#but J kept getting the shorter end of the stick when she genuinely did not had a choice in the matter

[handfulofmuses]

J vc: new planet, fresh start. I get a new job and work myself to exhaustion so that I don’t have to think about all the terrible things in my life, I will forget about Tessa and the gala incident and that monster that kept me around as a plaything pet and only the new work environment matters, i know it will only be short lived but anywhere is better than here.

N: hi.

J: THROWS A WHOLE BUILDING.

[marshmallow-phd]

White Out

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe  

Genre: Supernatural, Wolf Au

Pairing: Kyungsoo x Reader

Summary: Bouncing place to place was just how lived your life. Settling down just wasn’t in your plans, especially with your past. But when you meet Kyungsoo, there’s suddenly a future in front of you that you never imagined possible. With both enemies and friends of the pack arriving in town, you’ll be pulled into a danger that you never asked for. Will you stick around for Kyungsoo or will you do what you do best and run?

Warning: none

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I Final

**

When you arrived at work the next morning, there was a voicemail left on the answering machine. Kimberly had called back and was letting you know that some friends would be in later to pick up the school ID as both she and Ji Yeon would be in a pre-session class all day. You shrugged it off, putting your focus more on the fact that the next voicemail was from your boss who was apparently now sick and leaving the running of the store to you.

Thankfully, there were plenty of sweets that were still good in the display cases and no large orders that needed to be completed right away and could be left for tomorrow. No one came in for the first few hours, letting you sit in the back and decorate another batch of sugar cookies just for fun.

Since this town was surrounded by forests that went on for miles, you were feeling a bit inspired. Birds, moons, trees, whatever you could think of, you mixed up the icing and covered every inch of those cookies with scenes of nature. You kind of felt bad for whoever would be consuming the treat given the amount of sugar you were piling on.

The bell that signaled the entry door opening chimed off and you reluctantly left your artwork to man the front.

Three boys walked into the store, looking around.

“How can I help you?” you asked, wiping excess frosting from your hands with a paper towel.

One of the boys came up to the counter, leaning against it with his forearms. You immediately stiffened, willing yourself not to take a step back. At this point in your life, it was just a learned reflex.

“I’m here to pick up my ma- er, my girlfriend’s ID,” he explained. The tallest of the boys giggled behind him. Elbowing him in the stomach, the remaining one with black hair sent a death glare as well.

You relaxed a bit, now fully realizing the situation. He wasn’t going to hit on you or flirt. “Yeah, let me go grab it.” Coming back with the ID, you handed the card over to the sharp eyed boy on the other side of the counter. You felt a pair of eyes trained on you, but you refused to look up to meet the stare.

“Thanks,” he smiled as he slipped it into his pocket. He whipped his head around just in time to catch the tall one reaching out to take a cookie from the open display. “Chanyeol, no!”

The tall one – Chanyeol – actually pouted his lips. “But Minseok–”

“We just ate,” the third one interrupted in a soothing, deep voice, his eyes finally leaving you.

You were a bit startled that that kind of voice could come from someone like him. He was the shortest out of the three, his face seemingly cold and void of any emotion. His black hair wasn’t quite as long as the others, styled so what would have been the bangs were away from his forehead sticking out in a sort of wave motion.

When Chanyeol didn’t put the cookie down, the third boy added more authority in his voice. “Put it back.”

Feeling sorry for the guy who’s pout had actually deepened, you went to the back and quickly put a few of the cookies you’d completed earlier in a clear plastic bag, tied together with a green ribbon.

“Here.” You held the bag out for the first boy to take when you were back in the front, but the shorter one took it instead. His face had pulled into a frown, but not out distaste of your offering. It was more… confused. His eyes wouldn’t leave you and you felt like a bunch of cells shining under a microscope.

The first boy started to pull out his wallet but you waved it away. “Don’t worry about it. Those weren’t for sale. I was just practicing.”

“Making them?” Chanyeol asked cautiously.

You chewed on your lip to keep from chuckling. Laughing opened you up to more conversation and really you just wanted to go back to solitude. “No, decorating.”

“They look pretty,” the shorter one commented.

Clearing your throat, you stepped back, running your hand over your hair. “Have a nice day.”

You all but ran to the back, needing the space. Once you heard the bell chime above the door, you peeked back around. Through the storefront window, you watched them leave. But when you thought you were being sneaky, the third boy looked over his shoulder, the corner of his mouth pulled up into a half smile. With a gasp and as fast as you could, you hid behind the wall, getting a strange thumping in your chest. You put your hand over the pounding, realizing it was your heart speeding up.

No. Not again.

You breathed in through your nose and out your mouth, willing your circulatory system to calm down. What was wrong with you?

Yes, he was… cute, but thoughts like that led to attachments. You didn’t create new attachments. That just ended in disaster. The few you had were enough for you.

