#my parents are The Best™️
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narumi-gens · 10 months ago
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just thinking about how cute my parents are and how my dad always cuts up fruit for my mom and how he does the laundry and cooks breakfast for her every day but she does the bills and wakes him up every morning instead of an alarm and how my mom said that he’s her best friend and they spend all their time together
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morg-among-the-stars · 2 years ago
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I made them fake Twitter accounts Lmao
It’s three “threads” with two pictures each 👍
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neil-gaiman · 10 months ago
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Hi, Neil.
I know you get a lot of asks, so maybe you won't even see this. But I'll give it a try anyway.
I haven't been doing well lately. I lost my friends due to the end of the school year (we all had to split up due to the fact we had to go to secondary school and none of us picked the same one), I'm trans and my parents never validate me no matter how much I try. I always try my best to be the perfect son™️, but apparently it's never enough.
So, since you're such a great father figure to probably all good omens fans, I suppose my question is, could you tell me I'm good enough? I just kind of need to hear it right now.
Thank you.
Have a nice day/night :)
I'm a lousy father figure, I suspect. It's definitely not anything I signed up for.
But you're absolutely good enough!
You'll never be perfect, because perfect isn't a thing in this world. It's an ideal. Accept that you'll never be enough for them, but remember that you aren't in the world for them, you're here for you.
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maraczeks · 2 years ago
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#end of year review except this is probably the most Lived™️ year and i wanna whisper it#jan - got sc*mend hated myself but also i watched the newsroom and went to seattle w renata!!!#feb - turned 20 🤢 but i met the reid's this month that's all i remember spring sem was a blur#march - spring break i watched the newsroom again but i don't remember the experience also dc and cherry blossoms and prepping clue week aw#april - agong passed away i don't remember a lot else oh and started wr*ting because of that :( still remember watching chuck finale w laura#and tash that night :( mightve declared music major this month also i know i started working on the concerto#may also a blur at this point having met the reid's every week and jamie's hug when i gave her the snacks 🥺🥺 also maple and curo aw finals#etc being saur excited for ireland and bath omg but ten days in charlottesville and then IRELANDDD cliffs of moher my home#june bath program literally best housemates rereading austen and mhairi so good gojng to london and oxford genuinely so good i love travel a#and pubs and yeah just so many treasured memz#july getting covid 😭😭 terrible worst time of my life being alone in my parents house no actually like i realized i really hated myself lolol#aug wisdom teeth removed 😭😭 july/aug a blur seeing hs friends visitng angela's convent aw sunsets and then driving cross country with my par#parents bruh... cannot believe we did that and then ra training#sept also a blur lots of hanging in anna and ty's room not the most exciting classes idk that was so long ago but ohhh picnics and kayaking#w the reid's and then hurricane weekend and spending like the whole afternoon w them sweet sweet times#oct terrible busy packed taking my harp out every weekend ew but it got restrung ! weddings were also really fun but ya too busy then hallow#oh i forgot howloscream <3 and then i got sick and wmso halloween concert fun times#nov i barely remember the beginning like. nothing happened and then thanksgiving break ! lovely lovely sunken picnics and time alone and mor#family times w the reid's :') and omg the neighbors hosting us was literally one of the best times ever they're sooo sweet black friday shop#ping was so fun too then suddenly it's december ?????? the two weeks btwn tksgv did not exist but ahhh miss jellison's hug omfg best person#in the world i love her then wcc cofm advent joy week was so special then this past week kinda one of the worst weeks witnessing laura and h#er family lose her mom 😣😣😣😣 god#in conclusion : jaimie evie and miss jellison hugs :( cried practiced wrote the most this year omg i cant believe i forgot to mention bsf on#e of my strongholds and things keeping me upright i feel like this last semester was the closest i've been and most dependent even when i#didn't have the feeling like i was learning to constantly depend and praise Him it's incredible and i feel so so loved by my Father by the p#ppl He loves me through so. it's almost midnight on the east coast 2022 you were lived and loved.#dec 31 2022#i also forgot joining small group and actually getting involved in acf truly one of the best parts of campus#best media the newsroom and 27 dresses !!!!
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lundenloves · 1 year ago
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dad!simon headcannons part 2
Oh we all have issues don’t we? The fact this whole dad!simon series is doing so well makes me sit back and grin. We’re all damaged together. Now now, no one go off wandering we must stick together troops. The mystical path of paternal issues is highly dangerous.
These are my 1am thoughts. i need this man biblically.
dad!simon masterlist | hc 1
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This man has the strongest genes of all time. Like his kids look the spit of him, absolute 1:1 replicas. Except they’re little girls like that’s so fucking cute stop i’m putting my weapons down. Head in my fucking hands. FUCK.
His kids colour in his tattoos. And he’ll go to work the next day with like a big fuck off red and blue sleeve, and 141 are all like new ink Lt? Met with a sarcastic narrowed eye nod. Obviously.
You best believe he’s mad sensitive about his girls. Like anytime someone brings them up, he’s straight onto that shit like staring. And it’ll literally be Price saying how sweet they are or smth 💀
When his eldest daughter is like I wanna do the forces too he’s all like absolutely not.
It’s probably like the one thing he’s stubborn on. He loves his job, for him. Not for his daughters. He could talk for days on why it’s not happening.
“Don’t care. Not happening, pet.”
His youngest could not be less interested in the forces. Probably wants to be a singer or something completely unrelated. Simon has no idea how that happened but he’s thankful to whoever is up there in the sky.
The kids be asking him for robux or some dumb asf online money and he’s all like: what i’m spending real money to give you virtual money? No.
Dad Is A Climbing Frame™️
This man could hang like four kids off his arms. Let’s say he has three. One would be hugging around his neck, the other two hung onto his arms by their small hands and legs joined around his biceps. Koala style mf.
You walk in and ignore it.
Usual antics in the Riley household.
Also definitely does push-ups with the kids on his back. They’re roaring laughing at how funny it is to be moved up and down while sitting. just like me fr. All three of them sat on his back when you walk into the living room one morning. “Mornin’.”
School parent nights. Stop. i’ll have to do a whole thing ab this. someone remind me. I just know this man would rather be anywhere else on the planet than at one of those. You however do not let him slip.
“I’m not sleeping, just resting my eyes.”
The kids draw family pictures of him with the mask on. Always a place on the fridge for one of them, slap a magnet on top. Bosh. This also kickstarts an obsession with skeleton things, inspiring many a poorly made halloween costume.
“If they ask you what you’re supposed to be just say a skeleton or summat.”
“But i’m Ghost.”
“You’re a skeleton, kid.”
“Then so are you.” Said with a frown.
Getting told off by his daughters for doing things wrong 25/8. This man cannot cut tomatoes the way they approve of to save his life. “That’s not how mum does it.”
“I’m not mum.”
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taglist? fill out this form.
Simon 'Ghost' Riley Taglist: @sketchscientist @crowbird @misshoneypaper @tallrock35 @liishook @abbsaura @takeomisbitch
if you would like to be removed from a taglist, pm me.
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obsessedwithceleste · 8 months ago
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Theodore Nott Headcanons
Dedicated to this lil request here 🫶🏽
©️ obsessedwithceleste. all works posted here belong to me and should not be reposted or copied in any way or form.
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It’s no secret that Theodore Nott had a rough childhood
Between witnessing his mother’s death at a young age and having a particularly ruthless father, Theo learned to be quietly reserved early on
1000% Theo is an introvert
Despite being seemingly closed off, he’s extremely observant and good at reading others and picking up on things quickly
While he may not be the best at deciphering his own emotions, he’s able to sort through others’ easily
This makes it easy for him to be rather manipulative because he knows what makes other’s tick and how to go straight for the jugular
He may be distant and off putting in the beginning, but once you get close, he’s a clingy bastard because he doesn’t let many people get close, so once you make it there he’ll basically hold you captive forever
He’s also stupid smart
(Canonically he’s able to re-create an illegal time turner after they were all destroyed in the department of mysteries so//)
And this makes him a bit of an arrogant asshole
Looks down on people he thinks aren’t as smart as him
He definitely thinks that he knows best and can have a “my way or the highway” type mindset
Probably has some type of gifted kid™️ trauma and a crippling fear of failure
Anyway, he’s super intelligent and witty and has the potential to do really well in classes
But he has a nasty habit off skiving off with Mattheo Riddle
Who happens to be his best friend along with Lorenzo Berkshire
A lot of people think Theo is the “mother” of the group, or at least the one with the most impulse control
They’re wrong
Theo is the one that Mattheo goes to with his dumbass ideas and Theo’s response is generally something along the lines of-
“Absolutely not you tosser. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right”
Queue Mattheo’s initial plan- only methodically planned out to cause maximal amounts of emotional trauma for the Hogwarts population
Theo and Mattheo are also a chaotic duo on the quidditch pitch
Theo is a chaser
Making the quidditch team in his third year is one of the only times his father showed a hint of satisfaction with the boy
Being on the Slytherin quidditch team, he’s often labeled a preppy jock
And Mattheo does help him break out of his shell more
But he’s a nerdy lil book worm at heart and likes to be holed up in the library most days
Theo also has quite the reputation of being a ladies man with rumors about his escapades swarming the student body
But really they’re just that- rumors
Lorenzo is more of the openly flirtatious pretty boy, and Mattheo certainly knows how to make his way around which is perhaps why people think Theo would be the same way
But he isn’t one to really form physical attachments- emotional or not
He prefers to fly under the radar
He may have had a fling or two, but isn’t one to kiss and tell
He has a hard time entering a real relationship
Mostly because when he first realizes he’s caught feelings, he’s convinced he’s actually just ill and stays in bed pretending to be sick
But once he comes to terms with things, he’s one determined wizard
Makes sure everyone knows that you’re off limits (possibly before you know yourself)
Definitely goes to Enzo for advice on how to woo you
With varying degrees of success
King of subtle PDA (just enough to mark his territory)
Confident and secure in his relationship, but also still jealous as hell
Will hex the living shit out of someone for breathing at you the wrong way
Finds it amusing when you get jealous though
But will shut it the fuck down as soon as he picks up on you being actually upset (probably embarrassing whoever it is in the process)
Not always the best at communicating his feeling cause he’s emotionally constipated af
But tries because he knows he doesn’t want a relationship like his parent’s
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Okayyy I think that’s all for now, but I have a feeling these will grow and evolve with time sooo- ongoing (?) idk
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millerscoffee · 1 year ago
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reader lives in jackson and is friends with tommy, so she sees joel relatively frequently, and they just DONT get along. the reader is young and she’s got a sharp tongue and cheek that irritates the shit out of joel, who shoots back just as much condescending insults. they literally can’t be in a room without getting into it. however, the reader does it for his attention (she’s got daddy issues), and joel doesn’t catch onto this until she’s knocking on his door at midnight because she can’t sleep and she needs him and she doesn’t know how to admit it. he pulls her in the house and absolute filth ensues. he makes her blow him and then they fuck. joel is smug and condescending the whole time, and reader just becomes a ragdoll. Size kink, dirty talk, daddy kink, creampie/breeding, the works PLEASE
you got it, anon! ✨ this was requested on @atticrissfinch's page too, go check it out! i love how the same request can elicit two different stories. i did my best not to read it before i finished this (it was as difficult as it sounds cos HOO BOI 😅🥵♡)
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only daddy that'll walk the line
6.2k | joel miller x f!reader
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rating: 18+ MDNI
warning: big mean dom!joel™️ lmao, alcoholism (reader's dad, but also drunk!joel for a second - **this is not in the smutty scenes**), parental abuse (verbal, it is brief), smut, age difference (joel is 56, reader is 18-early 20s - your choice), size kink, dirty talk (joel's a talker more than his usual grunty self), name calling (bitch, brat, slut, etc.), light praise kink & like- two pet names, ✨ degrading language and acts ✨, edging, choking/gagging, hair pulling, creampie, breeding kink, daddy kink, spitting kink!!!, spanking, oral (m receiving), no prepping the reader, brat tamer!joel, bratty reader, if i missed anything lmk
summary: based in jackson, you have the unfortunate predicament of being friends with tommy miller and hating his brother, joel – and you have no problem in letting either of them know that! until one night you are brought to joel's doorstep.
A/N: this is my first request! thank you! huzzah!! hopefully it's to your liking, nonnie. he's big mean dom!joel™️ but with a conscience yknow?? enjoy ♡ i did proofread this, but i wrote it over the course of a couple weeks. i did my best! lol
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"Dude, what's his fucking problem!?"  You roll into the dining hall in a huff.  Shuffling to your seat for dinner, you slam your tray down and Maria gives you a combined look of worry and irritation at peace being compromised.
"Who, honey?"  Tommy asks, handing you a glass of water with an entertained grin because he's positive he knows just who you're talking about.
He'd seen the two of you go at each other's throats earlier in the day when you were trying to get by him on your way out the door.  His back was to you, and he all but ignored your request to get out of the way.  Causing you to shove past him, which ensued an argument between the two of you.  Which led you to both of you gunning each other with your words until you both left in a bad mood.
Joel had his back to you, his frame fully in the doorway as he spoke with a woman in town.  It started off slow: a few clearings of your throat, a slight nudge of his back.  No avail.
