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dailyanarchistposts · 7 months ago

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Chapter VII. Fifth Period. — Police, Or Taxation.

2. — Antinomy of the tax.

I sometimes hear the champions of the statu quo maintain that for the present we enjoy liberty enough, and that, in spite of the declamation against the existing order, we are below the level of our institutions. So far at least as taxation is concerned, I am quite of the opinion of these optimists.

According to the theory that we have just seen, the tax is the reaction of society against monopoly. Upon this point opinions are unanimous: citizens and legislators, economists, journalists, and ballad-writers, rendering, each in their own tongue, the social thought, vie with each other in proclaiming that the tax should fall upon the rich, strike the superfluous and articles of luxury, and leave those of prime necessity free. In short, they have made the tax a sort of privilege for the privileged: a bad idea, since it involved a recognition of the legitimacy of privilege, which in no case, whatever shape it may take, is good for anything. The people had to be punished for this egoistic inconsistency: Providence did not fail in its duty.

From the moment, then, of the conception of the tax as a counter-claim, it had to be fixed proportionally to means, whether it struck capital or affected income more especially. Now, I will point out that the levying of the tax at so much a franc being precisely that which should be adopted in a country where all fortunes were equal, saving the differences in the cost of assessment and collection, the treasury is the most liberal feature of our society, and that on this point our morals are really behind our institutions. But as with the wicked the best things cannot fail to be detestable, we shall see the equalitarian tax crush the people precisely because the people are not up to it.

I will suppose that the gross income in France, for each family of four persons, is 1,000 francs: this is a little above the estimate of M. Chevalier, who places it at only 63 centimes a day for each individual, or 919 francs 80 centimes for each household. The tax being today more than a thousand millions, or about an eighth of the total income, each family, earning 1,000 francs a year, is taxed 125 francs.

Accordingly, an income of 2,000 francs pays 250 francs; an income of 3,000 francs, 375; an income of 4,000 francs, 500, etc. The proportion is strict and mathematically irreproachable; the treasury, by arithmetic, is sure of losing nothing.

But on the side of the taxpayers the affair totally changes its aspect. The tax, which, in the intention of the legislator, was to have been proportioned to fortune, is, on the contrary, progressive in the ratio of poverty, so that, the poorer the citizen is, the more he pays. This I shall try to make plain by a few figures.

According to the proportional tax, there is due to the treasury: for an income of 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 francs, etc. a tax of 125 250 375 500 625 750

According to this series, then, the tax seems to increase proportionally to income.

But when it is remembered that each annual income is made up of 365 units, each of which represents the daily income of the taxpayer, the tax will no longer be found proportional; it will be found equal. In fact, if the State levies a tax of 125 francs on an income of 1,000 francs, it is as if it took from the taxed family 45 days’ subsistence; likewise the assessments of 250, 375, 500, 625, and 750 francs, corresponding to incomes of 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 francs, constitute in each case a tax of 45 days’ pay upon each of those who enjoy these incomes.

I say now that this equality of taxation is a monstrous inequality, and that it is a strange illusion to imagine that, because the daily income is larger, the tax of which it is the base is higher. Let us change our point of view from that of personal to that of collective income.

As an effect of monopoly social wealth abandoning the laboring class to go to the capitalistic class, the object of taxation has been to moderate this displacement and react against usurpation by enforcing a proportional replevin upon each privileged person. But proportional to what? To the excess which the privileged person has received undoubtedly, and not to the fraction of the social capital which his income represents. Now, the object of taxation is missed and the law turned into derision when the treasury, instead of taking its eighth where this eighth exists, asks it precisely of those to whom it should be restored. A final calculation will make this evident.

Setting the daily income of each person in France at 68 centimes, the father of a family who, whether as wages or as income from his capital, receives 1,000 francs a year receives four shares of the national income; he who receives 2,000 francs has eight shares; he who receives 4,000 francs has sixteen, etc. Hence it follows that the workman who, on an income of 1,000 francs, pays 125 francs into the treasury renders to public order half a share, or an eighth of his income and his family’s subsistence; whereas the capitalist who, on an income of 6,000 francs, pays only 750 francs realizes a profit of 17 shares out of the collective income, or, in other words, gains by the tax 425 per cent.

Let us reproduce the same truth in another form.

The voters of France number about 200,000. I do not know the total amount of taxes paid by these 200,000 voters, but I do not believe that I am very far from the truth in supposing an average of 300 francs each, or a total of 60,000,000 for the 200,000 voters, to which we will add twenty-five per cent. to represent their share of indirect taxes, making in all 75,000,000, or 75 francs for each person (supposing the family of each voter to consist of five persons), which the electoral class pays to the State. The appropriations, according to the “Annuaire Economique” for 1845, being 1,106,000,000, there remains 1,031,000,000, which makes the tax paid by each non-voting citizen 31 francs 30 centimes, — two-fifths of the tax paid by the wealthy class. Now, for this proportion to be equitable, the average welfare of the non-voting class would have to be two-fifths of the average welfare of the voting class: but such is not the truth, as it falls short of this by more than three-fourths.

But this disproportion will seem still more shocking when it is remembered that the calculation which we have just made concerning the electoral class is altogether wrong, altogether in favor of the voters.

In fact, the only taxes which are levied for the enjoyment of the right of suffrage are: (1) the land tax; (2) the tax on polls and personal property; (3) the tax on doors and windows; (4) license-fees. Now, with the exception of the tax on polls and personal property, which varies little, the three other taxes are thrown back on the consumers; and it is the same with all the indirect taxes, for which the holders of capital are reimbursed by the consumers, with the exception, however, of the taxes on property transfers, which fall directly on the proprietor and amount in all to 150,000,000. Now, if we estimate that in this last amount the property of voters figures as one-sixth, which is placing it high, the portion of direct taxes (409,000,000) being 12 francs for each person, and that of indirect taxes (547,000,000) 16 francs, the average tax paid by each voter having a household of five will reach a total of 265 francs, while that paid by the laborer, who has only his arms to support himself, his wife, and two children, will be 112 francs. In more general terms, the average tax upon each person belonging to the upper classes will be 53 francs; upon each belonging to the lower, 28. Whereupon I renew my question: Is the welfare of those below the voting standard half as great as that of those above it?

It is with the tax as with periodical publications, which really cost more the less frequently they appear. A daily journal costs forty francs, a weekly ten francs, a monthly four. Supposing other things to be equal, the subscription prices of these journals are to each other as the numbers forty, seventy, and one hundred and twenty, the price rising with the infrequency of publication. Now, this exactly represents the increase of the tax: it is a subscription paid by each citizen in exchange for the right to labor and to live. He who uses this right in the smallest proportion pays much; he who uses it a little more pays less; he who uses it a great deal pays little.

The economists are generally in agreement about all this. They have attacked the proportional tax, not only in its principle, but in its application; they have pointed out its anomalies, almost all of which arise from the fact that the relation of capital to income, or of cultivated surface to rent, is never fixed.

Given a levy of one-tenth on the income from lands, and lands of different qualities producing, the first eight francs’ worth of grain, the second six francs’ worth, the third five francs’ worth, the tax will call for one-eighth of the income from the most fertile land, one-sixth from that a little less fertile, and, finally, one-fifth from that less fertile still. [24] Will not the tax thus established be just the reverse of what it should be? Instead of land, we may suppose other instruments of production, and compare capitals of the same value, or amounts of labor of the same order, applied to branches of industry differing in productivity: the conclusion will be the same. There is injustice in requiring the same poll-tax of ten francs from the laborer who earns one thousand francs and from the artist or physician who has an income of sixty thousand. — J. Garnier: Principles of Political Economy.

These reflections are very sound, although they apply only to collection or assessment, and do not touch the principle of the tax itself. For, in supposing the assessment to be made upon income instead of upon capital, the fact always remains that the tax, which should be proportional to fortunes, is borne by the consumer.

The economists have taken a resolve; they have squarely recognized the iniquity of the proportional tax.

“The tax,” says Say, “can never be levied upon the necessary.” This author, it is true, does not tell us what we are to understand by the necessary, but we can supply the omission. The necessary is what each individual gets out of the total product of the country, after deducting what must be taken for taxes. Thus, making the estimate in round numbers, the production of France being eight thousand millions and the tax one thousand millions, the necessary in the case of each individual amounts to fifty-six and a half centimes a day. Whatever is in excess of this income is alone susceptible of being taxed, according to J. B. Say; whatever falls short of it must be regarded by the treasury as inviolable.

The same author expresses this idea in other words when he says: “The proportional tax is not equitable.” Adam Smith had already said before him: “It is not unreasonable that the rich man should contribute to the public expenses, not only in proportion to his income, but something more.” “I will go further,” adds Say; “I will not fear to say that the progressive tax is the only equitable tax.” And M. J. Garnier, the latest abridger of the economists, says: “Reforms should tend to establish a progressional equality, if I may use the phrase, much more just, much more equitable, than the pretended equality of taxation, which is only a monstrous inequality.”

So, according to general opinion and the testimony of the economists, two things are acknowledged: one, that in its principle the tax is a reaction against monopoly and directed against the rich; the other, that in practice this same tax is false to its object; that, in striking the poor by preference, it commits an injustice; and that the constant effort of the legislator must be to distribute its burden in a more equitable fashion.

I needed to establish this double fact solidly before passing to other considerations: now commences my criticism.

The economists, with that simplicity of honest folk which they have inherited from their elders and which even today is all that stands to their credit, have taken no pains to see that the progressional theory of the tax, which they point out to governments as the ne plus ultra of a wise and liberal administration, was contradictory in its terms and pregnant with a legion of impossibilities. They have attributed the oppression of the treasury by turns to the barbarism of the time, the ignorance of princes, the prejudices of caste, the avarice of collectors, everything, in short, which, in their opinion, preventing the progression of the tax, stood in the way of the sincere practice of equality in the distribution of public burdens; they have not for a moment suspected that what they asked under the name of progressive taxation was the overturn of all economic ideas.

Thus they have not seen, for instance, that the tax was progressive from the very fact that it was proportional, the only difference being that the progression was in the wrong direction, the percentage being, as we have said, not directly, but inversely proportional to fortunes. If the economists had had a clear idea of this overturn, invariable in all countries where taxation exists, so singular a phenomenon would not have failed to draw their attention; they would have sought its causes, and would have ended by discovering that what they took for an accident of civilization, an effect of the inextricable difficulties of human government, was the product of the contradiction inherent in all political economy.

The progressive tax, whether applied to capital or to income, is the very negation of monopoly, of that monopoly which is met everywhere, according to M. Rossi, across the path of social economy; which is the true stimulant of industry, the hope of economy, the preserver and parent of all wealth; of which we have been able to say, in short, that society cannot exist without it, but that, except for it, there would be no society. Let the tax become suddenly what it unquestionably must sometime be, — namely, the proportional (or progressional, which is the same thing) contribution of each producer to the public expenses, and straightway rent and profit are confiscated everywhere for the benefit of the State; labor is stripped of the fruits of its toil; each individual being reduced to the proper allowance of fifty-six and a half centimes, poverty becomes general; the compact formed between labor and capital is dissolved, and society, deprived of its rudder, drifts back to its original state.

It will be said, perhaps, that it is easy to prevent the absolute annihilation of the profits of capital by stopping the progression at any moment.

Eclecticism, the golden mean, compromise with heaven or with morality: is it always to be the same philosophy, then? True science is repugnant to such arrangements. All invested capital must return to the producer in the form of interest; all labor must leave a surplus, all wages be equal to product. Under the protection of these laws society continually realizes, by the greatest variety of production, the highest possible degree of welfare. These laws are absolute; to violate them is to wound, to mutilate society. Capital, accordingly, which, after all, is nothing but accumulated labor, is inviolable. But, on the other hand, the tendency to equality is no less imperative; it is manifested at each economic phase with increasing energy and an invincible authority. Therefore you must satisfy labor and justice at once; you must give to the former guarantees more and more real, and secure the latter without concession or ambiguity.

Instead of that, you know nothing but the continual substitution of the good pleasure of the prince for your theories, the arrest of the course of economic law by arbitrary power, and, under the pretext of equity, the deception of the wage worker and the monopolist alike! Your liberty is but a half-liberty, your justice but a half-justice, and all your wisdom consists in those middle terms whose iniquity is always twofold, since they justify the pretensions of neither one party nor the other! No, such cannot be the science which you have promised us, and which, by unveiling for us the secrets of the production and consumption of wealth, must unequivocally solve the social antinomies. Your semi-liberal doctrine is the code of despotism, and shows that you are powerless to advance as well as ashamed to retreat.

If society, pledged by its economic antecedents, can never retrace its steps; if, until the arrival of the universal equation, monopoly must be maintained in its possession, — no change is possible in the laying of taxes: only there is a contradiction here, which, like every other, must be pushed till exhausted. Have, then, the courage of your opinions, — respect for wealth, and no pity for the poor, whom the God of monopoly has condemned. The less the hireling has wherewith to live, the more he must pay: qui minus habet, etiam quod habet auferetur ab eo. This is necessary, this is inevitable; in it lies the safety of society.

Let us try, nevertheless, to reverse the progression of the tax, and so arrange it that the capitalist, instead of the laborer, will pay the larger share.

I observe, in the first place, that with the usual method of collection, such a reversal is impracticable.

In fact, if the tax falls on exploitable capital, this tax, in its entirety, is included among the costs of production, and then of two things one: either the product, in spite of the increase in its selling value, will be bought by the consumer, and consequently the producer will be relieved of the tax; or else this same product will be thought too dear, and in that case the tax, as J. B. Say has very well said, acts like a tithe levied on seed, -it prevents production. Thus it is that too high a tax on the transfer of titles arrests the circulation of real property, and renders estates less productive by keeping them from changing hands.

If, on the contrary, the tax falls on product, it is nothing but a tax of quotité, which each pays in the ratio of his consumption, while the capitalist, whom it is purposed to strike, escapes.

Moreover, the supposition of a progressive tax based either on product or on capital is perfectly absurd. How can we imagine the same product paying a duty of ten per cent at the store of one dealer and a duty of but five at another’s? How are estates already encumbered with mortgages and which change owners every day, how is a capital formed by joint investment or by the fortune of a single individual, to be distinguished upon the official register, and taxed, not in the ratio of their value or rent, but in the ratio of the fortune or presumed profits of the proprietor?

There remains, then, a last resource, — to tax the net income of each tax-payer, whatever his method of getting it. For instance, an income of one thousand francs would pay ten per cent.; an income of two thousand francs, twenty per cent.; an income of three thousand francs, thirty per cent., etc. We will set aside the thousand difficulties and annoyances that must be met in ascertaining these incomes, and suppose the operation as easy as you like. Well! that is exactly the system which I charge with hypocrisy, contradiction, and injustice.

I say in the first place that this system is hypocritical, because, instead of taking from the rich that entire portion of their income in excess of the average national product per family, which is inadmissible, it does not, as is imagined, reverse the order of progression in the direction of wealth; at most it changes the rate of progression. Thus the present progression of the tax, for fortunes yielding incomes of a thousand francs and UNDER, being as that of the numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, etc., and, for fortunes yielding incomes of a thousand francs and OVER, as that of the numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, etc., — the tax always increasing with poverty and decreasing with wealth, — if we should confine ourselves to lifting the indirect tax which falls especially on the poorer class and imposing a corresponding tax upon the incomes of the richer class, the progression thereafter, it is true, would be, for the first, only as that of the numbers 10, 10.25, 10.50, 10.75, 11, 11.25, etc., and, for the second, as 10, 9.75, 9.50, 9.25, 9, 8.75, etc. But this progression, although less rapid on both sides, would still take the same direction nevertheless, would still be a reversal of justice; and it is for this reason that the so-called progressive tax, capable at most of giving the philanthropist something to babble about, is of no scientific value. It changes nothing in fiscal jurisprudence; as the proverb says, it is always the poor man who carries the pouch, always the rich man who is the object of the solicitude of power.

I add that this system is contradictory.

In fact, one cannot both give and keep, say the jurisconsults. Instead, then, of consecrating monopolies from which the holders are to derive no privilege save that of straightway losing, with the income, all the enjoyment thereof, why not decree the agrarian law at once? Why provide in the constitution that each shall freely enjoy the fruit of his labor and industry, when, by the fact or the tendency of the tax, this permission is granted only to the extent of a dividend of fifty-six and a half centimes a day, — a thing, it is true, which the law could not have foreseen, but which would necessarily result from progression? The legislator, in confirming us in our monopolies, intended to favor production, to feed the sacred fire of industry: now, what interest shall we have to produce, if, though not yet associated, we are not to produce for ourselves alone? After we have been declared free, how can we be made subject to conditions of sale, hire, and exchange which annul our liberty?

A man possesses government securities which bring him an income of twenty thousand francs. The tax, under the new system of progression, will take fifty per cent. of this from him. At this rate it is more advantageous to him to withdraw his capital and consume the principal instead of the income. Then let him be repaid. What! repaid! The State cannot be obliged to repay; and, if it consents to redeem, it will do so in proportion to the net income. Therefore a bond for twenty thousand francs will be worth not more than ten thousand to the bondholder, because of the tax, if he wishes to get it redeemed by the State: unless he divides it into twenty lots, in which case it will return him double the amount. Likewise an estate which rents for fifty thousand francs, the tax taking two-thirds of the income, will lose two-thirds of its value. But let the proprietor divide this estate into a hundred lots and sell it at auction, and then, the terror of the treasury no longer deterring purchasers, he can get back his entire capital. So that, with the progressive tax, real estate no longer follows the law of supply and demand and is not valued according to the real income which it yields, but according to the condition of the owner. The consequence will be that large capitals will depreciate in value, and mediocrity be brought to the front; land-owners will hasten to sell, because it will be better for them to consume their property than to get an insufficient rent from it; capitalists will recall their investments, or will invest only at usurious rates; all exploitation on a large scale will be prohibited, every visible fortune proceeded against, and all accumulation of capital in excess of the figure of the necessary proscribed. Wealth, driven back, will retire within itself and never emerge except by stealth; and labor, like a man attached to a corpse, will embrace misery in an endless union. Does it not well become the economists who devise such reforms to laugh at the reformers?

After having demonstrated the contradiction and delusion of the progressive tax, must I prove its injustice also? The progressive tax, as understood by the economists and, in their wake, by certain radicals, is impracticable, I said just now, if it falls on capital and product: consequently I have supposed it to fall on incomes. But who does not see that this purely theoretical distinction between capital, product, and income falls so far as the treasury is concerned, and that the same impossibilities which we have pointed out reappear here with all their fatal character?

A manufacturer discovers a process by means of which, saving twenty per cent of his cost of production, he secures an income of twenty-five thousand francs. The treasury calls on him for fifteen thousand. He is obliged, therefore, to raise his prices, since, by the fact of the tax, his process, instead of saving twenty per cent, saves only eight per cent. Is not this as if the treasury prevented cheapness? Thus, in trying to reach the rich, the progressive tax always reaches the consumer; and it is impossible for it not to reach him without suppressing production altogether: what a mistake!

It is a law of social economy that all invested capital must return continually to the capitalist in the form of interest. With the progressive tax this law is radically violated, since, by the effect of progression, interest on capital is so reduced that industries are established only at a loss of a part or the whole of the capital. To make it otherwise, interest on capital would have to increase progressively in the same ratio as the tax itself, which is absurd. Therefore the progressive tax stops the creation of capital; furthermore it hinders its circulation. Whoever, in fact, should want to buy a plant for any enterprise or a piece of land for cultivation would have to consider, under the system of progressive taxation, not the real value of such plant or land, but rather the tax which it would bring upon him; so that, if the real income were four per cent., and, by the effect of the tax or the condition of the buyer, must go down to three, the purchase could not be effected. After having run counter to all interests and thrown the market into confusion by its categories, the progressive tax arrests the development of wealth and reduces venal value below real value; it contracts, it petrifies society. What tyranny! What derision!

The progressive tax resolves itself, then, whatever may be done, into a denial of justice, prohibition of production, confiscation. It is unlimited and unbridled absolutism, given to power over everything which, by labor, by economy, by improvements, contributes to public wealth.

But what is the use of wandering about in chimerical hypotheses when the truth is at hand. It is not the fault of the proportional principle if the tax falls with such shocking inequality upon the various classes of society; the fault is in our prejudices and our morals. The tax, as far as is possible in human operations, proceeds with equity, precision. Social economy commands it to apply to product; it applies to product. If product escapes it, it strikes capital: what more natural! The tax, in advance of civilization, supposes the equality of laborers and capitalists: the inflexible expression of necessity, it seems to invite us to make ourselves equals by education and labor, and, by balancing our functions and associating our interests, to put ourselves in accord with it. The tax refuses to distinguish between one man and another: and we blame its mathematical severity for the differences in our fortunes! We ask equality itself to comply with our injustice! Was I not right in saying at the outset that, relatively to the tax, we are behind our institutions?

Accordingly we always see the legislator stopping, in his fiscal laws, before the subversive consequences of the progressive tax, and consecrating the necessity, the immutability of the proportional tax. For equality in well-being cannot result from the violation of capital: the antinomy must be methodically solved, under penalty, for society, of falling back into chaos. Eternal justice does not accommodate itself to all the whims of men: like a woman, whom one may outrage, but whom one does not marry without a solemn alienation of one’s self, it demands on our part, with the abandonment of our egoism, the recognition of all its rights, which are those of science.

The tax, whose final purpose, as we have shown, is the reward of the non-producers, but whose original idea was a restoration of the laborer, — the tax, under the system of monopoly, reduces itself therefore to a pure and simple protest, a sort of extra-judicial act, the whole effect of which is to aggravate the situation of the wage-worker by disturbing the monopolist in his possession. As for the idea of changing the proportional tax into a progressive tax, or, to speak more accurately, of reversing the order in which the tax progresses, that is a blunder the entire responsibility for which belongs to the economists.

But henceforth menace hovers over privilege. With the power of modifying the proportionality of the tax, government has under its hand an expeditious and sure means of dispossessing the holders of capital when it will; and it is a frightful thing to see everywhere that great institution, the basis of society, the object of so many controversies, of so many laws, of so many cajoleries, and of so many crimes, PROPERTY, suspended at the end of a thread over the yawning mouth of the proletariat.

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moltensmusings · 26 days ago

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Alright current thoughts after I spent 4 hours trying to figure things out last night/got a few issues into the 80s titan run.

The dynamic between Raven and kid flash is cute. It very well could be mind control since I feel like they keep bringing attention to him being confused for a reason, but I wish they'd bring back him and raven having a friendship

I definitely need to go back and fully read the 60s run, but the way Slade/deathstroke seems to be a more evil/morally gray Batman does interest me and knowing half the crazy stuff they write for him as the series go does make me a little disappointed. I would've loved if he took in teens and his hatred of the titans bled into them without things getting sexual or weird.

If they aren't going to put kori and Nightwing together they should've explored Kori and Donna. The fact that they haven't in spite of all the various other ships they've tried does make me side eye DC a bit.

Yeah things are a bit dated but there's a certain level of joy and camp in the older comics that I wish we could revisit. The costumes felt more experimental and fun. Specifically I love starfires design with my whole heart.

The writing can be a bit confusing at times. The way they start chapters often makes me feel like I missed something only for them to jump back to an earlier point and explain a page or 2 later. I'm guessing it was for hooking the audience but binge reading is a different story. It doesn't ruin my entire experience though. More just a note.

Starfire getting her name because she just kept blasting people for a solid week because no one could understand her and she didn't bother trying to learn the language is deeply funny to me. Go crazy girl. Like initially it seems like tamaranian powers were through basic skin contact with kissing being the fasts. All she had to do was hold someone's hand for a while to get a base understanding but she said "nah." Which is so fair.

