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callsigns-haze · 7 months

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Pretty like a crime

Chapter 8

Pairing: Agent Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x Singlemom! Agent Y/n 'Cobra' Y/l/n

Summary: Cobra is finally back on the agency and is finally back in the job. With Kai at home she has to jumble being a mother and a agent. She's sent to her first U.C mission but never thought that she would meet a blonde, green eyed Texan...

Warning: Mentions of gun use, ptsd, mentions of death, mentions of shooting, flirting, mentions of abuse, description of dead body, death, blood, undercover work, alcohol use, smut, kissing

Prologue/ Part 1/ Part 2/Part 3/ Part 4/ Part 5/ Part 6/ Part 7

"Alexandre, is back in the family." Matthew says as you sit on your balcony, sipping wine to help relieve the stress you've just experienced.

"Nice," you mumble taking another sip and looking at him from behind your glasses. He's changed so much recently, more tensed and stressed. He's been so full of anger and lost compassion that you simply don't understand.

"What's going on with you!" He lifts his voice and you don't even lift your gaze. He's angry but there's nothing that could get you more pissed than you already were. The people who hated the Chevaliers were working their way through history and you were giggling at the sidelines.

"Your brother just flipped his car and nearly died. You're so stuck up and arrogant that you don't even go and visit him and just sit here going on about business, THAT'S WHAT'S FUCKING WRONG WITH ME!" You shout at him.

"All you care about if your doing well in daddy's business. Not once did you stop and think about anyone around you, even your own brother's. Matthew, history from ten years ago is getting pulled back up from the grave and you should care about not getting caught by a lose thread!' And with that your gone. As you storm off as you shove past Penelope.

------

These people cared for no one at all. All they cared about was money. You don't know how you got yourself so deep into this drama but you don't want to know, but one thing you learned is that the only way to survive is to thrive by yourself.

You run down as fast as your legs can carry you. Your dad was called down to the police station along with other team members with no reason for the explanation behind it.

You pull out your badge and guards approve your entering and sadly the first person you lay on is the last you would've wanted. "Matthew."

Matthew, was your father's lawyer, family business brings close and yet that so-called lawyer is actually your ex. You haven't seen him ever since you left, from what you heard he went for rehab and it showed. He didn't seem sloppy and drowsy anymore, he had composure. He stood up straight, eyes not bloodshot and looked like the Matt you knew.

"Y/N."

He could not believe his eyes. The woman he had loved for all those years and the same woman that left him was now standing right in front of him, ready to hear news about her father.

"Hi." You both say in sync , causing the two of you to let out a laugh. Your laugh was one of the finest you've ever given off, you're far from happy to see this man and no act could fake it. It broke the thick and tense silence as you asked, "What happened with my dad?"

He looked down at you and pulled out a bunch of paper while pointing and explaining, "They pulled evidence from back years, then forged them together and got this mess." It sure was a mess, each line being more fake and unrealistic from the other.

Your father would never do such things and never did, he has worked honestly and fairly and whoever was doing this to him would surely pay.

"Can I-"

"Hey, Cobra!" A voice from behind you calls as the tall, muscular, blonde, green eyed Texan runs up beside you. He kisses your cheek lightly as Matthew hunts him down with his gaze. Horrible timing Hangman.

"Who's this?" Jake asks, wrapping his arm around your waist. These actions are getting stared at by Matthew as if he was a hawk hunting his prey. "Matt, this is Jake my partner. Jake, this is Kai's dad Matthew."

If you ever seen a cartoon character lose colour in milliseconds there was no better way of describing Jake. All the colour drained from his face, he went all pale and stiff, while shaking as he held his hand out.

Matthew stared at Jake's put out hand and ignored it, slightly shoving past it as he tells you. "They don't have anything solid on him, don't worry. Excuse me, I have to go see my client." He shoved past Jake whispering in his ear as he walked past. "If I were in your place I'd leave my family alone."

Jake got the biggest chills of his whole life. Your ex was, Matthew Chevalier. Nicely putting it, he was done for.

"You didn't tell me HE was Kai's dad. Wait! So you're-" You've heard this sentence more than you could count in your life, exactly the words used on the phonecall.

"Madame Chevalier or Lady, whatever you wanna call it." You sigh, pulling your head back and putting it back down to lock eyes with Jake. You stare at his green eyes for just a moment and then lean in to plant a kiss upon his lips. You wrap your hands gently around his neck, twirling his hair lightly as your lips perform a sort of dance. You pull back and look Jake in the eyes.

"As much as I hate him he's still Kai's father and a damn good lawyer, that's all that matters."

-------

You enter the white room where Romain lay. His neck was injured and in a brace and his arm was in a cast. He looked so powerless. In this moment he looked as if he lost all the authority he's ever had.

You walk toward the hospital bed and sit down on the small chair beside him. A tear slips from your eye as you watch him in such a state. Out of all the Chevaliers he was the only one with dignity and a heart and this all happened because his dad kicked him out for loving a man and not Grace.

"Hey," you say, putting his free hand in yours as he looks at you. A tear leaves his eye as he lays his sight upon you. You felt horrible for him. He didn't deserve this, not at all.

"Y/N, I-i-i-i." You shush him already knowing what he was going to say. The Fortuny family ended in such a way and now he did the same but if it wasn't for Olivia he'd already be dead.

"Romain, their death wasn't in your hands."

------

You lay on your couch as Kai insisted on walking Jake's dog with him, and there was no way you could deny it. The blanket lay only upon your feet as you curled yourself up into a ball.

Matthew was sober and back into his ordinary life. He was sober and in a brilliant state, he was influenced and trusted and most importantly out of all, he found you. Matthew had the right to fight for Kai if he wished to.

Kai was his son after all and the only reason you left was due to the struggles that your relationship pushed. You quickly got divorced papers and signed them and immediately left the continent let alone the country.

You earlier pulled out a glass of champagne, but now you've ended up in the middle of chugging the whole bottle. Your ex husband is in town, meaning he could tear you down for what you did. He could easily get rid of you for what you've done.

"MOMMY!" Kai's voice echoed through the apartment as they returned from their walk. You place the champagne bottle down onto the glass, black coffee table and sit up properly from your previous egg position.

The second Jake had taken off your son's shoes, the little boy ran to you and sat beside you before you pulled him into your lap. "Mommy, can I stay up with the doggy?" The little boy enforced one of the fittest pouting lips you've ever seen but you couldn't say yes, not tonight.

"I'm sorry baby, bed now. You've taken a bath earlier and went out in your PJ's so you're perfectly ready for a night snooze." Kai groans as Jake appears leaning against the living room doorframe with the young energetic dog at his feet.

"Your mommy's right buddy, you'll still have time to play tomorrow." You look up at Jake and smile before standing up with Kai on your hip.

You carry him over to Jake where your boyfriend happily relieves your arms from your son, carrying him to his room to put him down.

- Once Jake re-entered he found you leaning against the kitchen counter, head pointing downwards as you took deep breaths.

There were silent tears streaming down your face when the flashback of the papers went through your head. You let out a little sob not being able to contain yourself and that's when Jake noticed you crying.

"Noo angel, don't cry. I'm here now everything is ok," at that you get up to face him gently wrapping your arms around him and sobbing into his chest.

"Shhhh baby, it's okay. I'm here."

"It's just that when I left I never had to s-s-see him aga-" you could even finish the sentence with your shaking. You were having another panic attack. You haven't had one in ages but Jake knew this wouldn't end well if you didn't relax and take a breath.

"Look at me angel," he commands softly, not trying to be ruff or rude but in a way to get you to listen.

You raze your gaze to him as your glassy eyes spill again and you start hiccuping softly.

"Now, see angel. I'm here, okay? I'm fine and I'm with you so let's keep the past to the past and now everything is okay," he says pulling you in gently.

Your son's slowed down as you started taking deep, slowed down breaths. "I don't want him here. I want him gone, for good this time!" You choke out before reburying yourself in Jake's chest. You want Matthew dead.

Current taglist:

@callsign-magnolia

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@callsign-dexter

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@djs8891

@hookslove1592

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@a-beaverhausen

@itsmytimetoodream

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itsscromp · 7 months

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hellloooo so i wanted to request something I've been thinking of for a while <3 you can just call me 🦇bat anon :D sooo i was thinking rocket raccoon x reader who is also a genetically modified raccoon by the hands of high evolutionary with the same amount of trauma and torture as rocket experienced, but they're more brain modified, so they look like a sorta normal raccoon but they're really REALLY overly intelligent and are agile and smart and all that, but they use a human body hologram, and when rocket met them he saw them as a human, but reader later revealed their secret and they connected with their trauma or something i dunno X( i just want someone to let rocket know he's not alone <3 if you're gonna do this, thank you :D if not, have a nice day anyway and i love your writing!!!

We're not so different

Hello there 🦇bat anon :D, Apologies for the delay in this, Now for this request, I had read over it and ultimately my brain has gone splat in the moment. BUT !!! I cooked another idea relating to what you asked. So I hope you like it. Warnings: Mentions of abuse. Word count:985

How you were brought into this world will continue to baffle you until the day you die. How many children have happy families, Yours was utterly broken, Your mom abandoned you before your first birthday, leaving you with your dad who turned to alcohol to cope with the stress. You would always have to bring him his bottle... unless you would cop something in the head. You still had the scar across your eyebrow from the shard cutting through, you were thankful that it didn't get your eye.

By 10 years old when you were on the way home from school as quickly as you could. Your teacher stopped you before you could rush home to talk about the results of your test. Heading home... Guess who was there.

"Where the fuck have you been ??!! I told you to get back as soon school finished."

"I... I know... The teacher just wanted to talk to me..."

"You got into trouble !!" He grabbed your arm and twisted it.

You yelped in pain and started to cry, You yanked your hand away and ran away, Having enough of his endless hurting. Running as fast as you could, You rushed down into the nearby park and fell over, started to cry. As you cried, you felt yourself getting dragged up by something in the sky, Soon being sent away thousands of light-years away in the galaxy.

The cycle continued just with your kidnappers, Whatever your dad did, they did ten times worse when you didn't do what they said. You didn't escape for another 5 years. Being placed into hiding on Knowhere and stayed there for the time being. At least you were free.

You took up some mercenary work with the ravagers, coming across Peter quill from time to time. And it just so happened that that day when the guardians of the galaxy were formed. The day you met Rocket Raccoon.

You knew straight from the start that the attitude that he pulled off when you worked together in prison was nothing more than a cover-up for a deeper trauma that he had witnessed. But it became more evident when you saw his drunken out burst in the bar.

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing he does !! Well, I didn't ask to get made !! I didn't ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over, turned into some... Some little monster !!"

"Rocket, no one is calling you a monster" Peter told him

"He called me vermin !! She called me Rodent !!! His bottom lip wobbled a bit before he grew angry. "Let's see if you can last after five or six good shots in your fricken face !!" He aimed his gun at Drax.

"No no no no !! 4 billion units, Rocket come on suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich !!" Quill begged him to think rationally.

Rocket thought for a bit before disarming his weapon. "Fine... But I can't promise when this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks."

He then bolted out of the bar, Your heart absolutely shattered hearing all of this. At this, you wanted to hold him and tell him that everything was ok... But you knew this wouldn't work knowing Rocket for the short time.

But regardless he needed someone right now, So you headed outside to find him. Looking around nearby until you found him in an alleyway crying softly to himself. You grew sad as you saw him... You walked over as you gently sat down across the other side, remaining silent.

He looked up and saw you, quickly regaining his composure. "Get lost y/n..."

"I didn't say anything" You softly said.

He opened his mouth before shutting it, His ears fully drooped. Crossing his arms as he looked away from you. "Why are you here ?? Wanna call me monster too ??"

You shook your head gently, Trying to figure out how to properly say it. "Rocket... Whatever it is... that you have gone through." You could feel his eyes glaring on you, almost to say choose your next few words very carefully.

"Whatever it is... I get it... I know what it feels like."

His eyes slowly softened a little, but still glaring at you.

"The scar... On my eyebrow... This was by the man who was meant to protect me..." You pointed to your eyebrow.

He inspected your eyebrow a bit before he looked down at the ground. "I... I'm sorry you had to suffer that"

"My whole life... And not even that... When I was 10 I was kidnapped from Earth, The people who kidnapped me... They endured so much pain on me... For 5 flarking years..." You moved your shirt a bit, showing scared underneath your ribs... this one hurt you the most, you couldn't even stomach to talk about it.

Rocket's eyes went soft, And soon, you could see a different side to him. "I'm sorry... I really am..." He hesitantly started to move, moving next to you. Wanting to be in your company and feel safe.

"Rocket, Whatever this galaxy throws at you... I want to let you know... I'll be there for you ok ??" You looked at him.

He gave it a bit of thought for a little bit before nodding. "Yeah... Same to you y/n" He looked up at you, saying it sincerely.

You smiled and gently raised a fist to him, he tilted his head a little bit in confusion. "What are you doing humie ??"