"Excuse me," you shouted, pushing at him again before he finally turned around quickly with his jaw ticked.
"Do you have any manners, Christ."  He said dry and muttered under his breath, but the lady made room for you and you nodded politely in her direction.
"Maybe if you weren't so fucking old, you could've heard me!"
"And watch your fuckin' mouth."
Joel turned his back to you, not giving you a moment to retort.  Conversation over. 
"This fucker," when you look up, you see Joel coming towards the table.  The sight of him gives you a set of shivers you can't explain.  Not complete disgust, but certainly not excitement.
"You really oughta keep better company," Joel tells his brother, sitting down beside him, he frames his entire body towards Tommy so he's sitting in a way to make you feel ignored.
"I'm right here, you know."  Your head is moving so you're in the line of his vision.
"Don't remind me.  Listen, this is a family dinner.  Go find your own."
A slap in the face would've hurt less.  Before Tommy or Maria had the chance to come to your defences – both of their mouths open ready to take up for you – you stood up, shoving your tray over to Joel.  So loud, other people turn their gaze to the four of you.
"Fuckin– eat up, then."
As you storm off to your house, you hear Tommy scold his older brother but you don't look back.
---
The next morning, your father wakes you up to the sound of his own yelling for you to come downstairs.  You'd been helping out Maria and Tommy to get your own place, or at least a shared one with people your age and to hear your dad's voice; whiskey-soaked and cruel, makes your stomach churn.
After slipping on your clothes for the day, you make it to the kitchen where he's sitting at the table and reeking from alcohol even from where you're standing.
"Didn't you hear me call you?"  His words were slurred and angry.
"Yes, I'm sorry."  It's such a difference from how you talk to other people, talk to Joel, for example.  Maybe because he's the last person you spoke to, but he's the first one who pops into your head during this interaction.  You sound meek, scared to say something wrong.  A stark difference from how you speak to Joel – abandoning all worries of punishment.  Almost like you wanted that from him.
"Fuckinbetterbe – hiccup – breakfast.  Now."  Your dad all but snaps his fingers and rage creeps up the back of your throat, biting your tongue so hard you break the surface layer.  A slight streak of blood coats your mouth, but you do as you're told.
This morning is kinder than others.  Your dad did not say thank you for the pancakes, you didn't get hit or debased too much.  You consider it a win.  Once you leave your house as soon as you can, Joel's chest hits your face as soon as you turn the corner.  The milliseconds seem long when you're met with the warmth and solidity of his chest, the scent of cedar and... whiskey?  It seemed too early, even for him, to be drinking and you shake off the unreasonable rationale that he should be treated differently than your father for the same behaviour.
You ignore the similarities of him and your father all together, actually.
"Watch where you're goin'," Joel's brows are knit together, which is normal for him, but you've never been this close to see his lips from this angle above you.  You almost say something out of the ordinary for the two of you, but you reel it in quickly.
"You're one to fuckin' talk.  Morning coffee smells a lot like alcohol.  Maybe I should tell Tommy about your habits."
"Does it ever hurt your head bein' a bitch all the time?"
"Not as bad as that hangover will be around noon.  Move."
You push past the large build in front of you with a clenched jaw, unable to be around him a second longer.  "Fuck you, Joel," you mutter for good measure on your way to Tommy and Maria's.
They'd given you safety on days when it seemed scarce, and showing up felt appropriate.  You were a little closer with Tommy than Maria.  He was able to listen to you without being too judgy, and you needed that.  The lack of safety piece was a lot like how your day started off.  You walk around to the back where Tommy's working on a new hobby and you sit in front of him, letting out a big sigh.
"Y'daddy givin' you trouble again?"
Typically when Tommy asks about your father he says it like this, but today it catches you off guard.  Confusion twists your mind, but you nod distractedly.  "Yea, he was drunk this morning.  Your brother, too."
You slide that one in fast.
Tommy fists through his hair, letting out a heavy exhale.  "Shit.  We both got trouble this mornin', I guess."
"Seems like it."
You're unusually quiet, looking at the ground more than anything.  It bugs you that Joel and your father have a similar quality to them.  That they both are up reaching for the bottle, but for Joel it's not a common occurrence and that makes you worried – an emotion you don't have for him that often, if you're being honest.  You don't think about his experiences that often.  But this is the first time, really, you've even seen Joel drunk like that.  You remember Tommy mentioning that he'd given up the stuff since Sarah's passing when everyone was around a fire one night sharing stories.
As if the dots connect in real time, you look over to Tommy who looks worried sick.
"He'll figure it out,"  you reassure, chewing the inside of your cheek before heading out.  You call behind you, "I'll be around."
You've never really been good at the whole 'being there for someone' thing.
~~
Later on, you find yourself in the mess hall again for the night's dinner and you catch Maria, Tommy, Joel, and Ellie all together and it feels weird to sit with them.  They're all laughing, Joel looks sobered up.  And it seems that Tommy didn't bring up the conversation the two of you shared.  They look like a happy family and twists a knot in your throat and the proverbial knife at your side.
"Can I please spend the night at Tommy and Maria's?  Please?"  Ellie is looking over at Joel with the sweetest expression, you snicker to yourself at how menacing she actually was.  It seemed to do the trick, though.  Joel's eyes flicker over to you, and it feels like you're being caught for something.  The look is inculpatory without you doing anything.  As if to say you are witnessing something too personal, a side of him not meant for you.  "Yeah, sure," his response to Ellie sounds distant.
This gives you no choice but to walk up to the scene, to sit down beside Maria.  She gives you a welcoming grin and makes space for you.  "What'd I miss?"  You look over to Ellie who's excited to see you, but Joel?  Not so much.  His eyebrows narrow down his face, suddenly more quiet than usual, even for him.  You set your sights back on Ellie who's telling you all of the cool things she's gonna do at her Uncle Tommy's and you flash a smile that lets her know you're listening.  Or at least trying.  It's hard when Joel isn't even initiating the usual conflict with each other.  More arguing than speaking.  And the fact it wasn't happening was off.
"That sounds like a blast...," you trail off, your chin in your hands.
"If you're not gonna listen to her, don't ask her questions."  Joel barks, eyes now solemnly black in your direction.  It makes you scared and delighted at once.  Like he was back to normal.  Your normal.
"I was listening to her?"  You retort, and everyone's quiet now.  Awkwardness filling the air as the two of you battle it out.  "Maybe if you weren't so drunk all the time you'd know the differen–"  "Hey, now."  Tommy chimes in, giving you a stern look of disapproval and you feel bad.  Reflective.  Joel wasn't drunk all the time, and you knew exactly why he was this morning.
You exhale, "I'm sorry," you nod in the direction of everyone but Joel and stand up from your seat, "enjoy your family time."
On your way back to your house, you catch a glimpse of a group of people your age.  People you'd grown up with, but they didn't acknowledge you and it digs the wound closer in.  You truly felt alone.  Like nothing fit, and maybe you didn't belong in Jackson but it wasn't like there were many choices to go to.
---
More times than not you sneak into your room.  Not because you are past a type of curfew, you were an adult.  It was more, you didn't want your dad to know you were around.  Your door was locked when you climbed in through the window.
You got comfortable, spilling out of your clothes for the day and into your pajamas.  Cotton shorts and a loose tee.  Your breasts perky and nipples taut from the worn fabric.  A lot of the day was spent dealing with heavy subjects that you just wanted to let your mind escape.
Staring at the ceiling in your bed, your eyes become blurry in need of sleep.  Needing release.  Anything.
Your mind wanders to why Joel was so quiet with you when you sat down.  It wasn't like that was the first time the two of you had a shouting match in front of everyone, but this felt different.  You deduce it to Joel having an off day and let your mind wander somewhere else.
Or, at least you try.
Because when your hands explore your body under the blankets, Joel comes back to life in your thoughts.  You come back to the warmth of his chest when you ran into him this morning, the grunt that left him from impact.  What that would sound like against your ear.  Before you know it, you're shifting your thighs together, spreading the mess of your cunt.  A craving ignites your bloodstream.
It's slick between your legs when you sit up, and you're full of determination unbeknownst of where it's coming from.  The act itself is a little heady, but you have nothing to lose so why not?
Slipping on a pair of shoes and a jacket that covers your clothes, you turn your back to the window and scurry down until you're able to jump off onto the grass.  One step close to where you want to be.
Joel's house is across the street which makes it easy to get to, but aggravating when you want a sense of peace.  He's always around, shooting you a menacing stare when you're not down each other's throats but there's an ache you can't deny.  A compulsion.
You knock on his door twice before he swings it open almost like he saw you approach, but he doesn't tug you inside like you thought he was.  Doesn't make you get on your knees or fulfill any fantasy of being used.  Of... making him proud.
"What?"  His question is dry and a part of you is crushed. He isn't taking advantage of the way your legs look in your shorts right away.
"You're not the only one who had a bad fucking day," you start, but he doesn't give you a moment to push through the door because before you know it you're being pulled inside.  The sound of a slamming door somewhere behind you.  You're forced to look at him with his paw wrapped around your jaw, thumb tilting your chin up effortlessly.  It locks you in place.
"You came here.  Why?  Y'want me to fuck your bad day away?"
You gape is panicked, eyes wide now in this compromising position.  You can't think, you can't nod or say words.  You just stare.
"She's real fuckin' quiet now," Joel shoves you against the closed door, not letting an inch of space be wasted and he takes your wrist with his free hand, palming you over his hardening cock in his jeans.  "How about now.  You payin' close attention?"
You whimper, nodding softly as your fingers massage and rub, tug at anything you can through the fabric.
"Did I tell you y'could do that?"  His words make you pause, shivering at how truly empty your mind is in the moment.  Even in your inexperience you don't know you've ever felt so instantly timid.  Joel makes you fold at the first hint of misbehaviour.  You can't think of a thing to say.  Halfway don't know why you're here in the first place, and he's got you so wet from this it almost hurts.  Stickiness coats your thighs as you squeeze your legs together and you're sure it will be obvious even through your cotton shorts.
You shake your head, and he's sick of you not speaking to him.  Squeezes your face tighter, "Use your fucking words."
"No... no you didn't," you manage and you've never heard yourself sound so pathetic.
"I didn't, that's right.  You answer to me."  The snapping sound of his words causes your eyes to roll in annoyance.  He doesn't own you, he never fucking could.  The action makes his jaw tighten, his hand from your jaw in a grip that didn't hurt now is wrapped around your throat and although it's not tight, it certainly isn't loose.  "What the fuck was that?"
You're back to being silent, unable to do anything but take.
"Not asking again."
"I rolled my ey–"
"You rolled your eyes.  Roll your fuckin' eyes at me again, little girl.  You'll regret it."
A cool threat, you think.  Meaningless, even.  What possible reproach would he have anyway?
It's then you take in the house.  You'd been here once before to stay with Ellie.  It's dark, a single lamp upstairs.  All of this is background noise to the drone of your need prickling your youthful skin.  It's apparent, your age difference, when you're this close.  His rough fingers, wrinkles catching the moonlight peeking in through the windows.
"I–I'm sorry," you've been saying that a lot lately.
"Don't apologise to me.  Don't say sorry when I know you're not."  His thumb moves from your chin to your lips, thumbing over just how pliable and soft they are and it sends your nerves to the surface.  Prying your lips apart, he presses inside and you willingly wrap your lips around it to lap the pad of his digit.  "Look at that sweet thing," he says, more at you than to you, and your neck flushes being this willing to suck for him, "so easy for me to use.  I put my thumb to y'er lips and you just took it right in, didn't ya?"  The taste of his skin robs you of any other sense, his tone making you all but fold.
"Show me what this mouth is good for, 'cuz it sure ain't good at a sincere apology."
Before you know it, you're on your knees.  Joel is kind enough that he ushers you down onto the hardwood floor and you can't believe you're face to face with his crotch in front of his door, no less.
"You couldn't wait to take me to your bedroom?"
Joel doesn't reply straight away.  Instead you hear the clanking of metal, a zipper coming undone, and the slap of his cock hitting his abdomen on the way out of his pants.  You take mental note that he hasn't been asleep by his attire, but it's all for nothing when your eyes make out the shapes in the dim light.  You choke when you see just how big he is.
He tuts, leaning his head condescendingly as he takes a chunk of your hair in his palm to tilt your chin up to greet his cock.  "Aw, you think you're goin' t'my room?"  The words make you feel naïve, the one or two times you've done something like this didn't have nearly as much... compromise.  And you certainly didn't hook up with someone twice your age.  You don't have time to be self-conscious because the head of him, the leaky head of him, is tapping against your lips and your eyes roll back as you open your mouth for him.  After jumping slightly in surprise, of course.
He sighs in relief with a deigned smile, pushing his hips further.  "Fuck.  You hear that?  Nothing!  Sounds so fuckin' good, shuttin' you up."
But it's not entirely nothing, is it?  Not with your gagging, slurping up what you can but you don't know what you're doing all the way and fumbling through half of it.  Doesn't seem to faze him much.
