#m!a turtle costume

[tieronecrush]

🎃 trick or treat 🎃

summary: it's halloween and joel's taking your girls trick-or-treating with you in a family costume. feeling uncomfortable in his clothes and his skin, he's on edge most of the evening but does his best to disguise it in order to not spoil the fun. back at home, when his girls lightheartedly tease him about everything he already thought about himself, you're sure to end the night showing joel exactly how you feel about him and his body.

wc: 10k (oops?)

warnings: established relationship/married, canon divergent (no outbreak, ellie & sarah are both his kids, sort of obscure with if they're both his bio kids/your kids - basically y'all are a cute lil family either way! also joel is ~40, no age mentioned for reader!), halloween, family/group costumes, DOMESTIC JOEL!!!, fluff, body insecurities, age insecurities, joel has minor sensory issues?, his kids poke fun at him, sensitive joel, SMUT. it kind of is a thing for the basically the second half, descriptions of joel's body, tummy & thigh worship, oral (m receiving), cowboy rule (for a costume), unprotected piv, lowkey sub!joel for a lil bit, reader is "giving cunt" according to bestie el, then quickly gets back to dom!joel as he gets his confidence back, joel gets that strength in an adrenaline rush that moms get lifting cars off babies but his is for chasing a nut, also, dirty talk!

a/n: my contribution to spooky season, basically at the buzzer lol. this started with me thinking how cute it would be for joel to dress up and go trick-or-treating with his kids, and ended with wanting to s*** his d*** big time. anyways, enjoy my version of halloween with joel, and thank you to @kiwisbell for screaming about this scenario with me and as always a big thanks to my sweet, sweet girlfriend @northernbluess for beta-ing!!!!

Brought on much later than the northern states, fall in Texas is not quite an impactful sight. The one thing that can’t be beaten though is the Texas sun; shining across expansive horizons all times of year, temperatures of the light shifting with the seasons. Orange evening sun stretches across the sky and seeps down in between the leaves speckled with changing colors while Joel’s truck coasts down the neighborhood street. Kids retreat from running around in the road when his car approaches, returning right back to their gameplay when he’s through. Half are dressed up, a medley mix of witches, zombies, vampires, Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Disney Princesses, and countless outfits that he has no idea what they’re referencing.

Fibrous, white faux spiderwebs litter the front porches of the houses lining the street, Jack-O-Lanterns carved and lit up stack on the stairs or create a path along the front walkways. Some of the pumpkins’ faces are wrinkly and sagging, signs of overeagerness from when the fall season started earlier this month. A handful of scarecrows find themselves pitched in the middle of yards with hay spilling out of them, and some of the houses have turned out an expense to get those motion-sensor decorations — the ones really intended to scare the kids that will be unleashed on the neighborhood to trick-or-treat this evening.

Rolling to a stop as he turns into the asphalt driveway, throwing the truck in park, he sits in the cab for a still moment, staring at the signs of life scattered around his family’s house. Four pumpkins, gutted and showing off their faces, a family feud that reached a compromise when it was decided that yes, they would carve pumpkins but no, they would not sit to rot on the front porch all month long; the corn stalks wrapped around the posts of the porch, tied with burlap twine and arranged with sprigs of fall foliage; pots of colorful mums framing the path up to the house, carefully selected by your eye and less delicately planted in their terracotta vessels by Joel’s hands. 

Aside from the seasonal decorations, the usual markings of the Miller family were easily spotted: chalk drawings on the shared sidewalk in front of the yard and along the driveway, replaced every weekend by Sarah once the old was washed or worn away; Ellie’s bike discarded on the front lawn, small tire tracks digging up the grass, no matter how many times Joel and you have asked her to put it away when she’s done; the porch swing that Joel built for you, swaying in the breeze and now unoccupied — unusual for the evening routine around the time that Joel comes home from work. He’s normally greeted by his girls, not merely their artifacts. But tonight is a different night, much busier than the slow, molasses life Joel gets to enjoy in the colder weather.

Gathering his lunch bag from the bench seat and bunching up his jacket in the same hand, Joel climbs out of the car and walks into the open garage, leaving his tools behind in the flatbed to be dealt with tomorrow morning. Passing your parked car, he shakes his head with a subtle smile as he closes the driver’s side door of your SUV left open. He can picture you now, running around after picking the girls up from school, mental space occupied by getting everything and everyone together to make it out the door before the sun went down completely. 

There’s a trail of evidence to support his musings: a lonesome plastic bag filled with groceries left on top of the car, Sarah’s purple jacket looped through the handle of the garage fridge, probably left behind after she went looking for a juice, and Ellie’s army green backpack tossed on the ground in front of the shoe racks lining the wall next to the door. None of that would fly had you been your usual focused self — more often than not, you’re the parent to put their foot down and keep the girls in line while Joel is the total pushover.

Along his way inside, he picks up all the left-behind items, balancing everything in his hands while he steps into the mudroom. Ellie’s backpack gets shoved into her designated cubby, and Sarah’s jacket gets wrapped on a hook screwed into the wall as Joel kicks off his work boots. After depositing his own belongings in their spots, lunch bag in his cubby and jacket on the hook next to Sarah’s, he grabs his boots in one hand, leaning out the doorway to place them on top of the shoe rack. Closing the door behind him, he picks up the singular bag of groceries left on top of your SUV and pads across the tile further into the house. Immediately, he’s embraced by the warmth radiating from the kitchen, the smells of tomatoes, onions, garlic, and more wafting into his nose causing a smile to stretch across his face and his stomach to rumble. 

Every year that he’s known you, without fail, you use Halloween night as an excuse to cook up your family-favorite chili recipe. Sure, it doesn’t get too cold for October in Texas, but damn, does he look forward to the night every year simply for a bowl of it. Laboring over the prep and slow-cooking it all day long, anyone who tries it can taste the care in each bite; like a warm blanket wrapped around his shoulders that lasts with him for the entire evening spent outside with the kids.

The pleas of his stomach lead him straight into the kitchen, his smile growing wider when he sees you standing over the kitchen counter, affixing a sheriff badge to the cow print vest laid out in front of you. He strides over to your side, resting his palm on your lower back and swiping his thumb against the material of your shirt while he leans in to press a kiss to the top of your head, drinking in your scent and feeling the ache of missing you all day. Losing focus from your task, you turn toward him with a bright smile, a quiet sigh leaving your lips, and your shoulders relaxing from their tensed position. Wordlessly, he folds forward, catching your lips in a lingering kiss. Heat pushes against his chest through his denim shirt, your hands skating from his pecs, up and across his shoulders, and down his arms to rest on his biceps. The motions raise goosebumps in their wake, trailing down his spine with a tepid drip.

Joel steals another kiss before he stands up straight again, voice rasping from yelling over powerful tools all day and volume low to keep the semblance of a private moment between the two of you for as long as possible; anything louder would expose his arrival, bombarding him with questions and conflicts to resolve between his daughters.

“Hey, baby.” He greets you with one fleeting kiss pressed to your forehead, hand at your lower back now rubbing side to side, fingers carefully lifting the fabric and pressing the tips of them into your deliciously soft skin. 

Turning back to the vest, you drop your hands from his arms not before giving them a gentle squeeze, “Hi, Joel. Good day?”

He shrugs, unable to step away from you just yet, “It was fine — much better now. And I take it yours has been a busy one?”

Joel holds up the plastic bag of groceries with two fingers, one corner of his mouth lifting in a teasing smirk. His hip pops out as he leans against the counter, the smirk turning into a smile when you grimace. His heartbeat skips when your laugh fills his ears, the sound still exciting him after all these years, and you stand over the bag to take a peek inside.

“S’all good. Non-perishables.” It’s Joel’s turn to laugh, shaking his head with a breathy chuckle as he places the bag on the counter, unloading its contents into the pantry while you go about recapping your day for him.

In the midst of you speaking, the tumble of footsteps down the stairs draws his attention away, eyes focusing on the open threshold that leads from the living room into the kitchen. As the quickened steps grow closer, Joel turns to you and holds up three fingers, counting down with them. When he lowers his last finger, a mop of curly hair, a bouncing ponytail, and a whirlwind of chaos disrupts the initial peace of his return home.

“Hi girls, how was today?” he starts before a cacophony of noise fills the kitchen. Skidding to a stop in front of him, he exchanges a look with you before facing his daughters, already overwhelmed with their two voices talking over the other.

“Dad, Dad, Sarah said—”

“Dad, Ellie’s saying that I said—”

Holding his hands up, he flicks his eyes between his two girls. Sarah, the older of the two at eleven years old, stands in front of him with her arms crossed and brow furrowed — a look he is all too familiar with, the similarities between him and her emphasized with her annoyance. Ellie, your youngest, stands with her fists clenched at her sides, her mouth twisted up in frustration and the same furrowed brow as her sister. She looks so much more like you at the moment, only a nine-year-old version, calling back on times Joel can remember of you giving him that very look.

However, with their tempers, there’s no doubt that they’re his kids.

Dropping his hands back to his sides, he rolls his shoulders and takes a deep breath before addressing them.

“So, what’s going on now?” he asks, brows raising and head tilting when the girls each take a sharp inhale, about to speak over each other again, “One at a time. Ellie.”

Sarah rolls her eyes at her younger sister being called upon first, expectantly looking at her sister with annoyance still painting her face. Ellie shoots her a smug look before turning back to Joel, drawing a pout onto her lips to sell her story. He can’t say it doesn’t work for a second, it always will with these two and they know it, but with a quick glance in your direction, he sees you turned away from your task, watching the drama from the sidelines. Mustering the strength to stand his ground against the sweetness of his girls, he clears his throat and listens with his best poker face as Ellie begins explaining.

“Sarah said she wouldn’t trade all her Skittles for my Three Musketeers even though she knows I hate Three Musketeers and she said last week when we were getting our costumes that she would—”

“I never said that, Dad! She’s lying—” Sarah gestures with her hands as if to physically point out the obvious falsehoods in Ellie’s story. Spiraling back out of the fleeting control he had over the situation, the kids get riled up again, yelling over each other, and inching closer. The dad-instincts kick in and he grabs one of each of their shoulders, separating the two of them and turning them to face him again as he puts on what you affectionately call his ‘no-bullshit’ voice.

“Okay, okay, okay! Enough arguin’ about candy that you don’t even have yet. Ellie, you don’t even know if a single house is gonna give ya Three Musketeers, and you don’t even know if Sarah is gonna get any Skittles. Save the trade negotiations for tonight or tomorrow morning. ‘Sides, you gotta pay the Dad Tax before either of y’all get to trade around your pickings.”

“What?”

“No way!”

Joel smiles, waving his pointer finger between his daughters with a single nod of his head. “See? Something y’all can agree on. Now go get washed up for dinner and plot how you can hide your candy from me and Mom.”

As quickly as they came in, they rush right back out, this time a united force scheming against their parents. Joel huffs out a breathy laugh, shaking his head to himself as he turns back to face you. Met with a growing smile, you unravel your arms crossed in front of your chest to pick up the vest from the counter.

“Nice conflict resolution there, hon. Now I won’t see a single piece of candy.” You throw a pout at him, bottom lip jutting out as he steps over to you, one hand splaying on your hip and thumb rubbing languid circles.

“Don’t worry, baby, I think I know every single one of their hiding spots from how many times they had to move their candy last year. They won’t even notice anything's gone.” With a quick wink, he leans in for a kiss, short and sweet. Standing up straight, the smile on your face mirrors his, your left index finger reaching up to fit into the valley of his dimple.

“Are we bad parents to be scheming how to steal from our children?” you question, biting back a laugh.

“I think that’s just part of parenting, darlin’.”

The laugh you held back escapes you, rolling your eyes playfully at his facetious answer; the vest in your hands catches his eyes again, and he sighs to himself as he holds a hand out for it.

“So you really did find a cow print vest for me? How lucky.” Sarcasm coats his tone and you lift the material, depositing it in his open palm.

“It is lucky, isn’t it? I think you’re going to look great in your costume. Got all the perfect parts, plus you can wear your own jeans and boots. Economical.”

“You sure you need me for this group costume?”

“Joel. You’re literally one of the main characters from the damn movie. And the girls really want you to dress up and take them trick-or-treating. Plus it’s probably going to be one of, if not the last year that we get to do all this as a family. Our kids are growing up.”

“Don’t remind me, means m’getting older too,” he grumbles under his breath, eyes falling to the fabric in his hand.

It’s true what they say about having kids: the days are long, but the years are short.

At times, Joel wishes he could pull each hair out of his head instead of dealing with the shit his kids bring to him sometimes — “Dad, I got called into the principal’s office.” “Dad, I threw a softball and broke the window.” “That’s so unfair, Dad! Why do you have to be so mean?” It’s easy to get lost in the mess that is his family, but it’s a mess he loves. It feels like it was only yesterday that he was becoming a father when Sarah was born, getting a grasp on the whole thing and then Ellie came along. What he would do without you there by his side, he doesn’t have a clue.

Like flipping through a scrapbook, he can remember every year prior for his girls. In a flash, they’ve grown from dressing up as princesses and unicorns — a dragon for Ellie — to being Spy Kids and vampires. His oldest is verging on becoming a teenager, and if he knows his daughters, he knows that once Sarah quits dressing up each year, when she asks to go to her friends’ houses instead of spending the night with Mom and Dad, Ellie will want to do the same as her older sister, always looking up to her despite their differences.

