#intruders from shoot em up

[afuzzykitten]

paddler (n others) in spaaaaaace!!!

yippee :3

[lace-coffin]

Can I has soft Moonie and Monty gator fic, where reader is perpetually exhausted and the animatronics drag em off when they’re meant to be working to help them get some sleep in the pizzaplex? (Totally not projecting here)

How would Moondrop and Montgomery gator react to an exhausted reader on their shift?

Thank u for the moon and Monty rq I want to eat it up so bad😌

Requests are open!

Reader is gn! No trigger warnings required

Working for the pizzaplex was definitely an experience. A good one? Thats up for debate. No you loved your job, the actual security aspect of it was pretty univentful, flicking through the camera’s of the empty pizza plex. It’s not like any intruders would get far anyway with the security bots at every turn and moon slinking around in security mode. You did however get to see the dumb stuff the animatronics got up to after hours though so that was a plus. If she doesn’t tell that you’re watching YouTube on your shift then you won’t tell how you regularly see chica rummaging the kitchens like a racoon over the cams.

It was a pretty cushy job overall but the hours were vile, working from 12-6 am isn’t great for anyone and essentially becoming nocturnal because of it meant you were either sleeping or exhausted in your free time.

Today was one of the days that you’d turned up essentially half alive, isotonic drink held in a death grip and a pack of pain meds at your disposal. You clock in and slump on the chair In front of the security camera’s, groaning as the pain is taken off your joints.

Moondrop

Naturally moon has been following you to your work station since you clocked in, floating through the shadows of the pizzaplex in a totally normal and not creepy way. No matter how many times you tell him he can just greet you normally and walk you over he still refuses and watches you from afar, you know he cares but emotional vulnerability is difficult for him.

A few hours into your shift you can’t take it anymore, energy drink only doing so much for you. Your head starts to loll in your chair, finally getting a blissful second of rest-

“Morning glowbug!” Moon swings down from the ceiling in the upside down Spider-Man pose, intending and succeeding in scaring the shit out of you just as you were drifting off.

You jump in your seat and land in a pile on the floor on your ass. Once moon stops laughing at your misfortune and you realised it was just him and you weren’t about to get bite of 87’nd you huff at him from your spot on the floor.

“Very funny moon man, hilarious in fact, you do know the door is an option right? Now help me up you nerd” you say in fake irritation, tugging his trouser leg and giving him your hand.

“Everyone’s a critic, bug. I found it fairly amusing”he lends you his spindly hands and pulls you up with a bit more force than necessary, making you stumble. He snickers into the long end of his hat and you shoot him a glare. “Not the day dude”

Moons faceplate rotates at this, non verbally questioning what’s causing your sour mood, you usually love playing with him and whatever is ruining your mood needs to stop immediately because it’s ruining his fun (and maybe because he cares about you but he’ll never admit that)

“I’m fine moon, I’m just sleeping bad again, I’ll survive” you say nonchalantly, dangling your energy drink in your hand and chugging the last of it.

Moons grimaces as he watches you do this, you know he hates those stupid drinks, you feel better for an hour or two and then immediately crash worse than before, usually leaving moon to scrape you off the desk and take over the cameras.

You realise what you’ve done before moon can even get a word out, squeaking and throwing the can back on the desk. “It’s uh, not actually that bad! I’ll be fine, you know me haha, just a little behind on sleep” you stutter over your words trying to back track. You know it’s pointless and moon being the way he is you’re not going to get out of this.

“Oh no, go ahead starlight, drink your sludge. I can’t wait to peel you off the desk later” he drawls out, if his eyes could roll any further back into his head then they would have.

You rise from your chair, hiding behind it like a shield as if it’s going to save you from the inevitable. “You know the drill bug, either you get over here or I’m dragging your sorry ass over here” Moons voicebox fizzles out over the inappropriate word, stupid filters.

“Moon, you know I can’t, I have to finish my shift, I promise as soon as I get home I’ll go straight to bed, no messing” despite trying to placate him moon remains unimpressed, arms folded over his chest. You should probably run.

“Starlight they pay you peanuts, you can take one nap, they’ll survive”

The jester moves down slowly and sits on his haunches like a cat. Moon launches himself at you full speed. You scream and run to the other side of the security office, not much room to run to considering how confined it is in the first place. You yell and giggle as this continues, moon drinking in the way your eyes crinkle when you smile. Over a few minuets you start to get worn out, having no energy in the first place. This gives moon the perfect opening to land a pounce on you and snatch you into his arms, throwing you over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. You playfully kick and complain but you don’t have it in you to actually be upset.

Unsurprisingly you make it to the daycare attendants room in record time, moons huge strides cutting down on time. “You know the drill” moon says as he throws a pair of daycare themed pyjamas from the gift shop at you, hitting you square in the face. You laugh and crawl into the other room through the tunnel to change.

By the time you’ve changed and come back moon has his bed all made and fluffed up and is looking at you expectantly. “Your chariot, my lord” he says dumbly, pulling back the covers and gesturing to the bed. You snort and climb in, snuggling down into the plush bedding. You make a happy noise and look back at moon, taking his big metallic hand in your smaller warm one.

“Thankyou, for this I mean, I really appreciate you caring about me like this, it means a lot”

Moon makes a fake gagging noise but his faceplate tinges a darker blue, telling his real feelings. “Always so mushy starlight” he laughs, but you know he loves the attention.

“Can you stay until I fall asleep?”

“Bold of you to assume I was leaving in the first place”

Moon scooches into the bed and rearranges his limbs into a comfy position, pulling your head against his chest and starting up his music box. He traces little shapes into your palm until you fall asleep for the night.

Montgomery gator

A horrid crash feeds through the security cam speakers. Excellent. You sigh and flip over to gator golf, already knowing who’s most likely to be causing the noise. Sure enough faint mechanical grunting and roaring can be heard. You can’t seem to find Monty on screen though, so it looks like you’ll be taking a trip down to the golf course.

You groan and pull yourself up from your chair, you really don’t have the energy for this tonight.

Not having to look very far you catch Monty red handed a few steps into the golf course. Golf club jammed into the mouth of one of the mechanical gators below the bridge. You pause and just look at him, unamused, waiting for him to explain.

“Uh, howdy twerp, I’m having some…difficulties?” He try’s, almost framing it as a question. You rub your hand over your face in exhaustion and ask him to expand on his problem.

“I uh worked up a rage after screwing up a note in tonight’s show, wouldn’t have happened if stupid fazzass hadn’t bumped into me” he grumbles, getting side tracked complaining about Freddy. “Anyway, I may have taken a swing at one of those gators…it’s turns out once the club is in it’s hard to get it back out” he laughs and rubs at the back of his head awkwardly, hoping your not going to explode on him.

“I love you but you’re a nightmare, green guy”

Monty snorts at the nickname but realises you look a little worn down, your usual bite not as prominent in your banter.

“Are you ok cher? Like you looking after yourself ok? Not to be an ass but you don’t look as with it as usual” he says in a softer tone, a look of genuine concern washing over his face.

“You want the polite answer or the real one?” Monty laughs and asks for the real one. “I’m tired as all hell and I’m essentially a zombie right now, these night shifts are killing me”

Monty frowns at this, he knows the company can be hardasses when it comes to shift patterns, not caring if their employees work themselves to death as long as the schedule is covered.

“So what you’re saying is we’re going to wrestle this stupid club out of that gator and then you’re going to the nest without causing a fuss?” Monty says, phrasing it as an order and not a question.

“I don’t even have the energy to be stubborn, ask moon man to cover for me please”

Monty gives a toothy grin at this and nods his head. You both work on releasing the golf club from its grizzly demise. Combining both your effort and Monty’s unnatural strength you pull the club free! And send it through the window of gator golf…it can wait for the day crew, technically you only came down to remove it from the gator and you’re beyond caring.

Monty throws his arms in the air in celebration. “Nice shot, cher!” You both cackle at the absurdity of the situation until you let out a yawn.

“Ok squirt, let’s get you to bed” he says softly, rosey eyes roaming over your sleepy face. Monty collects you in his arms and makes his way back to his green room, lending you an oversized gator golf shirt to change into. Monty lets out a little huff out of his nose when he sees you in the baggy shirt, adorable.

“Time to hit the hay kid” he pats on the nest he’s made on the floor out of blankets and various plushies/pillows waiting for you to climb in. Once you settle down Monty curls up around you like a big puppy, placing his snoot on your chest. (He’s totally not hoping for some pets before you sleep..)

“I don’t want to hear a peep out of you unless it’s snoring kiddo” Monty grumbles. “Love you to big guy” you hum and pat his nose

You fall asleep wrapped up in the gators tail, your chest rising and falling in time to the gentle bellows rumbling from the now calm and cuddly animatronic.

[playedcrowd5610]

Steve, Roddie, and C-27 - Danny Phantom x Transformers

Summary: Danny runs into some injured Vehicons and they don't know what to make of this strange human with zero life-preservation skills and a knack for medical assistance. (Aka Steve the Vehicon finally makes an appearance, and a few of his friends too)

---

Notes

Set in a series where Danny finds Starscream one day and decides to start haunting the Decepticons. That's basically all the context you need but if you want more here is the rest of the series:

Haunting the Nemesis

Part 1: Chasing Stars

Part 2: Burning Rubber

Part 3: Adventures of the Decepticons' Pet Ghost Or Tumblr Master List

---

Danny knew he should have been more careful… He had gotten so good at managing to avoid Megatron that he had become careless when it came to watching out for other mechs, which is what led him to the situation he was in now. Knockout had sent him to retrieve some tech from one of the old storage rooms and he found himself standing in front of three mid-conversation Vehicons.

The moment they noticed the door shift, their visors all snapped toward Danny, and for a beat, no one moved. Danny chuckled awkwardly and tried to step back out. “My bad; I didn’t know it was occupied.” 

Then, one of the Vehicons –the one in the middle– snapped out of his stupor, transforming his servo into an energon blaster with a sharp, mechanical whine of energy, and aiming directly at Danny. The others followed suit, their servos transforming in unison. 

“Unauthorized visitors are not permitted. Don’t move, intruder.” The Con in the middle commanded.

Danny raised his hands slowly. Great. He wasn’t supposed to run into these guys. Of course, they would report back to Megatron, probably show him their visor footage, and Danny would have to up his hiding tenfold — maybe even leave the ship altogether. 

But maybe… he could talk with them. One of them stepped closer to Danny, reaching out to try and grab him. As he stepped, Danny noticed a slight limp. Danny quickly switched languages, closing his eyes as he leaned back away from the taloned servo. "I’m not here to cause trouble." He called out in Cybertronian.

The Vehicon reaching for him froze mid-action, and the other two behind him lowered their blasters slightly in shock. Confusion emanated through their EM fields. “What...?” The one furthest in the back muttered in Cybertronian, his visor brightening with a tilt of his helm.

The Vehicons exchanged glances, clearly very confused as to how: 1) a human got on the ship, 2) how the human spoke Cybertronian, and 3), why the human wasn’t scared of them. As Danny’s gaze swept over them, he noticed a large crack across one of their visors and a deep scorch mark across another’s shoulder plate. His eyes again settled on the one closest to him, with the limp.

Danny frowned, lowering his hands. "You're injured." Danny stepped another step closer to the Con directly in front of him who, to his surprise, shifted back away from Danny. The movement only served to make the injured knee groan under the pressure, causing the Drone’s EM field to flicker with pain. "Let me take a look."

All of them, too confused to shoot Danny or capture him, just stared. Eventually, the one with the damaged visor shifted uncomfortably. “You’re human… How would you fix that?”

Danny smirked slightly. "I’m full of surprises."

The Vehicons’ EM fields were now buzzing with uncertainty, more than likely never having encountered a random human on the ship before, maybe never even met one before (Danny didn’t know). The one directly in front of Danny, with the damaged knee joint, took another step back, unsure what to make of the human who had so casually walked into their midst.

The third con –shoulder guy– seemed the most hesitant and put off out of the three of them, keeping his blaster held strong. “You shouldn’t be on the Nemesis. We should take you to Lord Megatron.” The con switched back to English. The visor guy looked back at his –friend? Coworker?– and took his attention away from Danny.

Danny shrugged nonchalantly, the corner of his mouth quirking up in amusement. "I don’t think there’s a need for that," he replied, switching back to English as well. "I just want to help. Besides," he added with a glance at the first Vehicon's leg, "You’re not in any shape to catch me anyway."

"There are three of us and one of you, human. We are more than capable of capturing you." Shoulder guy said, an edge of annoyance in his voice.

“Yet you haven’t. So where’s the harm in letting me try and fix it.” Danny moved forward slowly, until he was directly in front of the first Vehicon’s knee, carefully inspecting the area where the metal was twisted and cracked, likely from a hard fall in battle. "This looks pretty painful," Danny muttered thoughtfully, running his fingers over the dented plating.

The Vehicon flinched but didn’t pull away. “You shouldn’t—"

“Relax,” Danny cut him off, smiling up at him. “I’ve been in the medbay plenty of times. I’ve helped Knockout fix worse. You’ll be back on your pedes in no time.” 

The other two Vehicons behind him watched, utterly perplexed. Their servos were still transformed into weapons, but they weren’t aimed at him anymore. Cracked visor tilted his helm. “Why aren’t you afraid of us? Any other humans we have come across have run away screaming. You show no fear at our weapons.”

Danny's smirk widened as he urged the Vehicon in front of him to sit down with hand motions and a gentle push, and the Con obliged, sitting up with his back against one of the larger crates. “Trust me, I’ve seen scarier things than a few giant robots with blasters.” 

Danny looked over the injury. Some of the metal had been bent in the wrong direction, pushing it into the knee joint rather than encasing it, which made a very awkward bend that would only get worse with time. Danny knew he could just fix it with his powers in a moment, easily bending the metal back into place without needing a welder. Speaking of welders. “Why haven’t you guys gone to the medbay? Surely Knockout could fix these quickly.” 