"You never heard about fist bumps ??"

He shook his head, wanting an explanation.

"It's kind of like a symbol of friendship on earth, so here" You gently helped him achieve his first fist bump, "There you go" You smiled,

You would always have his back, And he with yours. Always.

Taglist: @callofdudes

#platonic #reader insert #rocket raccoon #rocket raccoon x reader #rocket raccoon imagine #rocket x reader #rocket imagine #gotg imagine #gotg x reader #rocket gotg

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goodlucktai · 1 year

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Feel free to ignore this ask if it's overstepping, but whenever I have to do something stressful involving my mental health I channel/process those feelings by writing fanfic of my blorbos doing the same thing. So, any thoughts about rise Leo going to his first therapy session post-movie in the Hidden City? Could even take place in the City Lights verse.

Mikey is kicking the heel of his foot against the waiting room chair over and over, full of a restless sort of worry.

It was an uphill battle getting Leo to agree to this in the first place. God, Mikey would almost rather fight the Shredder again then relive that first conversation about it. Being stubborn is a Hamato trait but Leo takes it to a whole new level.

Thankfully, he is and always has been a daddy’s boy.

“I have not always been a good father to you,” Splinter finally says, interrupting the beginning stages of Donatello Losing His Absolute Shit Out Of Love. He pats Leo’s cheek gently. “But I am putting my foot down this time, Blue.”

“You’re the medic,” Raph points out. “You wouldn’t let one of us walk around with a broken bone, would you?”

For all that he’s spent the last two years in a state of constant anxiety and frustration, he never lost that softness that makes him their Raph. He still carries it around with him, and hands it out freely where it’s needed, and right now he’s wrapping it around Leo as deftly as a blanket.

And for all that Leo has this stupid idea lately that he’s supposed to be perfect and self-reliant and never burden his family with anything he could handle on his own, he’s still their Leo. He buckles under genuine affection like a house of cards.

He puts up one last token protest. “That’s not the same thing.”

“It’s exactly the same thing,” Donnie says, just barely not a snap. “You have literally bullied me into telehealth sessions before.”

He’s not angry, not really. He just cares so much and he can’t get the words to come out right and he wants Leo to do what is best for Leo without arguing about it, even though they all know that’s just flat-out impossible.

“It’s different,” Leo stresses, well and truly at his emotional threshold. “You deserve—”

He cuts himself off but the damage is done. Everyone knows what he was going to say, what he meant. The tension in the room ratchets up to a solid fifteen on a max ten scale. Donnie starts flapping his hands. Casey looks pale and haunted. Mikey bites down on the wounded sound he wants to make, but Raph’s arms tighten around him like he heard it anyway.

“Yeah,” April says in a tone that lets all of her little brothers know not to mess around, “you’re going to therapy, Leon.”

Splinter grips Leo’s chin before he can sink into his shell. There’s an ocean of grief in the rat’s eyes that Mikey is worried he might drown in. But there’s love, too. Mountains of it, rising out of turbulent water, steady and immovable and forever.

“Don’t hide yourself away,” Splinter says. Maybe it’s something he would have liked someone to say to him, once upon a time. “We love who you are, even if who you are is someone who is struggling right now. Lean on us, Leonardo. You are not alone.”

So here they are. The latest in a string of failures. Mikey keeps bumping his foot into the chair leg, trying not to stare at the clock.

This is the longest an intake session has lasted. The first one was about ten minutes, but none of them expected the first one to go well. Leo joked about the whole thing and wouldn’t answer anyone’s questions directly. But he went straight to his room afterwards and didn’t come out until he was extracted for dinner, which said plenty.

The session after that went on for half an hour, but Splinter—and Draxum, who had come along that time and sat in with Leo’s permission—agreed it wasn’t the right fit. The session after that was another no-go, and then the disastrous fourth session almost shut the whole operation down entirely. It lasted all of twenty minutes and ended in property damage. Whatever was said in that office caused Splinter to go full Lou Jitsu and break the desk, a chair, and the door on their way out. Leo was glassy-eyed and unresponsive in a way that caused actual murder to flash through Donnie’s eyes.

Leo crawled directly into Raph’s open arms and stayed there, cheek pressed to plastron, to better hear the comforting rumble that started up in his brother’s chest. When Mikey crawled in next to him, his hands opened so Mikey could hold them, but otherwise he just blinked slowly and didn’t speak and it was the worst thing ever and Mikey very heroically managed not to burst into tears but it was close.

They were kind of expecting him to cite The Fourth Session as a reason why they should pack this whole idea up and mail it far away from them to the next bunch of jokers but he didn’t. He just heaved himself off the sofa without a whine or a joke or anything and shuffled after Splinter out the door.

It made Mikey feel like a bully. It was for Leo’s own good, but it was clearly taking a toll. Opening himself up again and again for a complete stranger, only to have that trust totally unrewarded and sometimes even thrown back in his face. For someone like Leo, whose guard is constant and unwavering even when the only people he has to guard against are his own family, it must be grueling. It must be awful.

But if they could just find the right fit, Mikey thinks desperately. If they could just find the right person…

“Hey,” Raph says, nudging Mikey’s arm, jolting him out of his thoughts. “He’ll be okay. Pops isn’t gonna let it get as far as it did the last time. He promised.”

“At worst, we’ll be accessories to murder,” Donnie says without looking up from his phone. He sounds like the idea doesn’t bother him at all, and also like it’s much preferable to anyone making his twin even the smallest bit upset for any reason. “In which case I suggest swinging back around to Session Four’s office and tying up loose ends.”

Raph closes his eyes briefly, looking as though he’s actively making plans to wrestle Donnie into therapy next, and then continues as if the softshell hadn’t spoken at all. “Leo’s perfectly safe.”

“No I know,” Mikey says quickly. In part because he knows Raph is trying to make him feel better, also in part because it sounds like maybe Raph is trying to make himself feel better, too. “I just—we’re running out of names in the Hidden City white pages, you know?”

“I can’t believe they still use the white pages here,” Donnie mutters.

“There’s still a lot of options left for us to try,” Raph says patiently. “And when we run out of options, we’ll come up with another plan. Don’t borrow trouble just yet, okay?”

Mikey leans on him, trying to absorb some of that steadfastness for himself, and Raph puts an arm around him, drawing him and his whole chair closer with a short shriek of plastic on linoleum.

A sudden high-pitched, frantic beeping fills the lobby. A few heads in the waiting room turn, but the yokai behind the desk don’t even blink.

“Is that the fire alarm?” Raph asks in a polite, I’m-not-freaking-out-but-I’m-about-to tone.

“Oh, honey, it’s okay,” one of the receptionists reassures him at once. She’s been nice to them since they got here and her teal face is lined from a long life of smiling. “This happens all the time. We have wards to prevent fire, but they don’t stop smoke.”

“Um, okay,” Mikey says. “But why is there smoke? In a clinic?”

The door leading to the offices opens and Leo steps out looking slightly scorched and a little bemused. Splinter is nudging him along, looking like he’s aged ten years in the last sixty minutes, and a beetle yokai shuffles after them sheepishly.

It’s the beetle yokai who introduced himself as Cricket, the clinical psychologist with licenses from both yokai and human institutions who passed Donatello’s extremely invasive vetting process, and the first doctor to somehow last the full hour with Mikey’s most stubborn brother. He’s five foot nothing and his exoskeleton is a pretty coral color.

“What did you set on fire this time?” one of the employees says in a long-suffering tone.

“You don’t know for certain that it was me,” Cricket replies with a nervous little yank at his wrinkled button-down shirt.

“Like the entire lounge,” Leo answers immediately after. “It’s amazing, I’ve never seen anyone fail at cookies that hard before in my life, and I live with Donatello.”

“Offended scoff,” Donnie says loudly.

“It’s a nice gesture!” Cricket says. “I was making a nice gesture!”

“Whoever left their lunch on the counter in there, I have bad news,” Leo goes on. One of the yokai tapping away at a computer stops, puts her head in her hand, and sighs. Splinter draws Leo down far enough to pat him on the cheek and then heads toward the reception area to do paperwork things. Leo and Cricket bicker their way across the waiting room.

Mikey feels something buoyant and bubbly happening in his chest, like someone shook a can of soda up in there. This is the most Leo-like Leo has been after a session, in all his playful, sarcastic glory. He glances up and sees the way Mikey is vibrating in his chair and laughs.

“Jeez, Michael, if you needed to go outside and run around the block I would have understood.”

“I’m saving all my energy for giving you the biggest, proudest, love-you-est hug of my entire career,” Mikey says very seriously.

Leo’s golden eyes get very bright, which is how Mikey can tell that his heart is smiling even if his face folds into something theatrical and performative. “Am I gonna need to clear my calendar?”

“The WHOLE day, baby!”

Cricket is smiling at the picture the four of them make, mandibles clicking idly. Splinter is watching too, his eyes impossibly soft and full of the same pride Mikey’s feeling in spades.

“What do you say, Leo?” Cricket says. “Same time next week?”

Leo tugs at the sleeve of the purple hoodie he borrowed from Donnie that morning. He glances sidelong at Splinter, who gazes back fondly but doesn’t answer for him. Mikey’s on pins and needles, waiting to hear what he’ll say with his heart in his throat. He thinks he can feel Raph holding his breath.

“Yeah, I guess,” Leo says after a moment. “Maybe we can burn your office down next time.”

Cricket lets out an affronted little clicking noise but he clearly doesn’t mean it, because he sends the clan off with warm goodbyes. The second they’re out the door, Mikey flings himself at Leo bodily, barely remembering at the last second to be gentle. Donnie has his arm linked through Leo’s good one, and Splinter is hanging back to make a quiet, exhaustively relieved phone call to April and Casey, and Mikey keeps saying how proud he is. He can’t stop. Leo’s the bravest person he knows, the best person, and he has to keep saying it or he’s going to explode.

“Alright, alright,” Raph says, gently disentangling Leo from the bramble of clingy brothers and lifting him up onto his shoulders instead. “Take us home, Fearless.”

There’s a smile on Leo’s face that’s almost familiar. It’s not the one Mikey knows, but it’s one he’s getting to know. The fact that his brother is here to smile at all is more of a miracle than most people get in a whole lifetime.

Even if Leo never makes it all the way back to that shining boy he used to be, Mikey can think of at least a billion things to love about the person he is right now.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #hamato michelangelo #hamato leonardo #portal duo #my writing #tmnt fic #prompt #anonymous #these bright blue city lights #i have had cricket for exactly 1 hour and i would die for him in a heartbeat

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pumpkinsy0 · 21 days

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I think a lot about a Mexican American Dallas Winston. But specifically a Dallas who’s a stranger to his culture. His mother trying hard to forget about her heritage, while his father is indifferent to it due to the heartache it brought on after moving to the states. A Dallas who learned to hate school at ten years old, who wasn’t put into advance classes like Ponyboy. But rather he got stuck in lower level classes by teachers who took one look at the color of his skin and decided that’s where he needed to be.

A Dallas Winston who is such a stranger to his culture that he can’t even speak basic Spanish but still ends up getting called all sorts of names by people just passing by him. A Dallas Winston Who isn’t seen as conventionally attractive by girls because his skin is too dark and his eyes too brown. Unlike Sodapop’s whose hair is golden and straight ,or even Darrell Curtis who embodies the idea of the All American Boy. Who ends up staring at himself in the mirror for longer than needed, and briefly wishes his features matched their’s.

A Dallas who is too white for some of the greasers who were raised in Spanish speaking households. Who even gets made fun of for it at times. But yet on the opposite side of that coin is seen as too Mexican in the eyes of soc’s and law enforcement alike. A Dallas Winston who’s an outsider amongst outsiders even when he’s with the gang.Who’s yearned for more in life but has given up hoping and instead becomes more and more angry at the world. A Mexican American Dallas Winston who can’t help but envy the Shepard’s because while they don’t have much in this world they have each other as a support system.

