#hostage interlude

[notsopersonalcharlie]

Work Divorce

Aaron Hotchner x BAU!reader angst/fluff

Summary: Aaron and you come to a realization when you get into a fight about a case.

Warnings: Cannon typical descriptions of violence, alcohol, mentions of divorce, aaron being cuddly, no use of Y/N

Notes: I thought of this (and wrote it) at the airport so sorry for mistakes! Read more of my hotch stuff here and the angsty interlude to this here Gif isn't mine

“Absolutely not. You are not going out there.” Hotch’s mouth was a straight line, and his features read anger to anyone but you. It was his eyes that gave him away. Pure panic and fear.

“Hotch, I built a rapport with him over the phone. I can-“ You tried.

“That’s final.” The whole room was tense, the police officers who didn’t understand the implications and your team, who felt like they were watching their parents get into an argument.

“You have to let me do my job.” It hung in the air, and Hotch didn’t respond.

The tension followed the team onto the plane. The case had ended badly. Yes, the team had managed to rescue four of the five hostages, but not all of them and the unsub was dead. And it had become abundantly clear that Hotch had made the wrong choice. You could have saved them all.

You were kneeling on the dirt floor of the cave the unsub had dug, holding cloth to a bleeding hostage. The other four had been able to walk out on their own and you were waiting with her for the paramedics who had to make their way through the forest. She was crying, tears leaking down the sides of face and dragging clean lines in the dirt and blood that had been caked there.

“He wanted to talk to you. I could hear your voice. I cou-“ she hiccuped, “Why didn’t you come?”

Your lip trembled and you swallowed trying not to think of the memory as you curled yourself into a seat beside Derek, using him as a barrier against Aaron. He had sat down in his usual seat, the one beside it occupied by JJ who usually sat where you were now.

“You did what you could, kid,” Dave said, patting your shoulder on his way past you.

You tried to sleep on the flight, closing your eyes and staring at the back of your eyelids. You had no idea how much time had passed since the plane took off, but you heard an exchange beside you and Derek moved, replaced with the familiar warmth you knew as your husband.

“I-“

“I don’t want to talk right now,” you responded, eyes still closed. The scene of her body being carried out of the hole, limp hand sliding out of yours, was replaying on a loop. Aaron’s hand rested lightly on your calf where you’d pulled it up to make yourself smaller. It was his form of an ‘I’m sorry’.

-/-/-/-/-

Derek and Emily were whispering over the dividers between their desks when Spencer got in. He tossed his satchel in its usual spot and leaned over.

“What’s going on?”

“Their stuff is gone from their desk. Hotch got here alone,” Emily hissed, nodding to where you usually sat. All of your trinkets, colorful pens, and most importantly your wedding photo were gone. It had been a week since the last case, and the last time the team had seen the two of you together was the day after you got off the jet. You had gone into Hotch’s office, door closed, and from the expressions visible through the noise proof window, it looked like you were yelling at him.

You had left, stormed off was more like it, and not been back over the week. And now this on a monday morning. Hotch was visible through the window, frown prominent as he read over a case file. All three younger agents averted their eyes when he looked out, but Spencer managed to scan over the expression when Hotch looked at your empty desk. Melancholy was the best way he could name it.

-/-/-/-/-

Another week and another case passed without a single mention of you. Hotch had never been one to wear a wedding ring, not after his first divorce, so there was no indication there. Still Hotch’s expression flickered to sad when he looked anywhere you usually were, beside him on the jet, in the bullpen, at the round table, and even in moments when the team was used to your quips against him.

“Whatcha got, babygirl?”

“Is everyone there?” Garcia asked, uncharacteristic of her. All ears turned in that direction.

“Everyone but Hotch and Rossi.”

“Good. They are still married! Legally at least. Hotch put in the transfer papers two days after the fight for them to move to the counterterrorism team.”

“Three whole floors?” JJ joked.

“This isn’t a laughing matter, Jennifer!” Penelope’s voice shrilled, “This could be serious! The fight was real!”

“Baby girl, let’s not get all sorts of spin up.”

“They drive to work separately!” Reid cut in. All eyes turned to him.

“What?”

“Wednesday and Thursday I saw both their cars in the garage on my way in.”

“And you kept it to yourself?” Emily complained. The door to the conference room, turned BAU office opened admitting the other two members of the team.

“Thanks for the heads up, baby girl. We gotta go.” Morgan ended the call before she could give them away.

“What was that about?” Rossi asked, taking one of the seats.

“Just warning us about weather patterns,” Emily said at the same time as Morgan said, “She was telling us about another case to keep an eye on.” The two agents glared at one another.

“Smooth,” Rossi joked, “Can we get back to work now?“

-/-/-/-/-

The case didn’t end up being too horrible or difficult. They made it out without another killing and the unsub was caught without a firefight.

Emily picked up her phone, the ringtone distinctly Garcia.

“Hey, we’re almost-“

“Stall! I don’t want to see them fight!” Emily’s eyebrows knit and she frowned. JJ gave her a questioning look.

“Who?”

“The Hotchners! Just stall!” The call ended. Emily looked at the team, who were slowly getting out of the SUV, a few protesting groans since they all had to run through the streets of Cincinnati a little bit longer than they would have preferred. She huffed to herself and quickly unclipped an earring, dropping it between the seats.

“Shit!” The whole team turned to look.

“I dropped my earring.” Hotch looked exasperated, but he turned the car back on so they could turn the lights on and climbed in the back with Emily to hunt it down.

Upstairs the other SUV of the team was standing in the hallway talking to you.

"How was the case?" You were carrying a few things from Hotch's office, the blanket from the back of the couch and one of the photos of you and Jack that sat on his desk. Spencer was documenting the items in your hands and cataloguing them, JJ could tell based on how is eyes scanned over the items twice.

"Not bad. We were just talking about celebrating." You gave a tight smile and your eyes flickered to the elevator coming up from the garage.

"I'll talk to Hotch. I gotta go." You rushed for the stairs, the door closing just before the elevator doors opened to reveal the rest of the team.

"They seem like sturdy earrings," Morgan sighed, "but whatever." JJ and Spencer were staring at Hotch openly before Emily coughed.

"What?" Hotch asked, looking down at his suit.

"Nothing. We were just talking about celebrating today. We haven't all hung out for a while. Rossi, can you host?" The older agent rolled his eyes.

"You know you could at least ask me before asking in front of the whole team," he griped, "But yes. I can host. Make yourselves scarce. Drink some water. See you at seven." The agents scattered to their desks, but once Hotch and Rossi were in their offices, they stood with their heads together, occasionally glancing up at Hotch's office to see if he noticed the missing items.

Aaron walked into his office and immediately noticed the lack of blanket on the couch. Additionally a spot in the dust on his shelf and an absent little plastic dinosaur that sat next to the Captain America figurine on his desk gave away your recent presence. He narrowed his eyes, scanning the rest of the room before deciding everything else was in place. With a sigh, Aaron tossed his go bag by the door and removed some files from his briefcase before picking both bags up and heading for the door.

The agents in the bullpen were whispering and Aaron rolled his eyes at them. They were terrible profilers sometimes.

"See you soon," he called, hiding his smile when they all jumped apart.

"It must have been so bad! For them to be avoiding each other! And stealing stuff out of Hotch's office? That's crazy!" Emily hissed.

"We'll find out tonight." They knew you would never miss an evening at Rossi's. You two were always there first and left later than everyone else.

The younger agents nodded in agreement and dispersed, a continuous drone of concerned texts in their chat as they got dressed for the evening and stopped for snacks, wine, and beer.

Spencer, who was chronically punctual arrived first, the driveway conspicuously empty. He jabbed a message into the chat 'no one's here yet'. The responses of shock were followed by 'go inside and ask dave about it!' from Emily.

The front door was always unlocked when he knew they were over, given Dave's chronic laziness and the access to a firearm in basically every room in his massive house.

"Rossi! It's Spencer, don't kill me."

"We're in the kitchen," came Hotch's voice. Spencer peaked in and failed to hide his shock. You were sitting across Aaron's lap, red in the cheeks from alcohol. Your arms were wrapped around his neck and you were in a full body laugh. Aaron was laughing too, his headshaking, eyerolling one when you said something particularly silly. Dave was leaning on the other side of the counter, the grin on his face prominent.

