#like yeah okay she’s a pretty character but like I dunno it bothers me

[saintbleeding]

Hii~

So i saw this on a tumblr post but is very jonmartin

"Jon and Martin are planning their wedding, they want to have their cat as ring bearer (is this how it's called?) But Martin doesn't know the name of the cat because they always call it different nicknames and jon just doesn't tell him and he don't want to admit that after all that years don't know.

Because jon didn't know either! he thinks that the cat is Martin's and he also is trying to figure out the name."

Martin’s not a cat person.

Honestly, he’s just not really an animal person. Like, in general.

The same isn’t true for Jon, of course. On, like, their second date, Jon—who, up until that point, had been all leather elbow patches on his stupid tweed jackets and “hmm, perhaps” and thoughtful squinting—got approached by a cat in the street, and pretty much melted on the spot.

Martin melted, too, but for slightly different reasons.

So it wasn't really a surprise when Jon moved in and Cat started turning up. Sure, it felt a little bit out of character for Jon not to excitedly announce that, one, he'd gotten a pet cat really recently, and, two, he was bringing it into Martin's place, which is a relatively humble little cottage, but Cat seems to free-roam most of the time, so it's not like she's encroaching on much of the space. And, anyway, it's not like Martin hates cats, so he doesn't mind. He just sort of thought Jon would have said something. But he didn't.

So.

You know.

There's a cat.

She's grown on Martin over time. In fact, it's usually him that wakes up with her purring and headbutting him at fuck-off o'clock in the morning, and Jon's not a heavy sleeper, so if she'd attacked him first, Martin would know.

But she's nice. Lovely little tufts of fur between her toes, and quite a deep meow for such a pretty lady. He'll call her Lady Catherine sometimes, and Jon's got the gall to pretend he doesn't think it's hilarious. Mind you, Jon's terms of endearment for her skew a bit more—pejorative, for lack of a better term? Like, Cat will take the opportunity when Jon is hunched over a stack of student essays at the dining table, and she'll leap onto his shoulders, and do that loaf thing, and Jon always says "unhand me, you infernal creature", or the few times she has bothered Jon in the middle of the night for pre-dawn breakfast service, he's grumbled "vile beast" even as he gets up to feed her.

Martin's tried telling him he shouldn't be encouraging her. But Jon just turns around and says "yes, I know, that's why I chastise her".

Martin stays impressed that someone so smart can be so stupid. Which he means affectionately, obviously. If he didn't, they wouldn't be getting married.

Which is great, by the way. It's great.

Does present some—unique problems, though.

Martin's got absolutely no bloody clue what her actual name is.

Which, you know, it's not like he's filling out adoption papers or anything, but at some point after some late-night banter it became part of the plan that Cat should be the ring-bearer at the wedding.

And he can't not know the name of a member of the party at his own wedding.

So he starts sleuthing.

"Hey," he says one evening, when GBBO is over and they're just sitting there with the telly on mute.

Jon looks up from his thorough inspection of Cat's beans, her paw gently clasped between his thumb and forefinger, and goes "Mm?"

"Been thinking."

Jon lifts one eyebrow. "Mm?"

"We could get her a proper little collar and everything."

Jon blinks a couple of times, then smiles. "Oh, for the wedding, you mean?" Martin nods. "Oh, yes, it could match your tie."

Okay, that's adorable, but also, unfortunately, not the point.

"Ooh, yeah," he says, then: "Oh! And, like, a little engraved name-tag. Really fancy."

Jon's eyes narrow almost imperceptibly.

"Yes," he says, tone completely unreadable. "Silver or gold, do you think?"

Martin's suddenly wondering if it's a trap.

"Dunno," he says, turning his eyes back to the brightly-coloured advert on the screen. "What's her vibe, you think?"

In the corner of his eye he sees Jon's jaw working silently as he searches for something to say.

"I think your input should be taken into consideration," he says, lifting his chin as Cat stands, stretches, and headbutts him. "Since... you know."

Martin considers whether or not Jon's messing with him, because frankly, he very much does not know.

"Mmm. Well! Uh- I- I like gold. Would match our bands."

"True enough," Jon says. Cat leaps onto the back of the sofa, and they're both silent till she curls up there and falls back asleep.

Jon doesn't seem very eager to say anything else.

Bugger.

"So..." Martin says, lifting his glasses to rub his eyes. "Um... what's the spelling, again?"

Jon's blurry form sits up straighter, and when Martin puts his glasses back on he sees his mouth open in shock.

"Might I ask why you're asking me?" Jon says, which doesn't make any sense.

"W- um. Y- you know, you're the English teacher."

Jon inclines his head to the side, frowning. "Hmm," he goes. "W- I- I- yes, I—mm." He lowers himself back against the sofa again. "The usual way."

Martin sighs.

"Right," he says. "Okay."

The silence gets a bit fraught, then. When Martin stands up to take their mugs to the kitchen, he might be a tiny bit huffy. It's possible.

Jon follows him, and he stays huffy, because it's easier to keep up than neutrality when he's trying to hide that he's a bit annoyed and a bit embarrassed.

"Everything alright?" Jon says, leaning casually against the fridge as Martin puts way too much effort into scrubbing both mugs clean.

"Mm."

Several seconds pass.

"Could I say something?" Jon asks, a bit hesitantly.

If Martin had to guess, he'd put money on "you're a negligent idiot for not paying enough attention to know my cat's name and I hate you".

"Yeah."

Jon exhales audibly behind him, as though amused.

"With all due respect and affection, darling—" He pauses till Martin is finished aggressively rinsing the mugs. Martin still doesn't turn to face him, though, because he's a tiny bit scared of where this is going, honestly. "If you've forgotten how to spell your own cat's name, that's not, strictly speaking, my fault, is it?"

Martin turns around.

Several things occur to him at once.

First, Cat's a dirty freeloader who owes Martin like fourteen months of rent.

Second, it might, legitimately, have been a coincidence that she and Jon moved in around the same time.

Third, he can't remember a time he's heard Jon use any method of address on her except for creature, or beast, or the ones Martin uses himself.

Which means, fourth, Jon doesn't know her bloody name either.

Because she's not his cat.

Well.

"Okay," Martin says. "Let's assume I have forgotten. Couldn't you just—help me out—and spell it?"

"Martin," Jon says disparagingly with a frown.

"Jon," Martin says, trying really hard not to smirk.

Jon does that thing where his mouth starts in a flat line, but as his irritation grows, his nose scrunches up, and the line of his mouth slowly rises up his face until he exclaims inarticulately and throws his hands in the air in defeat.

"Fine!" he says. "Fine, okay, alright, fine. I—I don't—I don't know. I don't know! I meant to ask, but I felt negligent not having known when I moved in, and then, after a month or seven I couldn't very well come out and ask, could I? And then—good heavens, it's been more than a year, there was no subtle way to recover!"

Martin's not laughing at him.

But he is laughing.

Breathlessly, uncontrollably, doubling over—to the point where Jon actually crosses the few steps separating them in the tiny kitchen to place a hand on his shoulder, gently guiding him upright with a concerned look on his face.

"Sorry," Martin manages eventually, wiping tears from his eyes. "Christ, sorry, I'm just—"

He takes a deep, measured breath.

"I've got to tell you something," he says sheepishly. Jon puts his hands on Martin's shoulders and looks into his face with the earnest sobriety that, even now, gives Martin butterflies.

"Anything," he says, still frowning intensely.

Martin averts his eyes. "She's not my cat either."

When Jon stops laughing, he spends the rest of the evening lecturing Cat in his Not Mad Just Disappointed voice ("identity fraud is an extremely serious matter, young lady, and you are terribly lucky you have such sweet little eyes, or I might be compelled to take legal action against you, please let go of my nose").

Oh, but they do end up getting her an engraved gold name-tag for the ceremony.

It says 'Lady Catherine (Beast)'.

[revserrayyu]

2.5 trailer thoughts

I usually keep all my thoughts together for the story events, but I'm far too excited thanks to a certain character to contain all my excitement, so.. allow me to fangirl about the new trailer from today's livestream a little bit.

(there's really no spoilers but i'll kindly put everything below since it'll be a lot of chatter anyways)

Starting off with how bestest boy Luka is here! Not exactly sure how he hopped planets.. but I'll speculate about his arrival later. I do remember reading some people bring up a npc in the Shackling Prison who mentioned seeing a dude with a metal arm, but I never imagined it to be our boy and that he would actually physically be here!

I'm still a tiny bit bitter he never showed up during any main story mission, though it makes sense since he was released after the events of Belobog happened, so any time he's mentioned or we catch a glimpse of him makes me happy. Letting him get his own side event during this 2.5 patch too will be nice for him too!

I'm so fond of him and I'm always surprised how many people just don't care for the guy. I can understand how he could be a bit forgettable or not an impressive unit though, since I don't even have him built up either despite all the instances I told myself I would.

I know some people aren't fans of his design either, but c'mon, he's cute! Look at this buff, cheerful man with those pretty blue eyes, piercings and little ponytail! Aahhh.. he's precious to me.

Time to add Luka to the 'beat up Yanqing' squad alongside Blade, Jingliu, Dan Heng, Yunli and whomever else I'm forgetting. I hope our favorite boxer knocks his lights out.

Now for the spectators! I didn't notice her while first watching the livesteam, but Topaz is here! With Numby on her lap too, of course. And I was gonna assume that perhaps that's how Luka managed to arrive on the Xianzhou, courtesy of the IPC and their many connections, but then I remembered Topaz was just in Penacony.. so unless she went back and forth between planets then who knows how our boy ended up here. We can always guess the Express picked him up too. I dunno.

We even got Hook cheering on her fellow Moles member! Hard to miss Svarog there too though I wonder if Clara is with him and perhaps we just don't see her in this shot? I wanna say he trusts her enough to be on her own but then that brings up why would he even leave her side in the first place and not keep watch of the Underground, unless Svarog decided to join just to support Luka. That would be a nice little form of respect carried over from our boxer's mission. And Lynx which naturally leads me to question where Serval and Geppie could be right now. I can't imagine Gepard would be fine with having Lynx travel all the way to a new planet when the guy gets stressed out about her simply venturing into the snow plains during her job. Serval on the other hand.. yeah, she's totally let Lynx travel. But I'd still much rather see all the siblings around more! I miss them terribly! I'd love it if there were more Belobogians in the crowd that we just didn't get to see yet but I'm thankful we even get a few and learn that they're finally able to venture away from their cold, icy planet and experience new places like this.

And lastly we have the most handsome man in all of space and Qingque who is undoubtedly avoiding work. The two of them did actually meet previously during that silly hotel checkout event in Penacony so it's fun to seem them be friendly still.

Yeah, okay, so here's where I start to go crazy over our Lacking General more. What a surprise, right? I mean, how could I not after seeing her storm into battle whilst riding a ship like this??

At first, I also didn't notice it was Yukong who said the "Feixiao, the ports of Starskiff Haven are crawling with wolf-like creatures. They're moving fast," lines. My excitement for Feixiao clearly took priority. (I am curious why she bothered to say wolf-like instead of Borisin though? If Yanqing knows about them then surely Yukong knows what they are, right?)

Even if it's just a quick cutscene, I'm so thrilled for us to finally see Yukong fight! We've heard enough of her pilot days so something as simple as this is great, though I'd love to see her fly again too.

Feixiao coming in hot to aide her war buddy, still looking badass as ever, let's gooo!

Ma'am do you know how amazing you are??

She told Yukong to "Hold them back, I will be there immediately" and she definitely kept her word! Even using her follow up attack, or something visually similar to it.

That grin… oh god. I would willingly stand on the other end of her gunblade in order to see that prideful smirk of hers. (also never realized that pattern on the inside of her jacket before. that's pretty neat.)

*Mandatory screenshot for me to giggle and kick my feet to while I obsess over how beautiful her design is* tee-hee~

Okay so for this bow and arrow shot, there could always be the chance that this style of bow is standard and that all military personal use them, but since we don't see that many archers, I'm gonna blissfully assume she's borrowing Yukong's bow here. I was kinda amazed to see Feixiao capable of wielding a bow and arrow too, considering she's already mastered her gunblades and battleaxe, but hey, it just adds to her talent. It makes more sense after seeing that teaser of her upcoming myriad video though.

Ohhh buddy.. I know our lady experiences Moon Rage but I wasn't expecting her to go off quite like this!

Not only is she strong as fuck already but she's gonna end up as a boss fight too? Brooo.. that's insane. I love it. I pray she gets an awesome battle theme.

Now while her condition is certainly a big problem, I don't think she just decided "hey let me go insane at this very moment" and gave into it willingly. I'm sure she's gained a certain amount of control over it throughout the years, so my assumption coupled with her statement of her "lacking in worries" leads me to believe that something or someone (aka Hoolay) forced her into this state..

.. because hot damn, she looks positively possessed. It's such a simple detail but the red ring around her eyes is so effectively chilling, like you know you're in danger when you see her like this. I love this shot of her, honestly. I'm not gonna straight up say that Hoolay is controlling her somehow either, but more like Feixiao lost control of herself. What would get her to snap? I dunno, perhaps any bad news surrounding Jiaoqiu. You know, her right hand man who's supposed to keep her in good health. He wasn't spotted anywhere in the trailer, so who knows what happened to our master chef.

Huaiyan can be heard saying "Merlin's Claw, you have betrayed the alliance," but with how deep Feixiao's hatred is for Hoolay and the Borisin, I have my doubts about that. Of course, we could've all been played for fools and the two could actually be acquaintances of some sort, but it still wouldn't make sense to me. The only similarity these two could possibly bond over is Hoolay's line of them both being "monsters that were born for war and die for war."

I'm not saying I wouldn't love an evil Feixiao, since I do have my fair share of villains, but yeah. Anyways, obligatory screenshot to make me swoon even more.

Also I haven't a clue about what this light is or who or what it's coming from either but I for sure thought it was gonna wipe out our General the first time I watched the trailer..

only for her to just.. ignore it completely. Or re-direct it ever so slightly away from her. Either way, I'm impressed.

Naturally the trailers go by real quickly and are never in story sequence order so I could be totally wrong about this, but I wanna assume Feixiao regains control over herself during the fight to take down Hoolay? If her normal eyes and confident grin are anything to go by anyways.

After hearing bits and pieces about how Jingliu was the one who originally defeated Hoolay, the master of ice does indeed show up again for the upcoming patch! Oohhh I'm so excited. I wonder if Jing Yuan had anything to do with her sudden appearance considering she was locked up on another ship. Imagine if we get to see her and Feixiao team up in order to take down the beast? Oh my god, I think I'd pass out if we get such a scene!

It may just be this one screenshot, but her expression doesn't really seem like she's accepting an alliance with Hoolay. Still feels like there's some anger there to me. Maybe distrust. But nothing close to joy or calm. Or this scene could just be an illusion. Who knows.

Wouldn't it be grand though, if all of this was sorta planned? To get this close to Hoolay but instead of siding with him (because why on earth would Feixiao do such a thing) but to figure out if the war head is truly capable of providing a cure for her condition like Jiaoqiu hoped? Or perhaps she's just getting close to him to get her revenge in a sort of 'keep your friends close but your enemies closer' sort of way, yeah?

Many ideas and many days left until we get our answers. One thing is certain though: we need Jiaoqiu back at her side please, like now! Sir, please come back and calm down your General!

[clickerflight]

Joseph: Part 5 - A Friend

Masterlist

Part 4

Had something happen today that made me lose a bit of steam for this story, but we're going to keep trucking. I probably got too caught up in looking for validation with my writing, but I think we'll be okay. I have plans for it and I'm going to keep going, I just might have to take a short break.

Content: Vampire whumpee, human caretaker, hospital setting, panic attack, grief, detailed memories of a character death

..................................................

Joseph enjoyed his music for most of the day, his eyesight coming back enough for him to see the small device where he could search for music and play it. He didn’t recognize the app, but he was glad for the music. 

He was bobbing his head to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ when he smelled someone familiar. He looked over into the hall, waiting until a man came into view. The man that had to be Joshua Muir looked to be of Mexican descent, clean shaven and wearing his hair just long enough he could pull some of it back into a little wolf tail. 

He wasn’t wearing a police uniform, instead wearing well worn jeans and a t-shirt. 