Anyway sorry to Yap but..yeah I’ve been thinking about him a lot..especially since I think Dallas being a POC adds more layers to his story.

nonono dont apologize,,,this was a banger,,,i love this sm,,,

i think mexican dallas is actually very interesting!!!!im adding him to my dallas winston multiverse

AND AND!!! i think it could add onto that bond both dally and johnny has!!!!id say johnny being mexican is like, one of the popular hcs for johnny its like he literally SEES himself in johnny, they have the same dark eyes, same hair, kind of the same nose, he literally sees johnny as his little brother/himself and he cant help but attach himself to him

on the other side of the spectrum however, if we wanna go w canon dallas looks, i think him having the blond hair, pale ass skin, basically him just, whitepassing, could exacerbate that feeling of being an outsider looking in!!! he WANTS to b closer to his culture but bc he has the “privilege” of passing as white and he sees the things people who dont look like him go through, he doesnt want to face that and make things harder for himself so hes just forced to stay ignorant to his culture, and acts indifferent to it

bonus points if johnny is at least somewhat connected to his culture so now dallas and him r like complete opposites and dally doesnt say anything but he does think about that a bit

i stg i had more thoughts about this but inforgot but just know mexican dallas ur in my thoughts forever now,,,thank u anon,,

#dallas winston #johnny cade

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joltai-showa · 5 days

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ah shit here we go again, let's reread Naruto again

reading it in official English translation for the first time and really have no idea if it's good or not lol (I've been translating MHA for 5 years straight and official English translation from the same company fucking sucks)

chapter 1 is huge as hell, which is normal for Shonen Jump, mangaka needs to introduce the concept and characters and all yada yada

what I find really funny about Naruto is a lot of the stuff is written backwards (meaning, we have some stuff introduced early on, but then more shit is slapped on top) to the point that pre-Shippuden things directly contradict what is going to be stated later. Kishimoto most of the time gave approximately zero shit about things outright not making sense and, y'know, you gotta respect him for that, cause I don't have balls like that

(unfortunately when writing anything canon-compliant in Naruto you have be mindful of things being rewritten and outright not making sense💀)

Anyway enough yapping, very first page is already ripe with shit that is going to be retconneced later

Firstly, description of Kurama's abilities. Naruto's orange puppy certainly can not start tsunamis and landslides with just his tails, lmao, this is something closer to Ten-Tails. If the terrain allows it, sure, I can see him starting a landslide, but orange puppy isn't starting anything in the seas, he's got siblings with lesser number of tails for that haha.

Secondly, the entire second paragraph feels like a fever dream honestly. "Suffering people gathered the shinobi clans to fight this menace" = Konoha was founded as a way to stop the endless tiny conflicts between the shinobi clans living in the Land of Fire (why have small-scale conflicts between each other when you can have literal world wars with the guys from beyond the border lol, jk, I know Hashirama wanted a peaceful future for the kids, but ultimately hidden villages system solves none of the issues of the previous system besides "7 year olds die on the battlefields" because now we have "15 year olds die on the battlefields"), Kurama literally wanted nothing to do with humans (as far as we know) during the warring states period, he was literally frolicking in some meadows and eating weird twins from to-be Kumogakure, got captured by Uchiha "read some mossy stone that my clan carried for years for some reason and went totally delulu" Madara, was used to attack Konoha, got bitch slapped by Hashirama a few times before Mito stuffed him into her stomach. And people are surprised why is the orange puppy so evil most of the manga lmao. But anyway, the entire sentence also implies that Fourth Hokage had some sort of mega-epic showdown with the evil puppy... while in reality it was something closer to Konoha's nuke being stolen by a delusional angry fourteen year old and Minato had to simply recapture the nuke again.

anyway, that was a long-ass rant lol

love the early style, it's so goofy, Kakashi is especially wonky in it

first question: why are we tying up school kids after they are caught for their terrible pranks? what is the educational idea behind this thing? like, i get doing that on the training field, imitating combat and all, but why do the same thing in the classroom? is it supposed to encourage the kids to learn how to run away after being tied down by some ropes?

(if that's the case i guess i know at least one academy student who always failed this task, yeah, looking at you, rin, i'm sorry, i can't hold myself back from bashing that thing, lmao)

anyway, back to the manga, i really love how it mentions that Naruto flunked this exam two times already (and it's not stated how often this exam is, so I guess yearly?), and only graduates at like 13, which is supposed to be a super late age and Naruto is such a lazy bum for that... but then you realize the funny fact that Naruto's classmates aka "genius" Sasuke, "book-smart" Sakura, team Asuma and team Kurenai are all the same age as him. Lmao. This isn't the first time Kishi will forget about this silly thing called "timeline".

let's... not adress this gag.

AHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH.

Naruto, allow me to introduce you to this wonderful concept called "nepotism". It's quite common in your village. Second Hokage was First's younger brother, Third Hokage was the student of the Second, Fourth Hokage is the student of a guy who studied under Third, Fifth is literally both the granddaughter of First and a student of Third, Sixth is the student of Fourth and you, Naruto, is the son of Fourth and the student of Sixth.

I absolutely love how early Naruto is trying to be this story about this poor underdog when in reality our MC is the nepobaby to ever napobaby lol. I think only Iwa beats Konoha at having the most absurdly nepotistic system for Kage, because 3 out of 4 Tsuchikage are directly related to each other through blood and the one guy that isn't happens to be the teacher to Third.

(I do remember there was so bullshit about Kazekage clan or something but I think it's pretty much only a title and only Rasa and Gaara are actually related to each other through blood)

>badge of adulthood

>given to literal 9-13 year olds who can't throw a kunai in a straight line

yeah, you know what, this actually checks out.

you immediately know that mizuki is fucking evil when he says "nah let him pass iruka, he managed to produce a single shitty clone, he's totally not gonna be killed after 30 seconds on the battlefield" like WHAT IS THIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

also another good question to the world building: does Konoha have other schools besides Academy? Like, what do kids do if they don't want to pursue military career? Their parents hopefully teach them how to read and count and that's it? I mean, Konoha is a military settlement at the end of the day, but they can't be teaching only guys who will be throwing knives at each other?

absolutely nothing, naruto, lmao. you were born a nepobaby, prepare to have an endless supply of chakra for any tricks of yours and the best senseis Konoha has to offer.

is the Hokage building supposed to be their residence as well? huh.

also let's not talk about this gag.

comically large kurama jpeg

#jolt showa's ramblings #naruto

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daisychainable · 1 year

Text

Shane's High Score

Fix it fic for Shane's 14 heart event! You shouldn't have to stalk your husband!

“You should talk to him.”

Peony blinked. And blinked again. Her hands tightened around the teacup in her hands, the drink still warm. “Excuse me?”

Marnie fidgeted in her chair but maintained eye contact. Her tea sat untouched on the table. They didn’t even get to the normal pleasantries, like ‘how is it going’ or ‘lovely day outside’. No, Marnie continued straight on to, “I know it may be hard to hear, but it seems like Shane is drinking at the saloon again.”

Peony fixed a polite smile onto her face. “Shane has been playing Journey of the Prairie King in the arcade. Abigail beat his score last week.”

“Is he though?” Marnie’s hands fluttered about as she spoke, waving away any arguments like flies.. “Have you gone with him?”

The tea was honestly nice. Chamomile, from Caroline. Peony wondered how her morning was going. The silence hung heavy in the air as Peony finished her cup. “Marnie.”

Marnie stilled. “Yes?”

“Have you talked to Shane?”

“Not yet, but-”

“Have you seen him inside the bar?”

Marnie straightened as she regained some ground. “Yes. He’s there a lot longer than I am. Gus says he’s there until closing time!”

Peony’s eyes crinkled. “Where is he in the bar, Marnie?”

Marnie shook her head. “In the arcade, but with temptation so close, do you really think he’s just staying in the arcade all night? Even if it is just video games, it can’t be good for him to-”

The teacup clinked loudly against the platter. The polite smile was gone. Marnie’s eyes were wide. Peony said in a low voice, “Marnie. I trust Shane. Why don’t you?”

A moment of silence. Marnie opened her mouth, then closed it again. After it was clear she wouldn’t answer, Peony reached across the table and took her cold tea. “Thank you for coming over, Marnie. I’ll see you in the shop sometime.”

As she took the dishes into the kitchen, Peony heard the quiet click of the front door, and she let out all the air she had been holding in. She pinched her fingers to the bridge of her nose and counted to ten. The day had been going so well up until this point, but at least in the late afternoon she didn’t have to worry about doing her chores angry.

The small cuckoo clock ticked away to the next hour. It was a wedding present from Robin. At five o’clock, the little chicken inside popped out and clucked five times. It was a small thing, but it was enough to break a few of the storm clouds above Peony’s head. She shrugged on a light pink jacket and headed outside.

Pelican Town was gorgeous in the fall. The colors took her breath away during her first year, the buttery gold yellow leaves almost too bright compared to the dull grays and brown of the city. Jas had shown her where to find the prettiest purple trees in the forest, and the look on Shane’s face was so openly fond when they came back with arms full of leaves. The clouds above Peony’s head broke completely, and she shook her head with a laugh.

The saloon was only half full today. Peony waved to Gus, who was doing a pretty good job pretending to be busy. “Another bustling Monday?”

Gus chuckled. “As full as ever. Got any mayo for me today?”

Peony shoved her hands in her empty pockets. “Ah, it seems I forgot. Maybe a free coffee would jog my memory for tomorrow?”

Gus shook his head. “Shameless. I’m being extorted in my own bar.”

Peony jerked a thumb towards the arcade. “Same as usual?”

Gus nodded. “He got close a couple times, but I don’t think it’ll happen tonight. Make sure he leaves at a decent time, will you? I’m hoping to close up a little early to catch The Bake Off tonight.”

Peony gave him a two-finger salute and slipped into the hall. The sounds of The Prairie King drifted into the room, and it sounded like her husband was making some good progress. In the dimly lit room, the neon sign cast bright purple highlights on Shane’s tousled hair and focused expression. His practiced hands tapped away diligently as waves of enemies swarmed the little cowboy avatar. Peony hovered a couple feet away and watched over his shoulder.

“The little spike guys are piling up,” Peony chimed.

Shane hummed. “It’s fine, the time's almost up.”

There was still quite a bit of time left, but Shane’s eyes were fever-bright with anticipation as more of the men swarmed him. Peony leaned against the cabinet. “If only you had some sweet power ups to get you out of the corner,” she said.

Shane shook his head, a few strands of hair falling in his eyes. “Nah, it’s fine. I need that power up later.”

Later would not be coming as they both watched one of the spiked enemies pop down a trap right in front of his character. Shane groaned as the little cowboy blipped out of existence and the score screen flashed, Abigail’s high numbers dominating the top of the list. “Damn it, I was so close!”

Peony didn’t think he was too disappointed. His smile was too wide, too contagious. “You think there’s any cheats out there for old-school arcade machines?”

Shane huffed and wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. “There are, but Abigail isn’t using them. I’m gonna beat her fair and square.”

Peony pulled a quarter out of her pocket. “Mind if I join in?”

Shane’s bright eyes met hers with so much warmth it almost knocked Peony over. His smile was absolutely giddy. “Sure thing, player two.”

The quarters clunked heavily in the machine, and their little cowboys ran around each other briefly before setting to work. There was a moment of nothing except for the sound of pixel bullets before Shane spoke again. “Did something happen today? Normally you’d be slapping together pumpkin recipes this late.”

Peony rushed in to take care of the spiked enemies while Shane gathered power ups. “Marnie swung by today to chat.”

The enemies gathered around on all sides to corner them. A coffee power up blinked in close by, and Shane made a grab for it to squeeze out of a tight space. “That sounds nice. What did she say?”

A soldier popped in right by Peony’s little cowboy. She had gotten a little too close to the wall. “She thought you were drinking again.”

Shane stilled for a moment, his fingers pressed down on a button but not releasing it. His cowboy shot aimlessly for a moment before he gathered himself again. “But I’m not.”

Peony nodded, covering for him while he scooped up some coins. “No. You’re not.”

The level cleared, and the shopkeep drifted in with their wares. Shane’s hand gripped the joystick and hovered on the side of the cabinet. His eyebrows creased, and all Peony wanted was to smooth it away. “But what if one day I did? Just, caved in and drank and sat in the corner of the saloon again?”

His eyes wouldn’t meet hers. His shoulders hunched. Peony covered his hand with hers. They were both sweaty, but neither of them minded at that moment. “Then you would come home. I would ask if you were okay. We would take a shower, or watch that sci-fi comedy where neither of us have to think too much. The next day, we would call the therapist and make an appointment.” Peony slipped her fingers between his, and Shane gripped them back. “We can sit and be sad together. We can get back up and play games together and struggle to name the newest chicken together. Whatever happens, we’re gonna get through it together.”

Shane didn’t say anything, but a soft smile now graced his face. He looked at her with all the love he had in his eyes, and Peony knew hers looked the same. Then he looked at their score, and huffed. “We can’t beat Abby’s score together though.”

“Oh God no, Abby’s an absolute menace.”

#stardew shane #sdv shane #sdv farmer #stardew valley #writeblr

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kitkatopinions · 2 years

Note

Of course you would erase Blake’s canon bisexuality. Blake has been confirmed as bisexual way before ten years and it’s even brought up multiple times by the writers like when talking about her new hair where they referred to it as the “bi bob” and Yang is still a sapphic no matter the case. They literally sold only one jacket with bumblebee in the store versus the many other things they advertise and sell that the jacket sold in comparison is barely anything that they make in total

Blake and Sun never dated or confessed to liking each other and Blake never once spoke about finding Sun attractive or said anything out loud about how much she liked Sun and Pyrrha and Jaune never went on a date either or confessed to liking each other or said anything about being attracted to the other before Pyrrha passed, so it just seems like you have a double standard and don’t recognize your own hypocrisy. The only ship that did was Renora and they never went on a date either, they only confessed to each other and that wasn’t until way after volume 3 and they’re not even together now.

