#or supporting Roy for becoming manager

[zstartrixxx]

𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍’ 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐍’ (𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑨𝑲𝑬 𝑬𝑨𝑺𝒀!)

ʳᵒʸ ᵍᵒᵒᵈᵉ ˣ ᶠᵉᵐꜝʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓: 𝐘𝐄𝐒 | 𝐍𝐎

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: [...] "Nuh-uh. Shut up. Let me ride you real nice, but shut up." You smirked, retrieving the discarded bandana and tying it over his mouth like a gag. [...] or To show your unwavering support for this cowboy, you decide to gently demonstrate just why he's the best damn rider in La Belle—hell, in the whole damn territory. 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒: so, this request was extra special 'cause i’ve been dying to write roy goode fanfic for ages—he’s yet another one of those fascinating characters from jackie: sweet, shy, even though he’s a goddamn gunslinger, somehow still manages to be a soft, angelic little weirdo doing his own thing—AAAAARGH *bites fingers while kicking feet*. if you haven’t watched GODLESS, let me just say: WATCH IT!!! it’s on netflix, the plot is addictive, the female characters steal the show, and goode is so goddamn perfect it HURTS!!! 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: +18 ADULT CONTENT. a lil' of fluffy and smut: fingering, cowgirl (trad & reverse), dirty talk, kind!roy, kinda a dom!reader. (i'm really bad to tagging, i'm learning how to does this properly ;) 𝐖𝐂: 2.6k for whoever is going to read it, a great read! <3 likes, reblogs and comments are greatly appreciated :)

ROY GOODE PLAYLIST (not yet) | 𝖬𝖠𝖲𝖳𝖤𝖱𝖫𝖨𝖲𝖳

"you say it's big, but you take it! ride cowgirl, but your love ain't free no more, baby." (pyramids, frank ocean)

A thick trail of dust followed the heavy gallop of the black steed. Gripping the brushed leather reins tightly in his hands as he rode hard over the sheepskin-covered saddle, Roy Goode kept his bloodshot, tear-filled eyes fixed on the road ahead—the blood radiating the adrenaline coursing through his body, the tears those of sheer exhaustion. He'd been tracking Griffin for at least two, nearly three weeks now, trying to drive him away from La Belle and its outskirts, terrified the worst might happen: not just the devastation and carnage that always followed his false father, but the imminent danger of you becoming that bastard's target.

Even though you'd learned to shoot and ride better than him, his protective instincts—coupled with the trauma of facing loneliness again in this godless world—compelled him to take the reins of his horse, give you one long farewell kiss, leave a handwritten letter filled with all the affection and vocabulary he'd gleaned from the almanacs and books you'd lent him (tucked beneath your pillow), grab his black-handled pistol, and hunt down his tormentor.

Roy wore a red bandana around his face—a gift from you—covering half of it, the other half hidden beneath his black hat, velvet with a leather strap at its base. Dressed head to toe in black, he carried that mysterious, dangerous aura people judged him for having. He let out a scornful chuckle beneath the fabric, its edges fluttering with his horse's rhythm as its pace began to slow, stopping at the entrance of the small town where, by dusk, most residents had already retreated into their homes.

Winn crossed Roy's path, bringing him to a halt. He gave a nod, his pistols on full display, grinning smugly:

"Goode. Any news on those outlaws? Managed to shoot 'em in the ass yet?"

"All I can say is we're safe for now, Winn..." Roy hissed from behind the bandana, tipping his hat at the young man, who mirrored the gesture before patting his horse.

"Alright, Goode. You did right coming back. Folks've missed you somethin' fierce..." He shot an amused glance toward the schoolhouse you'd taken over after Callie Dunne left for a quieter life away from La Belle's chaos—same as Mary Agnes, who'd packed her bags for New York.

Roy, grinning just as smugly, tried to deflect:

"Bill back yet?"

"Nah... Still holed up at Mrs. Fletcher's ranch," Winn shrugged, stepping back with hands on his narrow waist. "Ain't nobody can tame a lovestruck man's heart, Goode."

"I got my doubts," Roy snorted, nudging his stirrups and making his horse let out an agitated whinny as it trotted ahead, leaving the deputy sheriff eating dust.

Roy stopped near the schoolhouse entrance, where the last of the children were leaving, greeting "Mr. Goode" with excited giggles, thrilled to see him after weeks without a trace. He returned their enthusiasm with touches to his hat brim. Dismounting, he led his horse to the small pen with a makeshift stable he'd built behind the house—just big enough for his horses—and found his gray gelding resting in its corner. He gave it an affectionate pat before heading back to the door, his pulse quickening at the thought of seeing you again. Pausing before the double doors, he could hear soft humming through the wood. He dusted off his shoulders before stepping inside, already removing his hat but leaving the bandana out of habit.

You'd heard the door open and then be locked. Thinking it was a child who'd forgotten something, wondering why he heard her being locked, perhaps by mistake, you walked in with a gentle smile—only to freeze in shock at the sight of the man clad head to toe in black, the crimson bandana the only splash of color on him, staring at you. And just by his gaze, you knew everything he wanted to say. Roy smiled beneath the fabric, opening his arms for an embrace full of passion and longing. You leapt into him, wrapping your legs around his waist, exclaiming:

"Roy! You're finally back! God, I was starting to worry..." You cupped his face, your oceanic eyes searching his up close.

"Missed you like hell, darlin'—" His voice was muffled, making you laugh.

"Let's get this off..." You tugged the bandana down, exposing Goode's perfectly shaped lips, then held his face—the same hand that had just unmasked him—and kissed him tenderly. Roy carried you in his arms, bumping into a table leg, nearly tripping over a stray book on the floor—you both laughed at the clumsiness—before finally collapsing onto the purple velvet sofa. You settled atop his hips, palms flat against his narrow shoulders as Roy let out a long sigh against your lips, tilting his head back against the couch and tossing his hat aside.

"What's wrong, cowboy? How'd the hunt for that bastard go?"

"Went fine... I just—" He hesitated, shyly avoiding your hungry gaze. His large, calloused hands—worn from hard labor—rested on your waist. He smelled pleasantly of soap and fresh breath—likely stopped at an inn to clean up before coming to you, wanting to return presentable.

"You just...?" You encouraged, fingers tracing every detail of his face: the forehead creases beneath his fringe, the strong, upturned nose, the Cupid's bow lips that always made you feel struck by his arrows, the stubble pricking your skin, the warmth in his drained eyes.

"I... shit. I'm just... tired of this life, y'know? This endless chase after murderous outlaws, keepin' up this damn gunslinger legend, never knowin' if I'll make it back to you. It's messin' with my head, darlin'. Bad. Really fucking bad…"

You bit your lower lip, sudden pity swelling at his soft, accented voice—so unlike the man you knew. Adjusting yourself on his lap (your light pink cotton dress bunching around your hips), you cupped his face firmly:

"Roy Goode, you're the baddest sonuvabitch in this territory. Don't you dare feed me that defeated talk."

"It's just... ever since I lost my shot at Griffin and started patrolin' La Belle, promisin' folks freedom... I'm worn out, sweetheart. Real worn out." He closed his eyes again, lips twisting. You sighed, stroking his cheeks before pressing your forehead to his, whispering against his mouth:

"You'll kill that bastard yet. And that ain't a promise—it's fate. But even so, Roy, you're the goddamn best gunslinger in this whole damn town! The best!" You bounced slightly for emphasis, the movement making him groan beneath you. "In all these godless lands! And if there's one thing I can show you right now—besides makin' up for all this missin' you..." Your hands slid down his shoulders, intentions crystal clear in your hungry gaze and wicked smile. "...it's how much this cowboy here needs a good ride. Just to remind you you're this town's goddamn hero."

"Mhmm, that so?" he murmured, leaning into your touch. You grinned, already grinding against him, feeling his cock harden between your thighs.

"Yep. My favorite cowboy to ride." You laughed at your own silliness, earning a rough groan from him.

He was still fully dressed—pistols heavy in their holsters, leather belt digging into your thighs—but you couldn't care less, attacking his lips with desperate kisses, pouring weeks of longing into every movement. Roy matched your intensity, his calloused hands roaming your body with tenderness before sliding under your skirt to grip your thighs. Breaking the kiss, you smiled dopily at him before stripping off his coat, unbuckling his gun belt, and letting it drop with a metallic thud. Roy's eyes widened, and you just giggled:

"Oops!" You kissed him again, unbuttoning his black shirt while grinding against his deliciously hard cock. Roy voiced his need for you, guiding your hips into a slow, deliberate rhythm, letting you feel every inch of him as your wetness soaked through your panties.

"Think we oughta lose the rest of these clothes, hm?" you murmured against his lips. He nodded, both of you laughing at your fumbling—his hands flew to the buttons of your dress, impatiently tugging them free before showering your exposed chest with kisses, cupping your breasts like it was the first time, kneading them greedily, sucking your nipples until you arched into him with a wanton moan.

"L-let's get these off, baby," you stammered, reluctant to pull him away. Laughing, you both managed to undress between messy kisses and clumsy hops—you stepped out of your dress, now naked before him, then knelt to tug off his boots and pants.

Roy was left in only his half-unbuttoned shirt, his cock throbbing and begging for you.

"Goddamn, Roy. You're a sight." You couldn't help yourself, climbing back onto his thighs, positioning yourself over him. His hands found your waist, your eyes locked—and with a slow, deliberate motion, you sank onto him, taking him inch by inch with a long, sweet moan. Roy melted into the couch, watching you through half-lidded eyes, lips parted.

"What?"

"Just thinkin' you're missin' somethin'..." He grinned, reaching for his discarded hat and plopping it onto your head. "There. Now you're ready to ride me proper." He gave your ass a playful smack, making you gasp before bracing your hands on his shirt-covered shoulders. Roy shifted beneath you, finally shrugging off the last of his clothes—but you still felt something was missing.

"Hey, what—?" he started, but you clenched around him, drawing a ragged groan from his throat. You grabbed his black coat, shoving it at him.

"Put this on. No questions. Just obey, cowboy." You laughed at his confused pout. Roy groaned as you deliberately tightened around him while he struggled into the coat—finally dressed, he opened his mouth to complain about the wait, but you silenced him with two fingers against his lips.

"Nuh-uh. Shut up. Let me ride you real nice, but shut up." You smirked, retrieving the discarded bandana and tying it over his mouth like a gag. His expression darkened, but when you gripped the coat's lapels like reins and picked up the pace, he seemed to understand. Relaxing. Letting you take control, setting the rhythm as you rose and fell on his cock, milking him with each movement.

His hands gripped your hips, thrusting up to meet you, sweat beading on both your bodies—Roy panted, his gaze never leaving yours, full of desire. One hand slid to your throat as you threw your head back, lost in the feeling of him filling you completely. He wanted to whisper filth in your ear, but the bandana muffled his growls, drool soaking the fabric as he marveled at how perfectly your pussy fit around him. Slick, sweaty, fucking you hard. Your moans were music to his ears, your body moving in perfect sync, sweat glistening between your breasts, hair sticking to your face... God, Roy Goode was the luckiest man in the territory.

You slowly opened your eyes, his grip on your throat loosening as he focused on your ride. Gently, you tugged the bandana down, brushing your fingers over his lips, smiling lovingly as you slowed to a stop. Foreheads pressed together, sweat-slick and breathless, you kissed him softly. Roy tangled a hand in your hair, tilting your head to kiss your neck, his stubble scratching deliciously:

"Wanna feel you ride me from behind, darlin'..."

"Mmm, sounds so good..." you purred. With some effort, you turned around, his hands guiding you back onto his cock. "C'mon, sit that pretty pussy down on me," he rasped, making your legs tremble.

You resumed riding him, using his thighs for leverage, one of his hands on your waist while the other gripped your neck possessively.

"You're so big, Roy, so good—"

"That's it, ride me just like that..." His voice was wrecked, barely holding back. You bounced so perfectly, your ass slapping against his balls, it was a miracle he hadn't spilled inside you already. Suddenly, he hooked his arms under your knees, lifting you effortlessly (those hard labor muscles paying off) before slamming you back down, fucking into you with deep, punishing strokes. His breath was ragged against your back as he growled:

"Gonna fill you up, darlin'. Gonna put a baby in you. That alright?"

You choked on a moan, stars bursting behind your eyelids as he hammered that sweet spot. Roy laughed darkly, repeating:

"I asked you a question, sweetheart..." He stilled, making you whimper.

"Why'd you stop!?"

"Folks say I ain't no good. Just provin' 'em wrong—" He smirked at your desperate squirming, holding you still with a firm grip. "—if you want me to fuck you proper, answer me: you want me to breed this pretty cunt or not?"

"Yes, goddamnit, Roy, yes!"

Roy smiled beneath you, victorious. He grabbed your other leg again, adjusting himself beneath your body, sliding back into you slowly—in and out, holding himself deep inside you for seconds at a time, drawing whimpers from your lips as you scrambled for purchase with your hands. He repeated the motion once, twice, three times… so many times you lost count.

Then Goode thrust up hard, his own rough groan building as he shuddered beneath you, spilling—hot pulses of cum filling you up. He stayed buried inside you for long seconds, both of you panting, your own climax still coiled tight and throbbing low in your belly. He knew you hadn’t come yet, but that wasn’t a problem.

When he rolled you onto your side, slipping out of you—still half-hard from the thorough fucking he’d given you—he pulled you close, kissing you hungrily, his tongue sliding against yours as he pushed two fingers into you without warning. Just like that. He laughed against your lips at your startled gasp, his hat now tilted sideways on his head, his bandana loose around his neck. His fingers worked into you with the same ruthless precision as his cock had, hitting that same sweet spot until you were squirming, grinding down against his hand, helpless to the pleasure building—and the inevitable orgasm you’d been denied earlier.

When you least expected it, your body locked up, a full-body shudder wracking through you as electric pleasure shot from where he touched you all the way to your fingertips. You cried out, gripping his wrist to push him away, eyes wide, legs trembling uncontrollably.

Trembling, gasping, nails digging into his shoulders as electricity shot through you. Roy looked smug, bringing his fingers to his lips with a satisfied lick.

"Delicious. As always."

"Jerk," you huffed, both of you now tangled together on the sofa, sweaty and spent. His hand traced lazy circles on your back as you nuzzled into his chest, breathing in his scent—musky, natural, oddly comforting.

You glanced up. Roy looked thoughtful.

"And now...?"

"And now what?" you teased. He rolled his eyes, shifting beneath you.

"Now you convinced yet that you're one hell of a cowboy? A hero?"

Roy raised an eyebrow. Outside, night had fallen, La Belle's streets empty—as if the two of you were the only souls left in this lawless world. He pulled you into another searing kiss, murmuring against your lips:

"If this is how you prove I'm a hero... darlin', I'll need convincin' every damn day."

Playful, you could already feel his cock throbbing between your pressed pelvises, casting him a look full of intentions, love, and longing.

Roy raised his arms to the sides in an amused gesture of surrender, commenting:

"I was told earlier today that no one can tame the heart of a man in love..."

"Oh really?" you retorted, your mischievous hands already sliding down his torso toward the hardened length between you. Goode swallowed dryly:

"Yeah..."

"And what did you say?" You paused dangerously close to his cock. Roy made a pleading expression, silently begging you to keep exploring him with your hands. He gazed at you deeply, pupils dilating as they met yours:

"That I seriously doubted it... since mine is completely tamed by you."

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒: i have this fanfic to write with him, now i only have a good amount of time to focus on writing with this man, because just like Jackie's other characters, he deserves all the spotlight!

[recoveringsoulsposts]

Being a 4B Woman is so easy because Men offer little to no value to Women’s lives

Being 4B is so easy as a woman because men do not offer much value to women’s lives

Let’s say a heterosexual couple decides to go 50/50. You will inevitably end up adding far more value to his life than you will receive in return.

