#iNs daddy issues series ⍣

[ink-n-shadow]

single dad!Price just makes me picture odd hour check in’s, random video chats at the ass crack of morning but price and his little boy look so happy to each other that it’s worth it 😭😭

NO LITERALLY😭

like you've worked for helicopter parents before (and promptly never worked for them again), but price is one of the best kinds of helicopter parents. and it's mainly random texts of "how's the lad doing today?" or "did he eat his weetabix? if he didn't, try mixing it with his yogurt" so you can never get mad at him for it.

not even when it's almost midnight during one of your overnight stays and price is video-calling you, sweat caked on his forehead and his body rid of his gear at the safe house for the night.

"hey, sweetheart. i know it's real bloody late, but—"

and you're immediately cutting him off with a stern "john, stop, i know you just wanna see him," before you're pushing up out of john’s bed and padding across the bedroom to where liam's crib is tucked in the corner.

lowering the camera down, you focus on liam's sleeping face, the fat of his cheek smushed against the crib mattress and his pacifier hanging loosely from the corner of his parted lips. his hair (what little he has of it) is mussed up and splayed out across the soft skin of his forehead as he sleeps peacefully, his stuffed lion’s wrinkled head tucked safely beneath his chubby arm.

you don’t see the soft smile price wears on his cheeks, eyes full of fondness and fingers clumsily trying to take a screenshot as you let the camera stay on liam’s face for a bit longer before pulling it back towards you. that’s when you see the soft smile stretch into a grateful one.

“you’ve got the magic touch or somethin’, y’know that? y’know how many babysitters i’ve gone through jus’ ‘cause the little one couldn’t go t’sleep without me?” price’s body eases all of its tension as his eyes once again focus on yours again, watching you make your way back towards his bed and flopping down quietly onto it. “thank you for lettin’ me see him, sweetheart.”

[ohtobeleah]

Was It Over? // Jake Seresin

-> Chapter One: [The Diagnosis]

Summary: The last thing you ever expected was to be diagnosed with breast cancer. To make matters worse? You’d been separated from the love of your life for just shy of a year. How do you tell the love of your life you might be dying? It’s simple really— You don’t.

Warnings: Mentions of Cancer Diagnosis. Jake Seresin x F!reader. Separation. Marriage issues. Mentions of death.

Word Count: 2.1k

Author Note: I've put so much love, passion and time into this series. I'd love to hear all your theories and concepts as each chapter is released.

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist

December 31st 

Jake Seresin tried his best to hide the wet tears that fell down his cheeks as he sat with his kids on the lounge of the home that he had tried his best to keep as tidy as he could. There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of frustration, a lot of fear and unbelievable sadness that surrounded Jake and your three small children. The unknown was truly tragic, terrifying and treacherous, but Jake wasn’t about to let his kids see the way he so desperately wanted to cry. He didn't want his kids to know how truly broken he was. 

“What did mum get you for Christmas daddy?” Little Lenny asked cautiously, knowing the emotions were still raw for them all. He was just six years old but Lennox Seresin knew his life had changed forever. That something had been ripped from his heart never to be returned. 

Jake held the small present in the palm of his hand, the present he had yet to open. The present he wasn’t sure he wanted to. It felt like something he’d held before, the weight felt all too familiar. It haunted him the more he carried it around, held it in the palm of his hand and contemplated the inevitable. 

“I dunno buddy, you reckon I should open it?” Jake asked as he kissed his son's head. “S’not Christmas anymore.” The Naval Aviator had recently shaved his head, it had been the closest to a number one he’d ever had. It was in solidarity, union. A decision he made in the blink of an eye but one he did not regent or ever would. 

“We haven’t taken the tree down yet.” Lucy added her two cents into the conversation as she laid her head on her father’s thigh. “Mum would be upset if you didn’t open it dad.” Jake knew that much was true, you probably would be pretty bent out of shape if he never opened it. 

“Alright, I better open it then huh?” Jake shook the small perfectly wrapped box he could hold in the palm of his hand. He heard what sounded like a rock rattle inside. His heart nearly exploded inside his chest. 

Fuck….Jake knew what it was and he really didn’t want to open it. 

But before we get to that we need to go back a little. So settle in, grab your tissues and emotional support water bottle and hold on for dear life. Because this Christmas isn’t your average festive Christmas fic: No—this one’s something much more heartbreaking. 

***~***~***~***~***~***~

November: 2nd 

“I need you to take the kids for Christmas—“ It was the first thing Jake heard come through the phone as he held it up to his ear. It had been a few days since he’d last heard from you, not that you owed him daily check ins or regular updates, you owed him nothing, after all the two of you had been separated for just shy of a year now. January had been the start of his new beginning, Lieutenants Jake Hangman, soon to be divorced, couldn’t hack it as a husband, Seresin. The title was pretty long winded and riddled with self pity, but Jake wouldn’t ever let himself forget how much he’d let you down as a husband. As a father, as best friend. 

The two of you had been college lovers. The star crossed kind of lovers with Jake being the very definition of Mr Popularity and yourself being the well mannered and reserved library dweller. You’d only stumbled across each other's paths one day in the unlikely event that Jake needed to borrow an actual hard copy of a Douglas A Howard book on the Ottoman Empire. 

He ran right into you—and to this day had never stopped loving you. His Honey. 

“Are we not splitting it between my family and yours like we said?” Jake frowned as he stepped out of his truck in the car park on base. You could hear the familiar jingle of his car keys as he shut the door of that black F150 he loved so much behind himself. 

Your contact remained unchanged, it was simply Honeybee. That term of endearment that illuminated his entire phone screen never boded very well in Jake's favour when it came to his meaningless conquests. Hard Deck Badge Bunnies were a dime a dozen, but they were never you. Never the woman he longed for the most. Never the woman Jake let down more than enough times to count on two hands. 

They were never you, because you left him January seventh at approximately four thirty in the afternoon. Jake would never forget that moment, that unimaginable heartbreak of finally coming to the gut wrenching conclusion that you had a limit. Hearing your voice through the phone as he pulled into work made him remember that you were across the country with his three kids in tow. You weren’t his anymore, he’d loved and lost you and didn’t know how to fix what he’d broken. 

“I thought we were gonna—“ 

There wasn’t an easy way to explain to your ex husband how you were sitting in the doctor's office as you spoke to him looking at your last mammogram results. Aggressive Breast Cancer, Stage three A, triple positive grade three invasive doctoral carcinoma. Merry fucking Christmas. So, you interrupted him with a quick explanation, one so out of character and born out of pure panic to keep your newfound diagnosis of stage three breast cancer that needed to be treated as soon as possible before it could progress. 

“I’ve been invited on a friend's trip, we’re going—“ Jake pretends not to hear the slight pause you took in your explanation, he decided it was because you feel guilty for dumping the kids on him like this. He knows you're not a bad mum, that’s why the kids he loves so dearly and with all his heart spend more time with you in Rhode Island than they do with him in North Island. “To Banff, yeah they booked a few rooms in the Sunshine Village but it’s a no kids trip.” 

“You deserve it.” Jake doesn’t want to argue, it’s what ruined your marriage to begin with. The constant arguing back and forth over everything under the sun. But what Jake knew now that he didn’t back then was that over ninety percent of the time those arguments started because you were just begging him to love you the way you deserved. He’d never put you first a day in your marriage even though you’d selflessly followed him across the country to whatever posting, away from your family and friends, birthed his children, twins with heads just as big as his. You gave him love and support and thought he’d do the same in return. 

But the reciprocal love in the form of equality never came no matter how long you waited or gave Jake, the love of your life, your best friend, the father of your children, the benefit of the doubt. It was you who cooked and cleaned and took care of the kids. It was you who stayed home night after night wondering when Jake would be home. It was you who stayed up riddled with anxiety that his last mission would be just that. It was you who heard the rumours about your husband in every city or small town you moved to. That he was a lady killer, a smooth talking guy with a cock sure attitude. He was the prize at the end of any lucky ladies night. 

Except for you. But you never questioned your husband’s loyalty, never once asked or believed what everyone told you. That’s just who Jake was—a charismatic man with a heart of gold that was often overlooked. He was the best of the best and he’d stop at nothing to get where he wanted to go, to the very top. If Jake Seresin had to move a mountain to achieve his dream of becoming Commander of the Pacific Fleet then he was going to move that mountain. It was one of the reasons you’d fallen in love with his very closested dorky self. 

You just never expected him to drop that very mountain on top of you and bury you alive under the pressure of keeping three beautiful kids alive, working, making sure there was food on the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The endless hours of housework that went unnoticed or the constant stress of being the default parent while deployments passed and new assignments came around. 

Love sometimes isn’t enough, and Jake, despite the endless love you had for the man who made you a mother and a wife, wasn’t enough. He didn’t love you the way you loved him. Endlessly and without hesitation. Jake had always been your number one priority along with your kids, but you weren’t even on his list. 

Jake knew he messed up when you told him you were leaving, he begged you not to, begged you on his knees to stay, that’s he’d change for you, be a better man for you and the kids. That he would do better, be better, be the man you fell in love with. But it was too late. 

He wished he’d listened to you all the times that you had begged him to, so now? He didn’t want to argue, not with the woman he loved so dearly and missed so badly. 

“I’ll take the kids, no problem, just tell me when I need to be at the airport and I’ll meet you guys there.” 

You’d expected a fight, some sort of push back or argument to come from the other end of the phone call as you sat in your doctor's office with eyes trained heavily on your mammogram. But it never came and that made you sure that your ex husband had well and truly fallen out of love with you the way you wished you could with him. At least he cared enough before to argue, now? It was just passive stupidity. 

“Okay, will do.” You pressed your lips together in an effort to not blurt out that you had asked your doctor if you were going to die and she had told you that she couldn’t answer that. In your mind that was a yes, yes you were dying and you felt like you couldn’t tell the one man you’d ever loved that you were taking that one way ticket to the place he’d once told you he wished you’d go in one of your long winded arguments. Hell. “I’ll uh—I’ll get the kids organised and explain what’s going on and I’ll text you all the information, sound good?” 

“Sounds like a plan, Honeybee.” Jake had yet to kick that old habit. He cringed as the terms of endearment left his mouth and stilled in his tracks. “All good on my end.” His attempt to stumble awkwardly through his mistaken term of endearment didn’t go unnoticed by you in the slightest bit. Your stomach filled with butterflies at the terms that had slipped past your ex husband's lips on the other end of the line. 

You missed him, you missed what the two of you used to be before things got so complicated. You missed the gentle nature of Jake's charisma before he fell so deep into the persona he played up for his colleagues and country. The Hangman. Always leaving people hanging, including his wife. 

Jake was just and always would be simply Jake Seresin to you. Your now ex husband but still and forever the love of your life. 

“Okay, I’ll talk to you soon, bye Jake, have a good day.” You hung up before your tears could spill from your lower lash line and left out a heavy sigh. As you closed your eyes and imagined what it would be like to be held in this moment by the man who promised he’d be there for you in sickness and in health, you reminded yourself why you left. You weren’t good enough for him to love you the way you deserved. How could you expect him to love you now when he couldnt even fix a fucking faucet when you asked? 

“Okay, so what’s the next step?” Your doctor just looked at you with sympathetic eyes that told you this wasn’t going to be easy. She took a deep breath and handed you a treatment plan that was in her opinion, the best case scenario for your specific type of cancer.

“You fight for your family, Mrs Seresin.” 

***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***

Tags: @blindedbythelightt @starset21@tayl0rhuynh @mamachasesmayhem @marvelogic @itsmytimetoodream @maverick-wingman @kodzukenmaaa @eternalsams @seitmai @nota-professional @jessicab1991 @hardballoonlove @senawashere @lafrone @fanficfandomlove @withahappyrefrain @dizzybee03 @maisie-rebloging-blog @goldenseresinretriever @a-reader-and-a-writer

[daddyelliott1979]

Reflections on being a Daddy; what does it mean to be a Daddy?

This post is very much inspired by my journey with @squirtdaboi, whom I am going to be posting more about, especially our journey together!

This one is largely based on his series of first experiences he had with me that I'm going to post about separately.

I am his first experience of having a proper Daddy, which to many will mean different things, to me it's a wide subject and one I explain to all of my boys.

1st I will say that being a Daddy is more than just changing Nappies, wiping bums, bottle feeds or tuck ins; it encompasses so much more!

I am his safe harbour

I talk about "safe harbour" a lot, for me it's a deeply powerful belief, in all the world I am the one place to go that's safe and nurturing.

When the world feels too much or overwhelming, Daddy's house is the place to come for a calm, safe and understanding space!

He can experience himself, in all his glory, without judgement, without shame, just love and acceptance.

That includes his mistakes or the aspects about himself that he doesn't love. For example and he may hate me for saying this, but he has one blind eye, that's in his mind deformed. He's been bullied his whole life for it, he's been taught to hate it.

But I personally think it's beautiful, his eyes are beautiful and if you catch it in a certain light it reflects it and glows and it's just stunning!

And that's another thing, he's been taught by the people around him that he's moody, wrong and a problem! Let me tell you something about this boy! He's the sweetest, kindest and deepest little soul you could ever meet and watching him smile lights up the whole room!

That's Safe Harbour!

I am the shield

The world can be a tough place, and for those special boys who dream of a world of soft blankets, cuddles and stuffies it can often be a daunting and cruel place.

But that's ok because I always have my boys backs! You do not want to f@@k with my boys, I can go from chilled out dude to 'I will make it my life's mission to ruin you" if hurt the boys under my care!

And @squirtdaboi will tell you how protective I get, wether it's idiots at college or dumb ass friends, even family have made my shit list.

Of course he always makes me promise I won't do anything, but he knows he's always safe with me; and always feels confident walking about with me, because he knows I'm his shield!

I am the compass

Boys can get a little lost sometimes, both literally and figuratively. They often need guidance, help making choices, especially healthy one's!

I'm always that non-judgmenental person that they can come to for advice, whether it's what to do about a work situation or what nappy to wear, Daddy is always there to help!

I guide my boys to not only be the best baby's that they can be but also how they can be the best big boy also, I'm raising them to be men after all!

Sometimes it's just about holding their hand, a little gentle encouragement, often it's praising them when they do good!

Sometimes it's about reassuring them that I'm not going anywhere, they aren't too much and that they weren't naughty for expressing themselves!

And this brings me to a really heartbreaking point; whoever taught these boys that the things they love were wrong, or they are too obsessed with enjoying their hobbies can really go f@@k themselves!

Get @squirtdaboi talking about music or his guitars, and he's such a talented musician, and you will be taken on a beautiful journey into one of his greatest joys. He's said before "I talked about this too much or I'm boring you" no he hasn't and doesn't. I want to hear about all of it! And more more more!

Understanding their needs

Something that @squirtdaboi tells me often is that even though I have only known him a short time I understand him and his needs better than the people who have been in his life for years.

He can tell you more about that, but in an example I understand how his Sensory issues play out and know how to reduce issues, like patterns on t-shirts and the like.

He needed special ear plugs to help reduce sound and sensory issues, whilst his mum and school debated, made promises and didn't provide, Daddy went straight out and purchased the ones he said he needed; it cost me £50 and 5 minutes of time, but the benefit will be life changing for him!

Conclusion

There are probably so many aspects to being a Daddy beyond just AB stuff, things I provide but don't really think about, I am a Dad for real, so many things come very naturally to me!

But in the end I'm not just here to change messy lamps, but to help, to heal, to guide and to love my boys!

Something that I just take in my stride as my boys take my hand through life!

[fkinavocado]

https://at.tumblr.com/fkinavocado/will-the-di-series-really-go-on-forever/zjm3ghu2bszv i just thought because its what people like the most of your writing and always talk about and request that it will never really finish. the story, sequels, prequels, check-ins, blurbs - it just feels like it will never end. which i am sure is what most people hope for!!! its just that as someone who followed you because of the lhh blurbs i can't help but feel a bit jealous lol

well i also write for lhh even whilst writing for daddy issues. i have a continuation for 'a wish come true' planned and that's lhh. and i love writing blurbs/ one-shots for him the most. but yeah, be more vocal about what you guys would want, maybe send in prompts to get my creativity going and it'll happen more 🤷‍♀️💋

[1d1195]

Protection… omg 😭 I don’t even know where to begin honestly! I’m going to be mixing the final chapter “feedback” with the series overall. But I don’t even like calling it feedback bc I feel like it’s just me GUSHING and fan-girling(do ppl still say that? lol) over your writting kinda like super supportive friend vibes!

