#i think part of it is new fandom paralysis

[arendaes]

Poking my brain, desperately to get her to finish tomorrow's prompt 🙃

[cy-cyborg]

We have communities - Writing disability quick tips

So often, stories centred on disabled characters, especially in modern settings, emphasise how lonely or isolated the character is because of their disability, especially if it’s a newly acquired disability or one that non-disabled people assume would have a big impact on our ability to do “fun stuff”. This will often be accompanied by statements of “no-one understands what living with [insert disability here]” is like!

And while isolation and loneliness are things a lot of disabled people deal with, a lot of us are not completely alone either, especially in the modern day.

Just like any group of people with shared experiences, we find one another. Sometimes this is through formal systems; some spinal rehabilitation centres for example, will pair newly paralysed people up with a mentor who’s had a similar form of paralysis for much longer to help guide the person while the adjust to their new disability. Other more formal systems can look like disability sporting organisations - the one I used to work for used to specifically encourage very newly disabled people to join so they didn’t feel like the had to learn everything about their disability alone, or support groups.

Other times though, these communities are much less formal. They may look like online forums, such as the ones on Reddit, built by and for disabled people to talk about their experiences and seek recommendations from others in the same boat, or parts of larger social media sites. For example, on Tumblr, there aren’t really any formal groups, but thanks to the hashtags we use in our posts, we often find one another fairly quickly there. We sometimes also carve out our own little subsections of fandom or hobby spaces, brought together by the shared interest itself, how things like disability might impact the way you interpret or interact with it, and how we can modify it (in the case of hobbies) to make it work for us.

A lot of disability communities, formal or otherwise, also form out of necessity, such as advocacy groups run by and for disabled people, and those built around ensuring the rights of disabled people are protected.

Isolation and loneliness are problems within the disabled community that many of us deal with, but this tends to be more in the context of isolation from the wider public, exclusion from public spaces and events (despite there being laws that are supposed to stop this because they’re often not enforced), disconnect from non-disabled friends and family, etc, most of which are the result of systematic issues or the lack of understanding or care and support from non-disabled people in our lives. Not always, but often.

The communities made by and for disabled people though are often (at least in part) made to help make up for this, and they’re more common than you might think, you just have to know where to look. It would be nice to see more creators reflecting this in their work a bit more often, or at least acknowledging that they are there, even if your character chooses not to engage with them.

However, as a reminder to authors and creatives: These communities, especially the online ones, are for disabled people, they are not there for you to use as a reference as a creator. Some communities are ok with you being there to learn, so long as you listen and don’t try to speak over/bombard their members with questions. Others are not. The ones that are, typically will have something written somewhere if it’s online (e.g. subreddits that accept writers wanting to write disabled characters will often have it written in the “about” section or the rules). There are also dedicated groups and platforms for non-disabled people seeking to learn more about us and our communities, which can be excellent resources for creatives like writers. Just remember to be mindful of where you are and respectful of people’s spaces and boundaries when doing your research.

[rearranged-fanfic]

New Story Out!

*Waves* Hello! It's been a while since I interacted with the fandom. The AO3 curse got me bad. Sorry, guys!

Anyway, I'm back for the moment. And I bring you a smutty two-shot of Merman!Satoru in apology. Hopefully, I'll be releasing Part Two by this Friday. REARRANGED is still taking a bit because Nanamin is decidedly hard to write, especially because I've been in a slump.

Anyway, it's super late where I am. I'll respond to all the messages and comments on here that I've been neglecting tomorrow morning! Sorry for ghosting you all! I missed you 🥰

In other news, I now have 84 messages on AO3 that I also need to respond to. Oops.

:.:

New Story

Seaside

Rating: E, Very E

Warnings: None

Summary: Will you let me keep you forever? When Reader-chan returns to her seaside hometown for the summer, she catches the eye of a mysterious suitor. Of course, she's not aware that she even has a suitor, let alone one as unusual as this.

Tags: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Merman Gojo Satoru, Human Reader, Mystery, Horror Lite, Romance, Interspecies Romance, Human/Monster Romance, Courting Rituals, Misunderstandings, Explicit Sexual Content, Nonhuman Genitalia, Cervical Penetration, Happy Ending

*Excerpts from the story (Spoilers, duh)*

Excerpt 1:

The long reach of the dock is less intimidating than it’d been when I was a child.  It’d once felt like it stretched a mile into the sea.  Now, it’s just a short walk until I reach the end.  Shuffling off my sandals and rubbing my sore heels, I plonk down at the very edge.  The coolness of the water caresses the red-hot soles of my feet.  My sterling silver ankle bracelets reflect the light of the sun like fish scales. It’d been a bad idea to wear new shoes, I admonish myself. I kick out absentmindedly, sending ripples of water out to sea.  The ocean is calm right now, but I know that it can get rough.  I sigh and tilt my head back, basking in the midday sun.  I’d jump in to cool off, if I didn’t know any better. The water around the village isn’t good for swimming.  The surf and spray are rough at the best of time.  It’s good for sports and the like, but human bodies are too likely to get tossed around or pulled out to sea in a riptide. The cove that my little home rests on is one of the more dangerous areas, with the tidal pools that have formed here creating all manner of crazy currents when the tide changes.  I’d been scared away from taking a dip here time and time again when I was just a kid. Now, I know better.  Only my feet in the water, or Dad will claw himself out of his grave just to berate me. It’s so quiet out here, with only the waves to keep me company.  I let out a low hum—a song from very, very far in the past.  It’s what Mom used to sing to my sister and I when we were small.  I only remember parts of the words now, but the tune is forever ingrained into my soul. Then another sound joins my lament: a low, haunting wail. “A dolphin?” I ask under my breath.  Whatever it is, it sounds close.  Or it’s very, very loud. And as its beautiful cry dies off, I sing back to it a little louder.

Excerpt 2:

It feels hazy—like experiencing everything through a gaussian blur.  I can’t quite focus on any one thing.  It’s too hard to lift my heavy body.  Sleep paralysis, I think. This must be a dream.   It has to be. Then there’s a smooth voice murmuring into my ear.  The vibrations almost tingle.  I feel it down to the tips of my toes. It’s a man, I think.  One that I’ve never heard before—that’s a voice I’d recognize no matter what.  It’s so incredibly beautiful. “You didn’t come when I called.  I was worried,” the presence seems to almost be scolding me.  I’d laugh at this weird dream manifestation if I could move. There’s a beat. “You shouldn’t sleep like this, you know; you could drown.  You humans are terrifyingly fragile.”  A chuckle follows the statement, trails off and fades into the sounds of the waves from below. A dream. Just a dream. I sigh, leaning into the sweet touch.  My dreamlike phantom nuzzles at the place where my shoulder and neck meet.  The soft tickling comes again.  It lingers against my chin, leaving moisture in its wake.  Hair, I think.  Wet.  Cold. It’s such a contrast from the heat of my bath that I shiver.

[beneathh-the-brine]

We're getting autistic up in this bitch!

IF YOU USE ANY OF THESE HEADCANONS DIRECTLY FROM THIS PAGE, LINK BACK DIRECTLY TO THIS POST AND CREDIT BOTH ME AND ROBOTMAGGOT/HOLLOW BY @ ING US. THANK YOU!

Have specific questions? Don't be shy, shoot me an ask, I encourage it! Currently this isn't an actual fan rewrite/entry, however I may reformat it/improve upon the writing and turn it into one in the future!

LONG TEXTPOST AHEAD

______________________________________________________________

A LOT of these are shared with @robotmaggot and I [@ophiu-chuss] believe a few were created by it, so I'm also crediting it!

Mini-rant, feel free to skip this: I'm deeply saddened by how basic and bland the new writer for the fandom wiki articles made Partygoers and Partypoopers, (Reducing Partygoers to human zombies and making Partypoopers human militia.) and how they took a lot of the monster/entity aspects from them. I am not afraid to admit I dislike both entries and that they're all fancy writing and no longer carry the charm that made both but especially the Partygoers as interesting as they were.

You can't just rewrite something and take away every single feature that made it special or caused it to stand out, even if you think it's "cringe". Sure, the original wasn't a Mona Lisa, but there was an idea there. An idea that's creative and interesting, it just needed a bit more love, not to be stripped away of what is is.

ONTO THE HEADCANONS! CLICK THE LITTLE LINK BELOW TO KEEP READING!

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SHARED BY BOTH SPECIES:

True sentience, sapience and intelligence. Both Partypoopers and Partygoers are incredibly intelligent beings, perhaps even more so than wanderers.

Ability to noclip voluntarily.

Slight muzzle/curve to their face instead of a nasal ridge. Partygoers have it more noticeably.

Mimicry of wanderer voices they've heard previously. Cannot mimic entity calls without significantly more effort. Partygoers cannot mimic how they sounded pre-assimilation. "Your voice is unlike before. Twisted and mangled."

Night vision. Partypoopers have a drastic upper hand with this ability. Partygoers have poor night vision, but can see better in the dark than wanderers. (Footnote: Despite this, neither can see in Level 6 as it's pure, true vantablack.)

Vague mammalian attributes such as warm bloodedness. (And Partygoers' direct connections to wanderers.)

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PARTYPOOPERS! (Or as I prefer to call them; Moonfolk!)

Identified with the wanderer-given scientific name populus lunae, meaning 'moon people' or 'people of the moon'. The moon can often be associated with mourning and sorrow, and the land which they populate is basked in longer nights than days.

Their masks are considered sacred to them.  The blue color reflects their strong association with the night sky and the moon.  Not all wear them permanently due to their importance, preferring to hang them on their walls or stow them away in their bags or pockets.  One is never seen without their mask somewhere on their person, regardless of how shattered they become.  When one dies, their mask is placed upon their face out of respect and used as a ceremonial mask, herbs, bones and other materials placed underneath it and on the deceased's face.

Partypoopers and Partygoers are unrelated to one another other than conflict, however it's assumed Partypooper's masks are to mimic Partygoers subtly, however, make them stand out in their own way. A sort of "stay away I could be dangerous!" (Note: Their masks are not attached to their face, nor are these masks part of their face, as a result, they cannot emote with them, masks staying stagnant. Masks are obviously capable of being removed, and many do this to avoid being identified as Partypoopers.)

Partypoopers have weak paralysis venom. Their teeth are semi-blunt with slight sharpness, and their fangs are stubby.

Partypoopers are also called 'Killjoys' and 'Moonfolk', the latter being the term they refer to their own species with.

Usually passive unless provoked, preferring to flee rather than fight due to their limited number of ways to defend themselves when not backed into a corner and able to bite or slash. More likely to stand their ground if armed with a weapon or two (Or in numbers.). There are a few notable exceptions to this.

In headcanon @robotmaggot and I have mixed the new and old Level 52 [Wikidot], giving them the names "52A" (The snowy forest area) and "52B" (The academy). Because of this combination/hybridization of the two levels, Partypoopers, considering they're level natives have certain adaptations as a result! They are the farthest from looking human and have zero human aspects aside from their bipedal stance.

When not speaking, Partypoopers communicate through trills, chirps, growls and hisses. They also have the ability to purr similarly to cats.

Thought to be extinct, however 'sightings' of them have been reported by wanderers.

ADAPTATIONS/KEY FEATURES!

Short but double-coated, mid-shade to dark grey in saturation fur. Can have other colors subtly added in, like blue-greys. This fur is both soft and warm, allowing them to stay snug in their natural environment, but also keep cool in hotter ones, just like double-coated animals. Any 'hair' they appear to have is actually specialized fur!

Floppy or pointy, slightly furred ears. Their ears are very expressive and allow for a wide range of emotions. Partypooper ears are always on the sides of their heads, not on top. These ears are very sensitive and can pick up higher frequencies than wanderers can.

Whiskers on their chins exclusively, which are easy to miss if you aren't up-close.

Claw or paw-like hands.

Their nostrils are not present on their face, rather directly beneath the base of their lower jaws.

Tails of varying lengths and fur types. Partypoopers are never tailless unless via mutation or a result of the appendage being cut off.

Eyelashes meant to keep cold snow off their eyes, not unlike a camel's but shorter.

Round/doleful looking eyes and pupils, larger than a wanderer's. Most Partypoopers always look sad, upset, worried etc.

Pale blue-grey to sapphire irises (Any shade of blue or purple, or any mixture that still shows the blue or purple.). Sclerae can also be colored.

Blood varies from red to blue/purple! Similarly to how wanderers have different blood types, but more literal.

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PARTYGOERS

Wanderer assigned scientific name venenatum hominem, meaning 'poisoned man'.

Partygoers are amalgamated ex-wanderers contorted and changed into something wholly unlike them. Despite trace DNA and some aspects of their humanity remaining, Partygoers are not classified as wanderers.

Partygoer can be shortened to just 'Goer or 'Goers for convenience.

Partygoers are found throughout all Levels but are only native to Level Fun.

When not communicating via spoken language, Partygoers huff, hiss, growl and cackle. They're said to sound similar to hyenas. Like Partypoopers, Partygoers can also purr. (Note: It's rumored they have their own spoken language as well.)

ADAPTATIONS/KEY FEATURES!

Partygoers can be any color, both eye and body. They can be multiple colors as well. No coloration is rarer or less common than another (With the obvious exceptions of melanism, albinism and leucism.). They may retain traits from when they were wanderers, such as freckles or heterochromia.

They have two ways of afflicting their targets with venom; their hand mouths (Attached at the thumb and running directly to their wrists. These mouths have no connection to their digestive tracts, only used for infecting.) and their true mouth via large fangs that sit where their upper canines would've.

Bone and cartilage have fused over some aspects, such as their feet turning to hooves, legs bending to be digitigrade and their facial nostrils becoming ossified. To remedy this, Partygoers have hole-like nostrils beneath a thin membrane (if more plush-like in appearance) or open/exposed nostrils (if fleshier in appearance).

There is no connection to method of infection and subtype.

Non-wanderers can be infected by Partygoer venom as well; however, this is incredibly rare, and those particular Partygoers are considered outliers. They also are often plagued by sickness and deformities, and don't last long compared to wanderer originating Partygoers. Note: Only one legitimate example of this has been recorded.

Their slit-like eyes are normal sockets covered by muscle and skin. These cuts in their face are incredibly expressive.

Most if not all of their original organs are partially decayed or assimilated. Most have a desire to consume flesh regardless.

Spines of differing appearance, length and sharpness running along their backs and shoulders. These can sense subtle changes in vibrations and temperatures.

EXTRA, PARTY HOSTS:

They communicate via the computers, it's advised to not trust any active connections. Use at your own discretion and use unique signoffs if coming across computers. Computers are not connected to the outside world, only other computers on their own individual levels. It is unknown how Party Hosts access these databases.

