#Someone's gotta be the responsible one and it's Not gonna be the ones that forgot to bring WATER on a 3 day hike

[theoscelosaurus]

NIGHTMARE.

woke up this morning. no paracetamol.

I only had 2 GRAMS. 2. HOW am i supposed to survive, let alone thrive in these conditions??

I'm supposed to see a play in the city tonight #crying

Texted friend to complain 'just take some ibuprofen' she said 'i know you have it I stole one yesterday and you're bag's like a farmacy'

D: what self respecting farmacy doesn't have paracetamol?? Ibuprofen is Worthless for period pain. How could I ever fall this low:') i used to have p much every over the counter pain killer...what have i become

[tiredsadpeach]

Okay so update his bf apologized (the one I was talking to in the first place) but I haven’t heard from the friend since he asked me if I could come to one of his shows

[atlabeth]

a rose and her thorns | luke castellan

pairing: luke castellan x fem!daughter of aphrodite reader

summary: luke vies for a valentine. you're just trying to get through cabin inspections.

a/n: take this as my formal apology for the angst i’ve been throwing at you all with demeter girl lol and take this tooth rotting fluff. this was supposed to be shorter but i got carried away, after writing that 11k angst riddled monster this was a much needed palate cleanser lmao

wc: 3.3k

warning(s): no warnings this is all fluff <3

You huffed as you knocked on the door again, chewing on the inside of your lip as you waited for a response. The Hermes cabin usually always had kids in it—either they were ignoring you, or they were just causing too much ruckus to even hear it in the first place.

Honestly, you should have known this was how cabin inspections with Luke would go. He was probably in there right now, ushering all of them through rapid last-minute tidying in the hopes of something higher than a one. You had half a mind to knock a point off right now by virtue of tardiness.  

The hairs on the back of your neck stood up all of a sudden, and you whirled around. 

“Speak of the devil,” you said wryly. 

You were greeted with Luke Castellan himself, his hands up with a slight smile on his lips. “Easy. I didn’t think I looked that bad.” 

Your brows creased ever so slightly, and he gestured with head. You looked down and realized you were holding your pen like a sword. You cleared your throat and let your arm drop, adjusting your shirt on the way down. 

“Sorry. People tend not to sneak up on me.” 

“I can’t imagine why.” Luke put his hands down and started towards his cabin, craning his head back at you. “What brings you here on this fine day, Rose?” 

“Don’t tell me you forgot,” you pouted, holding up your clipboard and pen as you followed him. “We’re on inspection duty together. Where were you?” 

He snapped and pointed at you. “That’s what we were doing together today! I knew we were spending time together—not like I could forget that—but,” his hand paused on the doorknob, “I kind of forgot about the cabin inspection part. Had to spend a little extra time with one of your siblings at the end of sword-fighting lessons.” 

“Sounds like Liz is getting better, then.” A smug smile pulled at your lips as you stopped next to him. “And it sounds like someone’s gonna be cleaning the dishes tonight,” you said in a sing-song voice. 

You placed your hand over his and opened the door, and Luke groaned. “Take mercy, Rose. Please.” 

It was certainly a sight—more akin to a tornado than the inside of a cabin. Various kids—Hermes, unclaimed, and minor gods alike—ran around, shoving dirty clothes beneath beds, cramming duffles and suitcases into overflowing closets, with a few noble exceptions attempting the Sisyphean task of actually cleaning. 

“Wow,” you said, glancing down at the papyrus scroll. “Can I give you a zero?” 

“Listen,” Luke said from behind you, “our thing isn’t tidiness. It’s thievery—swiftness, cunning, panache.” 

“I thought you were supposed to be jacks of all trades,” you mused as you checked off boxes. “Cleaning is a trade.” 

“Not here.” You could feel him peering over your shoulder and he groaned yet again. “Come on! You’re grading us way too low. I get input too, remember?” 

“Sure,” you remarked. You held out the clipboard and gestured with your head at the natural disaster in front of you. “But you can’t tell me this is anything better than a two.” 

“A two’s better than a one.” Luke plucked the pen out of your hand and scrawled out a number two on the final line. 

“Luke—” you started in protest, but he just snatched the clipboard as well with a wink as he started walking backwards towards the door. 

“We’ve got a chance, guys!” he called out. “Hephaestus has gotta be worse than this!” 

You huffed as you chased after him, shutting the door on your way, and you crossed your arms as you came to a stop in front of him. “This isn’t very cooperative of you.” 

“Gotta give myself a chance,” Luke said, smiling as he took the Hermes sheet off the clipboard and stuffed it into his pocket. 

“That’s just cheating,” you said, and he let you take the clipboard back from him. You started walking, and he fell into pace with you. “Hephaestus is next—we’ll see how much of a chance you have.” 

“We should get some slack because we’ve got double the campers,” Luke said. “Nine’s got no excuse—they’re just a bunch of messy engineers.” 

You tapped your pen against the board. “I’m not changing my mind, Castellan.” 

“Ouch,” he winced. “I got last name’d.” 

You merely smiled and shook your head. You could see his own smile in your peripherals, then he huffed.  

“You’re distracting me from my whole plan with these ridiculous grades,” Luke sighed. “I haven’t ruined everything, have I?”

“You’ve got a plan?” you asked in amusement. 

“Of course I do.” Luke took a few long strides to get in front of you then turned around so he was walking backwards, that stupid smirk still on his lips as he kept eye contact with you. “Valentine’s Day is coming up.” 

“You’re very observant,” you said. “Watch your six.” 

Luke moved a step towards you to avoid a younger camper with their head buried in a book, and you chuckled as he shrugged. 

“It’s a work in progress,” he admitted. 

You hummed, biting back your smile as you came up to the Hephaestus cabin. You were about to knock on the door, but once again, Luke caught your wrist. 

“You’re not even gonna let me say my piece?” he asked. 

“I’ll give you a little time to polish it up,” you said. 

“You assume I don’t have it prepared already?” 

“Oh, I’m sure you do.” You winked. “But I know the effect I have on you.” 

Luke’s fingers loosened on your wrist and you allowed a small, self-satisfied smile as you pulled free and knocked on the door. It took a couple seconds, but eventually the door opened and their counselor—Alya, if you remembered correctly—greeted you with a smile. 

“Just in time,” she said, smudging the bit of grease on her face as she wiped at her cheek. “We’re actually not horrible today.” 

Luke grumbled beneath his breath as you walked in together—usually, the place was a mess of loose parts and hastily sketched out plans and smoke-scented clothes. Today, it was still a mess, but slightly less so. 

“Damn it,” Luke muttered. “Still not as bad as us.” 

“Stop comparing your place to everyone else,” you said. “This is supposed to be fun.” 

“Cabin inspections are fun?” he asked wryly. 

“Hanging out with me is fun,” you clarified. “I—”

You were cut off with a gasp of your own as you slipped, and before you could even fully process it you were falling. It wasn’t until everything steadied that you realized someone had caught you, strong arms cradled you around your waist. You looked up to see Luke’s wide eyes. 

“You good?” he asked, his voice slightly higher than usual. 

“Yeah,” you said, nodding far too many times, “yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” 

“...Good,” he said, ever eloquent. 

A small smile creeped in. “You can let me go now.” 

It almost took him a moment to come back to Earth, because he blinked before he nodded, smiling on his own as he helped you back up. You could feel the heat in your face and tried your best to ignore it as you looked down. A small pool of oil was the culprit—you grimaced at the thought of having to clean that out of your jeans. Thank the gods for Luke. 

“That’s gotta be points off,” Luke whispered in your ear, still close by, and you stifled a laugh. “Oil on the floor, making pretty counselors slip. Right?” 

You ignored him too, looking over at Alya, though you couldn’t stop your smile. She looked mortified. 

“I am so sorry,” she rushed. “I guess Michael didn’t clean as well as he said.” 

“No problem,” you said. “I’ve got a little guardian angel. But this place isn’t too great.” 

“Damn,” she mumbled. “I even got one of your sisters to come in and help clean things up. Do you not smell the perfume?” 

“The smoke kinda overpowers it,” you said sympathetically, and she sighed. “Three out of five, Alya. But you’re right on the edge of a four.” 

Alya glanced at Luke. “Better than Hermes?” 

Luke grimaced. “I don’t wanna talk about it.” 

She smiled and went off to talk to one of her siblings. Luke shook his head and tutted once she was gone. “The double standards here are ridiculous, Rose. I might have to report you to Chiron.” 

“Oh, quiet.” You hit him in the side lightly with the clipboard and continued scanning the room for  a final check. “If you wanted help with cleaning up from an Aphrodite kid, all you had to do was ask.” 

“And would you have accepted?” he asked. 

“Of course,” you said as you scribbled down your last couple of notes. “I’ll always help you, Luke.” 

He went silent as you continued to write, and when you finished you saw he was only looking at you. 

You frowned. “What?” 

“Nothing,” Luke said, still smiling. “Let’s keep going.” 

You stared at him for a moment, but he didn’t say anything else. So you just laughed a bit and shrugged. Luke followed behind you as you walked out, and despite his claims of ‘nothing’ just a moment ago, soon enough he was talking again. 

“So,��� he said, “Valentine’s Day.” 

“Valentine’s Day,” you said sagely. “What’s your plan?” 

“Be my Valentine.” 

“That’s your plan?” You glanced over at him. “Just asking me out straight-up?” 

“Oh, sorry. I also have this.” Luke pulled something out of his back pocket and held it out. You couldn’t help but laugh. 

“A rose?” you asked with a lopsided smile. 

“Not just any rose,” he said as you took it. “A chocolate rose.” 

“You are so cute.” You pulled the wrapper off, and though the stem and leaves were plastic, the flower was, indeed, very much chocolate, and in the shape of a rather pretty rose. 

Luke shrugged. “Figured you needed something as sweet as you.” 

“I’ve got a toothache just from being with you,” you remarked. You broke it in half with a bit of effort and offered it to Luke. 

“You can’t just split the gifts I get for you with me.” 

“They’re my gifts,” you said. “I can do whatever I want with them.” 

“Really?” he asked. 

“What’s a rose without her thorns?” you responded. Luke grinned as he took the other half from you. You popped yours into your mouth and your eyebrows rose. 

“This is actually good chocolate,” you said as Luke ate his part. “Not like that crap we get at the camp store.” 

“I might’ve snuck out to the city to get the good stuff,” Luke said offhandedly. 

You looked at him incredulously. “What?” 

“Did I stutter?” 

“You risked all that trouble just to get some chocolate for me?” you marveled. “Hell from Chiron, extra chores for a month, literal monster attacks—” 

Luke held up a hand, stopping your ranting. “Nothing happened. And even if it did,” he shrugged, “you’re worth it. So it doesn’t matter.” 

You shook your head and Luke continued. “Besides, I got some other stuff too for the rest of my plan.” 

“Right,” you nodded, “you never finished telling me.” 

“How’s your schedule?” 

“Busy,” you said. “I’m an Aphrodite kid during Valentine’s season.” 

Luke tipped his shoulder. “Fair. Think you can block something out for me?” 

“That depends what it is,” you said. 

“It’s a secret,” he said. 

You stared at him. “A secret?” 

He nodded. “It might be a foreign concept to you Aphrodite kids, but—” 

You cut him off with a light shove and he only chuckled in response. “So you talk yourself up and it ends up being a secret.”

“I think I’ve earned some secret surprises,” Luke said. “I’m already sweeping you off your feet.” 

You shook your head, smiling inwardly as you tapped your pen against the clipboard. “Is that how you see it?” 

“Well, I did keep you from an untimely death back there,” he said. “And the more unfortunate plight of having to get oil stains out.” 

“You read my mind,” you mused. 

“And isn’t that worth a date?” Luke asked. “Saving you from a fashion faux pas?” 

“You’re worth a date all on your own,” you said as you came up to the next cabin—Apollo was bright as ever, gleaming golden in the sunlight—and you looked at him with a smile. “No rescuing required.” 

-

Your journey to the rest of the cabins went by relatively quickly, especially the Apollo and Ares cabins—you think Luke had been temporarily stunned into silence by you actually flirting back. 

You’d had a subdued smile on your face nearly the entire time, even as you felt warmth bloom over your face again. Luke really brought out the inner Aphrodite in you—you were sure your mother was proud, wherever she was watching. What seemed to get Luke out of his addled state was the 5/5 you gave to your own cabin—he complained that the scent of perfume gave him a headache, and when you said you’d been wearing perfume the entire day, he claimed that it was different. 

(Cabin Ten kept their full score. It was amazing what a pretty smile could do, especially when Luke was the victim.) 

Finally, you were at the Demeter cabin. Luke insisted on going there last, so that all the expectations would be tapered—he was still trying to get a better score for his cabin, but the odds were looking pretty slim. The door was already open, and you smiled at the newly grown flowers outside the cabin. 

“Nice touch.” 

Luke sighed. “Great. Going out with a bang.” 

“It’ll be fine, Luke,” you said. “I’ll help you clean your cabin tonight.” 

He frowned. “You were actually serious?” 

“Of course I was.” You tipped your head. “It’ll just have to be pretty late. Y’know, because you’ll be cleaning all the dishes.” 

“Low blow,” he said, shaking his head. You chuckled as you stopped in the doorway and poked your head in. 

“Hey, Katie,” you called to the counselor. “How’re things?” 

“Good,” she said, nodding. A smile of her own bloomed on her lips as her gaze moved over to Luke. “I see Rose and her thorns are on duty today.” 

“Flattery won’t help you with your score,” Luke mused as he walked into the cabin. You smiled as he held out his hand for the clipboard, and you finally acquiesced. You could feel Katie’s eyes on you as he walked further in. 

“He takes that as a compliment?” 

“Thorns protect a rose,” you said, still watching Luke. He played the part of a foreman well, investigating their shelves and walls with vigor and even opening drawers. You couldn’t help but laugh a bit, and Luke looked back and smiled at you. You nodded, giving him the go-ahead, and he winked as he gave you a thumbs-up. 

“And he protects you?” she asked. 

You shrugged. “We protect each other.” 

“…You would be cute together,” Katie admitted. 

You managed to tear your eyes away from Luke, leaning back against the wall. “You think so?” 

“He’s only been vying for your attention and flirting with you since the moment you got to camp,” she said wryly. “But you’re the expert on love—you tell me.” 

You bit your lip as your gaze darted back to Luke, who was squatting on the floor having what looked to be a very serious conversation with a younger Demeter boy. 

“I think I’m his valentine,” you said, almost absentmindedly. “And I think I’m really looking forward to whatever this date is.” 

Katie came back into focus as you came back to Earth, and even she was smiling. “Then I think you’ve got your answer.” 

Luke had picked the most opportune moment to come back, when you weren’t staring at him like an infatuated idiot—you were only one of those things—and he held out the clipboard and pen to you. “After having a very in-depth conversation with Damian about how things are going here, I scored them properly.” 

You chuckled as you took it from him, but your eyebrows rose the more you read. “You’re kidding me.” 

He shook his head. “There’s unpaid labor going on here—unpaid child labor. Damian said he’s responsible for half the cleaning and plants here.” 

“We’re all children. All the labor we do is child labor,” you deadpanned. “And we’re sure as hell not getting paid.” 

Luke held his hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just delivering what he’s said.” 

“Don’t tell me he gave us all ones,” Katie said dryly. 

“You know him so well,” you mused. You scribbled out half of what Luke wrote as you stood up from the wall, shielding it with your body so he couldn’t see while you walked out together. “See you, Katie!” 

Her protests fell on Luke’s deaf ears as he held up the rear, shutting the door behind you two, and when you looked back at him he was grinning. 

“Straight ones,” he tutted, shaking his head. “What a shame. Looks like they’re gonna be cleaning the dishes tonight.” 

“You know they got a five, Luke,” you said, finally allowing him to see your revised marks. “If you’re gonna fudge the numbers, at least try and make them believable.” 

“Oh, come on!” he exclaimed. “A five is way too nice—it’s not fair that they can just grow plants all over and make everything look presentable. Using powers should count as cheating.” 

“Their floors are clean, their beds are made, and it smells like floral heaven,” you said. You tapped his chest with your pen. “You could learn something from them, Castellan.” 

He caught your wrist before you could move it away. “The Aphrodite cabin always gets perfect scores. Think you could teach me a few things?” 

You grinned as you pulled your hand out of his grip and continued walking, this time en route to the Big House to drop off the final inspections. “That depends.” 

“On what?” Luke came back into your peripherals as he caught up to you. 

“On how good this secret plan of yours is,” you mused. 

His eyes lit up, past worries of low inspection scores seemingly fading away in an instant. “So it’s a go? You’re in?” 

“Of course I am,” you said, tucking the clipboard under your arm. “You got me the good chocolate, Luke. How could I not see where this goes?” 

Previously unnoticed pressure dissolved in his shoulders as he took your hands in his. You could only focus on his eyes, on the warmth of his skin, on the callouses borne from years of sword-fighting. 

He was surely blessed by your mother. 

“You’re not gonna regret it,” Luke vowed. “All those promises I’ve made about blowing you off your feet, about making your mother proud—they’re all gonna be true.” 

“You know what wise men say,” you said wryly. 

“That they’re so glad you’re finally giving me a chance?” 

“Only fools rush in,” you provided. “Going all in on our first date seems a little hasty.” 

“Isn’t your whole thing supposed to be rushing in?” he asked cloyingly. “Y’know, daughter of love and all.” 

You shrugged. “Maybe I like taking the idea of taking it slow with you.” 

“Then call me a fool,” Luke mused, letting go of one hand to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. His own curls hung over his eyes and you had the strongest urge to take his face in your hands. “Because you should know I can’t help it.” 

You felt your cheeks heat as warmth spread all over, and you couldn’t even try to hide your smile. “You think you can take me out on one of those city trips of yours? Show me how to steal a camp van without getting in the most trouble?” 

“I’m trying to steal your heart here,” Luke said with a goofy grin, “but I think a van’ll do.” 

“Oh, don’t worry.” You took his hand back, intertwining your fingers together as you pulled him closer to you. “We can multitask.” 

[gilverrwrites]

Jason and Roy separately after they keep teasing you and you just end up disengaging and dealing with it yourself with your hitachi and calling it a night. They got a lil too confident with the orgasm denial and forgot that their competition is Mr. Bunny massager/Mrs. Rose toy, who gives out orgasms for free with little to no begging or pleading or promises to be a good girl/boy required. Their window of opportunity to make you nut has closed and they're stuck waiting for the 1-3 business days for you to be in the mood/horny again if they wanna touch you again and they better bring their A game or they might just become 2nd fiddle to a bad dragon toy. (This might just be me but I'm not in a rush to repeat it if I spend all night with a person and dont get my rocks off, id still give head if asked but id need serious convincing to let them touch me again, bc it's not hot they wasted my fucking time, if I want to NOT come I can do that by myself)

On a very real note, teasing, edging, and denial are kinks like any other, and you should be voicing to your partners what kinks you do and don't like in the bed room to keep things fun and healthy. Your partner also shouldn't be in competition with your sex toys unless that's something they're into. If its not working for you, say something, my friend. Don't be afraid to stop your partners and say ‘Hey, this isn't working for me, can we do ‘something else’ instead?’ especially before you jump straight to cutting them out of the activity completely.

There's also nothing wrong with having a low libido anon! You take all the time you need between sex!

That being said, the idea of being pressed into the bed by Jason or Roy while they’re giving it their all and getting real cocky about making you squirm only for you to be like ‘um, no, excuse me. You're taking to long so I'll be doing this myself, thank you’ makes me laugh.

I think for both of them, the initial response would just be shock. Like open-mouth awe at your gall. Can't knock a girl who knows what she wants, and both of them would definitely enjoy watching you get off on your own typically, but the blow of you doing it unexpectedly, especially while they've been enjoying themselves would bruise their egos.

Roy is the type to try and win you back over. He's getting close, gently trying to pry the toy out of your hands and promising he’ll do better, he’ll do whatever you want just give him another chance. Can't you see how hard you've got him? Its painful, baby. You should let him relieve you both together.

Another disclaimer: Blue balls ain't a real thing, don't let Roy Harper convince you otherwise, he's just needy as all hell and will say anything to get you back to bed with him.

Jason would take it a lot harder. When his family piss him off he blows up, but I think he'd worry about scaring you/putting you off so he sulks instead. No, its fine. You do what you've gotta do, no really its totally fine. He’ll just show myself out and you can try again in the approximate 3 business days you need to to get there again, if he's around.

There's also a level of familiarity and intimacy to this. This is how I assume they'd react with someone they have an established romantic/sexual relationship with, in which at least some boundaries have been set. If you're just like, a one-night stand or you're in a causal hook-up scenario they'd probably just be like oh, okay. Guess we’re done for tonight, see ya round, have fun with that. They're not gonna push if it's evident you're not willing to give.

[apomaro-mellow]

Family Planning 4

Part 3

There's a severe lack of hijinks in this chapter but I'm hoping to fix that in the next part.

Steve was caught off guard when he heard a call pull up in the morning and it was Tommy, with Carol in tow. They never picked him up, preferring Steve’s car. His dad looked over his newspaper questioningly and Steve had no choice but to go outside. Now that he thought about it, he and Eddie hadn’t made plans to go to school together today. He had just assumed, but even then he wasn’t sure why.

“Hey, what’re you guys doing here?”, Steve asked as he walked out.

“You know why Harrington, get in”, Tommy said.

