#i knew pretty immediately it was supposed to be maya!!

[goddamnelsa]

okay here we go, the few things i liked and the MANY things i hated:

(obviously spoilers under the cut plus trigger warnings for game content--specifically suicide and self harm discussion)

Liked: -it was free -the environments looked great, the light effects were awesome -a few effective jump scares--the paper bag people for one is a good moment -the whole sequence in anita's childhood apartment where you get progressively smaller as you loop, that whole thing was probably the best and they spent NO TIME ON IT -did i mention it was free? zero risk here and yet i still wouldn't recommend it!!

Did not like: -HOO BOY OKAY -the storyline is incredibly on the nose and not balanced in anyway. remember the whole anita's childhood thing?? yeah, that should've been a MUCH bigger part of the story, but instead they focus on the teen drama between anita, amelie, and maya -i did not dig the video sections of maya talking and her incredibly stilted and bad voiceover (just because i find the stilted voice acting of sh1-4 charming doesn't mean i...want more of it) -THE SILENT HILL PHENOMENON MY FACE WHEN I SAW THAT I CAN'T REPLICATE IT BUT IT WAS WHOLLY UNAMUSED -WHY IS THIS IN GERMANY?? WHY IS THIS NOT IN SILENT HILL OR AN ADJACENT TOWN?? we have lore for this guys!! there are several towns neighboring silent hill that have people still in them! -nothing in this bland ass story needs for this to be set in a fake german town btw, the town itself has nothing to do with the story except as background and i guess as a reason why the teens want to leave so bad?? but like that's...normal. i grew up in a boring normal suburban town and i couldn't wait to move away, that's pretty bog-standard for most teenagers. -i know i'm in the minority but i didn't like the creature (SINGULAR SIGH) design!! i know it's masahiro ito, but i've seen ito's work, he can do better!! -THIS WASN'T SCARY AT ALL. Because the creature is relegated to specific chase sequences, a la Shattered Memories, there is no peril, no anxiety about exploring -AND the environments are so well rendered and they don't care if you explore ANY OF IT. There is hardly anything to interact with! Maybe one or two things per room. This really hit me when I entered the library and it was such a great environment and there were TWO things to click on. I couldn't even zoom in to look at other stuff. Like again, reminds me of SH:SM with lots to look at, but at least it SH:SM you got to click on SO MUCH and Harry had something to say about EVERYTHING no matter how banal it was. -also the chase sequences were frustrating and not in a scary-anxiety-inducing way just in a extremely discouraging and frustrating way ESPECIALLY the final one where i just rage quit and watched the final cutscene on youtube because FUCK THAT CHERRY BLOSSOM BITCH. She's not predictable and there is no rhyme or reason to the mazes and she one-shot kills you so the first death is like AAH that's scary! but every subsequent one, anita got more and more frightened and i got more and more PISSED. -i didn't mind the content warning at the beginning--sh has always had content warnings! albeit more generic, but still there!--but using it again and again after every one of anita's suicide attempts just felt...bad. like hey! we don't condone bullying or suicide! but we're going to keep showing you this teenage girl trying to kill herself! but it's OKAY! WE'RE GIVING YOU RESOURCES! -i think that's the crux for me about why i hated this so much and i'm not going to dig any new sh going forward--they are clearly trying to do the indie A24 style of horror as therapy, and it's not always bad, but it IS hard to nail, and i don't trust that konami can deliver because they are just trying to strike gold again with more and more sh2 copies, even though for a lot of core sh fans, sh2 is the outlier, not the norm. where are my cults?? where is my teen girl forced to gestate a god embryo and then throw it up in the eleventh hour??? and then kill her god baby??? now every protagonist must have undealt-with-trauma and silent hill is here to make you deal with it whether you want to or not. silent hill: your new therapist, dear CHRIST -silent hill has a silent hill 2 problem, it always has, i don't know why i thought that might change with this new slate of games, but HERE WE ARE I GUESS -um silent hill: f please come and save me??? -also please set silent hill games in silent hill again 2k24 -that's all. don't play this game. yes, it's free. don't play it. (but if you do, message me so i can scream some more about it)

sh: the short message was Not Good, like i had low expectations (as i do for all new sh media) but they still managed to disappoint me!! incredible!!

[n30nwrites]

Now Sit (Shifter! TF141 x Male Reader)

Part 2 of Good Doggy

Masterlist here

Warnings: None really??? I'm not sure. Some awkwardness but that's cause Reader couldn't give less of a fuck. Some creepy behavior

Updated; 3/5/2024

Beta Reader: the lovely @letmelickyoureyeballs who's saving your guys asses right now

Part 1 here.

The entire house was shrouded in darkness. The windows were covered up in thick fabrics of purples and blacks. You didn't have any lights on, instead some candles that were hastily lit when you had entered the building and a few lamps. Your eyes were thankful for the darkness after the long drive during the day.

Your first trash bag was filled with clothing fabrics, they all needed to be washed so you quickly filled the tub with warm water and laundry soap, sorting the fabrics by color before tossing in the divided groups. Starting with your whites.

You decided to bring more boxes in, figuring the more you unboxed the easier it would be when the rest of your stuff arrived. Your box labeled ‘Gear’ was the first box to be put up, putting it in the closet near the entrance so you could pretend it wasn’t there. Just looking at your uniform brought back memories that you wish you could ignore. The second box was just one filled with knives, your swords were in another container wrapped up tightly in the back of Maya’s car. The Knives were put into your bedroom, you would come back to organize them when you weren’t so hungry.

You had cash ready for your pizza. Along with a tip because people needed to be tipped well. Especially in the service industry.

So when a knock echoed in the open-spaced living room, you had the cash tightly gripped, exact change in one hand and in the other the tip.

Until a man who was very obviously not the pizza delivery driver stood there, your pizza in his hand.

Well you figured it was yours. And there was no way this man was a delivery driver. He was far too fine to be one, if you were honest with yourself.

He was 6'2 which immediately put you on your toes, athletic build with graying-brown hair and blue eyes. He seems to look like he's reaching his 40s, something that shouldn't be so attractive yet is.

God, you needed therapy.

But, smash.

Nope. Nope. It was just inappropriate thoughts of an impossible achievement. You didn't need a relationship, not after your last one. You needed solitude, you needed to live a normal life without constant stares.

"Why do you have my pizza?" You ask him, money being squished.

"I paid for it, figured I could do that for the new guy." He speaks and seems almost cheerful, which is strange.

"I'm not paying you back."

"You don't have to." He handed the pizza to you and you snatched it quickly, almost comically. "Okay, bye." You go to shut the door but he quickly protests.

"Wait, who are you?" He seemed desperate and you didn't understand it. You sat the pizza on the table you had set up right next to the door, which was supposed to hold trinkets and your keys but you hadn't put the bowl there yet. You rolled your hand, rubbing your wrist that had ached from just a minute of holding the pizza. It was something you were working on fixing, just not right now.

"Who are you?"

"John, I live over at that house." He points to the house that Stalker 1 and Stalker 2 stood outside of. It was big enough for you to assume they were roommates, or perhaps a family.

"Can you tell the guys to not stare next time? It was uncomfortable." You blankly told him, before introducing yourself, only saying your first name, same as John did.

"This is a pretty big house for you to live all alone in." He was fishing for information, John knew that it could come off creepy, but he needed to know something about this person in front of him.

His mate.

"I don't live alone." You tell him, and he believes you are lying to him. He doesn't hear another heartbeat, and Ghost and Soap said that you arrived alone. "My Partner is coming with the rest of our stuff."

Partner? Why the hell do you have a Partner? How could you not know that you have three (maybe four with the way this pattern is) men waiting for you, willing to do anything for you. He's angry, and he knows that it makes no sense to be. You had lived your entire life before meeting them, it's not like you could drop everything and move in with him.

Despite everything in his body screaming at him to take you into his home and keep you there, keep you safe. And it's unreasonable, and something he would never do unless he wanted to traumatize you.

His eyes slightly widen at his own thoughts, and he needs to take a step away from you. You muddle his brain, you confuse him. He's had partners in the past, but this was different.

You weren't even supposed to be here.

"I'm sorry for bothering you sir, hope you enjoy your pizza." He takes a step away and turns and you don't bother to say goodbye or even thank him. You shut the door and he can hear you shuffle around and grab the pizza.

Price hates himself for what he's going to do next.

Gaz is almost surprised at the meeting. He says almost simply because he knew Price was going over to the neighbors, he watched the leader leave the house and pay off the pizza man. So something had to happen.

They just had to wait for Ghost to get home. Price was insistent on it, that everyone needed to be there and they couldn't wait nor do it over the phone.

He just wasn't expecting the words.

A theory that you were somehow mates with all of them. Price had revealed your status to him which caused Soap to blow up. It seemed ridiculous, all four of them connected to you.

But Gaz wanted it to be true. If he could just walk over and meet you, to find out.

If Gaz could no longer feel so alone because of you. He would do anything for that. So he didn't care that Ghost didn't seem to trust you, claimed you could be some creature putting a spell on the team, he didn't care that Soap wanted you for himself. He didn't care that Price was still talking.

He went outside and ignored the protests.

And he was lucky too, because a car had pulled up to your house and you walked out, sunglasses on and a large jacket which didn't fit for the weather.

But he could finally see if it was true.

-----

NEXT

Okay so I skipped my homework to finish this (i'm not gonna be this irresponsible I swear) and I made a poll here where you can decide on if reader is a human or not. I have plot points for both (probably a longer story if not human??? but that depends on what the people want) also please reblog and leave comments I usually lose interests with these and I'm trying not too. Gonna post a Masterlist for this soon, and if you want to follow the story you can follow the tag Good Doggy FF so you don't have to have notifs on lol.

[deluweil]

I think I realized what bugged me with Buck's coming out story in 7x04.

It's that he's "rewarded" for "bad behavior".

Don't get me wrong I was probably one of the loudest advocates for Bi!Buck, and I'm deliriously happy we got that.

But the fact that 7x04 went almost exactly the same as 2x01, behavior wise, that bratty, how am I not the center of attention? I'll show you your place, (the respect your elders crap) was very disturbing for me.

Like, aside for the fact that Buck finds out that he likes to be railed by boys as well as doing girls, there's no real character development here.

He knew, intellectually, at first that he was jealous of the attention Tommy got from Eddie, which really, considering everything that predated that was completely understandable that Eddie will look for that friend to do stuff with that they both enjoy somewhere else.

At first, it was the "She sees me," and as we can comprehend from "welcome back to the world of the living Buck, you were missed." Means that Buck was absent from their lives while he handled his death in the form of a relationship with a death doula, that he immersed himself in, completely leaving Eddie to deal with his trauma and loss, of Buck's death, and the consequent heartbreak of Buck choosing Natalia, on his own.

And now Eddie finally has that new friend, who's so much like him, to hang out with, that is worlds different than Buck and suddenly wide awake Buck realizes he's "losing" his best friend.

And I'll be the devil advocate for a minute and ask the Theo (teen wolf) question, come on Buck was he really still your best friend?

Because Eddie and Tommy have been hanging out for almost two weeks? (Though pretty sure more, considering that they have the basketball get-together more often than not and Chimney was probably the one who introduced Tommy and Eddie) it reached a level where Christopher met and loved Tommy (because seriously dude's awesome) almost instantly, but Buck didn't know that until he babysat Christopher and the kid told him about it.

Which makes me ask, where was Buck all that time? Absent? Taking Eddie for granted in that he will always be there?

Eddie has kept his mouth shut through a lot, Buck's sprem donor adventure, the death doula, the she sees me line, through months of separation because Buck cut himself off from everything they were outside of work.

On the surface, they were fine. But Eddie loves Buck enough to welcome him with open arms to everything, Vegas (you know he would have been ecstatic if Buck could go with them), basketball, babysitting Christopher which is world's different than 3x05-3x09.

He even forgives Buck immediately for railroading him on the basketball court.

Not mentioning the whole posturing at the firehouse, I have yet to manage to watch the entire scene (or 2x01 posturing) without cringing and fast forwarding it.

When Tommy goes to see Buck, he's there to figure out what is happening and to apologize in his and Eddie's names because THEY didn't mean to exclude him?? (In the two weeks they were building a friendship? And it's not like Eddie didn't invite Buck to play basketball. It's that Buck didn't want to.)

And Buck, even though Maddie told him he was wrong in what he did, didn't go to see Eddie and apologize. He immediately assumes that Eddie wouldn't want to see him.

First off, that's crap, he made you his son legal guardian, and second, at this point, you're a grown ass adult, do the right thing and even if he's mad at you call to APOLOGIZE!

It's not hard, it's supposed to be the easiest thing in the world, you hurt someone you love, you apologize.

How did Gibson tell Maya in Station 19 after she hurt Carina (emotionally) "You'd be surprised how far an apology can get you".

Buck should have apologized.

Now that kiss was something else, Tommy was super sweet and Buck proved himself to be an adorable bossy bratty bottom, the railing will be epic.

BUT! That relationship will come at Eddie’s expanse. This time excluding Eddie.

So not only Buck was mad that he was excluded, he's the asshole who befriended his best friend's friend cause he wanted the attention (of whom? Will be debated for months around this fandom) And now he excludes Eddie from his life again and disconnects him from the new friend he made.

That is isolation. Because as experience taught any of us, when our best friend gets a boyfriend/girlfriend they are busy! Either dating them or doing them or both.

Trust me I have had enough breathy phone calls answered by my gay best friend to learn to text first, and it didn't matter how many time I told him to stop answering during sex.

My girl friends knew better, but they also didn't call back until after they broke up with whoever the dude of the month was.

So yeah, I am mad on Eddie’s behalf, because Buck has not only done to him what he hates being done to himself, but he also reverted in the behavior to Buck 1.0 in 2x01.

I wish the Tommy/Buck pairing will be sweet and fun and explore new avenues for Buck.

