#if they tweaked just a few things about city planning

[tanadrin]

Why isn't "just move out" an acceptable answer to America's bad city planning?

"Just move" is, in general, a terrible answer to any large-scale economic/political problem, because it assumes where you live is totally fungible and moving is relatively low-friction--which ignores the cost of moving, of being separated from your social networks, assumes you are equally employable anywhere in the country, etc., etc.

But in this case--move where? Aside from a handful of cities, mostly in the northeast (which even then have in many cases been affected by similar urban planning issues, if not to the same degree--Robert Moses did tons of damage in NYC), every city in North America underwent a period of rapid expansion when the fiscally-unsustainable transport-neglecting school of urban planning was dominant such that every city in the country has the same issues. Some cities can endure the resulting condition a little better, for now, as a result of particular local circumstances--Nashville was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country for many years, and may still be (IIRC Sun Belt cities have in general had pretty good immigration numbers for the last decade at least)--but that doesn't make their planning policies wise. They could be doing a lot better!

And I know I've been accused of being some European snob who thinks everybody should do things the way they're done over here, but really, I don't think that dense, walkable, well-connected city planning in the US would necessarily result in cities that were carbon copies of European ones. The U.S. is different, has different cultural inclinations, and different geographic constraints--U.S. cities are always going to look different from cities in Europe, for the same reason they look different from cities in East Asia or w/e. But right now U.S. city planning is a major drag on both the economy and local government, and while shooting itself in the foot and somehow staggering on despite the injury is a very American thing to do, I want more for the U.S. and its people!

[humdrummoloch]

Here's an exercise to apply to your story: pick any scene and build up its stakes.

Most scenes should have at least a tiny bit of tension. Not every scene has to drip with artificial melodrama, but if the audience doesn't see a good reason to care about what's happening, they probably won't.

Using this 3-part exercise I just made up, just with a few quick bullet lists, you can dissect that scene's stakes and make them mean something.

PART 1: THE TELLING

Take a moment to focus on the stakes in your scene. What's the worst that could happen? List them.

Here's the rule: if a stake is obvious, don't count it.

Wrong: "If he kills me, I die."

Wrong: "If the villain fails to get the artefact, he fails."

Wrong: "If I lose this match, I lose."

Sure, yeah. But what ELSE?

Correct: "If I die, there'll be no one to protect my family."

Correct: "If I don't get this magical artefact before the hero stops me, my plans to take over the world will be sabotaged."

Correct: "If I lose this match, I'll never make it to the championships and show the world what I can do."

The stronger these stakes are, the better (within reason). "So-and-so might die" isn't a compelling (as it could be) narrative stake even in stories where people do die.

Even in low-stakes stories, the characters care about those low stakes. If it's important to them that they impress that client or get that job, tell us WHY they care. Is it their lifelong dream, or the promise they made to their dying mother, or the job that'll take them away from a horrible living situation? Will failure embarrass them in front of their crush?

PART 2: THE SHOWING

Now you know what could go bad, let the audience feel it. Just take things that matter and tweak them so that they're tangible.

"If I don't join the fight, my friend might die!" -> Show us an enemy raising a sword about to strike their friend down if the character doesn't rush in to save them NOW.

"If I drop out, I'll be a bad daughter!" -> Show us her parents bragging about their kid's academic performance and telling her they're happy they have a good kid with a bright future instead of some "no-good delinquent."

"If I don't pay by next week the bank's gonna take our house!" -> Show us the character begging for just a few more days, show their reaction to overhearing someone talking about buying the house from the bank to bulldoze the property. Show what the house means to them and how they made it their home.

PART 3: THE HAPPENING

Remember, a bullet seems a whole lot deadlier when it doesn't literally miss every time. But it would be strange if every scifi involved the whole planet blowing up, right? Or if the main characters all died? So, you have to show us you're not kidding by employing a secret third thing. Here's the trick to this: divide up the stakes into pieces and make one of the pieces happen.

If the protag's team is in actual danger, just one of them can die. Maybe even someone "essential" -- the climax will be boosted from the team overcoming this setback, the story becoming more clutch and unpredictable to the audience.

A marriage on the rocks? Show that their previously happy kid is suddenly hiding things from them and failing in school.

The city in danger? Show us buildings being knocked over.

Hell, the protag themselves in danger? They've got a leg they might not be using.

If a stake can't be split down like this, it might be better to have the bulldozers show up at the house during the climax. Maybe even let the house fall.

After this exercise, your scene should now feel a whole lot more weighty, whether it's a job application or a final battle to the death. Again, not every scene needs tension and it can go too far and become silly, but I hope this exercise helps you the way it helps me.

[viridescentelf]

In your debt - Final Part

Young Halsin x Reader

Hey guys! This is the final part of my Young Halsin saga lol. I may continue doing some other fics with this version of him, but I am quite frankly out of ideas for now.

I am not all too proud of this part. There are certain scenes that just don't hit as hard as I'd like, but I've been editing and tweaking for days now. I'm finally just accepting it is what it is and basta!

Original idea for young Halsin belongs to @ozumii-fucking-wizard! Please go to their blog and follow!

Warning: 18+, violence, general nsfw, explicit sex, oral and penetrative, rough

For previous parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

If you want a spicy song for "the moment", give this a listen. It's what I listened to while writing it lol

Word Count: 8k sorry lol

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Halsin listened to your plan and decided it was too risky. He rejected it in an exceedingly kind way, as his smile hypnotized you to refrain from arguing. You conceded, for now, but asked that he share his plans with you, once there were any. He agreed, reluctantly.

In the next few days, you noticed him speaking to two other druids in hushed voices. You surmised they were Frelma and Danan, the two he mentioned that would help him topple the looming drow and goblin threat.

They would hurriedly finish their meals and then gather at the edge of the forest. It was fairly obvious that they were doing something they shouldn’t, but you couldn’t tell if the Archdruid, or Anwen, suspected anything. If they did, they didn’t show their suspicions around you. Halsin joined Anwen in prayer every evening. You were allowed to observe. One time, you noticed Anwen cross her arms and eye her adoptive son from head to toe, while Halsin nervously sputtered something about “studying”. If you could tell he was lying, you were certain she could. But she didn’t press him, to your surprise.

Your healing was complete. You felt a surge of energy and strength within yourself after the final session with Halsin, but there was also a twinge of sadness. You enjoyed these tender bouts with him. The feeling of his warm hands upon you made you yearn for more. He would often lower his head and listen to your abdomen and a strobing image of him between your legs made you twitch and gulp down your lust, embarrassed that he may feel your body temperature rise dramatically.

You weren't certain the feeling was mutual. You thought you saw him blush a few times and try to hide it or noticed a devoted spark within his viridescent eyes as you complimented his duck figurines. The way he touched you, it felt different than how Anwen healed you. As if he was exploring.

You would talk for hours now. You taught him a few chords, he showed you what amazing things you could find in the forest – creatures, plants, food. He even taught you how to carve wood. He would sit behind you to guide your hands while you carefully sliced through the bark. His touch was so gentle. Some nights you two would sing together, that addictive laugh of his when he messed up a note or lyric; It almost made you swoon.

He loved learning about your travels, the city and misadventures you’d had. He confessed he was slightly bored of the forest and wanted to go on long explorations. He even joked about joining you – at least you thought it was a joke. The way he looked at you when he said “Good night”; Most evenings, it felt he had a difficult time leaving your side.

You couldn’t be sure: maybe he was just like this with everyone.

Halsin told you his current plan while you helped him forage one afternoon. They would track the goblins’ markings through the forest to the stronghold and sneak inside. He showed you the footprints peppering the muddy ground near the village entrance. Once there, they would eradicate the leaders, leaving the goblins without guidance and unable to organize. It sounded so simple, but once you pressed how three druids would manage to fight off a hoard of goblins and tactical drow leaders, he placated you that they were well trained. At the question “What if the goblins overwhelm you?” you noticed the druid’s eyes jitter across the floor. It looked like he hadn’t thought of that, but quickly shook off his reaction.

It was your last day together. Halsin decided he would leave with his group the following morning. Your healing had finished, after all. His task was done. You had no reason to stay in the druids’ village any longer. They all assumed you wanted to get back home – which was the furthest thing from your mind.

You had tucked the children into bed with a lullaby once again and found the druid waiting for you outside the barn. Leaning against a nearby tree, you sensed heightened hesitation on his end, unusual for him. You tilted your head as you watched him scan your features. Letting his arms drop, he approached you slowly. Your heart thudded against your chest.

“Y/N,…”, he looked deeply into your eyes as he grasped your hands within his. “It’s been a pleasure getting to know you. I wish we’d met under different circumstances. Please know you are always welcome in the High Forest! Thaniel adores you, the children adore you, my mother thinks you’re a riot. And I… well…” You saw him swallow harshly and your insides started combusting.

WHAT? SAY IT!

The young druid squeezed your hands slightly, his jaw clenched.

“I..”

The courage he was building up collapsed suddenly. He dropped his head and let out a sigh.

“Thank you for everything. I hope Silvanus permits our paths cross again. If I survive tomorrow.”

His laugh felt forced.

Your face muscles unclenched and your brows tilted upwards. That was it? You couldn’t suppress the pulsating disappointment. It showed in your eyes. What did he stop himself from saying?

Halsin looked disappointed as well. He stared off to the side and let go of your hands, taking his time.

You stood in silence for a while. The unspoken truth hammering in your chest. His reluctance threw you off. Did he not feel the way you did, after all? Did he not want you?

Your own bravery shrunk within itself. The words you had prepared in your head for days were fogging fast.  

“Halsin,” you started with the first coherent thought, “Please let me come with you. The current plan is suicide.” This wasn’t all you wanted to say. But your tongue ignored you.

His eyes drifted over your face. He saw your own hesitation and blinked slowly.

“No. I can’t see you hurt again. And please, don’t worry. If things get too hard, we’ll get out of there.”

That last line was a lie. You could tell.

The druid stepped forward and pulled you into a tight embrace. Your breath shook as your face pressed against his strong chest. The scent of his skin drifted up your nose. You felt his chin rest on your head softly, as you two swayed in each other’s arms. The hug lasted a while, neither of you wanting to end it.

There was a brief tremor and he released from you.

“Oakfather preserve you”, he mumbled, looking down at you one last time before turning to leave.

You wanted to grab his arm and pull him back to you. But the fear of a second rejection was too deafening.

Why wouldn’t your mouth open? You wanted to scream that your wish was to stay with him. Your mind threw up every single want and need you imagined with him. But nothing dared leave your lips.

Halsin entered the barn and closed the sliding door without looking at you.

The tears fell from your eyes without warning. There was so much you wanted to say, but you couldn’t muster up any remaining strength or courage to follow him.

Maybe this was for the best. You had a life back in Baldur’s Gate. And he had his here.

Perhaps this was the way it had to be. As shitty as it was.

You walked up the path slowly, the druids’ village behind you, trekking the road back to the city in the morning light. Your entire body resisted the travel home. You didn’t want to go back. Your stomach was in knots.

You loved the High Forest. The children. The druids.

You had feelings for Halsin. Whether you were brave enough to speak them into existance or not, they existed. Not only did you long for him for his eternal beauty, but the endless gentle nature that embraced you every time he gazed into your eyes. You couldn’t be certain what he chose not to divulge to you yesterday, but you regretted not telling him how you felt.

His plan was dumb. He was surely walking into a massive trap in the stronghold. Your plan was also dumb, but it guaranteed that the druids would have a higher chance of survival. It didn’t guarantee your survival, but you had waved Halsin’s critique of that small detail away the same way he brushed yours off.

The idea of never seeing him again bit your heart. You couldn’t bear the thought of him getting hurt. And he would definitely be wounded or worse if he went through with his current plan.

A snaking, disturbing thought wrapped itself around your head. What if he actually got killed?

You stopped in your tracks and gazed at the path that led back home. You couldn’t let that happen. He was a big brother to those sweet children. The forest spirit was his friend. His mother would be in shambles. You would be inconsolable.

This plan is dumb.

You felt your body turn on its heels and face the direction of the village once more. Not knowing what happened to him would be the worst kind of torture. The endless wondering if he was alright. The sleepless nights praying to all the Gods that he returned to the druids’ village safely.

It won’t work.

The tempo of your stride increased gradually, leaving gusts of dirt behind you, as you ran back. Halsin had showed you which footprints they were following. You knew in which direction they were heading.

I’m gonna die again.

You muttered to yourself as you hiked up a steep hill through the trees, the goblins’ tracks still visible in the dirt road. You spotted fresh larger prints and recognized Halsin’s boots.

You ran, holding the beautiful lute he made for you in your hand.

You found them deeper in the forest, stalking low through the high bushes, their pace steady. Halsin’s broad shoulders tensed as he led the way through the brush, flanked by his two companions—each of them with their eyes sharp, alert to the clashing and clanking of metal below in the clearing. The afternoon sun filtered through the trees, casting long shadows that danced along the path. You could hear their hushed conversation as you approached, their words blending with the rustling of leaves.

"Halsin!" You called out, breathless, your heart pounding in your chest from the frantic, long sprint. Your face was the shade of a fire amber.

Halsin spun around, eyes wide with surprise as he saw you coming up the trail. His face softened, but there was an unmistakable flicker of frustration in his gaze: “What are you doing here? No! Get back to the city!”

You peered down at what they had discovered. A large camp stretched across a field of dead trees with a decaying ruin casting huge shadows on the hastily constructed ramparts. It emanated death, making the skin on the back of your neck prickle with fear. There was a moat around the camp with a rickety and long bridge stretching across the depth.

Gulping audibly, you returned your gaze to the group of confused druids who were waiting for an explanation. Halsin looked incredulous.

You planted yourself firmly in front of him: “I’m here to help. Your plan—it won’t work man, I just know it won’t.”

His jaw tightened, a low growl of annoyance escaping his throat: “And your plan? The one where you sacrifice yourself as bait for a horde of viscious goblins? That will work? It’s reckless, stupid, dangerou—”

“It’s the only way!”, you interrupted, meeting his intense, worried glare with unwavering determination, although your knees were giving in. Why was even his angered face hot?

“If I can lead the goblins away, it will give you and the others a real chance to take out the drow without being overwhelmed. Your plan leaves too much to chance. We can’t afford that, not with the children’s lives at stake.”

Halsin’s hands balled into fists at his sides, his voice strained: “No. I can’t let you. It’s too risky and if something happens to you again—” His words trailed off, the frustration giving way to something deeper, more vulnerable.

His two friends, who had been silent until now, exchanged glances. Frelma, a younger, halfling druid with sharp eyes and a playful expression, stepped forward: “Halsin,… I’m sorry mate, but maybe they’re right. Our current plan is… well not really a plan, is it? We’re kind of just jumping in and hoping for the best. This way…to draw the goblins out… it could give us a real advantage.”

Danan, a quiet but sturdy looking human, nodded in agreement: “It’s better than what you have been conjuring up as we go.” He turned his gaze to you, scanning you up and down. Your breath was already steady, despite having ran the entire way.

“You have good stamina. Definitely fast to catch up with us so quickly. What’s your plan for distracting them?”

You hastily flung your bag on the ground and rummaged in it. Out of the chaotic depths of your belongings, you pulled a couple glass bottles out. Holding them up, you explained: “I know, if you mix salt, scales and fungi together, it can make a decent explosive. Not too devastating but enough to cause confusion. I have salt in my pack. You guys should know how to find the rest, no?”

Frelma paused briefly then nodded, mumbling that she noticed drake markings at a nearby cave. Danan already started peering into the forest, assessing where he could ascertain the right mushrooms.

Halsin’s eyes darted between his companions and you, his internal struggle palpable. His shoulders sagged, the weight of the situation bearing down on him: “This is lunacy. You don’t understand what you’re up against here,” he said softly, almost pleading. “I don’t want to see you hurt again. Not for this.”

You got up from the ground, still holding the bottles in your hands. You took a step closer, your voice gentle but firm: “I know I don’t look it, but I’ve bolted my way out of horrible situations before. I can outrun them. You just take care of the leaders. This way, you guys can use the element of surprise to your benefit. If you go through with this without a real plan, it could be you who gets hurt, or worse. I can’t let that happen. Please… let me do this.”

The worry he had for you made your heart scream.

His gaze held yours for a long moment, his eyes searching your face for any sign of hesitation. You could feel the raw emotion behind his steely exterior—because it echoed within your own form.

Frelma pressed the young druid further: “Halsin. We have to succeed today. If we lose, I do not want to know what will happen to the village.” Danan nodded in agreement. All three were staring up at the honey-haired elf, who kept his gaze firmly on you.

Finally, with a deep, resigned sigh, he spoke, his voice thick with emotion: “I don’t like this, not one bit… but… I guess you’re right. We cannot afford to lose.”

You exhaled, relief flooding through you as his words sank in: “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

Halsin’s worry still clouded his features. He reached out, resting a hand on your cheek, his touch warm and grounding. Your red face turned purple.

“Run like hell,” he adjured, his voice deep and filled with a quiet intensity. “The forest needs you. The children need you… and so do I.”

You gave a small, determined nod, gripping the bottles in your hand. You leaned into his touch briefly, before he lowered his hand to turn to the stronghold.

You turned as well, ready to set your plan in motion while the other two went on to gather the necessary ingredients. Halsin stayed back to look for any shallow entryway. You cast one last look at him, before you ran after Danan and Frelma.

Night had fallen by the time you reached the outskirts of the goblin camp. Shadows stretched long across the ground, and the loud, raucous voices of goblins and drow filled the air as they feasted and drank within the ruin’s crumbling walls. The scent of roasted, sour meat wafted on the night breeze, mixing with the pungent stench of unwashed bodies and smoke. It made your stomach churn, both from nerves and disgust.

High above in the ramparts of the ruin, you squatted down, cloaked in the darkness. You moved carefully, staying low as you crept across the stone. The weight of the glass bottles in your hand was a constant reminder of what was to come. You felt your heart pound against your chest with a mix of adrenaline and fear.

What the Hells am I doing?

Below, in the ruin's hall, the three drow leaders sat at the head of the long table, their faces twisted in haughty disdain as they presided over the goblins, who sheepishly ate food scraps the drow had thrown on their tables. Two female warriors, clad in dark armor and bristling with blades, flanked a male drow in elegant robes. His sneering gaze drifted across the room like a spider surveying its web, full of contempt for his own underlings and their disappointing return. Dead goblin corpses littered the front. Their throats slit or heads caved in. You surmised the drow had made an example out of some of the goblins for their failure to capture the children. You recognized Izick, his body sprawled, bloody and discarded off to the side. So, he had survived the fall with you. But he hadn’t avoided death.

The goblins were too distracted to notice the approaching danger, but the drow remained sharp—dangerous even in their leisure.

Halsin, Frelma, and Danan moved silently, shadows within shadows, creeping through the underbrush and stone rubble surrounding the stronghold. Their presence was almost imperceptible, the tension building as they stalked closer to their target. You saw Halsin in a deep crouch near the rear of the ruin, his eyes gleaming golden in the moonlight, the instinctual urge to charge into the fray held back by sheer force of will. He waited, watching for your signal, his backside straining for a pounce.

It was your turn.

This is suicide, your brain screamed at you, but you ignored it.

The goblins below were too engrossed in eating scraps to notice you at the ramparts. Some were fighting amongst themselves for pieces of food, others drunkenly hollering at each other. It was the perfect storm of chaos, ripe for your plan to begin.

You gripped the grenade bottle tightly, sweat slick on your palm despite the cool night air. Every second felt like a lifetime ticking away. You counted the goblins below—too many to face in open battle, but just enough to chase after one tantalizing and idiotic distraction.

You inhaled deeply, steadying yourself.

I’m definitely going to die.

You shook your head. Now wasn’t the time for reason. This had to work. It just had to.

It felt like days passed as you waited for your arm to obey.

Then, with a flick of your wrist, you hurled the bottle with all your strength into the heart of the camp.

Time seemed to slow as the glass bottle arched through the air, glinting in the dim light of the torches. It smashed against a stone near the goblins' fire pit, shattering into a brilliant flash of sparks and smoke. The chemical mixture inside ignited with a crackling roar, and suddenly, flames and choking fumes exploded upward. Goblins screeched in confusion, clutching at their eyes, as a burst of light and sound sent them into a frenzied panic.

The table overturned in the chaos, food and drink spilling everywhere. The male drow snapped to attention, his sharp eyes narrowing with suspicion. "What is the meaning of this?" he barked at the goblins, his voice dripping with venom.

But the goblins were beyond control now. The noise and flames had triggered their primal instincts—fight or flight. And when they caught sight of you, darting across the top of the ramparts, they made their choice.

“There!” one of the goblins howled, pointing at your fleeting form. “Get that rat!”

Like a wave crashing over rocks, the goblin horde surged toward you, claws and weapons raised. You didn’t wait to see the full effect; you bolted, heart pounding, lungs burning as your legs carried you across the stone ruins. The cacophony of angry goblins filled the air behind you, their shrieks and footfalls growing louder as they swarmed after you like a pack of feral beasts.

You leaped from the ramparts and rolled as you hit the ground, not daring to look back as you sprinted through the muddy camp, your feet pounding against the squelching earth. They were following you, as planned, but there were so many. The old bridge loomed ahead, dark and rickety as the wind swayed the frayed wood from side to side. The goblins’ cries echoed through the night as you darted towards the peninsula.

Back at the ruin, Halsin and his companions took advantage of the chaos. With the goblins now chasing you, the main hall was left vulnerable, the drow leaders standing alone with only a few goblin stragglers, stunned and confused by the sudden turn of events.

Frelma grinned, her eyes gleaming with anticipation as she crouched beside Halsin. “Well, that worked better than expected,” she whispered.

Danan grunted in agreement, his eyes locked on the drow. “It’s time.”

Halsin's hands flexed at his sides, his jaw tight as he watched the drow leaders—three of Lolth's chosen, arrogant and cruel, their dark eyes scanning the room for signs of the ambush they couldn’t see coming. He could feel the heat rising in his chest, the primal fury begging to be unleashed. A flash of you, hurt and bleeding, flitted in his mind. But he shook his head. He needed to concentrate and fulfill the mission.

“Hold,” he muttered, forcing himself to wait a moment longer. He needed to time the attack perfectly. The last few goblins hastily followed the group after the male drow growled at them for their uselessness. You had done your part - he couldn’t let the drow sense what was coming. His fingers tingled with the surge of druidic power inside him, the need to transform almost overwhelming.

Finally, when the drow leaders’ attention drifted back to their overturned table for a brief second, Halsin gave a sharp nod to his companions.

With a single, fluid motion, Halsin burst from the shadows, his body aglow with golden light as his form shifted, muscles rippling as he transformed mid-leap. His bear form crashed into the male drow, sending him sprawling as Frelma and Danan surged forward, weapons flashing in the dim light. The two female drow drew their blades, their faces twisted into sneers as they prepared to fight back.