Muir opened his mouth in greeting and Joseph realized he was still wearing his headphones. He pulled them down, the sounds of the hospital greeting him again, but he could focus attention on Muir and it wouldn’t bother him. 

“Hi,” Joseph said, feeling once again safe as Muir sat down in the chair by the bed. 

“How are you feeling?” Muir asked.

Joseph shrugged. “I’m completely regenerated. The nurses said they were going to get some more blood into me overnight and then get me set up to go to a rehab center.”

“Nice. That was pretty quick,” Muir commented. 

Joseph nodded as the situation dawned on him for the first time since waking up. “Oh, stars, you, I….. Sorry. I shouldn’t have forced you to ride in the ambulance with me. You didn’t get in trouble, did you?”

Muir laughed. “No, not at all. Well, maybe a little but it wasn’t a problem. You needed someone to be there for you, man. It happens.”

He nodded a little. “Thanks for coming back. I hope I’m not keeping you from anything.”

Muir shook his head, a hint of sadness entering his expression as he said, “No, you’re good. I, ah, I moved to the city pretty recently. I don’t have many friends yet outside of some coworkers… but I guess we don’t really hang outside of work. This is…. Kind of nice, actually.”

“Oh,” Joseph said, surprised. “Alright then.”

There was a moment of awkward silence before Muir asked, “So, got any questions? 3 years is a lot of time.”

Joseph shrugged. “Haven’t really seen enough to have questions, I guess…. Have the fledgling laws passed?”

“Not yet,” Muir replied, looking slightly annoyed. “Well, parts of it have. People with terminal illnesses can apply to become a fledgling, but the stuff around people with chronic illnesses and terminally ill children got tied up in the courts last year.”

“Well, I guess it’s good there’s been some movement on that,” Joseph said.

“Yeah,” Muir said. “So, what do you like to do?”

“I like reading,” Joseph said with a shrug. “And D- my bondmate was teaching me how to play the piano. I used to work at a tech shop. I guess I was kind of, I dunno, stuck in a rut. Wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life…..”

“Well, there’s plenty of time to figure it out,” Muir said with a shrug. 

Joseph nodded. “And you? What do you like to do?”

“My job takes up most of my time. I’m working my way up to being a detective. I’ve been a cop for a few years now and I’ve been studying to pass the tests they’ll need me to do. I’m pretty excited. The Chief has been pretty hard on me, which makes me think it’s going well.”

“How’s that?” Joseph asked, curious.

“Well, she’s a tough love kind of lady,” Muir said with a mischievous smile. “She’s been criticizing my work a lot lately, which tells me some big guns are watching me, trying to decide if they should try me out. It’s a bit early in my career for it, but I’ve been proving myself and I think they see it.”

“Oh,” Joseph said, intrigued. “That’s awesome, then! I hope it all works out for you!”

“Of course! And you’ll be the first to know if it does!” Muir said, his grin splitting his face. It drooped and he hesitated. “Er, if you want to be friends, that is. Maybe I can help you figure out what you want to do with your life.”

“Oh yes,” Joseph said eagerly. “I could definitely use a friend.”

“Good,” Muir said with a grin. “I wonder…. I want to talk to the nurses real quick. I’ll be back.”

Muir hopped up and left, the smell of his excitement still hanging in the air. Joseph slipped the headphones back on, not really paying attention to the music as he waited for Muir to come back. 

Muri came back after another 20 minutes, a bag in his hand. Joseph pulled the headphones off and Muir said, “Alright. The nurses said you can check out tonight.”

“Check out? Where am I going? With you?”

“Yup! I had some extra clothes in my car so you can put these on and we can get out of here. I thought you’d probably like to sleep somewhere quiet tonight.”

“Oh, I certainly do,” Joseph said, pushing the blankets off his lap and turning to sit on the edge of the bed as a nurse, the same one who brought him the noise canceling headphones, came to unplug him from the drips. 

Once that was over and the small holes in his skin healed, Joseph stood up, taking the clothes and heading into the bathroom to change. 

The clothing was a bit big on him, but after rolling the top of the pants down inside once they held just fine. He stepped out, shifting the shirt to sit properly on his shoulders before taking the shoes Muir held out for him. 

“We’ll get you some better shoes later,” Muir said with a smile. 

Joseph nodded, grinning. The two walked out, Joseph shuffling a little to keep the shoes on his feet. Muir had already registered his address with the lady at the desk and they were set to go. 

“I think the rehab people will come to meet you around 2 tomorrow? I’ll be at work, but the hospital will let them know to go to my house.”

“Cool,” Joseph said, his shuffling steps feeling strange. They were smoother than he thought they would be, as though there hadn’t been three years and a regeneration in between the last time he walked and now. 

“And then we can get you clothes and stuff tomorrow night,” Muir said as he got into his car. Joseph entered on the passenger’s side and buckled his seat belt, relaxing as heard the familiar sound of a car starting. 

They soon left the hospital parking lot and drove down roads as the sun to the left of them as they hit the highway. Joseph watched the world pass by in awe, the rumble of the car soothing to his fragile mind. 

Maybe he’d be fine. Maybe one day he’d be healed and forget about what happened and he could move on. Maybe when he had something good to do with his life and-

But who would he share it with? His bond with David was empty. It was gnawing on him, crushing his soul and begging to be fed. He had been without a pairbond for three years and his body and mind were beginning to realize it. David was gone and he could still remember feeling his pain through the bond, could still hear his screams. He remembered when the blade had entered David’s heart and killed him. The pain and fear had been unlike anything Joseph had ever felt. His and David’s mingle fear, the pain, David reaching through the bond searching for comfort, searching to be sure Joseph was still okay, and then the knife had come down. 

It was like losing a limb. Crushed in a combine’s mechanics, shattered and torn and shredded and bloodied and violently taken in a moment that could never be changed and never be reversed. The emptiness had consumed Joseph’s mind entirely. Going from all that noise to dead silence where his own fear and pain echoed down and back again through broken links. 

He would never get David back and the pain would last forever. It felt like it would last forever. How was he supposed to deal with it all? How was he meant to survive this?

He grabbed on tightly to whatever was pressed against him. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t feel. All he knew were the memories of David’s gargled screams and the broken bond as his sire and bondmate died. 

He knew he would need to pairbond again eventually, and that sent a new wave of sorrow through him. Was it not enough to be on his own? To always remember David and cherish his memory? He was Demijeoa. He would have to pairbond again to heal, but he couldn’t imagine it. He couldn’t imagine pairing with anyone after that. 

He pressed his face into soft fabric, sobbing desperately, unable to alleviate the pain. He realized someone was running a hand through his hair, untangling it and running down his back in strokes, and then he recognized the smell. 

He lifted his head to find Miur looking out a window, though Joseph’s stirring brought his attention back down. “Hey, are you back?”

Joseph felt a wave of sorrow and embarrassment so strong it sent him to hiding in Muir’s shoulder again. 

“Hey, man. It’s going to be alright. Promise. Do you want to talk about it?”

“”S not gonna be alright,” he mumbled. “He’s dead.”

He felt Muir tense up, but he didn’t stop rubbing Joseph’s back. “I know, I’m really sorry.”

Joseph let out a shuddering sigh, simply letting Muir quietly comfort him. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You don’t have to. Not right now. Right now, it’s enough to just grieve. I know losing a bondmate is painful, even if I can’t really understand it.”

Joseph nodded before peeling himself away from Muir, scrubbing his face. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Muir asked.

Joseph just nodded so Muir turned off the hazard lights, signaled, and got back on the road. It was dark now, and Joseph was so tired he just laid his head against the window and let the rattle of the road bruise his head repeatedly. 

Joseph was asleep by the time Muir pulled into his driveway. He got out and went to the passenger seat, opening the door quickly and propping up Joseph to keep him from falling on the pavement. The vampire slept like a dead thing as Muir closed the car door with his hip and walked up the steps to the house. 

After some awkward shuffling, he managed to unlock the door and step inside. He walked through the house to his bedroom where he set the vampire on his bed. He coaxed the blankets over him and went back to the front door to lock it. 

After a quick snack and a shower, he got ready for bed and slept on the couch in the living room. 

………………………………………………..

Joseph woke in a comfortable bed wrapped in blankets that smelled enough like Muir to tell him that Muir had given his bed up to Joseph. He sighed, pressing his face into the pillow for a moment before rolling over and out of the bed. 

He poked his head out into the hall, looking around. There was another room set up with a desk and walls lined with cork board, though only one was in use. He soon found the bathroom and cleaned up before going to the living room. 

Muri laid on the couch, bundled in blankets and snoring very softly. Joseph hummed and decided to make breakfast. 

There wasn’t much in the kitchen and he ended up just improvising with some quick oats and eggs, as well as getting some coffee ready. 

He heard Muir wake up and smiled when he heard Muir’s small confused noise when he smelled food. 

He stumbled in, wearing sweatpants and a blanket cape as Joseph turned, scooting a plate of food across the island to him. 

“Got the coffee started a bit late but it should be done in a mo.”

“Thanks,” Muir said, surprised. 

“You're welcome. And no offense, but do you live on oatmeal, eggs, and canned chili?”

“Er, no. I tend to grab food while I’m working,” he said, fishing a fork out of the dishwasher and sitting on one of the stools to eat. 

Joseph rolled his eyes and sat down next to him once the coffee was done. Muir took the coffee eagerly, taking a sip and closing his eyes in delight. They ate in silence for a minute before Muir said, “So I guess this means you want me to buy more food.”

Joseph snorted. “Yes. You’ll end up with kidney stones if you keep eating like you are.”

Muir shook his head and downed his coffee. “Alrighty, then. I’d better go get ready.”

“Kay,” Joseph said, enjoying his breakfast a bit more slowly. 

When Muir came back, he was dressed in his uniform and ready to go. “I left a note on the computer with the password. Feel free to surf the web while I’m gone. Just remember-”

“The meeting at 2:00. I got it,” Joseph said, putting the dishes in the sink while he unloaded the dishwasher. 

“Yup. I might stop by on one of my breaks, but we’ll see.”

“Alright. See ya.”

“Bye.”

The door closed, the key scraped in the lock, and Joseph was alone. 

Joseph stood in the kitchen, his heart pounding in his throat as the silence pressed in on him. Silence like silver. 

He shook his head. He was not interested in having another breakdown today. Not right now. He was going to hold it together and if he needed to cry himself to sleep that night, then by the stars he would cry himself to sleep. 

He rifled through the kitchen, putting things away as he went along until he’d taken care of the dishes. He loaded the new ones into the dishwasher and closed it. 

He supposed the next thing he could do would be to catch up on what he’d missed. 

He went to the room with the cork board walls, glancing at the images and notes tacked there. It was a missing person’s case about a little girl. He hummed, looking at the little girl’s face. Did anyone look for him and David like this? Did someone in the world string up their names and faces, staring at them in the hopes that it would provide some clue?

Joseph shrugged off the image and sat at the computer, typing in the string of letters and numbers from the sticky note and opening up the search engine. 

He stared at the blinking bar for a moment, uncertain of what he should do before he started pulling up the social media accounts he’d had and opening them up to see what there was to see. 

Joseph: @not-a-space-alien @why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

From Dust to Ashes: @writereleaserepeat @currentlyinthespiral

Part 6

Let me know if you want to be on the taglist

[a-student-out-of-time]

Let me try and break it down as best I can (Im sorry for speaking so much, but I do enjoy these sorts of talks.)

I don’t have any issues with Teruko. Yeah, she’s an edgelord, but I do tend to have an affinity for Fangan protagonists who are on the crazier side (shocking, I know), not to mention that I understand why she is that way; her life is fucked.

Xander is fine and all, but nothing I haven’t seen before, but I know Aliza likes him, so I’m not about to badmouth her boy.

Charles is fine because he reminds me of post-DR1 Byakuya, Still a bit of a self-entitled jerk, but cooperative and a major help when it counts, and I like that.

Ace takes every personality trait I hate from both Kazuichi and Leon and mashes them together in one character, and I utterly despise it.

I admit that it is impressive what Despair Time is doing with Arei, even though it’s probably not gonna amount to much, because it bothers me that so many killing games, including the source material, DONT DO THIS. The only time Danganronpa built up a character to be an asshole, then redeemed them in a way that i thought was done well, was Fuyuhiko. And when Arei showed signs of trying to do better, I really admired that, so now I’m cool with her, even though I hated her at first.

Rose is an insanely uninteresting character among everyone else in this cast, and I don’t know why, but i also don’t want to badmouth her because I know Paper-scrap likes her.

Hu is okay, but she reminds me of an over-friendly relative that I have in real life that I don’t really like being in the company of. Like, she assumes things about me, and then spreads that misinformation. Also, the stuff that happened with Nico made me cringe so hard. Like, I GET that she didn’t understand the proper etiquette for this shit, but I am in this scene and I don’t like it.

Eden is okay, but whatever.

Levi? Also okay, but I’m scared of him.

Fuck Arturo, he’s just really annoying for no reason.

I actually really liked Min, and she had a really interesting design, despite its plainness, but she died way too goddamn early and that was kind of a turn off for me (as in a turn off for the series, not…whatever else that could be construed as)

David is David, we don’t really need to say anything here. But yeah, he’s a pretty okay twist villain for me.

I don’t really know what to say about Veronika, she’s just sus as fuck.

I want to like J, but something just sort of turns me off her. I guess she’s just the wrong sort of stubborn? I dunno…

Whit id a little annoying, and I’m struggling to figure out what purpose he serves in the narrative. He feels like the game’s Kokichi, just…less important?

And Nico, while again, I empathise with Nico, kind of freaks me out.

//Yeah, I can understand that

//I enjoy DT's cast overall and I appreciate their depth, but I get why someone would find a lot of them annoying or just okay. Of course, it's still Danganronpa, so some similar character archetypes are bound to crop up in some capacity. It's the story's style of intrigue and overall mysteries that I find more engaging.

//I feel like, if you look at DT on a purely surface level, it loses a lot of its charm and it does end up feeling samey in a lot of aspects. But the foreshadowing and subtle mysteries with the setting, the characters, the storytelling and even the Tumblr blog are so cool and they hint at much more going on than just another killing game.

//But even with that in mind, yeah, this cast can be really annoying sometimes, so it may hamper the experience ^^;

//Point is, I like what they're doing and I wanna see where our story is heading regardless of my predictions.

[created-creator]

i suck at math, but i think there has to be a way to recognize that you or an experience you’re having falls outside of the statistical majority/what is SAID to be “the statistical majority” without that being seen as looking for validation.

first thing’s first, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking for validation, for wondering if other people have experienced what you’ve experienced or interpret their experiences in the same way you do. looking and seeing if there’s a word or a community or a webpage for that or anything. i don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing to do, and i don’t think you should see someone on the search for validation and use that against them or call that a character flaw. i know people will see this and talk about “extreme cases”, but honestly, know what causes “extreme cases”? overwhelmingly, a lack of readily-available validation or information/community access/etc. regarding something that should be treated as a neutral human experience and isn’t by general public.

i bring this up as someone who is non-sexual and doesn’t experience libido; i tried mentioning this to my therapist as context for something else i was saying that i personally found to be more important, but this “revelation” ground everything to a halt. i mentioned that this is my normal, but i also recognize that neither of these things are true of the general population - many people do experience sexual attraction and/or libido. i don’t any combination or lack of combination of these experiences is better than the others, but i also don’t think i’m part of the majority of this one.

and everything literally shut down, because she refused to believe that someone could know their experience is considered “weird” or an “outlier” by the general population, and be okay with it. she was asking to see articles with specific percentages regarding asexuality (though that’s not the term i use), and i was like yeah, i’ll get them for you, but also she seemed pretty angry that i even knew there WERE articles, and that i didn’t see the fact that i know there are articles on this as a sign that i’ve been searching high and low for validation.

being non-sexual doesn’t really impact me; for the majority of my life, i straight-up didn’t realize there was any other option. there’s words for it, but that doesn’t impact me beyond being happy and relieved that other people can and do find solace in them. accidentally stumbling across a community whose experiences eclipse mine, and gleaning that it’s a very SMALL community, isn’t searching for validation, obsessing over a label or experience, or bending to statistics. i’m literally just stating a fact and moving on.

or TRYING to. what am i supposed to do about my experience being statistically rare? i’m not bothered by the ratio, but people use misinformation caused by the ratio being so skewed to hurt others. and she was like “knowing that other people don’t understand asexuality is mentally-dangerous for you”- is it? or are you just bothered by the fact that i’m comfortable in my identity, but know a very small percentage of the population eclipses it, and THEY may be impacted by people not getting it?

but like i said, i dunno. i’m bad at math.

