#i had to open the bios and run a test but it seems to be fine now

[mayobedo]

my internet had a moment so i'll just start the archon quest tomorrow

[avatarloverfrfr]

Dreamwalker Siblings

Chapter II: Uniltirantokx Tsmuktu. Previous Chapter Masterlist Summary: Y/n and Jake Sully. Siblings, shipped off into the depths of space to explore the mysterious world of Pandora. Warnings: Constant mentions of headaches. Mention of needles. Word count: 2,01k

Opening my eyes, expecting to find myself in the windowless compound I had confined my body the day before, I'm met with the sight of sunlight beaming through multiple windows. Frantically glancing down, I discover my hands still tinged with the same blue hue as my Avatar from the previous day, moving my hands around in disbelief.

Suddenly hit with the same pain I had the previous day, but this time the feeling tenfold worse. My hands instinctively reach to cradle my head, as if my hands were protecting my head from whatever pain was causing my head to ache.

This can't be happening! I was suppose to disconnect from this body. Thoughts started to race through my mind, while my brain simply couldn't catch up before being hit with another wave of pain.

As I stagger out of bed, a wave of agony crashes over me, each pulse feeling like a bullet piercing my skull. Struggling to maintain balance, I attempt to walk, but with each step, the pressure in my head intensifies. Collapsing onto the bed I had just vacated, I cling to it for support.

Looking around the other Avatar beds, I note that Norm, Grace and Jake had all left to go do something requiring the use of their Avatar bodies, leaving me alone in the compound. Using all my remaining strength, I decided to go to the one person who I know could possibly help, Max.

Approaching Max, he seems to already be expecting me, turning around with a smile on his face. "You seemed to have a early start of your day, already in your Avatar body so early. Grace, Norm and Jake went out to the forest, they'll be back in a few hours." he says, smiling up at me, but faltering as he realises the look on my face.

"Max, I didn't delink." I say weakly, looking down at him.

"What? No, that's impossible." he says smile now fully replaced with a serious look and calls over the other scientists and doctors in the bio-lab.

Multiple doctors and scientists walk up to me and help me get on a gurney set up. "Don't worry Y/n. We just need to run a couple of tests." Max says, trying to reassure me.

Hours pass, and seemingly everything that the doctors do makes the pain worsen. With every needle etched into my skin, with every question asked bouncing around in my brain causing pain. The strength that I once felt in this body now deteriorating as the hours go by. Deciding to go against the many warning and wishes of doctors and closing my eyes in the hope that I would delink in the process.

Ties passes with me being asleep but still stirring discomfort. Grace and Norm both walk up to me in their human forms, having delinked prior. "What's happening?" I hear her say through closed eyes.

Immediately opening them, I utter, "Where's Jake?" looking at her then behind her in hopes of my brother to wheel in from behind.

"Where's Jake? Where's my brother, Grace? Norm?" I repeat louder, frantically looking at them waiting for a response, as I hiss because the sudden movement causes the pain to resurface.

"Jake got lost, he'll be fine, he's a marine after all. You should be worried about yourself right now." she says trying to calm me down.

Deciding to lay my head back down on the gurney, a single tear rolling down my blue-stained cheek. "You lost my brother," I say defeated as I close my eyes, not wanting to stare into the cold lights on the lab.

"Grace, Y/n didn't delink last night." Max interjects, breaking the silence in the lab. At his words, both Norm and Grace instinctively turn their gazes toward Y/n, noticing the thin layer of sweat formed on her forehead.

"Why can't we just press the emergency release button on her link bed?" Norm asks, directing his question as Grace.

"That'll kill her and her Avatar. She is too weak in both states." Grace responds eyes not leaving Y/n, who lies there, examining her false body whilst her real one remains trapped in her link bed.

"This cannot be treated with the medicine we have. This is an Avatar body. Only Tsahik can heal her now."

Opening the door to his link bed, Jake is greeted with the sight of Grace flashing light into his eyes. "Come on back kid." she says slapping his face lightly.

You're not gonna believe where I am." he says with a chuckle, earning a smile from Grace who immediately knew what the Marine had just said, while exiting the link bed. Reminded of the harsh reality as he adjusts himself on his wheelchair.

"Where's Y/n? I gotta tell her all about the shit I went through today," he says, wheeling around to go find his sister.

"That's what we wanted to tell you Jake, Y/n is still in her Avatar form." Grace informs Jake, as he looks to where her link bed is situated and confirms that the bed is indeed still running.

"But, she's been that way since yesterday. She's sick Jake. A sickness we are not capable of treating. Only Tsahik can, and you're the only one they accepted in, so we need you to–" Grace adds but is cut of by Jake.

"Take her to Mo'at. I got it." he adds while still being in disbelief at the information that Y/n was still in her Avatar form.

"Where is her Avatar?" is all he says as he looks away from Grace, guilt eating at him. While he was snagging a date with the Olo'eytkan's daughter, his very own sister was fighting for her life in a body she didn't wish to even have.

"On the gurney." Norm says, pointing at a still Y/n in the center of the room, wires attached to her temple and onto a monitoring machine.

Wheeling over to his sister, Jake stops and looks at her face. Eyebrows scrunched, as if she could still feel while she slept. "Don't worry Y/n, I'll bring you to Mo'at, she'll know what to do."

"Come on, Y/n. I'm gonna need you to work with me here." Jake grunts, his effort evident as he hoists one of my arms over his shoulders, helping me off the gurney.

"I'm trying," I sigh, leaning heavily onto his Avatar body. The pulsating agony in my temple dulled a bit, but still remains excruciating, especially at the slightest of sounds- ironic, given the heightened senses of an Avatar.

"We just need to get you onto the Samson. Trudy will take us halfway there, we'll have to walk the rest." he says, leading me into the loading dock where a lady, who I assume to be Trudy, waits. Both Grace and Norm by her side in their Avatar forms.

The flight didn't take long, but the machines noise makes it unbearable to sit without contorting my face. "We're here Y/n." This is where we split." Grace says, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder as the Samson lands amidst Pandoras dense flora.

Exiting the ship with Jakes help, I watch as Norm, Grace and Trudy fly off. Norm and Grace are yet to be accepted by the Omatikaya, while Trudy's situation is more obvious.

The trek to the home tree isn't far, but I struggle to appreciate Pandoras beauty as my head seems to only want to be focused on pain. "This wouldn't happen with Tommy–" I begin through gritted teeth.

"Would you just–Y/n. Stop thinking of the past, he's gone." Jake interrupts, his voice laced with irritation as he adjusts my arm, supporting me as we continue.

"How could you just forget–" I start before silencing myself, fixated on the towering tree ahead, it's entrance clearly marked. Voices fill the air with a foreign language.

"Kewong." is the only word I hear as Jake and I navigate through the gathering crowd. Inspecting us as if we were uninvited animals. The murmurs fade but linger as a commanding voice resonates through the gathering.

"Jakesully. We accept you, yet you think it's acceptable to bring back another tawtute!" a woman declares, descending the home trees stairs with confidence, her demeanour unmistakably authoritative.

"Mo'at. Tsahik of the Omatikaya Clan. I ask that you please help my sister. She is ill and cannot be helped by our healers. You're her only hope." Jake pleads occasionally averting his gaze from Mo'at's stern glare.

Mo'at turns her attention to me, and I stiffen under her sharp gaze. "What's your name?" she asks bluntly, her eyes boring into mine.

"Y/n. Y/n Sully." I reply, swallowing hard.

"Tsmuktu. Uniltirantokx Tsmuktu." she declares, circling me like prey, mirroring the crowds earlier inspection.

"You are weak, Weaker than your brother Jakesully. You will not survive." she declares, her words final. She refuses aid, and Jake seems to sense the seriousness of her words.

Stumbling forward, out of Jakes grasp, I follow Mo'at pleading silently as my knees buckle beneath the weight of my throbbing head.

"I only aid The People. You, Y/nsully, are not one of us." Mo'at declares, dismissing me without a glance.

In the midst of Mo'at's discourse, a dandelion-like creature lands briefly on my forehead before fluttering away.

A woman steps forward, "Atokirina, Ma Tsahik." she says in a rushed voice, offering a tentative smile.

"A sign from Eywa." she explains, lifting me gently. "Ma Tsahik." she turns to Mo'at with a knowing look.

"Come," Mo'at says not bothering to look back, leading the way with the woman and Jake by my side.

"Who's eywa?" I whisper to Jake, to which he shrugs. "No idea, asked Norm and he gave me a lecture, but I tuned out." he whispers back, a shared chuckle lightening our steps as we struggle to keep pace with the Tsahik.

Entering a tent-like structure, I can only assume belongs to Mo'at and her mate, the Olo'eytkan. "Lay down." she instructs me.

As I comply, Mo'at resumes speaking. "Neytiri, fetch her appropriate clothing. We do not tolerate tawtute attire." she commands, turning to Neytiri, who promptly departs. Mo'at kneels beside me.

As Neytiri leaves, another Na'vi man enters, his anger radiating as he confronts Mo'at and I. "How could you allow this demon entry?" he accuses, pointing a finger at me.

"Tsu'tey she is unwell. She poses no threat." Jake intervenes, stepping forward with his hands in the air.

"You! Do not adrress me as one of your own." Tsu'tey rebukes Jake, pushing him aside to confront me.

"You suffer because you inhabit a false body. Return to your tawtute life." he insists glaring down at me.

"I would if I could," I retort, meeting his gaze from my position on the floor, catching Mo'at's attention.

"If you could?" she probes skeptically before returning her focus to crushing the herbs, while Neytiri re-enters with a loincloth and accessories.

"Yes, I am unable to revert back to my human form." I admit, sighing as Mo'at and Neytiri exchange meaningful looks.

"Child, you are chosen by Eywa. Both you and your tsmukan." Mo'at declares, placing a cool cloth on my forehead and motioning me to remain still.

"It is settled. You will be instructed by Tsu'tey, once you are well." she concludes leaving, with a furious Tsu'tey follwing behind.

"I will teach you both the ways of our tongue." Neytiri announces before departing, leaving Jake and I alone in the home of the Tsahik and Olo'eytkan.

"Rest Y/n. I wanna go back and tell Norm about how you and I are both getting trained by the future clan leaders, I wanna see the jealousy on his face." Jake says, a grin on his face as he exits, likely to delink.

With that, my eyes drift closed involuntarily, the pain slowly receding as I slip further and further into slumber.

previous » next III

[robinsegghead]

Danny's Daycare Part 5

        [Master List]

   “Danny!”

            Turning towards the voice, Danny held the door to the coffee shop open as a familiar blond came running up to him. “Hey Jesse, you work today?”

            They nodded, walking through the open door. “Yeah, just about to start. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, everything okay?” They eyed him knowingly. Danny had seen Jesse at Mr. Bianchi’s funeral and although they didn’t speak to each other, they’d both acknowledged seeing the other.

            “Been pretty busy with the daycare and some personal things. How’s school going?”

            They sighed. “Exhausting. I have this big test coming up for chemistry and I’m barely passing the class. I’ve spent every spare minute studying, and I still don’t feel like I understand what’s happening! One second.” They vanished into the backroom, returning a few moments later with an apron and hat on. “I haven’t even had time to work on my hobbies lately! Just work and school all day every day! It’s like, yeah I know my education is important but would it kill my professors to give me a break so I can hang out with friends or- god forbid go on a date with my partner?”

            He held out the cash for his drink which Jesse took without a word, still on a roll. Seeing his opportunity when they took a breath, he cut in. “I could help you, if you want?” They eyed him curiously, pouring the first two shots into the hot coffee while the rest pulled. “I have a bachelor’s in bio-chem, I was pretty good at both. Here’s my number,” He scribbled his number down on a drink sleeve and slid it across the bar. “text me a time if you want some tutoring.”

            “Oh my gods,” They breathed, taking the piece of paper. “you’re literally my savior- TIM! Your friend here is a god amongst men! Buy his coffee for him!”

            Danny frowned. “I already paid for my drink though.” He reminded before glancing at Tim. He’d expected the man to be in a suit again, hair combed back neatly, briefcase in hand; that was, after all, how he’d looked when they first met. But it was a Saturday, so it was unlikely he’d be going to any meetings which meant his apparel made a lot more sense.

            The man wore his hair pulled back in a messy half up half down bun, ripped skinny jeans, a red flannel tied around his waist, and a gray t-shirt that said ‘I <3 Mothman’. His ears were adorned by various silver studs and chains that complimented his black leather bracelets. A skateboard was held firmly in his left hand.

            “Well- fine! Free coffee for a month, you’d really be helping me out!” They poured a few more shots into the cup. “I’m in a good mood, Tim your coffee’s on the house today.”

            Tim looked between the two. “That makes absolutely no sense, Jesse. I have more than enough to cover my own coffee. In fact,” as if to prove a point, he pulled a couple hundred dollar bills out of his wallet and stuffed them into the tip jar. “keep the change.”

            “I have no idea what’s happening anymore.” Danny sighed, just wishing for his coffee.

            As if reading his mind, Jesse finally slid his coffee into his awaiting hand before whirling around to start the exact same process with Tim’s drink. Danny hadn’t actually run into Tim again since the first time they’d met. Whether it was because Tim didn’t come every day or Danny had been making more coffee at home these days, he wasn’t sure.

            It wasn’t unwelcome to see the man again, but he wasn’t sure they exactly qualified as friends like Jesse seemed to believe. “How’d those meetings go?” Danny asked after taking his first sip of coffee.

            “Ugh, don’t remind me. They’re done and now I’m avoiding any more they try to throw at me like the plague. How’s the Daycare going? You guys opened a little while back, didn’t you?” Tim leaned against the counter, waiting for his own drink to come out.

            With a nod, and another long sip of the boiling hot coffee, Danny replied. “It’s been going all right. Lots of kids now, I’m working on hiring some help at the moment but I’m just glad I can help out, you know?”

            Tim agreed, grabbing his coffee. “Seems like you’re doing something really good for the Bowery.”

            “I’m trying.”

            The two walked towards the door, wishing Jesse a good shift, and headed outside.

            “Well I’m meeting my boyfriend at the skatepark, what are you up to on one of your few days off?” Tim asked, pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

            Danny laughed. “Bold of you to assume I get any days off. If I’m not working at the daycare I’m usually at a soup kitchen or doing paperwork or something else. Today I’m actually just going to the observatory though. Skateboarding is cool though; I didn’t actually recognize you at first with the whole skater thing.” He laughed. “You look a lot more comfortable like this than in the suit getup you had last time.”

            Tim grinned. “Much. And much like you, I don’t get many days off so I’ve gotta head out, make the most of the time I do have off.” He paused. “Actually, wait,” Pulling a sharpie out of his pocket-did he always keep a sharpie in his pockets? - he scribbled something on his drink’s sleeve before sliding it off the cup and offering it to Danny. “here’s my number. We should hang out sometime.”

