stuff but I don't know if I have the confidence to write it.

But anyway! That was just more of a fun side-idea I came up with while working on this, if you read this far thanks, hope you enjoyed :)

here's some silly little lineless doodles as a reward for making it to the end hehe

now that's what I call an art dump

@ggyweek2024

[beatingdrumspouringwine]

Hi there! I've recently taken more of an interest in Hellenism, but I don't at all know where to start. I've never really been religious before, only really knowing the basics of Christianity. I did see you created a post of advice for beginner Hellenists, but I was wondering, if it's not too much trouble, if you had any additional information for someone like me who's just starting out.

Hello anon! Sorry for how long it took to write this up, I definitely went a little bit wild on this one :)

First off, welcome to Hellenic Polytheism! It's definitely a wild ride, but depending on what sect of Christianity you come from, it's not completely and totally foreign.

Starting off with a list of some websites, general resources, and accounts that I have found helpful:

theoi.com

Apostolos Athanassakis translations of the Orphic and Homeric Hymns

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship by Labrys

Hellenion.org

@khaire-traveler's Subtle Worship Master List

@thegrapeandthefig's Wordpress

And now breaking them all down, because I love when people justify their choices to me :)

theoi.com The nice thing about this website is that it's about as much information about the Gods as you can possibly want in one place. Not only does it seemingly have just about every possible deity in the Greek pantheon, but it has an incredibly good collection of historical references, family trees, and even artwork from ancient Greece.

Apostolos Athanassakis translations While theoi.com is good, I'm not the biggest fan of the version of the translations that they use for the Orphic and Homeric Hymns - they're a bit too "translated" for me. This meaning that the translations in question don't sit too close to the original text, and in my opinion, if you're trying to understand a deity through some ancient work, you want to get the closest translation to the original, even if that means sacrificing some of the flowery language. And Athanassakis' translations are some of my favorite for those "close translation" hymns. You can find his work on the Internet Archives.

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship I think this is one of those staples that every Hellenic Polytheist should take a look at at least once. It's pretty dry, but within it, there are plenty of rituals and general information on Hellenism as a religion. I don't use most of the rituals in it, but even still, I keep a copy on hand for the future when I'm able to practice more freely.

Hellenion.org This is a pretty good resource for more modern Hellenic Polytheist prayers, as well as rituals. This is a more heavy reconstructionist lean (which focuses on an accurate recreation of Hellenic Polytheism, as opposed to revivalism, which focuses on recreating it for the modern day), but still incredibly helpful, and a bit easier to understand than Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship.

@khaire-traveler's subtle worship masterlist Honestly, if a resource like this existed when I was first starting out, I would be light years ahead of where I am now. Stag has managed to fit just about every idea you'd need to get started with worship/offerings into an easy-to-digest format, and I find myself going back to it time and time again when I start incorporating a new deity into my practice.

@thegrapeandthefig's Wordpress I don't even think I could summarize how amazing Aurora is into one little paragraph. There's everything on her Wordpress from historical offerings, to modern festivals, to dissections of various ancient customs. One of the things which has helped me the most from her blog has been her Attic calendar, which shows the schedule of the various religious observations throughout the year (and there are a lot).

Finally, a few extra words of advice that I might not have included in my original post that you mentioned in the ask:

Try to have one prayer memorized for each deity, if you're easily able to memorize things. Chances are, after about a year or so, you'll probably have a prayer or two that you really like and will have memorized because you've said it enough (I definitely have my fair share). And there's definitely something nice about finding yourself in a situation that reminds you of your deity and being able to just rattle off a prayer.

Try to avoid TikTok for your spiritual knowledge. But, if you want to add a bit of Hellenic flair to your FYP, I'd recommend Bria Melitta and hesiodic (who's also on here and maybe on TikTok as well [I might be wrong, haven't been on TikTok in a hot minute] under the name @olympianbutch). Both of these creators are really good, and I especially love Dagan for his devotion to Zeus, who often gets a bad rap from new practitioners because of behavior attributed to Him in myths.

Other than the resources I mentioned, some good stuff for casual reading would be: the Iliad and the Odyssey, any ancient Greek plays (I'd recommend starting with Aristophanes, if the tragedies are a bit too heavy), and Hesiod's Theogony.

And that's about all I can possibly think of throwing at you right now! I hope this came in handy, and as always, if you have more questions, please feel free to drop more in my ask box :) I'm always more than happy to answer questions and help to the best of my ability!

[animentality]

Oh my GOD, the drama that's going on at my work...

So as some of you know, I've been getting bullied by my boss, let's call her Margaret because she's like Margaret Thatcher.

A Grade A bitch.

So Margaret will give me instructions that are wildly unclear, contradictory, or vague.

I'll give you an example.

We have a project that's basically comparing policy guidance from across different federal agencies with our own, so that we can incorporate their best language into our department's policy documents.

I wrote up a word document with policy analyses for all of our chosen examples.

Margaret said, I don't like this. I can't use it. I can't read it. Change it to Microsoft excel and make it like a checklist.

So I'm like alright, makes sense, my bad.

I do that.

She then complains that it's too much like a checklist and what she wanted was a detailed analysis that she could use.

Also that she can't read excel spreadsheets because there are..."too many words."

...

So. Yeah. Too many words, huh?

So I'm like...ok...but I already did that.

And she says, no you didn't, also I asked you to focus on finishing your analyses of all the departments, not to worry about the format. The format doesn't matter.

But here's the thing right.

The FORMAT MATTERS.

SHE LITERALLY TOLD ME TO CHANGE IT BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH THE FORMAT MATTERS.