Kneejoint’s shoulders sagged. And then Danny sensed a change of bitterness bleeding into Shoulder-Con’s EM field, and the other two looked over at him before he spoke up. “These are minor injuries. Our repair nanites will help to heal us over time. Lord Megatron does not wish to waste medical resources on Drones unless we are in critical condition.”

The other two looked back to Danny with a nod, affirming what their friend said. Danny threw his hands to the side in outrage. “That's not fair! So you guys just have to live in agony because you’re not actively dying?”

The Cons seemed shocked that Danny cared. Kneejoint tilted his helm inquisitively at the human’s reaction. “It's how it works; we can’t waste unnecessary resources. In addition, there are hundreds of Vehicons. If everyone went to the medbay with every minor injury from an Autobot attack then the medbay would be flooded non-stop.”

Danny bit his lip. “That… really sucks for you guys.” He crossed his arms. “Well, luckily, you have me! I know quite a few things now after watching Knockout work! So if you guys ever need any small repairs, you have me. You can tell your friends, too.” Danny smiled up at them.

Cracked visor seemed to be in disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Danny nodded, “Definitely.” He then decided that maybe he should use his powers after all. Maybe just a little bit. It's not like he was hiding them too much anyway. Starscream already knew. Soundwave probably knew. And Knockout and Breakdown likely thought he was invincible at this point. But these guys needed him. It's not like he could use Knockout’s Cybertronian-sized tools. 

Danny looked up at Kneejoint. “Hold still.” He told him. Then he reached his hands into the joint, causing the Con to almost jerk back, but he fought himself, staying completely still. Danny pulled some ecto energy into his hands and pulled at the piece of metal that had been jabbing underneath his knee plate, gently forming it back into place. 

The Vehicons must have noticed the green glow coming from his hands because confused EM fields filled the room. “How are you doing that?” The Con he was working on asked.

Danny just chuckled, focusing on forming the last bit of the joint into place. “Like I said, I’m full of surprises.” He stood up, patting the now-stabilized knee with a satisfied smile. “You should be able to walk on that now. Just don’t put too much pressure on it until it’s fully repaired by your nanites.”

Visor Con walked over, transforming his blaster back into a servo, and helped lift his friend, hooking an arm under his shoulder blades to help support him. Kneejoint tentatively shifted his weight on his pedes. He took a cautious step, and though there was still a limp, it wasn’t nearly as pronounced. “I don’t understand,” he muttered, tilting his helm in Danny’s direction inquisitively. "Why are you helping us?"

Danny just shrugged again, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Why not? You’re hurt. I can help. Easy choice." 

Danny nodded, looking up to the Con’s friend who was supporting him. “That visor of yours could use some work too. Let me take a look.” The Vehicon instinctively stepped back, just staring at Danny as he stood in front of him, barely coming up to the Con’s knee. Danny and the Con waited, staring at each other for a good long moment before Danny sighed. “I can’t take a look at it when it's all the way up there.” Danny made grabby hands towards the Con towering over him.

The Con seemed to snap out of his stupor as he hesitantly reached down, letting Danny climb onto his servo. Danny was raised to the mech’s helm and he grabbed onto it with both hands, examining the cracked surface. His fingers brushed lightly over the damage. Danny pulled some ecto energy into his fingers again but paused when the Vehicon froze, unsure whether to back away or let Danny continue. His EM field was buzzing with confusion and unease with that strange light so close to his optics.

“Steve, you’re seriously just going to let the human touch your visor?” Shoulder-Vehicon asked incredulously, though even he sounded more baffled than angry.

Danny chuckled — he hadn’t expected the name Steve for one of Megatron’s murder drones. “You guys act like I’m doing brain surgery here. It’s just a crack.” There wasn’t too much Danny could do about a crack compared to the work he did on Kneejoint’s — well, knee joint, but he could still help the nanite process along and seal the crack before any excess moisture could get in. 

He focused his energy on slightly, melting the glass, or whatever material these guys’ visors were made out of, and sealing it with a slightly raised edge. He leaned back, hands on either side of the Con’s helm, admiring his handiwork. "There, all set. At least for now. I’ll have to come and take a look at it in a couple days."

The Vehicon –Steve– stared at Danny, utterly bewildered. 

Danny then jumped off the con’s servo and landed on one of the crates to get closer to the last Vehicon, the one with the damaged shoulder. They all jolted at the height from which Danny jumped, but when they concluded Danny was fine, they eased up. 

Danny started trying to inspect the injury but the Con turned away, crossing his servos over his chest, one of them still transformed into a blaster. Danny threw his hands to the side. “Oh come on man, you saw I just helped your friends.” 

“I’m fine. I don’t need a human to help patch me up. I’ll get over it. You guys are all ridiculous.” The con turned his helm away like a stubborn child. 

Danny sighed and put his hands into his pockets. “Okay, man. You don’t have to take my help, but I’m still offering it. Maybe I could help with the pain. At least that's better than dealing with it for however many days or weeks until it's healed.” 

Kneejoint perked up, stepping closer. “Come on C-27, the kid’s actually pretty good.” He then shifted his weight on and off the joint again for emphasis. Danny inwardly thought about how the vehicons could go from names like Steve to C-27, but who was he to judge?

C-27 looked like he was about to argue when Steve stepped in. “C, you know Roddie’s right. You’ve been complaining about that blaster shot on your plating for days.” Steve gestured towards C-27’s shoulder. Danny filed the name Roddie away so he would stop calling him Kneejoint. 

Danny waved his ‘magic fingers’ for emphasis when the Con looked down at him. The Con gave a dramatic sigh before turning to his friends. “We should be turning him in to Megatron, not using him to fix up our dings.” 

Roddie spoke up by putting a servo in the air. “He said he works with Knockout, so he must be allowed on the ship.”

“He could be lying.” C-27 spat back.

Danny leaned back on his feet. “Would it help if I said I am Starscream’s pet human?” Danny asked. All three visors snapped to him.

“Commander Starscream… Got a pet human ?” C-27 asked incredulously.

Danny laughed. “You say that like it’s more surprising than Knockout allowing me to work with him in the medbay?” The Con seemed to pause in thought. Danny sighed. “Okay, C-27, how about you just let me look at it? This one time. If you don’t like it then you can blast me or something, I don’t know.” The Con looked hesitant.

Roddie stepped forward and scooped Danny up off the crate, holding him up to his friend. “Come on. Look at him. He wouldn’t be able to hurt us if he tried.” Danny laughed about how wrong that was, but either way, whatever helped helped. “And if commander Starscream brought him on board he must be useful.” 

Danny smiled. “I am adorable.”

The Con seemed to have rolled his optics under his visor. “Fine.” Danny felt Roddie’s EM field flicker in delight before he held Danny up closer to C-27’s injury. He unclasped his servo and allowed Danny to stand upright, and C-27 pulled his arms away from his chassis, finally transforming his blaster back into a servo, and placing them on his hips. 

Danny leaned forward, studying the blaster wound. The crater was about the size of Danny’s head, a deep, jagged pit punched into the dark metal. He could see the faint glint of energon beneath the surface, where circuitry had been torn apart, though it looked like the wound had already started to heal—just slowly. Painfully. 

"Looks like it's mending on its own a bit," Danny muttered, placing both palms against the cool metal. C-27 tensed at the contact, his frame tightening, but he didn’t pull away.

Knockout would have welded some additional plating to the frame, but Danny didn’t have the extra plating or the welder. Danny took a deep breath and phased his hands into the plating. The metal groaned under his hands as he began to carefully pull the dent back into place, slowly smoothing out the damaged area. 

Danny also pulled a bit of his cold ability into what he was doing, helping to numb some of the pain receptors in C-27’s shoulder. Danny stepped back. “There, that should help for now. It will at least make it less painful and faster to heal.” Roddie pulled Danny towards himself as he looked up at his friend.

C-27 rolled his shoulder, looking between it and Danny, contemplating. “It… Hurts less now.”

Danny smiled brightly. “See? Told you.” Roddie gently placed Danny back down on the crate he picked him up from, and finally, Danny remembered that he was supposed to be grabbing a tool for Knockout and had completely gotten sidetracked. 

Danny spotted it pretty quickly and it looked exactly how Knockout described it. Danny ran over and picked it up, large in his human-sized arms. “As much as I would love to stay and chat with you guys more, Knockout needs this and I should bring it to him before he starts to rust.”

Danny started to head towards the same way he came in before turning back to the three vehicons. “Oh yeah… Uh, if you don’t mind. Could we maybe keep my existence out of Megatron’s knowledge? We don’t think he will take too kindly to a human on the ship.”

C-27 tilted his helm. “So Lord Megatron doesn’t know you’re here?” 

Danny chuckled awkwardly and swayed from foot to foot. “Not technically. But everyone else is already in on it. And what he doesn’t know won't hurt him, right?” They all stayed silent for a second. “If he found out he would probably drop me out of the airlock.”

“So Lord Megatron will kill you if he finds you?” Steve asked. “Are you not Starscream’s pet?”

Danny shrugged. “You think that will stop him?”

The Cons seemed to contemplate before Steve and Roddie nodded to Danny. They all then looked up towards C-27, who paused for a bit longer. He then shifted uncomfortably under the stares. “Alright, fine. Whatever, kid. Your secret’s safe with us.” The Vehicon waved him off. 

Danny smiled brightly. “Thanks, guys!” He then started skipping out of the room, calling out behind him, “If you need me, just call.” Suddenly, their HUDs all pinged with Danny’s contact information as the human turned the corner and left.

The three Vehicons stared after him in stunned silence. None of them had the faintest shred of a clue what to make of the human who had just walked in, patched them up, and left without a hint of fear.

---

Notes:

I guess Danny is now the certified Vehicon medic, goodness knows they needed one! I tried my best to give each of the vehicons their own distinct personality. And I hope that even without the names for the first half it was still understandable! This chapter underwent a few rewrites before I was happy with it! And now I love my Vehicon babies.

Find more here: Tumblr Master List

[braidlottie]

forever is the sweetest con.

pairing: cowgirl!lottieshauna x transmasc!cowboy!reader

summary: your car breaks down on the side of the road, but luckily two friendly cowgirls help you out and give you a place to stay for the night.

tags: no smut! the wild west au :3, lottie and shauna are dating, guns, lottie smokes, lottie and shauna’s southern accent feature, transmasc!reader, top surgery, lottie asks about your scars, stupid cowboy crew names that i made up, shauna is a flirt

wc: 1.4K

a/n: i don’t know how to end fics once again im Sorry 🙁 also @antlerbf without u this would’ve never been written 😄😄

title inspired by cowboy like me by taylor swift

moodboard :3

“fuck!”

you hit your head on the steering wheel. your car picked the best time to break down on the side of the road, when you’re in the middle of nowhere, and it’s night. you decided to ditch the car and hitchhike, grabbing all your things before walking down the asphalt.

you walked for about ten minutes until you saw a ranch on a side road up ahead. there were two horses sitting down in the hay, and the small house stood alone farther down. you took the chance, hoping that whoever lived there was kind enough to let you stay, or at least fix your car.

you had to hop the fence to get in, throwing your sack over and trying not to wake up the horses. when your sack hit the dirt, the horse immediately jumped up, neighing loudly and shaking itself off. you hopped down from the fence safely and started walking towards the house, you thought you were in the clear.

until you saw a light turn on in the house. it was too late to turn back, and hopping that fence took you a while. so you just decided to hide and hope for the best. you hid behind a hay bale, peeking your head out to see who was there.

a woman in a white tank top came out with her revolver drawn, looking for any intruders. “oh, shit!” you whispered to yourself, wishing you would’ve just slept in your car. she looked your direction, making you duck your head down. you stayed like that for a while until she was gone. tiptoeing carefully now, you made your way towards the house, looking for any signs of the armed woman.

the dirt crunched under your boots with every step, making your way to the porch. “freeze.” you heard a woman’s voice behind you. “drop the sack and turn around. put your hands where i can see ‘em.”

you obeyed, putting shaky hands up in the air. you turned around to see the same woman you were hiding from, the barrel of her gun pointed straight at you. “you make one move, and i put a bullet right between those pretty eyes.”

“please-”

“what’s the name of your gang?”

you gulped, all your words leaving your brain. all you could think about if your life was going to end or not. the woman cocked the revolver back when you were silent for too long. “the razortooth snakes!” your voice echoed through the night.

“you must be lyin’. you? in the razortooth snakes?”

“i can show you my badge, i swear.”

“pull it out. slowly.”

you pulled your badge out of the back pocket of your jeans, giving it to the woman. she snatched it harshly, her cigarette almost dropping out her mouth. “well, i’ll be damned.” she dropped the badge next to your sack. “what’s a little thing like you doing in there, huh?”

the razortooth snakes was the toughest gang in the wild west, the woman couldn’t even believe a member dared to step foot on her ranch. “i’m not sure, ma’am, i- w-what gang are you?” you sputter, her gun still raised. “the bronze serpents, ever since i can remember.” she pulled up her tank top, showing a tattoo of her gang in cursive on her stomach.

“well, that makes us rivals, don’t it?”

you nodded, sweating bullets. “please don’t shoot me.”

“explain why you’re on my ranch and maybe i won’t.”

“my-my car broke about half a mile down from here, and i’m really far from home. i just needed some tools for my car, or anything to fix it. that’s all, please ma’am-”

“don’t call me ma’am.” you flicked her cigarette on the dirt, squashing it with her boot. “it’s charlotte.”

she put the safety back on the revolver, slipping it in the back of her sleep shorts. “you got any weapons on you?”

you forgot you did have your revolver in your holster, but it wasn’t loaded. she opened up your denim vest, but you spoke before she even opened your mouth. “it’s not loaded. i used the last of my bullets today.”

“for what, exactly?”

lottie knew you couldn’t kill anyone, even if it came down to life and death. she took your gun, beginning to walk back into the house. “you coming or not?” her voice faded as she went away. you grabbed your sack and trailed behind her, your vest blowing in the desert wind.