Party Hosts are predecessors to Partygoers (Similar in appearance, far taller in height and more disturbing in proportions.). They have a specialized form of venom that connects themselves to the entities they control. It's presumed only Partygoers can be afflicted by host control, however no one has seen a host and lived to tell the tale, so this fact is unfounded. When a Host dies, the most powerful Partygoer in the Host's hive is forcefully changed to a Host via the active venom in its system.

Even if you're dying of hunger, it's ill-advised to feast upon the corpse of a Host, no matter how fresh.

______________________________________________________________

ADDENDUM:

Field sketch of Partygoer skull recovered from locked off study room on Level ▇▇, pictured below. Partypooper skulls have never been obtained due to their scarcity.

[wrens-versus-the-world]

A Demon's Promise (Demon!Fyodor x reader)

Crossposted on wattpad under @dontjudgemepels

Hellow BSD Fandom!!! 

I'm finally doing something for one of my favorite animes! 

demon fyodor x reader

It was a normal night, it always was. I got home from my part time job, bathed, ate dinner and worked on my homework for the remainder of the evening.

I guess i should have gotten the hint that something was up when my alarm clock was frozen, or when the lightbulb in my bathroom suddenly exploded, but no, I decided to ignore it. Big mistake.

after the light exploded i made my way to bed, a bit shaken from the fiasco in the bathroom I decided to read some.

and by some i meant three hours... because I couldn't seem to fall asleep.

I get ahead of myself.

after some time had passed I decided that i should just lay down. I set my book down on my bedside table and leaned over to turn the light off. That was my second mistake, because when I leaned back into my bed I was met with a pair of violet eyes, that seemed to be almost glowing from the moonlight.

'okay... this is... new' i thought to myself, 'maybe this is what people mean by a sleep paralysis demon?' i pause, the eyes blinked.

"maybe i'm hallucinating?"i wonder aloud

in response i am met with a deep chuckle, causing me to jolt slightly in surprise, inwardly cursing

'how could i show a reaction? now whatever, who rather, knows i am aware of their presence'

the eyes shut and i feel a dip in the bed

'okay, maybe this is a sleep paralysis demon... no wait i can move'

i turn my eyes to where the movement came from and became very aware of a tall man with semi-long hair sitting on the edge of my bed (not facing me, thankfully).

i pondered on what i should do for what felt like an eternity, before i was (rudely) interrupted by the man shifting. In my sudden surprise i attempted to slowly sit up and try to shift away from him.

it all happened to quickly, one moment i was trying to quietly move myself to the other side of the bed, adjacent from the male who had made himself so comfortable on the edge of my bed. and the next i was suddenly pushed down into the mattress of my bed, immobile.

"you're interesting" he says, looking down to me, allowing his deep voice to fill the room (a/n im sorry he has a hot voice in the english dub (*≧∀≦*)), "perhaps i should strike a deal with you", he says allowing one of his hands to find its way to my face.

a small gasp leaves my lips at his proposal, 'who is this guy!?... no wait, better question: how did he get in my room?'

"is my cute little mouse not going to answer me?" he asked, mock confusion lacing his tone, causing heat to rise to my cheeks, "I can promise you that the proposal i speak of will benefit you greatly."

curiosity getting the better of me i asked, "what do you mean?"

a smirk found its way to his lips

'this bastard is enjoying himself!?'

"you are going to die," he spoke, the smirk leaving his face momentarily, now replaced with a more serious expression.

"... excuse me..?"

"I am a demon, we can tell when someone is not long for this world." he paused, watching my features morph into confusion, " however, we demons, also have the power to prevent such things. hence why i brought up my proposal."

'this guy has to be nuts' i quietly thought to myself, pausing, 'well he did somehow appear here, and there have been some weird things happening tonight... so maybe he is a demon.'

My eyes wondered back to the 'demon' in question, "this seems like too great a bargain, don't you think? What exactly will you get in return for my not dying?" i asked, inwardly wondering where my sudden confidence came from.

" and in return? hah, you're quite smart to think to ask. In return I will have you." He answered, a smile appearing upon his lips.

"-me?" I managed to get out, shock painting my features.

"yes, you dear. In return for helping you to live, I want you.

I want you in all ways possible. I want you to love me and only me, And someday I want you to be my wife." He said he leaned into my neck and tightened his grip around me, not too tight, it was actually rather comfortable to be in his arms-, wait‽ what am i thinking‽ This guy is something inhuman, I cannot simply say yes because he gives good hugs.

Sending my discomfort he lifted his head from my neck and stared into my eyes, trying to find the source of it. "if you are worried about what will become of your freedom, don't be. I may be a demon, but I do make sure to give fair deals. In return for helping you to survive, and changing your fate. I want you. and in this deal you will still have your freedom to pursue your hopes and dreams, however you must adapt them because shall you take this deal, I will be in them as well." He finished.

'as much as I don't know the guy, he makes a good point if i don't take this deal I'm dead, and if i do then i have freedom and... a demon' i thought to myself before returning my gaze to the man above me.

"fine, I accept your conditions, only under the circumstances that you will refrain from interfering in my decisions." I said, hoping that I sounded confident.

The man above me looked rather amused, "You're cute." he said, the sudden compliment causing heat to rush to my face, "but you must understand that if you accept my deal that you are allowing me some interference into your life." he continued, his voice turning darker and more threatening as he went on, "if you accept a deal with a demon like me I'll be sure to make it worth your while, I'll be one hell of a husband." he finished, a dangerous glint dancing in his eyes as he did so.

(a/n: !! if you get the reference, your hand in marriage, rn!)

a gasp left my lips at his seriousness, "ok, fine. I accept your conditions, where do I sign?" I asked, assuming that he would have a contract.

"oh there won't be a need for any signatures of such a nature, I'll be using a rather different method." he said, looking down at me, his eyes flickering from my eyes to my neck.

"huh?" I breathed out.

"Not all demons use signatures to signify agreements. Especially one of such importance, instead of using a signature I will be leaving my mark on you." He said pausing, taking a chance to gauge my reaction, "I will be leaving it here." he said darkly while pressing two of his fingers against where my shoulders met my neck.

I stayed silent, waiting for him to make his move, almost every part of me was telling me to run from the man above me, but as always I ignored it and opted to stay still as a statue when he leaned down, peppering my neck in kisses, stopping only when he reached where he said he would place the mark and bit down, hard.

A groan of pain left my lips. I wanted to push him off of me, pain coursed through me, my neck felt like it was on fire.

"a little more lyubov moya." he breathed out, hugging me close to his body as I thrashed around in pain, a small part of me grateful that i didn't have a roommate yet, who knows what they would have thought if they heard this.

after what seemed like an eternity the pain finally became bearable. I attempted to remove myself from the demon's arms only for him to tighten his grip.

"you ought naught forget who you belong to so soon, lyubov moya." he said, adamant about not letting me go for the time being.

I sighed into his arms, 'i'm too tired for this' I thought to myself as a wave of drowsiness washed over me.

"sleep well, lyubov moya." was the last thing i heard before everything turned quiet and i entered a dreamless slumber.

a/n: They always call fyodor a demon, so i just thought i'd make it a reality! I have been wanting to write about this for so long!

(also I figured now was the best time because... of events that happen in the anime)

On another note, school is kicking my ass, one of my teachers is a major bitch, and it makes it really hard to want to actually try in her class. 

*lyubov' moya- my love in russian 

[she-karev]

Signs and Secrets (Andrew DeLuca x Alex Karev's Sister Imagine)

Previous Part Here

Age Rating: 12+

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Chapters: Two of Two

AN: Hey guys so I had to rearrange my posts which means deleting the first draft of this and reposting it. I'm still on the fence on whether I should change my fancast to Victoria Pedretti. Your opinion matters and the poll will be up for the next five days so if you haven't voted hurry and click!

Summary: Amber works at the clinic when a roller coaster crashed while her intern friends gossip and speculate over who she’s dating.

Words: 3781

After about 3 hours with Darcy we were able to confirm she had a badly bruised spine but not torn. We explained this to Darcy and her parents in the patient room where we moved her and fitted her with a spinal halo. Her dad is deaf and her mom is hearing and are by her side anxious over her diagnosis.

“The good news is that her spine is intact.” Andrew explains as Jerry interprets for them, “The MRI showed no visible injury and the exam went great. Her spinal cord is badly bruised though due to the stampede and she’ll need physical therapy to regain full function.”

“For how long?” The dad asks and Jerry interprets.

“We would need our chief of neuro Dr. Shepherd to confirm but all in all it looks like she’ll regain strength over the next few days and in a couple of weeks she should be back on her feet and ride that rollercoaster in no time.”

Darcy signs no, “At this point I’ll settle for a night in watching Netflix.”

“How long does she have to wear this thing on her head?” Her mom asks.

“Her spine is still healing from the bruises so we’re gonna keep her for observation over the next 7 days and if her spine continues to improve we should get it off at day 5.” I explain to them. The dad looks at us gratefully and signs as Jerry interprets.

“Thank you both so much. I can’t tell you how afraid I was thinking she wouldn’t be able to tell you what’s wrong and you wouldn’t understand but she got lucky to have two people who know sign like you.”

“Well actually it was all Dr. Karev.” Andrew explains causing me to feel flustered, “She noticed your daughter trying to communicate and thanks to her we were able to treat Darcy and let her know what was happening.”

“Thank you, Dr. Karev.” The mom says, “I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to have a doctor who learned my baby’s language.”

“Of course, I’m glad I could help.” I turn to Dr. DeLuca for further instructions.

“Right well I’m gonna check to see if Dr. Shepherd is available to look at Darcy’s films, Dr. Karev will be here to monitor.” DeLuca explains and the dad signs.

“Um he’s asking if they can go pick up their son from school so he can be here as well.” I interpret.

“Yeah sure we’ll take good care of Darcy you can go and the nurse will take you up when you come back.” The parents sign bye and love you to Darcy and leave the room. DeLuca clears his throat and turns to me, “Dr. Karev, I trust you can take care of Darcy.”

“Absolutely Dr. DeLuca you can count on me.” He nods and leaves the room. I readjust the halo when Dahlia walks in catching me off guard.

“Hey.” She walks in with a tablet, “The chief wanted me to check on the deaf teenager to make sure she’s being taken care of.”

“She’s good we’re good I know sign language so I was able to keep her from being restrained like a prisoner.” I explain as I look at the screws, “Now I am making sure the halo is put in place and Dr. DeLuca is out getting Dr. Shepherd for a consult.”

“Okay great, that’s great.”

Darcy asks me, “Who is she?”

“Oh right sorry.” I stand back and sign, “Darcy this is Dr. Qadri she’s here to check on you and make sure your okay.”

Darcy raises her eyebrow, “She’s here to make sure I don’t sue them for tying me down you mean?”

“Yeah.” I nod, “We are so sorry for that and I promise it felt necessary due to fear of causing paralysis and when I realized what was happening, I stopped them immediately.”

“I guess that’s what I get for going out and getting hurt.” Darcy says bitterly, “You know when your on a rollercoaster deaf it feels so much more scary. Although I guess it’s even more scary when you can’t hear a rollercoaster falling off the tracks. I bet it must have looked cool.”

I chuckle as Dahlia looks at her vitals and puts them on her tablet, “Well I wouldn’t know the closest to a roller coaster accident I got was Final Destination 3. And you know I was thinking about checking out the carnival this weekend but now I’m just gonna spend the night in.”

“Well, if you want a ride with your doctor boyfriend I suggest the Great Wheel.” I pause and look at her shocked by her speculation that DeLuca is my boyfriend, “It’s totally safe and it’s slow and intimate so you two can make out while overlooking the whole city.”

I chuckle nervously and Dahlia looks at me confused and I clear my throat. I turn to Darcy and sign without speaking so I don’t give anything away to Qadri, “What makes you think Dr. DeLuca is my boyfriend?”

Darcy narrows her eyes like it was so clear, “Oh please it is so obvious especially to me. Even when I was afraid, I wouldn’t walk I could notice the eyes you made at each other. It was like you were mentally undressing each other.”

I shake my head flustered and continue signing, “I don’t know where you get that idea, he and I are coworkers that’s all.”

Darcy grins amused, “I observe people closely because I have to and I learned to read body language as a result. The body language you two were showing was ‘I want to take your clothes off and take you right here and now’ I guess this is a secret and your afraid your friend will interpret me.”

I look to Qadri to see if she understands but she’s looking at her tablet and looks up at me confused, “What is it?”

I exhale in relief, “Nothing are you done with your notes?”

“Yeah, I should keep going God knows the chief is gonna get after me for slowing things down. See you later.”

Qadri leaves and I go back to conversing with Darcy, “You know you’re a lot smarter than my friends here and they have medical degree’s. They couldn’t figure out in two weeks what you figured out in two hours bravo.” I wave my hands to applaud her and she smiles proudly.

“Just so you know.” Darcy signs, “He is really cute.”

I grin cooly, “He is although he could keep it down with the staring for the next super observant deaf kid we treat.” Darcy grins, “And he’s not my boyfriend, we’re just having fun.”

Darcy grins mischievously, “He looks fun. Which means you should put a label on it before someone else comes along and takes him for a rollercoaster ride.”

I laugh at her innuendo just as DeLuca walks in with Shepherd, “Hey I see I made it in time for comedy hour, what are we joking about?”

I look at Andrew with a grin and respond, “Nothing just some funny youtube videos where the cat juggles a melon. Dr. Shepherd I already adjusted her halo and the nurses gave her a painkiller.”

Shepherd nods, “Okay let’s see what we got here.”

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

After about 12 hours of suturing in the pit and treating burns, I lean against the brick wall of the tunnel sitting on the gurney next to Helm with Casey taking up most of the space and the others occupying the gurney next to us. Right after Dr. Grey won the Harper Avery award like we all predicted we went to the tunnel to rest and reminisce on our day. The six of us are exhausted and about ready to sleep the day away. I’m so tired I’m not even mad that most of them got to assist and I didn’t even Roy which would blow my top off if I wasn’t trying to keep my eyes open.

“This day was epic.” Casey says with tired joy.

“I’m so tired I can’t feel my teeth.” Schmitt says as he rubs his eyes.

“I almost stitched my finger to a person.” I chuckle at Helm who looks at me offended, “At least I saw an O.R. before you She-Karev what do you say to that?”

“I say.” I decide to sign so she won’t understand, “Next time I’ll hurt you just for the chance to fight over your surgery.” I grin at her confused face.

“What is that?” Helm asks.

“Yeah she speaks sign language.” Dahlia explains as she cricks her neck.

Helm scoffs, “Of course you do, is there anything you can’t do?”

“When I figure it out I’ll let you know.” I say smugly and they chuckle when Dr. Grey and Alex enter the tunnel carrying a champagne bottle and cups.

“Scram.” Grey tells us causing them to stand but I stay since I assume sister’s are allowed.

“Yeah you heard her, scram. This is our beach.” They all walk away and Alex turns to me and rains on my parade, “You too get out.”

I look at Alex taken back, “Wha-I’m your sister!”