[cabbageslost]

Reacting to live action AtLA - ep 8

Spoilers warning, for the final time.

..

Okay, fresh off my extreme dislike at episode 7's choice to have Aang not support Katara (seriously, I will hold onto that grudge with a fierceness that would put OG Katara to shame even. Worst change of the entire season for me.) I'm still grumpy, but I won't have time to watch tomorrow, so I just wanna get it over with. They have a lot to make up to me. :P

..

Okay.. finally we get to see them fight together. Bout dang time. Where was THIS for the past 7 episodes? This is what we needed for Team Avatar-building.

Katara leading the other women.. I can deal with this change too. And she got given charge of the newbie recruits too. Again, I can do this.

The Ice Moon? Okay new plot twist. Let's see if you're passable or lame.

Lion turtle mention alert.

MOMO! I swear to goodness, this is the worst. Also, I knew the Oasis would look gorgeous in live action. Okay, he's better but I'm still not okay with that happening in the first place. :( Dirty trick.

So.. not gonna have Iroh threaten/disagree with Zhao?

Nice little icy straight jacket, though I'm ticked that apparently Zuko in this version can immediately bust out. Meh. I enjoyed the idea from the first of her having the upper hand for a while the moon was out.

Zhao calling out Ozai and his stupid games. Finally Iroh at least telling him he'll unleash on him.. though he didn't bother to try and actually DO anything yet. Yeah, there it is, finally!

This fight.. oof. It's intense. And it's nice to have a version where we don't have to hate Hahn. lol

YES, time for Aang as Koi-zilla. Kick some Zhao (and other fire nation) butt, Koizilla.

Ha, yes, firebending duel on a bridge. Way to not draw attention to yourselves from the fish giant that's utterly pissed at firebenders. I do enjoy the aangsty discourse though.

Hold up. Iroh took Zhao out, not the ocean spirit? I mean, I guess it's busy with the armada, but still. I liked it getting to mete out the justice for its pair.

Man, these poor water tribe siblings.. Sokka watching his girlfriend turn into the moon, Katara begging Aang to come back..

This does give a bit more of a reason/transition for Pakku to change his mind on training women, better than "well, you're my old girlfriend's daughter." I'm still unclear on how Katara was deemed a master as she got literally zero training in this version.

Azula taking over Omashu, getting word that the comet is "soon".. and done.

..

Okay, this episode didn't make me near as stabby as the last (though they really didn't have to mess with Momo like that.) The fight was intense, but all the fight scenes have looked pretty good so I expected that. While I loved that Katara was declared a master, I still don't see how since she didn't get any teaching at all. And overall it seems an absolutely bizarre choice for Aang to not bend any water in the water book.

I dunno, mostly I'm glad to be done, okay with having watched it, and absolutely thrilled that the animated version is still there. I will probably start up a rewatch of that soon as a nice palate cleanser. LOL My thoughts on this haven't changed since halfway through - if I had seen just this live-action I might have enjoyed it more as I wouldn't know what I was missing, it would have been a show that I completed.. but it wouldn't have spurred me on to need "more" (hunting out others to obsess with, looking up fanfic, etc) the way the original did. The characters in this got better/more interesting, but took like 7 episodes to do so.. and that's entirely too long in an 8-episode season. And even by the end they weren't as engaging as their animated counterparts (NOT a commentary on the actors.. the scenes where they were given emotional dialogue, they did well. Just.. well there was a ton of splitting them up or sort of flat writing sometimes. Can't do much with that.)

[galeforged]

👤 + shigeru can spill the beans about Miki as a treat (your rules don’t apply to me)

via Send me 👤+ a character name for my muse’s opinion on that character (closed but the rules did not apply to her)

"Come on... you know I had to ask at some point," behind a cheeky grin did come Kōtarō's tongue-in-cheek chiding, directed towards Shigeru much like the flask of water he was waving about. "Wouldn't you rather I be the one asking you about it? Instead of... I dunno, you getting teased for it by one of your subordinates or... Captain Iba, maybe?"

All the Lieutenant received for a response was another grumble from the fussy 7th Division officer... who then all but snatched the bottle right from his hand. A hearty swig saw the man down a good portion of H2O, before he let out a loud and hearty sigh. Part of it came from his own exasperation from Kōta's inquiry, thought their lengthy sparring did leave him exhausted.

"Giggle even once, an' I'll gut ya 'fore it's game on again." That was all the warning Shigeru gave before he casually tossed the battle back to Ryōhei. It's a good thing that Shōrō Kanraku was already well within arm's reach...

"Ha! Good one."

The remark was met with the clank of sword within sheath as Shigeru grabbed the hilt by his side, earning him a jolt from Kōtarō sitting by his side.

"O-okay, sheesh! Message received, no jokes, Lieutenant's honour and all that..." His hands were already raised, palms out defensively until the blade was, after a terse few seconds, finally let go. With remnants of the anxious grin on his face melting into a more sympathetic simper, Kōtarō resolved to ease off on Shigeru's case. After all, it was rare to see him open up to his sensitive side. "So... Captain Fuyuno, huh?"

"Hm." Only an affirming grunt and a nod followed while Shigeru gazed off to nowhere in particular.

"What is it about her, then?"

Now that earned Kōta something of a proper smile from his friend. Good, no threat of imminent violence.

"A coupla things, I guess... Bein' real friggin' patient with my ass is already a big plus tho'," Shigeru laughed, albeit sardonically as it came at his own expense. "But yeah, she's... fantastic, really. Short enough that you'd end up losin' 'er in a pile o' pillows, but she's got the right kinda attitude ta not take sass from anybody. Puts a lotta work into her looks and the results just speak for themselves like... I can't focus for shit when I end up thinkin' about 'er. Not the fairytale-like hair, not her pretty-lookin' face, and her voice straight up makes me melt, especially when she's actin' all playful. She humoured me with a sparrin' match once, an' I walked away from it wantin' to learn Kidō, an' from her, too! Me!"

Upon hearing all of that, Lieutenant Ryōhei couldn't help but let out a low whistle. Subtlety, sadly, never was Shigeru's strongest suit, so his feelings towards Miki were never the best hidden. Upon hearing him spilling his guts out, however... perhaps he didn't give his friend enough credit.

"Alright, so you're not just infatuated..." Kōtarō observed, murmur cut short with a few sips of water on his end. "So after all that, and you're still not taking initiative? Whatever happened to the courageous and all-boasting Gushiken-sama from before, huh?" Though his words spoke of admonishment, he ensured the concern in his tone came from a genuine place all the same. Not entirely out of fear of retaliation of some kind though, heavens no... though, curiously, the 13th Division reaper seemed to glance back towards the entrance to the square they were sparring within.

"I ain't... good at this romancin' stuff. Ne'er bothered before since... well, 11th Division grunts don't often appreciate dames the way they oughta be appreciated, and that reputation sticks, try as Cap'n Zaraki might to change that. Some of 'em even go out an' buy their own fun for a night, if ya catch my drift. Not that anyone really caught my eye much either, anyway..."

Kōtarō could say something in reference to Shigeru's partial blindness, but, oath-bound not to crack wise, he kept mum.

"Then Cap'n Fuyuno comes along, an' now I'm worried if I'm even good enough for a proper lady like her, y'anno? Never mindin' the fact she's a Cap'n. I don't... wanna risk makin' 'er look bad in that station, not for associatin' with a brute like me. That, an' I can't keep gettin' frazzled ev'rytime she bats eyes at me. Not settin' a good example as 3rd Seat if I don't get my act together..."

To hear Shigeru admit as much, complete with a disparaging sigh on his part, only brought Kōta to smile upon hearing that.

"Isn't the fact that you do worry about things like this all the more reason for you to try? You know, something about being your best self? To me, it just shows that you're being conscientious of her," he suggested. "Besides, if you weren't capable of that sort of maturity in the first place, I doubt Captain Iba would've taken you under his command."

"Ya think so, eh?"

"I know so! Give yourself more credit, bud." With a well-meaning pat onto Shigeru's shoulder, Kōtarō... then slowly rose to his feet.

"Ya ready for round two, then?" Shigeru already made to reach for his zanpakutō, taking the lieutenant getting up as his cue.

"What? No, no! I'm just getting ready to run, that's all. You can thank me later," came Kōta's clarification in kind, spoken all too dismissively while he ensured Hai'iro Ranmaru was properly sheathed by his side. Shihakushō seemed all nice and orderly on his person too... so, with that, he turned back towards the training square's entrance as if he were expecting someone.

"Wait, the hell d'ya mean by-?"

"Captain Fuyuno! He's all yours!" And without any further prompting, he vanished with a burst of shunpo. What better way to get Shigeru's proper thoughts out in the open than with a hint of deceit?

"YOU SET ME UP?!"

[ladyimaginarium]

So there's some fandom things I& wanna get off my& chest, uh... yeah. Anyway, I& was just thinking about how when I& was younger so many grown ass adults were expecting to me& to do all this shit and basically be the literal messiah come again when I was literally fucking eleven years old? Don't get me& wrong, I& still have fondness for the people in my& life, like Kenny, Jane, the Cabin Group, despite everything but that doesn't justify it - the adultification and parentification of a child - or make it okay. I& was eleven. I& deserved to be safe and held, too, or at least, to the best of the circumstances we were in because we're talking about the literal apocalypse here. I& know for a fucking fact if Lee was alive at that point in time, he wouldn't have put up with that shit at all, bless him. Also, somethin' that really fucking bothers me& is that... why are so many artists drawing art of me& in more masc clothing? Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, I'm& a Two Spirit nonbinary girl, but... have y'all seen the way I& dressed when I& was, like, 8 or 9? Dresses! Cute, feminine tops that I& liked! And there's just this expectation of, like.. Black and/or Native and/or Latina female characters in media automatically expected to be masc and/or aggressive, especially in sapphic relationships with white girls by mostly white creators? I& dunno, it just really bothers me&. Just because I& wear more "masc" clothes in my& canonical source due to obvious practical survival reasons doesn't automatically translate to, for a lack of a better word, "modern aus". Fuck being badass for once. Why isn't there more art of me& wearing pretty dresses? Being feminine, delicate, cute, soft and sweet? Don't I& deserve these things? Me& actually enjoying myself&? Haven't I& been through it? Flower crowns? Baby's breath in my& hair? Different hairstyles? Seen as something ethereal like in those old Disney movies? Can't a girl get some good fuckin' food around here? /lh There's a lot of other.. I& guess fandom shit and saying that sounds weird, I& and a few other sourcemates in here like James& and Louis& wanna talk about, too, but that'll be for another time. Anyway, singlets, don't clown and lose your shit.

— 🍊 / Clementine Maria Jasmine Cree&, she/her; they/them.

[mikumutual]

can i ask what you didn't like about mrder by numbers? i wasn't rly into it either, but i can't pinpoint what bothered me about it

ohh yeah sure, i finished it a while ago so i'm not sure i can collect my thoughts fully, i might forget something or mix things up, but ummm - puzzles got irritating. i'm good at nonograms, i like them, but when every single puzzle is the same it gets tedious. plus the squares don't autofill when you finish a row or column, which is annoying. these might be forgivable if you didn't have to do a puzzle for Every Single Clue - uninteresting characters. i didn't feel any personal attachment to honor, which is rare for me with protagonists. everyone seemed poorly written, with half the characters' personalities being One Gimmick and nothing deeper than that. think the artsy director girl who only speaks in riddles, or the abusive ex husband who keeps popping up to restate how much he sucks, or the gruff detective with a personal connection to the protagonist and no identity beyond that - along those lines, not enough plot. the ongoing plot regarding scout was interesting enough, but he didn't have to make any hard choices. honor didn't really make any new connections, just the same friends she had before the game started. i feel like a romance subplot would've been nice, or Any ongoing subplot at all, because the storyline of each individual case wasn't interesting enough to keep me entertained. plus the villains were all one-note. "oooh the intimidating guy is secretly in with the criminals" okay great obviously - copaganda? i know it's hard in the detective genre because if you want your character to be investigating legally, they have to be involved with the police, but like. the protagonist's dad being a dead cop? and the gruff detective mentor being his old coworker? and honor's previous career being an actor playing a detective??? i dunno, it just doesn't sit right with me - ordinarily i love robot characters but scout just did not do it for me. i like his cheerful disposition. i like that he had a dark past as a killing machine and never wanted to let it happen again. but the plot didn't go hard enough, every other character was boring, and the writing was barely entertaining. all he's got going for him is "you fucked up a perfectly good robot is what you did, look at it, it's got ptsd". also i think they bring up the discussion of gender in robots like Once in passing and never address it again which, for such a pro-lgbt game, i found annoying - i did like certain things about the game, of course. i didn't dislike the art. the mechanic of scanning as scout was pretty good, dampened only by my seething irritation that with every clue i'd have to do another fucking puzzle. the music is also good, especially the intro animation which i find cute. the plot of each chapter did make sense and an overarching story did tie up at the end, with some heightened drama at the close. i also thought that a parade float, shaped like a giant high heel, crashing into a gay bar was incredibly funny. if there was anything else i liked i don't remember it in conclusion murder by numbers is an incredibly mediocre game that, if you ask me, is straight up bad. i will not be replaying it and i will not recommend it to anyone

[minetteskvareninova]

Okay, so! You asked for my opinion? Well, here it is...

- More subtlety and mature behavior from the characters - Minette, who is always Team Sanity and Team Grow A Fucking Pear, 100% approves.

- Sadika being just a normal girl - NO. Or at least divide her into two characters, a girl coping with the rape and the spy. Maybe Gülnihal could take that role? Like, it was weird that she wasn’t at all concerned with hurting her friend by sleeping with the sultan, her not wanting it but having no choice in the matter would be pretty interesting. Like, Hürrem would start out agressively jealous just like in canon, but then somehow realize what has her friend actually gone trough, and... Yeah, that would be pretty cool! I really want to keep the spy stuff tho, like people doing their best to shank Süleyman and Ibrahim is my favourite thing, even if it never works out.

- Dunno, the misplaced possesiveness was kinda compelling? Like, it was a good starting point to her arch of realizing her babydaddy sucks and she doesn’t need him. And she did end up more protective of Mustafa than of her relationship with Süleyman EVENTUALLY...

- Yep, more tension between the boys, that’s good! Like, for fuck’s sake. It’s so unrealistic that these people get along so well, I don’t like Mihrimah, but she wasn’t wrong for distrusting him.

- It’s funny that you mention Ibrahim and Hatice, because that one bothers me much more than Mahidevran and Hürrem being drama queens. The whole conceit of this marriage is weird and wrong and I hate the way they end up coming across. Like, okay. You have a fluffy romance between a princess and her brother’s best friend. Got it. The princess is a sweet little cinnamon roll and her boyfriend comes from a humble background, but is basically a decent guy, and... Wait, Ibrahim, what the fuck are you doing?! IBRAHIIIM... This pairing would always be a failure, just because the very basis of Ibrahim’s character is a massive, raging dickhead, and Hatice even in her worst moments just cannot match him. I could totally buy her obsessing over a guy, if that guy wasn’t fucking Ibrahim. Now, could it work as a disillusionment arch? Yeah, it could. She falls for her brother’s humble, clever friend, only to slowly realize he’s a horrible person, and at first she’s in denial untill he hurts her directly (by cheating on her). But like. They, and I cannot stress this enough, shouldn’t get back together afterwards! Don’t make Hatice forgive him, for fuck’s sake! Ibrahim will go to his grave unloved and unmourned, like he fucking deserves!

- I think what we did get with Ayşe Hafsa and her past was enough? I’d rather she was just a normal concubine like in history, and THAT backstory was explored in relation to the backstories of Hürrem and Mahidevran, but nevermind.

How I would rewrite MC (in a better way)

Magnificent Century is a frustrating show because it has so much potential, yet the writing can be so dumb at times.

I actually have a google doc called "Magnificent Century rewritten correctly" in like 3-4 seasons. Basically I improved & kept the best plot points, so no unrealistic murder plot with Sadika for example. It's more historically accurate, the characters are still flawed but don't act like immature and sociopathic brats half the time (like sending poison left and right & burning others' face as if that would just be left unpunished), the unbalanced power dynamics between slaves & dynasty members are more explored & Nigar would still be the best.

