#by letting Penny buy what she wants and run wild

[fortune-maiden]

I know we are not supposed to be rooting for Derrick (or anyone in Penelope's family really)

but he has such pretty eyes

Especially when he's frowning ;w;

[roosterforme]

Wild Rooster Chase | Rooster x Reader

Summary: Bradley thinks about you more than he should, and his feelings for you run deeper than they ought to. You've never given him an indication that you want to take the teasing touches and playful flirtation to the next level, so he never pressed his luck. When you surprise him by sending a text message that could change everything, he's ready to chase you all over San Diego for some answers.

Warnings: adult language, fluff, angst, drinking

Length: 5700 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

Check out my masterlist for more! Banner by @thedroneranger

"What are you ladies doing here?" Bradley asked as you walked in with Halo and Phoenix on either side of you. "Thought tonight was the bachelorette party?"

"The Hard Deck is our first stop of the evening," you informed him as you planted your palm on his chest with a smirk, and he let you push him away from the bar. "We couldn't miss out on letting you guys see how nicely we clean up."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, as if he wasn't actively ogling you in your mini dress and high heels. He'd never been one to hide it, and he'd never been one to check out the other two, either. But that didn't mean he was going to act on it, because he was absolutely convinced this was just a game for you. One that he loved participating in. One that he knew was never going to go anywhere real.

"Yeah," you verified with a laugh. "We look hot."

"An indisputable fact," he whispered as he pretended like you were actually pushing him further out of your way. He'd move wherever you wanted him to, as long as you just kept touching him.

"Shoo," you scolded, looking up at him as your knee bumped his leg. "I need to buy some drinks, and you're in my way."

He covered your hand with his big one and immediately stopped moving. "Nice try, Blaze," he said with a grin as you attempted and failed to get him to budge more. "But I'm definitely buying you all a round for Callie's big night." He tossed his credit card onto the bar and draped one arm around Halo and the other around you before leaning in close to you and whispering, "And you always look nice. Even in your flight suits."

"What can I get for you ladies? And Rooster?" Penny asked, cutting him off just as he had you rolling your eyes. "Wait... he's not going out for Halo's bachelorette night, is he?"

"Absolutely not," you told her, tilting your head to look up at him with a devilish grin that made him a little nervous. His arm was still heavy across your shoulders as you said, "He's just here to buy us three Johnnie Walkers. Blue Label. Neat." 

"What?" His voice was strangled, and his eyes were wide. "That's over a hundred bucks!"

"But it's what we want. Isn't it, ladies?" you asked Halo and Phoenix as you tried not to laugh.

"It is," Halo confirmed. "And I'm the one getting married next weekend." 

When Bradley moaned and nodded at Penny, you gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Rooster. You're the sweetest."

"You mean I'm a sucker," he said, finally releasing both of you. "So where are you headed after this?"

Halo accepted her expensive Scotch as she said, "Cowboy Star for a steak dinner."

Bradley snorted. "Don't forget to take Jake with you," he said, nodding to where the other guys were hanging out near the dart board. 

"No boys allowed," you reminded him. "Especially not since we're taking Halo to Cheetahs after dinner."

"Strippers?" he asked as you picked up your Johnnie Walker. "Looking at hot, naked chicks? Sounds fun. What else?"

"Dancing at Pleasure Town!" Phoenix said, taking the last Scotch and holding it up. You and Halo both tapped your glasses to hers.

"Thanks, Rooster!" you said before taking a sip. He just shook his head as you pressed your lips to the glass, but a few seconds later, he ran his index finger along your arm and leaned a little closer again.

"Hey, you call or text me if you need anything, okay? I'll keep my phone on all night for you girls."

A chill seemed to run through your body, and just the mere thought of you calling him in the middle of the night left his mouth dry with need.

You chewed on your lip and looked up at him. "I'll let you know if I need you."

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

I'll let you know if I need you.

Bradley couldn't stop thinking about that sentence. If you ever told him you needed or even wanted him for anything, he'd be there instantly. He wasn't afraid to admit to himself that he'd had a crush on you from the first day you arrived at Top Gun. He was sure you knew it, too. But there were some things he just didn't want to mess with. Your call sign was Blaze for a reason, after all. Too fucking hot to handle. Too damn enticing to be interested in him.

So he did what he always did on Saturday nights. Found the second cutest girl at the bar and tried his luck. 

It was two hours later and three drinks in with the redhead, and he knew he could probably get as lucky as he wanted to. Her hand was on his thigh, inching closer to the hem of his tropical print shirt, and she was all smiles.

"Let's play something on the jukebox," she told him, and he agreed as he followed after her. To his dismay, she picked your favorite song, and now he was having a bit of a hard time staying focused on the task at hand as she tucked herself against the wall and pulled him closer by his shirt.

"You like this song?" he asked, glancing at the jukebox like he expected you to be standing there. 

She shrugged and said, "Not really. I just pushed some random buttons," with a little giggle. "Now, come here."

Alright, so her lips were soft, and her tongue tasted like bourbon. She placed his hands on her hips, and he gave a little test squeeze which resulted in her tongue in his mouth. But the song was pulling up some other memories of you and him dancing together on New Year's Eve. When he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, it was almost a relief to pull away.

"Hey," she complained, reaching for him as he unlocked his phone. "I'm over here, Rooster."

"Sorry," he muttered, looking at her briefly, but he really wasn't. The text he got was from you. He held up one finger and took a step back as he opened it up. 

Blaze: Full disclosure, I'm drunk. And I'll probably regret this in the morning, but... I think about kissing you all the time.

"What the fuck?" Bradley said out loud as his eyes scanned the message again. It was a joke. It had to be. Or else he was reading it wrong? "Holy shit."

When he finally looked up, the redhead was pouting with her arms crossed. He needed another opinion, and he'd already lost interest in her anyway. He held up his phone and asked, "What does this mean?"

He watched her eyes as she read it, and a little crease appeared on her forehead. "It says get a life, jerk." She went walking off toward her friends as Bradley looked around for someone else to help him out. The guys were all playing pool and darts, but he didn't trust them as far as he could throw them anyway.

"Hey, Penny," he called out, cutting off several people who were trying to order drinks. He leaned all the way across the bar top to where she was pouring a martini. "Tell me I'm not losing my mind."

When he held up his phone, she squinted at the screen, and then her eyes went wide as she smiled at him. "I think someone overdid it and finally stated the obvious."

He was sweating now, afraid he was going to get this all wrong. "Like you think this is actually how she feels?"

She laughed and handed off the martini before pouring some wine. "Well, I don't want to speculate on someone else's behalf..."

"Bartenders are supposed to speculate," he told her, ready to climb over the bar and chase her down as she turned away from him to serve the wine. "It's your god given obligation."

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Well, then, merely speculating, I would say that the way the two of you cozy up with each other seems a little more than platonic."

He shook his head. "No, that's probably just me you're reading in the scenario." But she was shaking her head back and forth as well. "It's her, too?" Now she was nodding as she reached for a pint glass. "Like she might actually want to make something happen here?"

"Speculation," Penny told him. "But I think you should find out for sure."

He could call you. He pushed himself away from the bar, found a nice, quieter corner, and he tapped your number in his phone.

'Hi, it's me. I can't answer my phone, probably because I'm flying a seventy million dollar aircraft at the moment. Leave a message.'

"Damn it," he groaned, already thinking about how nice it would be to sling his arm around your shoulders and lean all the way in next time. Let his lips meet yours instead of hitting the brakes like he'd trained himself to do. "Wait!" he said to nobody in particular now that he'd walked away from Penny. "Cowboy Star!"

Bradley had the fortitude to keep his phone out and use the rideshare app he had downloaded. He was definitely not sober enough to do this in the Bronco, and he couldn't stop fantasizing about your song playing on the jukebox while he had your body pressed up against the wall. He needed to get to you and get some questions answered. 

He chose the closest driver in the app, and while he was waiting for Julian in his white Toyota Camry to arrive, he read your text again.

Blaze: Full disclosure, I'm drunk. And I'll probably regret this in the morning, but... I think about kissing you all the time.

"Is she so serious right now?" he asked the night air as he waited in the parking lot. "Is she so fucking serious about this? I think about it, too!  A lot!" he practically shouted as he responded to your text.

Blaze, call me back. Are you talking about a kiss on the cheek? Or something more? We need to discuss ASAP.

"Hey, are you Bradley?"

He looked up to see the white Toyota was just sitting there. You had his head so messed up at the moment, he hadn't even noticed it.

"Julian?"

"Yeah, man," the driver replied, and Bradley quickly climbed in the backseat. "You're heading to Cowboy Star?"

"Yeah," he grunted as he buckled his seatbelt.

"I love it there," he said as he pulled out onto the road that ran parallel to the beach. "My wife got me the porterhouse for my birthday."

Bradley stared at his phone screen, hoping you'd write back or call him. "I'm not actually going for dinner. I'm trying to find a girl."

Julian whistled and shook his head. "Man, you should have just stayed at that bar."

He tipped his head back and groaned. "It's a very specific girl. And she's out with some friends for a bachelorette party."

"You know dudes aren't really supposed to go to those things, right?"

Bradley rubbed his free hand across his face and said, "I know, but she sent me this text that is very thought provoking." 

"What's it say?"

He kind of felt like an idiot telling his story to his Uber driver, but he still wasn't sure he was understanding your words correctly. It just didn't make sense. 

"Julian, I am very firmly in the friend zone with this hot girl from work, and tonight she sent me this message: Full disclosure, I'm drunk. And I'll probably regret this in the morning, but... I think about kissing you all the time."

"Bro," Julian said as he hit the accelerator a little harder. "You're so in, man."

"Am I?" Bradley asked, squeezing his phone and wondering why you weren't calling him back. "Like, this girl is smoking hot. She's cool as hell, too. And we flirt a bit, but it never goes anywhere. And now she's not answering me."

"Just hang on." Julian went a little faster still. "I'll get you there so you can sweep her off her feet."

Bradley hung onto the door handle, not even sure he knew how to sweep you off your feet. What kinds of guys did you usually go for? He'd be lying if he said he never noticed that your last boyfriend kind of looked like him. And in general, you seemed to have a thing for guys with brown hair who were pretty tall. 

"Shit," he grunted, just torturing himself by imagining he could be the one holding your hand and making you laugh. "Are we almost there?"

"Hell yeah, dude. Next block up."

When Julian stopped at to the curb, Bradley lunged out onto the sidewalk as he shouted, "Thank you!"

"Good luck!"

The restaurant was absolutely packed, and even the line to talk to the host was long. After a few seconds, he simply walked to the front and cut everyone else off.

"Hey!" complained the woman who was now behind him as he cleared his throat and addressed the host. 

"Excuse me, but do you know if there are still three hot women here eating dinner together?" he asked the host who gave him a bland look. "They were all in tight little dresses. One was red, one was blue, and one was like a gold color. And one of them was wearing a bachelorette sash!"

"Oh," he replied with a little smirk. "Those three." Bradley didn't appreciate the way his little grin grew as he said, "Hot is certainly the right word to describe them."

"Are they still here?" he asked impatiently, trying to look past him into the dining room now.

"No. They left about an hour ago."

"Fuck," he groaned, pushing away from the podium and storming back outside into the night. He found a spot on the busy sidewalk where he could stand, and he tried to call you again. 

'Hi, it's me. I can't answer my phone, because I'm probably flying a seventy million dollar aircraft at the moment. Leave a message.'

He wanted to scream, but he calmly said, "Blaze, it's Rooster. Call me back." When he hung up, he opened the rideshare app again, and he luckily saw Julian on the map immediately and tapped on his little icon. "Come on, Julian," he muttered, already looking down the street for the trusty Toyota to make its return. "Yes!"

Bradley threw himself into the backseat once again as the driver asked, "That was quick, bro. What happened?"

"They already left for the strip club," he groaned.

"Cheetahs?" Julian asked, tapping at his own phone before he started driving again. "Not gonna pretend I've never been there before."

Bradley tried to call you again, and once again he got to hear your voice tell him you weren't available. "I just don't understand why she's telling me this now, you know? I've known her for almost two years."

"Two years in the friend zone? Bro, do you have no game?"

"Julian, do not test me right now," Bradley said with a laugh. He held up his thumb and index finger and added, "I was this close to sealing the deal with another girl at the Hard Deck when I got the text from her."

"Ohhhh. So you're in love with her. Understood, my man."

Bradley sat back against the seat and stared out the window as the city lights streaked past. In love. Was he? You always seemed too perfect to get involved with. But love? Is that why he never pushed for more? 

"Damn," he muttered. "Maybe." Was the fear of crashing and burning what was ultimately holding him back? 

That was when Julian pulled a slick u-turn and coasted into the parking lot of Cheetahs which was advertising fully nude girls. He should have been concerned that suddenly the only girl he wanted to see that way was you. "Thanks, Julian," he said as he hopped out and slammed the door closed.

"You got this!"

Well at least Julian thought he could pull off something impossible tonight.

"Whoa, I'm going to need to see some ID." 

Bradley realized that his path was suddenly blocked by an absolutely massive bouncer with a bushy beard. 

"Come on," he complained, digging his wallet out of his back pocket. "I'm thirty-five."

"No ID, no entrance."

"Yeah, yeah. Understood," he said trying to get his driver's license free as one of the strippers walked outside for a break. He craned his neck to see through the open door as the loud music filtered out before the door closed.

"Hey, Cherry," the bouncer grunted, and Bradley looked down at the stripper who was leaning against the wall wearing a pink wig, the tiniest g-string and some pasties. 

She was looking at Bradley a little skeptically as she replied, "Hey, Murph." She kicked a rock out into the parking lot as she told Bradley, "You're getting here awfully late. All of the private rooms have been reserved for the rest of the night."

"I'm not here for that. I'm just looking for some girls," he replied, waiting patiently while Murph inspected his ID.

"Yeah," she said with a laugh. "We've got plenty of those. The hottest ones in San Diego, if you believe the neon sign above your head."

"No," he told her, really not in the mood to recount his story again. "I'm looking for some women I work with."

Now Cherry looked downright unconvinced as she asked, "Are you a stripper?"

Bradley accepted his driver's license back and gave Cherry a hesitant look. "Well, no, I'm not."

"Didn't think so," she muttered, and Bradley stopped in his tracks before he even reached for the door handle.

"Excuse me?" he asked, giving her a much more scathing look. "What's that supposed to mean? I'd be a fantastic stripper."

She shook her head and adjusted her tiny underwear. "You don't have the right build for it."

Bradley burst out into sardonic laughter. "Cherry, you must be joking," he said as he tucked his wallet away and flexed his biceps. "I could totally be a stripper."

"What song would you dance to?" she asked in an accusatory tone. 

"Sweet Emotion," he told her immediately. Yeah, he'd thought about it before, and yeah, he knew he'd absolutely kill it up on stage. But she just made a face in response. "What's wrong with my song?"

"Nothing, I guess, but there's no way you'd be raking in the tip money."

Bradley pointed across the parking lot to Hard D Boys, the male club that was associated with Cheetahs, and said, "Just for that, I'm coming back for their open auditions night, because you have no idea what you're talking about." She shrugged, and he shook his head. "I don't have time for this. Have you seen three hot women? A red dress, a blue dress and a gold dress? Like short dresses?" he asked, tapping his thigh with his hand to indicate that your dress left little to his imagination. "They are like around this tall?" he added, sticking his hand in the air around your height.

"Sorry, Mr. Sweet Emotion, but I only take note of the biggest tippers."

Bradley groaned and pushed the door open, and the music was so loud, it wasn't even worth trying to ask the bartenders if they'd seen you. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he walked around the cavernous club, trying to locate you three, but it was mostly men. And then he had the disturbing thought that maybe some guys tried to pick you up.

"Why are you doing this to me, Blaze?" he whispered to himself as he walked back through every corner he could find. He even asked a woman to check if you were in the ladies' restroom. He came up empty handed again. 

"God damn it," he said once he was back outside with Murph.

"To be fair," Murph said as he lit up a cigarette, "I think you'd make an okay stripper."

"Thank you for that," Bradley told him sincerely as he tapped his rideshare app again, but then he heard a horn honking and looked up. It was Julian, hanging out his car window. He'd waited for him. 

"She's not here?"

"No, Julian. She's not here!" he said as he rushed toward the Toyota and climbed in.

"Well, where are we going next?"

Bradley closed his eyes and thought about what Phoenix had said earlier at the Hard Deck. "Pleasure Town. They were going dancing at Pleasure Town."

"On it," Julian told him and shifted into drive.

It was after midnight now. Pleasure Town wasn't too far away, but he'd be lucky to even find you in there on the weekend. But if he did, you'd be dancing like crazy with the biggest smile on your face, pretending you liked the music they were playing while you thought about your own playlists instead. You'd be drinking some neon colored cocktail and trying to talk the girls into leaving to get cookies from that place that was open all night. You'd maybe even be checking your phone and finally, finally texting him back.

"Yeah, you're right, Julian."

"About what, my man?"

Bradley rubbed his hands over his face. "I'm in love with her."

Julian reached his arm back at a red light, and Bradley fist bumped him. "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! I could tell right away. Don't worry. We'll find her."

But it got harder to be hopeful the longer he was in the dance club. There was barely any room to walk around, and there were dozens of women in little dresses that looked like the one you were wearing, but none of them had your face or your smile. You weren't here. 

He stood on the dance floor and read your text one more time.

Full disclosure, I'm drunk. And I'll probably regret this in the morning, but... I think about kissing you all the time.

He wanted to know what kissing you would feel like. Now that you opened his mind to something more, he'd never be able to stop thinking about it. But this time, he let himself finally focus on the word regret in your message.You'd regret what you said in the morning. He knew you; he knew you would never go for the idea sober. But he texted you one more time anyway.

Blaze, please call me when you get this. It doesn't matter what time it is. Just call.

When he walked back out into the cool, night air, Julian was right there at the curb waiting with a hopeful look on his face. "Bro, is she here?" When Bradley didn't respond, his face melted into sadness. "Or did she say the 'just friends' shit?"

"She's not here," he replied, once again climbing in the back of the now familiar car.

"We going somewhere else now? The pursuit continues?"

Bradley grimaced and said, "I think I should just throw in the towel and regroup. Can you take me back to the Hard Deck? I'm definitely sober enough to drive home now."

But even Julian sounded disappointed now. "Of course, dude. Anything you want."

"Thanks," Bradley grunted, watching as the city lights faded a bit as they got closer to the beach. When Julian parked near the Bronco, he said, "I appreciate all your help tonight."

He gave Bradley another fist bump. "You gotta start fresh tomorrow, man. And you can't leave me hanging, okay? I need a wedding invitation."

Bradley chuckled as he climbed out for the last time. "I'm about to leave you the biggest tip."

He tapped two hundred bucks into the app as Julian drove off shouting, "Good luck!"

With nothing else he could do right now, he climbed in the Bronco, cranked the engine and started to drive himself home for the night. He was tempted to swing by your place or at least try to call you one more time, but he decided to let you get some sleep before you started to regret your message. That way he'd have a little more time with this hopeful feeling in his chest.

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

There was pounding. There was so much pounding. Maybe someone turned the music up even louder at Cheetahs? Or were you at Pleasure Town now? "Make them turn it down," you moaned, trying to cover your ears. That's when you realized you were in your bed. At home. Someone was knocking on your front door.

"Wait," you croaked as loudly as you could, your ears still buzzing from the loud music all night long. The bachelorette evening had been highly successful. Halo had a great time. But now you were hungover and not in the mood to deal with anyone. 

As you climbed out of bed, you grabbed your phone from the nightstand to check the time. The battery was almost dead, and you had a bunch of missed texts and calls, but you couldn't even focus on that until the pounding ceased.

"Please stop," you whined, flinging your door open before you even checked to see who it was. When you saw him it felt like someone poured warm caramel sauce on your heart or shoved you hard into a wall made out of soft foam: he always made you feel good and gooey and squishy in the most heart pounding, confusing way. "Rooster."

When he moved slightly, he stopped blocking the sunlight behind him and you squinted your eyes and groaned as you took a step back. "Blaze," he said in that raspy as sin voice as he blessedly closed your front door behind him. "You have a hangover."

You nodded, but even that was too much. "What gave it away?" you asked him softly, still holding your phone.

He snorted. "Well, for starters, you're still wearing your dress from last night."

"Oh." You hadn't realized that as you looked down at yourself for confirmation. "We went pretty hard. I can't even remember much after you bought us the Johnnie Walker at the Hard Deck."

He remained quiet until you looked back up at his face. "You... remember texting me?" His tone was one you'd never heard before, and it took you a few seconds to realize he was nervous. On edge. Hesitant. He was never any of those things with you, and you didn't like this at all.

"I texted you?" When you lifted your phone higher, you started to wonder why he hadn't hugged you when you opened the door. He usually always did. He swallowed hard, and you watched the scars along his neck as his Adam's apple bobbed.

"You really don't remember?"

Now he just sounded really fucking sad, and for some reason your brain was screaming at you that there was something you were definitely supposed to recall from last night. Something about Bradley. You left him at the Hard Deck after he paid for the Scotch, and then you went to dinner and drank more while you thought about him the whole time. But there was definitely something else.

"No. I really don't remember," you whispered, annoyed with yourself. You felt like it was somehow your fault that his lips were pressed in a tight line and his brow was creased.

"It's not important," he replied, all businesslike now. "Can I see your phone for a minute?"

"Yeah," you told him, handing it over and watching while he punched in your passcode. "What did you end up doing all night?"

He sighed and looked at you. "I ended up following you around to no avail."

"Why?" you asked, still clearly missing a piece of this whole puzzle as he started tapping your phone screen with his thumb. 

"That's not important either," he whispered, and you decided you didn't like any of this. 

You snatched your phone out of his hand and wrapped your arms around his neck. Almost reluctantly, he hugged you back before reaching his hand up to where you were holding your phone, trying to get it again. "What do you want my phone for so badly?"

He was acting strange, and when he said nothing in response, you lunged out of his grasp and tapped on your text thread with him. 

"Blaze," he barked out, but it was too late. You read what you'd sent him last night.

Full disclosure, I'm drunk. And I'll probably regret this in the morning, but... I think about kissing you all the time.