Alex grins, “Exactly now scram.” I groan in annoyance but do what he says and catch up with the others who look at me amused.

“I guess baby sisters aren’t allowed in the adults table.” Roy makes fun causing me to punch him in the arm.

“Whatever it’s just champagne in a tunnel if I wanted a night like that I would’ve never left Manhattan.”

Casey yawns, “So how does Dahlia know you speak sign?”

“I had a young patient come in with a bruised spine she’s deaf and I was there. I took it as a language requirement in pre med. I figured I could use my hands for something other than saving lives and Roy! I know what your gonna say and if you make a quip about my hands being used for other things I will punch you.”

Roy scoffs amused, “Oh please you don’t have the balls.” I turn around fast and make a motion to punch him in the face causing him to squeal and back away as I grin at his reaction and continue walking. The others laugh at the scene.

“Remind me which one of us has balls?” I grin maliciously as we enter the locker room.

“So you sing, you know sign language and your related to Alex Karev.” Casey lists as I lay on the bench, “Why is it we know all these things about you and yet we don’t know who your sleeping with.”

I groan, “I thought you didn’t care Parker I was rooting for you to be less annoying than the rest of them.”

Casey shrugs, “That was this morning now I’m exhausted and interested is it Major Hunt?”

I chuckle at the irony. I saw the guy naked this morning and he’s not the one I’m sleeping with, “No because the guy is a freaking dinosaur and he’s my boss and I have self-respect.”

“Is it Avery?” Helm asks and I glare at her, “Oh come on don’t pretend you don’t find him hot we all do.”

“Then why don’t you get your freak on with him if you find him delicious?”

“He’s not my type.” Helm opens her locker, “Schmitt are you still convinced it’s Eddie?”

Qadri snorts and says under her breath, “Oh please you all are oblivious.”

They look at her confused over not hearing her, “What was that?” Helm asks causing Dahlia to realize she said something and stammers.

I stand up and go to my locker inputting my combo as she speaks, “U-Um you know my second cousin is deaf.” I freeze at the second set of numbers over this new information but continue to appear cool.

“Really?” Schmitt looks at her confused.

“Y-Yeah she bet me a new headscarf I could learn the language in one month.” I pale at this and take my water bottle out staying quiet, “I lost but I learned a few words especially the dirty ones those stuck out to me the most.”

I clear my throat after I take a sip of water, “That’s uh that’s interesting very interesting to learn right now.”

Dahlia grins knowingly, “Well there’s a lot of things we don’t know about each other but you know that better than anyone right She-Karev?” Her look confirms she was able to interpret mine and Darcy’s conversation and I keep a cool head.

“Are you working tonight?” I ask.

“Yep.” Dahlia confirms and I nod.

“Me too I guess I’ll see you out there.” I quickly leave the room without saying a word to anyone and wait outside the hall for Dahlia to come out and she did. I approach her and cut to the chase, “How much did you interpret?”

Dahlia smiles at my worry, “Which part? The part where she called DeLuca your boyfriend or the part where she could tell you guys were having mind sex in front of her? Because I got both of those if you want to know.”

I sigh in despair, “Great I could’ve taken Russian but no I decided to be of use for the deaf community.”

Dahlia smiles, “Well if it makes you feel better this blows my Lin Manuel Miranda theory out of the water. How did this happen? Was it a quickie in the on-call room or did you gaze at his sultry green eyes in the ER and decided to declare your love for him out in the rain with Ed Sheeran in the background.”

I roll my eyes, “Okay first you watch way too many Nancy Meyers movies second this happened a few months ago way before I even got hired and it has continued ever since and thirdly I will allow for one more question before scaring you into keeping silence so make it count.”

Dahlia thinks for a moment, “Is he good?” I chuckle at her, “Because he looks like he’d be good.”

“Okay my three orgasms a night are none of your business.”

Qadri’s eyes widen, “Three times?! You’re kidding or you miscounted that can’t be possible.”

I whisper, “The other night it was almost four.”

Qadri chuckles at my good fortune, “That man is a medical marvel.”

I sigh in lust, “He really is. Now for the intimidation if you-”

“Amber.” Qadri interrupts me, “You don’t have to worry, I promise I won’t tell anyone about you and DeLuca if you don’t want me to. It’s none of my business and it was just fun gossip this morning that’s all. I mean I’ve seen Gossip Girl I know how brutal it can be.”

I see that she’s genuine and decide to let her off the hook, “All right I guess I can trust you to keep this a secret.”

“I know it probably doesn’t mean much but in my opinion. It’s not as embarrassing as you think.” I raised an eyebrow at her, “It was shocking but then I got over it and it seemed normal. Except for the four orgasms that is just crazy.” I chuckled with her, “Honestly, it’s a lot more ethical than if you slept with Hunt or Avery. Their frogs and we’re egg masses yeah but DeLuca he’s a tadpole so it’s just one shift up the cycle. You have nothing to be ashamed of in my opinion.”

I exhale and look at her grateful for her advice, “People are already underestimating me as Karev’s baby sister I don’t want to give them more reason by opening my bedroom door. I mean guys get away with this but we don’t.”

“You’re preaching to the choir honey.” Qadri agrees, “Okay so I guess your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you, Dahlia.” I say with a grin.

“So…I guess that makes us friends then.” Dahlia quips with a hopeful smile and I shake my head at her giddiness.

“Well see. Good night.” I turn to walk away from her and I see DeLuca by the nurse’s station rubbing his tired eyes but he sees me giving a grin and he grins too walking by my side.

He greets me in a doctor voice, “Dr. Karev.”

“Dr. DeLuca.” I respond with equal disinterest.

We stop outside the on-call room and he holds the door for me, “After you Dr. Karev.”

“Thank you, Dr. DeLuca.” As soon as he closes the door, we go at each other like animals.

I curl my fist around his wavy hair as we kiss and he picks me up and puts me on top of the drawer chest causing me to chuckle. I continue to kiss him and take his lab coat off; he does the same with my scrub top leaving me in my black bra. I run my hands under his shirt and pull it off quickly. We continue to explore each other with our lips and hands for several moments until I speak up at the worst possible time.

“I’m not embarrassed to be seen with you.” DeLuca pauses kissing the back of my ear and pulls back looking at me confused.

“Is there a reason you’re telling me this when I have you half naked on top of furniture?”

“Listen.” I straighten up and put my hands on his broad shoulders to steady myself, “People look at me and automatically assume I don’t work my way to success. They think I use my looks or amazing skills in bed just to get by, it’s been that way since I first hit puberty. It’s amplified more here because the second I walk into a patient room the family hopes I’m the nurse.” Andrew sighs and puts his hands on my hips listening albeit annoyed I cut our powwow short, “And I get how you don’t assume that but you know things about me that they don’t. You know I worked myself to death to get out of foster care and into state school with no help at all. You know I didn’t use my brother’s name to get an interview here but they don’t know that. I mean they’re gossiping about which attending I’m screwing for surgeries including Hunt which is ironic since I saw him naked this morning with your sister.”

Andrew groans in disgust and pulls his hands away from my body, “And the endorphin high is at a crashing stop thanks for that.” Andrew sighs and looks at me in sympathy, “I get that it’s demeaning to say the least that all those interns look at you and your DNA and assume that your…”

“A brainless slut?” Andrew looks at me in pity over how I described myself.

“No, you’re not and you shouldn’t let them get to you. I mean if they knew all the things you had to go through, they would eat their words over how wrong they were about you.” I look at him touched as he continues, “I mean you helped a deaf little girl tell us what was wrong with her. Your friends probably would have tightened her restraints more and not notice what was right there but you did and…that makes you way better than them in my opinion.”

I look at him in gratitude over how he compliments my bedside manner and I finish my statement, “I’m not embarrassed by you or shamed of you it’s just…what we have is private and I don’t want them to gawk or make fun of it. They would think I’m using you to get revenge for my brother and that you’re sleeping with me to spite Alex but they don’t know us. I don’t care about their opinions but I do care about the reputation I want to establish here.” Andrew looks at me attentively, “You have a different pedigree than me so you don’t know how addict parents and violent brothers can damage your image in the world at the age of 2. I went to private school on scholarship and…the guys assumed I was an easy project girl.” Andrew’s face shifts to pity, “All the girls hated me because I fitted my skirt more than them and they thought I was stealing their boyfriends when they saw me bump into them and…I swore I would never go through that again. I know it isn’t fair to you but it’s all about me not you I promise.”

“Amber that’s terrible.” Andrew brushes my hair back over my shoulder, “I didn’t know that and I was afraid it was because you were embarrassed of me but hearing your story, I get it now. I know how hard it is to get away from your past and make a name for yourself, it’s what I did with my dad and I see that in you too.” Andrew cradles my face in his hands and I look at him with affection, “If you don’t feel comfortable telling people about us, I’ll respect that I just…I just want to know I’m not another shameful secret of yours.”

I sigh and run my hands over his torso, “You’re not if anything you’re the best secret I have ever kept.” Andrew smiles and resumes kissing me this time it’s slow and sensual and he picks me up again putting me on the single bed. I lay under him and moan as he resumes kissing my collar bone and I stroke his back as we sink into each other. I groan and pull him back so I could ask him something else.

Andrew pulls back annoyingly and looks at me, “What is it?”

“Um…are we dating?” He looks at me surprised by my question, “It’s just that we never put a label on it and we’ve only gone out in public like twice so I just want to know if this is gonna die when you realize I am too much of a mess to handle or get tired of my sexpertise.”

Andrew grins at my joke and responds, “Well one I already knew straight off the bat you were gonna be a mess from how our first date went and I handled that spectacularly if you recall. Second I will never get tired of your sexpertise the three orgasms are evidence enough. And third yeah I like to think we are dating, is that the answer you were hoping for?”

I grin, “Yeah it actually was.” Andrew grins at me, “Okay no more interruptions I promise now come here.”

DeLuca exhales, “Thank god.” He kisses me and I moan in pleasure with us content in each other’s company.

[laurelnose]

how are we feeling about book of hours? or have you left your cultist sim phase

I was a bit confused by this ask bc I’m actually pretty active in Secret Histories fandom and then I remembered my activity for this fandom happens to be like, exclusively on reddit and the wikis, lmao. My Secret Histories phase has not ended, anon! I am always thinking about the Histories!!

Book of Hours: good! I find myself tripped up by choice paralysis every time I get ready to commit a History to paper (it takes so much LONGER to do a Librarian run than a Cultist run, Alex, I know you didn’t actually intend for us to replay the game 100+ times but also 😭) but it’s fun it’s cozy!

It is just flatly not as good or tight an experience as CS — some of the writing is weaker, like the proliferation of just... existing quotes from elsewhere? and the humor attempts are a little ehh; there are still missing features, tho’ yes, these are being worked on at an impressive rate; the replayability is not really there, on purpose — but Cultist Simulator is really fucking good, so BoH falling a touch short isn’t much of a criticism at all. I genuinely really like it and have very much enjoyed the lore-digging. There’s soooo much new stuff abt my problematic apostate fave 🩵 Coseley and Naenia? Coseley and an Hour from Nowhere? Delightful! The patches have been big QoL improvements. Plus I can’t discount the part where the first time I launched the game and the SH kachunk sound played it just—felt like coming home, and that feeling didn’t abate at all as I started working through the Library.

I’m waiting for DAYMARE before I start another descent (and, like, I also need to finish BG3 before Stardew 1.6 drops? besides all the holiday stuff I gotta get through in the next couple months) but I’m gonna do Magnate next I think. I’m a Moth/Lantern sucker so my past Librarians have been mostly the Twice-Born and the Prodigal. Time for Edge!

anyways here you can have a little sad Christopher fic snippet, as a treat

-

The Hotel Ciervo offers a continental breakfast. You pass over the buns and pastries glistening with sugar glaze, the sausages thick and dripping fat, the scrambled eggs beat to improbable voluminosity. You do not fear to eat the food of the Long. (Haven’t you eaten enough of it between your lovers?) But you lack any appetite.

You get a cup of Dawnlion coffee to have something to do with your hands and take it into the Hart Room. Choose a table near to one of the floor-length windows overlooking the glittering waters. In the distance you can see the fog-elided outline of Raven Isle’s caldera. It’s something to look at as you nurse your coffee and wait.

You’re not sure how long it is. Time in the Isles passes more like a memory than an experience, and you’re in a poor state of mind to keep track regardless. But presently a man of middling height with his dense curls cropped close to his head pulls out the chair across from you.

“So, what was so important that you needed to come to Noon in person?”

Coseley will look just as you remember him. He always does; he has been Long for centuries before your own birth. Out of the corner of your eye you see his fingers still long and graceful, his palms smudged with the walnut ink he favors, as he sets his teacup on the table and sits down. When you turn your head from the window and meet his gaze, his face is unchanged as expected. No new lines crease the deep warm brown of his cheeks; no fearsome new depth of Winter shines out of his familiar frost-pale eyes. Further heights of the Mansus have been closed to Julian for almost as long as he has been immortal, and thus he remains as he was when he first ascended.

You know he does not see the same changelessness in your face, the face of an occultist of middling power who is feeling the march of time, for no denizen of the Mansus are you. You are, and remain, merely mortal. You must not be able to keep the desolation out of your eyes, because his brows draw together like an oncoming cold front.

“Where is Teresa, Christopher?”

[consistentsquash]

Hi CS, I love reading your meta comments on fics and the healthy conversations they start. Can you share some tips for writing comments like those or longer comments in general?

Hiya! <3 Sorry for the seriously late answer. Real Life things and not much time for fandom now.

Really great to hear you like my meta comments!

I get psyched out if I am thinking about writing a long comment because analysis paralysis. I just need to set a timer for like 30 min, start quoting lines from a fic and then it kind of works out. Writing meta comments or longer comments is a lot of work. So it helps me a lot if I can break it down into some parts.

Loving the fic - Of course you can write long comments for fics you don't really vibe with. But for me personally I need to love something a lot to get into the zone. I don't really write long comments on fics I don't 100% love. Of course you can love something and find flaws with it when you analyze it.

Big themes - Any fic has got themes. Sometimes they are really easy to identify as a trope. Some authors work with the same themes in their fics. Tbh I don't really know how to identify these if I haven't read the author's longer works. But once you get those you can use them to write your comment.

Interesting things - a lot of times you can point out something the fic does which is pretty different from what the fandom trend is. It doesn't need to be a big thing. It can be just omg you made Crozier taller than Fitzjames. Noticing something outside the normal pattern helps a lot to write longer comments.