            Okay Jesse, you win this time.

~~~

            May in Gotham wasn’t nearly as cold as Danny though it would be, although having an ice core might have something to do with that, but he continued to stock his daycare with jackets, gloves, and hats just in case. The recent downpours had forced him to add umbrellas, raincoats, and rainboots as well. He said ‘he’- in reality, he let Dora pick out most of the clothes for the kids. It was something she liked to do.

            Danny shifted uncomfortably at his desk, waiting. Mia’s friend was supposed to come in for an interview shortly and despite his excitement to have more help, he wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. When Mia said she had a friend who was ‘good people’ and just wanted to help, he had expected someone from the area- not one of Bruce Wayne’s foster children.

            Duke Thomas was eighteen years old, would be graduating from high school at the end of the month, and had been accepted to Gotham U for the following semester. He had a trust fund that would see him through the rest of his life and no need to work, least of all work with children in the Bowery. Maybe it was a bit hypocritical to think that way though- Danny certainly didn’t need to work with children in a random universe in a random city with children from the most rundown part of said city.

            Surprising no one, Danny wasn’t exactly good at the whole ‘boss’ thing. Sure he was a king, but he had a council and he made them take care of the social aspects, and hiring Mia had been different, he already knew her! He’d never actually interviewed someone for a job, and he wasn’t even really sure what he was supposed to say or do.

            There was a knock at his door, and he straightened his jacket out before shouting a calm ‘come in!’. Mia stood on the other side, gesturing for her friend to enter, and sent a glare over her friend’s shoulder directly at Danny. She mouthed ‘be nice’ to which he responded, ‘I’m always nice’, before closing the door.

            “You must be Duke,” Danny smiled. “I’m Danny, pleasure to meet you.”

            Duke shook his hand, it was firm, stronger than Danny expected. “Mia’s told me quite a bit about you, sir.”

            “Oh Ancients, no, call me Danny. I’m like four years older than you at most. Sir is weird.” They both took their seat, Duke shooting him a grin instead of responding, and Danny spread out Duke’s application in front of him. “So Duke, why do you want to work here?”

            Duke clasped his hands in front of him. “Honestly? I think what you’re doing here is really great. I grew up in an area that needed help like this. We never had anything like this when I was younger. It’s a really awesome way to help the community.”

            “That’s good to hear. I’m not from here so getting my feet under me was a little difficult at first, but once I made some connections things got a lot easier. You’re finishing up high school at the moment, right?” Duke nodded. “What are your plans after that?”

            Duke nodded slowly. “I’m going to attend Gotham U, I’m not sure what for yet. But during the summer and the days I don’t have class I want to do something with my time. Something good. I think that’s your daycare.”

            “Do you have any experience with kids?”

            Duke considered the question for a moment. “When I lived in the Narrows I had a neighbor who… had a drug problem. Her daughter came over one day to ask if we had any eggs. She was trying to cook herself food because her mom had been gone for a few days. After that I tried to take care of her. Brought her food, made sure there were leftovers for days I couldn’t, showed her my homework and taught her what little I could. It wasn’t much, but I learned a lot about taking care of little kids.” Something in his voice was tight, which made sense, it was obviously not a happy story. “We’re still friends and she’s doing much better now.”

            Well at least it had a bit of a happy ending.

            Danny liked him. He seemed genuine, seemed like the kind of guy who would do his very best for the kids, and actually wanted to help them. “How many hours are you looking to work in a week and what is your schedule like?”

            It didn’t take long for them to sort everything out. Duke would start the week after school ended, the first week of June, and he would work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, ten to six, and (despite his protests that it was too much) would be making thirty dollars an hour. Danny really didn’t care if it seemed like a lot, he could pay Duke thirty dollars an hour for full time work for the rest of his life and not make a dent in his fortune.

            Mia gave him a smug look after Duke left. Why? He wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like Danny had been opposed to her friends working here, he’d encouraged it! He reminded her of that, and she rolled her eyes grumbling something about a hostile takeover, but it was difficult to hear over the shrieking children, even for him.

            With Mia working nine to three every day, and Duke working ten to six three days a week (once school let out), Danny might be able to take a bit of time off in the afternoons on those days. Still, he thought he should maybe hire someone a bit older, with a lot more experience before he could take any kind of trips or vacation time.

            That night, Danny found himself craving burgers. Nasty burger to be specific, but he’d be fully dead before he’d willingly set foot in Amity Park again, so he had to settle for the next best thing. Batburger.

            There was one not too far from where he lived, technically it was over the border into Crime Alley, but he wasn’t exactly scared of Crime Alley. He lived in the Bowery. Arguably worse than Crime Alley. And also, he was already half-dead. He wasn’t exactly worried about getting mugged.

            But get mugged, he did.

            “Hey you!” Someone shouted. Danny sighed, turning around to see a man wearing a mask with a gun pointed his way. “Hand over your wallet and phone.”

            Now, Danny was rich- like, incredibly wealthy, but he didn’t actively carry around large amounts of money. In fact, after buying his and Mia’s lunch that afternoon, he didn’t have any cash on him at all. And his phone was Wayne tech until Tucker gutted half of it an added his own stuff. It wouldn’t be worth much.

            And Danny was capable of going invisible and intangible, so he wasn’t exactly worried about this guy. He honestly felt bad he didn’t have any cash to give him though. “Listen man, I don’t really have anything worth money on me right now. If you want, I can get you a meal at the bat burger though?”

            The mugger looked confused. “What?”

            “I don’t have money on me, just my card which I would totally cancel before you could do anything with it, and my phone is worthless. But I was heading to Bat Burger anyways so if you’re hungry I’d be willing to buy you a meal.” Danny shrugged nonchalantly like his offer wasn’t absolutely insane.

            The gun began to lower slowly, Danny noticed a slight tremor in the man’s hand, and then the gun’s safety was back on, and the gun was stowed. “You’re that guy… My buddy from the Bowery said you hand out meals sometimes. You… you were at the soup kitchen.”

            Danny shrugged again. “Listen man, I do what I can. And what I can do right now, is buy you a meal. If you want.”

            That’s how Danny found himself sat across from a complete stranger eating burgers. Except he wasn’t a stranger. The man had shyly taken off his mask before walking in, afraid the employees and customers would think he was robbing them (a safe assumption) and freak out. The man -Miguel- turned out to be a bit closer to a boy. Probably seventeen (eighteen at most), with dull green eyes, freckles, and ratty brown hair.

            Probably best to act like he didn’t know who this kid was- it would be startling to realize an adult remembered you and your brother after almost being mugged.

            “So, what’s your story?” Miguel asked.

            Scoffing, Danny swallowed a bite and took a swig of soda. “I don’t have one.”

            “C’mon man, everyone’s got a story.”

            Danny raised an eyebrow pointedly. “And what’s yours?”

            The kid glared. “Point taken.”

            Wiping the grease off his hands, Danny leaned back into the booth and sighed. “I’m Danny. I run a daycare in the Bowery because it helps people and that’s what I like to do. Your turn.”

            “’m Miguel.” When he stopped there, Danny raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to keep talking. “Jus’ needed some money for dinner.” Danny had noted that he’d only eaten half of the food he’d gotten and wrapped everything up neatly.

            “Are you saving that for tomorrow? Or someone else?” Miguel pulled back like he wasn’t sure he should answer. “I like helping people. And I don’t do it in the ‘legal’ ways, if you’re afraid of cops or cps or something.” Danny pushed as much truth into his words as he could. Even if the kid couldn’t pick up his aura he pushed genuine-care-worried as hard as he could towards the boy.

            Miguel rubbed his palm with his thumb nervously. “My… my little brother’s waitin’ on me to bring ‘im somethin’.”

            “How old is your brother?” Danny asked. At Miguel’s quickly tensed nature, he put his hands up. “I’m not calling anyone on you, Miguel.”

            The boy shifted anxiously. “Thirteen.”

            Danny nodded, taking another bite, hoping that a moment’s reprieve would help Miguel calm down. “School?” He finally asked. Miguel shook his head, hanging it in embarrassment. “Parents?”

            “…I…” Miguel’s fists tightened, his breathing picked up, and he looked at Danny with panicked eyes. “I take care of him, ‘m really good at it and I don’t let ‘im go hungry or nothin’ and-”

            “Miguel, woah, woah, woah, it’s okay.” Danny comforted. “I’m not here to judge you kid.” He waited for Miguel’s panic to subside, for his words to sink in, before continuing. “I help people. That’s what I like to do, remember? Do you have a job?”

            He shifted uncomfortably. “I… ‘m in a… gang- ‘ts the only way ta get money for someone like me!”

            “Yeah, it’s got to be hard for someone in your position.” Danny finished his burger, wiping his hands again, crumpling the napkin, and tossing it onto the table. “Okay. So. I could use some help in the evenings and on weekends keeping the daycare clean. Toys need to be sterilized, floors vacuumed, and carpets cleaned, that kind of thing. I’d pay well.” Miguel opened his mouth, but Danny kept going. “I could tutor you and your brother on the weekends as well, I imagine he’ll be going into high school next year?”

            “Y..yeah…”

            “How old are you? What year of school would you be in?”

            Miguel fidgeted, clearly confused. “Seventeen. I’d be a senior next year I guess.”

            “Okay, so I can tutor the both of you, get you ready for school next year, and I’ll obviously pay for that too. Where are you living? I can set you guys up with an apartment too.”

            “What the fuck are you sayin’ man?” Miguel looked at him like he was -well- a fruit loop.

            Danny sighed and slid his card across the table. “I know it sounds like a trick; I swear it’s not. I help people. Call me your fairy godmother if it makes you feel better. I’ll let you think about it though, I know it sounds fake and you’re probably worried I’m like, some crazy trafficker or something. So, come find me, or call me if you want that.” He stood up, grabbing his trash. “In the meantime, let me get another meal for you to take to your brother.”

            Miguel’s ‘you’re absolutely fucking crazy’ look didn’t go away in the time it took for Danny to get him another meal (which was definitely more like three meals) so he reminded Miguel to call him and went on his way. Hopefully after the eventful couple of days he’d had, he could sleep in extra late tomorrow.

            Right?

~~~

            Wrong.

            He’d never been more wrong. How come it was so easy to jinx himself? And why did these things always happen to him? Apparently the power went out in the middle of the night and Danny’s alarm decided that meant it should go of at six in the morning (Ancients fuck factory settings), he was going to go back to sleep after shutting it off but the sound of an explosion not too far away woke him back up, so he stumbled out of bed and decided on coffee. What? Explosions were not for ex-vigilantes.

            Except his coffee maker had decided to not come back on after the power went out and he realized the whole thing was broken (he could fix it, but it would be easier to just go out and get coffee for the time being), which is when he thought things were looking up. The barista knew him (not as well as Jesse, but he thought his name was Eddie?), his younger brother went to daycare, and gave him his drink for free. The drink that he promptly spilled all over himself. No Tim in sight to buy him a replacement coffee.

            Fine, he didn’t need it anyways. He needed to go to the grocery store, so he’d just buy a premade coffee- with a lid that screwed on. It was a foolproof plan.

            “You should be more careful, walking in alleyways by yourself.” A hysterical voice called from the shadows of the alley he was cutting through. “You Wayne’s always thinking you’re safe because of the bat. But he’s not here, is he?” When Danny realized who was speaking he decided to nope out of the situation immediately.

            Nope. Fuck that. He didn’t do clowns. Didn’t matter what they looked like, if it walked like a clown and talked like a clown it was a fucking clown. Turning around, Danny moved to walk away from who he assumed was the Joker but had never actually met before. Wasn’t he in Arkham? Jazz had complained about him once or twice. He’d also heard complaints from several of his subjects about the man, a problem he never thought he’d have to deal with personally.

            A hand grabbed his shoulder and before Danny could stop himself he spun around and threw a punch at the man’s face. He. Didn’t. Do. Clowns.

            A sickening crack came from under Danny’s fist and blood poured out of the man’s nose. The man screamed and laughed hysterically; Danny questioned if he really was insane to be laughing at a broken nose.

            What exactly was Danny supposed to do in this situation? Joker decided for him, pulling out a gun and aiming it at the Halfa. Not the smartest move. Intangibility swept through him as the trigger was pulled, the bullet flying straight through him and lodging into the brick wall behind him. It only took another second for Danny to knock the gun out of his hand, grab the man by his shirt, and throw him across the alley into the opposite brick wall.

            The opposite brick wall which immediately collapsed on top of the body he’d thrown. Shit. Jogging over, Danny searched for a pulse. Aaaaaand… there wasn’t one. Cool. Cool cool cool cool cool. No biggie.

            “Ancients damn it.” He grumbled, pulling his hand away from the dry bleached skin and taking a step back. “Well you really stepped in it this time Danny.” He stared at the body, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing across his forehead as he debated what to do. “Could call the cops, don’t really want them to know I killed a guy, could try to find the bats- really don’t want them to know I killed a guy…. Could leave him here? No, no telling what someone would do with the body- might try to bring him back.”

            “And what have we here?” A deep modulated voice came from above Danny.

            Looking up, Danny came face to face with someone he was honestly surprised he hadn’t met before. The Bowery was part of Red Hood’s territory even if he was more known for his work in Crime Alley and Danny had been almost mugged a number of times, still, he’d never run into the crime lord. Despite knowing he should avoid vigilantes at all costs, Danny couldn’t help the bit of excitement at meeting the one his people called ‘the Avenger of the Dead’.

            Danny remembered the situation he was in and sighed, resigned. “Listen, it was an accident.”

            Red Hood tilted his head, dropping down from the fire escape he crouched on, gun still trained on Danny. When the man glanced toward the body he faltered, hand lowering slightly before looking back to Danny. “What the fuck?” It came out like a whisper.

            “He grabbed me and pulled a gun on me, I… didn’t mean to throw him that hard but I don’t like clowns.” Red Hood nodded as if that explained everything. Maybe it did. If he remembered correctly ‘the Red Hood’ was an old moniker of the Joker’s. Danny found it hard to believe someone nicknamed ‘the Avenger of the Dead’ would be in cahoots with the Joker, so it was more likely that he’d stolen the name to make something better out of it.

            He probably hated the clown more than Danny.

            Holstering his gun, Red Hood looked back to the body. “I’m guessing you don’t want anyone to know?” Danny nodded warily. “I’ll have someone take care of the body, give me a second to make a couple of calls.”

            Danny stood uncomfortably shifting from one foot to the other while the Red Hood moved further down the alley. It gave him an opportunity to study the man. He was, well, to put it bluntly, he was jacked. He was almost a foot taller than Danny with broad shoulders and obvious muscles filling out his tight-fitting suit. It wasn’t like the suit was all spandex either, it was a much thicker material, definitely layered with Kevlar and probably some other tech and protective layers, and yet you could still see every muscle on the man.

            Danny wasn’t checking him out. Not even when the man placed one hand on his hip which jutted out to the side and showed off his extremely firm looking ass. Firm looking? Danny mentally face palmed. You’re not allowed to thirst over a crime lord. Even the Avenger of the Dead.

He tried not to listen in on the conversation- he didn’t want to accidently learn the man’s identity or something and focused on the sound of the city in the distance. Sirens, guns, and the explosions from the morning all indicated an Arkham breakout and his concern immediately shifted to Jazz.

            Whipping his phone out of his pocket he pressed one and called. It rang three times before he heard his sister’s voice.

            “Danny?”

            “Jazz! Are you okay?”

            There was a lot of background noise, and it took her a moment to respond, she was likely distracted. “Yeah I’m fine. The breakout happened before my shift today, I just got in. Listen, the boss is, obviously, not happy so I can’t talk. I’ll call you tonight. Maybe we can do takeout at my place?”

            He confirmed and was quickly hung up on. The timing was good, Red Hood making his way over right after.

            “Okay, I’ve got someone on their way to take care of the body. You need help getting home? Actually- let me rephrase- I’m going to get you home.” His voice left no room for argument.

            Danny argued anyways. “I was on my way to go grocery shopping. I’ll be fine.”

            Hood grunted. “Sorry man but we’ve got an Arkham breakout on our hands. Better for you to get home now and shop tomorrow. Besides, with the Joker dead it won’t take as long to clean everything up.”

            He noticed the way Hood said Joker was dead seemed almost smug, but he didn’t question it. He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “You’re not going to tell anyone that I did this, right?”

            Hood tilted his head and Danny pressed on before he could respond. “Because I mean, technically I killed him, but it was self-defense, and also this guy totally deserved it, but I’m just not totally sure it would look good for me with the parents whose kids I take care of and I would really prefer to not have to explain to all of them that ‘yes I killed the Joker and yes I’m still taking care of your kids’-”

            “Guy!” Hood cut in. “I’m not going to tell anyone. But I think you’d find most people would feel even more comfortable leaving their kid with someone who can defend themselves and their kids. Now let me take you home, I’ve got other people to catch and not a lot of time.”

            Danny relaxed at his words. “Oh don’t bother with me, I can-”

            “Just shut up and hold tight.” Red Hood grabbed Danny’s arm, pulled him close, extended his grapple, and they were flying.

            Now, Danny was used to flying, it was common practice for him even after hanging up his metaphorical cape, he flew on the daily, in his apartment he often found himself floating instead of walking, but flying while gravity was still a factor? Not at all the same. Danny’s arms wrapped around Hood’s neck tight, and his eyes snapped shut on reflex before he opened them again.

            “Where too?” Hood chuckled, swinging (apparently) aimlessly but away from the crime scene.

            Giving Hood his address, which he still wasn’t convinced was a good idea, he found himself enjoying the flight. It would be better with little bags of trail mix and a seatbelt, but he’d suffer he supposed.

            Setting down on the fire escape outside of his window, Hood leaned against the railing and seemed to be sizing Danny up.

            “Well… Uh… thanks, I guess.” Danny wasn’t sure what to say, settling instead for flattening down his hair. Between the shock of killing someone (which he had only done once before, and did Ending Pariah Dark really count? If anything that was worse than killing someone but also entirely different.) and meeting someone many of his people considered their hero (who he had hoped he’d get the opportunity to thank for his selfless deeds at some point or another) Danny couldn’t figure out what would be appropriate to say.

