#maybe that's one of the reasons why i absolutely LOVE oj

[shari-ya]

nothing kicks you back to your childhood like that one sip of orange juice

[emmy-writes-sometimes]

Sneaking Around

You and Jaeden try to hide that you’re dating from your dad, but he finds out in a not-so-great way. Both the reader and Jaeden are 18 in this!

-

           ��Y/n, are you sure we should be keeping this a secret?” Your boyfriend asked you as you hid out in his trailer. You had gone on a few dates with him while he and your dad were working on Knives Out, and it was one of the last days filming. You would sneak past your dad every morning, find Jaeden, and hang out with him most of the day. Your dad, none the wiser, thought you were just in his trailer or in the main building at the café they had. But nope – you were with Jaeden.

           “He’ll kill me, Jae,” you said as you held a pillow in your arms, your feet propped up on the trailer’s couch. “Just give me a few more months to crack him. I’ll tell him before Jacob starts filming, I promise. I just don’t want him to…”

           “I know,” he responded with a little smile. He always looked cute, but that day he was extra cute in the whit suit he was wearing. It was your favorite of his costumes in the movie. “Maybe we should wait a little longer.” He sat down on the couch beside you and pulled you into a kiss that only lasted for a few seconds.

           “You really need to go now, you’re gonna be late and my dad is going to come looking for me.” He smirked.

           “Fine. I’ll see you later.” You both stood up and you gathered your backpack to go back to your dad’s trailer. He walked you there before going back to set, leaving you alone. In truth, you had both only meant waiting a couple months. That was in October of 2018. You wanted to see if the long distance thing could work while he was off filming for something else and you were back in Boston with your dad. And then you got the news that Defending Jacob was going to be filmed in Boston, too, and he showed up at the airport and told you that he was in love with you. You were absolutely head over heels for him, but your dad was still trying to tell you not to date anyone. He was still telling you that maybe you should date a guy from school, like one of your old friends, Griffin. You didn’t have the heart to tell him that you were dating the kid playing his son.

           “Hey,” you said over the phone. “Aren’t you supposed to be filming?” It was the middle of the day on a Tuesday – you had just pulled up to the house after school, and as much as you loved Jaeden, you didn’t want him to get in trouble.

           “Yeah, I’m on break though, they’re re-setting up the courtroom. Your dad mentioned he was going out of town this weekend.”

           “Yeah, he has an audition and a few meetings up in L.A., he’s not supposed to be back until Monday,” you said as you shut the door to the car, grabbing your backpack out of the back seat. “Why, what were you thinking?”

           “Well, we could spend the weekend together. Just you and me.”

           “That would be amazing. Do you think you can swing it, though?”

           “Yeah. The hotel staff already doesn’t come on weekends so no one will care if I’m not there, and you know what flights your dad is on we can just… Not tell him.” You grinned.

           “Really? Your one weekend off in forever and you want to spend it with me?” You stuck your key into the door and entered the house, petting Dodger as he jumped up on you.

           “Of course I do.” You heard the set bell ring and he sighed. “I gotta go, but are you down?”

           “I’m down.”

           “I’ll see you Thursday for dinner, okay? And then Friday on?”

           “Of course. I love you.”

           “I love you too.” You could tell that he was smiling when he hung up, and that made you happy. There wasn’t a reason not to go public at this point – you’d been dating for almost a year, you were both eighteen, and you were both used to the public commenting on your lives. The only thing that stood in the way was your dad. And he was either going to find out the easy way or the hard way, and even though you were hoping for the easy way, you honestly just wanted it out there. You talked to Jae about it during dinner on Thursday while your dad was doing a night scene, and he agreed. You would go public with it after your dad got back. You’d both be waiting at the house when he got back, you’d tell him, and then you’d finally let Jae post the picture of you two together when you went hiking one day.

           Friday came and you dropped your dad off at the airport and then went to Jae’s hotel. He smiled as he climbed into your car, putting his bag on the floor. You drove back to the house and had a nice night – you had dinner, you watched a movie, and he played video games until you fell asleep on him and he decided it was probably time that both of you went to bed.

           You woke up Saturday morning and let him sleep, taking the dog out for aa walk before making breakfast. You grinned from ear to ear when he came downstairs wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, his hair messed up from sleeping in your bed, and his eyes barely open. You took the bacon out of the oven as he came down and got a class of juice from the fridge.

           “Why are you smiling like that?” He asked.

           “Like what?” He drained the OJ and collapsed the carton before putting it in the trash bin.

           “Like how you’re smiling.” He was smiling, too.

           “I’m just glad you’re here,” you said. “It feels normal.”

           “Well, when you’re at UCLA next year, you can come over whenever you want. Or just fuckin’ come live with me.” You laughed. Your plan was either UCLA or USC, but he was trying to convince you of UCLA because it was closer to his house. “Y/n?”

           “Yeah?” You were turning off the skillet when he walked up behind you and kissed your shoulder.

           “I like being normal with you.” You smiled at him and finished getting breakfast ready, then brought it all over to the coffee table and shared it. You shared mac and cheese right out of the pot for lunch. Just as you were finishing, there was a knock at your door. The device on the coffee table showed that it was just your Aunt.

           “Oh my God, Jae, go hide in the linen closet!” You said.

           “What? Which linen closet?”

           “I don’t know! Just go hide in one!” He scoffed and went through the back of the house and down to the basement, where your aunt would definitely not go, and you answered the door.

           “Hey, y/n, sweetie,” she said. You gave her a hug, hoping that she couldn’t smell Jae’s cologne on you. You were wearing one of his shirts, too, but it was smaller on him and didn’t look as odd on you. Your aunt probably wouldn’t be able to tell.

           “Hey!” You said back.

           “Just wanted to check in, how are you doing?”

           “I’m good. Just vegging out on the couch without dad,” you lied, showing her the couch that didn’t have a single sign of Jae. “I think I need to take Dodge to the groomer soon so I was going to do that today.”

           “That’ll be good. I just wanted to drop by and check in and see how you were doing. And your dad said I could grab some of the toys the kids left here.”

           “Yeah, of course!” You let her in and she started gathering some of the toys. You had no idea where Jae was, but as long as your aunt didn’t go in your room she wouldn’t see the clothes that didn’t belong to you all over your floor. She had no reason to go in there, and you were incredibly talented at lying, so she had no idea. She left fifteen minutes later and you heard a sigh of relief as she backed up out of the driveway.

           “Jesus,” Jae said as he grabbed you, pulling you back into the living room. Dodger jumped up on the couch and found a space to lay in between the two of you, and eventually you fell asleep while he was watching some TV show. You woke up to Jae shoving you because your dad was calling you, and answered.

           “Hello?” You asked.

           “Hey, honey!” He said. “How are you? Shan came by earlier, right?”

           “Yeah,” you responded. “I’m good. Just watching some movies. I was thinking about getting dinner with a friend later, though.”

           “Go ahead and use my card if you want. I had to change planes, I got bumped, so I won’t be home until around ten. Is that okay”?

           “Yeah, that’s fine.”

           “Okay. Call me if you need anything. I’ll see you tomorrow night, babe.”

           “Okay. Love you.”

           “Love you too.” He hung up the phone and you put yours back on the table, turning around until you were against Jae’s back. The two of you slept so much during the day that you were up most of the night, doing things that you would never, ever do if there was even a chance your dad wasn’t a few thousand miles across the country. You kept checking your phone to see if he’d called you, but he didn’t, and you felt safe enough that you didn’t make Jae put on more clothes before you went to bed that night.

           The next morning you went to breakfast and spent most of the day cleaning the house and packing up Jae so he could go home around eight, but you were teenagers. You did what teenagers did, and that was being too stupid to set an alarm or check your dad’s flight number because you had the same account. If you’d checked it, you would have figured out that he had gotten back on the earlier flight and was going to be home at eight. Not ten. By that time you and Jae still hadn’t put clothes on and were just napping under the comforter. You’d fed the dog and said that the two of you could afford to nap through a few episodes of something, so you did.

           Your dad got home and got his bags out of the Uber, thinking that something was a little bit off. You hadn’t turned the porch light on yet like you usually did when he was getting home. Dodger was out of water downstairs, so he got him some more, and then he saw a phone charger that wasn’t yours plugged into the wall. You’d had friends over, he thought, so maybe someone had just left it. He walked upstairs to go put his things away and saw your sneakers by your bedroom door. Next to them was a set of boys’ sneakers, so he quickly texted your aunt. She said you were alone when she got there, so he sighed. He gathered his energy to gently push your door open and saw you. In bed. With his co-star.

           He saw you curled up against his back, obviously comfortable. He saw Jae’s arms around you, the comforter on top of you, and a pile of clothes on the floor. He sighed and walked over to your light switch, flipping it on and off until the two of you started to wake up.

           “Jae, babe, stop,” you murmured as you pulled the covers over your head.

           “I’m not doing that,” he said back, “I’m literally right here.” The two of you cracked your eyes open to see your dad standing there, absolutely exhausted, and not in the mood to have to punish you.

           “So, why don’t you guys get dressed and tell me what the fuck is going on?” He asked loudly.

           “Hi, Dad,” you groaned.

           “You two have five minutes.” He shut the door and walked to his room to start putting his clothes away. You pulled on what you’d been wearing earlier and Jae grabbed clothes out of his bag to put on. You sat down on the bed, chewing your nails. You didn’t think about what would happen if you got caught because it was the last thing you were planning to do.

           “It’s fine,” Jae reassured you, coming to sit next to you after tugging a shirt over his head. “It’s fine. We were going to come clean anyway, it’s just that he’s already not in a good mood.” You leaned your head against his shoulder.

           “I want the world to know, just not like this.”

           “Yeah, well, hopefully he won’t give us the talk too. Come on.” He took your hand and the two of you walked down the stairs, where your father was sitting, beer cracked open, and Dodger on his lap.

           “Chris,” Jae started. “Um, Mr. Evans, I guess, now, um…” He looked at you, lost, and you motioned for him to sit on the couch.

           “How long has this been going on?” Your dad asked calmly as he started drinking.

           “Since Knives Out,” you answered.

           “WHAT?”

           “We started dating then and we went long distance when I went back to L.A., and we didn’t tell you because we didn’t know if it would last, but it did,” Jae said, taking your hand confidently.

           “And when he had a weekend off and you were gone, I asked him to come stay over. We weren’t planning on you coming home early.”

           “Weren’t planning on…” your dad muttered under his breath. “What else weren’t you planning on? Me walking in?”

           “No, honestly,” you replied softly. “We were going to tell you when you got back tonight. We were going to come clean about it because we didn’t want to hide it anymore, and we wanted to post stuff about being together. We were going to tell you, just not after… you know.”

           “Are you two being safe?”

           “Yes!” Both of you said at the same time. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that, you know I’ve been on birth control for three years.” Your dad nodded and sighed. “Look, we’re sorry. We’re really sorry.”

           “Is he the reason you wanna go to UCLA?”

           “Not completely. But we were talking about moving in together once I got up there.”

           “I just can’t believe you hid this from me. Why would you do that?”

           “Because. You’re my dad, you’re his on screen dad, and we didn’t know if there was even anything there or if we were just teenagers locked in a room together. And people are insane. We just wanted to hide it for awhile until we knew.”

           “And do you?” He asked, exasperated, head in his hands.

           “What?” You asked in response.

           “I’m in love with her,” Jae said. “If that’s what you’re asking.” Your dad looked at you, and then at Jae, and then back at you again. He sat there for a few minutes. You leaned your head into Jae’s shoulder, wondering what your dad was going to say next. If he was going to try to keep you from seeing each other, if he was going to say you couldn’t date him… You were worried.

           “Fine,” he said finally. “I mean, it’s whatever, you’d probably keep sneaking around anyway, but… Just be careful, okay? Both of you. With everything.” You nodded.

           “Thanks.” He gave you a little smile, and then Jae one.

           “I don’t know how I didn’t figure it out already, honestly.” He chuckled to himself. “Jae, why don’t you go ahead back to your hotel? It’s getting late. You should get some sleep before tomorrow.”

           “Yeah, of course,” Jae said. He disappeared to get his things and call an Uber, and just before he walked out of the door, your dad came up behind him.

           “I like you. You’re a good kid. And talented. But if you hurt my daughter I will literally kill you. And it won’t be with a prop knife. Got it?”

[peachfaeryy]

Hi 🌙

It's my birthday right now. I'm 26 now.

1. What is my fondest childhood memory?

My fondest childhood memories definitely consist of the lovely people who I grew up with and derived my sense of humor/silliness from: my cousins Anna & Emily, Savannah -- my childhood best friend, and Kaleb, my eternal crush. These memories consist of them in elementary school, camp, and my grandma's house in San Antonio.

2. What is my favorite comfort food?

Probably nachos/chips/chips & queso.

3. What’s my favorite way to exercise?

Uh...DANCE.

4. Am I a morning person or a night owl?

I lean more towards night owl but I try to avoid both.

5. If I could have any superpower, what would it be?

The currency of youth.

6. Do I prefer cooking, baking, or neither?

I love both cooking and baking :) I find both extremely rewarding and cathartic.

7. Am I an introvert or an extrovert?

Ambivert strongly introvert-leaning.

8. What superhero do I find most relatable?

None, I detest all superheroes.

9. What is my favorite season of the year — and what do I love most about it?

Winter because it provides me with the most amount of physical comfort. I love sleeping in a very cold room, opening my windows with no AC on. Sitting in my car listening to music/eating with engine off. Less humidity. Food is tastier. Style is better.

10. Do I believe in the existence of angels?

Not particularly? Well, yes but I believe they have absolutely no role or effect on our world.

11. What are my favorite TV series?

American Crime Story (OJ & Versace), Fleabag, Atlanta...90 Day Fiance, Game of Thrones

12. What was the last movie I watched (or the last movie I enjoyed)?

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (let's gooOoo)

13. Am I a tidy person or a messy one?

I used to be very messy but not I'd consider myself pretty tidy. My nature is messy though.

14. Am I afraid of the dark?

Nah.

15. Am I more of a coffee person or a tea person?

Mostly coffee.

16. What talents do I possess that I’m proud of?

I don't have any natural-born talents but I suppose my ability to teach myself a new skill over time.

17. Do (or did) I like school?

I loved school and literally work at a school.

18. Did I go to the prom?

Unfortunately, yes.

19. What is my idea of a perfect date?

Definitely grabbing pizza at a nice restaurant.

20. Do I enjoy DIY or crafts?

Not at all, sounds awful, lol.

21. Do I forgive others easily?

Yes. But not so much anymore now that I'm older and more experienced. My instinct/nature is very forgiving.

22. Do I have a nickname — or did I ever have one?

None.

23. Do I have any phobias?

I'm scared of most anything anything everything...I'd say my daily fear is mistaking my razor for my toothbrush in the shower.

24. Have I ever met one of my heroes? If yes, who was it, and how did it go?

No?

25. Do I speak any other languages?

No, but I told myself I would learn Spanish before I die.

26. Have I ever traveled outside my native country?

Yes! I have been the Mexico and Ireland.

27. If money were no object, what would I want for my next birthday?

Maybe a trip to South Korea/Germany/Rhode Island

28. Have I ever been addicted to something?

Yes. But as far as substances? I'm addicted to Nsaid.

29. When I was a kid, what did I want to be when I grew up?

I wanted to be a wildlife photographer when I was a kid-kid.

30. Have I ever won something?

$75 with scratch offs

31. Have I ever narrowly escaped death (or serious injury)?

I'd say so, yes.

32. Do I prefer baths or showers?

Showers.

33. How am I feeling right now?

Changed.

34. Have I ever played any sports?

Soccer, Basketball, and cross-country

35. Do I prefer the beach or the mountains?

Beach, but I feel connected to both.

36. Do I prefer a Mac or a PC?

Uh...PC?

37. Do I prefer dogs or cats (or some other pet)?

Cats...I honestly do not like dogs at all.

38. Do I have any piercings or tattoos? Would I like to get any?

I have three tattoos: three rune, a sword, and a butterfly. All of which are on my arms.

39. Do I have kids?

Not right now.

40. Do I have siblings?

None.

41. What do I do on a typical Friday night?

Same thing I usually do: practice dance/choreo for a couple of hours. Read, cook, watch Youtube. If I’m going out, I’ll maybe grab dinner/hang with my friends. I MAY go to ~the club~ in a blue moon.

42. If I could go anywhere in the world with unlimited funds, where would I go?

SOUTH KOREA

43. What do I do to relax?

Shower, listen to music. Do my makeup for fun.

44. What do I do to wake up or boost my energy levels?

Blast Stray Kids

45. Would I rather have unlimited energy or unlimited money?

Unlimited money

46. Am I a collector of anything? If yes, how big is my collection?

I collect Kpop bullshit...(albums, photo cards, posters, etc.) essentially merch from my favorite artists.

47. What sort of gift would I want from my significant other on Valentine’s Day or on my birthday?

JUST flowers. All I care about it getting flowers on both of those days.

48. Which would I rather avoid — excess heat or extreme cold?

Excess heat.

49. Would movie genre would I rather watch: action, romance, fantasy, or horror?

Of those choices: horror. I also like a solid journey story.

50. Have I ever been on a diet? If yes, how did it go?

More like a mini eating disorder, lol? I went through phases where I only consumed 1500 calories.

51. If I could live anywhere for a month with whomever I choose, where would that be?

Greece with I suppose...someone I get along with.

52. Have I ever gone camping? Or do you look at a tent and think, “I feel like that’s the wonton wrapper, and I’m the filling.”

Yes, several times. I actually thoroughly enjoy camping.

53. What’s the last song I listened to?

Ribs -- Lorde

54. What’s my current obsession, and how much have I spent on it?

Anything kpop...hours. I’m talking hours and hours.

55. What’s a favorite book of mine?

We Need to Talk About Kevin

56. What should I be doing right now?

Sleeping.

57. What’s my best feature?

Physically? Boobs.

Personality? I would say kindness but that’s basic. Witty? Self-discipline.  

58. What’s the most expensive article of clothing (or shoes) that I own?

Damn...shoes...? $100?