There’s only so much more time for his kids to be kids, even if they may always feel like the tiny baby girls he held in his arms. All he wants to do is to protect them, keep them under his eye as long as he can, but he can hear your voice prying his grasp away from them, encouraging him to let them grow, let them experience the world as he got to do when he was younger. You’ll remind him that you were a teenage girl once, reassuring him that they’re always going to need him. He knows it’s all going to sneak up on him; one day, he’s going to pull into the driveway and notice the lack of chalk drawings. He might even be happy at first about Ellie’s bike being put away, but when he goes into the garage to work on some of his projects, he’ll notice the smallest bit of dust on it from disuse.

Stepping away from him to shuffle across the kitchen, you reach on your tiptoes to pull out four bowls from the cabinet. Joel steps over behind you, a hand on your back as he intercepts your movements, grabbing the ceramic dishes and handing them to you.

Like a shadow, he follows behind you as you walk over to the pot filled with dinner, eagerly watching over your shoulder with his chest pressed against your back and hands on your waist as you lift the lift. Aromas waft with the steam rising, the delectably rich dish slowly bubbling as it finishes melding altogether. It smells like home, always the mark of the changing of the seasons in the Miller household, and one of the little traditions that he so appreciates you creating for your family. Just like the way you make crinkle cookies and still sign presents from Santa at Christmas, despite the fact that your daughters found out about that a couple of years ago from a yappy kid at school.

Joel was very close to driving over to his house and letting his parents know how he felt about their kid murdering the magic of Christmas for his girls.

All he can hope is that these little traditions continue even when the girls are grown up; the four of you gathering around the table for your annual chili dinner before they head off to hang out with friends and you two are left to watch cheesy Halloween movies and hand out candy to children that remind you of your daughters.

With another deep breath, warmth surrounds him. Joel’s lips find the spot just under your ear, kissing gently before he rests his chin on your shoulder, “Smells so good, baby. Have I told you how much I love you?”

A breathy, incredulous laugh falls from your lips as you stir the pot’s contents around, your smile sticking around as you counter, “You’re only saying that ‘cause I’m feeding you.”

A dramatic, exaggerated gasp sharply inhales into his lungs, standing up straight and patting his hands on your sides, “Absolutely not, darlin’. I love you all the time—”

“But especially when I feed you,” you finish, turning out of his arms to grab the stack of bowls. He stops your motions by wrapping his arms around your waist, feeling the press of you against his torso and relishing in the heat of your body against his. Curling up like a cat in the sun, he nudges his nose against your hairline, peppering kisses along the contours of your face.

In between kisses, he says word by word, over and over, “I. Love. You. My. Beautiful. Wonderful. Incredible. Wife.”

“Alright, alright! Gosh, you’re clingy,” you tease, leaning back to look into his eyes with a playful glint in your eye and a smirk held tight in your lips, “I love you too, my beautiful, wonderful, incredible husband.”

Your free hand smooshes his cheeks together and tugs him down gently to exchange a tender kiss. It ends much too soon for Joel, him chasing your lips and pouting when you turn away to start serving up dinner.

“Better go tell the girls dinner’s ready before they’ve finished plotting how to stow away candy in the floorboards.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answers, punctuating the conversation with a cheeky smack to your ass, scampering away quickly before you can pretend to scold him.

Tugging at the material across his stomach, Joel combs his eyes over his reflection in the mirror of your en-suite bathroom. Rolling his shoulders back, the fabric of the yellow and red plaid flannel pulled taut, lifting the hem a couple of inches and showing off the skin of his softened tummy. Dark curls of hair litter the center of the sliver of skin, trailing down under the waist of his dark wash jeans. He doesn’t bother tucking the shirt in, giving himself the breathing room of the few inches at the hem. Fingers grip the thick fabric, sharply pulling it back down to lay over his jeans again.

Picking up the cow-print vest you were adorned with the plastic gold Sheriff badge downstairs in the kitchen, he’s taken back to a few weeks ago at the Halloween store.

You and he had opted to spend Saturday morning taking Sarah and Ellie to pick out their costumes for the holiday, letting them run free until they decided on a shared costume for once. Sarah quickly picked out her size in the Jessie costume, and all of the family agreed to be different characters from the Toy Story movie.

Ellie wandered the aisles, searching for the perfect combinations to create her ideal costume, which was, of course, the mechanical spider toy with the baby doll head that the kid Sid builds in the film. She returns to where Joel is standing with you, staring at the walls of costumes to find something for the both of you; he looks down at his youngest, jumping minutely when he’s faced with a mutilated baby doll mask, shiny plastic reflecting him in the surface.

“Ellie. You can’t be the creepy baby doll,” he sighs, hand falling to his hip as he rests his weight on it, the other leg stepping out while he slowly shakes his head.

Tipping the mask up to the top of her head, Ellie stomps her feet, shoulders falling and head leaning back as she groans in complaint, “Why not, Dad?” She draws out his parental title, kicking the toe of her shoe against the buffed tiles of the storefront that remains empty eleven out of twelve months of the year.

“You’re gonna scare the little kids, and it’ll be your mom and I who are dealing with the angry parents.”

Ellie huffs out a breath, reaching up to snatch the mask off, turning on the heel of her sneaker, and stomping off to go find another costume. Turning his attention back to you at his side, he notices a cheeky smile on your face as you find your size in a woman’s Buzz Lightyear costume.

“What? What are you laughin’ at?” he questions, his lips tugging up in a grin.

“Oh, nothing. Jus’ that you told our daughter she can’t be the creepy baby doll 'cause you’d be the one scared of her.” A laugh takes over the end of your sentence, a flash of your bright smile widening his own.

“Did not. It’s ‘cause we’d have a bunch of crying little kids and judging parents to deal with.”

“Sure, honey, sure. It’s okay if you’re scared.”

Stepping closer to you, he pinches your side playfully, wrapping an arm around your waist to tug you against his side. He presses a kiss to the top of your head, speaking softly, “Know me too well, baby…”

Your free hand pats his chest affectionately and you unravel from his hold. Joel takes your hand before you get far, intertwining your fingers together while you both shuffle along the wall of costumes. The plastic bags shine, displaying cartoonish outfits of various characters. The exaggerated smiles of the models give him the heebie-jeebies, shuddering his shoulders at the thought that any grown person would be that excited to wear itchy polyester once before letting it collect dust in their closet and giving it away before next Halloween.

Halting in front of the costume you were looking for Joel, you bend down to flick through the sizes, your lips pulling together in a thoughtful pucker. Standing back up straight next to him, your teeth toy your bottom lip left to right, eyes scanning for any other options before you turn toward him.

“Can’t find what you’re lookin’ for, baby?”

With a shrug, you respond, “They have the costume the girls wanted you to wear, but they don’t have your size. Think I can find some stuff at the thrift store or TJ Maxx or online to make the costume up if that’s okay—”

“Whatever you need to do. S’fine.”

“I’m sorry, hon, but you don’t need to worry about it, I’ll find everything.”

“Said s’fine, darlin’. Don’t even need to dress up, really.” A small seed of shame is planted in his gut, insecurity watering it and causing it to grow, branching off to tangled in his chest. Comfort eases him out of the spiral when your hands find his chest, rubbing softly and tilting your head to meet his gaze with pure affection.

“Still gotta dress up with us, hon. Who’s gonna be the Woody to my Buzz if it isn’t you? Can’t dress up as one half of the best friend duo without my best friend,” you grin, standing on your toes to catch his lips in a gentle kiss, which ends too soon for his taste despite being in the middle of the shop.

Vest shrugged onto his shoulder, and he gives himself another once over in his full outfit, the same insecurity from a few weeks ago pouring down to cultivate his shame. He doesn’t look the same as he did when he met you, even the same as he did last year. Graying hair and salt and pepper beard, lines next to his eyes and across his forehead, only deepened when he furrows his brow at the look of him in his costume.

He looks ridiculous.

Better to get this night over with, let his girls enjoy themselves, and attempt to forget his discomfort in the outfit. Picking up his cheap cowboy hat that arrived in the mail earlier that week, he avoids another look in the mirror before he slips out of the bathroom, eyes focused on the toes of his boots while he walks out the door of your bedroom, past the full-length mirror next to your closet and the small round one on your vanity.

No need to foul his mood and spoil the fun. It’s for his girls. 

The screams and laughter of children echo into the deepening night sky, the street bright from the lamps lining it along with porch lights staying on, open garage doors, all signaling a welcoming to the trick-or-treaters to come and grab their haul from each vast bowl or cauldron of candy.

Blurs of costume cross below Joel’s sightline as he walks hand-in-hand with you, kids running around blindly, the safety of such a crowd in the small neighborhood blanketing them with trust that they’ll be able to find their way home wherever they end up. Sarah and Ellie are ten paces ahead, moving quickly and efficiently to “maximize their candy collection”. Ellie’s words, after she presented her hand-drawn map of their neighborhood and the one across the main road, highlighting which houses are notorious for King Size treats and noting which ones give out toothbrushes or nothing at all.

The collar of his flannel is tightened around his neck from the string of his chestnut cowboy hat. Pulled down to rest on his clavicle, the body of the hat swings against his back as he walks, only adorning the top of his head for a few photos that you insisted on dragging out the tripod and self-timer for in the middle of the living room. He took the rest of the photos you wanted, maybe a bit too eagerly getting out of the frame and relaxing the slightest bit behind the camera. Photo evidence of how laughable he looks does not need to exist en masse. With a sigh, he reaches a hand up to tug the string down for what feels like the tenth time in thirty minutes of walking, relief felt for a few seconds before it slides back up to the base of his throat, flipping up the collar of his shirt with it.

Denim from his dark wash bootcut jeans starts to dig into his hips, roughening the skin there from his strides and their inch-too-small size from the year prior. These were deemed his “nice” jeans, per your request, only pulled out a handful of times a year for occasions that he was meant to look nicer than his raggedy Levi’s, covered in spots from paint, wood stain, oil, or dirt, the fraying, white strings hanging from the hems and ripping when caught under his step — all the signs of his day-to-day life. What he’s comfortable in.

These — these are not comfortable, not worn in enough to feel buttery against his skin, and not returning to his size even after washing and line drying. These are stiff, formed to his skin and resisting a tightness with each swing of his legs. The fresh material rubs against his bare skin underneath, the waist of his boxers falling an inch or two down to create the perfect space for the waistband to chafe. He’s tempted to pause the two of you walking along, long enough to tuck in the material of the flannel, but quickly decides against it when he thinks about the exaggeration of his stomach with the form-fitting, tucked shirt stretched over it.

Occupied in his thoughts, he barely notices that you've slowed down until you come to a stop at the end of a driveway, two streets over from your own home, waiting as your daughters wait in line for their packaged sugar. 

You hold onto his bicep with your opposite hand, leaning your weight against his side. Like a weighted blanket, in the interim of a hug from you, he takes on the change to his equilibrium, relishing in the comforting press of your body against him. Easing away his anxieties and his insecurities that, of course, had to be present for this wholesome, once-a-year family night; he rests his chin on your head, breathing in the smell of your rosemary and mint shampoo, tingling his nostrils and drinking down the scent he’s so familiar with.

His focus draws to Sarah, hair in a French braid pulled away from her face and cherry red cowboy hat on her head, and Ellie, lime green face paint that she insisted on and an antenna sticking up from the top of her head and exaggerated, pointed green ears all attached to the same headband. The two of them are near the front of the queue for candy at this particular house, the process a bit more involved with a haunted graveyard required to pass through to earn your sweet reward. 

All she’d been saying the whole night since getting dressed had been “The claaaaaw!” or “I have been chosen!”. She screams the latter in the face of a teenager who pops out from a bush to scare her, completely unphased as she sneaks past him, grabbing a handful of candy for her and Sarah, running back down the path with her older sister before they pause to distribute the goods.

Joel lifts your joined hands, hooking his arm over your shoulder and laying your arm across your chest as he gathers you closer.

“So how many cavities do you think we’ll be paying for ‘cause of tonight’s candy haul?” he wonders aloud, a smile ticking up the side of his mouth when you giggle at his joke. It never gets old, being able to make you laugh, and it’s like a weed whacker to the strangling vines of his insecurities growing tightly in his chest. A looseness that gives him the chance for a deep breath, gratitude wilting the branches as he studies the grin on your face, the admiration twinkling in your eyes.

“Probably should be callin’ the dentist to see if they have a two-for-one discount.” It’s his turn to laugh at your response, tautening his arm around your shoulders to tow you closer to him, your head tilting back as you swing your front toward him. Joel bends his neck, pecking your lips with a smile before he looks back toward his daughters walking back to the two of you.

Annoyance thumbs the bruise of shame, driving his frustrations higher; his hand reaches up again with a huff, yanking the string away from his neck, “Thing’s like a damn noose…”

“Jus’ take it off, hon, I’ll carry it for you,” you sweetly suggest, swinging your joined hands between your bodies.

“But, you got it for me…” he mumbles guiltily, a worry in his voice over your potential irritation with him. Ever the masochist, Joel argues with you, not wanting to disappoint. He knew he should have just kept his mouth shut—

Pausing in your steps, you hang behind him long enough to snatch the hat off his back, releasing it from around his neck and depositing it on your head in one smooth movement. Taking his hand again, you continue, unphased by his complaints and happy to hold onto the new accessory.

At the next house, the two of you wait at the end of the driveway for the girls; Joel taps the side of his pointer finger on the brim as you look up at him, a cheeky smile growing on his face as a thought distracts from his festering doubts. His voice lowers, rasping as he speaks only to you, attempting to disguise the conversation from all the people milling about.

“Y’know, there are consequences for stealing a cowboy’s hat, baby.” Wetting his lips with the quick swipe of his tongue, his hands drift to your waist, fingers stretching to skim the top of your ass, dangerously close to grabbing a handful in front of everyone.

