#good fucking series what tha hell........

[transmandayoung]

finished the first animorphs book

[georgiapeach30513]

Two Good Reasons, Part 7

Summary: Andy is such a daddy

Pairings: Andy Barber X Reader

Rating: explicit

Warnings:  explicit language, explicit sexual content, breedable reader and a breeding kink man, unprotected sex, creampie, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 7.9K

Previous

Series Masterlist

*dividers created by @firefly-graphics

You should really wake up. There is a lot to do today; Audrey has her Donuts with Dad event at school, Suede had an allergist appointment, Andy’s day wasn’t too bad and he said he would go with you. But you don’t want to wake up, you want to enjoy this moment. You’d rather lay in this bed, facing Andy’s handsome face, and watching him while he sleeps. It could be creepy to some, but you doubt that Andy would mind.

There’s just something so magical about seeing the man you’ve always loved facing you, and his warm breath blowing over your cheeks. Life wasn’t perfect, but with him in your life you know you have a partner, and now not everything sits on your shoulders. He carries the weight, and he makes life fun again for you and the kids.

It didn’t seem like that long ago that you cried on the floor, while you watched your babies sleep. You were silent as tears stained your face and chest, watching these beautiful babies sleep soundly, while their father grunts in pleasure in the background. You didn’t understand why he would risk losing them. They are perfect, and he knew — knew that infidelity was the point of no return.

He risked a relationship with his offspring, the thing he claimed to desire the most, because he knew you would fight like hell to have custody of your children. They were all you have left of your marriage. And you just stared at them in awe. Audrey held onto Suede like he was her personal stuffed animal. And their lips were puckered out as they slept so serenely, having no knowledge of their babysitter fucking their disgusting father.

You tired of sitting on the floor, and crawled in Audrey’s bed, holding onto both of them like a lifeline. You had to be okay for them. You just didn’t understand. You had two good reasons in your arms for not cheating; he is two and she's four, and Scott was the ultimate idiot.

You made yourself believe that you stayed because they adored their father. You knew that the two of you had been drifting apart. Sex was a chore, until it was completely absent. His harsh words for Suede changed the way you thought of him. How someone could see this perfect tiny little baby that was in the NICU fighting to breathe was a miracle. You made yourself suffer through a subpar relationship because you felt it’s what they wanted.

It would have been easier on you if he told you he didn’t love you anymore. The low blow was who the woman was. He had to pick out the young girl that was every man’s fantasy, so you thought. She was young, stupid, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perky full tits, had a stomach that hadn’t carried and birthed babies, she was just the epitome of sex goddess. Your mom told you that you were stupid for hiring a babysitter that looked like her, but she was readily availed. Too readily.

And you thought she was fun for the kids for the few hours she watched them. She wasn’t supposed to be watching your husband. He wasn’t supposed to be coming home during a lunch hour to fuck her while your babies slept. Yours. They have always been yours. And you feel like a fool for staying in a loveless marriage, because their happiness now is infectious.

And now today, and everyday for the rest of your life you can thank Taylor because you have the better man in front of you. The man of your dreams. The man that is so fuzzy and warm, and then hard and protective for his family. That’s what the four of you are; family. His family.

It has made you painfully aware how you all are a family everyday. Every day Andy wants to do something as a family. He wants breakfast together, dinner together, play time with no electronics (thanks Ransom), he even helps Suede sound out his words more, and has mentioned a few times on helping him potty train. He immediately was the best bonus dad for your kids. Better than their own father.

As much as you would like to prolong this moment, you know you need to get breakfast started. Andy will join you later to set the table. He would even get Suede ready while you got Audrey ready. Keep them occupied while you make lunches. He was a help. They weren’t a burden to him. You know he’s always wanted a family, but you didn’t realize how much he would flourish as a father.

You try and let him get a few minutes extra of sleep, while you ease out of the bed. Giving a final look to the most beautiful man inside And out as you pick up some shorts out of the floor. Getting into the kitchen, you check the calendar for the menu today, and pull out the ingredients for pancakes. Even this part of life made you happy, Andy enjoyed helping you and the kids create the menu for the month. Blissful is a good word. Now if Scott could just buzz off, and let the four of you live in peace.

Lighthearted, you start laying bacon onto trays for the air fryer. Mixing up the batter for the pancakes as you dance around to happy music in your head. Not all mornings are this joyful, but you feel different. Usually he was the one that woke up before you did, and he would start this process. You hear the alarm go off in the bedroom, and start to make a yogurt dip for fruit.

“Morning, handsome,” you look over your shoulders as Andy pulls down his shirt, and makes his way behind you. He wraps both arms around your front, laying his hands flat on your belly as he starts roaming around. His hands become more needy, and he adds a bit more pressure, pulling you into him. “I gotta finish the last pancakes, and pop them in the warmer. Gimme me a moment.”

“I need my morning kiss,” you bump your ass out, pushing him back, just a tiny bit to get the pancakes off the griddle, and turn off the stove. Andy is already peppering kisses up your neck before he lifts a hand to turn your head to the side. “I need a real good morning kiss because the babies are still asleep, and the air fryer hasn’t shut off.”

“Kiss until one or the other happens?” He nods his head as he inches closer to your mouth. You wish he’d let you turn around to kiss him properly, but he’d taken to kisses like this. His hands continue to caress over your belly. Dipping under the hemline of your top, so he can have his hands on your skin. One hand roams a bit too high, and he pinches your nipples.

“The babies,” you manage to get out, and his hand already sinks back lower. You kiss him like there’s no care in the world. The best way to start a day. You are ready to get out of this house, and find a forever home with him. Create memories with everyone. Start drawing lines on a door frame to show how much they’ve grown. A big fenced in backyard because you have thought more about a dog for the kids, and a bonus if it can be a service dog for Suede’s allergies.

Andy bites on your lip, pausing his ministrations as a giggle makes him pull off you, “You look like you are eating each other,” Audrey giggles again, but Suede jokingly scowls at Andy.

“My mama,” he stomps his foot, and Andy copies his motion. “No oos!”

“You want to race to the table for her?” Both Audrey and Suede’s faces light up with a smile, and they bend low, bouncing in place as they look up at Andy. “Ready,” he drops his arms from around your body. “Set,” Andy walks over to where the kids are, getting in a running stance with them, “Go!”

Running in the house isn’t often. But these short bursts of racing to the table are fine. Scott would hate them. You open up the air fryer, and start placing bacon on a plate. Setting out the plates onto the counter. Pulling out some cups. “Auds, you want juice or milk, baby?”

“JUICE, mommy!”

“Suedey?”

“UICE!”

Starting a pot of coffee, you give Andy a chaste kiss as he grabs the plates and utensils, walking back into the dining room, “Suede, all the way in your seat,” Suede listens immediately, and Andy lays out the plates, “Do not stand up in the chair while I go get the drinks, okay?”

“Chess.”

“I mean it, Audi, you watch him, angel, okay?” She holds up a thumb as Andy jogs back into you. Finishing up pouring the drinks, you slap his ass as he trots back, “Ma’am!”

“Don’t have such a cute tush,” you shrug. He seriously has the best scrumptious ass that you will bite one of these days. Andy rolls his eyes, and you grab up the tray of food. Walking in to see your family. “Coffee should just about be done.”

“Is it just me today again?” You give him a nod. Coffee has been giving you the worst heartburn lately, so you’ll stick with just water for today. Now is one of your favorite times of day. Time to talk with your littles about their day. Time to watch Andy try and help Suede calmly sound his words out a bit more. It’s amazing what positive reinforcement from more than you helps him learn.

His speech is already improving, but also his behavior. He is still two and has his moments of big emotions for a little boy. But it’s almost like he has a male that now pays attention to him, and talks to him like he’s a human instead of at him because he isn’t perfect. Suede isn’t a mistake, and Audrey isn’t perfect. You didn’t want her to have these impossible goals, because no one is ever going to perfect. She would fail. There would be things she wouldn’t naturally be good at, and you wanted her to have those moments.

“Audi, are you excited about your dad coming to pick you up today?” You start the morning conversation. She hadn’t seen him in over a week. Even his nightly calls are dwindling down. Either he’s too busy with Taylor, or his insecurities towards Andy are taking over his need to be a decent father.

She finishes the gulp of her juice before she sits it down on the table, nodding her head. She missed him. Suede didn’t care or way or the other. If it didn’t hurt your children, you’d rather he just stay absent, “And and and and and…”

“Breathe,” you whisper. She has picked up a bit of stuttering with her excitement recently. You hope she didn’t have these moments with her dad. You shudder to think what he’ll say about her not being perfect.

She takes a slow breath, wiping her maple hands down her front, “Daddy says he’s going to take me to that new donut shop.”

“Me, too! Na Na, me go!”

“Buddy, we have to ask if they have donuts without eggs first. This is just,” Andy looks over towards you, wondering how he should phrase the next sentence. No matter how it comes out, it’ll be how it sounds.

“Suedey, today is just for sissy and daddy,” he furrows his brows, and folds his arms over his chest. “I know. But maybe you and Andy can do something special Friday evening, and Audrey and I can stay home.”

“Chess!”

“Can can can can,” she takes a deep breath without being coached this time, “Can you and I make Pinkalicious cupcakes? My teacher read the book, and I need pink cupcakes.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea. But, Suede?” Suede immediately sits back on his bum as he looks at Andy, and he thanks him quickly, “I need you to be extra brave today. You got to pick out tonight’s dinner, remember?”

“Chess,” he says slowly. “Me,” he looks at you, and then only at Andy, “B-b-br…bave,” close enough. He smiles so big as he looks at Andy, and he reaches across the table, holding out a fist, and Suede bumps his hand. Andy moves it to Audrey who returns the favor.

“Alright, you two take your plates to the dishwasher, and head to the bathroom for teeth and hands and faces,” today was going to be tough. But today wasn’t going to be bad.

Andy checks his watch again while Audrey sits and stares out Sloane’s window directly to the parking lot. She stands up on her little tiptoes, trying to see cars closer to the building before sighing, and walking over to Sloane’s desk, and crawling back underneath. Andy’s assistant glares at him.

Waiting on the little girl to put her headphones back on, “Fix this,” she whisper screams. “Her looks so pitiful, and I can’t do anything to help it. So you have to fix it!”

“And what am I supposed to do? Her dad was supposed to be here ten minutes ago to pick her up. It’s a Dad’s and Donuts day at school. And no, the dads are not a requirement, but dads, moms, father figures, whatever are invited.”

“And you’re the step,” Andy clears his throat, his eyes scanning the parking lot again, “Bonus dad. Take her to get her donuts, and you take her,” Andy starts to make a comment before he pulls his phone out of his pocket, and walks into his office. Closing the door softly as he paces around.

“Doe!”

“Don’t tell me what I think you’re about to say,” there has been a sneaking suspicion in your mind all day. Scott hadn’t called to confirm the event at school, which only meant one thing, he wasn’t going.

“He’s not here,” you groan in frustration. Keeping your eyes on Suede who scribbles on a piece of paper with his tongue sticking out. It would be any moment that you were going to be called back for Suede’s test, and Scott wasn’t there to get his daughter.

“Days like this I want to hit him. I know that work gets in the way, but he can schedule around this, right? You do. God, I just wish you were her dad,” Suede looks up at you smiling, pointing at his paper, and things grow silent on the other end. Andy wouldn’t leave her hanging like this. You can imagine her looking out the window, and then going back under Sloane’s desk to hide.

She thinks that nobody notices when he disappoints her, but you do. More and more Scott’s insecurities about Andy were coming out, and she is the one that suffers for it, “Honey, tell me if I’m overstepping my bounds, but I can take her,” you inhale swiftly, staring at Suede, and how he tries conversing with a little boy in the waiting area. His confidence growing by a positive male influence.

“Okay,” responding quickly because Audrey deserves doughnuts that could potentially have eggs. “Yeah, okay. Umm, I’m going to send you the address,” your phone pings, and you check to see if it’s Scott, and it isn’t. “Andy, her favorite color currently is…”

“Pink, I know. Ransom, why are you here?” Andy looks at his colleague confused. Of course Ransom is there. He had to let you know that Audrey is hiding. Those iPads are going to be a blessing and a curse.

“Audrey is hiding under Sloane’s desk, and she sent me a message asking if I could bring her some doughnuts. I thought that — he didn’t show up,” Ransom growls, and reaches into his pocket for his keys, “Alright, let's get the kid the most obnoxious cupcakes…”

“Doughnuts,” you and Andy say at the same time, even if Ransom couldn’t hear you. “And I’m driving. You don’t have a car seat.”

“Yeah, whatever, let’s go,” Ransom leans under Sloane’s desk, smiling at the tiny little Audrey, “Come on, let’s go nuts for doughnuts,” nerd. Ransom is a liar, and he’s a nerd. He was the best liar and only because he ended up being the most tender man besides Andy. He is all bark, and only bites for mean men.

Audrey holds onto her box of donuts, and Andy opens her door, helping her get out, “Do you think the gold is too much?” She asks, looking down at her gaudy pastries, and Ransom scoffs. The gold had been his idea, “So people will love them, Uncle Ann?”

“They’re going to love them, sweetheart,” Andy butts in. He lets Audrey walk in front, leading the way into the classroom. “We’re just two minutes late, but I think the pink and gold were the right fit,” Audrey holds her head up higher. “You’re coming, too?”

“I’m not sitting out in the car. I want donuts,” Audrey looks like she’s commanding these two men. She guides them through the doors, stopping to let Andy sign her in before continuing her trek down the hallway. Nodding her head as she passes the classroom doors.

“That’s Suede’s room. He hasn’t been back since he was stung. Mommy wants to make sure there’s no other allergies before he comes back. Oh! Miss Tatum! My Uncle Ann and — Andy brought me. My daddy is busy, but this is okay, right?”

“Of course. Go sit your donuts on the table, I’m sure your uncles can help you,” Andy starts to protest. “We’ve got a quick circle time, and we’re going to go directly into the donuts. You’re welcome to sit down with her, or you can join the adults behind the table.”

“Haha, she thinks we’re a couple,” Ransom giggles, and he gets a sharp look from Miss Tatum. “You think she’s single? She is a feisty one.”

“I think she thinks that she’s not your type,” Ransom look from Miss Tatum to Andy, his lip curling a moment.

“You’re right, I don’t like kids,” Andy’s face falls flat as he stands in the back of the classroom. That isn’t at all what Andy was insinuating, “I don’t. This,” Ransom motions to the classroom of fifteen children, “this is terrifying. Perfect birth control. But she sure is cute,” Andy elbows his partner in the ribs as Miss Tatum sits on the floor with a guitar. “What does one do at donuts for dads?”

“I’ve never done this,” he keeps his eyes on Audrey who sporadically watches him as she sings. The biggest grin on her face for their morning song. A little dimple showing on her cheek that only appears when she’s at her happiest. “I think I’ve got the cutest kid here.”

“Well, yeah, Audi is the best. Why is she so tiny though? I swear she’s the shortest here,” she is. One of the younger students, but also one of the daintiest.

“She’s perfect,” Andy whispers, smiling back at the little girl. “I couldn’t imagine not showing up for her. Look how happy she is. It’s all she wants is someone to show up for her. And this way she gets put first. Nothing about today is about Suede, just her,” the song finishes, and Audrey gives both men a huge grin, and waves her hands. She bounces around in her spot, but waits for Miss Tatum to dismiss them for the donuts.

“Alright, children, go to your grownup, and let's get our breakfast started. Don’t fill up on just donuts, there’s fruit as well,” Audrey bounces up, sprinting over to Andy and Ransom. She crashes into Andy’s legs giving him a huge hug.

“Come on, we have to hurry so we can sit at the best table. It’s the one closest to the kitchen area, and there’s a window, and you can pretend to have a store, and we have a money thingy that really beeps. And! Oh, look, come here,” grabbing both their hands she pulls them to another section of the classroom.

Forgetting she had a special table, she just wants to show off her space, “This is where I paint. And you see that picture way up there? That’s my hand and we made it into a pumpkin! And and and and and and…”

“Audi, breathe.”

“Yes,” she inhales slowly, exhaling, “That’s our reading area. And this book,” she pulls up a book from the shelf, showing both men, “This is my favorite right now. It’s Pinkalicious, and it has a girl who turns pink in it,” she lets out a roaring giggle before pulling the book out of Andy’s hands, and showing them something else.

“See the bags on the windows? We’re trying to sprout beans! And oh,” she drags them to another area of the classroom, “This is the block center. Jacob makes really big buildings and he knocks them down. And one time a block fell on my head and I cried.”

“Which one is Jacob?” Ransom’s eyes narrow as he looks at every little boy in the classroom. Putting Jacob on his list.

“Ransom!” Andy says under his breath.

“Mommy had to sign a paper that said I got in an accident. I just don’t go there if Jacob is going to be there,” Audrey shrugs, and sighs.

“Does he still bother you?”

“Not really. He hits the cymbals too loud, so Miss Tatum doesn’t let him have those anymore. Come on, we should really get some donuts. I want two of my pink and gold ones,” she drags them along even if Ransom whispers and asks Andy about who Jacob is. “Here are your plates. Oh, daddy, look there’s plenty of my donuts left.”

Audrey is able to squish in between a little girl, reaching for the donuts she brought, while Andy stares at her curiously. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t skip a beat. That name rolled off her tongue effortlessly, and while Andy is swimming in feels, it worries him. Scott is a non-issue as far as he’s concerned, but what will Audrey think when she realizes what she’s said? Will you be upset? Was it an honest mistake?

He’s spent every night with you and the kids, minus Scott’s weekends. He wakes up every morning with them. Drops them off to school with you. He reads all three of you bedtime stories every night. It’s not that he doesn’t think he deserves the title, it’s a worry on how everyone else will feel. He doesn’t care about his feelings when something like this can change so much.

“I bet that kid is Jacob,” Ransom motions to a little mischievous boy that gets reprimanded by his dad. “He looks like a trouble maker, that's definitely the brat that hurt Audi.”

“Shh, I’m going through an internal crisis right now,” Ransom furrows his brow as they make it down the line of food. Watching as Audrey fills her plate up with fruit. “Audi, let me carry this to the table, and you grab us some juice boxes.”

