#do not separate the grand slams ever

[lilacs-stash]

Tbh imaging BB Balloon and Nickel as a group without Suitcase is the most awkward thing in the world. Although this can be entertaining for a bit, long term it just feels mean to them.

Where is their girlie?! They need their favorite girlie or they will die

[darylssunshine]

A Little Bit Dangerous, But, Baby, That's How I Want It

warnings: stockholm syndrome, f in v, swearing, TWD violence

genre: smut

era: reapers

word count: 2.1k

a/n: no I don't condone actual stockholm syndrome obviously, but I am deranged and have Fantasies.

~~~

The tightness of the ropes was harsh against your wrists, the skin growing red and raw. Your ankles were bound as well, to the legs of a metal folding chair, with your hands behind your back and a rag fastened over your mouth. You moved your hands around again, trying to find a loose spot, but it was to no avail. Those ropes held you, and held you down good.

—

The Reapers had found you in the forest, scavenging for food with Maggie and Gabriel. You had gotten separated from your companions to avoid a herd of walkers, finding an abandoned cabin in the process. Musty and ever so slowly falling apart, but it had four walls, a roof, and it hid you from the dead, so you were sold. 

The herd was almost past your cabin when you saw a couple of masked figures dressed in all black stride towards your cabin, knives in hand. You quickly ducked behind a tattered recliner in the corner of the room. The sound of knives plunging into rotted flesh sounded off before one of the masked figures opened the creaky door of the cabin and entered, with the other following suit. They padded their way through the cabin, making stealthy footsteps and slamming open every door to check for scavengers.

Just as the two of them were concluding that there was no food or supplies left in the cabin, one of the mysterious figures caught your reflection in a nearby window and dashed to your so-called “hiding spot.” You realized your mistake a second too late, and suddenly the base of a pistol came in rapid contact with the back of your head, feeling yourself fall forward and the world go dark.

—

Your wrists were getting more and more irritated by the second, so you stopped the pointless struggle and looked around to get your bearings. There was a window on the right wall with blinds that were shut, providing not a lot of light, but enough to see what was around you. Though, there wasn't a lot to see. It was a gray, brick room. It was presumably built for the torture of others, considering how empty it was, and that there was a window next to the wooden entrance door so that people on the outside of the room could see whatever sick and depraved things were happening on the inside. 

As soon as you were about to try to get the leg restraints loose, you heard heavy boot steps just outside of the door and the click of the lock being unlocked. Your breath hitched beneath the cloth that binded your mouth. You stopped whatever movement you were doing to stare at the door, waiting for the masked people to come and kill you slowly and painfully.

What came through that door wasn't a menacing looking masked figure, however. It was a tall, broad shouldered, brunette older looking man. He was dressed in a long sleeve button up black shirt, black jeans, a black leather vest, and dark brown combat boots. He had a hunting knife sheathed on his belt. His face was rugged and wounded, the most noticeable being a red and jagged scar cutting through his left eyebrow, the rest of the scar being about an inch from his eye. It was the face of a man that has seen, and done, a lot of things. 

You were taken out of your thoughts when you heard the stomping of his combat boots come towards you. Before he even stops walking, you spit on the ground in front of him and mumble, “I’m not telling you anything, you sack of shit.”

“So tha’s how ‘s gonna be, huh?” He questioned, one eyebrow raised. 

He began slowly walking around the metal chair, reading you, drinking you in.

“Wrists hurt?” He asked rhetorically, noticing the harsh rash blossoming from the base of your wrist. He watched the back of your head as you were unresponsive, refusing to give him anything to work with. 

He leisurely walked around to your front, with you looking back at him, trying, and failing, to look intimidating. He got down on one knee to speak with you face to face, eyes stern and unwavering. “Jus’ tell me where yer friends are. It don’t haveta be like this.”

“Go to hell.” You responded immediately. The brunette man sighed and gave you a rough punch to the jaw. You yelped and lolled your head to the side, squeezing your eyes shut. 

“I can go all night, Gimme a location, sweetheart.” He said lowly, flexing the hand that just pounded into your jaw. 

“Go. To. Hell.” You emphasized through gritted teeth. The next punch was straight to the left eye, so hard that it was sure to leave a nasty black eye. He then suddenly unsheathed his silver hunting knife and started flipping it in his hand absentmindedly.

“We saw who they were. A country girl ‘n a preacher. We can either find ‘em with yer help, or we’ll find ‘em, and before we kill ‘em, I’ll tell ‘em both how I killed ya, nice ‘n slow. Yer choice.” As the man was saying this, he leaned over, painstakingly slow, to put his knife to the base of your neck, his face inches from yours. 

Unfortunately for you, your stern demeanor faltered. Your breath hitched when you felt the cold blade pressed firmly to your neck combined with the man’s warm breath hitting your face. You were so scared that you were trembling, but also there was another feeling you had in that moment that you couldn’t quite place. “I’m n… not telling you anything.” You avoided his gaze like the plague, knowing that the man was catching on to how he was already breaking down your walls. 

“Huh? What was tha’? Use yer words.” He interrogated. He placed his hand on your knee and used it as leverage to lean impossibly closer, the knife nearly breaking the skin. Almost unconsciously, your eyes drifted from the man to his hand. It was so large, it could easily surround your relatively small hands. His fingers were so long and thick, and the veins. He had too many for you to count. There was dirt and a small amount of oil under his fingernails, implying that he worked with his hands every day. Maybe a car guy? Those hands could easily snap your fragile neck without a second thought, and it made you breathe heavier than you already were.

“Hey. Hey!” He moved his hand from your knee to roughly pull your hair back, causing the back of your head to slam against the back of the chair you were tied to. That got your attention. Also, earned a high pitched yelp from you. 

“Did ya even hear wha’ I jus’ said?” He asked, not as rough as just moments before but still firm. 

You decided to finally tell the truth. “No… I was… looking at your hand.” You said sheepishly, not looking him in the eye.

This time, the man falters, leaning back to get a good look at you. He eyed you up and down and smirked. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?” 

“N-Nothing. No reason.” You blabber out, honestly a little embarrassed that you told the truth, considering that you were supposed to be getting tortured at that moment.

He roughly tugged on your hair again, your head coming in violent contact back of the chair again, making your head fuzzy. Your eyes were half-lidded when they find the man’s piercing blue ones. “I… uh… think it’s hot.”

It looked like something clicked with the man in front of you. He eyed you once again while unconsciously licking his lips and smoothly resheathing his knife. He got down on both knees to properly look you in the face. To properly get you all hot and bothered. The same hand that was on your knee mere moments ago raised up to your throat, squeezing hard. Your eyes became wide and he chuckled maliciously. 

“Tell me what you want me to do with ‘em then.”

You swallowed, your mouth suddenly becoming very dry. You very much noticed the resistance on your throat when you swallowed, and he knows you did too.

“Touch me.” 

The man gave another laugh in response with how brazen you were with your desires. With one had still clutching your throat, he moved his other hand up your leg in a teasing manner. 

“Here?” He rubbed his thumb on your knee before continuing.

“Here?” His calloused fingers rubbed the inside of your thigh, and he could feel them tremble at his touch.

“Here?” He rubbed the crotch area of your thin shorts, already feeling how wet you were from him. For him. He thumbed at your clit, earning a soft whine from you. 

“Yeah? This where ya want me?”

“Yes.” You responded desperately, letting him know that you do, in fact, want this.

He then slowly removed his hand from your throat, resting both hands on your hips for a moment before starting to lower your pants and underwear. The process is excruciatingly slow, his hands rubbing up and down your ass and then your inner thighs. He finally gets your pants and underwear down to your ankles, then yanks both articles of clothing off. Your silky, red panties get shoved in his back pocket while your shorts get thrown behind him haphazardly.

His calloused hands then started making quick work untying the restraints around your ankles, getting them both off in about ten seconds. Without even exchanging words, you knew what he was doing. You swiftly wrapped your legs around his torso, adjusting so he would have the best angle.

“Good girl.” He rasped. You clenched over nothing.

He rubbed his hand dangerously close to your cunt, while his other arm was casually resting on your other leg. Like this is just a normal night for him.

“This hand? Ya want this?” He motioned to his hand with his icy blues.

You languidly nodded.

“Then beg.”

A strangled gasp forced its way out of your mouth at his comment. You then forced your brain out of its lust induced haze to come up with a coherent thought. “Ple… Please.”

He smirked, teasing your folds. “Name’s Daryl, by the way. Say my name if ya wanna be a whiny bitch.”

You were getting more needy by the second, trying to buck your hips to get even a little friction. “Please, Daryl.” Your voice was airy and you struggled to get your breathing under control.

He then shoved two shoved two fingers deep into your pussy, not even caring to stretch you out first. 

A strangled scream forcefully leaving your throat, you throw your head back in ecstasy. His- Daryl’s long, thick fingers fit perfectly inside you, almost like they were two pieces of the same puzzle. You arched your back as far as your arm restraints could let you, craving even more of his touch. You needed to feel his bulging biceps. You needed to pull and tug at his hair in desperation. You needed him. 

His pace was slow and excruciating.

Daryl spoke with a rasp. “Ya like bein’ tied up like this? Bein’ exposed? Huh? Little slut?”

All he got in response were fast deep breaths.

“Answer ‘n I’ll go faster. Told ya ta use yer words.”

Your brain was temporarily paralyzed hearing his accent get thicker, so you had to physically shake your head to snap out of your daze. “Yes. Yes, Daryl. Yes. I’m your slut.” You struggled to breathe out.

His eyebrows raised in a smirk as he quickened the pace. Unholy moans and whines left your mouth, not caring if anyone else hears. High pitched yelps and a tight feeling in your gut started when he continuously hit your sweet spot, his finger curving inside you. Your eyes were beginning to roll back, completely consumed by your hunger for Daryl. For only Daryl. 

“I- I’m gonna-”

“‘S fine. Let go, sunshine.”

With a few more pumps to your sweet spot, you did what you were told and let go. Your whole world was blurry and you felt lightheaded, but it was the best you’ve felt in a while. And no one has ever made you feel quite that good.

Daryl stood up and waited patiently for you to come down from your high, licking his fingers clean and grabbing your discarded shorts. 

You finally came back down to the same astral plane as the man now standing next to you and gazed at him with adoration. “Holy shit.”

The brunette chuckled and your dazed state. “‘Holy shit’ is right.”

He then suddenly went behind you and loosened your arm restraints. You looked over your shoulder in surprise. 

“What happened to wanting to know information?” You cocked your head.

He kneeled back down to caress your face. “Fuck yer friends. I only want you.”

[pinksugarscrub]

Starstruck

Hobie Brown x fem! musician! reader (high school au)

@rexlroze, @the-kr8tor What better place to stir up drama than high school? ✨️Enemies to lovers✨️

Part(s): Prologue, 1, ???

Visions Academy. Elitist? Yes, but the school of your dreams. An hour trip from Harlem on the subway. But if your mom’s dingy blue bug held up for another year you wouldn’t have to worry about paying for a MetroCard.

It was incredible when you visited on a campus tour. The music program was world renowned. You plan to take every course available but you need to be in that music room. Smell the polish from the guitars and touch the marble of the grand piano. You shiver just thinking about standing in the auditorium. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted. Everything your family could ever have dreamed of for their daughter.

So it doesn’t bother you to work until the dead of night with customers that make you want to tear your hair out. Visions makes it all worth it and well, being able to pay for your own gas is nice too.

It’s Friday, the parlor is loud and bustling with families, high schoolers, and disgruntled adults who just want to pay. Life couldn’t be any better than this.

“Manolo where are my damn pizzas?” Yuri screams over the bar separating the kitchen and the cashiers. Stacking empty boxes into her hands before shoving them under the counter.

“What do you expect me to do!?” He yells back. Antonio, his younger brother slipping on what you assume is the ghost pepper Manolo never picked up. “I’ve got six other orders before damn what’s his name. Tell him to wait his fu-”

You tune them out as you smile politely to the little girl in front of you who’s asked for a to-go cup.

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” you chuckle. Watching her run back to her parents. It was sweet, reminding you of your own dad and mom back home.

“(y/n)!’

You don’t react as Yuri spins you around, pushing you towards the kitchen where boxes and boxes of pizza are stacked up. “Go, I expect you back within two hours eh?”

You also don’t react when she glares down at Antonio. Who is usually your delivery boy but is currently nursing a burn on his hand. The poor guy really was as clumsy as a deer.

“Two hours (y/n)!” She repeats.

Then the door slams shut behind you. Your car keys in hand and a bag draped over your shoulder that burns into your side with how many pizzas are stuffed inside. Don’t even ask how that worked, Yuri has her ways.

You sigh as you hop down the steps. Gently setting the bag in the passenger's seat once you reach your car. It takes you a second to set up your phone with directions along with music. The speakers are surprisingly clear as you turn the volume up and drive off. The city becomes a blur and the clock ticks back at you with each and every stop.

The last apartment. A pink building that’s chipping and full of overgrown vines that reminds you of a photo you saw at a pop up show once. You walk up the steps, the last two boxes in your hand.

“O’hara…”You mumble, “O’hara, O’hara- ah ha, there.” The loud buzz of the intercom makes you recoil as it echoes across the street. A minute later a voice rang through, words muffled and unintelligible

You shift nervously on the balls of your feet. Leaning close to the speaker against your better judgment.

“Hi! For Mr. O’hara?”

More words? You’re sweating at this point. You’re almost hitting your two hour mark. A second later another buzz rings through and the door unlocks.

You sigh, muttering under your breath. “Oh thank god.”

You quickly swing the door open. Scaling the steps once you see yellow caution tape and a note stuck to the elevator.

By the time you reach the fourth floor you’re huffing. Holding onto the railing you catch your breath.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,”You huff in exasperation. Eyes wide as you see every door number is faded or falling apart. “These people need a better landlord.”

You almost shriek as you see what time it is when you look down. You have less than fifteen minutes.

Running through the numbers as best you could. You settle on a door with punk themed stickers. You hope this is the apartment or the tenants will at least be nice enough to point you in the right direction.

Before you can even knock the door swings up.

“What do you mean-”

You stand there visibly in awe as you stare into the most beautiful set of eyes you’ve ever seen. Silver piercings and earrings decorating his face. Wicks pulled back into a ponytail.

“Oh hey! Can we help you?” A second face pops out from the side of the door. A kind smile on his face.

You clear your throat as you avert your gaze. “Yes, uhm, I’m looking for 4D?”

“O’hara?”

You melt inside as you hear his accent. British? But not exactly?

“O’hara,”you confirmed. Smile wobbly as you force your butterflies down. You really need to get out of here.

You don’t notice the two exchange a look.

“Oh, that’s us love.” He grins as he stares down at you.

“Great!” You beam. Mentally storing the name in the back of your mind. For what? You don’t know. It’s not like you had the courage to ask for his number.

It takes you less than a minute to hand the boxes over.

“How much do we owe you?”

This confuses you but your smile never wavers. “I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure you prepaid online.”

“Right right!” The second boy nods. Dragging his friend inside by the arm and snatching up the pizza with his free hand. “Thanks!”

The boy with wicks sends you a wink before closing the door behind them.

You wait until you’re out of sight to swoon. It lasts for about five seconds when you realize it’s been exactly two hours.

-

Yuri’s too busy when you come back to scold you. So the rest of your shift goes smoothly. Your mind drifting to the boy every once in a while. A small smile on your lips.

The phone rings and your bliss is broken. You hold your breath as insult after insult hits your ear through the receiver.

You feel like an idiot. The boy’s pretty face fading into obscurity. You blink back tears as you talk with the real Miguel O’hara.

What a shitty night.

[objectautism]

i'm a huge nickel fan and i just have to say that i really hope suitcase does not forgive nickel ever and that they don't ever become friends again. after rewatching brian's recent video about the central theming of truth and forgiveness, i feel much more strongly about this now.

can nickel give a sincere apology? absolutely yes.

