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blackcatxmagic · 2 months ago

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Walking through the picturesque streets of Cardinal Hill, you find Copernicus 'Copper’ McIntyre, the 27 year old barista at & owner of The Twilight Cauldron originally from Portland, Maine. Living alongside them in such a small town, you know that they're outgoing and distrustful, but what you might not know is that they are a witch, and that they’re hiding something... Isaac Powell, gay, cismale, he/him

trigger warnings: stalking, violence/gore, murder, partner death

Name: Copernicus "Copper" Galileo McIntyre Age: 27 years old Birthday: January 19 Zodiac sign: Capricorn, on the cusp if Aquarius Witch or human: witch Hometown: Portland, Maine Occupation: Owner of The Twilight Cauldron Sexuality: gay Family: two dads, older brother, younger sister, husband (deceased)

Like his brother and sister, Copernicus Galileo McIntyre was gifted a unique (or "powerful" as their dads would say) name. For Copper, his name was inspired by one dad's love of the cosmos and all things astrological, a passion Copper inherited. He and his dad used to spend hours looking at the stars, and those bonding moments are among Copper's happiest memories. At a young age, Copernicus started going by the name Copper due to his classmates making fun of him and because it was just cruel to force a 5 year old to learn how to spell Copernicus.

Copper was born into a wealthy family. He and his siblings were all adopted by their dads, and they had a happy, healthy childhood in a loving family. The siblings were all close, and their dads cared for their children deeply. Despite growing up with wealth, their dads kept them as down to earth as possible. Yes, they lived in a lavish estate and received brand new cars for their 16th birthdays, and yes, they went to an elite private school in Portland, where they obtained a top notch education. But Copper and his siblings also held down part-time jobs and were encouraged to take part in extracurricular activities. Copper was on the soccer and track teams while in school and also worked as a barista at a local coffee shop, and as a result, he grew up fairly well-adjusted, all things considered.

When Copper was 11, he first began showing signs of his magic. His fathers had known witches, though they hadn't known that Copper's birth mother was one as well, and technically they still didn't for sure, though they suspected as much. After he began exhibiting his powers, Copper's dads helped their son discover more about his lineage. Unfortunately, they could only discover his mother's name and that she had been from a little place called Cardinal Hill in Washington. For years, Copper tried to find out more, but he never went to Cardinal Hill, not wanting his dads to think that his thirst for knowledge meant he valued them any less. They were his parents, no question about that, blood or not.

After high school, Copper went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he continued to play soccer and also worked on the school newspaper. He majored in writing and English, and college life was everything Copper had hoped for. And among the best things about being at Brown was that Copper met Damon while doing tarot readings at a party in his second month of school. While he'd long known he was gay and had had boyfriends before, Damon was the first - and thus far last - time that Copper had ever been in love. They'd fallen for each other hard and fast, and apart from minor disagreements throughout their college years, their relationship was like something out of a fairytale. All of their friends used to tease them about their wholesomeness, calling them husbands long before Damon popped the question (which he eventually did at the beginning of their senior year), but it was all in good fun. Everyone could see how happy the couple made each other other, and they in turn were happy they had found someone to spend their life with.

Well, almost everyone - there was one person in Copper's life who was most definitely not happy about this loving couple. On the fringe of Copper's friend group was Neil. Copper met Neil on the school newspaper, and while Damon knew him in a peripheral sort of way, he was mostly Copper's friend. They met shortly before Copper met Damon in his freshman year at Brown, and at first everything had been fine. Copper had found Neil a little strange, sure, but he meant well, and Copper became quite fond of his friend. But by midway through their sophomore year, things began to change. Copper noticed the way Neil grew more possessive of their friendship, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Neil had fallen in love with him. Even if Damon hadn't been in the picture though, Copper would not have felt the same way. He had only ever viewed Neil as a friend. Eventually Copper had to set some boundaries and make that clear, and Neil was not happy. It was like a switch had been flipped, and his possessiveness of Copper grew to an obsession. Although he tried to make their friendship still work, by their junior year, Copper had to cut ties with Neil - or at least he tried to.

Unfortunately, Neil wouldn't let Copper go, and as his final two years at Brown went on, Neil began stalking his former friend. It was like he felt entitled to Copper, like he owned him, and Neil's behavior grew more and more unbalanced, culminating in Neil being expelled from Brown in their final semester when he attacked Copper and Damon one night with a knife. As the police carted him away, Neil had threatened that this wasn't over, and as it turned out, he was telling the truth. While Neil served a brief sentence in jail, he wasn't there long, and his stalking didn't stop. If anything, it seemed to pick up even more with increased intensity. No matter where Copper moved, Neil would find him, sending letters and messages and pictures he'd taken without Copper knowing, as if to prove that he was always there. As time went on, Copper grew more and more paranoid, and he started staying home more and more, trying to hide from this unseen menace.

Copper and Damon made their home in Portland, Maine, Copper's hometown where he worked for a publisher and Damon began teaching at the same private school Copper had graduated from. They had a long engagement, and it wasn't until Copper was 24 - two years after graduating Brown - that the couple finally tied the knot. Married life was everything Copper had hoped for and more, and it even seemed like Neil's stalking had decreased in severity. Alas, Copper would learn too late that Neil simply got better at hiding it. For two years, Copper and Damon had a happy life, and they were even starting to talk about kids. Everything was going according to the plan Copper had set for his life. All the while though, something nagged at Copper's psyche. His powers had always been most pronounced in the area of psychic abilities, often having dreams and premonitions and just feelings, and Copper had never been wrong. Damon - a human who had never totally comprehended the scope of Copper's powers - had tried to reassure Copper that this bad feeling he had about the path they were on and the troubling dreams that plagued his sleep were just vestiges of the paranoia Neil had instilled in him, as were his constant feelings of being watched. Still, Copper did various spells and rituals to try and ascertain Neil's location, though nothing ever came of it. This helped Copper feel a bit better; he thought if Neil were close, he'd be able to find him. What Copper didn't know was that Neil was a witch too, and he knew Copper would be looking for him.

The night before everything shattered, Copper had been especially clingy, holding on to Damon and not wanting to fall asleep. But Copper had a big meeting the next morning, and eventually Damon persuaded his husband to go to sleep. One of his worst nightmares haunted Copper's sleep that night, visions of blood and red hands and something glinting in low light and what Copper thought was snow, which he didn't understand, not even when he woke with a start. But as the world came back into focus, Copper saw his stark white sheets were soaked in crimson blood, and cotton from their comforter was scattered all over the room, large slashes through it; it looked like snow. And then Copper's eyes fell upon Damon, who lay among the slashed blanket and sheets covered in his own blood. He was still alive, and immediately Copper sprung into action, finding multiple stab wounds; Copper wasn't sure which he should apply pressure to. Damon couldn't speak, but he was trying to say something, and he kept glancing behind his husband; it wasn't until Copper caught the reflection of a dark figure in the window before him, a the light from a streetlamp just outside glancing off the knife in his hand, that Copper understood. He turned around with a start, his mouth opening as he began an incantation, but Copper didn't even have a chance to speak a single syllable before the figure punched him hard in the face. Everything went black.

When Copper woke up, he was tied to a chair downstairs, a piece of tape over his mouth, effectively rendering his powers useless - Copper had never been adept at non-verbal spell casting. Neil stood before him, covered in Damon's blood, and he began to entreat Copper to give him a chance. In Neil's deluded view of the world, he thought of Damon as just an obstacle to be dealt with, something that had come between Copper and Neil, and now they could be together. A blind rage rushed through Copper then, and he literally broke free of the chair and rushed at Neil. In his shock, Neil reacted by stabbing Copper in the stomach, and it was like once he'd done that, he'd become resigned to ending the situation. "I didn't want it to be like this," Neil had said as Copper stumbled to the floor, advancing on the man he claimed to love, knife raised. Although the men fought, Copper was stabbed twice more before ripping off the tape over his mouth. Screaming an incantation, Copper launched Neil across the room and through the front window, and while he tried to go after him, the blood loss was just too much. Copper fell to the floor, and everything went black for the second time that night.

12 hours later, Copper awoke in the hospital surrounded by his family and friends; it turned out a neighbor had heard the commotion when Copper had sent Neil flying through the window and called the police. Copper had survived, and now everyone he loved was here, all except one person, a realization that destroyed him. Copper was alive, but part of him would always be dead; part of him had died with Damon. The doctors all said Copper was lucky to be alive, but he didn't feel lucky, especially when he found out that Neil had vanished. Of course he had though - as he had thrown Neil out of his house, Copper had heard the man mutter an incantation of his own as he shattered through the window, and while Copper didn't know what he'd tried to do, it was clear that Neil was a witch too, a fact heretofore unknown to Copper. Neil was still out there, and Copper knew he'd never feel safe again. How could he? Copper was a widower at age 27, his husband lost to murder no less. No, Copper most definitely did not feel lucky.

For a year, Copper moved from place to place in the Portland area, but Neil always found him and always eluded the police. Copper hadn't had much hope that they'd find him though - Neil was a witch after all, and while Copper had told the police his suspicions about that, they didn't totally take him seriously; many of them didn't even believe in the existence of witches. Eventually, Copper grew fearful of his family and friends meeting the same fate as his husband. So without telling anyone, Copper left Portland and traveled all the way across the country to Cardinal Hill, Washington with only his black cat, Viktor, by his side. He didn't really know what he wanted to do when he got there, but the sight of the "for sale" sign in front of The Twilight Cauldron piqued his interest; it felt like he was coming full circle back to his barista "roots" so to speak. So Copper bought the tea shop and settled down in Cardinal Hill, at least for now. His roots were there, and Copper wanted to learn more about his mother and likewise understand his abilities better. Neil would find him again, and Copper wanted to be ready; what better place to hone his skills than this magical town? And Copper needed magical guidance when it came to Neil, needed to find magical ways to protect himself and to find the man who'd ruined his life. Copper wasn't going to just sit and wait to die - he was going to fight back, and there was no way Damon's death would be the last. Someone else was going to die, and Copper would make sure it wasn't him.

Wanted connections

Siblings: Copper's got an older brother and a younger sister who still live back in Maine, and Copper didn't tell them where he was going in order to protect them. He has been in touch though, and maybe one/both of them found out where he is. All of them are adopted by their two dads, and I've been vague about if his siblings are witches or not. All I ask is that they have a unique name (in my mind, they're Aristotle - Aris - and Hypatia, but the names are negotiable)

Employees: As the new owner of The Twilight Cauldron, Copper needs various employees. He's never been a boss before, but he's getting by, and he likes to have fun with his employees. He's not a regular boss, he's a cool boss

Hookups: Since Copper is a widower, he's not in a place yet to really entertain the idea of a relationship (though that will change eventually). But he is finally in a place where he can have a one night stand, something I imagine he does with relative frequency since he's pretty lonely sometimes

#cardinalintro #tw: partner death #tw: murder #tw: violence/gore #tw: stalking #about Copper*

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seldomscilence16 · 1 year ago

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Whumptober day 15:

"I don't need you to help me, I can handle things myself."

Makeshift bandages | suppressed suffering | I'm fine

Fandom: Scooby Doo (au)

Prompts used: Vaguely all of them

So writing Scooby is exhausting lol. Anyway, an alternate first real meeting of the gang, before their adventures. Shaggy angst as always. I know we have technically met his parents, but this is my headcanon and I'm stubborn.

TW for child abuse and blood.

…

Norville "Shaggy" Rogers was the son of an interesting family. He would need a few hours to truly get through all of them, but the main bit was that he had A LOT to live up to, and his father would not let him forget it.

Shaggys life was the constant pressure of finding something he could make a living off of. His father was breathing down his neck anytime he was home, and had put him into any and all extracurriculars that he thought would 'fix' his son throughout his childhood. Several of which Shaggy less than excelled at, but a few he actually took something from.

Those somethings just weren't helpful for what his Father wanted.

Shaggy's pretty sure he could never be what his father wanted, he looks at the kids in the activities/classes he was forced into, and sees exactly what he should be. One Daphne Blake would be perfect he's sure, who is good at everything she tries and tries at everything she does.

Shaggys only saving grace is that he's a star when it comes to track and field. In fact, gym class is his highest grade- next to home economics but his dad doesn't count that one. His mother wished he'd stuck out his Piano lessons, but the disaster of a first recital had made it impossible to continue in public.

As it was, he was not the ideal, prodigal son. But he would like to think he's a good brother.

Margret "sugie" Rogers was sometimes the only thing that kept Shaggy going. He wonders sometimes, if his parents need for control and no nonsense attitudes, had jinxed their children. Though Sugie was obviously the favorite between the two, even she couldn't escape their parents' wrath on a bad day.

And today was a bad day.

Shaggy had come home from school early, at the insistence of the nurse, after passing out during a panic attack. A panic attack that took place in a closed locker, after a bout of bullying, Fred Jones and Velma Dinkley had heard his panic and freed him, but Shaggy had been unable to calm down.

Shaggy's mom had to come pick him up, and since Shaggy usually walked Sugie home, they picked her up as well. The car ride had been tense to say the least, her white knuckled grip on the steering wheel and clenched jaw, the twitch of her eye with any sound they made. She had told them to stay in their rooms until she and their father got home from work that afternoon.

Shaggy had made Sugie a snack anyway, worried about dinner not going well. A feeling that was right on the nose.

Shaggy couldn't tell you the exact words used, echoes of a million fights beforehand that were too similar to differentiate from clouding his brain. Their parents hated their anxiety- though they would never acknowledge the medical term as a real thing- and this was a prime example of why for them. Shaggy couldn't stand up for himself, couldn't fight them off, and passed out 'from being scared of a locker'. They yelled until they were red in the face, only to start all over when they realized Shaggy had made a snack- Sugies favorite snack.

The minute they'd turned on Sugie, his sister's already tearful face had fallen further, fear growing in her eyes. And Shaggy did something he could only ever do when he was protecting her, he moved in front of her, and stared into his fathers eyes with a defiance he hadn't known he'd possessed until she was born. The fight had turned physical after that, which was common enough in Shaggy's life.

The sound of shattering glass still rings in his ears- or perhaps his ears were simply ringing, he had taken a gnarly hit to the head. He was honestly more concerned about his arm, since he's pretty sure that's where the glass had come into play anyway- he couldn't tell if what he was seeing was bone or something, but he hoped and assumed it was simply glass- the bloody wound took up most of his forearm and was scarily worse than any prior blood drawing injuries he'd received.

But he couldn't focus on his injuries quite yet, limping on a wonky ankle down his darkened street, he wasn't safe from prying eyes yet. His parents would be pissed if he was seen, and Sugie was still home. He makes it all the way to the park by the lake, collapsing heavily on the first bench he finds. He takes deep breaths to calm his racing heart- the last thing he needed was another panic attack, please brain, one thing at a time.