Shaking off the strange encounter, you went back to your decorating. No one else really came in for the rest of the day and even after you locked up for the evening, you stayed an extra hour or so, just working on your decorating skills and coming up with new designs to offer.

The sun was completely gone by the time you left the bakery. You kept your eyes ahead, walking at a quick pace back to your apartment. You were just two blocks away when a shadow stepped out from a passing alleyway.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

You kept walking, ignoring the loser that was trying to catch your attention. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate that very much.

Before you could get out of his reach, he grabbed your upper arm, yanking you back. You dug your heels into the ground trying to keep away from the alley he was now guiding you to. The only light source was the corner street lamp.

Lifting a leg up, you kicked at his thigh, digging your heel into the muscle, your goal giving him a dead leg achieved. Letting out a loud yelp, he let you go. You took off towards your apartment, heart thumping your ears with adrenaline. This place was supposed to be safe and yet you were currently being chased by a delinquent who wanted to make you his plaything.

Said criminal caught up to you easily and practically tackled you to the ground. Even though your jeans, you could feel the roughness of the sidewalk scraping your skin.

“That wasn’t very nice,” he huffed, flipping you over to your back. You tried to fight back, but he had your wrists trapped in his hands and slammed them down to the concrete on either side of your head as he straddled your waist. “Now the real fun begins.”

“Get. Off.” Your teeth were clenched as you shifted and kicked, trying anything to get away. He was too strong but you wouldn’t give up. Not until you were dead.

A strange growl ripped through the air and suddenly the man was off of you before you could blink. Someone had come to your rescue, pinning the man against the brick wall, his feet over six inches above the ground, wiggling to gain some sort of traction or stability.

The man growled down at your rescuer, struggling against his grip that was wrapped within the ratty t-shirt.

“Stay out of our territory,” the newcomer warned in a familiar voice. He threw the man down to the ground and watched him scramble up and run away into the darkness.

Your guess was right as the stranger crouched down to get a better look at you. It was the third boy from the bakery. His eyes scanned over every inch of you as he tried to help you up. His worry seemed genuine and, given the fact that you didn’t even know his name, it made you uncomfortable.

Ripping your arm out of his hand, you got to your feet by yourself. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” He stayed close to you, a hand resting on your elbow. “Did he hurt you? I’m sorry i didn’t get here sooner.”

“I’m fine!” you insisted. You were irritated, but you couldn’t figure out why. Your body was reacting to him in such a weird way that you didn’t understand and it was freaking you out.

“Can I see you home the rest of the way?” he asked.

You shook your head. “No. I can get there by myself.”

He tried to stop you after you took a few steps. “But-”

“Just leave me alone!” You were nearly shouting, but you didn’t know how else to get him to go away.

Finally understanding, he let you go. Looking over your shoulder, you made eye contact with the person who had come to your rescue. Worry, frustration, and something else you couldn’t read was written all over his face and you felt guilty all of a sudden. The thought of agreeing to let him walk you home lingered for just a second, but you shoved it aside. Shaking your head, you kept going and made it back to your apartment without any other incident.

**

Kyungsoo still followed you back to your apartment, keeping a fair distance so you weren’t aware of his presence. He couldn’t believe another wolf had shown up in town, not to mention tried to take his mate like a bone he’d found to play with. Thankfully, the omega was easy to deal with, weak from being alone.

Nothing else happened, but that didn’t mean he felt any better leaving you relatively safe inside behind the locked door.

Kyungsoo kept walking, ignoring the whining wolf inside his chest, until he was lost within the trees of the forest’s edge. Pulling his shirt off over his head, he stripped down before letting his wolf go, fur exploding from his skin as his body morphed from human to animal. The pain of the transformation had turned into a numbing ache years ago. Now, his main agony was the distance growing between you and him as he ran deeper through the trees.

He couldn’t believe that he was next. After watching his hyungs and even Jongin find their mates back to back, he wondered who would have been the lucky one to find their mate. Packs tended to find them together, the magic of fate working in their favor. If you’d asked Kyungsoo, he would have said that Junmyeon would have been the next to gain his mate. Actually, he’d hoped it would have been their alpha so he could stop pining over the witch. Junmyeon was so noble that he just let himself be in misery rather than giving himself just a taste of happiness.

The ground felt different beneath Kyungsoo’s paws. Or maybe Kyungsoo himself was just different. Finding his mate was even more elating than he’d expected. Too bad you seemed to be too fond of strangers. He would have to be careful not to accidentally over do it in his excitement. He was determined to not be like Jongdae. He’d embrace you completely, letting you go at your own pace while he waited for you. All he needed to do was make sure he gained your trust. Something told him that was easier said than done.

When the house was finally in view, Kyungsoo slowed his pace and turned back into his original human self. He was covered in sweat, somewhat regretting telling Minseok and Chanyeol to go back in the car without him even though they wanted to stay.