ANWAYS omg I was so sad at the beginning when at first you were only introducing Harry interacting with his family, my heart was slowly shattering into pieces bc I THOUGHT WE LOST MISS WILDFLOWER😭 but she popped up and the smile and gasped that I let out omg and you brought it up in such cute casual way as if we weren’t left on a cliffhanger!?! And then she casually dropped the “baby” nickname 😭 MY HEARTTTTT! And the fact that his mom THANKED HER FOR KEEPING HIM ALIVE 💔💔💔 that hurt in such a good way lol

I’m so sad that Harry has developed of having nightmares and just over so emotionally drained and bruised from this :( but honestly I really love how you gave him this ONLY bc it shows how distraught he feels over everything. Before he was her bodyguard he basically lived a relatively normal life like he was just a cute little buff smart guy lol So it makes so much sense that he would respond like this after basically having so much fear installed in him by having her kidnapped and striped away from him and he was lowkey seeing first hand the love of his life almost DYING TWICE!(maybe three if the unfortunate bar incident was worse)and the fact he has to relive that in his dream is just so heartbreaking! But i would be more concerned if he wasn’t affected! And the fact he just wants to keep knowing she alive and just physically near him :( Also he TOLD HER HE LOVES HER 😭 a very private moment between them when he’s so vulnerable around her was so sweet😭

And I’m not surprised on how Miss Wildflowers is reacting only bc I feel like she deep down knew something like this would have happened to her. It’s super sad and dark that she may have though of this but she always knew something was off abt her moms death and her dad’s behavior didn’t help either:( I hope she’ll be okay too!

Also as much as I loved the tiny taste of what their smut /sex dynamic may be I’m glad we didn’t get their first time together fully in the main story. I feel like it would have taken away the shine of the overall plot of the story! There was so much going on, in a good way, that their complexity as both individuals and as a couple needed to have their own shine! It’s def going to so fun how they are going to progress and overcome this new life that is being presented for them! I need so many more Check-ins with them already!!! This is such a beautiful and exciting story that I love it to pieces!!! You did so amazing and I love your work so much you truly never disappoint !! -💜

Omg you are the absolute sweetest 💕 I still say fangirling so I totally know what you mean 😭

I def intended to make it a little “where is she?!” While you were reading so I’m sorry to cause the panic but it was kind of intentional after the cliffhanger. I def thought she deserved credit for keeping Harry alive (I was hoping by her being alive you would all infer that’s what kept Harry alive 🙈 but I’ll take what I can get 💕)

I love making Harry an absolute whiny baby 😭 I do feel like maybe he is a little too distraught. One of my extras he will be less self-deprecating (and another he will not hehehe) I def needed them to say they loved each other 😏 I’m glad you weren’t expecting smut. I agree. Not sure if I’ll get them there either tbh. I might just allude to it kinda thing.

She’s (me) is very good at compartmentalizing when bad things happen. She’ll be fine. She just needs a minute. Daddy issues make her stronger hahaha

I adore you 💕 thank you so much for all the feedback. I love it 💕

Xoxo

[onebighappyaftonfamily]

guys does anyone have any recommendations for fanfiction where michael is an animatronic. I am trying to collect them all.

[howlingday]

RWBY Official Manga Anthology? Feh! That's all garbage, if you ask me. Who cares about some three-year-old in a cape, a princess with daddy issues, some poor me kitty pity party, and a dragon with mommy issues? Nononono! What we want is a team of winners, and those winners are...

Oh no. Uh, maybe Team RWBY isn't so bad. Maybe they just need a little polish and

Shine

...You're really gonna do me dirty like that, huh? Nora's Arc must be a joke to you, huh? Well, joke's on you, because you're not canon. (It isn't in the show, either!) WHO SAID THAT?!

Oof! Poor Jaune. Although, the way I'm seeing it, it kind of looks like Jaune took the hit for Pyrrha.

In tonight's episode, Nora teaches Pyrrha that sometimes "no" means "yes"!

Also, WHAT THE FUCK?!

JNPR girls have no chill!

Eat your heart out, Knightfall/Arcfall fans!

IT'S G&G~! Also, I love that they're all in their jammies. Shows just how relaxed they were back in Beacon.

Aw! I love family moments like these. And speaking of family...

We have two new Arc sisters!

What are you thinking, Pyrrha?

In the name of the shattered moon, I shall-

Face it, Ren is way more impressive than Jaune.

Everything really is better when you're Chibi.

What you may have missed:

Oobleck wrote the textbook for his own class. Does anyone else get a Gilderoy Lockheart vibe from this?

Ren and Jaune share a manly heart-to-heart.

Nora being a predator.

Jaune looking like a DIFFERENT kind of predator.

Shameless Rooster Teeth plug-ins. (BUY THEIR MERCH!) I'M WARNING YOU!

The origin of Pyrrha's training video and who delivered her remains to Jaune.

Jaune almost dying to a Beowolf. In the dumbest. Way. Possible.

Cinder breaking the fourth wall. That's her one good deed for the series.

[al3x1ss]

Picture done by @27kb

Just a friend to you

From her 3rd year in middle school to now a 2nd year at Fukorodani, y/n l/n has always had eyes for, in her mind, the prettiest setter. No matter if she wanted to like him or not, Akaashi Keiji would always be the one for her heart. I mean, why wouldn’t he be? He’s perfect.

Her issue?

She’s just a friend to him.

pairing: akaashi x female!reader

includes: friends to lovers!, smau, written, fluff, crack (not the drug nOT THE DRUG), angst? (like you rEALLY gotta squint tho)

warnings: cursing, if anything else comes up this will be updated! also, time stamps will not matter! months may be brought up once in a while, but as for dates and actual time it will not be relevant.

Updates: Unless something comes up, updates will be every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday at some time usually at 1:25pm EST :)

Note: I do not own Haikyuu!! I only own this story/plotline (obviously) and the following OCs:

Aika, Ena, Haya, Ine, Jun, Takara

playlist

Start Date: 12/3/20

End Date: 2/21/21

fukorohoes daddy akaashi buttered kin

PART 1

Recess

Out of my league

Passing papers

Just a friend to you

Sports

Roaring 20s

Livin’ la vida loca

I wanna be your girlfriend

Still don’t know my name

Sorry haha I fell asleep

Girls

Careless Whisper

Kill this love

Idol

What are you doing New Years Eve?

Jenny

PART 2

When I grow up

Take it from the top

Kiwi

Make a wish

Rollercoaster

Pretty face

Line without a hook

Someone to you

Take a walk

Downtown

Why’d you only call me when you’re high

Champagne

Campus

Somebody to you

Gentleman

Blueberry Eyes

End. <3

Taglist: @winunk @kurushiisaboss @babymattsun @haikyuu-appreciation-club @pumpkiethepie @mint-mai @writingfreakk @tendousfingertape5 @bbyouamazin @navymacaroons @helloalex80 @heavenini @tchalameme @foxxtrot-116 @kageyamasgirl @noya-sleftankle @mariachiii @rory-cakes @sailorstrawberi @iidanotlida @animeflower26 @anngelllla @kyorinkun @reina-de-tay @ish-scribbles @javj @little-dark-empress @athenarosaline @sugawaras-simpsquad @elianetsantana @peteunderoos @thatswhatmakesyoumiserable @ntimacy @thatrandom-bitch @420-uwu @halesandy @immxnty @yamayoomi @ohmsjedi @tazzi-baby @marissaraeblr @briidge @bongofrito @prettyinblack231 @admiringlove @kashhask @uchan-s @putmeinyourdeathnote @ilauvcoldpizza

(FURTHERMORE WILL BE INCLUDED IN COMMENTS)

Leave a message, comment, or an ask if you would like to be added!

© al3x1ss — 2020. all rights reserved. do not repost or plagiarise this series or any of it’s content as your own.

[jakesuit0]

It Came From the Nightosphere Review

And we kick off season two with a Marceline episode! Marcy usually gets left out of season premiers and finales. It’s also Rebecca Sugar’s first time storyboarding an episode, being promoted from her first season job as a storyboard revisionist. Sugar is one of the most popular writers on Adventure Time and in the cartoon industry as a whole. She helped bring the series, and Marceline as a character, to new emotional heights here. Seriously, this episode absolutely slaughters season one’s offerings. Also credit to veteran storyboarder Adam Muto who co-wrote the episode with Sugar.

Marceline opens up to Finn surprisingly quickly after just becoming friends with him. She is a little embarrassed, but sings a sad song about her daddy issues. They could have had one more Finn and Marceline episode to develop their relationship first, but I can see Finn being a safe place for her to open up. The Fry Song, the first of Rebecca Sugar’s famous songs, is an iconic banger. Marcy sings about her dad eating her fries. I think this incident is supposed to be representative of her dad’s self centered behavior. Her father, despite not needing to eat, ate her daughter’s fries when she was still a human and needed to eat. This happened right after the apocalypse when food, especially treats like fries, were rare.  

Rebecca’s original draft of the song, which you can find Rebecca singing on Youtube, was much sadder. Marceline sings about her father leaving her. Considering we see a very young Marceline with her mother in “Everything Stays” and “Obsidian”, we know he was not around then. Either he left her to handle his duties in the Nightosphere, or Elise banished him to protect Marcy from him without ever telling her.

Marceline’s poodle Schwabl is seen in Marceline’s house for the first time. I wish Schwabl appeared more often, especially in episodes that are set in Marcy’s house like “Memory of a Memory”, “Marceline’s Closet”, “I Remember You”, and “Ketchup”. The writers have admitted they kept forgetting to put him in episodes. They usually don’t forget details like that! I do prefer Phil Rynda’s more zombie-like versions of Schwabl in his concept art.

We unfortunately don’t ever see many flashbacks of a younger Marceline interacting with her dad (outside of very brief scenes in “Memory of a Memory” and “Marcy & Hunson”, as well as the probably mostly non canon “Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook”), but you can tell Marceline has a history of longing for and not getting her dad’s approval and understanding. I really wonder if this episode is the first time she’s seen her father since the flashback in “Memory of a Memory" or not. That was a thousand years ago, so probably not? Marcy’s song bums Finn out. In his naivety, he summons Hunson Abadeer, hoping for a reconciliation. He has good intentions, but it is disrespectful to force this reunion onto his friend. He definitely would not have pulled that crap after his run ins with Martin Mertins. 

Marceline's dad, Hunson Abadeer, is actually not named yet. He is referred to as “Lord of Evil” in the credits. His design is great and so is his voice, like Demon Cat, another creepy villain. But, Hunson easily dethrones him as the best villain so far. It’s unbelievable he didn’t recur more. I would have been trying to give him an episode once a season like they did with Lemongrab and Magic Man for a while.

Abadeer is voiced by Martin Olson. Martin (wait was Finn’s dad Martin named after Olson?) is a personal friend of Pendleton Ward’s. He was a writer on “Phineas and Ferb” and is the father of Marceline’s voice actress, Olivia Olson. How often do people get to play characters that have the same relationship in the story as in real life? Olivia described the voice sessions with her dad as a lot of fun. This is the second teenage goth chick who has daddy issues with her evil father that Olivia plays. But, the Lord of Evil is much more intimidating than Dr. Doofensmirtz. 

We learn some new bits and pieces of Marcy’s mysterious backstory. Marceline is half demon and her axe bass is a family heirloom that she repurposed into her iconic axe bass. The axe being an heirloom, and a line from Hunson in “Daddy’s Little Monster” implies that Hunson had parents. Even though its canonicity is in question, “The Enchiridion/ Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook” (written by Martin and Olivia-full circle!) mentions Hunson being one of the primordial monsters seen in “Gold Stars”. Could Golb or one of the monsters be the one to have created and/or raised Hunson ? Did one of them make the axe? Or, maybe it came from Marcy’s mom’s side of the family. This episode doesn’t reference Marceline’s mom, or explain how her demon side fits into her status as a vampire. It leaves us with many questions about her backstory, some to be answered later.

Marceline is understandably upset at Finn’s actions. Hunson Abadeer steals Marcy’s axe bass and goes to suck the souls of Ooo. I like how this gives Finn and Marceline the same goal of tracking down Abadeer, but divergent motivations. Finn cares about saving the denizens of Ooo from Hunson’s soulsucking. Marceling cares about getting her axe bass back. Marceline doesn’t give a shit about any of the people her dad soul sucked. It’s funny how she just finds Hunson sucking Finn’s soul out “embarrassing”. She’s cold. I’m glad that her moral code is still shaky as being friends with Finn for a few weeks or months should not be enough to make her that much more empathetic.

The episode has multiple continuity nods. It features multiple returning characters, species, and locations. The writers said they did this to help make the episode feel big and important, which it is. The show is finally getting more use out of its supporting cast for cameos, like Lumpy Space Princess’s great bit in the climax. Hunson’s encounters with the soft people, Marauders, and penguins are all funny.

Hunson calls Gunter the most evil creature he’s ever encountered. This works well as retroactive foreshadowing for Orgalorg. Ice King has a hilarious cameo too. I wish this wasn’t the only interaction between Ice King and Hunson Abadeer. They both have deep connections to Marceline’s backstory and are father figures to her. Hunson does not suck Ice King’s soul. Does he know who he is? Simon is the one who summoned him to take care of Marceline after he left her in “Everything Stays”, afterall.

Finn and Marceline catch up with Hunson Abadeer. After sucking more souls, he grows to be giant. This allows for a very dynamic fight between Finn and the Lord of Evil. This is Finn’s most powerful enemy yet, but he is still determined to defeat him. After Finn stabs him, Hunson peels his face open and we see what he looks like on the inside. Circumcised Hunson’s head’s design looks even more rad, especially with the soul sacs. Finn slices the tentacle he’s holding onto. Gory stuff!

As Finn and the axe bass fall, Marcy skips over Finn to catch her bass. Finn should have been killed falling from that height! Finn plays Marceline’s song to distract Hunson Abadeer. This humiliates Marceline. Hunson finally feels bad when he sees how he has hurt her, showing that he does care. He and Marcy are able to reconcile. Finn did end up helping in the end! Finn uses this as an opportunity to slice open Hunson’s soul sacks to free the souls and then banish Hunson back to the Nightosphere. Finn has a great line calling Abadeer a “sick freak”. Finn recognizes how disturbing that guy is! He says he’ll see him in the Nightosphere, which works as good foreshadowing for season four.

Marcy is rightfully upset at Finn for violating her privacy. I’ll let it slide since Finn did it to save Ooo. Finn’s error was putting Ooo in danger by summoning him in the first place. She’s also mad that Finn stabbed him. Earlier, she wasn’t offended at Finn’s aim to kill Hunson. She just told Finn he literally can’t kill him because he’s deathless. Now, we see Marcy showing some care for her dad’s wellbeing. An emotionally exhausted Marceline swings her axe bass towards Finn. She almost cut off his arms!

This is the first episode to not have Jake play a major role. He gets no lines. I like how Finn suddenly having a pocket isn’t explained until the last second. He farts in Finn’s pocket, a perfect ending. Jake’s still so scared of Marceline that he has to hide in there! I love how this lets Finn get to go on an adventure with a different character. At least Jake no longer thinks Finn’s under Marceline’s spell. He must have found out that he didn’t really kill Marcy in “Henchman” off screen. 

Grade: A

[misstvirus]

** RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE SPOILERS **

I decided to put this on tumblr so I could hide spoilers from Twitter and full explain why I gave Resident Evil 8 the score 5/10

These are my opinions and my personal review of Resident Evil Village. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I am in no way saying that anyone’s experiences or enjoyment of the game are invalid.

Please excuse me - I had a hard time trying to put my thoughts in order. This is a game summary and commentary after the first few paragraphs.

I first discuss the graphics, music, etc but it turns into me basically explaining the plot so I could express my dismay at the end. Skip to the last few paragraphs to read my mental nerdy breakdown.

The gameplay, graphics and mechanics are perfect. Each installment since of series since Resident Evil 7 - has improved. The game mechanics while in combat such as switching weapons, healing and guarding are smooth, it’s damn near perfect. The Duke brought a lot of nostalgia and memories of Resident Evil 4’s Merchant. I enjoyed being able to interact to upgrade weapons, buy supplies and sell treasures. The games over all aesthetic, atmosphere and attention to detail. Each location was beautiful and you can see the love, sweat and dedication put into the game. The music is there, it is eerie at times but it’s not as memorable as other installments of the game. Resident Evil 7 had its featured title song, “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” - Resident Evil Village’s “Yearning for Dark Shadows” was not as heavily featured and did not get the hype like it’s predecessor.