And she's starting to go off and she's beginning to yell at me here...in front of any entire team of people...and I just had to cut her off, because if I don't, she's just gonna rant at me for an hour and then hang up and neither of us will have what we want, ie, she won't have the product she's imagining (which doesn't exist apparently bc she contradicted her own wishes), and I won't have the guidance I need to make the product.

So I interrupt her and say I already did that. The analysis is done. Now it's just the format that matters.

Now, she's very angry about the interruption, because she CONTINUES to just bulldoze right over me and keep talking...

And my supervisor, let's call her Sarah, then explodes and says, "Let him talk! He's trying to explain to you what he did and you're not letting him defend himself!"

And audience.

Fellow countrymen...

I would kill for Sarah, I really would.

I was so happy to have someone speak up for me.

But anyway.

So we finish the meeting, although it's very icy and very angry.

And then Sarah calls me immediately.

And she says oh my god I'm so sorry about that, what was that BS?

And I'm like...I'm like so happy to have someone on my side that I just say thank you for standing up for me there.

And she goes into this wild ass, amazing rant and she DISHED, BOYS AND GALS AND NONBINARY PALS.

APPARENTLY, Margaret has bullied every single contractor she's EVER had.

The guy she keeps telling me to defer to?

She tried to FIRE HIS ASS like a month ago.

The guy she keeps saying is like a godsend because he's sooo helpful?

She tried to fire him in his first month.

She was also apparently so hated at her last office that she had to leave because she wasn't getting any respect. She's been shunted all over the department because no one can stand working with her.

She has such poor interpersonal skills and fails so hard at communicating that she literally has clashed with every single member of her team.

And she hates me because I'm harder to bully.

Because I know what the fuck I'm talking about and I don't let her beat me down with her backwards ass contradictory logic.

And here's the spicy drama...

Apparently when Sarah interrupted her earlier...she literally texted HER BOSS, let's call her Laura...to complain that Sarah and I are "working together" and "conspiring" against her.

because "Kai was contradicting himself and when I tried to call him out on it, he INTERRUPTED me and then Christine ENCOURAGED him to and I just thought you should know."

And I find that really fucking funny.

Because she complained to her boss...who immediately sent THAT SCREENSHOT TO THE SAME PERSON SHE WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT.

So YEAH Margaret. We ARE conspiring against you.

But you don't have any allies, as evidenced by the fact that complaining to your boss literally made her roll her eyes and say ah Margaret is at it again...to the same person that Margaret is bitching about.

Anyway.

Totally insane.

Sarah told me, you're very professional and reasonable and sweet, and honestly, I feel protective of you because you're the youngest member of the team and I know that working with Margaret might make you feel like you never want to work again...but you're honestly very good at your job and I won't let Margaret fire you...

And I was really floored by the show of loyalty...

I also laughed because she said, I don't mind taking the heat from Margaret. What's she gonna do, fire me? (She doesn't work for Margaret and is sort of lateral to her position anyway).

I'd like to see her try.

And anyway.

Anyway that was the beginning of my crazy day.

Honestly I'm just smiling.

I've never had a supervisor stick up for me as much as Sarah and I'd love to keep working for her...it's just a shame if she can't keep me from being fired by the madwoman that leads our team.

I hope she'll let me know if Margaret decides to fire me because I dared using Microsoft excel in her presence again...

I'm so sorry that when you work for the government, you sometimes have to read things...

So sorry. But what do you want me to do about it?

Why hire a writer if you're scared of reading?

[preservationofnormalcy]

How does magic work anyways?

For the Thrashwizard Molorov PSA it said that he can make something "conform to Rhythmorzaxian realspace" and that boosts his power. So is it realm/universe linked?

Also, is realm hopping easy? I want to see my alternate universe selves and have a grand old time.

From, New to this here extranormal thing

(p.s. Jenny: I agree)

This is a big question, and thus I turn to our biggest brain: Ambrose Delgado, our local wizard and smartest man on the planet. He'll take it from here.

Ah, hello! This just does speech to text? Good! Good! I'm Ambrose, and Norm said you guys had some really interesting ontological-thaumaturgical questions, and boy I am just itching to draw out my current ontological model in a format that's not some stuffy paper! Hah!

Pardon my bad drawing and my just awful handwriting, but this is what I'm currently working with. A lot of this is simplified for the, uh, purposes here, translating it to the layman - that's you - and a lot of this is....currently completely hypothetical or the ultimate extrapolation from thaumo-mathmetical models. There's some realm designations I knew off the top of my head, there's a few more we know of, of course. And....some I can't label, just due to their classification.

Imagine the universe as a series of bubbles - that's "us" in the, uh, middle here. And by "us" I mean the entirety of realspace, our galaxy and indeed universe. Though, once you get out to the edges of the universe, realspace starts to get...slippery, ontologically speaking. At least, according to our models, there's some very interesting work being done in France right now regarding how much the edges bleed--

Sorry, yes, the model. Right. So, you have the bubble that is "us" and our realspace, and then the skin of the bubble, a dimensional barrier. That's currently a very hard thing to pierce. It can fail, randomly, and objects or people drift, but that's, you know, incredibly rare. It's hard to punch through and even harder to do so safely. Currently, we can't....consistently do it. At least, not in a way that satisfies modern thaumaturgical standards. A lot of the older wizards insist they used to be able to pop over to Albion Dieselsands or Old Charlie for the weekend, but frankly I don't believe them.