But I want to see some growth damn it! Being out as Bi is brave.

But it is not a character growth if the people around you get hurt so you can get your way.

A lot like the lawsuit story (which, by the way, I was on Buck’s side for that one) but this is different, this is 4 years later and so many things happened.

Eddie went to therapy, and he reacts differently to certain situations now, when 5 years ago, he would have lost his head.

Buck did therapy, but nothing was solved, he's still reacting the same way he did in S2 and I am over it.

So yay to Bi!Buck!

But I wish the writers didn't make so that the growth won't be as significant as it should have been with giving him the same patterns of crappy behavior he exhibited in 2x01.

And there is no, "you're badass under pressure brother" here to cultivate Buck’s praise kink, just a kiss from Eddie’s friend.

Eddie who is sitting injured at home, alone, again (no, Marisol doesn't count) and Buck hadn't even apologized to him, but he was rewarded for making googly eyes at the wrong guy, because it's perfectly normal to be this jealous over not getting the attention of someone you just met, over the attention of your best friend of 6 years.

I understand this may offend a lot of people, but I had to get it out of my system.

No offense is intended, I just call it the way I see it.

I feel like Bi!Buck deserved a better intro story than what it got in 7x04, that kiss shouldn't have been made bittersweet, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one seeing it.

Anyway, I'm hoping for some kind of resolution and at least a heartfelt apology from Buck to Eddie in the next episode, coz it doesn't look like Buck will go to Eddie to apologize.

He and Marisol will stumble onto them at the restaurant and then there will be the whole why didn't you tell me drama, and I love you anyway thing, and it will all be about Buck, again.

Which fair. But does not absolve him railroading Eddie physically to get God knows who's attention.

Even Tommy didn't think it was about him, he literally asks bewildered "My attention?" I love him even more for that by the way.

And Buck should tell the firefam on his own terms, not because he has to.

But we reach another point, where the boys talk about their relationships with their significant others, only when they are forced to, again. Which is not normal at all for any kind of best friends.

Anyway, if you managed this far, thank you❤️

[snowingclouds]

I need to yap about Prototype, specifically Alex's change in Prototype 2:

Obviously, heavy prototype 2 spoilers:

What the fuck happened, man?!?!? In the first game, sure, the dude is willing to kill on sight. There's a civilian death counter. The scene after the Greene boss fight? That was so good. He didn't care, just slammed her ass. Anyways: despite all this, he sounds remorseful and dealing with some tangled up shit, yk? There's a line in the helicopter mission where he shouts "Damn you! Damn you for making me do this!" Like, hello? This virus in the shape of some dude can and does feel remorse and turmoil! He hijacked a helicopter to make sure the city didn't explode, and nearly died in the process.

But then comes Prototype 2:

And suddenly Alex is all about infecting everyone and their mother, spreading his virus, and has Blackwatch in his pocket through his Evolved. No remorse, no care for anyone anymore. Isn't there supposed to be like a 2 year difference between the first outbreak and Prototype 2?? Did he just lose his marbles in that time? Did the nuke scramble his brain a bit? Like, what happened??

I get that Alex is a mass murdering, people eating, viral biomass with Mercer's face, but I keep thinking back to the helicopter mission in the first game. His VA sounds like his whole body was put into that line, and it takes place even after he finds out the truth of everything (except Cross, for the time being).

Heller and him have a very similar "kill on sight" rage that I think makes the games fun, and comparing the two between games, theres so many parallels. It's just odd how Mercer has this 180 behavior.

Tbh, I don't mind prototype 2. Without it, we wouldn't have a boss fight with Heller calling Mercer an "emo fuck" and "bitch" like five times. I totally did not get my shit rocked the first time I tried that fight and kept thinking "James shut your mouth I'm getting bodied here". But all in all, it was fun. I think it would be more fun to explore their relationship considering Heller was military and trusted Blackwatch so deeply. Mercer (before Blacklight) knew shit was going down, and then Blacklight/Alex is immediately hunted by Blackwatch and literally eats his way through the ranks. They could've had so much potential for distrust and betrayal on a deeper level than just "muhahaha! Infect the town!", you know?

And another smaller thing:

In prototype one, there's a thing about how Alex isn't Mercer anymore. He has his face, but he's actually just the virus, and Mercer has been dead a while. They're two separate but not people. See the whole thing about "I'm not human, I never was". But in prototype 2, James doesn't have that same thing happen. The whole time, every one of the Evolved seem to be infected people, not people that the virus is wearing as a face, and that's an important distinction. Maybe not so important when you're slaughtering Evolved, but in the scenes with Heller and Maya? That's pretty fucking important. Maya is scared of him at first, and I don't think we're given enough of Heller's thoughts during that. Yeah, he looks distraught in that scene, but imagine how much more so it would've been if they re-explored the whole "not human virus wearing a face" thing some more, especially in relation to his kid.

And sure; maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe even Heller's internal thoughts would've been "who cares" as long as he has the memories of Heller and took off right where he left off, but I still would've really liked to see that come up again.

[oodlyenough]

aa6-5 turnabout revolution

finished 6-5 over the last couple weeks, which means we've only got the DLC left for soj and the main series of games.

i gotta say ... i liked this finale a lot more than i expected to. i thought it was fun, and in turn that elevated SOJ overall. by far not the best ace attorney game i've played, but definitely not the worst. from the way fandom talks about this game and especially the finale i expected something awful, but i thought it had some fun ideas with mid execution, which is how i would describe ... basically every AA game after the og trilogy lol

anyway. more specifically (spoilers)

the first half of the case -- apollo vs phoenix -- is way up there on the "great idea, mid execution". i was immediately willing to assume phoenix had undisclosed reasons for doing his thing so i was immediately willing to let it slide, lol. "maya is kidnapped again!!!" is not the most compelling angle they could've done, but, whatever. also NPC nick seemed to have a brain in his head unlike player-nick, so that was nice

i also got a huge kick out of phoenix playing (essentially) the role of the prosecution and doing every dirty trick the prosecutors have done to him for 6 games: hiding evidence, leading the witness, manipulating the judge, etc. this prosecuting shit is easy!!! i imagine him making pointed eye contact with edgeworth in the gallery every time. also the idea of edgeworth and phoenix creeping around off screen for the first portion of investigation day 1 was awesome lmfao.

the fey lore was ???????????????? but i guess we can assume paul was lying about most of it lmfao so ... i guess. i WAS very annoyed by the kurain storyline mostly being about dudes and i did spend the whole case certain we were building to a reveal that the crystal of ami fey=the founder's orb bc ami=the founder. but uh. no i guess not. whatever

dhurke is a character i knew to be relatively popular in fandom but i can see why, he really cracked me up. actually his whole return out of the blue and apollo's extremely prickly reception are one of the relatively rare moments of interesting and competent character writing in these later games imo. i thought their relationship was handled pretty well and quite interesting. i mean, i suppose i find it a bit unreasonable that apollo got over 14 years of abandonment in like two days but lots of things in AA happen in hyperspeed

over in khurain i still found that case pretty good and even the trial days kept me pretty engaged, something SOJ had struggled to do to that point.

nahyuta is a bit of a weird one in that i find him overall underwritten and a little dull but i absolutely cannot fathom why fandom hates him so so so much while loving others lol, esp blackquill whose motivation is the same but more inexplicable. is he my favourite prosecutor? not by a long shot, but his circumstances were insane and his motivations were clear by the end and i ultimately just felt kind of bad for him. i liked him much more than blackquill or godot lmao sorry fandom.

but i still cheered when he was not the prosecutor for the last case LMAO bc i LOVED garan and her crazy anime transformation lmao, finally khurain delivers the True Fey ancestor experience: insane sisters who hate each other. chefs kiss. rayfa + garan + the dhurke/amara drama was very interesting imo. i knew that chick couldn't channell!! maya for queen tbqh

rayfa's a good character and i enjoyed her a lot. i was frustrated in the end that they tried to make it seem like her big development/inspiration/etc was apollo ... like ... it should definitely be phoenix, who spent more time with her and investigated with her and started trying to show her other ways of thinking etc. plus she just lost her parents and is clearly searching for guidance and it makes way more sense for her to find that in phoenix than apollo who showed up 2 days ago. i guess they're trying to 1. use the player character 2. push the dhurke connection, but it was stupid when shes obviously more attached to phoenix and/or nahyuta lol

jove "jangly" justice is the funniest name i've read maybe ever and i assume apollo's middle name is jangly. it's so funny how they build to doing his divination seance only to spend almost no time on him fhgkghhklg

anyway in conclusion i liked 6-5 a lot more than i expected. i thought it was pretty fun. i don't really get why fandom is so negative to this game, like even way moreso than DD, when this game is better by any possible margin from gameplay to animation to story coherency imo.

stray other thoughts:

-apollo's backstories are such a meme but i thought his backstory in this game made sense enough with aa4 (where he had no motive/little backstory at all and wasn't much of a player in his own story), and the characters implicated were real characters we got to spend time with and interact with. unlike clay.png

-edgeworth is there for No Reason At All (fanservice) and i find that deeply hilarious. he's nick's +1 and he had to sleep on the floor with a bunch of strangers and crawl through the sewer. hysterical.

-for maya fey's big return game i sure thought maya was going to get to do stuff besides what she always does in a finale, be absent for plot reasons. sigh. oh well at least i got a laugh imagining her and edgeworth spending the rest of the trial arguing about the plumed punisher while nick and apollo are held at gunpoint

-athena cykes sweetie i'm so sorry your role in this game was a fucking embarrassment. so insulting that they turned it all into impressing simon and shit, fuck off man!!! my earlier criticism of this game being sexist even by AA standards remains. even phoenix is like well i can't have you risking your life you're too young (reasonable) and then "simon would kill me" which she acquiesces to???? hfjhgkjg

-nahyuta bamboozling apollo's perceive power by being like "thats the secret... i'm always anxious" was so goddamn funny

[thefirstknife]

New Veil log is killing me (nothing new under the sun).

Chioma: Chioma Esi, research log: Exos. Maya and I have built a working theory around the deaths of our Exo crewmates after their exposure to the Veil. According to maya, Exominds contain a combination of Vex radiolaria and something known as "Clarity." Radiolaria are alien microorganism living within a hive mind state. Or, I suppose more accurately, a community. Clarity is... Maya described it as a paracausal power derived from an alien artifact. Something BrayTech had kept secret. Something Maya... Maya thinks that the Veil and this artifact are related. That the paracausal force from the Veil overloaded their Exominds. Unraveled them. It's like taking a powerful magnet to an archaic magnetic storage device. Full erasure. But Maya... she thinks we can reverse-engineer this phenomenon. Use it to write data to a Clarity-infused object. Fabricate consciousness. Scientifically, the process seems sound, but morally... [sighs] maya keeps saying that we're past the point of morality. She said that! She's convinced that our survival hinges on mastery of the Veil. It's like SHE'S the one unraveling. I feel like I'm losing her. But every time I try and push, I feel her move a little further away. I'm-I don't know if I can lose anything else. How much more can any of us lose before there's nothing left? Osiris: Nimbus... how much do you know about the Cloud Striders' creation? The technology used? Nimbus: You don't think... Osiris: I make no assertions yet. But I worry that your neon-lit city may have darker roots than either of us knew. Nimbus: Oh.

WILD.

First, more stuff about Exos. Immediately there's a problem: Maya should not know about Clarity. Clarity was a tightly kept secret that even Elsie took a long time to find out about. Clovis worked with the Ishtar Collective at some point, but most certainly wasn't on a personal and friendly terms with Maya Sundaresh and would most certainly not tell her about his most closely guarded secret. Why?

Well, there was a Maya Sundaresh at Braytech on Europa when he was working on solving the Exo billboarding problem (the problem that returns in proximity to the Veil). It was a Vex simulation Maya, not the real her. The Vex-Maya ended up being one of the sorest spots for Clovis, mostly for arguing with him all the time, disagreeing with him and annoying him in general, but especially after she viciously tortured him during his surgery. Vex-Maya was also insisting that he must show her Clarity Control. It was the only thing that she was interested in:

"I'm in these frames. I'm in your systems. I'm in your very bones, old man. Now take me to Clarity Control. Take me to the garden's seed. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me. Take me—"

Vex-Maya continued to torment Clovis up until he finally uploaded himself. After that, we have no record of her whatsoever.

But even with all of this, at some point during or after this whole situation, Braytech collaborated with the Ishtar Collective on Soteria and the ECHO project. Clovis never would've accepted this if he was placed in any proximity to Maya Sundaresh. So I highly doubt that he would've even had the opportunity to tell her about Clarity, let alone that he would've actually told her about it. Maya was equally distrustful of Clovis as he was of her and she ended up resigning from the project with a very obvious "go fuck yourself" letter to Clovis. They absolutely despised each other. This makes it also super strange that Maya would dismiss scientific morality; that's what Clovis would do and she would never be like Clovis under normal circumstances.

When Chioma says "Something BrayTech had kept secret. Something Maya..." I believe she meant to add "Something Maya shouldn't have known about" perhaps.

So how did Maya know about Clarity? Pretty much the only connection here is the Vex-Maya, mostly because the situation presented here is heavily linked to the Vex and radiolaria. Maya Sundaresh somehow connected with the Veil when she first saw it; it showed her its own name by saying it to her in her own voice and since then, Chioma recounts, Maya has been acting strangely. This same Veil heavily negatively impacted the Exos who are made with radiolaria and Clarity and Maya insisted that the Veil and Clarity are connected too.

And Strand must be connected as well. Chioma says that a "paracausal force from the Veil" overloads the Exos and "unravels" them. We've already been told that the Neomuna founders knew that the Veil emits a paracausal force. It obviously didn't manifest for them in the same way, but they knew something was there and this is what erased the Exos. It erased their consciousness, reverting them back to the state when the radiolaria wasn't purified with Clarity.