Resident Evil Village had a good story (please note this is my thought strictly AS A REVITALIZED RE GAME BEFORE THE CHRIS REDFIELD SEGMENT). The story starts by continuing with Ethan and Mia Winters after the events of Resident Evil 7. I knew Capcom moved in a different direction and accepted that as long time RE Junkie that although it’s from the same universe - they would not be the same type of games. Chris Redfield’s end game appearance in RE7 and a few Easter eggs were the only MAIN (not DLC content) links to the previous RE installments. The new set of villains and interesting tie-ins to village folklore story was a great way to foreshadow the events to come. The village and story behind Mother Miranda and her reasoning for creating the big baddies because wanting to bring back her dead child were good and had this been a stand alone or continuation WITHOUT TYING THE GAME INTO THE RE UNIVERSE I would have liked it fully.

The game starts with Ethan and Mia Winters, a new baby, Rose and are Having marital issues not dealing with Louisiana/RE7 events and Chris Redfield shows up and kills “Mia”. Chris’s team takes the baby and Ethan and knocks him out. When Ethan wakes up in wreckage of a van, without his baby and dead drivers. As Ethan wanders into the woods and makes his way to the village. He discovers something is killing the people and meets up with a group of people who worship Mother Miranda and quickly die by monsters. These monsters are called “lycans” who are products/monsters of the Cadou mold similar/same thing in RE7. Ethan finds himself apart of weird meeting of all five villains - who stole baby Rose and want do some weird shit.

Tada! Ethan has escaped and ends up in Lady Alcina Dimitrescu or “Tall Lady” “Vampire Mommy” castle. You are confronted by her and her three daughters Bela, Cassandra and Daniela.

Let me step in to rustle the jimmies and ruffle the feathers of the Lady D hype group. What you see in the previews is what you get. No more, no less! There is nothing special and there are no redeeming qualities or mentions past notes in game files of Lady D outside your castle encounter. The story isn’t based around her, she’s just a tiny part in a larger story plot 1 of 5 villains/baddies. The daughters are overly sexual and have the most cringe worthy dialog. I love me some sexy characters and villains but the daughters were just so cringe. They could’ve AMPED up the horror with them and created a stronger scare factor but dropped the fucking ball. They were not creepy or scary and brought nothing to the story with delivering lines about wanting to “consume Ethan’s manflesh” “not stale as mother said - tastes so good.” Also to be noted they were not actually vampires but bioweapons. Lady D being a good result to the mold “Cadou” and the daughters the result of the Cadou and mixing of insects. You kill the daughters, get chased by Lady D who eventually mutates into a flying tentacle bat-dragon and it’s done, she gone. Sorry to fuckboys who thought she was bigger player.

After Ethan beats Lady D, he grabs a yellow flask that’s apparently filled with the juice and parts of baby Rose - and each of villains has one of these baby-juice boxes. Ethan will have to collect them all to be able to put Rose back together.

Next visit is House Beneviento. This was the scariest of all five villains and village locations in my review of the game. It reminded me of a Silent Hill installment less a Resident Evil installment - the use of light, sound and overall paranormal factor did bring in a successful horrifying portion of the game . The mutated baby chase was comical yet creepy. You have to hide to escape it and you ended up playing hide and seek with possessed dolls. The entirety of House Beneviento will definitely give you an uneasy feeling. Donna, the woman controlling a doll named Angie is another baddie who you later learn is mentally unstable and uses her abilities to manipulate plants - to cause hallucinations to create the creepy doll house scenario. (Oof it’s hard for me to stay on track). Part 2 of 4 of Baby Rose - which yes it what your game objective says.

Next Moreau, a mutated fish man - gives Ethan the Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 game play feel - having to complete actions while some oversized bioweapon is looming around and can take you out with a misstep, like falling in the water or moving too slowly. Moreau did not gain any abilities with the Cadou mold, basically his body wasn’t compatible and he just mutates uncontrollably. Mentally slow, weak and kind of a sad story. Ethan runs into Chris Redfield who tells him to stay out of it and than runs away. Ethans fights Moreau and gets another baby juice jar.

Next Ethan faces off and explores a laboratory with Karl Heisenberg - a bioweapon who can manipulate metal (think a less cool and weakly motivated Magneto). He one of the last big baddies - and motivated by being essentially rejected by Mother Miranda. He is the most stable reaction to the Cadou mold. Before Ethan and Heisenberg face off - Chris Redfield comes in - to reveal he was not the bad guy Ethan thought in the beginning of the game. Mia wasn’t Mia but in fact Mother Miranda in disguise- who was attempting to steal the baby Rose which she ended up doing anyway because Chris’s team wrecked with the baby. At this point I’m say FINE WHATEVER, I guess this works

Chris goes into kill Mother Miranda, we the audience discover the BSAA is now not what is used to be. Chris isn’t affiliating with them and his team hides away from them as they attack. BSAA gets struck down attempting to kill Mother Miranda’s mutation - a megacyte squishy organ (that’s keeping her alive and immortal). Chris puts a massive bomb on big Miranda squishy thing and discovers that Lady Dimitrescu, Karl Heisenberg, Moreau and Donna Beneviento are all attempts to create a perfect vessel to bring back her own dead child Eva, who died in 1912 of the Spanish flu. It is revealed Eveline, the RE7 little girl mold baddie wasn’t another failed attempt. Miranda has turned baby Rose into baby juice to use with the Cadou mold in a ceremony to bring her dead child back.

AND drum roll please - we find out Ozwell Spencer, founder of Umbrella and the progenitor virus the big Daddy of it all was in cahoots with Miranda at some point in his youth and supported her crazy ass research but had his own stuff going on. WHY?! WHO KNOWS? NOT ME! WHY WAS THIS PUT IN THE GAME. To piss me off? Yes. Chris has also discovered Mia is still alive in jail cell for what reason? who knows? And Mia reveals that Ethan is special!

Cue black screen, Ethan awakes to see to Eveline - the mold baddie from RE7. Eveline explains - that Ethan has been dead and died back during the events of RE7. Jack Baker had killed him and dragged him into the house. So he was dead the entirety of RE7 - That explains why Ethan is constantly dismembered, beaten and walking the mold keeps him alive. Ethan will not survive much longer because his missing heart but is determined to bring back his baby. Weakly he carries himself to fight Mother Miranda with Chris. Mother Miranda performs her ceremony with the baby juice boxes and out comes not Eva (her baby) but Ethan’s baby Rose.

They fight and Ethan kills Miranda, carrying Rose off to Chris but that missing heart is the end of Ethan so he takes the trigger for the squishy bomb and pushes Chris away and sacrifices himself for his daughter. Chris boards a helicopter with Mia and baby and the body of a BSAA solider. Ethan blows himself and the Miranda squishy up. The BSAA soldier turns out to be a bioweapon and Mia is distraught at Ethan being for reals dead and Chris is annoyed and directs the pilot for BSAA Europe HQ. Credits Roll, now we see Adult Rose (baby juice reborn as mold human) visiting her Dads grave it’s apparent Chris has been training her and her bodyguard (?) pulls up and they argue and she goes all combative on him. It’s implied she’s not normal since she was DUH she was turned into baby juice and put back together with Cadou mold they drive off - apparently you can see a ghostly Ethan in photo mode - I don’t know I don’t give AF enough about The Winters family and this game at this point

The End

5/10 - Story (read below)

9/10 - Everything else

- Katie’s Dismay and Final Review and Rating-

Graphics: 9/10

Setting: 8/10

Music: 6/10

Game Mechanics: 10/10

Story: (pre Chris Redfield tie in): 7/10

Story: (post Chris Redfield) 4/10

As a modern game, it was great, exceptional. It checks all the classic horror boxes but isn’t the scariest entry, Resident Evil 7 was a much more scary game. The story is why my rating is slow and it’s based on my biases and years of following the story.

STOP! Don’t want to hear my angry ranting? SKIP THE REST

THE ANGER OF a grown ass Resident Evil Fan.

They should’ve omitted the entire BSAA story and BSAA bioweapon-man and not included those notes about Spencer and Umbrella. This game was solid as a next installment and sequel to Resident Evil 7 until they decided they wanted to tie the original Resident Evil storylines into the new story.

When Capcom decided to breakdown and rebuild the franchise, it was a blow because so many storylines were unfinished. I understand they needed to keep evolving and I was blown away by the result. RE7 was not and did not feel like an old RE Game but it was new and it brought back the horror and fear the RE Games early installments were known for. A new RE for a new generation!

But TO ME PERSONALLY - The positive thoughts and opinions I had of RE7 are sullied by Resident Evil Village. Why try to tie it in as an after thought after such a successful overhaul? It’s a slap in the face! Capcom has created some of the best characters in video game stories just to say fuck them for this overhaul but WAIT WE REALLY LIKE CHRIS AND THE BSAA STORY LINE LET’S BRING IN THE OLD STORY NOW.

Fucking NO.

I don’t know what’s worse reading that fucking note from Spencer or the BSAA bullshit.

So now one has to say... WHAT happened to all of the characters who worked for BSAA or worked with affiliates of the BSAA? Chris goes on his own way - Now what? What happened??? There’s nothing explaining what happened between RE5 and RE6 to RE7! They failed to create that bridge. If they had established ANYTHING in RE7 it would be easier for me to swallow.

If you want to overhaul and change the series FINE but don’t back peddle now. Don’t try to throw it the last few minutes of the game with some lazy writing and a vague cliff hanger just leaving it like this.

And of course one could think - “maybe they will make a new game, maybe another sequel?”..... BUT HAVE Y’ALL seen what’s happened at the end of every RE game since RE4???? We are finally getting a Netflix series in 2021 to fill the time after RE4!!! That was 16 YEARS ago! So how can crazy ass fans like myself really expect them to fix the plot holes?!

My theory is that - in between RE7 and RE village They were working on the RE2 Remake and the RE3 Remake and it was if someone at Capcom finally asked - “If all these new RE players are going to play RE village - don’t we need a way to connect these stories????”

And someone jumped up in a conference room and replied. “FUCK IT LETS JUST TIE IN SPENCER AND THE BSAA IN THE LAST 10 MINUTES!”

I have cried, laughed and loved these games my entire life. Some of my major life events happened because of this series! I have followed every game, collected merchandise, gotten tattoos and met the most amazing people because our mural obsession over this series. That’s why it hurts me that’s why I’m tear it apart so viciously and also why I keep playing. There’s always hope that someone will fix the plot holes and finish the stories that lured in the older RE fans and I will always hold Capcom to a high standard and expect them to do right by the fans. I’m not speaking for ALL older RE Fans or ALL fans and I’m definitely not gatekeeping the fandom. This is how I feel - I’m grateful there is a new generation breathing life into RE but I’m screaming a warning - BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUPS - there’s a strong chance your favorite characters new or old aren’t going to get an ending or be reduced to a brief snippet in a file you may not not find.

ANYWAYS

Happy to those who loved it, condolences to those who are pissed off like myself

I’m annoyed but I’ll power through!

Happy 25th Anniversary to my longest obsession!

RE Verse coming in the summer, the Netflix series and the remake Live Action Movies.

HERE’S TO RESIDENT EVIL!

[ink-n-shadow]

[ DADDY ISSUES ] 𝜗𝜚 the text series where price hires you as his babysitter

⤷ part 𝜗𝜚 one , two , three 𝜗𝜚 pairing: single dad!price x babysitter!reader 𝜗𝜚 cw: none, just price being a cute dad

[ohtobeleah]

Enterprise // Jake Seresin

Chapter One: Confidence.

Chapter Summary: There’s a lesson here somewhere, but you aren’t ready to figure it out. Setting up a meeting with Jake ‘The Hangman’ Seresin to see if he would consider a merger is the last thing you knew your late father would want you to do.

Warnings: Jake Seresin x F!reader. Mafia/Gang related themes. Sexual tension. Age Gap. Mentions of guns.

Word Count: 3.4K

Author Note: So, if you originally read this in the Dolan Twins fandom way back in the day—shut the fuck up no you did not. I will deny deny deny….. This series will be updated once a week on Sundays

Masterlist | Chapter One | Chapter Two |

The first time you met Jacob Seresin was at one of your fathers monthly meetings between himself and Jake's father. Carl ‘The Carver’ Seresin. He got his title from the carvings he’d leave on his enemies' faces. He’d slash them with a razor blade so deep that the scars left behind were undeniably noticeable and incredibly trademarkable. Meeting once a month became a common occurrence to make sure an all-out war didn’t ensue between the rival gangs. The Death Adders and the Katipo. Although bloodshed and violence were always an issue between members in the streets, as long as the two powerhouse men that ruled over all could remain on speaking terms, all was good in the city of Fitzroy.

You never attended your father's meetings with Carl Seresin and hoped you'd never have to, but the day you turned eighteen? Everything changed. You had already seen so much, been exposed to things out of this world unholy. The last thing you wanted to do was meet the man who caused your father so much strife, and his son. 

Jake though? He was always present, always standing right behind his father because he always knew that someday everything would be his. The day you arrived with your father he was completely shocked to see you in the study, sitting on the lounge all prim and proper like. The girl he’d heard so much about through his father was actually stunning, instantly having a soft spot for you the moment he saw you follow your father into the foyer when he was watching from the top floor of the staircase. You'd only briefly glanced up at him when you first arrived. Pretty white dress adorning your body, hair tucked back, neat and slick. 

“Hi.” Jake smiled as he held his hand out for you to shake before you quickly shot him a look of pure evil. “You lost sweetheart? This isn't normally a place where a pretty girl such as yourself would come willingly?” 

“Don’t try me.” You were quick to sneer. “I’ll kick your ass.” You knew what you and Jake were destined to be. Sworn rivals, enemies with common ground. There was no need for small talk, no need for niceties. 

“As if, a fucking girl dad?” Jake scoffed as the two men were settling into their chairs for the evening, both babysitting a glass of fine whiskey and watching their offspring interact for the first time. Keeping the two of you apart had been a part of their agreement, partly to keep you safeguarded until you were ready to start learning the ins and outs of your father's business. However, you'd already come to know more than enough throughout your childhood. “How the fuck are you meant to be my arch-rival?” Jake pulled at your hair, pulling you straight up from the lounge that you sat perched on quietly, Your father only scoffed, hoping you'd defend yourself against the man who was twelve years your senior. 

“Don’t!” You spat as you pulled yourself out of Jake's grip, He was a god damn adult and he was acting like a petulant child with a schoolyard crush. Your mother, prior to her passing, had always told you boys who teased were the ones with the biggest crushes, but this was just physical assault in your books. 

“Aw gonna cry to daddy are we?” Jake snickered before he pretended to cry as he whipped fake tears from his eyes just as your fist collided with his nose, sending blood rushing down around his mouth as he stumbled back in shock. Cupping his hand over his nose to catch the blood that poured out fast. 

“The fuck was that for!!”

“Don’t try me, Seresin you’ll only regret it” You hissed through gritted teeth as you walked over to stand behind your fathers chair who was smirking with delight that his little girl was a natural fighter, leaving a very much in pain Jake standing in the middle of the study. Completely dumbfounded. 

That was Jake Seresin's first encounter with the girl he’d chase after his entire life, his future wife. But what Jake didn’t know is that through the pain of his bloodied nose, your hand was broken and throbbing, but you could take the heat without showing a single sign of pain on your face as you stood tall behind your father–gripping at the back of his chair to push through the pain.

Because if you had learnt one thing about this lifestyle, it was that showing any sign of weakness in a world of men was not an option.

***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-***-

(Six Years Later- Present Day) 

Your father would be turning in his grave right now if he knew that this was the first plane, albeit, best plan, you could come up with. The mirror image of yourself that had been staring back at you for the better half of ten minutes looked entirely different to the person you thought you would become. This wasn't the life you wanted for yourself–but it was the only one you knew. Only one you had. Only one you'd ever get. 

“Suck it the fuck up.” You scoffed to yourself before you shook off all your second thoughts and existential dread. “No backing down.” Noone was going to give you a shoulder to cry on, so there were no reasons to cry in the first place, no reasons to feel anything. You fumbled fast to pack up the lipstick and pressed powder compact back into your clutch, ruffling your hair in the mirror as you studied the scars that littered your face from a lifetime of crime, dirty bidding and underground societal standards. “Live in clover, Widow, Live in frivolous clover.” Mumbling the words to yourself as you let out a deep sigh, hopefully this would work out in your favour, it would be a good change if it did. If this meeting worked out it would be considered a drastic change from the current trajectory the way things had been going for you as of late. Everything had gone tits up. You just needed one fucking win.