He did and Tommy didn’t even wait for the door to close before asking him about yesterday. Carol interjected with her own questions. They were his friends, so he didn’t mind answering but just like his parents they couldn’t wrap their heads around Steve going through with it on his own. Clearly it was all Eddie’s influence.

“I get that he’s an alpha, but you can’t let some knot-head like that lead you around”, Carol said.

“And you know that’s all he wants right? To get that knot in”, Tommy snickered. “And he gets to pretend he’s your alpha with a pup? I bet that freak humped his pillow last night, thinking of it.”

“Eugh, gross. I do NOT want to think about Munson’s junk”, Carol said.

“Can you guys cool it? I’m the one that’s actually gotta work with him for the project”, Steve said from the backseat. Not only was it offputting, but it didn’t seem fair to Eddie. Besides the odd fashion choices and weird club, he was a nice guy.

His friends did in fact cool it, at least until they got to school and Eddie was spotted waiting by the front entrance. Without a word to either Tommy or Carol, Steve went over to him. They had to get their new sack of flour. Ms. Engels gave them what could only be called a glare and Steve had the decency to feel a little bad, but not much.

“I’ll take the little rugrat for the first couple of periods”, Eddie offered. “If you want, we can meet up at lunch to do the paperwork.”

“Sounds great”, Steve said without even thinking.

He honestly did forget about it until lunch came. And by then, he already had his tray in his hands, Tommy on one side and Carol ahead of them, going to their usual table. Steve set his tray down just as Eddie came up to them.

“Hey, you ready?”

“What’s he doing here?”, Carol sneered.

“Shit, I forgot”, Steve said. “Yeah, we can just do it here.”

Eddie’s eyes slid to the two betas who looked like they wanted to toss him in the trash. His flight response was kicking up but he knew Carol wasn’t a scrapper and Hagan wouldn’t do anything so long as he stayed on Steve’s good side. So when Steve sat down, he scooted over and Eddie slid on next to him.

“Alright first thing’s first, baby’s name. How do you feel about Gertrude?”, Eddie grinned.

Steve’s nose scrunched. “She’s not someone’s grandma. And who said it’s a girl?”

“Do you have a preference for sex?”, Eddie asked.

“Gag me”, Carol muttered under her breath.

“Hey!”, Steve scolded. “Like it or not, he’s the sire of my pup and will be until the deadline of this project. You two need to get over yourselves.” If Eddie was going to be around more, Steve wasn’t going to let those comments continue to fly. 

Carol forked her food aggressively and Tommy just rolled his eyes. “Chill out man, didn’t know you were taking it seriously.”

Steve turned to Eddie. “What about Hannah?”

“I’m partial to Isabelle myself.”

It took them about halfway through lunch to settle on Kimberly Farrah Lisbeth Odette Ursa Rebecca Munson. It was a mouthful of a name, but it all fit on the line. And Steve allowed Eddie full freedom with her middle name since he got her first name. Her last name being Munson was the traditional route. Omegas usually gave up their name when they got married.

“Hey Eddie, are you gonna spend your whole lunch here?”

Steve looked up to see one of the members of that club. Hellfire. He wasn’t entirely sure what they got up to, played some kind of game. But they were looking at Steve and his friends warily. Steve looked to the table where the rest of them were and they shared the same expressions. 

“Ummm”, Eddie turned to Steve, like he was asking permission.

“We’ve got her name and all that stuff”, Steve said. “We can figure out trade off times later.” They just had to get the papers to Engels before the end of the day. He also offered to take the flour for the rest of the day since Eddie had it in the morning.

“Well then, I guess my business is done”, Eddie said, pushing away from the table. “Goodbye little Kimmy.” He actually kissed the top of the flour sack and then walked away.

“Dude, are you actually trying this year?”

“I plan on walking that stage come spring Gare-bear”, Eddie clapped his friend’s shoulder. And if he had to do so with a bag of food on his hip, so be it.

When the end of the day came, Eddie reconnected with Steve just as he was about to walk out the doors. The moment he did, they both noticed the principal eyeing them by the exit. Eddie frowned.

“You don’t need to hover. We’re actually not doing the helicopter parent thing.”

“We said we’d stay out of trouble”, Steve said.

“Forgive me if I don’t have total confidence in the both of you. Mr. Munson especially.”

Eddie put his arm around Steve’s shoulders. “We’re gonna be the model family. Just watch! We’re gonna do so good, Steve’ll be knocked up by spring!”

Steve’s face got red and it felt like the whole hallway stopped in its tracks. Steve let out a sigh, head hung in mortification as Eddie realized everyone in a two mile radius probably heard what he just said.

“Bad timing?”

“Is there good timing?”, Steve asked. Deciding to commit, he took the sack of flour out of his bookbag and put it on his hip like a real pup. “Well sir, if you’ll excuse us.” 

He started walking and Eddie had no choice but to follow his lead unless he wanted to separate. Eddie’s van was easy to locate and it was only when they got to it did they move apart.

“Thanks for not leaving me high and dry. Sooo, how are we gonna do the trade offs?”

“I think what we did today was fine”, Steve said. Handing the baby off between breaks, giving each of them a few hours free. “Which means you get our little bundle tonight since I had her all afternoon.”

“Cool. Do you uh, need a ride or?”

Steve thought about this morning, how he’d expected Eddie to come without really communicating so. “Uhhh-”

Eddie gasped. “Steve! It’s horrible!” He opened up the passenger door to his van. “I don’t have a carseat!”

“...Okay?”

“Which means you’ll have to hold dear Kimberly while I drive!”

Steve looked around as Eddie made a spectacle of himself. Principal Woolsley was still watching from the door. Didn’t he have a life? With a sigh, Steve got in and buckled up with their pretend pup. As they drove off, the principal was joined by a custodian who gave a chuckle.

“Ain’t that project meant to discourage procreation?”

Their routine worked pretty well. Right down to who drove them each day. Whoever had the baby for the evening would be picked up in the morning. It felt like an even balance of duties. Steve admitted to himself being a little apprehensive of coming to the trailer park for the first time, but when Eddie got in, Wayne smiled at them from the door and Eddie even bid good morning to the old lady who had glared at Steve when he drove up.

Steve’s parents never came out to wave to Eddie, even when he came right to the door and knocked. Eddie didn’t come to their lunch table again, the trade usually happening either before they got to the cafeteria or after lunch was over. Tommy and Carol stopped their snide remarks about Eddie but they didn’t start singing his praises either. Which was fine.

As for the report, Steve just left the sack on his bedroom desk while he was at home. If Eddie was doing any different, he didn’t let on. But while in school, he was a doting father, calling the sack pet names and kissing it, hamming it up whenever Engels or Woolsley were in sight. 

All in all it was going well and that February deadline got closer and closer. But as Steve was crossing today off his calendar, he noticed a problem. He was about to be short on time and Eddie wasn’t going to like the reason why when he told him tomorrow.

Basketball season started soon.

Part 5

Taglist

@marklee-blackmore @aol19 @im-really-annoying @ellietheasexylibrarian @queenie-ofthe-void

@redfreckledwolf

[hooniemura]

_____________________________________________

Put a little love on me ~

Genre: Fluff, Crack

words: 1.4k (if I counted correctly)

Pairing: Riki x fem!reader

Warnings : cursing, (if I forgot anything lmk)

Description : Riki is your very clingy boyfriend. You both were still in High-school. He was often over at your house. Today, he was over again. You had to work for an important upcoming exam that was worth 40% of your grade. But as expected, Riki was eager for cuddles again.

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊

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You were sitting on the couch and Riki was next to you. You had your books and notes laying on the coffee table in front of the couch. You seemed really focused on what you were studying and didn't pay much attention to your surroundings. But who could blame you? - it's one of the most important exams of the school year, and you obviously couldn't fail that exam. You were lost in your thoughts as you felt someone tugging on the sleeve of your sweatshirt. You snapped out of your thoughts and turned around to Riki, who was looking at you with puppy eyes and slightly messy hair.

"Huh? What is it?" You ask him, slightly annoyed because he disturbed your peace.

"Cuddles." He answered with that sheepish, but still smug look on his face. You raised an eyebrow at his response.

"I want cuddles. Give me cuddles." He repeated himself.

"Not now. I gotta focus." You replied bluntly. Visibly annoyed that he was interrupting your studies. But then He started pouting and sulking, like a toddler that was seeking for attention. Even though it was a little pathetic to watch, you felt bad. You didn't like seeing him pout. You had no choice but to give in to his plead for cuddles. You look at him for a moment and then your facial expression became a bit softer than before.

"Okay fine." You say, as you open your arms a little and wrap them around him. He immediately nuzzles his face into your neck and wraps his arms around your waist, returning the hug. You could feel his hot breath in the nape of your neck. You gave him a small kiss on the top of his head, nuzzling your nose into his soft hair. His smelled so good. You kept showering his head with small but gentle and loving kisses. You brought your hand up to his shoulder and started caressing it with your fingernails in a soothing manner. He squirmed a little and let out a few gasps now and then. You weren't that annoyed anymore. After all, you couldn't stay mad at him for too long. He is just so adorable and irresistible. The two of you were in your own little bubble but snapped out of it when you heard the door knob of the front door twist. Your parents had returned home from grocery shopping. Your Mother didn't mind it at all when Riki was over. In fact, she thought seeing you two being affectionate was quite endearing. But your Father on the other hand wasn't really a fan of Intak. And that wasn't unnoticed by Riki. You and your Mom kept reassuring Riki by telling him that it wasn't personal, and that your dad is just very protective. Especially for his little girl.

As soon as they stepped into the living room, seeing you both all cuddled up on the couch, your Dad shot Riki a disapproving glare. His look sent shivers down Riki's spine. But your Mom just smiled softly. They went to the kitchen to put the groceries in the fridge. As they left, Riki looked up at you and spoke up

"I was so scared for a sec. I thought he was gonna jump me or something."

The day went by and Riki even stayed for dinner. Your Dad wasn't too happy about Riki staying for dinner. A few days passed and Riki hasn't been over for a while because you both got into an argument. It was a really stupid and childish reason. He ghosted you and didn't answer your messages or your calls. It annoyed you so much that you just did the same. You both gave each other the silent-treatment. Then you both got into a huge argument. So, after a few days, you sat on the couch, scrolling through your phone, your mom approached you.

"Hey Sweetie. I want to ask you something." She spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Hey Mom, what is it?" You ask.

"So, Riki hasn't been over for a while now, is everything alright between you two?" She questions, with an almost concerned look on her face.

"We got into an argument. Nothing big." You replied, trying to seem nonchalant, even though it made you crazy not to talk to him.

"Oh that's unusual for you two. May I ask what happened?" She asks you as she puts her hand on your knee in a soothing manner.

"It was actually really childish. He ghosted me and I was like oh that motherfucker and ghosted him back. Then we got into the argument." You say, now seeming a little upset as you opened up to your Mom about the situation.

"Well, You know what they say, communication is key, especially in relationships." She responded with a smile on her lips.

You knew she was right but you still frowned and rolled your eyes at her response.

Now, a few hours had passed. It was evening. It was already dark outside and it was also raining. You and your parents were at dinner when suddenly the doorbell rang. "Now who could that be? It's fucking late and raining." You thought to yourself.

"I'll get it." You said as you got up from your seat. You opened the door, revealing a soaked and drenched Riki, who was mumbling "fuck" to himself because he was wet from the rain and out of breath because he ran to your house.

"What are you doing here?" You asked curiously.

"I'm sorry." He said, still out of breath as he held out a pretty bouquet of flowers, waiting for you to grab it.

"Can I come in? We need to talk." He added.

You stepped aside, allowing him to step into the house. Riki then spoke up:

"Listen, I'm really sorry. I know I messed up and I was acting like a fucking idiot. I shouldn't have done that and I'm not expecting you to forgive me right away I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am and how much I actually care about you." He blurted out. His look sincere.

"I'm sorry too. We both messed up." You replied, finally grabbing the bouquet out of his hands.

"Can we talk somewhere.. More private?" He asks.

You look towards your parents and your mom nods, letting you head off to your room. But there wasn't much talking happening. As you closed the door, he immediately wrapped his arms around your waist and smashed his lips onto yours. Then he left a trail of kisses on your neck and collarbone. He put his lips back onto yours, his tongue brushing your bottom lip, searching entrance into your mouth. You put your hand behind your back, reaching out to the key of the door, locking it. His tongue kept exploring your mouth. After a while he pulled back and looked you in the eyes, his one hand caressing your cheek, the other holding your waist, his grip firm.

"I love you." He says with a warm smile.

"I love you more." You reply as you bring your lips back onto his.

[sc0tters]

Worth It | Nico Hischier

summary: who would have thought it would take another girl screwing him over for you two to get together?

request: yes/no

warnings: mild swearing.

word count: 1.61k

authors note: this idea has been staring at me forever so I’m glad we’ve gotten it out! Nobody tell Kei I’ve change the entire idea for this (I forgot how we planned it out) I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to give us the Nico x Hughes sister pairing too…

For the last three years it had been the same excuse from him.

Each time you tried to make a move on Nico he’d turn you down citing the fact that you were too young for him. But there was always more to that story, you were Jack sister.

Being twenty one and smart enough to be at Princeton you could have had anyone and your brother knew that as he made sure to tell all of his teammates to not cross that line with you.

What Nico didn’t realise though was that his attempts to lightly turn you down with a lie was that it would come back to bite him in the face when he made a move on a girl who was younger than you and just so happened to be in one of your classes.

You didn’t know if you were meant to feel like an idiot or if you wanted to feel bad for Nico. One of the girls in the year below you had gone on about how she wanted nothing more than to get to know your brother and was planning on using his captain to get to there. So of course you went to tell Nico at the next game you went to, never expecting that he would throw it back into your face.

You nervously rocked on your feet as you waited for him to come out of the locker room “nice to know I’m not important to my sister.” Jack teased seeing that you were clearly not focusing on him “sorry J,” you apologised trying to give him your attention.

Your brother sighed “what’s up with you?” He inquired quick to pick up on the fact that you seemed different tonight “I’ve gotta tell Neeks something and I don’t know how he’s gonna take it.” You confessed letting out a huff.

Nico stood behind you as he furrowed his eyebrows “tell me what?” He cocked his head with a smile as you looked up at him.

Despite the fact that Nico always turned you down it was always nice to know that you found him attractive “you know how you’ve been talking to Cassie?” You chewed at the inside of your cheek wanting to just melt into a puddle to avoid saying it all to him “yeah?” He nodded waiting for you to continue.

When you struggled to get your words out he gave your shoulder a squeeze “she wants to get to Jack.” The mention of your brothers name made his face drop “I’m so sorry-” you were no longer upset that he had gone for someone younger than you.

It was the fact that he had gone for someone who clearly didn’t want him.

Nico scoffed shaking his head “that’s a low blow even for you y/n.” He spat taking you by surprise “knew you liked me but at least thought that you would have the decency to want me to be happy.” Nico was hurt that you seemed to meddle in something that was meant to be secret.

You took a step back frowning at his response words you wanted to say couldn’t come out quick enough as you lower lip began to quiver “y/n c’mere mom wants a picture of us!” Jack lied motioning for you to come to his side before his captain could say anything more to hurt you.

That night you did go home upset and you drowned your sorrows in a tub of ice cream. That was how you spent every night for a week until Nico landed up at your door.

You stared at him as you sent him a glare “fuck off,” you grumbled trying to shove your door back in his face but his hockey player reactions were too quick for you “can we talk y/n?” Nico asked pushing the door open as you walked into your apartment.

The robe you once had wrapped around yourself was no longer suffice causing you to find one of Jacks shirts that you could put on instead.

Nico’s jaw went slack as he watched the robe drop to the floor revealing your matching bra and panties that were quickly covered by the grey shirt “you answered the door like that?” The hockey player felt his face clench at the idea of a stranger at your door like that.

You spun around to face him with a glare “look Nico what do you want?” You furrowed your eyebrows pulling your hair from your shirt “did you have plans tonight?” The boy mumbled realising that you had your hair all curled and your makeup was still on.

It was a reminder you didn’t want “I was meant to go on a date tonight if you must know.” You scowled not wanting to bring it up again “but he stood me up so-” Nico reached out to grab your hand as he frowned.

This time you were quicker as you moved away “he was an idiot,” the boy mumbled not believing that someone could have done that to you “why are you here tonight Nico?” You repeated your earlier words “you were right about Cassie.” His words made your once irritated expression quickly morph into a sorry one.

Of course you were right, but hearing Nico realise it meant that something had happened “she was over and I had gone to the bathroom to come back and see her scrolling through my phone.” The hockey player explained as he sat on your couch dropping his head to his hands.

You felt bad as you crouched in front of him “I’m sorry,” your voice was soft as you tried to pull his hands away from his face so that you could see him.

Nico locked eyes with you as you sent him a soft smile “I should be the one saying that to you.” The hockey player pointed out causing you to let out a laugh.

His hand reaching down to cup your face “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you.” He mumbled wishing he could go back and not yell at you like he did.

You nodded as he rubbed his thumb on your cheek “‘s okay,” you shrugged bringing your hand on top of his “you liked her.” It was hard to admit it but if Nico didn’t want you then you wanted him happy with someone else.

The hockey player sighed staring at how you ran your tongue over your bottom lip “you’re too good to me Hughes.” Nico watched as you sat next to him as he was desperate to reach out and do something that Jack would have killed him off.

A laugh left your lips once more “don’t think I’m good enough.” Your comment was obviously directed at the fact that he didn’t like you “want you to look at me.” The hockey player pulled you into his arms as you settle on his lap.

It was a weird feeling for you as his hands settle on your waist “if I wasn’t scared of Jack-” his words made you slap your hand over your mouth “you’re scared of Jack?” A snort came out over your hand “don’t laugh at me!” Nico complained as you laughed even harder.

He pinched at your waist resulting in a squeal leaving your lips “I can even take Jack on,” you pointed out making him roll his eyes “yeah well I’m not exactly going to wrestle your brother on a couch now am I?” Nico shot back making you smile.

The moment between you two was soft as you stared at his features “you look beautiful tonight.” He blurted out causing your cheeks to grow warm “what are you getting at Nico?” You tried to remain calm as you cocked your head.

Nico licked his lips as he smiled “you want to do something with me sometime?” The hockey player proposed as he got all nervous “aww is Nico all nervous to ask me out?” You teased him as it was now his turn to grow red “what happened to being scared of Jack?” You added pushing your tease further making him roll his eyes.

The hockey player clicked his tongue “well when you said that you were going to deal with Jack but if not-” Nico was cut off as you placed your hands on either side of his face as you pulled him into a kiss.

It took Nico a second to process what was going on but as he did, the boy melted into the kiss wrapping his arms around your torso like you were going to leave him at one point or another “baby you’re gonna have to stop that if you want me leaving tonight.” The Swiss man groaned as you grinded your hips against his “ever thought that I want you here in the morning?” Your words made him smirk as the image of your underwear came into his mind.

But Nico didn’t want to be a fool “you better not be fucking with me y/n.” He warned as you smiled getting off of his lap.

You grabbed the sides of your shirt pulling it over your head “gonna have to come and find out captain.” You playfully threw your shirt at him as you began to retreat into the hallway where your bedroom sat.

A laugh echoed off of those walls as Nico got up and followed you “she’s gonna get me killed ain’t she?” Nico asked himself as he smiled seeing you sat on your bed.

Whatever trouble you were about to get him in was gonna be totally worth it.

[foxilayde]

Conversion Rates [Nathan Bateman x Reader]

Word Count: 1.9k

Summary: Nathan gets some unexpected news.

Warnings: Cigarettes, talk about death, talk about blood, brief mention of oral sex.

A/N: Feel free to ignore 💚

There’s buzzing coming from Nathan’s side of the bed. Long and persistent enough that it appears in your dreams, morphs into reality, and annoys you to the point of shoving your boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Get it.” You grunt, peeking a bleary eye open to the clock at your own night table. 3:55am. Only someone with a death wish would be calling Nathan at this hour.

“I’m gonna kill whoever that is.” Nathan is haplessly searching for his glasses, he groans when he finds them and flips the blankets off of himself to then locate the source of the buzzing. The person must’ve called again because the buzzing has been going on for at least a minute.

“Whomever.” You yawn.

“What’d you say” Nathan grunts distractedly while pawing the sheets, searching for his phone.

“Nothing.”

“Were you correcting my grammar? At four in the goddamn morning?”

“Hey don’t get cranky on me. I’m not the one calling.” You sleepily smile at him as he shakes his head, “go back to sleep,” he mutters to you when he answers the call.

“What?” Nathan answers simply, the greeting replete with annoyance. He’s scratching his head and then suddenly his hand stops like it forgot what it was supposed to be doing. His back goes rigid and he shakes his head quickly before swallowing and swinging his legs out to rest on the floor, elbows on knees, forehead in palm.

“Yeah I’m here… mmhmm…yeah.. Sure…. Yeah… okay…” He sighs a lot and rubs his head, h is eyes, his beard. This doesn’t sound like a work emergency. You scoot close to him and soothe his back in long slow strokes. He puts a hand on your knee.

“Yeah. Friday…. Uh huh. Okay thanks— no, not— … I don’t know what to say, Aimes. It’s fucking four am over here…. That’s….. alright fine, whatever, see you Friday… yeah you can tell her. Fine, don’t tell her, tell her, either way I’m— I’ll be there…. Yeah. Okay it’s okay, I’m fucking—……. Yeah. Got it…. Bye.”