Again: they are dated. But I'm having fun. I actually enjoy that I do have a starting point to work with and that we get scenes of the characters chilling together. I wish we got another run that didn't make me feel like I was missing a huge chunk of the story.

Let me go into som gripes I have with DC as a whole/some frustrations about the teen titans under the cut:

The writers of the more current stuff have completey forgotten that titans content should allow dick grayson to be his own entity. Him being tied to the batfamily so heavily at this point when him and Tim are the 2 to get proper real content beyond it is disappointing. Say what you will about the 03 show but at least batman was never a major part of the story

I don't know if the titans have ever properly been rebooted and that frustrates me. Every time I looked at a different run it would reference them already being a team, a new line up taking over, or in general just be written like the readers should know they've been doing this together for a minute. It makes it easy for them to trivialize what starfire meant to nightwing though so I guess it is what it is.

On that same subject, them completely retconning that starfire was a major reason for Dick choosing the name Nightwing, what if I commit arson.

I love the og kid flash design, but I much prefer them actually changing his race like they did pre rebirth because it makes him more distinct from flash. One of my biggest gripes with most of the teen titans is how much they looked like young versions/children of their respective mentors. I wish Donna (and maybe even dick a bit) had gotten a similar updated design rather than them backtracking.

#molten rambles #dc comics #teen titans

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jessequinones · 7 months ago

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DragonFire (Book 2 ) Fallen Star Review

TLDR

That kind of sums up my experience, too long, didn’t read. I got 80% of the way through this story before I gave up which is a shame because the beginning was good but then it kind of fell apart.

In the beginning, Blaze is hyper-fixing on figuring out who/what he is, all the while Risha really needs some loving, like girl, if he hasn’t noticed your advances for an entire year, best to move on. Anyway, it felt like LJ Davies has a better understanding of his characters, they feel more fleshed out (except for Risha) and I’m enjoying it. The problem started in the first fight scene.

I know I have aphantasia and difficulties imagining most things, but that first fight scene and every other fight scene felt pointless and I couldn’t see anything. Again, I know I have aphantasia, but even I can at least keep track of a fight if it’s written well enough. These fights felt like they were filler even though several characters died, the story moves on like nothing happened and we get no time to reflect on the loss of any of these characters.

Sure the story tries to reflect on one of the character's death, but it reflects it by saying “We’ll just give them space” and before the dragon who’s affected by someone’s death gets to speak about their feeling, they get captured but not until after getting angry at Blaze and Risha for having a nice romantic moment the SAME NIGHT one of their friends died.

It feels like LJ Davies forgot to add in a few moments and decided to throw these things in because none of them felt right.

Blaze and friends escape their village, while escaping, Blaze and friends, (except for Pyro) begin to play games WHILE ON THE RUN and are confused as to why Pyro is telling everyone to knock it off.

Blaze kills a dragon and is confused, upset, and hurting, thinking he’s a monster, at the fact he killed one of his own kind and feeling disgusted by it? That never gets brought up again.

One of Blaze’s friends gets killed? Let’s have Blaze and Risha spend a nice moment together the same night.

There are just so many moments that either feel off or are just never expanded upon it took me out of the story because I honestly don’t know which moment was gonna be important and which one was filler.

I don't even want to get into the fact of how Blaze was in the wrong, Pyro was right, but the story made it feel like Pyro was in the wrong. You see what happened was that Blaze saw a village getting attacked and wanted to save them. Pyro said they're currently on the run and need to get to their destination, it'll be a foolish idea to try and save a random village because they might get killed, so what did Blaze do? He goes to the village and nearly dies but only to get rescued by his friends at the last minute putting everyone at risk and it's because of him (which the story doesn't bring up mind you) that led to the death of one of his friends.

Also...what was the plot of this book? I stopped reading at the 80% mark, I feel like I should know what the main plot of this story was. The first book was simple, save Tarwin. This one...save Blaze’s friends? That’s not the plot of the story, they all get captured trying to get to their location but they get taken to the same place they were heading to anyway which was to do what again? Was it to clear Blaze's name? Stop the invasion? Who was invading?

Who’s the main villain of this story?

I need to read a different review or google the summary of this book just to have an understanding of what I read because this book was really...really boring and it felt like there was a lot of filler.

The chapters were long and with my slow reading speed, it took me days to get through one of them. They just wouldn’t end and I like to read at least one chapter a day, if it takes multiple days to read one chapter, I’m not enjoying the story.

To be honest, I’m most likely not gonna read any other books in the DragonFire series because I’ll most likely need to have an understanding of this book to read the next one and I can’t be bothered.

The first story was simple, save Tarwin while also showing off the world. There’s a monster that keeps appearing which all leads to a showdown at the end. It’s not the best book I’ve read, but it got the job done, I truly can’t tell you anything about this story and I just put it down yesterday.

What I can tell you is there’s a shadowy demon thing who’s planting seeds into Blaze’s mind that he’s a monster? I have no idea how it got inside Blaze’s skull, nor why it’s there. Its sole purpose is to inform Blaze he’s evil and that’s it. However, all of those “You’re evil” lines are useless if you remember Blaze is the poster child for being a good boy. Honestly, the story would be better if the shadow monster wasn’t there and Blaze is telling himself this, not an outside source.

There are also knockoff goblins who all sound the same and their sole purpose is to be evil and serve the dark lord I guess? There are two different goblins (let’s be honest, that’s what they are even if they aren’t stated that in the books). There are two of them who are named and not only can I not remember them, but they sound the exact same. One is supposed to be the leader of the other and I can’t tell you which.

I like the beginning. I wish I could’ve seen more of the Princess, heck, maybe even throw in a love triangle (not the one with Boltock, Ember, and Pyro). I just needed to connect with Blaze and his friends and taking them away from Blaze, even if it’s for a moment really didn’t help the story because I knew nothing bad was gonna happen to them despite the story saying something bad was about to happen one of them, I just couldn’t care so I’m moving on.

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spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub · 10 months ago

Text

SO's Bookclub: Nobody's There (and final thoughts on Joan Lowery Nixon)

Title: Who Are You? Author: Joan Lowery Nixon Genre: YA Mystery

Goodreads Summary :

How did Abbie Thompson end up a sidekick to Edna Merkel, Senior Citizen Pseudo-Sleuth? It all started when Abbie was so furious at her father for breaking up their family that she acted without thinking and was arrested for malicious mischief. The judge decided to give Abbie a chance at a clean record and arranged for her to volunteer in a program in which teens are matched with the elderly.

Abbie's "friend," Mrs. Merkel, is a cranky, difficult woman who's a member of the Buckler's Bloodhounds. The Bloodhounds provide the police with information about scams or frauds in the community. But Edna Merkel is too active a member, and after she brags that she's on to something big, she's attacked and ends up hospitalized. Suddenly the private investigator game is real and, with the help of Mrs. Merkel's indecipherable notebook, only Abbie can figure out who did it. But will Abbie get to the assailant before the assailant gets to her?

Review:

I know I stated that I had two more of these to go but this one kind of broke me. I do own one more of these - but it sounds so awful I have no desire to read it. There are actually possibly two other suspense books that Nixon wrote after that one that sound even less like her usual writing that I didn't bother to pick them up used. But this one kind of feels like I need to stop -- the experiment hasn't been fun for a while, and this was the most tedious, lukewarm experience of reading middle grade fiction.

The above summary kind of tells you all of it. A young woman named Abbie (who is supposed to be 17 but acts like she's 12) is having family issues. We're in Texas again, and this time daddy is a big douche, walking out on the family for a younger woman. Mom is understandably emotional - but kind of useless in the way so many of these mothers are in these books. It's hilarious that Abbie's bad behavior is throwing rocks -- because she had to be a delinquent but not do something so bad that she'd be labeled a 'bad girl'.

She starts hanging out with a stereotypical mean old woman (is Mrs. Merkel supposed to be a take on Miss Marple? Possibly but she is so irritatingly annoying). The thing is - there's no real mystery here. Abbie and Mrs Merkle fight for a majority of this book, Abbie wines about her family issues, and they kind of dance around crime issues until Merkle gets knocked on the head about 2/3rds of the way through.

We then go on a red herring chase after her nephew until there's a twist ending in that -- it's someone we've barely seen in the novel and it's all over some valuable trinkets Mrs. Merkle has.

It's just bad. It's just so bad. There's no personality to it. The novel takes way too long to set up its story, spends way too much time on Abbie's family drama, there's zero suspense in it at all, and zero mystery as nothing is really solved except in the last chapter or so.

I get that Nixon was nearing her death at this time, and she really was out of her heyday of writing campy 70s and 80s suspense thrillers. But it's kind of a shame these books go out so weakly. They were never the epitome of good writing - but they were at least fun. And they stopped being fun, well, around the time I stopped buying them. Maybe young me understood more than she knew.

I have to add - since I'm always watching for Nixon tropes - the insertion of a love interest here is so hilarious. There's this guy named Nick who keeps asking Abbie out. And it feels so obligatory. Abbie keeps thinking about how she should say yes, and at the end - she does agree to go to prom! But it's so forced. Almost like a mandate that there should be some sort of romance in the novel, even though it's so completely half baked and Abbie is just so not interested. I think one of the funniest aspect of all these novels is the reluctance to really have a romance in them.

Overall, this book just isn't great. There's nothing interesting going on here, and it's a shame that it's merely a shadow of the types of books Nixon used to write.

Rating : 2 stars.

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

Reflection Time

I contemplated doing a whole different post for this, but I'm not sure I have enough to say (nor do I think that many of you are interested).

I do not regret reading through my Joan Lowery Nixon collection. It was a lot of fun to look through what I used to read as a preteen, and was nostalgic for a time when these campy thrillers were the norm. Interesting, too, that these were a step above the Christopher Pikes and the RL Stines.

But I think what really made the books work (or fun in rereading) was that they were set in that particular time period (mainly - the 80s). There was some genuine creepiness to be had before technology could help us, and Nixon, despite her wooden characters and her substandard, cliched plots was actually really good at making a book suspenseful no matter how ridiculous the premise was.

I think what kind of deflated the project was getting into the late 90s, when Nixon was at the end of her life, and kind of churning out the same product without any of the time period trappings, which made the books dull and repetitive.

I think something else interesting coming out of this reread was not realizing (as a kid) how many of the tropes were redundant. Nearly all of them are in Texas. There are definitely issues within the family - that dad is usually that wealthy cowboy oil guy. The mom is always so fragile. Sometimes there's a younger sibling whom the girl has to be strong for. And, more so in the beginning, there was that strong matriarchal figure. Plus, there's always the struggle of whether to go to school or not.

And, as I reflected about, the hilarious obligatoryness of needing a love interest - whether it was relevant or not. And how the guy was usually dumb or the villain of the piece.

So, I guess that's that...

I kind of kept a best to worst ranking as I went along, so for those of you who like a good list, here it is:

The Name of the Game was Murder

A Deadly Game of Magic

The Weekend was Murder

Whipsers from the Dead

The Haunting

Shadowmaker

The Dark and Deadly Pool

Murdered, My Sweet

Secret, Silent Screams

The Ghosts of Now

The Seance

Who Are You

Spirit Seeker

Don't Scream

A Candidate for Murder

Nobody's There

The Island of Dangerous Dreams

The Specter

The Other Side of Dark

The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore

The Stalker

While I do think The Name of the Game was Murder is probably her best written book, I think A Deadly Game of Magic was probably the most fun book to read -- and the only one I think I'd pick up again casually. The Stalker was probably on of the worst books I've ever read - but the last few I did for the project were the hardest to get through.

Will I ever read through these again? Meh - let's see how I'm feeling in my 60s. Should you read these? Maybe only if you're my age and want to remember what books were like of this time period.

Thanks for following along - and now back to a world where I'm reading more adult books I actually like...

#sbc bookclub #books #book review #joan lowery nixon #nobody's there

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sunnys567 · 2 years ago

Text

Friends in Strange Places Ch. 2

What if Vlad was good instead of evil? Link to chapter 1:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39040329/chapters/97656390

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

Vlad was at the door with his suitcase, mentally double checking that he had everything, when the vultures phased through the floor. The lead one was absent.

"Vlad." the raspy voiced one said "Da tree of us just vanted to vish you varewell bevore you levt."

"I'll only be gone for a few days." Vlad said, putting on his coat. "And I notice there's only two of you."

"Ay, vell, he and Rochester vere fighting over da paper again."

"Oh for goodness sake." Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rochester only wants the comics section. Can't he just give him that?"

"Ah, you know how dat old bird is."

Vlad sighed heavily.

"You know what? I'm just going to start getting two newspaper subscriptions. The mail carrier will think I've lost it, but this is just getting ridiculous." He turned to head out the door.

"You're going to Amity, yeah?" The vulture with the glasses said. "Dat mean you're going to see da Venton's again?"

Vlad stopped with his hand on the knob.

"I'll...try to pay the Fentons a visit if I have time." he turned to look at the vultures "Although, truth be told, as much as I'd like to see Jack and Maddie, it might not be wise for me to just walk into the house of ghost hunters. Especially ghost hunters with as much...passion as them."

"An understandable concern, Vlad, but you know if dat ghost kid's been managing to live dere okay, you shouldn't have any trouble popping in for a quick visit. Just relax! Try to enjoy yourselv!"

Vlad considered this for a moment.

"Fair point, I suppose. Now, I really must be going. Remind Cecilia she doens't have to cook, make sure someone's keeping an eye on the portal, and- well, I suppose you the drill by now. I'll see you all in a few days."

Vlad opened the door and stepped outside.

"Oh, and Rochester had better not have any claw marks on him when I return. "

With that, Vlad shut the door and was gone. The two vultures looked at each other.

"You tink ve should go check on Rochester?" The one with glasses asked.

The raspy voiced one sighed.

"Yeah." he said.

They both phased through the floor.

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

"-and now I can't find that ghost dog anywhere!" Danny flopped onto his bed "It's like it just showed up to destroy Axiom Labs and then left!"

"Well, maybe that means it's gone forever?" Tucker suggested, swiveling back in forth in Danny's computer chair. "Problem solved!"

"Since when have ghosts ever decided to just leave?" Sam asked from her bean bag. "There's at least an 80% chance that dog is going to pop up again."

"And at the least convenient time, I'll bet." Danny added from the bed.

"Well, even if that's the case there's nothing we can do about it, so what's the point in worrying about it?"

"You know, you could stand to take this a little more seriously." Sam glared at Tucker.

"I am taking this seriously!" Tucker stuck out his tongue at Sam. "Look on the bright side, Danny. Sure, the security system got completely fried, but most of the projects were unharmed."

"And, more importantly," Sam shot Tucker another side-eye "You got everyone out safely."

"I guess." Danny sighed and sat up. "I just can't help feeling like a failure. If I don't find that dog, what's to stop him from doing the same thing to some other building when I'm not around? I barely managed to get everyone out in time as it was."

"Well," Sam said "He did come to you before storming Axiom. So maybe he'll come to you again."

"Even if that is true, I couldn't stop it last time, so what would I do if it did show up again." Danny massaged his face in exasperation. "I wish there was someone we could just ask how to stop it. It feels like we never know what we're doing."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other. Tucker got up and patted Danny on the back.

"Aw, come on buddy," he said "We'll figure it out. We always do."

"Yeah Danny." Sam cam and sat on the bed beside him. "You've got nothing to worry-"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!! INTRUDER ALERT!!! A GHOST HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING!!! INTRUDER ALERT!!!" A loud robotic voice repeated very loudly.

The trio rushed out of Danny's room to the top of the stairs. Jazz had clearly just run in from the kitchen and Danny's parents were standing near the door. About twenty different guns had popped down from panels in the ceiling and were pointed directly at-

"Vlad?"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"Hello Daniel, Jasmine." Despite Vlad's friendly composure, he was clearly uncomfortable with all the alarms and the guns pointed at him.

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"It's Jazz." Jazz replied sharply.

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"And can someone please turn that off!"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"Oh, right." Maddie pulled a device out of her bag and clicked a few buttons. The guns retreated back into the ceiling, the alarm went silent, and the voice stopped repeating itself. Vlad visibly relaxed.

"Perhaps the security system's a little too sensitive." Maddie said. "This isn't the first time it's been set off by someone who wasn't a ghost." Vlad subtly raised an eyebrow at Danny. Danny smiled nervously from the top of the stairs.

"To be honest, Maddie, I'd get rid of this system entirely." Vlad said. "It seems a little overkill. And besides, if a ghost did make it into Fenton Works, surely it'd be no match for you and Jack?"

Danny had to admit that that was pretty smooth.

"You make an excellent point V-man!" Jack beamed. "And we can repurpose the defense system into even better anti-ecto weapons!"

"Or maybe something a lot less dangerous?" Jazz suggested.

"Well, we can decide that later." Maddie said clapping her hands together. "Come on in Vlad! It's so nice that you could drop by! I'll put on the tea. I just made cookies this morning, so they should be cool by now. And these ones didn't come to life this time, so help yourself!"

"Sound delightful." Vlad said as the group walked into the kitchen. He glanced up at Danny as they passed by on their way to the kitchen.

"Okay Danny," Tucker said once the grown ups were out of site "So what on earth is Vlad Masters doing in your house?"

"Oh, I forgot." Danny slapped his forehead "Mom and Dad said he was coming over today. Kind of got distracted by whole ghost-dog thing."

"Okay, I have a follow up question." Tucker said.

"Apparently he was friends with my parents in college. They used to be pretty close until-"

Danny stopped himself. He didn't know if Vlad would be okay with Sam and Tucker knowing. They were cool with half-ghosts, sure, but Danny knew he wouldn't want Vlad telling anyone his secret without asking first. Even mentioning that Vlad had been in an accident involving a ghost portal might be enough to tip Sam and Tucker off, and he didn't want to risk it.

"-uh, until, you know, they split up and Vlad started his own company. Which, as you probably know, turned out pretty well for him. He just held a big college reunion about a month ago, and they're kind of reconnecting, I guess."

"Wait," Sam held up her hand "That's why your family went down to Wisconsin for the weekend? To hang out with the CEO of VladCo? Why on earth are we only learning about this now?"

"I watched a bunch of adults dance around an auditorium with fake cheese on their heads for four hours. It was boring. Not much to tell. At all." Danny wracked his brain for anything else to talk about, until he realized something. "Hey, how do you two know who he is? I only learned about him in the RV on the way up."

"Uh, tech nerd?" Tucker held up his PDA, as if to illustrate his point.

"Rich people know each other." Sam shrugged. "Not that I've ever met the guy. Apparently he's pretty reclusive. Very selective about who he'll see, but I've heard my parents say his name about five billion times. It's all about connections with them. Knowing someone who knows someone. The intricately tangled web the rich have woven to keep those below them in their place. I'd take a flamethrower to that that web if I could."

Danny and Tucker just blinked at her.

"Anyway," Sam said, checking her watch "If he's here visiting your family, I guess we'd better go."

"What!?" Tucker said "And miss out on the chance to talk to tech giant Vlad Masters? I have so many questions for him!"

"He's a busy guy Tucker." Sam said, grabbing Tucker by the sweater collar and dragging him down the stairs. "He's probably too sick of work stuff to want to talk about it any more in his off-time than he does on a daily basis. Also, CEO's don't tend to know much about the tech side of the tech industry anyway. He probably just crunches numbers and pushes papers. Anyway, enjoy your visit Danny!" Sam waved pleasantly at him once she'd gotten Tucker out the door.

"Don't forget to check out that trailer for DOOMED I sent you!" Danny heard Tucker call before Sam shut the door.

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

When Danny entered the kitchen, Jazz was sitting at the table, a pile of closed books in front of her. Presumably she'd been studying before Vlad arrived. Maddie was talking as she pulled cups out of the cupboard.

"...so nice to be able to properly catch up with you without all the hubbub of the party. Ah, there you are Danny. Would you get the milk and sugar out?"

"Yeah, V-man, " Jack mock-aimed whatever device he was working on at Vlad as he spoke "I never got the chance to tell about all the cool new invetions Mads and I have been working on at the reunion!"

"Oh goodie." Vlad said dryly. "I simply cannot wait for that." He reached up and gently pushed the device away from his face.

"I simply cannot wait for that. Fear me."

The room went silent. Danny looked at the table and saw a familiar device amongst a small pile of Fenton inventions.

"Oh, great, you're working on the Ghost Gabber again." he said nervously, realizing his mistake a millisecond too late.

"You're working on the Ghost Gabber again. Fear me."

Jazz's eyes flickered between Danny and Vlad a few times before she pushed her chair back and stood up, an annoyed look on her face. She walked around to Jack's side of the table.

"I'm going to put this glitchy thing away." She said, snatching it off the table "Before it annoys us all to death."

With that she stomped down the stairs clutching the Gabber.

"Say," Jack rubbed his chin "That's a great idea! Why don't we all head to the lab! Maddie and I can show you how far we've come since our college days Vlad!"

"Oh," Vlad's smile seemed a bit forced and his voice sounded nervous "Erm, well, I don't know if-"

Before he could finish speaking, Jack had wrapped his thick arm around Vlad and was practically dragging him down the stairs.

Danny made to follow them, but he stopped when he felt his mom's hand on his shoulder.

"You mind helping me carry the tea stuff down, sweetheart?"

"Oh, um, maybe tea in the lab isn't a good idea right now?" Danny was desperate to get down there and not leave Vlad alone. "With Vlad here, Dad might get over excited and spill it on something important?"

"Hm, I suppose you're right..."

"We can just have it when Dad's done showing Vlad around. But we should go down and join them. Right now." Danny hoped his mom didn't notice the urgency in his voice as he pulled her down the stairs.

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

When they arrived in the basement, he found his dad giving Vlad a tour. To Danny's relief, Vlad's apprehension had been replaced with genuine interest. He examined various machine closely as Jack blathered on about them.

"This is quite the innovation Jack!" Vlad and Jack were currently looking over the still incomplete Spectre Speeder. "And it's ability to convert the ambient ecto-energy of the Ghost Zone into fuel, creating a self-sustaining perpetual energy source is absolutely brilliant!"

"It also ensures you won't run out of fuel if you get lost!" Maddie said, jumping right into the conversation. "We know so little about the Ghost Zone, so we want to be as prepared as we can be."

"Indeed. And, although I am of fan of the ample storage space, I'm wondering if the converters are able to generate enough power? Especially if you're going to install weapon functionality which, if I know you two, you will be doing in excess."

"Yeah, that's the tricky part," Jack frowned "We're a bit stuck on that, but if we can find a way to compact the circuitry, we might be able to disperse it in such a way to maximize the ambient ecto exposure the Speeder gets, but then there's the issue of excessive energy production, which..."

Totally lost by their jargon, Danny glanced at Jazz and saw her discreetly flipping some switches on a few devices. She probably didn't want something else to go haywire and disturb Vlad's visit. Or maybe just annoy her personally.

Luckily the thing that Jazz seemed to have dubbed 'annoying' were the same devices Danny tended to set off unintentionally. That was convenient. Sure, Danny knew which ones to avoid, but Vlad didn't. Now he wouldn't accidentally set them off and rouse suspicion. Danny silently thanked Jazz and her limited patience with their parent's ghost stuff.

"...and of course, there's out crowning achievement, The Fenton Ghost Portal!" Jack said, gesturing proudly to the portal.

"Oh," Maddie made a strange face. "We can just ignore that thing if we want to, though." she smiled nervously.

"It's kind of a little hard to miss, Mom." Danny said.