"I can't believe you would betray me like that," Aaron chuckled, "It's my stuff."

"Nuh uh! We're married! It's my stuff too." Aaron's arms squeezed tighter around your middle, pressing a soft kiss to your lips. You could feel his smile when he kissed you again and you felt like a teenager blushing. Dave pointed past you to the doorway.

"Don't you dare start texting, boy genius. Let the kids find out on their own." You and Aaron both turned to see Spencer put his hands up, phone slipped back into his sweater pocket.

"Take a seat, Doctor Reid. Have a drink," you joked. Dave poured him a glass of wine.

"So you just switched teams?" You looked at Aaron, who shrugged a little bit. No use lying.

"Kind of. We both realized there was no world in which Aaron could be impartial, no matter how hard either of us tried. And I got promoted." Watching Spencer's gears turn was always fun. You could almost see the puzzle pieces fall into place as they did in a split second.

"You're the new supervisor in the CT unit! That's why you stole your stuff from his office. They were for yours." You nodded.

"Precisely. And it's not stealing! It's mine!"

"It is absolutely stealing, you're a menace."

"Your menace," you corrected, booping him on the nose before reaching for your wine.

"We're here!" Penelope's voice echoed through the house, followed by the cacophony of Emily and Derek arguing. It was about you.

"Just come in here!" You complained. There was a thunder of footsteps running through the front hallway and the three other agents cartoonishly paused in the doorway staring.

"You know people are allowed to get new jobs right?" Aaron asked. He wasn't usually the joker in the group, but sometimes with just the right amount of alcohol his dry humor took over.

"Thank god! I thought I was going to have to start planning two parties!" Penelope gushed, running over to hug you. You laughed, sliding out of Aaron's lap. He was reluctant to let you go. He had been every time you were together, now that you didn't see each other constantly he missed you being beside him.

"Anyway, if we ever separated I would get the team," you stage whispered. Aaron pinched your thigh.

"Absolutely no you wouldn't."

"We will have to write up a contract for your work divorce," Spencer laughed.

"That's not fair! He used to be a lawyer," you whined. Aaron pulled you back into his arms, resting his chin on your shoulder where you stood in front of his stool.

"187 over here can help you." You bickered and laughed and explained yourself to the team once JJ and Will arrived.

"I can't believe you thought we broke up," you sighed once dinner was over and all of you had settled in the backyard under the summer stars.

"I can't either," Dave laughed, "They have no idea how much more of a mess you two would be."

"Hey!" Both of you interjected. The team laughed as you both looked at each other. Aaron pulled you ever closer, nuzzling his nose to your cheek. He was properly drunk now, which is why you both decided ubering over was a better idea so you didn't have to worry about a car.

"He's right," he muttered, his letters slurring together. You chuckled, wrapping your arms over his shoulder and squishing him to your chest.

"I know. I would be too."

[xxtc-96xx]

Found a Totally Legal format to watch Mufasa: The Lion King so as someone who was formerly deeply involved in the lion king years back it seems right to give my thoughts:

Jesus wept what have they done (there will also be spoilers see more to read my stupid rant lol)

Now I can see a few spots in the story that could have lead to interesting ideas, in a better story for sure. The problem is the story overall was incredibly cluttered, they rushed from one point to the next and didn’t let any moments sit and breathe. Kiara was cute but Timon and Pumbaa practically held the audience hostage every time an interlude in Rafiki’s story happened with the same routine of “why aren’t WE in the story???” Every time undermining any authentic moments with Kiara and Rafiki

The biggest gripe I have is with Taka and Mufasa’s relationship or lack there of. Aside from having a song saying they’re brothers they hardly have a bond at all that we see. Mufasa is forced to stay away from Taka in the short time they’re even in Taka’s home, Mufasa has a closer bond with Taka’s mother Eshe than he does with his “brother”

Even dumber that several brief lines, Obashi, Taka’s father, keeps mentioning blood bonds are all that matter and Taka kind of argued against that as if the lesson here is that there’s more to family than blood…..except we all know what happens with Scar so in the end his father was right, blood bonds are all that matter because it took next to nothing to turn on Mufasa and he murdered him later in life anyways lol

Even on their Land Before Time style journey that takes them to the pride lands I feel nothing towards Mufasa and Taka, I never once believe they had a deep brotherly bond of any sort. Which makes it even more stupid that all it takes for Taka to betray all of them is Sarabi deciding she has feelings for Mufasa and not Taka.

Mufasa even played as a wingman and tried his best to direct Sarabi to Taka but in the end the two of them bonded instead, and Taka flips the traitor switch instantly over that without even confronting him about it and from then on he speaks as his 2019 Incel murder counterpart, even confessed to Mufasa proudly of his betrayal and yet Mufasa and everyone else is stupid enough to just let him stick around anyways, every line he delivered post betrayal was said in the same way one would say “I’m going to murder every one of you and also you smell bad”

Overall a very frustrating and hollow experience, it didn’t feel like it added anything to the overall universe and now Scar apologists have more to work with despite the fact Taka in the film is terrible and hardly has any redeeming qualities XD

If you want a better falling out story as I’ve said before, watch Transformers One. You feel the bond between Orion Pax and D16, you sympathize with D16’s slow decent into a dark place and you mourn the lost brotherhood between Optimus and Megatron but still know that Megatron was still in the wrong by the end. I felt none of that in Mufasa

Also Mufasa’s dad never told him about the great kings of the past because he’s not a king, and the throw away line in the terrible 2019 remake Zazu said specifically for the prequel mentioned he knew a headstrong cub who was always getting into scrapes but Zazu didn’t meet Mufasa until he was a young adult XD

[lakesbian]

the thing about amy is that imo her dream life isn't a world where she can date victoria because they aren't sisters, but a world where she's actually the sister victoria thinks she is and new wave wants her to be. because that is a scenario where she'd Belong. and the happiest her life can get is when she gets to live out a facsimile of that fantasy of belonging. getting held up during a bank robbery blows, obviously, but 3.11 is--up until tattletale shows up--a good day for her, in terms of getting to feel like a real dallon.

she texts victoria for help, and victoria shows up guns-blazing, issues an awe-inspiring display of force for her, calls her "sis," and asks if she's okay. amy beams about that. victoria says that because taylor is holding a member of new wave hostage, the entire family & extended family will show up to help her--and amy isn't really a dallon in the same way victoria is, but it must be wonderful to feel included for a moment. to be united with victoria against a criminal instead of being an object of scrutiny. here, the criminal is bad and wrong, and victoria is good, and amy gets to be good with her.

victoria lords the protectorate's wealth over taylor by mentioning that they were at a country club eating mousse. (how desperate do someone's life circumstances have to be, compared to the dallons, for them to try robbing a bank?) amy follows suit, laughing and commenting "isn't the mousse good?" despite the knife to her neck. she calls taylor a terrorist. she threatens to hurt her, much like how victoria threatened to hurt the gang member she was brutalizing in her interlude. she threatens to make her fat, and while this isn't intentional writing because worm is deeply fatphobic, it's fascinating to watch amy threaten taylor with making her non-normative/traditionally unattractive right after calling her a terrorist and mocking her using the wealth she's associated with.

it must be a painful reminder that the fantasy isn't real, to hear victoria talking casually about taking amy on a double date with a boy, and to hear her telling tattletale that new wave has no secrets--but at least amy can imagine for a moment that she lives in a world where she and victoria are the ideal sisters victoria thinks they are, close enough to go on double dates and share every secret. it's not real, but it's the closest she can get.

and then tattletale reminds her that she doesn't belong, that what's wrong with her is--according to what she has implicitly learned from the dallons--inherited. that she's tied to the same kind of person she just called a terrorist. (in the dallon's world of perfect, all-american, all-white, upper-middle-class cop families, criminals aren't a result of varying circumstance, they're a kind of person, and a kind of person that is always evil. a kind of person amy is, according to the world of the dallons, tainted by.)

victoria doesn't get out injury-free either, of course. aside from the unnerving reminder that her sister doesn't feel like she belongs--why might that be?--it's been impressed upon her that she has to be the dallon's perfect & untouchable golden girl, and she likes to pretend that she really is. but as tattletale says when she sees through victoria's disguise and takes her down, she's not invincible. her sister doesn't belong, and she's not invincible. that one is gonna stew in both of their minds for a while.