Nathan’s jaw clenches and one breath after hanging up he hurls his phone across the room and against the concrete wall in an over handed frisbee-type toss. It cracks against the wall and thuds on the rug.

“Oh, that one got some air. Eight point seven. I’m deducting a point for lack of expletive. Couldn’t even give me a ‘bastard’? Disappointing, Bateman. You’ll never make it to regionals with that attitude.”

Nathan pulls both hands down his face and lays back down. Not in a joking mood. It’s quite possible he didn’t hear you at all.

“Was it work?” You ask quietly, changing your tone to something softer, something more befitting the early hour and the mystified expression on his face.

“No.” He breaths. Your eyes fall to the smithereened phone.

“Where are you going on Friday?”

“Hmmm?”

“You said something about being there Friday? Where’s there?”

“New York.”

“But not HQ?”

“No.”

Nathan puts his arms behind his head and stares impassively at his reflection in the mirrored ceiling. He is nowhere near a playful mood, so it’s a mystery to you why he’s making you play 20 questions, but as long as he’s answering, you’ll keep asking. Your first instinct is to inquire how many questions of the twenty remain, but his face reminds you of the early hour and you think better of it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” You offer sincerely.

Nathan blinks several times but does not answer.

“You want to go back to sleep?”

Nathan sighs and shakes his head slightly.

“You want me to make you a smoothie? Or some matcha just the way you like it? I promise I’ll use the whisk and not a fork this time.”

No response.

“Although I’d like to do the Pepsi test on you with that and see if you really can taste the difference.”

“Honey.”

“You gotta admit, it’s a little pretentious.”

“My dad’s dead.”

“What?”

“Funeral’s on Friday. New York. That was Amy.” His face is impassive as ever. You however flip the fuck out.

“OH my GOD. Nathan!” You opt out of a crushing hug and gently place your hand over his heart instead. “I’m so sorry.” Your brow furrows. “What happened?”

“Heart attack.”

“Nathan, I’m so sorry.” You repeat, at a loss for words.

“Hey, if he didn’t want to die from a heart attack, he should have taken better care of himself.” Nathan pulls the rumpled sheet over himself and turns to face you. “C’mere. Let’s go back to sleep.” He beckons you to your little spoon spot with one grabby hand.

You don’t ask him if he’s sure, let alone ask him if he’d rather talk about it. Something like this is going to take your boyfriend months to process. You scoot back against him and kiss his hand.

“Don’t for a second think this gets you out of our 6am trail run, by the way.” He grumbles and kisses your shoulder.

You pat his arm, the one that crosses your chest and holds you flush against him. “You don’t think we could skip the hell trail, I mean the trail run, just this once? I mean, we should probably pack. We’ve still gotta helicopter out of here and plus the time difference in New York, Friday is technically only… fifty one hours from now. Your family probably needs help? With things— arrangements?”

“You don’t have to go with me.”

“Oh shut up, of course I’m going, you nut.”

“This is so fucking typical of him.”

“What is? Perishing?”

“Fucking up everything.”

“Yes. Very rude of him to die on this the morning of our trail run. What an asshole.”

“You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. He made it his life’s goal to be as much of a burden as he possibly could. Died as he fucking lived.”

“Hey now, save some of that heartfelt sentimentality for the eulogy.”

*******

“I’m not speaking. Absolutely the fuck not.”

“Nathan, come on. You have to say some words. They don’t have to be true, you just go up and say “He will be missed” and you can leave out the “just not by me” part. It’ll be over before you know it.”

“Can’t believe Amy would just assume that I’m going to do it and stick it in the fucking program.”

“Totally, who does she think you are? The only son of the man who died, or something? Pretty presumptuous of her.” You roll your eyes.

Nathan takes an angry drag from what is probably his twentieth cigarette of the day, and it’s only noon. You didn’t even know he smoked until you landed in New York and his first stop was at the Bronx Boulevard Bodega and Deli for a pack of Viceroy 100s.

“You keep staring at me like that and your face is gonna get stuck that way.” Was the only ‘conversation’ the two of you had about the revisited habit when he lit up in the back of the towncar on your way from his mom’s place to the church on Tinton Ave.

Cars honk and whiz by. It’s dry and exceptionally cold for April, you tug your black coat closer around your middle. Nathan doesn’t flinch to the temperature in his thin black wool blazer, still in agitated ponderance, still pissed off at his dead father. He’s been standing outdoors most of the day already. Excusing himself to his mother’s porch to chain smoke all by himself in lieu of making small talk at the pre-funeral breakfast with his mother, sister, and yourself.

You check your watch before tucking your arm back around yourself in a contained shiver.

“Service starts in ten minutes. You think we should head in?”

“Go ahead. I’ll meet you in there.”

“Seriously Nate, lets go.”

“Don’t tell me what the fuck to do okay, you’re not my mother.”

“Oh shit, you’re right I’m not. She is inside though. I can go get her if you want. She’s passing out programs right now for her dead husband’s funeral services, but I’m sure she’d be willing to stop the world and burp you, or whatever the hell you need that’ll make you stop acting like a child.”

“Fuck off, alright?” His Bronx accent gets thicker with each passing cancer stick.

“You know, it pains me to say it, but for as much as you hate your father…”

“Don’t.”

“I don’t have to, you already know.”

Nathan flips the lid of his cigarettes, curses, crumples the Viceroy box, and shoves it back in his pocket.

“Out of excuses are we?” You’re trying to be supportive, you really really are, but he’s being fucking ridiculous. You loop your arm around his, hoping he’ll be too upset and distracted to stop you from leading him into the church.

He lets you take him two steps forward before halting. “I haven’t been in there since I was fifteen.”

“Looks intimidating.” You nod at the tall dark grey stone walls and narrow strips of stained glass.

“‘It’s fucking creepy is what it is.”

“Are you… scared? Of seeing him?”

“Who? The lifesize bloody effigy of Christ the redeemer suspended from the middle of the ceiling? Yeah, a little. Did I ever tell you that my first nightmare as a child was thinking I was caught in a tropical rainstorm in my bedroom, but then, I look up, and its a fifty foot tall man in a loincloth and barbed wire crown floating above me, bleeding on me in these fat, red drops—“

“Holy shit— no, what the fuck? I’m talking about seeing your dad. About the open casket… fuck me. We’ll unpack that levitating son-of-god nightmare later.”

“I haven’t spoken to my dad in… I don’t know. I don’t even remember the last time we talked on the phone. I’m trying….to remember the last time I saw his face and… I….can’t.”

Nathan swallows hard and looks up at the overcast sky. He’s, choked up, his chin quivers angrily.

“Some holiday probably. If there even was a holiday in the last ten years that he spent someplace other than that hole on 165th.” He shakes his head and bites his lip in resolve. “I can’t do it, honey. I can’t go in there for him. I can’t do this this when he would have never—“

“Then don’t do it for him.” You squeeze the crook of his elbow. “Do it for your mom, who misses her husband. Do it for Amy, who is equally as fucking pissed at her dad but had to organize this whole funeral anyway, without any help.” You poke his chest.

Nathan grimaces.

“And most importantly, do it for me.” You peck him on his cringing lips, “because I am fucking freeeezing.” He kisses you again and you pull back and grin at the novel tang. “So that’s what Mac DeMarco’s ashtray tastes like, I’ve always wondered.”

He smiles for the first time in days. It’s a little one, but it’s there. “I’ll do it. I’ll go in, I’ll speak. For you. But, you owe me.”

“You still accept blowjobs as payment, I assume?”

“Yeah but the conversion rate in New York is much higher than in Norway.”

“Wow, how randomly convenient for you. The rich just keep getting richer, don’t they?”

Nathan gives your butt a tap to usher you inside. “That’s economics for you.”

END

[satansapostle6]

X

Josh Futturman has always had a crush on his beautiful coworker, the sharp, sexy scientist he thought he could only dream of talking to.

Warnings: Mature themes/language. Sexual content.

Part Four

Part Five: My Balls, Your Court

Josh knew that he had to make a move with Brynne, and soon. He knew this partly because for the last few days, Ray had continuously been telling him, ‘You gotta make the first move’.

The ball was in his court, and he needed to act quickly. So, he was trying to work up the courage to do so. After all, he knew for a fact that Brynne was single, but he also knew that women like that didn’t tend to stay single for long if they didn’t want to.

He knew that the annual Kronish Ball, a formal office party before Christmas, was coming up that Friday. So, he figured, that would be the perfect opportunity to ask Brynne out on a date, or at least hang out with her at the hall if he couldn’t get his shit together and ask her out. Ray was heavily encouraging this, and so was Dr. Kronish, for that matter.

That afternoon, Josh Futturman had finally worked up the courage to head up to the lab a little while before leaving work that day, when he found that there might’ve been a slight problem with that plan. As he headed towards the lab, he saw a couple of scientists leaving in a hurrry, looking shell-shocked.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” the young woman breathed.

“It’s okay, it’s fine, we just have to fix it,” the young man told her.

“Hey,” Josh frowned as they looked at him, “What’s going on? Is Dr. Camillo in one of his moods again?”

The female lab assistant quickly shook her head, seeming terrified. “No. It’s Dr. Johansson,” she informed him in a hushed tone.

“Dr. Johansson?” Josh said in surprise.

“Yeah. Someone messed up a bunch of data, and now we have to start running the tests all over again. Set us back two months. She’s fucking livid,” the male lab assistant explained.

Josh said nothing, cautiously approaching the lab, half expecting a war zone. He walked in on Brynne scolding one of the underlings, presumably the one responsible for the mistake, sounding disturbingly like Dr. Kronish on the rare occasions where he would actually get angry.

“No, that’s not what I’m asking you,” Brynne stated, seething beneath her calm exterior. “Did you, or did you not, forget to check the input dates?” she demanded.

“I… Forgot to check the input dates,” the young man told her, barely able to look her in the eye.

“And how is that possible?” Brynne interrogated him. “Did the forms not specifically say to double check, triple check, fucking quadruple check, the input dates, because there might be some confusion on that?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “They did.”

“And did Dr. Fernandez not specifically tell you to notify him before submitting the reports?” she concluded.

“Yeah,” the guy nodded. “He did.”

“Well then, why the fuck did you not do it?” she demanded.

Josh stood there awkwardly in silence, never having once seen her this angry before.

“I don’t know,” he murmured, avoiding her gaze.

“‘I don’t know’?!” Brynne repeated. “‘I don’t know’ is not an acceptable response for someone working in a laboratory! You’re curing disease, not making a fucking McChicken!”

Her voice had a terrifying echo throughout the empty room, and although Josh was paralyzed with fear, he now knew that Brynne’s rage was completely justified from what he heard.

“I’m gonna ask you again, because I hired you, and am therefore responsible if it turns out I hired someone completely incompetent. Now, why… in the hell… did you not have Dr. Fernandez check your work before you submitted it?” she prompted.

“I…” he paused, seemingly realizing how careless he sounded. “I thought it was good. So I just submitted it.”

“Unbelievable,” Brynne muttered, “That was careless, lazy, and above all, just arrogant. You cost us two months worth of testing, and thousands of dollars to restart the entire process, with one little careless mistake. You realize that, at a place like this, I can fire you for that?”

He was quiet for a moment, then responded.

“Yeah.”

“Now, I’m pissed, but you realize I could have you scrubbing the fucking toilets for Josh over there?!”

Josh gulped nervously, realizing he was now a part of the conversation.

“Josh. How would you like a day off, hmm?” Brynne asked, obviously a rhetorical question. “How would you like a nice day off, while Brennan here cleans up a whole building worth of shit?”

Josh just frowned awkwardly. “Uh… That sounds nice.”

“See, if I was an asshole like Dr. Camillo, you’d be scrubbing shit right now,” Brynne pointed out, “You’d be scrubbing shit for the rest of your career, and you’d still have to thank me, because working in Dr. Kronish’s lab is still a privilege. But I’m gonna be beyond fair, and have you personally run up to Dr. Kronish’s office and tell him why we can’t go public for another two months, if we’re lucky.”

“Alright,” he nodded, not having anything else to add.

Josh was suddenly pushed aside as Dr. Camillo barged into the room, fuming.

“Is this the jackass that fucked all the data to shit, and cost us another two months?!” he boomed.

“Stu… I swear to fucking God,” Brynne Johansson warned. “Get the fuck out!”

“I don’t work for you! I work for Dr. Kronish,” he argued.

“Oh yeah? Go and fucking tell Kronish you’re pissing me the fuck off right now, and see what he says!” she suggested. “Do it! I fucking dare you!”

Josh and Lucas Brennan were both equally terrified for their lives as they watched Dr. Camillo rush out of the room with his tail between his legs. Brynne turned back to her employee, about past her breaking point.

“Brennan. Go tell Dr. Kronish what happened, specifically your part in it, and then go work on restarting everything,” Brynne exhaled slowly. “If I hear you disregard anything you’re told again, you’re fired. If I talk to Dr. Kronish later today and he says you never told him the full story, you’re fired. Understood?”

“Yeah,” Brennan nodded quickly, “Understood.”

“Go,” she barked, not wanting him in her sight for any longer.

Josh quickly stepped aside for Brennan as he quickly rushed out of the room. He looked over at Brynne, who just stood in the middle of the empty room, one hand on her hip, and one hand squeezing her temples in an attempt to soothe her approaching stress migraine.

“Hey, Josh,” she sighed, sounding exhausted.

“Hey,” he said awkwardly.

“What’s up?” she asked him.

Suddenly, Josh no longer felt like asking her out on a date.

“Sorry, it’s nothing important, if this is a bad time, I can just leave you alone,” he offered.

“No, no, it’s fine,” she assured him. “Sorry. I didn’t want anyone else to have to see that.”

“It’s okay,” he promised her, “I get it.”

“You must think I’m an asshole,” she scoffed, a sad bitterness to her tone, “I felt like Dr. Camillo.”

“No,” Josh shook his head immediately, “Definitely not. I mean, you’re tough, and everything, but… You’re fair.”

Brynne just nodded appreciatively, genuinely comforted. “Thanks. I… I’m just pissed we have to start all over again.”

Josh realized that this was one of the first genuine conversations he’d ever had with her; no flirting, no banter, just talking.

“Yeah, who wouldn’t be?” Josh agreed sympathetically. “Weren’t you scheduled to go public with everything after New Year’s?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, frustrated by her current predicament, “We were. Now, everything has to be pushed back.”

“Jesus,” he murmured.

“Anyways. Enough of that for today. Did you wanna talk to me about something?” she wondered.

Josh gulped fearfully, having no idea how to segue.

“Uh…”

He only got more nervous as she looked at him, naturally expecting an answer.

“The Kronish Ball! On Friday!” Josh managed, realizing he wasn’t making any sense.

Brynne just nodded, not understanding the relevance. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that.”

“You’re going, right?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’ll be there.”

“Great!” he laughed, horrified as he realized there was more to that sentence. “Did you, uh… have a date?” he croaked out.

She shook her head, and he nearly jumped for joy.

“No, I was just gonna come on my own.”

“Great!” he blurted out again, not knowing where to go from there. “…Me too!”

Josh cursed himself as he realized that was all he knew to say. She just stared at him blankly, equally unsure of how to continue the conversation.

“Cool.”

“Cool,” Josh forced a smile that was really more of an awkward grimace, slowly backing out of the room. “Cool…”

The word was about to lose its meaning. Frantic to say something, anything at all, he opened his mouth before his brain had actually planned out what to say to her.

“My balls…! Your court?!” he yelled out an invitation, alarming the both of them.

He was mortified as he realized what he’d actually said to this woman, a distinguished scientist with a PhD. She just blinked, completely dumbfounded by his words.

“…What exactly are you asking me, Futturman?” she questioned. “I’m not sure why, exactly, but should I be contacting HR?”

“No…! Sorry!” Josh laughed, close to tears, “I just… Uh…”

He quickly realized it would sound worse if he were to just stop there, so he figured he was forced to correct himself.

“I was just wondering… Since we were both planning on going alone…” he had no idea what she was thinking.

“Yeah?” Brynne prompted.

“I, uh… Did you, maybe, wanna… go to the party, together?” he slowly stumbled over the sentence. “As, like, a date?”

He was horrified as she paused for a moment, her beautiful features seeming completely blank.

“Yeah, Futturman,” she chuckled, lightly brushing back her coppery hair, “Yeah, I would.”

“Okay! Great!” Josh exclaimed, in awe of himself. “Cool!”

“Cool,” Brynne nodded.

She stood there, watching in amusement as he slowly backed out of the room before racing down the hallway to celebrate, silently screaming as he pumped his fists in the air

-

Part Six

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x29 - Mammon! Great Clash at Hikarigaoka / Return to Highton View Terrace

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Vamdemon went on a vacation to Japan but fucking forgot all of the children. We tried to Home Alone the place, as you do, but went too hard and accidentally brought the roof down. So we ended up playing cards in the basement until we could board a second flight.

Now, at last, the Chosen Children have returned to the campsite where this all began. The Eighth Child will be in Hikarigaoka. It's up to us to find them before Vamdemon does.

Discussing next steps at the campsite, Koushiro briefly lays down the time dilation effect that Taichi experienced.

Sora: You don't think Vamdemon has already found the Eighth Child, do you? Koushiro: According to my calculations, not even a minute will have passed between Vamdemon's arrival in Hikarigaoka and our appearance here. The flow of time between the two worlds is different. Yamato: The problem is, how do we get to Hikarigaoka? It's pretty far from here. Jou: But is today really the same day we were at camp? We were in the other world for months. Mimi: That's true. Even if the flow of time is different, we don't know for sure. Taichi: I'll go take a look at the camp! We shouldn't have been gone for that long!

Taichi would know. He was here, like, four days ago Digimon Time.

Over in the dub, they've backed off on saying Japan but they've also stopped dancing around proper nouns. They have arrived at an official name for their version of Hikarigaoka.

T.K.: We're back to camp where we started! Tai: We've gotta get to Highton View Terrace and stop Myotismon before he finds the Eighth DigiDestined! Sora: I wonder how much of a head start he has on us? Izzy: Not even a minute has passed between the time Myotismon left for Japan and when we arrived. Time flows at a different pace in the Digi-World. Matt: I'll say! We've been gone for months in the Digi-World and yet here in the real world it's the same day we left! Joe: But that's impossible! You mean all those adventures took less time than it does to, say, get a haircut? Mimi: Please, Joe! Don't exaggerate! Imagine getting your hair done in such a short amount of time! Tai: I'm gonna go take a look at the camp! I'm gonna see for myself how much time has really passed!

That's a pretty good Mimi Quip, I'll take it. XD

The actual Japanese district Hikarigaoka is now the fictional setting Highton View Terrace, which kinda sounds like a rich upscale neighborhood for fancy people.

Matt doesn't get to point out that "Highton View Terrace" is pretty fucking far from the campsite we're at, which is a problem for seven unattended children.

Taichi sprints down the stairs to go scout out the camp, only for the entire rest of the group to follow him down.

Taichi: You don't all have to come! Mimi: Maybe not, but.... Jou: I'm the group leader! Koushiro: We're all curious about what could have happened while we were gone. Taichi: But how will we explain if someone sees these guys?

Jou's line might seem odd after the last episode made such a fuss about Taichi being team leader, but he means that in terms of formality.

Taichi is リーダー riidaa, a loanword from the English "leader". Unofficially, the group has elected Taichi to the position of their leader.

Jou says he's 班長 hanchou, which we actually took as a loanword from Japan to become "honcho". It means squad leader, project leader, class president, etc. Jou-senpai is formally the responsible older kid who's expected to be in charge of these children, and it might be kinda weird if Taichi just showed up at camp without him.

In the dub:

Tai: One of you come with me, the rest of you stay there! Who volunteers? (everyone chases after) Tai: One volunteer, not thirteen! Mimi: I thought I'd keep you company. Joe: And we're gonna keep Mimi company. Izzy: I guess we're all pretty curious to find out what happened while we were gone. Tai: But how will we explain it if somebody sees our Digimon?

Officially, Mimi is the volunteer. She, alone, is going with Tai. Everyone else is going with Mimi. XD That's one way to do it.

Suddenly, a voice calls out. An adult voice. An adult human. An actual other human!

Voice: YAGAMI!!!

Taichi turns around to see a man running towards them.

Taichi: Sensei! Sora: It's Fujiyama-sensei! Taichi: SENSEI!!!

Overcome with emotion, Taichi runs out to meet Fujiyama, but Fujiyama's having none of this emotional reunion. He starts yelling at Taichi so hard that Taichi falls flat on his ass.

Fujiyama: YOU DUMBASS!!! Why are you loitering out here instead of packing your things!? Taichi: U-Uh well-- Koromon: What do you mean, 'packing'?

Oh shit, here we go again. Taichi clamps his hands down hard around Koromon's mouth. Fortunately, despite looking right at him with glasses, Fujiyama doesn't seem to notice that Koromon spoke.

Fujiyama: We can't keep camping out here in all this snow, of course. Everyone's getting ready to go home. Taichi: Oh, o-of course, hehe.... Fujiyama: What are those filthy things you're holding? Are they toys? Taichi: U-Uh-huh! Yep! Mochimon: Who are you calling filthy-- Koushiro: (covers Mochimon's mouth) Don't speak.

Credit to Gomamon, Piyomon, and Palmon who all freeze up and never speak or move in this entire scene. Also Patamon and Tsunomon who haven't done anything wrong.