59. What is one thing I could not live without?

Music. My one coping mechanism and literally the reason I’m alive and functional.

60. What’s one thing I can’t leave the house without (other than keys and my wallet)?

Phone... BC packet?

61. What’s one of my pet peeves?

Slow walkers

62. What wild animal would I love to have for a pet (as long as it didn’t eat anyone)?

Maybe like...a toucan?

63. What’s my favorite drink?

An ICE COLD fizzy SODA boiii

64. What’s my spirit animal, and do I own anything featuring that animal?

I guess I’m very cat-like. I used to have a lot of cat stuff, but not anymore...

65. What’s my favorite restaurant, and what’s my favorite splurge order?

I like basically any fast food joint. I’m also a sucker for Chili’s. I’m really basic. A splurge order for me would be ordering a margarita with my meal.

66. What’s my favorite movie — or the best one I’ve seen in the last three years?

I’ve been obsessed with We Need to Talk About Kevin, Pirates of the Caribbean...I’ve been wanting to rewatch Little Miss Sunshine

67. What’s a favorite hobby of mine?

Dancing :)

68. What’s my favorite go-to snack?

Health-wise: apples and peanut butter. But if I don’t care: chips

69. What are my must-haves for watching a movie in a theater?

True interest in the film

70. What’s my favorite kind of competition to watch (sports, cooking, etc.)?

Not really into competition shows.

71. Would I rather get an electric shock or get an intramuscular shot (tetanus, etc.)?

Electric shock?

72. What’s my dream car?

Bella’s shitty red truck let’s gooooo

73. What are the must-haves in the home of my dreams?

LOTS of open space, sunlight, heated bathroom floor

74. What’s my favorite sandwich?

Chicken salad, BLT, plain peanut butter

75. What’s my favorite kind of dinner? (comfort food, four-course, take-out Chinese…)

Comfort food

76. If I could change my eye and hair color, what color/s would I choose?

I would DEF change my eye color to a warm brown and my hair to very dark brown. I’m growing my natural hair out. I’m going dye-free right now.

77. Who is my favorite fictional character (or one of them)?

Jack Sparrow

78. What’s my longest relationship so far (other than family)?

4 years...

79. What is my star sign — or do I usually avoid that question?

I DO NOT care about this but I’m a Leo

80. What is my lucky number, or what is a favorite number of mine?

Uh? N/A

81. What city do I live in now, and what’s my favorite thing about it?

I still live in Denton and I detest it.

82. What state do I live in now, and what do I love about it?

Texas, its diversity.

83. If I had to move to a different state, where would I rather go?

New Mexico

84. Have I ever colored my hair? If yes, what’s my favorite hair color experiment so far?

Yes, most of my teen and adult life. But my “crazy” hair experiment right now is going dye-free and wearing my natural color.

85. Whom do I miss right now?

My 14-year-old self

86. Have I ever made a mistake that someone else refused to forgive me for?

Apparently.

87. Do I have a celebrity crush? If yes, who is it?

JOHNNY DEPP and all of Stray Kids lol. Jungkook?

88. If I could meet any celebrity for coffee/tea and a chat, who would it be?

Marina Diamandis

89. As desserts go, would I rather have ice cream or cheesecake?

Ice Cream

90. Would I rather live in a house or an apartment, and why?

A small house.

91. Would I rather live in a treehouse, a cave, or a submarine?

Treehouse

92. What is one big goal that I want to accomplish this year?

Move out of D*nton.

93. What do I want to do for a living?

I’m happy being a teacher, but ultimately I’d like to counsel kids.

94. When I feel sick, where do I usually feel it first or most noticeably?

My head.

95. What sort of smartphone do I use, and what made me choose it?

Uh? Android?

96. What’s one movie that I’ve watched repeatedly? What do I love about it?

I watch signs pretty frequently. Midsommar? I connect with its characters because they seem like real actual people? I’ve been wanting to rewatch the Lovely Bones.

100. If I could afford one, would I rather hire a chef, a personal assistant, or a housekeeper?

Housekeeper!

97. What is one food that I refuse to eat?

Liver

98. What exotic food would I be willing to try?

I’d be open to trying most any food.

99. What is one item on my bucket list, and what made me choose it?

I’m kind of working on it now. I want to put a few years in while I’m young and able to become a very good dancer. I know that to obtain that it IS going to take years. It’s something that’s really important to me because I’ve always wanted that for myself but never made actual steps to obtain/execute it. And ultimately, I want it because it allows me to feel like my true self.

[laufire]

Supernatural s2

I’m halfway through s3 already (technically a rewatch, but there were episodes I didn’t watch the first time around), so this post is a little overdue lol. At this rhythim the posts will overlap. Plus I’m hoping I can finish s4-5 during the holidays to see the ~intended ending~ before I have to slow down on the binge-watch. After that, a season a month sounds achievable AND won’t take longer than 2021 xD

ANYWAY.

-Overall, I’ve enjoyed it more than the first one, but at the same time I’ve found myself missing how... claustrophobic? Insular? Compact? That one was. s2 was about the world opening up just a little bit more, introducing new characters to the brothers’ life, etc. I do love the detail that this is something that can only have, narratively speaking, once John is dead. Again: this show gets abusive families, consciously or not.

-The foreshadowing is beautifully done. 15 seasons make for a lot of unintentional and ironic foreshadowing later on, I’m sure, but the purposeful foreshadowing is superb this season. About the crossroads deals, of course, but especially about John’s last words. I already knew he’d told Dean he might have to kill Sam (father of the year, seriously. Though I side-eye the fandom even more for always having acted as if this is only awful for Dean lol), so I was hyperaware of every single detail. My favourite moment was the absolute horror of hearing Gordon proudly, cheerfully relate how he murdered his sister when she became a vampire (which, btw, as someone that’s still bitter about what went down with the Gunn siblings on Angel, I found it healing to see something like that treated as a horror story).

-Speaking of Gordon: I unashamedly love his character lmfao. Sterling K. Brown is mesmerizing, always. At the same time, I have serious mixed feelings (especially after seeing his arc in full in s3) because man, if it isn’t a racist mess. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s not exactly revolutionary that the first time we see the story from the monster’s POV (something I want the show to do! Often!), it’s when white monsters are stalked and brutalized by our first black hunter. Especifically a white woman, btw (although I’m happy to see Tara Maclay as a brunette vampire. I didn’t know I needed that in my life, but I did). And you can tell that the show thinks it’s just so SMART and FUNNY to have a ~racist black hunter!! I mean, the comment about how psychic kids would be “betraying their race” if they allied with demons?? FFS.

And ofc there’s the fact that he’s condemned for the exact same type of stuff that makes Dean be hailed as a hero lmfao. Though I won’t like, I love the moment where, faced with the comparison, Dean’s response is “I might be like you, I might not. But you’re the one tied up.” I love those kinds of character moments. As of s2 I officially have a love-hate relationship with Dean Winchester, I hate it here xDD

But still, on his own, Gordon is an amazing character (it’s one of the most frustrating things about the show, the greatness tainted by the bigotry :))). Charismatic, terrifying, and ofc superbly acted. Also, I love that the fact that he praised John (as opposed to every other hunter having a rockier relationship with him) is clearly supposed to be a red flag LMFAO.

-I enjoy how the seasons delves more deeply into Sam’s ~~dark origins, since it was my fave thing about him way back when. I’m already mourning the (as I suspect) lost of his powers, ngl. There’s a little more attention in how he tends to over-identify with supernatural creatures struggling with their ~dark sides too (bitch me too, the fuck xD), which I LOVE to see (among other reasons because at least in that way we get a little of their POV in the forefront lol). One of my favourites in that sense was the episode centered around the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-ghost, played by Tricia Helfer. I clocked early one what was going on, but it was still very enjoyable, especially with Sam’s empathy with her (contrasted by Dean being a total bitch about it, btw. I can’t believe I still see post about how Dean is all heart/kindness/compassion/whatever the fuck. Dean is all about selective empathy and only when it conveniences him, pls).

I was more divided on the episode with Madison the werewolf, tbh. OTOH it put Sam in a better position, for a change xD. As the one willing to make The Hard Choices by fulfilling his promise to kill her because she was dangerous, even when Dean offered to ~take the burden from him. OTOH I hate that kind of thing lol. YOU GUYS KNOW A HUNTER PRO LIKE BOBBY, I BET HE COULD’VE FIGURED OUT SOMETHING TO CONTAIN HER A FEW NIGHTS A MONTH. Also, my immediate reaction was to compare this to when my man Angel had a crush on a werelady and helped her every month lmfao. But then, very few characters can withstand a comparison with Angel, in any sense :P

I also liked Sam’s subplot with his fellow demon-psychic kids, though I wish it’d lasted longer :/ (also: RME at the queer girl dying almost immediately AND her power being killing people, her girlfriend first of all, with her touch. The black guy was the last one to die at least...?). My fave was Ava, by far. I loved her since her reaction to helping Sam stealing a psychiatrist’s records was yelling “I’M AWESOME!!”. It made it easy to buy that someone that appeared so mundane, with her easy life and her fiance and whatnot, would become so power hungry and go off the rails, IMO.

BTW: RME at Dean being all “oh Sam is going too dark/becoming to cold” when Sam kills Jake. Jake ripped off his spine and killed him first!! It both amuses me and infuriates me all the times Dean tries to push Sam to be more like himself and then freaks out whenever Sam is not all sunshine and rainbows (while still remaining, IMO, far less cold than Dean himself. Besides, it’s not easy to be colder than Dean, lol).

Lastly, a little character detail I loved was when Sam was jealous about Dean being in the federal database but not himself lmfao. 

-I loved the new foreshadowing crumb with Sam finding out Mary knew the demon, too (information he’ll withhold from Dean, which I approve of LOL). I mean, I know exactly what’s up, I’ve watched most of s4 xD (also, what is UP with this family and making deals with demons. Everyone but Sam so far!! And then HE gets dragged for ~getting too close to one smh. Maybe lead by example!! Also also: yes, it was meant to be ambiguous, but I can’t help but notice the only kiss-pact -or further, depending to how close YED was to Lilith’s levels, since to make a deal with her you have to fuck xD- we didn’t see was the one that must’ve happened between John and YED. Cowards!! xD). Still. I’m so curious about her. Her resurrection is one of the main reasons I’m determined to make it to the later seasons, ngl.

-Another thing I LOVED about this season is how they used sibling relationships to parallel/foreshadow stuff about the brothers, the way s1 did often with fathers. I’ve already mentioned Gordon and his sister, but the others are not less brutal imo: Andy having to kill his evil twin, who wanted him all for himself (... Dean is that you xD); the little girl’s ghost who wanted her grand-niece to commit suicide to stay with her, and didn’t give in until her old sister agreed to die in her place. It was chilling. Also, at one point the parallel was between the brothers and a married couple (the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-a-ghost) and asñdlfkajsf. I’m guessing they had fun with the shippers lol.

Speaking of the brothers’ relationship, this season also goes a little further in escalating the violence between them, when Dean punches Sam in the face and he refuses to respond (“you can hit me all you want, it won’t change anything”. Fuck), or when Dean again punches Sam after Sam was possessed by Meg ¬¬

-Going back to my love-hate relationship with Dean, lmfao. My biggest beef remains how much validation his POV gets from the narrative, granted or not; he’s one of the most irritating cases of protagonist-centered morality and I know it’s only going to get worse smh. At least this season it feels a little more balanced than in s1, with episodes like the one where the civilian Sam had tried to keep away dies halfway through the ep because Dean allowed him to get involved, for example. Still, it grates on me xD. The continuing prison rape jokes/demonic possession rape jokes (with Meg and Sam), his general grossness with women and his lack of sympathy for non-humans even when they’re not trying to hurt anyone don’t exactly help. Also, I often see him praised for some of his political views, a lot of which I agree with (his mistrust of cops, saying convicts don’t deserve to die no matter what they do), but when contrasted with his general attitude across the show it’s really grating ngl.

But then he has such AMAZING character details thrown in, that make me appreciate him as a POV character nonetheless, as much as I often want to curb stomp the guy xD. I loved his speech about how there’s no such thing as a dignified death. I love how he refused to come near his mother’s grave, both at the beginning and at the end of the episode (this show is like, the cure to DCCW’s shows false fuzzy sentimentality istg). I love his pop-culture references, like when Sam mentions Dean always thought OJ was the murderer or Dean jokes about freeing Katie Holmes from Scientology’s cult xD (sometimes it really hits you how old this show is lol). I enjoyed his Wishverse episode, and his lines after Sam dies/he sells his soul to save him (“I had one job”, “my life can mean something”) hit HARD.

But most of all? I LOVE how and why he starts losing respect for John. It’s so fucking cold and abrupt and makes so much sense!! Like, yes, part of it is John’s message about killing Sam (... again, father of the year!), but most of all it’s about John making a pact with a demon and dying TO SAVE DEAN (and probably, simply that he died at all. That shit de-mystifies anyone). IT’S SO FUCKING GREAT TO WATCH. “He spent his life chasing that demon. He was supposed to die fighting, not making a deal with the damn thing. That was supposed to be his legacy, not this." Damn, Dean xDD. The *contempt* with which he said that killed me.

I also love his inherently atheist vision of the world (even if yes, it’s extremely funny knowing this show has canon God and angels and shit -no Jesus Christ though, which I find endlessly funny-, or that they actually meet the archangel Gabriel in disguise xD. Either way, the episode with the fake angel and its foreshadowing was hilarious), his anti-destiny stance, and that it’s him and not John who gets to kill YED.

-I liked Ellen and Jo. Not LOVED, but I liked them. I keep fearing that secondary (especially female) characters will feel empty/shallow but the show keeps proving me wrong, even with one-episode wonders, and at first I wasn’t sure about them, but I was sold quickly. Partially because of the actresses, they both had this... humanizing, endearing quality? It worked really well.  I also loved the explicit contrast between John and Ellen’s parenting styles, with Ellen wanting Jo to return to school and be safe from the hunt, and Jo wanting something different. Also, I wouldn’t ship it if you paid me, but LOL at anyone who actually buys Dean sees Jo as a ~little sister just because MEG said that rme.

This show is just REALLY good when it comes to giving depth to a character with only a couple of brush strokes, which makes it all the more frustrating when they abruptly die or disappear to never be seen again/only once more (to abruptly die!) :)))

I was less sold on Ash; he was amusing, but having a Genius Hacker TM helping them out seemed like the beginning of increasingly giving the brothers ways of deux ex machina-ing them out of problems, when one of my favourite things about the show is seeing them creatively find ways out themselves. I like when they’re competent! Like with the multitude of codes they have to improvise plans, like in the episode where with two words through a lawyer they implemented a quick scheme so that Sam would escape from a police precinct. I like that stuff.

-I’m still so bitterly jealous about the dead man’s blood hurting vampires detail. SO BITTERLY JEALOUS. I love a lot of what this show does with its lore but that little bit is the worst offender. I want it so bad xD

[need-a-fugue]

We Grow Together (20)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Tessa Sullivan (OFC)

Chapter Summary:  I don’t understand why you love me!

Summary: Relationships can be tough, especially when one person is a recovering-from-being-brainwashed-and-tortured former assassin and the other is an overworked mutant scientist. But hey, every couple has their struggles. Right?

“Why is it so cold?” Tessa whines dramatically as she shuffles into the kitchen.

Bucky turns to face her, frowns at the dark circles under her eyes, the deep red of her nose. “It’s not cold. You’re just sick.” He slaps her hand away when she reaches in front of him to get at the coffee. “No,” he says pointedly, one brow raised in a that’s an order way.

She rolls her eyes at him, even though he’s not looking, too busy pulling out the OJ and pouring her a giant glass. “You’re not my mother,” she says, voice raw and nasal.

He hands her the glass and raises his metal fingers to her forehead. “You’re still warm.”

“No, I told you, I’m freezing.”

There’s a knock at the door, but as per usual, Steve barges in before giving anyone the opportunity to answer. “Hey,” he says making his way into the kitchen. “You ready?” Bucky gives him a nod and he pivots to say good morning to Tessa, but “Oh, God,” falls from his lips instead.

She’s still in the T-shirt she slept in and her hair is a giant, tangled mess from tossing and turning all night. Her eyes and nose are bright red, the rest of her face – save the dark circles under her eyes – is so pale that she’s almost translucent. The moment Steve glances over at her, she lets loose with a wet-sounding fit of coughs that nearly doubles her over.

The look on Steve’s face is one of pure of horror.

“Yeah,” Bucky says downing the rest of his coffee. “Tessa’s sick.”

“I’m dying,” she chokes out between coughs.

Bucky hands her a tissue once the coughing subsides and she blows her nose, long and loud. “She has a cold.”

“Are you sure that’s it?” Steve asks with an uncertain look.

“It’s the flu,” Tessa tells him with a final wipe of her raw nose. “Katerina got it from her boyfriend’s kid and brought it into the lab and now it’s chosen me as its host.” She tosses the tissue and tries to run her fingers through her hair only to nearly get them stuck in the mess of unruly curls piled on top of her head. “Of course, you two assholes don’t have to worry about things like the flu,” she says with disdain as she starts to desperately tug and pull at the ponytail holder stuck in her hair.

Bucky reaches into a drawer and pulls out some kitchen shears. “Steve and I are going to go for a run,” he tells her as he reaches up and carefully cuts the rubber band before she pulls out all of her hair. “I made you some toast,” he indicates the plate on the counter.

She eyes the food and wrinkles her nose. “There’s fruit on that.”

“Yeah,” he says, setting a couple of pills on the plate. “And you’re gonna eat it. And you’re gonna drink that orange juice. And take that medicine.”

She stares directly into his crystal clear, gray-blue eyes with her puffy, red-rimmed, ravaged ones. Then she reaches over to pluck the pills from the plate. Never breaking eye contact, she tosses them into her mouth and swallows them dry.

“Seriously?” he asks her, completely deadpan.

“I’m going back to bed.”

She lumbers past Steve, who, even though he’s almost incapable of getting sick, still recoils from her as though she’s spreading the plague. “She is the worst,” he whispers once she’s mostly out of earshot.