            Hood paused. “Anytime.” Danny snorted. “I mean it.” Even through his helmet Danny felt like he could see something blazing in his eyes. There was a solemnity in the way he spoke. “You killed the Joker. You need anything, come find me or my people. I owe you one.”

            Before Danny could argue (could insist that no Hood didn’t owe him anything, Danny owed him so much more for avenging so many lost souls that Danny had to introduce to the afterlife and they were always so young or powerless or scared and Hood had been able to bring them a comfort he never could so really it’s Danny who owed Hood a favor-) the vigilante leapt over the edge of the fire escape and swung away.

            Danny took a deep, shuddery breath, tearing his eyes away from where Red Hood had disappeared and using his intangibility to enter his apartment.

            He deserved a nap.

~~~

            Sleep never came to him, and he found it was much more elusive than it had been before he’d killed someone.

Prev. Next

[yukiblob]

Name: Mathew Fernandez

Height: 5’6

Birthday: September 10th

Age:16

Magic: Fire magic

Occupation: Magic knight

Squad: Crimson lion kings

Birth place: Clover Kingdom, Noble realm

Background:

Mathew was born to Amor Fernandez and Cesar Fernandez. His biological mother died when he was ten due to an illness (more parents dying to sickness (ー_ー)) and his dad later remarried to Amara Bayo. After his dad remarried he gained two older sisters who loves him like he’s blood. Despite the love and care at home he still has his mental struggles.Even as when he was little he always had social struggles which resulted in him getting bullied and being outcasted from kids his age. As a result it took a heavy toll on him causing him to have clinical depression (his bio moms death also contributed to this) His dad however pushed him so he can do great things!(pushed him so far he became a magic Knight :D) Now he tries to get stronger so he can protect his family like how they protect him.

Personality:

Mathew used to be a happy child who always talked his parents ears off with his interest. Now he’s more gloomy and withdrawn. He tends to keep to himself and spends his time away from his squad mates. If someone does manage to befriend him, he starts to open about his interests(and I mean ALL interests.) He loves to discuss the topics he likes and would appreciate if someone listens to him!

Relationships:

Family:

Cesar Fernández

His loving dad (^·^) Though as he grew older he seemed to drift apart from him, Mathew still loves him with all his heart! His dad was the one to keep encouraging him to do great things and was always kind to him(his dad is kind to everybody 😆) Now he’s in the Magic Knights showing his dad that he is doing great things!

Amor Fernandez

His late mother. He always loved being around his mom. She had shared the same “nerdy” interest with him and is the reason why he likes most things now. He will always miss her and tends to visit her grave with his dad a lot.

Amara Bayo(last name now Fernandez)

His stepmom ヽ(≧∀≦)ﾉ! She’s so kindhearted and understanding! Not only that she’s also a great cook 😆! At first he was wary of her, but after a few weeks he came to trust her.

Njeri Bayo (now Fernandez)

His new sister! She’s older than him (and a lot stronger). She always spoils/cuddles him because he “always looks sad and is too adorable to not squeeze “. He loves his sister and always enjoys hanging out with her.

Ophira bayo(Fernandez)

His other new sister! She’s also older than him. She likes to test makeup and clothing items on him! Mathew doesn’t mind (as long as it’s not dresses or skirts) and sometimes looks forward to this. He loves her ability to style and goes to her whenever he wants new clothes. She also spoils him too ^_^!

Friends:

Levi Foudre

His first friend.. He messes with him a lot but he guesses that’s what friends do.. Other than that he doesn’t mind Levi. Levi takes him on adventures and sometimes he enjoys those trips. He’s is a good person to talk to even though Levi doesn’t open up much. Mathew doesn’t know why Levi wants to hang out with a sad blob like him but he’s not going to push him away like he does everyone else.

Yanira Pérez

A fun full of energy girl :D. He doesn’t know why she hangs out with him either. They totally have different personalities but somehow they fit together. They’re both usually put on missions together so that has contributed to their blooming relationship. Little by little Yanira has helped Mathew get out of his shell making him become more like his old self. Mathew doesn’t realize it but everyone around him notices his change of character. Isn’t she amazing 🤩!

Others:

Leopold vermillion

Mathew runs from him. Leo has WAY too much energy for him to handle. If Mathew does get caught, he’s dragged into training with him. Leo’s training methods are harsh so Mathew dreads it every time.

Fuegoleon Vermillion

Might be the only “normal “ vermillion. He seems nicer than most royals.. But he’s talks loud 😒. Other than that he’s a great leader and has, “really cool fire spells”-said Mathew probably. Though he doesn’t like getting hit on the head and scolded, Mathew still enjoys Fuego being his captain.

Mereoleona Vermilion

Oh no theres more of them .. and she’s crazy too ! She has managed to kidnap Mathew multiple times to bring him to dangerous magic regions (sadly). For some reason she sometimes focuses on him, and brings him to train with her… alone. She encourages him in her own harsh way. Mathew does appreciate this attention but he needs a break (TOT)!

Nozél Silva

Only met him because he visited Levi in his squad base. Definitely someone to avoid :|.

Trivia (^o^)／

He has been officially diagnosed with clinical depression and does take antidepressants(sometimes) whenever he doesn’t take his meds his dad (or Fuegoleon) will force him to.

His favorite color is green!! He loves everything green and some of his relaxing fits are in green. At first his shirts used to be a more vibrant green but as time went by even the green started to get darker. (It’s a representation of how his mindset grew dark overtime)

Totally did not fall for Yanira( he looks at her with love in his eyes)

He can speak English and Spanish! He grew up speaking Spanish mostly but his dad enrolled him some classes so he can learn English too.

His dad can only speak Spanish but he can understand English. (Idk how he got this far by nodding and saying a few words of English but he did) So Mathew is his translator for now. He even translates the same energy whenever his dad is mad!(￣▽￣)／

Sometimes has a thick Spanish accent. Levi of course makes fun of him when he hears it (Levi you are French u cannot be talking 😭🙏)

He sometimes sketches and has a stylized style . He loves things space related and posters about astronomy in his rooms. Even has tons of books about fantasy stories and even some sci fiction books.

Knows some Spanish dances! He dances with his family and Yanira! He tried to teach Levi but Levi could not pick up on it (despite him having a past with dancing(ー_ー))

His outfit was based off of Spanish traditional clothing. His sisters and step mom are African. He's also a converted oc.

His claymore is supposed to represent the colorful culture of Spain

Used to play soccer! He played a lot with his dad when he was younger. Because of Yanira he decided to pick it up again.

[coffeeheartaddict2]

Haunted

Book: Open Heart (post series)

Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC Casey Ramsey , Tobias Carrick

Word count: 1609

Category: Angst

Rating: Mature

Warnings: mentions of Bio attack, mentions of mental health, mentions of pregnancy loss, language.

Summary: It is three weeks after a missed miscarriage and Casey approaches Tobias to discuss the antidote and if it could have been the cause.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Pixelberry

Authors note: This fic was prompted by a question from Elsa about the effects of the antidote and the attack as a whole. Thanks again for the ask Elsa.

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

It had been three weeks since her world had turned upside down. Finding out they were expecting and then finding out less than 24hours later that the baby did not make it would do that. Being a doctor, she knew the statistics on miscarriages. A statistic that had not changed much in a long time, despite this the knowledge was not helping, if anything it was making the whole situation worse. This was her first week back at work, she knew she maybe should have taken more time but doctors make horrible patients and much like after the attack and also her sexual assault, she was eager to resume sembelence of normality to help her cope.

Tobias was aware of her coping mechanisms and he was not going to let her have it all her own way. He knew Casey not only needed to grieve but also heal and working harder than Ethan was not the way to heal. He also knew that Casey and Ethan needed each other also. Casey was frustrated with this but she also knew that Ethan would side with Tobias so she did what she did best and kept on carrying on.

Casey had been back at work for three days. Both Ethan and Tobias knew there was something more than just grief and anger at the missed miscarriage but both men knew that if Casey wanted to talk about it then it would be on her terms. Casey and Ethan were seeing Dr Jensen to help them through their grief but the questions Casey had could only be answered by Tobias. The question was to do with the antidote and whether or not the miscarriage could have been caused by it. As much as Casey wanted to seek answers, she also did not want to come off as some crazy grieving bitch. Today was Aurora’s day off and Baz was doing some research, as such it was just them and they had a working lunch. Casey ordered in some sushi and she decided to be direct.

“Tobias, did the antidote have anything to do with my miscarriage?”

Tobias was taken aback. There had not been any research done into the antidote, it was decided that any research would only happen with the absolute explicit consent of Raf and Casey.

“It should not have, it was designed to be cleared at the same time as the toxin after it bonded.”

“But you do not know for sure?”

Tobias took a deep breath.

“You and Raf were not the only people traumatized by that day Casey. We all decided that any further research would happen only with the consent of both you and Raf.”

“Why did you want our consent? The breakthrough would have been groundbreaking.”

“And making you both relive that day with any questions, scans, tests to see how you both are physically and mentally after that.” Said Tobias, “not to mention those of us who came that day. The realization when I had the call from Aurora telling me what could have happened at Kenmore, the red flags that even June in all seriousness should have picked up became painfully apparent.” Tobias took another breath, this time to keep his emotions in check.

“This is not about me, it is about you and your question and to the best of my knowledge, No the antidote did not cause your miscarriage.” He said, before quickly excusing himself. It had been at least a decade if not longer that Tobias needed the privacy of a supply cupboard to vent his frustration but today it seemed apt.

He screamed and then felt tears run down his face. He was not lying when it dawned on him that it could have happened at Kenmore but that night was full of emotion. It was the night he realized that any emotion that Ethan had towards Casey was genuine, it was the night where he saw that he had been played by June, it was a night that he was appalled at himself, it was a feeling he had not felt since medical school and he was keen to not feel that ever again. It pained him he was in some way responsible for the attack, sure there had been positives out of it, he and Ethan eventually reconciled, he had a good friendship with Casey also, the relationship with Ethan and Casey but he knew things could have ended very differently that night, it was upsetting enough that two people lost their lives before the team from Kenmore were able to arrive.

He eventually regained his composure and went about the rest of his day but the haunted emotions did not leave him. He was finishing up for the day when his path crossed with Ethan. He noted that Tobias was not himself.

“Are you alright, Tobias?” Questioned Ethan.

“I have been better…” he wanted to tell Ethan the full story but the nurses station they were at was not the place.

“I will finish soon, did you want to meet and tell me what is up?” Asked Ethan.

“I’ll be fine buddy, you go spend some time with Casey.”

Ethan left it at that. Later that night, when both Ethan and Casey were at home, he asked Casey if she knew why Tobias was not himself this afternoon.

“That may have been my fault.” Stated Casey.

“How was it your fault?”

“I took advantage of knowing I would not be interrupted by Aurora and Baz to ask him if the antidote could have caused my miscarriage.”

“Oh” said Ethan. He did not know what to say in that moment that would not have him coming off as a condescending asshole.

“He did not seem to think it did but since no research has been done he could not be 100% sure.” Said Casey.

“I must admit, many of the physical checks we did after that attack were focused on the lungs and your physical strength, although you had the least exposure and we did not check the reproductive organs…”

“I know I have PCOS and that may have made me more susceptible anyway, I also know the fucking statistics Ethan. It could have happened regardless but I wanted to know” wailed Casey.

Ethan got up and hugged her. The doctor in him wanted to remind her that if there was any other irregularities found that could not be tied to her PCOS or any other ailment but he kept quiet and hugged her, assuring her that everything would be fine.

Casey was emotionally drained so she went to bed early and Ethan messaged Tobias asking if he was amenable to having lunch the next day, for which Tobias agreed.

The next day came and Ethan and Tobias met at the local Italian restaurant near the hospital. Ethan decided to be direct.

“Casey told me about the conversation you had yesterday.”

Tobias nodded. “I should not have been shocked that the question was coming but the emotions it stirred up was a shock.”

“There was so much more I wanted to say last night, but kept quiet.”

“Yeah that line between doctor, husband or friend and condescending asshole is a very fine one.”

Ethan nodded in agreement.

“I guess the guilt I felt for courting them both, telling June about it which lead to the heist….”

“It is not your fault Tobias. If the Senator did not seek medical treatment, he would have died anyway.”

“Yeah two innocents would have not been caught in his plot and Casey and Raf would not have been compromised .”

“And if your team found out? Travis still would have had his revenge.”

“Yeah and probably would have done more damage than Edenbrook, it was the VIP wing that swayed Travis, hell that should have been the first red flag.”

“We missed many too or passed it off as Travis’s job or concern.” Stated Ethan, “Do you know what gave Casey the inspiration to check for lead poisoning?”

“No, I was jealous that you guys solved it so fast.” Said Tobias with a slight chuckle.

“The senator forgot the word Vegan.”

Tobias raised his eyebrow in surprise.

“Well they do say lifestyle choices are often key in finding the problem.”

Tobias took a sip of his drink.

“In all seriousness though, I will always feel somewhat responsible for the events that happened and that will never change. Do not get me wrong there was some really good things that came out of it but it was still traumatic and I suppose if the antidote has caused even more fertility concerns it would make me feel worse.”

“The grief is still all to fresh. As Casey said last night, I know the statistics on miscarriage and to be honest I think it is making the process worse.”

“I can only imagine the grief, it is certainly something that I wish you two never had to go through in the first place.”

Ethan nodded and the finished their meal in companionable silence.

Later that day Tobias came across Casey in the office. He apologized for being not much help the day before. Casey stated there was no need to apologize but accepted the apology. Tobias stated that if the antidote was in any way responsible that he will feel worse that what he does. Casey reminded him that any potential fertility concerns were not a high priority.

“I regret the actions at my end that lead to the attack, I always will, but I will always be thankful fot the positives.”

“Me too, Tobias” as they hug and and then go about their day.

——

Authors note 2: Well that was that, again Elsa thank you for the ask. We know Pixelberry very much glazed over any side effects both physical and mental from the attack but we also have to remember the doctors and nurses who worked in the support suite, who found a cure fell even through out the hospital.

I think we all headcanon Tobias being a good guy all the ego bravado and in Tashland and even in any au where I have had the attack happen, Tobias always feels responsible and even though it is a turning point for him in many ways, he still feels guilty that needless loss of lives lead to it.

Regular readers know that Casey goes on to have two kids with Ethan. Hudson and Alexis. Both pregnancies were relatively trouble free. Whilst in labour with Hudson she does have a blood pressure spike which lead to an emergency Cesarean. Tobias and the team eventually do research into the antidote and it was found it did not impact fertility.

Tagging: @jerzwriter @jamespotterthefirst @genevievemd @cariantha @bex-la-get @a-crepusculo @crazy-loca-blog @alj4890 @tessa-liam @liaromancewriter @potionsprefect @youlookappropriate @socalwriterbee @schnitzelbutterfingers @binny1985 @trappedinfanfiction

@openheartfanfics @choicesficwriterscreations

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Pine Bluff Variant (5x18)

The tires on August Bremer’s Taurus rub along the curb as the car creeps to a stop. Lamplight beaming from the entryway of Hegal Place shines down on an injured Agent Mulder climbing the steps to his apartment. Mulder winces as he opens the door with his left hand held aloft, the pinky finger bent sideways at a sharp, unnatural angle. 

August shakes his head. Haley’s New Spartans goon is a sadistic piece of work. Finding the perfect moment to remove that asshole can’t come soon enough. 

Flicking the switch on the listening device, August points the red laser at the window of apartment 42, puts his headphones on and listens for the truth. 

“…what you’re talking about,” Agent Mulder says to someone — someone already waiting in his darkened apartment. 

“What happened to your hand?” August knows the soft, concerned voice belongs to Agent Scully, Mulder’s redheaded partner who risked her own life running after him in the park. August saw the fear for her partner drain the pink from her pretty face all the way from the getaway car. 

“Nothing,” Mulder lies. Badly.

“Oh, Mulder, what did they do to you?” she tsks. “God, this needs to be set. You’re in pain.”

“Yeah, if you keep pulling it around like that.” The man’s a smart ass even while doted upon.  

“Let’s get the swelling down.”

Choosing the greenish hued light emanating from Mulder’s apartment to focus on, August ruminates on the reason they’ve all been pulled into this clusterfuck to begin with.

