#peace and sirenity volume 1

[imjustasugablob]

Feel Me Up

Trainer!Leon x Female!Reader

tags: trainer au, asshole!Leon, slight angst? hate sex, part 2 will be up soon...

Blinding fluorescent lights were the first thing you saw as you opened your eyes. A blaring alarm, almost a siren, woke you from your "peaceful" slumber, on a cold metal bed topped with a pile of cloth that could hardly be called a mattress.

Four A.M. It was time to train. You hadn't planned on joining the government. Ever since you were young, you'd always dreamt of becoming a doctor, just like your parents. You thought they used to help people, save lives. Not create the demons that made hell on earth in the form of the C virus.

That horrendous day in Tatchi. The scene was burned into the back of your eyelids, seeping behind your vision when you turned to rest, like acid slowly coursing through your brain and frying it. You didn't have much of a choice after that, did you? They thought you'd join Neo Umbrella just like your parents had. So it was either - live a life under constant surveillance from the government, or join them to win back their favour.

Shaking your thoughts loose, you made your way to the bathroom to clean up before reporting to your trainer. Skennedy's gonna eat me alive if I'm late.

It was a terrible nickname, but you couldn't take the credit for it. Your teammates had come up with it after day 1, when Leon had successfully traumatised anyone who was getting cold feet about joining the DSO. The batch went from 51 trainees to about 23 that day. For good reason - Leon was not going easy on anyone.

For the past month, all of you had been coming back to the dorms covered in scratches on every piece of skin left exposed, and bruises on skin that wasn't. When you first saw the grape coloured mark the size of a palm on your ribs, you thought you were dying. You didn't even know bruises could be that dark. Or outlined in green.

But it wouldn't be fair to say that everyone was going through it. Cause Leon particularly hated you. Every quip, every correct answer, every successful parry only seemed to piss him off further. As if he wanted you to fail, to cry in front of everyone and quit. Others had noticed it, too, but no one wanted to say anything out of fear of coming in his line of fire. But you never gave him the satisfaction.

Grabbing some food from the dining hall, you made your way to the training room.

"You're late." Leon's voice had an icy edge to it this morning.

There were 5 others who weren't there yet. But you were used to it by now.

"It was four thirty on the dot when I walked-"

"Don't. Talk back to me."

Taking a long stride, he was right up to your face in an instant. His voice had dropped in volume and in pitch. A silent threat for only your ears to hear. You could practically see him foaming at the mouth. You didn't back down, however, keeping your chin up and staring straight down his eyes. His intimidation tactics didn't work on you. You hated his guts too much to offer him respect unless it was forced out of you.

You noticed the colour of his irises was a soft blue, like the morning sky, hardened around the edges by the years who had been unkind, more to his mind than his body. It felt like they were the only thing holding back the demons inside his head. You wondered how much shit he had seen, all the way from Raccoon City till now.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed, huh?", you could hear your friends whispering. You didn't have the guts to say anything back to Leon. Not today. You didn't wanna lose a limb. He slowly retreated back to the centre of the room, on the training mat.

"Everybody, pair up. You'll be fighting each other today. You will be ranked on the basis of your scores. I hope everyone knows that your ranks will affect your position and assignments after joining."

"And since there's an odd number of you,", he looked straight into your eyes, "you'll be fighting me today."

Well, fuck.

You watched impatiently as one by one Leon called out the names of your peers, watching them beat the shit out of each other on the mat. Nobody was "friends" inside the training room, that was for sure. Blow after blow landing over flesh, you could hear a few bones crack even from a distance. One of them called for timeout as their nose broke, bleeding profusely, staining his white clothes with scarlet.

"No." Leon's voice echoed in the big hall, ceasing all the jeers and cheering from everybody egging the fighters on.

"No? What the fuck do you mean, "No"? He broke his nose, the fights over", called out his opponent.

"The fight isn't over until one of you is physically incapable of continuing. Carry on, otherwise you know where the door is."

Leon's demand was met with silence. The young man took a moment to catch his breath, looking at his partner with pity. He pulled him to his feet, maybe so he wouldn't feel as bad about what was about to come next. You couldn't bring yourself to watch, so you turned your eyes away. A sickening crack resounded in the silence, before the man landed in a heap on the mat, knocked out.

"Next." Leon's voice was curt and neutral, completely devoid of any sympathy or emotion. You didn't expect him to be wallowing at the sight in front of him, but a little humanity would have been appreciated.

"It's you", Leon called out.

Just then, the sirens blared again, signalling that training was over for the day. Was it already eight? But of course he wasn't gonna let you up that easily.

"You'll be staying back. The rest of you may leave."

Holy shit. Was he seriously gonna challenge you to hand to hand combat? You know you didn't stand a chance against the seasoned veteran he was - trained by Krauser himself, had more than 10 years of experience on the field. You felt the hair rise up on the back of your neck at the thought that it would just be you and him.

He could destroy me right now and no one would stop him.

You slowly walked towards the centre of the mat where he was standing, inhaling deeply. It's okay. You got this. He's fucking old. And big. I'm faster.

You tried not to dwell on the fact that he was almost twice your size, and that his biceps were almost the circumference of your whole head. He could crush you like a grape if he wanted to.

You swallowed, and Leon wasn't gonna let a sign of weakness go unnoticed. "You scared?", he asked in a mocking tone. "Let's not act like this is a fair fight, shall we?", you snapped back.

"Look around you. You think anything in this fucked up reality we're living in is fair?" His voice shook slightly as he spoke. It was the most emotion you'd seen out of him.

You paused for a second, biting back the quick retort that rose to your mouth.

"Why do you treat me differently? You think I'm not cut out for this line of work?" He was quiet, almost taken aback at your question. He didn't expect you to ask it upfront.

"Let me tell you something, Mr. Kennedy, unlike the others, I'm not here by choice. Hell, you couldn't pay me enough to complete this stupid training and fight those monsters out there. I'd do anything to be free and leave you to your job. But I can't. So here I am. And you're not making it any easier by being a prick."

You breathed out, hard; his silence only making you regret your decision to speak your mind. With each passing second you only grew more and more uncomfortable, when suddenly, he grabbed your hand. You instantly raised your other hand to fight him off, before realising that he wasn't attacking you.

He was tracing the lines on your fingers with his own.

"Look at you. Skin so fucking soft, like you haven't worked a day in your life."

What the hell is happening?

You didn't trust yourself to say anything so you kept quiet.

"I used to be like you, you know. Bright eyed, bushy tailed, take on the world with hope and determination, yada yada. It's all such bullshit."

"Well then what makes you still fight for your life? You must have something to live for, or you'd just walk away, wouldn't you?"

He chuckled a little. More like a sigh leaving his lips. He looked so good like this.

What?

Before you could process your thoughts, he suddenly twisted your arm, putting you in a chokehold.

"Well these days it's been getting to see you fight like a little lamb, so adamant against accepting your fate", he whispered against the shell of your ear. It was your fault for giving in to his manipulation. You should have known better.

But even now, instead of trying to fight him off, you stood completely still, frozen in place. His breath on your neck sent shivers down your spine, as every molecule in your body screamed DANGER, as if you were teetering on the verge of a cliff. Except the cold waters at the bottom enticed you this time, inviting you to jump in, even if it was to your death.

"You've been such a little brat lately, refusing to give up. You think winning here or impressing me is gonna win you points in the real world?" His voice was like explosives on your nerve endings, making you gasp out loud.

You pawed at his arm desperately as his grip on your neck tightened, making you struggle to draw air. He laughed at you.

This motherfucker has the audacity to laugh right now. It was all a game to him, isn't it? Well, two can play, Leon.

He flipped you onto the mat, pinning your arms above your head, with his knee between your legs. God, he looked good on top of you. His golden hair shielding you from the harsh white light above, forming a halo around his head. His eyes were playful, teasing, yet somehow pleading, begging you to make a move.

You almost wanted to forget how much he had tortured you over the last month, how you had been limping back from training sessions like an old hag.

You wanted to scream at him. Go fuck yourself, or something of the sort. But the words died in your throat. You hated the effect he had on you. He was leaning over you, pressing his whole body weight down, but his weakness was exposed. One good kick to his shins and he would lose balance, leaving you free to slither past and regain your footing.

A mistake a beginner might make, not someone like Leon. As you gazed into his eyes, you realised he was aware of it. He was giving you an out. You could oh-so easily tackle him down, and be done for the day. But his lips looked so fucking good right now.

"Goddamnit", you managed to choke out, before reaching your head up and trapping his lips with your own. His mouth melted against yours, finding a steady rhythm. It was a messy kiss, your teeth clacking with his as he nipped at your bottom lip, threatening to draw blood.

His free hand roamed over your torso, slipping under your shirt and grasping at your hips, digging his fingers into the supple skin. It was driving you crazy, as could be proven by the heat pooling between your legs.

You struggled against his grip on your wrists, silently pleading him to let go so you could touch him, too. He broke free from your kiss and looked down at you, panting. "Such a needy girl, hmm? You're a little slut for me, aren't you?" He smirked.

You couldn't remember the last time you'd been in such a haze, driven only by your primal need to satisfy the ache between your legs. Leon's teasing was not gonna be tolerated tonight. So you did what you should have done from the start.

Aiming for his leg, you quickly pushed your knee up. As your leg met it's target, Leon let out a grunt. You hadn't hit him hard enough to hurt, but just enough to surprise him. Taking the opportunity, you flipped him over, sitting upright and straddling his waist. From this position you could feel his semi under your clothed cunt, straining against his trousers, begging to be released. Leon groaned at the unexpected contact, closing his eyes. He looked ethereal from this point of view.

Without missing a beat, you slowly began rocking your hips against his, creating much needed friction for both of you. You let out a soft moan as you paced yourself, throwing your head back in pleasure. Now that you had the reins, Leon had nothing to do apart from looking up at you completely hypnotised. He had never experienced a woman trying to take control voluntarily from him, most of them simply wanted to be fucked dumb, or be taken care of.

But the way you were using his body for your own pleasure flipped a switch, triggering something animalistic inside him, making him instantly rock hard. He let out a low growl. You looked so fucking pretty like this, your chest rising and falling rapidly, beads of sweat trickling down your temples. The soft moans that left your mouth were like music to his ears. You looked down at him, seeing him almost cross eyed as he gazed at you, his pupils completely blown out with lust.

You smirked at the sight, and leaned down to whisper against his ears, "Enjoying the view?" Your hips never faltered, steadily increasing in speed and fervour, trying to rub your sweet spot against him. Leon's brain had completely short circuited. He was only focused on you, meeting your movements with his own thrusts, trying to chase his own high.

"You act so fucking self righteous all the time, like you're some kind of saint. Look at you, Leon, tryna' fuck a girl half your age. Anybody could walk in right now and catch us, but that probably just gets you going even more, right?" You spoke against his ears, your dirty words setting Leon off. But you weren't gonna let him have it.

Suddenly, you became completely still and stood up, walking away from his body. Leon yelled out, "What the fuck? Where're you going?"

"Well training's over so I'm going to dinner. What else?", you spoke so nonchalantly, throwing him for a loop. You had to admit, it had taken every ounce of self control to walk away from that temptation of a man. But you weren't gonna let him win again. Not this time.

guys I've written part 2 but I'm still editing it so I'll upload it tomorrow if this post gets like 10 likes lmao. You guys should also get teased like Leon, hehe. Am I too evil?

Its the first work I'm uploading so please give any feedback or things you would have liked seeing in this story in the comments. you can be harsh, i really don't mind, as I use this platform to improve my irl writing. I wanna figure out all the cutesy banners everyone else does but im still getting familar with tumblr rn :)

[hahaifolded]

The Siren, the Cook, and the Sister (1)

Sanji x PirateHunter!FemReader (Masterlist) Chapter 1: Hello Again (Previous) (Next) Summary: After collecting a bounty, you find yourself in the presence of the Strawhat pirates. And the Strawhats find themselves with a possible foe. Warnings: In-world violence

Damn… I can’t ever catch a break, you thought as you trudged through the heavy rain. Your long black cloak weighed you down as it absorbed water. On the positive side, your full face mask kept your face dry as water slipped off it.

Unaware of the looming storm, you had gone out to the bay to see if any big crews decided to dock for the night. But just your luck, before you could see any jolly rogers, dark clouds blocked your view. Now, drenched and with no information, you made your way back to to your lodgings. 

As you neared the tavern, you heard the faint sound of glass shattering. Weary to the noise, you lifted your mask slightly and turned down the volume in the surrounding area. Thank you devil fruit, you thought as the storm became quieter. You heard a deep voice announce his identity. His name sounded familiar as you recalled the recent increase in his bounty.

Your excitement for this big catch soured as you heard the pirate threaten the island. You focused to see inside the tavern and saw Guerra lift the tavern owner above the bar. Fight someone on your level, you thought as you now commanded complete silence from the storm. You pulled out your blade and almost in sync with your anger, the storm blew the tavern doors open.

You dived through the entrance and aimed towards Guerra’s arm. With one slice, you chop the brute’s arm off, freeing the bar owner from his grasp. Before anyone could react, thunder rumbled, bringing noise back to the tavern. Despite being aware of one another, you nor the Strawhats were sure what to do with the other.

As you helped the bar owner up, Sanji inched closer. Although you freed the woman from one brute’s grasp, the cook wasn’t sure if you weren't another. However, a long arm stopped Sanji from moving any further. He glanced at Luffy and saw his captain’s classic grin. I hate when he smiles like that, thought the cook. Sanji knew that when his captain was intrigued by something, there was no way to change his mind - look at Brook. 

Despite the small crowd, you decided to check on the bar owner first. She assured you she was fine, but as she stepped away, her knees buckled. Catching her, you shook your head disapprovingly as the woman grinned sheepishly.  Tension left the room as the Strawhats realized you meant no harm to the bar owner.

But that peace was short-lived as Guerra cried for attention. “HOW DARE YOU?” roared the pirate, “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?”

A dude with an ego problem that is gonna make me a lot of money, you answered in your head. You nudged the tavern owner away and reached inside you cloak. Guerra and the Strawhats looked on, curious to what you were going to pull out.

There it is, you thought at you pulled out your bounty booklet. You quickly flipped through the pages, stopping once you reached your desired page. You showed a bounty poster to the crowd which read: Wanted: Dead or Alive. Guerra the War Summoner, reward 320 million berries. Recognizing his poster, Guerra smirked. 

“Good, you do know so… THIS WON’T BE A SURPRISE!” yelled the pirate as he lunged towards you. You shaved to the side, completely avoiding his tantrum. Wow, he really doesn’t know when to stop, you thought as Guerra turned. He charged once more, but instead of moving, you stood still, surprising everyone.

“Move, don’t just stand there!” warned Usopp. It was no use as Guerra completely overshadowed you. But before anyone could come to your aid, the pirate suddenly stilled as a blade shot out of his back.

The poster did say dead or alive so they can’t be mad, right, you thought as you pushed the pirate off your blade. As he fell to the floor, you retracted your blade back into your wrist. You looked at the crowd before you, waiting for some retaliation. None of the Strawhats moved, frozen due to shock.

Feeling that the coast was clear, you hauled the pirate over your shoulder despite your size. You began to walk away when a question rung through the air.

“ARE YOU A ROBOT?” exclaimed Luffy. Stars twinkled in his eyes. At the mention of “robot”, Chopper’s and Usopp’s eyes also twinkled. The rest of the crew looked on with disappointment at the trio. 

You shook your head. That’s a first, you bemused. 

“So what are you? Are you a cyborg like Franky?” continued Luffy, excitement clear in his voice. 

Let me turn this on, just cause I don’t think he’s going to stop if I don’t answer him." You dropped the pirate and tapped your mask on its side. Its eyes flashed red. Frightened, Usopp and Chopper jumped behind Zoro.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I told him glowing red eyes was a bad idea. Just had to turn this thing on,” you assured. However, your voice further frightened the two as it was deep and robotic with no human touch. Noticing their fear, you raised your hands to further prove your passiveness. “I’m just a pirate hunter,” you informed. Jimbei’s eyes widened with your words.

“A pirate hunter, eh?” asked Zoro. The swordsman looked you up and down. 

What’s one-eye looking at, you thought, taking note of the group before you. A reindeer, a fishman, a skeleton, a boy with a strawhat… wait… a boy with a strawhat. Recognizing Luffy, you stared at the rest of the crew. 

“No. Way,” you muttered aloud. You pulled out your booklet once more, flipping to the last page. You shook it to unfold 9 bounty posters. Recognizing their own posters, most of the Strawhats got into a defensive position, except Luffy who looked on with curiosity. You scanned the crew until your gaze reached the archeologist. 

“Are you… Nico Robin, formerly known as Miss All Sunday?” you asked, gaze fixed on her. Sanji, Franky, and Luffy kept their eyes on you while the rest of the crew turned towards Robin. 

“I am,” answered Robin. Despite standing tall, her eyes deceived her as they radiated her uneasiness. What business did you, a pirate hunter in the New World, have with her and her past?

“But she’s one of us now. So if you want her…” started Nami, ready to defend her friend. Hearing her speak, you shifted your gaze towards her. Terrified by your attention, she jumped behind Usopp and stuttered out, “you have to go through them first!” Usopp gasped. 

You looked at Robin with a small smile under your mask. “I’m glad to hear that," you shared. You picked up the fallen pirate and walked out of the tavern, embracing the storm once more, realizing, she’s no longer alone.

— — — 

“What exactly happened?” asked Brook. All of the Strawhats stood in confusion after your exit. Who were you exactly? What relationship did you have with Robin or even with Baroque Works?

“Are you okay, Robin?” chirped Chopper, worried for his companion.

“I will be. Don’t worry,” Robin assured. She forced a small smile despite panic swelling in her chest.

“Oi! Tavern lady, can we get more meat over here?” yelled Luffy, back in his seat, undeterred by the recent events.

“Luffy!” scolded Sanji.

“Sorry! Can we get more meat over here… please?”

The tavern owner chuckled, “since you asked so nicely, I’ll see what I can fix for you all.” 

As she walked away, Sanji called out and asked the tavern owner if she knew who you were. Despite your heroism from earlier, the cook couldn’t help but be worried over your interest on his crew mate. Knowing that many people were after Robin, he refused to stay idle when possible danger was near. The tavern owner quickly responded, leaving everyone to mull over your name in silence, the Siren.

“And who’s that? I’ve never heard of them but again I don’t have ears to hear!” Everyone looked at Robin for answers but she too was at a lost. 

“I think I may provide some insight. I had my suspicions earlier, but now I have the confirmation I needed,” announced Jimbei, bringing all the attention to himself. “During my time with Big Mama, she warned all of her children and allies to stay away from certain figures in the New World to ensure we don’t sully her name if we were to get caught. And one of these figures was this big shot pirate hunter called the Siren. Big Mama wasn’t weary of many things but even she stayed clear of the pirate hunter.” 

Jimbei’s words haunted everyone. Who were you exactly that even Big Mama was concerned of you? Whoever you were, the Strawhats knew that this wouldn’t be the last time they saw you. 

Word Count: 1480

Previous - Masterlist - Next

Author's note: Personally, I don't like this chapter so I don't blame y'all if you also don't like it. I do think the later chapters are better as I think I found my rhythm later on. I tried coming back to fix this chapter but I got attached unfortunately. I literally have the opposite of commitment issues I think...lol

Also I won't lie... now that I have a few chapter already written, I think my pacing is slow in the beginning so like bear with me!

Also to help with the imagery, the mask I describe the reader having is similar to the one used by the Game Master in Squid Games!

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Comeback Celebration: Current Top Ten Sunmi Songs

I noticed, while I was working on this, that I talk about Sunmi the way orbits talk about Loona--I think you'll see what I mean as we go down the list! I think it's the admiration I have for how creative & well-crafted her releases are. "Heroine" was the song that got me into Sunmi, though her most recent comeback at the time was "Lalalay" (I remember because the ponytail dance was EVERYWHERE). My admiration was secured after her 1/6 album--even though her discography is still small, I think that album really fleshed it out, to the point where I finally felt like I could understand her as an artist. Happy Sunmi comeback to us all!

1. pporappippam

This is my "Butterfly". I remember when this song came out, I remember when it changed the world, it's all things divine, it's my conduit to a romanticized version of my teenage years, it's a supercut of all the most wonderful colors you've ever seen in the sky at sunset. In all seriousness, though--I really don't get how people find this song boring. It manages to be a soft, ethereal track and an addictive pop hit, a perfect balance of peaceful atmospherics and unrelenting pace. This one is really special to me!

2. 1/6

This is my "Loonatic". I got dream pop with this song--okay, "1/6" might not exactly be dream pop, but it's soft and dreamy in a way that made me finally see the appeal of that type of song, like why someone would want to get lost in that hazy sonic world.

