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poguelandiarafe · 2 days ago

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broken promises 3 | rafe cameron

pairing - rafe cameron x female reader

warnings - angst, mature language, mentions of infidelity

summary - rafe finds you on the beach and begs for forgiveness but your pain is too raw to think about forgiving him. he's promising to do better for you and the baby but you reject his apologies, leaving him alone in the sand.

(sorry the last two chapters are so short, i'm trying to figure out which direction to take the series in. please please please (hey sabrina) message me or comment your thoughts and ideas!)

not a one-shot, read part one and part two here <3

masterlist

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“leave me alone, rafe. i don’t want to talk to you.”

you're impressed with yourself, nearly expecting your arms to automatically open wide and accept him back just like that. but they don't, they stay firmly wrapped around yourself and as much as it pains you to realise, you don't want them around him anymore.

rafe runs a hand over his head, a frustrated sigh falling past his lips. he's been driving for hours and you won't even give him the time of day. taking cautious steps, he slowly approaches you until he's standing in front of you.

when you don't react, he kneels down in front of you and places a hesitant hand on your hip. his fingers barely graze your skin before you're quick to grab his hand and throw it off you. the feeling of his skin on yours is too much for you to handle. though your heart and body yearns to be wrapped up in his arms again, your mind is just about strong enough to not allow it to happen.

"let me explain, baby, please." he begs, his voice cracking.

"i said leave me alone," you sigh, yet you can feel your anger bubbling just beneath the surface, "there's nothing to explain."

you already know what he'll say - pathetic excuses and apologies about how much he messed up and that he regrets it. words you can't let yourself be fooled by.

rafe's shoulders sag as the words reach his ears. his hand slowly raises to grab your hip before he drops it back to his side in defeat. he's never felt so helpless before and he hates it. having you so close yet completely out of reach makes his heart ache in a way he never thought possible.

"you don't mean that, we can't end it like this," he whispers, voice thick with emotion as he looks up at you through wet lashes, "there must be something i can do. i'll do anything. i'll wait for you, i'll give you space. i'll do it for you and for our baby. i promise, y/n."

you refuse to look at him, instead keeping your eyes fixed on the ocean, willing yourself not to cry. his stare is burning into your skin and the faintest trace of forgiveness he's looking for from you is nowhere to be seen.

rafe stays kneeling in front of you, never taking his eyes off your face, searching for a crack in your amour. he's trying to maintain his composure, but his breathing is laboured and he's desperately blinking away the tears that blur his vision.

"no. i mean it, rafe. i need you to leave me alone." you say firmly, the words sharp, "i don't want you to wait. i won't stop you from being involved with the baby, but i don't want you to wait for me because i can't be with you anymore. i can't forgive you."

every part of you screams to walk away and never look back, to let him face the consequences of his actions alone. however, your feet remain rooted to the spot, as if a part of you is silently willing rafe to beg harder to fix this, even though you know it wouldn't change anything.

"you don't mean that," he says softly, "you still love me, i know you do. please, just tell me what to do to fix this."

"you shouldn't have to ask me how to fix this. and i do still love you," you admit, your voice barely above a whisper, "but i don't trust you, rafe. you've made your bed. now, lie in it."

for a split second, you think he's going to argue. his lips part to say something but the words never make it past them. so, before you can change your mind, you turn on your heel and quickly walk over to your car, each step feeling heavier than the last. you don't look back, even when you hear him choke out a broken plea. behind you, rafe stays kneeling in the sand, watching as you walk further and further out of his life.

once you reach the car, you let out a trembling breath and attempt to compose yourself. sliding into the driver's seat, the jagged edges of your keys dig into your palm and you squeeze them tighter, as if turning your emotional pain into physical pain will somehow help. for a moment, you just sit and stare, the weight of the day's events crashing down on you.

a few minutes pass before you start the car, and the last thing you see before driving off is rafe sitting in the sand with his head in his hands and knees pulled up to his chest. the thought of going back crosses your mind and you force yourself to look away, to focus on the road instead. you don't know where you're going, only that you can't go home.

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two-white-butterflies · 2 days ago

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gave you all my best me's (i)

Description: Aemond needs a fake-girlfriend. It's a good thing that he has leverage over his nephew's ex-girlfriend.

Pairing: (past! jacaerys velaryon/reader), aemond targaryen/reader

Notes: I wanted to rewrite this fanfic before writing a bonus chapter. I'm not a big fan of the old version of this: you're losing me. TWO PARTS SO COMMENT TO GET TAGGED.

It is a beautiful thing to be admired for your talents, but when the media begins digging into your personal life - it is difficult to decipher where one draws a line. "When are you getting married?" The late-night host asks.

You answer him with an awkward chuckle.

Despite your social media branding - you longed for marriage, a white picket fence, and children. "There's so much more to life than getting married," you pursed your lips into a thin line. You could already see yourself in tomorrow morning's tabloids - trending on Twitter AND Tiktok with a witty hashtag.

"I agree, but for other people, it's a milestone moment for them. Is it not in your plans to get married in the future? Or is it an if it happens, it happens kind of thing?" The man continues to inquire.

You forced a smile on your face.

You did want to get married, but it's not in Jace's plans. He's the type of man who goes from hotel to hotel - the type of man who doesn't have his own apartment because he likes to act like a cowboy. Jace is the type of man who'd wear speedos with Birkenstocks. He does not ever see himself getting married, but he sees himself staying with you forever.

"I, unfortunately, don't see myself getting married. I mean respect for the people who are married, but for me, it's not really a necessity because I already see myself staying with this one person my entire life, and for me, I don't feel the need to get married." You explained, echoing the words that Jace whispered to you last night.

"- but yeah, if it happens, it happens." You rolled your eyes.

You placed your Le Smoking YSL Jacket loudly on the table, hoping that Jacaerys would take a hint and know that you've finally arrived. It has already been three-weeks after the viral interview, and he didn't seem bothered by the attention.

"I missed you," you smiled at him, burying your face in the crook of his neck. He always smells like vanilla. "- did you watch the interview?" You asked, pulling away from the embrace. He returns back to typing on his 3-year-old Macbook. "I watched it," he confirms.

You took a deep breath, which probably means that his family has already watched it. "I'm sorry my PR manager forgot to warn me. I seriously felt like a deer caught in headlights," you complained, pausing to see if he was mad.

Jacaerys is the oldest son of Laenor Velaryon and Rhaenyra Targaryen. He is the scion of the two oldest families in America. His great-great-great something on both sides came to this country on the Mayflower - and thus, they took extreme precautions when it came to safeguarding their privacy. Rhaenyra was already adamant about allowing her son to write his little books, and now that you were in the picture...

"It's fine, I hope they stop asking about that marriage thing." A sigh escapes his mouth, and you can hear him clacking on his keyboard - typing without an end. "Maybe it's a sign for us to talk seriously about the topic." You begin.

"Marriage is for people-pleasers. We spend a lot of money on this one celebration where everyone gets to eat and dance, but marriage doesn't mean being with someone forever." He articulates, unable to say, that he doesn't want to repeat his parents' mistakes and that he doesn't want to live in a bickering home.

"I want to get married," you blurted out.

He responds with silence. It is obvious that he is thinking of an appropriate response - but you know that the answer is no. "I have everything that I could ever want in the world, a perfect career, a perfect boyfriend, a perfect house. The only things that I want now are marriage and babies, Jace." You continued to explain, and his face dropped to the floor.

You reach for his hands, entwining them with yours. He gazes up from his laptop, and he stares right into your eyes. "We're not going to be like your parents." You promised.

"We aren't a hundred percent sure of that. I can't even promise you everlasting love, I can't even promise you that I can love you with the same strength every day." He tilts his head. Which leads you to believe that the only reason he hasn't married you yet - is because he doesn't love you at all.

"I know, but you choose me every day. You choose us every day, and that is the same thing as love." You persuaded.

You could sense the reluctance in his movements. "We're fighting all the time. I haven't seen you in almost a month. Getting married is not going to fix our problems." His voice softens. He loves you with all of his heart, but he doesn't know how to show that love without first ruining it.

"Let's break up," he proposed.

He was expecting you to say no, like all the other times before, but this time - you retreat silently. You grab your things and you leave his hotel room.

archiebald22: OMG WHY?? DIDN'T SHE JUST HAVE AN INTERVIEW WITH JIMMY FALLON 😭

pussydaposi: This is my roman empire

(ONE YEAR LATER)

nameofficial: I Love You, I'm Sorry OUT NOW!

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sacramentoLove: When are you gonna pay ur taxes 🇪🇸

Destination12: Shakira x Y/N Collab cuz they both don't pay taxes to the Spanish government

oompaloompa: Y/N singing bella ciao link in bio 😭

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"Who's the guy?" You whispered in Lucie's ears, and she turned around to look at the man who had been staring at you for the past five minutes. "Holy fuck, that's Aemond Targaryen. His family literally owns half of Texas." She whisper-shouted.

It didn't help with the fact that the man was smoking hot. Lucie stares at her phone for half a minute. "Wait, can I leave alone for just a second? Cecil forgot to bring his polo, and the receptionist is not letting him in." She groaned. "I'll be fine," you gave her a slight smile.

Lucie leaves your side, and Aemond begins walking towards you. "(Your Name)," you introduced yourself with a smile. "Aemond Targaryen," he shakes your hand.

This could be the beginning of something new...something different. "You don't look like the type of person who'd spend her weekends in old country clubs," he smiles charmingly. "I came here with my friend, Lucie. She's supposed to have a date with this guy, but he seems to have forgotten the rule of the country club." You chuckled.

Aemond tilts his head softly, and he whispers. "Always wear a shirt with a collar." He laughs.

"It's such a preposterous rule, I bet you that I'll have to hear about her boyfriend's expensive suit and how it is preposterous that he wasn't allowed inside." You giggled.

"I bet you that the staff doesn't get paid enough to deal with people like them," he led you to another part of the gardens. This part was exclusive only to esteemed members of the club, which probably means that this Aemond fellow is important. "I heard that a beautiful singer was going to be here. I had to my brother's golfcart to make it in the Clubhouse in time," his eyes narrowed.

Of course, the people that he heard those sentiments from weren't exactly appreciative of your presence. It was one of his mother's cousins who said something about these idiotic celebrities eating in the place where they were eating. "Oh please, you don't need to sugarcoat their words. I bet you that Lucie is scandalized for bringing me," you snorted.

You hate spending time around these old money folks. In your eyes, they've spent the majority of their wealth, and the only thing that they have left is their snootyness. "They're all idiots anyways," Aemond rolls his eyes, pleased that you weren't one of those cunts who'd kiss ass to the wealthy.

His phone rings, and he reaches for the call card inside of his wallet. "I'd love to take you out on dinner sometimes, not here, but you choose where to eat. Please call me as soon as possible," he placed a hand on your shoulder.

He bids farewell, realizing that his business partners were calling him already.

It was a surprise to see that Aemond had a follow-through; the next day, he had already arranged a dinner with you. "I honestly had no idea where you'd want to eat. I mean, I'm sorry for bringing you to this small diner." You chuckled.

Rich people can be so banal sometimes, they eat at the same five restaurants, they wear the same clothes from the same five ateliers, and they all go to the same yoga studio, for goodness sake. You knew that if you wanted Aemond to consider you worthy of his attention - you needed to stick out. Which leads you to this diner, the real heart of NYC.

"It's beautiful. I've never been here before." He looks around with an appreciative smile. "I used to eat here a lot when I was a college student, I couldn't afford anything else - and the food here seriously tastes better than some Michelin restaurants. It's nice here, it feels so ... raw." You struggled to find the words.

The food was amazing, but the community that this diner constantly fed - it's a thing for the books. The cab drivers, the hotdog stand sellers, and the college students. It is home. "It must be hard being famous," he shoves a piece of pizza inside of his mouth.

You licked your lips.

"I've been famous for as long as I can remember. I don't know how to live without all of the cameras." You pierced the pancake with your fork, bringing it to your mouth. "I need your help." He places both of his hands on the table.

"Where?" Your eyebrows merged together.

"My father is dying. He says that he'll leave his entire inheritance to the first person who gets married in our family. My siblings and my nephews are fighting for that spot, seeing that my older sister doesn't want any ties with us. Now, I know that there are cases against you by the Spanish government, and I can make all of that go away," Aemond offers.

"I'd love to help you but I'm really good at making mistakes," your eyes narrowed, weighting in your choices.

His eyes softened.

"The only mistake that you've made is allowing your father to control your finances. He's in jail now, and if you're not going to fix yourself, you're going to end up there too." He says.

You play with the rings on your finger, inhaling the scent of maple syrup. "So, I marry you, and you clear up all my charges?" You inquired.

"I fake our marriage, clear up your name, and give you $10 million to start again." He corrects.

"Alright then," you hummed. "Do we have a deal?" You smile.

He shakes your hand.

"We have a deal," he confirms.

Being in a pretend relationship with Aemond was honestly one of the easiest things that you've ever done. He makes it really hard not to fall in love with him. The way that he places his hands inside of his pockets, the way that he gives you the sweetest smile - it almost makes you think that his feelings are genuine. It is not, you remind yourself.

You flick through the rack of dresses in front of you. "What are your parents like? Are they traditional, or are they as laid back as you?" You questioned. He pauses for a while, trying to find the words that would properly describe his parents.

"My dad is a traditional man. He likes guns, and he believes in the Second Amendment. He's a senile old man. My mother, however, is trendy, and she's warm up to you." He informs.

"Tell me more about your family," you pressed.

You needed to be prepared for this battle.

"My older brother is an armchair socialist. He's always complaining to our mother about some animals dying. He's a vegetarian, although he always orders Chipotle on Fridays. His morality is a grey compass," Aemond snorts.

You giggle too.

"Helaena, my older sister. She's my second older sister. I think she's the person that Aegon thinks he is. She's too busy running this non-profit for refugees, but you don't need to worry about her, she's kind." He comforts.

"Then, I have a little brother, Daeron. He doesn't like us. He'd much rather spend time with our uncle." He turns to look away. Your eyes land on the vintage white dress you've seen in Lucie's wardrobe, it's a dress that Chanel never showed the general populace. An iconic piece, but not famous enough that it would seem tacky.

His hands snake around your waist. "What?" Your eyebrows merged together, and he pressed a kiss to your forehead, subtly pointing at the paparazzi that were standing outside of the boutique door. "Kiss me," he says, pulling your body closer - until you could smell his cologne.

"You are so demanding," you teased, reaching to cup his cheeks. Standing on your tiptoes as you pressed your lips together. The paparazzi outside of the door were caught in a frenzy, flashing lights of all colors greeted you.

He tastes like cherries and diet coke. It's intoxicating. A taste that is so different on your tongue. You pull away from the kiss - and he pretends to gasp at the sight of the paps outside of the door. "Let's go," he mouthed - pulling you into a deeper part of the store, where the media couldn't see.

ynkittens: (fan sent the picture) Y/N L/N with mystery man in NYC. Who is this man???