Frelma’s blade flashed in the moonlight as she darted around one of the warriors, each strike met with a sharp parry and a flurry of counterattacks. Danan fought the other, their weapons clashing with a thunderous ring, the drow’s face twisted in a sneer of amusement. She was toying with him, each movement graceful and calculated, a predator circling its prey.

Halsin, now in his bear form, roared as he slammed into the leader, sending him crashing against a crumbled wall. The drow hit the ground with a sickening thud, and for a moment, his body lay still. Halsin didn’t have time to confirm the kill—Frelma’s pained grunt drew his attention.

The female drow were vicious. Agile and brutal, their movements were precise and deadly. Frelma barely avoided a swipe to her throat, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she dodged and weaved. She was tiring. Danan was faring no better, his opponent driving him back step by step, her twin blades a blur of death in the dim light.

With a growl, Halsin charged, shifting back into his elven form. He unsheathed his staff, the wood crackling with druidic energy, and swung it down with the full force of his fury. It caught one of the drow off guard, knocking her off balance and giving Frelma the opening she needed. Frelma lunged forward, her blade finding purchase in the drow’s side, and the dark elf let out a hiss of pain, her sneer faltering.

Danan managed to regain his footing, pressing his attack as the second female drow turned her attention to Halsin. Her cold, red eyes gleamed with hatred, and she launched herself at him with lightning speed, her blades aimed straight for his chest.

But Halsin was ready.

He sidestepped her, his staff spinning in a fluid arc, knocking one of her blades from her hand. She snarled, but before she could recover, he brought the end of his staff crashing down on her wrist with a sharp crack, disarming her completely. Frelma and Danan closed in, ready to finish the fight.

Halsin’s gaze flicked toward the male drow, still crumpled against the wall. He didn’t move, his body seemingly lifeless.

You tore across the rickety old bridge that connected the ruin to the High Forest beyond. The ancient wood yawned angrily beneath your feet, swaying alarmingly with each step, but you couldn't slow down. The horde of goblins was right behind you, their screeches growing louder as they stormed across the bridge in pursuit. The clanging of their blades on their armor punched into your ears, their claws scraping against the tired wood.

Your heart pounded in your chest, every instinct screaming at you to keep running. Just a little farther.

Once you reached the other side of the bridge, you skidded to a stop, panting heavily as you pulled the second grenade bottle from your belt. With a quick glance over your shoulder, you saw the goblins—dozens of them—crowding onto the bridge. It groaned under their weight, the ancient wood splintering at the edges.

This was it.

You hurled the bottle at the center of the bridge, your aim true. The glass shattered against the wood, and for a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then, with a deafening explosion, the bridge erupted in a shower of fire and splinters. The force of the blast eviscerated the structure, sending chunks of wood and metal flying into the air. The goblins let out terrified shrieks as the ground disappeared beneath them. You watched as they tumbled into the depths below, their bodies swallowed by the darkness of the ravine.

The bridge was gone. The goblins were no more.

You collapsed to your knees, gasping for breath, a mix of relief and exhaustion washing over you. The plan had worked. The horde was dealt with. You had made it out alive. You stared at the tower, anxiety gripping your throat. Was Halsin ok?

Back in the ruin, Halsin felt the rumble of the second explosion vibrate in the distance.

As the other female drow fell to the ground, defeated, Halsin’s attention snapped back to where the male drow had lain motionless. His heart fell to his stomach. The body was gone.

Halsin’s eyes widened in horror: "No..."

A surge of cold dread shot through him as he turned toward the entrance of the ruin. His mind raced, piecing it together—Misty Step. The male drow hadn’t been incapacitated. He had been waiting, biding his time, and now…

Was he going after you?

Halsin’s stomach twisted into knots, a cold sweat breaking out across his brow.

“I need to go!”, he barked at Frelma and Danan, urgency flooding his voice, “He’s going after Y/N!”

Without waiting for a reply, Halsin sprinted toward the exit, his legs pumping furiously as he raced through the ruin and out into the night.

He dashed through the mud with fire burning in his legs, stomach and throat, inconsolable at the sheer possibility that you could be harmed. Reaching the edge of the camp, embers of the explosion floated through the darkness and the charred wood smell invaded his nostrils.

Seeing the young druid on the other side, you cheered loudly, jumping up and down with your fist pumping into the air.

Halsin stared across the deep crevice before him at your gleeful hopping form, excessive concern stretched across his face. He couldn’t jump the distance in his human form.

Where was the drow?

You couldn’t see that far, so you didn’t notice how worrisome his expression was. You were so happy to see him alive and unharmed. Your plan had worked. The ecstasy of success waved through you and left you distracted. Your loud yelps of joy deafened the surroundings.

A whooshing sound reverberated behind you. Mist flowed between your legs as you landed from another jump. A harsh tug of your hair yanked you against your will back into the air. You kicked with your feet, but the drow held his arm outstretched, clasping a clump of your tresses. The pain made your spine contort.

“Y/N!!!”, Halsin shouted across the moat, his panicked voice repeated through the stone. The young druid’s body glowed golden, as he tried to transform.

“Don’t move…”, the drow’s sharp voice hissed to the druid, as he held a dagger to your side. “Or I’ll gut them.”

The pointy, harsh edge of the blade stuck in your belly. It hovered there dangerously close to your recovered area. You tried not to squirm too much in fear of being punctured, but the pain from your cranium made you move involuntarily.

Halsin roared with fury, the golden light flashing low: “Let them go!”

The drow sneered, his lips curling into a cruel smirk. He dragged you closer, the blade still teasingly pressed against your abdomen: “You druids... you're all the same,” he growled, voice dripping with contempt. “Always talking about balance, harmony, and the natural order, like it makes you righteous. But what do you really know of power? You hide in your groves and forests, pretending to be one with nature, while the world burns and bends to those with ambition.”

He jerked your head back further, his fingers tangling painfully in your hair, yanking your neck at an awkward angle. “Slaves, like these filthy children you’re so desperate to protect, are a necessity for those of us who understand true strength. They’re tools—nothing more. Yet you lot," he glanced at Halsin with disdain, "would sacrifice your lives for them. Pathetic."

His eyes gleamed with malice, the grip on the blade loosening just slightly as he gestured toward Halsin. “Because of your meddling, I’ll have to replace what’s been taken from me. Those ugly children? They’d have made fine thralls, but I suppose I’ll just have to make do with this one instead. And I’ll return with more, fearsome soldiers.”

The blade wavered precariously as he waved it in the air, illustrating his sick vision. His attention drifted more and more toward his rant, the gloating feeding his arrogance. “My people—we understand how the world truly works. We take what we deserve, we own, we dominate. That’s the natural order.” He flicked the blade dangerously close to your ribs again, but it was clear—he was more interested in hearing the sound of his own voice than paying attention to his hostage.

Through the haze of pain and fear, you could feel it—the rhythm of his speech, the looseness of his grip, the blade no longer pressing with the same deadly certainty. His monologue flowed, each word laced with bitterness, but it was also growing sloppier, as his arrogance overtook his caution.

“Your little rebellion here means nothing. You’ll all fall to us, one way or another. No one stands against us and lives to—"

You didn’t let him finish.

In a surge of adrenaline, you kicked your legs up, swinging your foot with as much force as you could muster. The heel of your boot connected hard with the blade in his hand, sending it clattering across the stone ground. The drow yelped in fury and pain as the force of the blow snapped his fingers back, the sickening crack of bone ringing in your ears. He released his grip on your hair with a sharp intake of breath, stumbling back in shock and agony, clutching his broken extremities.

You fell on your back with a deep thud. Letting out an involuntary grunt, the fall had momentarily immobilized you, as your body tried to assess the damage. Your spine ached all the way down to your tailbone, which pulsated with a cruel sting. Your groans echoed through the crater, joining with the drow’s wails.

You heard the clattering of steel against stone again. Opening your eyes, they filled with fear as the drow walked towards you, blade back in both hands with two fingers bent in the wrong direction. He thrust up in the air to pierce your chest. You crawled backwards instinctively, but he was too fast. His biceps flexed: he was about to swing forward.

A giant, brown beast collided into him from the side, having jumped across the abyss. The bear roared with a deep, thunderous bellow, a powerful and resonant sound that rumbled like distant thunder, carrying the raw force of its primal strength. It was a familiar intonation; you had heard it the first day at the druids’ village. The rage filled small eyes gleamed in a green shade.

Its massive paws pummeled the dark elf, who was unable to do anything other than take each mighty strike. The bear hovered over you, the brown fur tickling your arms and legs as he continuously slammed down on the adversary. The crunching and cracking noises made you wince, holding your hands over your face.

The strikes continued for a while, until the bear let out another mighty roar. You dared not look at the result of the violence, but the drow didn’t move anymore.

His beastly form started glowing with a golden hue as he faced you lying beneath him. You peered at him through your fingers.

The bear transformed into Halsin, who hovered over you panting with exhaustion and excitement. Your breath was similarly fast, exhaling the fear and burning sensation in your legs out as you stared into each other’s eyes.

Both of you let out soft chuckles. You had done it. The village was safe. The children were protected again.

His eyes twitched back and forth from your eyes to your lips as your puffing synchronized shakily. Your heart was hammering against your chest. The jade hue in his eyes twinkled with a hunger you hadn’t seen before: it was the same craving you had had ever since you met him. He was waiting for something. Without really thinking, you nodded quickly.

He fell forward into your lips. You let out a moan as he kissed you hard and his body pressed into your own. He kept himself poised above you with his strong arms, but his leg pushed yours apart so he could press himself into you. Your tongues lapped each other up, the fiery taste trickling down your throat and intensifying the throbbing in your loins.

The intensity of your long-suppressed desires finally broke free. The mixture of happiness that he felt the way you did intertwined with the drive to please him. Both of you almost died. You had survived. You wanted each other now more than ever. You were both equally happy to see each other unharmed and could not wait any longer. There was no moment to think about timing.

Halsin's strong hands caressed your face, his touch gentle yet urgent. You wrapped your arms around his broad shoulders, pulling him closer as the kiss deepened. The heat between your bodies grew, months of unspoken longing pouring out through fevered touches and passionate embraces.

Halsin's lips trailed down your neck, eliciting soft gasps as he found sensitive spots. His hands roamed your body, exploring every curve with reverence. You arched into his touch, fingers tangling in his hair as waves of expectation washed over you.

Clothing was hastily shed, both of you eager to feel skin against skin. Halsin's muscular form pressed against you, his warmth enveloping you completely. His touch was electric, igniting sparks wherever his fingers grazed. You traced the planes of his beautiful chest, gazing entranced at his pristine physique - a vision you had only been imagining since you met him. The discarded clothes lay forgotten by your sides.

His eyes filled with primal urge, eyeing your sweat speckled body he had been carefully mending for a long time. You gazed at each other, panting from the exhaustion of the heist and the anticipation of what needed to happen between you.

The druid scooped you up in his strong arms, carrying you away from the grisly scene to a more secluded spot against a large oak tree. His lips never left yours as he gently set you down, then pressed you up against the rough bark. The contrast of the tree's coarse texture against your back and Halsin's warm, smooth skin against your front sent shivers through your body. His large hands squeezed fleshy parts of you as you gasped into his ear. Halsin growled low in his throat, the sound vibrating in your spine and making the flame within you burn blue.

Halsin's lips traced a sizzling path down your neck as he gripped your ass. He lifted you effortlessly, your legs wrapping around his waist as he pressed you against the tree. The rough bark scraped your back. He grasped his length and held it up against your entrance, staring at you with impatient craving. Yet, he waited for your approval. You hastily nodded your head and spatt out a breathy “Yes”, which was interrupted by him thrusting deep into you. Your head fell back as you cried out - he was so big. He dared not enter you fully, thrusting only half of himself into your tiny body.

He held you up, easily, kissing the side of your neck to comfort you through his wild and frantic punctures.

Your bodies moved together in a primal rhythm, finding a perfect synchronicity. Halsin's muscular form rippled with each thrust, his face a mask of passionate intensity as he grunted deeply. You clung to his broad shoulders, nails digging into his skin as waves of pleasure washed over you.

He carried you down to the forest floor, laying you gently on a bed of soft moss. Halsin hovered above you, his jade eyes dark with desire as he drank in the sight of your form. His hands roamed reverently over your curves before he lowered himself to you. His tongue tickled you and your back arched up aggressively into his mouth. You lay a hand on his honey hair and pushed him down into you. He obliged and licked faster, feeling you jerk and twist under his work. He chuckled teasingly into you, as he felt you get close.

“Not yet,…” he purred, staring up at you.

You rolled on top of him before he could continue teasing. You positioned yourself over his quaking cock.

Your thighs trembled with anticipation as you hovered over him. He gripped your hips, steadying you as you slowly lowered yourself onto his length. A soft gasp escaped your lips as you took him in, inch by delicious inch, until he was fully sheathed inside you.

For a moment, you both stayed still, reveling in the sensation of being so intimately connected. The druid’s chest rose and fell rapidly in the golden hue, as he fought to maintain control. You placed your hands on his broad chest, feeling the fast beating of his heart beneath your palms.

Then, with a roll of your hips, you began to move. Slowly at first, savoring every sensation as you rose and fell upon him, feeling him slide inside you was a bittersweet sensation, as your body trembled with each thrust. The stretching of your walls to accommodate his immense size sent a strange concoction of pain and pleasure coursing through you. It was almost overwhelming, the way he filled every inch of you, pushing boundaries that seemed impossible. But you couldn't deny the rush of excitement and ecstasy that came with it, making you shiver and arch your back in pure bliss. It was an experience like no other, one that left you breathless and wanting more.

Halsin's fingers dug into your flesh, guiding your movements as eager groans rumbled from him. You thought you heard him say something, but were too engulfed in riding him fiercely to activate your hearing.

He held you still with his strength and thrust up into you.

Your bodies synchronised again, each roll of your hips met by his upward drive. The forest around you seemed to pulse with energy, leaves rustling and branches swaying as if nature itself was swept up in your passionate union.

With a low growl, Halsin suddenly sat up, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you flush against his chest. He kissed you deeply, hungrily, as if he couldn't get enough. Then, in one fluid motion, he flipped you over onto your hands and knees.

You felt the soft moss beneath your palms as Halsin positioned himself behind you. His large hands caressed your back, tracing the curve of your spine before gripping your hips once more. You shivered, feeling his hardness pressing against your dripping hole. As he drilled into you, you felt him lean over your back, his towering form much larger than yours. His calloused hand softly wrapped around your neck, pulling your face up towards him.

You stared at each other as you let out deepseated moans, as you came all over him. Seeing the rapture flood through you, made him pound into you even harder. Halsin's thrusts became more urgent, his breathing ragged as he neared his peak.

You could feel the tension building in his body, muscles taut with exertion and pleasure.

With a final, deep thrust, Halsin let out a primal, inhuman roar. His body shuddered as he spilled himself inside you, his warmth flooding your core. You felt his cock pulse within you, drawing out the last waves of your own climax.

For a moment, you both remained still, panting heavily as the intensity of your shared release washed over you. Then, gently, Halsin eased out of you and gathered you into his arms. He lay back on the soft moss, cradling you against his broad chest.

You nestled into his warmth, feeling the rapid beating of his heart gradually slow, both your breathing matching each other.

Your bodies eased into the softness of the ground and the druid and you let out highly needed laughs.

As your giggles subsided, you both lay there in comfortable silence, basking in the afterglow of your passionate encounter. The forest around you seemed to hum with contentment, the gentle rustling of leaves and distant chirping of nocturnal creatures creating a soothing symphony.

Halsin's fingers traced lazy patterns on your skin, sending pleasant shivers down your spine. You nestled closer to him, resting your head on his broad chest, listening to the strong rhythm of his heartbeat.

"You know," Halsin began, his deep voice rumbling in his chest, "I've been wanting to do that for quite some time now."

You chuckled softly, tilting your head to meet his gaze. "Oh really? And here I thought I was the only one pining away."

His jade eyes sparkled with amusement and affection. "Pining, were you?”

“Fuck yes. When you first found me in the forest, I thought you were a God about to take me up to the Heavens. Couldn’t believe someone as handsome as you was semi-mortal.”

Halsin chuckled and pet your hair: “Even close to death, I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. Although I don’t like remembering seeing you like that. I am still beyond thankful to Silvanus that you pushed through that vile injury.”

You remembered something as he spoke of your first encounter.

“Hey, you were kissing me when I was unconscious, that’s a bit rude isn’t it?”

He laughed again: “I did not, I was bringing you back from the dead, mind you! Simple first aid, but effective.”

“First aid, sure.”

Halsin's eyes twinkled with mischief as he gazed at you. "Well, if you'd prefer, next time I find you half-dead, I'll just leave you be. Wouldn't want to be accused of taking advantage."

You snorted, playfully swatting his chest. "Oh please, as if you could resist these lips, even in a coma."

He giggled sweetly, the sound rumbling through his chest again and into yours. "You're right, I couldn't. Though I must say, you're much more enticing when you're conscious and not bleeding out. You have a crazy fascination with tempting fate. I must say I’ve never met someone like you before."

"Flatterer," you teased, tracing idle patterns on his skin. "I bet you say that to all the bards you rescue from certain doom."

Halsin's expression softened, his hand coming to cup your cheek. "Only the ones who’ve stolen my heart.”

You could've fainted right then. Your cheeks flushed even more.

He grinned, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear: "You came charging into our village, disrupting our peaceful way of life with your enchanting melodies and irresistible charm."

"Ah yes, because nothing says 'irresistible charm' quite like being half-way across the finish line of life.”

Both of you laughed together for a bit longer. You reminisced about the insanity of your unsually successful overthrow of the drow base. Halsin mused over how he was going to explain any of this to others’ in the village, especially the Archdruid. You promised to take the blame, it was your idea anyway.

As the first light of dawn began to filter through the forest canopy, you and Halsin reluctantly disentangled yourselves from each other's embrace. The cool morning air raised goosebumps on your skin as you gathered your discarded clothing, stealing glances and sharing soft smiles as you dressed.

Halsin's companions, Frelma and Danan, had long since returned to the village, trusting their leader to get home. As you made your way back through the forest, Halsin's hand found yours, his fingers intertwining with your own. The warmth of his touch sent a thrill through you.

The forest seemed different now, more alive and vibrant than ever before. Perhaps it was the afterglow of your encounter, or maybe it was the newfound connection you felt to this place and the man beside you.

As you and Halsin approached the druid village, you could hear the Archdruid's booming voice even before you saw him. His face was contorted with fury as he paced back and forth, gesticulating wildly. Hesitating slightly, you two walked through the entrance and were met with dangerous bellows, insults and worried eyes. Dafydd hit Halsin over the head a few times with his staff, while Anwen exasperately held your shoulders to check you for any injuries. Ultimately, they were right to be angry and concerned. The elder druid placed the blame on her son, although you insisted you were the main plotter (she didn’t believe you). You were certain they would ban you, yet they showered you in flower crowns and good mead. Halsin was eventually allowed into the festivities, after promising to clean up cow dung for 6 months as punishment.

You couldn’t stay in the village, as you had no desire to convert to druidism. Relucantly you returned to the city.

You vowed to come visit often, making your trips to the forest known, so he could see you. You promised to convince Anwen that Halsin could join you on your travels one day. Although that conversation had to wait a long while.

With each visit, you found little baskets of berries from the children and a newly whittled duck figurine that made you smile under your usual tree.

And every time your form became visible upon the horizon of the village, emerging from the forest path, Halsin’s eyes lit up and beamed at you.

[dontbesoweirdkira]

Yello! I was wondering if you could write a Romantic Yandere Spiderman? Specifically Tasm! Spiderman, please 🙏

I'm thinking of a plot where the reader (gender neutral) has a weird list of goals to accomplish in New York City since they don't live there and are only visiting Peter. Some of their goals include: counting 101 dalmatians and trying at least 20 different kinds of pizzas from each pizza place who claims they "have the BEST pizza!"

Any rivalries and other plot twists are welcome! You can write this either as a one shot, headcanons or a short— take your pick! I don't mind, thank you!

Anon

A/N: This man never fails to give me intense gender envy…I added and tweaked a few things to make him more yandere-ish… I hope you enjoy and that i've done this request some justice! Thanks for requesting 🥰

Warnings: soft yandere but Peter really doesn't want his baby to go. Mentions of kidnapping/holding hostage.

Requests: open

Masterlist

Okay when Peter found out that you were coming to visit him in New York, he could barely contain himself. His darling had been away from him for so long that texting and Skype calls weren't nearly enough to satiate his hunger for you.

Moments like when you left him to go live in a different state/country, made him despise being a poor college kid from Queens. If he had the means, he would've came with you and got a shared apartment where the two of you could live happily together.

To be fair, Peter did try his hardest to make you stay, but was far too kind to ever go to the more extreme measures to assure his success. He couldn't stop you from living your dreams. He couldn't go on if you had any ounce of hatred for him.

I like to think Peter had your visit already planned out in his mind. You were of course going to sight see and have fun, but he mainly wanted to stay snuggled up in his bed with you. He needed to make up for lost time spent not being with you.

So of course you can imagine his disappointment when you came with a crazy list to complete during your stay. His heart breaking as he looked through it only to find not a single space was dedicated to just being alone with him...

It'd be a lie to say he didn't enjoy stuffing his face with weird flavors of pizza and exploring parts of the city he usually doesn't hang around. He of course used his last pennies to pamper you and to treat you to the attractions you wanted to see. Anything to make you smile. It was nice for him to take a break from being spiderman and to just have fun anyways. When you left him, he started wearing the suit nearly every hour of the day when he wasn't chatting with you. It was the only thing that could keep his loneliness in check and kept him from going insane...

but as much as he laughed and enjoyed seeing you just so giddy about checking off each completed thing on the list, he couldn't help but to feel an impending doom looming overhead.

It didn't help hearing you go on and on about your new life and friends in your new area...He kept hearing you repeat one name in particular over, and over and over again...

Peter couldn't help but to feel insecure about it. Everyone else seemed much cooler and interesting to you. Peter was just...some guy. Sure he had the whole spidey thing but crime was petty and rather boring during this time. He had nothing to brag to you about other than the fact he received a free bagel after helping an old woman find her cat.

The closer you got to the end of the list, the closer you were to leaving him again...he couldn't take it....This wasn't enough time with you, Peter barely got to even touch you, take in your scent and love on you before you'd be gone.

The next couple of days, he's a bit distant. He's trapped in his own head. Peter can feel something sick festering inside of him. His thoughts become fully focused on you leaving...and what he could do to stop it.

He's begged you before. On his knees and teary-eyed begging you not to go. He looked the same as he did when he begged his parents for the same thing...but it didn't work. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he got a little more creative.

Harry would say, "demanding people get what they want". Playing dirty is okay when it means you'll be together. No. That's not him. That's not fair to you.