3. Siren

"Siren" is a piano crashing into you from a third-story window. Like, I don't know how it's ever possible to be emotionally ready for this song. Its brute-force approach is just so goddamn memorable, especially because Sunmi doesn't overuse it in the rest of her discography--she usually goes for subtlety, but her vocals carry a powerful chorus like this one just so well.

4. Narcissism

This one's also in the brute-force category, especially because the production takes this really messy, maximalist approach--and fuck it, it works. I love this song a whole lot: the soft intro; the weird schoolbell-through-intercom-static sounds; the way the chorus hits; the way Sunmi navigates the song's rapid rises and falls. If you miss old-school EDM (read: if you obsess over Dreamcatcher's "Can't get you out of my mind" like I do), I think you'll really enjoy this one.

5. Call

Yeah, no surprise here, I always love club music. But this club classic is particularly intricate, built on a really interesting contrast: Sunmi's gritty vocals over an exceptionally pristine house beat.

6. Black Pearl

This song is just cool. Like, that saxophone solo is just really, really cool. Like, I want to be a guy who has this song at the top of his most-listened list. Maybe one day!

7. Heroine

Yeah, the beat drop is kind of wimpy, so that part didn't age all that great. But Sunmi's PERFORMANCE here?? That prechorus is one for the ages. Five years ago, the emotion of this song absolutely captivated me, and it still resonates with me today.

8. Lalalay

In contrast, this one aged wonderfully! Now that I'm not being constantly overloaded with beat drops in every other song (thank you, 2019 Twice & 2021 Olivia Rodrigo!), I can really appreciate how interesting "Lalalay" is! I used to think this one was boring and lacking inspiration, but now that I'm revisiting it, I think the dynamics of the chorus are pretty compelling (yes, I think the beat drop is compelling, sue me)--like, do you hear how the weird note thingie is fading in and out? how the volume shifts? I love it so much!! My favorite part is the bridge, though--the flight attendant bit remains iconic, and the segue into the final chorus is breathtaking.

9. Heart Burn

This will forever remind me of a song from my childhood--the melody of the chorus is vaguely reminiscent of Taylor Dayne's "Tell It to My Heart", which my mom used to play in the car--so this song hits unfairly hard for me. Like, it's already a reserved, mysterious summer hit, but to me it sounds like a half-formed image of your old living room, or the voice of an elementary-school friend whose name you can't quite recall speaking from the void. Cloudy, surreal, a bit unsettling, but altogether sweet. Also, the color scheme of this music video is super striking, so "Heart Burn", despite its simplicity, gets a LOT of bias points from me.

10. What the Flower

This is like the evil twin of Red Velvet's "Good, Bad, Ugly". They both go for the lounge-singer vibe, but Red Velvet have really pure, sweet-sounding vocals, while Sunmi's voice, and her work as a whole, have always been very savory (like, anti-saccharine?). Both songs are great, and I especially love how both allow for some wonderful piano appreciation (shoutout to the guitar in "What the Flower", too!). The singalong bit at the end of "What the Flower" is really striking, so this one has stuck around in my head over the years, even before I could really appreciate its quieter sections.

Honorable Mentions: 24 Hours (obligatory), Who am I, Curve (also obligatory), Tail (Sunmi's charisma wins this one), Call my name

[wordborne]

All for Us

Jerome Valeska finds someone new to torment.

That someone is, unfortunately, you.

TAGS: Jerome Valeska/Reader, alternate universe, unhealthy relationships, bad decisions, canon-typical violence, major character death, eventual smut, Jerome can only be classified as nuisance to lover. CHAPTER: 1/?

Inspired by Are You Going to Write Your Report About Me? by Magnetic_Stars .

It was the third night the city was at war.

Breaking and entering. Murders. Fires everywhere. The non-stop sound of sirens screaming outside was almost dulled out by the loud music playing from your TV. Only one channel had kept its regular scheduled programming, and you tuned in every single time the city went to hell again. The volume was cranked up so loudly you were sure the poor speakers were going to burst one day, but you wanted to keep up the charade. Pretend you were masking something instead of doing the dishes while occasionally throwing dollar store ceramic plates out the window or into a wall to pretend someone was looting your apartment.

Was it a sound strategy? No. But, so far, you hadn't met the fates of some of your neighbors who’d stumbled out of their homes the morning after, faces with patches of black and blue and missing a few teeth after someone decided they were an easy hit. 

They hadn’t bothered to cut off the lights the last couple of times, making everything eerier. Light was comforting. Kind. But not this one. This one was tainted with bloodlust and pain, offering no relief if you were caught in the crossfire. Still, the city had to go on. Schools were open. You had to go to work every day. The little corner shops had their ‘open’ neon signs on because this couldn’t go on forever.  And, to the city’s defense, they did try to bring some sense of peace. Have more cops around. Big, yellow buses designated to take people home after work or school -as if they’d forgotten what happened the last time one of those maniacs took a hold of it. You’d rather risk it and walk -or rather, run- home. Lock yourself up, chair under the doorknob, music all cranked up, and pretend Gotham wouldn’t be like this forever. You grabbed a pink ceramic plate with a cartoonish princess on it and threw it out the window, hoping it wouldn’t bonk anyone in the head on its way down before continuing the tedious job of doing the dishes that’d been piling up for the last couple of days. The music was catchy, but after hearing the same thing over and over again, it was beginning to get a bit… dull. Still, you tried to make the best of it. Humming the choruses of the ones you kinda-sorta knew, bopping your head to the songs that were growing on you, and all would’ve been fine if you hadn't felt something metallic at the back of your skull followed by the sound of a cocking gun. “Hey, gorgeous.”

Shit. 

You brought your soupy hands up and slowly turned around, feeling your stomach drop when you realized who was at the other end of the barrel.

Jerome fucking Valeska. Just your luck.

TV didn’t do the man justice. He was positively terrifying. All scars and sewed-up tissue dotted his face, stretched strangely here and there, distorting the freckles peppering his skin. He was pale. Paler than you ever thought he could be. His eyes were a strange shade of green that didn’t match the uncontrolled fire behind them that burned just as bright as his hair. 

“It’s rude to stare, y’know?”

“And it’s rude to just… invite yourself into my home, isn’t it?”

His brows furrowed, lips turning into a snarl before he started laughing, waving the gun around as if it was a toy and not a loaded murder weapon.

“So, here’s the rundown.” He started, hopping on the counter and leaving bloody hand prints on the faux marble. “In about…” He glanced at an invisible clock on his wrist. “Three minutes, Jimbo is gonna come knocking on your door asking if you’ve seen me. And you are gonna say you don’t know what he’s talking about ‘cause you just had a wonderful dinner with your handsome boyfriend who just got out of work and desperately needs to get the blood out of his hair.”

You simply stared.

“Okay, don’t say the last part.” He quickly added, and then hopped off the counter. “Point is, I’m not here. Got it?”

He got a nod in return after a very, very long sigh.

“Good.” He replied, a smile etching on his face that seemed bigger and far more malicious with his mouth stretched like that. “I need to use your shower. Hate it when my hair gets sticky. Which knob is for the hot water?”

“Left. Bathroom’s over there.”

“Thanks, doll.” He started to walk away before he suddenly turned to face you again. “By the way, no funny business. I have a gun, I have your phone, and you’d hate if mommy got a call from me, wouldn’t you?” He waved the little device with his free hand before stuffing it back in his pocket and shutting the door behind him.

You stared at the door, chest rapidly rising and falling, waiting for him to come out, gun pointed straight at your forehead and laughing at your gullibility before taking the shot. But he didn’t. The only thing that came out from the bathroom door was steam and the smell of what was probably half your bottle of shampoo going down the drain. 

Three pointed knocks at the front door snapped you out of it, making you quickly turn your head in its direction.

“GCPD!”

It was showtime. You tried to pick yourself together. Get your heartbeat to slow down the tiniest bit as you wiped your hands on the back of your shirt, briskly lowering the volume on the TV and dragging your trusty chair back before opening the door.

“I’m Detective Gordon and this is Detective Bullock,” A man said, flashing his badge and motioning to the one beside him. “Jerome Valeska was seen in this area, and we noticed your window was open. Have you seen him?”

“No. No, I haven’t.”

“Are you alone?” 

“Yes.”

His eyes traveled behind you, looking from the open window where the wind was softly moving the curtain to the ceramic mess on the ground. Bullock did the same.

“What’s up with the mess?”

“I break dishes so people think I’m being robbed.”

“Does it work?”

“It has so far.”

Bullock hummed, and gave you a little impressed nod. And, then, Valeska had to ruin everything by loudly whistling some obnoxious fucking tune now that the damn volume was down.

“Thought you were alone.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

You sighed, trying to let out the panic into that single exhale, eyes darting away from the pair before looking at Gordon directly in the eye. “I’m sorry. I’m- I’m not. My boyfriend just came back from work and is taking a shower.” You said and, after a small pause, motioned around you and added. “This whole thing has put me on edge. You know how it is.”

It was hard to tell whether he bought it or not. His face wasn’t giving much away, the lines on his forehead and brows were still knitted together with no sign of softening any time soon. If he asked to come inside, you were done. There was blood on the counter. Probably some on the windowsill if they decided to check it out. 

After a couple of seconds, Gordon nodded. “Give us a call if you see anything.”

“Will do.” You offered them a small smile before closing the door and leaning against it, letting out the breath you didn’t know you were holding. 

Right on cue, Valeska came out of the bathroom, whistling still as a puff of steam burst out behind him. He was using your towel to dry his hair. Your white towel that was now stained pink and red.  

 “You better leave by the time I wake up.” You hissed, walking past him in a huff, aiming to hit his shoulder but thinking the best of it last minute before heading towards your room and slamming the door behind you. 

The lock was in place. A chair under the doorknob. And, just for good measure, you dragged your nightstand in front of it as well.

“That won’t stop me if I wanna get in there.”

“Fuck you!”

“Come out and do it yourself.”

His laugh echoed through the apartment, making your blood boil. You should be afraid. Fucking terrified, actually. But all you could feel was anger. Keeping the window open was stupid. Letting Valeska do whatever he wanted was worse. But lying to the cops when you could’ve subtly nodded at the bathroom door and whisper he was there? That should’ve been your one-way ticket straight to Arkham because covering up for someone like Jerome was insane. 

You couldn’t sleep. Not when you heard him pacing outside. Flipping TV channels. Moving this and that on the kitchen. Acting as if it was his damn place. By the time you cracked your door open the morning after, he was gone, leaving a path of mayhem in his wake.

Dirty dishes. Empty food containers. Wet clothes on the bathroom floor. A cartoon channel playing old favorites on the TV. And there, on the counter, your phone with an unsent message that said see you soon.

[annepsilvaauthor]

Fighter Weapons — Chapter 3

Pairing(s): Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x OC (Claire Mitchell) / Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

Summary: An untold story. A series that shows what happened during the Top Gun of our beloved pilots of Top Gun: Maverick.

Warnings: Subtle sexual innuendos, brief language, alcohol consumption, angst, smut, fluffy.

Word Count: 3.706

The darlings who don't want to miss any updates ↪️ @missathlete31 @togetherisawonderfulplacetobe

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

sᴀɴ ᴅɪᴇɢᴏ ʙᴇᴀᴄʜ, ᴄᴀ

Rooster drove his blue jeep through the coastal streets listening to music at full volume. Some people watched him pass on the track and looked at him in judgment. He didn't care. Kenny Loggings was more important.

The sun was already hiding behind the horizon, leaving behind a palette of colors in the sky and in the sea. And that was reflected in Bradley's sunglasses. Why Bradley and not Rooster or Lieutenant Bradshaw? Because here he was just a kid from Hawaii, enjoying a race in his car and great music.

Bradley wasn't wearing his beige uniform like he knew others were wearing out there. He had a thought that, at work, he needed to obey norms and protocols and assume a joint posture, as a team. Outside, he was just another guy who loved wearing jeans, a white and a flowered shirt.

He parked a few feet from The Hard Deck, a bar next to the hangar that paid homage to the Navy in its decor and demeanor. He had heard the other pilots talking in the dorm and decided to check for himself if that was really all they were talking about.

Bradley jumped out of the jeep and locked it, despite not having convincing security, as there were no windows in the vehicle. But he himself had installed his own security system. If someone climbed out the windows and tried to steal the jeep, sirens would be activated and a sentence: "Property of Bradley Bradshaw, please exit the vehicle before you are hit by rubber bullets".

He entered through the white wooden double doors and observed the crowded bar with naval pilots and naval officers. It was a very themed bar, he thought. There were miniature planes on the ceiling and walls, Navy symbols everywhere, including the counter in the center and the billiard table to the far right. It had some windows that allowed a beautiful view of the arrival of the night outside. The loud and lively music already caused a tremor in Bradley's body, indicating that there he could have a lot of fun.

He walked to the counter, where a beautiful and charming woman attended to everyone. She seemed to own the place. Bradley smiled at her and ordered a beer. She walked away to prepare the order, and he saw the wooden sign at the back, on which she had written: Disrespect the Navy or a Lady or put your cell phone on my counter and order a round. He sighed. It was a good thing he read it in time, as he was already preparing to put his cell phone there.

Bradley received the drink and walked towards his new classmates on the right side of the bar. They were all in uniform and with the same air of superiority and defiance as in the orientation room. He leaned against a column and watched them play pool.

“If you fly the way you do, this country is in danger.” A tall blond guy whose name was Hangman insulted another pilot.

“And yet, you're here.” He snapped.

Bradley watched this Hangman talk and behave in front of the others. He had the bigger-than-body ego typical of a Vigilantes. Bradley has heard of Hangman, the only one of them there who performed an armed kill. Although it was from a Russian fossil, it was still quite a feat for those peaceful days. Bradley knew that Hangman's style was solo flying and he should be careful with him, as he knew full well that he wasn't there to make friends. Hangman would kill everyone in dogfighting.

But not Bradley. No one would kill a pilot who didn't take any chances, as everyone went ahead of him with false bravery and was killed shortly thereafter. Rooster's style was to bide his time to attack. Something that for sure, Hangman wasn't used to.

“A douchebag, I know.” He heard a woman's voice at his side and realized she was talking about Hangman.

“One of the big ones.” He took a sip of his beer and looked at her. “Phoenix, right? From Lemoore?

“Correct. And you are Rooster from Oceana.” She said and also took a sip of her beer. “Are the Golden Warriors less annoying than the Vigilantes?”

He laughed softly.

“Much less, yes. We are privileged to be far away from them. Which is not the case with the Black Aces.”

“No. Sharing an aircraft carrier with them is a karma I must be paying for something really bad in the past.” She sighed regretfully, but with amusement in her eyes. “At least we're not on the same scale. Want to play?”

She pointed to the pool table.

"Seems pretty crowded and monopolized to me."

They watched Hangman roar and chest-to-chest with Coyote as he won a match. Phoenix shook her head. Rooster just stared.

“Let's go the other way.”

They walked away from there and went towards the darts. Phoenix took one from her hand and immediately remembered that night at the bar, Hangman's touch, the desire, the teasing. She closed her eyes for a moment and pushed the thoughts away. It wasn't going to happen anymore.

She aimed at the target unhappily using Hangman's advice and hit the red dot. Phoenix cheered and handed Rooster more darts. He aimed at the board too, but missed badly.

“I wasn't prepared.” He commented with a playful smile.

“I'm going to pretend I believe that. Another try, Hawaiian.”

Rooster aimed another dart and this time it hit just outside the frame. Phoenix shot him a disbelieving look.

"How did you manage to be just a pilot? With that scope you should have a gunner with you in the sky.”

“With the technology of the F-18 it is easier.” he scoffed as he took a sip. “And you, where did you learn that? Looks like a pro.”

She smiled smugly and ran her eyes slightly over to the pool table, where Hangman was scratching the tip of his cue and also looking in her direction. She lightly shook her head in disapproval and shifted her gaze to Rooster.

“I learn fast.”

Phoenix picked up two more darts and threw them, hitting both of them. Rooster whistled at her talent and she spun in front of him in victory.

"Do you know who's the best yet?" he asked as she leaned against a bench. Rooster pointed back. “He made a kill.”

“I can't believe it was that idiot.” She muttered incredulously.

“That idiot could take us down. We need to be careful.”

“He just poses. It's nothing but a peacock.” She drank her beer. “Let's see who's going to take down who."

“I learned not to underestimate anyone. I'm not saying I'm afraid of him or anyone here, but... I might be surprised.”

Rooster received a dismayed look from Phoenix and chuckled to himself. Of course she didn't understand, she was just like the others. At the very least, she was humble enough to strike up a conversation with him, something none of the other pilots had done since he'd arrived.

"Another beer?" she asked and he nodded.

Bradley watched Phoenix walk away toward the counter. She was a beautiful woman, with attitude and extremely skilled, otherwise she wouldn't be there. But she could sin for her boldness.

He noticed a piano nearby and smiled. Finally something he knew how to do right. And he was very good. Bradley walked over to an outlet and pulled it out, turning off the music on the jukebox. He heard groans from everyone in the bar and sat down at the piano, soon playing with a few notes.

At the counter, Phoenix was ordering two more beers when Storm approached her with a smirk.

"Another target?"

“No. I'm not that horny, Storm.” She said and her friend rolled her eyes, something that made her laugh. “He was alone.That's all.”

“And you are the heroine of his dreams.” She blinked frantically as if enthralled and Phoenix placed an open hand over her face.

“Stop. I won't do that here. I'm a professional.”

“But…you still have eyes.” Storm continued with the tease and looked at Rooster sitting on the piano. “He is hot!”

At that time, the two looked at the pilot strumming on the piano. His dark blond hair gleamed in the artificial lighting of the bar, his strong arms curved in frantic movements over the keys, his tanned skin made them want to bathe in the sun and his mustache had a special charm. Phoenix was smiling as she drank her beer.

“He's not one to throw away."

"I know that look!" Storm exclaimed in amusement. "Will there be a love triangle in Top Gun?"

"What?"

“Hangman hasn't taken his eyes off you since he arrived.

“Finally the day came when you lost your mind for good." She shook her head and peeled herself off the counter. "I'm going back to my new FRIEND."

“Friend, got it."

Phoenix turned away from her friend and walked over to Rooster, who was already starting to play something really good. She set his beer down on the piano and leaned there, watching him play.

Bradley started playing Billy Boy by Jerry Lee Lewis and Phoenix laughed at the kind of music he liked, but she enjoyed it anyway. It was lively. And he was good at not only playing, but also singing.

"Can you really rock and roll Billy Boy Billy Boy

Can you really rock and roll charming Billy

Yes I can really rock and roll I can even do the stroll

But I'm a young cat and I can't leave my mother

Well can you play your guitar Billy Boy Billy Boy

Can you play your guitar charming Billy

Yes I can play my guitar on a stage or in a car

But I'm a young cat and I can't leave my mother"

Bradley noted that some people approached where he was and shook their heads, feet and some even danced. He was smiling with the joy he felt playing his father's favorite singer, Nicholas Bradshaw. He could still hear him sing and dance around the room when he came back from some mission. He would pull his mother by the hand and dance with her lovingly.

"Goose! Take me home or lose me forever!"

"Show me the way, babe!"

His sunglasses slid down his nose, but he couldn't stop, nor could he if he wanted to. That was his fun, his way of remembering his father and escaping him. Bradley noticed that the entire bar was moving to the music, and he played one more song, then another, and another. He was the star of the night. A true Navy Ray Charles.

When he was already sweating and his fingers were getting tired, he decided to stop his show, but with a "boo" from the audience who wanted him to play more. He bowed to everyone and walked away from the piano, darting forward again.

"If you get tired of a career in the Navy, you know where to invest!" Phoenix approached him with a smile on her face, flushed from dancing.

“Yeah…I know some notes."

"Some? You are a king!" She praised excitedly and Bradley just laughed. “You're going to have to come here every day now to please your audience.

"At least the bar owner wouldn't spend a dime on live music."

“Penny loved it! I myself am inviting you to come tomorrow.

Bradley continued talking to Phoenix for a long time. He admitted that she was a very attractive woman and that, under the influence of a few bottles of beer, her voice became more and more pleasant to hear. She had an interesting way of talking, she was excited and she had a smile with her eyes. Again, a very attractive woman.

He was drinking his beer calmly when he noticed a blond mane on the counter. She turned her face away, her sweet gaze sweeping the bar as she waited for Penny to close her tab. Bradley's heart raced like the engine of his fighter jet. He sat up straight in the seat, not listening to another word Phoenix was saying. Was her. Wow, she was...wow.

Bradley watched as she paid the check and was already on her way out of the bar. He hurried off to Phoenix, apologizing for having to leave so suddenly, but thanking her for her good company.

In seconds, Bradley was out of the bar feeling the cold breeze of dawn and the sea hit his face and chest sweaty from the show. He walked a little while searching the place and imagining where she would have gone. He walked a little farther and his heart pounded again when he saw her walking slowly down the beach, wetting her bare feet in the wet sand as she held her shoes in one hand.