[anonymous-dentist]

Bagi's first day at work consists of paperwork, more paperwork, and even more paperwork. She spills her tea all over her papers (oh, nooooo, how horrible...) and has to redo them all. She refuses a fresh cup of tea from one of the other detectives, a tall man with a terrible mustache that she thinks might be into her.

Unfortunately for him, she's already taken.

Just after noon, she checks her phone. No new messages. Great.

She turns her phone off and stares at her lockscreen for just a second too long before getting back to work on her forms.

Today, since it's her first day at the station, she's filling out the HR paperwork that the HR manager didn't get to during their meeting. Nothing too important, just...

'Next of kin:' is the next spot on the form. Bagi stares at it for a long, long while. Her parents are in Brazil. She and Tina aren't married yet. Empanada is a little girl. And her brother is-

"Oh, not you again," the uniform cop at the front desk groans. "I already told you, man, I can't do anything about the ice cream man until he actually does something."

Bagi halfway turns in her seat to see who the uniform is talking to, and she's briefly taken aback because wow. Who the fuck are these guys supposed to be?

There are two men standing in front of the front desk. One, tall, looks normal enough. Bagi can smell the wolf on him from where she is across the room, but she isn't too worried. He doesn't seem the violent type; he looks more confused than anything.

The other man looks like he's going to strangle the uniform. His clothes are wrinkled and his hair is a mess and his eyes are bloodshot. He's looking down at the uniform like he's about to tear the poor guy apart, and, what, over an ice cream man?

He smells of blood. Another daywalker, probably. What are the odds?

"Okay," he slowly says, clearly frustrated, "first off, it has done something. But we aren't here about that."

The other man chimes in with a much more welcoming expression: "Hi! He's right. We're here for the files on the deaths of those dead guys. Uh..."

He looks at the daywalker for help.

The daywalker supplies, "I'm the private detective."

Hmm.

"I know," the uniform flatly says. "I wish you weren't. Hold on, let me get them for you."

He stands and leaves for the filing room, leaving the two men alone at the front.

Bagi turns back to her papers, but she keeps listening in. Just in case. (The daywalker is giving her weird vibes, okay?)

"Do you really think this has something to do with Mariana?" the wolf quietly asks. "I mean... he isn't dead."

"Not yet," the daywalker replies, just as quiet. "If we can figure out how Dan and Luzu died, then we might be able to save Mariana and- and we'll be able to stop the killer."

He was going to say someone else. That stammer was not uncertainty.

The dead men's names ring a bell. Bagi remembers hearing about the case when she and Tina were still moving into the city. No updates on it in months, not since this Luzu guy's body was found, but this must be the private detective the police department has brought in to help.

For some reason.

Bagi really doesn't get it; how incompetent are the actual detectives in this city? (Not so incompetent now that they've hired her, but still!)

It is kind of alarming that the daywalker seems to think that the killer has kidnapped two people, but Bagi doubts they're actually being held hostage. They're probably dead, unfortunately, because this case is as cold and dead as she is. Nobody's found the bodies yet, that's all.

The wolf huffs out a breath of laughter through his nose.

"You know," he says, still quiet, "when we first met, I didn't think I'd be solving crimes with you."

"Oh? What did you think we'd be doing?"

It's teasing. Suddenly, Bagi thinks of Tina, and her chest hurts with yearning. Tina...

"Oh, you know," the wolf hums. "Hiking, camping... chilling..."

"What, we don't chill?"

"We could chill more, that's all I'm saying."

The daywalker laughs. "Fine, fine! We'll chill after this!"

"No, after this, we're going to the party."

"Yeah, for, like, ten minutes. We have work to do."

"Work isn't chilling!"

"But it's fun work!"

"What the fuck? This is a murder!"

"He might not be dead!"

Bagi rolls her eyes. Boys...

She stares down at her paper.

'Next of kin:'

"Cellbit, here you go," the uniform says as he comes back out from the file room. "Please don't come back when I'm on duty."

"Fuck you, man," the wolf sniffs. "Come on, gatinho."

They leave, still bickering, but Bagi isn't really paying attention anymore. Not really. Not at all.

Cellbit, huh? What a coincidence. Same name as her brother.

Wherever he is.

-

Or: A Breaking Dawn Interlude.

[kyliafanfiction]

Maybe there's something in Arcs 9 to 15 that shows us Amy actually being like, the bitchy grump all the fanfiction writes her as, or something in the test of Ward that verifies she was that sort of person pre-S9, but it can't be Ward that is the source of it, since "bitchy grumpy Amy" was all over the pre-Ward fanfic too.

But like...

So far, I've seen Amy directly onscreen a handful of times, and granted, she has been grumpy or bitchy in most of them, but like, Interlude 2 - she's pissed her sister nearly killed a guy again and she has to bail her out. The Bank - she's actively being held hostage and 8.6 - she's dealing with a girl she's actively (if wrongly) convinced is a horrible person (and who she associates with what is, for the moment, one of the worst days of her life), right after her cousin and Uncle died.

In Interlude 3 she's reasonably civil, she's just... fucking tired.

But like, while I see people bitch about 'fanon' with Amy, a lot, I don't actually think I've seen anyone ever say 'Bitchy Grumpy Amy' is fanon, and so far, it looks like it is.

At the very least, it's taking a character in stressful or atypical (or all both) situations and generalizing their entire personality from there, and either way, it's... that's not really how it works?

Yes, under stress you can sometimes see what a person is "really" like (not really, but the truism has some merit), but that's still not a representative sample.

If people only ever saw me when I was having my bimonthly mental breakdowns, they'd think I was a nervous wreck all the time. I'm not, but...

I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually like bitchy grumpy Amy, it's part of the appeal of the character, but so far, it does seem like it's a genuine flanderization of her pre-S9 behavior. Maybe something else will come up, and maybe Ward really does suggest that was her standard personality at this time period, but again, it was pretty common even in fanfics written before Ward

[ewingstan]

Finished the Ryan interlude. On the one hand, it did what I thought was impossible and made Cradle interesting to me. Can't underestimate WB's interludes, even if I wasn't a fan of March's. I really sympathize with Ryan, this kid who's gutted by friends pulling away from him, who's internalized other's perception of him as a monster to the point he conceptualizes his own tantrums as nothing more than a brat acting out. It was a very interesting character sketch.

Plus, apart from being very characterful, the passages describing what he finds valuable post-gold morning included more worldbuilding than we've seen in 5 arcs.

It was the return to the modern day that left me a bit cold. I didn't really see the jump from "I gotta get revenge on this kid" to "I'm gonna destroy the city." Also the implication that the cluster bleed or emotion powers gave him a new capacity for empathy and regret, while interesting on a conceptual level, kinda put me off in its execution. Something a bit "guilt as righteous punishment" about it. I liked seeing how Ryan had a sense of ethics without empathy; his sense of fairness, his desire to not be seen as a monster even when no one was watching.

Going from "I continuously pushed boundaries in ways that hurt people but stopped after realizing I wasn't getting anything much out of it, as well as a desire for friends and companionship that my behavior prevented" to "I need to get rid of this Rain kid because he's making me feel bad about being bad" just feels like a downgrade in terms of interesting character exploration. Its like Wildbow crafted a rich and interesting character for the interlude and then had to flatten him to fit the villain he'd been writing for the last twelve arcs.

That said, I do feel like I turned around a bit on Cradle as a villain in Rain's story, even if I don't like the "hold the world hostage" development. Though I feel like this interlude should've occurred way earlier in the story. His and Love Loss', honestly; the whole Mall cluster plotline would've been stronger if the "we GOTTA kill this kid" side was given more audience sympathy. This chapter established Ryan as more of a foil for Rain (both characters who spent much of their life acting like shitheels and then being intensely frustrated that people won't let them move past their previous actions), establishing that mirroring earlier on would give much of their conflict more thematic heft. Plus, establishing Cradle early on as someone manipulating the cluster to get at a "justified" target like Rain, letting the audience consider his clustermates in relation to Amelia and Lloyd, could've made for an interesting story in and of itself.

I'm tempted to say the mall cluster story should've been from Ryan's perspective instead, but that would've been too much. But something like Claw's shifting arc perspective could've been interesting. Playing off Ryan and Victoria's perspectives in the same way we see Mia and Ben's could've enhanced things, letting us consider Rain from a place of justified anger and cautious sympathy in the same way we get different views of Natalie Teale.