....but you leaving again, isn't fair to him either.

His hands are shaking with anxiety and his face is full of sorrow as he watches you sleep... the sinful thoughts from earlier are itching for him to put them in action....

You're such a sweetheart... Peter can't do this...

A gentle kiss is left on your forehead and he caresses your face before he turns around and goes to sleep...he needs to ignore those thoughts... But you're so perfect....he's going to miss this. It's nice being the only one in your life. He hates the anxiety that you're one day doing to send him a text that you've found someone new or that you need to focus on other things.

.... with his abilities,,,he could prevent that. He could whip up some locks and gadgets to keep you you secured in his shitty apartment. It wouldn't be hard for him subdue you either..

"Stop thinking about that, Pete. Go to sleep. It's wrong."

a beat passes and a long sigh escapes him.

You adjust in your sleep, instinctively curling in to be closer to him. You hazily send him a soft smile, and nuzzle your head into his chest before drifting back off to sleep. Oh, boy. That was enough to make him cave into his overwhelming desires. Peter couldn't wait another year to sleep next to you again.

You'd understand, right? You know that your boyfriend would never harm you. He's not weird. or creepy. or sick.

He just needs you here with him. He's tried to be good for you but this arrangement is far too much for a lover boy to handle.

Hopefully you aren't too mad when you wake up to realize you're tied up in webs. Your doting Peter only wants the best for this relationship. He can take the best care of you. Pete promises that you'll be safe.

[atarathegreat]

It's Cold

December was always freezing in Tokyo, the only people who never really felt it being those lucky enough to have warm quirks. You always thought it was strange to see people in tank tops and shorts all year round, a few even keeping their quirks activated while they walked through the deep snow on the cold concrete. No one could complain, the warmth was melting the freezing flakes and leaving the sidewalks safe to trek on.

No one appreciated it more than you did, however. Your quirk was never meant to keep you warm or even, really, be all that useful. The setback of winter never kept you from your daily walks and visiting the coffee shop, the clear sidewalks always made it better. You always kept two cylinders of salt in your backpack, sprinkling it where you walked to keep the snow from sticking, because even with quirks people could slip and fall. Also in your bag, next to a couple bottles of water and pain killers, was a box of Hot Handz, mittens, and a fairly packed first aid kit. Being prepared in the super powered world was important, even if you were mostly prepped with regular items.

You pulled your thick jacket a little closer as you smiled to those you passed. The wind was biting and making your cheeks pink and making your teeth rattle together, you assumed it made for a very scary smile. Why else was no one smiling back?

"Whoa!" A small, too small, patch of ice made your heel twist and send you falling backward. Closing your eyes, you braced for the impact that never came, instead a red feather tickled your nose as smooth laughter poured down on you. "Easy, kid, the snow will get ya' out here." Pro hero Hawks was perched upon the wide street light, his thicker winter outfit doing little to keep him warm, if you had to guess from his matching pink cheeks and the way his wings shivered.

A smile tugged at your lips as you kicked to dislodge the ice, "Thank you!"

He didn't need thanks, it was his job to help people. Sure, it wasn't like you were in danger from anything but a busted tailbone, but he was a hero. You waved up at him, pouring a small amount of salt in the area before continuing on. Hawks watched you with confusion. Why was a civilian doing a task that the city was already getting paid to do? He shrugged, crouching to keep himself warm while he kept watch for the next hour or so.

Espresso and coffee beans is the smell that welcomed you. Wrapped you in the softest blanket and kissed your head before passing you a nice pastry. Few patrons turned to see who had let in a small amount of the cold, even fewer seeming to care about your arrival. The barista smiled and greeted you, asking if you'd like your normal order. "Can I also get a strawberry strudel, a warm black coffee with a couple packets of creamer, and two cans of the iced coffee?" You dug in your bag for your wallet as the girl rang up your order. Typically you would sit and watch the snowflakes fall on the big window overlooking the street, but today you made other plans.

So you tucked the strudel and cans of coffee in your bag, carrying the two tall and hot cups in your hands. It would tweak your morning routine, but you felt that it was worth it, even if it only brought a smile to someone's face.

"Hawks, sir!" You called up to the feathery man, motioning to the cup in your hands, "Care for a cup?"

He landed easily next to you, making you happier in your decision to bring him something warm when you heard his teeth clacking together. You passed him his cup, pulling your bag around, "I also got you a strawberry strudel, some iced coffees and here is some creamer, just in case you don't like black coffee."

Hawks tilted his head as you passed him everything, "You don't have to buy things for heroes, kid. We're practically made of money." And yet, you only shrugged at him, "This saves you time!"

As much as he wanted to argue that you shouldn't spend money on him, you were right. You had saved him time that he could now use doing his job or taking his break. "Thanks. What's your name?" Hawks pulled the cardboard sleeve off the cup, writing a small thank you on it before passing it back to you, "Cool name, take care, okay?"

You waited until you were a fair distance away and replaced the sleeve on your cup with the one the hero had written on. It was a sweet gesture that you had done for a hero, one that Hawks would tell to everyone at the agency for days upon days, especially when you made it a frequent part of your routine.

Everyday, without fail, you would walk under him with a bright smile and a wave, returning within the hour and passing him a warm coffee and a strudel, he liked his coffee black so you didn't need to buy creamer packets. One his day off he stood against the light post, casual clothes under an incredibly thick winter coat. He wasn't really sure why he cared so much to see you walk by, but the idea of you not smiling at him made him...upset? He didn't know, but he wanted to see you smile.

"Hey, hey!" He stepped forward as you walked up, "What's up, kid?"

You smiled, passing him a Hot Handz, "It's getting colder these days, so I'm trying to stay active!"

Any hero could admire that, especially from a person like you. Someone who fought to be kind to everyone, or maybe you were just kind by nature and didn't realize that people were assholes. "You into walks that much, huh?" Hawks held a wing over your head to keep the falling ice from collecting in your hair. He narrowed his eyes as your shrugged, "It's always just been a part of my routine."

"Fair enough. Can't say I enjoy the cold weather any more than the next guy." Hawks smirked. For a pro hero, you thought, he sure was normal. Or as normal as a man with wings could be. "So why aren't you on your light this morning?" You asked. He looked over at you, shaking his wing a little to get rid of the accumulating snow, "Day off, didn't want you to miss me."

He wanted to play it off perfectly. To have you, a complete stranger, know that you made his heart nearly explode with your kindness, that he looked forward to your daily smile, that he liked your face and the pink that the cold put on your cheeks. Now that he'd heard you laugh, heard your sweet giggle, he was smitten. "You'll be joining me at the coffee shop then this morning?" You asked, looking up and noticing your new shelter, "I know I sure could use the warmth of the shop this morning."

For the first time, everyone stared as you opened the door. The little bell chimed, giving you away, of course, but it was the hero at your side that really made them watch you. To your relief, the barista greeted you as usual. Hawks followed you up to the counter, leaning carefully across it and staring at you as you ordered the same thing as every other morning, just not to-go. "Finally taking a break?" The girl smiled at you, ringing up the order despite knowing the price off the top of her head. Your laughter made the mans wings fluff, only slightly, "Might as well, huh? Nothing wrong with sitting, and it's his day off so I don't have to hurry back."

Before you could pay, Hawks was shoving a card into the chip reader and giving you a cheeky smile, "You pay every other day, can't have you paying today. What kind of man would I be?"

He swore that the barista sighed, or swooned, whatever he caught the end of. Hawks was aware that he was an accidental womanizer, sometimes he was able to use it to his advantage, PR and fans and such. But you didn't seem to be jailed by his charms. You didn't react when his fingers brushed yours handing you the cup, you didn't react when he tucked your chair under you, you didn't even react when he placed his shoe snuggly against yours. You just kept talking about your routine, how you enjoyed the mornings when they were warmer and how bringing him coffee every morning was a nice addition. Just the simple act of bringing him coffee seemed to be enough for you. Did you really have no interest in the hero?

"So, why'd you get me the coffee that first day?" Hawks asked.

You perked up, "You looked cold, and if you were going to be perched on that street light all day then you needed something warm."

A small smirk spread over his lips and he leaned back in his chair, "How thoughtful of you. I'll just say it before I make a fool of myself,"

Hawks took your hand and pulled you closer to him over the table, "I think I like you."

Whatever pink hue the cold had granted you blended in with the new redness he was plastering across your cheeks. A hero liked you? What had you done aside from gifting him coffee? It was the least you thought you could do, seeing as he was always watching over that stretch of road where you walked.

"Say something, yeah?" Hawks squeezed your hand.

"Oh! Oh, uhm..." You stared down into your coffee, your reflection looking startled, "I didn't expect that..."

he chuckled, "Let this be a date? See how ya' carry through?"

December was always freezing in Tokyo, the only people who never really felt it being those lucky enough to have warm quirks. And now you, blushing and smiling as warmth spread through your limbs.

[riddledeep]

Hadley's Full Character Profile

🌸 Dimmsdale's black market and hunting enthusiast (Unrelated)

🌸 That one godkid Timmy was always cleaning up after

🌸 Remy's best friend

🌸 Ed Leadly's middle daughter (and the only one who didn't fight him about being betrothed)

🌸 Dale Dimmadome's Japan-loving influencer wife... Also, Dev's chronically absent (yet doting) mom

Slight Riddleverse ‘fic spoilers. Your mileage may vary.

Two AUs

Hadley's profile aligns with both Cloudlands AU and City Lights AU. While the AUs are not canon-compliant with each other, it was always the plan for her to marry Dale Dimmadome... a character I never expected to see in official media again when I set them up in 2018.

As of September 2024, Hadley's fate in Cloudlands AU has been tweaked to reflect the Dale and Dev lore we got from A New Wish Season 1. The original plan was for her and Dale to be betrothed and married without having romantic feelings for one another, but they'd grow closer as they raised their son (Dave) and took him around the world on adventures. And, well... At least the "got married without feelings" part stayed! 😂💦

As far as Cloudlands and City Lights canons are concerned, Hadley is Dale's wife and Dev's mom- Dave's been retconned, Hadley's hair is a few shades redder, and I gave her a triple hair tuft. The info below reads correct for both AUs!

OVERVIEW

Full Name: Hadley Arianell Harrington (née Leadly)

Preferred Form of Address: Hadley Alternate Forms of Address: "Ms. Leadly" (Past) / "Mrs. Dimmadome" (After marriage) / Dale's wife (Dismissively) / Mom (Yay!) Prefers Ms. or Mrs. Harrington; she likes feeling like she's built up an image without relying on more famous names to carry her (even if that's not entirely true). Only her dad is allowed to call her goofy nicknames (though "angel" and "hon" are more common) Aspiration: Build up an online platform with her influencer work without falling too heavily on either her dad's or husband's wealth... and be there to support Dale through his stress. Fingers crossed Dev goes the influencer route so they can be a cool mother-son pair, please and thank you.

Born: Autumn of the Crushed Rose

Zodiac: Love Birthday: December 15th, 1989 Hometown: Dimmsdale -> Dimmadelphia, California; USA Age During Frozen Timestream: 13 - Turned this in both 2002 and every year for the 50 years retroactively condensed into 2003. Turned 14 in 2004. Age When Married: 21 Age at Dev's Birth: 23 Age During A New Wish Season 1: 33 (34 in December)

Species: Human

Ethnicity: English & Spanish on her father's side (Descended from Dimmsdale's English settlers as well as Spanish settlers from surrounding areas); English & Irish on her mother's side. Nationality: American

Mindset: Immature and goofy, but she can take care of herself. Tends to jump from one thing to the next without cleaning up. Rarely plans ahead. Doesn't share much about herself with others, even with those close to her.

Hoarding OCD - Struggles to let go of things; doesn't like undoing wishes. Both her childhood bedrooms are full of stuff to this day, and were nightmares to navigate in her youth. There are still rooms in the Dimmadome home brimming with her things. Plagued by worries that if she discards an item, she won't have it when she need-wants it. Even after parting ways with her fairy godfather, she drove Timmy nuts growing up by living just close enough that her life as a hoarder was inescapable. ADHD - Has a lot of thoughts at once and sometimes struggles to get them across, easily agitated, angered or excited, struggles to sleep, loves to multitask, gets impatient with waiting periods, can be a bit perfectionist, seeks thrills, impulse buys, has too many project ideas and switches between them, struggles to prioritize, often disorganized [Combined with hoarding], struggles to get back into flow if interrupted. Sometimes has maladaptive daydreams (mostly about aliens). Sensitive to the feel of stray hairs on her neck, so she wears headbands to keep her hair back. Despite struggling to prioritize, she works well with deadlines (mostly) and liked school. She likes to feel she's good with stress, but she certainly has her limits (usually followed by splurges, treating herself, and starting new projects to procrastinate). Multitasking has its pros and cons- Things generally get done, but she may stress over them not being "perfect" (Picking up and putting them down, juggling many videos at a time). Her instinct is to post lots of videos at once and then none for a while, but that's regulated by the team she works with. Notably, both Dale and Dev fidget, misplace items, and lose interest in things more quickly than Hadley; they fall back on things they "always like." Hadley jumps between new interests more than they do (though she also has fallback hobbies she enjoys). Her style of misplacing things tends to be "it's the most recent item on the hoard, so it's not that hard to find."

Stats:

Power:  Above Average Endurance:  Average Wisdom:  Below Average Adaptability:  Above Average Charisma: Average Openness:  Below Average Conscientiousness:  Below Average Neuroticism:  Average

Residence: 1 Dimmadome Way

Occupation: Influencer, business owner (Clothing, make-up, fitness products, must-haves for travel, hunting gear- You name it), Dale's partner / assistant in Dimmadome business affairs

Previous Employment: Pencil Nexus Intern

BACKGROUND

Self-Perception: A bit of a Daddy's Girl, but also kind, adventurous, successful, fun-loving, hard worker who believes in making her own way and standing up for herself.

Unafraid to experiment with new things and likes spending time with her family. Loves to travel and "tell it like it is." She can be a bit all over the place, but at least she's authentic!

Alignment: Neutral Evil MBTI: ESTJ Deadly Sin: Gluttony Heavenly Virtue: Charity Love Language: Acts of Service Reinforcers: Peaceful creativity (i.e. opportunities for creative playtime, like brainstorming ideas, writing stories, and drawing)

History: Hadley grew up in Ed Leadly's mansion (S9's "Dog Gone") until her parents divorced when she was 9. She bounced back and forth between her mom's and dad's places for a bit and finally committed to moving in with her mom (and taking her mom's name).

She's on okay terms with his dad and stays with him now and then, but she likes her mom and step-families. She's on good terms with all her siblings except her older sister (Harper), who's very judgmental of Hadley agreeing to her betrothal instead of pushing against it like Harper did with hers. Harper has "love" or whatever, but Hadley's living a cushy life, so who's the real winner, huh?

Despite the divorce (and moving in with her mom), Hadley thinks fondly of her dad- Namely, the way he took her hunting with his friends every year after she turned 10. Doug Dimmadome also hunts and after a couple years, Dale joined in.

During the time the original FOP series takes place (Namely 2002), Hadley attended middle school and had a fairy godfather named Eryx. She wasn't a jerk rich kid to the degree Remy was, but she rubbed Timmy the wrong way due to her lack of thinking through consequences.

Ex: She ran a black market in school by taking requests for random things her peers wanted and then showing up with them the next way, selling wishes for cash. She never unwished them even if they caused trouble, so Timmy had to take care of her messes. He warned her several times not to be this blatant (and oblivious), but Hadley brushed him off. Eryx didn't love any of this, but generally told his supervisor (Emery Ranen) that Hadley was "a sweet and clever kid."

She did well in school and was a child of divorce shifting between two homes. She did a lot of creative projects with her mom and a lot of business things with her dad. She loves her step-siblings and crossed paths with Anti-Fairies often. She finds her dad embarrassing, but is very obedient when he tells her to do things.

Hadley participated in the Last Grand Hurrah during the Purple Train story arc (130 Prompts), meaning she helped raid the Fairy World Archives building. Not much is known beyond Crocker's comment in "Looking Back" that her communicator cut off when she screamed.

She was Remy's main support (besides Juandissimo) after he lost his arm during that event

Throughout her teens, Hadley continued her friendship with Remy, made time for both her parents, befriended Dale, and even bonded with Timmy once he and Sparky got into hunting.

Hadley married in January 2012 right after turning 21 (After her first semester of Junior year). The next year was 1 on 1 with Dale as they figured things out, searching for the right balance of intimacy and personal space. Turns out, they both like their space and not so many touchy-feely aspects, so they lucked out!

Despite Dale's reservations, Hadley always wanted kids and used to pester and woo him about it on the regular. To her delight, she conceived a year and a half after marriage (the summer she was 22) and shifted to being a mommy vlogger documenting her pregnancy, postpartum experience, and Dev's infancy- Young, feisty, and ready to take on the world.

Hadley spent more time in Dimmadelphia when Dev was a baby. From age 6 on, she moved to a schedule of visiting home less frequently. Mostly, she filled her time traveling the world.

She still posted a lot of content with Dev, but Dev moved towards the au pairs looking after him while Hadley got her wanderlust out by traveling- something she was very excited to do after almost 10 years of staying near Dimmadelphia. Hadley loves her son... she just also likes her "Me Time."

Personality: Hadley is best described as "straightforward, oblivious, snotty, and not necessarily charming despite her efforts."

She tries to buy friends with gifts and is a hard worker who puts honest effort into her studies. She's mostly chill and friendly, but has a temper- She doesn't like being told what to do. Unless you're her parents. She isn't openly spiteful, but she'll write or draw mean things about you if she's annoyed (and she'll huff or snap at you directly).

As an adult, Hadley mellows somewhat due to developing a (slightly) thicker skin against hate comments (and moving to a "Meh, I have more important concerns" attitude in general). She definitely gets annoyed with Dale or her assistants sometimes (and occasionally Dev), but is generally content with her life.

She was very stay-at-home as a kid with a love for reading and crafts. Due to her influencer career, she's taken up traveling. She reviews hotels, restaurants, and vacation spots with a focus on expensive tastes. She's pretty entitled, which grew from obliviousness and growing up in two wealthy families. Like her dad, she gets frustrated when people deny her things she wants. She's less openly petty, but very petty in private.

She's known for shockingly short turnaround times when she gets an idea. Due to wealth (and her husband's connection to Dimmazon), she can get products delivered fast. She also flies out to locations whenever she wants. Editing is the slowest part of her video process (especially with her ADHD).

As a mom, Hadley is more involved with Dev's day-to-day life than Dale, but not necessarily there for him. Ever since her pregnancy, Hadley's been using her son as clickbait for her vlogs. It's not emotionally fulfilling for him, but she has a blast, and what else are kids for?

She and Dale get along fine, though they may be better described as business partners than loving husband and wife. They work well as a team as they have the same motive: impress people and make money. They barely critique each other's parenting style or how they run the home since they don't make Dev top priority and the au pairs handle a lot of cleaning and cooking.

She and Dev have a mildly better relationship than Dev does with Dale. Hadley considers herself a good and mostly involved mother, seeing as she's the one who keeps better tabs on Dev's schooling, but mostly... he's helpful to her content. She's not great with involvement when the camera's down. She likes doing crafts with him just like her mom did with her, but the fact that she's recording all the time leaves Dev feeling a bit ignored.

Hadley is the type to respond to critiques about her content or how she mothers Dev while she does her make-up or a craft- She can be a bit sassy and petty. Same old temper, just less explosive than it was in middle school. She has a hard time leaving hate comments alone.

Hadley gets EXTREMELY jealous when anyone flirts with Dale, comments on her husband's looks, or if Dale talks to people (particularly well-off women she thinks are pretty) for too long. She can brush admiring comments off with a "Haha, yeah, I'm so lucky," but has very low tolerance for anyone hitting on him directly.

Despises Amanda Killman with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. In Hadley's opinion, Dale is way too tolerant of her. Mikey Munroe - who is also an energetic redhead with the added bonus of being raised around drones and growing up to become a security expert like his parents - is on thin flippin' ice.

Get your own hot money-covered husband- She's been betrothed to this man since she was 16 and she put a lot of time into telling him he's cute. She's seen him work through his trauma; she was there as he built up his courage for holding hands and public speaking. Find your own man. He's not the most affectionate and he's not great at remembering special occasions, but he's hers.

Worries of divorce flicker in her mind (Especially when she's been away for a while), but she and Dale have made it this long and weren't lovey-dovey when they started out, so they don't talk about splitting. She hates imagining he'd ever leave her.

She brings Dale and Dev (especially Dev) expensive souvenirs from every place she visits. Her brand image is themed around body positivity, women supporting women, being self-indulgent while showcasing luxury things, being a mommy vlogger, and having fun in general. Her boys don't love having trinkets lying around, but they express due gratitude at the time.

She aims to be shameless, but gets a bit embarrassed and giggly if reviewing vaguely scandalous items. She likes them, she just has a hard time evaluating them in a serious way- Relatively common items like bras, bidets, and swimsuits can make her tongue-tied even if she uses and wears them. It's the social anxiety...

Even if she's not at home with Dev, she'll talk about life with her husband and son, which Dev likes when he watches her videos. Hadley doesn't always compliment her son directly, but she speaks highly of him when he does come up in conversation. She often cites past item review videos she's done with him, which encourages Dev to keep doing them with her.

Dev is clickbait for her videos, but he's HER clickbait <3

Education: Very knowledgeable about the middle school curriculum due to spending the frozen timestream there. Knows many students and teachers- As a rule, she's more familiar with them than Remy is.

Elementary School: Attended a private elementary school in Dimmsdale. Never had Crocker as a teacher, but became aware of him as he became more bold about fairy-hunting openly in later years. Remy attended the same school, but they didn't know each other.

Hadley's parents divorced when she was 9. She gradually became saddened as it weighed on her.

Middle School: Continued private education in Dimmsdale. She became more familiar with Remy and they grew to be friends. She was assigned Eryx as a fairy godparent and caused wish-related chaos.

Remy was transferred to the F.U.N. Academy for a while

Hoarding OCD had always been there, but intensified during these years. Also, she and Timmy crossed paths several times- They were on friendly terms, but irritated each other due to Timmy cleaning up Hadley's wish-related messes.

Hadley attended a lot of Cupid's parties in addition to special events like Fairy Con and the Fairy World Games. She was in middle school while time was frozen and established herself as someone people know.

High School: Further private schooling in Dimmsdale. Hadley's popularity from middle school carried over, with people still fawning over her due to "buying friends" (in combination with the friendly attitude she projected and her general vibes of being smart and successful- People enjoyed being her partner).

She parted ways with Eryx early on as she made new friends and grew closer to Remy and Dale.

Further Education: Went to a nice university in Dimmadelphia, had a private room, married Dale, and graduated with a dual major in marketing and communications.