“Juice boxes? I was promised beverages,” juice boxes was not on Ransom’s list of things he was willing to drink. He’d been thinking a mimosa at least.

“We’re at a pre-k center.”

“Okay, daddy. Uncle Ann, what is your favorite flavor,” Ransom’s mouth drops open, and Audrey looks at him weird, “Orange juice, okay,” before she skips off, and the two men pick up their plates to walk to the tiny little chairs.

“Is that the first time she’s called you that?”

“Yup.”

“Is that your crisis?”

“Yup.”

“Well,” Ransom gives Miss Tatum a nod as he sits down in the chair, she really was cute, “These are the smallest things I have ever in my life seen,” he states, slotting a too small chair away from the table. He sits down, and glares at Andy. His knees feel like they’re up to his chin, “They are cute, but I look like an idiot,” he follows Andy’s eyes as he watches the man staring at the little girl digging around the cart for the right juice. “It was bound to happen.”

“Eventually. But is this too soon? How do I bring this up? Is she okay? Is she pretending that I’m her dad for today so she’s not embarrassed? Is she confused? I have so many questions running through my head like I’m in court, and all I want to do is stare at that little girl, and wish she was mine. She should be mine.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Andy’s head bobs up and down quickly. He is ready to get home to you, and talk through this with someone who was involved. He trusts Ransom, but this is a family matter. “She is yours,” Andy looks at him confused, “You’ve stepped up for her, her brother, but most importantly stepped up for her mom. You’ve become part of the integral familial unit, and the kids are both thriving. My guess is eventually Scott will quit trying to tear her down, and will eventually back out of the kids' lives a bit more permanently. He already has with Suede. He’s hoping Audi is going to be a good name for him. It’s the only reason he’s kept a somewhat decent relationship with her. By the way, the talk of the assistants is that he doesn't have a photo of his kids on his desk. It’s just him and Taylor, along with his phone wallpaper. Let’s see yours.”

Andy lays his phone on the table, and Ransom has a hearty laugh. “See, you, Doe, and both kids. What’s the other one?”

“Doe sleeping,” he smiles, waving at Audrey. She’d been talking to Miss Tatum about something. Her dimple sinks in as she points over to the table. She really is the cutest here, especially when she’s happy.

“And your fall family photos where you and Suede have actually matching shirts is on your desk. You’ve become their dad. Scott’s just their father. Hey princess, what’s this?”

“Miss Tatum said there’s no orange juice left, but she can go ask if you want her to. But I said you could drink apple cider with us. Uncle Ann! What is that donut?”

Her chubby little finger points at an overly decadent donut piled high with something, and he takes a big bite. Moaning at the deliciousness, “This is a cookie butter donut.”

“I think Jacob brought those,” Audrey giggles, looking up at Andy.

“This isn’t that great. I’ve definitely had better donuts,” he says annoyed. He gives a little glare over to the boy who he has deemed Jacob. He can’t believe he hates a four year old, but said four year old hurt Audrey.

“He he he he he,” she calmly takes a long breath when Andy’s hand lays on her back, “He always brings fancy stuff like that. Mommy says that his mom wants brownie points, but that is a donut. I don’t know what she’s talking about. Umm,” Audrey looks up at Andy. Her pink frosting clad hand lays on his pants, getting a bit of the confection on him, and he doesn’t care. She looks content.

“Thank you for bringing me. I’m sad that Suede can’t have these. But but but me and Mommy will make him some Halloween donuts, also the Pinkalicious cupcakes when you take him somewhere.”

“You’re welcome,” she doesn’t say the title of daddy again, and she also doesn’t remove her hand. Andy’s thoughts are swimming. Swirling thoughts of what this all means, but he can’t deny that Audrey is happy. She seems at ease, and that is all that matters to him. Even if this feels right, and all because you trust him. And he’ll continue to show up again and again, no matter what Scott thinks.

You inhale the hot water deeply. Letting the steam open up your sinuses, while you just stand in the heat. You’d finished cleansing your body, but you need these moments of just breathing. It feels like a never ending battle with Suede’s allergies somehow getting worse. You followed the rules. You didn’t introduce common food allergies to him. You introduced a new item a little at a time, and still it got worse.

He should be allowed to be a normal child, and not have to watch every little thing that he ate. It’s why you made sure to prepare things for him. Always carried snacks that were safe for him. It’s like Scott cursed him in some way. He pushed his distaste for his son onto him, and it made allergies appear or something. He was just two and had so many complications.

Too many complications. It isn’t fair.

You rest your head in your hands, massaging your temples. It had been such a long day. He cried, asking you over and over again why. The nurses said it would only sting a little bit, and immediately he went on edge. Crying uncontrollably because sting now meant bees. It was rough, so you loved hearing that Audrey had the best day possible, despite Scott not showing up again. Hadn’t called. Didn’t even bother giving an excuse. Out of sight out of mind. He’d never bring this up again.

Andy’s hands slide around your waist, and he pulls you into his hard chest. Laying his chin on your head, he keeps you tucked into him, and you drop your own hands, and return his embrace. Burrowing yourself into him, and letting Andy shoulder the heavy weight laying on you. “Honey, you don’t have to come in here to hide. I will listen. I take it today wasn’t a good day?”

“He’s not allergic to bees, that’s a good thing. The seventeen times just caused the breathing issues and swelling. I should be thankful,” that is such a minor thing. You were told to still be cautious, like you wanted him to ever get stung again?

Andy starts to rock you back and forth. You want to make sure your home with him has a huge bathroom like this house. A giant shower for you to comfort Andy, or in this case, him comfort you. Completely naked and vulnerable to each other, and nothing sexual. It’s just purely you and him. “He did add in all shellfish and soy though.”

“Audrey’s going to be very upset then,” leaning back, you stare up at him confused, “Uncle Ann said he wanted to make us some clam chowder,” it’s so silly and goofy, and it shouldn’t matter, but tears well up in your eyes because you hate that it seems like Audrey always gets the leftovers because her brother has allergies.

“She wanted clam chowder?”

“Ehh, she said it sounded gross. We’ll just have a funeral for the clam chowder that never was. She hasn’t tried it, so she doesn’t know what she’s missing. And I’m not so sure about Ransom’s cooking. However, I’m more concerned about what this beautiful woman is doing crying in the shower without me. You’re not alone in this.”

“I know. I just needed a moment to decompress. You didn’t have to see his pitiful face. It got started all wrong. He’s terrified of bees now, and just a mention of them — it was awful.”

Andy’s fingers massage your head as he sways you back and forth. Normally he complains about the water temperature, and even though his skin is turning bright red, he doesn’t say a thing. “Audrey called me daddy today,” gasping, you look into his eyes, and he’s so far away. Remembering the very moment she said it.

“It wasn’t purely an accident. She said it twice. She got pink frosting on my pants. We’ll take it to the dry cleaners, but it was so sweet. She just had her hand resting on my leg, and just would stare up at me with this cheesy grin. Doe, she was so happy today. She got to eat a pink and gold donut, and was proud that we were there. And with me she did show — I don’t even know. It’s silly, but it’s like she was claiming me as her dad to her friends. And who the fuck is Jacob?”

You snort, giving him a kiss to his chin. “Just some kid that has some behavioral issues. I think Audrey tries to befriend him though. So how do you feel?”

“How do you feel?”

“I want my kids to be happy and content. That’s it, and they are. Names are not important. Whether you’re Andy, Na Na, or daddy. So how do you feel?”

He spins the two of you, putting himself in the stream of water while he grabs the shampoo. You pull it out of his hands, and squirt the liquid into your hand before standing on your tippy toes, and washing his hair yourself. Getting a good lather, letting the suds stream down his body. He takes long deep breaths in and out before leaning forward for a sweet kiss.

“I liked it a lot. Is it going too far to say I feel like her dad?” You shake your head no. This is Andy in his element. He was seriously meant to be a father. “I didn’t want to correct her at first because I thought it was a mistake, but then she said it again, and I don’t want this to confuse her. I don’t want this to be a fight for Scott. I don’t want her or Suede to feel they have to call me that. But I liked it.”

“Maybe we should talk to her,” it seemed like a logical start to understanding. It might have just slipped out, she might be confused on what she should call Andy. But it should be discussed with her. Let her know that neither of you cared. “Just with her, we can wait for the next weekend we have them, Suede still takes two naps, and we just have a conversation with her. I’ve been feeling so guilty lately. I feel my baby is growing up too fast, and it’s not because she’s growing up but because she’s having to be an adult with her brother. She’s had so much trauma with the divorce, and his allergies, and she’s not even five. I want to make it a point to have special moments with her.”

“I think that’s the best idea. Not to change the subject, but are you going to wash my body, too? Want to spend some extra time on my dick?” Andy wiggles his brows around, and you snort rolling your eyes. He’s such a teenager sometimes. That’s one way to change the subject.

“Not in the shower.”

“Why not?” He asks, getting all squeaky. You start backing away from him. “Wait, wait. It’s been a hard day, we should take it out on each other’s bodies.”

“We are too old for the shower,” you can just see how this plays out, with someone slipping and falling. Or worse, both of you falling.

“No, we’re not. This is a perfect place to have sex because all our sins get washed down the drain.”

“Those sins cost a lot of money in a water bill, and I am afraid it’s too slippery in here. In theory that sounds extremely sexy. But why don’t you wash your balls, and I’ll lock the door, and then we can make sweet love in bed?”

“You’re mean. You could wash my balls with your mouth,” you give him a quick wink before fully leaving the shower, and Andy hurriedly washes himself. He gives himself a glance into the mirror while he towels off, and then throws it into the hamper. Remaining naked as he walks into the bedroom, and hisses between his teeth.

That’s what the wink was for. Looking all delicious and beautiful, you are on the bed, ass up in the air, while your face is on the mattress. “I take back what I said about you being mean,” watching him grow and harden while he walks closer to you is such an oddly satisfying thing. “Is this all for me?”

“It always was,” he runs his cock through your glistening folds. Using your juices as his personal lube, while he waits on himself to get to full mast. His fingers knead and caress your body, and you wiggle your ass around. Bouncing it, and circling it around before Andy slaps a cheek, causing you to yip. “Are you wanting to punish me, daddy?”

“Don’t start that shit again.”

“If I recall, you kinda got off on me saying that on one of your few visits from college. Everyone was so jealous that I was dating a college man,” Andy’s ego swells, right along with his cock, so you keep talking. “They’d see us out at dinner, and how needy we were for each other. They didn’t hear our whispers of how much we loved each other. How you were already so horny to see me pregnant, but knew it wasn’t the time.”

“Doe,” Andy warns, plunging two fingers into your cunt. His fingers immediately curl as he hits that spongy spot inside of you, and he drives himself in and out. The honey in your pussy create the most lewd sounds, echoing into the bedroom.

“Remember that one time?” his eyes flutter closed as he reminisces, “I told you that you had one time my senior year to knock me up. I was so scared, but at the same time, I wanted it. It was the end of the year, and it would mean that I didn’t have to go to my mom’s college. I could move in with you, and we could begin our life. But…I think this is how it was meant to be, and I love you more today than I could have ever imagined.”

He removes his fingers so quickly, popping his hips forward, and sheaths himself all the way to the hilt. Stabbing you into the depths of your soul, while he swells inside your warmth. His cock aching and throbbing, but he holds still. “I’ll protect you, too, daddy,” your voice whines out the last word, and you get another slap to your ass, “Andy.”

“You play too much.”

“You don’t like it?” Andy grips tightly to your hips, and begins pistoning inside of you. Harsh, sharp movements that leave you clinging to the bedspread. You whimper out his name, trying to push yourself back into him. You want him deeper. You want him all the way into your stomach. You never tire of him, never can get enough, so you wanted him to be welded to your insides.

“I’ll like it more when you talk to our kids about daddy, and it’s me you’re referring to. Doe, I don’t get off on that name. I get off on being a father, and having a family with you. I’m not an overly kinky man,” he pushes into your warmth so hard and deep, your body pushes forward on the bed. “I wouldn’t mind fucking your ass, though.”

“But you’re spanking me,” he does it again, and you sob out his name.

“Because you like it. You enjoy the slaps to your ass, so I will do that for you,” he spanks you again, and then spreads apart your cheeks. Staring so intently on where the two of you connect. Your arousal soaks his cock, and you suck him right back into you. Even your body couldn’t get enough of him.

“Your family loves you, but didn’t give you the attention you deserved. They didn’t care that you were out with me, when you shouldn’t have been. You even said you thought they hoped you got pregnant. And now here they are, traveling around the world, and don’t have a relationship with their grandchildren,” he barrels himself into you, but leans over your body.

Hips snapping him into you at the most toe curling angle, “It’s why we have each other. You and I were meant to be each other’s family.”

“I don’t want therapy during sex,” you mewl, glancing back at Andy. His steel blue eyes capture your own, and he goes deeper.

“You don’t want to talk about it any other time. You don’t have to be the strongest person anymore,” someone had to be strong. And you didn’t care if it was you.

“And neither do you,” Andy thrusts so deeply that you see stars. His grunts louder than normal as his seed spurts into you, and you hope and pray that this is the one that takes.

“You didn’t come,” he pants. He doesn’t leave from inside of you, but tucks his hand under your body as he stimulates your clit.

“But you did. I don’t think you understand the pleasure I get from feeling you,” Andy gives your shoulder a bit of a nibble as he works your bundle of nerves. “How good it feels to know that you still find me sexy, and want to fuck me. And that my body can give you so much pleasure,” his movements become erratic, more rapid and harsh as he tries to get you to the finish line.

“We’ve got the rest of our lives, and sometimes, it just might not happen,” he bites on you again, but this time a bit harder, mixing the pain with the pleasure, “But knowing that I’m the cunt your sinking into,” Andy’s hips start a wave of motions. He’s softening in your cunt, but he pushes you forward, giving you the illusion that sex is still happening, and your body tightens. Winding the coil in your belly up to the point of explosion.

“You will come, or I can’t sleep,” clenching your eyes closed, your head drifts to the bed, and you listen to his voice. Only his voice. Envisioning your new home, full of new memories with Andy. A baby on each of your hips as he plays in the yard with Audrey and Suede with a dog chasing the three of them.

The potential of Suede growing out of his allergies is there, you just had to stay consistent. You would. You and Andy were going to have the picture perfect life. There would be arguments, there would be hard times, but you would be together. You would give everyone the life that they deserved. The life you wanted, and craved.

“Andy!” you can hardly breathe with how much your body is clenched. His love and your pleasure race through your body, bones, and veins, until you can’t even see.

“You’re right there. You’re fluttering around me,” you wonder who the kids would look like. Would they have your lips? Or Andy’s eyes? Would they be tall or short? Would they have health problems? Would they be a girl, a boy? Who would they strive to be? You are going to enjoy whatever they bring to your life.

“Doe, I love you,” he sounds like himself now, but also that young man that you became obsessed with. You and Andy had already created a family all those years ago and didn’t realize it. You were each other’s family, and that’s why nothing else ever worked. It’s why you saw flashes of Andy holding onto your babies as they were born. He was always meant to be in the equation.

Children aren't an obligation to Andy, they are what he wants. It’s why everything is so easy for him. Because this is what he needs. And he craves it with you. Two people that fell in love too young, and somehow made their way back to one another, and nothing had changed. And you can’t wait to see Andy in every new part of his life.

“Andy, I’m coming. My god, I’m coming!” Nothing has ever felt more magical than in this moment. The way that he’s still connected to you as your pussy tightens around him. His grunting breaths fanning over your back, while he coaches you through your high. Life isn’t perfect, but starting today, you’re enjoying every moment for what it is.

You will get a divorce. You will get joint custody of the kids, and it will eventually become full custody. Suede will grow out of his allergies. Audrey will be able to be a child without mothering her little brother. And you will give Andy a biological child.

“Doe, will you marry me?” Andy asks as he kisses down your neck. So much for taking things slow. You didn’t care. You have never stopped loving this man, and you never would. To some this might not seem like the most romantic of proposals, but to you, it is.

The two of you are completely nude and vulnerable to one another. Legs and arms entwined together. You two connect in the most basic animalistic way. Skin on skin, heart to heart, soul to soul. It’s raw and feral, but it’s the most beautiful feeling and something like you’ve ever felt in a lifetime.

“Of course I’ll marry you.”

“Okay,” he exhales quickly. Smiling against your back. “Okay. When — you know when I get out of you, I’ll get the ring.”

“You have a ring?!” You nearly shout as you try to push him off you. He falls onto the bed on his back laughing. Holding onto his heaving chest, and you sit up in the bed looking at the district attorney like he’s a teenage boy, “Andrew Stephen Barber! You have a ring, and you wait until you and your cum are inside of me to ask?”

“I thought it was kinda sweet. It was in the moment, and we were fused together. It’s totally sweet,” collapsing on top of him, you giggling. It was sweet in a grotesque way. It made sense, even if you’re laughing so hard at the stark differences in proposals. Scott’s was big and extravagant, while Andy’s was just Andy. Literally nothing was between you.

“I feel you’re hornier in your older age.”

“I’m not the only one. Who was riding my cock in the middle of the night last night?”

“I was stressed about the appointment, and your hard on was sticking into my back. Your body was inviting me to it,” he pulls you closer into him, his hand rubbing up and down your back. He really was turning you on by you being able to feel him. You couldn’t help it, so you had to take care of him.

“I’m not complaining. Waking up to you using me to pleasure yourself was sexy as fuck. I’m just proving my point that you’re just as horny as I am, so don’t forget it,” you wouldn’t forget. It was his fault. How could you not be horny when you wake up to someone that looked like Andy? “We should get cleaned back up, and unlock the door, just in case the kids have bad dreams.”

They rarely toddled downstairs to join you and Andy, but the fact that he even thinks about them might showing up warms your heart. He didn’t care to have them in the room with you. “When are you giving me the ring?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll go on a date, and I’ll ask you again. If you say yes twice, then I’ll give you the ring,” as long as the two of you were together, it didn’t matter. You are engaged to Andy. Now to get divorced, and then your life with Andy and your babies can have a fresh start. Next stop is a house. Maybe a dog. Maybe a pregnancy. But it will always be Andy.