Women typically end up doing the majority of:

• Domestic labor

• Acting as a therapist + Emotional support

• Managing pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding (which cannot be split 50/50)

Women will inevitably become the default parent while still being expected to look beautiful, maintain an attractive appearance, and keep up with societal standards. So even in a 50/50 financial arrangement, women are not truly experiencing equality.

As a result, you’ll end up performing most of the “traditional feminine” roles while also contributing financially by providing 50% of your income. How do women benefit from this arrangement? While there are some couples who achieve a true 50/50 split, they are the minority. Most women end up doing a “double shift” — working their paid jobs and then handling the majority of household duties due to ingrained stereotypes. Studies show that women perform 70% of household chores even when they pay 50% of the bills.

Now, let’s consider a traditional heterosexual couple where the man is the provider:

• You’ll be expected to handle all the housework, cooking, cleaning, and domestic chores.

• You’ll be responsible for all childcare and emotional support.

• Pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing are entirely your responsibility.

• You are expected to be available for sex at all times because you are supposedly “privileged” to have a provider man.

• You must maintain an attractive appearance, staying in shape, and being visually appealing.

Essentially, you’re expected to act as a servant in exchange for what? For a man to “provide.” But what do you actually gain? Aside from room and board, what are you truly receiving in exchange for all the services you provide? If you were to outsource every service that women provide, a man’s salary likely wouldn’t cover the full cost of your labor. Even without this provider man, he would still need to work, earn a living, and maintain a home. So your labor is subsidizing his lifestyle.

Furthermore, there are inherent risks to being around men — even basic safety is a factor. Remember, one woman dies at the hands of a man every 10 minutes. Women are at greater risk of being harmed by their own husbands. There is always a chance the man you are with may be addicted to pornography, video games, or consuming harmful “red pill” propaganda that teaches males to manipulate and mentally abuse you. Men are often not worth the hassle or the investment, especially when they put your psychological well-being & life at risk.

The reality is that most men lack the looks, height, or wealth to even demand half of what they expect from women. Women have historically been forced to perform all these roles without any reciprocal return on investment (ROI). Women are being exploited in relationships with men. Women who still want to be in relationships with men and if they still choose to engage with men, they should demand more, do less, and prioritize themselves. Women are the prize. Men are the ones who struggle to be alone, who crave women’s attention, and who pay for services like webcam interactions and OnlyFans just to experience a connection with women.

Marriage and relationships with men typically decrease women’s quality of life. Men are often parasitic, siphoning women’s energy to build themselves up at the expense of women’s livelihood and well-being. Men live longer when they are with women, benefit financially, experience more success, are happier, and gain stability. The same cannot be said for women. The constant push for marriage and romance is because, without the illusion and intangible experience of “love,” men have little to offer women that is genuinely valuable. Without this idea of love, women have no reason to stay in relationships with men.

The dynamic between men and women is parasitic, when you have men who expect women perform the majority of domestic work, emotional labor, and support for men in relationships, which is actually unnatural when we consider how most species function in nature. Typically, it is males who must prove themselves to females, if they want a chance at reproduction. Patriarchal societies have flipped this natrual system by positioning men as the dominant gender for centuries, by making women dependent on men for survival. Without this dependence, men offer fuck all to women.

. There’s an actual ROI in having a career, being focused on education and money. Being with a man and having children is a 24-hour job. It never stops. ALL RISK, NO REWARD. If men want to be in relationships with women, they must make themselves useful. Most males are a burden and are to obnoxious and entitled to realise they are not worth the risk or hassle of adding all these responsibilities to women’s lives. If you meet a “unicorn” — a genuinely equal and supportive partner — that’s great. But RARE. But for the vast majority of women, males are simply not worth the cost.

Women who are 4B are making the most logical decision for themselves which is completely understandable.

[call-me-strega]

Dc x Dp Prompt #24: The Midwest Prince(ss)

Danny is a Singer/Siren/Banshee au where he’s basically a Chappel Roan-type figure.( Also, I'm Dead on Main trash so Strangers-to-Friends-to-Lovers, Celebrity x Civilian romance for two of my favorite boys)

Danny’s Ghostly Wail develops into vocal manipulation bc he’s a siren or banshee. Ember teaches him to sing and control the power. He finds music is a good outlet for his emotions and decides to pursue music as Danny. It takes him a few years but he develops a style and brand that he bases off the Realms. However, he doesn’t anyone to connect him to Phantom so he uses parts of his ancestors’ names to become “Walker Gale”(shout out to my beautiful mutual @mirigold-mayflowers for helping me pick that name), ordinary small-town midwestern boy turned Music Icon. He hires Val as his personal bodyguard, Sam as his manager, and Tucker as his head stage tech.

He dresses in really campy clothes the low-key mimic his ghost form as well as other ghosts he’s met. The outfits change to match the vibe of the song. So a rock ballad with an outfit inspired by Ember, Show Tunes-Murder Mystery-type-beat with a costume for Amorpho, EDM-techno-hyperpop themed song styled after Technus or Skulker, etc. He just has a lot of fun experimenting with his appearance and he’s an icon for it. He even makes friends with Star and Paulina through this and they give him feedback and help with new looks. The eventually join the team as his PR and Styling team.

Since he’s a banshee/siren all his songs have this underlying despair/sadness even if they have a fun and bubbly beat. He also references his feelings about being/hiding as Phantom and being partially dead and shit but vaguely so no one actually knows or assumes it’s a metaphor. Many of the themes are actually things lgbtq people identify with, specifically trans and bi fans. He also references battles he’s fought and ppl assumes he’s talking about mental illness or abuse which attracts another category of fans altogether. Again inspired by Chappel Roan his first album his called "The Ascent and Downfall of a Midwest Prince" gaining him the nickname the "Midwest Prince".

He’s weird and unfiltered and full of emotion and he gains a few fans in the hero community too. Raven and Zatanna start a fan club for him, well aware he’s some type of banshee/siren but knowing that the extent of his powers are being used to deliver beautiful performances. The are staunch supporters of him and his music and spread it to their friends. The current fan club is Co-Presidents Zatanna + Raven, VP Greta(Secret, a.k.a: a ghost hero), Starfire, Bart, Cassie, Tim, Kon + Jon, Steph, Cass, and Billy.

His identifying features are a signature make-up look and white underdye (when the color is on the underside of the hair). He’s grown his hair longer so it’s not super visible when he has it down and not styled. He also looks different without make-up so he can totally go unrecognized in public and live life semi-normal (as normal as a half-ghost vigilante powerhouse superstar can be). He actually planned it to be that way so that he could still go to college and stuff even though he’s doing it mostly online. All this to say that Danny has low-key got a Hannah Montana thing going on. Also, let's mix it up a bit and say he's based in Star City.

One day Danny goes to a second-hand book store because he's looking for a cheap textbook when he bumps into an absolute hunk of a man who doesn't seem to recognize him. Jason had been in Star City to visit Roy and Lian. He stopped at a second-hand bookstore to see if he look for some older editions of books (one time he found a second edition copy of Persuasion so he likes to peruse) and ran into a super pretty boy who made his chest feel funny and doesn't realize he's a Wayne. They got to talking about started really connecting. They decided to exchange numbers and kept in touch, meeting up every now and then when they had the chance. Danny gave him his private social media accounts so Jason never learned much more beyond that Danny worked in the music industry but not his exact role in it.

Eventually Danny moves to Gotham, either bc he switched labels or to be closer to Jazz whose doing her doctorate thesis on reforms that need to be made in Arkham. He and Jason begin meeting up in person more frequently and start catching feelings. Danny really wants to ask him out but feels sleazy doing it without telling Jason about his past and superstar alter ego. However, he also doesn't want to lose the mostly normal friendship they have. On the flipside Jason wants to date Danny but doesn't want to drag him into the life of a vigilante or the life of a Wayne. Both of them Pine and Agonize over this. In the end Danny decides to bite the bullet and tell Jason who he is, every part of who he is. He invites Jason over for a movie night and tells him he's got something important to tell Jason.

That same day Starfire decides to introduce Walker Gale's work to the other Outlaws and Jason really resonates with his work. He identifies with the lyrics on a literal and physical level and recognizes the underlying emotions that usually only other ghosts or liminals can. Starfire overjoyed that her friend likes his music decides to show Jason some of his music videos and photos. Jason, not being blind or an idiot, recognizes not only the props and costumes but his crushes face under that (very well done) make-up.

Jason is stunned and conflicted: it’s not like Danny lied to him about who he was, but he was entirely truthful either. Did he assume Jason knew? Or did he just not trust Jason? Why did he even bother with Jason, a seemingly regular guy, if he had such a claim to fame? And Jason keeps listening to his music and it’s speaks to him the same way hanging out with Danny does, making him feel seen and connected. It makes him all the more sure that someone incredible as Danny doesn’t need someone like Jason. He heads to Danny’s place that night very subdued.

He gets to Danny’s place and the smile that greets him twists him up inside. He puts on a mask and tries to act normal but Danny can tell somethings up but persists as he has made up his mind to be clear with Jason. He sits him down and tells him there is something important he wants to tell Jason. He starts by letting Jason know that he cares about him very much and appreciates the normality and closeness of their friendship. He confesses that he doesn't normally get that bc well, he's the superstar "Walker Gale". Danny goes onto say that the reason he didn't say anything earlier was because he treasures the simplicity of what he had with Jason and the reason he's telling him now is because he couldn't continue a relationship that he wants more from without being completely honest.

Jason's heart thunders in his chest and he stares at Danny with a slightly constipated look. Danny asks Jason what's wrong and on an impulse Jason word vomits his feelings. That he actually found out through a friend earlier today, that he really connected to his music the same way he did with Danny, that he's never felt seen the way Danny sees through him, that he's never felt the same way as deeply before, that he's completely and utterly in love with Danny but was scared to say anything and get him involved with his crazy life and the Waynes. And Danny sits and listens shellshocked.

And the only thing Danny can think to do is kiss this incredible boy senseless and tell him that if he likes him back then they can figure it out.

[celestialgalaxyglow]

Batfam and Danny, Part 48

Danny and Roy where on a stakeout, they had been perched on top of a building overlooking a warehouse for an hour with nothing happening. Roy has playing with the string of his bow, and Danny was getting bored.

Danny: Hey dad.

Roy (still getting used to Danny calling him dad): Yeah?

Danny: How did you and Dad fall in love?

Roy: Why don't you ask him?

Danny (raising an eyebrow): Have you met your boyfriend?

Roy: Ok that's fair... Ok, I'll tell you, but you can't tell Jason.

Danny (smiling): Deal!

Roy: I met your dad when he was still Robin and I Red Arrow. We were friends, but wouldn't say close. When he died it was a big shock to all of us. We all knew the risk of our line of work, but to everyone loosing such a young hero was a lot. Then six months later when he came back to life I was so happy to have my friend back.

Danny: You two got close after that?

Roy: Yeah, it was after that, that we started to become closer, and each other's best friends. Later Jason invited me, Artemis, and Bizarro to join a team he was forming the Outlaws. I happily joined, under a new name Arsenal. Things remained the same for a few years. Three years ago I had my drunken one night stand with Jade resulting in Lian. Jason was disappointed in me, but still supported me during Lian's early months.

Danny: Aww.

Roy: Yeah, I was so happy to have some help, not saying Oliver didn't help, but it was nice to have Jason around. As for us falling in love it was about a year ago. We were at the Outlaws base when we decided to wrestle.

Danny: Wrestle?

Roy (blushing): Just wrestle. We went at it for a while till Jason managed to pin me down and I conceded the match. I looked up at him and just knew I was a goner. I kept my feelings to myself, not wanting to sick losing my best friend, plus there was Lian, having him help me out once in a while is very different from becoming a stepfather. Still a few weeks later we both found ourselves back at base after a patrol. We were both exhausted, and somehow we started joke flirting, one thing lead to another and we ended up... "wrestling."

Danny: Wow, so much for being exhausted.

Roy: The human body is weird like that. So the following morning we both talked and we confessed to each other. I brought up Lian and Jason told me that he loved us both and that he would be the best possible stepfather to Lian as he could. So yeah after that we became a couple, no official label, just friends with benefits. Roy looked at Danny. Then a few months later Jason told me that he took on a sidekick. Then a month later that he adopted said sidekick.

Danny (smiling): What can I saw I made a good sidekick.

Roy: Yeah you do. So after that Jason and I kept doing our thing till we just agreed to become official and move i together with out kids. So there you have it.

Danny: Beautiful.

Roy: Yeah, I love Jason so much.

Roy and Danny smiled at each other.

Jason: Ahem, did you two forget your comms are on?

Roy and Danny: ...

Jason: You two are lucky I love you.

Danny: Come on I should know how my dads fell in love.

Jason: You do and honestly you all had to do is ask. I know I don't often express my feelings but I would have told you the story. Nevertheless you are both banned from the cookie jar, two weeks.

Roy and Danny: Ok...

(Master Post)

[senselessviolets]

being roman roy’s personal assistant (and his obsession) would include…

Rating M

WARNINGS:

Language, sexual tension, degradation, power imbalance, Roman being Roman weird.

Author's Notes:

Pretty self-explanatory. No uses of Y/N. Some brief RomanGerri. Very much inspired by @nanabrainrot's fic series with Pervert!Roman because it's divineeee. Highly recommend it!!

Roman never saw himself as the type to have an assistant. In fact, he was the only one of the Roy siblings to not have one. Kendall, of course, had Jess, Shiv had Sarah, and even though Connor never liked to bring it up out of fear of making him seem less earnest and hardworking to his supporters, he too had a “yes man” managing his personal affairs for him. 

It was following the Hungary company retreat that Gerri offered to set Roman up with an assistant. She knew of a trusted agency that would be able to help him narrow down candidates and find a person best suited for his needs. 

That person just so happened to be you. 

Roman absolutely wolf-whistled at the picture attached to your portfolio when thumbing through the candidates he was matched with through the agency. Gerri made him promise not to make any untoward or inappropriate comments to you during your interview for the job. Roman saw it as a ‘woman thing’ but Gerri being legal counsel saw it as a nightmare waiting to happen.

Upon meeting with you and the hiring manager, Roman scoured the internet for any information on you. Even though all of the important need-to-know info could be found on your resume or your fucking LinkedIn profile—that wasn’t enough for him. 

He tore through all of your public social media accounts, saving any particularly flattering images of you (swimsuit pictures, nightclub outings, etc.) and examining them throughout the day.

Suffice it to say, you got the job.

At first, Roman doesn’t know what to make of you. He sits you at a small desk on the opposite side of his own in his office.

Personality and demeanor-wise you’re in line with what he had wanted. Physically, he was already well-acquainted with your curves and the way certain types of clothes clung to your body. 

In the long stretches of silence of you two working in the same room, he imagined briefly what you looked like underneath your clothes. 

At home when it was just him and his right hand, he imagined what it’d be like to tear them off and leave them in tatters on the floor.

The better you get to know each other, the bigger his private album devoted to images of you grows.

Roman starts to pry into your personal life, asking if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Then he makes random passes at you throughout the day. Having worked with a wide array of smarmy, gross men in the past—you were hardly phased. Because a part of you sees through the facade. You know he just wants to rile you up—to get a reaction out of you.

You realize after a while that he wants you to be repulsed by him. 

This incites something within you.

Roman starts dragging you to one-on-ones with investors and having you sit in on board meetings, much to the annoyance of many.

Shiv tells you (jokingly) to run before you wind up being chased down the hallways with a chainsaw. 

While waiting together outside of a rather important meeting with many high-level executives, Greg informs you of a rumor that Roman has a dick pic circulating the office. But that in particular—he had meant to send it to you. 