He tugs the flannel from around his waist, his red one, that Sugie always said made him look like Christmas when paired with his favorite green shirt. Her smile had made it his most paired outfit, he hoped the blood would wash out. He examines his arm again, blood crusting even as more continues to drip out, and can't help his grimace at the sight. It would need more than an ameture bandaging job with an old flannel, whether it was glass or bone, it needed attention and he didn't have the skill or supplies for it. He wraps it as best he can manage if for no other reason than to hide the problem.

The bushes nearby shake, he tenses up despite a protesting multitude of injuries, leveling a wide eyed stare at the offending flora. He didn't think he could move another step, but he supposed he'd be testing that shortly.

He does not expect a dog to exit the bushes and freeze at the sight of him, as if Shaggy of all people was intimidating.

"Uh… nice… doggy…" Shaggy manages, the large canine quite the sight, despite his seemingly young features. A great Dane maybe?

"Reah!" The dog nods, he… frickin nods… like Shaggy had asked if he was a nice dog, and said dog was confirming it.

Shaggy had to have a concussion.

"Cool, cool coolcool. Cool." Shaggy nods back and looks away, maybe it was a figment of his imagination.

"Rhy are rou rurt?"

Well he's still here.

"I'm fine, talking dog. Just taking a breather." He really shouldn't entertain the talking dog, this could be some creature out to eat him or steal his soul or any other number of things, oh gods Shaggy was about to die.

"You're reeding."

"I do like a good book now and again but currently resting actually." Seriously Shaggy, did all the blood leave your head!?

"Ro, rud, rur reeding rud."

The dog is now beside him, his nose sniffing at a smudge of red on his pants and Shaggy understands.

"I'm fine, it's just a… little, blood." His body would disagree, but Shaggy had been weak far too much today and if he couldn't handle this, there's no way he'd make it until his 18th birthday where he would be able to legally work on getting his sister away from here.

What's a little blood loss and pain in the face of losing his little sister.

"Ry ran ret rou rome relp!"

"No offense but, I don't need you to help me, I can handle things myself. I have to, you probably wouldnt understand despite being a talking dog." Shaggy shifts with a wince and a groan, his ribs protesting.

"Rooby rooby roo!" The dog startles him at the change of volume- if only slightly elevated- and he worries this is some ritual of doom, but he only stares at Shaggy expectantly, saying it again a little louder when the teen only stares.

"Shhh!! Okay okay, what do you want?" Shaggy looks around in a panic, if the cops are called he's screwed.

The dog puts a paw on his own chest,

"Rooby roo!"

"Rooby roo… uh Looby Loo?" A shake of his head, "Cooby Coo?" A soso motion, "Uh… Sooby Soo?" The dog puts up a halting paw, does a series of gestures that semi compute with Shaggy's achy head. "Scooby Doo?"

"Reah, reah!"

"Oh, is that like, your name?" Shaggy takes a deep breath as a wave of nausea hits him, head spinning, "You can like, call me Shaggy."

His head lulls and he hears a worried warble of words he's too tired to listen to.

"Just… gonna take, like, a nap."

"-aggy! Wake up!"

"'M'fine…'mma Rogers…"

"Wake up Shaggy, please!"

His sight is blurry, squinted eyes seeing blobs before him.

"Shaggy, you're hurt, you need to stay awake."

"Not hurt… 'm like fine."

"Shaggy Rogers, you stay awake or this snack I packed is going in the lake!"

"Like, what'd the snack ever do to you?" He mutters, but forces his eyes open further to find none other than Fred, Velma and Daphne, the dog- Scooby- next to them.

"Do you realize what could have happened If your dog hadn't found us?" Velma asks, examining his flannel covered arm.

"I would have gotten some more sleep?" He wonders what the big deal is until he really focuses on her intense stare, "what?"

"This is a lot of blood, it should be in a lot of pain, that is your body telling you it needs help. If you ignore that it causes major problems, you need blood to live, Shaggy, what happens when it keeps leaving?" Velma is talking slowly, small words his tired brain can catch.

"Not good." Shaggy responds, seeming to get her meaning, he looks at his bloody shirt and guesses it's worse than he thought, he'd been ignoring the pain, to keep his weakness from showing, but now that he's thinking about it, the throbbing is too much to ignore.

"You need medical attention Shaggy." Daphne pipes in.

"Cant." He responds simply.

"Shaggy-" Velma is cut off.

"We can go to my sister." Daphne's eyes say more, but Shaggy is the only one to know the language.

"I can't…" he trails off, unsure of how to say it without drawing suspicion.

"We'll be quiet. She'll be quiet. But we'll also help okay?"

Scooby lays his head on Shaggy's lap, and while Fred and Velma seem vaguely lost, they nod anyway.

"Okay…"

#whumptober 2023 #no.15 #“I dont need you to help me I can handle things myself.”#lyric #makeshift bandages #suppressed suffering #“I'm fine.”#scooby doo #fic #child abuse tw #blood tw #Shaggy Angst #alternate meeting #shaggy loves his sister

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medicinelost-a · 2 years ago

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hc dump ??? hc dump, these are in no particular order, so! <3

>was visiting extended family w/ their parents in nebraska when the apocalypse hit. holed up in the house until the military safe zones were set up a few weeks in. met vitali and buricko there. >unfortunately, arvo and natasha were separated from their family during a raid a month or so later, eventually escaping with the aforementioned duo, plus a few others. namely, a pregnant mother, her teenaged son, and another man. >the man left fairly early on with an armful of their supplies, the teenaged son ending up getting bit, and his mother, not able to handle it, went soon after.

>is sick, along with his sister. he has type 3 ehlers-danlos syndrome, hence the leg brace, obviously, and natasha has sickle cell anemia. ‎‎‎ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ >burnt out gifted kid. his parents, particularly his dad, was a determined overachiever, and pushed arvo to be perfect. he always held him to an un -reachable standards, esp when it came to school + extracurricular activities. his older sister grew up much differently, and came out fairly rebellious and free-spirited, which their dad didn't like, hence the sudden shift in parenting. >basically, he has 'i speak six languages' from putnam spelling bee energy. ㅤㅤ >was in the chess club, and the science club at school, partly due to his dad's influences, partly due to a genuine interest in both things. >his specialty in science is robotics, able to make different little contraptions, which does come in handy at times, even nowadays. plus general biology, making him team medic, most of the time. >also has an interest in gardening, and collecting/studying insects. ㅤㅤㅤㅤ >dungeons and dragon nerd……… points and laughs………. (affectionate)

more about his family, and old friends, pre apocalypse:

- iiris izmaylov, maiden name 'võsu', mid-40s, a jewish estonian woman who moved to russia with her family when she was a teen. she works as a wedding planner, and sometimes helps out in the small old-school bakery her sister and her sister's husband opened. - mikhail izmaylov, late 40s, a russian man, a traditional homebody who has never left the town he was born and raised in, he owned a car repair shop, and has since his twenties. always wanted arvo to turn out 'better then him'. - roza and pyotr, arvo's aunt and uncle, and their two kids, zia and luka, they were the family that they were visiting when everything went down/started.

- zakhar vasiliev, d&d club, arvo's childhood / family friend, them practically being like siblings, but also like arvo was this close to strangling him at any given time, asdfghjkl (friendship!) - tamara alekseyeva, science club, met in middle school when they were paired up for a science project which almost blew up the classroom. they, of course, got detention together. - veronika petrova, science club, yearbook club, fellow stressed overachiever and group mom-friend (bonding!)

ok back to misc headcanons:

>arvo's childhood nickname was 'bambi', along w/ being called referred to as rebenok (child), teasingly by the rest of his group. which he disliked. >another song that has him vibes is 'top of my school' by katherine lynn-rose. >arvo may seem like he had his shit together pre-apocalypse, but really, he was a big dumb disaster (affectionate)--some examples:

-snorted the powder from caffeine pills in a attempt to stay awake for a test. -went to make coffee while half asleep and forgot to put the coffee mix in, drinking half of a cup of just hot water before he realized his mistake. -got rlly stressed one time while studying, and not being able to find his glasses made him almost burst into frustrated tears (they ended up just being on his head) -forgot to eat / drink anything other then one (1) singular muffin and like 646954 cups of coffee for like, a week and got confused when he almost passed the fuck out in class.

>due to his fondness for insects/arachnids/bugs in general, instead of a normal pet, arvo had a pet tarantula as a child/pre-apocalypse, her name was zoya. natasha also had a pet, a in-training service dog, a rough collie named bolshoi, and lost him fairly early on. >i totally forgot to add these last time i drew him, so. whoops, but arvo has braces, with rubberbands, too. yes, he is tempted to go at them with pilers somedays. >at one point, arvo found a old journal, and he still uses it tbh, basically using it like a diary. he also tends to doodle in it a lot, nothing rlly good just bored scribbles. he'll also sometimes draw on his arms/skin in general. sometimes when hes bored enough, he’ll ‘doodle' math and science shit in his journal too, like catch him filling up pages with long ass polynomial problems and calculus. he finds it calming, its like second nature to him and he doesn’t have to rlly think about it. >carries around a tape recorder + tapes, he uses alongside his journal to document his days and keep track of things. >though he technically wasn’t supposed to watch them growing up, arvo is kind of a horror junkie ?? like horror movies/books/games are his kinda thing, ok. sometimes his old group used to tell stories to pass the time while traveling, or at night, and arvo highkey got banned from participating bc his stories were always scary. arvo vc: u guys are nooooo fun smh !! >a big reason arvo is into botany/plants and gardening as much as he is, is partly because he was a kid he used to help his mom garden and stuff, which sparked his interest in it. >used to take a bunch of different music lessons when he was a kid, but the only one that really stuck was piano. tho hes a lot better with copying music (playing by ear, sight reading) then he is making some thing new, or making stuff up on the spot. he tends to always think of it more logically / math-like, almost bc that's just what he finds easier. >arvo has a really bad nail biting/picking habit! it’s an anxious tic, he’ll bite/pick them down super short until they start bleeding, and will probs continue to bite them anyway bc hes stupid, asdfghjkl? he’ll also bite/pick at his cuticles until the same shit happens, (someone pls yell @ him 4 it).

>is autistic, because i said so.

#* && OOC #* && ARVO : NERVOUS PRODIGY .#god i care him. do u care him. bahaha this is so long i'm sorry #if telltale won't give him character outside of being a weird plot device then gdi i will lmao #death tw #child death tw #implied suicide tw

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blubushie · 2 years ago

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leafanon here! for the ask game: literally do all of them. coward.

Oi! Be a little nicer to me leafanon, I’m sensitive!

1: Who is/are your comfort characters?

Look at my blog, mate. Have a guess.

It’s Jesse and Mundy. Both of them. At the same time. 25% Jesse, 75% Mundy.

2: Lighter or matches?

Lighter! I’ve got two. Both are Zippos. My first ever lighter I bought was this one because I liked the colour and design. The one I currently use is this one but I have “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the evilest son of a bitch in the valley” engraved on the back. It’s the same thing my dad had engraved on his lighter in Vietnam. On the lid it says “If you wanna root smile when you give this lighter back” because I thought it was funny. It hasn’t worked yet but that’s only because no one’s asked me for a light.

3: Do you leave the window open at night?

I can’t sleep unless it’s open.

4: Which cryptid do you believe in?

Unironically most of them. I am convinced of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, I’m convinced of sasquatch from personal experience, I have personally seen a yahoo, I’ve met ghosts, and I’ve seen UFOs. I believe that there’s creatures in Kakadu that are still Dreaming. I think the chupacabra is a coyote/fox with mange but I am convinced that it does exist. THERE ARE PANTHERS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.

5: What colour are your eyes?

Blue-grey. Blue in sunlight, grey indoors. Colour depends on how much light they’re getting.

6: Why did you do that?

Because I wanted to.

7: Hair-ties or scrunchies?

Only ever grew my hair out once where it was long enough to need tying up and even then I rarely tied it up, but ties. They’re versatile.

8: How many water bottles are in your room right now?

One. Both of my canteens are in Matilda.

9: Which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee?

Hot. I don’t trust people what drink cold coffee. You psychos scare me.

10: Would you slaughter the rich?

I don’t really do politics.

11: Favourite extracurricular activity?

Bushwalking. Hunting. Fishing. Writing.

12: What kind of day is it?

A really nice one. It’s night now but the frogs are croaking away outside with the crickets. Sky’s clear.

13: When was the last time you ate?

About an hour ago. Make one of those instant pasta meals.

14: Do you love the smell of the earth after it rains?

YES.

15: Are you a parent?

I have Misty. She definitely makes me feel like I'm parenting a toddler.

16: Can you drive?

I’m an excellent driver.

17: Are you farsighted or nearsighted?

Only slightly nearsighted. It’s not enough where it really has any effect, and I don’t have to wear glasses or anything. My vision is practically 20/20.

18: What hair products do you use?

Dog shampoo and the Sheila hates me for it. On the plus side it leaves me smelling nice and I don’t have fleas. It’s also a bonus because I can bathe Misty at the same time I bathe myself, which is how it all started anyway (she just HAD to pull me into the tub). Usually I’m doing spongebaths or bathing in rivers without any soap (I’m not going to fuck up an ecosystem just because I want to smell nice) but when I do find a hotel that takes animals or when I’m here in California, out comes the dog shampoo. I use TropiClean now. Smells like citrus.

19: Imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

I haven’t painted anything in years and I’ve never painted anyone’s nails, but I’ve got a very steady hand so I reckon I could try.

20: Do you say soda or pop?

Neither. Fizz. It’s fizzy drink.

21: What’s something you’ve kept since childhood?

My stuffed bear. His name is Mr Bear because I wasn’t a very creative 2-year-old when I named him. I’ve had him since I was a baby.

22: What kind of person are you?

The… people kind? Scratch that. The cryptid kind. There’s at least two towns in Australia what have folklore about a ghost accompanied with a dog and a rifle slung across his shoulders. The amount of times I’d taken the piss out of people making that story come true is hilarious to me (and one of them is a story that originated within the past two years so I might actually be responsible for that one. Oops.)

23: How do you feel about chilly weather?

I don’t mind it at all. My area of California routinely gets frosts and hail (but never snow). Rural California taught me to tolerate cold, Australia taught me to tolerate heat.

24: If we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

Drinking beer and stargazing. There’s literally no other reason for being on a rooftop, unless some assassin shit is going down, in which case I wouldn’t bring you with me because no witnesses.

25: Perfume/body spray or lotion?

Neither. My only fragrance is Hoppe’s #9, tobacco, and campfire smoke clinging to my clothes.

26: A scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times?

First time the Sheila read my fic and she gave me her thoughts on it. I go back and re-read that at least once a week. I live for it and sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps me writing.