“M’well aware of those consequences, cowboy. Why d’you think I took it?” You shoot him a wink that goes straight down below the belt, a brazen flash of mischief in your eyes, the reflections of yellow lamplight lighting them up further. 

Gripping his biceps, your nimble fingers squeeze gently while your thumbs rub massaging circles into his slightly flexed muscles. A nearly inaudible hum of a moan rolls from your chest, one of his hands gathering the polyester material of your dress tightly at the sound. Beckoning him to fold forward with one look, he molds his lips to yours in a supple kiss. It lasts only the length of an inhale, drinking in the taste of your lips before your warmth is fleeting, hands patting his chest in a signal to wrap it up.

He grumbles, irritation heating under his collar as he itches to get home and for the night to be over, now for more than one reason. You laugh softly at his annoyed pout, poking his chest as you tease, “What? Mad ‘cause you got a snake in your boot?”

“More like in my jeans…” he mumbles under his breath, loud enough for you to hear and playfully jab his arm, shaking your head as you breathe out a chuckle from your nose.

“Nice, Miller. In a costume for a kid’s movie no less.”

He matches your laugh, shrugging when you turn in his arms, back to him as you await your daughters to make their way back to the both of you. His arms drape around your hips, tugging you into his chest to press against him comfortably, the plush-filled wings of your costume padding you against his torso. Lips find your ear, chin resting on your shoulder as he responds, “What’s the saying from the movie? To infinity and beyond? Reckon that’s where I’ll be takin’ you by the end of tonight.”

“Joel!” you attempted to chide, your laughter exposing your real feelings over the suggestive comment, laying your arms over his. The girls walk toward the two of you, and he takes a second to press an open-mouth kiss to your neck, nipping at your skin before unfurling himself from you. A light smack on the side of your ass is the punctuation to the teasing, Joel standing up straight and taking your hand.

“Giddy-up, partner,” he murmurs before turning his attention to Sarah and Ellie, overly excited and completely calm. “Whatcha y’all get this time? Anything good?”

They answer over each other and he nods along, corralling them to start to walk to the next house, “Alright, mission accomplished at this house. Onto the next, we gotta get this wagon a-movin’! Only got another hour in me, girls.”

Protests whine against his announcement and your daughters start to walk faster, determined to complete their hit-list for the houses with the good stuff. You laugh to yourself, shaking your head as Joel looks over at you, feigning innocence.

“What? Got a bad back, bein’ out in the cold makes it worse.”

Now back at home, the four of you are gathered in the living room, costumes all on still as you seek out the comfort and warmth of the soft furnishings and blankets. Joel lounges on the couch, you next to him, back leaning against his side while your legs stretch out on the rest of the sofa. Ellie and Sarah have taken to the floor in front of the coffee table, massive pillowcases dumped out and beginning to be sorted. Every so often, you or Joel get up with the sound of the doorbell, passing out candy to the dwindling number of trick-or-treaters. Eventually, the intrusion stops completely, the TV playing a bad, kitschy Halloween movie per the request of the girls.

They trade their earnings, and you and Joel steal on the sly, both from the bowl you were handing out and from Sarah and Ellie’s piles. Wrappers are strewn around the floor and across the surface of the coffee table, the sound of another torn open by the girls making you sigh and sit up.

Holding out your hand, you shake your head, beckoning for the treat with your fingers, “Okay, Ellie. No more candy. You’re not going to be able to go to sleep if you keep eating it now, it’s too late.”

Ellie whines, rolling her head back with a groan before pleading her case, “Please, Mom, just this last one! And then I’ll be done, promise. Please.”

Joel chuckles when she shoots you the same puppy dog eyes that he gives to you to get what he wants, knowing his smirk grows wider when you fold easily. Shooting your head over to him, you announce to the whole room, “No more candy for anyone. C’mon girls, put it all back in your bags.” 

Calmness finds itself back in the room once all the complaints are lodged with you, the girls lying down to watch the movie while you continue to sit with Joel. Spaced out as he focuses on the film, his attention is grabbed when he hears the crinkle of wrappers and glances around to find all three of his girls indulging further.

With the remote from his lap, he pauses the movie, pouting as he exclaims, “Hey! What happened to not havin’ any more candy? If I can’t have anymore, y’all can’t either.”

Sneaking the last bite of her fun-size Snickers bar, Ellie giggles and shrugs, always the smart aleck, “Well, you are gettin’ a little pudgy, Dad, maybe less candy’ll help.”

Sarah and you giggle at her lighthearted teasing, and Joel waves it off with a breathy chuckle, leaning back against the cushions as Sarah chimes in with her jests, “Yeah, think you’re getting a little fluffy, Dad. Better to lay off now than at Christmastime with all Mom’s cookies.”

Joel attempts to defend himself from the teasing by threatening their candy supply, eager to end the conversation as the back of his neck heats up, “If m’already gettin’ pudgy then I guess that permits me to eat all your candy.”

They both are in a fit of giggles, continuing to tack on silly comments as Joel sits quietly on the couch, trying to mask the way the words worm their way in, feeding the shame and insecurity that was already festering in his chest from the last few weeks.

You roll your eyes, shaking your head with a smile as you laugh softly, “Alright, alright, enough. Think that’s the sign that it’s time for bed. C’mon, up up up.” Before standing, you pat Joel’s thigh and shoot him a carefully concerned look, but he wipes away your worry by sending you a warm smile back, laying his hand over yours and squeezing gently. 

Joel stays downstairs to clean up, the girls both saying goodnight before you follow them upstairs to get them ready for bed. Gathering candy wrappers in his fists, he throws them away in the kitchen, stomach rolling as he replays the small comments from minutes ago. He knows it was teasing, all in good fun as it always is between his girls and you, but he can’t shake the heaviness inside of him, the hot prickles of shame when he passes by the mirror in the hallway on his way back to the living room.

The bowl of extra candy you were handing out gets placed back on the coffee table, his silly cowboy hat from the evening deposited on top of it to hide the contents. Not that he was going to eat anymore, he couldn’t stomach even the thought of anything else when all he could think about was how much he desperately wanted to shed his skin at that moment. Breathing shallows when he settles on the couch again, one of his hands pressing onto the left side of his chest and willing his heart to slow down, for his brain to silence itself.

The skin of his palm meets the scruff of his beard, scratching against the roughened, worked skin. Grays in his hair, salt and pepper beard, wrinkles on his forehead and at the side of his eyes, softened tummy from years of love and care, from an easy life with you.

He certainly isn’t the same Joel that you met all that time ago, that you fell in love with. Have you noticed the changes as much as he has?

He swears you haven’t aged a day; all the more beautiful with each passing day.

Light steps carry you back downstairs, the sound shaking Joel out of his thoughts as you swing around from the staircase and through the entrance to the living room. Joel relaxes on the couch, the same spot he was occupying before, only sinking further into the cushion, shifting to pull the fabric of his shirt away from his stomach. Glancing up at you, away from whatever was playing on the TV that did nothing to distract him from himself, he sends you a tight smile, stretching an arm over the back of the couch to welcome you in.

Accepting it, you sit next to him, curling up into his side with your legs under you, leaning against his frame with your comforting weight. Your hand rests on his chest, your head on his shoulder while you both watch the TV movie playing. Silence falls between the two of you, minutes passing by with only the noise from the speakers, the volume turned low so as not to disturb the kids upstairs.

Joel feels your hand move against his chest, curling up to leave your pointer finger extended, the pad of it skimming against his flannel. He ignores the feeling, figuring it’s you fidgeting as you do while you focus. The same thing as twirling your hair while you’re reading, tapping your foot as you cook.

But when your hand stairs to wander, his eyes flick down to watch its path, your gaze still facing forward and quiet. With your thumb and index finger, you work open the first button on his shirt, trailing down with the rest undone in your route. Slipping under the material, your cold hand presses against his chest, nails scraping against the skin there. With a sigh at the contact, Joel finally uses his hand to gently caress your chin, turning you to face him.

Low and rasping, he questions, “What are you doin’ exactly, darlin’?”

Innocently, you shrug, bottom lip bit down on while your touch moves lower again, skimming across his stomach and reaching the waistband of his jeans, “Well, I still have to face the consequences from stealin’ your hat, cowboy.”

Fingers dip below his belt line, toying with the elastic band of his boxers. Slipping away, he almost protests at the loss, biting his tongue when you move next to him, sitting up on your knees while both hands reach for the button and zipper of his jeans. When his button pops from its secure place, he warns with a breathy exhale, “Baby…”

“Mhm, yes, honey?” you reply, words trailing up at the end, feigning naivety. Through your lashes, you send him a pout, tongue poking out to dampen your plush lips that he stares at, his mouth parted with heavy breaths. His blood is rushing from his head, leaving him feeling light, as it all pumps to his cock, your delicate and teasing touches getting him half-hard.

Before you can tug down his zipper, you pause, taking your hands off of him; he holds back a whimper, the sound dying as a low hum in his throat.

“Don’t worry, baby, m’not done yet. Let’s go to our room, yeah?” Your voice is soothingly saccharine, an eager nod being his only response. 

Shutting off the TV, you stand from the sofa and take his hand, snatching the cowboy hat from the coffee table before pulling him to stand and follow you across the main floor, down the hallway into your first-floor bedroom. Joel shuts the door behind him, your nod toward the handle serving as a reminder for him to flick the lock.

 “Y’know, honey, you’re always showing me how you feel about me. I think it’s time we had a night that’s all about you…” He’s holding in a breath as you stalk closer to him, shaking his head as the back of his neck heats up.

“No, baby, you don’t—I don’t…” he stutters before trailing off, ashamed that he can’t think of any other excuse than the truth of why he does not want the attention on him tonight.

“You don’t…?” Running your hands across the expanse of his chest, he drops his shoulders in, curling around to make himself smaller, one foot stepping back but he doesn’t move from under your touch.

Shaking his head, he avoids your eyes, faintly confiding, “I don’t feel like I deserve it. I jus’, I’d rather give to you, baby.”

“Oh, Joel…you deserve it and more, honey. Why wouldn’t you?” Your fingers graze up, skating across his skin and carding into the hair at the nape of his neck.

“I’m not…not the same. I don’t look like who you fell in love with. Everything’s changing, catching up to me. Got gray hair and white in my beard and wrinkles and a beer belly startin’ and my back hurts all the time. M’not who I used to be but you—”

“Have changed, too. It’s not just you, Joel. Everything’s a little softer now, I’ve got wrinkles too. Found like four gray hairs yesterday and had a mild panic attack before I got into the shower. M’curvier and—”

“And you’re fucking beautiful, baby. You’re as beautiful, if not more beautiful than the day I met you.” He’s quick to defend your negative self-talk, his hands running delicately along the curves of your sides and around your lower back. Enveloping you in his arms, he presses your foreheads together, nose notched next to yours.

“That’s exactly how I feel about you, Joel. Don’t listen to us teasin’ you, especially me, ‘cause I wouldn’t change a thing about you…” As you tilt your head back, your nose grazes against his cheek, feeling a rush of heat from your breath as your lips hover over his, deliciously close to a kiss, “Can I show you what I think about you, honey?”

Joel nods, wordlessly waiting in anticipation; in the next breath, your lips crash into his, drinking him down deep while the hand at the back of his head tangles further into his hair and tugs. He moans, parted lips allowing you to lick into his mouth, whining at the taste of him before you push the flannel material from his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor as you continue to dominate the kiss.

Pressing your hands against his strong chest, you push him back with a step. Joel follows your lead, carefully moving backward, your tongue melding with his. All he can focus on is the taste of you — sweet, fruity, with the tang of citric acid from all the sour candies you stole from the bowl, the softest hint of chocolate as an aftertaste from his indulgences. The flavors of you coat his mouth, the scent of your perfume and shampoo mixing in his nose, and the feeling of your soft skin in his rough palms when he hikes up the skirt of your dress, grabbing a handful of your ass; it all stirs together, creating an intoxicating cocktail of you that he can seem to taste enough of. Joel’s legs hit the edge of the bed, and he’s being pulled away from your mouth with a pop when you ease him to sit down. Curiosity flashes in his mind, the sight of you over him with kiss-swollen lips growing the bulge in his undone jeans. Eager hands find your hips, grazing over to your ass as he looks up at you standing over him.

“Whatcha wanna do, beautiful?” His voice is lecherous as it comes out in a rasp, dripping with desire and a bit of wonder over what exactly you’re going to do with your night in control.

You shake your head at him, standing up straight and reaching for his hands, placing them at the hem of your dress, “Go ahead, baby. Take off as much as you want.”

His choice is obvious, tugging the fabric over your head with your help, a hand around your back yanking you to stand close, between his spread legs, while his fingers work open the clasp of your bra. Sitting back on his hands, he observes greedily as you let the straps fall down your arms, dropping the bra entirely onto the floor.

“These too?” Your thumbs hook into the waistline of your panties, doe-eyed and biting down on your body lip teasingly. Cotton-mouthed, Joel nods slowly, lips parted with shaking breath as you strip completely, sinking to your knees in front of him before he can reach out for a handful of your curves.

He lets you work his jeans down to his thighs, his boxers following in their wake, his cock springing free against his bare stomach. You keep eye contact as you kneel in front of him, his keen stare unblinking as his tongue pokes out to wet his lips, the need to see every single one of your movements outweighing the drying of his eyes with his slow, infrequent blinking. Scooting to settle comfortably on your knees, you stand up straighter, gaining enough height to bend your head over his lap, lips meeting his soft tummy and hands gripping onto his thighs. Delicate kisses and ghosting touches on his skin raise goosebumps, a warm shudder trickling down his back at your tenderness.

“So handsome…” you whisper, grazing your teeth into the flesh of his torso, biting down to nip. “Y’know I think about doin’ this all the time, baby. Every time you take off your shirt, jus’ wanna sink my teeth into you.”