You don’t know how to feel.  

These forced attendances at random meetings turn into becoming his designated armpiece for public events and parties. 

At one of them, Stewy taunts Roman, saying you’re not the only woman he pays to touch him. 

You laugh loudly at this joke which surprises them both. You crack a few of your own at Roman’s expense. Some are based on fiction, the others in fact. The shame floods his cheeks but the way he grips tighter at your waist tells you to keep going. To get meaner. So you do. You get a lot meaner.

Roman’s jaw clenches for a moment. Then his lips part. You convince yourself it's just a buzz from the drinks you’ve just had; that you did not just shit-talk your boss into arousal. 

But the clumsy way Roman adjusts his stance, the subtle outline of something forming at the front of his pants, and how he excuses himself to the bathroom says otherwise.

The text you receive moments later from his number confirms this; “You know what you did, you fucking bitch.”.

It’s your direct reply to that message though that makes his breath hitch; 

“Show me then, you sick fuck.”

{ Feedback is welcome! }

Follow me on twt: @endlessviolets

<3

[cryptonymdc]

Headcanons -> How they Hide their Identity from you (GN Reader)

Pt. 4

Warning : Talks of drug addiction and family deaths.

Arsenal / Red Arrow | Roy Harper 

With the power of the truth. Roy Harper has lived a life outside of vigilantism, and when told without the hero, the story looks like the whole picture. So Roy tells you the truth, minus the crime fighting, and you don’t have any reason to think there's more to it. The story is already a lot. 

I mean, being raised by a single dad who dies, getting adopted by a dad who dies, and then adopted by another dad, and then becoming a single dad. It’s a lot. He told you a bit about his biological dad, and how he never knew what happened to his mother. He doesn’t like to talk about his death, just because it was so long ago and it feels odd to open that wound now.

He tells you a lot more about his first adoptive father, Raymond Begay, better known as Brave Bow. He’s who gave Roy his Navajo heritage, at least he thinks so since he never knew his mother, and if he told you about being Arsenal then you’d learn it was Raymond who inspired him to be a hero. But you don’t know that part, and instead you comfort him over the events of the Forest Fire. 

His story of Oliver Queen, his current father figure is much different. There's both a connection and an estrangement there, and it’s hard to untangle. Roy confesses to you about his struggles with addiction, which colors a lot of his actions today. The help groups, the charity, the volunteer work, it’s clear he feels guilt on an incredible level and is trying to make up for it somehow. You try to reassure him that his addiction was not a crime to the world, only to himself, but since you don’t know about his work as Red Arrow, he can’t take your words to heart. You don’t know what happened, really, even though it feels like you know everything, that he’s shared everything. 

And being a single father to boot, it’s a lot of responsibility. And he is so involved and present in Lian’s life, taking care of her every single day, it’s hard to imagine him anywhere else. It’s amazing to hear his life story and see the support system he still has, and his gaggle of friends who jump to help him whenever he asks. 

And after all of that, how could Roy Harper be Arsenal, or even Red Arrow? 

Nightwing | Richard “Dick” Grayson 

With the power of practiced, boyish charm. What can he say, he learned a thing or two from his dad. The only difference is that it’s less of a practiced facade and more just him, minus one or two details. He actually relies a lot on his dad as an excuse for why he isn’t Nightwing. Everyone knows Nightwing was the first Robin by now, and if he was Nightwing, well then he would have had to be Robin, and that would mean Bruce Wayne would have to be Batman. And Bruce Wayne could never be Batman. 

Nightwing is known for acrobatics? And Dick was not only born an acrobat, but shows off how flexible he is to you all the time? Yeah, who’s to say Nightwing wasn’t trained in it as he became a hero? There are tons of acrobats, why would Dick just so happen to be Nightwing? If it comes to it, Dick will diss Nightwing’s skills as an acrobat. Because Dick would like not to look like an idiot or less skilled to his partner, and they don’t need to think Nightwing is cool as long as they think Dick is cool. Same thing really. 

As for the various bruises and wounds that he gets, well, you can’t forget his occupation. Rich gothamite? Kidnapped all the time, that’s where all the old scars are from. And the new ones? He is a police officer. He gets into combat all the time on duty. That’s the easy part to explain. 

The hard part to explain is why he’s never in bed before 1:00 AM. He tried to use talking with his brothers as an excuse, and while that works for weekend trips to visit them, it doesn’t last. In the end he has managed to convince you he has ADHD and insomnia because of it, he just has to tire himself out before bed. You're not entirely convinced it’s not a sugar addiction, or cereal to be exact, instead, but oh well. It works, and that's what matters. 

He’s luckily had a lot of practice keeping his identity secret, and that’s his biggest advantage in this. He’s kept this secret from countless others before you, you’re not a new challenge. Although, that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable a secret to keep. He’d love to tell you, but he’s been burned before, and he needs to be sure. 

So Nightwing isn’t Dick Grayson, for now.

[jamiefartt]

run the world; part one.

masterlist, part 2.

pairings: Jamie Tartt x reader, a bit of Sam Obisanya x reader.

summary: as the striker for AFC Richmond's very first women's team, the pressure is on. you're desperate to bond with the men's team, especially their number 9. so when your captains make you two train together, you find special ways to make it fun for both of you.

words: 10.6k

warnings: mean Jamie obvi, no smut but def some sexual jokes and tension, alcohol and chugging but nothing gross.

———

metal studs click against the ground as you bounce on the balls of your feet. stretching your neck, you look down at your blue boots before craning your neck back up, eyes gliding over the number 8 in front of you and moving towards the ceiling. the dugout is hot and tense, shoulders grazing those of the opposing team. Manchester United's red and yellow kit starkly contrasts the pink and purple of yours, and while their socks are black, yours are a bright white. you bring your right hand up to your chest, rubbing small circles as you try soothing your heart. sliding it down, you trace the large letters printed on the front of your shirt; KBPR. loud music plays over the speakers of Nelson Road Stadium, and you try make out the words over the screams of the crowds. you take a few more deep breaths before suddenly, you're feet are carrying you on to the pitch as if on autopilot. 

facing forward, you almost get lost in the swing of the ponytail in front of you, shaking your head and clapping your hands together, forcing your mind into focus. the crowd's cheers tenfold the more players appear from the tunnel, and you look around at the sea of colours in the crowd. you spot a lot of Richmond's bantr branded jerseys in the sea of people, appreciating their effort to support your team despite repping the wrong colours. 

"let's go ladies!" you hear someone roar beside you as you approach the middle of the pitch. your head snaps to your left, finding the source of the encouragement. Isaac McAdoo, Richmond men's captain, is leaning over the side screen next to the pitch, borderline folding his torso over it with two fists in the air. next to him, all the Richmond boys line the sideline, all dressed in the women's kit. they clap, cheer, and holler for you all as you make your way to the center circle, stopping right before it to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. 

as much as you want to wave to the guys, you're too in your zone, having gotten into game mode in the dugout. you take a few more deep breaths, looking straight ahead of you with a stone cold expression on your face. you look directly at Roy, your team's manager, who matches your demeanor. the teams are introduced, and you take in the crowd's encouragement when Richmond is called out. once dismissed from the line up, you drop to your position in the centre of the pitch. you roll your right sock midway down your shin before pulling the left one up and over your knee, ready to use your right foot to carry your team to victory. 

your head goes quiet as you take deep breaths, ignoring the players in front of you, faces and sounds blurring in your mind as you become completely calm. looking around, everyone's faces become unrecognisable as your brain stops registering them, full focus on the ball currently being carried towards you. your team captain, Gia, holds the ball towards you, clearly having won the coin toss. her face is the only one you can decipher, and she smiles at you despite your inability to return the gesture with the cold expression that comes from your focus.

"fucking kill 'em." she mutters to you, pushing the ball into your hands. you give her a curt nod as you watch her features merge together into an indistinguishable blur. the only thing you can see is the ball, which you place firmly at your feet, and the goal miles away from you. twisting the football into the grass, you take one last deep breath, anxiously awaiting the referee's whistle to signal your cue to kick off the match. in your mind, the stadium goes quiet, even though you know the noise is still deafening. to you, all that matters is the football, your feet, and your role in the team. it's one of your biggest matches of the season, and in order to keep your position as striker you need to impress. Roy trusts you, and knows you can do it, but more often than not your nerves get the best of you, and that way you find it hard to trust yourself.

the first whistle blows, then the halftime whistle, and eventually the final whistle rings through your ears as the crowd roars. you sprint to the side of the pitch, heading straight for Roy as you scream. you wrap your arms around his shoulders and his hand smacks your back. you let go and turn around, Gia running straight into you and holding you tight. as she hugs you, you feel more and more arms press around your frame as your teammates come in for a group hug. the supporters chant and shout for your team, celebrating your 3-2 win. it was tight, and the result was set to be a tie until you scored on a whim in injury time. 

you and the girls jump up and down, studs tapping the ground rhythmically as they chant your name. cackling with a loud grin on your face, you're well aware of how hard you're blushing at the praise and attention. you've redeemed your position on the team, knowing you'll be safe as number nine for the rest of the season. 

when the pressure around your shoulders loosens, you let go of Gia and lean forward, hands on your knees as you take a few deep breaths. you feel hands slap your back and shoulders in celebration, and the odd hand on your ass as a joke from your friends. your eyes are glued to the grass, noticing how each blade points in a different direction. you notice where they've been flattened by studded boots, how they move in the wind, and even the angle at which they've been cut. 

a firm hand on your shoulder interrupts your thinking, and your attention returns to the actual matters at hand. lifting your head, you blink a few times to bring your mind back to the pitch. it's Roy, who silently nods towards the dugout, signaling you to head to the locker room. standing up straight, you huff a sigh before letting an ecstatic smile return to your face. jogging to catch up with your team, you place your hands on Gia's shoulders and hop into the air. the two of you laugh together as the team continues their celebratory shouting all the way to your changing room. 

the noise echoes through the stairway as you all flood upstairs, clapping each other on the back and hugging. once you're all in the dressing room, it doesn't stop. you all huddle in the middle of the room and jump up and down as you chant: "we're Richmond till we die! we're Richmond till we die! we know we are, we're sure we are, we're Richmond till we die!" 

you're the first to notice the new presence in the room as you stop singing and tap the shoulders of the teammates around you. "guys, guys," you say, trying to get them to turn their attention to Rebecca and Keeley who have just walked in behind Roy. with a satisfied smile on her face, Rebecca winks at you, and you swear your heart almost stops beating in your chest. 

"oi!" Roy shouts, finally gaining the attention of the team. he says nothing else, simply cocking his head towards the two women next to him.

"hello ladies," Rebecca says, contentment evident in her voice as well as her expression.

"girls!" Keeley squeals, "you were fucking phenomenal!" she screams as she claps her hands, and everyone immediately matches her energy, clapping and cheering with her.

"yes, indeed," Rebecca interrupts the celebration, "you were all absolutely amazing!" 

Keeley continues, smiling up at Rebecca; "which is why we've brought you guys a present... boys, come on in!" 

one by one, the Richmond men's team file into the room; Isaac at the front, carrying a bucket of beer bottles, and the rest of the team behind him. they all crowd into the room, and suddenly the spacious changing room starts to feel cramped. you're even a tad embarrassed; you've just come off the pitch so you're sweaty and tired, and your hair is barely even tied up in its elastic anymore. brushing down your shirt, you quickly tighten your ponytail and flatten the top, hoping you look even slightly presentable for the guys. it's not that you want to impress them, but you can't say they're particularly unattractive, so you do your best to smile nicely and stand up straight. 

looking down at your feet, you quickly adjust your socks, pushing them both down to the edge of your boots. when you flick your head back up, your eyes meet those of one of the men in front of you. you recognise him immediately; he's Jamie Tartt, Richmond's star striker. of course, you wouldn't dare keep your eyes on him, so you look away quickly. you share a number with him, but you're nowhere near his level at the game.

"girls, I feel like I can confidently say that you all made AFC Richmond incredibly proud today," Isaac begins, booming voice commanding the room, "and we thought that should be celebrated our way!" he drops the bucket of drink at his feet before taking a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. Gia runs towards him, standing in front of the bucket and holding her hands out to stop the girls from approaching.

"wait!" she shouts, "first, a drink for the woman of the match..." a few people's heads turn towards you as you stand with a cheeky grin on your face, knowing it's you. you wouldn't say you're necessarily a cocky person, but you're pretty sure your goal today will go down as one of your best. your captain continues; "y/n! come up here, bitch!" 

you stride towards her and Isaac hands you a bottle. easily twisting off the cap with your hand, the girls ooh and aah as you wink at them. they all clap and yell as you chug as much as you can. with a grimace on your face, you shake your head, struggling to swallow the cheap beer. one of the guys smacks your shoulder and you hear him laugh, but your eyes are screwed shut tight as you drink even more, so you can't see who it is. when the last drop of the bottle is drained, you turn it upside down in front of you, nothing spilling out. Gia is the first to go crazy, jumping onto your back and cheering. the whole room erupts in shouts and whoops, and you can feel the beer fizz in your stomach as you laugh. you carry Gia away from the bucket, and everyone rushes forward, reaching for a bottle and cracking them open for each other. you pass on a second beer for now, craving nothing but water after all the excitement. 

as much as you share a building, you don't often cross paths with Richmond's men's team. you've been to a few of their games, though, Gia insisting all of you go to show your support, but you've never met them face to face. as you stand off to the side of the crowd, you drag your eyes across them, noticing the height disparities, the flashing smiles, and some of the most beautiful hair you've ever seen. interrupting your thoughts, Isaac lifts his bottle into the air, and shouting: "to Richmond!" everyone repeats him, lifting their drinks in the air before cheering.

as everyone turns to each other and dive into their own conversations, the divide between your team and the men's shrinks as they all start to mingle. smiling at the sight, you move to the left of the room towards your assigned cabinet. bringing your right foot onto the bench, you lean forward to untie your laces. as you swap legs and pull the laces on your right foot, you feel a hand on your shoulder. 

"y/l/n?" the voice is gruff and deep, their hand still holding your shoulder as you stand up straight. you turn your head, immediately smiling at the sight of Isaac.

"Isaac!" you laugh, lifting an arm as you beckon for a hug. he wraps an arm over your shoulder, clapping your back as you embrace.

"congratulations, bruv. you fucking smashed it," he says with an uncharacteristically wide grin. you smile back at him, a humble expression on your face at his kind words. you fold your hands over the navy Richmond crest on your shirt; "all thanks to Keeley and Rebecca," 

"they've done a good job with you lot," he nods, crossing his arms over his chest, "I want you to meet someone." 

he nods his head to the side, and your eyes follow the direction before landing on Sam Obisanya. standing behind his captain with his arms folded politely behind his back, his wide grin is infectious. he bows slightly forward and says: "it's so lovely to meet you, y/n. I'm Sam," 

your smile grows at his sweet tone as you wave a hand in greeting; "hi Sam! I'm y/n, but I guess you already know that," he laughs at your words, and you feel compelled to do the same. 

"I'll leave you two to chat." Isaac interjects, slapping a hand on Sam's back and pushing him closer to you. Sam winces through a smile, chuckling nervously at the set-up. with his captain at a fair distance from the two of you, he relaxes a bit more.

"you were so good out there," he says genuinely, eyes locked firmly on yours.

"thank you so much, that means a lot coming from you." 

"really?" his grin morphs into a smirk, "how come?"

you feel a blush creep onto your cheeks; "I mean, I've seen you play -- you're such a key player for Richmond. you're assist against Chelsea last month was fucking incredible! you make it look so fun and effortless..." you stop talking mid-ramble, noticing how you're supposed to be pretending you've just met him, not like you've been to every match he's ever played.