"Oh my god!" you screeched. "I didn't delete that?! I hit send!" You couldn't even meet his eyes now as you tried to figure out how to get him to leave so you could cry in peace.

"Blaze, it's okay," he promised, but you knew it wasn't.

"You were going to delete that message. And the ones you sent to me after it," you accused. "Weren't you?" When he just stared at you silently, you realized he was trying to save you from being embarrassed, but it was way too late for that. He didn't want you. He was never going to want you.

"No hard feelings," he said softly. "Go ahead and delete it yourself. We can pretend this never happened."

"No hard feelings?" you practically wailed, afraid you were going to cry in front of him. "I just ruined everything. You were never supposed to know how I feel about you, Bradley."

As soon as you ducked your head away from him, his fingers were under your chin tipping your face up so you were looking him in his impossibly endearing brown eyes. "I need you to explain this to me. Okay?" He took your phone gently from your hand and held it up with the message displayed. "Please, Blaze. Did you mean it? Is that how you think about me?" When you nodded slightly, he readjusted his hand on your face so he was cupping your cheek instead. "Baby, I followed you everywhere last night. I called you and texted you and rode around in a white Toyota with Julian for hours on end."

"Who's Julian?" you ask softly as Bradley slid your phone into his jeans pocket.

"He's my new friend," he replied, which cleared up exactly nothing for you. "I went on this insane chase from Cowboy Star to Cheetahs to Pleasure Town just to try find out if there was even the slightest chance that you really meant what you said."

He closed the distance between your bodies as he stroked his thumb along your cheek. "It was supposed to be my little secret," you whispered. "I just typed it out to see how it would look. I read it in my head and imagined how you might take it. It was supposed to get deleted. You were never supposed to know."

"Is it really so bad that I do?"

His question hung in the air between you, and once again you nodded. "Yes, Bradley. Yes, because it's going to complicate everything now. Work, and our friends, and hanging out at the bar. It's all ruined. Because you'll never look at me the same way you used to."

"Blaze," he rasped. "Baby, I don't want to look at you the same way I used to. Like I was never going to measure up. Like I could never be what you wanted."

You gasped as your eyes went wide. "What are you saying?"

He groaned and pressed his lips to your forehead, and you melted against him. "I'm saying that I chased you all over the city last night hoping like hell that you meant what you said. And that you didn't regret it."

Your head was spinning, but not from the hangover as you thought about how it could feel to be with this man. "You want this?" you asked in awe as your hands eased up along his chest to slip around his neck again.

"Desperately. And if you think you want to see where it goes, we can take it slow, you know?" he asked, his brown eyes hopeful once again. "We don't have to rush into anything crazy."

But you knew you were already kind of crazy about him. You had been for a long time. So you whispered, "I think I could fall in love with you," and his lips came crashing to yours. You moaned into his mouth. His lips and his mustache were even better than all those times you'd imagined kissing him. His huge hands were bunching up the fabric of your dress at your hips. You wanted every part of your body to be touching him from now until forever.

This was how good it felt when you and he stopped pulling your punches. When you both stopped pumping the brakes. You raked your hands through his wavy hair, gasping for breath as you asked, "Did you really try to find me last night?"

"Of course," he promised as you kissed along his mustache and across his cheek. "It was enlightening. I learned a lot about myself. Hey, do you think I'd be a good stripper?"

"God, Rooster," you groaned just thinking about it. "You'd be an excellent stripper."

"I fucking knew it," he grunted, half guiding you and half carrying you to your bedroom. "Listen, we should cuddle right now, but I'm going to need you to come to Hard D Boys with me one night. I'm pretty sure it's just to prove a point, but you never know."

You really weren't positive what he was talking about now, but it didn't matter. His lips were on your neck, and his weight was pressing you down onto your bed, and he was saying the most wonderful thing.

"I know for sure I could fall in love with you."

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

He's such a simp, he would chase you anywhere. Imagine taking your brand new boyfriend to his stripper audition just because he has to prove a point. I mean, I wouldn't complain lol. Thanks for reading! And thanks to @beyondthesefourwalls and @thedroneranger

@hotch-meeeeeuppppp

@solacestyles

@daisyhollyxox

@blog-name6996

@bcon24

@avada-kedavra-bitch-187

@katiebby04

@marantha

@averyhotchner

@abaker74

@heli991113

@k-k0129

@noz4a2

@shanimallina87

@ccbb2222

@xoxabs88xox

@cherrycola27

@fanboyswhore9

@xomrsalliej4787xo

@desert-fern

@horseslovers2016

@mattyskies

@hookslove1592

@blahehblah

@sadpetalsstuff

@local-spidey

@schoollover

@lex-winchester

@nicole01-23

@jessicab1991

@happyrebelruins

@samsgoddess

@bellaireland1981

@sagittarius-flowerchild

@mygyn

@yuckosworld

@daggerspare-standingby

@nessjo

@trickphotography2

@lyn-js

@furiousladyking

@godsfavoritebabe

@bethabear12

@halo-mystic

@sherlockstrangewolf

@theamuz

@khaylin27

[charcadett]

Hello I was wondering if you can write a scenario where the gym leaders/elite four find The Squad (Player, Nemona, Arven and Penny) after their adventure in Area Zero. I’d imagine that the gym leaders/elite four would be concerned seeing the squad disheveled but their reactions differ when the squad tells them the story of the events that happened in the Area Zero. The Player even shows off a paradox pokemon they caught.

Okay so. I, again, got carried away. This mostly features Larry and Hassel, with Grusha, Kofu, Rika, Brassius, And Tulip sprinkled in towards the end. Sort of a list of headcanons for the hypothetical what happens in between exiting Area Zero and the Post Game. Sorry if this isn’t exactly what you wanted but I hope you enjoy anyway!

TFW You Witness Horrors(tm) And You Try To Convince That One Miserable Looking Gym Leader To Buy You Dinner. General Headcanons.

- Considering how close Medali is to Area Zero, they’d end up running into Larry first out of anyone. The group drags themselves into the Treasure Eatery, dirty and starved, and Nemona chattering about how exciting what they just experienced was. And fun! A little scary too, she admits after a dry remark from Penny. But ultimately it was the adventure of a lifetime!

- It’s not uncommon to see bedraggled teenagers wandering around towns. A particularly nasty encounter with a wild Pokemon happens to even the best, so the group wouldn’t catch anyone’s attention. The only reason Larry even notices they’re there is that Nemona recognizes him and Penny wonders if they can get him to pay for their meals again. I mean, they all recently went through a traumatic experience, and a free dinner is the least they could get out of it.

- Larry sees Nemona and tge MC approaching and his immediate reaction is: “Oh, no.” It’s not that he dislikes either of them, but he’s eating dinner and would really, really rather not battle right now. Larry prides himself on being a realist, and an unfortunate fact about reality is Nemona can and will strong-arm him into a battle if she wants to. When they ask him to buy them dinner, he’s too relieved to care about the bill. He is dragged over to their table, much to Penny and Arven’s dismay. The logic is that he works for the League and if they tell him what happened, he’d be the one to tell Geeta, who would then tell Clavell where they’ve been. Hiding it would only work for so long, this way, they can avoid that whole conversation altogether.

- In true teenage fashion, none of them are particularly quiet whisperers, and Larry places his head in his hands halfway through their conversation. He would have let them get away with it too if not for Penny’s not-so-silent question to Arven.

- Out of everyone, Larry is the least interested in the secrets Area Zero holds. That’s above his pay grade. So is a bunch of teenagers sneaking down there to do Arceus knows what if he’s being honest. But, upon overhearing that in one day, Arven found out his parent has been dead this whole time, and then functionally watched them die again, it’s suddenly his problem. Made even more so when he hears out about the multiple monster attacks. On the outside, they seem fine. But once the adrenaline wears off and they’re alone, in the dark, and everything comes rushing back, what kind of person would he be if he let them deal with that alone. So, he shoots a message to Geeta (ugh) under the table, buys everyone dessert, and then corrals them to the Pokemon League.

- Well, that was originally the plan until the sun set, and now, with full bellies, the group is practically dead on their feet. He is not equipped to deal with kids long-term, so he calls someone who is. Hassel makes it to Medali in record time. Larry grits his teeth through a lecture about how he should have called Hassel immediately before he sidles off to his apartment, wallet noticeably lighter. If the group were any less disheveled, they would have gotten a lecture as well. But, they’re tired, and judging by how exhausted even Nemona looks, Hassel gets the feeling they already know.

- When Hassel hears that they went to Area Zero upon the Professor’s request, he considers heading down to the Zero Lab and pulling them back to the present himself to give them a piece of his mind. He quickly dismisses that thought. What’s more important is remaining calm for his students. Even if that’s easier said than done. Hassel has to turn his head to the side to compose himself. It’s pretty obvious what he’s doing, but I think the group would find it more amusing than distressing.

- Unlike Larry, Hassel is interested in Paradox Pokemon. Though his interest extends about as far as: were any of you hurt, an interest in the aesthetic differences between their modern counterparts, and a stray thought about seeing a Roaring Moon or an Iron Jugulis for himself. The latter of which he keeps to himself, he doesn’t want to encourage a revisit (even if that doesn’t stop the MC).

- After shepherding the group to their dorms, he lets all four of them know he will be staying overnight at the Academy to grade papers. Should they need anything, he will be in the art room. Admittedly, he has no papers to grade, but to say he is worried would be an understatement. Periodically, he’ll walk by their dorms, just to be sure they’re alright. Brassius will be hearing about the entire ordeal before the rest of the league. The second Hassel closes the door to the Art Room, the floodgates open and Brassius is hit with a long-distance hydro pump through his Rotom Phone.

- The last people the group directly tells what happens are Clavell and Geeta. Geeta will inform the rest of the League, so the teens can return to daily life. After that, it’s the general post-game. Add in some off-screen therapy for all four, though Arven and Penny go for longer due to previous issues.

- Rika eventually checks in, at least in the case of the MC and Nemona considering she knows them personally. She feels a little awkward trying to comfort Arven and Penny considering she’s never met them, though she will try if she sees them. Rika gives them her patented “Uh, you guys doing okay?” and then calls it a day.

- Grusha will pay the group a visit. It’ll take about a week before he shows up, but he inevitably does. While he’s not usually one to offer a shoulder to cry on, Grusha thinks his own experiences give him a unique perspective. He offers to give any advice should anyone need it. He’s especially happy to see the MC and Nemona are doing alright. Grusha offers, then he leaves. It’s really that simple. I feel like out of everyone, Penny would end up taking him up on his offer. The only reason she goes is that it makes logical sense, her therapist encouraged it, and she does think Grusha would have a unique perspective. Highly doubt they will get emotional with each other, I just want to see them interact.

Bonus: I am imagining Grusha and Penny sitting in almost complete silence before Penny asks if he likes anime. He says he’s never seen it, and she’s like. Hold on. And presses play on Yuri on Ice.

- Kofu decides the least he can do is offer a free meal at his restaurant. Then, once he meets Arven and sees his passion for cooking, offers to teach him what he knows. Arven deserves a father figure, and if it’s not Kofu, it’d be Saguaro. Honestly, why can’t be both?

- Brassius and Tulip are very interested to see the Paradox Pokemon the MC caught. Tulip would be over the moon to see Iron Valiant, and to be quite honest, I think Brassius wants to see them all. Expect to see a few new sculptures pop up around Artazon. Whenever Tulip sees the MC, she asks if they would treat her to a battle with their Iron Valiant.

[garbagefarm]

Mutucule Farm #14

2023-03-20, Session #14 of Mutucule Farm, Spring 13–22, Year 2

Cast:

me (@mothmute)

Belle (@snacco)

Cam (@amanitaspore)

Erin (@salamand3rin)

Highlights include, but are not limited to:

Non-binary sheep!

Erin found the secret note tree and cut it down

Eggfest!

Cam wanders into the eggfest from the woods, still beats Erin there

It’s Fella’s first eggfest! aaand they don’t let him in.

Linus eyes a scrumptious pie

Marlon talks about sleggs

Evelyn wants to know about my hens

Leah misses last year’s boozy punch

Emily sewed little pants and hats for the eggs

Alex wonders what would happen if he ate thirty eggs every day

(he’d be roughly the size of a barge, obviously)

wilf (wizard I’d like to fuck) is nowhere to be seen

Surrounding Lewis and forcing him to start the egg hunt

What’s with all the unobtainable eggs, anyway?

I win the egg hunt with something like 9 eggs, just get 1,000g

Everybody trying to guilt me out of wearing my dumb hat*

* - legally not a hat

Cam brings cookies into my bed, getting crumbs everywhere

The pigs are getting everywhere, they’re above the law!

Embiggening the barn

Selling some of our excess gemeralds

I need to hunt down Penny and propose to her

Hey, can I borrow Fella?

“what’s the magic word?”

After hunting her down on horseback, Penny says yes! Wedding in three days!

Cam’s got a chest full of Fashion

I don’t carry a scythe around, but I do wear a copper pan, just in case

hey, do you think there was ever a version of the game where you could upgrade the copper pan into a steel pan? and then gold, and then iridium?

Erin stays up late to plant these parsnips, even if it kills her (it doesn’t, she’s fine)

it’s called parsnipment! commitment to the snips!

“I love milk as a condiment”

I’ve finished my chores, so I get to go pick berries in the woods now :)

Desynced strawbebbies :(

Hey suckers, guess who just got 2 free gold ore because of their “stupid hat” that is “legally not a hat”?? Who’s laughing now???

Cam invites people to play fashion roulette

Guess who just got 2 free copper ore??

All it cost was my dignity

Maybe if a scythe was a hat, I’d carry it around with me

... can Cam make clothes out a copper pan...? (no)

RIP Erin, collapsed in her own house.

Fella and Pompkin being incredibly cute together!! (see gallery)

The pigs keep digging up evidence truffles

(it’s such a good bit and we’re getting so much good mileage out of it)

Sergeant goes on an adventure!! (see gallery)

Accepting a quest to find a bunch of leeks for George

we’re worried about finding enough leeks in time, so Erin plants a bunch of spring wild seeds

incidentally: Belle consistently pronounces “George” as “Yorg” as a bit, it’s very good

Pompkin keeps spending a lot of time at Fella’s stables, it’s like they're roommates (oh my god they were roommates)

Day 17, I get married! (thanks to Erin for the wedding photos screenshots)

Wearing my stupid copper pan to my own wedding

Everybody can’t believe I made them all sit in the back

they’re glad I invited Linus, though

I was gonna try and wear Lewis’ lucky purple shorts (with slight modifications) but we didn’t have the cloth to pull it off ... but it wasn’t wearing my own clothes, anyway! Is there a rent-a-tux place in town, or what?

oh god it has short sleeves, it’s one of those t-shirts with a tux printed on it

Okay everybody, Penny is your new mom now

Detective is all grown!!

You kick Pompkin like the football???

Hey, crate on the beach! It contains ... omni geodes, that immediately fall into the water!

Please welcome Lieutenant to the family, they’re my wedding gift to myself

Oviraptor longs to be free, and cannot be contained!

It’s wednesday, so I run to joja in case we need to buy seeds, like the big joja fan that I am

Sam wants my input on what to write a song about. Trains, obviously.

Belle and Cam are talking about wrestling, and Erin asks about suplexes. suplexii? anyway, “they always deserve the suplex”

Rainy day! If Sebastian plays his cards right (by not doing much of anything),...

The Mariner rejects Belle’s request to buy a pendant, because she hasn’t upgraded her house yet

Belle concludes the Mariner is classist, and asks about how to upgrade her house

(Erin says something about “Rock and stone!” as a reference)

Cam said something about making a slime shirt, a slhirt

Belle puts in the order to improve her house, she’s gotta appease a probably-racist ghost

I tentatively make plans to crash at Cam’s place (after handing him a mussel) before remembering “oh shit I have a wife now” — either Erin or Belle offers to take care of that for me, I can’t remember which, Penny’s gonna wake up to a surprise

I’ve got magic leek hands, if you see any leeks you should let me know immediately so I can be the one to harvest them

Woolface the sheep!

Erin and I make an agreement where I get to pick the wild seeds (so I get the forage experience) IF I upgrade my watering can and trade with her, so she can get the upgrade without the downtime (I agree)

Free-range pigs, worshipping the meteor (see gallery)

I construct six bees. No more, no less.

Cool rings for everybody! Don’t turn them into fashion, they’re already fashion

Belle: “everybody’s a glow-boy now! look at my radius!”

ha-HA, more sparkles in the water! Except... I can’t reach! My hat* is defeated!

* - legally not a hat

Everybody piles into my bed, Penny is cranky about people getting in the way of her going to bed

Penny going “um nice weather” with everybody else the next day

Corporal is fully grown!

Belle asks if she can uses my kitchen to fry an egg — but she has her own stove now!!

Cam expected more from egg-shirt

yeah the bone mill, we’ve all seen it

Belle thought we had more bones, but alas, we are bonely

I snuck an ancient drum into Cam’s “to Fashion” chest, and it creates a “regal mantle” which “looks swood”

It matches my space boots! Kinda need new pants now though (see gallery)

On the non-canon day, I create a bunch of bombs and explode Erin

Cam hands us some jazz honey “because [we’re] sweet like honey” (see gallery)

TO-DO:

Flower dance, probably

Savin’ money for a rainy day...... (so Belle can try again)

do we wanna make it rain?

more backpack+tool upgrades??

Taller barn/coop/shed???

More hogs

Increased fences????

House upgrades!

Fashion!

More iridium sprinklers!

(more bundles)

More fruit trees!

Save up to buy stardrops from Krobus

Plant sweet gem berries (for stardrops)

Link to gallery post!

[queenimmadolla]

ive just seen a tweet that gave me major penny vibes 😭

‘aunty i need help’

‘what with?’

‘the swan’

there was a swan in their living area 🫣

this cracked me up because it’s something I’ve thought about writing before just not with a swan. we’ve got a goose problem in my area during this time of year and those bitches are annoying and mean, so I changed it a little to match up since this ask is too much of a sign for me to ignore, hope you like it!

Duck, Duck, Goose

(dad!eddie munson x mom!reader fluff)

part of the pennyverse

“Mom.”

“Mom.”

“Mama.”

“Mommy.”

“Mom.”

Finally, Penny got tired of simply calling for you, choosing to reach out and poke you repeatedly as well.

You stirred with a groan, shifting around in the bed to face where she stood at your side. It was difficult but you pried an eye open to peer at her and she looked innocent enough.

You’d been taking a nap (first sign that something was wrong, you weren’t ever woken up from your naps to something normal) after having unpacked the last box, making this little house officially the Munson home. Well, kind of. With Corroded Coffin finally catching some attention, you and Eddie hadn’t wanted to buy an actual house yet or set down permanent roots in case (and god, you hoped it would happen) something big happened to them. So, after about two years of renting an apartment, you simply switched to renting a house. 

Of course that meant you had to go through the annoyance that was moving again, and with two kids.  You loved them but they were essentially useless in the process.

Wayne, having learned how to walk and clumsily run about, in his excitement had even managed to knock over an entire box of fragile items the other day. Eddie was distracting him, playing a couple of songs outside on the porch swing with him in his lap while you got the last of your stuff settled. 

You thought you could squeeze in a half hour of rest, but apparently not. 

“What is it, Pen?”

“I need help.”

“With what?” You sighed, pushing yourself up out of bed. You’d switched into some sleep shorts earlier and figured she’d spilled some juice or something, so pajamas would suffice.

“The swan.”

You should have been paying attention to what she was saying but you were too distracted, having noticed Wayne was by her side. He was too small to appear unless you looked over the high bed or got up. Wasn’t he supposed to be with Eddie?

“Where’s your dad?” You asked, brows furrowing in concern. 

Wayne just grinned, putting his fingers in his mouth (another habit he picked up from Eddie). 

“Owsigh.”

“Let’s go find him then.” You ran a hand through his ‘curl hawk’, as Eddie had dubbed it, while you slipped past him. Penny found it oddly important to be ahead of you so she ran from the room before you could make it to the door.

Wayne trailed behind you, babbling nothing in particular. He and Penny were proving to be opposites. She’d taken to words faster than she’d taken to motor skills while Wayne had an easier time with his motor skills than he did with talking. He’d simply been watching Eddie pace around the living room one day when he’d decided to stand up and walk, toddling after him. There was no real error, either, just surprisingly calculated footsteps. He’d been a little clumsy—that was to be expected—but for the most part he didn’t really fall. He refused to say much, though, only voicing things when pointing failed him.

Penny stood at the end of the hallway which led into the living room, blinking lazily.

You were about to ask her what was wrong when you happened to glance into the living room, once, twice and then shrieked, backing up until your back hit the wall.

“PENNY!”

“What?”

“Why is there a wild animal in my living room!?”

“‘S a swan.”

“No, it is not!”

There was no graceful looking swan in your living room, just a big, ugly canadian goose slowly moseying its way around the coffee table like it owned the place. 

It turned its head in your direction, its beady eyes looking at you, probably, and you shrieked again. You heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside before Eddie appeared from the very much so open front door, looking slightly disheveled. 

“What’s wrong?” He demanded, eyes roaming over you, Penny and Wayne to make sure none of you were harmed.

You jabbed a finger in the direction of the bird, just standing and staring at you menacingly.

“Oh, what the fuck? Oh, shit. Daddy said bad words, don’t say those.” Eddie scratched the back of his head as he stared at the goose occupying his living room. “How the heck did that get in here?”

“I was about to ask you that.” You hissed, glaring at him. 

“Don’t look at me, I fell asleep on the porch swing with Wayne.” You directed a pointed look at the two year old behind you. “Well, he was with me!”

“She came in.” Penny chirped, brushing a curl out of her face.

You both turned to her.

“What?” Eddie asked, crouching down so he was closer to eye level with her.

“The swan. She was waiting outside, so I let her in.” Penny was referring to your porch door. One of the reasons you liked the house so much was because of the porch, it was closed off and secured with screens and a door so you could let the kids out for some fresh air without them wandering off.

“Penny, what have we told you about opening the door?” Eddie chided with a frown, not at all entertained with the idea of his little girl letting people in after drilling her about stranger danger.

“Not to open it for strangers. But I didn’t, daddy. She’s a swan. Not a people.” Penny seemed almost smug about having outsmarted him. 

Eddie was baffled, mouth opening and closing as he struggled for a response.