Also just talking to people in general. I sit in Matilda and rehearse what I’m going to say for minutes before I actually go into the servo to get something. I always have a plan.

27: About how many hours of sleep do you get?

Usually anywhere from six to nine but I can run off 20-minute catnaps every few hours if needed for about 3 days before I need at least an hour of uninterrupted sleep (yes I’ve tested this).

28: Do you wear a mask?

I’m not around people. Ever. I wore a mask to my allergist the other day though. Unless it's required I'm not wearing one.

29: How do you like your shower water?

Cold. Hot is a luxury I can’t get used to.

30: Is there dishes in your room?

No. I always do my washing up immediately after eating. Handwash, hand dry, put them away.

31: What kind of music keeps you grounded?

Country.

32: Do you have a favourite towel?

No. Do people normally have favourite towels?

33: The last adventure you’ve been on?

Hunting in WA.

34: Is there a song you know every word to by heart?

Waltzing Matilda. Also And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Also Give Me a Home Among the Gumtrees.

35: What’s your timezone?

Right now? PDT.

36: How many times have you changed your URL?

I’ve only ever had one account before this (back when I was around 12) and lost the password. I’ve never changed this one’s URL since I made it.

37: Who is someone in your life (besides a relative) that you’ve known for 10+ years?

My rifle.

38: What’s a soap bar that smells good?

All of them? Reckon that’s the point of soap.

39: Do you use lip balm?

Like chapstick? No because I’m not a sook. Let your dehydrated lips crack and bleed like a real man.

40: Did you have any snacks today?

No.

41: How do you like your coffee?

Black as my soul. Really though, I like it black. No milk, no sugar.

42: What’s an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken website?

None. I have a Twitter but I only follow artists on there and I never use it.

43: What’s your take on spicy foods?

I don’t like spice. Burns my tongue. I’ll leave that to the ethanol.

44: You get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it?

Fuck off, FBI.

45: Can you remember what happened yesterday?

I went to the allergist, came home, took Misty for a long walk, made dinner, finished up a scene for chapter 11 and then got some paragraphs in for the next scene where Jesse is lusting after Mundy because he’s hot and then the Sheila and I spent twenty minutes sharing in communal brainrot over it.

46: Favourite holiday film?

Somewhere between Polar Express and A Christmas Story.

47: What was the last message you sent?

“Defo been hitting that gym,” referring to Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom.

48: When did you first try an alcoholic beverage?

Helped dad and a neighbour muster cattle all day, I was fucking exhausted, covered in sweat, and we lounged around in the shade of an oak tree like a couple of cowhands as we watched the cattle graze. The neighbour’s boy showed up with a few beers in his saddlebags. All four of us shared them. Neighbour’s boy was 17. I was 15. I earned that beer. On that note, I learnt to make screwdrivers when I was 10. I make a damn good screwdriver.

49: Can you skip rocks?

Excellently.

50: Can I tag you in random stuff?

Of course! I love being tagged in things. Bonus points for anything related to Sniper, Australia, or animals.

#blu whos

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wiindexx · 2 years ago

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Me and @koi-eats-rocks hold a really wholesome headcanon with Childe and Bennett. That hc is that Childe officially adopted Bennett just so that Bennett could have a legal parent outside of the ones caring for him in the Adventurer’s Guild, and that Childe is one of the best adoptive dads ever.

Before you continue, be aware that this is more of an AU(alternate universe) type work, so please keep that in mind

I’m already planning to finish it at some point later this or next month, so Im giving it a little test run before i officially post it to ao3. here’s that tester:

“Dad?” The tear-filled words rang out in Ajax’s head as he looked over his computer to see that his son, Bennett, was standing in the doorway, crying.

“What is it? You can tell me anything,” Ajax said as he rolled his chair away from his mahogany desk and patted a pale hand on his lap while smiling sweetly at his son, signaling Bennett to come over and talk about his troubles. Bennett obliged and padded over, clambering into his father’s lap and sobbing quietly into Ajax’s chest, tightly gripping the fabric of his father’s black hoodie.

“Hey,” Ajax softly cooed, running his hand through his son’s silvery hair. “Hey, it’s okay, I'm here. What’s bothering you?” he asked as Bennett pulled his head away. His bright green eyes were stained a pink color due to them being bloodshot as he was crying, and his pale, tear-streaked, freckled cheeks were bright red–and likely raw–from him wiping his shirt sleeves on them.

“Bennett, what’s making you so sad?” Ajax softly asked, and finally got a response from his seven-year-old son.

“The other boys at school are mad at me for my bad luck–hic–making them lose the dodgeball game we had in gym class on Wednesday. They–they won’t stop saying–hic–it’s my bad luck that made momma leave. They're saying–hic–she didn’t want a kid with bad luck–hic–so she abandoned me." Bennett sobbed.

“Well, first of all, if they start talking about or to you like that again, tell me immediately and I will deal with it. I will call their parents myself if I have to. Your mother didn’t leave because of you, she left because she was sick of ‘raising a family’ as she said it. It wasn't your fault, Benny. Secondly, your bad luck doesn’t define you as a person. Hell, you don’t even have this ‘bad luck’. If you did, then we probably would have had to move out of this house ten times by now.” Ajax sighed as he comforted Bennett, feeling guilty for allowing his ex to randomly abandon both him and Bennett in the middle of the night four years ago, leaving him to raise their son on his own. ‘If only I had been more perceptive of the woman’, he thought, ‘then I would have been able to prevent all these years of hardship.’

An hour of soothing a sad and emotionally vulnerable son later, Bennett was fast asleep in his father’s lap, a small puddle of drool now beginning to drip onto the right bicep of Ajax’s favorite sweatshirt. He smiled and sighed as he picked Bennett up and stood, making his way around the desk he’d previously been sitting at and to his son’s bedroom, where he tucked Bennett in for a much-needed nap. The kid needed it, and he deserved the rest after dumping a secret to his father while sobbing uncontrollably.

Seeing as it was noon, and a Friday rather than a Saturday or Sunday, Ajax thought it’d be a good idea to make a call to his son’s school. The ginger hesitated as he tapped in the phone number to the school, before deciding against it. He still had to get the names of those bullies after all. Ajax sighed, thinking about what it would be like to give his son a perfect life, with two loving parents instead of just one. That was why he’d been putting himself out there while his son was at school, attending extracurricular activities during the week, or when he would send the kid off to his favorite babysitter, Zhongli, for an evening. He was desperately trying to find a good candidate to be his empty half and an excellent parent to his son. Someone to replace that bitch of a mother his son had. Still, he’d been unsuccessful for many months.

That’s all for now, folks. If you like it, please let me know! I’m always down for (very gentle) constructive criticism!

#bennett genshin impact #childe genshin impact #genshin fluff #fatherly childe #genshin impact #platonic #mentions of bullying #wholesome #modern au #childe is called ajax

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medicinelost · 1 year ago

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mainverse hc dump? mainverse hc dump, these are in no particular order, so! <3

>was visiting extended family w/ their parents in nebraska when‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ the apocalypse hit. holed up in the house until the military safe‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ zones were set up a few weeks in. met vitali and buricko there.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>unfortunately, arvo and natasha were separated from their family during a‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎raid ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ a month or so later, eventually escaping with the aforementioned duo, plus‏‏‎ ‎‏a ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ few others. namely, a pregnant mother, her teenaged son, and another man.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >the man left fairly early on with an armful of their supplies, the teenaged son‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ending up getting bit, and his mother, not able to handle it, went soon after.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >is sick, along with his sister. he has type 3 ehlers-danlos syndrome,‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ hence the leg brace, obviously, and natasha has sickle cell anemia.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>he used to have a more normal, modern brace, but it broke, or he grew out of‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ it, or something, and they had to find a makeshift solution, tldr. he also uses an‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎ cane sometimes on particularly bad days, and it's one of the collapsible ones,‏‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎‎‏‏‎ ‎ ya know? he likes to joke that he'll smack you with it, if you're being a lil dumb.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ‎‎‎ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ >burnt out gifted kid. his parents, particularly his dad, was a determined‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ overachiever, and pushed arvo to be perfect. he always held him to an un‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ -reachable standards, esp when it came to school + extracurricular activities.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ his older sister grew up much differently, and came out fairly rebellious and‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ free-spirited, which their dad didn't like, hence the sudden shift in parenting.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >basically, he has 'i speak six languages' from putnam spelling bee energy.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ㅤㅤ >was in the chess club, and the science club at school, partly due to‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ his dad's influences, partly due to a genuine interest in both things.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >his specialty in science is robotics, able to make different little‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ contraptions, which does come in handy at times, even nowadays.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ plus general biology, making him team medic, most of the time.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >also has an interest in gardening, and collecting/studying insects.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ㅤㅤㅤㅤ >dungeons and dragon nerd……… points and laughs. (affectionate)‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

more about his family, and old friends, pre apocalypse:‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

- iiris izmaylov, maiden name 'võsu', mid-40s, a jewish estonian‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ woman who moved to russia with family when she was a teen.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ she works as a wedding planner, and sometimes helps out in‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ thesmall old-school bakery her sister and her husband opened.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ - mikhail izmaylov, late 40s, a russian man, a traditional homebody who has‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ never left the town he was born and raised in, he owned a car repair shop,‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ and has since his twenties. always wanted arvo to turn out 'better then him'.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ - roza and pyotr, arvo's aunt and uncle, and their two kids, zia and luka, they‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ were the family that they were visiting when everything went down/started.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ - zakhar vasiliev, d&d club, arvo's childhood / family friend,‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ them practically being like siblings, but also like arvo was this‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ close to strangling him at any given time, asdfghjkl (friendship!)‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ - tamara alekseyeva, science club, met in middle school‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ when they were paired up for a science project which almost‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ blew up the classroom. they, of course, got detention together.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ - veronika petrova, science club, yearbook club, fellow‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ stressed overachiever and group mom-friend (bonding!)‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

ok back to misc headcanons:‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>arvo's childhood nickname was 'bambi', along w/ being called referred‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ to as rebenok (child), teasingly by the rest of his group. which he disliked.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ >another song that has him vibes is 'top of my school' by katherine lynn-rose.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>arvo may seem like he had his shit together pre-apocalypse, but‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ really, he was a big dumb disaster (affectionate)--some examples:‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

-snorted the powder from caffeine pills to try and stay awake for a test.��‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ -went to make coffee while half asleep and forgot to put the coffee mix‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ in, drinking half of a cup of just hot water before he realized his mistake.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ -got really stressed one time while studying, and not being able to find his glasses made him almost burst into frustrated tears (they ended up just being on his head) -forgot to eat / drink anything other then one (1) singular‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ muffin and like 646954 cups of coffee for like, a week and‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ got confused when he almost passed the fuck out in class.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>due to his fondness for insects/arachnids/bugs in general, instead‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ of a normal pet, arvo had a pet tarantula as a child/pre-apocalypse,‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ her name was zoya. natasha also had a pet, a in-training service‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ dog, a rough collie named bolshoi, but lost him fairly early on.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>i totally forgot to add these last time i drew him, so.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ whoops, but arvo has braces, with rubberbands, too.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ yes, he is tempted to go at them with pilers somedays.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>at one point, arvo found a old journal, and he still uses it tbh, basically using it‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ like a diary. he also tends to doodle in it a lot, nothing rlly good just bored scribbles.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ he'll also sometimes draw on his arms/skin in general. sometimes when hes bored ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎enough, he’ll ‘doodle' math and science shit in his journal too, like catch him‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ filling up pages with long ass polynomial problems and calculus. he finds it‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ calming, its like second nature to him and he doesn’t have to rlly think about it.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>carries around a tape recorder + tapes, he uses alongside his journal to document his days and keep track of things.

>though he technically wasn’t supposed to watch them growing up, arvo‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ is kind of a horror junkie ?? like horror movies/books/games are his kinda ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ thing, ok. sometimes his old group used to tell stories to pass the time while‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ traveling, or at night, and arvo highkey got banned from participating bc his ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ stories were always scary. arvo vc: u guys are absolutely nooooo fun smh !!‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>a big reason arvo is into botany and plants and gardening as‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ much as he is, is partly because he was a kid he used to help‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ his mom garden and stuff, which really sparked his interest in it.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>used to take a bunch of different music lessons when he was a kid,‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ but the only one that really stuck was piano. tho hes a lot better with‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ copying music (playing by ear, sight reading) then he is making some‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ thing new, or making stuff up on the spot. he tends to always think of‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ it more logically / math-like, almost bc that's just what he finds easier.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>arvo has a really bad nail biting/picking habit! it’s an anxious tic, he’ll‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ bite/pick them down super short until they start bleeding, and will probs‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ continue to bite them anyway bc hes stupid, asdfghjkl? he’ll also bite/pick‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ at his cuticles until the same shit happens, (someone pls yell @ him 4 it).‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>thinking abt what the russian group calls the undead, considering different‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ groups seem to have different names for them, and all.they sometimes‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ use 'walkers' as a general term with others, but more commonly call them‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ 'nezhit' among themselves, nezhit being a russian mycological creature.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

>is autistic, because i said so.‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

#* && OOC #* && ARVO : NERVOUS PRODIGY .#i say teehee. <3 i'm very eepy so no real funny tags but ah well #death tw #child death tw #implied suicide tw

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arpiii · 5 years ago

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The BAU High School Teacher AU

Let’s start with teaching positions:

“Mr. Hotch” - English, History

“Mr. Rossi” - Film, Psychology

“Emily” - French, Arabic, Gym coach

“Morgan” - Woodwork, Weight room & Gym Coach

“Dr. Reid” - Math, Science, Music theory

"JJ” - Spanish, Art

“Garcia” - Drama, Computer Science/Tech classes

“Principal Strauss” - no one likes her

“Gideon” - School counselor

“Officer Elle” - School security

Now about the staff:

Mr. Hotch is the strict teacher. No late work, he doesn’t curve grades, and can tell if you bullshit your tardy. But he’s still supportive towards the students that need it and helps any way he can. He barely smiles and is never absent from class. The only jokes he cracks are really cheesy dad jokes that make the class cringe and groan and snicker because he says them so seriously. If a student is having trouble in the class but it’s because of their parents, Hotch makes sure to meet with them and lecture the parents and defend his student as much as he can. But all his students know, one day each year, he plans a prank on Mr. Rossi, his rival. This is what the class looks forward to every year. A couple times he brings his son Jack to class and the class loves him. They’re also surprised to see Hotch smiling all day and going soft when he talks to Jack. When he has something important to teach he lets Jack hang out with Garcia.

Mr. Rossi is the strict, yet chill teacher. He disciplines his kids and gives them extra credit when they deserve it. He likes to joke with the class and brag about him being a best selling author, the class roll their eyes but enjoy it. He’s also extremely sarcastic and has dry and slightly dark humor. He throws a pizza party at the end of each quarter/term and every time he goes over to Hotch’s class to offer some. Hotch always declines but Rossi leaves it on the desk anyway. The only time Hotch breaks his no emotion streak is when Rossi visits and teases him. The class is told at the beginning of the year that it’s a feud but they all know they secretly have a thing for each other and are too stubborn to admit it.