The thing is you as a viewer knew Pyrrha liked and was attracted to Jaune without her outright saying so because she showed that she is through her actions and body language. This is no different than Blake and Yang showing that they are attracted to the same sex through their actions towards each other like blushing at one another, sharing loving looks and embracing and holding each other throughout the volumes. So Blake and Yang are not just queer coded they are queer and in love and the writers purposely show that through their actions and they don’t need to say their sexuality every five minutes for you to understand that because even you said that you knew that they were in love, so clearly the writing has made that obvious. And again Blake is confirmed bi and Yang is still sapphic

But I’m sure you won’t understand what I’m trying to say and twist my words and that’s fine. Some people will never see reason or their own bias in their take. You clearly can’t see Blake and Yang without rt’s scandal even though crwby are the ones writing the show and not the people who were actually homophobic and racist. It’s no different than Disney having shows with queer characters in them. Just because the company is rotten doesn’t mean the people who write the show have the same are the same

Okay, since you actually took the time to at least attempt to make an argument here, I'll indulge. This is a long post but I do expect you to read all of it if you're going to play like you're actually trying to have a civil debate after slinging angry hate anons at me for days.

Point One:

Blake is no more a 'canon confirmed bisexual' than Dumbledore was canon confirmed as gay years ago just because JKR made a tweet. Content creators don't get to treat their 'queer rep' like behind the scenes easter eggs that TrueFansTM will get if they follow them on twitter. When I say that neither Blake or Yang is canon confirmed as queer, I am saying that it isn't confirmed in the show, not that the writers have never claimed it in extra side content. That's called trying to get points without doing the work, and it's weak. Also, here's Arryn Zech the voice actress describing Blake as straight in official RWBY side material as late as 2019

And for good measure, here's Yang in RWBY Arrowfell which came out in 2022 describing Blake as being like her sister

So yeah, I'm looking for actual in show canon confirmation, not weak-ass tweets or some shit while they put this in some of their other side content.

Point Two

They literally sold only one jacket with bumblebee in the store versus the many other things they advertise and sell that the jacket sold in comparison is barely anything that they make in total

Actually, no, they also sold pride shirts at one point specifically for Pride with Pride rainbow flags that all four main girls were standing in front of. I'm going to assume based of your posts so far that you're actually either a teenaged child or someone who has never critically engaged with the portrayal of queer people in media, and assume you've never thought about why it might be problematic for people to sell merchandise branded with gay pride flags all while their show has no single confirmed queer main character, but it is in fact at the very least suspicious. It's really weird for you to be like 'well compared to the other stuff they sell, this isn't a super big deal' especially considering RT's horrific bigoted history. It's like if you went into a store that you knew horribly mistreated its queer workers and knew they wouldn't let their employees wear LGBTQ+ pins and saw a 'Pride Month' section and then was like "Well, this isn't a problem at all because they clearly sell lots of other stuff." That's what you sound like.

Point Three:

This is an official date. It is literally a date. Sun asked her out and she came and confirmed they were going TOGETHER.

This was Jaune asking Weiss out in song form, and then he later proceeds to have an open conversation with Ren where he says he's "completely head over heels for her."

Here's where Weiss asks out Neptune.

Here's where Pyrrha and Jaune literally kiss before she dies. All of this happened in volume two and volume three. Note that these people all got confirmed as interested in the opposite gender through means of either a date (Blake and Sun,) an asking out (Jaune and Weiss,) or a kiss (Pyrrha) but this does not mean they HAD to get together, likewise Blake and/or Yang could've been confirmed as interested in girls without it leading to the two of them getting together (to preserve the 'slowburn.') But my point is that Nora and Ren are the exception, not the rule, they're some of only a few main characters who didn't get their interest confirmed in some way (either through a date, kiss, open conversation of feelings, or other things like that.) You're literally tricking yourself into thinking the early seasons weren't packed full of heteronormativity in order to pretend that RWBY just doesn't do casual or non-endgame-slowburn stuff when the show in the early seasons was filled with non-endgame not-slowburns. You literally forgot Arkos??? Kissed??? In volume three??? Also, your statement that Ren and Nora didn't kiss until volume seven and now they're not even together makes me think that you're not getting the concept that Blake and Yang being confirmed as queer never relied on them getting together, they could've been confirmed eight ways to sunday without getting in a relationship with each other right away.

Point Four:

Again, I'm assuming you're either a teenage child or have never analyzed media before, so let me help you out.

When writers want their viewers to pick up on the feelings or motivations of their characters without stating or admitting it, they do this thing called coding, where viewers see through tone and looks and little moments that characters feel or think certain ways despite the fact that they are not CONFIRMED to think or feel or want the things we're meant to pick up on. Then later on they might confirm that thing by having it stated indisputably. In relation to queer representation, a lot of media acted under censorship where they were not allowed to actually have their characters openly be queer and so they coded them as queer through things like lingering looks and touches, blushing, hand-holding, standing too-close together, things like that.

In today's modern media, sometimes queercoding is used as a way to try to get LGBTQ+ audiences invested without actually confirming (or last minute confirming in the famous example of Super/natural,) and without risking driving out the homophobic members of their fanbase. This is called queerbaiting.

Queercoding and queerbaiting allows queer people like me (and I'm assuming you) and allies to the queer community to see the intended romantic subtext and pick up on all their little (or sometimes big) clues and understand the intended romantic reading, while allowing plausible deniability for both the writers and/or company (to fly under censoring or assure a bigoted fanbase that it's 'just a fan theory') and the homophobic people who ALSO watch the content. Queercoding and queerbaiting is all things that can be written off as 'unintended' (like Qrow and Clover) or 'like brothers' and 'like sisters' (again, the RWBY Arrowfell dismissal of Yang referring to Blake as being like her sister.)

Queercoding looks like this:

ON THE OTHER HAND Canonical queer confirmation is writers making their characters openly and unapologetically queer, it's kissing, it's dating, it's having open conversations about their feelings, it's active confessions of love, it's being open about their sexual orientation or their labels or their identity, it's sometimes living together, or sleeping together. This obviously doesn't mean characters have to be proclaiming their sexuality every five minutes as you randomly accused me of wanting, but confirmation is undeniable.

Because a homophobe can watch RWBY up till now and go "well Blake and Yang are clearly sisterly" and you and me both might be shaking our heads that they're an idiot and a bigot for not picking up the clear signs, but there's nothing we can actually point to that would definitively prove him wrong as of yet. But meanwhile that same homophobe would probably turn off the Owl House the minute that Lumity gets canonized.

Canonly queer confirmation looks like this:

Do you get the difference, here? Do you understand? BLAKE AND YANG ARE CODED, NOT CONFIRMED.

People like you and me are meant to read Blake and Yang as in love and as queer wlw, and we're meant to see them as romantic, but THEY ARE NOT CANON CONFIRMED, because they have NOT BEEN WRITTEN TO BE ANYTHING BUT CODED. If you want to get mad at someone for that, get mad at the RWBY writers, they're the ones who haven't actually given them one single moment that indisputably proves that they're queer at all.

(I want it on record that no shipper is to blame for liking, believing in, wanting, or feeling seen and represented by coded queer content. That's fine and natural and kind of what the writers are trying to do. But it just isn't canon.)

Fifth Point:

But I’m sure you won’t understand what I’m trying to say and twist my words and that’s fine. Some people will never see reason or their own bias in their take.

This is actually angering to me when you came into my inbox hurling insults and saying that I secretly hate queer people and women and you've been ignoring like ninety percent of what I said with every new ask you sent. YOU are the one who has been determined to misunderstand and twist my words. YOU are the one who got furious because I said that Blake and Yang were not yet canon confirmed to the point where you were just angrily attacking me in my comment section. You don't get to play the victim now, you're the instigator here, you're the one who has been wildly irrational, you're the one who wants so badly for RWBY to be perfect representation that you've spent the last two days attacking a queer woman.

Sixth Point:

You clearly can’t see Blake and Yang without rt’s scandal even though crwby are the ones writing the show and not the people who were actually homophobic and racist. It’s no different than Disney having shows with queer characters in them. Just because the company is rotten doesn’t mean the people who write the show have the same are the same

"CRWBY" includes Miles Luna, and sleazy VAs who turned out to be dangerous bigots, and all kinds of things. CRWBY is not a couple of good apples you can pick up and show me, it's a big barrel full of apples and many of them are contaminated by RT. See this link here where my sister laid out some receipts. Miles Luna (with his history of misogyny and specific biphobia) was not only one of the creators and main writers of RWBY for years and years and years, but he's also been the head of animation at RT. I think pretending that there's zero overlap between CRWBY and RT is naive at best and actively harmful at the worst.

Anyway, thanks for trying.

#rwde #anti rwby #anti bumblebee #anti bumbleby #anti bumblby #anti bmblb #anti bb

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doevademe · 2 years

Note

Then without further ado 🤑

Prompt: adult and married Percy and Nico meeting their younger counterparts (let s say the ones from after the whole not my type incident) go craaaazy, sorry if it s not an easy one . I just hope you ll take a comedic approach to it but that s your choice.

"YOU!" The teen pointed at him once he saw him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Percy sighed and passed by his seventeen year old self and straight towards fifteen year old Nico. The little son of Hades shrugged, as if to say, 'what do you expect of me?' and walked towards the car.

"Sorry about this, Wise Girl," he apologized. "I swear I was watching them, but I guess I forgot how slippery I can be."

"You forgot a lot of things, Percy, if you're even Percy anymore!" his younger self kept accusing. "Why did you guys break up?!"

"Just... give me a heads up next time something like this happens," Annabeth said. "Just a few minutes with him and I remember why we broke up,"

Young Percy looked at her, betrayal in his eyes.

Percy took advantage of his shock and dragged him to the car, speeding off before he could try and jump out.

When the boys had appeared in front of him and Nico at home, his husband almost suffered an aneurysm. When Young Percy had asked where Annabeth was, as she would know how to take them back, Percy had been stupid enough to let it slip that they had broken up.

Cue his younger self running away to find her and find out what happened, with Young Nico following behind, to make sure he was safe.

"What did you do?" Young Percy asked, calmer this time. "Tell me so I never make the same stupid mistake!"

"It wasn't a mistake," Percy said, getting angry despite himself. "You just don't know how things will go until they happen."

"Maybe that's why I'm here, then," Young Percy explained, desperate. "To make sure this Bad Future doesn't happen."

"Then why am I here?" Nico spoke up. Percy immediately whipped his head back. He was still panicking, but now all his attention was centered on Nico. "The only thing I know about my future is that I am in your house."

And gods, was his seventeen year old self an idiot. How did he not notice himself forgetting the world just by listening to Young Nico's words? How did he justify his eyes following the movements of his hands like it was hypnotic?

Denial was one hell of a drug.

"Why wouldn't you be here? Or at my house? We're friends," Percy answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. "And right now, it's us against the future."

Nico said nothing, but he gave him a small smile. Young Percy relaxed.

"So, how did it happen?" he asked again once they were by the house.

"I fell in love with someone else," Percy said honestly. Young Percy's eyes widened. He obviously thought it impossible. "I was... about your age, really, but didn't notice it until much later, when that person was already taken."

"Well, I don't like anybody but Annabeth, so that means this future won't come to pass."

"Oh, it will, you just don't know it yet," Nico, older Nico, said as he leaned against the car. Young Percy jumped on his seat. "Welcome back, Percy. Was little me good?"

"I'm not ten," Young Nico complained. He looked at his older self. "Do you know why we're here?"

His husband shook his head.

"Afraid not, but good news is, I don't remember being thrown into the future and meeting my older self, so you guys probably won't remember this once you get back."

"Nico! Help me!" Young Percy said. "If I won't remember, then it means I must fix this here! You have to help me get back together with Annabeth!"

No one spoke for a few seconds, and Percy saw Young Nico wince. Whether he was sad over his younger self being such a hard head, or cringing at him was a mystery Percy couldn't crack.

Nico shook his head, smiling tenderly and leaning forward slightly on the window and... well, his husband was 24 and dressed in an oversized shirt that let a lot of his collar bone and chest show. Young Percy was too mesmerized to keep talking.

But Young Nico noticed and his eyes shifted rapidly between his older self and both Percys.

The son of Poseidon gave a subtle nod, winking at him. Young Nico's face turned a deep crimson. Gods, he missed when Nico used to do that.

"When you grow up, you'll understand why it ended," Nico said gently. Young Percy, cheeks a little red, nodded dumbly. Percy was sure that, at that point, his husband could make his younger self to jump to his doom faster than any siren. "Now come on, I made some ravioli I'm sure you guys will love. I remembered mamma's recipes," he added for his younger self's sake, who wouldn't stop sneaking glances at both Percys.

"Wait, so this is your house? Where do I live, then?"

Nico looked at Young Percy for a second and gave him what Percy knew as his 'I'm seducing you' smile. Young Nico looked escandalized.

"Where do you think, Percy?" he said in a low whisper. His younger self's eyes widened in horror.