The dub presents Fujiyama like a threat.

Fujiyama: Oh, kii~iiids!

He calls out, and we go to commercial with Fujiyama running towards them, like it's a cliffhanger. Then, upon return, they play peril music over his approach and also repeat his line.

Fujiyama: Oh, kii~iiids! Tai: It's our teacher! Sora: We are back in the real world! Tai: Mr. Fujiyama! (Tai races out to meet him and gets shouted down) Fujiyama: WATCH OUT!!! (Taichi falls) What are all you kids doing playing around here when you haven't even packed up your gear yet!? Tai: Well, sir, I can explain-- Koromon: Well, I'm Tai's Digimo-- (Taichi clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Fujiyama: Didn't you kids hear that we're closing up camp early because of the snow? Everyone else is all ready to go home! Tai: Sure, of course we heard! Ahaha.... Fujiyama: What are those dirty little toys you're carrying? Where'd you get 'em? Tai: Uhhh toys? Motimon: Who's he calling a dirty little toy!? That's not-- Koushiro: (clamps Motimon's mouth shut) We can't let anyone know you can talk.

Seems we were gone a bit longer in the English version than the Japanese, as all the other kids have already packed. They're waiting on us.

A minor plot change but a lateral one. Though it's kind of funny that Japanese Fujiyama seems angrier at the kids than English Fujiyama, despite the English kids actively delaying the rest of the class's return home.

Koromon and Mochimon screw up so hard they get all the other Digimon in trouble too. Takeru and Yamato clap hands over Patamon and Tsunomon's mouths even though they haven't done anything.

Yamato: (whisper) Pretend you're stuffed animals. Tsunomon: (muffled protests) Taichi: Th-these are plushies! Fujiyama: I can see that. Mimi: Someone threw them out here and we found them! Jou: Y-yeah! They were in a remote region deep in the mountains where no one ever passes through! We went through a lot of trouble before we finally got them! Fujiyama: How did you even find them in the first place if they were in an area people don't pass through? Taichi: Th-That's just how hard-to-find they were! RIGHT, EVERYONE!? Kids: RIGHT!!!

Oh, these kids were definitely doing drugs. They are being way too suspicious right now. if I were Fujiyama, I'd be seriously wondering right now whether Kids These Days use plushies to conceal bags of narcotics.

In the dub:

Matt: Pretend to be stuffed animals. Tsunomon: (muffled protests) Tai: Oh, THESE toys!? Well, you see, they're stuffed. Fujiyama: Yes, Tai. I can see that. Sora: Uhhhhh we found them here. Joe: Yeah! That's right! You see, we were hiking up an uncharted trail when we came across these stuffed toys that someone had thrown away! Makes perfect sense if you ask me! Fujiyama: Who in their right mind would hike up an uncharted trail just to throw away seven stuffed animals!? Tai: Exactly our point! And that's why we think that littering is crazy! Right, gang? Kids: RIGHT!!!

"That's why littering is crazy!" Tai making a desperate and futile bid to present himself like a Good Kid (TM) by inserting PSAs into his bad excuse. These kids were doing even more drugs and I'm about to search that Koromon.

Fortunately, Taichi's had enough time to think of something.

Taichi: S-See? (holds up Koromon) You remember my little sister Hikari wasn't able to make it? I wanted to give this to her as a souvenir. She loves this kind of stuff. Fujiyama: Oh... She had a cold, right? Taichi: She did, but she's better now; I made her an omelette. Fujiyama: YOU did!? Taichi: !!! Koromon: !!! A-- Taichi: (hand over Koromon's mouth) B-Before camp, I mean! Ehehe....

Wow, Taichi fumbled the ball fast. I would have thought an ace striker would be better at ball control than that.

Fortunately, the plan still works despite Taichi nearly screwing it all up.

Fujiyama: A souvenir for your sister, huh? Well, after you've all finished packing your things, meet up in the parking lot. Kids: Yes, sir! Fujiyama: (runs off) Don't take too long! Kids: Okay! Koromon: But how do we get to Hikarigaoka? Taichi: Hehe, I've got a plan.

Phew! We survived encountering our first adult in our return to Japan. Sympathy bid to sow doubt and make him feel guilty for suspecting us takes the win.

In the dub, Tai continues to try and sell his anti-littering PSA.

Tai: But, being the good citizens that we are, we cleaned up the mess! And now I'm giving the toys to my little sister Kari as a present! She wasn't able to come to camp, remember? Fujiyama: Oh, yeah. She caught a cold, didn't she? Tai: Yes, but she's feeling much better now because I went home and made her an omelette. Fujiyama: And when did you do that? Koromon: WHEN I-- Taichi: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Uh, when? That's a good question. Uh, right before I left for camp! Ahaha! Fujiyama: It's nice that you're thinking of your sister, Tai. But don't overdo it. Those toys are filthy and belong in the garbage. Right kids? Kids: RIGHT!!! Fujiyama: (runs off) Meet you at the bus! Kids: OKAY!!! Koromon: I'd like to get his gear together and throw him in the garbage can! Tai: Well, then you won't be littering, at least!

Tai is really proud of that 'littering' bit. Proud enough to again not talk about the logistics of reaching Highton View Terrace.

I appreciate English Fujiyama for pointing out the flaw in Tai's alleged intentions. Actually no? Do not pick up strange plushies from the wilderness and take them home with you? Insects will make nests or hives out of them if they get the chance. Those toys belong to nature now.

That said, it's more believable that Fujiyama accepts Taichi's backpedal than Tai's. Tai explicitly says he "went home" to make the omelette. That's a statement that should have blown his cover story wide open.

Meanwhile, in Hikarigaoka, the Vamdemon's inner cicle makes their plans. But the harsh light of day is not good for all of them.

Tailmon: So, the Eighth Child is near here? PicoDevimon: Yes. Isn't tha tright, Vamdemon-sama?

The both of them seated on the edge of the roof, they look back to see Vamdemon trying to remain inside a shrinking shade. His voice pained as he speaks.

PicoDevimon: What's the matter, sir? Vamdemon: I will wait in the world of darkness until that ball of light disappears. Take care of the rest, Tailmon.

He tosses the eighth Tag and Crest to her.

Tailmon: Leave it to me, Vamdemon-sama!

Then, groaning with pain, he flees inside and slams the door shut. Too late, PicoDevimon tries to follow after.

PicoDevimon: Whoa, wait for me!

PicoDevimon slams facefirst into the door and comically bounces to the ground.

In the dub, Gatomon chimes in with some silence-breaking observations while the camera's panning over the city.

Gatomon: The human world is so cluttered. All these creatures crammed on top of each other. DemiDevimon: The Eighth DigiDestined lives nearby! What's next, Myotismon? Myotismon: Agh! Unfortunately, until the sun goes down, I must remain hidden in the shadows! Begin the search without me. Here! (tosses the Crest) Gatomon: (catch) I won't let you down, Lord Myotismon. Myotismon: (runs through the door) I need to be alone! (closes it) DemiDevimon: I'LL COME WITH YOU-- (smack)

Myotismon doesn't use the same flowery language as Vamdemon. He just says "I need to stay hidden while the sun is out." That's fine. It's kind of odd that Vamdemon's describing it that way, when it's not like he doesn't know what the sun is. He has to hide from it in the Digimon World too.

In the Japanese, the flowery language does serve a purpose. Specifically, Vamdemon's over-description of the sun makes for a fun bit of wordplay. Do you know what the Japanese word for light is?

It's hikari.

He needs to hide in the shadows from hikari, while we search for the Eighth Child. How poetic.

This wordplay, of course, does not translate to English well so there's no reason not to have him just say "I'm hiding from the sun."

Back at camp, the Chosen Children prepare to smuggle their Partner Digimon on the bus.

Taichi: Listen up. Don't ever open your mouths in front of other humans, okay? Gomamon: We understand! Palmon: We should just pretend to be dolls, right?

Gomamon, Palmon, and Piyomon remain the MVPs of understanding how to stay undercover. Koromon, on the other hand....

Taichi: (slowly peaks out of bushes to see the kids gathering around the buses) Koromon: WHOOOOAAAAAAA TAIIIIIIIIIICHI-- Taichi: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) I just told you not to talk! Koromon: (whispering) But there's so many children! Piyomon: I didn't know there could be so many human children! Sora: You can't be surprised by just this many. There are thousands more children all throughout the world. No, make that millions. Gomamon, Piyomon, and Palmon: EHHHHHHH!?!? Piyomon: There are millions of Soras!?

Piyomon imagines an entire flock of Soras. Sora wigs out and breaks the fantasy.

Sora: THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME!!! Takeru: When we get to the city, you'll see tons more adults and children too!

This is going to be an adjustment. The Digimon have a lot to learn about this strange, foreign world they've been Isekai'd into. At least it was voluntary for them.

The dub takes Taichi's instructions and gives them to Joe.

Joe: Remember: Don't talk in front of anyone else, okay? Palmon: Don't worry! We can just pretend to be adorable stuffed animals. Tai: (slowly peaks out of bushes to see the kids gathering around the buses) Koromon: Whoa, look at all the kids! Tai: (clamps Koromon's mouth shut) Didn't we just say not to talk out loud! Koromon: Yeah, but look at all the human children! Biyomon: We never knew there were more human children than you. Sora: This is nothing. Why, just in this city alone, there must be tens of thousands of kids just like us. And when you add the rest of the kids in the world, there must be millions. Gomamon, Biyomon, and Palmon: Huh!? Biyomon: You mean there are millions of Soras!? (Biyomon imagines a flock of Soras) Sora: THERE'S ONLY ONE OF ME!!! T.K.: She just means there are more kids our age. But there are tons of different people in the world.

I like this version of Biyomon's misunderstanding better because I think Sora does a better job setting it up. Saying there are lots of kids "like us" queues up Biyomon to think she means millions of Soras more effectively than just saying there's lots of children.

But it still works in the original too. It especially makes sense that Piyomon might leap to that conclusion when you consider her frame of reference as a Digimon. Just as you can have an entire village of Pyokomon, why not a village of Sora?

Piyomon is experiencing culture shock.

Suddenly, Mimi spots two of her friends by the bus. She erupts with emotion, knocking Palmon to the ground in her haste to reach them.

Mimi: Ehh!? MI-CHAN!!! (breaks into a sprint) I MISSED YOU!!! Mi-Chan: Eh? I was with you earlier.... Taako: What's wrong? Mi-Chan: I don't know--

Before Taako knows what hit her, Mimi wraps her up in a hug and spins her around.

(If Fujiyama is around, this is only going to exacerbate the likelihood of drugs. I'm telling ya. Search that Koromon.)

Mimi: TAAKO!!! How are you!? Taako: (annoyed) Come on, Mimi....

The others, still hiding behind the bushes, watch Mimi weird out all of her friends.

Palmon: Really, Mimi? Taichi: I kept telling her that time hasn't passed here, but she still doesn't listen! Koushiro: I understand your feelings but we need to focus on getting to Hikarigaoka quickly. Taichi: Alright.

In the dub, despite the fact that Fujiyama-sensei's name was not altered, Mimi's friends do get new names.

Mimi: Hey, it's Michelle! (breaks into a sprint) I've missed you so much! Michelle: You missed me? You just saw me ten minutes ago. Terry: What's going on? Michelle: Mimi's weird! Mimi: OH, TERRY!!! (hug) Michelle: She's wigging out. Terry: Too much caffeine! Palmon: Oh, Mimi. Tai: She'll give us away! I told her no time has passed since we went to the Digi-World! Izzy: Forget Mimi! We have to find some form of transportation to Highton View Terrace. Tai: I've got an idea!

Okay, I was not prepared for Terry to in fact accuse Mimi of substance abuse. Tame though it is. XD I also really like Michelle accusing "Mimi's weird!"

The dub's generally harsher tone of voice works great for this scene.

There's a lateral shift here too. Taichi formulated the plan he's about to put into effect shortly after the tense conversation with Fujiyama-sensei. But Tai acts like he only now thought of it.

This connects well to the previous scene, as the dub had replaced Taichi coming up with the plan with the punchline to the litter gag. So Tai is, in fact, only just now thinking of the plan.

What doesn't connect is when Michelle says she saw Mimi ten minutes ago. In the Fujiyama scene, he said, "Didn't you kids hear that we're closing up camp early because of the snow? Everyone else is all ready to go home!" That was, at the time, a lateral plot change. In the original, everyone was still packing, but in the dub, they were already waiting on us.

So. Which is it? Have we been gone for long enough Earth Time that the rest of the campers were already packed and ready to go by the time we got back? Or has less than ten minutes passed since the Chosen Children first decided to go up to that shrine in the first place? Reminder that the snow we're evacuating from fell like a minute or two before we went into Digi-World.

Taichi puts his master plan into action: Asking for permission from an adult.

Taichi: Sensei! Fujiyama-sensei! Could you drop us off somewhere on the way? Fujiyama: Drop you off? Of course not! I have a responsibility to make sure you all get back home. Taichi: Oh, come on! Don't be like that! Please! You just have to take us to the housing complex in Hikarigaoka. Fujiyama: Hikarigaoka? Why there? Taichi: Uh... Well... I used to live there! I just felt like seeing it again. Other Kids (sans Mimi): (run up) Please do it for us! Fujiyama: You kids too? Other Kids (sans Mimi): That's right! Driver: Hikarigaoka is pretty close to the route we're taking. When we get on the Kan-etsu Expressway and interchange to the Tokyo Gaikan, we'll be passing through Ooizumi. That's within walking distance to Hikarigaoka. Taichi: (to the driver) Perfect! Then can you drop us off there? Fujiyama: Hold on! I haven't given my permission yet.

The route that the driver gives are real directions. It's about a two-mile walk from Ooizumimachi to Hikarigaoka, so the kids will be doing a bit of urban hiking but it's totally doable.

In the dub:

Tai: Mr. Fujiyama! Can you have the bus drop us off somewhere? Fujiyama: Have the bus drop you off? No can do. The rules say I have to take you straight to your homes. Tai: Please, Mr. Fujiyama! I'm begging you, sir! Could you just let us off somewhere near Highton View Terrace? Fujiyama: Highton View Terrace? Why do you want to go there? Tai: Well, we used to live there and we were feeling nostalgic so we thought we would visit our old hangout. Other Kids (sans Mimi): Come on! / Please! / We'd appreciate it, sir! Fujiyama: But it's against the rules. Driver: You know, I think we drive pretty close to Highton View Terrace. Let's see, first we take the freeway to the parkway to the throughway and-- Oh! That's the wrong way! Oh, yeah. Here at the roadway. Highton View Terrace is within walking distance. Tai: (to the driver) Great! Then that's where you can let us off, mister. Fujiyama: Whoa, hold on! I didn't give the bus driver permission yet.

At least the kids have finally figured out that Highton View Terrace isn't where they're currently living.

The real Japanese directions to Hikarigaoka are replaced by a wordplay joke about the way Americans name their streets. I'm cool with that change; I don't think many early 00's American kids were well enough versed in the urban geography of Tokyo to have gotten the original line, so this is a fine place for a gag.

Of course, there's no way in hell any responsible teacher would sign off on dropping these children off at a random highway intersection. However, Fujiyama's already demonstrated a vulnerability to sob stories. It's time for someone else to step up and strut their family tragedy.

Yamato: Sensei, please do this for us! We really want to see the place where our family used to live together, before the divorce. Takeru: (starts crying) Yamato: Takeru! Takeru: (dramatically hugs Yamato's legs) Onii-chan!

In the dub:

Matt: Please, Mr. Fujiyama? You'll break T.K.'s heart if you don't let us go. It was the last place we all lived together as a family before my parents got divorced. T.K.: (starts crying) Matt: T.K..... T.K.: (dramatically hugs Matt's legs) Oh, brother!

I don't remember if this is the first time we've changed tracks from Matt and T.K. being half-brothers, but I think that interpretation is officially dead. Unless the implication is that their mom cheated on Matt's dad and T.K. isn't his, it'd be logistically hard for them to live together with Matt's parents as half-brothers.

Suddenly, Jou storms up, ready to clinch this.

Jou: Sensei, please do this for us! Let us get off at Hikarigaoka! I will take responsibility for escorting them all home afterwards. Fujiyama: Well... I guess it will be okay if a sixth-grader like you is with them, Kido. Be sure to call your parents and let them all know about this. Taich & Jou: We will! (both bow respectfully) Jou: Thank you so much! Taichi: Thank you so much! Fujiyama: (walks off uncertain) It's fine, it's fine.

Similar to Matt and T.K.'s parents, I don't remember if this is the first time the dub's acknowledged Joe being older than the rest, but here it is.

Joe: Mr. Fujiyama, please let us off at Highton View Terrace. As an upperclassman, I'll take responsibility for getting them home. Fujiyama: Well, I guess if a reliable kid like you is going, Joe, then it's okay. However, call your parents and tell them where you are. Tai & Joe: Deal! (both bow respectfully) Joe: Thanks, Mr. Fujiyama! Tai: You're the greatest teacher ever! Fujiyama: (walks off uncertain) Yeah, yeah....

As soon as he's gone, Taichi congratulates the team on a job well done.

Taichi: Yahoo! Hey! How long are you two gonna keep that up? (Yamato and Takeru separate with huge shit-eating grins) Jou: What's going on here? Yamato: It didn't seem like he'd let us go unless we pulled out the waterworks. Jou: THAT WAS AN ACT!?!? I was desperately trying to get Sensei's approval because I thought it was true! Taichi: Now, now! It all worked out, so forget about it!

In the dub:

Tai: Yahoo! Hey! How long are you gonna keep that act up? (Matt and T.K. separate with huge shit-eating grins) Both Brothers: (giggle for five straight seconds) Matt: Hey, if we didn't come up with something sappy like that, he never would have let us go. Joe: You mean that sad story was just an act!? I was crying my eyes out so much for you guys that my glasses started to fog up! Tai: Joe, calm down before you have an asthma attack!

And Palmon despondently watches Mimi board the bus with Mi-chan and Taako.

Mimi: Ahahaha, is that so? Palmon: (dour) Aww, Mimi's forgotten about me. WAIT FOR M--

Sora and Koushiro jump Palmon, with Mochimon and Piyomon both clamping her mouth shut together. Her status as a plushie MVP is tragically revoked.

The dub cuts Palmon's sadness from this scene, turning it into a laugh line instead.

Mimi: Ahahahahaha!!! I missed all of you so much! Palmon: I hope she's not gonna act this way with every kid that she meets! Heeeeey--

Without Palmon suddenly realizing she's been abandoned and screaming for Mimi to wait for her, the part where Sora and Koushiro suddenly have to silence her feels out-of-place.

The kids board the bus to return to Tokyo. Along the way, they check to ensure their equipment's still functioning in the human world.

Koushiro: (checking his laptop) It's okay. It's still working properly in this world. Taichi: That's good.

Sora takes out her Digivice. It's showing a big centralized red dot for the seven of them, which bodes well.

Sora: The Digivice is also working. Fujiyama: What are those things? Is that what's popular with kids these days? Jou: NO, IT'S REALLY NOT A-- Fujiyama: Let me have a look. Taichi: YOU CAN'T!!! Fujiyama: Don't be stingy. After all, I'm letting you guys get off at Hikarigaoka. Sora: Y-yes, sir.... (hands over her Digivice) Fujiyama: Those are good manners you have, Takenouchi. You're an obedient kid, unlike some others I know.

Sora blushes from Fujiyama's praise and hides her face. The dub follows the script right up until Fujiyama shows up.

Fujiyama: What's up? Is that the latest toy all you kids are into? Joe: NO, IT'S JUST ONE OF THE OLD ONES THAT WE ALL HATE!!! Fujiyama: Let me take a look at it. Tai: UH, IT'S BROKEN!!! Fujiyama: Maybe I can fix it. Here, give it to me. I'm pretty good with electronics. Sora: Yes, sir. Fujiyama: Thank you, Sora. Unlike other children, you really listen to your teachers.

Tai comes up with a stronger attempt at fending off Fujiyama, but he's got an answer for it all the same. Meanwhile, Joe embarrasses himself with a hilarious failure of a claim.

Koushiro and Taichi discuss what's happening.

Koushiro: It's fine to just let him have a look at it. Taichi: I felt like we were being attacked by an evil Digimon or something. Koushiro: (skeptical) Fujiyama-sensei is an evil Digimon? Taichi: Evil! Evil! I mean, when you forget your homework, he snares you with his tickle atta-- Fujiyama: I heard that last part.

Fujiyama-sensei doles out intense punitive tickling to Taichi while terrifyingly stone-faced.

In the dub:

Izzy: There's no harm in just letting him take a look at it, Tai. Tai: For about a second there, I thought Mr. Fujiyama was an evil Digimon. Izzy: I think you've spent way too much time in the Digi-World. Tai: Think about it! If he were an evil Digimon, every time you failed a test, he'd scream out his attack, "HOMEWORK BLASTER!!!" Fujiyama: Actually, it's more like Tickle Blaster.

This version of the tickle gag doesn't work as well because Tai doesn't queue up Fujiyama to launch his tickling assault. He overhears Tai comparing him to an "evil proper noun he doesn't recognize" and decides to start tickling him, apropos of nothing.

While the kids are still trying to reach Hikarigaoka, Tailmon searches the district.

With the Crest around her neck, she moves through the district, waiting for a child's presence to cause the Crest to glow. But it never does.