And Maya believed that she can reverse engineer this effect. That she can use it to "fabricate consciousness."

The strangest part is Osiris' line of thinking at the end. He specifically asks Nimbus how Cloud Striders are made; which technology does it uses exactly. And after Nimbus is concerned about this line of questioning, Osiris definitely implies that he thinks that some of Maya's experiments with the Veil led to the Cloud Striders.

Intriguing, because the Cloud Striders are made by fusing highly advanced nanotechnology (which itself stems from SIVA brought on Exodus Indigo) with a human through a mysterious machine called the Sidereal. Extra intriguing to me because a while ago when I was analysing the lore we gained from the Winterbite quest, I made a very long post talking about past Cloud Striders and the Sidereal and I suggested that the Sidereal and the Cloud Striders are inherently linked to the Veil, Strand and possibly the Vex (via the Occlusion, a "loadbearing" Vex that has been living in the CloudArk since its inception). In my write-up on this, I wasn't sure about a lot of this stuff because that was just the beginning, but some of it did point me in the direction of the Cloud Striders being possibly very closely linked to the Veil. This is now very obviously directly implied. Wild.

If the Veil and its paracausal byproduct (Strand) were used to make the Cloud Striders, then we can now possibly construct a scenario where Maya's experiments with fabricating consciousness led to the advancing of the nanotechnology which is used to make the Cloud Striders. In the same way Clarity affected radiolaria, the Veil might be affecting the nanites, fabricating consciousness; giving the nanites incredibly advanced abilities, far surpassing what SIVA could do originally. This, alongside the creation of the Sidereal, led to Cloud Striders. And, curiously, possibly also to poukas.

I'm still unclear how do the Vex tie into this whole thing exactly, but they're a constant background noise when it comes to the Veil and Neomuna, as well as questions about consciousness and memory of the universe, which I also speculated about in this other long post.

My view of the situation right now is that Maya formed some sort of a strong and unique connection to the Veil, possibly tied to her previous experiments with mind-forking and consciousness displacement with the Device, as well as her research into the Vex and Vex simulations. When she came in proximity to it, she saw her own self talking back at her. We know at this point that the Veil has strange effects on consciousness and memory, as well as being able to give people glimpses into various points in time; upon connecting to the Veil, Maya was perhaps exposed to her other selves, her other consciousnesses, the simulated ones, letting her access knowledge she shouldn't have like the name of the Veil and the existence of Clarity Control.

All of Neomuna is built on the Veil somehow, and now it's heavily implied the Cloud Striders are instrinsically linked to it as well. Whatever happened after, we can definitely say that Maya continued with her experiments despite Chioma's best attempts to stop it. Eagerly waiting for more lore about Cloud Striders and the Veil, and at some point we'll most certainly also get some logs that will delve into the CloudArk. Even more exciting lore will be coming our way for weeks.

[tillinghastcorporatemedia]

A Squimpp is bigger than you think, but not that big.

"Hey, Stop!” someone yells out, however Cerys, having begun her descent, does not stop. Instead she quickens her pace, dropping her feet on the top of each bar before grabbing with her hands and landing her feet on the edge of the floor. She lands on the ground and takes off before trespassing patrol can be called. After a few minutes of running she rounds the corner into the northern district center, blending in with a large crowd of people. Walking through the crowd as it morphs to the curves and degrees of the buildings amongst the factories and mercantile shops littered throughout the main center. A slight breeze of metal and crisp xanthean air comes blowing in, ruffling Cerys's hair across her face. She walks into a local family owned restaurant with an overhang that sticks out crooked in an angle of complete disregard for the gravity of the planet.

She sits at the front bar, adjacent to the wall with the large sprawling electronic menu. Her usual spot when she can get over to the north district, whenever security isn't crawling all over due large amounts of activity. Technically she knew she was supposed to wait before going back to the spots after Hugo had gotten kicked out last time with a small fine for “damage.” Honestly it was complete bullshit as the handrail had been bent for months before they went out to the spot. The bent handrail had just the right angle to vault over to the ledge just below it, as it was too high for at least Cerys to comfortably clear and land with enough precision. Her order was brought out from the kitchen pretty quickly as Cerys had the exact same order every time. SquƢeper bread with a light coating of oil and tall glass of the mineral laden liquid, which had similar consistency to water, but more of a yellowish green hue.

As Cerys begins to eat, she notices a stranger take a seat in close proximity at the bar to her right. The new figure slowly begins to order as Cerys notices the locked brown hair that slowly melds into black at the edges. The light glinting off of crystal blue earrings catching her attention, her eyes resting into the eyes of the figure. “Hi, i'm Lydia. Nice to meet you.” Lydia extends her palm out Cerys, who hesitates nervously before shaking the strangers hand.”I'm Cerys. Pleasure to meet you.” Cerys is taken aback almost immediately as Lydia kisses her hand. “The pleasure is all mine.” Cerys laughs nervously, unsure of what to do. “I don't mean to be rude, but could not touch me like that please.” says Cerys almost sternly, as if she was chastising Maya. Taken aback, Lydia withdraws her hand and and immediately apologizes.

Cerys laughs nervously again, just wishing she could go back to eating. “Let me make it up to, here's my number, let me take you out to dinner to apologize. No expectations or pressure.” Lydia says, sliding her card over the bar to Cerys. Cerys takes the card and slides it in her bag, planning on throwing it out as soon as Lydia is out of sight. Lydia departs quickly, as if sensing that Cerys wants her to leave. Cerys finally finishes her food, grumbling about the whole ordeal. She makes her way to the station center from the restaurant to head to the Pelagia district over to Hugo's. After a quiet and uneventful ride she makes her way up to the 36th floor subdivision that Hugo had somehow managed to get in the residence lotto. She knocks on the door four times raptly, then makes 2 quiet taps. Hugo opens the door and the smell of protohash and squimpp wafts out. “I'm guessing Peter's home from work?” “Yeah, how'd you guess?” Replies Hugo, huge grin forming across his face. “Fair warning, he won't shut up about the date he went out on a few days ago.” Hugo nudges Peter a bit as they walk into the apartment. “Okay, but first you would not believe the day I have had..”

[unfortunatesenseofhumour]

This is a very poignant piece on how friendship can be used as a cover for some truly horrible things.

A friend should be someone you trust. They're someone you feel comfortable letting yourself be around, because you know there is that mutual respect there and that they will do the same for you. When only one party is fulfilling that trust, there's an incredible imbalance that can deeply hurt the trusting party. And the thing that sucks is, you trust that person. Every time they betray you, instead of retaliating or cutting ties with them as you'd do with any old stranger, there's that temptation to let them back in, because they're your friend, right? Surely they wouldn't hurt you like that?

I had a similar experience years ago in kindergarten. I had a best friend, we'll call her Maya. I was a loud and awkward kid who really should have been flagged as autistic earlier than I was, and this meant that outside of the shy kids who needed someone to pull them out of their shell, I generally wasn't very popular with the people who already had friends. I was also very trusting, having never been burned before when it came to making friends.

When I met Maya, she was one of the shy kids I sat next to and talked to to help her work up the courage to talk to someone. She'd curl up in her corner, quiet as a mouse as I talked about whatever, and when after two weeks she finally spoke to offer her opinion on whatever we'd been doing I felt this huge sense of pride because I'd made her feel comfortable enough to talk to me.

For six months, our friendship went on like this. I'd tell her about my life, she'd occasionally comment, I'd partner with her for group activities and stay with her when talking to other people so she'd have the confidence to answer them. For that time, we were best friends, and I know at least at the beginning she trusted me to be with her the same way I trusted her to keep me company.

Of course, since I'm replying to a post about betrayal, you all know that this isn't going to end well. The thing is, Maya was pretty. She was sweet, smart, and once she got comfortable talking to people, surprisingly snarky. I wasn't the only one who paid her attention anymore, everyone liked her. And I suppose, over time, she decided that she didn't need to hang around big, loud, awkward me anymore.

I was surprised when, out of the blue it seemed to me, she cut off contact. She stopped speaking to me, moved desks to sit next to the girls who'd never let me talk to them, and started leaving immediately after school to hang out with them instead of staying in the yard for another half hour like we used to. She'd stopped caring about who I was to her and she didn't need me to be her safety blanket anymore, so I guess I didn't matter to her. But she mattered to me.

I tried everything to try and get her to talk to me again, because I still saw us as friends. I went to a playdate at her house, and she spent the entire time in her room to avoid me. I'd move next to her at school, and she and all her other friends would look at me as if I was a particularily dirty dishrag and shuffle away. Every time I tried to speak to her, she'd give a little huff and pointedly ignore my existence. I kept putting my heart in her hands, and she'd crush it underfoot every time.

That was a betrayal I could have dealt with. I may have been hung up on being her friend, still seeing her as the shy girl who'd only talked to me after two weeks of effort on my part, but I could have made other friends in the meantime. But I guess my clumsy, awkward attemps to regain our friendship pissed Maya off more than I'd thought, because all of a sudden all of her new friends started pushing me around, laughing behind my back and refusing to talk to me when I asked them why. I found out later on that Maya had told them every single little secret I'd shared with her to get her to open up. These girls now knew that I watched nature documentaries instead of cartoons, actually kinda liked brussels sprouts, and wasn't allowed to have sleepovers because I still wet the bed on occasion. I'd opened myself up to her fully and she'd turned around and used everything I'd given her to make sure I couldn't find a single friend in my entire school.

I couldn't process how the sweet shy girl who'd come to be my friend could have done this to me. What younger me didn't realize was that Maya wasn't shy anymore, I'd taught her how to be confident in herself, and now I was a liability. She probably did genuinely care about me at one point, but she wasn't that person who'd been my friend anymore. She'd changed, and now that she didn't need me anymore I was discarded like so much trash. It just took me years after the fact to see past the blind trust I'd had in her.

Even now, thinking back on her makes me feel slow and stupid, like how did I not realize what she was doing? But the thing is, I wanted to believe the best of her. I didn't want to think that this person I knew had become someone different, that I could have been so wrong to trust her. We believe in our friends, but I believed in who I thought Maya was, and she used that belief to hurt me over and over and over again.

Sometimes, even if you care, the person you trust might not. What you see as genuine friendship and openness can to someone else be unimportant to that person, or even worse, something that they can exploit to pull you around on a string. Betrayal can only come from someone you trust, and it is very hard to cut ties with someone you care about, especially if you don't realize they don't care about you anymore.

And that's why it's important to recognize the line between pranks and cruelty, that while you may see someone as your friend, they may not recognize that the power you give them through that admission is something to be cherished and returned. Because being someone's friend is putting a knife in their hand and resting it against your throat, and it's all too easy for the wrong person to slice deep just to see what your blood looks like.

on trust and manipulation

Back in early high school, I knew a girl - we were kinda friends by virtue of having multiple friends in common, but in hindsight, she never much liked me - who had this purebred dog. I’d met him at her place, and he wasn’t desexed, which was pretty unusual in my experience, so it stuck in the memory. And one day, as we were walking across the playground, this girl - I’ll call her Felice - said to me, “Hey, so we’re going to start using my dog as a stud.” And I’m like, Oh? And she’s like, “Yeah, we’ve been talking to breeders, we’re going to get to see his puppies and everything,” and I made interested noises because that actually sounded pretty interesting, and she went on a little bit more about how it would all work -

And then, out of nowhere, she swapped this sly look with another girl, burst out laughing and exclaimed, “God, you’re so gullible. I literally just made that up. You’ll believe anything!”

And I was just. Dumbfounded. Because I was standing there, staring at them, and they were laughing like I was an idiot, like they’d pulled this massive trick on me, and all I could think, apart from why the fuck they felt moved to do this in the first place, was that neither of them knew what gullible means. Like, literally nothing in that story was implausible! I knew she had an undesexed, male, purebred dog! It made total sense that he be used for a stud! And it wasn’t like I was getting this information from a second party - the person who actually owned the dog was telling me herself! And I felt so immensely frustrated, because they both walked off before I could figure out how to articulate that gullible means taking something unlikely or impossible at face value, whereas Felice had told me a very plausible lie, and while the end result in both cases is that the believer is tricked, the difference was that I wasn’t actually being stupid. Rather, Felice had manipulated the fact that she occupied a position of relative social trust - meaning, I didn’t have any reason to expect her to lie to me - to try and make me feel stupid.

Which, thinking back, was kind of par for the course with Felice. On another occasion, as our group was walking from Point A to Point B, I felt a tugging jostle on my school bag. I didn’t turn around, because I knew my friends were behind me, and my bag was often half-zipped - I figured someone was just shoving something back in that had fallen out, or had grabbed it in passing as they horsed around. Instead, Felice steps up beside me, grinning, and hands me my wallet, which she’d just pulled out, and tells me how oblivious I was for not noticing that she’d been rifling my bag, and how I ought to pay more attention. This was not done playfully: the clear intent, again, was to make me feel stupid for trusting that my friends - which, in that context, included her - weren’t going to fuck with me. As before, I couldn’t explain this to her, and she walked on, pleased with herself, before I could try.

The worst time, though, was when I came back from the canteen at lunch one day, and Felice, again backed up by another girl, told me that my dad had showed up on campus looking for me. By this time, you’d think I’d have cottoned on to her particular way of fucking with me, but I hadn’t, and my dad worked close enough to the school that he really could’ve stopped in. So I believed her, a strange little lurch in my stomach that I couldn’t quite place, and asked where he was. She said he’d gone looking for me elsewhere, at another building where we sometimes sat, and so I hurried off to look for him, feeling more and more anxious as I wondered why he might be there.

I was halfway across campus before I let myself remember that my mother was in hospital.