It's obscene as it feels, him using you like this – and you don't feel an ounce of guilt when it's exactly what you want.  The switch flips on why you came to his door in the first place.  His big thumb swipes over the corner of your full mouth, "You like that, dontcha, filthy thing?"
And you hated how right he was.  You wanted to scream, kick him.  Retaliate in a way so you could still be in this submission at the same time.
Your mouth was full by the earthy taste of him, obliterating whatever feelings you had about the day.  A bad mood that he had contributions in, but it's melting from the constant thrust of his hips.  And he's keeping your head locked in place, hand gripped in the strands so you can feel your spit mingling with the underside of his cock.  Honestly, every part of his dick is covered in your spit.  It spills down your chin, threatens up your nose when you gag, leaves your eyes to water when you look up at him in a dire need to breathe fully, but he's not done with you.
Not until the loudest, lewdest pop from your mouth you've ever heard does Joel break contact completely.  Steps back until you're being observed in a patronising way.  Your gone expression.  All saliva and tears and his precum smeared over your mouth.  You can barely bring yourself to look up, but his demands seem to do the trick.
Snapping his fingers at you to get your attention, you swallow hard.  "Nuh uh.  You're not gonna get all soft on me, girl.  Wake the fuck up."
Which would be simple if he wasn't practically dragging you by your hair, making you crawl on your hands and knees until you're on your feet and you're shoved onto his couch.
All that and you're still dressed.
"Off," he's barking commands like you're a trainable being and if you were in any other state, you may reconsider this whole ordeal, but when he pushed you onto the couch your legs spread just enough for him to see the wetness smearing the cotton at the apex of your thighs and that amuses him. "not good at hidin' how much of a slut y'are."
"You think it's just you that does this to me?" You find your voice again, hoisting yourself up to sit on his couch as his cock – thick and proud – sways against the fabric caught between it.  Your tongue presses to your cheek when you make eye contact, "You're kidding yourself."
The venom drips so fluidly from your tongue, Joel doesn't make a sound.  Just peels off his clothes until he's standing there naked in his house, giving you living proof that you are kidding yourself.
The silence speaks for itself.  He is pure smug under the sight of your drooling gaze.
"It's real cute that you think y'got control over the situation n'all," the weight shifting on this couch from the cushion shaping around his knee.  Joel sits down, taking you by the scalp again to cloak you over his lap stomach-first, and you yelp in surprise when he does all of this and tugs your shorts down in one fell swoop.
With your hair in his fist, his other hand ghosts over your ass in effort to make sure you squirm for him before administering a devilishly loud spank to your ass.  "But somebody better teach you better manners.  Sure as shit itn’t your father."
You crack out a sob at that– from the contact and the truth.  You couldn't retort, you were too busy getting slap after slap against your increasingly worn ass to think about anything else.  "Lucky I ain't making y'count.  You'd have this for eternity now."
Not that it mattered anyway.  He's leaving mark after mark of his large handprint across your cheeks, probably ten more if you could even focus on anything else but finding the words to stop him.
"Please– y-you're right," tears stain your face as you bury your face in your arms.  Flinching when Joel moves, you expect another searing punishment, but instead he pulls your ass apart and you gasp at the cool air striking your cunt that's hot and wet for him.  "Joel!"
“Dirty fuckin’ girl, wet from gettin’ punished.  I talked so bad about you, and you liked it?  You’re as desperate as I thought.  Only good for gettin’ my cock wet.”  And it’s like a lever is pulled when your slutty little smile plasters over your face with him out of view.  Not that you had much time to gloat, or to experience the pleasure of living in your own fantasy because Joel’s got you pulled again.  His thick thighs spread apart when he maneuvers you so willingly to sit between his legs.  Right where he wants you.  Right where you can feel the throbbing pulse at your folds.  He tells you to take off the rest of your clothes and you would be a fool to do otherwise.
“Bad girls don’t get the luxury of bein’ opened,” that Texan drawl slips over your ear when he holds the base of his cock, slicking himself through your folds, you gasp and wriggle against him – his grip tightening harder.  Silently warning you if you make another move it’s over, you’re done.  It’s over.  All the while the searing stretch of him causes your cunt to flutter and clench around him.  It’s too much, too overwhelming, and he won’t let you adjust long enough.  “You’ll get over it,” but it’s not reassuring.  He still sounds in control despite his laboured breathing and when he can, he moves his hands to grip your hips and guide you down on him.  You scream, a knee jerk response wriggle away from him, but this position doesn’t quite allow for that.
“Be a good girl.”
That folds you, quite literally, as he moves his hips down to pound up into yours, using you like his own toy to get himself off with.  And it’s just the incredible sounds of your squelching cunt and his balls tapping against your folds.  The fucking isn’t frantic, but it certainly isn’t soft.  He’s rough with you, a hand traveling up your back to grip your hair so your neck is back in place and he lifts you upright so your back is curved, neck craned so if you tried, you could make him out – upside down.  “Poor thing couldn’t help it, had to get a daddy to take care of her.  You want that, kitten?  Wanna be used and as daddy’s little fucktoy – only good for makin’ me cum?”  his hand sneaks around to the front of you with his free hand, he presses and digs into your pubic bone to make you feel exactly where he is.  “Put a baby right here.  Make everyone know what you fuckin’ did.”
You whine, eyes rolling back at the thought.  It was so obscene, nothing like you’d ever even heard of before.  Where did he fucking learn how to talk like this?  Your brain is swimming while your sticky sweetness coats his lap, clawing at his thighs for any sort of stability, but it was dizzying how he had you.  How his grunts filled the air in between slaps like he had your hips placed at the perfect angle for him to work you.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?”  His gritting teeth by the shell of your ear, he keeps you secure within your hair to snake his arm around the front of you tugging and rolling at the sensitive nubs of your nipples.  When he feels you appear to drift off, those rough hands supply another smack, but to your tits this time, your fingernails clawing into his thighs involuntarily as you squeal in surprise.  You tighten at that, fluttering around his cock and you feel it at the edge.  So close you can almost taste it.
But he knows you’re close, too, and there’s no way in hell he’s giving that to you.  Not when you’ve barged into his house like this, not when you’ve done nothing but be an insufferable brat to him since the moment he came to Jackson.
Joel hovers you over his lap, and your heels dig into the floorboard.  His hips still, keeping the very tip of his cock inside of you – you feel panic flash over your body.  “No,” it’s the first word you’ve uttered in god knows how long and it sounds desperate.  Any hope of getting an orgasm swirls down the drain, and it’s set in stone when he pushes you on your back – the lumpy couch digging into your skin.  “No, no, please.  Why!”
His eyes could burn a hole through you.  Like a hungry dog, his body hovers – shoulders stooped, head down when he pours his gaze into you.  And he likes what he sees.  Legs open and begging, willing to do anything to get him back into you.  Your cunt glistening, even in the dull light and he can tell it’s pulsing.  “Poor thing’s clampin’ around nothin’,” he teases, grunting when his knees meet the couch cushions – another tell of his age.  But you, you’re too preoccupied in taming the ache between your legs to comment.  It burns, coming back to a fixed state you realise how stretched out you were and it’s more than overwhelming.  To know you haven’t been used to completion, all hope draining from your face.
“Joel,” your breath is shaky underneath him, pupils blown and wet when you make out his features, “Joel, please.  Please, I want this.”
“Darlin’, I know you want it.  Everybody in town knows you want it,” his words make you sob a whine as they approach closer to your neck, the delicate graze of his beard dances at your pulsepoint and you shudder.  Hips raise and he’s quick to slam them back down into place.  “If you want me, ‘Joel’ ain’t whatchu say to get me.”
And if you felt hopeless before, you really do now.  Unable to do anything but debase yourself for your own pleasure.  You’d heard it earlier, the way he referred to himself with a name that brought up mixed feelings at Tommy’s.  You swallow down embarrassment, looking him in the eyes – which were faded obsidian, your fingernails dig into your own thighs as if to brace for what’s tempting to slip out of your throat.
You hated that he made you nervous.
And you hated the hold he had over you.
But he had it, there was no doubt about it.  He had it.  He had you.
Your jaw ticks forward, fully aware of your clit screaming for attention and exhale shakily.  “Please, daddy.  Please, I want this.”
“Eh,” Joel muses, shaking his head, “I don’t believe ya.  Really gotta hear the desperation in your voice.  Maybe if I,” his hand reaches for his cock, slapping the sloppy head of it against your folds and that– that sends you.  Takes you to a different destination entirely because for the first time all night there’s attention to that bundle of nerves, and he knows it.  He knows you need this in order to give everything over to him in full.  “Daddy!” you screech, pelvis jutting up in full inclination and without a single word, Joel’s cock spears into you all the way to the hilt.  All the way to your cervix.
His hands, emitting heat and wrapped largely around your hips, locks you where he wants you like some animal in heat.  It forces you to bring your legs up into a position you aren’t sure you’ve ever been in – thighs against your stomach, by your sides.  It’s so, “deep,” you whimper, head rocking as your mouth flies open and he’s delivering you thrust after thrust of pleasure so wrecking no noise comes from you.
“Is that what you needed? Fuckin' brat,”  Joel is still able to tease, but even he isn’t immune to how tight you are around him.  Your fluttering core begging for release as it moves in and out around him – as if it’s doing its own begging.  “You wanna be filled up to the brim with my cum, babygirl?  Needy fucking cunt like you only good for matin’ like this.”  Your skin burns at his words, your body convulsing as you do your best to keep it together.
That’s when Joel’s hand wraps around your throat, a line of spit falling into your mouth and you willingly drink from him.  “You hold off, you ain’t gettin’ it tonight,” you pout for a moment, not fully understanding what he means by that, but he clarifies when his hips get sharper, more precise.  As if his cock is hooked inside of you, not letting a drip of precum spill out of you against your cervix.  “Y’ain’t cummin’, but I am.”
His grip around your throat gets harder, and you swear you can see every vein in his face rise to the surface when he uses you.  You’re limp, all thoughts washed away – his cock thick and long, you aren’t even sure how he fits it all inside of you but he does.  The edge of your stomach bulges as he works you, his neck cranes back to expose his neck and it’s too much to take. For both of you.  His hot cum ropes cords inside of you, sticking to your walls.  Filling you up is an understatement with how much he has to give you.  It’s as if you can discern the moment his seed grazes your cervix in its sticky texture.  Your head is swimming at the sound of your animalistic grunts, he looks so… fucking hot like this.  His name is replaced with ‘daddy’ more easily than you care to admit.  You do try not to chase your orgasm… a part of you does, anyway.
But you’re defiant.
You can take yourself there without him telling you to, and in fact the opportunity to disobey him is just what you need to send yourself creaming all over his cock.  You gasp, eyes wide before they roll back and you’re fucking yourself on his spent cock that somehow still has life to it.  Even for his age, he can still keep it hard for you after his seed coats your insides.  “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” becomes part of your breath, and you’re shocked he doesn’t pull out of you even though his hips are still.  You don’t notice it until you come down considering you’re using him.  Did he say you could do that?  As if you’re woken up by an alarm, you jerk at the sensation of the orgasm you snuck.  Without his permission.  You look up, and his knuckles are bleached around your hips.  He looks so menacing like this, scary.  You shake your head, swallowing hard in your attempt to fix things.
But it’s too late for you.  You’re a brat at the end of the day, and he has to train you.  Make you realise the error of your ways.
His cock is still buried deep when his middle finger plays where the two of you connect.  A whine escapes you, shivering now, not quite sure what he’s going to do.  He’s lethally quiet, you aren’t sure how to react.  He’s contemplating what to do to you, he’s not met someone who’s as menacing as he is.  As unwilling to give away freedom.  Not since… his nostrils flare as he inhales.
“I told you not to do that,” Joel stating the obvious makes you clear your throat, his cock twitching inside you in the aftershocks sends your teeth to bite down on your lip and you shake your head, “I c- I couldn’t help it!” You lie, and he knows it.  Compels him to prod that middle finger just above his cock inside you and the stretch is too much.  When you reach out for his forearm, his other hand darkens over your wrist, pinning it back in a way that hurts.  You wince in tandem with it and his monstrous hook of the digit inside you.  You’re so full, “It’s too-it’s too much!” you tap at anything you can, but he’s not listening.
Instead, the pad of his finger has no problem in touching that spongy bit inside of you – especially since your cunt is stretched from his cock and he can see it.  His cum tempts to pool out of you, but he shoves it back in, working his finger inside you repeatedly but he’s just rubbing.  He’s just rolling his finger against your g-spot until you feel so overstimulated it brings more pain than pleasure.  “Came like you knew what you were doin’,” he finally remarks, thumb rolling over your clit and you can’t take it.  “Please, pl– it’s too much!  Daddy!”  That rhythm is sly, though, in making you come undone.  Again and again.  As you’re on the peak of what would be an explosive orgasm, Joel pulls out of you entirely.  His cock, his finger.  His warmth is a distant memory when he stands up, palming over his cock.  How did he get hard again?!  He would deal with that on his own time.
Your moan is choked out, thighs pressing together for any sort of… something.  A release, a grind.  You’re left panting and begging, your tits perky and heaving for him.