Emily is the laid back Gym teacher. She and Morgan are constantly one-upping each other and they brag to each other who’s picked up the most girls at bars to entertain the class. She’s the only teacher that know’s how to piss off Morgan and her class loves that. She also teaches French and Arabic. JJ, the Spanish teacher, visits her class and her students notice every time that JJ is the only teacher Emily is sweet with, but JJ doesn’t seem to notice.

Morgan is the cocky gym teacher and weight-room coach, and also teaches woodwork. He’s super chill but strict when he needs to be, and is constantly motivating kids. If a kid is in trouble or scared, Morgan makes sure to resolve the problem or defend the kid with his whole chest. He likes to compete against Emily’s class in sport games during class. But most of his free time he visits Dr. Reid. His main purpose is to embarrass Reid with innuendoes and flirting, which he’s always successful at. Reid’s class enjoys the shit out of it. Emily is annoyed at both of them and is the only teacher that calls Morgan Reid’s “boyfriend” just to mess with both of them. When Morgan can’t visit Reid’s class he sends Emily as a messenger who rolls her eyes every time.

Dr. Reid is that really smart teacher. He teaches up to the advanced math and science classes and also music theory. Reid tells the class to let him know if he’s talking too fast or rambling so he can slow down. He cares about all his students and although the students are annoyed with all the work they get, they enjoy having Reid as their teacher. They love the fact that he loves Dr. Who and give him Dr. Who and nerd themed gifts on his birthday. When the class is doing individual work Reid puts on classical music. The students also teach him about pop culture things like Tik Tok dances and iconic vines. Reid isn’t very social but they see his personality come out when Morgan visits. His face goes red every time Morgan drops an innuendo and threatens Morgan to leave the class. Some ways he’s done that is by throwing a white board eraser at him, threatening to splash a beaker of acid on him, and holding his guitar as a weapon. They know he’s not serious though because Reid fails to hide his smile. Garcia visits the class a lot and she’s like the mom of the class, she sometimes brings treats and likes to chat with the students. Every time she visits, she ad Reid are quietly gossiping in the corner, and although the class can’t hear them, they can tell it’s about Morgan (especially the one time they caught Reid blush during a conversation).

JJ is the Spanish and Art teacher. She is extremely sweet and checks in with her class constantly if they’re doing ok or if they need help. No one is scared to ask questions because she always answers them without making the student feel bad. Her students notice Emily visits a lot, and they can tell they have a thing for each other. Whenever they ask JJ about it, she neither confirms nor denies it so a huge conspiracy starts. She also teaches art and Garcia likes to visit a lot. The two gossip about all the other teachers, JJ fills Garcia in about Emily and Garcia fills JJ about Reid and Morgan. Sometimes, when Reid is out, JJ substitutes his music class. She likes to fool with Morgan when that happens.

Garcia is the mom of the school. Everyone loves her. She teaches drama and comp sci so she is loved by the gays and the nerds. She’s always enthusiastic and supportive and treats her kids. She’s very colorful and gives her kids candy or stickers if they get a question right or do something really cool in their assignment. When she visits Reid, if Morgan shows up she guards the door and keeps him out of the class. Morgan tries to charm her but she charms him back and doesn’t break. Once in a while she fails to keep him out and the class goes nuts watching the show. She’s also called a lot by Hotch because he needs help with technology constantly. Rossi needs help too once in a while but he just relies on his students or eventually figures it out.

Principal Strauss is only seen in the halls once in a while. She monitors classes twice a year and all the students AND the teachers behave their best that day. Even Hotch seems relieved when she leaves the class. She makes announcements at the most inconvenient times. She is also the only one who enforces the dress code on students. Once in a while she asks what Morgan’s doing in Reid’s class and Morgan tries to cover it up and the class backs him up. Rossi’s class finds it hilarious when she’s talking to the class and he’s mocking her from behind, rolling his eyes and making faces. The students clearly know the teachers don’t like Strauss as they constantly complain about her. She calls Garcia’s games and prizes “distractions” and thinks JJ gets off track too much because she checks in with her class to much. The students that hate her the most though are Reid’s students, because she’s the hardest on him for no reason. They can tell by his behavior and can tell he’s drained every time she leaves the class. They tell Morgan and Morgan decides to start a yoga club for students and teachers to destress once a week. He personally invites Reid and that’s the only time the students see Morgan doesn’t mess with Reid. Garcia also offers free hugs to any student who needs one during the school day.

Gideon is everyones favorite staff member. Everyone loves him. His door to the counselor’s office is always open and he always knows what to say to students that have trouble. He’s just very relaxing to talk to. Everyone respects him and even all of the teachers get along with him. He checks in with classes once in a while just to see how everyone’s doing, and sometimes sits in lessons to learn with the students. Sometimes he participates in group assignments. He’s also the only one who stands up to Strauss. He never get’s mad, he’s always calm and manages to talk sense into her. Because of this, she’s never mad at him. When she is, he doesn’t take it personally. He doesn’t go to the yoga classes, but makes sure student’s know about them. He starts the chess club and during the whole year it’s a competition between Gideon’s team and Reid’s team. The students keep track of the bracket thats displayed in the cafeteria and take sides, creating a large yet fun divide in the school. The students ask all the teacher’s who’s side they’re on each year and create flyers to root for each team. It’s also partially a fund raiser for the school to have extracurricular activities. The teachers give extra credit to any of their students who’s rooting for the same team they are if that team wins. Gideon also attends all of the sports games and musical performances.

Officer Elle is school security and most of the students are nice to her. She makes sure to break shit up if a fight breaks out and firmly advises kids to not drink or do drugs. She has PSA assemblies twice a year about security and health. She’s chill and likes to chat with students. She’s basically a badass and makes sure to put kids in their place who deserve it. She also teases Morgan because they have a history in working in security together.

Assemblies:

There are four assemblies every semester. Three out the eight for the entire year, Strauss forces Reid to present. She’s totally unaware that he has the worst anxiety out of all of them (and if he told her she probably couldn’t have cared less and given bullshit excuses). The students eventually catch on that Reid din’t ask to present based off his shaking hands and wavering voice. They also see the looks the other teachers are giving Strauss, who is unaware. Reid bears through it though and Morgan comforts him afterwards as Strauss is giving the closing statement. The student’s support Reid as he’s talking and try to make him feel better. Morgan makes jokes at him to distract him and the class plays along with it. Two of the other assemblies are given by Elle, two others are given by Strauss, and one is given by Gideon. However there’s one unofficial assembly held every year by the students (teachers are invited except for Strauss). At the end of the year the students compile a video of pictures or videos of funny or iconic moments of things that happened to the students or teachers throughout the school year. This usually includes crackhead moments during free time in classes, a kid secretly recording Hotch as he’s trying to tell a dad joke, Morgan flirting with Reid in front of the whole class, Reid’s students dancing in a Tik Tok with Reid (followed by someone recording them creating the Tik Tok), the hype for the end of year chess tournament, the massive pranks pulled by the teachers and students on April Fools Day, everyone’s costumes during Halloween, and so much more. One student brings a popcorn machine. Garcia brings candy.

Specific events:

Morgan crashes Reid’s class multiple times a week. The students look forward to it, because all Morgan does is flirt. He’d spit out innuendos that are somehow related to what he’s teaching. It’s the worst in music class.

“You’re doing well with that fingering” “I’M PLAYING THE GUITAR”

“Hey Dr. Reid, how’s the blowing going?” Reid’s face burns red

“You really stroke the G well-” “GET OUT”

“For a drummer you don’t bang very well” *dodges drumstick*

One time Reid threw a white board eraser at him only to receive “damn you trying to rub me out?” which causes the class to roar.

The class goes crazy every time and someone is bound to be recording every time Morgan steps into the classroom. Morgan would also call Reid “pretty boy” on occasion and ruffle his hair, which Reid would fix right after. (Everyone knows he secretly loves it).

One day Reid gets his hair cut short with curls on top, but Morgan doesn’t find out till the next day. He also wore his glasses that day (which he does wear occasionally). The class started to silently freak as they filed in before the bell rang. When Morgan entered mid class his greeting of “Hey pretty boy” was cut short when he saw him. Morgan stood frozen for a good 30 seconds before Reid approached him (WAY too close) and says lowly “What we’re you saying?” Theres no response from Morgan, the class is trying to stay silent while going ape shit, everyones phones are out, it looks like their noses are about to touch when finally Reid steps away and asks the class “So, who can tell me the answer to number 6?” and just leaves Morgan there. The class tries to recover and when five minutes pass Reid looks back at Morgan (who hasn’t moved) and asks, “Hey Morgan, don’t you have a class to teach?” Finally Morgan snaps out of it and stutters “Uh.. yeah- I gotta... go,,” and leaves the classroom.

Spirit week is a riot.

It starts with Tropical day. Everyone dressed in a hawaiian shirt and wore a fake lei, even Hotch. Garcia gives out lei’s to everyone that doesn’t have one and Rossi gives extra credit to whoever dresses up that week.

Next is 50′s/Grease themed. Morgan went all out with his outfit, leather jacket and sunglasses included. Reid did not own a leather jacket, but he did grease his hair back and wore a white t-shirt which entertained his students. Hotch, along with his outfit, brought a comb and constantly combed through his hair throughout class. Garcia and JJ wore poodle skirts and JJ wore her hair in a high ponytail. Emily wore black leather pants, a polkadot shirt, and a red bandana in her hair with bright red lipstick. Rossi just wore his helmet from the Vietnam war, and when someone called him out, his excuse was the war started in the 50′s so it counts.

Next was Lazy Wednesday, and the students (and Morgan) didn’t know how much Reid in a hoodie could affect them. It got to the point where one of the students had to call out to Morgan “You’re drooling” which followed by laughter from the class. Emily wore her snuggie and JJ and Garcia wore matching Pokemon onesies. Half of the students were distracted because Hotch was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.

Thursday was Disney themed. Morgan was, of course, Prince Charming. Every time he entered a classroom he overacted dramatically. Garcia decided to match by being his Cinderella and had her hand kissed by Morgan every time they passed each other. Rossi’s students had a field day with his costume. He dressed up as the toy seller from Toy Story 2. He got Woody and Jessie toys from Hotch’s son, Jack, and he was constantly eating cheese puffs. Hotch melted everyones hearts by dressing as Kristoff and bringing in Jack who was dressed as Sven. Every girl and gay almost had a heart attack from Reid, who was dressed as Milo from Atlantis. But the winners in the students book were Emily, who dressed up as Flynn Rider, and JJ, who dressed up as Rapunzel. They hung out in the halls in between classes, Emily winking at everyone who walked by.

With the good days come the bad. One year, Reid started getting these horrible migraines. He wouldn’t tell anyone, however, and kept teaching. Even Morgan asked a couple times if he was okay. This lasted almost two weeks, and then Reid had to lead an assembly that Friday. The migraines on top of his rising panic attack while he spoke to the students made him feel worse. He started to stutter and feel lightheaded, but Strauss said nothing. Morgan managed to hold on to him and finally told Garcia to take him into the hall. Thankfully Hotch stepped in and continued the assembly like he was presenting the whole time. After it was over, Morgan chewed out Strauss to the point where Emily had to hold him back. The students were confused as to what happened and theories started to spread as school let out. Morgan went straight to Reid who was sitting in a dark empty classroom with Garcia. Reid finally told him about his migraines and Morgan insisted taking him to the ER. The speculations grew when students saw Morgan leading Reid to his car with their arms around each other for support as they walked, Morgan comforting him on the way to the car.

One day, Reid had a doctors appointment for the latter half of the day, so he asked JJ to sub his music theory class. Only, Morgan didn’t know. There was a small hall that led into the big music room, so when Morgan entered, he couldn’t see JJ from where he was. He thought he was sneaking up on Reid, putting his finger to his mouth at the students who saw him sneaking. Finally he walked out to greet who he thought was Reid with “Is that something in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” He froze when he saw JJ staring back with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. He saw the class was recording him and shook his head while saying “I will get you back for this.” As he walked out defeated, JJ called after him, “I’m guessing he didn’t tell you about his doctor’s appointment.” which earned a middle finger from Morgan which JJ couldn’t see from where she was standing. This definitely ended up in the end of year slideshow and it was the first time Reid saw the video. He counted that as a victory.

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thetriggeredhappy · 4 years ago

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in the latest Dad!Spy fic, it seems like both of them have a degree of separation anxiety. largely *reasonable* separation anxiety because of the whole, y'know, Spy (and eventually Scout) being a mercenary thing, but it's still fascinating to see. i wonder how Spy would deal with easing Jeremy's anxiety and his own all the while knowing that he very well COULD be killed and leave his young son alone any time something goes wrong with work

spy as a dad would i think be extremely concerned about his kid’s safety to the point of paranoia, and the worst part of it all would be all the times when his paranoia is justified.

(warnings for discussion of canon-typical violence, none of it happening onscreen, and assorted mention of spy-type business)

Something about this felt so deeply... dishonest. Something he couldn’t quite place. Maybe some sense of irony, or... maybe just the sort of general guilt he’d had as a very young man starting to reverberate within him again. Whatever it was, sitting there and writing down the cipher of a message intended to ensure his son’s safety if he died, while that aforementioned son slept soundly against his shoulder, felt deeply morally wrong.

His eighth birthday was coming up. It was, according to Jeremy, a pretty big deal. And Jacques was aware that most children in more average situations would be having a party together, eating cake and playing games and having fun while he theoretically chatted with the other parents and talked about... school, or, extracurriculars. He wasn’t sure, to be honest, that was just his assumption. But Jeremy’s situation was anything but average, so he’d be making an attempt to do something else, something he’d enjoy enough that perhaps he would be able to put off the conversations of “why can’t I have normal friends?” for one more year. He’d heard about and marked down an annual fair, and found that this year the weekend it was taking place just so happened to also fall on Jeremy’s birthday.

It was a good excuse for why they were leaving town so swiftly. Much more justifiable to himself and more explainable to a very-nearly-eight-year-old than whispers on the wind of a pair of men he thought he’d killed twelve years previously being seen within the state and that alone being enough to make him very very nervous. He did not believe in coincidences, and moreover, he knew that him finding out about these men being alive was not an accident, it was a warning, and the only one he would be receiving before they struck to kill.

Regardless, he was still a bit troubled by it. And he knew it was an adjustment from the plans he’d been hesitantly laying for some time on where he would be and when, his route a closely guarded secret meant to be known to exactly three trustworthy people in entirely seperate areas of the world, and even then it was a risk he would never have taken previously. But him going missing would be several degrees more significant, as he’d realized roughly eight years ago.