"thank you, y/n, I really appreciate it. when you play, it's hard to watch anybody else on that pitch."

his words stun you, and all you can do is blink up at him in disbelief. the genuine smile on his face accompanies his sentiment, warming your heart. you're not sure what to say, so you glance down at the ground as you try to subdue the blush on your cheeks with a few deep breaths. "how come you guys came to this match?" you ask, desperate to change the topic.

"Ted said it would be good to bond the two teams a bit more, and I agree! you know, I always wanted to come to one of the women's matches but couldn't find anybody to come with me. that's why tonight, to celebration for your win, I'm hosting everyone at my restaurant with an open bar!" 

"Oh woah, Sam that's so generous. you really don't have to do that," you smile at him again, and his bright smile is fixed as he waves his hand and tsks; "don't worry about it. I love having people at Ola's, especially my team, so why not include you guys- or girls, whatever." 

the two of you share a laugh again, and you find your heart skipping a beat every time you hear the sound escape Sam's lips. your gaze drops from his as you flick your eyes past him, only to see Jamie staring at you from across the room. you don't linger, just look back at Sam to continue talking, but you find it hard to fully listen to him when you can now feel the other man's eyes burning into your face. subconsciously, your hands come back up to your ponytail, making sure the hairs are as tidy as you can get them in your post-game state. why is Jamie Tartt looking at you? 

once everyone's finished their beers, you say goodbye to Sam and the other players before all heading for the showers. you let cold water cascade down your back, goosebumps covering your whole body at the feeling. the shower room is steamy and scorching hot, and the contrast between the air and your water temperature brings a certain peace to your mind. you and your teammates laugh and chatter around you, making fun of the opposition and talking about the guys who came to celebrate with you. with your eyes closed, you let the water hit your face, and it cools the nerves talking to Sam gave you. 

his smile could light up an entire stadium, and he's so kind and chivalrous. he's the only Richmond men's player you've actually ever noticed around the building since he always smiles at everyone. you've seen him laughing and talking with the most random people in the hallway, from the secretary to physiotherapist. you try to do the same, saying hello and goodbye to everyone you pass everyday, and you're pretty sure people appreciate you for it. but Sam seems to genuinely have a place in his heart for everyone, especially the fans. you've seen him interact with them before and after matches, and it's not that you always keep to yourself, you just know there's a zone you need to be in to be able to play football the best you can, and that zone doesn't include other people. 

after your shower, you get changed into a simple pair of blue jeans and a white blouse, some mascara highlighting your eyelashes. if it was up to you, you would be leaving Nelson Road the same way you arrived; in your Richmond branded tracksuit. but when Gia saw you reach for the purple joggers her eyes shot you daggers, so you grabbed the extra outfit she instructs you all bring to every match. "you never know where you'll end up." she always says, and you all oblige. you can't complain though, Gia is your best friend, both at Richmond and in your daily life. you share a place in town, a cozy but spacious attached home, and you wouldn't have it any other way. you all voted her as captain because of her open mind and her free-spirited approach to football. she doesn't see it as a job, she still sees it as a hobby, and it's how she succeeds. having fun is the key to everything in her life, and as much as you wish you were like that, you put way too much pressure on yourself. it used to be fun for you, a hobby you get to do professionally, but you feel more and more disconnected from that with every game.

you drop into her passenger seat, throwing your bag on the backseat behind you. without asking, you connect your phone to her car's bluetooth and turn on your shared playlist. Gia gets comfortable in the driver's seat as you press shuffle, and the two of you squeal when your favourite Justin Bieber song starts playing. the bass pumps through the car as she pulls out of the Richmond gates, heading to Sam's restaurant. both of you sing along loudly to the music, and you direct the lyrics towards her in a dramatic lip sync. it's easy to laugh with Gia, and you're grateful for the friendship you built with her before coming to Richmond. having grown up together, she got you into football, and eventually you both climbed up the same ladders to get to the same premier league team. if you hadn't had Gia in the beginning stages of the development of Richmond's women's team, you're not too sure you would have made it past the first qualification rounds. but thankfully, she's always been there to cheer you up and lift your spirit, reminding you constantly to try to enjoy football, not fear it.

she turns down the next song, and you groan in frustration; "I like this song!" you whine. 

"I saw you talking to Sam in the dressing room," she teases, ignoring your annoyance. 

"yeah... Isaac introduced us. have you ever spoken to him? he's so unbelievably friendly, I genuinely can't imagine him ever getting angry."

Gia huffs, shaking her head with a chuckle before responding: "you haven't seen him with Mister Jamie Tartt. he can seriously get on his nerves. Isaac tells me about it sometimes and Sam doesn't let Jamie off easily," 

"well I think your boyfriend was trying to set us up, and I didn't appreciate it."

"yup! he definitely was..." Gia laughs as you roll your eyes. Isaac and Gia have been together since last season, before you had even played any matches. when she was elected captain, Roy thought it would be good to have the two meet and get close, just in case they needed any advice from each other down the line. at first, they would meet for weekly coffees, and soon enough he would be sitting on your sofa when you and Gia came home from late night trainings. 

"Sam is lovely, don't get me wrong, but I don't know if we mesh romantically, you know?" you say, looking out the window at setting sun over the brick buildings of Richmond.

"why not? Isaac told me Sam's had a bit of a crush on you for quite a while, so..."

you snap your head around to look at Gia; "he what?"

"yeah... I mean, from what Isaac tells me, he loves watching you train. he often comes to watch us with Isaac when they're on break or whatever," Gia shrugs casually, and you look at her with wide eyes. 

"why didn't you tell me this earlier? I had no idea he was watching! I didn't even think he knew me before today! God, that's so embarrassing, Gia..." you groan, rubbing your hands down your cheeks dramatically.

"what?! it's fine, y/n, look- I just wanted you to meet him first. if you didn't click I wouldn't be telling this," 

"how do you know if we clicked?"

"babe," she states curtly, "I saw you blushing and rambling. it was so cute! he walked away with such a big smile," 

"oh my God! shut up!" you exclaim, turning towards the window to hide how red you're going. with a deep sigh, you shake your head, and Gia leaves you alone with your thoughts as she keeps the music low. Sam is amazing -- he's a genuinely lovely guy, and a great footballer. admittedly, he made you blush, and smile, and feel all fuzzy inside. but your mind can't help but drift to the dark blue eyes you kept meeting across the room.

pulling into a parking spot one street down from the restaurant, the music stops suddenly as Gia stops the car, and you're pulled from your thinking. "come on," Gia says, "it's gonna be so much fun! you need to talk to Sam some more." rolling your eyes, you push your door open. you hop out of the car with an excited smile, looking forward to celebrate with your team. 

as you start walking up the street towards Ola's, you ask Gia: "do you reckon Jamie will be there?"

Gia's head snaps up to look at you, and her brow furrows in confusion as she scans your face for any ounce of humour. your face stays neutral, however, as you try your hardest to look inconspicuous. "uh- I'm not sure... why?" Gia asks you hesitantly. 

"just wondering," you shrug, avoiding her gaze.

"y/n," she stops walking, grabbing your elbow to hold you back, "do you have a thing for Jamie? oh my god, is that why you don't wanna pursue things with Sam?" 

shaking your head, you shrug again; "I'm not planning anything with him, Gia, chill." you try your best at a reassuring tone, and hope it goes unnoticed. her eyes are skeptical as she squints at you, her hand still holding your elbow. "I just think I should meet him since we play the same position! he's kind of a legend in the making, you have to admit," you continue.

"fine," Gia sighs and drops her hand, "just don't break Sam's heart, okay?" 

"relax, Gia, I promise I can keep it in my pants," you crack a smile as she chuckles, and soon enough you're both laughing out loud. Jamie is attractive, sure, but his whatever he was wearing today took away some of his points. an orange top with a black puffer bodywarmer, paired with a cap with 'ICON' written across it? please.

the red corner building comes into view as your laughter dies down, and the warm light from inside illuminates the footpath. faint music and chatter hum through an open window, and suddenly your chest feels warm before you've even entered the restaurant. the reason you're here tonight is your team, and your win, and you. tonight is a celebration of your team's win, and it's a chance for you and the girls to accept praise and compliments galore. contextualising the reason you're here makes you comfortable in the fact that this isn't work, this isn't football, and there's no pressure on you whilst you're here. pushing open the door and moving past the curtain in front of it, the air isn't heavy, instead it's warm and full of admiration. 

the bell above the door dings as you enter, attracting the attention of the people closest to the entrance. when their eyes fall on you and Gia, they smile, clap, and even cheer. a blush appears across your cheeks instantly, but you're able to play it off as you hide your face in your teammates' shoulders when they hug you. you laugh with them, the stress you were putting on yourself quickly dissipating with every kind smile someone gives you. you move further into the restaurant, waving at Roy and your coaches. you move over to Keeley, Rebecca, and Barbara as you say hi to each of them with a kiss on the cheek; "very European," Keeley comments. with a laugh, you walk to the back of the room, eager for a celebratory drink. 

"just a gin and tonic please," you say to the waiter with a smile. leaning an elbow on the bar, you turn to the side, facing the kitchen. between the shelves, you spot Sam talking to one of his employees. you smile as you watch him, now noticing how smart he looks in his dark purple shirt. feeling your eyes on him, he turns to face you, a wide grin growing on his face at the sight of you. interrupting his own conversation, he appears from the kitchen, folding his hands together as he approaches you.

"y/n! long time, no see!" he jokes, and you share a laugh. you thank the waitress as she places your drink on the bar, and Sam's grin softens to a content smile. 

"I like your shirt," you say.

"oh, thank you! I wore it to match your kit." his statement is simple, but feels big. the effort doesn't go unnoticed by you as your lips part slightly, looking at him through your lashes as he nervously rubs the back of his neck. "you pay very good attention," you note, patting a hand on his chest, instantly feeling how hard it is. it's too late to hide your surprised expression at the feeling of his taut muscles, and you look at Sam with slight panic in your eyes at your reaction. to save you the embarrassment, he throws his head back with a cackle; "did you forget I'm also a footballer, y/n?"

you shake your head and laugh along with him; "whatever, let's go grab a seat."

Sam nods at you, still chuckling to himself when you start walking towards Isaac and Gia at a table towards the far-side of the restaurant. with Sam following behind you, you wave at a few more of your teammates as you pass them. Gia smiles brightly as you approach, as she raises her eyebrows suggestively, you widen your eyes at her with a shy expression, silently telling her to shut up. you sit down next to her and Sam beside Isaac across from you. as you're taking a nervous sip of your drink, you feel a hand tap your thigh, glancing at Gia with a knowing smile before pushing her hand away. chuckling to yourself, you place an elbow on the table and rest your chin in your palm. 

"did you enjoy the match, Isaac?" you ask, making sure you bare your sweetest smile, knowing Sam is watching you.

"of course, bruv. it's great watching you two do your thing on the pitch. I'm just glad I got to bring the lads to this one," slapping a hand to Sam's shoulder, he shakes him a bit. Sam laughs, and your eyes find his again. as outgoing as he is, when he looks at you, he goes so shy and nervous. it's endearing, but it feels like something is missing between you. there's a few butterflies, but there's no tension, no chase. if you're going to dive back into the dating pool after your shitty ex, you want something exciting and electric to start with. maybe Sam can still surprise you, it's still early in your night together. 

"y/n, I was just telling Isaac about that one bitchy player who tackled you during the game. she was so nice to us before!" Gia starts, and then the conversation takes off. the combination of alcohol and Sam's kind smile warms your chest, and you finally start to relax into the space as the chat flows between the four of you. the restaurant is cozy, dim lighting hiding the permanent blush on your cheeks, and when glancing over at Sam every now and then, you realise just how attractive he is. when his smile is replaced by a listening look, his other features catch your eye. his dark eyes are so focused on Gia as she speaks, respect pouring out of them as he hangs on to her every which word. despite his almost constant smiling, he doesn't have a smile line or wrinkle set in his perfect skin. his cheeks look soft, not too chiseled or sharp, and you imagine placing a soft kiss on them when he drops you off at your door after a hypothetical date. letting your eyes drop to his lips, you notice the hint of pink between them, and continue your daydream to imagine kissing his soft lips after this made-up date. 

your thoughts are interrupted when his lips open to a big smile again as he laughs at something Isaac says, and you quickly smile and chuckle, hoping you weren't caught staring. glancing around nervously, you look out the window to the street, before looking around the restaurant. you recognise basically everyone, but haven't spoken to many of the other Richmond players yet. as much as you're enjoying getting to know Sam, you're intrigued by some of the other men's team members. you look towards the busier side of the restaurant, watching as the Richmond guys all laugh and talk to each other, clearly having a bond worth many years of playing together. during the training rounds for your team, you idolised these men, trying to find out what exactly Richmond was looking for. you studied their matches and plays, and had to try very hard not to freak out when you first met Roy Kent. spotting him sitting at a round table behind Isaac, you notice him speaking to someone next to him. when you look at who that is, your eyes meet Jamie Tartt's. 

despite Roy clearly speaking to him, Jamie's focused on you. you want to tear your eyes away, but something keeps them locked on his. he's slumped back in his chair, one hand on the table and the other resting on his thigh. you drag your eyes down his frame; he's still wearing that stupid orange outfit, but you can now make out the deep line across his bicep beneath the tight fabric of his shirt. when your eyes drop down to where his hand rests on his leg, you notice how his jeans hug his bulging thighs. lips parted, you blink yourself back to the conversation going on at your table, quickly looking away from Jamie and clearing your throat subtly. you adjust in your seat, flattening nonexistent creases in your blouse before going to take another sip of your drink, only to realise your glass is completely empty.

"be right back," you whisper to Sam, careful not to interrupt Gia's story as you stand up from your seat. brushing past Sam, you touch your hand to his shoulder. he smiles up at you and when you walk away, you make sure your hips sway that little bit more than usual, hoping he's watching. you beeline for the bar, not stopping to speak to anybody as you pass them, despite the many smiles and waves from friends and familiar faces. placing your glass on the bar, you wait for the waitress to appear. instinctively, you pull your phone from your pocket, checking its notifications. 

"well done today," someone speaks next to you.

"thank you-" you begin, looking up from your phone and slowing your sentence halfway. the Jamie Tartt leans forward on the bar, resting on his elbows as he looks you directly in the eye. the small smile that had appeared at the compliment immediately drops, and you blink slowly as you process his sudden presence. 

"should I be worried about my reputation as Richmond's best striker?"

"what?" you furrow your eyebrows at him, immediately hearing his mocking tone. 

"as much as I love the whole girl-power thing you've got goin' on, I hope it don't fuck with my status." 

you gawk at him, jaw slack at his obnoxious statement; "what the fuck are you talking about?"

"I mean-" 

"what can I get you two?" the waitress returns to the bar. interrupting Jamie.

"I'll have another gin and tonic, please, and you can be generous with the gin." you say, smiling sweetly. when she turns to Jamie, he shakes his head silently, before standing up straight and facing you. 

"I mean..." he tries again, "if the press start calling you Richmond's star striker, I'm gonna have to have a serious chat with coach Kent," 

it's impossible to wipe the unimpressed look off your face, staring at him with raised eyebrows and a grimace. you can't believe what he just said to you, and his behaviour is seriously unexpected. sure, you'd seen his cocky press junkets and shitty attitude in the media a year or two ago, but you were under the impression he'd changed since then. you'd spent the last few months studying his football, his plays and techniques burnt into your brain from how often you'd watched his highlights on repeat. the mixed messages confuse you, and your urge to bond with players you admired so much suddenly vanishes. 

"never meet your heroes, I guess," you mutter to yourself, taking a sip of your drink as you move to return to Sam. 