“Baby, that’s a goose, not a swan.” It was the only thing he could think of.

“Oh.” Immediately, Penny seemed less interested in it, rolling her eyes.

The goose squawked, flapping its wings as it hopped onto your coffee table.

“Eddie get that stupid duck out of here!” You yelled, fearing for the cleanliness of your furniture. You’d clean up after your kids’ accidents but not some bird’s.

“‘S a goose, mom.”

“Yes, I know that, Penny.”

“You called it a duck.”

“Baby, are you afraid of the duck?” Eddie turned his attention to you, brown eyes alight with mirth.

“‘S a goose.”

“No! I am not afraid of the duck! I just—it’s gonna poop on the table! Get it out!”

“Gus.” This time Wayne mumbled, squatting down to mimic his dad as he observed the bird.

“Oh, but I think you are. Tell you what, you just admit it, and I’ll get it out of the house.” Eddie stood back up and leaned against the wall with a smirk.

“I told you I’m not afraid.” You glowered, eyes darting from Eddie to the stupid goose.

“Then go pick it up and put it outside.” You were surprised Eddie’s face didn’t just split in half with how wide his smirk was, even Penny was giggling at your expense.

“Fine!”

“Fine.”

“I will.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Then go do it.”

You huffed and slowly made your way to the goose, halting every time its attention was on you, the sound of your family snickering in the background. When it went back to looking around at its surroundings you leaned down and reached out only to jump back with a scream as it craned it’s neck around to hiss (how the fuck could a bird hiss???) and snap its beak at your hands. 

You ran back to Eddie, cowering in his arms with your face hidden in his chest as it shook with laughter. Penny was laughing so hard she’d fallen over, feet kicking against the ground and Wayne had joined her, clutching his little tummy as he squirmed around with glee.

“My poor baby,” Eddie pressed his lips to your forehead, grinning against it as he tried to calm himself enough to speak. “Is the bird being mean to you?”

You didn’t respond, just burrowed your face further into the soft material of his hoodie as you nodded.

“It’s okay. I’ll protect you.” He gave you a squeeze, hand reaching down to pat your ass before he stepped around you to handle the bird. You watched, as he easily grabbed it, tucking its wings in and gripping its beaks so it couldn’t move its head around, then he disappeared outside and returned a few moments later,  smug and without the goose.

Penny and Wayne’s roaring laughter had dulled down to giggling as they stared up at you, looking like they’d almost exhausted themselves with it.

“I don’t want to hear a single word.” You warned him as he neared you, sporting a devilish smirk.

It wasn’t Eddie you had to be worried about, Penny made a large squawking sound behind you, astoundingly similar to that stupid goose’s and you practically leaped into Eddie’s arms, setting them all off again.

This time you joined them, a hand over your eyes as Eddie held you.

“New rule, Penny. You are so not allowed to open doors that unlock anymore.” 

[letarasstuff]

One kind of intern

(A/N): This was requested by @greenslifestuff :) It took me a week or two because I had to interact with my friends in order to get the inspiration I needed 😅 Summary: The team gets to work with a gen z teenager. Let’s see how that goes.

Warnings: Swearing and gen z humour

Wordcount: 2k

✨Masterlist✨

___________________________________

“Team, this is (Y/N) (L/N). She will be interning for the upcoming three months alongside this team. (Y/N), these are Agents Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, David Rossi, Derek Morgan and Doctor Spencer Reid and our Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia”, Hotch introduces a teenage girl to his team like this happens every day.

“Wait Hotch, we don’t get interns. What is she going to do, no offense, but getting us coffee or what?” Morgan eyes her suspiciously. She looks like any teenager grabbed from the street. A band t-shirt, a torn pair of jeans and a cup from starbucks in her hands. Nothing you would expect to even enter a federal building.

“No offence taken, Agent Morgan. I know having an ugly pickly bitch working with professionals seems weird. It’s just I have summer break and I thought it would be a good thing on my resumé if I already interned in the FBI, because I just graduated and I wanted to go to the academy this fall. But if you wanna do a vibe check with me first, that’s fine by me. Whatever floats your boat.”

The room falls silent. Then out of all sudden everyone turns to Garcia, who puts her arms up in defense. “I don’t even know half the things she said, ask her yourself.”

That’s how the BAU gets their first contact with Gen Z culture and let me tell you it is a wild ride, so buckle up your seats, drink your tea up because we aren’t going to make any stops.

“(Y/N), I need you to come with me. We are going to the M.E. getting the latest reports from our last case”, Morgan tells her while passing her desk. In the blink of an eye the teenager is ready, putting her denim jacket with various pins and bits of patches on.

“Derek, can we get starbucks on the way back? The pumpkin spiced latte is back on their menu and I am on withdrawal. Pleaaaaaasseeee”, she looks at him with a pouty face. Morgan smiles. “Ok, under one condition: We both get one, take awesome pictures and send them to the group chat and then we act like we didn’t get them anything, but we actually buy them their usual.” He got the hang of it pretty fast. “Deal, Sis.”

While they are in the car on their way to the M.E. the agent groans. “Ugh, road work ahead.” “Uh yeah, I sure hope it does!” Morgan eyes her from the side. His whole demeanor says ‘old and confused’.

“What was that, kid?” But (Y/N) begins to laugh. “Don’t you know vines? Short dumb and funny clips people made?” It’s safe to say that this afternoon he learns to speak in vines, getting on Rossi’s nerves because nothing makes sense anymore.

“Ok, I heard you wanted to become a profiler. So I thought I would show you some old cases and then you try to figure out the profile. I’ll present them to you like I do to the team, alright?” JJ and (Y/N) sit in her office, safe from curious eyes. “As right as the law, Ma’am.” 

“Good, this is a case from several years ago. It happened here in D.C. Three men were murdered execution style in the middle of the night in an alleyway. They were all from different backgrounds. The only connection between them was that they were evicted for some form of sexual harassment or assault. The UnSub also had a signature: A shot into their groin while the men were alive.”

Unfaced by the presented facts (Y/N) pops a piece of gum into her mouth. “It do be like that.”

“What?” “I mean, it’s obviously a woman. She experienced any harassment or assault herself. She also has excess to the files, I assume she works as a paralegal, since most of them are women. Female serial killers are extremely rare, but they are better organized. The only thing left to say is good for her getting revenge.” The blonde looks at the teenager with wide eyes.

“I-I guess but you know you can’t say anything like that to Hotch, do you?” She asks concerned. “JJ, I’m dead inside, not dumb. I know this.” But the agent shrugs. “Good. Though I really want to see his face.” “Mood.”

Penelope Garcia is the closest one to relate to Gen Z culture, since a great part of her time is spent on the internet. She happily learns about all the phrases and their meanings as well as the newest trends and hypes.

“Purp is sus, I tell you”, is heard from the lair into the hallway. Spencer and Derek look at each other with concern on their faces. “Do you think they are alright or do we have to-” “IT’S A SELF REPORT I SWEAR PENNY! YOU WORK WITH PROFILERS IN GANDALF’S NAME!” Spencer’s question is answered by that.

“Baby girl, crazy girl, are you doing good? Do you need help or something?” The older one asks warily. But it’s drowned in another screaming match. “I TOLD YOU PURP WAS THE IMPOSTER BUT YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM I VENTED WHEN I DIDN’T! I WANT ALL TIKTOKS I SENT YOU BACK!” “YOU DON’T DARE TO REVOKE MY TIKTOK PRIVILEGES!” “WATCH ME GARCIA!”

“Whoa girls, what about taking a break?” Morgan tries to diffuse the situation. “Yes, I think JJ got new pictures of Henry and Emily brought cookies this morning”, Spencer adds.

The girls, who mere seconds ago were ready to jump each other's throats, look at the other one. “You get the cookies and I go to JJ, deal?” (Y/N) asks. “Deal!” Without sparing the boys another glance they run out of the lair. Their devices are still lit up. A red figure shines into their faces. ‘AMONG US’ is written underneath it. “I think we get too old for this stuff, don’t we Reid?”

Spencer always thought he was young. Of course, his mind is older, but physically he is not that old. But the intern proves him wrong. And boy is he wrong.

“Spencer, is there anything interesting to know today?” (Y/N) takes a seat on his desk, distracting the genius from his paperwork. It is a common occurrence for her to go to him to ask for a fun fact.

“Do you wanna learn something about sloths?” His knowledge (or the writer’s) on this subject is astonishingly big.

“Spill the tea, sis.” “Did you kn- What? But I don’t have tea to spill. And I don’t wanna spill anything, I-” Reid rambles in confusion.

“It’s just a saying, Spencer. There is no deeper meaning to it then ‘Tell me everything about it’. You know, it’s mostly used for gossiping, but I don’t really like to gossip. That’s why I use it in a different context. You got it?” (Y/N) explains it to him in a soft manner, knowing her generation can be complex.

“Yeah, I think I do. Thank you for telling me. I really like the phrase. It has a nice ring. What about you spill the tea about all the phrases you know and I tell you some things from my knowledge?” “I think you got yourself a teacher, genius. But now tell me about the sloths, I love them.”

A few days later Rossi catches her doing some weird moves. “Are you having a seizure or what is your problem, youngster?” Even though he tries not to show it, David took a great liking to (Y/N), thinking of her like a granddaughter. Still, most of her actions confuse the hell out of him.

“I’m practising a dance for tiktok. My friends and I worked on a choreo we wanted to film later. Come here, I can show you.” And that’s what she does in the conference room. The teenager walks him through every move of the choreo, explaining the meaning to it and how it correlates with the song.

“And then you move your arm like that. Exactly like that! You did a great job, David! Are you sure you don’t want to come with me later? We can make you your own account and name it ‘Grandpa-on-tiktok’. You can promote your books over there and it’s a way to float with the trend!”

Seeing her this excited Rossi can’t do anything but agree to the idea. Also, he secretly liked doing the dance thing. It made him feel young again.

“(Y/N), you said you graduated this summer. But your file said you are 16?” Emily asks her one boring day filled with paperwork and countless cups of coffee. “It is what it is”, she mindlessly answers, too focused on filling out the work in front of her.

“I mean yes but how?”

“Emily, smart people exist. I know, coming from me hits different, but here we are.” Finally (Y/N) puts her pen away looking at the raven haired woman.

“What are you talking about? I can’t really follow you.” The more the intern says the more confused gets Emily.

She sighs. “I don’t want to leave you on read here. I kind of am smart somehow. Apparently I was smart enough to skip a grade or two. But it’s no biggie. Many peeps do this, so I don’t sweat it.”

“Even though I feel like you are selling yourself short here, I know you are an incredibly intelligent person. Someday you will be an awesome profiler and any team will be lucky to have you. I really hope we will be the lucky team. But I’m still not sure if this is what I should say in this context.”

“Emily, you are goals. This fam is squad goals. I really hope to be a part of this someday”, (Y/N) admits. “I’m sure Hotch will do his best to get you on the team, you became a great part of it. I can’t imagine a future without you.”

Sadly Prentiss has to get used to a time without the team’s beloved intern. On her last day (Y/N) knocks at Hotch’s door.

“Hey, I wanted to say thank you. The time with you and all the others was amazing and I learned so many useful things for not only the academy but also for my daily life. I really had a glow-up here”, she says after coming in.

Hotch motions towards the chairs in front of his desk. “Take a seat, (Y/N). I got something for you. See it as a compensation for not getting paid for your internship. You really did great work and a better job than some agents, who are doing theirs for many years already but don’t know half the stuff you do. You are a valuable member to the team.”

“Wait, you speak in presence tense. I leave you all this afternoon, you know that, do you?” But the Unit Chief only gestures to a white envelope on his desk. Quickly the teenager takes it and reads it.

“Are you serious Hotchner? Because I will cry you a river if you joke”, she threatens him.

“I’m dead serious, (Y/N). Even though half of your talks are difficult to understand, the other half is twice as useful and important. Additionally to that, you are like a fresh breath of air that the team needed. That’s why a place here will be available for you as soon as you graduate from the academy. I trust you that you will pass with flying colors, I had to promise that to Strauss.”

“Of course, Hotch. I swear on my Animal Crossing Island that I will do my best and more. Thank you so much”, she leaps into his arms.

The others watch the interaction from the bullpen, pretending to not get teary eyed. Their favorite Gen Z Kid will come back to them after all.

Taglist:

Spencer Reid

@calm-and-doctor

[mydogisveryadorbs]

bad day | jj maybank x reader

summary: jj has a bad day and he just wants to be with you

warnings: angst, cursing, mentions of abuse, sad jj, fluffy ending (ofc)

masterlist :)

(gif credit to the owner)

3.5k+ words

✰⋆✰⋆✰⋆✰

To the outside world, JJ Maybank has a perfect life. He has the best group of friends, he parties all the time, he has all the freedom in the world, and most importantly, he has you.

To the outside world, it is practically impossible for JJ Maybank to have a bad day. How can you have a bad day when you have a perfect life?

The only person in the world that knew that bad days are actually a common occurrence in JJ’s life, was you.

When the two of you had first started dating over a year ago, you too had believed that JJ’s life was perfect. His outgoing personality and carefree nature were what initially attracted him to you and he fought hard to maintain that persona. It wasn't until three months into your relationship that you realized that the blonde boy had it so much harder than you could've possibly imagined.

Truth be told, JJ didn't open up to you on purpose. In fact, if he had it his way, you would have never had to see him break down the way that he did.

You didn't know what to do when you first found your boyfriend laying on the bathroom floor in the Chateau, body shaking with sobs. At first, you thought he had been in another rough quarrel with Rafe and his friends. But when he looked up at you, tear stains on his cheeks and the saddest eyes you had ever seen, you knew this wasn't just some run-in with a couple of kooks.

It didn't take long for you to get over your original state of shock and comfort the boy. Your younger sister had bad anxiety and experienced panic attacks often, and still, you found yourself on the less prepared side when it came to soothing the blonde you adored so much. It was hard for you to understand that the tough, wild, teenager that you had fallen in love with was simply a cover for the fragile boy inside.

You can still vividly remember sitting on the bathroom floor for hours with JJ. Despite your unfamiliarity with your boyfriend’s suffering, there was not one second that you had even remotely questioned your love for him. If anything, seeing him in such a vulnerable state made your appreciation for him grow.

JJ himself, on the other hand, did not know how to accept the comfort you had given him. He was so used to being alone every time he was feeling down. So used to hiding all of his emotions from the people around him. 

The two of you went through many difficult nights of him pushing you away and trying to block you out. But just as fast as he was building up his wall, you were tearing it down.

JJ doesn't know the exact moment when he allowed himself to succumb to your solace. Still to this day, it's hard for him to believe that someone as beautiful and compassionate as you can possibly love someone like him.

The more he let you in, the harder it was to be without you and now, whenever he had a run-in with his father or was unsure of himself, his first impulse was to call you.

You never hesitated to comfort the boy, knowing that he would do the same for you. And as much as you tried to stay strong for JJ, sometimes everything got to be a little bit too much. 

JJ will never forget the day you were holding him after a fight with his father and you couldn't hold it in anymore. You let out heart-wrenching sobs into his hair. The sound alone brought tears to his own eyes and the two of you held each other all night, whispering sweet nothing to one another.

JJ is having a bad day.

He should have known when he woke up this morning and you weren't in his arms. He glanced over, immediately recognizing your small handwriting on a blue sticky note which was stuck to your pillow. The note explained that your parents had asked you to come home, but that you would come back to the chateau to be with him that night.

have a great day and don't miss me too much lovie!

His heart fluttered at your sweet words. How did he get so god damn lucky? Popping open his phone case, JJ folds your note and sticks it inside, just in case he needs to read it again later.

Despite the loving feeling he got in his chest while reading your note, his day quickly went downhill.

When JJ opened the cabinets above the sink to make himself a bowl of cereal, they were empty. He brushed it off and went to work with an empty stomach.

At the hotel, a group of kids bumped into him while he was clearing a table and he dropped a wine glass on the floor, shattering it. His boss chewed him out for 30 minutes before putting him on dish duty for the rest of his shift.

After work, JJ went to the local market and used his tip money from the day to buy a sandwich and a small bouquet of your favorite flowers for you. He knew you would make a big fuss about him spending his money on you, but he loved to see the cute look of surprise on your face whenever he got you something like this. It made whatever he had gotten for you worth every penny.

On his way back to the Chateau, JJ was stopped by none other than Rafe, Topper, and Kelse on their bikes. He tried his best to ignore them, knowing that you hated when he got into fights, but as soon as Rafe mentioned a snide comment about your ass, JJ immediately threw the first punch. He didn't realize until after the fact that one of them had stomped on the flowers he bought for you.

As much as he hated it, the blonde boy knew he needed to go home to get a fresh pair of clothes. He could always ask you to get a pair from the drawer of his clothes you had in your room, but that would require telling you what had happened and he didn't want to be a bother while you were with your family.

He knew he was screwed when he arrived at his “house” and saw his father's truck parked in the dirt outside. JJ hoped that he would be able to slip by without being noticed, but his horrible luck from the day continued.

His father was in the stage of his drinking where he was drunk enough to be angry with his son, but not drunk enough for JJ to outrun him.

JJ’s cheek throbbed on his walk back to the Chateau and he was sure that he was sporting a fresh black eye. His ribs were sore as hell and the only thing that kept him moving was the thought of seeing you.

When he arrived at John B’s house he instantly took note of your missing car. He prayed that you had simply walked and that he would see you laying on the couch when he entered.

There was someone sitting on the couch, but it was not the person JJ was looking for.

“Dude,” John B said when he noticed JJ’s figure standing in the doorway. “What happened to your face?”

“Where's (Y/N),” the blonde asked, ignoring John’s question.

“She called and said she wasn't sure if she would make it,” Kie said, drawing JJ’s attention to where she was standing. “Her friend Carlee’s boyfriend cheated on her, so she went to comfort her. She said she tried to call you, but it went straight to voicemail,” the curly-haired girl explained.

Glancing down at his phone, JJ noticed it was dead. His shoulders slumped. All he wanted was to see his girl after a shit day, was that too much to ask? He knew first hand your dedication to your loved ones, and he knew it wasn't fair of him to want all of your comfort and love for himself, but he couldn't help it.

You were too nice, he decided. But that's why he loved you so much, wasn't it?

“So what happened to your face,” John B asked again, taking a sip of his beer.

JJ glowered at his best friend. “What do you care,” he snapped. He knew he shouldn't take his frustrations out on John B, but you were his coping method and he didn't know what to do without that.

John B raised his hands in defense, standing up to grab another beer. “Jeez, dude,” he said, “Just asking.”

“Well maybe you should mind your own goddamn business,” JJ yelled.

The brunette boy halted his actions and turned to face JJ. “What the fuck, man?” he asked, voice rising. “You really want to do this.”

“Yeah, I do.” He definitely didn't. “You know,” JJ snapped, “Maybe if you spent time with your actual friends instead of your fucking kook girlfriend, you would know what was going on in my life.”

John B scoffed “That's rich coming from the guy who spends every waking moment trying to impress a girl who's way out of his league,” he yells.

JJ knows he's right. You were too good for him. But you chose him anyway. Why?

“Fuck you,” JJ sneers, shoving past his best friend and walking out the back doors. He needed space.

You were getting ready to leave your friend's house when Kiara called you. 

Carlee was a sweet girl, and her douche of a boyfriend definitely didn't deserve her so you told her exactly that. But this wasn't the first time something like that had happened between them and based on previous occurrences, you figured Carlee would go a week before she decided to get back together with him.

It was times like these where you really thanked your lucky stars that you had found a boy like JJ. The two of you had your moments like any healthy couple, but you knew in your heart that he would never do anything to purposely hurt you.

You smiled when you saw Kie’s contact. “Hey girl,” you answer in a country accent, giggling at the end.

“(Y/N),” she said and your smile dropped, immediately understanding that there was something wrong. “You need to come to the Chateau right now.”

Your feet skid to a stop and you feel your heart drop to the pit of your stomach. “What happened? Is JJ okay?” you ask her in a rushed tone.

Kie’s voice is shaky when she speaks. “He came over today with a black eye and a bruised cheek and when John B asked about it JJ kind of freaked out,” she explains. “They are screaming at each other right now. (Y/N), you gotta come quick,” you could hear yelling in the background.

“I'm on my way,” you assure her, hanging up. You run to your car, heart twisting in worry. It wasn't like your boyfriend to act like this so you knew something had to have happened.

You drove to the Chateau faster than you ever have before, getting there in under five minutes. The second your car pulled up to the house. You were flying out of your car and running inside the screen door.

“He's outback,” John B says upon seeing you enter.

Your eyes snap to him and they soften at the sight of his distraught face. “You alright, JB?” you ask.

He nods slowly. “I've never seen him like that, (Y/N),” John B tells you, his voice laced with worry. “You gotta help him.”

You nod your head, walking outside to find your boyfriend. You don't have to go far, spotting his hunched over the figure on the porch steps.

Slowly, you make your way towards the boy, and despite the fact that it's the middle of summer he is shivering violently.

You place a hand on his shoulder and he immediately flinches away from your touch. Your heart breaks at his reaction. “JJ, love, it's me,” you tell him softly, crouching down next to his body.

Hearing your voice, JJ lifts his head to look at you. His eyes are red-rimmed and filled with tears and the skin around the right one is hidden by blue and purple. Your eyes scan his face and you take note of the bruise on his cheekbone and his split lip. Your hands itch to remove his shirt, knowing that there are more hidden underneath.

The sound of JJ’s choked sob brings your eyes instantly back to his. 

“Oh, J,” you say sorrowfully, opening your arms for him. “C’mere.”

The blonde boy instantly falls into your embrace and you cradle his body tightly. He sobs into your shoulder and you feel a wet patch grow in your shirt. “I needed you, I need you,” he cries into your shoulder.

Softly shushing him, you run your fingers through his hair. “I'm here, J, I'm here,” you tell him, your heart aching for the boy in your arms. You don't know exactly how long you sit there, his hands clutching the back of your shirt tightly.

Slowly, his sobs die down before he is only sniffling every few seconds.

You pull back slightly, tenderly cupping his face in your hands. “Can we go inside?” you ask, gently brushing back the blonde curl that had fallen over his forehead.