“What did I say, little girl?”  He climbs into his clothes, one button up at a time with his flannel.  “You won’t be cumming for a week with that fuckin’ attitude.”
You’re so lost in chasing a feeling, soon to disappear as it could arrive that all you can do is whimper and nod.  “I’m so–” his hand grips your jaw, forcing you to look up at him.  Spit covers your face, and you hum like a kitten at the feeling of his hot saliva down your cheek, “What did I fucking say about apologisin’ when you’re not sorry?”
You wipe your face, sucking the spit off your thumb with a satisfied smirk.  “Fuckin’ loved it, daddy.”
He swallows then, his head shaking in disbelief over how much of a filthy bitch you are.  “Yeah, yeah you fuckin’ did.  Belong to me now, you understand?  Gonna let everybody know what a slut you are for this cock.”
And you would be lying if you didn’t experience a swell of pride in those words.  You’d be down each other’s throats again in no time, but the look of ownership that adorns his face over you is too much not to bask in.
“A week?”  You study him, eyes wet and round, look up at him and you see his cheek twitch in response.
“Gonna be two if you keep it up.”
You let out a faint sigh, resting your head back on the armrest.  “Yes, daddy.”
“Good girl,” he coos, leaning down to press his lips at the shell of your ear.  Fingers tucking his cum back in your hole.  He relishes in how hot you feel under his fingers.
“Now get the fuck out of my house.”
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inthedayswhenlandswerefew · 3 months ago
Text
Where Will All The Martyrs Go [Chapter 10: Nobody Likes You, Everyone Left You]
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A/N: I sincerely apologize for the delay, but Maggie Sundays are back, besties!!! And we have a new poll! Be sure to check it out AFTER you finish Chapter 10 🥰
Series summary: In the midst of the zombie apocalypse, both you and Aemond (and your respective travel companions) find yourselves headed for the West Coast. It’s the 2024 version of the Oregon Trail, but with less dysentery and more undead antagonists. Watch out for snakes! 😉🐍
Series warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, med school Aemond, character deaths, nature, drinking, smoking, drugs, Adventures With Aegon™️, pregnancy and childbirth, the U.S. Navy, road trip vibes.
Series title and chapter title are lyrics from: “Letterbomb” by Green Day.
Word count: 6.8k
💜 All my writing can be found HERE! 💜
Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🥰
Here’s how it happens.
Let’s say you’re on a subway, or at a bus stop, or walking in or out of a grocery store, maybe fumbling with your purse or corralling small children, or talking on the phone, or wondering how you’re going to make rent, or trying not to drop one of your shopping bags, and out of nowhere some stranger lurches over and grabs you. They are filthy and noxious and moaning, and you assume they are insane, or on hard drugs, or maybe both. Your fellow upstanding citizens rush to your aid and the assailant is apprehended and carted off, unbeknownst to you surely to infect many more blithely unaware victims.
Maybe you notice that you were bitten, even just barely, even just a scrape of the teeth hard enough to scratch the skin; maybe you don’t. If you do notice and you seek medical attention, the best a doctor will offer you is disinfectant and antibiotics, maybe a rabies shot if they’re extra ambitions. Perhaps you have too much on your plate already without a detour to the doctor’s office (or perhaps you don’t have medical insurance), and you opt for at-home remedies, a vigorous scrub with hydrogen peroxide and a large rectangular Band-Aid slapped on top. Of course, none of this will do you any good. It was over the moment a drop of zombie saliva slipped painlessly into your bloodstream and began to replicate there like an invasive species, like an insurgent force. It only takes once.
You go home, and maybe when you start to feel really bad you call an ambulance and go to the hospital, and when you turn you bite anyone you can get your claws on there. Maybe you die at home and then attack your partner, your children, your parents, your roommates; maybe this new version of yourself ends up chewing bits of gristle off the bones of your dog or cat or ferret. And if any of your victims manage to escape once you’ve gotten a taste of them—no matter how fleetingly, no matter how trivially—they are sure to die in agony and reanimate too, and to pass along this plague you’ve gifted them, the bloodiest game of telephone.
Now millions are getting sick, fevers, headaches, purging, bleeding, but where do people go when they need a doctor? The hospitals are overrun, the clinics are swarmed, and doctors and nurses are falling ill too. There are unimaginable reports of the carnage. There is censorship to smother the panic. There are public figures vanishing from sight. There are zombies-in-progress boarding planes, checking into hotels, tottering onto cruise ships with armfuls of luggage, sweating through their bedsheets in crowded military barracks, silently ticking timebombs as the world as everyone knows it hurtles towards its end.
You would be amazed what people can refuse to believe. Once you believe something, that makes it real.
~~~~~~~~~~
There are no shovels, so Cregan tills the earth with his axe and then you dig with your hands. There are no headstones, so Rhaena finds a large sand-colored rock and writes on it with a jagged piece of slate: Baela and Briar, Summer 2024. Then she hesitates, the slate hovering in afternoon air, amber sunlight and eighty degrees, dust thick in the wind. She wants to say more. There needs to be more. How can two lives end with five words? At last Rhaena adds: Mother and child who perished en route to California. They were loved. They mattered.
“That’s good, Rhaena,” Luke tells her, voice gentle, hands on her shoulders. She stares at the grave for a while, and you don’t have time to waste; the bear could return, there might be wolves or mountain lions, eventually the sun will set and you will be stranded in an infinite darkness like the ocean at night. But Aemond waits until Rhaena is ready. She tucks the shard of shale into her backpack, and then you are fleeing once again: from this day, from this world.
You hike back to I-80 and walk west towards the next ranch. All of you are here in south-central Wyoming, and yet none of you are: you are in the earth with Baela, you are back in Nebraska where Jace died, you are in Ohio where he was swept away by a river, you are in Pennsylvania where you and Rio climbed down from a transmission tower, you are in your lives before the world ended: Saratoga Springs, Boston, cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a part of Kentucky called the Wildlands. Aegon is limping along on his own and shoving Rio away each time he tries to pick him up.
“Stop,” Aegon says, wincing and exhausted, his bandages coated with dust.
“Come on, Honey Bun. You’re going to rip your foot open—”
“Stop it!” Aegon demands. “I’m not going to slow you down anymore! I’m not going to be a burden!”
There is a sound you don’t immediately recognize: a rumbling, a squealing. A car is pulling up alongside you. Instinctively, you unholster one of your M9s and raise it as you turn.
“No, no, no, we’re cool!” a woman says, showing you both of her hands. She is around fifty and driving a Subaru Outback; there is a man in the passenger’s seat, perhaps her husband, and two wide-eyed, hoodie-swathed teenagers in the backseat. “Are you…are you guys okay?”
All of you stare blankly at her: shellshocked, distraught, covered in dirt and blood. “Yeah,” Daeron says eventually.
The woman peers around, east, west. “Do you have a car or something?”
“We have a Tahoe,” Cregan says. “It’s out of gas.”
“We have a few cans in the trunk,” the Subaru woman replies. “I can give you one, five gallons. That will get you to Rock Springs, and you should be able to find more supplies there. We came through that way, it wasn’t too bad.” And then, before anybody can ask if she’s serious, the woman steps out of the car and opens the hatchback. She lifts out a red can and hands it to Rio, who is standing the closest.
“Thank you, lady,” he says, astonished.
“I’m sorry about that,” you tell the woman, meaning the fact that you were prepared to shoot her.
Rhaena adds: “We’ve had some…bad experiences.”
The Subaru woman smiles. “Haven’t we all. Where are you headed?”
“West Coast,” Aemond answers quickly: vague, guarded, inviting no further disclosures.
She nods; she can’t trust you, and you can’t trust her, and everyone agrees, an unspoken acknowledgement of what the world is like now. “Well, you don’t want to go anywhere near Salt Lake City.”
“But that’s the only direct route,” Aegon says, crestfallen.
“I know.” The Subaru woman is sympathetic. “And it’s going to burn a hell of a lot of gas and time to drive all the way around, but you have to. There are tens of thousands of zombies, and a lot of people are trapped there without fuel. I’m telling you, if someone sees you driving by in a working vehicle, they’ll try to put a bullet in your head so they can take it. So don’t give them the opportunity.”
“Okay,” Aegon says glumly, already pulling his map out of the pocket of his khaki shorts to plot a new course.
“Stay far away from Chicago,” Rio offers the Subaru woman in return. “And any nuclear power plants.”
“We’re headed south,” she says, then grins. “I’ve got a sister in eastern Tennessee. We’re going to learn how to fish and cook moonshine and make clothes out of deer hide, and live up in the mountains where nobody will ever bother us.”
People glance at you, the resident Appalachian; and you remember the crackling of woodstoves, flecks of ice in the creek, kicking up snow as you ran through the woods, following tracks of deer and opossums and raccoons. “It’s a beautiful place. I think you’ll like it.”
Rhaena asks the Subaru woman: “Is there anything we can do for you? To thank you for the gas?”
“Oh, I couldn’t take from a bunch of bloodied people who are stranded on the side of the interstate.” But her eyes catch on the pistol in your hand and stay there, envious, longing. You have another, so you give it to her.
“The safety is on. There are only nine bullets left, unfortunately.”
“That’s nine more than I had before,” the Subaru woman says as she takes the U.S. Navy’s standard-issue Beretta. Then she says to everyone: “Good luck.”
“Same to you, ma’am,” Cregan replies. The Subaru woman gets back into her car and disappears eastbound with her family. The nine of you that are left—ten, if you count Ice—trek back to the Tahoe, where Rio pours five gallons of combustible liquid gold into the gas tank.
Rhaena climbs into the driver’s seat and turns the key in the ignition. The rust-red Tahoe growls to life, the engine idling. Then she rests her arms on the steering wheel and breaks down sobbing. In the passenger’s seat, Aegon looks up from his map—which he is annotating with a glittery green gel pen—to gaze at her with shining, wounded eyes. After some hesitation, he extends a hand to hold one of hers. From the seat behind Rhaena, Luke is rubbing her shoulders and murmuring words you can’t hear.
Aemond says softly: “Rhaena, you can take some time if you need it.”
“No,” she insists, her voice quivering but determined. “We can’t wait. We have to get as far as we can before dark.” She shifts the Tahoe into drive, guides it onto I-80, and speeds west towards Rock Springs and the Utah border.
Rio is saying something to you, but at first you can’t grasp it. Helaena is scratching Ice’s ears as the massive grey wolfdog lies sprawled across her lap. Daeron is sniffling and wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his orange t-shirt. Cregan is talking to Aemond about needing to find an auto shop so he can get supplies to change the Tahoe’s oil and filter. One of Aegon’s mixtapes whirls in the CD player:
“My face above the water
My feet can’t touch the ground, touch the ground
And it feels like I can see the sands on the horizon
Every time you are not around…”
You are watching Aemond, your heartbeat growing loud in your ears. He won’t look at you at all.
~~~~~~~~~~
As the sun begins to set, you find a vacant house on the outskirts of Coalville, Utah overlooking the Echo Reservoir. You wash away the remnants of Wyoming in the cool blue water, dried blood and caked-on dirt, hopes eclipsed by horror. Dinner is soup spooned out of cans from the pantry—Dinty Moore beef stew, Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle—and caffeine-free sodas, Sprite and Fanta and Seagram’s Ginger Ale. Then Rhaena and Luke go straight to bed, and Helaena scuttles through the house with a flashlight to search for clothes, making each person a separate pile on the dining room table: large flannel shirts for Cregan, pastel-colored polos for Aegon. Aemond and Cregan are outside on the front porch, Daeron is carving sticks into arrows on the kitchen floor, Aegon has been passed out in one of the children’s bedrooms since Aemond debrided his burns again and dosed him with the last of the Vicodin. Fortunately, Helaena found a translucent orange prescription bottle of Tramadol in the upstairs bathroom, so Aegon won’t have to suffer too much tomorrow.
Rio tosses and turns on the living room couch. You know what’s wrong, but you have to wait for him to say it. You stay with him, kneeling on the beige carpet in the murky artificial luminance of Rio’s Moonbeam flashlight, threading your fingertips through his dark curls. And then at last Rio asks something that you know must have crossed his mind a thousand times since you left Saratoga Springs, but he’s never voiced aloud: “What if Sophie and the baby are dead?”
“They’re not.”
“But you don’t know, nobody knows—”
“Bryan, they’re not dead,” you say, and he is listening.
“I joined the Navy for Sophie.” And of course, you’ve heard this before. “I was just a stupid kid who couldn’t commit to anything, not work, not school, not a future with her, so she dumped me. And I decided I was going to get her back by proving I could make commitments after all. I could sign my life away for five years, and come out of it as someone who would be a good husband and father. And now…what if by enlisting and being so far away when everything happened, I abandoned her? What if…what if she’s gone, and she died terrified and in pain and alone, and I’m the reason why?”
“Sophie and the baby are waiting for you in Odessa. You have to believe that until we get there.”
“Because if they’re not, my life is over?” he asks bitterly, this man you have never known to be wrathful, defeated, weak, hopeless. But these are beasts that live inside all of us, waiting to be shaken awake by the perfect string of calamities.
“I believe they’re still alive.”
And Rio looks at you, wanting desperately to be convinced. “Why?”