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DoodleCop: OH MY GOD I miss her and Jace 🥺

YNNationSupport9: Stop, you're losing me

Aemond stares at his phone, an indescribable frown on his face as it continues to vibrate due to the number of notifications sent to his personal account. "I didn't expect your fans to be this crazy," he mumbled, seeing his face shared all around Instagram.

"You did tell me that our relationship needed to be public to be believable," your eyes narrowed. "Yeah but now they're calling my personal number," he shows you his phone.

An amused chuckle exits your mouth.

"If you can't handle the smoke, don't start the fire." You shoved a piece of pastry inside of your mouth. Aemond slumps on the blue cloud couch and turns his phone off. He has been staying in your apartment for the past month now, after the whole scenario with the paparazzi the studio apartment that he was renting was no longer safe.

"Helaena has been blasting my other phone since yesterday. She's a really big fan of you," he smiles, pulling you closer to him until you are laying on his lap. "She sounds amazing, when are we going to meet?" You inquired, reaching for a book on the coffee table.

His fingers comb through your hair, untangling the knots that your hairbrush couldn't fix. "Maybe tomorrow during the family reunion? She kind of just shows up," he says.

He couldn't deny your beauty. As time grows, he slowly finds himself loving everything about you...from your gentleness to your fickle mindedness. You weren't satisfied with making a decision without first looking at every possible perspective. When someone does a bad deed, you say well, maybe it isn't their fault, maybe it's the way that society has treated them.

Even when the situation proves to be difficult, you still choose to be kind. It's just a summer thing, he tells himself because nothing beautiful ever chooses him. All the good things wilt in his hands.

He flicks a strand of your hair away from your face. "I'm a little nervous about tomorrow," you admit. "- I've never felt like I belonged, you know what I mean?" You scrunched up your nose, and he continued to massage your scalp.

"I'm so hesitant when it comes to attending these parties because when I was a kid, my dad took us to one of his black tie parties, and my mom let me wear this beautiful unicorn dress, but apparently, the black-tie rule was for everyone, regardless of age. The host didn't want me to go inside the halls with my pink glittery dress because it didn't reach past my ankles...one of my cousins pitied me so much. She let me borrow her dress, but it was too big on me." You flinched at the faint memory.

"I had to sit beside my mom the entire time, and all of the kids were staring at me like I had a third leg." Your teeth burrowed into your lower lips. "That sounds horrible," he frowns. "Which is why I promised to never look unfashionable ever again..." You say.

nameofficial: our secret moments, in a crowded room. @aemondtargaryensapphires

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MaybeThisTime3: Rue, when was this?

aemondtargaryensapphires: ❤️‍🔥👸🏻 - nameofficial: ❤️

Lucerys stuffs a large amount of vanilla ice cream inside of his mouth. "Did you check Instagram?" He teases his brother, continuing to play on his Nintendo Switch - almost smearing an entire spoonful of vanilla on the screen.

"Can you stop being annoying for five seconds?" Jacaerys rolled his eyes.

"He is so bothered," Joffrey giggled while scrolling on his phone. "I am not bothered," Jacaerys gritted his teeth.

"He's not bothered, but he's turning red!" Lucerys piped in once again. "I wonder if he'll take her to the reunion." Joffrey ponders, and a sigh escapes the oldest brother's mouth. Give you my wild. Give you a child. Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other. Now, the only thing he's answered with is a different type of silence.

It's neither of your fault that the relationship ended. It was just too much of a chasm, your personalities were too different. You were the type of person to fight for the relationship, the type of person who disobeyed fate, and he is the opposite of that.

Because if something is meant to be, then the whole universe conspires for you to have it by your side. If it is meant to be - you wouldn't need to fight for it.

You were wearing a white-satin dress that reached past your knees, it was embroidered with Swarovski crystals, truly a miracle that the dress ever held up. "Remember the story, I proposed on the beach, we didn't bring any cameras." He whispered, and you could sense his nervousness.

The car continues to drive inside a long entryway that curves to the side, you are greeted with tall bushes that cover the facade of the mansion. As you reach the third turn, the beautiful mansion is made known to you.

It was truly a sight to behold.

A mixture of French and Italian architecture was made even richer by the aged bricks that were used in constructing the estate. The mansion was about the same size as Central Park. It was clear that Aemond Targaryen was richer than God.

"You said family reunion," your lips pursed into a thin line. He gives you a stare, telling you that he didn't expect this many guests either. "My father must've invited his golfing buddies," he explains, regaining his composure.

He reaches for a box inside of his pockets. He opens it, showing you a beautiful emerald oval ring, a ring that is simple and elegant - a ring like you. "Are you ready to meet the vipers?" He smirks, placing the ring on your ring finger.

A doorman begins to open the doors to the car.

"If we wait until I'm ready, we'll be waiting forever." You plastered a smile on your face, straightening your posture, and exiting the car - making sure that everyone's eyes were on you.

Jace freezes as he sees the faint silhouette of your body. His relationship with you ended on good terms; he was happy with the outcome, but seeing you a year later - brings him back to pleasant and unpleasant memories. He partly wishes that he was stupid enough to his ex-girlfriend, but he is smarter than that.

He knows that the only time that he was ever truly happy was when he was with you, and now you've left him. Now, the only thing that brings him back to those pleasant memories are the songs that you've written about him.

What a horrible day to be alive.

His jaw clenches, watching as his uncle's hands snake around your waist, the very same waist that his hand used to fit like a perfect puzzle in. He watches as Aemond leans to whisper something in your ear, and you giggle. He bets that the joke isn't funny at all.

"Isn't that (Your Name)?" Rhaenyra inquires, and suddenly, Jacaerys' hand feels clammy around the champagne flute. He desperately wants to puke. Rhaenyra's eyes softened instantly, heart heaving for her oldest son. "Oh Jace," she cooed and he forced a smile on his face - he took a lazy sip of his champagne, and the drink bubbles in his stomach.

"I'm alright, mom." He insists.

Jace still cannot understand why his heart longs for you. He has everything he wants - he has everything that you prevented him from achieving because you dreamed of marriage. Why is he missing the shackles that he allowed destiny to remove?

Aemond begins to march in his direction, a satisfied grin on the other man's face. Could he have known? Jace asks himself. "Jacey," the man teased, one hand wrapped around you, and the other hand on a glass of merlot. Aemond was absolutely glowing.

"Uncle Aemond," Jace answered.

"Have you met this lovely lady?" Aemond tilted his head, half-expecting you to smile warmly at his nephew, as you have done to all of his relatives, but he was greeted with silence. Your eyes trailed back and forth between Aemond and his nephew. "Uncle?" your eyebrows merged together.

"I'm too young to be an uncle. My sister had him early." He informs. "I didn't expect you to be here," Jace says plainly as if Aemond was not standing right beside you. "I could say the same thing," you replied, your grip on Aemond tightens.

Something shimmery on your fingers catches Jacaerys' eyes. An engagement ring. An oval emerald engagement ring - like the color that the other side of his family proudly wore. "Congratulations on the engagement," he greets, forcing himself to be happy. Marriage is the only thing that you didn't agree on with him - he found it useless, you found it monumental.

"Thank you," you and Aemond say in unison.

"When she's the one wrapped around your fingers, you have to make a fist." Aemond stares at your face. Jace could only hum in return, his throat felt dry again. "I know the feeling," he takes a sip of his champagne.

He curses himself for still having these feelings for you. He should have fought against the world to have you beside him. He should have taken you dancing, bowling, skating, singing - but he didn't, because he was too engrossed in his own little world, unaware that everything was unfolding outside of his bedroom window.

He takes another deep breath, the world is bigger than the stories inside of his laptop. He can't believe that it has taken him this long to figure that out.

"Can you please sing something?" Helaena requests, flashing you her puppy eyes. You turned to look around you, and everyone was looking in your direction. Viserys raises an eyebrow as if asking for you to sing.

Daeron hands you one of his acoustic guitars.

"Do you have any song in mind?" You inquired, prepared to sing one of your love songs. "How did it end!" Helaena cheers, pulling Morghul (her dog) on her lap.

"That's a nice song that you've chosen," you forced a smile on your face. Of course, she chooses the one song about your breakup with Jace.

aemondtargaryensapphires: beautiful ❤️

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helaenatargaryen: YOU ARE SO FAST WITH THESE HAHA

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Jace watches as the waiters begin to serve their food. It was a gourmet meal provided by his step-father's fine dining restaurant, the food was beautiful, and it had the right color. You couldn't help but feel out of place - like the girl who wore a unicorn dress to a black-tie event.

"I'm allergic, I can't eat this." You whispered, flashing Aemond a concerned look. "Sorry, Aemond was the one who confirmed the samples." Rhaenyra's voice sounded apologetic, and sad because she was the one who planned the entire event. "Oh, it's okay." You smiled.

"How long have you known each other?" Jace blurts out, swirling the champagne in his glass. The first thing that couples do while knowing each other - is going on a date, and if you've been on a date with him thousands of times, wouldn't Aemond know about your likes and dislikes?

"Nine months, and it's alright, you can have Aegon's salad. He only pretends to be vegan." Aemond switches your place with Aegon's who is currently occupied in the bathroom. "Thank you," you mumbled.

"Your brother is going to throw a fit once he sees that," Alicent interrupts. "Mom he won't even notice," Helaena looks at you with hearts on her eyes.

Jace could only raise his eyebrows. Nine months and, his uncle wasn't aware that you're allergic to lamb sauce. He bets that Aemond doesn't even know that your eyebrows merge together when you're angry. He bets that the other man doesn't even know that your favorite game is Overcooked, and you refuse to move to the next stage when you fail to reach all three stars.

He's losing you to a man that hardly knows you.

"Where did you meet?" Lucerys pipes in, taking a sip of his strawberry milkshake. "In the country club," Aemond smiles. He looks at you like you are the earth, and he is nothing but a moon that rotates around you. "Her friend Lucie Churchill, she introduced us to each other," Aemond lies.

Alicent smiles, a look of adoration on her face. Aemond has chosen the best possible woman to fall in love with, a woman who's mantle is heavy with her own achievements. "When are you getting married?" She chimes in, happy with the idea of having grandbabies.

"Soon, I've always wanted a summer wedding." You answered coyly. You glanced at him, and suddenly, this summer thing was beginning to look real. "The good ones never wait," Aemond smiles, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

Jace enters the balcony, seeing that you are sipping wine on your own and staring at the French skyline. The dress that you were wearing was now slightly wrinkled, and the ring on your finger was slightly loose.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

"Sure about what?" You asked with a rough voice.

"My uncle," his lips are pursed into a thin line. He looks for a glimmer of hope behind your eyes, but it is too far.

He is too late to bring this love back to life.

"He's the only thing that I'm sure of," you answered.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes, and your eyebrows merge together. "Sorry for what?" You scoffed.

"I'm sorry that I didn't fight for us." He continues. "- it was always doomed from the beginning. I could never have asked you to make that sacrifice for me. I didn't accept it at first, but that just wasn't the life for you." You finished.

"But if I asked you back then, you would have made that sacrifice for me, so I'm sorry for not being what you needed." He says, slowly walking out of the balcony, completely oblivious of the man leaning on the door and eavesdropping on your conversation.

nameofficial: I can't help falling in love with you... ❤️ This is the beginning of forever baby 💍

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ynkittens: wait did u get married? - nameofficial: Engaged. I'm sorry for not making it clear in the caption haha 😭

JacintaRobin: "I wanna teach you how forever feels like" aint for JACK IN A BOX bcs it's for mr aemond - Bananashake44: Aemond the literal alpha male??? THE SIGMA GIGA CHAD ??? THE ULTIMATE RIZZLER

PART TWO

@glame @xcinnamonmalfoyx @winxchesters @yentroucnagol @hotchnerswife @mxxny-lupin @mxtantrights @urmomsgirlfriend1 @kravitzwhore@sweethoneyblossom1 @introverbatim @flrboyd @kemillyfreitas

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kedreeva · 2 days ago

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Hi, sorry if this is a silly question or if you’re the wrong person to ask. I take my cat on walks on a leash but do not have the means to provide a catio. Are there precautions I can take that would still allow me to walk her safely, or is it best to stop taking her outside at all for the forseeable future?

I'm honestly not the best resource for this question; I deal with birds, not cats, but the story about the big cats crossed my path and I thought it was important to share.

For domestic fowl, people are advised to keep them penned in covered areas, exclude wild birds from their areas (ie: use small netting gauges), cover food and water where possible to prevent contamination, and practice biosecurity (work clean to dirty, separate gear for separate pens, limit visitors to property, quarantine new birds, etc).

For cats, a lot of the same likely holds true- it's not a guarantee, but it also can't hurt to limit their access to wild birds and areas where wild birds can poop, keep outside gear away from them, limit visitors that could bring it in (ie people who keep poultry, people who work with wildlife etc), practice general biosecurity as well as you can. Most importantly for cats, and something you SHOULD take as a requirement not a general common sense, is do NOT feed them raw anything right now- dry kibble or pasteurized food only. Those big cats died because their raw feed was contaminated. The wild big cats that have died (mountain lions) likely died from eating contaminated meat/animals. At least one indoor cat has died from contaminated raw diet feed. So I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT FEED RAW. This includes raw frozen.

Past general common sense like that, you'd want to talk to someone from your state ag or DNR or other agencies that could advise you more specifically.

#asks #anon asks #if it were me i just wouldn't take my cat out for a while #at least until migration season passes #hpai #cats #animal death for ts

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rootspiral · 3 days ago

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hello! i’m thinking about The Hug again and how much the way agatha embraces rio looks like for a while there her primary goal it just to comfort rio. then the situation flips again so quickly but the way she cups the back of rio’s head and pulls her in and rio melts is so- anyways idk where i’m going with this but i’ve always found this scene so interesting because i feel like agatha is exuding tenderness and protection for rio and it’s so very different from the way she acts around her in the rest of their scenes together, i don’t really know what to make of it. do you have any more thoughts on that, aside from what you’ve shared in the deep dives etc?

I think that around the campfire and during the HUG Agatha was letting herself feel - maybe for the first time since Nicky died - sorry for Rio. And Agatha is by no means an empathetic person, some of it is nature but she also very much doesn't want to feel sorry for others, that would make all the serial killing a tad more difficult, you know? It's no surprise that she empathizes the most with Wanda and Billy who are so similar to her, she's self-centered like that!

When it comes to Rio, Agatha is making an active choice to hate her, to cast her as the villain who took Nicky, because the alternative is blaming herself or blaming no one at all, and then what? She'd be alone with her guilt and sorrow, and she can't have that.

(It's interesting that if you put Agatha in a situation where she doesn't blame Rio and she's allowed to grieve freely you get detective Agnes. Who's still a mess and still has some very unhealthy coping mechanisms, but when she doesn't associate Rio with Nicky? Her true feelings, that sappy romantic yearn, really start to show.)