Kyungsoo knew that while Minseok would have been able to handle the long hours, Chanyeol would have been bored and whining fifteen minutes in. So Kyungsoo stayed behind by himself, watching the bakery and keeping an eye on you. He’d stepped away for a few minutes to go grab a drink at the gas station and you’d chosen that exact time to finally leave your job and walk home. In the dark. Alone. It frustrated him to no end, but he wasn’t exactly in the position to scold you for it.

“Hey! Look who’s back!” Chanyeol yelled as soon as Kyungsoo walked in the back door.

He simply threw the obnoxious giant a look that told him to shut his mouth.

“Did you talk to her?” Jongin asked hopefully.

Kyungsoo shook his head. “No. A lone wolf attacked her. I scared him away, but she didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“They never do in the beginning,” Jiyoung murmured, giving Jongdae the side eye. The latter whined, but went ignored. It was his own fault he’d given his mate the perfect ammunition.

“Congratulations,” Junmyeon said sincerely from his usual spot at the counter stool.

Kyungsoo smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”

Grabbing a glass out of the cabinet, he filled it with icy water out of the fridge, gulping it down quickly and cooling his system greatly.

“So, there was an omega in town?” Yixing asked worriedly. Apparently he’d taken Kyungsoo’s place as chef tonight and was now cleaning up the mess.

Joining him at the sink and helping with washing the dishes, Kyungsoo nodded, “Yeah. It’s not a good sign. I’m sure a lot more are going to come through town if the hybrids really are on their way.”

“I guess that means you’ll be spending a lot of time in town as well.”

“We’re going to starve,” Baekhyun huffed, slumping down in his seat at the booth.

“You could learn to cook,” Kyungsoo shot over his shoulder. That just earned him a stuck out tongue from the childish wolf.

“I think we’ll all be spending more time in town and the surrounding woods,” Junmyeon concluded. “We’ve sworn to protect our home. That’s what we’ll do.”

“You really think the hybrids are coming?” Sehun asked, straightening up from his spot on the wooden floor.

Junmyeon shrugged. “We can’t take the chance that it’s not true. It’s too risky.”

Knock, knock, knock.

All nine pairs of ears perked up at the sudden interruption. Were they really here?

Everyone scrambled to the front living room. Junmyeon had to shove through the excited pack to get to the front door. Taking a deep breath, he put his hand on the knob and slowly pulled the wooden barrier open. All breaths were held as the reveal happened.

Just as Kyungsoo was expecting, three people that they hadn’t seen or heard from in years stood on the porch, their heads hung low in a bow.

The tallest and head of the formation straightened up and swallowed.

“Kris,” Junmyeon said in a small, barely-there voice.

“Hey, Junmyeon.”

[villainau]

both aus / general

very soft hair when it’s not styled but you can’t touch it unless you’ve caught him when he’s sleepy and/or just waking up because you will be assassinated

his uncle’s surname is trumble so tbh valeska probably wasn’t lila’s real surname. she’d have changed it to sound more “exotic” in the circus. but let’s thank god for that and the fact that the twins are valeskas

doesn’t tend to lie because he’s more the “cruel honesty” type, but is a very good liar when he does - not as good as jeremiah because lying was always jeremiah’s forte, but jerome can easily put on an act or think up a story on the spot with enough detail to make it convincing 

can easily go days without sleeping, and when he does fall asleep it’s only in his actual bed like 40% of the time

throws all of his red clothes in with jeremiah’s white clothes for washing constantly

swears so often. can easily say “fucking” twice in one sentence and throws one use of “shit” in there for good measure

no short sleeves outside ever. in private maybe, but not for long

his favourite colour is red, but he actually kinda likes pink too, especially hot pink

his first word was “miah”

villain au

lowkey hates being touched from behind e.g. pats on the back, a hand on his shoulder, etc, especially unexpectedly (and just hates the feeling of being snuck up on in general). he’ll stiffen like hell and the only people who can get away with it without him reflexively whacking their hands off of him are jeremiah and bruce, but they tend not to do it anyway because they can tell he doesn’t like it

absolutely had a super embarrassing doodle of a heart in his diary with “j + b” inside it, along with some v crude scribbles of things like him and bruce holding hands and them stabbing someone