Bucky exhales a long, drawn-out sigh. “Is it wrong that I almost want her to be sick enough to be admitted to the hospital?”

Steve gives him a disappointed look.

“Not life-threateningly… just sick enough that professionals have to take care of her.”

“I’m changing my assessment. You are the worst.”

Bucky smiles dully as they leave. “Hey,” he says once they hit the elevator, “I wanted to ask you something.”

Steve punches in Ground Floor and nods absently. “Okay.”

“Just – ” he starts, quickly slamming his mouth shut when the elevator doors open to reveal Natasha.

She raises a single assessing brow and looks the men up and down, taking in their outdoor apparel. “You’re seriously going to go out into that frozen tundra?” she asks with amusement.

They got a break in the freezing temperatures just after New Years, but a couple of days ago the temps dropped again and another five inches of snow came their way. Truth be told, both Bucky and Steve had a bit of a problem with the snow – being frozen for decades tends to leave a guy with a bit of a disdain for the cold. But there’s only so much time a person can spend in the Avengers gym – grand though it may be – before he starts to go stir crazy.

“Aren’t you from Russia?” Steve asks, shooting her a smirk.

“Yeah, and there’s a reason I left.” She sweeps by them and into the elevator as they disembark. “Have fun, boys,” she intones with a small wave as the doors close.

The minute they exit the building, the second thoughts hit them, almost as harshly as the bitter wind slaps them in the face. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Bucky mumbles, harshly pulling on a stocking cap. “I fucking hate the cold.”

Steve tugs at his gloves and lifts up the hood on his jacket. “You can handle it,” he says with a grin. “Oh, hey, what were you gonna ask me before?”

Bucky doesn’t look at him, instead he stares off into the distance, taking in the snow-covered trees and reveling in the utter stillness that lay before them. “I was thinking,” he says slowly as they begin to walk towards the trail that leads out into the woods. It won’t be cleared, but, as Steve had convinced him yesterday, the challenge is what makes it fun.

“Yeah,” Steve drawls out when his friend falls silent beside him.

“Do you think she’d say yes?” His brow is deeply furrowed beneath his cap, and his words are filled with a sort of hesitation and doubt as he goes on. “At the party, you made it seem like…if I asked Tess to marry me… It sounded like you figured she’d say yes.”

To Steve’s credit, he doesn’t simply laugh out a yeah, duh, of course she would. Instead he takes a moment to actually think about it. “You two have been through a lot. I mean, for only having been together, what a year?”

“Almost two.”

“She really loves you,” he says, swiveling around and continuing their trek backwards so that he can face his friend. “I know she has some… qualms about relationships or… family. She didn’t exactly have a normal family growing up.”

Bucky stops short and locks eyes with him. “That’s what I’m afraid of. I know she loves me. And we’re happy together. But… sometimes she… I’m afraid it might scare her off.”

“Have you two actually ever talked about marriage? Or having a family?”

Bucky’s eyes get wide. “Like having kids? No. God no.”

“You don’t have to say it like that,” he counters with a laugh.

“No, it’s just… I don’t know.” He starts moving again, picking up the pace as they near the trail. “I guess I was just thinking about it some… after what you said. And after our trip.” He swallows hard and shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Steve breathes out, catching up to him. “For what it’s worth, I think you two would have amazing kids. Of course they’d be stubborn as hell and absolute pains in the ass – ”

“Hey,” Bucky chides, tossing the words of his shoulder as he starts to run headlong into the woods. “Be careful. Those are my future children you’re talking about.”

000

When he gets back from the run, he finds her curled into a nest of blankets on the couch. Instead of watching trashy TV, though, she’s got her laptop open up as she scrolls through spreadsheets. “Are you working right now?” he asks, looming over her.

“Go take a shower,” she says, without looking up. “Even I can smell you.”

On his way back to the shower, he notices that the meal he made her is sitting half eaten on the breakfast bar. Better than nothing. And when he enters the bedroom, he’s surprised to find that the bed is neatly made – minus the comforter, which is currently wrapped around the woman in the other room. As he strips down and steps into the shower, he sees that the bathroom is clean too, and the wastebasket that had been overflowing with used tissues is now empty.

“You feeling better?” he asks when he finally makes his way back into the living room. The shower was long and hot, and nearly every window and mirror in the apartment is now steamed up. She merely shrugs, so he reaches down and feels her forehead. Still warm. “You didn’t have to clean up,” he tells her, picking up her feet from the other side of the couch and sliding himself beneath them. “I would’ve done it.”

“I left you the plate of fruit toast, if you want to clean something.” She peers at him over the screen of her laptop, but he can’t really see her eyes because of the reflection on her glasses.

“You didn’t eat much. Are you hungry?” His hands begin running soothing lines up and down her fleece-covered shins as he offers her a smile. She closes the laptop and stares at him with a stern look. “What?”

“Stop trying to take care of me.”

His hands freeze on her legs. Dumfounded, he says simply, “Excuse me?”

She pulls her feet out of his lap. “I’m a full-grown woman. I can take care of myself.” Her words are sharp and clipped, but her voice is still so ragged and pathetic-sounding that he almost laughs.

“You’re sick. I’m just trying to help.”

“Well, stop.”

“You know, for the record, if you can take care of yourself, maybe you should.” He rises quickly from the couch and storms into the kitchen, grabbing the breakfast dish on the way. “Instead of not eating and trying to live off of coffee and energy drinks.”

“I was doing just fine on coffee and energy drinks before you came around and tried to take them away from me!” she shouts after him, her voice breaking when it reaches a certain pitch.

He throws away the half-eaten food, rinses the plate, and turns to lean in the doorway, scowling at her from across the room. “What is your problem?”

The laptop clatters to the floor as she works to free herself from the blankets surrounding her. In the most indelicate way possible, she finally extracts herself and marches over to him. “Tony fired Max,” she spits out in disgust.

He leans forward, so close that their noses almost touch, and he bites back, “Good.”

“Jesus Christ!” She turns and begins pacing in the small hallway. “This isn’t 1945, James! I didn’t need you coming to my rescue!”

“You really think I wasn’t going to say something? After what he did?”

“What he did?” She plants herself in front of him once more. “What did he do? Called me a name?”

“That’s not something you call a lady,” he issues between gritted teeth.

She lets out a huge, fake guffaw. “A lady?” She begins to laugh in earnest, the bitter chortle quickly leading to a coughing fit.

“Don’t make fun of me,” he says simply. “Believing what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong doesn’t make me old fashioned. And for the record, Stark seemed just as pissed, so don’t tell me that I’m overreacting.”

“I told you I would handle it,” she says quietly, still rasping. “I fucking begged you to let me handle it.” Between everything – the coughing and the congestion, the embarrassment and the anger – she’s suddenly in tears in front of him.

“I said I wouldn’t talk to him, and I didn’t,” he says, averting his eyes. He knows he’s not wrong for what he did. Hell, if anything, the more he thinks about it, he wonders if he’s wrong for only getting the son of a bitch fired and not actually caving his skull in.

“You betrayed me.”

He laughs. “Don’t be so fucking dramatic.”

“You undermined me. You went behind my back. To my boss. You made it seem like I couldn’t handle the situation –”

He pulls himself from the doorframe and moves over to her, looks her directly in the eye as he says, “Then why the hell did you tell me?”

“What?”

“If you were going to handle it, you would’ve handled it. Instead, you told me something that you knew I wasn’t gonna just let go. You knew I’d want to kill him for that.”

The look on her tear-stained face is one of utter confusion. “I… I didn’t,” she tries, obviously completely lost.

“You didn’t what?”

She takes a long breath and looks up at him. “Everybody in that lab hates me,” she says quietly. “I just wanted you to tell me they were wrong.” She pushes her glasses up into her hair and presses the heels of her hands to her eyes. Hot tears continue to spill out, though she’s trying so damn hard to staunch the flow. “I make them crazy. And they made up some dumb nickname for me to make themselves feel better. And I hate it. I hate that they hate me. But…”

“Stop,” he says gently. “Stop it,” as he tenderly grasps her forearms and pulls her now balled-up fists from her eyes.

“I don’t understand why you love me!” she sobs, as he holds her hands down at her sides.

He’s so taken aback, he doesn’t quite know what to say. “What?” is all that comes out as he releases her arms and moves his hands to her hips.

“I’m so horrible,” she continues to cry. “I was horrible to my family. And they gave me everything. And I told them I hated them. And I left them. I left them to die!” She leans into him and his arms instinctively wrap around her. But he’s still too damn confused about what’s happening to actually say anything. So she just goes on, muffled words tumbling out into him. “I didn’t have any friends in school because I was too competitive. And everyone who ever worked with me hated me because I tried too hard, or I made them look bad, or I was too hard on them – and it’s all true, too!” She pulls away a bit and looks up into his eyes. “I like being the best. And like being the one in charge. And I like to fight.”

He almost laughs at the last one, a small smile tugging on his lips. “That’s called being driven,” he says as he brings his hand up to smooth down her hair. “And that’s just one of the things I love about you.”

She shakes her head, casting her gaze down before closing her eyes. “That’s not what I mean. I just… My whole life… when I was little nobody wanted me. And when I got older… I never told anyone in college that I was a mutant. They all hated us. For no reason. And I never understood. And I… I… ”

“Okay,” he says, gently grabbing her by the shoulders and pivoting her towards the other room. He guides her back to the couch and sits her down as he says, “This feels like we’re talking about something totally different from the thing with Max.”

As soon as she sits, she collapses back into the cushions and blankets. “I’m just so tired of being hated.” Her eyes remain closed as she wipes at her nose with the back of her hand and lays her head back. “But I also kind of feel like it’s all I know. And now you’re here. And you say you love me…”

“I do love you,” he tells her as he sits down on the coffee table in front of her. “I love you more than anything.”

She shakes her head absently, her voice sounding much steadier when she asks, “But why?”

He runs his hands up her thighs before gripping her from behind, then he slowly pulls her closer to him. As she nears the edge of the couch, her head loses purchase on the cushions and she’s forced to slump forward instead. “Baby,” he starts, lifting her chin so she’ll look him in the eye. “Nobody knows better than me what it’s like to feel like you don’t deserve to be loved. I still think it. And to be honest, every day I wonder how it is that you can love me.”

“So we’re meant for each other,” she mumbles with a sniffle.

He grabs a tissue, presses it into her hand and waits for her to blow her nose. When it’s clear she needs more, he drops the box in her lap. “Can I ask where all this is coming from?”

“The snot?” Her brow wrinkles in confusion as she holds the wad of tissues to her nose.

He smiles and ducks his head. “No. This… reaction.”

“You shouldn’t have told Tony,” she says, looking for a place to set her used Kleenex.

He holds out his hand and she reluctantly gives him the filthy wad. “I’m sorry.”

“I might hire him back. I told Tony that.”

His jaw twitches and he grinds his teeth before forcing out, “If that’s what you decide to do…”

“I just… I’m not used to be taken care of. And I know you were trying to help.” She quirks an eyebrow at him and sternly says, “You overstepped.”

“Understood.”

She leans back again, collapsing onto the couch like a ragdoll. Letting out a long, wheezy sigh, she says, “I don’t really know if I think I don’t deserve it, or if I’m just not used to it. I’ve been on my own a long time. And anyone who ever really did love me, or who I thought did…” Some more tears start to collect in her eyes as she says, “I don’t know.”

“Here’s the thing, doll,” he says as he crawls over to sit beside her, “I’m never going to stop wanting to take care of you. I love you. And you’re supposed to want to take care of the people you love.”

“I know,” she replies, dropping her head onto his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I got involved with the whole Max thing. But I gotta tell ya, if I hear about anyone treating you badly, I’m gonna get involved. And it’s not because I don’t think you can handle it. It’s because I can’t handle knowing that someone is hurting you.” She nods against him. “Also,” he mutters, turning his head and laying a kiss on her crown, “You’re funny and witty and brilliant. Smartest person I know. So dedicated. And so unbelievably beautiful. And you’re a good person, who cares – maybe too much sometimes – about everyone. And that’s just the tip of the why I love you iceberg.”

They sit in silence for several long minutes, just melting into one another. Her body leans heavily into him as her head lulls to the side on his shoulder. When he glances down, he sees that she’s fallen asleep, so he pulls the comforter up around them both, wraps his flesh-and-bone arm around her lower back, and leans back into the cushions to rest his eyes. The last thing that filters through his mind as he too drifts off is one simple thought – I am so fucked.

[mukettyl]

Train Rides and Late Nights // Chapter Two

click for Chapter One

(tumblr won’t let me minamize this, i’m so very sorry)

Two weeks have gone by and Eddie couldn’t get the train boy out of his mind. He rolled over onto his side to look out the ajar window at the grey morning mist covering the sky. Breathing in the fresh and foggy air, he began imagining different, intricate, ways that the scenario could have played out. He could have said absolutely anything besides, “Why are you staring at me?” But no, he just had to choose those particular six words.

He pulled the blankets around himself tighter, and let the warmth engulf him for a few moments longer, before getting out of bed.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and shuddered. God, it’s cold.

He looked around for a second before deciding to put on a pair of sweatpants and oversized, worn, navy sweatshirt, over the t-shirt and boxers he had slept in. On his way to the kitchen, he regretted having not put on socks as he felt the cold linoleum tiles underneath his feet.

“Well good morning to you too, sleepyhead.”

Eddie looked up from the coffee pot he was now standing behind to pay attention to the voice coming from the living room in front of him.

“Good morning, Stan.” he replied groggily, dragging out the word “morning” until it had six extra sylobols. “One or two sugars?”

“Two, thank you.” Stan said, putting down his book, “I have to go visit Bill at some point today at the shop if you want to come with me. My engine light is on but I can’t figure out why, and I’ve stopped trying to guess.”

“Bill’s a mechanic?” Eddie asked, walking into the living room. He handed Stan his coffee and sat across from him on their lazy boy so that he could face him.

“No, not quite. But his dad and best friend are.”

“Oh, interesting.” Eddie took a long sip of his coffee before continuing with, “Yeah sure, I’ll tag along. I don't have any classes today anyways, so there’s nothing else I have going on.”

“Okay, that’ll work. I just need to get dressed and then we can head out now, if you’re ready.”

-

The two boys stepped out of the car in front of the shop. Stan had decided to completely step-up Eddie’s sweater and sweatpants by wearing a real outfit.

He was wearing a light blue polo with a blue jay embroidered onto his breast pocket, a pair of khakis, and an oversized grey cardigan. Eddie’s Betty Boop socks were no match.

Above the front doors read, “Denbrough’s Auto Repair,” in big, bold, blue letters. Eddie had never realized that Bill’s dad owned this place. He passed it all the time on the bus on his way to school, but it had never occurred to him that they could be the same “Denbroughs.”

After what seemed like ages, Bill walked out to greet Stan and help him figure out the issue with his engine light. Eddie stood there sort of awkwardly as they said their hellos and talked about the past few days in which they hadn’t had a chance to see each other.

“Hey Eddie! If you want, there are some doughnuts and coffee inside from earlier this morning. Help yourself!” Bill said to Eddie with a smile. Thank God, Eddie thought to himself, a reason to escape.

Eddie walked up the stairs and through the front doors. There was an empty front desk in front of him to the left, and a hallway that seemed to lead to a smaller room to his right. Assuming the doughnuts were in said room, Eddie took a right. He found a pot of coffee and a half empty box of a baker’s dozen on the table. Bingo.

He poured himself a cup of coffee and added creamer and two sugars. He grabbed a powdered doughnut, as well, and went to take a seat in the lobby area.

Napkins, I need napkins.

Attempting to hold his coffee upright and not drop his doughnut all while grabbing napkins was not working for him. He decided to hold the doughnut in his mouth and grab napkins with his newly freed hand, instead.

Walking into the lobby with his doughnut in his mouth, still trying not to spill his coffee, he almost didn't see the person about to walk directly into him. Correction, he did not see the person who ended up walking directly into him.

“God, my bad. Do you see my glasses anywhere?”

No way. Not now. Not today.

Eddie took a better look at the boy, who was now on his hands and knees searching for his glasses. Train boy. He recognized the tattered blue jumpsuit and the mass of dark, curly hair. The boy stood up and Eddie was able to half make out “Richie” on the jumpsuit’s nametag.

Eddie stood there dumbfounded as he watched the curly haired boy attempting to get his grounds and clean off his lenses,“Hey bud, thanks so much for the tremendous amount of help, totally not like you just stood there and let me suffer for the last minute and a- hey, it’s you!”

-

Two weeks. It’s been fourteen days since he last saw him, and he couldn’t get the damn boy off his mind. Richie had purposefully taken the night shift everyday he could, just in case they’d end up on the same train again. But it was to no avail.

After these two weeks of desperately attempting to run into him, Richie gave up. He decided to believe in destiny, fate, and all that, and that if they were meant to meet again, they would.

Richie got off work early on Thursday, so he decided to take his time on his walk to the train. He put in his earbuds and he was off. He naturally walked fast, so he knew that he’d have plenty of time to get to the station before the train reached his stop. He had about 45 minutes, so he decided to wander around the city. It was getting colder as the days passed, so Richie decided to start wearing his dad’s old bomber jacket.

After the death of his father, Richie’s mom decided that she couldn’t stay in Boston anymore. Richie and his dad never really got along. He knew he loved him, but the amount of fighting his parents did had been unbearable for him. He really didn't mind leaving it all behind. So at ten years old, Richie and his mom got on a plane and never looked back. They have now lived in Chicago for the past nine years, but since the move, things have never been quite the same.

Richie knows that his mom blames him for his father’s death. Remarks such as “Well if we never had you…” or: “God! I understand why he couldn’t put up with you anymore!”, helped his claim. He tries to not let it get to him, but it's on nights like this when it all builds up. The moon was almost full and the amount of stars visible was mesmerizing, for the city, that is.

Richie could hear the roar of the train’s engine as he approached the platform. He had continued to board the same car and sit in the same seat as he had two weeks ago. Not as if this would have changed, but the idea of maybe seeing him again was just adding to his reasoning.