"I... I don't like... do I? B-but you said, I mean, he said I... that I wasn't his—" he looked between the Nicos, probably seeing his version for the first time as well. "I'm not hungry!"

"Percy, wait!"

Their younger versions ran into the house. Percy would probably hide in their room and see all the evidence of their relationship, while Nico would try to calm Percy down, who, now with the idea in his mind, wouldn't be able to stop thinking about his Nico that way.

"That was evil," Percy said, chuckling. Nico smirked back.

"Maybe," Nico admitted. "But he was the one who suggested breaking our marriage, so he deserves it."

#Percico #my writing #this one was fun #the idea was intriguing enough to write this right away #also poor Percy #but this will do him some good #maybe #drabble #writing prompt

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juliensorelapologist · 2 years

Text

I finished Kleo on Netflix, and her and Sven made me insane so I wrote a little something

Around an hour after their latest fight / murder attempt, she opens her hotel room door to find Sven standing up in front of her. He doesn’t even look scared, just tired.

“I left all my clothes here. And my money.”

“I could kill you right now.”

“Yeah well. So could a lot of people. I discovered there’s a lot more murderous spies running around than you would think.”

She thinks about it. He’s a fucking traitor - and capitalist scum. He doesn’t believe in anything. It would be so easy to close the door in his face, or to shoot him in the head. Except. Well.

She doesn’t say anything, only stands on the side to let him get in.

He doesn’t even grab his jeans, just lays down on the bed. She lays down beside him, letting a centimeter of space between their bodies. Kleo stares at the ceiling.

“Shouldn’t you go back to your wife and your son?”

“I’m not… We’re probably gonna… they don’t need me right now.”

She's not even jealous. She had been so jealous of Andi’s wife, pregnant and happy and normal, for stealing the life that should have been hers. Probably no reason to feel jealous now since being a KGB spy and shooting her kid’s dad in the head had never been in Kleo’s dreams of a cozy life.

“You’re not a really good dad, are you?”

“I… that’s not really fair, yeah! I love my son!”

And you ditched him to run across the world with a murderer. But yes, it probably isn't fair. He is a better father than most parents she knows, at least than the adults in her life. Had her mother been good? Maybe. She had been so sure of it before that damn last meeting. But she could never imagine discarding so easily a child she had once truly loved. So maybe her mom had never loved her, or maybe she had.

The thing about the past is : she can remember the color of a suitcase at a meeting four years ago, and the face of a woman she barely saw in a corridor, but the other things, the important things, or maybe the details feel like they're all the same sometimes. The house she grew up in and the house she learned to kill in and Jorge and Andi whispering “your grand dad is a great man, you know?”, her grand dad’s hand on her shoulder at ten and at twenty and him pointing a gun towards her and Andi’s shooting her and them dead, looking straight into nothing.

The past all feels the same, and it felt like it was never gonna let her go, until it did. Giving up the suitcase had felt freeing, but it had been for nothing. And here she is, aimless, laying on a bed, laying next to someone who embodied everything she despised in the West.

She thinks about the story Ramona told her, about dead women and vengeful sirens, and then she thinks about that one movie she watched with Theo.

“I think I shouldn’t have gotten out of prison.” and then, because it isn’t true, she says “I think I’m dead. Like the ghosts in those Japanese stories.”

Somehow, he gets what she says, which is weird because she doesn’t think he watches the same type of movies Theo watches.

“Like the… the vengeful Geisha.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s not. That’s not true. They’re just here for revenge and you. Well you didn’t kill Ramona and you didn’t really want to kill the BND woman, it just… happened.”

He’s pressed on his elbows, surplombing her, his eyes oh so sweet and filled with affection and isn’t that funny? The number of men who looked at her this way before stabbing her in the back?

He struggles with his words a bit more before grabbing her wrist. She holds back the instinct of kicking him in the stomach.

“See? I couldn’t do that to a ghost, yeah? You’re real. You’re real.”

He’s saying it like it’s the most important thing in the world, and maybe it is. A part of her is still angry at him, at everything, kicking and snarling at the world. It’s the part of her that was trained, that’s paranoid, that kept her alive all these years. But she’s not sure what’s the use of a survival instinct now that she doesn’t have anything to survive for, and Sven already betrayed her the only way a guy like him, that throws up when he sees a dead body, ever could, so she puts her head against his chest, and throws an arm across his body and drags him close. He hugs her back, far too comfortable with someone who ran after him with a gun barely an hour before.

She closes her eyes, and breathes deep.

#when you're french and write a fanfic in english for a show only six german people watched #anyways very pleasant watch #called out the alien thing #my friend didn't believe me #said there aren't aliens in historical fiction #I said there would be if writers weren't cowards #and I was right #also I think Sven is bi #that's it. Enjoy #kleo netflix #kleo straub #sven petzold #kleo

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cyberphuck · 1 year

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So, about the story of how I met my dad and why I love him so much

@qthewhatever asked me to talk about my dad, how he became my dad, and our relationship. I thought this was going to be a fun jaunt through good memories, with maybe a few grateful tears along the way. But the story of why my dad is so special to me can't be told without the context of why my mother *isn't* special to me, and the stark difference between how he treats me, and how I was treated by her. The cliff's notes version (do they even have those anymore?): Dad became my dad kind of by accident, when Seb and I started "pretending" to be siblings in order to be able to rent a room together. Dad is Seb's dad, so it follows that since I'm Seb's sibling, Dad is my dad too. Then he just... fell into the role, because dads gotta dad. He is always proud of me, no matter what, and no matter how badly I fuck something up he could never, ever stop loving me. He cares about me and doesn't get annoyed by the ups and downs of my moods. He lets me cry when I need to. He lets me take a break when I need to. He loves me, *really* loves me, so totally and completely that even though we look absolutely nothing alike, no one who has ever seen us together doubts that he's raised me from birth. That's not what it was like with my mom. I only got so far through recounting her decades of abuse before I found that I couldn't do it anymore. I'm still going to post what I have, because I think other people should read it and maybe become comfortable talking about their abuse *as* abuse and not "I'm sure I was doing something wrong somehow, and it was my fault they were always so angry at me." Also, I spent a long time working on it. This is not a happy story. trigger warnings: child abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, mental illness, mentions of suicide, mentions of self harm, mentions of various serial killers, mentions of psychiatric hospitals, autism portrayed in a negative tone, fatphobia, and brief mentions of drugs and drug use. (this story is also not complete; it stops when I'm around 27, but I added an epilogue.)

My family had been in various financial situations throughout my childhood, but I was raised upper middle class, which was the same tax bracket that my mom had been raised in. My biodad, Ichiro (Dave) left when I was three, and I saw him once ten years later and then never again. So mom raised my older brother Nick and I by herself (except for a 3 year stint with Chris the Coke Addict Who's Dead Now) up until I was thirteen.

I'll admit I was not an easy kid to raise. I was (and still am) weird and awkward and autistic and prone to oversharing with strangers as well as long crying spells over seemingly low-importance things. Nick was also sensitive and somewhere on the spectrum, but it was me who was the loud one, the hyper one, the one who people politely said was a "late bloomer" and "marched to the beat of their own drummer" (at one point my mom told me I was "marching backwards.") I refused or forgot to eat so often that at six I became malnourished enough to warrant a visit by CPS. I was always being called into the principal's office for doing weird shit at school, like making potions out of shampoo and throwing them at passing cars or lion-roaring at boys I didn't like or whatever. When I got sick, I got VERY sick, like the time I straight up got Scarlet Fever and almost died, or the time I had a fever so high I started convulsing, or the lots of times that I had to do fasting blood draws every month because I had a very low red blood cell count and no one could figure out why.

Bottom line I was very weird. Mom was weird too, my grandparents were weird, but they knew how to "show" in public. I didn't. Nick's nickname for me was "The Spaz." Worse, I constantly craved attention and had absolutely no concept of Stranger Danger (I still kind of don't), and the year I was born, Richard Ramirez was active and killing in Southern California where my mom and Dave lived. In 1992, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested and his apartment full of chunks of Milwaukee's queer community was broadcasted all over the news. In 1978, when my mom was a young woman, Mary Vincent was attacked by a man who picked her up while hitchhiking. He assaulted her and then attacked her with a hatchet, cutting both her arms off above the elbow. She has hooks for hands now.

To keep me by her side and not wandering around out in the open, mom told me about all this. Everything-- that Dahmer was killing and eating people, that Ramirez tortured and murdered people, and how Mary Vincent had asked a strange man for a ride and now she had no arms. There's a scene in the beginning of *A Time to Kill* by John Grisham where a young black girl is being raped and tortured by two white men. It's a page or two long, but very graphic, and when I was eight my mom sat me down and made me read it to show me what could happen to me if I went anywhere alone.

At the time, we lived in Lausanne, Switzerland, which is not exactly a hotbed of violent crime.

All that aside, I was a cute kid and a good-looking teenager. I was adorably freckly with never-neat red hair, and then grew into a curvy teen with long red hair and wore cute clothes. Mom bragged to people that I was an author and an artist, and she would often tell me that she loved how 'cool' I was. (cool, in this sense, meant wearing the clothes she bought me and not styling my hair in any way she found ugly. She often pointed out ugly people on TV or on the street, and say something like 'I'm glad YOU don't dress like that.')

I was smart-- I didn't get good grades because I could never get around to doing my homework, but I scored high on tests and most teachers liked me. I wasn't one of the popular kids, but I was always the leader of whatever little gang I was in, deciding where we went and what we did, and mom loved that, too. And she really, *really* wanted me to go into medicine.

Junior and senior year was where it all started to fall apart.

Mom's husband is a veteran with severe PTSD. 2001 - 2005 were the worst years with him; he was overbearing at the best of times and the fact that he was a boomer from Brooklyn and I was a millenial from LA really didn't help us see eye to eye. But he had a hair trigger and would back me against a wall to loom over you and scream in your face. Nick, who was taller and angrier than me, would scream back. Once, Nick was sent to the store for parmesan cheese and came home with the powder kind in the green can instead of the tub of the fancy grated cheese, and the resulting shouting match almost ended in a fist fight.

My depression started getting really bad when I was 17. By 18, I started self-harming, and for the first time had the thought that if I died, if I was gone and were nothing, everything would be better. I also had my first hospitalization.

I'm at 21 inpatient psychiatric stays now.

Worse, I was an adult now and had not transferred gracefully from high school to college (to go into medicine, nothing else was enough for her). I didn't even have a graduation-- I tested out of school in early 2003 and the only pomp and circumstance I got was a half-sheet of paper with 'CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION' printed on it. I had gained a lot of weight, partly due to meds and partly from depression and post-school downtime. She told me my hair looked like a rat's nest and once remarked to her husband, 'look at the size of her!' I no longer wore cute clothes and was not actively trying to turn my art or writing into a profitable career.

Mom and her husband told me that I absolutely had to go back to school again, or they'd kick me out. The closest community college was two counties away (counties in California are really big). They told me they'd only take me to the nearest bus stop (still an hours' drive) and then I'd have to take a three-hour bus ride to the campus. The absolute earliest bus left at six am, which meant that I could only take classes starting at 10 am, and then had to leave by 2 pm to take the bus back home (the return bus did go all the way back to my area, but didn't run as often).

They treated my trek back and forth to campus every day not with pride or pity, but contempt, as in "this is what you get for not succeeding." I had two more hospital stays.

After a particularly bad episode with mom's husband where he tried to force his way through a door and I had to climb out a window to get to neighbor's house and call 911, I moved out to stay with Nick, who had left about a year earlier. I was determined to be an adult and build a life for myself, but my depression and self-harming got steadily worse, and though I had several jobs and tried to go to college, every few months I'd do some serious damage to myself and end up back in the psych ward, pushing all my plans back to zero.

Nick moved in with his girlfriend, leaving me to shoulder the rent on our room on my own. I managed for about six months, but I couldn't stay at any job for long. I went to live with Skittle, where my depression took such a nosedive that a lot of nights were just spent huddled in a ball and sobbing. I felt worthless. I felt like I was nothing.

Skittle and I broke up, and with nowhere to go, I moved back in with my mom. There were short periods thereafter that I would move out again, but basically, after I turned 23, I didn't get away from her again for five years.

Mom was never really happy with me again. I helped out wherever I could, going with her to the ranch where her horses were and volunteering to do all the dirty or hard tasks so she could have more time to ride. I did not and still do not like horses and have no interest in riding them. I went to make her happy. I wanted to do whatever I could to make her like me.

(Mom's ranch friends loved me, because I had been taught to show well in public. With them, I was witty and hard-working, and so sweet to come there to help my mom. Didn't I want to get on a horse, just once? No?)

I brought my mom breakfast and her meds when she woke up, so she could lay in bed while they took effect instead of having to hobble to the kitchen. I did chores around the house. I took the laundry to the laundromat twice a week, and brought them home clean and folded. I walked the dogs and took them to the park.