Next

Masterlist

Taglist: @tis-thedamn-season @marveloustaylortot @pono-pura-vida @peaches1958 @seitmai

@smile1318 @andydrysdalerogers @cjand10 @midnightramyeoncravings @kmc1989

@pandaxnienke @kmm-fluv @rogersbarber @theinheriteddutchess @buckybarnesisdaddy @hisredheadedgoddess28

[notjustjavierpena]

Doesn’t javier’s wife get tantrums when she is pregnant?

Unreasonable (Drabble)

Series Masterpost | Main Masterpost | Support a disabled creator

A/N: She sure as fuck does. Javier is too in love with the idea of her carrying his child to get mad about it though.

Summary: First-time pregnancy and a husband who breathes a little too loudly is enough to make you rage.

Pairing: Javier Peña x f!reader (no y/n)

Tags: Domestic, pregnancy and all the following symptoms (e.g. puking), pregnancy rage, cravings, kisses, reader is hormonal and unreasonable

Word count: 1.5k

Unreasonable

“Could you breathe a little louder?” You ask from the bed. You throw your novel to the side, unable to concentrate, while sending daggers in your husband’s direction. 

You are sitting against the headboard of your bed with all the decoration pillows scattered across the sheets, unable to find one that seems to do the job of supporting your aching back during your first pregnancy. This second trimester is hell on Earth; morning sickness, sore breasts and back, hormones running amok in your system, and no way of getting comfortable. It doesn’t help that Javier seems physically unbothered, daring to move around with ease in your shared home while folding laundry. 

“Honey,” he says gently, turning towards you with a smile that you find provoking, “I’m not breathing differently than I usually do.”

You seethe from your position because you know he is right. The book you were reading amongst several candy wrappers lies face down next to you as if it’s hiding before Javier has figured that is what he should be doing too. You cross your arms over your chest but your boobs feel too big and sore for you to do it the way you normally would. Every instinct in your mind is telling you to attack because you have no way of seeming reasonable in this, “Do you have to squeeze a soccer ball out of your pussy in three months?”

Javier raises his eyebrows at your crude choice of words and your terrifying mental image, “No…”

“That’s right,” you huff and then suddenly you are off into a scolding interrogation that Javier can do nothing about but endure. Your stare can freeze the sun, “Let’s see. Do you have to pee all the time?”

“No…”

You go on, “Do you find yourself crying over commercials on the TV with no way of stopping it?”

“No.” 

“What about your pelvic floor?” You think smoke might be coming out of your ears, “Do you feel like it is going to rupture when you try to reach something you have dropped on the floor?”

“Honey…”

“Does your back hurt so much that you contemplate if it’s easier to just pee your pants instead of getting up?” You ask. Ironically, you have the biggest urge to get up and pace around the room like a caged animal.

“I could massage your back,” he suggests so sweetly but not even that can calm your rage. 

“Haven’t you done enough?” You growl, “This is your little fucking love-goblin growing inside of me and all you had to do was grunt like a caveman and roll over.”

Javier blinks, trying a feeble protest, “Baby… I don’t think tha—“

“Don’t you ‘Baby’ me!” You rage against him, heart beating rapidly in your chest, “I am here either suffering in bed or waddling around like a goddamn incubator! The least you can do is try to make me feel better!” 

“I just offered a massage that you declined so maybe you want some time for yourself instead?” He tries again.

“Time for myself? How on Earth am I supposed to spend time for myself when you are breathing so loudly that our neighbors can hear it?” You avoid his gaze. 

He opens his mouth to speak but you are not done.

“Not to mention the nausea that follows me everywhere I go. Quality time with good old nausea!” You throw your hands up in the air in exasperation, “If I had a dollar for every time I have puked up my guts since you put this baby in me, I could buy myself a private island and be rid of your wheezing airways!”

You inhale deeply and frantically as you run out of breath. It’s then you decide that you are done, scooting further down on the bed to lie down on your side with one of the pillows supporting your pregnant belly. 

You fume quietly. Javier stands immovable. 

Eventually, you pout too. Your husband moves to stand by your side but he doesn’t touch you, “How about we order some food? Do you want to order some food?”

“Actually, Javi, no, I don’t want to order some food,” you reply, still with an attitude. 

“Are you sure, baby?” He gently presses on. 

“Yes, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t say it.”

“I’m gonna order some food for myself then,” he lets you know, walking back to pick up the laundry basket. 

“Yes, fine, whatever,” you sigh loudly, “I don’t care.”

But you do care. As soon as the doorbell rings with Javier’s food delivery, you have thought about the million different things that he might have gotten for himself to eat and it has caused your stomach to rumble. You pout for real this time. 

Eventually, it becomes too much and you get onto your feet, tiptoeing down the stairs to satisfy your curiosity. You don’t need the food; you just want to see if your guesses about Javier’s dinner menu are correct.

You peek out from behind the door frame, staring into the kitchen where he is placing the delivery bag on the counter. The whole house smells like pizza and fried food, the scent having dragged you downstairs to gaze longingly as your husband is rummaging through the plastic bag to empty it of its contents. 

You spot the box of french fries next to a strawberry milkshake and frown, shifting slightly where you stand and trying not to feel emotional about your stomach growling for food. You lean your cheek against the doorframe and sigh loudly. 

“Hola, mi amor (hello, my love),” your husband suddenly says and even if you purposely made him aware of your presence in the room, you still feel on the spot when he notices you. 

“Hi,” you try to get a better glimpse of what he has ordered for himself, “What are you having?”

“I decided on that pizza place on the corner where you also get your haircut sometimes,” he says nonchalantly and you curse your emotions for getting the better of you earlier. You love that place. 

“Really?” You whimper. 

“Yeah,” he continues and stuffs a few fries into his mouth as he takes out a pizza box from the bag, “I really wanted one of their shakes. You know… the ones made from three scoops of ice cream? And then I thought I might as well get some fries because you taught me about dipping them into it, remember that?”

“Y-yeah,” you suddenly feel your bottom lip starting to tremble. The idea of not having a strawberry shake in your hand and their pepperoni pizza with a stuffed crust is close to torture, making you so unbelievably upset that you start to cry big and ugly tears. 

Javier tenses. He abandons the food on the counter the second he hears you, taking long steps to get to you quickly. He wipes his fingers in his shirt so he can brush tears away from your face, cooing softly as you wail, “Honey, shhh… There’s no need to cry.”

“I’m sorry, I was so mean,” you blubber to the point where you are heaving for breath, pregnant belly jumping as your whole body trembles, “I didn’t know that I wanted their milkshake and pizza so badly and now it feels like I am missing out. It’s really stupid but… The baby wants that strawberry milkshake, Javi.”

“I know,” he soothes and laughs softly as he brings you into his arms, giving you a hug whilst you continue your miserable crying, “That’s why I got you one.”

“What?” You sniffle, pulling back to look at him and showing off your red, puffy eyes. 

“I got you a shake,” he clarifies with a small smile, “And I ordered you a pepperoni pizza too.”

Relief washes over you and you cannot help letting out a little, shaky laugh amidst your tears, “You did?” 

Javier nods, eyes soft and smile warm, “Of course, I did. Te conozco (I know you).”

“With a stuffed crust?” You ask, suddenly shy and looking innocently through your lashes. You feel like you’re thirteen again, crushing on your husband all over. 

“Stuffed crust,” he confirms and the smile turns into a grin. He presses a kiss to your cheek and blows a raspberry until you giggle, “No need to cry. El bebé sabe que su mamá está triste (The baby knows their mom is sad)."

“Can’t have that,” you wrap both arms around him and repeatedly kiss his face; nose, cheeks, lips, chin. He closes his eyes, taking each with a sigh that’s nowhere near annoyed. You kiss his lips in the end, “Gracias, esposo (thank you, husband).”

“De nada, mi amor (you’re welcome, my love),” he lets go of you after one last kiss, walking to dig out one more strawberry milkshake from the plastic bag and then handing it to you. 

You take a long sip and do a happy dance without thinking. Meanwhile, Javier gets out your pizza too and suddenly all memory of why you were so angry earlier is gone.

.

.

If you would like to follow my writing then go follow @notjustjavierpena-fics and turn on notifications 💖❤️

[alexa-fika]

Aight aight

Okay so as a kid I tried taking a little ticket from a store and my parents responsibly made me go to the clerk and apologize- if child!dokusha were to steal what characters would be proud(bc pirates be pirates) or scold them

I feel like out of all the whitebeard crew spoiling (any) dokusha marco is the one with the most self control besides pops. Dokusha just comes home and sees anything they looked at that day

Child!dokusha trying on izou's fancy kimonos

Whitebeard being scared to pick up child!dokusha because of his size :(

After the fic 'puppy love' and After ace and thatch's 'talk' with whitebeard of appropriate language around child!dokusha, both men went to dokusha in the crows nest and talked about said punishments

Puppy Lessons (Whitebeard pirates x child!reader)

Part One Part Two

A/N Holo, you Rascal you sneaked in a request in your headcannons 🤭 (I love you) Yall seem to really love the puppy series so I hope this lived up to your expectations

Reader here is replaced by Dokucha which stands for Reader in Japanese

Dividers by @/drinkthesky and @/firefly-graphics

“Alright Vista we got it from here” Marco called as he joined both him and Dokucha in the crow’s nest, Thatch and Ace following right after.

Dokucha paid no mind to the goodbyes the swordsman threw their way, their eyes focused on the younger commanders and their bandage-covered body

“Thatch-nii, Ace-nii!” they exclaimed running towards them over.

“Are you okay?!” they asked, fussing over them and examining their bandaged limbs.

“Marco-nii! Can’t you make them all better?!”

“Don’t worry about them, Dokucha; they are okay; some wounds just need to run their course to make sure that we learn from them, isn’t that right-yoi?” Marco called, putting a hand on the shoulder of each man as he stood between them

“Yep”

“Yes”

“Bu-

“Regardless, we are not here because of that-yoi,” He called, cutting off their words as he gave the two commanders a slight push toward the child

Ace looks back at the Phoenix, a scowl on his face at the action, receiving a smug look in return.

“Listen, Dokucha. Those words you were saying earlier?” Thatch began

“Like fuck and hell?” They questioned, a small tilt of their head as they asked

“Yes, th- don’t say them!” Ace exclaimed, scolding the child

“But brother, you say it all the time, Ace-nii!”

“Yes, but I’m older. I can say what I want,” he countered, only to suddenly wince as Marco hit him upside the head at the comment; he glared at the man again but wisely kept quiet as Thatch tried to fix his mistake in a way that would not get both him and the flame-user in another round of punishment from either pops or the phoenix himself.

“We do say them Dokucha, but it’s a mistake, alright? We shouldn’t have said em when ya were with us.”

“Oh, so I can tell them when you guys are not there?”

A drop of sweat fell on Thatch’s forehead as he felt the menacing glare from the first mate behind him as he hurriedly tried to fix his mistake

“No, we shouldn’ be sayin those words anytime, we have to work on it too. We can’t say them words either, alright, sweetpea?”

“But how will I know if it’s a no-no word?” they whined

“Let’s do this, if you hear someone hear the word and you don’t know what it means how about you come to ask us what it means? We can help you tell which ones are no good words,” Ace piped in

“Okay!” They cheered, their mood falling for a moment as they remembered something

“Umm, am I in trouble?”

“No.” this time, it was Marco himself who spoke up as he addressed the child

“Given that you weren’t aware of what the words meant and it was these knucklehead's fault, you are not in trouble-yoi.”

“Does this mean I can go play?”

“Yes-yoi”

“Thank the fucking sea,” Ace muttered as he, too, started leaving the crow’s nest

“Well, I will be in tha kitchen if ya’ll need me; I need to prepare for lunch,” Thatch

“I need to go do some maintenance on the Strider, so if you need me, I will be there.”

“Hey, Marco-nii, can you fucking play with me then?”

The three men pause at their words, an ominous aura leaving the oldest as he put a heavy hand on the younger commander’s shoulder a, heavy pressure falling on him

“Dokucha, that is a no-no word, alright? Now, how about you stay with Thatch? Help him prepare lunch yes-yoi? He said, dragging Ace with him as they left the Crow’s nest

“Uh, Thatch-nii, where are they going?” Dokucha questioned as they popped their head over the ledge to watch as Marco continued dragging Ace away

“Don' worry, they just going to have a chat with pops if I have to guess,” He said as he joined the child in looking at the two

“Oh, I want to go see Papaw. Can I go to?”

“Trust me, ya will want to sit this one out.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

“Don’ worry about It sweetpea how about we go make some food?”

What are we thinking?

Taglist:

@Imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

[adoreeenina]

I wanna be yours - Ch. 7

Relationships: Recom! Miles Quaritch x Sully! Reader x Recom! Lyle Wainfleet

WC: 2.9k

Series Summary: ~~~ 𝗜𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝕋𝕨𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕓𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕗𝕒𝕝𝕝�� 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕁𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕊𝕦𝕝𝕝𝕪.

“How can you possibly be okay with this?”

Quaritch heavily sighs not be able to keep eye contact with Lyle. Their relationship is still new, and they’re keeping it a secret for now from everyone. But a year ago, he had a one night stand with Paz Socorro, it meant nothing, it was supposed to be a one time thing. Quaritch forgets his actions always has consequences and now he has a son he never wanted. He doesn’t have time to be a father, he never wanted to be, especially with Socorro.

Lyle found out and he’s pissed, and he has every right to be. Quaritch never told him about impregnating Socorro, he lied, not only that but Socorro didn’t even want the kid either, she didn’t want the responsibility. Poor Miles Jr. Is being taken care of by different people who are too busy with their jobs to take care of him.

The breaking point for Lyle? Quaritch tells Lyle the kid and Socorro is going back to earth.

“I didn’t want anything to do with the brat!”

Lyle scoffs at Quaritch response.

“Socorro neglects the poor kid here, she won’t pay any attention to him on earth, that kid needs a father, Miles”

Lyle doesn’t approve of this, the kid is innocent in all of this.

Lyle been stressed out, with the war that might happen with the Na’vi and fucking Jake Sully, Dr. Augustine, and the other science puke that he doesn’t bother to remember the name of.

“They can’t send babies on Cryo, dumbass” Lyle seethes.

Quaritch shakes in head in disbelief.

“What? You want to take the kid?” The sarcastic question made Lyle pause, Quaritch stays silent when he sees Lyle contemplating about it, making him wish he could take it back.

“Lyle”, Quaritch warns, “if you take that kid, I don’t want any part of it”

Lyle eyes widen, what happened? This wasn’t the man he fell in love with, yes he could be a could hearted bastard to other but with him, he’s the opposite. He’s so patient and loving to him, and only to him. They might’ve not talked about having kids but Lyle surely wanted kids in the near future.

But will he even be a good father for this kid? He grew up with a single mother who did made many sacrifices for him and his younger sister with no complaints, who loved and nurture them. His father died by mugger when he was 10 but he remembers he was abusive towards his mother and him. He didn’t want to be like his father, he wanted to be like his mother, to love unconditionally and nurture his own kids, and this might be his chance.

“You’re going to leave me if I do?” Lyle throws his hands up. Quaritch looks away not wanting to answer that. Quaritch loves Lyle, of course he does, but he’s not ready to be a father, he never wanted to be. He grew up with an abusive father who abused him and his mother. What if he turns out like him? No, this is for the best.

Quaritch silence is all the confirmation Lyle needed, Lyle nods his head. His eyes gloss as he tries to fight back tears.

“Then so be it” Lyle finally says as he sniffs, he wipes a tear that falls. The action breaks Quaritch heart but he doesn’t act on it.

Quaritch heart drops as he silently watch Lyle walk towards the door, he places his hand on the console and wait for the door to open.

Before he steps out, he looks back at Quaritch. Both not hiding how much this is breaking each others heart, but one of them is too prideful.

“We’re done” with that, Lyle steps out of the room, leaving Quaritch alone, regretting ever letting the love of his life leave.

Lyle eyes snap open as he sits up. He looks around seeing his laying in his tent. Lyle sighs tiredly as he wipes his face with hands but feels his hand wet, he pulls them back confusingly before touching his cheeks with his finger tips. Lyle realizes he was crying.

What the hell kind of dream was that? No it wasn’t a dream, it was a memory, one of his memories.

This wasn’t new, in some nights Lyle would dream of his human counterpart memories, memories that aren’t his own but the feeling are, and he doesn’t know how to feel about that.

Since the moment he met Spider, he had this overwhelming feeling of wanting to protect him. At first he didn’t understand but it didn’t take long for memories to haunt his dreams. He felt sick watching Ardmore torture him to get information. Before he could act on his instincts, Quaritch beat him to it. And he was grateful. But Lyle doesn’t know if it was guilt or on instinct, from he seen from his memories, Quaritch didn’t want anything to do with Spider.

Wainfleet raised Spider before he died, but Lyle knows how how much Wainfleet loved the kid, heck he ended things with Quaritch so he could raised the kid himself.

Since Lyle woke up in this new body, he’s been having specific dreams of his Colonel. At first he didn’t understand, on Wainfleet’s video log, he never mentioned of a relationship with Quaritch. And Lyle knows it’s not just him, he sees the guilty, longing, and affection look in Quaritch eyes every time he looks his way.

Lyle is worried for you and Quaritch, he hasn’t heard back from them, and Lyle knows how worried Spider is of you. The poor kid hasn’t slept a wink, he decided to stay on watch with Mansk, hoping you would come back overnight.

Lyle had ordered the unit to get ready within the hour so they could look for you and Quaritch. The best lead they have is to track down where you ran off.

Those memories aren’t his own neither are the feelings he has for his superior. In another life, Lyle was everything to him. His light, his life, the one who brought a little joy to his dreary world. But Lyle made his choice just as he made his. They both know that neither of them can change the past but maybe, just maybe, they can forge a new future...

Quaritch yawns as he sits up, stretching his arms, arching his back, hearing a satisfying pop.

He wipes the sleep from his face as he looks around, remembering his sleeping on a branch, then the memories from last night flash in his head.

“Morning Colonel” He hears your voice, he turns to look at you, seeing you once again weaving, he looks at a pile of rolls. You don’t even look at him as you pay more attention at your weaving.

“What are you doing, darlin?”