His cheeks heat with sincere attention, muscles in his abdomen flexing when you litter lovebites and heated, open-mouth kisses all over him, the gentle touches and desire to relax his anxieties slowly. The focus on your mouth drops to his thighs, turning your head to the side when you sit back on your haunches, licking a stripe up toward his aching cock, a quivering exhale from his mouth drawing your eyes to his face. A satisfied smile stretches across your face, kissing his inner thigh before mirroring the actions on the opposite side. His fingers curl into the duvet, gripping hard as your lips wander closer to where his stiff cock drips needily, throbbing for any kind of reprieve.

“You’re so pretty, baby. So strong, solid.” The sweet nothings tickle at the back of his neck, words that he’s sure you’ve spoken before, but at this moment, they raise his body temperature and lighten his head, the only thoughts being how much he needs you.

Standing on your knees again, you bend your neck over Joel’s lap, eyes flickering up to his face to look at him through your lashes. Your lips part, spit dribbling from your mouth and onto his waiting cock, the sensation making him hiss with urgency. One of your hands wraps around him and strokes slowly. He looks down at you with hooded eyes, mouth opening in a small gasp at the languid stimulation. One swipe of your thumb across his tip drags the beads of pre-cum from where they’re leaking, melting them into the mix of your saliva that lubricates your motions.

Searing needles pierce into his skin when you finally give in and press hot, open-mouthed kisses against the soft skin of his swollen length. Your thumb brushes against his tip again, another hiss of pleasure escaping from between his teeth. One of Joel’s hands finds the back of your head, tangling fingers into your hair. He doesn’t move to guide you, simply wanting to touch a part of you to ground himself.

Your free hand gently cups his balls as you press a featherlight kiss to the tip of his hard cock. A kitten-lick swipes up the fresh dribbles of pre-cum that have collected and Joel’s fingers tense against your strands. Humming satisfied with the reactions you’re drawing from him, he looks down at you meeting his gaze, feeling the splotches of redness growing across his cheeks and neck at the frustration of your light teasing. He groans out your name as your mouth works to tease him more, not having taken him fully in.

“Fucking hell, baby, quit teasin’, please.” Joel rasps as he watches your methodical seduction. He applies the smallest pressure against the back of your head when your lips finally wrap around just the tip of him, a moan of relief rolling from his chest.

Your eyes stay glued on his face, and he’s lost in the delicious warmth of your mouth, unabashed in every response that he’s having to your mouth working him. Starting a slow bob up and down, he moans at the weight of him on your tongue, saliva coating the underside of his cock as he feels you curl the muscle against every vein. With half of him with your mouth, your hand working what isn’t initially fitting inside. His noises grow louder and in quicker succession, hyperaware that his cheeks are likely visibly warm and eyes dark with a craving when he looks down at you again.

“Such a sweet girl. Look so pretty with my cock in your little mouth. Think you can take more, baby? Think I can fit in your throat?” You shift in your position slightly, thighs rubbing together and a chuckle rolls from his lips, smug in the need he’s drawing from you simply from enjoying his pleasure. A sigh exhales around him in your mouth as your thighs rub together to relieve some of your aches.

The rhythm of your head brings his cock deeper, his tip brushing the back of your throat. You swallow around him and it squeezes him just right, a loud moan rumbling from his chest, the reverberations sending aftershocks to the tips of his ears. At that point, he gets lost in the high feeling, his composure leaving him when his large hand at the back of your head pushes you down onto his cock, taking him down your throat further and causing you to gag. Tears spill from your eyes and spit drips from the sides of your mouth, the blow job quickly turning sloppy as Joel takes more control.

“Fucking hell, darlin’. Taking me so well on your own, being such a good girl for me,” he whines, heading tilting back as his eyes squeeze shut, shallow thrusts meeting the rhythm of your head. “Gonna fuckin’ come, baby, holy fuck, I—”

A moan around him gurgles to nothing when he thrusts again, hand tangled in your hair pulling you back until his tip rests against your lips, “Don’t wanna—please—” His words are lost on the tip of his tongue, pleasure hazing his mind as he searches for the plea he wants to make with you.

You giggle from your knees, swiping your fingers to wipe away the drool from the corners of your mouth, a satisfied smirk on your face. Bracing yourself on his thighs, you push yourself up, standing in between his legs while your hands find his shoulders, scraping your fingernails against the curve of them.

“You wanna come inside of me? Not my mouth? Is that what you were trying to say, baby?”

“Yes,” he exhales, relieved to find the word he needed, blinking open his eyes to look up at you. Your thumb skates across his bottom lip, holding onto his jaw as you study his features.

“I’ll give you whatever you want, Joel. Anything for my perfect, doting husband. D’you know how fucking good it makes me feel to make you feel good?” you question curiously, tilting his head as he lets you mold him whichever way you want. “Tell me how you deserve to have me like this. ‘Cause you’re so fucking good to me, tell me that you’re gonna let me fuck you, let me take your come inside of me.”

“Baby, I don’t think that—” he starts, palms pressing into the backs of your thighs as he looks up at you.

“Tell me, Joel. You said you wanted to be the one giving to me tonight. That’s what I want.” You use his earlier, shy request against his negative thoughts, and the intensity in your eyes bends him to your will.

“M’gonna let you have my cock, gonna let you fuck me and show me how much you love when I take care of you.” The words roll foreignly on his tongue, unconvincing coming from his mind to his mouth. You bend a knee, bringing it up to rest next to his thigh, nodding along to encourage him to continue, “I give you whatever I can give to you, and always gonna, baby. Now’s your turn to take care of me, right?”

“That’s right, honey. I should show you how much I appreciate you more often…you work so hard, give us exactly what we need, and provide for us. My big, strong man. You do so much for me, baby. Gonna show you how thankful I am for you, how grateful I am that you’re lettin’ me have this cock,” your words breathe hot against his ear, your other leg now straddling him on the bed, cunt hovering over his waiting cock. A hand leaves his shoulders, reaching between your stomachs to wrap around him, guiding him to your entrance. His breath catches in his throat when you ease down onto him, pushing through the wet seal of your slit.

Wet heat envelopes him, taking in a few inches of him; Joel groans under you, head falling forward onto your breasts, forehead pressed into your sticky skin. One hand tangles into his curls, dragging his head back to look into your eyes. Your hips start to move, adjusted to his size easily and taking more of his cock, letting it split you open inch-by-inch. His eyes wildly search yours, seeing the pleasure overtake your mind, lips parting to match his as you both breathe out shallow, hot breaths.

“Fuck, Joel, so fucking big…” you whine for the first time tonight and the sound goes straight to his cock, twitching him inside of you as his hips jerk up, giving you another inch. Lust clouds his mind, nodding confidently as you take him, desperate to feel your tight, dripping cunt around him entirely.

“I know, baby, I know. Should’ve let me get you ready. But I bet you like the stretch, like a lil’ bit of pain, huh?” he coos, arm snaking around you to hold you closer, your eyes fluttering closed above him as you nod languidly.

“Fuckin’ love it, makes it feel even better,” you whimper when his arm tugs you down further, only an inch or two away from him being fully sheathed.

“C’mon, be my good girl, baby. Show me how you sit on my cock.” He leans forward, bending you backward with his force and holding you tight, his lips attaching to the soft, velvety skin of your breasts and biting, “Gotta face your punishment for stealin’ my hat. Take a cowboy’s hat, gotta ride the cowboy, babygirl. I don’t make the rules.”

You giggle, eyes clearing as you’re pulled out of your cloud of pleasure, gripping onto his shoulders and holding eye contact as you finally sink completely down, burying Joel’s cock inside your soaked pussy. Moans echo in the room, bitten down before they get too loud, your hips immediately finding a quick, sloppy pace to chase your highs. The slick glide of your walls grip his cock lusciously, your flooding arousal coating his balls as thighs as you ride him. Little noises slip from your mouth, simmering the coals burning in the base of his gut as he feels the familiar bliss building.

“Is this what I’m supposed to be doin’, cowboy?” you wonder, hips continuing their pace and mouth twisting as you hide a smile. Joel is unashamed, a wide grin on his face as he unravels one arm from you, picking up the hat from the corner post of the bed, and setting it loosely on top of your head. Giggles erupt from the both of you, your pace faltering as the muscles in his stomach cramp from use. 

Recovering from the interlude, your thighs rub against the outside of his as you bounce, nails digging into his shoulders as your rhythm picks back up, the slap of skin against skin the only noise save for your airy breaths that get shallower and shallower. Flames have ignited in his gut, licking inside and burning hotter and hotter the closer he gets. Nearly at the edge, he needs more, body taking over and lifting you with him as he stands, holding you up on his cock as he thrusts hard and quick into you, dripping for him and gripping him tight to keep yourself up while he fucks into you.

“Oh—fuck, Joel! Right there, m’gonna—oh!” Your desperate pleas in his ear pitch up as you moan, cunt tightening with a flutter around him as you come, soaking his dick as he continues his hard pace, selfishly chasing his high. 

A growl rolls from his chest when you come, his fingernails biting into the flesh of your ass, the slap of his balls against your skin as they draw up. His eyes squeeze shut as he moans your name, the first rope of his come released into your cunt, smaller whimpers following in its wake as he fucks one, twice more, filling you up as deep as he can.

Limbs feeling heavy, he turns you both around, pulling you off of him and dropping you gently onto the mattress. He flops down next to you onto his stomach, blissfully out of it as you move to straddle his back, fingers working the knots and soothing the aches growing there after a long week of work, and a night spent corralling your kids.

The warm press of your body against his back makes him hum contently, your breasts at his shoulder blades as you lay on him, one of his hands reaching the rub his fingers softly against the outside of your thigh.

“You know I think you’re the most handsome, right, honey?” you ask with a hint of worry in your voice, barely above a whisper. He nods, rolling over to his back underneath you and meeting your eyes, brow furrowed with concern.

“I know, baby. Jus’ was feeling weird this whole week. You made it a lot better, though.” A knuckle nudges your cheek, and you take the hat off, Joel chuckling again as you throw it off to the side of the bed. Laying down on him again, he strokes your hair while you hug yourself to his torso, both your eyes and his fluttering shut with exhaustion, from tonight and life in general.

Before drifting off, Joel speaks up, cheekily asking, “So…can I wear this costume next year, too?”

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[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

How I picture this conversation would go during the aftermath of the Brooklyn battle in the movie.

Context: *Mario and Luigi are sitting at the table in their families' apartment. Their mother and father listen in while Mario telling them the story, getting near the part of when the wedding took place*

M&L's father: "Wow! You guys went through so much in what, a day? I'm surprised you guys were still standing after all of that!"

Mario: "Yeah, getting that star definitely helped with our injuries. Especially with mine."

M&L's mother, putting a plate of hot food down in front of him: "Well, I'm just glad you boys are safe and sound. If I was there, I would have given that turtle man a piece of my mind for hurting you two."

Luigi: "I'm sure you would have, ma."

Mario: "No doubt about that. I feel like I'm forgetting something else that happened."

Luigi: "Oh yeah, I remember what you forgot. Mario had to put on a bear costume in order to save me."

Mario: 'blushes and coughs awkwardly while burying his head in his plate'.

M&L's Mom: "....he dressed as a bear?"

Luigi, nonchalantly while continuing to eat his food: "Yep. Looked all plush and cuddly, too."

Mario, glaring at him: "Lu..."

M&L's Father: "What? Why the heck did you have on a bear costume?"

Mario, through clenched teeth: "It was actually an animal called a tanooki, and it helped me save Luigi from certain death during the wedding."

M&L's mom: "Ooh! You guys were at a wedding? Was it lovely?"

Mario: "Well, we weren't invited per say. Luigi and the other captured prisoners were going to be sacrificed in "honor" for the wedding to commence, and I was fighting the Koopas in the kingdom below with DK. So, in order to get where they were, I had to get a power up that allowed me to fly up there just in time to save him."

Luigi, grinning smugly: "And he was this close to becoming the ring bear-er."

Mario: "Luigi, I swear..."

M&L's father: "What’s a ta-whoo-ki?"

Mario: "it's pronounced ta-noo-ki, dad, and it's a type of raccoon dog and -"

Luigi, without missing a beat: "And the only thing that he actually can live up to in his name now."

Mario: "Oh, will you SHUT IT?!?"

[cobrafantasies]

Baby, It's Halloween and We Can Be Anything

SamBucky | Rated M | 2,185 words | Complete | AO3

Written for SamBucky Halloween Bingo 2024 by @sambuckyhalloweenbingo, prompt: Costume

Summary: Sam and Bucky end up at the same costume party. Sam's not sure if Bucky recognizes him when he starts flirting.

Excerpt:

Since becoming Captain America, this may be the dumbest shit Sam has ever done. But he wanted a night out. One where he didn’t have to pose for thirty selfies and sign people’s sneakers or forearms with whatever shitty pen they could find. Where he didn’t have to fake-smile through an elderly man’s proclamation about history changing right before his eyes.

He just wanted a normal night out and Halloween seemed like the perfect pick when he found a bar hosting a costume party. So, yeah, Sam decided to wear a full-concealing, goblin mask that hides every inch of his face. It’s quite ugly. The rest of him is decked out in dark green. Suede, forest green suit pants and a long-sleeve, green turtle neck. A goblin has got to dress up sometime.

He’s not going to win the costume contest and he doesn’t want to. His whole goal tonight is to relax in the glorious anonymity. Maybe dance a little dirty with a guy and if he’s lucky, find a dark enough room for him to take his mask off and make out with someone.