My mom told me that I was a draw on finances. I started cleaning houses, and eventually lucked into a job cleaning weed for a hefty sum of money. I made enough money in one three-day weekend to buy my own car, which was a good thing since mom's truck was repossessed not long after. I'd gotten the trimming job in November. I sometimes stayed over at the weed guy's house so I could do two or three days of trimming in a row. In December mom told me that all I cared about was money.

Early the next year, my boss was between sales, so he was late paying me. I owed my mom two hundred dollars (I can't remember for what), and she treated me with open hatred for every day I didn't have it. Bitter and upset, I posted something on facebook to the effect of "does anyone know where I can find two hundred dollars so my mom will love me again?" Mom saw it and sent me a message:

"you want to play this game? better not call for a while I better not see you for a while. a person must learn to keep family business private [Jaydee]."

I also got:

“Just sit there and pretend you’re not here.”

“I’m trying to reminisce about happier times, before all this.”

“You know you think it’s all about you, but I had your brother first.”

“If you don’t like the things I say to you, leave and find someplace with someone nicer.”

“Go get a shrink and figure out why you’re like this all the time.”

[epilogue: the next year, I was planning to commit suicide because I saw no other way out. Seb offered to let me stay with him in Texas; my options were Texas, or death. I pondered that for a while. A few weeks later, I got a refund of a Pell Grant from my college that they'd mistakenly taken two years earlier. Mom and her husband made it expressly clear that as soon as the money hit my account, I was to hand it over to them. Instead, I bought a plane ticket, pulled out the rest of the money in cash, wiped my ass with her husband's face towel, and snuck out with two suitcases in the middle of the night. I had left a note for mom saying I didn't want to be abused anymore and told her I was going to stay with a friend in Central California to throw her off my trail. I also told her that if she ever tried to find me, or bothered any of my friends to get information, I would put all of her secrets and records of her abuse on facebook for all her friends and relatives to read.

I didn't see her or speak to her again for nearly ten years, until this May. Then I flipped her off.]

#tw abuse #tw child abuse #tw verbal abuse #tw emotional abuse #tw mental illness #tw suicide mention #tw self harm #tw depression #tw mental hospital #tw fatphobia #tw my mom sucks

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walkingwiththegods1 · 10 months

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A serious talk I had with certain Trickster, about Human relations with Deities/Spirits... (And, Human's Timelines!)

After the leaving of the blogger I admired and followed for years, I spended days where I needed to process what happened; and being able to started to move on of that feeling of sadness and feeling lost: I told to all The Gods and Goddesses closer to my heart, than I needed to be alone; and all of them left so I could have time for myself...

...All of them, except one: Loki.

He tried to atracted my attention, but I didn't feel the desire to talk to anyone; (including him) and he even sended me two animals, than at first; I thoughted than it was weird they appeared from nowhere, until I heared his voice moments later... And I got rid of both animals, the first flew away from me; and the second I sended to fly after I hitted the carpet where the little insect appeared and walk quickly. (I even accept a job for a short time, trying to find some peace to rethink things)

He didn't seemed to understand, than the most he tried to talk me... The less interested and more angrier with him, I will be.

One night, he appeared to talked to me; but I didn't want to hear him: It was the first time in ten years, than I felt and act cold and distant towards him... And totally angry, too.

Loki: (Saying my name), please... Let me explain you!...

Me: I don't want to listen to you, Loki.

Loki: ...I have to tell you, why I did that...

Me: ...I don't really want to know, Loki! (Starting to walk away, to end the talk)

Loki: (In a sad tone) ...Please, forgive me!

Me: (Turning around to look at him) ...I'm not the one, to who you have to asked for forgiveness...

Me: (Looking straight to his eyes) ...She did times than I couldn't make yet, and my heart tells me; than she really loves you... Maybe even more, than I do!

Loki: I don't know why you are acting like that, (My name)...

Me: ...I'm acting like that, 'cause I hate to loses people I apreciate; and... (Sighing) ...I think you don't get it... (Loki, looking at me)

Me: Most humans, tends to love for a short time and leaved; only a few can love; as The Deities, loves: If one of the parts fell out of love, is better to tell that earlier so you don't hurt to the one you once loved.

Loki: (Looking like expecting the last words I said to him for two months)

Me: (Looking sadly at him) ...All of you, can always love and turns back time; anytime you need it, too: We humans?!... We doesn't have the luxury of time, by our side!... (Turning and walking away from him)

After the two months, I was ready to hear what he had to say; but... He spend weeks in silence, (which confirmed to me, than it wasn't something than I needed to hear; or... Than he had to talk to someone else) In some point, he was back again; and... Very slowly, things are getting back to how they were.

Marpessa, was a Greek Princess than had to choose; between the hero Idas, and Apollo/Apollon... Marpessa, chosed to Idas; telling to the God than if she had chooses him, she will eventually left her; when she grow old...

My relation's with The Trickster and with The One borne from The Sea's Foam, had longer than I was expecting; but... After what happened with one of The Trickster's most fervient followers and once spouse, I'm starting to fear and think: How long this may last?! (I'm look way younger than my real age, but... For how long?! What if, in five or ten years; Him, or Aphrodite [or, both] will leaves me; when I don't look that youthful, or... If I became so ill, than they decided to finished the emotional and/or romantic bond; than joined us, a long time ago?!) ...I think than all than have this kind of relations, has to take a moment to think than is truth than they are people than are so lucky; than even in illness and/or aging, the relation never change, and the same will last forever; but... That's not something than I heared very often: We must think to have at least one close friend, than understand and help us; in case the relation's with a Deity/Deities, ended; so we can find a way out of the pain than will surely follows, after that.

Now, I understand to Marpessa's Decission: Loving to a Deity or a Human, has its pro and cons; and we must choose with a cold head, 'wishing than our decision; will be something than will worth our time, than as Humans... Is not much!

Than our Relations with The Divine, lasts the time we needed for us, as Humans... So Be It!

#pagan writings #pagan writer #paganism #pagan advice #pagan gods #pagan goddesses #loki deity #aphrodite deity #ecletic paganism #pagans #pagan #eclectic pagan #ecletic pagan #hellenic pagan #lokean #pagan from the caribbean

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darklingichor · 1 year

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Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, by Alexander McCall Smith

It took me a while to write my ramble on The Princess Bride, so I managed to listen to six of these books, but I’m only going to do two at a time.

I am loving these stories so much! I want to watch the short lived tv show, but it seems to only be on a channel that I need cable for. But that’s okay, eventually it will show up somewhere I can see it!

Tears of the Giraffe

This is the second book and there are multiple unrelated stories happening at the same time. I really like this, to me, it gives the characters dimension, we get to see how they handle various things, rather than having them just focus on one thing. There are times when a single focus makes for a tension filled narrative where one just doesn’t belong, and we are left wondering just how a character would handle a minor problem. Would they go all Liem Nesson if someone dinged their car?

Anyway, the main case in Tears of the Giraffe, is an American woman who lost her son while living in Africa ten years before. She knows her son is dead, but just wants to know what happened to him. The police at the time were unable to solve this mystery and it had basically been forgotten. Mma Ramotswe takes the case against her better judgement because she feels for this woman.

Elsewhere, Mr. JLB Matikoni, Mma Ramotswe’s new fiancé and best mechanic in Botswana, is talked into taking in two children from the near by orphanage, without talking to Mma Ramotswe first. Considering that the mechanic is soft hearted, and wants to avoid confrontation, it is not surprising that he was talked into this by the kind, yet formidable matron of the orphanage.

And last but not least, Mr. JLB Marikoni gets Mma Ramotswe an engagement ring.

The case of what happened to the woman’s son was bittersweet, and served more as a way to examine the connections between people than any pursuit of justice.

Of course Mma Ramotswe, welcomed the children with open arms. Their backstory was fascinating.

The getting of the ring was a funny interlude that I enjoyed very much.

Morality for Beautiful Girls

Mr JLB Matekoni is depressed, the agency’s secretary, Grace Makutsi, promoted to assistant detective, a government man seeks help from the agency, another asks for help with a beauty pagent.

I’ll start with the thing that made this book a tad different. Mr. JLB Matekoni’s depression. The depression is represented very well. He’s not only sad. He’s listless, exhausted, feeling worthless and numb. As someone who deals with depression, I saw myself in this potrayl.

Sure, when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would be sad sometimes, but that wasn’t the first or even primary emotion for me. For me, it was mostly a buzzing numbness that sapped any energy I had. The buzzing came from the fact that I *knew* something was wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what. My depression is paired with GAD so that is a fun combination. Interesting feeling when your mental illnesses are pulling against each other. Made me want to alternately crawl out of my own skin or put my brain in a time out.

It was also interesting that there is no stated cause for the mechanic’s sudden illness. This can be very real. There isn’t always a trigger.

I love that Mma Ramotswe works so hard to help him, but never goes down the road of being angry with him, I like that their close circle of friends worked to help him.

The cases are very interesting. Mma Ramostswe actually goes undercover to get to the bottom of the suspicion the government man has about his sister in law trying to poison his brother.

I really like it when characters go undercover, I think its just a fun plot point, so I was excited to come across it here. How would the straight forward detective handle subtrafuge? Like everything else, it was handled gently, which I think was cool.

Mma Makutsi, as assistant detective, is tasked with finding out which finalist for a beauty contest is the least likely bring about scandal during her reign as winner.

I liked this as well, it's fun to see this young woman develop her own detective style. She's not Watson or Hastings to Mma Ramotswe, she is good at solving things in her own right.

There's a really cool side plot where Mma Makutsi has to whip Mr. JLB Matekoni’s two Apprentice mechanics in to shape. It was interesting to see how this worked out.

I mentioned in my last entry that these books remind me of the best of Agatha Christie and these plots are what I mean by that. Are they super high stakes? No. However, they are interesting, and we get to learn about the human element of everything, and as silly as it sounds, the more formal culture that this author portrays, does make for… a more civilized (?) air. That sounds snobby, but what I mean is that, much like Ellis Peters, instead of dialing up the tension for no reason, Mma Ramotswe has no problem taking the direct route and just talking to people. The interesting part of the way she manages her cases is seeing her observational skills, mixing with her instincts, and what she knows of the social norms, both good and frustrating. She uses all of these elements to reach a conclusion, and then more often than not, she just speaks with people, in her nice but firm way, and she gets a confession, or confirmation.

Another thing that is much like the Poirot, she is also reluctant send in the police, especially if there is a good explanation for what happened. We haven’t had a situation like the Murder of Roger Akroyd, but I don’t know what’s on the horizon.

#books #book blogging 2023 #book #alexander mcall smith #tears of the Giraffe #Morality for Beautiful Girls

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sarah-dipitous · 1 year

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Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2033 Day 79

On the Head of a Pin/Blink

Only REALLY REALLY great episodes today

“On the Head of a Pin”

Plot Description: Castiel and Uriel capture Alastair and ask Dean to torture him with skills he learned in Hell

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: I mean…could any human survive this crash?? A whole ass angel died, what chance do I have??

I love that we start with Cas, but does it bode well for my commentary skills? Absolutely not

I don’t want to say it’s so EASY for Sam to say “well, get angry!” In response to Dean saying he’s tired of burying friends, but fucking damn…it’s so easy for him to say that when he’s not been doing this as long and been able to take years off for college.

I thought Cas was the one in charge between him and Uriel. But you can already see Castiel questioning the grand plan…

“Uriel is the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone” said in a completely stone cold tone is….i fucking love him

Mmmmm so he was kind of demoted for getting to close and sympathetic to Dean the Winchesters

God I really hate Sam right now…Dean’s not weak, you asshole

Everyone is pissing me off. Alastair taunting Dean for what he did to him, what he did to John, how “easily” Dean broke

And Castiel can tell this isn’t right. It’s not right to ask this of Dean, to ask a human, the human they saved from Hell to torture a demon

YO. SAM. Wtf my dude??

Anna!!! Thank you, Anna, for trying to talk some sense into Cas

Oh, Cas… you should listen to her. This is WRONG, and you KNOW IT

Deeeeeeeeeeeean breaking the first seal is breaking my heart.

Ok. He got off the rack, but…that thing was sabotaged. Who sabotaged it, though???

Cas coming in to save Dean, and Sam coming to save both of them (I mean, mostly Dean, but Cas is there too).

Cas is so disturbed, as he should be, that Sam can straight up KILL demons now. Yeah, you two need to talk……….