A movement to shift, trying to keep his arm from falling asleep, was enough to wake up Jeremy, who blinked a few times down at what Jacques was writing as if waiting for the letters to make sense. “Is that Russian?” he mumbled sleepily after two minutes of silence.

“No,” he said, having to pause in his writing entirely, broken from the rhythm he’d gotten into. “It’s a cipher. Secret symbols and letters.”

“Oh,” Jeremy said simply, and went silent and still for long enough that he convinced himself that he’d surely fallen back asleep, and he was a bit startled when he spoke again. “Who are you writing secret symbols at?”

“A friend of mine,” he answered carefully, if kindly. “You’ve met him. Twice, actually. A very large man, who also wore a suit. I believe you told him you really liked his tie.”

Peter was a good man, or as good as one could be given the circumstances the two of them both worked in. He had made a very genuine effort at, as Jacques had requested, ‘easing up’ on the usual intimidating way that he carried himself when he’d been been told Jeremy would be there at one of the very brief meetings the two of them had. One was when Jeremy was three, and fully preoccupied with a gift he’d received for the holidays, and the other was when Jeremy was six. Apparently, Peter had decided the best way to appear less intimidating to a young child was to wear a tie plastered with a pattern of cartoonish bubbles. Jacques thought it was perhaps the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen, but was promptly proven wrong when Jeremy pointed it out gleefully within moments of being in a room with the man.

If Jacques died unexpectedly in most of the mainland United States and immediately surrounding territories, Peter would likely be the one taking care of Jeremy. At least until the other two correspondents could stop by and negotiate further on what would happen with him. Peter, at least, could cook and survive alone for multiple people (as he’d proven before on at least one occasion where Jacques was too injured to take care of himself and required assistance), and if he would stoop so low as to wear a bubble-patterned tie because he wanted to avoid intimidating a six-year-old, he was likely capable of stooping low enough to perform other essential activities involved with raising a child.

“I don’t remember that,” Jeremy muttered, shifting slightly.

“That is fair,” he nodded. “You do meet a lot of people, mon lapin, it is not easy keeping names straight.”

He hummed in sleepy agreement. A pause. “That one looks like a dog,” he finally said, pointing at one of the little letters on the page.

He tilted his head, squinting a little. “Hm. I suppose it does,” he acquiesced.

“Does it mean dog?”

“It is not kanji, the characters represent letters, which spell words in German,” Jacques replied.

“Is it that letter that looks like a B but it isn’t and sounds like that one dog?”

“...Are you referring to an eszett?”

“Yeah.”

“...And what dog does it sound like, exactly?” Jacques asked, fully baffled.

“The one that howls really loud.”

“Howls really—mon lapin, are you referring to a basset hound?”

“Yeah!” he agreed, sitting up a little and smiling. “That’s it!”

He wanted to further investigate why the word eszett reminded his son of basset hounds, but Jeremy picked that moment to yawn, reminding him of something.

“Well, dogs or otherwise, I do believe that it’s past your bedtime. You should go to sleep,” he said, no room in his tone for argument.

The whining noises began and were silenced by a swift kiss to the top of his head and the setting aside of the notebook he was working from, moving as if to pick up Jeremy and properly put him to bed. But then more genuine protests began, Jeremy moving to dart beneath the sheets before he could even properly set his pen down.

“Can I sleep here tonight?” he asked earnestly, employing the use of his big blue too-much-like-his-mother’s eyes. A slightly disapproving tilt of the head did nothing to dissuade him, so Jacques sighed inwardly, standing regardless.

“Alright, alright,” he surrendered as he moved to also get ready for sleep, “but I will be awake rather early in the morning, and you do not get to complain at me if you also end up awake as a result.”

Jeremy didn’t look upset by this caveat in the slightest, just burrowing further and smiling like he’d won some sort of contest.

And he looked asleep enough by the time Jacques was back that he was very quiet and careful about getting back into bed, but woke up regardless with the express intent of tucking against his arm again.

And he knew he would miss this one day. His son was already growing up much too fast, and at very-nearly-eight-years-old was closer in many ways to twelve, and surely only had another year or so before he would be much too embarrassed to lean against his father’s shoulder this way, to comment upon how things looked like an animal, to speak so freely. Soon he would be having secrets, a life of his own that he’d know nothing about, and he looked forward to it of course but he would also miss it so very dearly.

He’d hate to miss any more of it by dying unexpectedly.

He wished he didn’t need to prepare for the worst. He wished he didn’t feel guilty for needing to work out details about what would happen if the nightmare scenario occurred. And more than that, he wished he didn’t have to feel all the more guilty about having no plan at all for what he would do if something happened to Jeremy. It was unthinkable. He couldn’t imagine having a world without his son in it, not anymore.

And so he leaned back as well, albiet so much more carefully with the understanding of the fact that children tend to be fragile, and couldn’t imagine.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #dad!spy #father-son bonding au #shut up me #everybody talks

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jade-marie · 4 years ago

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I didn't watch episode 4 but I saw gifs of Beth yelling at Jane and it got me thinking, what's your view on the Boland kids not being parented?

Lmao you love getting me in trouble🤣

Sorry. It got long but I could rant about this for weeks.

Pre canon and S1

Obviously, we don’t see anything pre canon when it comes to the Boland kids, but you can put together an idea of what their situation was like from the first few episodes. Beth was a SAHM - she made them fancy packed lunches for school, had them enrolled in extra curricular activities, dropped them off/picked them up from school, put them to bed, got them ready etc. She was the main caregiver and Dean was at work. When he came home, he got to be the fun dad.

It seems like they had a decent amount of structure, as far as schedules go, but they’ve never been given any responsibility and didn’t appear to be well disciplined. We had Kenny telling Beth she sucked at math in s1 - something I certainly wouldn’t have gotten away with. Anyway, they had a decent amount of structure and stability, they were used to things being a certain way and that was all disrupted when Dean was kicked out of the house. Then suddenly, Dean was back, but he was sharing a bedroom with Kenny. It doesn’t seem like any of this was really explained to the kids properly or that they were helped through the process, which can have some knock-on effects.

Throughout Season 2

First episode of S2, Dean was shot. The kids were told that he was mugged and were, understandably, shaken up by the whole thing. Once again, nobody truly comforted or helped them through this process and we started to see the fallout of that. Kenny essentially developed an eating disorder and started bingeing, Jane “ran away from home”. But again, nothing is done about it. Beth says they need to be more present, no phones at dinner, they look into a child therapist, but we don’t ever hear about the kids actually getting therapy even though they desperately need it.

Throughout the season, the structure that they still had in S1 rapidly disappears. It goes from Beth being the main caregiver to her handing the reigns over to Dean in 2.05 and he doesn’t do a good job of it. The house becomes a mess, the kids run wild. This would be a perfect opportunity to start giving the older children some chores, helping to re-introduce structure, but it doesn’t happen. From the kids perspectives, they would notice their mother becoming more and more absent from their lives, missing dance recitals, coming home late, missing dinner, missing bedtime and so Dean is becoming the consistent parent (important for later).

Dean decides to weaponise the children, taking them away from Beth and going to stay with his mother for a while, before going back home. Beth and Dean tell the kids that they’re going to be getting a divorce, obviously that doesn’t happen, again creating quite an unstable environment for them. Effectively, they have a roof over their heads and they’re being fed/clothed, but nobody is actually parenting them.

Throughout Season 3

At the beginning of S3, with the dealership gone and Beth no longer working for Rio, they have significantly less money. It’s not clear how much of a knock-on effect this had on their extra curricular activities because Jane still has her piano lessons and Kenny has hockey. Beth’s taking them to the park a lot, it’s also not clear whether this is simply because she’s stalking Rhea and Marcus or genuinely because the park is a free activity for them. Regardless, they’ve been going to the park enough that it’s no longer fun. The kids really don’t seem to have any structure anymore and, once again, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been receiving any emotional support during what would be a challenging time for any child.

Dean has gone back to work, Beth is now also working, so Judith steps in to help take care of the kids. She takes things a little bit far, which pisses off Beth, so Judith is quickly removed from the equation. Again - instability. Then we have the fallout between Rhea and Beth, which means Jane can no longer play with her best friend Marcus for (at least from her perspective) absolutely no reason. Again – instability. Fast forward a few weeks, the entire house is emptied so the kids have to go and stay with Judith for an unspecified amount of time. Again – instability. We can play the blame game to decide who is the cause of this instability, but it’s pretty irrelevant. The fact is, the kids lives are being shaken up and nobody is helping them through it.

Beth buys new furniture, the kids come home, it all seems great, and then Dean gets arrested. So now their dad ,who has been the more consistent parent in their lives for the last year, is out of the picture. Once again, nobody is really offering them support during this time. We see Jane asking for her dad, we see the kids talking about how Dean lets them eat by the TV, because they’re missing things which have been consistent for them, and then we finally get to Janes little stand-off with Beth over the remote control.

That is quite clearly the result of her emotional needs going unmet for God knows how long, so she’s acting like a brat. Instead of taking care of and supporting her child, Beth lashes out. I find the editing choice to mute the yelling and playing music over the scene annoying, because it lightens it quite a bit. It’s pretty obvious that Beth was wildly over reacting to the situation, because she was lashing out at a child over things that had nothing to do with Jane. She was stressed about Dean, she was stressed about Fitzpatrick‘s upcoming murder and taking that out on a kid. Yeah, she felt bad and gave her a hug after, but you’ve still got 3/4 kids (is Kenny coming back??) who’ve been emotionally neglected for at least a year.

Beth’s kids compared to Annie/Ben

We don’t really see a lot of Ben‘s relationship with Greg, it doesn’t seem like he’s a particularly bad parent in any way, Nancy is probably a bit neurotic, but nothing major. Annie, is pretty emotionally stunted and immature, she puts way too much responsibility on Ben, so it’s the complete opposite of Beth. Ben is effectively the grown-up in their relationship, he leaves reminders for his mother to make sure shit gets dealt with and any structure Ben has is structure he’s created for himself.

But at the same time, he trusts his mother and when something is bothering him he actually talks to her. We saw him come out to Annie before Greg and Nancy, he told Annie when he was being bullied. As he gets older, you can see him growing tired of parenting his mother, but I think she’s learning from her mistakes by recognising the way they’ve impacted her son. I think it’s also important to remember that Ben has been largely unaffected by Annies criminal activities, this is predominantly because she has a shitload of baggage to deal with.

Beth’s kids compared to Ruby and her kids

As a whole, Ruby‘s kids have been relatively unaffected by her criminal activities. It doesn’t look like they ever had a rigourous schedule of extracurricular activities, but they’ve always had a stable home life. Not financially well off, but happy. We’ve always seen them be respectful, they have boundaries with their parents, they don’t particularly misbehave etc. They just appear to be good kids with good parents. They witnessed Stan being arrested and Sara especially took that quite hard, but she was supported through it. It’s also quite clear that she’s had a good emotional support system throughout her illness and kidney transplant. When she found out that Ruby was up to something shady in S3 and their relationship became strained as a result, she spoke to her mother in a way which was disrespectful, eventually that behaviour was checked. Because Ruby and Stan parent their children.

Beth’s kids compared to Rio/Marcus

From the very first time we were introduced to Marcus, we’ve seen that he’s very polite, very well-balanced and has a good relationship with his dad. We’ve seen Rio patiently instil important lessons in his son, such as cleaning up his messes, being patient and waiting his turn - things which Beth’s kids still don’t understand.

For the most part, Marcus seems to be pretty well shielded from Rio’s criminal activities, which is why I think Marcus was so heavily affected by his dads absence in S3. But, unlike the Boland children, he was emotionally supported through the process by his mother. He went to her for comfort and he received it. When Rio isn’t around, Rhea appears to pick up the slack and ensure Marcus still has some stability.

I think they’ve deliberately contrasted Beth’s kids with the other children on the show. Her children are the only ones who seem to be truly feeling the effects of choices she’s made during the course of the series. She claims to be doing all of this for her kids, but is completely ignorant to the fact that her choices are hurting them. This isn’t me bashing her character or saying she’s a shitty mom because I don’t like her, this is just stating what’s happening on the screen and right now, whether or not it’s deliberate, she’s being a shitty parent. Dean has always been a shitty parent. So now those kids don’t have anyone😕

#tl;dr #boland kids have shitty parents and it’s showing #good girls nbc #rio good girls #beth boland #ruby hill #annie marks

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quixotin · 4 years ago

Text

*slips you a twenty*

Hey kid wanna read some lit fanfics?

I just updated my blog with a link to all my AO3 works

Also...... Chapter 8 of The Wall Between Us is up and it’d be cool if you read it or whatever, a bunch of us are gonna be there, we’re gonna cry and order pizza and suffer for the love square it’s gonna be cool

Read Chapter 8 on AO3 Start from the beginning here

Or on this post below the cut!

The Wall Between Us

Summary: Marinette is left to pick up the pieces after losing her chance with Adrien and having Master Fu give up his memories to protect the Miraculous Box. She struggles to find her ground as the new Guardian, and finds unexpected support in Luka Couffaine. Simultaneously, Adrien is learning how to navigate his emotions and slowly growing into his role as future co-guardian, and in the process realizes important truths about his feelings for Kagami, Marinette, and Ladybug. When Ladybug tells Chat Noir that as the Guardian, she is okay with not only revealing their identities but also entrusting her secret to close friends of hers, things become unequivocally complicated for the superhero duo. Will Marinette and Adrien be able to sort through their feelings and do what’s best for the Miraculous team?

Chapter 8

By the time Gabriel and Natalie had returned from their business trip to Seoul–and really, Adrien wasn’t even sure they had been gone at all due to the fact Akumas were aplenty during their absence– he had already extracted a good volume of information to make a case for his suspicions.

He hadn’t found the evidence he needed to prove that his father was indeed Hawkmoth, but instead he had found years of badly-filed fiscal reports, personnel that had been hired and fired under very mysterious conditions, some sort of project for the mansion that his father paid millions for which Adrien had never seen, and the one that irked him the most: audits from France’s Child Protection Services, fines, and ‘cease and desist’ letters warning Gabriel that he was putting Adrien under too many work hours.

That, he discovered, was the real reason why Adrien had been allowed to go to school in the first place. It wasn’t that Natalie had made him a favor: They enrolled him so that Child Protection Services would get off the brand’s neck for forcing Adrien on a part-time job when he wasn’t even sixteen yet.

All of Adrien’s findings were pretty incriminatory, not to mention infuriating, but none were exactly what he was looking for. And yet, it was one of those things that once you have considered, you cannot help but keep seeing.

“Adrien, would you like to explain to me why you have been missing your extracurricular activities for the past two weeks?” Natalie said with a stern voice one morning, as Adrien meticulously chewed on his oatmeal breakfast.