As the soft curls flowed freely over the expanse of your exposed shoulder, you couldn’t help but tremble at the thought of your next move, it was only for a split second, but you still held the door knob of the foyer bathroom for far longer than you should have. Mulling over if this was truly the right thing to be doing. Your father would fucking kill you if he knew exactly who you were running to for guidance and safety the second he was laid to rest. The dirt over his grave had barely lost its moisture, freshly laid before you were reaching out to organise a meeting with the rival Mafia Boss. Jacob ‘The Hangman” Seresin.

This could make or break your entire enterprise. The moment you realised your late father’s “enterprise” had become officially yours overnight, you lost whatever slither of innocence you had left, not that you had much left to lose in the first place. The harsh reality quickly set in that you were now the sole female Capofamiglia in all of Fitzroy. Not only that but you were only in your early fucking twenties. These two factors alone made you venerable, a walking goddamn target if there ever was one. You may as well shoot a beacon into the air for all your fathers enemies to swarm on you like hungry wolves because as you were guided up the stairs by two security guards that looked more like henchmen than respectable security detail, you knew they were all lying in wait for the right moment. 

And that moment could have very well have been now, as you walked right into the study that belonged to none other than Jake Seresin. 

You needed to act quickly, work smarter, “use your wits' ' as your pops would say. Fitzroy was dangerous territory, crime was a normality, violence occurred on the daily and despite your youth you had been exposed to the worst of the worst, having been your fathers only child, the sole erie to the enterprise he’d build upon after his father left him to carry it on. 

You knew proving your worth would be harder than just stepping up to take your father’s place, you needed to show every man in this city of Fitzroy just how much of a threat you could be if crossed, just as dangerous and just as malicious they could be. 

As of right now, your men looked weak at the leadership of such a young woman, they were dropping like flies, reaching out to rival mobs to cut deals with and jump ship. As far as you were concerned however, their loyalties lied with your father, not you. you’d spit on their graves quicker than you could blink if given the chance. Looking up from your shoes, you saw Jake sitting at his desk–he hadn’t bothered to look up from the laptop he was looking at. He’d heard the door open, heard his security mention your arrival, but he didn't seem to give a shit. Typical fucking Jake. 

Revenge lied deep behind your eyes, over the years you’d become nothing but a cold empty shell of the girl who just wanted love and compassion. Now? You were hopelessly devoted to a world of drugs, sex, money and power. 

“By all means, Don't let me interrupt.” You cleared your throat before raising a single brow at Jake as you crossed your arms over themselves, standing in the middle of his overly exuberant study. The dress you wore had been an odd choice for such a meeting, but then again you never got a chance to really dress up these days. It was just a simple black slip, heels to match. 

Jake didn't even blink as he reached for the handgun sitting pretty on top of his desk, his emerald eyes still glued to the screen as he scrolled–pulling the hammer back as he aimed it right at you. 

“I don't recall asking you to fucking speak.” Jake spat as he heard you move, following in his actions as you reached for the gun strapped to your thigh, pulling the hammer back as you trained it on his chest, a fatal shot. 

“Damn, we must have gone shopping at the same gun show Seresin.” You smirked, taking as few steps forward. “I don't believe you’d shoot a lady.” Jake still didn't bother to look your way, the longer it took to draw his attention off whatever he was looking at made you lapse in your own judgement. Perhaps coming here was a bad idea after all, a lesson to be learned. But you only knew of one man who could either help you rise to the top of Fitzroy’s criminal hierarchy or one who would happily watch you roll around with the dogs in the streets. Either way, The kingpin of Fitzroy, Jake ‘The Hangman” Seresin, was your only shot at power.

“No lady here, just a fucking pest.” Jake sneered as he finally turned his head to look at you, lowering his gun as you did, watching carefully as you lowered it to your side, index finger still looking rather trigger happy as it ghosted over the trigger. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Jake grinned as he let his back rest against the back of his study chair, hands coming up to cup the back of his head. 

“You took some of my men, Hangman, that’s not very nice.” Jake could tell your voice was laced with venom, it damn near echoed out in Jake's enormous study, antique in style, he liked the mob style aesthetic. Jake just chuckled at you, shaking his head in reluctance to believe that's how this whole ordeal had gone. 

“I don’t recall taking any men, if anything they ran to me like petulant children when they clearly didn't get their way.” Jake was quick to defend himself as he rose from his seat, his hand resting on the oak of his desk as he leaned over. “The fuck are you doing here Y/n?” Jake had never been good with small talk. “Where's daddy? Why is he sending you to do his dirty work?” Jake had been expecting your father for his monthly meeting any day this past week, it wasn't like him to miss such a scheduled and routine meeting, even since Jake had taken charge. He could vividly remember sitting in on your fathers meetings when you were both just kids. Jake had always been much older than you, but he always had a thing for the way you never took any shit from anyone—including him. 

“Dead.” You caught the lump in your throat before it could even be detected by Jake, never faulting your tough exterior for a moment. “I thought you would have known by now, kept the funeral private though, just me.” You hadn’t gone parading your father's death around. The notice you’d sent Jake a week ago still sat unread in his emails. He’d seen your name pop up and barely paid enough thought to it that perhaps the email was of import. Looking at Jake with a spiteful eye—you knew he didn’t give a shit about your situation, your father’s death only meant one thing and one thing only—he was top dog now. 

“My condolences.” Jake looked up with pity plastered over his entire face, he did care. To an extent, he knew what it was like to be thrown into the ocean without a life jacket. When he’d lost his father, he thought he was ready to take over his fathers enterprise. It's all he’d ever grown up hearing. But he wasn’t, he leant though. He dealt with his demons until they consumed him whole. “Whatever will you do now? Fitzroy’s newest Capofamiglia?”

“I was hoping you’d share your secrets if you’re interested in a merger?” Fumbling with your dress, you placed your gun back in your garter. The rush of adrenaline had begun to fade as the cocky smirk you wore faded after no longer than five seconds  after having just come to the realisation that you were truly standing across the room from none other than the notorious Jake Seresin. The Hangman, how the fuck you weren’t dead by now was beyond you. “Unless you wanna sit back and watch me take over Fitzroy?” 

Jake sauntered out from behind his desk, eyeing you off as if what you asked was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard you say. Backing up slowly with your gaze trained on Jake, he stalked you down like prey until your back hit one of the many bookcases that lined his study. You brought your hand up to rest gently on top of your garter belt which once again held the handgun your late father had given you. You never should have lowered your weapon. 

Jake's walk was intimidating, his glare nothing but intense as he trapped you between himself and the bookcase now pressing into your back. The dark, navy-blue suit looked far too snug against his bulging body. With a shockingly evil smirk, Jake leaned in, trapping you between his arms as his hot breath made the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand upright to attention. His deep, hypnotic voice filling his study.

“So, The Widow wants to know my secrets?” Jake cooed as he squished your cheeks together with his fingers and his thumb, forcing you to look at him. “How I run such a successful enterprise like this?” He paused, pressing a light kiss against your exposed collar bone, trailing his free hand down your torso, his thumb massaging your hip slightly before his hand continued down to aimlessly feel the gun resting against your supple skin. His head shot up to meet your eyes, a devilish grin upon his face as he dipped his hand inside your dress to pull the gun out, revealing it in all its glory, pressing it into your neck as you lifted your jaw high in an attempt to get away. “Fucking look at you, you pathetic pest of a thing.” Jake had been genuinely surprised when his assistance had told him you’d requested a meeting, you had always been his favourite play thing. But the dynamic had now changed, you were his rival? His equal. “You aren’t worth my fucking time you know that right?” 

“Still breathing aren't I? So I must be worth something.” You challenged as Jake cocked the hammer back, making you flinch as he held your head still. He could practically hear your heart beating out of your chest as he growled, gritting his teeth, clenching his jaw. But Jake didn't pull the trigger, he simply pushed himself away just to revel in the moment he had you near cowering. How did you ever think you could come into his office, step into his territory and ask him for a merger. What fucking bullshit. 

A slight gasp left your lips as you felt hopelessly defeated, watching Jake as he walked away dangerously slow, unloading the gun as he walked, pocketing the bullets before placing the now rendered useless gun on his desk before he dropped his hands back to rest against the oak. Still wearing a shockingly sinister smile.

“Well, there’s three-points you gotta consider to take on this sought of, enterprise. First, you need to pick your crew, they gotta have a range of skills and Do. As. They're. Told.” Jake pushed off his desk, sauntering back to meet you back against the bookcase, trapping you once again as his hand came to cup your chin lightly, looking up into his emerald eyes you couldn’t help but whimper quietly. Now weaponless. 

“Second” Jake growled, “Timing, they gotta be where you want them to be at precisely the moment you want them there, they get there too soon? and they’ll stick out like dog’s balls, get there too late and the whole thing's down shitter now isn’t it?” His lips were practically ghosting yours as he leaned down to meet your height. 

“Then there’s the all-important third element.” It was the hand that snaked itself around your throat that had you audibly hissing, it made Jakes slacks all the more tighter listening to the small whimpers you let escape as he constricted your airways–wanting to see just how far he could push you before you broke and pleaded mercy. “Someone's gotta be in control.” Jake didn't hate you, nor did he like you, but there was an affinity of some sort there that he couldn't deny. 

You'd always been the one who challenged him despite your youth, despite your inability to understand this was a man's world. You'd never make it on your own, Jake knew that, he knew that was the very reason why you were here. The second Jake had realised your father wasn't around–he knew why you’d come to him. He didn't have to ask nor did you have to say it, but he didn't have any intention of making this easy for you. 

“Someone’s gotta see the whole enterprise playing out like a general, directing his troops.” Jake let his hand dip from its grasp around your neck, lowering it slowly to rest against your hips, pulling you flush against him as his head still tilted slightly to meet your lips, not fully connecting his mouth with yours but close enough to make you crave his touch. “But pretty girl, the most import thing you need to run an enterprise like this, the thing I have by the fucking bucket load.” 

Jake met your gaze momentarily, searching your eyes for the very thing he hoped you’d give him, permission. Whispering one final word against your lips as his hands worked to pull up the silk of your dress to expose your legs, Jake ‘The Hangman’ Seresin smashed his lips roughly against yours as your arms flew up to wrap around his neck, feverously engulfed in his charm alone, you were screwed, the kingpin of Fitzroy now had you undeniably under his charismatic charm. Like he always had since you’d first met him all those years ago in your father's study. The one you were never allowed in, the one that wasn't supposed to ever be yours. But had ultimately become. 

“Confidence.”

**************************************

Tags: @mishala005 @crazyunsexycool @a-serene-place-to-be @bradshawseresinbabe @dempy @multifandomfangirll @lanie-k @xcastawayherosx @aboutelijahhh @clancycucumber230 @agentrose17 @mizzzpink @phoenix1388 @avaleineandafryingpan @blindedbythelightt @emorychase @potato-girl99981 @jimstreetownsme @xoxabs88xox

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 9/15/21

SEAN: Gonna start reversing the list more often as, no offense to Seven Seas, I am tired of Airship getting the first image every week.

So we start with Yen On, who have a plethora of “delayed from August… and July” debuts for us! Four of them, in fact.

Bond and Book (Musubu to Hon) is a new series from the author of the Book Girl light novels, which I greatly enjoyed when they came out ages ago. Sadly, they came out before the LN boom, so sold poorly – I hope this does better. It seems to be a linked story series, as the books overall involve a young man who can “hear the voices of books”, and each book has him dealing with a specific problem. The first is called The Devotion of “The Surgery Room” (a short story by Japanese author Kyōka Izumi).

ASH: This sounds right up my alley. I, too, enjoyed what I read of Book Girl and I like book-ish type stories.

SEAN: Second we have If the RPG World Had Social Media… (Moshi Role Playing Game no Sekai ni SNS ga Attara), a series which I’m going to take a wild guess is a comedy. Would you challenge the demon lord via text?

Third we have Magistellus Bad Trip. A Certain Magical Index may be dead in North America, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a new series by the same author. A VR city with gambling and high stakes is about to be taken by a young man and his succubus partner.

Lastly, we get a spinoff from The Irregular at Magic High School, the appropriately named The The Irregular at Magic High School. Seems to be more of a continuation than a legit spinoff – they’re even keeping the numbering, as this is Vol. 17. But it has to be a new series, I’m sure.

ASH: Huh! That’s an interesting way of doing it.

SEAN: Viz Media debuts Mao, the new Rumiko Takahashi series. This runs in Weekly Shonen Sunday, and is definitely a step back towards serious supernatural/horror themed stories.

MICHELLE: Kinda curious about this one.

ASH: Same!

MELINDA: And me!

SEAN: Also from Viz: a double shot of Kenjiro Hata, as we get Fly Me to the Moon 7 and Hayate the Combat Butler 38. Other than that, it’s tie-ins galore, as we see Kirby Manga Mania 2, Pokemon: Sun & Moon 11, Splatoon 13, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 9, and YO-KAI WATCH 18.

Tokyopop has A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation 4.

SuBLime debuts Black or White (Kuro ka Shiro ka), which runs in Kadokawa’s Emerald. Two actors who are typecast in roles they’d rather not be doing are secretly lovers.

ASH: I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

MELINDA: That does sound interesting, actually.

SEAN: Also from SuBLime, we have Jealousy 4 and Given 6.

MICHELLE: I am so behind on Given already.

ASH: I’m a bit behind, too, despite enjoying the series!

SEAN: Square Enix has the 4th volume of A Man and His Cat.

MICHELLE: Yay!

MELINDA: Another yay!

SEAN: Another small week from Seven Seas. They have The Ideal Sponger Life 9, Plus-Sized Elf 7, and Reincarnated As a Sword 7.

One Peace debuts Multi-Mind Mayhem (Isekai Tensei Soudouki), based on the as yet unlicensed light novel. This story of a man with three different souls in his body – his own, a Japanese samurai, and a Japanese otaku – comes from Alpha Polis.

ASH: I am possibly intrigued.

SEAN: Kodansha, in print, has Orient 4 and A School Frozen in Time 3.

MICHELLE: I enjoyed the first volume of A School Frozen in Time.

ASH: I still need to read it, but I do have a copy!

SEAN: Digitally, as always, much more. Two debuts. Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! (Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita) is a BL title from Ichijinsha’s Gateau, about a guy who tries to destress after days dealing with his evil boss by talking with a gaming friend online. then they meet up in real life and… yeah, you guessed it.

The other debuts is also BL and also from Ichijinsha’s Gateau. We’re On Our Own From Here (Konosaki wa Futarikiride) is a high school romance between two boys, spurred on by a girl seemingly confessing to one.

MICHELLE: This looks really cute!

MELINDA: I’m a sucker for this type of story.

SEAN: There’s also Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! 7, Ace of the Diamond 34, Giant Killing 26, Police in a Pod 4, The Springtime of My Life Began with You 4, Tokyo Revengers 22, We Must Never Fall in Love 8, and Yamaguchi-kun Isn’t So Bad 2.

MICHELLE: Lots of stuff here that I’m interested in! Mostly the sports, not gonna lie.

ASH: I’ll admit to being fond of sports manga, too.

SEAN: J-Novel Club debuts Dragon Daddy Diaries: A Girl Grows to Greatness (Totsuzen Papa ni Natta Saikyou Dragon no Kosodate Nikki: Kawaii Musume, Honobono to Ningenkai Saikyou ni Sodatsu), a title from the author of Sexiled and A Lily Blooms in Another World, so again, I would not worry about daddy-daughter issues here. This looks super cute, and is about what you’d expect: a dragon adopting and raising a human child.

ASH: Another book to add to the list to check out!

Also on the light novel tip from J-Novel Club: The Apothecary Diaries 3, Culinary Chronicles of the Court Flower 3, Perry Rhodan NEO 3, The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag’s Sister! 2, and A Wild Last Boss Appeared! 6.

Lastly we have Airship. In print, they’ve got How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 12 and Muscles Are Better Than Magic! 3.

Two early digital debuts. The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan (Saikyou no Shien-shoku “Wajutsushi” Dearu ore wa Sekai Saikyou Kuran o Shitagaeru). Sigh. Weak. But really strong. Betrayed. Evil? Probably, but he’s our hero. Moving on.