Google Docs- AO3 doesn't really have a lot of good tools for folks who want to bookmark lines in a fic. So if I want to write a long comment a lot of times I copy the fic into Google Docs to help me quote lines. This is a lot of work. Reason for my next point :D

Motivation - One thing that really helps me with writing longer comments is understanding my motivation. Because motivation is everything for me when I don't have the spoons. For me I am more likely to write meta comments if the fic is seriously underrated. I am talking <20 kudos here because there are lot of fics like that which are far more brilliant compared to the fics which get the most recs/most kudos and I really want those authors to stay in fandom because they are writing new/creative fics I love. HP fandom and a lot of other fandoms really dont love those fics like they deserve. But anyway, that's my motivation. I want there to be interesting movies outside the big three studios so I support movies outside those three way more and write reviews for them. Same logic for fic with me. I want there to be new/interesting/creative/experimental fics and I don't want those authors to be discouraged by fandom trends so I save my longest comments for those.

Fandom etiquette - Also one more thing. I don't do meta comments if I don't know for sure the author's preference on that type of comment. I feel like a lot of times folks can get super critical for no reason in fic comments and think they are doing the right thing but that's kind of missing the whole point of fanfic as a fun activity/fandom as a fun community. Of course there are folks who want to use this as experience for profic or get better at writing in general but unless the author is soliciting it I don't really go there. You are on Tumblr so you probably either write yourself or get to see a lot of author blogs. So maybe you already know how sensitive folks can be because fic writing is a seriously creative activity and whenever you are doing anything creative and sharing them with other people it makes you feel super vulnerable. Anything you are sharing with the world can make you feel vulnerable. So definitely respect the author's boundaries. They are not AI they are just another person with emotions and lots of creativity they are sharing <3

Get the vibe - you know the thing about lurking before participating? You don't really need to do that. But for me I am super self-conscious so I generally lurk on a couple of fics to get the vibe of an author before commenting. Some authors are going to totally nerd out with you if you identify themes in their works. Others probably not so much. People like different things.

Burnout - Of course this isn't something I can do for every fic I read so I just save it for the most underrated fics which profoundly changed my life and that type of thing. It can be pretty hard because sometimes writers can get sad if readers don't comment on their new fic after commenting on their old fic or readers comment longer comments on other authors fics and that type of thing. Of course that's totally valid. But I need my own boundaries to motivate me without feeling burned out. This part is kind of hard for me because people pleasing and guilt problems but the boundaries are important because it's not my job to make everybody feel valued for the amazing fics they write. Other commenters are going to do that.

Do it for yourself - Anything you do in fandom you got to do it for yourself. Write for yourself is the big one. But same goes for comments. Sometimes you write the best comment of your life and you don't get a reply or you get a reply which really gives you the vibe they didn't like something you said. It happens! But you got to write comments for yourself which means you have to accept that happens and move on. You know what I mean?

Sorry about long answer but it's amazing that you want to write longer comments. Go for it <3 Hope you have lots of fun with commenting. Definitely lmk how it's going <3

[moonxknightx]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ : STAY WITH ME (PT.6) : :;

╰┈➤ ❝ [PAIRING] ❞ 2017!Logan Howlett x F!Reader

・❥・GENRE: Angst and Fluff :))

 ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆FANDOM: X-Men

ੈ✩‧₊˚ WARNINGS: Graphic depictions of illness (Logan coughing up blood), Violence (fighting, deaths, Logan using his claws), Strong language, Psychic distress (Charles’ seizure causing pain and paralysis), Alcohol use (Logan drinking to manage pain), Emotional distress (Logan’s struggles with fatherhood and vulnerability)

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥SUMMARY: You wake to Logan coughing up blood, but he brushes it off. After a tense moment with Laura, you both leave to get a new car, and Logan admits he’s unsure about being a father. Later, you realize the coordinates to "Eden" are from a comic, frustrating Logan. Back at the hotel, Pierce’s men arrive, and Charles has a psychic seizure. You help to stop the attack, and try to escape, needing to bring Laura to safety.

Previous Part | Next Part

YOU AWOKE TO THE SOUND OF ROUGH, PAINFUL COUGHS COMING FROM THE OTHER ROOM. A sound that had became all too familiar.

With your heart pounding in your chest, you quickly got dressed, went to the bathroom and cautiously opened the door. There stood Logan, half-dressed, his broad back hunched over the sink, blood staining the towel in his hand.

He glanced up at you through the mirror, his eyes weary but determined, and tried to offer a weak smile. "I’m fine, just a scratch," he rasped, but the sight of him like this, so vulnerable and worn, sent a cold wave of fear through you. His words did nothing to ease the dread tightening in your chest and Logan noticed it.

“Hey come here.” He said as he gently pulled on your arm. You hesitantly let yourself be pulled into Logan’s embrace while he placed a kiss onto your head.

“I’m fine, just a few coughs.” Logan reassured you softly. You gave a small nod against his chest while scanning the room.

“Have you been drinking?” You asked quietly as you pointed towards a few tiny bottles of whiskey and other alcoholic drinks.

“It’s just for the pain bub.” Logan explained as you took a step back. “I know but still…” You sighed.

“I don’t like seeing you in pain.” You continued after a moment of silence. Logan gave you an apologetic look before he pulled you back into his arms. “I’m okay sweetheart.” He whispered in your ear before his eyes fell onto your arm and the bandage he applied to it last night.

“Are you okay?” Logan asked as he gently traced the skin around the bandage. “Yes i’m okay. I told you, it didn’t even hurt.” You smiled slightly while cupping his cheek.

“I know.” Sighed Logan while remembering the events of last night. How you woke him up from his nightmare, how you comforted him, how he took care of the small scratch on your arm. How his lips felt on yours as you explored each other bodies with your hands.

“What are you thinking about?” You asked with a slight smirk, already having an idea without even reading his mind. “Nothing.” Smiled Logan before kissing you.

You immediately kissed back while wrapping your arms around Logan’s neck. He gently lifted you up and placed you onto the sink while he stood between your legs.

“I love you.” He breathed against your lips. “I love you too Logan.” You smiled before a knock on the door disrupted you two.

You quickly hopped off the sink, went to the door and opened it. “Laura.” You smiled as your eyes fell to the young girl.

She gave you a smile back while pointing towards the shower behind you. You followed her hand and made an “ohh,” sound before nodding.

“She wants to take a shower Lo.” You told Logan who quickly put on his shirt and jacket before grabbing the empty bottles and the towel covered in blood.

“Sure.” Logan replied as he passed Laura and threw the towel and bottles away.

You watched how Logan grabbed a small bottle of pills out of his pocket and handed them to Laura. “Two more pills in one hour.” He said, referring to Charles who still needed his medication.

“Where are you going?” You asked, frowning. “We are going to get us a new ride.” Logan said as he walked away, heading towards the door while passing Charles’ room. You could immediately feel Logan’s tension as soon as Laura entered the picture. Suddenly he got all quiet again and didn’t say much, wanting to escape the scene as soon as possible.

You sighed while crouching down in front of Laura. You offered her a sweet smile before speaking. “Do you think you can handle this?” You asked while pointing at the bottle of pills. Laura nodded before going into the bathroom and closing the door behind her, locking you out.

“Okay…” You sighed as you got back to your feet. You walked over to where Logan was standing. He was waiting at the front door for you. You quickly glanced at Charles who was still deep asleep before the two of you exited the room.

“What’s that?” You asked while pointing at Logan’s hand while the two of you walked towards the elevator.

Logan held up his hand and you saw that he was holding X-Men Comics.

“Where did you get that?” You chuckled as you both stepped into the elevator. “I found it in Laura’s backpack.” Logan said while folding the comics to put them back in his pocket.

“And you took them?” You asked, surprised. Logan nodded. “I want to know what’s inside them.” He told you which made you smile. “Of course you do.” You chuckled.

Soon the two of you were in the car and driving towards a place where Logan said you two could leave the car before buying a new one.

“Are you okay?” You asked softly after a moment of silence while placing your hand on Logan’s thigh. “Yes, why?” Asked Logan as he kept his eyes on the road.

“You’ve been acting a bit different since Laura knocked on the door this morning.” You said carefully. Logan shot you a glance and sighed.

“I just don’t know what to do with her.” He explained as he placed one of his hands on yours which was holding his thigh.

“What do you mean?” You asked. Logan shrugged. “She’s my daughter, but i don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to be a father.” He said quietly.

“Hey.” You smiled as you squeezed his hand. Logan looked at you for a moment.

“It’s totally fine that you don’t know how to be a father. You didn’t even know you had a daughter until what, two days ago? You are already doing a good job with the fact that you’re willing to take her to Eden, Logan.” You smiled.

Logan’s lips twitched into a slight smile before looking back to the road in front of him.

“You’re doing a good job Logan.” You said to him while you placed a loving kiss to his cheek.

~

“We’re here.” Announced Logan as he drove onto a small car dump terrain. You watched how a group of men walked towards the car. “Are you sure?” You asked as you looked at the men coming closer.

Logan turned to you and gently put a strand of hair behind your ear. “Yeah i’m sure,” he said before he got out of the car. You quickly followed after him and watched how Logan checked the backseat of the car to see if he missed anything important.

“Shit.” You heard him curse from the backseat. “What is it?” You asked immediately. Logan held up his hand and showed you one of Charles’ medication pills.

“He hid it between the cushions.” Logan sighed before closing the door. “Knock yourselves out.” Logan told the group of men as he threw the car keys to one of them.

“Let’s go bub.” Logan said as he offered you his hand. You immediately took it and watched how he put Charles’ pill into his pocket.

Soon the two of you arrived at a car dealer. You watched how Logan talked to the dealer, asking if she had any cars available now. The woman nodded and led Logan to a pickup truck.

“I’ll tel you what. Eight grand I’ll have her freshly painted for you, new tires, mounted, balanced and complete paperwork.” The woman said before lurking on her vape.

“I’ll give you ten as-is, if you can forget the paperwork.” Logan replied as he pulled out his pocket the envelope with money Gabriela had given him for the job.

“Well, you still need new tires man, they’re bald.” The woman sighed while blowing out the smoke.

“How long will that take?” Logan asked. “An hour.” The woman said while placing a hand on her hip.

You watched how Logan turned around and looked at a big sign of a bar behind the car dealer’s place.

“Logan…” You sighed already knowing where this was going.

“Fine, i’ll be back in an hour.” Logan said to the woman. “Alright peach.” The woman smiled before walking away.

“Logan we are not going to that bar.” You said as you grabbed his arm. “Just for one drink, please? We can scan through those X-Men comics together.” Logan said as he gave you a smile while placing his hands on your hips.

You rolled your eyes before nodding. “Fine. But just one drink!” You said clearly while pointing your finger at Logan.

Logan chuckled as he wrapped his large hand around your finger. “One drink. Promise.” Logan pulled you with him towards the bar and within five minutes the two of you were seated at the bar while Logan ordered two drinks for you both.

“Let’s have a look shall we.” Logan said as he pulled out the comics and laid them out on the bar counter. You watched how he put on his glasses before opening the comics.

You placed your chin on his shoulder to get a better look at the comics. “What is this?” Scoffed Logan as he flipped through the pages. “This is all fake.” He muttered as he shook his head.

“It’s because they want to make it entertaining for the kids Logan.” You chuckled softly as you started tracing small circles onto his back.

“Yeah but still. What the fuck is this?” He asked as he pointed towards one drawing. You couldn’t help but laugh as you watched how Logan continued to flip through the pages, getting angry at every small thing.

That was until the two of you came across a page with the text, ‘Eden or the end…?’

Both you and Logan started frowning as Logan flipped to the next page to see small panels of various mutants and X-Men traveling to ‘Eden’.

“Jesus.” Whispered Logan as he looked at the page to see coordinates. He quickly grabbed the envelope with money out of his pocket and flipped it to the coordinates Gabriela had written down.

“Let’s compare.” You said as both, you and Logan, started to compare the two coordinates, only to find out they were literally…the same.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” Said Logan as he stared at the coordinates.

“It’s a fucking fairytale.” Muttered Logan as you dropped your head in defeat.

“She got it out of a fucking comic!” Said Logan as he raised his voice slightly.

“Logan calm down.” You mumbled as you felt people were looking at you.

“Calm down? This whole Eden place doesn’t even fucking exist! What do we do now huh?” Logan asked, slowly getting angry, not at you, but at himself for accepting this fucking fucked up mission.

“Logan…” You tried again as you placed your hand on his shoulder.

“I should’ve never accepted her money.” Logan said as he stared at the envelope with disgust. Suddenly Logan started coughing.

Just as bad as this morning.

“Logan?” You asked as he quickly covered his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket. Logan kept coughing while you quickly ordered a glass of water.

“Here take a sip.” You said softly as you handed Logan the glass. You watched how he sipped on the water before noticing the red stain on his sleeve. He coughed up blood. Again.

Logan followed your gaze when he calmed down and quickly hid the stain. “It’s okay sweetheart, it’s not so bad.” He tried to assure you, but it didn’t really help.

“Yeah sure.” You sighed before looking back at the comic about Eden. “Let’s wait for the car to be ready, get back to the hotel, and discuss with Charles what we found out, okay? I’m sure he will know what to do.” You sighed in exhaustion.

“Okay.” Mumbled Logan before taking a sip from his glass of Whiskey.

“You’re still doing a good job Logan. Eden or no Eden.” You said to him, remembering the conversation you two had in the car.

“Thank you darlin’.” Sighed Logan with a soft smile. You gave his bicep a little squeeze before taking a sip from the Whiskey yourself.

~

As soon as you two arrived at the hotel, you and Logan jumped out of the car, handed the valet some money and headed for the entrance.

“Wait!” Said Logan quickly as he put his arm in front of you. “What is it?” You asked while following Logan’s gaze.

“Shit.” You whispered when your eyes fell on two of Pierce’s men. “How did they find us?” You asked quietly as Logan grabbed your hand and pulled you with him in the other direction.

“Caliban.” Logan answered as his eyes fell on another guard of Pierce. Your stomach turned at the thought of Pierce using Caliban to track you. He was probably torturing him.

“Come on let’s go inside.” Said Logan as he headed for the entrance with you holding onto his hand.

Suddenly high pitched ringing was heard and everyone around the two of you stopped dead in their tracks. Everything began to shake and an aching headache started to form in both of your heads.

You heard cars crashing behind you while Logan tried his best to hold your hand. “Charles. Charles!” Yelled Logan as he pushed his pain aside and pulled you towards the entrance with him.

“Fuck!” You yelled in pain as you fell to the ground, releasing Logan’s hand to hold your head in both hands.

“Shit,” cursed Logan as he kneeled down next to you. “Come on bub, we have to get upstairs. Here hold onto me.” He said while wrapping his arms around your waist.

This seizure was worse than the others.

Logan helped you wrap your arms around his neck before he helped you up. Together the two of you made your way to the elevator.

“I can’t!” You yelled as your legs stopped moving. “Hold on!” Logan yelled back as he tried his best to lift you up in his arms.

“Can you use your powers?” Yelled Logan as he carried you into the elevator.

You tried to use your powers to teleport to your room, but it didn’t work. “It’s not working!” You groaned in frustration as you held onto Logan.