She and Dale lived in the same city, actively courting (Expensive dinner dates, holding hands at festivals, walking through fancy gardens... Y'know). They married when Hadley was 21 (January of Junior year at university).

Favorite School Subject: Math... and History, and Home Ec. You gotta count the money, you gotta know the places you visit, and you gotta be good with cooking and crafts!

Least Favorite Subject: Chemistry

Clubs: Sounds geeky. No thanks! That said, she did play saxophone in band as a kid.

Friend Group: Upper class folks such as Remy, Trixie, Tad, Chad, Veronica, and Dale

Notable Likes:

- Winning people over with cool stuff she can afford. As she ages, this translates into flaunting her wealth. - School (Classes, dances, socializing) - Birds! Her fairy (Eryx) usually took budgie form; she has a budgie tattoo with white wings on her thigh - Living with her mom... No offense to her dad, but he's... not fun to be around. She and Mom garden and paint together - Creative projects (Writing, painting, filming, crafting, baking, chocolate-making, pottery... You name it!) - Often with Eryx or her mom in her youth and later with Dev - Bizarre or "ugly" animals (including Eldritch horrors) - Posting videos... and showing off her son (For views) - Making money - Reading by the window when it's raining - Trixie's annual costume parties - Nature documentaries - Cedar and pine scent... Reminds her of her dad - Anime (and learning Japanese). Never really cared for manga or comic books, though she's read some comics. - Aesthetic photos, moodboards, gardens, and food (like latte art, cupcakes, cookies, and colorful boba) - Mystery boxes (Bonus points for art supplies) - Shooting guns (One of the only activities she did with her dad instead of mom) - Showcasing beauty products and clothes - Being addressed as Mrs. Harrington... When she's with her family, she introduces them as "My husband Dale and my son Dev," leaving off the Dimmadome name. Since Dale's a billionaire, many people recognize them, but some people (especially young audiences or those less affected by Dimmadome influence) just know Dev as Hadley's son. - Bothering Dale. Just in general, by poking or flirting with him. She loves the thrill of them both being successful on a project, so they spin around in excitement and high-five - Living it up as the other half of the Dimmadome power couple - Saxophone! She plays and taught Dev how as well - Family vacations that let her film (Her thing) and show off her cute family (in a reasonable, somewhat clickbait-y way without relying on them for the meat of her video) - Buying way too many things for Dev. When they're out together, she buys him pretty much any treat to catch her eye (Especially if she can make a vlog out of it). Her content is a lot of her holding up her phone and talking at Dev (towards the camera) while he eats treats and responds to her questions (usually while playing mobile games) - LOVES doing food reviews with Dev, who's a notoriously sensitive (picky) eater. Dev tends to get involved with her videos and talks a lot more when he's participating in stuff like this than he does on the average day, which skews Hadley's view of him towards "Smart and social kid; I'm a great parent." - Houseplants... she collects them, but has been cutting back since she began traveling more often. Supposedly. Don't fact-check this. Oh no. - Cherry blossom aesthetic. She has blossom tattoos over her stretch marks <3 She travels widely, but has a special love for Japan (Probably from growing up on anime and pretty art). - Hot springs and onsen. Tattoos don't go great with that, but... y'know

Had Fairy Godparent: June 14th, 2002 (Age 12) - June 18th, 2005 (Age 14) - Plus some frozen timestream years

Favorite Wish: Paint manipulation (Ex: Paint leaving her fingertips and never running out)

Goals:

- Visit interesting places and try lots of foods. - Maintain joy in content creation. - Coax Dev into the influencer lifestyle so they can be a cool mother-son pair. - Keep Dale on track (and comfort him when he's anxious) - Start her own clothing line that outsells Trixie Tang's. No, she's not bitter.

Beliefs:

- Hard work pays off - Learning languages young is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Dev doesn't need supervision- Hadley watched anime in her younger years and she turned out fine! - Make-up, cute clothes, and tattoos are worth the effort. Live for yourself that way! - True love is a fantasy, so make the most of what you've got - Kids don't know as much as adults; they have unique perspectives and think differently, so their views can be interesting (if naïve) - Deadlines are a great way to keep on track. panik. - Things don't have to be sustainable or ethical as long as you're having fun!

Fears:

- Dale cheating on her (and/or divorce)... but if Dale ever did cheat and begged forgiveness, promising it wouldn't happen as long as she stayed, she'd forgive him as many times as he asked. This man is spooked by mildly annoying noises and jumps at footsteps in his house. - Still a bit socially anxious as an adult, but definitely improved with experience. - Getting mugged (or robbed/threatened). Can be paranoid when settling into a hotel. Feels a lot safer with the au pairs around. - Getting caught in a scandal involving a friend, herself, or Dale. Very paranoid her happy nice life could come crashing down. - Paranoia that she failed to censor or edit videos properly and everyone will catch her mistakes and poke fun. - Dev getting kidnapped (and held for ransom and/or forced into work like Dale was). - Dying, but specifically in ways that boil down to her being a dumb tourist or unfamiliar with the area (Ex: Getting caught in a riptide or tsunami due to failure to read the signs; sinking in quicksand; attacked by animals). - She'll fall in love with someone else and feel conflicted over what to do. - Cancer or other illnesses that would affect her breasts or uterus, leading to necessary removal. While more kids are likely not in the cards for her or Dale, she'd take the loss of those parts pretty hard, as she felt very connected to her pregnancy and came from a large family. She likes her body and would probably be self-conscious for the rest of her life, especially since she's on camera and has videos of her body online forever.

Upsets:

- Not getting what she wants, especially if she's offering high amounts of money for it. - People moving her stuff (particularly if they give it away). - Being argued with or bossed around. Timmy Turner should let her live her life; he can clean up her wishes if he hates them that much. - Being told she's annoying. - People (especially women she perceives as wealthy) flirting with her husband. - Someone mocking or breaking her artwork. - Riff-raff tromping through her garden (or filming space). - People who show up to potlucks or gift exchanges without bringing an item. - People handing food to Dev without asking about allergies (especially as a toddler). His parents may struggle to be there emotionally, but he's got an allergy card and they both know it. Don't feed their son. - Sometimes life is hard when you want to go to a nice restaurant and your son is super picky and slow to eat, so he pokes his food and squirms around forever. Don't judge. - When Dale dips out of vacation plans (or other film plans / collab videos / Dimmadome building tours) to work. - Dev talking back to her. Does he not realize she carried and birthed and fed and changed him? :( Look at these adorable vlogs of him in the bathtub! Look how many likes they get when they're reposted next to pictures of how big he's grown! Rude... - Dale leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor. - Suitcases won't zip shut (or break) mid-trip. - Dale not wearing his wedding ring (He forgets!!) - Dev standing on food preparation surfaces. Why does he do that. - Hadley likes board games and travel, but she lives with two boys whose idea of a fun vacation is staying inside the hotel playing with electronics. Devastating. - Why do her husband and son keep hanging up on her when she video calls them at 3:39 AM?

Comforts: Wishing up lots of things... especially plush blankets, silky pajamas, movies, snacks, and stuffed animals

Indulgences: Hadley's deadly sin is gluttony. She overindulges in everything she likes.

This can mean eating lots of sweets, buying 10 identical pairs of pants when she already has tons of clothes at home, projects she's working on, or wishing up a bunch of things that she quickly grows bored of but doesn't bother wishing away.

Owns WAY too many pencils (courtesy of her dad's work).

EXTERNAL

Verbal Notes: Hadley uses a lot of qualifiers like "Um," "I think," "Kind of," "Maybe," and "You know?" You can really hear it when she reviews products. She's a bit more comfortable speaking to Dev directly, but she does this when she's on camera with him and is speaking more to an invisible audience than to her son.

Huge habit of saying "Um," briefly averting eye contact, and snapping her fingers when she tries to find a word or what to say next. Her thoughts often run faster than her mouth and it can take a moment to get her sentences together. Many of her statements are said like questions.

Though she's more confident as an adult than a child, she tends to glance at Dale if Dev asks her a question directly (if Dale is in the room). She'll also glance around at other adults before making decisions (Ex: She'll try to judge if it's the right time to leave a party when Dale or Dev would just leave).

All this said, she tends to speak up more than other "background characters" (owing to the fact that she's a specific OC with a personality, not just random filler). As in, she'll throw in commentary even if not addressed directly.

Language: Speaks English fluently, alongside decent Japanese. Knows some Spanish and French. Can squeak by with bare-bone basics in additional languages like German and Mandarin.

Raised in an upper class family, her husband does business overseas, and she travels widely. She watched a lot of anime growing up and enjoyed studying Japanese

Physical Notes: Shorter than pretty much everyone in the main human cast due to her dad's genetics. A bit rounder and heavier than the others, again mirroring Leadly's body.

Like her son and husband, Hadley is lactose intolerant.

Handedness: Right Body Language: Shy and holding back in her youth (Ex: tucking hands behind her back, folding her arms with hands tucked under pits), but more confident and outspoken with age. Tends to make rolling motions with her hands. Often pauses and snaps her fingers when trying to remember a word. Tucks a bit of hair behind her ear often, especially while rambling. Hair: Takes good care of it. Owns oodles of hair care products, scrunchies, and headbands. Uses a lot of them, but tends to hoard the empty bottles. Teeth: Good hygiene; has used a lot of teeth-whitening products. Growing closer with Dale during their courtship definitely prompted her to be more grateful and thoughtful about her dental care, though she'd never tell him that. Scars: Very mild burn mark on her hand from a hot glue incident. Minor scars from hunting and past surgeries (Ex: Beauty industry-related). Hadley does like her natural body as she considers body positivity part of her brand, but she's done a couple touch-ups. Sometimes scars cause minor sensory issues, but they're fine. Tattoos: Has a tiny budgie with white wings tattooed on her left thigh- A reference to her godfather Eryx Whitewing (though she didn't remember he was a fairy when she got that tattoo). She has a pastel rainbow elk on her left forearm (underside just above wrist)- Her way of tying her love for hunting with her dad to her love of painting with her mom. She has cherry blossom tattoos over her stretch marks and likes showing them off. Somewhere beneath her body positivity brand image, she's got self-doubt; she likes being able to point to them in her swimsuit videos and say she's beautiful and/or that she "birthed a Dimmadome." She loves playing up the "mommy vlogger" angle even if she's not always home to do so. Also, anyone gossiping that she's not Dev's real mom can jump off an iceberg, actually <3 She tends to flash these tattoos at Dev when playing the "I'm your mother; I carried you 9 months and nursed you" card and he's just used to it at this point. She's done "getting my tattoo" videos and hopes Dev does one with her someday.

Style: Aims for eye-catching, unique, and fun with bits of cozy and professional sprinkled on top. Something that makes you pause and maybe compliment her, but reserved enough that her dad won't object to it (Particularly in her youth).

Regular Clothing: A blue sweater with a dark half vaguely resembling a paint splotch. Brown-black pants with white hems and shoes (so she looks partly erased). She also wears a white bowtie (Aiming for "Take me seriously; I'm doing business" vibes). -> She's designed after paintbrushes and erasers: the perfect blend of her artistic mom and pencil-pushing dad. Casual Clothing: Blue short-sleeved shirts, dresses, or tank tops aren't unheard of, but she'd sooner wish for cooler weather... because why not? As an adult who's gotten into influencer culture, she loves picking out cute tops to wear in front of the camera. Crop tops have become a bigger part of her wardrobe since she can't wish the weather cool anymore. Blues, rainbows, and pastels are among her favorites. She also likes overalls, especially for art or cleaning projects. Nightwear: Likes cute and frilly (Think silky, long-sleeved shirts and short shirts for pajama sets). Black with white spots are her favorite. Not a fan of nightgowns. Formal Clothing: When presenting herself, Hadley prefers not to associate with the Leadly brand more than she must (as she'd rather the name Harrington become recognizable); however, she'll wear pink and yellow pencil-themed clothes if her dad requests it for special events. Other: Likes flaunting swimsuits. Dev's seen his mom in crop tops and bikinis ever since he was very little; he's not easily embarrassed by his parents showing skin. Or by anyone else's skin, for that matter. Lemon-themed clothing is a huge no-no. We don't tell her husband about That Swimsuit...

Adult Height: 4′10″

Hygiene: Surprisingly intense, though not consistent. Hadley likes buying products and trying them, but she also leaves them strewn across her en suite bathroom (in all her homes). She and Dale have separate ones because he does not like dealing with her stuff on the counters and Hadley doesn't like him moving it. Also, Dev will always use his dad's bathroom over his mom's if those are his two options. Too much stuff...

Morning Schedule: 

Travel: Often scrambling to keep up with her plans. Needs to look cute! Needs to go out! Needs to say her script right! It's a lot. At least all the hair care and make-up practice from her youth came through- She's speedy at getting ready. Home: Wakes up after Dale, so sometimes he's in bed (on his phone or tablet) and sometimes not. Neither's prone to snuggling, but Hadley often wakes up with his elbow on her head. The fact that he sometimes loiters is a win in her book. He lingers more often when it's Sunday: the day he's most likely to take a break. When Dev was young, Hadley prepared breakfast for him more often. Nowadays, he's often gone to school by the time she's up. Sometimes Dev doesn't know his mom came home last night and hears her voice (or smells waffles), so he'll scramble downstairs to see her and give a big hug.

Typical Day Schedule: 

Travel: Sightseeing, travel between locations, and vlogging. Trips are often planned in advance, meaning she doesn't have to decide in the moment where to go. Sometimes Hadley will be spontaneous, but she tries to stick to her plans. The au pairs help. Home: Returning home usually means a lot of video editing- Hadley does some of it herself and has a team to help with other aspects. Sometimes she's tired and needs to rest - Usually Dev's at school on Mondays, so that gives her recovery time until he's home - but in the summer, he's often all over her, wanting attention. Unless he's not... Who knows. Dev tends to be wiggly and excited to join his mom in filming when she's home. Hadley needs her share of rest (Often lying on the couch and mumbling "20 more minutes," but she's as happy to see Dev as he is to see her. Hadley's home life is a balancing act of getting her work done and seeing her baby boy, who's getting so goshdarn big. Hadley's home visits allow her to record the mommy vlogger content she dearly enjoys. For Dev, Mom coming home usually equates to her taking him places (like restaurants or plays) to rate food or other things with her. Sometimes they stay home to rate clothes, snacks, art supplies, or movies. Hadley loves doing these activities with Dev (especially crafts) since it reminds her of doing things with her mom; she's taught Dev a lot of cooking hacks. Against all odds, he can cook for himself and knows very well what he can and can't eat. Dev gets a lot of his "relaxed & smiling" default attitude from his mom; he's more likely to take his shades off around her than anyone else (barring Hazel). Dev's excitement cools off the longer his mom's home (leading him to slide back into his usual schedule and be grumpier when Hadley wants to film with him), but the early days are exciting, especially if she's been on a long trip. Sometimes they do an activity that plays into both their OCD, like coming home with a load of stuff (books, art supplies, groceries) and meticulously organizing the pantry, library, or craft room. The au pairs can put things away where THEY think it goes, but it's a big night in the Dimmadome house when Hadley and Dev dump a shelf over and arrange things by color or size instead of alphabetically. High-fives all around! Dev does not like stray items in his room due to paranoia that any mess will spiral out of control and he'll end up like his hoarder mom... Sometimes it's hard for him to organize the dedicated storage area set aside for him in another room because he's a child, so that's fun for Hadley. Dev's anxiety spikes any time he finds his mom in his room(s) unsupervised, because she'll just bring in bags of stuff and leave it in a heap, and he HATES that... It needs to be put away...

Evening Schedule: 

Travel: Evening may be filled with fine dining, museum tours, or landmark visits- whatever the day's event is. Mostly, Hadley unwinds after a busy day. Depending on her energy levels, she browses social media or calls home- usually Dev (so as not to interrupt Dale working). Sometimes she gives her au pairs a check-up. Home: Hadley tries to do most of her editing during 9 to 5- Sticking to a schedule helps her not procrastinate (Sometimes). That gives her time in the evenings to handle things related to Dev's life, like parent-teacher conferences. Hadley cooks dinners, but only if she's making a video out of it- often with titles like "Cooking X for My Lactose-Intolerant Son" or "Recreating [Notable Restaurant's] Meals From Scratch." Cooking is one of her skills since she did a lot of that and baking with her mom. She's taught Dev how to cook and bake some foods. Since her mom's still alive, sometimes they bring her in too, so Dev gets to have family moments... even if his dad isn't there. Dale is not good at being complimentary of food, but he'll clean his plate no matter what Hadley puts on it, so it's all good. -> Unfortunate running gag in Hadley's videos: Dev is super picky and doesn't like a lot of food, but Dale has no opinions because after living in abuse for 7 years, there's nothing besides lemons and lactose products he won't eat. Sometimes when the cameras aren't on them, Dev just gives his food to Dale who will eat it as fast as possible before the cameras are on them again. Hadley is better at engaging directly with Dev than Dale is. She can't always get his focus on board games, but sometimes she can get him to follow her on a brief walk... even if he walks slow because he's still glued to his tablet. He tends to whine if he wants his devices or manga, but they do okay. Besides recording videos, their most common evening activity is anime. It's not always the 1 on 1 engagement Dev needs, but it's something. If Dev's in bed when Hadley's feeling restless, she might bother and/or watch Dale. Works great if he's up working on a project- just grab a chair and scoot next to him. Sometimes she considers projects for the next day- She can get sucked into browsing online and impulse buying, but doesn't usually start brand new things late at night.

Sleep Schedule: Inconsistent. Tends to have more energy and racing thoughts at night; struggles to sleep. Falls asleep late and wakes up late too.

Travel: Tends to toss and turn in bed. Paranoid about her videos and watches them with a critical eye. Calls home, forgetting to check time zones. Pretty poor sleep schedule, but luckily she can start recording whenever she wants to the next day. Often feels exhausted, but she's used to it. Home: Hadley fidgets and thrashes a lot in her sleep, which Dale doesn't love, but he puts up with it for the times she's occasionally home. She can't sleep in "her" room because... hoarding OCD. The au pairs once cleaned her room and she immediately came home and dumped loads of stuff in it and came to Dale's bed anyway, so he's given up.

PERSONAL

Hadley's Family Tree: HERE

Relationship Status: Married to Dale Dimmadome. She prefers acknowledging him as "My husband" and avoids dropping his name as much as possible, but if she's asked directly "Dale Dimmadome?" she'll laugh and say "Yeah, we've known each other since we were kids" and change the subject.

Nothing against Dale as a person- She just wants people to take interest in HER stuff and not ask questions about him. If Dale is with her, he'll introduce himself big and loud and sometimes talk over her because he is not self-aware enough to not.

Dale and Hadley tend to discuss their relationship in business terms rather than lovey-dovey ones. They don't have pet names for each other and they're none too physically affectionate, but they share a bed because Dale can't make Hadley not and while they do annoy each other, they get along fine.

Nothing more intimate than deep talks and holding hands before marriage... Affectionate, but not infatuated (and certainly not in love). Not much changed after marriage. But despite their low-affection home life, they fall into confident, smug, almost lovey-dovey power couple personas when the cameras are on.

Hadley's amazing love life is definitely exaggerated for the audience and sometimes it hurts when people fawn over or compliment them for being such a sweet couple.

They actually do have some risqué things going on behind closed doors, so... some of the innuendos they drop when flirting are exactly what you think they are. Sometimes they flirt over Dev's head and he'll just look up from his tablet and stare into the camera (or make loud commentary about how they're gross).

They're certainly not divorced and probably will never be... but there's still married life tension between them. Generally, they get along great (Having been arranged; both worked hard to make their relationship work and have known each other for a long time), but there's some wobbly commitment due to lack of deep affection.

Some weeks Dale and Hadley are on extremely good terms and can be a little gooey lovey-dovey, others they drive each other up the wall because ADHD, OCD, hoarding, owning many businesses, being frequently absent, misophonia, recording videos, and still being young parents (Early to mid 30s when Dev is 9) are a rough combination.

Betrothed to Dale: At age 16. They'd run in the same social circle all their life, so they were certainly aware of each other despite not being romantic. Well, Dale missed 7 years, but other than that...

Specifically, their dads worked this out as an option in their youth, pitched it to them individually, and they both accepted. I mean... Neither of them was ever gonna say "No" to Daddy.

Clarifying note: They weren't married until Hadley was 21 and doing great in college - Her dropping the ball wasn't gonna fly - but the betrothal was offered at age 16 since Dale is 3 ½ years older and it was time for him and Doug to finalize a plan. Since the Leadlys are multimillionaires rich enough for Leadly to drop 17 million on a spontaneous purchase ("Dog Gone"), one of his daughters was the ideal place to start asking.

Simple courtship. Mostly, Dale and Hadley continued seeing each other at the usual social gatherings, but as they got older, they slowly moved towards deeper talks about their future. Lots of showy gifts exchanged in the way you'd expect upper class kids to flirt.

Dale definitely took his time working up to, y'know... talking to people. Neither Dale nor Hadley trusts easily, both having come from families that raised them to be wary of someone taking advantage of them for wealth. However, their shared backgrounds and planned betrothal helped grow their trust in each other, leading to them both feeling very safe in the other's presence.

Married Dale: January 21st, 2012 - One month after she turned 21

Ideal Relationship: In her middle school days, Hadley used to date people she thought were fun and interesting. She wishes her relationship with Dale was more adventurous (as Dale is very big on staying in his safe zone and doing things the way HE likes), but she really likes when he comes on holiday trips with her.

She'd love to be a travel blogger alongside her husband, but recognizes that's not in the cards because he's too tied up in Dimmadome businesses.

Sometimes Dale skips vacations so he can work, which Hadley grumps at him about (Reminding him that she can make money via filming, especially if he and Dev show up for views, tends to coax him along unless he's working on a big project).

She's not necessarily chasing fiery passion, but emotional closeness- She had a positive relationship with her mom (who was very engaged in her kids' lives) but wasn't close with her dad or step-dad. She craves adult male affection along the lines of a deep voice telling her good job or greeting her with "Hi, Honey."

In other words, Hadley tends to seek validation from men and doesn't often get it. She's completely faithful to her husband, but there's a gap in her wants that Dale doesn't fill with his general struggles to be attentive and affectionate. Except for when he does.

Hadley would've liked more kids (Clickbait gold! ... I mean, she loved her big family growing up), but that doesn't seem to be in the cards at this point. She'd never scheme to trick Dale into more kids, but if he brought up the idea, she'd be instantly on board- she loves her hot(?) husband and misses her pregnancy and nursing years a lot.

She is not looking forward to menopause and will definitely be very needy for Dale's attention (and not subtle that she wants more kids) in the years leading up to it. Dale doesn't have a strong history of saying "No" even when he has misgivings, so... Preemptive congratulations on big brotherhood, Dev! Have fun with that.

Sexuality: Never looked into it. Does it matter? Her married life was set out before her when she was still in high school.