-

He woke up the next morning in the dark and dying of heat. His sheets were sticking to him as if his skin were adhesive, and his mouth was as dry as the air filling his room. His blinds weren’t completely shut, but the lack of sun led him to believe that it must be before 6:00 a.m.

Fuck, it’s hot.

He knew that the furnace in his apartment would turn itself on at full blast if it got below 67 degrees fahrenheit. He knew this because he hated it with a burning passion.

He discarded the sweaty sheets off of himself by kicking at them until they fell off of his bed, and rolled over until he could reach his glasses off of his nightstand.

He sleepily propped the frames onto his nose while simultaneously trying to keep his curls from blocking his vision so that he could read the time.

5:49 a.m. Yuck.

Richie didn't have to be anywhere until 10:00 a.m. today, so he landed on a shower being his best option at the moment. Well, technically he didn't have to be anywhere today at all. But he told Bill that instead of coming in at night like usual, that he could come in today early and just stay late. Bill has been his best friend since he moved to Chicago. After hearing about the death of Richie’s father, Mr. Denbrough immediately took Richie under his wing. When he turned sixteen, Mr. D. offered him a job at his auto shop, and Richie has been working there ever since.

After lazily walking to his bathroom, Richie turned on the water in his shower. He proceeded to get undressed, which just consisted of taking off the mis-matched socks and boxers that he had fallen asleep in. The ice cold water felt soothing against his skin. He lathered his hair in shampoo that smells heavily of green apples, and just used the remnants of it to clean his body. Bill had stayed over one night and gave him trouble for not owning body wash, but couldn’t argue with the fact that Richie did always smell very good.

After drying off and wrapping a towel around his head, he walked back into his room and to his closet to get half dressed. He still had three hours before he had to leave, so there was no rush. He put on his favorite t-shirt that said, “The Revolution Is My Boyfriend” that his friend Bev had gotten him at a small thrift shop on her trip to Minneapolis with her boyfriend, and a pair of neon orange briefs.

He walked into the kitchen to make some half-assed breakfast. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and made some toast. While waiting for his bread to turn to toast, he switched on the tv. The only thing on at this hour besides infomercials and news was Seinfeld.

It’ll do.

*ding!*

“Gahh!” Richie yelped as he spilled orange juice all over himself. “Da fuck was dat foh bruhv?” To which his toaster didn’t respond.

As a child, Richie used to talk to himself extensively while his parents argued, and to keep himself entertained, he’d use accents. Now, whenever he got startled or caught off guard, he would automatically start talking in a British or Australian accent.

He picked up some paper towels and cleaned up the spilled juice as best he could. He then grabbed his toast and smeared grape jelly all over it before putting the pieces together and wrapping it in a paper towel, rather than dirtying another plate. He took his toast and the remainder of his OJ into his living room and sat down to watch Seinfeld until he had to get fully dressed.

-

As Richie walked up to the shop, he heard, “Morning, bud!” from in the doorway atop the front stairs.

Without looking up, knowing who it was, he responded with “Guten morgen, Big Bill!”

Instead of waiting for a response, he walked directly past Bill and towards the donuts he saw on the table in front of him. He grabbed one covered in strawberry icing and rainbow sprinkles. Without even bothering to ask if they were up for grabs, he ate basically half of it in one bite.

“Help yourself, I’m gonna go greet Stan, he just got here.”

With a mouth full of donut all Richie could mutter was, “O-ay. Hank youh!”

After scarfing down as many donuts as he thought he could muster before getting sick (three), he poured himself some coffee and decided to get to work. He went around back and put up the garage doors, took out the trash from the past week, and listened to the voicemails that had been left since yesterday. Because it was so early, he really didn't have much to do, so he went to go pour himself another cup of coffee when he walked smack dab into someone turning the corner as well. His glasses fell off of his face so he immediately dropped to the ground to start searching for them.

“God, my bad.” Richie managed, “Do you see my glasses anywhere?”

Richie was sure that whoever this kid that he had just ran into could see him frantically looking for his glasses, but just stood there as if everything was just peachy keen. After what felt like an hour, Richie’s hand finally felt the frames. While happy he found his glasses, he wanted to make sure whoever this schmuck was knew that he was no help.

“Hey bud, thanks so much for the tremendous amount of help, totally not like you just stood there and let me suffer for the last minute and a- hey, it’s you!”

It was him! It was the boy that had sat in his seat on the train exactly two weeks ago. The cute one who told Richie to stop staring at him. The one who was now standing in front of him and staring at Richie like a deer in headlights.

“Why on Earth are you at an auto shop at 10:00a.m.?”

The boy looked extremely flustered, and while holding a donut in his mouth, just responded with “I gotta go,” as best as he could.

“Wait, what’s your name?” Richie called after him, but he was already out the front door and down the steps.

A few moments later, Bill walked in, questioning, “Why’d Eddie just run outta here like that?”

Eddie.

(Richie’s shirt)

[antwine69]

Hiya! It’s me again, I just wanted to say I absolutely adored your last response, your writing was so good!!! I was wondering if could request some more jealous beej headcanons? Maybe if the so finds it adorable when he gets jealous?

Welcome back to my little corner of Hell, friend! I'm very happy you enjoyed my last post aaa!!

Also, Jealous Beej? Y e s. Just. Y e s.

Gender neutral reader

Fluffy HCs, with your daily dose of Beets being horny on main, so we gotta slap a "light nsft language" sticker on this one folks!

-----

You'll just be walking down the street when you suddenly feel Beetlejuice's arm around your shoulder

Somebody was "staring" at you, and he took it as a personal insult

Cue angry muttering, him trying to quietly curse this person and just overall bring destruction into their lives

``If their eyes like to wander so much, why don't they just wander out of their head-``

Boop his nose to get him to shut up and mabye stop wishing death upon this random person

He loves to kiss you in public, just to show off that you're his

Will most definitely make you blush in public, to, again, assert that this beautiful person his is, and that anybody that dares look at this wonderful piece of art will have nightmares for the next month

Loves to mark his territory ;)))

Goes wild if you like to show off the marks

His hands probably wander a bit, mostly whenever you're sitting down

Bonus points if you're easily flustered or super into it

Will literally growl at anybody who he thinks is trying to come onto you

If you know them beforehand, he'll calm down a bit, but if they hug you for too long when they're saying goodbye they're on thin ice

Never does anything too serious in public, unless you're into that, it's mostly just kissing you very obviously, him actually having dipped you down all dramatic like more than one time

If you don't like all the attention he'll tone it down, but he'll still hold onto you very tight if he thinks that somebody might be starting a bit too long at your outfit

He really likes to see you in revealing stuff, especially if you're going out somewhere

``I wanna stick it to those bastards that you're mine!``

He means well, but sometimes he's a bit too much

That's when you have to sit him down and calmly explain that, no, the waiter at that restaurant was not flirting with you because he asked what sauce you would like, and that it was not an innuendo for anything even remotely sexual

He just cares about you a lot and is honestly a bit afraid that you're gonna leave him for some rando on the street

``Why would I leave you for some random person?`` ``Because.... Okay, I don't have a reason, but I just know they want ya! I mean, I want ya real bad, so you can imagine what those other schmucks are thinking!``

Will start a fight for your honor

Has bought matching shirts that say "Property of [Insert picture of a beetle and some OJ]" and "[The same picture of a beetle and OJ]"

He wears the shirt under everything he wears, at all times, and goes nuts if you proudly wear it

``Holy shit that looks good on you... Though, I'd love to see it off aswell..``

-----

Yee yee! That's it for now peeps! Hope y'all enjoyed these-

If I come up with any more, I will write them down and, when the list gets long enough, release a part 2!

Okay, have a good day, night, afternoon, life and afterlife! See y'all beautiful suckers in the Neitherworld! Peace!

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 36

Well, the bar exam results did not post at 12:01am on April 17 I didn't really expect that they would, but I had to check anyway. Like three times. Oh well. It's not like it's MY ENTIRE LIFE'S WORK or anything. Calm, we are so very calm around here. Very zen. We have put on the Tinykittens livestream on the television to watch one of their foster mamas get ready to have kittens, and we are intensely, rigidly, singlemindedly relaxed. 

Today was sewing day! I signed up with the local food bank to help with a drive-through distribution on Monday because they needed volunteers, but I don't really have a proper mask. I've got an elastic-backed bandana headband that does well enough for running around and moving cats, but for something like this, I want to be masked up. And why should I not make my own masks? I'm crafty, I'm reasonably clever, and most importantly, I have my own sewing machine. Specifically, I have my mom's old sewing machine from the early nineties that I have never really learned how to use despite my best intentions, but let's not pick nits. It's a sewing machine, and it works. How hard could it be? (she asked with innocent hubris and massive amounts of unearned self-confidence.)

I spent the first part of the morning running more cats to the spay clinic, but that was so early in the morning it barely counts. After that, I pulled the sewing machine's rolly suitcase into the living room and set it up on a TV tray because we do not have an eating table and my husband and son were using both our desks for their various schools. A half hour of reading the user manual (copyright 1988) and watching some YouTube videos was enough to let me get the machine threaded, and I was ready to go! I was ready to... snap the thread instantly! I was ready to fuck around some with the tension dial so maybe it would not do that! I was ready to rethread the bobbin so it would not do that other thing! I was ready to make an absolutely unholy tangle, five or six times in a row! It was all amazing, I am clearly a prodigy. 

It was around this point that I adjusted my expectations for churning out a couple masks and decided today would be a practice day. I cut a few squares out of an old t-shirt and practiced doing simple straight seams, which is apparently a lot harder than it looks. It took another four or five hours to routinely be able to make more than one seam in a row without rethreading everything, but I'm getting a lot better! And as a bonus,, I've been seaming rectangles on three and a half sides, then turning them inside out so the kiddo can stuff them with polyfil and sew them shut into pillows. His stitches, while a little large, are surprisingly straight! Good job. I think that with some continued work, I will be able to turn a pillowcase into a couple of credible masks before Monday. I hope, anyway. 

Today was also exciting because it was GROCERY DAY. I have been waiting a very long time for this day, with my extremely large aspirational shopping list and very high hopes. The most important part first: they did include the 100 pack of colored pencils! I'm so excited! I ended up with eight unavailable items (including the pencil sharpener unfortunately), and 20 substitutions, but for the most part the substitutions were sensible and often much better than what I'd asked for in the first place. I am 1000% not going to quibble if they want to assuage my disappointment in not getting the pints of ice cream I wanted by subbing in gallons of a different flavor. That is more than okay with me, dudes! They also threw in a bag of someone else's groceries, consisting of some baby cheetos, a box of infant Midol, and a red onion, and I haven't seen my Sour Patch Kids anywhere. But for pity's sake, there's a pandemic on, and when you play Game of Groceries, you 'get what you get and you don't make a fit,' as one of the kiddo's preschool teachers used to tell him. I gave the guys a glowing five star review and left a comment on the corporate Facebook about the good job the store was doing. They are not allowed to take tips at Walmart, which blows, but hopefully that will help them a little at least. 

So all in all, we have enough groceries to last us at least a month, though we'll probably have to go out for milk, OJ and bread a couple of times. The fridge is packed, as is the freezer (three gallons is a fuck of a lot of ice cream, my friends,) and the pantry. In looking at it all, I am willing to concede that I may have become a little squirrel brained this week, especially after the check came in yesterday, and that when I go to the food drive on Monday I should probably take a couple bags of stuff. Nobody needs fifteen cans of pasta sauce to last a month, and we still haven't eaten five of those cans of Spam I had before. There is a fine line between feeling good for having enough and feeling bad because you have too much and other people don't. On the other hand, I bought all the ingredients for key lime pie, plus a carton of fresh whipping cream. It's going to be _so good._  We also have five bunches of bananas, but that was just an accident. Good thing we've got that banana bread with chocolate chips recipe! Still no toilet paper to be had, but we have enough for now. 

Found a fun free game on the App store called Seedship, that killed a couple of hours while I tried to save a sleeper ship full of the last remnants of the human race. Kiddo is reading Bunnicula for the second day in a row, he likes it! I'm glad, I used to love that book. He's also learning to do some fairly sophisticated math for fourth grade involving adding fractions of a circle's radius. I had to think for a minute to figure out what 5/8 of a full rotation would be, and then encourage him to think in the right way to figure it out too. It is 225 degrees, which we figured out in our heads by starting with the clue that 1/4=90 degrees, changing that to 2/8, then dividing it in half to get 1/8=45 degrees. He did nearly all of it himself, too, with just a little nudging from me, and then went on to figure out twelfths as well, then how to add various fractions to figure out total degrees. I'm very proud of him! 

I wonder if it's going to be weird in future years if I or anyone else comes back to look at this and notices that I journal hardly at all about world events, and a huge amount about the contents of my pantry. The contents of my pantry is way less depressing. Reading the news is scary or sad or infuriating or frustrating, but digging out leftovers and cleverly combining them into a new casserole is both productive and fun. It's important, I think, to feel a sense of control, even when very little is controllable. That's maybe not the biggest reason I'm still trying to volunteer, but it's definitely on the list. You're not helpless if you can help others, even in small ways, even if that other is just a cat who doesn't even like you. 

Still no bar exam results. It's gonna be a long day.

[spencer-is-amazing]

Salvation (Michael Langdon x OC)

Pairing: Michael Langdon x Original Character 

Length: 2.5k~

Warnings: Smut 

Chapter 1: The Beginning  (x)

Chapter 2: The End

May 15, 2017- 3 years before the Apocalypse

“-And remember class, that paper on Huck Finn is due next Thursday, beginning of class and not a moment later. I’ll be out of town this weekend so any questions you have will just have to wait until Monday. Have a good weekend kids!”

Julie smiled to herself and packed up her folder and thick binder, stuffing them in the black backpack and hitching the heavy appendage onto her shoulder with a huff. She made her way out of the now empty classroom to give a warm smile to Chloe, her friend of only a year but really her only friend.

Chloe was nothing like Julie; Chloe liked to talk about all the things she liked to do with boys in the locker room and Julie liked to spend time with her mom at the Hotel Cortez, checking the book records of old inhabitants and walking through the empty halls.

She thought it was fun; it was exciting to touch the old wooden doors and feel like the queen of her own castle.

“Hey Chloe, how was class?”

Chloe flipped her hair over her exposed shoulder and smirked; “Got a B+ on my Chem paper and Mr. Johnson promised me some extra credit later this weekend.”

Julie had stopped trying to talk her friend out of fucking teachers, seeing as she would typically run to the principal and get them fired/arrested. Chloe saw it as justice and Julie couldn’t say she was wrong.

Though Julie never knew how Chloe always seemed to know which ones were the creepers; just luck she guessed.

Chloe inquired Julie about her weekend, which included doing absolutely nothing aside from staring out her window and wishing she had more friends. It only sucked sometimes to have close to no friends, but she just needed to be out of high school before she could really bloom.

“Well, my dad is picking me up, sure you don’t need a ride?”

Julie waved her off, “Nah, I’m good. It’s always fun to catch up on new music on my way home.”

She’d never tell Chloe the real reason why she enjoyed her walks home. She’d come across the famous Murder House a year ago, and she loved it. It was a big luxurious house that was something out of the story books and it made her feel like a princess.

And the stories were true; there were dead people in that house. One of the girls, Violet, told her that if you died there, then your spirit was trapped forever, that you could never leave.

Violet had said the house killed her and her family, a ghost boy Tate had been responsible for her pain and suffering and that he too was still there. Julie had asked if the house was going to kill her, and a grown man had stepped forward and said she would never be hurt under his watch.

So every so often, Julie found herself at the steps of the Murder House, just like today. It was cloudy and she enjoyed the feel of the wind on her skin.

There was a kick to her step as she opened the doors, frowning when there were no ghosts in sight. Usually they would see her coming from the windows and come to greet her, so this was odd.

“Violet? Mr. Harmon? Hello?” There was no answer. “Tate? Anybody?”

Julie stopped in the living room, eyes widening at the sight of the dead woman on the couch, and the identical copy sitting right next to her.

“Ah, so you return. My children have told me much about you.”

Julie tried to take a step back but something kept her in place. She couldn’t run but she refused to back down. She was a ghost; she couldn’t actually do anything to her- well… she could kill Julie, but Mr. Harmon said he would protect her.“I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“No, we haven’t. I’m Constance Langdon, Tate’s mother.” Constance turned to look at her corpse, “I couldn’t live in this world anymore Julie. So I came here, where I can live on and be the mother I was meant to be.”

Julie watched her pick up her amber glass and down it in one gulp, “Now tell me child, why are you here? Hm?”

Julie had no reason to lie. “Nothing in particular. The ghosts are kind to me and it makes me feel less lonely.”

And that was the truth, they were like friends that actually found her interesting and were always there.

But Constance clearly disagreed. She threw her glass against the wall and stood on shaky legs, stumbling towards Julie’s frozen form and gripping the smaller girls shoulders with her sharp nails.

Julie should’ve been able to smell the alcohol on her breath but then again, Constance was dead, but she could sure as hell feel those nails digging into her shoulders.

“You need to get out of this house and never come back.” Constance shoved her away and sprawled Julie on the floor. “I see the same evil in you that I saw in my grandson.”

Julie watched as what looked like realization entered the old woman’s eyes and suddenly her old aged face was much too close, though instead of anger, her eyes were full of pain.

Those nails lifted up Julie by her dark thick sweater and whispered in her ear, “He will find you, and you must run. Save yourself Julie March.”

She didn’t understand what she meant, or what she was supposed to do. Who was her grandson? And what kind of evil was in him? Or better yet… what evil was in her?

There were so many things she wanted to ask but both women froze at the sound of footsteps.

“Grandma?”

She was there, on the floor of the living room with Constance leaning over her, and in the next moment she was outside the kitchen door, watching it slam shut and lock her out. She wasn’t stupid enough to wait around and see Constance’s grandson; that was an evil she was better off not knowing.

She sprinted to the street and the whole way home, hiding away in her room and curling up on her bed.

Julie wasn’t going to lie and say that hadn’t made her scared. Her hands splayed out in front of her eyes, tracing the lines that were meant to tell your future. Did her lines say anything about an evil in her life?