Scary Kinks tbh. knives, pain (both others’ and his), blood, whatever, he has very little sense of limits. he is honestly not above even sticking a gun in your mouth if that’s what he’s feelin’. he’s only done that with bruce once, during the rebellious phase and the early days of the physical stuff, when he was still pushing limits and seeing how far bruce was really willing to go here and there weren’t a ton of Romo Feelings involved; he’d straddled bruce on a chair and he put the barrel of a pistol to bruce’s mouth, expecting nervousness or panic or some kind of reaction along those lines - but bruce just maintained steady eye contact and opened his mouth slightly, with no fear and watching him right back, which basically resulted in jerome thinking oh and yep, brucie’s something alright, grinning and throwing the gun off to the side to be ignored while they got on with Things. he wouldn’t do that with bruce anymore though - as dangerous as their lives generally are and as much as he loves that, he’s far less willing to go carelessly pointing loaded guns at bruce himself these days

does not like being tied up during NSFW Activities because he hates feeling confined/trapped and not being able to move his arms and not feeling in control because it’s too vulnerable, but bruce being tied up is Another Matter Entirely

lowkey praise kink. will either tell you to shut up or find Ways to distract you from talking if you actually try it, but is secretly kinda into it because he requires positive feedback in Most Things

identifies as bi but really couldn’t give a flying fuck about gender. if you’re fun and you can give him a good time, the rest is background noise

is annoyed when people are taller than him, so he avoids standing directly next to people who are too often (but on the other hand really likes standing next to shorter people because he likes to make it obvious that he Wins)

takes the fact that jonathan is the only person in the team taller than him as a personal threat. once idly mused to him about the possibility of sawing off his feet so he could be superior and just got a very deadpan try it. look and decided “…….maybe some other time”. it was probably a joke anyway. like 90%.

despite having a boyfriend who wears black almost exclusively, he pretty much never wears black himself. he’ll occasionally wear dark suits or one item of black clothing or whatever, but he always has something in his outfit with colour and tends to go for brightness over anything else

sends awful memes in the team group chat at 3am and no one thinks they’re funny except him and jervis. sometimes ivy does, and she occasionally sends a nice response even if she doesn’t just to be polite, but other times they are just Too Bad even for her

does also pm ivy Nice Things that remind him of her though, and these she does like. he also sends her random pictures of animals and flowers w captions like “is it just me or does this beanstalk kinda look like jonathan” and she can’t help giggling a lil at some of them and then feeling bad for it

master of the ironic “UWU” and “OWO” emojis and everyone else hates it

him and jervis are the only people jonathan actually responds to on the phone (other people can call him but he’ll just silently listen to what you have to say and then hang up, so it’s in the air whether he even heard you or not) and he finds it disproportionately funny that jonathan once answered the phone with “whomst.” instead of “hello”

he never self-harmed in the sense of cutting, but he also doesn’t have the same reservations about causing himself pain that others do, so he’s done things like put out cigarettes on his wrists/hands, test the sharpness of knives on himself, etc. and physical pain can be something of a release for him

generally fearless, but he was genuinely scared of his mother, uncle and the men his mother had over - killing lila and zach helped with a lot of this and made him feel like he’d won. he still gets a little on edge when someone reminds him of them in speech/appearance/personality, but he’s more likely to use it as an opportunity to prove to himself that he has power over the memory of lila/zach and that they can’t hurt him anymore by getting one over on the person in question too

in the very early stages of the abuse, he coped with it by believing that his mother loved him no matter what and clung to the hope that it would all stop one day and she’d sober up and love him properly. it sinking in that she didn’t love him at all and that it was never going to change was one of the things that ended up contributing to his eventual psychotic break

what is a stable self-esteem? jerome doesn’t know. can go from calling himself garbage to calling himself a god in .0002 seconds

tried to strangle an arkham therapist once because she brought up his childhood abuse and kept pushing him to talk about it and he just lost it. after that, all attempts at therapy for him were dropped

has an uncomfortable amount of knowledge about how to set broken bones and put in dislocated joints because there were times in the circus when things got really really bad and he should have gotten hospital treatment, but obviously nobody would have taken him, so he had to learn to do even the serious shit himself. early on, he came dangerously close to seriously fucking himself up and making his injuries worse more than once thanks to his amateur first attempts at fixing them

people in the circus were kinda-sorta aware of what went on with his mother, but basically just didn’t care; it wasn’t their business

touch-starved. one of the reasons he reacts so strongly the times when bruce is super gentle with him is because literally no one has ever just touched him softly before (and generally he isn’t used to being touched at all without pain immediately following) so at first it’s almost too much

generally isn’t affected by his facial scars and isn’t self-conscious about them at all, but is very used to other people finding them scary/unpleasant so was genuinely thrown off-balance the first time bruce traced them and called him beautiful

surprisingly, he can actually cook - he had to make his own food a lot in the circus when he was younger, it was either that or scrounge from the circus food stalls, bc lila sure as hell wasn’t making him meals - he just chooses not to anymore because, frankly, he can’t be bothered 

he and bruce don’t really ever say “i love you” in so many words. they know what they have going on, so why would they need to verbalise it all the time when they already know it’s there? jerome’s really not into that kind of thing anyway, and honestly bruce isn’t the most emotionally open person either. bruce was the first of them to acknowledge and accept how he felt, and never denied it when asked by someone else, but he knows jerome and his background and thus never said it first in order to avoid pushing him into territory that may be uncomfortable for him. but the first time either of them said the words to the other, it came, surprisingly, from jerome, spur-of-the-moment - one of the nights he spends in the city with bruce alone, doing the dark shit they do. at one point, bruce slit a man’s throat in a particularly vicious way; jerome was at his shoulder, watching how he did it, and it came out without him really meaning it to: “god, i fucking love you.” bruce might not need to hear it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good when he does - he made sure jerome had no chance of trying to play it off as a joke by turning around and promptly distracting him with a kiss. ...blood-covered and all.