When the two of you arrived at the right floor, Logan helped you out of the elevator and gently put you back to your feet.

“Look!” You said while trying your best to point in front of you. Logan followed your hand and saw how one of Pierce’s men was standing in front of your room, frozen in place because of Charles’ attack.

Logan grabbed hold of your hand and used his other hand to cling onto the wall while using his metal claws.

Slowly but surely the two of you reached the room and Logan waisted no time in pushing his claws into the man’s head.

When you entered the room, Logan let go of your hand and went to each of Pierce’s men to put his claws in their bodies, making sure they would be dead when the attack was over.

Your eyes went to the floor where you saw Laura struggling on the floor. You watched how she did her best to crawl over to Logan to hand him Charles’ medication.

Logan was struggling too, but did his best and succeeded in putting the needle into Charles’ shoulder and emptying the serum into his body, stopping his seizure.

Soon the ringing and shaking stopped and everyone fell to the ground, including you because of the impact.

Laura saw that one of Pierce’s men was still breathing, so she immediately jumped onto the man and pushed her claws into his chest.

Logan noticed that one of the men had a body cam on their uniform and immediately got up and looked out of the window.

“We have to get out of here.” He said. He gave Laura the order to push Charles’ wheelchair while Logan immediately ran to you and helped you back to your feet.

“Are you okay?” He asked quickly, his voice laced with concern. “I’m okay.” You breathed while placing your hands on his shoulder.

He gave you a quick kiss before pulling you onto the hallway, Laura following behind with Charles.

Within five minutes, the three of you arrived at the new car. Logan lifted Charles onto the backseat while you quickly jumped in next to him. Logan and Laura quickly got in at the front and drove off.

“Are you okay Charles?” You asked while placing a hand on his arm. Charles didn’t really respond, probably still feeling wary because of his seizure.

Logan quickly glanced at the two of you before looking at Laura who also seemed like she needed to calm down first.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Logan mumbled to himself while pushing down onto the gas pedal, increasing the speed of the car and heading off towards your next unknown destination.

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[ladystormcrow]

📓

Oh wow, okay!

Years before I got into The Dark Crystal, Megamind, and most recently Phantom of the Opera, my online fandom of choice was SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. I had a whole fan continuation series planned out that never got past the first chapter of the first fic, but one particular ongoing plot would have gone like this:

OC Carmen Cascabel, an ambitious and misanthropic biochemistry grad student, gets captured by Dr. Viper while out collecting field samples (and her fellow student gets killed by Viper's monsters). She manages to impress Viper with her scientific knowledge, and he decides to make her a henchperson rather than a test subject. She develops an infatuation with him (think Harley Quinn, but much less perky and without the fun costumes), and he has her convinced that when his plan to take over Megakat City finally succeeds, he'll turn her into a snake mutant as well and she'll rule by his side.

After one attempt to take over the city ends with Viper arrested and Carmen in the hospital (the Enforcers thinking she was an innocent bystander), she reconnects with some of her estranged family, and starts to consider being no-longer-evil. But in the end, she decies to help Viper escape from prison -- partly because during this time, she finds out she's pregnant by him.

Carmen spends the next couple of years torn between her devotion to Viper and the power he can offer her, versus wanting to keep her family safe from his plans, as well as trying to keep her baby daughter Reyna's mutant features hidden (she told her family the pregnancy was the result of a one-night stand with a married tom kat, hence why she won't contact the father). Eventually, she helps Viper with one last attempt to take over the city (it involves taking over the citizens' minds with mutated Cordyceps spores, TLOU-style), but they get thwarted by the SWAT Kats, and in the final battle, Viper gets killed once and for all.

Since Carmen was seen helping Viper during this plan, the Enforcers are now hunting for her, and her family turns against her -- there would have been a scene where she sneaks into her stepmother's apartment late at night, planning to take little Reyna with her when she flees the city, and her stepmother tells her things like "give me one good reason I shouldn't call the Enforcers right now", "what did you think would happen when you threw your lot in with monsters?", and when Carmen says she can't go to prison, telling her that that's where she belongs. The stepmother does let Carmen escape, out of love for Carmen's late father, but she also convinces her to leave Reyna behind in the stepmother's care, so the child can have a stable life instead of being on the run.

Carmen then disappears from the story, and the focus switches to Reyna growing up. Her snake mutant features become more obvious as she gets older, and she's fearful and ashamed of them, as well as for the things her parents did (Reyna herself is a sweet kid). As a teenager, she starts seeking a way to cure her mutation so she can be normal, and she manages to track down Dr. Zyme -- he survived the bacteria attack, but has been paralyzed and wheelchair-bound ever since.

Between his injuries and his guilt over the part he played in Viper coming into existence, Zyme has become reclusive and bitter in the last 20-some years. He doesn't want to meet with Reyna at first, but she's persistent, and eventually he explains that he can't cure her -- he destroyed all his notes related to the creation of the Viper Mutagen formula, so he couldn't come up with a cure even if it was possible.

Reyna realizes that, like Viper, she carries the mutagen in her blood. Zyme, now starting to warm up to her, accepts a sample, and together they're able to reverse-engineer the serum and get rid of the flaws that caused the snake mutations in the original formula. He uses the new, revised formula to cure his paralysis, and with a new, happier outlook on life, he takes Reyna as a student and assistant. Reyna's no longer ashamed of her mutation after seeing the good it can do, and she and Zyme form a father-daughter relationship (he's definitley more of a father to her than Viper ever was) and embark on a happy future of making the world better through science.

(Reyna also eventually forms a romantic relationship with Skyler, Chance and Callie's son, which causes a whole bunch of other awkwardness, but that's another story.)

[bimbinis]

Very well put. This actually echoes a lot of what I felt from the get go, but I gave up in like, issue #7 of the first run lol. If there's a word that I would use to describe my feelings about Boom! Buffy it would be "pandering". It's honestly just trying to pander to the fans. "Remember this character you liked but died in the show! Well they're here now and they're alive! That ship you like? We're making it canon! Ever wish this character had this cool power? Well now they have!" and honestly it just like... Sucks? I say this as someone whose favorite character is Tara and who's clamored for her return for years, when I saw they'd written her into her own miniseries I was legit like. Whatever. Bc I'd seen what they were able to do with these characters so far and I was already severely underwhelmed so say the least, I had no interest in seeing how they would, not even butcher, just like, do absolutely nothing interesting with a character I like.

The problem with trying to pander to fans, especially Buffy fans in particular, is that it presumes fans are a homogenous group that believe the same things about what's great about the thing they like and what more of it should look like. That's not necessarily true for any fan base and especially not for Buffy. Buffy is absolutely one of those "no one hates this thing more than its own fans" shows. And that's bc of how much opinions vary about what Buffy is and should be in the fandom. Buffy is a show that's changed a lot over the course of its run and had a bunch of different priorities so it ended up catering to a lot of different people who primarily appreciated different parts of it.

Furthermore, despite the Dark Horse comics having run from 2007 all the way up until their contract ended and they signed with Boom! for the new run, for most people Buffy did end with the end of the show. And so by the time the Boom! reboot was announced people had spent over a decade thinking over and discussing and writing out what they believe Buffy should have done and where should it go next were it to continue, so a lot of people already had deeply entrenched ideas about what they think a Buffy reboot should look like and they wouldn't be satisfied with just anything.

So when they roll up and say "we're gonna reboot Buffy and we're gonna put all that good stuff that's gonna appease the fans of the original series", that's kind of a tall task. Bc you're gonna have to split the difference for all of the people who have wildly different opinions on what constitutes said "good stuff", and also account for all the ones who at this point probably read a dozen or so highly elaborate fanfics continuing or rebooting the story of Buffy that of which ideas and concepts they now consider basically essential for "the real thing" (a lot of said concepts may even have been used by multiple of the authors of those fics, further calcifying their presence).

I can definitely see how that kind of pressure would give a writer creative paralysis, so it's really a no-brainer that a story written specifically to "appease the fans" would end up as such meaningless, trivial hogwash. If you're trying to write for everyone, you're writing for no one. You're making as inoffensive a story as you can that multiple people can read and nod their heads at but no one can actually be gripped by. Which is great if all you aspire to is just keeping the shambling body of a decades old franchise going on forward momentum alone, I would just hope artists would aim for more than that.

This is just my opinion but I actually liked some of the Dark Horse comics, particularly the Christos Gage run (Angel & Faith season 9 and Buffy seasons 10 and 11), bc it wasn't like that. He took some pretty bold decisions with the story in a way that actually convinced me he had an interesting story he wanted to tell with the tools the setting he was working with had. He changed the status quo while at the same time maintaining the tone I'm used to seeing in Buffy and keeping the setting and characters recognizable. I can understand that other people still didn't like it as much for various reasons (although I suspect most people didn't get to read these series bc to get to them they have to read Buffy season 8 which is borderline unreadable) but I still think if Boom! writers were to make an actually good Buffy series they would take pointers from those runs in particular.

Why Boom Still Can’t Get Buffy Right

My love for the Buffyverse is concrete but it has its limits. Yesterday I had a very unpleasant experience finishing yet another unimpressive Buffy run, courtesy of Boom Comics. It’s always disappointing to me because Buffyverse has so much potential and untold stories. It’s a goldmine that is constantly held back and simply can’t find its footing in the comics medium. Why is that? 

Boom’s been rather relentless in trying to make Buffy work. Several years and runs later, there’s still no big WOW story that can attract readers and viewers alike. Not just that, but even seasoned buffy fans don’t seem very interested in continuous attempts at rebooting the Slayer tale. You can blame the word reboot (it does tend to scare people) but the real reason is still Boom’s inability to deliver a good captivating story.

Boom had tried reinventing Buffy, sending her back to school, developing alternate realities and futures. But in every iteration, Buffy and the Scooby Gang were plagued with the same mistakes over and over again. 

Hey, I’m not sure what I am, so bear with me here 

The characters from Buffy are some of the most well-developed characters out there. Each one has a point of origin, a story, and a final form. We love them because we know them. And we know them extremely well. 

Let’s take the fan-favorite, Spike. We’ve seen his whole afterlife and even bits of his life. We know how he became William the Bloody, then Spike, a neutered vampire, and finally, an ensouled champion. We know how, and more importantly, we know why. 

I’d hate to throw in one more why but there is a reason Spike exists in the show, and we know it. 

When you read Boom comics, it feels like writers stick him into every arc just because they like him. He brings nothing to the story, he has no soul or chip yet chooses to join the scoobies. That does not look like the Spike we know. That guy was in s2-s4, not s5-s7. That’s the guy from School Hard or the one who got the Gem of Amara and happily marched to kill Buffy. 

But there’s nothing stronger than the author’s desire to make things ‘right’. Hence this spike lookalike joining the team every time. 

The funny part is, I can very well imagine a soulless chipless Spike who’s not a monster. If Dru sires him and never sees him again, if she never introduces him to Angelus, if he keeps on writing his bloody awful poetry only forever. He probably would’ve turned out like that poor librarian guy whose glasses Dru broke or like Harmony who still tried to be decent. But it’s the writer’s job to explain it, to write it into the story, not just throw a character into a book and see whether they swim or go down. They will always go down. 

Spike is only one of the issues here. In the show, both Kendra and Faith exist to show us the perfect (according to the council) and the fallen slayer. Two possible realities for Buffy. They have their own arcs (well, Faith does) but the show is strong because supporting characters serve a purpose. Just like the people we meet in real life always serve a purpose for us. You might believe that one character pushing the development of another is cruel, but that’s still how good stories are made. That’s still why Buffy is popular 20 years after the show’s finale. 

Kendra and Faith did that for Buffy in the show. In the Boom comics they just exist. They show up for no reason and they just hang around. You can take them out of the story and nothing will change. At one point in the initial reboot there were three slayers at the same time, and that felt more like a fix-it fanfic than a quality comic book. Unfortunately, some slayers have to die and some have to turn evil. Besides, without her rebellious personality, Faith is meaningless.

I have one more bone to pick. I know that Buffy and Angel (still the OTP of the show!) are a complicated matter to many modern writers. And readers, and viewers. There’s no place to hide from the creep factor and even though I will defend this ship till the day everyone finally agrees with me, I can’t deny its presence. But that doesn’t mean you get to discard this ship and separate Buffy and Angel into different books. One doesn’t exist or grow without the other. There is no Buffy in love with a vampire without Angel. There is only Vampire. Slayer. Dead vampire. 

Without Buffy, Angel is not in LA helping the helpless. He’s in New York eating low rats. Before trying to launch two separate books, how about Boom launches one good one, that provides background, even if revised and adapted to the modern days? 

I always worried what would happen when that b*tch got some funding

All this chaotic mess with the characters determines the stories Boom puts out. They tend to have an interesting start but by the time issue 3 comes out, it’s either Camazotz flying around Sunnydale, a giant crab taking over the main street, or whatever the hell Silas was (a soul eater?) Didn’t care for him much. Not even when we were evil. 

More often than not Boom writers suffer from the same disease that plagued Dark Horse comics – scale. Just because you can do anything doesn’t mean you should. Comics allow you to draw literally any kind of baddie but you are playing within a specific world, and suspense of disbelief only goes so far. Besides, in the show, it all grows gradually. You go from the Master to the First evil. In the comics… seriously, what the hell was Silas? 

From what I’ve read so far, Boom knows how to ask interesting questions: 

What if Buffy went to school today?

What if Willow took over as the slayer? 

What if Buffy was older? 

Those are all good what ifs but Boom has a problem following through. They don’t know the answer to this question and it feels like they’re making it up as they go along. If I’m being honest, it even feels like they wrote random ideas on pieces of paper, through them in a hat, and started pulling each time they hit a wall. 

Characters show up for now reason (hi, Tara from the latest run), they don’t feel like themselves, and the saddest part – none of it feels like you are getting your favorite show back. 

These characters deserve better than that. 

And there’s not a one who can say this ended well

At this point, I don’t know if Boom wants Buffy comics to succeed. I don’t mean to be this dramatic but every time someone mentions comics, fans think Dark Horse. Not because they are still considered canon, but because they had a connection to the beloved show. Boom comics don’t give you that, so you can’t look the other way when writers don’t deliver. It’s just how it works. 

I keep thinking what Boom can do to get out of this vicious circle. And I do believe there If they want to successfully play in the Buffyverse, they have to seriously up their game. It’s not impossible either. I mean, Something is Killing the Children is being released by the same studio. And what is that if not a more gruesome version of Buffy? So it’s not exactly magic. It’s doable. 

Personally, I still hold out hope that someone would dare explore the terrifying bloody past of the Whirlwind. Wouldn’t that be fun and gory? I’d like to see deep well-thought-through stories of past slayers. I’d happily read a well-illustrated comic run based on In Every Generation. And if we have to go back to Buffy variants, why not reinvent her story? But before we get to that, we’d have to work through every step of every character. Get them to where we want them, and start with a story that we want to tell, from start to finish. From her first day as a slayer to her last one (she didn’t have to empower the potentials after all).