Bradley practically ran there, feeling his whole body shiver and he knew it wasn't from the cold. He stood a few meters behind her back, watching her long black dress buffeted by the wind, billowing to the left side of her slender body. Had she worked out? Her thighs were thicker.

He quickened his pace and got close enough to her to bring both index fingers to her ribs. She gave a start and turned, her eyes furious, already readying her shoes for the attack.

"Calm down, it's me!" he joked with a huge smile on his face as he raised his hands in surrender.

“Bradley! You scared the shit out of me!" she said breathlessly and kicked off her shoes. The expression began to soften. “Why do you love to do this? Can't arrive like a normal person?"

“You love it, Claire!"

“Yes, when we were six. After that, you started to be boring." She commented seriously, but then smiled. A sweet smile he hadn't seen in years.

"It's good to see you too." He kept the excited smile on his face. "I see you didn't need me to cut your hair."

He pointed to her straight, blond hair, the length of which didn't touch the curve of her neck. He remembered his adolescence when Claire would visit him in Annapolis. Each time, her hair was longer and shinier and he teased her that one day he would take a pair of scissors and cut her hair in her sleep. Claire replied that she would cut his balls off if he did that and spent almost the entire night awake, believing that Bradley really could do that. He never would. He loved her hair.

“I see now that you've become a copy of your father." She countered humorously.

She pointed at his mustache, clothes and sunglasses and he laughed. Indeed he had taken on his father's style, so he could have a bit of him with him.

Bradley was watching her closely. She was still much smaller than he was, almost eight inches apart. Her body had become more toned since the last time he'd seen her, as had her breasts that jutted out in the understated V-neckline. The full, small lips contained remnants of pink lipstick, which had probably come off due to the alcohol. But one thing hadn't changed and maybe never would, the light brown eyes shone like the full moon above them. A gentle and sassy glow at the same time.

"Wow... how many years has it been?" He rambled more than asked.

"Five years."

"Yes... it was on my promotion to lieutenant. You were with your..."

"Dad." she added with a smile, as she knew otherwise it might cause an argument.

Claire Anne Mitchell, or simply Claire, was the only daughter of Pete Mitchell, better known as Maverick, the man who had destroyed Bradley's life at an early age, at the age of four. Maverick discovered Claire's existence after graduating from Top Gun, when she was already four years old. He was a man of many women and, in one of his adventures, he won an unexpected gift.

Claire's mother, Stella Maeve, couldn't find Maverick anywhere, as he lived for the Navy. However, she managed to contact Charlotte Blackwood, his girlfriend at the time. Stella had no interest in Maverick helping her at all, she just wanted Claire to meet her father. But when Pete met his blue eyes with her light brown ones it was magical. He didn't want anything else in life but to be close to his daughter.

Now, Claire was in front of Bradley sharing a smile with him and the years seemed not to have passed. The connection was there, between two friends who practically grew up together and who, due to a mishap of fate, had taken different paths.

"Are you still at NASA?" he asked, not wanting to take the matter to Maverick.

"Yes I am." She started walking again and he followed her. “I was working on a project in Washington, but I was reassigned to the Ames Research Center in Santa Clara County, here in California."

“Who knew you'd become an aerospace engineer. Although you were always kind of a nerd with all those boring books and formulas."

“Judge me all you want, but you loved it when I built those rocket tracks out of French fries."

“That's true, but… I hated when it went wrong and the potatoes exploded on us." he recalled and the two laughed. "I hope the potatoes are more resistant now."

"Yes, they are."

Claire had followed in her father's career, but in a different way. She loved watching the fighters fly and maneuver as a little girl, but she never wanted to be inside. She was amazed at how that was possible. How did that piece of tin get out of the ground? Why didn't it fall? Or how did that machine work?

It didn't take long for her to understand what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She graduated in Aerospace Engineering with several medals for performance, completed her master's, doctorate and had recently finished a PhD. Also, while still in college she got a job at NASA and has remained there ever since, where she did a lot of important research and was occasionally featured in a local newspaper. She was too good.

Leaving Washington, she thought she was going to participate in a CPA project on wind tunnels and the aerodynamics of propeller-driven aircraft. However, she found that the center has expanded its role to do research and technology in aeronautics, spaceflight and information technology. This provided leadership in astrobiology, small satellites, robotic lunar exploration, intelligent/adaptive systems and thermal protection. That was Claire's copy of heaven.

“Wait…Santa Clara County is seven hours away. Why are you here?" he asked turning to her.

"I'm in work. I was invited to a special project." She smiled shyly as she always did when she told of her conquests.

"I suppose you can't tell me. Again."

"No. Officially, I'm not here." She turned her gaze to him as well. Handsome, strong and with that ridiculous mustache that only looked charming on him. "And you?"

“I have my secret projects too, you know? I can't go out revealing like this to everyone." he joked and heard her laugh. That sound was always his favorite. “If I tell you, I'll have to kill you later."

"Would you have courage?" She asked incredulously in a joke.

"I don't know. You already murdered part of yourself when you cut your hair."

“Then you can tell me in parts." She winked.

“Smart, as usual." He put his hands in his front pockets. “I've been called to Top Gun."

"What?"

Bradley watched her park in the sand with an expression more scared than incredulous and he was taken aback.

"You don't seem very happy for me."

"No! I mean... I am. Very happy for you." She ruffled her flowing hair. "It's just that..."

He waited for her to complete the sentence, but she didn't. Claire fiddled with her hair frantically and looked away in all directions. Bradley knew her well enough to know that something was bothering her.

So, he approached her and touched her hands gently, feeling the softness of her skin. He got his uneasy gaze on hers and the world seemed to go silent. All he could hear was the heavy pounding of his heart in his ear. The glint was there, deep in her eyes, along with the worry. Bradley didn't know he missed her so much and seeing her there so close after years awakened the same feeling in him as before. He wanted to protect her from whatever was ailing her.

"Claire..." he stammered trying to touch her face, but received a hand preventing him.

"I need to go." she said resolutely and completely freed herself from his touch.

"Okay, I'll drive you home."

"No, I'll be on my way. It's not too far."

"What the... it's too late. I have my jeep a few meters from here..."

“Bradley!" she demanded firmly. "I'm going alone."

He studied her serious expression and was saddened that there was still that spark of hurt between them that flared up at some point whenever they met. He resolved to respect her decision.

"OK."

"Thanks." She started to walk away, but turned on her heel. "It was good seeing you!"

"Equally!"

He watched her walk up the beach and towards the wooden walkway, where she walked for a few meters until she was out of sight.

Now, Bradley felt like all of the early morning chill had been sucked into his chest. This was how he always looked when she left. From childhood, adolescence and adult life. They had the power to meet in the unlikeliest of places and to blow apart again. They were like opposing winds, never close, always wandering.

And he knew that part of it was his fault. Maybe he would never have the opportunity to fix everything, not when everything he felt for her was tangled up with what Maverick had wrought in his life. Perhaps this was their fate: forever close, never together.

[bradyfinch06]

The Key to a Calm Pet During Security Alarms: Training Tips and More

If you’ve been startled awake at the wee hours by the blaring of your security alarm only to find your furry friend in a panic, you're not alone. Noise aversion in pets is a common struggle for many homeowners eager to maintain a secure home without causing undue stress to their companions. Fortunately, positive training methods can help your pets remain calm even in the face of unexpected alerts. In this article, we explore the strategies to condition your pets to respond calmly to home security systems, ensuring their safety and your peace of mind.

Understanding Noise Aversion

Before we jump into the training methods, it's important to understand why our pets react to sudden loud noises like home alarms. In the case of dogs, for instance, their acute hearing allows them to pick up sounds that humans can't. Negative experiences, such as loud noises during formative periods, can lead to a long-term aversion to such sounds. For cats, similar evolutionarily sensitive hearing makes them equally susceptible. This noise aversion can result in symptoms like excessive barking, hiding, or even aggressive behavior.

Establishing a Calm Association with Sirens

To counteract these negative responses, it's crucial to create a positive and calming association with the sound of the home alarm. Using treats, toys, and positive reinforcement, you can teach your pets that the alarm sound is not something to fear.

Step 1: Introduction to the Alarm Sound

The "safe space" approach involves initially associating the alarm sound with a fun activity or treat in a designated area where your pet feels secure. Turn on the alarm at a low volume and consistently reward your pet in their safe space. Gradually increase the volume over several training sessions.

Play-back exposure entails playing back a recording of the alarm sound, again at a low volume, while engaging with your pet in their favorite activities. This helps to distract them from the sound and build a positive connection to it.

Step 2: Training with Higher Volumes

Once your pet is comfortable with the alarm sound at a lower volume, you can slowly increase the intensity. Remember to always incorporate positive experiences—treats, praise, toys—at higher noise levels.

Step 3: Consistent and Positive Behavior Reinforcement

Once your pet has become accustomed to the alarm sound, regularly reinforce their calm behavior when the alarm goes off. Be enthusiastic with your praise and always keep up with the treat rewards to maintain the positive association.

Advanced Methods for Ongoing Training

For some pets, addressing their noise aversion may require more than just associating the sound of the alarm with positive experiences. Utilizing desensitization tools, such as white noise machines, can help normalize background sounds and reduce the impact of sudden noises.

Additionally, pheromone diffusers can be effective in creating a sense of calm in your pet's environment. These tools emit particles that mimic calming pet pheromones, reducing their stress and anxiety levels.

Recap and Key Takeaways

Training your pets to react positively to home security alarms is a process that requires patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement. By gradually exposing your pets to the alarm sound and creating a safe and happy environment around it, you can significantly reduce their fear response, ensuring a calm household during unexpected security alerts.

Remember that each pet is unique, and their response to training may vary. It's important to be attentive to their reactions and adjust the training methods accordingly. With time and effort, you'll forge a bond of calm assurance with your pets, making home security an issue that doesn't need to be ruff.

[adrianharley]

My Top 10 Reads of (the first half of) 2023

I have lucked out in reading so far this year, so it is now my duty, nay, my privilege, to insist that everyone else read these books as soon as humanly possible. These are all books I read from January through June--I haven't read a single thing in July yet. 

10. The World We Make, by N. K. Jemisin. Everything Jemisin writes is gold, and even though this one didn't quite hit the highs of the first, it was a solid conclusion to the duology.

9. Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo. Early Hollywood, but make it magic--fae magic, where stars become literal stars and a Wild Hunt happens behind the scenes.

8  You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, by Akwaeke Emezi. I will read anything Emezi writes. I would have trusted very few authors with this premise: an artist grieving the loss of her husband starts seeing other men again, but then starts falling for the father of the man she is seeing. The lavishness of the descriptions, my goodness. The book comes alive.

7. Witch Hat Atelier (volumes 1 through 5), by Kamome Shirahama. It's a testament to the strength of the books I read this year that the series with baby penguin-gryphons is this far away from #1. I cannot emphasize enough how cute they are--and in case you care about something other than baby penguin-gryphons, I cannot explain in words how incredible this world is. Just look. You'll see.

6. An Immense World, by Ed Yong. I am an animal nerd. I love sinking into a good nonfiction animal book, and this one is miles above most. I was blown away and humbled by how little I know about animal senses, and I thought I knew a lot. The writing is engaging and charming, too.

5. The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jiminez. I have never read a book like this before, and that's saying something. The frame structure of the dream theater, the way the narrative points of view flow back and forth, the dips into everyone's (EVERYONE'S) thoughts... this is one of those books that shows how arbitrary some of the fundamental "rules" of writing are, and how vivid a story can be without them.

4. Little Thieves, by Margaret Owen. A good first-person narrator is worth their weight in gold. This was a delightful romp with a selfish protagonist. She's robbing the rich and trying to outwit the fantasy law enforcement! She might have to Learn About Friendship! She's slowly turning into gems! I loved her and all the supporting cast.

3. The Monsters We Defy, by Leslye Penelope. I hope historical fantasy heists keep on coming, but they'll have a hard time surpassing this one. Features a prickly protagonist who slowly learns to trust and folktale-esque spirit magic, with spirits that can't be trusted and bestow a gift alongside a "trick." The pairing of "You will be a flawless actor who can take any role, but nobody will remember your true self" is one that's going to haunt me for a while.

2. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty. An absolutely flawless piratical adventure. A retired pirate captain gets called away from her peaceful life and motherhood for One Last Job. This has everything you could want in a pirate adventure--a crew of lovable characters, a sinister job that's more than it seems, sea creatures, and a rich and teeming world (the better to be looted). In any other year--half-year--this might have been my very favorite...

1. Shubeik Lubeik, by Deena Mohamed. ... but Shubeik Lubeik won my heart and hasn't let it go. You know when you finish a book and want to shove it in everyone's hands immediately? This is that book, and all the more so because I had never heard of it before picking it up in the library and devouring it in one glorious evening. This graphic novel is about a world like ours, but where wishes are real. Three interconnected tales in Cairo follow three people who end up with a first-class wish. If you like graph-based humor about mental illness, gorgeous art, well-thought-through alternate worlds, and getting emotionally torn apart and put back together again, read this.

[weirdponytail]

PEACE AND SIRENITY  VOL 1: PANDORAN PANDEMONIUM

Welcome Back to Pandora!

Player 2 has Entered the Game!

Lemming Skill Tree

Dude, Where’s my Old PCs?

Rom4nce and Dissection

Problem Exists Between Siren’s Ears and Vault Key

AAAAANARCCHHHYYY!!!

Frey the Giant Pandoran Lemming (Lemming Skill Tree pt 2)

Who’s Driving?

Dramatic Rescue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are the links to all the Peace and Sirenity comics involving the first bits of the game on Pandora. These aren’t a sale thing or anything like it, just a nice compiled list of each comic with link to it’s page on tumblr. 

Base/pose credit for KetAmara, Cor4ndo and Tannis goes to the amazing @croxovergoddess who has amazing references for Draw the Squad memes. Thanks for all the amazing stuff!!

[kayecorral]

Freight Car

Chapter One of the Brown Book Series

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Mentions of violence, PTSD (!), swearing

Word Count: 3.4k

Series Summary: Nine years ago, The Winter Soldier murdered your friend in front of you. Nine years later, Bucky Barnes shows up at your door with the hope of making amends.

⭑⭑⭑

⭑⭑

⭑

You wake up on the floor again.

In the crossfade between dreaming to waking, the hardwood is concrete against your cheek. The sweat in your hair is the slick of blood. You fade in and out, and awareness comes back slowly. A siren descends, moving closer and closer, then recedes into the quiet. You don’t know if you imagined it.

You do know that your alarm isn’t blaring. Your ringtone isn’t sounding. The birds chattering and chirping at your window are real. The steady knocking of your heart against your ribs is real. Maybe that’s enough.

You open your eyes. A sliver of light from the parted curtains cuts across the floor. Above it, dust dances in the still air. All is calm. If you had woken up in your bed, this would be a good morning.  

But you didn’t wake up in your bed. So, you peel yourself off the floor and half-walk, half-limp to the bathroom. As you cross the threshold and flick on the light, a face flashes before you. Before your mind can work to discern its features, you slam the door shut and flip the switch. You cry in the dark.

⭑⭑⭑

You call into work again.

You’re tempted to stay where you are—curled in on yourself under the covers—but Dr. Kaplan’s gentle voice prods from inside your skull.  “Trauma changes over time,” it says. “You have to face it as it comes. You’ll feel worse if you put off dealing with it.”

She picks up on the second ring. Judging by the sound of clinking silverware, she’s on her lunch break. You promise to keep this impromptu session short.

“I haven’t had a nightmare like that in a long time. That’s why it hit me so hard, I think.” You begin. Your eyes fill with tears. You don’t know why. The nightmare is so distant now — just bits of feeling. Your brain is scrubbing away the memory like a mounted defense.

You’re quiet for what feels like minutes, and Dr. Kaplan just waits. She doesn’t pose a question or make a suggestion: in other words, she doesn’t offer an out. She never does. At first, her silence and seemingly unending patience unnerved you. You would later understand the value of having the space to organize your thoughts before speaking them.  

“I thought I was doing better,” you eventually say. “But now, it’s like I’m back where I started.”

“You are not back where you started,” she says. “We haven’t talked about your night terrors in months when we used to talk about them every session. That’s incredible progress. You should be proud of how far you’ve come.”

You hold the phone away so she can’t hear the tears in your voice. “But what does it mean? ”

“Well,” she pauses. “Have you been thinking about Jean lately?”

“Kind of,” you start to say, then remember Dr. Kaplan’s rule about specifics. “I’ve probably thought about her… twice in the past week. Marie, she, uh, she sent me a Facebook request.”

“Did you accept it?” She asks, with just a hint of amusement.

“I haven’t. I don’t know if I should.”

“Why not?” Dr. Kaplan asks. She knows the answer, of course. You haven’t spoken to Marie since the funeral nearly a decade ago. You know she resents you. You saw it in the tightness of her smiles and the way her eyes turned to stone as you stood before Jean’s casket. You’re alive and her sister isn’t. You understand that. What you don’t understand is why she would reach out to you after so many years.

“I’m afraid of what she’ll say,” you admit.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Dr. Kaplan says. You shift on the couch. “She knows that. Maybe she’s been thinking about Jean, too.”

“Yeah,” you respond simply. Your head is light from dehydration, and you should probably take a nap at some point.

“I’d recommend you take easy today…”

“But?”

“But next week, I’d like to hear about your Facebook convo.”

You smile. The tears have dried on your face.

⭑⭑⭑

Snippets of dialogue filter through your thoughts. A woman is talking about a missing child, and a detective is asking the “who, what, where”s. It’s an episode you’ve already seen, but it makes for good background noise: the dramatic stings, the fast-talking, the screech of tires as the driver peels off. You don’t know why you gravitate towards crime shows. It might be a bit morbid, but until now, you’ve never thought to mention it to Dr. Kaplan.

You’re almost done with the cake batter. It’s looking a little watery, though. You really should have followed the recipe instead of improvising.

You reach for the flour bag on the counter, and just as you raise it to the mixing bowl, someone knocks at your door. You jolt and the bag slips from your hands. You narrowly dodge as it plummets to the ground. It lands with a  thump and now, your feet and pants and floor are covered in a film of white powder.

“Fuck,” you breathe.

There’s another knock, a bit louder this time.

“Give me — give me just a minute!” You call out, voice frayed.

You step over your mess and towards the door. You notice how slick your hand is on the doorknob, so you wipe your hands on your pants and try again. You forget your ritual of checking and re-checking the peephole. You unlock the door, already anxious at the idea of keeping anyone waiting.

When you finally swing the door open, a tall, dark-haired white guy is staring at the carpeted hallway floor. He’s not looking at you, but you feel exposed in your flimsy tank top and flour-splattered pajama pants.

Meanwhile, his look is carefully nondescript: a leather jacket, a dark shirt, and jeans. His hands are stuffed into his pockets and his shoulders are slightly hunched. He looks like someone who doesn’t  want to be seen, but here he is, standing at your door.

Maybe he’s just a neighbor on a reluctant mission to convince you to turn your volume down. Maybe he’s a dealer at the wrong address. Maybe he —

Your stomach drops. The shadows had been obscuring his face, but now that he’s tilting his chin up to look at you… the broadness of his forehead, the color of his hair, his height, all these things pull together. They pull tighter and tighter around your heart, and you realize that you’ve seen this man before. You’ve seen him a thousand times.

Your hand flies up to your neck. Fear hits like a punch to your gut. He looks normal — so normal that you could convince yourself that it’s not him. It’s not him.

But now, his eyes — a startling shade of blue— meet yours. Cold washes over you as every sensation in your body amplifies. You feel small and weak. Your vision starts trembling at the edges. You can’t move — not even to release your breath.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he says. His voice sounds so different from the one in your memories. It’s not as coarse and low, it’s gentler and higher-pitched. “I just wanna talk.”  

“Talk.” The word escapes you, but you hadn’t meant to speak. Hearing your own voice makes this real.

He clears his throat. “My name is James Barnes, and I’m no longer The Winter Soldier.”

The Winter Soldier. You suppose it doesn’t matter now what that means. If these are your last moments, you’re not going to spend them deciphering code. Instead, you think of your life and all the things you’ve done and all that you haven’t done. In the span of moments, you try to make peace with your death.

“If you’re going to kill me...” you can’t keep your voice from shaking, “do it.”

His eyes widen. “I’m not here to kill you. I’m — ”

“Hydra wants to know what I know. Is that it?” Your mind reels with the new theory.

His eyebrows tick up. “Hydra doesn’t exist anymore,” he says with a measured tone. “Not really.”

You don’t know how to respond to that divulgence. You don’t even know if you can trust it.

“I’m here because you,” he adds your name — your real name, “are part of my efforts to make amends.”

Your thoughts catch on how he knows your name. It’s a small thing, really. He knows where you live, after all. 