I felt physically sick. My pulse went through the roof; I couldn’t think of a reason why my dad would be at school looking for me that didn’t mean something terrible had happened to my mother, that her surgery had gone wrong, that she was sick or hurt or dying. And when my dad wasn’t where she’d said he would be, I hurried back to Felice - who was now sitting with half our mutual group of friends - only to be met with laughter. She called me gullible again, and that time, I snapped. I chased her down and punched her, and the friends who’d only just arrived, who didn’t know what had happened or why I was reacting like that, instantly took her side. Noises were made about telling the rest of our friends what I’d done, and I didn’t want them to hear Felice’s version first, so I ran off to the library, where I knew they were, to tell them first.

I walked into the library. I found our other friends. I was shaky and red-faced, and they asked me what had happened. I told them what Felice had done, that I’d hit her for it, that my mother was in hospital for an operation - something I’d mentioned in passing over the previous week; multiple people nodded in recognition - and how I’d thought Felice’s lie meant that something bad had happened. And then I burst into tears, something I almost never did, because it wasn’t until I said it out loud that I realised how genuinely frightened I’d been. I sat down at the table and cried, and a girl - I’ll call her Laurel - who I’d never really been close to - who was, in fact, much better friends with Felice than with me - put her arm around my shoulders and hugged me, volubly furious on my behalf.

And then the other girls showed up, and Laurel said, with that particular vicious sincerity that only twelve-year-olds can really muster, “Prepare to die, Felice,” and I almost wanted to laugh, but didn’t. A girl who was a close friend, who’d come in with Felice, took her side, outraged that I’d punched someone, until Laurel spoke up about my mother being in hospital, and everyone went really quiet. Which was when I remembered, also belatedly, that Laurel’s own mother was dead; had died of cancer several years previously, which explained why she of all people was so angry. I have a vivid memory of the look on Felice’s face, how she tried to play it off - she said she hadn’t known about my mother, I pointed out that I’d mentioned it multiple times at lunch that week, and she lost all high ground with everyone.    

Felice never played a trick on me again.

Eighteen years later, I still think about these incidents, not because I’m bearing some outdated grudge, but because they’re a good example of three important principles: one, that even with seemingly benign pranks, there’s a difference between acting with friendly or malicious intent; two, that ignorance of context can have a profound effect on the outcome regardless of what you meant; and three, that getting hurt by people who abuse your trust doesn’t make you gullible - it means you’re being betrayed. 

And I feel like this is information worth sharing.  

[garretgentleman-art]

I understand why Diego was blaming Phoenix. What else was he supposed to do? He got out of a hell, and immediately found himself in a new one.

- If he blamed only himself, he would not have survived. - He definitely can't blame Mia for not ask Phoenix for help. She is the victim and his love. - And he can't blame the killer. Mia has already thrown him into a prison. He's not available, so this is useless. - There remains only Phoenix. Well, Diego had a strong antipathy towards him anyway. Even without his involvement in hiding the poison, Phoenix is still a stranger who is in Mia's place and role.

The most common act in his situation is the revenge. But he was deprived of it because the justice prevailed without him. And he woke up alone. I know the game doesn't talk about it, but do you understand that if Mia had told Phoenix and Maya about Diego, the plot wouldn't have happened, right? Ironically, Maya and Phoenix still became his reason to live. He got up in the mornings to hate Phoenix and protect Maya. Was it right? Well, this coping strategy saved his life, so yeah, I guess.

You know, I think Mia and Diego are very similar. I'm sure that Mia was investigating Redd White alone because she was afraid that the tragedy would happen again. She blamed herself for Fawles's death, and she certainly blamed herself for Diego's coma. I think Diego and Mia both prefer to silently suffer alone, be strong and feel guilty about things they have no control over. And they both need retribution. Mia chased the people who ruined her life until her death. Diego, on the other hand, did not have the opportunity to imprison his enemies legally, so his pain became destructive.

Important detail. 1) Diego is a self-confident person and believes that he could protect Mia. He projects it onto Phoenix. But does it make sense? Does he think Phoenix is ​​cool like him? No. Does he think everyone should be cool? No, in the game, he said many times that a person makes mistakes and this is normal. It looks like a cover, not a real projection. For example, when Phoenix accused Luke Atmey (case about the stolen urn) that he hid the DeMasque's calling card from the police and did not seek help.

2) Diego after the coma is really self-confident or..? Diego is not focusing on Mia's death in this dialogue. And not even on a revenge. He says Phoenix didn't care. That was what angry him the most. Phoenix looked happy while Diego suffere. And more importantly, Diego blamed himself, and believed that in his place it would have been so with everyone (good adequate people), including Phoenix. But he mistaken. I'm pretty sure Diego is clinically depressed, Phoenix is not. And Diego doesn't realize it. Or doesn't want to, I’m sure that his doctors warned him that he falls into the category of risk. Ironically, when he was a defence attorney, he must have encountered a victims of crime who felt irrational guilt, and this must have resented him. Now he's in their place. I don't think Diego can be a defence attorney again, by the way. Survivors victims often become prosecutors, because they want to fight criminals (this happened to Miles too, even his attitude towards defence attorneys has changed). They lack the kindness and faith to protect a potential killer because they have a trauma. And they have a lot more empathy for the victim and their family

Even Phoenix could not stand this pity party of self-blaming! (skip)

I'm not sure that Phoenix is a more reliable person than you or Maya's mother, but ok.  The fact that you ask for help TWO people for safety is already very good. Who knew they'd screw up? Well, okay, all three of you closed eyes to the opportunity to get more allies, and it's clear why. Diego, Iris and Misty feel guilty. They was afraid to speak directly to Maya (+phoenix in case of iris), and therefore prefered to protect her in secret. They are ready to die for her, but not to talk. They wouldn't even dare to tell Pearl the cruel truth about her mother. Depressed idiots. And one more thing. Maya has never visited Diego in the hospital and doesn't even know he exists. He felt abandoned. He obviously doesn't blame her for this, but I'm not surprised he avoids her.

It's hard to live without sweet fantasy... Well, realising of mistakes is certainly good, but I would prefer the consent to visit a psychotherapist

Umm, yes, it's easy to do when you see your mentor at every court trial.

Yeeey, he approved Phoenix as her heir! ...and put him on a pedestal because he hates himself. I find it insanely amusing that Diego's only completed arc wasn't about overcoming his mental injuries, It’s was about his relates to Phoenix. About acceptance of him. This is the most phoenix-centric character in the entire game! After von Karma siblings who always ignore him, it's very flattering... (I love it) Bonus

[wlwfanfictionss]

christmas miracle

yelena belova x reader

chapter one: new friends, old lovers

this is a fic from this request.

warnings: swearing, fighting

Finally, no more fights. No more saving the world (for now). You were finally trying to enjoy life. Not being on the run or breaking friends out of prison. You had lost a lot of people, been through hell and back. But after all that time you were now enjoying a nice cup of tea in front of the tv in your own apartment. Putting your feet up on your coffee table, you were about to press play on your favorite movie when you heard your phone buzzing from the kitchen counter. There were only a handful of people that had your phone number and most of them were former Avengers. With a huff, you got up to take the call. The screen was lit up and an arrow was displayed on the screen.

“Clint. To what do I owe the pleasure?” you immediately said as you picked up the phone.

“I need your help” he responded.

And that’s how you ended up in a coffee place with the hawkeye and a girl with black hair who had a dog by her side. If you had to guess you would say she’s a couple of years younger than you.

“soooo, the tracksuit mafia is after you” you tried to understand the whole situation. “and they want the both of you dead?”

“Pretty much” the girl responded. Kate, you learned her name was.

“so why do you need my help? Can’t you just take Maya out?”

“I don’t want to kill anyone over this” Clint responded. “Maya just needs to understand that the Ronin is dead”

First, you looked at him puzzled, because well, he was the Ronin. But you got what he meant and nod your head in agreement. 

You and Kate actually had a lot in common which was nice. You both liked Christmas movies and annoying the shit out of Clint. It was funny, watching Kate try to take you down because she insisted on fighting you for training. She is a good fighter, for a college student. But she kinda forgot you were a trained assassin and are probably in the top 3 of hand-to-hand combat out of all the Avengers. It was fun. Kate never gives up but gets her ass kicked every time. It was nice having a friend nearby. Sam and Bucky left, Wanda was god knows where and Natasha…well you get it. It was nice having Kate around and finally having fun again. There was also the mission, but that was way less intense than idk fighting Ultron or Thanos. The mission was just trying to get Clint home in time for Christmas. That’s what you told Laura on the phone at least. 

So, if the mission was supposed to be easy. Then why were you on a cold rooftop fighting two people alongside Clint. It kinda reminded you of an event at a certain airport in Berlin. But we all know how that ended.

“For fucks sake” you yelled out when there were now two people you were fighting.

Kate came rushing back onto the roof after she was thrown of said roof by the masked figure and went back to fighting Maya with you. You really didn’t want to be there. it was supposed to be an easy mission. Get in, get the watch, get out. But no, now the three of you were fighting two highly skilled women. You could see Kate struggle. She was a good archer, that’s for sure but she wasn’t trained in close hand-to-hand combat like Clint and you were.

After you punched Maya in the face and she stumbled back, Kate shot an arrow straight in her shoulder blade. That finally made the woman go away. That was one down, one to go and so you turned around and focused all your attention on the masked figure. Clint was having a hard time, the figure easily dodging his blows and sweeping him off his feet with their leg. You swore you knew that move.

“Stay here,” you told Kate, knowing damn well she was not going to listen to you.

You pulled a knife out of your thigh holster and ran full speed at the person that was about to kill Clint. Wrapping your arms around their waist and tackling them to the ground made them lose their gun. The person was on their back and you were about to punch the light out of them when familiar red electricity shot from their wrist into your abdomen. You groaned out in pain and the figure pushed you of them. Clint was better prepared this time. You stood up and were catching your breath as you watched them fight, seeing Kate aiming her shot but not taking it at the risk of hurting Clint. And then the mask was ripped off. The person’s back was facing you, but you recognize that braid anywhere and time froze.

“Y-Yelena?” you asked.

She turned around. The both of you just staring at each other. Clint was not gonna wait for the two of you to have a heart to heart so he surged forward but Yelena ran and jumped off the roof, clipping herself to the wall so she wouldn’t fall to death.

“who the hell is that?!” Kate asked. But you didn’t reply. Yelena was the only thing on your mind right now and you ran past the two archers and jumped after the Widow.

“Y/N!” Clint yelled after you, but you weren’t listening. You would find them later at the house (if Yelena didn’t kill you) but first, you had something else to do.

You forgot how fast the small assassin could run but you were determent to catch up to her. Running through the icy streets of New York did NOT make it easy. But after almost running into a car, you could see her in front of you.

“Yelena! Stop!” you yelled at the blonde while still running after her.

She wasn’t stopping but you knew she could hear you. You were running on the opposite side of the street and were now running almost perpendicular to her. Enough was enough. Grabbing your knife and throwing it across the street. It flew past her face and got stuck in a door beside her. That made her stop.

“Yelena Please! I'm alone!”  

She turned to face you now, watching you cross the street towards her. And now you were facing her. It had been seven years, for you at least. The last time you saw her you had just taken down the red room with her and Natasha. You couldn’t help yourself and pulled the blonde into a hug. The smaller woman wrapped her arms around you as well and the two of you just stood there for a moment. Even after all that time she still felt the same, she was your safe space.

“You look different” Yelena teased as the two of you pulled away “stronger”

“so do you” you teased back “still tiny tho”

She punched your shoulder after that comment. And you both just laughed softly.

“Why are you helping Clint?”

“Why are you after him?”

“He killed Nat”

“Yelena, that’s not true” you tried to explain but you could see the look in her eyes, she believed it and she was going to kill Clint. “Nat sacrificed herself for all of us Lena”

“But Val told me-“

“Wait. Val, as in Valentina?”

“Yeah”

“That bitch” you angrily said, “you should never trust her”. You worked for Val for some time, the worst mistake of your life. “Clint was Natasha’s best friend, he probably loved her more than I did, he would never kill her”

“I don’t believe you”

“I know,” you said with a sigh

Your phone rang. Kate.

“Please tell me you are still alive”

“I am”

“where are you”

“im not telling you where I am”

“did you find her”

“ill explain later”

And with that, you hung up the phone and looked back at Yelena.

“you didn’t tell them where I am?” Yelena said 

“I would never”

“But I want to kill your friend”

“I know” You replied “kate there is this stupid voice in my head that tells me I have to keep you safe”

“I have to go”

You moved closer, cupping her face with your right hand. Fuck, you still loved her.

“I'll come find you” you told her “we aren’t gonna be separated this time”

[spirit-small]

Phoenix was bored. This was like, the third time he’d watched this Steel Samurai episode just today. And he saw it a few times last week, too. There were only so many Samurai tapes in Kurain Village and at this point Phoenix was sure he’d seen every single one at least 30 times. He just wished there was something else, anything else to do.

As if on cue, the door opened, just a crack. Phoenix had been expecting Maya to return from training pretty soon, so he thought nothing of it. Until he glanced over to see a little face peeking in, eyes focused directly on him.

Pearl Fey. Phoenix had seen her around many times, but always from a distance, or at the very least hidden on Maya’s shoulder. The fewer people that knew he existed, the happier he was. Maya, Edgeworth, and Ema was already too many. Plus, kids can be very dangerous for someone his size. Even if they didn’t want to hurt him, children can be a little rough, they can be forgetful, or inconsiderate. And they break their toys.

Phoenix did not want to be a toy, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be broken.

So he stayed as still as he could. Maybe Pearl’s vision is based on movement and she won’t see him if he doesn’t move. Or, at least, she’ll think he’s not real and will leave him alone. Any solution to this that results in him not being manhandled by an eight year old is the correct one.

Unfortunately for him, she tiptoes toward him. Phoenix braces himself, and feels a gentle poke at his side, followed shortly by a much rougher one. He can’t help but squeak out a little pained noise, which he immediately regrets.

Pearl’s face gets uncomfortably close to him.

“Ummmm.... are you a demon? Or a forest sprite?”