"Tartt," a deep voice huffs, and suddenly a wall of black appears in front of you, stopping you from leaving. tilting your head up, you see Roy, chest puffed and arms crossed as he stares at Jamie.

"ah, speak of the devil," Jamie says with a fake smile. rolling your eyes at him, you want nothing but to go back to the lovely man waiting for you at your table. instead, Roy puts his hand on your shoulder and guides you back in front of Jamie. 

"were you bothering my striker, Tartt?" Roy grumbles, keeping his hand on you. Jamie huffs before pouting, throwing in an eye roll to piss you off just that little bit more. you feel like a child on the playground, your teacher making you stand in front of the mean girl as he waits for you to make up. 

"you're striker?" Jamie spits, "I was here first, ya'know." his belittling tone makes your drink taste the bad kind of sour, and all you can do is sigh, waiting for the moment Roy dismisses you and you can go back to Sam. 

"it's not about who was here first, it's about who's more respectful, and that will never be you." Roy states, confidently putting Jamie in his place. he holds his fist up towards you, and you bump your knuckles with his before pushing past him, finally walking back to your seat.

"what the fuck, Roy-" you hear Jamie start to sputter at him, but you quickly tune it out when your eyes fall on Sam's again. with your eyebrows still raised in shock, you slide back into your seat. 

"are you alright, y/n?" Sam asks, concern painting over his face when you don't return his smile. 

"what's that about?" Gia says as she stares at Roy and Jamie bickering by the bar.

with a deep sigh, you shake your head; "fuck knows... has Jamie always been such a dick?" you ask the table. Sam nods at the same time as Isaac shakes his head, and you and Gia look at each other completely confused. 

"nah bruv, he's gotten so much better," Isaac says to Sam before chugging some of his beer.

"eh, I don't know about that," Sam replies as he raises his eyebrows, "he's learnt how to play as a team, but outside of football he still doesn't talk much."

"he's different with Isaac, though, right?" Gia asks, her boyfriend blinking at her a few times before turning to you. "he's a good guy..." he takes a deep breath before continuing, "when he wants to be," Isaac smacks Sam on the back, laughing loudly. Sam glances up at you with a shy grin, but your face screams unimpressed at the joking about his shitty behaviour. 

the night continues smoothly, with no more Jamie staining your celebrations. after your conversation at the bar, Roy kept him well away from you. you get to know Sam some more, before chatting with your teammates and meeting some of the men's team. Roy even apologises for Jamie's behaviour, but you shrug it off; "footballers, innit," you say, and Roy laughs and nods in agreement. your whole interaction with Jamie was so confusing, and completely unexpected. you'd hoped him being a dick on the pitch didn't translate to outside of the stadium, and to others it didn't, but he didn't seem to hold back when it came to you. the restaurant starts clearing out around 10pm, people needing their rest after the big match. you and Gia wait around until you're the last ones there, and your nerves suddenly set in as you realise there may be some implications between you and Sam. 

"Isaac's coming home with me, by the way," Gia says, locking her arm with Isaac's. she looks at you with her eyes widened, jaw clenched as she darts her eyes towards Sam. you sigh and drop your lids for effect; "Sam, this was amazing, and thank you so much for hosting the team. I would stay for another drink with you but," you force a yawn as you wave your hand in front of your face, "I'm just so exhausted after the game, you know how it is..." 

"ah, okay," Sam starts, rubbing his palms together as his disappointment gets concealed under a kind smile, "get your rest, y/n- and you too, Gia, of course." 

when you're finally back in Gia's car -- squished into the backseat with Isaac in front of you in the passenger seat -- she refuses to start the car. 

"what do you mean you're tired?!" she yells at you, the small car making the noise ten times louder. you smack her arm; "shut up! what's your problem?!" you shout back.

"I think he wanted to get to know you a bit more..." Isaac urges.

"ugh! I have nothing more to say! we've basically gotten to know everything about each other already," you complain, and Gia looks at you with one eyebrow raised. "you're so annoying. why don't you ever let me wingman you?" she finally turns the key in the ignition, pulling out of her parking spot and starting down the road. 

"just leave me alone," you mutter, fishing your headphones out of your gym bag and putting them over your ears. like a grumpy teenager, you play your music loud to shut out the sound of Gia and Isaac talking, leaning on the window beside you as you look out at the passing cars. your mind can't help but drift to Jamie again, still upset by his mean tone towards you. according to Isaac, he's apparently 'gotten better', whatever that's supposed to mean. because to you, he just seems like the same old egotistical prick like when he first came to Richmond on loan from Man City. even when he played in blue you respected him as a footballer, and were actually quite excited to see him come to help an underdog team. 

when Gia finally turns into your road, the recognisable row of houses coming into your view, you pull your headphones off. "I don't think that's a good idea," Gia sighs, but Isaac protests; "no, I swear, I think it'll work." 

"what will work?" you ask, unclicking your seatbelt and leaning between the two of them as Gia pulls into your driveway.

"jesus, y/n, you're gonna give me a heart attack," Isaac groans, holding a hand to his chest. 

they ignore your question, and you let it go, eager to get inside to your big warm bed. the second the car stops, you jump out, speeding to your front door. you unlock it, slipping inside and quickly taking off your shoes at the doormat. almost slipping on the hardwood floors, you run to the stairs, sprinting up to the next floor and straight into your big bedroom. luckily enough, your house has one bedroom downstairs and another upstairs, both with bathrooms on each floor, allowing you to have your own space. you wouldn't mind sharing with Gia, and you actually both slept downstairs for the first week of you living here. you would never admit it to anyone else, but you were a bit scared of how high the ceilings of the upstairs bedroom reached, especially considering the attic above it to which you didn't have any access. 

you close the door and press your back into it, tipping your head back and sighing, eyes closed. dropping your bag at your feet, you dig your phone out of your pocket, seeing texts in your family group chat congratulating you on your win. you thank them in reply before getting ready for bed. finally nestled in the duvet, you scroll through your phone, mindlessly switching between tiktok and instagram as you only half-absorb everything you see. that is, until a press junket with Roy, Jamie, and Sam, pops up on your for you page. Sam's smiling face makes your cheeks warm, his smile absolutely contagious. Jamie, however, looks fucking miserable. 

Roy is between them, calling on interviewers. "Jamie, on the heels of making your England debut, how does it feel to be named Premiere League Player of the Month?" one of them asks him off-camera. the Jamie you spoke to today would have been absolutely gassed by that question, but the Jamie on your screen doesn't seem as thrilled. Roy rolls his eyes, obviously expecting him to be a prick about the question, but instead, he gives a half-assed shrug. "uh-, ehm, yeah, yeah, it feels good, I guess. but it's really the team making me look good. so, I should be doing a better job of making them look good, really." your expression matches that of Roy and Sam on your screen, the shock evident on your face as you sit up in bed. he goes on to object his award, despite how much the other two big him up. 

the timid look on his face breaks your heart a little bit, and seeing the way his eyes seem to glaze over when he's not speaking makes you question whether he's the same man you met today. is this what Sam and Isaac were talking about? switching apps, you type his name into instagram, quickly finding his verified account. you scroll through his pictures, seeing mostly promo pictures for Richmond, or random brand deals he's done. there's nothing personal about his page, and his cocky pout in all of his pictures gives you the ick immediately. any vulnerability he had in that interview completely slips your mind as you sigh deeply, locking your phone and placing it next to your bed. you lay down again, closing your eyes and breathing deep, and right before you drift off, those dark blue eyes challenging you at the bar are the last thing you see before slipping into sleep.

you, Gia, and Isaac all pile into her car on monday morning, heading to Richmond for another day of training. "just to give you a heads up, y/n," Gia says as she starts the car, "we're trying something different at training today." you perk up, leaning forward to feel less like a third wheel between the couple. 

"oooh, what are you planning for us captain?"

"over the weekend, Isaac and I were discussing maybe combining our morning trainings with the guys? just to spice things up a little, you know?"

"yeah, because it's the middle of the season and everything, Gia and I thought we could use a little switch up just to make things more fun." Isaac adds.

"oh yeah! that's a great idea," you say, genuine excitement in your voice. Isaac stares at you with a furrowed brow, trying to sense any sarcasm in your tone, and Gia's silence proves she's thinking the same thing. "whatever you do, don't make me train with Tartt. if you can promise me that, then I'll try to have fun." your emphasis on the last word is only half-mocking -- you really do want to try to make football fun for you again. 

"y/n..." Gia trails off before taking a deep breath, "it's gonna be quite hard to train you both as strikers if you don't train together..."

"that's not true!" you protest, shaking your head with a confused face, "just make me striker for one half of the training team, and make him striker for the other, that way we won't have to interact." 

"right, until you play a game against each other," Isaac adds, "what then?" 

"then I'll just have to fucking destroy him." you huff, leaning back in your seat and peering out the window. maybe kicking Jamie's ass in training is what will make all of it a lot more fun. the grumpy expression on your face contradicts your thoughts, the image of an anxious Jamie replaying in your head. you can't seem to get his big, sad eyes out of your mind, his eyebrows knitted together in worry and discomfort. Roy and Sam seemed equally as surprised in the moment as you were watching the reupload last night, and seeing that different side of him makes you think that maybe today he'll be different than at your match on saturday. maybe he was just having a bad day.

"good mornin' dickhead. ready to get your arse kicked?" Jamie's smug face winks at you as you meet him in the hallway on your way to the training pitch. "hi Jamie," you respond with a flat, unamused tone; he wasn't just having a bad day then. both dressed in different colour training kits, the men's and women's team flood onto the grass, crowding in front of the coaches as they await an explanation for their joint training. Gia and Isaac step out of the large group of players and stand in front of them, ready to give their announcement. 

"so, here's the plan." Isaac's booming voice quiets the chattering players. you're already listening, of course, refusing to talk to Jamie who is still standing next to you. "psst," he leans closer to you, and you reflexively lean the other way, "do you think they're gonna make us tie a string from our dicks to your tits and make us play." with a disgusted grimace on your face, you side-eye him, catching a glimpse of his cocky grin. you roll your eyes, redirecting your attention to your captain. 

"Isaac and I have decided that we're all going to train together this morning, and in the afternoon, we split off again." Gia announces.

"the point of today is to get you guys to have fun with football. just for this morning, you can all forget about the upcoming men's match this friday, and the girls can recover after their amazing win last saturday!" the group all clap and cheer at Isaac's words, both in excitement for the next match, as well as in celebration of the last match. clapping and smiling along with the group, you nudge your shoulder to one of your teammate's next to you, temporarily forgetting about the annoying presence beside you. 

once everyone calms down again, Gia continues the pair's speech; "we're gonna start by having you all group up with everyone who plays your position. wingers with wingers, strikers with strikers, defenders with defenders, that kinda thing,"

your mouth drops, and you gawk at Gia who tries desperately to avoid your gaze, but eventually gives in. "I'm sorry," she mouths with a shrug, and your shocked expression turns into a bored one as you turn to face Jamie. with a smug smile on his face, he runs his tongue along the inside of his cheek as you both cross your arms across your chest. 

"you've got to be fucking kidding me," you sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose as you try to calm yourself with a few deep breaths. when you look up again, Jamie is staring down at his feet, digging his studs into the grass. rolling your eyes, you turn to face Gia and Isaac again. everyone has grouped up, and you and Jamie seem to be the only pair. your brows furrow as you look around; "is there not even a second teamer than can join us? please, Gia," 

"nope," she pops her lips together as she says it, "you two are they only strikers." her voice is stern, and you narrow your eyes at her with a curt nod. "right..." you drawl as you stare at her, challenging her. her simple smile is unwavering, and she's clearly not giving this up. she cocks her head towards Jamie, who is still distracted by his own boots. sighing loudly, you untangle your arms to slap a hand to his, feeling his hard muscles through his long sleeve. the feeling surprises you, and you let yourself glance at his biceps, the taut fabric stretching over them. keeping the disgusted look on your face, you hope he doesn't notice you checking him out. when you lift your eyes, however, he's looking you straight in the eye. you jump at the sudden eye contact, frowning at his forwardness. 

"is there something on my arm?" he asks you, not taking his eyes off yours.

"no," you snap, and you hope the blush creeping up your cheeks is just because of the cold autumn air. 

"are you blushing?" 

"no, fuck off," you mutter, slapping his arm again as you turn your attention away from him. Gia and Isaac take turns explaining how today's training is organised, assigning different coaches to different groups. thankfully, Isaac gives Roy the responsibility of making sure you don't murder Jamie during your session. "alright, let's go!" Isaac shouts, Beard blowing his whistle. you stay rooted in place, trying your hardest to find it in you to actually go interact with Jamie. him and Roy are already making their way to the goal to the left of the pitch, footballs in hand. 

"good luck, y/n." Sam's voice appears, alongside a hand on your shoulder. you place your hand on his, smiling up at him meekly. "thank you, Sam... have fun!" his smile is warm and sympathetic, and you kind of appreciate the pity, it's more than Gia gave you. Sam's words give you the courage to finally move, slowly falling into a jog as you head towards the far side of the pitch. if the whole point of today was to have fun, why the fuck would they lump you and Jamie together with Roy as your peacekeeper?

"alright you two..." Roy says as you approach. you stand next to Jamie, leaving an obnoxious amount of distance between the two of you. Roy tosses you a bright orange football before continuing; "I've been told you need to be friends. I wouldn't have a fucking clue why since you're not even on the same team, but whatever. we're gonna keep it simple, you each take turns kicking the ball against the goalpost, whenever one of you fucks up and kicks it into the goal, you both get down and do fifteen push-ups. understood?" 

"so scoring a goal is bad? what is that supposed to teach us?" you ask.

"and if she fucks it, which she probably will, I have to do push-ups?" Jamie groans.

"yes." Roy says, a simple answer to two apparently-simple questions. 

"jesus christ," you and Jamie both mutter at the same time, making you both look at each other and roll your eyes, also at the exact same time.

you move toward the penalty spot to go first, ignoring how in sync you two seem to be, and the ball firmly at your feet. you push down you right sock before pulling the left as high up your leg as possible. taking a few steps back, you blow out a sharp breath before charging forward and kicking the ball, perfectly hitting the middle of the top goal post. Roy claps with a small smile on his face, and you look at him proudly. without a word, Jamie bumps into you as he places his ball down, quickly taking a shot, the ball smacking in exactly the same spot as yours had. you both jog to collect your footballs, and you decide to up the stakes. aiming for the top goal post again, you now kick the ball so it curves up high into the air before slowly dropping and bouncing off the right spot. Jamie wastes no time to copy you, even turning his back to the goal in a cocky manner, knowing he aimed it perfectly. he holds his hands up in the air as he slowly spins around, proud smile on his face. you roll your eyes for the umpteenth time, turning your head away from him to hide the way the corners of your mouth lift slightly at his bragging. pressing a hand into his chest, you push him out of the way for you to take your next kick, and you finally let the smile through. 

with a loud laugh, Jamie claps and whoops, pushing his fists into the air; "I did it! I made it laugh!" 

"it?!" you shout back, obviously offended.

"go on then, try something harder." he cocks his head towards the goal, biting down on his bottom lip as he grins at you. you run towards the ball and thrust your hip forward with as much might as you can muster, swinging your leg. the ball shoots at the goal, knocking off the top one before bouncing against the left post. "ha!" you shout as you turn to Jamie, pointing a finger at him, "watch out Tartt, I might be coming for your reputation," you mock his words from saturday evening, and he struggles to wipe the shock from his face. his lips are pouted with is eyebrows raised, head tipped forward as he looks between the ball, to the goal post, back to you. his jaw clenches, and you can see his sharp jawline jutting out before his adam's apple bobs up and down with a gulp. although it's mid-october, the skin of his neck is still sun kissed from summer, and you let your eyes drift down to the collar of his navy training top. even through the fabric, the muscles in his shoulders are defined, and the lines on his biceps are still showing without him needing to flex.