“I know you’re confused, and I know you have questions.” He reaches up to scratch his neck. “And if you’re not, ah...” he glances from your face to your body, as if he were just now noticing your state of dress, “comfortable talking here, we can talk somewhere public. I guess what I’m asking is: can I buy you lunch or, uh, dinner? ”

You consider, seriously, that this man may be clinically insane. You have no other rational explanation for his showing up at your door on a Thursday afternoon, let alone his proposition. But you allow yourself to imagine it: you and him, sitting across a table with Jean’s ghost between and behind you. Your stomach turns at the thought.

“You murdered my friend,” you say slowly, “right in front of me.”

He nods. A pained look crosses his face, and that expression spurs your anger. It hadn’t occurred to you earlier that you should call the police. This man is a murderer, and he’s walking free. 

“You shouldn’t even be here — you should be in a prison somewhere!” You choke out as your throat tightens with impending tears.

“I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want to kill her!” He says forcefully. “I didn’t want to kill anyone. I — ”

“But you did kill her!” You can’t hold them back anymore, and now, you’re crying in front of the man who killed Jean. Humiliation heats your cheeks.

“You did kill her,” you repeat quietly. You turn your watery gaze away.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” He says.

In your peripheral, you watch him step closer. When you flinch, he bobs back.

You should step back, shut the door, and call the police. Not that a slab of wood could stop him if he wanted to get to you. You’ve seen his silver arm. You’ve felt the grip of its fingers at the base of your neck. But, maybe you could manage a dial ‘9-1-1’ before —

“Look, I’m not asking for your forgiveness,” he interrupts your line of thought and, against your will, you look at him again, “I know I don’t deserve it, but I do want to offer you answers. Maybe it can…” He waves his hand as he searches for what he thinks are the right words. “Maybe it can give you some closure. And then, you’ll never see me again.”

You consider the furrow of his eyebrows. Over the years, you’ve tried reconstructing his face from its missing half. Now that you have the full picture, it makes perfect sense: the upper edges of the mask aligned with the cut of his cheekbones, the thin bridge really did conform to his nose, and the wideness of his jaw was merely accentuated. But his features are such a striking contrast to the severity of that mask and that metal arm. He looks so much leaner than you remember. He looks like a man, not a machine.

“Stay here,” you say. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

He nods and his brow softens. You shut the door and press your forehead against it.

After a few beats, you rest your hand on the base of your neck and suck in a few deep breaths. It’s a calming technique Dr. Kaplan taught you. But without meaning to, you flex your fingers. Just as your heart was beginning to slow, you’re pulled into the memory of him raising you by the throat. You gasp for air.

That man is behind this door. That man is behind this door.

You race around the couch to snatch your phone off the coffee table. You unlock it with shaking hands and now, your thumb hovers over the number pad.

“Fuck,” you whisper as you press ‘9’.

It’s true. You do want answers. You want to know why he killed her. You want to know about Hydra and his role in it. You want to know why he left you alive.

So you’ll get your answers,  then call the cops.

You pull on some real pants and cover up with a sweatshirt. But at the door, you hesitate to step out again. If you’ve imagined that whole encounter, if it was some vivid manifestation of your survivor’s guilt, then you wouldn’t have to go.

You press your ear against the door, and, as if your doubts had broadcasted through the wood, he coughs. You sigh and grab the doorknob. Your hand isn’t sweaty this time.

At the sound of the hinges creaking, his gaze snaps to you. You meet his eyes without meaning to. There’s no recognizable emotion in them. The creases in his forehead and the furrow in his brow are gone. Now, his face gives nothing away.

“There’s a place about two blocks from here,” you say simply.

He nods and looks to you as if for direction. If he were anyone else, you would start heading for the elevator without further ado, but the thought of Jean’s killer trailing behind you makes your stomach flip.

“I’d prefer you walk ahead,” you utter. His eyebrows raise slightly, but he gives no other visible reaction.

“Alright,” he says.

He moves down the hallway, and you follow. Your eyes stay trained on his back. Aside from your occasional direction, it’s a silent walk.

⭑⭑⭑

Sully’s is a dive, but it’s always busy, and this evening is no exception. The people who frequent this place are the kind of people who get loud after a few drinks and don’t give two shits about you unless you’re bleeding out on the floor. That’s perfect. God forbid anyone overhears your questions about murder and secret organizations.

“You want anything?” He asks after you choose a corner booth and tuck in. His casual tone bothers you, but he keeps his distance, at the very least.

“No,” you deadpan.

He nods and starts for the bar. A few people graze him as he passes, and it’s so crowded that you’ve already lost sight of him.

You place your phone face-up on the sticky, varnished wood table. Absentmindedly, you nudge the pedal base with your foot. You try to hone in on any particular voice, but all you hear is a buzz of conversation. It’s a comfort. It means that you’re not alone and he can’t hurt you here.

“I know you didn’t ask for anything, but…” Fuck. Your knee knocks on the bottom of the table. His voice is so sudden at your side.

He places a water glass in front of you, and you stop yourself before you can say “thanks”. He drops into the chair in front of you, a beer bottle tucked between his gloved palms. Gloves. He’s wearing gloves. You hadn’t noticed until now.

There’s an awkward pause. He watches you intently. Your stomach is churning, but you steadily meet his gaze. You have so many questions. Some of the things he’s said don’t make sense. One thing, in particular, though, is nagging at you.

“Back there, you said you didn’t have a choice,” you say dubiously, “what did you mean?”

He takes a drag of beer and sets the bottle down carefully before he speaks. “They brainwashed me.” He replies bluntly. “Hydra, I mean.”

Brainwashing? It’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Aliens exist, as do superheroes and Norse gods and Mad Titans. What was once science-fiction is now very real and devastating.

He gives you a few beats to process, then continues. “For seventy years, I operated as The Winter Soldier.”

“Wait. Seventy years?”

“I just turned 106 in March,” he says with a sardonic smile.

“How is that possible?”

“I was on ice.” He sighs. “They only took me out when they needed me.”

“And Hydra… what happened to them?”

His jaw tightens. It’s the most reaction you’ve gotten so far. “They used to have this saying: cut off one head, two more take its place… Maybe they’ll come back, but right now, they’re gone.”

“So they aren’t after me,” you say softly, more to yourself than him.

“If Hydra wanted you out of the way, they wouldn’t’ve sent me.” He grimaces, even as his voice mocks a shrug.

You get it now: you’re not a threat, and you never were.

“But I was a loose end, wasn’t I? Why didn’t you kill me?”

He shakes his head and says, “I don’t know.”

He doesn’t elaborate further. Instead, he finishes off his bottle and shifts his gaze to the table.

After a minute or two, you consider moving on, but something about his expression, both vacant and pensive, implores you to wait. In the interim, you glance from the people knocking shoulders at the bar to the couple in front of you.

“It was that look on your face,” he says, and you find his gaze is fixed on you again. “It was rage. And grief. And that-that grief almost overtook everything else, but I saw it.” He leans towards you, his eyebrows knitting close. “That part of you that… that part of you that wanted me to kill you, too.”

He glances at his hand on the table and releases a shaky breath. “I understood that,” he says. “I know what it’s like.”

Like a clenched fist releasing, the tightness in your chest eases. You understand something else, now, too. This is meant to be an exchange. He wants answers as much as you do, no matter how much pain they carry.

“Do you wanna know what I saw? On your face?” You ask after a few beats. He hesitantly nods. “Nothing. There was nothing,” you say. “You didn’t even look human.  It was like you were an animal. And you were looking at me like I was prey.”

You look away. The intensity of his eyes threatens to pull you into that memory. “I’ve never been more terrified in my entire life.”

“I’m so sorry,” you hear him say.

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” you say quietly, chancing a glance up.

His face twists into something like shame. If he were a different person, you might try to comfort him. But he’s not a different person. He’s a stranger wearing the face that’s haunted you for nine years.

“So why now?”

“Well, I was…” He mimics a snap with his right hand. “And after that, I… started going to therapy.”

He pulls a small, brown book from his jacket pocket. “My, uh, shrink told me to make a list of people I’ve wronged,” he says as he flips it open to a page in the middle and places it in front of you. “You’re one of the last.”

You find your name third-to-bottom. The ones above are crossed through. He glances from your face to your fingers as they trace his careful scrawl.

“You don’t let people look at this, do you?” You ask.

He half-smiles and shakes his head.

“So why are you letting me?”

“I, uh,” he flexes his hand. “I don’t know. I just… thought I owed it to you.”

You briefly consider asking about the other names, but he doesn’t owe you those. He owes you answers about the life he can’t return. Just as another question bubbles up your throat, a ringtone sounds. You glance at your phone’s black screen, then back to his furrowed brow. He reaches into his back pocket to fish out a flip phone. A  flip phone.  You haven’t seen one in years.

“Shit,” he mutters under his breath. He looks up from the screen.

“Sorry, I have to take this,” he says as he squeezes out of the booth. He disappears as quickly as before.

⭑⭑⭑

You finally take a sip of water. The sweat of the glass bleeds onto your fingertips, so you wipe your hand off on your pant leg before touching your phone. 6:15, it says, which means you've been sitting on this hard, plastic seat for over forty minutes. He's been gone for about ten of them.

Before you can seriously consider just leaving, his form comes into view.

"I've gotta go, but..." He says as he pulls the brown book out of his pocket again. When he opens it, he tears a small piece from the page corner, then scribbles something with a pen.

He places the piece of paper next to the perspiration ring on the table. Stealing one last glance at you, he turns and leaves for the third and final time.

On it is a phone number and a name:

Bucky

[taiblogcomics]

I Can’t Pet Force You To Read This One, But...

Hey there, high school crushes. Well, it's finally here. Can you believe it? Yes, counting from the original Xanga site (which, yes, still counts. It's like our own Golden Age publication or apocryphia), this is our 10th anniversary of reviewing comics. That's fantastic. I'm excited, can't you tell? I can tell, since I'm writing this preamble a good two months before the actual anniverary~

So, last year we reviewed the absolute pile of dreck that is Heroes in Crisis. And while that was worth ripping into, I'd rather not spend the 10th anniversary hating on something. I'd like to do something actually meaningful to me. I've teased about this one for many years, probably for as long as I've been doing this blog, and I think it's time we stopped pussyfooting around and reviewed some Garfield. But not just any Garfield. It's finally time, my friends. This... is Garfield's Pet Force.

I dunno how many people will remember this one. Maybe you recall the direct-to-DVD movie adaptation from 2009, or at least advertising for it. I never saw it, but apparently it differs a bit. They also appeared a few times in those Garfield comics from back in the day. We even reviewed a couple (some were on the Xanga blog). But what we're looking at here are the original novellas published between 1997 and 1999. So yeah, these really are from my childhood. And since I've long espoused that Garfield was always funnier 20 years ago, this must be actual premium Garfield content, yeah? By golly, I hope so, because we got five whole books here today. So we should probably get into them~

Book 1: The Outrageous Origin

This is a classic sort of superhero cover. Standard team shot of poses, and that's fine for a first volume. In fact, that's great. Later editions of this would replace the lightning-filled gradient background with a pure white one, but I have this original version. We'll get to specifics about these characters in the meat of the story, but let's talk about the costumes for a bit. Very classic early-'90s sort of look, before the Dark Age kicked in. Reminds me a lot of Jim Lee's X-Men designs, actually. Making all your characters visually distinct is important in a team book. The heavy lean into secondary colours is unusual for heroic characters, but not unwelcome.

So we actually start with a cold open in the superhero universe. This is pretty much to introduce us to the characters as soon as possible, and thus I'll do the same for you here.

*Garzooka, team leader, super strong, has a razor-sharp claw, and can shoot radioactive hairballs from his mouth. That's... at least a unique power, I don't think anyone on the Justice League can do that~ *Odious, the dumb muscle with the accent on the "dumb". Possibly even stronger than Garzooka, and possessing a "super-stretchy stun tongue", an elastic tongue that can scramble the minds of whoever it adheres to. *Starlena, the team girl. She can fly, and she has a siren song that can put those who hear it into a hypnotic trance. Garzooka is the only one immune to its effects, for reasons that are never explained. *Abnermal, the kid-appeal character. He has ice powers, forcefields, and an ill-defined "pester power" that means he can annoy people on a greater scale than normal folks. It's pretty much only used for comic relief, but that could be a brilliant power in the right hands. *Compooky, the brains of the operation. Other than flight, his powers are limited to super intelligence, which means he's usually the exposition guy. There's probably a reason they left him out of the movie adaptation~

You got all that? Don't worry, we'll introduce you again later in the book. What actually happens in the intro chapter isn't really important, it's just setting up the universe. In fact, it's all taking place within Pet Force #99, a comic just enjoyed by Nermal. Yes, we quickly cut over to the main Garfield universe ("our universe", the narrator calls it), where Pet Force is just a comic book. The Garfield gang is all outside, enjoying a cookout prepared by Jon Arbuckle. Nermal is extremely enthused by his comic book, and brags about how he has all 98 previous issues sealed and polybagged, and this one will soon join them. Sorry, Nermal, this came out in 1997, the speculator boom already went bust~

Garfield dismisses comic books as stupid because you can't eat them or use them as a blanket, and declares that none of the stuff that happens in the comic could possibly happen in real life. Uh oh, irony! Because these things can happen, and do! It's a parallel universe, baby! This might be one of my earliest introductions to a "parallel worlds" concept. Much like Earths 1 and 2 in pre-Crisis DC, the events of the comic are essentially the real life adventures of their super-powered counterparts in another dimension. Most of the action in these stories will take place there~

So here's the setup: Vetvix (the parallel equivalent to Liz the veternarian) is an evil sorceress and scientist, who essentially wants to experiment on animals in peace, and possibly subjugate the universe while she's at it. You could argue that Liz is an odd choice for villain, since our universe's Liz isn't particularly evil. But then, our universe's Garfield isn't particularly heroic either. She operates out of a deadly space station called the Orbiting Clinic of Chaos, and at present she's waiting for the arrival of her henchman, Space Pie-Rat, who is a six-foot-tall anthropomorphic rat dressed in stereotypical pirate getup. Vetvix has just finished inventing a levitation ray, and she'd like Pie-Rat to go out and use it to steal all the food in the universe. Vetvix doesn't think small, is what I'm saying.

The counter to Vetvix is Emperor Jon, ruler of the planet Polyester. He's kind and benevolent, even if he's a little dippy and his fashion sense atrocious. Having gotten wind of Vetvix's latest plan, he contacts Pet Force in their ship, the Lightspeed Lasagna. Upon learning the problem, Pet Force gives chase to Pie-Rat. They eventually corner him on some desolate planet, landing and entering an abandoned factory. Unfortunately, they're not safe amongst the dangerous machinery, because this turns out to be a trap. Vetvix has been busy as hell, because she's also invented a metal that's impervious to their powers. And that's not all, because she's also basically invented the Phantom Zone, where she traps Pet Force forever. It specifically mentions it doesn’t kill them, because it wouldn't be kosher to murder the heroes in a Garfield book~

The Lightspeed Lasagna has both onboard cameras connected to the heroes' belts as well as automatic return protocols, so within two days, Emperor Jon knows exactly what's happened to Pet Force. He needs help, so he calls upon his most trusted and powerful advisor: Binky the Sorceror. Binky's just as loud and obnoxious as in the main universe, but he's also a powerful magician. He conjures up a spell for Emperor Jon that lets him pierce the veil between universes. It's basically Equestria Girls rules: parallel universes have similar characters between them. So to replace Pet Force, they need the nearest genetic equivalents from another universe. And that's the versions of Garfield, Odie, Arlene, Nermal, and Pooky that we know and love~

Back in the main universe, it's another day entirely. Another cookout is taking place, and Nermal has received his special anniversary issue of Pet Force #100. The cover's really special, dripping with '90s cover gimmicks like glow-in-the-dark and embossing. A rarely used one, though, was "portal to another universe". That was pretty expensive to print, so you won't find many comics like Nermal's. Maybe he had something there with the collecting after all. The cover glows, and while Jon is distracted by the grill, Garfield and Friends disappear~

They reappear in Emperor Jon's wood-paneled throne room, now transformed into Pet Force. Emperor Jon and Sorceror Binky try to explain the situation, but Garfield--now Garzooka--is disbelieving of the whole thing. In fact, even the idea that Jon can now hear him talk absolutely floors him. Since he's about to deliver the exposition for everyone, can we talk about Compooky for a minute? This spell has just granted sapience to Garfield's teddy bear. I don't expect deep philosophy from a children's novella, but the ramifications of this are really under-explored. Like, never mind the whole idea of a teddy bear having the same genetic makeup as an alternate universe equivalent. He goes from inanimate object to fully conscious being, and he just rolls with it.

Anyways, once everybody gets caught up on what's going on and accepts the new reality, a training montage ensues so the group can all learn to use their powers without killing each other. Once at least reasonably trained, the reborn Pet Force is sent out to stop Pie-Rat. He's gotten sloppy in the times with Pet Force dead, so they track him down easily. After a brief scuffle where Garzooka takes his eyepatch, Pie-Rat flees in his ship. They follow Pie-Rat back to the Orbital Clinic of Chaos, but they can't go in the front. That led the original Pet Force into a trap. Finding an unguarded maintenance hatch--standard on any big space station--they enter Vetvix's lair for a final confrontation!

After dealing with the Waiting Room of Doom, which slowly fills with outdated magazines, they enter Vetvix's inner sanctum. Frustrated with Pie-Rat's failure, she uses her magic to turn him into an ordinary mouse. Vetvix then attempts to use her same weapon on this new Pet Force, but thanks to story contrivance, it only works on beings born in this universe. As other dimensional visitors already, they can't be banished to another dimension. She then pulls a Dr. Claw and runs off cursing Pet Force's name while her base self-destructs. Vetvix is a very "discard and draw" sort of villain, it seems. Pet Force, of course, makes a harrowing escape just in the nick of time.

Returning to Emperor Jon, they vow to be ready to return whenever they're called on, since evil never stays dormant for long. Odious even gifts Emperor Jon with the mouse-ified Pie-Rat as proof of their victory. Well, I'm glad they remember that, so they didn't accidentally murder a major villain in their first superhero outing. They're returned to their own universe, and the time differential between them places them back with Jon having not had time to even look up from the grill. Garfield begins to doubt the adventure even happened--until that night, when he finds Pie-Rat's eyepatch still on his person. Ah, definitive proof of... eyepatches, I guess~

Book 2: Pie-Rat's Revenge!

You have to wonder where, in a space-faring superhero setting, Pie-Rat got the inspiration for his classic pirate motif. It's a little incongruous is all I'm saying. And hey, remember when I said earlier that Garzooka's purple-and-green colour scheme was odd for a hero? Well, here he is as a villain! That'll catch your eye. This would be a terrific comic cover, which is what you want in a series like this.

The book opens with a brief recap of the previous story's events, then moves into the new plot. See, Emperor Jon has opted to keep the polymorphed Pie-Rat as his pet. How very Ron Weasley of him. That's pretty apt, actually, because similarly Pie-Rat has maintained his intelligence in his new mousey form. Pie-Rat gets sick of being Emperor Jon's pet and plans a daring escape, exploiting the emperor's dimwitted and loving personality against him. Pie-Rat jams the lock with a food pellet and makes his escape that night.

Once free from his cage, he encounters Binky's cauldron, still left in the throne room from when the sorceror summoned Pet Force from Garfield's universe. Figuring he has nothing to lose, Pie-Rat jumps in the leftover brew. Suddenly he finds himself growing. He returns to his original anthropomorphic state--but with a twist. He's now twice his original height, a staggering twelve feet tall. He scoops up the rest of the remaining potion for later, and sneaks out of the palace as best as a 12-foot rat can sneak. Desiring revenge on both his former employer and his longtime foes, he steals Pet Force's ship and makes his escape from the planet, headed for Vetvix's newest base.

After his guards help Emperor Jon put the pieces of the problem together, they decide they must once again call upon the powers of Pet Force to recover their missing vehicle and stop the newly embiggened Pie-Rat. Fortunately, Garfield and friends have been watching movies all weekend, so Jon doesn't notice when his pets disappear from the living room in a bright flash. Of course, once returned to the alternate universe and the situation explained, they still have a problem: how do they give chase to Pie-Rat when he's got their ship?

And speaking of Pie-Rat in their ship, he's followed the trail of a mysterious energy output, and it's led him right to Vetvix's new base, the Menacing Moon of Mayhem. See, this is why you don't blow up your base: the backup base is never as good. if it was, it wouldn't be the backup. Given that it's such a shoddy base, Pie-Rat is easily able to get inside and get close to Vetvix. She's expecting a technological attack, so she's unprepared when he pulls out that vial of magic potion and sprinkles her with it. And naturally, the potion that made him grow 12 feet tall makes Vetvix shrink to 5 inches. It's magic, we don't have to explain it!