The night isn’t going as stellar as he’d hoped. Almost every guy has resorted to teasing Sam into taking the mask off. And when Sam flinches away, dragging the mask back down after they attempt to slip it off, they all think he has something to hide.

He is trying to hide. He’s Captain America. And unfortunately, the more he hides behind his goblin mask all night, the more guilty he feels.

Read on AO3

[darushi-chan]

MORE HOTD REPTILES AU 🤗 EDIT: After I took a nap I checked the post on my phone and the quality of the image looked like crap, dont know if it is my damn phone or what, but just to make sure I divided the strip in parts, now it looks fine in my phone, I like looking at Vhagar the komodo dragon in good definition ok xD? Also Arrax with his cute little crown. Im in pain, I commited myself and finished this in almost 3 days, never again lol. Headcanons time: -If you follow my other posts you know Aemond and Luceyrs are roommates, Aemond lied and said Vhagar “was friendly” so Luke will stay with them, he had been very careful and nothing happenned for like 3 weeks, but the one time he went jogging and didn’t make sure Vhagar’s enclosure was properly closed something happened.  -His “Lucerys it’s in danger” sense tingled and he came back in time to prevent disaster, but Luke saw Vhagar in his room. -Lucerys knows Vhagar its not “friendly”, but he also wanted the roommates situation to work, so he feigned ignorance and trusted Aemond, after all Vhagar did listen to him, most of the time.  -Vhagar did want to have snack time so bad 😞, but she also loves her almond, so no eathing the tiny dragon, Arrax its “her friend” now, and shes also a new member of Luke’s youtube videos! Plenty of new subscribers thanks to that 😂. -Yes, their silly costumes are a little bit of an hommage to their HOTD real characters, after all we do love to make Luke and Aemond queen and king (Or kings) in a lot of fics 😋. -Also also, yes Luke its wearing crocs with cute charms on them, I also love jogging pants, very comfortable 😌. -Vhagar its inded as tall as Luke when she stands, she’s a full grown Komodo, my doberman its as tall as me when he stands, so I think that makes it possible, I’m like 1.60 m,  5.25 feet, so yeh. -After this Vhagar and Arrax become really good friends indeed, they take walks together with Luke and Aemond, they sunbathe, Luke makes videos with both of them from time to time, they also play catch and chase together, this scares Luke a little, but Vhagar will not hurt Arrax, they are important to her know, Aemond likes them, so does she. -The costumes and videos are a little bit tedious, but Luke makes sure to never do something she hates, and Aemond always gives her special treats and cuddles after them, she also gets a fanbase that sends her gifts! Luke says she’s a star now 😘. -MOre lore that keeps me awake at night: Targ special pet companions Need to be a reptile or amphibian+ blood magic with a Targ blood family member sample, usually blood+ some other secret enchantments. Usually, the parent will bring their baby or child and be shown a wide variety of options, specifically eggs, and if there’s a connection with one or more, they are taken and can go through a series of trials and blood magic rituals, and the one that hatches at the end it’s the one that goes with the client. This process can take some time and specially lots of money from the client. Also, it can only work with people from Valyria, the only ones that can really afford this type of thing are the Targs and their blood family members. They may or may not also have a very restrictive contract with the dragon keepers for this kind of service too, hehe. Driftmark incident and bonding with Vhagar!: Alicent lets Viserys have his way with Aegon and Helaena, they got their pet companions since very young, she agreed since both were also relatively safe options, but then he started to get sick and wasn’t as able as before. She never liked this tradition the Targs had, just looking at Rhaenyra’s Syrax, or even worse, Laena’s Vhagar, the seven forbid one of her kids bonds with a monster like that, so with Aemond she gets more control of what her son get access to bond with, small geckos, frogs, turtles…safe and/or small companions, but none of those take, time passes and then Aemond decides he wants to have a big crocodile like his father, Alicent hates the idea, she wasn’t a Targaryen, so she really didn’t believe it was safe. But no matter what other small safe reptiles Aemond was shown none of them reacted. Aemond knew why, he didn’t want any of those “safe” companions, Aegon and Jace won’t stop bullying him with one of those, he needed something that commanded respect, not something “small and safe”. More time pases and Aemond still doesn’t have a pet companion, Alicent stops trying, and he gives up a little. The day of the funeral the kids dare Aemond to go into Vhagar’s enclosure. He accepts and goes into Vhagar’s room at Daemon and Laena’s house, there he finds this really big lizard he has never seen before. The dragon keepers haven’t shown him anything like it, and even if it’s not a croc, he knows this would definitely do, his excitement goes away when he kind of feels the creature’s sadness. He starts to sing her a Valyrian lullaby (The one Daemon sings to Vermithor), and this catches Vhagar’s attention, she goes out from her enclosure and Aemond touches her snout (Like in how to train your dragon, hehe) while he says Lykiri and Dohaeras (Like in the show!). Vhagar can sort of feel the connection, but we still need the blood for it to be completed. Cue the other children. Aegon and Jace can be a little bit mean and feel kind of “attacked” (Inferiority complex it’s that you?), that Aemond it’s getting a good reaction from Vhagar, they weren’t expecting that after all, and because children can be little shits they enter the room and try to make fun of Aemond for singing Vhagar a lullaby, Vhagar has never seen this other children before and doesn’t like all the noise so she goes back to her enclosure. Rhaena and Baela are not vibing that much with the bullying, neither does Luke, but then Aemond gets mad and lashes at everyone, telling them they have lame companions, how they wish they could have something as cool as Vhagar, especially the idiot Strong bastards. Luke and the girls are sad and crying and answering their own mean things to Aemond and then everyone its fighting. Aegon knows their parents are gonna kill him if something happens, so he runs away in search of the adults. There is some stuff used to feed Vhagar in the room (Gloves, scissors, thongs and stuff like that) and in the struggle those things end up in the floor with Aemond and Jace, Aemond grabs the scissors and slashes them around in desperation and ends up cutting Jace a little. Its then that Luke, that was comforting Laena and Baela after they got punched in the squabble, sees this and gets scared, and ends up pushing Aemond, he trips around the mess and pierces his eye with the scissors, by then the adults arrive and all hell breaks loose. While everyone screams, Vhagar gets close to Aemond and licks some of his blood from the floor, Laena its dead, and she likes this feisty hatchling, so the bonding gets completed. Still, the adults are fighthing, but the kids get to say the truth about the taunting and the mean words and Alicent, Rhaenyra and Viserys see the damage that has been done through the adults mean remarks and hatred. So yes, they are all very mad, and are not in the very best terms then, but they all decide to start going to family therapy, so not everything goes to shit in a couple of years, this way Lucemond and Jacegon can still be a little bit toxic, but nobody needs to die, ok? Also Alicent freaks out and almost passes out when she sees the monstruosity sitting at her son’s side, that makes everyone go back to their rooms, lol. 

[inkedeye2345]

Got on the wrong foot Pt.5

Air turtle

Rise Leo x oc

warning:non but cursing and short

Kyle's pov: "HOT SOUP!!!" | raise my head to see Leo do a slam dunk I was sitting down on the bleachers while writing a note (and yes it's for Leo but it'll be all the way in the end 🤭)

"Leo's on fire tonight boysss!" I see him walk almost like walking to me as I slam my book shut trying to act normal and he gives me a wink I turn red and he turns around to his brothers "next baskets for the win!" | see Raph and Mikey serious but Donnie he's just typing on his phone "Mikey m up let's shut his flashy blue face down" I giggle knowing they definitely were going to lose and I got

back to writing while looking at them at the same time

I see Leo do a trick "You can't guard me double me I dare you" and Mikey looked offended "are you daring us to double you?" He said pointing at Leo and I look at Donnie still watching his phone "no l'm double daring you to double me" Raph got pissed off "you did not just double dare us to double you!"

Mikey and Raph surround Leonardo "oh oh oh oh!"

Leo shook the ball side to side messing with his two brothers "ah I'm open transfer it!" Donnie said behind Mikey and Raph and Leo threw the ball at Leo but it hit Donnie's head and Leo caught the ball and slammed dunked it and Raph and Mikey yelled no

and Donnie sat down sighing and I sat next to him hearing Leo "sorry don ton I gotta win tried losing for once not for me" I put my hand on Donnie's shoulder "you'll get better the only thing I can play is base ball" | chuckled Donnie was still grumpy "at least you know how to do something" I smile softly as I fiddle with the note I had in my hand

Donnie noticed it and snatched it "h-hey that's mine!" He opened the note and read it

Dear Leo I have been catching feelings for you for a long time now and I want you to know I'm biromantic-asexual and non binary and I really like you and idk why you accept me when I betrayed you and your family and I'm very sorry for that and I just wanted to make this note and say I like you a lot when I mean by a life I mean more than a friend and it's okay if you say no I totally understand because I used to be a foot soldier and because of my sexualitys i total understand so pls just give me a chance By:Kyle

I see Donnie stare at me "just give it back it's useless-" | felt a tight embrace "we aren't so different after all...I guess we both have trouble coming out" I hug him back "thx Donnie...it looks like dr.feelings did a good job" he rolls his eyes playfully "scoff what did he do to help me" we both laughed

(time skip)

We’re at a basketball stadium “let’s go!” And everyone starts booing as Leo kept on rooting i felt bad cause this place was a bit empty

(time skip)

We we’re all bored for the next game as we just sat there bored as fuck and I see Leo come to us “You guys are in luck I’m going to bring out my victory dance once we win tonight” “ya right and Leo” turned to us “trust me I’m on the inside” April scoffed “that’s a mascot” “more as a consulted who wears a costume when fires at-shirt cannon”

(time skip again)

We see pro players and I was a bit concerned “those guys are going to whoop the Dave’s” Raph said as he points to them I nod my head and we hear the horn go on “YA LETS GO DAVES LET ME HEAR YA” I hear Leo yell and starts dancing as Leo uses the t-shirt Canon

I see Leo grab a speaker as he gets on one of the Dave players shoulder “I’m Dave get loud!” And no one cheers I knew I was going to be embarrassed but this is for Leo I start cheering and clapping my hands and he points to me “she gets it!”

(time skip)

Leo comes up to us nervous “so about that arch thingyyy?” Mikey looks at him “ya think?” “That’s why me and Donnie called the expert” as I let Donnie speak “on all things Mystic” I start to speak “aka Draxum who officially adopted me” as I hear through the phone “ugh point me at the idiot” one of Donnie’s tech pointed the phone to Leo showing Draxum “do you know what you have done!” Leo was confused

“What uhh!” One of Donnie’s tech cupped Leo’s cheek and made him face the mystic thing “that is the arch or Acuna who ever walks under it turn into oh i don’t know A DEMONIC WARRIOR!!!!” “apa cálmate por favor!” I yelled at my father “ohh ya that makes sense” Leo nods I slap my head (time skip) I see Donnie shoot as he was about to miss but Leo came in and dunked the ball in as I cheer and when they stopped cheering Leo comes to me saying “lucky rock lucky rock lucky rock” when he came up to me he grabbed my wrist and brought me to the changing room

he looked at me as his eyes light up “so what did you think did I look awesome of course I looked awesome cause we won!” He put his hand up for a high five and when I did our fingers intertwined (i can’t describe how so go with the flow Kai GO WOTH THE MOTHER F#CKING FLOW-) I look up at him “Leo…” I hand him a note looking down

I felt him grab it I looked away after some seconds later he grabbed my wrist and brought me closer to him i turned more red than raphs mask we were inches away it looked like he got impatient when our lips brush together and he kissed him and I kissed back

this was heaven I cup the sides of his face and he wraps his arms around my waist I break the kiss and turn red “s-so is that a-“ “yes!…I mean ya that sounds cool” I giggle and peck his lips and heard clapping fro behind and i turned around to see everyone watching and I hide behind Leo

and he chuckles and he picks me up (idk the name of the position my bad) and I squeak a bit and heard Donnie take a photo and sent it to the group chat

(Familia loca)

Don tron 👾: scoff more annoying people

(Let’s just say Leo carried them like that cause i can’t fin another photo so just imagine it from this photo)

Draxum 👺: Leonardo I need to have a word with you

I heard another notification on my phone as I looked at the text message and smile

(DON TRON👾)

Don tron👾: welcome to the family Kyle

(Hello I hope you like this part cause it was really short cause I was really lazy and I got really tired so I made it short and I got inspired by the song see you again by idk who so ya comment on my story’s and ask for any requests cause they open so right now I’m going to knock the f#ck out right now so have a good day or night and god bless you beautiful people bye)

PREVIOUS NEXT

[britt-kageryuu]

Mikeys performing a ballet this stream. He's performing a heavily altered retelling of Princess Tutu, Shelldon and River helping, by playing necessary characters, and controlling the sets.

Mikey is currently at the point where it shifts from season 1 into season 2. They take an intermission, and Mikey still dressed as Princess Tutu starts talking to chat.

"I really need to actually figure out how to do the ending of this." He states while toweling off a bit, and since it was only his model dressed, not himself, it looked a little like he was randomly rubbing his sides.

Chat is singing praises of the production so far, especially since they had to condense alot of parts to keep in a time frame. Though some are exclaiming about the fact that Mikey doesn't have the ending fully planned Half way through the performance.

River comes over with parts of the Black Swan/Raven costume. "Well it can be done with some effects, but I don't think we can achieve the crow army that attacks you." She explains while putting the costume on. "I still find it weird that I'm playing Rue, and Shelldons Fakir," River pauses to try fixing the head piece that keeps leaning to the side, "But the alternative is him playing Muto, and we end up love interests. Which is a big NOPE from both of us!"

"If worse comes to worse, we just make cut this part way, and do a part 2 later." Mikey shrugs while taking a drink, "Alright everybody, let's run a poll on cutting this short, and doing a part 2 later, or just improvising the end. Starting Now!"

