#delaney has problems

[sexxyyyyvivv]

youre telling me they're banning the outsiders. bruuuuuuuu my sodapop nooooo

[love-belle]

always, evermore, even after and still !!!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ in which they get married and it's the happiest day for everyone.

or

for when you finally find your happily ever after. ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

social media au // charles leclerc x fem!reader

warnings - language

author's note - hope u like this!!! i love you so much, thank you for reading <3

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by yourusername, charles_leclerc, lewishamilton and 2,826,998 others

vogue charles leclerc and y/n y/l/n tie the knot in a grand yet intimate ceremony held at their villa in monte carlo.

the bride wore a valentino couture gown complete with a sprawling train and platform heels while the groom sported a classic black tuxedo. y/n��s childhood best friend, lily muni he, served as the maid of honour, whereas her close friends, carmen mundt, kika gomes and heidi berger were bridesmaids. on the groom's side, lorenzo leclerc, his brother was the best man along while his younger brother, arthur and his friend circle, which included lando norris, pierre gasly, carlos sainz and alex albon were the groomsmen. the guest list included many notable presences such as sebastian vettel, toto wolff, taylor swift, zendaya, timothée chalamet, harry styles and many more.

the couple’s first dance was to the song "love letter from the sea to the shore" performed by delaney bailey followed by "it's nice to have a friend" by taylor swift and "sweet creature" by harry styles.

tap the link in our bio to get a look inside their wedding held at their stunning villa in monaco.

tagged yourusername charles_leclerc

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≡;- ꒰ °instagram stories ꒱

yourusername added to their instagram stories

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by yourusername, carlossainz55, charles_leclerc and 796,528 others

landonorris my two best friends got married and i'm about to make it everybody's problem. congratulations, you horny motherfuckers. don't remember much of last night but as i'm sitting in a cafe in berlin, i know it ruled. here's to a lifetime of happiness, love and blessings and may this marriage not end in a divorce (y/n, lily still has that taxi driver on speed dial, say the word and we'll help you run away)

tagged yourusername charles_leclerc

8,638 comments

username stfu im gonna cry

username i feel like a proud parent omg

username we've come so far 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username not lando violating charles on his own wedding post 💀💀💀

username they're so ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😭😭😭😭😭😭

username i love them so much my lord

lilymhe you can still escape just sayin yourusername

-> yourusername i'll keep that in mind, thank you 💋

-> charles_leclerc is it too late to get a divorce

-> yourusername shut up you literally (and legally) signed up for this

username are we gonna ignore that fact that the wedding was in monte carlo and lando's in berlin

-> username how the FUCK did that happen

-> username i just know that the party was WILD

username "may this marriage not end in a divorce" PLS 💀💀💀

username the photos ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

username im living for the wedding content we're getting from like half the grid

maxverstappen1 berlin is nice

-> landonorris i know right?

-> username NOT MAX BEING IN BERLIN TOO WTF HAPPENED LAST NIGHT

username the event of the century 🔥🔥🔥

username THEY LOOK SO AMAZING WHATCTHRBUCJ

username in love with these

username god i need a life like this ://

charles_leclerc at least i had a gf and now i have a wife (thanks for the photos but i'm not paying you)

-> landonorris that's a fucked up thing to say to me (i literally hate you so much)

username fuck all the love stories except theirs

username my heart ://

username they SCREAM old money

-> username OMG THAT'S SO REAL

yourusername thank you for these pictures. we love you. take the train back to monte carlo rn or i am giving your gift to george. and thanks for the driver information, will keep that in mind definitely.

-> landonorris anytime. i love you both i guess. DON'T YOU DARE and of course, happy to help.

-> charles_leclerc DELETE THAT NUMBER RIGHT NOW

username charles has been married for one (singular) day and he's already fighting for his life 💀💀💀💀💀

username i love this friend group so much ❤️

username THEY BOTH ATE OMG

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by yourusername, landonorris, carmenmmundt and 892,728 others

lilymhe in my head, we're still those teen girls who planned out their wedding days with so much enthusiasm and with so much detail that it would've put these planners and binders to shame. it's kinda hard to believe that my best friend is now married but honestly, y/n/n, i couldn't be more happy for you. you're my best friend and i love you so much. thank you for being just a call away, always. here's to charles (barf) and y/n (❤️)

tagged yourusername charles_leclerc

7,926 comments

username SHUT UP IM CRYING

username platonic soulmates ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

username AHHHSHDHDJDHBXSJ

username she's so pretty what the fuck

username Y/N ATE

carmenmmundt the prettiest bride 💕

*liked by lilymhe*

username two pretty best friends 🔥🔥🔥

username y/n looks so pretty what thebfuck omg im gonna scream

username my favs ://

username nah cus lily and y/n literally have my heart like they're my fav pair of best friends

charles_leclerc i remember when you threatened me

-> lilymhe good. remember it for the rest of your life.

-> charles_leclerc y/n she's doing that thing again yourusername

-> yourusername lily

-> lilymhe sorry

-> username NAH NOT CHARLES SNITCHING ON LILY

username she slayed so hard

username the barf and the ❤️ spoke VOLUMES

username im gonna cry they're so 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username i wish i had a best friend like lily ://

alex_albon i never get captions like this

-> lilymhe this isn't about you

-> yourusername yeah alex this isn't about you

username y/n's childhood best friend being her maid of honour 😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

username in love with these two

username AHHHSHDHDJDHBXSJ

yourusername i love you SO fucking much

-> lilymhe i love you so much more

yourusername i'll love you always thank you for everything ❤️‍🩹

-> lilymhe you're my best friend, always here for you and your loser ass boyfriend

-> charles_leclerc I'M HER HUSBAND

-> lilymhe okay and??? she can get another one

-> username PLEASE OH MY GOD

username i adore their friendship tf

username don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by yourusername, carlossainz55, charles_leclerc

danielricciardo i had one (1) job and as you can see, i took it very seriously. mr and mrs. leclerc-y/l/n, everybody 💒🍧💐

tagged yourusername charles_leclerc

7,682 comments

username LECLERC-Y/L/NS

username THEY'RE SO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username i love them sm what the fuck

username my parents ❤️🫶🏼

username LOVING THE WEDDING CONTENT WE'RE BRING FED RN

username she looks so pretty omg ☹️☹️☹️

maxverstappen1 why are you acting like your ass isn't in berlin with us?

-> danielricciardo THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET YOU SNITCH

username WHAT THEBFUCJ HAPPENED LAST NIGJT 💀💀💀💀💀 why are they in berlin

-> username oh the night was wildin 🔥🔥🔥

username daniel.jpg but on main

username love them sm

username SO HAPPY FOR THEM AHSHDHSJDJBS

username living for this content

landonorris berlin kinda cool

*liked by danielricciardo*

username WHY are they in berlin

-> username no it's HOW are they in berlin

username no bc i feel like such a proud mom like i watched go from "hiii/hiiiiiii" to "hehehehe i do/shut up charles, i do"

-> username that's what i call GROWTH

username her dresses ate omg

username i know daniel's not getting paid for shit

username im so ://

charles_leclerc lovely photos mate

-> danielricciardo so will you pay me?

-> charles_leclerc no

username AHHHSHDHDHDHXHXJDJDF

username gonna sob some more

username honestly crying tears rn

yourusername we love you daniel 🫶🏼 (get your ass back to monaco i am NOT kidding)

-> danielricciardo love you guys (omg we're on our way stop you scare me sometimes)

username IM NOT NORMAL ABT THIS

username fav couple

username thank u to daniel for these

-> username doing god's word fr

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

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yourusername words cannot express how much i love you. every single time i think that this is it, i cannot possibly love you more than i do, i'm surprised by myself because i do. i really do. i fall in love with you more and more every single day and i'm gonna spend the rest of my life showing you that. i loved you when you first told me that you really liked my smile and i loved you when you told me you hoped i lived nearer to you and then asked me to move in. i loved you when you took the time to get to know me and i loved you when you said that i was it for you and i will love you when our hair is turning gray and we're gonna look back and smile and fall in love even more. they're gonna have to kick us out of those nursing homes i swear. i truly cannot wait to look back on our life together, cardboard boxes full of our love, but until then, let's live it. here's to my forever love, my everything, my world. i love you ❤️

tagged charles_leclerc

17,527 comments

username GOODNIGHT

username WHAT THR FUCK

username im gonna sob this is so

username they're married 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username people say soulmates we say y/n and charles

username sliding down the door fr this is INSANE

charlotte2304 all my love to you both 💓

*liked by yourusername*

username HE'S SO HUSBAND MATERIAL LIKE

username they're MY parents

username the caption took my heart out and squeezed it

username hahahahaha!!!!! i am NOT okay!!!!!!! what the fuck is up with that caption

sebastianvettel 💐💕

*liked by yourusername*

username he's so ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

username "i truly cannot wait to look back on our life together, cardboard boxes full of our love, but until then, let's live it" WHEN WILL IT BE ME

username "they're gonna have to kick us out of those nursing homes" me and who lol (i am screaming crying shaking)

username no bc i too deserve someone like this ://

username it's giving timeless by taylor swift

*liked by yourusername*

username they're so taylor swift coded

username GOD ME WHEN

username gonna take a toaster bath brb 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

username don't test me istg

carla.brocker my heart 😭🩷

*liked by yourusername*

arthur_leclerc sister-in-law 💒🩷

*liked by yourusername*

username IM GONNA SCREAM WHAT THE FUXK

username MY parents 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username he's so husband coded ❤️‍🩹

username microwaving a spoon brb

charles_leclerc i love you so much it's unbelievable just how much

-> yourusername i adore you and every part of you

charles_leclerc my forever love ❤️ cannot wait to grow old with you

-> yourusername forever has never sounded so good ❤️

username gonna be thinking abt this for the rest of my life just so u know

username they're setting the standards so high i can't do it anymore what the fuck

username im so 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤🫤

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by yourusername, pierregasly, landonorris and 2,826,318 others

charles_leclerc i honestly don't know what to say. you're my biggest dream, my wife and now that i'm saying it, it sounds so surreal. i have waiting been an entire lifetime to say these words and the fact that it's you in this lifetime (and all the others), is just amazing. i wish i had known you sooner, so that i wouldn't have to spend all those years looking for love in places where it couldn't possibly be. my love for you reached my past and before you came into my life, i missed you so bad. i hope that one day, when we're old and aged and have seen a thousand sunsets, you ask me if i love you and my answer will forevermore will be always, evermore, even after and still.

tagged yourusername

16,628 comments

username I CANNOT DO THIS RN

username everyone stfu im gonna cry

username english lang is so weird bc u say true love and it translates to y/n and charles

username nah the bar is too high atp im giving up

username SHE'S SO PRETTY MA GAWD

username the fact that they're now the leclerc-y/l/ns 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

lewishamilton so happy for you both 💐💒

*liked by charles_leclerc*

username "my love for you reached my past and before you came into my life, i missed you so bad" why am i crying.

username they're the blueprint for all love stories from now on btw

username I LOBE THEM SO MUVH WHAT GHE FUCK THEY'RE MU PARENTS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 😭 😭 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

usernames no bc the way all the photos are of random moments and this leads me to believe that charles just whips out his camera whenever y/n is just There and now im crying again

-> username he's just like us fr

-> username i too would play paparazzi for y/n is given the chance he's not the only one ://

carla.brocker coolest sister in law (best friend) 🫶🏼

-> yourusername carla i love you 😭

username still in disbelief they r married tbh

username i feel like we watched them grow up im so emotional 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

username she's so pretty i could sob

username why did u think that it was okay for u to post this.

username i am not okay

lorenzotl 🤍💐

*liked by charles_leclerc*

username SHE'S SO PRETTY

username charles won at life fr

*liked by charles_leclerc*

username caption called me single and lonely in 26836282727 languages 💔💔💔💔💔

username bro woke up and chose to destroy shakespeare with that caption 💀💀💀

landonorris loved the wedding 👍 i woke up in berlin

-> charles_leclerc the wedding was in monaco???

-> maxverstappen1 i know

-> danielricciardo we obviously had some ideas and now i have an ugly tattoo and there's a ring pop on my finger

-> landonorris max has one too

-> charles_leclerc YOU MARRIED MAX

-> danielricciardo NO

-> maxverstappen1 NO

-> yourusername this is hilarious

username i need to see more pictures from the wedding I NEED TO

username i love my wife (i am delusional)

yourusername i have already loved you for a thousand years ❤️

-> charles_leclerc here's to a thousand more ❤️

yourusername i love you so much like you're my person and i just love you so fucking much :/

-> charles_leclerc i love you so much more mon chéri

username they're so 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

username IM SO AHJHSJSHDHDJSKDJD

username im gonna cry brb

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Whisked Away 1

No tag lists. Do not send asks or DMs about updates. Review my pinned post for guidelines, masterlist, etc.