That, of course, requires a lot of work. And if Boom isn’t ready to put in that kinda effort, they could just move from season 5, introduce a new slayer, and watch how her adventures unravel.  

Buffyverse is a hell of a property and there are too many stories waiting to be written. I’m probably still gonna give it a shot whenever Boom comes up with something new. I just hope I won’t have to write yet another long read complaining about it. 

[fantastic-nonsense]

re-reading A Death in the Family for fic writing purposes and I would like to remind everyone that the Joker shooting Babs happens before Jason's death, not after:

"Good. Everyone's going to want a piece of the Joker, after what he did to Barbara." -Batman Vol. 1 #426 (A Death in the Family: Part 1)

I'm not sure if it's actually common fandom knowledge or not, but Barbara (who had already retired as Batgirl before she was shot) was canonically tutoring Jason at the time of his death; they don't really have a ton of on-panel interaction (and in fact most of their interactions were written after Jason's death occurred, in flashback issues), but the connection was textually present even if most of it wasn't shown. I don't think we ever actually get any kind of in-universe reaction to Jason finding out about Babs being paralyzed, but we do get Barbara's reaction to finding out about Jason's death:

"Dad, you remember the boy I was tutoring...Bruce Wayne's new ward...he's...he...he died." -Gotham Knights #44

She's clearly already out of the hospital and solidly in her wheelchair at this point...though timeline-wise, this is still pre-Oracle days for her. She's actually one of the few people to show up to Jason's funeral, too:

-Batman #428 (A Death in the Family: Part 3)

-Gotham Knights #44

So...yeah. TKJ was published around 6 months before DitF and probably in-universe happens around 3-6 months beforehand. They happen in relatively quick succession, which probably contributes to how Bruce reacts when he meets up with the Joker at the UN in DitF: Part 4, but Barbara's paralysis would not be a surprise to Jason after he's resurrected.

[officious-seeing-eye-bitch]

ok listen i know rise of the guardians is a pretty quiet fandom at least on here but i need to put all my thoughts together like just get them out bc i cant start a new wip now and i just. need to scream. 

im still just like sitting here thinking of what a TERRIFIC character pitch black is. like when you look at his story and his past and like his motivations its just. 

you have this man, kozmotis, who loved his family and his daughter so much that when fearlings in the prison began to mimic her he couldn’t fight them off anymore and went in to save her from he thought she was being held. and like from that he basically became possessed by these fearlings that more or less used him as a type of puppet king. so then you have this totally unwilling transformation into something that was quite literally the antithesis of what he wanted to be. 

and then you’ve got like the ptich black we see in the movie who’s fully the boogeyman. but here’s the thing. the boogeyman exists in most cultures to indirectly protect children. “don’t get out of bed or the boogeyman will get you” is basically getting a wound up child to stay in bed so they fall asleep at bedtime. “don’t go into the woods or the boogeyman will get you” is a way to keep kids from wandering off and getting lost, or running into predators. this is basically consistent over the majority of cultures. 

so the fear. the fear doesn’t always have something baseless. kids who are scared of snakes won’t get bit one, probably. kids who are scared of wasps won’t be around one long enough to get stung. a little fear is HEALTHY. for example, i am afraid of sky-diving, bc of the possibility the parachute might not work. so i will not do something dangerous like leap out a plane for fun, thus eliminating that possibility of harm. 

fear’s are also important bc the more you face them, the more you can grow. like public speaking, if you’re afraid the only way to overcome it is by doing it. that’s courage, which is not the absence of fear but rather ‘being afraid and doing it anyway.’ 

now, does he have a sadistic streak? yeah, he’s a being who feeds off of fear. fear can be cultivated like any emotion, but nightmares aren’t gonna hurt you. you have them, you get scared, and you wake up, same as a good dream. it’s not a fun experience, but unless you’re really suffering from something like sleep paralysis or PTSD, its something that passes. was his goal good or anything? not really. but can you really blame the guy for wanting belief thats a core part of his existence? 

fear has its purpose and frankly i think if more of that was focused on pitch really wouldn’t be like a bad guy. like the movie pitch clearly isn’t like a mindless fearling bot, he’s just a guy who i think is trying to make his best way amidst people who don’t want him to be around. 

[bliss-bud]

some assorted omori hc’s from brainrot station

HELLO OMORI FANDOM take this random list of hcs I made up in my head?? cause im sad and the omori gang own my heart

thinking of them is free therapy (to recover from the ending of this godforsaken game-)

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Sunny watches those japanese/korean asmr baking videos to calm down when he’s stressed

Aubrey has a secret love for cheesy shojou manga (and Sunny has a not so secret love for anime and manga in general)

Sunny has a secret obsession for pink heroines in anime...

Hero is the one who gave him the idea to pick up digital art (and he’s amazing at it)

Sunny can sing and uses it to work on his confidence!! (just think ‘I Hear A Symphony’ in his voice...)

Basil enjoys things like rug making, embroidery and resin art

+ he ends up making resin gifts for all of his friends using some petals from his garden

he makes Hero a keychain for his new keys w rose petals and some small lily of the valleys, makes Aubrey a classic ring paired with a necklace chain with a single gladiolus wrapped around the inside of the ring, makes Kel a string bracelet with a small little bubble with a single cactus flower in it, and makes Sunny a resin bookmark with a tulip and small sunflower petals around it

Basil and Sunny have matching pink/blue beaded rings made of string that they wear on their pinky fingers (is this a ship hc? you decide! its def a platonic red string of fate thing for me)

Sunny has asked Aubrey to both pierce his ears and dye his hair for him (he chooses a platinum blonde split dye)

Basil also pierces his ears but Polly takes him to do it professionally (she’s terrified of infections)

Hero takes up a part time job as a baker at a small cafe on the weekends (after some SERIOUS consideration of course)

I think he could go through a reconsideration of career choice

Kel makes it a habit of calling Sunny stupid names like ‘lil buddy bro’ that he comes up with on the spot (brother dynamic between Sunny, Kel and Hero... yeah)

Sunny takes Kel to an asian supermarket to introduce Kel to asian snacks one day and its the only kind of snack he’s eaten SINCE

his collection continues to grow to this day

he’s also obsessed with yakult (and Hero’s glad he’s putting something good in his mouth for once)

Kel is the kinda guy to drink milk with his lunch (love you Kel but no)

Aubrey is a heavy sleeper and mumbles in her sleep sometimes- she’s an absolute beast to wake up

Sunny has frequent sleep paralysis episodes and is so unphased by them that he just makes a sleep paralysis journal instead (I totally dont do this.. no way...)

everyones worried for him but at least he’s expressing it creatively...?

Ironically, Basil has a small pollen allergy (which causes him to go bedridden during bad spring days because of how many plants he has in his house)

Sunny’s favorite childhood snack is mamee snack noodles (pls tell me you guys know this one) + he has a small basket filled with asian supermarket snacks at all times

he always has at least one pocky box on him at all times (his favorite is strawberry)

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some of these were banked and others I came up with on the spot but! I hope at least someone like this. I hope you enjoy thinking about these guys as much as i do!!

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Runaway Ride

Fandom: Never Have I Ever Pairing: Devi/Paxton Rating: T Word Count: 4889

Summary: Kamala gets herself into a pickle, Devi needs to go to her, and Paxton has a car. Problem-solving has never been so simple, but that's how it is when your new boyfriend is Paxton Hall-Yoshida. Throw in a little hand-holding on the highway and this family crisis might just be the best date Devi will ever have.

When they finally took a break from dancing—disconnecting hands from hips and shoulders, lips from lips—Devi stepped away in a dreamy headspace. She almost collided with Jonah, but he didn’t tell her to look where she was going, only offered a shrewd, indulgent smile.

Actually, everybody was treating her like that; every eye that caught hers on her way to the table where she’d left her stuff was unjudgmental, admiring, straight up fairy-godmotherly. Devi hadn’t received this much notice since her dad’s death and her subsequent paralysis. And those looks had been pitying, freaked out. Positive attention was new and cool and she wondered, as she grabbed her phone out of her turquoise clutch, whether her socials would show more of the same when she opened them. Would people have snapped stealthy pics of her and Paxton dancing now that she’d been vaulted into the pseudo-celebrity strata of the high school hierarchy? Would the Insta posts be captioned with hashtags of their ship name? Paxi? Daxton? Vishwall-Yoshumar?

Devi never got to check.

Unlocking her phone, she found two missed calls from her mother. Maybe two wouldn’t have seemed like a whole lot to someone else, but Devi knew that, in order for her mom to risk rudeness by stepping away from the company she was hosting at home not once but twice, she’d need to be pretty frantic. Two missed calls from Nalini Vishwakumar were the equivalent of six or seven from any other mother.

Skirting the edges of the gym as she headed away from DJ Humanoid—that nit-witted saboteur of slow dances—Devi was about to call her mom back when her screen changed to an incoming call from Kamala. She pressed her other hand to her ear and answered it.

“Hey. Do you know what’s going on with my mom? She called me twice and, honestly, she knows I’m at the d—”

“Devi, shut up. Sorry,” Kamala sighed. “But I may have kidnapped your history teacher and now I’m panicking a little.”

Devi stopped in her tracks.

“You did what? Why is the sound weird?”

As she was trying to identify the background noise coming from Kamala’s end, her eyes swept over the crowd of her classmates and landed on Fabiola’s. Her friend had been smiling, mid-sway as she held Eve from behind and chatted with Sasha, but it fell off her face like Devi off Dr. Jackson’s roof. Fab disentangled herself from her girlfriend and crossed the room to stand with Devi. She was frowning, silently asking for an explanation for Devi’s distress, but Devi didn’t really have one yet.

“We’re in his car on the highway,” her cousin was saying. “He was a little drunk, so I’m driving.”

Devi had imagined that Kamala was exaggerating, but no, this was really starting to sound like a kidnapping.

“You better be on hands-free right now,” she lectured. Then, because she wasn’t exactly a paragon of road safety herself—barely an hour ago, she’d walked right out in front of Paxton’s jeep—didn’t wait for confirmation. “What the hell happened? Context, Kamala!”

“Well, as soon as I snuck out of the house—”

“But why did you sneak out?!”

“Devi, I can’t talk about that right now!” Devi’s eyebrows shot up at the clear and abnormal hysteria in her cousin’s voice. “I ran out of the house,” Kamala continued, “totally directionless, and the first thing that popped into my head was Manish’s invitation for me to come to karaoke…”

“Ew, what the fuck, don’t call Mr. K that.”

What? Fab mouthed at her, but Devi shook her head.

“That is his name and what he asked me to call him. Anyway,” Kamala said, sounding strained, “I went to your school and met up with him and now I’m driving his car and I think I might have shut my sari in the car door, but I’m scared to pull over and check because if I stop the car, I’m going to have to confront things and I think I’d rather not do that yet.”

“Kamala,” Devi said in a heavy, careful voice. “You have to pull over. I totally get what you’re saying because it sounds like something I might do—minus the part where you kidnapped Mr. K—” Fabiola’s eyes went dramatically wide as she was adjusting her tiara. “—but this isn’t you. You don’t run away from your obligations and elope with my teachers!”

“Manish and I didn’t elope. It isn’t in any way romantic.”

“For sure though? It’s not?” Devi heard another voice in the car ask.

“Mr. K, back off! Kamala’s in the middle of a crisis!” she shouted. “And please be drunk enough to forget that I yelled at you.”

“Devi, what should I do?” Kamala asked, sounding desperate in a sad way now.

“Where are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Ok, well, which direction are you heading in?”

“Um, either north or south.”

“You’re a disaster,” Devi muttered.

“What was that?”

“Uh… I said, don’t drive any faster. Try to read the next sign you pass so you can tell me where you are.”

“Alright,” Kamala said.

Devi tilted her phone away from her mouth so her cousin wouldn’t hear her frustrated sigh. She locked eyes with Fabiola.

“Kamala panicked at her engagement dinner and ran off with Mr. K. They’re either headed for Mexico or Canada, but I’ll know more in a minute.”

Fab blinked.

“Wow.”

“I know. It’s a lot. And this is me talking,” Devi emphasized.

“I don’t know if you would do anything this big. Mainly because you don’t have a driver’s license.”

“True.”

“Santa Barbara in twenty-six miles,” Kamala said in her ear.

“Damn, you made good time.”

“The traffic was quite manageable.”

“Try to calm down a little and get off the highway when you can. Don’t go past Santa Barbara. I’m coming to talk you down in person,” Devi said. “Oh, and don’t answer any of my mom’s calls; she’ll just stress you out.”

“That doesn’t seem very responsible. How about I send her a text when I stop to let her know I’m ok?”

Devi rolled her eyes.

“Suit yourself.”

“Thank you, Devi. But how will you get here?”

“Let me worry about that. Text me when you stop so I know exactly where I’m going.”

“I will.”

“’K. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Devi hung up and sighed massively, slumping into the wall and feeling a streamer crumple against her back. She and Fabiola stared at each other.

“What are you gonna do?” Fab asked.

“Be the hero my family needs, but not the one they deserve.”

“Are you misquoting Batman to justify doing something reckless?”

“First of all, rescuing Kamala isn’t reckless, and second of all, the movie isn’t called Batman, it’s The Dark Knight. Young-ish Christian Bale, hello.”

Fabiola pointed a finger at her own face.

“Young-ish out-of-touch lesbian, hello. At least I was close.”

Devi sighed again while Fab smiled sadly at her in obvious sympathy.

“It’s after ten at night. How am I gonna get to Santa Barbara?”

“Assuming you’re not going to ask your mom—”

“No.”

“Then you need a ride.”

“You need a ride? I’ll drive you.”

It was Paxton, walking up and tentatively taking Devi’s hand while darting uncertain glances at Fabiola. Devi felt her entire face light up.

“You don’t want to know where or why?” she teased.

His expression said those were insignificant details. Wow. Devi’d never had a fantasy where Paxton joined forces with her, bounty hunter-style, to track down a flighty Kamala, but this felt oddly romantic. Passionate even? They’d see where the night took them.

“You wouldn’t wanna leave the dance unless it was serious,” Paxton reasoned. “So, I’ll drive you. You wanna go now?”

“I guess we better. Lemme just grab my…”

“I’ll get it,” Fab said, raising a hand like the nerd she was as she volunteered.

She darted back through the dancers to grab Devi’s things and Devi watched their classmates part for their Cricket Queen. She was so proud of Fab. Also, she felt kinda bad for ditching such a momentous occasion. But Kamala needed her, and would totally do the same for her if she ever went off the deep end and kidnapped a dude while fleeing a proposal. Not that Devi could see herself fleeing a proposal (she glanced at Paxton as she thought this, then quickly away, thinking, Way too soon!). Carrying out a kidnapping? With a sufficiently convincing pro-and-con list, anything was possible.