JJ nods slightly and you stand up on the porch, helping him do the same. You bite your lip when you notice his subtle limp on the way inside. You notice how quiet the Chateau is and silently thank John B and Kiara for giving JJ the space he needs.

 Leading him into the bathroom, you help JJ sit on the counter and you quickly grab the first aid kit from the cabinet below the sink.

Opening it, you grab a cotton swab and an alcohol wipe to clean his lip and cheek, wordlessly realizing how many times you've had to do this.

“Why are you here,” the blonde boy asks abruptly. If you weren't paying attention you would have missed his small voice.

“What'd you mean, J?” you ask, continuing your work.

JJ sighs. “Why are you here?” he asks again, slightly louder, but still quieter than you are used too.

“Well, I was leaving Carlee’s house and Kie called me and told me that you-” JJ cuts you off, pulling away from your grasp slightly.

“No, (Y/N),” his tone is harsh but you can hear the brokenness laced behind it. “Why are you here? With me instead of with your friends? Or better yet another guy that can buy you nice things and doesn't have emotional trauma? A guy who's not broken?” he says the word with such hatred that it shakes you to your core.

“JJ,” you gasp, hurt flashing across your features. How could he think that? JJ instantly wants to take it back, but he wants even more to know your answer. “You are not broken, you hear me?” you say, honesty clear in your voice. “Your flaws are what make you, you. I don't need fancy gifts or expensive jewelry to make me love you! I love every single thing about you, JJ Maybank. From your head to your toes. I love you just the way that you are and there is nothing you can do to take that away from me. Ever.” Your voice is strong and serious. You leave no room for argument as you continue to patch up his face.

JJ doesn't speak again letting the words sink in, scared that he will break down for the second time that night. His eyes fall to the floor and he lets you tend to his cuts.

When you are satisfied with your work on his face, you tap the boy's arm lightly and his eyes snap to yours. “Lift your shirt so I can see,” you ask him, not making eye contact. When he doesn't move, your eyes lock with his. “Please, J,” you beg, in a quiet voice, “I need to see.”

The blonde knows he will never be able to say no to you, especially when you ask him that way, so he gingerly lifts his shirt over his head, tossing it to the side and wincing when he moves the wrong way.

JJ expects you to pity him. To tell him you're sorry the way everyone does. But you simply stare at his injuries, eyes welling with tears. And this, JJ decides, makes him feel infinitely worse.

Your hand reaches out to trace the large, purple-black bruises. JJ shivers at the touch of your soft hands on his skin.

He grabs your hand suddenly, pulling it up to his lips. “I'm sorry,” he says, voice cracking. “I'm sorry I dragged you into this.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” you say, using the hand not in JJ’s to run through his hair. “None of that, okay? I'm here because I want to be. And I will always be. No matter how many times you try to push me away.”

You feel hot tears on your hand and you quickly slide between his legs, pulling him back into your chest, careful of the bruises on his ribs.

“I love you,” JJ cries into the crook of your neck. “I love you more than anything else in this fucked up world.”

“Shh,” you say softly. “I know, lovie, I know. I love you too. Endlessly.”

JJ pulls back at your words, just enough so that he can look into your eyes.

You used to think your favorite color was purple. When you were ten you painted your entire room purple and even bought purple bedding. But the moment you looked into JJ’s cerulean eyes, it instantly became your new favorite color.

JJ looks from your eyes to your lips before leaning forward to kiss you.

The kiss was soft and passionate explaining every emotion the two of you were feeling. No matter how many times the two of you kissed, your heart raced like it was the very first time. 

Pulling away for air, JJ rests his forehead on yours. 

“What happened today, J?” you ask in a quiet voice. 

JJ bites his lip, leaning back slightly. His first instinct is to tell you that nothing happened and that he's okay, but JJ knows you wouldn't believe him for a second. So he recalls his day, telling you every detail. Just knowing that you know, makes JJ’s heart feel a little less heavy. “A-and I bought you these flowers from the florist on main, y-y'know the ones you love, and I couldn't even bring them to you,” he says sadly.

You caress his cheek. “Love, I don't care about the flowers, all that matters is that you're okay,” you assure him, honesty evident in his voice. “And as for your father, you are staying here or at my house from now on and the next time I see that son of a bi-”

JJ cuts you off, grabbing your hands. The last thing he ever wants is his father hurting you. “(Y/N), no,” he says, the vulnerability in his voice evident. “You need to promise me that you won't confront him. I don't want you getting hurt.”

You sigh, knowing how important this is to the blonde boy. “Only if you promise not to go back there unless I'm with you,” you compromise with him.

He nods, kissing your forehead gently. “Can we please go to bed,” JJ asks and you can hear the sleepiness in his voice. Nodding, you help JJ off the counter and the two of you walk to the spare room in the chateau. The two of you climb into the bed. You are still in your clothes from the day, but that is the last thing on your mind.

JJ moves his arms to wrap around your middle but you gently push his shoulder back. “Turn around, J,” you tell him quietly. You know that JJ secretly loves to be the little spoon and you secretly love to be the big spoon. He would never openly ask you to spoon him, but you can read his body language like a book.

He rolls to his other side and you wrap an arm around his bare middle, careful not to hit any of his bruises. You nuzzle your nose into the back of his tanned shoulder, breathing in his scent deeply.

“I love you (Y/N)” your boyfriend whispers, his hand reaching to hold your hand that is tracing his chest. “Thank you for being here.”

You press a soft kiss to his shoulder blade. “Always, JJ,” you tell him earnestly. “I love you more than anything.”

The blonde boy falls asleep in your embrace, feeling truly safe for the first time that day.

✰⋆✰⋆✰⋆✰

masterlist :)

[shtern-and-art]

"Skeppy will probably cry" "Bad will probably cry". Bish, screw, that I am crying!!!

This whole thing was bloody gorgeous and I wasn't expecting that ending. I had no clue what ending to expect but that was definitely better than any I could have hoped for. Forest spirit to soulmate your honour!

I was terrified that you were gonna leave it at the point where he loses the spirit and becomes mortal again. If you had I would be actively sobbing!!!! And oh my god, the art!!! I still can't get over how wonderful your style is.

Imma ask fun things because if I don't I'll sit in a puddle of emotion all night:

What's the first tech thing Bad will buy and how annoying will he be about it? Poor Skeppy trying to answer 101 questions about something he doesn't really use XD.

Is no one concerned that the odd couple from a town they never name has a pet wolf??

Do they immediately go over to a different town or do they wander for a while. Find hidden creeks and befriend bears?

Does Bad still have a connection to nature and animals, like are creatures naturally more trusting of him?

Do they ever visit the og town again?

Does Skeppy still cause absolute chaos in other towns or has he learnt his lesson and only causes minor trouble now?

Does Bad ever try and study again? If he did what would he study and would Skeppy try to study as well?

Does Skeppy steal? I dunno, he just give off the vibe of a naughty lil trickster who'll pocket something if the owner refuses to sell it him.

Immediately after leaving the forest what the first 'argument' they have (not including the car one)?

Would they ever ride horse? If yes, how terrified would Skeppy be?

Skeppy falls outta tree. I don't know why but my mind keeps telling me that this man has great balance until he climbs trees. They are his mortal enemy and Bad finds this both hilarious and terrifying because he is going to hurt himself.

I had waaaaay more questions than I intended to have. My bad '^_^ but this story was way too much fun to read and you are entirely to blame for making it so engaging!

Make sure to take care of yourself and do stretches after and during drawing. You don't wanna hurt yourself <3

AaaaI’m so glad you liked it! :D And, dang, man, I cried while writing that part too :D

And I promised a nice ending for the main story, I did, and this one also makes the most sense narratively! For the story I wanted to tell, at least. Bad can’t really become human again, he’s changed to much. He can only move on, and do something with what he is, and has. And he did! :D That’s really nice and inspiring, this story will always have a place in my heart, heheh <3

Being a guardian spirit connected to a person and all, Bad may be not as strong as before, but he can’t die unless Skeppy dies first. And Skeppy can do that, but he’s pretty sturdy, and his lifespan operates on a whole other scale than human ones. And Bad knowing Skeppy’s real name balances it all out, makes them equal in the power and influence they have over each other.

So hellyeah, soulmates for the win :DDD

I’ll answer all questions under the cut, and this close up from one of the pages!

1) What's the first tech thing Bad will buy and how annoying will he be about it?

Probably a pager! Because it’s a more feasible thing to get than a wholeass computer Bad actually wanted :D An it means Skeppy will have to get one too, and that Bad will be having the time of his life texting him and everyone he can get a number from, even if they’re still in the room with him.

Poor Skeppy indeed, he can learn to appreciate the pagers, and later phones, too, and computers, but he really has 0 idea on how it all works and why Bad is so fascinated by it all.

2) Rat and regular people

Oh, she can shapeshift, just like Bad! If they’re out with people around, she takes form of a puppy, and Bad can pass her off as a weird mix breed rescue doggo.

3) Do they immediately go over to a different town or do they wander for a while?

Oh, since they have no end destination in mind, they can ride around for a bit, go visit some cool places and roadside attractions. Sadly, Skeppy is probably not spiritually or morally ready to full on befriend wild bears yet, and they do need money for gas and snacks. So, at some point they will have to stop somewhere and find work – at least for a bit, to save up. Life’s gonna be a bit complicated with all that, until Skeppy figures out his treasure-finding abilities :DD

4) Bad and nature and animals

He is definitely still in tune with all wildlife! Even more – Bad could become a proper guardian spirit for Skeppy in part because, in a way, Skeppy himself is part of the nature.

So yeah, Bad can understand animals (and plants) and communicate with them; they’re just more free to not take his shit, and Bad’s emotions do not “possess” them unless he makes an effort to do so.

He doesn’t like doing it, tho.

5) Do they ever visit the og town again?

Hm, I think they will completely forget about it for a while, until, like, 30+ years later they will be going somewhere, and find themselves around those parts. And they try to not appear too often in the areas they’ve spent a lot of time in already (they can be pretty recognizable, and also barely show signs of aging). But it’s been a long time, and the town’s really different now… So they make a stop, and spend a day there. They walk the unfamiliar streets between the new buildings, check out the popular hiking trail, the advertisements for hot springs and winter activities. The old cinema is still there, and is hosting an all-night marathon of classic horror movies of the last century.

Bad and Skeppy leave the town after sunset – the day was nice, but they have nothing more to do there. They ride through the forest on a well paved road, with radio playing something barely above the whisper. And in the dark of hot summer night, Bad can see the white stag running between the trees alongside their car. Shadows dance over the shimmering light of it’s fur.

Somewhere after the towns border, the stag disappears back in the forest. But the air in the car stays light and fresh, saving the smell of old pines and dry leaves all though the night.

6) Skeppy and chaos

Well, after the whole mess in the main story, Skeppy definitely learned some lessons, especially about not being a dick :D

But the thing is – he can’t really help the fact that things tend to stir up around him a lot. He naturally brings in chaos into everything, because he is, in part, a personification, or an outlet for it in the world. And so, to feel, well and good, and himself Skeppy gotta do stuff that disrupts balance, and creates some mayhem. And in gave him a lot of trouble in early life, but in the course of the main story he learned that he can chose were he lets that chaos to take hold, learned what can come of that chaos, apart from utter misery.

Like, where it can help dismantle something destructive, and where – bring in the more positive change, that was already brewing, possible, but is stagnant for some reason.

Soooo, I can’t say Skeppy causes only minor chaos in his life, but he sure learns even more about not being a dick :DDDD

7) The studying

I think Bad will want to get a higher education at some point, because he wanted to, and because it’s already new millennia and all that. Bet he’ll go for something very technical and/or literature. Maybe he’ll start by piking up some classes in small time colleges, when they stop in one place for a while, and later get into an online program, because why not.

Skeppy is not a college guy at all. He’ll listen to Bad talk about it, read textbooks if he wants to, can research stuff, buuut going to classes and doing homework is definitely not his thing.

8) Stealing

Well, you’re right, Skeppy can and will steal stuff out of spite! And will be scolded by Bad for it, and will not feel (that) sorry about it. But real stealer between them will be Bad himself :D

It’s just… he has the corvid tendencies, and a hoard (a box) of sentimental mementos from different people and events, and the thrill of stealing something small and harmless is very exciting. Bad is very proud of his little collection. Skeppy finds it very adorable, a bit hypocritical, and kinda creepy. Like, that pretty box he gifted Bad at some point is now full of stuff like:

- pressed flower from the clearing they had a picnic at on their anniversary

- the button the waitress lost that one day the storm caused a black out in the whole town

- some small animal bones

- couple pretty rocks Bad stole from Skeppy’s pockets

- penny that was once glued to the ground

- a handful of teeth people (and not people) lost in fights with Bad

- pen from some fancy hotel

- rainbow dash keychain that belonged to a child

- the list goes on

9) Argument

Oh, that same day they’ll fight over whether they should stay at the really crappy and suspicious looking motel, or go sleep in a perfectly fine forest near the road. Ironically, Bad wanted to try out the motel (because, yay, first time spending the night back in civilization), and Skeppy was the one insisting on sleeping in nature (because the motel looks like it could give you 10 diseases if you even stand near it, and sleeping in the forest is kind of nice, and means they can cuddle).

10) Horses

The guys will probably ride them at some point. Well, Bad will ride, and Skeppy will sit on his horse and hope it knows what to do and where to go, because trying to make this giant thing do something seems dangerous. If they’ll have to actually go somewhere fast, Skeppy will not survive that day, his butt (and legs) will be dead for days to come.

And riding with Bad on one horse may sound romantic and nice, but all romance dies when the gallop starts.

F.

11) Skeppy and climbing

Skeppy is more down to earth kind of guy, more of a “rocks and caves” kind of creature, real-life lizard person or something. Up on the trees and in the air – not really his element, yeah. But it doesn’t mean that Skeppy will accept this fact easy. The embarrassment of never managing to safely make it down a tree is too strong, he just has to do it all over again, and again. And again. Because, clearly, he was distracted this time. And the time before that Bad was teasing him, and it “disrupted his flow”. And, really, maybe these trees here just do not like Skeppy much, and make him slip a lot. Yeah.

So, more often than not, if Skeppy climbs a tree, he will not stop climbing it until he falls, or the tree ends. Bad had to take him off high branches couple times, forcefully, because, of course, Skeppy was sitting there for 2 hours just to properly enjoy the sunset. He can climb down at any point, he just Choses not to. The view is amazing. The bark is literally part of his skin now, not because he holds on tight, no, he’s just Than Much one with the nature )<

---

Don’t apologize for the questions! It’s always so fun to answer them, and it makes me think more about stuff I may have skipped, or didn’t think about before. It’s really nice :3c

Again, thank you for the ask, and for being here for this story! <3

(And I’ll try setting timers for rest breaks while I draw, mb that will help)

---

In The Dark - masterpost

[randomly-a-fan]

Father and Son-wise Camping Trip Finale

First Part: [Link]

Second Part: [Link]

Out on the storm, Archie was bawling his eyes out, he didn’t know where to go or want to have anything to do with his dad, since he now realize that his dad expected him to be menacing, but instead, he felt like a failure. Archie knew he can’t stay out in the rain, especially a storm, so he ran to Malon’s club house that her dad repaired to make it more safer and solid. Archie remembered a trunk that had old blankets in it, so he took some out and bundle himself with it. He had like almost ten blankets around him because the blankets were worn out and full of holes, so he needed that many in order to keep warm.

Meanwhile, Jason and Pennywise were still out searching for Archie, Pennywise tried sniffing him out, since it’s one of his powers; to smell prey and scents of his loved ones. But the rain is covering the scents so he couldn’t sniff out. Jason saw muddy footprints, so he followed them with Pennywise coming from behind. “You see Jason, that’s why I was too afraid to tell him about the new baby coming, I was afraid that he’ll think I’m replacing him, which I don’t.” Pennywise explained. Jason did heard him, but he needed to follow the tracks carefully. “You think Archie will somehow forgive me... Even though I don’t know what’s there that requires forgiveness?” Pennywise added and asked. Jason only shrugged to Pennywise’s question as he was trying to follow the tracks, but as the rain falls harder, the footprints in the mud disappears.

Meanwhile, while Archie tries to keep warm, he felt something wet beneath him. The club house was being flooded; the club house was located down the ditch so the wind and storm causing the lake to overflow and caused the flood down the ditches. Archie panicked and decided to get out of harms way, but the door got stuck and sticky from the mud and water that he can’t get out, and the windows were strong so it’s hard for a little boy like Archie to break open. He panicked and banged on the door hard as the water rises. “HELP.” Archie shouted from the top of his lungs. 

***

As Jason and Pennywise were about to turn around to walk back to the cabin, Pennywise heard the cry. “Archie!” Pennywise rushed over towards the sound of Archie’s cries, then he saw the flooded house. Pennywise was shocked. “Archie! are you in there?” Pennywise called. “Dad the door is stuck and the water is rising up to my upper-waist!” Archie yelled out. “Stand back son, I’ll get you out!” Pennywise responded. Pennywise uses all of his strength to break the door down, but to no avail. “DAD?” Archie called out. “Hang on son!” Pennywise said in a scared tone. 

Jason came down the ditch and into the water, even though he’s afraid of water, but he had to, or else Archie will end up like he did as a child. Not this time. Because of how strong Jason is, he bust through the door with ease. Pennywise shoved Jason out of the way to grab hold of his son. “I got you son!” Pennywise said as he pulled Archie into his grasp. “Let’s get the hell out of here!” Pennywise said in a mad tone.

On the way back to the cabin, Archie spoke. “Dad, I’m--” “NO... not a word!” Pennywise said in a stern tone. “I’m very disappointed with you; I could have lost you if Jason hadn’t faced his fear in going into the flooded water!” Pennywise added. Archie nodded as he deserved to be snapped at.

***

Back at the cabin, Jason brought Archie and Pennywise in. MJ and Malon were relieved that Archie was safe and sound. But MJ noticed that Pennywise was very angry with his son. “Penny, maybe you and Archie would like to have a private discussion in the bathroom as you dry yourselves off.” MJ suggested. Pennywise nodded in agreement and took his son over to the bathroom.   

In the bathroom, Pennywise was grabbing a towel and dried his son off, then he heard sniffles. “I knew you’re going to catch a cold, after running out in the rain and--” Then he saw Archie was crying. “Oooh... Now son...” Pennywise puts down the towel and wrapped his arms around his crying son. “You want to tell me why you’re so upset that made you run away?” Pennywise asked softly. “You and mommy are going to replace me... with a new baby on the way, you won’t want me anymore...” Archie sniffed. Pennywise chuckled. “Now son, that’s the most silliest thing I’ve ever heard; your mom and I didn’t want to replace you... We love you to bits...” Pennywise explained. “But you said to Jason that you’ve been longing for a child that actually has demon clown powers... since I’m more human...” Archie said. Pennywise looked away with shame before he turned back to face his son again. “That may be true about what I said; but it doesn’t mean I don’t love you, you mean the universe to me, power-less or not, you’ll always be my loving son.” Pennywise said before he wiped the tears off his son’s eyes. “You probably didn’t hear this part, but I mention to Jason that your mom and I thought that you needed someone to play with whenever you’re unable to go over to Malon’s place. We want you to have someone to look up to you as ITs big brother.” Pennywise added. “So... you and mom did all this trouble, just for me?” Archie asked. Pennywise smiled with a grin. “If you want to put it that way. We just want you to be happy son; don’t ever worry about not getting the same amount of love, we’ll love you and your little sibling the same... Promise.” Pennywise assured. Archie cling to his dad for the finale hug. “I love you dad...” Archie said with a sniffle. “I love you too son...” Pennywise replied with tears running up his eyes.

***

After the father and son discussion in the bathroom, Aquarius barged in without even knocking, she rushed over to her son and observed him. “Thank goodness you’re alright, MJ told me that you ran out in the storm and your father had to go out there looking for you... There will be some serious talking young man--” “Now now Star-babe, I’ve already settle this with my son, and he knows better than to do that stunt, *to Archie* right son?” Pennywise said. “Right... Because of the circumstances I have caused, you and I will go to the park and hunt for your prey and have a picnic. Sound good?” Archie replied. Pennywise was shocked. “You want to go on a hunt with me?” Pennywise asked in shock. “Well Father’s Day is the time for you to do whatever you want, so yes dad... I want to spend time with you, even if I have to lure children over to you.” Archie answered. Pennywise hugged his son again before they head to Cassandra’s car.

Pennywise first turned towards Malon to speak to her. “I want you to know that you’re spared from my grasp, since you’re friends with my son, that makes you my friend too... at least until my son gets tired of you, then I’ll have someone to target on...” Pennywise said with a wink before he exits. “Don’t worry Malon, you and I will be forever friends.” Archie said as he gave Malon a pinkie-swore.

*** 

The next day, Pennywise and Archie were at the park. Even though Archie isn’t looking forward into catching his dad’s prey, but his dad made a small exception to let his son play with the kids before he lures them to him.

Afterwards, the two decided to buy an ice cream cone at an ice cream stand. Archie ordered Wild-Blueberry, while Pennywise tries to order Tutti-Frutti. “Sorry sir, that flavor is too soft.” The man said. “The list clearly stated that you have Tutti-Frutti, and if you have Tutti-Frutti, I want Tutti-Frutti, so where’s my Tutti-Fu*kin-Frutti!?” Pennywise ordered with his sharp jaws showing. The man sighed. “...$4.95...” The man said as he gave Pennywise the soft Tutti-Frutti in a bowl. Pennywise turned to his son with a smile. “Best Father’s Day ever son... Thank you.” Pennywise said as he gave his son a rub on his back. “Anything to make you happy dad, Happy Father’s Day.” Archie said as the two of them walk home together.

The End

[maxmiz]

Okay, If Max were to propose Mariam on her 23rd birthday, what would it be like? Please write something on this, I am eagerly waiting to see this content written by you.

Firstly, thank you much for the ask @velox-the-knight. I thought I’d do one better and write a short one shot fanfic on this. But I’ve tweaked the facts a little. I’ve made it so that they’re both 28 (23 feels a bit too early for someone like Max to marry idk?) and I’ve not made it on her birthday. But I’ll hope you’ll like this!