Tailmon: It's not reacting at all. What does this mean? Isn't the Eighth Child supposed to be around here!?

In the dub:

Gatomon: You can't turn over a rock without finding a kid under it in this world, and yet I still haven't found the Eighth DigiDestined!

Gatomon's line doesn't convey how she intends to find the Eighth DigiDestined. Which is kind of important information, because a Crest and Tag glowing to indicate that their associated child is nearby is something of a new mechanic.

It's not entirely new. We've used the glow from the Tags to find their associated Crests and seen those Crests do some shit in the presence of the child and Tag. So the Crest and Tag together glowing to identify a child feels like it's rooted in established metaphysics.

But it's still nice to have her explain that this, using the Crest as a radar, is what she's doing.

She also has a brief altercation with a dog, who she fends off by whipping the dog in the neck with her titular tail.

Ultimately, Tailmon is forced to report her failure back to Vamdemon at his new lair: The basement of a parking garage.

Vamdemon: You couldn't find the child? Tailmon: Yes, sir. At the very least, the child doesn't appear to be in the vicinity of Hikarigaoka. Vamdemon: PicoDevimon.

A still art frame of PicoDevimon descends, with several Tags and Crests around his legs. He neither moves his lips to speak nor flaps his wings as he slides onto the screen. I guess they didn't have the budget for him today.

PicoDevimon: (telepathically I guess) What are these? Vamdemon: I've made copies of the Eighth Child's Tag and Crest. PicoDevimon: (levitates offscreen to the right) Vamdemon: The one you have is also a copy. Tailmon: Then where's the real one!? Vamdemon: (reveals his fist, clutched around the Tag's cord) Here, in my grasp. Even though those ones are copies, they will still react when the Chosen Child is nearby. Do everything you can to find the Eighth Child! Tailmon & PicoDevimon: Yes, sir! (they both bow, including PicoDevimon who is no longer paralyzed by the finance department) Vamdemon: Children... I will do everything in my power to eliminate you!

The misadventures of still-frame PicoDevimon cracked me up in this scene. But in any case, Vamdemon's flexing his Big Fucking Nerd credentials once again. The Digimon World's #1 expert on Chosen Children lore has fabricated fake Crests that can reproduce the tracking effects of the original.

Which he also has in his possession, of course. Can you really call yourself a Chosen Children stan if you aren't repping their merch? Of course he went out and yoinked one of those Crests for himself. He was trying to complete the collection through the entire PicoDevimon arc!

...I can't wait to see what the dub does with still-frame PicoDevimon.

Myotismon: What do you mean, you couldn't find the Eighth DigiDestined!? You have failed me! Gatomon: Please don't hurt me, Your Evilship. I swear he's not here! Myotismon: SILENCE, GATOMON!!! DemiDevimon: (levitates down onto the screen with a sort of whirring vrooming sound effect) Myotismon: I have made several copies of the Eighth DigiDestined's Tag and Crest. DemiDevimon: (levitates offscreen) Myotismon: The one you have is a copy too. Gatomon: So I'm a copycat? Myotismon: The original's with me. Even though they are only copies, they will still become activated when the Eighth Child is nearby. This time, make no mistakes. You must find that child. Gatomon & DemiDevimon: Gotcha! (they both bow) Myotismon: And when you do find him, then he must die!

HAHAHAHAHAHA They cut his line because he has no lip flaps HAHAHAHAHAHA

And gave him a little wooshy sound effect.

He is just. He's just full-on DisplayModelDevimon HAHAHAHAHA

The Chosen Children finally arrive in Hikarigaoka.

Koromon: Is that the Hikarigaoka housing complex? Taichi: Yeah! Piyomon: WOW!!! You used to live in that huge castle, Sora!? Sora: It's not a castle. It's divided into smaller rooms inside and a lot of people live there. Piyomon: Did you used to live in Hikarigaoka too, Sora? Sora: Mmhmm. Taichi: Sora and I were in the same class. Sora: Yep. Taichi: Third Elementary School, Class 1-2. Yamato: I was in Fourth Elementary School. Jou: H-Hang on! Then you weren't lying to trick Sensei!? Yamato: It's true that we lived in Hikarigaoka. Takeru: Yeah. I remember a little of it. Jou: I went to Fifth Elementary School here! Mimi: I lived here in kindergarten. Jou: Huh!? Koushiro: So did I! But only for a little while. Taichi: That means all of us used to live in Hikarigaoka! Koushiro: This can't be a coincidence.

Nor can it be a coincidence that Big Fucking Nerd Vamdemon began his search here. He has no reason to believe that the Eighth Child is presently in this place. He doesn't have, like, a huge blinking radar telling him "Hikari There".

He's here because this is the place that the Chosen Children came from. Hikarigaoka is the point of origin; The source of Chosen Children. The ancient lore knows that the children come from Hikarigaoka. But it doesn't seem to know that they moved.

In the dub:

Koromon: They were nice to drop us off here. Tai: Yeah! Mimi: There's the Highton View Terrace Tower! Izzy: The tallest apartment building in Japan! Joe: Terrific. I'm afraid of heights. Tai: That place isn't so hot! Sora: That's true. The heat never worked. I used to live there. Biyomon: Wow, Sora! You lived in that castle! Sora: Yep! Tai: I lived near here too. A block away in another building. Sora and I went to Westside Elementary together. Matt: Hey, I went to Westside Elementary! Joe: You're kidding! You mean that you guys were telling the truth when you said you used to live in Highton View Terrace! Matt: Yeah, we really did live here before my parents broke up. T.K.: That was a long time ago when I was a little kid. Joe: Strange coincidence because I used to live here too. Mimi: I lived here too before we moved! Joe: Huh? Izzy: Me too! Just for a little while; It's a long story. Tai: So at some point we all lived at Highton View Terrace at the same exact time! Izzy: This can't just be a coincidence; There's gotta be some meaning here.

Oh! There's a "Japan"!

Rather than compare schools, everyone just agrees that they lived here once in their lives. Tai somehow leaps to the conclusion that they're all talking about the same timeframe. This is not a conclusion Taichi reached, despite being a little better founded in the original when they're talking about being in elementary school (and, for the younger pair, kindergarten).

We lose Sora explaining what an apartment building is to Piyomon, echoing Agumon's similar confusion back when he and Taichi were in Odaiba.

We do, however, gain the "That's not so hot!" "Yeah, the heat never worked" bit, which got me. XD

The kids are interrupted by the sound of dozens of wings fluttering overhead. High up above them, Night Raid bats scour the city. At the same time, armed with weaponized cosplay, Tailmon and her mercenaries spread out through Hikarigaoka.

I realize that shot looks like half of her forces are fleeing into the mouth of a colossal Tailmon kaiju but the perspective was wonky and that was the best I could get.

Over in the dub, I think the shots of silhouetted Digimon mercenaries spreading out through the city confused the dub team because Tai suddenly yells this when he sees the bats.

Tai: It's Myotismon's army! RUN FOR IT!!!

Followed immediately by silhouetted figures running through the city. Then we get that shot above of Gatomon soaring overhead while the silhouetted figures spread out, and she says:

Gatomon: They can run but they can't hide from Mammothmon!

Which feels like it's meant to imply that the silhouettes are the kids fleeing for their lives from the Night Raid bats. And that Gatomon is then intentionally sending Mammothmon out on a rampage to force them out of hiding.

That's a pretty major change.

While Tailmon and her mercenaries scour the city, one Digimon isn't creeping around.

This massive mammoth Digimon, Mammon, goes on a full rampage. Stomping vehicles and smashing whatever's in his path. He picks up a biker's motorcycle with his trunk and hurls it.

Biker: (just sees his bike suddenly soar through the air overhead) MY BIKE!!! Who did that!? (whirls around to see the mammoth) Was it you!? HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY BIKE!?!?

Dude is bizarrely chill with seeing a violent armored mammoth in the streets.

(In fairness, this is Tokyo. It ain't their first rodeo with Godzilla shit.)

His boldness doesn't last, however. When Mammon roars at him, he throws his helmet at it and runs for his life. Mammon swats the helmet back at him, striking him in the back of the head and knocking him over, then stomps over him to continue their rampage.

Biker: (crying) WHO LET THEIR ELEPHANT LOOSE!?!?

Mammon continues his rampage, smashing cars and streetlamps while people watch on in confusion.

Bystander: Why is there an elephant in Hikarigaoka!? Girlfriend: It's probably for a movie or something! Bystander: Oh, very convincingly made. It looks like a real monster.

Happy to report that media has poisoned the survival instincts of people not only in the U.S. but in Japan as well.

Over in the dub, the biker remains audacious as ever.

Biker: (just sees his bike suddenly soar through the air overhead) MY NEW MOTORCYCLE!!! (whirls around to see the mammoth) HEY!!! Respect other people's property, you big walkin' shag carpet! Mammothmon: (roar) (Biker throws helmet and flees; Mammothmon knocks it back, knocks him down, and stomps over him.) Biker: T_T HEY!!! Whoever owns this elephant should know there's a leash law around here!

Meanwhile, both of the other civilians are complete fucking chuckleheads.

Girlfriend: Oh look, honey. A wild elephant on a rampage. Bystander: They must be filming a movie or something.

I support equal rights dipshittery.

While Mammon continues his entirely pointless and confusing rampage, Tailmon is as lost as I am about what he thinks he's accomplishing here.

Tailmon: What is that moron planning to gain by causing all this chaos!? I should not have recruited that Digimon.

Another bystander is forced to flee his car, moments before Mammon steps on and crushes it.

Driver: WHAT THE HELL IS AN ELEPHANT DOING HERE!?!?

And someone finally dials 110, the Japanese emergency number for the police.

Caller: I'm calling the police! (Nothing but static crackles through his phone) Caller: IT WON'T CONNECT!!!

Remember how the sheer presence of Vamdemon and his forces in Hikarigaoka last episode were making phones go haywire? Yeah, have fun dialing out.

Over in the dub, Gatomon has suddenly reversed course and is no longer cheering Mammothmon on.

Gatomon: What's that big-eared freak trying to do? Destroy the DigiDestined with everything else too? We never should have brought that type of Digimon along for this!

This is a little confusing because minutes ago she was like "HAHAHA You can run but you can't hide from Mammothmon." But now, to shore her up with her Japanese counterpart, she's at "Ugh so destructive Mammothmon sucks".

The driver fleeing squishy death takes this opportunity to quip.

Driver: If that's a car, it's got an awful lot of trunk space!

And, since phones going haywire was a plot point that they removed for some reason, the caller has what may or may not be the same problem?

Caller: I'm gonna call the cops! (Nothing but silence) Caller: Augh! My phone's dead!

Meanwhile, despite Tai freaking out earlier, the Chosen Children are non-urgently taking a fun trip down memory lane.

Taichi: I remember this place. I often came here to buy candy and juice! Mimi: I used to come here too! Jou: This sure brings back memories. Yamato: Takeru, you might not remember but we used to play around here a lot. Takeru: I do feel like I know this place. Sora: How long did you live in Hikarigaoka, Koushiro-kun? Koushiro: I don't think I even stayed here for a year. Probably a couple of months. Taichi: That's pretty short. How come? Koushiro: I don't know.

Fortunately, there's one kid among us with a longer memory than the rest.

Jou: Hehe! I can answer that for you! Sora: You can, Jou-senpai? Taichi: But you didn't know Koushiro back then. Jou: Even so, I still have a good idea of what happened. To make a long story short, the reason Koushiro's family moved was because of a terrorist bombing! Sora: A bombing!? Koushiro: There were terrorists? Jou: You guys might not remember this, but there was a terrorist bombing here in Hikarigaoka four years ago. So far as I know, they still haven't found the bomber. My parents said they didn't want to live in such a dangerous place, so we moved to Odaiba. Sora: THAT'S RIGHT!!! It was the same with my family! I do remember them saying something about a bomb! Taichi: Now that you mention it, I do think that's what happened.

A terrorist bombing four years ago whose bomber has never been caught, huh? Here in Hikarigaoka? Interesting....

In the dub, the kids are as chill as in the original. Which is weird given that they're supposed to be running from Myotismon's forces.

Tai: Say, do any of you remember this place? I bought candy here. Mimi: It was my favorite store. Joe: Oh, sure. Mine too! Matt: You probably don't remember this place, T.K., because you were too little, but Mom and Dad used to take us here all the time! T.K.: Maybe some candy will help me remember! Sora: You're awfully quiet, Izzy. Didn't you like living in Highton View Terrace? Izzy: I don't remember. Sora: How long did you live there? Izzy: Just for a little while. About six months. Tai: Wow. Why did your parents move away? Izzy: I don't know.

Very close to the original with no notable changes. Then comes Joe's time to explain the bombing.

Joe: You're kidding! Well, if you don't know then maybe I should tell you why. Sora: What do you mean, Joe? Tai: Yeah, Joe. How could you know why Izzy's parents moved away from here? Did you know them or something? Joe: No, I didn't know Izzy back then but I did see what happened. His whole family packed up and left Highton View Terrace because of a terrorist bombing. Sora: Bombing? Izzy: Did you say terrorist!? Joe: Maybe you don't remember it, but about four years ago, the story was in all the papers. It was one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time. They never found the group responsible for the bombings, so a lot of families got scared thinking it could happen again and moved out. My parents figured it had just become too dangerous to live here anymore so we moved out to Odaiba. Sora: Now that you mention it, I do remember. A lot of my friends moved away after that. Tai: Now I remember. My parents acted scared that whole time.

For lacking the context of the OVA, they do a pretty good job with this one. There's still a couple errors, however. The story doesn't need to be in the papers. The "bombing" happened right outside everyone's balconies. It wasn't just in the neighborhood but out in the street directly between their housing complexes.

Also, they blew up an unoccupied street late at night. Calling it "one of the worst terrorist attacks of all time" is a bit much. Can you feel how pre-9/11 this is? But, of course, the dub team doesn't know any of this context.

It is a little weird that Joe was peeping on Izzy's family departing enough to know it was them, and that Sora only mentions her friends leaving. All of them left. None of them currently live here.

Also, I guess we can say Odaiba but not Hikarigaoka. Maybe they just thought the latter was too complicated of a word.

Suddenly, the kids see cop cars go by.

Mimi: What's going on? Taichi: Could it be Vamdemon!?

A possibility that Tai is much more certain of than Taichi.

Mimi: What's going on? Tai: Where there's trouble, there's Myotismon!

You hear it here, folks. A nerdy vampire Digimon is responsible for all crime in Japan. I was not aware that Dracula was the yakuza Kingpin, but I'll believe it.

The Chosen Children race to the scene to find the trail of destruction Mammon's leaving in their wake.

Taichi: That's one of Vamdemon's Digimon! Koushiro: (already on his laptop) That's Mammon.

Time for the rundown on this destructive dipshit. Mammon is a Perfect-stage Vaccine-type Ancient Beast Digimon. He's from the Nightmare Soldiers line; An evolution for Garurumon and for Hanumon, who won't be seen in the anime until 02.

The name Mammon comes from "mammoth", same as their English name Mammothmon. The dub likely extended it because "mammon" has a different meaning in a society where Christianity is the predominate religion.

Narrator: Mammon. A Perfect-stage Digimon who has enormous ancient power. His special attacks are Tusk Strikes, where he fires his two tusks, and Tundra Breath, which releases a cold blast from his nose.

In the dub, this is quite reasonably handled by Izzy.

Matt: A monster Digimon! Izzy: (already on his laptop) He's called Mammothmon. He's a fully Digivolved Digimon with the strength of a wooly mammoth. He shoots missiles he calls Tusk Crusher and has a chilling attack called Freezing Breath.

Before the kids can do anything, a cop car pulls up.

Officer: All of you! It's dangerous here! Get to shelter!

Inside the car, he futilely tries to use the car radio to request backup but all that comes through is static.

Officer: Hello? Hello? I need urgent backup! Hello!? That's weird....

Mammothmon hears him, turning around and growling.

Taichi: He's seen us! Officer: Hurry and get out of here!

The officer shouts at the kids to get to safety and then speeds off in his mostly empty squad car, abandoning these lost children to their wooly mammoth fate. Fucking ACAB.

No change in the dub, except there's no static feeding back through the radio. It's just dead.

Mammon roars at the kids, and the fighting's on.

Taichi: HE'S COMING FOR US!!!

With admirable enthusiasm, Koromon and Tsunomon leap out of Taichi and Yamato's arms to the front of the group to fight him.

Yamato: DON'T!!! He's Perfect-stage! You two can't fight him. Piyomon: (rushes forward) Let me handle this! Sora: Eh? PIYOMON!?!?

This is the same in the dub, except Matt continues using the terminology "fully Digivolved".

Evolving to Birdramon, Piyomon fires off her Meteor Wing at Mammothmon. The shots land all around him, with one fireball glancing off his tusk and ricocheting into a series of phone booths. Sora gasps in horror, and the camera fixes for a moment on the bombed out phone booths.

Mammothmon slams his tusk into a nearby bus and hurls it at Birdramon. She deftly maneuvers out of the way - lobbing projectiles at flying opponents remains difficult - leaving the bus to crash into the ground and explode. This time it's Koushiro's turn to gawk in horror at the wreckage of the bus.

Birdramon gets in too close. Mammothmon slaps her with his trunk, then follows up while she's stunned with his Tusk Strikes.

A glancing hit to her shoulder sends Birdramon plummeting from the air.

Of note: Mammon doesn't have dialogue in either version. He's another non-speaking beast type of Digimon, and the dub didn't change that this time around. Nonetheless, the dub Mammothmon manages to call his attack when firing "Tusk Crusher".

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! Takeru: KAIJU!!!

Bit of an odd proclamation from Takeru. Kaiju is one of the more well-known Japanese words these days. Literally meaning "mysterious beast", kaiju are most commonly associated with colossal city-destroying monsters such as those found in the Godzilla brand.

Seeing two Digimon fight like this has stirred a recollection in Takeru.

Takeru: Two kaiju! Taichi: What are you talking about, Takeru? Yamato: That's it! I remember now. A long time ago, Takeru insisted he saw kaiju but Mom scolded him for it.

Over in the dub, T.K. oddly puts the emphasis on the quantity of monsters rather than the fact that there were monsters.

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! T.K.: There were two! Matt: What!? T.K.: There were two monsters! Tai: What are you talking about, T.K.? Matt: Oh man, now I remember! A long time ago, T.K. was insisting that he saw two monsters and my mom was upset at him for it.

I don't know why we're all emphasizing the number two like this, when it's the monster part that's important

Yamato flashes back on the day Takeru tried to tell their mom about the kaiju.

Takeru: I really did see kaiju! Natsuko: Kaiju don't exist. You were just dreaming. (bitterly, seemingly to herself but audible enough to hear) And whose fault is it that you can't even tell the difference between dreams and reality!? Takeru: ...but....

Okay, that took a turn for harsh. Takeru touched a nerve and I'm genuinely not sure if she's mad at him, at Yamato, or at her husband who she later divorced.

Just a brief glimpse into the broken home these boys come from. Yamato isn't in the room with them, but he is seen lurking behind a door.

The dub dials back Natsuko's hostility.

T.K.: But I really did see monsters, Mommy. Nancy: T.K., there's no such thing as monsters. You were just imagining it. Or maybe it's a dream. T.K.: But Mom, I really saw them! Nancy: Now that's enough! I don't want to hear any more of these crazy stories.

She still refuses to believe him, but she isn't bitterly fuming at an unspecific member of her family. The dub's never been comfortable talking about the divorce.

Yamato: ...that's why I couldn't said anything. Koushiro: When did this happen? Yamato: Around the time of the bombing.

Yamato's line as we return implies that he saw the kaiju too, but was afraid to speak up about it way back when after hearing what came out of their mom's mouth. As if he were afraid that bringing it up might further damage the fabric of their parents' marriage. So he kept quiet and eventually forgot he ever saw it.

All tragic context that, again, the dub doesn't want. So Matt legitimately never saw it.

Matt: I just assumed he imagined the entire thing. Izzy: So when did all this take place? Matt: It was right after the terrorist bombing. Sora: This is where it happened! Joe: Right on this footbridge!

Nonetheless, Sora and Joe are chiming in a bit early to identify this footbridge as the site of the bombing. So early, in fact, that we're still standing at the street corner we talked to the cop from and not on the footbridge.

There we go, a bit of an awkward teleporting cut later and we're on the footbridge for some reason. Birdramon got her second wind and has returned to the fray.

Jou: This is... Where the terrorist bombing happened.

As Jou says this, Taichi flashes back on the OVA, when he stood under this same bridge.

Taichi: This bridge....

The kids sprint downstairs from the bridge they inexplicably teleported to, as more and more they start to remember.

Mimi: This is the same thing that happened back then!

Another ricochet of Meteor Wing off Mammon's hide blows up the bridge, right where they had been before they moved.

Jou: It's exactly the same! A fireball destroyed the bridge! Yamato: No! The one shooting fireballs back then wasn't flying! It was something else! Taichi: You're right! There was a fight between... something and something else!

They're vaguely remembering the OVA battle. Yamato's right; It was Greymon shooting fireballs at Parrotmon. Mass deja vu is a hell of a thing.

In the dub, they talk through Taichi's OVA flashback.

Joe: This is really strange. Does anyone besides me feel like they can remember the night of the bombing? (flashback starts) Others: Yeah! / Uh-huh! / I do! Tai: I feel like I was there but somehow I forgot! Izzy: Gee, that sounds like repressed memory. Tai: WE'VE GOTTA GET OFF THIS BRIDGE!!!