“Making hammocks” you answer as you show him your craftsmanship, “it’ll be safer to sleep above ground”

You look at Quaritch with a face that says “I told you so” you told him for the start, it’s safer to sleep in the trees than on the ground. It bothered you seeing Quaritch having to have someone on watch, if they have been sleeping on the trees, everyone could rest for the night.

Quaritch couldn’t hold back a scoff making you smirk.

“I have Rawm looking for the other” you tell him. That made Quaritch eye you suspiciously. He didn’t hear an Ikran screech, unless you went while he was asleep.

“When?”

“When you were asleep. I didn’t want to wake you” you reply. Quaritch hums In acknowledgment before looking away from you and sees a pile of Sparta fruit next to you. You had a busy morning.

You catch Quaritch eyeing the fruit, making you giggle.

“Here” you grab one and swiftly toss to him. Quaritch catches it with ease but winches from him stretching his wound, it doesn’t feel as bad as last night but it still stings like a bitch.

“Maybe we should look for a pond” you suggest as you stand up and jump over to his branch. You crouch down behind him as you trail your fingertips around the edges of the leaf.

“What for?” Quaritch as before take a bite out of the fruit, juice dripping down his chin and fingers.

“You need to bathe and I need to wash the blood off your cloths” you respond. Quaritch slept shirtless since you had made him take it off to clean his wound properly last night.

“Want to see me naked, Sully?” Quaritch teases with a smirk. You roll your eyes and purposely rip off the leaf from his skin, making him let out a loud growl. He turns to look at you with a scowl.

“Oops” you faux innocently with a sickeningly sweet smile making Quaritch glare down at you.

“Cmon Colonel, up and at ‘em” you pat on his shoulder before standing up to your full height.

It amazes Quaritch how short you are. Even when he’s sitting down, he still towers over you, you just beat him about 2 inches.

“You weren’t kidding” you stare at him with a raise brow, obviously confused.

“About what?”

“You really are short” Quaritch smirks humorously when he sees you scowl.

“Shut up and eat your stupid fruit. Skxáwng” you huff before turning away from him. You growl when you hear Quaritch laugh.

“Keep up” you yell behind you as you effortlessly run through a narrow branch.

“Woah” Quaritch mutters as he try’s to catch his balance. You notice this and turns to face him.

“Told you you needed to learn your balance” you say smugly.

“Shut up, Sully!” You cover mouth from stopping yourself to laugh out loud but couldn’t hold back the giggle escaping.

You watch as he looks down at his feet, instantly losing his balance. Reaching out to support him, you laugh as his sharp yellow finds yours. Waiting until he has his balance back, you let go of his big arms, watching as he slowly backs up on the branch, arms spread out to keep his balance. 

“See? Not so hard” you smile brightly up at him at his obvious pride. He’s like a baby, but it’s adorable the way his ears peek up.

“Come, we are not far” you turn your back on Quaritch as you continue your trail, Quaritch tries his best to keep his balance as he runs close behind you.

Quaritch keeps his focus on his feet, not realizing you stopped walking before he collided into your backside, he instinctively wraps his arms around you to catch himself, both you stumbling and fighting to catch your balance.

“Hey! Watch it!” You yelp as grasp onto his muscular forearms.

“Me! You’re the one that decided stop and stare at the abyss”

“The what?” Quaritch watches you as you furrow your brows in confusion, you shake your head dismissively, before pushing at his arms to let go of you.

“Nevermind, look” you point. Quaritch lets you pull his arms away before he looks at the direction you’re pointing at.

“What the hell is that?” He squints his eyes trying understand what he’s seeing.

“Pa’li” you answer, Quaritch looks at blankly making you roll your eyes, “You call them Direhorse. They make good practice”

“Practice? Practice for what?”

“Remember what I said? Tsaheylu, The bond, is one of the most important thing a Na’vi can have access to when wanting to connect with the world and nature around us. Pa’li is good practice before bonding with Ikran” you explain.

“If I bond with one of them, do they only belong to me?” He ask.

“Unlike an Ikran however, the neural link made between rider and Pa’li does not lead to a lifelong, exclusive bond between Na'vi and animal. That is why they make great practice” you explain once again.

You both watch as the Pa’li’s feed their bellies by licking the nectar off of some plants with their long tongues.

This is what you wanted, you’ve wanted to teach the recoms how to ride a Pa’li but you’ve been afraid, afraid they’ll hurt them. But seeing as Quaritch doesn’t have any weapons but his combat knife, losing his gun back at the river, you might be able to teach him.

“Let’s get clean up before teaching you, come” you pull on Quaritch wrist, he lets you drag him.

Quaritch watches, amazed as he sees how in tune you seem to be with the animal and how calm it was being in your presence. You rub your hand on the animal snout, earning a soft snort from the Pa’li in contentment.

Miles was captivated and wanted to see how this bond works. Your queue tendrils exposed themselves while you gently guided the Pa’li queue with your hand until both wrapped together and connected tightly.

You hum.

“When you make Tsaheylu, you feel them as they feel you” you hum

“Darlin, you have no idea how wrong that sounds” Quaritch comments. You look at him with a deadpan look. You gently disconnect the bond.

“You’re childish” you pat the Pa’li neck before turning to look At Quaritch with grin.

“Now. Your turn. Get on” you gesture toward the animal behind you. Quaritch gulps nervously.

How the hell is he going to do this without killing himself!

“Shit” Quaritch curses as he falls off the Pa’li to the mud. Seeing him fall sparked a laugh from you.

“You okay?” You giggle as he lets you help him up. You grab him by his arm as you hoist him.

“I’m great, darlin” he responds, but you can hear the sarcasm, which makes you giggle even harder, making him scowl.

“If it makes you feel any better. My dad couldn’t ride a Pa’li neither” you smile.

“It certainly does… not” Quaritch wipes his mud covered hands on his cammies.

What was the point of bathing if he’s going to get dirty again?

“You got mud on your face” you point. Quaritch groans as he tries to his face but doesn’t realize he’s making it worse.

“You’re making it worse” you giggle.

Quaritch stops what he’s doing and looks down at you as you reach up to wipe off any mud on his face.

“There” you smile up at him. Quaritch gaze down at you, almost admiring your features with a soft look. Your smile slowly drops as you gaze right back at him.

Lifting one of his hand to cup your cheek and rubs his thumb against your check bone. Slowly he started to lean down and you lean forward. You close your eye’s in anticipation.

“Colonel!”

Your eyes snap open, you push Quaritch away from you and take a step back as the both you look behind him to see Spider and the unit.

“Y/n” Spider yells as he runs towards you, Quaritch steps aside omit of his way as they all watch Spider throw himself into your arms.

“Don’t ever do that again, please! I beg you! I don’t want to lose you” Spider sobs in Na’vi. Tears prick in the corner of your eyes as you hood Spider like he was a baby in your arms. Spider holds you so tight like he’s afraid you’ll disappear again.

“It’s okay. I’m right here!” You softly coo as you rub Spider’s back. You softly kiss the crown of Spider’s head.

The recoms watches the reunion between the two of you. They knew how close you were but didn’t realize how deep the bond you and Spider have.

Quaritch and Lyle watches. One feels guilty while the other feels approbation.

As eclipse came, you made the unit sleep in the trees, they instantly agreed. You helped them set them up, each sleeping comfortably without worrying for any predators.

You made yours bigger so Spider could sleep with you. He cling on to you all day, not once leaving your side, always holding onto your tail as he trails behind you.

You hug Spider close to your chest as you brush your fingers through his dreads, he hums contentedly. You hum a lullaby to help him sleep.

“Close your eyes

Have no fear

The monster's gone

He's on the run and your sister’s here

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

Before you go to sleep

Say a little prayer

Every day in every way, it's getting better and better

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy”

Softly singing the lyrics, you kiss Spiders head. You hug Spider tightly, you close your eyes, letting sleep take over you.

Quaritch and Lyle watches you as you, they both couldn’t take their eyes off of you. They admire the connection you have with Spider, the clear love you have for him.

They both make eye contact with each other, both longing for one another. Lyle is the first to break eye contact by turning away from him and turn on his side, his back facing Quaritch. Quaritch sighs as he looks up at the sky.

I remember the very first moment I properly looked into your eyes. It was like gazing at the stars for the first time.

Previous | Next

(I am going to change the title of this book. Fun fact this was originally supposed to be miles Quaritch x reader, I added Lyle at the last minute and I’m so glad I did. I’ll rename this book “I wanna be yours” so I’ll have to edit all this lol)

Taglist: @alexandra-001 @commanderrivercc-3628 @henhousesinger @certainkittenpeach @multi-fandom-rando @zzedah

[jessmaybank]

Jailbirds; part 4 - Caught red handed

Series masterlist

Outer banks masterlist

Pairing(s): JJ Maybank x fem! Reader.

Word count: 2k

Summary: you see JJ for the first time since you were arrested whilst at a party on the cut.

Warnings: alcohol use, smoking, swearing, mentions of sex & masturbation, mentions of abuse, mentions of drugs, violence!!, tiny bit of smut, Y/N sucks JJ’s finger lol.

You stood at the entrance to a dimly lit house on the edge of the cut, taking the last drag of your cigarette before chucking it on the floor and gazing at the building in front of you.

The booming music engulfed you as you navigate yourself through the crowds of people scattered across the un-cut lawn. The party was in full swing as you walk up to the porch, observing the various people laughing and dancing.

A couple weeks had passed since you got arrested. Amazingly, your parents never even found out, and you had gotten away with it.

You hadn’t seen or heard from JJ since. You lived on opposite sides of OBX and your social circles didn’t mix, so you never really saw him around anyway. Despite this, you still found yourself looking out for the shaggy haired blonde whenever you left the house.

You couldn’t help but wonder if JJ remembered your shared escapade with the same intensity as you did. No one had ever satisfied you like he did, and you knew that was rare. But that didn’t change the fact that he was a pogue, and you were a kook. It was like trying to mix ice with fire.

You scanned the perimeter as you walk into the house, observing your surroundings. The house was full to the brim with party-goers, and you couldn’t remember the last time you came to a party this busy.

Despite the chaotic environment, you found your friends pretty quickly. It was a rarity your group came to parties on the cut, but this was a rager which couldn’t be missed.

About an hour or two into the night, you returned to the front porch to have a cigarette, alcohol cursing through your veins. You dig the cancer stick out of your pocket, parting your plump red lips to place the cigarette in your mouth.

The cool evening air engulfs you as you pull your lighter out of your jacket, and you quickly realise it’s ran out of gas.

“Stupid fucking thing” you ramble, trying your hardest to get it to work.

“Here” a male voice says, and you turn your head to see JJ standing beside you, a matching cigarette dangling from his cherry red lips. He extends his ring clad hand to pass you a lighter, which you accept.

Anticipation fluttered in your chest as you took in his chiseled features, his cheeks slightly rosy from the alcohol he had been drinking.

The faintest of smirks graced his lips as you lit your cigarette, the orange flame lighting up your face briefly.

Your eyes lock as you hand him the lighter back, taking a drag of your cigarette and exhaling, as you observe the mischievous glint that danced in his eyes, tinged with a touch of longing.

JJ had spent the last two weeks wondering when he would see you again. Although he was basically fraternising with the enemy, he just couldn’t get you out of his head. He would find himself in bed at night, insides burning at the memory of you riding him senseless, your manicured hands tugging at his blonde locks. He would be lying if he said he hadn’t gotten himself off a couple times at the thought.

What he couldn’t understand though, was the possibility that you actually might feel the same. When your friendship with Kiara ended because she became friends with the pogues, she didn’t exactly paint you and your friends in a good light. Kie would get drunk at the chateau and bitch about your group to JJ and the others, stating that all the people at the kook academy were rude spoilt brats. Whilst JJ knew that was definitely the case for a majority of kooks, he had an inkling that you might be different. But you were practically kook royalty, and he was just a dirtbag from the cut. Why the hell would you want him?

“Thanks” you mutter, your voice carrying a faint tremor of vulnerability, which was unlike you. A couple weeks ago you were moaning the blondes name, now you couldn’t even find the words to talk to him.

“You been keeping out of trouble?” JJ asks, flicking the ash from his cigarette onto the floor before he places his arms on the varnished wooden railing on the porch. You were so concentrated on the way his hair was perfectly sprawling out of his backwards cap that you almost didn’t hear him.

The conversation was cut short as your heads both turn to the front yard, watching as Rafe’s jeep pulled up to the house, the music in his car faint as it was being drowned out by the party. You mentally curse as you realise this probably means more drama for you.

Ever since you beat the living shit out of Sofia, her and Rafe would drive around town looking for you, eager to get their revenge. You never had the pleasure of actually running into them, that is until tonight.

“Surprisingly, yes. But I think that might be about to change” you say, a tinge of nervousness in your voice. You put your cigarette out by stamping on it, and down the rest of your beer, knowing what’s about to happen.

The sound of car doors slamming fills your ears as Rafe, Sophia and Topper step out of the expensive vehicle, making their way up to the porch.

JJ looks to you, and then to the figures making their way up to the drive, unsure what to make of the situation.

A smug smirk plants itself upon Rafe’s face as he makes his way through the lawn, and his dark cold eyes spot you.

“Y/N, I thought you might be here” Rafe says, him and Sophia walking up the porch steps, her arm clung around Rafes bicep like a trophy wife.

Although you were good friends with Sarah, your relationship with her was a complete contrast to the dynamic you had with Rafe. Unlike many other of the brainwashed kooks, you saw him for what he was, which was a dickhead.

“And I was hoping you wouldn’t be” you say, a sickly sarcastic smile spread across your face.

The scene before him put JJ on edge. He knew Rafe was a loose cannon, and thanks to the intel you told him when you were both locked in a cell, he now knew Sofia was no different. At the same time, watching your fiery personality fight back at them was drawing you to him like a moth to a flame.

“Your hanging out with the help now? That’s low, even for you” Sofia tuts.

You notice the way JJ’s jaw clenches at the insult, and your blood starts to boil.

“One more word and I’ll break your face again” you say, your words stern as your eyes turn cold.

Sophia tried to look tough as she gives a light chuckle as a reply, but everyone could see how nervous she actually was. She was practically clinging onto Rafe for dear life. Rafe noticed this, and decided to take matters into his own hands.

Before you could even register what was happening, Rafe let go of Sophia, grabbing your throat and pinning you against the front wall of the house, the cold metal of his rings digging into your neck. Usually, you would love the feeling of a hand wrapped around your throat, but this was a lot different.

“Not so bitchy now, are you?” He says, his smirk never faltering. You could tell he was truly enjoying this.

JJ tried to lunge at Rafe, but was held back by topper, who now had him in a headlock. You sent him a pleading look, as you mentally asked him not to do something stupid.

There was no need for a reply as you spit in Rafe’s face, a small smile plastered on your lips as you watch his jaw clench, his free hand coming up to wipe his face.

Your eyes widen as you watch Rafe lift his hand, ready to strike you. You shut your eyes as you brace yourself for the impact, but it never came.

JJ managed to get loose by kicking topper in the crotch, and he lunges straight at Rafe, pulling you off him and sending him to the floor. He throws punch after punch, only being hit once before he’s being dragged off by some random people. Rafes face is practically black and blue by the time he’s done with him.

“Think it’s ok to beat women you piece of shit?” JJ shouts, as he’s being dragged away inside the house.

You pay Rafe no attention as you follow JJ inside. Eventually, he calms down and agrees to let you clean him up in the bathroom. Although he only got hit once, it caused his cheek to bleed, probably from Rafe’s ring.

You gesture for him to take a seat on the counter before you pick up some tissue, running it under cold water before taking a place between his legs. It wasn’t exactly a first aid kit, but it will do. The boy winces as you wipe the tissue over his cheek, and you bring your other hand up to lightly cup his chin.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know” you say, breaking the silence.

Your eyes meet his in a dazed haze, and you stroke his chin with your thumb lightly as a gesture of comfort.

“I don’t like bullies, least of all those who hurt women. We both know he deserved it” he says.

You can see the pain in his eyes, and your insides twist in the worst way possible. You knew JJ came from a broken home, and you wondered if his mum ever had to endure the same things he did. You felt nauseous at the thought.

“I know, but-“

“No buts. Your crazy if you think I’m ganna let him touch you like that” he says, letting his hands rest comfortably at your waist.

Your eyebrows raise into a suggestive arch as a small smile creeps up onto your face.

“What?” He says.

“Nothing” you respond, focusing your attention back on his cut, bringing the tissue up to his check once again.

JJ grabs your arm, stopping your movements and forcing you to turn your focus back to the conversation.

“What?” He says sternly, although his expression is somewhat playful.

“You care about me” you say, biting your lip to hide your smile. It was so hard for you to hide your emotions around him.

You would of been upset at his lack of reply if you didn’t notice the way his stare moved from your eyes down to your lips, and then back up to meet your gaze again. His pupils were so dilated you had to question wether he was on drugs or not.

JJ let’s go of your arm, bringing his hands up to cup your soft cheeks. His lust filled eyes were making you dizzy as he ran one of his thumbs over your plump lips.

Without thinking, he shoves his thumb into your mouth, and you welcome it, swirling your tongue around as you maintain eye contact with him.

“Fuck” the blonde says, growing flustered at the sight before him. Everything you did drove him crazy, and he hated it.

He retracts his thumb, pulling you towards him so your bodies are pressed together, before he finally smashes his lips onto yours. Your hands find solace in his hair as you tug at the blonde locks, making JJ groan into your mouth. The burning ache between your thighs was starting to become too much.

JJ breaks the kiss, jumping off the bathroom counter and spinning you around, so you swapped places with him. He grabs your thighs, giving them a rough squeeze before lifting you up onto the surface, finding his place in between your legs.

Before your lips could reconnect, though, the bathroom door swings open, revealing none other than Kie.

“JJ! Are you-“ she starts, her jaw practically on the floor as she pauses at the sight in front of her.

“What the fuck?”