Also tagging @stroblitzfalborg, @bakutenmayhem @araingirl @midnightstarr8 @gingericywolf @luxahheart @dangpanterita @turquoisewisteria @tshjortile @hiwataris-bitch and anyone else who would like some Max/Mariam content. Feedback is appreciated from anyone who likes Max/Mariam in the fandom! (This is a hurriedly written short fic, so it may not be great lol)

FAIRYTALE

The path to the dojo was covered in chrysanthemums and a young, blithe man strolled down the road, inhaling the fresh scent of spring into his lungs in the hopes that it would inspire him to finally pop the big question. The golden strands of his hair mirrored the bright beams of the radiant sun above, and twenty-eight-year-old Max Mizuhara strode into his best friend’s house with every ounce of his courage tucked away in a little black box in his pocket. Today was the day that he would ask her to marry him.

The familiar, idyllic setting of Takao’s house greeted him at the entrance and comforted him as he tried to pull himself together and calm his nerves. The oddly mature words of wisdom of his precocious younger sister, Charlotte, surfaced in his mind – if you know she’s the one, then she is. If she’s not, you can move on to other things. Like buying me a Playstation.

His eyes scanned the dojo. He half hoped that Daichi would not spring out of some corner with a bowl of soup in his hand and ruin the bouquet of wild flowers that Max was carrying, by tripping and falling over some rock as usual. Max’s mother, Judy, had not appreciated Daichi’s clumsiness when he had all but destroyed her immaculate designer pantsuit by spilling a drink on it by accident.

I can’t believe that I brought flowers, he thought to himself amused. Max had never really been the flowers-and-chocolates type of boyfriend. Romantic gifts were more of Rei and Takao’s domain. Mariam and Max had always had a jovial, easy-going relationship. They did many things together – from trekking to mountaintops and sleeping under the stars together, to skydiving and dancing at carnivals to which Raul and Julia often invited them. But romantic cliches had never been something that either of them was particularly fond of.

Growing up with parents who rarely lived in the same city, Max had never had the occasion to watch any romance blossom between them. Family dinners were often a cold affair, with his mother being an emotionally distant workaholic and his father being in blissful denial about the crumbling state of their marriage. Even as things had improved between his parents after he had won his first world championship, Max’s faith in romance and marriage had forever been marred by the shadow of his childhood in a dead home.

Yet, here he was, ready to ask the love of his life to marry him, with flowers no less. The irony was not lost upon him.

Oddly, it was his two friends Kai and Hiromi who had suggested that he take flowers with him as he proposed to her. Max could swear he almost choked on his drink as he heard those words leave Kai’s mouth. It made him wonder if, in private, Kai had actually ever given his nature-loving boyfriend Brooklyn any flowers. The thought of a romantic Kai seemed almost as inconceivable to him as the thought of Yuri and Takao’s errant brother Hitoshi hooking up. But stranger things had happened in their world – Balkov becoming a reality show star, for one. He certainly gave the Kardashians some stiff competition in the vanity department. Yuri almost retched at seeing Balkov’s vainglorious Instagram account.

Chuckling, Max looked down at his bouquet as the memory of his last conversation with his friends popped up in his mind.

“You listen to me Maximilian Mizuhara…”

“Actually, it’s just Max,” said Max, cutting her short, meekly.

“Did I say that you could interrupt me?” growled Hiromi, rolling her eyes. “Now, as I was saying…you have to get her flowers! You can’t propose without flowers to a woman who has been raised in the mountains in the lap of nature. Back me up, Hiwatari!”

Kai put down his drink on the table and shrugged. “You heard the woman.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Max, surprised. “And what if she does not like flowers?”

“Then you can take off your clothes and hope that she forgets about the flowers when she sees you in your magnificent birthday suit,” said a drunk Takao, laughing at his own joke without a care in the world.

“Takao!” said Hiromi, smacking him lightly on his head.

“Ow, what was that for?” said Takao, crossly.

“Your jokes are getting worse every day. Soon you’ll give Ivan a run for his money and that is not a compliment. Ask Yuri and Boris. They had to make a jar specifically for him in which he has to drop a penny every time he makes a terrible joke. There was enough money in it by the end of the year for Yuri to buy Julia a gift pack from Victoria’s Secret and have money left over for Boris and Sergei to go drinking expensive wine at Ralf’s vineyard. Do you want me to make such a jar for you too?” said Hiromi, narrowing her eyes.

“If it helps get you your favorites from Victoria’s Secret, why not,” said Takao, playfully.

Hiromi blushed and pretended to text on her phone.

“Okayyyy, get a room you two,” said Rei, laughing.

“Alright, guys, can we deal with my problem before Mr. World Champion here starts his drunken monologue? Is it yay or nay on the flowers? Won’t it be too cliched for Mariam to appreciate?” said Max, frowning.

“Make it so that it isn’t,” said Kai, in a deep voice.

 Make it so that it isn’t. I hope I’m doing this right.

Max walked further into the dojo to see Mariam sitting on the porch, with her long blue strands of hair casually tied up on top of her head in a bun. She was dressed in a white shirt and red skirt, while a tattoo of Sharkrash on her smooth, porcelain skin glimmered under the light of the sun. Max gasped as he watched his beautiful girlfriend concentrate on the book that she was reading, one that Max instantly recognized as his favorite, personal copy of Bitches Gotta Beyblade. Ming Ming had written quite the tantalizing but wonderful biography of her life as a beyblading and singing sensation – and though Max had initially found her annoying during her BEGA days, he had come to admire her over the years. Juggling school and Beyblade while winning Grammys every year was no mean feat.

As Max stepped into the garden by the little pond, Mariam lifted her face from her book and looked at him with a smile on her face.

“Maxie. What’s up? Why are we meeting at the dojo when neither Takao nor grandpa are here? Feels a little weird,” said Mariam, suspiciously.

“Weird? Why is that? We’re always hanging out at the dojo on weekends,” said Max, hiding the bouquet behind his back.

“You know…like we’re trespassing or something while he’s not around,” said Mariam.

“Trespassing? Did your conscience prick you like this when you were stalking me day and night to seal my bit-beast?” teased Max.

“For the last time Max, I wasn’t stalking. I was just gathering intel,” said Mariam, feigning annoyance.

“Alright, Mata Hari, pipe down,” quipped Max. “Ozuma can’t hear you, you know. We both know that you couldn’t get enough of me.”

“Oh yeah, and who was the one putting on all the moves in a collapsing building? Seriously Max, who flirts when they’re almost about to get crushed by a building?” said Mariam, playfully.

“Guilty as charged, m’lady,” said Max, laughing.

Mariam uncrossed her legs and leaned against a wooden pillar casually. “What have you got behind you?”

A romantic cliché, that’s what.

“Hmm, let’s see,” said Max, pulling out the bouquet and presenting it to her.

“Flowers…” said Mariam, surprised.

“Not just any flowers,” said Max, handing her the bouquet.

Mariam looked more closely at the bouquet and Max could see her face lighting up.

“Orchids…from my village in the mountains…” said Mariam, looking touched.

Max knew that Mariam missed her village frequently. Even though she quite liked her life as a marine biologist, free from the shackles of her tribe’s strict and conservative rules, Max often found her wistfully longing for the mountains that she called her home. He knew that if flowers were the way to go, he would personally write to Yusuf and request him to send them to Japan, where he and Mariam were living temporarily after taking a sabbatical from their jobs in California.

“What…what’s the occasion?” said Mariam.

Oh boy, here goes.

“Well…I don’t know how to do this…” mumbled Max, as he slipped his hand into his pocket.

Mariam watched him curiously as he pulled out a little black box.

“Oh…my…” said Mariam, intuitively, the minute that she laid her eyes on the box. “Are you asking me to…”

Max stared at Mariam, unsure about how to proceed with it. He stood quietly staring at her for a solid two minutes until Mariam said, “Uh…Max?”

Kneel, you moron. You can gawk at her later, thought Max as he mentally slapped himself, before going down on one knee.

“Mariam…I never thought that there’d come a day that I’d find myself asking you…or anyone, to marry me. I have never believed in fairytale endings or happily ever-afters. And I don’t believe that being with you is my fairytale ending, because nobody knows what the future holds. But you certainly are the beginning of my fairytale. Now I wish I had Rei’s eloquence to be able to come up with a romantic poem on the spot, but that’s not me. I’m all smiles and jokes and mustard on noodles and we have had always had an unconventional relationship. So, in the spirit of that…” said Max, opening the box, mid-sentence.

Okay, here goes nothing.

Much to Mariam’s surprise, Max pulled out a red, silken bandana from the box and tied it around her forehead.

“I could have got a ring…and I will after this, but I don’t do cliches. Now, I’m 14 years late, but here’s a long overdue replacement for the bandana you tied around my arm when I injured myself protecting you in that collapsing building. I’m tying this around your forehead as a promise to protect you for as long as I can, no matter how many buildings collapse on us and no matter what hurts me in the process. So…will you…marry me?” said Max.

Mariam gasped. She looked like someone had punched her in the gut.

“You know, Takao’s garden has just been hosed an hour ago. My jeans are getting soaked in the mud. Could you answer faster?” said Max, sheepishly.

“Well…yes, you idiot!” said Mariam, throwing her arms around Max and hugging him tenderly.

Kissing her softly on the cheek, Max pulled away and looked into her gorgeous green eyes. He had spent many a night looking into them, but this was the first time that he had seen a touch of vulnerability in them. If anything, her eyes looked even more beautiful now.

“Oh, that was so fucking cute, I’m going to faint!”

“Hell yeah, go Maxie!”

“Max, you dawg…”

Shocked, Max and Mariam looked to the left to see their friends peering at them from behind the dojo and giggling amongst themselves. Kai and Brooklyn did not seem to partake in their laughter, but smiled approvingly at him and Mariam.

“How long have you guys been there?” said Max, going red in the face.

“Long enough, buddy,” said Takao, bellowing with laughter.

“You promised you’d be out,” said Max, embarrassedly.

“And miss this? Never!” said Hiromi, slyly.

“Oh yeah, Kyouju even taped it,” said Rei, giving their bespectacled friend a nudge.

“It’s time for some celebration!” said Hiromi.

“Drinks in the garden?” said Takao.

“On it,” volunteered Brooklyn. Kai joined him to go into the house and fetch the celebratory champagne.

Max looked at his friends and then at Mariam, and smiled. He had finally found a sense of contentment that had eluded him for most of his life.

The beginning of a fairytale indeed.

[lyriquette]

RWBY farming au

Conceived in the Frosen Steel server, a RWBY farming / hydroponics AU. I’ll probably use some of the ideas in this for Rising Snow. Mostly background with scattered pieces of actual fic. - lilac 

If people don’t mind this format, I’ll probably post similar world-building AUs in the future.  

Featuring: Penny Polendina, Oscar Pine, Whitley Schnee.  

Because of the freezing cold and the years of industrialization in Mantle, Mantle/Atlas soil is incredibly poor for growing plants. Most food product is imported from Vale, and in turn Atlas supports Vale in terms of sharing their technology. It's why the two Kingdoms are more modern in appearance than the other two kingdoms, not to mention that they were originally good allies during the Great War.

In this AU, Watts develops his murder machines first and ends up winning whatever contract Atlas was offering. The Penny Project is later realized by Pietro, and Pietro later resigns as he picks up on the increasing militarization in Atlas as if General Ironwood was preparing something big - and he wanted his daughter not to be involved.

Pietro decides to move down to the Crater in Mantle to facilitate that. That way no one would know about Penny. He then creates a small shop to help repair electronics and create prosthetics for the unfortunate. It’s through this change in locale that Penny learns how bad things are down at Mantle. 

The main reason is food. Though Atlas and Mantle do have greenhouses, they're only able to supply food for a small amount of people - and it's usually just to the rich who want to eat fresh produce up in Atlas. The rest of the food is imported and thus expensive. In a way, food is a means to keep Mantle underneath Atlas's thumb because if its citizens don't work, they can't eat. If they quit, someone else would gladly take that job just to feed themselves and their family. Thus, a cycle of control is created where people simply can't break free of the poor conditions nor could they really complain, because to them it's happening everywhere. 

The SDC is the main actor in that, given their non-essential businesses are everywhere. If they decide to forcibly close down those businesses, many many people would be out of a job and likely die. Whether the government would act or not is a coin flip - the SDC needs Mantle for labor, but Atlas could run effectively without it - they have robots for labor, the rich for funding, and a military arm in the form of Atlas Academy. 

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

Most of the Faunus who lived in the Crater did not trust Penny and Pietro at first, but given Pietro's generosity and Penny's kind demeanor, they slowly warm up to them. The White Fang within Atlas is more of a community hub that supports each other because they can't afford to be militant; attacks of SDC buildings end up having extremely bad repercussions on Mantle Faunus which includes unofficial anti-Faunus hiring policies or firings - the whim of the SDC can easily kill a couple thousand of them from that alone. 

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

Penny initially started this project, not because she wanted to change the world, but because her father had been getting more sick lately, getting thinner, and starting to get sores in his gums and bleeding more easily. She later on would learn that these were signs of malnutrition - scurvy - things that those living more centrally in Mantle or up in Atlas didn't get but was a problem now because of where they lived. Though buying vitamin supplements did help, it didn't quite replace actual food - and nutrients were often better absorbed and palated in the form of food, especially when it came to the nonessential but still important minerals. 

However, she knew that things simply did not grow in Mantle. And the things that did grow were usually hardy weeds turned poisonous due to absorbing heavy metals from the ground. It was all too common to see a desperate man or woman just collapse shaking from eating too many wild weeds because they couldn't eat anything else. Maybe one day, they could plant enough weeds to help improve Mantle's soil quality, but it didn't help her dad now. 

She's heard of hydroponics before. It wasn't exactly a secret; however, the science was in its infancy stages. Part of it was because people in the food importing business did not want others to grow cheap, domestic food - greenhouses were already bad enough for them. However, the main reason was that people didn't quite know what made plants succeed in growing and creating produce (farmers were the least likely people to work in permanently cold Solitas) - usually the plants failed to germinate, died drooping (overwatering), or end up growing but don't create produce (never bore fruit). Even though there was limited success, the yield would be extremely poor, and the amount of time and energy could've just be used to create another greenhouse instead.

But this was okay for Penny cause all she really had was time and energy. And it wasn't like she was selling food. She just wanted to grow produce, so her dad could eat healthier. 

Her dad supported her efforts by getting the short experiment logs of the initial hydroponics projects at Atlas. And it became clear to Penny that there were many holes in that research with the main factor being that there was not an actual farmer to help with the research. And with the arrogance of Atlasian scientists (Watts being the archetypical example), who would bring a down-to-earth farmer who knew nothing of science and the like? Lacking expertise and knowing that the entirety of Atlas would be of no help, Penny sought the CCT for assistance. 

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

Oscar didn't particularly like farming. He wanted to become a Hunter, but his aunt wouldn't let him. Too dangerous, she said. He might end up mixing with the darker elements of Mistral because of it, not to mention the fact he’d be fighting the Grimm on a regular basis. Better to be a farmer in central Mistral with a nice stable income like how his parents and their parents and their parents' parents lived. 

Still, he never complained out loud. After going to school in the morning, he helped worked the fields in the afternoon, the same as the other farmhands like his uncle and his cousins.  He was living under their roof, and he knew it was hard to provide for a thirteen-year old who was just starting his growth spurt. He probably ate more than his aunt and his baby cousins combined now. And their family generously paid for his living conditions without forcing him into anything he didn't want to do. 

As of late, he's been a bit happier with his lot in life. Using the CCT, someone from Solitas had contacted him in regard to farming - about how they wanted to grow things in Mantle and potentially revolutionize the lives of people there. But they couldn't due to the soil being bad. In what way, he didn't particularly know. They discussed the issue with each other through voice-chat, talking about their very different lives and even the possibility of something called hydroponics - honestly, it felt like finding a kindred spirit. And he looked forward to the days he could talk things out with his new friend. 

"Hey, wait. Check this out," Oscar said as he checked the CCT forums, "Your thread got replied too." 

"Really?" said a bewildered voice on the other line. 

"Yeah, a Penny123 is asking about farming in Mantle too. Even mentioned hydroponics." 

"...Let's try bringing this Penny in." 

"You sure, Whitley?" 

"Yeah. As much as I want us to keep the credit, it's not like we're going anywhere right now. Maybe this person will have new ideas." 

==========

So a duo became a trio. And Whitley was right. What Penny brought to the table was the scientific expertise. She might not know how hydroponics actually worked, but she did have the means to analyze the soil content (retrofitting some of her sensors for more specialized purposes) and simply put - she was a scientist. On the other hand, Oscar had the farming expertise - he knew what soils worked well with which crop, the habits of each plant he grew, he knew what plants liked more water and which ones preferred less, and what a plant should like when it was growing well.

Whitley was the odd duck in the group. First of all, he wasn't quite doing it for altruism's sake. He was doing it because he disliked his family - and really hated the Schnee Dust Company, seeing that it's responsible for his mother's drinking, his parents' loveless marriage, Winter abandoning the rest of the family for Ironwood and the Hunters/Huntresses, and Weiss's likely plans to abandon ship on him too (he's angry at her for that, but after having Oscar to confide in, it wasn't as bad as being left alone and isolated completely.) 

He's also responsible for making sure that his two partners weren't murdered in their sleep. Going this route infringes upon the interests of several major corporations including the SDC and the food import companies. Seeds and food products coming from and going to Solitas were tracked very closely. Penny is also given some chilling news from Whitley: people have tried building greenhouses at the Crater before, and all of them were destroyed without a perpetrator to be found.

The danger was serious enough that Oscar was also planning to move to Solitas to not implicate his aunt and uncle when he and Whitley finally started the project in earnest. With Penny around, Oscar potentially had a place to stay (Oscar also was like "i can do heavy lifting, the dishes, cooking, farming, etc" as part of his self-advertisement). 

Even Whitley acknowledges that he himself might not be safe. One wrong move on his part - and well, if his father was able to endure nearly a decade of loveless marriage just to take over the SDC, there's no telling what he'll do when he realizes he's working against his interests. 

Penny needs some time to think. She now knows that her tiny project of letting her father eat better is connected to the livelihoods of so many and also brings a lot of danger along with it. Not just to herself but to her father - her dad would also be a target if things go south. With her partners’ agreement (since it's inevitable Pietro would get wind of things since the project will be occurring in his house), Penny talks to her dad about the hydroponics / farming project. He's worried for her but understands what she wants to do - she's filled with purpose now and wants to help the people out. As much as he's scared for her and doesn't want her to do this, he can't help but feel a bit of pride about his daughter growing up. Still, he makes her promise that as soon as things start looking bad, they'll stop. They'll quit and not look back. He asks to speak to the other two, not quite realizing they're a pair of thirteen-year olds, and extracts the same promise for their sake. 

------

As plans for moving and gathering soil samples are being made, Pietro starts building Floating Array. 

Penny begins dragging several abandoned shipping containers to the "backyard" of their store, saying her dad needed some raw material for experimentation when in reality it's gonna be where the heart of their project is. 

Weiss starts getting worried about her younger, now constantly sneaking around and speaking to the scroll in hushed tones. She overhears part of his conversation - about how he'd get in a lot of trouble for a certain course of action (directly smuggling goods in using his authority) - and worries that he's getting bullied. 

Oscar tells his family that his friend found him a job working as an engineer's assistance in Solitas, and he'd like to stay there for a year. His place of employment has already paid for the transcontinental ticket.

[hushedhands]

okay, I sent in my ballot a couple of days ago, but I was trying to come up with a unique and interesting prompt, lol. All I got is this: is there an idea that you wanted to explore, but is decidedly non-canon in your stories? Like an AU of your own work. Something wild. Like time travel, haha. (also I stole the idea of motivating people to vote, remind others to vote, or volunteer by providing fic previews. No one has cashed in on my offer but I tried lol)

So, the only AU I can think of for Laws of Inheritance would be if Avery lived and Maxon died. Addy’s an only child, she’s been raised abroad to keep her safe because she’s the last Schreave, and America’s been running things with the advisers in the mean time. Now Addy’s old enough to move home, but she doesn’t know anyone very well, and she’s not culturally very Illéan, but everyone’s expecting her to be Queen. Sometimes there are still rebels. 

Anyway, what a bummer! So instead, I’ll tell you my The Thing with Feathers AU idea. I can’t fully write a challenge of it without giving away the ending of the actual fic (there’d even be clues about the ending in who is cast in certain roles!), but I can give you a very detailed outline. Here goes: 

**The Thing with Feathers Coffee Shop AU/ Lifetime Original Christmas Movie**

- Addy is the heir to the largest coffee shop chain in the world, basically Starbucks. It’s called Schreave’s I guess. 

- Addy gets caught partying with her boyfriend (Martin) by the paparazzi and Maxon realizes his socialite daughter needs Discipline. He’s like, “Adrienne, you will enroll in school in the fall and you will work part-time at the coffee shop on campus (they have a Schreave’s on campus). And Addy’s like, “I don’t need to know how to make coffee, I need to know how to manage a global brand, that’s totally different!” but she’s in too much trouble, so she has to go. 

- Her little siblings are the exact same, but they get to do all the normal stuff they want. Lief can ride rollercoasters and Jamesy is in the Boy Scouts, and Maisy’s the star of her private school soccer team. 

- Addy starts school and she’s surprised that she actually likes it. Her brand management classes are really practical, so she doesn’t even have to buy a textbook. Most students know she’s an heiress, but some people just think it’s funny that she has the same last name as that coffee shop chain. 

- On the other hand, she’s never had to work a part-time job before, and her manager (Lenore!) is very hard on her. Addy only got the job because her dad is Mr. Starbucks (okay, Schreave’s), and Lenore makes Addy do all the lame stuff (washing machinery, carrying in shipments of milk and coffee beans) and won’t let her do any of the fun stuff (drawing on the chalkboard to advertise today’s specials, learning to make fun latte foam art). 

- Then one day, a cute boy walks in. I won’t tell you his name, but he’s Addy’s future husband. He just orders his drink and leaves her a really nice tip and that’s it. Lenore makes fun of Addy for making googly eyes at him while he leaves the shop. Addy is a bazillionaire, so she will save every tip he ever gives her in a coffee can (Hello, America’s penny jar!) 

- The boy comes back the next day and the next day. Addy learns his order and gets it ready for him just before he arrives, and then one day she gets bold and writes her phone number on the cardboard sleeve that covers his coffee! 