Just going through my labels here - so you have the dimensional barrier, then what's outside it. I know Norm's talked about it, but the colloquial idea of an "alternate universe" is not really something that exists. Many-Worlds is mostly incorrect. Mostly because choices do have the potential to create another "bubble" in our local multiversal map, it's just....very rare. Not every choice or turning point has that potential, and of the ones that do, an exponentially small number seems to actually result in a split, though he's mentioned "quantum potentiality", a concept that I think really hasn't been studied enough. I actually think that--

The model. So, the result is that "alternate universes" are mostly extremely divergent from ours, like our friend Thrashwizard's native Rhythmorzax. The terms "alternate universe" and "realm" are interchangeable. The "similarity gap" label refers to the concept that almost all realms are wildly different than ours, due to the nature of how splits work. We aren't....totally sure how it works, of course - are we the "prime"? Are we a "split"? The model is onto-centric, we aren't actually in the "center." A simplification to help readability. The ultimate answer to your "other you" question is it's extremely, incredibly unlikely that an entity meant to be an "other you" even exists, even if you were to find a realm where they could and breach the barrier.

The other labels. The "noo-drift cloud" refers to the concept that, well, concepts drift to other realms, or are shared - the dimensional barrier is somewhat noospherically permeable. That's why ideas like "metal music" are found on even the otherwise wildly divergent Rhythmorzax. A more accurate diagram would look like a Venn diagram, with noospheric circles overlapping.

You can see the more alien-less alien "meter" here - it's generally true that the more wildly divergent realms are more alien to us, in a familiarity sense. Heck, 99-Puppet doesn't even have humans or even human-adjacents on it.

This is where your question about magic comes in. See, most realms have a system of magic unique to that realm. When you're trained in one magic system, it's...it's like a language. Language has a huge effect on how your brain works, and so does a system of magic. Going to another realm is like being forced to learn a new dialect or even a new language. It's possible, sure, and might be easier for you because you know magic in the first place, but it can be quite a challenge. Again, our friend the Thrashwizard is already practiced in local thaumaturgical space, and his ability to "ontologically terraform" space temporarily is quite dangerous, as yes, that does put him on more familiar ground, magically-speaking.

Describing how magic works is...tricky if you're not already trained, and witches will have a different answer from wizards, who will have a different answer than warlocks, etc, etc. The way my brain conceptualizes it is...accessing an unimaginably large computer and requesting changes to the world - if you know the language the computer speaks and have the mental energy to send the request, it'll prioritize it to....immediately, really.

The last labels, on the right there - you can see the typical influence range of draconic or angelic/demonic entities. They have a much easier time traveling than we do, of course, though angels and demons seem to have settled on this one for reasons that are currently unclear. Dragons come and go, as they are....wont to do.

Oh, and you can see the....big bubble. It's current prevailing theory that the larger multiverse just....repeats, fractally. There's an unknown number of big bubbles out there, all of them unfathomably alien. IF any of you remember our communications with T!ss, they came from a bubble one or two removed from ours. Further out than that, it's....currently hypothetical. Outsiders, actually, are currently thought to exist in the space between bubbles, but I try not to dwell on what that means.

Hopefully that answered some of your questions!

[nothankyoudear]

London book shop recommendations?

Summary: A.Z. Fell and Co. is recommended as a local London bookshop on a Reddit post. Chaos ensues when someone actually takes the recommendation and goes there, only to find that: 1. They don't get to buy books 2. The gentle bookshop owner apparently owns a giant python And 3. The bookshop owner is 100% in love with his best friend with the sunglasses OR Ineffable Husbands told through Reddit posts.

stupid little fic i wrote. thought it'd be funny to post on tumblr bc its formatted like reddit... social mediaception?

anyways, also on my ao3, nothankyoudear.

Enjoy!

r/books

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 2 years ago

London book shop recommendations?

Hi everyone! Not sure if this is the right subreddit for this, but I just moved to London and I'd like to support some of the more local book shops that are around here! Any good suggestions?

EDIT: Thank you for all the suggestions! I will definitely be checking them out :)

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buttscotchzzz · 2 yrs. ago Are you looking to actually take home the books?    

       SadLittleJay OP · 2 yrs. ago        yes... I think that's the purpose of bookshops?

             buttscotchzzz · 2 yrs. ago               Yes, obviously, sorry. I just live close to this book store called A.Z. Fell & Co, and it's the loveliest place. It's very cosy and the collection of books there is honestly unbelievable (I think  there are some texts dating back to the 16th century? Not sure why those are in a book shop instead of a museum). The owner is a lovely man too, but he refuses to sell his books. Not sure why.

              Yeah so, for looking around and sitting?? Fantastic place. Actually purchasing books?? Probably not so much.

                   SadLittleJay OP · 2 yrs. ago                     No apology needed, sorry if I came off too harsh :) Sounds wonderfully strange!! I'll make sure to check it out (even if I won't get to take any of the books back home lol)

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r/London

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 2 years ago

Strange soho bookshop that doesn't sell books?

Hello! I've recently been recommended this bookshop called "A.Z. Fell & Co" in Soho. It's quite nice but also... Kinda weird? Not sure how to describe it. So I know it might be quite niche, but I just wanted to know if anyone knows anything about it? 

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DollieDollie · 2 yrs. ago Lived in Soho all my life. The shop is kinda infamous with the locals because nobody knows what the hell is going on with it. Weird as hell opening and closing hours too.

       Miriiriram · 2 yrs. ago        I live in Covent Garden and I've also heard some stuff about the bookshop. Never been able to figure out how the man keeps his shop open in central Soho since there's no way he's turning a profit - It's been here for as long as I can remember though. 

             SadLittleJay OP · 2 yrs. ago              Huh, how weird. Well, the shop owner seems nice so I'll keep digging! 

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r/London

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 2 years ago

Update on strange soho bookshop that doesn't sell books

Hi everyone! Me again. Not sure if anyone is still keeping up, but I've had a few more trips to "A.Z. Fell & Co" and here are my experiences:

- I've had some people mention weird opening and closing hours, and from what I can tell that is 100% true. The sign at the front door almost melted my brain, but I've figured out the timings pretty good by now.