___________________________________________

Tags: @pagesfalling @dreamingwithrafe @drewsandsebastianswife @princessbl0ss0m @loverofdrewstarkey @partoftoofuckinmanyfandoms @ibleedcalories

[cookieblobber]

The Possible New Future of the Sonic Franchise - Thanks to fucking Sonadow

WOW! SO…THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED 💀

A few days ago it was rumored a Sonic Generations remaster was happening and will be revealed in the State of Play, which then revealed Shadow will be playable. It was really unknown what the hell this meant, but many theorized this was going to be a Bowser’s Fury/Kirby Return case: Game from an old console is remastered/ported with a whole brand new campaign that may or may not be related and possibly intertwined with said game’s story or lore.

They were correct.

Oh yea did I forget to mention BLACK FUCKING DOOM IS BACK?????

There isn’t much yet to go off of right now in terms of what’s being planned here besides this excerpt on steam

————————————————

Alright, enough showcasing, what the hell am I talking about by this game (that was just revealed) being a new future for the Sonic franchise? Well, it’s mainly due to these two things: the usage of Black Doom, and this fucking logo

A little bit of a history lesson -

Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

….wasn’t really a well received game. Besides how many viewed it to be trying too hard to be edgy and dark and gritty, its gameplay was a lot left to be desired. Confusing and lore retconning writing, weird awkward gameplay, you probably already know by now, it was arguably where SEGA/Sonic Team got scared of doing spin-offs with other characters. The concepts and ideas were there, there were still reasons to like the game and like how Shadow improves as a character in the canonical story of the game, it was a small shiny stone in a pile of coal. Besides 06, this was the most development or focus Shadow would ever receive as a character before his massive change in writing in 2010.

Due to the 2010s change in writing style and how characters were written thanks to SEGA to avoid any association from “erm Sonic tried to be serious at one point? Cringe!”, Shadow possibly became the most controversial character of the cast, with him going from a really intriguing 3 dimensional character about trauma, loss, and trying to move on from the past, to many feeling like he’s regressed into a Furry Vegeta or a tryhard loner who doesn’t need friends to help him, the IDW comics being a big example of this. He still had a few good moments like his whole prologue in Sonic Forces, but even then it wasn’t anything intriguing like his story in Sonic 06 where he learns to accept his future might turn out shit, but he’ll always fight back with his team if things get dark (see what I did there?).

Before I continue, I would like to say - blaming Ian Flynn for how Shadow’s written in the IDW comics where he’s more brute and moody…..doesn’t seem correct, imma be real. I know he may have the occasional odd idea of the characters, but it’s very clear the way he’s written is due to certain mandates from SEGA and how characters/the world should be like. If Shadow’s whole moody brute demeanor is truly how Flynn views the character…..how does that explain how he was written in the Archie comics? aka the older comic series Flynn wrote for before SEGA started to get strict with the franchise, aka the series many believe to have had really great Shadow moments? I’m not saying there can’t be criticism for how Flynn may sometimes write characters, but in the case of him being the sole reason for how Shadow is written, that assumption made on him is a lil unfair.

Regardless, in recent times, it’s no doubt that the franchise is starting to rebuild it’s confidence again: acknowledging the old 3D games, including 06, having a more serious story with layers and depth like in Frontiers, Frontiers itself reintroducing Sonic’s friends and their struggles, making them playable once again in a 3D game (again, Shadow was cool to see in Forces but, you could only go so far with a simple reskin of Sonic). Not to mention after the update that brought back these characters, we got Sonic Superstars where the main selling point was that it was a co-op game, and Sonic Dream Team having a focus on the franchise’s more forgotten character: Cream the Rabbit (not to mention bringing back a sorta SA2-style gameplay where 6 characters were grouped into 3 styles of controls). Oh yea also prior to all that, Amy was made playable in the original Sonic genesis games via Sonic Origins.

———————————————

So, what does all that have to do with the future of the franchise, and why is Shadow 05 important here?

First off: Shadow is getting that same treatment as other friends, but possibly on an even bigger level: being a new playable character in an older title and being a big enough deal to get his own story and reintroduce people to what makes him who he is sadly no co-op gameplay but hey that would require completely changing this game from what it was initially was. This is really perfect timing as with the upcoming release of Sonic Movie 3 and Shadow being the next foe for Sonic to face off, Sonic x Shadow Generations will be a perfect title for new fans to dive into and learn more about Sonic’s history and dive further into Shadow’s history, just like what Sonic Origins was for fans who just came back from watching Sonic Movie 2.

This whole thing is also a massive implication that other characters than Sonic may start to get their own campaigns again, building more lead-ups to possibly full on spinoff games. I should say this again: Forces did try to do something with Shadow, but for the most part it was just reusing whatever the game already had to create a quick and easy 3 level prologue that…doesn’t really add all that much to the overall story (at this rate you can probably assume Forces tried to do a lot of things Sonic is now attempting to do, however due to the kinda era it came from, it didn’t have much going for it). Sonadow Generations seems like something bigger and more personal to the character involved, something that could possibly rival the OG game’s campaign.

The fact in this story, they’re going so far as to make Black Doom the main antagonist of this campaign and giving back Shadow’s tribal logo is a massive sign that this is a true attempt to revisit Shadow’s entire legacy. They could’ve easily just made his whole ordeal involve what happened in Sonic Adventure 2, after all that’s what he’s most remembered for, but going as far as to properly acknowledged a lesser known game as being part of the Sonic lore instead of dismissing it simply because it wasn’t well received, it continues to show the confidence this series has started to regain. Sure, it’s weird, it’s wacky, it’s wild, but it doesn’t make it any less something to acknowledge or at the very least make good out of something bad. While we did get hints of Shadow 05 still being part of the canon via the Eggman logs in Frontiers mentioning Black Doom, having him come back officially was still a completely wild thing to see; never in a million years would anyone have thought he would come back as the main villain.

The biggest part of this whole thing is: if SEGA is allowing for Shadow 05 to be fully acknowledged

.

this might mean they’re starting to pull back on their restrictions on the character.

——————————————

As I stated before, it is very clear they wanted nothing to do with this game or anything similar to it ever again, I mean the fact we never got any spin-offs after this really shows they weren’t gonna come back to other characters ever again. But now…everything’s on the table. If Black Doom is making an appearance, if Shadow’s tribal logo is back as part of his identity, what else could there be next? Will Shadow start to use guns again? Will he ride his motorcycle, and other vehicles like in 06? Hell, will motherfucking Mephiles come back again for this campaign?

Not to mention the description of the game stated that Shadow will confront painful memories, will we see Maria in HD getting shot, or the commander from Shadow 05 who was out to get him making a reappearance? This might be the first time in a whole decade since other human characters (not counting Sage since she isn’t exactly fully human) making an appearance again in the Sonic franchise. Again, we may have gotten hints of them still being a thing with the likes of Frontiers’ Eggman logs bringing up GUN and Maria, but actually showing up in-game means other humans can still make appearances in-game.

(Take this part with a massive grain of salt but I’ve heard that Ian Flynn in the past has expressed he wanted to bring back Black Doom and Mephiles, but SEGA didn’t allow it, now that one of them happened, it proves that there indeed has been less restrictions now)

If there are less restrictions being made on stuff like acknowledging Shadow’s game, what could this mean for how Shadow himself may be written now? We’ve seen how apparently well written Shadow was in Sonic Prime, could this carry over to the games and comics where he has a less frustrating depiction? I mean, the fact Ian Flynn was hired for one massive mainline game (Sonic Frontiers) and suddenly they’re doing all these lore related things for the franchise or going back to pull up any old stuff and see what they can do with it, it shows there is a level of trust between SEGA and Flynn and letting the man cook. And it makes complete sense too, he’s been a long time writer for the franchise since the Archie comics, he seems to have a great understanding of the characters.

If Shadow 05 is getting this level of acknowledgement, what about other more forgotten games? Will we one day see Sonic 06 be better acknowledged, or more likely a character like Silver having a bigger role in something related to the events of 06? I mean for some reason recent episode titles of the upcoming Knuckles show revealed one episode called “Flames of Disaster,” who’s to say they aren’t already looking into 06 for some ideas for not just the movie canon, but as well as the main canon?

—————————————

I’m drifting off a little but I’m sure you get by now what I’m tryna say. This game, as it may seem like just a simple small remaster with extra content, may end up creating something bigger for the franchise going forward. Seeing how Sonic Team is behind this remaster and not Blind Squirrel (the people who made Sonic Colors Ultimate; while possibly rushed by SEGA, they’ve also have had a questionable track record with remasters), and hints that Flynn is behind this story, I think we are in great hands with this game. This may be the first remaster to finally be flawless in every level, which I know is a little sad to say when it comes to this 30+ year old franchise, but hey, can’t win them all!

——————————————

Before I end this comically large essay, I would like to make one final note on this whole topic. As I was writing this and taking breaks last night, I came across a tweet that was kinda starting to go around about this game.

To summarize, the tweet essentially claimed that Sonic was still stuck in the past. The franchise was still relying on nostalgia pandering as its identity, and due to the contents of Generations being a whole celebration of Sonic’s history (and what unfortunately started SEGA’s cling onto Green Hill and Chemical Plant), aka alleged nostalgia pandering, it proves the franchise’s identity is still about how when Sonic used to be cool. It hasn’t attempted to evolve in the past 14 years.

You can probably guess what my thoughts on that take is after reading this whole post.

.

.

.

.

.

No.

I don’t think so.

As I already showed, the addition of Shadow’s story more than proves this is still stepping forward. It’s taking an old beloved game and instead of just updating graphics or performance and leaving it at that, they’re making something brand new out of it that may define future ideas for other characters that isn’t about Sonic. Not to mention this game barely attempts to be all like, “Revisit all these iconic locations from your childhood!!!” SEGA is clearly looking at Generations not as that one game they can rely on for easy nostalgia pandering, but as a successful and fun game from the last decade in its own right. I mean to the general public, it’s considered to be “one of the few good Sonic games.”

It can be argued that the addition of Shadow and Black Doom may be pandering to the audience into Shadow but…really? They’re tryna solely pander and play on the nostalgia of a small minority of players who liked a game that was considered to be the start of Sonic’s downfall in the 2000s and make that the selling point of this remaster to the general public? Where some in said general public may argue that they’re about to ruin a rare good Sonic game with stuff that they think no one ever liked??? I don’t really believe it.

Hell, speaking personally, I’ve never played Shadow 05, I don’t own a GameCube, maybe a PS2 but even then I didn’t get much games at the time. While I sorta played around with the franchises growing up, I fully got into it around when Sonic Mania came out (and even then it took me a while to finally play it). So even though I may be hyping up Black Doom’s return, I myself am not coming from any rose tinted glasses or anything, these are just observations from the many discussions I’ve seen online or videos showcasing these games. Same would go for a lot of people into that game as many while loved it, still would acknowledge where it fumbles and how it’s definitely not the definitive Sonic experience to have.

Sonic has begun to evolve, experimenting with new ideas and offering new and different ways to enjoy the franchise. As mentioned earlier, lots of shit happened in the past 4 months. While I agree that something like Frontiers relying on the same old levels for Cyberspace to be stupid, that shouldn’t undermine the actual new stuff it offers for the franchise. I feel like we’re already far beyond the franchise needing to be like “hey remember Green Hill???” as it’s main identity for a game/the franchise. And even then, this shouldn’t mean Sonic can’t look back on previous entries anymore ever again.

Many want Sonic to be like other franchises, like Mario, Kirby, etc, they’ve been also occasionally doing the look back on an old title or old past, so why not let Sonic do the same? We shouldn’t immediately respond to a callback with claims that it’s poor nostalgia pandering, as the take away imo always should’ve been that there should be a balance between original and new and looking back on what worked.

I am happy to say that regardless what this remaster is, we are in good hands again.

———————————————

also unrelated as hell but pray for this man, he has not uploaded a Sonic video in 4 months, I think SEGA killed him by over feeding him with content 😭

[sugolara]

And so it begins

ft. K.B x S.T x I.M x fem! reader

Synopsis: After a deadly virus leaks all over the world, every country is forced to close down it's borders and airports to prevent anyone from coming in and out. Though, it's to late for some people. The dead has rose and is looking for revenge. Cw: gore, quirkless! au, apocalypse! au, zombie! au, weapons, death, angst, lots and lots of blood, cannibalism, suicidal thoughts, slow burn

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The RV was far from fancy, but it did have a bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom, though they were very small. Though dust had even begun to settle on every piece of furniture and unfortunately for Katsuki, his allergies were acting up so he let for the other three to clean it out while he sat back—or laid back on the seats of a car.

Sneezing, Shoto wiped his nose on his sleeve as he pulled the blinds up and opened the window. Behind him, F/n hid her smile as she opened the driver's window, "You sneeze like a girl."

Quickly, he sent a glare her way, "What did you just say?"

From the bedroom, Izuku let out a chuckle as he set sheets of blanket to the side. The mattress looked good, not a speck of blood or grime, and surprisingly, stains. A bit of dusting here and there and the RV was set for the blonde to enter. With each claiming their space, night fell and so did a storm; thunder.

Tossing in her position, she wrapped her arms around her head, her forearms pressing down against her ears, hoping that it would muffle the crashing thunder. But it didn't and after a while she sat up on the table that turned into a bed, eyes peeking through the cracks of the blinds. Adding onto the thunder, growls could be heard right next to her.

A quiet chuckle escaped her lips, amused at the sight of rotters bumping into each other trying to determine whether the thunder was a human.

"Is the dead your sort of entertainment now?" Quietly asked Katsuki, startling her. "I thought you were asleep?"

"And I thought you were asleep." He said as he sat up from the small couch, "Its hard fucking sleeping when you never know when those freaks will come at you. It's also loud."

His voice was soft, unusual to hear, but it was a pleasing sound to her ears, not to mention the soft look on his face. "Why are you up?"

"I hate thunder." She continued looking at him, even when he smirked. "Thunder scares you, but not the dead? Where the hell did you crawl from?"

"From my mother." She calmly said, humoring the blonde as he swallowed his chuckle, "And I'm not scared of it, it's just too loud for me to handle."

As if they were being heard, thunder came crashing down startling them both. Annoyed, the blonde pulled his blanket over his shoulders, placing his knees to his chest as he glared to the floor, "..I feel like that too."

Her eyes glanced all over him. In different lighting, his appearance was rather endearing and a sight that could be dented to her brain, "..Do you want to sleep with me?"

Quickly, his eyes averted to her, widening, "What?"

"Do you want to sleep with me?" She asked again, face puzzled at his expression, "Like, right next to me and get rest."

Relief left his body as he slumped against his seat. For a second he thought of something else, but he quickly shook that thought away when another set of thunder came. He looked at her, eyes squinting with a suspicious look, "You're not going to try anything?"

She scoffed, "Like what?"

"Nothing." He mumbled out and after a few seconds, he stood from his spot and made his way to her small bed. She wished he'd seen the smile on her lips as she moved over, allowing him to lay next to the window. As she propped her sweater as a pillow, he threw his blanket at her, turning his face to the wall, "Go to sleep."

She hummed, carefully laying down to not touch his back. With her head facing the ceiling, she listened to his soft breathing, the thunder had died down and the moans softened. She could see his blonde lock and a portion of his cheeks that she always imagined would be soft. Quietly, she spoke, "Goodnight..Katsuki."

Birds chirping and raindrops pattering had woken up Shoto. The sky was still cloudy, but some sunlight peeked through. Getting up from the bed, his bones cracked as he let out a soft sigh. He made his way to the front of the vehicle, though his eyes questionably glanced down at F/n and Katsuki sleeping. Shrugging it off, he settled on the driver's seat, opening a book as he waited for the others to wake up.

After what felt like hours, he heard movement behind him. Glancing at the rear-view mirror he watched as the girl sat up, gripping her neck as she let out a grunt. "I think...I slept wrong."

"It was probably the 200 pound guy next to you that couldn't let you move freely." Shoto spoke, ignoring the way his stomach did something weird at her morning voice.

"Piss off." The blonde tiredly grumbled out, covering his face with his blanket.

Placing her shoes and jacket she moved to the front, sitting next to the bi-colored male and peering out the window, "Looks nice out."

"Yeah.." He hummed out, his eyes staring at a word on his book as he paid attention to her from the corner of his eyes. Then did he remember the knife he was going to give her. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he handed it to her, "It seemed like your style."

She glanced at him before gracefully taking it. It looks like things are looking good for them, "Thanks, Shoto."

"Do you know how to use it?" He asked, watching as she shrugged, examining the blade. "I'll figure it out."

"You guys are so fucking loud." Katsuki mumbled as he sat up, placing his shoes and jacket on as the RV was a bit chilly from earlier rain.

"Ironic, coming from you." The mismatched male said, eyes back on the book. A scoff from the blonde could be heard, but he ignored that as he flipped a page, "Wake up Izuku so we can get going. The rain might come back."

"I got it." F/n said, making her way to the back where Izuku peacefully rested.

Once outside, they began looking for a running vehicle. With hours passing by and the sky still filled with gray clouds, sunlight barely peeking through, a car just a few rows behind them had its alarm triggered. Questionably they all eyed each other, until the set of growls came and they quickly ducked down hoping they wouldn't be seen. However, it sounded like the rotters were coming their way, so quickly they tried opening the doors around them only for it to be locked.

With no vehicle to hide in, they placed themself underneath the vehicle, going in pairs and squishing into each other so none of their body parts stuck out. With the first rotter coming into view, so did the others, their growls intensifying as they passed by. As they waited, with F/n next to Shoto, in front of her was a decaying head, with words engraved on its flesh; AFO.

[bella-rose29]

Not Your Lover - Chapter 8 (final chapter)

Gregor finally gets some backstory (been a long time coming) although it's actually quite depressing (I'm sorry)

shit goes down in this one (both bad and good)

ok edit: this is the last part of this series (I know 😭), there's a better explanation on the master list if you would like, but thank you to everybody who has liked, commented, reblogged, or even just read and enjoyed <3

Word count: 4.2k

Warnings: swearing, the mother is (you guessed it) still a bitch, mentions of death, mentions of a stillborn, grief, Gregor sees Nik as a son (I cried writing that honestly he's so sweet), the mother gets her ass verbally handed to her, idk what else there is other than it's only been proof-read once

Tag list: @a-candle-maker, @bish-lasagna, @bubybubsters, @el-de-phi, @hauntedenthusiasttragedy, @iambored24601, @itsyoboo-jassy, @karensirkobabes, @kentucky-criedfricken, @little8sun, @mrsklockwood, @mvidaaaa, @nalie-98, @naushtheaspiringauthor, @notoakay, @pietromaximoffsbabe, @shadowwolf202101blog, @simbaaas-stuff

As always, let me know here if you would like to be added to/removed from my Nikolai tag list <3

series master list

Y/n was having a shit day.

