#and infantalizing them to this degree

[ilynpilled]

i need ppl to just never speak about my family ever again im so serious

[st-louis]

really don't understand why everyone always has to be so fucking weird about hockey players and reading

[ailurinae]

Causes great back pain, I'd presume. Human spines are bad enough due to being reoriented for the vertical. Having a 90° turn and another whole length of spine is bound to cause even more issues.

Guys do centaurs have to eat both horse food and human food?

[amtrak12]

Also I should've followed my boss's lead and taken a last minute vacation day because I have next to nothing to do for work and all I want to do is play the Sims 😩

[sunlight-shunlight]

ok so, bianca davri invented some automatic farming devices, as well as a spinning wheel! good for her. so. i'm nominating that she could have invented a printing press too!

which would even make sense to explain why varric's novels are such notoriously beloved hits, bc while also being entertaining, they were some of the first to be published, and presumably set the precedent for what serialized, mass-printed, non-chantry approved literature even looks like in southern thedas...

and i think varric being the pioneer of this makes sense!! bc everyone keeps going ''UGH his books are so TRASHY!!'' but the excerpts shown are... fine? and his first book even seemed like it was genuinely earnest, and he was working out some Feelings about being a dwarven criminal and having a shitty brother. so the bad reputation would make sense if it was a chantry policy to smear his writing a bit, bc they don't like that it's popular and not very Maker Honouring™.

as always i was thinking about it (thedas art history) and

i think actually the whole chantry situation would be significantly influenced by the fact that they have control over all the tranquil? and the tranquil are... literate, unpaid, tireless, detail-oriented labourers, who will never get bored or cranky or want to quit. so they would actually be like the backbone of how southern thedas makes any kind of printed material, in scriptoriums attached to the circles or whatever?

which is also really convenient for the chantry. since then they have a chokehold on what gets disseminated. any independent groups that make manuscripts or print material would be less efficient, since by necessity, they would need to... pay their scribes and give them days off, and occasionally have them goof up a page and waste time.

and this raises really interesting questions about stuff like the book of shartan and the heretical chant verses being spread around - can people quietly bribe a chantry official to get them to assign a tranquil to copy it out under the table? is there part-time scribe work going on in alienages to keep these texts circulating? do mages (also literate and have access to materials) themselves manage to do this type of thing covertly, or do they have enough loyalty from the tranquil that the tranquil would be willing to lie about it and help them make some contraband?

anyway, THIS is how the popularity of varric's serialized novels, spurring the development of the printing press, and therefore more secular decentralized sources of media, could create a Chantry Reformation Chaos Era, when the chantry loses its grip on information and archives-

[nocturnal-stims]

Margays are small felines that spend most of their lives in the trees. Margays can rotate their ankles 180 degrees, allowing them to climb down trees headfirst. They have been observed jumping up to 12 feet horizontally and have been known to mimic the voices of infant monkeys so they can eat the parents.

🐾 1minuteanimals on IG

[a-hermit-pining]

A Reflection of Him

AN: Plot bunny bunny comes to life! Warning- I bawled my eyes writing this.

Pairing: Sylus x fem reader

Genre: fluff and so much comfort

Summary: "Is that not the best thing to wish for? That the people you care for were loved, even before you came into their life?"

(I do not own these characters)

"Happy Father's Day, Dada!" Raul shrieks, launching himself into Sylus' lap.

Your husband barely has time to react before he’s tackled—first by the dogs, then by Mephisto, and finally by the twins, who have long since lost any fear of rebuke. Not after witnessing their fearsome boss being carried out of the delivery room at the mere sight of birth.

A flurry of limbs, paws, and claws moves before your eyes, a chaotic mess of yips, shrieks, and laughter. And your heart blooms at the sight.

Some pluck love like petals. Some treasure it like pearls. And some...some deserve to be smothered by it.

Then, your eldest walks in.

She stands beside you, clutching your hand, trepidation flickering in her eyes. For a moment, she is once again the little girl you let go of at the kindergarten gates.

With a gentle pat on her head, you smile, then lovingly shove her into the crowd of limbs.

He had hit his head when he first found himself on your couch. He didn’t remember much...just funny colors, static noises... Probably a concussion.

How embarrassing.

Sylus lay there, eyes rolling back as he groaned at the thrumming pain in his skull.

"Say aaa," a small voice rang in his ear before something plastic was shoved into his mouth.

Squinting his eyes open, he found a pair of familiar eyes staring back at him.

Yours, only on a smaller, plumper face.

"You have a fever," the little voice chirped, inspecting the plastic thermometer now thoroughly drenched in his saliva. "200 degrees. Don't worry, I’ll make you better." Small hands patted his head with absolute confidence.

"Lilia!" You scooped your daughter up with a sigh. "Didn't I put you to bed already?"

"But the doctor says it’s serious," Sylus croaked dramatically. "Who will treat me now?"

"Rein in your horses, mister. Lay down and do not strain yourself," you scolded, shooting him a glare as you set down the glass of water you'd gone to fetch.

"Come, Lilia. Time for bed. Playtime is over." You carried your daughter toward her room, but not before she twisted around to make the most ridiculous faces at Sylus over your shoulder.

That was how he met her.

Your daughter, who, at age four, was the only doctor bold enough to diagnose him with a 200-degree fever.

"He was a… we were in college. It was all so new… we were from the same town," you say, staring at the hazy photos of your college dorm.

"It was easier to tackle Linkon with him. And then he was gone... he couldn't bear it. People weren’t kind to him. He…" You sigh, clutching the photo tighter. "He is no more. You don’t have to seek anyone for vengeance or revenge. But if you ever hurt Lilia, I will kill you."

And Sylus knows, that is the truth.

You would kill him.

But for the first time, he does not wish for it. Not if it means leaving you alone. Not if it means becoming nothing more than a painful photograph in your hands.

"She is all I have, and I am all she has," you murmur, looking up at him. The house stands still, the only sound the slow, rhythmic tick of the clock.

Sylus flips through the album, stopping at a photo where you cradle an infant in your arms.

"I’m glad," he says finally, voice quiet. "Whoever he was, he left you with Lilia. I’m glad you were loved. And that Lilia grew up being loved by you."

He exhales, eyes lingering on the photo.

"Is that not the best thing to wish for? That the people you care for were loved, even before you came into their life?" He smiles taking your hand in his, next to a mountain of toys that Lilia had insisted on showing to him before leaving for school.

Luke and Kieran sit on tiny chairs, sipping water from plastic cups. Seated beside them is the esteemed council of plushies.

"Mr. Luke, do you like the tea?" Lilia beams, dressed in a princess gown and tiara.

Luke nods, his mask off, before turning to his twin, only to find Kieran’s face covered in stickers.

"Yes, Princess Lilia," Kieran says solemnly. "The tea is excellent. You should serve this to Boss once he returns."

It is simply delightful to witness the head of Onichynus joining the council of plushies for an exquisite tea party.

Makes for an excellent photo, too, one they manage to sneak in with Mephisto’s help.

Lilia grins, "Yes! We must! And I will ask, mommy and Mephisto to join. We can have a ball."

"Boss!" Lilia tugs at Sylus' sleeve as he carefully straightens her bow.

"Hm?" he hums, though his heart is beating wildly. Just a few rooms away, you were waiting for him, ready to walk down the aisle.

"Do you want me to sneak photos of Mommy?" Lilia asks, her eyes glimmering with mischief. "Am I not your best woman? I should do it, right?"

Standing tall on the stool, his best man is doing an excellent job of keeping his nerves in check.

Sylus exhales a laugh, shaking his head. "How much did your mother bribe you to sneak a photo of me to her?"

Distantly, he makes a note to have a word with the twins, after the wedding. They were definitely behind this. He and you had worked way too hard to get Lilia to stop calling him Boss, only for it to come right back at the worst possible time.

The room stills when your daughter hands him the papers.

You quietly pull Raul into your lap as Sylus takes them, his hands trembling.

"Happy Father's Day," your daughter says, standing before him as he reads frantically.

"People say we're both equally stubborn," she continues, her voice steady but thick with emotion. She clutches his hand. "That we're both sore losers. That we both love anything shiny..."

Sylus looks up at her, his tears unrelenting, just like hers.

"But they don’t know," she says, voice breaking, "that all of this comes from you. From the years, the months, the weeks, the days, the hours, the minutes, down to the very seconds, you have spent looking after me."

She swallows.

"It’s because... how could I not want to be like you?"

Sylus' breath catches.

"From four to sixteen, you've been here for so long... and I don’t want to call you Sylus. I want to call you Dad. I want you to be my dad"

Beside them, you sniff quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of Raul’s head as he watches, wide-eyed and troubled by the sight of both his sister and his Dada in tears.

"Will you be my dad?" she asks, sinking to her knees.

And Sylus, your husband, your love—falls.

He pulls her into his arms, holding her as if letting go would break the world.

"A thousand times over," he whispers. "In every lifetime, in every form. I hope to have you as my daughter."

Tags

@perla-drg, @codedove, @crazy-ink-artist, @desiree-archive @softiepeachess @otome-addictionproblem

[nopaintjustpain]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63610357

“And then the next moment, he’s suddenly, blindingly awake.

Or at least, that’s what it feels like. A passing glance at the alarm clock shows it’s somewhere around 4 AM, but for the first split second of consciousness, he’s too disoriented to process the time. Jon woke them both up with a short, sharp, startled cry before he dissolved immediately into tears. Elias catches a glimmer of green and crimson as he turns, spectral eyes opening all around Jon and buzzing in response to his fear. Then they disappear just as fast. Elias sits up, still blinking blearily. He finds Jon curled on his side next to him, nearly smothering himself with the pillow from how hard he clutches it to his face. Oh. That makes sense. Blocking his senses to stop Beholding from slipping out through him in a moment of vulnerability.