The poll pops up, and while that happens Mikey flops on a large pillow to rest a bit.

Shelldon flies in with a black wig and a little uniform on. He also flops onto the pillow.

"Dudes, I'm so tired, how much longer is this gonna keep going?" He complains while flapping his front limbs. His tail is loudly smacking the pillow in annoyance.

"Well the poll is almost done, so we may end this in a few minutes, or this might continue for maybe an hour?" River replied to her brother, while contemplating taking off the costume or not.

DING DING DING

"Oh the poll is over!" Mikey leans over to check the results. "Well, it seems a majority of you want us to stop, and polish up the ending instead of just winging it!"

Shelldon flies into the air shouting in joy while flinging off the costume.

River sighs, and calmly removes the costume parts she put on, "I guess this is preferable to it might not working out. Uncle M, what are we going to do for the rest of the scheduled stream?"

Mikey thought it over for a minute, "How about we make a quick mock up, and how chat give their opinions?"

"Okay, let's grab the right equipment for this!" River agrees, before turning the stream to a BRB video of the cartoony turtles popping in and saying random turtle facts. Like 'Red Eared Sliders actually tend to be very pushy, bossy turtles, which might explain some things!'

Chat is enjoying the video reel. And asking if this was part of Mikeys past commission.

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

Masterpost

I looked up a few different Ballets, because Swan Lake is popping up alot already, but couldn't find any that would work, so Princess Tutu a somewhat abridged ballet.

[aquietwritingcorner]

Help Them

Title: Help Them Day: Febuwhump 2024, Day 26 Prompt: Help Them  Fandom:  TMNT 2003 Word Count: 1399  Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl Rating:  T Characters: Raphael Warning: NA Summary: Kevin Eastern has been on his patrol nearly seven years now, working with his partner Peter Lairdman, and he’s seen some crazy stuff. Yet somehow, coming face to face with a turtle man that’s trying to keep a wall from collapsing on some citizens is still pretty high up there.    Notes: Why yes, I did take those two cops we see all the time in 2003, that are supposed to be representations of Eastman and Laird and give them slightly different names because I could. It’s fun!    ff.net || AO3

___________________________

Help Them

Kevin Eastern had seen a lot a lot of strange things in his time as a cop. Over the past seven or so years, he’d seen alien invasions, zombie apocalypses, dragons, and a million smaller things that just added up. It was to the point that even seeing superheroes had become unimpressive. He was beginning to understand his partner’s comment of “Pfft, rookie,” that first night, when some little green men in costumes had thrown money at them from an armored car. He wouldn’t blink twice if that happened to him now.

And yet, somehow, he still hadn’t expected to find himself face to face with a little green man who was seemingly holding up a wall to keep it from falling on people.

That was the problem with natural disasters in a city like this. There was too much to fall and too many people to get injured. Sure, out in the country you’d get more trees and stuff falling, but it was more likely to be property damage and not people in danger. Here, now, there were people trapped and in danger, all thanks to what he was assuming was an earthquake.

He and his partner, Lairdman, had been on patrol when it happened. They’d immediately taken off to try to help people and get a grip on the situation as soon as the quake had been over. Going in slightly different directions, Eastern had heard cries of distress and headed straight for them. He’d come across a half-collapsed alleyway, with one large section of wall forming a bit of a cave area. There was an old woman, a boy, a woman, and a few other adults trapped under it. And above them all, braced against the wall, as if keeping it from coming down more, was a green man, a turtle man, with a red mask, who looked like he was throwing his all into keeping that wall from falling on them. He locked eyes with Eastern and grunted out one phrase.

“Help. Them.”

Eastern wasted no time.

Moving quickly, he threw himself into pulling the people out of there. Some of them were simply scared, but there were a couple who were pinned by debris. Eastern worked fast, some of the others helping him, as he moved some debris off of a man, freeing him, and helped others to move out. His partner showed up at some point, immediately lending a hand and not even commenting on the turtle man.  Soon they were just down to the old woman, the kid, his mom, and the turtle man himself. The old woman, he discovered, was blind, and she had hurt her leg. Eastern moved to help her out.

“No, no!” she said. “What about Raphael?”

“I’ll be fine, Ms. M,” the creature said, strain in his voice, clearly not fine. “But you gotta get out of here.”

“We can’t leave you!” the boy shouted, clearly upset.

The turtle grunted. “Go with your mom, Tyler, and Ms. Morrison,” he said. “I can’t—uuungh—I can’t help myself and you. Go!”

“Please,” Eastern said to the three who were left. “We’ll come back for him, but we have to get you out here.”

That seemed to be enough to get them moving, and Eastern led them out, trying to get them to safety. Lairdman helped, taking the old woman, while Eastern escorted the boy and his mother out of the collapsing alleyway. Once he was sure they were safe, he turned around, intent on keeping his promise.

And then the ground rolled again.

Someone yelled “Aftershock!” and nearly everyone found themselves on the ground one way or another. Lairdman threw himself across the old woman, trying to protect her, and Eastern did the same for the boy and his mother. But they all watched in horror as what was left of the alley collapsed, burying the turtle creature.

The boy yelled, but it was lost in the sounds of the aftershock, and other yelling. Eastern held tightly on to him, only letting up when the aftershock seemed to have passed. He stared at the collapse. The turtle man was buried under that, now.

And then, suddenly, to his shock, there were three other turtle men there, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. They glanced back at the people, but their attention was focused on the collapse, and the other turtle man underneath it.

“Raph! Raph!” one with an orange mask was yelling.

“Donnie—what do we do?” the blue one asked.

The one with the purple mask—Donnie, presumably—was looking over the collapse with a critical, if somewhat panicked, eye. “Mikey, don’t get up there!” he snapped at the orange one, who immediately complied. “We don’t want to put extra pressure on it, if we can.” He pointed to a few areas. “We’ll need to start digging here and here and see if we can get to him.”

“Do you—do you think he’s okay?” the orange one said.

“Okay or not, we’re not leaving our brother buried there,” the blue one said, and immediately started working under the purple one’s direction.

For a moment, Eastern stared in disbelief at what he was seeing. These three turtle men working hard to try to rescue their fourth—one who had rescued all of these people, who could have easily just turned on him.

Eastern pushed to his feet.

He walked closer to the turtle men, and they froze, watching him carefully, warily.

“You said, here, right?” he said, and reached to help move a large piece of debris. The turtle men exchanged a look, but nodded and went back to work, Eastern helping them.

It was only seconds before he heard someone else say “Come on, let’s help them!” and soon everyone that could was doing what they could to help out. Piece by piece, bit by bit, they moved debris, clearing a path according to Donnie’s instructions. Within thirty minutes they had eyes on the red turtle man, Raphael, and within ten after that, there was enough room for someone to go in and get him.

Eastern volunteered.

Raphael had gotten lucky, and part of the collapsing wall had stayed together, enough to give him a small cave that he’d stayed safe in. He was hurt, that was true, but he wasn’t dead, and he was able to pull himself out, with only a little help from Eastern.

As soon as he was out, his brothers swarmed him, checking over him and talking over each other at once, even as the others around cheered. The boy, Tyler, ran to him, knocking into his legs and holding him tightly, and Ms. Morrison called out to him. Raphael tightened his hold on Eastern’s arm.

“Yeah, Ms. M, I’m good,” Raph called out, even as he reached down with his free hand to pat Tyler’s head. “I’ll be fine with a little rest.”

Donnie shot him a look, and Eastern had the feeling that Raphael wouldn’t be up and around for a while.

“Hey.” Raphael tugged on his arm, and Eastern turned his attention back to the turtle man. “Thanks. For helping them. And, you know, not shooting me on sight or something.”

Eastern gave him a bit of a smile. “Nah,” he said, “We help each other. Besides—with an accent like that, you’ve got to be a native, even if you aren’t human.”

Raphael laughed, and let go of Eastern’s arm, and Eastern moved back and away.

The blue one, Leo, turned to face the small group, and bowed to them, even as Donnie gave Raphael a more thorough look over.

“Thank you,” Leo said. “We couldn’t have gotten our brother free without your help.” He glanced at Donnie, who nodded, and Mikey reached out to take a hold of Raph. “We’re grateful,” Leo said. “But we’ll take it from here.”

As if on some unseen cue, the four of them faded back into the shadows, disappearing.

Lairdman came up beside Eastern, staring at where the turtle men had been. “Huh,” he said, and then clapped Eastern on the back. “Welp, let’s keep going. Lots of other people to help. I’m sure we’ll see them around again.”

Eastern nodded and took one last glance before turning to go. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m sure we will.”

And who knew? Maybe they’d have another chance to help them, if they could.

[we-rule-the-kingdom-inside]

you know, they were kinda right about m/m ships taking away from f/f ships. I was reading a gaylor breakdown of cassandra before I could help myself and instead flipped to reading about dimitri [redacted] while wearing a turtle costume by felix also wearing a turtle costume.

m/m ship trumps f/f ship once again.... I'm sorry, I'm part of the problem.

[almadesarrollo]

ANALYSIS OF MIRACULOUS LADYBUG. ORIGINS PART 1 LADYBUG AND CHATNOIR (PART 3, analyzing wayzz)

ANALYSIS OF MIRACULOUS LADYBUG. ORIGINS PART 1 LADYBUG AND CHATNOIR ( part 2)

Very good, let's continue with the analysis remember where we came from, I left the link above so you don't get lost.

well after the butterfly miraculous activates and hawkmoth comes to light we have the following sequence.

Wayzz sleeping in his walk and here we have to stop, because there is a lot to analyze, started by wayzz.

KWAMY WAYZZ

The first thing is to look at the name, LET'S BREAK IT DOWN

WA- Y-ZZ

It starts with "W", if we turn it around, what do we have? Aha, an "M" and the name of our 4 main protagonists begins with "M", Marinette, but also notice that the next letter is "A", which would confirm that it refers to Marinette, what does that mean? ? Well, Marinette is going to be protected by Félix, that is, one of Félix's priorities is going to be her protection, because Wayzz represents that, but let's also remember who guards Wayzz, aha Fu, and who is Fu? the magician and the magician is Félix, so there we have the clue, Fu has Wayzz, Félix has Marinette, he takes care of her, but also, if we take into account that it is a literal "W", they are "2 v", This can mean 2nd victory, we know that she will be between Adrien and Félix, a "2 v", it would be telling us that she will have a second victory that corresponds to Félix, this also referring to a 2nd chance, (after Adrien's thing goes wrong )

then we have a "Y" which will serve as a link for the following.

And notice that the name has only one consonant that is doubled, "2Z" unlike nooroo, this tells us about the number 2, let's remember the importance of the number 2 in Marinette, which would confirm the above.

But what I'm going to tell you is going to blow your mind, if we turn the "Z" to the right, what letter comes out? the "N" and which character has the initial "N" and currently has Wayzz, NINO! His name has "2N", which would be "2Z" rotated, (I mean, THEY ALREADY GAVE US THE CLUE THAT NINO WAS GOING TO BE THE CARRIER OF THE TURTLE)

freaking right? What does this tell us? Well, on the one hand, this confirms the feligami and the felinette:

-the feligami because in this last part of Kwami's name there is Nino and Nino is Alya's boyfriend and who is Alya according to the previous post? Kagami and who is Kagami's boyfriend, Felix, so he would be confirming ship for us feligami.

-the felinette because if, as we know, nino is the one who leads wayzz then this means the same as fu, nino is Alya's boyfriend and therefore Kagami, and we have said that then they represent the feligami, so if nino is Félix, Thus, because of that rule of three, that would indicate that Félix actually opted for his protection, that is, marinette, therefore we have ship felinette, also note to highlight this that Carapace and Argos have a very similar aesthetic, especially they both have a hood.

so the feligami is necessary for the felinette to emerge, that is why it is before the felinette, but after the adrinette, AT SOME POINT THE FELIGAMI WILL BREAK

So now we join the first group of syllables with the last bone "wa" and the "zz" (we get wayzz together, logically)

WA-Y-ZZ

-WA=MARINETTE

-ZZ=NINO=FELIX

THEN WE HAVE FELINETTE, FELIX WITH MARINETTE, WE FIND THIS LINK IN THE NAME OF KWAMY WAYSS, WAYZZ REPRESENTS PROTECTION, THEREFORE, FELIX PROTECTS MARINETTE, BUT NOT ONLY THAT, BUT THIS PROTECTION IS GIVEN ABOVE ALL BEING THE ARGOS, FOR THAT'S HER AESTHETIC IS SO SIMILAR TO CARAPACE'S, LOOK AT HER COSTUMES, WHAT MATCHES THE MOST IS THE HOOD, WHAT DOES THE HOOD PROTECT?, THE HEAD, WHAT IS THE ILLNESS THAT MARINETTE IS GOING TO HAVE?, AMNENSIA, disease that affects the loss of memory, bone the mind and it is, it is in the head, FELIX IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF HER IN THAT PROCESS, WHICH WOULD JUSTIFY WITH GREATER STRENGTH BECAUSE HE IS READING, WRITING THIS STORY FOR HER, SO THAT SHE REMEMBER, what which in turn would confirm to us that this story is narrated/read/written by him.

and to reconfirm this, remember animan, who was the first girl that boy was attracted to? hahaha marinette.