- The books kept there are very very strange. From what I can tell, most of them are published before the 1930s, and I swear I've seen some ancient texts around... I did find this one book with some pictures of earth and space though, so that's pretty cool.

- Nearly no one comes into the shop! Foot traffic outside is crazy, but every time I've been inside, I'm always the only one there. I understand that bookshops aren't the most interesting things around, but it's still a shop in the smack dab middle of Soho, so the pure emptiness of it is a little weird (take a shot every time I say weird or strange in this post lol)

- Mr Fell, the shop owner, is very very lovely!! There was this one time when I just sat and read for what must be hours, and he didn't even bat an eye - even offered me tea! We sat down, had a little chat about Jane Austen, and I could really tell that he is really passionate about his books - couldn't stop smiling and everything.

He did mumble something weird about Jane Austen being a spy, however, so still quite a weird fellow.

- Mr Fell still doesn't sell books. I asked him the first time I came into the store for some books and he said no, but I just assumed it was maybe because I didn't know him well enough? Anyways I asked him again and he just stared at me like I just asked to take his firstborn. So no luck on that yet.

- I think Mr Fell has a partner but I'm not quite sure about it. There's this man called Crowley that seems to be the only other person that comes into the bookshop, and he's got what is possibly the coolest sense of fashion in the world - I'm talking full two-piece suit, sunglasses on indoors, and bright red hair. Not ginger hair, RED hair. 

Mr Fell calls Crowley "My dear" and Crowley calls him "Angel". They act like an old married couple, bickering and everything, but I really don't wanna assume so... 

That's pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head, I think. I'll keep you guys updated (if anyone is still reading lol) if I find something new!

PS. unrelated but there's this coffee shop that's really nice - "Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death", just across the street from the bookshop. Really good coffee if anyone is looking for a drink!

EDIT: Okay well, this post blew up more than I expected. Good to see that other people are also strangely obsessed with this little bookshop lol! Thanks for the awards and I'll definitely keep you guys updated!!!

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

r/snakes

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 1 year ago

Does anyone know what this snake is?

Found this GIANT snake on the floor of a bookshop!!! Does anyone know the species or anything?? 

[Attachment: 1]

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SSssssBoys· 1 yr. agoOh my god that thing is huge! You found it on the floor of a BOOKSHOP?

       SadLittleJay OP · 1 yr. ago        Yes!!! Crazy right?? I think it must've snuck in or smth because I'm a regular at the shop and I've never seen it before. Is it venomous????

             liveweire837· 1 yr. ago              Purely based on the size it has to be a ball python or an anaconda - Can't really tell from the photo quality. Neither are venomous but are still dangerous. Call animal control ASAP.

                   SadLittleJay OP · 1 yr. ago                      Sorry for the quality - I was a little busy screaming lol. But the store owner just came out and told me that it's apparently his pet? I knew some people keep snakes for pets but I've never seen them in real life, so huge too! Anyways thank you for the advice! :D ---------------

r/London

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 1 year ago

Update on "A.Z. Fell & Co"

Hello, I'm back with some more news! 

- First news: Mr Fell has given me his first name! I asked him what A. Z. stood for, and he thought for a while like he doesn't know his first name? Anyways his name is Azira, which I think is quite a cool name.

I tried looking him up on Google but nothing came up, so I tried asking him for his middle name and he got this weirdly panicked look on his face. I didn't push it further because he was turning a little red trying to think. 

- Mr Fell owns a giant snake. I think he's some sort of Python? Not quite sure about it yet. His name is Crawly (ha, like Crowley) and I found him on the floor one morning - gave me the fright of my life! Anyways, he's cute but he has this weirdly human look in his eyes sometimes. He also really likes curling himself next to or just on Mr Fell - didn't know snakes could be clingy lol. Sometimes I feel like I'm intruding on the two of them, which is kinda crazy because one of them is literally a snake.

- Crowley is still coming into the shop fairly often, and he's still just as intimidating as ever. He does, however, do this thing where he kinda melts when he talks to Mr Fell. Kinda hard to explain but you can really tell the difference in his body language. I can't see his eyes because of the sunglasses, but I swear they go soft and everything.

Maybe they're dating, maybe they're not. All I know is that when I ask Mr Fell about Crowley, he talks about him like how he talks about Jane Austen books.

- I've finally managed to lend (heavy focus on the word LEND) a book!! Returned in perfect condition :)

That's all I have for now! Will continue to update if anything else interesting comes up.

EDIT 1: Some people didn't believe in the whole snake shenanigan, which I completely understand (sounds ridiculous to myself too), but I've attached a picture of Crawly just as proof. You can see him curled up next to Mr Fell, which I still think is pretty cute.

[Attachment: 1]

EDIT 2: I've asked Mr Fell (in a very awkward conversation), and Crowley is in fact not his partner. I know people have been debating in the comments but Mr Fell says they're just best friends. Will investigate further on the matter.