"Don't worry Maddie, I know exactly what you're thinking." He wrapped his arm around Vlad's shoulders. "Don't worry Vladdie, we perfected the design of this baby.

There's no way it'll explode in your face and leave you hospitalized indefinitely this time!"

Vlad smiled back at Jack, but it was very obviously strained. Maddie and Danny looked away awkwardly. Jazz glared at her father.

"Yes, well, as much as I appreciate the painful reminder and the concern," Vlad pushed himself out of Jack's grip "There's truly no need for it. We've come a long way since our college days, I'm sure you'll agree." Vlad walked towards the portal. He gave it a quick look-over. "It seems you two were more thourough with your planning this time. Unlike that prototype, this portal seems to be in perfect working order. In it's current state it holds no risk towards anyone."

Jazz flashed Danny a look that he almost missed.

"Besides, of course, for the ghosts that come out of it." Vlad added, running his hand along the metal frame.

"You know, it's funny." Maddie said. "We've had the portal running for a few months now, and barely anything's shown up. Of course, we haven't actually gone into the Ghost Zone ourselves, so maybe it opened on a deserted patch, or something. "

It took all of Danny's willpower not to burst out laughing.

"Probably wise." Vlad removed his hand from the frame. "Who knows what dangers lie on the other side."

Danny suddenly wondered if Vlad had been to the ghost Zone. He probably had, since he did have access to a working portal, and he'd sounded like he was familiar with the Ghost Zone when he was talking to Danny at the end of the reunion. He'd have to ask him about it when he got the chance.

"Of course, there was that kerfuffle down at Axiom Labs that sounded suspiciously like ghost activity to me." Maddie frowned.

"Oh, have you investigated?"

"Unfortunately not. Those darned security people wouldn't even let us take a look at the Axiom building." Jack stared into the distance, determination and frustration written on his face. "I just know it was a ghost that caused all that destruction!"

Danny wondered if anyone could here his heart rate increasing.

"Well, Jack, I am meeting with John Axiom today," Jazz's eyes went wide when she heard that. Danny had to admit he was a bit impressed too. Vlad didn't seem to be bragging, though. "Perhaps I'll be able to find out from him what happened."

"Ooh, good thinking V-man. You can come back to visit when you're done with all your business stuff and tell us what happened at Axiom."

"Oh, I don't know that I'll have time to visit again, but I will definitely get in touch with you and Maddie if I hear about anything ghostly."

Danny noticed both his parent's faces fall.

"Oh," Maddie said, the pep gone from her voice. "You're sure you can't-"

"And speaking of which," Vlad looked down at his watch "I'm afraid I'm due for that meeting rather soon, so I must be going now." Vlad started his way up the stairs. The others followed him.

"Oh, you didn't even have your tea yet." Maddie said as they emerged into the kitchen.

"I really would like to stay Maddie, but unfourtunatley, this is a business trip, and I'm afraid my schedule's rather tight." Vlad said as he opened the front door. "It truly was a pleasure seeing your home. And the lab is quite the upgrade from our old makeshift college one."

"Thanks Vladdie." Jack beamed. "And if you think that's cool, wait to you see the Ecto Annihilator!" Jack punctuated his sentence by pulling out a menacing looking box with many tiny flailing metal claws.

"Oh wow, look at the time, I really have to go right now!" Vlad almost slammed the door shut in his hurry.

"Awww." Jack's shoulders slumped and he threw the Annihilator over his shoulder. Danny zoomed as far away from that thing as he could without looking (too) conspicuous.

"Well, that was..." Danny started.

"Brief." Jazz finished.

"We don't get to see him for twenty years, and he still barely talks to us." Maddie sighed. "I get that he's busy, but he could at least return my calls."

Jack just sighed loudly. It was like looking at a kicked puppy. Danny and Jazz weren't sure what to say.

"Welp," Maddie clapped her hands, the smile returning to her face. "No point in standing around moping. It was nice to be able to see Vlad at all. Now, we've got some perfectly good tea in the kitchen that shouldn't go to waste."

"You know what, you're right Maddie." Jack's smile also returned and he wrapped an arm around Maddie's waist. "I finally got the chance to show Vladdie the new lab. And I think he was impressed. That's a win! Maybe later he'll be thinking about it, and realize it's so cool that he'll want to join us in ghost fighting again! I bet he'll be calling any day now!"

Danny didn't say anything, but that seemed a little optimistic to him.

"In the meantime," Jack continued "Let's have that tea. And those cookies you mentioned. And I can tell the kids all about the upgrades I'm making to the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle! To the kitchen!"

Danny glanced warily at the 'Ecto Annihilator' that was still in the way to the kitchen, but Jazz had already procured a set of tongs and a garbage bag and was cautiously approaching the device. Danny wasn't sure what it did, but he was very glad Jazz was the one dealing with it.

"That Vlad guy is pretty...interesting." Jazz said as she dropped the Annihilator into the garbage bag. " Wouldn't you say Danny?"

"Huh? Yeah, I guess."

Danny suddenly thought he felt something brush his leg. He looked down and saw a folded piece of paper sticking out out his pocket. He pulled it out and unfolded it, revealing a note.

Daniel,

I should be able to stop by tomorrow night sometime around 8:00. It would be good to catch up with you. Also I heard you may have been having some ghost trouble, and I'd certainly be willing to offer my assistance. I must say, I am impressed with your efficiency in evacuating the Axiom employees. You may be feeling discouraged by the fact that you weren't able to subdue the ghost, but it's important to choose your battles and have your priorities straight.

We'll talk more tomorrow, Plasmius.

It was actually kind of nice getting praised. Danny beamed to himself as he stuffed the note back into his pocket. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

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

Of course, Danny hadn't considered that he'd have to see Valerie tomorrow. Or how defeated she'd look.

Danny stared warily at her as Valerie skipped the lunch line in the cafeteria. He noticed she was carrying a bagged lunch.

Did this have something to do with the ghost dog?

He felt his stomach sink.

Sam noticed his staring.

"You're not seriously thinking of asking out another popular girl, are you Danny?" she asked, disapprovingly "You know, considering how well the last time went."

"What?" Danny looked at Sam. "No, I- you remember that ghost dog?"

"Yeah?"

"Wait, that's Valerie Gray!" Tucker cut in. "As in Damon Gray's kid. I read about her dad getting in major trouble with Axiom Labs. They sued him for all he was

worth. The guy even had to sell his house."

Danny's stomach was absolutely churning.

"Wait, why'd they sue?" Sam asked "Did it have something to do with the ghost attack?"

"Well, according to official reports, Gray's so-called 'foolproof' new security system went haywire and caused a lot of damage. The building was practically unsalvageable. No one could figure out why, including Gray, so John Axiom made him pay for the damages. Which were pretty expensive, as it turns out. The security footage of the incident was toasted, and no one has said anything about seeing a dog. Some witnesses did mention getting save by 'a creepy teenager with super powers' though."

"I've been called worse." Danny shrugged.

"Wow, "Sam said "Billionaire sues hundred-thousand-aire for damages he could already afford to cover with what amounts to pocket change for him. It's a real dog-eat-dog world in rich people land. Well, more like dog-eat-flea-when-dog-already-has-a-steak world. The flea is Valerie's dad, in case that wasn't clear."

"And it wasn't even his fault." Danny said "It was that ghost dog that wrecked all the machines. It was weird, he seemed so friendly until we got near Axiom Labs. And tiny."

"Hey, " Tucker was staring beyond Danny "What's going on with Valerie's friends?"

Danny and Sam turned to look at the popular kids table. They watched as Valerie dejectedly skulked off from her friends and sat at a different table by herself. She pulled a sandwich out of her brown bag and picked at it.

"Wait, why isn't Valerie sitting with her friends?" Danny asked.

"If I had to guess," Sam said "All her dear A-lister 'friends' dropped her the second they heard she was broke."

"Oh."

Yeah, Danny wasn't eating the rest of his lunch today.

"Man," Tucker knitted his brow "Losing your house, all your money, and your friends all in one go? That's rough. We should go talk to her."

"What?" Sam rolled her eyes "And throw rich girl a pity party for finally getting a dose of reality?"

"She's still a person Sam." Tucker glared at Sam as he spoke. "A person whose going through a real tough time right now." He looked over at Danny. "You coming?"

"I..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn't look Tucker in the eye. "...don't think that's a good idea, Tuck. It might be weird, cuz it's kind of my fault she in this situation in the first place, so..."

Tucker stood up.

"You two are unbelievable. Well, I'm going to talk to her whether you jerks come with me or not."

He walked away. Sam kept and impassive expression, but she didn't look at Danny. He also avoided eye contact with her.

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

"Hey Valerie." Tucker greeted her. She looked up from her sandwich and glared at Tucker. "Uh, I'm Tucker. Tucker Foley."

"I know who you are. You're in my PE class."

"We also went to the last dance togeth- never mind. You mind if I sit?"

She didn't say anything. Maybe this was a bad idea, but Tucker felt like he had to at least try, so he sat down.

"Sorry your friends are being such jerks."

"So the entire cafeteria saw my humiliating rejection. That's just what I needed."

"I mean, I just heard about what happened with your dad, and-"

"Great, so the whole school is talking about how much of a loser I've become?"

"No! I just follow Axiom Labs, being a tech nerd and all, and I read about the, uh, incident, and how they sued your dad, so I thought-"

"Thought what? That you'd just walk over here to nobly pity to the lonely loser kid? Ooh, lucky me! The biggest nerd in school wants to sit with me! How could my life possibly get any better! All my problems have been dwarfed thanks to the presence of Tucker freaking Foley everyone!"

Despite her harsh words, Tucker found himself having difficulty getting offended. Maybe he was desensitized from Dash's crew saying stuff like this about him all the time, but maybe deep down he understood that Valerie wasn't trying to hurt him specifically, she was just lashing out. She was at a pretty low point, so Tucker figured he could forgive her for this one.

"Look," he said firmly, but not harshly. "I know you're having a hard time. It's not easy, having your whole life upended by ghosts. But, and as weird as this sounds-" "Ghosts?"

It sounded ridiculous, but once Tucker said the word 'ghosts', gears started to turn in Valerie's head. The monster that had destroyed Axiom seemed able to disappear, and the kid that had saved her and the others could fly through walls.

They were ghosts.

Ghosts were real.

It sounded crazy, but, somehow, it was the only thing that made sense.

"Oh my gosh!" Valerie shot up from her seat "Ghosts!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Tucker said sitting down opposite her. "I deal with ghosts all the time, there's no need to freak out."

But it was too late. Valerie wasn't listening. She was running towards the cafeteria faster than Tucker had ever seen her run in gym class.

"Hey, wait!" Tucker called after her "You forgot your-"

But Valerie was long gone.

"-lunch."

Tucker sighed and stood up. Worried some bully might steal it, he packed up Valerie's lunch and headed back to his table.

"Well that went well." Sam said dryly.

"At least I tried Sam." Tucker glared at her, not at all in a joking mood.

"How is she?" Danny asked tentatively.

"Not good. She's really freaked out and upset over everything."

"I wish there was something I could do to help her."

"Me too. I think I just made everything worse, though. You gonna finish that?" Tucker pointed to Danny's tray. Danny shoved it over to Tucker.

Nobody said anything for the rest of the lunch hour.

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

They all split up after lunch. Tucker hated that they had separate fourth periods on Thursdays.

As he turned the corner he smashed into someone carrying a rather large stack of books. Tucker and the other person fell to the ground and the books they were carrying went everywhere.

"Oh jeez, sorry!" Tucker scrambled to collect the books. "I did not see you at all! But, maybe you shouldn't be carrying so many books that you can't-" he suddenly noticed a theme in the books he was picking up.

"Ghost Hunter's Almanac? Ghost Hunting for Nitwits? What's with the interest in-" he looked up from the books in his hand and saw Valerie picking up up the rest of the mess.

"Oh. Hey Valerie." What were the chances? "Um, here's your...ghost books back." he held them out awkwardly. Valerie glared at him and snatched her books back.

"What, are you stalking me or something?"

"No, I honestly didn't see you. You know, if you're interested in ghosts, Danny's parents are ghost experts. You could totally ask him for help. Or you could ask me and I'll ask him." Tucker gave what he hoped was a charming and friendly smile, but it just seemed to annoy Valerie.

"I don't know what your game is Foley." she said, glaring at him. "But you can quit now. I don't have any money left, and despite my new status, there's no way I'll ever be desperate enough to date you. So you've got nothing to gain from sucking up to me."

"Wait, what?" Tucker blinked in confusion. "Valerie, I'm not trying to get anything from you, I'm just trying to help. Honest."

"Great, I've even lost my appeal to the bottom of the barrel."

Wow, Valerie was making it really hard to be nice to her.

"Then what do you want? Why are you being so nice to me?"

"You just, seem like you could use some kindness, I guess." Tucker shrugged. "I do kind of know what it's like for ghosts to uproot your life. Adjusting can be...hard."

"Oh." Now it was Valerie's turn to be caught off guard. "Well, thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome, I guess."

Valerie started to walk away.

"Hey, wait!"

"Ha, I knew it! I knew you wanted something!"

"You forgot this at lunch," Tucker handed her her paper bag. "I thought you might get hungry later."

"Oh." Valerie took the bag. She and Tucker just stood there looking at each other for a few seconds. The bell suddenly rang, interupting their awkward staring contest.

"Oh no, I'm late!" they both said at the same time, sprinting off in opposite directions.

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

Valerie was having trouble processing her interaction with Tucker. It was weird. Her own friends had snubbed her, but the loser kid she (if she could help it) never talked to was helping her at her lowest point? Valerie didn't get it.

But at least he had reminded her of some valuable information; Danny Fenton's parents were ghost hunters. That meant some of the worlds leading ghost experts were right in her town. Ghost experts she could actually talk to. The books were interesting, but they weren't super helpful. If she wanted to protect herself from ghosts, she needed weapons.

And Fenton Works was just the place to get them.

Valerie rang the doorbell. She fixed her hair while she waited for someone to answer. She only had one shot at this, so she needed things to go as well as possible.

A large man in an orange jumpsuit, whom Valerie recognized as Danny's father opened the door. He looked back and forth a few times before looking down and spotting her.

"And who might you be?" on paper the question might have sounded rude, but the man seemed earnestly curious. "One of Danny or Jazz's friends?"

"I'm in Danny's class. My name's Valerie Gray." Valerie tilted her head slightly and used a voice she'd been perfecting since kindergarten to get adults to do what she wanted "I just heard that the Fenton's were top tier ghost hunters, and I was wondering if there was any way you could teach me so I could help fight against the ghosts too."

Jack absolutely beamed when she finished speaking. Valerie internally pumped her fist. That was a good sign.

"Well would you look at that." he said. "It's not often you find young people so enthusiastic about ghost hunting these days. Maddie! Come here!"

"What is it Jack?" Maddie appeared at the door. "Oh, are you selling cookies? I didn't know they let teenagers be girl scouts." Again, in theory that sentence could have been condescending, but Maddie sounded genuinely interested.

"She's not selling cookies Mads. Wait, are you selling cookies?" Valerie shook her head. "Darn. Anyway, this is one of Danny's friends. She came here to ask us about ghost hunting!"

"Ooh!" Maddie squealed. "That's exciting! What did you want to know Sweetie?"

"I wanted to become a ghost hunter, like you two." Valerie said, putting on her best smile and sunniest voice. "I want to learn how to fight ghosts so I can protect this town and myself when those menaces attack."

"Wow, such ambition!" Maddie beamed "Unfortunately we can't actually teach you to fight ghosts."

"What?" Valerie felt like a balloon in her chest had deflated.

"Yeah," Jack nodded solemnly "Those police officers warned us about giving out 'volatile energy weapons' to 'random teenagers' after the last time. We'd love to recruit you kiddo, but they said they wouldn't be so forgiving next time."

"But I'll be careful!" Valerie wasn't ready to give up "You could train me, and I promise I wouldn't use any of the weapons unless it was a real emergency, and-"

"Sorry Sweetie, I'm afraid our hands are tied."

Valerie face fell and her shoulders slumped.

"I'll tell you what, though." Valerie held her breath when Maddie spoke. "We can give you these."

She handed Valerie two small devices. One looked like a pager, and the other sort of like a shield handle without the shield.

"The Fenton Pager and The Fenton Hand Shield." Jack said proudly.

Well, that made sense.

"You can use the Pager to contact us if you run into any ghosts."

"Our number's also in the phone book if you have any questions." Maddie added. "Our message box is usually pretty empty, so we should be able to get back to you fairly quickly."

"That shield is also a piece of cake to operate." Jack said "You just use the button to turn it on and off. It's small, but easy to transport and conceal. The ghosts'll never suspect you've got it on you."

"The charge doesn't last very long, but you shouldn't need to use it much. For emergencies only."

Valerie lost all hope when Maddie said that.

"Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. I should really be getting home now."

"It was great to meet you...what was your name again?" Maddie asked pleasantly, as if she hadn't just crushed all of Valerie's hopes and dreams.

"Valerie."

"It was nice to meet you Valerie. Feel free to stop by anytime."

Valerie heard the door close behind her as she walked glumly down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom and stared at the devices in her hands. The shield was something, she supposed, but nowhere close to what she was hoping for.

She closed her hand into a fist and clutched the hand-shield.

"I'll find a way." She said looking up, determination burning on her face.

"Find a way to do what?"

Valerie jumped and turned towards the voice. Her thumb instinctively found the button on the hand-shield, and a translucent green circle about the size of a trash can lid sprung up in front of her face.

"Who's there!?"

The stranger stepped out of the shadows of the ally way.

"My apologies for startling you. I'm-"

"I know who you are. Vlad Masters. CEO of VladCo." Valerie clicked the button with her thumb again, and the shield retracted.

"Hm. I'm not usually recognized by people under twenty. Anyway, I couldn't help but overhear you've taken an interest in ghost hunting."

"What's it to you?" She crossed her arms and glared at Vlad challengingly. Under any other circumstances, she would've been excited to meet the famous billionaire, but not when she'd just caught him creeping in an alley, eavesdropping on her.

"Not many people take interest in that particular field. Most don't even believe in ghosts in the first place, let alone want to hunt them. Especially not your age."

"You...believe that ghosts are real too?" Valerie was surprised.

"My dear I've run into many ghosts over the course of my life time. Spoken to more ghosts than ghost-believers."

Valerie scoffed.

"Spoken? To those monsters?"

"Whether you believe it or not, it's true. However, as I'm sure you're aware, not all ghosts are friendly. I'd advise you to steer clear and leave the ghost hunting to the professionals."

"Professionals?" Now Valerie was seething. What right did this guy have to just show up and tell her what to do and not worry about? "You mean the same 'professionals' who stopped that giant monster from destroying my father's security system? The same professionals that saved everyone at Axiom Labs who was in danger? The same professionals who stopped my life from being completely ruined in front of me? Oh wait!"

"Tell me Mister Masters," Valerie took a step forward. Vlad stepped back. "What right do you have to just show up, out of literally nowhere, and tell me what I should be doing with my life. "

Maybe this had been coming. Maybe Valerie's fear and anger had been festering for too long and were finally boiling over the edge. Maybe it was because she was never going to see this idiot again. Whatever the reason, she let out everything she'd been carrying inside her for the past week.

"You haven't lied awake at night because you're too afraid to close your eyes in case something more terrifying than most people can even imagine shows up and destroys your life without warning. You haven't had nightmares about giant green faces that wake you up in a cold sweat at 3:00am when you finally do get to sleep. You haven't seen monster you know you saw, but can't tell anyone about because they'd think you were crazy!" She felt tears prickling the corners of her eyes, but she pressed on. Now that she'd started, she wasn't going to stop until she got everything out of her system.

"You don't have to look at your dad's face every morning when he smiles and tells you everything's gonna work out, when both you and he know the truth is that everything sucks, and it might suck for a long time! Maybe forever." Valerie's voice wavered, but she steadied herself. "Ghosts took everything from me! And that monster is going to continue to haunt my life until I do something about it!"

Valerie could feel herself shaking. She felt drained, but also lighter than she had in a week.

Vlad didn't say anything. He looked mildly surprised. Valerie found that she didn't care what he thought. She turned around to leave.

"You're right."

She stopped walking and looked over her shoulder.

"Ghosts can haunt you in more ways than one. I...have experienced the fear. I've lied awake worrying that what happened once may happen again. I've gone about my daily life on edge, worrying that they might attack out of nowhere. If anyone knows what you're going through, it's me. I have no right to tell you to just go back to living your life like nothing happened when I know that's impossible."

Valerie was genuinely speechless. She hadn't expected this old man to listen to her, to care, to understand.

"I know someone who can deal with the ghost that attacked Axiom. It will be dealt with, I can assure you."

Valerie nodded and bit her lip thoughtfully.

"But there's more, aren't there?" she said. "And don't you dare lie to me."

"Yes."

"A lot?"

"I'm afraid so."

"I know what they can do. The damage they can cause. I won't be able to sit by and watch ghosts destroy the lives of the people around me. I can't do nothing."

Vlad didn't say anything right away. He looked pensive.

"I'll make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"The kind that will give you the tools you need to protect you from ghosts, and help you protect others."

"You mean ghost weapons?" Valerie raised her eyebrows.

"Yes. Weapons and armour, of sorts. But, you'll have to agree to a few conditions."

"What are these conditions?"

"Firstly, you must be careful. Ghost hunting is dangerous and the only reason I'm giving you the tools to do it is because you seem desperate enough to go charging in with or without proper protection. And if those are my only two choices, than I know which one I'd rather you do.

Secondly, as I told you before, not all ghosts are as dangerous as the one that attacked Axiom. Many are quite friendly if you get to know them. I imagine most of the ones you meet here in Amity won't be, but I'll have to leave that to your discretion. That being said, I believe you've met a ghost child? Looks about your age? Lanky, black hazmat suit, white hair?"

"Yeah, I've met him." Valerie knit her brow. She actually hadn't thought about that ghost kid much. She'd been too preoccupied with the dog.

"He's on your side. I'd strongly advise working with him if you can, but you are under no circumstances to harm him. He's been protecting Amity from a large sum of ghosts these past few months. Simply put, there might have been a lot more Axiom-situations if it wasn't for him."

Valerie's eyes widened. So ghosts attacks had been happening without her even knowing? She wasn't sure if she found that comforting or creepy.

"I'm afraid this part of the deal is non-negotiable. I'll need your word you won't harm him."

"Yeah, I'll leave him alone. I wouldn't go after him anyway. He...saved me when the dog attacked. He saved everyone. I didn't get his name, though. Do ghosts even have names?"

"Most of them do. I believe he goes by 'Danny Phantom'. Do me a favour, if you will, keep an eye on him for me?" Vlad seemed almost...concerned about this ghost. Valerie wondered why.

"Was he...close to you, or something?" she was trying to be sensitive, but truthfully this situation was kind of awkward.

"Hm? Oh, well, I've only met him recently. I just...see myself in him in some ways. He's capable, but what he does is dangerous. I'd rather neither of you involved yourselves in ghost hunting at all, but if you're going to either way, it might be good to have each other's backs."

A ghost who was a ghost hunter? With all the other craziness suddenly going on in her life, why not?

"I'll...think about it. I'd better get home before my dad starts to worry."

"Yes. It was very nice meeting you Valerie. You should receive something in the mail shortly. I'll send you something...appropriate. Goodnight, and do be careful."

"Thanks Mister Masters." Valerie said, turning away.

Vlad watched Valerie walk away into the night. Sure, he'd expected some excitement , but this was not at all how he'd thought his night to go. What had he gotten himself into with this teenager?