Classified orders to develop a recalled bioweapon in secret were given directly to the army from the US Government. Instructing August to keep evolving the banned toxin, hastening it along. Cultivating a variant of a biological agent to become one of the most deadly bioweapons in the world sure as hell wasn’t August’s idea. But what could he do as a Pine Bluff stationed soldier, eager to use his biochemistry degree? Saying no to the CIA was never an option. So as years passed, August and his team analyzed chemical compositions to carefully create an aerosol version of a flesh-eating streptococcus compound capable of casualties nothing short of devastation. 

And he hates himself for it.

“Why do this to you, Mulder?”

“They’re testing me, too. Haley’s paranoid. Spooked. I was sure he was going to kill me.”

Sending Mulder on the inside with Haley was a risky test he could have easily failed. But that won’t be Mulder’s only test of trustworthiness. August knows Mulder’s involvement in this is a set up — just another pawn for the CIA’s own selfish means. Mulder’s strong opinions on the withholding of governmental secrets is the perfect way to kill two troublesome birds with one bio-weaponized stone. Now, August must be certain Mulder hasn’t flipped sides and become one with the terrorists he’s dutifully warned the bureau about. A final test to pass in order to be saved.

Agent Scully exhales. Her relief that he’s still alive is as loud as her concern. “What stopped him?”

“They still need something from me. And I’m sensing there’s someone Haley trusts even less — the man giving him his orders. Someone I haven’t met yet. A guy named August Bremer.”

Mulder’s right. August had created an alias to go behind the New Spartans’ back by leaking information to the bureau, and Haley will know the truth soon enough. Time is of the essence. If this militia isn’t stopped before the bioweapon spreads, millions may die horrific deaths. 

August just has to kill off the New Spartans without killing himself, too. 

“I hate that they hurt you,” Agent Scully murmurs. “You need to be cautious from here on out.”

“Always am,” Mulder quips, before gasping in pain. “Ouch! Okay, I will be. Scout’s honor.”

She scoffs, “You’re no Boy Scout, Mulder.”

“Yeah, Haley didn’t seem to think so either.”

“Not funny.” August hears the playful lilt in her tone vanish as quick as it came. “Let me get my med kit from your bathroom.”

Only the sounds of footsteps and Mulder’s heavy sighs fill the void until Agent Scully returns. 

“Scully, before, on the tape… You didn’t think I’d really…”

“Betray our country? No, Mulder, I refused to believe that.”

“Betray you.”

Even through the padded earpieces, August hears her breath catch. “Mulder…”

“Because I wouldn’t — I’d never, Scully,” Mulder says adamantly. “Never.”

“I know. I know that, Mulder.” August can imagine her hand reassuringly covering his. “You were doing your job. You didn’t have a choice in keeping it from me.” 

“It doesn’t make it any easier. For either of us.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.”

Silence stretches for a long time. Nothing but the crinkle of med-grade wrappers and the burbling of water from what sounds like a fish tank drifts through the headphones. August may be on the outside listening in, but he can practically feel the tension from here.

“Scully…”

“The swelling’s lessened. Luckily it’s a clean break.”

“Hey,” Mulder’s voice is soft, gentle. “Look at me.”

“Hold still while I splint your finger.”

“Scully-”

“This is dangerous, Mulder,” she huffs, her words wavering. “Extremely so. It worries me we’re separated on this.”

“Believe me, Scully, I’m not a fan either.” The clack of the metal finger splint tapping against wood has Agent Scully humming in agreement. “But I’d be lying if I said I’m not relieved you’re nowhere near a man that breaks bones for a living.”

“So who has your back, then? Skinner can only do so much and I’m not sure I trust the CIA agent in charge here.”

“You have my back, Scully. You do, and you’re the only one I trust. Remember?” There’s a smile laced within Mulder’s meaningful plea, and August nods in respect. Only a good man appreciates what keeps him that way. 

“I could hardly forget.”

August clicks off the listening device with a smile of admiration. Some truths are better left unheard. 

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Archive of Our Own!

@monikafilefan

[moosemonstrous]

btw I have now put links to both the tag here and on AO3 in my bio bc I got sick of scrolling through tumblr 😌 Full disclosure - I have met lab people who act like small animals caught in the middle of a road whenever someone dares to enter their domain.

Ghost Rider Pacific Rim AU - sticks and stones

“Can’t promise the spot will stay open,” Kwok tells him apologetically. “But this is good, no? All the young’uns want to go to the academy!”

Robbie would bet his working eyeball that none of the young'uns would be so keen on it after ten minutes alone with Major Brooks. “So I keep hearing,” he mutters. “Sorry for the trouble. I appreciate you taking me on in the first place.”

“Navos is good people,” Kwok shrugs. The Shatterdome functions on a rather opaque network of favours and IOUs. ‘Good people’ seems to be a fairly high praise. Not quite on 'one of ours' level, but high. “You remember me when you are a ranger up in the dome and we’re even.”

And just like that, the transport maintenance chapter of Robbie’s career closes with little fanfare. Technically, he didn’t have to come speak to Kwok in person – his assignment has already gone through and the man would’ve been notified either way. He doesn’t want to leave a bad impression, though. For all he knows, the battery of tests he’d been fast-tracked through the day before will spit out some convoluted reason for why the drift activated on its own and he will be back on the job market before the end of the week. At least there are plenty of positions open – it’s easier to hire someone inside the base and train them up than wait for the paperwork to clear for an experienced worker from the outside.

He remembers the last time he let himself think things were finally turning around, though. He’s not going to make that mistake again.

At least his head is clearer after half an hour in a giant magnet and a full night’s sleep. He’s still unable to hold a conversation with Ivanov without some truly strange thoughts popping up like bubbles on the surface of a pot – the more tired or angry he gets, the harder it is to ignore them. He knew he was going to pay for running on fumes for weeks, and being sedated for nearly three days must have knocked something loose, but. Nothing proper sleep hygiene and some semblance of a routine won’t fix.

Or maybe you’re just noticing stuff, because you ain’t an idiot. Huh? Could it be that?

Or maybe this whole business with The Charger is extremely weird and Robbie should be packing up and running for the hills. Unfortunately, his and Gabe’s permits only work in Hong Kong and when he last checked how much it would be to fly back to US, he had to sit down for a long moment. Even if he was willing to risk taking a ship, where would that leave them? Back on a decimated coast, hoping the wind doesn’t blow over nuclear fallout, and struggling to find enough food for both of them? Queuing at state borders for days or weeks, hoping they’ll be lucky enough to get through on the increasingly stringent rules? Nevada already stopped letting in anyone without immediate family members or sponsors in-state.

Looks like the only way forward is through.

His wristband scans through to the R&D wing now. The soldiers standing guard give Robbie odd looks, but don’t make a move to stop him, so he forces his shoulders down and walks through the armoured door like he knows what he’s doing.

He has no idea what he’s doing. Cho said, ‘come find me in R&D before noon’. There are at least fifteen labs just in this one corridor and none of the doors have anything approaching a comprehensible naming convention. Some signs are just a piece of printer paper with a name scrawled over it, some have the original writing taped over with a KEEP OUT sticker, some seem to list the people working inside. None of those list an Amadeus Cho. It’s half past eleven.

Eventually, Robbie sticks his head in a room labelled ‘HMT DES’. Inside, there are three circular podiums with a mannequin each, showcasing variations of the PPDC hazmat suits. There are three people inside; two hide behind the middle suit as soon as they notice him, leaving the third to fend for herself.

“Can–can I help you?” she asks nervously. She has blue hair and wears fishnet sleeves over a tank top. Not exactly the nerd attire Robbie was expecting.

“I’m looking for Amadeus Cho,” he explains, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. It’s the opposite of what he usually tries to achieve, and she looks like she might be having an anxiety attack. “Any idea where I could find him?”

The girl listens to some frantic whispering from behind the suit. “In the bone lab,” she squeaks. Then blushes so hard Robbie worries she might actually pass out. “Up one floor, two doors down on the left, thankyouseeyoulater.”

What the hell.

He closes the door.

At least with the directions he finds the right room in less than five minutes. The label indeed reads ‘bone lab’. He’s pretty sure the music blasting from the inside is Dead Kennedys. When nobody answers his knocking, he prays he isn’t about to embarrass himself further and pushes the door open.

Cho is standing with his back to him at a table completely covered in… either huge chunks of dirty plaster or – more likely and vastly more disturbingly – massive bone fragments. He’s holding a metal training staff. Before Robbie can call out, he brings it over his head and smashes one of the chunks. When it doesn’t break, he adjusts his grip and tries again. And again. And again, until the greenish-grey surface cracks, at which point he gives out a little whoop.

“Cho?” Robbie risks. The music is too loud, coming from a small bluetooth speaker at the edge of the table. It’s shaped like a cat head. “Hey, Cho!”

Cho whirls around with the staff ready to smack the intruder. He’s wearing thick safety goggles. When he sees Robbie, he drops his weapon to the table with a clatter. “Good news!” he shouts over the music, like it’s normal both for people to just show up in his lab and to start a conversation from the middle. “You don’t have brain cancer!”

Well. That’s definitely good news.

“Was that a–?” He waits for Cho to lower the speaker’s volume through his phone. “Was that a risk?”

Cho is busy checking his messages, frowning. “Did you break my outfitters?”

“What?”

“Hazmat lab?” The frown becomes a grin as he scrolls through a bunch of texts. Robbie feels like that’s worse. “Good job getting on their good side, they might be designing your drivesuit soon.”

“I just–“ Can we get to the point? This kid is missing a screw. “You said to come find you?”

“Yes! Come on, take a–“ he picks up a hammer from an office chair before sliding it towards Robbie. “There you go. I was hoping we could talk without the grown-ups hovering around.”

The grown-ups. Robbie can already feel a headache coming. He takes a seat while Cho leans on the table, untroubled by a pile of skeletal remains inches from his back. “Talk about what?”

Cho scrambles around for a remote and points it at one of the screens at a wall behind Robbie. He flicks through several output sources – one is most definitely a cartoon show Gabe used to love back in L.A. – until he finds what looks like the Hell Charger’s blueprints.

“That,” he says, suddenly serious. “What do you actually know about this jaeger?”

“I already–“

“Yeah, but that can’t be all,” Cho cuts him off impatiently. “I found your records from before your mom took you and your brother off-base. You were eight. Your dad never took you to the hangar?”

Not really. Mama didn’t want you losing fingers in the machinery.

“Wasn’t a place for a kid,” he mumbles. There are records? “I don’t really remember much from that time. Weren’t all the records sealed?”

I told you Ivanov is full of shit.

“Oh, they were,” Cho smirks. “But the last guy in my role had access to some of the classified stuff, and nobody ever revoked it. You know how it is.”

Robbie has no idea how it is. “What do they say?”

“Nothing!” Cho groans. “Just that you and your brother existed. That’s why I’m asking.”

It’s both crushingly disappointing and a perfectly good reason for Ivanov to just say there was no information available. Keep deluding yourself. You’ll see I’m right sooner or later. Still, Robbie doesn’t really have much he can – or wants to – tell Cho.

“Sorry, I can’t help,” he shrugs. “I’m told we left before it was decommissioned. Mom never talked about it.”

Cho lifts up his goggles to his forehead to rub his eyes. He seems frustrated. “No weird work anecdotes? No drama about close calls?” He huffs when Robbie shakes his head. “Great. Another dead end. What did Ivanov tell you?”

“Just that my dad used to be a pilot. That he died killing Daggerblight.”

There is a long moment where Cho watches him like he’s waiting for Robbie to crack and admit to some vast conspiracy. When nothing happens, he blows the air out of his cheeks. “Bummer. Oh well, let’s go find Montesi before she starts wondering where we are.”

Robbie feels the bottom of his stomach freeze over. “We were supposed to be meeting her, too?”

Cho is already walking over to the door. He holds it open with a stupid little bow. “Yep. We better hurry.”

Robbie kind of wants to punch him. He’s beginning to suspect this will be a common occurrence.

[delusioncorner]

Knock at the Window

(Spider-Man x Reader)(T)

Whilst studying for a big final exam, you hear a knock coming from your bedroom window...which is weird because you live on the 5th floor of an apartment building. Who on earth could that be?

(This is kind of long and maybe a bit shit but I wrote it because I lowkey miss school)

-

The words begin to blur for the seventh time since I've started the tedious- and albeit very stupid- task of pulling an all-nighter for the exam I have tomorrow morning at exactly 7:30 in the morning. Hard, heavy blinks start to plague my eyes and I thought very briefly that I was going to lose this battle that I was fighting with my sleep. I sigh and close my eyes tight, taking deep breaths in and out, in and out, in and out.

When I open my eyes again I look towards the clock hanging on my wall and feel a sense of dread crawl up my spine. 3:45am. Another sigh escapes my lips and my heart begins to race. It's almost 4 in the morning, my exam- that my entire career depends on- is in 3 and a half hours, and I've barely read through half the notes I've taken in preparation for this goddamned test. My eyes start to well with tears and a sense of helplessness fills me rapidly. I've just been so busy the past couple of days with work, school, and my internship at Alchemex. Everything I do combines into one long event that starts at 6am and ends at about 9pm and the times I do have a small break I spend it with Peter. I know I should be focusing on my studies especially with the end of the year staring me right in the face and the promise of grad school welcoming me with its new and exciting embrace but I can't help it.

Peter Parker is in the Bio-Chemistry class I'm taking this semester- the class that I'm attempting to study for at the moment. He's one of the smartest people I've ever met and the depth in which he understands such complex theories will always astound me. I could have been studying with Peter and I honestly should have since he is quite the talented student but I can't focus on anything but him when he's around. It's quite the hopeless predicament I've found myself in. I'd like to think he shares the same feelings for me as I do him but every time I think something is about to happen between us he has to leave. It's happened too often for it to be a coincidence.

Today was a perfect example of that very thing happening. Peter and I were walking through the campus courtyard from our shared class, side-by-side, our hands brushing as we admired the cherry blossoms with their maroon-colored leaves. We talked aimlessly for what seemed like hours but were in reality only a few minutes before we reached the the grand fountain located in the middle of the school. We sat there and spoke, getting closer to one another as the minutes passed, until our hands overlapped. He said something that made me laugh and after I had settled our eyes locked and I felt my upper body leaning toward him like we were magnets, destined to connect. I looked at him through my lashes and tilted my head. I needed to feel his lips against mine. I needed us to feel one another. I needed him to need me just as much as I needed him. Just as our lips almost met...his phone went off and he was gone, running away frantically almost like he was awakened from a trance. I had no choice but to watch him leave.

I texted him before I started my slow descent into madness and I've still yet to receive a text back. I feel sick to my stomach. Recounting that memory combined with my sleep deprivation has turned my stomach in a way I hadn't been expecting. Standing, I carefully stretch and drink a bit of water because I am not about to throw up at- I glance over at the clock again- 4 in the morning.

Great. I managed to kill 15 minutes drooling over Peter. Could I get any more paths-

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I still. Was it my door? It couldn't be. My roommates are all sleeping. Walking over to my door, I open it anyway. Greeted with nothing, I turn to retreat into my room and before I get the chance to close my door I hear another sound.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.

The tapping transitioned into harder, heavier knocks. They sound frantic. I know it's not my door this time so I turn to my window. My curtain-shrouded, no-fire-escape-having, 5th-story window.

"Dude, there's literally no way that knocking is coming from my window right now."

A gruff, strained, and slightly muffled voice comes from right outside the window. "Please. Please open the window." It's a man. I hesitate briefly but decide that if someone is truly outside my window right now, then it must be someone...interesting and I've always been a curious person. I close my door and saunter towards my window. Dread is filling me once again but I punch it down. I'll just take a small peek and if it's like the Green Goblin or some other nefarious ne'er-do-weller then I'll simply accept my fate and die.

...Yeah. Yeah, that's what my options are. I either die or...some other second option. Hopefully, option number two is better than death. So, which will it be?'

I reach the window and slightly move the curtain to reveal Spider-Man. The Spider-Man. Even though I couldn't see his entire body I saw enough. I saw his bright red and blue suit. I saw one of his gloved hands and I saw a sliver of his other hand clutching his side. His back was against the wall of my building, almost as if he were glued to it. Spider-Man is a good man. He helps the city and he totally fought some giant dude dressed as a rhinoceros last week who threatened to do something dastardly to the town so I think I would be okay if I let him in. Plus, it seems like he's injured and I'm not a monster. I glance at the clock once more- it reads 4:10- before I rip open my window.

As quickly as I open the window, Spider-Man is through it, and closing the window behind him with just as much speed, then he slunks against my wall in a boneless heap. His breaths are heavy and small helpless whines escape his mask-shrouded lips. I tell him that I'll be back and swiftly leave my room, closing the door behind me, and running down the hallway to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit. When I return, Spider-Man is away from the window and slumped over in my desk chair.