Elias turns over, reaches, hesitates, then rests his fingertips ever-so-gently on Jon’s bent back. When this doesn’t elicit any reaction besides a brief hitch in the sobs, he smooths his hand up and down Jon’s spine in long, careful sweeps. He vaguely remembers his wet nurse doing this for him as a child. This is comforting, right?

“Ssshhhh… it’s okay, Jon. Everything’s alright,” he murmurs in the dark, his voice husky with sleep. “You’re safe. Can you take a deep breath for me?”

A pause, and then Jon obeys, his chest shuddering with the strain of sucking air through the silk pillowcase.

“Good. Good job. Another, please.”

A few more, and Elias convinces Jon to remove the pillow from his face so he can breathe more easily. He sees why Jon needs it, though. His eyes are pinned wide and unblinking with terror, glowing that unnatural shade of green they both know so well. The moment he can see again, the Eyes appear in the air all around him like a hungry swarm. It’s unclear whether they’re here to defend Jon from the perceived threat, or to feed on him.

It’s not often that Elias pushes any feedback into his link with Beholding, aside from the fear it feeds on and the pleasure he takes from it. He considers himself an instrument of his God: to speak back to it is as offensive as it is futile. But tonight, for Jon’s sake, he tries. He opens his own Eye — a single spectral visage glowing from the center of his forehead like the jewel of some terrible crown — and turns it away, across town to the nightmares of some other unfortunate soul. While he does this, he slips in behind Jon and folds his hand over the Archivist’s eyes. There’s a momentary but intense burn of static against his skin, Beholding displeased to be cut off from its Archivist and punishing him for daring to defy it. But he reminds it of its victim elsewhere and diverts its attention as best he can.

Almost instantly, Jon calms. A few more breaths and Elias feels the faint flutter of eyelashes against his palm as Jon finally regains the ability to close his own eyes. His sobbing turns from scared to relieved as he grips Elias’s wrist with one shaking hand, clutching tight as if begging him not to take it away.

So, Elias doesn’t. He crosses the remainder of the space between them, slips his other arm underneath Jon, and tucks the smaller man against his chest to make the angle easier on them both. But he keeps his hand sealed around Jon’s eyes despite the itch of tears drying on his hand. “You’re okay,” he murmurs into the Archivist’s hair. “You’re safe, Jon. All is well.”

It takes a few more minutes of soothing before Jon believes him. But he relaxes by degrees in Elias’s arms, until at last, sleep claims him again.

Meanwhile, Elias lays awake until dawn.

I did this.

I did this terrible thing to him.

He knew this logically. He did it on purpose. He spent years planning it. But to understand the consequences of his actions in the abstract is so, so different from seeing and feeling them now.”

[Excerpt from Chapter 3 of my JonElias fic, Villain and Violent (Infant and Innocent)]

[trothplighted]

I was going through some of Rowling’s old interviews and came across one in 2004 where she spoke of Sirius:

“I am so proud of the fact that a character, whom I always liked very much, though he never appeared as much more than a brooding presence in the books, has gained a passionate fan-club.”

This wasn’t the only time she expressed surprise that Sirius became a fan favourite, and it’s honestly baffling to me??? He had an entire book named after and primarily revolving around him, and is canonically the closest thing to a parent that Harry, the protagonist of the series, ever had. Even if we disregard everything else we know about Sirius and his storyline, there’s no way in hell he wasn’t going to be popular. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said that a character like that was specifically designed for fan service (I mean...he's hot, has a flying motorbike, and is literally named after a star, lol). It’s bizarre that Rowling seems to have had no idea, and that she believed he was / intended him to be nothing more than a “brooding presence” in the series – which is at any rate an appalling and deeply unsympathetic way to describe his trauma and depression.

It made me think of how there's such a major disconnect between authorial intent and authorial execution when it comes to his character as well, especially in Order of the Phoenix. Characters like Molly or Hermione call him irresponsible/reckless/immature, claim he confused Harry and James, that he treated Harry like a friend rather than a godson, that he was biased against Snape, etc. Rowling’s interviews confirm that she intended to characterize Sirius in such a way and that Hermione and Molly are meant to be viewed as her mouthpieces. But Sirius’s actual behavior and relationship with Harry does not correspond with any of this and his actions + dialogue are for the most part very reasonable and sympathetic. (There’s also Kreacher’s storyline, which made me dislike Sirius a lot when I was younger, but upon my reread comes across as almost entirely nonsensical, contradictory, and seems specifically designed to paint Sirius in a bad light to the point where he’s compared to VOLDEMORT of all people by Hermione - who, in the process of criticizing Sirius, dehumanizes house elves entirely by claiming that none of them are capable of individual morality or have any ethical agency of their own. It's frustrating because she's 100% right that house elves should be freed but the way she infantalizes them is...pretty shitty and not the way to go about it. But I digress.)

Rowling seems to have done a complete 180 degree turn on how Sirius is presented by the narrative between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, and I can’t really understand why.

I get the sense that the creation of Sirius’s character in particular was, at the very least, partly accidental on Rowling’s part. She didn’t expect him to blow up the way he did, and I get the sense that she doesn’t seem to have been thrilled by how much the early HP fandom liked/valorized him. There was an interview where she was asked if she liked him, and she said that she did, only to immediately list down all his alleged flaws and emphasize that “I do not think he was wholly wonderful” (which character in the series is wholly wonderful, lol? Sirius came across as a great deal better than most to me). There have been so many other interviews where she’s done the same thing despite the fact that Sirius's faults or perceived faults had absolutely nothing to do with the questions at hand. It’s such a startling contrast how she talks about pretty much everyone else from his generation, all of whom she seems considerably warmer and more sympathetic towards in varying degrees.

As I haven’t been back in the fandom for very long, this is the first time I’ve come across her interviews - I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into them or not. I wondered if you agree/disagree, as you’ve been in the fandom for much longer and I love all your metas about the series. Thanks :)

You’ve hit upon my personal Rage Point for the entire series, anon.

I want to start by pointing something out about Sirius and Kreacher, which is that in GoF Sirius tells Ron and Harry (and Hermione, though he brings it up to compliment her observational skills) that Crouch Sr.’s mistreatment of Winky is an indicator of his character. (“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”) This is, somehow, the same man who one book later is egregiously dismissive of and abusive toward his family’s house-elf, to the point that this dismissal causes his death (oh, and Albus blames him for dying, too.) Despite Sirius expressing two wildly different viewpoints from book to book, we’re intended to take that as his true self, as the authentic expression of his beliefs and position.

I’ve spoken before more than once about other drastic character shifts that happened as a result of the Three Year Summer, both as a writing break and as a paradigm shift in the notoriety of and ubiquity of the series thanks to the movies being released starting in 2001. I was in elementary and middle school while the books were being published, and OotP was the first book I remember seeing large-scale advertisement for in my school outside of a book fair - there was a big larger-than-life poster teasing the book cover with a release date during the summer to get us all hyped up for it. I’d obviously heard of Harry Potter before that, but that was the moment when the books went from “famous book series” to “cultural phenomenon,” at least in my mind. And I think that we can trace this shift in opinion on Sirius Black back to the Three Year Summer, too.

In my opinion it’s obvious that Joanne really liked Sirius, when she first developed him. I don’t think she’s telling the truth when she says she doesn’t think he’s wholly wonderful - when she first came up with him she absolutely did. He’s got pride of place as a Cool Character in all the ways she loves to lavish attention on someone. He’s set up with a phenomenal entrance in PS chapter one and then he spends all of PoA in the spotlight. He has a dramatic reveal of his true allegiances and his innocence, and he’s Harry’s best and most supportive parental figure throughout GoF who consistently gives good advice and who risks his own life and liberty to make sure his godson is safe. He considers coming back to England and living in a cave and eating rats to be his duty as a godfather, and while Harry feels responsible for his circumstances he’s always really clear that he (1. doesn’t care about the risks to his health and safety (2. will gladly sacrifice comfort and stability if it means being able to protect this boy (3. will not let Harry feel guilty.

These aren’t the actions of a man who confuses Harry with James - throughout GoF he continues to insist that his decisions are his own, made as an adult trying to parent and support a kid who desperately needs a stable presence in his life. Harry’s used to taking the blame for the actions of adults (my heart is still rent asunder by his expectation that Lupin is going to gaslight him about denying him the chance to face the boggart in their first DADA lesson) and he’s also used to feeling like he has to manage the emotional state of a household (see: all the times he plans out what to say or not to say to the Dursleys to get them to do what he wants), and Sirius doesn’t let him sink into either of those pits. He also prevents Harry from bottling up his feelings or concealing his distress, and never lies or twists the truth. He’s being very deliberately written as someone who serves as a positive role model and positive mentor figure for Harry, and then suddenly come OotP he’s moody and immature and subject to a number of very strange smear campaigns from characters the author confirms are intended to reflect her real opinions.

So… what happened, over the course of the Three Year Summer, to make her change her mind? We can’t ever know for sure, obviously, because Joanne hasn’t ever bothered to lay out how her feelings on each member of her cast changed and evolved, and she’s unlikely to do so at any point in the future because now when people talk to her they mostly talk to her about transphobia. But I have a theory.

See, between 1998 and 2003, the HMS Wolfstar set sail. While most of the seminal meta came out after OotP (see “The Case for R/S” as probably the one I and others my age are most familiar with as an introduction to the ship) and most of the really famous fanfics started trickling out around that time (The Shoebox Project started in 2004), there were fanfics before that point, a growing fan community, and a number of pieces of fanart and fancomics (check out the list of doujinshi in the linked Fanlore article, some of those date back to 2001). Edit: here is an archived humorous/gently snarky list of Wolfstar fanfic tropes created in 2002 - while I can’t personally remember the names of fics from before 2004 or so I want to point to this as evidence that there was an established fan community, even using the “WolfStar” name, prior to the publication of OotP.