Pie-Rat takes the magic crystal that Vetvix uses to fuel her powers, which of course didn't shrink because magic is just bullshit. See previous paragraph's last sentence. And while Pie-Rat takes over the base and begins plotting a further revenge against Pet Force, we cut over to them. They're at Sorceror Binky's own castle, and it's clear he's a bit of a hoarder. This is to their advantage, though, as they eventually piece together a working spaceship out of old car parts and other things, all patched together between Compooky's know-how and Binky's magic. This seems like the sort of book where I could use that "it's magic" quote every other paragraph. But craft a new--if small--ship they do, and speed off in the newly christened Planetary Pizza.

The rickety little ship does eventually find its way to Pie-Rat's base, saving him the trouble of being proactive as a villain. The magic thing keeps happening, and Pie-Rat basically becomes Discord for a bit while he fights them, doing things like turning Starlena's siren song into actual living music notes. One by one, the members of Pet Force are taken out, with only Garzooka is left. He and Pie-Rat struggle, while Pie-Rat tries to aim the magic crystal at Garzooka. Garzooka uses his claw to rip the crystal from Pie-Rat and defeat him.

Unfortunately, here's where the cover comes in. It seems the moments Pie-Rat was focusing the crystal during the struggle affected Garzooka's mind. He puts the crystal around his own neck. which turns him evil. He helps Pie-Rat to his feet, and the pair escape in the Lightspeed Lasagna. While Pet Force pursues them in their ramshackle ship, the new criminal duo strikes the storage planet of Deli to steal their food. Pet Force manages to catch up as the villains celebrate their spoils, and use a magic blast from the systems Binky installed to short out the Lightspeed Lasagna. This enables them to dock with the ship and climb aboard for a contfrontation.

The group fights, and once again the bearer of a bullshit magic crystal subdues the heroes easily. Annoyed now, Garzooka takes hold of Starlena and prepares to kill her or something. She taps into the one thing she has left: she's not fighting just Garzooka, but Garfield in his body. She drops some heavy put-downs, which resonate with Garfield, and he hesitates long enough for her to cut the crystal off him. The crystal hits the floor and shatters, undoing its evil magics on Garzooka's mind as well as on all his teammates. With Pet Force reunited, Pie-Rat is easily subdued and locked up.

The group waits for the ship to power back up, then speed off to apologise to the planet Deli. Following that, they head back towards Vetvix's moonbase. That night, though, the magic that was making Pie-Rat 12 feet tall wears off, and he escapes from his cell. He steals the remaining shards of the crystal, climbs into the Planetary Pizza, and makes a getaway. As a bonus, he also repeats the power-down spell against the bigger ship, giving him ample time to escape. And he's not the only one. Over on the Menacing Moon of Mayhem, Vetvix also returns to her proper size, and abandons this base as well. And when Pet Force fails to find her, they simply return to their own universe, ready to be called on once again in the future~

Book 3: K-Niner: Dog of Doom!

Another very basic comic book-style cover. K-Niner is a much more typical villain in style. This one's actually a wrap-around, and features the rest of Pet Force reacting to K-Niner on the back cover. Which is good because, other than the first cover, the covers all have a heavy Garzooka focus. Which makes sense for a book series, I suppose, you wanna assure the kiddos that Garfield's gonna be in the book. But as a comic book series, this would be a bad look for a team book~

So after our standard introduction and recap, we start off with Vetvix in yet another new base, the Floating Fortress of Fear. I'm sure it's very intimidating, if she can keep hold of it for more than a single book. She's picking up from the epilogue and putting the last touches on K-Niner, mostly enhancing his intelligence. Now, you look at the cover and tell me what kind of voice you'd expect. Some sort of German or Austrian accent, like the doberman on Road Rovers? Does anyone remember Road Rovers~? Anyways, but no: he speaks with a posh British accent. You know, the "I say, good chaps, looks like we're in a bit of a sticky wicket, eh wot?" type. Trust me, you can tell. But just because he sounds refined doesn't mean he's not evil.

I also love that after the initial "trapped them in the Phantom Zone" bit, the villains just go whole ham. K-Niner here demonstrates that he is indeed evil by threatening to rip out Vetvix's throat. Let your villains be villainous is all I'm saying. She's pleased he's so vicious, but feels he needs to learn his place as well. She force-chokes him until he complies. She then gives him his assignment: she thinks dogs should be liberated. The Boy Mayor of Second Life would approve, and so does K-Niner. Turning pets on their masters is just his style.

K-Niner takes a portable evolution gun, and immediately sets off. He begins on the planet Kennel. Isn't it neat how every planet is named after an English word that describes its function? K-Niner quickly takes over the dog population and turns them against their masters, because boosting their intelligence also makes them evil, of course. They use enslavement collars on their former owners, and within a few days, the dogs now run the planet. We cut over to Emperor Jon on Polyester, where a man has crash-landed a ship. He's an escapee from Kennel, and he's here to report the events so we can get the plot moving and once more summon Pet Force!

And summoned once more they are, Garfield and Friends once more conveniently disappearing in a split second while Jon's back is turned (this time they're outside playing volleyball). And once back in the parallel universe, Emperor Jon fills them all in on K-Niner's dastardly doings. Garzooka, naturally, takes great offense to dogs being in charge, and takes his duties as a hero completely seriously for once. Pet Force takes off for a confrontation with K-Niner in the Lightspeed Lasagna. And speaking of Pet Force's ships...

The Planetary Pizza, piloted by Pie-Rat, plants its pads down on polar planet Glacia. Pie-Rat is here seeking a way to restore his magic crystal and regain his mighty magic powers. He's sought out the home of a legendary evil wizard, who's known by the name of... Barfo. I see why Barfo keeps his location a secret. But anyway, Barfo is the one who made the crystal, so naturally Pie-Rat reasons he can restore it as well. Suprisingly once on Glacia, Barfo's evil lair is pretty easy to find. His manservant, Hobart the Gnome, brings Pie-Rat before the wizard, and within moments the crystal is restored! Pie-Rat turns to thank Hobart, but Hobart suddenly turns into Vetvix!

Yes, Vetvix knew all along that Pie-Rat's quest would lead him here. And as she was once Barfo's student in the ways of evil magic, she knew she could get the old coot to go along with her plan. Barfo returns the crystal to Vetvix, restoring her powers. And so Pie-Rat, a recurring villain in three whole books, is unceremoniously done away with, as Vetvix teleports him inside an asteroid, trapping him in solid rock. Even if the asteroid were hollow or he displaced the interior when he teleported in, no doubt he'll suffocate within moments. That's pretty harsh.

With that over, we rejoin Pet Force as they approach Kennel. K-Niner's battle cruiser spots them incoming, and shoots the ship down, even in spite of Abnermal's forcefields. Pet Force bail out of the ship, and Abnermal uses his powers to make snow to cushion their fall. Upon landing, a contingent of mutant animals attack. The mooks aren't much, but K-Niner himself puts up an impressive fight. However, one of the mooks pulls a gun and points it at Compooky. This is why Compooky usually stays aboard the ship, but that wasn't an option. Rather than let their friend get hurt, Pet Force surrenders.

Pet Force is held prisoner separately from Compooky, with both the cell's technology making it freeze-proof and threats of "don't break out, or we'll shoot your compatriot". Their imprisonment is not long, though, as suddenly the power goes out. Pet Force takes advantage of the situation and make their escape, quickly running into Compooky. K-Niner didn't think the hyper-intelligent teddy bear needed a high security cell, and just locked him in the basement. It was easy for him to then break out and shut down the local power grid. This also has the side effect of turning off the control collars the humans were wearing. How convenient!

With control of the planet now tilted in their favour, Pet Force now has time to both fix their ship and reverse the polarity of the brain-boosting weapons, turning the dog population of Kennel back to their normal selves. Though the experience did change the pet owners of Kennel. Having experienced life in their pets' shoes (so to speak) for a bit, they've resolved to treat their canine companions a bit more equally. More being allowed on the furniture, less stupid tricks for treats. Still, Pet Force can't stay long, and they head off in pursuit of K-Niner's battle cruiser. This is why most superheroes don't have spaceships (Jedis don't count): if your enemy also has one, they can flee way more easily than on foot.

Not willing to let another place go to the dogs, as it were, Pet Force catches up with K-Niner. With his previous success, Vetvix has stepped up the timetable and sent him after Polyester right away. Emperor Jon is in danger! They enter the planet's atmosphere, and are attacked by fighter craft. They fend them off, but their weapons system is damaged in the fight, so they can't simply use the reverse brain-rays and solve it quickly. The team splits up instead: Garzooka and Abnermal will go after K-Niner, while the other three will find the planet's power source and knock out the collars, since that worked so well the last time.

The two heroes quickly make short work of K-Niner's guards, and then turn the battle to deal with the Dog of Doom himself. While the struggle goes on, the rest of Pet Force reach the planet's power grid. Using a clever tactic, Compooky overloads the power and causes and electrical storm that simultaneously undoes the brain-boosting effect and shorts out the enslavement collars. There's only a few pages left, after all, and we have to wrap this up.  K-Niner is reverted back into an ordinary dog, and the emperor is reverted to an ordinary non-enslaved person. The day is saved!

And now once again, Pet Force prepares to return to their own universe. However... when the spell clears, the five heroes are still standing there. Something is blocking the passage between dimensions, and Pet Force is trapped. And while Pet Force's adventures have taken place between mere moments in their own universe, they have always returned quickly enough that Jon didn't notice a thing. But this time, as Jon retrieves the volleyball and turns around to his pets, he's surprised to find they've all vanished into thin air...

Book 4: Menace of the Mutanator

This one's very striking because of its more painted look compared to the heavy black outlines the rest of the covers have. Does this one count as having the whole team on the cover? Because, spoilers, that's what the Mutanator is: the rest of Pet Force mashed up into a villain. Again, though, that's definitely a striking image that'd draw in readers to a comic cover. In fact, while Garzooka may be over-used as a cover focus, several of these also show him imperiled in some way, and that's nice for character stuff. That helps balace it a bit~

I wanna say, before we start, that I'm impressed by the continuity for the series as a whole. They could've just written each story as a standalone, but for a series of 100-page children's novellas starring Garfield characters as superheroes, things happen in these books. Like, maybe not sweeping status quo changes, but events affect the plot of each next book down the line. And that's where we pick up! Right where the last book left off, with Pet Force now stuck in the alternate universe, unable to return home to Jon. But if they can't go home to Jon, well, maybe then events will conspire to bring Jon to them~

Yep, because Jon happens to wander into the room where they keep the copy of Pet Force #100 that acts as a portal to their universe, he gets transported into the Pet Force universe. And since Emperor Jon is still an extant entity, there's just two Jons now. Jon, of course, is a bit freaked out, and it takes several pages to explain the whole deal to him, and also have a showcase of all their powers to pad out the book some more. Eventually, they decide to call in Sorceror Binky to examine the problem. When he has a go of it, a sudden tornado emerges from the cauldron and whisks away Pet Force--save for Garzooka, whose prodigious strength keeps him anchored.

Garzooka heads out in the Lightspeed Lasagna to track Pet Force's signature, glad to get away from a double trouble Jon. And while he's searching, the scene cuts to Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear. Hey, one of her bases actually lasted more than one book! This is where Pet Force has been transported to, once more in a power-proof cell. Vetvix monologues to the heroes, as she is wont to do, explaining that she's the one who cast the spell to keep them from returning home. And further, she's brought them here to mutate them into her servants.

While Emperor Jon exposits about his backstory (turns out he is not of royal blood, and has about as much legitimate claim to the throne as you or I do), the search continues. Sorceror Binky detects Pet Force, giving them all a view of what happens next. The trapped members of Pet Force are literally broken apart and reassembled: Odious' body, Compooky's brain inserted into the chest, Abnermal's hands, and Starlena's head. She christens this beast "Mutanator", and it is soullessly obedient. I also wanna say, Mutanator's kind of a non-binary icon, aren't they? (The comic uses "it", but it was 1998 and alternative pronouns weren't really a thing yet.) Muscular, masculine body, but confident enough to still wear lipstick. It's a look, is all I'm saying~

Mutanator continues to possess the combined powers of Pet Force as well. Vetvix sends them to attack the planet Armory to gear up before attempting to conquer Polyester. And meanwhile, thanks to the convenience of being able to scan all of Compooky's memories now that his brain is part of Mutanator, Vetvix has the perfect trap to spring on Garzooka--or should she say Garfield. Yes, she really knows the whole origin for Pet Force now, and now she knows all Garfield's weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and probably blood type and other dating profile stats~

Thus, when Garzooka receives the coordinates from Emperor Jon and arrives at the Floating Fortress, he finds himself menaced by giant spiders. Vetvix couldn't think of a way to get Mondays to attack him, so the Giant Spider Invasion will do. Spiders are apparently very formiddable foes, Garzooka's personal fears aside. They can swat gamma hairballs out of the air, they can construct webs as quickly as certain Marvel heroes, and their hairy exoskeletons are resistant to both claw and strength. But despite his fear and Abnermal's running commentary, Garzooka manages to trounce the spiders with a carefully applied flame--taking Vetvix's blueprints with them.

Garzooka heads out once again to track down the Mutanator, leaving his less-than-all-together friends in the safety of their forcefield prison. While he's off, we return to the perspective of his target. Using their combined powers, the Mutanator swiftly conquers the planet Armory and sets their sights on Polyester next. It's not a bad plan, honestly. With the stockpile from Armory, not only will the Mutanator be more powerful, Polyester won't be able to use the planet for backup. Fortunately for the two Jons, though, Garzooka intercepts the Mutanator before they can leave Armory.

The fight's actually pretty good. Very back and forth. But even despite Garzooka's great strength, the Mutanator wins in the end. Thankfully, Vetvix puts her conquest of Polyester on hold to take the time to retrieve Garzooka and add his power to the Mutanator. This, of course will be her undoing--in a completely ridiculous way, of course. For back in the palace, our universe's Jon is watching Pet Force's struggles with the scrying cauldron. And he leans in a bit too close. Sowhile Vetvix is prepping the machine to divide Garzooka's body like she did the rest of Pet Force, Jon suddenly tumbles through the dimensional warp caused by the cauldron and lands on Vetvix, which causes her to put the machine in reverse. A real Jonnus ex cauldrona there, eh?

The Mutanator disappears, their existance as a unique being wiped out as their pieces return to their proper Pet Force owners. With Pet Force reassembled, Garzooka takes out Vetvix with one of his gamma-radiated hairballs while she's distracted by Jon. Pet Force decides that the vile veternarian should have a taste of her own medicine, and stick her in the body-splicing machine with some of her guards. This divides them all up and mixes them into bizarre combinations. It also has the side effect of disabling Vetvix's magic, so they can return to their own universe now.

The book wraps up here. Pet Force first returns to Armory to both return the stolen weapons and also make repairs on the buildings that were damaged in Garzooka's fight with the Mutanator. That's the sort of thing I'd like to see in more superhero stories in general. The two Jons part ways, with the Emperor believing the other Jon's heroism to have been deliberate. And thus are Garfield and friends returned home. And just like the end of their first adventure, where Garfield couldn't be sure if it really happened, so too is Jon's memory fading. Had he really witnessed all that? Only his pets know for sure--and in this universe, they can't talk~

Book 5: Attack of the Lethal Lizards

This one's another wrap-around, showing the rest of Pet Force engaging the remaining Lethal Lizards on the back cover. This is one advantage books have over comics: a front and back cover you can use for your story-telling. The Lizard designs are pretty good for a villain group too. Like Pet Force, they don't adhere to a particular theme, but they do look good individually. Garzooka roasting a hot dog on a stick might be a bit too comedic for a superhero story, though. It sets the tone wrong. How "lethal" can they possibly be if Garzooka is out here roasting hot dogs in the middle of battle?

So here we go, last book. After the usual recap, we open with Jon explaining to Garfield and friends his latest plans: they're going to WackyWorld, a theme park dedicated to Jon's favourite cartoon, The Wackies. Both Garfield and Nermal think the show is lame, and if those two agree on something, you know it must be so. In less lame universes, however, trouble is once more a-brewing. So it turns out Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear has been orbiting the swamp planet Reptilius this whole time. And her various experiments in the last two books have been radiating the planet in magical energy...

From that magical power, three reptiles find themselves uplifted in intelligence and granted fantastic powers. Please say hello to our three main villains for this book: Snake, an enormous snake (the only one without an anthro design) with stretching powers; Chameleon, who can shapeshift; and Dragon, a komodo dragon with fire breath and the bad attitude to match. While Snake and Chameleon figure out their powers, Dragon declares himself the leader as he's clearly the smartest, strongest, and most powerful. They name themselves the Lethal Lizards and start plotting how to rule the planet.

After that exciting intro, though, the book kind of slows down. First we get a whole chapter of Emperor Jon also deciding to go on vacation, to planet Funlandia. With Vetvix out of commission for a while, there's no better time. In short, he's out of the castle and Sorceror Binky is in charge. This is followed by a chapter of Jon and his pets at WackyWorld. It's certainly an accommodating amusement park to allow pets on its grounds. Garfield at least gets along with the food, but if you know anything about amusement park food prices, the amount Garfield eats will make your wallet weep. Jon takes his mind off it by dragging the pets along to a ride. Surely they have to be under the height restriction~

Fortunately, we get back to the actual stars of this book, and we see a bit more of their dynamic. Snake is the sort who sucks up to whoever's calling themselves "Boss" at the moment. Dragon is power-hungry, and it's clear he'll sell out his allies at the drop of a hat. Chameleon is Starscream. Anyway, they trek through the jungles of Reptilius until they find a downed spaceship. Reviewing the logs reveals it was a scout ship from Vetvix, and they also learn of Vetvix and her mission. However, they don't know where Emperor Jon lives, so they crowd into the the newly christened Rapacious Reptile and set course for the stars.

The first planet they come across is a world called Klod. Quickly the Lethal Lizards beat up the populace and find the local government. Chameleon shapeshifts into a dignitary, pretending to be an advance entourage for Emperor Jon, schmoozing with the governor until he learns both what Jon looks like and the name of his planet. With this information secure, Chameleon nips out suddenly, and the trio sets forth towards Polyester. Governer Klutz calls up the palace as soon as the reptiles depart, and reports the incident to Sorceror Binky.

Binky wastes no time, and he dials up Pet Force. Since all five are in one place, he's able to pull them through even without them being near the gateway through issue #100's cover. Convenient! Pet Force, however, does waste time, as a lengthy comedy scene eats up several pages before we just get on with it. Eventually, the situation is conveyed, and they figure it's safer to keep Emperor Jon on Funlandia for the time being. Compooky stays behind to help plan some strategies, while the rest of Pet Force boards the Lightspeed Lasagna to intercept the Lethal Lizards before they even arrive.

Pet Force spends the next few minutes both scanning for incoming ships and bickering with each other, so I'm very glad when the Rapacious Reptile appears on their detectors before too long. Dragon threatens the ship, telling them to move or he'll knock them aside. It's a spaceship, dude, you can move in three dimensions. The ships trade shots, and while Chameleon's piloting is actually pretty good due to his independently-rotating eyeballs, eventually both ships crash land on whatever planet is nearby.

Both ships crash right next to each other, which is improbable but less ridiculous than some of the contrivances in these books, so I'm okay with it. Now you'd think what with the enemies being reptiles and Abnermal having freezing powers that this battle would be over really easily, but no. In fact, Garzooka and Dragon are pretty evenly matched. Snake turns out to be immune to Starlena's siren song because snakes don't have external ears. See, now there's a contrivance I find a bit weird. Snake swallows Abnermal whole, and Chameleon and Odious get literally tongue-tied. The Lethal Lizards actually live up to their name pretty well.

As the fight continues, half of both sides are laid out when Compooky comes rushing up, saying he has an urgent message from the emperor. And that's when he sucker-punches the team. It was actually Chameleon in disguise, having gotten knocked away when he and Odious separated. So yeah, round one goes to the Lizards, and they make their escape first. Pet Force regroups, and they give chase. The Lizards have enough head start to really lay siege to Polyester before Pet Force arrives, though. They even get access to the palace using Chameleon's shapeshifting, leading to Sorceror Binky letting slip the real location of the emperor just as Pet Force arrives.

Another fight ensues--see, now it's really a superhero story--and the Lizards leave again 2 and 0. This time Snake uses his venomous fangs to attack Starlena. This leads to the weirdest contrivance yet. Maybe not the worst, but definitely the weirdest. They have only minutes to save Starlena. So how do they do it? Well, they notice that Odious drools quite a lot. It's very "fluid output". So they have Binky magically reverse Odious' drooling, so that he has "fluid input" on his tongue instead. It becomes a big suction sponge and sucks the poison out of Starlena. They then restore the drooling, and he just harmlessly drools out the poison. What.

With their teammate saved, Pet Force pursues the Lethal Lizards to Funlandia. They get there just in time to rescue Emperor Jon from their clutches, with Garzooka and Odious combining their strength to literally rip a kiddie ride out of the ground. Starlena corners Chameleon in a hall of mirrors, turning his own trick against him. Snake is undone by Odious' strength. And Garzooka fights Dragon to a standstill, finally trapping all three on a roller coaster still operating. When the ride comes to an end, Abnermal freezes them all until the authorities can retrieve them.