Let's see what Agatha went through just before the HUG (I really like to call it that in all caps). She learned about Lorna Wu using the Ballad to save her daughter. She almost lost Billy and cried in front of the others. She then had a moment of genuine bonding with Billy. Around the campfire, she experienced a rare sense of community and connection. As a result she was more vulnerable than usual, more open and tentatively receptive to other people. In other words, she was exercising her long atrophied empathy muscle.

I really think that Rio opening up and talking about Nicky caught Agatha off guard. Not because she didn't know that Rio was in pain too, it's more like she'd always refused to acknowledge it or linger on it.

And look, despite all, these two really, truly, deeply love each other. Rio was Agatha's person, the only one she ever opened up to, her partner, her whole support system. Agatha has accidentally let herself feel these old familiar feelings and now her heart is melting for Rio. The hug is a a rare moment of selfless love from Agatha, it's "I see you too and I miss you and I'm sorry."

And then she flips it over because of course she does. If you think about it, it's exactly what happened when she killed Alice. Because Agatha is always so starved, the moment a treat is within reach she can't help herself, her body reacts before the mind can stop it. And just like that giving becomes taking. It's what Agatha does.

#asks #agatha all along #aaa meta #agathario #I'll get to your other ask tomorrow! I want to get a deep dive out today #but thank you for always sending such interesting questions!

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five-rivers · 2 days ago

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Ancestral Chapter 26

New Ancestral chapter! You can also read it on my AO3.

Because Danny's life was a joke, he had Vlad's number saved to his phone.

The man had beaten him up, kidnapped him, tortured him, cloned him, and had professed a strong desire to kill his Dad - not to mention a desire for homicide in general - but there he was on Danny's contact list. It was ridiculous. But having a way to contact the fruitloop was too useful for Danny to just delete or block him.

For example, this situation.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Danny scrolling down to ‘F’ for ‘Fruitloop.’ “He's kind of like rats. Once he gets into somewhere, he's a pain to get rid of.”

“I'm unclear what is stopping him now, if so,” said Gwensyvyr. “As you said, he can fly, can he not?”

“I…” Danny frowned down at his phone. “Personal comfort? Here to Britain is pretty long. And cold. And he might want to be here in his civilian persona, not just as a ghost. I think that's most likely, really.”

“Ah, he keeps that secret, then?”

“Yeah,” said Danny. “Otherwise my parents would probably kill him, and he loves flirting with Mom.”

“Then I think he should not be so hard to handle, after all. We shall use him.” She nodded decisively. “And if he should forget his place and proposition your mother so brazenly, we shall simply kill him.”

“Okay,” said Danny, looking up from his phone. “I think- I think that's going a little far, actually.”

“As short-sighted as Madlyn is, she is a lady, and one of my descendants,” said Gwensyvyr. “No one should take liberties, unless she wills it.” She paused. “But the killing was, in this case, metaphorical.”

Danny squinted at her. He couldn’t tell if she was lying or not.

“Go on, then. Call this poorly behaved and very wealthy lunatic of yours.”

“He’s not my anything. He’s not even my archenemy.”

Gwensyvyr, floating as if lying down on something, propped her head on her knuckles. “Oh? Who is? Pariah Dark?”

“That, um… No. I only fought the guy the one time, so…” He shook his head, suddenly embarrassed by the whole thing and not wanting to admit that his archenemy was Dash. “It’s not anyone you’d know. It’s stupid.” He pressed the call button, then the speakerphone button, so Gwensyvyr could hear.

The phone rang.

Vlad Masters was not a man used to being stymied.

What few doors his prodigious wealth could not open, his ghost powers allowed him to bypass entirely. Not to mention his dashing good looks and charming personality.

And yet, stymied he was.

He shouldn’t have been, by his own calculations. Avlynys wasn’t any richer than any other tiny European country, and should have been just as ripe for bribery. However, it seemed impervious. At least, on the part of official channels that would have allowed him to exist within the country publicly - and pursue his courtship of dear Madeline.

(Surely, her family couldn’t approve of Jack. The man was a boar. A common boar. Meanwhile, Vlad had both refinement and wealth.)

There were likely dozens of smugglers of the underclass that would take him to the islands, of course, as even under the current circumstances people still needed to eat and other necessities still had to be imported or exported. He didn’t care about those. If he wanted to get to Avlynys on the sly, he could just fly over on his own.

He was tempted to overshadow the officials involved, but considering that the injunction on travel came from the highest levels of the Avlynysan government, and that the Avlynysan government was very small, and also in regular contact with the few people who could reliably identify an overshadowing… and although Vlad was seventy percent sure that the heir presumptive to the throne, Matthew Dyrys, didn’t truly believe that Daniel had any special powers, well… There was always the chance that after the incident with the ghost, he would take Daniel more seriously than most adults would take a teenager.

But he wasn’t entirely out of options. A man like himself never was. As he’d said, certain necessities were still moving in and out of the country, and Avlynys had businessmen as well. People who could make the argument that he could provide vital services, and who could pressure the appropriate politicians. However, the price was sure to be steep, and the process would be a lengthy one.

It was annoying.

More annoying was the fact that his contact, a representative of the French branch of an Avlynysan company, was late. They should treat someone like Vlad with more courtesy. He wasn’t at all used to being kept waiting.

He checked his watch again and wondered, with a malice so practiced that it was almost idle, if the man was conducting some sort of power play, or if he was just incompetent. Perhaps, after this, he would put some effort into ruining him.

“Excuse me, Mr. Masters?” The one asking was a relatively young blond man with flyaway, slightly thinning hair, broad shoulders, and an accent Vlad was coming to recognize as Avlynysan.

“Ah,” said Vlad, looking up and smiling politely. “You must be Mr… Ambeej? Am I pronouncing that correctly?” His eyes slid pointedly to the blond man’s companion, a middle-aged woman with pearly white hair and watery eyes.

“Ymbyge,” said the blond man, who flashed a quick smile back at Vlad. “But don’t worry, no one gets it right on the first try. Please, call me Christian I’m sorry for how late I am, but I was consulting with my German counterpart, Ms. Shoenhauer.”

“Pleased to meet you,” said the woman. Her accent was German.

“You’re not Avlynysan?”

“Avlynyse,” interjected Mr. Ymbyge.

“We are an international company, Mr. Masters,” said Ms. Shoenhauer, sitting at the table and smoothing the tablecloth in front of her. “But my family has had much to do with Avlynys in the past. It is very important to us.”

“I see,” said Vlad.

“So!” said Mr. Ymbyge. “What did you want to talk about? There’s been a lot of interest in our little country recently, but you stand out even with that…”

Of course Vlad stood out. His business had nothing to do with the assassinations and the recent international commotion and everything to do with his long-standing personal interest in Maddie and Daniel.

“I was close with Princess Madeline in college,” said Vlad. It was something that anyone with a brain should have researched already, but he knew that it would also make helping him a much more attractive proposition for people like these. “I want to offer her all the help I can during this trying time, whether it be emotional, financial or political, but as it stands, it is very difficult to offer such things when I am stuck here.” He shrugged, projecting - literally, with ghost powers - an air of self-depreciation.

“Wow, that’s sure something,” said Mr. Ymbyge. “But–”

Vlad’s phone rang. “A moment.” He could make power-plays as well. They were, in fact, his favorite game. Besides, it would do well for these two to know where they stood.

The caller ID displayed the words ‘LITTLE BADGER.’ What was Daniel doing, calling him? Based on Daniel’s normal behavior, Vlad would have expected Daniel to practically forget that Vlad existed.

Unless, of course, he’d gotten in over his head.

“Excuse me,” said Vlad, barely glancing at Mr. Ymbyge and Ms. Shoenhauer. “I have to take this.” He stepped away from the table and towards the restaurant's lavish bathrooms. As soon as he was out of sight, he turned invisible and flew up. No need to risk eavesdroppers.

He let the phone ring a third time. No need to let Daniel think he was rushing.

Vlad picked up the phone.

“Oh, Daniel, to what do I owe the pleasure? Now that you’re an internationally renowned prince and sorcerer–”

While syvyr could be translated as ‘sorcerer,’ ledyn absolutely didn’t mean prince. At all. But Danny knew that if he let himself get sidetracked, he and Vlad would wind up arguing about toilet paper or something equally banal and ludicrous. “Listen, I know you’re trying to get into the country legitimately, and–”

Vlad sighed loudly. “And you want to stop me, I suppose? You’re as predictable as always–”

“I can get you in, but you need to do something for me first.”

There was a pause. “Pardon?”

“I want to make a deal with you. You do something for me, I do something for you. You do know how making deals works, right? You can’t have overshadowed people for everything.”

“I’ll have you know that most of my business arrangements are perfectly legitimate.”

“Doubt,” said Danny. “But do you want in? Because otherwise I don’t want to waste my time listening to your voice.”

“What guarantee do I have that you would keep your side of the bargain? You and your sister haven’t been entirely honest with me in the past.”

“Well, first off, that was when you kidnapped me; secondly, we didn’t have a deal, then. I was just lying to you.” He saw Gwensyvyr’s eyebrows go up and winced. Hopefully, that didn’t lower her opinion of him. “I’ve kept every deal we’ve made, even when you haven’t.”

Vlad made a disgruntled noise. “How would you even accomplish such a task? You’re a teenager and–”

“I’m currently living in the same house as the next ruler of Avlynys,” said Danny, which was a true statement no matter who wound up taking the throne, “and like you said, I’m an internationally renowned sorcerer. Besides, when I tell you what I want you to do, you’ll understand.”

“What is it, exactly, that you want me to do? You’ve never asked for my help with any ghosts before, and considering your performance against the ghost at that Moon Masque, I can’t imagine that you would start now.”

“Yeah, well, what I need right now doesn’t have to do with ghosts.”

“Well,” said Vlad, “I’d have to hear what you want before I can agree or disagree to anything. You understand.”

Danny looked up at Gwensyvyr, who was frowning down at the phone. She glanced back at Danny, then spoke to the phone. “As one of your standing ought to–”

“Who is that? That isn’t Jasmine. Daniel, you didn’t–”

“She’s a ghost,” said Danny before Vlad could work himself into a fit, as funny as that would be. “Most people can’t even see her. She’s not going to go around spreading your secrets.”

“A shade, then,” said Vlad, dismissively. “What does she have to do with this?”

“She’s a relative.”

“One of the dead ones?”

“No,” said Gwensyvyr, sarcastically, “despite being a ghost, I am, in fact, perfectly alive.”

“It has happened before,” said Vlad, equally snide. “What do you have to do with this?”

“I should expect that it would be self-evident that I want my relatives safe,” said Gwensyvyr. “I am here to facilitate this negotiation.”

“I suppose it is more convenient to speak to an adult. So, what is it you want? A power boost? Some final request that dear Daniel cannot fulfil? I suppose he is rather limited.”

“As I was saying,” said Gwensyvyr, rather frostily, “one such as yourself should know the value of information by itself. We will explain, but we require something in exchange.”

“Yes? What’s that?”

“All your records of little Danyel.”

“Daniel’s records? What makes you think–?”

“No, not Dannyl’s. Danyel’s. The girl’s.”

“Danielle’s,” said Danny. Gwensyvyr’s pronunciation wasn’t that far off the English, but it wasn’t like Daniel and Danielle were all that different as names to begin with.

“Fine,” said Vlad. “But I won’t be able to do anything about it until I return home, and I’m in France at the moment. So if what you want from me is time sensitive in any way, you should tell me now.”

Gwensyvyr nodded. “Right,” said Danny. “Well, have you ever heard of Revyvtech?”

Vlad raised an eyebrow, then looked down at the restaurant where two Revyvtech employees were currently waiting to speak to him. “A time or two. Why?”

“We’re pretty sure they’re behind the assassinations, and they used something like blood blossoms to do it.”

“Blood blossoms? They don’t work on humans.”

“But they do work on liminals. Do you think I just happened to have a knife that worked on ghosts with me at the Moon Masque, or that Mom just threw darts at a board to decide what she was going to do with her life? Avlynys is a thin spot.”

Vlad pressed his lips together. It wasn’t as if this would be the first time he used people who wanted to do him harm - the GIW were one such example - but it did make things so much more difficult. “And you want me to what? Investigate them? Fight them?”

“No. Aunt Alicia is in a coma, back in Arkansas. We can’t check her out of the hospital she’s at, because her security team doesn’t count as family and the rest of us are all the way over here. They’ve sent us pictures of her hooked up to a bunch of Revyvtech stuff, though, so we’re pretty sure they’re keeping her in a coma even if we don’t know why. We want you to figure out what they’re giving her and get her to Avlynys.”

“And how do you expect me to do that when the hospital will only discharge her to family?” asked Vlad.

“I don’t know, money boy. Bribe them. Or overshadow everyone in the hospital. It’s what you did to get elected, isn’t it?”

“That part will be easy, yes, but I was talking about determining what medicines she’s on, Daniel,” said Vlad, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Hey, you’re the one always bragging to me about how much you know about ghosts. Use some of that. None of us here know exactly what they’re using or what they’re doing, which is why we want you to look into it. Or at least get Aunt Alicia. Either way, if you show up with Aunt Alicia, you’ll be let in.”

To be fair, Daniel had been right when he said that it would be clear why they would let him in if he completed ‘his side’ of the deal. Vlad considered his options. On one hand, he would very much prefer not to do anything Daniel said, simply on principle. On the other, the business with Revyvtech sounded potentially dangerous to him as well, especially if they were going around poisoning people with blood blossoms. Retrieving Alicia would likely gain him the favor of Maddie as well. She did love her sister, for reasons that, quite frankly, escaped Vlad.

And being trapped in a hospital like that was a fate he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy.

“Very well,” said Vlad. “May I assume you’ll be telling this ‘security team’ to expect me?”

“Yeah, fruitloop. I’m not trying to get you killed. I want Aunt Alicia to get here safely.”

“That’s hardly what I’m worried about, Daniel.”

“Well, I am.”

Vlad smiled. “Oh, really? I’m flattered, Daniel.”

As expected, Daniel hung up. Vlad shook his head. Teenagers!

#danny phantom #ancestral #ancestral fic

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exhelluvafan · 3 days ago

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The thing that irritates me the most about Helluva Boss is the adamant need to waste any potential for depth in every character. The thing that stops me from abandoning this train wreck of a show and feeling total apathy for it is its wasted potential.

TOO MUCH FUCKING WASTED POTENTIAL.

And obviously, the elephant in the room, aka the blatant misogyny and double standards because viv is writing yaoi so the fans could consume the emotional uwu moments and porn. SO MUCH PORN DAMN IT.

And the thing that eats away at me is the characters such as stolas and stella had such an easy chance to be morphed into something so deep that the show could be a soap opera about their drama alone.