I love dramatic lighting through slats in blinds…just beautiful

Cas calling on Anna for someone to follow, someone to believe in…and her refusing to be that person because he needs to think for himself. Good for both of them, honestly. Difficult, yes, but the correct thing to do

Uriel, WHYYYYYY. He wants to raise Lucifer himself? On one hand, he’s got the same doubts Castiel has. And honestly, I can understand his logic. Lucifer was one of if not God’s favorite. He was beautiful and powerful, and if you’ve been doubting the existence of God but you’re beings designed to follow, the next best thing would be the next powerful being. On the other, it IS THE DEVIL FROM THE BIBLE

Rip Uriel

I like they already have a little banter between them and the honesty between the two. Truthfully, even without anything else, this scene in the hospital would be enough to convert me to a Destiel shipper. It’s hard to see Dean doubt himself and call himself weak, but you can also already tell how much Castiel already believes in him. And when Dean…we’ll call it asks Cas to stay and actually finish their conversation (“don’t you go disappearing on my you son of a bitch” counts, yeah??) and then he DOES?? I’m fine. I’m normal about this…

“Been On My Mind…”: the whole Sam and Ruby thing is very much going on 10

"Blink"

Plot Description: In an old, abandoned house, the Weeping Angels wait. When people start disappearing, Sally must decode the cryptic messages from a mysterious stranger called the Doctor before she can save the day

(i have a feeling i won't have a lot to say in this episode based purely on the lack of Ten and Martha. i think it's gonna be a lot of "Girl, NO!"s and "RUN"s and "GET OUT OF THERE"s, but we'll see)

It's such a solid opening. The messages written on the wall about the weeping angels and for her to duck. Just...REALLY GOOD.

God. Remember when we used to have our phones NOT on silent all the time? and how ringtones were a Thing TM??

Sad...is happy? for deep people? This...really was written in the mid '00s.

Not to link Good Omens to this....no, Good Omens was already linked to this show because DAVID TENNANT. But why DO the British have this trope of delivering letters to places on very specific days, at very specific times years and decades (maybe even centuries) in the future?

I LOVE the weird screeching music when the angels are around

It's amazing how terrifying they've made statues.

Blink is actually physical media propaganda. We need to invest in it again.

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff....yes!!

Wait...how did they get to that garage that quickly?? Wouldn't we have seen them in the background.....like, i know they move fast, but THAT FAST?? doN'T BLINK, DUDE!!! he hasn't even watched the 17 DVD extras. THIS is why we need to bring back physical media

The "game" the guys in this episode have is just.......not it. Then again, it was written by Steven Moffat, so are we surprised?

Ok. Good. It's weird even in 2007 that she's only got 17 DVDs.

The conversation between Sally and the Doctor in the TV is still just BRILLIANT. It's SO FUCKING CLEVER.

DON'T DO IT. DON'T DO IT, MAN. DON'T BLINK. PLEASE. Okay. But also like...do they forget you exist when you're not around them?

Just an absolutely tremendous and terrifying scene when they angels turn out the light.

I really wanna know what was happening that the Doctor and Martha are running around with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

Episodes Since the Doctor's Last Attempted Genocide: 7

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023 #angels are playing with the utilities a little too much today

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centralperkspoison · 2 years

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snap out of it - e. munson

PAIRING: Eddie Munson x FemBestfriend!Reader

WARNINGS: 18+ MINORS DNI! SMUT! GRAPHIC SEX! Mentions of kissing, mentions of sex, smut, unprotected p in v (reader is on the pill), confession, smut with little background.

SUMMARY: After a date, you show up to your best friend's house to tell him all about it, despite your previous feelings for him. He catches you off guard by admitting his feelings for you, leading you both to the best night of your lives. (Snap Out Of It by the Artic Monkeys)

WORD COUNT: 1.5k

OTHERS: Another song fic <3 I know the song is originally about Alex Turner telling a girl to forget about him, but im literally hooked on the chorus and Eddie's vibe, so i needed this, and I think everyone else did too. Here is the Spotify link to the song if you want to listen to it while reading, but it will automatically play if you press it! enjoy!

THINGS USED TO NEVER BE THIS COMPLICATED WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND. Sure, he was a piece of work, but you were sure nothing like this had ever happened between the two of you. Of course, you two were teenagers, meaning that every once in a while, things between the two of you would get flooded with sexual tension, but you two had never truly done anything about it.

"How was it?" Eddie says from his position on his bed as you walk in the room. "It was amazing! He took me to a nice restaurant and everything!" You exclaim, walking into his room. You had just finished a date with a nice boy from your school named Noah, and instead of going home afterwards, you decided to go straight to your best friend's house.

Your friendship had started in the woods, years prior. You, being two years younger than the lovely boy that was now comfortably sprawled out across his bed, caused ten-year-old him to know a lot more about the world than eight-year-old you, so he taught you everything you needed to know, and after that you went to him about everything, slowly making him your best friend. He (verbally and visually) taught you how to kiss, (an incredibly uncomfortable lesson, seen as he was making out with his hands, tugging at his own hair, and showing you what the 'good noises,' were.), how to 'use your fingers', and catch a person's attention.

You quickly realized you were developing feelings for the boy with the buzzcut hairdo but ignored it. If you pushed your emotions down far enough, they'll become smothered by layers of feelings of self-loathing and hated, quickly distinguishing the blaze that this boy had set fire to in your heart. So, that's exactly what you did, but you didn't expect after ten years of it being smothered, it would come back stronger due to years of consuming other feelings for crushes and possible hookups. It would come back and whack you in the face right after the hormones descend.

After you tell Eddie all about your date, he can't help but wish that he hadn't of asked. Unknown to you, Eddie had pushed down the same feelings that you had since the day he laid eyes on you. At first, he thought it was just what it felt like to actually have a friend, until he was fourteen and you had just turned thirteen. He started to find his gaze falling on you anytime you were in the room, always remaining on your eyes until the hormones grew stronger and they started to fall lower than your eyes. First it went down to your neck, then your shoulders, then, your arms and hands, until he found himself graduating to your well-defined breasts.

He accidentally lets out a labored sigh as you continue about why you think he might be 'The one,' which pissed Eddie off. You continued rambling on and on, and Eddie had enough. Maybe he snapped too soon, but he was angry.

'I wanna grab those shoulders and shake, baby. Snap out of it.' Is all that goes through his mind. He thinks on the idea for a moment before deciding to act.

He sits up on the bed and throws his feet over the side of his taupe bed sheets, standing up to face you. "I gotta tell you the truth," he says, moving his hands up to your shoulders and gently gripping them. He slightly shakes them, "Snap out of it," He seethes. "What?" You say, looking deep into your best friend's eyes. "I know I took too long, but how could you be so blind?" He says, moving his hands up to grab the sides of your face. "Eddie, what are you trying to say?" You ask, extremely confused by the boy. He quickly regrets what he said and shakes his head as he sits back on the bed with his legs over the edge.

You walk over to him, and throw each leg on either side of him, straddling him and wrapping your legs around his torso to keep yourself steady. You grabbed his face and looked with a pleading look into his dark brown eyes. "Eddie?" You ask, one of your hands trailing down his neck and back, wrapping around his neck. You could cut the sexual tension in the room with a knife. He finally has enough of the waiting, he might as well finish off what he has to say.

Forever isn't for everyone, is forever for you?

"God, (Y/N). I really fucking like you," he said, his face going red. Wow. You feel the fire that you pushed down oh so many years ago come back up and swallow you whole. "Thank God," you say, tilting your head to make room for a kiss between the two of you. One of his arms wrap around your waist, pulling you closer to him as the other one slides down your thigh, causing him to break the kiss.

"S' this okay?" he asks, referencing his hand on your thigh. "Yes, yes," you say, going back in for another. Then it hit you; you were Frenching your best friend. You two continue as his hand finds its way under your skirt, playing with the hem of your underwear. His knuckles graze the cotton, realizing that it's already slightly ruined. He slides his fingers into the fabric and slides his fingers along your folds, causing him to smirk. "You're already so wet for me, baby." He says, pulling the underwear down and off.

His middle finger guides itself into your opening, hitting all the right spots as his mouth moves further down your neck and onto your collarbones. You grab handfuls of his hair into your hands as he lifts you up and lays you on his bed. He begins teasing your cunt with his fingers, brushing past it and slightly fondling it.

No one has ever had the effect that this boy right here had on you. Ever. You begin to let out a stifled moan, and you feel Eddie's bulge against your groin. "Please." You moan, driving Eddie insane. "Use your words, (Y/N)." Eddie plays, knowing exactly what you want. He wants it too, possibly more than you. The sight of you underneath him right now is enough to make him cum, but from years of edging practice, he knew better. He pushes away from your body to take off his shirt, making you immediately rip off the rest of your skirt and your shirt, revealing your lacey bra. He turns back to face you, surprised at how quickly you undressed.

He pulls up your torso, reaching for the fastening on your bra and quickly undoing it and throwing it onto the floor of his room. "F-fuck me. Please." You plead; eyes closed. He gives in, undoing his pants to reveal his underwear that he immediately throws off with his pants. His cock is huge. Two identical veins stemming from the base to his swollen tip, which he slowly inserts into your opening. He gives you a few seconds to adjust to his size before thrusting his hips into yours. He reaches his hands out to the ones that were now laid out by your head and intertwines his fingers in with yours as your moans are drowned out by the sound of the bed creaking.

The feeling of him was all you needed. You could now die peacefully, knowing the boy you've loved for years finally fucked you. He was the only person you ever truly wanted, the only person you ever truly loved, causing you to wish that one of you could've confessed a little earlier.

I get the feeling that I left it too late, but baby.

"Sweetheart, if you keep tightening in around me like that, we're gonna' have a problem," Eddie whines, tightening his grip on your hand as he continues to thrust into your swollen cunt. An overwhelmingly familiar feeling takes over as he continues, causing you to mumble. "Eddie, I think I'm going to cum." You say, drunk off of lust, "Fuck, me too," he says. "Where do you want it?" he asks, going to pull out, but you stop him. "In me," You say, "Are you sure?" He asks, holding it at your entrance. "M' on the pill," You mumble, immediately causing him to pour into your cunt, as you do the same, your conjoined orgasms causing all kinds of noises.

After laying there for a few moments he finally pulls out of you and lays next to your aching body. He pulls you closer to his bare body and embraces you in a hug.

"If you can't tell Eddie, I really fucking like you too." You clarify, grinning up at his tired eyes.

(A/N)- as I said before, the Wi-Fi went out earlier, and I was just extremely exhausted while I wrote this, so I'm sorry if it's a bit sloppy. it was also my first-time writing smut other than my terrifying experiences on quotev... I went to Sam's, Thorton's, went to the bank, babysat, then directly afterwards hung out with my best friend (attempting to learn how to roller-skate yet failing miserably), then at nine when i finally showered and was ready to start writing, the power went out because i live in Florida and it storms daily, and am exhausted. But enjoy!! This was posted on Ao3 about twenty mins before it was posted on here.

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ragingbookdragon · 3 years

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What Is A Mother, But The Woman Who Loves Us Most?

A Batmom x Batfamily One-Shot

Word Count: 3.3K Warnings: Angst

Author's Note: I know there is a story like this already (by a different author) but I should preface that this is a story that I posted a year or so before but deleted my previous blog last year, so it's not going to seem like it. I haven't copied any ideas, this is my own that I posted a year or so ago, and re-posting again now. -Thorne

You are not my mother!

The loathing words came out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he watched the cave go deathly quiet around him. Everyone's eyes were wide, even hers, but a millisecond later, they set in a hard stare as she stood straight, her jaw tightening.

She nodded, staring at him. "You're right Damian. I'm not Talia al Ghul. I'm not your mother. But I will tell you what I am." She raised her left hand, flashing the silver wedding ring on her finger. "I'm your father's wife. And what I tell you to do in this manor is what I expect from you."

He shook his head in anger, glaring at her. "This is my father's manor!"

"No Damian, this is the Wayne Manor. And I've been, to use a rather weathered term, the lady of the house for almost fifteen years. Long before you were even a thought in Talia's mind." He stopped and she crossed her arms. "I may not be your mother, but you are a child and your father and I are the adults. When you turn eighteen, you can make all the decisions you want. Until then, what we say goes."

His lips drew in a taut line and she added, "I've already talked about it to Bruce. You're not allowed on patrol after what happened at the gala. If you want to complain to him about it, he's going to tell you the same thing." Her eyes shifted to the others, then she looked back at him one last time before turning around and walking up the stairs.

When she was gone, he let out a shout in anger and threw silver coffee pot against the cave wall. It hit the wall with a clang and dropped, rolling on the ground a few times as it spilled its contents, much like his mood.

He felt their eyes on them and he whipped his head up, glaring at them. "What?!"

Tim and Jason simply narrowed their eyes at him, but Dick walked forward and knelt in front of him. "Kiddo, that wasn't a nice thing to say to mom."

Damian scoffed at him before shoving past, climbing up the stairs. “Like the three of you haven't said that to her before." There was no return to his statement, giving him all the answer, he needed.

***

He stepped out of the study stretching his arms and listening to the sound of his bones popping before he shifted, moving towards the door. The boys had left a few minutes earlier to catch a rerun of an episode of Vikings, leaving him alone in the cave.

Alfred walked up to him, handing him a sweater before motioning to the door. "Mrs. Wayne has taken a seat out on the patio. I suspect you'll wish to see her."