Planet of the Orcs is from Kodansha’s Legend Novels line, and therefore I expect it to be pretentious as hell, even though when I look at the premise all I can do is sing “ORCS WITH GUNS!” to the tune of Duran Duran’s Girls on Film.

That’s a big chunk of stuff… but is it for you?

By: Sean Gaffney

[just-my-sickly-pride]

Deep End || Roger Taylor x fem!Reader

summary || a week ago, roger asked you to be his friends-with-benefits. you invite him over to tell him your decision. things escalate, of course. modern day au. college au.

rating || explicit (18+). do not read if you are under eighteen. sub!roger, soft dom!reader, orgasm denial.

word count || 6.8k.

author’s notes || and here’s the next instalment in the try series! this one is set after ‘ask nicely’. i know, a lot of roger, but there’s more brian on its way too. if you haven’t read any other parts, it’s fine, this can be read on its own, if you don’t mind being a lil confused about certain details and conversations. there is mentioning of brian x reader. and i finally remembered to add on my tag list!

tag list || @drowseoftaylor​ @mrs-jack-murphy​ @bellas2silly​ @delilahmay39​

masterlist

     It had been one week since Roger’s drunken confession that he wanted a friends-with-benefits arrangement with you. It had been five days since he’d pulled you aside one day at uni and apologised for how he’d gone about it, then asked you again if you’d be interested, far more sheepishly than the first time.

    You’d told him you had to think about it some more, and he’d accepted it.

    And you’d been thinking about it a lot. More than you should have been, considering how uni was kicking your butt well and truly recently.

    You wanted to talk about it with Veronica, but then it’d become a whole thing, and you didn’t really want her to know. Same with Freddie and John.

    But maybe there was one person you could talk about it with.

    “Can I talk to you about something?” you asked Brian as the two of you walked to your lecture. You didn’t look at him, just kept staring straight ahead.

    “Always,” Brian said.

    “It’s about Roger.”

    “What about him?”

    You took a breath. “Um.” You hesitated, and then guided Brian out of the main traffic, off to the side. “Do you remember, last week, that party we went to?” you asked him a low voice.

    Brian nodded, leaning in closer to hear you better. “Mm.”

    “And Roger was drunk off his face?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Well, he told he that he… he wanted to do a friends-with-benefits thing with me. Same as I have with you.”

    Brian snorted. “Course he did.”

    You frowned. “What’s that meant to mean?”

    “I just mean, of course he’d want the chance to sleep with you all the time. Can’t exactly blame him. You had me hook, line, and sinker after just making out with me one time.”

    “Oh.” You tried to hide your smile, tucking your hair behind your ear. “Well, um, he brought it up with me again a couple days ago. I just don’t know what to do.”

    “What?” Brian said, screwing up his nose. “Say no. Roger can sleep with whoever he wants.”

    “But maybe I want it, too.”

    “Well, do you?”

    You sighed. “I don’t know.”

    Brian cocked his head to the side. “That doesn’t sound all too enthusiastic.”

    “Like, I’d want to sleep with him again,” you said. “And again again. And again again again. And–”

    “Fuck, all right,” Brian cut in. “I get it, you enjoyed yourself.”

    “I did,” you said. “But I just don’t know if – y’know, he could handle it without getting… emotionally involved.”

    “I don’t think that’d be an issue for him,” Brian said wryly. “He seems fine with sleeping around.”

    “But sleeping with one person multiple times?”

    Brian hesitated. “Look, if I can do it, of all people, he can surely do it. And if you make the rules nice and clear, I’m sure it’ll be fine. If you really want to go for it, then go for it. Just as long as I still get you, too.”

    You rolled your eyes at him. “Yes, you’ll still get me. Dick.”

    Brian laughed. The two of you resumed walking to class.

    “Why don’t you go fuck someone else for a change, huh?” you said, nudging him with your elbow. “Maybe take a nice girl out to the movies? Finger her in the back row of the cinema?”

    “Eugh,” Brian said. “No. I don’t know why on Earth anyone would have sex at the cinema. It’s way too weird for me.”

    You sniggered. “Of all the things that are too weird for you, Brian.”

    “I don’t care. I’m not fingering anyone at the cinema,” he said pointedly.

    “I wasn’t saying I wanted you to finger me at the cinema.”

    “I know.” Brian gave you an elfish grin. “The back row of the lecture hall, though…”

    You scoffed. “In your dreams.”

    “I have dreamt about it, yes.”

    “No fucking at uni, remember? A solid ‘Nickleback’ on fingering in class, thanks.”

    Brian made a disappointed face.

    You clicked your tongue at him, rolling your eyes, and he laughed.

    can we talk? come to mine this afternoon.

    It took almost an hour for Roger to reply.

    I finish at 3, see u then.

    “Roger’s coming over just after three,” you said to your roommate Lucy as she picked at her leftover curry.

    “That’s fine,” she said, moving the chicken around with her fork. “I’ll be heading out around four, maybe a little earlier. I’m meeting the girls for a catch-up.”

    “Sounds fun,” you said with a smile. The kettle finished boiling, and you poured your tea. “Will you be out late?”

    Lucy shook her head. “We’re just doing afternoon tea. Be home before dinner.”

    “Great,” you said.

    Lucy shot you a smile, shoved a mouthful of curry into her mouth, and disappeared out of the kitchen.

     “I brought snacks,” Roger said, holding out a packet of corn chips and salsa when you opened the door at twenty past three.

    “Hello,” you said, and took the snacks. “Thanks, you didn’t have to.”

    “It was on the way.”

     You stepped aside, and Roger entered. He stood in the living room as if he’d never been there before, gripping the shoulder strap of his messenger bag with both hands, watching you with wide eyes.

    “You look like you’re about to head off to your first day of school,” you said with a chuckle. “Go sit down, you’re making me nervous.”

    Roger did as he was told, taking off his bag and setting it down at his feet, sitting down on the couch. You sat down beside him, opening up the chips and dip and taking a bite.

    Roger did not take a bite. “What did you want to talk about?”

    “The–” You made sure to finish your mouthful. “The thing. That we talked about a few days ago.”

    Roger nodded. He’d known, clearly. “Is, er, Lucy still here?”

    “Mm, she’s in her room,” you said.

    Roger seemed to deflate. “Oh. Yeah, cool.”

    You didn’t miss it. “What?”

    He looked at you in confusion. “What?”

    “What’s wrong?”

    “Nothing,” Roger said. “I completely understand. It’s totally fine, I won’t bring it up again. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

    “Huh?”

    “The…” Roger dropped his voice to a whisper. “The friends-with-benefits thing. It’s all right.”

    You shook your head. “No, Rog, I’m here to tell you that I want to try it.”

    Roger stopped. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Uh, what?”

    “I wanna have sex with you,” you said. “On a semi-regular basis.”

    Roger’s eyes lit up. “You do?”

    “Yeah, dude.”

    “I just thought – with Lucy here…”

    “I don’t wanna have sex now,” you said with a snort. “It doesn’t have to, y’know, kick off with a bang or anything. There’s a bit to talk about first.”

    “Like what?”

    So you laid out the rules. The check-ins were the main thing. Honesty and complete emotional transparency was of utmost importance, no matter how awkward and horribly vulnerable it was. You couldn’t back out of a check-in – either person could ask for one at any time, and a response was required from both people. No fucking at uni, no getting romantic, no dates. The whole thing could be called off whenever by either party, no questions asked. Sleeping with other people was on the cards. If someone started getting romantically involved with a person outside of the arrangement, then the arrangement was off.

    Roger listened intently, nodding. You could see it dawning on him how serious you were about all the rules you were listing, but if it scared him off, you didn’t care.

    When you eventually finished, you said to him, “That’s about it. Is there anything you wanted to ask me?”

    Roger blinked. “Uh. No, I don’t think so. Apart from, uh, how often do you wanna… meet up?”

    You shrugged. “We can feel it out. When are you free?”

    “Whenever,” Roger said, and the word fell out of his mouth like it had tripped and stumbled.

    You grinned. “Bit eager.”

    Roger’s cheeks went pink. “I meant, like, y’know.” He shrugged. “Whenever. I’m chill.”

    “No, it’s sweet,” you said reassuringly. “What about on Friday night? Although you probably have plans, knowing you.”

    “Not really,” Roger said. “I usually just go out with the boys, but it’s not important. I’d much prefer…” He ducked his gaze, and laughed at himself. He ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe–” He shook his head, and sighed, lifted his head, and stared you right in the eye. “I don’t know how you turn me into a mess like this. Fuck you.”

    You laughed. “I’m not trying to, I promise.”

    “I know. That makes it even worse.” He scoffed. “‘Sweet’. I’m not sweet. I’m hot as fuck. I’m – I’m fuckin’…” He floundered. “I’m hot shit. I’m a bad – bitch.”

    You burst out laughing. “You’re a bad bitch?”

    “Yeah!” Roger exclaimed, doubling down. “All the women fuckin’ fall at my feet. I’m so good at chatting people up. Two minutes – bam! That’s all it takes.”

    “God, Rog, stop,” you said, trying to catch your breath. “Ah, my stomach hurts.”

    “Tell me I’m wrong, though.”

    “You’re wrong.”

    Roger gaped. “You – I’m not!”

    You gave him a bewildered look. “I can’t even tell if you’re joking or not.”

    “First time I got a girl to call me Daddy and I nailed it,” Roger boasted. “You were begging for me.”

    You shushed him, slapping him on the arm.

    “Ow,” he said in a small voice.

    “Lucy’s in her room,” you reminded him in a hiss.

    “Sorry,” Roger said, rubbing his arm to soothe it.

    “Sorry, I shouldn’t have hit you, I wasn’t thinking,” you said, and kissed your fingers, then lightly pressed your fingers to where you’d hit him.

    He pouted. “Thank you.”

    “Do you want to go to my room?” you suggested. “I think Lucy’s leaving soon, she’s heading out.”

    Roger checked his phone. “Yeah, all right,” he said, “I can stay for a bit.”

    You should’ve known. You didn’t know how it hadn’t occurred to you what would end up happening, but it hadn’t.

    You and Roger lasted about ten whole minutes alone in your room before you were making out on your bed.

    His kisses were just as gentle as the first time, but you allowed yourself to enjoy it, not eager to rush into anything else, happy to just stay mildly turned on. You noticed his fingers would occasionally drum out a rhythm on your hip or your thigh as you kissed, his mind disappearing somewhere else before he brought it back. You liked it, liked being able to know what he was thinking, where his mind was.

    Your top ended up on the floor before too long, beside Roger’s, and you straddled Roger’s waist. His hands felt heavenly smoothing up your back, and you shivered. He kissed your throat and your collarbones, and you closed your eyes, enjoying the feeling of it, combing your hand through his hair absentmindedly.

    “I can’t believe you said yes,” Roger murmured against your skin. After almost twenty minutes of silence between you two, his voice almost made you jump.

    You smiled. “Can’t believe it? Why not?”

    Roger pressed another kiss to the hollow of your throat, and then leant back, tilting his head up to look at you, and you met his eyes. “I mean, it was a big ask,” he said. “You didn’t have to say yes. I imagine the whole thing with Brian keeps you busy enough.”

    “I said yes because I wanted to,” you said. “Because you made me feel really good, and I want to explore more with you. And I trust you.”

    “And I’m a bad bitch you couldn’t resist?”

    You giggled. “No. You are hot as fuck, I’ll give you that, but you are not a bad bitch by any stretch of the imagination.”

    “You’re so cruel.”

    You laughed again.

    Lucy’s bedroom door opened, and your head snapped towards the noise.

    “What?” Roger whispered.

    “I think Lucy’s leaving,” you murmured. You heard keys jangling, then the front door opening, and closing again.

    You waited a few seconds longer to see if she came back in again, if she’d forgotten something, but it seemed like you were in the clear.

    “Thank Christ,” you sighed, and took Roger’s face in your hands, kissing him fiercely.

    Roger’s fingers tightened on your waist, and he kissed you back, but when you pulled away for a moment he said, “What?”

    “Lucy’s gone,” you said. “I know I said we weren’t going to fuck today, but you’re really good at making out.”

    “I – I need to check the time,” Roger said regretfully, and disappointment sank in your stomach.

    “Oh, right, yeah, sorry,” you said, and climbed off him.

    You sat on your bed, chewing your lip, as Roger bobbed down to fish his phone out of his backpack. You let your eyes trail over his body, over his bare torso and jean-clad legs. He had a nice bum, small and perky, which suited his personality, really. You wanted to lean over and give it a smack, just to see how he’d react. Maybe not just yet.

    He had a really nice back, you thought. He was a drummer, and you could tell in the way the muscles moved under the skin of his back, the roundness of his shoulders, the strength in his arms. His stomach was soft – he was fit enough, but he clearly wasn’t interested in putting in the time to get abs.

    You didn’t care. You liked it.

    He raked his hair away from his face as he typed a response to a message. It was getting shaggy, falling in his face half the time. You liked that, too.

    He dropped his phone and stood up, turning towards you. “I think I can stay for a bit longer.”

    “Lucky me,” you said, reaching for him. He crawled over to you, and kissed you.

    You shoved a hand through his hair, roughly, feeling how long it was getting, and gave it a sharp tug. Roger made a soft sound, and you felt him melt against you.

    You pushed him onto his back and held yourself above him. “You like getting your hair pulled?” you asked with a grin. You reached underneath his head and tugged it again.

    Roger gasped. “Mm, yeah, might do a bit,” he said breathlessly.

    You chuckled, and kissed him again. You pulled his hair, harder than before, and he twitched.

    You broke apart. “Sorry, too hard?”

    Roger whimpered slightly, and shook his head.

    Your eyebrows shot up. “No? I pulled pretty hard.”

    “You can pull harder.”

    So you did. You pulled, snapping his head back, and you held him there, watching his eyes go wide, and he whined. “Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

    You finally let him go, and he was gasping for breath. “You can keep going,” he said. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much.”

    You shook your head disbelievingly. “Greedy.” You kissed him deeply, making a tight fist in his hair, just hard enough to tease him, and you could tell how needy he was starting to get by the way he gripped your hips.

    You kissed along his jaw.

    “More,” he said. “You can give me more.”

    “I’ll give you more when I feel like it,” you said casually.

    He made a sound in protest, and it was then it clicked that the previous roles you’d adopted last time you’d slept together were quickly reversing.

    You let his hair go, and he whined. Your stomach clenched. Fuck, that was a good sound. You wanted to hear more of it.

    You sat up, on his waist. “Rog?”

    He looked up at you. “Mm?”

    “I think today’s gonna be different from last time.”

    He nodded. “I think so too.”

    “What do you wanna do? Where do you see it going?”

    He looked away, flustered. “We don’t have to… talk about it.”

    “I just want to make sure.” You paused. “I think… I’m gonna be in charge today. How’s that sound?”

    Roger looked back to you, and you could see the hunger in his eyes. He nodded. “Yeah, I – I like that. I’d like that.”

    “And,” you continued, shimmying down Roger’s legs to go for his belt, “you’re going to do as you’re told. Understood?”

    “Yes ma’am,” he said, and then he flushed scarlet. “Sorry. I mean, um, yes.”

    “No, it’s okay, you can call me that, if you’d like to,” you said. You finished unbuckling his belt, and undid his jeans, unzipping the fly. “I’m all right with that. Do you wanna call me that?”

    “Yes ma’am.”

    “Sounds like you’re gonna be a real good boy for me, huh?”

    “Maybe.”

    You paused, blinking at him. “Oh? Maybe?”

    Roger grinned cheekily. “Maybe.”

    “Maybe who?”

    “Maybe, ma’am.”

    “Hm,” you said in thought. You climbed off him. “Jeans off.”

    He took them off.

    “Lie down.”

    He did.

    You stood up, and took your jeans off, slowly, unhurried. If you made a bit of a show of it, arching your back a little and sliding the jeans down your thighs, that was your business.

    When you looked back to Roger, he was practically drooling where he lay, his eyes fixated on you with laser focus.

    “You good?” you joked, tossing your jeans aside.

    “Oh yeah,” Roger said emphatically, nodding, making you laugh. He bit his bottom lip, his eyes sweeping up and down your body. “God, you’re fucking hot.”

    You glanced down at yourself instinctively. You were just wearing your everyday bra, a comfy pair of underwear. Nothing as racy as what you’d worn the first time you and Roger had slept together.

    Roger clearly didn’t care.

    You tried not to preen from the compliment. Yeah, you knew you were hot. But a reminder was always nice.