You’ve never believed that you are someone who knows the right things to say; but you have to try. “If your parents’ community in Odessa is like you’ve always described it to me, I can’t think of a better place for someone to hide from all the disorder and the violence. It’s remote, but there’s support from other families who are living the same way. People have gardens, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, enough canned food to live on for years, homemade clothes and systems to collect rainwater. There are women who’ve had five homebirths and men who’ve built houses with their own hands. And the people in Odessa have guns and know how to use them. I think when you told Sophie to go there, you saved her life. And now she and the baby are both waiting for you to come home.”
“We’ve crossed this country by raiding dead people’s homes.”
“Yes. And we’ve seen plenty of living ones too.”
Rio takes a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling; and now he is calmer. “Okay,” he says, grabbing your hand where it rests on his head and smacking a noisy kiss onto your knuckles. “I’m sorry. Thank you. I think I’m done freaking out for tonight.”
“You good?”
“I’m good.”
“Try to sleep.”
Obediently, Rio closes his eyes, and within five minutes he’s snoring.
You rise and open the door to the front porch, thinking of what you’re going to tell Aemond when he is low, distracted, wary: You did everything you could, Aemond. It’s not your fault. It’s this world, it’s poison, it’s cursed, and you can’t turn back the clock to when it wasn’t. You’re just one man. But you can try to save the people who are left.
Yet Aemond does not speak to you, doesn’t even notice you; when you peek outside you are on his blind side, and he is deep in conversation with Cregan as they keep watch in the moonlight.
“I mean, yeah, I’ve been thinking about that too, man,” Cregan is saying. “A mansion by the ocean sounds nice and all, don’t get me wrong, but that ain’t me. I don’t see myself somewhere like that forever. Hell, I’ve never even seen the ocean, and to be honest I never really cared to. But a community of folks who are living off the land out in the woods? Those are my kind of people, that’s a place I could be useful…”
You retreat back inside the house, flashlights and shadows, doubts and fears. You stand there in the quiet for a while, then go to Aegon’s bedroom, where he is awake now and snuggling with Ice in a child’s bed shaped like a red racecar, listening to his pink Sony Walkman—Ava, the gleaming rhinestones proclaim—through one earbud.
Aegon coos as he ruffles the dog’s shaggy grey coat: “You’re so sweet, Blue Raspberry Icee. You were always my favorite flavor. Do you miss 7-Elevens too? Wrinkled old hot dogs and taquitos on rollers, drenching tortilla chips with the nacho cheese and chili dispenser? Did you guys even have 7-Elevens in Iowa? No offense, but your home state kind of sucks. It’s just fields and barns and whatever. You would have loved Boston. You could have fetched my golf balls when they rolled into ponds.”
Then he sings along to the song he’s listening to, effortlessly melodic but so softly you can barely hear him:
“You really had me going, wishing on a star
But the black holes that surround you are heavier by far
I believed in your confusion, you were so completely torn…”
Aegon spots you in the doorway. He smiles, then turns serious when he gets a good look at your face. “You okay, Mint Chocolate Chip?”
He feels like the only person you can say this to. You confess in a weak, hoarse whisper: “I hate this world.”
Aegon offers you the other earbud. “Then let’s go somewhere else.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Come on,” you say to Rhaena as Rio and Luke rummage around inside the Shell gas station for food, drinks, batteries, medicine. You know they’re fine; you’ve already cleared the store, and you can hear them in there laughing. Rio is telling Luke about the bizarre Thanksgiving dinner you once had in Chinhae, South Korea: duck instead of turkey, fried rice with pears and squash instead of stuffing, candied sweet potatoes for dessert, a choir of solemn schoolchildren brought in to sing—for reasons you will never understand—Africa by Toto. You take your remaining M9 out of its holster. “Target practice.”
“Really?” Rhaena asks excitedly. She volunteered to stay back at the little blue mobile home with Aegon, Daeron, and Helaena—only a mile away—but you knew she needed a distraction. Truthfully, you do too. Aemond is in the Tahoe somewhere searching for gas with Cregan, a strange new alliance. He still hasn’t really spoken to you. You are trying to give him what he needs, but you don’t understand what that is.
It took all of yesterday to navigate around Salt Lake City, stopping every few hours to scrounge for gas, gallons siphoned piecemeal from cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats on trailers, four-wheelers left forgotten in garages and backyards. It was after nightfall when you rolled into Battle Mountain, Nevada, a gold mining town in what is known as the Cowboy Corridor, beginning at West Wendover just over the Utah border and ending in Reno. Today supplies must be replenished; tomorrow I-80 will take you to Winnemucca, where U.S. Route 95 branches off north towards Oregon while remaining on I-80 leads southwest through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the Bay Area of California. A decision needs to be made, which means Aemond will have to talk to you tonight. You’re relieved. You don’t want to have to be nervous and watchful with him, studying every inflection of his voice, reading some dire premonition in each line that creases his face. You’ve spent enough of your life that way already.
Battle Mountain is cloudless and hot and sandy, dry shrubs and gnarled mesquite trees, flat secretless earth. Staggering towards the Shell are three zombies, all dressed in faded blue uniforms like a mechanic’s or a miner’s. You hand Rhaena your M9.
“How many bullets do you have left?” she says, still a bit giddy.
“Fifteen. And you can have five of them.”
She raises the pistol and closes one eye. “I’m going to miss.”
“Well you’re not going to hit anything if you don’t turn off the safety.”
Rhaena giggles. “Oh, right. Whoops.” She clicks the tiny lever, then takes aim again.
“Line up your sights. Front looks like an I, back looks like a U. Put the I in the center of the U, and keep looking at that front sight. That’s where your bullet is going. Don’t blink when you fire. Don’t be scared of the recoil, that’s not your problem, your priority is getting the shot. Your arms are a little stiff…yeah, perfect, nice and limber. The recoil won’t hurt so much that way. Don’t try to fight it, just accept that it’s going to happen. If you’re all tensed up because you’re anxious about the recoil, it’ll throw off your aim, so forget about it.”
“Okay,” Rhaena says. “I am actively attempting to forget.”
“Remember, try not to blink.”
“Don’t tense up. Don’t blink.” A few seconds pass, and she pulls the trigger. There is a spray of dark curdled blood from one of the zombie’s collarbone, but it’s still stumbling towards the Shell. “Damn,” Rhaena says defeatedly, then tries to pass the M9 back to you.
“What are you doing? You have four more shots.”
“But I’m going to miss. I’m going to waste them.”
“Practice isn’t wasteful. You have to know how to do this in case something happens to me.”
“You do it,” Rhaena insists. “I’m terrible.”
“Is it alright if I help you?”
“Yeah,” she says, her doe-like eyes brightening. “Okay. Totally.”
“Go ahead and aim.”
She raises the pistol and peers through the sights. You stand behind Rhaena, place your hands lightly over hers, adjust her angle just barely. When she fires—she’s still tensing up just before she pulls the trigger, a common mistake—you hold the M9 steady. The bullet explodes through the same zombie’s rot-soft skull and the corpse tumbles facedown into the dust.
Rhaena gasps, exhilarated, triumphant.
“No celebrating yet. There are two more.”
“Right.” Very businesslike, she lines up the next shot. You provide your slight adjustments; a second zombie receives a lethal dose of lead.
“Want to do the last one on your own?” The third zombie is quite close now, maybe ten yards. It should be an easy kill.
“Okay…but if I miss, you have to save me.”
“Obviously.”
All on her own, Rhaena aims and pulls the trigger. She hits the zombie near the top of its head; an inch higher, and it would be functionally unharmed. But the corpse’s skull snaps back and its blood and brains spill out onto the asphalt of the parking lot, and it is of no further danger to anyone. It is carrion for the scavengers: raccoons, foxes, condors, vultures, crows.
“And with one of your allocated bullets to spare,” you say with a smile, accepting the M9 when Rhaena surrenders it. “Good progress.”
“That felt great,” she admits, perhaps a little dazed.
You know what she means. “It’s nice to have some control over what happens in your life.”
Luke is saying to Rio as they reappear from inside the Shell: “Maybe those Korean children were singing Africa because they knew your unit had been in Djibouti. Maybe they thought you were homesick for it or something.”
“Oh my God, you know what, kid? You might be right. I never even thought of that.”
“Find anything?” you ask.
Rio shrugs, adjusting the straps of his backpack. “A few bags of trail mix, a box of Band-Aids, some Life Savers, cans of Arizona tea. Oh, and Marlboro Golds for Honey Bun.”
“You shouldn’t be encouraging Aegon to smoke. It’s bad for him.”
“Give him a break, he’s sad and crispy.”
You can’t think of a rebuttal. The four of you walk back to the mobile home.
In the small patch of parched dirt that serves as the driveway, Cregan is—with great difficulty—shimmying out from beneath the Tahoe. Then he reaches back under to grab a pan of old motor oil. “Just about done here,” he announces. “Gotta put the fresh oil in and then we’re set for another 5,000 miles.”
You glance around. Ice is panting in the narrow aisle of shade of a mesquite tree. Aegon is napping on the tiny front porch, sprawled on his back and snoring, his plastic neon green sunglasses shielding his eyes; Helaena is surrounded by a jumble of empty cans and stirring a pot of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs as she heats it over a fire. She begins dishing out bowlfuls of it. Rio, Rhaena, and Luke all graciously accept their dinner.
“Did you guys find gas?” you say to Cregan.
“Not much. A few gallons.”
“Where’s Aemond?”
“Said he’d be back soon.”
“What?” You are incredulous. “You left him? He can’t be alone out there, Cregan. Someone has to watch his blind side.”
“He ain’t alone. He took Daeron.”
“What’s Aemond looking for?”
“He didn’t say. I didn’t ask.” Now Cregan is pouring a bottle of Pennzoil into the Tahoe, and Rio is prodding you with a bowl of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs, and Aegon is waking up and yawning loudly.
“What’d you bring me?” he says, lazy and grinning; and when he receives his pack of Marlboro Golds, he immediately sticks one between his teeth and lights it. Luke goes to sit by a shrub and then jumps up when he hears a rattling noise. Almost too swiftly for you to process it, a streak of red-gold scales slithers across the earth and vanishes into the desert.
“Western diamondback rattlesnake,” Helaena notes. “Venomous. Potentially fatal.”
“Great,” Luke says, carrying his bowl towards the front door of the mobile home. “I think I’ll eat inside.”
Aemond and Daeron don’t return until shortly before dusk, the sky turning to rust, lavender, gold, fire, blood. When they walk in, Rhaena is curled up on the floral couch—shredded in spots by a cat, though there are no signs of it now—and reading Mockingjay. Luke is sitting with her and keeping watch with periodic peeks out the window. Ice is resting with her muzzle propped on her large front paws. You, Rio, Cregan, Helaena, and Aegon are playing Uno on the floor.
“What color?” Aegon asks Helaena when she puts down a wild card.
“Blue.”
He groans. “How do you always know what I don’t have?!”
“Rhaena,” Aemond says, and then tosses something to her that glints in the artificial, sickly yellow radiance of the flashlights. She catches them in midair: a set of keys. She is mystified.
“What are these for?”
“The Ford Expedition that’s parked outside.”
“What?!” Luke says, twisting around in his seat to snatch the curtain aside and peer through the window. “Oh wow. Yeah, it’s out there.”
Rhaena is staring confoundedly at Aemond. “Why do we need a Ford Expedition?”
“Because that’s what you’ll be driving tomorrow.”
“What’s wrong with the Tahoe?”
“They will be driving the Tahoe to Oregon,” Aemond says, pointing to you, Rio, and Cregan. “We are taking Expedition to California.”
Everyone is too stunned to speak at first; even Daeron looks at Aemond doubtfully, as if this is the first time he’s learning of it. Aegon’s hand hovers frozen in the air above the draw pile of Uno cards. Ice whimpers.
Rio chuckles uncertainly. “You’re…you’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m not,” Aemond says. “When we leave Battle Mountain tomorrow, you’ll take I-80 to Winnemucca. We’ll take Route 305 south to Austin and then head west so we can get off the interstate and avoid the Reno area.”
Your voice comes out dark and poisonous. You can feel your eyes glaring, searing; Aemond won’t look at you. “What are you talking about?”
“We can’t stay together?” Luke asks.
“No,” Aemond says again, and now he’s getting impatient. “We have two different destinations. That’s been the situation since the day we met, and now it’s time to split up.”
“Why can’t we all travel to one place and then the other?” Rhaena says. “We could drive to the Bay Area, see what’s going on at the beach house, and after—”
“I can’t wait,” Rio interrupts. “My wife and baby are in Oregon, I’m going straight there even if no one else is.” As distracted as you are, you touch your palm to one of his broad shoulders. You’re going too. You promised.
“So we’ll drive to Oregon first,” Aegon says agreeably. “Right? We could do that. Go north and then swing by the Bay Area later.”