Naturally, Emperor Jon thinks it's all part of the show (because Jon is dimwitted in any universe). The Lizards are sent to a lizard-proof prison (seriously, it specifies this), and Pet Force returns to their own universe. As usual, Jon didn't notice his pets go missing during the dark amusement park ride. The book concludes on an ominous note, however, as the ship carrying the Lethal Lizards makes its jump to lightspeed just as it passes the Floating Fortress of Fear. The shockwave knocks over some debris that reactivates the combining machine, restoring Vetvix to her full evil might once more!

The end!

No, really. Those five books are all there was. I hear it may have continued into the comics, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I didn’t really look into it.

But boy, what a ride, huh? Let’s dissect the books one at a time, since it only seems fair to take them as individual stories.

The Outrageous Origin: It’s a fairly basic origin story, I’d say. It kind of has to be. I guess my main gripe is that, like Rita Repulsa’s entire run on Power Rangers, the heroes never fight the main villain directly. In fact, there’s barely even an evil plot in this one. You have henchmen and some traps, and that’s about it for the menace.

Pie-Rat’s Revenge: A cautionary tale about why you treat your minions with respect. This one’s pretty good, but the events depicted on the cover make up such a small part of the book. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if Garzooka was turned at the beginning of the story? Book 4 would at least do the reverse of that, so it’s not a major complaint~

K-Niner, Dog of Doom: I think this one’s about as middle of the road as you can get. What a coincidence that it’s also the middle of the series! Like I said in the recap portion, it’s a shame that Pie-Rat’s story ended here. This one definitely feels more “villain of the week” than most.

Menace of the Mutanator: This one might be the best book in the series. Garzooka, alone, battling against the best parts of his team? That’s gripping stuff. I guess the main problem is that the Mutanator isn’t really a character in and of themselves. Like, K-Niner, he may have been a generic rent-a-villain type, but he had a personality. Mutanator is little more than an extention of Vetvix’s will.

Attack of the Lethal Lizards: I’m a bit split on this one. The bits with the titular Lizards are great. They steal the show! But the parts where it focuses on either Jon kind of drag, and Pet Force is a bit too jokey here. Like, I get the point is that they’ve relaxed into their roles now, and there’s not much point of doing it as a Garfield story if they don’t actually use the character personalities, but... I dunno. It’s good, but it could have been better~

And that’s it! Like, I dunno how to wrap this up. Pet Force was neither my first exposure to superheroes nor my first introduction to the Garfield brand (you can thank Saturday morning cartoons for both of those). But for some reason, maybe just the absurdly goofy premise, it always kinda stuck with me. And I think that’s a good enough reason to make it my 10th anniversary review, don’t you~?

[bluenet13]

Hay Amor en Todas Partes (Part 2/2)

Written for @badthingshappenbingo

Fandom: 9-1-1: Lone Star

Characters: T.K. Strand, Carlos Reyes, Firehouse 126 Crew (basically everyone is here)

Prompt: Losing Their Temper

Summary: After a night out, Carlos and TK encounter two men with nothing good to say. When tempers flare, punches fly, chaos ensues, and two become six, leaving Carlos and TK at their mercy.

Chapter 1

Links: ff.net - AO3

Judd and Grace were tangled together on the couch watching a movie when Judd's phone rang. Frowning, he grabbed it and looked at Grace in confusion, showing her the name on the screen. Confusion on both their faces, because sure, both Judd and Grace were friends with the officer but he rarely called them.

"Reyes?" Judd said, instantly putting the call on speaker. "Carlos, you there? TK?"

A grunt could be heard from the other end and the couple shared a puzzled look. "Is this some kind of joke?" Judd asked, managing to sound only mildly exasperated.

"Should we call TK?" Grace inquired, moving to her phone already.

Hearing another groan, and shuffling on the other side, Judd's features twisted to mild disgust. "Do you think they… are they-?" Judd cut himself short, shaking his head, not even wanting to think about what he could be hearing, and moved to end the call.

"Judson, wait," Grace directed, her hand coming to rest over his. "Turn the volume all the way up. I don't think this is an accidental call." And never one to question his wife, Judd did as directed.

While Judd spent his days saving lives in the physical world, Grace spent hers helping people through a phone, and nobody was better at her job than her. So now, she closed her eyes and listened. Opening them again and looking at her husband with horror in her eyes as soon as they both recognized the distinct sound of fists and feet connecting with a body, and various accompanying pained gasps and grunts.

"Carlos what the hell is going on? Where are you? We're coming to help," Judd screamed into the phone, but no response came. Then a gruff voice softly spoke, but it sounded far away so they could only make out the word 'alley'.

"Grace, call 9-1-1. Then call the crew, I want to stay on the line with Carlos," Judd directed, turning to his wife, even as he ran to their room to get a jacket and some shoes. "And don't bother calling TK, I'm sure whatever is happening they're together."

When Judd came back to the living room, Grace was already standing by the door, dressed and ready to go, keys already in her hand and phone pressed to her ear.

"Where do you think you're going?" Judd breathed out.

"To help. TK might be your teammate, but he and Carlos are my friends too. Let's go," Grace left no room for argument, and opened the door, not waiting for Judd to follow, just knowing that he would.

And so he did.

-x-x-x-

Carlos Reyes has always known he would die alone. It was a fact he had accepted the very day he enrolled in the police academy. And he had made peace with that notion, even if he wasn't fond of the idea. But right now, he cursed inwardly, because he had much rather die alone than face the possibility of TK dying alongside him, or even worse, instead of him.

TK Strand had almost died more than a few times, and long ago he had already questioned and accepted his own mortality, but he had never made peace with the idea of losing people close to him. And there was no one he wanted to lose less than Carlos Reyes, so right now, he stilled his nerves and told himself he would welcome death like an old friend, hoping destiny would see it as an invitation and chose to take him instead.

When the shot ran out, TK and Carlos both flinched. Hands unclasping as they both waited for the pain. Eyes going simultaneously wide as they reached the same conclusion when none came. Both, cop and paramedic, were too scared to turn around to their boyfriend and what they would find there, so instead they just closed their eyes and waited. Until the sounds of sirens gave them the little push they needed to continue being brave and turn to each other.

Simultaneous smiles reached their lips as they saw the other one was okay, and Carlos and TK collapsed in an embrace. Holding each other up, both hanging on for dear life.

Footsteps coming close broke the hug, and Carlos and TK fumbled and stumbled as they both tried to push the other behind. Neither sure of the upcoming threat, just focused on protecting their boyfriend. But the attempt was unnecessary because they were finally safe.

Aaron laid on the ground in front of them, blood pouring out from a sniper round to his head, and the other five men had disappeared, but most likely were currently being rounded by APD, if the blinking red and blue lights in every direction were any indication.

"Are you guys okay?" Marjan asked first.

"What the hell happened?" Judd added not a second later.

"Paramedics are on route," Grace directed, phone still pressed to her ear.

"Come on let us help you," Paul offered, holding out his hand.

"You both look like hell," Mateo said, because he just couldn't help himself.

TK and Carlos looked up and away from Aaron's body, to see their friends, their family, surrounding them. Everyone was there, Judd, Grace, Paul, Marjan, Mateo, even Nancy. All looking nervous and sounding more than a little bit breathless.

"What? Uh? How?" TK fumbled with the words, staring at the group with wide and still slightly frantic green eyes. "How did you find us?" He finally managed to whisper.

"You have to thank your boy over there," Judd drawled, his hands closed into fists at his sides.

Turning to Carlos, TK raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"When, when they were focused on you, I took out my phone and tried to contact Judd. I couldn't send a message so I just left the call open. I thought of calling 9-1-1 but you never know who's going to get that call and if they're going to take something like this seriously. Besides, I already knew where the best operator in town was," Carlos explained, smiling shyly at Grace. "But I wasn't sure it had even worked. Sean was standing over me and I couldn't see the screen well," Carlos finished with a breathy laugh, one of pure relief.

"It worked, alright," Judd said proudly, "but what the hell happened?"

Both Carlos and TK deflated at that, neither wanting to relive the experience. But their friends deserved to know, especially because they had all paused their lives to be here, so they took turns telling the story. From the moment they left the bar until just now when the 126 rescued them from almost certain death.

"Bastards," Paul hissed, eyes darkened.

"I would kill him myself if he wasn't already dead," Judd mumbled, staring at Aaron's lifeless body, and only managed to look slightly regretful when Grace whispered a stern 'Judson'.

"I hope the other five rot in prison," Nancy said under her breath, and everyone else nodded.

"Damn, that sucks, dude. That's why you shouldn't go out without adult supervision," Mateo teased lightly.

"Not that you are that much of an adult, probie. But you're right. No more bars or nightclubs unless the crew is there," Marjan added with finality.

Still shaken and in pain, Carlos and TK couldn't help but laugh because their friends were truly something. But they wouldn't have it any other way.

"Can we go home, baby?" TK asked after a moment of silence, turning to his boyfriend.

"Yeah, we can," Carlos whispered, pushing TK's hair back and kissing him on the forehead, where a bruise was already forming.

"Uh no, you're both going to the hospital," Judd interjected.

"But -" Both TK and Carlos tried to say.

"No buts, if it was only one of you that was hurt, we all know the other one wouldn't have it any other way. So no arguing now, and just do as we say," Paul said, leaving no room for argument.

TK just pouted and tried to give the team his best puppy eyes but they were seemingly immune to his charm by now because they all shook their heads and turned around.

"Come on, Ty. We can make a date out of it," Carlos offered, groaning as he lifted himself from the ground and extended his hand to TK.

Taking it, TK kissed Carlos' bruised knuckles and mouthed a silent 'thank you'. Then let himself be pulled off the ground as they walked to the waiting ambulance, their weight supported in between Judd and Paul, the rest of the crew instinctively moving to surround them from all sides, enclosing the couple in a protective circle.

-x-x-x-

The next few hours were spent in the ER, both TK and Carlos going for countless x-rays, and scans. But in the end, their injuries were deemed to be painful and bothersome, but not life threatening. So when it was nearing 5 in the morning, they were finally discharged with clear instructions to take it easy, rest for the next few days, and come back if any of their symptoms or injuries worsened.

"Ready to go home?" Carlos asked TK as he helped him close the bottoms on his shirt. Thankful the team had brought them clean clothes so they didn't have to wear the bloody and dirty ones.

"I have never been more ready," TK said sincerely, pushing Carlos' hand away. "But, I'm not the one with three cracked ribs, I can dress myself."

"Yeah, but you're the one with two broken fingers, and a sprained wrist," Carlos said matter-of-factly.

"Can we stop comparing scars and get the hell out of here?" Paul deadpanned from the door, then turned around to shout something towards the waiting room. "They're decent guys, you're good to come in."

Carlos blushed and TK rolled his eyes, parting his lips to say something, but his attempt was interrupted as the rest of the 126 came into the room. Conversation flowing easily as if they had all been together in the room for the past few hours.

"Besides, I think we can all agree you both look like hell," Marjan added helpfully, the rest of the team nodding their agreement. Their words teasing, but their eyes betraying the concern and anger they were all feeling.

"What are you guys still doing here?" TK asked, ignoring their jokes, because he had already looked at himself in the mirror, and knew exactly how he looked.

"It's been hours, you should have gone home," Carlos agreed.

"Did you guys really think we would leave you alone after what happened?" Paul asked incredulously.

"Yes?" TK shrugged, but smiled at them anyways. "There's these helpful apps called Uber or Lyft if you guys didn't know, we would have called one."

"Dude, what's the point of having friends if you have to rideshare home from the hospital?" Mateo said softly, then looked uncomfortable when all eyes turned to him.

"Probie is right," Marjan said with a smile, clapping Mateo on the shoulder, "you guys are family and family don't let each other take an Uber from the hospital."

"Much less after getting the crap beat out of you by racist and homophobic assholes," Paul added under his breath, looking ready to murder someone if he could get his hands on any of the six men who attacked his friends.

"What's taking so long?" Judd popped his head inside the room, cutting all conversation short. "Come on, let's go. Tommy and Owen will meet us at your house."

Hearing his dad's name TK groaned and silently wondered if it was too late to ask his doctor to admit him for the night. Carlos picked up on his anxiety, and took his hand and squeezed softly.

"Did you really have to call him?" TK couldn't help but ask, "tonight, I mean. Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow?" He amended after everyone glared at him.

"Of course we had, we didn't all want to lose our jobs," Marjan said with a shrug, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably. Everyone was rattled, and no one was doing a good job of hiding it.

"At least this time it really wasn't your fault that you got hurt, so maybe Cap will take it better," Mateo offered, but even he sounded like he didn't believe his words.

"Or he might just finally decide to bubble wrap TK so he stops getting hurt," Nancy proposed, "I know Tommy and I were talking about it after the whole kidnapping incident."

"That actually sounds like a great idea," Carlos perked up at that.

"Shut up, Reyes, you're in the hospital too," TK mumbled.

"Behave boys," Grace said softly, in her best 9-1-1 dispatcher tone, calm and collected but firm in her opinion. "You know Captain Strand worries about you, TK. We waited to call him and Tommy after we knew more of what was happening, but we did after the doctor spoke to us. If it was the other way around and Owen was hurt, you would have wanted us to call you too."

"Thanks, Grace," Carlos breathed out, while TK only nodded, "actually, thank you all. We don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up with half the cops in the city." He did know, but he didn't want to voice those words. Instead choosing to end with his attempt at a joke.

"No need to thank us," Nancy said, stepping from the back of the room for the first time, "took me long enough to break Strand in after the last fiasco and parade of potential paramedics. I just can't deal with a new partner. And I'm sure your partner feels the same, Reyes."

Everyone laughed at that, but it never reached their eyes. T.K. and Carlos were okay now, but the events of the night would remain with them for some time. For now, the crew would just be there for their friends in whatever way they needed, and hope their love was enough to chase away any memories of what Aaron and his men had said and done.

-x-x-x-

Reaching their house a half hour later, Carlos and TK stepped out of Marjan's car with a groan, awkwardly leaning against the door and each other as they tried to steady themselves. Quickly getting out of his truck and the Camaro, respectively, Judd, and Paul ran to their friends, each setting one of their arms over their shoulders as they helped them to the front door.

Reaching the porch, Carlos smiled and TK groaned as Tommy, Owen, Gabriel and Andrea came into view, all of them instantly crowding the boys, fussing over them, asking questions, and offering to help. But thankfully, Paul took pity on them and respectfully pushed everyone away, sharing the doctor's words and reminding all their friends and family that Carlos and TK needed to rest.

As soon as they made it inside their home, they collapsed on the couch, both in pain but content to be in each other's arms and surrounded by their families and best friends. Once they were all settled around the living room, Owen handed them their prescriptions with two bottles of water, staying in front of them for an extra second as he looked them up and down. Seemingly satisfied with what he found, Owen nodded, squeezed both Carlos and TK's shoulders and stepped away. But visual confirmation wasn't enough for Tommy and Nancy as they insisted on checking the boys over, for their own benefit and mental peace. Gabriel and Andrea, for their part, went straight to the kitchen, setting bags on the counter and containers on the fridge. When they came back into the room, Carlos thanked his parents and hugged them both, silently wondering when his mother even had time to cook all that or if maybe she just had a stack of comfort food lying around on the fridge ready to go next time disaster struck.

Everyone then shared some small talk before they all left the house an hour later. The crew promising to be back on their next day off so they could play some video games or board games, while Owen and Andrea offered to return the next morning to make sure they were alright and help them around the house, and Gabriel vowed to get the Rangers on the case so these men could never attack or harass anyone ever again.

-x-x-x-

"Are you okay?" Carlos asked eventually, once they were finally alone in their bedroom, both just wearing boxers and a towel over their shoulders as they continued to air dry their damp bodies.

"Not really," TK said honestly, head tilting sideways as he looked at Carlos thoughtfully. The shower had helped, but it hadn't been enough to erase all the fears and worries after the night they just had. "But I will be. What about you?"

"Pretty much the same, but mostly just worried about you," Carlos admitted softly, fingers carding through TK's hair as Carlos stepped in between his legs, while TK sat on the bed.

"Why? I didn't go through this alone. It didn't just happen to me," TK explained, moving his hands to Carlos' hips and pulling him closer.

"Yeah, but I feel like it's my job to protect you. And I failed at it," Carlos said simply, eyes darkening as he felt the plastic splint on TK's wrist brush against his skin.

"Why, because you're a cop?" TK wondered.

"Because I'm your boyfriend."

"And I'm yours," TK said easily, "so that means we protect each other."

Carlos nodded, but still looked unconvinced.

"I'm a big boy, Carlos. I can handle some homophobic and racist assholes," TK tried next.

"But you shouldn't have to," Carlos whispered. His fingers now softly running over the bruise on TK's temple.

"And you shouldn't either. No one deserves something like this. But, sadly, these things happen," TK said with a shrug. "And I know that doesn't make it better, but it's just the way it is."

"It sucks." Carlos sighed, because it did and there was nothing else to say.

"It sure does. But we will be okay. We just need to go about this like we do everything else, we handle it together and move forward as a team. No need for you to take the weight of the world on your shoulders alone. Not when you have someone to bear it with you." TK moved his hands from Carlos' hips to his back, softly running his fingers over the tense spots and knots around his boyfriend's shoulder blades. It was a bit awkward with broken fingers and a splint, but like everything, they made it work.

Carlos hummed his agreement and closed his eyes, taking a moment to enjoy the comfort his boyfriend was so graciously gifting him, even when he was hurt too. After a few minutes, Carlos opened his eyes again, instantly getting lost in the green of TK's gaze, and his body naturally leaned forward. TK easily met him in the middle, their lips connecting in a sweet kiss.

TK's hands left Carlos' back to wrap around his body, pulling him closer as they slowly deepened the kiss. Lips parting in simultaneous invitations, but the moment was short lived as TK hugged a little too hard and Carlos groaned against his lips. His injured ribs protesting the movement even when his heart leaped in his chest.

"You're hurt," TK breathed out, stepping out of his boyfriend's space and limping to the bathroom, a smile gracing his face after hearing Carlos' little whimper at the loss of contact. "Lie down," he directed when he returned a minute later, supplies in hand.

Carlos raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "I would love nothing more but I think we're in no physical condition for that."

"Ha, ha." TK waved the bottle of 'Arnicare' in his hand, before pointing to the bed.

Carlos nodded and carefully sat on the bed. Then took a few steadying breaths before he fell back on the mattress. Barely suppressed grunts and a wince escaping as the movement pulled at his tired and sore muscles.

Moving forward TK put some of the cream on Carlos' abdomen and began rubbing softly, mindful of the broken ribs and bruises that were already visible on his skin. "Just relax," TK said softly, feeling Carlos tense under his touch. "I won't hurt you."

"I know," Carlos said honestly. TK could never, would never. But the memories of what happened at the bar were still fresh on his mind. So, he moved his hand to TK and set his palm over his thigh. And only then could he really relax. His heart needing the physical connection as much as the sight of his boyfriend standing in front of him.

When TK finished with the cream, he wiped his hands on the towel and left the room. Returning soon after with two ice packs, one which he set over the worst of the purple coloring his boyfriend's skin, and the other one over his own temple. He then turned off the lights and climbed into his side of the bed.

Wordlessly, Carlos shuffled closer and set his hand over his boyfriend's chest, letting the steady beat of TK's heart ground him and calm his own. "Thank you," he whispered eventually, hoping the simple message conveyed more than just gratitude. He wanted it to mean 'I love you', 'if I had to go through this I'm glad it is with you', 'I'm sorry you had to hear those things and get hurt', and so much more. But his words were failing him tonight, so he settled for the two words that would always be true.

"Anytime," TK mumbled, voice laced with sleep. "But Carlos, promise me one thing?"

"Anything," Carlos offered easily.

"Next time this happens, because we both know it likely will," he began, but quickly backtracked, "I hope not the beating part, but the insults. Promise me that when, if, it happens again, you won't try to defend my honor." His words were serious, but Carlos sensed the smile that was on his lips. "You looked damn hot when you punched the bastard on the face, but -"

Carlos chuckled at that, knowing that losing his temper had only made things worse, even when he had done his best to keep TK under control. But still, he promised nothing. Because as certain as he was that something like that could happen again, he was also confident that he would always defend TK. From homophobic and racist men, or anything else that threatened his boyfriend. And TK seemed to know and understand because he didn't press the issue any further. Mostly because he would do the same thing. Anytime and any day.

"But thank you," TK did say, his hand seeking Carlos' and intertwining their fingers together, before he moved it to his lips and pressed a kiss over his knuckles.

"Anytime, and always," Carlos echoed his boyfriend, before ending on a promise of his own. Then he inhaled a deep breath, taking it all in. "I love you, Ty." The words flowing more easily this time.

"Love you, too."