Part of the Sweet and Spicy AU

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as dubcon/noncon, and other possible triggers. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: You get a job at a bakery but your new boss only adds to your work

Character: chubby!baker!Thor

Please comment and reblog if it's not too much. I always love getting to chat about these stories and hearing all your ideas! You all are wonderful and loved.

The tea shop hasn’t called back. Or the grocery store. Not even the cafe around the corner. 

You’re tired. You’ve been sending out resumes for months. Reviewing and editing and sending again. You don’t get it. You have the proper credential and you have a decent amount of experience. It’s just been a while.  

You want to assume that people just aren’t hiring but that wouldn’t explain the postings and re-postings. They are still looking but somehow you’re just not good enough on paper. Disappointment knots in your throat as your inbox reveals no new emails. You need something. Even a job at the burger joint will do. 

You grab your phone and sigh. You stand and shut the laptop lid as you tuck your cell into your back pocket. You go down the short hall and knock on the bedroom door. 

“Delaney? You up?” You call through. 

You get a groan in return. Sometimes that’s all you get. 

“Alright, I’m gonna open the door,” you warn as you twist the knob slowly. 

You push inside and reach to flip on the light switch. Your sister grumbles against and covers her face with her arm. The windows are covered with dark curtains that give a blue hue even when the space is lit. She hids behind her forearm as you near the bottom of her bed. 

“Are you hungry?” You ask. 

“I’d love some coffee,” the croaks. 

“How ya feeling?” You grab her walker and move it parallel with the side of the bed. 

“It’s a rough one,” she warns and drags her arm away from her face. “I don’t wanna get up.” 

You nod and trail your fingers along the top of the walker, “if you don’t wanna...” 

“No, I should,” she insists. 

She braces herself visibly, closing her eyes as her cheeks strain and she sits up with a grunt. He arms shake and she kicks the blankets of her legs. Her movement is awkward and stiff. You hate seeing her struggle like this. You know she’s just as unhappy about you seeing it. That’s why she’s so stubborn. 

“Should be enough left for another cup but I can make a new pot?” You offer as you hold the walker steady and she grips it, pulling herself to her feet. She hunches slightly and tries to stretch out her legs. 

“My feet are numb,” she stomps one foot then the other. “Annoying.” She scowls and shakes her head as you let go of the walker and step back. She turns it sharply and lumbers forward with the aid of the wheels, “I can have the leftovers.” 

Patiently, you follow her to the door and into the hall. She wheels her way to the table and angles herself into the chair with her special cushion on it. She’s out of breath. 

You go into the kitchen to give her some time to recover. You try your best to give her space, even in the one-bedroom. You sleep on the couch while she gets the bedroom. It makes sense, especially since lately her stipend has been covering most of your expenses. 

You fill a mug for her and grab her pill box. You bring both to her and set them on the table. She takes the coffee first and swigs. She sighs as she sets it down heavily then snatches the box. She pops open the lid for that day of the week and scoops out the tablets. She sneers before she gulps them down with another mouthful of coffee. 

“So, you were up early?” She prompts. 

“You know I’m a morning bird.” 

“Eh, yeah, wish I had that problem,” she mutters. Some days, she sleeps more than she’s awake. You tell her it’s part of her diagnosis but she won’t accept that. You can understand that but you know you can’t really understand. You’re not her. 

“Yeah, well, the birds wake me up,” you shrug.  

A sudden buzzing ripple in your pocket. You pull your phone out of the loose sweatpants and look at the screen. It’s a number you don’t know. You doubt it’s important but you can’t risk missing any calls. 

“Gimme a sec,” you hold up a finger and turn away. “Probably the building or something.” You tap the screen and put the phone to your ear, “hello?” 

“Hello,” a deep voice rumbles over a calamity of noises, some metallic, others humming, “oh, apologies, give me a moment.” You wait as you hear movement on the other end and the cacophony finally subsides, “ah, much better. Is this...” 

You blink and confirm that he has the right number. 

“Wonderful, I apologise for the early call but I tend to get started with the sun,” he explains, “anyhow, I was only just reviewing CVs and you are on my list of candidates. When would be a good day for an interview?” 

You turn back and glance at Delaney. She sips her coffee as she pulls the laptop close. She opens it and squints at it before she clicks. She scrolls as you watch her. 

“Um, well, I could um, any day,” you answer, trying not to seem to desperate. 

“Today?” He asks, “it’s a bit ridiculous but I wouldn’t mind getting it over with.” 

“S-sure,” you answer, surprised by the suddenness. It's as if the universe had sensed you were about to give up. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I... got your name.” 

“Oh, yes, I did dive in head first. Thor Odinson, at Golden Crust bakery. You applied as a decorator?” 

“Y-yeah, I remember,” you assure him, “just wanna make sure I get to the right place. Uh, thanks, um, what time should I be there?” 

“Is noon doable?” He asks. 

“Noon it is,” you say, barely containing your excitement. You try not to let it overflow, you don’t want to get all worked up for another rejection. 

“Excellent, I will see you then,” he confirms, “now, excuse me, I think my sourdough has burnt.” 

The line clicks and you lower the phone, staring at it. The tapping of Delaney’s fingers on the keyboard are the only noise amidst the the stunned silence. It’s great you got an interview but what do you wear? 

“Hm, job hunt not going so well?” Delaney suggests as she leans into the screen. 

“Actually, just got a call for one,” you go to the table and put your phone down. “I have an interview.” 

“You do?” Her eyes flash as she looks up, a rare glimmer of happiness. “That’s awesome!” 

“Uh, yeah, but it’s at noon so... I’ll have to leave for a bit.” 

“Sounds good to me,” she scoffs, “perfect time to party.” 

You roll your eyes, “you’re silly.” 

“Well, you know, if you get the job, I’ll have to figure out how to entertain myself,” she says, “and I’ll get to binge all the TV shows you hate.” 

“You’re such an optimist,” you chide playfully. 

[sexxyyyyvivv]

ugh wish id been there!! so not fair that i wasnt born a demigod (as far as i knowww..)

my favorite hc is that the chb head counselors (specifically the ones who were there and experienced the manhattan battle) are best friends.

they have sleepovers in the poseidon cabin (since it's just percy and tyson), they have monthy group outings where they just go out and get to be kids, sally invites them over at least once a week for dinner, they walk to activities together, they're so clingy it's ridiculous.

the campers who experienced the battle get it, because there's only so much death and parentification a literal teenager can take before needing to rely on others, so seeing percy carrying will piggy-back out of the med cabin, or watching clarisse chasing one of the stoll brothers around camp, or seeing annabeth, chris, and katie engaged in a heated debate over which area to plant the newest strawberry field, it's all normal to them.

they will absolutely die if they are not within twelve feet of each other, they legally have to be around each other at all times or else they will lose it. when percy got back to chb after his disappearance, the head counselors spent the day inside the poseidon cabin, all piled together in a demigod puppy pile, percy at the center with clarisse's elbow in his ribs, katie's knee hitting his temple, one of the stoll brothers attempting to use his knee as a back rest, pollux's hand dangerously close to smacking him in the face, and the biggest, happiest smile on his face.

[sexxyyyyvivv]

few people have felt the dread of knowing your parents are coming to take your phone for bedtime and you're in the middle of something important but they dont care so you have to tell your friends you gtg like a roblox player

[steviebunny]

I'm sure someone else has talked about this but the actress switch between Bailey and Delaney in IWTV works, we almost never see Claudia outside of Louis's retelling of the story told to Daniel, And even when we see Armand discuss her, That's tainted by the fact that Armand has so much of his version of events inexplicably tied up with his meddling in Louis's memories. Louis cannot keep his story straight. Louis cannot remember. Of course Claudia's appearance changes. Of course the way he remembers how she looks changes, its the same way in one interview he tells Daniel that Lestat was frail and cowardly looking and in another he was like an angel sent directly from God. Yeah, it wasn't planned initially but narratively it makes so much sense that it could have been planned from the beginning and it fucking works. If you have a serious problem with the actresses being changed you care more about the aesthetics of the show than you care about the actual story of the show.

[writing-whump]

Sensory overload

☕️-anon wished to see how Hector and Arnie were doing in the meantime, so here we go. A bit of Arnie and Hector plus Olive and some emeto.

Arnie found Hector glaring at his phone on the couch at 7 pm.

"I don't think you can make it bend to your will that way," Arnie said as he rubbed at his eyes.

Since Sunday he had trouble sleeping for some reason, waking up at 5 or 6 am although he was never a morning person. He would turn in bed for two hours, trying to get himself back to sleep, but to no avail. It left him tired and grumpy, cause he wanted to sleep but couldn't.

To compensate, he took frequent naps during the day, like the one he just woke up from. Probably worsening the problem by not being tired enough to sleep through the next morning again.

Hector grumbled something, leaning back with his coffee only for his eyes to return to the phone screen 10 seconds later.

"Who's not answering?"

Hector scoffed, like the name wasn't worth saying out loud. Arnie kept quiet and watched him until his older brother finally caved. "Isaiah."

"Oh? It's so rare for you to message him." Arnie sat down behind the table, still disoriented from sleep.

"Yeah. And just when I do he ignores me. Isn't it weird?"

"I told you he planned some special anniversary thing with Seline on Saturday. That's why we weren't meeting. And then she likely stayed over so he had his hands full over the weekend."

"It's Tuesday," Hector protested.

"It's summer break," Arnie reminded. "More busy with free time with his pack and stuff."

"That's why I..." Hector turned his head away to scowl at the twilight behind the window.

"What was that?" Arnie gave up on the table and went to sit down next to Hector instead, grabbing his untouched coffee from his hand. "Look, you have been super busy during the holidays. You work 25 hours from 24 each day or train or claim some new territories you don't need. Isaiah can't be waiting around for you to make time for him."

Arnie didn't mean himself at all when he said it. He felt more than a little neglected by Hector's constant 'work' excuses. It was his last holiday before starting university and Hector was nowhere to be found.

Hector growled at the cup being taken out of his hand but said nothing. "That's why I wanted...never mind."

Arnie took a sip and grimaced at the taste. No sugar. "Wanted what?"

Hector bared his teeth at no one in particular. "I thought we could plan a trip, okay?! Just the three of us. I'm fed up with the city, so I thought we could do mountain climbing or some shit in nature. And when I suggest it, he doesn't respond. Asshole."

Arnie sighed. "That's really nice, Hex. I'm sure he will like it once he sees it." The younger blond leaned back on the couch. "You know how Isaiah is with the phone detox thing. He likes to take breaks from screens and being available."

"It's the girl," Hector spit out angrily. "Just when we get him back he has to have a girlfriend and a new pack to piss me off."

Arnie rolled his eyes. "We are not losing him to Seline, come on."

"Women always destroy families. Especially brothers. And wolves."

"I'm sorry, how many experiences do you have with that?" Arnie said with a snort.

"Oh, not you too!" Hector crossed his arms on his chest, sliding farther away from him on the couch.

Arnie chuckled. Delaney and Hector's other closest wolves have been bringing it up from time to time now. That Hector should be looking for a partner soon, ideally a witch to cement his position as branch leader.

Everyone knew wolves couldn't rule alone. Stability came from relationships, from functioning compatibility. A leader should have a witch to lead with, to offer to the pack, to bring them all together.

Hector, who had zero interest in dating since Arnie could remember, saw this part as particularly annoying.

"So. You gonna be in this splendid mood for the rest of the evening or we putting on something on Netflix?" Arnie yawned, putting the coffee away.

Hector got up, pacing the living room. "Can't sit still. I'll go for a run."

"You gonna leave me here alone?" Arnie pouted. Free evening and Hector was gonna spend it away again?

"You can join me," Hector said with a knowing smirk.

Arnie groaned. Hector knew he was not very keen on exercise. Being around a superhuman you could never hope to keep up and who would never let you win even knowing this was rather demotivating.

"I thought so. Enjoy wasting your life on useless Netflix shit, I'm leaving."

Arnie huffed and slid down on the sofa into a more comfortable position. Agitated Hector needed the exercise to keep his shadow calm. It was for the best.

...........

If you looked for a piece of quite in a crowded city such as Vienna, school grounds were the safest bet during summer.

It was tiring for wolves to be this surrounded by humans, noise and scenes all the time. Hector felt like the proximity of the buildings got only smaller, squeezing the air out of him.

He needed open space. Nature. Something green with a free view of the sky and the horizon.

Hector ended up back at the university campus at the bench near the ditch he found Matthew passed out not that long ago.

Of course he wanted the campus for himself now. He spend so much of his time there because of the uni that it felt like a base to him.

It was surprisingly lively on the way to the Messe, lights and people coming and going like fireflies drawn to light of the giant exhibition building. None went through the dark space around the bench though, for which Hector was grateful.

Not until his name suddenly echoed through the whole park.

Olive pushed her way through the crowd, which was quite an achievement since she was so small. "Hector! I didn't expect to see you here!"

Hector shrugged. "Just passing by." It always fascinated him how happy Olive seemed whenever she saw him. Her whole face lit up, her smoky gray eyes so big like a doe's.

"Oh." She stopped at the bunch, a cute little pout to her mouth. "So you are not coming to the expo?" When he looked perplexed, she continued, "Illusion and light play exhibition! It's just here for a few weeks."

Ah. That explained the liveliness.

Olive shuffled her feet. She wore a white button-up that hugged her slightly chubby figure, an orange-red necktie, short black hair hidden under a red beanie, and bright red shoes. Hector internally shook his head. Artists had the weirdest tastes.

"Would you...like to come too? I have been there several times, I know the best parts!"

She got excited so easily about the smallest things. If an exhibition or a nice sunset or a collection of crayons could make him so happy...then again, why not? He was not managing to stop thinking about Isaiah's unread messages and he could use a break from thoughts about his duties and goals before they started turning in circles too much.

"Whatever." He got up to his feet, which made Olive almost bounce on her feet.

"You are going to love it!" She actually grabbed his arm, dragging him forward.

Hector blinked at the contact. He wasn't sure how he felt about her being so comfortable touching him. On some level, he suspected she didn't realize he was a wolf or who he was in that world, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her. It was amusing how relaxed she was, how she treated him with such friendliness. Was that normal with girls around guys?

Besides, it made him feel all smug he managed to throw people off his scent as a wolf. Managing this degree of control to not be recognized by the energy and danger wolves emitted or the thickness and reactiveness of their shadows was a point of pride for civilized wolves.

As they got inside and he automatically paid the ridiculously small tickets for them both, he wondered if there wasn't something else. Hector liked who he was. He was proud of who he was, and he never pretended to be anything else.

He was the Executioner's younger brother. He was Vincent Wolfson's son. He was the pack leader's nephew and chosen branch leader in a city as big as Vienna, in the heart of Western and Eastern Europe. Destined to achieve something big, to take over one day. That was his aim—he wasn't secretive about it.

But with Olive he was...just a guy. A stuck-up economy student who could be too blunt at times, but that she, for some reason, found amusing.

The exhibition's theme was the universe. There were seperate rooms projecting different light plays, from infinite space to exploding suns, kinetic installations, Milky ways changing colours, labyrinths of mirrors and light sculuptures.

Olive kept dragging him around, showing him her favorite pieces and projections, flooding him with background information and cool facts he didn't have the vocabulary to understand.

His eyes were beginning to hurt. The constant onslaught of lights that were actually everything but regular, the flashing patterns and ever-changing chaotic rooms...there were no points of reference. And worse, there were so many people—smashed together in an even tighter space, like a city, but smaller.

Hector felt a dull, throbbing headache building behind his temples. It reminded him of the subway, but worse. The lights were too much, the noise was too much. The rooms were spinning and turning, blending together and then spitting him out in confusing directions.

His stomach felt unsettled, waves of queasiness coming and going. Sweat was forming on his upper lip and at the back of his neck.

"O-Olive..." he blinked and screwed his eyes shut, stopping where he was, reaching with his hand in search of something solid. A wall or a door, something that wasn't moving.

"Hector? Hey, wait, what's wrong?"

"G-..." he gulped, his stomach feeling impossibly heavy. Heat went to his face and chest, intensifying the nausea. He gagged, slapping his hand against his mouth. "Get me out-"

He couldn't see in the confusion, the hall was too dark to contrast the effect of the rooms.

"Okay, just a second." A small hand closed around his. Hector squeezed it, maybe too tightly in his disorientation, mouth overflowing with saliva. Damn, he needed to sit down. The claustrophobic feeling was back and he gagged again, splash of acid against his throat.

Her small hand and trace of scent led the way and he let her, the only familiar focus point in the chaos of people and lights hurting his eyes. He crashed against the door on the way and cursed, but the pain of something solid against his side was a relief.

"Just a couple of steps," Olive said, tugging at his arm. "Almost there, I promise."

Hector unglued himself from the door with great difficulty, one more door coming up, when finally, finally he was hit with a wall of fresh air.

He gulped down on the semi-clean night wind greedily, panting to breathe against the nauseating sensation. Almost winning the round, if his stomach didn't cramp that moment and he groaned.

"Okay, okay, let's sit you down, okay?" Both of Olive's hands were wrapped around his arm, using all her weight and strength to steer him to the side of the entrance.

He couldn't tell where the bench was or where they were going. The ground was tilting again, all wrong and his knees buckled, sending him to the ground. Olive didn't let go, going down with him.

"I guess not. Okay, let's stay here, it's fine-"

Hector gagged, the world going deaf for a second and then retched as his dinner came out with a splash against the yellowed grass. At least it wasn't the pavement, that would have splattered more.

Olive was still under his arm, pressed into his side. Her hand snaked around his shoulders, tapping gently. "Feel better?" Her eyes were so wide again, glittering with concern.

"Sorry," he rasped. His body heaved with another retch but he fought it down. "Don't know what-"

"The lights. I'm sorry, I didn't know. The movement and lights can be overwhelming for more sensitive people-"

Hector scoffed, rocking up and down in attempt to catch his bearings. Why was he always throwing up around this girl? "I'm not sensitive."

"I didn't mean it like that," she said sharply, indignant now. "I mean, prone to motion sickness or with senses like shadow wolves. You can't say they are sensitive, can you? But there is even a warning at the entrance that it isn't good for them, cause there is a higher risk of sensory overload."

"Ah. That makes sense, then." He let himself fall back to sit on the ground properly, spreading his hands out. The world was still spinning, but it was slowing down a little.

Olive let go of him, kneeling at his side. "Huh?"

"I'm a shadow wolf too, Olive." Hector focused his eyes on her, wary of her reaction. "You really had no idea."

Her mouth made a little o, looking even more winded than he was. "Oh wow."

Hector cleared his throat. "So what? Scared of me now?" He shifted away. Normally, he enjoyed people being wary of him, of respecting his power, but the idea of Olive being scared of him wasn't appealing at all.

Maybe that was also one of the reasons he was in no hurry to correct her.

A flush crept up her face. "No, I'm not! I'm..."

"I wasn't hiding it, you know?"

"Right. The turf talk, and the people always behind your back. And how sick you felt at the subway...I just didn't...I never spoke to a wolf before. What does that- what does that mean now?" She covered her mouth with both hands. "Does that mean I was breaking all the rules of interaction? I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

Hector chuckled dryly, which turned into a cough and into another small gag. "Damn it."

Olive lifted herself up on her knees, gripping his shoulder. "You still feeling icky?"

Icky? What kind of word was that? He felt comforted by her unconscious touch though. On some level, he still didn't feel like a wolf to her. "Nah, almost good." He closed his eyes for a second, breathing through the sudden heat wave, letting out a loud burp against his hand before letting it fall to his side again.

"What does that mean for me?" Olive asked in a small voice. "You are not going to kidnap me or eat me or something, right?"

Hector had to laugh again. "No. That's not in our rules either." He looked at her hand on his biceps, realizing for the umpteenth time he didn't mind her touch as much as he should have. Not at all. Somehow she had touched herself into his shadow's graces and sense of space. "You don't have to follow any rules. Not with me. I'm too high up to mind," he reassured her.

She ducked her head, and when he tried to straighten up to catch her eye, he lost his balance and flopped right onto his back.

"Oh, so high up," she said with an involuntary giggle, leaning over him. "You okay?" Her hand climbed higher on his arm all the way to the top of his shoulder. "You are so sweaty."

"And dizzy," he admitted with a grimace. His arm shot up to grab onto her hand that was touching him. "A little warning, Olive. Wolves tend to think anything they are touching is theirs. You keep doing that," his eyes rose slowly over her arm to her body, "and I might forget how to let go."

Olive blushed even more, her round cheeks furiously red. Oh, he could get used to that expression.

Part 2

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPost:

The questions surrounding the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson are going to take a while to answer definitively, even if police in Pennsylvania have now arrested and charged a man in connection with the shooting. The question of how Americans feel about the health insurance industry, on the other hand, leaves little room for doubt. On social media and in everyday conversations, Americans have joked about last week’s shooting in New York ― and in some cases even suggested that Thompson deserved to die ― because of what they say his company and his industry have done to stop people from getting health care. As HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery and Arthur Delaney reported last week, lots of people wrote variations on “thoughts and prayers are out of network,” invoking a familiar piece of insurance terminology. Under an item where New York officials sought tips on finding the killer, one commenter said “my regular insurance doesn’t cover vision so I can’t really see” while another wrote “we need prior authorization first” — once again, using insurance company lingo.

You don’t have to be a corporate shill to find that reaction dehumanizing and disturbing. Taking satisfaction in somebody’s killing feels like the sort of thing that was clearly out of bounds before social media made it easy for people to express their worst instincts aloud and then be rewarded for it with even more attention. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero,” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) said in a Monday news conference detailing the latest developments on the case. “Hear me on this: He is no hero. ... In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to express policy differences or a viewpoint.” But you also don’t have to condone the online reaction, let alone the killing itself, to understand where it came from or why somebody associated with the insurance industry would inspire such hostility. And you don’t have to think commercial insurers are primarily responsible for the problems of American health care to spot the role they’ve played in its well-documented dysfunction.

How And Why Insurers Became So Unpopular

That role starts with the limits on medical care that have been the reference point on social media for the past week. More than half of Americans with private insurance say they’ve had trouble using their coverage ― like running into treatment denials or struggling with small provider networks ― according to polling from KFF, the California-based health care research organization. The number is even higher for those who say they have health problems, which suggests the people most likely to encounter these obstacles are the ones who need health care the most. These obstacles have existed for a while, and this is not the first time outrage over them has spawned a broader conversation about whether to curb insurance industry behavior. Back in the late 1990s, Congress spent several years debating whether to pass a “patient’s bill of rights” that would have given everyday Americans more power to challenge treatment decisions and even sue insurers in court. You could tell the idea was popular by looking at the polls, which showed strong support from across the political spectrum. Or you could just go to the movies. In a key scene from the 1997 film “As Good As It Gets,” a main character played by Helen Hunt cursed insurers as “fucking … bastard pieces of shit” because they had denied tests and treatments for her asthmatic son. Audiences around the country broke into spontaneous applause.

At the time, the insurance industry and its allies argued that their limits on care were cutting down on unnecessary, sometimes harmful treatments that people didn’t really need — and, more importantly, holding down the cost of health care. If not for tools of what became known as “managed care,” insurers said, Americans would have to pay even more when they went to the doctor’s office, hospital or pharmacy, and many would have to skip care altogether. Insurers and their allies make the same arguments today. And they are not exactly wrong when it comes to the deeper problems of American health care or the role insurers can play in addressing them. There are reams of data to suggest the system is rife with mistreatment and over-treatment, and that the main reason American health care costs so much is that the providers and producers of care have so much power to set such high prices.

[...]

How Insurers Behave Today

You can still see vestiges of that approach in organizations like Kaiser Permanente, the nonprofit descendant of those shipyard clinics. And while it’s hard to quantify insurer performance, one telling measure is the rate of treatment denials — which for Kaiser, according to a recent report from the website ValuePenguin, is just 7% of claims. But the industry average is 16%. The industry leader at 32% is UnitedHealthcare, the company Thompson led. And it’s not just the volume of denials raising questions about the conduct and priorities of big commercial insurers. It’s the nature of the denials, which have come to light through legal proceedings, congressional testimony and journalistic exposés. Among the latter was a monthslong ProPublica investigation of algorithms and other tools United was using ― as the report put it ― to “police mental health care with arbitrary thresholds and cost-driven targets.” United told ProPublica its practices were “an important part of making sure patients get access to safe, effective and affordable treatment.” Providers, patients and mental health care advocates who the reporters quoted in the article disagreed, arguing the limits routinely deprived people of care they needed. That is the very same thing Miranda Yaver, a health policy professor at the University of Pittsburgh, found in her research for a forthcoming book about American health insurance companies and the ways they restrict treatment.

[...]

How Insurers Helped To Build The U.S. System

Reformers have been trying to create a system like that here in the U.S. for nearly a hundred years. They’ve never been able to overcome the political opposition. Whole books have been written on the complex story of why this kept happening. A big, politically inconvenient part of the saga is that most Americans have health insurance and, notwithstanding their feelings about the industry as a whole, are wary of giving up what they have. But another big part of the story is the opposition of industry groups that profit from the status quo. That very much includes health insurers, who eagerly joined the fight against Harry Truman’s national health insurance proposal in the late 1940s, led the charge against Bill Clinton’s ill-fated universal coverage plan in the early 1990s and pushed back on the (far more modest) reforms that eventually became the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” in the late aughts.

[...] The data backs up that claim: Administrative costs in the U.S. health care system are the highest among economically advanced counties. The same goes for the salaries of American insurance executives that at the high end of the scale can exceed $20 million a year. Again, none of that justifies celebrating one executive’s slaying, let alone the killing itself. And depending on your political priors, it may not even justify forcing insurers to change their behavior. But making the case that their practices are beneficial means convincing skeptical Americans who were clearly angry at insurers before Thompson’s killing and are unlikely to change their feelings any time soon.

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the hands of Luigi Mangione reveals a dark underbelly about the legitimate frustrations aimed at health care insurers, who hand out routine denials or delays of service to its customers.

[reggies-eyeliner]

THE CLASSIC MATCHUP - @nickeverdeen!

-> THE "MEET ME IN THE POURING RAIN" COUPLE<3

#now playing ... "darling i'd wait for you" by delaney bailey!

gwen stacy's hugs are rare, so when they do happen, they mean something. the first time she hugs you is after a long day at the spider society, both of you are exhausted and just about ready to fall asleep. her hand is in yours as she walks you home, the moon shining brightly in the night sky, turning bits and pieces of the puddle-covered sidewalk white. the rain begins to pour harder, and soon enough, your synchronized walks turn into a pitter-patter of sprints as fast as the rain, and both of you are laughing hard barely seeing two steps ahead of you. when she finally does make it to your house, she wraps her arms around you, holding you tightly. at first, you're not exactly sure why she's hugging you, because she usually needs a reason to, but you roll along with it anyway. with hair dripping and clothes soaked, she pulls away and waves goodbye. you discover a few years later that the hug came from her realizing for the first time that she was in love you.

she absolutely loves that she's not the only one that gets louder the closer she gets to someone! knowing that you're there to ramble and talk just as much as she wants to is a feeling of comfort, so the conversations are limitless. she'll be there to listen to your favorite memories, and even if some are more painful than others, she'll be the one holding you and nodding encouragingly as you speak. she's also completely fine with you getting distracted or easily lost, because she really doesn't see that as much of a problem, knowing she was the same growing up. she's there to guide you through every obstacle of your life if you let her.

while she might not know the names of your favorite games or books or interests, she can and she totally will get onboard with them!! in regards to krav maga, if she doesn't know what it is at first, she'll ask you countless questions about it, and then go on a youtube binge to further study what it is.

when you face difficulties, whether it be dysphoria (i hc gwen as trans because yes obviously she would be so supportive) or familial issues or whatever it is, she'll keep her voice low and calm. the moment she sees you back away or even a flash of sadness on your face, she'll take the hint. gwen will make sure that you feel safe around her if it's the last thing she does. she'll hold you and press gentle kisses to your forehead, because she wants you to know that you're deserving of love just as you are.

RANDOMIZED TROPE:

" climbing in through the window in the pouring rain "

-> it comes to a shock to the spider society that you two never argue, despite gwen's occasional sarcastic comments. when you two do happen to disagree on something, she will never ever give you the silent treatment, and does eveyrthing she can to communicate what she has to say. but as always, some things become difficult, and gwen stacy eventually has to find a way to apologize to you (falling asleep angry is her number one aBSOLUTELY NOT rule in her book !!), and she'll text you at like . two in the morning and be like "hi can you open your window it's cold",, and she'll come in and genuinely apologize. she'll let you say what's on your mind. she'll hold you if you need it and she'll nod understandingly and UAGSH she loves you sm <33acaschhc

-> THE COUPLE THAT HONESTLY FORGETS THEY'RE TOGETHER SOMETIMES

#now playing ... " old with you " by grent perez!

"korra has an incredibly rare, never before seen soft spot for you," is what bolin marvels at after the first interaction between you two.

and oh man it is so true. korra will admit it proudly after a few weeks of dating, no doubt about it !!

korra loves loudly. she makes it clear just how much she loves you, but she also loves casually, which speaks volumes. she'll make sure that your hair stays out of your face, and will notice from the slightest twitches when you're ready to head back home to recharge, or you need to be alone. she loves proudly, too, and makes sure that you know just how much she cares for you

her job as the avatar is taxing, but being with you makes it worth it. she doesn't mind when you stutter at all, and will defend you to the end of the world if she needs to. she doesn't yell as often around you, either, and if she does, it's because she's passionate about something. she will never yell in anger around you.

memory problems? no worries! korra knows what it's like all too well, and will make sure that you feel comfortable enough around her to ask for help to find something. she'll make sure that your apologies aren't needed for making mistakes, and will guide you through the most difficult of times.

lots and lots of arms slinging around shoulders. wherever she walks, she walks so casually with you because she feels safe and comfortable around you, so much so that it gets her wondering why relationships are so stressful for others. your conversations mimic those of being awake at sleepovers when one should be fast asleep, with suppressed giggles and barking laughter.

a/n: thank you so so much for the request!! i'm so so sorry this took me so long!!! hopefully this will suffice! if i missed anything please don't hesitate to let me know >:D!! have a great day and take good care of yourself ^^

[villainsview]

Part 4

FULL ART by @scarletfish8eta

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Fetch searched the rest of the upper floor to calm himself down, before heading back downstairs, finding Lavender in the kitchen going through the trash.

“Okay you really gotta wash your hands before we hit the road again,” Fetch said.

“Did you find anything useful?” Lavender asked, ignoring his comment.

Fetch showed her the pair of jeans.

“These are Erick’s… Where are they?”

“I don’t know,” Lavender said, “but I think I know who has him.”

“Not Keller?”

“Not yet,” Lavender said, getting up and handing him a receipt.

Someone had racked up quite a bill at an adult shop for genuine leather items, paid for by card, and the receipt was signed by…

“Delaney? Never heard of him.”

“He’s a friend of Mateo’s,” Lavender said, “also his top client. Weird, I didn’t think he’d be capable of kidnapping someone. He usually just takes whatever Mateo offers. But it explains how they got to Erick so fast while Mateo is supposed to be about three states over.”

“So he doesn’t have Erick?” Fetch confirmed.

“Not yet,” Lavender said, “but Delaney might be headed towards him.”

“Might be?” Fetch repeated, “give me something concrete to work with!”

“I dunno what else he would do, I never took him for a kidnapper. Mateo always complained he never got his hands dirty,” Lavender said, “and he left the hideout fast that implies he’s got somewhere to be.”

“With a two-hour headstart by now!”

“Yeah but there’s one of him and two of us,” Lavender said, “we don’t need to take as many rest stops, so if need be, we could be at Mateo’s wayyy before Delaney gets there.”

“And then what?” Fetch sighed.

“We kill Mateo, we ambush and kick the shit out of Delaney. Problems solved.”

“That won’t work,” Fetch sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming up.

“Oh what do you know?” Lavender said, “you’d be clueless about this whole thing if it weren’t for me.”

“Oh you— sigh… Let’s just figure out where he’d go next. You know more of these hideouts?”

“A few,” Lavender said, “they’re pretty far apart though, so if he’s travelling alone and Erick is putting up a fight, he’s gonna have to make other stops. And trust me, that kid is not a trunk person.”

“He does trunks just fine, he’s just not an other people person,” Fetch said.

“Ugh, don’t start crying,” Lavender said, “come on, let’s grab some snacks for the road and I’ll point you in the right direction to the other safehouse. Or I can drive!”

“No,” Fetch just said, heading outside and getting behind the wheel himself. 

They drove back to the cabin, so he could grab a couple of personal items while Lavender raided the kitchen for food. He’d been quiet for most of the trip, but she assumed he was just worried.

Had he found something else in the hideout that he didn’t show her? What could it be? And how dare he keep information from her? She found some ziplock bags to pack food in, before checking the fridge, hearing footsteps behind her.

“You don’t got any beer?” she asked.

“I don’t drink,” Fetch said.

“Just food it is then,” Lavender said, stealing a slice of cheese before closing the fridge. “By the way. You found anything else back at the hideout?”

“No.”

“Just the jeans?” Lavender asked, raising a brow.

“Just the jeans,” Fetch repeated, “why?”

“You’re acting weird.”

“We barely know each other.”

“You haven’t tried to insult me since we left that place,” Lavender said, “what else did you find?”

“Nothing else, I’m just tired,” Fetch said, “that for the road?”

He looked over the ziplock bags on the counter, but Lavender could’ve sworn he was ogling her hunting knife that she’d put down as well. She slowly reached into her pockets.

Had she imagined it?

No, better safe than sorry.

Besides, he still needed an attitude check after what happened earlier. Without a warning, she kicked against the back of his knees.

“Ow! What—”

She wasted no time, while he was unbalanced and caught off-guard, she pulled out the handcuffs she picked up earlier, locking them around one wrist while shoving him to the ground.

“Ow! RHODES!!”

Click.

The other cuff locked around his other wrist. She kneeled on top of his back, barely managing to keep him down as he tried to buck her off. It gave her a rush of adrenaline, just what she needed to keep him down, before grabbing his hair and getting close to his ear.

“What are you planning?” she asked.

“Get the fuck off of me!” Fetch hissed.

“Answer me first!” Lavender said, “You think I don’t know anything? I know you’re hiding something. Fess up!”

“You’re paranoid!”

She tightened the grip on his hair, reaching for her knife on the counter and pressing it against his throat.

“Spit it out!” she said.

“Get that knife out of my face!”

“Talk!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake— I called Keller,” Fetch admitted, “he sent me pictures, check my phone.”

She felt around his pockets for his phone.

“Not the back pockets, front right!” Fetch grumbled.

“My bad.” Lavender said, patting his butt once more just to annoy him, before finding his phone, “Passcode?”

“....one two three four.”

“That’s so easy,” Lavender said, rolling her eyes.

She checked the call log, seeing the outgoing call to Keller. She then checked his messages, finding the link and following it to the pictures.

“What did he say when you called him?”

“He took Erick as leverage instead of paying me…to kill you—”

“WHAT?!”

“I wasn’t going to, calm fucking down,” Fetch said.

“And why should I believe you?”

“You don’t have to,” Fetch said, “but you do whatever you want anyway, don’t you?”

“He said if you kill me he’d let Erick go?” Lavender asked.

“He did, but I don’t trust him,” Fetch said, “especially if he’s working with someone. Without you, I’d be outnumbered. If you need a reason to believe I won’t kill you, it’s because I still need you.”

“...good enough,” Lavender said, finally getting off of him, though she made no attempt to free him or help him sit up, leaving him to struggle on his own.

“You’re right, he wouldn’t just let Erick go,” she said, “I don’t really think he has a type beyond age, and he hasn’t been able to get his hands on anyone since some time before Thomas.”

“We need a new plan,” Fetch said, “uncuff me.”

“I don’t have the keys,” Lavender said.

“You’re kidding.”

“Heh, nope.”

“Rhodes!”

<Prev | Masterlist | Next>

[sexxyyyyvivv]

everybody hating on his lil rat tail but i honestly liked him more here than in rots but don’t tell anyone 😔

big fan of his sweetheart lover boy era

[venusiancarbondioxide]

FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT OF CHAPTER TWO!!! it's just over 20k words, and i know i have like, 300 more to sprinkle in to establish a thread for chapter three. i'm starting to think my initial chapter breaks might need to be split into even smaller breaks, but that sounds like a problem for future delaney!!!!!! a delaney who has all the words in front of her, most likely.

[kallie-den]

A Commanding Weakness Ch. 5

After accidentally finding out about what Wasp has been doing to the Inyx's crew, Lori Delaney, a petty crewman with problems with authority, runs to tell the exact wrong person: Captain Vasser

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Crewman Lori Delaney made her way to the bridge of the starship Inyx in fits and starts. She sprinted in bursts, pounding the deck beneath her feet because she was running so urgently, but every now and then she stopped - not just to catch her breath, but because she needed to ask herself whether or not she was crazy.

What she’d seen in medbay defied all sense. Dr. Hiraga, Chief Samira Carter, and that dorky science officer, Morgan, acting out some kind of crazy fantasy, dressed in absolutely ludicrous outfits, whilst Wasp, the hacker they were supposed to be hunting, lorded over it all. If someone told Delaney they’d seen something like that, she’d never believe them. Not if they swore on a hundred years of replicator rations.

But she couldn’t dismiss the very last part of what she’d seen. Wasp had some kind of brainwashing device she was going to use to take over the Inyx. And it was almost perfected. Hearing that had made Delaney’s blood run cold. She needed to act, but she was just a petty crewman. She was powerless. She needed help, but if Dr. Hiraga and the ship’s security officer had already fallen, there was no telling who else might already be in the hacker’s clutches.

There was only one person Delaney could think to turn to: Captain Yvonne Vasser.

It was funny. Normally, there was no one Delaney wanted to see less. Captain Vasser was the very worst kind of commanding officer: one who truly believed in all of Alliance Starfleet’s bullshit about protocol, professionalism, and discipline. Most captains would allow a little leniency on a long tour of duty like this. Not Vasser. She was always on Delaney’s ass - about her uniform, about showing up a little late to her duty shifts, and about a hundred other tiny little rules and regulations Delaney didn’t give a shit about. And when it wasn’t her, it was her pet thug, Carter.

Why couldn’t Vasser take the hint, and accept that Delaney was only in this job for the paycheck and the training? And why did she care about petty crewmen in the first place? Didn’t she have more important things to pay attention to?

In a situation like this, though, Delaney couldn’t imagine anyone else she’d sooner tell. Captain Vasser was a legend. A machine. She was untouchable. Even if everyone else on the Inyx fell to Wasp, she’d fight tooth and nail to set them free. Delaney was sure that Captain Vasser would know exactly what to do.

“Where’s the captain?” Delaney demanded as she rushed out of the turbolift and onto the bridge.

Heads turned, every one of them looking at her like she was suicidal. She had no business being here, after all.

“Captain Vasser is in her ready room,” said Lieutenant Kuznetzov, in a voice cold enough to freeze the air between them. “But I would remind you, crewman, that-“

“Great, thanks.”

Delaney grit her teeth as she interrupted and dashed past him. She really hoped she wasn’t crazy because if not, she was seriously going to pay for that.

Before anyone could stop her, Delaney raced into the ready room. Once she was inside and the door slid closed behind her, she found herself alone with Captain Vasser. The captain was sitting behind her desk and looked up at Delaney with an impossibly stern, displeased expression on her face.

“Crewman,” she said in a warning tone. “Just because I do not lock my door, does not mean you should presume to-“

“Forget that!” Delaney cut her off.

She paled slightly as she watched Captain Vasser’s eyebrow raise higher than she’d ever seen it. However, the captain seemed to sense her urgency, and gave her a chance to speak.

“Captain, I saw something,” Delaney began. “Just now, down in medbay. I…” She paused, wishing she’d spent more time thinking about exactly what to say. “It’s Wasp. She’s infiltrated the ship. And she’s doing something to people. I don’t know what, exactly. But she’s in their heads. She’s controlling them.”

Delaney paused to catch her breath. She half expected Captain Vasser to query something, or else yell at her for telling tall tales. Instead, the captain just stared at her with an odd, vacant look in her eyes. Delaney couldn’t tell what that meant, but it made her nervous.

“I swear, Captain,” she added quickly. “I really saw it. You have to believe me. We’re all in danger. That’s why I came running in here. I couldn’t tell anyone else, I couldn’t even use my communicator. We don’t know who else might be-“

Suddenly, Captain Vasser bolted to her feet. Delaney broke off mid-flow but then tried again. “Captain, please, I-“

“I believe you, Crewman Delaney,” Captain Vasser said, somewhat stiffly. Relief swept over Delaney. “And you did the right thing by bringing this directly to me. You must not tell anyone else. Now follow me.”

She started walking at a brisk, purposeful pace, out of the ready room and toward the turbolift. Delaney moved quickly to follow her. In that moment, she could have kissed Captain Vasser she was so grateful to be believed. She wasn’t sure where the captain was taking her, but it was an immense relief to see that she seemed to have some kind of plan for contingencies like this. For once, Delaney was glad to have a hard-ass as a captain.

As they crossed the bridge, Delaney caught plenty of dirty, impressed, or downright incredulous looks. The officers must have been wondering why she wasn’t currently being chewed out for insubordination. Captain Vasser ran a tight ship, though, and as such, none of them dared to question her. They just busied themselves with their assigned tasks, and so Captain Vasser and Delaney made it into the lift without comment. From there, they headed down into the Inyx’s decks. Delaney didn’t think to ask where they were going until, after they left the turbolift and started walking again, she realized what they were heading for.

The holodeck.

“Uh, captain?” Delaney ventured as they stepped over the threshold. “What are we doing here?”

All too late, she was giving thought to how Captain Vasser had seemed during the walk down. She had been oddly quiet, and unnaturally serene. Delaney had assumed she was simply trying not to give the game away, but it was starting to seem like more than that. Captain Vasser was behaving more like a robot than a person. It was almost like she was-

“Computer, seal the holodeck,” Captain Vasser said. Her voice was chillingly monotonous. “My authorization. Hold all communications. Load up and engage scenario Wasp One.”

“Wasp…”

The penny dropped. Delaney turned back toward the door, only to see it slide closed and hear the heavy-duty mechanical locks slam into place. She was trapped. A beat later, the holodeck’s many, many highly sophisticated holographic projectors hummed to life. At her rank, Delaney didn’t get a lot of holo-rec time, but she was still familiar enough to brace herself for the walls and floor shifting and dissolving into a new scene. Instead, though, all that happened was that a single hologram appeared in the space between Delaney and Captain Vasser.

It was Wasp. She looked just as she had in medbay, complete with the bizarre, regal, latex costume that was such a strange match for her neon green hair and punk looks.

Now Delaney knew she wasn’t crazy. She just really really wished she was.

“Well, I guess this was always going to happen,” Wasp complained, throwing up her arms and looking straight at Delaney. “But you really picked your moment, you know that? Right as I was finishing up all the preparations.” She glanced at Captain Vasser and snickered. “Good thing your trusted captain knew exactly what to do. Or rather, good thing I programmed her with exactly what to do.”

“You…” Delaney paled. “What the fuck? What the fuck is going on?”

“Oh, well, allow me to fill you in!” Wasp bowed mockingly. “At least, as soon as I…”

She snapped her fingers, and her bizarre, latex getup phased out of existence, replaced with an outfit that was equally conspicuous, but far more in keeping with the hacker’s usual style.

“Basically, I’m in your ship’s computer,” Wasp explained. “I’m running the Inyx. All of it. The only thing around here I don’t control is the crew. At least, not yet. But I’m working on it. Turns out, if you know how, getting into a person’s head isn’t so much harder than getting into a computer.”

Delaney shook her head in disbelief as Wasp crowed. She reached up and slapped the communicator badge on her chest.

“Emergency channel,” she said urgently. “This is Crewman Delaney to the bridge. Delaney to the bridge. Do you read me?”

There was no response except the sound of Wasp’s laughter.

“See?” she mocked. “Believe me now?”

Delaney balled her hands into fists. She felt powerless, and it was pissing her off. She looked at Wasp. No point punching a hologram. She looked at Captain Vasser. She was clearly a puppet. She looked back at the door. Locked, and military-grade.

There was no way out.

Delaney didn’t understand. This didn’t seem possible. Up until half an hour ago, this had just been a normal day. She was struggling to make sense of it all.

“You… you have…” she said slowly. “Some kind of fucking… device? That you just put in people’s heads? And then you’re in control.”

“Uh-huh!” Wasp nodded happily. “I do now, at least. That delightful little science officer is figuring out the finishing touches.”

Delaney shook her head in futile disbelief. She’d never heard of technology like that, but there was no way to deny what she’d seen in medbay. Something was missing from Wasp’s story, though.

“But then,” Delaney asked slowly, “how did you get to this point? You… you got the captain under your control? But… how? There’s no way any of this should have been possible without…”

She looked at Captain Vasser, willing her to somehow rouse herself from the strange, mesmerized stupor Wasp seemed to have her in. If there was anyone who could get her out of this mess, it was the captain. Delaney just needed to figure out exactly what was wrong with her.

“Oh, that’s the best part.” Wasp sauntered over to Captain Vasser and stroked her cheek, almost affectionately. “She was the key to all of this. I made it into the holodeck on my own, but all the rest? She gave it to me. Let me into all the critical systems. She was the very first piece of the puzzle. She couldn’t help herself.”

“N-no,” Delaney breathed. If any part of this madness was truly unbelievable, it was that. Captain Vasser would never put her ship or her crew in jeopardy.

“Yes,” Wasp insisted gleefully. “Your captain has a few skeletons in her closet. Or a few spirals, as the case may be. Captain Yvonne Vasser is a complete and total hypno-slut. A fetishist. And she broke her brain so hard, all I needed to do was pull a few strings and use a few of the right words.”

“You’re lying,” Delaney hissed. It didn’t make any sense. The captain was… no. No way. Wasp was just messing with her. That was the only explanation. What she was telling Delaney was completely impossible to square with everything she knew about Captain Vasser. “Fuck you!”

Wasp arched an eyebrow. “I’m really not. You should see the amount of porn she had buried in the ship’s computers. Hell, you should see how messed up she got looking at some of it. Drooling, eyes blank, head drooping…”

“Go fuck yourself!” Delaney yelled angrily. “You’re full of shit!”

It was strange. She was the last person she’d expect to defend Captain Vasser’s honor. Maybe some of that deeply annoying basic training had sunk in somewhere along the way. Trust the ship, trust the captain. Maybe it was that in all the time Delaney had been serving on the Inyx, Captain Vasser and her sternness had simply always been there. You counted on it, the way you counted on the sun coming up each morning. Maybe it was just that she’d always assumed that when the going got tough, Captain Vasser would be there with a plan and a steady hand. Whatever it was, she couldn’t just let Wasp run her mouth like this.

“Hmm.” Wasp drew her face into a lopsided, daring smirk. She seemed to take Delaney’s words as a challenge. “Well, why don’t we see what the captain herself has to say about all that?”

She turned to Captain Vasser, still standing just where she had been when Wasp had first appeared, with a blank, dazed expression on her face. Wasp lifted her hand to the captain’s face and snapped her fingers a few times.

“Captain? Earth to captain? It’s time to wake up. Oh, and that’s an order.”

At those last words, Captain Vasser seemed to stir. Her pose became a little less stiff and she blinked her eyes a few times, and slowly they cleared of fog. It was like watching someone wake up - but slowly. Agonizingly slowly. Delaney couldn’t begin to fathom how deeply Captain Vasser had been under, or for how long. What did that mean, for how she’d been commanding the ship all this time?

“W-what…” Captain Vasser said in a desperately faint voice. “W-w-where… am I?”

“That’s it.” Wasp kept snapping her fingers impatiently. “Come on. All the way up.”

Her insistent snapping seemed to do more to disorient the captain than anything else, but eventually, Captain Vasser seemed to get her bearings. She looked around at the holodeck, and then at Delaney, and then at Wasp - and then she turned as white as a sheet.

“You…” Captain Vasser breathed, aghast. She looked down. “Oh. No, no, no…”

“Captain!”

She looked like she was about to fall over, and so Delaney rushed to her side, ready to support her. She couldn’t possibly fathom what was going on in the other woman’s head, but she knew what was at stake and she knew her duty in a situation like this: report to the captain, and be ready for orders.

“Captain Vasser,” Delaney said crisply as her captain peered blearily at her. “Wasp seems to be in control of the ship’s systems. We need to stop her. What should we do?”

Captain Vasser’s eyes widened. She started shaking her head. “T-that can’t be,” she said. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t…”

Delaney’s heart started to sink. What was happening? “Captain!” she said, louder. “Orders, captain?”

She just didn’t seem to be getting through to her. Captain Vasser kept shaking her head and winced like she was recoiling, both from Delaney’s question and from the sudden torrent of her own memories. “Crewman, wait, I… I need to think.”

Delaney’s face fell. Who was this woman? She was like a husk of the captain Delaney had known. Seeing her like this was unspeakably demoralizing, and it was enough to make Delaney wonder if Wasp had actually been telling the truth.

“Captain, she…” Delaney ventured slowly. “She said you let her into the critical systems. Something about… your, uh, holodeck material?”

It seemed to take Captain Vasser a moment to process Delaney’s words, but once she did, she reacted in a way the younger woman never would have expected. Her nerve broke, and she looked away. Her face turned a deep scarlet with shame.

“T-that’s not…” she stammered. “I didn’t m-m… No, no, there must be something else. I couldn’t… wouldn’t…”

“Captain…” A sense of insurmountable disappointment washed over Delaney. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Captain Vasser was making excuses. She sounded like she was in denial. Was this really the woman Delaney had chosen to put her faith in?

“O captain, my captain!” Wasp echoed mockingly, rounding on Captain Vasser. “Come on, cap! Tell her! Let’s see… which scenario was it? You’ve so many, after all. The one with the student, at the academy? I think that was it.”

“Shut up!” Captain Vasser barked, but her voice was too high-pitched. It lacked authority. And Delaney couldn’t help but notice the other ways she was reacting. She was squeezing her legs together as if taken by a sharp yearning. “S-shut up.”

“Or you’ll what?” Wasp cackled mercilessly. “Lick my boots again? Please! And you can’t tell me you wouldn’t enjoy it. We both know that’s a lie.”

“N-n-nooo,” Captain Vasser cried.

“I think maybe even your crewman does too,” Wasp added. “I checked her file, you know. Lori Delaney. A real troublemaker. But she came straight to you anyway. It’s almost touching, isn’t it? Such faith? What a shame that you’re just going to let her down.”

This time, Captain Vasser couldn’t seem to muster the strength even to deny it. She just let out a wordless whine that was half shame, half ecstasy. Delaney backed away uncertainly. What the hell was she watching? This felt, more than anything else, like some kind of twisted foreplay.

“But I suppose you’re enjoying that too, aren’t you?” Wasp went on. The way she posed and gestured theatrically, drawing out each word as she tormented the hapless captain out of sadistic glee, was infuriating to witness. “That’s one of your favorites. Getting humiliated in front of someone younger. Someone subordinate. Someone who should look up to you. If only she was hypnotizing you too, huh? I bet that would really get you off.”

“S-stop,” Captain Vasser begged. “P-please. I can’t… think…”

It was all too clear why. She was blushing like a maiden and sweating visibly, and the way her body twitched and contorted with each of Wasp’s loaded, venomous accusations was undeniably suggestive. Between shame and pleasure, pleasure was evidently winning out. This was a side of Captain Vasser that Delaney had never seen before, and it left her horrified and transfixed in equal measure.

“Can’t think? I thought you’d be begging for that.” Waps giggled, and then made a little gesture with her hand and plucked a holographic pocket watch out of thin air. She dangled it by its chain and started swinging it back and forth like a pendulum in front of Captain Vasser. “Well, I think Crewman Delaney here has gotten the picture. What do you say, captain? Do you wanna go back into that nice, blissful, trancey sleep? You know what you have to do. Just look at the pocket watch, and let your mind go blank.”

As she swung the pocket watch, Wasp’s voice changed. It became soft and melodious, a luring song, beckoning Captain Vasser to calm and submission. To Delaney’s horror, it seemed to work. Slowly, Captain Vasser’s face turned towards the pendulum, and as soon as her eyes locked onto it they started to go dull. With each swing, more and more emotion and personality drained from her face, and she started to slip into a kind of stillness that was disrupted only by occasional, rapturous shivering that hinted at the blinding, fetishistic pleasure she was experiencing.

Seeing how pathetically susceptible the captain was made Delaney tremble. It was practically confirmation of Wasp’s story. But that wasn’t the worst part. The very worst part was the ghost of the last expression Delaney could see haunting Captain Vasser’s face.

It was relief. The captain was relieved at being hypnotized. At not having to think anymore. At not having to face what she’d done. Delaney’s hands balled into fists again. She couldn’t take any more of this farce.

“Hey!” she yelled, striding forward. “Snap the fuck out of it already!”

Delaney shoved Wasp’s hologram out of the way as roughly as she could, grabbed Captain Vasser by the shoulders, and slapped her across her face. Captain Vasser shuddered in the aftermath of the blow, slowly coming back to life.

“Wwuh… hhuh?” she said blearily. Delaney noted with disgust that she was actually drooling.

“Wake up already!” she demanded. “Captain - no, Yvonne Vasser. Wake the fuck up, Yvonne. You’re better than this! I know you are! You’re one of the youngest and finest captains in the whole damn Alliance, even if you are a total bitch. So, Yvonne, I don’t care what you did or what you’re into. I just need you to straighten up, get your head out of your ass, and figure out how we’re all going to get out of this mess!”

Delaney wasn’t one for pep talks, but she thought it was a pretty respectable attempt. She just hoped it got through to Captain Vasser properly. Even though Delaney had managed to rouse her from trance, she looked like she was back to barely knowing where she was or who she was talking to.

“C-crewman?” Captain Vasser slurred, glancing down at the red of Delaney’s uniform that indicated her rank. “Did you just… slap me?”

“Yeah.” Delaney had to smile at the absurdity of it. This was going to make for one hell of a story someday. “I guess I did.”

To her surprise, though, Captain Vasser didn’t seem to come any close to true, clear wakefulness. With all the coordination of a staggering drunk, she shoved Delaney back and looked at her with a farcical impression of sternness.

“T-that’s… not appropriate, c-crewman,” Captain Vasser said slowly. She seemed to be drawing on some kind of deeply embedded reflex that Delaney’s behavior had manged to dredge up. “N-nor is calling me… ‘Yvonne’. Alliance regulation… 521. Salute when addressing a s-superior officer.”

The smile slipped from Delaney’s face. In that moment, all her faith was lost. They were in the clutches of an incredibly dangerous criminal, and Captain Vasser was so far gone that all she could think to do was to quote the regs and lecture Delaney about insubordination. Maybe she was too fucked up to think about their situation properly. Maybe she’d just chosen not to. It didn’t make any difference now.

“God,” Delaney spat, her expression twisted. “You really are broken, aren’t you?”

“Told you so,” piped up Wasp.

Delaney couldn’t spare the emotion to be angry at Wasp. All her fury was reserved for Captain Vasser. The Inyx was her ship. They were her crew. She was responsible for all of them. How dare she let them down so badly? Especially after all those lectures and tough rules and disciplinary sentences. She was a fraud and a hypocrite, and whatever happened to the rest of the crew fell on her head.

So maybe all Delaney could do was rub her face in it while she still had her free will.

“Forget it,” she snapped. “Fuck you and fuck all your rules and regs. This is what you want, right? This is what you’re mad at me for interrupting?”

Delaney whipped around and snatched the hardlight pocket watch out of Wasp’s hand. In imitation of the hacker, she dangled it in front of Captain Vasser and started to swing it by its chain.

“Go ahead,” she snarled. “Get your fill, captain.”

“I… I…”

Captain Vasser had been trying to say something, but as soon as she saw the pocket watch the words died on her lips. Delaney saw her eyes begin to glaze over once more. Making that happen flooded her body with a strange kind of satisfaction.

“Wow,” Delaney laughed. “You really can’t help yourself, can you? Don’t you get it? I’m mocking you, captain. Aren’t I being insubordinate now? Don’t you care? Can you even hear me?”

Delaney knew almost nothing about hypnosis. As little as the average overly-curious young gridnet user, anyway. She wasn’t exactly vanilla herself. Still, she’d never tried anything like this. She could tell that her technique was sloppy. She couldn’t seem to get the watch to swing in a nice, slow, regular rhythm the way Wasp had. But whatever she was doing seemed to be more than enough for Captain Vasser.

“I guess that’s part of it, huh?” Delaney ranted, thinking back to Wasp’s words. “You like knowing that I’m just a crewman on your ship. You get off on it. I can tell. Is this one of your precious little holodeck fantasies, huh?”

A weak, wet mewl from Captain Vasser’s lips let Delaney know she’d hit somewhere near the mark. She smirked. Now that she’d given up all her faith in the captain, she was free to revel in the satisfaction. She thought back to all the times Vasser or one of her officers had written Delaney up for lateness, or uniform violations, or anything else.

"Fine, then. Far be it from me to stop you getting your kicks. I’ll just have to try and enjoy this even more.” Delaney grinned with wild abandon. “Think about it, captain. Think about how easy you are. All it takes is waving some stupid watch in front of you, and any petty crewman on this ship can have you drooling all over yourself. It’s pathetic.”

The broken captain’s mewls and moans grew louder; more desperate.

“I hope everyone gets to see you like this.” Delaney was warming to her theme. “The whole crew. All those people who look up to you. I hope they all get their turn to stick their fingers in your head, just like I am right now.”

It was fascinating, watching Captain Vasser steadily slip under hypnosis even as her body burned and twitched from Delaney’s taunts. Delaney was starting to understand the appeal of the captain’s fetish - at least, from this angle.

“Bet you’d get a kick out of that, huh?” she went on. “From wondering what we’d all use you for. That’s what you want, right? You just want everyone to have their way with you. The more depraved, the better. What kind of captain wants something like that, huh? Along with how you’ve betrayed us all, you can hardly claim to deserve the captain’s chair.”

That brought forth a particularly anguished moan - but still, it was thick with pleasure. Delaney sensed that nothing was beyond the reach of the captain’s fetish. It was buried that deep in her soul. The more she treasured something, the more she wanted something, the more she felt ashamed of something, the better fuel it made for her kinks. And now Delaney was caught up in that feeling and that flow, eager to see how far she could push her.

“I think you’d be better suited for something a little different.” Delaney laughed darkly to herself. “You know that old joke about senior crew who sleep around? I bet you do. ‘Stress relief officers’. I think that’s a better fit. Don’t you? Maybe that’s what I’ll call you.”

Delaney laughed all the louder as she watched Captain Vasser’s face contort, as a spike of arousal drove its way through the captain’s body. Clearly, she’d hit on yet another fantasy.

“After all, who needs a holodeck for that kind of thing, when you have a ‘captain’ who’s just as easy to program.” Delaney snorted in amusement, making sure to keep the watch swinging in her hand. “I’m sure you’d love being turned into everyone’s fantasy. We’d just need to get you a fitting uniform.”

“It’s funny you should say that,” Wasp said. She had been standing off to one side so quietly, Delaney had almost forgotten she was there. Almost. “The captain herself came up with something that fits the bill. She never got around to trying it out, though. She was probably still working up the courage when I got to her.”

Wasp gave her fingers another snap as she instructed the holodeck’s computer to spring into action. At that very instant, Captain Vasser’s clothes warped and shifted. It was just a complex illusion, of course, but it was an effective one, and Delaney let out a gasp at what she was now wearing.

It was a blatant, gleeful mockery of her usual attire. An Alliance uniform - a captain’s uniform, no less - but so thinly made and so tightly cut it concealed almost nothing. It featured a plunging neckline and multiple sets of cut-outs all over Captain Vasser’s body, exposing all the parts of her body a captain’s crew weren’t supposed to think about. All in all, it was like something out of cheap pornography. A slutty Halloween costume take on an Alliance captain.

Perfect.

Delaney took a moment to admire Captain Vasser’s body. It made her feel superior. She’d never imagined she’d get to see the captain so thoroughly degraded, and there was something oddly tantalizing about the way Captain Vasser barely reacted to the humiliation. Delaney’s pocket watch still held her mind in its grip. She was like a puppet - and thinking about that gave Delaney yet another idea.

“Hey, officer!” she barked, in her best imitation of Captain Vasser’s usual, commanding demeanor. “What are you waiting for? Give me a salute.”

Her order seemed to take a long moment to penetrate the deep layers of fog enshrouding Captain Vasser’s mind, but once they did, the captain slowly raised her arm, bent it at an angle, and brought her hand to her temple in a vaguely passable military salute.

But Delaney wasn’t going to be satisfied with ‘vaguely passable’. No more than Captain Vasser ever was.

“C’mon, officer,” she jeered. “You can do better than that! Straighten your back! Hold your head up high! Stiffen that arm!”

With the pocket watch still swinging Captain Vasser could not disobey, but she was in no state to salute properly either. Delaney was treated to the spectacle of the hopelessly brainwashed woman trying desperately to pull herself together, straining to achieve enough focus to keep her back straight while she raised her arm. The result was still sloppy, just as Delaney’s salutes often were in the early morning. The comparison amused Delaney, but of course, the very best part was how utterly and unmistakably absurd Captain Vasser looked, saluting while wearing that porn-parody outfit.

Delaney just laughed.

“Nice work, officer,” she mocked. She was enjoying this little roleplay. “At ease.”

Captain Vasser slumped. She seemed grateful to be allowed to slip back into complete oblivion.

“I have an idea,” Wasp interjected. “If you want to see what really gets her off.”

Delaney sensed Wasp was offering, not telling. She nodded. Wasp had successfully aroused her curiosity. The hacker snapped her fingers again, and this time it wasn’t Captain Vasser’s clothes that changed. It was Delaney’s. Her uniform shoes disappeared beneath a hardlight hologram of a pair of thigh-high platform-heeled boots. The heels were easily more than six inches high, and the boots were polished all over to a mirror sheen. Delaney threw an irritated look at Wasp as she stumbled briefly from being raised up on her new, holographic heels, but she quickly found her balance.

“Trust me,” Wasp assured me. “This is one of her favs. If you want to really see her at her lowest, this is the best way to do it.”

Delaney really, really did. Seeing how far Captain Vasser could fall was addictive. She noticed that Wasp had also conjured up a small stool right behind her, so she perched on it and stretched out one of her new boots towards Captain Vasser.

“Kneel, officer,” she instructed.

She threw the pocket watch back to Wasp, who caught it. Delaney could sense it was no longer needed. Sure enough, Captain Vasser barely stirred, and her eyes soon settled on Delaney’s boots. She seemed to lose herself in the reflections that formed on their shiny surfaces, and sank slowly to her knees in front of the crewman.

“Officer,” Wasp sang out. “The crewman’s boots are looking a little dirty. Why don’t you show her how you like to polish them?”

It wasn’t true, not even slightly, but Captain Vasser nonetheless sprung into life with something approaching eagerness. She bent forward, placed her lips against the chunky tip of the boot heel, and began to worship. The brainwashed captain started planting slow, reverent kisses on the hardlight material, before moving on to drawing her tongue across the heel in long, slow strokes. Finally, shivering with pleasure, she took the heel into her mouth and started sucking on it, taking it so deep she almost choked.

Delaney was completely mesmerized by the sight.

“God,” she breathed. “You weren’t kidding. She loves this.”

Wasp just giggled. It was obvious. Nobody had needed to order Captain Vasser to put this much exultant devotion into polishing Delaney’s boots. Beneath the deep fog of trance, it was obvious just how much the captain was enjoying this. Her cheeks were stained red with shameful pleasure, and one of her hands was drifting down to between her legs.

“No,” Delaney said sharply, once she noticed Captain Vasser about to touch herself. “I haven’t given you permission, officer. Use this instead.”

She stretched her other leg forward and used the tip of the other boot to pry Captain Vasser’s legs apart before pressing it insistently against the front of her pants. Immediately, Captain Vasser’s low, muffled moans doubled in volume and desperation, and her hips started to buck and thrust. Delaney found herself grinning.

“See?” she purred. “This is the real you, captain. This is where you belong. Isn’t it?”

Captain Vasser was beyond anything but nodding in delirious agreement. She was still eagerly kissing and sucking Delaney’s boot, but the pleasure she was receiving sapped her coordination. Her worship became sloppy and, as she moved from the heel of the boot to the tip, she was leaving long, wet trails of drool all over the object of her adoration and down the sides of her own face.

She looked nothing like herself. Nothing like the stern, dignified starship captain Delaney was so used to. Delaney was struck by the sheer magnitude of the difference. She had never once seen Captain Vasser express even the slightest hint of pleasure, amusement, or passion. Delaney had taken to assuming she was every bit as joyless in private. Clearly not, if this was how she’d been spending her holo-rec time.

It made Delaney wonder. Where did her heart really lie?

“You know,” Delaney said, steadily grinding the tip of the boot against Captain Vasser. “I heard a rumor that you’d been spending a whole lot more time on the holodeck lately. Finally dipping into that holo-rec time you’ve been accumulating all these months. And I guess now I know why. I’m sure Wasp told you to, but I’m also sure you loved every minute of it.”

Captain Vasser shivered at the coming humiliation.

"All this time,” Delaney continued, “while your crew was steadily being brainwashed. While your ship was being taken over. You were spending every spare minute down here, fucking yourself stupid to whatever perverse little fantasies Wasp found in your holodeck files? Is that right? Answer me.”

“Y-y-yes,” Captain Vasser moaned around the boot in her mouth. Her voice sounded distant, but there was a high, needy edge to it.

“All when we needed you most.” Delaney just loved the way Captain Vasser twitched as she twisted the knife. “Or do you get off on that too, huh? On betraying us? On becoming the way we get brainwashed too? Answer me?”

“Y-yes!” Captain Vasser cried. Her voice was even more strained this time. She was obviously close to climax.

“Of course.” Delaney laughed. She leaned in close. There was something she wanted to hear straight from the captain’s lips. “So tell me. Between captaining the ship - between being the perfect, textbook, strict, admired, respected captain - and becoming nothing more than a porn star in your own fucked-up fantasies: which one feels better? That? Your old life? Or this?”

“T-t-this!”

The answer erupted from Captain Vasser’s lips without hesitation. It was anguished, but Delaney knew by now that Captain Vasser derived as much pleasure from the anguish as she did pain. And she didn’t doubt for a moment that what Captain Vasser said was true. She could already see it. The captain was exploring her deepest desires; urges and fantasies that had been fermenting within her for years. Compared to that, the pride and prestige of the captain’s chair was as fragile as an eggshell.

That Captain Vasser was already gone. She’d dulled and rusted down here in the holodeck, pleasuring herself at Wasp’s command. Now, she was just a hypno-slut.

“Good.” Delaney sneered, leaning in to better enjoy the moment. “Now cum.”

Captain Vasser obeyed. It was like she’d been struck by lightning. She twitched madly, drooling more than ever and flailing in increasingly desperate efforts to rub her cunt against the tip of Delaney’s boot. The other boot, meanwhile, was still in her mouth, and she was still kissing and lapping fervently.

She hadn’t been given permission to stop, after all.

Eventually, all the strength left her, and she went limp. Captain Vasser slumped to the ground and finally released Delaney’s boot. It had been as shiny as a mirror; now, it was utterly soiled with the wet, slavering proof of the captain’s attention. It was as ruined as she was.

“Wow,” Delaney breathed. She felt almost as aroused as Captain Vasser looked. “I’m gonna enjoy using you, captain.”

Wasp stepped forward, coughing. “You know I’m going to brainwash you too, right? My sweet little pet nerds just finished whipping up a new prototype.”

Delaney noticed she was suddenly holding something long, thin and metal. It looked like a medical instrument.

“I know,” she said. “I don’t care. I just want you to promise me one thing.”

“You’re not really in the position to be making demands,” Wasp remarked. “But I’m feeling indulgent. Go ahead.”

Delaney stared straight down at Captain Vasser. “Just promise me that, in whatever fucked-up pecking order you come up with for this ship, I’ll be above her.”

Wasp threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about that one bit. You’ll get your wish. Pinky swear.”

“Good.” Delaney nodded. “Go ahead.”

She kept her eyes firmly fixed on the captain she’d always resented as Wasp held the medical tool up against her ear and injected something cold and strange into her skull. Captain Yvonne Vasser’s hypnotized, blissed-out face was the last thing Delaney saw before everything turned into spirals.

—

I would like to express my gratitude for the generosity of all those who  support me on Patreon, and to give a special thanks to the following  patrons in particular for their exceptional support:

Artemis, Chloe, Grillfan65, The Secret Subject, Morriel, Dex, orangesya, Red, dmtph, Queenfisher, MegatronTarantulas, NewtypeWoman, WhyamIhere, Vanessa, Madeline, BTYOR, Sarah, Mattilda, Emily Queen of sloths, ntad, Shadows exile, Abigail, Hypnogirl_Stephanie_, Jade, mintyasleep, John, ZephanyZephZeph, Michael, Be_Be, Tasteful Ardour, Chris, Dennis, paxDulcetGirl, Full Blown Marxism, Morder, S, Myles_EXVS, Brendon, Drone 8315, Jack the Monkey, Jim, Erin, HannahSolaria, Christopher, hellenberg, Kay, Miss_Praxis, Violet, Noct, Charlotte, Faun, BrinnShea, B, Foridin, Jennifer, EepyTimeTea, Slifer274, Roxxie, Phoenix, Ivy, Jim, Sebastian, Joseph, Yaoups, Thomas, Liz, naivetynkohan, Basic dev, SuperJellyFrogEx, night, Katie, Lily, spyrocyndersam13, zzzz, Mal, Jose, Bouncyrou, Anonymous, ravenfan, Bacon Man, Nimapode, Melody, Selina, SkinnyQP, NuclearBoarhead, Kunoichiru, Jonathan, Friday, FemKUltra, Z!, WhyamIhere, Pluto, Flluffie, Maxence, Ash, Artemis

[tessa-liam]

Smoke and Mirrors

We're Ready For Anything

Chapter 7

Smoke and Mirrors

-7- We're Ready for Anything

Book: The Royal Romance Finale +, Alternate Universe

Series Premise: Hidden in the shadows, poised to challenge the status quo are enemies of the state. The loyalties and honesty of family and friends will be tested. ‘Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.’

Catch Up: Smoke and Mirrors Masterlist

Main Pairing: Liam Rys x F!MC Riley Brooks-Rys, OTP ‘Liri’

2nd Pairings: Leo Rys x Amalas, Drake Walker x F!OC Delaney Leigh, Olivia Nevrakis x M!OC Alex Cossoy

All characters belong to Pixelberry, except Delaney Leigh, Officer Alex Cossoy, Geoffrey Bessler (Amalas’ head guard.)

Rating: M🔞*Series Warnings: NSFW material, sexual innuendo, adult innuendo, adult language/swearing/drinking, gun violence.

Not Beta'd, please excuse all errors.

Category: Alternate Universe/on-going series/angst/fluff

Words: 2274, Read: 10 minutes

Chapter 7: We’re Ready for Anything

Chapter Summary: Liam and Riley find out more about their twins and Lena is captured by Interpol.

Music and Title Inspiration: Ready for Anything, Landon Austin

A/N1: My submission for @choicesflashfics Week #32, Prompt #2 - “Sometimes memories can be the worst form of torture.”

A/N2: My submission for May Choices Monthly Challenge @choiceschallenge-may2023 @jerzwriter @maychallenge prompts - Mother’s Day, holding hands/ crying /caress

King’s Study, Cordonian Palace

It was late into the evening as Liam opened the financial report for Portavira on his computer. Taking note that Duke Ebrim was requesting a sizeable amount of emergency funds for the coastal region in the form of stipends.

Opening his e-mail to respond, a knock on his study door got his attention.

“Come.” Liam called out and continued typing, not taking his focus off the screen.

“Hey, Li. Am I interrupting?” Drake asked hesitantly.

Without looking up, Liam answered, “Drake, hey...what brings you here tonight?”

“Well, I need your advice on something.”

Closing his laptop, Liam stood up and walked to his bar cart, picking up two glasses and a bottle of Macallan.

Liam chuckled, “Why do I think this has something to do with a certain blond in your life?”

“Yeah, well...”

Pouring two glasses of scotch, Liam slid one to Drake and sat back down, taking a sip.

“Delaney wants to visit her parents in Austin....and she wants me to go with her.”

Drake exhaled a breath and Liam grinned.

“So, what’s the problem, Drake? Nervous about meeting your future in-laws?”

Drake shot his friend a look, and Liam roared in laughter.

“Seriously, Drake? This is not a problem, buddy!”

“Yeah, well...the thing is, her parents are pressuring her to move back home to the States. Laney is seriously considering it.”

Shaking his head, “Laney wants me to move back with her.”

Liam looked at his friend, noting the conflict in his expression.

“I don’t want to lose her, Li. I also don’t want to leave Cordonia.”

Queen’s Study, Monterissian Palace

“Geoffrey, do you have the video footage of the arrest from last night taken outside the palace?”

Amalas spoke to her guard through the speakerphone on her desk.

“Not at this time, your majesty. Interpol has not uploaded the file yet to our systems.”

“Wait a second. Pause and rewind...what did you just say?” Leo asked incredulously.

“Your majesty?” Geoffrey asked questionably.

“Leo, its protocol that the Interpol inspectors have access to all palace systems ahead of my Royal guard.” Amalas answered.

“Access, yes, but to commandeer all viewing?” Leo challenged.

“Thank you, Geoffrey, that will be all at this time.” Amalas tapped the app closed and spun around her chair, glaring at Leo.

“What the hell, Ams? You are taking orders from some ‘suit’ in Lyon, France? ….Why?”

“First of all, I don’t care for your tone. Do. Not. Speak. To. Me. Like I don’t run this country! Especially in front of my people.” Amalas countered angrily.

Leo sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. It was a challenge for the former Crown Prince to remember not to interject his personal opinions into conversations with the Monterissian Royal guard.

Amalas is the Queen, and he was overstepping.

“Secondly, I appreciate the expertise and assistance of Interpol.”

Leo sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “I am surprised, to say the least. The ‘Spy Queen’ needing help in her own country.”

“And thirdly,” Amalas stood and frowned at Leo. “I am respecting the King of Cordonia’s request for a united front to uncover the truth behind the duplicity of the Royal guard in our countries.”

“Leo, we need to ‘cut the head off’ of this faction. There is someone or something controlling and directing operatives, like Bastien in Cordonia, that has infiltrated our highest security levels in the Royal guard of our countries.”

“Case in point: how a known fugitive can gain access to my private chambers, can pass through my security protocols. Allowed access to the Crown Princess of visiting monarchs, no less.”

“I get it Ams, I really do. ….and I am truly sorry.” Leo sighed and shook his head.

Amalas stood and walked over to Leo. Taking his face in her hands, she kissed his lips sweetly and touched her forehead to his.

Clearing his throat, Geoffrey stood outside the open door and waited to make his presence known.

“Your majesty.”

Amalas turned to look at her head guard. “Yes, Geoffrey?”

“Interpol has successfully captured and detained the security breach.”

Cordonian Palace

It was shortly after 1 am when Liam returned to the south wing of the palace. Loosening his tie, he nodded at Mara as she stood guard outside of Eleanor’s chambers and continued to walk to his personal chamber he shared with Riley.

After preparing for bed, he opened the veranda door and stepped out into the cool night air. Looking out over the gardens, he took a deep breath and smiled. Tomorrow, he and Riley would find out the sex of their twin babies. He grinned thinking about all the possibilities, but if he was being truly honest with himself, he favored having a son. Or...he chuckled, maybe another Ellie.

Shaking his head, he decided to turn in for the night to get some sleep considering the day would bring much excitement for him and his family.

Approaching his side of the king-sized bed, he noticed that Riley’s side of the bed was slept in, but Riley was not in bed.

Liam went to his closet and slid on a pair of sweatpants. After stepping into the hallway, he returned down the hall towards Ellie’s chambers. He quietly opened her bedroom door and entered the darkened room. Beside her canopy bed, the single night light glowed, and he saw his daughter's outline. Wrapped snugly and securely in her mother’s arms, she was fast asleep along with Riley.

As he placed a soft kiss on Ellie’s forehead, Riley awoke and smiled. “Hi”, Riley whispered and touched his hand. After carefully detaching her arms from her daughter, she rose from bed to join her husband in their bedroom.

Liam closed the door behind him, after following Riley.

Joining his wife under the silk sheets, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

“That’s better,” nuzzling her neck.

Smiling, Riley ran her fingers through his soft hair. “Working late tonight?”

“Yes, and no... Drake came to see me tonight.”

“Oh really, and here I thought you were avoiding me,” Riley smirked.

“Never!” Liam playfully teased.

“So, what was so important for Drake to pay such a late visit?"

“AHHHH, well...he wanted my advice. Drake is debating whether he should a, stay in Cordonia; or b, move to Delaney's home in Texas. And c, where he should go with his relationship with Delaney.”

Riley looked at her husband, “I know what you said.”

“I know you do, love,” kissing Riley’s nose.

“Home is where your love of your life is. I asked him what his true feelings were for Delaney. Once he can honestly answer that question, he will have his answer.”

Monterrisian Palace

The temperature in the Monterrisian palace holding cell area was at least 10 degrees cooler in the lower-level security offices. Amalas and Leo followed the Interpol officers and were shown to the viewing privacy window. Amalas was accustomed to the temperature change, but Leo had shivers go down his spine; from the temperature change, or nerves, or both.

On the other side of that window, Lena Rys was sitting in a chair alongside a female Royal guard. On the other side of the table sat Alex Cossoy and Olivia Nevrakis.

Amalas listened intently to the questioning, while Leo stared at the blond woman. Shock, mixed with disbelief left him speechless.

“What is your end game?” Olivia asked impatiently

“My end game is to take my place in the Rys family,” Lena coolly answered.

Olivia eyed Lena in disdain.

“My mother told me that my father wanted to hide me from my half-brother. That the ‘Cordonian royal family can’t find out who I really am... for my sake’.”

“’That’s horrible’,” Olivia sighed.

“’I didn’t want to believe those things about my family, but my mother had never lied to me’.”

"Your mother?"

"Yes, Sigrid took care of me in place of my true mother."

“You were brainwashed, she was obviously lying to you!” Olivia seethed.

“’I saw what Cordonia’s royal family really thinks of me when King Constantine came to Vallenheim for a diplomatic visit’.”

“’King Constantine told my mother that he wanted no part in foreign influences on Cordonia. He said that Queen Eleanor is gone. Which is why he wanted nothing to do with me. That Eleanor was her friend, but that association ended when Eleanor died. He does not owe us anything’.”

“My mother wanted me to meet my brothers, but Constantine said ‘he won’t be guilted with a child.’

I remember that my mother begged Constantine to meet me, and Constantine said no. 'My sons and I want nothing to do with me, my mother, Vallenheim, or any of our people!’”

My mother told me, 'This is exactly why Queen Eleanor wanted me kept away from Cordonia.’"

Lena’s eyes 'welled with tears that are equal parts anger and sadness.'

“In that moment, I knew everything my mother had said about my father and brothers was true.”

“Sometimes memories can be the worst form of torture.”

Olivia stood up and paced the floor. Stopping directly in front of Lena,

“’Liam didn’t even know about you. Your brother is a better man than your father was.’”

“’I always resented Leo and Liam for having the life I could’ve had in Cordonia. I’ll even admit to envying Liam’s throne.’”

“’He’s a lot more than you were told. You might even like him if you gave him half a chance.’”

Lena’s features hardened, “’I think that ship sailed a while ago.’”

Dr Rameriz’s office, Cordonia

Looking at her reflection in the changing room, Riley placed her hands on her tummy. Her belly had grown so quickly this time around. Her morning sickness was now gone, and she felt more energized.

Slipping on the hospital gowni and robe, she opened the door to be greeted by the nurse.

“Your majesty”, the nurse curtsied and opened the door to the examination room.

Liam quickly stood offering his wife his hand.

“Are you ready for this, my love?”

“Oh Yes, Liam! Let’s do this!

Chuckling, he helped Riley get comfortable on the exam table, as the nurse placed a heated thermal blanket over top. Grasping his hand, she laid back and relaxed against the pillow.

Dr. Ramirez greeted the monarchs with a warm smile.

“Okay, today we are going to find out which sexes these little ones are.”

“Most definitely,” Liam smiled, squeezing Riley’s hand as she also smiled.

The doctor placed the doppler wand and the sound of heartbeats immediately could be heard.

“I will never tire from hearing those sounds.” Liam watched the monitor as the babies appeared.

Riley let out a breath and started to tear, squeezing Liam’s hand even more.

“So, what do you think, love?” Liam asked.

Riley grinned, “It’s a boy.”

The doctor nodded, “incredibly good instincts. Your majesties, you have a son.”

Liam beamed with joy and kissed his wife.

“...and baby number two?”

“A boy,” Riley answered.

The doctor shook her head smiling.

‘Your wife’s instincts are quite correct. Your children are both boys.”

Liam let out a breath.

Riley, now crying, was overcome with emotion.

“Riley, love,” Liam whispered, raising her hand, and softly kissed her palm.

“Yeah?”

“You did it again.”

Riley looked up at Liam with a question in her eyes.

Caressing her swollen tummy, “You made another dream come true for me. I love you so, so much.”

Riley, full of emotion, answered back, “as do I.”

Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her lips and said, “let’s go home.”

Liam and Riley walked slowly out of the hospital, holding hands, both smiling as they approached the waiting SUV.

“We should spend the weekend in Valtoria.’ Liam smiled.

“I would love that, and I know that Ellie will be ecstatic to go to the festival in town.”

Liam grinned as he followed Riley into the SUV.

Not mentioning that he and Ellie have a special Mother’s Day celebration planned at the estate already for her.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🧸🧸🧸🧸🧸🤎🤎🤎🤎

Thank you for reading!

⚜️Please DM me if you would like to be added or removed from the tags⚜️

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[sexxyyyyvivv]

you're so right like those wolfdogs [which i want very badly]

Jason is not a golden retriever. He is a herding dog. Some molossian one ig

[friendly-books]

Dresden files Fool's Moon live blog

Fool’s Moon 

Ugh male gaze already

You’ve never mentioned Kim Delaney in your fic so I don’t have high hopes in her survival especially when she’s looking into summoning or binding circle

Sometime apprentice? Eh? How does one become a sometime apprentice

Harry drives a Beetle but he’s so tall and a beetle is so small ha

I’m absolutely blaming you for my love of Marcone and how unreasonably happy I got at the mere mention of his name in chapter two I might have a problem 

“He was one of Johnny Marcone bodyguards” pg. 18 Geez Marcone’s men can’t catch a break. First Tommy Tomm, then “Gimpy” Lawrence, and now “Spike” 

Ahh!! What was that agent Benn thinking? Pulling out her gun?!? I know Harry and Murph were going to live but still. I’m horrified by this lack of gun control 

Murph and Harry are fighting:(

I like Harry being a detective 

Who’s Justin? Why did Harry burn him to death? I’m reserving my decision if Justin is good or bad because while Harry is a good guy Bob doesn't have a moral compass.

Who’s Elaine? What happened to her?

Alphas really that’s the name they chose?

Susan you’re back!

Harry’s talking to himself again 

“What could possibly go wrong?” pg. 102 Harry sweetie you didn’t just say that. I can’t believe what I just read. Harry, you should know better than to say that. Every time someone says that things will always go wrong you’re supposed to be genre savvy. 

How is Harry still alive? He went to a hideout of possible murder happy werewolves with minimal tools and or weapons and no backup?

Marcone has arrived yay! It only took 10 chapters 

“Ah Mr. Dresden” pg. 114 Why did I think of Verinari when Marcone said Ah Mr. Dresden? Maybe because Verinari says Ah Vimes 

I love chapter 10 it’s all Marcone and Harry

Why does a demon know Harry’s mom?

“What was left of Kim Delaney lay naked and sublime on the bloodstained floor a few feet from the circle” pg. 143 I didn’t want to be right :(

“Middle-aged, starkly handsome man” pg. 145 Bi Harry counter 3

Why does a demon know Harry’s mother?

“Good-looking detective” pg. 231 Bi Harry 4 counter 

Wait did Harry call Rudolph the person who kills Murph good-looking??? What did I just read?? WHAT?!? 

It’s cool that Harry fights a werewolf 

I’ve now met ID Harry weird that whole bit was weird 

The FBI was in on it?!? 

Marcone to the rescue! 

“A man in his mature prime, his hair immaculately graying at the temples, his custom-made suit displaying a body kept fit in spite of the advancing years” pg. 293 Bi Harry 5

Really Marcone, you're really trying to get Harry to sign a contract now? 

“Marcone looked good in his gray suit and perfect hair and his manicured hands, but he wasn’t” pg. 295 Bi Harry 6

I find it amusing that Marcone and Parker are fighting over Harry for different reasons but fighting over him nonetheless :)

“He won’t accept my offer. He’d rather die.” pg. 297 Marcone knows Harry

“Marcone’s mouth dropped open, and it was an intense pleasure to see the surprise on his face” pg. 297 I love that Harry can get a reaction out of Marcone 

Loving chapter 23 with all its Marconeness 

How old are the characters? Harry calls the alphas kids, Billy calls Harry Mr. Dresden, and Harry talks about Marcone’s gray hair. I’m picturing Harry and Marcone as a mesh of @drawsdenfiles and @kaphkas fanart.

We got a title drop 

Awww Susan got Harry his duster

Why is Marcone’s house so big? Why does he need a big house? 

“If he truly offered you a challenge, he’s here,” Marcone said, his tone completely confident, “I’m certain of it.” pg. 365 Marcone really knows Harry huh 

I like that Marcone’s never underestimated Harry 

“Please remember that I want Dresden, alive if possible.” pg. 375 Wow Marcone really wants to hire Harry. 

Nooo the FBI kidnapped Murph :(

What did Denton see in Harry’s soulgaze? 

Marcone to the rescue again or not, honestly Marcone you should listen to Harry more often

“I guess it could be worse” pg. 394 Why would you say that Murph? Why???

“Mr. Dresden, Marcone said crossly. I’ve asked you not to call me that.” pg. 398 You should let Harry call you John, Marcone 

I love Harry and Marcone’s banter

Marcone’s throwing knives bit was cool

Harry using the belt was interesting. Glad Susan calmed him down. 

“Dresden! The pit!” pg. 417 Nice of Marcone to warn Harry

Harry using his necklace is cool! 

No Murph trust Harry, why did you shoot him?

Yay Murph was shooting Denton 

“Of course,” Marcone said, with a note of disappointment in his voice “I’d just hoped you hadn’t realized it. Nonetheless, Harry-“ 

“Don’t call me Harry,” I said, and hung up on him” pg. 428 I love this entire bit. How come Harry gets to call Marcone John but when Marcone calls Harry by his first name he gets upset? You should just call each other by your first names 

I hope we see more of the Alphas 

Oh Harry’s making connections with the ongoing mystery yay! 

Final thoughts 

Loved all the Marcone we got. I like that we’re getting more on the ongoing mystery. I hope we see more of the Alphas. I liked the fights and Harry’s detective work. More Bi Harry the counter is going up! We’re up to 6. As with the previous book, I'm not a big fan of the male gaze but I think that’s more to do with the length and descriptions used. Harry (or Jim) will go on for a solid paragraph describing women using words I don’t think anyone would use while with Bi Harry it’s not as long and I can see people using words like good looking or handsome. I mostly glazed over the male gaze bits. I don’t know if my predisposition to Bi Harry and a Harry/Marcone shipper is making those parts stand out or if it’s because I’m actively looking for them to add to the counter. Speaking of Marcone I don’t recall if it’s said why Marcone wants Harry to work for him. Yeah having a wizard on staff is cool he can do magic but surely Marcone knows that there’s more magic people and some are more likely to work for him than Harry. So why does he specifically want Harry to work for him? He tried to get him to work for him three times in this book and once in the previous book. There’s trying to hire someone and then there’s whatever this is. I enjoyed this book. Good book for Harry/Marcone moments. Looking forward to the next book!