**

“you woke my girl up.” charlotte closed the front door behind you. “oh, god, im so sorry-”

“don’t worry about it. gotta let her know we have company. take a seat ‘n don’t go nowhere.” she pointed, going down the dark hallway to the bedroom. you took a seat at the table, hugging your sack. you looked around at all the the decor, they even have a little fireplace. the whole house was just so cozy.

you heard another woman’s voice get closer and closer, but it was a little higher. she stopped in her tracks when she saw you. “this is shauna.” charlotte introduced and you did the same, tipping your hat to her in a polite manner. “what side of town ya from?” shauna leaned against the wall. you stared blankly, trying to think of a way to say this. lottie soon pulled her aside, walking back into the hallway.

“lottie, you brought a razortooth snake in my house?”

“keep your voice down! this one right here, wouldn’t even dare hurt a fly, shauna. i promise you.”

they talked about you like you weren’t even there, the hardwood floor slapping against shauna’s bare feet when she walked back over to you. she stared you up and down, putting her hands on her hips. “so, yous is really a razortooth.” shauna was warming up to you faster than she thought.

“is it that hard to believe?”

“oh trust me, it is.”

the woman walked closer, taking a seat in your lap. she put your hat on your head,

“what’s a hot piece of ass like you doin’ with them, darlin’?”

your mouth dropped, in shock and because of how embarrassed you got. “shauna,” lottie grabbed another cigarette out of her pocket, and her lighter as well. “let’s ask our guest something that’s a lil’ more pg rated, you got me, sugar?”

“what? it’s fine. you don’t mind, do you, punkin?”

“uh, no, it’s alright.” you smiled, telling them how you came up as a cowboy and what it’s really like as a razortooth. “it’s gettin’ late, now. time to hit the hay.” lottie looked at her watch, putting out her cigarette in the ashtray.

“y’know, you can sleep with us.”

“shauna-”

“lottie, we can’t leave him sleep on the couch out here, he’ll freeze. he can’t sleep with us for one night?”

“that’s why we have a perfectly good fireplace, hun.”

shauna just rolled her eyes, getting off your lap and leading you to the bedroom. the bed was in the middle of the room, scattered clothes and a pair of boots on the floor. “don’t listen to her. you can sleep here, darlin’. oh, you gotta take all those dirty clothes off. lottie’s not a big fan of dirty clothes in her bed.”

shauna was right about lottie’s rule, but the truth is that part of her wants to see you in you naked. “oh, yeah, no problem,” you buckled your pants and took off your vest, only leaving you in a tank top and your briefs.

“i got some tools to fix up your truck, i’ll give ‘em to you first thing in the morning.” lottie walked into the bedroom now, looking you up and down. “what’s those scars for?” she looked at your chest in curiosity, knowing she definitely meant no harm.

“bull fight.” you lied, scratching the back of your head. “must’ve been quite a fight.” she smiled, hanging her hat on the hook on the wall. “you gettin’ in or what?”

you stood at the foot of the bed, staring at the two women. “uh, yeah. yeah, i am.”

“well, what the hell are you waitin’ for?”

you crawled into the middle of the bed, sandwiched perfectly between the two. “comfortable?” charlotte turned off the lamp and you smiled, nodding in return. “thanks for this. really.”

“if this ever gets out, ya might be a dead man, mister. doesn’t that scare ya?” shauna whispered. “a little.” you were more than scared. you were petrified of your group ever finding out that you got friendly with the bronze serpents.

but you decided to enjoy this moment instead, curled up beside two (very sleepy) cowgirls.

[writerseclipse1]

[four seasons of love] chapter 1: a welcome arrival

a joel miller x reader series by @writerseclipse1

|| next || fsol masterlist ||

warnings: reader is in her 30s, joel in his 50s, abby in her 20s, mentions blood, injury and murder, small description of (canon-typical) physical violence, guns and other weapons, lmk if i missed anyt.

summary: jackson is stunned by an unexpected yet certainly welcome arrival. the plan falls into place a little too perfectly, like two sugars in a plain, black coffee.

word count: 3.8k

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ a/n: first chapter done!! hope u guys like it <3

++++++

March 19, 2037

“I hate it here,” Mike grumbled under his breath, slinging his rifle over his shoulder to adjust the thin material of his shirt. He heaved out a sigh, cheeks tinted a slight pink as a cool wisp of wind—left over from winter—brushed over his face. From his left, he heard a snicker and, turning his head, he saw Eugene stifling his laughter. “What’s so funny?”

“I mean, if you hadn’t fucked up last patrol, you wouldn’t be here,” Mike scoffs at Eugene’s chuckling, the bitter man crossing his arms over his chest as he looks at Eugene with a less-than-pleased look yet this did nothing to ease Eugene’s chipper mood. “Do better at your job and maybe they might let you patrol Jackson next time.” Eugene bursts out in a fit of laughter when he sees the corner of Mike’s mouth curl up into a sneer, his mouth opening to retaliate. The retort dies in his mouth however, when the latter sees a figure from below, back hunched and a trail of blood at its feet, and Mike’s heart leaps out of his chest when it collapses right outside the walls of Jackson.

“What the fuck is that?!”

The gates open and half a dozen men clutch their weapons, laser focused and pointed at their target, ready to shoot on command and at will. Maria clutches a pistol in one hand and a scanner in the other, swiftly attaching it to the neck of the intruder. The apparatus lets out a ‘click’ before the screen turns green. The woman signals the group to advance, their feet trudging along the grass.

They crowd around it, one of them nudging the body with the butt of his rifle but backs away when Maria clicks her tongue and gives a pointed look. “What do we do with it, boss?” The woman pauses, weighing her options before she sighs and shakes her head, surveying the blood absorbed by the soil.

“We take ‘em in.”

++++++

“Whatcha waitin’ here for?” Tommy’s head perked up at the sound of his older brother’s voice. His lips form a half smile, meeting Joel halfway to give him a side hug, wrapping one arm around his older brother’s shoulder.

“Been a week of waitin’ but we got a newcomer comin’ outta the med bay. Found her right outside the walls,” Tommy mused, crossing his arms and leaning on the wall behind him, staring at the curtain that separated him and his brother from the newcomer, the doctor, and Maria, who he speculated was speaking to the newcomer. “If she was out there for ten minutes longer, she woulda been dead before we even got here, well, that’s what Nolan told us.” 

Joel acknowledged this with a huff, nodding as he let himself absorb his brother’s words, but something was out of place. “Hold on, where’s she gonna stay? As far as I know, we haven't built any new houses.” The older man already knew the answer but he still asked, praying that his guess wasn’t the case.

“Yeah well, about that,” Tommy grimaced at Joel’s sharp glare. “Now, come on, give the girl a break! She was just on death’s doorstep, be hospitable for once.” He nudged his brother’s arm but before the latter was about to counter with his inevitable refusal, he interrupted him. “I’m sure you know how it feels to be bleeding and alone. Wouldn’t want our guest to feel that way, do ya?” 

It stopped Joel in his tracks, looking at his brother with an unreadable expression, the gears turning in his head as his decision was swayed by practicality versus sympathy. In the end, the soft sigh that Joel lets slip out of his mouth was the source of Tommy’s satisfaction. The younger man patted his brother’s shoulder with a grin, nodding his head. “Thanks, Joel. And who knows? You might like the girl more than you think.”

Joel didn’t get to retaliate before the curtain was pulled back, revealing Nolan Matthews—head doctor of the infirmary—with a mask that certainly did nothing to cover his evident smile, the corner of his eyes wrinkling as he neared the two. “Good news, she’s alive and well, and definitely expecting a full recovery from all the injuries she sustained. It’s insane how she got here with all of it, though,” he turned to Joel. “Best keep an eye on her for a couple of days until she’s completely back on her feet. Just give me five minutes and then you’ll be allowed into the room.” Once again, the doctor gave Joel no chance to respond before he disappeared behind the curtain.

Tommy ignored Joel’s pointed gaze, a victorious smirk gracing the younger man’s face while his brother greeted him with a scowl. “So now we’re tellin’ the whole town that a girl’s gonna stay in my place forever?”

“Not forever, unless you want her to.” The groan that escaped Joel’s mouth did nothing to ease the smile from his brother’s lips. In fact, Joel swore Tommy’s grin just got bigger. “Come on, you have an extra room! It’s just until we get a couple more materials to make one for her, that’s all.” If Joel looked closer, he would have seen the way Tommy’s hand moved behind his back, his fingers crossing as he licked his lips. No way in hell would Tommy make a new house for just one person when someone else had a functioning extra bed. Plus, he thought he was helping his brother out. It’s been a while since Joel had mingled, maybe he just needed a bit of a nudge.

“You two done? She’s ready to meet you.” Maria’s voice cuts them from their internal squabbling, the two nodding their heads as they push themselves off the wall. ““Couple more materials” my ass,” Joel muttered to himself as he moved the curtain out of his way and entered the room.

Joel was the first one among the two that you laid your eyes on, your gaze staying on him longer than it should have before your eyes flittered to his brother. Maria cleared her throat, tearing your attention from the two imposing men. She introduced the pair to you, her lips spreading out into a warm and welcoming smile. “This is Tommy, my husband,” she held his hand, squeezing it in her grasp and you gave him a meek smile as he tipped his head in your direction. “And this is his brother, Joel.”

Joel’s gaze had been pinned to the floor the entire time but when he felt Maria’s hand on his shoulder, he looked up. He looked much younger than you knew him to be but the greying hairs on the skin of his jaw and the ones on the side of his head told you otherwise. A swift glance gave you the chance to peek through the hazel glaze of his eyes, telling you of the murders he’d committed, the hardships he’d gone through, and the love that had slipped from his hands. Like his brother, he nodded his head in your direction, eyes still piercing into yours. “Welcome to Jackson.”

The corners of your lips turned upward, your own name slipping through your lips as you looked between the three, your eyes eventually focusing on Maria as she started to speak. “Thing is, we don’t have your house ready yet, but Joel offered his spare bedroom for you to stay in until we finish. Is that okay with you?” If you paid closer attention, you would have seen Joel glare at his brother and the smug smile on Tommy’s lips but you only nodded, slightly surprised that you were still welcome in a settlement with about 300 people.

“Yes, of course. I’m just grateful you still have room for one more person,” your voice came out small, looking up at them with gratitude. Before you could react, Maria had engulfed you in a hug, her accepting gesture making you relax even the slightest, almost making you forget what you had come here for in the first place.

Almost.

“You’re always welcome here and there will always be room,” she smiled, helping you stand on your shaky legs. “Now come on, we’ll show you around.”

++++++

“Take your shoes off and put ‘em in the rack before you come in,” Joel’s gruff voice cut through the air as you followed him up the steps to the porch which was painted a light shade of brown. Heeding his request, you untied your boots and let the laces hang down the sides of the shoes and without another word, followed him into the house.

After you had finished your tour around town, Maria had insisted that Joel lead you to your “temporary” place of residence and show you your room. The sun hadn’t even set, its rays still shining down on Jackson without abandon but you felt the exhaustion of the week spent in the infirmary slowly come down on you like feathers dropping onto your shoulders.

The exterior matched the interior, with minimal furniture and a layout that was certainly easy to memorize. The kitchen and the dining area on your left and the living room to your right. Other than looking over his shoulder to see if you listened to his earlier request, Joel paid you no mind, letting you explore the house as you wish. Hanging your jacket on the coat stand and placing your boots in the rack, you headed to the living room first. You sighed softly at the warmth of the fireplace as your fingers ghosted over the brown, worn out leather of the couch and a part of you wondered just how many times he had accidentally fallen asleep on it rather than his bed.

A sudden ‘thump’ from your left drew your curiosity to the corner of the room. You took a second to appreciate the small library Joel had set up on a wide, wooden bookshelf and to also admire his slightly obvious affinity for reading. He didn’t seem like the bookworm type, especially if you took him at face value. A book laid on the ground and as soon as you picked it up, you wiped the dust off the cover with your sleeve. “An Idiot’s Guide to Space.” It made your eyebrows raise in curiosity, the pad of your thumb brushing over the somehow sleek cover of the book.

“Didn’t peg you as a space nerd,” his head tilted in the direction of your voice, eyes focusing on you as you kept your back to him. Smoke rose from the surface of his coffee, watching it disappear as he let the comment hang in the air for a while but you didn’t mind, not expecting a reply from him in the first place.

“‘M not. I’m into woodworkin’ and a lil’ bit of history but none of that—” he brushes it off with a wave of his hand in the air. “—whatever. But, uh, Ellie, she likes space so I’m tryna figure out half the things she says.”

“You have a daughter?” You would be lying if you said you were surprised.

“No, no.” Shaking his head, he wiped his hands on the towel that hung from the oven, idly walking toward you. “She’s a kid I came here with, saved her from getting eaten alive out there.” His footsteps got nearer and nearer and you felt your words die in the back of your throat when you felt his presence behind you, the scent of coffee and his natural aroma invading your senses. You made no move to turn, your eyes scanning the title of the book over and over until it was ingrained in your mind.

You snapped out of your daze when he cleared his throat and you looked over your shoulder, seeing a cup of coffee in each of his hands and you hurriedly returned the book to the shelf. Turning around, you carefully took the mug from his left hand, blowing gently before taking a sip. You peered at him from over the rim as you muttered a soft ‘thank you’, not noticing how he hid his face by sipping his own coffee.

Not long after, you found yourselves on the couch, a noticeable space in between you and him. Joel was never one for small talk but he gave himself the chance to indulge in it, just this once maybe. He found it comforting, talking to someone with no apparent knowledge of him and his actions prior to his new life in town.

“Five years huh?”

“Yep.” Joel would consider himself a quiet person so it was a surprise when all the questions you asked didn’t go unanswered. Some were short and brisk but you seemed to understand him, not pressing on the subject unless he elaborated further. “Time’s fast though, it’s the reason my back always hurts like a bitch.”

Your chuckle echoed through the otherwise empty house as you leaned over to put your now-empty mug on the coffee table, right beside where Joel put his. The embers in the fireplace crackled, the fire fizzing as it slowly died. A sigh escaped your lips, making Joel’s head turn and watch as you rolled your shoulders. “I guess that’s my cue to go to bed.”