    You climbed back on the bed, settling on your knees on top of Roger’s hips, grinding yourself a little against him, making his eyelashes flutter, his hands gripping your thighs.

    You smiled, cocking your head to one side, thinking. “Hm,” you said. “What to do with you?”

    Roger just waited patiently, his face open, his breath coming in short bursts.

    You leant down and brushed your lips against his, just barely, and he chased the kiss, whining softly. You smiled, and instead started kissing his neck. His hands stroked up and down your back, lightly, and you began grinding against him a little more. The friction felt so good, the drag of your underwear on your clit, that you sat up again to find a better angle, grinding harder. Roger gasped, and you could feel him rapidly hardening underneath you, but you ignored it, ignored him, focused only on finding a rhythm that made you feel warm, made your blood feel electric.

    You were breathing heavily, your head bowed, bracing yourself on Roger’s chest, and Roger was squirming.

    “Ma’am,” he pleaded, his hands coming to your waist to try to still you. “Please, I can’t–”

    You grabbed his wrists and pinned them beside his head, and rolled your hips, hard and slow, making him whine.

    “What’s the matter, Rog?” you asked, a touch breathlessly. “You don’t like that I’m not giving you attention?”

    Roger struggled against your hold on him. “I–”

    “I was enjoying myself, Roger. I don’t like that you interrupted me.”

    Roger stopped struggling.

    You kissed him, hard, and then broke away to whisper in his ear, “You’re going to watch me for a bit, okay? Just watching.” Just for a bit. Some light teasing, then you’d let him touch you.

    You pushed yourself away from him, climbing off him, leaving him cold. He looked at you like you’d just kicked his pet dog. “No!”

    “Sit up,” you said. “Move back.”

    “Let me eat you out,” Roger pleaded, but doing as he was told, getting up and shifting back, sitting back on his heels. “I want to, please? Let me taste you. I’ll make you come at least twice, I won’t stop until I do. As many times as you want. Please.”

    You took off your underwear and bra, settling comfortably, leaning back on one hand, your legs sprawled out in front of you, and Roger made a helpless, desperate sound.

    You ran your fingertips over your skin, over the swell of your breasts, over your inner thighs, just teasing yourself, and Roger sobbed, his fists twisting in the sheets.

    “Ma’am, please, please, let me touch you, I need to, please.”

    “You’re so needy,” you said with a grin.

    Roger nodded, all dignity out the window.

    You started touching yourself, humming in pleasure at the familiar feeling of your own fingers. “Look at you,” you said, drinking in the sight of Roger, gazing at you hopelessly, pleadingly, his body flushed, his underwear tented, a dark spot staining the material. “So hard for me already.”

    Roger palmed at himself, and you said, “Nuh-uh. No touching.”

    “You didn’t say I couldn’t touch myself,” he protested, stilling his hand on his cock.

    “I know,” you said, and your breath caught, your back arching, as you slipped a finger into yourself. “But – but I’m telling you now.”

    Roger groaned, but forced his hand back onto the bed. His eyes zeroed in on your hand, and your finger, where it was disappearing inside you.

    You sighed, letting your head fall back and your eyes close. “Feels so good, Rog.”

    You pushed in a second finger beside the first, pumping them leisurely, every so often taking a break to play with your clit. Roger kept making small noises of desperation, whines and sobs, his breath trembling.

    “Maybe I’ll just make myself come like this,” you mused. You lifted your head again to look at Roger. He looked like was about to explode. Or die from the stress of it all. His knuckles were white, his arms and shoulders tensed, his mouth hanging open.

    Your hips bucked slightly against your hand. It was a good look on him. Really good.

    “What do you think, Rog?” you panted. You could feel yourself getting closer. “What if I just made myself come while you watched, and then sent you home?”

    Roger’s eyes snapped to yours. “No, no, no, please, no,” he ground out. “Please, I’ll be so good for you, you can do whatever you want to me, I want you so bad. You look so good, you’re–” He swallowed. “You’re so wet. I – I can hear how wet you are.”

    Your breath hitched, your hips jerking again. “You want to feel it for yourself, do you?”

    “Yes,” Roger whined. “Please, I – I wanna… I…”

    At this point, you had a feeling you were actually going to come on your own fingers. Roger’s voice, his face, his whole body and the way it was coiled like the tightest spring, it was all turning you on so much. So much for ‘light teasing’.

    You moaned. “Shit.”

    “You can do whatever you want to me,” Roger said again. “You can hit me, you can slap me, bite me, I don’t care, make me bleed, I’ll take it, I’ll take it so well, I’ll be so thankful, I’ll be good for you, just use me, anything, I– fuck, you look so good, please, ma’am, please.”

    “Fuck, Rog,” you said, unable to believe the filthy things pouring from his mouth.

    You were so close, way closer than you thought you would be, and Roger looked almost on the verge of tears.

    “Please,” he whined. “Please, I can’t, I need you, I need you.”

    That was the final tipping point. You came, gasping, your hips bucking against your hand.

    Your fingers circled your clit slowly as you came down from your orgasm. You looked to Roger. He looked broken, staring at your fingers, and you felt your core pulsing with the last few aftershocks.

    Roger moaned at the sight.

    You jumped when your fingers brushed over your clit, sensitive, and you removed your hand with a sigh.

    Roger’s eyes flicked to your hand, your fingers glistening with your juice.

    You decided to take pity on him. “Clean me up?” you said, holding out your hand.

    He looked to your face, checking to see if you were joking, just being cruel.

    “Taste me, Rog,” you said.

    Roger couldn’t get over to your fast enough, licking your fingers into his mouth, his hands curling around your wrist. He took your fingers in all the way to the knuckle, groaning at the taste, his tongue dragging over the pads of your fingers.

    “Good boy,” you said. He was still shaking, and the dark spot on his underwear had grown considerably since you’d last checked.

    You slowly pulled your fingers from his mouth, and he whined, but you only went so far, and then you pushed them in again, and he accepted them gladly. His lips looked wet and pink and gorgeous around your fingers, his whole body warm.

    You adjusted, sitting up, your other hand smoothing over his thigh, making him moan, as you continued to lazily fuck his mouth with your fingers. His long eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks, his tongue earnestly swirling around your fingers every time you pushed them back into his mouth. He sighed, whimpering, and you licked your lips.

    “So well-behaved,” you murmured. “You look so pretty like this, Rog.”

    Roger tensed, his fingers tightening around your wrist, and he shifted, urging you to fuck his mouth deeper.

    “Oh, poor baby,” you cooed, smiling in amusement. “You’re so desperate you’ll take anything, huh? Doesn’t even matter if I’m not touching your cock.”

    Roger shivered, his hips twitching against thin air.

    You pulled your hand back, much to his despair, and you wiped your fingers on the sheets. “Normally I’d get you to use your mouth, to stretch me out for you,” you said, “but I think I’ve covered that just fine myself.”

    Roger watched you carefully, his blue eyes so full of hope yet so worried at the same time. “What… What does that mean, ma’am?”

    You cupped his cheek, and he leant into it, making a soft sound. “It means I want you to fuck me.”

    Roger’s eyes lit up. “What? Really? I can?”

    “If you ask nicely.”

    “Please can I fuck you, ma’am? Please?”

    You smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

    Roger’s beaming smile was blinding, and you couldn’t help but draw him in for a kiss. He made a happy sound against your lips, and you pulled away briefly to reposition yourself, your head on your pillows.

    Roger pounced on you, kissing you deeply, hungrily, harder than he’d ever kissed you before. You gave his hair a tug, and his hips jerked against yours, the first solid stimulation he’d received in almost the entire time. You gasped at the friction, and he immediately broke away to press his forehead against your shoulder, letting out the most guttural, broken moan, overwhelmed by how good it felt and desperately trying to stop himself from doing it again, to not come early. You could see the muscles in his back and shoulders tense like before, and they looked absolutely gorgeous.

    Roger panted against your skin. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Didn’t mean to.”

    “That’s okay, honey, you did such a good job stopping yourself,” you assured him, stroking your fingers through his hair. “You’re doing so well. I’m so proud. But it’s okay, I want you to fuck me. Take off your underwear for me?”

    Roger did so. He was so hard that it looked like it hurt. He must have wanted to scream.

    “Lube and condoms are in that drawer there,” you said, pointing to your bedside table.

    Roger’s hands were trembling as he fetched them, and he hissed as he rolled the condom on himself and drizzled lube onto his hand, dragging it up and down his cock as lightly as he could, pressing his lips together to muffle his whimpers.

    You reached for him, and he moved over to you without question, kissing you. “I can’t wait to be inside you,” he whispered against your lips. “I’m so lucky, ma’am, thank you.” He kissed you again.

    You were so surprised by what he’d said that you had no idea how to respond. You hoped he couldn’t tell how flustered you were.

    He kissed your neck. “Now?” he said in between kisses. “Now, ma’am, can I now?”

    “Yes, Rog,” you said, and he reached down to line himself up with your entrance. He started sliding into you, and you could see the way his breath stuttered. His head rested in the crook of your neck, and you hooked your legs over his hips. The slight ache felt good, familiar, and you stroked his back soothingly.

    He sobbed against you. “I…”

    “It’s all right, honey, you’re doing so well.”

    “You feel so good.”

    “You okay?”

    Roger took a shuddering breath, and then lifted himself up on all fours above you, his eyes slightly damp. “Y-yeah,” he said shakily with a small laugh. “Just… you do feel really good.”

    “Oh, hon,” you said with a small laugh in return, caressing his cheek.

    Roger’s brow creased, and then he thrust into you the rest of the way. Your breath caught, and he moaned. “Fucking hell.”

    You nudged him with your heels. “I’m good, I’m good.”

    “I’m not,” Roger said, then added a quick, ma’am, just to be safe. “Just… give me a moment.”

    “I don’t mind if you don’t last long,” you said. “I’ve already come.”

    “You made yourself come,” Roger said. “I want to do it. Please.”

    “Well, what am I gonna do,” you chuckled, “say no to that?”

    Roger smiled weakly, and kissed you once, then readjusted his position slightly, and pulled out a touch, then thrust back into you.

    “Oh, yes, Roger,” you sighed.

    Roger kept it slow at first, his arms still shaking as he drove into you again and again, and it was incredible, the way you could feel the drag of his cock in and out of you. You made sure to keep up the praise every now and again, just reminding Roger that he was doing such a good job and that he was such a good boy, especially when he started fucking you faster, and every time you did, he whimpered, and the sound went straight to your core. You could tell how intently he was focusing on not coming before you did, and it honestly blew your mind how he was able to do it. He had to pause a couple times to catch himself, and he mumbled apologies and kissed your throat and your lips so sweetly each time before he had calmed himself enough to begin fucking you again.

    You would’ve let him fuck you all day like this. He was being so good, so thoughtful and gentle and focused. You’d never seen Roger like this before, but you loved it. He was your good boy, your good boy who made such pretty noises and fucked you so well, who was so receptive to praise, who looked like he’d been blessed by God himself when you so much as touched his hair.

    “Fuck,” you hissed when Roger hit the right spot again, “just like that, yes.”

    Roger whined, hips snapping against you, hitting the spot again. “Shit, you feel so good,” he moaned. His rhythm stuttered, and he had to stop again, whining, pressing his forehead against your collarbones. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m sorry,” he panted, dropping a kiss to your skin. “You just feel so good, I can’t…”

    “You’re doing such a wonderful job,” you said, combing your hands through his sweaty, tangled hair. “You’re so close to coming, huh?”

    Roger nodded. “I – I was close when I first went inside you,” he confessed. “This is… I’m…”

    “I’m not stopping you from coming, honey,” you said. “I don’t mind.”

    Roger lifted his head, kissing your lips briefly, and shook his head. “Don’t wanna,” he said. “Not till you do.” He took a breath. “Are you–?”

    You bit your lip, not wanting to disappoint him, but: “Not really, honey. You’re doing so well, it feels so good, but I just need more to actually get there.”

    Roger nodded, his eyes growing determined.

    “Rog, you don’t–”

    “No, I can do it.” He kissed you again, then shifted, taking your ankle and resting it on his shoulder. Your leg was bent at the knee, and there was no way in hell you were going to be able to straighten it. You hoped he wasn’t planning on leaning too far forward, unless he wanted to tear your hamstring.

    “I don’t know if I’m that flexible, Roger,” you said with a laugh.

    “Please, ma’am,” Roger pleaded, and, well, you had to at least give it a try.

    You nodded. “Okay, sweetheart, we’ll give it a go.”

    Roger made sure your ankle was firmly in place, and then balanced himself on one hand, his other hand reaching between you, circling your clit. You sucked in a breath, your back arching.

    Roger started fucking you again, slowly once more, while playing with your clit, and the combination of his fingers, with you feeling every ridge and vein on his cock, with your leg at a new angle, sent your mind into a frenzy.

    “Oh,” you blurted, your eyes going wide, your fingers gripping the sheets beside you. “Oh, Jesus.”

    Every time you clenched around Roger, he made a muffled whimpering sound, but he kept going, his jaw clenched.

    You used your hand to keep your leg in place, because this felt good, and you did not want your leg to fall from Roger’s shoulder. You moaned helplessly. “Roger, God, fuck.”

    Roger said nothing, concentrating too hard on his task. The familiar coil began tightening in your belly.

    “Keep going, keep going,” you urged him breathlessly. “Ah, fuck, fuck.”

    Roger started driving into your harder, and your leg slipped from his shoulder onto the bed, but it didn’t matter, because Roger’s fingers were making fucking magic.

     The only obvious tell-tale that he was doing everything he could to stave off his own orgasm was the way he whined, “Please, please,” almost in a chant. His hips jerked off rhythm again, and he groaned deeply, but kept fucking you.

    “I’m so close,” you told him. “So close, Rog, come on.”

    He sobbed, his fingers working even harder. “Please.”

    The coil was tightening more and more, and you cried out. “That’s it, come on, fuck, so – ah – so close.”

    Roger was shaking with the effort, and you genuinely believed for a moment that he was about to come before you, but then he fucked into you just right, hitting that spot, and you completely came undone, crying out, your whole body shaking with the force of it. Feeling you coming around him, Roger followed immediately, hips ramming into yours, face buried in your neck, a loud, desperate sob punching from him, and he must have come hard, because he kept gasping out, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” his body convulsing as he curled around you.

    Then it was quiet, apart from the sound of heavy breathing. Your aftershocks rippled through you still, slowly fading, and Roger twitched slightly every time they did.

    “Oh my God,” you said to the ceiling.

    Roger finally slumped against you, unable to hold himself up any longer, and, although it winded you and you were both far too sweaty, you didn’t mind.

    “Jesus Christ, Roger,” you said, combing through his hair again.

    He moaned pathetically.

    “You all right?”

    He let out a small whimper, but nodded. “Just gimme a sec.”

    You laughed, and patted his back. “All right.”

    He took another moment, and then struggled onto all fours, pulling out of you, and collapsed onto the bed beside you.

    You grinned at the look on his face as he stared at the ceiling, wide-eyed.

    “I,” he said. “Came. So. Hard.”

    You burst into laughter, and he looked to you, laughing himself, but still bewildered. “I did!” he insisted. “It was like I came five times in a row or something. I don’t think I can walk after that.”

    “I believe you,” you giggled.

    Roger shook his head, looking back to the ceiling. “Shit.”

    “How are you feeling?” you said. “We… got pretty deep into it.”

    Roger licked his lips. “I’m – I’m okay,” he said. “I feel a little… spacey? But I’m all right.”

    When you got a little spacey after you and Brian had gone harder than usual into the dom/sub dynamics, you only ever wanted two things: water, and cuddles.

    “I’ll get you some water,” you said, sitting up. It was more difficult than you wanted to admit. “Ah, God.”

    Roger chuckled. “How are you?”

    “Exhausted.” You shot him a smile. “Dude, we have the hottest sex ever. How are we so good at this?”

    “I know, right?” Roger said as you stood up and stretched, then went to throw on an old dress. “Maybe we should drop out of uni and become porn stars together. We’d make a bomb.”

    You snorted. “I know you’re joking, but I can also tell that you’re kinda not, so I’m just gonna say it now: I’m not dropping out of uni to become a porn star.”

    You headed to the kitchen.

    “Maybe think it over?” Roger called after you.

    You ignored him. You got yourself a drink of water, and were just finding something to snack on, when Roger stepped into the kitchen, dressed in his underwear and his shirt. He looked small, vulnerable.

    “Mm?” you said.