EDIT 3: I've asked Mr Fell and Crowley if they mind me posting about them, and I am proud to say that I now have the official go ahead from the both of them to post updates. I've also made a subreddit since I feel bad spamming r/London with nothing but A.Z. Fell & Co content lol. I'll be posting future updates at r/AZFellAndCo :)

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PollyPirate · 1 yr. agoEveryone in agreement that there's definitely some HEAVY pining going on between Mr Fell and Crowley say aye

       WonderfulWorld· 1 yr. ago        aye

             cooliosoolio23 · 1 yr. ago              AYE

                  nothankyou845 · 1 yr. ago                   aye > 56 more replies

peanutbutternnut · 1 yr. ago a bookseller named azira w/ a fucking python sounds like a video game character. badass as hell

       SadLittleJay OP · 1 yr. ago        He's actually kind of the opposite of badass - dresses like he just stepped out of the Victorian era. He's got a bowtie and everything! 

                peanutbutternnut · 1 yr. ago                  even MORE badass

                         Lilypadwfrog · 1 yr. ago                           wait so mr fell is dressed like a gentleman from the victorian era, and crowley is dressed like an 80s fashion icon??? literally the most blatant example of opposites attract i've ever seen. next thing i know you'll be telling me that they have contrasting colour palettes LMAO                                  SadLittleJay OP · 1 yr. ago                                   You're not gonna believe this lol

HmmmmMMmM· 1 yr. ago "He talks about him like how he talks about Jane Austen books." BRO ---------------

r/AZFellAndCo

Posted by u/Mimimeow 1 year ago

Has anyone actually visited A. Z. Fell & Co. ?

Basically just the title. I keep seeing posts about people trying to visit the store but always getting 'interrupted' by one thing or another. Has anyone actually managed to visit the place other than SadLittleJay?

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mirandapanda · 1 yr ago I was one of the people who got 'interrupted' on their way there. I found a little kitten on the side of the road and just couldn't leave her there, so I took her to the vet instead. Not too fussed about it though, since now it helped me meet the absolute love of my life, Luna.

[Link]

      Mimimeow OP · 1 yr ago       oh my god SHE'S SO CUTE 😭 Maybe I'll try visiting the bookshop so I can get a cat

      Edit: Holy fucking shit ---------------

r/AZFellAndCo

Posted by u/AnthonyJC 9 months ago

Why do people think they're in love It's all people are talking about. Can someone explain this. 

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Sort By: Best MillieRockers96· 9 mo ago well i mean,,, mr fell talks about crowley like he talks about books (which i think r basically his life and soul), and from the last update we got crowley was literally giving mr fell houseplants in what i can only say is domestic hell. if u see some videos of them u can also see that they look at each other like the other one's the sun when the other not watching, so yeah we're pretty sure they're in love just INCREDIBLY oblivious

                Lilypadwfrog ·9 mo ago                 100% in love. also talking about the whole "he talks about crowley like he talks about books", its lowkey crazy how much mr fell talks about crowley. like that man NEVER stops i think. but honestly just give the pinned post a look and you'll get it. 

                           AnthonyJC OP· 9 mo ago                             Oh ---------------

r/AskReddit 

Posted by u/porlrlrlr 2 months ago What are some of the weirdest things that you've seen on reddit?

Very broad and basic question, but I'm bored and need temporary fulfilment

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yeahsolikeuhh · 2 mo ago A while back there was this bookshop that blew up because of a reddit post. Apparently the shop's been around for three hundred years or something, and apparently had shit like the first edition of the Great Gatsby and stuff trailing back to the 16th century or something - But that's not even the weird part.

People tried to visit the bookshop because of the popularity obviously, but every time they try, stuff just happens at random and it never happens. Everyone knows the bookshop is there, but no one except OP for that first reddit post has ever actually managed to get in. Sometimes they find a stray cat and get distracted, sometimes a giant storm just instantaneously starts, but literally ZERO people have gotten into that book shop except for OP.

The bookshop owner is called AZIRA (not fucking kidding), with a pet python (also not fucking kidding), who is also apparently dressed like he came out of the Victorian era (still not fucking kidding). Now I'm not saying he's a wizard, but I'm pretty damn sure he's a fucking wizard.

Also apparently he's also in love with his best friend and there's this huge pining thing happening the last time I checked, but I think OP stopped updating a while back so yeah. 

        Cauliflourpanfried· 2 mo ago         Holy shit I completely forgot about that. Genuinely the weirdest shit. Hope they finally got their shit sorted and at least kissed or smth tho. ---------------

r/IAmA

Posted by u/MrAziraFell 6 days ago

I am Azira Fell, the owner of A.Z. Fell & Co. A sk Me Anything!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. I am Azira Fell and I happen to own A.Z. Fell & Co. I've recently been informed of just how popular my bookshop has become, so here I am! Here is a picture of me, Crawly, and this sign I made for proof.

I'm still not very good at technology, so I truly do apologise for the slow responses. I will try my best :)

- AZF

Edit: Thank you for all your questions! As much as I'd love to just sit and chat with all of you, I still have the calls of thousands of wonderful books to tend to. I hope you all have a lovely day :)

- AZF

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monsteriaLoe· 6 days ago Are you aware of the weird phenomenon where, when someone tries to come to your shop, they always seem to get distracted or pulled away by another thing? And, being completely honest, were you involved in any of these? I understand the question sounds silly, but it's just so strange that I have to ask.

        MrAziraFell OP · 6 days ago         Thank you for the question! And it's not silly at all. I actually was not aware of this until today! And if I had the ability to summon stray cats at will, my bookshop would already be overwhelmed with kittens.

        I suppose it must just simply be some sort of magic, or maybe even a miracle ;) - AZF

PollyPirate · 6 days ago Are you and Crowley finally together???? (feel free to not answer if it really is too personal or anything like that)

        MrAziraFell OP · 6 days ago         Hello, Polly! Thank you for being so considerate. In short, yes we are together now. Now looking back on it, I suppose it was a little silly that we waited that long to be together. Well, that's all over now, and Crowley and I are as happy as ever - AZF

              PollyPirate· 6 days ago              OMG

                     JooolyRancher· 6 days ago                      Congratulations! What made you guys take the last step, if I may ask?