"Thanks for letting me in. Also sorry for getting blood on your rug maybe? I don't know actually, I didn't really pay attention." He's rambling. He's distracting himself from the pain, I can tell. He continues, "You really just went right to work, didn't you? No 'Hi' or 'Woah! Spider-Man? What a silly thing that's happening right now,' you just up and got a...first aid kit? Thanks but I'm okay. It's just a flesh wound."

"You're bleeding a lot. One could even use the word profusely. I don't know what kind of weird business you have going on but I can just...I don't know? Stitch you up? My mom was a nurse and she taught me a few basics on how to fix up small wounds." I open the first aid kit as I babble on. The room is beginning to smell like iron and I feel lightheaded. He begrudgingly agrees after I beg him to let me help and I thank him. He lets me gently lift the top of his suit and I get to it. I feel sick and as he hisses in pain as the needle digs into his skin, I can't help but also feel sorry for the pain I'm causing him.

He goes on to comfort me as I finish stitching him. He keeps up a nice banter with me, making jokes and asking me other questions about my hobbies, and soon enough I'm tying up the last stitch and taping a bandage over the wound. I take a deep breath and ask him if he's hurt anywhere else. He says no but I still do a quick check. I cannot be responsible for the demise of New York's favorite web-slinger all because I was reckless. I didn't realize it but I said that part out loud. He started to laugh. His low laugh turned into a loud booming fit of hysterics and I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips.

He seems so familiar but I can't pinpoint it. I'm so comfortable with this man that I've just met. I blame it on the fact that he's a well-known vigilante who helps others but the whole time we were talking, I couldn't help but compare him to Peter. Their mannerisms and humor are so similar that it seems like they could be the same people but that's such a far-fetched theory that I swept it from my mind as quickly as it entered.

More minutes passed and I accepted the fact that I'd probably fail this test. Maybe, if I play my cards right, I could convince my professor to let me take it again? Say I developed nasty stomach flu or maybe I'll say my mother is in the hospital. He doesn't know she's dead so no harm no foul. Spider-Man and I discuss everything from star signs to the best delis in the area. Our tones get softer and I feel a wave of calm wash over me for the first time in 3 days. A yawn escapes my lips and I accept defeat. I'll email my professor when I wake up. Hopefully, he's understanding.

Spider-Man also seems to have reached his limits. He stands and stretches his arms over his head, groaning obnoxiously in the same way Peter does. Spider-Man thanks me for my help and for the conversation but mentions how he has something to do soon and should probably leave. I don't want him to leave. I find myself wanting to keep him. A courage that I am unfamiliar with strikes my body and suddenly I'm reaching for his mask. I rest my hands on his cheeks as a silent question. Can I? He nods slowly and suddenly there I am, in the middle of my bedroom at who-knows-when, peeling the bottom part of his mask up, stopping just below his nose. I sway forward and all at once, we're kissing.

It's brief, almost as if it was a thank you. A thank you to him for helping me relax in my state of study-induced panic and maybe a thank you from him for helping him? For showing him kindness? Whatever the thanks was for didn't matter, so long as I felt it. When we parted, he pulled his mask down and walked towards the window, opening it, and preparing to disappear into the night. I spoke up one last time.

" Why did you come to my window? Seems pretty random, no?"

He simply looks over his shoulder and says, "Because I knew you'd open the window." And just like that he's gone and I'm left to ponder.

He knew I'd open the window?

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 064 - Return of the Andorians

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 Episode 13 - Proving Ground

This episode opened with a "Previously on" segment which seemed to cover most of the arc so far, so I'm guessing this is supposed to be the culmination of all of the bio-weapon stuff?

After than, however, we go back to our Blue Boys, Shran and Gang! Apparently their looking for The Enterprise in the Expanse, for reasons unknown.

We're then treated to the Xindi council planning their final tests. The weapon can be deployed in approximately a month. Meanwhile, Enterprise has found where it's being constructed, so things really are coming together. As they approach however, the ship is hit with an absolutely huge anomaly, the biggest on we've seen yet. Luckily, we're saved from the ship absolutely being torn apart by Shran. And can I just say, I loved this specific shot. It's such a funny stupid little way to reveal who saved Enterprise. I had rewind to watch it like four times.

Shran brings up a really good point that the Vulcans aren't helping out, the galactic community at wide has more or less ignored the attack on Earth. Shran's been shown to be good so far, so I wasn't expecting any ulterior motives, and it's certainly nice to have a familiar face around the Expanse. T'Pol even gives us a bit of backstory into why the Vulcans and Andorians hate eachother, and yeah, it involves being little scheming shits, but Shran has definitely proven himself before.

With the help of the Andorians, the repairs are going really quickly, but during repairs, The Two ships find one of the weapon's testing site. Running in guns blazing isn't an option, so Archer suggests taking a more stealthy approach, to see what we're dealing with.

We got a really nice scene where Shran and Trip talked about losses to War, Shran who, apparently, lost his older brother in a border skirmish and Trip who, as we know, lost his Sister in the attack on Earth.

Shran pretending to be a mining ship in order to get scans of the weapon was great. He got really into character, it was fun.

From a safe distance, we get to see the weapon in use, and it tears open the crust, but it's not the Death Star the Council wants.

After a brief argument between Archer and Shran, we find out Shran is under orders relating to the weapon, of an Andorian General, but is clearly conflicted about following whatever those orders are.

Ultimately he follows those orders however, and takes the weapon back to Andorian command. Apparently the Andorians are planning to use it as a deterrent against the Vulcans

The final stand off between Archer and Shran was excellent, and with the weapon destroyed, the Xindi wont be able to figure out what went wrong with it.

This episode was alright. Nothing special. It was nice seeing the Andorians again, but I'm definitely enjoying the side episodes this season a lot more than the main plot episodes, they just don't give me much to talk about beyond a plot summary.

[vampy-bats]

Oh my gods, I colored and shaded something? What a surprise, it’s my DMC OC! I finished this while avoiding my missing schoolwork, so enjoy the fruits of my bad decisions

*Vergil and Rhiannon hate each other. I, the artist, do not hate Vergil and I think he’s neat. Vergil calls Rhi a wench, and Rhi calls Vergil Roi des Cons.

⬇️ backstory below if you care⬇️

First off, I headcanon that empusas work like real life ants. They have castes and an underground/Hell hive and are carnivorous.

Second, Rhiannon’s powers lie in blood-bending. She mostly used her own blood to grow blades from her skin, but she’s able to control any blood. She manipulates the life force within the blood rather than any physical substance. Rhiannon also stores blood she consumes in her skin like red and “worker” empusas do.

Third, I’m using the games as a time reference. The games still happen as canon here.

TLDR for the full backstory-

Rhiannon Valond is half empusa queen, half human. Dante ruins her family’s livelihood but it’s fine bc she found her bio dad in the process. Rhi searches for work for long enough that she moves to England. She did not anticipate encountering the man who almost killed her nor did she plan on falling in love with him.

————————

This is a long one and I’m not super confident in my writing, so bear with me.

Rhiannon came into existence when a French bio-demonologist decided to fuck around and find out. Dr. Blanchard (the scientist in question) doused himself in empusa drone pheromones and walked right into a hive with the intent to map it. He did not account for the fact that it was darker than a void in the hive, nor did he know the effects the pheromones would have. He was eventually rescued by devil hunters with little to no memory of the excursion.

A few years later, the empusa hive was revisited by devil hunters. This time, they had stumbled upon a human girl around 2 years old. She seemed completely normal except for a bright red forelock. The girl was named Rhiannon at the orphanage.

When Rhiannon was 13, demonic powers began to manifest in her. Her powers were left unchecked long enough to nearly kill someone before devil hunters were called again. Only one hunter answered the call: a man named Andre Valond.

Andre carried the belief that devils cannot cry, and that any being that cries has enough humanity to be saved. When Andre arrived at the foster home Rhiannon was in, she broke down into tears. Andre spared her life and took her under his wing. It wasn’t long before Rhiannon was officially adopted into the Valond family, finally gaining parents and three younger brothers.

The Valond family was sustained on the constant income from fending off the empusa hive. The French military caught wind of a certain legendary devil hunter from England. A letter lands on the desk of Devil May Cry. (c. DMC3)

Demonic steel clashes with blood-forged iron. Neither fighter can see the other with human eyes. Dante only can defend himself by his 6th sense. Whatever is attacking him is unlike anything he has ever fought before, but he knows he’s equally matched.

Dante catches an opening, pinning his attacker to the ground with his sword. It’s only then that Rhiannon de-triggers. Queue a dramatic speech that I shall not transcribe.

With her main source of income gone after Dante’s little Paris vacation, Rhiannon is forced to look elsewhere for work. She finds a position at an academic institution for controlling “test subjects”. Several assistants point out Rhiannon’s striking resemblance to their lead researcher. She doesn’t get to meet the man until someone finds out about what she can do.

Rhiannon receives special attention from Dr. Blanchard for being a devil hybrid, even becoming a test subject herself. He conducts several DNA tests to find out what kind of devil she could possibly be. Blanchard runs Rhiannon’s genetic markers through his data bank, completely forgetting his own was recorded for a previous project. The best possible matches for Rhiannon’s DNA is an Empusa Queen and Dr. Blanchard himself.

With no real way to prove it, Dr. Blanchard’s hypothesis becomes Rhiannon’s new truth. Her biological father is this man of science and her biological mother is a giant ant demon. How this combination occurred, no one would ever know. Rhiannon decided to keep the Valond family name, as she still considers Andre to be her dad.

Nothing lasts forever, and Blanchard’s team is forced to focus on new projects. Rhiannon loses her job a-fucking-gain and starts searching for hunting gigs. Rumors lead the now 27 year old woman to a tiny city in England. (c. 2007 anime)

Rhiannon finds her way to Bobby’s Cellar, where a certain white-haired man whistles from the bar. The blonde girl he’s with smacks him upside the head, earning a laugh from Rhiannon.

Dante and Rhiannon get on like oil and water at first. Rhi hates the way Dante never seems to take anything seriously. She despises the way he keeps so many damn secrets. And of course, all Dante can do is flirt and joke. Dante continuously tries to steer Rhi away from devil hunting, oblivious to the fact she’s done it her whole life. Things change the moment Dante first witnesses Rhiannon’s Devil Trigger in battle.

Fast forward a good 10 years (c. DMC 4), and Dante and Rhiannon had eloped. Neither had enough friends and family to have a large wedding, and they kept it on the down low. Somewhere in this time skip, Rhiannon lost her left leg above the knee, forcing her into retirement. They also have two kids, Leona and Percival (ages 3 years and 7 months respectively by the events of DMC 4).

After DMC 5, Rhiannon takes over Devil May Cry. Nico makes a fully functional brass leg for Rhi. The new prosthetic allows her to go back into devil-hunting again, although she’s rusty from so many years of retirement. (The brass leg is a reference to the mythological empusas).

[braveclementine]

Dear Father, Let's Chat

Warnings: 18+readersonly

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs, which consist of Penny Fury, Elizabeth Nelson, Elijah Chan, Katya Venice, Violetta Moscow, Lan Le, Josh, Trang Tien, Ahni Jallow, Mai Ito, and Ghaida Kashual as well as other OCs that will come up throughout the story.

"Penelope." Her father pulled her into a tight hug in front of all the other Avengers. She hugged him back just as tightly, feeling both extremely happy with seeing her father again, while also feeling an underlying current of anger as well as just the slight pinch of guilt.

"Hi daddy." Penny mumbled, feeling like a little girl again. The Avengers were moving around them, being greeted by their friends and family- and sex partners she had to keep reminding herself. They were all sleeping together.

She watched as Wanda hugged Pietro as he came off the plane, the both of them smiling. But when she reached out for Sam, he dodged her touch, and murmured something to her. Penny watched Wanda's smile become sad, nodding in understanding, and turning back to Pietro.

A different sort of guilt seemed to punch her gut. She quickly looked back at her father. "Dad, I think we need to talk."

"Are you alright?" Her father asked, putting an arm around her shoulder and started to lead her back towards the tower. It was far colder here in New York than it had been in Sri Lanka, almost as though- ha!- she'd traveled across the world.

"Are you hurt? Did they touch you? Rape you? Should we run pregnancy tests and tests for HIV and AIDS?" Her father asked with no filter at all.

"I'm not hurt. I was never raped. I was touched a bit, yes, but never actually, you know." Penny let the thought finish. "So no, the tests are unnecessary."

Her father relaxed just slightly. The doors to Avengers Tower were opened and Penny looked around as the hot warmth of the building enveloped her.

She'd always wanted to come to Avengers Tower. She knew Tony Stark had built it- well had it built- and that it was Avengers Headquarters. The lower fifteen to twenty floors were filled with the non- Avengers who did other work. Mostly SHIELD agents, but also High School and college interns for engineering projects. There was also a side lab for students in sciency fields like bio-chemistry or microbiology.

The lobby was open and sparse, looking nearly like any other lobby of a grand building with white marble tiled floors. The furniture was all black leather, about six TVs, and two huge chandeliers.

"I hope you don't mind," Her father said as they nodded to one of the men outside of the elevator and they stepped into it. They clearly had the elevator all to themselves, which was made of glass and she could see out across the city as it started to ascend, "I would like you to stay in the tower for a week or two while everything gets sorted out. We still have to track down Blonsky and the folks that Rumlow used to kidnap you. The Avengers will be your best line of protection, though they all know to leave you alone."

Penny sighed, "Dad, at least one of the Avengers is my soulmate. You can't think that I shouldn't see who else is, right?"

"I would've preferred you not to interact with them." Fury sighed. "As good as they are at heroes, they are terrible at keeping relationships and I already know that you'll get hurt. They aren't loyal Penny."

"Agent Wilson told me about their endeavors." Penny replied.

"That's surprising. I would've assumed Stark would've spilled." Fury muttered.

"Agent Wilson said he was willing to give up the- er- orgies for me. Be loyal to me." Penny replied. "He also said he believed the others would do so too. And I think I should be allowed to at least give them a chance."

Fury glanced over at her and Penny stared back. Her father sighed, running a hand over his face. "Penny, I don't want to see you get hurt. Physically or emotionally."

"I'm old enough to make my own decisions, especially about my soulmates." Penny answered. "I'm more warning you. I'm not really asking for permission."

"I know. You're way to much like me." Fury muttered. "But at least heed my warnings. They've been used to simply doing just about anyone who lives in floors sixty to seventy whenever they want. Adding you as their soulmate to the mix is going to shake things up one way or another. As much as I love you, things will be shaken in their bonding's and ranks. Things might even get awkward between some of the heroes. So make sure you're swift in the rules you set with your soulmates."

"I will, don't worry." Penny replied.

"Are you sure you don't need anything from me?" Fury asked as the elevator started to slow.

"N-" Penny started and then looked at her father, "A psychiatrist. I. . . well I can't really talk about some of these things with you. A female psychiatrist preferably."

Fury nodded, pulling her into his arms once more and kissing the side of her head, "I'm glad you're safe."

"I love you dad. Thank you for sending them to rescue me." Penny whispered.

"I love you too."

The elevator doors opened and they drew apart. Fury nodded to her and then Penny exited the elevator.

"Penelope?" A dark skinned man asked. He was slender, pretty tall- probably 6'1- dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans.

"Yes." She said.

He held out his hand, "Colonel James Rhodey."

"Nice to meet you." She said, now recognizing him. He looked very much like his picture, but she hadn't been able to place him right away without his army uniform on.

"Glad to see you're alright." James replied, yet Penny also saw that hint of worry behind his eyes. Probably wondering how her presence would affect the rest of them.

Penny wondered just how many of the Avengers she could possibly be mated to, and wondering if she was mated to anyone outside of the Avengers. What if it was just Sam?

Yet, somehow that seemed worse. Then Sam would have to watch as everyone else continued on the same and he was left out. Almost as though he was being excluded. It would be better if Penny had more soulmates so that they could all be together and it would be somewhat the same.

"Anyways, I can show you to your room if you'd like." Rhodey suggested.

"Yes, thanks." Penny replied quickly.

It was a trip back into the elevator and she noticed they went up to floor seventy-one.

"No one is on this floor yet." Rhodey replied. "When Kamala, Peter, and some of the other high school superheroes join in, this'll be their floor as well. Of course, your room might change depending on if you go from staying temporarily to permanently or what not."

Penny nodded and Rhodey opened up the room. "It's got all the basics- or what Tony considers basics anyways. If you need anything more personal though, all the girls are staying on floors sixty-four and sixty-seven. Except Elizabeth and Katya. They stay with Elijah and Lan on floor sixty-nine."