“Alright then,” he stood after you, his palms pushing him up and he tipped his head toward the stairs. “Lemme show you your room.”

It wasn’t anything startling, a simple bed next to the window on the left and a small dresser on the right. You were just grateful for the clean sheets and the assurance of the locks on the front and back door. Pulling the handles, the dresser revealed a small pile of clean clothes that smelled like they were fresh out of the laundry.

“I traded a few things in for ‘em, don’t mention it.” He said, seeing your mouth opening and about to release a cluster of words of gratitude and ‘you didn’t have to’s. “‘Just wanted my first guest to be comfortable.”

“Well, I’ll rate you five stars on Airbnb,” you teased, biting your lip to suppress a smirk when he let out a hearty laugh, one you heard from Maria to be a “rare find these days” yet you find yourself chuckling along with him.

“Wait, you know what that is?” An excited expression graced his face, the corners of his eyes wrinkling and his teeth showing as his lips pulled up into a grin. His arm went up to rest his weight on the door, his free hand resting on his waist.

“I’m not as young as you think, Mr. Miller.” He extended a hand toward you and you looked up at him through your eyelashes, his laugh turned into a ghost of a smile on his face.

“Call me Joel.” The edges of your lips quirked up as you took his calloused hand into your smooth one.

“Nice to finally meet you, Joel.”

You learned two things that night: Joel was in his 30s when the outbreak began and he gets talky when he gets his coffee.

++++++

“Took you long enough,” the blonde's familiar voice echoed from behind you and you bit back a groan.

Sometime after the moon was high into the sky and you were sure that Joel had locked his door, you quietly slid out of bed and down the stairs, relief flooding you for the absence of a creaky staircase. Slipping your coat back on, you grimaced at the thought of soiling Joel’s living room before you ultimately decided to grab your boots and put them on once you got out the back door.

Sneaking out—of the house and of Jackson—was easy enough but navigating through the night without a flashlight made the hairs on your neck stand with every soft whisper of the wind. You remained on high alert, hands grasping your gun tight but you felt the tension in your shoulders relax when you saw the familiar shack, a dim glow lighting up the inside.

“Give me a break, he was a bit chattier than what you told me,” you muttered, slumping onto the couch beside Manny and Owen, giving both men a fist bump. Leaning back onto the backrest, you slung your ankle over your other knee and crossed your arms over your chest as Abby stayed standing, watching the small fire flicker inside the lamp. “What now, boss? Do I bring out the good ol’ golf club and finish the job?”

“Are you ridiculous?” Came her retort and you bit back a laugh at her annoyed expression. “If that was our plan, his brother might come after me and we’d all be dead. If you wanted me to get killed that easily, you could’ve said so.” Her braid swung over her shoulder as she stretched her neck.

“That was a joke, Abigail, if you couldn’t tell,” you could see her jaw tighten, as if she was stopping herself from bashing your head with a golf club. Her distaste for you was loud and clear and it was evident the feeling was reciprocated.

The plan was simple: infiltrate Jackson, get Joel to fall in love with you, lure him out of Jackson by pretending you got kidnapped, then Abby finishes the job in a ratty, old cabin without any witnesses, the same one you were in right now.

“And why me? She could do it herself if she really wanted him killed,” you mused as you glanced at Abby, crossing your arms as Isaac tries but fails to stifle a chuckle.

“No way in hell,” she snarled, her hands balling into fists from the top of the table. “Am I gonna get all lovey-dovey on the man who killed my father. If anything, the only time I’m gonna be laying my hands on him is when I finally get to murder that son of a bitch.”

“You’re also closer to his age than Abby.” Owen piped up, pushing himself off the wall he leaned on. You tried not to roll your eyes but it was difficult when he was being such a fucking tryhard.

“More important than that,” Isaac sent the two a pointed look, putting his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his intertwined fingers. “You’re my most valuable soldier, my right hand, if I may. If there’s anyone this self-proclaimed mission needs, it’s you.” Pride swelled deep in your heart and the daggers Abby stared into your skull didn’t go unnoticed, but it went without a response. 

“Alright, alright, let’s get things done,” Manny started, clearing his throat as he put his weight forward, resting his forearms on his thighs as the attention completely turned to you. “What happened today?”

Clearing your throat, your mind raked through the events of today as your teeth dragged over your teeth. “For one, it’s a miracle I got there in the first place,” your hand smoothed over the back of your neck, wincing when you felt a sting travel from your nape. “You did a number on me, Anderson, felt like I was on the brink of death when I got there.” Abby felt more than smug at your admission because making your life hell is her mission in progress, the side quest of her main task: getting revenge on Joel Miller. 

Before you started to traverse through the remote area the town was situated in, Abby insisted on getting you roughed up. Just a little to invoke sympathy in the people, but she beat the shit out of you so hard you even felt bad for yourself. 

“Just get on with it,” she said, a barely-there, shit-eating grin on her face but you only dug your nails into your palms, not having the energy to contest. “What about Joel?”

“Met him almost instantly, right after they let me out of my hospital bed,” you picked on the hidden bandages that were wrapped around your torso as your body started to throb from the pain you’ve been trying to conceal since you stepped foot in the town. “Then they told me I’ll be staying in his house until they get my house fixed up.”

Abby’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She wasn’t, by all means, religious but she was taken aback at how Joel was being served to her on a silver platter, like someone out there wanted her to take what she’s been longing for. Not to kill Joel, but to avenge her father in the same way he was taken from her.

“One thing I noticed though,” your voice broke her out of her revenge-filled reverie, looking at you with an unreadable expression. “Was that it’ll take a while for him to fall in love with me, not that I’m basing it off on assumptions but he’s a quiet person in general.” “How long is “a while”?” Mel asked, coming out from one of the bedrooms with her hands on her hips, looking at you expectantly.

“Maybe a year if I’m right.”

“A year? We can’t wait around here for that long,” grumbled Abby, who was greeted with a groan from you. Massaging your temples with your thumb and middle finger and trying to prolong the coming of your inevitable headache, you offered an idea.

“Radio. You got one back at base and I’m sure they have one I can borrow,” you raised your eyebrows, expecting an answer from the blonde. “How’s that?” Her arms crossed over her chest and her knee bounced, a habit she had when she was lost in thought. Eventually, she spoke again yet her words were dripping with skepticism.

“Every Saturday at this time, you give us a weekly report with all the necessary details and, if you can, add in your ETC so we know when to strike. If everything is ready to go, the code word is “do not disturb.” Wrote all that down?”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” you joked, mock saluting her as you stood, only rolling her eyes at you as you shrugged your coat back on and headed out, but not before bidding them a good night and wishing them a safe trip back to Seattle in the morning. They all watched as you weaved through the thick trees scattered in the forest, their attention never wavering, not until you disappeared in the darkness of the night.

It wasn’t a rare occurrence for Abby to be losing sleep over this. It was something her brain did often, questioning her own methods and skills. This time, it settled on the fact that this mission would take a year to complete, more or less. Was it really worth the time?

Then again, she waited five years to kill him. Another year wouldn’t hurt, right?

++++++

[ladylooch]

Will David answer questions on the teams podcast about his relationship with Mack Hischier?

David does not talk about Mack when they are dating. At all. Ever. ( see below). After they are engaged though, he is happy to discuss her. Once they are married, he is full on “my wife” guy. Cannot shut up about her. Every other answer starts with “well, my wife says” or “My wife and I were talking about…” 

Let’s see more below about his response when they are dating...

In a sound proof media room, David Carlson stretches out his long legs beneath the table. He clasps his fingers together, leaning back in his chair as he lists off answers to the rapid fire questions the two podcast hosts are shooting at him.

“Last Binge Watch?” 

“Ah…” He thinks about what him and Mack are watching. “Brooklyn 99.”

“Nice! Favorite musician?”

“I’m an old school guy. Big into Garth Brooks right now.”

“Okay. Favorite thing to do on an off day.”

Have his face buried in Mack’s tits. He grins and blinks that thought away quickly.

“Go for a walk or meet up with friends. I can’t sit still for long. It’s the farm kid in me.”

The rapid fire questions have done a good job breaking the ice. David doesn’t love doing these things but knows he has certain obligations he has to do from time to time. He would rather do this than be pulled out of the locker room between periods.

The questions begin to shift from quick hits to longer, hockey focused ones. David fills them in on his trajectory to the show, what college was like, and if he really goes back to Iowa and works the farm every summer.

“What do you mean do I really do that?” David shoots back, cracking up. “Yeah, man. I really go work my farm in the summer. I've got pictures if you need 'em."

“That is insane. How do you do that and play hockey at such a high level? That is two high intensity jobs.”

“I’ve got staff. My farm manager, Felix, looks after the place for me. Couldn’t do it without him. We’ve got a group of farm hands, but mostly in the winter it’s maintenance and getting ready for the next season. Pretty cold. I’m glad I get to miss that part of the year. But yeah, it's my family farm, I grew up on it and couldn't see myself selling it off for someone else to run that land."

“Wow, that’s crazy. Do you ever sleep?”

“No.” He answers immediately, smirking.

David and the hosts chuckle in unison. 

“I have a great group of people back home who help. If I have to head back East early, my buddies Cody and Trevor will come help the group get the farm ready for harvest. I’m lucky. Nothing better than a small town helping each other out.”

“Speaking of harvest and fall activities…. what’s Thanksgiving dinner like for you and Woody?"

“What?” David asks, raising his eyebrow.

“I don’t know that they would celebrate Thanksgiving? They're Swiss.” The other host questions.

“Yeah, I guess, let's start there do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Cause Woody’s wife and your girlfriend are sisters.”

“Yeah, they’re half American tho.” David answers with an awkward laugh. He didn't see this going in that direction.

“Who cooks dinner?”

“Woody and his wife. I pick up the pie wherever Lucie Wood tells me too. That’s about all I’m good at contributing. Woody is a really good cook though. Him and Lucie kept me fed most of the time the last few years because we lived in the same building.”

“Is that how you and your girlfriend met?” The directness about Mack makes David shift in his chair. He reaches up, rubbing at his nose to hide his awkward lip scrunch.

“Sorry, boys but we aren’t going to go there today. I’m gonna keep that part of my life off the pod. She deserves her privacy.” 

“Oh shoot, sorry man. Didn’t mean to intrude.” The hosts genuinely answer. "We can cut that out."

“No worries.” David waves the concern away. He isn’t upset that they asked about her, but he isn’t going to say anything else about her. Mack has been clear that unless there is something more permanent between them- like a ring- she won’t be talking about him publicly. He feels it’s fair to respect her wishes in this space too.

David plans on telling Mack as much when he stops by her place after work. She swings the door open then shoots herself into his awaiting arms. She has had work events the last two days and they haven’t seen each other. He breathes her in then maneuvers his face to kiss hers.

“Mmm.” She sighs, then threads her fingers through his hair. Her hands grip his head, keeping his head to hers to kiss him again. “I’m gonna ignore what’s in your mouth right now cause I missed you so much.”

“Shit. Sorry.” He mutters. He uses his tongue to pull the tobacco pouch from his cheek. He meant to toss it as he was walking in but Ron distracted him with pictures of his newest grandchild.

“It’s fine. I guess. Cause you're cute and all.” She rolls her eyes at him teasingly. “How was your day?” She saunters back towards the kitchen, giving David a nice show of her ass in her blue leggings. 

“Good.” He murmurs distractedly. It isn’t until she rounds the island that he is able to raise his eyes away from her peach of an ass.

“Nice.” She laughs. David shrugs. “How did the podcast go?”

He had mentioned it to her earlier in the day, saying he was staying at the rink later and wouldn’t be able to catch lunch with her. Another reason to hate having media obligations: less time with his girl.

“It was good.” He murmurs, reaching into her bowl of popcorn and popping a kernel in his mouth. “This dinner?”

“No I ordered Indian.”

“Cool.” He nods, then grabs a handful. “Ah, they tried to ask me about you.”

“Really?” She turns to him with a scrunched look on her face. “Why?”

“Baby, it’s so funny to me that you have no idea who you are in the hockey world.” 

“Is it that I don’t know or that I don’t care?” David raises his eyebrows in a ‘fair’ response. “What did you say?”

“I said I wasn’t going to talk about ya.” He walks behind her, letting his hand cup her ass as he goes. He opens her fridge and pulls out a Coke. He wants a beer, but he has been lagging too much ass on the ice this week to be hitting the sauce.

“Thank you.” She smiles at him, clearly appreciating that he understands where the line is for her.

“Didn’t want you to get all embarrassed about dating a dumb hockey player.”

“You know that’s not it.”

“I know, honey.” He says, coming back to her. This time he grips her ass in both hands. “How was your day?”

“Good.” She smirks at him, purposefully keeping her answer short as she works her hands under his t-shirt to touch his abs. “Dinner is still a half hour away…”

“Hmm, what should we do?” He mumbles against her lips. She grips the waistband of his jeans and begin to tug him back towards the bedroom. He halts her with his hands on her hips. “What we gonna do in there that we can’t do here?”

Then he swoops her up into his arms to lay her back on the hard floor. 

Yeah, this part of his life is just for him.

[gettinshiggywithit]

!Dabi taking care of a tired reader!

scenario:-reader comes home tired as fuck,dabi sees em and cuddles ensue

pairing:-dabi x gn!reader

genre:-fluff/comfort

For @fallenssun

You’d just come back to your apartment after what felt like the longest day of ur life

You darted to the shower,eager to relieve yourself of your dirty old clothes.

Once you came out,toweling your hair as you made your way down to your little kitchen to make yourself a little snacc,you noticed that the tv was turned on...

You cautiously made your way to your living,the towel youd been using just moments before,now your only weapon against a possible intruder

You peaked around the corner to notice a familiar pOoF of black hair

You exhaled loudly which caught your ever vigilant boyfriends attention

Her turned his head to shoot you a little wave and gestured to the space beside him on the couch

You practically floated towards him,like you were riding on clouds, and practically fell into his lap

“Hey you..” you said,staring at the man who held your heart like he had hung the stars 🌟

Thd goofy smile on your face made the ever-stoic ‘villain’ look down at you with a smirk on his face

“Hey y/n~”

His voice sounded gruff yet calming and you swore that each word made you fall in love all over again..