[sindirimba]

if i were writing the sequel i'd stick somewhat close to the comics but changed and rearranged and adjusted to my preferences.

this got a little long but i had to play around and write all this out.

open on car chase as the group runs from the cops in two cars, nile and andy in one, joe and nicky in the other. quick flashback to what they'd just done, rescue a group of women from traffickers. back to present, joe and nicky do the bridge thing because andy is mortal now and we have to work around that, GOD. anyway there's a cute scene where andy and nile look over the hill and then joe like sticks an arm out of the crash and is like, we're good. TITLE CARD.

next scene in paris. immediate aftermath of booker discovering quỳnh in his apartment. quỳnh calmly asks him where the others are. he says he doesn't know. quỳnh doesn't like this answer. suddenly vague thugs come in and grab booker. quỳnh demands to know where andy is but booker has a correct vibe check and once again refuses to tell her. quỳnh knocks him out, she and the thugs leave with their hostage.

next moose and his team looking over the crime scene the guard left of the trafficking headquarters. weird crime scene. things don't really make sense if you think about it. moose notices some weird bit of evidence, like some old-ass trinket one of the guard dropped or something when he gets a call from a man who introduces himself as james copley. says he has some information regarding the string of massacres he's been investigating.

SCENE: quỳnh's boat. she's watching the sunset. emotional moment. thugs bring out booker with pillow case and hands tied. she turns, pillow case is removed, quỳnh interrogates him again. focus has shifted to andy but he won't tell her anything. refuses to. with cool anger she has him collared and dunked. cut to...

nile wakes up with a gasp, still seeing flashes of booker drowning as she calms down from her nightmare. whispers "quỳnh". she grabs her phone, checks her text thread with booker, sees he hasn't responded to her last one from days ago ("you doing okay today?") and immediately dials andy's current number.

team meeting. she's rallied the team together, tells them what she saw. copley provides intel on probable locations. nicky says his 'suffering in the past does not justify the torment of another in the future' bit here because i like it. when leaving the meeting nile meets moose on his way to meet up with copley and they have some cute flirtation that gives nile a little mental break from the action of the movie she finds herself in. copley comes out and is like, 'mr king i have the research we discussed' and copley and nile share a sly little 'copley's doing clean up for us hehe' look. shot of moose watching nile leave, clearly enamored already.

they meet up at the docks* and find quỳnh and booker, they take booker back into the group in a quick but touching moment. hugs probably. quỳnh injures andy after a brief fight in some minor way and realizes she's mortal in a heartbreaking moment as they stare at each other. they have a full fight where quỳnh fights much more sloppily and passionately, they KISS, but then quỳnh runs and leaves the others to escape.

(*copley IS wearing the fisherman hat from the comics)

time for pizza in hotel scene as a brief interlude between intensity. booker thanks nile for coming to get him. it's all nice, lots of gif fodder all around. nile says something like, welcome back, book. booker expresses disbelief. joe echoes the 'we're not meant to be alone' line. emotional momentssss. maybe more hugs, let's get a little sloppy with it.

andy's distracted though. she eventually says she has to go do something, she'll be back in a bit. enjoy the pizza.

andy broke from the team for the moment to track down quỳnh. finds her on a dark street, almost vacant of other people. they have basically the same conversation as in the comics, about hope and hopelessness, but with even more added pessimism thanks to andy's loss of immortality. they share a cigarette. quỳnh says something about having waited so long to find her again only to have her be slipping away already. calls mortals vermin, reminds andy what they did to them. why defend them, andromache? andy tries to argue for optimism, newly inspired by nile, but quỳnh's pull is too strong and she is left alone as quỳnh walks away. she's lost and conflicted.

scene of nile slipping out of a hotel room after having hooked up with moose. she's in a good mood as she walks down the street when quỳnh steps out in front of her. she goes on immediate defense. quỳnh hints at secrets in andy's past, then leaves nile confused.

group meets up again to discuss what to do next re: quỳnh. andy is quiet as copley lays out his research on what she's been up to. how she's been getting money since escaping the ocean. it's nothing good and nile expresses distaste. andy says something about desperate times. nile, taken aback, reminds her of their principles. andy scoffs. nile stares for a moment, then asks her about what quỳnh hinted at. andy hedges until giving in and confirming the code of hammurabi thing, dismisses it as nothing mattering, people are shit. nile fights back against this, tells her it's their responsibility to keep fighting. andy calls people vermin. nile lays out the choices: her way or quỳnh's. andy folds in on herself, says she can't do this anymore. she tried but she can't. quỳnh coming back showed her. nile says sounds like she's made her choice then. gathers the guys together. nile tries one more time to get her to come with them but andy says nothing, just stares into the distance. they leave her alone to ruminate in the dark.

then, the hotel door opens. quỳnh's silhouette as andy looks up. light shines down on her from outside. quỳnh says, "they left you". andy says, "they did". quỳnh says, "i will not, andromache" and offers her hand. after a moment, andy takes it. END MOVIE.

[moorishflower]

Tower and Rose Chapter 7: The Second Meal, The Kiss, An Interlude (Dream/Hob)

Tower and Rose || Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling || Complete - Posting twice a week until it's done || 85k

Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Mystery, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Threats of Violence, Alternate Universe - Medieval, How many more AU tags can I fit in here, Falling In Love, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Dream of the Endless | Morpheus is Bad at Feelings, Dream of the Endless is Kind of a Dick, Plucky Mercenary Hob Gadling, Dreams vs. Reality, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Minor Violence, Dream of the Endless Can Have Whatever Genitals He Wants, Queer Sex, Nominally PIV Sex But Who Knows With Dream, Anal Sex, Hostage Situations (Technically Hob is being held hostage), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

After being dared by his friends to take a single rose from the garden of the dark tower outside of London, Hob Gadling discovers that he has inadvertently run afoul of the tower's keeper, a man who calls himself Dream, and who wields powerful magics. To prevent the deaths of his friends, Hob offers himself as a hostage: to be Dream's captive and confidant for all eternity, trapped together in the dark tower. However, once there, Hob discovers deeper and deeper mysteries with each passing day. What is the significance of the roses? What is the beast that roams the gardens at night? Why will Dream offer him no answers, and why can none of his servants speak of the tower's past? And why has Dream forbidden Hob from entering the topmost floor of the tower?

On AO3: Chapter 7: The Second Meal, The Kiss, An Interlude

[kaftan]

Some Notes on Arcs 18-20

(Long post! Here there be ramblings! Sorry)

- I forgot this was an arc 18 moment till I checked — Taylor feeling seduced (her words) by Dinah’s power, longing to hold on to her despite her mission being to free her… goosebumps. I love how the villains she hates rub off on her, worm (ha) into her.

- And then describing the act of returning her to her home as throwing away a resource… something that felt dumb to do… being proven right, in a sense, in arc 20, when it comes back to bite her… I’m reminded of some dialogue from animorphs that I’ll have to paraphrase, something about how what matters isn’t what’s right or wrong, it’s what’s expedient. Taylor isn’t all the way there yet, but feels like a matter of time.

- More on Taylor and morality: it’s fascinating to see her go through the same rough trajectory for every major battle — she starts from her baseline, being disturbed at the notion of seriously hurting or killing anyone, slowly numbs that sentiment with plenty of half-hearted strands of reasoning, eventually escalates to the point of cold-blooded violence or the enablement of such… and feels nothing. “Dissociation as an integral aspect of being” moment!

- I love Jessica Yamada. Not enough to read Ward, I have my limits. Getting a better perspective on the “all Amy’s horses and all Amy’s men couldn’t put Victoria back together again” situation was a treat. I love the horror elements in Worm. I love the horror of having the face of your trauma etched into the folds of your brain.

- Met Sveta! People on tumblr namedrop her a lot, to the point where I wondered if she’d been introduced before and I forgot. She’s a darling.

- Lily’s meltdown about Skitter… you can’t even look straight at her without feeling your skin crawl ❤️ but she sounds idealistic and naive even with cockroaches and bees crawling over her face ❤️ she starts making sense ❤️

- [Trickster voice] my beautiful gamer princess with a disorder… talk to me…

- This quote here:

“I mentioned it in passing to Miss Militia,” I said, “Better that you tell the truth and say we pushed hard for it. Blame me.”