She hadn't seen Nik- Nikolai, since he'd told her who he was the day before, and she felt awful about how she'd dealt with it. It was irrational, really, since she knew that he wasn't Davor, but the doubts about what else Nik- Nikolai (Saints, that was still difficult to get her head around) was lying about were creeping in. Her mother's presence in the mansion at the moment was doing absolutely nothing to help.

"-and Davor says that he overheard the two of you the night of the faire, you know, when I found out that the two of you were 'together', and Davor says that he heard you talking about how you were going to pretend to date so that you could use me for your grant! And Davor says tha-"

"Saints, mother! Stop talking about Davor! 'Davor says this' and 'Davor says that', it's exhausting just listening to you!" Y/n was working on the third room, the deadline closing in far too fast for her liking.

Everything would be easier if Nik was helping.

She shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts of him, and went on stubbornly ignoring her mother's incessant rambling, picking up a brush and painting the walls. The entrance hall and first front room were done, but they'd taken longer than she'd expected and now it was a rush to get the third and fourth rooms done in six days. In fairness, she only really had to put the final coat of paint on these walls and finish tidying up and then the second front room was done. It was the final room that was stressing her out, since it needed clearing out, floors replacing, furniture replacing, everything replacing, really, and she'd barely touched it.

Her father had promised to help, which she would be eternally grateful for, but even with somebody lending a hand Y/n had no clue how she would ever get the project done in time.

"You know, I should have expected something like this from you. You're a terrible daughter, do you know that? All I ever wanted was the best for you and you had the audacity to lie to me and take me for granted."

Y/n stopped her work again to stare up in incredulous shock at the woman that called herself her mother. "What? I'm a terrible daughter? You do realise that the only reason that any of this has happened is because of you, right? Because of your failings as a mother?" She stood up, hoping that she looked intimidating.

"How dare you insinuate that-"

"I fucking dare. Get the hell out of my property." Y/m/n wasn't moving, but neither was Y/n, and after a few moments the older woman seemed to realise that she'd lost this fight and left.

~~~

Gregor had smacked Nik for the third time that day, and it was barely lunchtime.

"Focus, boy!"

He felt bad about hitting him on the back of his head, but at the same time Nik hadn't been concentrating and was about to saw his fingers off, so Gregor thought that it was fair.

"Sorry," the younger man muttered, clearly still not with it.

"What's up with you?" Gregor asked, tone softening. "C'mon. If it's gonna stop you working effectively then we'll talk about it." Nik sighed, turning in his seat at the workbench, and for the first time that day Gregor could see the exhaustion in his eyes.

"I told Y/n. She didn't... she didn't take it too well. And Davor and Y/m/n have started going around saying we were faking it-"

"You were though?" Gregor said, confusion lacing his voice.

"Well, yeah, but the point was that nobody was meant to know that. Although I did tell you pretty early on which kind of defeated the point, but you're good at keeping secrets so I felt safe telling you." Gregor's heart swelled at the words and at the knowledge that Nik trusted him enough to share something he wasn't supposed to. It hadn't been long after Nik's first appearance in Taya that Gregor started seeing the man as a son, helping to fill the hole in his heart that had been empty for so long. His wife had died during the birth of their firstborn son, only for the baby to be stillborn. Gregor had been wrecked, despondent and reserved, and eventually he'd moved out to Taya, hoping that the sea air would heal him. Work had kept his mind off of his past, but every now and then he'd be reminded of the two of them and had to close the shop, sitting in his grief all day doing nothing but staring blankly at a wall and periodically crying, his head in his hands. But Nik, bright and shining Nik, had been the son that Gregor never got the chance to meet, and so knowing that Nik felt that he was somebody he could talk to filled the older man with joy.

"Anyway," Nik continued. "I said I'd give her space. It wasn't the best time to tell her, to be honest, because Davor and her- Y/m/n were giving her shit, and then Evalina appeared, and I think it was just a lot to take in all at once." Gregor didn't miss the way that Nik stopped himself from calling Y/m/n 'Y/n's mother', and he found that, despite having known the woman for years, he agreed that she had been too despicable the past few weeks to be called a mother to anybody.

"Well, can you still help out with the mansion? I know she's stressed about that since she's got a whole room left that she hasn't touched and maybe that'll help her figure things out?"

"I don't know. I'd have to go when she's not there, I think. Otherwise I'll feel that I'm pressuring her into an answer or something."

"Well, she normally gets back here around seven bells, and heads out around five in the morning to get the bakery open. Not ideal hours for you to go and help out at the mansion, but I'll let you slack off a bit in the morning if you're tired."

"You sure? Thank you, Gregor. Really. I was going to ask where she's staying, too. She's here then?"

"Yeah. I've got a spare bedroom upstairs. Not the nicest, but at least the heating works," he joked, knowing full well that the hotel heating was complete shit. He'd tried many times to fix it, but somehow (he suspected the owners were Grisha and deliberately breaking it to avoid paying heating bills) it always ended up worse than before. Nik huffed a laugh, a small smile creeping onto his face. "Come on," Gregor said. "Let's get this desk sorted, yeah? If I remember rightly they're coming tomorrow morning to pick this up."

~~~

That night, Nikolai made the short walk to the mansion.

The street lamps dimly lit the way, making the shadows lengthen and concealing people walking along the pavements, but Nikolai wasn't afraid.

Not when he had his demon on high alert for any sign of danger.

Thankfully they made it to the building without incident, although Nikolai could have sworn that Davor was following him, and once they were inside he let his demon out.

"You're helping, alright? You can fuck around a little bit while I get started, but when I need your help, you help, okay?" His demon nodded, stretching out his wings and immediately running off into the bowels of the house. Nikolai sighed, then headed into the back room to make a start on clearing the space.

~~~

"What the fuck?"

Y/n was standing with her father in the mansion just after eleven bells the next day, staring at the empty fourth room.

"Do you... do you know what happened, Dad?"

"Uh... nope. Looks like somebody wants you to get this finished though. Not sure why they wouldn't just... come and help during the day," he frowned, shifting the toolbox he carried. Y/n frowned for a moment too, until she realised who was most likely to do something like this.

"Well," her father declared, striding forwards. "Let's not waste time! We need to get these floorboards up and replaced! Come on!"

The next hour or so was spent doing just that, ripping up floorboards with much more aggression than was needed (both Y/n and her father were taking out their anger on the job), and by the time Y/n had to go back to the bakery they'd stripped the whole room and had made a start on laying the new boards. She was just stepping into her shop when Evalina appeared, and it took a tremendous amount of willpower on Y/n's behalf to not punch the woman in her stupid face right then and there.

"Hi, Y/n. So Nik is single, yeah? Because I would love to see what he's like as a lover."

"Fuck off, Evalina." Y/n walked around the counter, tying on her apron. "Unless you wanna buy something?"

"I'm not hearing anything saying I can't be with him, which is perfect! I'll go find him now!" She ignored Y/n's protests and pranced to the door, but didn't get a chance to open it and rush down the street because a woman had thrown her arm out. Holding the door closed, she raised an eyebrow at Evalina, her other hand resting lightly on one of the axes at her belt.

"You're gonna do no such thing, alright? Go and find some other poor sod to run after, because he is a taken man," the woman threatened, and Evalina paled slightly when an axe was lifted and held up to her throat, nodding so hard Y/n thought her head might go flying. Satisfied, the woman released the door and let Evalina disappear around the corner, watching her go, then turning to face the counter. "You're Y/n L/n, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Who are you?" she asked with a frown. How did this random woman know who she was?

"Tamar Kir-Bataar. You're in contact with Nikolai, correct?"

"No. Well, yes. Well, no. It's complicated," she finished with a sigh.

"But you know where he is? Because I need to find him and the little shit is being evasive. Does he ever open his mail?"

"Um, I don't- I don't know? Wait," Y/n frowned, picking up on something. "How do you know he's Nikolai?"

Now it was Tamar's turn to frown, clearly unsure what the situation was. "Because I used to work with him? Until he ran off into the countryside. Took a good while to track him down, sneaky bastard. He was always good at disappearing."

"Wha- okay." She huffed a sigh, pressing a hand to her forehead. "Well, he's probably at Gregor's, the mechanic. Although he could be taking a lunch break, but I don't know where he'll be if he is. Why do you need to find him?"

"The crown needs him. Urgent business. I'm not obliged to say any more than that, I'm afraid. Thanks for the help," she smiled, heading for the exit. The bell on the door chimed behind her, and Y/n replied to an empty room.

"You're welcome."

~~~

Nikolai dropped his spanner when Tamar walked in and called his name, which was unfortunate because he was on his back, and therefore the tool fell on his face.

"Fuck," he muttered, clutching his nose.

"You alright down there?"

"Yep, all good!" he called, hoping she couldn't hear the pain in his voice as he pushed himself out from under the carriage he was fixing. "Not that it's not lovely to see you, Tamar, but what are you doing here?"

"Zoya needs you. We've been trying to contact you for weeks now, but you haven't replied."

"When you say contact...?"

"Letters, mostly. Have you just not been reading your mail, Nikolai?"

"I haven't been getting mail. And just Nik would be great. People don't know who I am here, stops any assassination attempts. Well, Gregor knows, actually, but I doubt he's going to kill me."

"...Okay. Well, we need you to be Sturmhond for a little while. Shit's going down with the Kerch and they're refusing to loan us money right now despite our crippling debt because they don't like Zoya being on the throne."

"But they were fine with it when I abdicated a month or so ago. Why are they complaining now?" He wiped his hands on a nearby cloth, frowning at Tamar.

"They've got some new people on the council, and apparently they're really anti-Grisha. We need you to convince them otherwise and get those loans." Nikolai sighed, bracing himself against the workbench.

"I can't just uproot my life here, Tamar. I've got... stuff."

"Look, your girlfriend will still be here when you get back. You'll only need to be gone for what, two weeks at most?"

"My girlfr- oh, you mean Y/n."

"Yeah. Who else would I be talking about?"

"I don't know," he sighed, exasperated. Everything was happening far too quickly and all at the same time, and he had no idea what to do about any of it. On top of all of that, he was apparently meant to be receiving mail, none of which had arrived. "Look, I can't leave now. I've got jobs in the garage I need to finish off and the deadline for Y/n's project is in five days. Just give me until after then, okay?"

"We can't wait that long, Niko- Nik. There's trouble in Kerch and you're the only one good enough at getting what you want to fix it."

"There's always trouble in Kerch. Can't you send our good friend Kaz after them? He could threaten them in the middle of the night with murder or something."

"Kaz won't do it unless we pay him an inordinate amount of money," Tamar grumbled, and Nikolai couldn't help but think what a good idea that was.

"Five days, Tamar. And I'll give my most convincing speech yet, how's that?"

"Fine. But I want you going straight there, no detours. We're already behind thanks to your missing mail."

"Yeah, I'll look into that. I have my suspicions on who could have been intercepting my letters."

"I'm going to make the journey back. Five days. And then you make a move," she pointed a finger at him, stern look on her face.

"Five days." Five days to finish the third and fourth rooms. Five days to get Y/n back onside.

No pressure, then.

~~~

That night, Nikolai headed back to the mansion, his demon scurrying across the rooftops out of sight from pedestrians.

He spent most of his time laying the rest of the floorboards, then painted the walls with a first coat in the colour that Y/n had left with a note saying 'Room 4 walls'. His demon was helpful, or at least trying to be, picking up a brush in his mouth and attempting to paint the walls, but when Nikolai saw how haphazardly the job had been done he gave a tut and let the demon wander off and explore the rest of the mansion.

It was strange, how friendly the two of them were now.

Since the events within the Fold things had been different, almost as if now that they were two beings sharing one body they had to learn to get along or go mad instead. Nikolai had previously thought that he'd never be pleased to see the demon, or enjoy its company when it was a reminder of what he had suffered at the hands of the Darkling, but every now and then when it went quiet in his head he grew concerned, or when it chased after its own tail like a dog he laughed, and sometimes, in the depths of the night when nightmares kept Nikolai awake, the demon would curl up around him, offering what comfort it could.

Watching it now, he wondered how they were ever not this close. It was sort of like having a large cat, Nikolai thought. One that didn't shy away from a spot of murder.

The sound of stones being kicked made both man and demon swivel their heads to the entryway of the mansion, and Nikolai paused with the paintbrush mid-air.

"Hey, easy," he whispered to the demon, hoping it would take the hint and stop growling. Footsteps sounded, louder than the stones, and after a moment Y/m/n appeared. Nikolai was surprised to see her, not expecting her to turn up this late at night. He felt his demon hide itself in a corner, the long shadows helping conceal its dark form.

"Hello, Nik."

"Y/m/n," he said tightly, suppressing a grimace. "How can I help you?" He didn't bother disguising the contempt in his tone, no matter how schooled his expression was, and she noticed.

"You can start by going home. This is Y/n's project, not yours."

"Bullshit. She's just the manager of it. Anyone can help."

"Well, she needs to grow up. A child's dream is just that. Perhaps I entertained her fantasies too much when she was younger, but this has gone on long enough and I need to put a stop to it. So, put the paintbrush down, and go to bed. She needs to do this on her own, and when she inevitably fails she'll come home. Back to me."

Nikolai couldn't stop the laugh of disbelief that came out of his mouth, and now he made sure that she could see every emotion on his face. "You really think that she'll go back to you?" When Y/m/n nodded he only scoffed. Maybe she hadn't heard him properly at the market the other day. "You are delusional. You put her down, crushed her, destroyed her, and made her hate you with every fibre of her being, and now you think that she'll forget every comment, every moment where you made her feel like she wasn't a good enough daughter, and act as though nothing happened? No, I'm talking," he said when she tried to interrupt, his tone hardening. "You have ripped your family apart, and there is no amount of grovelling that you can do to get it back. You tore our relationship, too. Yes, it was fake to start with, but our feelings are real. So real that it fucking hurts to know that she has a mother like you, because you don't deserve her. I don't deserve her, but at least I know that she's the best I'll ever do and that I need to worship her like the goddess she is. You don't recognise that you've done anything wrong. And if you ever talk about her like that again, I will make good on my words from the other day. I will find you, and I will ruin you. Because she is the love of my life, and if she'll have me, my future wife. There's nobody but her for me." He paused, chest heaving from the realisation of what he'd just admitted. "We're done here. You can go." Y/m/n looked surprised at the dismissal, but the authority that had crept into Nikolai's voice made her scurry off into the night, her metaphorical tail between her legs.

The demon slunk back into the light, nuzzling up to Nikolai's hand in what felt like pride and comfort, and he was so preoccupied with giving it chin scratches he didn't notice the second figure that had been lingering outside the mansion.

~~~

"Nik? You here?"

"He's out," a voice replied, and Y/n deflated slightly when she recognised it as Gregor. "Went to get lunch. He should be back in about-" he checked his watch, then said "ten minutes. Do you wanna wait?"

"Uh... yeah, sure. Thanks, Gregor." She perched on a chair in the waiting area, anticipation making her buzz with energy. She couldn't sit still, leg bouncing and gaze darting around the room, and every second that passed felt agonisingly slow.

After seven minutes (and thirty-four seconds, although she definitely hadn't been counting) Nik walked in, and he froze with his eyes wide when he saw Y/n waiting in the shop. She stood up quickly, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to start the speech she'd been planning all morning. Gregor walked back out into the main shop after disappearing into the back rooms to fetch supplies, and upon noticing the two of them stood staring at each other, he excused himself, offering up his office as a quieter space for them to talk. They accepted, clumsily thanking him at the same time and walking hesitantly over.

Nik closed the door behind them, and despite the large room Y/n felt cramped, the air heavy with the words she couldn't find the strength to say just yet.

"How have you been?" he asked, his voice quiet. He wasn't looking at her, and she was stubbornly refusing to look at him, but she could picture his exact expression.

"I heard you last night." She winced, not meaning to start there. He didn't say anything, and after a few moments of no sound but the clock in the office loudly ticking she braced herself and glanced up. "Nik? I didn't mean to say it like that. I just- the first night, when I came in in the morning and the room was clear, I assumed it was you, so I came over the next night to make sure, and also to talk to you, I guess. But then my mum was there and I was about to turn around and leave, but then you started talking to her and saying all those things and-" she broke off when he met her gaze, taking a breath.

"How... how much did you hear?" His voice was hoarse, like he was trying to hold back his emotions.

"From around when you told her she was delusional." She bit her lip, nerves taking over the small wave of confidence she'd just had.

"Right." Nik cleared his throat, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "And... do- what-"

"I love you, Nik. And I wanna try being with you, for real. I can't promise that I won't be wary, and I can't promise that I won't doubt you at times, but I can promise that that isn't your fault, it's Davor's. And I can promise that should you ever propose, I'll say yes." He took a shuddering breath, a shaky smile forming on his face as he took a step towards her. Y/n wasn't sure who moved after that, but somehow they ended up meeting in the middle, arms wrapped around each other as he held her face and kissed her like he'd never let her go again. They parted after a while, taking heaving breaths and resting their foreheads against each other. Nik didn't move his hands from her cheeks, and Y/n slid hers up to cover them where they sat, linking their fingers the best she could.

"I love you," he whispered, pressing a lingering kiss to her lips. "I love you."

"I love you too. Just no more lies, yeah? I'm not sure I can handle that."

"Got it. No more lies." He went quiet for a moment and then said: "Is now a really bad time to tell you that I need to leave for two weeks?" Y/n pulled back so that she could search his eyes, huffing a laugh when she saw how concerned he was.

"I think it's a great time, actually. Does this have anything to do with that woman? What was her name... Tamar?"

"Yes. Apparently I'm the only one who can talk a nation into being cooperative. I've managed to make it so that I don't have to leave until after the deadline, though, so I can keep helping out."

"You didn't have to do that, Nik. Really."

"What, and leave you wondering where I'd gone? No thank you. You'd most likely murder me when I got back."