Normally, I wouldn’t think that fanfic from prior to 2010 or so had much of anything to do with the author’s opinions on their work, because norms and fan culture around fanfic were much more focused around keeping these stories private and away from the prying eyes of The Powers That Be/TPTB.

I say normally, because Joanne was aware of fanfiction, and aware of fanfiction remarkably early in her career as a public figure.

Younger fans are almost certainly not going to know this, but one of the first real fandom divides in HP had to do with fanfiction, and specifically the question of how to treat fanfiction written by and for adults that featured sex scenes or other mature content. Since the books were children’s books (though there was an adult fandom since the start, especially online - the Harry Potter For Grown-Ups/HP4GU mailing list and its descendant communities still loom large in fan history as some of the early pillars of today’s digital scene) a lot of people didn’t know what to do or how to treat fanfic. This was also compounded by fanfic being a lot more subject to legal action or takedown notices - Anne Rice, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Anne McCaffrey all became infamous either for pursuing individual authors and archives until they took down their stories or instituting guidelines about what kinds of transformative works were acceptable, or both in McCaffrey’s case.

Rowling, however, was different. Rowling said that noncommercial fanfic was completely fine, that she wasn’t going to pursue any kind of legal action against fanfic authors, and that as long as adult-oriented fanfic was appropriately warned for and not shown to or targeted to children, she didn’t care if it existed.

This laid the groundwork for the founding of Fanfiction.net, for fanfic communities on LiveJournal, and eventually for Archive of our Own and the Organization for Transformative Works. In an era where legal disclaimers were common on fanfics as a mostly-useless attempt to prevent being shut down by IP holders, Rowling threw the doors open and democratized her stories in a way she - I would argue - ultimately came to regret.

I can’t prove that her sudden slander of Sirius was a result of latent unexamined homophobia and a desire for revenge against the fandom for daring to claim one of her favorite characters as a gay man. I can’t prove that his backstory of being kicked out of his house (for unspoken Family Drama reasons centering around him being filthy and disgraceful) only to be shoved back into it, or Trustworthy Adults suddenly painting him as dangerous to children and inherently irresponsible and reckless, or all of his trauma being ignored and painted over, or every scrap of his heroism being erased, has to do with Joanne deciding that if we’ve made him gay he shouldn’t get to be a character anymore.

I can’t prove it.

But I do believe it. I believe it because when you ask yourself “is this queercoded character being subjected to authorial homophobia”, suddenly everything about Sirius’s arc in OotP makes complete and total sense in the worst way possible. This is also why I think Tonks and Remus were paired off, why Tonks suddenly becomes more gender-conforming, and why Bill Weasley transforms into Normal Settled-Down Hetero William. It feels like her desperate attempts to take her characters and shove them back into a box that she controls. I don’t think she was at that point consciously and virulently homophobic, but I think her clear and evident discomfort with fans interpreting these characters who she wanted to be straight comes through in her writing.

I also believe it because she does the same thing to Albus, after his death. Someone who’s been uncomplicatedly heroic and praised by all parties and even used as her mouthpiece to pass judgment on Sirius suddenly becomes morally suspect and untrustworthy and shady and secretive, with enemies lining up as soon as he’s dead to slander him - and again, just like with Sirius, we’re meant to accept this as the correct version of events. He even confirms all of this to Harry himself in the King’s Cross afterlife. The old Albus can’t come to the phone right now, he’s dead, and only his critics remain. Coincidentally, Albus is of course the only confirmed gay character in the entire story. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?

I’ve been angry at her for 20 years for killing Sirius, and angrier still at her straightwashing efforts. I wouldn’t believe her if she said she wasn’t doing that, at this point.

It’s not as if I expected her to be a perfect ally as a center-left moderate cishet white woman in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I do think that Dumbledore being gay was revolutionary in a way that most modern audiences seriously fail to appreciate, but I wish she wasn’t so damned insistent that no one else could be queer in any way at any point. She’s also really evidently uncomfortable about any displays of affection between confirmed same-sex pairings - she was absolutely neurotic about the amount of physical contact between Mads Mikkelsen and Jude Law during FB3, to the point that she fought with David Yates about it. And her behavior contributed to the intense homophobia I and others experienced in our formative early years in fandom - no-slash mailing lists and archives, the immediate classification of all queer fanfic as inherently more mature or more sexual simply by virtue of having queer people in it, Wizards For Bush, etc. As a result, boycott or no boycott, I hope that Wolfstar is canon in the new series, I hope Mundungus stays the crossdressing icon that they are, I hope Tonks is canonically nonbinary, and I hope Joanne loses sleep over it.

[gallusrostromegalus]

I'd love to hear about Aunty Chihiro, and, by extension, what exactly was going on with Orihime's parents

Chihiro Inoue is the MUCH younger sister of Orihime's father. In fact, Chihiro was only about four years older than Sora, and the two of them were close growing up- more like siblings than cousins, because Sora was left with his grandparents so often by his neglectful parents.

The problem with Sora and Orihime's parents was that they were... Not up to the herculean task of parenting and didn't know how to cope.

They weren't stupid- they were actually both quite bright and did well in school, but both of them had little to no impulse control, emotionally volatile were intensely self-centered (mostly as a means to cope with the poor organizational skills and emotional disregulation). None of those are sins, but they did make for two high school sweethearts who married and had a baby immediately and the stress of an infant overwhelmed them and they never recovered, hopping from one self-destructive coping mechanism to another until at age 17, Sora Inoue ran away from home with his two-year old sister, Orihime.

Chihiro turned out to be instrumental to their survival- She was taking a gap year before college and when her baby cousin called her at 1 AM in tears because he didn't know how to take care of her even babier cousin and they were sleeping under an overpass-

Chihiro Inoue, Force Of Nature, was downtown and herding them into the car within the hour.

They stayed in her apartment for the first year while Chihiro got Sora his Emancipated Minor status and a few months later, convinced her brother and his wife to give up custody of their daughter to their son, argued with the magistrate to get it done, set Sora up with an office job and got Orihime enrolled in Preschool.

She and Sora stayed close, but while she was finishing her degree in agricultural sciences, she met a charming young man and shortly after graduating, married him and moved up to his family dairy farm in Hokkaido.

She kept in close contact with her Baby Cousins, with Orihime often going up to Hokkaido during summer breaks to get out of the city heat and play with her aunt and her growing swarm of children.

When Sora died as a result of the car accident ten years later, Chihiro would have taken Orihime in in a heartbeat but - She had five children of her own, And - The Very Charming Man she'd married had made some exceptionally shitty decisions re: Money, fidelity and his general treatment of Chihiro, So - She was in the process of divorcing him and - Forming a sort of feminist Commune Of Women Wronged By That Guy Specifically with the four women he cheated on her with and their children to run - The Dairy Farm in Hokkaido, which The Formerly Charming Man's parents had left to HER rather than their shithead son.

So Chihiro was in no position to take on a grieving 12-year old.

Chihiro holds IMMENSE respect for the Kurosaki family, who did their damndest to save Sora and immediately took Orihime in and coordinated all the paperwork between Orihime, the local relevant governing bodies and Chihiro. Isshin never asked for any kind of compensation and was bewildered when Chihiro offered it to him because "that's just what you do in this kind of situation?"

She's also very fond of Ichigo, who has always been a perfect gentleman, if a bit moody but he's a teenager, and compared to how insane Chihiro was as a teenager, he's a saint.

Psychic Bullshit runs in the Inoue family too, so Chihiro almost fails to notice anything odd about Kon, the cat who talks, and routinely forgets that most people don't see ghosts, so she doesn't get why Ichigo is sou grouchy about-oh, right. Sorry Kiddo.

Eventually, it was simplest to get Orihime her own place- Rent in karakura is remarkably cheap for urban Japan, mostly because of all the unexplained deaths the city has, and Chihiro didn't want to uproot her niece from all her friends and the very good schools she'd gotten into.

So the agreement was that Chihiro would pay Orihime's rent and living expenses "Provided you keep your grades up, because you're smart as hell and if your grades tank that means you're in serious trouble and need my help so I'll come get you right away baby"

Orihime is in close contact with her aunt and cousins- they talk on the phone at least once a week and Orihime often goes to see them during summer and winter breaks.

More Importantly, Auntie Chihiro comes down every September 3rd to Celebrate Orihime's birthday with her, and every October 3rd, Orihime takes the bullet train up to Hokkaido to celebrate Chihiro's Birthday.

...Orihime seems a bit distant and distracted during her Birthday, and awfully sparse with the details about the "Summer Trip" She and her friends from school went on. It seems like the trip ended up being kind of a downer because someone in management at the camp or whatever decided to quit very dramatically right at the end? And Ichigo got pretty badly hurt?? but Orihime insists that everything is fine and she's looking forward to seeing all her cousins and the cows next month!

So it's VERY SUSPICIOUS when Orihime fails to turn up at the station a month later, and calling around to all of Orihime's friends leads to various non-answers- Chad and Tatsuki just say they didn't see her at school today, Uryuu hangs up on her in what sounds like panic, and she only gets the Kurosaki household's voicemail.

So Chihiro Inoue, Force Of Nature, takes the train to Karakura.

Her first stop is the Kurosaki household where she discovers that Ichigo and more worrisomely, Kon have also vanished off to Parts Unknown, and she turns her wrathful gaze upon Isshin Kurosaki.

He folds like a deck chair.

Turns out HE's not sure what the hell is going on either, just that Ichigo made friends with some girl called Rukia earlier this summer and she's involved in the organization that is responsible for dealing with all the ghost-monsters and Ichigo may have joined it too also the entire gang of kids went to the land of the dead maybe Ichigo doesn't tell him anything these days, you need to ask Kisuke, he's the one that knows what the hell is going on-

Kisuke Urahara has all of 0.03 seconds warning before Chihiro Inoue literally kicks the door of Urahara Shoten in and demands to know where her niece is.