“No,” Regent said, “Blame me.”

I shot him a look, and he shrugged. “Just wanted to get in on the fun,” he said.

says so much about Alec, lmao. It flagged in my brain because it’s the second time I’ve consciously noted it: his jokes about wanting to be included speak volumes. The truth he does not dare to know, etc etc

- Taylor “we cannot rule out human sacrifice” Hebert

- Marissa: She’s my friend. / Taylor: Was. It’s a big difference. Fast forward: Emma interlude, crossing paths at Arcadia. I love storytelling.

- Speaking of the Emma interlude: reading about Taylor’s bullying always makes me feel queasy; this was bone nausea on a deep level. What happened to Taylor is like if your worst fears about other people came true. You know, the nagging worry that you’re a burden, that a late text means I don’t want to be your friend. The worry that any reasonable person will tell you to ignore. How the fuck do you come back from living that nightmare?

Reminds me of Amy, how what happened to her is like if your worst fears about yourself came true.

- Everyone always talks about Taylor’s repressed rage but holy shit her repressed rage. What a character. What a character. I love her fantasies of violence. I love how much she basks in that meager catharsis.

- There’s something beautiful about how effortless the supervillain persona is for Taylor. (Every you is the real you, you are the mask and the wearer, etc.) Her standoff against Dragon and Defiant might be one of my favorite scenes yet. The perfectly affected nonchalance, the hanging threats toward hostages (becoming a theme), the mile-a-minute plotting, the grandiose gestures, the leveraging of fear… she’s a wonder and a terror.

- When she smiles and Clockbocker says “Fuck me, it just sunk in. It’s really her.” :-)))

- “and so that Defiant could make something resembling an apology as part of his twelve step assholes anonymous process” I fucking love you Taylor I love you forever

[threesmallcrows]

MattMelloWeek Day 2: Online Friends / One-sided Romance

“we should definitely carry on like this 4ever”

Which meant: when are we meeting again, and where?

Matt had attached a blurry photo of his knee.

“Is this supposed to do something for me?” Mello texted back.

“its not springing up 4 u?”

“No,” wrote Mello. Helpfully Matt had sent a little toast emoji, to imply, “like a toaster”. “Your knee looks like a fetus,” he added.

“my knee looks like an abortion *o*”

“sorry if i offended your catholic sensibilities”, he texted Mello stiffly, after a nine-day interlude without response.

Mello had not been offended by Matt’s quip. In the past nine days he’d killed a man. Which, he supposed, was not so different from an abortion, inasmuch as the man he shot was a baby, once. A baby who’d dealt drugs and hit his girlfriend. But God would say, let he who is without sin, etcetera.

There was not a universe or a benevolent Maker who would have condoned the things which Mello had done.

Scraping the tip of his left boot through the jammy pool of blood, he had thought, why did I just do that?, and thrown his boots away.

Matt was perhaps a little too encouraged by Mello’s eventual response. On the tenth day he sent over a proper picture. On his knees, his fly open. The bathtub in the back evincing a healthy ring of pink mold. 

Mello could barely even look at it. The thought of Matt setting a timer on his camera, posing effortfully and deleting outtakes. He was awash in guilt. He didn’t respond; he threw his phone away. Ten months later Matt touched down in Los Angeles. The stubborn, determined hostage.

[sad-girl-hours23]

2024 Fic Round-Up (strap in cause I love to yap)

Thanks for the tag @sugdenlovesdingle

I currently have 39 works posted to AO3 this year for bucktommy.

I only started writing again this June and my first work was The Places You Love to Be Kissed which is a 25-chapter "fic" told in 100-word drabbles of Buck's "favorite places to be kissed"

It's one of my most favorite creations. I had such a blast writing it & planning it (to some degree anyway, I did have to create a timeline lol) & I hope to continue the series with more lists.

I never meant to write it, I just kept writing down fic ideas waiting for something that could be an actual story (I'm not great with plots, okay?) but then I thought of this moment of Buck confessing his early relationship insecurities to Hen, listing all the ways he could mess it up (which became Prelude: Clues & Accusations) and her telling him to make a different list. And, Buck & I both love lists, okay? And I took the list idea from Lisa Nola's Love Listography journal and it just grew from there. The first few chapters came easy and so I posted them to AO3 (I always tell myself I'm never going to post a WIP and I also never listen) and I'm so glad I did because it forced me to create an actual plan, at least to decide on the number of chapters, otherwise I probably would have written it forever lol So I decided on 25 chapters (arbitrary, but it just has good vibes, ya know?) and I had already had the first chapter as a pre-lude and I already had written Maddie's chapter as an interlude before I realized that it deserved to be an actual line on Buck's list and so I decided on 20 list-item chapters (the actual # of lines in the journal, because I'm a freak lol) and then 5 additional chapters spread throughout (pre-lude, 3 interludes, and a post-lude) - where they aren't list-items but short little silly/fun breaks from the not-quite-narrative through-line where the list is always mentioned (Does it need to be stated that I work best with specific constraints and forms? lol). There's also several Clue references for no reason other than it's one of my obsessions.

I could go on forever about this, but I'll just leave a few of my favorite chapters here for reference

Tommy's Art Studio

Trader Joe's

Nina's Lounge (Bobby’s chapter 😫)

Garden Courtyard, Part 1 (Maddie 🥺🥺🥺)

Garden Courtyard, Part 2

The Grand Hall (Hen 😌😌)

Finally moving on to my other works...

31 of which are drabbles for the 118 Daily Drabble (posted separately because I'm a slut for kudos & it's just nice to see which individual ones resonate with people)

5 of which I wrote for the Bucktommy Advent Calendar 2024 I really enjoyed writing these, especially the ones below (the one excluded is not really fic)

I Know The Last Page So Well, I Can't Read The First

Bucktommy Bones? 

Spumoni

Hold Me Hostage, Arrest My Attention

I created Tumblr Ficlets for any microfics and not-quite-fics I post here (10 so far)

Rearranging The Alphabet To Put U And I Together is an A-Z unconnected drabble collection that is half-way completed

If you survived this post, consider yourself tagged 😜 (no pressure)

[pearlsinmyhair]

breath of venus ༄

series playlist | #—botticelli blues ⋆｡˚

summary ~ a girl born from nothing has spent her entire life trying to be everything her family and her clan needs her to be. but what happens when old ghosts take her as hostage?

Venus is discovered as a baby by Grace Augustine and later adopted by the Sully family following the war. her instincts will be challenged when Eywa gives her a sign that all is not what it seems when it comes to her reborn captors.

this is a Recombinant story that will attempt a redemption arc. it includes my oc. this is my first time writing a fan fic so please be kind!!!

currently around: 60k words

the series ~

chapter zero ~ prologue

chapter 0.5 ~ happiness is simple

chapter one ~ tswal tsmuk

chapter two ~ taken

chapter three ~ you’re mine? / i was never yours

chapter four ~ eywa’s will

chapter five ~ fight or flight

interlude ~ sins of the father

chapter six ~ eye of the storm

chapter seven ~ flame

chapter eight ~ why me? / why you?

chapter nine ~ golden hour

chapter ten ~ incident report

chapter eleven ~ catch me if you can

chapter twelve ~ tell me every little thing

chapter thirteen ~ heart and head

chapter fourteen ~ duty calls

chapter fifteen ~ dragging feet

chapter sixteen ~ revelation

chapter seventeen ~ change of clothes/change of scenery

chapter eighteen ~ the debt of a life

chapter nineteen ~ i of the storm

chapter twenty ~ hell is empty

chapter twenty-one ~ i’ll never be ready

extra ~

v + m

playlists

experimental chapter dialogue - you are dismissed

if venus was in awa’atlu to confront ao’nung

mansk and venus coded quotes

venus in another universe

rutxïryo’s design

recom’s ikran reference sheet (not my creation/work)

more venus and mansk being cute (fruit fetching)

any drabbles or random thoughts will be under #—botticelli blues ⋆｡˚

[historicrad39a]

I am currently working on a “chapter two” of sorts, but for now, here’s an interlude from the perspective of the Humans:

Previous: https://www.tumblr.com/historicrad39a/721956662022389761/1-the-raid

Interlude 1. Aftermath

HD 164922 D - 72 ly from SOL

FDS Frontier Captain’s log: June 8th, 2538

First contact had been made.