                                MrAziraFell OP · 6 days ago                                 Well, it's actually quite funny since apparently Crowley had found the subreddit (I believe that is what it's called) that Jay had made while looking for the bookshop on the Internet, saw the posts that all of you made about us being obliviously in love with the other, and finally decided to tell me how he truly felt. So, if I have to be honest, it was all of you that helped us take the last step, and I am very grateful for that :) - AZF

                                        cooliosoolio23· 6 days ago                                        ok well now im crying

wormieboyyyyyy · 6 days ago Why don't you sell your books? Also do you have a favourite? (a favourite book I mean)         MrAziraFell OP · 6 days ago         Well those two questions actually are quite interlinked, if I do say so myself. My answer to the first is because I simply love them all too much, and can't bear to part with them. My answer to the second is also I simply love them all too much, so I cannot pick just one. I do, however, especially adore the work of Terry Pratchett. - AZF

                wormieboyyyyyy · 6 days ago                 Ain't that the truth. Have you ever thought of selling a book, tho? Like ever? You do run a bookshop.

                        MrAziraFell OP · 6 days ago                         Well.... I suppose I could sell just one. - AZF ---------------

r/AZFellAndCo

Posted by u/SadLittleJay 1 day ago

Oh my god

MR FELL SOLD ME A BOOK!!!!!!! 

[Attachment: 1]

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[simplykorra]

Let me start off by saying I really enjoy your writing. It's just... SO good. It just hits the nerdy little writer part of my heart and that's not even starting on the story itself and the characters. *chef's kiss* I am in the process of writing a little Avatrice fanfic myself and I can only dream to be as good and as proficient as you are one day. I was hoping you might be able to give me some advice. I'm currently stuck on a part that is supposed to have a text conversation between Bea and Ava and while I think I have the general stuff down (the difference between how they'd express themselves) none of my drafts come out feeling natural only clunky and forced. Do you have any advice on how to write text message conversations and would please be willing to share?

first of all, thank you for the kind words <3

as to your question, the way i approach texts between ava and bea is all in the layout and the way that they express themselves

meaning beatrice's texts are going to be straight to the point. no detours and they're all properly formatted and punctuated and perfect. she doesn't use shorthand like 'lol' or 'idk' or anything like that - though ava has probably tried to get her to drop and lol every now and then

as for ava, her texts are more frantic and all over the place

i also think she texts in bunches, like splitting one sentence into three texts for emphasis or dramatic effect. there's no proper formatting, no capitalization either

so to me texts between them would look like

Ava: ok so we need two potatoes and a stalk of celery

Ava: why is it called a stalk?

Ava: oh! that reminds me of another joke ok what did one ear of corn say to the other ear of corn?

Bea: Ava, I'm standing in the produce section, please give me the list

Ava: cmon bea! just guess!

Bea: Fine. One ear of corn said to the other ear of corn - I think someone is stalking us

Ava: :( HOW DID YOU KNOW??!?!

Bea: Because you used the word 'stalk' right before the joke and as it was the most unique word in our exchange thus far, I assumed it triggered the memory of the joke

Ava: what?

Bea: I know how your brain works, darling. Now please give me the rest of the list

fjklasfjalf so yeah something like this (sorry this was cobbled together at 6:30am so not the most sane thing i've written) but i hope this helps lol

[panandinpain0]

Oh yeah one more (again, a problem is showing 💀) remember when I asked abt songfics? While not rlly a songfic, could I get one where it’s (tom holland’s) Peter Parker x Male Reader inspired by Jet Lag by Simple Plan and Natasha Bedingfielf (stan Nat Bedingfield) where Peter is abroad on a long mission and y/n is just stuck at home rebuilding the death star with Ned, but they really miss each other a buttload

Time Difference

Shuuuttt upppp- I'd never heard of this song before but I listened to it and have so many ideas for this fic- I'm in love.

I haven't done many songfics so I hope I didn't format this weird or anything-

I'm considering this as like a part 2 of Roses- established relationship and all that.

I skip a view verses just because they don't work with the story- but the bulk of the song is included!

BOLD is (Y/N)'s texts and normal are Peter's.

@@@

Requested by: @mailmango

Peter Parker x Male!Reader

---

Hugging each other tightly, Peter kissed (Y/N) as they said goodbye. Peter was about to go on a mission abroad, but as far as (Y/N) knew it was just a trip for his internship to meet some amazing scientists and engineers in Europe.

He'd be gone for three weeks- which was far too long for teenagers in a relationship. But off he flew, and (Y/N) went back home, waiting for the text that he had landed.

What time is it where you are? I miss you more than anything

Peter hung upside-down from the hotel ceiling, something he often did when feeling anxious. Other than a dim lamp in the corner, his phone was the only light in the room, shining a blue light over his face.

He smiled a bit at one of (Y/N)'s texts, before sending one back. They would usually be on FaceTime but this was their way of acting like they were going to bed even though they weren't.

"What time is it for you?"

"early"

Peter rolled his eyes with a smile.

"You need to get ready for school."

"and you need to be getting some sleep!"

He could imagine the exact look (Y/N) was making with his face, sad that he couldn't be there to see it in person.

Instead of hitting the FaceTime button like he wanted so badly to do, he just said what he was feeling.

"I miss you"

"i miss you more 🫶"

I'm back at home, you feel so far Waiting for the phone to ring

(Y/N) was over at Ned's house, supposedly studying. In reality all he was doing was nervously glancing at his phone every few seconds.

"Why can't you call him, again?" Ned asked for the hundredth time, sick of his friend not paying attention.

"Because he might be at some important meeting! Or he might be asleep, I don't know- this time difference is screwing me up." (Y/N) bit his nail as he tried to focus on his work again.

He felt bad for treating Ned like this, but he didn't always do this. He just hadn't gotten the call that he usually got around lunch time so now he was anxious.

Picking up his phone he sent Peter a quick text message.

"i'll call you before i go to bed- stay safe and keep having fun!"