A ding from her pocket had her fingers scrabbling to get her phone, a message from Chloe reading ‘you home?’

She texted back a quick ‘yeah’ before stuffing her phone under her pillow and gazing out the window. The house next door had been empty so long, she hoped no one bought it anytime soon, they’d think she was a creep for always watching.

But behold, two months later the house sold, and instead of having the view of a dark empty room, there was a boy in there now. She never really got a good view of him, and she never saw him leave the house. It was like he didn’t exist.

“Hey mom?”

“Hm?”

“Have you met the neighbors? I think there’s someone my age in the room across from mine. Have you seen him?”

Jessie March looked at her daughter with a smile that could rival the beating sun, “Of course I have dear. His name is Michael and his Aunt is Miriam. Lovely woman Miriam, bit hard on the face but I think I might invite her to Lydia’s book club this weekend, you know, really show her the neighbors. And if she says yes then maybe you and Michael can get to know each other. How does that sound?”

Julie picked at her eggs and ignored her mom’s questioning gaze, “What if he doesn’t like me? Or what if I say something stupid?”

Jessie March scoffed and bit into her crunch toast square, “Well, just thinking that he wouldn’t like you is quiet stupid, and I swear to you Julie, that boy will adore you.”

“Whatever you say mom.” Her mother took a sip of cold OJ, “I’m just saying baby, you can’t just sit around and wait for Chloe every weekend to drag of to do something ridiculous. You need other people in your life.”

Her daughter was silent as she finished off her fluffy white eggs, “And who knows, you may need him just as much as he needs you.”

“Whatever you say mom.” Jessie stood up and patted her Julie on the head, ruffling the already messy strands of brown hair. Her heels clicked as she took both of their plates and put them in the sink, and made a sneer at the overflowing trashcan.

“Before you go can you empty the trash? Don’t want to get rats like last time.”

Last summer when Jessie March had left town for a week on a Business venture in Seattle, Julie had had the house to herself and had not once taken out the trash, leading to an infestation in the basement and kitchen cupboards. They’d had to call an exterminator and Julie had been grounded for a week.

“Sure thing.” She stood and stretch, rubbing her full belly before grabbing engorged trash bin and hauling it out the front door, groaning at the bright rays of sun that hit her skin. She hated the warmer months, wishing that the world would stay cold.

A huff of gratitude left her lips when the bag was officially dropped in, the lid closing with a slam. Her eyes watched the empty streets, finding no one out and not a single car in any driveway. A thought that perhaps there was a farmers market close came and went, it was odd.

“Would you be a dear and get me some lemonade?”

“Yes Ms. Mead.”

Julie March turned in time to watch the front door to the neighbor’s house close, leaving her eyes to turn to the short stout dark dressed woman who was without a doubt Miriam Mead.

She looked mean, the dark lipstick and pitch black hair made her think of everything dark in the world packed into one woman. Miriam Mead raised her hand in a wave, “Hey Neighbor!”

Julie gave a shy wave and sprinted as fast as an Olympian into the house, shutting her own door just as the sound of the neighbors door opening echoed through her ears. Her hands shook, her ears were ringing and she ignored her moms questioning look as her legs carried her to her room.

The lock on the door clicked shut and her body shook, but instead of any fear or uncertainty it was a hot burning desire that rang through her lower half.

She groaned and moaned “Are you kidding me?”

Masturbation was such a Chloe thing; her friend had given her a bright pink vibrator last year and said she needed to loosen up once in a while. It was still in its original box in the closet on the upper shelf, hidden from sight.

But out of sight yet not out of mind and Julie scrambled to her closet and thanked the heavens that it came with batteries. She scrambled to get off her sleep pants and panties- shirt and bra as well cause her nipples were crazy sensitive- and placed herself near the headboard.

The pink vibrator was thick and short and the box mostly talked about clitoral stimulation, and she clicked the power button onto the lowest setting. It was a nice hard buzz that had her biting her lip, running the vibe along her hardening nipples and letting out a soft moan. Her soft fingers pinched the other one with a groan.

She would never tell a soul that she wished a man would lean over and suck her tits until they were raw and her voice was hoarse with pleas for him to stop but he would never give in, taking everything she had to offer. She wondered if Michael would suck her tits till they bled.

The vibrator skimmed her love handled tummy and along the thin stretch marks, eventually reaching her glistening pussy. There was very little hair; Chloe had gotten her into shaving.

Julie never did this and she should’ve taken it slow, but instead she placed the head of the buzz right on her clit, arching up at the buzz of pleasure streaming down her legs. It was electricity, the power of the gods were striking her very core and making her weak. Would Michael feast on her as if she were his last meal?

Why was he in her thoughts, why could she see behind her eyelids a man with hair as gold as sun but eyes as dark as night, watching her with a lust she’d never know? Was this Michael? Was he a sinner standing before a sin?

Her finger clicked to the next setting and she tried not to scream; it just felt so fucking good.

Her eyes closed once more and he was there again, closer this time, close enough to touch. Her hands wanted to reach out and feel him, but her bones were stuck in place, her thighs wide and open for him to take.

“Please, touch me.” He smirked at her and moved like wind, his touch being all too real. Her eyes opened and a scream nearly left her throat at the blonde haired boy looming over her, mouth suckling her nipple as if she was his last meal.

He was real- he had to be- and his hand ripped the vibrator from her pussy and moved down her body, gazing at the glistening wetness before him. It was his to taste, only his.

This time she did scream when his tongue circled her clit, nibbling on the sensitive bud as if it were a pesky grape attached to a vine. He hungered for her sweet cunt, wanting her juices to flow into a cup that only he could drink from. He craved her.

“Mich-Michael, please, please.” He didn’t relent, feasting with a fury that rivaled a rabid dog, hands holding her plush thighs in place as he took everything she had to offer.

She was nearing her release when he pulled back, forcing a sob from her throat, why was he being cruel when she was so close?

Michael crawled up her body and gazed at her red bitten lips with lust in his eyes, wishing this would never end. But all good things did.

She came with a scream as he bit into her left nipple with a pain blossoming across her chest. Tears fell as her body collapsed on her sheets; bleary eyes watching the golden haired boy wipe away her watery cheeks.

He placed a kiss on her cheek as her eyes shut, hand caressing her soft warm cheeks with an adoration she would soon come to crave with every breath.

According to her clock, Julie awoke 3 hours later, fully clothed and under the covers. A gasp echoed the room as the memories came back; Michael had been in her room and he’d touched her in ways she’d never been touched.

But had that been real? It couldn’t have been…

“Ow…the hell?” Her hand pulled down her sleep shirt, eyes widening at the massive bruising surrounding her left nipple.

It had been real, and the worst part was, she craved more.

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[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 204: Chintetsu

Previously on BnHA: Shouto left Endeavor on read. Team TodoIidaShoujiRo attacked Team TetsuHonePonySen head-on, hitting them with a wave of ice and freezing them all in place. But it turns out Honenuki’s quicksand quirk is actually a “softening” quirk which can soften anything he touches. He used that to melt the ice to allow his teammates to escape. It also turns out that he had pre-treated some of the surrounding area with his quirk, and Ojiro and Iida came crashing down from their hiding spots shortly after as the softened ground gave way beneath them. Sen attacked Ojiro with his drill quirk while Pony took on Shouji. Meanwhile Tetsu went for Shouto, realizing a direct attack was his best bet. And Honenuki trapped Iida under a layer of the softened ice, but then made the mistake of rehardening it, intending to keep him stuck in place. Instead, Iida blasted free with his Recipro, revealing that he’s built up his endurance to the special move. So now we’ll see if he can take Honenuki down.

Today on BnHA: We get a wholesome Iida flashback to when Tensei explained how to upgrade his Recipro by -- wait, what? Mutilating his own fucking leg?! Holy shit. That’s not wholesome at all. What the fuck. But anyway, it worked I guess because back in the present day Iida is zipping along at speeds faster than Gran fucking Torino, and he’s able to maintain this speed for up to ten whole minutes. The only downside is that he can’t fully control himself because he’s so goddamn fast and so he keeps skidding around. Anyway, so Honenuki is like “nope” and gets the fuck out of there. Meanwhile Sen continues to whoop Ojiro’s ass, but then Iida shows up to save him so yay. Elsewhere the Tetsuroki fight has heated up, quite literally, as Todoroki activates his left side to create a wall of fire, and Tetsutetsu proceeds to walk right through it and attack Shouto as a red hot steel man. Shouto thinks back to his dad’s training and decides that the solution to this is clearly to make shit even hotter, so he starts up with that, and the chapter ends.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 223, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

ohhh my god

IIDA FAM FLASHBACKS!??!

AHHHHH

EXCUSE ME IS THIS THE FUCKING FUTURE OR NOT?? CAN WE GET IIDA TENSEI A FUCKING HOVERCHAIR HERE PEOPLE? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK. IF ONLY HORIKOSHI WAS AT ALL FAMILIAR WITH MARVEL COMICS -- OH, WAIT

but seriously though. also he’s supposed to be rich too isn’t he? c’mon

also! Iidamom looks exactly like I expected her to. welcome to our canon full of other awesome moms, Iidamom! a few more moms and I’ll be ready to do a top ten moms post. spoiler alert, the winner is not who you’d expect (unless you’re expecting Aizawa, because then you’re absolutely right)

anyways so I got SUPER distracted just now but apparently Tensei is talking about “tuning up” Iida’s engine!

wow can they do that?? fucking quirks, though. wild

oh my fucking god

just yank that fucking muffler right the fuck out. and a new one will grow in!! fucking QUIRKS, though. WILD

dsfalkhsd

just yank that fucking muffler right the fuck out without anesthesia. what are you, a pussy!?

gee thanks Horikoshi for this graphic image of Iida biting down on something while he uses his bare hands to yank what are essentially bones -- or organs, or whatever! the point is they’re part of him! -- right out of his fucking body. might wanna add some vodka to that OJ tonight Iida

OH SHIT, THAT PAYOFF THOUGH

IN TEN MINUTES YOU COULD TAKE OVER THE FUCKING WORLD, IIDA!

okay maybe I got a little overexcited. but damn though!

so he’s DRRNing over to Honenuki and

oh my god

loool at the thought of Iida zooming around wildly for the next ten minutes while he tries to figure out how to stop this thing, and meanwhile Honenuki can’t land a hit on him though

GET HIM IIDA!!

oh fuck

can he breathe under there? you know, depending on how long they still have until time runs out, he could just hide for the next ten minutes and then emerge and drag the paralyzed Iida to Rat Principal Jail

(ETA: actually that was a stupid thought. obviously Iida doesn’t have to keep Recipro activated the whole time if there’s no need to.)

but no, he’s swimming back to Tetsu and the others for now

meanwhile Iida’s still up top and trying to figure out what he’s up to

maybe you should do the same

holy shit we’re cutting back to the kids outside and Deku says Iida’s even faster than Gran Torino

“by a long shot.” that’s fucking fast. and I love it

by the way, with the way Mina was pointing, I thought, “oh, maybe Ojiro’s finally getting the upper hand!”

but no

Horikoshi why do you hate poor Ojiro

it’s probably the pain of this guy kicking you in the chest with his rotating fucking foot

so he’s trying to figure out what to do because he can’t really attack, and he keeps getting hurt whenever he tries to guard

oh hey there

trying to decide if I’m disappointed that Ojiro will never get to do anything cool, or ecstatic that Iida fucking Tenya just pulled off a badass save of this caliber

leaning more toward ecstatic, honestly. sorry Ojiro

oh, Iida

nice use of the word “forthwith”, Iida

(ETA: and nice use of the word “slammer”!!)

and now he’s telling Ojiro to go help Todoroki and that he’ll be right back

well I guess class 1-A will need some sidekicks too

meanwhile we’re sticking with Iida, which means I’m going to keep right on posting all of his panels, because his dialogue honestly deserves a fucking pulitzer prize

never, Sen!

Sen’s trying to reason his way out of this and telling Iida that he shouldn’t let Honenuki get away because he’s more of a threat

and he’s also grumping about Iida interrupting his and Ojiro’s fight. “you shouldn’t interrupt a one-on-one fistfight like that”

um, says who? fuck that. we’re trying to win here, we can make friends after

Iida says if he allows his will to be bent here, it will be bent in the real world as well

basically he’s treating this seriously. well, good

meanwhile! we’re cutting back to two minutes prior!

I guess Tetsu’s best option is to somehow knock him out. but the problem is that Shouto’s reflexes are too good and he can create an ice barrier in an instant

I think Tetsu’s steel would allow him to withstand Shouto’s fire long enough to punch him on his left side, though, so that would be my personal strategy if it were me

heh

A+ attack name. Shouto I’m sorry, I love you, but if I’m being honest I’m rooting for this guy here

heh

so you think he should try the fire instead? I’m not so sure that’s the best play in this case though. at least with the ice he has better control and he can hold him at bay. I just don’t think the fire would be that effective against Tetsu, but I’m sure we’ll find out shortly

because Tetsu’s bragging about how easily he can break through Shouto’s ice defense

ah here we go

for some reason Bakugou actually wanted to go up against this. still don’t quite understand it. my baby boy got a death wish

lol Pony’s running off. honestly a miracle she wasn’t incinerated just now

Shouto’s yelling at Shouji to go after her and Shouji’s all “got it”

yeah I’m thinking my initial assessment was right and this was indeed a mistake

fucking great. now you’ve got a molten steel man after your ass, Shouto

LOL

holy fucking shit. just in case anyone isn’t aware, “chinchin” means “penis” usually. so yeah

and I fucking love that here he’s using it to mean “hot”, but it could also be a throwback to the whole “five peepee man” thing, which he doesn’t actually know about but I do, and so to me this is the funniest thing ever okay

I have no further comment

oh fuck

no but as you can plainly see he is no stranger to burns, so please try not to maim him too badly...!?

lol Vlad has started narrating again. no doubt elated that his team is somehow eking out a win in what initially appeared to be the most one-sided matchup we were going to see today

uh oh but now it looks like Tetsu may have accidentally triggered the quirk development that Endeavor was trying to trigger but couldn’t because Shouto won’t return his damn texts

before I continue to the next and presumably final page of this chapter, I’m just gonna take a moment here to appreciate the irony of Endeavor accidentally conditioning Shouto to never listen to him ever, even on the occasions where it turns out he’s right. he spent years trying to get Shouto to use his flame side, but failed utterly, and then in the span of one fight Deku did what Endeavor had spent Shouto’s whole life trying to get him to do

and now it’s happening again here, where we see that Endeavor was once again trying to teach him something, but Shouto just ignored him until a random kid from the class next door just happened to say something similar. and then it clicked

like, it’s a major burn on Endeavor (no pun intended), but it’s also really unfortunate for Shouto, because his dad has been such a prick until recently that he’s missed out on absorbing the few worthwhile things he actually had to teach him. lot of lost time to make up for here, on both sides

anyways, let’s watch as Shouto slowly processes all this

well I assume (a) because of the “surpassing my limits” thing, and (b) because he’s been texting you nonstop and it was probably on your mind even though you were stubbornly trying to pretend it wasn’t

lol what kind of cliffhanger is this??

he’s not even doing anything! come on Shouto what are you doing to us. this isn’t fair

also, what happened to your hand? why is it all smooth. I assume because of some fire bullshit you’re about to do, but that’s still just weird looking

oh and on the last page there’s a long translator note explaining what I mentioned before about “chinchin” meaning penis. sometimes on select occasions I’m down with Horikoshi perpetually having the mind of a 12-year-old. if he wants to make this a recurring thing I won’t complain, lol

[surveysonfleek]

1155.

1. What was the last job you applied for? it was for an online company. didn’t get it. 2. When was the last time you stayed home from work or school? For what reason? i faked sick. there was a huge accident on the way to work and i got too lazy to sit in traffic 1.5hr longer than i usually do. 3. Do you ever have reactions that are inappropriate for the situation at hand (ex - laughing during a very serious situation, etc)? probably as a kid. i’m better at controlling my emotions now. 4. What was the last new TV show you started watching and what did you think of it? i started watching this show, electric dreams. it’s a little like black mirror. the first ep was pretty boring. 5. How do you feel about people posting lyrics as Facebook statuses/tweets/etc? i don’t see this that often.

6. Who last owed you money? my sister, who paid it back asap lol. 7. What’s the latest you’ve ever had dinner? like 10pm maybe? 8. Is there something that your friends do unconsciously that you really love (ex - watching them get excited over something they like)? their laughs i guess. 9. Have you ever had a tarot reading or palm reading? nope. 10. What was the last thing you gave up on? myself lol. 11. When was the last time you had a headache? about a week ago. i never get headaches so i complained about it nonstop. 12. What was the last thing you ordered online? glasses. i just got a new prescription and didn’t want to shell out too much money so i bought a cheap pair to see how it goes. 13. Would you rather be too busy or never have anything to do? Why? lately i’ve been too busy so i just want a day where i do absolutely nothing. when i have nothing to do i’d rather be busy. meh lol. 14. Can you describe the last time you felt like time was moving impossibly slow? at work. always. 15. When was the last time you encountered a puppy? it’s been awhile actually! i think i saw one while driving. 16. What is your favorite kind of soda/juice? soda - root beer or vanilla coke. juice - fresh oj with pulp. 17. What is the worst injury you’ve ever gotten? probably fracturing my pinky. 18. Is there anything that happened a long time ago that you still laugh about? always!    19. Do you ever try to interpret your dreams? haha not really. i’ve always wondered but i’ve never gone out of my way to google it. 20. Do you have any mild food allergies? lactose intolerance. 21. What was the last thing you bought impulsively? dry shampoo. why not. 22. How do you feel about singing songs out loud in front of other people? no thanks. 23. When was the last time you were feeling really, really nervous? always. everyday. 24. If you’re no longer in school, what is something you miss about it? If you’re still in school, what’s something you think you’re going to miss about it? i actually don’t miss much about it apart from the fact life was much simpler. 25. What is the greatest amount of money you’ve spent on a concert ticket? How much would you be willing to spend to see your favorite band/artist? $150 i think. but when you account festivals like tomorrowland and coachella i’ve spent a ton more. i’d spend no more than $200. i’ve seen all my favourite artists tbh. 26. Do you use your turn signals when you’re driving? duh. it pisses me off when people don’t. 27. How did you get your last bruise? i forgot. 28. Have you ever heard a recording of your voice? What did you think of it? yes haha. i hate it.    29. Do you have any irrational fears? cockroaches. 30. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve been stuck in traffic? two hours.