He'd worry about that later. Once he was certain she was gone, he stepped back into the alleyway and summoned the black rings that transformed him into ghost form.

Once the transformation was complete, Vlad floated up to Danny's window.

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

Danny jumped when he heard something tapping on his window. He almost fell out of his seat when he looked up from his homework and saw Vlad Plasmius's face behind the glass. He was waving and smiling politely, but seeing that face at your window was enough to stop anyone's heart.

He went over and opened the window.

"Vlad!" Danny said happily. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see you, but a little warning might have been nice."

"I did say I'd be dropping by. Are you available right now?"

"Absolutely." Danny said, transforming and flying out the window beside Vlad. "We should probably take this somewhere else, though. Wouldn't want to accidentaly get spotted by my parents."

"Yes, that would definitely be wise."

They decided to fly over to Amity Park Park (after Danny managed to convince Vlad that, yes, that was really what the park was named). They talked as they flew.

"So how long are you staying in Amity?" Danny asked.

"My business with Axiom is almost all settled. I'll be heading back to Wisconsin tomorrow."

"Oh." Well that was disappointing. "Hey, you've been to the Ghost Zone before, right?"

"Yes I have. Many times in fact."

"What's it like in there?"

Vlad thought for a second.

"The Ghost Zone, despite being intrinsically linked to the human world, is nothing like it. It is an endless swirling void of ectoplasm and chaos. It's like outer space in a way, only green instead of black and without stars. There are patches of land floating about. Islands, if you will, and they all seem to operate on different rules. If a human were to enter the Ghost Zone, they'd likely be stuck on one of those islands, since navigation is impossible without flight. Gravity does not exist and, of course, you are surrounded by various types of ghosts at all times."

"That sounds...terrifying."

"I'd say it's more confusing than scary. Sure, you have to be prepared for the unexpected, but that's what makes it interesting. The threat of death may be in any direction you look, but so is the thrill of discovery!"

Danny suddenly understood how his parents and Vlad became friends.

"Now it's my turn for a question. Do your parents often have their inventions around the house?"

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"Have they noticed that you seem to set all their devices off?"

"They always assume it's a glitch or something. I usually just pretend to be as confused as they are, and try to leave the room as fast as possible. They don't suspect anything so far."

There was a pause in the conversation.

"It's amazing how they can be so brilliant yet so dense."

"Makes my job easier." Danny shrugged.

"Still, it must be quite stressful, being constantly under the risk that someone might find out. Especially with no one to talk to about it."

"Well, I'm not totally alone."

"Oh? Does Jazz know about your powers? I didn't think to ask last time."

"No. Sam and Tucker were there when the accident first transformed me."

"Sam and Tucker?"

"My friends. You met them when you came over the other night."

"Oh." Vlad furrowed his brow. "So you do have people in your life who...accept you for what you are."

Danny thought that was kind of a weird way to phrase it.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hm." Vlad had a strange expression on his face. Danny wasn't sure if he should say something. "That's...interesting. On another note, how have you been keeping up with the local ecto activity?" Vlad asked. "Any particularly troublesome ghosts?"

"Uhh, you know the whole Axiom situation? Well...there was this ghost dog that showed up and attacked Axiom Labs a few days ago. It hasn't really caused any trouble, you know, besides the whole destroying Axiom thing, but I'd like to track it down and get it back to the Ghost Zone anyway, just to make sure he won't cause more trouble, but he seems to have disappeared completely."

"Have you checked Axiom Labs?"

"What?"

"If the ghost has caused a disturbance at Axiom, then that place may hold some significance for him."

"But there's like, construction workers and stuff there. Surely someone would've noticed a giant green dog."

"Daniel, have you heard that demolition on the building was delayed?"

"Wait, what?"

"Well, this information hasn't been made public, but it has been delayed indefinitely. They haven't been able to extract the remaining projects because apparently anyone whose sent in reports being scared off by a horrible monster. They haven't been able to organize a proper investigation yet."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I was actually planning on asking if you knew anything about that."

"Well now I know where to look at least."

"Are you going after it tonight?"

"I mean, the sooner I get rid of it, the better, right?"

"I suppose." Vlad nodded. "Though, if this ghost has bested you before, perhaps it would be good to bring some extra firepower."

"Did you have something in mind?"

"Yes, in fact, I'd like to accompany you. If you're alright with that."

"Really? That'd be awesome!" Danny said. "Hang on, I just need to call- oh..."

"What is it?"

"Well," Danny rubbed the back of his neck "I just usually bring Sam and Tucker along on these things, but they don't know about you."

Vlad didn't say anything. Danny couldn't read his facial expression.

"I mean, it's fine, though. I take on ghosts by myself all the time, so they don't really need to be there."

"They can come if you like." Vlad said.

Danny might've jumped if he wasn't already in midair.

"Really? Are you sure you don't mind?"

"I'll admit it will be strange explaining my...situation to them." Vlad gestured to himself. "But I'd like to meet your friends properly. And see how you three do on the field."

"Huh. Wow. So no pressure or anything."

"I'll reserve judgments, but I may have some useful pointers." Vlad grinned. " There's a small thicket near Axiom's front entrance. You can explain things to your friends and meet me there."

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

"So you think the dog's still hanging out at Axiom?" Sam said.

"Wouldn't there be an excavation crew swarming the place? Surely we'd have heard if something ghostly was going on there?" Tucker said.

"That's the thing," Danny said. "There have been sightings. Specifically of a giant green dog monster. Sound familiar?" Tucker and Sam's eyes widened at Danny's words. "The higher ups have been trying to keep it quiet, so word hasn't gotten out to the press yet."

"Okay," Sam raised an eyebrow "So how do you know all that? You're not exactly the world's greatest detective there, Sherlock."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Danny asked.

"First off," Tucker cut in "the world's greatest detective is Batman, not Sherlock Sam." Sam glared at Tucker. "Second, yeah, how do you know all that?"

"You remember how Vlad Masters was visiting my family?"

"Yeah?" Sam and Tucker said together.

"Well, the reason he came down to Amity Park was because of the whole Axiom fiasco."

"Ah, that makes sense." Sam said. "The tangled web. Figures he wouldn't be down here just to visit old friends."

"So, Vlad was able to get the inside scoop and shared it with you?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"So the rich crone wasn't useless after all." Sam smirked. "That's a first."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Tucker said "Let's get down to Axiom and bust that ghost!"

"Um, first, there's, uh, something else you two should know. About Vlad."

Sam and Tucker both looked at Danny. Neither of them said anything, curious as to what Danny could possible have to tell them about CEO family-friend Vlad Masters.

"Um, well, you remember how I said he and my parents split up in college?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't really planned how he was going to break it to them. "Well, what actually happened was that Vlad was in an accident. See, he and my parents used to study ghosts back in college."

"Seriously?" Sam smirked. "Vlad Masters was into ghosts in his college days. He just became the slightest bit interesting. Wait, were you about to tell us that the he's going to Axiom to nerd out, or something? Ugh, that would mess with things."

"Er, no, not exactly. See, it's just that when Vlad got into his accident, he and my parents were trying to build a...ummm...a ghost portal. And it kind of went off on him."

Nobody said anything for a second. Then Sam's eyes bulged.

"Wait," she said "Hold on. Are you saying...what I think you're saying? No. No way!" Sam put a hand to her forehead, eyes fixed vacantly on the ground.

"Wait, what?" Tucker looked between Danny and Sam. "What's he saying? What happened to Vlad?"

"Tucker," Sam grabbed Tucker by the shoulders and looked him directly in the eye "Vlad had a ghost portal accident." she said, stressing each of the last three words.

Realization suddenly dawned on Tucker.

"Wait," wide-eyed, he pushed Sam off of him and looked At Danny "Are you're saying that...Vlad Masters is half-ghost too!?"

"Yeah." Danny confirmed. "Turns out there's someone else like me."

Danny felt a strange lightness in his chest once those words left his mouth. The feeling surprised him, but if was nice.

"Anyway," Danny snapped out of his daze "We should head down to Axiom. I told Vlad we were going to meet him there."

Tucker and Sam, still slack-jawed, just blinked at Danny.

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

The trio hid their scooters in some bushes once they got close enough to Axiom.

"Okay," Danny said "Now we just gotta find Vlad and come up with a plan."

"Where did he say he'd meet you?" Sam asked.

"Somewhere in this thicket."

"He couldn't have been a little more specific?"

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere. We'll just have to-"

"Good evening."

"AH!" All three of them jumped at Vlad's voice.

"How long have you been standing there?" Tucker asked, clutching his chest.

"Oh, not long." Vlad turned to Danny. "I assume you've explained things to them?"

Danny nodded.

"Excellent. I was floating above invisibly, waiting for you three to arrive. I wasn't going to stand somewhere in the middle of these trees and hope you'd run into me. That would be a little ridiculous. I did also scout the building while I was waiting for you. No sign of that ghost dog in my preliminary search, I'm afraid."

"Does that mean it left?" Danny asked. Sam and Tucker seemed to have lost their ability to speak, and were just staring at Vlad. He didn't seem to notice. Or he was pretending not to.

"I doubt it. More likely it's just hiding. We'll either have to do a more thorough search and hope to stumble upon it, or find a way to lure it out."

"Oh!" Sam suddenly gained her voice back "I actually brought something for that."

She swung her spider backpack off her shoulders and unzipped it. Inside were various dog toys and a small bag of dog treats.

"He may be a ghost dog," Sam pulled out a squeaky toy and squeaked it "But he's still a dog, right?"

"Excellent thinking." Vlad smiled "You seem to have a very good instinct for ghosts...Sam, was it? Well, we can talk more inside. I don't know how long this will take, so we'd better start searching right away."

The group began to walk towards the Axiom Labs building. They'd barely started down the hill when Danny felt a sudden chill and a puff of mist escaped from his mouth.

He looked around. There was no sign of a ghost anywhere. That was weird. Danny thought he was too far away, but maybe the dog had set off ghost sense?

Danny sighed. He'd had his powers for months and still couldn't seem to quite get how they worked.

He looked over at Vlad. Vlad's ghost sense must have gone off too, but he didn't seem concerned, so Danny figured it probably wasn't something to worry about. It was just the dog setting it off.

Yeah, that was probably it.

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

Danny pulled Tucker and Sam through the walls of Axiom intangibly. They both stared at Vlad as he emerged beside them.

"Wow," Tucker said "There really is another half ghost in the world."

"What?" Vlad raised an eyebrow playfully "You didn't believe him?"

"No! It's just, it's, weird, I guess." Tucker shrugged awkwardly.

"I understand that it can be a lot to take in." Vlad casually examined his fingernails. "I am open to questions, but we'd better start moving. As I said before, I don't know how long it will take us to find our ghost, so we'd better start now."

And so the four of them patrolled the building. Tucker carried the bag of treats and threw one on the ground every so often. Danny held the squeaky toy and squeaked it a few times whenever they entered a new room.

They walked in silence for a while, Tucker and Sam seeming to not want to address the elephant in the room.

"So, how long have you had ghost powers, Mister Masters, sir?"

Okay, maybe Tucker was actually fine addressing the elephant.

"Oh, about twenty years at this point." Vlad said "And just 'Vlad' is fine, son."

"Cool. And I go by Tucker. Tucker Foley."

"Noted."

"So...I was wondering, do you ever use your tech for ghost research? I've actually used some of VladCo's stuff to modify Danny's parent's inventions. The kritonic stabilizer really improved the Fenton Thermos. Danny could stabilize it with his ecto-whatever, but I noticed the KS did a similar thing, so that way the rest of us could use it too. Didn't take too long to solder, either." Tucker smiled a wide smile that made Sam silently glare at him.

"As a matter of fact, that's what it was actually initially developed for. Not that my employees knew that. I told them it was for improving cooling systems. Of course, PC's don't run on quite the same energy wave a lot of ecto technologies do. In the end it was rolled out onto very few models, since the impact on efficiency was negligible, but it was quite useful for me personally for its capabilities with ecto-energy stabilization."

"Yeah, I actually got one of the PC's that implemented KS, and that's where I got the it for the thermos. I always wondered why they'd bothered with it. Worked out pretty well for us, though. I thought it was such a weird coincidence that something so useless happened to work so well for ghost hunting."

Danny squeaked the toy as they entered a large room through an mangled archway. He soon found himself unable to keep up with Vlad and Tucker's conversation. How did this always happen?

At least his friends were getting along with Vlad.

"Shh!" Sam suddenly stopped walking.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I hear something."

"What is it?"

"I don't know, shh!"

The rest of the group listened. Now that they weren't talking, Danny noticed it too: a soft crunching noise. The noise stopped after a second and then started again.

"What do you think that is?" Danny whispered.

"I think the dog found our trail." Tucker whispered back, holding up the bag of treats for emphasis.

A high pitched bark suddenly cut through the silence.

"Yup, that's definitely the dog." Danny said.

The barking started to get louder.

"Okay, I'm going ghost!" Danny held up his arms and transformed. He turned to Sam and Tucker. "You two stay back. This dog is not something you want to mess with."

Danny squared up, ready to fight. The barking was steadily getting closer, until around the corner appeared...

A small dog yipping happily. He turned the corner too fast and slipped onto his face, but quickly recovered and kept running towards Danny. When he got close enough, he jumped towards Danny's chest. Danny instinctively caught the dog.

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean Danny." Sam nodded "Reeeal Scary."

"I...don't get it." Danny said. He absentmindedly started to pet the dog. "He was like this when I first met him, but he turned a lot bigger when he got to Axiom." He tuned to Vlad "And you said he was scaring away all the excavation crew." Vlad nodded. Danny turned back to the dog. "What is your deal?"

"Maybe he just hates humans?" Sam shrugged. "He did seek you out when he came here. Ghost dog likes ghost?"

The dog lept out of Danny's arms, ran over to Tucker and stood up on his hind legs, wagging his tail. Tucker dug a treat out of his bag.

"Sit!" He said, holding up a treat. The dog sat obediently.

"Wow! He's well trained." Tucker tossed the him the treat. The dog caught it and happily wagged his tail. He got down on one knee and scratched the dog under his chin.

"Good theory Sam, but he doesn't seem to mind Tucker." Danny said.

"And if you can stand him, you can stand any human." Sam nodded.

"Hey!"

"But then why did he attack the Axiom employees?"

"Hey, check this out!" Tucker said. "On his collar! It's the Axiom logo!"

"What?" Danny and Sam gathered around the dog. Sure enough, the tag on his collar bore the atom insignia of the company.

"You know," Tucker said "I was doing some research, and Axiom did used to use guard dogs before Valerie's dad upgraded their security system. I have a feeling that might be relevant."

"So the dog came back to destroy Axiom to get revenge for being replaced?" Danny said.

"You're getting warmer," Danny had almost forgotten Vlad was there. "But there's still a hole in your theory. You may have noticed that the majority of the lab's projects are still intact. And, according to reports from various Axiom employees, our ghost doesn't seem to have caused any further damage since the initial attack."

Danny took a quick look around the room. The most prominent signs of the dog's earlier attack were a charred security camera dangling on one wall, and the doorway they had come through that was actually a large hole in a mangled steel security door. There were some gashes in the walls, but none of the computers or other furniture in the room had been damaged.

"It was also recently brought to my attention that it was mainly the security system that he went after."

"Hey, you're right." Danny said.

"And the only other time he was sighted," Sam furrowed her brow in thought "Was when the excavation crew came in to get Axiom's projects. Otherwise he seems to have stayed completely out of sight."

"Yeah, it didn't like those people, but it doesn't really seem to mind us being here." Tucker said.

"Okay," Danny said "So he destroyed the security system because it replaced him, but he hates the excavation crew because...?"

"Because they were trying to take Axiom's stuff!" Tucker snapped his finger "And it's the dog's job to protect Axiom's stuff!"

"Yeah!" Sam said "Cujo over here was actually just doing what a guard dog's trained to do!"

"So...he's not trying to get revenge?" Danny said "He's just trying to do his job?"

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a ghost phasing through the floor and snapping something around the dog's neck before anyone could react.

"Ha ha! At long last I, Technus, have caught the guardian of Axiom in it's smaller form, thanks to the distraction caused by you, ghost child, as well as you teenage friends." Technus seemed to notice Vlad for the first time. He seemed caught off guard by his presence. "As well as this senior citizen, I suppose?"

"I'm forty-two." Vlad said.

"I knew it wasn't the dog that triggered my ghost sense!" Danny said.

The ghost dog began to glow green, like the first time he transformed when Danny met him. He yelped as little sparks shot out of his collar and remained the same size.

Sam looked at the dog with horror in her eyes. She turned towards Technus and glared.

"What did you do to him?" She demanded.

"I have placed an inhibitor collar around this dog's neck, barring it's access to it's much larger and scarier form. For days that infernal mutt has been tormenting me! Biting and drooling all over my stylish trench coat whenever I so much as set foot in Axiom Laboratories. But, now that it has been neutralized I, Technus, now have unfettered access to all of Axiom's most advanced technologies!"

Technus finished his speech by thrusting his arms out to the side. Various machine pieces began to flow towards him from every hallway and swarmed around his body.

"Behold, my ultimate revenge upon this menace guard dog, Mecha-Kitty 5000!"

In about thirty seconds, Technus was decked out in a mechanical suit that looked like a giant cat. A giant metal cat with glowing green eyes and matching veins of energy running along it's body. It had razor sharp metal claws, and teeth fixed in an incredibly creepy smile.

"And now, before I use the technology in this lab to take over the world, I'm going to destroy you meddling kids and that pesky dog! And, also this elder."

Cujo whimpered. He looked at the ground and tucked his tail between his legs.

Danny clenched his fists and turned to face Technus. He began to fly towards him, but Vlad put his arm out to stop him.

"You three get the collar off the dog." he said. "I'll handle this." He turned away from the group and looked into the robot cat's visor. A black ring appeared around his waist, splitting into two and travelling up and down Vlad's body, transforming him.

Sam and Tucker stared at him with awe and a little bit of intimidation. This was their first time seeing Vlad in his ghost form.

"I don't suppose you're familiar with the name 'Vlad Plasmius'?" Vlad asked, floating up to Technus's level.

"I, Technus, am not familiar with the name 'Vlad Pasmius'!" Technus seemed surprised by Vlad's ghostly transformation. He quickly recovered, though, and the robot cat swiped it's claws at Vlad. Vlad managed to dodge them, though.

"That," Vlad began to charge up an ecto beam in his hand "Is about to change, then."

The robo-cat raised it's tail and began shooting electrical beams out the end of it. Vlad threw his charged up ecto blast at the robot before quickly swooping to dodge the electric blast. Vlad's blast hit the cat's cheek, but barely seemed to do any damage.

"Is that all you've got?" Technus gloated. He fired beam after beam at Vlad.

Vlad split into two while Technus continued to fire at him. The two Vlads flew in around in a random swirling pattern. Danny quickly lost track of which Vlad was which.

"Blast it!" Technus cried "Stay still so that I, Technus, master of all things electronical, can fry you with my electronic blasts already!"

The robo-cat began to shoot alternating electrical beams out of it's nostrils as well. The two Vlad's continued to swoop around intricately, making it hard for Technus to aim properly. They both stayed well away from the area where Danny and his friends were.

Danny turned away from the fight. He grabbed the dog's collar and tried to make it intangible, but was met with an electric shock. Danny and the ghost dog both yelped.

"Sorry boy." Danny said, shaking his smoulderding hand.

"If the collar's designed to block ghost powers, then ghost tricks aren't going to work on it." Sam said.

"Then let's try a tech trick." Tucker pulled a jack cord out of his backpack and plugged it into Technus's collar and his PDA. Green text that was incomprehensible to Danny began to scroll down the screen.

"Bingo! I'll have this collar off of him in no time!"

"Perfect." Danny stood up. "In the meantime, I'll go help Vl-"

Danny stopped mid-sentence when he turned. He didn't see Vlad.

Suddenly, Vlad appeared beneath the robo cat. He clenched his fist and charged up an ecto beam. At least, Danny thought it was an ecto blast. The aura around his hand intensified, and then spread down the rest of his arm.

With his other hand, Vlad shot an ecto beam at one of the robo cat's front legs. It struck it right in the knee joint, causing that leg to buckle. The robot was thrown off balance. As Technus adjusted, Vlad flew over to one of it's back legs.

He grabbed it just above the knee joint with his glowing hand, assaulting everyone's ears with a screeching cruuuunch. Pink energy spread around the area where Vlad was holding the leg.

The bottom half of the leg split from the top and fell to the ground. The part where it had been severed glowed red-hot, as if it had been melted off.

"Hey, hey! What's going on down there?" Technus said. "What did you do to my leg?"

Vlad's only answer was to unleash an onslaught of ecto beams at Technus's other legs. They weren't very powerful, but Vlad aimed for the knee joints, which kept knocking the giant robot off balance. Technus kept trying to adjust, but Vlad would not let up.

Danny suddenly noticed the cat's tail sneak under the robot's body.

"The tail!" He shouted "Behind you!"

Without even looking, Vlad went intangible and flew up through the robot's body, an electro beam barely missing him. He emerged from the top and kept flying upwards. Once he was almost at the ceiling, he swooped around, flying back towards the robot at top speed, both fists thrust out in front of him.

He turned solid again.

SMAAAASH!!!

The robot's remaining legs, still askew from the earlier ecto beam barrage, instantly gave out from Vlad's impact. The robot's body crashed against the ground, sparks and bits of metal flying off of it.

Vlad hovered above the wreckage. There were two large dents where his fists had made contact with the robot.

That cat was not getting up anytime soon.

Technus intangibly floated out of the robot's head. When he turned solid again, he looked furious.

"You fool!" he shouted "You may have destroyed this glorious creation of mine, but I am a master of technology, and we are currently amongst some of the most advanced technological devices in the world! What's to stop me from rebuilding my machine! Or perhaps something even more powerful!"

Danny suddenly felt something woosh by him, and Technus was bowled over by the ghost dog, now in his gaint form. The dog absolutely pummeled Technus. It was almost hard to watch.

As his finishing move, the ghost picked Technus up with his teeth, shook him violently, and let go. Technus went sailing straight into a wall.

Splat!

Technus actually stayed where he hit the wall for a second before slowly sliding down to the floor. He did not get up.

"I...got the collar off." Tucker said.

"Nice job Tuck." Danny pulled out the thermos and aimed it at Technus. The blue beam began to suck him in.

"Noooo! How could you have best me, Technus, master of-"

Danny slammed the cap on the thermos, cutting off Technus's speech.

The ghost dog turned to face Danny, panting heavily.

"The bad ghost is gone." Danny said. "You did a good job."

The dog shrank back to his normal size and barked happily. To Danny's surprise, the ghost began to disappear, seemingly dissolving into the air. Within a few seconds, he was gone.

"That's...never happened before." Danny said.

"Is he gone?" Tucker asked, looking around. "Like, he's not just invisible?"

"I believe so." Vlad landed on the ground next to Danny. "I haven't seen any ghost that disappears like that reappear. It seems when they do that, they're gone for good. I have no idea where they go but, and I could be wrong, but I think that when that happens it's a good thing for them. Nice job with the collar, by the way Tucker. I may have to hire you one day."

Tucker beamed when Vlad said that.

"All he wanted was to protect Axiom." Sam said. "Even after everything they did?"

"I think he just wanted someone to acknowledge the hard work he did." Tucker said. "Those dogs did a good job, and they weren't exactly rewarded well. Huh. I'm starting to get why you feel bad for animals."

"You three did well tonight." Vlad smiled. "I am quite impressed. You've picked up on the intricacies of ghost hunting rather quickly. Truth be told, I don't even think that I even really had to step in there when I did. You seem to work well as a team, you're all quite resourceful and adaptive, and I honestly don't have any major notes."