This is deeply surreal for Kisuke for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Chihiro Inoue looks EXACTLY like Orihime, but about 20 years in the future and terrifyingly SHREDDED. The Woman is wearing a MEGA MILK shirt without a hint of Irony and the only thing Kisuke can look at are her biceps as she lifts him up by the collar and indicates that he'd better start giving her some answers or she is gonna break that stupid cane off in his ass-

Kisuke Urahara, Noted Coward, directs her to the Basement.

Down there, she discovers Ichigo is undergoing some sort of horrific John Carpenter's The Thing-esque transformation under the supervision of a gang of badly dressed lunatics being lead by a man with the stupidest haircut she's seen in her life.

Shinji Hirako is reminded of the Utterly Terrifying Kirio Hikifune, and immediately levels with her.

Chihiro is Very Disappointed that Orihime told her none of this, but really, the girl has never REALLY been in trouble before, of course she panicked. But where IS she?

Ichigo and his assorted inner spirits are having a great deal of trouble deciding who is horse and who is king but the sudden Booming Demand for Orihime's exact location in a voice meant to put the Fear Of God Into Bulls and other livestock makes Ichigo's imaginary friends all dive for cover, sorting out who the horses are rather nicely.

I have not actually figured out HOW to end this scene yet, but it ends with Chihiro agreeing to stay in Karakura and keep watch over Ichigo's body and family since Kon seems to have been abducted along with Orihime. ---

There is a MUCH later scene in which Chad's Uncle Jaime De La Rosa, who came up to surprise Chad because he got invited to a veterinary conference in Karakura at the last minute, is wandering around Karakura wondering WHY THE HELL everyone is asleep when he spies a horrible pale figure with a terrible twisted smile that can only be The Devil Himself, and some fucking gringo who won't shut up with him.

But before he can distract The Devil Away from Chad's friend with La Chancla, The Devil is Geta'd with enough force to actually throw him off balance, and a beautiful woman with the proportions and unbridled fury of a Valkyrie sprints up and starts battering The Devil with her other shoe whilst bellowing the most vile invective Jaime's Good Catholic Ears have ever heard.

Naturally, he immediately falls in love.

Shortly therafter, and exhausted and panicked Chihiro Inoue, in tears because she can't get the crowd of alarmingly powerful ghosts to let her see her niece, finds them being parted like the red sea by the wrath of a very small man directing them with a fury and speed not normally seen outside of livestock auctions or automatic weapons in both Japanese and Spanish, getting the chaotic mess sorted into a triage, the start of peace negotiations, and Orihime Delivered to her arms in under ten minutes.

Naturally, she immediately falls in love.

[vaporize-employers]

What kind of tents combat hypothermia?

For the last few months, Gazans have been surviving regular floods of rain, soaking their bodies, clothes, and whatever belongings they have left.

The biggest risk factor in hypothermia isn't temperature itself: it's water. If you're soaked through, you cannot get warmer without dry clothes and shelter. A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) can lead to death in as little as one hour.

This is especially lethal to children and infants; starvation and malnutrition compounds these risks. In the last week, six babies have died of hypothermia in Gaza.

There are some kinds of tents that provide some protection for $2,000 to $1,500, but providing a fully waterproof tent costs between $2,500 and $3,000.

Dome fabric tent

✔ Wind resistant

✔ Provides shade

❌ NOT waterproof

❌ Outer lining only

Cost: $2,000

This provides some protection, but the cost in winter clothes and blankets to rewarm after the rain soaks through can reach hundreds in added costs.

Insulated tarp tent

✔ Wind resistant

✔ UV protection

✔ FULLY WATERPROOF

✔ Inner and outer insulation

✔ Privacy area

Cost: $2,500 to $3,000

I hope you found all that interesting!

With that in mind, consider helping one of these families by sharing and donating if you are able: all 3 have young children with high risk medical conditions, no shelter, and are completely dependent on donations.

Maha and her 4 y/o daughter Joan (#163). Joan is high risk due to malnutrition and gastritus.

Ahmed/Safaa and their 1 y/o son Kamal (#47). Kamal is high risk due to 3rd degree burns and missing one lung.

Abeer and her little sister Nour (#157). Nour is high risk due to a severe heart condition; you can read more about her situation at @northgazaupdates.

@safa33 @mahafamily1 @nohaibrahims-blog @abeeribrahimss

[sematarygirls]

🍼 ⊹ᡣ𐭩₊⋆ ─── rafe thinks academic!reader wants a baby

   Rafe was absolutely certain that you were trying to subtly hint at wanting to have a baby with him. At the first comment, he assumed you were ovulating because you always did get a little bit of baby fever when you were, but then, you just kept showering him with random facts about the development of infants and toddlers to the point that he started to believe you were dropping hints.

Rafe wasn't someone who liked to play games. He preferred to be told things straight up, no beating around the bush, but being with you, he'd noticed that you had a habit of trying to subtly slide what you wanted into conversation, so you didn't have to directly ask. Almost like you were trying to make him think it was his idea, not yours—apparently, those psychology classes were really paying off.

It had gotten to the point where he had confided in Topper and Kelce, asking them if that's how it sounded to them—bad idea, Topper and Kelce are the last people to go to for relationship advice—to which they both agreed that it definitely sounded as though you were trying to suggest Rafe should get you pregnant.

The idea was completely out of the blue. You both were still so young, and you were still in school trying to get your degree in psychology. You two had only been dating for a couple of months and had never discussed marriage or engagement because it all felt so new to both of you. After all, Rafe was still reforming from his playboy ways and party lifestyle, and you hadn't been in many relationships prior to being with him.

He had originally decided to try his best to ignore your little comments, hoping you would eventually drop the subject altogether. Rafe had never really thought about kids, and he definitely didn't think he was dad material, his fear of turning out like his own father overshadowing the desire deep down to have a child—one he often pushed aside and tried to ignore.

But, you hadn't given up. If anything, it seemed like your mentions of children became more and more frequent—whether that was true or he just believed it was because he was hard-core stressing about it remained unclear. Eventually, Rafe decided he had to address it and make sure you knew that he wasn't planning on having kids with you antime soon, even if it seemed a little harsh to say considering how enthusiastic you seemed.

"Did you know after about a year, the pace at which children learn words accelerates rapidly, and by eighteen months, the average child is learning a new word every day?" You tore your gaze away from your phone screen to look over at him, a bright, proud smile on your face. You were sat in the passenger seat of his truck after he picked you up from your classes, intending to bring you back to Tannyhill, so you two could hang out.

"Okay, you've really gotta cut that shit out," Rafe said, a lot harsher than he intended to. He had already had a bad day, and he just wanted to relax with his girlfriend, not try to decode you and your baby talk. He was tired of dancing around the issue, and his stress only brought that out, making him snap at you.

Your brows furrowed, smile faltering at his words. He had never spoken to you like that before, and you couldn't for the life of you figure out why a little fact of all things had elicited such a reaction. He usually loved hearing all about your little facts, constantly telling you how sexy your intellect was to him. "What?" You simply asked, too hurt and confused to vocalize why his outburst seemed so completely out of the blue.

"Listen I," he took a deep breath, his grip on the steering wheel tightening for a moment before he relaxed again. "I don't want to have a baby with you," he said bluntly. Noticing how cruel that may have sounded, he decided to add an: "Atleast... not right now, alright?"

Your face was a mask of pure confusion. You weren't so much hurt anymore as utterly lost. Where did the topic of you two having children come from? "Rafe, what are you talking about?" You asked, not understanding where he could have possibly got the idea that you wanted to have a baby with him.

He glanced over at you, his own features morphing into an expression that mirrored yours. "All the baby facts and shit. I thought," he paused, wondering if he had read the situation all wrong, but that didn't make sense. It had been pretty fucking apparent to him, Topper, and Kelce that you were dropping baby hints. "I thought you were... yknow trying to tell me something."

You processed the new information for a moment before bursting into laughter to which Rafe glanced rapidly between you and the road, his brows only furrowing farther as he watched you laugh as if he'd said the most hilarious thing conceivable. "Oh, baby," you said softly, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder when your fit of hysterics finally died down. "No, I definitely was not hinting at anything. I am so swamped with school and work that I barely have time for you, let alone a child."

"What?" Rafe asked, relief flooding through him at your confirmation that you weren't trying to subconsciously trick him into wanting a baby with you through your little psychology tricks. Simultaneously, he felt extremely dumbfounded as to your motivations. "Then why have you been talking about kids so much recently?" He quirked an eyebrow, pulling into the driveway of his family's estate.

"Because we're covering the development and learning unit in my psych course, which obviously focuses a lot on the earlier stages of life aka infancy and childhood," you explained, watching realization dawn on him like a light bulb turning on in a dark, empty room. "I didn't think I had to spell that out for you since i'm always hitting you with random facts from class."

Rafe parked the car and unbuckled his seatbelt so he could turn to face you. "Okay, so just to be crystal clear, you weren't trying to use fuckin'...i dont know- subliminal messaging and weird psychobabble voodoo to like, make me want to get you pregnant?"

You laughed, unbuckling your own seatbelt, so you could face him too. "No, you idiot. You're so ridiculous," you grinned, leaning over to give him a peck on the lips. "I promise you I don't want children right now, and if that ever changes, I will talk to you about it and not use subliminal messaging or weird psychobabble voodo."

"Okay, good," he nodded, opening his car door. "Topper and Kelce swore that you were trying to play some kind of mind game."

"Why would you listen to Topper and Kelce of all people?" You asked, following suit in getting out of the car, your brows furrowing as he mentioned the two people who have yet to hold a stable, healthy relationship for any period of time. "They're the world's biggest idiots."

"Yeah, you're right," he grinned, walking over to you and slinging his arm around your shoulder as you two walked to the front door. "I'm sorry for snapping at you," he murmured. pressing a kiss to your temple.

"It's okay," you reassured him, sliding your hand onto his back and rubbing soft, soothing circles. "Just promise you'll talk to me next time instead of letting it build up and fester until you get to the point where you feel like snapping."