- He doesn’t call her or text her all day, and she’s DYING of embarrassment because like, maybe she read him wrong and he doesn’t like her?? Now she has to see him again the next day and he ignored her! BUT

- he texts her that night and they start a cute little texting exchange, they learn about each other’s families and favorite books and tv shows, and they get to know each other through that way. He still only comes by the coffee shop to pick up his order, leave her a tip, and go. Addy draws him doodles on his coffee sleeves every time. He saves every single coffee sleeve, starting with the phone number one, and will keep them forever just like Addy keeps the tips, but Addy doesn’t know that yet!

- Addy catches Lenore studying for an exam when she’s supposed to be working, but instead of dunking on Lenore as revenge for how hard she’s been on Addy, Addy just helps her study and by the end of the night they’re cool. 

- There’s a football game coming up, so Addy writes on the sleeve of Future Husband’s coffee, asking if he wants to go with her. He returns to the coffee shop that afternoon (his first time ever to make a second trip in the same day), just to give her her ticket and offer to walk with her from her dorm to the stadium that night. Their first date! The game is fun, their school wins, they go eat dinner at the diner afterwards, they kiss each other goodnight. 

- They go on a few more dates after that, and Addy’s feelings are getting serious, but wait! Her dad is coming into town to give her a ride to a ski resort on the family private jet for the holidays. How will he feel if Addy tells him she’s started dating someone? Probably bad, because the last time she got in trouble it was with her ex-boyfriend! She has to keep Future Husband a secret! 

- But Addy’s all lovelorn and listless, even though it’s Christmas, and she misses her cute boyfriend and her shifts at the coffee shop. She knows how to make her dad’s favorite order now which impresses him. He’s very proud of her, and impressed with how much she’s grown in her semester at school, but he can tell that she’s not happy. America notices Addy all curled up on one of those window bay seats overlooking a gorgeous ski lift, texting and sighing, and finally gets Addy to admit it. She has serious feelings for a boy, but she’s a coffee heiress and it’s complicated

- It turns out America was just a normal teenage girl from South Carolina when she met Maxon by chance! It was the first time Clarkson had ever sent Maxon out on his own to handle a negotiation. Maxon was supposed to meet with local farmers about supplying the coffee shop chain with milk and produce in that region. He also met with artists whose paintings they would feature on the coffee shop walls in that area. That’s how Maxon met Shalom, who brought America along for the meeting to help carry his sample paintings. The rest was history!

- So if Maxon could marry some painter’s daughter from the middle of nowhere in South Carolina, why couldn’t Addy date a student at her school? Addy tells her mother Future Husband’s name, and America works her magic, but Addy doesn’t know it yet. 

- Addy spends Christmas eve night with her siblings, playing in the snow. They go to sleep, but all Addy wants for Christmas is Future Husband. 

- The next morning, guess who’s sitting in the living room of their million-dollar ski lodge penthouse? Future Husband! America snuck his phone number from Addy’s phone and convinced Maxon to use his connections to fly Future Husband to the ski resort overnight.

- Does Addy get other rich-people things for Christmas, like diamonds and expensive laptops or something? Of course! But her real present is Future Husband, who is going to spend the rest of winter break with her, getting to know the fam. They’ll even get to spend New Year’s Eve together! The fic/movie ends with the camera zooming in on a kiss under the mistletoe between Addy and her Future Husband! 

**The End**

(until the sequel when he proposes!) 

[sea-side-scribbles]

Fanfiction: Sympathy For A Downer

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22737214/chapters/73379652

Chapter 52

Arthur was overwhelmed with feelings when he went back to his hideout. His life as a Downer had been changing ever since he met Nick. And now, he wasn’t alone anymore. He met Nick everywhere. He wasn’t only in the tunnel, but also in every shop, in every house he broke in - yeah, he had to admit to himself that he was breaking into people’s houses, not very often, but it happened, because he couldn’t find everything he needed in the Garden District - but also on the street. Nick’s music was playing everywhere. He was certain he had heard the entire new record multiple times now. Also the Wellies sang his songs while strolling around. 

But most important was his own voice - it was as if Nick kept talking to him, comforting him.

On the one hand it made his lonely tours more pleasant, on the other hand, he had to take care that Nick didn’t distract him too much. There seemed to be a swarm of butterflies fluttering up whenever he heard just a single note. 

While taking a shower, he caught himself humming one of his songs to himself. “Smile Again“ was somehow fitting, as if Nick had secretly written the lyrics for him.

One moment, he found it absurd that he was standing in a scruffy shower, in an abandoned tunnel where some time ago some workers had most likely perished from a bad badge of Joy, warbling a song to himself, and feeling happier than ever before.

The next moment he told himself to stop wondering at things in a town like this. The only one he thought he should wonder at was Nick.

How could a fucked up place like this create someone like Nick? Someone as innocent and peaceful? Everyone thought he was crazy, but instead he was the most sensible Wellie he had ever met. 

Well, perhaps not that sensible, because he got involved with someone like Arthur.

Arthur was in fact surprised about himself, that he didn’t make a mess already. Nick seemed to bring out the best in him. With him by his side, he suddenly enjoyed everything in Wellington Wells, even the depressing Garden District. And he couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Arthur was in fact taking a shower because he didn’t want to approach Nick being all dirty and smelling of Motilene. In the old days he had been so rushed and afraid, that he hadn’t spent too much time on cleaning before running to the next hatch. He didn’t like the shower too much. The water was only lukewarm, and full of Joy. 

Cleaned and properly dressed, he went to Nick’s suite, that he also kept clean. Only the surfaces of course, he wasn’t digging into Nick’s private stuff, but enough to keep this in it’s original state. The suite was the only pretty place in this tunnel and he didn’t like it when something so neat got dirty. And in a way, it was also his home. 

“Nick?“, he asked carefully, but unfortunately he didn’t get an answer. He assumed the rockstar was still busy. Then his gaze fell on a silver shimmer that came from his bed. That was new. Arthur stepped closer and found a letter that had his name on it. Curiously, he lifted it up. 

“Arthur, darling,

I brought you a little something.

I miss you too,

yours Nicky“

The message was written with a pink pen and circled with a heart. It looked incredibly kitschy, yet Arthur couldn’t stop staring at it. Then he eyed his gift and his heart missed a beat. 

Chocolates. 

No one had given him chocolates before. It was something you don’t buy for yourself, it was something romantic. Arthur carefully opened the box and marveled at the little pieces of chocolate that looked almost to neatly to be eaten. For a second he had to pause and fight the tears back that forced themselves on him. 

By the looks of it, he now had his own kitschy and romantic relationship, with flowers and chocolates, strolls in the park, dinners in expensive restaurants and wild nights, the way he only knew it from the penny dreadfuls that had sometimes found their way into his hands in lonely evenings. The way he thought it would never happen to him, until he believed he would hate it anyway. And there he was, almost crying. He wanted to thank Nick for everything he did, for everything he had already given to him. But he assumed that would look rather silly. 

Still, he thought about visiting the rockstar again. Mrs. Oliphant was pestering him anyway, telling him he should write another article soon. The “O“ Courant really had a crisis. Nothing happened, or at least nothing they could inform a decent Wellie about, so they had to exploit their old articles over and over, hoping that no one would notice. So Arthur could just as well come by with the excuse that he had more questions about the band’s new success. At last, that felt better than copying his old article. 

He didn’t dare to touch the chocolate yet. He put it back on the bed, saving it for the moment he would come back here with Nick and try it with him. He hummed another song while walking to his house.

The Bobby at the entrance remembered him. 

“Here, Constable, for your supply“, he said and handed him a sandwich. He didn’t want to knock him out after all. 

“That’s too kind of you, Mr. Hastings“, Hunt said cheerfully. “I’m afraid Mr. Lightbearer is away, handling business with Mr Memento. But the rest of the band is here, in case you want to ask them out.“

Arthur wasn’t too disappointed. He knew it was never easy. So he could at least do his job while waiting for Nick. Hunt let him enter.

“Virgil, is that you?“, someone asked and came round the corner.

“No, it’s just me, Arthur. From the “O“ Courant. Do you remember me?“

“Arthur“, said the man he recognized as the drummer. “Of course I remember you. Could it be that you’re not here for entirely selfless reasons?“

“Oh, well…“

Now also the two guitarists joined them.

“You’ve come just in time to play a  game with us“, they said.

“A game? Well, if you think…“

“Sure. First you help us, then we help you. Come on, it’s gonna be fun!“

“Don’t be a Downer, Arthur!“

”A Downer, me?“ Arthur laughed nervously. “How ridiculous.“

He looked into their faces, realizing that there was no way out. Games were almost sacred in Wellington Wells, you didn’t just refuse them if you didn’t want to raise suspicion. So he went along.

“So…what are we playing?“, he asked and then jumped backwards.

The lead guitarist had brought out an electric truncheon. Arthur prepared for a fight, but Chris calmed him down.

“Hey, don’t worry, it’s not a real weapon. It only tickles. It can be very useful though.“

He eyed the truncheon, almost lovingly.

“If you’re into that sort of thing…“ Arthur didn’t like where this was going. The last time he saw one of these was in the Reform Club.

„Come on, who doesn’t like Simon Says?“

Arthur laughed with relief. “Oh, I do. I love that game!“

“What did you think?“, Brad asked him grinning.

Arthur made an embarrassed noise.

“Nothing, I had no idea.“

He followed the band to the telly, that they turned on to watch Uncle Jack announce the game.

“Did he say we need an electric truncheon for this?“

They laughed.

“No, but we like to spice it up a little“, Matt explained. 

“If everybody is a winner, where’s the challenge?“, Brad added.

“Heads up, it’s starting“, Chris said.

Arthur did his best to act like he had a blast. Uncle Jack’s instructions were quite easy. He remembered it to be a bigger challenge to follow his orders, but he guessed that the Joy had made it harder to remember them. He kept thinking about Nick and the moment he would finally come home and find Arthur like that. But he wouldn’t mind, right? It was the town’s most favorite game after all, no matter that it looked silly.

Suddenly something hard and cold hit his hips and a spark of electricity ran through his body. It was enough to startle him.

“What are you doing?“, Matt asked him laughing. “Are you even listening?“

“I’m giving my best, I swear“, he replied, adjusting his hair with his hands. He feared it would stand on end. Promptly, another shock hit him.

“Wrong order, or do you have your feet on your head?“

“I wasn’t finished !“, Arthur protested.

Now moving was harder.

“Are you sure this is harmless?“

He didn’t get an answer. Instead he had to turn around in a circle, so that they wouldn’t zap him again. Uncle Jack was now more mean, aiming at tiring the players out. Anyway, Arthur felt ridiculous. He remembered it being more fun, but now he couldn’t imagine it being everyone’s favorite game. Victoria Byng for example. In fact, she had never appeared to the breaks when they had played Simon Says, and that would have been a show indeed. He imagined her slapping her own face. A very funny image that made him grin widely. His grin vanished when another shock came upon him, making him gasp in pain. The shivering was more persistent now, so was the tickling.

“Poor Arthur, looks like it’s not the best of your days“, Chris teased him, not noticing that Uncle Jack was giving another instruction. Sniffing his chance for revenge, Arthur grabbed the tickler and gave him a charge that made his hair stand on end too. With his long hair it looked even more funny.

“You have to pay attention!“, Arthur shouted. But the tickler was soon snatched out of his hands and used against him.

“He didn’t say Simon Says!“, Brad informed him. Arthur skillfully wriggled the fake weapon out of his hands and payed him back.

“I think he did!“

Because of his carelessness, the tickler could change his owner again, this time it was Matt.

“This isn’t about what you think“, he said laughing and hit Arthur’s leg. For a second it gave up and Arthur fell on the floor, dragging the bass player with him.

“Holy shit.“ Arthur crouched away fro the other man, still shivering. The tickler rolled away.

“Oh, no no no…“ He followed it to make sure he wouldn’t get another shock from it. It was enough for today. But Chris quickly stepped on it.

“Not so fast, Artie. You have to give others a chance too.“

“Not in this game“, Arthur decided and turned on the electricity. It ran along Chris’ leg and he jumped away, moaning. With his loot in his hands, he planned to climb on the coffee table to ask for a break, but a moment later he lay on the ground again. Nobody payed attention to Uncle Jack, everyone just tried to get the truncheon from Arthur. Arthur, who wasn’t quite all there anymore, dealt out shocks until Brad shortly but effectively twisted his arm. Then he himself got his share. The typical scent of electricity filled the room while they exhausted their own energies. Some time later they all lay on the floor, moaning and scratching their itching spots.

„And that’s Simon Says for today! I hope you had just as much fun as me - but what am I saying - of course you had fun! And you’re sure to turn on tomorrow, at the same time, for another episode of Simon Says with Uncle Jack, that’s me!“

“Fuck off“, Arthur thought. He heard that a door opened in the corridor. His flight instinct came back, but he was too exhausted to get up. He only moaned a little louder. Footsteps came closer.

“What happened in here?“, he heard Nick ask. “Must’ve been a drop-dead program“, the rockstar giggled over it. Then he found him

“Arthur!“ Nick knelt down next to him.

“What did you do to him?“, he asked the helpless band that couldn’t answer. When he tried to touch Arthur, a spark flashed over his fingers.

“Ouch!“

“Careful!“, Arthur heard another voice say. It had to me Morrie’s.

“I won“, Arthur suddenly muttered. It had occurred to him as important for a second. Nick stared at him, but there were no more words.

“Looks like Simon Says to me“, Morrie said while Nick watched him pick up the tickler. “Does that belong to your special inventory, Nicky?“

Nick felt the tickle at the mere thought.

“I forgot I still have that.“

Then he shoved his hands under Arthurs back and knees and lifted him up.

“I…better put him on the couch…he’s my guest after all…“, he explained to Morrie and put Arthur down on fluffy cushions.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?“

Arthur made an incomprehensible noise as an answer.

“How did they get him to play?“

Morrie took it calmly. “I’m sure he came here all by himself to stick his nose in our business again.“

Nick sighed. He believed to know better.

“You’re probably right“, he however said. 

Looking back to Morrie, he saw that he had lifted up Matt. Nick feared it would look suspicious if he gave Arthur to priority, so he helped Morrie to give the others a softer bed. Even though he thought they didn’t deserve it. He was sure they had planned to knock Arthur out so he couldn’t ask any questions. Teasing the journalist, as usual. He had to admit that most of them were a pain in the arse, but not Arthur. Nick would’ve loved to tuck him up, but that would’ve been even more suspicious. 

“I guess we can only wait for them to wake up“, he told Morrie.

“Or we go upstairs and enjoy our peace and quiet“, his lover whispered.

Nick understood that he couldn’t watch over Arthur now.

“He’s safe here“, Morrie added, forcing Nick to set himself in motion. He took the tickler.

“I better confiscate this, just in case they plan to play another round.“

Morrie eyed the weapon. “Looks like this is going to be an interesting night.“

“I’ll do whatever you say, Morrie“.

His lover gestured him to follow him, before he went upstairs. Their day had been wonderful so far and Morrie was in a very good mood. 

“But don’t over do it, like some people“, he added. His lover kissed him.

Arriving in Nick’s room, he said: “You worry about Arthur, don’t you?“

“Well…’worry’ is too big of a word, but they could’ve been more careful with him.“

“You like him“, Morrie said and Nick felt a shiver run down his spine.

“He’s okay for a reporter.“

He didn’t like Morrie’s look.

“What?“

“I don’t trust him“, his lover said thoughtfully. “He’s hiding something.“

“Oh, Morrie, everyone hides something. Us too.“

“Still…we shouldn’t allow him to come so close. It’s enough that he stays overnight.“

“Of course, Morrie. We have to wait until he can walk. Tomorrow, we answer his questions, so people remember us again, he goes home and all is well.“

“And then he’ll come back.“

“Sure…Any reporter would try to get at us sooner or later, there’s nothing we can do about it. And why not him? His article was smashing and the photos were stunning - especially yours. He must have a soft spot for you.“

Nick stroked Morrie’s half unbuttoned shirt.

“What’s that supposed to mean?“ Morrie gave a flattered grin.

“Well…it could be the reason why you don’t trust him.“

Morrie’s eyebrow twitched.

“What are you getting at?“

Their fingers played with each other.

“Perhaps that you don’t like to let people get close to you“, Nick said quietly.

“I let you get close“, Morrie whispered back.

“For that I am deeply grateful“.

They kissed again, explored each other as if they met for the first time. They liked what they found.

“Just be careful, okay?“, Morrie asked after a while.

“Yeah“, Nick sighed, searching for his lips again.

“You can decide who your friends are.“

Nick impatiently bit his jawline. He was done thinking for now. Pulling his lover into a tight embrace, he hoped that he would grant him some tickles.

A dazzling night later Nick awoke, wrapped into a pleasant cloud of sleepiness. He lay on Morrie, who was reading a book.

“Well, my long sleeper, how do you do?“, Morrie quietly said and kissed his forehead.

“Are you awake for long?“, Nick asked, eyeing the book.

Morrie turned back. “I guess, a few pages…“

“Why didn’t you wake me up?“

“Because you need your beauty sleep, my darling. And also I found it very cozy in here.“

Nick chuckled a bit. “I wonder if our manager ran away. I didn’t hear anything from him yet.“

“I’m sure he’ll come back soon enough with a last-minute appointment.“

Nick yawned and stretched extensively. Then he stayed in bed anyway.

“Wake me up when he’s back“, he muttered from under the blanket.

“Oh, I will.“ Morrie put down the book to look at him. “And I’ll protect you in case that reporter dares to bother you again.“

A sudden realization flashed through Nick’s body.

“Oh…right…he’s still waiting for me“, he muttered, trying to sound annoyed.

“Perhaps not anymore. It’s late after all.“

Nick felt remorse. “How late?“

“Almost 10 o’ clock“, Morrie said, looking at his watch. 

Nick sat up.

“Are you getting up for him now?“, Morrie promptly asked.

“What if he’s still here?“, Nick replied. “The earlier I talk to him the earlier he’s gone.“

His lover had to agree to that. Nick left the room, adjusted his looks in the bathroom and went downstairs, following the sound of chattering. He found his band and Arthur sitting in front of the telly again, talking and looking alright.

“Good morning, lads“, Nick made himself noticeable. “Are you okay?“

“Nicky“, he was greeted happily. “You’re up so soon, what’s wrong? Is Kitty coming back?“

Another shiver ran down Nick’s spine. “Not that I remember…“

“You’re long awaited“.

Nick looked around, all alarmed until he noticed that they were pointing at Arthur.

“Oh, I guess I’m at your mercy now.“

“It won’t take long, if you haven’t got the time“, Arthur said.

“I have time“, Nick assured him. “Virgil isn’t here, right?“, he asked the band.

“No, I guess he has better things to do“.

“So there’s plenty of time“.

Nick led Arthur upstairs into the third floor, because he couldn’t invite him into his bedroom when Morrie was still there. He hoped that Arthur didn’t mind. They made themselves as comfortable as possible. At least they had a bar in that floor.

“Are you thirsty?“, Nick asked, pointing at it.

“Er, no, thank you.“

“Are you sure?“

“I don’t drink alcohol before noon…Not that I’m judging it or something…“ He stuttered, wishing he could kick his own shin.

“Okay“. Nick looked rather amused. Then he turned more serious. “Are you alright? I can help you if you’re hurt.“

He took his hands.

“Yeah…I’m okay…“ Arthur returned Nick’s squeeze.

“Listen, Nick, I only wanted to thank you. For your present. I was so happy to get a message from you after that lonely night…“

“Oh, Artie…“ Nick lifted his fingers up to his lips. “I don’t like to leave you alone. But I have to go back to my band now and then, or this won’t work.“

“I know. I see that you’re busy. This is a full house.“

“Yeah…but beautiful, isn’t it?“

“Yeah…it’s like a different world that I’m invading.“

“Arthur…you’re not invading, you’re welcome. There’s always someone to let you in.“

“Right, someone else who’s busy…“

“So what? You’re a reporter, you have to do your job. People have a right to read about me“, Nick joked to cheer him up. “Did they hurt you. Did they force you to play?“

Arthur shook his head. “No, they’re quite nice. I think they wanted to play anyway and I just came by. I’m surprised they didn’t kick me out. Anyway. When we could move again they downright swarmed around me to see if I was okay. Then they let me stay overnight even though it wasn’t curfew yet. And this morning they told me you normally sleep late and spent even more time with me. They answered my questions so I can give my boss something to read.“

Arthur couldn’t hide how much he wondered at that.

“See? They like you“, Nick said softly. “After all, what’s not to like about you?“

Arthur was flattered.

“I think Morrie Memento doesn’t like me.“

Nick gulped. “ Well…he…I think he feels that you are…different“, he beat around the bush. “I mean that you’re not taking Joy, maybe…“

Arthur tensed. “Shit….I should really go.“

“Oh Arthur, I’m so sorry…“

“It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I can’t stroll around like that and expect no one to notice…“, he said more bitterly than he had planned.

“I’ll come back soon“, Nick whispered. “You don’t have to put yourself in danger to see me.“

“I was so naive coming here…“

“Don’t beat yourself up, my dear. Nothing happened so far.“

Arthur nodded, looking like he was eager to leave.

“Hey, Arthur“, Nick held him back. “We still have some time. Morrie won’t watch us now and when I escort you to the door you’ll be fine. If you want your interview, you can get it.“

“You don’t have to…“ Arthur shyly pulled out his notepad.

“Nonsense“, Nick said cheerfully, putting his legs on the table. “I could talk about myself all day. What do you want to know?“

[nephilimsarchive]

If only you knew (pt.3) | Arthur Fleck x reader smut

Summary: You hadn’t seen him in a while after your last meeting, but fate always seemed to find away to bring you together.

Note: im so sorry this took so long, hope you like it!

Warnings: nsfw content under the cut, don’t read if you are under 18, lots of swearing, unprotected sex, public-ish sex

Word Count: 4937

Read the first part here.

Second part here.

Arthur woke up early the next morning, slowing adjusting to his surroundings as sunlight shone into his eyes. You had been on his mind all night long. He could see you so vividly, soft (h/c) hair falling onto your shoulders, lidded (e/c) eyes staring up at him through flushed cheeks, and that breathtaking smile. You had absolutely bewitched him, occupying every second of his dreams since nightfall.