Also the harem would be shown way way more horribly than in the show, like Sadika character wouldn't be a spy just a normal harem girl coping with rape by the Sultan, exploring the idea of consent within a harem where all women are slave, even if Suleyman and other dynasty members never see it that way.

I would also like to keep the historical harem rules, especially the one concubine one son because it would 1/ Make Mahidevran more sympathetic since all her actions would be for her son's future and not out of misplaced possessiveness for Suleyman 2/make it more significant when Hurrem goes back into the Sultan's bed

I would also explore how Mahidevran & Hurrem both telling their sons they're the true heir & future Sultan create tension between the two brothers, just to show how the empire dynamic messes up even something as pure as Mehmet & Mustafa relationship.

Ibrahim and Hatice would still be wed thought, it's historically inaccurate but it's just too smart story wise to have them together, especially since I would explore Ibrahim potential feelings for Suleyman & how, since he can't have Suley, he unconsciously goes for the closest thing : his sister. Also I would leave some cues about how bad a match Ibrahim is for Hatice, because even if Ibrahim has a soft spot for her, he doesn't truly love her and she's obsessed. It's unhealthy.

I would also explore Valide's past way more. Have her have more conversations with Mahidevran about having to share the Sultan, having to protect her son Suleyman from his own father Selim I which would be foreshadowing for Mustafa's fate. I would love for Valide to express more often how afraid she is of Suleyman turning like his father Selim I.

I have a lot more but I'll stop for now! Tell me what you think!

[red-hood-redemption]

ok am I the only one that gets highkey irritated when white ppl comment on brown girls’ pics like “wOW she looks like Jasmine 🤩”

[writefightandflightclub]

The things I do for you: (Santiago “Pope” Garcia x fem!reader x Frankie “Catfish” Morales)

Summary: you don’t have a cock… but sometimes you wish you did, specifically so that you could make Santiago suck it 😇. Luckily, Frankie thinks he has a bright idea to help with that. (Aka, maybe this is niche content idek anymore)

Genre: purely smut. Poly! Established Realtionship (MMF)

Reader: fem!reader (vagina-owning)

Author’s note: just don’t even think about looking at me, okay? 😝 Just don’t look at me. Clearly I was on a very specific thing when I wrote this. I found this hiding in my drafts from an age ago and it’s not proofed or refined at all and probably shouldn’t even exist but I got super sick of not having anything to publish, so here it is. (As ever, credit to @astroboots for inspiring Frankie / Santi poly thoughts that I can’t escape through her incredible and flawless Homecoming universe. Consider this a meagre tribute.)

Rating: EXPLICIT. MINORS DNI. Do not read or interact unless you are 18+ or you will be BLOCKED.

Warnings: reader is vagina-owner and in this scene is “wishing” she “had a cock”. As it’s written, this desire is for fleeting and fantasy purposes only, rather than connected with, for example, gender dysphoria. This may however be difficult for some readers even if it is presented exclusively in a fantasy context. Other than that, lots of MM, MF, slightly rough consensual blow job (M/M but fem!reader controlling the situation), oral m to f, general sexy times, some dirty talk, slight praise kink, reader calls Santi good boy a fair bit, lot of cumshot/cum play. Out of character maybe, it was purely for the smut. Not proofed. Probably a ton of autocorrects which will come back to embarrass me. Questionable logistics also. Like I said, don’t look at me 🙈

“You know. Sometimes, I wish I had a cock so I could make you suck it,” you blurt out of nowhere, fracturing the lazy ambience of the morning, and causing your two boyfriends to snap their gaze up at you around the breakfast table.

You could back-pedal. Add some qualifiers, maybe - but given the looks on their faces you feel it will be much more fun to stand by your statement.

“Oh yeah?” You can tell by the instant sweep of his eyebrow that Santi is interested in this conversation. Interested enough that he puts his book down on the table without bothering to save the page, leaning forward in his chair. Meanwhile, Frankie’s spoonful of cereal falters just before it reaches his mouth, crunchy hoops plunging right back into the milk as he loses his faculties.

“Which of us do you want to suck it, hermosa?” Frankie asks, gathering himself immediately and mustering concentrated heat in his mahogany-dark eyes. Meanwhile, you take a deliberate sip of your coffee, looking deviously between each of them from beneath the rim and stoking their suspense.

It’s a tough call but…

“Santiago,” you purr definitively, a positively lewd glint in your eye which causes his jaw to go slack and his big brown eyes to fixate on you. His gaze is brewing with heat but a dull spark settles there too, like he’s somehow dazed. Cock-drunk already.

Okay. He’s listening. And it’s not lost on you that, in your periphery, Frankie squirms in his chair as though he needs to make himself more comfortable all of a sudden.

“So pretty when he sucks cock,” you praise, and Santi’s eyes grow instantly hooded with want, pupils lust-blown and devouring. He talks a good talk but he’s a sucker for a little praise, this one. Not opposed to earning it either. You like that about him.

“Tell me more about that,” Santi says, a hard swallow sinking down his roped neck, and his rough morning voice flecked with grit, as deep and dark as his black coffee.

The two of them are rapt with you, and you love that after all this time together, you can still make them feel so needy. That rarely is a want of yours ever off the table. At least, not without fair discussion.

“I dunno,” you breeze, standing and circling the table, Santi’s gaze following you in your oversized tee and bare legs. His head is already turning and tipping up as you come to stand above him, your crotch falling level with his pretty face. You cup his sculpted jaw almost gleefully in your hand and tip it up further, his thickened fleck of Sunday stubble bristling beneath your hand.

His head goes so easily where you lead, and you think that could prove to be a lot of fun. You shuffle forward, lifting the hem of you tee and pressing his proud nose into the seam of your panties, your fingers snaking tightly into his mussed morning curls. He exhales gruffly against you and you feel his hot breath permeate the fabric, a damp warmth suffusing over your mound. “Hnnngg. I just wish I could fill you up,” you purr, tugging his curls and pressing his face more firmly against your heat. “Sink you down on me until you made those pretty little gagging noises.” Santi lets out a wracked moan already, and you feel him begin to pant ragged breaths against the thin strip of material - all that stands between his lips and your now aching clit. “Use this pretty little mouth up.”

“Fuuuuck.” Frankie expels in a low, abrasive keen. “If you need a cock for him to suck you can borrow mine.” He does so love getting sucked off by Santiago.

Santi twists his head towards Frankie then, licking his lips, but you fist more firmly into his curls and push him back into your heat.

“Do it then.” Santi goads Frankie with little concern for logic, his words sending a vibration right through your core. His robust thighs are now spread on the chair beneath him, and you can clearly see him growing fat and rigid beneath his painfully thin grey sweatpants. Instead of taking care of himself though, Santi -ever the giver- languidly snakes his hands up your bare thighs, and you know it won’t be long before he is moving the dampened strip of fabric aside and delving into your wet heat, his tongue rolling against your folds right here at the kitchen table.

God, you want that, but…

“I wish I could, Frankie,” you coo, almost petulantly. “I want to bury myself in him. He’d look so pretty taking me.”

“Really, Princesa,” Frankie says urgently, watching what Santi is doing to you with a slack-jaw and a razor focus. “You can lie on top of me, put my cock between your legs, grab a handful of those gorgeous curls and make Santi suck you off.” You don’t know what is more compelling in this moment - the way Santi’s long lashed eyes flutter closed or the intense scope of Frankie’s gaze on his mouth and your clit as Santi’s wet writhing tongue fleets teasingly against you. You throw out an arm to steady yourself against the table’s surface as your legs start to wobble.

Christ though. Santi is reliably the cheerleader for your ideas, but Frankie is one hell of a logistician. And he’s deadly serious.

Meanwhile, Santi simply makes an indecipherable sound against your folds as a single thick finger swipes through your slick, noting how wet they both have you already. He looks undone and lust drunk already, even as he hitches one of your legs up on to the chair for better access. “Uh huh. Pussy or cock - whatever, querida. Just tell me where to point my mouth.” You yelp as he curls a finger inside, sending a jolt of pleasure through you, a smugness blooming on his lips as he feels you react. “Or my hands. Or my cock. Or my ass.”

You smile with glee. Your boys sure do know how to treat you right.

You could easily forget the trajectory - the specific thrust of your want, and simply let Santi eat you out like this; however, you hear the scrape of a chair on tiles to your side, and Frankie’s eyes remain full of determination.

He always does enjoy giving you exactly what you want.

The man stands. Apparently, he’s had just about enough of watching. “Upstairs. Now.”

You and Santi each turn to him in unison, and give him the same devilish smile.

Then; you move.

That’s one thing about Frankie. He doesn’t have to tell you twice.

***

The noises are everything. Frankie’s gruff, abortive exhales against your neck. The deep hum and delicate wet sounds of Santi bearing down on Frankie’s thick veined shaft.

The logistics are working as perfectly as they can. You are sprawled on top of Frankie, his broad chest flush to your back as he sits slightly propped on an array of pillows. His head hooks over your shoulder, and his hands under your ass keep you in position. His thighs are spread to make room for Santi to settle in between them and yours are spread too, laying just outside of his, providing contact with his smooth, lightly muscled quads.

Reaching down between your legs, you wrap your hand around Frankie’s hardened length, earning a gentle huff of air into the junction of your neck as you settle Frankie’s shaft up against your heat - because you can’t resist the wet, warm grind. The feeling of him all rigid and needy like this.

From this angle, with his proud length settled between your legs, it almost looks like it could be your cock - regardless of skin tone. You lose some length -perspective wise- given he is settled under you, but he is so deliciously and generously endowed that you still have plenty to enjoy. To take control of.

You pump Frankie languidly in the circle of your hand, angling so the shaft of him bumps against your clit, even planting your feet so that you are better able to angle your hips and grind your folds along the length of him, coating him with your arousal.

You enjoy the way his thighs tense up against yours. The way his broad hands claw a little more insistently into the flesh of your ass, and the way you can feel his chest heaving at your back.

“Come here, baby. Make me feel good,” you command Santi, and he wastes little time.

Within moments he is there on his hands and knees, bowing his head towards Frankie’s need. Of course, the smug fucker doesn’t do exactly what he’s told right off the bat - but you let him off since he does something better.

First, he writhes his tongue all over, licking a wide stripe up the side of Frankie’s shaft and your folds at the same time, shimmying and undulating to reach each of your most sensitive spots.

You know that Santi is nothing but dedicated. You know that if he can make the both of you come undone he will, and you know he’ll drag it out too, until you are barely sure where you end and Frankie begins; however, that’s not exactly what you had wanted. Not the reason you have him bowed before you, his mouth all ready to be used. You’d wanted the power here, and you plan to take it - from both of them.

Indeed, you grip Frankie’s aching, veined cock and you smack it cruelly against Santi’s cheek, causing each of them to whimper deliciously. Then, you run the swollen head of it along his plumped lower lip, swiping the pearl of precum beading there along him and leaving an irresistible salt tang. Lids heavy and brow burdened with need, Santi’s pink tongue swipes the taste of Frankie away with a hum.

“You gonna be a good boy and suck my nice big cock, Santiago?”

You are enveloped by deep, resonant moans as you hold Frankie’s pleasure in the palm of your hand - quite literally. You feel him twitch with anticipation, and you relish Santi’s slack-jawed, needy expression too.

“That right, Frankie? This my cock now?”

“Yes, bonita. All yours. Do anything you want with it.” Christ, he sounds undone already, voice wracked with need.

“And this?” you ask, pushing your thumb past the pillow of Santi’s lips and gliding it along his eager tongue, his lips closing around you as he sucks gently. “This my mouth to use too?”

“Yes,” he croaks obediently.

“Good, ‘cause I’m going to make you choke on my dick.”

With perfect timing, Santi’s mouth falls open with a musical, flowering moan, and that is when you grip his curls and push Frankie’s length past his lips with an insistent surge, until he is all filled up.

Tears prickle at the corner of Santi’s eyes but he takes it with relish, surging wetly down Frankie’s -your- length until you hear his throat rebel with a glug; sounds like crushed fruit spilling over. You release him and he surges off, Frankie’s length gleaming for him, linked to him by spit trails.

“Do you like that, baby?”

“Uh huh,” Santiago nods, a blatant tremor in his voice, looking blissed out and hungry. “Tastes of b-both of you. So f-fucking good.”

When he’s ready, desperate - both of them desperate for more, Frankie’s thighs now trembling against yours - you guide Santi’s head back down on this thick, slick shaft.

This time, his gag reflex relaxed, Santi takes it almost all the way. At least, deep enough that his proud nose nudges against your clit, even whilst his lips and tongue are folded obediently around Frankie’s arousal.

“Fuck,” you breathe at the sudden pressure, Santi all too deliberately nosing gently at your sweet spot until he needs to surge off of Frankie again, his cheeks glistening with squeezed out tears. “So good for me. So pretty like this, Santiago.”

With relish, with your own barrelling need and that of Frankie shuddering and moaning and writhing under you, you control the pace of Santi’s ministrations. Frankie helps you out, thrusting lightly in time to deepen his passage into Santiago’s eager throat, the whole motion grinding you up against them where it counts. Your own arousal swells, your juices leaking from your cunt until they coat Frankie’s shaft too, Santi tasting you as he works so diligently to suck this cock for all it’s worth.

You fall into the rhythm of it, the pace, the wet surge and slip and slide and the choke and release and those pretty tears beading in Santiago’s eyes - practically poetic with need now - his breath ragged and his lips plumped and beaded with spit and cum. Everything so wet and liquid.

Frankie helps you too, finding space for his girthy finger to massage your clit in time with the sensations being delivered to his length, almost as though the pleasure delivered by Santi’s mouth is going directly to the core of you. Almost as though the swirl of his tongue around that fat, contoured head is one and the same as that white hot pleasure spreading through your middle.

You thrill as you watch Santi surge off that cock another time, your stomach lurching pleasantly.

“Good boy. Such a good boy for me. You like this, don’t you? All needy for us?”

It’s not lost on you that -yes- he’s enjoying this. Very much. That besides the moans and the way he pushes his curls insistently into your palm, eager for your control, he’s also hard as a rock, beginning to rut himself up against the mattress less than subtly too to relieve his own throbbing want.

God, he must be aching. Must be so needy as he takes care of you.

“Good,” Santiago gushes, mouth still full of ‘you’, words all rounded and incoherent. “Tastes so good.”

The fact Frankie’s head is now thrown back on to the pillow, his hands fisting into the sheets, is a sure sign that he is close too. The jagged breaths he’s submitting to the air now are a dead giveaway, in fact.

“I’m not going to cum yet,” you insist, even if Frankie evidently has other plans. Even if he seems thoroughly ready to pop and paint Santiago’s throat. “Gonna take a little more from you, sweetheart.” Frankie’s breaths are gusts of air now, like he’s fighting hard to stave off his release. To truly give you the control you crave here.

God, you’re close to your own end too though. You’re dripping now, your nectar coursing down to dampen Frankie’s thatch of coarse dark hair. Dripping to coat his tightening balls.

Frankie’s hand finds your clit again, with new resolve, and somehow he manages to find words - fighting through the pre-nut fog. “You are gonna cum now. Santiago’s making you feel so good with his mouth, hermosa. You are going to come.” He’s warning you. He can’t hold it much longer before he bursts. He’s inviting you - to feel it with him.

You moan into the air, Frankie’s words and fingers both making a rather compelling argument. And, Santiago’s ministrations show increasing vigour, the suck and pop louder and wetter and that crushed, glugging rhythm growing far more insistent.

So eager to please. Such a good boy. Ready to drink it all down.

“Gonna take my cum on your face, pretty baby? Gonna let me paint you?” you ask him, and you hear a muffled affirmative spoken around the girth jammed deep into his face.

You could let Frankie spill over into Santi’s throat - that delicious salt-tang flooding over his tongue. You could keenly watch the bob of his corded neck and he swallows it all down… but you want to see him covered in it. Want that pretty man to be left a mess from you, all chaotic curls and tear-tracks and glistening seed coursing down over that proud chin. That’s what you want.

And so, you reach between your legs and you pump Frankie’s slick, sensitive length in the circle of your hand, just how you know he likes. He groans for you, the sound rattling through you as his hips start to stutter.