Phoenix just stares at her, kind of terrified.

“Answer the question...!” Pearl rolls up her sleeve and makes a fist.

“N-n-neither! I’m just Phoenix!”

“Fee-nicks?”

“Yes, yes, Phoenix- not a demon, just a borrower!”

“Bor-row-er...?” Pearl relaxes her stance.

“Yes, a borrower is... a tiny... uh... I-I’m Maya’s friend.” Pearl’s eyes go wide and she scoops Phoenix up into a fist, startling him.

“If you were really Mystic Maya’s friend you would know to only ever address her as Mystic Maya! Who are you and why are you in her room?!” Pearl shakes him.

“GAH- I- AH- LIVE- WAH- HERE!”

“Oh, man, what a week, Nick, let me tell y- PEARLY NO!” Maya enters the room and rushes over to Pearl, grabbing her arm and squatting down.

“Mystic Maya! I found this little demon! Help me exorcise it!” Pearl looks at Maya, proud of herself.

“Pearly, give him to me. Please. I’ll take care of him, okay?” Maya holds out her hand. Pearl gets a little teary eyed and sniffles.

“B-but... I wanted to exorcise it together... I thought it would be fun...” Pearl starts to cry and wipes her tears on her sleeve, on the arm currently holding Phoenix. He gets a little wet.

Maya sighs. “Pearly... He’s not a demon, okay? This is Nick. He’s my friend, and you’re hurting him. So can I please have him?”

Pearl sniffles and looks at the tiny man in her hand. “Your... f-friend? Oh! I’m so sorry, Mr. Nick, I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

Maya puts one hand on Pearl’s shoulder and the other on Phoenix. She gives Pearl a look and she loosens her grip on Phoenix, allowing Maya to take him from her. She stands up, turns around, and lets him sit up on her palm.

“Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I hope she didn’t hurt you too bad...”

“I’m alright, just a little shaken up. I told you to lock the door!”

“You think I wanna fumble with keys every single day?”

“I think that’s a small price to pay for a little peace of mind!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Maya tosses Phoenix gently onto her bed and turns back to Pearl, still teary-eyed.

“M-m-mystic Maya... am I in trouble? I-I didn’t mean to hurt Mr. Nick, I promise!”

“You’re not in trouble, Pearly, it’s okay, he’s okay. I just need you to promise not to tell ANNNNNNYBODY about him. Okay?”

“Anybody...?”

“Nobody. Not a soul. Not even your mom. Okay?”

“Why not?”

“Nick is... nobody’s supposed to know about him. He’s supposed to be a secret. Can you keep a secret, Pearly?”

“I... I can try, Mystic Maya! But... if he’s so secret, then why do you know him?”

“Uh... well... he’s... my friend. My secret, special friend... uh... We...”

“Oh! I get it now!” Pearl blushes and holds her hands up to her face. “He’s your... special someone! That’s why it’s okay for a boy and a girl to be sharing a room... Hehehehehe...”

“Nooooooope, no, no, Pearly, definitely not, that’s not even close-”

“Don’t worry, Mystic Maya, Mr. Nick, I’ll keep your secret! Hehehehe....”

“Pearly, I really think you don’t underst-”

“Star-crossed lovers...” Pearl whispers as she runs out the door.

Maya sighs, scoops Phoenix up, and lies on the bed where he was.

“Are you... gonna... do something about her, or...?” Phoenix asks.

“What can I do?” Maya shrugs. “She’ll tire herself out and forget about this whole thing, I bet. Now I need a nap, so be quiet for a while.”

[supercorpkid]

There’s a first time for everything.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader

Word count: 2890.

“How exactly did this happen?” Jamie looks at the F in your test and you roll your eyes to the sight of it. This is bad. This is really bad.

“I didn’t have time to study. But it’s ok, I’ll study for the next one.” You say, agreeing with your head to make Jamie and Maya’s worried expression ease up a little.

“Babe, you should’ve told me you needed to study. We could have had a study session or something.” They’re still worried. You look at Jamie raising one eyebrow, so she knows there’s more to the story. It takes her a few seconds, but she seems to finally realize your life is more complicated than stupid French tests.

“Oh, it’s a one-time thing.” Jamie says dismissing it with her hand. “It’s good, now you know what the rest of us feel when we don’t go so well.”

“Yeah. It’s great.” You joke with a smile, and that seems to be what’s necessary to make Maya less worried.

“We’ll study together for the next one.” She says and you agree.

It’s just when her mom picks her up from school, that you can tell Jamie what was really going on with you.

“Ok, so what really happened?” Jamie asks and you breathe deep before starting.

“Ok, it all started the night before when Kara put her head inside my bedroom to ask me:

“Hey kid. What are you up to?”

I looked up from the books I was organizing on my table to start studying. And since I thought it was something fast, I answered. “Nothing.” While obviously ignoring the books in front of me.

Then she went on like “Well. There is a big commotion downtown, a bunch of aliens got together to destroy some things and the whole place is a mess.” And I just shook my head agreeing because I thought she just went to tell me why she was leaving. But, like, she kept going and she asked me: “Do you want to come with me? I figured we could use some help.”

I was beaming in excitement ‘cause you know it’s kind of hard for Kara to just admit she needs help, so I thought there was probably a hell of a mess there. Which means she really did need my help, right? So, I was like “Wait! Really?”

She smiled too. “Sure! Go put on your-” But I used my super speed to change and I was in front of her all suited up in a blink of an eye. “Suit.”

“Let’s do it!” I ran out of the bedroom feeling like I could fly away just by being invited to it. You know it’s all I ever wanted. Kara seeing me as a person who could back her up during trial times. I was almost out of the house when I heard Lena’s voice from the living room and I came back to kiss her goodnight. So, she was like:

“Where are you guys heading to?”

And Kara said, check this out:

“I need back-up for this fight.”

I mean, she literally said the words I was so eager to hear and my smile just grew wider.

“I’m back-up!” I said, beaming in excitement.

But, well, you know my mom. She immediately went like:

“It’s school night.” She looked at momma. “She needs a good night of sleep.” Like I wasn’t even there to speak for myself! But lucky for me Kara said:

“Don’t worry, love. She’ll help me stop the aliens and bring them to the DEO, and I’ll do the clean up part.” Kara assured mom, who let out a sigh, like she does whenever she knows she is defeated.

“Are you sure you want to go?” She asked, putting her hand on my shoulder. And honestly, I don’t know what she was expecting. Did she think I was going to say no? Anyways, I obviously answered:

“Oh my God, yes! Don’t worry mom, I can handle it.”

Then she was like: “Ok, then. Don’t take too long.” She kissed my cheek, and then Kara’s mouth. “Be careful. Both of you.”

Then I looked at momma, still smiling, and she smiled back super excited. I just couldn’t believe I was going out to have adventures with Supergirl! I always thought I would have to sneak out with Superboy to have them, but then like, momma invited me to it!

So anyways, I tagged along to fight some hellgrammites that were causing trouble downtown. And like, dude, Aunt Alex gave me an earpiece for communication and Rao it felt so good to be a part of the team!

And she would talk to me through it. Jamie, I swear it’s as fun as you can think. So, aunt Alex was like:

“Superkid, be careful with the spikes. They’re strong enough to penetrate metal, it could harm you.”

And Kara was like:

“They also possess superhuman strength.”

And I was like:

“Okay, guys. I know hellgrammites, just chill.”

But like, aunt Alex went on:

“If you can’t win, try using their own spike against them as a last resource, Superkid.” And I was like ‘ok’, And then I hit one so hard he was thrown to a post light, and it bent, and made the light flicker. It was so funny, but I obviously couldn’t say that, so instead I said:

“Sorry. I’ll fix that!” And I flew to him, looking at the spike on his hand. Then I made my voice sound stronger and said: “You can come willingly or I can make you.”

“Pff.” It was his answer. What a dumbass, right? So, I had to keep using my strong voice.

“Got it. I’ll make you.” And then I punched his face a few times until he was unable to recover, and put him in cuffs. And I was so happy I yelled: “Got one!”

I looked at Supergirl, who had already caught the other three. She gave me thumbs up and a smile. Well. At least I kinda helped, right?

“Bring him to containment at the DEO.” I heard Alex’s voice through the comm, and picked up his floppy body and made my way towards Supergirl.

I asked if she was ready and she agreed with her head. So, I picked one other guy up, throwing each one over my shoulders, and I flew into the DEO with Supergirl, putting all four of them in a cell.

Aunt Alex was looking proud of me, which is incredible. You know the feeling! And she went like. “Great work, kiddo!”

“Thanks! That was fun, it was like playing video-game!” I said making them laugh. But then Supergirl went:

“Ok, time to go home. I’ll go clean up the mess they made, and I’ll meet you back there in a bit.” And she was ready to fly away when I held her hand.

“I can help. Still early.” I said pointing at my watch, but I lied ‘cause it was already late. Supergirl narrowed her eyes at me, and I knew she was going to say no, so I said: “At least let me unbend the post light.”

So she went:

“Ok. Let’s go.” Supergirl flew and I flew behind her.

In the end, I ended up helping her clean up everything, and we had to sneak in home so Lena didn’t see what time we made it back home.

And then, when I laid in bed, I was feeling exhausted, but I was so tired that it was really hard for me to fall asleep, so I missed my first wake-up call with Kara knocking at my door, and when Lena woke me up a while later, I was so tired it was hard to focus. But I could never tell her that, ‘cause she would be pissed since she was right in the first place. So, I rolled out of bed and came to school.

The problem was that it takes a lot of effort to shut off my super hearing and pay attention to the test, and I wasn’t able to do that while feeling so tired, hence my F.”

“Well, at least you had a good time supering yesterday.” Jamie says after you finish your story and you agree with your head catching your breath.

“It was awesome! Even your mom looked impressed.” You lean over a pillar and look at her. “Except Lena will be so mad that I got a bad grade, because I was supering.”

“Oh, come on. You can’t do everything. Save National City and get a good grade the very next day.” She said and you think about it. No, you can’t do everything, but you’re supposed to. Besides, school is more important than saving National City since Supergirl could have done it all by herself, clearly.

But Lena doesn’t need to know, does she? It’s not lying if she doesn’t ask you about it, so there’s no reason you will run to tell her about it, right? Right. It’s fine. You’re fine.

But you’re not fine.

“Hey, babygirl!” Lena says when she walks in home later that day, your soul almost leaves your body. You jump so high in your chair; she furrows her brows at that. “What are you doing?”

“Having a heart attack!” You put your hand on your chest, and you feel your heart beating fast.

“You shouldn’t get scared so easily. You have super hearing.” She points out and you think about it for a second. She is right, you shouldn’t.

“I was distracted.” You defend yourself, and Lena comes closer to kiss your head. She looks at the books in front of you.

“Ooh, français. Très bien!” She jokes.

“Mhm, yeah.” You smile through the pain you’re feeling to just blurt it out right there. It’s very hard not to say anything. You hate keeping secrets from your moms. “How’s-How was work?”

“Oh, you know Fridays and meetings. They don’t usually go well together.” Lena says that grabbing a bottle of wine and a glass. “But at least we have family night today, right?”

“Right.” You smile and she excuses herself for a shower (glass of wine in hand), while you finish studying.

Kara gets home a while later with dinner in both hands, but she still manages to push your books out of the way so she can put them on the table. She ended up dropping all of your books on the floor, and you smile at her.

“Sorry, little one.” She bends out to help you with it, and you hear a loud gasp.

“What?” You ask surprised, and you look at what she’s pointing at. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“You got an F?” She yells in pure shock, and your eyes widen at the sound of that.

“Shhh! Will you keep it down, please?” You lower your glasses to make sure Lena is still in the bedroom and can’t hear you. Lucky for you that’s the case.

“An F!” Kara’s still shocked. She picks up your tests and reads it. “You were aware it was a French test, right?”

“Um, yes?”

“Because I’m pretty sure this is English, this is a math equation? And would you look at that! You wrote stuff in kryptonese! I’m not sure she could understand that.” She keeps looking at it, making you blush in embarrassment until you pull it out of her hands.

“I was… distracted.” You say, putting it inside of your book, and looking back at her. “Please, don’t tell mom.”

“Kid-”

“Please, mommy.” You try with your sweetest voice. “I’ll study harder for the next one and I’ll get an A, just please. Please. For me?”

“Don’t.” Kara looks at your pouting face and you can see she’s very inclined on hiding this with you. But she blinks twice looking away. “No, that won’t work. The pouting, and the ‘please for me’ bit. You know we don’t do lies in this house.”

“That’s not fair!” You cross your arms, upset. “Last week mom asked you if you ate all the chicken parm and you said no.”

“Are you serious?”

“You broke three glasses when you closed that cupboard a little too strong yesterday, and you told her nothing was broken.”

“Nothing important was broken.”

“Momma!” You pout again. “It’s not fair.” You hear Lena opening the bedroom door and making her way to where both of you are, and you raise an inquisitive eyebrow at Kara.

“Hey honey.” Lena says making her way behind the counter for another glass of wine. She looks at both of you having a stare down on the other side.

“One of us is going to tell her and she would rather if it was you.” Kara whispers close to your face, and you know Lena can’t hear her. You frown, and can’t believe Kara would do that. You can’t believe she won’t have your back about this.

“What’s-” Lena clears her throat, calling your attention back to her. “What’s going on?”

“Oh. Hi, love.” Kara makes her way to the other side of the counter and kisses Lena’s mouth. “Your daughter has got something important to tell you. I’ll go shower so we can have dinner and watch a movie.”

Kara leaves the kitchen and Lena raises her eyebrows at you, encouraging you to start. You don’t. You just look at her, and the book where your test lays inside. And you think about a lie. But you know you won’t lie, so it makes no sense for you to think of one in the first place. So, you get your test out of the book, and you come closer, holding on to it like it’s suddenly going to make it turn into an A instead.