Can confirm she's allosexual and has a history of liking boys, but anything beyond that is a blur...

Intimate History: Sexually intimate with only one partner (Her husband, Dale).

Cherry lemon ship masterpost

Turn-Ons: Shiny muscles... And quirky gimmicks. Amused by novelty date ideas (like spas that let fish eat dead skin from your toes) and likes dragging Dale along. Planning dates is plenty fun- She tends to go down the rabbit hole researching. Sometimes that's more fun than the date itself, though it's devastating when she gives a plan to Dale and he looks at it, then her, and says "I'm busy that day."

She gets around this by planning things like picnics so he can be on his tablet and Hadley can at least pretend he's there emotionally

The mural of Dale covered in money was all his idea, but she supports it in full. She has one too, but it's in a room her hoarding took over; Dev's seen the room clogged with stuff, but hasn't seen the mural behind the clutter. She and Dale have a lot of photos and videos in the undressed-and-covered-in-money genre.

For better or worse, Hadley's just as into ranch-themed cosplay as Dale is. Hey, Pencil Nexus has a branch in Texas- It's in her blood! She likes rhinestones, boots, and hats. She keeps misplacing them in her hoard, but Dale will throw himself into digging them out if he must... He likes his hot wife in denim and cowgirl fringes.

She considers "Big and Loud" from Cats Don't Dance to be romantic and has probably sung it to Dale at least once while dressed like that. Did he like it? I don't know.

Videos are... definitely their thing, but those are for Hadley's Me Time (Lying bleary-eyed on a hotel bed with her phone glowing in her face like "Why is my husband so hot? When will he call me back?" and then she'll just watch a bunch of TooYube or play a mobile game and be fine). Are the au pairs scarred by the things they've seen? Eh, probably.

Hadley doesn't love divulging too much about her private life, so she'll make up random things Dale's into for video purposes ("My husband loves this body gel / clothing item / getaway location"), but Dale doesn't watch her videos, so it's fine. Don't ask Dev what he knows about his parents' love life, because it's more than he should and largely untrue.

Children: Dev Dimmadome

When I draw Dale and Dev, I draw them both with puffs of hair below their ears. Dale's are small and point out or down. Dev's are larger and point up, which he gets from Hadley.

In 2024, I reddened Hadley's hair by a few shades and added three hair spikes to connect her design more with Dev's. Dev is on the shorter side like his mom and shares more of her roundness than his dad's scrawniness.

Dev grew up watching a lot of his mom's videos and has appeared in a lot of them. They video call sometimes when she's not around.

Hadley longs to have more children, but Dale's not likely to go for it any time soon. That's okay... She's willing to wait. Hadley is the type of person who wants to name her kids Bill or Buck (after money). She definitely pitched these names to Dale, but gave her puns away by cracking up.

Notable Grandchildren: Practically confirmed she'll have some... What's Dev gonna do? Say no? ( 🦗 ♪ 🦗 ♪ )

Father: Edmund "Ed" Leadly

Hadley gets the shine and front point in her hair from her dad. She has his pale green eyes. Although I don't draw her in Leadly's on-model style, she shares his bigger build (roundness and weight) and is one of the shorter kids in the cast, drawing from Leadly's height.

Leadly is lactose intolerant, hailing from the Spanish side of his family; he passed the gene to Hadley.

Grandfather: Rufus Leadly

Grandmother: Eugenie Leadly (née Rivers)

Notable Ancestors: Robert Penn (Early settler of Dimmsdale)

Mother: Dolly Harrington

Hadley gets her reddish brown hair from her mom. Hadley's skin is a bit lighter than Leadly's, which comes from her mom's side. While not lactose intolerant, she's a carrier and passed the gene to Hadley.

Her mom is the widow of Wylie Kirkwood, whom she had two sons with before marrying Leadly.

Grandfather: Sterling Harrington

Grandmother: Mavis Harrington (née Campagna)

Fairy Godfather: Eryx Whitewing

Met June 14th, 2002

Friend and caretaker. They got along fine, though Eryx was nervous and Hadley never believed his insistence he had a girlfriend.

Full-Blooded Siblings: Harper Harrington & Leo Leadly

Also opted to move in with her mom. Wants nothing to do with her dad, which Leadly finds annoying. She threw a fit when her parents tried to engage her, so Hadley was next. Leo is 3 years younger than Hadley, but also lives with his mom growing up. Not out of malice- It's just the best option since she's a very involved stay-at-home mom and Leadly works all the time. Leo likes his dad and his dad likes him a lot in return. Leo's married to Ruby Cashulott (Another rich family in Dimmsdale; surname dropped in S9's "Country Clubbed," but spelling is my own for all I know. Ruby's mother Crystal appeared in my one-shot, "Whatever" and Ruby was namedropped as a friend of Hadley's in "Trying Too Hard."

Step-Brothers: Noah & Charles Kirkwood

Noah and Charles lost their dad and live with their mom; they are not biologically related to Leadly. Both are older than Hadley and come from her mom's previous marriage.

Half-Sister: Olivia Leadly

Younger than Hadley; comes from Leadly's marriage after the divorce from Hadley's mom. She's an infant during the frozen timestream.

Birth Order for Hadley Siblings: Noah, Charles, Harper, Hadley, Leo, Olivia

Exes: None known; she stopped dating other people after her betrothal was confirmed (if she even dated at all).

She attended the Dimmsdale-Retroville crossover dance in the 130 Prompt "Back In Action." Her date for that dance was Bolbi (Jimmy Neutron), but she lost track of him. Presumably didn't see him again after that dance.

Husband: Dale Dimmadome

Met in childhood (Technically crossed paths when she was an infant). Doesn't remember him well since she was young when he went missing, but she's seen the photos of them together as kids- Those photos were on display at parties even when he was absent. After his return from 7 years of child labor, Hadley and Dale went hunting together with their dads every year. They still make time for hunting... sometimes.

Celebrity Crushes: Finds some influencers attractive (Especially those with a focus on travel and fitness), but she'd never tell you that.

Current Love Interest: Dale...? Eh, close enough.

Other Important Relationships: As an adult, Hadley's built up a following who enjoy(?) her content... which mostly boils down to "I may have an affluent life, but I'm just like you guys! I'm down to earth and I do projects! Look at my cute son!!"

She has assistants, drivers, contacts, and online friends. Three au pairs accompany her when she films- 23, 95, and 88.

- While he was alive, Hadley was on good terms with her father-in-law (Doug Dimmadome), who always considered her bright and innovative... even if he thought it was foolish to try pursuing her own fame and career when she came from a wealthy family and had married into a second one.

He never really got the influencer thing and in all honesty... He was glad when he heard Dale and Hadley were trying for kids (and relieved when it happened).

Generally, Hadley found Doug's opinions sexist and out of touch as he'd comment that she didn't need to work and should think about kids, but they got along okay. He liked her and they went hunting together for several years- Doug and Ed and Dale and Hadley, and that's probably what won Doug over when extending the betrothal offer.

- Hadley and Remy are as close as you can get when you're both rich kids who put up walls. They lived near each other as kids and were both in middle school during the 50 years of frozen time (apart from Remy returning to elementary briefly to mess with Timmy and Remy's military school experience from "Operation F.U.N.")

They tend to pair up for group projects and school events (like dances). They were never a couple, but plenty of people thought they were. Hadley is familiar with Remy's parents (and the parents of all the upper class kids) due to attending social events her whole life.

Juandissimo (who likes Wanda) and Eryx (who likes Blonda) are friends. They love gossiping about the Fairywinkles and giving each other general love life advice. Eryx doesn't pursue Blonda; he just thinks she's neat. He has a girlfriend (Allegedly).

Hadley is close with Remy and gave him a lot of support after he lost his arm. Also, she thinks it's funny to claim she would've married Remy if his parents had set them up (despite Remy's deadpan replies that he doesn't like her like that).

- Hadley and Timmy are aware of each other. Timmy finds her annoying because she wishes up a ton of things and sells them to other kids, but doesn't care if her wishes cause chaos. Since Timmy can't unwish her wishes directly, Timmy has to get creative about it. They occasionally cross paths at special events like Fairy Con, the Zappys, or Cupid's parties.

Hadley's fairy, Eryx, is a huge fan of Blonda. He sometimes bothers Cosmo or Wanda for her autograph. Also, Cosmo is friends with Eryx; they use Leadly's hot tub together ("Dog Gone") sometimes when they're free from godparent work. They unwind with chat and games.

Timmy got into hunting during his teens (with Sparky at his side). Hadley, who'd been hunting with her dad since she was 9, has gone on several trips with Timmy and her dad (and Timmy's Pappy). While they've never been close and don't go out of their way to see each other, they consider each other friends.

Hadley really wants to bring Dev on a hunting trip when he's 10 and up. Timmy's daughter (Tammy) is eager to join in, though younger Tommy has more reservations and would rather play mobile games with Dev.

- Supposedly, Eryx has a steady girlfriend. However, it's a running gag that Hadley has never seen this girlfriend and doesn't believe she's real, no matter how many people actually DO see her and beg Hadley to believe Eryx is telling the truth.

Hadley is thoroughly convinced Eryx's love life is pretty sad and that he gives himself gifts, or that every time he tells her he has date night, he's just visiting friends in Fairy World.

- Excluding godparents, Cupid is Hadley's main contact in Fairy World (Compared to Jorgen for Timmy or H.P. for Remy). Since her father's love life involves a string of divorces and broken-off courtship attempts - and since Eryx is clearly lonely - Hadley regularly seeks Cupid's help for this and that.

She outright bribes him, so he likes her a lot and invites her to all his parties. Unclear if Cupid is screwing her dad's life up on purpose to keep the money coming in. He always did think she and Dale were a cute couple, but it's unknown if he and Hadley ever spoke about it.

- Hadley participated in the Last Grand Hurrah (Purple Train story arc). In other words, she's mildly familiar with Molly, Dwight, Denzel Crocker, and Happy Peppy Gary. Hadley keeps her feelings close to the vest and didn't really bond with them, but she enjoyed meeting new people.

-> Although she never had Crocker for her teacher, she's very aware of him due to the vague threat he is towards Eryx. She lets Timmy deal with that, only crossing Crocker's path when he snoops around or they're at city events.

- Hadley knows random people from Eryx's friend group... or at least, the buddies he gambles with and sometimes ends up in debt to. He's been in debt to Big Daddy Fairywinkle multiple times. Hadley thinks Big Daddy is interesting, but he definitely spooks her. She'd totally go hunting with him too if given the option.

- Hilariously, Hadley tends to run into Anti-Fairies while Remy rubs shoulders with Pixies. Hadley tends to forget Pixies exist and Remy doesn't have a good concept of what an Anti-Fairy even is... However, this changes once they start attending the Fairy World Games. Then they might remember.

-> Hadley is very familiar with Anti-Cosmo, Anti-Wanda, Foop, and a list of Anti-Fairies Timmy's never even heard of. Anti-Cosmo has tried to make her his godchild several times (Usually by taking advantage of Eryx's skittish nature or Hadley's hoarding OCD by offering her cursed items), but in true FOP fashion, Hadley evades that fate every time.

-> Hadley sees Foop as an equal threat to Anti-Cosmo (e.g. she doesn't coddle him for his youth). They're not affectionate towards each other- When it comes to humans, Foop is only sweet on Chloe and the Crockers. Foop enjoys messing with Hadley because she tends to be explosive back at him. He often flies off cackling while she yells at him from her window.

-> Hadley calls Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda by name (Compared to Chloe, who refers to them as "Mr. Foop's dad" and "Mrs. Foop's mom"). If you asked him, Anti-Cosmo would begrudgingly admit he's fond of Hadley (and/or boast about what he'll do when she's his godkid someday).

TRIVIA

- She was my first FOP OC (created December 2015). Her purpose was to be in the background and I never expected her husband to become a major character in FOP media, so I'm genuinely excited to write more for her with City Lights AU. It couldn't have happened to a better OC of mine than the very first!

- Top picture is her adult self; the one in her History section is her 12-year-old self.

- Her hair curl flips sides depending on which way she's facing.

- Hadley's MBTI is ESTJ while Dale's is ISTJ. They're very similar people, though Hadley's definitely the more outgoing.

- In her godkid days, Hadley was very proud of putting her own effort into her studies rather than zapping knowledge into her brain. Many of her wishes were about beauty products and cool clothes, but she enjoyed the process of doing her hair and make-up as well as reading books.

- Generally oblivious in social settings. Tends to be loud and blatant, but she's generally polite in face-to-face encounters... especially as she gets older. She had a hot temper as a kid.

- Her mom (who also comes from wealth) is a professional painter and gardener: Two hobbies Hadley did with her all the time as a kid.

- Her mom has a blood blossom garden; Leadly makes Hadley give flowers to people he's trying to sus out as witches (Ex: Happy Peppy Gary in "Trying Too Hard").

- Often visits Pennsylvania and Texas; Pencil Nexus has its head office and a branch there, respectively - (S7's "The Boss of Me").

- She's very good at shooting rifles- She's been hunting with her dad ever since she was 9 (Both in Texas and California). She and Timmy have gone on hunting trips with Sparky.

- She hums the Pencil Nexus theme a lot, especially if she's waiting in a line or doing chores. She's bad at sneaking around- she forgets she shouldn't hum. It's also her ringtone.

- Tends to pull the "I was pregnant & gave birth to you and this is what I get?" card on Dev. She thinks it's cute and funny and doesn't mean it in a guilt-trippy way... though Dev doesn't love it.

- She liveblogged her full pregnancy (in addition to things like decorating the nursery or shopping for baby clothes). She was absolutely exhausted after Dev's birth, but tried to put on the image that she wasn't- She strives to be authentic in her videos, but hid some pregnancy and postpartum details she was self-conscious about. It's not lying if you just fudge the truth a little, right?

Bought Dev WAY too many clothes and toys when he was a newborn. Used to do "My baby ranks the most popular toys" and "My baby ranks the top baby foods" videos when he could barely crawl. Dev was clickbait for a ton of her videos back then, with Hadley holding him up to the camera while she talked and he sucked his fist and babbled.

- She's strongly considered vlogging about life in a house of three people who all have ADHD and OCD, but it's pretty much been agreed she shouldn't put her family on blast like that. She scrolls ADHD and OCD forums and sometimes comments without letting on who she is, though. Sometimes she records the videos anyway, even if she doesn't post them publicly.

- Pretty much never takes 1 on 1 vacations with Dale- It's "whole family or bust" for her. Dale gets time to work while Hadley entertains Dev, Dev gets to enjoy time with his parents, and Hadley gets her family nearby- Everyone wins! ... Dale is not always present in the moment, but close enough!

- Like Dale, she forbids Dev from drinking lemonade in the house and/or around Dale, but doesn't talk about Dale's past with Dev. It's also a line she won't cross with her vlogs; she'd never do a "Tricking my husband into drinking lemonade" video- The public doesn't know Dale has issues with lemonade and Hadley doesn't put that on blast.

Dev watches every video she puts out. They're comforting for him, even if they sometimes make him feel sad or lonely. He lacked privacy in childhood and has been very exploited by his mom. Although neither of his parents is there for him emotionally, he tends to excuse his mom's absence due to her work travels more than his dad, who's home all the time.

- She and Dale signed a prenup, but Hadley definitely brought up the "Uh... If we're not in love now, what would cause us to get divorced?" question. No real answer for that.

- High-fives have always been her thing- It's one of the first things Dale was comfortable with (before sustained hand holding) and she raised Dev on high-fives ever since he was a baby (especially on camera, because it's cute). Until Hazel, Dev always saw high-fives as his mom's thing, so it took some getting used to.

- Like Dale and Dev, Hadley sometimes refers to people with the wrong name. Funnily enough, she doesn't get this from hanging around them- She gets it from her dad ("The Boss of Me")

- She can pick up and carry her husband. Doesn't do it much because he'll make honky, squeaky sounds and try to squirm away, but sometimes Dale and Dev climb on her to reach something.

- She and Dale both like wearing cowboy hats and boots, especially when they visit Texas. A lot of their promotional images (and Hadley's phone wallpaper) depict them in such clothes.

- Sometimes Dev joins Hadley on her travels (especially during school breaks). In City Lights AU, Peri thinks she's okay, but he mistrusts her and thinks she neglects Dev's true needs. He once got buried in a pile of stuff when she was flinging things over her shoulder.

- When she's lonely on her travels (especially at a hotel late at night, or watching kids play in a park nearby while she eats or waits in a line), she'll video chat with Dev; this is frustrating for him if she's in a different time zone. Sometimes he's in school and hangs up on her and then she guilt-trips him a little by sending him a sad emoticon (and the obligatory "Why won't you say hi to your mother who carried and birthed you?" message).

- She does a fantastic job of Not Being The Worst while also Not Being Great, but that's par for the course in the Fairly OddParents world. I love her, actually.

- I live in fear that one day, I'll mistype and say Hazel is Dale's wife (or Hadley is Dev's wife). Please tell me if I do... I've already had to correct so many misspellings of calling Dale her child. Did some evade me? Who knows...

APPEARANCES

Main Blog Tag - #Hadley and Eryx

Sideblog Tag - #RD Hadley

AO3 Tag - #Hadley Harrington

At the time of posting this, her two speaking appearances are in the 130 Prompts "Back In Action," where she's at the Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour dance chasing squirrels, and "Trying Too Hard," where Ed Leadly brings her along when he tries shaking Gary and Betty down for the Learnatorium (again); Hadley's very embarrassed.

Although offscreen, she was heavily referenced in "End of the World" when Timmy led Remy to her house so she could help with the cure for Juandissimo's fairy flu.

She was briefly mentioned in "Opportunity" when her dad put the pieces together and realized his daughter has a fairy godparent.

Her surname was dropped in "Entire World," "Solo," and "Looking Back," confirming her as on the Pixies' radar & as a member of Gary and Crocker's Fairy World invasion team. She'll appear in "You Deserve It" very soon, reuniting with Dale for the first time since he disappeared.

When she was created, the intention was to populate Dimmsdale for namedrop purposes (such as when Timmy or Jorgen are looking for godkids, or Pixies are doing paperwork). So... she gets namedropped a lot! She often plays comedic straight man for her dad as Leadly is... a piece of work.

In City Lights AU, Hadley's thus far appeared in "50 Words of Dev and Hazel." She'll play a major role in "50 Words of The Dimmadomes" and Dale's backstory 'fic, Lemonade and Papercuts.

She's also due to appear in Along the Cherry Lane in Cloudlands AU once 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash is complete; Hadley makes minor appearances in the latter project and so does her dad.

Sideblog Masterpost

[miz-chase]

Bones crime au aka The Reverse Broadsky

There's a sniper loose in DC who has a tendency to hit targets recently investigated by the FBI. Special Agent Jared Booth was put on the case but kept ending up in dead ends. Frustrated by the lack of progress, his boss FBI Assistant Director Hacker enlisted the Jeffersonian Institute's Medico-Legal Lab to aid the investigation. They worked with the remains, particulates, and other evidence to try and pin down the sniper, getting closer than ever before.

In another place, Seeley Booth was lining up the angle for the perfect shot. There's an apartment that just overlooks the falsely-exonerated criminal's home, and it didn't take much to break in. What Booth didn't plan for was the apartment being occupied in the middle of the day. Instead of an empty room, he found a woman with a nasty left hook who took quite an exception to him breaking into her place.

Seeley rolled with the hit and sent a little prayer up for remembering to keep his mask and hat on. Now's not the time to get sloppy. He's able to subdue her, gag & bind her, and lock her up in the bathroom so he could do his work in peace. It took a few hours of patient waiting (and ignoring the intermittent kicks at the bathroom door), but he got his perfect shot. It's quick work to pack up his rifle and get his ass out of there before anyone notices something's amiss. He was a gentleman, though, and unlocked the bathroom and dropped a knife beside the absolutely furious woman. Pretty blue eyes glared daggers at him, but he figured with a mask, a hat, and a bulky jacket, there's not much to see. He took off, not realizing he'd made a huge mistake.

Temperance Brennan was furious. After a decade of personal defense training, being pinned and shushed like she was just a child throwing a tantrum was beyond the pale. And for it to be the very man they were hunting for in the lab? Completely unacceptable. As soon as she's able to free herself, she's on the phone with Jared, getting the apartment scoured top-to-bottom for evidence. Security cameras yielded nothing of value, the man clearly an expert. What he didn't account for was the fact that she was an expert, too.

Working with Angela and her own exceptional memory, Brennan was able to sculpt his likeness. It took a lot of tweaking from Angela and back-and-forthing, but they're able to pull together a decent likeness. Paired against the military records of advanced snipers, there's only one close match: Sergeant Major Seeley Booth.

Suddenly Special Agent Jared Booth's lack of progress on the case didn't seem so much like an accident. It all of a sudden became very remarkable that, while all the sniper victims were from FBI cases, not a single one included Jared's cases. Without explanation, a new agent was assigned to the Jeffersonian and Jared isn't seen again.

Seeley Booth was used to dodging the FBI. He'd been doing it for years now. Admittedly, having his face blasted across every news station was a new and exciting wrinkle to his efforts, but he could lay low. What he's not used to is attracting the attention of local lowlife Max Keenan, who turned up in Booth's garage hidey-hole one night. Now, Keenan doesn't sink so low as to report him to the feds, but he does have a word or two to say about putting his daughter in danger. With a few friendly threats, Keenan suggested Booth could make things right by dealing with a certain Robert Kirby.

Always a good man for taking orders, Booth doesn't ask questions. He just gets the job done. He really shoulda laid low, though, because on his way out of his sniper's perch, a cop recognizes him. Booth took a nasty shot to the hip before he's able to disappear into an alleyway and lose the tail.

He did his best to zigzag his way through the city, leaving no obvious trail to follow. Unintentionally or not, he realized he's wound his way back to the damn apartment where all this mess started. It's a stupid idea but he's losing blood at an alarming rate. He climbed up the back balcony, slipping in through the sliding door, pistol in hand.

Out in the living room, she wasn't facing him when he creeped in.

"Temperance, right?" His voice was low.

She jumped, spinning around, whipping her phone out.

"Easy, easy. Just drop the phone and everything will be alright." He gestured with the gun from her hand to the floor. She dropped the phone with a clatter. Her eyes were big and wide, hands raised in surrender.

"What do you want?" There's a quaver to her voice but she held herself upright with a steel spine.

"I just need a quick favor, that's all. I swear I'm not gonna hurt you."

"You're pointing a gun at me."

"Yeah, cause I know if I don't, you're gonna try to kung foo my ass again."

"Judo." She squinted at him disapprovingly.

"Whatever." He's starting to feel dizzy. That was not great. "Y'got a first aid kit or something?"

Her scowl deepened. "Why should I help you?"

"I got shot doing your father a favor." She flinched at that.

"I don't owe him anything. He's a criminal."