Santi waits obediently, basically presenting his face to you while he waits for this thick load to be delivered all over his face.

Frankie follows your lead, his diligent, skilful fingers making your own release bloom through you. At the same moment, your explosion of pleasure is made visible, as Frankie shoots himself, thick and abrupt ropes of cum coating Santi. Spilling over his grizzled curls, his nose, his cheek, his lips, his eyelashes, his face scrunching up with the initial shock of it and then settling into a blissful, awed calm. Then, as you continue pumping his gratified length - pressing the head of Frankie’s cock into Santiago’s cheek as the final pulses of his seed spillover, all warm and creamy over your knuckles too - your core convulses in time, your throbbing waves of pleasure only heightened by the delectable sight before you.

“Fuck,” Santi breathes after a while, lazily swiping seed into his mouth from where it has settled on his mouth.

Beneath you, meanwhile, Frankie is still wordless as he floats back down to Earth. You felt how hard he came, his whole body tightening under you - now slack and boneless and sweat-sheened.

You both flutter down from your high, eyes closing as you drift back down to your bodies. However, as soon as your eyes are opened, you are each eager to survey the mess you jointly made of your beloved Santiago, Frankie’s seed now slowly coursing down his face, already beginning to stiffen in that way it does, but you opt to let Santi enjoy/suffer with it for a few extended moments more.

Then, you feel Frankie’s warm throaty chuckle wrap around you like a blanket. “You got it in his hair, hermosa. Need to work on your aim,” he teases fondly, wrapping an arm around your soft middle.

“Nope. My aim was perfect,” you insist, allowing yourself a devilish smile as Santiago looks mock-accusingly at you - as if he isn’t loving being covered like this - marked as yours and Frankie’s. All used up.

You reach for a cloth from the beside table and laugh gently -fondly- yourself as you help him to clean up.

You’re waiting though, for his inevitable question, his brow and his cock still burdened by his own need.

“Have I been a good boy?” he purrs sinfully, knowing fine well that he has. Knowing that that tone can only help him to get what he wants. Permission to find his own end.

“You have.” Surprisingly. He’s far more of a brat for Frankie. “You can take care of yourself now, baby.” You know he’ll spill himself in moments. Can see the ruddy, swollen head of his cock, flushed almost purple with need as he languidly pumps himself in his own hand - almost reluctantly, as those he’s almost too sensitive to be touched after being made to wait for it while you were pleasured.

“Yeah? Who wants it?”

You roll off of Frankie, and you settle on the bed with your legs wide open, all spread for him. “Cum on my pussy, if you wanna? You earned it.”

From the way Santi practically growls and shifts himself on the mattress, you know he likes the sound of that. Very much. “Fuck. Look at you, hermosa.”

“Mmm,” you hum, fingering your own slick - playing with it, as Santi appears rapt with your plump, glistening folds. “Did you like sucking on my cock? Did it get you all hard?“

Your voice is velvet, and apparently, your words and the sight of you is all that Santi needed. With only a few thrusts into his palm he is coating you, pulsing his seed over your heat until you are a warm, creamy mess. His release is punctuated too by Frankie and Santi both firing gentle, breathy expletives into the air, loving how you look all laid out like this.

Well. Alright.

It seems like your idea worked out pretty well? It seems like everyone had an exceptionally good time - you included. But still, you’re not averse to a little praise yourself, so you simply have to ask. “How was I with a cock then, boys?”

“Honey, we need to get you a strap.” Frankie insists immediately. Oh yeah? He’s keen? That’s… very interesting. “I gotta watch you fuck our little brat. Fill up all those holes of his.”

There Santi goes again, that dazed, lust-drunk look overtaking his face. “Uh. Uh huh,” he agrees efficiently. “Fucking hot.”

No complaints from him either, then? You take that as a good sign too, and a happy, giddy grin spreads over your face as your boys set about cleaning you up too and showering you with long, slow, loving kisses.

With these two, almost anything is possible, it seems. Apparently, Santi can be relied upon to cheerlead any kinky idea you may have. And luckily, the two of you have Frankie to help you work out the logistics.

Actually… there’s an idea.

You bite your lip shyly. “Frankie? Do you think… Can we maybe get Santi a cheerleading outfit?”

The man’s jaw goes slack now as he plays with that mental image, but when you look at Santi to absorb his take, he appears nothing but smug.

Santiago flings himself on to the mattress by your side, nestling himself in between yours and Frankie’s naked bodies. Little attention-seeker he is. Always looking for snuggles. “Cariño,” he teases, with a playful flutter of those pretty lashes. “You’re not ready for how good my cheeks would look in a cute little skirt.”

“Probably not,” you admit, thinking about how on Earth you would survive the sight. “But I’m willing to find out.”

“The things I do for you,” Santiago jests, snuggling even closer into your side. Yeah right, as though he doesn’t love every minute of this. The way that you and Frankie both fawn over him.

Still, you notice Frankie reach to the bedside in that moment, cutting the snuggles unusually short as he reaches for his phone and reading glasses, post haste. “Watcha doing, babe?” you ask curiously.

He turns the screen towards you both and his quest becomes immediately evident. “Your wish is my desire,” he says in all seriousness, and you wonder how you managed to get so lucky. “I’ve got some shopping to do.”

[revserrayyu]

2.6 Penacony thoughts [part 1]

**Spoiler warning** for everything up until the end of Boothill’s first encounter with Robin. Might reference things that happen later since I already finished the mission at this point, so be wary if you haven’t yet. Lots of random ramblings from me as usual with new stories, especially with all the silly stuff that happened.

Going back to school never really thrilled me back in the day, so learning that we’re all attending Paperfold University for this update was kinda meh to me. All the crazy trailers and the fact that we’re taking a trip back to Penacony did pique my curiosity enough thanks to our previous adventure inside the land of dreams though. I did enjoy how interested Dan Heng was about attending and when his voice actors would seem genuinely excited one moment then revert back to his usual calm, collected self the next in an attempt to hide his enthusiasm. It’s okay to show emotions, sir!

I’ll admit that I believed that Pom-Pom was actually joining us for the briefest moment until I remembered that Boothill used our conductor as his fake name last time upon checking in.

I don’t even know too much about DnD but at least I spotted this reference to it, yeah?

The treasure chest was quite the convincing substitution, fooling me and even Numby who was alerted to it, so props to our new ninja friend I guess.. who joined us in the dream pool not even five seconds later.

Damn them for bringing this stupidly catchy song into the game because it has been sneaking into my mind so often these past couple days!

I will say that hearing the Trailblazer’s sing the song did make the experience much better and I would definitely listen to it more if it means they allow the Trailblazer to speak more like they have been in story missions recently.

Our true first meeting with Rappa and girl really had a whole anime OP of an introduction.

First off, beautiful cutscene will all the colors and neon. Secondly, I did actually question why they listed her name as “???” here and started wondering if Rappa really was her name or not and.. yeah, this makes sense later.

We’re literally so darn stupid and silly and I love it. Poor March cringed so bad she didn’t even want us as a friend anymore. Incredibly rude since my text message has your little face decorated next to it, ma’am!

The Dreampeak calls return and I wasn’t expecting to hear one about Boothill and him dreaming about his family, aww! But wow.. y’all really did call your kid ‘Boothill’ huh? Tell me why.

Our sus teacher makes his grand entrance and now I’m continuing to doubt everyone’s real names at this point.

Dan Heng please, you’re allowed to have fun! You can admit you do things solely for your own enjoyment!

Aeons.. they make him look so sketchy and untrustworthy with that smile and I’m so fine with it. Thankfully he didn’t turn out completely evil, but I accept his villain vibes regardless.

His knowledge freaked me out a little bit at first because why would he know all this?? Has he been watching playthroughs of the entire game? Or has he done his research about the Astral Express? Of course it makes sense now as we later find out he’s a Memokeeper and memories are pretty much their area of expertise.

I didn’t even bother to change my result on which academy I would personally attend, but I’m glad it turned out this way as it allowed the Express trio to all go somewhere different.

Pffftt.. looking through screenshots and this makes me realize how tall this man truly is, like I think Feixiao is reasonably tall by in game women standards, so to see Reca way past her ears is quite something. I dunno, maybe I don’t pay attention to character heights all that much, but his surprised me anyways.

Now I know whomever this chili-dipping person is couldn’t have been Jiaoqiu since it’s well known he attended the Ranzhi School on the Yaoqing and I’m like 99% sure our healer never stepped foot in Penacony before, but I couldn’t help but think this is something he would’ve done too if given the chance..

And I’m certainly not crazy to think so as he’s briefly mentioned in one of the options we’re given! Yay.. I miss our hot pot king. But wow, March being strong enough to pin us down? I’m rather impressed and wish to see fanart of this chaos.

I enjoy Boothill so much whenever he appears in the story that it’s a shame that I probably won’t ever pull for him since I’m not too big on his combat.

That way that I didn’t even think twice about him suddenly saying bananas outta nowhere because of how his swears are (unwillingly) censored all the time anyway is hilarious. It seemed normal and I figured he was being caught up with all the banana chatter this patch has, but nope.. something is clearly wrong here.

It’s been quite a while since we first arrived in Penacony because I seriously forgot Robin is capable of doing this rainbow harmony thing too. It also slipped my mind that she and Boothill have indeed met before inside that one dream way back in 2.2. I don’t remember them interacting all that much then so the scenes they shared this patch were a treat.

Thank you Robin for healing him so he can swear normally.. or at least to his usual censored way of swearing. It’s silly but I love hearing them. His voice actors must have fun tossing around such words so often.

Well aren’t you just the definition of a precious angel. This patch really started making me feel some regret about not pulling for her.. but next time, for sure.

Speak your truth girlie! Also I dunno if it’s true since I don’t play Genshin, but I saw people saying that this npc sounded a lot like Navia, and if so, then that’s adorable to have Brenna (who also voices Yunli) and Andrew (Boothill va) share a scene together since they’re married. Whoever this npc really is though, they had a nice singing voice.

For some reason my mind thought of the bullet wound on her neck and how she wouldn’t want to be near any fight that Boothill may start, but I doubt that was the intention behind this line since I know Robin was worried about how easily she would stand out because of her reputation. Still, I think it’s pretty brave of her to hang around someone who prides themselves on their sharpshooter skills, though I’m positive Boothill would never let a stray bullet hit anyone aside from its intended target.

Yeah girl, no need to act so formal around our cowboy! Y’all worked together before so I can bet we’re past the level of acquaintances now. Be friendly! I’m not only wishing this because their dynamic intrigues me very much, but also because I just wanna hear her go full country accent and say “partner.”

Not gonna lie but just the thought of seeing these two interact more further along in the story keep my spirits up significantly and oh boy, I wasn’t disappointed.

I’ll end it here for now. The rest will take up two more posts if I can manage to fit everything.

[red-dia]

It feels like the pacing for this arc and past arcs after the “Phos Goes to the Moon” arc starts to go faster and faster so there is a lot to be desired in between. It feels like the story goes from A to Z without putting in the other letters in between. I really wanted to see how the Gems would react to becoming Lunarians, because their fast acceptance was something I just can’t understand why it was so easy to undergo such a drastic transformation without any qualms. There were also interactions I wanted between some characters that did not happen or were written in an unsatisfying way that felt like the nuance in them just disappears.

I understand that time skips with the length of decades to centuries to millennia means that Gems can change drastically, especially in the setting of the Moon, where the Lunarian world allows the Gems to have more freedom to find themselves and find their own resolutions. Now I just have to hope and pray “The Party at the End” book added in with the special edition Vol 12 preorder will give me some answers and explanations. But part of me also is expecting mostly Cairnmea content in it per usual.

I dunno, part of me feels like Ichikawa is going through both burn out for this series and also wanting to move onto other projects aside from HNK, considering she works with Nintendo and is a character designer for Pokémon.

Agreed to a lot of this; the thing that bothers me the most is that there's so many characters that seem like they're set up to get some kind of development, and then the story kinda leaves it hanging, and for a while I had assumed there would be conflicts and resolutions and closure, but these issues dropped off the face of the earth....

The shift from the gems being hunted for sport for their entire existence only to be integrated among the lunarians, and nobody has hard feelings about it, everybody is happy to have left the earth where they've lived forever, everybody just kinda 👍 their way though it, fine we are lunarians now, okay we can restore dead gems because we changed our minds this is fine actually, whatever happened to Ghost and Lapis though, or whatever complex situation Rutile & Padparadscha had, or whatever are the ramifications of dusted gems coming back to life only to find almost everything they knew is gone and they have to live a new way of life without ever having asked for this :/

Not saying she shouldn't have done it at all, but the lack of extra time to introduce it made it feel pretty ooc to me. Especially given that "everybody has to die at some point" has been admitted as a plot point for a long time, so rushing it wasn't necessary at all. It also feels like there's a lot of missed opportunities...

That's not even mentioning things like the admirabilis, or earth stuff like the ice floes, but i'm still holding onto the hope there might be some more answers for that in the upcoming chapters. I'm also waiting to see if there's interesting stuff in the vol 12 booklet (though i'm not getting my hands on it, so i'm not sure if anything will be shared), but i'm not expecting much either though, but at least it might be fun!

+ regarding ichikawa being burned out, i'm not sure. I do think hnk is important to her because she put a lot of effort into it even when it's not necessary (cf artbooks, updated pages for manga releases, etc). If i had to guess, either she 1. happened to have a different vision of the story and she's fine with that, and/or decided on a deadline (ch108?) and eventually realized she was running late and had to scrap things/rush the story a bit and couldnt say everything she wanted to. The second option seems doesn't seem unlikely to me since hnk can only go so far with 20 pages per month, and she's trying to supplement it with additional material.

Either way yeah, i don't exactly know how hard hnk is on her since she takes hiatuses pretty liberally when she's working on other projects. A hiatus is still pretty different from a finished series though, so you may be onto something if she is trying to diversify her line of work...?

[arrow-guy]

Another Time (2/3)

Original request from @storiesbystarlight:  I would like to request a Peggy Carter x Reader, with Reader being Steve’s sister. Peggy and Reader got married after the war, and by the time Steve comes back Y/N is already gone (died from cancer, if that’s okay). Steve goes to ask Tony about Y/N and Peggy, and that’s how he finds out they got married and that Peggy’s still alive. Cut to Peggy telling Steve about how she and Y/N had it after the war.

A/N: So this was definitely intended to be a two and done type story, but then I started spitballing in a discord server I’m in and now I’ve got the makings for a third chapter. However, this second chapter could definitely be read as the finale on account of the Closure. But, that being said, I really enjoy where this story has taken me and I hope you’ll enjoy this new chapter!

Page dividers by @carryonmyswansong

Pairing: Peggy CarterxReader

Word Count: 9.4k

Warning: Reader is a Lesbian, vaguely homophobic behavior, unrequited love, workplace harassment, verbal argument(s), major character death across the series (Reader character, Steve, Bucky), terminal illness, grief

-Please remember that this is a queer love story set in the 40′s and, as such, will not necessarily be as progressive as those set in modern times. If this is something that makes you uncomfortable, please proceed with caution of skip altogether.

Part 1

“She really worked nights for three weeks?”

“Well… yes and no.” Steve cocks one eyebrow and Peggy sighs. “Three weeks wound up being three months.”

Steve lets out a low whistle. “You must’ve seriously pissed her off.”

“Believe me, Steve, I don’t think there was ever a time she was more upset with me. And I never blamed her for it. I was too caught up in my own feelings to understand how insensitive I was being.”

"She knew how to avoid a problem. Especially when she felt like she was part of it." Steve frowned. "She came around though, right?"

"Sort of. Neither of us really knew how to broach the issue, so it went on far longer than it should've. But I was stubborn. I knew when she was working and didn't bother to speak with her."

“But you got through it?”

“Yes, we got through it.”

"So when are you goin' back to your regular schedule?"

"Dunno." (Y/N) slid her mug to the edge of the table and Angie dutifully filled it to the brim with coffee.

"Was the fight really that bad?"

"Yeah. It was. She was upset that I didn't disclose information that could literally put me in danger."

"Well there has to be a reason."

"I don't know Ange…"

Angie slid into the booth across from her and grabbed her hand. "Peggy doesn't do anything without a reason, right? And it's not like she doesn't know how to keep a secret."

"That's not the point."