[satireknight]

TMNT S02E02 - The Incredible Shrinking Turtles

They sound like some kind of circus act, don’t they?

So the story opens in Central Park (not named, but obvious), where Leonardo is busy ruining Raphael’s camouflage hat as a demonstration of why they need to be vigilant and train... only to get humiliated when Donatello disarms him while he’s talking.

There’s then a brief segment where Michelangelo plays a prank on them by dressing in a Shredder costume and dropping in on them, which just makes me wonder if the Turtles have the same myopic affliction as everyone else. Like, you can’t see that this person is the guy you’ve lived with all your lives?

Just then a spaceship crash-lands. I’m not kidding, that actually happens: a spaceship crash-lands in Central Park with a jet-engine sound, and nobody sees it except the Turtles. April must be cussing up a storm.

They immediately dive into the nearest pond to rescue the pilot, a withered-looking little alien in a nightgown who always sounds like he’s got really bad asthma.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where Shredder is... he’s hiding in a bush. That is what Krang has reduced the guy to, following the Turtles around in public and lurking in bushes like a perverted creeper.

Fun exchange:

“Quick, boil some water!”

“We’re not delivering a baby, dimbo!”

“I heard it in a movie.”

The alien quickly exposits that they have to find the three fragments of the Eye of Sarnath, which grants incredible power to anyone who has it. Naturally Shredder hears that part and practically salivates over it. So the alien gives Donatello a crystal tracking device that can take him to the fragments. Yay, we have an arc plot! Then he dies.

Krang is still telling Shredder to fuck off until he can do something right.

The Turtles follow the crystal tracker to the dockside, where garbage is being loaded onto a scow.

“We’re going to dive right into that garbage, no questions asked!”

Donatello whines a little about having to do this sort of shit all the time, before getting literally yanked into the garbage headfirst. He finds it in about two seconds flat... only for this to happen.

Maybe if you DIDN’T hold it up over your head like that.

In an interesting reversal of the usual, the Turtles kinda get their butts handed to them by Shredder. I’m not sure why, except that they seem pretty unaware of their surroundings, which maybe ties into the whole training sequence at the beginning of the episode?

And then the fragment gets all glowy.

It’s shiny. That means it must be important.

And if the title didn’t tip you off, the Turtles immediately start shrinking down to the size of not-very-large dolls.

Shredder kind of sucks at chasing them, since they are small, fast and there are four of them going in different directions. Of course, Donatello is carrying around an object larger and heavier than he is, so he tires out pretty quickly. Fortunately a really unsafe garbage truck driver scatters them, and they’re able to escape in the dust cloud.

Of course, they’re still so tiny that an alleycat could easily munch them down, and they have to get back to their normal size. Which is a problem when you have to get past pedestrians. And when Leonardo insists on telling them to cheer up because, hey, it can’t get worse.

Shaddup, Leonardo.

So they’re washed down a grate and somehow manage not to die from either the fall or the water, and make their way home. Splinter is obviously not pleased, because it means he’ll have to take over the action part of the episode, which rarely ends well for him.

So he calls April to drive him around, while she’s in the Orange Juice meeting. Seriously, every person is drinking OJ. You know, April O’Neil was decades ahead of the trend of having your cell phone go off at odd moments, thus annoying every person around you.

Krang is still telling Shredder to fuck off until he has a pile of dead bodies to show for it.

April is chauffeuring Splinter around (I think that’s the only reason he called her) when they get news that someone is shrinking the Empire State building, which in no way impacts the foundation or the plumbing.

And pretty soon Shredder has a whole terrarium of shrunken buildings, which Igor... I mean, Baxter seems FAR too impressed by.

April and Splinter end up in a traffic jam, in which nobody notices that the guy in the passenger seat is a giant rat. Meanwhile, the Turtles are eating a single slice of pizza, which is more than enough for any of them except Michelangelo.

Then the whole place floods. Like, not for any reason; water just starts pouring in. They all climb on a bar of soap, which... does soap float? In my personal experience, it tends to sink right to the bottom and land on my foot.

Then because the universe hates them, a snake shows up.

Fortunately it’s a very stupid snake that just eats anything thrown at it, so Leonardo gets it to fuck off by feeding it lumps of soap.

Krang tells Shredder to fuck off AGAIN, pointing out that he demanded the Turtles and not shrunken-down buildings, which Shredder was absolutely sure would impress him. Baxter has also created a device that will track down turtles... which would probably be more useful if things like pets didn’t exist.

Meanwhile, the soap is almost gone and everyone is trying to strangle Leonardo.

Or maybe that’s just what it looks like. Michelangelo looks like he’s spooning him.

They end up washing out to sea, which in itself doesn’t seem to be a big deal, since they’re able to comfortably hang out and talk underwater. Fun fact: Turtles in fact cannot breathe underwater, they’re just very good at holding their breath.

Then a piranha attacks.

Maybe Splinter should have put them in a terrarium before leaving the house, for their own good.

Then they’re rescued from the fish by Igor.

I think this might qualify as the worst day of their lives thus far. And one of those days involved listening to the Neutrinos.

Shredder uses them to prove to Krang that he does NOT suck, so there, and why won’t you love me back, Krang? Seriously, he seems to need so much validation.

Donatello tries to defend himself with cliched writing, much to the scorn of the others, and Shredder prepares to kill them with a crowbar. Well, he could have just put them in a jar with no airholes, and that would have probably turned out the same.

Just then the Turtle Van busts in the door (good thing Splinter’s funny feelings are completely trustworthy, or that might have gotten awkward) and Splinter springs out to fight Shredder.

In all the commotion, April decides to do something useful by finding the Turtles in their jar, which she... doesn’t open.

Instead she just sort of coos about how tiny and adorable they are. Donatello tells her to get the crystal and aim it at them, on the assumption that it probably works both ways.

Splinter, meanwhile, is not doing so well against Shredder.

“Quick, April, turn on the beam!” AND OPEN THE JAR. For reasons that become immediately obvious when they start growing, but are getting squished against the sides of the jar.

Fortunately when they literally explode out of the jar, because April couldn’t take two seconds to dump them out, Donatello’s staff goes flying and switches off the machine just before it was going to kill Splinter. And boy is he ever aware of that.

He knocks Shredder onto the floor next to the fragment and... wait, the floor? Where did April go? Did she figure, “Well, I’ve done my part” and just leave the building, dumping the dangerous crystal fragment on the floor as she went?

The Turtles are about to pursue him when Splinter stops them.

“It is useless to try.” The episode’s almost over, and you already got shrunk once already.

And... wait, since Shredder got away with the crystal fragment... what about the buildings? Is this episode literally going to end with multiple buildings, including the Empire State building, being permanently shrunken down to the size of action figures?! 

Verdict:

So this episode was much more enjoyable than the last one, and not just because it doesn’t focus on some random dolts in costumes. It’s a pretty decent version of the help-we’re-tiny-and-dealing-with-tiny-perils story that a lot of shows do (even ST:DS9, one time), as well as setting up a small story arc that will last for a few more episodes.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that the characters had some brain farts that were impossible not to notice, like Michelangelo literally stepping on a snare. Or, you know, April not letting them out of the jar.

But overall, it’s a pretty good episode that maintains some decent suspense, with the Turtles trying really hard not to get squashed, eaten or flushed away. And it gave Splinter something to do, rather than just lurking at home and waiting to see what problems they came home with.

Grade: B-

[racingtoaredlight]

Why I Stopped Shopping At Yard Sales

Ever since my Grampa retired, he’s been an out-of-control yard sale fiend. He LIVES for the rush of dickering some poor jamoke down from five dollars to three on an ancient, greasy cookbook, or getting an unsuspecting lady to throw in a free bag of wire clothes hangers along with his purchase of an old Bo Diddley record. 

He even has different yard sale personas at his disposal. He chooses which one to deploy after he gets a read on the proprietor of a particular junk collection. When he sees fit, he’ll exaggerate the Irish brogue he normally speaks with ever so slightly, instantly transforming himself into Gregarious Man of the World, or maybe he’ll slump his posture just a bit, and lower his speaking volume to make himself into the Frail Old Man. He’s absolutely diabolical, I love it. 

Ordinarily, my grandmother is his partner-in-crime for the yard sale sprees, but every once in awhile, she needs a break from the knick-knacks and lightly-used exercise equipment. When that happens, Grampa likes to seek out a substitute co-pilot. One Saturday in June, I was that substitute co-pilot. 

As my grandfather would tell you, one of the keys to finding a major yard sale score is to get there before the bulk of the vultures show up to pick at the carcass of obsolescence. With that in mind, I threw on my best bargain-hunting outfit and my hagglin’ cap, and scooted over to my grandparents’ house at 7 AM sharp. 

When I walked into their house, I was struck by two things. The first was that it was a solid 85 degrees in there. Every time I visit I’m amazed at how unbelievably warm they keep things. My grandfather will be sitting there in his overstuffed chair wearing a light sweater, just as comfy as you please, while I’m standing there in a t-shirt wondering if I’ve accidentally wandered into a giant kiln. The second thing I was struck by, was the smell created by the gloriously huge breakfast my gram was cooking up. Eggs over-easy, homemade sausage, scratch-made pancakes, toasted bread from the bakery up the street, coffee, and OJ--my grandmother wasn’t messing around. She didn’t want us rummaging on an empty stomach, evidently. My grandmother is the best. 

After stuffing our faces and catching up on all of the (not remotely) salacious family gossip, it was time to go. My Grampa dramatically bid adieu to his bride, planted an extra-theatrical kiss on her, and the two of us piled into the Toyota Tacoma that he most definitely purchased for the explicit purpose of hauling yard sale plunder around in. 

I’m not sure what was more fun, shooting the breeze with my Grampa in between stops, or watching The Master in action as he used techniques and instincts honed through decades spent negotiating deals in the cut-throat realm of the textile business in order to pay slightly less money for an extremely beat-up end table that will almost certainly spend the rest of eternity tucked away in the corner of a barn.

My grandfather and I are extremely similar personality-wise, but one area where we diverge is when it comes to “stuff.” What I mean is, I cannot STAND clutter, and frequently get rid of things the second they no longer provide enough utility to justify their existence. Obviously, Grampa doesn’t feel the same way, given his addiction to acquisition. So, while he came away from most sales with at least something to show for it that Saturday, I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on anything. I came close a few times, there was a decent-looking Dutch oven at one place, a hilariously ugly Red Sox-themed lamp at another, and an Atari complete with a couple dozen games called to me from a box under a table at one point. But, I resisted. 

We were headed home and in the middle of discussing how to go about fixing up the Victrola he’d miraculously found at an estate sale when I spotted a sign nailed to a tree indicating there was a sale 7 miles down a dirt road just ahead on the right. I suggested that we hit it up, and shockingly my grandfather was hesitant. He said the only house down that road was a huge, odd-looking farmhouse, with no electricity or running water. The family who lived there hardly ever came into town, and they had a reputation for being a little strange. In addition to that, the entire family had vanished without a trace over the previous winter. The whole thing gave him the creeps.

Here was another area where our two personalities diverged: whereas this unsettling information made my grandfather want to avoid this place like the plague, it made me want to check it out even more. Plus, I was feeling a little bad about the fact that I hadn’t bought anything all day. I didn’t want my grandfather to think for a second that I’d view the day spent with him as a waste of my time just because I didn’t get anything material out of the experience. I don’t THINK that thought would’ve crossed his mind, but I didn’t want to leave even the possibility of it. I wanted to head to this place, and I was determined to come away with something for my troubles. He threw his hands up and said “Alright, if you really want to I guess we can scope it out,” so I tore off down the dusty road. 

The house was definitely “off” looking. I’m not really sure how else to describe it. The whole structure leaned to one side, but instead of giving the impression of a building on the verge of collapse, it evoked thoughts of a dangerous animal crouching in wait. You’d think such a large house that had an entire family living in it would have boatloads of junk to get rid of, but the entire yard sale consisted of a single table covered with odds and ends. The items included but were not limited to: some silverware, a cast-iron pot, a few tobacco pipes, an ancient-looking bassinet, and a bunch of little figurines. Some of the figurines were the typical mass-produced porcelain-type things, others looked to be hand-carved wood. I frankly didn’t want any of these things, and the whole scene really was pretty creepy. The only people around for miles were my grandfather, myself, and the pale young woman sitting behind the table. But, I’d insisted on coming out here, and I wasn’t coming away empty-handed. I decided to buy a cat figurine, for no particular reason other than I own a cat. The figurine didn’t look like my cat at all. In fact, I’m quite sure it didn’t look like ANYONE’S cat.

Much like the house it came from, this kitty looked “off.” The part of me that was creeped out by it was overwhelmed by the part of me that found it hilarious in it’s abject weirdness. I picked it up and asked the young lady how much it cost. In a voice barely more than a whisper, she said “one dollar.” The smallest bill I had on me was a five, so I handed it to her and waited for my change. She opened the metal box in front of her and I peeked inside and noticed that it was totally empty. It appeared to me that we were the first/only customers of the day. She stared at the inside of the box for a good fifteen seconds, and then slowly looked up at me, saying nothing. I told her to keep the change and started off toward the truck. My grandfather was already halfway there. 

We rode quietly for a few minutes before my grandfather broke the silence by saying “It’s bugging me that there were no other vehicles at that place. How’d that girl get out there?” It was a good question. 

The vibe in the truck returned to normal after we’d been riding on pavement for a bit, and the only other time the world’s worst yard sale was brought up was when I was about to leave my grandparents’ house and my grandfather told me I oughta pitch that little cat figure into the lake down the street. 

I really should’ve listened to my grandfather. The ancient evil dwelling within the cat figurine wasted no time sinking it’s claws into me. Ever since I brought that God-forsaken thing into my home, I haven’t had the urge to do anything other than drink beer, have sex, eat decadent treats of all kinds, and binge-watch things on Netflix. It’s all because of the cat. Within weeks of purchasing the Hell-forged abomination, I was doing things like taking days off to blow through a season of a TV show, and eating dessert on a weeknight. The cat is wrecking my life and I’m powerless to resist it’s commands. I signed up for TWO fantasy football leagues! I looked at porn in a non-incognito window! I forgot to pick my girlfriend up at work! ALL BECAUSE OF THE DEMON ATTACHED TO THE CAT STATUE! 

I’m sharing this story in the hope that nobody will repeat my mistake and find themselves showing up hungover to their nephew’s birthday party through no fault of their own. Please, trust your gut when yard-saling. If something feels like it might be harboring a demonic presence that will compel you to drunkenly smoke half a pack of cigarettes even though you quit years ago, it probably is. 

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[sinsiriuslyemo]

A/N: My bad…#NewEpisode

EPISODE 26

When you finally got to the restaurant, he wordlessly got out of the car and went around to open your door for you. Walking in behind you, he led you into what used to be the kitchen, where your father was tied up to a chair, blood running down the side of his head where he’d been struck.

You stared at him, not even noticing the other men in the room as you crouched down, kneeling in front of the man to examine the wound. Your father simply gave you a side-eyed glare as Nevada pulled out his gun, and held it in front of him, pointing towards the ground while he casually watched you and your father.

You frowned and reached into your purse, grabbing one of the bandages from the kit you kept for the kids and placed it right over his cut. Matias snorted, looking up at your husband.

“A girl will always love her daddy,” he mused.

You grabbed him by his throat, standing and leaning in for a moment.

“Don't mistake my mercy for love,” you whispered. “I hope he slits your throat, I just don't want you to die of an infection before I can put a bullet in you myself.”

You let go of his throat and used your heel to kick the chair back, sending him hard back against the cement.

There was an almost frightening way you acted. It was cold, unlike you. In fact it wasn't even like Nevada. There was absolutely nothing in your eyes as you stared at your father. Nevada smirked as he watched you, somehow connecting with you on a deeper level in that moment.

“You stupid bitch,” Matias snarled. “You’re fucking dead. And those bastard babies of yours? I’ll make sure you watch them drown one by one!”

Nevada fought the urge to put a bullet in this puto when he heard that. It was your fight though, and he showed restraint unlike any he’d ever known.

“You won't live long enough to make good on that promise,” you said coldly. You tugged the chair back up and looked at him. “Do you have any idea what I'm gonna do to you?” You whispered with a smirk. “If I get the green light, I'm gonna do everything to you that you did to me in Vegas. I am going to waterboard you with so much pain, that you are going to beg me for death and when you finally can't hold on any longer, I'm going to put a bullet in you, to show you what mercy truly looks like,” you whispered.

“You don’t have it in you,” he growled.

“Yeah, she does,” Nevada warned.

“You stay out of this. You know the only reason she’s with you is because you knocked her up in the first place. Bet when she first laid eyes on you, she thought of it like she was saving me. Isn’t that right, mija? Poor little bitch didn’t grow up with her papi,” he cooed sarcastically, pouting at her and feigning tears.

“Poor little bitch,” you whispered back to yourself and punch him hard, your wedding ring catching on his face and ripping a long cut across his cheek. “I grew up with the best--” Punch. “Father figure--” Punch. “I could have asked for!” Punch. “Rafi was a better father than you could ever been and he was only thirteen,” you growled and held out your hand. “Give me a gun!”

“No, not yet,” your husband said, nodding to Josiah and OJ, who picked up Matias, shoving a dirty rag into his mouth and dragging him into the walk in cooler. Your husband walked up to you, and tucked his gun into the back of his waistband. “We still need him, but when we’re done with him. He’s all yours,” he promised.

“Bring him back, I want him now,” you growled at him, almost animalistic.

“You can’t have him now,” he answered calmly.

Your eyes narrowed at him and you moved to reach for his gun. He caught your wrist with snake-like reflexes and shook you gently.