Well, it wasn’t exactly first contact per-se. Being an Alliance of two separate species required both parties have a “first contact moment” with each other, after all. But this was the first time since the combined Human-Tathrax Alliance was founded that they had encountered sentient, space-faring life other than their own.

Unlike the excitement surrounding the discovery of the Tathrax some 300 years ago, the discovery of this new civilization was a lot more solemn. After all, the first message of greeting from our new friends was 23cm metal slug slamming into the Frontier’s main fuel tank.

Of the roughly Forty-three thousand people crewing the Frontier defense fleet, some twelve and a half thousand had perished. It was a disaster. We had lost 66 ships - around 44% of their entire fleet - in the engagement. It was a devastating loss.

Despite the losses, we had, technically, won. Not a single Alien ship had escaped, all but one ship had been completely destroyed by the last-ditch ramming attack Captain Zinn had led.

The remaining ship was heavily damaged, but largely intact. This was thanks to the FDV Knockout accidentally piercing the hull early, causing the ship to vent its atmosphere, along with several of its crew members into space. The ship had been dragged back to the (now crippled) Frontier, and through some complicated “docking maneuvers” involving a blowtorch and the station’s robotic arms, access to the vessel was gained.

The first thing that stuck out was how few crew members were needed to operate craft. Human/Tathrax vessels were usually crewed by 2-300 individuals, whereas despite being nearly three times the size, the alien vessel had an estimated crew of 100 at most.

The second thing that stuck out to the salvage crew was what appeared to be a dark-red hand. Apparently, one of the crew members had survived the initial decompression, and donned an oxygen mask (or rather, something resembling one), enabling them to survive long enough to attack one of the poor sods in the salvage crew.

When all was said and done, the salvage crew managed to “rescue” five very unhappy individuals from the ship. We took them to our detention facility, but we let them keep their masks. We weren’t sure if they breathed oxygen like us or not, so we decided to play it safe, rather than risk unintentionally suffocating them.

Efforts to decode the alien language were ongoing, and while the aliens seemed to have some understanding of modern English, it wasn’t enough to get any meaningful information out of our unexpected guests. Their entire vocabulary consisted largely of terms related to negotiation. Terms like “hostage,” “surrender,” “no harm,” along with the names of various resources and numbers. It would seem that the aliens planned to attack our fleet and possibly take hostages, in order to force us to the negotiating table.

Luckily this hadn’t happened, but such a tactic was worrying. HD 164922, being on the Frontier of Human-Tathrax space, was nearly exclusively a military system. However, numerous other frontier systems were not home to just military installations. Some were tourist destinations, others had research facilities, and a select few had recently-established colonies. Had any of these systems come under attack, the aliens likely would’ve been successful in their plan.

More concerningly, we had learnt the hard way that our weapons are ineffective. The aliens had exclusively used rail guns and other slugthrowers, whereas we had used plasma and laser-based weapons. Can you blame us? This was space. Everyone knew that in space, you use lasers and plasma bolts! But unfortunately, these aliens have decided that Age of Sail-style close-range broadsides are too risky, so they cower tens of kilometers away instead. As a result, our weapons cannot pierce their armor. Tests on the remains of their warships proved that our weapons can be effective, but we have to be within 5-10km in order to have a chance to do any damage.

Along with various ship parts, recovery teams also collected some thirty or so bodies of the ships’ former crew. Their dark-red skin turns a shade blue in death. The exact mechanisms of this are unknown, but the eggheads over in the medical wing are busy working on figuring that out. They initially wanted to perform tests on our new friends in the detention wing, but I shut that down before they had the chance to become war criminals.

The most fascinating discovery by the eggheads proved our initial suspicions correct. Despite the fact they had a pair of lung-like organs, they didn’t breathe oxygen. Rather, they breathed a mixture of Hydrogen, and Uranium Hexaflouride. I wasn’t about to let the eggheads pump metric tons of uranium into my precious Frontier, nor was I going to pump boatloads of hydrogen into it either - not that we had much left - someone blew the majority of it up, after all. In the end, we settled on just making our guests some impromptu oxygen - or rather, hydrogen masks.

We forwent adding Uranium Hexaflouride to the mix, on account of being several light years from the nearest device capable of producing it. While in theory we could order a shipment of the stuff from Earth, I’d rather just ship the aliens back to Earth instead. The paperwork needed to ensure the proper treatment of our POWs would be a nightmare, so the sooner they were off my station the better.

With all of this, hopefully central command realizes we need more than beat-up old destroyers, and gives us one of those new Shōkaku-class carriers, or Kongō-class battlecruisers (courtesy of Akatsuki Shipyards). Hell, even a Casablanca-class or Constitution-class would be welcome at this point. Anything’s better than these damn Action-class corvettes. I’ll try requesting some. Worst case scenario is I get laughed at for having the gall to ask for our Navy’s newest toys. Best case is that somehow we are actually given the things. It’s worth a shot.

The Frontier Defense Fleet has always been the laughing stock of our navy - we’re stuck out here with minimal resources and rusting ships. But even that won’t stop us from trying our hardest to blast these aliens all the way to Andromeda. Bring it on E.T.! We’ll beat your asses any day of the week!

Log end.

Read the next entry here

[allwormdiet]

Interlude 3

The Wards and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Man I hate these vibes, holy shit

Faceless armed guards with military weaponry next to a gift shop is a fucking look alright

Hey Piggot. Dunno if I'm gonna like you or not but boy do people seem to have conflicting opinions on you

Aegis that's fucking nasty, don't do that

And yeah, of course they're all in a rotten mood, they got their asses kicked

Yeah, rich boy, of course he tries to foot the bill, that money's a drop in the bucket for him

I actually like that Piggot makes this come down on everybody's head. There isn't a lesson learned if it's all covered by the rich kid, they all fucked up which means they all eat this crow. Maybe she's a sadist, but I think more likely than that she's an adult who's been put in charge of a bunch of fucked up kids and fucked up adults who act a lot like kids, and she'll take whatever she can get when it comes to actually reining this people in.

Yeah, exactly. She's big-picture. Kid Win wanted to stop the bad guys from getting away, and so he shot a giant, untested laser into a building full of hostages, not thinking about what it was going to look like that a hero was shooting a giant, untested laser into a building full of hostages

Yeah, that's nuts actually, that's loading for bear when you're hunting pheasant, nothing in that fight would qualify as whatever a Class A is... yet.

Yeah, Kid, you should be sweating a little bit, dude. You made a messy public mistake and now you gotta deal with whatever comes of that.

What do you figure the uptick is on reports of entomophobia and arachnophobia in Brockton Bay after Taylor debuts as a villain? Probably a fair bit

And so begins the rise of Skitter

It's neat to see the Wards breaking all of the information down that they learned from the fight, breaking down the capabilities of the Undersiders now that they've actually gotten to face them firsthand. Kind of a glimpse at the other side of things, opposite the planning for the heist. Their observations and debates are fun to see bounce back and forth.

Yeah I dunno if that's the authority figure you wanna rely on Taylor

Also nice enough that Amy decided to stick around and help

It's probably really easy to convince yourself you're invincible when you have powers, especially stuff that literally protects you from harm. It's gotta be really hard to deal when you're proven wrong.

And here we come around to a really solid chunk of What The Fuck Is Up With Amy Dallon

What a fucking nightmare it must be, to want to be normal, to be denied that, and to be so thoroughly denied that there are people around the world who would give everything they have just to have you touch them once. Every second you spend healing, you're giving up your life to save others'. Every second you aren't healing, people are dying. You will never have peace. You will never have privacy. You don't even have the luxury of a secret identity because the family motto means that you have to let everyone know who you are, such that even if you go out in public just to get a burger people will dog your every movement

and the resentment underneath it all, of course

I wonder if that's part of why she's so harsh to criminals. If she dreads becoming like them, if she feels like she's better than them because clearly she hasn't so fully surrendered to her resentment so clearly as they have

According to Wikipedia, "foreshadowing is a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning of a story, and it helps develop or subvert the audience's expectations about upcoming events."