“When did you get here Tou?”you asked,and unbeknownst to you,your use of that little nickname just happened to give him butterflies

“Like 10 minutes ago.”

“Dam you had time to clean up and change in 10?”

“🤷🏻‍♂️”

You turned your head from your position in his lap just a little to fully take in his outfit

He was wearing a grey hoodie and his black sweats,a completely simple outfit that you absolutely loved

He personally didn’t get it but hed heard you fangirling to one of your besties and had tried to wear it as often as possible ever since🥰

“You look good....warm...” you said,hugging him closer.

He could clearly see that you were tired and he knew how this would end so he let you snuggle in a little,one hand lightly massaging your scalp,the other tracing soothing patterns on your back

And just as predicted,you were out like a light in under five minutes

He looked down at your peacefully sleeping form and smiled lightly to himself

Something about you bein comfortable enough and safe enough around him to just

Fall asleep in his lap

Just made his heart flutter again

After a few more seconds of waiting to make sure you really were out cold,he picked you up and carried u to your shared bedroom

He placed you down on the covers before getting into his boxer and climbing in himself

The moment he hit the sheets you instinctively came closer to him and snuggled into his side

Now dabi wasn’t really muchh of a cuddler(at first) but at moments like this when he knew you wouldn’t know,he held you closer

Closer than your tight good bye hugs and closer than youd ever know

In those silent moments he held onto you like he was gonna wake up and lose you.so dangerously close yet so tenderly soft and secure

It was at these moments that he was the most vulnerable,when even HE felt the safest

The next morning you woke up tangled together,you felt better rested than you had in a while and you knew it definitely had something(everything) to do with the man beside you.

please dont repost my work here as your own on any platform all rights belong to me except that of the characters used,their right belong to their respective owners.but these stories? mine.

feedback,likes,reblogs and comments are so very appreciated tbh :’)i hope you enjoyed and ill catch ya next time!

Comments & Reblogs w/ tags >>>>>>>>>>>likes please

[radioactive-earthshine]

Trick or Treat

🦇A TREAT! 💀

Here's more of the unpublished KonBart Star Trek AU.

Enjoy!

🖖

“When was the last status update, Bart?” 

Bart blinked and looked at Conner sitting across from him across the fire. He was wearing only his pants and undershirt, having ditched his red jacket entirely, and his chin was rugged with dark scruffy hair. To Bart he was stunning like that, even though his shirt was stained and his hair lost a lot of its curl and laid frizzy on his head, but it was his eyes that remained ever wild. 

Before he could get too lost in his staring, Bart answered. “One week ago, it’s your turn. I’m no good at ‘em anyway.” 

Conner smirked and got up to grab the tricorder to record their status report. “No prob. You’re only the best pilot in all of Starfleet, had to trade something for all that talent.” 

“Hah!” Bart tossed a dry branch into the fire when it was getting low. The sun was also getting low, and with it the warmth and light of the Spring day. When Kon returned he sat down and leaned over himself. 

“What the fuck has even happened since the last update?” 

“We had that uh, bear-wolf-cougar-thing show up at our camp and you fed it chicken fried rice.” Bart tossed another branch in and orange embers flew up, it reminded Bart of his speed and he almost gave into the impulse to run but he remained seated. “Then we got a lotta rain, and I found that worm that was as big as you writhing through our camp.” 

“Yeah that’s all personal log stuff, you know what they want to hear. Did we find any sentients, what have we done to help ourselves-” 

“Did we violate the Prime Directive,” Bart interrupted. “I get it, I know. They just want a neat little report to have just in case they find our bodies, they wanna know what damage we might have done to any ‘primitive’ species. Starfleet isn’t interested in how we lived down here.” 

“Woah,” Conner looked at Bart and for the first time he was actually concerned. “That was cynical. Starfleet and The Federation  isn’t a perfect institution, but humans have come a damn long way from what they used to be! Their society would not be what it is now if they didn’t care about each other, or people like us.” 

“Pft, yeah they are a lot better than they used to be. Max has been watching them since maybe forever. He's a Lanthanite you know, he lives forever. He’s seen almost everything. Humans might have overcome a lotta things, and maybe they are the best they have ever been, but they still need things like Section 31 to do the things it does. Like investigating us like we were some sort of weapon or hostile intruder when we were just kids! And Starfleet still wants a nice little report so they don’t have to worry if someone valued compassion over regulations during a crisis.” 

Conner couldn’t argue against it and he wasn’t going to try, but he refused to embrace such apathy. “I’m not going to dispute any of that, but there are good people who will hear these, and I know Captain Sandsmark is one of them, and even if it is all just data and mission logs, she will care about us. Max too, he was your guardian, right? If we somehow die down here, he will listen to your logs, and he will care about you and everything you felt like saying. Even if they are rambling and not Starfleet standard.” 

The thought of Max listening to his fumbling logs did make Bart smile as he nodded in agreement. “Yeah, he’d be rolling his eyes at me because they are so bad. But you know what? I know that’s why he cares so much about me. Because he’s never had to deal with someone like me before in his entire life. Well, except for one horse that he had to shoot. He never told me why he had to shoot her though.” 

“You remind him of a horse he had to shoot?!”  Kon couldn’t tell if he wanted to laugh or be horrified that Bart reminded his father-figure of a dead horse but he couldn’t help but laugh when Bart started snickering. “Come on! You’re not that bad. You talk like you have no impulse control.” 

“I used to not have any, trust me. If you met me when I was new, you would have hated me.” 

“I cannot ever imagine hating you, Bart.” The way Conner said it made Bart’s throat tighten and his chest feel as hot as the flames between them. His eyes smoldered something, and then he quickly looked away. 

“You really, really don’t know how I was. I barely passed at the Academy.”  Conner shrugged. “A ‘D’ is still passing and I don’t care. I like you now. You get what it’s like to be, well, alone.”

[authorautumnbanks]

A Thousand Days With You (17)

Series Master List

Nanami Kento is not having a good day. First, Kagome calls him to her office to inquire if her energy massages turn him on. Spoiler alert: they do, and he had to pretend as though nothing was amiss because Gojo Satoru, the man he absolutely does not fantasize about, was sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.

No, seriously, he does not fantasize about Gojo Fucking Satoru.

And to make matters worse, Geto Suguru shows up, declaring war.

Today is a shit day.

He's stuck with the two strongest sorcerers, and Kagome is nowhere to be found. There are no traces. Nothing to go from. Zilch. She damn near vanished into thin air.

"Nanami!" Satoru admonishes. "Stop staring at my cock!"

Kento blinks and then splutters. "No one was looking at your..." he clamps his mouth shut and turns his head to the side. "Hurry the fuck up." Satoru couldn't have held it? He seriously has to use the bathroom now?

"Satoru, stop twitching," Suguru grumbles.

"Why are you touching me like that?"

"I have your cock in my hand. Shut it before I rip it off."

"Aww, Suguru, you know I like it rough."

Against his better judgment, Kento turns his head and inhales. Why is Suguru helping Satoru to urinate? Satoru can hold his own cock. He swallows.

Kagome's been taking all that?

"Nanami," Satoru exclaims, thrusting his free hand in front of his cock. "This is indecent."

"Oh, shut up," Kento grumbles. The tip of his ears burn. "The only indecent one here is you. We're wasting time and you're slacking off." He turns his head away right as Suguru leans forward to help Satoru zip his pants up. Is he the only one that hasn't forgotten that Suguru is a curse user? Why are they so buddy-buddy again?

"First of all, I have a plan," Satoru says.

"Oh really? You have a plan?" Suguru asks, dryly. "Did you get a read on that portal or whatever the hell that was?"

"Well...no. But!" Satoru snaps his fingers and then walks them all to the sink so he can wash his and Suguru's hand. "I know where her family lives and they might have some clues. Doesn't make sense for Kagome to just disappear like that. She ain't got no enemies, as far as I know."

"What about the higher-ups?" Suguru asks. "They're always doing something."

"Yeah, one of those fuckers asked her to marry em'. Kagome won't give em' up."

"Oh?" Suguru smiles, but it's unpleasant. Kento wets his lips. He feels like he is intruding on something. "Well, we can just kill them all, then. They clearly had something to do with this."

Kento blinks. "No! That's not what that means." He pinches the bridge of his nose, ignoring the dirty looks Satoru and Suguru shoot at him. "We can't just kill them. The higher-ups like Kagome. She's valuable. They wouldn't stage a kidnapping."

Satoru huffs. "Fine. They do have a soft spot for her. They refuse to give her hardly any missions, though she's a semi-special grade."

"The fuck is a semi-special grade?"

"Eh, fuckers didn't want to give her special grade status because she doesn't quite meet the definition, but she can take on a special grade curse, no problem. So, whoever took her is at least a special grade. Has to be. They got past me." The last part, Satoru grumbles as though it pains him to admit it. "We had three special grades and not one of us noticed."

Kento sucks his teeth. "There was a lot going on," he says with a frown. "Don't beat yourself up."

"Are you comforting me?"

"Kami no."

Satoru squints his eyes at him and then shrugs. "Hope you like teleporting." That's all the warning Kento gets before the school bathroom flashes away and instead, the sight of a house greets him.

"The hell kind of warning was that?" Suguru grumbles.

"I'll talk," Satoru says, "Not you."

Suguru sighs. "I'm more personable than you."

"First of all, you hate people."

Kento closes his eyes. His head throbs. How could Kagome do this to him? No, he shouldn't have presumed to know what her preferences are, and no, he shouldn't have spoken for her, but did he have to get lumped into being stuck with these two idiots? "Perhaps I should be the one to speak. I do not hate non-sorcerers and I have more tact than Satoru."

"Gojo."

"That's what I said."

The door swings open before they can agree on who will be the mouthpiece. An older with short black hair and brown eyes smiles at them. "Gojo Satoru, right?" she chirps. She's wearing a pale-yellow dress and a pink apron. There is flour on her arms.

"... You know me?" Satoru points to himself with his free hand.

"I've heard of you, though I thought Kagome was bringing you by next week." She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. What brings you here?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Kento says. "Are you Kagome's mother?"

"Oh, sorry. Yes, Higurashi Himari. And you two are friends of Kagome's?"

Friends? Distaste punches Kento in the gut, but it is marginally better than saying they are simply coworkers. "Yes, we are friends of Kagome. Nanami Kento." He steels his stomach and motions to Suguru. "Geto Suguru."

Himari smiles and waits for them to answer her first question. Satoru isn't saying shit, so Kento does. "Has Kagome been in contact with you today? There was an incident at the school, and we believe she was kidnapped." Kento inhales. His chest hurts. "Does she, by chance, have any enemies that you know of?"

Himari blinks and then laughs. The trio look at one another and then back at Kagome's mother. Perhaps this is the denial stage. He gets it; he does. No one wants to receive such news and Kagome is an amazing woman. How could anyone hate her? And yet, someone took her right in front of all their noses. Kento clears his throat, drawing Himari's attention back to him. She waves a hand in the air as her laughter dies down.

"I'm sorry, dears. It's just that girl has been getting kidnapped since she was 15. This is normal. She'll turn up later tonight or in a couple of days, as she always does."

"... What?" Suguru hisses. "What do you mean, this is normal?"

Himari regards Suguru with something Kento can't put his finger on, but it's enough to have Suguru step back. "It's probably someone that fancies themselves in love with her and if they aren't in love with her now, then they will be, and eventually let her go as they all do." She leans against the doorway. "I believe you three should work on getting unstuck. Surely Kagome was able to tell you how before she got taken."

"Time out," Satoru says. "Someone that is in love with her?"

Kento mentally rolls his eyes. That's what Satoru gets hung up on? Not that Himari can see that they are stuck together? Unless this isn't invisible to normal humans?

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. That was insensitive. Your relationship is still new?" Himari frowns. Kento peeks over at Suguru, whose ears are bright red. Oh, Suguru is seething. Kento half expects steam to burst out of Suguru's ears like a teakettle with how red his ears are. "InuYasha always grumbled about that, and it does always seem to be the case. Though she hasn't talked about anyone... was it that Mori guy?"

Satoru stiffens.

Who the hell is Mori? Kento bites the inside of his cheek until it hurts. Satoru seems to be familiar with the name and Suguru does too? How long has Suguru known Kagome?

"Does he have shit-colored hair?" Satoru asks.

Kento palms his face and exhales. Why is Satoru like this? Who says that? And to Kagome's mother, of all people.

"Satoru," Suguru reprimands.

"Well, yes, I suppose he does," Himari replies. "Kagome showed me a picture so I could be on the lookout. I'd forgotten about him. It's not usually..." she stops, pressing her lips together.

It's not usually what? Kento's nostrils flare. Also, why isn't Himari bothered by Satoru's crass?

"Well, since Kagome works with you three at that school and I can see the energy around you is different, then you know there are humans like me that are, well, mundane."

Wisely, Suguru says nothing.

"You shouldn't be able to see that," Satoru comments. "Wait, your necklace and ring feel off."

Himari looks at her ring. "Well, it was a gift from InuYasha to ward off, uh, creepy fuckers, as he put it." She laughs again. "And the necklace is from Kagome, so I can be more aware of my surroundings." She looks over at Suguru. "Like you have a lot of those creepy things that run around in the city, but since you were able to pass through the wards, Kagome must not find you a threat."

They say goodbye to Himari and trek across town to Kagome's apartment. Jealousy is a special grade curse, has to be, because the negative emotions swirling in Kento's gut are enough to start an apocalypse. Of course, Satoru and Suguru know where Kagome lives. Of course, they have spent time with her outside of work. Of course, Suguru knows how to get into Kagome's apartment, though, in anger, Kento chooses not to see if Suguru is simply breaking in or using a key.

"Everything looks the same," Satoru quips, leading them through the apartment. He takes them into the kitchen and blows out a breath. "What?"

"You only wanted to come here to rub it in my face," Suguru says.

"Oh, you smell what we did?" Satoru coos, but the smile on his face is diabolical. The hairs on Kento's arm raise and warning bells ring in his ears.