"Yeah, well, here we are anyway. Just... all I need is some gauze and a hand, alright?"

"I could wait you out until you pass out." She jutted her chin up in a stubborn glare.

"I'd really rather you didn't." He gestured with the gun towards the kitchen sink and, reluctantly, she moved that way. "You must have a first-aid kit around here somewhere. You seem the type."

"'The type'?"

"Yeah. Girl scout. Over-prepared."

She knelt, pulling a box with a big red cross on it from under the sink. Brennan plopped it on the table in front of him, crossed her arms, and glared.

"I'm not going to help you."

"Please don't make this difficult?" He gestured with the gun at the plastic box, but she didn't move.

"If you shoot me, everyone in this building will hear it." Her petulant frown dared him to try.

"Yeah, and if I knock you out, my life will be much easier, but that big ole brain of yours isn't really going to appreciate the damage." Her scowl deepened.

With every move clearly telegraphing her disapproval, she set to work putting him back into one piece. She roughly tugged his t-shirt up, revealing a bloody mess. His gut flinched as her hands traced over scarred bare skin. Capable hands harshly pulled padding and gauze around his middle, covering the wound. He hissed in pain as she pressed down firmly, probably firmer than she really needed to. Still, it was good enough. It would do.

She sank back down into one of the kitchen chairs, still glaring at him with arms re-crossed. Booth collected himself pulling his shirt back down with a grimace and smoothing his hand over the bandaged wound. He gave her a long, considering look.

"What would you do if I needed to rest here a while?"

"Call 911." Her look was all grumpy disapproval.

He exhaled a frustrated sigh. "Have you considered not being a pain in the ass?"

"Why in the hell should I help you?" There was disgust in her voice.

"I did take care of your good friend, Heather Taffet."

"The judge was... 'taking care' of her just fine. Legally."

"They were going to let her get off. Everyone knew it."

"Well, now we will never know if that's true or not."

"So that's it then, complete and utter faith in the judicial system? The system that lets criminals go and jails innocent people?"

"It's not faith." She apparently didn't like that word any more than she liked him. "My job hinges on adhering to the logics of evidentiary proof, allowing a jury to deliver correct verdicts in the court of law." She regarded him with a sneer. "Society cannot function with arbitrary, extra-judicial killings as a means of providing justice."

"And police shooting up anyone they feel like is different because...?"

She scowled. "Police reform is not under my purview. Evidence, and its use within the justice system are my only responsibility."

"So the fact that I pick my target utilizing evidence you personally compiled means....?"

That earned him a death glare. "The quality of my work does not excuse appointing yourself judge, jury, and executioner." She huffed. "You're no better than my father."

"If the person with the better lawyer always wins, rather than the better evidence, then--"

"I am done speaking justice theory with you. Sleep on the couch, clearly my opinion has no bearing on the matter. I am going to sleep." She shoved past him, stormed into her bedroom, and shut & locked the door.

Alone in the empty kitchen of a stranger, Booth pondered his next move. What were the chances that she would climb down three floors of balconies to escape? It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't easy either. Probably she'd stay where she was. Picking her phone off the ground, he scrolled through her texts until he found Max.

It's done. Took a hit. Laying low here. She's pissed but fine, Booth typed and sent off the text. Max wouldn't be pleased, but this meant the old criminal would be stopping by in no time.

Taking the lady's advice, Booth laid himself out on the couch and dozed off. Hopefully when he woke up, it would be to Max with a back alley surgeon, not the bone lady whacking him in the face with a frying pan. Hopefully.

[bluegarners]

i know it's fun to draw and write about the vigilantes with scrapes and bruises and various injuries, and sometimes the Big Injury that takes them out for awhile so they need to be cared for, but the logistics of them getting hurt so frequently just doesn't make sense for what they are trying to do. like, if the goal is to go out into the city just for patrol say 2-3 times a week, and they get hurt on those patrols with something minor like a little cut from a knife, or a few bruises for hits they didn't count on, those are still injuries that they then would have to carry with them to the Big Event of whatever Major Catastrophe hits the city or wherever later that week or in the month. especially if they keep getting minor injuries, like if they got a bruise on their back and then later got hit in that same spot, it could later cause some weird muscle cramping or make the muscle tighter, so they're even more likely to injure themselves the next time they go out. with all the acrobatics they do, i would imagine that the possibility of tweaking an ankle or shoulder are pretty high, and if they aren't extremely careful, small things like that can turn into a popped out shoulder or a torn ligament. and Big Injuries like that do require a lot of rest and care to recover, and the physical therapy required to get them back to working ability can be extensive. and on top of that, a once popped shoulder is likely to be popped out again. so with each added injury, it just increases their likely hood of getting an even worse injury later on

so, to carry on from that, logistically, it would only make sense for them not to get minor injuries or even Big Ones. these vigilantes are literally top of the top, the Best at what they do. it would be extremely silly for some petty, layman criminal to be able to land a hit on them, or for one of the vigilantes to not even notice and block a hit or knife coming their way. even with restrictions like a healing injury/sickness/protecting a civilian/etc., it should still be enormously hard to injure any of them in any capacity. their line of work just wouldn't be doable if they came home every other night with a wound to take care of. so, on that note, when they Do Get Hurt, it's a Massive Deal and is treated with the utmost surprise and shock, especially with those that don't frequently work with them

picturing batman turning up to some Event that involves various jla members and he's wearing some kind of brace or has a patch on his face to cover stitches, and the younger members just being gobsmacked at the sight because this is batman, infallible, untouchable, crazy perfect batman. and he's somehow been injured? someone managed to hurt him? that would be mind blowing and another reminder that it's literally just some random dude underneath that mask that is just as mortal, and even more so, as the rest of them

and picturing a younger dick grayson with his titans, leading them into their Battle, and when the dust has settled robin's nose is bleeding and his cheek is swelling and it's jarring because that's blood and it's red and it's smearing all over his face, and robin is just casually checking to make sure his teeth haven't been displaced and gently prodding his nose for broken bones, and a week after the Battle, the bruise is dark, dark purple and he's applying ointment to it every morning and can be found at odd times in the day icing his cheek and it's so shocking because everyone else has already healed from whatever injuries they had sustained and robin is still. injured. and when the next Mission comes along, he's ready and planning and organizing things and pulling on his gear, but his team just can't pull their eyes away from how big the bruise is and how it trails underneath his mask and how maybe one of his eyes is probably swollen and bloodshot, but he just waves them off and asks them if they're ready to Go

[inotcat04]

Hi!A new story for you guys!I will be posting (hopefully)another story that is also related to this like a part 2 to this story!This was also inspired by The space between stars by Francisfordtwenty and Among the stars by @smol-vehvi .You guys should really read both of them because they are also very good anyways I hope you enjoy and if you didn’t pls tell me what you didn’t like about it.So with that enjoy this read!(you can find their fics on archiveofourown.com)(Thank you for all the likes on my Christmas post,I really appreciate!!!🩷)

Mabel’s first major injury:

Mabel and Ford had just stop by a cave that they found in the woods while hiking up to the city to find food.Ford had estimated that they wouldn’t be able to hike up there in time before sun set and traveling after sun set is highly dangerous with most creatures in the multiverse out and lurking so Ford had decided that they would stay in the cave for the night and continue to hike up to the city the next day anyways Mabel being 12 and had just went into the multiverse a few days prior needed her rest since she wasn’t used to staying up this long.Ford had checked the cave before going in but had missed a spot.That was a grave mistake.

“Good night Grun-“Mabel sleepily whispered but before finishing her sentence dozed off.”Good night Mabel.”Ford muttered as he tweaked with his new gadget that he was finishing off.He wasn’t planning on sleeping that night since he needed to keep watch for any predators that could be lurking any where but as he worked he felt his eyelids grow heavier and heavier and without realising had dozed off while working.Ford didn’t notice but there was a creature who had been inside the cave that he was in right now and was eyeing them with a smirk.

Dr stirring was a monster that Ford had stolen some important stuff from him and he was here to have justice for himself.He maybe look cute on the outside with his wide eyes but on the inside he was pure evil.He had been following them for awhile and had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to launch his plan.He also knew bill and wasn’t afraid of him since they were friends .When Ford was asleep,he jumped out of his hiding spot and went to shooting star first place the bandanna beside her on her and tieing a rope on it before she could make a sound and before moving to tie all her arms and legs.Of course she woke up and saw a random creature had bound and gagged her and she was terrified.But the job he did on her mouth wasn’t good so as he tied her up it,she managed to somehow take off the rope and scream.”Ford-”She blurted half way being covered by the bandanna and he retied it.Thankfully for him when she screamed he had just finished tieing her arms and legs so he picked her up and was now just waiting for ford to wake up from that call.Mabel begged that Ford would wake up from that call since it echo off of the ceiling walls when she screamed.She knew ford was going to save and he wasn’t going to let him touch or hurt her just like he promised on the first day he met her.

Ford woke up and immediately saw and creature pick up Mabel.He stood up and started chasing after the thing. As he chased after him he shot a look at Mabel.She stared at him with sorrow as tears fell from her cheeks and to the floor and he felt his heart twinge.Ford wasn’t shooting though which was confusing to her but ford had a reason for this.Mabel was too near to that beast and it would be too risky to shoot and he would never put Mabel at risk.The beast reached a dead end and couldn’t move further.

He stopped infront of the creature when he reached who had a frightened Mabel in his grasp.Ford decided to try and scare the guy away instead of shooting.”Step away from her right now!I don’t know if you know this but I have made a lot of enemies during my time here and have talked to many dangerous people including bill cipher so you better step away!”Ford growled.He could have done better at explaining but he was still very sleep deprived from the countless nights he had stayed up so this was the best he could do.”Oh I know so why not you come with me and I can bring you both to bill or face the consequences.”Dr stirring replied with a bite to his voice.”Never!”Ford exclaimed as he put his fingers over the trigger of his gun.”Ok then,she gets it.”Dr stirring replied calmly and with out missing a beat,chopped off Mabel whole hand.

Mabel was trying to stay calm,she managed to call grunkle ford and that was good.He was going to get her out of this but she was still terrified at the thought of both of them being brought to bill himself.She wriggled and move as hard as she could but she couldn’t even move her hands and legs,She was trying so hard that she didn’t hear what that weird old creature was going to do.She suddenly felt hot pain from her wrist that were flowing down her tear stained cheeks flowed even more and Suddenly a bright streak of light came for the man and he immediately dropped her on the ground and wanted to run away but couldn’t and was hit right in the head.

When Ford saw him chopped Mabel’s hand being chopped off he stopped and heard Mabel’s pained scream which was muffled by the bandanna.He saw red and didn’t even think of the risk anymore and just shot.Thankfully,he shot at his head and sent him to the after life.Ford immediately ran to Mabel’s side who had be plopped on the ground seconds earlier and checked on her.She was crying as he unbounded her and took of her bandanna and she muttered something so soft that ford heard and didn’t want to believe.”Grunkle ford,Why didn’t you save me like you promised.?”Those words ring in his head as he used the bandanna to wrap up the wound.He was crying finally when he heard those words and quickly picked her up and brought her back to the place where she had been sleeping just minutes ago to tend to the wound

After the incident:

M: Mabel

F:Ford

F:While the wound healed,he went to bulid the prosthetic.He feels incredibly awful on what he did to Mabel,He still blames himself for Mabel’s injury,thinks he should’ve just taken the risk and he shouldn’t have fallen asleep in the first place. Ford still gets nightmares at night about it and feels guilty.He still goes back to what Mabel said to him.Why didn’t you save me,you promised?and it always breaks him as the sentence rings in his head.He will never forget how her voice had so much betrayal,sadness and mostly pain.That was the first and last time he has heard her voice have that tone but it was the one that struck him painfully the most.He loved Mabel more than anything and he knew Mabel felt the same way he did but at that moment,he thought that Mabel love for him go down and that broke his heart.He will never forget that tone ever.Ever.

M:Mabel felt betrayed by ford for not saving her earlier and since she was also not thinking about his side of the story at that time she just blurted that out.She felt very bad after she said that she was sorry when she woke up the next day but ford brushed her off saying that it was his fault that she lost her hand.She still feels bad and thinks it was her fault because she should’ve been more aware of her surroundings even if she is sleeping.She still gets nightmares to this day about that incident and the word she remembers the most is the sentence.why didn’t you save me,you promised.She thinks that it was wrong for her to say that because technically he saved her so she was wrong about that but she was very stunned and shocked by what just happen.She was also thankful to ford for making a prosthetic for her and when she got it is decided to put a lot of stickers on it to make it more colourful. She hopes that grunkle Ford takes it lightly and knows she still loves him to death.She would love him no matter what he did no matter what because that is what family does.They stick together.Always.

The night after the incident:

After bandaging Mabel up,Ford set Mabel down and took out a thermometer and put it to her head to check her temperature.It had,not surprisingly,spiked up.Mabel was shivering under a blanket that Ford had packed for chilly nights and a cloak that she found and picked up on the floor of the nightmare relam before leaving it and ford’s treachcoat .”ugggh!”Mabel groaned and Ford quickly came to her side and brushed aside her hair.”Grunkle”Mabel whispered.”Yes,Mabel?”Ford asked worriedly and pulled her up so that she would lean against him.She was about to say something but she didn’t respond but ford knew she was awake.”Mabel?MABEL!”Ford exclaimed worriedly.”Stan?”Mabel muttered and ford stop dead in his tracks tears pricked at the back of his eyes but he couldn’t let Mabel see him cry for the Second time.But before he could respond she fell asleep with her eyebrows knitted together.Ford really want to give Mabel anything to solve the pain but he couldn’t.He had ran out of his painkillers a few days before Mabel came in to the multiverse.”idiot!”Ford thought to himself as he sat next to Mabel.Mabel was still in pain but the feeling of sleeping overcame her and she fell asleep uneasily.

Mabel woke up in her mindscape and it was just as she would imagine it but there was a little patch of black.”That is confusing!Well let’s go and explore!”Mabel exclaimed but before she could run away she was stopped by a big frillery thing that was floating up in the air.”Oh.Hi!!!!My name is Mabel what is yours!”Mabel exclaimed as she brought out a hand to it while having the brightest smile she could muster because this is a chance to make her first friend in the multiverse and she wasn’t going to miss it.”Hello Mabel,I am the axolotl!It is nice to meet you but I need to tell you something.”Axolotl said not unkindly.”Oh Katee has told me about you!Oh!Sorry about me!Ok!Spill it!”Mabel exclaimed excitedly.”I see great potential in you so I would like to give you something!”It said as two things appeared in its “hand”.A handbell and three bells tied together with a rope which Katee had with her. “Oh!My friend Katee has those too!”Mabel squealed excitedly,it was cool that her new friend was like Katee.” Yes.AnywaysI want to give these to you because I can see that you will do good with these.”The axolotl said while smiling at her.”Wow!Thank you!I will take good care of this!”Mabel said as she gingerly took them and smiled brightly at them.Suddenly the whole place started turning white.”What is happening?”Mabel asked as she looked around.”You are waking up.”The axolotl answered.”Alright but will I ever see you again?”Mabel asked looking a bit sad that she had to leave her new friend.”We will see!”The axolotl answered and without either of them saying good bye,Mabel woke up

“Wow that was a weird dream!”Mabel yawn but as she raised her arms she felt the hand bell and the bell necklace that she now called them were in her hands.It wasn’t a dream.”uhhh,Grunkle ford?”Mabel said fearfully.”Oh Mabel you are awake!”Katee’s voice answered.”he somehow managed to call me on the watch(he used cipher magic) and told me about what happened,he is currently sleeping. Never mind,how are you feel-.”Katee continued but stopped half way when she saw the bells in her hand.”Where did you get this?”Katee asked with a twinge of confusion.”The axolotl gave it to me,I guess I have to potential to do Great things so it gave me this.”Mabel deadpanned while still looking at it.Mabel was still confused but Katee immediately pulled Mabel in for a hug and told her all about the axolotl magic and how to cast runes.Katee was Soo happy that Mabel got it but Mabel was confused because she didn’t understand why she got it.”Well I guess time will tell.”She told herself as she listened to Katee continue.Time will tell.

I think this one is a bit shorter than the rest soooo but yay to you if you finished it!I am very tired from writing so yeah!I hope you had a great Christmas and got to spend it with your family and as always thank you for reading and byebye!💙(I am a bit more scared to post this sooo could you pls leave an encouraging message to me in the comments?if you don’t want to it’s fine too though!)(sorry if it was bad)(I am also my very amateur writer so yeah!)

Part 2:

[thewildsophia]

.For When I Don't Rember My Beloved. WordGirl//Dr. Two-Brains

Dr. Two-Brains/Steven Boxleitner x Reader

Word Count: 4130

"Read More" placed due to length

The henchmen Charlie and “Meatloaf” were the first to aid Dr. Two Brains in the cheese-centric havoc he rained over Fair City. Dr. Two Brains was a strange man, to say the least, but he was weird in an endearing way…ehh, kinda. But you must have thought so too since you were soon to join him, being recruited just a few days after them. 

It was strange really. One day you didn’t exist to them and the next Dr. Two Brains was strolling you into the lair stating that you would be his first in command and that they should report to you. Oh well, there's not much they can do otherwise.

At least you were nice enough. You didn’t yell and berate them like the doctor would — quite the opposite. You were kind and reasonable to them, never placing unattainable expectations on them. You were slow to anger, but they may catch you in a foul mood on a particularly awful day. Overall, you were very normal, very sane, and nothing like their boss which confused them so much about your sudden employment. Yet oddly enough you never told them your name, opting to have them address you as “Commander.” They’re not even sure they’ve heard Dr. Two Brains call you by your name either.

They figured the doctor valued you more than the actual henchmen since you were also a doctor yourself. You didn’t speak much about that fact, but the lab coat and PPE you always wore or at least had on hand clued them into the fact that you were probably an associate of his before his accident. When they asked you about what kind of doctor you were, you were very short in your response, only telling them you specialized in cellular biology and worked at the local hospital at one point.

They watched how you interacted with their boss and were shocked at your boldness towards him. You weren’t shy about voicing your concerns with his plans much to the boss’s dismay, frustrating him even more and forcing him to revise his plan twice, thrice, however many times until you were satisfied. Yet despite his irritation with your feedback, he always acted on what you said. In addition, you were the only one he let aid him in constructing his machinery. Your involvement would range from handing him tools to constructing parts of a larger machine depending on how complicated the schematic the doctor had drawn up, often time being tweaked by you before he began construction. You’d even talk to the boss about his health, pushing him to stay active even in small ways and to try and incorporate small items into his diet that weren’t just cheese. You’d even cook for the man!

To the henchmen, you seemed more like a friend to their boss rather than a worker, and they supposed that’s why you were his “First Commander” instead of another henchman. 

Yet Meatloaf couldn’t help but notice the longing looks you would shoot the doctor, an unreadable expression on your face. He listened to how you spoke firmly but gently to the boss, never once raising your voice no matter how belligerent and unreasonable he would become. Charlie saw the lingering touches you would brush against the doctor’s skin, not wanting to pull away yourself yet not having the heart to stand when the boss would inevitably push you away from him. He watched as you would care for him in small ways like organizing his tools or draping a blanket over him when he would pass out on the couch. They both figured you had feelings for their boss as strange as the man was. That would explain why you so willingly allowed yourself to be hired by their insane boss and why you did things that most certainly weren’t part of your job description.

Oh, how close yet so far they were from the truth with this idea in their mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You practically lived in the lair with Dr. Two Brains, so it was no surprise that you were there before Charlie or Meatloaf. What was surprising was that you were nowhere to be found when the two henchmen came in that morning. You’d usually be busying yourself with some minute task in the main part of the lair, yet today you were not there. 

Just a few minutes earlier, right before the two henchmen had arrived, you had been called over by Dr. Two Brains to help in his “office,” which was just a small back room that was mostly stable and had a partially functioning door on it. He said he wanted your input on his schematic for a ray that would turn gold into cheese. You didn’t go to him immediately, opting to finish what you were doing in the front of the lair before helping him. Your concentration drifted from that task when you heard the crashing of books and the scattering of papers coming from his office. 

You’re quick to sprint over to his office, calling out to him in worry all the way there.

“Doc?” You asked, rounding the corner of the hall, “You alright?” 

You peeked your head into his room to see it in complete disarray. Papers fluttered to the ground and the few reference books you had managed to steal get for him were scattered about without care. Your eyes were drawn to Two Brains in the corner, back against the wall, and head in his hands, his mouse brain pulsing.

He groaned as he tried to soothe his aching head, yet the pain would not let up. You slowly made your way over to him, tiptoeing over the scattered papers and open books. 

“I’m here, Doc,” You whispered, kneeling in front of him and placing a hand on his knee. If he knew you were there, he didn’t acknowledge you. His hands gripped his head harder with strands of his white hair sticking to the rubber of his gloves and slipping between his fingers. He muttered something, but you couldn’t understand him.

You scooted even closer and placed your hands on his own before gently pulling his fingers out of his hair, though they would not leave his head. You rubbed his hands through his gloves and softly spoke to him,

“I’m right here for you, Doctor. Just tell me what’s wrong and I’ll help you.”

Dr. Two Brains’ muttering stopped and his movements stilled. His hands gently gripped your own and slowly he let you pull his hands away from his face where you placed them on his knees.

His eyes were irritated and red-rimmed, much more than usual, and tears were caught in his whiskers on their way down his lithe face. His cheeks were flush, most likely from crying so hard and unable to breathe properly. He licked his lips and inhaled a shuddering breath before trying to speak again. He was unable to through his raw throat.

“It’s okay,” You whispered, rubbing your fingers comfortingly on his hands, “Just breathe.”

His dark eyes looked into your own E/C ones and for a moment you saw recognition in them. 

“Y/N?” Dr. Two Brains questioned, and it felt as if the breath was forced from your lungs. 

Eyes blown wide you’re silent for a moment, unable to force even a breath from your body. Your hands grip him harder and you feel your eyes burn from unseen tears and your face warm. Your bottom lip trembled but you forced your jaw to unclench and answered unsure,

“Steven?” And he hummed in response.

Dr. Two Brains, Steven, looked around the room and sniffed before looking back at you. 

“What’s…going on? Where are we?” Steven asked, but you were still unable to say anything in response. In an instance, you moved his knees aside and fell into his chest, wrapping your arms tightly around his torso. He groaned from the hard impact, but quickly wrapped his own arms around you and rested his chin on your head with a chuckle. 

“What’s wrong, Darling? Why are…” Steven’s question trails off as he wipes the tears off his cheek, “We both crying?” 

You wanted to answer him, but you couldn’t force a single word from your mouth, opting to press your face harder into his chest and hug him tighter. You breathed in his scent, laced with some cheddar cheese but still him, before pulling away to look at him and God…

How long has it been since he’s looked at you like this? 