will that apology ever be acceptable to suitcase? i'd say no.

i feel like people incorrectly compare suitcase and balloon's relationship with nickel. i don't think they're comparable because the negativity in their relationships stem from different places. nickel already disliked balloon on the basis of his behavior from season 1. however, balloon didn't directly hurt nickel like he did with oj, pickle, and bomb and balloon's change at the hotel must've shown to nickel that change in their relationship was possible and this was further explored in season 3.

suitcase starting disliking nickel because he wasn't a good friend to her; attempting to separate her from balloon, generally dismissing her, even baseball had to talk down to him to try to stop nickel's behavior. even from the get go of their relationships, there's indicators of the grand slam alliance not being able to stay together long term.

i could make a longer post about this, but generally i just wanted to say that suitcase is completely justified in not forgiving nickel because the theme of inanimate insanity is not about good actions guaranteeing forgiveness/redemption. brian is right about ii with how it's about truth and apologies. even if you rectify your past maladaptive/hurtful actions and go into an apology with full honesty, no one is ever obligated to accept it and you can't force anyone to do so. you have to move onto newer relationships and be a better friend for the newer people in your life.

[goddessofmischief]

      AUGUST (SHANKS X READER)

A/N: This is part of this series, which requests are open for! These fics are all one-shots, so they can be read separately. Also, I highly recommend listening to the song linked in the title while you read, and please leave a comment when you've finished!

It took six weeks and a shipwreck to get you into the arms of the man that you loved, and you didn't regret a thing.

Little known pirate fact: the Oro Jackson's final resting place is a little island in the murkier side of the East Blue, far from pirates or Marines or anything at all. Here it lies to this day.

It arrived at this spot on a fated morning on an afternoon in August, when you, Shanks and Buggy were embroiled in the most terrible of arguments.

The tension had not dissipated from the days earlier, when Shanks had unceremoniously declared himself Captain, and Buggy was comfortable voicing his feelings - almost all of his feelings - out in the open now.

Starting with this one.

"We're not moving fast enough," Buggy complained. He had this particular feeling a lot.

"The ship can only go so fast. You know that," Shanks chided, jokingly. "...You've been on it for years."

"You know that's not what I mean. The One Piece is out there and we're supposed to be trying to claim it - now everyone's trying to claim it, aren't they? - but we're still wandering."

"We're preparing for the journey!"

"Oh, sure, like we really need all these maps. The only one that we really need is the map to the Grand Line, and we haven't even gotten it yet."

Shanks had been dispatching the two of you out for maps for the past few months, and many of your efforts had ended unsuccessfully. Buggy was beginning to tire of it.

"We're doing the best we can, Bugs, you know that," you tried, and Buggy cut you off.

"'You know that,'" Buggy imitated, and you and Shanks blinked at him with wide, vacuous eyes. "You two are even beginning to sound like each other, you know that? What, do you two get off on bullying me?"

"Yes," said Shanks, at the same time you said "No, of course not."

"No, of course not," Shanks amended, all too late.

"Fine," Buggy snapped, grabbing his satchel.

"Hey, where're you going-"

"You're not threatening to leave again, are you?"

"No, idiots! I'm going down to the port for a drink. Don't join."

You and Shanks sighed, exchanging weary looks with each other as Buggy departed the ship.

"So... what do you wanna do while we wait?"

...

"Careful," you warned idly, watching Shanks jerk the captain's wheel from one side to the next.

"Sorry, I'm just - I'm still getting the hang of this, I'm not used to steering-"

"It's alright," you assured him. "We're all learning things."

He had promised you there was an especially appealing island close by - something he'd discovered on his own and was anxious to share with you.

"Maybe you could let me try-"

"It's fine, I got it-"

"Shanks, let me steer-"

"I can do it-"

"What are you trying to prove?!"

"Nothing!"

The ship found that island, alright. It slammed right into the rocks in front of it.

"Oh, my God," you uttered, hand covering your mouth. Shanks stared ahead in total disbelief.

The ship was wrecked. You crashed. The ship was crashed. You and Shanks crashed Roger's ship. You and Shanks crashed Roger's ship. Buggy would never forgive you.

It was your fault.

It wasn't really - you would realize this, later on - but in the moment, that's how it felt.

"Shanks?" You shook him a little. He was seemingly catatonic, still staring straight ahead at the rocks.

"We..."

You nodded, grimly, trying to get him alert again.

"Come on, we're stuck. We have to figure something out."

...

Well, at least it was a nice island to be stuck in.

You and Shanks started a fire on the beach, after hours of searching and confirming there didn't seem to be anyone else on the island.

"Can't believe we wrecked it," Shanks mused. "It was the only home I've ever known."

"...Buggy's going to kill us."

Shanks glanced at you, a hint of amusement on his face.

"That's really what you're worried about?"

"Aren't you?"

"I think I'm more concerned with how we're going to get off this island. I'm beginning to realize that we can't. I guess we could try swimming out, but- no, it's too deep."

"So, we're stuck?"

Shanks confirmed your worry with a weary nod.

"We're stuck."

...

You didn't speak to each other again for another four days.

There was enough fruit on the island to live on, enough water stored on the wrecked Oro Jackson. The two of you could barely look at each other, repulsed by the shame of what you had done.

On the fifth day, you began to worry.

"Shanks?" you called out, shouting his name loud enough that he should have heard it. "Shanks, look, we better start making more permanent plans-"

He didn't respond.

"Shanks, come on, I don't wanna fight-"

You stopped dead in your tracks. Your brain couldn't handle what you had saw.

Shanks, flat on the ground under a palm tree.

You realized he must've fallen - the flares beside him indicated he was trying to call for help - your fault again, everything is awful and it's your fault, Shanks was dead and it was all your fault.

"No," you whispered, breath scarcely escaping your body. You collapsed to the ground, searching his face for signs of life, cradling his head in you hands. "Wake up, please, wake up- please, I need you to come back, I don't want to be alone-"

Shanks coughed, suddenly breathing again, and you realized with a rush of relief that he'd only been unconscious. His eyes scanned over you, a little smile teasing at the edge of his lips.

"Are you an angel? Am I in heaven?"

You cried in relief, not even having the energy to make fun of his stupid remarks.

"No, you idiot, you're here on earth with me."

Shanks noticed your hand was resting over his heart, and he brought his own hand up to meet it.

"You were crying over me?" he asked, cockily. You shook your head as the tear tracks staining your face betrayed you.

"I thought you were dead."

"I think I was."

"Did you see Roger?" you asked, almost laughing.

"I don't think I was dead long enough," he said. "I had to come back, you see. Had to be where you were."

As long as you had known Shanks, you had carried with you a indecipherable ache. It was today that the ache finally rose out of you, and today that you bent your face down far enough to connect your lips to his - on purpose, this time. He met them.

"We're still stuck on this island, you know," you murmured, finally pulling away.

His eyes sparkled.

"I'd forgotten."

...

For the next three weeks, your life was a montage of sun-drenched beaches, bare shoulders and tanned skin. Water everywhere, sand in everything. Salt air stung your tongue and infused all your kisses.

You barely felt like a pirate anymore. Life was that good. You felt more like a creature of the sea, tossed by the waves, unbothered by the silly human things that had once so concerned you - what One Piece? What Buggy? What Mihawk? You and Shanks were connected by everything, ebbing and flowing out of each other like it was the only thing that made sense.

Despite this backdrop of love, there was one thing that was clear. You were going to die. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. The water from the ship would run out, and the fruit would run out, and then there would be no more left, and you and he would merely be skeletons left scattered on the shore, then dust.

"I can't even regret it," you sighed, head on his chest. "Not with everything that's happened."

"Do you think Buggy will miss us?"

"I don't know," you said with a guilty pang. "I guess I hadn't thought of him for awhile. I wish I could let him know what became of us. Mihawk, too."

"Could you not talk about Mihawk during moments like this?"

You laughed, kissing him lightly on the nose.

"I wonder how many sunrises we have left."

"Enough," he said, and after that the talking ended.

...

Little did you know, Buggy hadn't slept for weeks.

Okay, hadn't slept was an overexaggeration - he had little winks now and then, just a few, just to keep himself alive. He'd be no good to you or Shanks dead.

He'd been to four islands by now, and had scoured every one of them. What he really couldn't understand is how the Oro Jackson could have gone anywhere unnoticed. The citizens of the island he had been on recalled it in the port, when you dropped him off, and then it vanished like a ghost. The one ship every Marine in the world was looking for, and not one person would admit to seeing it.

It was killing him.

He couldn't imagine what had happened to you - Shanks, too, but he worried more for you, mostly for the reason that he was sure you would never leave him on purpose. It was possible for Shanks to have left, but you, too? Wouldn't happen.

The thought crossed his mind, once or twice, that the two of you had gotten sick of him and run away together, but it seemed impossible after how desperately you'd tried to keep him from leaving. You wouldn't just leave him now.

Maybe you were kidnapped. Or hungry. Or cold. Or-

Wait, was that the ship?

"Buggy!" he heard a chorus of familiar voices call out, frantically waving their arms on the beach. A familiar burst of red hair was immediately apparent amongst the grains of white sand.

"What the... the hell," he muttered, rowing the small boat he'd attained to look for you beside the crashed ship. He'd never realized how absolutely massive it was until it was in pieces. Even now, weeks later, rotted wood planks scattered the shore.

"Buggy!"

He barely had a moment to climb out of the boat and throw his oars aside before you and Shanks barreled towards him at full speed, both locking him in a tight embrace.

"You saved us," you whispered, burying your face in the nape of his neck. Shanks hugged him gratefully, too. It felt good having both of you back again. For a little while, Buggy had feared he would have to walk the world alone.

"What the hell happened?"

"Crashed," you explained, your cheeks flushed from the excitement.

"Did it just... did you not see the rocks?"

You shook your head, still completely overwhelmed.

"We thought we were going to die."

"I was beginning to think you were already dead!"

"You saved us," you emphasized, salt water stinging your eyes. "I could kiss you."

Buggy's face went blank, as did yours. Clumsily, you reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek, and smiled. In one fluid motion, you pulled back, and Shanks looped his arm around your waist. You and Shanks glanced at each other, still grinning, and you rested your head on his shoulder.

That was the moment he knew something had changed. Something was different, since the last time he'd seen you.

"You guys..." he tried to put the words together. "You guys... what, uhh, what did you guys do for six weeks?"

Buggy had a few guesses.

taglist: @sawendel @twinklesnake @literaturewithliz @sordidmusings @foggyturtleknightangel @toertchen @96jnie @lunanight1021 @trafalgardvivi

[starry-night-author]

Hello hello to an amazing writer!

I had an idea and you don't have to do this *at all* but...June of Doom Day 11 snippet continuation, poly edition???

No worries if not, just heard that you like writing the poly snippets, and I like reading them, so..win-win? :)

Have a cupcake, you deserve it! 🧁

OH HELL YES

Ty for the cupcake!!! and the excuse to write more of this dynamic ever <33333

June of Doom Day #11 (Pt. 2)

(Part 1)

"Alright, so who's the good cop and who's the bad cop here?" Villain asked, leaning forward in their chair. "Of course, all cops are bad, but speaking in references here-"

"Enough," Superhero growled. "You're the one being interrogated, not the other way around."

Supervillain leaned over to stage-whisper in Villain's ear. "They're the bad cop."

"Enough!" Superhero shouted as both of the villains burst out laughing. "You will either cooperate or face worse consequences!"

"There's two bad cops?" Villain leaned back in their seat, lifting their untied feet from the ground to fold their legs up underneath them nonchalantly. "I don't know if that's how this is supposed to work-"

"We'll separate you two," Hero stood on the other side of Superhero, not intervening until now. This kind of argument had been going on for ten minutes already.

They didn't like interrogations, all the villains acted like this and it only ever served to make the heroes more frustrated. Despite having been kidnapped only earlier that day, Hero was already bored and annoyed.

"Oh go ahead and try," Supervillain kicked their feet up on the table between them and the heroes. "See what happens."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Superhero's eyes narrowed.

Villain snickered. "You'll see."

Fed up, Superhero slammed their fist on the table, making the whole thing shake. "Will both of you stop it?! We could've been done already if you'd just cooperate! We need information on where you got that car-"

"The car?" Villain asked. "What's that got to do with anything?"

It'd been ten minutes, and they'd finally gotten to hearing the actual interrogation questions. Hero held in a groan as they dropped their head in their hands.

"The model is one that's always been specifically used by a secret vigilante group throughout the state." Superhero explained. "They've been on the... morally darker side of things lately, and we need to find out what their alignment is. So we need information from you two about where you got it so we can track them down."

"The car." Villain stared at them. "You care about the car."

"Yes-"

"Not that we kidnapped Hero?"

"Well-"

"Or led you on a crazy high-speed chase throughout the whole city?" Supervillain chimed in.

"No-"

"You don't care about our scheme?" Villain's tone seemed rather hurt, they were very obviously pouting. "Just about the car we used?"

Supervillain mirrored their partner's pout.

Superhero dragged a hand down their face. "In the grand scheme of things your little escapades..." they trailed off, noticing how hurt the villains looked. "...Don't... matter." They exhaled the last word, as if it pained them to say it. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Villain sniffed, leaning sideways in their chair to rest their head on Supervillain's shoulder. Supervillain rested their head on top of their partner's. "We know our plans aren't always the most attention-grabbing."

"Or detrimental to society." Supervillain added.

"So where did you get the car?" Superhero cut in before one of them could start crying. They certainly looked upset enough to do so.

Villain sat back up and Supervillain shrugged. "Outside of a grocery store in the south edge of town." They lifted their feet from the table, putting them back on the ground. "It's a smaller area there, less crime, bigger false sense of security. Someone left the engine on when they ran in, we broke a window and stole it."

"You don't know who's it was?" Superhero asked. "You didn't see the owner?"

The villains shook their heads.

Hero sighed. Of course this lead went nowhere. Life at the agency had been so boring and repetitive lately- this vigilante case was finally something that had pulled Hero from their humdrum everyday routine.

And now they still had no idea where to start with it.

Well, the vigilante case and being kidnapped for a few hours, that was. That didn't happen every day.

Just as Hero was trying to figure out where else they could follow this case to, Villain leapt onto the table.

They'd been sitting with their feet crossed on their chair, and in a moment they'd pushed themself up into a squat before jumping to the plastic folding table between them. It wobbled, and despite their arms still being tied behind their back, Villain immediately found their balance.

Hero and Superhero started back from the table. "What are you- get down!" Superhero shouted. Hero was more used to Villain's antics, and they knew to back as far away as they could.

"If you insist," Villain shrugged.

As they leapt down their foot lashed out, connecting nicely with Superhero's skull. The crime-stopper was sent flying sideways, the other side of their head hitting the wall.

They slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Before Hero could react Villain lunged at them, and in an instant Hero found themself on their back, pinned to the ground by Villain's foot. The criminal's arms were still bound as they used their head to motion to Supervillain. "Get the door, they'll have seen that. They'll be in in three... two... one..."

Right on cue, the door flew open, narrowly missing Hero's head as it slammed against the wall. Supervillain threw themself at the other heroes, even with their hands tied behind their back they were clearly skilled enough to keep the other heroes at bay.

From the ground, Hero couldn't see much of the fight. All they could hear was thuds of impact and occasional yells, Villain's foot was too heavy on their chest, they couldn't shift it off.

Villain paid no attention to Hero, a wide grin on their face as they watched Supervillain. Their hair was wild from their earlier car chase, their eyes lit with a special kind of affection while they watched their partner. They cheered the Supervillain on, and despite their situation, Hero couldn't help but realize how sweet that was.

Eventually a pair of dark soulless shoes landed next to Hero's head. "That's all of them for now," Supervillain was out of breath. "There'll be more soon though. Wanna get out of here?"

Villain smirked. "I thought you'd never a-"

"Wait!" It took the hero a moment to realize they were the one who had shouted. The villains looked down at them, as if just remembering they were there. "Take me with you."

Villain bent down closer to them, pressing more weight on them and making the hero gasp. "...Why?"

The crime-stopper's voice was strained as their chest was constricted. "I-I'm tired of everything here. You kidnapping m-me was the most exciting thing tha-ats happened in the last six months. Please take me w-with you."

"You fight villains every day and you're bored?" Supervillain was intrigued.

Hero nodded.

"Poor thing, you really do need a thrill." Villain leaned closer, bent so their face was inches from Hero's. Hero couldn't keep the blush off their own face- if anyone asked the redness was from lack of oxygen. "We'll let you come with us if you can uncuff us."

Hero nodded again, now unable to form words.

"Deal!" Villain got off of them, and Hero gasped for air. "Now come on, we don't have time to waste! Get up get up get up-"

Hero was nudged to their feet before they could even catch their breath, and was only given an opportunity to do so after they'd pulled the keys to the cuffs out of their pocket and given it to the villains. The two undid their cuffs in mere seconds, and then Hero was whisked out of the room and off to their new life.

Villain ran on Hero's left side, Supervillain on their right. The two caught Hero looking as they ran together down the hall, and simultaneously threw them devilish smirks.

Hero quickly turned their gaze forward.

If anyone asked, the redness from was the exertion of running.

[sunfyresrider]

Addcited to you

Part 1 ~ Part 2

Synopsis: Aegon Targaryen was once the best racecar driver of his time until a fatal accident sent his life spiraling. Once his partying and whoring became too much his family sent him to rehab. It didn't prevent too many of his activities, but it did do something better. That was where he met you, his new addiction.

pairing: Modern!Aegon Targaryen x Reader warnings: Addiction, loss, smut and fuckboi tendancies word count: 7699 note: wow another repost. tags: @its-actually-minicika @princesssszzzz @ohitsthemaster @annikin-im-panicin

Aegon Targaryen was once the best race car driver of his age. He drove the golden Sunfyre into many victories and star-dom. It was the first time he got approval from his mother and father. As well as a surplus amount of attention from women and men alike. He was flawless in every way and never lost. He was handsome, charismatic, and the life of the party. It was impossible not to be in love with this boy from Westeros. 

Nothing good ever lasts forever though. He had tied in not one but two races. The Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 with the first female race-car driver, Rhaenyra Targaryen.  Aegon’s entire life he had competed with her for the top spot in their father’s heart but lost. Now he was competing for the crown and losing.

The day of the Monaco Grand Prix tensions were high. His family was separated on two sides of the road. His mother and her family cheered him on while his father and sisters' family stood on the other. Aegon swore that day he would prove to them all who was the best, who truly deserved their fathers love. 

The gunshot sounded and Aegon took off in Sunfyre. Rhaenyra stayed close inside syrax her piss colored car. The race stayed this way until they were finally nearing the end. Rhaenyra twisted her wheel and tried to drive Aegon off the road. He retaliated and pushed her up against the wall sending sparks flying. She wouldn’t let this slide, Rhaenyra maneuvered herself out and slammed into Aegon. 

Sunfyre went spinning ahead and nothing Aegon could do would stop the madness. Rhaenyra couldn’t hit her brakes fast enough, she slammed into Sunfyre and her car went flying over him. Sunfyre toppled over in circles until it skidded off the track. When Syrax stopped moving and crashed into the speedway everyone thought it was over. 

It was never that simple. Rhaenyra Targaryen met her end once the gas spilled out of her car and was ignited by the sparks. She burnt to death on the day she was meant to be crowned the best race-car driver in history.

Aegon’s car was totaled as were his limbs. A broken leg, rib, hip and a severe concussion. Not to mention the few burns he received while being dragged out of his car and to the ambulance. 

It was the end of the mighty Targaryen racing family and the end of the first female driver. 

-

It took an entire year for Aegon to be able to function properly again. He had to go through extensive therapy to learn how to walk after his hip replacement and leg surgeries. His bones were not only broken but shattered. The left side of his body was burnt but the scars healed nicely. There were only a few left to prove what he had gone through. 

Aegon was kept on pain medication the entire time. Without it he screamed in agony which wasn’t surprising considering the sheer extent of his wounds. After a while though the pain subsided but his need for medication did not. 

He discovered once he woke from his coma that his father and extended family had all but disowned him. They blamed him for the death of their beloved Rhaenyra. His own mother, though grateful he was alive, was disappointed beyond belief at his utter failure. His three youngest siblings were there for him the best they could be with their busy lives. Daeron was too busy in high school, Helaena was busy with her new entomology job, she taught college kids about insects. Aemond had taken his place as the non-disappointment. He reverbished the old  but legendary car Vhagar and began racing in Aegon’s stead. 

Everyone had found their path in life but him, He was left to rot in a hospital bed for a year. 

-

Aegon was let out and a tiny welcome home celebration was held. He was too dosed up on pain-killers to notice everyone was walking on eggshells around him. 

This became a daily part of his life. He took pain killers in the morning and night and wasted away. Occasionally he got off his ass and went to parties filled with drugs and hookers. He indulged himself more than any other man his age. There was not a day that went by where he wasn't on something or in someone. 

-

All of this came to an abrupt end when a tabloid exposed his habits and his grandfather found out. The man beat the living shit out of him and his mother… she spoke the words that would haunt him until he died. ‘You are no son of mine.’ He pleaded with her to understand but she left him behind, just as everyone else did. 

It was that night he went to the old garage and tried to fix Sunfyre. He spent hours working tirelessly on the once ‘golden dragon.’ but it was for nothing. The tires wouldn’t move and its fire breathing engine would never light up again.

He finally hit his breaking point that night. He threw miscellaneous tools around the garage in a rage. He kicked and screamed and rampaged for an hour. Aegon destroyed everything in that garage including trophies and precious photos. Everything that was special to him was gone.

The bender he went on was legendary. The amount of substances he consumed no one could say. One week straight of drugs and whores and not a second of sobriety. He did not eat and he rarely slept. Aegon just kept going as if it was his last race. 

He woke up in the hospital again. This time he had overdosed and was under suicide watch. His attempts to escape were futile and his resolve melted away. Aegon was given an option… rehab or die. 

-

3 years later…

“Everyone, we would like you to take turns introducing yourselves and why you are here today.” The leader of your addicts anonymous group spoke. You hated this part the most. No one truly cared who you were or why you were here. It was a feeble attempt at getting you to open up.

When it was your turn to speak you begrudgingly stood up. You cleared your throat, “I’m y/n and I’m here for-“ The sound of the foot opening and a man dragging himself inside cut you off. The woman forced a smile. “Look who the cat dragged in! Aegon please take a seat.” His blonde hair was a complete mess and his under eyes were sunken with dark circles. It looked as if he hadn’t bathed in weeks. 

“Please continue.” She spoke with her tainted smile. You cleared your throat “I’m y/n and-“ The sound of him coughing cut you off once again. You clenched your jaw and tightened your fists. It was already hard enough being here but he was making it worse. “Are you finished?” You asked in a venomous tone. He peered up at you like you were nothing but rubbish. “oh no, keep going, I’m sure everyone is dying to know who you are.” He spoke in a snarky tone eliciting quiet laughs from those around you.

If there wasn’t a policeman in the room you swore you could kill him. “I’m y/n and I’m here because it was this or jail, thank you.” You threw yourself into your seat staring daggers at the man. He made an amused face and stood. “I’m Aegon Targaryen, some of you may know me as the king of racing, others just as Aegon. My drugs of choice are opioids… and women.” He said with a wink and you thought you could puke. A handful of  men let out chuckles and the few women shyly smiled or brushed their hair behind their ears. This was worse than jail. 

The leader of tonight’s meeting went on to talk about god, addiction, trauma and overcoming for an hour. It was unbearably boring and you found yourself dozing off occasionally. At the end you fell completely asleep and woke up to the voice of the lady calling out your name. “Y/N” everyone turned to you. “Y/N” A few people scoffed at your lack of reply. “Y/N” someone kicked your foot and your eyes opened wide. You glanced around the room and noticed everyone staring at you. “Y/N can you lead us in tonight’s prayer?” Shit, you forgot the fucking prayer.

“God… grant us the serenity… to…” You peered around the room looking for help but none came. “To… accept…” It felt like the world was collapsing on you. Your nerves began to quiver and your sweat prickled on your palms. It was just like you were in high school again and stuttered during reading. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference... Amen.” 

The room echoed his prayer and he received an overwhelming applause. You were glad someone else did it but why did it have to be him. The once quiet room began to stir as people prepared to leave. You were one of the first to get up and try to escape. “Oh! I forgot to mention. We will be doing acts of community service as a group… you will be paired with partners of our choosing and you’ll have one month to complete all your acts. It’s a way to give back to the community and prove your sobriety is leading you down the right path.” God was not on your side today. 

You grabbed your belongings and tried to rush towards your escape but were interrupted. “It gets easier the longer you do it.” You whipped your head around to see the blonde haired man staring down at you. “The prayers I mean and the meetings as a whole.” Your eyes scanned his face for any sign of humor. He seemed to be genuinely kind, maybe you judged him too soon. “Good.” was all you managed to mutter.

“Y/N, that’s a pretty name. I haven’t seen you here before, I’m Aegon.” You forced a polite smile. He outstretched his hand and shook yours. Before he could speak again you interrupted, “I actually have to get going, it was nice to meet you though.” With that you took off towards the door and to the privacy of your car.

-

You were casually scrolling through your phone watching videos trying to keep yourself from boredom when you got a friend request. It was none other than Aegon himself. How did he find you so quickly, you thought.

His Instagram wasn't private, and it was rather unimpressive. Mediocre selfies of him with sunglasses, a car, pictures of friends… the farther you scrolled the more you noticed his car and the party photos. It seemed at one point he was rather good at that.  You were just simply going to deny the request until you got a text. “you up?”

 Gross, he was one of those men. You threw your phone onto the bed and rolled over. Why would you send you a text out of nowhere? You were bored and it wasn’t like anyone else was talking to you. “No lol" you replied, still annoyed. "Why though?" 

"because I want to see if we could hangout sometime this week," he said, sounding sort of desperate. You laughed to yourself at the notion of hanging out with someone you just met at rehab of all places. “Stranger danger.” You replied jokingly. "If we hang out I won’t be." He replied with a laughing emoji.

You never dated guys you just met. You weren't one of those girls that hooked up with strangers. “Why do you want to hang out with me?” You asked. He took some time to answer. It didn't seem like he was used to giving lengthy replies. Finally he answered. "Because you're cute and you looked like you needed friends in AA."

You snorted at the idea. "You think I'm cute?"  "Yes." He wrote back immediately. You glanced at your phone and chuckled. "Yeah, well I don't think you're cute.”

“You hurt me, Y/N.” He replied with a handful of emojis that would take you time to decipher. You rolled your eyes and turned away. He must have been kidding, you thought. But then you got another text.

“I’m only asking because we were set up as partners for whatever it is they’re planning. Thought it would be nice to talk before we were forced to be around each other.”

Your heart stopped. What? Were you really being set up with this idiot? Wasn't it enough to deal with him in group therapy? “How did you find out so quickly?!” You watched as the three bubbles on the screen took their time to reply. 

“It was on the bulletin board.”  Fuck, you hadn’t even bothered to check that since you started going.“let me know if you change your mind.” He typed. “We’ll have plenty of time to “get to know” each other during work.” You replied and put your phone away.

-

The first forced community service was helping pick up trash littered across the streets and park near your AA building. It was one of the worse tasks you were forced to do but it would look good on your record. Instead of jail you were going to AA and doing community service. A true born-again criminal, you laughed in your head.

It was chilly outside and the sun had all but disappeared because of the clouds. It was a perfect dull day for your perfect dull tasks. 

“You ghosted me.” Aegon’s voice rang from behind your ear. Another dull thing to add onto the already dull day. “I didn’t ghost you.” He walked up like a happy golden retriever pup. In truth, you didn’t purposely ghost him, you just simply chose to ignore Instagram. You much preferred tumblr and A03 anyway. “Really? You’re one of those who don’t use their phone much?” You were almost constantly on your phone. “No, not necessarily.” 

“That’s cool, I couldn’t live without mine.” He smiled and nodded his head. You couldn’t help but smile back. There was something about him that made you feel… nervous? It was hard to put a name on it but you chalked it up to being because he was a man. You didn’t exactly get loads of attention from them and your experiences haven’t been great so of course he would make you nervous.

“So where are we picking up trash?” You asked, breaking the silence between you two. He pointed towards the grassy area to your right. The park was empty. “We have the entire park to ourselves.” Aegon didn’t seem excited about it either.

“Okay then.” You walked off ahead of him.  You couldn’t help but notice he looked better today. He finally took a shower, and his hair was nicely done. Aegon didn’t smell like shit and his smile was bright. It was a welcome surprise you weren’t sure you could handle having to work next to someone who didn’t bathe. 

Aegon caught up to you after a few minutes of walking. He kept a close eye on you. You were wearing a pair of jeans and a black top. Not the best outfit for working but it accentuates your curves nicely. Your breasts were pushed up by your bra and your cleavage looked amazing. It was rare you found a bra that fit and decided to wear it today. “You look pretty.” He smiled at you.

“Thanks.” You blushed ever so slightly. If you got out more you would probably be more used to compliments. It was weird hearing them from him but welcomed nonetheless.

“You look better today too.” You forced yourself to compliment him. His smile grew wider and he decided to work right next to you. This was going to be an awkward task.

-

You had spent most of the time picking up what Aegon didn’t bother with. At one point you lost him only to find him flat on his ass staring at the cars driving by. “What happened?” You asked, sitting on the ground next to him. “The wind blew my bag away so I’m calling it quits.” 

“This fucking sucks.” You giggled. That was something you liked to say when you were forced to do any type of manual labor. “I know how you feel.” Aegon chuckled. “Why are they forcing us to do that?” You asked while picking at the grass beneath you. “They said it will look good on our records… and free labor.” He shrugged. Of course, it was just using you all for free labor. “Do you think they will notice if I go missing?”

“Probably not.” He laughed. “I should take advantage of the opportunity.” You smirked at him and stood up to leave. “Where are you going?” He grabbed your wrist, and you nearly slapped him. It scared you at first, but he was just innocently asking a question. “I want to see what else is around here,” you spoke. “Don’t leave me here to pick up shit.” Aegon stated and followed you.

-

You had escaped to a small sandwich shop not too far from the park. Of course, he follows you the entire way there blabbering about things you did not care about. It wasn’t until you sat down and started eating did he ask you things of substance.

“Why are you in AA?” He asked with his puppy dog eyes. You noticed quickly how much he resembled a pup. The question made you nearly choke on your food. “Isn’t it called Addicts Anonymous for a reason?” You raised an eyebrow and he chuckled, nodding his head.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean anyone cares.” He pointed out. It wasn’t some grand thing that landed you in here. In reality it was pretty embarrassing and pathetic. “I went to a party and drank some special juice. Turns out the special juice had very illegal drugs and I ended up being arrested for being in possession of it, afterwards they gave me the choice of this or jail.” It was the truth, you really didn’t intend to do hard drugs. You weren’t exactly a party animal either seeing as this was one of your firsts. But, you bought the juice and paid the price.

“That’s not that bad.” He said with a smile. You started to become more and more curious about why he was here. Aegon didn’t seem like the other addicts you’ve run into. It looked like maybe he had something going for him at one point. “Why are you here?” You pressed.“I like drinking too much.” That didn’t even remotely surprise you. “and other things.” That peeked your interest more than you cared to admit. Was it heroin? Crack? there was a world of possibilities. “Like what?”

“And what makes you think I would tell you?” He raised an eyebrow. You were caught off guard for a moment. “Well because I just told you everything.” He smirked and leaned back against the wall behind him. “Not every little detail.” You huffed and narrowed your eyes at him. “Fine. Be that way. ” You rolled your eyes.

“If you want to get anything out of me you have to play nice.” He winked at you. You snorted, “How am I supposed to play nice?”He leaned back into his chair and pointed at your phone. “You can start by not ghosting me.” You looked down at your phone and scowled. His words stung a bit but he was right.“Easy.” You smiled and picked up your phone. You texted him a simple hello and stared up at him. Aegon laughed to himself. “Cheeky.”

His accent had been bothering you for ages. You couldn’t quite pinpoint where it was from but definitely not American.  “Where are you originally from?” Aegon enjoyed your interest in him by the looks of his face. “Manchester, UK but my family moved to California a long time ago.” 

He crossed his arms over his chest and awaited you to ask something else. It was clear he enjoyed talking about himself. “Why’d you move here?” His smile faltered slightly before picking itself back up, "My family runs a big business.' You simply hummed in response. It didn't seem like he wanted to divulge any more information about them.

"So, do you want to ask me anything?"  You tilted your head to the side. He smiled and stood out of his seat. "Of course, I want to know everything about you... but now isn't the time, they're starting to look for us." He nodded his head towards the window, and you noticed a few other members walking towards you. You let out a deep sigh and pushed yourself out of your chair. 

-

Aegon was planning how to get you to go on a date with him the entire night. There were an array of reasons why he was so determined. Firstly you didn’t respond to his advances as most did and that drove him crazy. Secondly you were far prettier than the other girls in AA and close to his age, most people there were nearing menopause. Older women were more of his brother's thing than his own. Thirdly, you were charming in your own way. You were quiet yet there was a playful glint in your eyes when you spoke that told him everything. 

He spent the rest of his week trying to text you and convince you to get to know him just once. You were far more receptive over rest than in person, he assumed it was because he made you shy. That made him believe you were all the more cuter. 

It was Friday afternoon and you'd finally agreed to meet him after work. You complained a few times about your manager being weird and so he begged you to let him pick him up. He wasn’t going to do anything crazy just scare him off. But you refused which drove him crazy. The idea some other guy  was getting close to you while he wasn’t there irked him to his core. 

Aegon didn’t like driving anymore, he only did it when it was absolutely necessary. He wanted to make a good impression so he begrudgingly hopped in his Sunfyre and headed your way. He had taken the time to fix him enough so he could at least drive again. If this was any other person he wouldn’t bother but he needed to impress you. 

It was a bit nerve wracking since you finally said yes. He was confident in himself most of the time with random girls but you were hard to impress. His nerves deflated when he finally laid eyes on your figure, You looked insatiably beautiful. You had on a little black dress and an oversized leather jacket. A wide grin grew on his face and he hopped out of his car like an overexcited puppy. 

“You look stunning.” He walked over and placed a greeting kiss on your cheek. You let out a surprised ‘Oh’ when he did so that was quickly replaced by a smile and nod. Aegon opened the door for you and took your jacket. He was planning on being the perfect gentleman tonight. 

“Thank you." You smiled up at him and he dipped his head a bit. He held the door open for you and watched your frame walk past him. His eyes lingered on your hips and thighs. 

“I noticed you post a lot of pics of this car on insta, is it like your baby?” You innocently asked and his heart sunk. He forgot how his Instagram was filled with old pictures from when he was happy. “It’s a piece of junk now that it’s gotten old.” You chuckled and shook your head, "But I thought you loved it or why else would you post it?” He shrugged and tapped his steering wheel, "Well I do but it’s different now." You nodded your head and took in the new basic model. Cars weren’t your thing but you were trying for him. 

"I think it’s very beautiful." You turned around to see him staring at you. You flushed bright red and put your hands in your lap. Recently, you had been becoming easily flustered by him. It could have been from the hours you spent texting or the way his face resembled a prince from a book, you didn’t know for sure. “As are you, love,” He smiled to himself. 

“So, where are you kidnapping me too?” You raised an eyebrow. "I just planned on stopping somewhere that had a nice view and then grabbing dinner from there, I was thinking somewhere near the water maybe?” He was playing coy. He had spent far too long searching for a specific place near the massive river that led into the ocean because you said you like it. Aegon also looked for a place with the specific food you mentioned liking. To be fair, he never did this for any other woman but he was trying to make a good impression like his brothers did with women. Especially if you found out how much of a loser he was, actions like these would have to save him. 

“That sounds lovely." You smiled again and Aegon was glad to see it. He drove down the street and the car was filled with small talk.  He listened to Hozier which surprised you substantially. He seemed more like a pop punk kind of guy. 

It wasn’t a fancy restaurant like he said. It was decently sized and had a pretty view of the water. It was dark out so the place was lined with fairy lights. The restaurant only had a small crowd of people inside and he led you to a table a distant away. Aegon pulled out a chair for you and took off your jacket. Once again, this was completely out of character for him but he was following Aemond’s example. 

“Are you a fan of seafood? This place is known for their oysters.” He passed a menu to you and smiled up at you. Aegon loathed seafood but you said you liked it. “I don’t know about oysters but salmon is my favorite.” You hummed to yourself as you scanned the menu.

"I think I’ll just follow your example since you seem to know what’s good.” He felt slightly awkward sitting here. He wanted to hold your hand but the whole idea of touching you made him nervous. It was an issue that alcohol could quickly solve. 

When he ordered the same thing as you along with two glasses of wine you were shocked. Wasn’t he literally in AA for being an alcoholic? “Wine? Aren’t you afraid of testing positive?” A proud smile creeped onto his face. “Nah, It leaves your system in a day. Why, Are you afraid of being kicked out of lovely AA?” 

He gave you a challenging look. It was a scam that you were in AA in the first place but you weren’t there for wine like him. One glass couldn’t possibly hurt. You said, “Absolutely not.”

Aegon laughed and drank his wine slowly. He watched your every move while he sipped on his. You seemed tense and fidgety but you were doing a damn fine job of pretending you weren’t. He was glad he had finally gotten to you. “Tell me more about yourself, Y/N.” You glanced up at him and sat your cup down. “What exactly do you want to know?” He crossed his arm and thought to himself. “Mmm, everything… but I’ll accept whatever you’re willing to give.” Your stomach did the thing with butterflies again. 

You took a big gulp of wine to ease your nervous stomach. “I’ll tell you something super embarrassing… I run a blog on tumblr.” You giggled and wiggled a little bit in your seat. It was easier to talk about things online than in real life. There was no judgment or bullying involved.

"Oh yeah? What's it about?" He asked curiously. He could already guess what it was about. “It’s for video games and movies, mostly. And then sometimes I write stuff about my personal life if I feel like it. He chuckled, “I bet I can one up you.”

Your eyes widened and you looked at him expectantly. "Really?" He nodded with a smug grin on his face. “Yup, I still own all my old comic books and posters from when I was a kid.” He said proudly. He loved his collection and it reminded him of a simpler time. "I'm jealous! I used to love comics!" You leaned forward and put your hand on top of his. He moved it around so that he could place it on yours.

"They're a lot cooler than normal books, right?" He said and you sighed in happiness. "Yes, I really am jealous. I wish I collected them too." Aegon smiled at you and tilted his head. “I can show you mine afterwards! If you’re nice enough I’ll let you borrow some to read.” You spoke excitedly, "That would be wonderful, thank you."  He ran his thumb over your knuckles and you shivered. His touch was warm and soothing. You stared into his eyes and they seemed to glow. Maybe it was the alcohol finally taking effect or the lighting but he really was… charming.

The food arrived and you both  ate slowly. He was much too distracted by your face and the conversations you were having. You both had more in common than you originally expected. He told you about his childhood and how he used to collect action figures. This wasn’t information he easily gave out but you made him feel comfortable. 

"Do you have any hobbies, Y/N?" He asked after finishing his main course. You absolutely couldn't tell him about your fanfiction addiction which was one of the main things you indulge yourself in. “I play the guitar and I used to be in a shitty band before.” He chuckled and smiled.

"Really? I would have loved to see that!" He smirked, "Maybe I’ll play for you if you’re nice enough,” you smirked at him. He grabbed your hand and kissed your knuckles. You blushed, he was flirting with you a little bit. You didn't mind though, not when he was being so sweet.

“I can play nice.” The way you were looking back at him made him feel strange. He was getting a little turned on but he tried to ignore it. You were drunk and he knew that you'd probably regret this tomorrow. But he also wanted to get inside of you, he wanted you in more ways than one. 

"What are you planning to do after this?" He asked. You shrugged and looked away from him. "Go home, watch Netflix, and go to bed." You replied honestly without thinking. 

Aegon shook his head, "That's a boring end to the night, if you’d like you can come back with me and I’ll show you what we talked about earlier.” He said, his eyes staring at you intently. You purse your lips together and your heart was pounding. You were definitely going to regret this tomorrow.

"I'd like that.” You said quietly. His smile widened and he got up from his seat. He walked behind you and placed his hand on the small of your back. “I swear you’ll love it!” He whispered. He pulled you towards the door, his long fingers trailing down your spine as he did.

-

His house was nicer than expected. It was modern and very spacious. You noticed he had pictures of what you assumed were his family and some of him next to his car. You didn’t pry because it was obvious he didn’t enjoy them by the way he avoided looking at them. It was pretty clear this was the home of a single man and not someone with a family. 

He held your hand the entire way to a bedroom… a spare room. It had lots of boxes with different labels. It was as plain as any other room in the house though it smelled strongly of him. 

“Did you just move here?” You asked while staring at the room. He nodded, "Yeah, I couldn’t handle living in an apartment anymore." He said. Aegon walked away from you and opened a box. He was apparently serious about showing you his collection. 

“I have mainly dc comics but there’s a handful of marvel somewhere.” He smiled back at you. You felt yourself blush again because his eyes were sparkling brightly. “If your accent doesn’t impress girls do you use these instead,” you joked. He laughed and walked towards you. Your breath hitched in your throat for a moment at the closeness. “Only the ones with really good taste.” You bursted out in a laugh at his stupidity.

Aegon leaned into you as you drunkenly giggled at his joke. “You think I’m funny?” His face was mere inches from yours and you could feel his breath on your face. You leaned in even closer so your noses almost touched. “I'm better.” Aegon placed a hand on the side of your cheek and stared into your eyes.

Your stomach did a somersault when he lightly brushed his lips against yours. He lingered for only a moment, but it felt like an eternity before pulling away. 

You quickly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to kiss him again. It was stupid of you to be doing this because you knew that much. It wasn’t allowed to sleep with other members in AA but the alcohol clouded your judgment. Well, Aegon in general clouded your judgment. He was incredibly handsome, had a body like a god, and an ass that would make any woman jealous.

He pulled away from you once more, breaking the kiss. You were about to speak up when he kissed your neck, sending shivers down your spine. You gasped as he bit down on your collarbone and took advantage of the opportunity to run his hand through your hair. Your breathing became faster and heavier, both of your hands began exploring each others bodies. His fingers slid under the hem of your dress until they reached your thigh. You pushed them higher and he moaned into your ear.

"I want you," He breathed out. "Please." Aegon's lips left your neck and he moved to your shoulder. You ran your fingers through his hair and grabbed hold. This wasn't part of the plan, but you didn't care. The alcohol had taken over your mind. Why wouldn't you do something crazy if it meant getting what you wanted?

He moved his hand lower, slipping under the waistband of your panties. You sighed softly as he caressed your bare skin. The kiss he planted on your neck turned into deep kisses all over your body. You wrapped your legs around him and ground your hips against his. "Aegon..." You murmured. "I can’t take it anymore."

His hand slipped further south and you could feel his warm cock pressing against your pussy. You whimpered as he rubbed himself between your folds. You were already wet and ready for him, but he refused to enter you. He just kept teasing you, rubbing his hard cock against you while kissing you roughly. He moved back and slipped two fingers inside of you.  You were unable to control yourself, your walls clenched tight around his fingers.

Your body took over and you pushed him onto the bed, taking off his pants. The moment his cock sprang free, you slammed your mouth down on him. Aegon groaned and shoved his hands in your hair, holding you tightly. You sucked and licked his shaft, taking him deeper into your throat. “you’re so pretty sucking my cock.” He moaned out. 

You sucked him harder and Aegon's hips bucked beneath you and a string of curses came out of his mouth. He grabbed your hair and began thrusting his cock into your throat. You could feel him begin to throb and his face contorted in pleasure. 

You gagged at the fierce intrusion and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. “I-I’m cumming.” He spoke in mumbled words and slammed his cock into the back of your throat. You tried to quickly swallow, trying not to choke. "Easy," You whispered. "I'm a little drunk." 

He chuckled darkly then pulled you off of his cock. Aegon sat up and forcefully shoved you onto the bed making you gasp. He began tearing off the clothes that covered your curves. His hands were greedy and it made you moan as he groped your tits. He threw your bra aside and moved to suckle on one of your nipples. You held his head in place, moaning as he sucked. You never thought your tits could be so sensitive, but Aegon proved you wrong.

"Fuck!" You cried out, as he pinched the nipple between his teeth. He released it and trailed his tongue down your stomach. You whimpered and spread your legs wider, allowing him easier access.

Aegon knelt down and pulled down your panties. You shimmied out of them and threw them aside. Aegon looked up and smiled at you before dropping to his knees. He started gently kissing your inner thighs before nibbling at your skin. He left a trail of marks down your thighs to your cunt. You shuddered as he ran his tongue up and down your slit, getting it nice and wet. You squealed when he placed his tongue on your clit and began licking and sucking.

“you’re so sweet.” He mumbled sending vibrations onto your cunt. He stuck two fingers inside of you and you let out a soft moan. He plunged his fingers in and out of your body, slowly building up speed. You gripped the sheets underneath you as he went rougher. Aegon curled his fingers so they hit your sweet spot perfectly. Your entire body rang out in pleasure. You didn’t realize how being drunk heightened every single one of your senses. "oh fuck...Aegon..." You panted. "I- I'm gonna cum."

He grinned and drew his fingers out of you. “Please… Y/N, come for me baby.” He parted your folds with his fingers and dipped his tongue back inside of you. You almost blacked out as pleasure shot through your whole body. You thrashed around and let out muffled cries as your climax took over all of your senses. You felt the wetness on your thighs as he lapped up your juices. You could feel him smiling while toying with your overstimulated clit. 

It was only after your orgasm subsided that you realized he hadn't entered you yet. A small kiss touched your face as you lay there panting heavily. "So good for me." he purred. "You're so beautiful, Y/N." You didn’t expect so much praise from a man like him, maybe you had been wrong about him. You reached up and pulled his face down onto yours in a heated kiss.

"I want you, Aegon." You said, once you broke apart. His lips curled into a smirk as he moved to rub his cock against your pussy. He was a very fucking good listener.

"Tell me what you want, Y/N." Aegon said, his voice deep with lust. You bit your lip, thinking about how to describe how you wanted him to fuck you. You looked up and found him smirking down at you. “I want you to fuck me.” You whispered breathlessly.

Aegon let out a rough laugh, pushed your legs up onto his shoulders and aimed his cock at your opening. He rubbed himself against you, getting used to the position again and slathering his cock with your wetness. "I love that you're so eager." He growled out, slowly slipping inside of you. Your head fell back and your grip on his shoulders tightened. His cock was thick and the perfect length to hit your spot. 

"Oh god, Aegon..." You moaned loudly. He thrust his hips forward and the tip of his cock slipped past your cervix. You gasped and grabbed onto the sheets below you, feeling him slowly inch inside of you. You tensed up and clenched around his shaft, squeezing it tightly.

"Aegon!" you shouted out, grabbing handfuls of the sheets as he continued to push more and more of his cock inside of you. You glanced up at him and saw his eyes closed tight as he concentrated on pushing deeper and deeper into you. "Fuck!" You cried out loud when he began violently thrusting inside of you.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, his voice strained. You shook your head no, unable to speak because of how full you felt. Aegon let out a grunt. "Good. I don't wanna hurt my pretty girl."

You whimpered as he pumped his hips faster and harder inside of you. He slammed his cock hard against your g-spot and each time he did it you cried out in pleasure. His thrusts started becoming sloppy and as he grunted. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he let go of your waist and grabbed your hips. You dug your nails into his strong shoulders and bit down on his shoulder.

"Fuck! Do you like this? Do you like having being fucked by me?!" Aegon groaned above you. You nodded frantically as he began hammering your cunt. His balls slapped against your thighs, and you arched your back, letting him pound away at your hole. 

"Fuck, Y/N!" He roared out as he rammed into you over and over again. His breaths became heavy and his movements slowed. He pulled out of you and before you could whimper at the loss of him he flipped you onto your stomach.

He pulled your hips up against him and fisted your hair. “You’re too pretty… Im cumming too fast.” He groaned out. He began slamming into you again and you screamed out in pleasure.

"P-please." You begged, grinding yourself against his cock. He raised his hand and slapped your ass cheek. It sent a tingling sensation throughout your cheek and surely left a mark.

"I'm going to make sure you remember this night." He groaned. Aegon pushed your hips down and laid himself on top of you. When he moved his cock it hit your spot perfectly causing you to cry out. Your cunt clenched around his shaft and he whimpered. He held onto your hip and buried his head in your neck.

His thrusts picked up speed and he was pounding into you harder than ever before. You gripped onto the sheets beneath you and called out his name. His pace quickened until he was slamming his cock into you over and over again. You tried to keep up but soon you were biting down on your lower lip as you came again.

"Oh god!" You cried out as another wave of pleasure washed over you. Your entire body tensed up and your toes curled. He slowed his pace and placed gentle kisses onto your neck. Aegon slowly slid out of you and turned you so you were facing him again. He slid himself inside you and your head felt faint at the intrusion. 

"My sweet Y/N." He purred into your ear. He pushed your legs further up onto his shoulders and began pumping into you again. He gripped your hips tightly and began pulling you into him. He was gentler this time and kept his mouth right above yours as he pumped himself inside of you.

His breathing grew heavier and his grunts louder. His thrusts became erratic and he pounded into you as if he couldn't get enough. You wrapped your hands around his neck and stared into his blue eyes as they glazed over with lust. “Good boy.” You didn’t know why you felt the need to say it but you did. He moaned out and his eyes squeezed shut.

“Cum for me baby.” you purred into his lips. He grunted and released a string of words that you couldn't understand. You giggled and kissed him deeply. He shoved his tongue into your mouth and you sucked on it eagerly.

He growled into your mouth and bucked his hips. His cock twitched inside of you and he let out a low grunt. He held on to your hips as he shot off inside of you. He moaned into your mouth and buried his face into your neck. His cock pulsated and spurted inside of you and you could feel the warm liquid coating your insides. Aegon pulled himself out so the last bit ended up on your clit. 

He collapsed onto your chest and his cock slipped free of you. His breath was heavy and he was panting heavily. He stared into your eyes as he breathed and you stroked his hair. You weren’t quite sure what to say after that.  After a few moments he lifted himself up and grabbed some tissues from the box beside your bed. 

Aegon gently wiped away any liquids he left on your body and gently kissed the areas he left marks. He was being so sweet, it surprised you. He climbed back into bed with you and snuggled close. You pulled the covers up to hide your nudity and cuddled up next to him.

"Will you stay with me?" He murmured into your ear. The idea he would be the type of person to ask that shocked you. You brushed his sweaty hair out of his face and placed a chaste kiss to his lips. “If you want me to.” You whispered.

He smiled at you and tugged the blanket up over you. "I'll hold you to that." He said and placed a tender kiss on your forehead. You cuddled close to him and drifted off to sleep. You were definitely going to regret this in the morning.

[wonderfuldeath]

Special Day - Seokjin

A smile stretched Seokjin's lips when he felt two muscular arms around him, pulling him to roll against a warm body. His lover’s tender lips brushed his small, twitching nose, and he finally opened his eyes. What better way to wake up than to see his partner snuggled up against him, his brown hair falling softly on his forehead, and Namjoon’s eyes seemingly refusing to fully open. A soft laugh escaped Jin’s lips, who leaned in to kiss him more thoroughly before propping himself up on his elbow. This made the bear-like figure groan as he tried to pull Jin back into bed.

“— No, five more minutes... — Yes, yes, and in five minutes, you’ll ask for thirty more. We have interviews to do, you know? — Alright... alright…”

A new kiss echoed in the tender silence of the room before Seokjin finally got out of bed, his naked body exposed without any shame. He grabbed clothes from their shared closet, under the now fully awake whistle of his partner, who seemed to have found the courage to leave his vegetative state.

“— Are you taking a shower? — Yes. But alone. Mr. Should-have-gotten-up-earlier-if-he-wanted-to-enjoy-it. — Don’t be cruel like that, we’re married, aren’t we? I’m still entitled to my breakfast! — I hope that by the time I’m done, you’ll have finally gotten out of bed.”

A wink from Jin later, and the bathroom door slammed behind him, making Namjoon sigh in despair at this injustice. He quickly recovered, getting dressed and heading to the kitchen, whistling a popular tune, looking for inspiration for his new album.

The coffee was brewed, breakfast was served. Nothing too fancy, of course, there wasn’t enough time for a full meal. So it would be vanilla waffles with cut fruits. After all, the best was yet to come. Namjoon carefully arranged the heart-shaped waffles, adding the fruits on top before placing two cups of coffee in front of the plates.

His lover came back, fresh and radiant, just as handsome as ever. Namjoon, however, had a particular fondness for seeing him naked. Jin’s long lashes fluttered gently, as though trying to seduce him — and it worked. Namjoon felt his face flush, falling in love all over again just by watching him breathe.

“— Ready for your schedule? What time do you finish? — Eight o’clock, I have my birthday live. — Alright, then I’ll finish at eight as well, and then we can relax together. — Oh, you’re selling me a dream. — I hope so.”

Seokjin let out a laugh before leaning in to kiss his husband. He devoured his breakfast in a few bites, and they went their separate ways, diving into their well-organized routines.

At exactly 7:50 PM, Namjoon left the HYBE building and headed straight to the car of the oldest member of the group. He regretted not having a driver’s license for moments like this, but it wasn’t a big deal. After nine years together, surprises came naturally.

Seokjin took him to the place where Namjoon had reserved their most beautiful table, offering a breathtaking view of Seoul. His lover’s eyes sparkled.

“— Do you like it? — Of course I like it! It’s gorgeous. — And you haven’t seen everything yet.”

Seokjin’s curiosity was piqued, but he stayed silent, eager to see what his lover had planned for him. The meal was magical, the dessert was exquisite, but the best part came when the lights in the room went out. Seokjin, surprised, watched as a birthday fireworks display lit up the sky right before his eyes, bringing tears to his eyes. It was powerful, magnificent, incredible.

Seokjin was speechless, watching the colorful display in the arms of the man of his life. He watched the grand finale explode in the sky, revealing a perfect message to end the evening:

“Happy birthday, to the most beautiful man in the world.”

[ashestoashesjc]

One morning late last winter, on a day as clear as spring water, a boy fell from the sky. 

Only, ‘fell’ doesn’t get to the heart of it, implies some manner of grace. In actuality, it was an ass-over-head plummet to solid terra firma, complete with a comet’s tail of terrified screams. 

One does not drop miles at Mach speed and do so demurely. Not without wings.

And so the boy was subject to months of intense, single-minded interest. He was talk of the town. He was on everyone’s lips. You couldn’t pick up a newspaper, couldn’t walk to a supermarket, couldn’t even open your window to let sunlight in, without hearing word of The Boy From Above. 

Where had he come from?

What did he portend? 

It was ironic then, that a word was the last thing the boy appeared to have any interest in sharing. Language experts the world over arrived to try their hands at breaking through whatever linguistic barrier separated the boy and the knowledge undoubtedly sealed in his beautiful cranium, and mankind. 

Italian, Afrikaans, Québécois, Korean, Latin, Esperanto, Morse. It was no use. He was mute, or daft, or hailed from a world without speech, or he’d landed headfirst and all the things he’d seen and heard had been concussed away. Whatever the case, he was Pandora’s Box padlocked. 

Slowly, as it became obvious there’d be no guarded secrets of the universe forthcoming, now or perhaps ever, attention dwindled. 

Of course the public wouldn’t forfeit total excitement over a possibly celestial being in their backyard, but the reporters became less frequent, other less flashy news items on political scandals and sports rivalries made creeping returns to front pages. 

This was all as well for the boy, who’d long grown bored with the adoration, the poking and prodding, the wild, hungry eyes. 

He sat in an office, cross-legged on a chaise lounge upholstered in purple velvet, forearm-deep in a cardboard bucket of popcorn. He hadn’t finished chewing before he was shoveling another butter yellow handful into his mouth. 

Each time, after each bite, he’d drag his grease-covered hand across the elegant chair, flattening the plush with dark smears. 

And each time, Dr. Nussbaum winced. 

Not only for the prospective cleaning bill, but also for his wasted hours. Days. Weeks. Months. All to no end.  

The doctor’s walls were lined with plaques for his many grand achievements. Degrees with lofty, difficult-to-pronounce titles, commendations from pleased heads of state, leaders of industry, leaders of religion. He had much to be proud of. 

Though as he stared at the boy who should’ve been his magnum opus, the thing that would have solidified his place among the academic greats, who sat now licking the salt and oil from his fingertips, ‘pride’ did not figure in. 

Only one thing laid on his mind. 

Then the boy was holding the bucket out to the doctor. A silent gesture. More. 

The doctor shook his head. “No. No more. You’ve eaten it all.” 

That was a mistake, he’d known immediately. The boy’s eyes went wide and watery. Then the lip quivering. Nussbaum wanted to look away, urged himself to, and found himself utterly, physically unable. 

Once the boy’s mouth began to ratchet open, the doctor crumbled entirely. Not that, please. 

“Fine,” he muttered quickly, grabbing the shiny, black office phone, pressing a button, grumbling directions, and slamming back the receiver. 

A satisfied smile plastered the boy’s face, the lower half slick with gluttony. 

The doctor felt himself die a little.  

[scrapesaladofficial]

Ten big moments of the 2024 Olympics

End of the road: Cuba's Mijain Lopez removes his shoes as a signal that he is retiring from wrestling (Punit PARANJPE) From a colorful, sometimes controversial opening ceremony to boxers caught up in a gender row to respectful bows on the gymnastics podium, the 2024 Olympics served up many memorable moments. AFP Sport looks at 10 of the best: Rain on opening ceremony parade -- Organizers promised a spectacular opening ceremony and the rain-soaked boat parade on the River Seine ended up making global headlines, but not for the expected reasons. Church leaders, conservatives and even US presidential candidate Donald Trump were left outraged by a scene involving drag queens and lesbian DJ Barbara Butch that appeared to parody Jesus's Last Supper. Artistic director Thomas Jolly denied any such intention. He and others involved ended up facing vicious online harassment that led to police complaints. Djokovic's roar of approval -- Novak Djokovic stunned Carlos Alcaraz in a memorable men's final to clinch tennis gold and become only the fifth player to complete the Golden Slam of all four majors plus Olympic gold. The 37-year-old celebrated with a roar which echoed around Roland Garros before the tearful Serb clambered into the player's box to embrace his wife Jelena and two children. "There is no greater inspiration than representing your country," said the 24-time Grand Slam title winner. Alcaraz was also in tears, claiming he "had let Spain down". Biles bows to 'queen' Andrade -- Simone Biles may have been the star of the show but she was widely praised for bowing to her arch-rival Rebeca Andrade on the podium. Biles said it was "just the right thing to do" after she and team-mate Jordan Chiles finished in silver and bronze medal position respectively behind the Brazilian in the floor final. "Rebeca's so amazing, she's queen," said Biles. Romanian Ana Barbosu was later awarded the bronze medal after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Chiles should not have been upgraded from her initial fifth-place finish. Lyles just in time -- World champion Noah Lyles roared to victory in 9.79sec to claim gold in a dramatic men's Olympic 100m final in the closest finish in modern history -- just five thousandths of a second separated him from Jamaica's Kishane Thompson. "I'm the man amongst all of them. I'm the wolf amongst wolves," said Lyles whose victory was only confirmed after a photo-finish. Not cricket as Pakistan top India at javelin -- Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem won the men's javelin title, his country's first individual gold at an Olympics, with a Games record of 92.97m. In second place was India's defending champion Neeraj Chopra. "Rivalry is there when it comes to cricket matches, other sports, the two countries have a rivalry, but it's a good thing for the young people in both countries to watch our sport and follow us. It's a positive thing for both countries," said Nadeem. North-South Korea podium selfie goes viral -- Images of Olympic table tennis players from North Korea and South Korea taking a selfie together on the medal podium went viral in South Korea, hailed as a rare show of cross-border unity. After South Korea won bronze and North Korea silver in the mixed doubles behind China, South Korea's Lim Jong-hoon took a group photo after the medal ceremony. North Korea's Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, the South's Shin Yu-bin and the victorious Chinese team Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha all beamed into Lim's phone, a South Korean-made Samsung. "A selfie with both Koreas' national flags and a Samsung phone," said the widely read daily JongAng Ilbo. Dreams come Trew -- Australian skateboarding sensation Arisa Trew, just 14, won the women's park event to become her country's youngest ever gold medallist. Trew nailed a high-risk and high-speed final round in her trademark pink helmet, bringing the crowd to their feet at a sun-drenched Place de la Concorde. The event also featured 11-year-old Zheng Haohao, the youngest athlete ever to represent China at the Olympics. "Skateboarding in the Olympic Games isn't much different from skateboarding in my neighbourhood. It's just more spectators," she told reporters. Gender-row boxer beats 'bullying' -- On a raucous night at Roland Garros, the storied home of the French Open, Algerian gender-row boxer Imane Khelif claimed gold and used her platform to hit back at "attacks" and "bullying" before defiantly declaring "I am a woman like any other." Together with Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, who also fought in Paris, Khelif was disqualified from last year's world championships after they failed gender eligibility tests. However they were cleared to compete in Paris, setting the stage for one of the biggest controversies of the Games. "I am fully qualified to take part, I am a woman like any other. I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman," said the 25-year-old. High five for Cuban wrestler -- Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez made Olympic history when he became the first athlete to win five consecutive individual golds in the same event, bettering the records of Games icons such as Carl Lewis and Michael Phelps. The soon-to-be 42-year-old then placed his shoes in the centre of the mat to signify his intention to retire. "Wrestling has been the love of my life, for all of my life," he said. Cool hand Yusuf -- Turkish Olympic shooting silver medallist Yusuf Dikec became an overnight sensation for his casual style during competition. His eye-catching posture saw the marksman wearing standard glasses, a team T-shirt and with his left hand casually tucked in his pocket. Other than his pistol, he notably had none of the specialised equipment used by athletes in the hyper-precise event, like headphones, special lenses or a hat. "The name's Dikec. Yusuf Dikec," said a social media post in reference to cinema icon James Bond. Read the full article

[theuniversitychallengereview]

Oxbridge Avalanche

I was going to write this intro about CJ doing the Jackal, a famous scene from the West Wing.

But I have seen a load of tweets about the fact that Oxford and Cambridge are allowed to enter multiple colleges on Uni Challenge, so I've changed my mind.

Multi College Entries

To replace The Jackal, I am going to recycle a post I wrote on the subject in 2016.

I am doing this because:

We are in the midst of a climate crisis and any kind of reuse helps out. Think of the energy it would take to generate an entirely new post.

It slaps, and says pretty much everything I would say now, but if anyone complains about it I can say that they were the words of a snot-nosed 20 year old who didn't know what they were doing. Giving me some sort of diplomatic immunity.

Anyway, this originally formed part of the intro for a post about the first round match between Wadham, Oxford and Robinson, Cambridge in 2016.

Let me know in the comments if you disagree (or agree) with any of it.

Sign up for The University Challenge Review

Intro to Wadham vs Robinson

August 2016

I consider myself to have a reasonable grasp of how to use Google in the mission of finding answers to tricky questions, but I have thus far failed to find a satisfactory reason as to why Oxford and Cambridge Universities were ever allowed to enter multiple teams in the first place. Durham also has a collegiate system, for example, but they get just the one team, which flatly debunks the only logical point ever put forward. The reason generally given is that each of the colleges are distinct entities, because tutorials for each college are held separately from the rest.

But that, frankly, is a nonsense non-explanation. Lectures for each course are attended by students from all of the colleges. This is the same as for all Universities and all courses at all other Universities are then split down into tutorial groups too. The only difference is that outside Oxbridge you don’t live with your tutorial groups or under any kind of collegiate label. Another reason given, I think entirely seriously, was that each college has its own individual library…

The Manchester team of 1975 famously protested the bias by answering every question with either ‘Trotsky’, ‘Lenin’ or ‘Marx’, which, while in its own precious way was quite noble, surely must have been a most dreary half hour of viewing. This achieved nothing, as evidenced by the eleven Oxbridge entities competing in this years series. Perhaps a better protest would have been to, like their recent counterparts, win the series. I think the main reason that this is still the situation nowadays is the classic ‘its-always-been-this-way-so-why-would-you-change-it’ argument, rather than anything that actually makes logical sense.

So why, in this enlightened era when even the most corrupt of organisations in FIFA have been persuaded to initiate goal line technology has nothing been done to change this? 

The explanation most commonly given is that were the two Universities to field a singular team they would both produce invincible monsters, and sweep aside all comers in what would surely become the most boringly predictable of spectacles. Splitting them into colleges makes the competition fairer to the other, less prestigious institutions, who would undoubtedly stand no chance against either Oxbridge ‘Superteam’.

This argument though, falls short on all counts. Oxbridge Universities may have won 54.5% of the 22 series since Jeremy Paxman became presenter, but when you consider that they have comprised 39.3% of all competitors that statistic doesn’t seem so impressive. If you let Novak Djokovic enter both himself and forty nine clones into Grand Slams (39.3% of 128) then he would have won more than the twelve he already has, and that would then have prevented less high-profile players (or Universities) from taking part. Manchester University, meanwhile, have won 18.2% of these series with only 2.5% of the entrants, though that comparison is probably a tad facetious.

As stated at the start of this post, this series features three Oxbridge matches in the first round alone, which guarantees them three teams in the second round (including one Cambridge team specifically, given the Cam-Cam match in week four) and eight chances in total for a team to make that stage. All other entrants only have one chance, so part of their success has to be attributed to the advantage they both already have before a question has even been asked.

2024 Retrospective

Reading this back, I can quickly pick holes in the Djokovic analogy. If it were to be a fair comparison then the 49 Djokovices (Djokovici?) would need to be lesser than the one true Djokovic, making it unikely they would outperform the expected number of grand slams.

But in general, I think it mostly stands up. There aren't really any good reasons as to why there are multiple Oxbridge teams other than 'that's the way its always been done'.

And the 'Superteam' argument can be more readily disputed nowadays, given that non-Oxbridge universities have won each of the last six series, with no Oxbridge teams making the final in the past three years.

Other unis have developed stronger quiz scenes, taking away some of the Oxbridge advantage.

Maybe they are in need of a superteam in order to compete with the new wave of quizzing behemoths.

Pre-Match Analysis

Anyway - let's get on with this episode, which was between Exeter and Christ's.

Exeter made the quarter-finals in 1997, but haven't been on since 2009, which is the only year in which both Exeter and Exeter, Oxford appeared on the show.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Christ's, Bethlehem gets us off to a good start with Clara Schumann. I had my most viral tweet of all time yesterday, pointing out how fantastic a combination of college and contestant this is.

Christ's, Bethlehem.

I wonder if he chose the college because of the potential for amusing situations like this.

When I was at uni, I picked my halls based on the fact I shared a name with one of them, and that brought plenty of mild hilarity, so I can only imagine the sheer ecstatic joy brought on by anyone at Cambridge discovering that Bethlehem goes to Christ's.

Folks, we may just have the best ever contestant/team name combination tonight #UniversityChallenge Christ's, Bethlehem CHRIST'S, BETHLEHEM pic.twitter.com/R4ISoTSYRG— Starter for 10 (@TheUCReview) October 14, 2024

Doing numbers

They take a hat-trick on pairs of kings (three (times two) wise men), with Bethlehem displaying some impeccable recall.

Do Not Despard

His captain Despard, who looks like he's time travelled from the 80s, takes the next starter with cilia, but they struggle with a bonus set on German cinema.

Another for Despard puts Christ's 55-points clear, before Gray takes a picture starter to get Exeter off the mark. They are denied a bonus because they use a verb in the present tense rather than the perfect, which seems needlessly persnickety. I get that the meaning is subtly different, but come on.

Bethlehem loses 5-points with an incorrect buzz, but makes up for it immediately with Doctor of the Church on the following starter.

Vemuri hits back for Exeter with interpreter, but they can't build any momentum and Despard takes another with the Pritzker prize. A fourth for the Christ's captain puts them 60-points to the good, before Gray - the multimedia star of the episode - takes the music starter to keep Exeter in it.

O Little Town

The Klein bottle gives him a third starter, but Bethlehem once again stops Exeter in their tracks with Croatia.

The fantastically named (indeed, in an episode which didn't feature Christ's, Bethlehem he may have got more screentime in this blog) Schuyler Colfax brings Exeter to within 20-points, but the last five or so minutes of this game belong to Bethlehem, and he notches up another four starters to end the game with seven.

Exeter 110 - 205 Christ's

Christ's join Wadham and Oriel, Oxford and Darwin, Cambridge in the second round. They can be joined at most by one more Oxbridge college - St Edmund Hall, Oxford, who face SOAS in the final first round match up.

Could this be the year the Oxbridge drought is ended?

Join me next week as St Andrews take on Cardiff.

In the meantime I'll be thinking of Bethlehem references for Christ's second round appearance.

[ofgravitation-moved]

hewwo, it's me, here with the bad day bat ready to beat away the bad day. i have SO much fun writing with you! i love talking about our ships, or just our shared fandoms in general, and i look forward to getting to know you better and seeing what we can come up with for our kids! (like, idk how putting together two separate anime cats created a ship so dear to me... but it really is.) and man, if anything, i think you do your muses better than canon. you flesh ochako and emi out in the way they desperately deserve, you allow characters like gajeel to have a process of growth rather than just end up at the finish line, and tbh, your love for these characters is SO prevalent and that to me is always so, so captivating.

portrayal meme. / shhh i'm lazy and not making these pretty.

first off-- the bad day bat. how much, and where is that meme of fry from futurama?? like the 'take my money now' one cause !!!!!!!!!! i cannot even begin to tell you how much fun writing is with you, makenzi!!!!!!!!!!! for years we've been mutuals, and for years we've explored so many different things with muses we've thrived with or just occasionally vibed. I LOVE THAT YOU ALWAYS ARE THERE TO JUST-- LET MY MUSES EXIST!? LIKE?!?!? i ship it-- and boom, suddenly, you have the other half! we have so many similar tastes, made up a ship from ANIME cats and have a stupid love for historical fantasy that no one else on this hellsite will ever get and god.. my dash just would not be the same without you on it. thank you for swinging the bad day bat, ily so much. and needed a grand slam like this today. oh look, baseball humor. aksjdhfb <3

[luminescenc1e]

The evening unfolded with the polished inevitability of a well-rehearsed play. Declan, ever the ringmaster, made his rounds with rousing words and a hearty pat on the back for anyone who seemed in need of bolstering. And the need was vast—faces eager for promises, assurances, anything that might transform their dreams into certainties. But unless one dealt in grand delusions, there wasn’t much to offer beyond a vague nod and the empty comfort of optimism. Still, the troops rallied, each doing what needed to be done—or what they imagined needed doing.

Freddie, their tech wizard, held court in his usual indecipherable manner, spouting jargon that flew over most heads. More than once, someone had to nudge him to translate his brilliance into something comprehensible. Rupert, meanwhile, played the part of the engaged listener, though his mind wandered far from the room. His thumb absently brushed his lower lip, a subconscious attempt to recapture the fleeting sensation of her fingers grazing it. His gaze flicked to the wall separating them, as if sheer willpower could make it transparent. It took more than one pointed cough to pull him back into the conversation.

As the night thinned and people drifted home, he found himself straightening as she approached. His eyes traced her face with an intensity as though it had been months since he’d last seen her, not hours. He realized he’d been silent too long and quickly managed, “Yes, of course. Whatever you need.” A small smile passed between them, fleeting yet electric. Then, with a reluctant goodbye, he left, sliding into his car with a final glance her way.

The next morning brought an unexpected reprieve from office obligations. For once, the sharp lines of a suit were replaced with something more casual. But any illusion of nonchalance was betrayed by the fact that, before he knew it, he was standing outside the O’Hara estate, hands shoved into his pockets. The car door slammed shut behind him, and he hesitated, debating whether to ring the doorbell or not. Ultimately, he decided against it, leaning back against the car with a carefully constructed air of ease.

When the front door finally opened and Taggie appeared, he felt a jolt—a ridiculous mixture of nerves and anticipation. The sudden awareness of his own outfit, wondering if she’d approve, nearly made him laugh at himself. Nervous? Excited? It was a rare and oddly exhilarating feeling, one that reminded him of his youth—when everything seemed uncertain and every moment brimming with possibility.

“So angel,” he asked, managing a casual grin despite the flutter in his chest. “Where to first?”

her heart pounded wildly in her ears as he leaned down. indecision pulled a violent tug-of-war with her heart for a moment that lasted forever and an instant. she should have looked away, but his gaze held her captive, freezing her to the spot. taggie could only watch, mesmerized , as he lifted her hand — skin tingling, aflame where he touched her, — to his lips, gulping down loudly as he swallowed the hors-d’oeuvre in one bite.

as he pulls away, low murmured praise warming her to her very toes, her cheeks flush a deep crimson. reluctantly, she breaks his gaze, though not before her eyes, traitorous and unbidden, drift down to his lips. the memory of their warmth against her fingertips, the softness of his lower lip, surges forward, overwhelming her senses.

so lost in the haze of him, she doesn't hear someone calling his name. it is only at the flicker of his expression, the sudden distance between them which left her cold and hungry, that she realized it was over. another stolen moment, done, and he is off, back to the real world.

taggie lingers in the kitchen as long as possible. waiting for her heart to return to its pre-rumpbell black beat, not the wild hummingbird flutter that he left her with. it thunders inside her ribcage, keeping her flushed and distracted as she put the finishing touches to the food. she serves without properly tasting; she tried, really tried did to focus, but her mind kept wandering back to rupert, leaving her feeling like she was chewing on cardboard.

her mind rushes for a reason to approach him. something better than 'may i interest you in some pudding', the memory of that rejection almost scaring her back into the safety of her kitchen. and just as she is about to give up as the guests begin to trickle out, the sight of freddie writing an idea down on a napkin triggers an idea.

in truth, taggie can wait. her brother promised to stop by wednesday and he never minded lending a hand so long as she took care of his washing. and by now, any pretense of sensible work hours had dissolved into the evening, as the murmurs and laughter of those around her proved.

being able to wait, and willing to, however, are very different animals.

❛⠀ you offered me a favour earlier, ❜ she says, stopping at his side when he is left alone for a minute. ❛⠀ mind if i cash in a different one? ❜ needing help usually churns taggie’s stomach, the words twisting bitter and unwelcome in her mouth. this time, there is no such hesitation; a flicker of anticipation stirs in her stomach — she can ask him, without fear, without judgement.

it happened gradually; there was no single, resounding moment that marked her decision to trust rupert. instead, it was a quiet accumulation of maybes, little acts that softly bloomed into certainty, a steady, unspoken understanding that she could lean on him. the truth, though, as to why she gazed up at him now, pink lips parted with anticipation, was simpler than she’d admit, even to herself: she just wanted to be around him. it was a foreign desire, this selfish notion of doing something purely for the pleasure it would bring her, his influence seeping into her, awakening this ache to have something — someone — that was hers.

❛⠀ can you meet me here tomorrow? ❜

[my-moo-moo]

more to grow (chapter 2/4)

When her due date had gone and passed without progression, she started to get a little worried. It wasn’t that she was impatient to get them out. She loved every inch of her belly even despite the aching pain of her spine and ankles. She was dreading losing this voluminous body of hers for sure. She was, however, afraid that she might really be pushing out two 11 pound babies out of her vagina if she was going to grow them any longer. She didn’t want a c-section because she was deathly afraid of going under knives. Both her boyfriend and her doctor were on the same page about that note. 

That was why she cornered her boyfriend the night before she turned 42 weeks pregnant. “Fuck me like you mean it,” she threatened, crossing her hands over her chest.  

“Baby… haven’t I been doing that all this time?”

“It clearly wasn’t good enough,” she huffed, waving over the ever present mass hidden poorly under her silk robes. The floral fabric curtained both sides of her protruding bump like it was the grand present on a Christmas morning. “You’ll fuck me into I go into labour. No exceptions.”

“You’ll regret saying that,” he growled, ripping her robes off her shoulders. The silk fell to the floor, revealing the brand set of red lace lingerie she bought for her new double D breasts. It had taken one week to arrive and by the time tried it on today her breasts were already spilling over the cups. He practically drooled at the sight, exactly like she had planned. 

He swept her off her feet into his arms with ease like she hadn’t gained 90 pounds. He carried her to their bedroom and plopped her down on their mattress, pushing her face down so her ass perked up into the air. 

His large calloused palm spanked the flesh poking out from the criss crossing harnesses of her garter. It jiggled like a soufflé pancake and she almost teared out for pure pride. She grew that all by herself. People paid big money for BBLs to get a butt like hers, but her’s is all natural. He moved her thong to the side and plunged his large member down to the hilt without warning. 

Her back arched in response to the shock. “Yes, that’s it.”

Balls slapped against her juicy ass and heavy belly against her thighs. Her babies were squirming and jostling inside at the disruption to their home. She felt a sharp kick to her diaphragm causing her to gasp out loud. She couldn’t complain, because that meant they were head down. She hoped they were getting into position to get out. 

Her boyfriend continued to slam his large dick deeper and deeper into her vagina at a relentless pace. Pain mixed with pleasure and her mind floated away to the heavens. Her entire lower half felt like it was on fire. She couldn’t even tell where the sharp pain originated from until she realized her pussy was pulsing against nothingness. She whined at the loss of contact. She was so close to reaching her peak. 

Axel had pulled out and said, “Mina darling. I think your water broke.”

She lifted her woozy head around to see a darkened spot in the sheets. They finally did it. 

.

He was already messaging her doctor. And within seconds he was carrying her to the car. “Doctor Jones said we need to get to the hospital immediately. There can be many complications with twin deliveries.”

Now that she wasn’t high from pleasure, she could feel the contractions’ real strength coursing through her abdomen. Her contractions were only minutes apart. Without checking down there, she had a feeling she was dialating very quickly. By the time they got to the hospital, she felt one of her babies’ heads heavy right against her cervix as she waddled to the front desk.

With how ripe she looked, she was able to bypass the waiting room. The moment the nurses saw her, they wheeled her into an examination room, separating her from her poor confused boyfriend. That wasn’t the biggest concern on her mind though. All she wanted was to get her babies out, but there seemed to be a delay in getting her to her delivery suite. The medical professionals around her kept talking and talking. All the while, her belly kept twisting and squeezing with increasing force. They told her not to push yet, and she obeyed despite the terribly instinctual urge to do so. However, she couldn’t help that the baby itself was pushing at her cervix against her will. 

Finally, her primary physician, Doctor Jones entered her room and she was wheeled to another room that she recognized for ultrasounds. “We need to have a quick ultrasound to check the positioning of your babies before we proceed,” she explained.

Mina grinded her teeth and nodded. She wasn’t one to object against authority figures who probably knew better. Time dragged on as she swiped the ultrasound wand across and back around her belly. It felt like she was taking her dandy time while she was wincing at each increasingly intense wave of contractions. She understood that the surface area was quite large, but it shouldn’t be taking that long! Her baby wasn’t going to wait for anyone.

Doctor Jones looked solemn yet perplexed watching the screen. She pursed her lips before announcing, “Hold on. I need to consult my colleagues on a matter. 

“No!” she screamed. “Don’t leave me. The baby— I feel them— they’re coming!”

“Do not push, Mina,” the doctor commanded. She turned to the nurses and said, “Hold her legs shut.”

She groaned loudly as the nurses forced her legs closed, completely against what Mother Nature was telling her to do. The large baby head now felt even more cramped up against her constricted walls. The only thing she could do was grip the bed railings tight and watch her belly physically constrict into a tight cone shape and relax rhythmically. Her moans dragged out with each pain-wracking contraction. 

.

Mina doesn’t know how long it has been, but every second dragged forever. Her bound legs were not completely stopping the baby from descending. The baby is so low now. It felt like her hips were being torn apart. Every fibre of her body was telling her to push and it was getting harder to ignore it. Release from the pressure would feel so good. Finally cracking from the insurmountable pain, she flailed her arms about trying to push the nurses away. “Ennngh. I need— I need to. So much pain.”

At this moment, Doctor Jones strided back over her bedside to pin her back down to the bed. “I said stop!” Mina’s arms scrambled against her, but she was too weak to fight back.  

“Nurses, hold the patient down,” she ordered and two nurses moved their hands to hold her down by the shoulders against the bed. 

The doctor spread her legs apart and the baby’s head practically slipped down her canal. Mina audibly moans, feeling the sweet relief of pressure at last. Without even pushing, her baby’s head was already halfway out her puffy lips. Their eyes were peeking back at the doctor. “Congratulations Ms. Park. Your baby is beautiful. They’re big, strong, and healthy… but you won’t be meeting them today.”

“What??” she asked aghast. Her answer came when she felt the head being forced back into her vagina. Doctor Jones had her palm on her baby’s head and was pushing them back into her. “What the hell are you doing?” she shrieked wildly. 

“Ms. Park. Please trust me as a trained doctor. This is the only option.” Mina screamed like she never had before. If crowning was painful, the feeling of her baby’s large head squeezing back through her narrow birth canal was many times worse. “If you relax a little, this process would be less painful,” the doctor tsked. 

Another wave of contractions swept through, her womb squeezing to push the baby out the direction it was meant to. Doctor Jones furrowed her brows and put more pressure on her end. Mina felt her baby thrashing wildly within her, caught between this tug of war. Pressure, she felt pressure from so many angles. She screamed bloody murder as her entire lower half of her body was on fire. 

With her limbs restrained, she could only lay in horror as the doctor’s fist slowly disappeared into her vagina. Doctor Jones leans her entire body weight into it and finally, the head popped back into her womb. Her thoroughly abused cervix continued to throb in the wake of events. 

Her belly felt full and taut again. Yet the doctor continued pushing until the baby was deep in the far back of her uterus. The baby gave a strong protesting kick to her diaphragm that knocked the breath out of her. She then stuck both of her hands in there to perfect the positioning before pulling away. 

Mina was at a loss of words after all the screaming. Screaming would not even come close to conveying the agony she went through. She could only lay panting and feel the aftermath of every single violation that was done to her— no pain medication at all. The doctor washed her hands that were sticky with all the membranes and fluid that expelled from her. Another nurse entered the room with a cart of supplies and IV drips. 

“We have to make sure you don’t go into premature labour again.” 

Premature? Mina would’ve scoffed if she had the energy. Her babies were two weeks overdue and were likely at least 10 pounds each. 

The nurses worked together to attach her with a multitude of tubes while the doctor returned her attention to her swollen lips down south. She couldn’t see what was happening past the mountain of belly obscuring her sight. All she felt was piercing stabs deep in her canal before she passed out from the craziness that happened to her that night. 

[theteasetwrites]

Connor MacManus: Troublemaker/Matchmaker Extraordinaire

❧ Pairing: Murphy MacManus x Reader ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: swearing ❧ Word Count: 4.7k

❧ Requested by @ohlawdthebirds (sorry it took a little while, I had quite a few requests piling up!)

❧ Summary: You and Murphy hate each other. A lot. Working with him at the meatpacking plant is bad enough, but when Connor traps you both in the freezer, you realize that Murphy drives you crazy, in more ways than one.

❧ A/N: Have y'all ever been in an industrial commercial freezer before? I have, and let me tell ya, it's COLD. This was fun to write, and a very cute idea. Hope I did it justice!

You never wanted that job at a meatpacking company in South Boston, but life had other plans for you.

You were supposed to do something grand with your life, something for your parents to brag about, but instead, you ended up here—vacuum sealing raw meat in plastic wrap.

Maybe that was why you had such a bad attitude about the place, having to go there everyday to do something you really didn’t want to do.

Or maybe it was the MacManus brothers.

Oh, how you loathed them, the mischievous little brats, always causing problems. Well, no one else really saw them as problems, more like “jokes” or “pranks,” but you weren’t amused. As much as you hated the job, at least you were taking it seriously.

“That’s not funny,” you said sternly, glaring down at the young men as they removed their “meat masks,” a trick which both infuriated you, because the meat was now rendered unusable, and disgusted you, because they were putting raw meat on their faces to get a rise out of you. “You’re going to get sick, and now we can’t sell that meat.”

The men lowered their masks of red marbly flesh as their boyish laughter died down. “Ah, loosen up, lass,” said Connor, the twin you could tolerate slightly more. “We’re just havin’ a laugh, actin’ the maggot with ya a bit.”

Murphy, the bane of your existence, patted his brother on the shoulder, his mischievous smile quickly fading into an annoyed grimace. “Forget it, Connor. She’s no fun, not worth the trouble. Not our fault she’s got a stick up ‘er ass.”

You’d know, Connor thought. Catch ya lookin’ at her ass enough.

You slammed down the slab of meat you had been packaging, causing a loud thud to echo throughout the already clamorous factory.

“How dare you!” you barked, approaching the twins with your eyes locked on Murphy, narrowed and accusatory. “I work my ass off here every single day, and what do you two clowns do? You slap each other with meat all day, and walk around thinking you own the damn place. Well I’m tired of it!”

At this point, several of the other nearby workers were craning their necks to see what the commotion was all about. Anytime there was some kind of drama, everyone was eager to forget about meat for a few minutes.

“H-hey,” said Connor, “just calm down. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

Murphy scoffed, and inched closer to you. “Hell yeah I did! Maybe if you weren’t such an uptight bitch we wouldn’t have to try to get a rise out of ya!”

Your nostrils flared and your lips formed a stern straight line as you pushed him away from you. “You dick!” you yelled. “I’m not uptight, you’re just unprofessional!”

“Unprofessional?” Murphy said with a sarcastic laugh, his face getting closer to yours again, and red with anger. Connor tried to separate him from you, but he kept pushing him away, all the while fixing his narrowed glare on you. “And who the hell do you think you are?”

“Who do you think you are?” you asked, prodding him in his chest. “Other than a low-life, good-for-nothing, cocky little shithead?!”

The two of you burst into a variety of short sentences, rife with curse words and overlapping each other in a loud, unintelligible garble until Connor separated the two of you. “Hey! Hey!” he yelled. “Shut the fuck up and get back to work!”

He couldn’t believe he was the professional one now, but soon you went your separate ways for the rest of the day, and a seed was planted in Connor’s scheming brain.

You and Murphy were always fighting like that, only recently it had become more volatile, almost passionate. He’d never seen it get as physical before as it did the day before, and he wondered why Murphy was so enraged by you. Plenty of other workers at the factory didn’t enjoy the MacManus shenanigans, and made the brothers aware of it as you had done, but for some reason, it got to Murphy that you weren’t impressed.

Of course, Connor had a hunch.

It wasn’t just the way he had this need to impress you, but the fact that he was always getting distracted by you when you walked into the room, often losing track of whatever he was doing and just wandering off to space when he laid eyes on you. If he wasn’t so hostile towards you, he would’ve immediately thought Murphy had a crush, but the way he looked at you and his attitude towards you were two entirely different things.

Only recently had it come to his attention that Murphy was so enraged by you because he didn’t know how else to process his feelings, and you were hard to impress, which just added to the frustration.

He could be a good brother and talk to Murphy, ask him about his feelings and try to give him advice on how to handle the situation, but Connor wasn’t a good brother. He was a bad influence, and a mischievous man with too much intelligence and wit for his own good.

So, he came up with a little scheme to get Murphy to talk to you, knowing he would never agree to even be in the same room as you, voluntarily, at least.

The plan would go into motion when he spoke to you that next day.

“Hey, (Y/N),” he said, to which you heaved a heavy sigh as you cut up the meat coming to you on the conveyor belt, preparing it for packing.

“What do you want?” you asked, still looking down at your work. “I’m busy.”

Though you were always impatient with Connor, he noticed that you were much nicer to him than Murphy. Had Murphy gone up to talk to you, as he had done initially when they started working there (usually to tell you some kind of joke or pull some kind of prank which you didn’t find funny), you would’ve just ignored him or told him off.

“Well, I was wondering if you could help me with something,” he said. “There’s this big box of T-bones that are ready to ship, and I’m trying to get ‘em out of the freezer but they’re way too heavy. Just wondering if you might be able to help me?”

You rolled your eyes. “Why don’t you have your idiot brother help you? He’s probably stronger than me anyway.”

Hm, Connor thought, that almost sounded like a compliment for dear old Murph.

“Murph’s on his break,” he lied. Murphy was waiting outside the freezer, for Connor, who said he needed to use the bathroom before helping him with the box. He had the whole thing planned, and neither of you were the wiser. “And everyone else is busy.”

“Well, I’m busy, too,” you said sternly.

“Hey, I got it, (Y/N),” another man, Bert, said as he came up behind you and scooted you out of the way. That wasn’t part of Connor’s plan, but it certainly helped. “You go help him.”

Bert swiftly replaced you on the line, and you were left awkwardly staring at Connor, who practically gave you puppy dog eyes. “Okay, I guess I’ll help,” you huffed. “Which freezer?”

“Number three,” he replied as the two of you began to walk towards the freezers. “Thanks, son of a bitch is real heavy.”

“Yeah,” you said, not wanting to talk to him more than you needed to.

You stumbled back a little when you saw Murphy leaning against the door of the silver industrial walk-in freezer. He had his head down so he hadn’t seen you yet, but your voice soon alerted him to your presence.

“What is he doing here?” you asked Connor angrily. “You said he was on his break.”

“What the hell is this, Connor?” asked Murphy. “Why you bringin’ her over here?”

Connor pretended to have a surprised face. “You know what,” he said, “I just remembered—O’Reilly said he wanted to see me in his office. Something about a schedule change. Gotta go, you should help him, though,” he said to you as he began walking in the opposite direction, rather quickly so you couldn’t stop him.

“Connor!” you yelled, your arms crossed and your back towards Murphy. Slowly, you turned around to face him with a scowl. “Is there even really a box in there?” you asked, trying not to look him in the eye for too long, lest you recall the one occasion you allowed yourself to get lost in his blue, blue eyes.

He scratched his cheek and looked at your shoes, also trying not to look at you. He could only look at you when he was in a rage, otherwise he’d start staring at you longingly. “Yeah,” he said. “Top priority, too. Truck’s comin’ soon to pick it up, needs moved to the fridge.”

You nodded. “Well,” you huffed, “let’s get to it.”

Little did you know, Connor was just around the corner, hiding behind another freezer and watching the whole scene play out, hoping you’d both retreat into freezer number three.

The thing about this meat packing plant was that it was nearly a hundred years old, and the freezers were the last thing to be replaced. In other words, they hadn’t been updated yet, meaning they were, for lack of a better word, old as shit.

They didn’t have the new standard doors, the ones that couldn’t be locked from the outside. They had locks, and Connor was going to use that to his advantage.

Could he have locked you both in a normal, not freezing cold room? Yes, but he liked the idea of the freezer, small and cold. Of course, he had already lowered the temperature until it was cold, but not deathly cold, and was fully prepared to blame the incident on a freak accident rather than an attempt at matchmaking, so he didn’t think there would be any real harm in it.

What’s more, he would listen in on what was happening in the freezer, so he could open the door whenever he’d hear anything close to at least making up. If the two of you thought you were going to freeze to death, even though in reality the temperature wasn’t that cold, he figured it would bring out some kind of desire to make amends, and, if he was lucky, maybe it could lead to something more.

The freezer door shut behind the two of you with a thud, and Connor moved quickly to secure the bar that locked the freezer from the outside. Such a dumb thing to put on a freezer, but then again, it worked for his purposes. He double-checked the temperature gauge: thirty degrees fahrenheit, much better than the typical zero.

“I hate it in here,” you said, folding your arms over your chest and watching a cloud of air form as you spoke. “Let’s hurry.”

Murphy scoffed, and looked down at the large cardboard box on the bottom of the freezer shelf. “Fine by me,” he said. “Don’t wanna be stuck in here with ya longer than I have to.”

He nodded to you, and you bent down next to him to grab the box. “All right,” you said. “Three, two, one.”

You both lifted the box, trying to put all your weight on your knees rather than your back, as the food handler safety manual always insisted. Murphy had his back facing the door, and pushed his back against it in an attempt to push it open, but he was only met with cold hard steel.

He turned his head to look at the door. “What the fuck?”

You looked over his shoulder at the frost-covered door. “What’s wrong?”

“Door won’t open,” he said, then grunted as he applied more pressure to his back. “Goddamnit!”

Your brows knit together in worry. “Y-you… can’t open it?”

Murphy turned his head back to look at you. “No, I just really like it in here. Of course it won’t open!”

You both dropped the box of meat, and you immediately started to panic. “What?! No way, let me try.”

You stepped over the box and met him, shoulder to shoulder, as you pushed against the door with your hands. You gritted your teeth, applying every ounce of strength you had in you to the door. “Shit!” you said as you pulled away. “It won’t budge.”

Murphy shook his head, now also weighed down with worry. “Shitty freezers,” he said. “Older than my nan.” He folded his arms into his chest and huffed as the chill started to get to him. “God, it’s cold in here.”

“Well, no shit, it’s a freezer,” you said. “It’s zero degrees. God, we’re going to die in here.” You palmed your forehead, already feeling the overwhelming sense of dread overtaking you. “I’m going to die, in a freezer, with you.”

Murphy glared at you. “Nah,” he said. “I’m not dyin’ in here. Not with you.” He banged his fist on the door. “Hey!” he yelled. “Hey! We’re stuck in here! Help!”

You covered your ears as he yelled, and sat yourself down on that big box of meat. “It’s no use,” you said. “No one ever comes over here unless it’s to do what we’re doing, and we’re already doing it. By the time they realize we’re gone, we’ll have already frozen to death.”

Murphy gave you a dumbfounded look. “You can’t be serious. Of course they’re going to hear us.”

“Are they, Murphy?” you asked. “It’s a giant facility. We’re dead meat, literally.”

He huffed, but turned around and continued shoving himself against the door, stepping back a little with each thrust to give himself traction. “Come on,” he grunted. “Open… up.”

He continued like that for a little while, as you simply gave up, with your energy seeming to drain from you by the minute. It might’ve not been as cold as you thought, but your brain was convinced that you were going to die, and you were just preparing for it. You were always a bit dramatic, and you presumed that this was the kind of dramatic death that was in store for you.

“It’s no use,” you said as Murphy took a break from slamming his body against the door.

And then, an idea struck him, as the cold pierced through the fabric of his white coat and his clothes underneath. “Hey,” he said, turning to face you, “you said we’d die before they noticed we were gone?”

You shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Well, if we can just hold out a little longer, we’ll be alive when they find us.”

“How are we supposed to do that? It’s freezing in here.”

Murphy sat himself next to you on the box, rather awkwardly and with some degree of hesitation, but he needed the warmth. That was his plan—survival.

“I read that human body heat has saved people in situations like this,” he said. “Maybe… if we just stay close, we’ll be okay.”

You looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m already much closer to you than I like to be,” you said. “I hope this is as close as you mean.”

He shook his head. “(Y/N), this is about survival. We’re talking life or death here. Do you want to die?”

You looked down at your feet, and felt every one of your ten toes, and how they were so cold they seemed at the brink of falling off. “No,” you said. “I don’t want to die.” Despite how quick you were to give up, you weren’t ready for death, not in the slightest. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well,” he sighed, “I think we should huddle for warmth.”

“Huddle?” you repeated. The word sounded dangerously close to cuddle.

“Like, hold each other. I mean, for warmth.”

You looked at him blankly for a moment, but then it struck you that that would be the only way to make it out of this alive: preserving body heat by sharing each other’s warmth. “O-okay,” you said. “Just… please don’t make it weird.”

“Why would I make it weird?” he asked defensively. “It’s purely for survival. Trust me, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot pole unless I had to.”

You scoffed. “And who do you think you are, God’s gift to women or something?”

He shook his head as he realized this wasn’t productive. “Let’s just… put all that aside and get it over with.”

He scooted closer to you, and you swallowed hard as you felt a little wave of his warmth go through you. You had to admit, it was very tempting. He was very tempting, if only because he had some warmth in him.

You were soon shoulder to shoulder, and face to face. Your knees touched and you felt Murphy slowly wrap his arm around you, pulling your chest against his. With wide eyes, you looked at him. “You weren’t kidding, huh?”

“N-no,” he said shakily, feeling the cold getting to him. “Wrap your arms around me.”

You nodded and did as he said, holding his waist with your shaky hands and keeping your face only an inch away from his.

Immediately you both felt the effects, a tiny globe of warmth radiating between your bodies, untouched by the cold of the freezer.

The two of you were silent for a while, both basking in the small amount of warmth and feeling too mortified to say anything, but also more comforted and relaxed than either wanted to admit.

“You okay?” Murphy asked quietly, that Irish accent suddenly sounding much more pleasant to your ears as you finally let yourself enjoy it a bit.

“Mhm,” you hummed with reddened cheeks, then turned serious as you tried to reclaim your hostile attitude towards him. “Don’t act like you care.”

Murphy shrugged his shoulders, with his arms still snaked around you tightly and holding you almost unbearably close to him. “I don’t,” he said defensively. “Couldn’t care less.”

“Then why’d you ask?” you retorted, still in that stern tone of voice, which didn’t entirely mesh well with your current position of essentially hugging Murphy.

He cleared his throat. “Just… need ya to stay alive so I can stay alive. That’s all.”

You scoffed. “Well, I’m glad that’s what I mean to you—a means of survival in dire situations. No wonder you’re such an ass to me, I’m only good when I’m useful.”

He furrowed his brows. “What?”

“You heard me,” you said. “You’re always so rude to me, so I guess that’s why. Makes sense.”

“I’m rude to you?”

“Yes!” you replied, with more gusto now that you were fueled by Murphy. “First day on the job, you pulled that stupid prank on me, and when I told you not to do that, everyday since you tried to get a rise out of me. Is that not rude to you?”

“What’s rude is you never giving me the time of day,” he said. “Trying to impress you is a full time job, you know.”

You were visibly taken aback by that. “Impress me? That’s why you do those things? To impress me?”

Murphy cleared his throat. Is it getting hot in here? he thought to himself. No, it’s freezing.

“Well, uh… yeah.”

You shook your head as you looked at him, fully allowing yourself to get lost in his clear blue eyes. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, why would you want to impress me?”

He gulped, and let his mouth do the talking while his eyes melted into yours. “Because I… like you. Kind of.”

“Wh-what?”

“Don’t make me say it again.”

“I mean, I thought you hated me.”

“I don’t hate ya,” he said more quietly now. “You just drive me crazy. Guess I didn’t know how to deal with it. You know… I mean, if this is our last day on Earth, I’m sorry for the things I said, and for annoying you.”

You stared at him dumbfounded for a moment, and then broke into a small smile. “I can’t believe it. Murphy MacManus is apologizing to me. I must be in a near-death stupor.”

“Accept it before I take it back.”

“All right, I accept it. Thank you for saying sorry, and… I guess I’m sorry too. For calling you a dick, even though you are a dick.”

He shook his head as he couldn’t help but smirk a little. “Shut it.”

Somehow, as if gravity was working its own magic, your faces inched closer and closer together, and tentatively, you rested your head on his shoulder, with your cheek touching his, the warmth once again radiating through you.

You closed your eyes and let out a hum of satisfaction that wasn’t lost on Murphy. He raised his hands and grasped at your upper back, rubbing up and down a little as the heat spread through him and flowed more blood to his hands.

He closed his eyes, too, and felt much more bliss than he’d felt in a long time, despite being in what he thought was a freezing closet.

“Murphy?” you said quietly.

“Hm?”

You squeezed your eyes shut, hating to say what you were about to say, but also needing something from him. Maybe you could make an excuse?

“My lips are cold,” you said, a part of you wishing you could just say something snarky to him, but that part was overrode by your desire to be as close to him as possible, and a sudden need for him to kiss you. “I think they might fall off.”

Murphy pulled away a little, dragging his cheek against yours as he leaned back, then grasped your chin and took a good look at your lips, which were a little chapped from the cool air blowing through that damned freezer.

“That’d be a shame,” he said, almost through gritted teeth. He simply couldn’t help it, though. “They’re quite nice lips.”

Your eyes widened. “They are?”

Funny, you always thought Murphy had lovely lips, and a cute, short nose, and a beautiful pair of detailed cheekbones, and—

“They’re beautiful,” he said shyly, still training his eyes on your lips, until his thumb somehow made its way to them and began tracing over them lightly, and your lips spread apart a little in reaction, and bewilderment.

His cold thumb on your lips nearly killed you, not because it was cold but because you’d never been touched like that, and certainly not by Murphy. He was being much more gentle than he usually was when interacting with you, and you weren’t prepared for it.

“You know,” you said, causing his thumb to retreat to the side of your mouth, “your lips look quite cold, too.” You looked down at his equally chapped lips, and admired the little facial hairs framing their soft curves. “Wouldn’t want them to fall off either.”

Murphy gulped, simply unable to believe what was happening. “Maybe we should…”

“Yeah,” you finished for him after he trailed off. “We should.”

He nodded nervously, then inched his face towards yours again, but this time going straight forward, until his lips slotted into yours, and there was a fire in his mouth, what with how warm he made you.

You grasped onto the lapel of his white coat, and he gripped your waist firmly, trying desperately to pull you even closer, though it wasn’t physically possible. At least, not in this position, but the rest of his body was too cold to even think about moving, and he didn’t want to move, only to savor this strange little moment that he didn’t fully understand.

You moved your lips slowly against his, allowing them to open a bit and to slide the tip of your tongue back and forth over his chapped lips. The warm saliva coated his sensitive skin, and he returned the favor, dancing his tongue across your lips and breathing heavily now as he tried to keep up with your movements.

He felt your fingers trail up the side of his head and lace through his dark brown hair, choppy and boyish in its hastily cut style. Eliciting a grunt, he let one hand rise up to tangle in your hair, too, until he somehow managed to pull it from its usual high ponytail you kept it in at work.

Several moments passed in silence in that freezer, with only little sounds of lips smacking together and small moans from both of you, until the door pulled open with a vacuum-sealed burst, and immediately a flood of room-temperature air came rushing in, though you only noticed a few seconds after pulling away from Murphy in shock, and standing up and away from him as you both arose.

Connor stood dumbfounded, holding the door open and looking at you two with wide eyes and agape mouth. “Christ almighty,” he said. “Were you two just kissing?”

You folded your arms and fast-walked forward, your head down and ignoring the question as you just wanted to be warm again, and Murphy scratched the back of his neck and he walked past Connor.

“Did you fucking lock us in there?” Murphy turned around to ask as Connor closed the freezer door from the outside. He moved to the thermostat and lowered it again to zero degrees, then turned to face Murphy with a mischievous grin.

“Maybe,” he said. “It was only twenty minutes, though. And I raised the temperature.” He gestured to the thermostat. “‘Sides, looked like you two were having a nice little chat. Good thing I came in before we had a health violation on our hands in there, bodily fluids and all that.”

Murphy shoved his brother, then looked around for you, but you were heading towards the locker room. “Where’s she going?” Murphy asked.

Connor rested a hand on Murphy’s shoulder. “You better go after her, Murph, and don’t worry, you can thank me later.”

Murphy followed you to the locker room, where everyone kept their belongings before putting on their uniforms and going to work. There, you were rummaging through your locker, pulling out a fluffy jacket and slipping it on over your shirt, with your white coat hastily discarded on the floor.

“(Y/N),” he said as he quietly approached you.

You turned around swiftly, clutching your jacket against you. “What?” you asked.

He ran his fingers through his hair, still chilled from the freezer. “We should talk about that,” he said.

You lowered your head. “I know you probably didn’t mean it,” you said. “That you regret it. It’s okay, I understand.”

Murphy shook his head. “What, no! That was… everything I wanted for a long time, but didn’t know how to deal with. I’m… happy about it. I liked it a lot.”

You raised your head and smiled softly. “Really?”

“Really.” He stepped forward and carefully took your hands in his, and watched them tremble a little. “You okay?”

You nodded. “Never better, just still a little cold.”

“Well, I know a good way to get warm.” Your eyes widened, and Murphy quickly realized what he said might’ve sounded more suggestive than he meant it to. “I mean, we could get some coffee. Our shift’s over in five minutes anyway. Or we don’t have to, just thought maybe—”

You interrupted him with a small kiss to his cheek, and he closed his eyes and let out the sweetest little laugh. Oh, how you loved his laugh. You used to think it was annoyance, but it was really love, you knew that now.

“I’d love to get coffee with you, Murphy,” you said, still with your hands in his. “Just as long as Connor pays.”

He smiled. “I’ll get something from his wallet.” He gestured his head towards his and Connor’s shared locker. “Least he can do after locking us in there.”

You shrugged. “Yes, but I’m glad he did it. Made me realize that you’re less of a shithead than I initially thought.”

He pressed another kiss to your cheek, simply unable to keep his lips away from you. “So no hard feelings?”

You shook your head. “Not as long as you promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Never change.”

With that, the co-worker you despised the most became the sole reason you kept working at that shitty old meat packing plant.

Oh, and they got new freezers after that.

~

~

[dizzydennis]

Sonic x Blaze (Sonic Channel Cover Story) - English Translation

Translator notes: My Japanese is not fluent, but I do my best with my N3 certification. There may be some inaccuracies. As the weather gets colder, Blaze heats things up for November. I hope you enjoy part 1 of this cool duo and their swashbuckling adventure deep into Coral Cave.

Tearing through a peaceful silence was a terrifying explosion that echoed throughout a cave.

While the sounds reverberated and echoed about, countless robots lied in wreck as they sparked with intense burn marks all over them.

It was a member of royalty wrapped around a red flame. This person pushed back an army of robot pirates that were rushing in. There they stood, with one arm extended outwards to obliterate her enemies and the other arm pointed upwards with smoke coming out of their fingertips. This person was none other than Blaze the Cat!

"What's wrong? Is that all you got?"

Pirate robots slowly surrounded her like a hoard of demons, ready to attack all at once.

Blaze dropped to her hips to intercept them and strengthened the power of her flames behind her to start spinning.

"Hey hey hey ~! Where are you looking, you clanky bucket of bolts!?"

A hedgehog flew in with a blue breeze and knocked down robot after robot at a speed incomprehensible to the untrained eye.

He wrecked every last robot with his thorny body by slamming into them before he landed next to Blaze after a hard-hitting ricochet.

"Yeah, Blaze! Long time, no see."

"Sonic ..."

"... Will the grand princess of this country ever get rid of these pesky pirates?"

The two followed the remaining robots as they escaped further into the cave. Sonic asked in jest, but Blaze moved forward with a serious expression.

“It’s like the Sol Emeralds were crying out in the middle of the night. I must’ve come here due to their influence, but I can’t figure out what is going on here.”

Blaze replied bluntly. She had no interest in engaging in light conversation.

Blaze is the princess of the "Sol Empire" and she resides in a world separate from Sonic’s. She is also the guardian of peace in the empire and the secret precious stones known as the "Sol Emeralds.” She works tirelessly with her special fire powers.

"While it may be an urgent matter, I can’t really give it my attention right now. I’m already after some actual villains and I’m in the middle of cleaning them up. What about you?”

Sonic responded with a face that showed he had realized the gravity of the situation he was in.

Sonic had previously gone to check on the seventh Chaos Emerald that he had left in Twinkle Park. However, he also had the other six mysterious Chaos Emeralds with him.

The moment the seven gems came together, they emitted a bright light that suddenly began to wrap around Sonic ... and by the time he noticed what was going on, he was in Coral Cave.

"So, if you came here, then we will need to take care of your problem after we deal with these the current situation.”

"Aah, alright then ..."

A second wave of pirate robots then began their attack.

The mastermind behind these pirate robots should have already been defeated. The robots lost their master and had been strays left in the wake of Sonic and Blaze’s adventure. They weren’t sophisticated, but they still had guns that could shoot anywhere and anything. In large numbers, they were a threat and some types even held a destructive wrecking ball! They should not be underestimated.

In a turbulent attack, Blaze damaged and hindered the movements of a bunch of enemies with her flames. Sonic then hopped in and attacked the robots with his quills. The robots reeled back, but prepared for another attack.

Soon after… the two of them needed a breather after pushing back that second wave. They fell into a back-to-back formation.

"I’m digging this ...! But I didn’t think you'd be able to let somebody cover your back."

"I can’t do this alone."

Blaze once had an adventure with Sonic where they defeated a mighty enemy after joining forces in battle. However, when they first met, Blaze felt she had to handle everything by herself. She was a pretty distant person.

After that adventure with Sonic, Blaze learned the strength of trusting others. She even became tolerant of other… more demanding personalities after meeting Amy and Cream; the latter of which was very innocent. She became much more open-minded and realized she wasn’t an authority above her peers, but rather… a friend. Sonic was happy to welcome such a small change in Blaze, but ...

"Just wait, Sonic. I understand it now ..."

Sonic realized Blaze was talking to him, but she turned away.

"The truth is, I will never be the same as you…"

The roots of Blaze's heart haven't changed ... but Sonic actually respected her noble seriousness; that strength and persistence that Blaze held within herself that wouldn’t allow her to let others close.

After the attack of the pirate robots had subsided, the two decided to attack head-on at the enemy’s base. They proceeded to hunt down the robots while heading into the furthest depths of Coral Cave.

They had been exploring the caverns for about an hour and they reached the deepest regions of the darkness. Sonic noticed a big change in the area around them.

He could see the area was brightly illuminated by an emerald’s clear green light; the air was clean too, despite the fact it within a deep underground cave.

While walking along the decorated, exterior walls, Sonic realized that this was something special.

When he turned his attention to the back of the cave cavity, he saw what seemed to be a staircase accompanied by the sound of metal squeaking ... Sonic felt the sounds belonged to a barrage of pirate robots. He could just barely make out the robots going in and out. This was it! ... There was no doubt; this was the base of the pirate robots.

Excited for another swashbuckling adventure, Sonic shouted towards Blaze.

"Art thou ready to attend the party, Madame Princess?"

"............"

Sonic tried to pass by Blaze, who had become silent. Without a second thought, he headed for the stairway.

His path was blocked by a hand right in front of his face. The first burned with ambers and fire.

"Hey! What’s the big idea?"

Sonic gave a surprised look to Blaze. Blaze stared at him with pure anger in her eyes.

After a moment of silence, Blaze slowly spoke. It was in a quiet, angry tone, as if to control Sonic. The blue hedgehog was overwhelmed and his jokes stopped.

"... It's my problem from here. You should go home."

"...!?"

A wave of cold tension rushed into the windless, undersea cave.

(To be continued in part 2…)