"what?" his voice snaps you out of your daze, dragging you back to the cold pitch. your cheeks feel hot again, and you do your best to look pissed off at him; "what?" you snarl back.

"you're staring at me." 

"no I'm not," you mutter, turning away from him and abruptly jogging toward the side of the pitch. as you run away from Jamie, you squeeze your eyes shut, cringing at yourself. what possessed you to just run away? grabbing your water bottle, you chug as much as you can in one go, taking a few deep breaths. "come on, y/n... focus," you mumble to yourself before walking back to the goal as casually as possible. 

neither Roy nor Jamie bring up your little trance, and you count yourself lucky since it would be pretty good ammo for Jamie to annoy you with. the two of you continue your competition, the smack of the ball against the goal becoming almost rhythmic as you don't waste any time to outdo each other with each turn. Jamie even takes it to the next level, moving to the middle between the penalty and the halfway line. from there, he attempts to hit to goal post, and you hold your breath as you watch the ball soar through the air. Jamie locks his hands behind his head, and you have to tear your eyes away from his arms yet again. the ball skims past the top post, missing it by mere centimetres, and you flinch as Jamie screams at the top of his lungs. you stare at him with wide eyes as he falls to his knees, keeping his hands behind his head as he plants his forehead into the grass. he groans and whines to himself dramatically, and you look to Roy. when you see him look equally as confused as you are, you find your feet carrying yourself towards a floored Jamie. 

"Jamie?" you ask with a soft voice, reaching a finger out and poking him in the back, "you okay?" 

"did I lose?" he asks, voice high pitched and cracking.

"Jamie, what the fuck? get up!" your tone is no longer gentle as you poke him harder and tapping your foot to his ass. he lets himself topple over, lying on the ground in fetal position, faking loud racking sobs. looking around you, you notice a few other footballers staring at you two, clearly concerned and confused. you crouch down, looking at him with your mouth drawn in a tight line, rubbing your hand over his arm. 

"Jamie, baby, should I get the medic?" you pout as you coo at him condescendingly, and the petname snaps him out of his dramatics. his face morphs from a cry to a disgusted look as he stares at you. you tilt your head to the side; "if you do these push-ups with me I'll let your mistake pass as a bit of fun." 

he jumps up almost immediately, jogging towards Roy before you can even stand up straight. getting down on his knees, he looks up at your coach and asks; "fifteen? why not twenty?" 

"fine." Roy grumbles and you look at him with a defeated look. "are you serious?" he shrugs at you as you whine, getting down on all fours in front of Jamie.

he smirks down at you, chuckling to himself as he contemplates his words for a few seconds; "you know, y/n, whenever I've imagined you in this position I'm usually behind you." 

his words knock the wind out of you, and you cough a few times as you sit up on your knees. you slap your hand on your chest as you clear your throat, completely shocked by the nerve of Jamie Tartt. throwing his head back, he laughs at your reaction, hand clutching his stomach as he struggles for air. Roy doesn't say a word, doesn't even laugh, just looks around waiting for you two to stop your antics. as Jamie recovers from his laughing fit, and you finally stop coughing, he keeps his eyes on you as he drops forward, planting his hands in the grass. "you know I'm just joking, yeah?" his words may be kind, but the brazen smirk on his face says otherwise. with a wink, he runs his tongue along his bottom lip before dropping his eyes to your lips briefly. your mouth opens slightly, his behaviour giving you absolute whiplash. he's teasing you, winding you up, but also flirting? you give your head a shake before putting your hands down again, keeping your eyes glued to the ground as you try to hide the blush inevitably making its way up your face. 

"okay, stop fucking around," Roy interrupts the flustered silence, watching as you and Jamie push up onto your feet, holding your body weight with your arms. he starts counting out loud, going painfully slow so you have to continue holding yourself up as you wait for him to say the next number. still facing the ground, you huff breaths out through your mouth, still persevering. glancing at Jamie, you look up through your eyelashes to see his strong arms flexing as he pumps up and down. his fingers clench, digging into the ground as he brings his chest all the way down, brushing the blades of grass without letting go of the push-up. the lines in his arms are impossibly deeper now, and you can see his shoulders bulging through his top. your jaw slack, you drag your eyes up to his neck, seeing the muscles strain in its sides. 

"y/n!" Roy shouts, making you jump and sag through your elbows a little before picking your weight back up. your head snaps up to look at Jamie, who's staring at you with an amused grin, eyes dark with his pupils blown wide; "you missed a count, love," he drawls, "too busy starin'?"

embarrassment takes over as you roll your lips and put your head down, arms starting to shake as your holding plank becomes almost unbearable. you just got caught staring at Jamie's muscles, again, by both him and Roy. all you want is to run inside, lock yourself in the bathroom, and never show your face. instead, you mumble a "sorry" and continue your push-ups in front of Jamie. as Roy starts counting again, you screw your eyes shut, swearing not to let them drift across Jamie's body ever again. you squeeze your eyes so hard you start seeing red specks float across your vision. Roy gets to eighteen, and your ears throb as your blood pumps quickly. your arms shiver under your weight as he counts excruciatingly slowly. but on number nineteen, your body suddenly tenses, feeling warmth on your right hand. you allow one eye to open, squinting down at your hand, only to see Jamie's fingers laying between yours.

———

NEW SERIES!! thank you so much for all the love on my last series! if you haven't read it yet, please check it out if you'd like to!

sorry for the big build up with Sam and everything, but I had to give you a reason to hate Jamie, didn't I? I'm really excited to write this, I'm all for longwinded tension ;p

[scoatneyhall]

Ted Lasso season 4... thoughts...

LOL so it sounds like they're definitely going to have Ted come back to coach the women's team himself as opposed to just being around a bit for whatever reason... while I know plenty of women's teams do have male managers IRL, do they like... have to? Like do they have to make that narrative choice instead of having a female coach?

And they've said the first episode is apparently going to be set and filmed in Kansas, so I assume it will be Rebecca going over there to ask him to come back?

If this is where we are going with it, I now really hope there's a significant time jump, skipping the amount of time we've missed IRL, like 3 football seasons - and that it will be set in the 25/26 football season. He left summer of 2022 and is coming back summer of 2025. I mean, for starters, they can't explain the kids aging any other way if Henry or Phoebe is a part of it. And in terms of the aim of the initial 3 season arc, it would be insane for Ted to just come back a few months after he left. Like. Okay it's fine to leave his son again? I assume in this situation Henry (and possibly Michelle) will move WITH him, because otherwise what was the point??? So we really have to be on top of the kid's age, and it has been 4 years since filming s3!

I used to really dread the idea of a time jump as I didn't want to miss Roy's journey as manager (AND THERAPY), but now it feels like it's the only way it'll work, in particular if the focus is Ted returning to handle the women. A Tedless continuation that focused on Roy should have had no time jump, but this version definitely should.

I have written before about how it is completely and utterly unreal that they don't already have a women's team, even if they were only semi pro, so I feel like if they wanted to explain the whole "starting" the women's team with some level of football realism, you could do it like, okay, they did already have the women's team and they've been playing in lower leagues, way way down, with no funding, Rupert didn't care, Rebecca didn't initially care, and Keeley's plan was about building them up now they had the resources, not starting them from scratch. And after a few seasons of serious investments and promotions they are ready for the WSL, and they need a more high profile manager? I guess???? Like the last few years have been a Welcome to Wrexham situation with 3 seasons of promotion in a row under another coach, and now that coach is leaving and Ted comes in to take them to the highest level? I GUESS.

But also like. Sorry but Ted Lasso in its former form was such a man centric show. Which I wasn't mad at! But what i mean is like Ted as a coach really seems like his most powerful quality is helping boys become non toxic men. Men's support, men accessing their emotions, men's mental health. Ted help guys to Man Good. I just don't think those same vibes will come across well when it's about him mentoring women? I don't want to see him trying to mentor women?? They deserve better?Ted works as a coach when he's helping men be good men. The women don't need his methods.Like yeah he helped Rebecca but I think that was very different. I don't need to see him being Coach Dad to a bunch of lesbians. I just don't.

But honestly I don't really care what Ted does with himself, I need that time jump to happen regarding other characters, to keep their stories something I feel good about. At this point, I really don't think Phil Dunster is doing it - Jamie may show up as a guest in one or two eps... and if it was a direct continuation, I cannot stand the idea that he left Richmond the same reason Roy became manager and Richmond entered the Champions League. I really, really don't think it would be in character for him to do that even though there would have been interest to buy him. But I could believe it if it has been a few seasons and he had a really great offer - especially if it was back to City. I could accept him being transferred after a decent time jump, but I hate the idea of making OOC choices about him to fit their availability or plot ideas. He Would Not Do That.

But if the focus is mainly Ted and the women's team, it's possible that Jamie is still there and we just don't really follow the men's team action? Brett Goldstein IS doing the show but also has many other commitments, so I am kind of assuming we won't be in the men's team dressing room or filming men's matches or doing heavy Roy plot, and Roy will only pop up for Rebecca admin scenes/Keeley personal scenes.

Because possibly the football action won't follow the men at all, as in, they won't even rebuild that old set and stuff, and mainly be in Ted's new office in the girls changing room (sigh, how many jokes about him not looking will there be) so it is possible Jamie is still very much at Richmond, and we see him a couple of times in a social capacity with Roy or Keeley, but if there is no more scenes in the men's team dressing room etc, and the plot won't in any way focus on the results of the men's season, he won't be in the background of basically every office or training scene like he was before.

The more I think about it, the more I actually think this "no men's team scenes" is probably likely regardless of who is still on the men's team - because they want to do all the work they need to do for filming matches and training and stuff, which is big and expensive, I think they'll do just the women's games - they would actually probably get roasted if they focused too much on the men after all this talk about promoting the women's game. Like we had 3 seasons of just men - even splitting season 4 into 50% men's team focus and 50% women feels kind of bad in terms of their aims about platforming women's football. So I am now betting men's team will be almost invisible, with some players popping up in incidental/social scenes.

So. It is possible that Roy pops up in a club admin way/Keeley relationship way - though I do NOT want them to get back together - and that Jamie still is there and around those characters socially but we don't do everyday team scenes. It is also possible Jamie will no longer play for Richmond.

Either way I really need that time jump. I cannot stand the idea of Ted regretting his choice and moving back immediately after all that. I cannot stand the idea of Jamie moving clubs in the same transfer window Roy is hired. I cannot stand the idea of pretending the Henry actor hasn't aged 4 years or the idea of recasting Phoebe. I am furious that they feel JSuds was integral to the show as an actor and that it still needs to focus on him cominh back and coaching. He could have just written it and popped up as a Diamond Dogs Zoom friend a couple of times.

But if this is the way it is, they NEED a time jump. Furious to miss Roy's managerial/therapy journey, it will be insane for all the growth to happen off screen and will probably sit very weird with viewers if he comes back on screen acting significantly different, but you'd HOPE he has changed in that time and at least it would leave us a really good fanfic gap to play with, between the summer of 2022 and whenever this will be set - particularly if Jamie is gone.

All in all I feel like I'd rather they just ended with season 3 and did not do this extension of the show, especially as they seem to have lost a lot of goodwill with the audience since season 3. I personally am very wary of what kind of football realism they're going to destroy in order to "start" the women's team and am going to be on edge until it comes out in terms of "how bad they've fucked it up." That wariness also extends to off screen character choices they will make in order to explain who's no longer around. Cool sentiment to be anticipating about a show I'm meant to like!

[qs63]

FMA 03 appreciation post.

Aside from the fact that FMA Brotherhood outright assumes you have watched FMA 03 — and skips a lot of the early events and world building — everyone should watch 03 because the manga/BH resolution also takes it into consideration.

FMA 03 is in many ways a mirror image to the Manga/BH story. It's a bit of a “what if these characters turned left instead of right” situation, and that makes 03 more significant if you want to understand how and why the manga ends up like that. I already talked in another post about Basque Grand and how much he changes from 03 to manga, but he's not the only one nor the most important character to do so.

Ed's core beliefs is that every life is precious and shouldn't be taken. He repeats this again and again throughout the story, and manga Ed manages to uphold that belief to the very end when he refuses to kill Pride. 03 Ed is no different, he too holds this belief dearly, but since FMA 03 makes the characters take a different turn, 03!Ed ends up accidentally killing Greed, effectively shattering his ideals. This single event marks the end of 03!Ed's innocence and childlike idealism/positivism. It pushes him into a more adult cynical and practical outlook of life.

This new outlook is what leads him to kill sloth (when manga Ed wouldn't kill Pride) and then sacrifice himself to get Al back despite knowing this decision would hurt Al, and so many others.

The Manga ending is very aware of the 03’s ending and outright references it when Mustang says Ed would never sacrifice himself as he knows the pain of being left behind. But the truth is that manga Ed is only able to reach a different conclusion to 03!Ed because he was able to maintain his stubborn idealism to the very end and find a solution his jaded practical self could've never reached.

Mustang's 03 ending is also another excellent example of what would happen if the character didn't uphold their beliefs and — somewhat naive— idealism to the end.

There are two key differences between 03!Roy and manga Roy. The first is Ishval. 03!Roy is all alone in Ishval and that makes a world of difference, 03!Roy doesn't get Hawkeye to question the value of alchemy/power, he doesn't have Hughes to support him every time he's facing the abyss, he doesn't have his squad to thank him for keeping them alive. The lesson 03!Roy takes from Ishval it’s not “We need each other to succeed” it is “I need to be stronger to succeed”, because 03!Roy was alone and never learned to share his burden, or the value of having someone to lean on.

It's no surprise then that 03!Roy ends up facing Pride ALONE, which is the second difference. The 03 ending where Roy turns his back to everyone and everything is exactly what would've happened to manga Roy if he too had been alone in Ishval, if he hadn't learned that he needed people at his side to keep him on the right path, if he hadn't had someone to stop him from making the same mistakes as 03!Roy when he faced Envy and almost embraced revenge over his values. Just like 03!Ed, that forceful break from his ideals (the core belief that you need the help of others to succeed and to work for something beyond yourself) is what makes 03!Roy ends up as a mirror image of his manga self.

So really go watch FMA 03 if you haven't because both endings become so much better when you understand they're a juxtaposition of each other, one that showcases the importance of hope, ideals, and companionship.

[oldguardleatherdog]

[Gift link, no paywall]

Zuck wiļl now explicitly allow vile and dehumanizing hate speech against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people to be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads without adverse consequences for the poster. He has gone so far as to provide Meta employees with detailed examples of speech that will now be allowed on Meta platforms. This article goes into detail as to how these new policies were formulated and rolled out. It's worth a read to understand the calculation and planning that went into this.

This is more than "mere" homophobia and transphobia. Zuck went out of his way to explicitly target us and single us out over other minorities who use these platforms.

It's clear that this is Zuck prepping and staging his platforms for use in actions that The Rapist Administration is setting up to launch against us in the days to come. Our elected officials and our so-called national LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations have put out a statement or two, but I'd hate to be hanging until they actually take action to protect us.

We need to find a way to mount a response to this, and to all the rest of what's coming at us. Good people of good will are gathering and planning, but it's early yet. Take note of these signs, keep watch and stay alert, don't detach, don't look away.

From the article:

"Among its changes, Meta loosened rules so people could post statements saying they hated people of certain races, religions or sexual orientations, including permitting 'allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.' The company cited political discourse about transgender rights for the change. 

"The company also removed the transgender and nonbinary 'themes' on its Messenger chat app, which allows users to customize the app’s colors and wallpaper, two employees said.