(hmm, it's suspicious that Félix actually always loved Marinette but never said anything, aaa it looks interesting, but we'll get to that chapter, which is really crazy)

LET'S GO TO YOUR PHYSICAL

THIS IS GOING TO TAKE TIME BECAUSE LOOK, WE'RE ALREADY GETTING INTO MORE CLUES AND DETAILS, (the more colors the more characters and therefore the more clues, the thing becomes more complex hahaha and it's just origins bro)

In this case we have 2 COLORS, ON THE ONE SIDE THE YELLOW AND ON THE GREEN. How do you get the green? The green comes out by mixing BLUE AND YELLOW, we see that there are also 3 types of greens! one light, one dark and one found on the shell looking strong green but if it turns out to be neon, so black and white also come into this, then based on that we will make a scheme (as with nooroo) *sorry if it's not exact, the shades of green.

But first I have to clarify two things so that you don't get confused, okay?

1st, as you can see, the neon green is not there, so Adrien is out of this equation. Here we are only talking about one boy, Félix.

2nd, yellow is both on its own and in the mix with blue, and then you start to think, this color, yellow, does not match any of the 4 main characters (Felix, Adrien, Kagami or Marinette) well. Yes, actually it is, it is from Kagami, only here it is included indirectly through the character of Chloe, as you know, here we have named her a lot, because through her we are told about Kagami through the clues that Yes, but of course one starts to think, but then Marinette? Well, yellow is also from Marinette, and where is it hidden? In CHLOE AND ZOE, if you look closely, Chloe and Zoe also have many similarities like Marinette and many differences with Chloe, so they are both polar opposites, but very similar. , just like Kagami and Marinette, both from eastern cultures, and so on but polar opposites, right? So through them we are told about our protagonists and of course, the color palette is there.

How do we know when he is referring to one and the other? aaa surprise, surprise, hahaha you have to look at the series scenes and the context, this is what makes the Miraculous show a puzzle, they make it entertaining and fun, you realize that, right?

ok, based on that we are going to make a brief outline of both and finally make the wayzz color scheme

QUICK ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF ZOE AND CHLOE

CHLOE =MARINETTE AND KAGAMI.

ZOE=MARINETTE

well now as we see, the color difference between zoe and chloe is black and white, that is, black stands out in zoe and white in chloe so this is similar to the pattern of kagami and marinette/ladybug, let's remember that black the ladybug stands out, the white one in kagami,

Now look at both yellows, both in plain clothes and when they transform, Queen Bee's yellow is lighter than Vesperia's, which is a stronger yellow.

This tells us that one is clearly kagami while the other is ladybug, this is how we differentiate them so we have to be attentive, with this clear we can finally make the diagram, to see what wayzz means.

[I can tell you that I think this means that Félix will be protecting both of them, with Ladybug and Ryuko, Marinette and Kagami...but let's continue]

So according to the scheme we have

-LIGHT YELLOW :CHOE/QUEEN BEE=MARINETTE/KAGAMI -LIGHT GREEN: FELIGAMI -DARK GREEN: -FELINETTTE/ARGONETTE/ARGOBUG -INTERMEDIATE GREEN:FELIGAMI AND FELINETTE/ARGOBUG

So all this is telling us that during the following seasons, surely starting with season 6, that Félix will be paying attention to Kagami and Marinette, to their heroine versions, (what I said above, is that as I analyzed it I already saw it coming hahaha) now, the dedication or attention he may have to both will depend on the context they show us, what we said above, I feel that they are giving us the clue that he is going to be among the 2nd at the level of protection and the romantic, that is, if Marinette was confused with Luka and Adrien and Adrien with Kagami and Ladybug, what would make you think that Felix can't be between the two, so this clue is subtle, but the question: where is he going? throw? kagami or marinette, well that's what physical traits are for, let's find out:

-EYES: we see the dark green and yellow eyes, let's remember one thing first, the eyes are important, because Felix represents the mythological creature Argos or known as "the one with a thousand eyes", yes? Let's remember that yellow represents both, but here it is on its own, without mixing, so this would highlight that Félix would be among the 2, he observes the 2, he watches over them, he takes care of them, and this happens in civilian life, literally, he watches over them. and he takes care of Marinette and Kagami, like espionage, because he is not immersed, I hope I explain myself well, both will be important to him, now the pupil is dark green, and here there are two things, first, this green is identical to that of the pupils of the eyes of Félix himself, which would indicate to us that Félix would not only take care of them as a hero but in civilian life, as a friend or boyfriend depending on who, but this would occur in both versions, but the final result will be Marinette and here the second thing, We see this because yes or yes it is dark green, and this verée includes the black, the black is from ladybug, the green pupil is superimposed on the yellow eyes, with that contrast it already shows you the path, the final result is felinette.

-BODY AND SHELL: the body is light green, so it is clear that everything begins with the feligami, and that is something that is clear, because the series itself is showing it to us. What does the series show us? that Felix wants to take care of Kagami, in fact we see that he gives her freedom, that he frees her from her mother, so the protection begins with Kagami, now, we still don't know the reasons, but this attention is going to go away little by little. little to marinette and ladybug why? because if we do not look at the shell it becomes darker and greener, in other words blacker, a ladybug color, so for reasons that we will study later, Félix at some point is going to cut the protection or stop paying attention to it as much and become He is going to focus on taking care of Marinette and this will be in both versions, as Ladybug and as a civilian, we were saying that he was the one who was going to take care of her when she lost her memory, so this only confirms it more, it is possible that he is even be the reason why he decides on Marinette, that is, he finds out the truth of being a guardian and that she will forget him. Then he decides to take care of her, also pay attention to an important detail, the shell is when What the turtles use in the face of danger, they use it to hide, then the turtle hides the entire body, and the body is basically the feligami and the felinette pulling felinette, osa is clear, the protection is clear is for marinette, bone the felinette triumphs .

CONCEPT AND JEWEL

Wayzz represents the concept of "protection", and here there is not much to say, I think it is quite clear, through wayss they tell us about how to be protective and careful Felix, both in civilian life and when it is Argos, now Well let's focus on the jewel.

There is a lot to analyze, we know that the shape of a jewel is not the same when it is off as when it is activated or when one is transformed, it undergoes various changes, shapes and colors. The wayzz miraculous is one of the first to come out and the one that undergoes the most changes so let's analyze it

-TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIRACULOUS: the first thing we can see is that at the color level it changes, it starts out as navy blue, moving to 2 colors, black and navy blue, the first thing that catches our attention is that the color of this miraculous is blue and not green, wayzz being a wide range of greens in various shades, navy blue is the representative color of sass, the kwami of the snake, what does sass represent? the 2nd chance, do you remember what we talked about above about the W, 2V, a second victory? Well, this would be further confirming what was above, that somehow Felix is going to be a 2nd chance in Marinette's life, and this will be both in civilian and in heroes, because when the miraculous is changed, the black one appears, the black we know is representative of ladybug, but this black is not a black black, it is a black with a certain shine, with a certain glitter, which reminds me of the black that the chatnoir in the movie had, which if you look at the chatnoir design from the series and the movie is very different, the black of the mask, if this clue takes us to the chatnoir of the movie and the movie is inspired by the pv, who was chatnoir in the pv? FÉLIX!, which would not be confirming that both Félix and Argos are going to protect Marinette and Ladybug, that is, this is going to be as a friend, boyfriend and couple of superheroes, but there is more, black is also the color of chatnoir, which which could already give us the clue that Argos is going to take the place of chatnoir, first being only Argos and then being Felix himself with the miraculous of the cat, Ladybug would have a second chance, a battle companion, a true companion who would help and take care of her.

-GEOMETRY: well now let's look at its geometry, first say that this miraculous has the shape of a hexagon, a hexagon has 6 sides, if we divide it in half we have a 3, 3 and 3, 33 again 33 Where does it take us? 33? aha to the arts classroom, therefore to kagami, which would be confirming what we said above, that initially the protection goes to kagami, but finally it was decided on marinette, why? because we see that when the miraculous transforms, the black area that forms the miraculous made up of the hexagon has each and every one of the lines in the center in a circle, the polka dots and circles are symbolic of ladybug, so the final destination will be that Félix (who we have said transformed into a chatnoir thanks to this black man) protects Marinette and Ladybug in the end and chooses to be their battle partner.

Now, we see that the miraculous is divided into what amount to 10 rhombuses, 5 and 5, a rhombus inside another, a rhombus has 4 sides, 4 and 4 give 8, if we multiply the 8 by the number of rhombuses they would be 40, all these are numbers, they are representative of Ladybug and Marinette, but these rhombuses are amorphous, that is, neither their sides nor their angles are equal, which represents the abstract figures, Felix, and these figures are navy blue, 2 chance, Therefore confirmed once again the above, finally Felix is going to protect Marinette and this will be an opportunity that destiny will offer to Marinette as a gift for everything she has suffered, Felix would be her battle partner and he will take care of and protect her. she.

Finally, from the sides of the miraculous, 4 4-sided spikes come out, it is not necessary to put a drawing or diagram for something like this, if we add everything we have an 8 again, so it is very confirmed who wins the game hahaha LADYBUG/MARINETTE

Nobody likes kagami hahaha

Well, I'm going to leave the analysis here. ufff, it was intense, no ahaha but it was necessary, now you can understand things better, I know that these analyzes are a little long and heavy but it is necessary since we are with the basics, but after having analyzed you will see how we are going faster, the analyzes They will be simple and not with so much numerology and geometry.

NEXT PART >>>

THANK YOU FOR READING AND FOR YOUR SUPPORT, like and follow me to be aware of all the analysis, a big hug, see you.

[ducknotinarow]

[03/7 Rasey uwu]

"Pft, me, scared of yer?" Casey asks with a laugh, "Nah, never, yer more like a giant Teddy bear if anythin' Raph."

| Muse interaction

The lights in the parking lot clearly were old from how the bulbs buzzed and the lights would dim here and there. Outside the small convince store. Casey's bike was the only vehicle parked in the nearly empty lot outside some beat up car that belonged to the lone soul working in the store. As Raph was resting on bumper block, slightly look up at Casey who was rest back against his own bike well they were laughing. From where he sat he could easily just take in how Casey laughed. How it stiffled at first till it needed to be let out and free into the air. How it got the corners of his own beak to tug up when he listened to it, how it took over the quite darkness in the mostly empty lot.

Raphael's favorites sounds were all linked to one man it seemed anymore. Before he would say the sound of his shellcycle was his favorite. But now? The sounds of sports equipment knocking around in a duffel bag. wood and metal from the various selection rang from hockey sticks. Casey's main go to it always seemed liked. To even metal golf clubs pretty much seemed like anything Casey could shove into the bag went along for the night. The other sound Raphael loved? was Casey's laugh, deep and hearty. Really came our from his chest and there was just something about the fact that Raph was the cause of that smile that Casey couldn't seem to stop spreading over his mouth had the turtles heart fluttering in his chest. That he was the one that cause it? He already loved their laugh but being the one to cause it? He can't explain the fuzzy little feeling that seemed to take him over with that fact.

Casey just couldn't seem to get enough of how badly Raphael freaked out the guy they were chasing down. The dragons were quite for the night so it was almost a bust. Till Raphael mentioned some activity on the east side, just on the other side of town. It wasn't anything major just some street thugs throwing their weight around. But Casey seemed down so a quick bike ride over and they found a good fight to break up. Not in the usual area for Raph and his brothers to show though so these guys had no idea how to handle a giant mutant like Raphael. Which he had to admit as he turned away to laugh himself was pretty funny.

"Least 'em dragons thought I was a freak in a costume first time runnin' into any of 'em." Raphael mentions " These yahoos? pfft must've watch to many monster flicks." He chuckles a little looking down to his drink, they were just celebrating a great night out after all. "eh can' 'em though." He shurgs he shoulders a little when he speaks up. "I wouldn' wanna go against someone 'hat look 'ike me nither." Raph brags a little. "I mean only nut case 'hat has was you" He teases as always smiling up at his boyfriend. " 'hat's how I knew ya were fuckin' outta ya skull there. What guy sees a five foot mutant turtle and decides 'i can 'ake 'em' clearly only someone who got his head knocked 'round to much." Raphael taunts a little

"Pft, me, scared of yer?"

Casey asked with the hint of laugh still in his tone, Raphael simply pulls a face at that. Part of him unsure if he should be insulted or not over the way they said it just now. "Yea?" as if it was obvious he should be. Now he was in fact a bit insulted, apparently that Casey didn't find the look of Raphael enough to run from. " 'm intimidating jack ass."

"Nah, never, yer more like a giant Teddy bear if anythin' Raph."

Raph let his beak hang open over the remark, him a teddy bear? He's ready to circle back on Casey being nuts because only Casey would think him that way. But maybe that is also why his words weren't coming out at the moment not even the flare of a temper was enough to get him to speak up just then and there. Slightly looking away as a blush dared to hit his face. It should be an insult right? he should take it as an insult and fire back that Casey was soft or something himself? Expect Casey wasn't messing around well not fully. Raphael could at least pick that up.

"Teddy bear?" he finally asks before he moves to stand up, "What ya think I ain't no threat now?" he's clearly not going for a fight the way he can't help but smile up at Casey.

Raphael may never really say it and sure at times he gets a kick out people looking at him and thinking he's just something to fear. But Casey didn't see Raphael that way. Hell Casey saw Raphael in a much different light. Moving to slightly try and corner Casey back against his bike of Casey barely reacted to the approach short how his attention shifted down to Raphael. There always this look in them that Raphael never wants to tell Casey he gives. out of fear he may never look at him the same if Raphael pointed it out to him. He has to shut his brain up a moment so he only keeps in mind Casey wasn't exactly fully in a place where he was comfortable with all of this. Not the dating Raphael part, dating a guy bit. If he was any guy it be the same. Somehow that thought doesn't reassure as much as he thought it might.

"I took it easy on ya bud" he continues it's clear hes only playing at picking a fight here. "wouldn' say ya all to safe around me still Case." just not in the sense he making it sound, which Casey even should be able to see from how Raphael has him. Raphael stays still as he lets Casey move to tug down his mask.