has some experience with sleeping rough because sometimes lila would just kick him out because she didn’t want to see him that night, so he had to crash with someone else in the circus if they took pity on him or find somewhere else on the grounds/surrounding streets. he’d venture back a couple of days later when he knew she was out, and she’d come back and see he was there - she wouldn’t say anything and would basically just blank him, and that was the cue that he was safe to say

used to cry a lot and got called a crybaby by other kids in the circus when he was very young. over time, he taught himself to laugh whenever he felt like crying, and it got to the point where it was just an ingrained thing, so instead of breaking down and crying, he would get half-involuntary laughing fits instead. he got into a mindset of “everything is hilarious if you just think about it for long enough” as another coping method, because why should he be sad when everything in the world and everything that is happening to him is so damn funny? 

doesn’t happen often, but very occasionally he sleep-talks and says some weird shit and bruce is just like “……..Alright.” he never remembers this in the morning

sleeping position varies depending on the time period. he’s either curled up on the very edge of the bed and taking up as little space as possible without falling off, or he’s sprawled out over the entire thing, and there’s no in-between. the ‘taking up no space’ thing is left over from childhood, but bruce notices this and the longer he’s with bruce and the more comfortable he gets with him (and the more it sinks in that, no, there will not be Consequences if he just lets himself relax - because he does a great job most of the time of not showing any vulnerability over his childhood, but when it comes to night-time and sleeping with someone else there, old habits and fears kick in a little at first), the more he just becomes The Most Fidgety Sleeper Ever. bruce gets smacked awake by his arm in his face a few times, but he has figured out a Solution - if he intertwines his fingers with jerome’s or shifts jerome’s arm down to his waist or something, jerome will just latch onto him in his sleep because warmth. no mentions of this in the morning allowed though, and he was definitely not cuddling, never call it that, he can’t control what he does when he’s asleep, BRUCE  

still has nightmares sometimes - nights are when he’s at his most vulnerable basically, so bruce knows damn well that jerome letting him see that side of him is a gesture of trust

is lowkey intimidated by ecco because that girl picked his ass up when he was unconscious and dead weight, so she could absolutely pick him up while he’s fully awake, and that’s just too much strength for such a tiny woman. he will never admit this. tries to scare her instead because he has a reputation to uphold and is eternally annoyed about the fact that she doesn’t seem at all affected (but he’s convinced that she’s just hiding her fear really well)

high school au

climbs through bruce’s window a lot unnecessarily because he doesn’t want alfred to open the door. alfred usually finds out he’s there anyway, so he would be perfectly fine just going to bruce’s house the normal way, but he likes to pretend that he’s being sneaky and thus cool 

watches a lot of stand-up comedy but is also the world’s worst critic and constantly makes comments about how he “could have made that joke better” or “there was a better way to word that”, which is what originally kickstarts the idea of going into comedy himself

………hm………. concept………. jerome w a pierced tongue………

watched twilight “ironically”. team edward if he had to choose, but thinks both edward and jacob are idiots and will get into an argument about this. will also legitimately debate about vampires vs werewolves. thinks that there should have been a big bloody fight at the end where everyone died, because if there is no violence/gore it’s a shit movie, this is a non-negotiable rule of his

has a fondness for gross/creepy creatures. he’s not at all scared of spiders and will kidnap the bigger ones in glasses and attempt to keep them until jeremiah (and later bruce) makes him put it outside. he’ll straight-up pick up a spider and let it run across his hands while other people scream about it

before bruce and elijah come along and before things start to change, he’s essentially living for jeremiah. if it weren’t for the fact that he has to look out for jeremiah and would never leave him in that environment alone and the fact that they promised each other they would always be there for each other no matter what, jerome’s lack of self-preservation would be a lot worse than it is bc without that to keep him tied to something he just wouldn’t care

when they were very little, the twins had a habit of sneaking into each other’s beds to sleep at night, usually after it had been a bad day with their mother and something had happened. they grew out of it when they got a little older, especially jerome once he stopped being so open with vulnerability/affection, but it was still a comfort that they slept near each other thanks to their caravan being too small for anything else so they knew the other was close-by. once jerome developed a habit of sneaking out at nights, this was also how jeremiah would often hear him leaving or would wake up and immediately notice he was gone

no one will play mario kart with him anymore because he gets ridiculously competitive and ruthless and he has no honour. he will shove you off of your seat so he can overtake you while you’re still getting up.