Tai's sudden attack of precognition is as good an explanation as any for why they suddenly fled the bridge they inexplicably climbed up onto in the first place.

Mimi: I'M HAVING DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN!!! (Ricochet of Meteor Wing destroys the bridge) Joe: THIS IS JUST HOW IT HAPPENED!!! Back then, a giant ball of fire destroyed the bridge! Matt: Something is definitely different. I remember the firebreathing monster didn't fly; There had to be another one! Tai: You're right! There were two monsters fighting but they were different than these two!

Again, for having to recap the events of an OVA I'm pretty sure they hadn't seen, they're doing a decent job of making it work. Matt's line is nonetheless janky because. As with the Takeru flashback, Matt seems to be trying to prove a second monster's existence.

While the kids are discussing, Birdramon once again gets in close to try and melee the hulking Perfect. Grabbing his snout with one of her talons and wrestling.

It does not go well.

Sora: BIRDRAMON!!! Birdramon: Sora!

Sora sprints to where her half-frozen firebird partner landed, followed closely behind by Taichi. Her Crest of Love activates when she gets close, super-evolving Birdramon into Garudamon.

(Probably should have led with that. I understand the Digimon are trying to resource-manage. If I evolve, then I can go back to my Child base afterward and then evolve again next fight. But if I super-evolve, I'm basically out of commission for the next couple days. What if someone needs to super-evolve tomorrow and we're all burned out?

We have four Perfect-capable Digimon and right now three of them are burnt out to Baby-stage. As of this super-evolution, we are now defenseless against any future Perfect-stage Digimon until the others recover.

But when the Analyzer says "That dude's a Perfect", we should still probably try to match his level. At the very least, we should get Ikkakumon and Togemon in on this, rather than letting Birdramon try to solo a Perfect. This was a terrible idea.)

Mammon fires off his Tusk Strikes while Garudamon's super-evolving. She throws herself on top of Taichi and Sora, shielding them from the blast.

Taking cover beneath Garudamon's hand, this is the last piece Taichi needs to remember the OVA.

Sora: Garudamon! Taichi V.O.: What I saw back then...

Flashing back, Taichi remembers taking cover with Hikari, shielding her in the same way as Sora, but with a different monster towering over them.

Taichi V.O.: It wasn't a kaiju. The one who saved me back then was... Greymon!? Taichi: That's right! It was Greymon! Yamato: That's it! Koushiro: I'm sure of it. Jou: Yeah!

In the dub:

Tai V.O.: The firebreathing monster I saw... Greymon! It was Greymon and another Digimon! Tai: Sora! It was Greymon! Group: Right! / Greymon!

Garudamon mounts Mammon and giddyups him while Taichi remembers the OVA more clearly.

Taichi: A Koromon came to my house that day. That Koromon turned into Agumon. Then he became Greymon and he fought with another Digimon!

We see a flashback to Greymon and Parrotmon's brawl to give the dub team something to work with, and then Tai takes a crack at it.

Tai: The day Koromon came to my house! And Digivolved into Greymon! He was fighting with a birdlike Digimon! After the fight, they disappeared.

Hitting all the major points.

While they're talking, Garudamon finishes the fight. She hoists Mammon high up into the air and drops him from great height onto his back, then follows up with Shadow Wing. The firebird projectile slams into the defenseless Mammon, killing him. Mammon dissolves into pixel dust.

Once the fight is finished, Garudamon reverts to Pyokomon and falls into Sora's arms.

Taichi: The two disappeared after the fight. Koushiro: That's right. Jou: So that's why it was labeled a terrorist attack. Taichi: So that's why Hikari knew about Koromon. She met him back then. Patamon: She met you? Koromon: It must have been a different Koromon. Though, when I met Taichi for the first time, I did feel as if I've somehow always known him.

Koromon referring to how all the Partner Digimon laid eyes on their Partner Children and instantly knew who they were, way back on File Island.

He is not Hikari's Koromon but there's still some connection to that day in Hikarigaoka.

The dub puts a commercial between Mammothmon's death and this scene. It's a good place to put it, and that means it doesn't feel redundant when Tai mentions the disappearance again so soon after stating it before.

Tai: After the fight that day, Greymon and the other Digimon disappeared. Joe: And the police called the fight a terrorist bombing. Izzy: Exactly! Somehow, the Digimon were involved all along! Tai: That's why my little sister already knew Koromon! Kari met him back on that day! Patamon: You met her? Koromon: It must have been a different Koromon! But I did have a strange feeling when I met Tai that we had met somewhere before....

Close but not quite, Koromon. You'd always known him, but you'd never met him. That will make more sense when the series delves into the lore behind their Partnerships later down the line.

Suddenly, the sound of police sirens in the distance means we need to skedaddle.

Jou: This is bad! They'll ask a ton of questions if they catch us! Koushiro: Yes, they won't let us go easily. Taichi: LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!

Like any responsible citizen, the Chosen Children flee the police to avoid being connected to the crimes they, uh, are technically partially responsible for. Birdramon caused a fair chunk of the damage here.

In the dub, this is perfect timing for one of Dub Joe's neurotic breakdowns.

Joe: Listen, it's the cops! They'll ask a ton of questions! They'll blame us for all this! I'm too young to go to the Big House! Matt: STOP IT, JOE, AND START RUNNING!!!

XD That's a good one. It's a mild exaggeration of what he was already saying, in a situation where freaking out is entirely valid. This episode's gotten good mileage out of the Mimi and Joe gags.

Taking shelter in a park, the Chosen Children discuss what they've learned and apply it to their search.

Koushiro: I've been wondering about this for a while. Out of all the children at camp, why were we the only ones chosen? But now we've found a clue to solving that mystery. Mimi: The incident four years ago. Koushiro: Yes. All of us are linked by the fact that we already encountered Digimon four years ago. Yamato: Then it must be the same for the Eighth Child! Koushiro: There's no doubt about it! The Eighth Child, too, would have witnessed that event! Jou: What if Vamdemon's already found them!? If the Eighth Child saw the incident, then they should be in Hikarigaoka, right? Mochimon: That's not true. Since Mammon was wandering around this area alone, the others must still be scattered about and searching for the Eighth Child! Taichi: We're going to find them first. The Eighth Child. One of our nakama!

Nobody's bringing up the obvious suspect but it's nonetheless a huge step for their investigation.

In the dub:

Izzy: You know, I always thought it was kinda strange that out of all the kids at camp, we were the only ones chosen to go to the Digi-World. And I knew it couldn't just be coincidence. Somehow, we were all connected by some common event. Today, I discovered what that event was. Mimi: We all took French in school? Izzy: No, four years ago we were all living at Highton View Terrace at the same time and all of us saw those two Digimon fight. Matt: Then the Eighth DigiDestined saw the Digimon too! Izzy: Right! So the person who's the Eighth DigiDestined had to have been there as well! Joe: What if Myotismon found the kid already!? I mean, he's been searching the city all day. And if the child lived here four years ago, maybe it's still here! Motimon: I don't think so! Mammothmon wouldn't be making all this commotion if they had already found the Eighth DigiDestined child. Myotismon is still searching; I'd say the child is still out there or maybe he moved like you guys! Tai: We'll find him! Before Myotismon! The Eighth DigiDestined... He might be someone we know!

Tai lays it on a little thick there at the end. And we have a Mimi gag that I'm going to put in the "harmless" category. I don't like it, but I don't dislike it either.

The episode closes on Taichi's renewed resolve to find the Eighth Child before Vamdemon.

Assessment: Man, this is a major lore episode. But also kind of a retread. The benefit of the dub is that for an English audience, this is all genuinely new information. For the Japanese audience, we're finally seeing the Chosen Children learn things that we've known since the OVA. This episode is for the characters to play catch-up.

Mammon is something of a nothing antagonist, here just to give the episode some conflict and spark the revelatory parallels to Parrotmon and Greymon. Even Tailmon is like, "Why is this guy even here?" which was hilarious.

A few errors on the dub's part but this is one of their better eps. They manage to hit most of the major beats successfully and there's a lot of charm in their presentation.

There's still some things that get missed such as the tension in Yamato and Takeru's childhood home or that weird moment when the dub thought the kids were fleeing Myotismon's bats. But they're few, and there's a lot of good to be found here too.

[existentialterror]

Hiii I’m Normal about Dr. Iceberg (red flag, I know) but his name being Julian is complete fanon! Idk where it originally came from, but he’s never referred to as Julian Finn in any onsite tale. The only time he’s been named on the wiki, as far as I know, is when he is called Ellis Gill in a tale called “But We Do Not Talk About That”. While last updated in 2022, was originally written in 2015. Why that name never caught on, I don’t know, but I’m kind of glad. Despite Iceberg being a misogynistic piece of shit, I’m intrigued by the fact that so much is unknown about his character.

Giving him a name detracts from the horror of his story, someone who was once a person being filed down and reshaped to fit a role perfectly, only to snap under pressure and take his own life. And then, if you go with the Resurrection canon/the calm tale, he gets brought back as a cyborg (Cyberg?) that blatantly states it doesn’t have a name. He can’t escape the foundation, even in death.

I’ll cut myself off there— If I don’t, I’m liable to write an entire novel in your inbox.

Fun fish fact (since, if I remember correctly, that is the toll for sending an ask): Lampreys have been around for 400 million years, and haven’t evolved much during that time!

(I forgot about this for a while, sorry!) (In response to this exchange with @scp-l4-clef-alto-001.)

YOOOO Nice research! Today I learned. Thank you! I don't think I'd heard "Finn" before, but I believe you that it's out there. Also thank you for the fish facts. The fish facts are not necessary to send me an ask but are MUCH appreciated. The hagfish is the relative of the lamprey and is another old jawless fish. It has two powers: producing LOTS of mucus, and tying itself in knots, both overhand and underhand. I'm gonna have to read more about ciguatoxins. ❤️🐟

Hey, in exchange for the nice ask and the research, here's a snippet I wrote a long time ago about Sophia Light and your guy. (I like him too! I think he's really interesting.) It's set in the Resurrection canon but back in the past, not long after Dr. Light was recruited to the Foundation. (Might end up on the site eventually but I hate to promise. If nothing else, you know, have this.)

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

1997

Light shows up to her appointments on time. She’s trying out this business of being a person again, really giving it her all, and that’s one of the things she decides: she shows up on time. 

She’s at the entrance to Research five minutes before her assignment today. There are other two people there: a pretty woman with waves of black hair in business casual behind the receptionist deck, and a pretty man in a labcoat whose spiky hair is bleached at the tips. They’re flirting.

No, that’s not true. The man is flirting, voraciously, draped over the desk to get closer. The woman is listening, and looks bored, and tired. She catches Light’s eye, and rolls her eyes.

Light recognizes this situation from the before-world. She knows what to do. She squares her shoulders and walks right up to them. With the energy of a woman who realized yesterday that she has permanent institutional access to every academic journal ever, and has not regretted any sleep- or non-sleep-related decisions made since then, she says, “So do you know about sail jellyfish?”

She proceeds to tell the man about them, at length, for five straight minutes. The man is confused and unhappy but apparently transfixed. The woman restrains herself from laughing and drifts back to her computer screen.

“ - So that’s why the asymmetry is actually a fitness advantage,” she says, “So that they react differently to the same wind patterns and they won’t risk washing ashore. But because that’s basically random, the evolutionary pressure maintains a 50-50 balance.”

“Cool beans,” says the man, whose eyes have glazed over. “Hey, I gotta go, I’ve gotta meet up with someone - uh, Dr. Light, I think - ”

“I am Dr. Light,” Light says. 

The woman doesn’t bother muffling her guffaw. The man - Dr. Iceberg, presumably - looks uncomfortable and then flustered. Light mentally congratulates herself.

“You two are in the dissection room today, right?” the woman says, checking her computer. “Should be set up. Use the cart to move samples, do not lift large samples yourself, I do not care how strong you are, please and thank you. Decon’s ready, just go through the back. One at a time. Ice, you first.”

“Isn’t it set up for multiple people? There’s all the showers and everything - ”

The secretary shrugs. “New policy. Now get out of my sight, Ice.”

“Always good to see you, Break.” Iceberg shoots finger guns at her, as he heads to the decon room entrance.

“Drop dead,” Break calls after him.

They wait for the sounds of the door opening and closing. Break grins at Light. “Thanks for the spiel,” she says. “You got one of those locked and loaded all the time?”

“Usually you have to ask nicely first,” Light says, automatically, because affected confidence was sort of her go-to before, and it seems to be working for her so far. Then she remembers that the last thing this poor woman needs is someone else ambiguously hitting on her and feels bad. But Break just laughs.

“You know that guy?” Break asks.

“I’ve seen him around, I think? I’m - I’m bad with faces.”

“Yeah. Dr. Iceberg. He’s like that. Been a thorn in my fucking side for years. You know, the Foundation is usually pretty good about this kind of thing, in my experience. But Ice, he’s like, Gears’ special little boy, so he can get away with murder.”

Light is confused. “He’s Gears’ son?”

“No, god no - like, you know, he’s… he’s Gears’. …Doesn’t matter. I thought Ice got better for a while there, but it looks like he’s back on his bullshit.”

“Ugh,” Light agrees. 

The bulb over the decon chamber entrance turns green. Break tilts her head at it. “You’re doing, like, an autopsy, right?”

“A necropsy - uh, yeah.”

“Well, that’ll probably bring the mood down, you’ll be fine. He’s not the worst, honestly. But if you need, just say the word ‘Ice’ into the lab comms and I’ll fake an evac drill or something to get you out.”

“Thanks,” says Light. She tries to figure out how serious Break is. Break’s permanent wry plausibly-deniable customer service smile offers no hint.

Maybe Light’s overconfident. Maybe this whole business of being a person again has made her cocky. Perhaps she’s been away from a normal social fabric for so long that she’s lost sense of real implications and rules. But she finds she’s not too worried. “I think it’ll be fine,” she tells Break. “I have a lot more jellyfish facts.”

Break laughs, loudly. “Attagirl.” She waves Light into the decon chamber.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Five Little Ducks

Fandom: DC Comics, Batman

Summary: Bruce finds a magically de-aged Jason.

Chapters: 9/13

Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, Zatanna Zatara

Additional Tags: De-Aged Jason Todd, Magic, Babysitting, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, POV Third Person, Bruce Wayne is Not Okay, Bruce Wayne Tries, Jason Todd Has Issues, Childhood Trauma, TW: Self Harm

Chapter Nine: Career Day

Jason swung his feet, still eating hotdogs. "Mr. Wayne?" Jason whispered.

"Want another hotdog?" Bruce asked. Jason shook his head. "You sure?"

"I'm alright... Can I still get more hot cocoa?" Jason asked.

"Of course, Jason. You okay?" Bruce replied. Jason shook his head. "Still scared?" Jason nodded. "That's okay... The adrenaline will wear off, and everything will slow down in your head."

"How do you know?" Jason asked.

Bruce took a breath and reached to mess up Jason's hair. Jason flinched away, and Bruce nodded. "Sorry, I forgot you weren't-." Bruce trailed off.

Jason looked down at his feet, and Bruce poured him another cup of cocoa. Steph returned with marshmallows from the other kitchen. "I knew we had chocolate marshmallows somewhere," Steph smiled. Jason smiled at her.

She sprayed whipped cream on top of his cocoa and sprinkled the marshmallows. "Jason, I gotta go," Steph whispered, "It was nice meeting you."

She opened her arms, and Jason hugged her. "Do you really have to go?" Jason whined.

Steph nodded. "Yeah, but you're in good hands... Be good," Steph whispered. Jason nodded. She left Jason alone with Bruce.

"Jason, are you sure you're full?" Bruce asked.

Jason nodded. "Are you gonna tell my mom about tonight?" Jason whispered.

Bruce shook his head. "Still feel shaky?" Bruce asked. Jason nodded. "Yeah... How about we go for a ride?"

"Okay... But I should probably finish-."

"You can eat in the car. I'll make you another hotdog and put your cocoa in a to-go cup... Unless you'd like to eat first. Sorry if I seem pushy," Bruce whispered. Jason shook his head.

"You're not pushy," Jason replied, "Do you get lonely in this house all by yourself?"

Bruce poured Jason's cocoa into a to-go cup. "Sometimes," Bruce answered. With a tilt of the head, Bruce realized Jason wasn't asking to make conversation. He genuinely cared. "Do you get lonely being an only child?"

Jason nodded. "But you're an only child too... You know what it's like," Jason replied.

"I suppose I do... Still, I'd like to hear about your experience. It's gotta be different now than it used to be," Bruce replied as he wrapped Jason's hotdog in deli paper. They walked to the car, and Bruce handed Jason his food. "Gotham's changed a lot from when I was a child. Crime's not as organized as it used to be. More innocent people getting hurt."

"I guess so... But I'm not scared of the crime. I'm-. Do you ever feel like everyone else has more life than you?" Jason questioned. Bruce furrowed his brow. "Like some people have everything... Huge families, the perfect house, the car-."

"The happiness?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah," Jason mumbled.

The sun rose over the horizon, and Jason shielded his eyes. Bruce pulled down the mirror on the passenger's side. "No one's life is perfect. Even if someone has all those things, they'll always need something else," Bruce replied, "But I get the sense of longing. What do you long for?"

"I wish I had somebody older than me around... Then I wouldn't be responsible for everything all the time. I guess that's selfish, though. I feel selfish for wishing it was someone else. People always say they wouldn't wish stuff on their worst enemies, but is it wrong to wish you had somebody to share things with? Even the bad stuff?" Jason questioned. Bruce nodded. "You probably think that's a terrible thing-."

"You have no idea how much I relate to everything you've said. I think that's been my sole motivation for everything I've done in the past decade or so... I want someone to share my experience with too. I think my second son understood that better than anyone," Bruce whispered. Jason smiled.

"Where is he?" Jason questioned.

"We hit a bump in the road... And things never seemed the same again. We couldn't fix things," Bruce replied, squeezing his knee to hold back tears.

"I hope you can patch things up with your son someday," Jason mumbled as he tapped Bruce's wrist, offering him a gentle hand. "I'm sorry that you can't talk to him right now..."

"Thank you, Jason," Bruce smiled. He glanced over at Jason, who'd quietly given way to tears. "What's the matter?"

"I'm sorry... I don't know why-. I do know why I'm crying... I don't wanna tell you. You'll think it's dumb," Jason cried as he wiped his face. Bruce pulled over.

"I don't think your feelings are dumb... Let me have it, Jason. What's got you so upset?" Bruce asked sweetly.

They stared at one another for a while, and Jason sniffed. "I'm jealous... And I don't wanna be," Jason murmured. Bruce messed up Jason's hair.

"We're sharing something right now, Jason. Maybe you can't take his place, but you can have a place of your own," Bruce whispered, "Would you like that while you're here? To have a space of your own?" Jason stared into Bruce's eyes, all glossy with tears, and nodded. Bruce smiled a gently reassuring smile.

"But what does that mean for me?" Jason asked.

"You're loved while you're here... You're seen while you're here... You're understood," Bruce explained. Jason smiled.

They drove through Gotham while Jason ate and drank, and Bruce glanced at him occasionally. "You know what?" Bruce asked. Jason made a soft noise. "Your smile is the best smile in Gotham."

Jason switched over to a sheepish grin and looked down at his feet. "Thank you," Jason answered weakly.

"It's true. I've never seen a happier smile," Bruce replied honestly, "Reminds me of my son's smile."

"Really?" Jason asked.

Bruce nodded. "Jason, you have your whole beautiful life ahead of you. I don't know what you wanna do, but I know you'll be great," Bruce reassured Jason. "What do you wanna do?"

"I wanna help people," Jason replied, "I wanna do something that makes people feel better... Just don't know how. Nobody's ever asked me that before."

"Not even at school?" Bruce questioned. Jason shook his head.

"Nuh-uh... I think the teachers are more worried about keeping us out of juvie," Jason replied. Bruce frowned. "Thanks for asking me, though... Now I can think about it."

"Glad it's on your mind now. I can't wait to see what you become," Bruce beamed.

[ghostmath]

oh yeah and also, here’s the little ghost story I wrote a bit too late to get into the official Halloween issue of the Neopian Times but just in time for the November 1st issue (😔):

Come In

“So how’s everything looking out there? Over.”

The words transmitted by the device were crackly and overly harsh, a crude approximation of a voice that Kiyoshi knew well enough to find this new version particularly jarring. The blue Shoyru took a moment to consider his immediate surroundings. It was a cool, quiet autumn evening in this part of Neopia Central, and now that the shops were closed the streets were all but deserted, which was how Kiyoshi preferred them. It was hard to ignore the obvious reason for the diminished nightlife scene, however, and even Kiyoshi was beginning to get bored of Neopia Central’s new look. He gazed up at the Fresh Foods store, reflecting on how he used to hate the tacky hamburger building; but somehow, it looked so much more pitiable in black and white.

He raised the clunky, brick-like communication device to his face and pressed the button to talk. “I gotta be honest, Tyra,” he said. “It looks kinda bad. Over.”

When Tyra’s next message came through, Kiyoshi caught the tail end of a laugh. “Yeah, I figured it would probably be the same as Kiko Lake. Grey and more grey. Guess there’s not much more to say about it. Over.”