"No, I got the point. You're scared and she's poking at things that she doesn't really get."

"I just don't know if she'll ever understand."

"I think she understands more than you give her credit for."

"Did she ever come talk to you?"

"Oh yeah." She widened her eyes and nodded her head dramatically. (Y/N) chuckled. "And boy did we talk."

“I hate the way you said that.”

"Well, she had a bunch of questions. We got pretty in depth."

"Again, that doesn't bode well." She frowned. "What do you mean, 'in depth'?"

"She asked me about how I knew I-" Angie glanced around- "Y'know."

"Uh-huh."

"And then she was curious about all the ins and outs of you-know-what."

"Which you excel in describing."

"Exactly! So it's not like I could leave anything out, it'd be a disservice to our dear Peggy."

"Yeah, sure."

Angie smirked. "You just wanna know if she asked about you."

"I do not!" (Y/N) busied herself stirring nothing into her coffee. "I mean… I might be a little curious-"

"I knew it!"

"Angie, please-"

"Oh, come on, (Y/N), of course she asked about you. It's the first time I knew something about you that she didn't."

"... Right."

"She asked about your past flames, but we met after they'd all come and gone, so I couldn't tell her much."

"Okay-"

"I did tell her you're excellent in bed."

"You didn't."

"Oh I absolutely did." (Y/N) hid her face in her elbow and Angie just squeezed her hand. "Look, I'm pretty sure she likes you. I wouldn't've said anything like that if I wasn't."

"Really?" She peeked over her arm at Angie. "How can you be sure?"

"I have a really good feeling about it."

"This isn't something you can just have a premonition about and be right!"

Angie shrugged. "I don't see why not. I had the same feeling about David, and look where that got me."

"Yeah, with a ring on your finger and a promise of never working again in your life." Finally, (Y/N) stopped sulking and sat up. "How is he, by the way?"

"Oh, y'know. Busy busy busy. But still just as attentive as ever, if you can believe it."

(Y/N) smiled. "Of course I can believe it. You're a catch, Ange."

The diner door opened, followed by a small “Oh.” (Y/N) glanced up, only to find Peggy standing just inside the diner, staring directly at her and Angie. The obvious betrayal on her face confused (Y/N).

“Peggy?”

The sound of (Y/N)’s voice startled Peggy into action and she quickly turned on her heel and darted back out onto the poorly lit sidewalk. (Y/N) wasted no time in shoving herself up from the booth and going after her. It was nearly 10 at night and no matter how highly trained Peggy was, (Y/N) didn’t have a good feeling about her being out there by herself.

By the time she got outside, Peggy was already halfway up the block. (Y/N) raced after her, calling out for her to stop, which only made Peggy walk faster.

“Peggy, stop.”

She’d nearly caught up when Peggy turned down a random alley. (Y/N) just barely managed to grab her arm before she could get too far past the dumpster.

“Let go.”

“No can do, Director.” She pointed to the glow at the end of the alley. “Down there? That’s Curtis. You don’t want to meet Curtis.”

“What’s he done?”

(Y/N) shook her head. “Not sure yet. I just know there’s something off about him.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, for one, only men are allowed to wait on him when he shows up at the diner.”

“I see.” (Y/N) let go of Peggy’s arm and led the way back to the sidewalk. “Well, I’ll let you get back to your date.”

“Is that what this is about?” Peggy simply folded her arms. “Jesus, Peg. Angie’s at work, not to mention engaged. And I never had any interest in her to begin with.”

“You… really?”

“Yeah. I mean, Angie’s great and all, but… no. Not her.”

“Who, then?”

“If you have to ask, then I’m just gonna assume that everything I tell you goes in one ear and out the other.”

“So nothing’s changed?”

“It’s only been a few months.” Peggy scowled and (Y/N) almost laughed. “You really think one argument is going to erase almost a decade of feelings? Do you honestly think I’m that shallow?”

"No! Of course I don't. But I remember how upset you were last time we spoke."

She sighed. "I know you know how frustrating it can be when you're cornered. Those SSR pricks backed you into your fair share of them. And you cornered me. On more than one occasion, might I add."

"Oh." 

"I don't like being laid bare like that. I don't like feeling exposed." (Y/N) shoved her hands into her pockets. “We should probably talk.”

“I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Then let me ask the questions. All you have to do is answer as best you can.”

“All right.” Peggy frowned. “Did you want to talk here?”

“Ah, no. That’s probably not a good idea. Is it okay with you if we go back to the office?” Peggy raised her eyebrows. “I still have some work I need to get done…”

“Then we’ll go to the office.”

(Y/N) shivered. “First we need to go back to the diner. I forgot my coat when I rushed out after you.”

She offered her arm and Peggy placed her hand in the crook of her elbow. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Didn’t I, though?”

Peggy was quiet for a moment and (Y/N) led them back to the diner. Her grip on (Y/N)’s arm tightened as they got closer.

“I suppose you did,” she said.

(Y/N) simply hummed and opened the door for Peggy to go in first. Angie greeted them when the bell tinkled. (Y/N) gathered her things from the booth and stepped up to the counter to give Angie money for the coffee.

“You know the coffee is free,” Angie admonished.

(Y/N) shook her head and curled Angie’s fingers around the cash. “Your time isn’t.”

Angie sighed. “She doesn’t know how lucky she is.”

“Aw, Ange-”

“I’m serious! I’ve got half a mind to just try to make you my mistress. I mean, David already thinks you’re great. I’m sure we could work something out.”

“You know it’d never last.”

“Aw, why?”

Very seriously, (Y/N) said, “I don’t share.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Angie blushed. (Y/N) winked and Angie laughed and waved her off. Peggy didn’t seem particularly pleased when (Y/N) met her back by the door. She raised her eyebrows and Peggy sighed.

“I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t flirt in front of me.”

“It was banter, Peggy.” Suddenly confident in the face of Peggy’s obvious jealousy, she leaned in close enough that Peggy would be the only one to hear her say, “But I could always flirt with you, if you’d like.”

At that, Peggy grabbed (Y/N)’s hand and dragged her out the door. Nervous laughter threatened to bubble up from her chest, and (Y/N) didn’t know what to expect from that point forward. She wasn’t even sure why she’d said anything to begin with, let alone something suggestive. Maybe it had something to do with Peggy’s reactions. She was normally so calm and in control of herself and her surroundings. But, somehow, (Y/N) had knocked her off kilter, and she didn’t know what to do with that kind of power. She suspected that she was already pushing her limits with that little she’d done.

"What's going through that head of yours?"

"I'm just trying to figure out what's going through your head." Peggy's grip on her hand tightened and she frowned. "Honestly, I barely know what's going on."

"Well, you wanted to talk. So we'll talk."

"We already established that. I guess I just didn't expect you to drag me through the streets of New York beforehand."

Peggy slowed her pace, but her death grip on (Y/N)'s hand didn't let up.

They let themselves into the S.H.I.E.L.D. offices when they arrived and Peggy silently led (Y/N) to her office. She closed the door as soon as (Y/N) was through. (Y/N) opened her mouth to ask a question, but all that came out was a surprised squeak when she found herself pinned to the door by Peggy, who was surprisingly strong in spite of her petite build. She grabbed the collar of (Y/N)'s coat, hauled herself forward, and crushed her lips to (Y/N)'s, as if she'd lose the nerve if she didn't kiss her at that exact moment. (Y/N) made a choked noise akin to a sob at the back of her throat before she could recover from her shock. Peggy softened against her and her hands fell to Peggy's hips. Tentatively, she allowed herself to kiss back before she abruptly pulled away.

She pushed Peggy back and said, "We need to talk."

"(Y/N)-"

"I am dead serious. I can't do-" she gestured wildly- "this if you're not all in. I'm too fucking old to be someone's experiment."

"You're not an experiment."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"(Y/N)," Peggy warned.

"No, it's been three goddamn months. I've more than earned a little foul language. Now, explain."

Peggy's mouth opened and closed soundlessly while she tried to find her words. (Y/N) waited patiently and tried to look as casual as possible while she leaned against the closed door behind her. She didn't know if it was obvious, but it felt as if her heart were beating hard enough to burst from her chest.

"Months ago, before you even left for your assignment with the FBI's team, you asked who the woman was that made me question myself." (Y/N) nodded. "She's you."

(Y/N) pointed at herself and Peggy nodded. "What?"

"It's not as if I intended to make this discovery, but after your birthday I took a step back and looked at myself and the people I've found myself seeking out and finding comfort in over the years and you cropped up the most. And it's not that I'd never encountered lesbians before, but I'd never thought of the possibility of being attracted to men and women. And then you explained how you found yourself admiring women and I realized that my interest wasn't normal."

"Normal?"

"Well… I suppose I thought all women noticed each other. Snuck glances in the locker room and wanted to erm…" Peggy trailed off and shook her head. "That doesn't matter. By the time you'd left on your assignment I'd realized that I had feelings for you, but then we fought after you got back and I was sure I ruined everything and then tonight-and I just-"

(Y/N) placed her hands on Peggy's shoulders, instantly silencing her. "Slow down. You don't have to say everything all at once."

"It feels like I do."

"I know."

"I need to apologize for that night."

(Y/N) nodded. "Yeah, you do."

"I made something that was entirely about your feelings about myself. It was wrong of me and I regretted it as soon as it happened. I'm sorry."

"Thank you." She trailed her hands from Peggy's shoulders, down to her arms, and gently took her hands. "You really have feelings for me?" Peggy nodded. "I-I need to hear you say it."

"I care for you, (Y/N) Rogers." Peggy delicately tucked (Y/N)'s hair behind her ears. "Same as you do for me."

(Y/N) let out a shaking sigh and pressed her forehead to Peggy's.

"Be with me," she murmured.

"Of course I will."

Peggy bumped her nose against (Y/N)'s before she kissed her. (Y/N) didn't hesitate in kissing her back this time and tipped her head to the side, readily opening her mouth under Peggy's and letting her take control.

This kiss was nothing like their first. Instead of force and teeth and searing urgency, it was soft and slow and sweet. It was with great regret that (Y/N) broke it. There was still more that needed to be said.

"I can't be a replacement for Steve," she said. "I'm not him. I can't be him."

"You're not." Peggy gently kissed along her jaw. "You're not-" down (Y/N)'s neck- "you never have been, darling-" before capturing her lips once more. "And I never want you to be."

(Y/N) sighed shakily and gripped Peggy's waist. "I've loved you for so long I-I… I don't think I could take it if you did."

"You say that you love me so easily," Peggy murmured.

"Not really. I'm just allowed to say it now. I'll keep myself in check until you're ready for that sort of thing. Provided you even want it."

"Don't. I quite like hearing it, actually."

"O-oh. Really? It's not too much for you?"

"You keep so much close to your chest. That sort of affection will never be too much for me.”

“Oh.”

“I do have one question, though.”

(Y/N) nodded. “Anything.”

“In my conversation with Angie, she mentioned something about you being, quote, ‘excellent in bed.’” (Y/N) groaned and dropped her head to Peggy’s shoulder. Peggy traced her nails up and down her neck and she shivered. “Care to explain.”

(Y/N) couldn’t help smiling just a little. “Are you jealous?”

“I might be, depending on your answer.”

“Hm, maybe I shouldn’t tell you then.” Peggy dug her nails in and (Y/N) laughed. “No, I’ve never slept with Angie. I already told you I’m not interested in her.”

“So she was lying?”

“Mn, I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then how would she know?”

“Well…”

“(Y/N).”

“She’s the only person I’ve talked to about past encounters-”

“Conquests,” Peggy corrected.

“Whatever you wanna call ‘em, I’ve talked with her about them and she knows I’ve never had any complaints.”

“Oh? That good are you?”

“Curious, are we?” (Y/N) tilted her head to the side so that her lips moved against Peggy’s neck as she spoke.

“Well, it’s not as if I was given any details.” Peggy tipped her head to the side and (Y/N) took it as an invitation to kiss her neck.

“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” (Y/N) pulled away and found Peggy flushed from neck to scalp. “It doesn’t matter how long we’ve known each other. It’s a huge leap from necking in the office to sex.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

“This is already moving really fast, Peg. And this isn’t me saying that I don’t want to sleep with you, because I really fucking do. But not now, and not here.”

“You’re sure?”

“You already know how I feel about you. This-” she thumbed gentle circles into Peggy’s sides- “is enough.”

“Alright.”

“But it’s not enough for you.” Peggy chewed the inside of her lip in lieu of an answer. “Talk to me.”

“I...” she sighed. “I do want a physical relationship with you.”

“I want that too. And we can absolutely have that. I just…” (Y/N) frowned. “I want to be able to take my time and make you feel good instead of frantically trying to get you off in a dark office.”

Peggy chuckled. "I see your point. But I am ready to move towards that with you, if you are."

“How about this.” (Y/N) wrapped her arms around Peggy and leaned against the door. “Take the rest of the week off, and we’ll spend the weekend upstate.”

Peggy smoothed her hands over (Y/N)’s blouse. “You know I can’t, I’m-”

“The director, yeah. But you’d only be taking Thursday and Friday off, and you haven’t had any time away from work since long before you helped found S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Really? So your last vacation didn’t turn into a dangerous investigation?”

“Nothing I say will make you forget California, will it?”

“Hell no.”

“Fine.”

“So you’ll come with me?”

"Where would we stay?"

"We'll borrow one of Stark's vacation homes."

"You're sure he has one upstate?"

"Yeah, I heard him talking about a cabin on a lake a while back. In fact-" she disentangled herself from Peggy and crossed the room to her desk. "I'll ask him right now."

She picked up the phone and held the receiver to her ear.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. offices, how may I direct your call?"

"Dana, it's Rogers. I need Stark on the line, now."

"I'm sorry, Agent Rogers, Mr. Stark was very serious about not being disturbed right now."

"It's an emergency."

"Agent Rogers, I can't do that."

"If you put me through, I'll get you off the night shift."

Dana paused at that. "Permanently?"

"I can't promise permanent right now, but you'll get the next month in the daylight and I'll talk to Director Carter in the meantime."

"Are you sure you have that kind of pull?"

"Do we have a deal or not, Richards?"

"Fine."

The line rang through and (Y/N) glanced back to find Peggy looking highly amused. She took a seat on the desk and asked, "What?"

"You know the receptionists names?"

"Oh I absolutely know the receptionists names." She held out her hand and pulled Peggy close as soon as she took it. "Don't be jealous."

Peggy scowled. "I'm not."

"Mm, yeah, sure looks like it." She tilted her head up and kissed her. "You know, Angie joked about making me her mistress."

"You're not doing much to help my jealousy, darling."

"Yeah, well I told her I don't share."

"Ah, greedy, are we?"

"A little. But when I'm committed to someone, that also means I don't share myself with anyone else. And I'm committed to you. Big time."

Peggy bit back her smile. "Oh really?"

"Mhm." (Y/N) was considering kissing Peggy again when someone picked up the phone. She whispered, "I need you to play along."

"What?"

(Y/N) held up one finger and held the phone away from both of them and began to breathe heavily. Distantly, they could hear Howard complaining about having to answer the phone. (Y/N) spoke over him saying, "Did we lose him?"

Peggy raised her eyebrows. “What?”

“Did we lose him, Peg?” she calls. “Can you see him?”

“No, I”m afraid I can’t.”

“Fuck.” She began to pant as she moved the receiver closer to herself. “Howard, are you there?”

“What the fuck is going on there?”

“You still have that place upstate, right?”

“You gotta tell me what the hell is happening first, (Y/N).”

“Peggy ‘n I have been working on a case on the side and we just got made. We need a place to lay low for a few days.”

“What the- you two haven’t talked in months!”

“That’s what we needed you to think.” She looked pointedly at Peggy, silently asking her to add something to the lie.

“(Y/N), we have to go. Do we have the house or not?”

“I don’t know, he hasn’t said.”

“Is that Peggy?” (Y/N) confirmed it was “Put her on”

“We don’t have time, Howard. We need the address and a way to get in. Can we use the house or not?”

“Fine, yeah, fine! You can use the house.” Howard rattled off the address and told them where they could find the key

(Y/N) looked up at Peggy, grinned, and wiggled her eyebrows. “Thanks, you’re our hero right now.”

“(Y/N), we have to go, now!” Peggy cried.

“Shit, sorry, we gotta g-” (Y/N) hung up and tipped her head back and laughed. “And that’s how you trick the great Howard Stark.”