"That same day at Meta’s offices in Silicon Valley, Texas and New York, facilities managers were instructed to remove tampons from men’s bathrooms, which the company had provided for nonbinary and transgender employees who use the men’s room and who may have required sanitary pads, two employees said.

"In the @Pride employee resource group, where workers who support L.G.B.T.Q. issues convene, at least one person announced their resignation as others privately relayed to one another that they planned to look for jobs elsewhere, two people said.

"In a post this week to the @Pride group, Alex Schultz, Meta’s chief marketing officer [and Meta's highest-ranking openly gay executive], defended Mr. Zuckerberg and said topics like transgender issues had become politicized. He said Meta’s policies should not get in the way of allowing societal debate and pointed to Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case, as an example of 'courts getting ahead of society' in the 1970s. Mr. Schultz said the courts had 'politicized' the issue instead of allowing it to be debated civically.

"'You find topics become politicized and stay in the political conversation for far longer than they would’ve if society just debated them out,' Mr. Schultz wrote. He said looser restrictions on speech in Meta’s apps would allow for this kind of debate.

"On Friday, Roy Austin, Meta’s vice president of civil rights, announced he was leaving the company. He did not give a reason."

[Emphasis added.]

[foxbirdy]

hi!

just saw your pictures of you doing some marine biology fieldwork and i just wondered if you have any stories about the experience that you would like to share. Im in 1st year uni right now and i have no idea what im gonna specialize in other than “science!!” but i work on boats for my job right now (tallships, very cool stuff) and so marine environment work really appeals to me. If you have the time, I would love to get a picture of what the work you’re doing entails.

(What does the day-to day of marine biology research look like? What kind of stuff are you studying/information are you gathering? Whats it like? Is it awesome? feel free to answer none of these also)

thank you!!

OH, I'm jealous - it's a dream of my mine to get to work on a tallship. & I love to talk about this stuff!

In all honesty, the day-to-day changes pretty dramatically depending on what project work is available. Right now, as a student, a lot of what I'm involved in ties into coursework or research that's happening at the university! I volunteer with a couple different labs, and there's a huge variety of stuff to get in on. For example:

Last Saturday, I spent about six hours pulling otoliths and gonads out of eighty invasive roi, taape, and toau caught by local spearfishermen. Otoliths are the ear bones of fish, and similar to the rings of a tree, they have ringed annuli that can give a lot of information about the life history of the individual species. We cast these otoliths in resin, and then cut cross-sections to look at them under the microscope. The hope is that this information will help us understand when these species become reproductive, and how to control their populations.

The last several Fridays, I've been involved with an effort to collect some water quality and plankton data after a lot of heavy rain. This work was out on the boats, and we used deep and shallow drogues, YSI, light meter, secchi disk, and a couple plankton nets, moving out from the swollen rivermouth and into deeper, saltier water.

Last month, I spent a lot of time on invertebrate snorkel surveys, mostly looking for presence/absence in the nearshore. Next Tuesday, I'll be doing fish surveys in the same location. The Wednesday after I'm hopping on a wetlands restoration project & removing invasive bull grass, and a night snorkel afterwards. Next Friday is a lab day, working to process the plankton samples we've collected, and I'll be in the coral nursery afterwards. That's the really fun thing about university - there's so much different work going on, all the time!

In the summers, outside of school, that work is just as varied. I've really enjoyed having jobs that allow me to do a little bit of everything, and thus far, my supervisors have been very supportive of me in that. Here's some other projects I've gotten to work on, all within just one position:

Servicing passive monitoring systems! These are pictures of my replacing a SEABIRD logger, which has been taking a water temperature measurement every thirty seconds for the past 360 days. This helps conservation managers track heatwaves in sensitive ecosystems. We prepped new loggers with batteries and SD cards and waterproof tape to prevent biofouling, and then used snips and zipties to make the switch.

Scientific fishing! This helps get life history and population data for our target species, large pelagic fish. We collected biopsy samples, placed tags, and released primarily ahi, but also ono, and mahi. (Full disclaimer: this picture is from a subsistence fishing trip and not a scientific one, where people generally have too many things in their hands & are moving too quickly to take pictures. He was a very delicious dinner for our crew, though.)

Other marine tagging! I got to assist with bluewater cetacean tagging of several different dolphin and small whale species, and shark tagging for galapagos, blacktip reef, grey reef, and dusky sharks. Cetacean tagging was done with an air rifle, not easy at high speeds on the boat. Shark tagging was more hands-on, as we had to manually apply the tags.

Coral reef monitoring! The mission of these surveys was to track coral health through heat stress events, and to identify harmful species. I'm looking under the coral head in these pictures for crown-of-thorns starfish, one of the most urgent species threats to reefs in the Pacific.

This is the bastard. Notice the dead coral around him.

Oh I'm about to smack into the photo limit, huh. Please hold!

[brucewaynehater101]

Vigilante named Rumor Tim anon here

For Stephanie, Tim would likely have tried to arrange matters to Arthur Brown is neutralized or at least kept away from Stephanie and her mom, maybe gotten them into witness protection, definitely gotten Crystal Brown help to be more independent, probably managed to help Stephanie avoid becoming a pregnant teenager by maybe getting the would be baby daddy arrested or something

Rather than Stephanie having her memories of another version of herself and living with that burden, maybe make her even more of an independent vigilante, if she even goes that way without the impetuous of her father

Not Spoiler in Star City, Stephanie giving Oliver Queen gray hairs as an independent vigilante who doesn't use a bow and is definitely operating in "his" territory, Stephanie standing up for Roy and maybe joining the Outlaws, Stephanie looking at Cissie and maybe taking a page out of her book and finding happiness and fulfillment with what she wants instead of feeling so powerless and frustrated with the system that she feels it's her responsibility to fix it (I understand why DC has kid heroes but kids should not be responsible for cleaning up the mess of the adults! Stephanie should not feel responsible for Cluemaster's actions! Tim is the Best Robin and an amazing vigilante but the adults should have stepped up!)

If C4 and Stephanie have the memories and impressions of other versions of themselves, it wouldn't lead to them incorporating Stephanie into YJ, it would probably alienate her further and honestly Stephanie and Tim on the same team with the burden of their history, it would take away the safe place that Tim has created for himself with his friends/family and Stephanie wouldn't find a safe place there either (he asked her to give him space! she did not give him space! she blew him up! she made his coming out about her and her feelings! that was not ok!)

Let her have a clean slate instead, a fresh start, Stephanie maybe not as a vigilante, not as someone who feels so powerless and so burdened by her parents that she feels like she has to be the one to fix it, but someone who can be more, someone who can build her own connections in the vigilante world with her own merit

Or if the Browns do stay in Gotham, Stephanie as future Dr. Stephanie Brown, medical doctor to vigilantes instead, taking up Leslie's mantle (kind of mad at Leslie for her helping to fake stephanie's death but it was sort of a witness protection thing so understandable but at the same time, jerk move)

Maybe Stephanie volunteering in Leslie's clinic and running into Cass there and building a friendship with the other girl outside of masks and hopefully not pressuring anyone and badgering them and being secure in herself to become trusted with Cass willingly, voluntarily, confiding in her, Stephanie not being Spoiler and always tied to the Cluemaster, Stephanie not being Batgirl and feeling as though she always has to prove herself and the Bat moving the mark so she can never reach it and using her as a tool to motivate the Robin he never wanted (I despise that Bruce told Stephanie Tim's identity)

Stephanie as Stephanie Brown, and that's enough

Or Stephanie as Kate Kane's protege, Batwoman and maybe Songbird? Or owlet, let Stephanie and Kate piss off the court of owls and if Stephanie has to have a vigilante name tied to a rogue, court of owls would be cooler than cluemaster, make cluemaster irrelevant to Stephanie, let her have an identity not tied to someone who hurt her personally

Post referenced here ^^

OH. You are entirely right, anon. Not only are you correct that Tim nor her would feel safe/supported with those memories and connection, but Steph should be able to exist outside of Tim. I didn't consider that part, so I appreciate your additions ^^

I can't decide between Star City, Doc Brown (particularly when we consider her mom), and Kate's protege. All three are beautiful, wonderful options for Steph.

Perhaps the Kate route would allow for YJ and Steph to become friends/associates while giving Steph the ability to stand independently from Tim (and Bruce).

[richeeduvie]

Can someone please explain to me the whole baby thing? And dog bone au? And all these aus im so confused

DOG AND BONE!AU BASICS

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.

This is asked every five months and I'm happy to explain it each time! I'll put it in the pinned post! This is a long one so sorry yall

So Dog and Bone is the title to the AU for a self-insert x Roman Roy fic compilation. There's no actual series yet…sorry, I know! How long has it been? But these fics range from entire one-shots that center around a plot that can lead into another one-shot/drabble, with the content of said piece becoming important to the whole AU, to just cute, fluffy or smutty drabbles and blurbs. Most of them are based on requests. Your request could become a big part of Dog and Bone!

BABY

Baby is the name for the self-insert. Fics will flip from a second person to third person POV, so you'll see her referred to as 'Baby' a lot. I don't consider her an OC because there's no and will never be a physical description of her and to be honest, I only started to referred to her as Baby so I could write third person POV fics when I'm lazy and don't want to go heavy in internal monologue, which is what I do for second person POV fics. I never use 'Y/N' for her or any self-insert. But many see her as other people and not themselves and I love that too!

Personality-wise, you'll find her to Roman's soulmate. Although she is still a victim of being out-of-touch due to her wealth, she's managed to be kind and respectful and just something that Roys don't have outside of her. She's the ultimate nepo baby with Logan just giving her some vague career path at Waystar to keep her around. She mostly works in marketing and spends her days with Tom and Greg. So, the story of DAB (lol). Baby is the childhood best friend of Roman (and Shiv). In the AU, Baby's biological father was Logan's best friend and business associate. She met the Roy family when she was five and when Roman when almost seven. She was meant to be the best friend of Shiv, but Roman stole her one day when Shiv when to get more toys and baby Baby was on the swings. His sister is still pissed about this to this day.

Nothing much has been mentioned of Baby's bio dad just yet, but it was a one-time thing (so understandable is yall don't remember) that we see Logan giving Baby the medal her father gave him after his funeral. He's dead and apparently fought in a war, or maybe just liked collecting medals as much as Logan did.

So, facts about the dead dad:

Maybe was a veteran

Was hinted to have given Baby an eating disorder

Died when she was eight

Possibly kept her away from her mother

Logan's her godfather, but it was Frank to take her in after her dad had passed. Frank ON TOP!!!! PAPA FRANK!!! Baby's mother is very distant and she's really only seen her for a few holidays throughout her childhood. I've always imagined her to be those wealthy hippies feigning spirituality and did maybe try to get Baby in terms of custody, but didn't try a lot - not even after Baby's father died. So, Baby gets to stay with the Roys with Frank being her guardian. With this, it's just co-dependency and possessiveness growing.

Roman and Baby don't really have friends outside of each other. They do everything together and eventually start doing relationship sort of things together. They take each others virginities. Roman gets panicky and painful in the muscles if Baby has to leave him for more than three days. It's great, but nothing's official.

They live this way until Roman gets with Tabitha.

Now, you may be thinking 'Why does he begin a relationship with Tabitha if he's so possessive and seemingly satisfied with the situation he has with Baby?' Well, I have two fics that'll help you to explain Roman's stupidity:

Why Does Rome Still Date Tabitha (They Don’t Have Sex, but Still) Kendall Wins!AU Confession

The latter of the two is a bit more personal and truthful for Roman. It can be noted that as much as I am a GerriRoman supporter, their relationship does not happen in the DogandBone!AU. Only because one, frankly, I don't know how to or have the desire to thread it throughout the story because I already kept Tabitha's plotline…which is Roman's downfall. You will see. And two, you'll find that Roman and all of the Roys, really, have a lot of themselves changed all because they have one genuine friend that's cared and loved them since childhood so that big part of Roman's plotless plot-time in canon is gone here. Grace didn't happen as well because Jesse Armstrong said so lol.

As I said, the genuine friend line applies to all of the Roys (excluding Logan, except for his AU…), but it really applies to Kendall. Going back to the point where Baby and Roman are fourteen/fifteen and fifteen/sixteen, he gets sent away to military school. I made it so he's only there for two years to which Logan just doesn't care to send him there anymore because I want Baby and Roman teenage puppy and needy love for as much as I can get it. During this time, Kendall has this belief, this kindness to take in Baby when she's at her loneliest.

and…so…Kendall and Baby's whole thing?

The link above sums up their whole situation but I'll elaborate a bit more here because there's Tern Haven. Tern Haven happens in the OG!DogandBone!AU and KendallWins!AU, the grooming situation happens in every AU.

Of course, Roman comes back and Baby sobers up for the most part and leaves groomer Kendall's ass in the dust! It's when Roman starts dating Tabitha decades later that Kendall, who never actually made a move on Baby, brings hell and tragedy to the family. Baby's not so keen on continuing to have sex and the weird thing she has with Roman as he is with Tabitha around, so she becomes lonely and thoughtful in the need to reconnect with friends, maybe start dating herself. She's there during Tern Haven and can't go to Roman's room to hang out, Tabitha's there. She doesn't bother Shiv and Tom, she could talk with Frank, maybe? Maybe, but she makes her way to Kendall's room.

And whatever high horse Kendall put himself on for not doing anything with Baby, maybe not being in love with her - or at least having no awareness about it, whatever was starting with Naomi, it's gone when Baby enters that room.

Again, Tern Haven happens in Kendallwins!AU and the OG!AU. The only difference is that after, Roman is either successful in pulling Baby away from Kendall, or he isn't. This is where it can get confusing as it can with all the AUs because there's so many little splices of moments within content that really helps you understand how things happen but I can say that the Kendallwins!AU is just sad, scary, and dark.

But enough of that!

OG!DOGANDBONE!AU

After Roman's successful in getting Kendall away from Baby, he immediately breaks up with Tabitha and they heal from what happened. Kendall declines quickly during this. Logan dies and they get married after the GoJo sale. They have Baby Jr. On occasion, we'll have fun and write them having two more kids, Baby Jr Jr and Roman Jr, but they aren't canon - or they at least would get a canon fic like Baby

FICS TO HELP: Romulus Sneakers | Dad Frank feat. Baby Roman Call Them Brothers Back in Town Bone and Her Heart Roman’s a Friend Stealer While you were sleeping Touch Me (I'm Sick) Date Death | Part One Date Death Part 2 Babied (He Loves It) Violet, Blue, Green, Red To Keep Me Out Phone Call Home Baby Baby in “I went to Market” Baby in ‘Too Much Birthday’ After the GoJo Sale Telling Roman She's Pregnant

BABY JR

Baby Jr is an unrealistically perfect angel of a child that belongs to Roman and Baby in their AU and was born a preemie with a slew of health problems, but because I love her so much, it's becoming a running joke for her to just exist in every AU, somehow. if Baby's there, Baby Jr's there. She's named fittingly. You'll see her a lot in smaller blurbs and fics. Another running joke is that she hates Kendall in every AU, though she's barely mentioned outside of the OG! and Loganwins!AU.

JUST MY FAVORITE BABY JR FICS:

Baby Baby's First and Last Day at School Bear Baby Jr! Baby Jr Doing Something Dangerous Connor Taking Baby Jr Fishing Baby Jr seeing Baby Roman with Glasses

VARIATIONS OF THE OG!AU

They aren't mentioned a lot anymore because we don't get so serious about them and it was more just to have fun with the story, but the OG!AU does have some variations to how the plot goes. You have Baby and Roman having Baby Jr before season one where Tabitha and Tern Haven are things that obviously never happened:

If Roman Knocked Baby Up Logan Bullying Baby Jr YoungBornBabyJr!AU With Roman Forcing Baby to Marry Him Roman Drunk and Loving If Roman Knocked Baby Up in Their 20s If Baby Jr was Little in The Pilot Logan’s Baby Jr Favoritism Where’s Your Daughter?