"I would never!" she exclaimed, laughing when he gave her a look that said he knew she was lying.

"Oh, you so would, darling." She'd forgotten how sweet the name sounded, sending her heart into a flutter.

"Hm, maybe," she murmured into his lips, moving her hands to wrap around his neck and hold him in place (not that he needed much encouragement). They only broke apart because Gregor coughed very loudly in the doorway, an unimpressed look covering up the smile he was attempting to hide.

"If the two of you could refrain from using my office as a room to fuck in that would be brilliant." Y/n snorted, and Nik nodded, both of them flushing at the thought. "Great. Nik, back to work. Y/n, I'll see you at dinner."

He swung the door shut behind him, leaving Nik and Y/n holding back laughter in the office.

[magpigment]

MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR GENLOSS EPISODE: THE CHOICE

hello! these are my reactions and thoughts as i watched the third, and final, part of generation loss! not really an analysis, tho it does have some of my theories that were developed as i was watching. enjoy i suppose, lol

ok this is dope opening footage

who the hell is the mask person just walking around??? why are they in a mall??? hello???

does mask persons mask have the showfall symbol on it because i genuinely can’t tell lmao

ENHANCE 

ok well it’s still just as blurry as before because like. obviously. but i’m almost positive their mask DOES have the showfall symbol on it. cool ���� 

why are there so many mask people actually 

are they like. guards?? is this fnaf: security breach??? thas crazy lmao

why was that one wearing a fedora 😂 

also this dynamic camera shot is low key making me motion sick lmao, even if it is super cool

that’s a super helpful directory right there yep! 

ah yes, the smoke gala, my favorite 

why did that one showfall symbol on the glass look like it was painted in blood or something and how did they get it so neat. did they paint it on w a stencil using blood instead of paint. i need answers

oop hello ranboo

ok finally ranboo took off the bundle of like wires or paper clips or whatever that was dangling from their neck, i was wondering what that was lol

ohhhh ranboo trying to talk to the person filming is super cool

who the hell is talking to them rn lmao

hello hacker guy

his name is HEDGE?? did i mishear that

ok so i was right! when the mask is glowing red it means he’s being controlled 

also i didn’t even know ranboo here was able to take off their mask. i thought it was like. attached to them or something. 

ok i’m genuinely like on the edge of my seat lol

oooof ranboo is finally realizing that the people who died are like actually dead! yikes lmao 

those are some pretty good effects for the blood tho like that looked pretty real all things considered. or like it’s the right color more or less

aaaaaand there’s the grappling with morals and survivors guilt and trying to reconcile being under someone else’s control while simultaneously realizing that the things you did while under said control was at least somewhat responsible for like, what, four? at least? people’s deaths! 

….i feel like hedge or whatever he’s called is like for sure lying. i mean i know at least some of the people are in some capacity still alive but ALSO. i feel like he’s lying to ranboo to keep him from just leaving lmao. also i feel like that exit door prolly wouldn’t have worked anyway so whatever 

this is such a cool setting btw, the amount of work that must’ve gone into this is insane. and also the soundtrack is phenomenal

i’m like super sus on this hacker guy lmao 

UHHH YEAH I AGREE WHAT IS THAT??? 

‘it’s locked up, it’s secure, don’t worry about it ^^’ homeslice that thing is behind the least secure covering i’ve seen in my life. that thing looked flimsy as hell 

i feel like this hacker might not know what he’s doing 

i did not catch any of what that hacker said he needed, in one ear and out the other 

‘..are these people, or machines, or-‘ uhhh i think the answer to that is YES. 

i feel like i’m about to get jumpscared lmao

i feel like these guys won’t be ‘pretty much harmless’ in a bit tee hee 

ranboo sure is going through it huh

‘how long have i been here’ i’m not sure you’ve ever left, buddy. 

also, showfall SET UP MISSING POSTERS for ranboo on the OFF CHANCE HE ESCAPED??? BRUH. absolutely bizarre behavior 

the fucking whiteboard in the corner with basically the plot of the series so far 😂 

‘DAY 2 PLAN!! 

-puzzle 

-electric chair

-audience will chose

two plus two equals five 

-black light closet

decoy “planned case of death” ‘ 

along w a couple doodles and some other stuff i couldn’t quite make out so that’s cool lol

ranboo is ahac- assigned hero at construction

i’m like convinced gl!ranboo is not like a full flesh and blood human being, homeslice is a lab baby for sure 

oh there’s a day one plan whiteboard too but it wasn’t completely shown 

imagine being payed to sit in a room completely still for however long lmao

did one of the people standing in the window leave?? 😂 

oh that’s such a cool way to incorporate the viewer interaction or whatever again, with the hacker intentionally seeking them out for their input and ranboo being completely against it because ‘they might try to kill me’. i’m not gonna say it’s foreshadowing, BUT- it’s like for sure foreshadowing not a doubt about it lmao

lmao ranboo this is why you always listen to chat, they’re always right without fail /j 

but honestly the audience hasn’t steered him wrong so far for the most part, at least for like the puzzles and stuff 

oop bye hacker

oh he’s called hetch (?)

oop the people are moving around now that’s ominous 

oh god the security 

welp :D

that’s not good ^^

I CAN HEAR CHARLIE JN THE BACKGROUND MY BOY WHERE ARE YOU

i admire those people’s ability to just completely not break character to this tall person running up to them and desperately trying to get their attention lmao

the headphones probably help lol

ok what the actual hell is charlie literallt even saying right now 😂 

the amount of times i’ve said that should be concerning but honestly i’m just resigned to it at this point. that’s my streamer 💔 

sup my dude lmao

LMAO RANBOO JUST BREAKING CHARLIES CAMERA 😂

charlie sounds so fucking confused and sad nooo

ok genuinely i do not understand how the puzzler died AT ALL. literally what even happened there 

i can’t get over how much taller ranboo is than charlie, charlie looks itty bitty but he could also just straight up deck me so i’m getting mixed signals here XD

charlie is such a good actor i’m losing my mind 

that is a very big mall lmao

i like just noticed that piercing alarm noise ouch my ears 

SUBA hell yeah

ah yes, jake’s, my favorite store 

i’m surprised they actually found a functioning directory 

oop. that’s a corpse 

OOP THATS A SPOOKSTER YIKES RUN RUN RUN RUN LMAO

i should not be watching this at like 2am lmao

du du du du minecraft minehunt that’s crazy

CHARLIE PARKOUR AWAY I BELIEVE IN YOU XD

charlie has an axe what will he do

ranboo with a knife what will they do

(im pretty sure i know what they’ll do with that knife 😅)

charlie has died a lot yeah lmao

charlie w a frying pan what will he do XD

yeahhhhh i had a feeling they wouldn’t just be able to leave lol

that cameraman got moves tho lmao, mad respect 

oof running up stairs, ouch

‘OH WHY DIDNT GOD GIVE ME LONGER LEGS’ mood, charlie, mood

yeah i’m sure they’ll be able to emotionally process this later lmao

oop hacker is dead

oop never mind yikes 

…yeah it’s just a flesh wound i’m sure he’ll be fine 😅 

that dye is not gonna wash out of that guys hand easily yikes. fake blood can be a bitch to get out of things lmao

ALSO I WAS RIGHT, ranboo and charlie and all the others aren’t actual humans technically!

diversity win! you and your friends are artificially created humanoids designed to play a role in horrific death games for the mundane entertainment of a faceless audience! 

ok so the hacker is called hetch? cool

i’m also like mostly certain that the hacker is grizzly im pretty sure. maybe. i’m not great w voices i’ll be honest lol

oop. ranboos just committed a murder lmao

baby’s first kill in cold blood, i’m so proud 🥰 /j 

charlie looks awfully blasé about the stabbing that occurred right in front of him 

THE LOOK HE GAVE RANBOO XD

why’d ranboo ditch the knife bro they might need that later :(

goddd the soundtrack is literally so good tho 

OH THATS WHY RANBOO SAID THAT THERE WAS A WEIRD PAINTINF, I WAS RIGHT, IT WAS IN REFERENCE TO SEEING ‘the fourth wall’, THATS SO COOL 

oop bye bye charlie 😭

i feel like homeboys about to get eviscerated and like actually disemboweled this time 

omegalul 😂 

RANBOO GET THE BUTTON GET THE BUTTON GEY THE BUTTON

HELL YEAH

NEVERMIND

THIS PROBABLT ISNT GOOD 😅 

uhhhh sup buddies tee hee 

oh they’ve stopped moving that’s good

conveniently placed button

i mean not convenient enough i guess cuz like charlie is currently bleeding out or something but THATS BESIDES RHE POINT

i’ve almost managed to convince myself this has like a somewhat happy ending

aaaaaand never mind

the way my stomach genuinely fucking DROPPED when i saw that guy appear in the doorway immediately after ranboo bowed jesus christ my heart

i reiterate i absolutely should NOT be watching this at 2am yet my hubris knows no bounds 

and also now my cat is meowing at my door bruhhh stop ruining the ending of this for me, max /j 

the immeasurable dread in my gut right now, yall 😅 

bye bye ranboo 👋 

BOXED LIKE A FISH RANBOOS BOXED LIKE A FIS- *gets shot*

i fucking KNEW hetch was a goddamn bootlicker!! 

fuck you hetch!!! 

oh oof what happened to their mask :( 

i knew this goddamn audience interactive element was gonna bite me in the ass jesus christ

ranboo is fucking stellar at acting which is why i can safely say i am in absolute goddamn shock! 

oh homeslice is just straight up crucified wow

i wonder if there was any alternate ending or if the vote was precast to always end the way it did. because i know how this ends, and it is not a happy ending. i don’t think there was ever any way it COULDVE been a happy ending. this was always a tragedy, and the hero is always doomed by the narrative 

oh just the abrupt and complete SILENCE upon the box closing, before it slowly zooms out and the theme fades in and swells as the blood drips down from the box??? holy shit that’s so fucking cool

the way this entire thing was directed and performed is a goddamn masterpiece, this was phenomenal and an absolute blast all the way through!!! i’m so so so glad i watched this and i so so so wish i had watched it earlier 

i’m in shock y’all that was so cool

this is definitely going on my list of all time favorite pieces of horror media!! mannnn that was done so unbelievably well i’m absolutely blown away!! 

i can’t wait to just lose my mind about this for the next like. forever i suppose 

i can’t wait to analyze this dude i’m so excited!!!!!!! 

[bookhighlightss]

Once upon a broken heart trilogy book review

★ Once upon a broken heart

1. Oh my lord he's just so fine. So hot. So sarcastic. If you couldn't tell already I love him. So much.

2. Okay um can I just say I hate one thing about Evangeline is that she has this "saviour I'm too nice" complex and tbh I don't fw that. SPOILERS AHEAD.

There's this scene where they are in a vampire's lair and she sees her ex lover or wtv and she wants to save him and jacks is all THIS IS A BAD IDEA DON'T FALL FOR IT and she obv like the main character she is goes like nooooo I will like girll fuck off he's a changeling nothing good will come out of this and quite obv he wants to bite her and jacks to save her gets his aarse bitten and shes like oh no I fucked up LIKE NO SHIT SHERLOCK YOU'RE SAVIOUR COMPLEX IS SHOWING but yea thas one thing that ticked me off.

SPOILERS ENDED.

3. Okay this book got me Outta my reading slump and it's like 300 pages so it's short and I finished it in 4 hrs so like I'd recommend this if you're like in a mood for a quick read.

4. The plot twists are twisting and it's so good with like the most shocking pcs of information and the way Evangeline pieces things together and it's just like damn everything's clicking now.

5. Lastly the " little " in front of the fox gets to me but the age gap is gapping ( iykyk ). Altho I think the book should have been lengthier considering the amt of things going on so it could be more descriptive but ig it's good bcs it's going so fast?

★ The ballad of never after

1. If I was crazy over the first book , I am absolutely psychotic over this book.

2. Okay so the first book they didn't have that much chemistry but oh god the second book made up for it in so many ways.

3. This is prolly the first book in reading which has the perfect slowburn like damn

4. SPOILERS AHEAD. OKAY SO the scene where he decides that saving Eva was more important than changing the timeline to meeting his love and not getting it wrong this time ...fuckkk that played with my heart like he knew he could never get that back and he was ready to still sacrifice his needs for eva only for her to lose her memories holy shitttt

SPOILERS ENDED.

5. Okay so at the end of the first book and the whole second book I felt SO FREAKING BAD for apollo I was like noooo I can't handle this triangle but thennn Apollo was like hehe I'm gonna be a little bitch so then I am so ready for when he gets killed if he gets killed bcs I need that man's head on the dagger desperately. He pulled the most heartless shit ever when eva went thru hell and back for him.

★ The curse of true love

1. Can I just say this book did not give what it was supposed to??? Like the chemistry just got lesser???

2. Okay the dagger scene was so hot tho. And the inn scene bcs damn.

3. Okay the way Evangeline remembered wasn't like SCENEMATIC enough ykwim??? Like I was expecting so much more and that was so less???

4. Okay one I'm more interested in lala's story??? Bcs genuinely what's going on there??

5. I HATE APOLLO. If I thought I was hating him in book 2 then it was loathe in book 3 for me. He just became so sick and twisted like it made me pukish. Kinda disappointed in the book but the last few chapters made up for it ig so yea

Overall I think the book needs HEAVY editing for it to give what it's supposed to?? Like ig the book is too short for such an intense plot I feel like Stephanie could've taken so much more out of this book than she did. And a part of me was waiting for eva to eventually become badass but she always stays the naive damsel in distress girl which kinda got to me bcs I'm all for super lit characters and a few things remain a mystery in this series. Like he's immortal she's not?? What are they gonna do?? She has magic in her blood and thas it?? They couldn't milk it further to make her super badass?? Overall plot is amazing but the story should have been written better

ALSO SUPER MEGA SIDE NOTE THAT CHANGES MY PERSPECTIVE OF THE BOOKS AND STEPHANIE GARBER

She's a Zionist. I just found that out when I was going thru Goodreads review and now I've got the ick bcs till now I was boycotting authors who are Zionist and to find out you just read a book by a zio just makes me sick to my stomach. I really this is a lie or sumn bcs I can't find any posts on twitter tt Tumblr and ig where it says shes a zio so idk I just saw a comment that said she's a zio and thas all so idk. Zionist authors immediately make me change perspective of the book. Was gonna read caraval but not anymore.

UPDATE did my research and found out she is promoting Sarah j mass who is a very proud Zionist among other things therefore it's an ick either way. Not reading caraval

Overall id give the series a 8.5/10

[henrysglock]

I'm curious: What are some headcannons you have for Henry? Not character analyses. Just headcannons.

And what are some situations you'd like to see him in/react to? Think fanfics: you're not limited by canon, the world is your oyster, you can change whatever you want.

You've opened Pandora's box. I'm putting it all under the cut because it's LONG as hell...and it gets progressively darker as it goes.

These are in the context of "Henry didn't go insane and kill a bunch of people. He either never went to the lab, escaped early, or escaped with El unharmed in 1979":

Henry being good with El/the lab kids and the fact that he looks identical to the jazzercise guy from ST3 are the sources of my "Henry would have been some kind of teacher if he'd had a normal life" headcanon. -

I think he'd like Depeche Mode. They've got his vibes. So do NIN and Korn, but mainly for "lord...give me the strength to channel my anger into this metal music instead of snapping" Henry. -

I absolutely think Henry would have a pet tarantula. Possibly multiple different types of spiders, actually. If we're talking teacher!AU, he'd keep a docile one in his classroom. He'd probably gently threaten Mike with it for laughs. He totally has some fucked up spiders at home, though. Bro was playing with black widows as a kid. He doesn't fear any spiders. I know he's got at least a wolf and a brown recluse. Maybe a Sydney Funnel or Brazilian Wandering spider, too. He just wasn't able to expand his horizons as a child, y'know? -

Henry is both "MCDONALD'S! MCDONALD'S! MCDONALD'S!" and "pulls in the drive-thru, orders one black coffee, and leaves". It depends on who he's with. If he's with El or Will, it's the former. If the rest of the Party is involved, it's likely closer to the latter. -

Henry and Mike, particularly in teacher!AU, are like two cats who have an Understanding of each other but don't necessarily like each other. They tolerate each other. However, and this is based in the way Henry reacts to El lashing out at him about Terry, Henry ends up being one of the few people Mike can lash out at without getting in deep shit for it. - (It's similar to Hopper, but in a less violent way. More of a "Mike can express his hurt/anger through his mean/snarky lines, and instead of shutting him down, Henry engages him the way he does with El regarding Terry: redirection towards the intended target. i.e. El, upset/hurt/verbally lashing out: Mama is dead! Henry, redirecting instead of punishing: And who told you that?) -

It's very easy to get Henry on tangents. He's the epitome of "you sly dog, you got me monologuing". One well-placed question, and he's been completely diverted off topic. Sometimes he inadvertently gets himself off topic. Something tells me that if someone expressed actual interest/actually engaged with him, he'd talk for as long as you let him. Y'know, "quiet kid" shit.