"Thank you." Penny replied.

"Any announcements or smaller questions F.R.I.D.A.Y. can answer." Rhodey said, lingering in the doorway. "I'll let you settle in. I have no idea what we're doing for dinner, but F.R.I.D.A.Y. will tell you when it's decided."

"Okay, thanks again." Penny said. Rhodey smiled and he closed the door behind him as he left.

Penny looked around the room.

It was very large, with thick white carpets. The bed in the center of the room was also extremely large, perhaps to fit five or six people in it. Then again, it probably was.

The dressers and accompanying furniture was all white to match everything else in the room. The closet already had basic T-shirts, jeans, and skirts in the closet. There were also several agent wear.

There was a minifridge that had rootbeer, Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Orange Fanta, green and blue Gatorades, different flavors of Bangs and Monsters, along with Milky ways, 3 Musketeers, Milk Hershey, Mr. Beast chocolate bars, and Recess Peanut butter cups.

"Nice." Penny muttered, taking out the Mr. Beast chocolate and a Coke.

She put both on the bedside table and sat down on the bed. She rubbed the spot on her arm where the Falcon tattoo had appeared.

There was a sudden knock at the door.

"Yeah! Come on in!" Penny said.

She was surprised when Elizabeth stepped through the door. She'd changed out of her superhero attire and was dressed like she was about to head out. Blue jeans, an olive green long-sleeved shirt tucked into her pants. A thick black belt with a chipped bronze buckle, cinching the pants tight. She had a simple small silver necklace with a cross around her neck and was wearing small black heeled boots about an inch and a half. Her long brown hair had been pulled back into a neat ponytail.

"I wanted to check in on you." Elizabeth said quietly. "You had a hard flight from what I understand."

"You're the one who almost died." Penny pointed out.

Elizabeth shrugged, "So a daily occurrence. What's new? My fault anyways, I'm usually much better at the missions than that."

Elizabeth paused, looking down at Penny. Penny felt the strangest feeling she was being analyzed. Elizabeth sighed, putting her hands in her pockets. "I know the atmosphere is weird. It's because we don't know where you stand. Nick has made it completely obvious that if you're with your soulmates, they're no longer able to participate in the orgies. Which is fine, you know? You should be able to have loyal soulmates. What hurts you here, in everything not just the relationships, is indecision. It's okay to think something over, but you have to be quick about it. I know you're going to need time to get to know your soulmates. They're great people, trust me. And we're all extremely relaxed here. If you want your soulmates. . . loyal is a weird word. We're all loyal to each other. But if you'd prefer to be their only partner, they're going to do it for you. And the rest of us aren't going to have hard feelings over it. But we did just get back from a very stressful mission and feelings are going to be running high. Now, what do you want for dinner?"

Penny blinked. She'd taken in most of what the girl in front of her had said until the last bit, "Did you. . . did you just give me a heartfelt speech and then completely change the subject?"

"Yep, I do that a lot. I'm OCD and ADHD and I can't focus on only one thing. I'm scatterbrained, I know way to many weird facts, and I'm pretty sure I'm crazy. What do you want for dinner?"

Penny knew she liked the girl at that moment. "No idea. I'm not really hungry."

"Of course you aren't." Elizabeth responded and Penny was once again swept up into confusion. "You're used to eating in a different time zone, not to mention there probably wasn't a lot of food that they gave you to eat. You know, because the submissives who are known as 'pets' aren't allowed to have good food or a lot of food in large quantities. So you're stomach has been shrinking from a lack of food. But you should eat now anyways just to restart your schedule. Come on."

She didn't even wait for Penny to respond, already half-way down the hall as Penny darted out of her door and caught up to her.

"Where are we going?"

"Kitchen."

Elizabeth responded calmly, stepping into the elevator.

"Who cooks?"

"A couple of us. Usually Wanda or me. If it was left to the guys, they'd order junk food every night and then we'd be a bunch of fat superheroes."

"I thought you were a small town superhero."

"I was." Elizabeth agreed. "Till I found out my mom was part of HYDRA and she sent my brothers- who weren't actually my brothers- as super soldiers after me. Lovely, yay. Nick promised to protect me and my friends. I still get to do my small assignments and everyone's happy. Nick likes to send me on missions as a secret weapon. Everyone always underestimates me."

"I can see that, no offense." Penny replied. Elizabeth didn't really look like a fighter.

"None taken." Elizabeth said. "I don't look like a warrior. But then again, I rarely have to deal with hand to hand combat. I just call up water waves and drown people. It's more of a mental strength. And then the people who do know about my powers assume that if there's no water around, I'm useless. But I'm not." Elizabeth flashed Penny a wicked grin, "I can use the water in their bodies to choke themselves. You know the body is made up of sixty percent water. It's a handy trick."

As the elevator doors opened up in a large common room with basically every Avenger imaginable, Penny made a side note to never get on Elizabeth's bad side.

Suddenly, a giant shadow swooped down on the two of them. "What's for dinner Queen of Ice?"

Elizabeth smirked as Penelope stared up at Thor. "I don't know yet. What do you want?"

"You." Thor smirked.

"Ha." Elizabeth teased, rolling her eyes. "Elijah wouldn't let you after this afternoon."

"Isn't Elijah your soulmate?" Penelope asked in confusion. Elizabeth grabbed Penny's arm to drag her past Thor and into the kitchen which- compared to the other room- was completely empty.

"Oh yeah. Soulmate, Husband, dom, master, handler." Elizabeth rattled off, pulling open cupboards and pulling out things in a seemingly sporadic manner.

"Handler. . ."

"Look, like I said, we're all together. Elijah is my soulmate and he's my master. So he decides when, where, and who I get to interact with." Elizabeth said this all calmly and unconcerning as though they were simply talking about the weather.

"Which can be a right pain in the ass when I have to become aware of how I treat him whenever an orgy comes up, otherwise he makes me sit and watch and I can't participate." Elizabeth complained. She looked over at Penny. "He's got a voyeuristic kink so he likes to watch. Especially watching me with other men."

"Isn't that. . . strange to you?" Penny asked uncertainly.

"Maybe at first." Elizabeth shrugged. "But now I like it. You find that with all of us, there's just about every kink here. So you find the kinks you're okay with and you stick with 'em. No one makes anyone travel outside their comfort zone. And for every person that's got a kink, there's at least one person to reciprocate it. It's a complex and beautiful system."

"And I'm going to screw it up?"

"I didn't say that." Elizabeth shrugged again. "I'm guessing you've never had a lot of true interaction. But tell me, how would you feel about joining us? Not me, obviously. I'm straight as a board. But most of everyone else out there is either straight girls or everyone else is bi. And you could even have Ahni, she's only into girls. If you're into girls of course, there's no shame in being straight either. But is that something you'd even want?"

Penny had no idea. She'd never even thought about herself joining in. She wondered how her father would feel about that.

Before she could say anything, Tony Stark strolled into the kitchen. He shot her a wink and then tried to grab whatever Elizabeth was making.

"Anthony!" Elizabeth scolded, hitting him over the head with a heavy wooden spoon. "Hands off."

"Damnit." Tony muttered, sitting down next to Penny. He looked over at her. "I'm Tony Stark."

"Penelope Fury. You can just call me Penny." She responded, flinching harshly at the tattoo that was appearing on her left shoulder. She pulled her shirt sleeve down and glanced over to see a peacock there.

"Fitting." Elizabeth commented slyly.

"I like peacocks." Tony pouted. He had pulled his shirt off and was trying to look at the tattoo on his back.

"Yeah, I bet." Elizabeth continued, "Handsome, proud, and a pain in the ass."

"It's a red panda." Penny informed him as he paused looking at his tattoo, glaring at the ice princess. Penny giggled a little.

"Cute." Tony grinned. "So, what are you girls talking about?"

"Sex and orgies." Elizabeth stated bluntly before Penny could even think of a topic to lie about.

Tony chuckled, "Already? Good lord Elsa, she's barely been here for an hour."

Elizabeth smirked and Penny was suddenly aware of the thick smell of cooking meat floating through the kitchen. Hamburgers, by the smell of it.

"Alright." Elizabeth said and Penny watched as several dishes full of food were flung onto the table. She was vividly reminded of Beauty and the Beast with the dancing dishes, except these dishes were floated onto the table by water waves. "Dinners served."

[thistleandthorn-rpg]

Name: James "Jamie" Aaron Prescott Designation: Sub Age: 21 Birthdate: August 4th, 2002 Faceclaim: Timothée Chalamet Orientation: Bisexual Kinks: bondage, sensory play, sensory deprivation, spanking, hair pulling, and he’s open to explore others Anti-Kinks: scat, gore, permanent marking, and you’re always welcome to ask if you’re unsure

Key Points: 

Energetic and a chatterbox when he wants to be

People pleaser and will offer his help whenever and however he can

Flexible from over fifteen years of gymnastics and proud of his skills even if he doesn’t brag

Can have a hard time sitting still unless he’s focused on a task

BIO:

Jamie grew up in what he would consider to be your average life.  He had family that he loved and adored, a roof over his head, clothes on his back, and food in his stomach.  He never had to want for anything, but he also rarely found himself asking for anything either.  As he grew, Jamie was your happy, friendly, and energetic individual that had a hard time sitting still for extended periods of time.  At first, his parents thought it was your normal toddler/small child behavior, but even as Jamie got older it soon became clear he seemed to have an endless supply of energy and continued to have a hard time sitting still for an extended period of time, unless he had a task or something to keep him focused.  This led to his parents enrolling him into gymnastics early on to try and burn some of his seemingly endless energy off, and the young boy took to it like a fish to the water and has continued with it even to this day.

Of course, some might question Jamie and his love for gymnastics given the fact he’s a boy, but young Jamie has never let any of that phase him.  He was happy, content, and he didn’t care if anyone thought he’d be better suited doing something else.  Gymnastics was something he enjoyed, and he didn’t care what anyone else thought about it.  Not that any of them were ever malicious with their questioning, it’s simply curiosity on why he has stuck with it for as long as he had.

Jamie learning he was a submissive was of little surprise to him or his parents.  He’d always been an eager to help and willingly to volunteer his time to help others, and he’d always been the type to soak up praise like a sponge.  If anything, his parents would have been surprised to see him test as anything different.  He’s capable of handling his own, if he neesd to, but Jamie is definitely too much of a people pleaser to have much of a Dominant bone in his body.  The only thing that worries his parents is the fact Jamie is friendly and eager to please and they do have the fear he’ll be taken advantage of if he’s not careful.

BIO QUESTIONS:

What are your feelings about the mark you have received? - I feel as though my mark fits me perfectly.  I enjoy helping others and doing what I can to help people and take care of them.

How do your feelings on the system compare to your parents’ feelings on it?  - I don’t… believe my feelings differ from my parents.  It’s the way the world works and it’s meant to keep us safe.  I see nothing wrong with it as long as it continues to do what it’s suppose to do.

Where do you see yourself after you graduate? - I hope to see myself with a Dominant to call my own and create a life together or maybe traveling and seeing the world together.

How do you feel about authority? - I respect authority and those with it.  It’s meant to keep things running smoothly, and acting out or disrespecting that will only cause problems for everyone.

[awful-roffle]

Woops! *gets back into starbound and hops on the Fic Train about my ocs again* now with new crewmates <3

---

“Hey, Captain?” Lyra spoke hesitantly, the drones and creaks of the ship nearly overpowering her voice.

“Yep?” The humanoid rodent spoke, biting on a piece of wire before shoving it back into the generator. Another voice piped up from the bathroom, a distinctive ‘NO!’ as the lights flickered. Another ‘I JUST FIXED THAT!’ filled the air shortly after. The captain shrugged and brushed off his shirt, turning his full attention to the doctor.

“...The other day... when we were in the Outpost... someone asked if you were in the Protectorate... and you seemed weird about that…” A brief pause lingered before she finished her thought, “What did you do before you were a captain?” An awkward smile passed over her tired features. Her hands fidgeted in front of her, yanking her lab coat ever tighter as the conversation continued.

Phzi blinked at that, then scoffed. “Oh you know. Academy things. Saaaaaaving the wooooorld....” He motioned his arms in an exaggerated motion in the air as if punctuating his thought.

“But you…” Lyra’s word drifted off as Alexis came storming down the ladder, lightly whacking Phzi with a screwdriver before beginning to fix the generator herself. Lyra cleared her throat. “You don’t exactly seem the ‘saving the world’ type.”

“Because saving the world’s for pansies and peacekeepers. Of which I am neither.” Phzi quipped and pulled himself up the ladder in one quick motion. He stuck his head back down the hatch to look at her, “Trust me doll, don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”

“...But I do want answers!” Lyra protested as he ran off, climbing after him. “You aren’t exactly the king of goodwill, if I may say.”

“You may not. However… you have a point. I stole it. This baby.” A hand beat against the hull of the ship, resulting in a clanging roaring throughout its entirety. Phzi grimaced briefly before turning back to her. “Owner wasn’t around and I needed a ride out of there. You know how it goes.”

It took her a moment to process his words, furrowing her brow before standing up straight. She wasn’t all that much taller than the rodent, who was only a height of 4’11. “And why were you in such a hurry?”

“Running from the Peacekeepers.”

“What?”

“What?” Phzi repeated in an almost mocking voice. “I borrowed-” He emphasized the word as if SAIL was listening, ready to interrupt at any moment. “An artifact or two from a museum. You can probably imagine the reactions to that weren’t the best.”

“You… carried out a museum heist?” Lyra blinked.

“It’s not a heist if you’re borrowing.”

“What did you do with the artifacts?”

“Sold ‘em.”

“Then that’s stealing.”

“Nope. Borrowing. Indefinitely.” Phzi stretched his arms out. “Anyway. Hacked SAIL to register my bio-code and got out of there. Went about my business. Week later this corpse shows up at the teleporter all fucked up. According to SAIL that was the ex-pilot of the Onyx. He couldn’t re-gen his health without his bio-code here. But I got this, so, win-win, right? Love this thing.” The captain waved around the matter manipulator, flicking its switches as lights flashed across its face. “I can do wiring and stuff with it now. It’s pretty sweet.”

Lyra blinked in silence once again. No response came to mind at all; just a slow nod as she retreated back to the med-bay.

“COOL!” Ryou beamed as he finally spoke up, revealing he had likely only been listening to the end of the conversation. “Can I test it out? There’s this project I’ve been wanting to work on and...-”

“Go for it. If you break it, it's coming out of your paycheck.”

“Wait, you’re getting paid?” Ashton piped up from across the room.

“Nope.” Phzi chucked the manipulator to Ryou who caught it with an excited clap of his webbed hands. The captain hummed a tune as he opened a closet, adorning his head with a visor. “How do I look?” He asked Ashton, overlooking himself in a mirror.

“Looks great, cap.” Ashton spoke reluctantly, shaking her head as she turned back to her tea. Why was it so blue?

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 83

Well, here we are again ladies and gentlemen back at the blog stuff regarding my ongoing Linux experience.

Well since we last spoke I am afraid I had to retire my Dell Inspiron M6800 (Mangelwurzel) as the sound card finally decided to give up. So that meant the touchpad, the sound card and the top pair of memory sockets had stopped working so it had to go.

I have recovered the two 480GB SSDs that it had so I can reuse them in another project should the time come for it. However when one machine exits stage right to the farm. Luck would have it I managed to get a new laptop.

The machine admittedly is another Dell laptop but this one is new. The machine in question is a Dell Inspiron 3525. It's a 15.6” laptop with a Ryzen 7 5200U with 16GB RAM, an Integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics card, and a 1TB NVME drive.

Sure enough for the first 2 hours of its new existence, it did have a copy of Windows 11 Home (stop spitting at the back there). However, after a bit of learning how to get around the BIOS, I managed to install Endeavour OS Galileo (the latest version).

As I had an AMD graphics card (even if it’s integrated) I decided to run KDE Plasma (in the past I have ran MATE but I thought I would change it up).

Now for the first few days, I was running just the basic setup but when I installed Steam only a few games would start. Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Starbound worked fine as they, I believe use Open GL. However, when I tried to run a game using Proton there was no dice as Vulkan was not listed.

I had to install the version of MESA with Vulkan from the extras and then I could get Untitled Goose Game to run including picking up my XBOX 360-style gamepad. However Path of Exile and Pacman Championship Edition 2 both threw errors running Linux native versions.

However, I then turned on Proton usage, and using the Windows versions both games worked without error. Strange but I am not going to argue they work and I am not going to question beyond that.

For some reason they work if it’s through DXVK but not through the actual Linux Vulkan driver go figure that. Considering I can now play them both fine I am not going to fight it.

Parkitect 1.9a works fine through Wine as it’s a GOG game version I am using.

I admit while I am not a huge game player it’s nice to see them in action.

I have also installed and tested various emulators the list includes Fuse (ZX Spectrum), VICE (c64), Caprice32 (Amstrad CPC), Atari800 (Atari 8 bit), and DOSBox-X (MSDOS). I will probably test a few more in time but all successful so far.