“Oye! I said you can’t have him now, unless you want me and OJ to do thirty years in a max prison,” he growled.

You tensed when he shook you and recoiled, smoothing your hair back and looking away from him. He took a careful step closer to you and eased his grip on your wrist.

“We need him for now, me entiendes? Once we’re done with him, you can hang him from the chandelier in the dining room for all I care, pero right now he’s only good to us alive.”

You nodded, pulling your wrist back away from him and biting your lip, staring at your feet.

“I'm sorry,” you whispered, before moving to the bathroom to splash cold water on your face.

“It’s okay,” he said as he leaned against the doorframe. “You okay? He said some pretty hurtful shit in there.”

“Nothing I'm not used to from him,” you whispered. “In fact, in comparison to his normal stuff, he was downright kind.” You pressed your forehead against the mirror and let out a choked sob.

Pulling you against him, Nevada hugged you tightly, dropping a kiss on your forehead.

“I want you to take the time to think long and hard about whether you’re gonna pull that trigger when the time comes, me entiendes?” he whispered to you. “There’s nothing wrong with you wanting to walk away. I just want you to know that kind of burden is heavy...it changes you. Killing your own father. I would know, so if you decide that you can’t bear the weight, I can carry it for you.”

You looked at him and nodded, leaning in and giving him a long kiss. He was right, this was something huge. You were sure you were ready for that. He kissed you back, cradling your face and nibbling on your bottom lip.

“I love you,” he said, brushing your hair back.

“I love you too. So much.” You pulled him closer and took a shaky breath.

“Come on,” he said softly. “I’ll drop you off at Gladys’, be with the kids. Think.” He kissed you. “I gotta go take care of something, and then I’ll come back to get you, okay?”

You looked truly sad that he was leaving, but nodded. You understood things needed to be fine. He nodded as well as walked you back to the SUV, driving you over to Gladys’ apartment, where his mother was watching the kids. Before you got out, he took your hand, gaining your attention.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” he promised. “After we’re done, we’ll go home, be with our babies. Then we’ll be with each other after we put them to bed, si?”

You nodded and kissed his hand gently, pressing your nose against his to savor the moment of silence together.

“I love you,” he said again, kissing you softly. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

-----

Rafael jotted some notes down on the files he’d printed, sighing softly and putting them to the side. Looking over at Roxie, he smirked softly as he reached for her.

“You know if you wanted to go home, sleep in a real bed, I’d understand, mi amor,” he said softly.

She shook her head, biting the cap of her pen and staring at her business files. Playing with a lock of her hair, he tried to lean towards her to kiss her neck, groaning when his side screamed in pain.

“Stop fidgeting,” she sighed and moved closer so he wouldn't have to. She kissed his jaw gently.

“Why don’t I bother the nurse, ask her to bring us a paper, and we can do the crossword together?” he suggested.

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I have business to take care of,” she said softly before looking at him and sighing. “I'm sorry, I'm pms-ing,” she kissed him and nuzzled her nose against his neck. “You know I love you, I'm just cranky.”

“I know,” he mumbled. “How about a foot massage? I still have the use of my hands, and I’ve been told that my massages aren’t half bad,” he offered.

She shook her head and just leaned in, kissing him. “I'm sorry I'm so grouchy,” she whispered and kissed down his neck. “I'm under a lot of pressure at work,” she kissed him again, soft and sweet. “I'm also worried about you,” she said gently. “I want someone to pay for what they did,” she whispered.

“Come talk to me about it,” he said softly, pulling her into bed beside him. “Tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.” He stroked her hair softly, kissing her forehead.

She snuggled against him. “This bakery isn't making enough money to pay for the damage that it sustained in the robbery,” she whispered. “If we close...I'll have to go back to London.”

“What about the insurance? I thought it was all taken care of,” he mused.

“It took care of a fair chunk, but it scared off a lot of the clients. We're hemorrhaging at the moment,” she whispered. It was the look a kid had when you tell them there's no Santa Claus. Crushed. As if her dreams were being ripped from her right in front of him.

“Well...we’ll figure something out,” he said softly, brushing her hair with his fingers. “What about the city fair? It’s coming up next month, if you got the bakery signed up, you could sell some cupcakes, get the word out. New customer base,” he suggested.

She nodded, “That's a good idea,” she whispered and looked up at him seriously. “I wouldn't want to go,” she said honestly.

“I wouldn't want you to.”

“Ew, why are you guys always like a scene from The Notebook.” Izzy chuckled as she came in, hopping on the bed and handing Rafael his laptop. “Here ya go, but I believe I was promised fifty dollars.”

He looked just like a child who’d been caught with his hands in the cookie jar as he looked over at Roxie.

“My wallet’s in my jacket over there,” he mumbled before he looked down at Roxie. “If you go, I go,” he said simply.

She kissed him and bit his lip, glaring. “We agreed, no working,” she hissed.

“I’m not working,” he replied, opening his laptop and looking up the city fair, clicking on the applications page. “I’m helping you keep your bakery open.” He turned the laptop to face her and smirked softly.

“The bakery is closing?” Izzy asked with a concerned look. “It can’t close!”

“It's just having a bit of a cash flow problem at the moment,” Roxie said softly.

“I have cash, do you want cash?” Izzy said seriously. “I have a ton of cash.”

Rafael arched a brow, “With what job do you have all this cash, Izzy?” he asked.

“Cash wouldn’t do me any good, Izzy. The robbery scared away my customers. What I need is more people coming into the bakery,” Roxie answered. “Besides, I couldn’t take your money.”

“I married a top selling recording artist, I'm rolling in cash. But I also have money saved up that Vincent left me...before I put him in jail.” She made a face.

“You didn’t put him in prison, he put himself there,” Rafael corrected gently. “And maybe you oughta get a job, unless Lila doesn’t mind being your sugar mama.”

“Lila knows I don't care about money, she's doesn't either, it's just...there.” Izzy shrugged. “We were talking about emptying her bank accounts and just putting it all in a room so we can roll in it,” she beamed.

“That is...ridiculous,” Rafael groaned softly, earning a giggle from his girlfriend. “You should invest it. I hate to say it but, you need money to get through life. You should find something to invest in...IRA, CD,” he suggested. “Be smart.”

“Lila has accountants to deal with that,” she waved a hand and held out her finger with a smile. “Look, we got our rings engraved.”

On the side of her bright diamond was written in tiny scrawl. You're okay, I guess.

“How romantic,” Rafael mumbled. “If you have so much money, give me my fifty bucks back,” he added with a smirk. “Us regular folk need every dollar to survive.”

She shook her head, “Nope this fifty is in my inconvenience jar. Anytime you bother me, I throw a twenty in. When I fill the jaw, I'm gonna take you to dinner,” she grinned.

“So I’m an inconvenience?” he asked with a smirk. “How sweet of you, hermanita. You should inconvenience yourself to grab Roxie and I some lunch,” he added.

She rolled her eyes and smiled, “Sure, what do you guys feel like eating?” she asked casually.

“How about something from Lavender Bakery?” Rafael suggested. “I could use another taste of home about now,” he added, winking at Roxie.

Izzy nodded, “Cool, anything else?”

“Will you feed Mowgli and take him for a walk?” Roxie chimed in.

“You want me to take your pig for a walk..?”

“Yes, he should have some fresh air,” Roxie replied.

“Yeah, the poor little guy has been cooped up in the apartment for the last couple days. Mami went last night to leave some water and food down for him, but other than that, he hasn’t had any company,” Rafael added.

Izzy rolled her eyes, “Fine, we'll go to the park,” she hummed happily. She hugged Rafael and Roxie before heading out.

----

Nevada walked into the precinct in Washington Heights, asking for Agent Harkness at the front desk. He had Matias Barba, the man Harkness had been dying to get her hands on. He only hoped it would be enough to negotiate a trade.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” She asked with crossed arms. She was not in a good mood.

“I got a little something you’ve been looking for, mami,” he replied with a smirk. “You got a minute?”

She casually nodded him inside, “You have something that'll interest me.”

“Why else would I be here?” he asked as she led him into a side office and closed the door. “What if I told you, I could hand you Matias Barba on a silver fucking platter?”

She quirked a brow. “Out of the kindness of your heart? What's the catch?”

“Well, I mean...you wanted him pretty bad, so...maybe you could return the favor,” he replied. “Maybe forget this weapons charge you got on me and my friends,” he suggested casually.

She snorted a laugh, “Not a fucking chance.”

“Aww come on,” he whispered softly, smiling at her. “Heard you got bumped off the case, I still came to you with this,” he added.

She didn’t appear to be budging at all, confirming his suspicion when she shook her head again.

“Okay, no more bullshit. I want a lot less than 30 years. A lot less,” he said.

“Fifteen for you and Oscar Diaz Jr. Rest of the men, no time,” she said flatly. “Parole in ten.”

“No hard time, mami. You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“Prison too hard for you, princess?”

“Oh I can do time just fine, mami. But I got kids, and a wife now. She doesn’t want me away for so long,” he replied with a smirk. She sneered and thought.

“Five years, parole in thirteen months, but for that, I want Kenja Lee.”

Nevada smirked, “I could work with that. One more thing...we keep this between you and I. My crew finds out I’m handing these comè mierdas over to the Feds, they’ll kill me for being a rat. So get the paperwork ready, you put that deal in writing, get it to my lawyer, and I’ll sign whatever I gotta sign. But we keep my end of the bargain between us, me entiendes?”

She nodded and smirked, “I gotta know, what's making you rat? What turns Trujillo into someone who helps the Feds?”

“Like I said, I got kids now...a wife. I can do time with my hands tied behind my back, they can’t,” he answered. “Neither can my brother’s kids.”

She nodded and smirked, moving to her laptop. “You can leave now,” she dismissed him.

Turning and opening the door, he left the police department, getting back into the SUV and driving over to the restaurant.

-----

Matias was still tied to the chair and smirking at Nevada. “Welcome back,” he chuckled.

His son in law mirrored his smirk, taking off his jacket casually and folding it before laying it on the table in the corner. He did the same with his button down shirt, folding it neatly and setting it beside the toolbox being used by the construction crew that was rebuilding the restaurant.

“I promised my wife that she could be the one to kill you…”

He opened up the toolbox, examining the tools inside.

“Pero, I never said anything about not having a little fun before hand. I need you to tell me where that little puta mierda wife of yours is...and I’m a patient guy.”

He took out a miniature drill, and pulled the trigger before setting it back down. Torture was all about imagination, making your victim reel with the possibilities of what might happen to them. It was a mental chess game of sorts, and one that Nevada was not only good at, but thoroughly enjoyed.

“Creative, too,” he added, picking up a staple gun and turning to face Matias.

“Well then you're already out of my daughter's league,” he chuckled darkly. “Go ahead and do what you want, I'm not scared of you or your little whore wife.”

Nevada turned the corners of his mouth downward, nodding in amusement before he walked towards Matias. Putting the staple gun to his chest, he pulled the trigger just above Matias’ heart, where it would hurt the most.

The man gritted his teeth but stayed silent. “That all you got?” He asked with a growl, spitting in Nevada's face. “Please, I've done worse to Rafael when he was a toddler,” he snorted with a laugh.

“I know...I’m just getting started, trust me,” Nevada replied. “You know...this one time, when we were kids, my brothers and me went drinking and ran into this little gringito, trying to prove to his friends that he could handle a night out in el barrio. So we decided to have a little fun…”

He put two more staples into Matias.

“We got him hammered, stripped him and put him into an adult diaper, stuck a pacifier in his mouth…”

He put three more staples into his father in law.

“Stapled a sign to his chest, ‘Retarded baby, wake me up.’ Put him right outside his girlfriend’s house,” he said before putting more staples into Matias’ body. “I always wondered if it hurt getting them out…”

He reached for one of the staples and yanked it out.

This time the man grunted, straining against his restraints.

“Fucker,” he growled and tried to lunge at Nevada. “You think you can hurt me? Even if I die, I win. If you kill me, she will never forgive you. She will slowly learn that she didn't marry a good man. She married her father. You really think we're that different? We're the same person pendejo.”

“I’m nothing like you, cabrón. I don’t beat on my wife and my kid cause I gamble all my sorrows away. Que paso, pendejo, your daddy never loved you?” Nevada cooed, moving to set the staple gun down before he grabbed the drill. “Oh, this looks like fun...you ready to tell me where that puta mierda of a wife is?” he asked, holding the end of the bit against Matias’ shoulder.

“I don't owe her anything,” he laughed. “If you wanna know where she is, princess. Just ask nicely.”

“Just like that, huh? What’s in it for you?” Nevada asked, tapping the trigger so that bit dug into his father in law’s kneecap and the older man growled in pain. “I ain’t never known a scumbag to give something away for free.”

“Well here's a fun secret to let you in on. I may not be afraid to die, but I'm also not exactly excited to welcome death. Let me go, I'll tell you what you want. I don't give a shit about her.”

“That’s not up to me,” Nevada replied. “I made a promise, and unlike you...I keep my word,” he added. “So, why don’t you tell me…” He tapped the trigger again, and Matias groaned. “...what I wanna know.” He gave the trigger of the drill another tap. “You do, and I’ll make sure it’s quick.”

“She won't do it, she couldn't,” he said seriously. “She doesn't have it in her.”

“If she doesn’t…” Nevada replied, leaning forward a bit to whisper, “I will.”

Pulling the trigger again, he pushed the spinning drill bit into Matias’ kneecap, earning a scream this time.

“TALK MOTHER FUCKER!!” he shouted over the noise of the drill.

Matias jerked against the drill, groaning and rocking himself and the chair forward, effectively headbutting Nevada, knocking himself forwards onto the floor. Putting his hand to his nose, Nevada check for blood, smirking a little when he found some.

“That wasn’t smart,” he mused, moving to drill a hole in the center of Matias’ palm. “Only way you can get up now is if I pull you up. How’s your face feel?” he asked, taunting the older man.

The man made a noise of agony as he tried to move away from the drill again.

“You're a Fucking coward, either kill me or let me go! You wanna know where she is? Fine! But stop fucking around!”

“The only place you’re going is hell, pendejo. You can tell me what I wanna know, and go quickly or you can keep stalling,” Nevada replied. “I don’t know about you, but I’m having fun. Let’s do the other hand.”

“Alright! Alright!!! I’ll tell you, she's at a safehouse in Jersey. I'll give you the address,” he growled.

“Good,” Nevada replied, pulling out a pen and paper. “I’m listening.”

[momtaku]

SnK Chapter 92 Poll

I’ll be closing the chapter 92 poll tonight so this is your last chance if you’d like to chime in. 

Take a Poll

I’ve received 406 responses thus far and 103 people have left comments. I especially appreciated this one

Did this very distractedly, watchin that Netflix show about OJ Simpson at the same time

Thanks, dude :P More chapter thoughts are below the read more

Reiner is getting hotter with each passing chapter. I fear we may rapidly be approaching a state of ultimate hotness that may be too much for us mere mortals to handle.

DA BEAST DADDY IS DA BEST DADDY.

Zeke's mid air transformation followed by a superhero landing is all I needed for my life to be complete

It's a boy!

I liked how much the new warriors look up to the older warriors How did Zeke drug Connies village if this is really required for his scream to work? And I wonder, are there eldians outside of Marly and paradis Island? Because the east sea nation don't have a high opinion of them as well. So, I wonder how they are treated in their society if they happen live there.

The reactions of the warriors reminded me a lot of how almost everyone reacted during Trost - most of them only knew how horrific it was, they'd never seen it. And it was HEARTBREAKING FOR EVERYONE. (But while Gaillard is agile, Ymir's titan didn't have the special jaw design, which would be weird AF if she really was the "Jaw Titan." So I'm pretty sure she's still safe).

I miss Erwin & Bert so much

Pieck's metal armour was rad

WHERE ARE MY LITTLE CHILDREN??

It hit me like a double-decker.

It was gucci

That chapter was well-done action-wise. It was cool to see the warriors of Marley in action. I'm still sad about Reiner's potential fate but I have to get prepared for him to die next chapter or in the chapter after. Poor boy only dedicated his life to an imposed duty since childhood without a break, on top of losing everybody he loved. If he dies I still have Zeke, but Reiner was my favorite warrior alongside Bert. Gabi and Falco warmed on me but not enough. I still want to spend the whole volume on Marley before moving on. no time-skips surprised me...

Zeke doesn't look he's aged a day. It was nice to see him again.

The only wow element for me was older Reiner. That's it.

I'm afraid Isayama will return to the main cast for the rest of the volume. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Reiner and Zeke, plus now we have Falco and Gabi characters (and Pieck and Galliard on top of that). I feel there should be better a introduction for the new cast, and at least some update about Reiner\Zeke ( their worldview, their rediness to pass on their titans, their opinion on the candidats, at least some interactions with them). Also, I yet so see Mare's side of the conflict, and not oppreses Mare's Eldians, but actual Mare's people (military and civilians alike). So far we've met only two officers and they were jerks. Mare's still painted pretty black, I would like to see some gray areas as well.

Better than the last two

Where the fuck is Ymir!?

I'm getting a little tired of all these new characters, and while seeing Reiner again was quite nostalgic, I really wish Isayama would bring the story back to the original characters soon.

I think Reiner's not out for the count yet, but here's something I can totally see happening: we switch back to the Paradis people and the Marleyans attack them. Everyone thinks the Armored Titan is Reiner and they try talking to him only to discover it's one of the new people. OR, for some extra tragedy, they kill/capture the titan and THEN realize it isn't even Reiner. Bonus bonus tragedy if Connie finally gets his revenge and it's not even Reiner. :( Can totally see Isayama doing that.

It was really disturbing to realize that Annie, Bertolt, Reiner, and Marcel were once probably just like Gabi, Falco, Udo, etc. They might have been idealistic, prone to kindness even to their enemies (like Falco)... or not (since it's impossible to say for sure!) But seeing what actually fighting within the walls has done to Reiner--his trauma, etc. was an excellent contrast to the relative innocence the new cast gives off, and it's heartbreaking to consider that the Warriors we know may have once been the same way. Eren & co. please arrive promptly and save them.