He was so caught up with the image in his head that only then he noticed that the bed he was laying in wasn’t his, and the weight on his left shoulder wasn’t usually there. He lazily turned his head, wanting to savor every second of this marvelous dream. His jaw collided with something soft, eyes shooting open at the realization.

He was awake. And you were there. With him.

His arm was slung around you, hand on your waist, cuddling as if you were lovers. Soft breaths made their way past your plump lips, the expression on your face one of pure peacefulness. He had wanted to fight the urge to kiss you, but ended up gently pecking the top of your head anyway. Try as he might, he couldn’t escape his emerging feelings for you. Actually, they were growing with every minute he spent gazing at your sleeping form, drawing small circles on your waist with his thumb. He had never met anyone quite like you, and it was scaring him. Never had he been exposed to such kindness, you didn’t judge him like so many other people did. Then again …you didn’t know about his condition, you didn’t know much about him at all. Neither did he, you could have a boyfriend, or worse - a husband. You didn’t know he was earning money as a clown, and you didn’t know how damn much he adored you after one single night. What if this was nothing but fun to you?

A bitter feeling spread through his chest at the thought, but his lips curved into a smile. Oh, he knew what was coming, and how much he hated it.

He tried to untangle himself from your embrace swiftly, making you shift and sigh. His chest heaved as laughter bubbled up inside him. “Stay.”, he heard you mumble, voice sleepy. Lips tightly shut he ignored your plea, making his heart ache. He picked up his clothes as quickly as he could, trying to get out before he could startle you with one of his uncontrollable fits. Getting into his pants he clasped his hand in front of his mouth, cursing his illness for what must be the millionth time. He would’ve loved to spend more time laying with you, it was too early to even stay up. But he’d be damned if he woke you up with this, seeing the horror in your face as you’d surely question your decision to spend the night with him - or even talk to him at all. Unwanted laughter escaped him even before exiting your flat, and he could only hope you didn’t hear.

If Arthur leaving your side didn’t wake you up yet, the door falling shut after hearing him chortle surely did. You turned onto your back drowsily, tired eyes staring at the ceiling while you pondered if you should’ve gone after him. But you didn’t. Instead you were lying awake, at 5 in the morning.

—

The days since Arthurs and your last meeting were fairly uneventful. In fact, you hadn’t seen or heard from him at all. Whenever you were at university Arthur was home, and whenever he was at work you were back. One day you were sure you had heard him in his flat, but your knock on the door had been ignored. Some people would say he is trying to avoid you at all costs, and frankly, they’d be correct.

Now, he didn’t at all intend to be like this, but to say he was overwhelmed with the whole situation would be an understatement. There were so many questions and emotions in his head that he had to sort out. When he entered his flat that morning he swore to himself that he’d find a way to explain his condition, and that he only left because he didn’t want to disturb you. He’d say that he’s absolutely smitten with you, for plenty of reasons, and then he’d ask you out.

In his head, he played out this scene a thousand times. He thought about what to wear, and thought about whether he should give you chocolates or flowers. But when it actually came to doing what he had planned, something held him back. Even though he knew you tried to reach out to him, years of negative experiences of not being cared for discouraged him. Not to mention the fact that Arthur never had any sort of romantic relationship, and thus only could try to impress you with what he had seen on TV.

Penny had noticed immediately that something within him changed as he came back that morning. He had told her about you, of course not in more detail than necessary, and she knew how much he felt for you with the way he spoke. His eyes shone as bright as stars and the corners of his mouth curved upwards whenever your name was mentioned. She saw him then, standing in front of the small mirror in his bedroom, in that outfit he had laid out days ago, fixing his hair.

No doubt he was going through what he wanted to say to you in his head. “Happy.”, she exclaimed, the tone of her voice soothing “Just go, she’ll say yes.”.

He saw his mothers reflection through the mirror, pondering what she said. Then he thought about you, about how accomplished he would feel if he did this - a smile crept across his face. He kissed Pennys forehead and strutted out of the flat.

—

A small box of chocolates was stowed in his bag as his hand reached out to one of the buttons of the elevator, then to his hair to smooth it out. He had saved up for the occasion, not enough to buy one of those fancy golden packages with more flavors you could count, but a decent one nonetheless.

Just then you were coming back home, your (f/c) dress flowing in the breeze, feeling shivers run down your legs. Having to pick up a pace as you saw the elevator doors sliding shut, you were barely able to squeeze through the remaining gap.

And there he stood. Arthur.

His hair was perfectly in place, he wore black dress pants, a jacket and beneath that a simple white button up. Truthfully, he looked amazing. Both of you were surprised at whose company you found yourselves with. You wanted to ask him whether you had done something wrong, whether you had pressured him into something he didn’t want. You wanted to make him feel like he can talk to you, trust you even. Anything that sounded like you weren’t as hurt by his behavior.

But no words made it past your lips. You just stood there, staring blankly at the elevator doors.

Arthur couldn’t believe his eyes as you had stepped in. Your hair was up in a ponytail, a few thin strands had fallen out because of the wind. A pretty (f/c) dress ended just above your knees, showing off your gorgeous figure in all the right places. You looked like an angel. Beautiful, intimidatingly so.

He had expected you to say something, but you stayed mute. The seconds went by agonizingly slow as his hands grew sweaty around the handles of the tiny bag he was carrying. Before, you were so wonderfully outgoing and open with him, and now he had rendered you to this state.

Only then he noticed how you must’ve blamed yourself for his actions.

Even the tiniest scratching sound the elevator made seemed louder than usual, when suddenly it came to the same unsteady halt the elevator always made, signaling that you would be up soon.

Something inside Arthur switched, there was no way he was going to let this stupid elevator, or his stupid illness destroy what he had spent all week preparing and rehearsing. He knew he’d regret if he let you walk away. So, without thinking twice, his elbow crashed onto the emergency button. You jumped, shrieking in shock as the machine stopped any movement completely, lights turning off. A dim lightbulb flickered to life - you could barely make out Arthur. He was walking towards you in the strobing light, determination in his eyes that you had only seen from him once before. He stood in front of you, bringing his hands to your cheeks before pulling you in to kiss you deeply.

As your lips touched his you felt complete again. He lingered on the softness of your skin, but broke away too soon. The kiss hadn’t been long, but held emotions words cannot convey. Gently, he rested his forehead against yours. A blush surely would have been visible on your cheeks if the lighting was better. He opened his eyes to find you looking up at him, the wild look in his eyes was gone as quickly as it came. As if he was constantly between stuck two extremes, an angel and a devil on his shoulders.

„I’m so, so sorry.“, he whispered, „I never meant to make you feel bad, or ignore you.“ Cautiously, he took your small hands into his, rubbing circles over your knuckles with his thumb, thankful that you didn’t pull back.

He told you about his condition, about his doubts, and about the fact that no matter how hard he tried to fight it, there is always a part of him that thinks he isn’t deserving of the affection you gave him - or that you simply didn’t mean it. He explained that he left so his illness wouldn’t ruin the one thing that seems to bring a sense of happiness to his life. You. He meant you.

You felt tears forming in your eyes, both from feeling honored and not wanting to hear him talk about himself like that. A staggering amount of - dare you say love? - built up inside your chest. He noticed your tears, and just like that all of his personal worries were replaced by concern for you.

„Are you alright?“, he asked. You nodded and pulled him into a hug, savoring his closeness as he ran his hand down your back soothingly. Stroking his cheek with your thumb, you glanced into his eyes, “Don’t you dare even for one second think that I’m just playing with you, or that you don’t deserve love.“, you brushed away your tears, voice growing more and more steady with each of your words, „You’re the most kind-hearted man I’ve ever met. I like you for you, I like how much you try to always do the right thing. I love hearing you laugh, I love being close to you. I don’t care if you’re older than me, or if you don’t have a lot of experience with relationships. There’s something incredibly romantic about that, actually. And I couldn’t be any happier that you trust me enough to let me be your first..“.

A short silence engulfed you. Then he beamed, a genuine expression of joy on his clean-cut face. „If that‘s the case.. There is something I‘ve been wanting to, uh, ask you anyway.“. He stepped back attentively, picking up an item you hadn’t noticed was there. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, he looked you over and began „Y/N.“, another big breath, „I have never expected to meet anyone who is as nice to me as you have been.“, his certainty crumbled for a second, then he smiled again. „You are the most stunning woman I have ever laid my eyes on, and I‘d be more than honored if you wanted to go out with me.“, shaky hands handed you a box of chocolates, which - to his luck - was your favorite candy.

Contemplating whether he messed up the small text he had come up with his stare was fixated onto the ground before him, too shy to be able to see the grin on your face. You adored how much effort he put into this. It was obvious how much he was trying to do this properly, after your rather unconventional start.

You stepped closer to him, tilting his chin up with your fingers. „Of course, Arthur. I‘d love to.“, you said, pecking him on his lips sweetly. Pulling back, you studied his features, breathing in his scent as he held you close. The look in his eyes was soft and loving, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “You have no idea how handsome you are, do you?”, you stroked his hair absentmindedly. The response to your question was an alarmingly red blush on his cheeks, his eyes blown wide. He had never, ever gotten complimented on his looks before. You giggled and pressed a kiss onto his nose.

You stood like that for a while before you took a step backwards. You properly assessed the situation;  you were stuck, and had no idea when any help would show up. Arthur seemed to realize that, too. “Well, what are we going to do now?”, you queried, looking around you for inspiration, and finding none. “We can’t have our first real date in a brittle elevator.” He laughed at that, leaning onto one of the walls, his arms crossed. Looking you over he licked his lips subconsciously. Being with you made him feel much more secure in so many ways. Above all, he felt like he could fully be himself. To the extent that it brought out parts of Arthur not even he himself had known until then. A cocky smirk lit up his face. “I’d have an idea.”

You raised your eyebrows while he was taking off his jacket, throwing it into a corner. You were fully aware what he was talking about, but ready to challenge him. “Oh?”, you hushed, propping yourself up on the wall opposite him, “And what might that be?”. His long fingers rolled up his sleeves, keeping his eyes on you.

The grin on his face never faltered while he took two big confident steps towards you, placing one of his hands next to your head. Heat radiated off him in waves as he stood in front if you, towering over your smaller form and tilting up your chin just like you had before. “I don’t think you’re in the position to act coy, little one.”, he growled, peeling you out of your coat „In fact, last time you made the naughtiest of sounds for me.“.

The way he spoke sent shivers down your spine, and he knew that.

His hand reached your waist as his head moved to your neck, he trailed kisses from the shell of your ear to your neck, sliding down a strap of your dress to reach that certain spot on your shoulder.

He had paid attention, taking note of every tiny detail that made you melt under his hands. When he drew back you grabbed his collar, crashing your lips onto his. Desire and hunger controlled you as your tongues danced. Arthur took complete control of the kiss, unspoken permission in each of your gasps. His kisses were desperate, verging on starvation as he bucked his hips against you. You moaned at the contact, hands tangled into his hair, which - combined with your dress sliding up your legs ever so slightly - resulted in a low hum from your lover.

His cock was hard as he ground himself against you, a familiar wetness spreading between your legs. He shifted, tilting his head to test out new angles, tasting you until you finally broke away.

“Arthur..”, your voice sounded alien to yourself. He had you wrapped around his finger in no time, and he loved it. Just once, he did what he wanted, not thinking about the consequences. His eyes travelled over your body, lingering on your chest. The buttons that held your dress closed over your breast were tensioning with every breath you took. The motion of your chest rising and falling provoked him to slither his fingers up your hip to your stomach. Feeling his knuckles ghost over your hardened nipples you released a breath you didn’t realize you were holding. You watched as delicate fingers popped open one button after the other, not daring to move. A sharp intake of breath rang in the silence of the room when it was just enough for him to be able to see your bra.

He took in the sight before him. Red laces graced your full cleavage, the fabric tensing over your nipples while you rubbed your thighs against each other subconsciously. Noticing your doings he pushed a knee between your legs, keeping them apart.

„Tsk, tsk.“, he scolded, „So impatient, so eager.“ His left hand pinched your nipple, making you whimper in delight. Slender fingers brushed under the edge of the lacy cloth, exposing you to him as his right hand began kneading your other breast. He came even closer to you, intentionally brushing his leg along your slit. „Patience“, he had said, „is a virtue.“ You shivered at how sultry and controlling he sounded, but his antics were a double edged sword. His lips came down, leaving open mouthed kisses all over your breasts. You arched your back, feeling his stiff member twitch as he left little bites and marks. His hands wandered over your body freely this time, not holding back whatsoever. Becoming aware of the cold air on your skin you groaned out his name again.

„Hmm?“, his voice vibrated against your sensitive skin as he groped your breasts. A wicked grin was on his face as he drew back, pupils blown wide. He cocked his head to the side. „What is it that you want, kitten?“ The nickname he chose went straight to your clit. Even though you felt powerless to his touch, you loved this side of him, and you wanted to show him just that. He was confident, dominating, and so very sexy. If all he wants is for you to say it, then you damn will. You held his stare confidently, biting your lip as you tried to sound as seductive as you could „I want to suck you off.“

Your request caught him off guard and pulled him back into reality. For a second, he couldn’t phantom how you wanted to put his pleasure before yours. All of his thoughts were wiped away as he saw you drop to your knees before him.

Rubbing your hands against the cloth of his pants his breathing accelerated. His eyes were glued to your movements, hardened member reacting to every little of your touches. The noise of his belt unbuckling sounded horribly erotic in your presence, aching cock finally freed. You took him into your hands, gently stroking at first. He was rock hard, like steel wrapped in silk. Precum leaked at the tip of his member and you licked your lips. Holding the base of his cock, you looked up at him through your eyelashes as you gave a long lick along his shaft. Arthur shuddered and moaned, throwing his head back in the process. Finally taking him into your mouth his hips bucked towards you, his body reacting on its own accord.

A string of curses, praises and your name fell from his parted lips, fueling your need to pleasure him. You picked up a pace, running your skilled tongue along the lower side of his member. “Fuck, Y/N.”, he rasped, his words laced with pleasure. One of his hands grabbed your ponytail, “That feels so good, babygirl.”

In any other moment he would’ve felt awkward about the way he was talking to you, using phrases and names he had picked up elsewhere. But right then, he didn’t give a shit about anything other than the way those pretty lips of yours felt wrapped around his cock.

You felt him thrust into your mouth, juices pooling between your legs. You wanted release, wanted to touch yourself to loosen the ever tightening knot in your stomach. But you didn’t, and instead focused on Arthur alone. He was sweating, panting and rocking his hips towards you cautiously. You knew he was probably trying to hold back, scared of hurting you. So you looked up at him, waiting for him to return your gaze. When he did, you met his thrusts, deepthroating him until you felt your nose touch his pelvis. A strangled roar escaped him as he was completely overwhelmed with the wet muscles engulfing him. The grip on your hair tightened as you kept him in your mouth. Tears strung in the corner of your eyes, then you finally released him with a loud pop.

The way you stared up at him then was intoxicating, disheveled hair, perky tits falling out of your bro, a string of saliva connecting your swollen lips to him. Usually, he would have been concerned about the gagging sounds you had been making, unsure about how watery your eyes looked. But his mind was hazy, smothered with immense pleasure.

His hands on your face guided you up, craving your touch too much to let you go for long. You stood in front of him while he - with a surprising amount of carefulness - wiped away the tears that had formed in your eyes, brushing away a loose strand of hair. You could make out the ghost of a smile on his face before his lips were on yours again. He begged for entrance impatiently, groaning as he tasted himself on your tongue. His hands suddenly grabbed your bottom, bringing you up against the wall as you gasped. Your dress hiked up, pooling around your hips. One of your hands searched the surface of the railing to hold onto, pushing yourself closer to him.

You were thankful for the way he was holding you, not having to worry about keeping yourself up as his erection pressed onto you. You rocked your hips towards him involuntarily. Arthur moaned at how soaked you were, his breathing getting progressively heavier. The thin layer of the underwear you wore was the only thing separating him from your aching core. He pulled away from the kiss he had ben roughly holding, staring at you like he was admiring his prey.

He freed one of his hands, slowly moving it to your panties. Rubbing teasingly slow circles over your most sensitive area he cooed, “Shit, little one. So wet for me, hm?”. You nodded obediently and his fingers immediately moved faster. “That’s right, Y/N.“, a tingling sensation built in your stomach at the pressure of his fingers, just enough to have you go crazy, not enough to get you off. He must’ve sensed your desperation. „You want me to fuck you?” He demanded, knowing the answer fully well.

„Yes, please.“, you breathed wantonly.

“Good girl”, he praised, tearing off your panties and ripping them in the process. You shrieked, pleasure and shock in your voice as his boldness made you feel hotter with every passing second. You held onto him for dear life as he rubbed the tip of his painfully hard member against you.

He pushed himself inside then, both of your moans filled the small room immediately. Going slow at first he pulled out of you completely before slamming back into you with full force. You screamed at the inseparable mixture of pain and pleasure, the knot inside you pulling tighter with each of his thrusts. The feeling of him inside you was better than anything you had ever experienced. Arthur was panting, „Fuck, Y/N. Just like that.“. His endurance was rising with his need to please you. He was pounding into you like a machine, steady and forceful. Working your body flawlessly, he brought you closer and closer to the edge. By now you were moaning an incoherent mess of words, but Arthur loved it. Fuck, it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard. Determination boosted through him, wanting to feel you come undone for him. „Argh!… Ar… Arthur!“, he could make out his name between lustful groans, „I’m going to..“

You couldn’t finish you sentence before the knot in your stomach exploded, a feral scream breaking through you. Pleasure was seeping through your whole body in waves, filling you with far more sensations than you were possibly able to process. Arthur shuddered at the sound, not once stopping his motions. The picture in front of him was the most appealing thing he had ever seen. He rode you through your orgasm, strands of hair sticking to his sweaty face, all of his focus on you.

Arthurs hips slowed down at some point, and you started shaking from the way he was keeping you in your position, forcing you to endure the endless mixture of pleasure and torture he brought upon you. „Ah, Arthur. I..“, you tried to voice how intense this feeling was, how you felt your juices drip already, but you couldn’t. He wanted to keep up the expression of pleased desire and nonexistent self-control in your eyes. Hell, if it was his choice he’d always see you exactly like this. Legs spread, shivers raking over every inch of your body, his name on your lips, pleading him.

Gradually, you came down from your high, but you didn’t get too far.

By now he was more than willing to find out just how much he can unravel you. Oh, he was zealous. His firm cock was still inside you, feeling your hot walls clench around him as he kept up his motions. Slowing down to an agonizing velocity, he pulled himself in and out, driving you insane as a new orgasm built up inside of you.

You almost felt dizzy as his fingers found your clit again, drawing circular motions on your swollen bud. Your mind was clouded with arousal, it almost felt as if you were watching the whole scene from afar. His thumb felt deliciously rough against your slippery skin, your eyes meeting his as he opened his mouth to speak. „I want you..“, he whispered as he continued penetrating you a little faster, moving to your neck and biting, „To come for me, again.“

You trembled in both fear and anticipation as he dominated you. He pounded into you harder again, building up a reckless speed. You were unable to grasp a single clear thought, the overstimulation taking over your body. And your body did what it only could, it reacted, it obeyed. Your back arched as one of his thrusts left you seeing stars, hitting your g-spot. Without inhibition you were calling his name, as he hit that devilish spot over and over again.

His breathing got more and more ragged, nonetheless he kept up the motions on your clit, slamming himself into you with all the force he could muster. Heavy-lidded eyes gazed at him as he repeated your name, both of you getting alarmingly close to the release. He lost the rhythm he had been keeping up, heartbeat soaring through his chest as he paid attention to his hand on your soaked cunt, going faster, merciless. „Come for me.“, he grunted, „Now.“. Just like that, you broke.

A deafening cry you didn’t know you were capable of tore through you as your walls tightened around him. He tripped over the edge at the same time, your orgasm causing his. Passionately he growled your name. You could sense his member jerk inside of you, spilling his seed deeply into you.

Arthur lingered just like that for a moment, buried deep inside of you, feeling the voluptuous combination of both of your fluids trickling down his shaft. With you, he felt like he was on top of the world. He finally pulled out of you, letting you down slowly, steadying your wobbly stance. Only then he noticed how strained his muscles were. By that time you were finally, slowly coming back on earth, noticing how the air around you had turned damp. Little drops of water ran down the fogged mirror beside you.

You felt like you had run a marathon, both of you catching your breaths like idiots and smiling dopey at each other. Brushing your hand over his chest to his cheek you noticed how his stare was directed to the box of chocolates he had given you before. You wouldn’t be surprised if they had started melting by how warm it had gotten. Arthur seemed to have the same idea, both of you erupting in giggles.

Suddenly, the light flickered again as the elevator sprung into motion. „Shit, shit, shit.“, he cursed as you tucked yourself into your dress, fixing your hair as much as you could. Arthur hastily picked up the remains of your panties, stuffing them into his pockets. A loud „ding!“ signalized that you made it to your designated floor, alarmed expression on your lovers face. You smiled at Arthur reassuringly, sashaying out of the elevator with his hand in yours like nothing happened.

Either you were oblivious to the distraught stares of the small group of people who greeted you outside the elevator, or you just didn’t care. You just turned your head towards him, satisfied grin playing on your lips.

Right then he knew, you would be the death of him.

[hunterluxe865]

The Little Black Songbook The Beatles

The Little Black Songbook The Beatles Album

A Day In The Life

A Hard Day's Night

Across The Universe

All I've Got To Do

All My Loving

All Together Now

All You Need Is Love

And I Love Her

And Your Bird Can Sing

Another Girl

Anytime At All

Ask Me Why

Baby You'Re A Rich Man

Baby's In Black

Back In The U.S.S.R.

Because

Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite

Birthday

Blackbird

Blue Jay Way

Can't Buy Me Love

Carry That Weight

Christmas Time (Is Here Again)

Come Together

Cry Baby Cry

Day Tripper

Dear Prudence

Dig A Pony

Dig It

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Doctor Robert

Don't Bother Me

Don't Let Me Down

Don't Pass Me By

Drive My Car

Eight Days A Week

Eleanor Rigby

Every Little Thing

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey

Fixing A Hole

For No One

For You Blue

From Me To You

Get Back

Getting Better

Girl

Glass Onion

Golden Slumbers

Good Day Sunshine

Good Morning Good Morning

Good Night

Got To Get You Into My Life

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Hello Little Girl

Hello, Goodbye

Help!