The trio all smiled at each other. They weren't used to getting praised.

"Of course, I'd advise you from letting your heads get too big. There's always room for improvement. I do wish I could stay longer, but I'm afraid I'm on a rather tight schedule and must be going now. It was a pleasure to meet you both. Ta ta!"

Before anyone could respond, Vlad went intangible and flew through the roof.

"Okay," Tucker said "I know he said the three of us were good, but we've barely managed to scrape out of half the ghost fights we're in, and that guy took down Technus like it was nothing! Like, seriously, did you see him?"

"Yeah." Sam turned to Danny "Like, we see you do some incredible things, Danny. But that Vlad guy? He's kind of...scary powerful."

"Maybe I'll get that powerful someday too." Danny said "It'd make our jobs easier. And I wouldn't have to keep bugging you guys with ghost hunting."

"Aw, come on Danny," Sam elbowed him in the side "Cut that out. If there's one thing your parents are right about, it's that ghost hunting rules. Please don't tell them I said that, though."

"Oh, absolutely not." Danny laughed.

"Okay, but now that the ghost is gone, we'd better get going." Tucker said. "It is a school night."

"Ooh, look at you being all responsible." Sam smirked.

"I want to be well rested for the release of DOOMED tomorrow."

"Ah, that explains it."

"You saw the trailer I sent you, right Danny?" Tucker wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulder "It's gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah." Danny took one last look at the ceiling. He wished Vlad hadn't left so soon.

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

Danny braced himself for the wave of guilt upon seeing Valerie the next day, but it didn't come. She looked a lot happier today. Her head was held high and she was even smiling.

Much to the trio's surprise, she stopped by their table.

"Hey Tucker." she said. "Thanks for the advice yesterday. It was the best anyone's ever given me."

"No problem." Tucker smiled warmly. "Glad I could help. Hey, you can sit with us if you want."

Tucker's offer earned him some raised eyebrows from Danny and Sam.

"Nah, I got some stuff I gotta research in the library." She turned around "Maybe some other time, though." she said before walking away.

"What'd you say to her anyway?" Danny asked.

"No idea, actually." Tucker shrugged "But she seems happy."

"That...might have something to do with her father getting hired by another company's security department." Sam said.

"Wait, really? That's great!" Danny smiled. "Wait, how do you know that Sam?"

Tucker leaned closer to Sam with a smug expression. "Would you know that because a certain heartless goth actually does have a heart, and put in a good word? Hmmmmm?"

"Someone had to do something." Sam pushed Tucker away by his by face "Since your efforts left her running out of the cafeteria. Anyway, enough about Valerie." Sam turned to Danny. "So, Danny, how long have you had a half-ghost billionaire friend?"

"Huh? Oh, I only found out about him when we met in Wisconsin last month. Honestly, besides last night, I haven't seen him since."

"But, still, it is really cool that there's another half-ghost out there. And one that kicks serious butt too!" Tucker said.

"I just wish he wasn't so busy. It'd be cool if he came around more."

"That's the life of a billionaire, Danny." Sam said "Although, if I were him, I'd be doing everything I can to clear up my schedule and spend time with the only other half-ghost on the planet, so who knows. Maybe you'll see more of him soon."

"Yeah, maybe you're right Sam." Danny didn't mention that Vlad wasn't returning his parent's calls. Vlad seemed to like his parents, but Danny wondered if he'd come around more often if they weren't ghost hunters.

"Yeah, and it's not like you need him anyway." Tucker added. "Sure, he's awesome, but you've been getting waaay better with your powers. I don't think you've fallen through the floor at all this month, and I've lost count of how many ghost-butts you've sent crying back to the Ghost Zone. You're not doing too bad on you own Danny."

Danny smiled. He was glad he had friends like Tucker and Sam. He had no idea how he would've survived becoming half ghost without them. Sure, Vlad made him feel less alone when he was around, but Sam and Tucker made him feel less alone in a different way. Maybe an even better one.

-------------------- Epilogue --------------------

It had been nearly a month since her dad had been hired by the Mansons. Thing were going well.

"I'm moving up the ranks pretty quickly Val! The Mansons are pretty impressed with my work."

"That's great Daddy!"

Even though it was Saturday, Valerie still liked to get up early to see her Dad off. It was worth it to see how excited he was with his progress at work. His smiles in the morning didn't look like they took effort anymore.

"Of course, I'm nowhere near my old salary, but at this rate, we should be able to afford to live in a slightly better apartment. One that's closer to your school. So, as soon as I find a decent one, we're moving!"

"Now that is good news." Valerie said. She was sick of killing cockroaches and getting up at 5:00am to catch the bus to school.

Damon glanced at his watch.

"But only if I make it to work on time. Gotta go Sweetie, have a good day." he kissed the top of her head. "Oh, by the way, that came for you in the mail from Wisconsin." he said, pointing to the package on the living room table Valerie had missed. "Might be that dress you ordered before I got fired. Anyway, gotta go. Love you!" he called on his way out the door.

"Love you too, Daddy!" Valerie called as she heard the door shut. She went over to inspect the package. There wasn't a return address, but Valerie had a pretty good guess of who it was from.

When she pulled open the flaps of the box, she discovered a note at the top of a pile of packing peanuts.

Ms Gray,

As promised, enclosed are two things: a protective suit and an Ecto Blaster. The blaster should be pretty straight forward to use, but the suit is much more advanced and, I imagine, much more helpful. It is made up of ecto-resistant material, and I've added a number of helpful ghost-hunting implements. I've included a detailed manual, and I suggest ample practice before taking on any actual ghosts. I would also appreciate you keeping this on the down-low. Giving volatile energy weapons to teenagers is generally frowned upon, and I am a very public figure. To be perfectly frank, I have my doubts about sending these to you, but I don't like going back on my word, so please do be careful, and remember, there's no shame in backing down.

The note wasn't signed.

"Very nice Mister Masters," Valerie smiled as she dug through the packing peanuts and pulled out a weird gun-looking thing. "Finally, I can get some sweet sweet payback. Things are finally looking up!"

The ecto blaster suddenly went off on it's own. The beam shot out an open window and hit a passing seagull, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Valerie?!" she heard her dad call from down the hall.

"I'm okay!" she yelled back, instinctively hiding the blaster behind her back.

#danny phantom #dp #vlad masters #dp fanfic #danny phantom fanfic #friends in strange places #fisp #fanfic #writing #danny fenton

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abbysratking · 4 years ago

Note

Your ghostfucker!Ellie is my fav fic from you. I haven't felt this excited about a fic for a hot ass minute, so thank you for your service🤙

Omg thank you because same??? I have one thing to finish before I come back to it and I'm already so ready to get back to it 👀👀 Ghostfucker!Ellie rights honestly its what she deserves

#mooncosmicpowermakeup #asks #i have 80% of it figured out there should be at least 2 more chapters???#anyway ellies gonna get more ghost coochie dont worry #thank you!!! ❤❤❤❤

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bratshaws · 2 years ago

Text

goodness gracious 83. brb x oc

THIS FIC IS 18+ ONLY! MINORS PLS DNI!

a/n: i feel we all need jesus.

check out the fic's playlist made by the sweet @wiipes !!

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: fluff, smut ( rooster keeps on being horny for Bea, shocking literally no one )

chapters:

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30/31/32/33/34/35/36/37/38/39/40/41/42/43/44

45/46/47/48/49/50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64

65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!!)

taglist: @mirandastuckinthe80s @roosterschanelslut @wiipes @lcahwriter @shrimping-for-all @gretagerwigsmuse @frenchtoastix

@lizzie-rdj @fanboyluvr @atarmychick007 @comebacktoearthpls

@peachiicherries @mak-32 @lizziespidiepridie @roosterswifey @ollyoxenfrees @piceous21 @sqrlgrl22 @hofficoffi @lexhalstead3 @lorilane33 @legendarydreamersharkparty @luckyladycreator2 @emilybradshaw @j-6o @louisahale @leobabbyyy @kulicny @winter-run @ktjmac @graciereads

There were boxes upon boxes upon boxes all over the house. Throughout the week, they were able to move the most important stuff to the least but still kept some items inside since they still had a lot to do in terms of fixing everything. She was extremely thankful for the dagger squad and Mav, who would come up after work to help them out in moving everything into the new place.

Not to mention they all wanted to take a look at their new house - Coyote and Fanboy beelining to the pool, Payback offering suggestions on how to add more shelves to Beatrice’s office and Phoenix’ and Halo moving around their bathrooms to check the size- which she couldn’t complain about. Evelyn,Shells, Penny and the girls also came, helping them move more stuff around and then enjoying the large patio area with Beatrice.

Bea and Rooster were going to go shopping by the end of the week and then finish everything that was left to do in the house. There were still a lot of boxes to unpack - surprisingly since both of them never thought they had too much stuff - and things to organize.

But it was fine since they were both going to have time to do it.

She also talked to her parents - and eventually Guillermo who was in the house at the time too - what she was doing and she made sure to voice it out as ‘I’m not asking for permission,I am going to move in with Bradley’. Her parents, neither of them, complained. In fact her father smiled and her mother worryingly whispered the word ‘grandchildren’ with almost a wave of tears in her eyes.

Guillermo was quiet, but he took a quick look at his parents to check their reactions, figuring out if he should freak out or not. He was still, out of everyone including their parents, having a hard time seeing Beatrice as the thirty years old woman that she was. To him it was still hard to compute that now she had a boyfriend, a new house and a new car. But he just gave her a small smile for support, he didn’t want her to feel like he was upset at her or something of the sort.

She also told them about the photo shoot, and said that the only reason she was able to get the car and move in with Brad was because of it and that they shouldn’t freak out when it happened. That made them a little bit more uneasy, her father’s expression changed from happiness to worry when she said it was a swimsuit photo shoot - well mainly swimsuit - and she knew he wanted to give her a whole speech about it.

But she reinforced that she was thirty now. She wasn’t under the legal age to do stuff like that.

Eventually they did accept it, a bit begrudgingly so but they did. So really, everything was going great!

She couldn’t complain! Really, it was like that something in her changed, like she was really ready to take over everything and anything now. She had Rooster, she had her independence, she had her own way of doing things, she was so happy.

Beatrice had a lot of time in her days off from the Hard Deck, so she decided to use that time to fix what she could and arrange their clothes. She still hadn’t shown Rooster the picture she was finishing up, thank God she managed to hide it before he noticed it again, shoving it back behind her armoire - in their room - instead of the small walk-in closet they got since she knew he’d be able to find it easily.

She was pulling the clothes from inside the boxes, sitting on her knees with Jolene keeping her company in the master bedroom. It was nearing sunset, which meant Rooster would come back really soon. Beatrice just smiles, humming to herself while placing every article of clothing inside drawers or inside the closet if there was the need to. His Hawaiian shirts stayed inside the armoire since it’d be quicker for him to slip them on before he had to leave anywhere.

She couldn’t help herself, bringing the colorful fabric to her nose to smell his cologne, her cheeks reddening, “And to think a few months back I was smelling my pillow.” she mutters to herself, chuckling as she folds it inside the drawer, keeping it a perfect square next to the others.

Jolene, who was just lying on her side with her head directly angled towards the door, snapped her eyes open when her ear flicked at a noise. A noise she got used to already, a noise that made her roll back to a sitting position with her tail wagging back and forth on the wooden floors. The sound of the garage doors’ opening, followed by the sound of a car turning off was enough for Jolene to stand to her feet and rush down the staircase with her claws clicking on each step.

Her whining gets lower the further she gets away from Beatrice, the brunette smiling while continuing with the chores as she hears Rooster’s deep voice coming from the kitchen where the garage’s inside door connected, “Babe?”

“I’m up here!” she calls back, the sound of his boots hitting the floor, followed by Jolene’s happy tapping right behind showed he was already making his way over, the slow thudding of his feet going up the stairs was enough answer. The steps halt by the doorframe, where Beatrice sees him leaning his shoulder on the threshold, smiling down at her, “Hi!” She gently sets the clothing aside, rushing to stand at her feet and greet him properly, wrapping her arms around his neck to kiss him, humming against his lips.

Beatrice just sighs excitedly when he hugs her middle, tugging her closer to himself as if it was even possible, breaking the kiss to press a trail of butterfly pecks along her jawline, ending with his head pressed on the crook of her neck, “Hi,baby.” his voice is muffled because of where his mouth is currently nestled against, one of her hands coming up to run her fingers through the sandy strands.

His shoulders feel so tense that Beatrice couldn’t help but gently massage them with a hand, “How was work?” he just makes a disgruntled noise, letting go of her waist to step further into the room, leaving Beatrice staring at him in confusion, “Roos?”

Her boyfriend falls back on the bed, like a starfish before he runs his hands up and down his face, inhaling through the space between his fingers, “Roos, what’s going on?”

The pilot runs his tongue inside his mouth, poking his cheek and lower lip as he thought how to reply, “I’m going to be deployed.” he finally says and it sounds heavier than it should be. Beatrice stays close to the door, digesting every word with her mouth parting but nothing coming out, “I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.”

“How long will you be gone?”

Rooster laughs humorlessly, “Five months, maybe six.”

Oh.

Beatrice’s sharp inhale was more felt than heard to him, her lower lip disappearing into her mouth as she tried to figure out how to reply. Her heart was feeling one thing, but her brain was going ‘you knew it would happen again, you knew it would’. Rationality versus emotion was a constant struggle she had in her life. When her eyes lifted to Rooster, she wasn’t expecting him to look so upset, almost angrily glaring at their beige colored ceiling. “Roos…” she calls, but he’s too into his head to hear her, so she has to be more physical.

Beatrice’s stride brings her closer to the bed, closer to his spread legs, the same legs she climbed over and pushed forward so she’d be straddling his hips instead. The sudden weight on his crotch snapped his eyes back down, then up to where Beatrice’s face hovered over his with a small smile, lowering her body so their chests would touch and her hands could be used to prop her chin up, “Hi.” she whispers, “I lost you for a minute there.”

Rooster’s eyebrows remained low, his jaw tense and almost ready to snap at any second, “Sorry.I have a lot on my mind.”

“Tell me.” she says sweetly, removing one of her hands from under her chin to touch his face, “You know you can.”

But he takes a while to finally say something, which Beatrice understands she isn’t going to push him too much when he wasn’t ready. So she waits for a bit, with her chin on his chest, smiling as his huge hands drop down from his sides to her waist, then slid to the flare of her hips then to the curve of her butt, keeping them there, “I knew I was going to get deployed again.” he says quietly, with his eyes still on the ceiling “I just…didn’t want it to be now. We just moved in together, Bea.”

She didn’t interrupt him, but she did push herself upwards a bit more to have a better look of his face, “Six whole fucking months is a lot and we didn’t even unpack half of our stuff yet! And not to mention I don’t want to leave you alone in here.” he shakes his head diminutively as if he couldn’t believe this was happening “It’s a new house in a new neighborhood. I just wanted a little bit more time, you know?”

Beatrice shifts her gaze to the side quickly, before returning to meet his brown eyes, “Do I need to argue with your superiors and tell them to change your schedule?” her lips quirked into a little smile that made his own mouth twitch into a grin, a soft laugh making its way past his lips. But when the laughter died down, his eyes continued serious in a way that Beatrice really disliked, “Brad,” she calls, then kiss the tip of his nose to bring his attention back to her, “Bradley Nicholas.” that made him look, blinking up at her in surprise, “I know you are upset but…I…” Beatrice shrugs, still trying to find words, “I can’t hold you back.”

“You aren’t holding me back.”

“You know what I mean.” she says gently, brushing the pad of her thumb on the tiny scars on his chin, “We both knew it’d happen…and yeah, it sucks and yeah, it could’ve happened at a later time but…it happened now. So, it’s better to deal with it right now than later.”

Rooster’s eyebrows twitch, his jaw goes back to its clenched position before he sighs through his nose, squeezing her buttcheeks through the soft cotton shorts she liked wearing while at home. Home. They had a home and he wouldn’t even be able to enjoy it for too long, “Will you be okay with me gone?”

Beatrice hums, her chest expanding in a deep breath, “I will. I can call Mike to come over, or Shells or even Evelyn if I get too overwhelmed Roos.” he makes a disgruntled face, “But I’ll figure it out, I managed to do it when you left last time…and I know it was for a shorter amount of time but, I managed it the best I could….will we be able to talk?”

“Yeah, a lot more than last time.’ and that gave him some comfort, the mission not being so intense that the contact would be average lifted a weight from his shoulders. He was still upset, but at least it was better than the alternative. “Probably twice a month maybe,I’ll have to check…I’ll probably miss my birthday.”

His birthday was in June. Beatrice frowned, using his chest as support as she pushed herself to sit on his lap, “I’ll prepare you something for when you come back.” she smiles, “Even if it’s a few days later or a month later.” his own frown never dissipated, “Roos…don’t be like that, it’s okay. I’m not upset…well,I am a little but this wasn’t your fault.”

“I know but it’s still…” he sighs, dropping his head onto the soft mattress “Shitty.”

Beatrice purses her lips, staring at the column of his throat for a while, then she lifts herself from his lap - which prompted a noise of complaint from him - “Come on.” she smiles, offering him her hand. Rooster pushed himself to his elbows, confusion written all over his face, “Come on!” she made grabby hands towards him, making the pilot laugh softly and then drop his hand on her own.

“What are you planning?” he questions once he’s back on his feet, towering over her smiling face, “You got very smiley all of sudden.”

“Well,I think tonight will be a good night for me to pamper you.” was her only reply, her cheeks reddening as she spoke, “I’ll prepare us dinner, I know some Italian dishes that I think you’ll like and in the meantime,” she walks around him while holding his hand, guiding him to the bran new ensuite bathroom that looked like a mix of their old bathrooms together, “You’ll take a really nice bath.”

Rooster stares her down with his eyebrows furrowed just enough, watching as she let go of his hand to open the box of fresh bathroom supplies neither of them used yet - as in, they had soap and shampoo but this was the fancy stuff- rummaging through it until she found it, “Bourbon Vanilla.” she says, lifting a dark brown bottle with a golden and black label. He didn’t even see her buying that, how did he not see it?

“Bea,” he tries to call her, to make her stop but she’s on a mission, already grabbing clean towels from the cabinet - it was one of the first things they managed to organize - and setting a dark blue one on the sink. He didn’t think he deserved that, why make her worry so much like that? But then again it was Bea and she was the one who cared about others the most…and his heart just shattered and rebuilt itself thinking about it. He really had no words to explain how much she meant to him, “I…” she turns around to face him once she shuts the faucet, smiling in question, “...thanks babe. I really appreciate it.”

Beatrice’s cheeks redden even more, setting the bottle of liquid soap to the side, “You are welcome.” she leans up enough to kiss his lips gently, giggling against his mouth when he tries to deepen it,”Nooo, no, Roos.” the hand on his chest prevents him from getting closer, “I’m need to prepare us dinner–”

“Do you have to?” he questions once his lips manage to trail kisses down her jawline and her neck, “We can order something.”

She just laughed more, cupping his face with her hands and lifting his head enough so their eyes would meet, “I do. I’d hate having you leave without a proper nice meal.” she whispered, kissing his lips once again, “And I’ll prepare breakfast tomorrow too and I won’t argue about it.” she added quickly when his mouth opened to protest, just pecking his plump lower lip and then skittering around him, “See you in a bit!”

Rooster was almost disappointed she didn’t stay, he would’ve liked her to stay, it’d be a lot better if she stayed. But he heard her going downstairs to their large kitchen, in their large new house and - fuck this place was so big. He couldn’t even imagine being alone in such a place like this. The house already had alarms included, which he was okay with, but maybe they should add more…he wondered if he could resolve that before he was deployed tomorrow morning…or maybe not, he’d be out of the country as soon as the sun shines.

That also stalled his other plans, especially the big one. He had to do that when he came back, which to him was a pain in the ass because he’d just do it now. But he asked Beatrice now and she said yes, he’d be out of the country and she’d be even more worried about him. He didn’t even notice he was already inside the tub - oh that soap smelled really good - with the water hitting his chest, he sank deeper into it, he was too tall to keep his legs straight so he bent them at the knee until half of his face was submerged.

Why did she have to be so understanding? Six months wasn’t the same as before. It was…a long time, half a fucking year, and he’d be far away…but, at least knowing she’d be waiting for him would be enough of a reason to get back and wish that time went by faster. He didn’t think he needed to be pampered, well…he wasn’t really complaining about it, but he’d be happy to just stay with her, nothing more.

He didn’t know what she was planning, but knowing Beatrice - and knowing how her surprises were very,very nice- he couldn’t wait. It was going to be a while since they saw each other again, so he better enjoy it.

He stays in the tub for a few more seconds, soaking and letting his body relax the best he could, before he feels clean enough. He just puts on his red boxers, something flowy and light for the night since it was slowly getting warmer and he preferred that over his briefs. He walks down the staircase - his steps still echoing around the house since it’s still fairly empty with just a few pictures decorating the walls.

He sees Jolene’s head pop from the kitchen’s threshold, the thwapping of her tail against one of the cabinets alerting Beatrice he was on his way down. “Hey! I’m almost finished!” she says once he steps past the threshold, leaning his shoulder against the large door frame with his arms crossed as he watches his girlfriend walk around. The table was set, with a large skillet in the middle that smelled delicious.

“I don’t know what you made but I think your ancestors would be very proud.”

Beatrice laughed softly, “You’d be surprised to know this only took me forty minutes to make.” she says with a grin, “It’s Cacio e Pepe and my mom’s chicken parm recipe. She thinks she keeps it a secret but everyone knows how to do it. We just always play we are surprised.” He heard that name before, it was a pasta “Sit, sit!I’ll put it down.”

He was reminded when he visited her family for Christmas and her mother did the very same thing. He smiles, leaning his elbows on the table as she placed the pasta inside a glass bowl they took out of the boxes a few days back, “It looks incredible.” he had to admit he was really hungry, he was just a bit too annoyed to notice before. But a nice bath with a great smelling soap was enough to make him relaxed and more attuned to his body.

“Thank you!” she grins, sitting down in front of him and waiting until he prepared his plate. He always noticed that when she cooked she waited for his reaction before she got some herself. Almost as if she didn’t know how good of a cook she was. But it was endearing, much like everything that Beatrice did, how she’d pull up her knee to put her hands on top and then prop her chin on her knuckles, watching him with a little smile.

Of course the food was great, there was no way it wouldn’t be since he knew how talented she was. And once he voiced how good it was, she finally ate herself. It was strange to eat with their voices echoing around the lower floor, again it was very empty save for a few things, and Rooster was thankful about the wall lights that were in the living room illuminating the whole area.

But he tried to focus on the food and on her more than anything else. Beatrice made everything so much easier, she was always so bright and full of life he couldn’t even describe how much she did for him.

She didn’t let him wash the dishes, nor put the food aside, reiterating that it was his pampering night and he had to do absolutely nothing. So he stood to the side, more specifically, he was in the living room, enjoying the expanse of their new couch - their old ones were on his office and her art room specifically - with his head leaning back against the back seat, “Fuck this was probably one of the best things we got.” he said outloud, turning his head to the side where he saw Jolene was already asleep on her favored spot in front of the glass doors that faced the patio with the thin sliver of moonlight over her brown fur.

“It is really nice.” Beatrice replies, walking around the couch and completely avoiding his arms when he tries to pull her to his lap, “Roos, we just ate.”