Kiyoshi wandered away from Neopian Fresh Foods, finding the stillness a little eerie as it settled over the greyed-out city. “You did say it wasn’t contagious, though, right?” he asked, checking the soles of his shoes for any new signs of discolouration. “I know I’m not exactly known for my vibrant aesthetic, but I still don’t think I’m ready to commit to a paint brush colour that gives you seasonal depression. Over.”

“I said no one knows whether it’s contagious yet,” crackled the response. “But I’ve been keeping up with the coverage in the Neopian Times, and so far I haven’t heard of anyone turning grey unless they were in the affected area when the Painter arrived to begin with. So let’s just consider ourselves lucky that when he decided to hit Neopia Central, the apartment happened to be outside the grey radius. Greydius? Greydius.” The device squealed, then an echo of Tyra’s voice began to stream from its speaker. “Greydius. Greydius. Greydius. Greydius….”

Kiyoshi shook the device, then flipped a toggle near the antenna back and forth until the echo died. There was another mechanical squeal, and Tyra’s voice returned. “…there? Come in, Kiyoshi?”

“Go for Kiyoshi. Sorry. The comm was just being weird again. Over.”

“Weird how? Over.”

“Kind of like an echo. I was just hearing your last word over and over again.”

“Don’t forget to say ‘over’. Over.”

“Oh. Sorry. Over.”

“Interesting. But not unexpected. This technology is still very new, so there’s gonna be some kinks to work out before I roll these bad boys out to the public. But this has been very helpful!” Her businesslike tone perked up. “I’ve got plenty of new data to work with, so feel free to come back to the apartment whenever you’re ready. I’ll order some food and we can celebrate the completion of another test without anything blowing up. What d’you feel like? Over.”

“Anything but burgers,” Kiyoshi said, turning and taking a step back the way he’d come before stopping suddenly.

“You forgot to say ‘over’ again. Over.”

“Sorry, I thought—” Kiyoshi was staring up at the Magical Bookshop, his eye caught by one of the side windows. It was dark inside, and yet….

There it was. An even darker shadow flickered on the other side of the window, and for a second it seemed like it might be looking at him, although he couldn’t make out a face. Before he could react, the shape quickly withdrew from sight.

Something about the way the figure moved made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. “There’s someone in there,” Kiyoshi said into the comm, more quietly. “Inside the bookshop. Over.”

A pause. “Someone other than the shopkeeper? Over.”

“The bookshop closed an hour ago. They all did. There’s no lights on or anything…” He stepped up to the door, peering in through the little window there.

“You’re not the Chia Police,” Tyra’s words buzzed against his hand, bringing him back to reality. “If someone broke in, that’s too bad, but it’s none of our business. Over.”

“What if it’s…” Kiyoshi’s stomach tightened. “This was one of the shops that ghost came through everyday. You know, back in the summer. I was sure that he’d finally passed on, but… what if that’s still not over?” He paused, and then when there was no response, added, “…Over.”

“Doesn’t change anything,” Tyra said bluntly. “It’s not like you’re gonna break in yourself just to find out. Over.”

“Door’s unlocked,” Kiyoshi said, surprised even as he said it. The doorknob turned easily in his hand, and he was able to crack open the door without resistance. “Over.”

“I swear, in another life I went into security systems instead of communications and revolutionized this ridiculous city. Seriously, Kiyoshi, for once, just walk away. Over.” Tyra’s voice sounded exasperated.

He turned down the volume on the comm. “This shopkeeper was literally the only one I talked to that day who was even remotely helpful,” Kiyoshi said in a low voice as he unclipped his lantern from his backpack. “I feel like I owe him at least, like… a ghostchasing followup. You know. For quality control. Over.”

”You’re not doing this for him,” Tyra said tiredly. “You’re doing this for you. Over.”

Kiyoshi decided not to tell Tyra that he had already stepped inside. The fading light from the doorway didn’t reach far, but thanks to his lantern he was easily able to find a small panel of light switches on the wall. When he flicked the first one up, there was no visible change in the darkened shop interior. “…Hm.” He flicked the others one by one. Nothing.

He pressed the talk button on his comm. “Power’s out. Maybe the shopkeeper really is still in here? I feel like it would be easy to get trapped behind all these bookshelves if the lights went off all of a sudden.”

He released the talk button and decided to try calling out. “…Hello? Anyone in here?” But all was silent, at least until Tyra’s next transmission came through.

“That sounds like a great reason for you to not go any further. Further. Further. Further. Further….”

Kiyoshi flicked the toggle and lightly smacked the comm. The echo stopped abruptly. “I’ve got my lantern,” he said. “Lemme just check that window, it shouldn’t be too far in.”

The shadows of the bookshelves leaped and wavered in the pool of light as he passed them. He had the uncanny impression of walking through a grove of trees at night. When he reached a wall, he frowned, squinting into the dark beyond his lantern light. If there were windows anywhere along here, shouldn’t he be able to see at least a little light through them? Kiyoshi followed the wall for a few dozen steps until the light fell on the edge of something that was neither book nor bookshelf: some kind of draped, grey fabric. He couldn’t stop his breath from hitching at the sight, half-expecting it to be a person standing there in the dark — but he quickly realized that it was actually a heavy velvet curtain, drawn across the wall. He exhaled slowly and brushed aside the curtain, letting grey light spill into the bookshop from the large, arched window on the other side. Flecks of dust floated in the narrow aisle, which suddenly seemed very small and mundane. There was another window a short ways down the wall, also curtained. Otherwise, the aisle was deserted.

“Tyra to Kiyoshi. Still alive? Over.”

He was beginning to feel a little silly for letting himself get so jumpy. “Kiyoshi here,” he said, checking behind the other curtain for good measure. “All good. There’s no one here. Over.”

Crash.

He whirled in the direction of the noise. It had been the sound of something heavy and solid falling over — or being knocked over. He raced to the end of the aisle and saw a door hanging open, just at the end of the checkout counter. Beyond the door, stairs led down into a darkness that neither the light from the windows nor his lantern could reach.

Tyra had been talking. “Sorry,” Kiyoshi said into the comm, trying to regulate his breathing. “Didn’t catch that. Could you repeat?”

“I said, ‘Great, so you’re coming home now, right?’ Over.”

Kiyoshi hovered at the top of the stairs, bouncing on his heels. “Right,” he whispered to himself. “Right…” The light from the windows would be no help down there, but he had to admit he was feeling a little braver with the curtains open. There was something about those curtains that was nagging at him, but he put the thought aside for now.

“Right away,” Kiyoshi said into the comm. “Just gotta check one more thing before I go. Over.”

“That’s what you’ve been saying this whole time!”

The first stair creaked under his weight, and he winced. What am I doing? He wasn’t exactly an expert on Neopia Central laws, but surely this was a whole new level of trespassing. The unlocked door was one thing, but the basement? What was even down there? Overstock? Living quarters?

The comm was still buzzing with Tyra’s voice. “It’s incredibly frustrating to do this when I can’t see your face. I can tell you’re not telling me everything, and I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but right now I’m just kind of annoyed. Over.”

Kiyoshi had reached the bottom of the stairs, and was momentarily stunned by what he saw. The basement, it seemed, was indeed used for overstock. But if the bookshelves upstairs had been a grove, then this was a forest. The massive storage units in front of him were so tall he couldn’t see the tops before they were lost in shadow. Miles away from the handsome, well-polished bookcases upstairs, these units were starkly utilitarian and crammed full of too many books to count. He could tell that there were at least a half-dozen rows like this — probably a lot more. And while he couldn’t see the ends of any of them, something about the way this space felt — the way even his softest footsteps produced an echo, the way the glow of his lantern seemed to be almost sucked into that black unknown — made him believe that it was very, very large.

Hadn’t Tyra once told him there used to be a lot of catacombs in use under the city?

“I promise it’s not that deep,” said Kiyoshi into the comm. He moved slowly along the ends of the aisles. He stopped in front of one, where a long wooden ladder was lying diagonally, half suspended against a low shelf. It was surrounded by a loose pile of books that appeared to have been knocked from the nearby shelves. “I’m not trying to trick you or anything. The power’s out, I have a lantern, and there might be somebody who needs help—“

This time Tyra didn’t even wait for him to say ‘over’, cutting him off with a shrill squeal of feedback from the comm. “Yeah, and if you’re not careful, it’s you who’s gonna be that somebody! Body! Body! Body! Body! Body! Body—“

Kiyoshi jammed the toggle back and forth with so much force that he fumbled the device and almost launched it straight out of his hands. But while the comm was spared, the same couldn’t be said for his lantern, whose handle slipped from his grasp just as he got hold of the comm. He flinched as the lantern met the concrete floor with a crash and a tinkle, and the sole source of light in the basement was instantly extinguished.

Kiyoshi dropped and felt around on his hands and knees for his lantern, sucking in a sharp breath as his fingers found the jagged edge of one of its shattered glass panes first. He clicked the dial in vain, trying to switch it back on — until his hand brushed the open battery compartment, and he swore. He searched the floor desperately with stinging fingers. Where had those batteries gone….

Wait. Kiyoshi froze, listening. Was that… music?

It was coming from his pocket, where he had unthinkingly stuffed the comm. Dumbfounded, he pulled it out, and the mellow but grainy sounds of smooth jazz drifted into the narrow space between the bookshelves. Did he change the channel by accident when he lost hold of it earlier? What were the other channels even used for? He turned the dial up a channel, and an unfamiliar monotone voice was reciting, ”Two, five, two — two, five—“

Impatiently, Kiyoshi turned the dial all the way down and started clicking up from the start. He was pretty sure he remembered Tyra saying Channel Four….

“Kiyoshi to Tyra? Tyra, you there?” He held his breath, then breathed a sigh of relief when her voice crackled to life.

“Kiyoshi, what happened? You went silent, so I thought — I’m already halfway out the door, are you okay? Should I come meet you?”

“No, don’t worry, I’m fine, just dropped the comm, but it… it seems to be okay.”

”Kiyoshi, I’m not worried about the comm, I’m worried about you! What are you still doing down there?”

Why was he still down here? a reasonable part of his mind was asking. He had no light and this whole situation was feeling increasingly wrong. But the bigger, more stubborn part of his mind was winning as long as he still hadn’t found what he came here to find. He pulled himself to his feet with the aid of the bookshelf next to him. “I’m just—“ he started, then stopped with his finger still on the talk button.

There was no light in the basement. That was an inconvenient but indisputable fact. So when Kiyoshi stood there, staring straight ahead down the long, pitch-black aisle, transfixed by what he saw there, he realized two things very quickly.

For one thing, this must have been what he wanted. The truth of that thought settled in his stomach like poison, making him feel disgusted with himself. This was what he always wanted, what he had been hoping to find all along, in some morbid, masochistic way. He never really thought that shape in the window had been the shopkeeper or a sad lost ghost. He hadn’t known what it was, knew it could be dangerous, hoped it could be… because that was who he was, the kind of idiot who let his curiosity drag him into the worst kinds of trouble even when all traces of common sense, even the voice of his best friend, were begging him to stop….

And secondly, it occurred to him just what had been bothering him about the curtains upstairs. He had found them closed, even though the mystery intruder seen near the window had obviously had every opportunity to leave them open. But if whatever was in here had ever really wanted out, why would they have removed their only source of light?

There was something deeply unnatural about the elongated yellow eyes that smouldered in the darkness scarcely ten paces in front of him. It wasn’t just that they were glowing, it was that they were glowing darkly somehow — that despite their intensity, they didn’t appear to give off any light of their own that might illuminate their surroundings. It seemed distinctly unfair. Cruel, even.

Kiyoshi raised the comm. He still hadn’t released the talk button, and his finger was beginning to cramp. “Tyra,” he said, as casually as he could, “out of curiosity, what do you know about the Shadow Usul?”

The eyes didn’t move. Neither did Kiyoshi. It seemed like hours before Tyra’s next response came through. ”Okay, that’s it, I’m coming to get you—“

The eyes flickered a little, as if annoyed, and Kiyoshi scrambled to cut Tyra off. “No, don’t! Don’t, just—“ He took a deep breath to calm his voice, and the strange light in those almond-shaped eyes seemed to settle down. “Just. Be cool. Please. I’m leaving now, I promise.” Very slowly, he took a step backwards. “But uh. If you could look up the Shadow Usul in the meantime, that would be appreciated. Don’t make a big deal about it. Please, just trust me.”

A pause. “Okay.” There was a scuffling sound over the comm. “I think I have a copy of the Gallery of Evil around here somewhere….”

Kiyoshi moved backwards until he could feel the end of the row with his hand. Then, he bolted.

There was no way to tell which direction he was running. He could only hope it was back the way he’d come, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being swallowed up even further into the black. Since it didn’t matter whether he faced the front or not, he kept frantically searching the darkness around him as he ran, heart skipping when he saw those eyes again for half a second before they quickly disappeared within the dark rows — they were following him, keeping pace with him—

He tripped over something that felt a lot like a fallen ladder and went sprawling, books falling like rubble on top of and all around him. And then, miraculously, there was light.

Almost as blind with the sudden brightness as he had been without it, Kiyoshi fumbled for its source and grabbed a chunky board book that was shaped like a Quiggle — Quiggle Bedtime Stories, its cover proclaimed in fun block lettering — with two big white balls on the top for eyeballs. The eyeballs were lit up, and a cutesy nursery tune was playing from some kind of speaker inside the book. Kiyoshi seized the book, whipping it around just in time to hear a sound somewhere between a hiss and a scream as what looked like a living shadow melted back into the darkness beyond the Quiggle’s protective aura. Kiyoshi scrambled to his feet and was immediately running again. It wasn’t much, but thanks to the Quiggle he could see at least far enough in front of him to avoid running into any more furniture….

”Wow. Okay. You’re not going to like this,” Tyra was saying.

“Hit me with it,” Kiyoshi said, hoping she couldn’t hear him panting.

”Okay, well. It says not much is known about her, but she supposedly lurks in the shadows around Neopia Central at night, like you’ve probably heard. She’s been responsible for a number of disappearances and other disasters over the years. No one knows what she’s after, but there are some theories.”

The stairs. Kiyoshi just caught a glimpse of them before the light suddenly vanished, along with the music. “Night-night!” the book said happily. Cursing, Kiyoshi shook the book vigorously, then desperately splayed the pages open, cracking the spine. The lullaby started again, and the light flicked back on. He heard a sinister giggle from somewhere above him as he sprinted towards the staircase.

”She always starts by luring her victim into an isolated location.”

Kiyoshi clambered up the stairs, almost on all fours. Why hadn’t he ever bothered learning how to fly….

”She removes all light from the area. The process requires total darkness.”

The door at the top of the stairs was closed, but unlocked. Kiyoshi almost laughed with relief, launching himself through it.

“Night-night!”

“No, not night-night!” Kiyoshi snapped, beating on the book until it lit up again. This time, the hiss was almost directly in his ear as the shadow withdrew. It was pitch-black up here without the book’s light; had she blocked the windows again?

”She traps you there, because what comes next takes all night. Better to make sure all the windows and doors are closed, so no one can hear the screams.”

The door. The door to the outside world. It was so, so close….

”It says the Shadow Usul isn’t limited by physical form. She can slip through even the tiniest crack. She can even slip inside your skin.”

Kiyoshi yanked on the front door, but it didn’t budge. There was no sign of a lock on this side for him to mess with. His heart plummeted as he turned around.

“Night-ni—“

Kiyoshi rattled the book violently. This time, however, the eyeballs just flickered weakly for a moment, as if in protest. Then, to the Shoyru’s horror, the lights fizzled out, and the darkness closed in around him completely.

A perfect silence pounded against his eardrums as those yellow eyes wavered in front of him. They took their time as they floated closer, seeming to relish their victory.

Kiyoshi tossed the book into the dark. His lips were dry as he raised the comm. “…What happens then?”

”…Well, then the Shadow Usul gets what she wants more than anything. A body.”

The eyes hung in front of him, so close their faces should have touched, if she had a face to touch him with. The Shoyru pressed himself back up against the door. He could call for help. But it was too late now. By the time Tyra got here, who knows what state he’d be in….

“Sometimes she gets that far. But she’s always been disappointed, because she never gets to keep the body for very long. They don’t last. But still, she keeps trying, because who knows, maybe the next one….“

The door opened.

Expecting literally anything before that, Kiyoshi fell backwards. There was a yelp as he toppled into the person on the other side, sending them both tumbling onto the cobble-lined street.

“Ah — what, Kiyoshi?” A familiar split Aisha was gingerly picking herself off the ground, blinking at him like she couldn’t believe her eyes. “What are you — are you okay? What happened to your hands?”

The sun had long since set, but the grey street was well-lit by several nearby street lamps, letting them see each other clearly. The Shoyru staggered to his feet, staring at the door to the bookstore, which had somehow closed behind them. “How did you do that? How did you open it?”

“I told you, security around here is garbage,” Tyra said with a roguish grin, waving a small, bent piece of wire in his direction. “Don’t tell the Chia Police.”

Kiyoshi’s head was reeling. “How… how in Neopia did you get here so fast….”

Tyra looked at him, then shrugged. “I mean, I came as fast as I could after you stopped responding. You end up on the wrong channel or something?”

“N…no, it was Channel Four, right?”

Kiyoshi felt very unsettled by her stare. The Aisha stepped forward, and Kiyoshi offered no resistance when she pulled the comm from his grip. She frowned, clicking the channel dial down a notch. Then she placed it back in his hand.

“We’ll work on your ability to follow simple instructions during the next test,” Tyra said. “But for now, let’s go home. It seems so much darker around here with all this grey.”

[skelnexswriting]

“How Copy?”

➪ | Pairing: | Soap x reader

➪ | Warnings: | fluff is toward the end, reunion between soap+reader, mentions of blood & killing. “n/n” means nickname btw.

➪ | Summary: | After the Graves betrayal you get separated from ghost & soap. When you hear that soap is injured, it’s your goal to get to him and patch him up.

➪ | A/n: | idk how to feel about this. But hope you enjoy!

—

Everything seemed to be a blur. The betrayal. The fight. It all happened too quickly. You didn’t even get a chance to process anything before you had to run and fight for your life.

You didn’t know where Ghost or soap were. Hell you didn’t even know where you were. The town was quiet. Too quiet. It didn’t help that rain was pouring down. It masked any footsteps, making you go in blind.

Most civilians were driven out the city by shadows. Others were killed by them. Blood stained the streets and houses..Graves was out of control. You knew he couldn’t be trusted..yet no one questioned him. You even told soap but he only replied with, “He’s part of the team love, we gotta trust him.”

So much for that..

But it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that you needed to find Ghost and soap. You needed to know if they were alive at least. Switching between every empty channel, only to be met with the static sounds that emitted from your radio.

“Ghost, Soap how copy..?”

Yet neither of them responded. There was no way graves got them right? You continued your way between buildings, making sure to avoid any where shadows could possibly be.

And just as you were turning a corner you heard ghost’s voice come through your comms. “Soap, Septic..How copy..?”

He was alive. Now that only leaves soap. You pushed down the button on your radio, replying to ghost. “I’m solid.”

“Good to hear. Any sign of johnny”

“Not yet, we could try the next empty channel.”

“Alright, switch over.”

You switched to the next channel, hearing ghost call for soap again.

Still no response.

You grew more worried with each passing second. Your brain playing possible situations that could have happened. You decided to try after Ghost second try.

“Johnny how copy..?”

“Solid.” Soap’s alive. He’s ok. You let out a breath, letting out your previous worries.

“Thought we lost you.”

“Taken a liking to me Lt?”

At least he still has his humor. Ghost replied with something, but you didn’t hear it. You were busy trying to see if there was somewhere that wasn’t infested with shadows. But the call of your name brought you back to reality.

“Septic you there?”

“yeah, i’m here.”

“Good, gonna need our medic to patch up soap.”

You almost forgot soap was shot. Fucking graves. How were you going to get to soap though? You didn’t exactly know where you were or where he was. “Where my gonna find you johnny?”

“Meet at the coffee shop. Then we’ll meet Lt. at the church.”

“Aw wanna buy me a tea?”

“Only for you love.”

“Fucking hell, get a room you two.”

It was funny how ghost was the one to play cupid for you and soap. Maybe now he’s regretting that.

“Regretting playing cupid Lt.”

“It was that or johnny constantly complaining to me.”

Well then..

…

Getting it to the coffee shop was more complicated than you thought it would be. Everywhere there was a shadow..well now it was more like a shadow body.

And it was odd when your murdering someone while hearing about a joke involving two goldfish in a tank..

The jokes went on for the entirety of the time you were making your way to the coffee shop. The jokes were coming from both soap AND ghost. However, ghost jokes were more…dark.

Lets not replay the half a dog one.

Soap beat you to the coffee shop. When you entered he was standing with his back facing toward you. He must’ve not heard you.

“Im in the coffee shop.”

“Get us a tea.”

“Fucking britts.”

You walked closer to soap, making your presence by replying.

“That’s not very nice, now is it johnny?”

You saw his shoulders tense as he turned around (well more like whipped around), before they relaxed again seeing it was you.

“N/n..”

He wrapped his arms around you, holding you close. You did the same, but being careful as to not hurt his arm more.

“Thought I lost you johnny..”

You felt him squeeze you lightly before pulling back to cup your cheeks.

“I could never leave you darling..”

He placed a soft kiss on your forehead. You knew you would have to cut this moment short because you had to get out of this town. You smiled at soap before taking one of his hands in yours.

“Lets you patch up yeah?”

“Yeah.”