The previous night might not have gone like they expected, but they had made it through. And now Carlos and TK simply continued to bask in their love. Because love could take many shapes and forms, and it sometimes happened in bed after a night of dancing at the bar, but other times it just entailed taking care of one another, and shared bruise cream and ice packs.

Snuggled against each other, and content, TK and Carlos eventually fell asleep. Because even when the world was at its darkest, the actions of their friends, families and each other had shown them that there was still love everywhere around them. Most people just had to look hard enough to find it, but for Carlos and TK finding it would always be the easy part. Since their love was a simple fact, a constant, and a reality that was as true as breathing.

[moonworm36]

STORY TIME!

Okay. A smidge of background, I work at Chick-fil-a, and I have for almost a year now. I know the place well. Taking orders in drive through is a nice spot to be. Most people are perfectly lovely. I’ve only had three or four genuinely mean customers come through.

Two days ago, around 1:20 in the afternoon, I’m in the drive through. It’s a pretty slow day. I’ve just clocked in a few minutes ago. I had a bit of an off morning, so I’m slightly on edge. Nothing I can’t handle once I get into my routine. I send my current car down the line and get ready for the next one.

The next car pulls up. Stops. And the man inside SCREAMS at me.

Not with words. No, this unholy screech is so far beyond meaning that the neanderthals predating language itself would scratch their heads and shrug. It very nearly shatters the eardrum pressed under my headset. I do what any self-respecting deer would do when confronted with such a catastrophic violation of my personal peace of mind; I freeze. I cannot fathom what has possessed this person to let lose a sound such as that, much less form words to inform him of its egregious and offensive nature. 

Before I have a hope of formulating an appropriate emotional response, the man shrieks a second time, just as loudly as the first. Someone has taken an industrial fire alarm and surgically replaced the vocal chords or this menace to innocent service workers with a noisemaker that would not be out of place in a nuclear meltdown. A third shrilling cry eviscerates the microphone.

Someone, may they live to regret this day with every fiber of their being, is in the passenger seat of the car giggling. They have the audacity to not only endure the siren without complaint, but to actively enjoy the auditory torture their driver is inflicting on others. This time, my thoughts have regrouped into a large enough cluster to produce anger.

What is wrong with this man, I wonder, that he finds amusement in this? Is he so unaware of others that he has forgotten there is a person behind the speaker that so lovingly provides him with sustenance? Does he expect to be screamed at in return? Perhaps he has traveled long and far from some distant planet, where this is considered an acceptable greeting. 

Confronted with the most absurd and abusive display of dominance I have ever encountered in a restaurant setting, I revert to my most basic training. I am inwardly seething, but my voice is calm and level as I politely welcome him to our establishment and offer my assistance.

Instantly, a switch is flipped. Though the giggling continues, the perpetrator of this infernal cacophony responds at a reasonable volume in perfectly normal English, then proceeds to order food. I am left with a mangled conglomeration of a failed fight-or-flight response, suppressed rage, and a customer service voice that has by some cursed miracle overridden the other two and is now asking him if he would like any sauces.

I still do not know what caused him to take up the mantle of drive-through yodeling, and I hope for the sake of my co-workers that he will take it off again with all due haste. I doubt I will ever have any inkling of his reasoning, unless by some strange twist of fate I stumble across a TikTok he filmed documenting the cruel experiment. If such a video does exist, I would very much like to read the comments section, and I hope it would be filled with declarations of sympathy for the unfortunate employee who was subjected to such an experience. It took me over an hour to recover my good humor, and I can only pray that this was not a typical example of this man’s behavior.

To any worker he may encounter in the future, please give him a telling-off from me that will leave his ears as bruised as his ego.

[beautifulmadnesss]

“Make Peace With Your Feelings” JJ Imagine Part 5

Summary: Olivia is the younger sister of John B and has always followed along with the Pogues. JJ was like a second brother to her and often crashed at their place. She really struggles after her fathers disappearance and she starts to self destruct, even JJ is having a hard time getting through to her.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Neither of us really said anything on the boat ride back to our house. I didn’t want to admit that seeing the Royal Merchant gave me hope that dad might actually be out there and John B was disappointed about not finding the gold. Of course as soon as we walked in the door our social worker was waiting for us. John B immediately started rambling and talking his way out of it, while I just watched, resigned to our fate. We were stupid to think there was anything we could do to stop it. 

“Just shut up.” I told him after a minute. “We’re being split up and there is nothing we can do about it. Let’s just go pack our shit.” I didn’t wait for his response, I just went to my room and shut the door. 

“I’m sorry Olivia, but you have to keep the door open,” Sheryl said, standing in the now open doorway. I just scoffed and went back to shoving random shit in my bag. I thought about trying to sneak some alcohol while Sheryl wasn’t looking, but one glance at her told me that wasn’t going to work. I grabbed the photo of my dad holding me and my brother on the beach when we were little and followed Sheryl and the Sheriff out to the car. 

We weren’t far out of the driveway when John B caught my eye. He was holding the picture of dad he had near the open window. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to tell me, but I watched him as he purposefully let the picture fall out the window and made a show of it. 

“Please, you have to stop the car, it’s all I have left. Please!” He begged and surprisingly Sheryl gave in and told the deputy to pull over. He got out to look for it and John B asked if he could help. This time she didn’t immediately give in but after a moment she unlocked the door. John B smiled at me and quickly motioned to his seatbelt. I finally caught on and unhooked mine at the same time he did his, grabbing my bag in my other hand. He opened his door and bolted out. I knew I couldn't make it around the car and it’d be harder to catch us if we split up, so I ran the opposite way of him out my door and headed for JJ’s place. 

I didn’t stop running until I made it to where he and Pope were talking behind the shed. 

“What the hell did you do? Running from the cops?” JJ teased. 

“Actually yeah. Social worker showed up to take us into foster care, so I guess I’m officially a fugitive.” 

“Okay well Kiara is making us go to that summer beach movie so you can come to that, incognito.” he put his hat on my head and then took a step back. “After you shower.” I glared at him. 

“Sorry I didn’t have time to do my hair and makeup while being kicked out of my house and fleeing from child services.” 

“I’m kidding,” he said as Kiara pulled up. Pope headed to the car and I went to follow, but JJ stopped me. “I know I ask you this all the time and you hate it, but-”

“I’m fine. We avoided foster care for now, but eventually we’re going to have to do more than just keep running. I don’t even have anywhere to stay.” I looked up at him hopefully, but he quickly looked away. 

“I’m sure you can crash with Kie. Have a slumber party and shit,” his teasing tone did little to cover the tension. His dad was a drunk and barely around. I knew he was caught up in some shady stuff, but I still didn’t get why he wouldn’t offer to let me stay with him. 

“Yeah, of course.” I replied sourly. He sighed and started to say something else, but I just hopped in the front seat of the car, throwing my bag on the floor. Kiara looked over at me questioningly, but I just put my feet on the dash and looked out the window. 

Part of me thought I was being irrational. Just because he’s my boyfriend or whatever didn’t mean he needed to let me stay at his house, but I was also pissed that he was just trying to pass me off. He only seemed to care about me when it was convenient for him. I just felt alone. 

“Aren’t you guys glad I made you come?” Kiara asked as she set her chair down in the grass. Pope shifted uncomfortably, glancing around like a paranoid freak and JJ was just watching me. ��Okay, well I’m going to go get some drinks,” she said awkwardly, though none of us were really listening. 

JJ sat on the blanket next to me as soon as she walked away. “I’m sorry about earlier. I just,” he paused and bit his lip. “I know I can be kind of a dick sometimes and I act like I’m this ladies man-” I was unable to suppress a giggle at that and he bumped my shoulder with his teasingly. “Okay, fine, but what I’m trying to say is that even if I act like I don’t care sometimes, you are the only girl I’ve ever liked and now that you’re my girlfriend, I don’t want to screw it up.” 

My heart was racing and my stomach was doing so many flips I could barely concentrate on what I was trying to say, so I just leaned in and softly kissed him. 

“So I just ran into Rafe,” Kiara interrupted, collapsing into her chair. I tensed up, immediately looking around for him. After scanning the crowd for a few moments I found him sitting in the back with Topper and Kelce. He caught my eye and winked at me making my skin crawl. “I’m sorry JJ tell me that you didn’t bring a gun here, there are children.” Kiara growled. I had clearly missed some of the conversation as JJ was now holding up his bag to Pope who looked terrified. 

I turned away from JJ who was still arguing with Kiara to accuse Pope, “you swore you wouldn’t say anything.” I whispered angrily. 

“I didn’t!”

“Then why did JJ bring a gun here and is freaking out about Rafe?” He contemplated for a second too long, so I smacked his arm. “Pope, I trusted you!”

He blurted out, “JJ and I went back after we dropped you off and sunk Toppers boat.” 

“Are you insane?” I didn’t bother to control my volume this time. 

“What the hell did you guys do?” Kiara cut in. 

Pope leaned across my lap to get closer to Kiara, “it might go down tonight,” he said ominously. 

“What does that mean?” She asked just as the movie started to play, removing the chance for either of them to answer, but I heard JJ whispering deny to Pope. 

A few minutes into the movie JJ grabbed put his arm around me and after a little while I relaxed against his chest, smiling to myself. Maybe I was overreacting earlier. 

“JJ, I gotta go.” Pope whispered over halfway into the movie. “They’re blocking the bathroom.” He added in a panicked voice after looking back at the three boys who were definitely strategically placed so that they would have to walk by them to go to the bathroom. 

“Okay, uh, follow me.” JJ removed his arm and stood up in a crouch. 

“Where are you going?” I asked. 

He didn’t know that Pope told me why the kooks were pissed at them, so he was clearly anxious. “Going to wring it out.” 

Kiara scoffed, “what are you going to do hold it for each other?” They didn’t answer, just walked over to the trees behind the screen. 

Kiara was trying to watch the movie, but I just kept watching the edges of the screen waiting for them to come back. Rafe honestly terrified me and I felt more vulnerable than I cared to admit without JJ. 

“Kie, we gotta go.” I said nervously as I saw Topper disappear behind the screen where JJ and Pope were.

She followed my eyes, “do you know why they're freaking out?” 

“Yeah, but I don’t have time to explain, we have to go now.” My fear only intensified when I went to stand up and hit my foot against JJ’s bag. “Shit.” 

I grabbed the bag, sliding it over my bag and as quickly as possible without drawing attention to us followed the path to where the boys were. Once we were close enough to hear the grunts of pain I broke into a run. 

Kelce was holding JJ by his elbows while Rafe sent blow after blow into his stomach. Without thinking I jumped on the back of Kelce and reached down to pry his hands off JJ. In my peripheral vision, I saw Kiara pick up JJ’s bag that had fallen off my shoulder and use it to hit Topper who was wailing on Pope. Kelce reached down to pull me off him, successfully making him let go of JJ who was then able to fight back against Rafe. I wouldn’t let go, I just kept hitting him wherever I could while hooking my feet against his stomach. Suddenly, I felt his momentum moving backward and was confused until I felt the air leave my lungs as he propelled both of us back into a tree. I fell down and Kelce went back to pinning JJ in place so Rafe could beat the shit out of him. Kiara and Pope were fighting against Topper, who was choking Pope. 

I heard JJ let out a grunt of pain. I was completely helpless and furious until I spotted JJ’s bag on the ground. The gun. I reached into the bag and pulled it out. It felt heavier than I expected. My heart was pounding against my chest and seemed to echo with the sounds of the fight. Was I really going to shoot someone? 

“Stop it!” Kiara screamed. “You’re killing them.” 

I shoved the gun back into the bag and pulled out the lighter instead, fumbling with it to get it to light. Finally the flame sparked and I tilted the lighter so it would ignite the screen. Once it took hold, it spread fast. 

Screams echoed in the background and I grabbed the bag before scrambling over to where the fight was breaking apart. JJ and Pope were both gasping for air while Rafe, Topper, and Kelce were retreating while still calling out threats that it wasn’t over. 

“Are you okay?” I asked JJ, offering him my hand. 

“Yeah,” he coughed. “Nice one.” He nodded at the screen that was being quickly devoured by the flames. 

We walked over to collect the rest of our things with Pope and Kiara as sirens crept closer and closer. Pope got in the front with Kiara, while I sat in the back with JJ. 

The whole ride to JJ and Pope’s houses, the three of them chatted about what happened and filled Kiara in, while I silently cried and tried to still my trembling hands. We were almost there by the time JJ looked over at me and saw. 

“Liv, what’s wrong?” He asked quietly, although Kiara and Pope clearly noticed as well, but they kindly started a loud conversation between the two of them. 

“I was going to do it,” I choked out. “I was going to kill him.”

JJ moved closer to me and held me tightly. I completely broke down, terrified of what I had just confessed. Rafe was horrible, but if I was willing to kill him when there were other options, what did that make me?

[rottenheartedchild]

Witch of Songs

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here so here's the latest Bayonetta oc using my Dragon Raja because 1. He deserves to have kickass demon/dragon powers and 2. I'm bi. Huge apologies for any mistakes in the bio, let me know so I can correct them.

Also the left pic is from kazmourner's picrew, https://picrew.me/image_maker/163761)

Character template is from Kaishos,https://www.deviantart.com/kaishos/art/character-profile-template-123273743)

General Information First name: Isidore Surname: D’Aramitz Age: 19(physically), 570(chronologically) Date of birth: 13/10/1442 Race: Umbran Witch Gender: Trans man Sexuality: Bisexual Demiromantic Current residence: Cassell College  Relationship status: Currently engaged to Durante Traits of Voice Accent (if any): Slight Marseille that thickens whenever his emotion get the best of him Language spoken: English Other languages known: Enochian, French, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, very few Mandarin, very little Japanese, Turkish Style of speaking: Casual, occasionally formal Volume of voice: Deep, soft and gentle Physical Appearance Height: 5′4″,162.6cm Weight: 73kg,161lb Eye color: Pink Skin color: Dark brown Distinguishing features: Star shaped birthmark on the back Build of body: Athletic Hair color: Black with blue highlights Complexion: Combination type Posture: Slightly hunched Tattoos: Oleander flowers wrapped all over the left arm Piercings: Gold studs on the ears Typical clothing: Combat boots, billowy shirts, suspenders, pleather pants, pastel dresses, fishnet stockings, Doc Martens, distressed jeans, baggy t-shirts, old sneakers, fur coats, windbreakers, crop tops, fingerless gloves, oversized hoodies, fingerless gloves, thigh high socks, stilettos. Personality Likes: Food, music, birds, forests, stargazing, books, history, libraries, abandoned buildings, new sights, adventure novels, beaches, poisonous plants, science, diy projects, cooking, making new songs, musicals, concerts, graffiti, motor racing. Dislikes: Tacky furniture, minimalist design, elitist fans, bad hair days, exhaust fumes, strong perfumes, overcooked steaks, mafias, upper crust parties, being ordered around, bigots, racists, boring classes, older men, predictability. Education: College  Fears: Christmas, dead bodies, sirens, crowds, being trapped in an empty room, doctors  Personal goals: To discover more about his past and kill everyone responsible for the Black Swan massacre. General attitude: Very chill and easygoing guy but incredibly terrifying once provoked. Religious values: Agnostic General intelligence: Above average, a quick learner General sociability: Ambivert

Health Allergies (if any): Dairy products, peanuts Sleeping habits: Is a light sleeper Energy level: Mostly high Eating habits: Extremely unbalanced Memory: Eidetic memories Any unhealthy habits: Starts smoking as a way to relieve stress, or when it gets too much to handle. History Birth country: France Hometown: Marseille Childhood: Lived a relatively normal childhood with his baby sister until he was awoken with the dark arts one day, his sister with the light. Fearing for their safety, their parents sent them away to both Lumen and Umbra Clans so they could hone their gifts. Teen years: Training under Ivan’s tutelage, Isidore’s talents blossomed as he managed to take down one of the Clan’s gifted fighter, albeit with difficulties. Soon he made a pact with Monsieur Phenex, a Great Marquis of Inferno. Adult years: Accomplished in his line of duty, his next task was to be the mentor for the Master Assassin’s youngest daughter, Malika, who reminded him of his own sister. At the time, both he and an Umbran soldier, Durante, fell in love and engaged after years of courtship. Past places of residence: Vigrid, Black Swan Bay orphanage Briefly explain life story: Isidore was once a talented Witch under Ivan’s command before the Clan War erupted and nearly wiped both sides out, him included. A desperate Durante carried his and Marisol’s bodies to a far off place before sealing them in a tomb, using his gift to regress their bodies to that of a child, hoping they would be saved. 500 years have passed, and their tomb was discovered by an archeologist, surprised to see two living children sleeping in an ancient tomb. Curiosity piqued, he took the children to a man named Herzog to be studied and soon, they were placed under his care.

As time goes by, the now 19 years old Isidore lives peacefully with other orphans and even gets excited at the upcoming Christmas party when he found out Renata’s plan to ask Z as her partner. All of that were destroyed when bombs dropped out of nowhere and in his last moments was Renata pushing both him and his sister into the sea, begging them to live on. 20 passed and they woke up in a new place called Cassell College. The incident still fresh in his mind, he vow to kill every single monsters who murdered the orphan while trying to figure out those haunting scenes inside his head. Relationships Parents: Oscar D’Aramitz(deceased), Kahina Adebayo(deceased) Siblings: Marisol, Renata/Zero(adopted) Any enemies: Dr.Herzog/Osho, Bondarev/Masamune for the deaths in Black Swan Bay, the Laguna for the destruction of the Umbran clan. Friends: Erii, Aruna, Nono, Misaki, Satoshi, Johann Best friend(s): Chime, Tuncay, Aisya, Malika Important friends/relatives (explain): Ivan(His former mentor and the one who taught him how to fight), Salwa(Ivan’s wife and master of espionage Love interest (if there is one): Durante, Monsieur Phenex Combat Peaceful or violent: Peaceful, he only uses violence when it’s appropriate  Weapon (if applicable): Two pairs of guns named after the children of Persephone, a scythe that can be folded into a guitar containing the soul of a fallen angel and a sphere which uses his energy to manipulate time and heal injuries. Style of fighting: a mix between capoeira , krav maga, savate, boxing, bokator and stick-fighting. Others Occupation: Student by day, indie performer by night. After graduation, he became a bounty hunter while performing in cities and campuses. Current home: Cassell college Favourite types of food: Anything savory, spicy and sour. Favourite types of drink: fruit juices and herbal tea. Hobbies/past times: Strumming his guitar, catching up with the latest events, volunteering at shelters, doing music videos, watching YouTube videos, trying out recipes, sketching, crafting, documenting plants, napping, playing video games with his sister, bird watching, foraging, gossiping with people. Guilty pleasures: Erotic novels, late night snacking, staying up late to watch livestreams, consuming copious amount of jams and spreads. Pet peeves: When people didn’t finish their food, the sound of chalkboard being scratched, strangers touching him out of nowhere, being underestimated, going on unplanned trips, noodles not cooked right. Pets: Bebe (Citron cockatoo), Astro (African Grey parrot), Marmalade and Cream (cockatiel), Onyx (crow)

[hiirunakaarchive]

– to act in haste (3)

↳ Facts could never be disputed, but natural and insensible phenomenons like fate were fickle and ever-changing. Ethan hoped that maybe the outcome of this god-awful situation he was in right now could be fickle and ever-changing too.

↳  (pt 1), (pt 2), (pt 4)

◇ pairing: ethan ramsey x mc (haruna sakurai)

◇ genre: like 99.9% angst, 0.1% comedy (?) i hope that part of the story was funny man idk

◇ word count: 4.6k+

◇ tags: @aworldoffandoms, @perriewinklenerdie, @jooous​, @senseofduties​, @moteestro​, @anything-but-reality​

◇ author’s note: hey friends, i hope yall are staying safe and indoors during these strange times! classes have been moved online, so i’ve been writing and lo and behold –– part three to my series (which i finished a lot sooner that i expected :o) ! i was honestly writing this thinking it’d be the finale but the 10k word count was telling me smth else, so a FOURTH part is gonna be posted and THAT is gonna be the last one! also not to toot my own horn but i really, honestly, TRULY believe this third part is the best ive ever written, and i hope you guys like it as much as i do! like always, feedback is super appreciated and i’d be more than happy to add anyone to the tags! happy reading!

–

Dr. Ramsey was almost never wrong.

Almost.

And he hung on to that almost with a vice-like grip, that one in a million possibility that maybe this time, he could be wrong, and God, he had never wanted to be wrong so badly. But anyone with half a brain could put two and two together and figure out why his spiteful ex-lover stood in his office long after her shift had ended; white coat folded neatly and hugged against her chest with a sealed envelope at hand. Yet, despite knowing fully well what that letter being slid across his desk meant, he dared to challenge the inevitable truth. To let himself hope—

I could be wrong.

He took it in his hands carefully, and tore the envelope open.

Let it be wrong. Let it be wrong, let it be wrong, let it be-

”You’re resigning.”