the only people who can tell him and jeremiah apart by voice alone are bruce and elijah. if anyone else calls their apartment, it’s just impossible to immediately work out who’s answered the phone at first unless they throw in a really obvious mannerism. if the person who picked up the phone is speaking with their mouth full and answered with “yo wassup”, it’s probably jerome. that or jeremiah’s finally broken.

speaking of phone calls, jerome is a nightmare when jeremiah is expecting a work call. if jerome gets to the phone first, it’s just: “is - is this mr. valeska?” “…you’re gonna have to be more specific, pal.” “…the j. valeska that i was supposed to call–?” “nope, pause, do better than that.” then the caller has to wait on the line while they hear “[muffled voice in the distance] JEROME, IS THAT THE CALL I SAID WAS IMPORTANT” “i dunno, maybe. i wasn’t really listening” “i SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU NOT TO ANSWER THE PHONE IF IT RANG WHILE I WAS SHOWERING” and then vague sounds of clattering and voices before they get a flustered jeremiah on the line like “i am so sorry”

jerome is by far the messier twin, so his room is always a heap of dirty clothes and food packets and empty bottles/cans, but jeremiah can get really fixated on his work so his computer desk and his work-spaces are just full of papers and documents and empty coffee mugs. whenever he gets on at jerome about cleaning up after himself, jerome’s like [WILL SMITH POSE @ JEREMIAH’S DESK] WHAT ARE THOOOOOOSE

jerome and elijah have been to the hospital so many times because of the stupid shit they do that they’re basically on a first-name basis with a bunch of the doctors and nurses. whenever they come in, it’s like “oh, what have you boys done now?” (but really the nurses all love them bc they’ve charmed them and their stories about what happened this time are always hilarious)

bruce cooks sometimes and jerome “helps”, by which i mean he sits at the kitchen counter and just gossips to him, plays on his phone and/or watches him without actually lifting a finger to do anything - until he gets bored and things end up burning because bruce gets Distracted. eventually bruce enlists him to help chop vegetables and stir things because if he’s here, he can be useful, and jerome’s like “hmm what do i get in return?” so they develop a barter system where [x] activity gets jerome [x] amount of kisses and thus things actually get done while satisfying both of them without too much distraction. the only issue being that jerome keeps a) raising his prices and b) insisting on getting rewards for the most ridiculous shit now, like passing a bag of carrots over the counter because it’s just “SO MUCH UNPAID LABOUR, BRUCE” 

still has moments where he reflexively flinches if someone significantly older/bigger/taller than him moves too quickly or suddenly, though people around his size/age or less are fine

is actually more self-conscious about his burnt hand than he lets on. he puts on a front like it doesn’t bother him, but the fact that he’s usually wearing fingerless gloves or has a bandage wrapped around it or has his sleeves pulled over his hands when he can’t have either of those says something. he actually managed to keep bruce and elijah from seeing it for quite a while, since that would have been harder to explain away than other things - they noticed he usually had his hands covered but didn’t think it was for a particular reason beyond it being a Jerome Quirk. one of the most notable things that happens in the future when things start to improve is that he stops wearing the gloves and eventually actually lets bruce hold that hand, whereas before if bruce tried he’d usually pull away and switch sides so bruce could hold the other

the others convinced him to see a therapist after he was officially diagnosed and unexpectedly he agreed (mostly to get everyone off his back), and he was assigned to a relatively young woman called bee. he didn’t expect it to accomplish anything and basically spent the first few sessions being an uncooperative shit and turning everything back on her and giving her smartass answers to her questions. it took a long while, but she eventually proved to be Cool and Funny enough for him to start warming up to her - which didn’t mean he was any more cooperative with the therapy side of things, but it did mean he started to use the phone number she gave him to text her about completely unrelated things in the vein of “holy shit bee you’re not gonna believe what miah just did”. she went along with it and their sessions morphed into jerome mostly giving her Gossip or them having casual conversations - but girl knew what she was doing. he gradually started to talk about bruce, jeremiah and elijah, about his relationship, about school, about the circus, and eventually opened up more about certain things that happened. he never quite got to the point of discussing his feelings about the abuse in-depth (though he did end up telling her a fair amount abt how he felt about bruce) but all in all therapy ended up having a positive effect on him, though bee was v talented at letting him think he wasn’t really giving her much info and that every realisation he came to during their sessions was down to him alone and not because he was talking things through with someone

likes hugs/cuddling/hand-holding much more than he will ever let on

never completely stops smoking, but he does tone it down after they all leave high school. he’ll smoke with other people and sometimes when he’s really bored or waiting for someone, but it’s not one of his first methods of passing the time anymore. trying to get him to stop drinking is a lost cause, though.

[gyrlversion]

Shakeup in the House of Trump

On Thursday, President Donald Trump revealed that press secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving to return to Arkansas. And his adviser Kellyanne Conway’s fate was put into question when a federal agency wrote to Trump urging she be fired for repeated violations of the Hatch Act’s prohibition on federal employees using their official positions to dabble in politics.