“So?” he counters, stretching his arms to reach for her, letting out an ‘aha!’ when he managed to grab the elastic of her shorts, tugging her backwards so she could fall on his lap. “I’m not doing anything bad, am I?” Bea just squinted her eyes at him with a smile, turning on the tv and opening Netflix then offering the remote to him, “Thank you, I think I can figure something for us to watch.”

“I’m sure you will.” she smiles, leaning her head on his shoulder.

They ended up watching two documentaries and a few more episodes of Rupaul’s Drag Race before he grunted a bit in pain from his seat on the couch, “You okay?” Beatrice asks softly,lifting her head from his shoulder and looking at his chest with concern, “Where does it hurt?”

“My back is kinda sore, I think I got more tense than I thought I was.”

Beatrice hums, then looks back at the tv then at him, “I think we had our digestion by now.” She smiles, sliding off from his lap to stand before him, once again offering her hand, “Come on.” He didn't hesitate this time, he just turned the tv off and let her take them up the stairs, turning off the lights in the living room. He honestly could feel a sudden shift in the air and he had a very strong inkling that this night would turn even better.

“Okay,” she closes the door behind him once he walks past the threshold, his eyes following her curves as she goes to her armoire, bend over enough for the soft fabric of her shorts to ride up, “I need you to lie on your stomach.”

Rooster’s eyes snap upwards when she speaks, “What?”

Beatrice looks over her shoulder, holding something in her hands with her back still bent forwards and brown hair framing her face, falling down to the side, “Lie on your stomach, Roos.” she blinked those green eyes and her long lashes seemed to flutter, “Please?”

God damn it.

She sounded so sweet and she looked so fine that he just did as she asked,lying on the middle of the bed with his face nestled on the pillows they kept in the center - between his side and hers’ - folding his arms under his chin as he waited for her steps to come back. She does get closer, the mattress dipping when she climbs up using her knees, then he feels her soft thighs on his hips and her butt touching the back of his legs, “Comfortable?” she asks and he has to lift his head to check what was happening back there.

He noticed two things: she had a small bottle in her hands and she was no longer wearing shorts, showing that lilac lace he loved so much, “...I am great, are you comfortable?” his eyes never left her bare lower body, the way the lace went up and almost framed her hips was a sin.

“I’m very comfortable, Roos.” she smiles, tapping his lower back, ‘Head back down, please.”

“But I wanna look–” she just gives him a knowing gaze, which in turn makes him sigh and turn his head away with a pout. Beatrice giggles from behind him, adjusting herself on his thighs - which honestly were just so big and strong - combing all her hair to the side and biting her lower lip as she looked down at his broad back. Rooster waited, hearing the ‘pop’ of the plastic bottle being open and then closed, before the obvious sound of hands rubbing together followed. “Baby are you going to give me a massaaaaOooohhh my God.”

Beatrice laughed softly as she pressed her hands right between his shoulder blades where she felt the knot earlier, pushing her palm heel in a circular motion over the tense area. Rooster’s groan reminded her of a lot of other things less than pure, his hands sliding from under his head to clench the sheets under him, “How’s it so far?” she questions the same Bourbon & Vanilla body oil already being absorbed by his skin.

“Jesus Christ, it’s great.” he moans, clenching his eyes when she find another knot, the deep sound breaking past his mouth and vibrating against the mattress. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a massage, especially one so good like that. He heard one of his joints pop and a sudden relief darted all over his body, “Jesus- where did you even learn this?”

“Internet.” followed by another joint popping and another groan breaking out of him, “I’ve been planning to do this for a while now and I thought it’d be more than fitting-” another knot, another sensuous deep moan, “To do it now.”

“Ooohh…God…I’m not complaining!” he hissed this time, the experience was good but she found a very sore spot on his lower back, being extra careful with her movements and not adding so much pressure. Beatrice apologizes for going too hard, then warns him she is going to add just a bit more force. Bradley clenches his teeth, the pain getting worse and worse until it was completely gone and he breathed out in relief, “Fuck.”

“You still with me?”

“God,I’m never leaving you.’ he blurts out, “Fuckin’ swear it.” Beatrice’s lips part in surprise but she just smiles before continuing, earning another row of groaning and moaning from his part. She was glad she was able to do a good job, he was very tense and his back was looking painful because of how many knots were there. Now there was nothing left, she was just rubbing his back because she wanted to, the oil was already embedded in his skin after all.

“We’re done.” she says, watching his shoulders drop with a sigh before she puts her hands on his butt to slide off of his legs, “You have such a nice butt, did I ever tell you that?” but his only response was a weak chuckle, feeling like butter melting on top of pancakes at how soft he was “Are you ready for more?”

More?

Rooster slowly lifted his head back and looked over his shoulder, and this time she had only her panties on, waiting patiently while sitting on her knees with her hands on top of her thighs, “Yeah.” he quickly, or as quick as he could, turned on his back and the whole massage surely did wonders all over his body…as the obvious tent on his boxers was any answer. Beatrice slowly dragged her eyes from his red boxers to his face, biting her lower lip with a smile, the way her hair was combed hid nothing from his view and he was more than happy to see it.

“Okay Lieutenant.” his pupils blew wide the second she said it, “Permission to take your boxers off, sir?”

Holy Shit.

“Fuck, permission granted.” his voice replied once he found it deep within his throat, following Beatrice’s movements with his eyes, fighting back a pleased groan when her nails gently scratched over his hip bones on the way of curling her fingers around the elastic of his underwear. Once she tosses it aside, she stands by the edge of the bed, much for his confusion, but then his mouth runs dry when she curls her thumbs on the lace elastic of her own underwear.

“Permission to take mine off, sir?”

He almost choked on air, nodding, then suddenly remembering he had to speak, “Permission granted. Permission fuckin’ granted.” she was getting more and more comfortable with her sensuality and he couldn’t be more thankful about it. She was sexy as fuck, he was just happy she could finally see it more often. Beatrice giggles, tugging down her panties until she kicks them away, returning to the bed but not climbing over him, “Whatever you are planning you have my full permission.” he says quickly, dropping his large hands on her thighs, trying to pull her forward but she just smiles.

“I’m happy to know that.” she says quietly, but doesn’t move when he tugs her forward, “Because I did mention I’d pamper you didn’t I?”

“Yeah…” he immediately lets go of her thighs when she makes a move forward, kissing his neck, then down his chest, then each one of the bumps in his six pack until she reaches her destination. And he almost loses it right there, “Fuck, baby…are you going to suck me off?” she nods, lolling her tongue out of her mouth so she could lick the underside of him, earning a quiet hiss from the pilot. He wanted to keep his head up and watch her, but it was too much and her mouth was just magical.

His body felt very relaxed, in many ways, so it seemed that he could feel everything with an intensity turned on extreme. She was so good at this, he could barely focus on anything else, until his eyes landed on her hips and ass, his breathing ragged with an idea forming, “Bea,” he calls in between moans, licking his lips when she didn’t stop, so he had to place a hand behind her head, tucking a few strands of brown behind her ear, “Baby.” she stops with him still in her mouth, a scene which makes a full body shudder dart all over him, “I got…an idea.”

She pops him out, a thin string of saliva connecting her lips to the flushed tip, “An idea?”

Bradley’s eyes were glazed over, so black they looked like the night sky without stars, “Mhm…c’mere,” she furrows her brows, letting go from his member to move forward, but he shakes his head, “No, other way.” Beatrice pauses, translating what he meant took a few seconds but once she figured it out her face turned a violent shade of red.

“I-I, Brad,I-I don’t…um…”

“You wanna pamper me…there’s no better pampering than eating you out,gorgeous.” he was staring at her so intently, “So you can…bring your beautiful self right here,” she hesitates, her bold and sexy persona melting back on her shy nervous self as she wrings her hands together.

“But…that’s your face.”

“Yes,I know gorgeous and I want you to sit on it, so,” he’s almost in a hurry, “C’mere,”

“But what if I hurt you?” Bradley just keeps his eyes on her, lifting his hands so they land on the flare of her hips, clutching the plush flesh and dragging her forward before she could stop him. Beatrice squeaks, the subtle burn of the sheets against her legs making her wince, “Brad…are you sure?”

He inhales deeply, licking his lips, “Gorgeous.” he begins, “You are never going to hurt me. All I want is to have that pretty thing between your legs right on my mouth.” her cheeks get even redder, “I’ll be away from you for six months, gorgeous. And you said you’d pamper me.”

“Well, y-yes but I thought–” she knew, just from his eyes there was no way she’d change his mind…so she had to think about something else…and when she did she felt she’d turn into a puddle of Beatrice goo, “Well…there is a way to um…do both, i-if you want.”

And Bradley swears he sees stars when she suggests it, nodding silently and watching with his lids low as she slowly and nervously climbs over his chest with her back to him. If he was to die right now, he’d be more than happy because that view was better than Heaven itself, “Fuck your ass is so fucking nice.” Beatrice bites her lower lip, clenching her eyes for courage - this was something new that she never tried before and she hoped she wouldn’t mess it up. Her form straightened until he felt her breasts on top of his hip bones and her hot breathing back on his cock, “You can return to the process, recruit. I’ll be busy with something else.”

“Already–ah!” of course it was then and now. Beatrice tried to regain her bearings, but it was incredibly hard when your boyfriend has his tongue so deep inside you. She whimpered, clenching the sheets under the two, his huge hands were on each butt cheek, squeezing the soft flesh almost to signal she could go on. And so, after a few minutes, she did.

And that moment the moan that darted from his mouth into her core evolved into a domino effect that neither could stop. The vibrations from both of their mouths added a new level of pleasure in this whole thing, something Beatrice didn’t think it’d be possible. She was still blushing so hard, this whole position was filthy and yet so deliciously perfect for them…and pleasurable, extremely pleasurable.

Beatrice’s movements tried to follow his, but it was a bit hard to concentrate when he was so good with his mouth. She had to stop a few times to breathe and regain her focus, trying to not think just of herself and how she wanted to grind against his face. It wasn’t until his movements started getting erratic, with his hips stuttering that he suddenly stopped his tongue, “Bea,-Bea stop..!Stop.!”

“W-What happened? A-Are you okay?” she asks as soon as she pops him out again, breathing heavily and she almost laughed how she couldn’t see him besides the top of his hair…damn she really did have a big butt, she never really noticed it.

“I just don’t…wanna cum yet…” he says between breaths. Beatrice nods, pushing herself to her hands and trying to scoot away but his arms lock around her waist, “Where are you going?”

She blinks back at him in surprise, “I-I…you said you didn’t…want to cum yet.”

“Yeah. I didn’t. You on the other hand, that’s a completely different story.” and his hand swoops down to slap her left ass cheek, the perfect red handprint marking the pale skin as she whines, falling back on her elbows with her face pressed on the jutting of his hip bone, warm breathing fanning over his wet - and Bourbon Vanilla smelling - skin. He tightens his arms around her waist,pulling her closer to his face where he continued what he was doing as if nothing happened.

Beatrine moans brokenly, a sharp whine of his name followed by her nails digging on the light blue sheets. The pressure inside got stronger, there wouldn’t be much for her to hold back, her moaning getting louder and louder, being only muffled by his lower body, “Brad…God, Brad!!!” honestly he’s a bit thankful about their room not being as furnished either, because that scream as she orgasms just reverberates around them like a symphony. She cries quieter, her hips shivering and her breathing is hiccuped, sharply inhaling it when he slaps the opposite cheek.

Beatrice’s back moves with her erratic breathing, having half a mind to lift herself from his face and fall back on the bed, her blurry vision looking up at the ceiling, trying to remember where she was, “Baby?” his hoarse voice calls, she barely notices him sitting up to look at her, he’s all blurry too, “You good?”

She nods shakily, lower body still shivering with aftershocks, “A-Are you?” When her vision finally clears up, she sees him wipe his chin and mouth, licking his hand while meeting her eyes.

“I’m fucking great.” he smirks, “You up for round two?” Beatrice doesn’t even wait too long, she’s immediately sitting up, her face and chest flushed a beautiful shade of red. Since her body was still recovering from the first orgasm of the night, because she knew there’d be a second - maybe a third one - he was able to bring her with him when he lay back down, making her straddle his lap.

“But…” she has her hands on his chest for support, “I was j-just on top of you.”

“I like you on top of me.” he says, rubbing his hands up and down her waist and hips, still tasting her in his mouth. “In several ways.” Beatrice’s eyes become more alert as she is finally easing down her first orgasm, laughing quietly at him. She bites her lower lip, then lifts herself just enough for him to align and slowly push forward. Her channel was still sensitive, so she couldn’t help the loud cracked moan that goes past her lips when he hilts, his own throat vibrating with a deep one that seemed to shake the walls, “Fuck…oh fuck.”

Beatrice opens her eyes to look at him, only to see his eyes already on her, “Yeah?” she couldn’t even finish the question of ‘are you okay?’ choosing that only a questioning ‘yeah’ would be enough and she hoped he understood.

“Yeah.” he did. He did and clasped his hands on her hips again, watching her beautiful body just move slowly on top of him, like a wave, with her smaller hands on his pectorals for support. He bites his lower lip when her head tilts back, her mouth opening in another moan, “Fuck you are so….fucking beautiful…” he whispers, “I can’t never get enough of you…my God.”

Bea leans her head forward again, brown hair falling around the two like a halo, her pink lips glossy and flushed, “Brad…”

“I’m going to miss you so much.” he says, his own hips moving upwards to meet hers, “Six fucking months will be…torture…”

“I…I am going to send you something, so you won’t miss me too much.” comes her soft reply, followed by a cheeky little grin that he wasn’t even expecting. But just the thought of Beatrice sending him pictures so he’d have her in his thoughts - which he always had - was firing him up even more.

“Yeah?” she nods, still smiling, “You have something planned, baby?”

Beatrice nods again, this time biting her lower lip with a moan breaking her line of thought, closing her eyes “Y-yeah…God, Brad…” she whispers, not really noticing what she was about to do now, it was all about instinct, “You feel so good inside of me…” she meant to say it in Italian, like last time, but she didn’t. And that made her boyfriend stare up with wide eyes and jaw slack, “I don’t…you ruined…e-everything else for me.”

Bradley couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his shy girlfriend - who was now slowly gaining more confidence within the bedroom - was openly saying things he never heard her say before, “Yeah?” she nods mutely, furrowing her eyebrows with her lip back into her mouth, “You going to miss my cock, gorgeous? Huh?”

“I-I’m going to miss all of you Brad.”

It wasn’t the reply he expected, but it was one he liked nonetheless. Wraps his arms around her waist so they are chest to chest, their open mouths never joining in a kiss, just breathing hard into one another, “Me too, gorgeous…fuck me too…” his hips moved faster upwards, “I’m goin’ to miss all of you, every,” thrust, “Single,” another one, “Part.” yet another, but this one was deep enough to make Bea gasp out her moan, almost if her air was knocked out, “I’m goin’ to think of this when I’m gone. Think of how sweet you fuckin’ sound, how good you take me and how wet you are.”

She whines again, dropping her head to his shoulder, with her hands curling into fists on top of his chest, “Then I’m going to come back and we’ll repeat this,” he says between harsh breaths, “Christen every single room in this house like I told you to. Fuck you in every surface we have, watch you suck me off again with that pretty mouth of yours.” her channel clenched around him in response, “You like sucking me off, like the good recruit you are. You just want to make your superior proud, don’t you,pretty girl?”

“Yeah…” Rooster wasn’t going to last long, so the moment his hips pistoned upwards to meet hers- and Beatrice’s moans got choppy and broken - he could feel the pressure building, ready to snap. “Braad!!” her nails dig deeply into his shoulders, her whimpering and moaning, followed by his own deeper groaning and the sound of skin slapping got even louder. He felt sorry for their new neighbors honestly. “Brad!I-I’m going to c–” she doesn’t finish her sentence because her second orgasm hits with even more force than before, her legs lifting from the bed with her toes curling and her scream being muffled by his shoulder.

His own hips stutter again, following after his own release until he finally explodes. His deep moan isn’t muffled like hers, instead he hears his own voice coming back to him with the echo as his hips push upwards a few more times until he’s literally spent. One of his hands leave her waist to cup the back of her head, their heavy breathing replacing the sound of their lovemaking minutes ago, “Fuck.”

“We just did.” she replies and they both meet gazes. Slowly, but surely her giggle and his soft laugh evolve into full on laughing, their foreheads touching and cheeks hurting from laughing so much. It wasn’t even that funny, but that wasn’t the point, it was about their connection that now was so much stronger than before.

Eventually the laughter died down to quiet chuckling, until it was silent again. Rooster’s smile doesn’t falter and his eyes dart all over her face as if he wanted to keep her to memory, lifting the other hand at her waist to rub her cheek “...I’m really going to miss you.”

Bea’s gaze softens, turning her head to kiss his palm, then lean into it, “I’m going to miss you too.” she whispers, “Just be careful, okay?”

“I will.” he replies, still rubbing her cheek. He sighs, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, closing his eyes to keep the lavender scent into memory, “You too, okay? Call Michael to stay with you if you need.”

“Okay.” was her quiet response, her eyes shining with tears and pure adoration, but she doesn’t cry, she just smiles wider at him, “I love you Roos.”

“I love you too, gorgeous.”

Marry me, he thinks. Marry me.

I will. she thinks back. I will.

And neither of them knew.

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x oc #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw x reader

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ironwoman359 · 3 years ago

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This is probably not the best place to ask, but you’re also a Christian woman too. I was wondering what you thought about what the Bible says about women and how we must submit to husbands and some other stuff that has me (a potential ace) Christain woman kind of terrified. I would go to my church but social anxiety and my church is pretty conservative. I don’t want to think that we’re just second rate citizens with this. Um…that’s all. You don’t have to answer. Love your Tumblr. It’s one of the main ones I look at. Thanks for countless enjoyment!

— — —

(I’m responding on the submission and not the ask because the ask refused to post properly, I think it was too long for Tumblr’s fancy)

So I know you just asked for my thoughts and not a biblical interpretation lesson, but I didn’t spend 3 months writing an exegesis in college for me to never use those skills again, so buckle up for something of a long answer! (literally, this is almost 3 thousand words, so....sorry about that) *rubs hands together* The thing we need to take into consideration when reading the bible is Interpretation; any truly honest biblical scholar would tell you it is a mistake to take every word in the bible at its literal face value, ESPECIALLY since most of us are reading translations of scripture, not the original ancient hebrew/greek/aramaic/whatever else. So when interpreting scripture, we must consider these things:

Author (Who wrote it?)

Audience (Who was it written for?)

Context (What is written around it?)

So the verses you’re referencing are Ephesians 5:22-23, and in the NIV, they read as follows:

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Isolated from author, audience, and context, they sound pretty sexist, don’t they? And male authority figures have used these verses as justification for the oppression of women for centuries, just as white men used the passage only a few verses away, Ephesians 6:5, as justification for the oppression and ownership of black people (Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ). So let’s look at each of the points above in regards to Ephesians 5 and 6. First, who wrote it? Sometimes that can be a tricky question to answer, but in this case, it’s actually very easy (though there is still a bit of fuzziness/debate). Traditionally, Ephesians is one of the Apostle Paul’s letters to the early church. Specifically, to the body of believers in Ephesus, a Greek city that was a part of the Roman Empire at the time. According to two different study bibles I have, the letter of Ephesians was not addressing any particular problem that the church in Ephesus had (as was often the case with Paul’s letters), but was meant as an encouragement of faith and to increase his readers’ understanding of what it meant to be a follower of Christ. So now what about the Context? Why are the verses at the end of chapter 5 and beginning of chapter 6 so damning to our modern sensibilities? To answer that, we must look at the passages both in context to the verses around them, and in historical and cultural context (which is where 1 & 2 come into play again). Going back to the beginning of chapter 4, which is subtitled “Unity in the Body of Christ” (and remember, these subtitles and groupings were come up with LONG after they were written; we grouped sections together in a way we thought was most logical, which honestly for a book as short as Ephesians I would argue is barely even necessary), we can see that the letter from chapter 4 onward is about living a Holy and Godly life. Chapter 4 urges us to be “completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love” and warns us against living “as the Gentiles* do, in the futility of their thinking.” *Gentiles in this case meaning not neccesarily all non-Jews, but non-believers. AKA, we should live like Jesus lived, WWJD and all that jazz. If the Holy Spirit is in our hearts and our relationship with God is at the forefront of our lives, then that should show clearly in our actions. The very first verse of chapter 5 reads “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Chapters 5 and 6 especially are meant to act as a sort of guide for how a follower of Christ should act. There’s some stuff about obscenity, greed, sexual impurity, 5:15 sums it up pretty well basically, “Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise,” and then we reach the all important verse. Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” That’s a full sentence, just that there. Submit to one another. The following three sections are all subsections of this point: one for Wives submitting to Husbands, one for Children submitting to Parents, and one for Slaves submitting to Masters. But when looking at all of these, bad shepherds (ie, racist, sexist assholes) like to ignore that first bit, submit to one another, just as they like to ignore 5:28, which says “husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself;” or they ignore 6:4 which says “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord;” and they ignore 6:9, “Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.” I do highly encourage you to read chapters 4, 5, and 6 in full, or at least start at 4:17, which is where Paul starts talking about “Living as Children of Light,” because it makes the intent of these apparently damning verses much more clear. Paul is stating that as Christians, we should treat everyone around us with honor and respect. According to one of my study bibles, the grammar of the original Greek suggests that the “submission” involved in all three sections is intended to be mutual submission, and is to come from a filling of the Holy Spirit. However, to be quite frank, Paul still Lived In A Society. A highly structured, patriarchal society, in which all members of a household (women, children, slaves) were expected to submit to the patriarchal head of that household. Male children until they reached adulthood, Slaves until they were freed (remember that, while by no means a purely morally good thing, the system of Roman Slavery was VASTLY DIFFERENT from the Atlantic Slave Trade that men later used this passage to justify existing), and women, unfortunately, for their whole lives. In another one of his letters, what is now the book of Galatians, Paul says in chapter 3 verse 27-29 that “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” This would have been radical at the time. Paul is promising all people of all genders and classes that, in the eyes of God, they are Equal, One, and all “sons,” meaning that they all have a right to the Inheritance of the Father (remember, at this time and in this culture women did not get any inheritance, and younger sons got significantly less than the firstborn. Paul assures the believers that they ALL are equal receivers of the Promises of God). But this equality that Paul speaks of was, in his eyes, a spiritual equality. He was not particularly concerned with overthrowing the earthly patriarchal society that subjugated women and lower classes, but rather instructed all members of that society who also were Believers to submit equally to one another out of love and respect, for they were all Equal in God’s eyes and would be Equal in heaven. This is why he both tells women to submit to and obey their husbands, but also husbands to love, cherish, and care for their wives. Children, obey your parents, but Fathers, don’t be dicks to your kids. Slaves should obey their masters (slavery was much more like a job that you weren’t allowed to quit until your boss said so) but Masters shouldn’t abuse their slaves. There are Societal Authorities, and Paul is telling his readers “look you can’t just go around not respecting those Authorities, but also hey, if you’re the Authority? That’s not a free pass to be an asshole.” As one of my study bibles puts it, “Paul counseled all believers to submit to one another by choice…this kind of mutual submission preserves order and harmony in the family while it increases love and respect among family members.” Paul is basically saying “it’s better for everyone if we all get along, and remember that Christ had a servant’s heart, and intentionally lowered himself for us, so we should do the same for each other.” And while a patriarchal class system is still super sucky for like 80% of the people involved, at least it’s a whole lot more bearable if everyone involved is being a Nice, Good Member of that Society. You mentioned being worried about being treated like a “second rate citizen.” The fact of the matter is that when this was written, women were second rate citizens; that is the context in which Paul is writing. And while I firmly believe that that was wrong, in every sense of the word, Paul wasn’t especially concerned about challenging that aspect of society. Priority one was “Spread the Gospel” and Priority two was “Don’t Get Killed while Spreading the Gospel.” Speaking of Paul, let’s talk a little more about Saul of Tarsus, shall we? In all literary analysis, it is important to examine the author’s beliefs and what biases may have made their way into the work. And while we believe the bible to be a Holy Book, it can and should be subject to the same rules of literary analysis as non-religious texts. First, you must ask yourself, what do you believe about the bible? There are four general ways of looking at it (which are called Theories of Inspiration).