…

It didn’t take long to patch soap up. Only disinfectant solution, and some bandages.

“There all better.”

You stepped back, admiring your work. Soap checked his arm before shooting you a smile.

“Thanks love.”

…

After you patched up soap, you both were able to make it to the church to meet ghost and got out of town with a random truck. Safe to say ghost has an unique..way of driving.

Ghost took all of you to Alejandro’s safe house, where you guys met with rudy again. So now that you were out of harms way you were able to take a better look at soaps arm.

“It needs some stitches.”

Soap only hummed in acknowledgment, so you got to work. Disinfecting the wound and carefully stitching up his wound. While stitching soap, he softly traced shapes on your leg distracting himself.

You finished pretty quick, finishing with a clean bandage around his arm.

“All set Johnny.”

He used his good arm you pulled you in closer giving you a quick peck on the lips.

“Thank you love, seems like I owe you a tea after all this”

“I’m gonna hold you to that Mactavish.”

[kristi16]

How we got into Inchident p.3

pairing: charles leclerc x female reader warnings: fluff, smut, swearing, possessiveness, nsfw, translated french, degradation words: 1.3K

''I want to see you masturbate. See you come.'' Then he started to put little kisses over my ear to my collarbone through my neck. I immediately put aside my head and closed my eyes. ''You know what I love Charles?'' He did hm me while still playing with the skin on my neck. ''When someone kisses my neck from the back.'' He suddenly stopped. Looked into my eyes and told me. ''This someone gotta be me.'' He snapped and turned me around so fast I was surprised by his action. ''Now tell me how much you like it to have my cock right at your ass.'' He grabbed my neck from the front with one hand, and the second hand laid on my waist. As soon as he pressed his lips on my neck, I arched my back and met his cock. I moaned so loud that I was slightly embarrassed about what a wreck I am and he still hasn't done anything. He chuckled under his breath as If he knows exactly what is running through my mind. ''You're so responsive Y/N. I love it so so much. You're like my little slut.'' I gasped a little from that comment and he pressed more pressure on my neck. Turned my head around with his free hand and started to kiss me again. ''Now we should get you on the bed and you're supposed to give me a show. Remember?'' I looked at him and was so taken aback from this request. I felt like I'm gonna be so weird and just fucking weird doing it in front of him. ''Don't be shy about it. I know you weren't shy about the idea of you having my cock inside of you.'' Oh my god, this man. Knows how to excite me. He knows me way too much by now. At least when it comes to sex and stuff related. Of course I got a little bit uncomfortable, insecure about it. And he saw that. ''You don't have to do it. But I really want you to. You're my good little girl, aren't you?'' He smirked again. I hopped on the bed. While he sat down. I shyly grabbed my toy and he thststs me. ''No toy now. I want to see how you work with your fingers.'' ''So you can know how to make me?'' I asked, with more confidence. ''Darling, you already forgot I've made you yesterday.'' He smirked with this devilish smile of his. I just nodded silently and put the toy on the bedside table.

She was there, sitting in front of me. Not fighting with me of not wanting to do what I told her to do. She is so good to me. When she returned the gaze to me from her toy, she laid down on her elbows and slipped her thumbs on each side of her hips. Where the leggings meet the skin. She was looking at me this whole time, not breaking eye contact. She doesn't even know that she is the one actually having the power. This little me being the commander is nothing against what she is doing to me. She lowered her eyes to her thighs. Bitting her lips and looking so satisfied with what she's about to do. Slowly, almost torturously taking the leggings off. She wasn't wearing any panties. I think this is usual for her. Which excites me even more. ''Your shirt as well. I wanna see your tits.'' She just nodded, got up a little bit and took off her shirt overhead. Goddammit. She looks so perfect. I just stopped breathing I guess and was looking at those perfect tits. Wanting to lick them so bad. Put them in my mouth. ''You're drooling over yourself Charles.'' she chuckled. This petite biatch. ''You're the one who's drooling between your legs, bella'' She just blushed so hard. Then she laid down completely. Starting to move her fingers around her clit. Moaning immediately. Touching her hard nipples. Closing her eyes and just enjoying herself. But I need her to know I am there with her. So I spoke. ''Look at me mon amour.'' She looked at me with this look that always makes me even more horny. I grasped. ''Keep looking at me while you do yourself.'' She started to finger herself. And me without any thoughts, getting my dick of my jeans. I stroked it a little bit. She just stared. Like a hungry animal. I almost came with just her eyes on my dick and her mouth open. She picked up on her pace and started to be louder and louder. I titled my head in disbelief how this woman disarmed me. ''Come baby.'' ''Charles-I.'' ''Que veux-tu.'' ''I want you.'' I was surprised a little bit. I wanted her so much. But didn't want to take her like this, so soon. But when I looked at her, how she is so petite and under me. Not taking her now, and anytime in the future, would be a sin. I took off my jumper and tossed it somewhere in the room. She stared at my body. This lust in her eyes grew bigger. ''Now you're the one who's drooling.'' ''Yeah, you haven't stopped yourself.'' I had to chuckle. This woman is not giving up easily. Too bad for her I am competitive and I gotta win, always. My jeans and boxers were down in a sec and I positioned myself on top of her. ''You sure you want this?'' She just nodded fast and moaned. I used my knees to separate her legs more. Which made her shiver. She just gasped for air. She was so horny and excited, almost as much as me. I positioned my tip onto her entrance. And looked at her. She was looking at me, waiting for it. So I made it a little bit more fun. Pushing into her hard and deep, got her so full without any hesitation or warning. She squeaked under me. Immediately wrapping her legs around me. ''Oh my god Charles-you're stretching me out so much. I don't know If I can handle it.'' ''You will.'' She cried out a little bit here and then but never stopped me from continuing. ''God, Y/N, you are so tight. So so tight. I don't know If I can last much longer.'' ''Don't stop please.'' I felt how she's hugging me more and more, which made me shiver myself, I started to moan louder as well so I got my lips to her tits, licked them and sucked them. She just screamed with my name leaving her lips, such a beautiful singing. When she was in her peak I went for kissing her, so she is outta breath. And I came myself. Right after her peak. Still staying inside of her.

I closed my eyes for a second. Charles spoke to me with a raspy voice. ''You good baby girl?'' ''Yeah. More than that.'' I chuckled. Then he just hugged me even more, and I wanted to cry so much. Because of how intimate and beautiful it was. But I stopped myself from doing it. I know this guy for three weeks. I don't want him to know me so much. ''Cherie, I gotta tell you this was the best experience I've ever had. I feel so connected to you.'' With this what he said, I grabbed my hand and started to run though his hair with my fingers. I blindly stared into the ceiling and was thinking about If I should open up to him. But I reconsidered. If he is the one, it will unfold to him naturally. No need to push it. ''Yeah, I feel the same. I enjoyed it so much Charles.'' I felt his smile on my breasts. And then I just flipped state and asked with a little bit of a laugh. ''Oh my god, aren't you supposed to be with the team by now haha?'' He just shrugged his shoulder. Then chuckled a little bit. ''It will wait for some time.'' So he stayed like this, hugging me and being inside of me still for couple more minutes. Until he got up. Kissed me passionately for a long time, hugged me again. Kissed my temple and said goodbye. I just waved at him and then closed the door. With this big smile on my face.

[justdoingitforlove]

His Secret Lover

( Bakugou x Fem.Reader )

Not prove read so 🫡

Warnings: Angst, foul language throughout, use of violence, mentions of sexual assault, blood and gore mentioned, viewer discretion is advised.

Summary: Bakugou Katsuki. Japan’s best hero. His popularity perceives him as to why you kept your relationship in the dark. For reasons like this. He was afraid And now his worst nightmare had just became reality.

“I’m gonna miss date night,”

His voice over the phone was full of exhaustion as he lays back on his office chair looking at all the papers on his desk.

“Again…”

“Oh it’s alright, love!” Your voice filled his heart only for it to break at the fact he’s missing yet another planned date night, “I’m glad you told me and didn’t leave me hanging.”

He scoffed and places his hand over his head, “Tsk, I wasn’t gonna miss this but I’ve got these files that these shitheads forgot to do so now I’m stuck with even more work then planned.”

“Don’t worry about, babe! It’s fine you’ve got work and I know it hasn’t been easy,” you sigh but still keep a smile, “I have to finish this dress tonight for Madame, anyways, so it will keep me entertained.” You smile in sarcasm and look at the unfinished dress that Madame expected to have done.

Katsuki chuckles but can’t help but clench his fist, annoyed at how well your taking this. Like it doesn’t phase you. He knows this week has kept him occupied from you and it hurts him that you still manage to put up with him. He has no idea what he did to deserve someone like you.

“Yeah well next time I’m making us the best dinner you’ve ever had!” He assured, with his snarky attitude.

“Oh really?” you voice filled with amusement.

“Oh yeah,” he responds in his raspy voice that creates goosebumps all over you, “And trust me. You won’t forget it.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” you giggle, you cheeks turning a shade of pink at his comment.

“I gotta go, babe, this coworkers are gonna be the death of me,” you groan at the fact your two close coworkers arguing again, attempting to find the culprit of who broke the coffee maker.

“And in case you don’t live forever, let me tell you now” he chuckle at your exaggerated comment, “I love you more that you’ll ever wrap your head around.”

His smile that only you can ever get out of him grows, “I don’t want I did to deserve you.”

“Yeah your pretty lucky,” you agree, proudly.

“Oh whatever,” his smile fades at your response but he mumbles, “I love you most.”

You giggle and end the call until you realize the spot your still in. Crazy coworkers and an unfinished dress, how the gods have some plan for you.

He places his phone in his pocket and faces reality. Shitheads messed everything up. Why does he have to be the one to clean this up?

—

Time passes by and the sun slowly starts to set. Katsuki is halfway finished and he’s about ready to leave. That’s until his close friend runs into his office.

“What the hell is your problem!?” Katsuki looks up, too pissed to even notice his friends face.

“We just got a call from Deku’s Agency,” his face looks pale, “Bakugou it’s bad.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Katsuki’s voice is serious. “Kirishima! What the fuck does it mean!?” He is eager to know but the words won’t come out of his mouth. He opens his mouth as Katsuki get closer and pulls his collar. He wasn’t ready for the words that came out of his mouth.

“Bakugou, they got her.”

—

“Planned another date night?” Your close coworker, (RN) ask, curious.

“We did, but change of plans,” you sigh, focusing on the finale sew, leaning back against your fun spinning chair, “We both had to work late, so it wasn’t gonna work anyways.”

(R/N) couldn’t help but feel bad, “Well maybe after this, you wanna grab a bite at whatever’s open?”

“Y’know that new ramen place just opened and I have been dying to try it,” you gave cheeky smirk as she was offering. She smiled and nodded her head.

You finally get up to stretch you back and head to the fabric closet. You open and noticed some of the fabric you needed was missing.

“(R/N), did you and (O/N) use the rest of the red velvet?! You know I need to get this dress done by tonight,” you groan, grabbing the closest red you could get.

“(R/N)?” You ask, wondering why she didn’t answer. You close the door and wait again for a response. There is no way she didn’t hear you. You guys were supposed to be the last ones out of the building.

“Y-,”

B

O

O

M

Before you could say anything, you were thrown to the ground by a huge explosion. You couldn’t hear from your right ear for the longest time as you were trying realize what happened. You look and see your coworker, dead. Your eyes widen as you desperately crawl over to her lifeless body. You open your mouth but heard nothing come out. You were surrounded by smog and blue fire. You could feel someone come from behind you.

It was dusty and your surroundings lacked oxygen. What happened? You couldn’t hear yourself scream in pain as you feel a sharp feeling in your left shoulder. Needles upon needles dug into your sink. You crying in pain as you pull it out one by one.

“Fuck!” You cry, “(R/N)! Oh my—“ you cover your mouth as you look at her body, “Please! Wake up! Damn it! Wake up!” Uncontrollable pain unfolds as the tears stream down your face. You look around trying to gain a balance. Weak knees, you sway up and hold on to wall, covering you mouth. Your coughs become constant and your losing sight. Fucking hell. You go toward the nearest exit and push the door open only to be pushed back but more blue fire. You scream out, angry and hurt.

“ANYONE! HELP PLEASE!” You scream until you collapse again at your feet, “H-help..” you cough out.

You fall to the grounds slowly except defeat. The last you see was a tall man walking up to you, slowly. Kneeling down and looks at you in pity.

“You have such a pretty face,” the voice speaks, touching your cheek. You swear they say something else but you blank into a deep sleep.

——

“Bakugou, you need to calm down—“

“CALM DOWN? You did NOT just tell me to calm down when the literal love of my life could be dead,” Katsuki slams his hands on his desk after pacing back and forth for what felt like hours.

“What is me standing around and being relaxed going to solve ANYTHING?!”

“IT KEEPS YOU FROM DOING ANYTHING RECKLESS!” Kirishima pushes him back before he could get closer to his face.

“KEEPS YOU IN PLACE AND KEEPS HER SAFE!”

“SAFE?!” Katsuki scoffs in disbelief, “HER SAFE IS BEING ANYWHERE BUT WITH THAT SICK BASTER, DABI.”

“Kacchan, you need to calm down if we want anything to get done!” The pro hero Deku, or others know him as Midoriya, speaks up.

“This isn’t just some assignment we can hand in, Deku!” Katsuki yells, annoyed he was butting in the conversation.

“But since you’ve made it your life mission to but in every conversation you hear, tell me this—why haven’t we’ve done anything?” Katsuki walks up to the kid he’s competing against.

“That’s because we don’t know what we’re are getting ourselves into,” Midoriya response. They stare at each for what seems like forever until Katsuki gets the better of himself.

“WHAT MORE IS THERE? WE KNOW—“

“NOTHING!” Midoriya cuts him off, “WE KNOW NOTHING. WE DON’T KNOW WHAT HE WANTS OR WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO NEXT.”

“SO LETS CATCH HIM DOWN! GET HIS LOCATION THEN—“

“THEN WHAT, KACCHAN?!” Midoriya’s voice cracks, “Then what? Attack him by putting, (Y/N)’s life at risk?”

Katsuki backs down and stays quiet, still pissed.

“FINE. LETS SAY, you find his location, right? You track him down, find him, he notices you got him then he sets everything a blaze, THEN WHAT? The minute you go and find them, BOOM. DABI kills her. Right on spot,” Midoriya has a serious tone and it freezes everyone in place, “You catch him but (Y/N) is what, dead!? We don’t know his game plan!”

The room is quiet for a long minute, until he speaks again.

“We know that only certain amount of people knew about your relationship with, (Y/N). No one said anything. So he must have been stalking her or you guys for a while.”

“He probably learned her routine and caught her off guard,” Kirshima mumbles.

“We have Uravity and Froppy on the scene right now and they located 1 dead body. It’s not (Y/N), just a really close coworker,” Midoriya speaks.

Katsuki blurs out the voices and is mind is full of questions. Since when was Deku in control of the mission to save HIS lover? Why were all of DEKU’S plans better than his own? They instantly disappear once Midoriya speaks again.

“I think we have a solid plan, Kacchan, but there are rules,” Midoriya speaks. He sounds so mature, when did he get so mature—wait. Rules.

“How dare you….” Katsuki voice gets low as he stares deep into the innocent green eyes. Midoriya’s eyes widen, “Threaten me…”

“COMMAND ME?!” Katsuki was a loud person but something about his tone melted the others into a puddle.

“I don’t trust you will keep her safe,” those crimson eyes are filled with to many emotions, “I don’t trust you enough to bring her back, ALIVE.”

“You can’t go solo on this mission. Not this time,” Midoriya’s time matches his. Katsuki was furious and filled with emotion that only you could help him control.

“I’m not willing to risk the life of someone who is close to me as she is too you.”

“Fine,” Katsuki agreed plainly, not wanting to waste more time arguing about pointless shit, “We will play your game. But if anything happens to her—,”

“Noting with, Kacchan,” Midoriya países him halfway, places a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder, “I give you my word.”

-

-

-

A cry if pain is let out as you wake, feeling everything once again.

“LET ME GO—AAAHH—LET ME GO!” You beg, feeling uncomfortable as your tied on a pole, blinded from the world.

“LET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!”

“Oh how your so cute when you beg,” a deep unfamiliar voice speaks, sending you into shock.

“W-who are you?” Your voice is frightened but demanding, “What—what the HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME!”

“Let me look at you, doll,” the voice echos in your head as you feel him getting closer to you, caressing your body as he makes sure his touch is all over you.

“Mmh, how could one hide such a beautiful body like yours.”

You feel his cold hands touch you as your are near bare skin, only half covered as your dress was nearly burned to crisp.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” you bite back, getting a feel of the floor and stepping back. Still blinded from the blindfold, you still managed to sense him touch you in places you don’t want him near.

“I love the fight, babe, but c’mon,” he chuckles, his voice getting closer to your ear.

“You don’t have a choice.”

Your mind was pretty blurry after he knocked you down. You felt him inside you moments after, making you feel worse. All you could do was cry and scream, not enjoying any of it.

BREATH

.

BREATH

.

Was all you could do.

-

It wasn’t long after an explosion was heard next door. You had a feeling you were going to be saved. You didn’t want to die. You didn’t want any of this. But what could you have done. Weak, sore, nothing was ever gonna be the same.

“FUCKER!” A voice of hope screamed. Katsuki’s voice.

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!”

Damn it (Y/N) get up! You cry to yourself, feeling too vulnerable for your liking. You needed to get the hell out of there.

“Ahhh, we’ll if it isn’t Japan’s greatest hero,” Dabi chuckles, standing off you and looking toward Katsuki, still near you.

“Unfortunately you are not alone,” Dabi mutters, annoyed, but keeps his pride close.

“I SAID. GET. THE. HELL. AWAY FROM HER.”

“I’m guessing by your face, you two know each other,” Dabi smirks, responding sarcastically.

Before Katsuki could attack, Midoriya steps up.

“Let her go, Dabi,” Midoriya’s voice is cold as he holds back Katsuki.

“You really think you scare me, DEKU?” Dabi gets pissy.

“Don’t be stupid, Dabi. Let her go. She has nothing to do with this,” Kirshima’s voice speaks from the back.

“She has everything to do with this,” Dabi’s voice gets louder, “She is the kryptonite to you ProHeros.” He looks down at you, running his fingers into your messed up hair.

“Lay another finger and I SWEAR—,”

“You swear?” Dabi looks back at Katsuki’s face. He can sense the fear and anger surrounding the room.

“Trust me there was more than that,” Dabi let’s out a cold chuckle, “And let me tell you she was exquisite~”

“I GONNA KILL YOU!” Katsuki couldn’t keep it in and slams Dabi on the floor.

“DEKU, GRAB HER,” Katsuki keeps Dabi on the floor and Midoriya rushes to you and get you out really fast. Everything was happening all at once. Fighting. Screaming. Blood. It was pure war. For only a second you could breath. Midoriya later you on a build while Katsuki had his foot on Dabi’s throat. Midoriya looks away for just a second. And quick second, just to see Katsuki’s eyes of anger and hate. Then it happen.

Dabi’s laugh is pure evil, “Guess my job is done.”

Before Katsuki could react, Dabi sets flames, causing Katsuki to let go of him. A loud boom echos and the flames die out fast. Just like that, Dabi is gone.

“FUCK!” Katsuki screams, but quickly realizes his current situation and goes toward Midoriya.

“(Y/N)—,” He paused himself, looking at the small body in the hands of Midoriya.

He swore the world when still, feeling the air escape his lungs making every breath harder to control. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you.

“T-They shot her,” Midoriya sobs out.

“N-no—No, no, no, no, no NO,” A painful cry is let out of the so vulnerable Katsuki. He never cried like this before. He cried all the time with you, especially on your wedding day, but this—no. This was something else. His breath was staggered and his eyes were red. He was in the mind set of shock and emptiness. Like if everything he once was, died. And something in him did die. His sprit and life was short lived. He didn’t even get to say goodbye.

He sweeps the girl off Midoriya’s hands so fast and hold her as if she was a new born. He mutter why as he grazed his finger tips on the rose smelt hair of the new shampoo you were eager to try. He remembers the smile you had and the live you showed when you ranted on and on about this chemical substance that can do wonders for your hair. No just a memory. And dead forgotten memory he now has to bring up to shed light at your funeral. Or to your parents when they find out their little girl is now dead at the hands of the hero that has protected millions—hell saved billions. But he just couldn’t save you.

“You gave me your word,” Was all that came out of him after a long and loud silence.

“What—,”

“You gave me your word, that if we did things your way—your stupid fucking plan— YOUR WAY. SHE. Would be safe!”

Katsuki didn’t stare at the green boy, his tears though not as nearly as red as Katsuki’s. He didn’t notice the hurt and shame that was already graved in this boy the minute he lost you. He only saw betrayal. Betrayal of trust he gave to his friend. For thinking for even a second, he had the right answer. He just needed someone to blame.

“I gave you my trust,” Katsuki spoke, still holding you but now he was standing.

“And she trusted me,” Katsuki’s let out a small sob before he spoke again, not taking his eyes away from you.

“I-I promised a date—I promised I would keep this away from her I-,” other word didn’t come out but a whimper. After was a scream.

“I’m sorry—I’m so sorry!”

“No-,” Midoriya speaks, shaking his head as he attempts to comfort his friend. He hold his mouth. They were shocked. Torn from the innocent death of the Pro Hero Dynamite’s Secert Lover.