I'm sure this would feel like a different conversation than what I know it is, but I got spoiled on this stuff like, years ago, so I know what's coming and frankly that does not make it feel any better

Current Thoughts

There's not a whole lot of meat on the Wards rn, but they've only been something approaching POV characters for one interlude between them and the only other time we've gotten with them was the brawl with the Undersiders, so they're not super fleshed out at this point and I don't think I'm gonna sweat over that much

Can't wait for Browbeat to never come up again

I'm still positive-leaning on Piggot, but who knows where that lands. However reasonable or unreasonable she manages to be over however long she's present as the Director.

Gallant seems nice enough but I'm not sure his empath powers actually make him empathetic? Otherwise he'd probably be having a different conversation with Amy

Speaking of which, oh boy Amy. You poor creature. Would rather you be pulled off the course you're on, but that's not happening in canon is it

Arc 3 thoughts in a bit

[sofasoap]

Lastochka - Night

Pairing : Nikolai x F!Reader ( OC/Mini MacTavish)

Summary: Two can play the game.

Timeline-wise around Part III, before the hostage incident.

Part I , Part II, Interlude,Part III,Part IV,Part V,Epilogue

WARNING: Explicit. Smut warning. swearing.

Thanks to @homicidal-slvt for planting ideas into my brain. this whole series is all for you :)

My usual thanking @saltofmercury, mother of Mini, for lending me the character :) Please go and check out her fics!

“masterlist” for Mini MacTavish expanded verse.

Everything changed after the first kiss. 

He becomes more bold with his touch, deliberately brushing against your body every time you pass by each other, Always sitting beside you whenever he gets the chance, snaking his arm around your waist, pulling you closer to his side. 

Ruffling your hair before slipping his hand ever so lightly down your neck, caressing the nape of your neck before giving you a wink, making you burn up like a furnace.

Leaving his shirt unbuttoned on a hot day, as he takes a big swig of water, deliberately letting it spill over, your eyes follow the droplets gliding down his chin, along his neck and finally wetting his gold necklace and chest, dusted with dark fine hair. You can just see the corner of his mouth curling so slightly as he caught you gawking at his beautiful form.

Two can play this game, you decided. 

Lying your head on his thigh while he is busy going through the flight plan, he would peek down at you through the gaps, eyebrow arching. With a sultry smile, You run your hand sensually down the length of your body, lingering a bit between your thighs. You can see his eyes darkening as you stick two of your fingers in your mouth, licking and biting on it. 

Or groaning loudly after you pick up a box of supply, in the most obscene way possible, so much so the team will turn around and look at you, totally confused.  Stealing a glance at him, you can see him clenching his jaw, trying to control his urge. 

“You are playing a very dangerous game here, lastochka.”  He warned you once he pulled you into the shadow of the building, while everyone else was away in the mess hall, busily celebrating the success of the latest mission.  

“You started it.” You flash him the most innocent smile on your face as your finger slips through the opening of his shirt, playing with the chain of his gold necklace and dog tag. He growled as he grabbed your face, slightly rough, and crashed his mouth into yours. 

LIttle moments like these are rare to come by, and the two of you always make the most of it. The sexual tension between you two is starting to get unbearable. 

Caught up in the moment  you started to grind against him as he nudged your lips open with his tongue, deepening the kiss. You can hear his guttural moan before grabbing your waist with one of his hands to stop you.

“Not here my little bird… not here.” You whined as you tried to chase his mouth for more kisses as he reluctantly pulled away from you. He closes his eyes as he leans his forehead against yours, gently brushing your cheek with his knuckles, taking deep breaths in. “I want our first time to be in a nice soft bed, not in the middle of a battlefield. Because,” planting a soft kiss on your lip, full of love,” my beautiful Goddess deserves nothing but the best. I will worship every bit of your body, with all my soul.” 

Price must have caught on what is going on between you two. But he never said anything. He would look at you, and to his friend with a frown before narrowing his eyes at Nikolai,Don’t mess this up, his eyes warned.

Finally during a bit of break between long missions, two of you snuck away, separately to avoid anyone’s suspicion. Away from all the chaos, prying eyes, a little safe house in the middle of countryside he knew people hardly used to spend quality time with each other. 

You woke up in the middle of night, as you felt his lip peppering you with kisses.

“… Nik?” 

“Mmm.” 

“ You are here.” Propping yourself up,smiled lazily as you returned his kisses. 

“Where else would I be?” He smirked. 

With the dim night light, you can see he has already taken his shirt off, discarded carelessly on the floor. 

“Someone’s eager.” You teased as he kneeled on the bed, legs on each side of yours, hovering over you. 

“Well, you are the one to talk.” His darkened eyes roam hungrily at your already naked body, full of lust and desire. When he came into the bedroom, seeing your beautiful body, draped only in the thin bed sheet, his already hardened cock twitched. He has been a very patient man, waiting for you, and now, tonight, he can finally have you. 

You licked your lip as you watched him slowly pull his belt off, you can see his full arousal even before he removes his trousers. You gasped loudly as he finally shredded all of his clothes. 

“I did say I will make your jaw drop.” Oh him and his cocky attitude,he laughed at your reaction as your eyes widened and gaping as his hardened cock, dripping with precum, you are sure he is bigger than any of the lovers you had before him. Your core burns with desire as your mind starts to imagine how deliciously filled and stretched you will be once he is within you. 

Pouting slightly as you extend your hand out for him, inviting him into your space, he gently kisses your wrist, working his way up your arm, while keeping his eye contact with yours. 

You gasped as he reached your neck, biting and sucking, leaving his marks behind.

“Making sure everyone will know you belong to me later on.” He muttered as he buried his head into the crook of your neck and grasped one of your breasts, gently massaging it.

You feel like you're going to burst into flame with anticipation, as he leaves trails of kisses down your body, towards the valley between your thighs. 

Nudging your legs apart slowly, he ran his callous finger up and down the wet folds of your sex, 

“So wet for me already?” he chuckled as he inserted a finger pumping it slowly, eliciting a moan from you.  “Got to get you nicely prepared, my милая, look how tight you are.” You bucked your hip as he inserted another finger in, carefully twisting it. “I can’t wait to feel your tight cunt wrapped around my cock. Have you screaming out loud my name.” He leaned forward, tongue swirling around your clit. You grabbed onto his hair, pushing him closer, wanting more.  

You were sobbing and withering away in ecstasy as he speeding up the pumping of his finger, curling up ever so slightly to hit the soft spot that makes you shudder, and finally grasping tightly to the sheet as he making you cum hard by sucking and humming against your clit. 

Giving you no chance of recovery,he pushes and move himself back up towards you, leaning down to give you a deep kiss as he lined himself up against your soaking wet opening, sliding with ease in with one thrust. You hissed ,still overly sensitive from the blessed high you have only experienced minute ago, you clinch down hard on his large cock, eliciting a loud groan from him. 

Holding you close while both of you take a moment to adjust to each other, he caresses your hair while whispering words of encouragement into your ear. You close your eyes,nuzzling your face into his neck, running your hand up and down his back as you enjoy the feeling of him fully seated inside you, stretching like you have never experienced before. 

Starting slowly, he moves his hip, sliding the whole length of his cock out before slamming back into you, again and again.  With each thrust, you moan and cry out to him, begging him to go faster. 

“Patience my lastochka,” opening your eyes, you can see him grinning,”let me enjoy you, and making sure,” adjusting himself, changing the angle slightly to push himself deeper into you, “that your body will be craving for me,” and another harsh thrust, “and ONLY for me from now on.” 

Hitting your sweet spot as he speeds up, you can feel the distinctive coil deep down, you instinctively hook your legs around his waist, pulling him closer. He must have sensed it too, he stopped his thrust, and you looked at him with confusion, and a squeal as he pulled you up into seating position. OH.

“I did promise you to go for a good ride didn’t I?” He purred into your ear, as grabbed onto your waist, lightly thrusting up. You nodded your head, slightly shy all of sudden from remembering your dream. Grabbing onto his shoulders, you adjust your legs slightly, to straddle him better. Lifting yourself off before sinking back down into his cock, you rolled your head back,enjoying him from this new position, with him trailing kisses down your neck.

“That’s it my beautiful Goddess, come for me.” Your mind went blank, eyes rolling back as he started sucking your nipple, digging your nail into his shoulder, the other grabbing his gold chain, screaming out as you came harder than before.  During the haziness of riding out your orgasm, you can feel his thrust getting more sloppy before letting out a loud groan, his own orgasm hitting him, coating your wall with his hot cum. 