Damnit. He can't get away from these two.

Wait.

Smell what?

"You slept with her?" Kento asks, voice rising so high it comes out as a squeak. Satoru was with Kagome this morning? How many mornings has he had her? He tries to push those thoughts away. It's none of his business and trying to police who Kagome talks to is what got him into this mess. When he sees her again, he'll drop to his knees and beg for her forgiveness.

Satoru huffs. "Nanami, I always thought you were a smart guy, but it seems I was wrong. Didn't you hear what her mom had to say? Kagome and I are together, so back the fuck off, Suguru."

"Kagome is only with you because she hasn't been with me."

"You tryin' to say I can't fuck?"

"No, you lack the emotional intelligence to give Kagome what she needs."

Kento blinks. Did Suguru just admit Satoru... his face warms. An image of Satoru and Suguru together buries itself into his brain and seeps down into his bloodstream. Dear Kami, help him. This apartment is hot. Too hot. Maybe he should loosen his tie, get some air flow?

"What's with him?"

"I'm telling ya, he wants to fuck me."

Kento scowls. "I never said that." He should have never told Shoko about his fantasies. It's not about Satoru, so much as it is about Kagome, but... Satoru's cock is... Kento grits his teeth. Stop thinking about that!

"Yeah? Why you blush every time I take my blindfold off?"

"From anger," Kento says, turning his head away. "There are no clues here. Now what?"

Suguru sighs. "I suppose the best course of action would be to finish the missions you two were assigned, so we can learn to work together and get unstuck. We could cover more ground that way. And the kidnapper isn't Mori, since he's dead."

"And then when we get Kagome back, you'll back off," Satoru says, not addressing Suguru's comment about Mori.

Kento squints. Are they not going to address that?

"Not happening," Suguru says. He eyes Satoru for a moment. "Where were you taking her over the weekend?"

"Why would I tell you?" Satoru scoffs, though it comes off as if he is whining.

"Because I'm coming too."

"Fuck no."

"Worried she'll see I'm the better man?"

"First off, Suguru," Satoru says, poking Suguru's chest. "You're a serial killer. I'm the better man, not you. And second, the only people coming on this trip are Kagome and me. Not you. You can go in your palms for all I care. Or go fuck a cactus."

"ENOUGH!" Kento shouts, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is exactly why Kagome said this wasn't going to work. Stop talking about her like she's some kind of property."

His chest rises.

His blood pressure even higher.

Satoru and Suguru stare at him, the wheels turning in their minds. Suguru's expression is more open than Satoru's. They look at one another and must come to some kind of agreement because the tenseness in their shoulders drops and the atmosphere between them is charged with something else.

Kento swallows. His heart rate slows to a turtle's pace. Pain blooms between his brows, settling in like an unwelcome guest.

He got them to get along, but why does it feel like he took a sword to the heart?

***

A/N: Shippo is probably laughing his ass off and kicking his feet up. Hope you had an amazing week and I hope you are having an awesome Saturday. Make sure to drink lots of water and stay hydrated in this heat. And reach out to someone you haven't talked to in a while, you never know how that might brighten someone's day.

[blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk]

I don’t know where your number is at soooooo —

Could you please write a fic with reader being trained by the phantomhive staff in self defense / defending the manor in general? Either all together or a mini story for mey rin, bard, Tanaka, Sebastian? I figured Finny would be more like your personal cheerleader?? Because he can’t exactly teach anyone to have super strength, ya feel? Please and thank you!!

this is sorta like a cross between the ideas?

I LOVE THEM ALL, YOUR HONOR

“There we are, that’s it! … Lord, (Name), y’ need t’ tighten up y’r aim a bit, y’ do. That was a bit sloppy.”

You offer a little wince as you turn back to MEY RIN, wondering exactly what she expects of you. This is your first time shooting a gun, after all! “S… sorry, ma’am. I’m trying.”

She nods understandingly. “No, no, I know y’ are. Y’ coulda done a lot worse, all things considered.”

Within only a few seconds, she’s swiftly at your back. Arms around you, she snaps your hands and gun into a slightly different position. She’s been doing this for so long, it must be almost like breathing to her, mustn’t it? You have to wonder how she’s not incredibly frustrated with a newcomer’s abilities.

“C’mere. Let’s see… good. Alright, gimme one more shot an’ we’ll take a li’l breather, alright? Don’t want y’ gettin’ all shaky or nothin’.” She gestures toward the target with her head, then moves to let go so you can shoot on your own. “Pretend that target’s an enemy. Someone what came along t’ do us all harm an’ threaten the master. Y’ don’t ask questions, y’ protect the manor. Shoot ‘em.”

That’s intimidating, but not inaccurate. You don’t want your new life to slip away; you straighten up, take aim, and pull the trigger.

It isn’t long before you move on, with the next person giving you a lesson being BARD.

It seems his preferred method of dealing with intruders is also a gun, just like Mey Rin, although he shows very clearly that he also has a fondness for… well… explosives. He also tells you point-blank that he tends to use guns at closer range than Mey Rin does.

Which you’d lean toward, you don’t even know. All you know is that the recoil from shooting a close-up target is painful. This isn’t something you’d want to do unless your life literally did depend on it.

That said, the explosives aren’t much better. Bard’s gotten very good at controlling the resulting fires, so having you light and throw one toward a target isn’t a problem. The biggest problem is that your hands shake on the matches, leading you to nearly burn yourself.

“That’s alright,” he sighs as he throws water over the last of the embers. “You did jus’ fine, alright? You’re a better shot than you are usin’ fire. So we’ll jus’ make sure you always have a gun nearby.”

“I’m sorry…” You cradle your almost-burnt hand to your chest. “I… suppose it could be worse, right?”

He nods. “That’s right. You’re doin’ fine. C’mon, go take five minutes in the garden with Finny an’ you’ll come back with fresh eyes.”

Off you pop, then.

When you go in the garden to find FINNY and relax for a few minutes, he looks all too happy to see you. It’s as if he was expecting that you’d need a break by this point.

You plop down next to him beneath the tree he’s sitting under, and almost immediately he hands you a freshly picked apple right from one of the branches. He gives you a smile, but doesn’t say anything right away.

The two of you have a snack in silence, then he finally speaks up. “Gets a little intense, don’t it? You don’t gotta worry, though ― from what I seen, you’re doin’ great.”

“Thanks, Finny…” Your shoulders droop a little and you let out a breath. “I just wish it wasn’t so much work. I wish I was just strong, like you, so I wouldn’t have to learn all this.”

He shrugs. “You don’t wanna be strong like me. You’re perfect on your own. It’d be different work, learnin’ how t’ control it, anyway.”

After a moment, he grins at you. “After the break, though, I could show you how t’ distract an intruder. I mean, just ‘cause I don’t use a weapon don’t mean I ain’t got nothin’ t’ teach you!”

… As soon as you finish your apple, you decide to take him up on that.

Because Finny doesn’t want to take up too much of your time, he keeps his lesson short, and shuffles you off to SEBASTIAN shortly afterwards.

The butler is undoubtedly even more intimidating than Mey Rin was when she was teaching you. There isn’t a thing on this estate that escapes Sebastian’s notice unless Ciel specifically orders him to turn a blind eye to something.

That would be worrying enough. He clearly expects you to sharpen your perception the way that he does. He leads you on a veritable tour of the entire estate, attempting (and quite often succeeding) to catch you off guard with attacks that a real enemy would try to use.

If nothing else, like the rest of the staff, Sebastian does take care not to actually hurt you. Well… he bruises your ego a little bit.

“You must keep your eyes a bit more open,” he says, clicking his tongue once you just narrowly avoid falling into the last trap he’s set for you. “If I had been a genuine intruder who got in quietly, you may have fallen to me.”

Still, his face softens when that damned observation of his catches how exhausted you are. It’s obvious he knows how hard you’ve been working. “You have one more day of training ahead of you. For now, what you’ve done will suffice. Go relax, and early to bed with you, because you can be certain you’ll be early to rise tomorrow.”

With one last bow, you trudge down the hallway toward the stairs, intending to head up to the room Ciel has assigned to you near the rest of the servants’.

Before you can get that far, TANAKA stops you. Without so much as word (but with his usual easygoing smile), he ushers you toward the kitchen. You’re bone tired by now, so you follow without any comment.

Once there, he takes a cup from one of the counters and presses it gently into your hands. “Here we are. Something to end your day on a good note ― give you a little soothing after all the effort you’ve been putting in.”

It’s warm against your fingers, the temperature on its own already seeping into all your aches. “O-oh… thank you, Tanaka. I appreciate it… you didn’t have to.”

“No, but you’ll find that the Phantomhive household is rather all about doing things we don’t have to,” he chuckles. “Take the tea up to your room. I’ll be along toward the end of the night to collect it so you don’t need to worry.”

Before you leave, however, he presses something else into your hand: a small blade, concealed within the design of an intricate skeleton key and designed to be flicked open quickly. “And take this, as well. Just in case you happen not to have a gun in reach should something happen. We’re all very proud of you, (Name).”

You give him a brief hug before pocketing the knife and heading up toward your room.

As you open the door to slip inside, the very last thing Ciel said to you echoes in your mind.

You are a Phantomhive servant now, (Name). Never forget that.

You don’t think there’s any way you could.

[eievuimultimuse]

@eyeknowmayhem | CLOSED STARTER ( from SUPERFLY; for MONDO ! )

     IT WAS SUNRISE when the fly mutant arrived back at the truly abandoned shipyard for the third morning in a row. It was kinda CRAZY to think it’d only been THREE DAYS since he’d finally escaped. Three days out of a whopping SIX MONTHS. Six months since they turned him back, since he was no more than a fly in a jar, since his FAMILY turned against him . . .six months since he lost everything.

     He’d made it part of his new habit to wander New York’s streets at night and to return here during the day so as to not get caught by any humans. He only used it to have a safe place to crash at this point, feeling exhausted after staying awake and alert all night. Not like he had much reason to use it for anything other than sleep; not when it was so…EMPTY now, save for some few things. He knew it wasn’t the smartest thing, frequenting a spot like this. He knew it made him more likely to get caught in the long run. But truthfully…he didn’t have anywhere else to go.

     When he enters the cavernous abode, he’s got a duffle bag strapped over his shoulder — just some items he nabbed while he was out, things that he needed to, y’know…LIVE. He plans on just taking it and himself to his room  ( which, surprisingly, seemed to be only part of the place that remained mostly intact. guess they didn’t care enough to clean it out like they did the rest of the place )  before settling down to sleep the day hours away. Sleep away the day, just to wake up by nightfall and do the whole thing over agai—

     Shortly upon entering, he suddenly pauses full stop, antennae twitching suspiciously. He swears that he hears something.  ( Maybe it’s just the lack of sleep getting to him ? )  No, he really does. Or, at least, he senses that something’s amiss. There aren’t any immediately noticeable changes to the place, yet he can’t help but feel that something’s changed regardless. Someone’s been in here in his absence.  ( Shit. Did they find him again already ? ) 

     Paranoid thoughts running through his mind, he ditches the bag — simply lets it drop to the floor, to which it lands quietly — to go investigating.  ( He’s honestly not sure if he has the stamina to go for a round two with these guys if push comes to shove — they certainly put up one hell of a fight when he made his escape — but he sure wasn’t going to run away. IF NOT EVEN HERE IS SAFE, THEN HE’S S.O.L. )

     He’s naturally taken to flying up towards the rafters to get a better view, compound eyes scanning every possible area. It becomes evident — much to his benefit — that even if there are any of those ASSHOLES around, there can’t possibly be that many. The ship is BIG and has plenty of places to hide, but not so many that he wouldn’t have spotted a whole pack of ‘em already if there was one. At the very least, if there is an intruder  ( he may be beginning to doubt; may be beginning to think it really is just poor sleep catching up to him ), it’s only—

     Wait. He’s spotted movement below, somewhere. It’s in his peripheral, but he caught it. So someone IS here. The place is so dark at this current hour that he can’t really make heads or tails of who or what he’s looking at — but if he’d wager a guess, this isn’t TCRI coming to bust down his door. Again, it’s hard to tell, but the individual looks far too skinny compared to TCRI goons’ habit of wearing some of the bulkiest armour seemingly known to man. That doesn’t exactly ease his concern any, though, because if it’s NOT them, then— WHO THE HELL IS THAT ?  And what the HELL are they doing in HIS home ?

     He observes for some time longer, keeping himself hidden while he does, just to try and piece together what’s going on. Eventually, it becomes apparent that this— TRESPASSER is poking around at some of the few remaining things left around. HIS things.

     ( Oh, HELL no. He KNOWS that this guy isn’t trying to freakin’ ROB him right now. )

     When he shoots down, he’s as swift as a bullet, landing a few feet away with a pretty hefty and angry THUD. He just so happens to land in one of the few sunny spots there is, leaving no part of his person a secret. He’s speaking before he’s even given himself a chance to LOOK, already running his mouth as he moves closer, moving to close the gap. “ Man, I dunno WHAT you’re thinkin’ you’re gonna find in a damn shipyard, but I suggest you— “

     He stops in his tracks suddenly, as if he’d just been struck. Demeanour completely changes; the defensive, hostile expression is immediately replaced with a wide-eyed look of SHOCK. Now that he’s closer to this mysterious guest, he can actually see that this isn’t just some weird, rando human that’s somehow snuck their way in here. He’s not sure which part he registered first: the tail with the skate attached, the faux hair, the eccentric outfit that Superfly could NEVER talk Mondo out of in favour of something a little tougher  ( not that he tried particularly hard; he quickly accepted that with some things, he was better off just letting his youngest sibling do as he pleased rather than try to fight it ).

     What DID occur to him at that moment, though, was that he quickly realized that, seeing as they ALL BUT CLEARED THE PLACE OUT, he’d neglected to consider the possibility that…any of them would actually…COME BACK. And FIND HIM here. So, as he’s standing there, STUNNED, it’s…probably pretty EVIDENT that he was not at ALL prepared for this.