And his heart freezes. He's take it it off for Casey before and its not even the first time Casey taken it off but, he doesn't know why it's just something so personal that he's allowed Casey to to do. Slightly hesitant to look up once the cloth around his eyes is left to hang around his neck. It's easier with his mask on though, Casey can't tell everything he's thinking as easy when he can't see the looks Raphael's giving him. Slightly he lifts his view it's just them alone in this lot. Even as Casey teases him for be clearly 'so scary' in that breathy laugh of theirs. It's fine right? is all he can think letting himself clearly look to Casey's lips. He wants to kiss them so bad and he can't explain why.

Smirking slightly as he lifts himself up on the ends of his toes. Weight shifting forward against Casey's bike. Slightly biting at Casey's bottom lip. As he slightly chuckles at it himself.

"told ya not safe," he playfully warns them before moving to grab hold of their face head tilting to the side before he pulled Casey down a little into himself, letting his beak and their mouths meet. Letting himself just melt away with the buzz that kissing Casey always gave him. Slowly to release their face so his hands can rest back on their bike as he savors every last second they stated connected before moving back on his feet. "I could still kick ya ass though." He slightly covers with as he looks away from Casey.

[thechillturtlekwami]

Who was your favorite holder

M: I wanna redo it for the whole group and tally it up based on in character opinions, so I'm asking everyone, and yes, this time I'm from the discord and my identity is obvious instead of some rando anon. - 🌈

Since kwamis don't do love and simping, 5 questions!

Favorite food above everything

Favorite Hobby

Worst holder suit design

Worst backlash from using powers without a holder.

Favorite Holder

Lettuce, but I am currently being neglected that privilege. *angry hmph noise*

Listening to music with my previous holder and drinking tea.

One of my holders.. He had like a full turtle costume. Actually he might've been a real turtle.. And he wore a bandana on his face.

I only ever used my powers without a holder once, and it's because I had no other choice... But what happened was a giant shell-ter covered the whole earth, and blocked out the sun, and the earth's temperature began slowly decreasing.

This is a really difficult one.. My last two were the best of all though. I was by Jade Turtle for many many years, we kept each other company. And he talked and I listened and offered advice. But Carapace was different, I quickly became attached to him, I hope to see him again someday, maybe even become a permanent holder..

[mrmonster459]

Samson’s Pit

Location: Orlando, Florida

“And now, put your hands together for…SWAMPY!” the show’s host shouted through his microphone.

I then walked onto the stage, in an alligator costume, ready to dance around and take photos with the kids. Which, on a 95 degree summer day, was really not a lot of fun.

I was working a summer job at Gatorworld, a shitty theme park just a few miles outside of DisneyWorld, meant to leech off DisneyWorld’s tourists. After an hour where kids were shown snakes, snapping turtles, and even a cougar, I was sent out in a big hot Gator costume, so all the kids could get their moment with Swampy.

______

It was the last show of the day. I thought I could just pack up and leave, and was really hoping to. There was a tropical storm heading to Orlando that night, and I wanted to be indoors when it happened.

After I got out of the gator costume, my supervisor came up to me and said “Hey Samantha, Brennan just called me, he’s stuck in the mother of all traffic jams trying to get back into the city, he doesn’t know when he’ll be here. Do you think you can feed the gators?”

Brennan was our local animal handler, and a pretty damn good one. He was jacked as a professional wrestler, and had a command voice that would make even our meanest animals shut up and sit still.

“Sure thing, Mr. Gutierez.” I said as I went to get the gator food. As much as I wanted to get home, I figured feeding the gators wouldn’t take too long.

_______

It was simple; I was supposed to take raw beef/pork patties, and throw them around the area we called “The Pit.”

The Pit was the focal point of our park; it was a fourteen hundred square foot outdoor exhibit home to twenty-three alligators, including our main attraction, Samson.

Samson was twelve feet long, and weighed over eleven hundred pounds. He was the nastiest, most aggressive gator in the whole park. And he was the one tourists would come from all over the United States to come see.

“Ugh.” I said to myself as I opened one of the plastic barrels full of the mostly expired meat discs. It smelled like a dumpster on a hot day, and so strong I had a gag reflex. It was supposed to take just a few minutes, but then, my watch flew off my wrist when I was throwing a meat patty, and flew all the way into the pit.

“Damn it.” I said. My boyfriend got me that watch, I couldn’t leave it. I unlocked a ladder, hoping I could just lower myself into the pit, grab it, and get back out before anyone saw me.

But then, as I was about halfway down, I heard the sudden creak of the ladder breaking off its bolts. I don’t know what made the ladder so loose; I don’t know if it was storm damage, or if the damn screws had just rusted off, but for whatever reason, the ladder had broken, and I fell ten feet into the pit.

I landed in a two foot puddle of water. I quickly picked myself up and stumbled towards the nearest patch of land in the Pit. I grabbed my walkie talkie, but it didn't work. Must have been damaged in the fall.

"Shit." I said to myself. "HELP! HELP, I'M STUCK DOWN HERE!" I tried shouting, but no one was around to hear. All the guests had already gone home, and the remaining staff were doing their jobs in other areas of the park.

I couldn’t get back up the ladder, that would be impossible. My only hope of getting out of there would be to get to one of the Pit’s extraction doors.

There were four doors at the bottom level of the Pit, doors that would allow us to safely get in and extract gators that needed medical attention. And now, it was my only hope of getting out of that pit. Only problem was that none of them were near the island I landed on, so I had to wade through the murky water.

____

When I reached a nearby patch of land, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I was safe when I turned around and saw gators were continuing to help themselves to the crap I had already thrown into the pit. But then, my heart sank when I saw something crawl out of the water.

“Shit.” I said as Samson started crawling towards me.

The rest of the gators may have been happy to munch on the expired meat we got for pennies on the dollar from Wal-Mart, but Samson clearly wanted something more fresh.

“Hey buddy.” I said as I stepped back away from him. The only weapon I had on me was the box cutter I used to open the meat barrel, I couldn’t possibly fight him off if he attacked.

Which is exactly what he did. Moments later, he lunged at me. I turned and started running for a tree. If I couldn’t fight him, I could at least try to escape him.

I got to the tree and hoisted myself up with just seconds to spare. Samson was barreling towards me, he would have caught up to me if I had been even a little slower.

After unsuccessfully trying to snap at me, Samson gave up and retreated back into the water; but I knew he was still out there, waiting.

Worse, almost immediately after I climbed the tree, it started raining. Which meant the storm was imminent. I had to worry if I wanted to escape getting caught in the wind and rain.

_____

I could see one of the extraction doors. The emergency outdoor unlock lever would probably get me inside, but I would still have to get past Samson.

I threw a stick in the water. Samson took the bait and rose up to attack it, thinking it was an animal that landed in his pit. I used the opportunity to jump down from the tree, and run.

I dashed towards the extraction door, and pulled the lever as hard as I could. I loosened it, but couldn't get it all the way, and didn’t have a lot of time once Samson noticed what I was doing.

“Shit.” I said to myself before desperately trying to get to another tree. This time, I didn't make it; Samson ran up to me and got a hold of my leg.

“AHHH!” I shouted in pain. I then turned and stabbed him in the face with my box cutter. When it barely punctured his scales, I leaned in and got him in the eye.

That made him let go of me and retreat. I then crawled towards another tree, and once again pulled myself up to keep away from Samson.

___

The rain was getting worse; it was difficult to even see straight without focusing. I knew I needed to escape, and fast, or else I’d be a goner.

I jumped as far as I could, and dashed towards the gate. I pulled the lever, and this time I pulled all the way down. I then opened the hatch, and crawled inside.

I thought I was safe; I thought I could close the door, grab the emergency rifle, and get to safety. But then, I tried to shut the hatch, desperately hoping that I had escaped Samson. But then, right as I was closing the door, something blocked it. A snout blocked it.

“Shit.” I muttered to myself as Samson muscled his way into the room.

I didn’t have time to grab the rifle. Instead, I quickly opened one of the room’s gator kennels, and slid myself inside. Those things could hold alligators up to nine feet long, so I had enough room. Samson tried banging on the glass, but he couldn’t get to me.

And just when I thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, water began draining in from the hatch. The storm was creating a flood in the pit, a flood that was spilling over into the extraction room.

____

I waited for what felt like an eternity. I truly don’t know if it was two minutes or twenty, at that point, my brain was going a million miles an hour. I finally got grounded again when Brennan walked in, distracted by his walkie talkie. “Shit, one of the extraction doors opened, the whole room is…”

“BRENNAN, STOP!” I shouted right before Samson bit into his leg.

There was nothing he or I could do to save him. Samson dragged him down, and began devouring him alive.

I burst out of the kennel, and ran to grab the rifle. “Son of a bitch.” I muttered to myself before firing at Samson.

I hit him in the back; I clearly hurt him, but not enough to kill. Samson then came back and charged at me; I crawled onto a table, and took another shot.

My shots were clearly hurting him, but he wasn’t dead yet. He then threw his body weight against the table, knocking me off of it.

He then charged at me, mouth wide open. But split seconds before he could reach me, I fired, and my shot landed right in his mouth. He then dropped on the floor, his face landing just inches from mine.

I then found the walkie talkie and radioed.

“Mr. Gutierez, it’s me, Samantha. I need help, my leg is real bad, call an ambulance.”

______

He ran down there to help me out of there. He did the best he could with our first aid kits while we waited on the paramedics. Thankfully, my leg wasn’t as bad as I thought, they told me I was gonna make a quick recovery.

I left Gatorworld at the end of the summer. I don’t have any ill will against the park; it was, after all, my decision to go for my watch. But I am glad that Samson is no more.

[wearethefanclub]

Intro

Hi! I'm ShortIntro aka Intro (she/her)! I'm currently 20 years old at time of this post. I'm the oldest member of our little group here : )

I do a lot of little different things, such as character creation, script writing, poetry, story writing, garbage posting, costuming, cosplaying, music, directing, researching, etc, etc. But I'm also in college, so don't be surprised if stuff is sometimes really few and far between from me.

I'm interested in a lot of different things, so don't be surprised if you see posts from me about a lot of random things that seem super disjointed. I'm very all over the place, so all apologies in advance.

If you see another member post about "Mother", "Father", or their "big sister"- that's probably me they are talking about. Sorry for the confusion these idiots will cause.

Basic Fun Facts to Get Out Of The Way:

Favorite Color: Grey

Favorite Food: Buffalo Wings (idk either bros)

Favorite Film: Possibly In Michigan

Favorite Show: Any Ninja Turtles or Drawtectives

Favorite Media Genre: Horror

Favorite Music Genre: Any

Most Apt 1 Word Descriptor: Detritus

Anyways, excited to be here and all that jazz.

1'm H3Ar!nG y0u

-Intro

[krispypiratezombie]

Corpus Christi’s Hidden Treasures: Off the Beaten Path Attractions

Introduction

Welcome to Corpus Christi, Texas, a city known for its beautiful beaches and vibrant atmosphere. While many visitors flock to the popular tourist spots, there are plenty of hidden gems waiting to be discovered CoolSculpting reviews Corpus Christi off the beaten path. In this article, we will explore some of Corpus Christi's hidden treasures that offer unique experiences and a chance to immerse yourself in the local culture. Whether you're a history buff, nature lover, or simply looking for something different, these attractions are sure to delight. So pack your bags and get ready to uncover the secrets of Corpus Christi's hidden treasures!

Corpus Christi’s Hidden Treasures: Off the Beaten Path Attractions

Corpus Christi is full of hidden gems that offer a glimpse into the city's rich history and natural beauty. From lesser-known museums to secluded beaches, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Let's take a closer look at some of these off the beaten path attractions:

1. The Art Museum of South Texas

Located on the campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, The Art Museum of South Texas showcases a diverse collection of artwork from local and international artists. With rotating exhibits and interactive displays, this hidden gem offers a unique perspective on art and culture.

2. Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve & Learning Center

For nature enthusiasts, the Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve & Learning Center is a must-visit destination. This 162-acre preserve features miles of trails that wind through wetlands, marshes, and prairies. Visitors can spot a variety of bird species, turtles, and other wildlife while enjoying the serenity of nature.

3. South Texas Museum of Popular Culture

If you're interested in learning about Corpus Christi's pop culture history, look no further than the South Texas Museum of Popular Culture. This quirky museum showcases exhibits on everything from Tejano music to the city's contributions to the film industry. It's a fun and educational experience for visitors of all ages.

4. Mustang Island State Park

Escape the crowds and head to Mustang Island State Park, a hidden gem just outside of Corpus Christi. This pristine beach offers miles of untouched coastline, perfect for swimming, sunbathing, and picnicking. With camping facilities available, you can even spend the night under the stars.

5. The Selena Museum

Pay homage to Corpus Christi's beloved Queen of Tejano music at The Selena Museum. Located in the singer's childhood home, this museum is filled with memorabilia, costumes, and personal items that showcase her incredible career. It's a must-visit for fans and music lovers alike.

6. Padre Island National Seashore

For a truly off-the-beaten-path experience, venture out to Padre Island National Seashore. This remote barrier island is home to miles of untouched beaches, dunes, and marshes. It's the perfect place to relax, take a scenic drive along the beach, or even go camping.

FAQs about Corpus Christi’s Hidden Treasures: Off the Beaten Path Attractions

Q: What are some lesser-known attractions in Corpus Christi? A: Some lesser-known attractions in Corpus Christi include The Art Museum of South Texas, Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve & Learning Center, and the South Texas Museum of Popular Culture.

Q: Where can I find secluded beaches near Corp

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