“Basically, Kamala freaked and drove to Santa Barbara with a drunken Mr. K,” Devi said, because Paxton might not have asked to be informed, but she wanted him to know what he was getting himself into. Beyond that, she wanted to give him the chance to say, No way, Devi. I came here to look hot and dance up on you, nothing more.

“Oh shit,” was what he said.

“Damn right, oh shit. You still want to drive? This is going to take a while.”

She should probably have felt guilty about trying to subtly persuade him with her eyes, but not only was Paxton the least complicated option, he was also her first choice. If she maintained eye contact long enough, Devi figured it might trigger some kind of boyfriend override that made going for a long drive at night just as appealing as staying here and dancing with her butt pressed thrillingly to his groin when the teacher-chaperones weren’t looking.

“As long as we can hit up the bathrooms first. I was going to, but then I got talking to Trent, and then Marcus was doing a handstand…”

“Definitely,” Devi assured him. “Good call. Empty the tank. Oh, actually, that reminds me… how much gas do you have in your jeep? If we need to stop at a gas station, I’ll have to factor that in to the ETA I give Kamala.”

Paxton shook his head at her, smiling in what she liked to think was affectionate amusement.

“I filled it up on the way here. I needed a minute to, uh…” To her epic astonishment, he ducked his head self-consciously, cheeks pinking. “You know. Get my shit together. Up here.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “I wanted to show up for you, like, completely. You know?”

Right as Devi was at dangerously high risk of sagging to the floor in blissful bonelessness, Fabiola sprang to her side, shoving the rest of her possessions at her.

“Ok, ok!” Devi said, harried.

She had to dump it all on the bathroom counter a minute later anyway, but after she’d done her pre-road trip pee, she came out and gave Fab a better thank-you.

“Your Highness,” Paxton told Fabiola with a nod.

Fab nodded back, smiling wryly.

“Prosecutor.”

“I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” Devi assessed, “but we gotta go! Say congrats to Eve for me again!”

“Sure. Drive safe!”

Devi and Paxton pushed through the doors together, striding quickly with his hand wrapped around hers. In the parking lot, she glanced sideways to see him digging his keychain out of his front pocket.

“Oh,” she said, “so I wasn’t just feeling that you were very happy to dance with me.”

Until they got into the jeep, it was too dark to see whether she’d gotten him to blush again, but she liked to think that she had. He was definitely smiling.

They got in and Devi carefully tucked her skirt around her legs, mind on Kamala’s cautionary tale. At least it was until Paxton leaned forward to shrug out of his jacket and she saw his shoulder muscles jump beneath his fitted button-down, his narrow black tie swinging forward. Dang. Fifty shades of Hall-Yoshida.

“Santa Barbara?” Paxton double-checked once he was settled behind the wheel, steering out of the student lot.

“Santa Barbara.”

Until they were on the highway and heading out of Los Angeles, Devi did her best to keep her worry about Kamala’s situation contained to the way she flapped her phone against her thigh. Usually, she was stressing about the problems right in front of her (when she wasn’t blatantly ignoring them, only to have that approach bite her in the ass later), but with whatever was going on with Kamala, she kinda had to look ahead.

Had she wanted Kamala to get engaged to Prashant that badly? Well, the best thing about Prashant was that you never knew when having additional hot relatives would be to your benefit. (Devi was already hoping that Mr. K would get over the more nerve-wracking elements of this night and just remember having fun with her stunning cousin… and that this could possibly translate into at least a month of generous grades, if she could somehow spin these shenanigans as an intentional blind date arranged by herself.) However, an engaged Kamala was wholly different from a married Kamala. She wouldn’t be around to watch nonsensical episodes of Riverdale, or be duped into hijinks, or listen to Devi when her mom was too tired, or bitch about her shitty lab-mates in exchange for sitting through Devi bitching about her complicated feelings on the subject of Aneesa dating her ex. She wouldn’t live with them anymore, and the family that had begun to miraculously fill out after her dad had died would be back down to three. And the other two members of it would be old (Sorry, Mom, she thought) and not at all prepared to champion her dating life or the cleavage-accentuating formal dress currently buoying it.

So, yeah, Devi was looking ahead—eyes glazed over as the yellow lights of cars slipped around them to prevent her vision from fully adjusting to the blue-black sky—and feeling more than a little nervous and scared of the Kamala-shaped hole she’d have in her life if her dazzling, dorky cousin left her house for one she might eventually fill with the most beautiful children the world had ever seen.

Thankfully, Paxton was there. It startled her when he took one hand off the wheel and felt across her lap to grab hers, loosely interlacing their fingers. Devi quit hitting her phone against her leg. She sent off their updated location to Kamala and then let her phone fall flat.

“Did she say where she was?” Her boyfriend’s voice was quiet in the car and she realized for the first time that her head had been too crammed with thoughts to put on any music.

“Carpinteria State Beach. Do you know the exit?”

“We’ll find it.”

“And if you want me to drive while you rest on the way back…”

Paxton laughed.

“No way. Safety first.”

“Says the guy driving one-handed,” Devi countered, not that she was eager to surrender the hand warming hers.

He turned his head just long enough to shoot her a look.

“Whoa, pal, eyes on the road!” she said. (She had a half-baked plan to call her boyfriend ‘pal’ a few times and thereby de-weaponize the word in a memory that still felt like a fading bruise, an almost-gone sore spot in who she and Paxton were before they were openly a them.)

“Sorry,” he said, staring out the windshield again. He grinned. “You look gorgeous.”

“Really?”

“So gorgeous.” Paxton’s voice was softer this time, the underlying laugh it had carried since she’d offered to drive his jeep drained out of it. It was nearly a sigh.

“Thanks. So do you.”

“You know, I feel fucking awful for hitting you with my car, but I still think I mighta felt worse if I’d walked in and seen you dancing with somebody else.”

Devi twisted their hands, touching the back of his to her thigh so she was sandwiching it between leg and palm for a moment, aiming for reassuring.

“I wanna say I would never be that flaky, but my previous offenses speak for themselves.”

“So does doing this with me.”

“Uh,” she droned, “to recap, you left a fun thing to do a huge favour for me. You’re talking about it like this is my act of redemption. I feel like if you examine it for a sec, you’ll see how I’m actually kind of a dick for accepting your help.”

“I want us to be together,” he said bluntly. “Here we are. Together.”

“It’s that simple?”

“I don’t see why it can’t be.”

“Huh. I think you’re really gonna be good for my tendency to overcomplicate a situation.”

Paxton laughed and unthreaded his fingers from Devi’s. But it wasn’t to release her for pointing out that this date was, in actual fact, the coordinated response to a family crisis; his fingertips moved lightly over her palm, momentarily trapped when her fingers flinched inward in reaction to how it tickled, then traced along the thin skin of her inner wrist. He wasn’t trying to pull away. He was lingering. Though his touch when he sunk his hand into her hair or drew her closer by her waist had always been fairly gentle, it had often had the faint aggression of hastiness to it, clutching her as they made out in her room, always listening for footsteps in the hallway. How Paxton touched her now was pure, exploratory tenderness. It made the hairs on the back of Devi’s neck stand up as a wave of shivers rushed up her spine and crested somewhere around the nape of her neck.

He must’ve felt that wave break, the foamy aftereffects in some tic of her arm or quickening of her pulse while his fingers skimmed gradually up the inside of her arm towards her elbow, because he chanced another quick glance at her.

“That feels good,” she explained.

Paxton looked forward, nodding slowly, and shifted in the driver’s seat.

“Good.”

She thought it must have felt good for him too, knowing he’d made her shiver.

—

The miles were flicking past for Paxton—another, another, another, as fast and steady as the dashed lines painted between the lanes, his arms cutting the water on the front crawl. He wanted Devi, beside him, to believe that he was paying attention to his driving, but he was honestly kinda zoned out. Like that time he’d swum to San Diego, he let his body go through the motions (in this case, twitching the wheel, putting on cruise control when traffic thinned so he didn’t have to focus on the pedals) while his mind floated freely.

Where it floated was to his girlfriend.

At ten years old, he’d been the last kid in his swim class to jump off the 10m board. It was optional—a treat after getting water up their noses turning somersaults below the surface and doing egg-beater legs in between—but all the other boys in the group had done it eagerly, shrieking on their way down to sloppy pencil dives. Paxton had climbed the stairs all the way to the top easily enough, even stepped onto the wide platform, bordered by metal railings and rough under his bare feet. He’d walked out to the end and frozen to find himself so high above the pool.

He hadn’t feared the water, he’d feared the air. Being so exposed on his own at the end of the diving board. Eventually, he’d retreated, then surprised the coach waiting down at the poolside by turning around and taking the jump at a run. Few memories felt as good as the sensation of giving himself back to gravity and letting it reunite him with the water. He’d just had to get past the exposure.

Same thing tonight, going to find Devi at the dance. Holding her hand in his had been him reaching the platform, but when they stood together, just inside the school’s doors, Paxton hadn’t known for sure whether he would take the leap or retreat. And not just for a running start this time, but in a way that turned his sixteen-year-old present self back into one of those nervous ten-year-olds who wimped out and had to take the coward’s way down—descending each step they’d climbed. He might not have run, and yet he hadn’t needed to back up and race into their relationship either. Momentum hadn’t carried them inside for everyone they knew to see them. It had been a calm approach, even if he’d been shaking on the inside when he saw Trent staring at them.

So maybe Paxton had learned something in the last six years, or maybe it was harder to feel exposed with somebody right next to you.

She really did look gorgeous, like he’d said, and because he didn’t want her to worry about his focus if she spotted him gazing at the side of her face while she texted her cousin, the glances he stole were of the knee region. Her dress’s overlay sparkled when the high lights of eighteen-wheelers passed them and the specific teal of the dress itself reminded him of a river he’d swum in once during an out-of-state family vacation. Natural and deep and fresh, and exasperating for his parents because he’d accidentally doggy-paddled himself all the way to a small waterfall and hadn’t heard them calling him back for dinner around the campfire. He felt all that about Devi, except for hoping for a different reaction from his parents when they met her.

Holy shit. He was going to have to introduce his girlfriend to his embarrassing hippy parents. But then, she’d already met Rebecca, so maybe they were set? A sister’s approval should count for a ton.

No, no, no, Devi would have to meet his parents. He was doing this. The two of them were doing this. Paxton exhaled determinedly through his nose and made himself concentrate on the remaining miles he needed to cover. His mind, anyway. His hand continued to stroke and search, covering his girlfriend’s hand with his until he had her fingers tucked away protectively under his own, and then caressing all the way up to the crook of her elbow so suddenly that she made a noise between a laugh and a yelp because he’d unintentionally tickled her. Man, she was cute.

The very end of their journey required the most concentration from Paxton; he finally took back his hand to have both on the wheel as he steered them off the highway and Devi’s got lonely or something, because it chased across to where he was sitting and landed on his thigh. His jaw clenched. He could feel the heat of her palm through his pantleg and congratulated himself on being a driving legend for driving smoothly to where they needed to park for beach access.

Devi had a pink sweater that she put on, but Paxton grabbed his jacket out of the back as well in case she needed it. It was almost midnight and a breeze rolled up off the water, rippling his tie and swishing Devi’s dress. He didn’t have to ask what they should do next—there was just one other car parked nearby and Devi’s cousin was already standing outside of it, raising a hand to wave sheepishly as they got out of his jeep.

“Here,” he said, holding out his jacket for his girlfriend to put her arms through the sleeves. “You guys talk. I’ll be down at the beach.”

Devi turned her back to him as she accepted the jacket, but she glanced over her shoulder with a look of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You’ll want privacy. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

“Just don’t swim away, ok?” she requested. “I don’t think I can handle more than one rescue mission per night.”

Paxton could tell by her expression that it wasn’t entirely a joke. He grinned and gripped his lapels, now on Devi, reeling her in.

“I promise. You’d probably take the opportunity to try to drive the jeep home, and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Me committing grand theft auto or me getting hurt?”

“I bet they tested you for smartness,” he said, “but you think they have a test for being a smartass? You’d score high, Vishwakumar.”

“I know, I know, you don’t want me to get hurt.”

She was so infuriatingly flippant, rolling her big brown eyes at him.

“That’s right,” Paxton said plainly. There he was, up on the platform again.

Devi straightened his tie and let her hand rest flat on his chest. He remembered how overwhelmed she’d looked the first time he’d placed her palm there, right on his skin. Even now, it almost made him laugh.

“Ok,” she said, and he was surrendering himself to the sweet strength of gravity, propelled down to the beach while Devi stayed to talk to Kamala.

—

Devi had heard that there were tidepools here, and she was nervous about stepping into one and spearing some aquatic animal on her high heel. Well, she couldn’t magically improve her night vision, but she could take her shoes off and remove the possibility of impalement. They dangled from her fingers as she picked her way down to the beach.

Her boyfriend was sitting in the sand, staring out at the ocean. It just looked so romantic—with the stars the sky was too bright to see at home, and the waves, and the back of Paxton’s white shirt in the moonlight—that Devi decided to slip into the scene without saying anything at all.

A mistake. Paxton gasped and jumped. Apparently, he hadn’t heard her over the noise of the water.

“Sorry, sorry!” she said.

He sighed and smiled, getting to his feet.

“How’d it go?”

“I think it went well. She was feeling calm enough to drive, so she’s on her way home now. She’s gonna cover for me until we get back.”

“That’s good… but what about Mr. Kulkarni?”

“He was passed out in the passenger’s seat,” Devi stated. “I guess he’s kind of a lightweight? Kamala said she’s going to drive back to our school and leave him and his car in the parking lot. She’s planning to call my mom for a ride home. If it were me, I think I’d take the bus and try to sneak back into the house as quietly as possible, but Kamala still has a lot to learn about how to thoroughly dodge your problems.”

“And maybe about how to climb to the second floor of your house from the outside?” Paxton suggested with a meaningful smirk.

She did her best to return it, but the odds were that it didn’t look nearly as sexy on her. Then again, she had moonlight and midnight and well-displayed cleavage on her side.

“How’d you learn to do that so quietly anyway?” Devi asked, tossing her shoes to the sand and stepping forward to boldly wrap her arms around Paxton’s waist.

He’d had his hands in his pockets, but as soon as she’d begun to move towards him, he’d pulled them out. His arms encircled her, his hands on the back of his own black jacket. Although Devi wanted to offer him the jacket back—he felt slightly chilly through his shirt—she didn’t want the two of them to separate. Besides, body heat was a thing. This was practically what it was for. So Devi just pressed herself closer, breathing the scent of the ocean and Paxton’s fading cologne.

“Trent,” he said.

“Yeah, actually, that checks out.”

Were there boundaries between warming someone up while having a conversation and just hugging them? It wasn’t clear to Devi, but it felt good when they both went quiet for a while. She stood unevenly on the cold sand and listened to the thud of Paxton’s heart.