The bible is the Divine Word of God, dictated word for word across centuries directly to its human authors by God Himself.

The bible is the Divine Word of God, written across centuries by men Inspired by the Holy Spirit. While they are writing in their own words, this Inspiration means that the bible is Wholly Perfect with no errors.

The bible is the Divine Word of God, written across centuries by men Inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, because they are imperfect, fallible men, there is a possibility of errors in the text, both in the account of events that happened and in the teaching therein.

The bible is a collection of accounts written by men, with no Divine Intervention from God. It is not Holy, God’s Word, or Infallible.

I was raised to believe theory 2, but now I personally believe theory 3. And since I’m the author of this analysis, it is through the lens and bias of theory 3 that I now present my next point: Paul was sexist. I don’t think he was maliciously so (see again, Galatians 3, and the statement in Ephesians 5 that men should honor, cherish, and care for their wives), but he was a product of his time who had ingrained ideas about women and their place in society. This does not A) mean he was right about how women should act OR B) mean that we should toss out everything he had to say, about women or otherwise, because he was Problematic. Most biblical authors were, in fact, Problematic. Either by our modern standards, due to the time in which they lived, OR by the standards of their own time, because God liked to use Imperfect People (we’re all imperfect, but He liked particularly imperfect people) in His plans. David was an adulterer and murderer. Paul happily sent dozens of Christians to their deaths. Peter was hotheaded and super prejudiced against Gentiles and Samaritans. And most of them were, in one way or another, sexist, racist, and homophobic. These biases then found their way, intentionally or not, into their writings, and then other racist, sexist, homophobic men used those writings to justify systemic oppression of anyone who was not like them. Oppression that is not Christlike. So where does that leave us, in our 21st century application of scripture to our daily lives? We must examine how it was to be read at the time (which we have done), and then see what we can apply from it to our own lives. For myself in my marriage, I look again to the original grammar of Ephesians 5, that indicates the submission is to be mutual. I “submit” to my husband, and he “submits” to me. In other words, our relationship is built on Trust, Clear Communication, and Respect for one another. Sometimes we have to compromise, and I have to put aside my own desires for his sake, or he must set aside his own desires for my sake. It is a willingness to listen to one another, to approach conflicts with an open mind, to consider each other’s feelings before we speak. It is an equal, mutual submission based on love for each other, which doesn’t contradict what Paul says at all. God created all people to be equal. Humans are stupid sometimes and try to insist that we know better, try to create hierarchies and use the bible to try and justify that, but that doesn’t mean those humans are right. If your church is trying to make you feel less than because of your gender, or if you date somebody who pushes TradWife rhetoric and tries to use Ephesians as their justification, then you Run, and feel justified in doing so. (Especially if they also try to use Paul’s words to tell you why you owe your partner sex; see again, Paul was not only sexist but also lived in a patriarchal time when women were second class citizens that had very specific expectations placed on them AND he wasn’t even in a relationship himself, forgive me if I take his advice on my sex life with a grain of salt. Without doing this whole process again, a good modern reading of “don’t deprive one another” is “don’t use sex as a weapon in your relationship/withhold it for bs reasons when you’re mad at each other, etc. Like all other relationship things, sex (or a lack thereof) with your spouse should be based on mutual trust, communication, and love, not petty arguments or the standards of others.)

Trust me, as an ace woman myself, I totally get the fear. I’ve felt it myself, in the past. But God’s intentions for you are not that you become a doormat or servant to a man. If a romantic relationship (or any other partnership) is part of His plan for you, then the bible clearly states, both in Ephesians and elsewhere, that it should be one built on Love and Trust, not Subjugation and Servitude.

I hope this helped you, and again, sorry it was so long XD. Have an amazing day! <3

#christianity #biblical analysis #religion #anti trad wife #ephesians 5 #ace things #taylor talks #for a loooong time

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transmasc-wizard · 3 years ago

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how to plot if you hate plotting but need to/want to try, from a pantser-turned-plotter

the first thing to know: the internet likes to say writers are split into 2 camps: plotters, who outline every detail, and pantsers, who don't know anything but their MC's name (if that) before they get writing. You're one or the other, and you HATE doing what the other does.

This is, and i say this with complete certainty, bull.

Everyone is somewhere between. I've never come across a single writer who knew what every last little sentence would do, nor a writer who didn't at least daydream about what will happen next. Additionally, some people do more/less plotting for different WIPs.

I will admit different people SHOULD outline differently based on what they need. So how do you tell? And how do you DO it?

With Nico's Plotting Levels, of course! My "plotting levels" are amounts of outlining you do; you start at 1, then go to 2, then 3, 4, etc and stop whenever you're comfortable. So what are they, specifically?

Level 0: Train Tracks. This is outlining for whoever doesn't know their whole plot, and is actually applied while writing. Basically, you do the typical "pantser thing" and write a chapter or 2 not knowing WTF you're doing. Then you stop for the day... and daydream. You think about what might happen next, what you'll do to this character or that character. Even if you're a panster, you've probably done this--i know i used to. You're comfortable with that, you've done it before? Ok, next level.

Level 1: Barest Bones. This is where you know the absolute basics: at least 1 setting, the beginning, maybe the middle, probably the end, and your characters. know your freaking MCs. You don't have to fill out a huge questionnaire; im a hardcore plotter and NEVER have. Just know their motivation (escape, love, revenge), biggest fear (the dark, fire, dying), best trait (intelligent, compassionate, charismatic), and worst trait (selfish, paranoid, cruel). Everything else will slowly follow. (You then do Train Tracks.)

Level 2: Tentpole. You've done Barest Bones; you want to go further. So you figure out your main 3 events of each part/act. It's basically up to you to decide what those are! It doesn't have to be your typical tentpoles. (One of my Events barely influenced the plot, but strengthened the characters' relationships). You also learn some of your character's secondary traits (polite, shy, book-nerd, etc), some of their insecurities (looks, brains, athleticism) and maybe what they look like. ('Train Track' for the places between the story 'Tentpoles'.)

Level 3: Notecard. You can do it after levels 1 and 2, or skip 2 and go from 1. From here on out, "Train Tracking" will be minimal. For Notecard outlining, you take notecards (or sticky notes, or whatever) and write a sentence or two on each of them. Each card can represent a chapter or a scene, and once you're done, you'll have a general understanding of your plot! (This is where a lot of "plansters"--half-plotter half-pansters--stop.) This can also be done with bullet points. When it is, i call it Bullet Points (Basic), because 4 is...

Level 4: Bullet Points (Advanced). For this, you bullet point about five to fifteen sentences per scene. For length reference, i did this for my April 2021 project and ended with a 7k outline for a 90k book. For my current NaNo project im aiming for a 5k outline (and a 70k 1st draft). With this process, you also learn your characters' other fears, life code, what makes them BREAK their life code, their relationships with the other characters, their hobbies, 80-90% of their traits, and most info over their character arcs.