    “Um,” he said, stepping closer. “I… I don’t know.”

    Oh. Cuddles.

    You hopped up onto the kitchen bench and spread your arms. “C’mere,” you said, and he hurried over, burying his face in your shoulder, his arms holding you close.

    You just held him, scratching the base of his skull soothingly. He sighed contentedly, and you smiled.

    You showered first, and he went second. You lent him an old shirt and a pair of pyjama pants, which fitted him more like boxers. You were a big fan. He was not, but he didn’t really have much of a choice. He was unusually quiet, but he seemed happy, and when you offered to let him sleep over, he accepted wholeheartedly. For the rest of the afternoon, and then the evening, he was always touching you in some way, and you gave your cuddles freely. He curled against you as you both watched a movie on your laptop in your room after dinner, and he nodded off with his head against your shoulder.

    You let him. It was nice.

    The next morning, he was back to his old self. “What would you have done if I’d called you ‘Mummy’ instead of ‘ma’am’ yesterday?” he asked thoughtfully.

    You almost spat out your tea, glancing furtively towards Lucy’s bedroom. Hopefully she was still asleep. “Uh.”

    “Y’know, because you called me ‘Daddy’, not ‘sir’.”

    “Yeah, no, I get it.” You took another sip of tea. “Well, what if I’d told you to call me ‘Daddy’?”

    Roger stared at the table as he processed this. Then he looked back up to you. “Hm,” he said. “I honestly don’t know how I feel about that one. But you didn’t answer my question.”

    “My answer’s the same as yours,” you said. “I honestly don’t know how I feel about that one.”

    Roger nodded, and took a bite of toast. “Fair enough. Has Brian ever called you that?”

    “What, ‘Mummy’?” you said, and Roger shrugged. “No. It never even occurred to either of us.”

    “What does he called you?”

    You pulled a face. “Why do you want to know?”

    “I’m curious.”

    You were about to say something else, about how it was weird he wanted to know, but you bit your tongue. “He doesn’t call me anything, really,” you said instead. “Just my name. Even when I’m calling him ‘Daddy’, he… doesn’t really call me anything. He calls me a, uh, good girl, but, yeah, just my name. He’s not as big on the pet names during sex as you are.”

    Roger scoffed. “Well, he’s missing out, that’s all I have to say.”

    You chuckled. “Well, I’m seeing him tonight, so maybe I can ask him.”

    Roger raised his eyebrows. “You’re seeing him tonight? Like…”

    “Sleeping with him, yes.”

    “You’re not tuckered out after last night?”

    “Yeah,” you said with a shrug. “But I guess I’ll have to get used to it if I’m going to be balancing the two of you from now on, aren’t I?”

    “Guess so, yeah.”

    “I can just make him do all the work,” you added with a smile. “He’ll be a bit grumpy about it, but he’ll do it.”

    “Can you get him to wash all my dishes?”

    “No.”

    Roger made a disgruntled face, and you laughed.

    Okay. Maybe this could work out, after all.

[aion-rsa]

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Complete Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 2. 

The Umbrella Academy wears its influences on its sleeve. Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s original comic and the Netflix series it was adapted into pay a great debt to properties like X-Men, Doom Patrol, and even The Royal Tenenbaums.

Now for its second season, The Umbrella Academy is even more devoted to Easter eggs, references, and many other real life and pop culture homages. This batch of episodes takes the Hargreeves family back to the early ‘60s where they encounter a whole new host of inspirations.

“There are tons,” showrunner Steve Blackman says of season 2 Easter eggs. “We specifically wanted to sit down and say, ‘Here are the Easter eggs we want to put in, let’s make a list of them.’ They’re everywhere. I think the fans will get a real kick once you start realizing what we’ve put in.”

Follow along with us as we catalogue every possible Easter egg and reference in The Umbrella Academy season 2. Hopefully we can clarify a thing or two about this season along the way. And hopefully you, dear reader, can help point out what we surely missed.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 1: Right Back Where We Started

This episode takes its name from Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From.” And indeed that song plays as the Hargreeves family arrives in the ‘60s and tries to acclimate to their surroundings. 

The season opens with the lunar-induced apocalypse that kills billions of people on Earth. The world’s destruction was essentially confirmed at the end of The Umbrella Academy season 1 but is re-confirmed here. In the original comic book, the planet is destroyed midway through volume 2 “Dallas” when Hazel and Cha-Cha detonate a nuke they stole from Reginald Hargreeves’s stash. Thankfully in this season, just as in “Dallas,” The Umbrella Academy makes it safely back in time and gets a chance to undo things.

For organizational purposes here is where each member of The Umbrella Academy lands in the early 1960s, along with what movie is playing on the local cinema’s marquee:

February 11, 1960 – Klaus and Ben –  The movie is Curse of the Undead.

1961 – Allison – The movie is The Curse of the Werewolf.

1962 – Luther – Movie not visible.

September 1, 1963 – Diego – Movie not visible.

October 12, 1963 – Vanya – The movie is Kiss of the Vampire.

November 25, 1963 – Five – Movie is still Kiss of the Vampire.

The song playing during this latest apocalypse is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

This thrilling series finale-esque apocalypse sequence also provides viewers with a decent reminder of what each Umbrella siblings’ power is:

Vanya uses sound to generate enormous, explosive power. 

Klaus can communicate with the dead and in this instance is even able to summon the ghosts of U.S. soldiers to do battle against the Soviets.

Luther is super strong. And surprisingly flame retardant. 

Ben (still dead) is able to produce monstrous tentacles from his stomach. In the comic series it is explained that he summons monsters from another dimension. 

Allison quite literally possesses the power of suggestion. Her phrase “I heard a rumor” bewitches whoever hears it to do what she says. 

Diego is super accurate with knives and seemingly takes his combat training more seriously than anyone in the Academy. In the comics, Diego  is able to survive without breathing but for the second season in the row that appears to have not made it to the TV show. “You got Jason Momoa doing that a hundred times better anyway,” David Castañeda told Den of Geek during a set visit. 

Number Five can travel through time but obviously rather imprecisely. He uses that power on a smaller scale to pop through space-time during fist fights.

Hazel makes his triumphant and brief return to the series…looking somewhere between Nick Offerman and Gandalf. He likes to call Five “old-timer” because despite having his childhood body, Five is actually in his late ‘50s. 

This time around, the world will end on November 25, 1963 – notably three days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. 

Diego trots out a Star Wars joke about Luke Skywalker’s daddy issues that obviously no one in the asylum is able to understand, with Star Wars 14 years away from release. 

Diego’s friend at the hospital is new character Lila, played by Ritu Arya. Lila has no comparable character in the comic series and is purely a show invention. Arya is best known for her work in Humans and Last Christmas.

Klaus and Ben were in San Francisco for three years before heading back to Dallas. In that time, Klaus started a cult. California was a hotspot for cults in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Klaus was a little ahead of the game. 

Allison is preparing to participate in a sit-in with her Black peers. As early as the ‘40s but chiefly during the ‘50s and early ‘60s, sit-ins were tactics used by Civil Rights organizers in which protesters would occupy an area and refuse to move. Some of the most famous sit-ins involved Black Americans sitting at lunch counters or tables in all-white restaurants and requesting service. As Dan Fienberg points out in his season 2 review, Civil Rights organizers had largely ceased this practice by 1963.

The song playing during Diego’s time in isolation is a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” by Daniela Andrade.

The song playing as Diego and Lila escape is “Comin’ Home Baby” by Mel Tormé. 

Luther is working for Jack Ruby – an unlikely important figure in American history. Ruby was a well-known nightclub owner in Dallas who was tied to mob activities such as illegal gambling, drugs, and prostitution. On November 24, 1963 (one day before the world “ends”), Ruby approached JFK’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald as police were escorting him from prison to court and fatally shot him at close range. 

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 2: The Frankel Footage

The title of this episode is clearly a take on “The Zapruder Film.” The Zapruder Film is footage of the JFK assassination recorded by Texas clothing manufacturer Abraham Zapruder. It is believed to be the most complete visual documentation of the JFK assassination and was used by the Warren Commission that investigated the asssassination. It’s also become fodder for conspiracy theories.

In the reality of The Umbrella Academy, The Frankel Footage is what Hazel slipped into Five’s pocket before he died. It documents JFK’s motorcade from the perspective of Dan and Ethel Frankel on Dealey Plaza. The Frankel Footage uncovers none other than Reginald Hargreeves holding an umbrella on the grassy knoll. 

Interestingly, “The Umbrella Man” is a real figure in the complicated lore of the JFK assassination. A figure holding a black umbrella appears in the Zapruder film and at one point spins his umbrella as the President’s motorcade passes by. This led to theories that, among other things, the umbrella man was a CIA plant who signaled to Lee Harvey Oswald via his umbrella to fire the fatal shots. In reality, the Umbrella Man was discovered to be Louie Steven Witt in 1978. Witt said he brought the umbrella to the motorcade to heckle Kennedy. Kennedy’s father Joe had been a fan of Nazi-appeasing British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. A black umbrella was Chamberlain’s trademark accessory. 

The Handler lives! A bullet to the head doesn’t do as much damage as one would think on The Umbrella Academy. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” from Cinderella plays as The Handler is spared from the incinerator. 

The Handler’s boss at the Commission is a goldfish in a tank atop an otherwise human body. His name is “A.J.” and later on it’s revealed his last name is “Carmichael.” This comes directly from The Umbrella Academy comic where the head of the “Temps Aeternalis” is revealed to be a shubunkin goldfish named Carmichael. 

“Well it finally happened – that gorilla DNA took over your mind,” Five tells Luther. This quick aside confirms that Reginald utilized gorilla DNA to save Luther’s life after a mission gone wrong. 

“Who’s Diego?” Elliot (Kevin Rankin) asks Five. “Imagine Batman and then aim lower,” Five responds. 

When Klaus meets one of his old followers in a holding cell and the follower asks for words of wisdom, Klaus replies with “Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.” This is a lyric from TLC’s 1995 song “Waterfalls.” 

All the “Children of the Prophet” have “Hello” and “Goodbye” tattooed or scribbled on either palm. This is in reference to Klaus’s tattoos of the same nature. In the comics, Klaus’s callsign is “The Seance” and those tattoos mimic the setup of most Ouija boards. 

Reginald Hargreeves owns D.S. Umbrella in Dallas. We see him open this business in the enigmatic opener of The Umbrella Academy season 1’s final episode. That episode also seemed to suggest that he’s an alien. 

Baby Pogo makes his first appearance! Pogo is a chimpanzee with the intelligence of a human. He was Hargreeves’s steadfast friend and probably the only positive influence in the young Hargreeves children’s lives. He was killed by Vanya in season 1. 

Five finds an invitation to Hargreeves from the Consulate of Mexico and one Mr. Hoyt Hillenkoetter. Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter was the first director of the CIA in real life. 

The song playing as Diego fights his father is “I’m a Man” by Spencer Davis Group.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 3: The Swedish Job

“The Swedish Job” is likely a reference to the classic ‘60s action film (and its 2003 remake) The Italian Job.

Let’s talk about The Swedes a little more. The Swedes are not present in the Umbrella Academy comic book. They fill a similar role to what Hazel and Cha-Cha do in the second volume of the comic as agents of The Commission (or Temps Aeternalis in the book). But with the show having burned Hazel and Cha-Cha on season 1, it likely needed a replacement here. Most assassins in the Commission are colorful characters so The Swede’s pale weirdness makes enough sense. 

“Sunny” by Boney M. plays over the opening montage of Klaus’s time as a cult leader.

Five is tracking soundwaves at Morty’s as that’s a surefire way to find Vanya. 

The man holding a “The End is Nigh” sign is certainly an homage to Watchmen. Watchmen was influential for Umbrella Academy writer Gerard Way…and just about everyone else. 

The Handler’s outfit as she intimidates a child at a pet shop closely resembles ‘60s fashion popularized by Jackie Onassis Kennedy – fitting given this season’s focus. 

Five’s coffee obsession continues apace in this episode. 

Klaus meets Dave, the love of his life, at Glenoak’s Hardware. Klaus had previously traveled to the 1960s in season 1 where he joined the Vietnam war effort and fell in love with fellow soldier Dave. Dave obviously has no recollection of it as it hasn’t happened for him yet. Or maybe it never will…time travel is weird. 

The song playing at episode’s end is “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers. 

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 4: The Majestic 12

“The Majestic 12” is a real organization…or purported to be real by conspiracy theorists. It’s said that The Majestic 12 was created by Harry S. Truman in 1947 and made up of scientists, military leaders, and government officials to investigate alien spacecraft. Elliot describes the Majestic 12 as a “shadow government.” Of course Reginald Hargreeves would be a part of it.

The Handler recovered young Lila in London, England in 1993. She appears to be about four years old at that time. If so, that would put her birth year at a very significant…1989.

The music budget this season continues to be insane. The song playing as Klaus falls back into alcoholism and addiction is Styx’s “Renegade.” Obviously.

Luther is enjoying some Texas barbecue when he encounters Allison again. This leads to two relevant points.

Texas barbecue is the best in the country.

With Luther’s increased appreciation for food, The Umbrella Academy season 2 is paying slight homage to the comic’s “Fat Luther” storyline. Following the events of the first comic volume, Luther becomes complacent, depressed, and ultimately, obese. “There’s certainly a nod to that in this season,” Tom Hopper told Den of Geek. “There was a question mark over the fact that Thor did the whole thing already (in Avengers: Endgame.”

Diego meets his mother at the swanky Dallas party. When Diego and his siblings knew “Grace,” she was merely a robot created by Reginald. Here she is a living, breathing woman who knows her date by “Reggie.” 

Harlan has a sparrow toy. Make note of this as sparrow imagery pops up a few times this season. Birds are all over The Handler’s clothing choices for instance. That ends up being tremendously relevant to the conclusion of season 2. 

Sissy and Vanya share a kiss and then more. Vanya is the second confirmed LGBTQ Umbrella Academy member. “Having that be such a big part of the show and Vanya’s life is exciting for me,” Ellen Page told Den of Geek. 

Luther just flat out loves drugs now. After his LSD trip in season 1, he follows that up with nitrous this season. That leads to this hilarious exchange with Elliot:

“My dad died too. He left me on the moon.” *howling, uncontrollable laughter*

The song at episode’s end is “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by KISS. 

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 5: Valhalla

The episode’s title is named after “Valhalla,” a majestic hall ruled over by Odin in Asgard in Norse mythology. 

Poor Pogo was a space monkey. The United States, U.S.S.R., and France launched dozens of primates into space from 1948 through 1996 (!!!) to test space flight’s effects on humanity’s close cousins. When Pogo’s space flight went poorly, Reginald appears to have resurrected him with a similar serum to which he gave Luther. Is it possible that Luther got gorilla DNA and Pogo got human DNA?

Luther took a bus trip to see his father in the ‘60s. And the map that displays Luther’s trip offers up an interesting clue as to the whereabouts of The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy is filmed in Toronto though it’s never mentioned what city Toronto is standing in for in the show. In the comics it’s known as only “The City.” Here, Luther’s bus ride seems to end around Indianapolis of all places. It seems as though The Umbrella Academy is in the Midwest. 

Ambrosia was a gelatinous fruit salad popular in the ‘60s. It was and is an affront to humanity. 

The team’s breakdown of the many ways they could have destroyed the timeline is amusing to say the least:

“Diego has been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald.” – Luther

“You’ve been working for Jack Ruby!” – Diego

“Allison has been very involved in local politics.” – Klaus 

“Ok, you started a cult.” – Allison 

“I’m just a nanny on a farm. I don’t have anything to do with all of that.” – Vanya

“Face it. The only healthy relationship in this family is when Five was banging that mannequin,” Klaus says. This is a reference to Five’s mannequin lover, Dolores, from his time alone in the post-apocalypse future. 

Klaus, Allison, and Vanya dance to Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away.” 

The song playing as Five and Lila fight is a ska cover of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” by The Interrupters. 

The song playing as the two surviving Swedes consign their fallen brother to Valhalla is a cover of Adele’s “Hello” by Swedish artist My Kullsvik.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 6: A Light Supper

Reginald invites his “pursuers” to 1624 Magnolia Street, Dallas. This address appears to be a parking lot currently. 

“So there was a Black president?” Raymond asks Allison of the future. There was indeed, Ray.

“Hold on I’m Coming” by Sam and Dave plays as Allison and Ray have their day out on the town. 