Eyes soft but still that rodent red, he gazed at you with so much love you felt as if you could just die of love for him. 

You steadied your breath and brought a hand up to cup his cheek, wiping away any remnant of his tears before answering him.

“Nothing's wrong,” You sighed, hands never once leaving his body, “I’ve just missed you so.”

Steven chuckles before kissing your cheek and you shuttered at the strange yet familiar sensation. He pulled you in closer to him, moving you to straddle his thigh that was outstretched in front of him, and pressed his cheek against yours in a movement that you hadn’t felt in so long yet remembered so well. His whiskers tickled your cheek the same way his stubble used to.

“You’re such a sweetheart. I’ve been in my lab the whole time, haven’t I?” Steven chuckled, “Where have I been to you?”

You tilted your head to kiss his cheek, not minding the gentle prodigy of his whiskers.

“I know where you’ve been,” You quickly answered, “I’ve just been busy in my own lab at the hospital.” You lied. You didn’t want to risk reminding him of who he had become. 

“The long hours, plus the strange times I have to work, have completely taken me away from you. I just miss being in your company,” You whispered.

Steven shifted you in his lap, pulling back and cupping your face with both his hands and the rubber of his gloves cooled your flushed cheeks. He peppered your face with light and innocent kisses; from your cheeks, your forehead, your nose, the space between your eyebrows, and finally one last kiss to your lips. You hummed into the kiss, one hand gripping his arm and the other trailing up to brush a few strands of hair out of his face. Eyes closed, he wiped the last of your tears from your face. 

Pulling back, Steven rested his forehead against yours and sighed.

“How did I manage to end up with such a loving spouse like you, hmm?” He questioned, eyes soft and unfocused as he looked at you with complete adoration. Your hands fall to his shoulders and you squeeze them, never wanting to let go of him again.

“No, it’s me who is lucky to have ended up with you, my beloved,” You answered in a hushed tone. You pressed your lips to his in a chaste, sweet kiss, savoring the feeling of his soft yet chapped lips against your own. 

The feeling of his body against your own was one you hadn’t felt in so long, yet it was all too familiar at the same time. Hesitantly you pulled away from him and immediately felt another wave of tears build up behind your eyes. You leaned forward and pressed your face into his neck with arms wrapped around his chest tighter than before. You tilted your face to speak into his neck,

“Please don’t leave me,” You whispered, voice small from the unshed tears that burned your face, “Not again. Not ever.” 

“Ohh, sweetheart…What has gotten into you?” Steven questioned, arms wrapped around your shaking frame, “I’d never leave you. Not now, not ever.”

You tried to wipe the tears that fell from your eyes not wanting to soil Steven’s lab coat, but you knew he never minded. He always said that he could just wash it.

Steven’s hands are gentle as they caress your body, careful not to snag his gloves on your clothes or pull your hair too hard. His touches soon falter before he pushes you away from him slightly and for a moment you’re worried that he would push you off of him altogether. 

With his hands on your shoulders and eyebrows furrowed, Steven finally takes a good look at you, his eyes trailing from your head to your feet, then back up to your face.

“Are you alright?” He asked, voice laced with worry, “You look so much thinner than I remember.” He commented. You tried to shrug off his concern, but he persisted. 

“And your eyes,” Steven began while tracing your under-eye with his thumb, “You’ve got terrible eye bags. Not that you look bad! You just seem…tired. More than usual.”

You placed your hand over top of his on your face and smiled softly, yet you knew you had to come up with a lie.

“If I’m honest, I haven’t been sleeping well lately,” You started, eyes drifting away from his own, “The long hours I’ve been putting in have made it difficult for me to rest at night. And being away from you hasn’t helped.”

You shifted under his gaze uncomfortable at the probing but still managed to finish.

“But I feel much better now that I’m with you,” You smiled, meeting his eyes again, but a frown had etched itself on his face.

“Y/N, please don’t lie to me,” Steven whispered, and you cursed yourself for having been caught, “What’s troubling you so much? Where have I been?” 

You frown yourself, gripping him harder and sniffling. You pulled his hand off your face and rested it in his lap, rubbing the tops of his hands with your thumbs. 

“You’ve just…been away,” You mutter, tears brimming in your eyes, “Away from me. I’ve missed you.”

“But where have I been?” Steven asked again.

“I-I don’t know. You’ve been here, but you just haven’t been yourself,” You answered while using your shoulder to wipe your face, “But you’re here now. You’re yourself now! I just want to stay with you…”

Steven pulled his hands from his lap and held your waist, kissing your cheek and shushing your sobs.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered against your skin, “I won’t leave you. I promise.”

You hugged him, arms wrapping your arms around his back and hooking them over his shoulders, and rested your head on his shoulder. His hands on your waist rubbed you gently and soothed the tension you hadn’t realized had settled there. You exhaled a shuddering breath before speaking up,

“I love you, Steven,” You sighed. He holds you tighter.

“I love you too, Y/N,” Steven responded.

Your right-hand falls from where it was resting and trails down his left arm to his hand. There was still something you needed to know. Slowly, Steven lets you pull the glove off his hand and it falls to the floor.

You feel a sob bubble up your throat as your eyes lay on the simple gold band nestled on his slender ring finger. You can’t help but caress the ring, relieved that he still wore it even when he wasn’t Steven. Shakily, you lifted his hand to your face and kissed his knuckles. Pulling away, you lace your fingers together and smile at him, a smile that he returns. 

Steven’s grasp on your hand falters before his arm falls limp. He looks around the room with furrowed eyebrows and gears turning in his head. 

“Why am I on the floor?” Steven asked, voice hoarse and not the same tone he had been speaking to you with. He shifted back from you and you in turn moved away from him.

“Please, just stay a little longer,” You thought, but you knew your plea would not be answered.

“And why are you sitting on me?” Steven, no, Dr. Two Brains asked, and you’re quick to pull away altogether. The doctor rubs his hand subconsciously and quickly notices his left glove is missing. He looks around panicked before finding it on the floor and swiftly pulling it on his hand and over his elbow. He rubs where his ring is under the glove and glares at you.

“What’s going on here?” Dr. Two Brains asks again, yet you couldn’t come up with a lie quick enough, “Answer me, Commander!”

“I-You fell!” You exclaimed, moving to kneel in front of him, “You fell after you called me to look at your schematics. I was just making sure you didn’t hit your head too hard is all…” Your voice trailed off as determination seemed to die down in your throat. 

Dr. Two Brains glares at you for a moment longer before his face softens, but it’s clear his suspicion remains.

“Right…” He draws out while swatting your outstretched hand away and lifting himself to his feet, “Did you look at the schematics yet?” 

“No, not yet,” You answered, dusting the dirt off your pants and fixing your coat. 

“What am I paying you for then?” Dr. Two Brains groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes squeezed shut. He opened them a moment later, sighing and looking over to the door of his office.

“And why are you guys just standing around?!” The doctor shouted, drawing your attention to the two henchmen standing in the doorframe. 

“Just how long had they been standing there?”

From the look they gave you, it was clear they had been there long enough.

“Sorry, Boss. We’ll get right back to work,” Meatloaf said before motioning for Charlie to follow him. They glanced at you one last time before disappearing somewhere in the lair. 

Dr. Two Brains turned back to you and just as he opened his mouth to say something he cut himself off, unsure.

“Are you crying?” Dr. Two Brains asked. 

“Were you crying?” You thought as your eyelids fluttered and you tapped your undereye with your fingertip, immediately noting the moisture there. 

“Uh-” You stutter, unsure of how to answer him. You felt that an affirmative ‘yes’ would make things more awkward than it already was.

“Oh, geez. I didn’t think I was that harsh,” Dr. Two Brains said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck, “Was I?” 

“No-” You clear your throat while trying to quickly dispel the discomfort that had gathered between you two, “It’s nothing. Just…allergies!” 

You scrubbed the tears from your eyes roughly and stood up straight, yet Dr. Two Brains was still cautious.

“Um, alright,” He muttered, “Just look over the schematics when you can.” He gestured to his desk before sitting down himself. You’re quick to pick up the offending schematics and scurry out of his office with a teary-eyed smile.

His gaze lingers on you a moment longer than it should have, his hand subconsciously coming up to caress the golden band on his left hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You found yourself on the upper side of the lair on a “balcony” of sorts, schematics long discarded on a table in the main room. You’d look later. You pull the cigarette from your lips in your left hand, exhaling that smoke in one big sigh. 

Bad habit, you know. But sometimes you just want to forget the same way he does.

You hear footsteps approaching you on your left and aren’t surprised to see Charlie and Meatloaf peering up at you, unsure if they were allowed up there with you. With a sigh, you motioned for them to join you. They climb up and rest on the railing on either side of you. Meatloaf clears his throat as you take another drag from your cigarette.

“Sooo…” Meatloaf begins, dragging out his single word.

“Sooo…” You copy, not looking over at him.

“You and the Boss are a thing?” He asked, looking at your face for an answer. You frown and drop your cigarette on the ground, stomping out the few burning embers. 

“Do you two know my name?” You ask, fingers playing with your glove on your left hand.

“No, the Boss just calls you our commander. He never told us your name,” Meatloaf explains. Your eyes remain down as you take a step back from the railing and pull off your glove. You hold up your left hand for them to see the gold band that rests on your ring finger.

“I’m Dr. Y/N Boxleitner,” You said, dropping your hand back down to your waist and placing your glove back on, “Steven is my husband.”

Charlie’s mouth is agape as Meatloaf stutters out a few incoherent words before taking a deep breath and trying again.

“You’re Dr. Two Brains’ spouse?! I had no idea he was married!” Meatloaf exclaimed, and you chuckled bitterly.

“Yeah, he seems to forget that too,” Meatloaf is silent and Charlie places a hand on your shoulder, forcing you to look up at them.

“We noticed…” Meatloaf whispered, trying his best to be comforting. Meatloaf rubbed your other shoulder and looked over to you in concern. 

“We’re sorry about what you have to go through. While Charlie and me don’t know much, we can’t imagine how hard it is for you,” Charlie shook his head affirmatively as Meatloaf spoke. You place your hands on theirs and sighed.

“Thanks…” You muttered out quietly, “It really is hard. After the accident, I thought Steven was dead until I saw the news broadcast about him.” Charlie and Meatloaf nod as you continue.

“In a way, he sort of is. He doesn’t even remember me most of the time,” You lean forward and press your face into your hands, elbows resting on the guardrail, “Everytime he forgets…It’s like losing him over and over again.” 

The tears finally fell freely down your face and the two henchmen looked at each other panicking, not knowing what to do to comfort you. They let you cry while rubbing your back and Charlie offered you a tissue when most of your crying was done.

“Thank you…” You sniffled before wiping your face and blowing your nose.

“Does the Boss really not recognize you?” Meatloaf asked hesitantly. You shook your head.

“Most times, no,” You answered, shoulders slumped and legs tired, “But I took that vow, ‘In sickness and in health.’ How funny…”

The henchmen are silent.

“I mean, really. What horrible act did I commit to deserve this outcome?” The tears were back with a vengeance and you rubbed your eyes extra hard to rid yourself of them, ignoring the sharp sting of your lab coat rubbing your delicate skin so rough, “It’s n-not fair. I’ve don’t nothing but love Steven with all my heart, and when he looks at me-”

You cut yourself off with a sharp inhale, suddenly unable to breath properly.

“He doesn’t even remember me!” You shouted, banging your fists on the railing and noting the small dents in the metal, “It hurts…More than anything, it hurts so bad.”

The henchmen stayed with you for the rest of the night, even helping you cook dinner and having a small sleepover that Dr. Two Brains wasn’t a part of. You looked absolutely tired when the three of you sat down to watch a movie and you ended up only making it half way through it before you were out like a light. The two covered you with a discarded, mostly clean towel that was lying around -- it was the closest to a proper blanket -- before leaving the lair for the night. Charlie glanced at your sleeping form one last time, sympathy for you overflowing, before Meatloaf called him over to the truck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Less than an hour later, Dr. Two Brains made his way into the main part of the lair, finding you passed out on the couch. As he approached, he pulled the towel off of you with a disgusted sneer and immediately noted the smell of cigarettes on you. It was faint even for the mouse nose, but it was definitely cigarettes he was smelling.

Dr. Two Brains grumbled to himself about forcing you to quit while grabbing a proper blanket and pillow from the storage area of the lair. He came back and covered your now shivering body with the thick comforter. There were a few holes in it and it smelled a little funky, but it was better than the damn towel that’s for sure. 

Ever so gently, Dr. Two Brains lifts your head and squeezes the pillow underneath it before dropping you back down. He watched you turn your head in your sleep and sigh. 

The Doctor felt odd as he stared at your face, subconsciously tucking a loose strand of hair out of the way. 

But the longer he looked at you the more you reminded him of his own spouse...

He always did wonder where they went after his accident.

[bunnymajo]

Time to fill out that OC questionnaire but for Thistle this time!

He'll be in the @sonic-oc-showdown so be sure to give him a vote!

Name: Thistle the Tenrec

Species: Highland Streaked Tenrec

Home: Central City

✨How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Since he’s inspired by Amy I wanted to pick another prickly flower name. Thistle flowers can have a lot of negative connotations in flower language just as much as positive ones (aggressiveness, unwanted intrusion). If roses are known for being noble and lovely, thistles are more wild but pesky, they’re also hard to let go if you end up stuck by one. The image of thistle flower suited him the more I thought about it.

🌼  - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Same age as Surge.

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Currently Surge and only Surge. He’s had previous partners but they usually don’t last very long. Current record is 1 month.

(The only tragic thing about Thistle is that he's not trying to be the worst boyfriend ever. He really wants to do good but he's too self-centered and stupid to realize that he's the problem)

🍕  - What is their favorite food?

Key Lime Pie, he likes anything tart but sweet.

💼  - What do they do for a living?

Works part time at a flower shop in central city, he’s actually quite popular with customers. 

🎹  - Do they have any hobbies?

Flower arrangement and astrology charting. Loves reading romance novels and watching old classic movies even if he gets the meaning of them completely wrong. He’s good at baking and also spends a lot of time online on social media. He’s a jack of all trades and always ready to learn something new to get closer with people in his life. He’s here for you. What more could you want from a guy :)

🎯  -What do they do best?

Anything that’s considered traditionally feminine Thistle excels at. Baking, shopping, event planning, crushing your enemies. But even with all of that he’s incredibly good at finding information. Does his new crush have a favorite band? Well Thistle just doxxed every band member and knows the rest of their schedule for the next 3 months.

🥊  -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Thistle likes doing anything that will get him lots of compliments and attention, especially if it’s something he already finds fun. He’s the type to get really wrapped up in tedious side project so probably mapping out his and Surge’s life together via astrology 

Hates doing something that doesn’t serve him in some way, like doing volunteer work for strangers. He also isn’t much of an adventuring type unless it’s to chase Surge down, he’d rather not though, he’d rather keep her tied down close to him and they can live a cozy domestic life.

Running around beating up robots getting sweaty and gross and for what? just to protect the masses? Awful, blech, Sonic can have that. 

❤️  - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

One time he and Surge accidentally shared a soda, therefore doing the incredibly scandalous “indirect kiss”. She vaporized the soda can to destroy the evidence and then punched him in the gut when he told her. He passed out for about two days.

✂️   - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

His first relationship was an online one where the other person ended up blocking him and then publicly warned other people about his creepy behavior.

Thistle made one of those “am I the asshole?” posts about their relationship and everyone in the forum went “yeah, you were totally the asshole.”

Thistle deleted all his accounts and started over. He learned nothing. “It’s the forum that was wrong, they were all just jealous.”

🧊  - Is their current design the first one?

There’s a few initial sketches I did to get the overall idea going and there’s a few minor tweaks but he’s basically the same design as when I started.

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC?

It was a bumblekast question asking about what a glitch Amy would be like and I liked the answer so much I wanted to develop it into a real character. 

I really like aggressively-in-love characters like this in media actually, something about them being not shy at all about the person they’re in love with leads to a lot of funny or interesting situations, also since Surge is my favorite sonic character at the moment it’s fun thinking about how she would react to someone like this too. It’s a win-win situation for me lol.

🌂  - What genre do they belong in?

The villain in a shoujo romance manga

💚  - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Identifies as male, Pan, he/him/they pronouns

🙌  - How many siblings does your OC have?

Zero. Probably for the best because he’s terrible with children.

🍎  - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

He’s an absolute mama’s boy when she’s around. (It should be noted that Thistle doesn’t really have a tragic backstory or bad childhood. He really is just like that for some reason.)

🧠  - What do you like most about the OC?

Thistle can be a lot of things I like about male characters (a goober in love, not afraid to appear “feminine”, a polite good boy, twisted priorities) and also be the worst person I’ve ever wanted to write thoughts for. He’s a very fun punching bag.

✏️  - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Probably too much haha, I don’t usually write a lot of actual terrible people so he’s a refreshingly fun rom-com villain.

💎  - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

It’s funnier if he stays alive imo. If Surge ever changes her ways in canon or something drastic happens to her he might lose interest in her and move on to his next victim, that’s about as close as I’d ever get to “killing him”. It would have to be a very drastic personality change though.

💀  - Does your OC have any phobias?

Whatever the fear of being unloved is. 

To him, being loved by someone is the ultimate goal. “I can love so easily, why is it so hard for someone to stay in love with me? I must not be loving hard enough, I need to love someone who craves love just as much as I do. Yes, then it would be the ultimate romance”  - is basically the rationalization here.

🍩  -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

I mean probably Amy, not just for Surge’s sake, Amy will fight anyone she finds being a selfish creep in the name of love.

In Thistle's mind anyone who even smiles in Surge's direction is a rival. She's spoken for, who do they think they are??

🎓  - How long have you had the OC?

A little over a year!

🍥  - What age were you when you created the OC?

33

[joelscruff]

~ writing/schedule update ~

originally i'd planned for the final part of one thing i'm missing to be posted this week but it's actually nowhere near done and i'm not happy with it at all yet. i think i need to take a bit of a break from it and come back with some fresh eyes, meaning it'll most likely be posted next week instead.

so instead the first part of my new series feelings on fire will be coming this week (guitar teacher neighbor!joel x inexperienced reader). i've almost got the first part finished, just need to tweak a few things and proofread - i'm really excited about it!! there's a slight possibility it could come out tonight but i can't make any guarantees.

so yeah, apologies to all my one thing i'm missing readers, but i want to give you the ending you deserve without it being rushed or something i'm not happy with. if you've been following along you know that joel & reader are about to encounter all the shit in salt lake city with the fireflies, the doctors, marlene, etc. i'm going in a different direction with it and i want it to fit my vision, but it's gonna take a bit of extra time, thank you for being patient 💖

[folliesandfolderols]

Writing prompts days 35, 36

From this prompt list. If you've read this far, I'm not sure you need any explanation, but the short version is I hadn't written any fiction since 2019, I set a goal to write at least 150 words/day in 2024, and this list was my way to restart. Also I abruptly decided on day 2 I would write an entire Tim/Damian story connecting all the prompts, because I am Good at Judging My Limits. /sarcasm Anyway, I finished the rough draft a while ago and am now unlocking the old entries as I edit.

Read from the beginning here, or on ao3 here

Days 32-34 here

***

44. "You're really messing with my head here."

***

A week later, Tim remembered to check the scheduling program and tweak the frequency of assignments for Damian. When he reviewed the results a week after that, he was half-surprised, half-resigned to see that Damian had manually revised his availability to be more frequent than ever. Oh, well. His work wasn’t noticeably suffering on either the civilian or vigilante front, so Tim supposed he didn’t have a right to talk to him about it.

He did switch things up a little, just to stretch out of his usual patrol territory and keep from getting bored. Damian somehow always being on the opposite end of the city wasn’t an intentional side effect, but given the givens of their hook-ups, it probably wasn’t a bad thing either.

A month after the last time they slept together, Tim’s phone buzzed at 2 AM with a message from Damian. Are you at home? I want to discuss some new information on the case with you.

Tim, busy putting together a spreadsheet comparing weapons distribution epicenters in various cities with local businesses that had suspiciously healthy bottom lines, frowned at the text. just send it over i’m busy working on another lead rn

No answer for five minutes, so he followed up with and we can text about it then if its urgent

Another five minutes, and he had nearly forgotten they’d begun the conversation, but then his phone vibrated again. Very well. I will share the file with you as soon as I’m sure it has all the relevant information.

Tim replied, thx, and got back to work. 

They were able to turn the entire case over to the CBI within a few days after that, which was pretty satisfying.

A few weeks later, a sudden buzz of conversation that started at the elevators on the R&D floor of WE and slowly spread to Tim’s desk had him surreptitiously raising his head above the divider to behold Damian navigating the bullpen. Tim’s heart jumped into his throat at the sight of him gliding through the cubicles. Even fluorescent lights couldn’t make Damian less handsome. He looked like a panther released into a lab rat’s maze. 

Damian drew to a halt at his cubicle and said, “Drake. A moment?”

“I thought they were brothers,” Tim heard someone whisper. The person they were talking to shushed them.

“Sure,” he replied, and followed Damian to one of the rarely-used conference rooms.

Damian shut the door behind them and then frowned as he truly looked at Tim’s face for the first time. “The circles under your eyes are darker than usual.”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Damian, it’s nice to see you too. The mission with Kon went great, and I just got back a couple nights ago. Appreciate you checking in.” He was tired, though, so he leaned on the table before asking, “Did you come all the way from Finance just to give me the bad news about my appearance?”

“No.” Damian shook his head. “Father and Todd had an argument last night after Father interfered with one of Todd’s interrogations. They both had already taken gunfire due to Father’s intervention. Accusations were exchanged, and now Father is, not to put too fine a point on it, sulking.”

Tim sighed and rubbed his temples, fighting off a sudden headache. Bruce and Jason acting like gigantic children together was hardly a reason to interrupt his work. “So what else is new?”

“Father had already planned a trip to a planet that will require four weeks of space travel to reach before their altercation. He’s not at his best after last night, either mentally or physically. I don’t believe Todd truly expected to affect him, but Father is self-flagellating nonetheless, not to mention the bullet wound.”

“Goddammit.” Tim rubbed his temples harder like the pressure would dam up the pain. As far as he could tell, in Jason’s brain, Bruce was Zeus and Satan and Orion all in one body—the notion of him being vulnerable didn’t seem to register. “Fucking great. Okay, what’s the plan? What do you want me to do?”

“Go talk to Father. Persuade him to put off the trip. If he believes you don’t know about his argument with Todd, he might be more susceptible to the suggestion.”

Tim slid off the table to his feet. “Is he in today?”

“No, he’s at the Manor. He’s planning to leave tonight, so speed is essential.”

“Got it.” Tim made to walk past Damian to the door, but Damian reached for his elbow in a light grip, pulling him closer.

“Drake. Are you truly well?” His eyes searched Tim’s face as if he were investigating a crime scene.