The fiery urgency to flip a table, which had taken a hold of him lately any time Natalie or his father addressed him, surged like a geyser.

“I just didn’t feel like attending,” he said politely, without looking up.

Natalie was taken aback by his answer. “Excuse me?”

Adrien looked up this time. “I didn’t feel like attending,” he repeated. “You weren’t here, and I just didn’t feel like going.”

“You know if you start doing poorly, your father will have you homeschooled again and–”

“And what? He’s gonna lock me up again? Is that it? Wouldn’t people start asking questions?” he demanded.

Natalie blinked, completely caught off guard by Adrien’s sudden rudeness. “This is no way to be talking to your–”

“My what? My dad’s assistant? You’re not my babysitter, not my teacher, and certainly not my mother. I can do whatever I want.”

Natalie composed herself and marched swiftly out of the dining room.

“Kid, what the hell?” Plagg hissed from inside his shirt. “That’s a dumb way to get caught.”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered back. “I’m just… I’m so angry at them! I can’t stop thinking about all this stuff that I found, and just… the idea of them being–well, you know who. It’s making me see in red.”

He marched to the patio and went into his car, where, to his surprise, he found he’d be sharing a ride with his father.

He felt Plagg jabbing his little paws at him as if to say, “I told you so.”

“F-father. Good morning.”

“Drive, George,” Gabriel instructed. After a silence, he spoke again without looking at Adrien. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Disrespecting Natalie like that, blatantly disregarding your responsibilities, and giving the brand bad publicity.”

He threw a newspaper at Adrien’s lap. It was from a few days ago. Apparently his sudden outburst at the crowd of harassers in the skate park had made it into the news.

“I’m beginning to think it was a mistake to give you this much freedom.”

Adrien gulped, shuddering with sudden terror.

“Perhaps it will be better if you go back to being tutored at home. Or even better, I’ll send you to a boarding school where I don’t have to deal with your carelessness anymore.”

Adrien gasped. “Please… please don’t. Don’t send me away.”

“You’re not feeling so brave and boldened now, are you? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Adrien didn’t move. He didn’t dare speak, breathe, blink.

The car had stopped already, they were at the steps of the school. His friends were all hanging at the entrance and had spotted him.

“Your lack of words doesn’t surprise me. You’re just a naive, spoiled little boy who can’t begin to understand the sacrifices I make for this family… You’re dismissed.”

Adrien opened the door, not yet getting off the car.

“Are you going to take me off school?”

“No. Take it as a gesture of good will, and a warning. Stay. In. Line.”

“I-if you send me away, people will start wondering what happened,” he said with a small voice. “They’ll ask questions.”

“And what sort of questions would those be, son?”

At Adrien’s silence, Gabriel sighed. “Close the door. Have a good day.”

He got up and stood in front of the car, breathing deeply so as to not give into the urge to cry.

“I can’t wait to be eighteen to get away from you,” he said and smashed the door close as hard as he could, then sprinted into the school building, afraid that Gabriel might order George to stick him back in the car.

Regrettably, all his friends, Marinette included, saw the display unfold.

It was Nino the one who ran after him.

“Hey, dude, everything alright?” Nino said, as he caught up with him in the locker room.

“Hey Nino, good morning!” he chirped with sunny disposition.

The sudden contrast between what he had seen at the school entrance and then, gave Nino whiplash.

“Erm. Yes, good morning. Don’t ignore my question.”

“Nothing happened,” he said shrugging. “Come on, we’ll be late for—”

Nino yanked the strip from his messenger bag and forced him to stop. “Cut the crap, Adrien. I saw. Is everything alright?”

Adrien’s mask of optimism wavered, but he fought hard to keep it in place. “Yes, Nino. Everything’s alright. I promise.”

Nino sighed, not impressed. “Okay, if you say so.”

As they went into the classroom, Adrien saw from the corner of his eye how Nino shook his head discreetly at the girls. He had been right not to tell him. He knew those two would also want to know what happened. He didn’t want to cause hysteria. However, a more pressing thought occupied his mind for the rest of the day.

Given his regrettable display of temper, and though his father said he wouldn’t pull him out of school, Adrien knew not to trust it. One could never anticipate what his father would do just to stay in control. It worried him that he may have crossed a line that would be difficult to come back from. His father might increase his security, might actually pull him out of school. Not ideal, if his hunch was actually right.

He had to tell Ladybug what he knew as fast as possible.

On the lunch break, he excused himself to the bathroom, taking the burner phone with him to send Ladybug a message:

I DECIDED I’M READY TO REVEAL MY IDENTITY. SOMETHING CAME UP. DON’T WORRY, I’M NOT IN DANGER. BUT WOULD IT BE OKAY IF WE MEET AT THE HANG OUT TODAY? PLEASE WRITE ME BACK AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS.

He kept inconspicuously checking the burner phone for the rest of the day, getting no answer from Ladybug whatsoever. It made him restless. What if she was in danger?

No, she couldn’t be. There would have been an Akuma attack or something.

Still, he was worried, and he knew he couldn’t afford to go back home that day without having told Ladybug about his suspicions, so he resolved to drop by the hang-out anyway later that day. Natalie and George would pick him up after fencing, which gave him enough time to swing there and come back.

It only occurred to him that this might not be the greatest idea once he found himself sans transformation, standing at the door of the hide-out.

What if she wasn’t there today? What if she’s shocked by learning who he is?

He shook his head. No. This was an emergency. He had to do it now, so he ringed the bell.

He texted: LB DID YOU GET MY MESSAGE?

Almost immediately, he got a text back: YES :) I AM HERE. WAIT A SEC. WILL OPEN THE DOOR SOON.

His heartbeat so fast he could hear his pulse. He was short of breath and felt as if his knees would buckle under him at any second.

He heard some voices, then someone approaching to open the door.

Adrien felt temped to open it himself just get over the painful anticipation. The seconds extended for an eternity.

And then, all of a sudden, he was greeted with a most confused Alya Cesaire.

“Alya?”

She crumpled her face, perplexed. “Adrien? What are you doing–”

From inside the house, Adrien distinctly heard the voice of none other than Marinette. “Alya? Is that him?”

It took him a fraction of a second to figure out something that had taken him two–almost three now– years to realize. It felt as if time had stopped and then abruptly resumed, pushing him into a turbulent shore of angry waves.

All of a sudden, it was hard to breathe, impossible to buoy to the surface for a gasp of air. His voice caught up in his throat.

He figured it out.

“Alya?” Marinette repeated from inside the house as Alya stood petrified in front of Adrien, realizing exactly who he was.

“Don’t–” he said gasping. “Don’t tell her,” he pleaded and then darted away as fast as he could possibly run, only stopping when the tears completely blurred his vision.

Back at the house, Marinette was trembling from the utter anticipation. She had requested that Alya come with her to meet Chat. She wasn’t sure she could take it by herself and she needed someone for moral support.

The seconds of wait stringed into whole minutes of silence and Marinette forced herself to march to the front of the house, where Alya was still clinging to the frame.

She was… were those tears? Was she crying?

“Alya?” she asked with trepidation. “What happened?”

“Chat— Oh, Marinette!” She gasped. “Chat was here. He was–he wasn’t transformed.”

Dread came over Marinette’s expression. “Where is he?” she insisted urgently, “What happened?”

“He– he’s gone. Mari, you need to talk to him. You–we… we know him.”

She blinked, too shocked to let fear take ahold of her. “What? Who is he?”

Alya shook her head. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why?” Marinette demanded.

“Marinette, I can’t tell you. You’ll never forgive me if I do… Just… You have to go talk to him, Mari.”

Marinette sprinted outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of ‘someone she knew’, but it was the beginning of rush hour and the streets flooded with commuters, anonymizing everyone. She called and called and called him. Left him voice mail after voice mail, message after message:

CHAT NOIR PLEASE PICK UP! I’M WORRIED, PLEASE!

CHAT.

CHAT PLEASE.

ALYA SAYS YOU KNOW HER, SO MAYBE YOU ALSO KNOW ME... I’M SORRY IF YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED IT’S ME. CAN WE PLEASE JUST TALK?

MINOU. PLEASE. TALK TO ME.

CHAT NOIR, I KNOW YOU’RE MAD. PLEASE, JUST… PLEASE PICK UP.

Chat Noir did not pick up the phone and Marinette, well, Marinette had not been this brokenhearted since Adrien had started dating Kagami, and that was saying something.

Adrien didn’t sleep that night. He hadn’t cried this much since he lost his mother, hadn’t felt this much either.

He never was one to give into negative emotions, but when they got the best of him, they pulled him deep into an abyss that was hard to crawl out of. If any butterflies came flying his way, he wouldn’t have known. Plagg kept guard the entire night.

“I can’t do this anymore, Plagg,” he confessed. “I can’t–I can’t be Chat Noir anymore. It hurts too much.”

“Kid don’t say things like that,” said Plagg as Adrien sobbed. “I’m sure there’s a way to fix this.”

“She loves someone else,” he cried. “I can’t… She’ll never love me, Plagg. It doesn’t matter if I wear the mask or not.”

“That’s not true,” Plagg said, fetching the burner phone. “Look at how worried that poor thing is for you.”

Adrien kept crying. “She doesn’t love me the way I love her. I won’t stand in her way.”

The next morning, Adrien had to put on very little effort to act indisposed for school. He hadn’t come down with anything, but he felt sick. At one point during the night, he had been so caught up in his crisis that he ended up emptying his stomach. In the morning he had woken up from the few hours of sleep he managed to clock in with an insulting headache and even worse nausea than before.

He called in sick and remitted to his room for the next couple days.

It was funny. He never remembered feeling safe or at home in his room. It was too big, too cold for him and somehow at the same time, too small, too stuffy. It was as if his dad had tried to fit in the entire world inside it in the hopes that he’d never want to see the real thing himself.

It wasn’t comfort what made him feel like he belonged there. It was the fact that for once, his surroundings completely matched his state of mind. This is how he felt: as empty and grey as the mansion had been since his mother disappeared, as much of a prisoner as his father intended for him to be.

He groaned at the sound of his civilian phone chiming non-stop with messages from Nino asking if his father had done something to him, Marinette offering him any help if he needed it–these were the ones that hurt him the most to read–, and finally, Alya, who was not sending messages so much as entire monologues begging him to answer at least Ladybug.

He turned off both his civilian phone and the one for Ladybug, hoping there would be no Akumas while he was in this state.

With Chat gone, Marinette regressed into the sort of grief that shut her down when she became the Guardian. She didn’t stop showing up to school, mainly at Alya’s pressing insistence, but it was evident to the class that something was going on with her again.

A few of her more curious friends and acquaintances ask her if everything’s alright with Luka, which only added to her mortification. She hadn’t been herself these past days and she wasn’t exactly sure she’d be able to explain to Luka why she was so brokenhearted without giving her identity away; why Chat’s sudden rejection was way more painful than anything she ever had to go through. So, against her better judgement, she decided to ignore him for a couple days, at least until she was able to sort her head through the situation.

The truth is Chat’s disappearance–not only this one but every time he’s been convinced he’s not cut out to be her partner–hurled her into a spiral of helplessness not just because she couldn’t fathom doing this without him. There was another reason, one she always purposefully ignored.

It’s like she had told Alya: She had feelings for Chat Noir. It had become easier to ignore them with time, and especially when she could just invest all of her romantic attention on Adrien before Luka came around. But the thing with being in love with Adrien is that she was in love with the idea of him. The idea of being together if she could only one day bring herself to tell him. He was an outlet of sorts–more often than Marinette liked to admit out loud– to feelings she could never show, as they were forbidden.

The second reason why Marinette always fell into despair when Chat Noir surrendered or try to surrender his ring, was because she actually loved him. If she was honest, completely, absolutely honest, she loved him. But she could never tell him, it was Master Fu’s orders not to get involved with him, not to reveal their identities. She maneuvered through those restrictions by effectively fooling herself into believing that one day, in the far future when Hawkmoth was defeated and the stakes wouldn’t be so high, she’d tell him and then everything would be okay. She’d tell him the way you admit to a school crush on one of those high school reunions or unlikely encounters as adults.

Chat surrendering his ring always cut that fantasy short.

What is worse, Marinette realized, was that this time she wasn’t using the idea of someone to distract herself from the way she felt. She was using Luka. Luka, who has been nothing but supportive and absolutely selfless. Luka, who loved her, who didn’t deserve to be treated like this.

Marinette cried in part because this was Chat being typical Chat. But also, because she realized she would eventually need to let go of Luka, and she didn’t want to do that, no matter how wrong it was to keep him to herself. Maybe she just needed to try harder, maybe she just needed to shut down the idea of Chat as she had done before.

The problem was that ignoring him was impossible in this circumstance. Ladybug was about to lose her Cat for good.

“Mari,” Alya said softly as she rubbed her friend’s back as Marinette sprawled over her lap. They were in Marinette’s room. “I think he was just shocked. He’ll come around.”

“But what if he doesn’t?” she asked desperately. “I can’t do this without him, Alya. You-you wouldn’t understand. I can’t explain it… I just can’t do it if he’s not there.”

Alya gave her a pained smile.

Oh, this was all so rotten, Alya thought. And Marinette didn’t even know the beginning of it. Alya found herself wondering what would have happened if they had actually revealed their identities before things got complicated off and on the hero costume. It probably would have saved everyone a whole lot deal of pain.

“He will,” she reassured him. “Trust me, he will.”

Alya gave it a few days. But when the end of a week arrived and there was still no sign of Adrien, she decided she probably overestimated him. Nino was mad at him for virtually disappearing, Marinette was growing worried that something had happened to him, not to mention that his disappearance as Chat Noir was truly causing a number on her.

So, she did what she did best: take action.

She asked her teachers for Adrien’s homework worksheets and on she went Friday after school to confront what would be very possibly a mess even bigger than Marinette’s.

She sighed, rang at the gate of the Agrestes’ mansion and waited for the camera to activate.

“Yes?”

“Hello, Miss Sancoeur. I’m Alya, I’m in Adrien’s class. I’m here to give him his work for the week he missed.”

“Deposit it on the bin, please,” Natalie said, as an automated door slid open. to receive the packet of books.

“Actually, I was hoping I could see him? There’s a few things that our Social Studies teacher asked me to explain to him about a specific assignment,” she said, beaming.

“Adrien has come down with a bad case of the flu, I am sure it wouldn’t be safe for you.”

“Don’t worry ma’am. I got all my shots up to date.”

Natalie sighed and after a few minutes of deliberation, the gates opened. She met Alya at the front door and directed her to the floor where Adrien’s room was. “Down the hall, first door to the right,” she instructed. “I have to warn you. Adrien has specifically requested not to receive visitors.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll make an exception,” she said with determination in her eyes. “Thanks!” Alya flashed her a smile and once Natalie had returned to her office, proceeded to barge into Adrien’s room.