About young Henry and lab Henry, semi-canon:

He and Victor read LOTR/The Hobbit together when Henry was a wee thing. It's their series, ok? They're incredibly Bilbo-Frodo coded in canon (Em has convinced me of this so thoroughly <3), so like...yeah :') -

Henry picked up the Weird-Boy Stare from Victor. Victor: [having a PTSD moment] 👁👁... Henry, impressionable: 👁👁? 👁👁! -

Henry was never close with Virginia, but he was close with Victor before things started to go sideways in Hawkins. When Henry was littler, maybe <10 years old, he'd fall asleep on Victor like Holly does on Ted's lap in ST3. - (By 1979, after 20 years in HNL, nice touches seem like something out of a fairytale. When was the last time someone patted him on the back, brushed his hair out of his face, kissed the top of his head, or squeezed his hand reassuringly? He can't remember. It was sometime before March, 1959. That's all he knows.) -

We don't know where Henry moved from, but I like to think it was Ruth, Nevada. When he got to Indiana, it was a total shock for him. The green, the humidity, the deluges of rain that came with winds strong enough enough to rattle the windows of his house, but especially the winters. That is to say...Henry had never seen so much snow up close before he got to Indiana. He'd only seen it on the mountains. Now he's expected to help his father shovel the 5" of it that they got overnight??? When it's barely 5ºF out??? Ridiculous. - (He'd give anything to be back there: 12 and tiny, wet and miserable and shaking like a leaf. It's been so long. He doesn't remember what frigid winter air feels like. He knows it's different from the air conditioning that seeps into his bones and makes his insides feel like a half-frozen slurry, the artificial cold that turns his fingers corpse-white and cannot be escaped. He knows it was different, he just can't remember what it felt like. The thought fills him with enough frostbitten rage to flood the ocean every time it hits him. He cannot remember what the real world felt like, just the afterimage of it, faded and warped and worn at the corners. He thinks he'd maybe like to freeze to death in the snow. He'd die free, at least.) -

Henry Creel hates the cold, ironically enough. There's something wrong with him. His little body already likes to go cold of its own accord, even on the hottest July days. Winter makes it worse. So much worse. There aren't enough sweaters to keep him warm in that big, drafty house, so he tends to sit close to the fire while Victor reads. - (Before he unlocked the ability to see memories, he never quite understood why his father kept warning him not to get too close to the fire. He gets it now. He finds it funny that his father became so preoccupied with that one instance of danger when there are more dangerous things than fire, and he himself is caught in the web of one of those things. Henry doesn't understand why Victor can't see the greater threat that lurks within the walls of that house. He doesn't think Victor would believe him if he told him the truth. So he says nothing, and shows everything. There are worse fates than fire. He figured that one out by the time he was 12.) -

Henry is shit at chess. Alice wipes the floor with him every time. He only really figured the game out later, when it was the most enjoyable way to pass time in the Rainbow room. - (Although...can it really be considered "figuring the game out" when you're playing against yourself? How about an alternate dimension version of yourself? Henry would play black, and the other boy would play white. He thought it was ironic, being trapped in a meeting point between dimensions with a boy who was convinced he saved him by sparking the cataclysm which stripped both of them of their freedom. "You tricked me," Henry had said, once, after being outmaneuvered during one of their endless rounds of chess. "Tricked you?" Edward had scoffed at him after resetting their tie by cornering his king, "No, Henry. I tried to save you. I would have saved you, if it weren't for Papa." Henry hadn't known what to say. It didn't really matter what he said. He and Edward were separated shortly after, repressor chips put in them both after they'd decided to attempt an escape. They were still children. They couldn't take an entire compliment of guards and orderlies on their own. Henry, in 1979, was still in the dark as to where Edward ended up. He'd find out soon enough, though.) -

Misc, all applied before the 1979 massacre:

I'd like to see the kind of damage Henry could do in a rage room. I think it would be cathartic for him. Let the man beat the shit out of multiple electronics/mirrors.

Henry used to like sweets as a child, Werther's caramels and the like, but after years with Brenner and his candy-baiting...he's not a fan.

Related ^^ When 002 was little, before things had gone so far, he liked to hoard his sweets in his room. It was against the rules because sweets attract bugs, but Henry covered for him. Henry still remembers that little boy, his first successor. 002 used to smile at him in his first few years. He still sees glimpses of that boy, even though the years of abuse have gotten to 002, made him mean. Seeing someone be ruthlessly electrocuted by your shared abuser hits different when you watched them grow up, when you were their handler for over a decade. It hits different when you're the only handler who actually seems to give a flying fuck about the children.

Henry has known El since she was put in the nursery in 1974. Brenner assigned him to that ward without telling him why, and he appreciated the glimpse of sun he got on the walk upstairs, but he figured out why he specifically had been assigned as soon as he saw El. There's some indescribable horror in being able to see your sister's baby pictures reflected in a strange child's face and just knowing.

I have more, of course, but this is getting massive dkfjhsdkjfh thank you for letting me vomit out my thoughts

[jozzysabbath]

OZZY OSBOURNE announces his retirement from the stage

February 1, 2023

Two years ago, the iconic Ozzy Osbourne told the British newspaper Daily Mirror that he would never retire. "Do you know the time when I will retire? When I can hear them closing the lid on my coffin! Then, fuck it. I'll do an encore!" he emphasized. "I am the Prince of Darkness," he added at the time. However, unfortunately the Madman was forced to change his plans due to the current conditions of his health. In the early hours of this Wednesday (01), through his social networks, Ozzy announced his retirement from the stage:

"This is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to share with my loyal fans," Ozzy lamented in the caption of his announcement, which reads:

"As you all may know, four years ago this (same) month, I had a major accident where I damaged my spine.

My only purpose during that time was to get back on stage. My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently the innovative Cybernetic Treatment (HAL), my body is still physically weak.

Honestly, I am humbled by the way you have patiently held your tickets for all this time, but in good conscience, I now realize that I am not physically able to make my upcoming European/British tour dates, as I know I could not handle the necessary travel. Believe me when I say that the thought of disappointing my fans really fucks me up more than you will ever know.

I never would have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way. My team is currently getting ideas of where I can perform without having to travel from city to city and country to country.

I want to thank my family, my band, my staff, my longtime friends, Judas Priest, and of course my fans for their endless dedication, loyalty and support, and for giving me the life I never dreamed I would have. I love you all.

Recently, Ozzy spoke in an interview on SiriusXM Ozzy's Boneyard about how terrible it has been living with the pain in his spine: "It's really horrible what's happening. It's a nightmare. Sometimes I forget. I'm lying on the couch, I go to get up and I can't. My sense of balance is all over the place. My sense of balance is all over the place. I have physical therapy and am trying to do things on my own. The progress is... Fucking hell, you have no idea," lamented the Madman, who currently walks by leaning on a cane. "The thing is, my head is fine, my creativity is fine, my singing is fine, but I just can't walk much right now," he said. "But I'm determined to be back on stage, even if I'm nailing it to a board with wheels on it.

In this interview Ozzy still seemed excited and confident about the possibility of getting back on stage: "I still have a full tank. I'm determined to get back on stage again. I'm still recovering and I have a goal. And my goal is to get back on stage. It is the driving force in me. I miss my audience. I miss doing shows. I miss my crew. I miss my band. I miss the whole thing," he added. "My family has been very good. I'm the man of the house, but I've never been so bedridden in my life," he concluded.

As is well known, Ozzy is living with Parkinson's Disease, but in addition he has been dealing with problems with his vertebrae, something that forced him to undergo a series of surgeries in the second half of 2022. According to Sharon Osbourne, his wife and manager, the surgery would determine "what his life will be like from now on. Ozzy Osbourne's health has been in trouble since 2003, when the legendary original Black Sabbath singer crashed his quad while touring his mansion in London.

Unfortunately, by greater forces, we are witnessing the end of an era. The closing of one of the most important and pioneering chapters in the history of heavy metal. One of the fathers of heavy music, Ozzy Osbourne gave us the gift of his work with Black Sabbath and continued with a beautiful solo career. Like the warrior that he is, he still worked hard to release two last studio albums, Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022). Although it is clear that the Madman is no longer able to travel, we hope that he will at least be able, if possible, to continue releasing new music, because it will be hard to live with his absence from the music scene. However, if Patient Number 9 was really the last album of the Prince of Darkness, we can only thank and applaud him for all his contributions to heavy metal. Thanks for everything Ozzy...❤

[everydaydg]

Play Radirgy Swag!!

Oh wow I never posted about this! in my short 2 day leave I did try out a neat game! Radirgy Swag!

Man! This game is sweet! An exhilarating balancing act of speed, HP, weapon damage, ABSnet and enemy bullets

Before going into it I was already a huge fan of Milestone thanks to works like the original radirgy, chaos field, Karous and illvelo (I wanna say Radirgy de Gojaru too but that was Klon)

So lemme tell ya I wanted to play this one for A WHILEEEE.

I kept up with RS34 (Milestone's successor) despite not being able to play any of their game due to all of them being made for the Nintendo Switch... and every single day was it ever tempting to just go and mess with switch emulation just to have a taste of it...

I set up ryujinx...

BUT MY GOD WAS IT WORTH IT!

The style! The frantic gameplay that focuses on running straight into enemies! The balancing act of juggling item boxes to keep up the speed and White Tiger up to spec! Scoring!

The basic loop of Radirgy Swag is killing enemies, getting items, switching those items with the sword in order to get different items like speed pickups, score bonuses, damage upgrades, extra battery (health) and keeping up the speed as much as possible!

The faster you are, the more enemies are on screen and the more bullets they shoot which does kinda make the game impossible past a certain point... if it wasnt because of ABSnet

This game takes more from Radirgy Noah than the original in the sense that its main game plan relies on recharing the "bomb" of this game as frequently as possible

(For those not familiar, bomb is often used as a term to refer to items/pickups in shoot em ups that clear every enemy and bullet from the screen, often giving invincibility for a while)

ABSnet (the game's bomb) can absorb every bullet it touches making you invincible for as long as its active, its meter recharges with every bullet it absorbs

More enemies, more bullets, more bullets, more ABSnet

Its simple and ultimately leads to a somewhat easy game to clear (took me just 4 attempts to beat it for the first time)

Hell I even managed to beat the game with the harder enemies cheat.

The gameplay loop is really fun!

But the gameplay isnt the only good thing about the game! The visuals are on another level!! RS34 did a fantastic job!

They would go on to go even further with the visuals on stuff like radirgy 2 and illvelo swamp but the styleeeee

Its just as strong as ever

The music! Long running series composer, Daisuke Nagata came back to make the soundtrack and MAN is it good!

Even before I got into the game... this... this fucking soundtrack

I was well familiar with it man. its so good. Daisuke Nagata has never skipped a beat!!

Sidenote but highly recommend checking out "ライブイベント”ARXIAL RENDEZVOUS４ THA DECADE", a concert presented by RS34 with several cool composers like Daisuke Nagata, Motohiro Kawashima, Norihiro Yamamoto and a bunch more cool DJs!

If you can ever find the full concert, please give it a shot!

I watched part of it live and MAN! WHAT A GROOVE!

Such a sick concert... sadly RS34 did wipe the VOD of it... genuinely hope it resurfaces.

Well! if you can, check out Kawashima's set! It was dang good

im getting sidetracked.

Uhh... Yeah this more of a ramble than a review, I didn't even claim that this would be a review. its 2:50 in the morning, I have to get up at 5:40 but I took a big ass nap that made me get up at 12:30 so... been kinda stuck and been listening to Radirgy 2's and went "Oh yeah I forgot to post about Radirgy Swag- fuck"... im going back to bed

I wanted to write about something cool. I love rambling about stuff I like.

In a super... informal way, just saying whatever man. Its the fun of this blog.

Radirgy Swag, is fantastic. Pretty easy once you get the grasp of it but man is it fun!! Def worth the set up and wait.

9/10

Im going to be self indulgent with the rating, its closer to an 8.5 but I like this game alot.

A huge shame it suddenly just... vanished! it got delisted and I have no god damm idea why!

Can you tell ive had Milestone/RS34 in mind lately? I mean. Ive been posting about Karous and so on, specially now that (At the time of writing this (19/11/2024 (D/M/Y), 2:54AM) the fundraiser managed to reach a strech goal for an arrange track toggle in the thing... god that rules, I hope its not region locked after all. Cant believe theres a future were Karous is getting a modern release on computers! ... before radirgy or chaos field but honestly I like karous more than radirgy 1... I might get the reprint of Spring Rain.

Im rambling. I like talking nonesense. its my blog. drink piss if you hate it. This is super disorganized but I like just... putting things ya know?

yeaaaaaah.

Okay buh byeeeee

[somerocky-dork]

If Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog was cancelled by issue fifty and was years later replaced by the Sonic X comic book before that too would be replaced by another Sonic comic title, that being the Sonic Boom comic, how different could the landscape of comicdom (comic fandom) be with Archie Sonic ending it's run in 1997? And what if the 48 page Sonic Super Specials were canned too back in '97?

I think there would be a big difference actually ! At that point- if it ended by issue 50, a LOT of characters wouldn’t really exist, unless they were come up with by other artists but even then they’d be different characters because they’d be by someone else. A gap between 1997 and 2014 is a BIG gap and honestly I don’t know if they would’ve even been able to successfully send out a Boom comic, the super specials were a good way to get kids to get the rest of the comics I’d argue, my first one was a super special mini book that had issues from different arcs and it made me wanna read the rest (it had SU issue 4 I think ! Oh and the BunniAntione wedding one from STH) 🤷‍♀️ so it made me go out of my way to find those issues

Also we wouldn’t have any of the Ken Penders drama and it wouldn’t be as interesting to watch, LMAO now Penders did end up doing a lot of writing and art for Archie at this time but he wasn’t super controversial yet though it was a bit sus with the characters that did exist already at this point, plus if they did end back in ‘97 not only would the series not be the longest running video game series as a comic but ALSO I think that the advertising for some games wouldn’t have been as effective, considering in the early 2000s they did stories based around the games at the time like SA1/2, Shadow the Hedgehog, and 06 partially, which helped give them a little boost. If they wanted to pick up with another publishing company I think they would’ve had to have made a Post Super Genesis wave arc anyway to get rid of any characters that couldn’t be there (in this case: Ken’s writing )

The story over Ken is a wild one and there’s a good video essay i listened to one time cause I didn’t feel like reading, it’s a wild story!

Granted,, there are some Archie comics I did like, even before they had to drastically change the time line back in 2012, I much prefer IDW now-a-days as the writing for that has been top notch and I have yet to have a comic issue or character I strongly dislike or makes me uneasy.

imo I think that IDW Sonic’s character is written WAYYY better than Archie was as he’s based more around his game counterpart, along with other characters feeling you know- IN CHARACTER whereas Archie to me a lot of the time felt like an official glorified fan fiction hell (which is so fucking funny )

Though for me personally, I probably would’ve gotten deep into Sonic way later if it wasn’t for the Archie comics! When I was younger I really liked these comics and my bestie and I would read them and go back and fourth all the time and I admit a lot of my older writing came from Archie Shadow which,, wasn’t good, but ANYWAY I think I wouldn’t be where I am now without them- as bizarre as they are

Tha me for the ask!! I hope this wasn’t too much ahsgdhd,

[silentexplosive-diary]

2/4

I made something into another social event today, and stressed myself out.

My partner stayed over last night so we had all of today together. I thought, "Hm. We haven't been to a theater and seen a movie in a while, why don't we do that today?" So we went to go see the new Mean Girls.

So, just like everyone did with Barbie, I put on a little pink outfit and spent over an hour doing my makeup to make sure I looked perfect. As I usually do when it gets into my head that I need to make some sort of appearance for whatever reason.

And, as we were watching the movie, I just started seeing bits of myself in Regina and was getting uncomfortable. I was just talking to a coworker the other day about how if I wasn't in control of any situation my brain demands that I be in control of, I freak out. I gave her some examples like when I was a sophomore in high school taking a Latin class, I for some reason decided that I was just going to rule over the entire class. The teacher had a podium and a stool at the front of the room beside his desk, and I decided that that podium would be my desk. He would tell me to sit in a chair and I would just refuse until it wore him down enough and I got my way.

Looking back, I don't know why the hell I did that. The poor man was just trying to do his job and teach teenagers Latin. He didn't need to deal with me being dramatic and putting myself up on a pedestal publicly like that. But I did it anyway.

I also told her about how I got a certain series of books banned from my elementary school for somewhat starting a cult about the books. The teachers deemed it inappropriate behavior, I got in trouble, the books were banned from that school.

My coworker laughed, saying I've apparently always been a leader in life, and of course, I agree. I've done it with jobs, too. At no point do I start a job thinking, "I'm going to be the boss of these people someday." But that's usually what seems to happen. First job, I make manager in two years. Second job, manager in five months. Current job, not a manager yet but I am looked up to as if I were in a higher position than I am. I just somehow worm my way into that, and maybe that's just imposter syndrome happening, but it certainly feels like me just inserting myself into being in charge of some sort.

I used to even theorize and just figure I had a "dominant personality" or whatever the hell. Something about me makes me good at leading people and getting what I want in the end, for better or for worse.

And I was considering not even bringing this up, but it's in my brain. I was such a bitch in middle school as I was realizing this. I was on a fucking power trip. I'd been bullied a bit through elementary school, and about halfway through middle school, I was tired of it. I tried to make friends with this popular boy I had a crush on in sixth grade, and he was nice enough to me in class to make me think he could be my friend. Then he ignored me all throughout seventh grade when we didn't share any classes, so by eighth grade, I decided that I'd had enough of being walked on and ignored. His friends would always laugh at me that I was trying to talk to him and be friendly, and that pissed me off the most.

Eighth grade was also around the time I began modeling, so I was on a little power trip from that, admittedly. I was tall for my age and was used to the pageant scene for my area, and I knew a woman from church in the fashion industry that got me started on catwalks for local shows. I hated catwalks, by the way, and I worked with a designer that had such a shit personality that I quit after doing their show, only to start modeling again when I was 20, but I only did photo shoots then.

Anyway, I was cocky about being pretty enough to model at that young of an age and I was fed up with how I was being treated by my peers. I turned nasty to them. I completely changed my friend group to some semi-popular people, and I was just downright mean to anyone that wasn't in that group. It's honestly no wonder why they all left me when we started high school, and I had to start from scratch all over again.

I carried that poison into high school with me, too. I just remember thinking to myself that I had to walk in the hallways like I owned them, or I would never be taken seriously and I'd be back to being a weird kid and bullied. So, to prevent that, I became the bully for those years.

And I'd forgotten it all until I saw Regina George up on the screen acting almost exactly like how I acted back in those days. Snapping at whoever to do what you wanted, even if it was just to shut up. Giving out backhanded compliments with a smile. Teasing and poking and prodding people to their limits without any care in the world.

I sat in that theater beside my partner and I was terrified that they'd see the similarities between us. So terrified, they noticed my mood had changed after we left, so I just had to compose my perfected face for an hour and convince them I was fine.

Now they're driving back home and I'm up, still in my makeup, writing this.

I guess my fears in my head boil down to this: If I'm not perfect, then I am nothing, and if I don't step on others, they'll step on me.

Once again, it's tiring. It's exhausting. I hate seeing the worst in myself and everyone around me all the time. I'm really trying to change it.