Biting his lip he shook his head after it sent, putting his phone down and looking at his notebook. It felt like Peter was a whole planet away, not just an ocean.

When Peter finally saw the text message he wanted to kick himself.

"Kid, come on, we've got to get you some first aid," Tony insisted, trying to get Peter to follow him. They'd just finished fighting and they were both roughed up.

Tony knew the second he got his hands on his phone, Peter wouldn't be available anymore (and would likely ignore his injuries to make sure his boyfriend was okay first).

"I'm so sorry (Y/N), we can definitely call tonight- emergency meeting happened before I was able to call :("

The reply was instant.

"dw babe, i can wait <3 it may come as a surprise to you but i can be very patient"

It's getting lonely living upside down I don't even wanna be in this town Tryna figure out the timezone's making me crazy

When Peter wasn't nervously hanging upside down like a bat on his ceiling, he was adventuring the cities he went to with his fellow Avengers (well- eventually fellow Avengers he hoped).

But everywhere he went he was reminded of (Y/N), things to buy him or pictures to send him- all he wanted to do was be with (Y/N).

Cuddling, watching a movie- and he missed his friends too. As he fell asleep one night he thought about a movie night with (Y/N), Ned, and MJ- or sitting at lunch with them.

Not to mention the time difference was throwing both boyfriend's out of wack-

You say goodmorning when it's midnight Going out of my head, alone in this bed

Peter lay in his bed, wide awake despite the late hour. He didn't often sleep with (Y/N), no matter how many times he wanted to web over to his house after patrol. (Y/N) didn't know about Spider-Man yet, and Peter didn't know when he'd tell him.

But they'd often fall asleep together during hang outs. They'd stay up all night texting/calling and then snuggle together in person- and it'd been two weeks without that.

Peter was feeling alone in the big empty hotel bed.

Suddenly his phone went off and he picked it up.

"morning babe! got coffee and thought of you <3" (Y/N) sent with an attached picture of him at the coffee shop they would frequent together.

Peter sent back a picture of him (it was obvious he had to use the flash of his phone because of the dark of the room) holding a thumbs up with a tired smile.

"Can't wait to go there together when I get back!"

I wake up to your sunset It's driving me mad, I miss you so bad

The couple always sent pictures of the sky to each other, even when Peter was in Queens with (Y/N).

(Y/N) had become lonely, even with his near constant contact with Peter. He missed holding him, his hand. Kissing him.

So he went up to the roof of his apartment building, where he and Peter would relax together often.

He didn't want to cry- it's not like Peter was off at war. He was safe with Mr. Stark and his security team, having fun. He should feel happy for Peter, but he felt like Peter hadn't told him the whole truth about the trip.

Regardless, he took a picture of the sunset he'd been watching and sent it to Peter with a text;

"wanted to share my sunset with you. i can't wait for you to come home"

He wanted to add an "I love you" but decided against it. They hadn't said it yet and that'd be a pretty shitty way to start saying it.

Maybe when he gets back (Y/N) will tell him.

The first thing Peter did when he opened his eyes was reach for his phone- as he had the entire trip. That was the text he woke up to- sent only ten minutes ago.

Standing up from his bed he opened the windows, looking out at the city they were in. The sun was still rising, so he took a picture of it and sent it back.

"My sunrise to your sunset. Poetic, if you ask me"

And my heart-heart-heart is so jet lagged Heart-heart-heart is so jet lagged Heart-heart-heart is so jet lagged Is so jet lagged

What time is it where you are? Five more days and I'll be home

"Only five more days!" (Y/N) announced as he opened the door to his room, going straight to his calendar to mark it off.

Ned and MJ, who had followed behind him, dropped their backpacks and found a place to study.

"Then you'll finally be tolerable again," MJ muttered, clicking her pen as she waited for (Y/N) to sit down with them.

"Oh no, they'll be worse together. I say at least a week of constant PDA and love-sick phrases," Ned corrected, nodding assuredly.

(Y/N) basically jumped out of his skin as his phone went off, quickly pulling it out of his pocket.

"Five more days <3"

Smiling brightly, (Y/N) texted back.

"five more days!"

MJ groaned as she thought about Ned's response and kicked (Y/N) in the shin.

"Ow!"

"Get your ass out of the clouds and help me with my calc homework," MJ ordered with a glare.

Rolling his eyes (Y/N) joined them on the floor, pulling out his stuff.

"You can't tell me you're not excited for Peter to be back," (Y/N) said towards Ned, glancing up at him.

"I am- or I will be, once he's back for at least a week. I'm counting it as four weeks because he'll only get out of the clouds, as MJ said, after a week of you."

"It won't be like that guys, I promise. We can be in a relationship and still be present with our friends!" (Y/N) protested, opening MJ's calculus book.

Ned and MJ shared a look, doubtful. (Y/N) saw and became even more determined to not hoard Peter all to himself when he got back.

I been keeping busy all the time Just to try to keep you off my mind

The next few days were unbearable for (Y/N)- well, for Peter too, but those last days were packed with fighting so he was distracted.

Desperately trying to find things to keep his mind off Peter, he decided to rebuild the Lego death star with Ned (who just wanted to make sure his friend was okay).

It worked for a while, and when they finished it was late- but he still had two days to wait for Peter to come home.

Ned went back to his house with a joyful goodbye- over the last couple of weeks the one-on-one time he had with (Y/N) was usually filled with talking about Peter, but he got a few gems like tonight out of it.

Reading books, painting with MJ, doing puzzles with Aunt May- none of it helped (Y/N) much.

So agony was what was left for the next few days.