Bruce nodded, taking the sweater from him before thanking him and moving out of the study and towards the patio. He crossed into the living room as he did, stopping to stare at his four sons passed out on the couch. The TV was still going, so he leaned down, gently taking the remote from Dick's hand and shutting it off.

He set the remote down and started his path again, but stopped when he heard, "You going to check on mom?" He turned around, looking at a his oldest.

Bruce nodded, taking in the sight of Dick’s arms wrapped around all of his brothers. “After you boys told me what happened, I thought I should talk to her about it."

Dick nodded, reaching up and rubbing his eyes, careful not to wake the others beside him. "He didn't mean it...he'll see that when he gets over being angry."

Bruce nodded and leaned over, ruffling his hair. “Tell Jason that you two should stay at the manor tonight...it's too late for you to head home anyway."

Dick started to argue, but a look from his father and quick, “Your mother would have a fit if you two tried to drive home now or later…you know that.”

His son nodded and Bruce turned around once more, this time making his way to the dimly lit patio. His hand curled around the cool metal handle of the sliding glass door, and he quietly opened it, stepping out onto the deck. She lay on the porch swing, covered by a heavy hound’s tooth blanket, with a barely full wine glass in her hand.

He walked towards her and bent over, picking up the wine bottle; he shook it lightly before quipping, "I can't believe you've drank an entire bottle in one sitting."

As if finally noticing his presence, she tipped her head lazily to him and mumbled, "It's empty?"

He snorted and tipped the bottle upside down. "As it was the day before it was bottled."

Bruce paused and grinned as she huffed a laugh and brought the glass she had in her hand up to her mouth. He watched her down the rest of her red wine before she set the glass on the table; he set the bottle beside it and shifted her forward, easing his way behind her until they were both comfortable. She rested her back against his chest, her head dropping against his shoulder. His arms came up around her as he pulled the blanket up to her neck, keeping her warm.

He was quiet for a second then he murmured, "...The boys told me what happened earlier."

There was a moment of silence, then she whispered, "I know I should be used to it after hearing it come from each of them..." She stopped, then continued with, "But it still stings to hear it."

A sad smile crossed his lips as he pressed his lips to her temple. "Of course it stings (Y/N)...you're their mother and you love them." After he didn't receive a response from her, he tipped his head and looked down. "(Y/N)? Love?" She turned her head, and he took in the sight of the tears in her eyes; his face fell at the sight and he brought a hand up, cupping her cheek. "Oh…sweetheart."

(Y/N) choked out a sob and pressed her face into the crook of his neck as she clenched a hand in his sweater. Bruce rested his chin on the top of her head as he rubbed her back, comforting her with quiet words.

***

Damian watched them from the screen door, feeling his heart clench in his chest at the sight of (Y/N) sobbing. He swallowed thickly and stepped back, only to come into contact with someone—something. He let out a quiet gasp and spun around, seeing Dick staring sadly out at his parents, Tim and Jason behind him doing the same.

Damian looked at them and whispered, "What are you three doing?"

Dick glanced at him briefly before motioning to them. "We heard the sliding door open, and we went to listen."

"I didn't know you were eavesdroppers."

A hand came up and cuffed him upside the head; he held his head, glaring at Jason who bit out, "Shut up, two-bit. You were eavesdropping too."

Damian opened his mouth to retort, but shut it and turned back around, looking at her. A moment passed, then he mumbled, "You said the same thing I did." He looked up at his brothers, who wore clouded expressions; each of them nodded after a few seconds, and he asked, "What happened?"

Dick was the first to speak, remembering a time from when he was a mere ten years old.

***

He stomped angrily through the house, not even caring about her following him; she called after him repeatedly. "Dick. Dick, honey, stop for a second."

He didn't listen, still moving. "No! You grounded me!"

"And I grounded you for a reason. You deliberately disobeyed me." He grunted at her and she called out, her voice ringing with authority, "Richard John Grayson. Not another step young man." He stopped at it and she continued, "You left the cave tonight and went on patrol without asking. As your mom-"

He spun around, his eyes angered as he spit, "You're not my mom! Stop acting like it!" Her mouth shut, and her eyes went wide from the declarations.

She blinked, obviously stunned at his words, and she stared down at her hands murmuring, "I may not be your real mother...but I...I am...I..." She drew off, bringing a hand up to wipe at her cheek. Dick's widened when she looked up at him, and he saw the tears beginning to spill, running down her cheeks.

He raised his hands out to her. "Wait! I—I didn't mean it!"

(Y/N) looked down and she brought a hand up to her mouth, moving past him, letting out a broken, 'excuse me'. He watched her go past him, then a few moments later, Bruce walked into the room and he turned to him.

"Bruce!" Bruce looked down at him, taking in the sight of Dick, who was almost in tears.

The lecture he had ready for him went out the window as he squatted in front of Dick. "Dick?"

The boy looked up at him, tears filling those big blue eyes. "I—I messed up B-Bruce."

He reached out a hand, wiping his tears away. "What happened Dick?"

Dick lowered his head and he whispered, "I a—accidently told (Y/N) that she wasn't my m-mom."

Bruce sighed at him and murmured, “Oh, Dick." The boy began to sob, and Bruce reached out, pulling him into a hug. "It's okay, bud."

***

Dick looked at her and murmured, "I've never forgotten the look she gave me after I said it to her..." He looked down at Damian, and said, "And neither has she."

Jason nodded at that. "I'm sure she's never forgotten how I left the cave telling her I had to go find my real mom.

***

"What are you looking at baby?"

He jerked forward, clicking the screen to minimize the images. "Nothing!" He spun around to see her walking towards him, an amused smile on her face.

"And I'm assuming that nothing is not important?" She questioned.

He nodded. "Not at all."

She stared at him until he sighed and turned around, clicking the screen to reveal the images of the three women; she walked up to him. "Who are these women?"

He pointed to each one. "Sharmin Rosen, Lady Shiva, and Sheila Haywood."

(Y/N) nodded, looking at them. "They're very pretty women." She paused and looked at him. "But why are you looking at them." He dropped his gaze and picked at his fingers. "Jason? Hon?"

He looked back up at her. "One of them is my mom."

Her eyes widened as she said, "Like...your biological mom?"

He nodded. "I found out after I went back to my old apartment." He looked between the screen and (Y/N). "I'm gonna track them down." She was silent, her eyes moving to the screen, and he turned to her, rising from the chair. "I have to go find them...I have to go find my real mom."

***

"And those were the last words I ever said to Ma." They stared at Jason as he leaned against a table by the door. "And it got a lot worse when I came back...I said horrible things to Ma...about her not caring...about her not being a mother." He went silent and shook his head. "I fucked up a lot of things between us for a good couple years."

Tim watched him, then nodded. "I hadn't even realized I'd actually said it to mom...it was such an offhanded comment that I didn't even know what I said until she was gone."

***

He barely registered the sound of his bedroom door opening, let alone the sound of her footsteps as she walked up to him. He did, however, hear the disappointment in her tone as she said, "Timmy...you need to go to bed."

He shook his head, typing on the keyboard. "I'm fine."

"Honey, you've been awake for almost forty-eight hours." She rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's not good for your body if you stay up like this."

"I'm fine. Really, I'm good."

She squeezed his shoulder, the other hand reaching out to close the laptop. "You'll be good when you're asleep in bed." Skimming the top of this laptop, she stopped when his curled around her wrist.

He turned to her and said, "Will you stop mothering me? I'm fine. I don't need your help."

He let go of her and turned back to the screen, barely registering the way she quietly whispered, “Alright Timmy...goodnight”, and walked out of his room.

***

"The only reason I actually realized what I said was after a few minutes, I realized that she hadn't told me she loved me after saying good night." He paused, digging a groove into the carpet with his toes. "Mom didn't say anything about it the next day, but I could tell that something had shifted. She was more reserved when it came to me." He looked at Damian. "Look, I know you and I don't get along, but I'm going to tell you something brother to brother. Go apologize to mom and tell her that you didn't mean it."

It was all he said before he looked at the others and waved. "I'm going to bed.

Jason soon followed saying, "I'm with Timbers. I'm gonna go crash."

The two of them began making their way to their rooms when the sound of the screen door opening and closing brought their attention back. They looked towards it, seeing Bruce carrying (Y/N), her head pressed against his chest.

He stopped when he saw them, his surprised look giving way to a hard expression. "Were you four watching?" They all started making excuses, but he shushed them, nodding at their sleeping mother; they shut their mouths and he brought his foot back, sliding the door closed.

"Is mom alright?"

Bruce looked at Dick and nodded. "She's fine. Wine drunk...but fine." He looked down at Damian. "(Y/N) does a lot for all of us. You owe her an apology when she wakes up." Damian nodded, watching as he walked past them, carrying her up the stairs to their bedroom.

***

The dull throb in her head told her the migraine was something she was going to need some aspirin, water, and a heavy blanket to block out the light to fix. She groaned lightly as she burrowed her face in her pillow, then she opened her eyes and looked around the room.

Immediately, she took in the sight of the four of her boys curled up like cats in the bed with her. A smile graced her lips and she reached down beside her hip, running a hand over Tim's head; he shifted in his sleep, burying his face in her side and she struggled to bite back the laugh that wanted to come out. She reached over again and ran her hands through Dick and Jason's hair, watching them do the same.

She smiled at them, then a voice sounded from beside her. "Are you awake, Umi?" (Y/N) looked to her side, seeing Damian curled up beside her. Bruce's broad shoulders made him look so tiny from where he was laying and she nodded, raising a hand and caressing his head.

"I'm awake, sweetheart." He nodded, then moved under her arm, resting his head on her shoulder. Her arm settled comfortably around him, and she brought up her hand, gently running her fingers through his short hair.

After a few moments he whispered, "...I'm sorry, Umi."

Her response was to press her lips to his forehead, and murmur, "I know, baby."

He swallowed thickly, feeling the beginnings of tears gathering in his eyes. "I didn't mean to say it."

She nodded; her lips still pressed to his forehead. "I know you didn't, sweetheart. It was something said in anger."

He moved to sit up, looking up at her as he whispered harshly, "But I have hurt you! I made you cry! I...did this." He dropped his gaze, closing his eyes, and (Y/N) watched the tears begin to fall down his cheeks. He looked back up at her a few seconds later and said, "You are my mother, Umi...you are the only mother I've known."

(Y/N) shifted, careful not to wake her sons, then she cupped Damian's cheeks in her hands. "Baby...it's okay...I'm not angry at you."

He shook his head in her grip. "But you're sad because I said you weren't my mother."

(Y/N) brushed her thumbs under his eyes, wiping away the tears. "We all say things that we don't mean." He looked up at her and she searched his eyes. "What matters is that when they are said, we try our best to fix what we've done wrong."

Damian nodded his head and whispered, "I'm sorry, Umi."

A sad smile crossed her lips and she leaned forward, kissing his forehead. "I am too, baby." She pulled away and brushed his cheeks again. "I still love you though...with all my heart."

"You do? Even after what I said?"

(Y/N) nodded, pulling him to her; he rested his head under her chin, and she wrapped her arms around him as she murmured, "The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." She brought up a hand, caressing the side of his head as she whispered, "Each of you has told me as some point that I am not what I am. But I know deep down that none of you meant it. And each time I heard it, it hurt...but forgiveness is a good thing when used."

"To err is human...to forgive...divine."

She smiled at his quote and squeezed him gently. "I love you, Damian...my beautiful baby boy."

The feeling of tears gathered in his eyes, but he blinked them away, his hand clenching in her shirt as he replied, "I love you too, Umi."

There was a moment of silence between them until, "How come the demon-spawn gets all the love? We were here first."

Damian raised his head, glaring at Tim. "I am Umi's favorite, Drake."

"The hell you are, Tater-tot. If anyone's the favorite, it's me."

"I think you're wrong, Little-wing. Iwas the first. I'm the favorite."

"No one asked you, dickhead."

"Mom! Jason called me a mean name!"

"Stop mocking me!"

"Mom!"

(Y/N) rolled her eyes at her two oldest as they began to shove at each other, and eventually, Tim and Damian got into the mess, and she watched their fists and feet fly at each other.

A grunt sounded from beside her and she looked down to see her husband glaring at her. "You just had to get them going this early, didn't you, Mrs. Wayne?"

(Y/N) let out a 'pfft' and leaned down, pressing her lips to his before laying her head on his arm, their foreheads touching. "Yeah...but I know that when they're fighting like this, they're giving each other love."

"Tough love."

She snorted and tickled his side, feeling him jerk away. "But love nonetheless."

He opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of someone grunting cut him off. "Mom! Jason won't let me out of this headlock!"

"Mom! Jason won't let me-"

"STOP MOCKING ME, JASON!"

"You're unbearable, Drake! I am Umi's favorite!"

"Keep telling yourself that, oompa-loompa."

"I am not an oompa-loompa!"

(Y/N) sighed and looked at her husband. "Never a dull morning, is it Mr. Wayne?"

He grinned at her but grunted when one of them hit his side. "No, it's not Mrs. Wayne. No, it is not."

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