It was boring.

I wish they would show why zeke was the holder of the key to the whole story.

Very intense chapter with stunning art.

Everything went south, but it's good to finally have some knowledge about what's going on outside.

Mule titan is the new best titan

I am sad that "Hot Dayum Daddy-o" Is not an acceptable answer for Reiner's hotness raiting. I also better see a warrior backstory before Isayama ties the noose for good on Reiner if he indeed decides to kill him off.

i have been giving this particular chapter a LOT of thought, and after looking back to ch. 51 of the manga, particularly at the picture of connie's mother in comparison to the drooling woman towards the front of page 2, i'm pretty convinced that the elodians were the people from ragako. that being said, i'm a slight bit skeptical that they were drugged and instead am starting to believe an older theory that just as zeke can turn people into mindless titans, he can turn them back into mindless humans.

Where's Annie

SCs better ally with the Mid-East Union or Eldians will be doomed by Marley faster.

Was surprised by how much I loved this chapter, after I so hated the last one. Oh, how far we've come since the early days of the story. I can't even imagine this in an animated form. It's too many years away.

i hope reiner will not gonna die because of gabi , if isayama want to kill him no matter what i want him to die like a hero

Something that stuck out to me was Gabi's concern for Reiner, "Reiner... be careful." It's a bit odd, she wants his power (aka eat him) but is concerned for him? Is it because of his power? Or does she know and legit care for him, but she (and the other cadets) haven't been told that eating them (the titan shifters) is a necessity to gain the power? Wouldn't that be traumatizing to figure out... I'm also curious about whether or not the warriors backstories are going to be told. Since Reiner's been knocked out (again XD) it could be a good time for the next chapter to open up with a flashback and end with him waking up? He's been kept alive for a while, and there's obviously a reason for it. I also want to know more about the other little warriors, they seem neat :)

Maybe im in denial but Reiner cant die yet, hes the warrior that knows the enemy best and needs to teach someone to use the 3dmg (If he hasnt already in these 4 years)

Something that stuck out to me was Gabi's concern for Reiner, "Reiner... be careful." It's a bit odd, she wants his power (aka eat him) but is concerned for him? Is it because of his power? Or does she know and legit care for him, but she (and the other cadets) haven't been told that eating them (the titan shifters) is a necessity to gain the power? Wouldn't that be traumatizing to figure out... I'm also curious about whether or not the warriors backstories are going to be told. Since Reiner's been knocked out (again XD) it could be a good time for the next chapter to open up with a flashback and end with him waking up? He's been kept alive for a while, and there's obviously a reason for it. I also want to know more about the other little warriors, they seem neat :)

I wanna see my children they must be so grown up, im gonna cry

fans are making too much drama for the recent lack of the main trio and the 104th squad. I'm more happy to learn about new characters outside the island and see differents points of view about the world, it gives you a global vision. Also I wish we could learn more about Marley people not for the point of view of Eldians but for themselfs or I don't know maybe from other countries? for now they are bad bad very evil duh, but I don't think in a story that constantly makes us reflect on what its good and evil the idea of Marley as the supreme ultra evil enemies is just to simple ... and lazy.

I fell 50/50 about the probabilities of Galliard eating Ymir, but the agility he has is not a proof, i don't believe the "every titan has a unique ability" thing.

Really wondering whether or not reiner may survive this since he is close to running out of time like zeke

Mule Titan is best girl

I want answers, Isayama

92 was unique, i loved it! Seeing what's happening in the other side of the ocean.

I can't wait to see more of Gabi. Gabi is best girl.

I absolutely loved this chapter. It was action packed & the ending got me so fucking hyped for next months chapter. We also got some development on the new Warriors which was really interesting. I hope they will play an important role in this arc. I'm so fucking hyped to see what the SC have been up to for the past 4 years. They probably established a base on the coast or something. btw DID I MENTION IM FUCKING HYPED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!?

i will cry in ymir is dead

It was so short it felt like "heey you guys now you have anime so manga can be less interesting". This chapter was so unnecessary IMO

#FREEANNIE2K17 better happen soon

All in all, this chapter was way more in-depth than the last one and I liked how the warrior kids all got a bit of a personal touch to them. Reiners flashback scene was the most impactful moment in my opinion. It was so heartbreaking. Also, this chapter had a proper conclusion, so I hope we're getting the main cast again next chapter.

Zophia needs more panel time.

This was a cool chapter because of the action. I am not fan of the forced bullshit Isayama has been introducing recently like the convenient amnesia in the last chapter. Make the narrative more fluid!

I thought poop machine was bad, titan carpet bombing is even more wtf

GIVE ME ARMIN'S TITAN FORM GODDAMIT

Devastating. To see the Eldians being used as mindless weapons was severely disturbing. And Zeke finally realising that War is indeed a terrible thing. These chapters are hella intense and enlightening about the world outside. It's still really sick though. Totally sick I can't even. But the thing that really excites AND frightens me the most now is WHAT HAPPENED IN WALLED WORLD WITHIN THE 4 YEARS OF TIME SKIP. Now that we've seen what the Marleyans can and intend to do, I'm feeling really anxious about the 'final' battle between the Eldians and Marleyans. With our precious badass scientist Hange and badass fighter Levi and basically the entire badass scouts, I don't think the people in the walled world, particularly the SC just sat around and did nothing. I don't need a full flashback of their 4 years (though that would be nice as well), but I do want to see how they progressed and improved during those years. I'm imagining it in my head already: the ultimate war. And then we see all the upgrades that the SC did as well, and how Eren and Armin have mastered their titans. I'm even hoping to finally see Annie again, as a villain or whatever, as long as she's put back into the story. I'm expecting a huge twist, but please not something too nasty like Eren being dead already or something. Also, I've never really warmed up to the Marleyans, and after these past chapters, I don't think I ever will. I don't think Zeke is going to get eaten, not soon, at least. He's got so many plot points that require him (Eren, Levi wanting to kill him...), but I do think it's time for Reiner to go, since he survived three extreme situations. By the way, from Marley's perspective, giving Zeke's power to a new recruit seems like a terrible idea: if they are planning to get the Coordinate, they need an experienced war chief to start immediately. It's enough that one of their five titans will need a new recruit after Reiner's demise (if it's true he is going to die, of course, I could be wrong).

It was a good chapter, but i still have no clue about the direction Yams wants to give the story. I feel like he's going too far from what SnK has Always been. I am not happy to meet the main cast, the time skip looked like a stupid way to solve all the stuff he made and we was about to male, like ema's part. In 4 years they argued and maybe thery already fixed. Sooo stupid.

Let's go back to our main cast, please.

At this point many of us think it's unlikely the warrior cadets will inherit BT or AT...but what if, in some type of critical situation, jaws or cartman are injured or whatever, and the only way to preserve the powers is by eating them in a hurry? This way, we'd keep plot relevant Reiner and Zeke, and at least some of the more important new kids (i.e. Faloc/Gabi/Colt) could stick theoretically stick around too (by eaten the aforementioned plot irrelevant shifters)? idk just a thought

It's all well and good to introduce new characters but this late in the story, after all these very dramatic plot/character changes and massive mystery revelations it's a bit... abrupt, to suddenly be with all these new people. I feel like it's a different series and no one told me about it.

I could be interesting if we saw the Marley politicians, or how do they choose the new shifters. But seeing again the Survey Corps could be great as well. Oh, and I was surprised that Reiner was still alive after their lose of multiple shifters titans. And I hope Ymir isn't dead not just bc she's my bae, but bc, contrary to Reiner to who I don't see relevant to the story anymore, so, Ymir is still I think useful too the story. She is still very mysterious and it would not be logical for the Marley government to make her eat and not Reiner and Zeke ? Or maybe it is in fact bc she could refuse to work for them ? I dunno. Still hope she's alive. Btw, is Historia going to be married in the next chapters (for political reasons...) 

Why would they make Galliard eat Ymir when they could make a recruit eat her. Giving two titan powers to one titan doesn't make sense strategically speaking. And that's if she is on the Marley side which we don't know for sure.

I may have misinterpreted the chapter due to wonky translations, but I was hoping those opposing the Marleyans would have held out more. I thought the secondary conflict was leading to something the Eldians could use when they needed to confront Marley (not a direct alliance, if literally everyone outside the walls hates Eldians, but something *waves hands*). Otherwise... the Titan drop method is awful and I know Isayama doesn't like to hold back on the atrocities, but I'll admit it did mess me up a little after reading.

I'm really hoping to see Galliard and Pieck's human forms soon. Since there were many parallels between RBA and EMA and Zeke is said to be like a warrior Levi, I'm hoping for Galliard and Pieck to be like some warrior versions of Erwin and Hange.

I want to see more backstories; Zeke, Ymir Fritz, The First King. I can't wait until Eren re-unites with Zeke.

Well, Zeke saying "war ia a bad thing" after enjoying so much killing the Scouts was quite...incoherent? Wtf lord of the ponies?

I'm completely lost as to what the story currently is

I do want to see Galliard and Pieck's human forms but not if it means we get another Marley chapter. It's time to go back to the real protagonists.

This plot twist is weird and has yet to sell me in the new direction it's taking

Locate my position and land on me Daddy

I hope the story of new warriors won't turn into another Grisha files.

I hope Paradis invasion will be told from the Warriors perspective. We already know how underprepared and unexpected Paradis is so it'd be fresh to see the story unfold from the other side. This will also give more time to develop those fresh recruits' characters? Most of them still feel like folders to me and we weren't given enough time to form emotional attachment with them yet.

I miss my Vets...

I'm terrified there may be another timeskip before we get back to the main cast i'll fuck up isayama and his editor for giving me this timeskip-phobia Having BRYH as your favorite characters really fucking sucks.

back to eren, please

All I hoped for was to at least see Reiner and Zeke again. But I'm ready to see my children again next month. :')

Im so nervous

I preferred this chapter over 91 because we got to see familiar characters. I am surprised at how quick this war ended for the viewers and hope we get to see the fallout from Marley's perspective. Maybe the changing of titans if that is going to happen before we switch back to the main cast.

4/10 There was no Grisha in this chapter, but it brought back my intense sadness for Reiner

What kind of brainwashing techniques the Marley used on the Eldian

What happened to this manga!?!

I know the new characters are all going to die so I just want to see how this story ends already.

I really don't want Reiner and Zeke to be replaced, as I don't see how that would add anything to the story and many conflicts would never be resolved. Also I loved the scene with the drugged eldians turned into titans. Very poignant. I love how the situation is cruel and inhumane yet really really believable

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

This chapter has a lot of really good emotional moments (Falco saving the Middle East Union man was a personal favorite). The way the Eldians are treated was genuinely horrific. Isayama is doing well building up the tension and the threat level in his manga. But, he's also now, thankfully, investing time into the emotional gravity of this situation and this new world. This chapter was much better at establishing what this side of the wall is all about than the previous chapter. But, the main characters need to come back because I doubt most of us will ever care about the new characters nearly as much as we do the old ones. Also, Reiner is back!!! And he's so hot but everything is so sad! Seeing Reiner again is like trying to eat ice cream while you're sobbing your heart out. And honestly, if Reiner is supposed to be "dead"... all I can say is that it would be pretty lame.

The story has become way more interesting that I initially thought. I really love the new perspective shown of the tragic young warriors. The hopelessness of the Pradise situation now that we saw Marly's power. I'm scared to think of how more complicated it will be. Love how isayama is never scared to leave the main cast behind whenever he wanted to express more thoughts or story. good job.

The chapter was great. We finally have an idea of what the military prowess of Marley as well as the rest of the world is like. We know how Eldians are treated by Marley and viewed by other nations and honestly the situation is grim for Paradis. I truly hope they achieved massive strides in weapon and warfare or found an ally of sorts otherwise they are completely at the mercy of the coordinate.

god this is going so fast to somewhere i never thought this would go and idt i like that very much

I've waited so long to get the Warrior perspective on things, these chapters are a delight (while also being horrifying). Seeing how idealistic these kids are, oblivious to the reality of their monstrous nation, breaks my heart.

I have no idea what's going on anymore.

all these new characters confuses me and i think its messy that we are presented to so many new people when the manga is almost done. also a fucking four year time jump??? i just dont feel like this is snk anymore all these new characters confuses me and i think its messy that we are presented to so many new people when the manga is almost done. also a fucking four year time jump??? i just dont feel like this is snk anymore

I can't wait to see Eren & Co! \>o

I think it was kinda satisfying to see Gabi's view on the world change since she seemed so cocky before hand.

I just want to see the main cast again.

Interesting to see all the technologies/evolution the middle-east clan: they can destroy Reiner's armor !

I hate 2 last chapters

Tbh i dont mind if they do a couple more chapters from marleys pov but at the same time i want then to go back to our mian cast just to see how after the horror shitshow of 92 ; how paradis is preparing for attack

YAMS my man dude bro I wanna know the dealy-o with Ymir ASAP thx

It confused the heck out of me but I got by

[edo-salandria]

FanFic: SENSORY OVERLOAD

SUMMARY: Natsu and Lucy have been targeted. A mysterious tattoo appears on both of them that changes their relationship in ways they could never have imagined. RATED: M AUTHOR’S NOTE: Also can be read on: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12234990/1/Sensory-Overload

Prologue ; Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3 ; Chapter 4 ; Chapter 5 ; Chapter 6 ; Chapter 7 ; Chapter 8 ; Chapter 9 ; Chapter 10 ; Chapter 11 ; Chapter 12 ; Chapter 13 ; Chapter 14 ; Chapter 15 ; Chapter 16

CHAPTER 1

The light was shining brightly in Lucy's small bedroom. She laid on her side gently welcoming the start of a new day. Unwilling to open her eyes yet while squeezing the soft fluffy blanket to her chest. Absentmindedly, she scratched the itch on her left wrist. It was that moment she heard the obnoxious sounds that started coming from her stomach.

For Lucy Heartfilia to wake up feeling so ravenously hungry was strange to say the least. She always boasted to her piggish partner on her ability to graze all day long on healthy snacks to keep her figure and hunger in check. She didn't earn the nickname Bunny Girl just from her costume choices alone.

Tossing her sheets off she decided it was time for breakfast. Walking into her sorry excuse for a kitchen she rifled through her ice box looking for all the ingredients to make her favorite go-to breakfast - a veggie omelet. While rummaging she happened to also snatch up sausage and bacon she kept for Natsu and Happy. 'Oh and is that milk behind the orange juice, yay! I thought those heathens drank it all!' before she knew it she was looking down at a heaping plate of eggs, bacon and sausage along with toast. To the right was glass of milk and a slightly smaller glass of OJ. A look of horror started to creep into her face at the spread before her "What the hell am I doing!" but the pangs in her stomach took over and she dug in.

Fighting her urge to succumb to the food coma that was starting to rear it's ugly head she found her way into the bathroom. "Time to get this show on the road" she encouraged to herself, that couch was just too comfortable looking.

She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror examining the details of her creamy smooth skin, 'I have to apologize for being a jerk to Natsu and Happy, maybe I will buy them lunch for kicking them out of the house.' Thinking back, even though she could barely admit it to herself, she secretly got a tingling thrill hearing the surprised expletives Natsu screamed as he felt her boot kick his ass out her window.

Bringing her arm up to inspect a possible blemish, Lucy noticed something pink just under the cuff of her sleeve. She quickly pushed her left sleeve up to find a strange marking on her wrist. "The hell is this?" she questioned to absolutely no one. Upon further examination she saw a pink heart surrounded by links, kind of like a bracelet. She tried rubbing it to see if it would come off with no luck. Totally puzzled as to where it came from, she tried to recall last nights events in order to determine where it came from.

'A day of mostly successful writing - lunch - Natsu and Happy came over and started playing 'toss paper into Lucy's cleavage - kicked them out which left me flustered for some totally unreasonable reason - more writing - then bed'. Lucy quickly went into her bedroom and started searching the windows and floor on the way to her bed. She started tossing her bedding around looking for evidence of midnight intruders with no success 'they must have broken in again and did this while I was sleeping!'

A horrifying thought ran through her mind and she ran to the mirror stripping off all her clothing and examining her body for any more mysterious tattoos. "They are dead meat" she fumed and briskly walked back into the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Still absolutely livid over marking on her lovely skin, Lucy decided her first stop of the day will be the guild hall. Not to apologize for kicking them out like she was going to originally but to give Natsu and Happy a piece of her mind for their stupid prank.

Natsu stretched his arms out over his head breathing in a breath of fresh cool morning air. "Mornin' Happy" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Natsu it's cold, shut the door already" Happy was whined out from the open doorway "It's crazy cold and you're just running around half naked like Gray!"

"No way in hell I am anything like that arctic asshat" Natsu finally realizes that it is way too cold to be out in anything less than his boxers and briskly rubs his arms while running back into the cottage. "I feel a little hungry Happy, how's about some breakfast!" Natsu looked into his kitchen with all the dirty dishes and empty food packages on the counter trying to locate something edible.

Happy was finishing up his plate of fishies while Natsu leaned back in his chair patting his stomach. "I think I am going to take a quick post breakfast nap before we get to the guild." He then tossed himself onto his couch allowing a billow of dust particles to escape and closed his eyes. Tossing from one side and then to the other, for some reason he just couldn't get comfortable. As the agitation started to grow, his mind was racing with thoughts. They started to become more focused, replaying the day before in his mind.

'Massive snowball fight with Happy, I won - threw down with Gajeel, nailed it - had a snack - took a nap - had lunch - sparred with Laxus, got my ass handed to me - visited Lucy, she was trying to write at her desk, wearing tight black legging and a snug baby blue really deep v-neck sweater that barely covered her ass… hair all crazy in the bun she does sometimes, biting on the end of her pen… - got kicked out of Lucy's for messin' with her - had dinner at the guild - slept'

Natsu jumped off the couch in complete aggravation, wondering why the hell he was thinking about yesterday for. Tossing on his pants and overcoat he turned his direction to Happy "Let's go buddy - I think today is gonna be a good one!" He couldn't shake the feeling that the next time he saw Lucy he was in for one hell of a beating.