Aemond shakes his head. “It’s almost impossible to find gas now. There is just enough in the Tahoe to last it until Winnemucca, and just enough in the Expedition to get it down to Austin. There is no guarantee we’ll be able to find more. Every day there’s less gas and food and bullets, because there are less places that haven’t already been looted. There are 400 miles between where we are right now and either Odessa or San Franscisco. There are another 400 miles that separate those two destinations from each other. So let’s say we drive all the way to Oregon and then can’t find any gas to go south to the Bay. How long do you think we’d last like this on foot? A month? Because that’s how long it would take us, assuming not a single rest day. So if we travel to one location together, there’s a good possibility we’ll all be trapped there.”
“Maybe I’m okay with getting trapped in Oregon,” Aegon mumbles.
Aemond lashes out fiercely. “Are you serious? What about Criston, what about Mom?!”
“Maybe there are some things about home that I don’t miss!”
“Then go the fuck to Oregon!”
“You know I have to stay with you!”
Aemond scoffs. “Because you’re so capable of protecting anyone.”
Aegon rubs his sunburned face with both hands. He murmurs softly, miserably: “I’m trying, Aemond.”
“So that’s it?” Rhaena says, staring at you and Rio and Cregan, stunned and mournful. “We’ll just never see each other again?”
Aemond shrugs and averts his gaze. He doesn’t have an answer; maybe he doesn’t care.
Aegon turns to Cregan accusingly. “You helped plan this?”
“Nah,” Cregan says, avoidant and downcast, which is unusual for him. “I mean…I said I didn’t really see myself spending the rest of my life with a bunch of millionaires in a California mansion on the seashore, and that’s still true. I’d rather live in Oregon with people who are more like me. But that’s different than wanting to split up forever. I could always try to find y’all later for a visit, I guess…”
“Sure,” Aemond replies briskly. “Whatever you decide to do afterwards isn’t my problem. But you get them to Odessa first.”
Rhaena bursts out with sudden urgency: “This feels wrong. Don’t you see how this is wrong?! We’ve been through so much together, and now we’re just going to wave goodbye and disappear? Leave them to fend for themselves?”
“You want to add 400 miles to our trip?” Aemond asks her, and Rhaena falls silent.
“You know,” Luke begins. “We…we’ve already lost people. Maybe Aemond’s right. Maybe we’re forgetting how dangerous the world is now. It would be great if we could stay in contact, but the most important thing is to get everyone safely to where they need to be.”
“Exactly,” Aemond says, and something jolts awake in you as you remember what he told you in Nebraska, and in Wyoming, and in so many quiet moments that you’ve shared since you met, each an oasis in the desert. He said we would figure it out. He said he wasn’t going anywhere.
“So you were lying when you pretended not to know what we were going to do when we got to Nevada.”
Aemond nods towards the front door. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute?”
You stand up; Rio watches you apprehensively, wondering if he should follow. Your eyes flick to his. I’m fine. He relents, redirecting his attention. Aegon is slumped and despondent; Helaena is starting to cry, and Cregan tries to console her. She’s saying that something bad is going to happen, but she doesn’t know what.
On the porch of the mobile home, beneath a lilac sky pierced with stars, Aemond does not attempt to hold your hands or kiss you goodbye or give any other indication that you have ever been someone who mattered to him. “This isn’t personal. This is what gives everyone the best chance of survival.”
“You’re afraid of making a mistake and getting hurt,” you tell him. “And I understand, I know what that feels like, but Aemond…with the way the world is now…you can’t afford to wait for things to happen or cut them loose to see if they’ll come back to you. You might not get another chance.”
“You’re going to be fine,” Aemond says flatly. “Your route is safer than ours. Less cities, less zombies.”
“You’re honestly going to act like you are completely unbothered by the thought of never seeing me again?”
“I don’t know what you expected. I’m just some guy who helped get you off a transmission tower back in Pennsylvania.”
“Really? That’s all you are?”
And then Aemond smirks to himself, a cynical, mocking twist of his lips, something so dismissive and so cruel you almost believe for a razor-thin second that you could hate him. “Look, I’m not the one for you. Go to Oregon. Fuck Cregan.”
“There is nothing romantic between me and Cregan!”
Now Aemond seems annoyed. “Well, you two seem exceptionally suited for each other.”
“Because we both grew up shopping at Dollar General and know what it’s like to have an alcoholic parent?! That makes us soulmates, that’s the end of the calculation?!”
“Then find a man like him!” Aemond flares. “That’s what you really wanted, right? That’s what you were after this whole time. Some hero to convince you he’s worth it. Someone to break you in.”
You are seething, thunderstruck. “And you just said that in the most hurtful way possible to…what, prove how little you care about me?”
“I didn’t say I don’t care about you.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“We were never going to end up in the same place.”
“Except we were, you told me that, you told me we’d figure something out, I mean, you…you…you said you’d be there if I wanted kids someday, what was that if not some kind of commitment?!”
“You don’t trust me,” Aemond says, so sharply and so abruptly it startles you.
“I do,” you object softly.
“No, you don’t. And I don’t blame you. But there’s nowhere for us to go from here.”
You can feel yourself becoming young and powerless and desperately afraid. “Please don’t do this, Aemond. It won’t bring Jace or Baela back. If we don’t have a plan before we split up, this is over. We’ll never find each other again. We’ll never have another chance.”
And he shakes his head like this was such a needless mistake. “I knew you’d fall in love with me.”
He’s leaving, you think, hazy and omnipotent like a nightmare, the present inseparable from the past and the future. I left my family and now my family is leaving me. “I’m not in love with you,” you reply as ruthlessly as you can. “I think you’re right. Cregan is a better man.”
“Yeah,” Aemond snaps.
“And I need someone like him.”
“Yeah,” Aemond says again, staring into the west where the last rays of the sun are sinking below the horizon, you erased as you stand where his left eye would once have seen you.
“And you need someone who’s going to fuck with your head so much you can’t possibly mistake it for something real.”
You walk back inside the mobile home and leave him speechless in the dying light.
~~~~~~~~~~
“I drew this for you,” Aegon says, handing Rio a folded piece of paper torn from Helaena’s spider notebook. It’s a map, illustrated in forest green gel pen ink. “Your route is actually really straightforward, it’s impossible to get lost. You’ll follow I-80 northwest to Winnemucca, then Route 95 north until it intersects with Route 140, and you stay on 140 all the way to Odessa. The only real city you’ll go near is Klamath Falls in Oregon, and I’ve marked that. Route 140 mostly stays along the outside, but you can cut it wider if things look dicey. The whole trip is just a couple days by car, assuming you don’t have to spend too long hunting for gas. But listen…” He points to the green dot labelled Winnemucca. “Between here and Denio Junction up by the Oregon border, there’s 100 miles of nothing, just desert. So make sure you have more than enough supplies to last you in case something happens. Then from Denio Junction to Adel is another 85 miles with no towns in between. So just…be careful, okay? You’re not back east anymore. Things are a lot farther apart, and it’s harder to find everything. If you run out of gas or bust a tire, you can’t just call AAA to come pick you up.”
“We got it,” Rio says, touched but trying not to dissolve into too much sentimentality. The three of you are standing in the short dirt driveway the next morning, Aegon putting most of his weight on his good leg. Cregan is waiting behind the wheel of the Chevy Tahoe that once belonged to his parents. Ice is peering out at you through one of the rolled-down windows. “Thank you, Honey Bun.”
“No problem. Now flip it over.”
Rio does; on the back of the first map is another, this one from Odessa south to the Bay Area, a place just north of San Francisco called Bolinas.
“Go all the way to the coast and follow it down,” Aegon says. “You don’t want to bump into Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, San Jose, any of those places. Too many people.” Then he smiles, kind and warm. “I’m going to see you guys again, one way or the other. But first I have to make sure Aemond is safe. And Rio has to meet baby Otter.”
Rio laughs. “Man, don’t even joke about it. I’m seriously concerned that’s my firstborn’s name.”
“If you end up not staying in Odessa, leave me a note carved into a tree trunk or something so I can track you down.”
“You do the same at the beach mansion.”
“Totally.” Then Aegon turns to you; and although he’s still smiling, his eyes—those pools of murky, melancholy blue that remind you of the Gulf of Tadjoura, Corpus Christi Bay, the East China Sea, the Indian Ocean—are catastrophically sad. “Tortilla Chip, it’s been real. Don’t forget about me.”
“I don’t think I could even if I wanted to.”
He pats your backpack and winks, and you don’t understand why until ten hours later when you’re lying on the rooftop of an abandoned RV in Winnemucca, Nevada, gazing up at the stars as Rio and Cregan swap stories to weave affinity until it’s thick like a braid: Rio hiding a dead lemon shark in the Jeep of an officer he hated when you were stationed at Key West, Cregan’s fiancé leaving him after she got a field hockey scholarship to the University of Iowa. You haven’t found any gas for the Tahoe yet. You’ll have to search again tomorrow. You reach into your backpack for a pack of Life Savers and instead are surprised to discover Aegon’s pink Sony Walkman. The rhinestones spelling out a doomed little girl’s name glint in the moonlight.
You slip in both earbuds and press play. Aegon left it paused at an Enrique Iglesias song; you assume he must have been thinking of Rio.
“You look at me and, girl, you take me to another place
Got me feelin’ like I’m flyin’, like I’m out of space
Something ‘bout your body says, come and take me
Got me begging, got me hoping that the night don’t stop…”
You try to see constellations in the night sky instead of random, indifferent distant suns. You try not to remember the way Aemond was when you thought his mark on you was permanent.
“Girl, I like the way you move, come and show me what to do
You can tell me that you want me, girl, you got nothing to lose
I can’t wait no more
I can’t wait no more…”
You spot a glimmer of light among the stars and choose to believe it is a comet rather than a fighter jet, or a forgotten satellite, or the refracted remnants of a solar storm, or something you only imagined and that never existed at all.
225 notes · View notes
dark666posting · 11 months ago
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Obsession
TW: NON-CON, NON-CON, NON-CON *** Flayed Billy, dark!Billy
Oops I started this story in like 2022 lmao. Here it is, more Flayed Billy™️
Happy New Year!!!
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"Yeah? Well, next time you want your dick sucked, you can call Mrs. fucking Wheeler!" You screamed into the car before slamming the door with all your strength. You successfully held back tears as you stomped away from your now ex-boyfriend's car and shoved through your front door. In the Camaro, Billy sat fuming.
A common occurrence for him on the job is to flirt frequently with the older, married women. He never intended on going anywhere with it, until he did. And he got caught pretty quickly after. Billy's mommy issues tied him to the maternal comfort of older women, but you were the only woman he cared about. The only woman he wasn't letting get away. Breaking up certainly wasn't an option whether you knew it or not.
Billy tried to mentally talk himself down before he followed behind you. Your parents are out of town for the week, so he doesn't worry about being stopped.
"Y/N, can we please talk about this? I don't know what you think you saw-" his gaslighting is cut off.
"I know what I saw! Get the fuck out of my house!" You yell, throwing a book in his direction. The two of you weren't strangers to getting physical with each other.
"Hey!" Billy dodges the book, quickly turning to face you again. A look of pure anger is plastered on his face, but he remains poised as best as possible. "Darling, I am trying to fix this. We aren't breaking up." His voice trembles with the strain of withholding his rage.
"We are broken up. This is fucking over." You've never backed down from him before and you didn't plan on starting today. "As of right fucking now, Hargrove, I am single."
"Oh, you're single?" His voice is quiet and he's eerily calm compared to his struggle earlier. He steps toward you and at first, you stand firm, but the closer he gets, the more you shuffle backward. "You're single?" He asks again, expecting a response.
"Y-Yes. Just like you pretended to be." Billy slaps you across the face quicker than you could register, knocking you to the floor. "What the fuck?!" You clutch your cheek as a fiery sting spreads across your skin.
"Let me show you what happens to sluts that don't have boyfriends to protect them." He grabs you by your hair and damn near drags you to the couch. You kick and fight, doing everything in your power to loosen the pull on your scalp.
"Billy, stop!" You scream as he wrestles you onto the couch. He's exceptionally strong and you are no match.
"Look at you. This isn't even hard for me. You need me to protect you or else someone could have his way with you any time he wants." Billy's voice sounds like a taunt. He successfully pins your wrists together under one of his hands and the other starts to roughly rub your cunt through your jeans.
"What the fuck? Let me go, what are you doing?" You squirm and jerk away from him, feeling panic and pleasure as his hand creates friction against you. "Billy, please stop!" Tears well in your eyes. You've never seen him like this, and he doesn't seem to be letting up. He stares down at you with a blank, serious face. You beg him repeatedly with your eyes, wishing you would've just locked the door behind you.
"You're not safe without me. I have to show you." Billy's emotionless expression sends chills down your spine. It's like any part of him that held morals or empathy has been completely shut down.
"No, please," you whimper, but to no avail. Billy slips his hand in your pants, past your panties, slipping a long, nimble finger between your folds. You release a yelp, earning a small, short-lived smirk from Billy. He continues to delicately rub your clit, you melt into his touch before something seems to click in his mind.
"But this is how your boyfriend would touch you. Look how wet you are, you love it. Now I'm gonna show you how a whore gets fucked." Suddenly he tears his hand away, leaving you silently begging for contact. He effortlessly slips your pants from your body and tears your skimpy tank top in half, leaving you in nothing but your panties. You blush as your exposed breasts bounce from Billy's rough treatment.