“I, um, have something to tell you.” You sit on the other side of the counter, and she looks at the paper you’re clinging to so desperately. She does her eyebrow raise, and your heart feels like it’s going to stop with the thought of disappointing and upsetting her. Your mouth feels dry, your palms feel sweaty. It’s a whole ‘is this what a heart attack feels like?’ situation, before you can get your words out. “I didn’t do so well on a test.”

“Ok.” It’s what Lena says. She raises her hand at you, and you wince when you realize she will look at it. “Can I see it?” She pushes, once she realizes you’re still clinging to it, like holding onto a wrecked life-boat.

“Can’t you just take my word for it?” It’s your last desperate self-preserving act. Lena shows you her hand again, and you know that’s a clear ‘no’. “Ok.” You breathe out, handing her the paper. She takes it and looks at it, with furrowed eyebrows.

“Didn’t do well.” As in she’s saying that’s a very light way to put what she’s looking at.

“I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time, I promise!” You blurt out. “Please, don’t make me stop supering. Please. I swear it was a one-time thing. This won’t happen ever again.”

Lena puts the test down, goes around the counter and stops in front of you, while you still rumble your apologies. She doesn’t say a word which is very distressing. You wish she would just yell and ground you, just do something, instead of radio silent like right now.

“Ok.” She finally lets out. Ok? What does ok mean? “You’ll do better next time.” And then she hugs you. You take a few seconds to wire your brain and acknowledge what’s happening, before wrapping your arms around her, and letting out a breath you’ve been holding the entire time.

“So, you’re not mad?” You ask, still in shock. Lena gives you a chuckle and whispers softly in your ear.

“I’m not mad.” She tries to move away, but you hold her tightly.

“Still hugging, still hugging.” You say, earning another chuckle from her, and she doesn’t move away. “So, I can still go supering with momma?”

“You can still go supering.” She whispers again.

“And I’m not grounded?” You ask again, and you feel Lena moving to kiss your cheek. You smile, very happy.

“And you’re very much grounded.” She whispers, and finally lets go of you, with a bop on your nose. “But nice try.” Lena gets her wine glass and looks at you with a soft expression. “Can I just ask you a favor?”

“Anything.” You’re so happy she’s not mad, and that you can still go supering, whatever she says, you’ll do.

“That physics formula it’s exactly what I was needing for an experiment. May I steal it?” She smiles, making you smile back.

“Really? Wow, it’s almost like I wrote that for you.” And you have, in fact, because you were listening to her during your entire test. And you feel like she somehow knows that because the English part is the explanation she was giving about the experiment, then you wrote the formula she was trying to come up with, and the kryptonese part actually says ‘I love you, mom’. So, you figured she must have put two and two together and she possibly knows.

“Oh, and babygirl?” Lena adds, looking at you from her wine glass. “Khap ukiem rrip, inah*.”

Yeah. She knows.

Notes:

*Khap ukiem rrip, inah = I love you, daughter*

[abluescarfonwaston]

Fun fanfiction idea:

Miles crossdresses to avoid being seen in public, and knowing him, it's very convincing. Except for the fact that he's still wearing the exact same shade of red and his hair extensions are the same color.

Maya immediately recognizes him, but Phoenix, being his dense self, takes longer.

Alright which one of you bastards just put me on freaking read? How dare you read me like a freaking children's novel. YOU KNEW I COULDN’T RESIST THIS. Featuring Gender non conforming Miles Edgeworth. Also on AO3

“Earth to Nick.” A cold plastic bag was dropped on his head.

“Ack!” He turned around on the park bench to glare at her. “What was that for?”

“You’ve been totally checked out for like the last ten minutes!”

“I was not! I was completely focused!”

“On what?!” Maya demanded pulling out the ice cream from the bag she’d hit him with and flopping down on the bench next to him. Tearing one open.

“Uhhhh…” His cheeks heated as he glanced back to the focus of his attention. Grabbed the other ice cream to try and cover it. “Nothing.”

It was just… She was beautiful. Silver starlight hair that framed her face and flowed down the curve of her spine. The way her dress hugged the wide expanse of her chest. Pinched down to her narrow hips. The magenta billow of the tail of her dress that still allowed him to see the garters around her muscular calves and thighs when she turned.

She was breathtaking. Just objectively. The kind of women Mia would ask him what kind of conclusive proof he was wearing around his neck to get her to even consider dating him.

She took a step forward in those two inch heels and he swallowed. She was probably at least his height if not taller. Would he have to bounce up on the balls of his feet to kiss her? She’d turn her face up with a teasing smirk and deny him. Did you want something Phoenix?

You know what I want!

Do I?

A kiss! Please!

And that teasing smile would grow just a little bigger and the crinkle under her bespectacled eyes a little softer. Oh I suppose I can do that. She’d angle herself a little lower and kiss him and-

So he might have been a little romantically horny.

Her dog, a big fluffy creature dropped the neon tennis ball at her feet. Play lunging. Tail raised and wagging in anticipation.

She scooped up the ball in her tennis ball throwing… stick. Whatever those were called. Smile widening. His chest twisted. She said something to the dog.

You wanna go? You ready? Is my sweet girl ready?

The dog wiggled. Excitement growing.

She threw back her arm. Go get it! Flung the ball across the park.

Her fluffy beast hurtled after.

“Oh my God Nick.”

Cold ice cream dripped onto his hand jolting him back to his body. He hastily licked it up. Face hot. “Shut up.” I’m allowed to look! I was an art major! I can appreciate beauty while realizing that I’m not allowed to touch!

Or interact in any way with someone so far out of my league.

Gods. She’s pretty.

“Nick is that Edgeworth?”

His head snapped to her then. She wasn’t staring at him laughing at his plight. She was looking at someone in the park.

“What?! Where?!” He tried to follow her gaze to the prosecutor in question. It would be strange to see him out an about. Was he dressed like a normal human being? Was that why she was so surprised? Was he ordering a hot dog from a stand in full Edgeworth Regalia? Gods was he on a run in shorts and a too tight tee, sweaty and slightly disheveled from the exercise?!

He scanned the park as Maya gaped. Jaw working but infuriatingly silent. “Where Maya? I don’t see him.”

If I miss seeing Edgeworth in running shoes and shorts you’re buying your own dinner!

She weakly raised her hand and pointed. Finger shaking.

To… The woman in pink?

He laughed. “What are you talking about Maya?” Just because they’re both gorgeous silver hair people with a preference for light red- bordering on pink-

She cupped her mouth. “Miles Edgeworth!”

He grabbed her. “What do you think you’re doing?!” He glanced at the woman. “See she didn’t even respond!”

“She- he – FLINCHED NICK. It’s TOTALLY HIM! Oh my god!!!” She started to stand. He tried to force her back onto the bench before she humiliated him in front of one of the most stunning people he’d seen in months.

She wiggled free and dashed out towards her.

His life was over. For a moment it flashed in front of his eyes.

… Less of it should have been spent buying food for the woman who was about to be listed as his cause of death!

He scrambled after her. “Maya no!”

“Oh my god! You look so good! Your makeup is on Point!”

“Uh.” She raised the tennis ball stick between her and Maya hiding behind it like a tiny ineffective shield. Face blossoming red. “T-Thank you?” She squeaked out. Her eyes flickered nervously.

Silver. Even her eyes where silver starlight.

He shoved Maya’s head down in an apology bow. “I am SO sorry about her.”

Straighten.

She was taller than him in those heels. Just an inch or three.

His little bi heart was going to give out.

“I-it’s fine.” She laughed airily. Hand grasping at the crook of her elbow as she stared pointedly away.

That felt… Familiar.

“I’m jealous how well you pull that outfit off!”

Her dog trotted right up between them and sat down firmly in front of her. Leaning into her legs and thighs.

Her hand released and buried itself in the thick fur of their fluffy mane.

“We… We should be going.” She fumbled for the leash holstered like Franziska’s whip at her hip.

“Miles?”

She- he – They? Flinched.

Oh. Oh fuck.

“What?! You don’t have to!”

“Don’t run!” He begged hands splayed out wide. Miles looked very much like they wanted to run. “Fuck I’m sorry we won’t tell anyone!”

The hand twitched. Almost to the leash. The dog whined.

Both hands were buried in their mane.

“Did you just curse?” Maya stared at him wide eyed like she’d just found an even better target. Deflated slightly at his and Miles face. Forcibly brightened and clapped her hands together. “What’s your dogs name?”

“… Pess.”

“Aren’t you the handsomest little man Pess? What a sweet puppy!”

“Pess is a lady.”

“The prettiest lady!” Maya immediately began to coo.

He rubbed the back of his neck staring off at the tree line. “Like… You?” He tried to ask.

“Ngh… Not… Not as such no.”

“Oh. O-okay. I mean- it’d be fine if you were! You really do make a pretty lady!”

Fuck.

“Yeah Nick couldn’t stop staring at you!”

MAYA.

“Is… that right?”

He chuckled nervously. “Haha. Maybe? Uh would we… Talk?”

“I… suppose.”

“Can I throw the ball for your dog then?”

“Ah.” He looked at the stick. Handed it to her. “Sure.”

They sat on the bench. Miles tucked the tail of the dress under them. Long fingers splayed on their thighs.

“Sooo… Um.”

“If you’re going to laugh just do it already. Go on. Laugh!”

“…”Miles turned their face away as they spit out the demand. His chest clenched for entirely different reason. “My pronouns are he him?” He tried. The fingers eased slightly as Miles turned and peered at him through those silver bangs. “What are yours?”

There was a long pause as Miles studied him. Face dropped back to their thighs. “He him is fine. Although I do not object to they them in private.”

“Does now count as private?”

“Well I certainly don’t want you using he him right now.”

“Got it.” He threw an arm over the bench and stared at them. Even more breathtaking up close. It was unfair Miles got to be hot in all the genders. He could barely manage the one. “So is this like. A hobby?”

“No not. I enjoy dresses and skirts in a gender defying way not. As crossdressing.” They stared down at their manicured fingers. “The extent of this presentation is…”

He waited for Miles to continue. Pressed when they didn’t. “Is?”

Miles raised their chin. “Someone in my position can’t be seen wearing these sorts of things. I don’t appreciate the attention I receive from merely being openly gay. Much less gender non-conforming.”

“Yeah no I totally get that- I mean you’re a private guy- person? – to begin with. Totally fine!”

There was a weak smile. They tugged on their sleeve. “There is another benefit…”

“Oh yeah?”

“I’m not a high ranked prosecutor like this. There are no eyes watching me.” Yeah I don’t think that’s true in the slightest. “No tabloids itching to catch the demon prosecutor doing something distasteful or vengeful people hoping for a moment to come yell at me. I’m not ‘Prosecutor Edgeworth’ so… I can relax.”

“Oh.” He blinked. Squished his face further into the crook of his arm. “Guess that makes sense.” They stared out at the park. Watching Maya pretend to throw the ball for Pess. Shoulders loose and relaxed. Screw it. “Miles.” He tacked on just half a second too late.

The shoulders pulled up and that red tint returned. Red really was their color. “W-What are you?”

“You’re not Prosecutor Edgeworth right now right? So you’re Miles. Isn’t that right?”

The blush climbed their cheeks up to their ears. “No, you’re Wright.”

“Not right now I’m not. Right now I’m Phoenix.” He stared up through the lashes of his eyes at his childhood best friend. All red and silver starlight. “And I’m sitting on the bench with the prettiest person I’ve ever seen.”

Holy shit! That was almost smooth! That’ll never happen again! It’s so good were sitting down or else I’d have tripped on my shoes and face planted as universal karma for that!

Miles twisted away. Hand coming up to cover their face. He could still see their ears burning red.

“Me too.” Miles mumbled.

“Huh?” He lifted his head slightly. Cocked it.

“The bench. That’s true for me too.”

“Uh. Wha?” The bench?

I’m sitting on the bench with the prettiest person I’ve ever seen.

He fell to the ground. All the blood collecting in his face. “Wha- You- You can’t just!”

Miles turned. A teasing smirk pulling at his face. “Oh haven’t you heard Phoenix?” Fuck. “Turnabout’s fair play.”

Bastard. He grinned. Bastard.

Turnabouts fair play.

[rhenuvee]

“Your Tip, Love.” (Fred Weasley x reader)

A/N: Can students get part-time jobs...? Idk but just go with it dude.

Taglist: @obsessedwithrandomthings​

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

Why did your mom tell you to get a job? You weren’t poor, nor was this to look good or have work experience. She just hated when you had nothing to do at Hogwarts. It didn’t have to be a good job, but your mom knew that if you didn’t have anything to do you’d die of boredom.

And that’s why you’ve been working at Honeydukes starting this year. On the contrary, standing in the middle of the shop and offering samples of candies seemed to lose your interest very quickly throughout the weeks. At least you got discounts on the candies. 

“(Y/n)! Could you get me a Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans- pretty please?” 

“No!”

Unfortunately, it was highly embarrassing when your friends burst into the shop and demanded free candies from you. Even worse if you see a classmate or someone you worked on an assignment with. Every Saturday, it was a ritual of you crossing your fingers and praying to every great wizard you didn’t see a familiar face and make it awkward.

This Saturday, it seemed to be going fairly well. The customers who were willing to try a sample were very nice, and no one you knew came in. Ahh, today was going to be-

“George hurry up!” 

You froze. You recognized that voice- you definitely spoke too soon. 

Fred Weasley, you definitely knew him, who wouldn’t? Famous prankster along with George and Lee. One of Gryffindor’s star beaters. And you for sure wouldn’t forget him after that one time you were paired with him to do that assignment in potions. 

You remember awkwardly walking to the table for you to work together. You felt sweaty- did you stand too far or too close to him? He did help you which was the opposite of his usual antics. Except you noticed from the corner of your eyes that he was grinning the whole time... why was this important?