In my humble opinion, the Goetia demons shouldn't have been in this show at all. They belong in a show like Hazbin that's showcasing the upper echelon of hell. This should've been about IMP, but I'm not ripping that one bandaid off because the wound under it is a biohazard. Anyway, I wanted to offer a rewrite for the 😍 lovely poor uwu baby Stolas and his DEMON, BITCH OF A WIFE, Stella. (Yeah, the sarcasm's strong with this one)

First of all I love how her name means star 🌟. It ties in together nicely with the whole astrology aesthetic of the family. We're gonna ignore the born-to-be-a-bitch personality the show presented her as having and focus on what caused her issues.

First of all, she probably knew from a young age that she was going to be wed off into an arranged marriage (just like stolas), and she knew she had the responsibility of birthing an heir. That's going to affect how she views love and marriage in general. She'd see it as a transaction, that she can offer an heir and her body, and receive what she wants. I have no problem with her being a spoiled brat, a mean girl. In fact, take it up a notch. She can be both of that! She was probably given every materialistic thing she wanted since the day she was born other than love and affection. That probably made her narcissistic and selfish, with the "I get everything that I want and you can't stop me" attitude.

She's a party girl, and we stand for that. She seems to be very extroverted and outgoing, and that clashes with stolas' more subdued and introverted personality.

I see her as being EXTREMELY paranoid about appealing to the high society that she's a part of and keeping herself at the top of the food chain amongst other aristocrats, unlike stolas who only does it to keep face or avoid getting too much attention, she wants to be noticed ans seen. Her gossipy, high society friends also reinforce the fact that she never had normal friends who cared about her, and she never grew out of her mean girl phase.

I see her as someone with so much passion in her heart, and sadly, we had to see all that turned into rage. She has trouble controlling her temper and the constant rage that boils inside her, and she explodes and lashes out on people, especially stolas.

I see her going into a marriage with stolas with the same "I'll get what I want" attitude. He has power, money, and legions to his name, and he isn't necessarily bad looking. So stella is like, "Eh, might as well..."

He isn't her dream partner, but she goes into the marriage thinking she can mould him into her dream man. Or thinking he's meek enough to leave her on her own, or she could even manipulate him to do as she pleases. None of those go as planned, though.

I can lowky see her dragging him around as she shops and him just wanting to die inside, lol

Oh my, Anon, this quite a lot of words, but I actually really love your rewrite, I can see Stella actually watching Mean Girls while Stolas dies inside and just stares at the infinite lmao

But sadly, this is a Viv show, and you know that women in these kinds of shows aren't allowed to have any nuance beyond a one-note use or personality trait, unless they're stepping stools for the male cast, which in that case, they're allowed to have a bit more of depth, but not too much.

And yeah, actually, now that you mention it, the Goetia demons shouldn't have been in Helluva, if anything, they should've been shown on Hazbin, like you said, because we are following along a protagonist that was born in royalty (Charlie) and it would make a lot of sense to see the Goetia demons there, since it would be a royal meetup or something like that.

And lastly, about the porn... I can corroborate this since a lot of the designs made by Viv or by her team look... conventionally attractive, so conventional that's artificial and try hard at times, and also, pretty safe but sometimes pushing the limits a bit to pander to gay people (Vortex, Asmodeus and Satan, to name a few muscular characters that are quite popular, but also Moxxie, Chaz and Striker, also popular in the gay side of the fandom) but it always boils down to the same purpose: to get people horny, and this is exemplified so painfully clear when Loona shook her ass towards the camera in one of the episodes, turning out to be shameless furry bait, and when I say that these shows are gooning and softcore porn shows, it's because of deliberate shit like this.

But alas, thanks for your input, Anon, it's greatly appreciated and it's quite the palette cleanser to see someone competent pick up Viv's mess and restructure it into something actually compelling and nuanced.

#vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #anti vivziepop #fuck vivziepop #helluva critique #anti helluva boss #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #helluva critical #helluva rewrite #helluva boss rewrite #anon ask #ask reply #ask and ye shall receive

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midnight-mourning · 2 days ago

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Sleigh Bells Ring (Are you Listening?)

❄️❄️Midnight's DCA December Day 16❄️❄️

Another cute fluffy fic for you all, what a surprise amiright? Anywho, really tried to capture the scenery with this one, personally a big fan of cold snowy winters mhm, and also kissing robots-WHAT WHO SAID THAT anywho, enjoy!

Prompt: Oouu bats my little eyelashes,,i have a request!!💥💥 i think going on a sleigh ride with the dca would be fun!!!

Word Count: 1796

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Your feet hit the floor with a quiet thump. You stretch, yawning as you check the time on your phone. Still early, but the smell of food cooking downstairs has made you wide awake.

You twist to look outside, seeing a white, rolling landscape looking back at you. You walk over to the window, putting your hand on the cool glass. There's a bit of snow still falling, not as hard as the past few days, but enough.

When you first thought of the idea of returning to your family's old farmhouse all those months ago, you'd been hesitant. Mainly because you weren't sure how the attendant would react to such a stark contrast in environment compared to the Plex, and then your small cramped apartment. Two very different locations in terms of size, noise level, and population.

However, after the devastation that was the fire, and the months of recovery that followed, you think a change of pace would be what was best for all of you. And, you were right.

Both Sun & Moon had seemingly loved every minute of being on the farm, cleaning things up, taking care of the animals and the land, and so on and so forth.

You walk downstairs, the old floorboards creaking with each step, the air getting just a little warmer as you enter the main floor.

You spy Sun in the kitchen cooking breakfast. He turns to you as you enter.

"Good morning, Sunbeam! Did you sleep well?'

You nod, pouring yourself a cup of coffee. "Yeah. You guys been up long?"

"Just a little bit!" Sun walks over, depositing a plate of pancakes, bacon, and other breakfast goodies in front of you. You don't ignore how the food resembles a smiley face, commenting on such. His rays spin at your words.

Mid-bite you speak up. "I'm thinking after we check on the animals we clear out the back of the barn. There's a bunch of stuff back there that either needs fixed up or thrown out already. It'll be an all-day activity, if you're up for it."

"You know how much we love organizing!" Sun claps his hands.

"Great. Let me finish breakfast."

The air nips at your nose, hands in your pocket as you make your way over to the barn. Sun's ahead of you, stopping every so often to examine the snow in detail, or to drop to the ground and make a snow angel. If you weren't trying to stay warm you'd join in, you were having a competition and you were losing severely.

Upon arrival, the animals greet you. Cows mooing, goats bleating, and what have you.

Before you open up the doors a bit further and hit the lights, you watch Moon retrieve a spare carrot from his sleeve, giving it to his—supposedly not favorite—favorite horse, Opal.

"You're spoiling her." You say, unlocking the big doors and starting to push them apart.

Moon scratches the horse's head with both hands while she revels in the attention. "Nonsense. She needs it."

You scoff, but smile as the two continue to admire each other.

You allow all the animals that want to out to roam in their yards for a bit while you and Sun work on cleaning and feeding them. With the help it takes very little time at all. Allowing you the chance to get started on your project in the back.

It's as messy as you always remember it being, your grandpa wasn't a hoarder by any means, just a collector rather. Among the old farm equipment is random knick knacks and quite frankly, junk. No disrespect to the old man, but what use he saw in a five foot tall chicken statue, that was between him and the statue you supposed.

You make good progress however, getting about half of it at least organized in piles before lunch time.

You're about to head back inside and shut the barn up again for a bit when Sun calls you to the very back of the barn.

"What's this, Starlight?" He points to a large mass half covered in shadow and a sheet.

You furrow your brow and decide the best course of action is to just pull the sheet off. After the dust settles, something clicks in place in your memory.

You can't help the grin that splits your face. "Hey! It's the sleigh my grandpa used to take us for rides in when we were kids." You take a step closer, hand ghosting over the brass trim. "Man, I completely forgot about this. Didn't know he kept it all these years. Still in good condition too."

It's true, it was a lot better than you would have ever expected. The dark green painted wood has only a few minor chips and scratches. The leather seats and have no cracks or tears, just a fine coating of dust. Even the brass that decorates and lines the edges of the sleigh look good, you can see your own warbly reflection in places.

"It's beautiful..." Sun says beside you, his own hand hovering just above it, like he's afraid to touch it. "Would, would it still be useable?"

You shrug, looking back to the sleigh. "I don't see why not." You knock the side a couple times. "Wood doesn't seem to be rotted, meaning it should still be pretty sturdy. Why, would you guys want to go for a ride?"

"Please!"

You look up to him, slightly surprised.

Sun fakes a cough, rays flitting. "I mean, if we could, we really, really want to. Pretty please."

You laugh. "Okay, yeah. Shouldn't be too hard. Let's drag it out to the front and we'll clean it up after lunch."

After a bite to eat, you and the attendant work to clean up the old sleigh. Wiping it down, polishing, sharpening the blades and so on. It's tedious work, but you enjoy it and the conversation you share.

By mid-afternoon, the sleigh is ready to go and both Sun and Moon are more than ready to go for a ride.

"Sun hold on, I need to adjust the reins to make sure they're comfortable." You have to shoo him away from you so you can focus.

His rays spin as he whines, but retreats to sit down in the sleigh. "I know, I know, but we've been waiting alllll day."

"And you've been so incredibly patient." You respond, adjusting the bridle on Marshmallow's—named by your cousin's kid—nose.

"Exactly!"

With a laugh, you double check everything before walking behind the horses to the sleigh. Picking up the reins you turn to the frantic bot beside you. "Ready?"

"Yes!" He clasps his hands together. "Please, Sunshine. I'm begging you. Let's go."

You sigh, long and dramatic. Then, you grin. "Alright, let's go." You click your tongue, tugging on the reins once and you start to move forward.

The wind blows all around you, cold against your face. But, you're having too much fun to care.

You swear Sun's eyes are sparkling as he takes it all in. Head whipping back and forth as you travel along. It's peaceful, the crunch of the snow under the horses' hooves, the skating of the sled. Despite the weather it's a gorgeous scene as you cross the countryside.

The snow thankfully isn't too much for Opal and Marshmallow to handle, and you think they seem very content and please to not be cooped up in the barn.

Besides the cold on your face, it's pretty cozy inside the sleigh, the two of you are wrapped up in an old fur blanket you'd found in the attic, and if you weren't so happy that they were having such a good time, you'd be burning up at the thought of sitting so close with them.

Sun's knee bounces against your as he taps his foot, hands fidgeting with your coat sleeve as he has no other way to expel his energy.

You spend a good hour or so out in the snow, even stopping by some of the neighbors places to check in. You return home, cold and hungry, and Sun is happy to usher you inside and cook up dinner.

While cleaning up, you check outside and are pleased to see that the snow has stopped for now, leaving way for a clear night with a full moon. Just like you were hoping.

It takes a moment of convincing, but you pull the boys back out into the snow, stating that it's only fair that Moon should get a ride too.

Soon enough, you're back out in the world, the peace of the night just a pretty as the day. There's only a few stars out, but the moonlight is so gorgeous as it illuminates your path that it more than makes up for it.

It's somehow even quieter out now. The wind blowing only every so often. The lantern you'd set in the back seat casts a yellow hue of the back of Moon's head as he enjoys the ride. While not as fidgety as Sun, he does stick close, hand having somehow intertwined with one of your own, rubbing small circles into the back of it every so often.

All of the sudden, you feel his head rest on your own, it causes heat to grow on your ears.

"Thank you for indulging us and our insistent demands today, Star." He sighs, snuggling closer to you. "This has been lovely."

You duck your head a moment, then clear your throat. "Yo-You're welcome."

Moon's chuckle reverberates against you.

"Could you stop for a moment?" He asks after some time has passed.

You nod. "Sure."

It takes a second, but eventually you're sitting still, waiting for what he's going to do.

What you don't expect is Moon to shift, using his free hand to move under your chin and turn you to face him.

"Wha—"

He bends down then, pressing his smile to your lips, pulling away after a moment.

"That's all, you can keep going now." He snickers, sitting back in the seat.

You blink, taking a moment to process before protesting. "Are you serious? You think you can just do that and not say anything more?"

"Opal wants to get moving, she has carrots to snack on when we return. Marshmallow too."

You hook the reins around part of the sleigh, twisting to face Moon fully. "Opal can wait. I have a few things I'd like to say first." You use both hands to pull his faceplate down to your lips, kissing him again.

And as you sit there, kissing—one of—the bots you love, you can't help but feel a little more grateful that you'd found the sleigh.

So, very grateful.

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Gah loved writing this one, thank you @crystalmagpie447 for the request! I hope you enjoyed the fluffy sleigh ride, I def did :)

Masterpost link

Tag list (if you would like added, see this post for more info):

@scarletcowboy @beemyhuneybee @fishm0ther @deviouscrackers @elsajoyagent8

@luckyyyduckyyy @zenkaiankoku @jogimote @local-shrub @amarynthian-chronicles

@robinette-green @everlightreader @sinister-sincerely @starredeclipse @dangerva

@juukai @crystalmagpie447 @mothgutz236 @lizyxml

#eheheehehe #moon lovers you're finally eating well #im sorry for neglecting you with these #hope this helps #fnaf dca #dca fandom #fnaf daycare attendant #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #sundrop #moondrop #dca fic #x reader #mm dca december

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theresattrpgforthat · 2 days ago

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Any low improv TTRPG's? as in low on the GM part, i would like to try some and see how it compares as I'm part of the improv scary crew

THEME: Low Improv Games.

Happy holidays folks! I'm going to try and get the last recommendation posts of the year out quickly, so you might get some more rec posts in the next two weeks!

As for this one friend, I tried to mix things up across game and genre, so I hope you find something you like!

Tunnels in White, by MeatCastle GameWare.

Old money siphoning new money from every corner of your city. An aging mansion, quiet and worn. An old corporation shifting its gaze from development to development, always hungry, always growing.

A warehouse bearing the name Singleton Solutions, small and unassuming in one of a hundred industrial parks like any other, takes in truckload after truckload but never sends anything out. It’s the same for the people. Sometimes, they arrive in towncars, other times in shuttle vans. None come out. Ever.

What you know is something strange is going on inside that warehouse and you are determined to discover what it is. What you cannot know is where and how far the mystery may take you.

Tunnels in White is an adventure for Liminal Horror, a modern-day horror OSR game about normal people being subjected to terrible things. A good number of adventures and mysteries written for these games come with locations, maps, factions, enemies and consequences for you to use as needed whenever your players enter a new location or attempt something dangerous.

I’m really interested in the use of these adventures for various OSR games, as the adventures seem to be what have most of the meat, rather than the rules. If you really want these games to sing, you’ll want your players to create characters that fit the kind of adventure that you’re presenting to the table - in this case, perhaps your characters all have loved ones who have gone missing recently. Once your players have character buy-in, they won’t need much prompting to delve deeper into the mystery, and the fact that Tunnels in White doesn’t have one single “correct” solution to the main problem means that your players’ actions will mean all the more.

I think I see this module as a stepping stone towards improv in that it gives you options to choose from, rather than a singular railroad to follow. What you’ll get out of this is a location that feels logically consistent and real to the players, while the story that happens will feel organic, and heavily dependant on what the group decides to do.