You assume he's just going to keep toying with you. Another attempt to win you over with an orgasm as he had plenty of times before, even if this was a bit scarier. You're torn from your thoughts when you hear the sound of his belt buckle jingling against itself.
Your eyes go wide as he reveals his throbbing erection. He looms over you, stroking himself as he drinks in the image of you trembling beneath him.
"Billy, I don't want to have sex. Get out of my house. We aren't gonna fuck and pretend we're fine anymore-" he stuffs his length down your throat, cutting you off.
"I don't know how to make it any clearer for you, Y/N. You're too fucking stupid to realize what's happening. It's almost cute." Billy plugs your nose, effectively cutting off all your oxygen as he holds your head against him despite your arms swatting at him for dear life.
It finally dawned on you, that this was not his usual roughness and inability to take "no" for an answer. And you weren't about to get away from him. Panic takes over, controlling your next move. You try to kick and swat him away, but he's inhumanly strong. Stronger than what you're used to, you realize. When he finally allows you to take a breath you look up at him with watery eyes.
"Billy, please," you garble through the drool pooling in your mouth. Your jaw aches from the invasion.
"If you're not mine, I'll make sure nobody wants you," he growls as his expression grows darker. His eyes seem like they belong to someone else and small, black veins rise all over his skin. He looks like a monster, a creature you can't describe. You release a horrified scream before he jerks you from the couch and slams you down on the hardwood floor. Your head smacks the wood with a sharp thud, knocking your vision unsteady.
"Baby, listen. I-I'm sorry. Let's just fuck and make up, okay? Like we always do," you try so hard to reason with him as a sharp ache echoes through your skull. You're petrified, certain he's contracted some sort of rabies-like illness causing this outburst.
"Something's... Happening, Y/N." Billy stares off into the distance, looming over you. "I just... I just need to hurt you." The black, spidery veins beneath his skin grow darker as he admits his intentions.
"Please," you sob uncontrollably. "Please don't hurt me, baby." Billy ignores your pathetic pleas and stares down at your exposed supple chest. A primal, starving sigh exits his body and in the blink of an eye, his large, powerful hand is clasped tightly around your throat. You wheeze and gag, but to no avail, your oxygen is completely cut off. You're certain that with any more effort, he'd crush your windpipe like an empty soda can.
Billy's free hand slaps your breasts around and roughly tugs at your hardened nipples. Each touch he lays on you is sharp and jarring, devoid of any amount of love and care he barely showed even on a good day. You're clawing at his hand around your neck, turning all new shades of purple and blue and he holds you down. Slowly, your hits become weak and sloppy and your vision fades from blurred to black.
Once you're out cold, he tosses your unconscious body over his shoulder and lugs you into your bedroom. Not to be kind or show you any kind of comfort or mercy, but because the bed is the perfect height for him to splay your legs open and tear you to pieces.
He carelessly tosses you into the mattress, stroking himself as he watches you lie there, seemingly lifeless, wearing nothing but a pair of white lace panties. Those are short-lived as he effortlessly snaps the fabric from your body. You're his, completely. He wastes no time toying with you since you're already unresponsive, so he positions his cock at your entrance and shoves himself inside.
He's rough and unyielding as he bucks into you, forcing your body to lubricate his erection for easier access. You're still unconscious, unknowingly being fucked by your ex-boyfriend. He huffs and grunts like a wild animal, continuously readjusting his hands around your body parts for more leverage.
Your legs are lazily tossed over his shoulders, and he holds your wrists to pull you against him with each thrust. Suddenly, you wake up. All the violent fucking you'd endured before waking up seems to hit you all at once and you release a pained cry. The sound of your distress elicits a vulgar moan from Billy.
"Please, no! Billy, stop!" You whine, writhing and squirming against him, only stimulating him further. He moans some more, clearly approaching his climax. Finally, somehow, you're able to angle your leg to kick him away. You land a sharp, calculated kick to his jaw and he stumbles backward, giving you time to take off down the hall.
Billy screams your name like a monstrous roar, tearing through your home to chase after you. He knocks over shelves and side tables, breaking a lamp in the process. Your house looks ransacked. When he rounds the corner and spots you again, you're struggling to get the door open, loud sobs hiccup from your chest, and tsunamis of tears fall from your eyes.
"You're fucked now. That was me being gentle." He cracks his knuckles before slowly, confidently approaching you. You scream again in fear before finally getting the lock to unlatch. You frantically spill out the door and onto the porch. You're nearly off the last step when he grabs you by your hair, yanking you backward into him.
"Billy, no. Billy-" Your words fall out of you quickly with a more collected, serious tone to them as you begin to panic. You don't know if he's going to continue fucking you, or just kill you here on the front lawn. It's dark and your house is a little more secluded than most, something you saw as a good thing until tonight.
Billy holds you by the wad of your hair he's wrapped his hand in and your wrist, keeping you pressed flush against his broad, muscular body.
"I just need to hurt you." He echoes his own words before shoving you cruelly to the ground. You land on the front of your body with barely any time to catch yourself. The rough grassy yard is less than pleasant when it catches you. Billy swiftly climbs on top of you, pinning your arms behind your back and pressing his bulge against your ass.
He forces himself back inside your abused cunt and ruts into you like his life depends on it. You're right next to a road, but it's so late, that it'd be nearly impossible to see someone pass by at this hour. Until they do. You spot a set of headlights coming down the road and you try to thrash around to get their attention. Billy notices this attempted call for help and buries your face into the ground, continuing his mission.
As the car draws closer, you realize that it is too dark for you to see the thick shrubbery completely concealing you and Billy from the road. The car drives right past and you release a quiet sob into the dirt.
"No one's coming for you, Y/N," he growls between thrusts. Finally, his rhythm begins to waver. His breathing becomes labored and unsteady and he finally slams into you one last time, filling you up for a moment before he pulls out and finishes cumming all over your back and in your hair. He lays a brutally aggressive slap on your ass cheek and leaves you there. You hear his car start and pull out of the driveway, all the while you remain on the ground.
Silent, blank-faced tears fall down your face. You manage to peel yourself off the ground and drag yourself inside before the sun begins to rise. You sit in a warm bath, still in shock when you realize your hand is wandering to the sore opening between your legs. You can't help but relive every second he tore into you. You don't understand this feeling, but it brings you to orgasm in mere minutes.
The rest of the night you're anxious and afraid. Afraid he'll come back, or worse, afraid he won't. You recall all the parasitic veins spreading over his skin and you shudder. He's not well, and you were merely a casualty of that.
He just needed to hurt you.
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dallasgallant · 5 months ago
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Assorted headcanons-
Been busy and unable to rewatch the movie for close to two weeks and I think I’m dealing with withdrawals… these boys are living rent free. While I’m working on a fic take some assorted headcanons.. I gotta get some of this out of my head
Ponyboy is not a still sleeper, he moves a lot. Once soda woke up to him laying across the pillows with his feet directly on his face and immediately shoved him off the bed (then apologized like crazy)
Curtis house has locker room rules. The guys have seen the best and worst of eachother and no one bats an eye if someone changes etc (changing is nothing if you’ve seen someone beat up or in emotional distress. They’re over it)
Steve has a bit of a napoleon complex from being on the shorter side, adding to his show off behavior.
Pony has a single stuffed animal, a Snoopy doll from the 50s from when he was a baby.
They say Pop instead of Soda (for the drink)
Darry has been secretly expanding their mother’s collection of little porcelain animals. It’s about the one thing he gets for himself and he suddenly understands why his mom was so into them.
Steve and Two bit have absolutely used curlers before trying to enhance or cheat their complicated hairstyles. … two bit answering the door in his moms robe with curlers “I’m doing something.”🧍‍♂️ and he did look great the next day
The Curtis parents room remains untouched apart from mirrors being covered, this goes into the next headcanon
All the boys have some deep rooted folklore/legend beliefs and habits they follow just because it’s what you do. Like covering mirrors or old country™️ tradition type stuff
Steve’s mother is still around but silent. She’s powerless against his dad/doesn’t stick up for him but will try and be comforting or make him understand etc
Ponyboy has super unmedicated Add/Adhd (I have a post on this)
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thepunkranger · 6 months ago
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Resident Evil Characters - A Summary
Note: This is entirely my own opinion and said with a heavy dose of humor
Please enjoy
Chris Redfield
OG
Started as a twunk
Became an angry gorilla man???
Alpha Male™️
Punches boulders
Wants you to marry his sister
Smoker
Hide yo kids, hide yo wife
Rude to wait staff
2/10 - Just a guy. Hit him with your car
-
Jill Valentine
Other OG
Arguably better main of RE1
Master of Unlocking
Bisexual Bob™️
Butch
Supercop
Once got mind-controlled into going blonde
Rocket Launcher babe
PTSD
Big Strap Energy
Giant anime gun
10/10
-
Albert Wesker
OG Baddy
Sunglasses
Thinks he’s cool
A little too into Chris
“What are we going to do this game, Albert?”
“What we do every game, Alex: try to take over the world”
Matrix jacket
Maybe a vampire?
Looks like my uncle (derogatory)
4/10
-
Barry Burton
Bear
A+ line delivery
Just happy to be a part of things
Wishes his daughter would talk to him
Comes through in a pinch
Got lost on his way to The Last of Us
Father figure
Not dead out of sheer dumb luck
8/10
-
Rebecca Chambers
Baby butch
Sees the best in everyone
Autism be damned, my girl can work a shotgun
Sporty
Mommy Domme/Babygirl switch vibes
Sweet coffee addict
Doing fine, thanks for asking
Awkward thumbs up
9/10
-
Billy Coen
Bad Boy™️
Never bothered to take off his handcuffs
Tattoos
Mullet???
Moral standards
Strong silent type
Whole situation could’ve been avoided by just talking about his issues but no
Queen fan
7/10
-
Leon S. Kennedy
If a golden retriever became a human and then got kicked every day of its life
Having a really bad first day
Into dominant women
Dumb 90s haircut
Uses comedy as a coping mechanism
Hair grows in direct correlation to his level of angst
“Hey demons, it’s me, ya boi”
Sexy
Dog lover
Certified Good Boy™️
Fucked up a perfectly good rookie is what you did. Look at it, it’s got depression
15/10
-
Claire Redfield
College student stuck in the zombie apocalypse
Soft butch
Humanitarian
Forced her brother to teach her how to knife fight
Really into motorcycles
Leather jacket
Rocket Launcher babe #2
Always has at least one adopted child with her
10/10 would ask to babysit
-
Ada Wong
Mommy. Sorry. Mommy- sorry. Mommy-
Grappling hook
Badass spy
Emotionally distant
Soft spot for cute cuddly things (Leon)
Femme fatale
Book lover
Chaotic neutral
Crossbow 😍
Could step on me and I’d say thank you
Rocket launcher babe #3
10/10
-
Sherry Birkin
Goosebumps protagonist
Worst parents ever tbh
Surprisingly good under pressure
Please someone get this girl some therapy
Supergirl
Smartest person here
One hell of a shot
The trauma is immeasurable
Somehow still doing fine
Loves her weird adopted family
8/10
-
Carlos Oliviera
Himbo
First POC main?
Went from three polygons and a white boy haircut in the original to actual gorgeous South American hunk in the remake
Lost his accent along the way for some reason
#1 Jill simp
If Dug from Up was a guy
Only trustworthy person in the whole series
Just wants to help
Gorgeous gorgeous hair
Loves strong women
Hakuna matata
Touch-starved
10/10 would peg
-
Steve Burnside
Twink
Who is this sassy lost child?
Hot Topic employee
Into Claire (she’s too old for you bud)
Choker
Thinks he’s edgy
Whiny
Daddy issues
1/10
-
Luis Serra Navaro
If Puss in Boots was a human
The Most Extra™️
Luscious flowing locks
Definitely into bondage
Used to work for Umbrella
Trying to make up for it
Don Quixote references
Bisexual
Good with his hands
Praying for a threesome with Leon and Ada
10/10
-
Ashley Graham
Basic white girl
Always getting kidnapped
Master of Unlocking #2
Razor flip phone
Ada Wong bisexual awakening (same)
Good with a wrecking ball
Makes Leon catch her every time she has to jump a ledge (also same)
Would like to go to Hot Topic, please
7/10
-
Sheva Alomar
Player 2
Second POC main
Bad AI
Too good for her game
Willing to go on a suicide mission with a guy she just met
Left handed
Deserves a better stylist
Only good part of RE5
Literally my girl got done so dirty just give her another chance please
10/5
-
Moira Burton
“It’s not a phase, dad!”
Probably gay
Weak arms
Skillz
Box dyed her hair at least once
Simple Plan playing in the background
Childhood trauma
7/10
-
Piers Nivans
Trying his best
Appreciates a good steak
Sick of Chris’ bullshit
Good with a rifle
Just a good man
German Shepherd boy
Self-sacrificing
8/10
-
Jake Muller
Wesker’s son
Daddy issues
Who invited Ronan Lynch here?