I even did my usual build of GDASH and it works fine. So I can play various incarnations of Boulder Dash should I ever feel so.

Set up OBS Studio, KDEnlive, VLC, Audacity, and more so it can be used to create videos or podcasts should the decision take me.

Also, Cairo-Dock is my choice of on-screen dock as it has been for many years. It’s pretty reliable and I can set it up pretty quickly now.

I have also installed some productivity apps in the form of LibreOffice, RedNotebook, Obsidian, and Focuswriter. I also installed InMyDiary via Wine as the Windows version is the most up-to-date one (I like Lotus Organiser and it looks/works the same).

So it has been running for over a week and I admit I am impressed with its capabilities.

However, it does seem the world of Linux is looking to dump X11 in favour of the Wayland compositor. Now on Mangelwurzel, I could not use Wayland as Nouveau could not run it.

But this new Dell (currently named Parsnip but could be subject to change) has a better graphics card and I have installed the version of KDE Plasma Wayland also.

So I can log out of X11 and switch to Wayland if necessary. It works and I admit speed-wise, it's slightly faster at program opening than X11, but Cairo Dock doesn’t support Wayland just yet.

However, I did manage to get a dock in the form of Latte Dock and it does work fine.

However Steam doesn’t like Wayland it works but man is slow and problematic so at this time I still have the system boot into X11 and change up to Wayland should I need it.

So where do I go with this new Dell laptop so far it has performed more than adequately. Also, EndeavourOS once again proves to be my preferred Linux flavour and I won’t be going back to a stable (Debian, Mint, Ubuntu) environment anytime soon unless forced.

Well, that’s a wrap for the moment… In turn, I will probably install MAME and maybe play with QEMU but that’s for the next episode should I get around to it.

Until next time… Take care.

[mimic-from-the-lab]

Blood and Ruins: Chapter 12

Also found on Ao3.

Summary:

Uzi is stifled in a life underground, no way forward in a world that had already broken spectacularly but not allowed to explore what ruins are left. She wants to make her own way but doesn’t have a clue on what that really means. What monsters are there really out there? N knows them a little too well and they terrify him. - Set on earth. Ex futuristic-ish world, apocalyptic. Where the world was broken apart due to bio-flesh monsters, normal life fell apart and the population is scattered in far smaller towns and underground cities after a mass death. There are still scattered parts of old tech of the modern world as a way to fight back if it can be put back together. - Biohorror vampires for the disassembly drones and normal humans for workers.

— Chapter 1 —

--- All Chapters ---

<Previous

Word count: 3852

-

Chapter 12

Uzi hit her head down on her table, a clang of metal came from the loose screws sitting in a mug. She grabbed at her hair, groaning out in annoyance before looking up at the gutted remains of her gun. 

It had been days, nothing she seemed to do was making it any better. Arguably she needed more parts, having to find them out in the wastes but she wasn’t likely to have the time to unless she started to cut class. That would be the next few days if she was to have something by the time she met up with N again but it should be easy to avoid him before then. 

Or, she could go hunting through the old weapon manufacturer section. As run down and deserted as it was. She sat up at this, at the temptation. She would need to keep away from the guards that briefly come through or scare them away, also avoid the chance of one of the other sections hearing her. She leaned back, thinking it over. Her dad wouldn’t be back in a while, time to get out there and mess around maybe even some testing.

She pushed herself out of her chair, catching it with her foot behind her before it fell over. She didn't need to worry about the noise but it was still smart to avoid making it. She just needed some food before she went. Headed out to the kitchen she swung open the door of the fridge. 

She was going to grab a box till she saw the message on the side. 

“For all you do for our safety” A heart decorated the message. She just rolled her eyes and grabbed a different one. 

Sitting down with it cold, she barely got some of it in before ending up playing with it. Looking around the apartment with a frown. It was well after school by then, her father was likely staying out somewhere or hanging out with his friends by the gates. 

She dropped her fork with a sigh, some sort of feeling bubbling up. Ones she didn’t want to unpack at the moment, so it was time to leave.

The hallways of her apartment block were relatively empty, a few kids played a ball game in the main hallway just before the stairs that exited out. The main hall was the closest thing to a public place there. Large bulbs of “sun” lights fell from the roof of the area as well as an open area that sat there replacing the space of a few apartments. The older and adults of the kids hung out there as someone was cooking food on the one stove. 

‘Ah Uzi,’ came out a call and Uzi seized for a moment before turning to look over. A small group of older people sat around a picnic table, a game of chess sat in the middle. One of them had turned to look at her as the others stopped talking to take note. ‘I feel like I haven’t seen you since you were just learning to walk.’ 

Came the voice of one of the men, he was smiling but Uzi didn’t really know who he was, besides being a neighbour and always seeming to be in the communal area. She didn’t have to worry about a response for long before another man next to him leaned over with a frown. 

‘Dear, leave the poor girl alone. Can’t you see that she is trying to get somewhere important,’ he said and the other looked back about to argue. ‘You’re disturbing her.’ 

‘But we should disturb her, girl has absolutely no people skills and it sure doesn’t help her place in the colony,’ came the voice of the only woman there, her husband next to her looked to Uzi in apology. 

‘Your eyes must be gone if you can’t see that the girl is still standing there,’ came the second man in a huff. ‘You spend all your time on those little things and no one will mourn you when you die. She is a rather smart kid I'll have you know.’ 

Uzi frowned at that and looked at him again. She was sure that he had been her first teacher, maybe when they started to show all the jobs. Had been rather supportive of her weapon making dreams. 

‘Go on,’ he said and that was Uzi’e que to turn and head up the steps. The afternoon into night time held little traffic on the main roads. Work and schools well over. This was the time for the small business and free time to do as you want.

If she could just get past the population of the colony without any other disturbances then it would-

‘Hey, Uzi,’ called out a voice and she froze. -be perfect.

She looked over with a snap, not wanting to be stopped anymore.

It was Thad, looking across the area showed an eat out place that had tables out front. What made her frown wasn’t Thad himself but the small crowd with him. 

Within the group sat Lizzy and Doll, many of the others hadn’t noticed but the two of them looked over right away. She watched as Lizzy grinned and leaned over to Doll.

‘Ugh why do you have to be cousins with her,’ Lizzy sneared and Doll narrowed her eyes. 

‘You already know that she isn’t actually related to me,’ she said her announce brought out her accent far more, she cursed out a few russian words. Only some that Uzi still understood. ‘So think of something new to complain about her with me.’ 

Lizzy just rolled her eyes but left it to look back to the group they were with. 

From the years of knowing the two of them, Lizzy was just someone bored with her life and can only find joy in others' misery as Doll was full of misery herself.

Doll and Uzi used to be close friends before her parents were killed and she became fully miserable. Uzi was rather sure Doll blamed her for their deaths but had no idea on why and Doll hardly regarded her anymore to explain. But she joined forces with Lizzy and spread misery onto others, that was bad enough to become a bully. 

The main reason Uzi started to hate her besides the sudden uncaring. 

Everyone called her the weird one but they all scramble to be friends with Doll, maybe it was the help of Lizzy but still. Uzi had always had an odd feeling about Doll, or maybe it had developed later she couldn’t remember anymore, but it was a feeling that she should both trust and fear her. Like looking at some creature that was far more dangerous than at first glance but she had never actually experienced anything bad from her besides the indifference. And from what she could remember of Yeva, she was nothing like that. Off but nice.

Thad had crossed the distance to get to her, bringing Uzi out of her mind. 

‘I have to always wonder, why do you bother with any of them?’ Uzi said and Thad looked back in apology. About to speak and stopped as soon as she narrowed her eyes.

‘Don’t tell me it's because of family, that doesn’t explain the others and not Doll,’ she said. 

‘I was going to say, because we are meant to be meeting up for group projects, and that's going well.’ Thad looked back at the group and slumped a bit. 

‘Told you to join me, you don’t have to help everyone else,’ Uzi said and rolled her eyes. 

‘You told me to leave you alone and to dump the others,’ he said and Uzi looked at him. ‘You said nothing about grouping up, you did mention grovelling.’ 

‘And that was an out, you should have taken it,’ she huffed and turned to leave. ‘Now I got places to be, important work you know.’ Thad perked up a bit. 

‘If you’re going to the weaponry section I heard that manufacturing is trying to salvage something from one of the original machines,’ he spoke up and Uzi turned right back around to face him. ‘I am guessing your dad didn’t mention it.’ He rubbed at his hands as she watched her face heat up.

‘How dare they, that's history,’ she snapped out. ‘I’ll need it in the future, whatever it is.’ she turned again and started to run, trying not to shove past others. 

‘Don’t get caught,’ Thad could only call out, he watched her go till she disappeared behind a group of people. He could only sigh and come back to the group. 

‘You have got to stop talking to her,’ Lizzy spoke out, playing with the straw of her drink as he came to sit back down. ‘You can’t be friends with everyone and she so doesn’t treat you right.’ 

‘She is rough, that's fine,’ Thad said, Doll just drank and didn’t add anything, not even when Thad looked to her for something. He just sat back leaving them all in silence. 

Uzi knew that the colony wanted to gut the old sections, it slowly happened as time went, to pull parts out of others to make the ones being used lasted longer. At the expense of other machines. So years ago she made it a mission to make sure others didn’t think to explore the sections she wanted, she rigged areas to help scare others away. Be it teenagers looking to explore or the maintenance section, it did risk the structural integrity but better that then a team come through and remove parts as they fixed a section. 

The rumours were that someone was living there, either some beast from the outside or an immortal being. It was perfect, as long as the series of traps and scares worked then no one was going to show up. 

Now she was worried that some of them could have stopped working or someone saw through them. She should hurry her way to the area.

Uzi knew that the sections she wanted to get to were restricted, not fully sealed away as there were doors with simple locks and while she could steal the keys it could be noticed that someone had entered. Which is why she was headed for some ventilation, it was everywhere and you needed it to keep everyone underground able to breath. They could be locked but no one would think to use them, other than her and with her map of the ventilation system that she had in her mind she could go almost anywhere she needed though them. As long as she can fit the gaps. 

She did her best to head into the storage closet, without anyone's notice, which was easy enough as the room sat between the warehouses and the woodworking sections. Not much traffic as most of the workforce is beyond that in manufacturing, woodworking is in one half of the warehouses but they have the least air pollutants. 

Inside was just the simple clean up tools for the walkways. Nothing interesting, nothing besides the vent grate door that was against the wall by the roof.

Using the shelving in the room was easy to get to sit on top and shuffle the grate open. 

Uzi had to pull out her flashlight from her side pocket of her bag. 

There was nothing but the dark in front of her. Practically a void but with a light source on she was able to see the way ahead if a bit creepy, she started to get down to her knees to start to crawl her way in.

Making sure to close the vent door behind her, the space just giving her enough room to turn around in it.

A few intersections, a turn or two and up a slope and she knew that she had entered above the area. She just wished there was an easier way then to crawl as slow as she was. 

When she got far enough, knowing where she was with a thought, stopped at the gap in front of her. The grate for it had fallen off some time ago, having been opened years ago thanks to her and collecting dust somewhere on the ground. 

Since all the power was cut off, emergency lights used to work till the power grid was reworked and the place was fully cut off. It was simply cut, she found the wire they had disconnected and if she wanted to, could just fix it. For now, she had a torch.

She shone the light down to look and found the pile of crates, they had been stacked in place when the place had been abandoned. Purely by chance a perfect ladder down and far safer than any other jump. It was also past the doorway, safe from anyone noticing or thinking someone was using it. Uzi’s knees hurt from crawling through the vents and needed to get down to stretch. 

She had to trust the drop down, landing on the old box that acted as the first step.

It was only a climb down to the ground. Checking the area with her light beam.

The abandoned sections of the city were just as abandoned as she remembered, the light of her flashlight barely stretched to the far walls. The dust below kicked up to welcome her to the area. She knew, somewhat, where she needed to go. The old map she had found once appeared in her mind to help her navigate. 

A few lefts and a straight and she should be in the storage area, where the manufactured parts had been stocked up for assembly. 

Most of it wasn’t anything she wanted or needed, the base shape and workings came out of there but the whole point as to why she needed to go out was for the stuff that the colony had used up early on or never made themselves. Like anything related to the energy power and regulators. Both normally found outside.

The warehouse was the one place, a chance for things she could have missed. If there had been a computer that had been used for stock management, it had long been taken and used elsewhere. So anything that was made or still around would need to be looked for manually. 

There was a chance for there to be some unopened boxes in the higher areas, she looked up with a quick swallow. Climbing wasn’t exactly her forte. She needed to find something to use or risk falling. 

Uzi could look for something as she checked on the traps, they needed a look over either way, maybe a change in placements were needed as well.

She left, back tracking a bit to find the first. 

Simple creation that activated by a simple pressure plate that rattled cans in a smaller vent system nearby. Making the sounds echo off into the area making it double in sound by the  network. She stepped on it and it activated with ease. Filling the room with overlapping rattles. 

She liked the placement of it, not a direct path in but if someone turned early on it should work well. She moved on.

She slowly went around the area, hitting all the different pathing before getting back to the main storage. All of that area was the last lines of defence before getting to the real machinery at the far end. Most of the rooms in the early sections were for meetings or planning and a mini kitchen with a dining area. The storage area sat after with assembly being along this area before the machinery ran the full end with some testing area. The layout had something to do with safety and fire risks.  

All her traps were sound or movement based, things to scare or unnerve people as they explored. Hopefully making them run before realising that some of them repeated or just sound and no one is seen. 

If gunpowder wasn't both a pain to make and even more so to set up often, then she would be making fireworks and explosions to make sure no one ever came back. 

Uzi was checking on one that shifted something up on a shelf, it had worked once. At her test it no longer made the correct distance and the motor seized, Uzi wasn’t sure when it could have stopped or how. Could be a piece broke inside or dust clogged it up. She could climb up the easy stack of crates, waste her night with it or just bring back a new one later and replace it. 

Uzi heard a sound, a repeating sound. Making her tilt her head to hear it better. 

She heard steps, not quite headed for her. Seeming to walk without purpose. She flicked her torch off, making sure to hide her. She couldn’t stop her throat from seizing as the area turned pitch black. She didn't have to wait long before light slowly showed in the distance. 

Making her realise rather quickly there was nowhere to hide. She was standing in the middle of the shelving area, she looked around as the small light started to filter in. Sure there were some boxes littered about and she could hide between them but that won't stop someone from turning and looking. Hiding behind one big one was the only way it would work if you moved around it. 

Nearby was also a pipe leaned up against a bracket of the shelving, a perfect weapon if she needed. Though using it on someone would be bad. It was bad enough if she was seen and reported, but being reported and having had attacked someone was even more so. It would just be used for scaring. A quick yell and a slap into metal.

She just needed to stay still and stay hidden.

 

A trap that was meant to scrap along a metal pipe on the wall rang out, this didn’t seem to deter whoever was coming, instead had them look around and at the trap itself. She tried not to flinch away as the light was searching about again. She went back behind the crate, only able to wait. 

She held the pipe ready to defend if need be. It was more to make herself feel better. 

She waited as the figure came into the area she was in, they were looking around still. She held her breath, till she noticed the familiar hair and cap on their head.

‘Thad?’ Uzi spoke out, she held the pipe in her hands tight. He twisted around and shone the light on her in surprise. Effectively blinding her as she hissed out and raised her arms. 

‘Oh sorry,’ he said and flicked the light away. Uzi understood right away what she had done to N, it was a efficient torture method. No wonder it worked so well.

Thad looked around for a moment, looking back at the area he had come from. 

‘Hey didn’t you make something like that in the fourth grade?’ Thad asked out in amusement. Uzi looked at him in confusion, she understood that he was talking about the trap he triggered earlier but her confusion came from something else.

‘What are you going here?’ she asked instead, only then getting up with the help of the pipe. 