I miss you so bad (I miss you so bad) I miss you so bad (I miss you so bad) I miss you so bad (I wanna share your horizon) I miss you so bad (And see the same sun rising) I miss you so bad (And turn the hour back to when you were holding me)

(Y/N) stood with Aunt May and his friends in May's apartment, rocking on the balls of his feet anxiously. Peter had taken Mr. Stark's private jet and he said that Happy would be driving him to the apartment.

A little welcoming party was set up; cake, his favorite dinner, his favorite movie ready to be booted up. Now all that was left was Peter.

The door swung open and once (Y/N) saw his face, he held himself back from launching into his arms.

Aunt May greeted him first, inspecting his face (which was covered in cuts and bruises). (Y/N) was taken aback- what happened in Europe?

When the shock wore off and May was finished greeting him, Peter pulled (Y/N) into a hug as he got close enough.

They rocked back and forth, Peter smiling from ear to ear and (Y/N) frowning with concern.

"Are you okay? What happened?" (Y/N) whispered into his ear, running a hand through the back of his hair.

"I'll explain everything later, I promise."

(Y/N) was okay with that- as long as he got an explanation later. He let the worry go for a second to pull back and give Peter a peck on the lips. He was gonna tell him-

"I missed you."

He chickened out.

"I missed you too," Peter whispered back.

"Promise we'll talk later?"

"Promise."

Hardly separating the whole night, the boys ate dinner with their small family- and enjoyed themselves the whole time.

The heavier topics could be saved for later, because now was the time to be happy that they were together again.

---

Whatdya think? I think this one was pretty good.

Hope this was good mango!

-Author Max <3

[todomitoukei]

I don't usually dislike endings to things. I am very easy to please. Usually when I see a movie it's my favorite movie immediately until I watch another movie.

But like. It really hurts to see that every character I related to has been screwed over or killed in some way. I understand that it's my fault for being a villain fan, for relating to Dabi's and Tomura's and Himiko's backstories despite them having killed people and thinking that the series would extend them a modicum of kindness that it had been saying it could, that I am now hurt like this. I understand not all series are like DBZ in which they spare most of their villains like Vegeta or 18 or Majin Buu. Not every protagonist is Goku, not every antagonist is Frieza. I get it.

It'd be fine if there were just us villain fans complaining into the void. Even if I were the only one upset, it'd be fine. I've had unpopular opinions before, I just wrote AU fanfiction for it then. I'm familiar with death to canon, I am in the FNAF and Danny Phantom fandoms, my favorite characters are William Afton and freaking Pariah Dark. What hurts most is the posts claiming that there's something wrong with my reading comprehension for not liking how things ended. That I should've known it was coming and agreed with them being killed off like that and that I'm stupid for expecting otherwise, that it was the only realistic option. Realistic, when there are characters who survived far worse, such as Nagant who exploded twice and Toshinori who had his intestines ripped out. Realistic when there's a boy who can literally explode his own sweat and a girl who is a frog.

Why do we immediately jump to question someone's reading comprehension and intelligence when they have a different opinion? And why is it my fault if I misunderstood a work, and not the author's for making things unclear? Isn't the point of reading to make your own understanding and discuss it with others, isn't that what's supposed to be fun about this? I'm hesitant to really talk about my opinions on MHA because of this, that's why I am sending this on anon and with a pseudonym. I don't like being called stupid, even if someone doesn't say it to my face. It makes me want to leave the fandom and go watch something else.

I hope I'm not just reading antagonism into people's posts, my family says I tend to read antagonism into people's actions where there isn't any. But it really feels like they are upset with us when I see it over and over again and see people saying "LOV stans DNI" and stuff.

Sorry for the huge wall of text, I guess I'm more upset about the fandom than the ending itself. I tried to format this in a way that is understandable, but it is very hard to type on mobile.

I hope you have a good day and thank you for your time. I appreciate the chance to vent anonymously. It's been eating at me since Shigaraki's end.

Feel free to delete this if you change your mind about hosting the vents, and if you start feeling badly do please take care of yourself. Don't forget to drink a water and eat a food.

- Doppio

First of all, no worries, your feelings are absolutely valid so don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

It's interesting people say us being upset about the villains' endings is due to a lack of reading comprehension when, like you said, it's inconsistent when taking into account the fact that the hero characters simply all get better off, surviving the craziest things while the villains die if someone just looks at them funny.

If I could be bothered and had the time or energy I could dissect the entire trainwreck that is this story and talk about how bad the writing is. This is not me being subjective, it's simply objectively not a well-written story. It's fine if people enjoy it and even like the ending, but objectively speaking, it is full of inconsistency, retconning and even if we take the technicalities out of it, the messages the story sends in the end are just awful.

The fact the story starts and ends by verbally telling us it's about reaching out to and helping people, only for anyone that is part of an oppressed group (queer people, physically and mentally disabled people, abuse victims etc) and is somehow different cannot and will not be saved, while the perpetrators, those in privileged positions of power, will continue to live life without any actual consequences is rather questionable.

If the story had always had that black and white tone, if it had always suggested to us that people that suffer and stand up for themselves will be left behind and rot in jail or die, fine. But the story suggested on multiple occasions that they could be saved and that they also had a point.

So don't let anyone tell you that you're wrong or don't have reading comprehension when the opposite is true. We have every right to feel frustrated when the ending doesn't line up with the messages it used to send and replaced them with the worst messages a hero story (or any story for that matter) could send.

Also, anyone that feels seen and represented by the lov, please know that you're valid and that you do deserve the best and that it's never too late for anyone to be saved and get better.

I wish the story and fandom understood that fiction is never completely separate from reality and that when we talk about certain topics or people we also indirectly talk about real people that relate to these topics or people (which is why removing Touya's scars in fanart or edits for example or making fun of his or Tenko's skin is highly problematic).

I hope you have a good day too despite everything!