“Won’t he find out?”

“Not if we leave right now.”

(Y/N) grabbed Peggy’s hand and together they hurried out of the building.

Peggy spent the night at (Y/N)’s apartment and they stopped by Peggy’s place early the next morning to pack her things before they caught a taxi to their destination.

The cabin (Y/N) pictured was far from what they drove up to. It was more the size of a family home than an actual cabin. She muttered something about there being “such a thing as too much money.” Peggy simply laughed, took her hand, and led her into the house.

It was warm and inviting inside and far more furnished than (Y/N) had expected. Any time she’d been in a Stark residence previously, it had been far more minimalistic and, well… stark, for lack of a better word. But even just standing in the entryway, she couldn’t think of a better place to spend her first weekend alone with Peggy.

The house was so beautiful that it was almost a shame that the rooms that saw the most use were the kitchen and the bedroom they’d chosen to sleep in. But they spent  the majority of their time wrapped up in each other in one way or another. And, honestly, who could blame them? After years of longing on (Y/N)’s part and months of misunderstandings, they simply wanted to take time away from everyone and everything to relearn each other. By the time they were on their way home, (Y/N) felt they’d done just that. And though, as promised, Peggy had no complaints, she couldn’t help thinking back to (Y/N)’s birthday when she’d said that Peggy didn’t know her as well as she knew Peggy. Sure, Peggy knew important surface level things that anyone close with (Y/N) would know, but she didn’t know the little things that (Y/N) seemed to know about her. She didn’t know her favorite color, which season she liked best, or how she took her tea. Hell, she didn’t know if (Y/N) even liked tea. Maybe she preferred coffee! Worst of all, she didn’t know how or why she started working with the SSR.

So, in an attempt to fill the gaps in her knowledge, Peggy began asking (Y/N) questions whenever she got the chance.

They started out simple. Innocent questions about her favorite sweets and whether she preferred cake or pie. But then she started asking bigger questions. And (Y/N) had already been suspicious of the smaller questions, but when Peggy graduated to asking about foods she’d made with her mother and who she went to prom with, sirens really started going off and she flashed back to months previous when Peggy had asked about liking women. But, she didn’t want to spook her, so she let her ask questions for two weeks before she said anything.

When she was ready, she waited for a night when they were both working late. After everyone had left for the night, (Y/N) let herself into Peggy’s office, locked the door, closed the blinds, and leaned against the door with her arms crossed.

“Okay,” she said. “What’s going on with you?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You keep asking all these questions, and as cute as they are, it’s really starting to worry me.”

Peggy’s eyes went wide. “It is?”

“Baby, the last time you started asking a bunch of questions we fought and then I didn’t see you for three months. Of course I’m worried.”

Peggy pressed one hand to her forehead and leaned back in her chair. "I'm so sorry, darling. I hadn't even thought of that."

(Y/N) swiftly crossed the room and coaxed Peggy to her feet, gently rubbing her thumbs across the backs of her hands. She then traced her fingertips over her cheekbones before tucking Peggy's hair behind her ears, cupping her jaw, and kissing her. Peggy's shoulders relaxed, (Y/N) pulled away, led her to the couch, and sat her down on the middle cushion. (Y/N) sat next to her, body turned towards Peggy so she could hold her hand.

"Talk to me, Peg," she said. "What's going through your head?"

"After our weekend together, I realized that you were right. I don't know you as well as you know me. And of course I panicked and did the first thing I could think of. But all of this is so new to me and I didn’t want to mess things up.” She paused, took a deep breath, and sighed, “I suppose I did in the end though, didn’t it?”

(Y/N) frowned. “Of course not. Why would you say that?”

“I wanted to know more about you, but all I did was worry you.”

“Well you at least got some of the information you wanted, right?” Peggy nodded. “Then it wasn’t a total bust.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” She kissed Peggy’s knuckles. “I think we need to work on communication moving forward, though.”

Peggy chuckled. “I agree.”

“But in the future, you can ask me about anything you want. Just give me a warning first.”

"I can do that." Peggy pressed her lips together. "There's actually something I'd like to ask you about now, if I could."

"What is it?"

"Well, it's just that I don't know how you came to work for the SSR. You know my path to the agency, but I don't know yours."

"Oh." (Y/N) chuckled. "Okay, well that's an interesting story, actually."

Peggy smiled and scooted closer. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. See, I was working at the same diner that Angie works at now right out of high school-"

"Did you two know each other then?"

"No, but we met because of the diner. But when I was working there, I had this regular who was a P.I. Nice enough guy, didn't cause a fuss if his coffee got cold. Just showed up, ordered, ate, and left. Tipped well, too, if I'm remembering correctly. And maybe six months after he started showing up, he started bringing files with him. Eventually I got curious and asked him what they were for, but instead of just telling me, he opened the file he had that day and handed me a picture."

"Why?"

"He wanted my take on what was happening in the picture. It was of a woman walking down the street with a young boy. She had a duffel bag in hand and was glancing over her shoulder and her jacket was billowing out as she walked. My guess was that she was trying to get away from someone or something and that kid was probably her son. But I didn't give the guy an answer and just handed the picture back and said, y'know, "Look, guy, I don't want any trouble. I shouldn't've asked." But he asked my opinion again. So I gave it to him."

"And?"

"I was right. Turns out her husband had hired the P.I. to follow her and drag her back if necessary. But this guy wasn't that kind of private investigator. When he found out that the husband had laid hands on her, he immediately turned him in and helped her find a place to stay while she got back on her feet."

"What happened after?"

"He had me look at a few other things, tested my deduction skills, and he eventually asked me to come work for him. I quit working at the diner immediately after.”

“Just like that?”

“Mhm.”

“You didn’t even know this man.”

“I knew him well enough. At the time, he was in his late forties and headed towards thirty years married. If anyone would bother me, it wouldn’t be him.”

“You trusted him that easily?”

(Y/N) shrugged. “Alan’s a good guy. And could you really blame me for taking his offer? Between the increase in pay and knowing I’d be doing far more interesting work. I would’ve been an idiot to just walk away.”

“And you liked working with him?”

“Oh absolutely! It was a constant learning opportunity. Kind of like I was being trained specifically for a position with the SSR. And, as it turns out, Alan was actually working with the SSR on the side.” Peggy raised her eyebrows and (Y/N) simply nodded. “He’d get a call and we’d look into whatever it was they couldn’t without turning the wrong heads. He slowly had me take over the SSR calls until it was my job alone.”

“And that’s how you became an agent, then.”

“Eh, not quite. Around the time you were sent to steal Erskine, the SSR was trying to recruit Alan. Something about needing every hand they could get to end the war. He hated the idea of being bossed around, so he recommended me as another option. They refused to meet with me for weeks, so I stopped filling their requests, which pissed them off, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“They begrudgingly set an interview and wound up hiring me when they realized they could get the same information I’d been gathering without paying Alan’s rates.”

“Ah, so they were being cheap.” Both women laughed. “Wait. How long did you work for Alan?”

“Uh… I wanna say about three or four years.”

“And Steve never knew about it?”

(Y/N) shook her head. “I didn’t tell him or Bucky about it. They already worried about me enough in addition to Steve’s health. They didn’t need anything else added on top.” Peggy frowned and (Y/N) bumped their shoulders together. “But I met you because of that job.”

“That is true… The three of you were so close, though. I hate to think you had to keep your job a secret.”

“With those two, there was a huge difference between keeping something a secret and withholding information until the right time. And that difference was Steve hiding his asthma attacks from us versus me hiding a bad grade.”

“Why would he lie?”

“Steve was sick most of his life. A major side effect of that was him feeling like a waste of money. He hated how expensive medications were, and for a while Bucky was the only one who was able to to work full time. We struggled to make ends meet sometimes and he was far too aware of that. I almost strangled him when I found out.” She leaned back against the couch. “Sorry, that was a lot.”

“No, I understand. You and I come from very different backgrounds.” Peggy squeezed (Y/N)’s hand. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Of course.” (Y/N) sighed. “Sometimes I really miss that skinny little money sink. He’d still be sick, of course, but he’d at least be here.” She shook her head and shoved herself up from the couch. “Let’s get some dinner, yeah?”

Peggy nodded and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. She kissed (Y/N) and cupped her jaw with one gentle hand.

“I miss him too,” she murmured.

(Y/N) nodded and smiled sadly. “I know, Peg. You’re the only one who understands.”

“Wow.” Steve blinks slowly. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about the PI job.”

“Of course you can.”

“Well yeah, I just mean… It sounds like something she would’ve been excited to talk about. I feel bad that my health stood in the way of that.”

“That’s not how she felt, Steve. And she wouldn’t want you to believe she did.”

Steve nods. “She was good, right?”

Peggy smiled. “Oh, without a doubt. She worked more cases solo than I can count and oversaw the intelligence collection division for nearly a decade.”

“That must be why everyone remembers her.”

“Well… not entirely. There was a time when Howard was toying with reviving Project Rebirth. (Y/N) was his first choice for early trials due to her relation to you.”

Steve looks horrified. “She wouldn’t go through with that.”

"I had hoped she wouldn't, but she was determined to. Something about continuing what you started."

"That's never what I wanted." Steve shakes his head. "All I wanted was to keep her and anyone else we could save along the way safe."

"I know. And she had so much of that same fire in her, Steve. You set a wonderful example for her. For all of us, really. Much of what we did wouldn’t have been possible, had you not taken up the shield.”

Steve sighs. “What happened?”

(Y/N) and Peggy had nine months of peace between incidents. They spent any free time that they had together. Finding any was a miracle in and of itself given they might very well have been eternally tethered to their desks. Peggy slowly grew more comfortable in her new relationship, though she slowly learned that she needed to be more cautious than she’d ever been before. Being in a queer relationship was far too similar to an undercover mission for her liking, but she found herself so taken with (Y/N) that she decided that it was worth the risk. (Y/N) had decided years before that she was content with simply yearning from afar, so actually being in a relationship with Peggy was already far enough away from loving her in secret that she was over the moon.

But there’s always something that has to come along and disturb the peace, and more often than not, for (Y/N) and Peggy, that something came in the form of Howard Stark.

Howard was good at showing up at the most inopportune times, mostly when (Y/N) and Peggy had just found a space to be alone at the office. Peggy talked her lover down from strangling the man enough times that it’d gone far past humorous and edged right into grating. When he burst in on them on the couch in her office, she was about ready to end his life herself. (Y/N) had very gently talked her out of it.

But this time was different.

This time he approached with an air of apprehension and both women were almost worried to ask what was on his mind. Luckily, Howard Stark was the kind of man to freely offer that information.

When he saw their raised eyebrows he said, “I kept a vial of Steve’s blood.”

Peggy was furious, to say the least. “You said I had the last one.”

“Wait.” (Y/N) frowned. “You had my brother’s blood and neither of you bothered to tell me?”

"It was years ago," Howard said. "Can we circle back around to this later?"

His flippancy only served to piss her off. "We'll circle back around to fuckall later, you tell me what the hell you, or anyone else for that matter, have or have had my brother's blood for."

Peggy and Howard fumbled through their explanation. She knew that most of the time she spent grieving over Steve was spent in a haze, but she never realized what her colleagues had been going through without her. As much as she wanted to be upset, she found her anger melting away the longer they spoke.

"I should have just told you," Peggy said. "You should've been there with me."

(Y/N) shook her head. "You needed that time to say goodbye to him." She turned her wrath on Howard. "Why do you still have his blood?"

"I found it by chance after we moved into this building. My guess is that it was left over from some tech we hired who’d been hoarding it since they were given their sample. I’ve been holding into it ever since.”

“That was years ago.”

“I know.”

“And you didn’t think to tell anyone?”

“Look, can you reprimand me later? I think I’ve figured out how to recreate Project Rebirth.”

“You what?”

“You heard me.” Howard looked between both women to confirm he had their attention. “The serum is still very much present in the sample I found. If I can isolate it, I should be able to move forward with Erskine’s research.”

Peggy scowled. “Why?”

“Wh-because we had one of the greatest scientific miracles fighting on our side, and even without a war, we still need someone like that fighting for our ideals.”

“That sounds dangerous,” (Y/N) said. “Do you understand how far outside of Steve’s beliefs you’re stepping with this?”

“He’d understand.”

“No he fucking wouldn’t.”

“Fine, but we can’t just not take this opportunity. You know Russia’s probably working towards a viable Super Soldier serum as we speak. Can we really just sit back and wait for them to beat us at our own game?”

“And just who would you propose to test this serum on?” Peggy inquired.

“Well, considering we’re taking the serum directly from Steve’s blood, my first choice would be (Y/N).”

“Me?!”

“Yes, you.”

“Christ, Howard, what’re you thinking?”

“That you’re just as noble and dedicated as your brother. I’m sure the serum would affect you similarly to the way it did Steve.”

“Is it even safe?”

“Hypothetically, yes.”

“Meaning you haven’t extracted enough serum to know yet.”

“Kind of.”

“Very reassuring.”

“But you’ll do it, right?”

“I don’t know-”

Peggy cut in, saying, “No.”

“Peggy-”

“I’m not letting you do this,” Peggy said. “That’s final.”

“That’s not fair. And not even because I want to do this. I’m not all that jazzed about getting stuck with more needles than I have fingers and toes, but because that wasn’t the Director talking. That was Peggy.”

“To hell with being the Director, it’s not safe. You’re not doing it.”

“It wasn’t safe when Steve was the one on the table.”

“We don’t have Erskine.”

“We have Howard.”

Peggy lowered her voice. “I don’t want you to do this.”

“I know.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Her brows knitted in worry and (Y/N)’s fingers itched with the need to take her hand. “I can’t lose you too, (Y/N). Especially not like this.”

“You won’t,” (Y/N) whispers.

Howard cleared his throat and watched in mild amusement as the two women jumped apart. “As sweet as your bickering is,” he said, “It’s not exactly a matter of whether or not the serum will work, but to what extent.”

Peggy frowned. “Explain.”

“Well, we’re taking the serum directly from her brother’s blood. It’s already diluted in that form, so I can’t tell you just how much change we’d see. I only suggested it because the two of them are related. Their DNA is similar enough that I believe the risk would be significantly reduced.”

Peggy nodded and (Y/N) grabbed her hand and said, “We’ll do it then.”

“(Y/N)-”

She turned pleading eyes on Peggy. “Come on, Peg. You know how much good my brother did. What if this’ll let us pick up where he left off?”

“I don’t know…” Peggy did her best, but couldn’t hold out against (Y/N)’s silent begging and acquiesced. “Fine. You’ll go through with the procedure.”

(Y/N) simply smiled and squeezed Peggy’s hand. Neither of them noticed Howard watching them or the little smile that played at his lips.

“So, when did this happen?” he asked, gesturing between them.

(Y/N)’s smile fell and she dropped Peggy’s hand like a hot iron. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh please, I watched Peggy mope around for months after you started working nights and then you suddenly came back and you’re both happier than ever. Either you did something about those longing glances, or you went on some kind of friend's retreat.” He raised one eyebrow. “That is, if you actually did something about it.”

“We might’ve,” (Y/N) squeaked.

“That’s great!” Howard placed a hand on either of his friend’s shoulders. “Your secret’s safe with me, ladies. I promise.”

Neither of them relaxed, but (Y/N) later mentioned to Peggy that she appreciated the sentiment, especially coming from Howard. He hadn’t even made it a week before he told them he knew they’d lied to him about why they needed his place upstate. So, as much as (Y/N) appreciated the sentiment, she didn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut. Even so, they took it a day at a time and were thankful that he did, in fact, manage to hold in the jokes when they were in mixed company.

Howard came to them three months later with news about his serum. He was ready to go through with the procedure, provided (Y/N) was. They scheduled it for the following Friday to allow time to allocate the necessary resources and avoid another blackout.

When the day of the procedure arrived, (Y/N) was far more calm than she expected to be. Peggy, however, was on the brink of a panic attack. She fussed over her love for the entire morning and refused to go to the observation room, determined to be on the floor if something were to go wrong. Again.

(Y/N) sat on a stool beside the Vita-Ray chamber and watched Peggy pace back and forth while the nurses fussed over her and prepared for the procedure.

“Peg, it’ll be fine.” Peggy didn’t seem to hear her, so she reached out and stopped her. Peggy blinked, slowly registering what was happening. “Hey. Do you want to talk somewhere private?”