The room was silent apart from the sound of both of you panting away, trying to steady the breath. 

Your eyes started to flutter close, totally drained out from the love making session. You wrap your arms around Nikolai’s neck, snuggling into him, dozing off. 

“Come on little bird. Need to clean you up.” Shaking your head, too tired to move. He reluctantly pulls out from you, gently laying you back down into bed, before heading towards the bathroom. You shiver slightly, missing his warm body. 

He returned with a warm towel, cleaning you up with such tenderness, like you are his most treasured prize. 

Climbing back into bed with you, covering both up with the blanket, and caging you into his embrace. 

“Sleep well my lastochka.” He murmured into your ear, before sleep took over both of you. 

“Mini! Did you hear what I said?” One of the fellow medic nudges you with their elbow. Blinking a few times before mumbling an apology, you turn your attention back to the group you are currently sitting with at the bar.

It’s one of the post-mission nights when a few people from the base gather at the bar near the barrack, enjoying a bit of down time.

“Looking at the boys again?” One of the soldiers teased you. You made a face before taking a sip of your beer, not answering the question directly.

“I don’t know how you aren’t together with one of them, I mean,” waving her hand towards where the task force 141 men are sitting, “look at them!!”, few of them mumbled in agreement.

Rolling your eyes, “Come on, they are like brothers to me. ONE of them is my REAL brother for fucks sake.” You scrunch your face.

“How about Captain Price?”  

You Groaned. “Can you imagine falling in love with your DAD?!!!” 

“Um, fair enough. OH,what about,” Pointing to Nikolai, who is currently in deep discussion of some sort with Price, “That Russian pilot, he has been pretty flirtatious with you, he’s not bad either.” 

You turn your head slightly, Nikolai sees your group’s attention was all on him, he lifts his glass up,acknowledging the group and giving you a wink. 

“See! I am pretty sure he is interested in you.”

Well he better be interested in me, you thought as you played with the chain of your dog tag. Because I already fucked and married that man.

The morning after your first night together, Nikolai woke up by himself, he wandered into the kitchen, his heart soared when he saw you, standing with your back to him, wearing nothing but his shirt, swinging your hip to the jazz music you are currently playing on your phone, cooking breakfast. 

Sense of domesticity hits him. Like the task force 141 men, most of his life has been covered with violence and bloodshed. His life sways between the above-board and underworld, he has many allies as he has enemies. He never had chances for creating a family, or even remember when was the last time he had communications with his own family back in Russia. 

He silently moved forward, hugging you from behind, burying his face into the crook of your neck, inhaling your scent.

“OH! Good morning love.” You lean your head into him, smiling. “I am sorry if I was a bit too loud, waking you up.”

“Be mine.”he murmured.

“Mmm?”

“Be mine, my little bird.”

“I am already yours, you bampot.” You elbowed him lightly, “Unless you didn’t remember any of what happened last night.” You blushed.

“… be mine forever.”

You froze. Blinking a few times, you weren’t quite sure if you had heard him right. Reaching out to turn the stove off, you turned around in his arm, lifting his face with one of your hands, the other brushing his messy morning hair away from his face so you can look into his beautiful brown eyes.

“… you really mean it?” You whispered, a hint of insecurity sipping through. He leans down to give you a soft kiss. “I don’t offer or promise anything I cannot commit to, lastochka.” 

You never know what prompted you to say yes that day. But most of the time you trust your gut instinct, and that has saved you many times. 

Steering the topic away successfully from yourself, the group of you spend the rest of the night gossiping about other soldier’s love life and remembering those who have unfortunately never returned from the battlefield. 

One by one, people start to leave as it gets later and later into the night. Soap came up to you as the group was leaving, to check if you were going to leave with them as well.

You shook your head and lifted your new glass of whisky up, “Just ordered this. Plus I want to have some peace and quiet after all those gossipers begging me for your phone number.” You handed the three boys various pieces of paper, with numbers scribbled on them. “Here you go boys. Up to you what you want to do with them. My wingwoman duties are done.” You stick your tongue out at them. Giving them each with a big hug before shooing them back to the base, you let out a sigh as you finally get a bit of quietness for the first time that night. 

“This seat taken?” You heard Nikolai’s husky voice as he slip up behind you.

“Depends?” You giggled. “Come on. Take a seat with me. Where is Captain?”

“He left right after the boys left.” Ordering a glass of vodka for himself, he sat down beside you.

Leaning into your husband’s shoulder, he slid his hand under the bar table, threading his fingers between yours as he grabbed your hand. 

You haven’t seen each other for a few weeks. And soon you will be sent away again into another covert mission. 

You couldn’t refuse this one. Laswell and Price promised you it wouldn’t take you away too long. Only downside will be you will be going dark, all by yourself, for the duration of the mission. 

“…. I have accepted another mission, We will have to go dark for a while Nik, it won’t take too long. I’ll be back before you know it.” You smile up at him, stroking his hand. “I already told Captain I will take a bit of time off, no more missions for a while, we can finally go on the honeymoon we have planned for God knows how long.”

He frowned. He doesn’t like you going on covert missions, you are not a trained soldier like the others, nor were you trained for undercover or covert missions. But he knows if Price or Laswell had to ask you, they had no other candidates or they were desperate for help.

“Make sure you pull out if anything goes wrong, don’t be a hero, alright?” He kisses you, expressing his worries. 

“You know me, very good at running away.” He side eyed you as you try to reassure him., “I will be alright Love. I promise you.” 

Neither of you knew a few weeks after, you would disappear, sparking a huge rescue mission and return as a broken woman. 

@homicidal-slvt,

You can see I seriously gave up on the smut scene at the end lol. I really suck at it. I admire those who can write a great smut scene that flows.

taglist:

@roosterr @preciouslittlecreature

@boughhs 

[katabatiic]

YOUR CHARACTER IN FIVE QUOTES!

( repost, do not reblog. ) Tell us your favorite quotes from your character. Give us an idea of who they are by five things they’ve said. Then tag your friends.

"I, with this hand, I…took her life. That’s when it started. That’s when I started thinking about getting out."

- Legault & Matthew A Support

"You’ve gotten soft, Angel of Death. If someone held Nino hostage, you’d throw down your sword. You were the strongest assassin around. Now, you have a fatal chink in your armor. You’ve become human, but that makes you less perfect. Someday…you’ll die. No doubt trying to protect the girl."

- Legault & Jaffar A support

"No, child. This life is not for you. You’ll be much better off without me…" [...] "I’ll only say this once, Nino. If you’re around, you’ll only slow me down.  Lloyd and Linus will protect you, I’m sure. But I’m not as tough as they are. I don’t have their power or their courage. I wouldn’t be able to protect you…"

- Legault & Nino A Support

"Hm? Must be this thing called 'love', you know? Where are you going? I’m joking!! Get back here. Just let it go, all right? Come on, I like you. Even on the run, you’re true to your principles. You’re recklessly honest. That’s from someone who simply cannot do that…"

- Legault & Heath A Support

“……All right. I see. Nothing’s going to change. I knew that, and yet… I had to try. It’s a bad habit of mine.” /  “I knew this would happen. Nothing’s going to change. I knew it, and yet here I am. I couldn’t leave well enough alone… I’m a fool.”

- Vs. Lloyd OR Vs. Linus in Cog of Destiny

Mun Commentary Interlude: One of the things I see as core to Legault's character is his deep regret from killing Aesha (the woman mentioned in his Matthew support quote) transforming into this inner drive that I can best label as "whatever I do, I've learned that I have to live with myself afterward." This is why he admires Heath for sticking to his principles from the get-go instead of needing the guilt of going through with heinous orders to recognize how impossible it is to keep living the same way afterward. It's why he has to try to reach out to the Reeds, even knowing that he won't sway them. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't try. The Jaffar and Nino supports are there because I think it's interesting how he asserts to love is to be human, but to be human is a deadly weakness to an assassin—and how he so clearly has loved and continued to love [he loves the Reeds, he loves Nino, he loves what the Black Fang used to be, he loves Heath (a flirtatious exaggeration, but one grounded in genuine admiration whether romantic or not)], and so clearly considers himself weak. And because of that weakness, he doesn't see himself as fit to care for Nino, even if he cares about her.

in conclusion: LEGAULT i think about him

(tagging: @ everyone !! whoever wants to do this fun exercise! do it!!)