He read it slowly and steadily, gathering himself with one long breath and the last sliver of calm he could find.

Over the course of the year, Haruna Sakurai had become some sort of a celebrity in Boston’s exclusive world of health care professionals, dubbed the perfect model to emulate in all aspects of being a doctor. She was as kind as she was intelligent, but unflinching in her righteous principles and a terrifying force to be reckoned with.

She was Edenbrook’s most valuable asset, yet the letter of resignation laying open on Ethan’s desk seemed to taunt him in ways that delved beyond a professional context. He regarded it hollowly, absorbing the great loss her departure would serve to the hospital, but also let his mind pathetically wander to the thought of where her resignation would leave the both of them.

It was silly and stupid, because they weren’t even romantically involved anymore. That tranquil period where they sat across from each other in comfortable silence, danced in his kitchen until they realized breakfast was burned, talked and laughed until they couldn’t breathe – it was such a distant memory that Ethan was convinced that it was nothing but a dream. 

It didn’t matter because she was slipping from him anyway.

“Losing you would be quite a blow to the hospital, Dr. Sakurai. Is there anything that would make you reconsider?” He had to be impartial. 

Convince her to stay. For the hospital, not for yourself, you selfish prick. No more of this lovesick nonsense.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her, and it was deplorable. The year Haruna spent on the fellowship had changed her. She stood taller, spoke louder, smiled wider, and Ethan convinced himself that losing her was a trivial price to pay for the success she so deserved. 

Haruna had grit her teeth and accepted his twisted gift, abandoning that whirlwind romance they had, and as compensation, acquired invaluable knowledge that no one could pry from her cold dead hands. She had so clearly moved on, thus, there was nothing left to do but for Ethan to make peace with it and follow suit. 

“I’m sorry, but my mind is set. It’s a...career move.”

Yet why did he still insist on making her stay?

“A career move? Dr. Sakurai, you do know that you’re employed at one of the best hospitals in the United States.” He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, and she rolled her eyes at his statement of the obvious.

“Of course I do, but our partnership with Panacea Labs has them trampling on every standard and principle that made Edenbrook one of the best in the first place.”

“I hate saying this as much as you hate hearing it, but that’s not something we can change.” Ethan sighed as he rubbed his temples. 

“I know, so I’m leaving before it disappoints me further.”

“Life in and of itself is a disappointment, Dr. Sakurai.” he argued. “We-“

“I’m going back to Japan.” She blurted.

Haruna bit her lip, bringing a hand to her face like it was a secret she meant to keep and just as suddenly as she said it, Ethan’s world stopped all at once. The clock that hung just above the entrance to his office stopped ticking. He saw Haruna’s lips moving as she continued to speak, but couldn’t hear a thing. Every joint in his body seemed to have froze and gone numb. Dead silence enveloped Dr. Ramsey to the deepest part of him that it could dig.

Dr. Sakurai’s confession rang in his ears like a siren, and Ethan wanted nothing more than to make it stop. The loss of what they had stung him to the point that he almost clutched at the imaginary ache of his chest, but despite that, he carried on. Seeing Haruna was never easy, but the dull sting at the sight of her served as a very real reminder that she wasn’t just a dream. That there once existed a period where Ethan loved a woman so much that he was no longer himself. She was real and tangible, and as long as she remained so, Ethan fooled himself into thinking he had a chance and the luxury of time in fixing what seemed to be irreparable.

You can’t fix this anymore. 

That cruel realization slapped him back to reality.

“-y parents are encouraging me to come home and work in their hospital. I’m hoping that it can offer me new and invaluable insight– Dr. Ramsey are you listening?”

Ethan lifted his gaze from the envelope on his desk and met her eyes. He stood from his office chair and planted his hands on the surface of the table, leaning forward.

“I’m listening. And what insight, pray tell, can the Sakurai Medical Centre give you that Edenbrook can’t?”

The tone of his voice adopted a subtle bitterness to which Haruna raised a brow. She uncrossed her arms, imitating Ethan’s pose and setting one hand parallel to his on top of his desk.

“It’s a new experience.” She responded impatiently, “A more challenging setting.”

“In the hospital that your parents own? How could that setting ever challenge you the same way we do here?” He continued to prod.

“In ways you couldn’t possibly hope to understand. Are we done here?”

“Not until you tell me the real reason why you’re resigning, Dr. Sakurai. You’ve made a name for yourself in this city, you’ve accomplished what thousands of doctors wished they could at your age. How could you leave that all behind?”

Here they were again, arguing, God, they were always arguing. Both of them were far too proud and far too stubborn to swallow their pride and back down. The only thing that seemed like a capable reminder to keep things civil was the mahogany desk that kept them mere inches apart. 

She placed a hand on her hip and leaned closer across the table.

“I think you’re taking things too personally, Dr. Ramsey.” Haruna accused.

She was close. Too close, and Ethan swallowed hard and realized he could never win against her.

He looked away, in denial. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Haruna scoffed.

“Really? Then look at me and tell me that I got this far so early into my career because of my own hard work. Tell me that every doctor in Boston would know my name even if you didn’t use your position to land me that spot on the diagnostics team even though I was in fourth place. Face it, Dr. Ramsey, you don’t want me to leave because it means that everything you did was for nothing.” She spat.

Ethan threw his hands up in aggravation. “Sakurai, this isn’t about me, god damn it! This is about you compromising a perfect career that–”

“You don’t know what it’s like!” She yelled, her voice resonating across the room. 

The sudden raise in volume took Ethan by surprise, and he bit back a response as Haruna scowled in an attempt to calm herself.

“You have no idea what it’s like...walking into that room everyday with doctors like you, June and Baz, and knowing that I’m not even supposed to be there. I come in here and see you and am just reminded that every bit of success I have now is because you loved me. Too damn much, if you ask me.” 

“You want to know the worst part of it all?” She laughed despite herself. “Acting like I didn’t enjoy every minute of that fellowship, when the truth is that I relished in it. I spent this entire year resenting you yet basking in all this knowledge and these opportunities that you gave me. Then I’d come in the next day and hate you a little less than I did the day before. One day, I woke up and realized that I probably never even hated you at all. If anything, I was...grateful.” She cringed as she said it, then looked at Ethan with contempt.

For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t directed at him, but at herself.

“Do you get it? I can’t keep working here, because the mere sight of you is proof that I’m just as greedy and self-serving as bastards like Declan Nash, and I’d sooner die than become a doctor so disgusting. If I can’t bring myself to hate you, then...” She trailed off and looked away, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

The revelation was all too much for Ethan to process, and his mind was riddled with questions. For over a year, he’d wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares of how she regarded him with immeasurable animosity. Was she trying to tell him that, that too, was a facade? A tense muscle in Dr. Ramsey’s jaw relaxed as he asked her quietly,

“Are you running from me, Haruna?”

“If I am?”

They looked at each other in a moment that seemed to end all too quickly, and the weight and meaning of what she said dawned on the both of them. Her eyes widened at the proclamation she mistakenly let slip and Dr. Sakurai snatched her letter of resignation from Ethan’s desk, starting towards the door.

“Never mind. Forget it.”

For a moment, he considered listening to her. To let her go like he’d always done. Every time they spoke, she always ended up leaving anyway. Ethan persuaded himself into believing that she was better off without him, but–

You are never going to have another chance after this.

And he realized, that the moment he let her leave that room, everything would really be over. He’d have to live with the regret of never having taken that final opportunity to mend what they’d both thought was unmendable, or at least try to. Would she have also wished that he’d tried to stop her?

“Wait...I said wait!”

Ethan bolted towards the exit, and Haruna froze in her tracks as he slammed the door back shut as she was about to leave. Her back was to him and his arm remained situated on the wooden surface, inches from her head.

“I need to know, Dr. Sakurai,” He breathed,

“Do I still mean something to you?”

Ethan heard her sharp intake of breath, taken aback by his sudden inquiry. Cautiously, Haruna turned to face him and that calm air of hers that always seemed so natural now looked like nothing but a brittle front to hold herself together.

“You do.” She admitted.

“I still love you, Dr. Ramsey. So much. I’ve loved you all this time but I-“

Her breathed hitched, and like a dam, she, and that distant and unbothered facade she was so adamant on maintaining, collapsed. Her cheeks were wet with tears and Ethan’s face fell as Haruna buried her face into her hands. He willed himself not to hold her.

She wouldn’t want you touching her. You don’t have the right. You don’t-

But against his better judgement he took her in his arms, and the solace he felt with the familiarity of this woman’s warmth, who seemed so small trapped against his chest, overwhelmed him with emotion. It had been so long since he last touched her, and both Ethan and Haruna knew that it may very well be the last. So he held her. He held her the way he wished he could have in the year that they didn’t speak. The way he should have held her from the start. And she let him.

He wasn’t sure if he could ever embrace anyone else the same way ever again.

“God, Ethan, where did we go wrong?” She sobbed.

He rested his chin gently on her head and didn’t respond, because he knew that nothing he could say in this predicament that they were in– no, that they’ve been in, would console her. Dr. Sakurai’s shoulders shook uncontrollably as she cried, and Ethan felt her go slack against him, holding her tighter as he lowered the both of them gently to the floor. 

***

She was in his arms for the next hour. Sixty minutes of pure silence, apart from her weeping, and Ethan could do nothing but comfort the woman. He looked up at the ceiling as Haruna sniffled, and couldn’t remember the last time she had let herself be so vulnerable in front of him.

“We can’t be together like this.” She finally spoke, her voice raspy from the crying.

“I-” Dr. Ramsey began, ready to argue. He knew better though, and sighed as he leaned his head back against the wall. “I know.”

“Good. So you know that you have to let me leave, then.”

He stayed silent in an attempt to avoid the question. Of course he knew that, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. If he did, he’d be acknowledging that this was for the best; and more often than not, the right decision wasn’t always the easiest.

“Haruna, I...” He started in protest, but paused as he felt Dr. Sakurai’s hand slide up to rest on his cheek.

He looked down at her, and wondered if he was being too transparent. If she could see how broken he was at realizing the choice they both had to make. She sat up a little straighter, still in Ethan’s arms and rested her forehead against his. Then she asked him quietly. Pleadingly.

“Please, Ethan.”

How could he ever say no to her?

So he responded wordlessly, tilting his head and bringing his lips to hers. Haruna met him halfway, and a year and a half of fierce self-restraint and inexplicable pining for the feel of each other erupted all at once. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer by the nape of his neck. Ethan cupped her face in his hands as he kissed her, softly at first, but every second that passed with her mouth on his summoned a tide of longing that he forced himself to keep latent all this time, and it only urged him to kiss her harder.

“I love you.” He groaned against her mouth. “God, I love you.”

She merely smiled at his reckless confession, holding him by the lapels of his coat until, Ethan, breathless, forced himself to pull away. He brought a finger below her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. Her eyes were red and swollen from the crying and her hair was disheveled from the moment of passion they just shared, but Ethan couldn’t recall ever being in love with her more than he was in that moment. 

“Haruna, marry me.” 

Her eyes widened in surprise. She looked like she was going to say something in protest, but Ethan continued in order to validate his outrageous request.

“Not now.” He interjected. “You’re going to go to Japan, and become the best damn doctor they’ve ever seen. Your success will be your own, and no one will ever remember that you were ‘The’ Ethan Ramsey’s protege in the first place because you’ll become someone a hundred times better.” 

Dr. Ramsey pushed himself off the floor, and pulled Haruna up following that. Her eyes had begun to shine with tears again, dangerously close to falling, and Ethan held her face in his hands. He offered her a comforting smile, but he wasn’t certain if it was meant to reassure her, or to hide his own brokenness.

“Then, if these god damn stars ever choose to align for us and we see each other again, however long that might take, we’ll get married. Is that clear, Rookie?”

She laughed through the tears.

“Crystal, Dr. Ramsey.”

–– 

Dr. Haruna Sakurai departed for Japan the following week. No one knew of her resignation except for the diagnostics team, Naveen, and her closest friends from intern year, so Ethan remained unbothered at the gossip that rang through the hospital when one day, she had stopped coming to work and no one knew why. 

After that evening where he vociferated that almost childish marriage pact, Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Sakurai failed to have another chance to speak. He was busy with his own doctorly duties and Sakurai was preoccupied with tying up any loose ends before she left for good. They’d merely pass by each other in the halls and their interactions alternated between a subtle smile, a curt nod, or a discreet brush of the fingers.

When Haruna accepted his poor excuse of a proposal, Ethan thought he’d convinced himself that it was going to be alright. That things would turn out fine because they parted on good terms and with the knowledge that they’d made the right choice.

So he had to pretend, and to an extent he never did before.  

Pretend like he wasn’t heartbroken at the fact that she didn’t say goodbye. 

Pretend like he wasn’t just as surprised as everyone else when he came to work and didn’t hear the sound of her voice by the nurses’ station like he would everyday.

The feigning of indifference had embedded itself so deeply into his routine that Ethan believed it was real. He readopted his strictly objective nature, like how he used to be before he met her, and just like that, his world went numb and grey.  

“I’m worried for you, Ethan.” Naveen sighed as he sat across Ethan’s desk, genuine concern written all over his face.

Dr. Ramsey didn’t bother looking up as he flipped through applications for the year’s new batch of interns. “We have hundreds of patients to treat and a budget cut that still needs to be solved. I’m not who you should be worried about, Naveen.” He replied dryly.

“My shift ended twenty minutes ago, my boy,” Dr. Banerji chuckled. 

“I’m not here as administration, I’m here as your friend. Now tell me, why are you acting this way?”

"Acting what way?” Ethan quipped, setting down a folder to give his mentor his full attention. “I’m not any different from the last twelve years we’ve been working together.”

“Completely and wholly devoted to your job, I know. But in the past twelve years I’ve known you, you’ve never been so...” Naveen rested his elbow on the armrest of his chair as he pondered for the right word. “Anesthetized?”

Banerji eyed Ethan carefully, almost strictly. 

“You’ve always been a workaholic, Ethan, but never to the point that you neglected your own health. You’re a walking contradiction as a doctor.”

Ethan knew he was right. If there was anybody in the world that he could never win against in an argument, it was his mentor and his mentee. The three of them were an elite trifecta with a unique bond equipped with boundless knowledge, and Ethan swallowed hard as he remembered her for the first time in the four months since she left. 

After coming to terms with her resignation, Ethan thought that their parting satisfied him enough to live on happily and assured of their love for each other. But the following week of being deprived of her presence and being reminded he might never see her again made Dr. Ramsey realize that it was stupidly naive of him to think so. This was nothing like the two months he spent in the Amazon, because he didn’t have that certainty of her greeting him when he inevitably came back. He was unsure of whether the stars really would align for them like he suggested, but certain that he’d never love anyone the same way he loved her. 

He drowned himself in work and almost stopped coming home. The bags beneath his eyes had grown so much more prominent, and four months of this self-negligent lifestyle had aged him more than twelve years of working as a doctor of internal medicine ever could. Of course Banerji had been the first one to notice.

“She’s there everywhere I go, Naveen.” Ethan confessed, unable to keep it to himself any longer.  

“Can’t even leave this damn office and grab a coffee anymore. I ordered my usual roast at Derry’s, and you know what happened? The barista snuck me a free espresso Romano! Told me, ‘for the other pretty doctor,’ and I almost lost it.”

Dr. Banerji stared in disappointment at his own pupil’s oblivion. He had given him too many invaluable lessons to count, but the one thing he never succeeded in helping Ethan understand was the importance of subjectivity. That sometimes even the most logical and calculated decisions were no match against the fickle loyalties of the heart. 

“Answer me honestly, Ethan,” Naveen dropped all hints of playfulness. 

“Do you regret letting her leave?”

–– FIVE YEARS LATER

“Do you regret letting her leave?”

When Naveen asked that question, the answer popped into Ethan’s mind shamefully quick. Accompanied with that epiphany, his world, the one that went numb and grey, began to scream altogether. The imaginary pain that once pricked him frivolously like pins and needles hit him all at once and burst into flames. Shallow incisions made to his heart with every thought of her and what could have been, transitioned into relentless, deep cuts that came at a pace faster than he could heal. 

Over the course of five years, Ethan stopped trying to fight it and left his heart to be mangled by the regret.

“Yes, I regret it.” 

Today marked his seventeenth year of working at Edenbrook, and Dr. Ramsey had lost count of how many batches of interns had come and gone. He still thought about her occasionally, when he’d see her friends in the hospital or at midnight in bed and alone with his thoughts; but time had done a fairly adequate job of healing that wound. Five years in retrospect didn’t seem that long, but it was enough for Dr. Haruna Sakurai’s face to blur and drown into the deepest recesses of Ethan’s mind. 

“He’s so freaking fine, but I swear he doesn’t have eyes.”

Making his rounds, Ethan’s brows furrowed irritably at the interns he caught gossiping in the hall. He tucked his clipboard under his arm, more than ready to reprimand them until a calloused hand caught him by the shoulder.

“Shhh. I want to know what they’re saying about you.” Ethan turned his head just enough to see that it was Dr. Lahela.

He never expected to grow close with one of her brother-like figures, but him and the surgeon spent too much time together at the gym, and Ethan grew fond of the younger doctor more than he cared to admit.

“You know Dr. Tremaine? The pretty one with a sixteen thousand follower count on Instagram? She asked him to dinner and he just walked past her like he didn’t hear anything.”

“You did not turn down Dr. Tremaine.” Bryce covered his mouth with a hand, feigning shock and Ethan retorted almost immediately with his own dry humour. 

“I think you forget sometimes that the thought of your best friend still torments me.”

“Right. Sorry.”

They turned back towards the young doctors, so deep into their conversation that the two didn’t even bother hiding anymore. Ethan leaned against the wall patiently as Bryce cleaned his stethoscope with an alcohol wipe he dug out from his pocket.

“Dr. Castillo’s brother did his residency here too, and rumour has it that Dr. Ramsey actually had a fling with an intern from his batch a couple years back.”

“Shut up. She must’ve been so hot if she could make Dr. Ramsey budge.”

Ethan leaned over to Bryce, unsure of why he was even following his request of keeping silent.

“My ears are bleeding, Lahela.” He aggressively muttered under his breath.

“Wait, they’re getting to the good part. You know how I love hearing Haruna’s praises sung– wait, Dr. Ramsey!” The surgeon’s voice faded as Ethan ignored his plea, beginning his march towards the rumourmongering interns. 

“–Super hot, super smart, and super scary. Apparently she punched Declan Nash in the face once.”

“Shut up! Who is she?”

“You know the one from the last issue of Times? Like, total medical prodigy? Asia’s top doctor who-”

“–Turned her parents hospital into Japan’s top research facility, I know the whole deal. What about her?”

“So, like, she used to work at Edenbrook right? Apparently-”

“You two, interns!” Ethan barked down the hall.

“Dr. Ramsey!” And his terrifying approach was drowned out by Harper Emery’s own voice and the loud clicking of her heels as she rounded the corner.

Complete, utter fear settled into the young doctors’ eyes as they realized that they were in the company of Edenbrook’s most skilled and accomplished staff, one of whom they were gossiping about. Their gaze darted between a cool and collected Harper, and Ethan, who was very visibly seething, and found they could look nowhere else but the floor. 

Harper and Ethan rekindled their friendship following Aurora’s transfer to Mass Kenmore. Harper realized that she wanted the fellowship more for Aurora than she did for herself, and thanks to the younger Emery distancing herself from Edenbrook and her aunt’s legacy, the women were closer now than they’ve ever been before.

“We need to talk.” Harper demanded, despite being aware of the tension.

“It might have to wait, Dr. Emery, I’m in the middle of something important.”

Harper stepped towards him and spoke in a voice low enough that only Ethan could hear, her tone demanding his full attention.

“Dr. Ramsey.” Harper repeated, more firmly this time.

Ethan sensed the urgency in her voice, and looked between his friend and the interns. Exhaling once, he shot them one more infuriated look before turning back the way he came and following his colleague. Ethan eyed Dr. Lahela expectantly as him and Harper strolled past.

“You're up, scalpel jockey.” And Bryce smiled excitedly, closing his eyes and getting into character before storming down the hall.

“Coffee must be one hell of a drug if I’m seeing not one, but two interns chatting ‘til kingdom come while they’re still on the damn clock! Both of you, names!”

Harper failed at containing a smile. “You’re a horrible influence, Ethan.”

He shook his head, repressing his own laughter. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That pupil of yours wouldn’t leave me alone until I showed him the ropes of...what did he call it, ah– oral persecution. So what was it that you wanted to tell me?” 

“You and Dr. Hirata will be in attendance for a medical conference in Kyoto as Edenbrook’s representatives.”

He nodded in response, continuing to look straight ahead as they walked. “Hmph, like always.”

“And Dr. Sakurai will be present as the keynote speaker.”

[wiseabsol]

Books I Read in 2020:

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Rise of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee

The Shadow of Kyoshi by F. C. Yee

Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey

Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey

Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher

Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung by Nina MacLaughlin

Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda