#even if they weren't seen clearly in america

[beifong-brainrot]

I also think, as a separate thought about Kai, that it’s noteworthy that he, Mako, and Bolin are the only poor characters in the show. Everyone else is either royalty, wealthy, powerful, or a descendant of the above. And that position allows their characters to implicate the show’s tacit acceptance of the power structures that created their poverty & suffering. What does it mean for Kai to be accepted into air nomad culture that values peace, community, and care towards others when his own worldview, informed by his background, is that the world is ruthless and uncaring, so he should steal and depend solely on himself? Does he think that Jinora is sheltered & naive, and does this cause tension in their relationship? Does Kai teach the airbenders anything, or force them to adapt their worldviews? It’s a shame that the show isn’t interested in exploring these questions (with Mako & Bolin as well - much to say there)

Yes, that also is something I've thought about. Like technically atla also was comprised of 'significant' characters (children of a chief, a prince, a noblegirl etc) but due to the political landscape of the time it seemed less prominent.

But I wish Mako and Bolin's past and social status had been explored more deeply, rather than just in one off comments. The startling amount of children on the streets and the bending bros childhood among criminals is kinda treated as just something unfortunate that happened, not a flaw in the system that should be taken care of.

It's a shame, bacause tlok does flirt with very radical ideologies, but it never goes deep enough into them. Which is dissapointing, because I think there was a lot of potential in the show to encourage viewers to work against a flawed status quo. Tlok has a theme of change around it, showing us very clearly how change can be painful, uncomfortable and difficult, yet worth it in the end. It just seems that the creators were hesitant to extend this theme to the show's political messaging.

Exploring Kai's past and how he finds himself in the Air Nomads would be so interesting, and I wish it had been more explored. I think it would be a bit of a difficult period adjusting, especially that the Air Nomads seemed to not attach themselves to personal goods as much, while Kai probably valued having things and equated it with survival. I can see him genuinely valuing the sense of community once he gets over his trust issues, as he seemed to have that instinct to connect with his fellow prisoners, especially Yung.

Honestly, if Kai and Jinora actually did have some tension or differences in their relationship, I actually might enjoy it as a ship, since as it stands its more of a cheap, surface level imitation of kataang than anything else. The genuine disagreements and differences in opinion is what drew me to Jinopal, so if Kainora had a similar dynamic I probably would have much more of an interest in it.

The idea of the Air nation ways changing due to the mambers from different walks of life that join them post Harmonic Convergence is something I've always really been intersted in. I actually could very much enjoy Kai bringing values of stealth and street smarts into the Air Nation. The original air nomads were, as the name suggests, nomads. Aang was actually very self sufficient, a trait many people forget. He was a kid used to travelling, most likely independently at that. It wouldn't surprise me if, to some extent, Kai's skills and habits were appropriate for an air nomad.

[vanessagillings]

I’m posting the ever-so-rare photo of myself alongside one of my characters based on my childhood because today is World Autism Acceptance Day, and I wanted to show my little corner of the internet who this particular autistic person is:  

I was officially diagnosed in February, at age 38 (I’m now 39). A lot of people thought I couldn’t be autistic.  Some people who know me in real life still don’t.  And until around 10 years ago, I didn’t think I could be either, because I was nothing like the stereotype media portrays. I was told that autistics lacked empathy (untrue), and never played make-believe (also often untrue) and only enjoyed STEM.  I was — and am — an empathetic artist -- and make believe?  I can spend days sketching finely bedecked bears brewing tea or carefully choosing the right words to weave tapestries of fiction — though perhaps my hyper focus was a bit of a red flag.  Even so, how could autism describe me?  I was a good student.  I got straight A's. I didn’t act out in class.  I can make eye contact…if I must.  And lots of girls hate having their hair brushed with an unholy passion, right?  Clearly I swim in sarcasm like a fish, so autism couldn't be why I was so anxious all the time, could it?

If someone had told me when I was younger what autism ACTUALLY is — instead of the nonsense I’d seen on screens — I would have seen myself in it.  I didn’t hear that autistics have sensory issues until I was in my mid-twenties, which is when I first began to really research autism symptoms, and I had almost all of them:  sensitivity to light, smells, fabrics, temperatures, textures, and certain touches, all of which make me feel anxious, I fidget (stim), I never know what the hell to do with my hands or where to look, I talk too little or too much, I have special interests, I have entire animated movies memorized shot-by-shot and can remember the first time and place I saw every movie I've ever seen but I often forget what I'm trying to say mid-sentence, I echo movies and tv shows (my husband and I have a whole repertoire of shared echolalias, making up about 20% of our conversations), I was in speech therapy as a kid, I have issues with dysnomia and verbal fluency, I toe-walk, I can't multitask to save my life, I like things just-so, I’m deeply introverted but not shy, I need to recover from all social interaction — even social interaction I enjoy — and I find stupid, every day things like grocery shopping, driving and making appointments overwhelming and intensely stressful, sometimes to the point where I struggle to speak.  It turns out, I am definitely autistic. My results weren't borderline. Not even close. And while these aren’t all of my challenges, and not everyone with these symptoms is autistic, it’s definitely something to look into if you present with all of these things at once. 

So why did it take me so long to get diagnosed? The same bias that exists in media threads through the medical community as well, and because I'm a woman who can discuss the weather while smiling on cue, few people thought I was worth looking into. Even after I was fairly certain I was autistic, receiving an official diagnosis in the US is unnecessarily difficult and expensive, and in my case, completely uncovered by my insurance.  It cost me over $4000, and I could only afford it because my husband makes more money than I do as a freelance illustrator — a job I fell into largely because it didn’t require in-person work; like many autists, I have been chronically underemployed and underpaid, in part due to physical illness in my twenties, which is a topic for another day.  But it shouldn’t be like this.  It shouldn’t be so hard for adults to receive diagnoses and it shouldn’t be so hard for people to see themselves in this condition to begin with due to misinformation and stereotypes. Like many issues in America, these barriers are even higher for marginalized groups with multiple intersectionalities. 

It’s commonly said that if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.  This is why it’s called a spectrum, not because there’s a linear progression of severity (someone who appears to have low support needs like myself might need more than it seems, and vice versa), but because every autistic person has their own strengths and weaknesses, challenges and experiences, opinions and needs.  No two people on the spectrum present in the same way.  And that’s a good thing!  No way of being autistic is inherently any better than any other, and even if someone on the spectrum struggles with things I don’t — or can do things I can’t — doesn’t make them more or less deserving of respect and human dignity.

But speaking solely for myself, the more I learn about autism, the happier I am to be autistic.  I struggle to find words and exert fine motor control, but my deep passion and fixation has made me good at art and storytelling anyway.  I find more joy watching dogs and studying leaf shapes on my walks than most people do in an entire day.  More often than not, the barriers I’ve faced weren’t due to my autism directly, but due to society being overly rigid about what it considers a valid way of existing.  My hope in writing this today is that maybe one person will realize that autism isn’t what they thought — and that being different is not the same as being less than. My hope with my fiction is to give autistic children mirrors with which to see themselves, and everyone else windows through which to see us as we actually are.

If you’re interested in learning more about autism or think you might be autistic, too, I recommend the Autism Self Advocacy Network  autisticadvocacy.org and the following books:

What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic by Annie Kotowicz

We're Not Broken by Eric Garcia

Knowing Why edited by Elizabeth Bartmess

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, PhD

Loud Hands edited by Julia Bascom

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

(trigger warning: the last two contain quite a lot of upsetting material involving institutionalized child abuse, but I think it’s important for people to know how often autistic children were — and are — abused simply for being neurodivergent).

Thanks for reading 💛

[astonmartinii]

big time rush | lando norris social media au

pairing: lando norris x albon!reader so how is alex albon and sorority rush connected? how is lando involved? and will the grid ever understand the greek system? [so, it's rush season, also known as my favourite time to be judgemental on social media (after the met gala of course), but like i have been bombarded with so much rush content and made a couple friends in the summer who go to alabama that my english ass needed to write something about it]

masterlist tips x

yourusername

liked by landonorris, alexalbon and 301,774 others

yourusername: it's the most wonderful time of the year !!! first year as president of theta 🩷

view all comments

user1: i get whiplash every time she posts back in america

user2: like??? how is that alex albon's sister

yourusername: we have the same mum and dad, hope this helps 👍

user3: okay yeah her and alex are the same people

alexalbon: posting this like you didn't BALL UR EYES OUT AT THE AIRPORT AGAIN

yourusername: i didn't cry because i was gonna miss ur ugly ass, i miss horsey and otto :(

albon_pets: we miss you too 🐈

user4: i personally love watching y/n's two personalities usa v uk she's like my batman

lilymunhe: don't have too much fun babe, remember to study too

yourusername: have some faith in me PLEASE

lilymunhe: i sat with you for a whole week individually rhinestoning shirts for work week i think i understand your priorities

yourusername: work week is very important lily and at least i know we'll all slay the diamonds are a girls best friend theme !!!!!

alexalbon: i'm still finding gems in all of my shoes and bags so they better

user5: i don't really understand sororities but you can bet i CHECK IN when it's y/n

user6: the way her brother is a whole ass f1 driver but she's more famous to me being the fucking PRESIDENT of theta at ALABAMA the girlies just don't get how big a deal that is

georgerussel63: any way we can get this rhinestone treatment for some merc merch

yourusername: if you wanted rhinestone merch you shouldn't have jumped ship from williams but thanks for the seat xoxo

georgerussell63: crikey can't a guy ask for sequins without being attacked these days

yourusername: all jokes georgie, but if you want rhinestones you'll have to rep theta

alexalbon

liked by landonorris, yourusername and 603,450 others

tagged: yourusername

alexalbon: enjoy your semester president, you're lucky i didn't get any photos of you ugly crying with horsey before you left. always love summer with you, even if you kept ditching us for your super secret boyfriend you thought we didn't know about ;)

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user7: the albons are so insane i love them

lilymunhe: you said we weren't gonna tell her to see how far she goes to cover it up !!!

alexalbon: this is so much more fun though i heard her scream from the other side of departures

yourusername: so i could've just used the front door rather than doing parkour out my window?

alexalbon: you going to fess up to who it is yet?

yourusername: no i don't think i will

lilymunhe: not even to me :(

yourusername: clearly you can't be trusted

lilymunhe: no babe it's not like that i swear

yourusername: i can't hear you i have a 12 hour flight

user8: the state of this comment section

user9: wait so y/n has a bf? i think i just heard the entirety of greek row fall to their knees

user10: like they had a chance babe

liked by yourusername and landonorris

landonorris: i've seen you cry your eyes out on face time to your cat

alexalbon: his name is horsey and it was a very emotional day

yourusername: you also face timed me crying with the pets that you missed me

alexalbon: stop ganging up on me this is my post and LANDO THIS IS FAMILY BUSINESS

landonorris: hmmmmm 🤨

f1wagsupdates

liked by user13, user14 and 3,205 others

f1wagsupdates: lando norris has flown into america a week early for the austin grand prix. lando flew into alabama and was reportedly picked up by a girl. is he off the market?

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user15: i’m sorry my little heart can’t take y/n and lando getting into relationships this year

user16: call me crazy but maybe lando and y/n are together?

user17: how did you come to this conclusion?

user16: so like when alex revealed he knew about y/n’s bf lando was weirdly all up in that comment section and now he's early to austin but flew into alabama where y/n goes to college and a brunette girl picked him up (also a healthy dose of delusion)

user18: no but why does this make sense though

user19: i once again implore you guys to understand that men and women can be friends, not all women in a 5 miles radius of a man is in love with him

user20: i would love for this to be y/n simply for the alex meltdown that'll follow

user21: he already said he's not overprotective just annoyed that he couldn't figure out who it is, so if it's one of his best friends i think he'll lose his mind

user22: imagine being a pledge and walking into the house to see LANDO NORRIS?

user23: trying to imagine lando of all people in sweet home alabama is killing me someone save my guy

yourusername

liked by landonorris, alexalbon and 359,0344 others

yourusername: first week of classes and i'm missing my cats

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user24: A MAN? i knew she had a man but that's. A MAN

albon_pets: we miss you too big sis, can't wait for thanksgiving

yourusername: have a nandos on me tonight babes xx

albon_pets: this is why you're our favourite sibling

alexalbon: i'm right here guys

user25: we've lost her to the soft launch

user26: literally like show me his face so i can stalk him

alexalbon: agreed

lilymunhe: pretty girl, we miss youuuuuu !! can't wait to see you in austin

yourusername: literally counting down the days

lilymunhe: will the mystery man be there?

yourusername: he may ...

alexalbon: i hope he's ready for the interrogation

landonorris: alex mate you're about as intimidating as a tumbleweed

alexalbon: you're in albon business an awful lot lately norris 🤨

user27: the alex meltdown is starting

landonorris

liked by alexalbon, yourusername and 1,302,778 others

tagged: yourusername

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landonorris: two dummies, one car, and an attempt to get into the cota paddock

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user28: OMFG

yourusername: i can only drive stick, this is known. and so many fans, i didn't want to run anyone over

user29: it was a close call but you did nearly hit me, i appreciate the swerve

yourusername: MY BAD OMG as you can all tell, alex got all of the good driving genes in the family

landonorris: don't worry babe, i won't make you drive again

yourusername: thank you baby, i was born to be a passenger princess

alexalbon: BABE? BABY? PASSENGER PRINCESS? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?

yourusername: surprise?

alexalbon: you were doing parkour to see LANDO?

landonorris: i don't appreciate your tone alex i am a catch

yourusername: you are a catch

alexalbon: can a man not have a breakdown in peace anymore without you people flirting underneath it

lilymunhe: you guys are kinda cute, i'm seeing the vision

alexalbon: am i joke to you?

yourusername: alex please be happy for me, i'm so so happy with lando, he's the best for me

landonorris: i promise i love y/n, i won't hurt her

alexalbon: i know, but give me three business days to process and NO MCLAREN MERCH

yourusername

liked by alexalbon, landonorris and 502,300 others

tagged: landonorris, alexalbon

yourusername: lando on the podium and alex in the points, you know what that means? took my best boys to their first frat party (they didn't fare well)

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user32: the grid at a frat party is something i thought i'd never see

user33: waiting for old men to say that americans are ruining the sport

landonorris: why were people on the roof? why was i on the roof?

yourusername: lets not announce that baby, i don't want zak brown to sue me

landonorris: i'm never drinking again... you do this every weekend?

yourusername: you are literally an f1 driver, you have much harder weekends

landonorris: well at least after this i got cuddles

lilymunhe: based on how late you were to brunch, i guess it was a lot of cuddles

landonorris: i am clingy, let me live

yourusername: i like clingy lando don't worry baby

alexalbon: you need to drop out immediatelt that was terrifying

yourusername: LOL

alexalbon: why were they all so loud and why did they all insist on drinking upside down? this place is so unserious

yourusername: just say you miss me alex

alexalbon: fine, i miss you (also now we know about you and lando, he did nothing but complain about missing you the whole flight home)

user34: alex already sick of lando's shit they crack me up

landonorris

liked by georgerussell63, yourusername and 1,023,400 others

tagged: yourusername

landonorris: cosplayed as a theta sister for the week with the love of my life

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user35: this is the cross over i could never see coming but am not angry about

user36: so does someone on the grid finally get the greek system?

landonorris: no ❤️

yourusername: the prettiest sister ever (anyone from the house ready this, he doesn't count don't worry)

landonorris: i am the prettiest sister regardless sorry not sorry

yourusername: they just warmed up to you :(

landonorris: they warmed up to me the minute i doordashed chipotle for the whole house

yourusername: true

landonorris: also miss president, why is that a full time job? i really don't get greek life

user37: the image of a whole house of sorority sisters and then just lando is so funny to me

user38: he's the president's bf so i doubt anyone had a real problem

yourusername: he's also unbelievable levels of girlypop

landonorris: it's my greatest asset

yourusername: i can think of another one ;)

alexalbon: HAVE SOME SHAME PEOPLE

yourusername: HIS PERSONALITY

landonorris: and something else ;)

alexalbon: STOP PLEASE OR I'LL REVOKE MY APPROVAL

user38: i need a relationship like this stat

user39: omg when y/n graduates i can't wait for her to be back with alex and lando full time ... the chaos will be crazy

note: please enjoy this little one!! gonna start going through any requests now xx

[probablyspooky]

Strength (Feral Predator x Fem! Reader)

Story based on this post I made

I'm going crazy

Trigger warning : Abuse, swearing, nsfw, white men

Pain, all you knew was pain, this was the main feeling you had in your life, and it didn't matter if you wanted to stop it, you couldn't, this is a life you were born into. A life of servitude, you were born in the servants quarters of a wealthy hunter, your mother was beaten for even dare having a child when she didn't even own the bed she slept upon, your master was so kind to let you grow up into adulthood, so gracious to let you eat his food.

Despite this, life was still not easy, you often went without food, often beaten for simple mistakes such as spilling water. Despite this your master often talked to his fellow hunter men about how kind he was for letting you grow up under his wing, and considering this, he allowed you to go to America with him on a hunting trip. (I think in 1719 it was called the new world, but I'm not 100% sure, I'm a pastry chef not a historian, don't come for my neck).

And just like that you were shipped away on a large ship, away from everything you've ever known, saying goodbye to the fellow maids who took care of you, and saying goodbye to your mother, who as distraught at the fact her only child was possibly never going to return home.

The first couple weeks were filled with awful waves, sea sickness, and insanity. Those who could not handle the sea were thrown overboard, this was the life of a servant, you were property, not your own person.

Landing in the New World was a sight to behold, trees as thick as a sailors beard, plants you have never seen before, it was all wonderful, but you weren't there to sight see, you were there to carry backs and weapons as you continued your travels deeper into the lands. For weeks your feet ached, walking across the harsh ground with shoes that barely covered the bottom of your feet, often being dehydrated, often fainting from hunger. Your master would have ended you then and there, but he was running low on servants to carry his items, you guys eventually settling in the Great Plains, as the bison were plentiful, and their pelts would turn a pretty penny back home.

You were told to set up the campsite for your master, and that you did, taking the long sticks and forcing them into the ground, setting up the tarp covering, and then his bed, the rest were in trunks, you simply placed them around like furniture. By the time you were done it was night time, your mastered returned, stroking his disgusting beard, he struck you across the face with the back of his hand.

"You putrid thing! You haven't cooked dinner yet have you?", he shouted, stomping over to his bed.

The strike had landed you in the dirt, quickly getting on your knees you looked down at your dirty skirt, not looking up at him, a sign of submission.

"Stupid woman...." he grumbled, taking a sip from the tankard in his hand, the clear smell of ale tainting his breath, the man was clearly drunk.

Suddenly, his eye lit up, and he rose, grabbing you by the collar, and dragged you into the center of the camp, where all the other hunters were cheering, having a grand old time drinking.

"Hey boys!", he shouted, "I have an idea..."

You struggled against the rope tied around your neck, the rough fibers rubbed against your skin, the burning sensation forming from your struggles, tears stinging your eyes as your master tied the other end of the rope to a ram.

The sounds of the sickening laughter coming from these drunk bastards, sending the shiver of fear and dread throughout your body as your master slapped the rams behind, causing it to bleat out in fear and run into the woods. You looked in horror as the slack of the rope began to drag away, like a sickening timer to your doom, soon the rope stiffened in the air, and there you went. Dirt and debris from you trying to grab onto anything with a free hand, as your other hand held on to the rope, trying not to suffocate yourself as the ram kept going, the burns on your neck growing deeper and deeper, you kept screaming out for help, hoping anyone or anything would come to your rescue, it seemed like the ram had infinite stamina, the end was no where in sight.

You soon had a dark thought, and felt your grip on the rope loosening, hoping for a quick death, but as soon as the rope tightened around your neck, the rope snapped, stopping the dragging of your body.

Quickly sitting up, trying to catch your breath, drool falling out of your mouth as you looked at the ground, your eyes red from crying, feeling the uninterrupted courses of air purify your body, you looked at the rope, trying to see why it had snapped. Your eyes grazed over the rope on the forest floor, seeing it go on and on, following the rope to its end you saw a some sort of circular knife, if you could call it that, it was much too large for your hands, and it was very heavy, the metals it was made of wasn't anything you had seen before. Trying to pick it up was in vain, as it was not budging from its spot.

Your fingers grazed over the blades, thinking, while your other hand felt the rope against your neck, leaning down you used the sharp blade to snap the rope from your neck, cutting your neck in the process.

Once the rope was off of your neck, you felt the sensitive red spot that now circled your entire neck, surely to leave an awful scar, a memory of these awful events that have transpired today.

The crack of thunder, and the soft droplets of rain that fell through the leaves snapped you out of your thoughts, as you began to scurry to find shelter, you defiantly did not wish to go back to camp, you'd rather die out here than return to that man.

You walked as far as your sore feet could take you, eventually you looked up to see a cave at the side of a mountain, it looked a bit out of the way, so hopefully no predators would be inside

Climbing the harsh rocks to reach the opening, your hands were sore, your legs were about to give out from under you. The feeling of pouring rain seemed to drag you down, but you pushed through it all, reaching the cave, you found yourself protected from the rain, falling into the cave, as a crack of lightning illuminated the cave, you swore you saw something.

Standing on your unsteady feet, you wandered deeper into the cave, tripping and falling into some sort of pit in the ground, it wasn't deep, it was soft, as if lined with blankets, you felt it with your hands, the feeling of tiredness overtaking you, you laid your head into the soft plush ground, your eyes growing heavy, and you drifted off into sleep.

At the entrance of the cave, a beast who stood on his feet like man, glistening in the rain, as his alien camouflage device was unable to function in the rain, the red ripples of it giving up shown through the rain, eventually turning off as he entered his den.

Taking a large step into the den he called his own on this trip, he sniffed the air, something was present. Using his helmet of bone, he scanned the area, looking down at his nest of furs and pelts, seeing your small sleeping frame, he knelt down, pulling his blade out, the same style of blade that had cut your rope earlier, but all its blades were contained within the small metal circle, the clicks of his mandibles echoed off the walls of the cave, shaking his hand the blades swooshed out, and he raised it up as it to slit your throat, but he stopped.

Returning the blades to its holder, and placed the weapon back to his belt, taking his large finger, he grazed the rope burn that was evident on your neck. Tilting his head while you slept, he stood back up, leaving you in his nest, he sat at the entrance of his cave, waiting for the rain to stop.

As the morning sunlight shined through the fresh dew drops of the last nights rain, the warmth of the sun warmed your skin, as you rose up out of what you thought was a pit, the light now showed to you it was in fact a nest of pelts and furs, and now with the sun illuminating the whole cave, your eyes gazed around.

The cave was decorated in the skulls of many animals, a small fire, and in the corner sat rotting meat, the unfavorable scraps of the animals that had been hunted before. Your eyes continued to wander, they landed on a pile of large weapons, fear began to take over your body once more, thinking you had entered another hunters home you stood up to leave, looking towards the entrance of the cave, you saw it.

It stood over 7 feet tall, it's skin tanned red, speckled with spots, thin strands of its dreads spilled out the back of its head, cascading down its back, it's face covered with some sort of mask, it seemed to be made of bone.

Freezing in your place you stared at it, upon closer inspecting, it wore a loin cloth, you assumed it to be a male whatever it was, and watching the slow breaths from his chest, you assumed him to be asleep.

Slowly you began to creep out of the cave, trying not to wake up the beast, you tip toed through the rocks, safety looking so close, until you heard a low rumble, a low growl.

Turning your head, you saw he had woken up, his mandibles moved, clicking at you, his large face looking down on you.

You took a step back, and he took one towards you, this continued for a bit until you took a bad step, there was no more ground to support your weight, you began to fall back, your arms flailed in the air, you closed your eyes bracing for a pain that never came.

The feeling of a strong arm around your waist replaced the feeling of air rushing past you. Peeking your eyes open, the beasts face was inches from yours, he had caught you with his arm.

A blush formed across your face, as he pulled you back onto stable ground. He moved his arm away, and took a step back, kneeling down so that his eyes were at level with yours.

You stared at him intently, noticing his strong build, his large frame, and his large muscular feet and legs.

"T-thank you....", you stuttered, not taking your eyes off of him.

The sound of clicks continued to sound from him, he rose his hand up, and seemed to touch the side of his mask, you could hear some sort of weird sound come from it, it confused you.

"Y-you are...welcome..." the beast said, turning his head at you.

"You can talk?", you said, shock still in your voice.

He turned his head in the other direction, raising his hand and tapping his helmet with his finger, indicating it was letting him talk to her.

With that same finger, it left his helmet and reached towards your neck, you reeled back in fear. Causing him to stop in shock, and hesitate.

"Do...not worry..."he grumbled, moving his hand some more.

You watched with one eye open, still weary of him, his finger reached closer, and he used it to turn your chin to look back at him, and it slid down your chin to your neck, tracing the rope burn.

"Who....did this....to you...?"

You sighed in dispare.

"My master did....", you whimpered, sadness was showing its way through your face.

"Master....? You...own one...another...?" he asked, taking his hand back, getting closer still kneeling down, using his hands to move over.

"Some...own others...and others like me, are born to serve," you said, bringing your own hands up to your rope burn.

"That...is not right...Why do you...not fight back...?"

"I-I can't fight..."

"I will show you", of course that came out clearly.

With that he stood at his full height, and held his hand out to you. You looked at him, and at his hand, slowly putting your small one into his, A purr came from his chest, as he picked you up onto his back, and then slid down the side of the cliff, as it was nothing to him.

On his back, he began to walk you into the forest, taking you to a clearing and setting you down. He walked out a bit farther than you, pulling a large spear off his back, he twirled it in the air in an intimidating fashion. Holding it straight ahead of him, it extended and sharp blades came out of the ends on both sides.

For the next couple of weeks, he taught you how to use the weapon, teaching you the motions, how to strike, and how to defend yourself. He also showed you how to hunt, how to trap, and how to skin an animal. He told you these are very necessary if you were going to live in the wilderness.

You happily learned from him, taking time to listen to him very closely, every word he said, every motion he made, every strike, you made sure to absorb all of it.

You sat at the entrance of the cave, watching the fire crackle under that days kill, the smell of meat filling the cave.

"Tomorrow you will learn hand to hand fighting," it seemed the more he spoke to you, the clearer his words became.

"Hand to hand...?" you looked at him, as he sat on the other side of the fire, he stared off into the forest.

"To defend yourself from them," he stated, pointing his hands into the forest, his finger directing your eyes over the tree line, cross the large lake, you could see the small flickers of fire from a camp, most likely the people who brought you here.

You agreed, taking the meat off the fire and taking small bites.

"Where are you from?," you asked, looking at him, the heat of the fire making your face warm, yep the fire nothing else you little sicko.

He turned his large head to look at you, almost as if he could smile he would, his mandibles extended and clicked together as he looked towards the stars.

"I come from a place called Yautja Prime..." he started, speaking of his home life. You sat and listened to him long after the fire had died down.

The next morning started as usual, you ate breakfast, and he carried you to the training spot.

When you arrived he kneeled in front of you, his hand reached up removing his helmet, the first time you would have been seeing his face, his golden eyes looking into yours, yet you did not flinch at all, you felt something but you did not know what yet. His mandibles clicked, and he tilted his head, not expecting your reaction. Putting his mask back up and put a bit of space between the two of you.

He turned to you and spoke.

"Hit me."

"What?!"

"Hit. Me."

Slowly you began to walk up to him, and then a walk turned into a run, you clenched your fist, and went to hit him, never making contact with him, his large hand grabbed your first and raised it above your head, he threw you to the ground.

"Again."

So you tried again, this time going at him from the left, the same outcome, this went on for an hour, your grew frustrated, clearly the two of you were far too different in size and strength.

You sat on the ground, upset with yourself, he knelt down next to you.

"Again?", he asked, looking at you,

"I can't hit you...you're too strong..." you said under your breath,

"Perhaps, I have been too hard, I will allow you to hit me, I will take the full hit."

"Really?"

He turned his head in the other direction, as a sign saying, "Go ahead"

But you were feeling something in your chest, when he turned his head, you placed a kiss against the side of his face, causing him to startle, he turned to you quickly, and then you clocked him in the face.

He growled for a second, and looked at you, and lunged at you, grabbing you from under your butt, and lifted you into the air.

"Good job, you have outsmarted me" he purred.

You just stared at him in awe like you do quite often, a red flush going across your face as he lifted you up effortlessly.

"You're...strong.." you said, looking down at him

"I am very strong...you are very small..."he chuckled, looking up at you.

"Much stronger than me" you smiled, looking around the trees at this new height

"I could...show you my true strength..." he purred at you.

You gulp, and look down at him.

"Your...real strength...go ahead..." your eyes are wide, wondering what his display will be to you.

"Then I shall..." he said with a huff, placing his hand on your stomach pushing you up, and then his other, raising you far above his head, and then removing one hand, "Show you my whole strength"

You stared in awe, as he held you above his head with a single hand, no sign of weakness, you began to laugh.

"Oh my! " you called out, not noticing someone was staring at you with passion and care in his eyes.

"Do you...wish to mate?" he asked, seriousness in his voice

"WHAT?" you gasped, wiggling on his hand, causing him to lose his balance of you, causing you to slip out of his hand, and fall towards the ground below.

Once again, the pain of the ground never hit your body, just the comforting touch of his hands around your body filling that space.

You looked at him, your eyes not straying away from his face, your face redder than an apple.

"Well...?" he asked, standing you back on your feet, awaiting your answer.

Standing there you began to fidget with your fingers, looking at your feet, you began to play this scene in your head many times before speaking from the heart.

"I...do..." you whispered, hearing the sound of him coming closer, kneeling down and looking at you from below.

"Then you will be mine?" he asked, his fingers grazed your face.

You nodded in agreement, and whoosh, you were pulled close to his chest, hearing his excited heart rate. You stood between his knees, you pulled back a bit, and placed your hands on his face, of course you would kiss him, if he had lips. You settled for placing one on his head. A happy purr emanating from his chest, as he pulled you into am embrace.

"Mine..." he said in a low purr,

It seemed like the two of you stood there forever, just the two of you alone in that clearing, until he suddenly stood up, placing a protective hand ahead of you, as his face scanned the bush line.

"What's wrong..?" you asked, looking up at him

He didn't respond, he eyes snapped to a certain area, and soon a large bear walked out, sniffing the ground, clearly following the scent of something it wanted.

It looked up, sniffing the air in your direction, letting out a roar, it began walking closer.

Sure all your training was good, but this was a bear, and you in fact were not the size of a bear.

He stood between you in the bear, as the bear began to charge. It leapt up, throwing itself into his arms. He quickly punched it in the face, as the bear clawed at his back, grabbing the bears sides, he threw it back on the ground. Standing up straight he took a stance, the bear shook off the blow of hitting the ground, and charged once again, speeding up, it was closer to him, but he quickly side stepped, and punched it in the side of the head, immediately knocking the bear to the ground with a sickening crack.

You looked, shock all over your face as he picked up the bear with his arms, and held it above his head, he let out a roar of victory, and threw it back to the ground, turning his attention back to you.

"Are you alright...?" he asked, kneeling.

"You just....punched a bear...to death...it was one punch..." you stammered,

"I told you I was strong," he chuckled.

"Yeah but, I didn't believe you could even," you shook an open hand towards the dead bear.

"Does that surprise you...?" he said, a smirk would be across his face (IF HE HAD LIPS), a bit of tease in his voice

"You told me to hit you, as if I could ever beat you."

"Yes, but why does that matter?"

"I could never beat you..."

"Why is that?" he scooted closer to you.

"You're clearly stronger," you looked at him, confused as to why he was teasing you, now seeing he was now kneeling over you, like me hovering over that sweet deep dish pizza.

Before you knew it he lunged at you, his face in the crook of your neck, a growl emanating from his chest, you knew what was to happen next, and you were fine with it.

You were fine with his clawed hand going down your body, his sharp claw ripping your only clothing off of your body. He took off his mask and tossed it to the side.

He opened his mouth, and his long tongue slithered out, sliding between your breasts, as he moved the soft spot of his hand over your nipple, feeling it between his fingers.

You let out a soft moan, watching him untie the loin cloth from the back of himself. Letting it drop between you, and showing all of himself to you.

You could feel your body change in excitement as the sight of that going into you made you wetter, he quickly turned you over onto your hands and knees, and you felt the tip of himself touch your slick.

Slowly, he eased his way into you, feeling his chest press against your back, his hands by yours, his tongue sliding on the back of your neck, he began to thrust all of his length into you.

You fell to the ground, crying out in pleasure as all of him slipped into you, he growled in pleasure, moving his hips again, and again, and again. The sounds of your skins slapping one another seemed to echo through the forest. You were crying on the ground, in a state of pure ecstasy.

Moving positions, he slid a hand under your stomach, and pulled you up, now on his knees, he gripped your hips, and moved you up and down against his length, he growled in pleasure, feeling your soft walls around all of him.

You could feel his claws press into you ever so tightly, even while on his lap, he was still much taller than you, you looked up to see him staring directly at you, taking one of his hands he gripped one of your breasts, continuing to pump himself into you, your juices mixing and creating a small pool between the two of you on the ground.

He looked to the sky, and let out a roar of pleasure once more, quickening his pace, gripping your breast tighter as his movement began to get rougher, the hand on your hip moved to your front, as he began to rub your clit, causing you to throw your head back into his chest, his tongue slipping down from his mouth, as he arched his back, sliding his tongue into your mouth.

Your body was flushed red, and you moaned as the two tongue swirled together, feeling the pool of pleasure build up in your stomach.

"I'm...I'm..." you cried,

His hand grabbed your hips again roughly, he began to slam into you harder, this sent you over the edge, causing you to climax, it shot out of you onto his legs, and he roared once again.

Taking in the scent of it all, his primal side came over, he threw you down onto the ground again, not breaking away from you, he began to rapidly thrust into you over and over, causing you to cry out, he began to roar, as his body began to shake, his climax rippling over him as he filled you up.

That night, the two of you laid in his nest, a fur over your body as you no longer had any clothing. He was okay with that, as at home it was not uncommon for others to walk bare.

His large hand traced your sleeping face, as he looked at the claw marks across your body.

He was going to cut his hunting trip early, as he had found his prize.

[writinginpinkpink]

The Price of Life. [0.1]

homelander x fem!reader

summary: Homelander saved you and gave you life, but with one rule: be utterly loyal to him. Despite this, you went beyond mere obedience and provided him with what he needed most: love.

warnings: homelander, violence, swearing, smut (eventually), a bit of stockholm syndrome?

masterlist | requests open! | next

You didn't expect this mission to be your last. It wasn't like this was your first time stealing Temp-V for Butcher. But something clearly went wrong as the last thing your eyes could register before your mind went blank was a Cape with the American fucking flag on it.

You felt your body give up, as if you could actually feel the life draining out of you, until a stinging sensation surged through you. Suddenly, everything felt painfully alive. Every nerve burned, and you felt everything. Your muscles relaxed and contracted, your heart pumped with such force it felt like it was going to burst out of your chest.

Your eyes slowly opened, only to find a pair of intense blue eyes staring at you. The man was holding your head close to his chest. When he realized you were awake, he gave you an eerie smile, laughing to himself. Only now did you notice that the sleeve of his shirt was rolled up, blood dripping from his arm.

And only after noticing him did you see the needle still attached to your arm. You instantly got up, realizing what he had done.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" you yelled, even though you already knew the answer. You wanted to hear him say it.

"What about a 'thank you, Homelander! You saved my life' first?" he said, rising as well. You noticed the floor around you was covered in blood—your blood.

"For what? You tried to kill me just to save me?" you screamed, knowing that shouting at him was dangerous, but with his blood circulating through your veins, you felt every emotion sharply. "I tried to kill you? Believe me, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. I made you. I gave you life. I'm fucking Jesus to you. The Butcher didn’t save you, Starlight didn’t save you, not even fucking Hughie. And now you are blood of my blood, you are my family now, do you understand? It wasn't rhetorical. Answer it."

He yelled, getting closer with each sentence until you hit the wall. His hands found their way to your neck, squeezing it just hard enough to send a message, but not to kill you. You struggled to nod.

"Exactly. You are now mine, and I will carry you around. We will be the fucking face of America. You and me. We are the example this country wants. I'm your hero, and now you will dedicate your life to me." You weren't surprised by his words. Since you joined the Seven, Homelander had seemed infatuated with you, for whatever reason.

"I hope you understand that I gave you life and, with the same ease, I can take it from you." He said, releasing your neck and kissing your cheek, as if he genuinely believed the twisted couple dynamic he had created in his mind.

"Go take a shower," he demanded, pointing to the bathroom. Still confused about what this new relationship meant, you complied, your burning throat serving as a stark reminder to avoid angering him again.

As you showered, you tried to connect the dots. What did he mean by "suicide mission"? Hadn’t Butcher and Starlight tried to save you? You weren’t sure if it was his blood making you feel this way, but resentment began to grow in your chest. It always annoyed you how Butcher bossed you around and treated everyone as though they were merely stepping stones to his goals.

Besides, you couldn’t deny that Starlight pissed you off a bit. She constantly forced you into the role of her shadow, making you the supportive friend rather than the protagonist. Every autograph you signed was alongside hers, and if her popularity faltered, so did yours. You tried not to let it bother you, as people enjoyed seeing your friendship, but it infuriated you that you were seen as the weakest female member. You knew you could break Tinker Bell in half if you wanted to, especially now that you felt stronger than ever.

As you dried yourself off before leaving the shower, you realized that this relationship with Homelander might not be the worst deal. You would finally receive the recognition you deserved and maybe even inspire some young girls to be like you. Besides, Homelander did save your life—he didn’t just keep you alive, but he made you stronger.

[yourlocalsmutwriter]

notarialno zavereni angst, danny ric or whoever u want

American law - Daniel Ricciardo x reader

You didn't know what was worse - getting your marriage annulled only a year after or the flight there. In your entire life you had only been to Vegas once. And now you have to do it all over again. Your divorce could have been an email, you think as you board the Amsterdam to LAX airplane. At least Daniel was already in America, you think bitterly. Of course he didn't care enough to stay with you, putting as much distance as possible between you. The little voice in your head tells you that he would definitely make a paddock cameo. Or a surprise appearance at the Enchanté popup. A man of the people, new and improved. Showing everyone that after the official end of your marriage, he was free. He could try all the girls now or drive a 100 cars. Even if lately you'd seen snapshots of him on two wheels.

Truth be told, he looked like he was doing better. Yet you knew him best. He was packing his schedule with events, sponsorships, and new merch drops for a reason. If he was on the move constantly, he didn't have time to think about your breakup. Meanwhile, you had been drowning your sorrows in D3 wine bottles. The last time you tasted that was on your faithful wedding night. Vegas GP 2023, you would always be famous. Since the queue for passport control was longer than the text chain between you and your now ex, you could reminisce about better times. Times where the world consisted of just you and Daniel.

There was nothing more dangerous than a charming man with lots of class. Unfortunately your beloved couldn't really exude that now. Daniel was wearing a sparkly jacket over his race suit.

"Snazzy, isn't it. Think we can get your glitter and some glue sticks and make you a matching one? New Enchanté drop?" Daniel jokes, motioning to the sparkly eye makeup he saw you in. He loved how excited about this you were, despite this being your upteenth GP. You'd been his grid good luck charm, ever since you started dating in 2018. Usually you'd be in for one or two European races, but there was no way you would miss the last few races, especially considering that you skipped out on attending a chunk of this season. You ignore the horrible memories from the Dutch hospital where they tried to give your boyfriend an aspirin for his broken arm.

"If you touch my primer tonight, you are not leaving Vegas in one piece." You joke and plant a kiss on his lips. "Your quali's about to start, lemme take this." You shrug on the eyesore jacket. The black and bold RICCIARDO letters pop against the blue sequins. Danny chuckles. He thinks how good his last name sounds with your first one. He got the idea way back when he was filming the grill the grid videos. When the admin asked who was most likely to get married in the little chapel in Vegas, he threw Charles under the bus. But the truth was, it was himself. Daniel had the ring ready, planning to take you on a late night track walk and propose there. Maybe it was the smell of weed in the air. Maybe it was the plethora of cheesy Vegas movies you two had binged the night before. But one thing was apparent. Daniel Ricciardo was getting married in Sin City.

He presses you into a bone crushing hug before dashing to his car. Despite there being a garage of people who also rooted for him. Despite the roar of the crowds, both here and at home. You're the one that cheers on the loudest. The most loyal supporter. Truly, you loved him the most.

You were snapped back from the thoughts by a government official asking for your passport and boarding pass. They take in the number 3 driver cap you had to pull to the side. Your last name intrigues them, too.

"Huh, what a coincidence that you're a Daniel fan and you have the same last name." They note. Clearly they were not versed in the gossip that came hand in hand with their sport. That was better, you thought. You weren't ready to be excluded from the WAG list.

"Yeah, funny. I'm actually going to the race, so maybe it'll get a few chuckles in the fan zone." You reply. In your mind you rotate the idea of having to change all your documents now. After this weekend you wouldn't be a Ricciardo anymore. Plain old you. That's why you hadn't bought a return ticket yet. It would feel almost fake to travel under Daniel's name.

With some time to spare, you grab a few packs of stroopwaffels and water for the flight. Your eyes scan the shelves and notice you grabbed your ex's favorite brand by force of habit. Nothing said "Fuck you for leaving me after we tied the knot" like a syrup baked good. What was an appropriate thing to even say? You debated asking your friends. They'd probably give you some jab about how you're the one keeping your dignity, even though he had been the one turning bitter near the end. Even though you'd laugh at their "give him money for a Moët, since he wasn't getting champagne podiums" line, you wouldn't believe it. Nothing could help you. Nothing could change the fact that this trip was going to hurt.

This first Vegas weekend was hurting. The Alpha Tauri wasn't a rocket ship. It was a submarine, sinking. Danny had somehow finessed a mini stroll for the two of you after he qualified in P14. He was blowing off media duties, ignoring the pen of journalists that wanted to know his thoughts. He had only 4 words in his brain. "Will you marry me?" looped around his head. The ring was now loose in his gloves, the fireproof pocket being too obvious. He took your hand and spun you around on the Vegas street. The sphere was changing. He was convincing you that there was something great on it coming soon, making you not take your eyes off it as he turned his back to you and retied his shoes.

He asks you to turn around and help him up cause he's got a cramp. You're mid bad joke about how he's blowing your back out so good and the car is blowing his when your mind registers what's happening. Daniel is on one knee, a shining ring in his hand.

" I want the only VIP on my table to be the view of you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Better than any win. You've been with me through the highs and lows of my career. I want you to be there when I retire in like 10 years and then forever. Will you make me the luckiest person in this city by marrying me?" He asks. You say yes, through tears in your eyes.

"Good, because the pavement was killing my knees. This thing gets hot." He jokes as he slides the ring on your finger. He kisses you and you swear it's like the first one. You slide your hand in his as he tells you about the ring, the engravings inside.

"You know, I never told you this, but I always wanted to get married in Vegas. Other girls probably wanted a grand ceremony filled with family and friends. My practical ass wanted in and out." You say, admiring the golden band.

"I mean, the chapel is open 24 hours. Elvis impersonator and all. It would be refreshing for them to get someone sober. Should we do it?" Daniel asks.

"You're crazy. You have a race tomorrow. People will tear you to shreds for focusing on me instead." You reason. Daniel's life was neatly sliced in two. Driving and not driving. And the biting comments from fans and Helmut were nothing new. Danny had a bad weekend? Your fault. You were a distraction. Which didn't make any sense. Max was world champion and he had Kelly. What people didn't see was that you loved your boyfriend so madly. Keeping each other sane through the online scrutiny. Covering for each other in front of paparazzi. Even things like keeping a balanced diet. Perhaps you were the best thing that happened to Daniel. But for you, it was beyond the shadow of a doubt. You wondered how you had survived your life before him. At least now he was yours forever.

"Come on. You're my lucky charm. If anything, you make me a better driver. I'm faster when I think that afterwards I'm coming home to you. So, let's make the gossip pages go wild." He says, not ready for the night to end. You give in, only interjecting with a

"Fine, fine but we cannot even have a lick of....."

"Champagne, please." You ask the stewardess.

"I'm sorry, but we don't serve alcohol yet, it's an early flight. I can get you sparkling water if you'd like." She offers, the picture of professionalism.

"That would be great, thank you." You say.

A hangover was not a good idea. Apparently you were the only sensible one. You paid for the in flight wifi solely to be able to communicate with Daniel. He was picking you up from the airport, so you wanted to update him. But the reply you got from him was unusual. The Instagram voice memos he gave you sounded something like this: “I'm drunk and I've been staring at my hands for an hour. I wanna remember what it was like to have you in them.”. His voice is slurred. He's reckless. So are you.

“Enjoying the night I see. Did you find a girl who's gonna erase me? Did you find a love that's gonna kill mine?”. He replies instantly with a “I found her, it's the one asking me stupid questions.”. Daniel means you, and he doubles down. “You're not mine anymore, but I don't want anyone touching you.” you cringe at his jealous streak. Maybe it was the first warning sign you missed. You know you should stop reminiscing about your wedding day. Yet……

You two are the smiliest couple in line to get married. Truly, someone could count Danny's teeth to pass the time. There's a wonderful old lady that's telling her entire life story to you two. She's here with her husband to be, who was her childhood sweetheart. But throughout her life, they were both dating other people, too hesitant to admit each other's feelings until now. She asks you if Daniel has always been this wonderful.

"He was born almost perfect. Though I think he needed me to complete him, to make him even greater." Your fiancee plants a kiss on your lips, effectively half-traumatising the older woman and smudging your lipstick.

You excuse yourself to reapply it, not about to get married with pink streaks on your face. As you exit the bathroom, there's a very drunk Elvis impersonator outside.

"Hey, baby. Wanna become my Priscilla?" He asks, wiggling his eyebrows at you. You decline politely and try to get back to the guy who you were about to marry. The fake king of rock and roll doesn't agree with your decision and continues to chat you up. You're practically sweating through the rental bride dress when your eyes meet a familiar pair of brown ones. Danny moves faster than the speed of light, fist raised in the air. Before he can punch the guy you step in, not wanting to have him spend his race in jail.

The faux Elvis backs off and the old lady lets you two cut in line. As a couple exits the chapel, it's your turn. You're about to marry the love of your life in Vegas. All your dreams were coming true. You ask Danny to pinch you and he jokes that he should say Max’s name instead.

The whole flight you're antsy. It was heartbreaking. To have counted on Daniel for so long to this. It was a long time coming. The nails in the coffin were getting drilled since the start of the season back in March. Spain was the first big fight. It was the fact that your husband's life was in a pressure cooker. The online hate. His crash with Stroll. The fact that Yuki's contract was extended already. His career hadn't been much of a roadblock even when it was uncertain before. The McLaren exit was actually almost a turning point towards considering to settle down.

You couldn't afford to think the time line after, not right now. Your hands were shaking as you type "I hope you're here, just landed." to Daniel. Then you shove the phone so deep in your bag, not wanting to look at it.

His messy curls are unmissable. Despite trying to lay low, he is there, like an eyesore. Decked out in yesterday's clothes, judging from Instagram. Holding an A4 piece of cardboard. Of course, it doesn't say your name or Ricciardo. It just says Unforgettable. Pictures of Danny in the Vegas airport would become a rumor mill and meme in a matter of minutes. It doesn't help that as soon as he sees you, he starts crying, his eyes filled with tears. Were they for you, for himself, for both of you. You would never know. Instead of a hello, or a miss you, you say.

“I can’t wrap my head around why you’re doing this right now.”

"I can't believe you're crying." You whisper to Daniel. His misty eyes are also making you tear up. The "priest" marrying you doesn't care about this, doesn't even shush you. Since this was not planned, there's no time to have personalized vows. Still, in the way your husband's voice breaks slightly at the "to love and to keep" says it all. Rings exchanged, a kiss shared and it's official. You are married to Daniel Ricciardo.

It's so past his "bedtime" (the regime set by his personal trainer) by the time you get to the hotel, that you actually consider just falling asleep. Of course, he has other plans. Danny's lips are on your neck since the elevator. As you pat down your pockets for the hotel key, his hands are all over your chest, squeezing and groping.

"Baby, please." You moan out.

"It's our first night together as a married couple. We can't just postpone it because we're busy tomorrow. I plan to make you thank yourself for saying yes to me." He argues, his touches trying to find any bare skin.

"Danny, come on. You know how lucky I am to have you. And you're also aware that you're insatiable." You say, leaning into his touch. You're trying to reason with him, but you can't help but trail your fingers from his defined abs down to his happy trail. He groans and you're a goner. It's safe to say that you end up "consumating" your marriage in the Vegas hotel. Some would call it poor decision making. You can't help but be a sucker for your husband talking about love and then making it to you. The creak of your bed and the banging of the headboard at least rattles the poor driver on the other side of the wall. So, a bonus for Alpha Tauri, you reason with yourself.

You had nearly forgotten what it was to have Daniel touching you. But as he's leading you out of the airport, he holds your hand. Your fingers are laced together, like lovers. There's an intrusive thought in your head.

"Drop it, stop this, you can't afford him to do that to you, why, Jesus fuck, you still felt it". The spark. The need to pull him aside and kiss him. The want to see that look in his brown eyes just before he leans in, like a needy puppy. Daniel is intent on killing you, because he draws little figures with his thumb on your skin.

"So, do we have a plan?" You ask, as if you hadn't had to figure out the logistics of this for weeks now.

"We'll go there during quali. At least this way all the fans will be occupied, either at home or in the grandstands." He says. "That way you can still enjoy a day of the weekend in Vegas."

"I don't know about you, but I don't think I'll be thinking about gambling or entertainment after the official end of my marriage." You reply. You're not sure if he shivers because of the cold or your words.

"You're right, I'm sorry." He apologizes. He drops your hand to wave to the Uber he hailed. Then he reaches out again, this time going for your left. Your ring is pressed against his. Possibly for the last time. You think that you should have simply given yours back that day.

If you opened the dictionary to the words “media circus” you'd find the Singapore 2024 Grand Prix as the definition. And at the center of it are you and Daniel. You're not sure why the press picks up on your increased presence in the paddock recently. Since Spain, you haven't missed a race. You and your husband may be on thin ice sometimes, but it would shatter like glass under your feet if you aren't communicating and being there for eachother. Supporting Danny reminds you why you love him. He's driven. Relentless. Never backs down from a challenge. Yet, now it's extreme. He works himself to the bone. On the simulator, or in long talks with his engineer Pierre. There is no rest for the wicked or the treathened. You're on the sidelines, picking out restaurants that are open at least til midnight. Making sure he eats, that he still can enjoy at least something. You're no influencer, but you use your social media to bring attention to his sponsored campaigns, to the new Enchanté collections. Anything to keep the image of Danny positive.

It's not like people don't ask you about it. Friends, family, coworkers are all curious what it feels like. Your reply? Even if it's tough on me, it's a million times tougher on him. So when you see the interview, you're flabbergasted.

The fans tag you in it. Not that you need that, seeing as you've been glued to the F1 website and social media. Danny is on media day duty, Thursday in Singapore. One of the reporters asks.

"Daniel , your lovely wife is joining you once again this weekend. Do you think that will affect your performance?"

"When it comes to how I drive, that's all me and the team. I'm not a superstitious guy, I don't believe in good luck. Racing is about strategy and talent."

The next journalist latches on, wanting to get a quote too. It spirals because your husband does not and cannot address his early exit rumors. So he talks about you. But his words aren't his, don't come from the heart. They are what Visa CashApp RB wants to hear. How he manages his time or more accurately how he doesn't spend it with you. He doesn't tell anyone that he asked for this. After spending a couple days apart, he wanted you to be by his side. As you'd been before. All good, always. Daniel even tries to crack a joke.

"Honestly, I'm starting to think that she's using me as a travel buddy or a way to check off some destinations off her holiday bucket list.". It gets scattered laughter, most because many times before he's shared that you weren't interested in flying out with him that much. That it stresses you out, the airport a hostile environment rather than a relaxing one.

After the press conference he's pulled aside, you presume for socials. You reason that he's busy and that's why he's not responding to your texts. His team's Instagram shows him energetic, and dancing to 28 by Zach Brian. Your song. Maybe the chorus of how lucky are we resonated with him, but not you.

"You can't just pretend it's all okay. After what you did. I'm not the villain, okay. I'm not the one taking your seat away from you." You say, the moment he comes back in your hotel room.

"You think they're gonna fire me, now? What happened to having my back. Do you think I'm like Logan, huh." He says back.

"You throw me under the bus, you throw another driver, anyone else? Wanna drag the lizard during practice, too, while you're at it? We're not the bad guys here, Daniel. Go ahead, blame me for being unhappy, and blame me for having bad luck. Just remember that when you fall from the top, it hurts like hell.” you reply.

He thinks he will show everyone who doubted him on Saturday. Have a great qualifying, cement his place in the team. Danny wishes that he didn't have to prove himself to you, too. But he does. So all the angst is worth it. As a “I put us through hell, but look where it got us, we'll fix it now.” He's out in Q1. It was over. He was the biggest loser, forced to see others succeed.

After watching Max win in Abu Dhabi, you were tagging along to the belated celebrations. 3 consecutive championships was a big deal. So you had a few too many glasses of champagne with Danny's friend and former teammate. That resulted in your husband having to support you out, and tuck you in with a bucket next to you.

When the morning comes, there's a bottle of water and ibuprofen on the bedside table next to you. But no Daniel. You make your way to the kitchen in the spacious penthouse room. There was your beloved, making breakfast. An omelet with extra cheese signaled the start of summer break. But what surprised you was the abundance of bouquets, flowers covering multiple pieces of furniture.

"Did I blackout before you lost a bet or something? Why is there a botanical garden in our hotel room." You ask, admiring your favorite ones.

"Wanted to give you something pretty to wake up. Besides the obvious. Also, you got so drunk last night that you started singing this song about getting flowers." He explains.

You cringe as you recall shouting the lyrics, "Buying me all the flowers, swearing on yourself that you count on me," along with a few others.

"You let me get "belting out breakup songs" drunk?" you ask.

"Hey, who knows how many tipsy nights you'll have left in you?" He replies.

"Is this a jab about me aging, how dare you? You're older than me, you prick. Wait. Oh? Is this about?" You go on, then the realization hits you. Daniel's actually talking about

"A baby, yes. You are bad at picking up on hints. Do you think we should try for kids? I know we've had the conversation before, but are you still sure?" He asks. In truth, he hopes you'd still say yes like before. Screw being World Champion, all he wanted now was to be a father.

"I've never been more sure. I know I can count on you and you can count on me. Though let's wait a bit, I don't want to be giving birth in the middle of the Dutch GP or something." You add, shuddering at the thought of being pregnant in the paddock.

"Baby Zandvoort Stroopwaffel Ricciardo wouldn't stand a chance in the world." Danny jokes before pulling you in a kiss.

“I don't know, I think they're going places.” You say after pulling away.

As Daniel helps the driver with the direction, you quip

"Glad that you've had time to roam around Nevada while I was at home packing up my things from what was our apartment. In Monaco, surrounded by our friends' pitiful looks."

"My friends. They're my friends. Besides, one of us had to stay here for six weeks. Otherwise they wouldn't let us get divorced." he says.

"Oh, there was no graph on the fucking forms for custody of racing drivers. And maybe someone should have looked more closely at the law before complaining. You were so reckless and cheesy for proposing in Vegas. And now we have to deal with this." You argue.

"Well I wasn't the one who wanted to break it off. That was all you, sweetheart." He fights back. You're about to make a jab at him for not using that competitiveness on the track.

The man in the driver's seat just sighs and points to a decal above the mirror. It says "no conflicts, please." You can't help it. You want your ex to scream, swear, so you know he's hurting.

But you try to be the bigger person. You and Danny had always been explosive. Before, it was passion. Stolen kisses on busy streets. Hands dangerously close to intimate places on Australian beaches (accompanied by down under jokes that never got old). Hotel room pillows under headboards. It was a miracle that you actually didn't have to file for custody. You guess it didn't take. The universe knew. And despite all the happy, messy, angry raw sex you had, the tests always came back negative. You chuckle at the sweets still in your carry-on, remembering that talk about naming your child after Zandvoort. You extend a pack to Daniel, a peace offering. Stroopwaffels were truly the answer to everything.

"I can't believe you remember to bring me these. I thought you hated me." He says, when he's not sinking his teeth into the syrup filled snack.

"Despite popular belief, I don't live to see your downfall." You reply. We both already saw it is what you think. And when you hear your "other half" say it back to you, you almost believe in soulmates again.

Daniel and you make a few stops. First you two look over the divorce forms with his lawyer. Then you make sure they are notary certified. And lastly, you head back to the courthouse. Nevada is colder than you remember. You shiver as he wraps an arm around you. That's how you walk in to the building. Lovers, soulmates, best friends. Anything but strangers. This time Daniel's the one that breaks when he sees you crying. His thumbs are gentle, wiping the tears from your cheeks with such love that you're almost ready to take it all back. To say "sike", to tear the forms in stripes and use them as confetti you kiss under. To momentarily forget and keep doing that until you forgive him. Instead you go through with it. Right outside when you're officially legally single, you can speak.

"I get why you had to get wasted yesterday. This hurts." you say.

"Wanna go out drinking together. You know, one last time? As a warranty I won't dial your number after the last call like I did back then." Daniel suggests.

"Lead the way, Vegas boy." you reply.

You were lost, figuratively and literally. Singapore was not a good place to wander off in. The 3 cap on your face is pulled down to your eyes. In the end you decide to go back for the race. To give Danny a chance. He's too emotional to talk to you in depth. He kisses you, and your hands grip his denim like shirt. Good luck is all you manage to say. The stars in the Singapore night are what you stare at for the majority of the race. Even with the fastest lap, you can sense it's not enough.

Your heart breaks when Daniel doesn't get out of the car immediately. You wish you could rush over to him, talk. Then you see his face and know. He's grieving. For his legacy, his future. There's no send off. You stay with him until late, until it's just you two and the photographer on the track. You can't do this right now. It's after your flight back that you ask. You deal the final blow to Daniel's life. You ask him for a divorce.

He posts on Instagram before he replies to you. You like the picture, and you pour out your feelings in the comments. You tell him you'll always be proud of him and his achievements. You tell him that you love him. You can't bear to say anything about the future. Because his future is no longer your concern.

He calls you in the middle of the night. He's tired of everyone, drunk, super sad and tells you

"I miss you." as if you don't know. It brings you no joy to hear this. You just ask him to pass the phone to someone else in the bar and you get his location.

"You know, for someone who makes wine, you are a light weight." you comment as you help him back into your shared apartment. You don't wonder where he's staying and whether he likes it. You're lying. Even as you try to settle on the couch, you can't relax. You go to your bed and watch Daniel snore softly. You carefully get in next to him. Sensing the dip in the mattress, he immediately pulls you into his arms.

"Did we fight? I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I didn't mean it. Don't go on the couch, please." He whispers, voice groggy from sleep. He had gotten so wasted he completely forgot he was in the process of divorcing you.

"I'm right here, Daniel. I'm not going anywhere." you say as you turn towards him. You relax into his chest. For the first time in 168 hours you get a decent sleep.

The next day, he just packs some leftover clothes into a suitcase and leaves for the airport. You see him in America and remember the talks with Christian. The faint mentions of Redbull ambassador duties in the States. Despite everything, he chose the job instead of you. Even retired, he was more loyal to the team, which didn't even give him more than 3 photos and a paragraph on Instagram.

Daniel said he'd reject it. Yet, the moment he was free of you, he took it. You had been the roadblock again, being the thing making his career go wrong. After years of being his talisman, you had turned to a bad omen. Of course it was best for you to leave while you can, sprint towards the exit.

You're in front of a bar entrance.

"Is this a good idea? I know we've both been drinking away the end of our relationship, and marriage. So maybe tonight, let's not." You say, suddenly getting cold feet.

"You're right. Do you wanna see the apartment? Make it seem like you're here for a regular vacation with your husband?" He hesitates on the last word, yet still uses it.

"It would be a shame to not see what Vegas residency has done to your taste." You reply.

"You'll love the slot machine in the kitchen, brings the whole place together." Danny jokes and you laugh and it's almost like the old times. He's missed this.

Bachelor Daniel is different than you'd expect. He cooks you both pasta and has one of those fridges with a water and ice dispenser. After dinner, he shows it to you, and it escalates into a chase, pelting frozen cubes at each other. He catches you easily, damn his F1 reflexes.

The ice from his hand is violent poured at the front of your shirt and you fucking moan. Daniel watches the droplets and realizes you're not wearing a bra. It happens in a flash. You're pinned against the counter, your ex husband grabbing another icecube from his fancy fridge. It melts on his tongue, your tongue as you kiss. Daniel's cold lips make you shiver and beg for more as they move from your neck to your chest.

"I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." He mumbles, now between your thighs. You tell him that " his whole life isn't going to be enough time for him to apologize to you, but this is a good start.". When his tongue licks a stripe down your pussy, it's literally frozen.

"Baby, it's like Frosty the snowman is eating me out, stop." You say and he pulls away immediately. "I need you still, though. Can you fuck me, please. It's been months." You continue.

He's on his feet, towering over you, lips on your neck.

"I don't have a condom though. Is that okay?" Daniel asks.

"Damn, single for 6 weeks and already banging other people raw. You don't waste time,huh." You recoil, trying to move away from him.

"I haven't been with anyone else. Only you. " He confesses.

You're back in his arms, this time taking the lead. It's a different kiss, slow and gentle.

"Then tonight's your lucky night, lover boy. A hot divorcee in your area needs you." You joke as you lead him to bed. You want to be in control, at least with this. For once, you feel at ease again. You grind against him, slowly teasing you both. You sink down on his cock, and he doesn't miss the hiss you let out as you get used to his size again. You ride him, gradually getting closer to your orgasm. You speed up the pace, asking him to fuck you. As you come, you're begging, needing and pleading him to come for you, to finish inside of you. Who is he to deny you? Besides he doesn't think he can get himself to pull out. He too wants nothing more than to spill his seed inside of you, to fuck you through his orgasm. And he does so.

You're both spent, as he pulls away. His mouth is moving faster than his brain when he says "I love you.".

"Don't be cruel, Daniel. Don't talk to me about love when you don't know it." you respond and leave.

You can't leave your house. Even though you're the one that ended it. You're stuck inside, sad songs and ice cream galore. You know that eventually, it will stop hurting. The endless edits of Daniel to Pink Skies aren't helping. You wonder how he is. You wish he wore the hurt on his sleeve. He looked so happy. With Josh, or at the stupid Red Bull event. It's selfish, but you wish to see how these nights end. It's time for him to cry. Because there's no sign that you'd been his at all.

Daniel somehow managed to lose you twice. You don't come back. You just send a text asking to keep the ring on. He takes it as a sign. But all in him that believed evaporated later that week. You're back with your friends. Danny remembers you had mentioned that you'd be staying with them. You neglected to say anything about what was unfolding in front of his eyes via Instagram. A divorce party. They threw you a fucking rager. He analyzes every second of every video. A stranger that’s there worries him. The guy looks freakishly like him. And he keeps hiding his face, clearly not belonging there. The motherfucker is in a 3 piece suit for fuck’s sake. And keeps orbiting in your personal space.

Then it's almost radio silence. You barely post. There's a picture of you, 2 dinner plates ,glasses of water and a fancy restaurant. A number and a heart is all he gets to know you've moved on. Daniel was never good at math, but it doesn't take a genius to calculate when this happened. The day after your divorce party. Because of your new beau, now you only post the occasional selfie. Then the bomb drops. A video of you and his doppelganger. At a fucking gender reveal. And you're the one expecting. The caption reveals the due date. Daniel wants to be spiteful. He wants to know just how many days after you two last saw each other you were fucking others. He plugs in the day you're about to be due into a sketchy fertility calculation website. It's actually very detailed and indicates that you conceived on the last day of your ovulation. Which just happens to be the last night you saw him.

Daniel was about to have a kid. A tiny human being in whose life he would never be a part of. He can't help but think what would happen if he could turn back time. His heart tells him he'd somehow still manage to turn the situation into this.

[halcyone-of-the-sea]

super duper congratulations on 5k, you absolutely deserve each and every one lovely ! i’m sure you’ve got a ton already, but at the suspiciously low number of soap requests, may i ask for an enemies to lovers ? perhaps in a ‘constantly-butting-heads-to-the-point-where-everyone-around-them-is-bashing-their-skull-in-from-annoyance’ to lovers sense. and maybe a dash of forced proximity? i know he’s a literal ball of sunshine, but i will enemies to lovers-fy any character i can get my hands on and you do the trope justice every! time!! of course, only if you would like to, sending love! <3 xx

—A Song of Gnashing Teeth

⇢ ˗ˏˋ 5k Drabble Masterlist ࿐ྂ

╰┈➤ ❝ [There was never a day where the two of you weren't butting heads - everyone was at their wit's end. Of course, you would both be forced to cooperate at some point.] ❞

“Stop moving,” the command comes in from your right ear, fizzling in and out as the connection pops. The comms were spotty in the higher altitudes, and even as the sweat stuck to your skin and the bugs buzzed, it still tried its best to come through. 

Just as you were trying your best not to snap.

“I’m not moving, Captain MacTavish,” you ease out. “I’m lined up.” 

Sniping in South America was the mission for the next two months—targets lined up with terrorist connections that needed to be six feet under per Shepherd’s orders ASAP. Two teams had been sent out, but only to work together for this instance. Yours, obviously, and the second belonging to a man you’d not seen in years.

The taste was still bitter in your mouth when you were around him, though.

“Don’t lie to me, Dearie—scope’s shakin’ more than a drunk after his sixth bottle.” Your eyes glare ahead, a sneer building slowly over your lips.

“You’re one to talk?” You scoff, dense foliage swaying as you focus on the head of one of your targets. Your men listen intently over the line as the two Captains bicker—all in the town below waiting to do a snatch-and-grab of one of the individuals you would need to interrogate. “Moscow, Russia, five years ago,” you speak in clipped sentences. “Target in her penthouse. White curtains swaying in the breeze. What do you do, Soap? Oh, that’s right,” you growl, “you shoot the damn marble statue thinking it was her after two bottles of shit wine.”

There’s a click of a tongue over the line. A smirk easily heard that leaves you fuming.“I remember I happened to be a bit distracted that day, Hen. Not as much as you, though, aye?”

“Only thing I was distracted by,” you flick off your sniper rifle’s safety, undisturbed by the blatant insinuation. “Was your ability to not fucking see clearly.” 

A low grumble wafts out, cutting the line a few times. 

Your joined unit all seem to try and stop their hands from slapping their faces in annoyance—the connection heavy with tension and anticipation. Whoever decided it was smart to put the two of you together either thought it would be funny, or they hoped you could both get past your own egos for the sake of the mission. 

As if. 

“I’m taking the shot,” you sigh. “Team One—get ready to intercept the second target on my go.” 

For once, the Scot seems to agree with you, voice coming back to that serious gruff bark. “Two, keep the area locked down; no need to let the others get too excited and pop off shots. Save our arses the trouble.”

You let your finger slip down to the trigger, eye open and stance relaxed—taking into account distance and wind as you level to notch three. 

“On my go,” you say again, the comms lighting up with affirmatives. “Three…two…” Your finger squeezes just as, “Go,” is muttered into the air. 

In the scope, you watch the head of your target explode into a mess of blood in black and white, the spray flying into the air like rain only to fall once more as the body drops. 

The conjoined teams do as they’re told, moving in the middle of chaos to grab at the second mark—one needle to the neck later, and it’s a limp form that they drag into the back of an awaiting van. 

“Mission success. Pack it up and let's get goin’.” John’s voice breaks you out of your focus, letting you blink at the disappearing van before you shift your head away entirely, taking a low breath. “Shepherd’ll have new orders.”

“‘Course he will,” you grunt, moving to push up into your knees and crack your back. 

It’s only after a moderate hike back into the woods that you see him waiting, having trekked back from his perch as well, through bugs and branches. The rifle is slung over your back, just as his is loosely held in front of him. 

“John,” you mutter in greeting, slapping away a mosquito. Blue eyes glance your way, scar moving as a smirk meets your eyes. He never changed—even that mohawk is still the same. A disheveled dog down to the bone in his mouth.

“Dearie,” a firm nod is leveled. “Nice shot, then.”

“Ironic,” your head tilts, slowing as you meet him a few feet separated. A silence settles like steel to the hard floor, the long pause that draws on tension as a tight cord. 

John clears his throat, watching you as your eyes narrow, brow twitching. 

He steps once more towards you with one foot, leaning in.

“I suppose this is where I wait for you to slap me,” he tilts his head, still smirking. 

“I’m thinking about it,” you draw, blinking slowly. “Don’t tempt me, MacTavish. I don’t need disorderly conduct and assault on my record.” 

“Done worse.” You scowl.

“You’re acting like you want me to do it, damn freak.”

“I’m just saying I’d be expecting it, is all.” Smooth chuckles waft out as your hand waves in exasperation, walking forward. It’s only after you’re about to move into the trees and disappear from view that he calls once more to you. 

Your feet slow, but don’t stop.

“I really did miss you.” Eyelids moving just a tiny bit wider, your lips thinned out. Boots shuffle in the grass from behind you. “Thought you’d come back eventually, aye?” 

You stay silent, body still near the sentinels of old tree trunks. 

The parting of the two of you could have gone better—there were some things that couldn’t be fixed. You’d always be at each other’s throats, needless of missions or personal matters. 

You look over your shoulder to lock with digging blues—the structure of John’s face always seared into your mind so much so you could draw it even if years had passed.

“You never gave me a reason to stay.” 

He blinks in surprise, but you’ve already shifted away, heart pinched. 

“Good working with you, Captain,”  you say, already gone. Memories linger in the air, suffocating you. Your eyes close tightly, and you grit your teeth. “Call me if you need me.”

A shout echoes above the yells from the town far into the distance, meeting your ears. 

“I plan on it!”

You huff under your breath, but your skipping heart betrays you.

[dcdreamblog]

Question.

I have heard people assert that the current bearer of the heroic identy of the Guardian is a clone of the original. I have also seen photos of The Guardian working with the Titans, and...he's very clearly a Black man.

So, um. I have questions, because you would think the newspapers back in the '30s would have... mentioned this, especially given how he was reported to have campaigned hard to ease ethnic tensions in the poorer parts of Depression-era Metropolis, denouncing those who exploited or exacerbated those tensions as being friends of crime and enemies of America's ideals even before the War started?

Ok so, we're crossing a lot of streams here and I want to you to know that that's normal. These sorts of things are opaque and confusing and that is why we HAVE people like my in the first place. You are thinking of 3 different men right now. In order:

Guardian I, AKA James Jacob "Jim" Harper

(Sketch of Harper and his wards the "Newsboy Legion" signed by the legendary pop artist and correspondent Jack Kirby)

Harper was indeed born and raised as an orphan in the Metropolis neighborhood known as Suicide Slum (the name has stuck but I can tell you, in the 21st century it's as clean and safe as the rest of Metropolis, mostly to Black Lightning's credit). During the depression it was infamous for a reason, flush with organized crime, poverty and corruption.

Harper originally attempted to serve his community as a police officer but found that the police department was half or more of what was wrong with the neighborhood in the first place. After being assaulted by some gangsters he cobbled a costume together from a nearby shop (which he still paid for, incidentally). Bursting into a nearby pool hall his attackers frequented, he actually ended up busting open a rather high profile kidnapping case.

Eventually he became the legal guardian of a group of young delinquents called the Newsboy Legion and helped to turn them toward the path of righteousness. He joined up with the All Star Squadron early, served with distinction during and after the war. (We have an exhibit here all about him, the costume and shield are reproductions of course because both are still in use more or less, even if they weren't they're rightfully in the hands of his next of kin)

He was cloned under vile circumstances by the equally vile Project Cadmus, who were up to all kinds of immoral and unethical genetic experiments. When Harper attempted to put a stop to it, he was killed by Cadmus' head of security.

The murder was uncovered and prosecuted through the combined work of Superboy, the clone of Harper and Cadmus' secretly enslaved workforce the Genomorphs. Who are a subject all of their own but, if any should be reading this, I hope you are thriving.

The cloned Harper is still active as a superhero in the modern day. One can assume under an assumed name but variants of "Jim Harper" wouldn't jump out at people even if he was going by it day to day. Out of respect for his privacy I'm not going to speculate any further into his personal life, one can assume he has been through MORE than enough.

Now the other man you spoke about is VERY mysterious indeed...

(The 3rd Guardian alongside Bumblebee in battle against The Ant, unknown photographer, posted online) You are right in that he is very clearly a black man and that is basically ALL I can say about him. He seems to come and go, always in the company of the Teen Titans, is in some manner of romantic relationship to mainstay member Bumblebee and he just up and vanishes for long stretches of time. (This was put together by clips captured of them in combat. Referring to Bumblebee as "baby", "dear" or "my girl". And being referred to as "babe", "lover" and "man of mine")

Theories, of course, abound with the most popular one being that he is the romantic partner/husband/whatever of Bumblebee in their civilian identities and while not a superhero by trade he will take up this identity when needed. A "friend of the family" I guess you could say who hops in when the Titans need an extra pair of hands.

He's competent in combat and seems to be trusted implicitly by the Titans themselves so who the hell am I to judge?

[latent-thoughts]

The Jews weren't the first natives in that region. The Canaanites were there before the Jews showed up to violently erase them from existence for the terrible crime of not being of Yahweh's choosen people. All Jews know this. It is literally in the fucking book. You know this.

Don't lie in order to defend the idea that Israel is a thing that absolutely must exist. It's fine that you believe that idea, but what's getting irksome is this underlying insistence that "Israel must exist" is an obvious conclusion to the region's problems and anyone who has a modicum of moral fiber in their soul can clearly see that. Your religion isn't true to the people who aren't you. I do not recognize the Jews as a chosen, special sort of people and I shouldn't be expected to. And, yes, I can tell when it's expected because they'll get annoyed when I mention the Canaanites. Yeah, I've seen the eye-rolls, the "history's a complex mess so I'm justified in picking and choosing what events humanity should give a shit about based on how recent they are and how much the directly affect MY culture" bullshit, the accusations of antisemitism despite the fact that I would be completely fine with the existence of Israel if the people who made it didn't, well, slaughter the families of Canaanites in order to do so. Also, Israel isn't a person or a type of person, it's a state, it's completely fine to hate and isn't synonymous with hating Jews. If you think that it is, I'm going to remind you that people who aren't Jewish exist and they don't need to necessarily have the values Jews want them to in order to good people.

If the foundation of your state is built on moving into land that isn't yours and erasing the people that your god doesn't want there, it's completely reasonable to expect that other states might just return that favor in kind. After all, you set the precedent, right? And then constantly referred to it in your holy texts like it was the best, most necessary thing that ever needed to happen. That kind of zeal certainly won't spread.

Oh boy, I'm going to say it. I think that all of the states that have ever engaged in and justified (I'm going to say it) genocidal behavior aren't really... y'know worth defending? Worth giving a shit about? And yeah, saying "God needed us to do it! We are the chosen people! HOLY LAND!" is a shitty justification. Objectively shitty. Jewish people aren't the chosen people to anyone else besides other Jewish people. Nothing really wrong with that, but... nothing really that right with it either. It kinda cancels itself out.

Long ask, I know. Whatever. Stop lying. The Canaanites were there before the Jews. The Jews killed them all then called the land they stole from them "Israel". See? There are perfectly good reasons to hate Israel that have nothing to do with Palestine.

C'mon, the Americas had fucking slavery. England tried to take over the world. Hell, Germany tried to kill all of you! Israel is another shitty place. It isn't special.

I vow to ignore Israel from now on, achieving everlasting peace and making the entire Middle East envious of me.

Oh, and to be absolutely clear in the most awkward manner possible, I don't hate the Jews. I just find their bullshit to be really fucking annoying.

If the Jews killed them all, how is it that their DNA is still dominant in modern day Jews (plus Palestinians and other populations of Levant)?

The truth is that both Jews and Palestinians were part of the same people at some point in time, who also mixed with Canaanites and settled in the region that is modern day Israel+Levant. And Canaanites' ancestors had actually arrived in that region from further East.

So by your logic, then, even the Canaanites weren't the natives of that land.

(There may have been tribal wars, as was common in that era, but it's pretty clear that no one wiped out anyone.)

We can keep going back in time to disprove the indigeneity of people till we arrive in Africa. Which is kind of moronic, TBH.

Personally, I'm not denying the indigeneity of either Jews or Palestinians. Only you are trying to justify your hatred for Jews and denying that they have a right to live in their homeland. Just by saying that you don't hate Jews doesn't veil your anti-semitism.

Both Jews and Palestinians deserve to live there. A two state solution is one way for it. Terrorism by Hamas isn't.

Furthermore, if you know your history (which I'm having doubts about), you know that Jews were persecuted and driven out of almost all the countries and kingdoms they had moved to over the centuries. There were Jews in the Middle Eastern countries, African countries, Europe, etc.. Tell me what happened to them. If you can't, you don't understand why Jews wanted a country of their own, in their native homeland.

With the exception of India, they were either killed, forcefully converted, or driven out of these countries at some point in time. The Holocaust is just one such instance over the centuries, and it was a big deal. The present day rising anti-semitism only strengthens their belief that they're never fully accepted in other places. Hence their need for self determination and separate state of their own (which they already have, btw).

Also, I know you didn't bother to check before coming in my inbox to spew venom, but I'm not Jewish. I'm not even from that region. But I understand what it means to have a history that's full of massacres and genocide of my people.

Plus, I'm someone who likes to stay informed, someone who's against anti-semitism. I don't need to be a Jew to understand where they're coming from.

[oacest]

New bands can be extremely delicate. Some local chancers had decided they weren't ready for press (in the Manchester Evening News? Oh, perr-leeze), leaving me with no lead feature. The pub beckoned. On the way, I bumped into one of my neighbours. I'd seen his band recently, and asked what he was up to.

"Guess what happened in Glasgow last night?" he replied. It was Noel Gallagher, and the band were Oasis. Noel told me how Alan McGee had barged backstage after their now-legendary gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, and signed them on the spot. I threatened him with battery if he was lying. I interviewed a still-reeling Noel that day, alongside an admittedly unpredictable but otherwise sweet and pleasant Liam, who tempered his obvious glee by striding around in a show of brash, comedy bravado.

There were no fraternal fisticuffs, just some genial ribbing, as Noel – clearly in control and articulate as ever – reined in the overexcited Liam. I remember Noel's exquisite but compact music collection, including the Stones (Noel used a photo of a young Mick Jagger on his backstage photo-pass and nobody noticed) and early REM (I don't remember seeing any Beatles). The result was the first full article on Oasis to run anywhere.

The signs were already there. A friend rented the rehearsal room next door. He'd hear a massive Gallagher bust-up, sullen silence, and then they'd play I Am the Walrus ad infinitum.

I witnessed their live debut. No matter what you think of them, they had the tunes, and even for an audience of roughly 25, Liam exhibited that trademark swagger, as if he was headlining Glastonbury, not the Boardwalk. Geoff Travis of Rough Trade checked out the long-forgotten support band, leaving soon after. My snippet in the MEN was headlined: "Oasis Are Going Places". They were, and they did.

Everything got silly. I sent a mutual friend in America the ridiculous Oasis Xmas wrapping paper, free with the NME. Liam became red-top gossip fodder. Previously, I'd seen him at the Hacienda, already targeted by several adventurous ladies. Noel's then girlfriend (who apparently said: "Your music's shite/ It keeps me up all night.") whispered, "That boy's heading for trouble - Noel's warned him."

31 Aug 2009

[homunculus-argument]

Also hey I got my first Spooky Camping Experience the other night:

It's still so warm out there at night and it wasn't going to rain, so we didn't put up the whole tent - we just had the mosquito net over our bedding and sleeping bags. That way we could still see the whole surrounding forest quite clearly, with wild blueberry and other pine barren undershrub growing all around us, and pine branches reaching above us over the sky. It's still light enough at night in Finland at this time of the year that even if it hadn't been cloudy, we would have seen no stars.

Our campsite was beside a clearing on a rocky hill, covered mostly by moss, lichen and whatever trees find the cracks in the bedrock to be a fit place to grow, and the path there was exposed bedrock itself, formed to where the moss, lichen and undershrub had been worn down by the feet of more animals than people. We could see the clearing from the tent with ease. Neither of us were used to sleeping in the wild - my partner had not done so for a long time, and I had never done so at all - so we didn't sleep well. Around two or three AM I turned around to the clearing and saw a tiny, faint light.

The night wasn't dark, but still dim, and the view was obscured somewhat by the black mosquito net, but the light was still clearly there. Smaller than the flame of a candle, colourless but not white, hovering perfectly still exactly in place, in a position above the bedrock footpath. Whatever the source was, it made no sound. I sat up in the tent, moved around somewhat to better assess where it was, and it did, indeed, stay perfectly still in a place above the ground. In my travels to America I had seen their yellow-green fireflies before, and though at the time I had never seen anything like them before, I knew they weren't native to Finland and whatever the source of that light was, it wasn't flying.

It was perfectly still, as if suspended in the air, hovering exactly in place above the ground. A tiny dot of light, as if a pin prick on the fabric of reality itself, puncturing the darkness.

My partner was drifting in and out of poor sleep as well, and I asked him if he could see it, too. I have never had a hallucination or psychotic symptom in my life but I had to make sure. He agreed that it was there, he saw the faint light too. So I got up to investigate, weaseled out of the tent in my underwear and clumsily put my boots on outside to go see what it was. I feared the light would disappear before I got to it, and we would never know the truth. But it didn't, it kept glowing just as clear, distinct and yet tiny, as I approached.

I had been right in my assessment that it was above ground level, at knee level above the bedrock path, but it wasn't suspended in the air as I had thought. It was sitting on a stump that I hadn't seen in the darkness. It was some kind of a bug, glowing faintly green in the darkness, just chilling there, either unaware or at least entirely indifferent to the fact that I was staring at it as closely as I could in the dim light. I couldn't make out any more detail of what it was, but I was only marginally less surprised to learn that there even are bioluminescent insects in Finland than I would have been to discover proof of the existence of the supernatural.

Making my way back to the tent, I stumbled while taking off my boots, stepping on the corner of the tent and breaking off the loop by which we had suspended the tent to a nearby tree. We slept the rest of the night - poorly - in a broken mosquito net tent, and headed back home a few hours later. I'll have to repair the tent later at some point before we can go out into the woods again.

But for a moment there, I had spent several minutes sitting in my sleeping bag on the undershrub forest floor, in the perfectly quiet and peaceful finnish wilderness, staring at a faint light the like of which I had never seen before and could not explain, wondering that perhaps there really was a chance that the fair folk of the forest truly do exist, and what surprised me the most was that I still felt perfectly safe.

[shuuuuush]

Hello!! I’ve seen your one shots and there absolutely amazing, your very underrated and I love your work. I was wondering if you could do a scenario where the beta squad members reject you and regret it afterwards like maybe you confess your feelings and there having a bad day and maybe reject you or they don’t really pay attention to your confession and you distance yourself and afterwards they regret it and basically apologize just an angst to fluff scenario and you can change it however you want but I would love that, thank you! It’s okay if you don’t wanna do it just don’t stop writing for the beta squad because your work is absolutely amazing!!!

Rejection and Regret [Beta Squad Scenarios]

Warnings: none

A/N: Aww, thank you so much! Sorry it took a while. I was trying to figure out how they might react because honestly, I don't think any of them would take confessions lightly, but I hope you enjoy it!

*** ***

*** ***

You were excited as you had previously planned a fun day to hang out with Niko. Today, at the end of it, you were going to confess your feelings to him.

You drove to his house to pick him up, staying in the car for a bit. You called his phone number,

"Hello?" Niko answered. He sounded a bit confused to receive your call.

"Hi Niko, I'm here at your house to pick you up now." Responding to him with an excited tone, knowing all the things you planned for the both of you would definitely raise his spirits up.

"Oh shoot," Niko sighed. You could hear that he rubbed a hand over his face, "Y/N, I'm so sorry I completely forgot about that."

He forgot?

"Well you can just prepare, no worries I can wait out here!" You hoped, a little disappointment tinging your voice as you tried to stay positive.

"No Y/N, I'm not at my house, I'm not even in England right now. I'm on a plane to America. California to be exact."

Now it was your turn to be shocked, couldn't he have told you this before you made plans?

"California!? Why are you going there?" You were perplexed and hurt at the suddenness of it all.

"I'm filming a video with the guys, for the beta squad channel."

Of course he was.

"Y/N, I'm sorry, we can hang out another time? It's not that important right?" Niko said, you could hear chatter over the phone someone calling out to Niko, probably Kenny. "I have to go, sorry again, see you Y/N." And he hung up the phone.

You blinked in disbelief, and stared at your phone for a solid minute just processing what happened. He was in California filming a video? And he just so happened to forget to let you know about that, on the day you made plans to tell him your feelings.

Clearly it didn't really matter to him, he could've let you know beforehand and you would have understood and changed it to a different day. But this felt like you got stood up on a date, which technically it was.

You were really gutted by his actions, driving home you decided to scrap the idea all together. Maybe he doesn't even like you at all.

A week went by and you didn't call ot text him at all. Others can call it selfish but that hurt you, that day was all planned out and important to you and perhaps the both of you if he did like you back.

You were sitting at your couch, watching TV while wallowing in your own self pity as your friends would call it. Mindlessly scrolling just trying to not let it get to you too much.

Your door bell rang, and you just called out to the door saying it was open. You were expecting one of your friends to come over so you thought it was her.

"Y/N."

You stopped everything you were doing. That was the voice you wished you couldn't hear at the moment. But also the same one you longed to have. Turning around slowly, the same tall figure you loved. Niko.

He stood there, wearing a thick jacket and even had a bag on, you assumed he had just come from the airport. Swiftly walking towards you, a phone in his hand.

"Why weren't you responding to my calls? And why did you just leave your door open like that? You are really an idiot."

You stared up at him, still in shock. Did he really just come straight from the airport to you? And did he say he called you? Everything was spinning right now in your head.

"Y/N? Are you OK?" Niko asked, removing his bag and jacket and coming over to you on the couch and putting a hand on your shoulder.

Then it hit you. Maybe he did care about you? Maybe he was here to tell you? Maybe you would never get another chance again. So you just blurted all your thoughts out without thinking straight.

"Niko, I really like you, okay? That's why I wasn't responding to your calls and texts because I was hurt that you told me you were in a whole different country, when I had this whole day planned out for us and I was gonna confess to you at the end and I thought you didn't like me."

And then he kissed you, with just one kiss, it confirmed to you that he didn't hate you at all. That was all you needed to know.

Pulling away to hold your face in his hands, "Y/N, I'm so sorry I missed that day. I didn't mean to hurt you like that, I hope you can forgive me, because I really like you too."

Sharky wasn't sure how to react when you confessed to him. He was having mixed feelings, honestly. He didn't know whether or not he liked you.

So when he told you he didn't accept your confession right now, he meant that he needed some time to figure out his own feelings for you.

You did end up distancing yourself from him. Yes, you were hurt, but you understood. Especially since you felt like that at the start, but then one kind act from Sharky was all it took to confirm your love for him.

You decided to spend some time with your good old friend, Harry Pinero. He thought you would be up to spend some time together to get your mind off it.

Harry always knew a way to cheer you up, whether that would be food or just some time spilling all the tea to him, and he inhaled all the gossip like air. Harry knew your feelings for Sharky, and he had hoped it would have gone well for you.

But when you told him, Sharky declined and said he had to figure himself out first. He was ready to connect his fist to the Somali's face. You stopped him obviously, but he didn't hide the fact that he was annoyed you two didn't get together. He definitely was your number one shipper of you both.

You were at a party with Harry as he invited you and said it would be good to cool off there, what you didn't know was that he had a plan. He invited Sharky too.

You were standing beside the food table and just enjoying your time there, you almost forgot about being rejected for a moment there.

Until you saw a certain someone walk through the door, the very person you tried to not get upset over, Sharky.

You tried not to let him see you, so you went up to talk to Harry and tell him that you saw Sharky. You didn't see the evil smirk on his face when you looked back at the door.

"Well, Y/N. You could just stay here with good old Harry you know?" He laughed and wrapped one arm around your shoulder, he whispered to you, "Don't worry about it, just calm down and you got this."

You were about to question what he meant by that when suddenly Sharky approached the two of you.

"Uh, hey Harry." He waved at the taller man, and then looked at you, and nodded. "Y/N."

"Hey Sharky. What are you doing here?"

"Actually, I was about to ask the same to you." Sharky replied, "anyways since you're here, I actually wanted to talk to you."

"What about?"

"Yeah, Sharky, what about?" Harry repeated your question, earning an annoyed look from the both of you. Harry ended up excusing himself from this as he could tell it was a private conversation.

"Well, what did you want to talk abou-"

"I love you, Y/N." Looking earnestly into your eyes, "I figured out that I love you, I actually love you so much I would do anything for you. And I was such an idiot to have rejected you like that."

Your eyes softened as you observed the man in front of you, beating himself up over the fact that he almost lost you. Even thinking that you would fall out of love with him so fast is stupid. You loved him and you always will.

"When I saw you hanging out with Harry the past few days, I won't lie. I was a bit jealous. And I realised it was because I loved you. And I want to be with you, Y/N. If you'll still have me." He looked up at you, a scared hope filling in his eyes.

How could you ever say no to him?

Later, you found out that Harry had called Sharky to attend and talked about both of your feelings, helping him realise that he truly did love you. You definitely owe the old man one.

You were invited to Kenny's family event, and you decided this would be a good time to let him know of your feelings. You felt as if he reciprocated them, so you weren't too anxious to let him know, but still, you were nervous.

After the meal, everyone went to the main room as there was a dance floor and music. Before you headed there, you discreetly pulled him to the side and asked if you could speak to him.

He led you out to a garden place that was quiet and a bit away from all the people.

"So what did you want to talk about?" He asked, curious as to what you wanted to say.

"Ok, well, I've been thinking a lot about this, and I was hoping you feel the same way," looking down to the floor and fiddling with your fingers.

"I really like you, Kenny, and I wanted to ask-"

"No." Came out of his mouth, cutting you off from your sentence. He stood there with an annoyed look on his face, shocking you as you thought he felt the same way.

Did he not like you that way? Or were you just fantasising that he did? So you had to ask.

"What do you mean no??" Pleading with your eyes that you heard it wrong or you misunderstood what he meant.

"No, because I was supposed to tell you my feelings first." He said, shaking his head, but forming a small smile, "I was supposed to ask you out, but here you are beating me to it. I'm just annoyed that I didn't get to say it first."

Scratching the back of his neck with a small pout on his face as you gazed at him. Reassured that it wasn't a rejection, you started to laugh.

His face grew to an even bigger frown at your laughing figure. But then he started to laugh with you.

"Seriously Ken?" Still laughing but calming down a bit. "Ok, I'll let you start this time and confess to me instead." You definitely will remember this moment forever.

A huge smile was put on the man you loved so much. Clearing his throat, he grabbed the nearest flower and held it out towards you.

"Y/N, I love you. Will you go out with me?"

You have never felt happier, and you best believe you told him yes.

This wasn't the best day for Chunkz. Filming fake employee videos was one he hated the most. He'll be honest. Everything that happened afterwards pissed him off, His car wouldn't work. The boys were extremely annoying to him today and much more.

And when you told him you liked him all out of the blue, that was the last straw. He can't handle all this new information at once. So he told you to leave, he just needed a day's peace by himself with no one around to annoy him further.

At first, you were hurt, wondering why he just treated your feelings like rubbish thrown into the bin. Wondering what you could've possibly done that would've made him so mad.

You thought that news you brought him would have cheered him up, but apparently not. The thing is, you knew Chunkz had bad days, and this was one of them. He'll get around to you and respond back because to him, certain things shouldn't just be left off like that.

And that's what happened, The next morning, you got a call from Chunkz.

"Hey, what's up?" You answered, yawning as you were still sleepy as you just woke up.

"First off, I wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday, I was having a really bad day, and I just couldn't comprehend everything all at once."

You smiled behind the phone, you knew it.

"I was such a idiot towards you, my darlin, and I'm sorry about that. I like you a lot too."

You were completely awake now, and you laughed in relief, and you were so glad he felt the same. It would have absolutely crushed you if he actually meant how he treated you yesterday. "I'm so glad you feel the same way."

"Oh, and don't tell the mandem I got mad at you yesterday... They will probably smoke me if they find out I was an annoyed bastard when you confessed."

You most certainly will tell them, though you will just make it seem they found out from another source. ;)

"I know it's early in the morning, so I'll let you go back to sleep, my darlin. Though later I'll pick you up at 2 so don't forget." Then he hung up the call, leaving you smiling to yourself.

How could you go back to sleep now?

When you confessed to AJ that you liked him, he legit laughed. You were both in his sitting room because you had previously told him that you wanted to talk to him privately.

He thought it was something super important, but he never thought you would be one to joke around. So he laughed when you told him.

"You like me?" He laughed, putting a hand over your shoulder to try and calm down his laughter, taking deep breaths, "Hah, Y/N, I never thought you'd be a joke man, that's a good one."

"Aj, I'm not joking right now, I'm serious." You responded in disbelief at his reaction.

"Sure you are." He said with his voice clearly laced with sarcasm, "But if you "were," I wouldn't accept anyway. You're not good enough for me." He winked and started to giggle again but stifled his laughter.

At this point, you felt as if AJ thought everything you did was a prank to him. Spending time with him was so much fun, and you loved every minute of it. But you knew he wasn't taking you seriously, and so you stood up and left.

You could hear him call after you, asking where you were going, but you couldn't let him see you so upset like this, holding back your tears. You confessed your feelings to him, and he thought it was a prank? Insane.

On the drive back home, you kept hearing your phone go off and buzzing but you just put it on silent. You knew it was probably Aj, but you didn't want to answer him right now.

How could he treat you like that? Laughing off at your feelings like that. Even when you told him that your feelings were real.

I'm not good enough for you?

Thinking about it, though, he was a famous youtuber known all over many parts of the world, and you were just you. Of course, he thought you weren't good enough for him.

Arriving home, you decided not to eat dinner at the moment and just try and go to sleep. You didn't even reach your bedroom door yet until you broke down crying. Your heart hurt even more because, for once, you genuinely liked someone and told him, but just dismissed your feelings off as a joke.

Suddenly, you heard a knock at the door, but you didn't have the energy to open it, until you heard a soft voice speak.

"Y/N, I know you're in there, could you please let me in? Can I talk to you please?"

Knowing it was Aj, you won't lie and say you weren't upset, but you decided you'd at least give him the chance to talk to you, so you went and unlocked the door. Opening it, you saw him holding a bag full of your favourite food and snacks. Once he saw your face, you could instantly see the guilt he felt as it showed in his eyes.

Holding the door open, you motioned to let him enter. He went and put the food in the kitchen table and after he did he instantly came up and inveloped you into a tight hug.

Physical touch was one thing Aj didn't like, but seeing you so upset, he was willing to try with you.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were actually being serious, and you weren't responding to my texts or calls so I knew you actually meant what you said and I know you're hurt and I'm genuinely sorry about this." He rambled on nonstop, "And I even brought you some food to cheer you up because I know those are your favouri-"

You put a finger to his mouth to shush him and lightly giggle to yourself. "Aj, calm down and tell me calmly, I can't understand most of your rambling." Calming down, he took both of your hands and looked you straight in the eye, guilt in there, but you saw something else too, love enveloped over it, consuming his eyes.

"I thought you were pranking me, and I didn't want to be hurt if I did tell you I liked you and you actually didn't reciprocate my feelings." He looked down a bit in thought, and then took a deep breath as he looked back up at you,

"What I'm saying here is ... I really like you too, Y/N."

Taglist: @b4tasquad, @p3drii, @n1kodl, @elora-k, @slutforpablogavi

[vasito-de-leche]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you that your r1999 ocs are pretty and I love their designs too! Especially people in the fandom are pretty creative for making their r1999 ocs and I was wondering if do you have a tips for making an r1999 oc? I'm quite hard time making an oc from r1999.

Do you need them to make an oc based them irl people, history, myth or perhaps a fiction characters from another story? (For example, baby blue is based from Alice in the wonderland in the book, ig?)

Some characters are pretty unknown who their based of, for example like X, Pavia, Click and the other characters.

OH!! OH OKAY OKAY I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS OKAY

As far as I've seen, not EVERY character is based on a single actual figure, whether fictional or historical.

Yes, we have John Titor who is. John Titor. But some characters have PLENTY of different people that they reference in relation to their themes, others represent broad groups, movements or genres like horror, the hippie movement. You have Dikke who has many, many different references to figures of justice. Mondlicht, who seems to represent all three characters from Little Red Riding Hood--the girl, the wolf and the hunter. You have Blonney and Horropedia who reference a shitload of different things and actors and works within the horror genre.

With the examples you've given, X does not seem to reference a person but the concept of Rube Goldberg Machines. Pavia seems to reference the Werewolf of Pavia. Click? No clue actually, I haven't looked into him much, so I don't know what else he could reference beyond WWII.

Baby Blue is indeed a reference to Alice in Wonderland, but her 01 Story "Fantasy is in Vogue" clearly state that Baby Blue is NOT the Alice that discovered Wonderland. The rest of her lore and i2 Garment also imply that Baby Blue is more akin to the figure of the Red Queen as opposed to Alice.

My point is: if you'd like to make a character then you shouldn't feel like you have to pick a single historical figure. You can pick ANYTHING that interests you and to have your OC embody and represent--mythology, folklore, fantasy, artistic movements, music, architecture, history... LITERALLY ANYTHING. OR LITERALLY NOTHING!

The whole point of the characters in R1999 is that they're a small piece that represents the era they come from. That's why they're considered art pieces to be preserved by UTTU Magazine. This is why we have Sweetheart, who is based on Marylin Monroe but is also a biting critique on Hollywood.

And you can even take this a step further and toy with this idea, like I did with my own OCs!

Spina Venatores is meant to represent the people that are truly left behind and displaced, people that you once knew but weren't lucky enough to meet Vertin nor the Foundation, to drive home the idea that Vertin cannot save everyone no matter how hard she tries.

The vulnerable that were taken advantage of by Manus Vindictae, a group that represents extreme isolation and supremacy, who lack any meaningful connections other than their own elitist groups. So I wanted my OCs to feel extremely disconnected--that's why all of them don't look like they belong in any single era but straight out of a different game, why they lack details that could connect them to their original times, and why the themes and concepts they reference are vague and timeless. I'm also big on bones and dark topics, so I shoved a SHIT ton of those into them, easy!

I always suggest that people grab their favorite character from the game and connect their OC to them, makes it easier to establish a connection within the universe and find themes to start with. You like Druvis III? Easy, your OC could be a childhood friend she had in her homeland before she and her family moved to America. Or a noble from a family that had business with the Weyerhaeuser company. You like Madame Z? How about an OC who is an assistant for her?

If people are too shy to make direct connections like this with a canon character, then you have plenty of organizations and groups--Zeno, Laplace, the Foundation, the School of Discipline, Manus Vindictae, Apeiron, and who knows what else is out there.

You can even study the lore and find places to fill in with your OCs. That one tidbit from a few days ago that revealed theres a few other terrorist organizations aside from Manus Vindictae? Make your own terrorist organization! Have you seen the white and red enemies from the Mintage stages? The Rock City enemies and Little Finger Peter? Make an OC that belongs there!

It always helps to have a solid starting point if you can't pick an era or anything to use as a base for your OC! And don't be discouraged if you come up with something and R1999 suddenly drops a character with similar or near identical themes--take advantage of that! Your OC has the same arcanum skills as another character? Make them fight about it, make them study buddies, find ways to engrave your OC and make them relevant to the world in their own ways.

It happened to me with Pavia! So I just made my OC and Pavia be insufferable and hate each other! Easy!

If you're looking for resources, I have a post here--it's a little outdated since I know there's a lot more new things to add, but it's a good place to start! It also helps to study the characters you like and pick them apart to understand how to better make an OC!

[mammalsofaction]

Wedding Adventure, PART 1

Rating: T (swear words)

Ship: Heinz Doofenshmirtz/Perry the Platypus

Add tags: Human Perry, mute Perry, rewrite of Candace's Big Day, established relationship Perryshmirtz, marriage fic baybee, this was fun to write, all the Flynn-Fletchers and most of the Doofenshmirtzes are here.

Part 2 coming soon. (subscribe to this post)

A/N: The family knows they are OWCA agents, this is an AU where OWCA isn't a secret organisation, or at least not to family and loved ones. Heinz and Perry are both established OWCA agents, though Heinz still used to be an evil scientist. Perry's lore complies to the lore post I've made on him before.

---

"-weren't too angry about it, but a monkey was a monkey, and we are henceforth completely blacklisted from attending another political wedding in South India ever again."

The Flynn-Fletchers make appropriate ooh-and-ahhing noises, and Perry closes their large scrapbook album with some satisfying thump of finality, leaning back against the couch's backrest into his Heinz's embrace as Linda engages him in lighthearted discussions of grandeur wedding traditions and cultural holidays. Ferb struggles a bit with trying to properly peep the the front cover of the album from where he's standing on the carpet facing Perry, so Lawrence picks him up to put him on his lap, and Perry angles the book so the boy could enjoy touching it and appreciating all the details. He appreciates the boy's clear admiration; Perry deeply enjoys scrapbooking, and the album is a point of pride.

“Wow, Uncle Perry,” Phineas gushes, where he's practically sitting on Heinz's foot to for a closer look at the photos. “You and Dr. D has had so many cool adventures together!”

I know, huh? Perry signed, and ruffling the boy's hair. Ferb had boldly taken it upon himself to flip through the pages of the album to admire all the photos they had been showing before. He points a photo taken ground camera angle, looking up as they were jumping off a plane.

He remembers that one. Heinz had somehow gotten his parachute lines tangled then, jumping down the side of an active Volcano line in Indonesia. They reached the ground in one piece though, generally speaking.

“Yeah, you liked that one, kid?” Heinz asked, smiling. He always tried to be attentive to the boys' interests as possible, not least because he saw a lot of himself in them, and the childhood he could have had, had his own insatiable curiosity and intelligence was humored instead of scorned. Perry couldn't help himself from planting a kiss on his cheek, as Heinz turned the page to show them both the least blurry photo they could keep of a video as they escaped from man-eating piranha plants in the amazon.

Candace sighed wistfully at the sight. ”You guys are so cute together. I wish me and Jeremy are gonna grow up as close and affectionate you guys still are even after 5 years.”

Phineas clearly disagreed, at least from the confused scrunch of his nose by their blatant display of PDA, but he's way too polite-and distracted- to comment. Perry chortles, and ruffles his hair.

He wonders if their neighbour's kid from across the street- what was her name? Isabelle? -still had the blatant crush she had on Phineas since he had last seen her. Linda's boy still clearly had other priorities in mind, poor girl.

Ferb flips over to the back of the scrapbook to reveal empty pages, at which point he turns to face the both of them inquisitively.

“Ferb's right, Uncle Perry,” Phineas verbally agrees. “There's still some empty pages in your scrapbook. So many more adventures!”

“Good point, boys. Any plans for the rest of summer?” Lawrence asked.

”Well, we are going to go to the Galapagos tomorrow,“ Heinz muses, sending Perry a meaningful look. Perry blushes. "But we'll be back in America by Saturday for the reception."

”Reception?“ Linda asked in surprise. ”Who's gotten married?“

Perry and Heinz smile, and -as one- reveal the golden rings, hanging by subtle, durable chains around each their necks that had been hidden by the necklines of their shirts. The family gasps, the meaning of the gesture unmistakable; but Candace so loved putting it into words.

”You're engaged?“ She shrieks.

“Apparently it's why your uncle had been so insistent we come home between missions.” Heinz laughed, bumping into Perry's shoulder teasingly. Perry responds by rolling his eyes, and reaching for his fiance's hand, planting a sweet kiss on titanium knuckles. “He had this whole elaborate treasure hunt proposal planned by walking us through all our most meaningful locations of our first meeting, right here in Danville.”

Candace squealed. Perry started signing, picking up where Heinz had left off. We would have stayed to plan a full wedding too, and I really wanted the whole family to be there, but the Galapagos mission is a time-sensitive emergency. I managed to talk my boss into staying another night over so we could break the news to you, as well as Vanessa and Charlene, in person.

Linda coo-ed. "Oh, Perry this is so wonderful. I am so happy for you two. You're fantastic together."

"Does this mean you're going to have a wedding in the Galapagos?" Phineas asked.

Perry shrugs helplessly, then shakes his head.

"We might not have the time," Heinz elaborates regretfully. "Time-sensitive missions don't really give us much space for wedding planning, so we're planning to sign some documents, maybe find a church so we could at least be legally bound when we land, though neither of us are, hah, particularly religious…,“

"Like an elopement?" Linda blurts, surprised. Her husband chides her with a gentle “Honey-,”

“Well, not really.” Heinz says, scratching the back of his head. He tends to fidget, when he's nervous. “I mean-,”

“ELOPE?” Candace yelled, outraged. She's gotten to her feet, a look of wild panic in her eyes. Perry blinks. “Elope? No! You can't elope! That's so quick! Weddings are supposed to be this big, special thing! It's supposed to be the biggest, most momentous thing in your life, and you can't throw that away for some-some-,” she sputters. “Time-sensitive, life or death emergency on the other side of the globe!”

Perry and Heinz shares a quick, panicked look by her outburst. Candace, dear, Perry tries to sign, but she wasn't listening. She seemed to be on an absolute roll.

”Besides!“ She yells. ”Uncle Perry, if you get married in some church in the Galapagos, I can't be there!“ She stomps her foot for emphasis. ”When I was little, you promised me that I was going to be your bridesmaid. I can't be there in the Galapagos! What about my needs?!“

This time, Heinz throws away all pretence of subtlety, and turns to face Perry with a brief, but pointed, stare. Linda and Lawrence gasps. “Candace!” Her mother exclaims, scandalised.

“But mom-!”

Perry meets his fiance's gaze, embarrassed, but instead of something stern, Heinz has a calculating look in his eye, that thousand-yard stare he does when he's about to do something impulsive. He checks in with Perry just the once, a quick blink of his eyes full of meaning. Perry hesitates, but nods.

Heinz turns to the side, an uncharacteristically gentle touch to the back of Linda's hand that stops her as she is about to scold her daughter for her inappropriate outburst. “She's right, Linda,” he says quickly, with a chuckle. “I mean, for all our sins even Charlene and I had a proper wedding, for all the good that did. It's meant to signify something special, and I would love that for Perry and I.”

Heinz reached over to squeeze his hand, and Perry takes a deep breath as he turns towards his niece. Candace, I really am sorry. I know I made you a promise, but there's only so much we can do with the time we have, and what with how dangerous each of our missions are, Dr. D and I have long agreed to take every chance together we could get, and we want to start our very next mission and the next step of our lives living our truth. As spouses. Perry squeezes Heinz's hand right back, and the man smiles encouragingly as Candace visibly calms.

"We could go to the courthouse before we leave-,” Heinz suggests kindly, before he is once more interrupted.

“No! We need to have a real wedding!” She reiterates, then started to beam. Perry didn't trust that beam. “We could have it in the backyard!”

”What?“ said Heinz.

”What?“ Said Lawrence.

”Great idea, sis!“ Phineas enthused.

Linda pinches the bridge of her nose, likely keeping in mind that she was entertaining guests. Perry wants to give her a hug. She looks like she needs it. "Candace," she says delicately. "We can't plan a real wedding in a day.”

”Oh, duh.“ She says, before rushing up the stairs, presumeably to her own room. There is some loud noises of bumping, stumbling and rummaging as the rest of the family are left downstairs in various baffled emotional states.

“Boy,” Heinz muses, smacking his lips. “You weren't kidding when you told me she was high-strung.”

Perry really hadn't been, but he wasn't given the chance to respond. Candace returns in a rush, suddenly dressed in a beautiful layered purple tulled gown, and a delicate face of make-up. Her slippers match. She's got a tiara. She's also holding her own tome of a scrapbook, bursting at the seams with paper cut-outs and brochures, and filling Perry with the cold, creeping feeling of dread.

“I've been planning this since I was ten.” She chirps excitedly. Lawrence blinks. “I can set up a perfect wedding so that you two can marry in a way that you'll never forget, and-,” She pauses importantly, stepping forward to approach Perry and Heinz to flip open her own scrapbook and show them its contents. Heinz raises a brow in respect. "Still have you two on the plane straight to the Galapagos with time to spare."

Once again, Perry and Heinz turn to look at each other, this time to non-verbally communicate their stunned surprise. But the boys had gotten to their feet in excitement, and everything was happening so fast. Candace hands Perry and Lawrence a magazine cutout for an ad for a local tailor's, with a penmarked address, and begins pulling them to their feet, pushing them towards the front door. “Uncle Perry, you and Dad are going to go into town to get suits and fresh haircuts, while Mom and I are going to the Salon to get manicures and matching bridesmaid outfits. Dr D, I've called Vanessa over, and she's gonna bring Miss Charlene so you guys can discuss and arrange for friends and family contacts for the guest list, so long as it's under the 50-person range with a plus one limit, as well as find another pair of wedding rings.”

Heinz sputters, likely to the very last part. Their engagement rings are made with re-forged parts of old Inators, and likely he'll want their wedding rings to be made with much the same sentiment. But Candace was on a mission, and there was nought to stop her.

“Can we help?” Phineas asked excitedly. Ferb was vibrating on his feet.

Candace groans. “Fine, you can help me plan the grand entrance. But no funny business!”

Perry hears Phineas turn to his brother saying half of his usual catchphrase (“Ferb, I know what we're going to-,”) before the door is slammed shut behind him, leaving him and Lawrence standing confused on the front porch of the house and only partly dressed for town. Lawrence managed to grab his keys and wallet, at least, which was a small mercy.

“Well,” Lawrence says. “I suppose we're getting suits, eh, little brother?”

Perry was only Lawrence's brother through legal means, and he detests being called little. Lawrence knows this, the little shit, but Perry doesn't have the energy to fight him on this one. He sighs. Let's just leave before Vanessa and Charlene-

A beautifully sleek dark green and black Mercedes screeches to a halt in front of their house, and Perry hears Charlene scream for her daughter to be careful as the teenager lets herself out the passenger side door, manic and dishevelled. From the middle of the road, she stares and points at them, screaming: “You're getting married?”

Perry sighs again, and bumps Lawrence's shoulder.

“Yup, that's our cue.” He agrees. “First to the car gets the radio?”

Perry beats him to the station wagon, but he doesn't let Perry change the station anyway. Prick.

[hauntedrain]

Part 4: For Our Own Sanity | Alex Turner x Fem Reader |

social media AU Summary: Alex and readers relationship turns public after a string of events.

part 1: Here! part 2: Here! Part 3: Here!

✰▹Warnings/Notices: use of milo as ex bf. timeline is probably all messy atp. use of Taylor swift as face claim, as well as reputation album use. Not edited.

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@POPupdates: Milo Manheim and his gf have made a few comments recently about their opinions on Y/N L/N and her reputation with the media. Both stated that they agree with the backlash she's getting and find it reasonably as its consequences to Y/N L/N's actions. The Singer has yet to make any comment on any aspect as the L/N has been MIA from the media and hasn't been seen publicly since February 13th.

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user1: Honestly she deserves it, the way she was with him is clear and clearly she has boy problems.

user2: I would leave social media too if I was that much of a train wreck. Ruining your own relationship and then running away from the problem you created is crazy.

user3: No wonder why Alex got a new girl.

↪ user4: AGAIN. NOTHING. IS. COMFIRMED. ABOUT. A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G. its all he said she said, one side of the story isn't a complete story.

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@Alexupdates: The Arctic Monkeys have arrived for their first out of 4 shows in New York City. The four shows will span over 2 weeks, and the first show started this evening!

click to view all 1,345,567 comments

liked by 1,346,568 others

@Alexculture: The Arctic Monkeys Have started their North America section of their World Tour after 2 months of touring the UK, however during this tour there's been many comments and talk about his relationship with "singer" Y/N L/N. Alex has yet to make a clear comment on their situation or if their is a situation at all, but he did say in a interview last weekend that he would "prefer privacy in relationships and life.".

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user5: I thought they weren't together after his story with a black haired girl?

↪ user6: I mean its not like Y/N has never dyed her hair before. She's dyed it black before.

User7: I just want Y/N back. She hasn't posted since that one post, but she deleted it.

↪ user8: I heard that she's gonna release something soon.

↪ user9: they've been saying that for the last 5ish months. she never has.

↪ user10: I guess we just have to wait.

Y/N has posted to their story!

liked by AlexTurner,TaylorSwift & 25,456,358 others

@Y/N: 8/10/24

comments have been disabled

taglist: @mathdebate00 @ouroboros311 @joannfabrics @tangointhequango

[geeky-politics-46]

Sacrifices - Part 2

Click here to read Sacrifices - Part 1

Pairing: Doctor Stephen Strange x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: The time heist has worked & brought Stephen back to you, but at what cost?

Warnings: Heavy angst & some mild references to smut - language, reference to injuries, death, mental illness, complicated feelings about cheating, general sadness, references to sex.

Stephen smut coming in Part 3! Some slight canon divergence. Based on a request from @magnificentfurybluebird.

All you could do was wait and hope.

Wait to see if your best friends and your lover would come back. Hope that your husband would come back.

Wait to see if a broken world could be fixed. Hope that the Avengers, full fledged and honorary alike, could beat Thanos at his own game. 

While you waited, at least you could try to work out a way to explain to Stephen what had gone on between you and Steve. You hoped he would forgive you. Just the thought made you sick to your stomach. 

No matter what, you were still stuck waiting and hoping.

You made dinner for Vincent, and both of you settled into the bedroom he had picked out as his. Your plan once the battle kicked off was to keep him occupied so he hopefully wouldn't notice any of the chaos outside. So you two played his favorite games and watched his favorite shows. If it weren't for the worry picking at the back of your mind, it would have been a very fun night with your little man. 

Somewhere between playing Avengers with his action figures and watching the end of 101 Dalmatians, you began hearing what sounded like thunder far off in the distance. Opting to tell your son that's what it was, when you knew it was a sign the battle had begun. Luckily, he was distracted pretty quickly when he started asking once again if you could get a dog. 

Once Vincent had fallen asleep, you snuck out of his room and over to the large round window decorated in the Seal Of Vishanti. You could just see a glimpse of the battle, you assumed it was where the Avengers Compound had been. The dust flying, the laser fire from weaponry, and the large ships of Thanos' army. You couldn't see enough to know what was happening, just enough to keep your nerves on edge. This was your equivalent to standing on a Widow's walk, staring out at the ocean waiting for your lover to return from sea.

You suddenly thought about the letters you had seen Nat slip into Vincent's Captain America backpack. You quickly went to retrieve them. Stealthily grabbing the red, white, and blue bag from Vincent's room without making a peep. Sitting on the floor outside the room as you looked for them. Finding them both easily amongst the books and toys.

One envelope was addressed to you, and the other was addressed to Stephen. You carefully set the one addressed to Stephen to the side, face down. Almost not wanting to even touch it at all for fear that it could jinx the possibility of him coming back. Even though you knew that it wouldn't really alter anything that had already been set into motion. 

You gingerly unsealed the envelope. Trying your hardest not to disturb where Nat had left a lipstick print from clearly kissing the envelope after sealing it herself. Inside, you found several handwritten pages and a photo.

The photo had been from Vincent's last birthday party at the Compound. The giggling little boy sat in the center of the photo behind a homemade cake you and Nat had fumbled through making. Luckily, it tasted better than it looked. Nat was on Vincent's right, and you were on his left. Wong and Steve stood behind the three of you. Tony, Pepper, and Morgan were all to your left. A holographic Rhodey on the far right. Tony made him attend even if he couldn't be there in person. Mainly, so he would have to talk to Steve less.

You smiled as you stared at the picture. It was easy to focus on the bad times since the snap, but there had been plenty of good times too. You were glad to have had the people around that you did. To have a support system. Even if you missed Stephen, you had still had some happy times. You would have to frame this photo for sure. 

Moving on, you eventually unfolded the letter. Nat's elegant handwriting already making it look perfect, like a letter written for a scene in a movie. You took a moment to admire it before you began reading it. 

You could never have expected to find what you read. Your heart dropped more with every word you read:

My dear friend,

I imagine as you are reading this, you don't know the outcome of our mission. Hopefully, you have Vincent tucked into bed, safe and sound. You can stop hovering outside the door, you know. He could never be safer than he is with you. Never forget how strong you are. Even when you don't feel like it. You are an incredible woman and an incredible mom.

Now comes the hard part of this letter…

If all goes according to the plan, you won't see me again. At least, hopefully not for a very long while.

Clint and I were sent to retrieve the soul stone from the planet of Vormir. According to Nebula, Thanos took her sister, his daughter, Gamora there and only Thanos returned. In order to get the soul stone, a soul must be given in return. So I plan to give myself so that Stephen, Clint's family, and everyone else we lost can return. 

I chose not to tell you or Steve or even Clint about my choice before the mission. As you all would turn around and offer yourselves without a second thought, and if it means your happiness, I would sacrifice myself a thousand times over. You know how long I've spent trying to erase all the things I did before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., this is just one more wrong for me to right in the end.

I don't want you to cry for me. I don't want you to mourn. Instead, I want you to remember the good things. Remember the nights we spent talking. Remember the jokes and the chaos that ensued whenever either of us tried to cook more than macaroni & cheese. Remember the cake in that photo. How Tony thought for sure he would get food poisoning as soon as he saw it. How Steve was ready to defend our terrible cooking at every turn.

When Stephen comes back, because it is when not if so get that look off your face, give him my letter. It basically says if he breaks your heart or hurts you in any way, I'm coming back to kill him myself. 

I love you like a sister, and I always will. No matter what. Make sure Vincent knows how much I love him, too. 

Nat

Ps. If you ever meet a girl named Yelena, she would make an excellent surrogate big sister for Vinny. Just saying.

Your tears were falling hard and fast by the time you finished reading. Nat had given her life in the hope that you would get Stephen back. You had thought your heart had never healed, but it must have because you felt it breaking all over again.

For at least an hour you sat there and cried as you listened to the sounds of fighting in the distance. Suddenly not sure if this would all be worth it. Now if the Avengers lost you had not only lost your husband, but your best friend too. Would you lose Wong? What about Steve? How much more could you lose before your heart literally stopped beating? 

You were not religious by any means, and the last time you even thought to try and pray was five years earlier when you had the horrible feeling that Stephen wasn't coming home. As you stared at the Seal Of Vishanti adorning the large window with tears still running down your face you clasped your hands and brought them up to your chest, and prayed. 

You prayed to Vishanti, to Agamotto, to the Ancient One herself and anyone else who would listen. You prayed for everyone fighting out on that battlefield, for the Avengers and the rest of the universe to get home safe. That no one else had to lose in order for you to win. 

Repeating the words over and over. Willing them to come true. Only stopping when you suddenly started hearing the telltale sizzle of a portal being opened using Eldritch magic. You jumped to your feet but didn't rush to grab a weapon, if it was Thanos or his army they wouldn't be portaling in. It had to be a sorcerer or one of the other masters. 

The portal opened to reveal a very weary looking Wong. When he stepped through he looked even worse for wear than first glance. Your eyes focusing first on the black soot and dirt on his robes. Small slashes on the fabric over his arms, clearly having fought something with claws. Scrapes and injuries were to be expected though, even in small fights, but if he was even here in the first place it had to be a good sign. 

What you hadn't quite expected was the large,wide, almost giddy smile on his face and the brightness shining in his eyes. Your stomach leapt up into your throat. There was only one reason why Wong would look that excited. They had to have won. You had to have won.

Before you could say a single word Wong stepped to the side and you were greeted with a sight you had not seen in real life in five years. Stepping through the portal into the Sanctum was your husband. Doctor Stephen Strange. 

Dressed exactly as he had been when you last saw him. In his dark blue sorcerer's robes, the crimson Cloak of Levitation hanging from his broad shoulders, and the Eye of Agamotto still hanging around his neck. He hadn't aged a single day.

He did not look nearly as surprised to see you as you did to see him. Wong clearly must have told him you were at the Sanctum waiting. He looked just as battle worn, but to you he looked perfect. He was there. 

You wanted to pinch yourself to make sure you weren't dreaming. That he was really right in front of you. Instead you simply ran into his arms and started sobbing. Your fingers gripping in his hair and in his robes making sure he wasn't some sort of hologram or illusion.

Your lips slammed into his and you swore time stood still. It seemed like only a second passed before you were forced to pull away to breathe. You both repeated this pattern of kiss then breathe, kiss then breathe several times over. Eventually you finally had enough proof he was really there that you could speak again. 

"Stephen, it's you. It's really you. You came back. You came back to me. I missed you so much. I can't believe you really came back to me after five years. I love you so much." 

Stephen tried to simultaneously laugh and hush you. Urging your tears and your breathing to slow down, even though he wasn't far from just as excited as you were. He hadn't heard everything yet, but he knew the gravity of what had just transpired. Seeing you again on top of everything was almost too much, even for a Sorcerer Supreme to handle.

"I love you too, sweetheart. Of course I'm back. You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?"

He pulled back to smile at you and wink before descending in to kiss you again. You were so overwhelmed you nearly missed the tugging at your pant leg and the feeling of a tiny body huddling close behind you. 

Stephen's eyes suddenly fell to the small figure peeking out from behind your leg. In the commotion you hadn't realized that Vincent had woken up. Of course he came out to see what all the noise was, hearing your laughter and excited cries. 

As soon as Stephen's blue eyes met the matching set peering up at him hesitantly, he fell to his knees on the hard marble floor of the Sanctum. He immediately knew those blue eyes that matched his had to belong to his son. Even if he hadn't met him yet, he would know him anywhere.

Where you saw Stephen when you looked at Vincent, Stephen saw you. He saw the way the little boy chewed at his lip, just like you. He saw the beautiful flush your cheeks always had. He saw a perfect little boy who had been raised by the most perfect woman alive. 

A small quiet "hi there" slipped from his lips with a soft smile as he kneeled down to get at eye level and brought one hand up to wave at the little boy. Trying to not fall apart and let his son approach him first. Although he wanted to grab both you and him tight and never let go ever again.

"Don't be scared Vincent. It's okay. This is your daddy. Do you wanna say hi?" 

A small voice squeaky with hesitation and trepidation coming from the little boy. Understandably, still trying to process exactly what was happening. 

"Daddy?... Daddy!!!" 

The small boy suddenly ran into the arms of the sorcerer, of his father. Nearly knocking Stephen over with the force that he threw himself at him. Locking his little fingers tight in Stephen's blue robes and clinging to him like a koala bear. Stephen immediately wrapped the boy up and buried his face in Vincent's dark brown hair.

You quickly sat yourself down snuggling yourself close to your two boys. Vincent safely cocooned better the two of you, for the first time ever. At least the first time since you had been pregnant with him.

You leaned forward and pressed a couple of kisses in Vincent's hair, then a couple more on Stephen's cheek. Copying your son's motions when he snuggled tighter into Stephen's arms. Soon, finding the three of you wrapped as close as you could possibly be. Your legs tangled with Stephen's, but neither of you were about to untangle yourselves. None of you wanted to move from your spot in the middle of the Sanctum floor. 

You glanced back towards Wong as he tried to stealthily open a portal to Kamar-Taj. To let the three of you have your first ever real bit of family time. A soft content smile on his face as he watched the three of you, and the glassy look in his eyes giving away just how close he was to tears of his own. 

You mouthed a "thank you" to him and blew him a little kiss too. Wong was at the very top of the list of people you would never be able to fully repay for everything they had done for you and Vincent. You would happily try though.

He gave a single silent nod and placed his hand over his heart before he backed through the portal, quickly closing it in his wake. Leaving you alone in a suddenly more homey feeling Sanctum with your son, and now back with your husband.  

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

You have no idea how long the three of you sat there together on the hard marble floor before you finally made the suggestion of finding somewhere more comfy. Inevitably ending up in your current bedroom. The bed was smaller than the one in the master bedroom, so you were all packed in a little tight, but it seemed right to wait and re-christen that room with Stephen once the two of you could be alone. 

Vincent snuggled in between the two of you with his Captain America bear in his arms wearing his Incredible Hulk pjs while you ordered pizza. There was no way you were cooking and Vincent didn't want either of you to leave for longer than it took to go to the bathroom. You were the one to run down and get the boxes when they arrived, both you and Vincent a little scared if you let Stephen out of your sight he would disappear again. 

When you got back Vincent was busy telling Stephen all his favorite movies and TV shows as they tried to figure out what to put on. Vincent got all excited when Beauty & The Beast came up on the screen. 

"Stop, stop! Dis is one of mommy's favorites. We should watch dis!" 

"Why don't we let daddy take a shower and get changed okay? Then we can all eat and watch whatever you want, bud." 

Vincent immediately started to protest, scrambling to grab onto Stephen. Not wanting his dad to go anywhere without him ever again. You could see the tears and lovestruck smile on Stephen's face, he hadn't said it yet but you knew he was already just as obsessed with the little boy.

"It's okay pal, I can shower right here in this bathroom. I'll even leave the door cracked so you can hear I'm still in there. You or your mom call for me and I'll be right back out. I promise. Sweetheart, do you think you could go grab me some clean clothes?"

Your son grudgingly nodded and gave Stephen permission to shower. Untangling himself and snuggling his Cap bear with one arm and his Black Widow bear with the other. You kissed the top of his head and tucked all the blankets up around him so he was nice and cozy. Stephen made sure to call out from the bathroom to make sure Vincent was okay with the distance and amount the door was cracked. 

You waited until the water started running before distracting Vincent with an episode of Paw Patrol so you could go get Stephen clean clothes. Moving quickly and trying not to focus on anything other than the task you had once you entered the master bedroom. Grabbing Stephen's light blue Columbia sweatshirt, some boxers, and some pajama pants before jogging back down the hall where your boys were waiting. 

When you snuck into the bathroom to leave Stephen's clothes, you found him partly undressed and assessing a series of scrapes and bruises from the battle. All in all he didn't seem phased by them, but you couldn't help the worried look on your face as you reached out to touch one over his ribs. You nearly fell apart in tears again at the feeling of his bare skin warm under your fingers. 

He pulled you closer, and you let your left hand drag up his muscular chest to rest over his heart. He smiled, noticing you were still wearing your engagement ring and wedding band. Letting his left hand come to rest on top of yours, your wedding bands clinking softly, as he pulled you all the way into his arms and captured your lips in a deep, passion filled kiss. 

Your other arm wrapping around the back of his neck as he backed you up against the bathroom counter. You both knew you couldn't go any farther at the moment. Not with your son just outside the cracked open door. Paw Patrol wouldn't keep him occupied long enough to do what you both really wanted to do.

So before you could both become too wound up to stop, you slowly let your lips separate. Leaving your foreheads pressed together a moment longer, nuzzling noses and enjoying the feel of being back in each other's arms. 

"I missed you so much Stephen. I love you so, so much. I think you are even more handsome than I remembered."

"I missed you too, and I don't think I could possibly love you any more. I want you so much, my beautiful, darling wife." 

You hummed in delight at the suggestion. You wanted him just as badly, but alas being mom and dad had to come before being husband and wife for the moment. You left one last soft kiss on his lips before starting to pull away. Knowing before long Vincent would be calling for you.

"Well hurry up and get showered, Doctor. Maybe we can sneak back in here after he falls asleep later, but first we get to spend time with our son. I'm so glad to have our family back."

You started trying to walk back towards the door only for Stephen to pull you back for one more kiss. 

"Me too. I can't believe how big he is. How much I missed. Go on mama, but I'm gonna hold you to that bit about sneaking back in here later."

He finally let you go with a suggestive wink. Turning back to check the temperature of the shower before starting to undress his lower half. You made yourself leave the bathroom before you could start watching again. Stopping only to give the Cloak of Levitation a little scratch on the collar from where it hung on the back of the door. 

Your cheeks feeling hot and flushed as you rejoined your son on the bed. Helping him plate his pizza before moving the box back over to the dresser. Letting him get settled back into the middle of the bed, making sure to leave space on both sides for you and Stephen.

You would eat once Stephen rejoined you. Although right now you really weren't hungry for pizza, but for your husband. Shaking your head to clear the inappropriate thoughts as you queued up another episode of Paw Patrol to play until Stephen came out. 

You couldn't wipe the grin off of your face at the butterflies in your stomach. Especially when your handsome husband emerged from the bathroom. His gray streaked hair damp and tousled perfectly. If it was possible you wanted him even more now, and you knew he could tell from the way he flirtatiously smiled at you. 

He stopped to grab one of the pizza boxes, carrying it back over to the nightstand before crawling into the bed on the other side of your son. Leaning over to give you a kiss on the lips.

"Alright, mommy's turn to get changed for bed. I'll be right back. Then it's all night with my baby boy and my wonderful husband. My two favorite guys in the universe."

That made both Stephen & Vincent smile, making them look even more alike. As you turned and grabbed a large t-shirt to sleep in from one of your drawers, you made a mental note to take a lot of photos over the next few days. Not paying attention to anything but the sound of joy coming from the bedroom. You quickly splashed your face with water and headed back into them.

You knew that later you would have to have some difficult conversations with Stephen. He would have to tell you everything that happened in the fight. Who all was hurt, and who was lost. You would also have to tell him about what you had done with Steve. Whether or not it really counted as an affair you weren't sure, but you knew that now that you had Stephen back you never wanted anyone else ever again. 

You wanted to tell Stephen that he was your endgame, that as far as you were concerned, there was no you without him. As great as Steve was as a friend, and as much as you did care about him, that was all he would ever be for you again. If Stephen doubted it, you would devote your entire being to proving it. To proving that he was the one true love of your life, not including your son of course. 

When you entered the room, you were trying to figure out why Stephen was looking at you with one eyebrow quirked up. You could feel yourself blushing under his gaze as you walked over to grab a slice of pizza from the box he had set on the nightstand. Taking a bite and pulling at the bottom of the shirt you wore, trying to make it longer even though it already came to your mid thigh and covered everything. 

Looking down, you suddenly realized why he was looking at you weird. In the middle of the light gray t-shirt was Captain America's shield. The shirt had been a joke gift from Tony once he found out about you and Steve. You didn't realize you had grabbed that particular shirt.

"Wow, there seems to be a lot of Captain America stuff here. Should I be worried?" 

He said it with a chuckle at the end, clearly meaning it as a joke. Having no idea he had unintentionally hit a nerve. You immediately wanted to go change. You didn't want to ruin the first night you had Stephen back.

Of course, it was at that moment Vincent chimed in. Not knowing the gravity of what he was revealing to his father. Not even looking away from the TV screen as he spoke.

"Uncle Steve is mommy's special friend. He spends the night with us sometimes. He's really nice, daddy, and he's really strong! You'd like him. He taked good care of Mommy and me while you were gone." 

You saw Stephen swallow hard at the revelation. Knowing exactly what his son had meant with the words 'special friend', even if his son didn't really know. His eyes darted away from you and to the blank wall. His lips pursed and his eyes started to water a bit. You were on the verge of hyperventilating. Trying to keep yourself from having a panic attack. 

The tears were already starting to fall from your eyes as you grabbed one of Stephen's hands and pressed his knuckles to your forehead before bringing them down to your lips. Silently begging him to understand.

Stephen took a deep breath to steady his voice before he spoke. Keeping a light tone in his voice to keep from alerting Vincent that anything was wrong. Trying to keep Vincent distracted by the TV. 

"Okay. Well, Mommy will have to tell me about that later. Right now, I think we were gonna watch a movie, right? You get to pick. I'm glad he was there to take care of you for me" 

You were about to go change when Stephen wouldn't let go of your hand. Blinking back tears as he tilted his head, gesturing for you to get into the bed as is. Your pizza long forgotten as you were practically already trying to crawl in Stephen's lap as Vincent started to scroll through the movie options. 

"Hey kiddo, scoot over a little. I want to snuggle with Daddy, too." 

Hiding a little sniffle as your son somewhat grudgingly inched over to give you just a hint more space. Stephen welcomed you into his lap and held you tight. Hating the feeling of your tears falling softly into his neck. 

Once Vincent had circled back around to Beauty and The Beast and Belle's first song was underway, you tilted your head up to whisper in Stephen's ear.

"I'm so sorry, Stephen. I love you so much. I can't… there's no excuse. I missed you so much, and I thought you were never coming back, and it just happened. I'm so, so sorry. Please, please, please don't hate me. Please, please don't leave me again." 

He shushed you softly as he felt you starting to shake. Kissing your forehead and brushing his hand through your hair. You knew that he wasn't exactly happy to hear about your tryst with Steve. You knew he hated the idea of you being with someone else, but he also understood that you had been through far more than he could know. He also knew from the moment you kissed him after he returned that you were still his, totally and completely. Your panicked response to Vincent's statement was not lost on him.

"I know, I know. It's okay. I could never hate you. It will be okay. Okay? We will talk it all out later. I love you, and I'm not going anywhere. Never again. I'm here to take care of both of you now." 

He pulled his other arm back from where it had been draped behind Vincent. Reaching into the front pocket of his sweatshirt and slipping on his sling ring. Already starting a spell before he spoke.

"This shirt, however, does need to go..." 

In a shimmer of gold, Cap's shield on your shirt slowly started morphing into the seal of Vishanti that adorned the large central window of the Sanctum. You felt a cocky lopsided smile curl up on his handsome face once his magic had finished.

"That's much better." 

You smiled and nuzzled further into his neck as he moved to put his sling ring back into his pocket. Still staying nice and quiet as you responded, a double meaning hidden in your words. Placing a long kiss under his ear afterwards. 

"I agree. Much better." 

Shortly after, Vincent asked for everyone to get under the covers. Trying to hide the sleepiness quickly overtaking him again. Protesting when you asked if he wanted to go to bed. Saying he just wanted to make sure Mommy was warm and comfortable. He may not have spent much time with his father yet, but his stubbornness was most definitely inherited from Stephen.

He managed to stay awake a little while longer. At some point, he grabbed ahold of Stephen's hand that wasn't resting on your hip and started mindlessly tracing his scars. That action alone brought Stephen back  near tears. It was something you had always done when you two laid in bed together talking or watching something. It also warmed his heart that his son wasn't scared by the raised, somewhat jagged scars all over his hands or the way they trembled lightly.

"Let me know if you have any questions about my hands, okay kiddo? I know they can look a bit ugly or scary, and I can't always do everything with them, but I never want you to be worried about it." 

You were listening and smiling. Over the moon that Stephen seemed to fall right into the role of a good dad as soon as he met Vincent. You remembered him spending countless nights, pacing the floor and unable to sleep. Terrified he would be a horrible father. Wondering if the apple didn't fall far from the tree. You always knew he was underestimating himself.

"They aren't scary, daddy. You got them because you got hurt bad. That's how you met Uncle Wong and learned magic. Mommy told me all about you. Uncle Wong said he thought you were 'nnoying when he met you, but that he missed you too when you were gone. He told me not to tell you that part though. Oops."

You couldn't help but snort at that admission. Even Stephen giggled before grinning deviously. Oh Wong was so going to pay for that remark later, for both of them actually. 

After you finished laughing, Stephen leaned down to nuzzle his nose against your forehead. Pressing a kiss there before whispering against your skin how thankful he was that you told Vincent about him. He knew it must have been incredibly painful at times, but he was so glad that you had done it. So Stephen didn't lose even more time with his son now that he was back. So that his son didn't look at him like a stranger, or even worse, think Rogers was his dad. That might have just killed him.

Before long, Vincent was fast asleep with a death grip on Stephen's arm. Even though it meant the two of you might not get to sneak off for your adult time, you were both plenty content with you snuggled into his chest and a leg thrown over his hip. Especially with the cloud of the battle and all that had happened hanging over you. 

Once it was clear Vincent was completely out and not going to wake up easily, Stephen broke the silence by telling you what happened. About the biggest loss and the thing that had ultimately allowed them to win against Thanos. Their checkmate, Iron Man.

"Tony is gone." 

Your head snapped up from Stephen's shoulder. Genuine shock from what you had just heard. You kept your voice low to not wake up your son, but you needed to know what had happened. 

"What?!"

Stephen instinctively started rubbing your lower back to soothe you. Already seeing the tears welling in your eyes. 

"He sacrificed himself and used the stones to snap away Thanos and his army. I knew it was going to happen, it had to if we were going to win, and I couldn't do anything to save him. I couldn't even tell him or it wouldn't have happened. I think he was the only one we lost. Pepper was there with him at least. Lots of other injuries, but… "

Your tears flowed freely as you thought about Pepper and Morgan. How they were now in the positions you and Vincent had been in before. You hated how part of you was so glad it wasn't you. That you had your husband back, even though it meant you lost a friend, Pepper lost her husband, and Morgan lost her father. You buried your face back into his sweatshirt and let yourself cry for them.

That made you think about Nat, too. She may not have had a husband or biological children, but you considered her family. You knew Clint, Steve, and Bruce did, too. Stephen didn't know she was dead. So many of them, everyone who blipped, must not know yet. Did he even know who she was?

"No, he isn't. Nat is gone, too. She sacrificed herself so Clint could bring back the soul stone from Vormir. So Bruce could get everyone back in the first place. She knew before they even left that she wasn't coming back. She actually wrote a letter, one for me and one for you, explaining it. I don't know what she wrote in yours, but she basically said that she did it so Clint could have his family back, and so Vincent and I could have you back. She said she didn't want us to mourn her. I don't know how not to though. She became my best friend." 

You could hear Stephen sniffling and you knew he was crying too. You knew how overwhelmed he must be to be openly displaying his emotions, even just in front of you. The only other time you had seen him cry was when you were pregnant with Vincent, the night after you had gotten your first ultrasound. You held him tighter in response. Letting him know it was okay.

"Then we honor her by being happy together. By raising him happy, and we make sure he remembers her. That he remembers them both. I'll ask Wong to put together something at Kamar-Taj to honor Tony and something for Natasha. We can make something in the little rooftop garden here too. Although it's probably pretty much all dead weeds right now." 

You hummed in agreement and the two of you snuggled in tighter. Pressing endless kisses to each other wherever you could reach to comfort each other. Slowly lulling both of you into a deep sleep alongside Vincent. For the first time ever, there was a part of your soul that felt full. Even though you had lost so much that day, you had gained even more back, and you never wanted to let go again.

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

The day of Tony's funeral came quickly. Wong met the three of you at the Sanctum before opening a portal out to the remote cabin where the private memorial would be held. It was the first time you had seen everyone since the day of the time heist. It was the first time you had seen Pepper and Morgan in probably at least a year. 

Even if Steve and Tony still hadn't been on speaking terms, Pepper and Tony helped you a lot with Vincent early on. Especially after they had Morgan. 

Vincent and Morgan became fast friends as they started to grow. You and Pepper even liked to joke that maybe someday in the future, you might get lucky enough to be in-laws. Watching a childhood puppy love form between your kids. A Stark and a Strange finding love together, you all weren't sure the world would ever be able to handle that.

Once you got involved with Steve, things got a little more complicated. Tony didn't really want anything to do with him. Not after everything that had happened even before the snap. After, he didn't want anything to do with the crime fighting life he had left for the much simpler one he had currently enjoyed. You still spoke often with Pepper on the phone, but play dates became fewer and farther between. You all only got together for birthdays and holidays. That was when you forced the boys to play nicely together. 

After the memorial, Wong had agreed to have Vincent spend the night at Kamar-Taj with him, giving you and Stephen some alone time. The two of you still hadn't managed to get much of it in the few days that he had been back. Vincent clinging to the both of you. You still hadn't gone back to sleeping in the master bedroom. Instead Stephen had been sleeping in the new bedroom you had picked. 

You also still hadn't had sex yet. You had fooled around a bit for sure. There had been plenty of touching and kissing, even  some dry humping but you hadn't managed to get all the way to the main event without getting interrupted. Tonight that was going to be remedied. First, though, you had to get through the day. That included coming face to face with Steve again, and so did Stephen. 

Happy greeted everyone at the door and led you into the house, telling Vincent where he could find Morgan. You made a beeline for Pepper to see if there was anything you could do for her. Stephen and Wong headed out into the large backyard to find the others. 

Stephen, of course, found Steve first. Walking out the back door and nearly bumping right into him standing with Sam, Bucky, and Wanda. The three of them promptly excused themselves as did Wong, heading over to stand in a clump with Bruce right at the edge of hearing distance. No one ever accused the Avengers of not being nosy gossips.

"Oh good, so I guess they all know. About you and my wife… while I was blipped. She told me about it, obviously. I guess I should get your take on it before I tell you that it definitely won't be happening anymore." 

Steve clenched his jaw and rolled his eyes at Stephen, still knowing well enough to hide the eye roll from the sorcerer. He knew that if your husband came back, of course, the two of you were done. It didn't mean that you didn't have feelings and care for each other. He wanted Stephen to know that, that he did care for you. 

Although he didn't know if Stephen needed to know about the night you two discussed what would happen if the time heist didn't work. What you had decided if Stephen didn't come back. That Steve had promised to take care of you and Vincent. To marry you if you wanted. He knew you would still have feelings for Stephen, just as you knew he would never really get over Peggy, but you could be happy together. Happy enough anyway. 

He also didn't want to give Stephen more information than he needed about your sex life together. About how those first few nights you spent together, you had been almost too insatiable even for a super soldier. That until Steve you had kept any semblance of being a sexual being shoved down deep, dormant. How he did things with you he had never done with anyone else. Not that his body count was more than three or four women anyway. How even if he knew he could never have you completely, he would still be happy to be the man who got to pull those beautiful noises from you. 

Steve was honorable enough to play nice though. He would keep all that to himself if it made everything easier for you. He understood Stephen's frustration with him. You were his wife.

"We agreed as much before the time heist. I was only ever a placeholder anyway. I just happened to be there and someone she trusted. You are the one she loved. That she loves. You know she never took off her wedding rings the entire time you were gone? She was always Mrs. Stephen Strange, I just provided comfort sometimes. A shoulder to cry on of sorts."

He could see Stephen flinch from the corner of his eyes at the suggestion that Steve 'comforted' you. Knowing that a hug and a pat on the back weren't what Stephen was imagining.

"As much as I would prefer to pretend that it never happened, I do want to say thank you. For helping take care of Vincent and for keeping her safe. So, thank you for that. I owe you for that."

Steve turned to face the doctor. Seeing just how hard it was for him to admit he was thankful for Steve helping to take care of you and Vincent. Clearly saying thank you was something Strange was unaccustomed to doing. He could definitely see why the sorcerer didn't get along great with Tony. He could also see you approaching with a panicked look at finding your husband and your lover talking. 

Both of them looking as handsome as ever. Steve in a simple classic cut suit. Stephen, in a clearly tailor-fit, more stylish cut. You couldn't have picked two more different, albeit both incredibly sexy, men if you tried. 

"I had plenty of help. Vincent is a great kid, and she is something special. You're very lucky. Speak of the devil…" 

Stephen's brow furrowed in confusion until he felt your hand slip into his and your other hand holding onto his arm. He leaned down to kiss you, to stake his claim in front of the Captain. Even though it had just been established between the two men anyway. 

Steve excused himself after saying hi and how happy he was to see your family back together. Leaving you and Stephen in private until the service was about to begin. Little clumps of heroes stood around the edge of the lake listening as Happy and Rhodey each told a couple stories about Tony. 

When Pepper and Morgan stepped forward, you felt Vincent cling onto his father's leg a little tighter. All of you watched in silence as they released a flower wreath with Tony's arc reactor set in the middle. One by one, each of you then stepped forward to pay your respects for the fallen hero. Wong moving forward with Stephen and your family. He was part of your family, after all.

After a couple more hours of talking and reminiscing, everyone started to disperse. Each of you saying your goodbyes to Happy, Morgan, and Pepper. You made a point of telling Pepper that her and Morgan were welcome at the Sanctum whenever and that you would be happy to watch Morgan whenever she wanted. Vincent gave Morgan a big hug before leaving, telling her it will be okay.

Wong bid them his own goodbye and opened a portal back to the Sanctum. You, Vincent, and Stephen followed him through. Back to your own home. You took Vincent upstairs to get him changed and get his overnight bag for him to spend the night at Kamar-Taj with Wong. 

You could tell Vincent was having second thoughts about the overnight by the time you got back to where Wong and Stephen were waiting. It had been a long, stressful day for all of you. You were nearly ready to say forget the whole thing until you saw the way Stephen was eyeing you, and you realized just how much you really did need your alone time with him. 

"Alright baby, be good for Uncle Wong. You know you can call at any time if you need me. We will see you in the morning after breakfast. Love you, sweetie. Have fun." 

You gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Sending him to go over and get a hug and kiss from Stephen too. Wong took his little hand and seeing the pout on his face whispered loud enough for you and Stephen to hear.

"Trust me, it will be more fun at Kamar-Taj. You don't want to be here when they get all mushy. I've seen it. It's gross. Besides, we've got candy there right now." 

That made Vincent giggle and he happily walked through the portal into the courtyard of Kamar-Taj, the moon already sitting high in the dark night sky dotted with stars. Your little boy not even stopping to wave as he headed off. 

Stephen walked up behind and wrapped his arms around your waist, his suit jacket and tie had been shed while you were getting Vincent ready to go. He ducked down so his face was nuzzling into your neck. Already leaving kisses on your sensitive skin. His fingertips digging into and kneading the flesh of your hips and belly. 

You let your head drop back onto his shoulder and closed your eyes. Focusing on the smell of Stephen's cologne.

"So I'm thinking we share a nice long soak in the tub with a bottle of wine, then we break in those brand new sheets on our bed. We can spend the whole night making that bedroom ours again. If I remember correctly, the couch and the dresser also have some fond memories we can recreate."

A soft sigh falling at the ideas. Honestly, as much as you wanted Stephen, a long hot bath sounded incredible on its own. All it took was a nod and a little moan to communicate how perfect that all sounded. 

When you opened your eyes, you found yourself already standing in the master bathroom. 

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