The Oud-Al-Janaid Damian always wore surrounded them both in a subtle cloud of fragrance. Tim swallowed, fighting down the Pavlovian urge to press his face to Damian’s neck, chasing the scent to its source. His dick started to take notice of the provocation.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine,” he remembered to say. “Just tired, is all. Nothing new about that.” He waited, but Damian didn’t move. “You need anything else?”

Damian didn’t start, but the way he dropped Tim’s elbow had the same air. “No. You should leave without delay.” He stalked from the room, not waiting for a reply.

Tim went straight from the conference room to the parking garage and headed for the Manor. He found Bruce in his room, grimly putting together his travel supplies while moving with more deliberation than usual. Bruising extended from beneath his sleeve across the back of his right hand, and finger-shaped welts blazed across the front of his neck. He looked up when Tim stood in the doorway. 

“Tim.” He set some socks on top of the pile of underwear. “I haven’t seen you since you got back.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy.” Tim leaned against the door jamb. “Damian mentioned you’re going off-planet for a while?”

“Hn.” Bruce turned away and kept moving clothes into his suitcase. 

“Do you have to go?” Tim took care to keep his tone light. “Seems like there’s a lot going on here on this planet, and in our city, that could use you.”

Bruce sighed. “It’s a solo mission, or at least it's solo travel until I meet some of the Lanterns out there. Not many of the Justice League are suited to three months in space with the majority of it spent alone. They’re . . . social.”

“Hmm.” Tim straightened up to walk closer. “Hey, why are you moving like that? Did you get injured?”

“Yes.” Bruce still didn’t pause, or at least he didn’t till Tim stood between him and the bed where his suitcase lay open. “Tim.”

“Bruce,” Tim mimicked him. “Someone else can be lonely for three months. Someone who isn’t moving like he can’t find his Bengay.”

“Sitting still in a ship—" Bruce began.

“Isn’t recovery,” Tim finished. “Injuries can be exacerbated by weird space shit, you know that as well as I do because you taught me that. Why are you so essential to this trip?”

Bruce stared at him, silent, for a long moment, the muscle in his jaw working. Finally, he sighed. “It’s about Colu.”

“Wasn’t it blown up?” Tim asked.

“Essentially, yes. But there are refugees, as well, and there are associated problems the Justice League let go unaddressed that need to be resolved in a neighboring star system’s single liveable planet.” 

Tim stared at him, then shook his head in what he wished was disbelief. “This is about you still feeling guilty about breaking the Source Wall, isn't it.” Bruce, predictably, made no answer. “Fine. What’s the name of the planet?”

Bruce picked up his tablet from the nightstand, tapped it a few times, and handed it to Tim. “You can’t pronounce it without a bisected tongue. See for yourself.”

Tim scanned through the information rapidly, then looked up. “I can handle this.”

Bruce frowned. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“You’re not asking, I’m volunteering.” Tim set the tablet down on the nightstand again. “Getting off-planet for a while isn’t the worst thing I could do, as long as you don’t think it’ll leave the patrol rotation too skimpy.”

“That won’t be an issue, no.” Bruce seemed to be struggling with words he didn’t want to speak, but in the end he won. “I know you’re capable of carrying out the mission. You’ll have to leave tonight to make it there in time.”

“No problem. I’ll go home and pack and be back in an hour.” Tim headed for the stairs without waiting for Bruce’s reply, pulling out his phone as he went. Opening his thread with Damian, he texted, mission accomplished hes not going

Damian liked the message just before Tim climbed back into his car. True to his word, Tim was back and ready to fly to the Watchtower to catch his ride within an hour.

His phone vibrated again while he was doing the mission precheck of the cockpit. Damian’s name popped up on the screen. Tim opened the message to read, Todd refuses to come to the Manor, naturally, so we must meet at your apartment to discuss our next steps.

Tim’s mouth twisted as a pang of guilt bounced around his ribcage. He was running out in the middle of the drama and leaving Damian to deal with it, which was shitty of him, but in this case he had to choose saving Bruce from himself rather than helping Damian. 

sorry i wont be back for a while gotta take care of some aliens

He launched from the docking bay, and away from cell signals, before Damian’s reply could come through. Assuming there would’ve been one.

After he passed Uranus, he uploaded the Arabic course he'd bought to pass the time and got started. Improving his fluency wouldn't be a bad idea.

The trip took a little longer than expected, and was far more tedious than Bruce had led him to expect. Tim nearly cried in relief when he was finally able to type Earth’s coordinates into the navigation system. 

His dreams on the way home were populated by everyday moments with the rest of the family, half-remembered interactions set to a nonsensical narrative. Sparring with Steph, meeting Cass and Duke for ice cream, crashing with Bruce through a skylight into some goons’ heads.

Kissing the back of Damian’s hand while Damian fucked him, his weight pressing Tim into the mattress. Ant euyuni, whispered hot against his skin, tender with affection, but this time he knew what the words meant.

Tim woke up with Damian’s murmured “Drake” still in his ears and his hand already on his cock. He stroked his way to a confused orgasm moments later and stared at the ceiling, dumbfounded, until the proximity alarm forced him to clean up the cooling mess on his belly and get up.

Dick had texted him regularly during his absence, a fact he discovered as soon as he got in range of Earth satellites and started receiving messages on his cell again. Most of them were better be ready to get whipped back into shape with me after all that space muscle atrophy type of things, or the mid-air selfies he knew made Tim laugh. One, however, was a picture of Damian giving the camera a direct look while seated behind a cake blazing with what Tim assumed was twenty-one candles. The message with it just said birthday boy—don't forget to wish him a happy belated when you get back, which was Dick being Extra Big Brother since he knew Tim tended to forget basic social niceties like that.

Tim rubbed the ache in his chest absentmindedly with the heel of his hand as he scrolled down farther. He needed to check the oxygen monitors and then his heart rate, make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong, but the pain was probably just due to the lack of aerobic exercise since he'd been on the ship.

Kon's text tone was sounding regularly as the phone loaded more of the messages he'd missed. Reaching the bottom of Dick's thread, Tim tapped onto Kon's instead. The first message he saw was a picture of Jon, arms wrapped around Damian from behind as they both hovered mid-air in costume. Jon was planting a kiss on Damian's cheek while a tiny smile that Tim knew was involuntary curved Damian's mouth up. Kon had screencapped Buzzfeed's coverage of the picture, as witness the bolded headline below: "Why This Pic of Superman and the Artist Formerly Known as Robin Broke the Internet Today." 

Kon had sent the screencap accompanied by a gif of Damian in his baby Robin days that had been a meme for five minutes, swinging his katana and screaming in silent rage while the caption read "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK."

Looked like Damian had left the Robin mantle behind once and for all. And that Jon and Jay might have called it quits. Or maybe their relationship was open.

Tim frowned. The chest pain was getting worse and now his throat felt like it was closing up. Some sort of anaphylactic reaction, maybe? Hopefully not. He moved to the tiny medical bay and ran a quick diagnostic, but nothing of concern popped up. Well, he was almost ready to dock with the Watchtower, so he could get checked out there. He texted back, jon has literally wanted to kiss damian since b4 he even knew he was bi, why are u showing me this????

Steph had texted him a lot, too, mostly selfies with various Gotham clusterfucks in the background while she threw up ironic peace signs in costume, and a few of her and Cass looking like they were literally trying to meld into one person. He hearted a bunch of the pictures just to let her know he was back.

Bruce had sent a couple of messages, the last one reading Let me know as soon as you're back on-planet. Your absence is felt on patrol, which was as close as he'd get to admitting he missed having Tim around.

There was one message from Jason. Hey. Lmk when you're back. I've got an update on some loose ends from the weapons trafficking case.

A beep from the cockpit told him the Watchtower's automated systems were trying to make friends with Tim's ship controls. He got them re-acquainted and then headed to the single berth to get his bag as the autopilot docked him.

Once he'd returned to the surface, Earth's gravity grabbed his bones and held them like an internal vise. He swayed a little on his feet as he walked to his car from the base, wishing he'd thought to bring a wheeled suitcase instead of his gear bags. He sat behind the wheel and turned on the engine, but took a second to text Jason back before he put the car into gear. He'd thought they'd wrapped up the weapons trafficking group with a neat and pretty bow for the CBI. Hearing they'd left some loose ends dangling chafed his pride.

Kon called him by the time he'd hit the highway. "Dude, welcome back! I missed your skinny ass."

Tim grinned. Normally he avoided voice calls like a death sentence, but for Kon it was worth making the exception. "How're things?"

"Pretty good. I'm hanging out with M'gann in a few but I wanted to say hi. You've been gone forever. I hope you worked out whatever was eating you so you can stick around for a while."

Tim shrugged even though of course Kon couldn't see it. "Nothing was eating me. I just like to keep busy now that I'm not working at WE as anything but a contractor anymore."

"Bullshit. Something happened. I know the regular Tim Drake flavors of overwork and this one was Overwork Plus, Bonus Angst Edition. But hey, I know sharing what you're thinking and feeling is really high up there on the Things You Like to Do list, right below root canals, so I'll drop it before you turn back around and head for Mars."

Tim's stomach clenched with pain. "Yeah, yeah, you know I really wanna bare my soul when I've been back on the planet five whole minutes, but right now I'm starving so I'm looking for the nearest Big Belly drive thru. Will you be at the tower anytime soon?"

They set up a time to meet up the following weekend, and then Tim hung up so he could order. Once he got the food, though, he picked at the fries in a desultory fashion, the cramping in his stomach not doing much to spur his appetite for some reason.

A text notification from Jason popped up on the car's screen. Tim tapped the bubble, keeping one eye on the road. The uninflected AI voice announced, "In the group with you and Damian, Jason wrote: We've got a problem. The remnants of the weapons-running org revamped itself and merged with another, smaller operation. They've got new contraband now and it's human. Would you like to reply?"

Tim's veins abruptly felt as though they'd been injected with ice water, and he couldn't decide if it was because of the message itself or because Damian was included on the thread. "No," he breathed.

"Okay," the AI responded.

It was just that it would be awkward. To have their first real interaction after Tim being gone for so long happen over text. He'd done a good job of avoiding thinking about it during his trip and now Jason had . . . texted them both. Like it was nothing.

Because it was nothing. As far as Jason knew, they were fine.

Actually, he was right, Tim reminded himself. He and Damian were fine. It wasn't like they'd had some sort of argument. They’d made their limits clear before they'd ever started and Damian had respected Tim’s so thoroughly that he’d barely had a real conversation with him since he'd thanked Tim for an educational experience.

Tim suddenly found himself wondering exactly in what areas he'd educated Damian besides the obvious.

While he'd been trying to talk himself down from the metaphorical rafters, Damian had responded in the thread. Tim tapped the screen again. "In the group with Jason, Damian wrote: This can't be allowed to continue. I've noticed an uptick in the human trafficking at the harbor. We can collaborate upon my return to Gotham tonight. Would you like to reply?"

Tim set his jaw. "Sure."

"What would you like to say?"

"I'm on my way to the Nest right now. Do you guys want to meet there later?"

"Your message reads—" Tim hit the Send button before the playback could continue. "Sent."

Within seconds, Jason texted back, "Sounds good."

Damian's reply took a little longer, but when it came through, it read, "Acceptable."

It was only when he heard the words that Tim realized he'd expected Damian to refuse. He reached to tap the cancel button onscreen. The AI responded but he wasn't paying attention. "You're really messing with my head here," he muttered, which was probably unfair.

"Your message reads: You're really messing with my head here. Send it now?"

He'd hit "reply" instead of "cancel." "No."

day thirty-seven here

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Okay so I just beat REmake 4.

Here's a few quick thoughts

The introduction to the village is excellent and sets a perfect tone

Gameplay tweaks as well as the original's formula that is still used still work great. The REmake combat system is pretty tight, although it took me until the island to actually master the knife parrying system, mostly for the Krauser battles.

The treasure hunting is addictive, I got almost everything except some damn treasures in the village, I'm still mad! The shooting range minigame was EXCELLENT, I did not expect to be so immersed in it, I even actually sat down and got an S ranking on every single game! It actually helped me improve my aiming skills for the actual part of the game.

The graphics look amazing and the game makes great use of the PS5's DualSense controller.

I've said this before and I'll say it again; I'm glad the game is still camp as fuck. Yes, it's not as much as the original but it's also definitely not as depressing, grounded and soulless as, literally, almost every other narrative-driven modern game out there. This is so fucking refreshing to experience and I hope it starts a new trend of going back to cheesiness and camp as an alternative to all these non-entertaining but highly-applauded, for some bizarre reason, alternatives.

The Castle looks AMAZING, definitely my favourite area.

Leon, Ashley and of course The Merchant stole the show. Every scene they were in and saying their silly shit was entertaining. Leon's "swallow me whole" and the Merchant's "size matters... Or so they say, right" in particular got me so good 🤣

Krauser and Rámon were also done pretty well I think. Their actors did an amazing job. Krauser has more of a backstory this time and feels more like an actual person and not like a boss fight. Ramón himself looks more unhinged than ever, and both through documents by his caretakers as well as his quotes towards Leon during their battle we are able to see how the comments and treatment he received about his appearance actively influenced his hatred for the world and people. I think this is a very understated detail that adds a lot of depth to Ramón that I've seen no one talk about so far.

I know Luis is everyone's new bae and all, and that's great, but I honestly don't see the appeal. He's uglier than before, he's more annoying than before and he stays longer than before so nah, it's a no from me. They attempted to give him a bit of a backstory this time around but, ultimately, it's not impactful at all. He was also very unhelpful during the mine segment. I felt like he mostly just sat around and did nothing. He was pretty useful in the hut though and the el gigantes fight and he had a few good one liners, I'll give him that!

One thing that is present in the other two remakes as well but is especially annoying and noticeable in this one, is that when you move from one area to another, the lighting effects drastically change. It's like you change filters on an Instagram post or something lol

A little disappointed that Capcom is selling extra treasures and weapon upgrades as DLC again, and even more disappointed that they'll, probably, sell Ada's campaign as DLC... Hopefully that means they're gonna expand upon it though so at least we'll get more Ada. Hopefully...

Speaking of Ada, Lily Gao's performance was fine? Y'all are pathetic and miserable human beings for bullying her off the internet. Honestly. Is she my favourite Ada so far? No, I think Jolene Andersen is the definitive take on the character for me, but Lily gave a completely different approach to the character and, given how the whole concept of her dynamic with Leon is that they have both changed in certain ways after the Raccoon City Incident, it makes perfect sense? The previously innocent and inexperienced Leon is now hardened and cynical. The previously more emotional and alluring Ada is now more "matter-of-fact" and cold.

Overall I am very happy with the game and plan to instantly replay it. Nothing more that I can say.

Just buy it so Capcom can REmake more and get more of our money. I love capitalism

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Yesterday was and will be our most vacation-y day of our trip. Our one day in the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.

Now, I'd been watching the wait times on the Universal app over the last few days and, while the prevailing wisdom was to save the Harry Potter rides 'til the afternoon 'cause everyone was gonna ride them first thing... I could see those wait times at ten and twenty minutes between eight and ten in the morning after which they shot up to an hour and more.

So.

Between eight and ten.

My unspoken plan, then, was to get up super early, leave around six to beat all the Monday morning commute traffic, and hit the turnstiles promptly at eight after which we'd be able to knock off those and maybe a coupla other highly popular ride before ten.

Yeah.

That didn't happen.

We got up around six, left around 730, got into the park somewhat after ten after a Starbucks breakfast in City Walk. Then, first thing inside the park we had an official photograph taken because one of the Universal photographers asked us. Then we walked over to Hogsmeade, through Hogsmeade, to Hogwarts castle to wait in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

The wait?

Eighty minutes.

We spent a bunch of that time moving through a shaded forestry area, eventually realizing the kids behind us were from Spokane on a band trip to a Disney music festival. Once inside, we discovered the kids in front of us were similarly from Washington state on a trip as a choir. They were super Harry Potter fans, though. One of them was wearing a Slytherin robe and wielding a wand, both of which set them back three hundred bucks. No problem, though, since they brought a thousand for Harry Potter merch plus—and this was very sweet—thoughtful gifts for their family back home.

We actually spent a bit of the waiting inside Hogwarts engaged with these kids who, for whatever reason, spent a big chunk of that time trying to figure out where in the context of eight Harry Potter Films this ride takes place.

Between films three and four, they decide. Harry's hair basically gives it away.

So yeah. That happened.

The ride itself is very clever. It's constantly in random motion the whole time whether actually in motion or virtually in motion. Either way, in some people it induces motion sickness. And I, as it turns out, was one of them. Only a little bit, though. It didn't hang on for long. But that was that and I'd done Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

After that, we thought beers in town... only the "town" was still inside Universal Studios Hollywood and the beers were sixteen bucks.

Each.

So we went back to Flight of the Hippogriff that's right across from Forbidden Journey.

Also an eighty minute wait.

Interesting, these long wait times didn't bother us 'cause there's lots to photograph and then lots of photographs to filter through my Snapseed app that's my tool of choice for tweaking, well, everything.

Eventually, the ride was shirt, fun, and didn't tweak my head like Forbidden Journey. Plus, just before we got on, we got a firm recommendation from the family behind us that Revenge of the Mummy ride was totally legit. So that was a definite To Do for our afternoon.

After finishing both Harry Potter rides, we indulged a bit of photography in Hogsmeade before heading over and down to the line for the Universal Studios back lot tour.

Forty minute wait. About an hour's worth of ride, though. During which we got to discover that, of our childhood experiences from this tour, only three remain: the flash flood, Jaws, and the Psycho house. The flash flood was pretty much what is always was. Jaws was somehow different. And we drove right in front of the Psycho house whereas my memory has me seeing the house before from below, up the hill.

Other than those experiences, everything else was new and pretty cool. Especially the two big 3D experiences: King Kong and Fast & Furious. Plus, adding that dude carrying a body and wielding a knife at the Bates Motel parking lot scene was an inspired addition. 🙂

One of the tips we got before coming down was never eat in the park. The prices gouge you. Which is true. Exhibit A: those sixteen dollar beers.

So we left the park for City Walk and The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen where we wanted to sit at the bar. Only they don't have a bar at this location but we got a good tip from the host and so headed straight for the bar at Margaritaville where we had a lovely business lunch.

A business lunch?

Yeah. That's how it worked out plus, due to an fortuitous error in billing, our food was basically paid for by other customers so we only had to pick up the beers.

And a very healthy tip.

By the time we were in the move again, making our way back into the park, it was not only somewhere between 330 and 4, but the temperature had also dropped a touch and the wind had picked up... making it seem like the temperature had dropped a lot.

Our first stop, believe it or not, was figuring out how to take a photograph of slogan attached onto the glass of a door in Springfield, home of The Simpsons.

The slogan?

DR. NICK RIVIERA

Unlicensed for over two decades!

Which, as it turns out, is tough to photograph when the glass in which it's attached is reflecting a lot of bright things.

The solution?

Take the picture from a huh angle pointing down so that the glass is reflecting the ground which is in shade. BAM.

After that, it's down the four separate escalators down to the lower lot. The Revenge of the Mummy ride is, conveniently, right there as soon as you hit bottom. And the wait?

Fifty five minutes.

No sweat.

Which it really wasn't although the line wasn't as engaging as wandering through all those Harry Potter movie sets on your way to Forbidden Journey.

By the time we hit the front of the line, it was quickly obvious we had different expectations of what this ride was... than what it really is. Me, I thought it was gonna be a cross between the walking part of The Haunted Mansion... and the riding part of that Indian Jones ride in Adventure Land. Instead, it's straight up a high speed roller coaster.

In the dark.

That goes forward a lot.

And backward a lot.

In the dark.

Did I mention that?

At first the ride seems sort of leisurely, trying to immerse you in a creepy vibe. Then, at some point, the creepy Egyptian god proclaims in a slow, creepy voice

Your soul. Is. Mine.

Only, the creepy Egyptian god puts more emphasis on the word MINE at which point we are launched into the darkness on what is now clearly a high speed roller coaster that, in that moment, literally takes your breath away. It's why, as Kimmer observed, everyone's so silent in their coaster cars as those cars return to the load/unload area.

It's a kind of stunned silence.

After that, I was thinking the Jurassic World ride, the only one I had in mind left to experience. We strolled a bit down to the Transformers 3D entrance after checking out some of the food places but nothing clicked. Then I showed Kimmer the end of the Jurassic World ride that's basically the end of Disney's Splash Mountain so now Kimmer's thinking we need to get plastic parkas.

So now we're on the hunt for plastic parkas, first at the Jurassic World store and then randomly walking about, asking certain people where they got theirs... which brought us back to the Jurassic World store where you can get them at the cash register.

Eleven bucks.

So we just got the one for Kimmer and got into the Jurassic World line.

Forty minutes.

During which time it gets colder. And it gets windier. And then the ride breaks down. And the wait time becomes Re-opening Soon.

Now waiting in line under such conditions isn't the worst thing because they've got large monitors everywhere that basically a TV channel for the faux Dinosaur facility that's educational and entertaining.

However.

It's getting colder. And, yes. There's a certain investment that settles in because the longer you wait... the more it feels like you have to wait because what if you leave and then the ride opens again???

An hour in, though, the announcement comes that they have no idea when the ride's gonna open again. So we abandon the wait with nothing to show for our experience except the one plastic parks we bought for Kimmer.

Back up at the upper lot again, it's colder, it's windier, sunset's definitely fallen on most of the park, and we head back to Hogsmeade for golden hour photography and one more turn of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Thirty-five minutes.

This time, we're in line with a dad and his two kids, locals with annual passes, who just spent the day in Super Nintendo World that included waiting three hours in line for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge.

The kids had the most magnificent day and we're eager to share their stories augmented by their dad's take on the logistics of the day and how all the virtual tech works. He even had a bit of video on his phone to fill out the experience.

Now, we're in line for the Forbidden Journey but he's not gonna ride it.

Why?

Because the last time he got such motion sickness he had to close his eyes. So he's dropping his kids at the front of the line and will meet them when they depart the ride.

We end up sharing the ride with his kids and, this time around, I get motion sick. Nothing vomit-y. Just a bit of dizziness that hangs on after the ride and doesn't let go.

Fortunately, we are done for the day. It's a little after 730. It's dark. It's cold. There really isn't anything else we want to do. So we make our way back to our campervan, Big Foot, grabbing me a mint tea from Starbucks along the way just in case I do have anything stomach related going on.

By the time we're back at Kimmer's cousin's place, it's around nine thirty and we settle in for an evening of boisterous family time that includes a pair of highschool freshmen as well as pizza and cookies homemade made by Kimmer. A quite fun and lovely way to enter the next phase of our trip: a round of camping for all of us starting later today.

I will say, before I have to get going as well, I had an epic night of sleep last night.

Thank God.

😁😁😁

[apple-valley-gym-q2g7ybq]

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