You did not realize until your friend flat out told you- they thought you liked him, and that he liked you. They somehow noticed how smiley he was around you- which you did have to admit was out of place because y’all were in potions! And of course they saw your awkward and knew how clammy your hands would get when you were nervous. It was a day of relentless teasing.

But back to a present time problem- Fred, George and Lee had just walked into the store. They were bound to see you, you were practically a sitting duck. 

Your panic mode gave you three options:

Fight - “Hi Fred!” but who were you kidding, your confidence was level 0. 

Flight - Run away and have Mr. and Mrs. Flume scold you? Plus, wouldn’t that make you a tad dramatic?

Freeze - And then you could-

“Are those chocolate frogs?” asked Lee Jordan. You were snapped out of your thoughts and your face started to get hot instantly.

“Um, yeah would you like one?” you said shyly stretching out the tray of sweets.

“Free samples? Wicked.” The boys each took one chocolate frog from the tray and started to browse around the shop for any other sweets that interested them. 

You weren’t able to see Fred’s reaction to seeing you, but knowing that he didn’t say anything made you guess that he didn’t recognize you, or something along those line. You turned your head in the boys’ direction. They were distracted by the shelves of candies and were not making things awkward with you.

You sighed a breath of relief and checked the watch on your left wrist. Your shift was almost done, and you could finally return to your dorm and flop on the bed. 

The three boys paid for their treats and left the store. You took one last glance at them as they exited and then back to your watch.

“Hey (y/n).” You lifted your head to come to sight of Fred, who was in the middle of holding the door slightly open for himself.

“It was nice seeing you.” he said with a wink. With that he left, and you seemed to still be initiating the third panic mode option with your jaw dropped. Did Fred Weasley just say it was nice to see you?! 

The moment Mr. Flume bid you goodbye for the week, you bolted back to the castle immediately. 

---

It was another Saturday at Honeydukes. Fred had not said anything to you about last week, and you were grateful. Little did you know, that older Weasley twin had a plan.

“(Y/n)!” shouted your friend Maya. 

“Oh hi Maya!” you said surprised that she came to Honeydukes.

“Just wanted to visit, wouldn’t want you to be lonely.” she joked. You rolled your eyes playfully. You couldn’t deny it though, you did enjoy when your friends made a bit of time to be with you at your shift.

You were talking for a bit, until you saw who you did and did not want to see. You watched with wide eyes as Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins entered the store. 

“Hey isn’t that Fred Weasley? The guy you get all nervous around?” she whispered in your ear. 

“Maya!” you scolded attempting to bump into her with your tray of sweets. 

“Oh I see how it is...” she winked in amusement of the scowl on your face. She then went to the shelves in the back.

“Maya where are you going?” you asked almost frantically.

“Hm? Oh nothing, these chocolates look really interesting...” she said clearly putting on an act to seem busy. You were definitely going to get her back for that.

“Are those sugar quills free samples?” asked a voice which made you turn your head back to the front. You came to face Ron Weasley, who you knew as the twins’ younger brother. 

“Yeah, feel free to take one.” You tried to sound less shaky, you hoped it worked. Ron’s eyes widened and started taking a few quills. 

“Ronald!” scolded Hermione hitting his arm. Ron was taken aback. “She said take one, not an all you can eat buffet!” 

“Alright I’m sorry!” Ron said slightly embarrassed.

“It’s okay, really!” you said trying to reassure them, you didn’t want to make it more weird. Hermione shook her head at him as Harry and the twins were snickering. They all parted ways within the store, except Fred didn’t budge.

“Sorry about my brother.” he said sheepishly.

“It’s fine, it’s no big deal anyway.” you said. Your heart was pounding, the fact that you uttered a full sentence to Fred was an accomplishment.

“What’s a girl like you doing, working at Honeydukes?” Fred asked while picking up one of your sugar quills. 

“Oh, my mom doesn’t like when I don’t have anything to do. I mean it’s fine really, I get a discount on candy.” you explained. “W-what about you?”

“Me? Well rumour has it that there’s a really cute girl who works at Honeydukes who displays the sweets every Saturday.” he said smirking. Your face went beet red- he was talking about you?!

“R-really...?” you asked attempting to sound oblivious.

“Yes, and she’s especially cute when she gets all quiet around me.” He was making you more embarrassed than intended. Way for him to call you out sis. You were about to say something, but the trio and George finished paying for their candies and were heading out.

“Fred, stop flirting, let’s go!” called George holding the door open for him. Your brain was going haywire- Fred Weasley flirting with you?? Fred chuckled.

“Be patient you prat.” George rolled his eyes in return. You watched as Fred fished in his pockets for coins and placed them on your display tray.

“Your tip, love.” he said. He bent down to your height and kissed your cheek. You were left with the feeling of his soft lips on your face. You couldn’t utter a single word out. Fred waved at your paralyzed state and left with George shaking his head and laughing at his twin’s romantic gesture. 

“Oh my god...” said a voice behind you. You turned your head slowly and saw Maya.

“Maya! What the fu-”

“Did Fred just kiss you?!” she squealed. She looked more excited than you.

“I-” you couldn’t even English at this point. You knew she was going to tease you for this big time, so you had to change the subject. “Maya, did you really take ten minutes to admire those chocolates in the back?”

“Yes.”

---

Your shift was almost done for today, however your heart was fluttering the whole time thinking of Fred. Oh god, how were you supposed to face him now?

Suddenly you heard a thump coming from the cellar of the store. You didn’t go down there often, so you felt a little uneasy when you walked in slowly to check.

“Mr. Flume? Mrs. Flume?” you called out quietly. No answer. You looked left and right, there was nobody you could see. 

Your whole body did a small jump as you saw a tile on the floor move. The tile kept moving until you saw it lift and move to the side. You were shocked to see Fred emerge.

“Oh hello love.” he said casually.

“Fred! What are you doing?!” you whisper-yelled as you went to help him get out. As soon as he stepped out, he dusted off his clothes.

“I missed you.” he said a smirk playing on his lips. Fred making you flustered twice in one shift? Your heart couldn’t take it.

“S-stop playing with me, why did you- no, how did you come here?! What was that?!” you asked pushing him up the stairs back to the shop. He purposely resisted a little to make your life harder. As soon as you both reached the top of the stairs, he leaned against wall.

“Didn’t know you spoke that much, (y/n).” he teased. You groaned.

“Fred, I already saw you this morning, why are you-”

“Go on a date with me.” You backed into the doorway from hearing what he had just asked you. You noticed that there wasn’t a playful grin on his face, but instead looked almost worried. 

“Okay.” you said smiling.

“Okay?” he asked repeating your reply. You realized how short and blunt your answer seemed. No wonder you’ve been single all this time.

“I-I mean yes! I’d love to go on a date with you.” you said shyly. He walked over to your small form and lightly pinned you against the wall.

“Can I kiss you then?” he asked brushing your jawline with this thumb. You managed to nod in response. With that, he closed the remaining gap between you and locked his lips with yours.

The kiss made you dizzier ten times more than the simple peck from hours ago. And bloody hell was he a good kisser. Your arms went up to link around his neck, bringing him closer and deepening the kiss.

“Um (y/n), it’s the end of your shift you and your boyfriend can leave now...”

You both broke off immediately in embarrassment as you recognized the voice as Mrs. Flume. She was standing awkwardly behind the cashier. Oh god, you were going to get fired for sure.

“...I told him to use the front door but he just had to pull a Santa Clause-“ The three of you turned your heads to the door to see Lee and George mid sentence stopping to see you and Fred with your hands on each other and Mrs. Flume catching you in the act.

“Oh my- Mrs. Flume we’re so sorry!” said George pretending to be scared and apologizing a million times.

“Yes yes it will never happen again!” shouted Lee being just as dramatic.

“You know how couples get..” said George pushing you and Fred out the door quickly.

“U-uhm I’m so sorry Mrs. Flume, S-see you next week!” you stuttered out without even looking her in the eye. As you stopped outside you panted as Fred was giggling the entire time.

“Why are you laughing? Fred!” you said playfully slapping him on the arm as he continued laughing.

“Oh Merlin, (y/n) you don’t know how funny that was- your reaction was adorable!”

“You should be glad, we saved both your arses.” Said Lee proudly with George nodding along.

“Now you can finally go on your date!” Said George cheerfully. “But if I see you both snogging when you get back I won’t be there to save either of you again.”

You blushed at the thought of you and Fred snogging again. Fred scoffed and waved them off. He took your hand in his as you started to walk on your date.

“By the way, I don’t care what George says. There will be snogging, a hundred percent.”

—————————————————

Please message me if you’d like to be a part of my tag list. I write for 3 fandoms so specify which one!

[peralta-guaranteed]

i randomly remembered when enzo broke his arm around a year ago, i know it sounds mean but could you possibly do one of mac/maya doing the same (nothing major to cause it)

"It's okay." Amy hears herself repeat the phrase for probably the hundredth time now. "It's okay." It's probably supposed to calm them all down, all three adults and one little crying, screaming boy in the car, but it's barely working.

"It's not!" Jake hisses into her direction, the fear and panic and worry in his eyes more than obvious as he clutches Mac's head against his shoulder some more, tightens the grip around his back.

"It's gonna be, though." Rosa says from the driver's seat in front - she was clearly the calmest of all of them after what happened, so she'd grabbed Amy's purse, pulled their car keys out of it, and then pushed all three of them into the backseat before starting the car. And now she was making her way to the emergency wing of the hospital at about 15mp/h higher than allowed in the inner city. "The arm's broken, but not in a bad way. It's gonna heal."

"How can a bone break in a good way?" Asks the man who once stated that as long as his blood was still inside him, things were obviously good. Mac starts wailing a little louder in his arms.

"You're stressing him out." Rosa states, matter-of-fact, before slowing down just a little before a right turn so the kid in Jake's arms doesn't get jostled too much.

"It hurt." Mac sniffles and looks over at Amy with the reddest, most tear-filled eyes she's ever seen, and it takes a lot not to cry with him.

"It's gonna be okay, peanut. The doctors like uncle Jorge are going to fix it." She tries to calm him, and maybe Jake a little bit, who nods and scratches through Mac's hair like he does when he's trying to lull him into sleep.

-*-

They make it to the emergency room in record time, frankly, and if Rosa's rushed past some traffic lights and speed radars, Amy's not going to complain once the tickets come in the mail.

A bored-looking nurse informs them that there’s only enough space for one parent in the room during the x-ray and the cast and treatment, and Jake wants to debate for the first time in his life, because that’s obviously bullshit, but Amy puts a hand on his arm and then lifts Mac out of them.

“Sit with Rosa”, she says in that voice she’s started using after Mac, that mom-voice that’s always right, “Calm down, and we’ll be back before you know it. And it’s all going to be fine.”

She’s off with the crying toddler and nurse before Jake can really protest, and Rosa is already sitting in a corner of the waiting area, so he drops down next to her instead and buries his head in his hands.

“Dude, you’re blowing this out of proportion. Kids hurt themselves all the time. He’s gonna bounce back like always.”

“I broke his arm, Rosa.”

There’s a beat of silence between them as the weight of that statement settles. Rosa gives up her nonchalant pose to lean forward as well, trying to get into Jake’s field of vision, but it’s kinda hard when he’s staring down onto the floor.

“You did not.” She hisses. “Jake, you didn’t. He fell. He was climbing. It happens.”

“I helped him up on that tower, he’s too little for it-”

“It’s on the playground, he was gonna go for it eventually-”

“I was right next to him-”

“So were Amy and I-”

“You were talking-”

“So at least you were paying better attention-”

“I coulda grabbed him, I shoulda-”

“You did what you could, immediately and without question. It’s not your fault the kid drops faster than a cannonball.” Rosa ends their little squabble, and the old lady across them lets out a little harrumph, but Rosa shoots her the deadliest glare she can muster, which means a lot. “You were over there in a flash, Jake, I’ve never seen you move so fast.”

“Wasn’t fast enough. Wasn’t good enough.” He mumbles into his hands, rubbing across his face and his hair that’s already a mess. Rosa watches him for a moment, and calculates. Pieces together the evidence, like she does as a detective, and comes to a solution that most people probably won’t like, but those usually get her results.

“Do you want to leave?” She asks, and he looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “Amy’s got it under control, she told you. It’s probably gonna take a while, anyway, we can dip out for a drink to calm down and come back and they’ll be none the wiser.”

“Are you insane?!” Jake hisses back now, giving her exactly the reaction she’d expected. “I’m not going to leave my son in the hospital to go to a bar-”

He stops and stares at her, and it seems like his own detective brain is finally catching up with his panicked dad brain, because he sees what she’s doing. So she nods.

“You’re still good. You’re still better.” She says, and they don’t need to mention who he’s better than. It was the first of his stories that he told her, after he hurt something in his wrist at the academy - how that wrist never really healed right anyway, not since he was 5 and Bobby Linder drove over it with his tricycle by accident and his mom had to rush him to the hospital and his dad asked ‘what is that?’ with beer on his breath when he showed him the cast later. They’d known each other for barely a month back then, and Rosa was still refusing to think of anyone as her friend, but the way he’d looked at his wrist in its bandage and smiled the most broken smile she’d ever seen had set something off in her head. Something that yelled Protect at her every time he mentioned his dad later, something that made her threaten Roger Peralta with one of her knives after their graduation when Jake was in the bathroom ‘real quick’, but she knew he was hiding in there so no one could see his hands shake. Good thing Rosa never gave a damn about going into the men’s toilets anyway, because she sure as hell went after him when Roger had dipped out as usual.

She watches Jake’s tense shoulders drop with another sigh.

“Being better doesn’t make me good. That bar is set so fucking low.”

“I’m not having this entire discussion with you again, Peralta. We’ve been through this way too many times anyway. You. are. a. good. dad. One accident doesn’t change that.”

“Okay.” He nods, and she can tell he’s trying to imprint her words into his brain, so she continues.