The blinds were all drawn, only letting in slivers of light. The air was stuffy, like no one had opened the windows in a good while. It also smelled disgustingly of spoiled cheese.

There were clothes and dishes and all kinds of things lying everywhere. Alya did not remember Adrien ever being this messy.

Both the three displays of his computer and the television were on with different shows each, mixing the occasional strands of yellow light from the windows with the morbid blue of the screens.

A lump, which she supposed was the culprit himself, lay buried in a mountain of blankets and pillows. It seemed he hadn’t noticed her–or in the very least, he didn’t care someone had entered the room.

“That’s it!” Alya announced, dropping her school bag unceremoniously as she huffed and puffed making way through the catastrophe of a room he had, to draw the curtains back and open the windows letting in fresh air and the sounds of the city. She then proceeded to turn off every screen and to yank, almost with unnecessary force, the blankets off of Adrien.

“What?” Adrien groaned.

“That’s it!” Alya said. “Get up. Get up this instant or so help me god, I’m going to toss you directly into your bathtub, clothes still on.”

“Alya?” He seemed confused. “What are you doing here?”

She proceeded to make piles of the different kinds of trash to make it easier to bag them later, and discarded plates and cups as she gagged at the smell.

“Seriously, what is that stench?”

“Camembert,” he explained, not finding it in himself to feel ashamed. “For my Kwami. He doesn’t eat anything else.”

Alya eyed him with disbelief and shook her head. “What are you doing there, just looking? Go take a shower!”

“But–”

“Go. Take. A. Shower. Adrien Agreste.”

A little afraid to continue questioning her, Adrien made his way to the bathroom and emerged a good twenty minutes later still in pajamas. Fresh ones at that, but still.

“You live like a pig,” Alya berated him as she took a seat in the couch in front of the television.

“I’m not– why are you here? Did you just come in to criticize me?” Adrien complained, joining her.

“First of all, no. I came in to make sure you were still alive, seeing as you decided to literally disappear off the face of this earth telling absolutely nobody. Nino is livid, by the way. Will love to see how you explain yourself out of that one. Oh, and there’s been Akumas, not that you’d even get the memo in this bunker, so I had to pitch in as Rena. You’re welcome.”

Adrien looked down.

“Second. I knew. I knew you were going to do this; lock yourself up here and wallow in your self-pity. And I knew somebody needed to come here to make you snap out of it,” she said, giving him a gentle slap on his head.

“Hey!”

“Am I wrong?” Alya demanded. Being met with silence, she nodded. “My point exactly.”

“Third,” she continued. “You think you have it bad? Try being Marinette for a little bit and have your oh-so-trusted partner of years now, suddenly bail on you with no explanation after realizing who she is. How could that possibly look to her, huh?”

“Marinette?” he said softly. “Is… is she alright? I didn’t mean to–”

“Shush. Don’t interrupt, I'll see that you get your chance to apologize to her, don't you worry your pretty face. Fourth. You sir,” she said poking her index finger at his chest. “Need to put on your big-boy pants and deal with your shit like the superhero you are.”

“And fifth,” she said, the fire in her eyes lightly subduing. “There’s homework,” she said pointing at her bag. “I brought it for you.”

Adrien became small in his seat as he took in Alya’s numbered series of complaints. Meanwhile, Plagg came out of hiding, knowing Alya already knew of his and Ladybug's identity.

“I like the way this one talks,” he said, munching a piece of cheese. “Finally, someone with some goddamn common sense!”

“You’re… Plagg?” Alya said.

“Have we met?” Plagg retorted. “Ah yes, Marinette’s friend on the door the other day. Of course. Either way, you have to know. I would’ve kicked him off the bed myself but well, I’m the size of a tennis ball.”

“I’m sorry, okay?” Adrien said quietly, gaining the attention of the pair. “I know… I know I keep messing things up. Which is precisely why I’m not going to be Chat Noir anymore.”

“What?” Alya said, widening her eyes.

Adrien brought his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on top of them. “I just make everything worse,” he explained. “I keep messing up. And I… I know she used to have a crush on me, as Adrien. I don’t want to get in the way of her and Luka…”

“Adrien,” Alya said softly. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but for such a smart guy, you’re pretty darn stupid sometimes.”

Adrien couldn’t help the sudden chuckle that escaped his lips.

“Why on earth do you think that would be a good idea? Have we not met the same Marinette, or, Ladybug in this case? For a reason that’s entirely beyond me, the girl crumbles if you’re not the one to help her up. It’s like… like she wouldn’t believe anything unless it comes from you. You should have seen the certified dumpster fire the last Akuma was. We were all over the place without you.”

Tears fell down his cheeks, and in that moment, Alya knew to knock down her tough-love strategy down a notch. Yes, this was Chat Noir. But it was also Adrien, and while Chat may react to confrontation, Adrien would do anything but.

She clicked her teeth. “Oh, Sunshine. Don’t cry,” she said as she pulled Adrien into a hug.

“I don’t think I can do it, Alya… I’ll make everything worse.”

“You keep saying that, Adrien. But why?”

“I–I think I know who Hawkmoth is,” he admitted in the quietest possible murmur, followed by a sob.

“What…? Adrien, look at me. What do you mean you know who Hawkmoth is?” she said, eyes wide with concentration.

“I figured it out,” he said, hiccupping as he tried to stop crying. “That’s why I went to the hide-out that day. I wasn’t ready to reveal my identity, but I had been stupid with my dad and I thought he might pull me out of school so I knew I had to tell her what I knew before my dad could lock me up or send me away. The first time she took me to the hide-out, I was browsing through some of the documents… Then I found this, this scanned page about the Peacock Miraculous from one of the grimoires and I knew I recognized it from somewhere.” He looked up with an ominous look. “My dad,” he explained. “He has this safe that I once broke into out of curiosity. And he had the missing grimoire in the set and also the brooch. I snuck in his office to investigate and they weren’t in the safe anymore. Then, I found all these documents… he’s been spending money in weird ways, making orders to companies that don’t exist… If he’s Hawkmoth and Natalie is Mayura… that’s–that’s why I had to tell Ladybug. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if she found out who I was and thought that I was part of it all. Alya I’m so scared… I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh, Adrien,” she said softly. “And why didn’t you stick around to tell her that?”

“Because I’ve been in love with her since I met her, okay? I panicked,” he said, now a bit more exasperated. “You– I don’t think you and Nino know what it’s like, it all came so easy to you. But for me… It was so hard to get over her as Ladybug, then realizing that I was really in love with Marinette, and now–”

“Wait, you’re in love with Marinette?” Alya interrupted, jaw on the floor.

“Did Nino not tell you?”

“No! We don’t gossip about what you guys tell us!… I mean, unless it's really important, but that's besides the point! Holy shit, this is so complicated,” she said with a long sigh, plopping her back against the couch. She groaned as she processed the information. “Why are you two like this?” she exclaimed, rubbing her face in frustration. “Okay, but about your whole theory,” she said, once she recovered. “I think that doesn’t prove much, Adrien. I wouldn’t worry if I were you.”

Adrien shook his head. “I know what I saw, Alya. He had the Peacock Miraculous.”

“But that could mean anything. It could be a replica; I’ve read a lot of studies tracking the history of each jewel. People have tried replicating them to scam others.”

“It’s Natalie, Alya,” Adrien said with less patience. “Natalie is Mayura,” he said. “I just know it…” He sighed. “I don’t know how to tell Marinette. I don’t want to make things complicated for her.”

Alya thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “I got it. What you have right now is a lead, at best. We need to come up with a plan to prove your theories. And Marinette doesn’t need to know how you found it. I didn’t tell her that it was you at the door that day, so really, you could just tell her there’s reason to believe that Gabriel might be Hawkmoth. You tell her your sources is someone close to the Agrestes.”

“What if she asks who the specific source is?”

“We’ll get to that bridge when we cross it.”

“Half-baked plans don’t work on Ladybug,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Perhaps. But she won’t press if she knows your identity is at stake. And for what it’s worth, Adrien, I really do think you should just come clean. About your identity, I mean. It would make everything easier for both of you. I know it must be super scary but... At least promise me you’ll think about it, okay?”

-- “Well, you look like shit,” Juleka commented a bit amused as Luka joined for breakfast before school. He hadn’t been sleeping well and it showed. He simply gave Juleka a ‘I’m not in the mood to fuck around’ smile and begrudgingly served himself a bowl of cereal.

“What is it?” Juleka insisted.

“I really don’t wanna talk about it, Jules.”

“It’s Marinette, isn’t it?” she asked, sounding more like she already had an answer.

Luka sighed and said nothing.

“She’s still not answering your messages?”

Luka shook his head. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“Nothing, probably.”

Luka looked up at his sister, who shrugged at him. “Alya says there’s something going on with her family or something, and she’s really having a hard time with it. It’s probably only that.”

Luka appreciated the fact Juleka tried to cheer him up, but he already knew Marinette wasn’t answering because of family trouble. It had been no secret that Chat Noir had been absent in the last few Akumas. Coincidentally, Juleka had mentioned Adrien had been missing school the last few days, so he knew something must have happened between them. Maybe a fight, it was anyone’s guess. The only thing he knew is that he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t stand that he couldn’t do anything about it, that Marinette wouldn’t actually tell him why she was hiding–to be honest, he also was unsure he even wanted to know. The prospect of her crying to him for a guy who has broken her heart not once, but twice now, did not appeal to him in the slightest bit.

Adrien Agreste was so stupid! He was an idiot! And yet, Luka couldn’t help but wonder if Marinette would ever cry for him like that, even if the last thing he’d ever want to do was to hurt Marinette the same way Adrien had. If she’d ever trust him as blindly as she trusted Chat Noir or love him just the same.

He sighed, trying to push the thought away. Lately, he had run out of strategies to keep his jealousy at bay and so, defeated, he simply tried to ignore his feelings as best as he could, not knowing what else to do. Giving into the feeling made him think horrible things about Adrien, which he was sure weren’t true. Confronting them brought up a proposition that made him break a cold sweat, which although extremely painful, had begun to make a case for itself. It was something he didn’t want to do, but that he suspected would be the best for both of them in the end:

Break up with Marinette.

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usuccc · 4 years ago

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Please talk more about that au, villain Alfred is a guilty pleasure 🙏🏻

*sweats* You and me both! Oh man, where to begin. First of all, thanks for the interest! It means a lot. I can’t be concise, so I’m gonna put this under a huge ‘Keep Reading’ for whoever is interested. Like for real there is a whole ass essay below that cut. I left some stuff out cause it’s already a ridiculous length, but I got the gist of it.

Leave it to me to take a silly gag au and go completely off the rails with it. It’s honestly hilarious gg me.

This au takes place in some fake big city with dark synthwave-y aesthetics where the skies are constantly gray in the daytime from smog and pollution. Over the last ~20-30 years, Jones Enterprises has risen up as the most influential and powerful company in the United States, with their headquarters in (fake big city’s name). They have hands in many industries, spanning the manufacturing, retail, and technology spheres. Over the past 5 years, especially, they’ve seen massive, nearly unbelievable growth, and unfortunate events or sell-outs have conveniently fallen upon their competitors, allowing them to create monopolies in several industries. They also have the government in an iron grip and no one is willing to stand up to them for fear of the consequences. Most people mysteriously feel compelled not to confront them anyway, especially those who live closest to their headquarters.

Francis was an employee for Jones Enterprises’ main headquarters. He saw how overworked and underpaid his colleagues were. Bogged down by overwork in his first year, he eventually tried to get away with slacking as much as he could. After witnessing one of his close coworkers have a heart attack and almost die from the stress of working there, he changed gears and started speaking out on behalf of his colleagues. Some of his motivation came from feeling partially responsible for what happened, and he wanted to evoke positive change across the company instead. He tried time and time again to organize strikes after his attempts to organize a union were completely shattered. The turnout was very little in the beginning, and soon fizzled out to just him. He stubbornly pressed forward on his own anyway and was fired for it. Finding other work turned out to be impossible, his firing acting as an unemployment death sentence. It was not uncommon for employees fired from Jones Enterprises to be shunned from ever finding a decent job again, and Francis’s situation was even worse given the bad publicity he received from his strike attempts.

Ready to resort to desperate measures, Francis started seriously considering moving back in with his parents in France and figuring out a new plan. Jones Enterprises had gained significant influence in Europe too, so there wasn’t a guarantee he wouldn’t experience similar problems there.

Before he could buy a plane ticket, he was visited by Kiku Honda, a stranger with an unassuming appearance. Long story short, Kiku had come to the US with the alias as a simple tourist. His family was presently responsible for safekeeping a secret and powerful magical artifact with mysterious origins.

The artifact was one of two powerful stones, both of which were in existence since the beginning of mankind. These stones were antitheses of each other, representing and contributing to major moral conflicts throughout history. They were both drawn to chosen human hosts who were destined to face each other. The pink stone, which Kiku was in possession of, gained and gave magical power through love, equality, and hope/healing. It formed a positive, nurturing, non-invasive connection with its host, and gave them the power to protect and inspire hope in others. The other (purple) stone gained and gave magical power through greed, subjugation, and fear. It gave great wrath and influence to its host, whose powers would grow exponentially over time as the two stayed connected. This stone would physically embed itself in its host’s heart, eating away at their mind slowly to bring out the absolute worst in them and shave away at their morals and inhibitions, until they were nothing but a heartless monster. Tendrils would spread out from the stone throughout the host’s body, growing in size and number the longer they were connected.

Kiku had long suspected that the unnatural growth of Jones Enterprises was connected to the purple stone. He had gradually implanted connections in Jones Enterprises and had been monitoring the situation for clues of a potential host. The senior leadership of the company was very hard to crack, however, and the CEO had significantly limited his public appearances in recent years, but Kiku would not let it rest. Any of the higher ups in the company could be a candidate for suspicion. While investigating, he heard of and even saw some of Francis’s brazen attempts to challenge the seemingly invincible company. He was impressed with Francis’s ability to stand up to an insurmountable foe, especially given the influence of the mysterious compelling force that kept most others in the city silent. He wanted to get information from Francis about his experience at Jones Enterprises and to offer him an opportunity to rebuild his life for his bravery. The stone, which Kiku always kept on his person, ended up choosing and bonding with Francis to both of their surprise, and boom Magical Strike was born.

-----

Now onto Alfred and Arthur. Alfred is the son of the founder and CEO of Jones Enterprises and his ex-wife. His parents divorced when he was still a baby, and his father did not remarry. Alfred’s mom remarried right away and had another son, Matthew.