Apart from Trump himself, Sanders and Conway have been the most prominent White House voices explaining and defending the President’s actions.

He faulted her for effectively killing the daily White House briefing, failing to advocate for a transparent government and inventing the story that FBI staffers were unhappy with fired Director James Comey’s leadership. But Alice Stewart, a Republican consultant, insisted that Sanders’ troubles in the White House don’t define her and wouldn’t stop her from a successful run for governor of Arkansas, should she choose that path.

Trump said he’s going to keep Conway on the job, defying the US Office of Special Counsel’s report that cited her repeated verbal attacks, while in her White House role, on Democratic candidates. Jill Filipovic wrote that Conway belongs to a group of administration officials who have been accused of breaking the rules and haven’t yet paid a price: ” The use of public office as a mechanism for enriching oneself, bettering the position of one’s allies or associates or protecting oneself from the law did not start with the Trump administration, but this President and his associates have brought it to levels previously associated with gilded dictators and greedy, gaudy tyrants.”

‘Too thin-skinned’

In a 52-year career in journalism, Sam Donaldson had his share of run-ins with presidents and press secretaries (Jimmy Carter’s spokesman threw a glass of red wine at him), but the veteran ABC News White House correspondent said the Trump White House is different. “We have never seen a president like Donald J. Trump, whose disdain, even contempt and apparent hatred for many members of the press is almost daily on display.”

Writing about CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s new book, “Enemy of the People,” Donaldson called Trump’s attacks on the press wrong and dangerous. “History shows that tyrants and would-be tyrants always attempt to destroy a free press. And that is why the First Amendment to our Constitution specifically forbids government from interfering with the work of the press.”

The First Amendment’s protection of free expression includes comedy. But that doesn’t mean Trump likes what he hears on “Saturday Night Live” — and he has been a particular critic of Alec Baldwin’s impression of him.

Baldwin said recently he doesn’t plan to appear as Trump on future shows. Dean Obeidallah attributed that, at least in part, to Trump’s relentless attacks on the actor. “Comedy has long been used in America to expose the faults of people in power, especially presidents. We cannot allow comedy to be silenced or infringed upon in any way simply because Trump is too thin-skinned to take a joke.” (Obeidallah’s column — “Alec Baldwin’s ‘SNL’ departure is a win for Trump”– prompted a tweet from Baldwin: “Wait! Wait! If pissing off Trump is the point, then I’ll keep doing it! I’ll keep doing it!!”)

The internet’s boyfriend

Peggy Drexler weighed in on the renewed popularity of Keanu Reeves, who gained plaudits for making sure not to touch women when posing for pictures with them. “Twitter fans are officially hailing Reeves as their ‘respectful king,’ a man who is taking the lessons of #MeToo to heart. Many have suggested he can serve as a role model for other men confused about what respect for women’s personal space looks like in platonic settings,” Drexler wrote. There could be many reasons why Reeves is so careful, she said, but little doubt that ” it’s never a bad idea to be mindful of another person’s personal space, whether female or male.”

Four-letter word

Dirt — a compact word, derived from the Old Norse term for excrement — made a lot of headlines last week. It was shorthand for what Trump called “oppo research,” the information that candidates obtain about their election rivals.

Asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos if he would be open to hearing dirt on his opponents from foreign governments, the President said there’s nothing wrong with listening, and questioned whether he would necessarily report the offer to the FBI. (On Friday, he changed his stance, saying in a Fox News interview, “Of course, you have to give it to the FBI or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that.”)

Many were shocked by Trump’s initial comments. Larry Noble, the former counsel to the Federal Election Commission, said there is no doubt — soliciting or accepting such information from a foreign government is illegal, and he faulted Robert Mueller for not charging Trump campaign officials in connection with the famous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

” By putting a ‘for sale’ sign on his forehead — and indicating that he’s open for business when it comes to receiving dirt on his political rivals — President Donald Trump is encouraging foreign governments to attack his political opponents,” Samantha Vinograd wrote.

This is precisely what the Founding Fathers feared, John Avlon wrote: They “were obsessed with foreign nations interfering with our elections and influencing our domestic debates. And it wasn’t a naive or paranoid concern — it was rooted in their understanding of how democratic republics had been undermined throughout history.”

A warning for Biden

Less than two weeks before the first Democratic 2020 debates, Joe Biden still leads in polls, but he’s not on a glide path to the nomination, David Axelrod wrote. The former vice president’s stumble over his position on the Hyde Amendment, combined with a “Rose Garden” strategy that has kept him aloof from mixing it up with his rivals, raised questions about the solidity of his lead. ” No one is going to hand Biden the Democratic nomination. He’ll have to engage fully and fight for it if he is to get the face-off with Trump he is seeking,” Axelrod said.