     “ . . . Oh. “ His voice is flat, but the surprise is still evident. " It's just...you. " He's aware that he's saying it as if he HASN'T been separated from him for months. In his shocked state, he's just...BLANKING on what else TO say.

[ladylilithprime]

Day 20: Limbo

(Set in the Familiar'verse. Sam Winchester is a lawyer and practicing witch. Detective John Castiel Novak is a cat shapeshifter and Sam's familiar. Dean Winchester officially works for the FBI as a hunter community liaison.)

THE BAR FOR doing basic research on a hunt is so low that it's practically a tripping hazard in Hell," Sam Winchester groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "yet here you are trying to Limbo with the demons."

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't ya, freak?" the man tied to the chair spat, struggling against the ropes. He wasn't getting out any time soon; Sam knew how to tie very good knots, and he'd been thorough frisking the guy after he was knocked out before doing it. "Which one's got your contract, huh? Had to get those damned witch powers from somewhere."

"Mary Campbell Winchester," Sam drawled, lips quirking a bit at the sudden look of shock that crossed the man's face. "These powers run in her side of my family. No demon deals needed, and no demons allowed. Though that line of thinking does explain what you thought you were doing breaking in here if you're the kind of idiot who hears 'witch' and skips straight over the 'natural' part."

"No such thing!" the man protested, glaring. "Ain't nothing natural about freaky powers what scare the shit out of nornal people, turning 'em into cats--"

"Bite me, bitch," snapped a smoke-roughened voice from over on the couch. "I was born this way!"

"How're you feeling, Cas?" Sam asked, his lazy tone belying the very real concern he felt for his lover and familiar.

"Like I got flung across the room by an armed intruder after clawing his gun hand to keep him from shooting my partner," Cas answered dryly. "Is that animal abuse, or assaulting a police officer during an armed break-in?"

"I'm inclined to let Dean and Vic worry about that one, honestly," Sam said with a shrug. "Along with whatever other charges they want to throw at this guy."

"Charges?!" the man echoed, having the gall to actually sound offended. "You can't arrest me!"

"Me? No," admitted Sam pleasantly. "Him, though? He's a police detective, and caught you red-handed breaking into his home with lethal intentions towards his domestic partner. And if he doesn't arrest you himself, well, my brother Dean and his partner are already on the way. They're FBI, incidentally. Actual FBI."

"You'll get what's coming to you, witch," the man spat. "I ain't the only hunter out there--"

"And most of them are smarter than you and already know about me and mine," Sam interrupted with a roll of his eyes. He wasn't feeling like indulging this guy's weird self righteous bullshit or whatever it was he felt justified him trying to kill anyone who showed the slightest sign of being "on the spectrum of supernaturally gifted" as his familiar's twin brother had once phrased it. To Cas, he added, "You'd think he'd have at least heard the Winchester name before and had second thoughts before barging in. Dean's gone legit, yeah, but he's not out."

"Extremists are rarely burdened with an abundance of critical thinking skills," Cas snarked. "And that was a further admission of intent to incite violence. Do we have to leave him conscious?"

"I kinda want to see how much he keeps talking despite my warning that he's being recorded," Sam admitted with a smirk and the suddenly wide eyes on the man. "Seems to have slipped his mind along with whatever he might've heard about the Winchester family before tonight."

"Pity," Cas deadpanned.

The hunter, finally showing some amount of intelligence and self-preservation, mercifully shut up. Just in time, as Sam could feel Dean's approach to his and Cas's apartment, his brother's mind a thundercloud of anger and protective concern with Vic's steadier steel following behind. Thank Gaia, he thought as Cas gingerly got up off the couch to open the door. They might actually have a shot at going back to sleep tonight.

As if just to try and prove him wrong and get in the last word, the bound hunter hissed, "You're gonna burn in Hell, you disgusting freak. You and your pet monster."

Like Sam hadn't heard that before.

"Keep watch for me once you get there, then," he said, bored and more than ready to be done with this. "For now, you can go rot in a cell."

[wardogsong]

Frank would you stop being the Punisher if it brought your family back? Could you stop?

gray ghost the frank || inbox temporarily closed

"Who says I want 'em back?" FUCK. No. The words come out a little too quick and WRONG WRONG WRONG. It sounds like he's happy to have his family gone but there's nothing that could be further from the truth; not when he misses them with every fiber of his being and feels their absence like a phantom limb. It's the whiskey barely left in the glass— too much of it in his gut, muddying up his already banged up brain. Remorse washes over his tired battered features, screaming I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT and is chased by despair and disappointment in himself. Frank's a man aware that his social graces are severely lacking these days but this shit is something else entirely and it hurts him to have even mistakenly spoken of his family that way. His babygirl. His little boy. Behind the cringing closed lids of his eyes he sees them like he last saw them, red red red and wrong. Innocent angels.

SHIT, the only comfort he has in this world is the knowledge that they are safe beyond any pain that could ever try and touch them again. It's unfair, it's not perfect, they've been robbed of milestones as shitty as first heartbreaks and not getting into their first choice college; things he should have been there for to wipe their tears away. But AT LEAST, they're at peace. No shitbag boy will ever embarrass or reject his Lisa, no woman will ever rip Junior's heart out and step on it. He won't be dealing out shovel talks or dangling boys from windows for the audacity of doing them wrong. Nothing will ever touch Maria wrong again— she'll never stay up long nights worrying herself gray about them; about all the dumb choices that kids are bound to make as they grow up and test their wings— all the things Frank would have given them grief about like a hypocrite who hadn't done WORSE.

She'll never worry about anything ever again. None of them will. It's the only peace he knows.

Frank shakes his head, makes a face that says he intends to try again but first polishes off his drink— as if for courage or something. "Nah— I get it. That's a thing, now right? All these... uh... what'cha call 'em. The Enhanced. The-the-the weird shit fallin' outta the sky. People takin' a dirt nap then poppin' up like daisies again. Makes the question less uh— less hypothetical than it used t'be. I get it." He's spent the better part of two decades whiling away downtime in the desert with nothing to do but shoot the shit about every conceivable topic with his brothers. They've had deeper, weirder, and stupider conversations but everyone's played at least ONE round of 'who would you bring back if you could' and every associated variation.

"Somebody bringin' 'em back? S'no reason t'take the vest off. Somebody brings 'em back, first thing I'm doin' is loading for bear. I'd find 'em and uh— take 'em somewhere real nice. Real nice. Nice and secluded. Can't hear a man scream type'a place. They're gonna live so much longer than they wish— than they knew was possible with their guts hangin' out of them, but there's ways. Trust me, there's ways."

"Anybody ever touches them again? They're gettin' the PUNISHMENT they deserve, I'll tell ya that."

And if his family still lived beyond such a horror? How could he ever go back to them with his bloodied hands and his marked soul? No. No, there'd be no reason to put down the skull at all. It'd only be EVEN MORE reason to keep it on and live on as the memento mori that Lieberman had dubbed him. A reminder to all who even thought to intrude upon those restored lives that all men die— some more brutally and painfully than others, if they ended up in his crosshairs.

[hailtothemightystarwarrior]

The Star Warrior Nutcracker Ch. 4: Ambush In Cappy Town

metaknight glanced around. “Strange. The cappies has lived in this area for generations. My guess is that daroach either captured them or ran to avoid capture”

adeleine looked at him “Why would he want to capture them?”

“Before I was banished, daroach bragged about making everybody his slave, not because he needed any, but for his own amusement. He even showed me two colorful sisters in chains, claiming her as his own personal fortunetellers”

“Fortunetellers?”

“ He said they can conjure the spirit of the dreams and see the future. He forced her to tell him how to work on his own magic. No doubt that’s how he found you”

He shook his head sadly “If that’s what he’s doing to her, who knows what he’s making other folks so?” he looked at adeleine and then up at the a large tree

adeleine went up and grabbed a red cheeked apple that had captured her interest. She was on the tip of her toes as she grasped it. When she tried to pluck it off the branch however, it wouldn’t budge, as if something was holding back. Determined to have the apple, Adeleine pulled at it with all her might. She shrieked when a head popped out. It was the head of a boy. In the brief moment she saw the boy, adeleine could see a strand of blonde and green hair dangling.

For it was a brief moment, as the start made her fall back to the ground. The others rushed to catch her when they were suddenly brought up and enclosed in a net from the ground, which ensnared Adeleine as she fell. The net hoists them upwards from the trees.

Around them, cappy folks of all ages, including children. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by weapons of all kinds: Knives, swords, spears, rifles, clubs, pitchforks, even frying pans! The last one was held by an elderly cappy in a brown hat

“Alright, intruders!” he hollered “State your name and business!”

“Who are you?” metaknight demanded

“We’re the resistance!” a cappy declared

“Citizens of the land of dreams united against the squeak king!” Exclaimed the blonde haired boy that frightened adeleine earlier

“You’ve got us all wrong!” the nutcracker insisted “We’re on your side! Who’s your leader?”

“That would be me”

Everyone turned to the voice. Leaning against the trunk of a tree was a blonde girl with a long braid in pink and green and orange feet. She sashayed over to the prisoners

“What have we bagged ourselves here?”

“A couple of no-good trespassers!” the old man howled

The others shouted in response. adeleine shrieked as the blonde boy poked her with a pitchfork

“And thieves too!” the boy accused “This one here was tryin’ to steal our whispy apples!”

“I didn’t know!” adeleine insisted “The apples look so delicious and…”

“Looks like they’re kidnappers too!” a cappy said, pointing her club at kirby

“What?” the ribbon said “No, they didn’t kidnap us! She’s with us!”

“I reckon they’re spies too!” The elderly man claimed

I think you’re right, mayor!” another cappy, nodded, poking his spear at ribbon. “daroach will get anyone to do his dirty work! Even kids!

“Hmm,” the ringleader said, rubbing her chin. “two girls and a young man traveling on this road in these times is mighty suspicious… what do you suppose we do with them?

“Let’s just shoot ‘em!” one shouted excitedly

“Nah, too messy, Bookem. We might get blood on the trees”

“We could drown ‘em in the river!" Another cappy offered

“Not a bad idea, samo, but their bodies could float upstream. We can’t risk daroach’s squeakers finding clues as to where we are”

“Hey, Tiff” one cappy exclaimed, pointing his rifle at adeleine “This one’s a not a cappy!”

“Gus!” the leader, Tiff, cried. “What have I told you about flirting with the prisoners?”

“No! I mean she’s human!”

“And this one’s made of wood!” a cappy declared, pointing at metaknight. “I think he’s a toy soldier of some kind!”

“A Toy, huh? tiff, crossing her arms. “Well, I must say that’s a new one. Haven’t seen these people around these parts for a while. Didn’t daroach would use them as spies”

“We’re not spies!” the nutcracker repeated

He looked among the denizens and gasped when he saw a familiar face

“Chef bookem? Is that you? It’s me, metaknight! We worked in the palace!”

The bearded cappy tilted his head at him. Some of the resistance members lowered their weapons

“Did he say metaknight?” the blonde boy questioned

“Spies will say anything these days! The one we caught last week said he was didn’t say a word. The fact that he escaped only proved he was a spy”

He approached the nutcracker “metaknight was destroyed by daroach. he may be evil, but he’s no idiot. He would’ve made sure there was nothing left of his adversary!”

I don’t know, tiff,” samo said skeptically “there were rumors that the captain wasn’t destroyed, but banished”

“I heard he was turned into wood!” the cappy declared

“I heard he was turned into a doll of some sort!” the boy exclaimed

“Yes, I was!” metaknight said frantically. “And i was banished too! I came back to destroy the squeak king!”

“Then what are they here for?” tiff asked, tilting her head towards the ladies

“They’re my, err, companions. They’re here to help too! I know you’re fighting for the same cause, so if you’ll cut us down and join us, we can defeat the squeak king and end his reign of terror!”

There was murmur among the resistance. Tiff saw the uncertainty in her followers and sighed

“The way I see it, there’s only one way to clear up this whole mess” she turned to one of the old cappy in brown “Mayor? You knew metaknight better than any of us. Is this him?”

The mayor looked up at the nutcracker and brought his face closer to get a better view of him. After a minute of scrutinizing, he smiled and replied:

“Yes, that’s the captain of the guards!”

The resistance gasped and dropped their weapons with a unified bow. Tiff wore an astonished expression on her face. She knew her partner was rarely ever mistaken and his decree made heat rush to her cheeks in embarrassment.

“Oh, well, uh…” she couched “right then. Boys, cut ‘em loose”

Two cappies nodded and cut the rope with a knife. The four companions shrieked as they dropped to the ground. Tiff held out his hand to help the nutcracker up.

“Apologies cap’n,” she said softly. “We didn’t mean to intimidate you, but you never know who ya can trust these days”

“perfectly understandable. I wouldn’t done the same” metaknight

“I’m just sorry we hadn’t recognized ya earlier”

“Too bad you realized it too late!” a voice exclaimed

Everyone turned and gasped, seeing an army of spinni had appeared out of nowhere. Tiff smiled smugly at the source of the voice”

“Doc,” she smirked “it’s been a while, bud”

“tiff,” Doc growled, “Don’t think I've forgotten what you did to my saucer!”

“Oh yeah, that?” that was a gift. How do you like another one for new year’s?”

That was enough to tick the bluish-white mouse off. “That does it!”

“Army of squeakers! Attack!”

The squeakers army lunged forward while the resistance members picked up their weapons. Tiff turned to the nutcracker

“We’ll hold them off as long as we can. You and your friends get outta here!”

“But…” metaknight started to say

“Don’t worry about us. This isn’t our first battle. You have one of your own to get to!”

He looked between her and his companions and nodded “We’ll never forget this!”

“Good luck with ol’ daroach!” tiff called the four travelers. He faced forward. “Cappies, for freedom!”

The resistance members cheered as they charged and met the squeakers with fire in their blood. tiff’s first move was kicking storo in the gut, the blonde boy wacked doc’s saucer with his pitchfork and the mayor whacking squeakers with his cane. Meanwhile, the nutcracker and his companions crept away, hoping the fracas would be enough to distract thesqueakers, for no doubt they were after adeleine again

However, they did not go unnoticed. Once storo had recovered from tiff’s blow, his jaw dropped when he saw the four escaping

“The girl!” he exclaimed “They’re getting away with the girl! Come on, squeakers!