In his home life, Alfred often felt neglected and overlooked compared to Matthew, whom his mom and stepdad preferred and doted on. His birth father ignored him in favor of growing his company as well. This caused Alfred to act out at school and extracurricular activities, always overshadowing Matthew whenever possible and rubbing it in his face. He often got in trouble at home later for it. When Alfred got a little older, he frequently snuck out after these fights and went somewhere to be alone. One night, he walked down to the neighborhood park and saw another boy alone by the swings where he usually liked to go to mope. This boy was a few years older than him and muttering angrily to himself. Feeling a sort of weird camaraderie for this other pissed off dude, coupled with the fact he’d never seen him before and was curious, Alfred took the plunge and went over to talk to him. Alfred and Arthur’s first meeting was a little rocky, but the two quickly found themselves warming up to each other. Many coincidences found them meeting in the same park after a bad day, and the two eventually bonded and made a thing of it. Alfred found that with Arthur he could open up and be more authentic than he let himself be with his other friends.

By the time he hit high school, Alfred emotionally detached himself from his mom/stepdad, and tried to be a little nicer to Matthew, although their relationship was never close. He and Arthur still met often outside of school, and Alfred tried to reach out to him at school too, but Arthur limited those interactions due to his unfavorable status as an irritable loner. Alfred continued to seek out other people’s attention, forming a ton of superficial friendships with his classmates. He became obsessed with being number one at everything he did and getting everyone to like him to patch up his residual feelings of loneliness and inadequacy, and also to hopefully impress Arthur, whom he secretly had a crush on. Excelling in his sports clubs, and even skipping a grade in his academics, Alfred felt like things would be okay if they kept going the way they were.

Then Arthur abruptly confided halfway into Alfred’s freshman year that he was moving back to England that year after he graduated for family reasons. Alfred didn’t take the news well, and when the time came for Arthur to leave, it hit Alfred hard. They promised they’d keep in touch via phone and online, but that did little to comfort him and his other shallow friendships often made him feel worse. The feelings of loneliness and inadequacy returned tenfold. It was around this time that Alfred was contacted for the first time by his birth father in years, asking to meet and catch up. Alfred readily accepted, not taking a moment to think it through in his low emotional state.

Alfred’s dad was getting into some weird shit since the divorce. He’d been putting obsessive efforts into expanding his company, making strategic partnerships, attending all kinds of rich, bougie events for networking purposes, and exploiting his workers to maximize profits. Despite his efforts, his returns were decreasing and the existence of some key new competitors put him in a tough spot for future growth. When conventional methods didn’t appear to be making any progress, Alfred’s father started hanging around some wealthy, sketchy social circles. It’s through a series of events with these groups that he learned of and obtained the purple stone. After seeing it reject and devour an unfit host before his eyes, he decided he was in desperate need of its supposed power, but he couldn’t risk using it on himself in the case he was judged to be unfit. He had to use it on someone inconsequential if things went wrong, but at the same time malleable, so he could ensure they used the power to further his goals.

Alfred’s dad put on an act when Alfred arrived, making it seem like he wanted to bring Alfred back into his life, raise him up like he should have been doing all those years. Alfred soaked it up like a sponge, and his dad appeared to follow through on his promises, engaging with him and frequently making secret visits so they could spend quality time together. After a whole year of building Alfred’s trust, his dad was able to convince him to put the stone to his heart, assuring him that only he could do it and he trusted Alfred to make their company and the lives of so many people who depended on it great. The stone embedded itself in Alfred’s chest, causing him to pass out from the pain. When he woke up, still in one piece, his dad was able to calm him down and convince him to keep it a secret, even from the people he was closest to.

-----

Some other tidbits of info:

Arthur and Alfred did keep up communication after he left for England, and he considers Alfred his closest friend. Life got in the way plenty of times, though, and they couldn’t always keep up the most consistent communication. Still, they did what they could and were able to meet in person a few times even. Arthur obtained a degree in England and worked his first job there. But after that, he moved back to the states and got a job at Jones Enterprises, thrilled to surprise Alfred about it. They have a heartwarming reunion. Alfred, himself, graduated high school early, got accepted into an Ivy League college on a scholarship, received his degree in finance and business management due to his piece of shit dad’s wishes, and was being directed by his dad to start using his powers of influence on their competitors. At first, he justified to himself that the outcome would be good and that the competitors he was going after were bad people—which some of them definitely were—but over time, he found himself doing things he never would have before (to unhappy employees for example), caring less and less about the people that were impacted.

-----

So yeah, the main events take place about 10 years after Alfred becomes the host for the purple stone, having plenty of time to grow his power and lose himself to the stone’s influence in secret. When Francis makes his debut as Magical Strike, Alfred starts infusing some of Jones Enterprise’s key weapons tech with his magic and sending people after Francis, who is still learning his abilities. Then, in the latter half of this arc, Arthur becomes the main antagonist against Francis, having just scratched the surface of what’s really going on with Alfred and thinking (in denial) this will somehow help him. At the beginning of the second arc, there would be growing tension between Alfred and Arthur when Arthur can’t explain or keep excusing Alfred’s actions anymore. Alfred would lose control and almost hurt Arthur, whom he had taken the most care to hide his darker side from, which would cause Arthur to join forces with Francis, desperate to find a way to get the purple stone out of Alfred and save him somehow. Alfred mcfuckin loses it when he finds out.

#hi i'm al and i have a kink for mind control and betrayal followed by healing bye #my token chaotic evil alfred but it ain't his fault #there is so much angst in this au #but there's a positive leaning ending dw #francis: why do i hear boss music #like legit arthur's betrayal scene is imprinted in my head frame for frame #i wanna draw it but it would have to be a comic why do all my thoughts come in comic form why #magical strike au #al's aus

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sliceofsky · 3 years ago

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introducing : cary o’hare

〔 scott foley, 49, cis male, he/him ) cary o'hare was seen listening to “ just haven’t met you yet ” by michael buble. cary is the town’s weatherman and known to be bubbly & insecure

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚜

full name ~ cary michael o’hare birthday ~ OCTOBER / 15TH / 1971 job status ~ employed as a weatherman at the local news station relationship status ~ (currently) single orientation ~ gay (closeted)

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚘

tws for : strained family relationships , homophobia , discussion of sex

cary o’hare was the first born child of the upper-middle class o’hare family, named after his mother’s favorite movie star. it was one of the rare concessions at the o’hare patriarch gave to his mother, and he’d never let her forget about it.

from a young age, cary was the picture of raw charisma. grocery store trips took forever, with his mother being halted at every aisle by enchanted older women who wanted to catch a glimpse of the adorable baby cary. his cuteness almost made up for how busy his mom was at all hours of the day, especially when his younger sister became cary’s irish twin, born a little over 9 months after cary was.

his younger sister becomes the bane of his existence as soon as they’re both conscious enough to get on each other’s nerves. they’re close enough in age that the competition is always there, fueled by the teachers, friends, and extracurriculars that they share. they found their niches soon enough: cary was good at sports, while his sister was good at dancing (which elementary-age cary would vehemently insist was the exact OPPOSITE of a sport). their father would go to cary’s games, but not his sister’s recitals, a fact that he accepted without much thought.

cary’s world, until middle school, was very small. the only people on his mind were him, his family, and his ever-shifting cast of close friends. there wasn’t much room in that world for insecurity or introspection, not when his biggest issue was the occasional fight he and his sister would get into over who’s turn it was on the remote. this all changed when cary was introduced to a fact about himself that made the world so much scarier: people were talking shit about him behind his back. it was the little things, of course- a comment about how stacy from english told someone who told someone who told someone that she thought he was short, or hearing a rumor about himself filter through the grapevine. it was startling, and cary reacted in kind, putting much more thought into his everything. he began to think about the way he dressed, and the way he smiled, and the way that when he answered questions in class, people would remember whether he got them wrong or right.

suddenly, nothing was more important than his image. he wanted to smell nice, but not too nice, or else his dad would make some mean spirited quip about his son being fruity. he also needed to date girls, but not too many girls, or else they’d think he was a jerk. it was a careful, obsessive balance that he kept, one that dictated everything about the way he acted.

against all odds, his mission was successful. he was generally well-liked. he had middling grades, and he wasn’t especially happy, but things were working. even the fact that his parents still picked his closest friends based on whether or not mr. o’hare liked their parents couldn’t break his stride. only one thing could truly break his stride, and that was the events of sleepaway camp, the summer before his sophomore year of high school.

sleepaway camp was fun. too fun. he was fast friends with jonah, who lived in a town four hours away from cary’s. over their three week stay at camp timber lake, cary and jonah ended up doing everything together. they shared secrets, snuck out of the cabin late at night to explore the woods, and on one memorable instance, went skinny dipping in the lake. near the end of their time at camp, things changed, suddenly and without warning- cary would blame the full moon. if you interrogated him, he’d insist that the only reason he kissed jonah was because the moon was full, it was the last night of camp, and they were alone in the woods in the dead of the night. he’d also insist that he didn’t mean anything by it, and that it didn’t mean he was gay. the truth, however? temporary insanity didn’t push cary to kiss jonah, and it wasn’t the reason that jonah pushed cary away with a horrified look on his face. much to cary’s relief, neither of them ever spoke about it. it became a secret just as soon as it became a memory, one that cary would agonize over for years after the fact.

cary walked into his sophomore year of high school with this secret heavy on his chest, paired with a desperate need to distract himself from it. he loaded his plate with all kinds of new activities, but the first one (aside from his regular slate of sports) to catch his fascination was learning to drive. he liked driving. he liked being the friend who knew how to do it, and he liked having jovial conversations with his dad about different types of vintage cars. he was the first of his friends to learn how to drive, and he used it to his social advantage.

3 girlfriends, 2 state championships, and 1 prom king crown later, cary was a senior in high school, choosing between two football scholarships while desperately trying not to think about the gay thing. he would ask his parents for advice, if not for the fact that his dad would kick him out for even considering “the homosexual lifestyle” while his mom would tell him to “not think about it and move on”. he picks his college based on a coin flip, and keeps his mouth shut.

college is a new beast for cary, who’s suddenly thrust into a whole new world. the only time he’d lived somewhere other than the o’hare house (lovingly referred to as the o’house) was at sleepaway camp, but uni? that was a sleepaway camp where there were no rules. his major was undecided, and his time was mostly spent juggling gen eds, the football team, and the rowdy parties that he was invited to.

the thing that made him decide his major, funnily enough, was a pregnancy scare. he’d hooked up with a cheerleader, more because she was a cheerleader while he was a football player than for any other reason, and three weeks later, she called him in tears, talking about a late period. on the drive to the doctor’s office to check, they got to talking about how they landed in this position. she admitted that she slept with him because he “reminded her of a weatherman”, and his career path was set. once his former hookup was given the clean bill of “not pregnant”, cary felt free to go along his way, rocking every public speaking class and doing pretty-okay on his meteorology courses, his road in life officially planned.

cary didn’t realize that he was capital g Gay until he actually had sex with a man. the process itself was undignified, beginning with eye contact across a dance floor and ending in a stranger’s bed. he was in a strange city, telling all of his friends that he was sick in the hotel while they were out at a bachelor party. he was paranoid at the gay bar, until he let himself get swept up in the music, and consequently, the spirit of lighthearted experimentation. even if when it happened, he’d already graduated from college, it still counted, right? either way, the end product was the same: him, in a stranger’s bed, trying to catch his breath. the guy’s name was paul, and the sex was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. it was electricity, and nerves, and magnetism, and cary was left without a doubt over the fact that he was exactly what he feared.

the years after that encounter moved in a predictable pattern, a cycle that he couldn’t break. first, he’d find some success in his career. then, he’d find a nice girl and try to make it work. then, the relationship would crash and burn. finally, he’d break again, and allow himself a weekend of gay debauchery. sometimes the cycle would take a few weeks to complete, and other times it would take a few years. this cycle filled up years, and then it filled up two decades, until he was 42 years old and truly exhausted.

his parents wanted him to get married. more than anything, they wanted him to get married. it was one of the few things his mom and his dad agreed on, and in a way, they bonded over it. the whispers about why the local weatherman was a perennial bachelor certainly didn’t help his nerves, neither did the scores of posts from his high school and college friends announcing marriages and pregnancies.

the big break from his cycle came in the form of hazel robson, a fellow member of a book club that he joined (he wasn’t super into reading, but the flow of a book club was deeply calming to him). their relationship blossomed over the book club pick of “love in the time of cholera”, following an especially insightful note from hazel. he asked her out to coffee, wanting to learn more about her opinion. their initial coffee date was legendary, their conversation lasting through two cups of coffee and an extended walk in the park. cary loved seeing the world through hazel’s eyes- she talked about literature with such a vivid intelligence that it was practically contagious. cary left that first date invigorated, like he was scores more intelligent just from having been in her vicinity.

cary couldn’t put into words exactly why it worked so well with hazel, even though he didn’t like her that way. he knew, logically, that he was gay, and that he’d never wake up and love hazel the way she deserved to be loved. emotionally, however? he still kind of hoped that that day would come. their relationship continued to progress, without the dramatic endings that he’d gotten used to. what they had wasn’t going down in flames like his attempts at romance before- it was working. when he proposed, it was at the coffee shop where they had their first date, and he refused to let his guilt show on his face.

things were exactly how his parents wanted it: he was married to a lovely woman, his career was booming, and the for-fun football team that he was a part of kept him in shape. it should’ve been perfect, but cary couldn’t help but feel restless. incomplete. not even his pre-game catchphrase (”my name is cary o’hare, and we are gonna win this thing fair and square!”) could keep that itch of the unfulfilled at bay. it only got worse when he met the living embodiment of everything he couldn’t have: liam lexington.

his father joked that a wandering eye was a normal part of being a married man, but cary suspected that his dad didn’t mean it like this. liam was bold, attractive, and shameless- cary couldn’t quite tell if he wanted to be him or be with him. he decided on the former, after some meaningful eye contact/hand on knee action at an applebee’s post-game celebration. it escalated into a torrid affair, one that he pointedly refused to talk about with liam or anyone else.

it all fell apart on his 46th birthday. hazel walked into their house, ready to deliver his birthday surprise, only to walk in on liam delivering his birthday surprise. first there was the yelling, then there was the crying, until finally there were divorce papers. right after they both signed, there was a long stretch of silence, standing across from each other. then, cary broke the silence. “you know, hazel, i know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but i think one day, you and i are going to laugh about this. i know it’ll be far off in the future, and you hate me right now, but… one day, maybe when we’re old, we’ll be sitting on a porch, and we’ll be laughing about what happened.”

the official party line for the cause of the divorce was the question of kids, leaving cary right back at the start. he was a childless divorcee, and no longer his dad’s favorite. he’s gotten back into the routine of being single and publicly straight, something helped by his now-ex wife moving away. now that she’s back in town, and cary is finding less and less reasons to stay in the closet? it’s about to be a wild year for cary o’hare.

#sero.intro #CARY O'HARE º ᴡᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ #info : intro

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