You can find more modules for Liminal Horror in the Tales from the Void Liminal Horror Jam.

The Doom of Macbeth, by leozingiannoni.

Famine. Execution. Oppression. Supernatural longevity that no one seems to quite understand or question. As King Macbeth’s reign approaches its 100th year, your knights receive a revelation in a dream.

It does not have to be like that.

As an answer to prayers and cries, the god Lugh reveals to you the alternative realities that could be, if Macbeth is not allowed to move on with his coup. You wake up to 100 years in the past, before you were born. What will you do to stop this horrible future?

The Doom of Macbeth is a deep-dive into one of the most iconic plays of all time, where you fight your way to avoid a future that seems inevitable. Using the Doomsday Clock mechanic found in Arc:Doom by momatoes, you simulate the feeling of the play creeping upon your characters, and must fight against it— or towards it.

Using a narrative that is familiar to the GM and the players might be another way to enter a game without having to worry too much about improv. Even though this setting is only the size of a brochure, you and your crew can lean on your knowledge of the Scottish play to make things happen the way you want them to. In this version of the game, Macbeth succeeds in becoming a mad king, but you know that this can change, if you tweak the story.

One more thing: I think you might need Arc, by Momatoes, in order to play this game.

Kiss Me If You Can, by sdunnewold.

River is a notorious international art thief and cat burglar. Jules is a well-respected special agent in charge of art crimes. Jules is determined to find and bring River to justice. But maybe along the way… they'll kiss?

Kiss Me If You Can is a simple print and play two player cat and mouse romance game that you can play in under an hour. It features two unique decks of prompt cards, one for each character. Each turn you play a prompt card, answer its questions, maybe talk about a famous artist or painting, and get a little closer to justice and/or love.

Another two-player experience, Kiss Me If You Can feels very similar to games that are Descended from the Queen, in that the bulk of the game revolves around drawing cards and answering the prompts provided. You’ll come up with locations, personal motives, and reasons for your characters to end up getting closer to each-other, but the cards provide a lot of direction, so I don’t think I’d necessarily classify it as improv. If you want a cute romantic story about a will-they-won’t-they scenario, you might like Kiss Me If You Can.

Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose, by Jacob Marks.

The Mauvewoods. You can’t hope to see the crown of a mauvewood tree from the ground. It took a day just to climb to the top of the oldest trees. Look past the undergrowth and ghosts can be spotted on the old lumber paths. Every ghost you see used to live in a mauvewood tree. Knock on a healthy tree, and you just might hear a hollow wooden knock in answer.

This zine details a forest, a town, and a dungeon, all intended for use with the tabletop roleplaying game: Cairn. Explore a forest full of lumberjacks, maple syrup, and strange ghosts. Delve into an old mansion sinking into a marsh. Confront the Exalted Order Of The Mystic Moose.

Cairn has a few editions now: the link I’ve added to this entry is for the 2nd edition Warden’s Guide, and you can check out Yochai Gal’s creator page for both the Player’s Guide and the First Edition. This adventure has oodles of locations, three main factions, and a 20 room dungeon for your players to explore. Cairn feels like a very traditional fantasy game at its roots, but the Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose feels like like a unique take, with some flavour that feels very Boreal Forest to me.

Like many OSR adventures, this isn’t a linear adventure - instead is a series of connected locations and a broad description of things that are happening when the player group shows up. The setting has a natural conflict that is happening separately from the players’ choices or decisions, which will make the setting feel more real and important to your play.

If you want to explore more adventures for Cairn, you can check out the A Town, A Forest, A Dungeon Jam!

Totally Killer, by bloodygorgeous.

When you were kids, all the girls—and, certainly, some of the boys—wanted a Chrissy, the only fashion doll to give Barbie a run for her money. Chrissy was designed to be the woman every girl dreamed of becoming: stylish, smart, independent, and, most importantly, a total smokeshow. For a while, shelves exploded with Out of This World Astronaut Chrissies. Protect and Serve Policewoman Chrissies. ’80s prom queen Totally Killer Chrissies. Chrissy could do anything, all while her boyfriend Ben waited at home. Chrissy could have it all. Decades later, as Chrissy fever descends again on Deep Lake, a murderer stalks the night. The police have their theories, but only the Latchkeys suspect the truth: that this killer has long legs, an unstoppable smile, and a passion for fashion. Chrissy has come to life, and she’s come to slay.

Public Access is horror-mystery found-footage style game that relies on pre-written mysteries to give the table an organic approach to role-play. While typically PbtA games are considered very high in improv, I think the mystery format of these kinds of games takes a lot of weight off of the GM’s shoulders. Typically these mysteries provide a very strong starting point, introducing the table to the mystery and some key characters to look to for hints and clues. The GM is also provided with a series of clues to drop into the game where relevant - perhaps a headless doll is found where one of the victims went missing, or a mysterious silhouette lurking in the distance.

These kinds of games also typically come with some kind of track to help monitor both the progress of the latch-keys as well ask heighten the stakes to encourage the story to keep moving. In other games, I know that this track is called the mystery clock. I’m not entirely sure what Public Access uses, but the core rulebook looks to have quite a bit hidden within its pages, so I’m confident that it contains everything you need to run your first game.

You can find more mysteries for Public Access in the Degoya County Public Access Jam.

Auctōrātus, by M. Allen Hall.

You know why you are here. You are not a criminal. You are not a slave. You are an auctōrātus, a volunteer, and you will be paid well for your performance. Make sure your mech is ready. Select your components. Charge your batteries. Be prepared for the fight of your life.

Auctōrātus is a 1- or 2-gladiator game of mechs vs. monsters. The 3 files include the one-page (2-sided) rules sheet, the character sheet, and the map of the arena.

Battle monsters over six rounds to win the tournament. From the lowly Scale Wolf to the monstrous Crescent Wyvern, you will need to carefully choose your mech's components if you want to survive.

Featuring a diceless, zero-luck mechanism, Auctōrātus is an experiment in tabletop combat. Since this is a one or two-player game that focuses primarily on strategy, you might find a lot of satisfaction in simply immersing yourself in strategy. You can play the game solo and manage everything yourself, or play as two players who take turns playing the monsters in each person’s respective arenas.

A Good Plan Never Fails, by Deric Bindel.

A GOOD PLAN NEVER FALLS is a one-shot, gm-less roleplaying game for 2-5 players focused on infiltrating a TOWER and making off with THE GOODS held within. The group builds up with a tumbling block game, with each move taking everyone closer to collapse or success!

Over the course of play, everyone will create a member of the Crew from a set of Archetypes and receive a special Secret Agenda, dictating how they get their BONUS. You'll be bulding up the TOWER, dictating each obstacle and how you overcome them. When the TOWER inevitably COLLAPSES, it's time to shift from the HEIST to the GETAWAY!

A really strong feature of pulp-action genre games is that they’re typically heavily inspired by movies, like heists or cons. This means that the game has a pretty familiar structure, such as the infiltration or the getaway. You can rely on the hallmarks of these genres when playing these kinds of games to fill in the blanks, and it’s easy to figure out what happens next because the game builds each phase onto the last. In the case of this game, that means that the first part of the game, building the tower, leads into the second part, when the tower collapses.

Kill Him Faster, by Korvidae Games.

On May 8th, 2068, scientist Elisabet Rosenzweig answered the most pressing question in science fiction – “what’s the first thing you would do if you could travel through time?” - by killing Hitler. It took her precisely 5 years, 137 days, eight hours, and 12 seconds.

Fifteen years later killing Hitler is the hottest sport on the planet. The record stands at two weeks.

Competitive games are another great structure for play groups that want to build on something without needing a lot of heavy improv. In Kill Him Faster, the game is divided into three phases: pregame, game, and post-game, each composed of press conferences, the competitive portion, and interviews. There’s various additional phases for a longer game, including Trade Day (where athletes swap teams) and off-season vignettes, which allow you to slow down and focus on individual characters.

If you want a taste of the game before you buy, you can get the rules preview here.

Other Notes

A Complicated Profession by Always Checkers Publishing has a lot of guiding questions and a very structured order of play, and follows reformed bounty hunters running a cruise ship.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games, focuses on sports competitions, which may provide a structure that is easy to follow, as well as a more collaborative experience.

If you like what I do and you'd like to send me a token of your appreciation, I have a Ko-Fi page!

#low improv #tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg

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ernmark · 3 days ago

Text

When I was in college, a friend of mine got a job at one of the campus help centers where they're supposed to help students who are struggling get their feet under them.

Based on his training there, he insisted that he wanted to have a similar session with me in order to Fix me.

(This speaks volumes about the help the other students were getting, I think.)

See, the entirety of his assistance was sitting with me and creating a nice, tidy little schedule for my life in fifteen-minute increments, with tidy little spots for daily workouts and weekly meal prep. And he kept getting frustrated with me for not being able to put my activities for the day in any order, or assign them specific periods of time, or being willing to commit to following this militant schedule to the letter.

He wouldn't hear the fact that I'm a writer-- I have no control over when the words come. Sometimes I'll be doing something Very Important and I'll have to put it on hold because if I don't write this line of dialogue down Right This Second it's going to make it impossible for me to focus at all. Sometimes I'll be staring at a blank word document for two hours and get a sentence and a half done. Sometimes it'll be three in the morning and I'll have been writing for five hours straight but I won't be able to sleep until I get it written.

He wouldn't hear the fact that I have debilitating depression, and sometimes it takes hours to gather enough energy just to get dressed.

He wouldn't hear the fact that I don't actually know how long something like cooking is going to take, because every recipe calls for completely different cook and prep time, and I can't predict what's going to be utterly unappetizing until I look in the fridge for that meal.

There was no accommodation for the fact that I have a sleep disorder, which between the depression and the rest, makes it damn well impossible to predict when I'll be able to start sleeping, or when I'd need to wake up in order to be rested.

And that's what it comes down to-- there was absolutely no leniency or accommodation for anything outside of that ultra-disciplined, hyper-regimented approach. There was no allowance made for neurodivergence or disability of any kind. Despite knowing me for years at that point, he couldn't understand why I just didn't Try Harder. Clearly I'd succeed if I just did it his way.

A few things that did actually help me, for the record:

When there's something that I Know is going to occupy the entirety of my brain until I do it, I just freakin' stop whatever else I'm doing and do it. In my case, that's usually writing down whatever bit is in my head, but also it can be getting out of bed to make sure I turned the stove off, or making sure I locked the door, or paying my credit card bills in the middle of the night, or whatever.

A lot of my executive dysfunction is exacerbated by sugar/protein levels, so I keep a supply of protein shakes on-hand. It doesn't necessarily fix my depressive episodes, but it gets me out of those loops where I can't do X until I do Y until I eat and I have to eat first because if I don't eat now then I won't be hungry for dinner and then blah blah blah.

On that note: I can't control when/how I sleep, but I can control how many meals I eat during a day and roughly when they happen. Eating regularly helps to make the rest of my natural rhythms a little more predictable.

I have a short list of foods that my household can reliably eat and try to keep the ingredients for that stocked.

I do actually do a little bit of scheduling-- I set aside a few-hour-block on two days of my week to work out. Not because I Must do it, but so that I'm not preoccupied with the constant background radiation of "I should be working out more". If it's not Monday or Friday, it's not going to happen.

Forgiving myself for not being at peak productivity levels at all times. My boss will get what I have it in me to give them, and not more. My writing might not be at its best all the time, but it's a hell of a lot better than a blank page. Pushing myself past my limits to adhere to an impossible standard only exacerbates all those other problems.

#also ending my association with a friend who refused to take no for an answer and refused to listen to some pretty fundamental realities

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cozzzynook · 2 days ago

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Last part of TFA insecticon Bee because he deserves a happy ending :)

That night was peaceful, the stars shone brightly while the moon glowed blanking the forest in its gentle glow. Prowl stood nervously at the lake's edge watching as fish swam by un bothered by the sleek mech. Despite not getting a verbal answer from Bee eariler in the day the yellow mech did send him a comm ping saying he would be here, he hoped what ever was keeping Bumblebee busy wasn't too important. Softly humming Prowl sat down on the grass and closed his optics hoping a quick meditation would calm his nerves.

It had only been a few klicks when the sound of second pede steps were heard. Leaping to his own pedes Prowl scanned the tree line quickly spotting the familiar shade of yellow out from the dark shades of brown and green. Instead of a giddy smile or smirk on Bee's face there was a frown with a hint of guilt and fear in the mechs optics. Prowl's spark quickly tightened with worry as he took a couple steps forwards.

"Bumblebee, is everything alright?" He took a couple more steps closer until the fear in Bee's field forced him to stop.

"I-Prowl, I'm so sorry" Bumblebee shook his helm as he took deep vents not wanting to cry. "I should have told you weeks ago but I was afraid...I'm so, so sorry"

Prowl was stunned, he wasn't sure what had gotten Bee worked up or so afraid so he opened his field allowing comfort to fill the air as he took a step forwards. "Sorry about what? What's happened?"

Bumblebee blinked back tears as his whole frame vibrated with the wave of his emotions. Suddenly the yellow mech fell to knees as the guilt finally over came him. "The truth! About me about our sparkling!"

"What...?"

Despite the shock Prowl kneeled down grabbing a hold of Bee's servos with his own. While he wasn't sure what was going on it broke his spark to see Bumblebee like this. Giving a gentle squeeze he leaned down giving a soft nuzzle. "Just vent Bee, tell me what's wrong slowly"

Bumblebee sighed leaning into the gentle nuzzle with his own. "Its hard for me to put this into words. But I'm not the mech you know...not truly" Taking in another sharp vent he lifted his gaze looking up at Prowl. "The truth is...I'm a hybrid. My creators were a insecticon and a normal bot. I may never met them but they left their mark on my life and I never told any one because I was afraid, afraid you would all hate me and..." He'd shut his optics waiting for Prowl to yell at him, to call him a freak.

"And...?"

Bumblebee gave a soft whimper as he opened his optics slowly. "And you may have sired a sparkling..." He leaned back watching the shock slowly wash over Prowl's face.

"Are you certain, I mean 100% certain I'm the Sire?" This wasn't how planed this evening to go, he had planed to confess his feelings to Bumblebee but now he has learned about Bee's past and that he now has a sparkling.

"Yes, you're the only mech I saw during my cycle who else?" Bumblebee barely had time to speak again when he was suddenly pulled into a hug.

Prowl had never felt such joy or worry in his spark, not only did he now have a sparkling but he also had Bee to protect and care for. He wasn't going to leave their side, on Earth or Cybertron. "I'm sorry too, for making you feel like you couldn't tell me. Forgive me Bumblebee"

Tears fell from Bee's optics as he buried his face into the sleek mech's shoulder, softly weeping. "Yeah, okay...I forgive you"

-------

After that night things changed for the team both good and bad. While the surprise of both Bee's and Prowl's little surprise sparkling shocked everyone, the team couldn't have been more supportive. Optimus quickly took to the role of Grand carrier, despite the mech being barely a couple of cycles older than the pair themselves. The prime was often seen spoiling the little femme giving her treats or driving around the city in his Alt-Mode with the little one safely tucked away in his seats. Of course Ratchet gave one of his important lectures hoping the next time someone decided to have a sparkling it would be rather planed than a surprise. The bad part however, with Bee's and his daughter's insecticon heritage discovered meant the Auto Bot Guard was looking down harshly on them. Most bots who were once friendly with Bee quickly stopped talking to the yellow mech often looking at him with disgust or fear, Sentinel was one of the worst ones often making snide remarks under his vents as he walked past.