But while opponents poring over Biden’s four-plus decades in politics for vulnerabilities have found quite a few, there may not be huge reason for concern on the candidate’s part, Michael D’Antonio wrote. “We have a President who was elected despite a huge raft of controversies over his past. There have been bankruptcies. Multiple divorces. Sexual harassment accusations. None of it seemed to matter to his supporters. … Trump has paved the way for politicians to withstand criticism and controversies that may have been disqualifying in the past.”

The 13-0 US women’s victory

The US women’s national soccer team scored 13 goals in its shutout victory over Thailand, setting a World Cup record — and drawing scorn from some for its members’ exultation. Amy Bass was exasperated: The US women’s team has faced battles from the beginning — “shorter fields, shorter games and smaller balls. And incredibly, they get paid less to win more than the US men’s side. Flash-forward to Tuesday: Now they score too much, and when they score, they celebrate too loudly. Anyone ever questioned Lionel Messi (or any other male soccer legend for that matter) on that?”

World on edge

Images of a tanker on fire in the Gulf of Oman said it all. Tension between Iran and the United States (along with its ally Saudi Arabia) rose to a new, worrying level. Peter Bergen warned of ” a combustible mix that could be the spark for a wider regional war arising out of the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia — unless steps are taken to lower the tension.”

On Tuesday Trump touted a “beautiful letter” he said he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (one official described it as a birthday greeting for the US President), but there was no sign of progress on Kim’s nuclear program. Former National Security Council official DJ Rosenthal, who served in the Obama administration, suggested there might be an upside to Trump’s mercurial handling of foreign policy.

“President Trump’s incompetence in foreign relations, while not a cure-all, can moderate the damage that he might otherwise cause. The more exposure the world has to this President, the less he matters.” While traditionally a President’s words are given great weight, Trump’s comments “are heavily discounted by the world.”

Trade wars are an exception. In the Perspectives section of CNN Business, Dan K. Eberhart, the chief executive of a US oilfield services company, wrote, “With no end in sight in the tit-for-tat trade war, companies must turn to lower-cost nations in Asia and the Americas to find alternative suppliers. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a nation that is not also a target of President Trump’s tariff stick.”

That’s dangerous, warned the editors of The Economist: “When Donald Trump arrived in the Oval Office he promised to restore America’s might. His method has turned out to be a wholesale weaponisation of economic tools. The world can now see the awesome force that a superpower can project when it is unconstrained by rules or allies.”

Don’t be too hasty to criticize the wielding of America’s economic power, wrote Marc A. Thiessen in The Washington Post, crediting Trump for Mexico’s actions to limit the flow of Central American refugees to the US southern border. He observed: ” The president deserves credit for forcing a reluctant Mexican government to act. He was able to do so because the administration in Mexico City knew he was willing to pull the tariff trigger.”

High-heel sneakers?

Holly Thomas has “mixed feelings” about wearing high heels at work. “As a relatively short person (I’m 5 feet, 3 inches tall), I can testify that heels can be a genuine asset when trying to assert authority. They’re often the difference between looking up at a boss who already infantilizes you or looking them in the eye.” Still, she sides with the nearly 20,000 people in Japan who signed a petition against dress codes that require women to wear heels at work.

Heels “mildly incapacitate you. They make you swing your hips and walk more slowly,” and give you “bunions, back problems, ankle sprains and tight calves” — which helps explain why a University of Alabama at Birmingham study found 123,355 people sought treatment at US emergency rooms for high heel-related injuries over a decade.

Happy Dads’ Day

As Americans celebrate Father’s Day, Nara B. Milanich is out with a new book on “Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father.” Paternity, she wrote, was long seen as “an intractable problem. Whereas the mother can be known at the moment of birth, the father, it is said, is always uncertain. DNA testing is actually a very recent historical invention — it only emerged in the 1980s.” But the quest for something like it began a lot earlier. In 1921, a San Francisco doctor named Albert Abrams introduced “a machine called the oscillophore that claimed to verify parentage through electronic blood vibrations.” Nonsense, of course, but Abrams anticipated “the commercial strategies associated with the modern genetic testing industry: for $10, a patient could mail a drop of blood on white blotting paper for analysis in his lab in San Francisco.”

Today’s DNA-based tests are a little more expensive — and may be a lot more reliable.

Don’t miss these:

Kate Maltby: Justice Brett Kavanaugh wants us to know he’s won

Dorothy Brown: The real reason Trump won’t put Harriet Tubman on $20 bill

Dean Obeidallah: How I won a $4 million judgment against the neo-Nazis

Swanee Hunt: What happens when women rule

John R. Dunne: Trump administration’s case for census citizenship question is bogus

Marc Benioff and Marco Lambertini: We’re failing the world’s oceans

Alvin Y.H. Cheung: Why Hong Kong protesters are outraged by extradition bill

Jamie Metzl: Ironman deaths and the risks we take

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