"I promise," he vowed, ushering you into the house. "Now let me show you—my beautiful, intelligent, and amazing girlfriend—how sorry I really am," he gave your ass a little tap, making his intentions clear as he steered you toward the staircase, your giggles echoing through the empty house.

tags .ᐟ   @starkeysprincess / @cometmultiverse / @iheartjjmaybnk / @all4l0vee / @kissesfrmriri / @xoxohoneymoongirl / @bradshawed / @fallbhind

[alpaca-clouds]

I really, really wish that anthropology was a part of general education - and be it just because I wanna bang my head against the wall given the big lacks in anthropological knowledge people show when talking about all sorts of issues. Both in terms of cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology.

No, a matriarchy is not "like a patriarchy, but the other way around". Because the patriarchy has developed the way it did with the goal to ensure the patrilinear inheritance - which only works when women only sleep with one men. As matriarchies usually are concerned with matrilinear inheritence, they tend to not control men anywhere near as much as patriarchy controls women, because a mother generally will know which children were born by her. So what if her husband fools around with other women? It does not matter in a matriarchy.

Yes, matriarchies existed all around the world. Yes, they even did so fairly recently. Main reason for them not existing in any notable degree today is colonialism. While, yes, there were way more patriarchies than matriarchies that we are aware of, the usual thought is that this goes back to the first point. Due to matriarchies being low control, and patriarchies being high control, matriarchies can divert into patriarchies more easily than the other way around.

Yes, queer people - including trans people and third (as well as forth and fifth and sixth and so on) genders - were around for as long as we are aware off. So at least for 5000 years. But it stands to reason longer, especially as we absolutely did uncover older graves that implied some form of trans person there. Because other than what transphobes claim, archeologists generally will first judge a grave and the gender of the inhabitant by the grave goods included - and often then will later go surprised Pikachu, when they further look into the skeleton and find it not lining up with the presumed sex.

And also, yes, pretty much all homo sapiens have mammory glands and technically are capable of feeding infants. No matter the sex. Yes, it happens that afab people in general will a) produce milk after giving birth due to natural processes, and b) have more developed mammory glands than amab people, meaning they can more efficiently nurse a child. Doesn't mean amab people cannot do it at all. And of course, in general: trans men giving birth can, if they did not have the glands removed during top surgery. Also: always remember that more then enough cis women struggle to nurse their child and always have. There is a reason wetnurses existed.

And yes, this is very much about some hot "feminist" takes I have read. Like, girls, the least you could do for your feminism is read some actual books on history, before you loudly proclaim wrong information.

[kaisaerinlover]

michael kaiser

tw: incest , abuse

thinking of nii-chan kaiser ,

big brother kaiser who grew up protecting his sweet little sister from all of the abuse his dad put him through. kaiser who doesn’t want his baby sister to suffer the way he did. even though it was painful it was all worth it, seeing how you would bandage him up and kiss all of his injuries better after, it never numbed the physical pain but it gave him butterflies even as kids.

big brother kaiser who never went to school, neither did you, so neither of you had contact with the opposite gender much, especially not in any way you could be romantic with them. no parents to take example from, to chastise you for the inappropriately growing relationship between you both.

big brother kaiser who’s overly protective of his baby sister because he doesn’t want her to ever have to face any of the horrors he did to any degree at all. a big brother who keeps his little sister shielded from everything and anything, from his father to the prying glances of other boys as they both grew up.

big brother kaiser who took most of the beatings and abuse from their father, and the few times his angel of a sister wound up hurt he hated himself for it. he hated himself for the fact that he couldn’t protect you, even though it happened so rarely to you, even though it was out of his control. big brother kaiser who punishes himself and gives you his small ration of food for the week after he allowed you to get hurt.

big brother kaiser who starts seeing more and more of his mother in himself and especially his precious baby sister as she grows up. he remembered everything so well, but you were an infant when your mother picked up and left. you don’t understand why your brother is being increasingly weird to you?

kaiser’s little sister who notices how protective kaiser really is, how possessive and overbearing he can be. kaiser’s little sister who notices her brother having more and more anger. going out more and thieving. kicking and beating his soccer ball with such force it scares even her, even though kaiser has sworn so many times he would never ever lay a hand on her. and he hasn’t. he’s always protected you and taken good care of you, giving you stolen food, little trinkets he thieved and a lot of love. or at least, what you both thought is love. what love was meant to be.

big brother kaiser who gets increasingly meaner to his baby sister because he sees so much of his mother in her. :< he gets so insecure that he doesn’t leave you alone at any given times any more, but he’s still so angry. he doesn’t want any guys to take you away from him. you can’t leave, you can’t leave just like mom did? he’s not going to let you go the same way he let your mother go.

big brother kaiser who vows to himself that he’ll stop taking out all of this rage on you, and he’ll put it into football. a nii chan who wants to treat his little princess to a lifetime of luxuries, and make up for his toxic behaviour, starting now. but it’s challenging isn’t it? you can’t just simply exert all of your emotions into soccer, there’s always going to be lingering hard feelings.

big brother kaiser who does become a prodigy, he was michael to you, never kaiser. but the sport has changed him, he swears he’s doing all of this for you, his angel, his princess, his baby, his cute little sister, and he is, but he’s so different now. he’s so angry, and you’re a great outlet, aren’t you little imouto?

big brother kaiser and sweet little sister who realise their relationship is far from normal. maybe if you had the proper guidance and love of a mother and father your relationship wouldn’t have turned out this way. maybe if kaiser taught you a thing or two he read in all of those psychology books he oh so loves to read you wouldn’t have turned out this way. he feels so guilty sometimes, but he has to keep you around somehow.

big brother kaiser and his doting baby sister who doesn’t mind his harshness, because even she realises they don’t have their parents, and that’s not normal. all she has is her big brother, the one who warded off all the boys who tried to hurt her and take her away from him, so he says, and took care of her all this time. a brother who protects his sister from the world at any cost, he feels a little guilty sometimes, because he knows lying and manipulating his fucking sister is wrong, but what else can he do? he doesn’t want to lose you too?

big brother kaiser who has his little sister wrapped around his pinky finger. big brother kaiser who’s equally as wrapped around your pinky finger. a brother who’s willing to completely mutilate any semblance of morality he had left just to keep you close. and you’re so unaware. but even if you knew, would you care? big brother kaiser and his little sister who love each other so much. don’t let the press find out about this sick love you have going on though, that wouldn’t end well, would it?

big brother kaiser who wanted his sister to grow into her own person, be nothing like him, be devoid of weakness in the past. he was so insecure, so unsure of himself, but now he knows that’s not right at all. kaiser who loves taking care of his sister, even if he can get a little mean sometimes. but that aching resemblance you both bear to your mother is a gentle reminder of why he’s doing this. he can’t lose his favourite girl in the world. he can’t lose someone else so dearly beloved to him.

michael kaiser who’s so happy to see his baby sister in the crowd, watching all of his games, cheering him on. michael kaiser who wants nothing more than to welt the soccer ball right into the bastard next to you’s face for even trying to talk to you. but it’s okay, he’s trained you pretty well, he’s sure of that. you wouldn’t dare to entertain another man than your brother, because he’s all you need. and he’s satisfied when he sees you turn away from the man, like the little prude bitch you are. you look so spoilt, it’s funny, little does everyone know how the two of you grew up.

michael kaiser who spoils his baby sister rotten. using all of that hard earned soccer money on good food, shopping trips and everything you desire. everything but school, that is. school means education. education means you’re going to meet others. you’re going to meet other guys. you’re going to meet girls with older brothers. you’re going to realise how fucked this all is and leave too. he can’t let that happen. everything but school, you have little to no complaints about this arrangement anyway, why would you even need school? your big brother is the smartest anyway.

michael kaiser who wants to keep his little sister as innocent as possible, complete opposites. he experienced the most brutality in childhood, and you experienced the least. he played as your father figure most of the time, so maybe that’s why you’re so pure, he thinks. your big brother can’t help but smile at the thought as he puts on some cutely decorated bandaids on your injuries, sorry little sis, even your older brother gets really angry sometimes!

but unlike his dad, even in his fits of rage, he bandages you up and loves you after, because maybe if he strayed away from anything in his routine with you, you would leave just like mom. you’d gain the awareness he did, and he doesn’t want that happening. it’s for your own good, you know! “don’t ever leave me, süsser schwesterchen, it’ll do you no good, you know that right?” he muses to you, whilst patching you up. you giggle right back at him, because why wouldn’t you? in your pretty little head big brother does no wrong. “of course i won’t, never ever. love you ‘s much micha” he smiles at you, and pushes himself up to capture your lips in a sweet kiss, the kind a husband would give to his beautiful wife. “i love you too, angelic thing you are” but he knows he lied to you, he knows that leaving him can only bring good. but he won’t think too hard about it, because then the guilt will swallow him up. it’s only benefitting him, maybe it would do you better than good, great even, to get away from him. maybe his mother could tell what a sicko her son would grow up to be and that’s why she left. but he doesn’t want to lose you too. you’re all he fucking has left. he shakes off these thoughts and insecurities, because they don’t do him any good. he needs you and you need him. and it will stay like that forever. you’re so shielded from everything anyway, and you won’t ever want to change that.

all you need is kaiser and all kaiser needs is you. and he simply doesn’t care what level of depravity he has to stoop to in order to achieve this one singular goal of his.

[thanksbutno98]

Beach day

John Price x wife!reader OC

Summary: John Price takes his family out for a beach day only for his wife to be the center of attention.

Warnings: NSFW, sexual themes, revealing clothing, light sexual harassment, swearing, groping, allusions to sex, not edited.

Authors Note: I’m from the US and have no clue what beaches are like in the UK so this is my first fic based in the US lol.

——————

“What do you mean you can’t come?” John asked as he clicked the infant car seat into place.