Helter Skelter

Her Majesty

Here Comes The Sun

Here, There And Everywhere

Hey Bulldog

Hey Jude

Hold Me Tight

Honey Pie

I Am The Walrus

I Call Your Name

I Don't Want To Spoil The Party

I Feel Fine

I Me Mine

I Need You

I Saw Her Standing There

I Should Have Known Better

I Wanna Be Your Man

I Want To Hold Your Hand

I Want To Tell You

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

I Will

If I Fell

If I Needed Someone

If You'Ve Got Trouble

I'll Be Back

I'll Cry Instead

I'll Follow The Sun

I'll Get You

I'm A Loser

I'm Down

I'm Happy Just To Dance With You

I'm Looking Through You

I'm Only Sleeping

I'm So Tired

In My Life

In Spite Of All The Danger

It Won't Be Long

It's All Too Much

It's Only Love

I've Got A Feeling

I've Just Seen A Face

Julia

Lady Madonna

Let It Be

Like Dreamers Do

Little Child

Long Long Long

Love Me Do

Love You To

Lovely Rita

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Magical Mystery Tour

Martha My Dear

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Mean Mr. Mustard

Michelle

Misery

Mother Nature's Son

No Reply

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Not A Second Time

Not Guilty

Nowhere Man

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Octopus's Garden

Oh! Darling

Old Brown Shoe

One After 909

Only A Northern Song

P.S. I Love You

Paperback Writer

Penny Lane

Piggies

Please Please Me

Polythene Pam

Rain

Revolution

Revolution 1

Rocky Raccoon

Run For Your Life

Savoy Truffle

Sexy Sadie

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

She Loves You

She Said She Said

She's A Woman

She's Leaving Home

Something

Strawberry Fields Forever

Sun King

Taxman

Tell Me What You See

Tell Me Why

Thank You Girl

That Means A Lot

The Ballad Of John And Yoko

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill

The End

The Fool On The Hill

The Inner Light

The Long And Winding Road

The Night Before

The Word

There's A Place

Things We Said Today

Think For Yourself

This Boy (Ringo's Theme)

Ticket To Ride

Tomorrow Never Knows

Twist And Shout

Two Of Us

Wait

We Can Work It Out

What Goes On

What You'Re Doing

What's The New Mary Jane

When I Get Home

When I'm Sixty-Four

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Why Don't We Do It In The Road

Wild Honey Pie

With A Little Help From My Friends

Within You Without You

Yellow Submarine

Yer Blues

Yes It Is

Yesterday

You Can't Do That

You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)

You Know What To Do

You Like Me Too Much

You Never Give Me Your Money

You Won't See Me

You'Ll Be Mine

You'Re Going To Lose That Girl

You'Ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

The Little Black Songbook The Beatles Album

Guitar By The Beatles. The Little Black Songbook. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.242081). The ' Beatles ': The Little Black Songbook. A pocket-sized collection of 195 Beatles hits presented in chord songbook format. This book includes complete lyrics, chord names and a chord box reference sheet.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!

Here I am a day late and 7 dollars short.. because I just bought the lost boys. Scrooge and the kids find themselves in America’s own personal circle of hell Florida to track down the fountain of youth. But with Goldie arriving for the same reason and swiping Finch’s diary, Scrooge and Webby are forced to take off without the boys in persuit while the boys enjoy themselves.. well Louie does, Dewey and Huey fight over whose the older sibling. Meanwhile Scoldie find themsleves magically younger, Webby finds herself crotchety and Rockerduck finds all of them in his quest to get the fountain for himself and be carried around like a baby like Jeeves. Full review with spoilers bellow. 

Yes this is a day late, as I had to stop writing yesterday to do other stuff and to help stablize mom’s internet while she worked, and then had a full day with my best friend watching the bizzare but enjoyable double feature of Hubie Halloween and Tales from the Hood. But i’m back and with a LOT of other reviews to get to this week, two more for regular coverage, a review I didn’t finish sunday due to being really tired, and some reviews in time for next week’s episode, no more time for a big intro. Let’s go. Thankfully did get some of this done yesterday soooo...

It's spring break in Duckberg. So while Violet does her vacation research, Lena throws some things into the local ditch and misses webby, Boyd goes on family vacation with his adopted parents, birth creator parent, and Anthony Fremont without the powers thank god, Beakly goes on her annual grannies gone wild vacation, Donald goes on a boat trip with Daisy with his boys crashing, Della tries to party wtih the young people to show she still has it, Launchpad joins her because he is the young people. Fenton works and Penny.. triest to  reign her girlfriend in because it’s Donald’s week off from trying to get the non-beakly adults to be reasonable. It’s her curse now.

In the actual episode Scrooge has taken the niece and nephews to Florida, the land that gods forgot.. yes gods forgot. They all did. Except maybe Loki because the god of chaos and storytelling really can’t ignore his people. Much as he’d like to. Sadly we don’t get Scrooge and the nephews on jetskis outrunning alligators iwth guns also on jetskis.. both anthro gators and regular animal gators, that still have guns mind because florida. And yes that is a recycled script from my failed Calvin and Hobbes spinoff pitch, Calvin and Hobbes: Miami Nights. Hobbes has a serious coke problem. Also Opus from Bloom County is there.. I mean hew as just supposed to be a guest star but the execs loved him and Berke was like “whatever can’t be worse than the Garfield movies throw bill in too”. But obviously coked up gators, tigers and bill the cat are not what you came to see so let’s move on. Though if it is hit me up. I think we’d get along great.

Anyways instead of Cokehead and Hobbes, we get a bunch of partying college kids, which given Scrooge already hates young people, this is indeed his own personal hell.. much like everyone whose not young or old going to florida. But spring break hotels are super cheap so Scrooge’s need to save money outweighed his need to not be surronded by young hot morons blowing off steam. Though Webby being webby points out the blowing off steam part.. which is nice of her but is probably only like.. half of them the other half being young dumb rich people looking to get laid. Which is also the mission statment MTV’s had since 2000. 20 years of not being about music and counting!

Anyways, naturally their here for a quest, with everyone else gone for the above reasons I made up but sound plausible and entertaining, as Finch’s diaries put the fabled fountain of youth here. As does a cheesy video from the lion owner of the result played by Nestor Carbonell. If that name dosen’t ring a carbonbell, which fair enough it iddn’t for me at first either, his voice probably will for disney fans who grew up around the 2000′s like me. It’s Senior Junior! From kim possible.  

The Late Great Ricardo Montalbon, who I dearly miss to this day,with Nestor as his son, Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior, which are great names already. Their easily my favorite Kim Possible Villains (Yes I still love Drakken and Shego now hush), and it’s in part because the concept is brilliant: Senior was just a rich man accidently taking all the power in France. Kim showed up to stop him and Ron, her best friend sidekick and later boyfriend and presumably now husband, casually mentioned Senior’s home was the perfect villain lair, and that Senior had the talent for it. Senior took that to heart and spent the rest of the series trying to be the best classical arch villain he could be, trying to adhere to the tropes of one warts and all while his son just wanted to loung around and be young and rich. It was a great dynamic and the two really played off one another beautifully. Hopefully if there’s another reboot nestor can pick up where Montalbon left off with some new hot idiot as his own son. Even if it’s just for the intro you have to admit it’d be great.

So yeah I was happy to have him on board once I realzied this, More on him later I keep getting sidetracked this review and we’re, no joke not even past the intro. But Scrooge needs ice for his back, so the boys have the afternoon off while Webby helps him, because she’s a sweetheart, and Huey’s in charge because oldest.

Thus we get their subplot for the episode.. or most of it but more on that in a bit: Dewey is annoyed Huey is ALWAYS in charge and always overscheduling, case in point he has an afternoon schedule down pat MOMENTS after they arrive. However given Huey later did his research and has a super analytical and regimented mind, it isn’t a stretch to say he spent their time on the plane planning out things just in case. or that he always doesn’t do that when they have to stay overnight. But what makes it work is Dewey’s frustration is understandable. Despite being barely younger he never gets put in charge, Huey while a good kid can be bossy as we’ve seen as early as season one and has even been condescending with it once or twice. So as a younger brother myself I understand chafing under an older brother all the time.

However, Huey being in charge.. makes the most sense. Scrooge , and i’m HEAVILY betting Donald on the boat to present day and every other adult, uses the oldest excuse as something the kids will follow easily without starting a fight over the simple truth that Huey’s the most responsible and organized out of the three. And by that I mean Dewey fighting over it or being hurt at his mom saying it , Louie would probably be hurt but would probably be fine just fine with having no responsibility or effort to put in. Huey makes plans, looks after his siblings even when not in charge, and thinks things through the most of his three brothers. Sometimes overly so, which I can relate to, but point is he’s the best boy for the job, though I could also easily buy that at least for Scrooge, he genuinely buys into oldest is in charge because he was raised that way. Also this episode didn’t explain how he’s immortal but I’m betting “Battle for Castle McDuck” does so no harm done.

Back on point, Dewey is governed almost entirely by his impulses, which does work sometimes as seen with the season premiere, but has also lead to him nearly being sacrificed 74 times, while Louie can lead, he just doesn’t wanna half the time and would likely weasel out of it. And the episode bears this out with Louie being more bothered with the power struggle interfering in his being lazy time and generally being outside it. He just doesn’t care whose in charge unless it benefits him in some way and right now it doesn’t.

I’ll go ahead and cover this plot since, surprisingly, it ends up dovetailing into the main plot, and it’s easier to get it out of the wya here and cover where they start to overlap when the main plot catches up. So Huey leads them around starting with Lounging which goes well: Louie’s naturally on board and while well bored, Dewey sleeps when he can’t just impulsively jump into he pool.

The tide turns however when after his short dip, Dewey seemingly has a growth spurt and is taller and thus takes overa s big brother and forces them to go ahead and lunch.. which runs into both the old people and the old people menu. It backs up what I thought from the start: huey likely knows what he’s doing, which he does; Obviously in Florida old people eat earlier, so Huey’s scheduling wasn’t just his normal OCD flaring up, but using it to strategically plan when to have fun so they could in a packed resort. It also shows how clever Huey is, as even for something so mundane he plans perfectly. He’s my faviorite for a reason.

Huey eventually gets fed up with it and plays Dewey, but Louie, suspcious of the head of the hotel, instead starts piecing things together... and i’ll save that reveal for when it ducktails into the main plot..l because I couldn’t resist that pun and you know it. Not a bad plot, mildly slight but it sets up it’s connection to the main plot well and has a good conlict.  Moving onto the real meat of the episode, turns out the race.. isn’t that much of a race as Webby outspeeds both Scrooge and Goldie, who bicker over a canteen and their long history of her betraying him and him betraying her for betraying him etc etc. Webby is delighful here as she’s both understandably awkward playing third whell and not at all fond of Goldie which.. yeah you would be too if she locked you in a closet. It’s nice to see the two interact if not by much.  However things soon change when Scrooge and Goldie seemingly get tranformed by the river into younger 18-20 something versions of themselves. Admitley Tennant’s voice for younger scrooge is.. eh, but he still does well enough that you soon stop carring. The designs are great.. and damn if young scrooge isn’t delcious. Seriously it’s only thorugh the magic of network standards that Jodeci’s freak n you isn’t playing over half his scenes. Damn. Him around this age in the comics just looked sorta like donald with sideburns god damn Frank thank you. 

Speaking of thirst with their hormones in place it’s naturally not long before the twos old spark that was smothered under decades of betryal comes roaring back, and the two even almost make out before Webby interputs, getting increasingly injured by the everglades.. as most people do by florida itself really. It won’t let you leave in one piece.  

But things get interesting when Goldie makes a proposal.. ditch Webby for a bit and go find the fountain. As Goldie brilliantly puts it youth’s wasted on the young.. but not them. This is a second chance. While I heard people comment on “why is scrooge’s age suddenly affecting him now”... honestly it really probably isn’t. While he’s likely been old for some time, we’ve seen his back hurt him once or twice, just faking being hunched hurt him. And while it is played up a bit much in this episode, it’s perfectly realistic that his body has good and bad days. My mother does, I do, most people do as they get older. The parts of you that ache and don’t work right tend to wax and wayne in how much they hate you. 

TO me it works to sell why this is tempting for Scrooge: A chance to start over, not abandon his family obviously, and given how much nonsense is around his life and how old he is, it’s not a stretch for duckberg to accept he’s younger than his own son and daughter now. Scrooge can buy or earn anything he wants and really is the man who has everything: He has a loving family, a repaired relationship with Donald, Della back after loosing her, a nice and nephews to carry on his legacy, tons of friends, a thriving empire, and tons of mysteries to track down, including recently ones his own idol never could find. He has everything he could want and tons more adventures to go: Bold New Discoveries, old ones to show his grandkids for the first time,  and a cozy mansion. There’s really only two things missing: more time, as even with him and goldie having worked hard magically to stay alive as long as they have, as while they’ve found ways to stay alive, they haven’t been able to stay YOUNG. Sure they’ve added years and years, hell 60′s scrooge only looks somewhat older despite decades having passed, but while they can probably go on for a few more decades, there’s only so much they can do before their time runs out. And the other thing missing from his life quite obviously is goldie. The two clearly love one another.. but scrooge very justifably can’t trust her and can’t have her in his life until she tries to change, and she dosen’t want to.  This.. offers a chance to turn back all of that, to cast aside their bitter history and start over as better people than they were before. Scrooge can have time with his family, time he would likely loose eventually to see THEM grow old. Raise their own families he might not get to see. To see those kids grow up and take on their own parents legacy. And to share it all WITH Goldie. TO have her in his family at long last. Sure he’s leaving Webby behind but he’ll come back and as we see she’s fine if understandably upset. Granted I think they could’ve done more with her leaving her, but the sheer brilliance of this plot I didn’t see coming, the sheer pathos of Scrooge’s second chance makes up for it.  They find the fountain.. but it’s dried up and unconnected to the river. They also find Rockerduck, out of the amber with his frakenstein butler whose clearly now just a mindless monster. which means whoever did his work really did it shoddy as even frakenstein had some intellegence. He’s also being carried around like a baby which I enjoy throughly. Rockerduck does not look plesant, and i’m happy to have him back as I was upset this character only got adapted for seemingly one episode and was pleased to see him with fowl.  They also find a good angle for him: Beisdes the old timey rober baron thing, and looking like Rene Belloq.. he even gets to do the nothing you can’t posses that I can’t take away line which is great and Hodgman is amazing as ever. But yeah besides that, he also gets his comic versions tendency to throw money around and do none of the work himself. The throw money around thing while neat in the comics did need to be reframed, as Glomgold now does it, and so does beaks. But with Rockerduck they found a  nice medium for the two: like both he’ll spend massive amounts of dough. Like Glomgold he likes a good scheme, but dosen’t go to the sheer lunatic lenghts Glommy does: His schemes are more practical, stealing a deed from some unsuspecting trusting townsfolk, or finding some youth water to shore up his plan to freeze himself by getting his apperance back. While no longer young like Beaks, he shares beaks laziness and again tendency to spend money..  but still contrasts the guy: Rockerduck is ambitious in his cons and plans, Beaks is not. Rockerduck has money already to tap into, Beaks is new money and clearly burns through it on a daily basis. The show brillinatly kept what made the mallard a great villian, while reframing what no longer worked.  But yeah Scrooge realizes that if the river didn’t help them what did, and now it’s time to get back to Louie: Whose figured out that Ponce De Leon, mentioned earlier, and the hotel manager are one in the same! Also props for making Ponce an actual lion. Nicely done. Yeah turns out Ponce diverted the water from the fountain to the resot: The tap water there is actually the restorative water, with Scrooge having filled his canteen with it without realizing. As for the old people turns out the fountain runs on equilvent exchange: Some of it’s waters drain youth to create the youth creating part of it. As such the seniors.. are actually the spring breakers, drained of youth and too senile to fight back. And Dewey’s sudden growth spurt was just him being in the pool for two seconds draining his youth.  Naturally though Louie made the mistake of blurting this out and the boys get captured by Ponce who explains why the resort scheme: At first he just lured gullible minions on expeditions but eventually that scheme dried up so he simply modernized by building the resort and diverting the fountain to it., having gallons of youth restoring water stocked up. He traps the boys with a pool ring and while I expect more from them I get leaving them out of the climax. While Mildly annoying.. this really isn’t their story anymore, and the scrooge and Goldie stuff is where to focus. I can let a story slide on some weaknesses if it’s for good reason and really, focusing more on the more engaging main plot with Scrooge and Goldie was the right call. That said the nephews could’ve fought Jeeves or something but i’m getting ahead of myself. This twist is utterly and a great surprise. No notes. 

Back at the fountain having realized what’s going on now, if not the youth sucking part just yet, Scrooge and Goldie race back with Rockerduck and Jeeves in persuit.  Scrooge and Goldie arrive to find De Leon, revealing their on to them if being confused for springbreakers. But once he realizes what’s going on De Leon.. actually offers to cut them in. After all while it means sharing his water as shown the man has gallons of it, and even off spring break likely still has no shortage of young idiots to drain because it’s Florida and he runs a cheap hotel with a pool. But while Goldie’s naturally tempted.. Scrooge isn’t. He’s fine with a second chance.. but not at the cost of other people’s first ones. Sure they might waste it.. but it’s not his life to steal. Naturally a swordfight insues while Goldie darts off to find the water and Scrooge finds himself fighting both De Leon and Jeeves, as Rockerduck cheerfully admits he has ZERO issues with stealing other people’s youth and while he and De Leon don’t formally partner up, it’s not a stretch to say De Leon would be happy with a rich billionare joining in his operation providing both fincial backing.. and possible room to expand and steal MORE youth. 

But before Goldie can run away with the water she finds the boys.. and in a nice callback her previous bond with Louie gets her to crack.. and she realizes she can’t just run out on scrooge again and repeat their history. So she frees the boys,k who are a bit dazed to help, and shoves the bit of water she got down jeeves throat. Though Rockerduck still got some, so he’s back to peak shape, if now having to carry around a baby frakenstien. He exits, and I loved him in this one clearly, even if i’m STILL annoyed it’s taking till next week for FOWL to do much of anything. I mean it’s obvious FOWL told him about the fountain but still, while they’ve set up the members well for the second half, we still haven’t seen much of the actual orignization and it’s grating. But again the rest of the episode is good enough that it swoops over this. This episoide has some minor flaws.. but the core story, big twist and everything is so good and the upcoming climax so emotional, it’s easy enough to forgive. 

So speaking of that climax we get one hell of a swordfight with Scrooge and Goldie versus Ponce before Ponce ends up in the pool as he deserves but is determined to take Scrooge with him. So we get Goldie’s moment of truth: She could leave scrooge the drown, go about her day and take the water for herself.. or decide it’s not too late.. that even with her clean slate gone.. she can still change and still have a future with scrooge, stop betraying him for his own gain and start enjoying their time together instead. She makes the obvious choice, diving in in a beautifully shot sequence to save him. Ponce withers to death which is sad, as I really would’ve liked to see him again, but fitting.  With the villian gone it’s time to wrapup loose ends! The ducks hand out the youth water, using up all but a few drops left to restore the spring breakers and hte natural order, Scrooge happy in his decision. Dewey decides to cede being the bigger brother back to Huey , and offers Webby some and in a great gag, she explains she just had a bad day she didn’t get her youth sapped.. though I feel she did in an earlier draft, but a quick pop of her back gets her back to normal. Though having her be an old lady was hilarious and it was nice to have a youth swap plot that didn’t have a roll reversal.  To close things out Scrooge laments Goldie probably ran off again and leanred nothing.. only to be plesantly suprsied when it turns out while she is leaving for more adventure, she didn’t want to say good buy.. and it’s clear she’s changed. While her last apperance showed some cracks forming, while she did take the loot she did go back to save Louie and vice versa, here we see a genuine change. She’s realized, and it feels entirely plausable, that even if she can still scam other people and probably will.. she shoudln’t keep hurting scrogoe like this and her feelings for him outweigh any beinifit from treating him like garbage. Having a clean slate for a moment gave her a persepctive, and even if the slate’s back to full.. it’s not too late to fix things. So she kisses him passionately he happily reciporcates and i’m totally on board. I only didn’t ship this version fo the two because this goldie.. was not a godo person.  Granted I do like her better than the comics version. While Comics Goldie is not BAD persay, she lacks some agency. She’s still cool, what with her shotgun and take no fucks attitude especailly in her youth, her just.. waiting for scrooge instead of getting after him feels.. weird to me. Sure the man’s stubborn but it didn’t fit her personality to just wait for it. Here there’s a valid reason they aren’t together despite a clear attraction: Goldie is out for herself. She’s the catwoman to his batman, which was a good metaphor really: Scrooge too is a grumpy guy who fights evil and has traveld the globe and has a massive extended family includling children he teaches to fight crime and his own adult children and is richer than god. But more than that Goldie is selfish, untrustworthly and loved money more than Scrooge.. here.. she realizes while she’ll likely still be stealing shit, because hey it’s her calling, she loves him more than doing crimes and that it’s not a clean slate they needed. .it was abetter her. I didn’t support them because frankly she wasn’t in a good place for an actual relationship. Now she is, he is and it’s sweet to see. A good note to end the episode

Final Thoughts:  This ep was a bit uneven in places, not knowing what to do with the kids at times but as i’ve made clear i’ts excellent with the scrooge and goldie core really working well and Janney and Tennant bringing their absolute best to this one. Easily one of the season’s best. Not much more to say. If you liked this tune in each week for more ducktales coverage, and I intend once the hiatus begins to try and do one episode a week still to catch up as hopefully this isn’t the last season it might very well be. Next week Darkwing owns the night! I had planned a full darkweek.. but my busy monday and some other stuff got away from me. Still I have two darkwing themed reviews planned: Drake’s introdcution in the reboot with “Duck Knight Returns!” and the very first darkwing episode, chronlogically anyway, “Darkly Dawns the Duck.” Until next week, Let’s Get Dangerous!