Despite their hardships they still had a few close friends on Cybertron, they often sent gifts or letters asking if they were okay and doing well. Bee had even received a rather funny letter from Kup posing in front of a rowdy group of bots who seemed to be in the middle of a party game considering the high grade glasses scattered everywhere. While he flicked through the letters next to him Prowl has drifted off into recharge with their daughter on his chest, Bumblebee couldn't be any happier even though he misses his friends on Cybertron but he knew as long as he had his team and family he couldn't be anywhere else in the galaxy.

^_^

(PS: I swore I put on Anon in the last post, whoops accidental name drop lol)

Sorry you name dropped if you want it deleted i will, no problem 🥰

I also love this story & the ending smiley 😊 thank you very much for sharing

#transformers #bumblebee #prowl #prowlbee #sparkling #prowl tfa #tfa bumblebee #tfa prowlbee #insectacon #insecticon #insecticon bumblebee

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wilhelminyard · 3 days ago

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compilation of nice/sweet things the foxes said to neil because even though they're a bunch of assholes who insult anyone in their vicinity they all just love him so damn much - except aaron - (part 3) :

ANDREW :

"I said I would keep you alive this year. you make it infinitely more difficult for me when you actively try to get yourself killed."

"the next time someone comes from you, stand down and let me deal with it. do you understand?"

"you were supposed to be a side effect of the drugs" "I'm not a hallucination" "you are a pipe dream."

"what would you give me?" "don't ask questions you already know the answer to"

"this isn't yes. this is a nervous breakdown. I know the difference even if you don't. I won't be like them. I won't let you let me be."

"I've never understood why he likes knives" "he will lose his taste when he has one in his gut"

"kevin is a fool whose style is numbers and angles. formulas and statistics, trial and error, repetition and insanity. all he cares about is finding the perfect game. a junkie like you can't be that cold."

"last summer you made me a promise. I'm asking you to break it." "no." "you said you'd stick with me if I kept kevin south, but kevin doesn't need me anymore. he chose us over the ravens because as a whole we're finally worth his time. there's nothing else I can give you in exchange for your protection." "I will think of something."

"spring break's coming. we could go someplace" "where and why?" "anywhere. anywhere at least three hours from campus. there's no point in going someplace closer than that. it won't feel like a vacation. the only trick is figuring out how to pry kevin away from the court" "I have knives"

"no one's said a word to them since they said we couldn't see you"

"if you tell me to leave I'll go" "you aren't going anywhere"

"I have to go. I don't trust them to give you back."

"ready?" "waiting on you"

"can I really be neil again?" "I told neil to stay. leave nathaniel buried in baltimore with his father."

"andrew could break our deal and let me go or break things off with neil" "he chose neil over you?"

"your close calls are getting old. I thought you knew how to run" "I thought you told me to stop running" "survival tip: no one likes a smart mouth" "except you"

WYMACK :

"I can't believe you trusted david to patch you up" "I was careful with him"

"you're a hundred times better now than you were in may. don't sell yourself short."

"go easy for a few days, would you?"

"are you okay?"

"neil asked us to leave the authorities out of this. I respect him enough to allow that"

"didn't I tell you not to worry about it?"

"I'm making you vice-captain next year"

"didn't you notice? they're uniting around and behind you. that's something special. you're something special."

"look me in the eye and tell me if you think I care who you used to be. hm? I care about who you are right now and who you can be going forward. I'm not asking you to forget your past, but I am telling you to overcome it."

"neil. talk to me. what do you want?"

"giving up on neil now goes against everything we are."

"I'm sorry. I should've told you but I couldn't" "don't worry about that right now."

"we'll wait for you, all right? as long as it takes, neil"

"I should be thanking you. you told us last night you intended to end the year dead or in federal custody. you could have shut everyone and everything out and worried about yourself this year. instead you agreed to help dan fix this team. you're saving the two I thought we couldn't reach, and you're a living example for kevin to follow. he never used to watch you but he's had eyes on you since december trying to figure out how you stand your ground."

"they told me to call them as soon as you returned. have you returned?"

"neil is a critical member of my team. you can ask any person on my line-up and they will all agree : we would not be where we are today if he wasn't here with us."

MATT :

"I want to break his face in six places. if he ever comes within a thousand yards of you again-"

"you okay?" "I'm fine" "for the record, I don't believe you"

"neil? we're here when you want to talk about it"

"neil? you good?"

"we're all legal adults here. we've made our decision. unless he wants to stay with you, you'd better bring neil back to us when you're done with all your questions

"hey, coach made us promise to leave you alone but are you okay?"

"they will get rid of me" "you're not serious"

"things could have gone much worse. I'm glad they didn't. you want anything, you need anything, you let us know. okay?" "okay" "I mean it" "I know. I'm done lying to you, matt. I promise."

"did andrew really choke kevin?" "took three of us to pull him off"

"we can't replace you"

DAN :

"neil? if you want to talk about any of it, or anything, or... you know we're here for you, right? whatever you need."

"kevin knew about this didn't he? he knew what riko was going to do to you and he let you go anyway. the next time I see him-"

"don't do this to us. don't sit here and lie to our faces. we're your friends. we deserve better than that."

"you told the truth. it's not your fault they don't like it."

"are you sure you're okay, neil?"

"go. but come back to us as soon as they're done with you, okay? we'll figure this out as a team."

"you're not playing. you think coach will let you on the court when you look like that? I'll sub in for you, neil. renee can help allison out one more time, right? trust us to hold the line. you focus on healing so we can use you in semifinals."

KEVIN :

"kevin called me yesterday morning when he couldn't get a hold of you. he wanted to make sure you were okay."

NICKY :

"don't you dare tell me you're fine. I can't hear that from you today, okay?"

"you can't have neil. he belongs with us"

"neil isn't a real person. it's just a cover that let nathaniel evade authorities. it's past time to let him go." "neil or nathaniel or whoever. he's ours, and we're not letting him go. you want us to vote on it or something? bet you it'll be unanimous."

"don't worry. andrew will protect you."

"hey, you good?"

ALLISON :

"it would have neen better if you'd come to the store with us. it doesn't matter. I bought out the entire row."

"I'm sorry" "shut up. no you're not. you're not. have you forgotten who has to paint you back together every morning? if you'd let them steamroll you yesterday after all this I would hate you"

"it is not safe for [neil] here anymore and it sure as hell isn't safe for you. it is better for everyone if he disappears." "what part of 'go to hell' do you need us to explain to you?"

RENEE :

"so those knives he brings everywhere are yours?" "were mine. he was right; I don't need them anymore. if you need them, he will give them to you, and I will teach you how to use them"

"if you want to talk more later, you know where to find me"

"will you be all right here?"

"kevin is very analytical whereas you're passionate."

"what do you need from us, neil?"

"I can do it." "I know you can. but perhaps it's easier if someone helps you."

ABBY :

"sometimes I think this job is going to kill me. seeing what people have done, what people continue to do, to my foxes. I wish I could protect you but I'm always too late. all I can do is patch you up afterward and hope for the best. I'm sorry, neil. we should have been there for you"

"let me take a look at you"

"it's over. it's over. you're going to be okay. we've got you."

"I dropped my gear in new york" "andrew found it while he was looking for you"

#aftg #all for the game #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil #kevin day #david wymack #matt boyd #dan wilds #renee walker #allison reynolds #nicky hemmick #abby winfield #the kings men #psu foxes #the foxes #tfc

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oleandequill · 3 days ago

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Please Ensure Your Penpal is Not a Politician (Shattered Glass Fanfic)

Alternatively titled, "Please Ensure Your Penpal is Not a Future Serial Killer"

Then again, politician... serial killer... same difference (/j I studied political science I'm allowed to make this joke skskskks)

But yeah, some notes, this is based off of both the FunPub Shattered Glass and the IDW Shattered Glass continuity. I mashed together some of the elements together because I am crazy. Anyway, I know I should have updated "Did I Ever Really Know You?" but I promised that the last chapter will be released next year and I keep my promises skskksks. So... have this for now lmao. Different flavor of Shattered Glass.

Also warning this is also a Humanformers AU because I didn't actually have much time to focus on writing (because I am dealing with the holiday and stuff sksksk) and I didn't want to keep pulling up the list of transformer body parts and transformer units of time skskks.

The Headmaster of the Polyhex Institute had issued him a warning a few days prior.

While classes were suspended due to the sudden loss of Crystal City and most of its inhabitants, it appeared that one of the Senators from Iacon City would be deigning the Polyhex Institute a visit.

Truthfully, Megatron did not wish to interfere with any of the bureaucracy that the visit would entail. He was merely a mathematics professor, and he had long since stopped pestering Iacon’s senators regarding the caste system that plagued Cybertron. As far as he was concerned, he would have preferred to lock himself inside his office until the Senator was gone.

Alas, he had never been favored by Primus.

He had barely hidden the letters sent by his equally-concerned acquaintances when the door to his office slid open. The intruder had knocked, but they had barely given him time to prepare.

With the letters secured in his desk, he glanced up, blue eyes squinting past his glasses as… Senator Orion Pax entered the room. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but shudder in the other man’s presence.

Honestly, the man wasn’t that intimidating to look at. Decorated in his senatorial garb, all purples and greens to showcase the opulence of the higher class, Senator Orion Pax was not physically threatening. Even as a mathematician, Megatron was sure he could take the man in a fight. Still, he would be a fool to think he would win any battle against a Senator. Years of debating and nearly getting outcasted into the Rust Sea had shown him how dangerous a politician could be.

“Senator Orion Pax, it’s an honor.” He stood from behind his desk, refusing to approach even as he extended a hand out for a handshake. He tried his best to show a genial smile.

‘Please for the love of Primus, get out of my office.’

Blood red eyes stared from a seemingly friendly face as the Senator moved closer, taking Megatron’s hand in his. Where there should have been warmth, Megatron could swear the man’s skin was as cold as the dead. He would have pulled away, but the Senator didn’t seem keen on letting go.

“A retired civil rights activist turned mathematics professor. I’ve read some of your works, from both your careers. Your reputation precedes you, Professor Megatron.” Then, much to his own shock, the Senator pressed his lips against the back of his hand - a sly grin on his face. “Or would you prefer to be called D-16?”

It took him some time to process the question, and by the time he did, Senator Orion Pax had finally deigned to release his hand. He took a step back, knocking the back of his knees against the chair. For some reason, the office desk between them didn’t feel like it was giving him enough of a safe distance from the other man.

Truthfully, Megatron hadn’t stepped foot in Iacon City since he had nearly been exiled. He had studied up in mathematics in the Iaconian University, publishing his political papers on the side and sending letters to the senate regarding the abolishment of the caste system. At some point, he had gained enough recognition by the Senate that they issued him a warning to stop unless he wanted to be imprisoned for treason or banished. After that, he had finished his studies and moved to Polyhex to pursue a career in teaching. The Polyhex Institute had welcomed him due to his mathematical prowess, but if he wanted to stay, he would have to give up his more… rebellious aspirations. While it pained him at the time, Megatron knew he had to let go of his dreams of a better Cybertron.

So, unless his published political papers were making the rounds again (which they technically were), there would be no reason for the Senator’s presence in Polyhex. There would be no reason for why the Senator was singling him out.

No, Senator Orion Pax was not here for any of that.

Of all the people on Cybertron, of course Megatron had the luck of having a Senator as his penpal.

“Forgive me, Senator, I wasn’t aware we were…” He trailed off, both embarrassed and a little terrified that all this time he had been writing letters to a senator.

Megatron had heard of Senator Orion Pax before. He was the newest one appointed to the Senate. He didn’t care enough to research more about what the other man was doing before he joined the Senate, but from his limited knowledge, the Senator was one of the more amicable ones. Still, after his correspondence with Senator Shockwave (who Megatron had a begrudging respect for), he was not inclined to trust any of the Senators as of recent.

In any case, Senator Orion Pax appeared to be Megatron’s penpal.

The name “D-16” had been an alias, and only one person knew it belonged to him.

But… his penpal - who had gone by the alias of Optronix - had said he was a librarian.

“No need to be so formal, Megatron. We’ve known each other for years. We’ve shared many words over the years.” The senator leaned closer, and he couldn’t help but blush as he remembered the more… intimate… letters they had sent to each other. “It’s finally a pleasure to meet you.”

Megatron couldn’t help but note, close as they were with only the desk separating them, that the senator was… physically appealing. Of course, that wasn’t why he had gained affection for his penpal. He had enjoyed their lengthy correspondences. Optronix had been of similar mind and moral. He was intelligent and charming.

More than that, Optronix had inspired him to be a mathematician and a professor. When they had first begun sending each other letters, Megatron had been a mere miner. Optronix had been the one to send him various academic papers that he had dedicated himself to learning.

He owed a lot to the other man.

But… it unnerved him that the senator had traced who he was. Despite how close they had become, Megatron had never shared his real name or where he lived in their letters.

“You said you were a librarian.” He said bluntly, though he really wanted to demand how the other knew he worked in Polyhex Institute - because the Senator knew - why else would he have gone out of his way to find Megatron in his office?

“You said you were a miner.” Senator Orion Pax teased back. His red eyes seem to trace every part of Megatron’s face. “We’ve both had a career change.”

Swallowing down the urge to ask what he really wanted, Megatron reached for the closest question that would satisfy his curiosity and soothe his worries. “I suppose… but Senator—”

“Call me Pax.” The tone was even, but it left no room for argument.

“... Senator Pax, while it is nice to meet you in person… Why the sudden visit to the Polyhex Institute? Is it on senatorial business? If so, thank you for taking the time to visit me.” Megatron ignored the irritated look that crossed the other man’s face as he continued to use the honorific. He began to fidget with his glasses, a nervous habit that he hadn’t done in years. He usually did it before every meeting he had had with the Senate.

“You haven’t responded to me in a month.” Senator Pax said quietly, as if admitting a secret. The other man gripped the edge of the table - the only indicator that he was upset - but the smile on his face never dropped. Megatron wondered if that perpetual smile was a practiced habit. “I was worried. You have heard about what happened to Crystal City?”

“Yes. Classes in the Institute were suspended. Some of the students come from Crystal City… I can’t imagine…” He trailed off, feeling tears spring to his eyes as he remembered the day the news had reached his classroom. Everyone in the room had been stunned into silence, before those who had family in Crystal City began to cry. He had done everything he could to console his students, now orphaned and left to be refugees in Polyhex. “I only wish—”

“That doesn’t explain why you weren’t responding to my letters for a month.” Wiping away the tears, Megatron peered over his glasses at the unempathetic senator. He had leaned back, crossing his arms across his chest as he gave Megatron a disappointed glare. “Tragic as it may be, the destruction of Crystal City has nothing to do with you.”