He gestured for doc to follow him. After one thrown the mayor over his head and the other kicked the blonde boy aside, they chased after the escapes. Adeleine, ribbon, and kirby squealed when the squeakers leaped out and surrounded them

“storo” doc ordered “Grabbed the girl! But remember what the master said!”

storo nodded and chuckled as he advanced on adeleine. metaknight held his hand protectively in front of her and drew his sword

“Not a chance, storo!”

“Ignore him!” doc exclaimed, waving him off. “I’ll take care of him! tears the fairy and pink ball apart!”

“On my signal,” metaknight whispered to the others

He waited for the squeakers to lunge forward with their bombs before shouting:

“Duck!”

“They crouched down, making the squeakers collide into each other. The four companions scrambled off in different directions before they fall on them. The squeakers groaned as they attempted to rise. When doc saw that their target had fled, slapped his compatriots

“Get them, you fools!”

Meanwhile, the battle between the freedom fighters and the squeakers was still going on. Tiff found himself pressed up against the tree with five sqeakers closing in on her. This, however, did not wipe the smug expression off of her face

You’re all are messin’ with the wrong girl” said tiff, drawing two pistols from her belt

“Y’all hungry for lead?”

She fired the pistol and shot and the squeakers. Those squeakers had enough weak spots for her to work with. she fired around the circle with both pistols and moved onto another group. He kept firing until he pulled both triggers and only clicks could be heard

The squeakers closed in on her, but tiff was unfazed by this setback

“Fine,” she said, sliding her guns back in the holsters “We’ll just do this the old fashioned way then”

Her grin widened as she pulled out a whip “Say hello to Ol’ betsy, fellas!”

On the other side of the forest, ribbon was running from storo, she yelped when he grabbed her arm and brought her up to his face

“Got you now, fairy!”

His laughter was short-lived when a apple hits him in the back of the head, rendering him unconscious. He fell and loosened his on ribbon. the fairy looked up and saw the blonde and green boy in a tree with a slingshot

“We kids gotta stick together!” he declared, saluting

ribbon saluted back before running off

Meanwhile, Adeleine was being pursued by Doc. She screamed when two more squeakers appeared in her path

“Nowhere to run, pretty girl!”

She spun around to face doc and quivered in fear

“The master is so anxious to see you again!” he cackled “take her away!”

The two squeakers each snatched one of her arms. adeleine’s necklace then started pulsing and a wave of rainbow energy was released. The squeakers were knocked backwards into the snow

adeleine was once again stunned at her necklace’s magic, but didn’t think much of it as she was more focused on escaping. She headed towards the forest, hoping she would be safe when another squeaker obstructed her path. it was about to grab her, the person responsible for it cracked her whip again, slashing it across the squeaker.

“Get to the forest,” tiff whispered to adeleine “I’ll make sure they don’t follow you!”

The girl nodded and ran towards the pine trees. tiff turned to face an incoming pack of squeakers and stretched his whip readily

“Bring it on, rodents!”

It looked like the resistance was going to win the battle, but they were greatly outnumbered by the squeakers. Doc shook the tree the green and blonde boy was in hard enough to bring him down. tiff spun around at the sound of his little brother’s scream. The squeakers took advantage of his distraction and pounced. tiff managed to whip a few of them off with her strength, but she was overpowered

Suddenly, a feminine voice cried out, “away with you rats!”

The squeakers screamed as they were beaten by ribbon. They scrambled off tiff, who looked up in amazement at her savior. Ribbon winked as she continued beating the squeakers

“Never mess with a girl!”

tiff nodded in approval and cracked his whip. “You go join your friends in the woods. I’ve got them”

ribbon called for kirby and the pink duo ran into the bushes. tiff was about to be subdued again when metaknight appeared at his side and fought off half the pack with his sword

“There’s too many of them!” he declared “Your troops will have to retreat!”

“No!” Tiff insisted, wrapping his whip around a squeaker’s body “We can take ‘em! you Just go and get outta here!”

“You’re outnumbered! You’ll never defeat them on your own!”

Once their attackers were down, tiff grabbed metaknight’s hand and hastened him to the forest. She turned back when she heard screams and her jaw dropped. All her comrades had been captured! Some were struggling in the grips of the squeakers while others were already tied up. her little brother was kicking in storo’s strong grasp

“Tuff!” Tiff cried, rushing to her brother’s aid

metaknight held her back “Don’t! We gotta get outta here!”

“But they have my little brother! I can’t just stand here and do nothin’!”

“You’ll have to! If you try and save him now, you’ll get captured too, and there’ll be no saving either of you!”

tiff looked at him for a moment and then gave a solemn, but understanding nod

“Now let’s go!” the nutcracker said

He pulled the resistance leader into the bushes where adeleine, kirby and ribbon were already hiding. tiff peered over the bush and watch the squeakers bind his little brother with the others

“Oh, tuff…” he sighed “I knew I shouldn’t’ve let him fight! I knew he would get hurt!”

He trailed off metaknight put an assuring hand on his shoulder

“The only way to save your brother and the rest of the rebels now is if we defeat the squeak king. Then everyone will be free”

tiff nodded with a determined look in his eye “Count me in, then. Come on, we should move deeper into the woods before they find us”

The five companions crouched down and slowly made their way through the trees

“No use taking the rainbow road now,” metaknight whispered “daroach will be expecting us to be on it”

“It was a stupid thing to do in the first place!” tiff snorted “But i can take you to the palace. I know this forest like the back off my hand! I can sneak us through so that daroach won’t see us coming when we reach the palace! Besides,” she said patting her belt, “you’ll need the defense”

He lifted his head and listened for danger “Okay, I think it’s safe to walk now”

The five stood up and brushed the snow off their clothes

“Let’s see,” tiff said, glancing at their surroundings. “The dream palace is up north, which should be…” she paused and pointed in one direction “That way!”

“How do you know?” ribbon asked

“The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. North would be in between”

The others watched in awe as they followed the resistance leader

“I like her,” ribbon whispered to kirby

“How did those squeakers get here so fast, anyway? adeleine inquired “I thought you said it was a day’s journey from here to the palace”

“It is,” tiff explained “But in order for those squeakers to act quickly, daroach gave them the power to appear out into different parts of the land”

“I didn’t see any of them teleport,” ribbon declared

“They can only teleport far distances. daroach can’t give his servants too much power”

Tiff paused and spun around “Sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t catch all your names”

“I’m ribbon!” the little fairy piped. “And this is kirby!”

“And I’m adeleine” the girl waved shyly

“Well, I’m tiff,” the resistance leader greeted, shaking her hand, “In case you didn’t hear from the others. Now I know why the squeakers were after youl. I mean I know they weren’t after the captain here. I thought they were at first, but they, but they seemed a lot more interesting to this here girl. Mind tellin’ me what that was all about?”

“It’s a long story,” metaknight said

Tiff shrugged. “We’ve got a long journey ahead of us. You Might as well start talking.”

[theranchblog]

Merry Christmas

 · The old man sat in his gas station on a cold Christmas Eve. He hadn't been anywhere in years since his wife had passed away. It was just another day to him. He

didn't hate Christmas, just couldn't find a reason to celebrate. He was sitting there looking at the snow that had been falling for the last hour and wondering what it was all about when the door opened and a homeless man stepped through.Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. "Thank you, but I don't mean to intrude," said the stranger. "I see you're busy, I'll just go." "Not without something hot in your belly." George said.He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger. "It ain't much, but it's hot and tasty. Stew ... Made it myself. When you're done, there's coffee and it's fresh."Just at that moment he heard the "ding" of the driveway bell. "Excuse me, be right back," George said. There in the driveway was an old '53 Chevy. Steam was rolling out of the front. The driver was panicked. "Mister can you help me!" said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. "My wife is with child and my car is broken." George opened the hood. It was bad. The block looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead. "You ain't going in this thing," George said as he turned away."But Mister, please help ..." The door of the office closed behind George as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was waiting. "Here, take my truck," he said. "She ain't the best thing you ever looked at, but she runs real good."George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. "Glad I gave 'em the truck, their tires were shot too. That 'ol truck has brand new ." George thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. "Well, at least he got something in his belly," George thought.George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do. Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the block hadn't cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. "Well, shoot, I can fix this," he said to himself. So he put a new one on."Those tires ain't gonna get 'em through the winter either." He took the snow treads off of his wife's old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn't going to drive the car anyway.As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left shoulder, the officer moaned, "Please help me."George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention. "Pressure to stop the bleeding," he thought. The uniform company had been there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct tape to bind the wound. "Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin'," he said, trying to make the policeman feel at ease."Something for pain," George thought. All he had was the pills he used for his back. "These ought to work." He put some water in a cup and gave the policeman the pills. "You hang in there, I'm going to get you an ambulance."The phone was dead. "Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there talk box out in your car." He went out only to find that a bullet had gone into the dashboard destroying the two way radio.He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. "Thanks," said the officer. "You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the area."George sat down beside him, "I would never leave an injured man in the Army and I ain't gonna leave you." George pulled back the bandage to check for bleeding. "Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through 'ya. Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your gonna be right as rain."George got up and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take it?" he asked. "None for me," said the officer. "Oh, yer gonna drink this. Best in the city. Too bad I ain't got no donuts." The officer laughed and winced at the same time.The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun. "Give me all your cash! Do it now!" the young man yelled. His hand was shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this before."That's the guy that shot me!" exclaimed the officer."Son, why are you doing this?" asked George, "You need to put the cannon away. Somebody else might get hurt."The young man was confused. "Shut up old man, or I'll shoot you, too. Now give me the cash!"The cop was reaching for his gun. "Put that thing away," George said to the cop, "we got one too many in here now."He turned his attention to the young man. "Son, it's Christmas Eve. If you need money, well then, here. It ain't much but it's all I got. Now put that pea shooter away."George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man, reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. "I'm not very good at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son," he went on. "I've lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last week."George handed the gun to the cop. "Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we can."He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from the cop. "Sometimes we do stupid things." George handed the young man a cup of coffee. "Bein' stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin' in here with a gun ain't the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we'll sort this thing out."The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. "Sorry I shot you. It just went off. I'm sorry officer." "Shut up and drink your coffee " the cop said. George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn. "Chuck! You ok?" one of the cops asked the wounded officer."Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?""GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?" the other cop asked as he approached the young man.Chuck answered him, "I don't know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just dropped his gun and ran."George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other."That guy work here?" the wounded cop continued. "Yep," George said, "just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job."The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, "Why?"Chuck just said, "Merry Christmas boy ... and you too, George, and thanks for everything.""Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve some of your problems."George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a ring box. "Here you go, something for the little woman. I don't think Martha would mind. She said it would come in handy some day."The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw. "I can't take this," said the young man. "It means something to you.""And now it means something to you," replied George. "I got my memories. That's all I need."George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. "Here's something for that little man of yours."The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old man had handed him earlier."And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that too," George said. "Now git home to your family."The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. "I'll be here in the morning for work, if that job offer is still good.""Nope. I'm closed Christmas day," George said. "See ya the day after."George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. "Where'd you come from? I thought you left?""I have been here. I have always been here," said the stranger. "You say you don't celebrate Christmas. Why?""Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn't see what all the bother was. Puttin' up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin' cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn't the same by myself and besides I was gettin' a little chubby."The stranger put his hand on George's shoulder. "But you do celebrate the holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great doctor.The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and not take any for himself. "That is the spirit of the season and you keep it as good as any man."George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. "And how do you know all this?" asked the old man."Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when your days are done you will be with Martha again."The stranger moved toward the door. "If you will excuse me, George, I have to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned."George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill the room."You see, George ... it's My birthday. Merry Christmas."George fell to his knees and replied, "Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus"Merry Christmas!!This story is better than any greeting card. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS!

Please Share and maybe by Christmas it will have been around the world a few times

[tlacehualli]

@tornhellfire

  “Blimey!” the pilot nearly felt her soul jump out of her body from the sheer suddenness of the other woman’s voice, who was daft enough to break into the apartment of an Overwatch agent?

   Backing up and into the kitchen area once more, Lena was less than thrilled to see just who was the cheeky bastard that was trying to invoke some form of Squatter’s Law, “You!” a gloved digit points at the Hispanic woman... or more accurately, the Talon Agent, “How the bloody ‘ell did yah find me? ‘is flat’s supposed te’ be off the grid!” She could always dial for help... the police? No, they wouldn’t respond in time... damn bobbies!

   With three rapid blinks, Tracer would zip into her bedroom and back to where she started once more with trademarked Pulse Pistols aimed at the intruder,

   “Just wot is it you want, eh?” It was always something with Talon, probably wanted her dead; then again, they had been trying to pull that caper off for far too long and had always failed.

Tracer was a lot. Literally so much. Sombra snorted under her breath, not even bothering to turn around as she picked out what she wanted. Salt, garlic, little bit of black pepper... "You're seriously asking me how I found you?" She glanced over her shoulder, one eyebrow arched. "Tracer. My job is literally finding shit that's supposed to be hidden."

Off she went zipping around but Sombra had this possibly irritating faith that Tracer wasn't gonna shoot her about it - especially if she had her back turned and not even a weapon in any of her hands. Instead, she just moved on to the fridge and opened it up to pull out a carton of eggs and picked out a couple of em before putting the carton back.

"Right now, I'm thinking I want...scrambled eggs?" She paused, a hand on her chin - she was aware of the fact there were pistols pointed at her but there were more important things on her mind. Her stomach growled again. "French omelette! Wait no, that's too much effort. Fried eggs, over easy." She turned on a pan at a medium heat and drizzled a little bit of oil into it.

That done, she finally turned and offered her most winningest smile and a little bit of charm. "I'm not gonna hurt ya. Or rat you out. I just need a place to crash for the night. Scout's honor." She'd never been a Boy Scout 'cause she was neither a boy, nor American, but - whatever. "I'll make you some if you want."