Then, you have Baby dying and Roman killing himself to leave Baby Jr an orphan: Come Time, Baby Jr Missing Mommy.

Or you have Baby AND Baby Jr dying to leave Roman killing himself after his last moments of suffering…which, I can't find, but do we really want to read that?

If you don't want to suffer, it can end simply as a nightmare Roman had in the night. Here's another Nightmare Blurb.

LOGANWINS!AU

Listen. I CANNOT be the only person who has consistently written for Logan. I CANNOT! But I do and Baby is unfortunately the victim of a joke turned into a horniness for an old, old man.

Logan doesn't actually have a fic establishing the Loganwins!AU. Everything that's longer than a blurb are moments that already take place after they've gotten together. Tern Haven does not take place here because it appears that this…intimate relationship takes place before season one. Roman doesn't get together with Tabitha in this AU because he's really fucked up about his soulmate having sex and marriage with his…Dad. His abusive Dad. Baby Jr does exist here! This started as a joke to get people grossed out over old man Logan cock, I played it so I was DISGUSTED to appease any requests that were sent in. I really was. I don't know what happened. But a lot of what is written expands past Logan x Reader and more about the AU itself, which happens with Kendallwins! and the OG!AU too.

FICS TO HELP: THE OFFICE CONFRONTATION Mondale The Second Baseball Sick Baby Jr Mom(my) Siblings and Baby Jr Buzz off! Sister Shiv Recital Alone Baby Jr How Does The Relationship Begin? How Does Logan Propose? Are Baby and Roman Still Close? Pregnancy Announcement in the AU They Bought a Cat Who's Baby Jr's Godfather? Panty Stealer Roman's Twitter Argument

You guys are lucky I can't find the smut fic I wrote. But it's here on this blog. Somewhere.

Nvm here it is my bad: Reflections.

AFFAIR!AU

There's the Loganwins!AU, then there's the Affair!AU, which was established pretty recently. It's where Baby begins an affair with Roman while she's married to Logan and Baby Jr ends up being Roman's daughter, not his little sister. As much as I have accepted my great enjoyment in indulging the Logan lovers, I do think this is Baby at her most Succession.

She gets the benefits of being Logan's wife and his favorite wife, a cute daughter, Roman at her heel, whining for her to really be with him but knowing he'll never leave her at her denial. She's horrible, a whore. A baddie winning.

FICS TO HELP: Baby Jr being Roman's Daughter Roman and Newborn Baby Jr Baby in the Affair!AU Roman revealing she's his to his siblings "Dada" A Slight Confrontation How does it start? In Dad's Bed

GROOMING SITUATION (OG!AU and KENDALLWINS!AU)

So, I explained most of it above, but these are the fics to help understand just how messed up DogandBone!Kendall is. He's a different man, guys.

(Also Stewy was there. Stewy was her friend. A flawed twenty-something year old who didn't care enough to separate himself from Kendall when noticing the red flags of him and Baby, but he denied, denied, denied. But he also gave Baby some sense of being…ya know, a kid…cause he saw her as a CHILD)

Tern Haven:

Tern Haven EXTENDED TERN HAVEN More of Tern Haven (…Yay…)

Ken's Groomer Era:

Sleepover Drugged Up Heart Does Baby go Clubbing With Kendall? The Birthday (Big One) Kendall being Confused That Baby's Not Jealous More of Ken being Confused That Baby's Not Jealous Sleepover 2 Kendall's Birthday Gifts....

The Aftermath:

Smacktalking During Too Much Birthday Bad Bit

There's more, of course. There's always more.

KENDALLWINS!AU

After Tern Haven, Kendall has Baby. He's won Baby. He gets more addicted to drugs while making her dependent on them. He turns her into nothing - and just for him. He's scary and paranoid when it comes to Roman. A variation of the AU would be the Babydies!AU, where she accidently overdoses after he leaves her alone. It's a lot. This is not a fun AU, guys. But I like to write it!

FICS TO HELP:

Housewife Thing Waystar Press Conference Accusing Baby Jr of Not Being His Roman Trying to Get Baby Back From Kendall A Slight, Brotherly Confrontation Daily Does of Horror (Heroin) Mention of Heroin Handsy Baby and Kendall and Pills Panty Stealer Brother Roman's Dick Pics Saying Roman's Name Flower Delivery

THE OD FICS:

No Time Needled Memories

NOW....

SHIV'S AU

Shiv's AU isn't even a win!AU, technically. We haven't really dabbled in the idea of her winning. Just more of her yearning, but all in all, this woman wants Baby soooo badly. Too sad she has the guilt of being a woman. And her father. And Tom. And the denial hot on her skin.

Calling Shiv Shiv

TOM'S AU

Apparently the man can get obsessed and they haven't even kissed in his AU, yet. Fitting considering the shit he pulls with Greg. It's Baby at her most guilty due to her friendship with Shiv.

KARL'S AU

No.

STEWY'S AU

I give crumbs and only crumbs. But we're getting something started with Wedding Bells (Part One)!

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.

I hope this helps! xoxo

[thesleepyfable]

~ SWTD: Still Here AU Part 27: ~

No Hard Feelings:

And, here we are, the final chapter for season 1. Yes. You read that right. There will be a season 2, but it won't begin until after Christmas. Until then, I have another announcement and I'll be focusing on my own project as well.

I also want to thank everyone who's been following this story, and hopefully will continue to do so going forward.

What if...? Part 1:

The glow from the fire pit greeted Suze and Rennick. Caz waved them over as Trots and Simon began to serve everyone. Suze headed for her husband and took her spot on the steps. Rennick awkwardly sat between Gibbo and Roy, unable to look them in the eye. He wanted to be with Suze. In just ten minutes, she had become a source of comfort for him. Letting out all his feelings and washing away his 'King' façade, which was both a blessing and a curse, because now he was just Davey Rennick. But, who was Davey Rennick?

Gibbo handed him a bowl of casserole, which he took with a quiet 'thank you.' He could feel everyone's eyes on him. Soon, they all took their seats around the firepit. Small chatter filled the air. Rennick stared at his food. He didn't have the appetite. One last thing weighed on his mind. Now, it was his turn to be brave.

'I know,' everyone stopped and turned. They saw the anxiety in Rennick's eyes. Too late to go back now. 'I've been more than a shit manager to all of you. And, what I did has caused us all to be here. Because of me, you lot,' referring to the infected. 'Will never be the same again, and I can't fix that. You all had to deal with who I was for so long, and, looking back, I'm surprised you didn't throw me overboard.' An empty joke no one laughed at, but Rennick made another empty chuckle. It was his way of finding strength. 'And I'm sorry you had to deal with who I was for so long. I just...' A sigh. 'I dunno. Turned into something you all had to see.' He paused to catch his breath. 'I don't want to be that man anymore, but I don't know where to start. And-'

'And we want to apologise.'

Rennick flinched when he felt someone touch the top of his head. It was Gibbo. That surprised Rennick. He thought Gibbo would never speak to him again. The last time he did, he split his cheek and brow open.

'...F-For what?'

'For not supporting you. You got us here, and we never thanked you for it.'

'No. You don't need to-'

'We're also sorry for not noticing how you've been feeling,' Brodie interrupted. 'We're in this together, and we should have seen what you're going through.'

Rennick was stunned. He glanced to Gibbo, then to everyone else. He didn't understand. He saw their kind eyes, causing his to widen. No one's looked at him like that in a long time. He didn't know what to say.

'Ah, King Rennick,' Roy hummed, breaking the silence. 'Well, if he's officially gone, then...' He moved to grab a beer, opening and handing it to Rennick. 'I'm happy to finally meet you.'

He accepted with a small yet genuine smile. 'Let's hope this one isn't a prick, eh?' They tapped the bottom of their bottles together before taking a swig. Still weaker than piss. The robin flew and perched on Rennick's arm, softening his eyes. Everyone noticed, and seeing their manager smile, whilst different, was nice to see.

'Okay then, Davey, tell us a bit about yourself?' Trots smirked.

'What?'

'Oh God,' Caz snickered under his breath.

'We do it with anyone who joins the friend group.'

It took Rennick a moment to realise what they were saying, and he just laughed. Yet again, it was different but nice to see.

'So, we know you like to laugh,' Trots joked. 'Good to know.'

'Oh, and what about you, Campbell?'

'He's trained in ballroom dancing,' Simon answered without hesitation, causing Trots to snap his head to his lover and nudge him in the arm. Everyone except O'Connor, Mary, Gibbo, and Irene was shocked. They knew he was into classical music from the 40s, but he never told anyone that he swayed around on the dance floor.

'And you never told us,' O'Connor teased, causing Trots' face to go red, who now realised he's been played at his own game.

'So, you do have a personality outside of a Union,' Gibbo continued.

'Come on,' Addair encouraged, putting on a terrible Scottish Accent. 'Do a little jig.' For once, everyone agreed with him.

'Okay, next!' Trots yelled a little too loudly, making Simon laugh, earning another small nudge. 'You're on the naughty list,' he whispered.

'Oh, you tease,' Simon whispered back, before sneaking in a small kiss on the cheek.

'Well, actually...' Raffs got to his feet and went inside the house. Rennick didn't expect anything and just thought the young lad was going to get more drinks. Until he returned with a dart board in his hands. 'We'd like to know if you can play?'

For some reason, that got Rennick to laugh again. He didn't know where it came from. Was it nerves? Maybe. But, the man was happy, and his smile grew wider.'Got any darts?'

The crew and their families had learned three things about Davey Rennick.

One; He loved to laugh. Sometimes, it fell into a mischievous giggle, which was rather infectious.

Two: He adored the bird. A tendril was always stroking the top of the robin's head, and she didn't seem to mind. Roy, however, had a feeling he was an animal lover. The food he always gave him would quickly vanish with a clean plate, knife and fork, and seagulls loved to perch around his office.

Three: He was really good at darts, beating Brodie's score with flying colours, causing everyone to cheer and hug him. Something else for Rennick to be surprised by, freezing up his body and just allowing it to happen. His mind wandered back to the final night on the rig, when Caz confessed what he did to Billy. Although he wasn't there, he completely understood Caz's feelings and the high spirits everyone felt. It then flashed to when Brodie won the darts. Again, he understood the feeling. How wonderful it was. No wonder he was jealous. Thankfully, it wasn't a mosh pit, but he, too, had to hold back his tears again.

'Alright, get off. I need another beer.' That wasn't going to be so easy. Muir, just like he did with Brodie and Caz, lifted the man up above his head as if he was holding a cat under their arms. Rennick yelped in surprise before begging to be put down. Wish granted. He moved away from his crewmates, who were now setting the dart board up for another round, because Brodie wasn't losing his title after working so hard to get it.

With a content sigh, Rennick sat near to the firepit and watched from afar. The robin landed on his nose. A beer came into his peripheral vision. He turned. It was Caz. Rennick accepted whilst the leccy pulled reposition a chair and sat beside him.

'Thanks.'

'Nae bother.' They tapped the bottles together and took a swig. 'I see Suze got through to you.'

'Aye. You chose her well.'

'Nah. She chose me, and I nearly fucked it up.' Caz felt Rennick wrap a tendril around his shoulder for support. 'But, I think we're back on track now.' He then noticed the robin still resting. 'What's her name?'

'Still debating on that.' They watched the bird fly and nestle on the crown of his head. 'But...' Rennick didn't have any personal memories of her, but the name was fitting. 'I like the name Ruby.'

'Ruby it is then.' Another tap of their beer bottles. 'See, Rennick?'

'What?'

'Does this mean we're okay, like? No hard feelings?'

Rennick was quiet for a moment. He looked at Caz. Deep down, he expected some feelings to bubble to the surface. The hatred and anger he felt when he read the letter. That feeling of betrayal from someone he did respect. His blood boiling. How he wanted to give the leccy the same treatment he gave Billy during their 'meeting.' How he wanted to crush every bone in his body when he chased him throughout Administration. But, none of that happened. Not even the pain from transforming entered his mind. The man was content. Finally at peace. The pair turned back to watch the darts game.

'Aye. No hard feelings.'

[donjuaninhell]

The term refers specifically to corporations that use rental properties as a way to generate returns for investors, such as private equity firms, real estate investment trusts and asset managers.

The study found these landlords have become the “largest acquirers” of rental properties in Toronto over the last two decades, and they’re “leading the industry in raising rents and worsening housing affordability.”

Yeah no shit that these asshole leeches raise rents faster and higher than anyone else. They're beholden to shareholders who expect a high RoI.

On average, asking rents among financial landlords are 44 per cent higher than the average rent paid in Toronto neighbourhoods, the study found.

[...]

Financial firms also raised rent prices faster than any other type of landlord, the study found, and the gap between average rents and asking rents charged by financial firms was greatest in low-income, racialized communities.

[...]

August said financial landlords shouldn’t be able to access government support through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) programs and Canada’s National Housing Strategy. “I think it’s important to ask, ‘Why we are giving a subsidy to companies whose business strategy is to make housing unaffordable?’” She added the government should ensure that firms who receive financial support are not “violating the right to housing” by reducing security of tenure and worsening affordability.

No shit they shouldn't be subsidised, they really ought to be made illegal, of course my solution to this problem is a lot more direct and only as expensive as the ammunition used.

[puppypeter]

I very rarely think about storylines for royjamie after richmond (because it breaks my heart a little to think of anyone of the team leaving) but like it's possible that jamie would choose to stay with richmond his whole career, it's also possible that the people at richmond itself would push for him to play for *insert the name of whatever other european football team is considered the best* and he becomes a proper super star, being invited for fancy events and shit.

(In a made up world where Ted stayed in London) Roy and Jamie got together while at richmond and now Roy travels with him everywhere as his own personal coach / PA / secret boyfriend / man behind the camera of every instagram post / personal grumpy cat / number one fan / emotional support teddy bear / personal chef etc He loves being with him 24/7 and finds it fulfilling to still be involved with football and helping someone be the best they can be but without the added pressure of having to constantly step outside his comfort zone that he'd have experienced being a manager to a whole team (he's doing good with being vulnerable with Jamie, he can do it with one person that he loves and he is still going to therapy for himself to work through his own trauma/CEN/grief and is focusing on learning to be in his skin as a human being and not this fucked up idea of masculinity he's got in his head) And Roy has a private instagram account under a random username where he follows and is followed only by the richmond team/coaches/Rebecca/Higgins + Keely + Georgie & Simon + his sister and he only uses it to post pictures of food, nature, weird shit he finds in the cities they visit, and his fit boyfriend. Since it's friends only he does use captions ("the muppet had a late night last night" with a picture of Jamie asleep on the floor) and all the himbos love to comment, especially Dani's "Sexy muchachos #JOY" under every single picture.

"night out post Milan fashion week with the muppet and some lovely faces i have missed"

"one handsome dressed-up muppet in Paris"

"Elopement fit check #MyMuppet" (which sends everyone in a melt down) Here's some pics of Roy that Jamie posts instead (in his photo dumps to be sneaky but there's really a lot of roy on his profile - also they 100% got a puppy!!). Also think the proper first post containing only Roy that Jamie would post would be after they elope and it would melt down the internet (the in-universe royjamie rpf-ers especially)

(the last one is such a slutty roy pic *cough cough*)

"Roy Kent always remains 💙🪢" (somebody feel free to make an actual ig posts edit of this with better pics/captions if you fancy I will do nothing but cry and thank you forever because I have no skills but I cannot stop thinking about these muppets getting married!!)