“Mac’s going to hurt himself, and others are going to hurt him, and things are gonna go bad sometimes. You’ll probably be back here in the hospital a few times, considering how much he seems to love danger. And it’s going to be okay, just like Amy said, because you’re going to be there, and you’ll help him through it, and take care of him while he heals.”

“Yeah.” He nods again, and Rosa leans closer to him some more, and finally gets into his field of vision.

“And you’re not going to even think, for one second, that you could be anywhere as bad of a father as that piece of shit. And you’re not going to believe, whatever anyone says, that Mac doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you as a dad.”

He nods a third time, and she remembers how he jokingly told her once, after a few drinks, that the little screaming voice of conscience in his head always alternates between either Amy’s voice or her voice. She hopes she’s given him some new tracks to replay if he needs to.

“Thank you, Rosa.” He says, and leans back in the most uncomfortable chair either of them have sat in, and they’ve both been to prison. He tilts over when she leans back too, lands his head on her shoulder, and she doesn’t shrug him off for once. She can have a soft spot for the Santiago-Peraltas when no one else is there to see, she supposes.

“You looked like you wanted to punch out that nurse.” She says with a quick grin, and hears him snort.

“Was thinking about it. Not enough space for two parents, what kind of bullshit is that?!”

“You couldn’t throw a proper punch anyway.”

“Hey, I know how to hit people. I trained to do it just as much as you.”

They share a giggle as the exhaustion and stress of the last hour flows out of them, and the old lady across them seems mildly shocked rather than annoyed by now, but who cares.

-*-

Amy comes back with Mac in her arms an hour later, and they’re both all smiles. Mac sports an impressive new sticker collection on his shirt, and a lollipop that’s painting his lips orange. (Amy’s have a slight tint to them as well.)

The cast on his arm is bright green, and he carefully lifts it to show Jake as he switches from his Mama’s arms into his. (Jake had jumped up from his chair so fast he almost threw Rosa, who was also getting up, to the ground.)

“Like ninja!” he says around the lollipop, and Amy wipes a bit of spit away before it can drop on Jake’s shirt.

“Yeah, just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, buddy.” Jake nods because of course he understands his kid’s train of thought better than anyone else, and kisses Mac’s temple, stays there a second longer for that perfect toddler scent, even as it’s mixed with hospital disinfectant and playground mud.

“Look, RoRo!” Mac yells into his ear and leans over to show Rosa as well. “Turtle shell!”

“That’s pretty cool, dude.” Aunt RoRo answers as she inspects the cast to see if it’s well done or if she has to go back there and punch out a nurse herself. “Let’s get you three home.” She says after concluding that the cast is acceptable enough to let the poor hospital workers alone.

-*-

She was planning to drop them off, park their car and then head for the precinct where her bike is waiting for her, but Amy invited her up for some coffee for ‘her nerves’, and Jake offered dinner as a thanks, and Mac absolutely needed to show her the new toy he got in that package from abuela, and then suddenly she’s on a playmat on the floor for an hour after Chinese takeout and pretending to be a Ninja Tortoise or whatever. That soft spot is gonna be more trouble than it’s worth, she thinks for a second before Mac smiles at her as his Jedi figure shoots lasers at her turtle doll, and immediately realises it’s worth so much more than any trouble. Mac looks at his cast a little worried, whenever he thinks no one is watching him, and god, could he be any more like his dad? At least she and Amy already have a good instructions booklet on how to handle him, in that case.

“That green cast is pretty cool.” She says when she catches him look once more. “But you know what would make it even cooler? Drawings.”

“Drawies? On my arm?”

“Yeah, buddy. We can draw on it with a sharpie.”

He’s up and running to Amy, asking for a sharpie, in no time at all and yep, he is just as easily distracted as his dad. Mac grins wide and unworried now as he climbs on Jake’s lap on the couch, asks Amy to draw something when she returns with a set of markers, calls Rosa over to draw something too.

Amy does a little bear, his favourite animal at the moment. Rosa does a rocket ship and a pirate ship, the two best ships in the world, as they both agree. Jake does a Ninja Turtle cartoon face yelling PIZZA!, which is obviously Mac’s absolute favourite the moment it’s done.

When Jake wants to cap the Sharpie after his work of art, Mac grabs his hand and pulls it back down. “Steady, peanut. Don’t wanna scribble over Aunt RoRo’s cool ship, right?” He says with a grin over to her as she rolls her eyes. Mac’s already tried to cover several walls, most of his storytime books, and the kitchen table with his drawings as soon as he’s handed any sort of writing tool, so Jake won’t let go of the marker just to be safe, but he does let Mac’s little hand guide his big one as he makes him draw a wonky heart, right on the cast over the back of his hand, and then places a kiss on the same place on Jake’s hand.

You’re not going to believe, whatever anyone says, that Mac doesn’t know how lucky he is to have you as a dad the little Rosa voice in Jake’s head repeats as he smiles at her, and she actually smiles back.

[binniedeactivated]

𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 | ❦ 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐱 𝐏𝐎𝐂!𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄 | ❦  𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐲 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭!

𝐖/𝐂 | ❦ 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐱. 𝟐𝐤-𝟑𝐤 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 | ❦  𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐲 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐱 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞!

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 | ❦ 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞,  𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤, 𝐥𝐚𝐩 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐱

a/n; soft valentine’s day sex with soobin is my version of a ‘valentines day special’ lmao! enjoy babes xx

it was a stressful day for soobin as usual, and more than anything he wanted to curse bighit for the rest of their lasting days since they made him work on valentine’s day. but nevertheless he was excited to get back home to his beloved girlfriend maya.

they hadn’t discussed proper plans for the evening but even doing completely nothing in the house was fine to soobin, just as long as she was beside him he was alright. but maya didn’t just want to waste the day without doing anything. they’ve only been dating for several months and this would be their first valentine’s day together so she tried her best to make it count.

in the most provocative way possible.

soobin throws his keys on the counter while taking his coat off, kicking his shoes off while he was at it. the apartment was dimly lit and there were candles sitting on the kitchen counter top and rose petals trailing to their shared bedroom. soobin furrows an eyebrow, “babe? what’s all this?”.

after hearing no answer from her though he just follows the trail until he reached the doorway of the bedroom where a note splayed in the middle of the rose petals. he plucks it off the carpet unfolding it and reading her beautiful cursive handwriting, sit on the bed and wait for me baby ;)

just reading the note sent chills down his spine. the both of them have had sex before but it was never for a special occasion. he didn’t know what to expect. he obediently sat down at the edge of the bed rubbing his sweaty palms over his lap. other than the fact that he was nervous the bedroom set up looked beautiful. it was lit with nothing but candles and their was a soft melody playing in the background to set the mood. and it set the mood alright. soobin hadn’t even saw her yet and he was getting himself ready for whatever was about to happen.

the closet door opens suddenly, the red glow from the light inside was spilling onto the walls around it. soobin’s eyes waited patiently for her, his heart thumping excitedly in his chest. her transparent,  clear point toe heels walks steadily in front of her first like a model almost, and she appears wearing a red lacy bralette and cheeky red lacy panties that hugged her ass in such a way that made soobin’s mouth water. the bold red color complimented her cocoa brown skin perfectly. her puffy, sleek black hair was spiral curled and all pushed to one side of her shoulder, and almost as if she couldn’t do anything sexier she fluffs it a bit before walking towards him.

soobin was breathless by the time she approaches him, her dark and luminous brown eyes--goodness her eyes---the heat came back to him immediately and he swallows with wrecking nerves. she traces her fingers over his shoulder before sitting on his lap twisting her pretty glossed lips into a small smirk. “so? do you like it?”.

he glides his hands down to her waist hesitant to go down any further or else he’d be in for the hardest boner he’s ever had in his life. “you look so sexy. what is all this for?”. she cups his cheek with her hand. her lips were just a few centimeters away from his and it was like torture. he wanted to kiss them so bad. “this is what couples do on valentine’s day baby”.

“they do?”. soobin asks, marveling his eyes over her beautiful features as if he’s never seen them before.

“yes. why? what did you think we were going to do?”.

soobin rubs her thighs in thought. “i thought we were just going to watch a show together or something”. she laughs before giving him a small peck on his lips.

“no some couples go out on dates, small getaways，eat chocolates ---but most importantly they dress up and have sex”. she didn’t give him much room to think about it, immediately gifting him soft contained kisses along his collarbone. his breathing hitches and allows his hands to explore her body. knowing soobin, she already knew where his hands were headed.

he cups and grasps her ass with his large hands. the more he played with the soft, fatty globes of flesh the more turned on he became. she giggles into the next hickey she would give him. “you like my panties baby?”.

“yes i love them. can you wear panties like these more often?”.

she layers a sensual kiss on his lips now, basking in the shared breaths and body warmth. it was kisses like this soobin loved. indifferent and complaisant kisses that allowed them both to feed each other their emotions and for their hearts to beat together in flawless harmony. a kiss so beautiful it shattered his reality a bit when she broke away.

“they wouldn’t be as special if i wore them all the time would they?”. she presses her hand against his chest forcing him to lay back on the bed. “now, let’s get these clothes off you”. she lifts the hem of his shirt and soobin was quick to shed both his shirt and pants, tossing them to either sides of the bed. she presses her lips back onto his once he was finished.

the kiss was slow, sappy and sloppy but it was heated. with both of their eyes closed they made love to one another through their lips alone. she cups both of his cheeks and his hands found their way to her ass again, he really loved the way it felt in her panties. soft, plump and delicate he rubs it shamelessly. starting from the back of her thighs he works his way up, kneading both cheeks like dough and letting his hands go underneath the fabric just so he can grip it entirely. soobin’s ass rubs always had a way of turning her on, which explained why she was tongue kissing him a bit rougher than she planned.

she grinds against the tent in his pants, erotically moaning in his mouth. with the soft melodic music playing in the background, their make-out session was that much more intensified. “mmph why are you doing that--you know what it does to me”. she breathes. she was trying to take things slow but it wasn’t working. “this outfit is so sexy on you I can’t help myself”. he inches his lips back up to hers while letting his hands travel south again. this time while he was caressing it his fingers testingly rubs her slit, making her thighs twitch.

she slips her hand behind the waistband of his briefs and slides them down, letting his hard on slap against her in freedom. she was on her way to slide her own panties down before soobin stops her by clutching her wrists. “please don’t take these off”.

she chuckles a little, “how am I going to fuck you then babe?”.

soobin gulps a little nervous with what he was about to ask. “can you um--maybe slide them to the side and fuck me that way?”.

she smirks doing just as he asked and slid herself down on his length teasingly. his lips parted in utter satisfaction and lust with her walls clenched around him that way. and the little gasp of relief and shock that he gave when she done it, the one that he thought she didn’t hear, she loved it.

“like this baby?”. she asks already knowing the answer.

“yes please”. he replies with his eyes hazed. she rears her hips up before sinking them back down slowly with her hands splayed on soobin’s chest. soobin’s groans flooded the air. it was rare that maya ever rode him like this being that he was usually the one to take the lead in the bedroom. he loved the rare moments when she did take control but he was much too nervous to ask her to ride him even though he loved it. not only did she ride him well but he loved the way she looked while she did it, like a complete goddess.

he reaches up and slides his hands under her bralette, playing with her nipples with his fingers. “god babe--I think valentine’s day is my favorite holiday”. she comes back down with a short moan and licks her lips, chuckling soon after. “you like this stuff baby?”.

“yes it’s so hot---you look so pretty riding me right now”.

she cocks her head to the side giving him a smug grin. another groan withdrew from his lips. “awe, you said I look pretty?”. he blushes at the cocky face she made.

“yes you look pretty, you always look pretty”.

she leans down to softly peck him on his lips. “thank you baby. you’re such a sweetheart when you’re bottoming”.

soobin fixes his one hand behind his head and lets the other grasp her waist. he laughs at her comment. “I’m not bottoming”. she adored the way his eyes turned into crescent moons whenever he laughed.

“you’re a bottom right now. and you like it don’t you?”.

soobin opened his mouth to say something but she rolled her hips down in a particular way that made him curse underneath his breath. “fuck baby---why did you do that?”.

she smiles again. “to prove that you like bottoming”. he laughs. “why do you want to harass me with this? you’re supposed to be saying romantic stuff to me right now”.

she grins, grabbing both of his hands and mounting them on each of her boobs while she rode him a little harder. the seductive gaze she gave him made soobin want to cum right then and there.

“fine. I love you so much baby. these past few months you’ve been so good to me and I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend”. she moans.

soobin licks his lips, “god-- I love you more and I promise to treat you like a princess for as long as you live”.

she puckers her lips in awe. “you’re so cute”.

“your boobs feel nice”. the both of them laugh in unison. “and your lips---please kiss me”. he adds.

“make me”. she teases. he cups her thigh before smacking it lightly. “kiss me”. he begs. “make me”. she repeats.

without hesitance he flips her over with a speed that made them both giggle into another sensual kiss. “why do you always think i’m playing with you?”. he reaches below and slides the thin fabric to the side like before. “now shut up so I can make you cum”.

and soobin did just as he said, thrusting up into her while kissing her forehead lovingly. her gaspy cries overcrowded the melodies as he fucked her to his heart’s desire until they both reached their highs. as soon as he was finished he collapsed down onto her chest with heavy breaths. he circles his fingers over her nipples not being able to resist her lingerie even still.

“i love you. thank you for dressing up sexy for me. i really like it”.

“I love you too soobin. maybe I’ll do it more often”.

he perks his head up excitedly like a small child. “really?”.

she giggles. “yes really. and I bought chocolate covered strawberries for us to eat while we watch a movie. but if you keep laying on me like this we’ll never get to them”.

soobin immediately gets up, shoving his legs in his briefs and dashes his way into the kitchen. “first one there gets more strawberries!”.

maya laughs in his trail. “soobin!! that’s not fair”.