“The procedure-”

“Howard.” (Y/N) flagged him down and gestured to the hallway. “We’re gonna be right back, okay?”

He waved her off and (Y/N) led Peggy down the hall to an unused room. With the door firmly closed, she wrapped Peggy up in her arms and leaned against the wall.

“It’s gonna be fine, baby.”

“If you’re wrong, I will kill you.” Peggy buried her face in (Y/N)’s shoulder. “You’re not allowed to leave me.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Guaranteed.” She took Peggy’s face in her hands and kissed her. “I love you. Okay?” Peggy nodded. “Okay.”

Before (Y/N) could pull away, Peggy kissed her. And (Y/N) melted a little, because Peggy very seldom let herself be vulnerable with anyone, let alone in public. So she skimmed her hands up and down Peggy's sides and kissed her for as long as she needed. And when Peggy was ready, they returned to the procedure room. (Y/N) was immunized just as Steve had been, and lay back in the Vita-Ray chamber. She gave Peggy a thumbs up as the chamber doors closed.

The infusion was the most painful thing (Y/N) could remember, and the pain was all she could focus on in the moment. The infusion didn’t take long, but it was loud and bright and white hot and felt like it was everywhere, inside and out of (Y/N)’s body. She bit her tongue bloody to tamp down the scream at the back of her throat as one last surge of searing pain ripped through her. She could faintly hear Peggy shout before everything just… stopped. The sound and the light and the ceaseless, stabbing pain was gone and (Y/N) felt immensely heavy.

As the chamber opened, (Y/N) barely registered the hands helping her into an examination room. She was placed on a table and she clung to the edge so tightly that she heard the metal groan within her grip. Then Peggy appeared directly in front of her and gently uncurled her fingers from the table.

“Please tell me I’m not as big as Steve was,” (Y/N) murmured. Her voice came out strangled and scratchy.

Peggy choked out a laugh and wiped tears from under her eyes before she shook her head. “No, darling, you’re not. Not even close.”

(Y/N) sighed and nodded. “Can I lie down? I feel…” her stomach lurched- “I feel nauseous.”

“Of course. Nurse Cain just needs to take your vitals, and then you can rest. Is that alright?”

She nodded and the nurse’s cold hands worked over her with incredible speed. As soon as she was finished, Peggy reappeared with a pillow, blanket, and chair. She helped (Y/N) lie back and got her comfortable before taking a seat beside her. She held (Y/N)’s hand while she rested.

(Y/N) was held overnight for observation and Peggy stayed with her. Instead of springing back to life as Steve had, (Y/N) spiked a major fever and put the entire staff working that night on red alert when she slept through with only signs of mild discomfort.

Her fever went down around seven the next morning.

Peggy insisted that they take a week away from the office for (Y/N) to recover. She’d done her best to protest, but (Y/N) never really could say no to Peggy, so she agreed.

It took a couple days for (Y/N) to properly regain her balance. When she finally managed to hobble to the bathroom to get a look at herself, she barely recognized the woman in the mirror. The person staring back at her was a good three inches taller and broader in the shoulders than (Y/N) had ever dreamed of being. Her eyes very nearly popped out of her head at the way the fabric of her shirt strained across her chest when she stood up straight and proper.

She flexed one arm and, fascinated, watched the way muscles she was never aware of having bunched and moved beneath her skin. She did it again and watched herself in the mirror.

“Christ, that’s impressive.”

“Yes, you certainly are.”

(Y/N) looked up and Peggy was leaning against the bathroom door frame. She turned and leaned against the sink.

“I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I was quiet.” Peggy slowly approached and trailed her fingers over (Y/N)’s jaw, down her neck, shoulder, and arm. “It’s good to see you moving around.”

“Well I can’t exactly get back to work if I lay in bed all day, now can I?”

“I suppose not. But I won’t allow you back into the office till next week at the earliest.”

(Y/N) nodded. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm. I’m lucky to be upright at the moment, I’m not eager to keel over on my first day back.”

“Oh. Okay.” Peggy smiled. “You’re actually going to listen to me?”

“I always listen to you. Whether or not I do as I’m told is an entirely different issue.”

“Mm, I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe expect more strict instructions with future assignments.”

“Can we talk about something other than work?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” She bit her lip and grabbed Peggy’s hand. “You really think I look impressive?”

“I think that you in your entirety are impressive. But you certainly strike an imposing figure now.” Her eyes roved appreciatively over (Y/N)’s body. “And you did say you always wanted to be strong, dreamy, and capable. Now you’re all three.”

(Y/N) pulled Peggy to her chest and circled her arms around her waist. “And I wasn’t before?”

“You were, but in varying degrees.”

“Oh?”

“Well you’re certainly stronger now. You were already incredibly dreamy and far more capable than any man would freely admit.” Peggy braced herself on (Y/N)’s shoulders. “I’m glad you’re mine, though. I’d be scared to send you back out into the wild if you weren’t.”

(Y/N)’s heart fluttered. “I love you.”

Peggy smiled. “I love you too.”

“You do?”

Peggy nodded and (Y/N) immediately kissed her. Peggy wound her fingers into (Y/N)’s hair and kissed her back. When they broke apart, foreheads pressed together, (Y/N) very quietly asked Peggy to move in with her.

“You want that?”

“Desperately.” Peggy raised her eyebrows. “We don’t have to live here, specifically. My lease is up at the end of this year. We can look for a little two bedroom, or-or a house, maybe. If you wanted.”

“You’d want to buy a house together? That’s a huge commitment, darling.”

“You’re it for me, Peg. There’s no one who comes after you. Building a home with you would be a dream come true. But if that’s too much-”

Peggy covered (Y/N)’s mouth with one hand. “I’d love to live with you. But we have to worry about your health first.”

“Okay.” (Y/N) sighed. “I’ll have to get a whole new wardrobe, won’t I?”

Peggy chuckled at (Y/N)’s disappointed frown. “Most likely, yes.”

(Y/N) groaned. “I didn’t think this through.”

“It’s an expense necessitated by work. The agency will cover half.”

“Really?”

“Well I can’t offer to pay for the whole thing. Someone will think I’m playing favorites.”

“Wouldn’t want anyone stumbling into that secret, now would we?”

(Y/N) spent the rest of the week acclimating to her new body. Peggy was a great help in reminding her to be patient with herself after she crushed several eggs before she could even crack them into a bowl.

When she was finally permitted to go back to work, she spent more time in the gym under Howard’s observation than in her own office. Which was fine by her. She was stuck wearing second-hand men’s suits, t-shirts, and sweatpants until her new clothing was ready. Even when she was wearing her own clothing, the atmosphere in the office was uncomfortable. People would stop mid-conversation to watch her walk by. She even saw someone walk into a wall once. It felt like she’d be transported back to Steve’s death, but this time everyone who stared was too scared to ask questions.

(Y/N) realized, too late, that she hadn’t thought about what would happen after the procedure. She knew there would be tests and all manner of questions from Howard and his team. She hadn’t anticipated the social repercussions. Steve hadn’t been looked at like a freak, so why would it be any different for her? But feeling their eyes on her back day in and day out just made her want to hide. (Y/N) tried to distract herself from all of it, but Peggy was watching. She’d seen everything and hated the way (Y/N) retreated into herself with each passing week.

Peggy took matters into her own hands and organized a meeting with everyone (Y/N) regularly came into contact with during the work week. (Y/N) only heard about the meeting after it happened. She never knew what was said. Just that anyone who made it out of the meeting with their job changed their behavior dramatically. The staring and hushed whispered went away and the colleagues who were obviously still curious were far more willing to ask their questions instead of obviously watching her from behind a file.

Once Howard was satisfied with the data gathered on her physical abilities, (Y/N) was cleared for field work. Peggy assigned her to assist the head of their intelligence task-force and she was given the cases that a normal team couldn’t handle. The ones that required the strength of multiple men, but boasted too much security for that to be feasible. The assignments were rate, but (Y/N) enjoyed them regardless.

“Did you ever move in together?”

“Oh yes, two months after the procedure. She was just as fond of getting into trouble as you are. At least I could keep an eye on her if we were under the same roof. And we wound up buying a house several years down the road once we’d settled on a permanent headquarters. I didn’t see any reason to waste money on more than one house, if we could help it.”

Steve smiles. “I’m glad you found each other. I know you would’ve been fine. People are drawn to you. But (Y/N)… she never did well on her own, but never wanted to ask for help. I’m not sure what would’ve happened to her.”

“I’m sure we would have found each other eventually. Life has a funny way of bringing people together.”

“Will you tell me what happened to her?”

Peggy reaches out and Steve takes her hand. “I want you to remember that (Y/N) and I had almost six decades together. She was beautiful, strong, warm, and vibrant. She was my everything, Steve.”

“I know, Peg.”

“She started feeling lethargic one day. Over the course of several weeks, she lost her appetite, had severe blood pressure drops, and she bruised like an overripe peach. Now, by this time her healing factor had faded some, but she’d never been prone to injury even before the serum. I was concerned, but she didn’t want to worry me, so she didn’t see a doctor. But then she had a particularly nasty fall and was rushed to the hospital.” Peggy’s breath shook. “I told the attending about her recent issues, they ordered some tests and the diagnosis was… less than desirable.”

“What was it?”

“She had leukemia.” Steve flounders for something to say, but Peggy doesn’t seem to notice. “We started aggressive treatment right away, but this was right around the time that Anthony was abducted. The stress took a lot out of her, but she was determined to see her nephew again.”

“Nephew?”

“Yes, Howard named us Tony’s godparents. He called both (Y/N) and I his aunts. And (Y/N) loved him dearly. She managed to hold on long enough for him to visit one last time before she passed.” Peggy smiles. “She was so happy to see him, too.”

“I never would’ve guessed.”

“Mm, she was also far more lucid than anyone in her condition had any business being. At the time, I chalked it up to you Rogers’ and your unfailing stubbornness, but now I think it was just her. With her strength gone, all she had left was her mind.”

“Did she pass peacefully?”

“Yes. Yes, I think she did. There was a time where she thought you and Sergeant Barnes were there with her. That was when I knew she didn’t have much longer. And just before she faded, she told me that you had stepped out and she said… she said “Tell my brothers I love them.” And then-” Peggy shakes her head, her gaze distant- “She was gone. Quiet and peaceful and gone.”

“I’m sorry.” Steve wipes tears from his eyes.

“Oh don’t be. She was perfect. I only wish you’d had more time to spend together.”

Steve squeezes her hand. “It wouldn’t have been the same if I was there. And some things really do happen for a reason, y’know? We just don’t know it till we’re far enough down the line to see the whole picture.”

A knock at the door draws both Steve and Peggy’s attention. The nurse from earlier pokes their head in.

“Sorry to interrupt,” they say. “But visiting hours are over.”

“Alright.” Steve smiles at Peggy, squeezes her hand, and gets up to leave.

Before he can get too far, Peggy exclaims, “Oh, Steve!”

“Yeah?”

“Before I forget, (Y/N) left something for you.”

“For me?” Steve suspects her lucidity is slipping.

“She had a feeling you weren’t truly gone. She’d done some research and compiled it for you. Director Fury should have it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Quite.”

“Okay.” Steve steps toward the door. “I’ll see you again soon, alright?”

“Of course.”

Yeah, this is definitely the gayest thing I’ve ever written. In the best way possible, of course. It’s been a lot of fun to explore this side of attraction and romance for me (as someone who doesn’t really get to do that) and I’m really excited to get started on the third chapter. It’ll be a bit different from the story that’s been told up until this point, so I think it’ll be a fun departure.

But! That being said, I’d love to know what you thought of this chapter! Do you think that the Reader and Peggy make a good pair? Do you think that it was a mistake for the Reader to take the Serum? Did hearing about her passing make you sad? Do you think it was a good thing that Peggy was the one to talk to him about it? Be sure to like, reblog, comment, and/or shoot me an ask and tell me all about it!

Tag List:

@ghostlyhamlet, @claws-of-vibranium, @creaturefeatures101-blog, @imagine-assembling-the-avengers, @buckysendoftheline, @ptprocrastination, @1950schick, @amayasymone23, @arfrona-and-marvel, @ek823, @fanaticfangirl001, @furrywerewolfcollector, @kissofvenom922, @dawn-phantomhive, @fangirlwithasweettooth, @mairhof1, @starryeyesbadguys, @trap-house-homiecide, @buckywhitewolfbarnes, @kaepm981, @howdoesoneadult, @pcdmesamidala, @thefandomplace, @sian22redux, @skeletoresinthebasement, @lady-thor-foster, @feelmyroarrrr, @jazzcutie, @gaytonystark, @hermionie-is-my-queen, @darling-loki, @geeksareunique, @nyxveracity, @lemonadeorange73, @princess-unicorn124, @tofeartheunknown, @queenoftheunderdark, @avengerscompound

This fic:

@i-m-r-borges​, @lizielasyd​

[oakskull]

Guess who finished this illustration set,,

MEEEEEEE!!!

It's Cogchamp fnf sprites!!! I would have made a mod but unfortunately I don't have the right software to do so

Featuring such characters as

Tutorial Fox

5up.xtml

Brother Dearest

Tub and Crumb

Prime Bell

Um sir.

and last but not least, Sammy wants murder

These are weeks 1-4, and week 5 will be in a separate post bc of image limit(derogatory) and I worked really hard on this!! (more thoughts and stuff under the cut, I got kind of rambly haha)

It was super fun to draw in this style and I feel like I learned a lot about shading and shapes (shoes especially) by trying to recreate the style of a professional artist. I think I'll do more exercises like this in the future, just to keep learning!! Also obligatory reminder that these drawings are referenced HEAVILY from the original game sprites. I was trying to draw the cog champers(and dream) like they would be a mod for the game, so the poses and style are extremely similar if not the same. If I were to redo these illustrations I might put more personality and originality into the poses, but I didn't actually study the style at all before creating the first illustration (fundy, the one I posted here is actually a redraw to make him higher quality, the original was too small)

So yeah, over all, this was super fun and I'd definitely do it again. Maybe I'll redraw some of these in the future to be more creative, you can tell which ones I drew later on bc of the variety in poses and expressions, I was a lot more comfortable with the style (tho I did keep my own eyes and mouth style bc expressions are something thats really important to my style and I didn't want to feel like I was just like,, tracing) Sorry for rambling so long, I'll put this under a cut for all the people who just want to see pretty art.

On a more art related note, you may have noticed that Dream is Pico, you may be thinking "but dream isn't on Cogchamp" and you're Right. I didn't know what else to do okay? He's fundy's Ex so it kind of fits??? I dunno man, I gave him a more steam punk mask but kept the majority of his design similar to my normal dream design, so as to keep the Dream vibe. Yknow where he's always just a green blob? It kinda slaps tbh, branding is important.

Also regarding Prime Bell, again, I didn't know what else to do, I was thinking of doing something with the egg, but that's not on cogchamp (thank goodness) so I needed something else. I decided that the only like, tangentially related thing I could do was make an Evil prime bell, based on how Sam steals it idk maybe in this world its always the demon thing and is kinda like the ring from lord of the rings, where once you have it you can't give it up. In any case designing Prime Bell took a while (plus some help from Yipcord and Chaos Crew thx guys ❤ and specifically @valpurgatory who is what inspired me to personify the Prime Bell in the first place with their turn everything into a women philosophy (I @ed him so you can check out his blog he slaps. She's like the go to for saving women from Wilbur Soot's dirty mits)) but drawing it was surprisingly quick, mostly due to the fact that I figured out how to easily recreate the texture on the Lemon Monster's body. I did no shading bc that's what the Lemon monster looks like, and it kind of hurt bc it just looks kind of unfinished to me,,, I had some trouble with the week 5 design for Prime Bell bc I didn't want to abandon my first idea. I probably should have and would have gotten a better result, but I can't be bothered tbh. This is the 3rd day I'm working on this project (these were surprisingly quick the churn out, probably bc I was having a blast) and I simply do not want to alter anything. My idea was good but the execution didn't pan out. What am I saying the week 5 prime bell design isn't even on this post sjjdjsks

Anyway, go check out fnf(Friday Night Funkin) it's a rhythm game, it's free and the OST Slaps. I'd also highly recommend listening to the Whitty mod songs and the Neo mod songs,,,, good good music.