(You also typically do a LOT of worldbuilding by this level, though i actually consider world and plot separate and think you can have a VERY built world and a VERY basic outline, or vice versa.)

~~~

One note: If you're typically a pantser, but need to outline for whatever reason (or just want to try), i suggest only going up to levels 2 or 3 for your first try. Level 4 will be very overwhelming if you're used to just being level 1 or even level 0. However, if you're outlining because you recently realized you hate pantsing and need to plot thuroughly--which is what happened to me--and think level 4 is best, definitely go for it!

Another note: i've realized i don't actually say *how* to come up with plot. Basically: think about your story a lot, more for each level you plan on plotting to. Think while you run, lie around, draw. Think while you're watching TV and wondering how a plot point would have worked differently. Just think up a bunch of disconnected scenes and snippets, regardless of how odd they are; actually writing your outline is when you figure out where they go, and what you truly want to keep!

And a final note: this is, of course, my way of looking at plotting. If you want to do something else--skeleton, snowflake, whatever--and completely throw my advice out the window? I genuinely LOVE that. I think one of the greatest things about a community like writeblr is that you have SO MANY PEOPLE doing SO MANY THINGS and we're all sharing and learning from each other, but we're all also different!! It makes me incredibly happy.

And if you do find something here that helps? I love that, too, and you're welcome to tell me about it!!

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unforth · 3 years ago

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So, English-Speaking Danmei Fandom... (Part 2!)

...you saw my post yesterday and you’re like, “okay, I made a JJWXC account and now I know how much the thing I want to support costs, how do I do the actual money thing?”

Here, I’m figuring it out right now, let’s do it together. I AM STILL RELYING ON THE GUIDE BY SHOKO TRANSLATES. YOU SHOULD USE IT TOO. I have only the most basic idea wtf I’m talking about, and I only have that much because of this guide. That said, it seems to focus more on mobile, and I’m using desktop, so if you’re also on desktop my thing here might help you?

One, go to the payments page. Fortunately, they’ve made it pretty easy to find...

...by making it the one on that list that’s in RED. Handy, right? No, I don’t know what it actually says. Again, I don’t speak a lick of Chinese. I have some Japanese so sometimes I recognize characters but that doesn’t get me far, ha.

Once you click that (you have to be logged in, of course!) it’ll open up a new screen, with a list of payment options on the right. As far as I can tell, this is what the choices are:

I’m gonna take a stab at international credit card, since that’s...the only one of these I have??? I tried to figure out what the “shenzhouxing” prepaid card is but basically got no where.The Shoko Translates guide does NOT have instructions on this part, at least not for desktop? And the pages look pretty differently on desktop. Anyway. Here goes nothing...I’m mostly relying on C&P and Google translate. *sweatdrop*

So, there are two tabs, but I can’t C&P them and I have no idea what they say. However, the one on the right doesn’t have any boxes for entering stuff?? So I’m gonna stick with the left...OH. It’s a page for doing security questions. Oh god, um.

Alright. So. Put your password in the top box. For the security questions, what they say is basically irrelevant, except it’s worth noting that the default option is apparently not a question - it’s just “select one.” If, like me, you don’t know Chinese...just pick whichever questions, and put in answers you’ll remember. It doesn’t give a damn if your answers are correlated (though, the first one on the list has something to do with dad, and the second on the list has something to do with mom, I recognize those characters, ha. It doesn’t let you pick the same questions twice...and there are two near the bottom that I THINK might be “father’s birthday” and “mother’s birthday.” And one about elementary school. Sorry, I’m distractable. The point is, the questions don’t matter as long as they accept your answers! Yes, it accepts English ones, and no it doesn’t have anyway of knowing if your answers correlate to the questions at all. TAKE A SCREENCAP OF YOUR CHOSEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AND SAVE IT BECAUSE YOU’LL NEED THEM AGAIN!!! Do your pattern match thingy, then click the green button, and there’s another page which looks like it’s asking me to re-enter the same answers.

Click the green button on that second page, and there’s a new page with a single line of Chinese text:

“恭喜你，密保设置成功，点击此处跳转到用户基本信息页面”

which, according to google translate, is

“Congratulations, the secret security setting is successful, click here to jump to the user basic information page.”

Guess I’ll click the thing.

ALRIGHT. So, after doing all that, it takes me back to a home page? Awesome. Whatever. As long as it worked. Click on that red one in the navigation bar again, and NOW when you go to the “international credit card payment” one...

AHA THIS IS VERY PROMISING, lol. So, based on Shoko Translate’s guide, that place drop down menu with “17″ written says “USD” after it, and that it’ll get me 10,000 points. It looks like it processes payments through Paypal; based on my experience with Paypal, that means you may not need an actual Paypal account? But I’m honestly not sure, and I’ve had a Paypal account for 20 years, so I’m just gonna, ya know, use that.

A little window pops up that I’m assuming (blind guessing) is a “this will take you to another page/open a new window, is that a thing you want?” and I clicked the option on the right, and yep, it opened my Paypal. I’ve got a card on file, so...I’m just doing that. (I’d...better make sure I actually have $17 in my account... *another sweat drop*...okay yes I have like $80, wooo...oh, crap, I accidentally paid from my business account, sigh...well, there was def money in there but I’d better pay myself back...ANYWAY.)

Do the payment thing!

It redirects back to JJWXC!

It says something in big bold letters and I have absolutely no idea what! But then it loads, and it’s all the Chinese that I now recognize as my personal account page, and when I scroll to the bottom and...

...well I have no idea what any of that says but it sure as hell LOOKS like victory. Now to see if I can actually, ya know, buy a thing! I can’t afford to get everything I’d like to at once - I’m pretty broke - so I’m going to start with Tian Guan Ci Fu. It’s my favorite danmei novel, and one of my favorite books of all time, AND it’s by MXTX so even though I can’t buy MDZS on here, I can still support her. I linked to it yesterday in my previous post (which, again, is here).

Author: 墨香铜臭

Title: 天官赐福

Direct Link:

https://href.li/?http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3200611

Now...

1. scroll down to the chapter list and click on the first one that says [VIP] next to it. Click the chapter title.

2. the circled button is “select all”

3. a pop up checks if you actually meant to do that. click the one on the left to confirm.

4. scroll to the bottom, and...

5. ignore those two check boxes, you might think they’re a ToS confirmation or a “are you sure” but they’re actually about subscribing to the book (which is pointless, since it’s finished) at least according to google.

6. ...uh...shit...now I have to figure out which of these buttons actually does the thing...um...oh thank God, it’s in the Shoko Translates Guide. So, there are five buttons right below the line saying how many points I have. The first is “confirm purchase” so, ya know, just ignore the other ones and click it.

7. A dialog box popped up! It says how many I spent and how many I have left and a bunch of Chinese and two mystery buttons...thank God, again, for Shoko translates, apparently they’re “read now” on the left and “read later” on the right. I’m gonna “read now” just to see if it worked...

8. Well...it sure looks like a book??? I have the PDF translations (a copy from before it was removed, and no, I won’t share it), and, um...okay, so the first unlocked chapter is 21...oh hey, I see San Lang (三郎)! That’s, like, the only thing on this whole page I can read! lmao. Anyway, comparing, like, pagination, and the placement of the exactly one thing I can read, YES, this definitely worked!

SO.

This has been your second installment of “disaster dumb white person who speaks no Chinese liveblogs their way through figuring out how the HELL to buy danmei on JJWXC.” If this has been helpful to you, please REBLOG, SIGNAL BOOST, and more importantly, SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE DANMEI AUTHORS!!!!!!

(I own TGCF. I’m so happy omfg. 😭 😭 😭 😭 )

(and as a reminder: I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. If you have a question that requires that someone know what they’re doing, DON’T ASK ME. Instead, try the Shoko Translates guide I linked at the beginning!!! Here, I’ll even link it again. USE IT. DO THE THING.)

#unforth rambles #tgcf #mdzs #svsss #2ha #erha #guardian #hell if remember what else i tagged yesterday #here guys i did the thing #now it's your turn #and now i've gotta go do my actual job

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ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 4 years ago

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How do you feel about askers’ way of asking questions? There are the ones who are super polite like in the previous ask or the ones who flat out just DHSIDJ BUT WHY??? Is there one you prefer? Is there a specific way you like to receive asks, but you’ll just respond to them no matter what? Please, I need answers

It... depends...?

Depends on my mood, on the subject of the ask, on whether or not I know the person/recognize their icon.

On one hand, I want to believe that everyone is just trying their best. I know no one is sending me rude messages on purpose, and communication mishaps happen.

But on the other hand - if you are sending me a message on anon, or if I don’t know you personally (we haven’t talked much) - yes, I would prefer it if people were at least a little polite?

Because consider this - I have thousands of followers. I don’t know their icons/usernames by heart. I recognize a few, but most are just a sea of passersby faces on the street where I peddle my wares. And if you’re on the street, minding your business, trying to sell some comics quietly and a random person breaks off from the crowd and goes up to you, gets in your face and yells

well

You may just feel a little uncomfortable?

I personally know I do. I try to assume the best, but I don’t always have the patience to do anything except ignore this to save myself time. Answering it would invite similar inanity into my inbox and flood out the more useful messages. If I don’t know the person well, this isn’t friendly joking - it’s just annoying.

I get messages almost every day - sometimes it’s only a few, but often, there are at least 30 in my inbox every time I open it. Especially after a recently posted comic, sometimes there can be 80+ questions I need to look through. I can’t feasibly reply to all of them, so I have to scroll and see if

A) There’s anything I can use for the AU comic (those get saved for later)

B) There’s anything I can answer within 10 seconds (these are short, simple enough questions that do not require a paragraph to explain)

C) There’s anything people are having trouble understanding en masse that I might have messed up/missed and needs to be addressed so everyone can calm down

But the majority of the asks are not these asks.

You want to see what the majority of my asks are like?

Nonsensical questions that are trying to get a reaction out of me.

Questions which make it clear the reader has not yet read the FAQ/the whole comic/has not really read very carefully.

People trying to strong-arm the story in a direction of their own, or trying to break down the 4th wall to give Steven All The Answers...

These are just a FEW examples.

Some messages are just really sweet notes from people who tell me they like the comic - I try to save them for later to reply privately, if I can, or I save them to read over and over again to cheer myself up. :)

Some are random chainmail asks or various attempts to get my attention - ‘pass this hug on to the next 10 people’ etc - I appreciate them, but I never react or do anything because it’s just not realistic for me to do that sort of work. I have other things I want to be focusing on.

I want to be polite and patient and answer everyone, but I hope you guys can understand that I just... can’t be. I’m only one person. I don’t have a PR team behind me because I’m not a public figure. I’m just one comic author, and I don’t want to build up some sort of ‘influencer’ status. I just want to draw.

And I know this might be difficult to hear but - I’m not your friend. I’m not your hero. I’m not even someone you should be looking up to. If my work inspires you, I’m thrilled to hear that! We can be peers! I can give you advice if you need it (provided you’re not expecting a 10 chapter How To book on your desk in the morning) and I can answer questions if you’re confused.

All I ask is that you take a few seconds to THINK about what you typed before you hit that button.

Before sending the ask, ask yourself:

1) Is it written politely? (Or are you talking to me the way a rich middle aged woman talks to someone in customer service?)

2) Did you already try to find the answer to your question by searching the blog and reading the FAQ?

3) Would you run up to a random artist at a convention and say this to their face?

If all of these can be answered with ‘YES’ After that, send the message. I guarantee you will exponentially increase your chance of your ask being answered if you follow these steps. :)

#chekhov answers #Anonymous

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heybeybey · 4 years ago

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OG Levi Squad Traveling Together headcanon list (if Attack on Titan wasn’t so fucked up 😭😭😭 I also miss them so...)

Offering up a new headcanon list to the fandom because I’m currently catching up on the manga and it’s getting harder to breathe with each chapter :’)

Also: to those who sent HC requests, I haven’t forgotten them! I’ll get back to them soon! I just need to daydream something happy right now lol thank you so much for sending them!!

Slight Rivetra btw (are u even surprised??)

10/10 THEY’D TRAVEL TOGETHER. Like “road trip level complete with country music” type of travel (no this isn’t modern au)

They “force” Levi to travel with them but let’s be real, he also wants to join deep down

Their travel “assignments”:

Gunther - Budgeting. He seems like the most sensible one

Eld - Map and navigation (and music... much to Levi’s disappointment)

Levi - Packing (but the truth is the team just doesn’t want to accidentally forget cleaning supplies that he might “need”)

Petra - Schedule and itinerary!

Oluo - Nothing bec. he’d fuck up everything Food and groceries. Highly supervised by Gunther.

You think Levi ordered them these assignments? NO IT’S MAMA PETRA. SHE’S TAKING OVER NOW SO SIT YOUR ASS DOWN CAPTAIN

Eld would be the type to bring an instrument during their travels and play while they’re on horseback and just lazily traveling around

Of course, Levi will be the one to tell them all to shut the fuck up

“You’re not our commanding officer anymore, captain.”

Then the four of them would continue with their singing

At one point, they’d probably get involved in a bar fight

Lol, again you think it’s the captain? Maybe Oluo?

NO IT’S DRUNK PETRA. Someone probably grabbed her ass while in a bar and she didn’t learn all that Survey Corps moves for nothing!!!!

Eld, Gunther and Oluo would try holding her back

Levi would just be in the corner sipping on his beer as he watches the scene unfold

But he later on kicks the man in the balls

They’d all leech off from captain’s savings bec. he had the highest salary out of them all

Sugar Baby Levi Squad no no please ignore this point this one’s 100% shitpost

But no really, I think Levi would treat them to a few meals or entrance fees because he’s the one who doesn’t have any family left so what’s his savings for? He’d rather let his team use the money they can save for their respective families

Oluo would probably shop for something that they don’t need and Levi would throw it out since it takes up wayyy too much space in their luggage

Gunther would meet someone during the trip and they’ll have this whirlwind summer romance while they stay in that place for 2 weeks 💖 💖 💖 💖

Speaking of romance, Eld and Gunther are using this opportunity to push the Captain and Petra together

Oluo would be against it and say “it’s not proper” (No one believes him that that’s the real reason btw)

They’d go and have their portraits taken because Petra wanted a team picture but they just won’t sit still and the only one that comes out right in the photo is Levi

Eld writes to his fiance about their adventures

Same with Petra. She’d write to her father about their travels but 80% of it would be Levi’s name.

When they’re lost, Levi and Eld would insist that yes, of course we know where we’re going

Oluo needed some medical treatment once in awhile. There was this one time he sliced his left foot open while he was swimming in the ocean. (At least it’s not his tongue again so he’s improving)

....they tried gambling once with a group of strangers. Levi won it all for their team. More travel fund for Gunther to budget.

CARNIVALSSSSSSSS

They buy ice cream and try to figure out each others’ favorite flavours.

Oluo once won Petra a big-ass teddy bear

Levi tries to tell himself that it doesn’t bother him

He threw the teddy bear away, telling Oluo that it’s taking up space in the luggage (Poor Oluo)

There was a time they tried camping and for someone who was in the Survey Corps, Levi hated every moment of it.

He’d constantly check for bugs and would clean his tent twice before sleeping (his cleaning time is longer than his actual sleeping time)

Eld, Oluo, Gunther and Petra would get tired of him raging around that they just cleared their cart and used it at his sleeping place

One time, Oluo couldn’t sleep and he and Levi chat together. Levi gives him some combat advice and even a few things about taking care of teenage girls (since Levi took care of Isabel) and u can bet Oluo’s really fanboying throughout that night.

Rivetra: Okay so there was this one time when there were only two rooms left in their hotel. One has three beds on it while the other one is a honeymoon suite. Eld and Gunther ganged up and blackmailed Oluo to join them so Petra and Levi would be in the same room together (the honeymoon suite)

Levi tried pointing out that maybe Petra should have the room to herself and the four men can be in the same room together since she’s the only woman in their group... but the three men already checked in and ignored the captain.

Petra would go shopping for dresses and when they all need to pack up again to move to their next destination, Levi allows her to bring ALL of it. Eld, Oluo and Gunther would argue because the captain threw away 70% of what they bought/won/collected but Petra gets to keep it all???

Levi would just say: “So you’re saying clothing isn’t essential?”

Which is a bullshit reason. He’s just soft for Petra as usual.

Gunther IS a genius at budgeting!! They still have some left after they wrapped up the trip.

What they’d usually shop for:

Gunther - books and vitamins for his aging parents

Petra - clothing, some jewellery and a few snacks for her dad and the rest of the Survey Corps (how she packs that, i don’t know)

Eld - Dresses and jewellery for his girlfriend

Oluo - Toys for his little sisters and brothers

Levi - the rarest tea in that place. Probably books for the nerds back home Erwin and Hange

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alia-turin · 3 years ago

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It has been a very very long week and I was writing and writing this chapter and it did not seem to end. Honestly I would have made that the final chapter but then it just became endless so I will probably write jus another one sort of as an epilogue.

I hope you enjoy y’all.

PLEASE NOTE: This chapter is 80% NSFW and there is a warming for blindfolding, some lighe dom/sub undertones and ice play. Fic Title: Somewhere in Time: Chapter 8 Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Rating: Explicit Fandom: The Witcher Relationship: Caranthir Ar-Feiniel/Original Female Character(s)

Aine pulled the furs to her chin. She wasn’t cold, the fire was burning as hot as possible and the bedroom was small, but she couldn’t sleep. She pressed a finger against her lips, still feeling his touch there. The way her heart was beating when she felt him close to her, when he pressed himself against her...that was what kept her awake. That and how much she misunderstood him prior to the events this morning. She had no idea if she had done something or he did it on purpose, showing her things in his mind that shocked her. If it was her, it was not on purpose and probably she even owed him an apology even if she had no idea what to apologize for, if it was him...why?

She thought about what she saw for the rest of the day and now half of the night her mind was still going through the images. Aine didn’t fully understand all of them, those were his memories, that much she knew, but it all looked like paintings and she had to figure out what exactly the painting meant. She saw the terror, the pain he had inflicted. But there was more. She saw the confused boy, the young man who had lost someone he loved and that loss turning into anger. He was violence, but he never hurt her despite her worst fears.

She rolled to her side.

What if she had allowed him to do what he wanted today...she wanted him, why wouldn’t she? He was handsome, he saved her life, even if it was under the strangest circumstances and now she could even understand him. All she had to do today was just to allow him what he started. She didn’t want to be hurt. Not again. She wanted him, but not for one night, that was pointless.

She rolled to her other side.

Two different men. The same way he said that the red haired woman from his memories was different from her, so was…

Accidentally or on purpose she knew some of his most intimate moments, there was no denying that and despite everything she understood. They were very different from each other, but somehow the same. Having a family, but not really. Not having the worst possible life, but never the life they actually wanted...

She got out of the bed, didn’t even bother to get dressed, just wrapped the furs around herself.

Caranthir was reading a book, or more like looking at a book. He had been starting every sentence multiple times because the words just did not reach his brain. All he could think was how stupid he was today. Aine was too inexperienced and that was too powerful magic for her. He didn’t have an explanation of what exactly went wrong, beside the fact he should have known. No, that wasn’t what bothered him, her stopping him. He was glad she did, he wasn’t sure he could treat her gently, the way he wanted to treat her. Was he even capable of that? Did he even know what it meant to be with someone not just mindlessly chasing his pleasure and some physical relief.

“Can we talk?” he lifted his head, Aine standing by the stairs, her body wrapped with a blanket. She stepped closer to him, stopping on the opposite side of his desk. “I...know why you act the way you act. I’m not sure I understand it, but I saw your memories.”

“You were not supposed to see that.” he interrupted her. He didn’t want to talk with her about how he killed and worse. He knew very well none of his memories were pleasant, they were not pleasant to him, they couldn’t possibly be pleasant to someone else.

“I wasn’t, but I did.” She pulled the blanket closer to her as if she was cold. “I...pushed you because I told you that you cannot be nice to me and then shut down. I was scared.” he didn’t say anything, only watched and listened, who wouldn’t be scared honestly? And he understood very well what she meant about him being warm one moment and then cold the next. If he had social skills he would be one or the other. “I like you.”

He tilted his head. It wasn’t the first time someone said that to him, but in his opinion women liked the idea of him more than they liked him. He was a navigator, a red rider, all of these attractive in everyone’s mind. He knew she didn’t care about any of that. He knew she saw him for exactly who he was, physically and otherwise and that was relief and a big problem at the same time.

“I saw your life. I owe you something in return, probably an explanation.” he didn’t answer, still not sure what to say. He did not feel as if she owed him something, but he was not going to stop her. If anything he owed her an explanation, maybe an apology for being rash and irresponsible, pushing her to do something because he found it fun without thinking of the consequences “There was an elf. Years ago, when I still lived in my father's house. He was nice to me.” she stopped, he wanted and didn’t want to know what nice meant in that sentence. “He thought that by being close to me, he would win favour, but he did not understand that my father saw me as a bit more than a servant. He figured it out.”

“I have little use of you.” he finally said immediately realizing how bad that sounded. “What I meant is that I have no interest in using you.”

“I know. I...saw as much.” there it was. She said it. Took that off her shoulders. “This is why I pushed you away today. Not because of what I saw but because I started feeling for you and you being the way you were well...I don’t want to be one night entertainment.” she looked at him, she couldn’t live all her life in fear of what happened before and the same was true for him.

She let the blanket drop around her feet, leaving her naked in front of him.

Caranthir felt his jaw drop. That he did not expect. He watched her naked shape, the candles and the fire from the room dancing over her skin and hair. That was what he wanted, wasn’t it? For weeks now, but why couldn’t he move or say something?

“This is embarrassing, I thought…'' She started talking, her arms trying now to cover her nakedness and also reaching down for the furs, but Caranthir moved faster, getting himself in front of her and grabbing her arms before she could do it.

“You don’t need to do that for my benefit.” he moved her arms out of the way, his eyes tracing the shape of her collarbones, her breasts, her hips. If she were to stop him now, at the very least he wanted to memorize that view.

“I want you.” she answered as she stepped on her tip toes and kissed him. He responded, opening his mouth but taking over the kiss, trying to steal the breath from her but he suddenly pulled out.

“What…” she looked at him puzzled.

“Nothing…” he stepped back his eyes on her body again. He didn’t want to cause himself to her. She was too...pure for him. “You need to know something. I’m not gentle, I’m not sure I know how to be...nice.”

“I saw that.” she responded, her eyes not leaving his. He didn’t think she saw any of it, but maybe he had been too focused on stopping her that she had seen more than he expected. “I have seen…” he placed his finger on her lips.

“And you are not like them to me, but I don’t think I know any other way.” he pressed himself against the desk and pulled her closer, her belly rubbing against his growing erection. He wrapped his arms around her, letting his hands rest on her lower back. “Do you trust me?” he pulled her even closer to himself, frustrated at all the clothes he was wearing. She hesitated for a second but nodded. That was all he needed.

Aine felt his hand slide down to her ass, but he didn’t stop, he leaned forward and grabbed her hips, lifting her up and turning both of them around, letting her sit on the desk. She wanted to kiss him, she needed the closeness. He took a small step back, and then pulled his shirt off, almost as if he was getting changed, there was nothing seductive in his action, just a task he had to do. Aine couldn’t help herself but stare at his body, she knew he was well built, she could see that much even under the clothes, but now seeing the hardness of his chest, the defined lines around his abs...and the tattoos. She had seen the tattoos that started at his neck and those on his fingers and hands, but didn’t think they covered his whole torso, arms and parts of his legs. There were also the scars, less visible on his skin due to the tattoos but they were still there, the same scars as the ones on his face.

She couldn’t control herself and reached for his chest, her finger tracing a few black lines of the unknown pattern on his skin.

“What does it mean?” she asked as her finger continued.

“This one is a spell.” he grabbed her hand and guided her through his skin. “This stops other mages from putting tracking spells on me, like the one I put on you.” he moved her finger just below his chest. “This one protects from certain curses.” he continued pushing her finger down over his abs until he stopped where his belt was. She tried to reach for his belt but he held her hand away.

“Patience.” He didn't say that to her, mostly to himself. He had never taken so much time, if it were someone else he would be half way through now. But he wanted to feel her, every single part of her and wanted her to feel him. He wasn’t worried about her seeing him, she already did and he liked what he saw in her eyes. He might be making that up of course but she accepted him, she didn’t stare at his scars as if he was a freak, when her fingers touched them she didn’t even pull away...she just accepted him and that was a bigger turn on for him than almost anything else.

He pushed her on the desk and turned her so her length was on the length of the desk. He didn’t follow her, just walked around and reached for the drawer on the opposite side.

“What are you…” Aine lifted herself looking at him puzzled.

“Trust me.” he pulled the black fabric from the drawer and walked all the way behind her. “Just relaxed.”

He placed the fabric over her eyes and tired it at the back. He had blindfolded women before, it was his way to deal with them not seeing him, not looking at him. This was different. It wasn’t about her seeing him, they were past that, he just liked seeing her trust him, allowing him…

Aine hoped that was not a mistake and she wouldn’t wake up tomorrow regretting everything, or even worse, alone in the bed with him just gone somewhere, forgetting about her. She couldn’t see anything, but her hearing felt somewhat sharper, probably just an illusion from the senula deprivation. She could hear the wood in the fire burning, even the wind howling outside, but nothing from Caranthir until she felt his hands around her ankles, pulling her so her ass was almost at the edge of the desk and her feet hanging low. Then she felt his hands on her inner thigh spreading her open, redness creeping through her skin realizing he was standing right in front of her with her legs wide spread. What felt even more embarrassing was that she had no idea where his eyes were, for all she knew he could be staring at the bookshelves behind her.

“Caranthir?'' All she needed was a sound from him, just to know exactly where he was, but no response followed. However, she did feel his lips kissing just below her bellybutton, her stomach curling in a ball by the surprised sensation. Second kiss didn’t follow, but that was enough to make the heat between her legs almost intolerable. She tried to push her legs together but he placed his hands on her knees and stopped her. Not a word followed, she couldn’t decide what was more tortuous, not knowing where his eyes were looking, or the absolute silence from him.

Next thing she felt was his hands cupping her breasts, unlike the kiss that was not soft and gentle, that felt more like what she expected from him, rough, but still pleasant. He moved one hand away, just to replace it with his mouth on her nipple, his tongue licking it as her body arched looking for some sort of friction in the empty air. She moaned, enjoying the sensation, but also needing more, the cool air she can feel between her legs just reminding her about the emptiness there.

He moved his other hand away, his mouth replacing it as well, his tongue flicking at teasing, but not giving her any release just building even more need, until he moved away again, Aine moaning this time in frustration, as even his teasing was better than nothing at all. She felt something familiar, a tingling on her skin - magic and that was not coming from here.

“Caranthir, what…” she couldn’t finish. He placed his finger on her lips, again not even a sound from him. He placed a soft kiss just below her jawbone, another one further down, so tender, and gentle, unlike the next one, where he kissed but then sank his teeth in the middle of her neck and the next one over her collarbones where he bit the sensitive skin again. Next thing she felt was something cold against her neck, just where he was kissing, it felt like ice or snow. She could feel the wet trail it left as he moved it down, to where his teeth had sunk a moment ago, leaving her skin cold and burning at the same time. Aine moaned and this time she could hear him smirk, she could almost imagine the satisfaction on his face.

Caranthir watched her body react to the ice in his hand. He placed the cold cube above her breasts, sliding it slowly to her cleavage and further down. He moved the ice away, casting more of the spell to compensate for what had been lost by the warmth of her skin, but used his tongue to lick the wet trail the ice had left. She moaned, her body arching toward him desperately looking for a contact and he was doing his best not to allow her any contact but what he was giving her now.

He pulled away just for a second but then moved back to her right nipple taking it in his mouth and sucking as he slid the ice down her cleavage again, but continued down slowly leaving the ice on top of her belly button to melt.

“Caranthir…” this time it wasn’t a question it was a moan and he could feel it straight between his legs. He wanted to hear that again and again, but when he was in her. He stopped for a second, no, he was determined to take his time, this was different.

He stepped back watching her chest rise and fall, breathing heavily from, the ice on her belly almost melted, cold water glistering over her skin. His gaze stopped between her legs, he could see the wetness, his tongue running over his own lips, not wanting to take any longer. This game was almost as tortuous to him as it probably was to her. He needed to feel her, the same way he had felt her skin against his when he was teaching her, but less innocent, more primal.

Aine’s body was hot and cold at the same time, she could feel the freezing water running down her belly. Suddenly she felt his finger between her legs, the coldness of his skin surprised her and by insitic she tried to pull her legs together but he stopped her with his other hand. He didn’t push his finger in her, which was frustrating, just ran it around her entrance, his touch almost gentle, pleasant, but was not helping her in any way, on purpose stopping just before he could provide any sort of actual release.

That ended as well, more silence followed, seconds but the anticipation made it feels like minutes. She thought she could hear clothes, maybe leather, but the sound was so faint that she could not decide if at that point her mind was playing tricks on her, maybe it was her wanting to hear that and then feel him on top of her, the warmth of his skin pressed against hers. Again there were the goosebumps on her skin from magic, her brain just going in complete overload, what now? She felt Caranthir hands on her hips, slowly sliding up to her waist, smearing the now warm water under his touch, until his hands reached to her ribs and he slid his grip under her, pulling her into sitting position. Next thing she knew he dragged her even further to the edge of his desk, she was expecting to step on the ground any moment, but that never happened, there was nothing under her feet, just that tingling magic sensation, the feeling of falling and a low surprised scream escaped her mouth.

Suddenly she was sitting on something again, however it felt different. It wasn’t the hard, uncomfortable desk, her knees felt something soft, but what she was different, warm, she lost her balance and leaned forward, by instinct her hands reached forward to soften the fall but all she felt under her palms was hot skin and hard muscle.

Caranthir watched her confusion, as he was lying on the bed, she was sitting on top of him, her legs on either side of his. He removed the fabric from her eyes, unable to hold his own need to look at her. Aine measured the room in surprise, he could see confusion at first but it was quickly replaced with recognition, it was his bedroom, or hers as she had been sleeping there since he rescued her. He was lying on the soft furs covering the bed, the room was dark, but the moonlight reflection on the snow provided more than enough light for him to see her as clear as he did downstairs with all the candles and fires lit. He reached for her face, caressing the perfect skin in the exact same spot where his was damaged. His finger hooked a long strand of hair that was falling over her chest and moved it way, he needed to look at her, enjoy every inch of her.

Her small hands were on his abs, but one slowly moved down, reaching to his hardness and wrapping her thin fingers around him. He didn’t want to make a sound, but a low grunt escaped his throat as he felt her skin around his length. She moved her hand slowly, tortuous, but he did not care, at least not yet. Despite the pleasure her hand was providing, he just couldn’t get enough of her touch, her perfect shape on top of him, her eyes looking in his with the same lust he was feeling. He wanted to do hundreds of things right now and nothing at the same time. Wanted to be in her, on top of her, have her on her knees between his legs, taste her..the list went on and on. At the same time that was perfect as well. He had never experienced that before, all his sex encounters have been about satisfying a need, rather than...that whatever the right word for that was. It had been about chasing his own pleasure, some release and there was that. But now he just wanted to look at her, enjoy the way her eyes were pinned on him, accepting him. Her small hand was still stoking him slowly, but he could feel himself moving him closer to an edge.

Caranthir wrapped his hands under her ass and lifted her up, her knees still touching the soft furs under them. Her hand let go of him and reached back on his abs trying to find balance even if his arms were supporting her. He positioned her slowly on top of his length, his eyes not leaving hers as he let her slide down slowly. He was supporting her, controlling the pace she moved down on him. He could feel the heat between her legs, then the wetness and eventually her tightness around him. She moaned as his tip pushed in, biting her lower lip. He gave her a moment to get used to him, but then continued to help her slide down on him, inch by inch, as slowly as he could until he was all the way in and stopped. She tried to move up, but he dug his fingers in her thighs keeping her in place.

He needed a moment, he pulled himself into a half sitting position, his right hand on the bed to support him, but his left hand still on her hip. He leaned forward and kissed her as he moved his hand under her and urged her to move, slowly, it was tortuous for him, but he knew it was the same for her. They both needed more than that. She started moving on his length, her arms now using his shoulders for support, his hips moving to meet her. He watched her as she found the best angle, the moans from her mouth low but so intoxicating for his mind. He slid his hand away, moving it slowly across her leg until his thumb was positioned on her clit, gently drawing a circle but that was enough to distract her from the pace she had picked.

“Don’t stop or I will as well.” he whispered in her ear, realizing that was the first thing he had said all night.

She started moving again, her eyes pleading with him and he just smiled, his thumb resuming the lazy circles it was drawing.

“Good girl.” he whispered in her ear again and then bit it gently, moving his lips down her neck, placing soft kisses as his finger increased the pressure and speed. Her pace became more rigid and he moved his hand away, back to her hip, but with a smooth move he rolled her over, this time she was lying on the furs and he was on top of her.

Aine quickly wrapped her legs around him urging him to push in her but he didn’t move. Yet again her pleasure and everything associated was at his mercy. It was exciting, but what made the thrill stronger was that just a week ago she would never imagine herself doing that with him. Somehow seeing him for who he truly was did something for her, enough to know he wouldn’t hurt her, and enough to find attraction toward him. A week ago, she wouldn’t have thought about allowing him to cover her eyes, even if it was for a second and they were completely dressed. Right now it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Caranthir placed his hand on her throat, his thumb and index finger holding her jaw and forcing her to look at him, not that she had any other intention. She wanted to look at his face, even though he had been good about keeping his emotions under control, there were signs of pleasure, his pupils almost completely hiding the blue of his eyes, his jaw clenching when he was suppressing a groan.

Despite his best effort Caranthir could not hold any longer, or go slow. He moved his hips slowly but then his whole body just refused to listen and he found himself in a harsh pace, Aine’s body arching below him in pleasure with every thrust he did. The grip around her throat increased in strength, he could feel against his palm as she swallowed, the bones raising against him, the way her skin vibrated as she moaned. Her eyes fixed on him, barely focused, but she was looking at him. He wanted to know what she was feeling, what she was thinking, seeing him on top of her. He could. Without giving it a second thought he pressed his forehead against her and cast the spell, something that should be forbidden, but he wasn’t thinking. He immediately felt what she was feeling, he could feel the pressure against his throat even nothing was holding him, but the amount of pleasure she was feeling, he was feeling it now too, combined with his own, pushing him so close to the edge that he could not control anything on his body anymore, his speed, the way he was holding her…

Aine smiled as she felt his forehead press against her and then almost screamed from what followed. Everything she was feeling until now, suddenly became more intensified and different. It felt so strange, she knew physically nothing changed, his moves became less controlled, harsher, but her mind was experiencing that on a completely different level. She dug her nails in his back and somehow sensed it on her own skin, even if there was nothing there. One of his hands was still on her throat, the other between her legs, how could she feel nails digging in her own back? Her orgasm came almost immediately, her body arching under him, feeling the warmth of skin, she had no idea if she screamed or made any other sound, her whole mind was trying to process something that she had never felt before.

Moments passed, neither of them moved his chest pressing against hers as both of them were trying to catch their breaths. She was physically tired, but her mind was also exhausted in a way she had not felt before, even with all the work she had been doing as he was teaching her how to use magic.

Eventually Caranthir rolled over, he seemed exhausted as well, his moves slow and forced as he pulled the furs under the two of them and used them as a blanket and then pulled her on his chest, his arms wrapped around her body.

Aine started tracing lazily the black lines over his skin entwined with scars. Her fingers touched gently the complex patterns and runes, gently brushing around the damaged skin.

Neither of them spoke, she had no idea what to say. Whatever happened tonight...first she had never imagined herself going to someone offering herself the way she did with him, but somehow it felt right, he felt close and...in a twisted way that made sense. She also never imagined herself being blindfolded to someone’s desk, that sounded terrifying and against all logic, he was the last person she should entrust with that, but here they were, she was more than fine and in one piece.

“What was that?” she finally asked.

“Mhm?” was the only response he gave, as he started playing with her hair. “You need to be more specific.”

“After you touched my forehead.” she slid her fingers lower to his abs, more runes and markings covering the skin there.

“A spell.” he answered. A forbidden one or at least one that was frowned upon in certain circumstances. Accessing someone’s mind was dangerous and invasive, the way she did it with him, he allowed that. No one allowed him now. “It allowed me to feel what you were feeling and it allowed you to feel what I was feeling.” It usually was hard to cast it on someone who was unwilling or unaware, but she had completely given up to him. It felt so easy as both of them had completely given themselves to each other, but he had also been selfish. He needed the reassurance that she really wanted him, the way he wanted her.

Caranthir continued playing with her hair, his mind going through everything that happened tonight. Not just the physical part, that was great, but there was more. He had never been so intimate with another person. Never had the need to touch someone or be touched, even if it was just that, holding her, feeling her warmth next to him.

“Are you okay?” she pushed herself up a bit, he had to fight the instinct to pin her back down. She wasn’t going anywhere, she just lifted her head and shoulders a bit to look at him, but even that loss of friction was frustrating. He felt like a child who had just discovered how good chocolate tasted. “Caranthir?”

“Yes.” he pushed her hair away from her shoulder gently, running his finger over the skin where he had left marks. He has not done that before. He had been rough in the past, but never felt the need to leave a mark, it usually happened by accident, spur of the moment situation, but that was different. “Does it hurt?” she shook her head, she probably didn’t even know how red her skin was.

“How did you do the thing with the ice?” she relaxed again on his chest.

He reached for her hand and took it in his, made her open her palm.

“Focus and think about ice.” he could see her concentrating, sensing magic slowly building and an ice ball no bigger than his thumb appeared in her hand. “There you go.”

She rolled the piece of ice in her hand and then placed it on his chest, Caranthir groaned, the little ball slid down his chest to the side of abs and fell on the bed.

“How long did it take you to get all these?” she asked after a moment of silence, her small finger tracing again the tattoos on his body.

“Months.” It felt strange talking about himself. He had asked her questions about her and he knew a lot, but she never asked him questions before and then...well he gave her the crash course of who he was. It was still foreign for him to talk about himself. “I did my first one when I wasn’t even an adult yet.”

“You did it?” she pushed herself up again, looking him in the eyes with surprise. “Even on your neck and back?”

“You can use magic to move objects. It is not that complicated to move a needle and some ink.” he traced her spine with his fingers. He should probably get some protective runes on her to make sure no harm would come, but he also loved looking at her undamaged skin, so much unlike his covered in scars. “My teacher taught me the principle and told me that one day he would help me get my first runes. I couldn’t wait, so I did it myself despite his instructions. He wasn’t happy, but I also did it right from the first time.”

Aine listened to him, it felt good. She already knew a lot, not because she asked, but now it felt better. Having him volunteer that information, for the first time talking with full sentences, not half words with hidden meaning.

“Your teacher...he was the one who raised you, right?” she was careful with her questions, she wanted to hear him talk, but she also didn’t want to push too far and make him close himself again.

“He did. He was like a father to me, not a good one, but he was the only family I had growing up. The only parent, the only friend…” a sad smile appeared on his lips. “I used to worship him, now I feel like he is my biggest enemy.”

Aine didn’t know what to say at that, she wasn’t one to speak about fatherly love and even if she did not consider her family as her enemy she did not want to be near them either, or at least what was left of them. A brother who rarely acknowledged her, a father who used her as a trinket when there was a need for it and ignored her the rest of the time.

“I want you to stay with…” Caranthir finally started what was on his mind but stopped suddenly feeling the energy in the room building. He looked at her but her eyes were as puzzled looking at him for an answer. “Seriously?” Caranthir said more to himself, pushing himself up as he saw the portal opening. There was only one person who could open a portal and knew to find him in this place.

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