“Dad needs me to help out with Mitch until he’s free, he’ll be there in an hour. So, I’ll just meet you there.” You were too busy texting on your phone to see the annoyed looks your husband was giving you.

“It’s a god damn horse, not a person.” John countered.

Looking up from your phone you saw your burly man giving you a mean look through his eyebrows, with his arms crossed over his chest and muscular arms bulging. The muscles rounded at his shoulders and looked like rolling hills the way the summer sun was hitting them. John was dressed in a loose fitting tank top that was tight around his pectorals because they were so toned and absolutely delicious. The grey fabric hung low on the sides leaving the top half of his ribs exposed so you if he was in the right position you could just catch a glimpse of his hairy abs. He also wore his navy blue swim trunks that were a few inches above his knees, showing off his thick, tree trunk, thighs and how rock solid they were. You were distracted for a second at how hairy this man in front of you was; from his bearded face, arms, chest, to his legs. A layer of brown hair covered him everywhere except his back and ass.

“A horse I haven’t seen in ages and my dad needs saddled up so he has time to ride. It’s not that far from here I’ll only be an hour, maybe two.” You pleaded, running your fingers up John’s toned chest and wrapping your arms around his neck.

“It’ll be two on one. How am I going to manage both of them?” John nodded his head to your two children buckled up in the back seat.

“You’re their dad, you’ll figure it out.” Giving John’s scruffy cheek a sweet kiss you batted your eyes up at him. He hated that you were trying to flirt your way out of this.

“And now I have to drive on the bloody wrong side of the road.” With gritted teeth John let you kiss his scowl away until you were making out with him.

“C’mon we don’t visit my home often, don’t be such a spoil sport.” You pulled away breathlessly.

“Fine.” John smacked your ass harder than usual and moved to open the passenger side door for you.

“Give me a second to change into my riding pants and then drop me off.” There was no chance to answer as you jogged into the vacation home your dad owned. Leaving John frustrated he snatched his hat from the passenger seat where he was originally going to sit.

——————

“Fucking, fuck.” John grunted as he pulled the wagon with all the beach supplies and his son through the scorching sand then over a random pile of rocks until he was back on the sand again.

“Fuck this fucking beach.” He sounded like a crazy person muttering to himself but he was beyond pissed off.

This always happened. You two would make the trip home to the States so you could enjoy where you grew up and John would always be left to his own devices at some point. It was usually because your dad couldn’t help himself but join you on these trips since he’d moved to the UK to be closer to you. He would spend time with his buddies mostly but then beckon you to do something for him and you’d drop everything to help the man.

This is how John found himself with his 6month old daughter napping in a baby carrier strapped to his chest and his two year old screeching with laughter in the wagon. He swore your home state was having a constant heatwave every time he was here but you tried to explain it was normal this time of year. On what day was 94 degrees normal? The only thing cooling him off was the ocean breeze as his feet blistered against the scorching sand.

The beach was packed, it looked like everyone had made the same decision you two did, to make today a beach day. Scouting up and down the coast John tried to find a spot big enough for the tent you packed and all your other belongings. It felt like he walked a half mile before he found a spot. It was unfortunately next to a group of rowdy college boys which was probably why it was the only space open and big enough. It was a good spot as no one was in front of John blocking him from the water but there was a group of older couples to his left, college kids to his right, and a normal looking family behind him.

Pulling up Evelyn’s tiny pink bucket hat he checked to make sure she wasn’t too hot. He was greeted by blue eyes staring up at him and a wide toothless grin. She kicked her feet happily seeing his face which had John’s bad mood softening exponentially.

“Okay, this’ll be a good day. Right?” John poked her little chubby side getting a deep little giggle from her. She began to babble away, her sweet little baby voice music to John’s ears.

“Daddy, daddy, daddy! Look!!” Jj was trying to get out of the wagon as he pointed off into the ocean.

He had one leg thrown over the plastic side and was clutching on to it, his little foot kicking and searching for the solid ground. John wasn’t quick enough to catch the little boy as he tumbled out and fell flat on his face. A face full of sand didn’t seem to deter the rough little boy as he scrambled to his feet and tried to sprint for the water. John caught him by the forearm before he got too far.

“Uh, uh, uh. You have to wait for me.” John pulled the two year old back towards the wagon.

“NOOOOO!” Jj screeched, going limp as an attempt to be immovable. John simply picked him up and placed the now flailing toddler into the wagon to hopefully keep the tantrum contained.

It didn’t.

John was pulling out the tent to set up while sunscreen and beach toys went flying. Jj threw the buckets and pail straight at John, clocking him in the top of the head. With a sharp gaze shot Jj’s way he screamed and threw himself back to cry and stopped throwing things. John cringed hearing how hard the toddler whacked his head against the plastic wagon.

John was thanking his lucky stars the tent you bought was one of those pop up ones for babies. He had it set up in no time and then was stabbing your large lime green beach umbrella into the sand. He could feel eyes on him as his toddler continued to scream at the top of his lungs and now his baby girl joined in from her tent. John was quick to lay out the large navy beach blanket, chuck his shirt at the beach bag, and then hoist Jj of his shoulder, snag Evelyn, and jog down to the water. The cooler and beach bags could wait, he just needed the crying to stop. He felt lucky you had lathered everyone up in sunscreen before leavings because now John could skip that step.

Once at the waters edge John plopped the screaming toddler onto the damp sand and waited for the tide to come in. Sitting down he placed Evelyn on his lap and watched how her big brother rolled around and cried in the sand. As soon as the frigid water collided with Jj he was screaming for another reason. Evelyn immediately stopped her crying as the water came up to just her bottom and gasped.

John’s whole body shook with laughter as his little boy scrambled to his feet after face planting twice and then was chasing after the tide. Lounging back on his hands John enjoyed the sight of Jj running as fast as his little legs would take him away from the cold water rushing in. He let Evelyn splash in the cool water eventually lying back to rest against John and look around. There were a couple of hard falls that didn’t seem to phase the tough little boy as he played tag with the with ocean.

���—————

“Fucking, fuck.” You muttered as your bare feet slipped quickly over the scorching sand and onto the rocks that lined the coast and separated the beach access to the actual shore.

“Fuck.” You muttered to yourself as you tried not to fall as the smooth stones slid against each other. You danced from foot to foot as your eyes searched up and down the coast looking for your lime green umbrella. You knew John would be somewhere near here since you two had agreed to meet to the left of the beautiful white stucco house with a dark green awning.

You quickly made your way down to the shore having caught sight of two umbrellas that could be yours. Trying to be quick you decided to jog lightly down the beach in your tight shorts that barely covered your bottom and fitted black tank top. You felt bad having left John with both children knowing it wasn’t for the faint of heart.

When you were leaving to meet John here you realized you left your one piece in the beach bag and you wouldn’t have a near by place to change. So you stopped at one of the local beach stores and changed out of your long pants and into this $70 ensemble. All the bathing suits in the shop were gawdy bikinis which were not your style but you knew John was already annoyed at your delay. So you snagged the only plain colored one which was yellow and a size too small.

Your little jog down the beach got you to the first lime green umbrella which happened to be where your family was. John was sitting under the shade with Jj across from him as the two of them ate sandwiches. Jj looked so cute matching his daddy with a similar bucket hat only the little boys was sky blue while John’s was his favorite tan you bought him. The toddler was dressed in light blue swim trunks with sharks on them and a dark long sleeve swim shirt. Evelyn was lounged back in a boppy holding her bottle, also having lunch. She was in a cute little teal one piece with a pink fril around the waist and a bright pink bucket hat.

“That’s a new development.” You smiled brightly and pointed at your baby girl who had somehow learned to hold her own bottle over night.

“She didn’t have a choice.” John smiled widely seeing you walk up from the shore in clothes he’d never seen you in before. It was such a relief seeing you. It felt like he was being run ragged and having you here to help was finally making this feel like a vacation.

“MUMMY!” Jj threw his arms in the air, the contents of his sandwich slipping out between the bread and falling onto his paper plate. Seemingly without thinking John picked it up, tilted his head back, and ate the roast beef and cheese in one bite.

“Hello there little man.” You were on your knees and hugging the tiny toddler tightly and kissing him all over. Jj was giggling uncontrollably and pushing you off.

“Mummy’s, so silly!” Turning to look at John Jj playfully rolled his eyes, his entire head joining the motion. He bit into his sandwich and then pulled the bread apart looking for the contents John’s had just sneakily ate.

“That she is. How was it?” John asked patting the spot on the large beach blanket next to him. Jj picked up the plate checking underneath for the rest of his sandwich until he seemingly gave up and ate from the bowl of fruit.

“Fun, Mitch is getting old. Think my dad’s coming to terms this might be the last summer with him.” With a sigh you tried to move those thoughts out of your mind. You just wanted to enjoy the day with your family.

Sitting back on your heels you peeled the new tank top off and then stood to shed yourself of the shorts. John’s eyes practically bulged out of his skull seeing you in that little yellow bikini. It was a thin strapped halter top that didn’t cover your breasts fully but was worse since you were still breast feeding.

Leaning to the side John tried to get a better angle and was dumb struck at the side boob you were sporting. That wasn’t even the most tantalizing part for him. The little bikini bottoms looked a size too small so they didn’t cover your round ass fully and came low in the front. They still covered everything they needed to but not nearly as much as you usually did

A little kids scream caught your attention for a moment so you turned to look and John swore he was about to get a nose bleed from just the sight of your round bottom. You weren’t in a thong or anything but the yellow bottoms covered about half of each cheek and left the crease between your thigh and ass on full display.

“You trying to kill me?” John sputtered out without thinking.

“What?” You asked confused.

“That bikini.” John pointed at your tits when you turned back to look at him.

Looking down you inspected yourself already knowing what you looked like. When you threw it on at the beach shop and looked at yourself in the mirror, you thought you looked good and it was a bit much but you had to be on your way.

“Yeah it’s a size too small but everything else was horrible and this was the only solid color they had.” Tugging at the straps around your neck you jiggled your boobs to see if they’d slip out but they didn’t, which made you smile.

“Stop doing that.” John’s voice sounded a lot more raspy which had you looking up at him.

To your surprise he now had a beach towel covering his lap and his cheeks had turned rosy. He was absolutely mortified to have popped a boner in public because of you and he knew it was going to be extremely noticeable in his swim trunks.

“Lellows, nice.” Jj told you as he fished through the lunch box you had packed.

“At least you still think I’m hot.” You snorted out a laugh at your husband predicament.

“Lunch.” Jj was now patting your thigh and handing you a sandwich.

“I’ll have that in a little. Do you want to go in the water with me?” You squatted down to your son’s level to ask. His head was shaking rapidly and then he was off running towards the shore.

“Wait!” Your stern words had the little boy stopping and tripping forward into the sand.

“Put the sandwich back then we have to get your floaties on.” The sweet orders were immediately followed to John’s surprise.

“Yes mummy mama.” Jj was jogging back.

He threw the sandwich at John and it clapped against his chest then fell to his lap. Watching your husband get hit by a sandwich and then just go to unwrap and eat it made you laugh. Passing by John a little too closely he wound up and smacked your ass hard. You let out a surprised squeak as John never did things like that in public. Before you could scold him you felt a much smaller and sandy hand smack your bottom and let out hiccuping giggles.

“See what you’re teaching him?” You couldn’t decided if you were annoyed or that it was funny Jj had just done that.

John was belly laughing which seemed to only encourage the toddler who tried to do it again. After getting Jj into his bright yellow swim vest you let him run ahead to the water. John said he’d stay back and watch Evelyn while she slept so you could enjoy some sunshine.

“I’ll be in the water.” You smiled wickedly at John, whose eyes were looking at everything but your own, mainly your tits.

“I’ll be watching. Probably too closely.” The joke had you smugly laughing as you chased after your son. John’s eyes were fixed on the way your ass moved as you ran and then he was wondering how good you tits must look while they bounced.

“Your mums going to be the death of me.” John spoke softly to his six month old who was now sleeping in the boppy. Leaning over he grabbed the empty bottle and chucked it into the diaper bag.

That’s when the sound of someone whistling loudly caught John’s attention. Looking over he saw the group of college aged boys gawking at you. Some were laughing and drinking their beers while they sat back in their chairs and took in the sight of you while two others looked to be making their way down to the shore. John instantly felt his blood pressure begin to spike. Glancing over to his left the crowd of older couples also seemed to have noticed you which was horrifying to John. One older woman caught eyes with him and smiled.

“I remembered when I use to look like that.” She called over, pointing at you.

“Me too!” It had to be her husband who made the joke that had everyone in their group laughing. The comment was unexpected and unwanted from John’s perspective. He was of the mind that people should mind their own business.

“Enjoy it while it lasts sunny, you’re a lucky man!” Another called. The way John was waved off was probably due to the angry look he was casting in their direction.

“Yeah, thank you.” John spoke back awkwardly and waved, hoping they would leave him alone.

“Oh your British!” One chortled but John chose to ignore them as he carefully watched the two college boys in the water, making sure they didn’t approach you and your son. He could hear the older group singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ which pissed him off but he ignored it.

John watched you like a hawk as Evelyn slept next to him. You were swimming around with Jj in your arms, tossing him in the water. It was nice seeing you enjoy the summer day with your son as you spent almost a half hour in the water. The two college student continued to float closer and closer to you and before John knew it one had struck up a conversation. You smiled politely and swam off with your little boy in your arms until you were getting out of the water and heading back. It was hard to enjoy the view of your skimpy bikini as you walked up the beach towards John with your son on your hip. He could see the boys in the water now turned and watching you walk away.

“They bothering you?” It was obvious John was pissed off by his tone alone. Giving him a sweet smile you tried to lighten him up with your own good mood.

“Not really, just being weird.” You shrugged it off as you finally made it to your umbrella.

“How?” It was practically demanded as if John were interrogating you, but you simply sighed happily and continued on.

“Asked if I was your nanny and when I’d be off work. Then followed it up with inviting me to some house party.” Again you tried to play it off as something no one needed to worry about.

“Nanny!? What kind of nanny wears. . . that.” John sounded exasperated as he gestured to your two piece. They had to be joking. John felt it was clear as day you were his wife here with him and your children.

“Mummy said fuck.” Jj interjected.

“Don’t say that.” You corrected before placing the two year old back on his feet. He seemingly didn’t care what you and John were talking about and went to go play with his toys in the sand.

“You said fuck?” John’s asked still looking angry.

“Told them to fuck off and leave me alone or they’ll be dealing with you.” You spoke sweetly. Kneeling in front of your husband you took his face in your delicate hands and kissed his lips.

“Yeah? I’m about ready to bury the lot of them.” Mumbled words were hardly above a whisper as John leaned in, a silent way of him asking you to kiss him again.

His scowl was softening peck after peck and until finally a small smile broke out across his lips. Something about you threatening other people by saying John would handle it made his ego boost and chest puff out. Of course he’d defended you in anyway you needed and he’d beat the living daylights out of anyone who bothered you; if only you let him.

“I love you.” You whispered, taking one of John’s hands from his lap and placing it on your back just above your ass.

The other landed on your hip and you hugged him around the neck. It felt wonderful to push your chest against John’s wiry one and you knew he loved it. Part of you was fantasizing about what it would feel like later on to have his sweaty hairy chest rubbing against your back. Glancing over your shoulder John watched as some of the college boys were looking over at you two. It was clear they were all jealous that you were all over him.

“You look so sexy, John. I can’t wait for tonight.” The whispered words snapped John’s attention back to you. It was obvious to him with that yearning look in your eyes, as you pressed your forehead to his, he was having a very similar effect on you that you had on him.

“Hm, are you?” John questioned playfully.

“Yes, so bad I’ll make sure to keep this on until you’re ready to take it off me.” You purred smiling widely when he pinched your bottom.

“Good, I cant wait to get you out of it when we get back. I’ll have to inspect the tan lines.” John mumbled, eyes looking down at your tits and smiling devilishly.

“Maybe you could give me a rub down with some lotion?” Placing one last kiss to your handsome man’s cheek you sat back, slipping from his strong arms.

“Oh, absolutely. Anything to get my hands on you.” It was nice having John’s flirty side instead of his pissy mood from moments ago. He leaned forward and lightly swatted the side of your ass before turning his attention back to your son.

“Don’t eat sand!” John spoke gruffly. Looking over your shoulder you could see a fist full of sand just at Jj’s mouth before his finger uncurled and it cascaded to the ground.

“If you’re hungry come have some grapes.” You waved him over but the little boy went back to playing.

“Why’d they even approach you?” John finally asked what had been on his mind. He hated that it was so easy for other men to approach you on the beach of all places. It was hard to keep himself from checking over at the college boys who seemed to still be eyeing you two.

“It’s the US John we actually talk to each other instead of pretending like no one exists around us.” You looked at him as if he were dumb but you knew American etiquette made him uncomfortable. Jj was standing and started to run towards the water again. You were quick to your feet chasing after him and snatching him up into your arms. He giggled wildly as you brought him back.

“Mummy! Down.” Jj whined and you placed him back on his feet. He went right back to the little hole he had dug.

“You look that good with kids that young?” The older woman from before called over to you.

“Surprising, right!?” You gleefully joked back taking the compliment well. John would be mortified to have a stranger complimenting his appearance. It made him uncomfortable to hear strangers commenting on yours.

“What’s your secret?” Another woman from the group asked. They were all in their 70s and up so it was just playful banter to you.

“A traumatic labour.” You said with a laugh. The morbid joke had John’s lips pressing into a firm line but it seemed to go over well with the women of that group.

“Oh been there sweetie!”

“My second time I swear I was skin and bones after that hospital stay.” The women of the group instantly started to go on about their own experiences with child birth and you went back to your family. You grabbed the lunch box from the cooler and dropped it next to where you were going to sit.

“What are you doing.” John hissed at you.

“Joking around.” You kneeled down beside him and opened up the lunchbox you packed. Pulling out a sandwich and grapes you sat criss cross and started to get ready to eat your lunch.

“You shouldn’t joke about that. You almost died.” It clearly got under your husband’s skin to mention the traumatic events that having Evelyn left you with in such a nonchalant manner.

“I know, I was there.” You snapped back in an equally hushed tone. Taking a bite of your sandwich you wished John would stop being grumpy at long last.

“I feel like I’m going mad.” It was clear how horrified John was whenever dealing with people in America. In typical fashion he wanted to be left alone and practically walk through life invisible to those around him.

“Well good thing we live in the UK or I think you’d wind up murdering someone here.” The jab normally would be intended as a joke but it was pointed due to John’s short fuse.

“Yes, some woman asked me if I did anything fun this weekend when I stopped to get coffee.” The retort was filled with frustration and loathing for what was considered basic manners here.

“Oh my god, how dare she.” You gasped sarcastically.

“It’s sickening to not be able to go on with my day without being asked how I’m doing ten bloody times by people I don’t know.” John was getting worked up again and it was starting to frustrate you and turn your own mood sour.

“You need to lighten up.” You snapped. Then thinking to yourself maybe you should also be lightening up and allowing John to complain and vent. He had been a good sport about you being late and how he was left on his own with the kids. It was only now that people were intruding on your personal time that he was getting upset.

Your harsh tone was interrupted by the sound of music blasting from the group of college boys next to you. The song ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’ started to play for everyone in the surrounding area to hear. The older group of men and women started hollering with laughter while the college boys sang along obnoxiously loud and started to dance. You were surprised they even knew a song this old to begin with.

“Not lightening up with that playing. I’m going to smash their bloody speaker.” John moved to get up but you threw yourself on to him, knocking him off balance. The two of you tumbled onto the beach mat as you hugged him tightly around his waist so he couldn’t get up.

You had to admit the song was obnoxious and the guys playing it were assholes. You could also admit it was pretty damn funny, especially seeing the older crowd dance in their seats. But you needed to save your husband from a murder charge so you clung on to him.

“Let go.” John barked at you.

“No.” You spoke indignantly.

“Let go!” John said with a bit more force.

“It’s not even about me.” You tried to reason.

“And how’d you make that out?” Anger was seeping from your husband’s words and you held on tighter when he tried to pry you off.

“My bikini doesn’t have polkadots.” Your response had John scoffing.

“Piggy pile!” Jj’s sweet voice rang through the summer air.

John was lying back on one elbows with you attached to him at the waist. His other hand was trying to get you off of him so he could go destroy those boys speaker and then murder them one by one. Being distracted he couldn’t stop the two year old jumping with all his weight into John’s chest. The force knocked the wind out of him while Jjs knees collided with John’s crotch, crushing his balls and forcing John’s arms to give out.

“Gah-“ John sucked in a choked and pained breath.

Jj and you were now laying on top of a very stunned John, all he could see was the bright green umbrella above him. It was like all the air was sucked out of him and the worst pain lit his body up like a Christmas tree. He couldn’t get himself to move from how much his balls hurt and the fact he’d gotten the wind knocked out of him by a two year old. Men bigger than him were incapable of taking him down in combat but here John was, incapacitated by a toddler.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Scrambling to your feet you picked up the giggly toddler who now had his knees digging into John’s stomach and plopped him on his bum next to his sister.

“Here.” You got your phone out quickly and threw on some show you had saved which instantly hypnotized your son.

John was lying flat on his back, legs bent, arm thrown over his eyes and the other hand holding his crotch. He was lightly groaning and massaging his extremely sore crotch.

“You alright.” You lightly shook your husbands toned shoulder but got no response.

“John?” You sounded worried.

“Get them to shut the bloody song off.” Was all he spoke, sounding pained and pissed off.

Getting up from your spot you quickly darted over to the college students who looked excited to see you walking their way. If this song didn’t end you knew John was going to absolutely lose it once he was able to move again.

“Hey, assholes! Knock it off!” You shouted. Half of them looked shocked and apologetic while a few were still laughing.

“We’re just having fun.”

“Yeah and you’ll have a lot more when I tell the lifeguard you’re all underage.” You hissed, pointing at their cooler of beer. You weren’t even sure they were underage, it was a shot in the dark.

“Okay, okay, we’ll turn it down.” One tried to reason with you.

“Off.” You corrected. The music was quickly turned off and you huffed out an annoyed sigh and went back to your family.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re hotter pissed off?” One called.

“Yeah, my husband, who’ll be over there if you don’t cut the shit.” You shot back, which seemed to shut them up. They had noticed how jacked and huge the man they were hoping wasn’t your husband was.

“Okay, I’m back.” You said a bit out of breath. John hadn’t moved an inch and neither had your son. Evelyn on the other hand had rolled out of the boppy and was screaming. The music had startled her awake which only made you hate those boys more. Sitting down next to John’s head you grabbed your daughter and without thinking began to nurse her.

“Your tits are going to get me killed today.” John mumbled. You looked over to see him lying down flat as if he had been shot and staring at your breasts.

“I’m feeding her, stop being gross.” You muttered.

“Yeah, it’s normal to me. But not to them.” John gestured to the gawking looks you were getting from the young men at seeing you exposed.

“First time seeing a boob, virgins!?” You called out making them all seem embarrassed and avoid looking over at you again. The older couples cheered you on going as far as calling the college kids ‘little boys.’ Some of the women tried to comfort you and told you to feed your baby and ignore them.

“I hate America.” John muttered staring up at the green umbrella, body still recovering from the double blows he took.

“I know.” You cooed, pulling his hat off and running your fingers through his hair to scratch his scalp.

“Can we go home?”

“Soon, and we can go back to ignoring everyone around us.”

“Thank god.”

~~~~~tag list~~~~~

@exhaustedpotat0 @glitterypirateduck @ivymarquis @crazymela @what-0-life @boredfairy4 @hihhasotherfixations @stephanswhxre @shanjisan @k4es @luvleywrites @kita03-0 @midwesternwitchery @aleynaleia @suckerforbassist @misshoneypaper @theaonlax @blackstar9005 @tooterbutt @havoc973 @maladaptivedaydreamingbum @freshlemontea @cosmoscoffeee @sae1kie @ohworm-writes @ghostslittlegf @fanficwriterlover @arminarlertssword @faceache111 @azu21 @thirstyb-ches @nini-11-08 @sgtgarricks @kiki-is-hyperfixating @mayflysdie

[twstyuna]

Stray is a fic where Yuu gets hurt in Overblots and Crewel is going a little insane because of it.

Anyway. Hypothetical + events in the bg of it as of Ch 3 (specifically in reply to a very nice very long comment by tinseltina).

If Crewel was officially ordered to take care of Yuu.

The begrudging pity-born affection would probably develop sooner. He's never going to complain or resent having to watch them when they're present or may be present because it's not their fault they were spirited away to Twisted Wonderland, but he would resent the one tasking him for this (probably Crowley). He is still in his prime, he is a bachelor and an accomplished designer and chemist, and while he can find satisfaction in being an instructor, children were never in his plans.

(Yuu is such a nice child though. Very obedient, very unobtrusive, and mature for their age. He wouldn't have to deal with the crying, clumsy mess of an infant or toddler. There is just a child, who is diligent and listens, that he's stuck watching and who's stuck keeping him company. They are grateful and calm and polite and that's not really how he expects children to be, but if he ever did have a child, Yuu would be the standard this hypothetical child would now be compared to. And if Yuu ever would cry or make a mess or be angry, they'd almost always certainly have good reason to do so. )

He would be a good guardian because to be otherwise would leave terrible rumors. He has a reputation to uphold. So he would dress them nice because he dresses himself well and he will feed them healthy, fancy homecooked meals because Yuu is not a dog and needs a human's diet and his standard for human food is what he feeds himself. Sometimes he will take them out with him for dinner because he has his habits and he is not leaving them to eat alone in his apartment. He will get them a coat when winter comes and he will scold them for forgetting theirs if they do, but he does not like wasting time so instead of telling them to grab it, he'll wrap his own fur around them even if he's only driving them to somewhere in Rose Country and they'll simply have to bear with sitting close to him so they can share it if they're heading to NRC from his apartment. He is not mothering them, what are you talking about. If he ever grows fond of their company, it was forced upon him. Humans are social animals and they are stuck together in some degree of close proximity what do you expect him to do, change his brain chemistry?

(We are going to pretend this was assigned immediately following the Entrance Ceremony (maybe Yuu shows up on Crewel doorstep with a letter from the Headmaster after he teleports them there lol), so Grim isn't in the picture. But if he was, Crewel would constantly be comparing how well-behaved Yuu is to how Grim is not).

Even so, Crewel wouldn't ever say taking Yuu in is his choice.

The moment Crewel outright says that he will take care of Yuu, that is no longer just a task or a favor or a bone he's throwing to a stray but a VOW and he will be utterly doomed.

So he won't say it. He won't even think it. He can't.

Heartshackle

Ace, Deuce, Grim, and Yuu are actually managing academics pretty well. This is because Yuu is very tired/bedridden and but constantly trying to keep up with class, and so Adeuce and Grim had to make notes to bring them notes and help explain the lessons they missed to them.

Their earlier exams come back surprisingly high. Deuce is delighted. Ace can't believe he's become such a nerd. Riddle is also helping because he can and he owes Yuu after his OB. Trey gives them warm meals and puddings sometimes because their throat is wrecked from Leona Sand and there may or may not be a Cater in the bg when Adeuce are unavailable.

So Adeuce and Grim made a different deal with Azul, and they don't have anemones because they have different terms and a different contract.

Riddle

As a kid of magical doctors, one of whom expects him to follow her path, Riddle is plagued by Yuu. Yuu is there and a medical anomaly and he has not been able to help them after Kingscholar's OB, though he should be an aspiring healer. Yuu was not entirely suffering throat pains during Crewel's attempts at making something to soothe their throat because Riddle was also offering home remedies that are safe for those without magic and doing his own research but he does not have access to all the things Crewel does as a licensed alchemist and adult.

Riddle's study guides are extended to Yuu and he delivers them to Ramshackle or the infirmary himself, and so it is not difficult for him to stumble upon a conversation among his dormmates about how Ashengrotto is supposedly able to give anything for the right price. He is in the same year as Azul, he knows of the previous year's incident, but any ire he has dulls because when he pulls Ace and Deuce aside to scold them, they are not talking about study guides.

Their grades are fine.

Yuu's voice is not.

Riddle is skeptical. You have to be, with Azul. He will not encourage them, but he has an interest in law and he can look up labor laws and hours and help them determine a reasonable schedule to propose to Ashengrotto that will allow them to perhaps survive as part-time workers and students. He can tell them to read everything and mind the terms and put an escape clause if they really need it. There are no laws against using the Heartslabyul dorm head as an alibi.

The problem is, Riddle is not someone who would be found in Mostro Lounge, and so he is not there when his freshmen make the deal and Yuu gets their voice but not a healing. A stupid mistake he could have and should have accounted for, but he can help them with the aftermath.

Jack

Jack is there because he is there in canon, but also because he was among the ones who left Yuu alone in Ramshackle when the ill-intent and magic of Leona's OB sand that was stuck in them started to do damage. He was a regular visitor in the infirmary, if no one else was there. Yuu has a little cactus in Ramshackle now. It used to be on their infirmary window, and before that, on a ledge in a Savanaclaw dorm.

Crewel is not the only one looking after Yuu in Stray, but because the fic is about him and his limited perspective as a teacher, Yuu seems so much more pitiful.