“You never said yes,” he said eventually, quietly.

“Yes to what?”

“I told you I came to the dance as your boyfriend and you never actually agreed to be my girlfriend. We kinda just started making out.”

Devi lifted her cheek from his chest so she could look at him. He didn’t appear disappointed, more like he was making an observation. Maybe he’d been reflecting, out here in the dark, while she and Kamala had talked.

“In my books, that’s an obvious yes,” she said, grinning. “What more do you need?”

She could see him trying not to smile.

“A little atmosphere would be nice,” Paxton said. “Maybe a long drive, or the beach. A full moon. Romance me, Vishwakumar.”

Devi vibrated with silent laughter. Or her heart was just beating really, really freaking hard.

“Sounds like you’ve got some pretty big expectations there.”

“And stars,” he added. “There should be a shitload of stars.”

With that, he took one hand off her back to point far above them. Devi tipped her head back, the light of the stars a friendly blur as she tried to pick one to settle on, just one. Paxton’s face coming forward to hover over hers blotted them out. Her boyfriend kissed her, light and ghosting and then firm and slow.

“On the other hand,” he said, pulling back a little, “I think we were onto something with the making out.”

Devi smiled and dug her toes into the sand to make herself taller, lips at the ready and realigned with his.

“We did set a precedent.”

[actress4him]

Bonus Whumptober Content

I had no plans originally of continuing the story from Whumptober Day 28. As far as I was concerned, it ended badly and that was that.

But you can all thank @outtacommission , because I was bribed into continuing it!

If you need a refresher on the original chapter, click the link above or read it on AO3.

This is the start of the new content, which ended up being super long, so I broke it up into three short chapters. I’m really excited and nervous to share this. Writing sequels for oneshots that weren’t originally supposed to be continued is...tough. This is the second time I’ve done it, and I always feel like the continuation isn’t as good as the original. But I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, so I hope that you guys enjoy it, too!

Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defender

Warnings: (big spoilers!) needles, implied CPR, broken bones, blood, brain damage, paralysis, amputation, panic attacks

.

“Quiznak. Oh, holy quiznak, Keith?”

.

“He’s not breathing. I’ve got no pulse.”

.

“Hold him steady, I’m cutting the back of this chair off so we can get to the shrapnel.”

.

“Come on, Keith. Breathe. Breathe!”

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“Look, I found this in Red’s first aid kit. I’m a universal donor.”

“Get it hooked up, he needs everything we can give him.”

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“Please, Keith. Please.”

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“Shiro, his ribs…”

“I know. They’ll heal.”

.

“Wait! Look!”

“Oh my g-...okay. Okay. Hurry, let’s get him to the Black Lion. I’ll need you to ride with him so you can keep up the transfusion.”

“Right behind you.”

.

.

Consciousness came in spurts. The first time, he surfaced from the never-ending blackness to nothing but cold and pain, and the feeling that his insides were twisted into a big knot and trying their best to exit his body. As he retched, body automatically jerking to try to sit up or roll over and sending even more pain shooting through him, frantic voices surrounded him.

“...reaction...blood…!”

“But...O neg...shouldn’t…”

Somebody scooped him up like a baby and ran, jarring his screaming abdomen with every step, before depositing him onto a semi-soft surface.

“...Galra…”

“...sample...synthesize more…”

The words meant nothing to him. All he knew was pain and nausea, and a blur of lights and movement above him.

Just before he passed out again, there was a sharp prick in his forearm that momentarily drew his attention away from the rest of the pain. He couldn’t find the energy to protest it.

.

.

The second time, voices were the first to filter in, hushed tones that sounded as if they were speaking a foreign language. His eyes fluttered open, but the bright lights overhead made him wince and squeeze them back shut. 

“You’re okay,” someone soothed, the only words he could actually pick out from among the rest. “You’ll be just fine. Go back to sleep, now.”

There was a prick on the back of his hand, and he whimpered involuntarily. But a moment later the nothingness was taking back over, and he gladly slipped underneath.

.

.

The next time he woke, he had no recollection of the first two times, or of anything that happened before, but for some reason he was surprised to be waking up. Somehow, he didn’t think he was going to do so. But here he was, awake. Only, he had no idea where here was.

“Keith? Bud? You with us?”

He knew that voice. Turning his head toward it, he willed his eyes to open, and after a moment, they obeyed. A blur of yellow and brown met him. 

“Hey, bud! It’s good to see those eyes open. Can you hear me?”

Keith blinked, trying to bring the person into focus. Once their features had solidified enough that he could make out dark brown eyes and a smile, he licked his chapped lips and attempted to speak. 

“Hunk.” For some reason the N dragged on for much longer than he had intended, but it was a word, regardless.

“Yeah! That’s me! Oh my gosh, you have no idea how happy I am that you’re awake and okay.”

How long had he been asleep? It must have been a while for Hunk to be worried. And he was pretty sure he felt okay, though maybe a bit numb overall. Maybe he really had been asleep for a long time. It kinda felt like he was waking up after one of those naps you take while you’re sick and your fever breaks in the middle of it.

He licked his lips again, to no avail. “‘hirsty.”

“Yep, yep, I’m sure you are.” Hunk turned and snatched something up off a nearby table, bringing it toward Keith’s face. “Here ya go. Small sips.”

The water was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted in his life. He wanted to gulp it all down, ignoring what he had been told, but Hunk pulled it away after only a couple of seconds. 

“Okay, I’m gonna go get Shiro and Fallenta and let them know you’re awake, alright? I’ll be right back.”

Keith struggled to process that sentence. He didn’t think he recognized one of those names, and he still couldn’t figure out why him being awake was such a big deal. Unless...he had gotten hurt in one of their fights. But then why wouldn’t he be waking up from the pod, not in whatever bed this was?

“Wha...happened?” His words continued to come out strangely, despite his best efforts. Maybe he had been sleeping on his face, because it was one of those numb parts of him that didn’t seem to want to move properly.

Hunk froze at the doorway, turning slowly to face him. “Um...what do you remember?”

It was a good question. Wrinkling his brow, he searched his still half-dazed mind, trying and failing to grasp at the snippets of memories that danced by. It didn’t take long for his head to start hurting, and he shut his eyes, giving up for the moment. “Don’t know. A fight?” He had a vague recollection of being in Red recently. “In the Lions?”

“Um, yeah, well, that’s...one thing that happened.” Hunk seemed nervous, fidgeting with his hands. “I’m gonna go, um, get the others, and they can tell you everything, ‘kay?” Without giving Keith a chance to protest, he disappeared through the door.

Keith sighed, and tested out various parts of his body. Other than most of his right side being curiously numb, and an almost unnoticeable ache in a couple more places, everything seemed to be working properly. He had been in Red right before waking up there...right? Maybe she could tell him what was going on.

Only when he closed his eyes and reached for their connection, he came up empty. There was nothing there. No hum, no purr, nothing. His heart leapt into his throat. Red! Red, where are you? What if something had happened to her? What if she was gone? What if he had done something to make her reject him, and he wasn’t even a paladin anymore, what if that’s what Hunk didn’t want to tell him? If he wasn’t a paladin anymore, then he’d...he’d be nothing. Useless. There would be absolutely no reason for him to be in the Castle anymore, in space at all. The other paladins would take him back to Earth and dump him off, and he’d have no one and nothing yet again.

The door opened, and Keith shot upright, ignoring the way it made his head swim and that ache in his ribs twinge. “I can’t feel Red! I can’t...what happened? Where’s Red?”

“Hey! Hey, shh, Keith, it’s okay!” Shiro was across the room in an instant, sitting down on the side of the bed and grasping Keith’s shoulders in both his hands. “I need you to calm down for me, okay? I’ll explain, but I need you to take deep breaths.”

Drawing in one such breath to appease the man, Keith glanced around the room, taking in Hunk’s worried expression and the alien stranger that stood on the other side of his bed. “Somebody please just tell me what's going on.” The words were still slurred, which was getting more frustrating by the second. “Why’m I here?”

He hated the look that Shiro shot up at the alien before catching his eyes again. They were treating him like a fragile child. Even when he was a child, he had gotten more bad news in his few years than most adults did in their whole lives, so it wasn’t like he didn’t always expect more. 

“You were in an accident,” Shiro finally explained, still speaking far too slowly and softly. “You and Red got hit with a zaiforge cannon and crashed into a nearby planet. Do you remember?”

Keith already knew he didn’t, so he wasn’t going to waste time searching his memory when he still wanted answers. “Where’s Red? Is she okay?”

Offering a sympathetic smile, Shiro squeezed his shoulder with his flesh hand. “She’s in rough shape. All her systems are shut down right now. But Pidge and Coran and Hunk have been working on her, and they’re optimistic that everything can be fixed. With time.”

Letting all his breath out with a whoosh, Keith slumped over forward. It was simultaneous good news and bad news. Red hadn’t rejected him, or at least he didn’t think so. But he hated that she was so badly hurt. “I wanna see her.”

Shiro’s smile twitched up a little higher. “I know. But first, we need to check on you. You’ve been unconscious for quite a while. Everything seems to have healed up alright, but there were some things that couldn’t be tested while you were out.”

As if this was their cue, the alien - an objectively pretty, willowy creature with mauve fur, four long, thin arms, and a myriad of long, thin fingers on each hand - stepped forward. Their voice was light and feminine, and had a lilting accent that reminded him of Lance when he fell into his native tongue.

“I am going to give you some simple instructions to follow, okay?”

Keith frowned. “Who ‘re you?”

“Oh, yes, right.” Shiro indicated the newcomer with one hand. “This is Fallenta. She’s a Tellimite. They’re one of the most medically advanced species in the universe. We wanted to make sure you had the best care possible, so Allura brought us to Tellima as soon as we had you in the pod. Fallenta has been...indispensable.”

His explanation only caused Keith more confusion. If he had been in a pod, then why did he need a doctor? And again, why was he in some bed now? 

Seeming to sense his questions, Fallenta smiled and settled down opposite Shiro. “There were some...complications from your injuries. Coran and Shiro made the right call by placing you into a healing pod right away, knowing that it was the only way to save your life, but that meant that your bones that were broken could not be reset before healing. One of my jobs was to correct this once your abdomen wound was no longer life threatening.”

“Yes, you actually had two different stints in the pod,” Shiro nodded. His brow furrowed. “Well, three, if you count the time that your body rejected the blood Pidge had given you and started trying to shut down. Thankfully, Coran had those samples he took from all of us at the beginning, and was able to synthesize some more of yours.”

Keith couldn’t stand the troubled expression on Shiro’s face, especially since he had been the one to put it there. Lifting his left arm, he gently squeezed his brother’s elbow. “I’m okay now.”

Shiro smiled, but there was a sheen to his eyes. “You have no idea how relieved I am about that.”

“Your cognition seems to be just fine,” Fallenta said, “and losing memory of the traumatic event is not uncommon. There are a few other things I need to check, though.”

She spent the next few minutes shining a flashlight into his eyes, asking him some questions about things that happened prior to the accident, getting him to remember a short list of objects, and observing his reactions to various movements and sounds. All of it led Keith to believe that it was his brain being tested, and it made him nervous. No one would tell him anything else, though, simply repeating that they would explain everything shortly.

It seemed to be going well, though, and everyone was smiling and calm, so he tried not to let it get to him. Until Fallenta moved on to testing sensations. She started on his left arm, lightly touching it with her finger, then poking her claw into his skin, then digging in her knuckle. Everything felt like it should.

“Alright, the right arm, now.” She smiled at him and held his gaze, but after a moment of nothing further happening, her smile faded into a neutral expression. Another moment, and he was wondering why she hadn’t done the test yet. 

“Do you feel any of this, Keith?”

“What?” He looked down, and her finger was on his forearm. As he watched, she moved it up and down his arm, tapping lightly. He swallowed hard. “It's...it's been really numb e’er since I woke up. My face an’ leg, too.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shiro stiffen. “What does that mean?”

Fallenta smiled again, and as nice of a smile as it was, he was beginning to hate it. “Let’s complete the tests, and I will be able to tell you more. Can you feel this?” 

This time he watched as she pricked him with her claw, and to his relief, there was a faint jolt of pain. “A little. It's muted, though.”

“That’s good. And this?” She used her knuckle that time, and again, the pressure was faint.

“Same. What's wrong with my arm?” he demanded, glaring first at her, then Shiro. “Why can’t I talk right?”

“Have patience -”

“No!” Keith yanked his arm away from her with far more effort than should have been required. “I'm out of patience! Tell me what's wrong!”

Shiro put a hand on Fallenta’s shoulder, nodded at her, then reached forward and took Keith’s hand. “When we found you…” He paused, his jaw clenching and eyes flicking away for a split second before he seemed to steel himself to continue. “Your heart had stopped. It’s impossible to say how long you had been like that. I was able to get it started again, but it took a few minutes. So your brain…” Drawing in a deep breath, he let it out in a sigh. “It was without oxygen for several minutes, at the least. Brain damage has been a concern from the very start. When I said you have no idea how relieved I am that you’re okay...it was possible that you wouldn’t ever wake up. Or if you did, that you wouldn’t be able to function at all.” An errant tear slipped out, and he dashed it away with his metal hand. “But you’re here. You’re awake, and you can speak and think and...and it’s gonna be okay. I promise, it’s gonna be okay.”

Brain damage? The words hit him like a blow to the chest. That meant his arm...his face...they weren’t just numb, they were...they were…

He ripped his hand from Shiro’s grip. “How can you say it's gonna be okay? Do you hear me? I soun’ stupid! An’ my arm...how’m I supposed to fight an’ fly if I can barely move my arm?”

“But you still have some movement and sensation,” Fallenta broke in. “That is very good news. It means that, with physical therapy, you can regain even more use. You can even have speech therapy to help you build up your facial muscles.”

“Speech therapy?” He almost laughed at that. “We’re in the middle of a war, we don’ have time for speech therapy!”

Shiro’s hand landed on his leg. “We’ll make it work, Keith.”

“No. No.” He shook his head harshly. “Get off. Get off me, I need...” Flailing his one good hand toward Shiro and Fallenta, he gritted his teeth against the tears that wanted to fall. The weight on either side of the bed moved as the two of them stood. “I need some air. I need...” Red, that’s what he needed. He reached for the corner of the blanket that covered his legs. “I’m gonna -”

“Keith, wait!”

Shiro and Hunk both lunged, but it was too late. He had already flipped the blanket to the side, revealing what lay underneath.

Or rather, what didn’t lay underneath.

He was gonna be sick.

His leg. It was…it was missing from the knee down.

Keith screamed.

The next minutes or hours were a blur of tears and pain in his chest and breaths that wouldn’t come. He vaguely recalled Shiro being in front of him, his lips moving but no sound coming out. He vaguely recalled thrashing and slamming his head into the wall behind him. 

After that, though, the nothingness took back over.

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