“I’m afraid it does.” He whispered, wondering if the other man heard him. With a sudden quickness, he moved away from the desk and towards the largest chalkboard in the room. After countless visits from his fellow scholars, he had covered it with the curtains.

He wasn’t sure how the other might react (and a part of him didn’t care if it scared off the senator from ever contacting him again), but the statement had sent him into a frenzy. It was a guilt that had been gnawing at his conscience since the destruction of Crystal City and that letter from Senator Shockwave.

He could feel the senator’s crimson eyes against his back as he swiftly pulled the curtain. He couldn’t help but compare it to a waterfall of blood as the red cloth fell and pooled against the floor, revealing the complicated formula that haunted him even in sleep.

Megatron knew what the other man might think. As perturbed as he was that the senator had tracked him down, he was sure he was quite the disappointment in the other’s eyes. He hadn’t had a moment’s rest since he had calculated the formula before him. His clothes were disheveled, and at this point he didn’t know what his hair even looked like. Whatever images Senator Pax had conjured up about his penpal - about D-16 - the reality paled in comparison.

His blue eyes stared forward, feeling the pain start in his chest again. He heard the senator move to stand next to him, a chill in the air as they both took in what he had calculated.

A month ago, Megatron had calculated the probability of civil war breaking out on Cybertron. He had raised the concern to his fellow academics, yet they had mocked him - stating that he had finally lost his mind in the numbers. He knew he wasn’t crazy. The numbers did not lie. It had agitated him. Enough so that he had contacted his old acquaintances from his time as a civil rights activist, explaining his predictions. Some had not sent any responses, some had even challenged his claims. Luckily, a few had listened. It was merely a precaution, but he needed to prepare for the inevitability of the civil war. An organized group. Nothing large, but at least enough to ensure that there would not be an absolute slaughter once the civil war began. And began it had, though no one else could see it yet.

The letter from Senator Shockwave was a warning.

Crystal City was a declaration.

“You’re brilliant.”

He turned his gaze to the man beside him, eyes blinking as the words sunk in. He was not surprised that Senator Pax would understand the formula and the prediction. He was a genius himself. Still, Megatron had expected the same ridicule he had received a month ago. At best, he expected concern for his mental being. Then again, the destruction of Crystal City might have been enough for the senator to believe in him.

“I calculated the possibility of civil war a month ago. Hence, why our correspondence was put on halt.”

Truthfully, that was one reason. The second was that the senator - well, Optronix as Megatron didn’t even know he was talking to a senator - had proposed that they finally met face to face. Even worse, he had proposed the possibility of initiating Conjunx Endura. He didn't know how to reply to that. Then came the calculations of the civil war, and Megatron could only focus on one problem at a time.

“I see.” They both knew Megatron had a second reason. The senator didn’t call him out on this. Instead, he reached out towards the chalkboard, fingers smudging the chalk carelessly. He kept the frown from appearing on his face as Senator Pax turned to him. “I’ll allow it. This is a good reason to be distracted from what I had proposed.”

“Thank you for believing me.” He tried to deflect. Megatron didn’t want to think about Senator Pax’s proposal about the Conjunx Endura. It was not the time. Certainly not the place. “I promise to be more active in our correspondence. I appreciate the visit.”

Admittedly, now that he was aware of his penpal’s identity, Megatron was uncomfortable with continuing their strange relationship. It was ridiculous, though he had no one but himself to blame for initiating a relationship with a man he had never really met face to face. While their correspondence had begun merely out of friendship, with both seeking companionship through the penpal system, it had turned into more. Optronix had been sweet and had supported him even if they were unable to see one another. Megatron had even sent him love poems once. The years they spent together - even if they had been limited to ink and paper - had been passionate and perhaps will be the strongest relationship Megatron has ever been able to maintain. It was unfair to Senator Pax, but Megatron couldn’t stop his distrust of the senators.

Not with Senator Shockwave’s warning that the Senate was compromised.

“No need for further correspondence.” Before Megatron could be relieved, the senator went on. “You should come to Iacon City with me.”

There was a moment of silence. Megatron couldn’t help but turn his eyes away, shock and indignation causing his face to flush red.

“Why?”

“While Crystal City is the first city to be destroyed, we cannot rule out the possibility that whoever the cause behind it is not targeting the scientifically-advanced cities. Polyhex is home to many brilliant minds… and a very pretty professor.” Senator Pax winked cheekily at him. Megatron had to wonder if the senator was usually this unserious when declaring extremely troubling news. “It’s my own theory but Polyhex might be next.”

“All the more of a reason for me to stay.” Megatron moved away from the chalkboard, moving to the window that overlooked the city. He watched as hundreds of people went about their business, guilt gnawing at him again. If he had only been insistent when he had first calculated the probability of civil war. If the senator’s theory was correct, Polyhex may very well be attacked soon. “Crystal City was eradicated from the map. If the historical records didn’t exist, no one would know it ever existed. I can’t leave Polyhex to the same fate. It’s the only home I’ve ever known.”

“You’re from Kaon.” The words were blunt, unsympathetic. He jolted as a hand settled at the small of his back. He kept his eyes forward, trying not to push the other man away as a heat brushed against his ear. “Polyhex welcomed you, true, Iacon would welcome you too. I’d be there to welcome you.”

“... I’m banished from Iacon.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m on self-exile.”

“So you admit you once considered Iacon a place to be exiled from?”

“I can’t leave Polyhex.” He insisted, gritting his teeth. He wasn’t surprised at the senator’s insistence. Optronix had been insistent too. There was a reason why Megatron had managed to escape his role as a miner. Optronix insisted on sending those academic papers, even with Megatron’s protests that he was not intelligent enough to really become a scholar.

“Come back to Iacon with me…” He swore he could hear the other man’s voice strain as he added, “Please.”

“Would you abandon Iacon if you knew it would be destroyed.” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer to that question. Truthfully, he was stalling.

“Iacon is the most protected city in Cybertron. It’s like a guarded fortress. After all, the Senate is at its heart.” Those red eyes met his in the glass, a forced smile on the senator’s face. There was a spark of emotion in that gaze, one that Megatron could not decipher. “I would feel better once you’re in Iacon. You’re coming back with me. I’m no longer asking.”

“If I still said no, what would you do? Detain me?”

“Yes.”

There was an awkward stretch of silence.

“...I’m joking.”

Was he though?

Megatron let out a tired sigh. Truthfully, the moment the senator had proposed going back to Iacon, Megatron knew he would inevitably agree. Once Optronix has a goal in mind, you need to get out of the way.

“Very well. I shall pack a bag.” He turned away from the other man, stumbling away from that cold hand that lingered behind him. “I’ll have to arrange accommodations—”

“I’ve settled those for you.”

He let out another sigh, his feet heavy as he headed towards the door. His living quarters were on the other side of the university, and yet it was not enough of a distance from Senator Pax.

“Some of my bodyguards will go with you, I’ll wait for you here.”

He could feel himself shudder as he spared a glance behind him. Megatron did not feel threatened. While he was perturbed by the senator and worried about Senator Shockwave’s warnings, he knew he could trust Optronix. Optronix wouldn’t hurt him, not after helping him achieve everything. Still… he still couldn’t piece together the sweet Optronix to the dangerous Senator Pax.

“That’s not necessary—”

“It is. I’m a senator, people would wonder about my relationship with you. Do it for my sake.”

While he could still feel an inkling of wariness, Megatron let himself relax. Right. He forgot how dangerous it was to be a senator.

He could manage a few bodyguards.

—

Optimus tucked the letters into a pocket.

While his sweet Megatron was brilliant in many ways, in the art of being quick he was not. Of course, he had hardly given the professor any time to prepare before he had entered the office. Still, the man should have been quicker if he wanted to keep his insurgent correspondences hidden. Optimus had noticed that the professor had shoved a few papers underneath the desk, taking in the horrified look in those blue eyes before they had looked into his own. Of course, Optimus never did like it when people kept secrets.

It was a good thing that Megatron was so slow. Otherwise, Optimus would not have ever known the danger his little professor was posing. He had to admit, he was impressed. The formula predicting civil war was brilliant on its own, but to create a contingency plan once it began to break out? Some would say it was the work of a paranoid man, but Optimus would say it was the work of a genius. An underground vigilante group? Why, Optimus found it endearing. It reminded him of his own secret police - though his faction had a reason to exist.

Megatron was correct about a potential civil war. After all, order did not come without a few deaths. Optimus expected that there would be many who would stand in his way, but that didn’t matter. If he wanted to reconstruct Cybertron, he’d have to quell the dissenters - especially this little group that his professor had gathered. It wasn’t for selfish reasons. Optimus could see the chaos in the Senate and among the cities of Cybertron, he merely wanted to fix it - to create a world where he could ensure peace. By ruling, he could ensure a world of perfect order.

Well, admittedly, it was also for a selfish reason. A long time ago, he realized that life had no meaning. It was only when he’d begun his letters with D-16 that he had come to a better conclusion. Yes, life had no meaning, but by making yourself known then life became worth living. He had thought long about how he could possibly make history remember him, then D-16 had inspired him with his words about equality and peace. Of course, what a perfect way to be remembered: to be the ruler who ushered in the eternal Golden Age of Cybertron.

Megatron would understand once Optimus brought him back to Iacon. His correspondences with his fellow rebels would have to stop, and Optimus could easily ensure that. He’d have to track down every single name mentioned in the letters and send the Wreckers after them. Soon, there won’t be any group that would oppose his own. While he could care less what happened to most of them, there were two prominent names in the letters that he would personally attend to. Honestly, it incensed him that those two had the nerve to contact his poor overtired professor. Have they no shame?

First, that insipid little scientist from Crystal City. While Optimus had not personally contacted Starscream regarding joining the Wreckers, he had heard that the scientist had refused. In retaliation, he sent the Wreckers to raze Crystal City to the ground. No one refused him. No one. Second, that overbearing nuisance of a senator, Shockwave. No wonder Megatron had been nervous around him the whole time. He was aware that someone from the Senate was a traitor. Optimus didn’t even know how Shockwave had realized that someone in the Senate was working against them, but the man would pay for this.

With a few tweaks to the letters, Optimus could frame Shockwave as instigating a rebellion. That should be enough for the Senate to reinstate the Empurata. They wouldn’t take kindly to traitors, especially one that had already destroyed a city. It was a fitting punishment for Shockwave for daring to expose him, and for scaring his Megatron.

He sighed.

Today was still a good day.

After all, Megatron had been everything he had ever dreamed of.

Brilliant. Beautiful. Naive.

He stood up from the office chair, moving towards the door.

He had a future Conjunx Endura to spend time with.

#transformers #transformers shattered glass #shattered glass #sg optimus prime #sg megatron #sg megop #sg opmeg #megop #opmeg #I wasn't supposed to post anything until next year but my friend made this my december challenge of the day skskks

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starrycassi · 6 hours ago

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Jayvik & their respective bad habits.

Most of these are just actually trauma responses but I needed a name aight. also they live after that whole sky soulmates thing for the purposes of this idgaf. Also kinda toxic sooo

Viktor rations food. Which also means that he hoards it. Jayce and him have SEVERAL fights about Viktor either buying way too much and it rotting away on the fridge or Viktor simply not eating because he's "saving" something for tougher times. Jayce has to insist really hard on convincing him out of this mindset, and it never fully goes away. He keeps finding canned food that neither of them actually like, and eventually just donates it as soon as it's bought.

After the flying homos thing Jayce is just as bad with food. They end up getting a maid because things are getting dire.

After the whole alternative timeline thing, Jayce sucks at putting up boundaries. Yes, he's great at communicating, but doesn't necessarily excel in *putting up* something to communicate about. A lot of times, Viktor finds himself pushing too much with little to no repercussion, because Jayce would rather have an uncomfortable day with Viktor than a day alone.

This bleeds into a period of frustration for Viktor. He doesn't want to leave his boyfriend alone, but doesn't know when to stop or what is allowed. He finds Jayce to be much more malleable and kind of misses his headstrong attitude.

Jayce is VERY starved of any kind of affection and ready to bend and break for whatever Viktor wants. This is a common trauma response, and Viktor is relieved when he learns this because it means that he can help his boyfriend. He pours himself into the study of the fractured psyche and how to help it.

On the other hand, Viktor is living in a constant state of guilt. Pur guilt. Remorse and shame and embarrassment and disappointment. This manifests in him completely isolating himself when he gets overwhelmed, sometimes lashing out at Jayce in a way to try and "protect him" by "making him see how bad of a person he is" which... just ends up in Jayce worriedly staring at the bedroom door and wondering if Viktor will ever open it, or if this is just another hallucination and he's still on that cave.

They both recognize that the other needs professional help. Refuse to get for themselves. End up going to couples therapy after a fight in which Viktor looked himself up and Jayce had a panic attack when he started trying to talk to him and Viktor wouldn't answer. Then Viktor came out and saw Jayce wailing on the floor, and he felt so guilty that he considered just taking out and leaving so Jayce would never have to suffer like this for him again.

Yeah this is the author's thinly veiled desire for angst. What about it.

Jayce got used to being alone for so long that he now will sometimes forget that cleaning up is A Thing and just... doesn't do it. This is like a very brief thing because Ximena's spirit screams in his ear every time he doesn't do smth.

Viktor is horribly negligent with his own health and gets deeply irritated when Jayce tries to help. This is worse after the whole "I'm god" thing because he KNOWS now how it felt, to live without that burden. He never takes it out on Jayce (consciously) but his facial expressions are sooo obvious.

Sometimes Jayce says stuff about Zaun that makes Viktor consider becoming a widow by his own hand. Then he calmly leaves the room to come back with a glass of cold water to explain things to him

They both get Very Caught Up in their work. They actually made a rule of no more than 48 hours without sleep in the lab for the very reason that they would genuinely consider punching each other square on the mouth. Before ANY of you come at me "Oh Jayce would never-" I need you all to know that any college kid would. Give me them on finals week and I ASSURE you they're choking the living lights out of each other.

Like Jayce is trying SO hard to be kind and Viktor goes "Not so very bright, Gold Boy" under his breath and Jayce wonders how funny it would be to jump right now to make him feel bad

Yeah I think they should get to be kinda mean. Have I ever mentioned that I grew up shipping Vikjayce because my older brother played lol and gave me a lot of access to his free time. This is very machine herald/defender of tomorrow inspired so if you're squirmy about that dynamic maybe stop here.

Viktor tends to joke about taking himself out of life way too much for it to be funny. Not only to Jayce, mind you. 'I guess I should've jumped when I could've hahaha" because his favorite cafe is closed. He makes a lot of people uncomfortable with his humor in general, but Jayce finds it kind of comforting, to have someone who is so blunt with him.

Jayce goes "...maybe I should just disappear" when he really wants to manipulate someone OR is really tired. Sorry he needs to have his moments too you're telling Me Puppy Eyes has NEVER tried this tactic, even if disguised as a joke? Yeah no college changed him I know

He tried this once (1) with Viktor. Got out freaked. "If you do this I'm killing myself" "Okay. I'm jumping after you do. Yeah I will. Oh? Yeah? Suddenly quiet? That's what I thought. Pussy."

Jayce bites his nails until they bleed. Viktor always outs band-aids over the wounds and kisses each of his fingers while scolding him lightly.

If on the edge of any high place, they tend to stare down, wondering. Entranced. One time, they were doing this on the roof of a random hospital and touched each other's hand. They never say it out loud, but they thought about jumping together as soon as they did.

They both avoid confrontation like HELL after the glowing gays situation. Again, Mr Needy and Mr Guilty walk into a tense room with nothing but a bleeding and broken heart in hand. Knock, knock. Wait. I forgot the punchline.

Viktor sleeps with LOUD earphones. Going deaf early probs.

Viktor is always itching for a smoke. Yes he knows his lungs are dying leave him ALONE, Jayce.

Jayce has a slight problem with alcohol. Slight. He swears.

They can never agree on what movie to watch and end up with documentaries about some obscure discovery they both enjoy.

Jayce can never truly fully trust Viktor again, not when it comes to taking care of himself/others. He's always so scared of Viktor going down the same path. He does trust Viktor more than literally anyone else! Just... Not fully. He never says it. Viktor still knows. He doesn't blame him for it.

Similarly, Viktor tends to doubt Jayce's social decisions. He remembers how easily Jayce was swayed away. It isn't fair, to hold him to something he did when he was 20-someting and hopeful. He still does. He keeps this to himself. Jayce thinks his husband is just jealous.

He's right. Viktor is SUPER jealous All The Time. His husband is hot, kind, smart and emotionally competent. He already almost lost him once, he's NOT taking that risk again.

Jayce is actually also really jealous. He spent weeks, if not months, if not years completely alone thinking that everyone he knew and loved was dead (and kinda right). He's extremely caring, to the point of being overbearing.

This is actually a problem aside from his relationship with Viktor. Cait has to constantly tell him to leave her alone because he's being pushy with her.

Can he help it? She was dead. One day he woke up and she was dead, and everyone else was, too, and he was alone and cold and scared, and, Sprout, can he help it? That he wants to know where she is, what she's doing, how she's doing? Can he help it?

Vi and Jayce tend to enable each other's drinking problems by accident. They actually start going to AA together. Eventually. In like a decade.

Viktor will simply Not Speak to people he doesn't like. Which is, like, a lot, since he now knows the mind and inner thoughts of literally anyone.

Jayce puts on so much fucking perfume that sometimes Viktor feels like he's still in the fissures.

They very rarely get into screaming matches - even when they fight, it's usually in a controlled tone of voice - but when they do, they are SCREAMING at each other. It usually ends up with one or both crying.

They consider breaking up for each other's benefit, like, thrice a week, for at least a year after the Yaoi Jesus Incident. In the end, they're too selfish to try and live without the other, so they never bring it up.

Viktor constantly eats raw things. Which prompts a PowerPoint presentation of salmonella and its dangers. Jayce can't stand anything raw (except for, well, bedroom activities) after his dark souls plot. He WILL hyperventilate if the chicken is mildly soggy.

When drunk, Viktor will start insulting everyone. Jayce starts looking for a fight.

Jayce has tried to stop fights by making it sexy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just makes Viktor feel irritated at being treated "like a sex-blinded dog"

Holds the other to standards they definitely don't apply for themselves. "You should take a bath. You smell" "You've been in the lab for a day straight. I smell, you stink" "That's different"

They love each other more than themselves, despite everything. Which is, arguably, the worst thing on this list.

Idk guys I'm sleepy but... Angst... Hurting... So human yet literal deities...

Also why are people acting like vikjayce post butterfly stars would be cute together and live happily ever after. Jayce is Mr PTSD now and idk what you would even begin to diagnose Viktor as after allat. I would be surprised if they manage to go a week together without snapping at each other. So many feelings and a clear target... Yeah

#jayce x viktor #jayvik #arcane #jayce talis #viktor arcane #uh idk #machine herald #defender of tomorrow #man of progress #i think they should kiss #uhhh don't fight me on this I am amanda overton i swearvto god (not lying) (true) (not bait)

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annisassintchaska · 11 hours ago

Text

THE DENIED FEELINGS

Lewis Hamilton × Black!Reader

Today is a not so busy day as it is media day. Majority of the interviews have already been done, so Lewis is on his very last one, when he spots HER. The woman he had spent the previous night with, who is also the journalist that had interviewed him before everyone else this morning.

Watching as she walks past, not realising he was standing there, she makes her way for the exit. he turns back to the current Journalist in front of him, hoping that she would hurry with her questions so that he can catch the beautiful woman who walked pass before she leaves for the hotel.

A few minutes later, he answers the last question, says his farewell then speedwalk towards the journalism department, yet when he arrived was informed that she had already left. A deep sigh falls from Lewis' lips, a stressed expression on his face as he thanks the lady's coworker and leaves towards the hotel...the same hotel that everyone including the woman he was hunting also resides for the race week.

Upon arrival to the hotel, he quickly goes up to his room, take shower, straighten his room and clean up whatever mess was made that morning before leaving his room to her. On the walk there, Lewis reflected on the night they had; the intimate talk, the sharing of hopes and goals, let's not forget the passionate lovemaking that had taken place that relaxed his body, mind and soul in a way nothing or no one had been able to do before.

Coming to a stop at her room door, he take a few deep breaths before knocking on the door. after a minute, the door opens but its not the person he expects. "Carlos?" he whispers out in surprise, Carlos himself looking shocked to see the 7x world Champion there. "Hey, I came to get some clarification on an interview timeline." Carlos says softly, noticing Lewis' questioning gaze. Lewis nods in response and watches as Carlos disappears down the hall before entering and closing the door behind himself.

Turning around, he spots the woman he fell in love with in a red, silk lingerie covered by her matching silk robe. Ironically, he knocks on the already closed door behind him to alert her of his presence. "You're already inside, knocking is useless." Y/N mumbles, her back still facing him as he begins to walk closer to her. "Why are you here?" she asks softly, turning to face him, a plate of freshly warmed food in her hands. "I'm here to talk...about what happened last night. I need to express what I felt." The older, mature man says.

"I'm listening Sir Lewis" Y/N says softly while chewing. She takes a seat at her dining table, her eyes on him. "I'm going to be honest...when you had offered to spend the night with me, I expected it to be some sloppy time that ended quickly with you leaving but still hunting me after the actions...I didn't expect to be hooked after everything happened. The conversation, the fact that you weren't prying, you asked about just me, wanting to get to me and not the driver, the celebrity but the person. The genuine advice you gave, the warm and comforting aura you poured into me...it was as if I was in heaven on cloud nine. Lastly the intimate time we had after it all...it was magical, felt ethereal, as if it caressed my soul and made it at peace. I had the most wonderful rest last night to the point I slept pass my alarm this morning, almost late to your interview. To sum this all up, I just want to tell you that for the very first time in my life, I've felt the connection this strong with a woman...I know we've only spent a night with each other, but I'm asking...please, will you allow me to take you out to dinner? On a proper date?" Lewis expresses and wait for her response.

Y/N takes a few moments to collect herself and think. "Lewis...not to say I'm not interested, but have you considered what may happen if the world finds out about this? I'm 24 and you're 39, I'm a journalist and you're a driver. They will accuse me of being biased with ratings and interviews, I may even lose my job.... As much as I want to accept to date you, I'm going to need some time to think" The Jamaican woman says softly, her gaze on him lovingly though her words were otherwise.

MAYBE AFTER A WHILE SHE WILL ACCEPT OR NOT?

#lewis hamilton #lewis hamilton imagine #lewis hamilton x oc #lewis hamilton x reader #lewis hamilton fanfic #lewis hamilton angst

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just-an-enby-lemon · 12 hours ago

Text

"The kid seems scared.

Tip had always been a little nervous. Or at least that was the reality when the two had met.

It was fairly obvious for everyone that met them that the child had not been treated well by their formar guardian and in a way that Elphaba sadly recognized still seemed to afraid of facing the same pain and rejection again.

Still lately the kid seemed more relaxed and open, treating her with the same easiness and earnest they did Jack. More determined to learn than eager to please. Following her around with questions and vibrating with excitement as she turned wooden sticks into dolls and toy swords alike. It made her think of Nessa in a very bittersweet way.

She failed her sister and she would not allow herself to fail another young person she became responsable for.

That's to say Tip's strange turn to the same scared kid she met soon after leaving her behind and being declared and enemy of Oz scared her.

"Miss Elphaba, I have something very serius to tell you."

Maybe they want to leave. They are not in fact different in the same way Elphaba is. Tip is a normal if deeply magical child who just ended up in the care of a horrible woman. Being her aprenticce is actually the only thing turning them into a dangerous and hated figure.

"I understand."

The kid takes a deep breath. Elphaba tries to think on the best words to explain that of course they can leave if they want to and that they can take as many provisions as they need. Tip will never again be a prisioner.

"I don't think I am a boy? Wait no. I now I'm not a boy. Like the idea of it is still a bit scary because it seems like it will be a big deal but I'm fairly sure I'm a girl actually. I just never though about it before but Jack called me she accidentaly and it just makes sense. I am still the same Tip and please let me keep being your aprentice." She says in a single breath.

"What?"

The girl looked scared. "I'm a girl." She says. Than in a smaller voice. "I can try to be a boy if you want?" It does not appear to be something she wants and the fact she still sugests it breaks Elphaba's heart a little.

"Oh! Oh. No, no, that's fine. Do you want to be called something else?"

Her eyes go huge and she stops deep in thought before answring.

"Uh. I guess so, but I'm still thinking on it. I don't mind Tip for now."

"Okay, tell me when it changes?"

"Will do."

"Anything else?"

Tip looks a bit shy for half a second before a excited smile covers her face. "Could you let me borrow a dress?"

Elphaba laughts.

"You are too tiny for my dresses, kid. But I can help you magic one for yourself. "

Her eyes shine. "Cool!"

[...]

"Morrible says you'll marry some prince soon." Dorothy says making a face.

"I don't see why you are soo distraught, my dear, I'm pretty sure she'll find me a great prince." Glinda says with false cheer.

"I doubt it. Princes are all very dull."

"Met many princes did you?" She jokes lightly, trying to find a way to change the subject. She loves the kid dearly and for all it's bleak consequences will always be glad the tornado ended up bringing the girl into her life but she would preffer not to discuss those subjects. Specially not in her own bedroom in a rare moment of relaxation.

"Well no." The girl pouts. "But most boys are dull and I can't imagine liking to marry even the ones that aren't. I guess I just thought you were the same? I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize. And I sure hope marriage is unimaginable for you, you are way to young for it."

The girl smiles a tiny bit before frowning.

"I can imagine myself marrying a girl one day."

"Oh!" Is all Glinda says.

"I told Aunt Em once she told me to never say it again, she told me I was too young. But I'm ten now and I feel the same. " Dorothy rarely talks about home, sometimes Glinda tricks herself into beliving it is because her the kid just loves Oz better, that she forgot all about it, but she knows deep down that Dorothy will always miss Kansas, always miss her uncle and aunt and Toto, she just accepted home as a place she'll never return to. In the good days Glinda knows Dorothy would also miss Oz, would miss her munchkin friends and mostly would miss being Glinda's apprentice. In the better days she thinks about bringing Dorothy's family here. After all Kansas always seems sad and hungry. "Girls don't marry each other in Kansas." She continues. "But I though maybe they did here. "

"I think they do everywhere, Dorothy, is just some people pretend they don't because the different scares them."

"Like the Wizard and the animals?"

Glinda had only recently convinced Dorothy to only speak her very dangerous beliefs on the Wizard in private and even there she sometimes corrected the kid. But right now it felt too much like liying to Elphaba she couldn't do it, not when she knew Dorothy to be right.

"Yeah. Just like that."

And after a second she adds.

"Between us, I would also like to marry a woman".

Dorothy smiles, just a little bit.

[...]

She knows she should not be here.

But it's fun, she likes the dancing and the food and the small chance of going back home with something that can actually help Elphie. Maybe a magical item or even just some usefull information.

Besides the girl she is talking to is very pretty and fun and smart and she is not open about it but she's definitivaly not the biggest fan of the Wizard either. Oh and a great dancer.

"I'm sorry" the girl says "but I think I did not catch your name?"

Now it's the moment to say something clever like 'i never gave it to you' or maybe just invent some fake name. She can't say her name. It's too easy of a conection to make. But she doesn't need to lie. After all it was never really her name. And she has a name now. Has had it for days and just keept it a secret in some weird form of fear. But it felt like time. She would tell it to Elphie and Jack when she went back.

"Ozma. I'm Ozma. What's yours?"

[...]

Dorothy had never had so much fun at a party before. Her new friend was the most beutifull girl she ever met and the funniest and cleverest and it had never felt so easy to talk to someone before. In fact the only thing Ozma didn't appear to be was a good dancer but Glinda had teached Dorothy well and she found herself leading the other girl steps into the best dance she ever had.

She noticed Ozma did not gave any surname but it was not her place to pry. She just hoped to mert the girl again.

"Dorothy." She says and takes the hand. For a second she considers continuing in the way she was instructed to (Dorothy Upland at your pleasure and a kiss to the hand) but while she loves Glinda that's not really her. And she somehow trusts Ozma enough to be honest. "Dorothy Gale." She shakes the hand just like Uncle Henry used to.

#this is silly #please someone that can actually wrote do something with it for me #wicked au #dorothy gale #ozma of oz #wicked #elphaba thropp #galinda upland #glinda the good witch #elphaba the wicked witch #glephie #ozma sees elphie like an older sister #while Dorothy sees glinda as a mentor #they are not really parents even if sometimes they fill the role #glephie are in their early to mid 20s and they migh want to be parents but they have no skill #in my head when they met Dorothy is ten and Ozma is eleven #and elphaba mets Ozma at eight while Glinda meets Dorothy at seven #so there was 3 years after the end of act one act two would be 5 years after when Dorothy is 12 c #i wrote Ozma based on my own experiences #but i am a trans man so if any trans woman finds Ozma to not be well writen please tell me and I'll try to correct it #the wizard of oz #also i just re read to try to somewhat beta #and this is NOT anti fiyero #i love him #he is not part of the ship dinamic but him acting as dorothys dad is an hc that lives rent free in my head #the princes are dull conversation is not an attack on him #is just how dorothy as a young child from the 30s that had heteronirmativity forced into her sees the world #she didn't even met fiyero at this point cause Glinda tries to avoid contact with her old class as to not think about elphie #jack pumpkinhead

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