Quips for days
Bad boy
Loves the type of woman who can kick his ass
The Most Edgy™️
9/10
-
Ethan Winters
Husband of the year
Trusting
Surprisingly chill
The most basic white man in all of RE
Hands? What hands?
Functionally a lizard
Would still love you if you were a worm
Just casually knows how to craft bullets
Moldy
8/10
-
Mia Winters
Toxic girlfriend energy
Literally possessed
Dark sense of humor
Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss
Casually working for a bioterrorism organization
Does actually care about her family
Definitely doesn’t have a penicillin allergy
If you can’t be the girl of his dreams, you can at least be the feral swamp witch of his nightmares
2/10
-
Zoe Baker
Lesbian
Mold intolerance
Southern accent thicker than grandma’s gravy
Picked last on the playground
Somehow okay despite her brother being Like That
Joe’s favorite
Science skills
8/10
-
Lucas Baker
Jigsaw
Didn’t even need the mold
Probably got at least one true crime documentary made about him
Working for Mia’s bioterrorism organization
Left his classmate rotting in the attic
Just the worst
0/10
-
Alcina Dimetrescu
Mommy
Please step on me
Elizabeth Bathory vibes
Just fucking huge
Can turn into a dragon
Lesbian
9/10
-
Karl Heisenberg
Grimy
Tumblr Sexyman
When robotics majors get weird
Fights with his siblings
Doesn’t actually care at all about Miranda
In cahoots with the lycans
7/10
-
Rosemary Winters
Mommy and Daddy issues
YA protagonist
Badass
Childhood trauma
Into the Mold-verse
Alternate universe Sherry Birkin
8/10
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koolades-world · 6 months ago
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I absolutely LOVE your headcanons esp the Indian ones they make me feel quite seen even if I'm from a country that have super similar cultures (Mauritius) 💗🫶
But now I have to ask, I'm the eldest cousin so whenever there's a family gathering I'm usually the one stuck looking after all of my little cousins so if I brought one of the brothers with me they would all be wondering who he is to me and would interview him just being like, "Are you his boyfriend?!?!?!"
Any chance I could get any headcanons for the brothers for this? Completely okay if you can't!
hello! yes of course :)
this request was send in more recently but I just got back from a family gathering (as of 5/25 this is very prewritten haha) and got a fresh taste of this because im the eldest cousin too! i understand your pain haha. all of my cousins are little. chasing after kids you sometimes barely know the name of in a sari, lehenga, or salwar kameez is no fun
god this will be so fun to write!! (there’s still a whole bunch of random aunties, uncles and little kids at the house so I’m hiding since I don’t get to leave until tomorrow) like yesterday, most of this was written on mobile since I’m traveling so excuse autocorrect please :)
enjoy <3
Mc who babysits their younger cousins at a family gathering w/ the brothers
Lucifer
he’s getting war flashbacks /j haha and it’s written all over his face
he left home to get away from his brothers and basically entered an environment that’s exactly the same but with easily one hundred times the people
he’s almost impressed on their ability to never shut up and now knows why you’re so good at handling his family
however, he is dadcifer™️ so he’s great with the kids, and will try his best to answer their questions, even ones regarding your relationship status
Mammon
nothing gets past kids, and they can sense his weakness when he’s talking about you. they are ruthless
before they can break him, you have to step in and tell them to pick one question each to ask. he’s not sure how you’re corralled them so well, or how you can even tell some of them apart to the point of reprimanding them for tricking him. no wonder you can keep his family in line
once he realizes your job isn’t over until the night ends and their parents come to get their kids, he tries to sneak off a few times, but he always ends up with a couple shadows and has to come back
eventually he’s resigned to his fate, and finds he much prefers the cute little babies since they’re more than happy to mess with his jewelry, and he gets to pinch their cute little chubby cheeks <3
Levi
as much as he hates it, the kids love him and whatever device he brought along to play with
after promising to replace anything they break, he sits down and plays games with them and finds out he actually enjoys it
the older ones actually engage in the game with him and ask him game related questions, which he's more than happy to answer, and the younger ones can be handed a disconnected controller and still be kept happy
this is to the point where the kids actually forget to question him about who he is, and only ask if he'll be at the next event. who is he to say no?
Satan
you’re prepared, and he thinks he is too until he gets there haha. but, he keeps it together and adapts well
you’ve thought of just about everything, from wearing extra, cheaper bangles to hand to them to keep them happy to man knowing every trick in the book to get them to finish their dinner and he can only hope to reach that level someday
he's very collected though, he tries his best to deflect their questions and keep them off that topic
however, part of him knows that's impossible and eventually he caves and just answers the questions to the best of his ability, hoping you aren't listening. never have you seen him so out of his element
Asmo
if it’s a dry event and for some reason isn’t on the dance floor, or there wasn’t one to begin with, he’s so in love with the job you hate so much haha
he’s so attentive with the kids and adores them. he’s got lots of tricks up his sleeve to keep them entertained
of course, he owns it when one kid asks if he’s your boyfriend and proudly tells them yes, he is, (even if he’s not) and answers any other questions they have even if you’re embarrassed
now, the kids look forward to seeing him and expect him everytime
Beel
he’s very chill and almost finds it enjoyable, mostly there to keep you from losing your mind
when the kids eventually decide the food they picked out wasn’t what they wanted, and instead whatever he’s eating, he’s more than happy to share with them. after, they’re you’re flesh and blood, so they’re his family too
of course he’s their jungle gym and he takes turns tossing them in the air, and giving piggy back rides
he’s not quite sure how to respond to all of their questions, but as long as you’re alright with it, he’ll answer honestly
Belphie
as a youngest himself, he’s overwhelmed. is this what he’s like?
the kids won’t let him sneak away to nap, because they’re hyper aware of everything and will catch him
honestly, he’s more annoyed than anything, but he might take a liking to a few and spend all his time with them. he feels like he’s being attacked by all the questions
he’s a lot nicer to you after that, since he realized that’s your life, and he only got a small taste of it
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blorbocedes · 3 months ago
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hi! i am relatively new-ish to f1 and i have a question about nico that i wondered if you might know the answer to. obviously i know his parents are finnish and german respectively, and he was raised mostly in monaco, but my question is -- did he ever really seem to consider monaco his home or special in any way while racing in f1? (like, obviously he was racing under the german flag, and *really* played up that aspect of it, but was monaco just another race to him? was it like "home part 2" or nothing beyond "hey that's my house lol" or ... you get the question.)
his nationality Thing™️ or whatever you want to call it is something i really find interesting (i guess also kind of relatable in a weird way) so any other info or sources on anything related to that in general, i'd also love to know! thanks so much (no pressure to answer, i just think you might be the best source on the topic haha.)
oh definitely. he considers Monaco his home race. obviously while he was racing under the German flag, in a German team, with a teammate claiming he's not German enough he couldn't say it but after he did
youtube
he calls it his home race here, and now winning monaco and his championship are the 2 most important races of his life (crazy cause he won monaco 3x. he's also won his "official" home race of hockenheim 😅). he also partied like crazy after winning monaco 13
youtube
and in 2022, sky does promo videos for each track/gp, nico did the one for monaco which was basically his love letter to monaco - which is ironic when you realize they already have a monegasque driving in f1 at the time 😭. this video always makes me a bit emotional 🥹
one of my fave nico youtube vids, where he explains the monaco gp track and how to master it while also driving his cycle through it - you can see his enthusiasm and pointing out his school and all the landmarks
youtube
and finally, when there was negotiations to remove monaco from the calendar because ykno present day f1 cars are too big for there to be much overtaking and being a prestigious crazy expensive race, nico himself knew that Prince Albert was involved in the negotiations to keep it. so yeah, he's very committed to the Monaco Grand Prix
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I think something about nico's nationality that really struck with me is that ofc he speaks a lot of languages, his german doesn't really have a regional accent. he just sounds International, like seb's german is very much his home region where he grew up. Nico's a continental European. not belonging to any one place~
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cowgurrrl · 2 years ago
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Nobody asked but here are my headcanons for Joel as the ultimate girl dad™️
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Gets Ellie into a routine as soon as possible so she knows what to expect in her day-to-day life. There’s not much he can guarantee outside of their home but he can make sure she eats, does her homework, and is off to bed at the same time every night.
Speaking of bed, he’s the dad who has a STRICT bedtime set. He can’t sleep until he knows Ellie is safe in bed and even though she’s a teenager he still makes her be in bed by 10 but he absolutely can be persuaded to let her stay up with a long game of cards, guitar lessons, or a movie.
Before Ellie, he would’ve been reckless if it meant keeping Jackson safe but now that he knows she’s relying on him he does things slower and safer.
Maria teaches him how to cut hair so he can help Ellie because he knows how hard it is for her to trust other people especially when they have something that could be used as a weapon so close to her head.
Definitely pushed her into the river while teaching her how to swim. She was pissed and didn’t talk to him until after dinner.
Ellie becomes known as “Joel’s girl” and neither of them correct anybody who says it
Slips notes into Ellie’s backpack when she’s not looking so when she gets to math class and opens her notebook, a sticky note with Joel all-caps handwriting falls out and reads, Why was the toilet paper unstoppable? And on the other side it says, because it was on a roll
He laughed about it for ten minutes before forgetting about it
Ellie secretly keeps all of his notes in a box under her bed
Teaches her how to play football in the spring when all the snow has melted and accuses her of cheating when she scores against him
“How could I cheat? It’s fucking football!” “You’re abusing an old man, you know that?”
Although Ellie never calls Joel dad, there’s an unspoken agreement between them. Joel hated Father’s Day after Sarah died but that Father’s Day they settled, two bouquets of flowers show up on the dining room table with a note from Ellie.
Saw these and thought of you, the note reads. One from me and one from her.
He cries the first time he gets them. He can’t remember the last time anyone gave him flowers.
Lord help the teacher who has to call Joel in for his first parent-teacher conference in twenty years. Everyone is Jackson knows how protective he is over Ellie and her teacher is only slightly terrified of him.
Ellie constantly steals Joel’s shirts and he pretends not to notice
He’s always looking for new tapes for her Walkman and asks every group that comes through Jackson if they have anything
Ellie ends up with three new tapes to listen to by the end of their first year of being settled
Joel knows he’s probably doing a million things wrong and danger is always lurking and the time they have together is fleeting but he does his best to be good for her. He apologizes when he yells, he shows up to her first guitar recital, and constantly reminds her how loved she is even if there aren’t always words exchanged
Sometimes it’s a hug, the squeeze of a hand, or a ruffle of hair but they both know it means so much more. Giving and receiving affection would’ve been seen as a show of weakness in Boston, a vulnerability that others can play into. Here, love doesn’t have to hide or be shunned to the dark corners of their lives. They can just be.
Who knew Ellie tripping Joel while playing football in the spring meadow meant so much more than anyone else thought?
Tumblr if you delete my last paragraph one more time I’m going to gnaw my arm off
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wackyattack · 1 year ago
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Danny would like to think that he had thought this through. Danny would like to say that this was not his fault. However, just this once,,, maybe those things couldn't be said.
But really??? Could you blame a guy for assuming he wouldn't have to potty train the DEAD- AS IN DOESNT NEED TO EVEN EAT ANYMORE WHAT THE HECK- ghost dog that he has decided to keep since Valerie thought it was his anyways?
Yes. Apparently, you could.
Danny was a little grateful though as cleaned the lab with the supplies his parents had given him, somehow the fact that the dog had had an..... accident in the lab had blinded his parents to the fact that it was a GHOST dog that had had an accident in the lab. At least this lab accident didn't open a portal to a new dimension
There’s a weird smell coming from somewhere in Fentonworks, and this time it’s not the “ozone with a hint of rotting citrus” that the Fentons have long gone noseblind to.
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thisshitisridiculous · 2 months ago
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so if you ship buddie you know buck and eddie's relationship in canon is like that™️ for tons of reasons but the one that gets me the most is, i think, best explained in the form of a graphic
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this is obviously a simplistic depiction thats only featuring main family characters but it's to show how most of our 7 mains are connected together with specifically stated familial ties to each other and other major side characters. their storylines often overlap or involve the other main characters they're close to and they have at least 2 prominent connections to other mains. they all have many lovely little triangles. except eddie. eddie's storylines almost exclusively feature buck, chris, and other less prominent characters that aren't related to the rest of the cast like shannon, other love interests, or his parents.
while, of course, eddie is close with the rest of the 118 and considers them family and has tons of scenes with hen, chimney, and bobby, he's often not directly involved in their specific storylines and they aren't really involved in his. i mean he's barely even talked to athena or maddie on screen. his next closest relationship is obviously bobby. eddie and bobby have a stong connection as captain and teammate, as catholics, as widowers. bobby is a mentor to eddie a lot and gives him advice on his issues but he's often working as an outside observer to eddie's storyline, not directly involved either. and bobby often has storylines that don't involve eddie directly at all. it's nowhere near the same as bobby and buck or as close as like athena and hen's relationship
the show has just made buck eddie's most prominent connection time and time again when they've had literal years to expand his relationships with the other main characters. because this doesn't even include how athena and maddie often have scenes/storylines together or how karen and chimney have been friends since before meeting hen.
anyway my main point is give eddie diaz some more branches goddamit!
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