“Sixteen years in the grave and you finally turned into your father,” Klaus tells Ben. Given the Hargreeves’s 1989 birth year and 2019 current year of the show, Ben must have been around 14 when he died. 

Dave has already signed up for the Army ahead of schedule, suggesting that the Hargreeves’ presence in 1963 really is altering the timeline. 

The song playing as the Hargreeves approach their Tiki Lounge meeting is “The Order of Death” by Public Image Ltd.

Ben can now officially inhabit Klaus. This is an evolution of Klaus’s power of being able to communicate with the dead. Robert Sheehan said of this development: “(Klaus) can’t be as selfish anymore because (Ben) has this thing over me that he can do. We have a lot of fun with it and stuff, but it’s kind of about sobriety. I think Klaus and Ben’s relationship is entirely about sobriety versus addiction, for somebody who’s lived with addiction for so long.”

As Five will tell Luther and Diego in episode 7, Öga for  Öga is Swedish for “An eye for an eye.”

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 7: Öga for Öga

A candy bar in the vending machine in 1982 Oshkosh, Wisconsin is a “Pogos-Gogos.” Pogo was likely a famous pop culture figure due to his space flight…and ability to speak English.

When Five takes an axe to the Commission executive board in 1982 Wisconsin, it’s hard not to think of American Psycho. Aiden Gallagher is a dead ringer for a young Patrick Bateman.

The song playing as Ben experiences life in Klaus’s body is “Sister of Pearl” by Baio.

We find out the name of Klaus’s cult is “Destiny’s Children.” Klaus is really working his knowledge of ‘90s R&B groups here.

The song playing as Allison battles The Swedes is “Everybody” by Backstreet Boys.

“I heard a rumor you killed your brother,” Allison tells one of the two remaining Swedes. It’s not clear why she assumes that they are brothers. But the fact that the lead Swede follows through means that Allison was correct. Otherwise The Swede would have hopped on a plane to seek out his real brother to kill.

“It was a simple task – just be here! We didn’t have to kill a giant sea serpent, fight off an army of mutants,” Five says of his team’s failure to rendezvous at the right time to escape the ’60s. The “kill a giant sea serpent” could be a reference to a brief moment in the comic’s one-off issue “But the Past Ain’t Through With You.” Sometime in the past, The Umbrella Academy defeated a sea serpent that attacked Japan because it was insulted that a toy-maker make unlicensed plush toys of it.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 8: The Seven Stages

The FBI does have an office in Dallas but it’s about 10 miles away from Dealey Plaza and not directly behind the grassy knoll as depicted here. Or at least that’s what they want you to think…

Vanya is able to reflexively answer the FBI questioner back in Russian because Reginald Hargreeves was a strict teacher of foreign languages to The Umbrella Academy. 

Grace finds photos of Fidel Castro, Lyndon B. Johnson, JFK, and a map of his motorcade route in Reggie’s files. This is a clear indication to her that Reggie is involved in an upcoming attempt against the President’s life. Grace also sees plans for a “televator.” This is the elevator teleportation device Reginald will one day build.

There are five stages of grief but apparently seven stages of side effects from confronting one’s self in the same timeline. Five lists them out thusly:

1. Denial

2. Itching

3. Extreme Thirst and Urination

4. Excessive Gas

5. Acute Paranoia

6. Uncontrolled Perspiration

7. Homicidal Rage

As Vanya begins her LSD trip, the song that plays is “Pepper” by Butthole Surfers. Some of the lyrics are particularly apt for this season – “they were all in love with dying, they were doing it in Texas.”

Diego discovers that Vanya will be the cause of the apocalypse yet again in 1963, which makes an argument that The Umbrella Academy operates under Devs-style determinism.

Around the 23-minute mark someone holding a Cha-Cha mask can be seen off in the distance at Commission HQ. The individual’s face can’t be seen but it’s not out of the question that this could be Cha-Cha. Commission assassins appear to age in an unusual manner. Alternatively this could be an assassin who donned the cartoonish helmet before Cha-Cha. Showrunner Steve Blackman says that either interpretation is valid: “In the Commission, it’s always 1963, but it never changes time. So that very well could have been Cha-Cha holding the mask.”

In her LSD nightmare, Vanya is chastised by Reginald for wanting to live “a silly life on a silly farm.” One of the issues of “Dallas” is titled “A Perfect Life” and deals partly with Luther imagining a tranquil domestic life with Allison. 

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 9: 743

The episode gets its name from the case number in which Five executed Lila’s parents on The Handler’s orders.

Klaus references Antonio Banderas in complimenting Diego’s hair. Diego is legitimately touched. 

Much of this episode takes place in or around Dealey Plaza – the location where John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The sections of note in Dealey Plaza are the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his rifle from and the grassy knoll where some people believe a second shooter shot JFK. The Umbrella Academy doesn’t make a trip to the book depository but does briefly show the grassy knoll with Reggie Hargreeves and his umbrella. Luther and the two Fives spend most of their time in a parking lot behind the grassy knoll.

Fittingly, the song that plays as young Five fights old Five is “Dancing With Myself” by Billy Idol’s band Generation X.

Much of Vanya’s acid trip is set to Bach’s “Partita No. 2 in D Minor” on violin. There is a lot of violin imagery as well. This is fitting given Vanya’s aptitude for the instrument. She receives the villainess name “White Violin” in the comic series.

“Dad treated you like a bomb before you were one,” Ben tells Vanya.  The final issue of The Umbrella Academy Volume 1 is titled “Finale, Or, Brothers and Sisters, I Am an Atomic Bomb.”

Ben also tells Vanya he died “17 years ago” which seems at odds with Klaus’s declaration that Ben died “16 years ago.” Klaus and Ben have been in Dallas for three years though, so Ben died 19-20 years ago, depending on who is right. The year is also 1963 so Ben technically won’t die for another 42 or 43 years. Time travel is weird. 

Luther and Young Five send Old Five back to the very start of The Umbrella Academy series, which avoids a truly mind-bending number of paradoxes. 

Though it was teased in the show’s first season, Reginald Hargreeves reveals himself to be well and truly an alien in the final moments of this episode. Reggie unzips his skin mask, discards it, and then violently murders his Majestic 12 colleagues at the Tiki Lounge for them killing Kennedy against his wishes. This is a bit of information that the comic book is shockingly upfront about, casually revealing on the series’ second-ever page that Hargreeves is an alien and never addressing it further. 

Before they’re slaughtered, the Majestic 12 claim that Reggie has interests on the dark side of the Moon. Perhaps Luther’s trip to the moon wasn’t pointless after all. 

The episode concludes with a new song from Umbrella Academy creator and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way called “Here Comes the End.”

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 10: The End of Something

This is the first time we’ve seen Ben’s funeral. His little casket is covered with squid iconography – a tribute to his power. 

The Umbrella Academy are now all suspects in JFK’s death. That’s bound to change the timeline, right? Indeed it probably does based on this episode and the season’s conclusion. It’s also interesting just how inherently suspicious each member of the Umbrella Academy would be to 1963 society. Vanya has an Eastern European-sounding name and can speak Russian. Diego is Cuban. Allison is a Black revolutionary. Luther is an enormous bare-knuckle brawler. Klaus is a cult leader. All intimidating stuff. 

The army of Commission goons that The Handler summons to take care of the Umbrella team is full of colorful masks and helmets a la Hazel and Cha-Cha. 

On our set visit for The Umbrella Academy season 2, Five actor Aiden Gallagher revealed that several characters would discover “sub-powers” Gallagher said: “I was talking to Steve (Blackman) about this, and how it works is in season one, we sort of get hints about all the characters powers and in season two, we really see more so the extent how far that can go. How different elements of each character’s powers actually means that they have this sub-power.” Diego seems to come across a subpower in this final battle when he appears to be able to stop bullets. Blackman explains the power thusly:

“If you think about Diego’s power, he can, with his mind, control trajectory of objects. Basically he likes throwing, so he can throw his knife and he can make it go in weird, odd curvatures and directions. All of them stopped their training in their adolescence when the family broke up, and they are still learning about their powers and their powers are still evolving. As I go through seasons we’ll see more of that. But moving a knife through the air – an extension of that is then being able to manipulate bullets through the air.”

Speaking of powers, Lila appears to have…well, all of them. Lila displays Vanya’s power, Allison’s power, and Five’s power in fights with each of them. But as Klaus, likely correctly, theorizes later, Lila can only mirror one of their powers at a time. Her ability is mimicry. Diego surmises that this means Lila is one of them – one of the 43 children born on October 1, 1989. That’s why The Handler went out of her way to kill her parents and adopt her. 

Allison leaves a letter for Ray in a copy of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. A fitting book for the story of The Umbrella Academy and this season. 

The song playing during the closing montage is a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Games” by Parra for Cuva featuring Anna Naklab.

Luther calls Jack Ruby, presumably to convince him not to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. But Jack has already picked up his gun. 

Ah, The Sparrow Academy. We delved deep into what the ending of The Umbrella Academy season 2 means over here. For now, know that The Sparrow Academy is likely lifted from Volume 3 of The Umbrella Academy comics, “Hotel Oblivion.” We say “likely” because the team doesn’t have an official name but it does invoke a lot of Sparrow imagery. The Sparrow Academy turns up at the very end of volume “Hotel Oblivion.” In the show, The Sparrow Academy seems to exist in an alternate universe created by The Umbrella Academy’s actions in Dallas. In the comic, it is implied that they are simply seven other extraordinary children born on October 1, 1989. This could prove to be the case in the show as well…save for Ben Hargreeves, who we are obviously already familiar with. 

The post The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Complete Easter Egg and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[p1zzapop]

Top 20 Skull Characters

Skulls have become a huge part of pop culture. It’s a symbol often used in designs for characters associated with death or evil. In this list, we’re looking at the top 20 fictional characters with Skulls - specifically the head or face.

20) Death [ Castlevania ]

Death is Dracula’s loyal 2nd in command in the Castlevania series. He has a classic Grim Reaper appearance - complete with a big scythe - and wields dark magic. He tends to battle in clock towers and has resurrected Dracula countless times

19) Doctor Phosphorus [ DC ]

A reactor core accident gave Doctor Phosphorus the powers of eternal burning skin and radiation manipulation. He sought revenge on those he blames for making the power plant unsafe. This led into run-ins with Batman and he would eventually become one of the Dark Knight’s recurring villains.

18) Mister Bones [ DC ]

Mister Bones (aka Director Bones) was born a mutant after his mother was injected with an experimental drug during pregnancy. His skin and organs are invisible, and his sweat is toxic. He’s spent time as a member of a few superteams before eventually becoming a Director with the Department of Extranormal Operations

17) Holocaust [ Marvel ]

Originally known as Nemesis, Holocaust featured in the Age of Apocalypse event from the 90’s as one of the Four Horsemen. After his body was almost destroyed by Magneto, Dark Beast transferred his essence into a powerful exo-skeleton.

16) Doctor Destiny [ DC ]

Dr. Destiny used to be your typical evil scientist and criminal mastermind. But he would transcend that when he invented the Materioptikon, a device that could make dreams a reality. Eventually, he would be able to manipulate dreams directly and would become a major recurring foe of the Justice League

15) Deathstorm [ DC ]

There have been two Deathstorm characters that are dark variants of Firestorm  (one from Blackest Night/Brightest Day and one from New 52’s Earth-3). The New 52 version was a combo of Martin Stein and a corpse he experimented on. He had the powers of the Firestorm matrix and was part of the Crime Syndicate during the Forever Evil storyline.

14) Simon “Ghost”  Riley  [ Call of Duty ]

Simon “Ghost” Riley was a badass member of British Special Forces and Task Force 141 in the Call of Duty series. When they were kids, his brother Tommy would wear a Skull mask to scare him - which would inspire the design of Ghost’s balaclava.

13) Shadowman [ Valiant ]

Jack Boniface is given with the “Darque power” by the mystical group known as the Coven. When the Darque power fills Jack, Shadowman takes over with enhanced strength + endurance, night vision, reduced fear, and other abilities. He battles demonic and mystical forces when the sun sets in New Orleans

12) Blazing Skull [ Marvel ]

Blazing Skull was a Golden Age character from Timely comics and a member of the Invaders. He was seen as the chosen one by a tribe of “Skull Men” in a cave and gains special powers from training. These include immunity to fire and the ability to turn his flesh invisible.

11) Shao Kahn [ Mortal Kombat ]

Shao Kahn is one of the main antagonists throughout the Mortal Kombat games. He has ruled Outworld on multiple occasions and has godlike strength and powers. He can consume souls and wields his mighty Wrath Hammer in his battles with the forces of Earthrealm

10) Atomic Skull [ DC ]

The Joseph Martin version of Atomic Skull gained special abilities after an accident involving S.T.A.R. Labs. He has the strength, agility, endurance at the levels of a Superman analog. He’s also able to shoot his sweet looking purple flame in blasts at enemies. In some versions his skin is invisible- in another it’s melted off by radiation.

9) Crossbones [ Marvel ]

Crossbones is a neo-nazi military tactician who is often at odds with Captain America. He learned and taught at Taskmaster’s school and is a master of firearms and explosives. He famously assassinated (apparently) Captain America after the Civil War event

8) Taskmaster [ Marvel ]

Taskmaster is a master assassin with the ability to duplicate any ability he sees - without any training. Because of this he’s become an expert with all forms of weaponry, martial arts, and marksmanship. He is often used as a trainer for other super-powered individuals.

7) Black Mask [ DC ]

Born into an upper class family in Gotham City, Roman Sionis was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. He had serious mommy and daddy issues, culminating with their murder at his hands. Taking on the persona of Black Mask, he’d go on to run one of the largest criminal organizations in Gotham.

6) Scorpion [ Mortal Kombat ]

Scorpion was a trained ninja assassin who died at the hands of his bitter rival, Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei clan. He returned from the dead as an skull-headed spectre with powers of hellfire. Though appearing as a force of evil, he has been more of an anti-hero as the games have progressed.

5) Reaper [ Overwatch ]

Gabriel Reyes was a decorated officer in the US military who took part in a secret “soldier enhancement program” that gave him superhuman abilities. He’d eventually become the mercenary and terrorist Reaper that would hunt former members of the Overwatch team. He is able to take on a wraith form and wields two hellfire-spewing shotguns.

4) Terminator - T-800 [ Terminator ]

The T-800s were a model of machines created by Skynet for infiltration and combat missions. They are androids that have a triple-armored hyper-alloy endoskeleton that makes them extremely hard to damage by conventional means. T-800s have powerful tracking systems, can replicate voices, and usually wield a Plasma rifle.

3) Skeletor [ Masters of the Universe ]

The nemesis of He-Man, Skeletor wants to conquer and rule the world of Eternia. He commands dark mystical powers and a wide array of minions and henchmen. Much of his magic powers are channeled from his ram-headed staff known as the Havoc Staff.

2) Red Skull [ Marvel ]

Red Skull is an evil enemy of the free world, mentored by Hitler himself. He dons a red skull mask and is the archenemy of Captain America. Red Skull is often seen wielding the powers of the Cosmic Cube to further his agenda. Red Skull is one of the most sinister villains in comics, both in appearance and actions. His masterful scheming makes him an enemy that can’t be underestimated.

Honorable Mentions

Before unveiling #1, it’s worth mentioning a few others that didn’t quite crack the list. 

Blue Knight is a vigilante in Astro City. His guns shoot “ghost” bullets that disappear after hitting a target- leaving no trace.

Mister Fear is a mantle used by many villains in Marvel, all typically Daredevil or Spider-man enemies. He uses fear gas / pellets / spray to manipulate emotions.

The Punisher is one of the most iconic characters in Comics that has a Skull motif. After his family was killed by the mob, Frank Castle dedicates himself to brutally taking down criminals. This list was focused on Skull masks / heads which is why he didn’t quite make it.

Blight was a character from the Batman Beyond TV series and later made his way into comics. He is extremely high temperature and has radiation manipulation abilities.

1) Ghost Rider [ Marvel ]

There have been many Ghost Riders and Spirits of Vengeance over Marvel’s History. My favorite is Danny Ketch, but they are all iconic. The flaming skull, the bike, the spikes, the chain. Ghost Rider is a gritty, virtually indestructible force of justice. He wields hellfire, a magical chain, and a can transform vehicles into more fiery and powerful versions. His most well-known and terrifying abilities is the Penance Stare which makes the victim feel all the pain they’ve caused others over their lifetime. Ghost Rider is the epitome of the dark, badass antihero archetype - and what’s not to love about that?