‘Came to help, the assignment work wasn’t really happening, so,’ he said and shrugged.

‘How did you get in here?’ 

‘Front door, I would love to know how you managed it though, it was still locked,’ he said and Uzi felt herself heat up.

‘This is why I don’t want you involved,’ she snapped out. ‘You just came without asking first and you came through the most obvious way.’ Thad watched in worry. ‘I got in through the vents, especially since no one is supposed to be in here.’ 

‘Oh,’ was all Thad could say, Uzi turned away in frustration. 

Silence held for a time, Thad looked down to the dusty ground as Uzi sighed. She couldn’t actually be angry at him.

‘Why do you want to help me so badly?’ Uzi asked and looked at him again.

He could only shrug in response. 

‘No, I want a real answer,’ she said and held up the pipe to point it at him. 

Thad looked down on it, his mouth opened a few times before sighing. She lowered the pipe end back to the ground. Its sudden metal tang got him to look at her. 

‘You know what you want to do,’ he said, Uzi looked at him with a slight eye narrow but let him continue. He took in a breath and crossed an arm over himself to grab near his shoulder.

‘Lizzy already has her apprenticeship with the clothing section, Brad will be able to get into the metal works easy, and Chad’s happy to be a hauler,’ Thad said and crossed his arms fully. ‘I can’t help the colony with dancing and playing sports and nothing else seems right and I want to do something proper.’ 

Uzi’s gaze softened. 

‘Fighting monsters and guns isn’t really your thing either,’ she could only say and saw him squeeze his eyes for a moment before shaking his head and perking up. 

‘But I can at least help to find your thing as I wait for mine.’ 

She exhaled and looked around. 

‘Fine you can help me with this part,’ she said and he started to smile wider. ‘But not everything or all the time. Understand?’ 

‘Perfectly,’ he said, relaxing into a more natural smile. Uzi couldn’t help but to mirror it for a bit. 

‘Since you are so fit, how about seeing what is in the higher levels?’ she asked and Thad looked up the shelving. 

‘I can do that,’ he said with a nod before making a face and looking back at her. ‘What are we looking for?’ 

‘I’ll explain as we look, this isn’t going to be quick or easy,’ she said and he nodded again.

-

Next>

[pixiemunsons]

hiii what about steve harrington x reader where steve with all of the girls he slept before he can't manage to cum -like he only cums when he's alone and like it feels kinda humiliating to him to cum in front of someone bc he's really noisy and it's reader's first time and she manage to make him cum 👀

stop the world (i wanna get off with you) sh

stevie learns that sometimes, you just gotta let go (3.1k words)

anon i'm so sorry i missed the part where u said first time however it is their first time together. my first steve fic!! also don't usually write dom!reader so v new for me. thank u for requesting<3 this is set sort of between s2 and 3

light sub!steve/dom!reader, caretaking, handjobs, vulnerable/embarrassed steve, mentions of him sleeping w other girls but no jealousy, first orgasm w a partner, p in v sex, gentle sex, lots of sweet talking and reassurance, this is a very sweet little thing w very very little angst. no use of y/n or appearance description. no spoilers

‘sorry, can you say that again?’

steve blushed bright red, running a hand through his messy hair as you stared at him, wide mouthed.

‘baby, please, it’s so humiliating!’ he threw his head back into the pillow, hiding his hot face in his hands, and it took almost all of your strength to gently prise his fingers away from his eyes.

‘no, s’not. just wanna make sure i heard you properly.’

steve sighed deeply, looking at you tentatively.

‘no one else has ever been able to make me cum before, just myself. happy now?’

───

when king steve harrington had first asked you on a date, you thought he was joking. you’d barely ever spoken at school; helped him get through a bio test once when he was in junior year and you were a sophomore taking an advanced class, but outside of that, you’d barely interacted. 

that is, until you had nipped over to jonathan byers’ house to drop him and his mother a tray of mac and cheese and ask how the search for will was going and had found him, nancy and steve beating the shit out of an alien.

it had all sort of snowballed from there, really. nancy and steve started dating again not long after the incident, before she bounced on over to byers, and while you were really happy for your friends, it had been you that was left to pick up the broken pieces of steve harrington’s heart. well, you and the ragtag bunch of thirteen-year-olds that you had sort of acquired over time. you learnt a lot about steve over the months you spent together; he was a serial dater, though they never seemed to go anywhere - despite the girls seemingly chasing him for weeks after he’d turned them down. he loved ice cream and cheesy rom-coms and the songs from west side story. steve harrington liked driving the kids around, even when he denied it, and listening to dustin talk about d&d, and so it turned out, he really, really liked you.

he’d asked you to go on three dates before you started to believe that he really wanted you like that, and even then he’d had to ask twice more before you agreed to go. you had heard he was a bit of a fuck ‘em and chuck ‘em kinda guy, and the dynamic you’d built up wasn’t something you were willing to ruin for a quick fumble; even if you had heard that said fumbles were nothing short of magnificent. he’d done things properly though; picked you up and opened the car door for you, told your mother he’d have you home on time, taken you to enzo’s, the nicest place in town. he’d made you laugh with his stories all night, ignoring the way other patrons looked at you, and when you reached for the cheque at the end of the night he had brushed you off as if you asking was an insult in and of itself. and then he’d taken you home fifteen minutes before curfew and asked you permission before pressing a chaste kiss to your lips, driving away and leaving you leaning breathless against your front door.

being with steve was a lot different to how you expected it might be. it was just like before, really, doing everything together like best friends. but you caught the way he looked at you now, really looked at you like no one else did. saw how he took in every scar, every mark and cherished it, loved it as a part of you. and even though you hadn’t quite said those words yet, hadn’t quite taken it there, you knew it was true for both of you. there were other things about steve that you hadn’t expected, either; how his room was still the blue colour he’d painted it at twelve, how he could cook a really decent spaghetti. and how, five months into your relationship, he’d never taken it further than making out.

you hadn’t intended to get onto the conversation. you were just talking about how tommy and carol were hooking up again even after their latest break up, and steve had said he thought tommy was dating paula morgan from their graduating class, and about how steve’d gone on a date with her once and she’d left a hickey so big he had to tell his folks he got hit with a volleyball in gym. you knew there was a reason paula kept giving you the shit-eye when you went into the grocery store where she worked. 

‘tellin’ you, i got off lucky! danny rogers, you know from the year above me? he told me once that she gave him a handy and twisted it so hard he was bruised for weeks! scared me off of her for life.’

you laughed, half thinking as he spoke. he had hooked up with loads of girls at school, you knew that, but the more you two spoke about your histories the more you were finding out; secret rendezvous' with girls under the bleachers, in the back of his car. he’d even confessed that he let sheila richards give him a blowjob in mr davies’ empty maths classroom. but it’d been months and the most the two of you had done was heavy petting over the clothes and making out before he’d push you gently away to get back to whatever movie you’d rented that weekend, even if you could feel how hard he was under his jeans. you hadn’t really meant to bring it up at that point, but surely it was better to tell him how you were feeling?

so you’d asked what was going on, and he’d stared at you for so long you thought you might burst into flames of embarrassment, desperately worried you’d said the wrong thing, when he came out with a whisper so tiny you almost didn’t hear it.

almost.

───

‘but-but what about all the other girls? you’ve been getting it left right and centre by every girl in your year, and i’ve certainly never heard any of them complaining.’

steve looked at you and drew a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders.

‘no, babe, they’ve been getting it from me. i mean, i’ve had a few… favours, but i’ve just never, like, finished. i find an excuse, like that i can hear someone coming or whatever, and then i go home and… sort myself out.’

‘so, you can come? just not when other people try?’

he nodded his head, seemingly more calm now that it was out there in the open.

‘is it a physical thing, you think? or a mental block?’

steve shrugged his shoulders again.

‘bit of both, maybe? i think part of it is that i’ve never been that bothered about cumming? i know it sounds silly, but i’m not usually in the sex for myself, and when you end up with a reputation like mine, you gotta find a way of keepin’ it up. so i just do what i need’a do to get her there, then deal with myself later.’ he felt silly now that he said it aloud, wringing his fingers in front of him. it had been part of the reason he’d never moved on you; he was too worried you’d think he didn’t find you attractive, didn’t want you, and the thought killed him.

‘you ever fucked someone you really care about, before, stevie? who really cares about you?’

he looked up at the change of tone in your voice, and saw that you were climbing up his body so your faces were level. he was going red again, gulping as you leaned down over him.

’n-no? never.’

you cocked your head to the side, frowning. ‘what about nance?’ steve shook his head solemnly.

‘no, w-we never… what are you doing, babe?’ he asked as you crawled onto his lap, thighs now either side of his hips.

‘stevie, i think the reason you were never bothered is because they weren’t. they just wanted to fuck the king, have a piece of him. but i don’t want the king.’ you laid a soft kiss on his lips, smiling as you pulled away and steve followed you for more. ‘i want steve harrington. and i wanna make him feel good. y’gonna let me do that?’ you were almost purring, playing with the hem of his t-shirt, and steve couldn’t even find the words to express how he felt other than god, baby, yes please.

you started by kissing him real, real slow. moved your lips over his languidly, tongue running gently over the seam of his lips in soft, caressing strokes that had his head spinning and his chin jutting forward for more. his mouth opened, and you slipped yourself in, running your tongue over his own. steve moaned gently into the kiss, grinding his hips up into yours, and you pushed them back down gently.

‘not yet, baby, tryna make this good for you. just calm down, take it slow. we got all the time in the world.’ he hummed against your mouth, settling his hips down while his hands explored your body slowly. you sat with him like this for a little while; one hand playing with his hair whilst the other sat on his stomach, pressing tender smooches to his lips, his nose, his cheeks, ears, forehead, eyes, until eventually you worked a trail of lip gloss down his neck. your teeth came out at the base of his throat, only gently, marking him inconspicuously as yours, and he almost whimpered under you.

it wasn’t often that you took your time with steve. it was hard to show your appreciation for him sexually when he was always resisting, refusing to let you in. so you were definitely having a lot of fun taking your time tonight. you stripped him of his t-shirt, straddling his hips and feeling his hard cock pressed against you through both of your jeans as you leant forward. your lips shifted from his neck to his chest, nipping at his collarbones as you moved down his stomach.

‘stevie, y’ so pretty,’ you whispered from his happy trail, nose nudging at the curls that lay there as he whined under you.

‘you’re so beautiful, babe, so gorgeous.’ his hand dropped from his chest to your face, stroking at your cheek gently with a thumb. you turned to kiss his fingertips gently, and he moaned when you took the very tip of his index finger into your mouth and sucked gently.

‘’m gonna get you all ready for me, stevie, use my hand and get you worked up, then i’m gonna get on top like you like it and make you feel good. no pressure, if y’can’t cum it’s all good, we’ll just try again when you’re ready. i jus’ want you to know you’re safe with me, nothin’ bad’s gonna happen, i’m gonna take good care of you, yeah?’ you were running your fingers over the top of his jeans, dipping into his boxers ever so gently, and he nodded, fingers grabbing for your t-shirt.

‘yeah, but can you take this off, too? please? don’t wanna be the only one sat here naked,’ he half-chuckled, half-moaned when you stripped the garment away, bra following so you were clad in your jeans alone.

‘can you go in the drawer, babe, get the lube please?’ you asked sweetly, and he passed it down with a kiss pressed to the top of your head. you manoeuvred your position so you were sat facing steve, his face level with your boobs as you straddled his thighs, giving you enough room to pull him out of his jeans and boxers. and, wow, was he hard. and big. his red tip was leaking, almost painful looking, and you pumped some of the lube into your right hand before rubbing it together in your palm, warming it up. he let out a hiss when you finally made contact, hips bucking up into your palm. you simply eased him back down again, pressing a kiss to the bicep of his right arm.

‘shh, baby, i said i got you. how do you usually like it?’

steve cocked his head to the side, blushing red. ‘what do you mean?’

‘you said you make yourself cum,’ you grabbed his hand, guiding it on top of yours. ‘so show me how you do that. maybe it’ll help you relax a little.’ he was nervous, you could tell, so you kissed him gently on the mouth, nodding gently to encourage him. slowly, his hand tightened your own around his cock, moving at a much slower pace than you anticipated he’d like. not that you minded; having him show you how intimately, gently, he liked to be touched was getting you wet, and it was taking a lot to keep your mind on the task quite literally at hand.

steve removed his hand once you seemed to be getting the hang of it, letting his head flop back against the pillows behind him.

‘o-oh, baby, just like that,’ he was writhing under you, leg bouncing up between your thighs in a way that made them clench. steve noticed, reaching out to touch you, but you carefully brushed his hand away.

‘not right now, stevie. we’re gonna think about you for now, we can worry about me later, ’s okay,’ you whispered up at him, flicking your thumb over the very head of him and watching as his head dropped back once more, eyes rolling into his head.

‘f-fuck, that’s so… fuck.’ he seemed to be relaxing, finally, letting you make him feel like he deserved for the first time.

‘you’re doin’ so good f’me, babe. such a good boy,’ you hummed, and steve’s fingers were white knuckled and wound into the bedsheets. he moaned, high-pitched and needy, and the sound went right between your legs.

‘’m gonna c-cum, babe, fuck, stop,’ he whimpered, and you cocked an eyebrow.

‘why stop? everything okay?’

‘wanna- fuck, wanna cum in you.’ his words sent a shiver down your spine, and you swallowed the moan making its way to the surface.

‘you sure? you won’t lose it if i stop now?’

steve shook his head vehemently, pushing your hand away from his leaking cock and reaching to undo your jeans, yanking them down to your knees. you leant forward to kiss him, gently pushing his arms back to his sides.

‘there’s no rush, steve, we can take our time. here, keep touching yourself f’me. there you go baby, just like that.’ you stripped yourself slowly, pushing your lace underwear down your hips and kicking them off with your jeans so you were bare in front of him. you’d usually be nervous, first time a boy saw you like that, but steve? he was something different. his hand was pumping up and down his cock just like he’d shown you he liked it, eyelids drooping as he revered your naked form above him.

‘want me on top? or d’you wanna do it?’

steve groaned again. he had no idea how he’d managed to swing you, but right now, he definitely wasn’t complaining. ‘can you do it, babe, please?’

his puppy dog eyes were so disarming, so loving, you couldn’t help but to lean forward and run a thumb over his lips, watching as he ran the very tip of his tongue over the pad of your digit.

‘i just want you to know that there’s no pressure, honey. if it doesn’t happen, we don’t force it, we try until you wanna stop and then we try another time, okay?’ the concern in your eyes had him almost in tears, so he just nodded as you lowered yourself onto him for the first time.

the sting was uncomfortable but not unwelcome, his thick cock stretching you out just enough for it to hurt whilst still feeling good. you moaned together when you finally had him all the way down to his thick base, buried so deep you could feel it everywhere.

‘’m not gonna last long, sweetheart,’ steve grunted, hips meeting yours mid-thrust and you couldn’t bring yourself to stop him, not when he was bumping up against a spot that had you seeing stars.

‘stevie, so good, so fuckin’ big and perfect for me,’ you were half-crying on his cock, trying to keep a rhythm going.

‘where d’you - fuck - want it? s’comin’ babe,’ steve was grunting through gritted teeth, and you just had time to cry out ‘stomach, shit’ when he was pulling out, head poking out from his hand as he fisted his cock, warm splashes of cum spurting out to paint your tummy.

‘oh baby, oh my love, fuck, so good!’ steve was almost shouting through his orgasm from under you, and he was the most beautiful person you’d ever met. head thrown back, hair messy, chest red and mouth forming an o as he rode his orgasm out in his hand. you were still hovering above him, up on your knees, when he covered his face with his hands once more.

‘stevie, what’s wrong?’ you asked, worried you’d taken it too far. he peeked out from between his fingers, eyeing you.

‘that was so loud, s'embarrassing,’ he whispered, and you pulled his hands from his face like you had not half an hour earlier.

‘you kidding? that was so hot!’

‘shut up, don’t be a dick.’

‘steve, i’m being serious!’ he peered over at you, intrigued, as you started ranting. ‘fuck, i can’t believe i’m the first person to see you like that! i mean, i’m glad i was, because holy shit, that was a religious fucking experience!’ the look of wonder on your face soon became something a little more teasing. ‘i can’t wait to make you do that again.’

it was your turn to be surprised when steve looped his arms around your thighs, yanking you forward so you were still on your knees, now situated with your pussy directly over his mouth. a smirk spread across steve’s face at the look of wonder on your own.

‘well, not right now, you won’t sweetheart.’

he pressed a trail of kisses down your right inner thigh, short nails scraping at the skin of your ass.

‘you’ve shown me what a good job you can do. now it’s time to show you what i’m famous for, baby.’